Hey, everyone. I hope you all had a great week. If you did, that's awesome. If not, that's not so awesome, and I feel for you. It was like this week lasted forever... Ugh, I thought it would never end. It wasn't bad, just long, I suppose. I've begun taking ACT prep courses three days a week before school, and then when I don't have extracurriculars going, I've got a ton of homework I'm up really late doing.

TGIF!!

Well, I suppose you aren't here to read this rather long author's note about things that have no effect on you, huh? On to the final chapter!

Oh, and there's an epilogue for this one that I'm posting immediately, so don't forget to read that as well!

- - - - -

Chapter 5

One of the three mutants Lexiss was following, a girl with purple hair, split off wordlessly from the group and headed down one of the hallways on the second level of the building.

From somewhere on the other side of the floor, she heard rumbling. She hoped Kitty was alright.

Deciding it would be better to follow the bigger group, a male and another female, she silently trailed them down the next hallway. Ahead, she saw a much older man in a dark suit and an older woman in a white lab coat. The president of Worthington Labs and his assistant, no doubt. They would be the only people stubborn or stupid enough to remain in a building under siege by extremist mutants.

Once they saw the mutants coming toward them - Lexiss thought they might think she was one of the attacking mutants as well - they turned the other way. It was then she saw where the third mutant had gone; apparently, her mutation was camouflage, and as she stepped away from the end of the hall ahead, she shed her cover, and asked the two fleeing personnel, "Going somewhere?"

They were trapped between the three mutants. Lexiss hung back, confident she was close enough should anything drastic occur. The male in the group spoke up.

"You're the guy that invented the cure, right?" he asked.

The white-haired president replied, "Yes, I am."

There was a moment of silence, and then the tattooed guy simply said, "Girls?" The two strangely-dressed women grabbed Mr. Worthington's shoulders and started pushing him toward the next flight of stairs up.

"No!" his assistant cried, trying to follow him. "Don't! Don't hurt him!" she went on. The man caught her, stopping her from going further. Lexiss decided to step in; it was always easier to pick a group off one by one.

"Ssh…" the man was saying. "Calm down, calm down!" he murmured in a false voice. Lexiss didn't wait for him to go on. She quickly pulled on his shoulder to get him away from the assistant, and hit the side of his head with her fist with enough power to cause him to crumple to the ground. She didn't kill unnecessarily.

She turned to the woman. "Stay here, I'll come back for you," she said. Lexiss turned, and started running for the stairs to catch up with the two women.

- - - - -

Lexiss found them on the roof, leaning Mr. Worthington over the edge. "Don't!" he was yelling. "No, don't! Do-" He cut off with a grunt as he was pushed back too far for an old man's diaphragm to handle shouting. "Please, don't do this!" he gasped. "I only want to help you people!"

The two women turned, probably expecting to see their ally standing there.

Needless to say, he wasn't.

Lexiss brought the heel of her hand up to break the nose of the purple-haired woman. She shrieked in agony, hands flying to her blood-covered face and stumbling backwards off the edge of the building. Lexiss turned to face the other immediately. She was using her teeth to try and pull off one purple glove while holding Mr. Worthington's shoulder with the other, but Lexiss attacked before she even pondered her hair, which was gelled down in a loop over her forehead. A punch delivered to her face with inhuman power behind it pushed her to the far end of the roof and into the concrete barricade that was supposed to keep people from falling off the roof.

With deep guttural shout, however, Mr. Worthington, no longer supported by the woman's hand, slid off the building and started to fall. "NO!!" Lexiss shouted. She had one foot up on the barricade, ready to propel herself over the edge after him, when a blur of dark clothing and bright white feathers shot past her vision and caught him first. Her head snapped to the right, and a wide grin nearly split her face.

"Warren!" she shouted to him. He looked over his shoulder, acknowledging her with a nod of the head and a slight smile, and then put Mr. Worthington's arm around his neck and flew off. Glancing at the ground below, she remembered the assistant three floors below, and ran for the stairs to get back to her.

- - - - -

Lexiss ran into Kitty on the way back, and brought her to the quivering assistant. Kitty had the boy, whose name was Jaimie, with her.

