A/N - Hello everyone and welcome to the last chapter of Lightning, Part 3 which is also the last chapter of the entire series. There won't be a part 4. I don't know what I would put in it anyway. There were originally only going to be 2 parts and the story would have ended with Voldemort's defeat. Then the Sentinels popped up and demanded to be in the story so part 3 came about. It's been over four and a half years since I started this story when I first wrote the preview and all three parts together make up, by far, the longest thing I have ever written. I believe the total is somewhere above 500,000 words.

This is the epilogue to it all. I hope you like it.

And one more time I present the disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.

32) CURTAIN CALL

On his 253rd birthday Harry returned to the X-Mansion. It was a very big school now as the number of mutants in the world had increased a lot in the centuries since Harry's powers had first woken up. Nowadays it was run by one of Scott's and Jean's descendants several generations down the line from them. There were enough buildings at the school now that it could easily be mistaken for a college campus. The student body was in the hundreds and the facilities were state of the art.

The original mansion was still there and for a few minutes Harry stood outside of it and looked at it while leaning on his staff (he'd finally qualified to get one when he was about 30). Some decades ago the mansion had been declared a landmark and had been turned into a museum about the founding of the school, the emergence of mutants, and the X-Men. It had been restored to the appearance it had back when Harry first lived there. When he entered the front door of the mansion and looked around it was as if no time had passed since he'd first come here 240 years ago.

No one was around that he could see so he slowly walked around the first floor and visited some of the rooms he remembered so well. The Danger Room was now much, much more sophisticated and high tech than it had been when he was first in training having been revamped many times over the years. It wasn't used for training anymore though since three new ones had been added in the newer buildings a number of years ago. Instead it was kept on as part of the museum.

Harry went upstairs. First he looked in on Professor Xavier's office. It looked much the same as it had back when the professor had been running the school. The administration of the school was done from one of the other buildings and this office was part of the museum now too. Tour guides always brought visitors to see the office as it was where everything began. If the school had a shrine to the past this office was it.

Harry walked from the office to where his old room was. It was still his. All of the rooms of the original team members were still there and kept as they had been when they were last used. Harry was the only one of the original team left now. Wizards live a good deal longer than non-magicals, even non-magical mutants and it had been many decades since the last of his teammates had passed. But even though they were gone they weren't forgotten. Everyone at the school knew about its first six students who had become the founding team of X-Men. As the last one alive Harry was treated with great reverence by everyone whenever they saw him at the school. He didn't care much anymore. There had been many X-Men teams over the years but the first team was the one that everyone knew about the most. It was a lot like the way every American knows that George Washington was the U. S.'s first president for example.

His old teammates rooms all stood open for people to look inside. Like in many mansion museums there were little barriers past the doors inside each room that let people enter a few feet into them but no further. The rooms could be viewed but nothing in them could be touched. The only room that wasn't like that was Harry's own room. Since he was still alive and he still used it when he was here his room was kept locked when not in use. When he was gone it would be turned into an exhibit too.

Harry unlocked his room and went in. There had been changes to it over the years. Considering how long he'd had that room it would have been weird if there hadn't been any changes to it. On the whole, however, it was still very much as it had always been. His old Nimbus 2000 leaned against his old desk. He couldn't remember when he'd last used it. He hadn't needed to use it to fly after his powers woke up but every now and then he did, just because.

Hedwig's perch was also still there. She'd been gone for over 200 years but he still kept her perch. He'd owned other owls after her but there had only ever been one Hedwig. She'd been a member of the team and had even gone up against Juggernaut and Magneto in her time. No other owl he owned had been like her.

Lying on top of his dresser, neatly folded, was Harry's original X-Man uniform. He smiled when he saw it. He'd never changed his appearance as Lightning. When his teammates had all gotten new and different costumes around the time he turned 18 he'd kept his original one simply because he liked it. It had held up remarkably well considering how old it was, even if he hadn't worn it in decades.

Harry went to the window and looked out behind the mansion. What had once been a large open field was now a smaller field surrounded by other buildings like a quadrangle. Quite a number of students were out on the lawn relaxing, playing, hanging out, etc. In that sense it was just like any other big school. Harry smiled as he watched the students for a little while before turning away and going to sit on his bed.

