Author's note: Well here we are at the end finally. I would like to thank all the readers who have kept an interest in this latest story even if they had nothing to say regarding it. And once again, much thanks to Shadow3418 for her continuous support and feedback on every chapter. And now, onto the finale.

"Louise said that she had built a bomb that had the explosion capacity of 20 sticks of dynamite," Methos told Kronos as they hurried to the scene, "If…if that's what's happened, is this normal?"

"Dynamite alone wouldn't have the building burning like that," Kronos replied as they saw the fire continue to burn, "I can't believe that she had this all planned out and she didn't say anything."

Taking a back road into civilization they had saved themselves the trouble of encountering all the traffic that had stopped moving when the power went out and so had all the lights on the streets. As they neared the high rise, Methos noted that they were the first ones there. There were no firemen, no paramedics, no police, nothing.

"The power's out for the whole damn town, it makes sense the phone lines would be down as well," Caspian noted as he pressed down on the accelerator, "And with the roads backed up like that, it'll take them plenty long to get anything over here not by way of helicopter."

Then they were at the scene, less than 20 feet away from a 700 foot high rise with the top 10 stories burning up and the fire was spreading quickly. All the windows on the top floors had been blown out and it looked like the fire could continue all the way to the bottom of the building. As they got out of the car and ran over to the lot the building was on, Kronos looked up at the top windows and saw the flames shooting outward.

"Dear God, she can't be up there," he said.

Methos felt a low quickening nearby. "No, she's not up there."

They inched along carefully around the base of the building, careful not to get hit by the heavy debris that was falling out of the windows above. The surrounding area was completely black and it was impossible to tell what was what. But then, Methos heard something…a low groaning from somewhere nearby. And then, they saw it. A body lay in the rubble next to the building. Kronos ran over to Louise and saw she was unconscious. Her skin was black from the soot and ash of the debris burning, most of her jacket had been burnt past recognition and the sleeves had burnt off up to the elbows, her quickening was very low, to the point that he almost couldn't feel her at all.

"Is she alive?" Methos asked.

"Barely," Kronos replied as he picked her up out of the rubble.

Caspian took off his jacket and handed it to Kronos. "Put that on her, then we better get the hell out of here, otherwise we're going to have to answer a lot of questions that we can't account for."

Kronos wrapped Louise in the jacket and picked her up and they rushed back to the car. Kronos laid Louise out in the backseat and stayed with her. Caspian got back in the driver's seat and started the ignition; Methos heard the sirens off in the distance and he knew it wouldn't be long before the authorities were all over this. He jumped into the passenger side, slammed the door behind him and told Caspian, "Drive like hell."

He backed the car out of there and they sped away, narrowly escaping being spotted by the police or the firemen by about a good three minutes.

When they got back to the house, the power was still out so it was by candlelight that Kronos carefully set to work in undressing his wife on the bathroom floor.

"I still don't know why we can't bring up one of the kerosene lamps, they put out a lot more light," Methos said as he watched.

"Methos, put yourself in her place," Kronos said, "After being caught in two explosions, set on fire and severely burnt, would you want to hear the screaming and rattling of an old kerosene lantern?" He looked up at his brother who had become very quiet, "And you're supposed to be the smart one around here."

"What do you make of it so far?" Methos asked.

"Well, her flesh had pretty much healed from the burn when we found her, her hair's been singed a few inches shorter on one side, other than that I'd say she had quite a narrow escape," Kronos told him.

"What narrow escape?" Methos asked, "Clearly she was caught in the fire when it broke out, and the only way out was going through the window and dropping 200 feet."

"It beats the hell out of the alternative, doesn't it?"

"We're still waiting to hear what the extent of all the damage is," Methos said, "The phones are up again, Caspian's talking to somebody who was down there to find out what they know yet."

When Kronos slipped Louise out of the last of her clothes, he reached over and turned on the taps to the bathtub and let it start to fill up.

"I still can't believe the whole time this was going on that I had absolutely no idea," he said, "I never would've even thought Louise capable of pulling something like this."

"That just says how desperate she was for it to end," Methos replied.

"Well the verdict's in!" Caspian bellowed as he came up the stairs.

"What happened?" Methos asked.

"They said that the fire exceeded in burning past 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, nothing on any of the top floors was spared from either the explosion or the flames."

"Did they find anybody up there?" Kronos asked.