"Miss," Lexiss said to the secretary hurriedly, "It's alright, Mr. Worthington is safe."

The assistant burst into relieved tears, throwing her arms around Lexiss' neck and sobbing, "Thank you, thank you," over and over into her shoulder.

Lexiss turned to Kitty. "I need to get back outside and see what's going on. Can you take her?" she asked. Kitty nodded. "Head for the jet," she told her. The two of girls started in opposite directions once more after she transferred the assistant to Kitty's arm.

"Hey, Lex!" Kitty shouted to her suddenly. She turned to see Kitty smiling at her. "Thanks," she said.

Lexiss grinned, and flashed her a thumbs up. "What are X-Men for?"

- - - - -

Outside, the chaos was growing, but it seemed the good guys were starting to get the upper hand. Sort of. They were still drastically outnumbered, but Magneto's mutants fought without strategy or even thought, it seemed, while Lexiss and the rest of the good guys each had a solid plan or attack structure in mind.

She found Ororo fighting with the woman she had seen at Magneto's first recruiting session when she had been with Kurt, with the chin piercing and the arced tattoo over her cleavage. They were fighting as though each had a personnel vendetta against one another. Ororo, however, came out victorious, frying the other women on a chain link fence with dozens of white and blue bolts of lightning. She looked to Lexiss, panting.

"Is the boy alright?" she asked as the younger woman fought off another mutant. This one she did kill, snapping the man's neck. It was that, or get strangled by a guy whose DNA seemed to have been fused with a boa constrictor's. Lexiss turned to Ororo, and nodded.

"Yea. Kitty's got him. They're gettin' out of here."

There was a sudden bright explosion overhead, and Lexiss looked up to see a car engulfed in flames falling down on top of her and Ororo. They grabbed each other's arms and ran back to get out of the way. They dived behind fallen barrels and other large wreckage to avoid the debris that flew off the car when it smashed against the ground.

Ororo moved over by Logan and Mr. McCoy when they arrived, and Piotr dropped down heavily across from Lexiss. She grabbed the collar of Bobby's suit and jerked him down beside her as he ran past. He fell with a grunt into her shoulder.

The two of them involuntarily winced as another car exploded overhead, and then they looked over at the team leaders. They were staring wordlessly down at a shattered cure cartridge that looked like it still held three good shots.

A burning car suddenly shot through their makeshift barricade, just a few feet from crushing Ororo and Logan. The two looked at one another.

"We work as a team," she barely heard Logan say

Ororo replied, "Best defense is a good offense."

Exhaling as her knees dug into the large chunks of gravel on the ground, Lexiss stuck her head up over the wreckage she was hiding behind. She hadn't realized until now how close they had gotten to the bridge. They were so close she could clearly see Magneto flinging cars into the air – and John, clearly lighting those cars ablaze.

"Bobby!" Logan shouted, grabbing Lexiss' attention and that of the boy next to her. "Think you can take out your old friend?"

Lexiss knew this time would come. John… versus everyone else. But now John, whom she cared so deeply about, was trying to hurt everyone else she cared about.

Bobby looked up at her, and she nodded firmly. No matter how she looked at it, six beat one every time. Bobby looked back at Logan, and nodded. Then, he ran out from behind the wall without looking back. He knew what he had to do.

Lexiss looked back out over the makeshift barricade again. Bobby stopped right underneath the path of a flaming car, put up both hands, and iced the hell out of it so it dropped down in front of him. Then he stood, waiting for John to come to him.

Satisfied, she dropped back down to listen to Logan, Ororo, Beast, and Piotr. She really wasn't sure who would come out of that fight the victor, but she hoped…. she hoped it would be Bobby. It only pained her a little to think that, but there was something much bigger at hand.

"Storm, we're gonna need some cover," Logan said. Clearly, he already had some sort of idea in mind.

"Right," Ororo replied, looking ahead to concentrate. Her eyes glazed over milky white, and swirling fog rolled over Alcatraz Island.

The X-Men were going to cure Magneto.

- - - - -

Pyro walked slowly in front of Bobby, the most confident and smug smirk he had ever seen on his face. No words were exchanged. He simply lit a flame in his palm, and whipped it at him in a long stream. Bobby quickly created enough ice, and met the fire right in the middle of the space between the two of them.

