*A/N: Wooo... three years gone again. And here I am almost through with college. I hope everyone still enjoys this story. It has no more than two updates left before the finale. It has been such a great ride working on this story for so many years. I am very proud of it and can't wait to deliver an awesome final fight after THREE installments! Happy reading. :)

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Mystique awoke to the chill of familiar metal flooring. A sharp, reverberating ring shot back and forth in her head, bouncing from ear to ear as if someone had cracked her skull with a giant tuning fork. Her fingers shook as if detached from any form of unity, seeming to desperately flee from her body to wriggle across empty space in search of an unknown solace. She was numb and aching at the same time—exhausted yet fueled with adrenaline. She watched her fingers shiver through crossed eyes before her sight returned to normal. Like all minds seem to do, Mystique’s frantically searched for its most recent memories. She did not like what she saw.

“John,” she croaked. She grasped her throat in needless embarrassment upon hearing her own voice. She remembered Phoenix possessing her. Flickers of an immense battle popped before her eyes. Eyes clenched tightly, Mystique sucked in a sharp breath of air through her nose. Getting to her feet was an ordeal. One leg buckled beneath her. Her toes curled downward as all of her muscles suddenly cramped. Her ankles betrayed her. Her palms seemed slick with oil. She attempted to curse her nightmare of a predicament, but her tongue fell limply in her mouth.

“What is wrong with me?”

And then she heard a soft moan across the room. She snapped her head in the sound’s direction, but she could not see a body. The voice was female, but Mystique saw no one.

“Who’s there?” She asked, surprised by the clarity of her previously ragged voice. It was then that the mutant looked down at her hands. Her left was normal—long, blue fingers extending to short manicured nails. Then she cast her gaze on her right hand.

She had no control over its movements. Her fingers morphed into different forms, taking beastly shapes, delicate shapes, and all in between. Some fingers were pulled into her palm while others swayed side to side at different tempos. Mystique couldn’t tear her gaze from the monstrosity. It seemed to have a mind of its own. Mystique thought to also inspect her legs. Trying to swing them out from under her, she found she could only control her left leg and foot, while her right side remained totally independent.

“Who is playing games with me?” The blue mutant demanded. Her eyes were as large as saucers, staring helplessly at her contorted limbs. “Show yourself!”

A low chuckle sounded to her right, but still she could see no source. Mystique hurriedly attempted to stand, but half of her body refused to cooperate. She felt as though she were encased in ice. Her mind raced for ideas. Oddly, she had never before had so much clarity. In a matter of moments she thought of a solution and slowly scooted herself against the nearest wall. Pulling her useable leg beneath her and pushing her back against the wall, she was finally able to stand.

‘Oh, bravo,’ the voice taunted. Mystique finally accepted the only possibility of the source of the voice.

“Phoenix,” she said. “You’re still inside of me.” But Mystique’s new analytical mind provided more answers.

“You must be very weak,” the blue mutant discerned. “I have full control over half of my body.”

‘Inconvenient at the very most, mortal,’ Phoenix spat. ‘Until I regain my strength, you are my willing vessel!’

Mystique scoffed. “Try me, bitch.”

She watched the right hand struggle against gravity to lift itself from her side in an attempt at retaliation. After a few moments Phoenix gave up.

“You’re struggling just to stay on this planet, aren’t you?” Mystique breathed. She knew now would be the perfect time for John to confront the entity. Reaching John to tell him was a whole other matter. Phoenix would try to stop her at all costs. But then… would she spend enough energy to lose her grasp in this dimension? Was it reasonable to believe that no more blood would have to spill for Phoenix to finally fall?

‘I am still more powerful than any mutant on this pathetic planet!’ Phoenix screamed within the walls of Mystique’s mind. ‘You will do as I say, or your precious Pyro will meet his end the next time I so much as lay eyes on him!’

“What happens if I kill myself with you clinging to my physical presence?” Mystique asked, a haunting undertone embellishing her query. “I’ll bet you go back to Hell.”

‘I will find another host.’

“You wouldn’t make it back to the mainland alone. I know where we are. You can’t fool me. There are limitless ways to kill myself on this godforsaken island.”

‘You forget the girl downstairs, do you? Did you think for a moment that I would leave myself without an exit? Kill her, and your little lover will never look into your eyes without hatred again.’

“If I kill her,” Mystique said, “it is in preparation to throw myself off of this fucking compound and get rid of you. I won’t have any worries after that, will I?”

Phoenix was silent after that, but Mystique still recognized that suicide was her very last option. There had to be some other way to expel Phoenix without compromising her own life...

Mystique finally realized why she had been thinking so clearly this whole time. As evidenced by her crippled leg, arm, and hand, Phoenix could only possess the right side of her body, leaving the left to Mystique. This was also the reason the dark entity couldn’t think of any intelligent bribes or trickery to manipulate Mystique—the mutant had complete control over the left hemisphere of her brain.

So why couldn’t she think of any solution to this predicament that didn’t involve her death?

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“Professor, please tell me where I can find Phoenix.”

Xavier looked sadly into his pupil’s dark brown eyes. “I will check Cerebro,” he said.

Pyro could hardly contain his excitement. It wasn’t the thrill that comes with joy but the excitement, rather, induced by the adrenaline pumped into one’s veins in times of imperative survival.

“John, please go rest for now. I will call you back when I learn of Phoenix’s whereabouts. The others should be arriving soon as well. It will be good for you to catch your breath for the night.”

Pyro meant to argue, but something in his mentor’s eyes halted his tongue. He had to be prepared for this final battle. It was all getting down to the wire now. So much rested on his course of action… It all made his head spin. Xavier was right—he needed to calm down.