"Yes, and no…they found no body but in the remains they found a human finger. DNA matched it to a man who is identified by his records as Harlan Kruger. They found no remains of anybody else, the building was empty, he was the only one there."

"And since the fire was so hot it probably incinerated any proof that Louise was even there," Methos realized, "And with the blackout, their surveillance cameras wouldn't have picked her up either, so she's in the clear. She knew exactly what she was doing."

"I always knew she was too smart for her own good," Kronos commented, "But I never thought it would come to something like this."

It had now been almost an hour since they'd found Louise's body at the scene and still she hadn't awoken. Kronos speculated that it was proof of how hard she had been hit by the explosion and the 70 story drop. Methos however, chalked it up to all the months of stress and deceit that had gone on for everything to be pulled off as it was. Whatever the reason, she remained unconscious still and Kronos was very careful in lowering her into the tub and washing her. Her skin was blackened from the fire and the ash of what burnt had darkened her hair as well. Despite it all she looked, as both men noted, very peaceful now that it was all over.

"I still can't believe," Kronos commented as he scrubbed the soot off her flesh, "That she never told me, about any of it."

"She didn't want you to know," Methos told him, "She knew how you'd react. That was something she wanted to avoid altogether for as long as it could be helped."

The lights in the ceiling came on and they realized the blackout was over.

"About time," Methos said as he started putting out the candles.

"The part that I can't get over," Kronos said, "Is that she had to have known the risks involved. She had to have known there was a chance that she wouldn't come out of it alive. That the bomb might have blown her up as well."

"I'm sure she was well aware of the fact," Methos responded, "Which is probably why she made sure we couldn't stop her or follow after her. She said in a few days, nothing would matter anymore, she probably anticipated she might be killed, and that's why she didn't tell you. She probably wanted the last thing she remembered about you was that you still loved her, not that you were upset with her or angry at her."

Kronos said nothing in response and continued to lightly scrub the dirt and debris off his wife. Methos knelt down beside Kronos and he noticed something.

"Kronos."

"What?"

"Look!"

Kronos looked up, and he saw what Methos had seen. Blackness remained on Louise's left arm, but only in small streaks now instead of totally coating the flesh as it had done so for over 100 years. Kronos grabbed her left hand and scrubbed it off again, and the color came off.

"I don't believe it," was all he could say.

An idea formed in Methos' mind and he went over to where Kronos had discarded her clothes. He picked up her jacket and looked it over and came to a realization.

"The right sleeve was only burnt off at the cuff, but the left one was burnt off all the way up to the elbow…that must be why she made the bomb to ignite into such a high temperature, of all the things you ever tried to remove the color from her arm, did you ever try burning the flesh off?"

Kronos shook his head, "She'd been put through enough hell already, and if it didn't work…anyway, after the explosion she was terrified about being around fire at all…how well would that register in her mind that her husband was trying to give her the Joan of Arc treatment?"

"So she sought to kill two birds with one stone. The initial explosion killed Harlan, and when the fire broke out, she didn't dive out the window right away. She stayed in the midst of it and let the fire burn her arm until all the old skin was gone. That must have been when she went out the window," Methos concluded.

"But it worked, after all this time, finally something worked, thank God," Kronos said with great relief.

"Maybe now, things can get back to…well, close to normal, for the two of you," Methos said.

"I hope so."

Louise felt the sheets underneath and above her body, and she knew that she was no longer on the pavement next to a burning building, but back in bed. In bed? She remembered the explosion and started to question if she had survived. Opening her eyes, she turned over on her side and saw Caspian staring back at her.

"So this is hell," she said, "It's worse than I thought."

"You're not dead yet," he told her, "However, the man you set that bomb for is."

Her eyes started to perk up when she heard that. "He's dead? Are you sure?"

"All that was found of him that could be identified was a finger, everything else was either burnt up or blown to bits."

"Thank God," Louise said as she hit her head back against the pillows, "And I'm still alive?"

"Very much so," Caspian answered.

"Good…" she looked around the room through one eye and realized her husband wasn't around, "Where's Kronos?"

"Right now he's unconscious."

"What?" she laughed, "What do you mean?"

Caspian pulled down the covers and she saw that for the first time in well over 100 years, the skin on her left arm was its regular color again.

"Oh my God," she said as she realized it had been a success.

"He saw that and lasted about five minutes before he passed out," Caspian explained, "So now he's across the hall in the bedroom doing a good impression of a corpse."