There was a small, hard pit in Bobby's stomach, though, and a small tidbit of knowledge in the back of his brain that kept biting at his insides.

He had never beaten Pyro in his life. Not once.

He tried as hard as he could to hold him off, but Pyro moved his arms to move the stream of fire and ice connecting the two of their powers, and it threw Bobby off. That gave Pyro the opportunity to overpower him. Bobby couldn't remain standing; just the massive force of Pyro's power over his as he stepped closer and closer forced Bobby to his knees.

"You're in over your head, Bobby," Pyro said. Flames rushed down around him, singeing the very edges of his suit. It was all he could do to keep the greater part of him from being burned. "Maybe you should go back to school," he added.

That made Bobby angry. Pyro the one who had left, he was the one who had screwed everything up. He felt ice creeping up over his skin.

Pyro wasn't going to win this fight, not after everything he had done. He was not going to win.

- - - - -

Lexiss couldn't help but to look over her shoulder. Elation and bile both rose within her. Bobby had won…

But what about John?

A thought reared in her mind. John was a criminal. He had attacked a government base with a band of extremist mutants. The feds would pick him up.

The thought somehow comforted her. Bobby had only head-butted him. He was still alive. Everything was going to be alright. No one else had died. Lexiss focused on the task at hand.

"Alright. This is it," Logan said. Bobby stepped up beside her. His entire body was coated in a thick layer of ice. Logan looked over at Piotr and his metal skin.

"Hey," he said, to catch his attention. "Make it a strike."

Piotr clamped down on the back of Logan's suit and his shoulder, and spun him around in order to build up momentum. He released, throwing Logan ahead at Magneto. He disappeared into the thick fog provided by Ororo. It was impossible to see anymore than that.

"We need to get out of here," Piotr said. Bobby agreed, and the boys turned away. Lexiss didn't follow, and they noticed.

"Lex," Piotr said, turning back.

"This could get messy," Bobby added. She didn't turn to look back at them.

"I need to stay," she said. There was a long silence, and they heard Logan shouting ahead. He sounded like he was in pain.

Then, with a crunch of gravel, she knew Bobby and Piotr were gone. They had left her to her own devices, trusting her. As soon as she heard their footsteps fade, she turned, and ran to where she had seen Bobby fighting John.

She couldn't stand not knowing. She had to check, just had to make sure…

She had estimated about right; she nearly tripped over John's collapsed form on the ground. Dropping to her knees, she reached forward, intending to check for a pulse, and paused. This was the closest she had been to John in a while. He seemed to have changed so much. He had gained a little weight; his face had filled out more, and was more chiseled and older, somehow.

Firming her resolve, she tugged on his collar a little, and placed two fingers against the right side of his neck. The vein in his neck was throbbing normally. She smiled, and as she pulled her hand away, saw a glimmer of silver. Her nimble fingers picked up the thin chain, and she pulled Trisha's ring out from underneath his jacket and shirt. The sight of it brought tears of relief to her eyes. He hadn't discarded it, but kept it close to him all along. Upon closer inspection of his hands, she saw he hadn't gotten rid of his lighter either, but had used it in the mechanism strapped to his hand that allowed him to create a spark easier.

Lexiss knew then she couldn't leave John to the government. Those were the kind of people he hated most. She also knew he wouldn't be welcome at the mansion, either, but that was better for both their sakes. That she had decided during the long flight here.

She draped his arm around her shoulders, and slowly got to her feet, struggling under his dead weight. She finally stood, her right arm gripping John's wrist, her other around his waist to try to even the load.

"NOO!!!" she suddenly heard Logan shout behind them. There were several more screams of men before they were suddenly cut off. Lexiss looked up, and turned, trying to hoist John's weight higher onto her shoulder. The fog in the near vicinity had started to clear, and she could see Jean atop a mound of wreckage. Lexiss watched in horror as she started destroying Alcatraz Island through her out-of-control telekinesis. She had never thought Jean could be so powerful.