As John disappeared behind closed doors, Professor Xavier bowed his head. John was on his mind. How had such an irresponsible, impulsive teenager grown into a self-sacrificing man within a year’s time? Could he be happy that his pupil had chosen the most difficult method of defeating the Phoenix? But then again, it seemed to be the only method. With his and Jean’s telepathy, they could just barely stall the Phoenix long enough for John to…

It was too painful for him to think about. John was young, inexperienced. The Phoenix was an omnipotent force. It had merely a modicum of human life, yet existed indefinitely. The odds of defeating her were gruesomely thin.

Xavier chose not to dwell on it further. He directed his wheelchair toward the elevator that would take him to Cerebro.

John walked to his old room in the manor after leaving Professor X’s office. Did the old man still feel his presence within the mansion’s walls, or were there other things on his mind?

His old bedroom had unsurprisingly been filled by another occupant since his departure. There were pictures on his nightstand. John smirked at the burn marks in the wood. This was the room he had grown up in, retreated to when he needed solace from the droll of classes. The mirror had been replaced. His hand burned as he ran his fingers over the scars he would probably wear forever.

How far he had come since his fight with Bobby, the testing facility—since Mystique. He had sought her love for so long. Did he have it? Could she ever break her bond to the Brotherhood and join him somewhere far from the academy, far from New York even? Maybe to somewhere no one’s heard of—someplace immune to belligerent mutant attack… someplace where the snow wasn’t so cold.

Being back in the mansion after all this time was strange. John saw ghosts on his way down the hallways—crowds of kids on their way to class, Beast with his nose in a medical journal. There was where Rogue and Kitty fought Firecat all that time ago... And there… there was Firecat’s room where he had made love to a mystery woman.

So many ghosts…

“I thought you’d be in here.”

The voice of his other half drew him from his haunting thoughts.

“It’s weird being here, isn’t it?” Bobby touched the brass doorknob thoughtfully and smirked at his old bed across the room. “The memories are suffocating.”

His words were nearly true. You could almost see the flashes of people and actions against the white walls—an amalgam of emotions and faces burning in the reddish-white light only produced by tightly squeezing your eyes shut.

He caught a glimpse of Bobby’s ghost standing in the doorway demanding that John take him along in his pursuit of Mystique.

“Are you all back now?” John asked, shaking himself from his memories.

“Yeah, Professor X is debriefing them.”

“So, everyone’s okay?

“Hey, ‘Dyce, don’t sweat it. Well, I mean, Rogue is like the most powerful person in the building right now, but other than that, things are normal.”

“Did you see Firecat?”

Bobby paused, remembering the shriveled beauty in the glass case, eyes open and blank, lacking the energy to express their dire need for help.

“We saw her,” he said carefully. “But… we weren’t able to take her out…”

“It’s okay. I know.”

A silent minute fluttered by.

“’Dyce, why do you… I mean… why do you care about her? Aren’t you in love with… you know…?”

John sighed, turning from the doorway to look out the window above his old bed. He didn’t feel like talking about it. No, it wasn’t that. It was… he didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know why he cared about Raven so much.

“I just want all of this to be over,” he finally said, knowing full well his reply answered nothing.

“I hear you,” said Bobby. “On the brighter side, Magneto is dead.”

“What?”

“Yeah! Storm totally fried him… right after Logan ripped out his spine.”

“Cool.” Bobby saw a shade of a smile on his friend’s face.

“Hey, whoever lives here now probably won’t thank you for breaking the lock off their door to get in here, so what do you say we scram?” John smirked as if he hadn’t thought of what he would do if the kid who actually lived here came back and confronted him.

“Yeah, sure,” he said. “Let’s go see what the others are up to.”

The two teenagers headed toward the main staircase toward the foyer. Before rounding the final corner, however, John froze solid. A familiar voice floated on the air toward his ears. A rush of memories washed over him until the voice became a face.

“Oh, John. Um… hello.”

Jubilee stood before him. He hadn’t seen her in months—spoken to her in more— but she was there now, just as he always remembered her.

“Jubes.” Without thinking or even giving Jubilee a moment to think, John pulled her in for a hug. He had reacted so quickly that he didn’t notice Jubilee’s male friend who had been walking with her. Lucky for that guy, Bobby kept him busy while John and Jubilee embraced.

She pulled away with a blush on her cheeks.

“It’s good to see you, too, John. Bobby. I heard everyone come back from the latest mission. No casualties either! But I heard Rogue tried to shove Wolverine just a little and ended up pushing him through a wall…”

It was as if John didn’t hear a word. “I’ve missed you so much, Jubes,” he blurted out. “I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever put you through.”

At this point, Jubilee’s “friend” scowled and tried to push past Bobby to get to John. Bobby tapped him on the shoulder.

“My friend, you should sit this one out for a bit, okay?”

“Why? Who is this guy? All I know is he’s out of line with my girlfriend!”

“You must be new here,” Bobby realized, shaking his head. “This is John, also known as Pyro. His mutation is setting people on fire. May I ask what yours is?”

The new guy mumbled something indistinct and backed up a few feet.

“That’s what I thought,” Bobby chuckled.

“Jubilee,” John continued, taking her hands in his. “There’s something I have to do, and I don’t know if I’ll make it out alive. Just know that… I’ve only ever wanted your happiness, and I’m sorry that I hurt you.”

Jubilee’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at her former boyfriend in silence. She had always been a tough girl, but now her eyelids were heavy with tears. Her sadness ran down her flushed cheeks, and she pulled John into a tight embrace.

“I know,” she said, uttering the only words that she could muster while pressed to John’s chest. “I know.”