"I see," Louise said as she pulled the covers back up, "Now perhaps you could explain to me what happened to my clothes."

"Burnt up, he threw them out."

Louise glanced under the sheets again and saw she was as naked as the day she was born, "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Well, he's taking it better than I thought he would."

"Speaking of which," Methos said as he entered the room, "Everything's out in the open now."

"Tell me about it," Louise said as she looked under the sheet again.

Caspian left the room and Methos went over to the bed, "How're you feeling, Louise?"

"I'm good," she held up her arm to show him, "Looks like the plan worked."

"It worked alright, Kruger's dead, everything's burnt up, and there's no way anybody can put you at the scene of the crime. You should be thankful for that."

"Don't think I'm not," she replied, "I don't mind so much dying for what I believe in but if they tried to put me in jail for that little stunt, they'd be in for quite a surprise. Methos."

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry about what I did…I mean knocking all of you guys out, but I had to make sure that nothing and nobody tried to stop me. I had to do it, Methos, you know that, don't you?"

"It's not I you need to convince," Methos said, "Kronos is doing alright but I think he's still a bit in the dark about the whole thing."

"I suspected as much," Louise said, "I have a lot to answer for. I know that. I just wanted a few good days with my husband before it all had to come to an end."

"I think he'll understand, Louise," Methos told her, "It just all came out at once and it's a lot for him to take in."

"I know," she nodded, "But I figured once I set off that bomb…that he'd never…it sounds ridiculous given all that he's done, but he can overlook his own sins. I'm not so sure about my own."

Methos knelt down beside her and hugged her. He knew he ought to say something assuring to her but he knew soon it would all come out from his brother instead.

"But you know something, Methos?" Louise asked, "I don't feel guilty…" she smiled and let out a nervous laugh, "Not one bit."

That night when Kronos finally worked up the nerve to see his wife again, he walked into the bedroom and the lights were still on, and she was still up. Now she was dressed for bed in her nightgown, and she sat on the bed watching him, her eyes watching him everywhere he moved.

"How do I look?" she finally asked him.

He looked at her for a minute and had to take in a breath before he could answer. "Beautiful."

"Because I'm normal again?" she asked.

"Because you're well now. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she answered, "How about you?"

"Same," he replied as he started undressing, "You're looking a lot better."

"I know," she nodded, "Hard to believe. Maybe if I'd stayed on the Hindenburg when it blew up instead of jumping out the window, I could've solved this particular problem," she held up her arm, "60 years sooner. It's strange, Immortals are supposed to recover from almost anything immediately...but then again, of all the things they go through, I don't suppose too many of them were caught in a boiler explosion...and even if they were, probably not too many of them anticipated standing around in 2000 degree flames to fix the problem."

"The important thing now is that it's done, you're back to normal, you're alright, and that bastard is dead," Kronos said.

"That's the most important part," Louise told him, "That he's dead, and he can't come after me anymore…"

Kronos slipped into bed beside her and asked her, "Why didn't you tell me what was going on? I could've helped you."

She looked at him that was indecisive about answering, and it was then that it hit Kronos.

"Except you didn't need my help," he said, "That's what you've been trying to tell me all along, and I didn't listen."

"I wanted you to understand that I didn't need you doing everything for me anymore, always protecting me, always fighting my battles. I'm a grown woman, I can take care of myself, and I can certainly stand alone in my own fights."

"Only it wasn't a fight," Kronos said, "It was a murder."

"Murder? It was an execution, justice, 4000 years overdue, finally paid out," Louise explained, "The only time that he came after me was when I was with you. That gave me reason to believe that he was looking for you to come fight him. And I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of getting anything he wanted."

"I still can't believe how close I came to losing you," Kronos told her.

"There wasn't any real risk to it, the bomb was far enough away that it would blow him up, but the initial blast wouldn't hit me. I almost went out the window when it went off and the whole building started to shake, but there was no real chance that it would blow me up."

"But there was always a chance something could go wrong," he said.

"Of course there was…and if I was going to die, I wanted us to end on good terms. That's another reason why I didn't tell you anything, I didn't want to die and the last memories I had of you were you being mad at me. We've certainly gone through enough of that in our marriage."

He nodded as he recalled all too well the many nights that they spent practically at each other's throats.