"EVERYBODY GET OUT OF HERE!!" Mr. McCoy's dim shout reached her ears. Lexiss looked to where she needed to be, and where she was now. She couldn't trust teleporting; she could barely manage the feat alone, she didn't dare try taking someone along with her. The speed at which Jean was ripping apart the island meant that there was no way for her to get out with an extra body.

Ignoring this fact, she turned, and started pulling herself and John along as fast as she could. No thoughts were going through her mind; she was just focused on moving.

Everything was being ripped apart behind her, and there were so many people so far ahead of her. She hefted John up as high on her shoulder as she could, but she was straining under his dead weight. Bobby had certainly done a number on him; he was out cold.

All around her, mutants, male and female alike, were retreating, shrieking in terror. And for good reason; Alcatraz Island was literally disintegrating under the gaze of Jean Grey. Professor Xavier had once told Lexiss in confidence she had power to rival Jean's. However, the professor was dead. Jean had killed him. And if she wasn't strong enough to save John, was she really strong enough to do anything worth accomplishing?

The deafening sounds of turmoil were growing louder and louder and closer and closer. The only thing she was aware of was a growing fear in the back of her mind that she was going to die here and now. She kept moving. She had to.

"LEXISS!!" a voice shouted above her. She looked up. It was Warren. Oh, God, it was Warren. He was having difficulty flying because of all of Jean's destruction, but he was there.

"How can I help?" he asked once he finally stumbled down onto the ground. She carefully passed John over to him.

"He needs to get to safety. Can you do that?" she asked him. Warren looked straight at her, and nodded. "I'll meet you at the other end of the bridge. And Warren," Lexiss said, catching his arm. "Don't let anyone from the mansion see you." He nodded again. Then, wordlessly, he pushed himself into the air, John's arm around his neck just as Mr. Worthington's had been. The two were soon high in the sky.

She had taken too long with John; she couldn't run off the island now. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to take claming breaths. There was only one thing she could do. Lexiss turned to face Jean, watching all the destruction she was causing. They only other person who remained was Logan. He was approaching her.

Suddenly startled, she looked down at her arms. Her suit was starting to disintegrate. She winced and inhaled sharply as suit gave way to skin. Squeezing her eyes shut and hugging herself tighter, she felt her body get sucked into the void that came with teleporting.

She was alone, all alone in the darkness. It was sucking her tighter and tighter, squeezing all the air out of her lungs. Suddenly, she was in open air again, falling. She had panicked, and let go too soon. Now she was falling down toward the ocean. Somehow, it seemed like she had done this before. Water was suddenly splashing against her back as she fell. Wrenching her body around, she saw water actually rising up from the ocean. It had to be Jean's immense power.

Bracing herself, she held her breath and teleported again, forcing the image of the beginning of the Golden Gate Bridge into her head. Blackness… Oh God, she was never going to teleport again after this, not ever! Her stomach would be heaving right now if the void allowed for that much movement.

The space opened up again, and she dropped what she estimated to be two feet to the ground, onto hard asphalt. She laid there, groaning and gasping for air. Rolling over a little, she rested her forehead against the ground, coughing slightly.

"Lexiss?" a quiet, concerned voice asked. In the distance, she heard the creak and groan of metal, and the roar of water. "Lexiss," said the voice again, firmer than before. She was turned onto her back again, and a fine mist started to fall upon her face. With another groan, she slowly sat up, holding her head in her hands. Warren helped her to her feet, and her head cleared, slowly but surely.

"Thank you… for everything," she said suddenly, looking up at him. She saw John lying on the ground nearby, still unconscious.

A silver SUV with minimal damage was still running nearby. She went to John, hoisted him off the ground with Warren's help, and laid him out in the backseat. Warren wouldn't let her drive, but she relished being able to finally relax, as she did in the passenger's seat of the car.

"Just drive out of town as fast as you can," were all the directions she gave.

- - - - -

The motel was clean and cheap. The grey shades of dawn were starting to come through the window.

John was tucked under the yellow covers of the bed. Warren, or Angel, he had decided his mutant name would be, was waiting for her out in the hall. And she was sitting in a slightly hard, slightly uncomfortable chair, writing a Dear John letter. Literally. She was pretty sure she had decided on a final draft, after going through several sheets of motel stationary:

John,

We haven't talked for a while, have we? I suppose we're both at fault for that. I guess there's not much for me to say now except how I feel.