As he sat down he cast his mind back and fell into a revery as he remembered all that had happened over the years...

Magic now being common knowledge had its own set of problems as already mentioned earlier. The mundane world was a lot more accepting of magicals than had been expected. Some put this down to the presence of superheroes before magic was exposed so people were used to those who had strange powers. Others put it down to the Sentinels scaring everybody into having a realization that they were all living in one world and they'd better get used to that fact and find ways to live in peace. Not everybody got the message – there would always be bigoted people in the world – but most people did. There were far fewer problems than there might have otherwise been.

The first thing that had to be decided was what to do with Bolivar Trask. Though he was American and the Americans had custody of him, almost all of the nations of the world were clamoring to try him because of all of the damage he'd done to their countries. Most of them wanted to charge him treason and sedition. The U.S. in particular was pressing those charges as the country where he was based but other charges were also being pressed. Among those were murder for all of the deaths the Sentinels had caused, destruction of property, and torture for what his lab subjects had experienced.

In the end, although he remained in U.S. custody, he was tried before the International Court of Justice at the Hague. This court usually mediated disputes between nations rather than deal with individuals but since almost every country wanted to prosecute Trask it was felt that it would be best if he was tried in an international setting where all the countries that wanted to prosecute him could state their cases at the same time rather than have trials in each country.

This was done. Trask's trial lasted for months although it was quickly clear what the verdict would be. Nevertheless everyone who wanted to speak was allowed to do so. In the end he was found guilty, not that anyone doubted that would be the case. Some people wanted him to get the death penalty but others thought that was too easy. He was finally sentenced to life in prison with no parole and was placed in a maximum security facility, the location of which was kept secret except that it was in the U.S. Anyone who wanted to visit him had to apply to see him through the Department of Justice. If the application was approved they were taken to the prison in secret, being kept blindfolded all the way so they wouldn't know where they were going. His one regular visitor was his son Larry. He hated mutants and magicals even more than his father did and he blamed them for his father being sent to prison. Many years later he would follow in his father's footsteps, but that's another story.

After reopening following the Sentinel Crisis Hogwarts finished out the current school year with the current classes. The next year, however, the changes started. Now that magic was publically known Hogwarts got itself accredited to give out degrees useable in the mundane world. Unlike Ilvermorny it didn't have to use another name as a front although Dumbledore did use Ilvermorny as a model when he began adding the non-magical classes like math, English, Science, etc. New professors were hired to teach these classes and they all had teaching credentials for their subjects. Muggle studies, which was renamed "Mundane Studies," was moved to first year and was required for all students who had grown up in the magical world. This was mostly pure-bloods and half bloods from older families. Another class was added to teach about the magical world and its customs for the mundane born first years and half bloods who had grown up in the mundane world.

The first year the changes were instituted only the first and second year students had to take the new classes after which every incoming class would have to take them. The higher years had the option to take the new classes but it wasn't required of them. It made Hogwarts a more rigorous school but it also made the students better able to handle both the magical and mundane worlds.

The Board of Governors objected to the changes at first and tried to stop them but they were overruled when Harry revealed himself to be the Heir of the Founders and the owner of Hogwarts, He backed what Dumbledore was doing. When the governors still refused to stop their opposition Harry simply dissolved the board which, as the owner of the school, he could do. In its place he had the school set up a PTA like mundane schools have to act as an advisory body. This got more parents involved with their children's education which was especially useful for non-magical parents who were now able to learn more about what their children were learning.

Of course this meant that eventually all Hogwarts students would have to take the GCSEs in addition to their OWLs. To keep the fifth years from going absolutely crazy the two sets of exams were staggered with the GCSEs occurring in early May and the OWLs a month later at the usual time. In addition, if any students wanted to attend university after Hogwarts they were now able to take their A Levels in addition to their NEWTs. Quite a lot of students began to take advantage of the new system and it wasn't just the mundane-born ones and half-bloods who did. It was a slow process but many pure-blood students also began to make use of the wider possibilities their education now afforded them.