"And then this morning, right before the bomb went off, I got to thinking…we've been married long enough that you should understand," Louise said, "You've known from the beginning what I was like. And I decided we'd been married long enough that, it should've made sense to you once you found out what was going on, why I did what I did."

"I think I understand it," Kronos told her, "I just don't ever want to go through this again."

"You and me both," Louise replied, "I suppose you know by now that I was lying when I said I wanted to meet your family."

"Anybody who would say a thing like that would have to be lying," Kronos said.

"But I'm not sorry I did," she responded, "They've really changed over the years…I figure if we didn't kill each other 4000 years ago, then we should stand a good chance in hell of surviving each other now."

"Maybe."

That wasn't what Louise had expected to hear. "You're not saying that you're still think of packing it all in and going back home, are you?"

"I don't know."

"The war's over, Kronos, in 4000 years it's finally come to an end, we've spent most of our marriage running, either from the law or something else…I think it's time we stopped running and what more I think we ought to settle here with your brothers. That way it won't have to take another 50 years for us all to get together."

"I suppose you're right," he replied.

"There's nothing to cut us off from the rest of the world anymore," she told him, "No more hiding in shadows or in my case under 20 pounds of fox fur and long coats…a long time ago the sky was the only limit for us, and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be again. Do you?"

He shook his head, "No."

"So you see, what I did may not exactly have been right because nobody else knew it, but because of it, everything's finally returning to normal for us," Louise told him.

He looked at her and said, "I knew when I married you that I was asking for trouble…I knew then that I was looking towards a life stuck with somebody who was a lot like myself…I just didn't know how much like me you were." He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him, "And I love you, in spite of it all, I love you, I love you, I love you, I always did, and I always will."

"I suppose I must love you too," Louise replied, "After all this time and all the crap we've gone through together, I think I'm going to stay."

Methos crept out of his bed early the next morning and headed across the hall to Kronos' bedroom. They had been unusually quiet all night and he wanted to make sure everything was alright between the two. Pushing the door open, he looked in and despite the darkness that covered the room, he could see the two of them in bed curled up against each other. It was a scene that resembled the first time he walked in on them, except he noted that this time they both still had their clothes on. Both appeared to be in a deep and peaceful sleep, and he decided not to bother them.

Still, he couldn't resist inching his way into the room and alongside the bed to get a better look at them. He'd heard the saying many times about how something did an old man's heart good; most of the time he considered it to be another expression that somebody just pulled off the top of their head. But looking at his brother with his wife as they were, he was starting to think maybe there was something to it. It was a relief to Methos to see his brother as happy as he was now. He remembered for what seemed to be the longest time, when it was just the four of them and it seemed most days nothing could please Kronos and he always seemed to be treading the line of his last bit of patience.

Finding Louise again, and marrying her, had seemed to do something wonderful and unexplainable for his brother; and looking at them now, Methos couldn't help but notice how perfect they looked together. And yet something was wrong with the picture; they didn't look like a husband and wife, they looked more like a brother and sister. When they first found Louise, she and Kronos had been as different in every way as day and night. Now, there seemed to be fewer differences between the two; now with every passing day Louise was starting to bear a bit more resemblance to her husband, and now both appeared to be working on the same train of thought.

Looking back at it all now, Methos couldn't help but realize how much like Kronos her whole plan had been. The only difference was that Kronos had no ability to keep something amongst himself for too long; now that the four of them were together again, anytime he had an idea he had to let one of them know, as was how it had always been when they were together. But Louise had managed to take it one step further than her husband, and she had successfully kept everybody in the dark about what was going on until it was too late. Methos swore, if those two ever put their heads together on the same project, it could very easily mean the end for all civilization. Fortunately, he noted, things seemed to be going so well for them this century that, hopefully, there would be no need for that.

So, he thought as he drew the covers up on them both, a 4000 year old nightmare was finally at an end, an equally old mystery was finally solved, and hopefully now an almost 130 year old marriage could pick up again. With one last look at the two people lying in bed, Methos headed for the door, quietly shut it behind him, and headed back to his own room. Outside he could already hear the birds out and chirping, and though the last few days since the beginning of this visit, the weather had been heavy downpours and violent storms, he knew this was going to be a better day for everybody. At long last, everything seemed to be settling down, and though Methos certainly didn't want to jinx their luck, as he settled back in under the covers, he thought to himself how it looked like for once, nothing was going to go wrong.

The End.