I've tried to forget you, like Rogue is trying to do. I couldn't. And I tried to hate you, which I think Bobby might be starting to do. I couldn't do that either. I'm not Bobby, and I'm not Rogue. So that leaves me with me.

The only thing that's left for me to do is move on, like you've seemed to do. Everyone always told me I was too much like you. Isn't the saying, 'opposites attract'? Maybe that's another reason you left, that we were too much alike.

Jean's dead, from what I can gather. I haven't exactly gone back to the mansion yet; it's only been a few hours since you fought with Bobby. I've been busy making sure you don't get arrested. I'm saving your ass again, aren't I?

But I am going back to the mansion. That's where I live; where else am I going to go? And you… I'm sure you'll find someplace, because… well, you just can't come back. You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that. Too much has happened since you've left, and you just happened to end up on the wrong side. But you've always adapted well. I have faith you'll be O.K.

So… that's it. I'm going to leave now, and you're going to wake up, read this, and move on, just like me. I'm sorry for any pain I might be causing you.

There was a knock on the door, and she looked up as Warren poked his head in.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yea," she said as she signed her name at the bottom of the note.

LEXISS

She set the letter, unfolded, on the nightstand beside John's bed, barely hesitating as she did so. She looked forlornly at it, wishing there was some other way to communicate with John. But, judging by the welt on his head, he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon.

But, it was strange. For the first time in the last few weeks, she was really, truly calm. She was at ease. She felt like this chapter in her life had finally finished, and she was more than ready to move on. She looked at Warren, and then passed him as she left the room.

"Let's go home."

- - - - -

Back at the mansion, headstones were erected for Scott and Jean beside the professor's monument. Warren had fully moved into the mansion, and into John's old room, and Lexiss felt nothing about it at all. It was just another room.

It was a truly amazing feeling.

Lexiss and Ororo were 'thick as thieves' again, and Lexiss was helping Ororo run the mansion as much as an eighteen year old who had just graduated from high school could. Mostly, it was just making sure the younger ones didn't act too wild.

And Rogue had come back. Her best friend in the entire world had returned, cured of the mutant X-gene. Lexiss didn't care; she loved her anyway. Rogue was like her sister, and it was her life. She certainly hadn't interfered negatively during Lexiss' mood swings in the past months, and she wasn't going to jump down Rogue's throat about her choice. Bobby seemed just as happy to have her back.

Mr. McCoy had also been instated as the new mutant ambassador to the United Nations by the president of the United States.

And Logan? Logan seemed to be OK. No one expected him to be as composed as he was – Lexiss sort of thought they might have been expecting another few months with another one of her. They were spending a lot of time together, and he seemed to be at peace with what he had done. He believed he had done what Jean had wanted when he had taken her life, and she believed him.

- - - - -

Lexiss was standing outside with Ororo one Thursday, a few days before the new school semester was to begin, greeting many of the Xavier school's new boarders. Jaimie, the boy who had been used to create the cure at Worthington Labs (Lexiss had found out Mr. Worthington was also Warren's father –that had been a shocker), was one of the newest students. He had already fallen into Annabeth's crowd, and because of him, she now knew Annabeth had hazel-colored eyes.

Ororo looked over at her. "So… it seems like this is sort of a happy ending," she said carefully.

Lexiss considered what she said. "Well, Magneto hasn't been captured, but we know he's cured. And John hasn't been caught either, but…"

That was the one thing they hadn't told anyone about. It was an unspoken vow a silence between Lexiss and Warren. Warren, who didn't know about her history with John, and Warren, who had asked her to dinner.

She had agreed to go.

Ororo reached out and ruffled her hair. Laughing, Lexiss pushed her away, and replied, "Yea. I think we all turned out alright."

- - - - -

Sweet deal! Alright, as usual, please review, and don't forget about the epilogue! I am planning on writing a fourth installment, but as it's a more creative endeavor, coming entirely out of my head, it isn't completed as yet. So, I've posteda poll on my profile to ask readers like you which of three fanfics you'd like to see posted next. Go check it out, and if one striles your fancy, submita vote!