The final chapter. Thanks to everyone who has read this! Special thanks to my little sister who let me borrow her laptop to publish this since mine's kinda screwed.

This is another new day.

The epilogue is the beginning of 'Strategy X'

Thanks to TristeAlma and Courtney Summers for your reviews of the last chapter!

Ailsa was still smiling when she walked into the dining room. She laughed and joked and made fun of Scott's 'morning hair' with Jean. Everything was fantastic. Ororo dropped her off at school and Ailsa stopped smiling. This was the one place she didn't have her family. The one place she still felt scared in. She shook herself.

"You fought Mystique! You saved your family!" she told herself, "Madison is nothing compared to that!"

She was back in Chemistry that day, and noticed Madison's empty seat. The blonde girls were all talking amongst themselves.

"Madison's dad is a TV camera operator. He was covering the thing downtown and now he's lost his job because he can't fix the camera! They had to move!"

Ailsa grinned to herself. Everything really was looking up.

If she had looked out of the window at precisely that moment, she would have seen Madison smile slyly, before dropping to the ground. Her eyes flashed gold and suddenly, she had returned to her blue skinned, red haired self. Mystique walked away from the building talking to a helmeted, caped figure.

"It does not matter, Mystique, you already have one of the Tyler sisters. It does not matter that you do not have them both."

Mystique looked over at the brown-haired, hazel-eyed, thirteen-year-old girl who was weaving a tendril of fire between her watery fingers. Lauri glanced up at her 'parents' and smiled widely.

When she arrived back at the mansion with Ororo, she was met with bad news. She and Jean were daring each other to do things that involved their powers. Ailsa was standing in the corner of the Professor's study, invisible, when Logan walked in.

"I'm set, Charles. Tell Ails I said 'goodbye'."

Ailsa ran quietly out of the room and into the foyer. Moments later, Logan appeared and she stood up. "Why are you leaving?"
Logan looked at her. "I'm trying to piece my life back together. I'll be home soon."

"I don't want you to go."

"I promise I'll be back for your graduation." Logan walked out of the doors and kicked his motorcycle into life. He rode out, through the gates, and into the world.

Epilogue - 1 Year Later

"Touchdown!" the cheerleaders shouted, waving their pom-poms in the air, the crowd chanting and cheering in the background.

The players assembled, ready for the snap. "Blue 22, blue 22."

Ailsa spotted Jean down at the pitch, taking photos for the school yearbook. She grinned to herself as Jean snapped Duncan Matthews lying on the ground, her 'sister' had always had a bit of a crush on that guy. Not far along the row, Scott was sitting with one of his friends. She looked down and spotted a hand reaching for a wallet. She raised her eyebrows.

"Todd Tolanski," she said quietly to herself, "That kid never learns." Ailsa kicked her powers into play and jumped over the side of the stands. Along the row, Scott stood up.

"If it ain't 'toady Tolanski' picking up a little spare change," she heard Duncan say, a little to her left.

She started forward, determined to stop anyone getting hurt.

"Shut up, frog face!"

There was the sound of struggling as Duncan pinned Todd up against the wall.

"Lets crush 'im, Dunc!" she heard one of the players say.

"Lets not, Dunc." Scott was in the shadows, but Ailsa could still see him. "Just chill. The wallets are still there. How about we have him give back the cash, no harm done?" he continued.

"Yeah, yeah," Todd said, sounding terrified, "See, here's the money."

The boys were arguing. She stepped forward, becoming visible as she did so. "Let go of him, Duncan. Don't do anything stupid," she said. "Although it's so hard to break habit," she added quietly.

"I said knock it off!" Scott yelled, running at Duncan before the latter could harm Todd.

"Scott!" Ailsa yelled, running towards him.

Todd ran, or rather, jumped away in a strangely frog-like fashion. Duncan's friends ran after him, but Duncan fell over at Scott's feet.

"Big mistake, Summers," the quarterback said, starting forward.

"Scott? NO!" Jean yelled, rounding the corner.

Duncan took advantage of the distraction Jean provided and punched Scott hard in the face. Scott flew backwards, his glasses falling off, sending the energy blasts from his eyes at Duncan and travelling to a propane tank, which exploded. The stands began to collapse on top of Jean, Scott, Ailsa and Duncan. Ailsa raised her arms, a force field expanded, surrounding the four as the seating above can tumbling down.

The End

Thanks to TristeAlma and Courtney Summers for their reviews of this chapter, you guys have been great for sticking with my twisted imagination 'til the very end!

This story will have a sequel and prequel at some point in time. I'll be writing the sequel (a rewrite of Cauldron but focusing on Lauri and Ailsa) and Lyndz and myself will be writing an Evo-Teen Titans crossover as a prequel, which should explain a lot about Whisps. In the meantime, you could read Birds Of A Feather by Sakura Ocean (Lyndz). Whisper, her OC (Dove) and Teapot of Karma - Miss C. Cullen (Catriona)'s OC (Marquesa/Zelli) are featured in that as a trio of female, crime-fighting, best friends of completely different species... The X-over is a sequel to that.

"The Whisper Series" Story Order (to make things easier)
Birds Of A Feather - Sakura Ocean
(Yet to be named) - Sakura Ocean/XOXheartAmy
Now You See Me, Now You Won't - XOXheartAmy
The Cauldron, Uncut - XOXheartAmy