A few years later Hogwarts began adding evening classes for adults who had already graduated. These classes were for any magical adult who wanted to learn the new mundane subjects, and how to get along better in the mundane world. New teachers were hired for this program and some of the unused classrooms were pressed back into service. The adults who took advantage of the new classes wouldn't live at the school. They came to Hogwarts for their classes and went home afterwards. Since these classes were mainly created for pure-bloods to help them blend in better with the mundane world they weren't popular at first. As time went by, however, and it became completely clear that the Statute of Secrecy would not, and could not, be put back into place, more of the older pure-bloods began to take the classes if only to not get left behind in the emerging new world.

One other class that was added for both regular students and adults was wandless magic. Harry had pushed hard for this class and after he and Sirius demonstrated the ease with which they could do wandless magic Dumbledore was all for adding it. He even took the class himself to learn how to do wandless magic more easily than he currently could. The Students had the option to take the class during their sixth and seventh years or to come back after graduation to take it as adults. Many did although very few went on to earn a staff, which wasn't a surprise considering the rigorous requirements one needed to fulfill in order to get one. This included going to Africa to meet those requirements as staff programs weren't available in Britain or Europe at that time. That would change eventually but it was many years before that happened. Harry, for example, had gotten his staff in Kenya through Uagadou.

Dumbledore stayed on as headmaster all during the transition and for a number of years after that. When he finally did retire Professor McGonagall succeeded him as headmistress and continued to build on what he and Harry had started.

Although he came back to Hogwarts Severus Snape never taught full classes again, something that everyone, including him, was quite happy about. He continued on as the Potions Master of the school brewing potions for the hospital wing and also making and selling potions to outsiders as a side business. The only teaching he did in future years was when he took on occasional apprentices and trained them to become a potions masters too.

Remus Lupin stayed on as the defense professor at Hogwarts for many years. He eventually married auror Nymphadora Tonks and they had a son they called Teddy. Harry was his godfather.

Eventually Hogwarts added Mastery programs in several subjects for students who wanted to specialize and go on to higher education but didn't want to attend university. In addition to Snape most of the professors took on apprentices in their fields, although rarely more than one at time. Hogwarts would continue to grow as a school as its reputation – already high to begin with – went even higher.

Over at the ministry Cornelius Fudge finished out his term as minister but decided not to stand for reelection. He declared that he'd had quite enough excitement while in office to last him a lifetime. History would remember him as someone who had started out as mediocre during his first years but had later risen to the challenges of his job and performed well during a crisis. His behavior during Voldemort's return when he'd backed the creation of the new Danger Room for the DMLE and when he brought healers to Hogwarts for the battle and helped them as best he could, and also later during the Sentinel Crisis when he'd worked with the mundane government and helped everyone through the exposure of magic had raised his reputation a lot and he was remembered as a good minister – not necessarily a great one (because of his first years), but a good one. He was okay with that.

Mad-Eye Moody retired from active duty as an auror but stayed on as an instructor at the auror academy. He put many cadets through their paces in the DMLE Danger Room.

Logan stayed on at the X-Mansion most of the time where he trained newer students in physical combat. He had a lot of students over the years. Most of them thought he was slavedriver of a teacher at some point in their training but they usually admitted he was right in the end.

Every now and then Logan left the mansion and disappeared for a while. Sometimes he left for shorter periods, other times for longer ones, but he always came back. At these times Harry knew that his grandfather had taken some alone time and gone back to the Canadian wilderness. No matter how calm and civilized Logan might seem most of the time, he was feral at heart and just needed to get out into the wild to blow off steam now and then.

The summer after the Sentinel Crisis Logan tracked down Petunia and her family. To say the reunion was unhappy would be an understatement. Logan was furious with Petunia over her behavior toward Lily, Harry, and even himself and ultimately told her flat out that if she so badly wanted him to be dead that she buried an empty coffin in his grave then she would be dead to him. He disowned her and Dudley. Vernon was his usual abrasive self but it only took him being knocked around a few times for him to learn not to mess with a wolverine!

Because of his mutation Logan lived a lot longer than anyone would have expected. He was over 300 when he finally passed away. He'd outlived everyone Harry knew from when they first met except for Harry himself and Dobby the house elf. To Harry's amusement Logan actually seemed to be embarrassed that he ultimately died of old age as he always thought he'd go out in a blaze of glory while fighting an enemy. However when you're the best at what you do even if what you do isn't very nice, as Logan used to say, and that best thing you do is fighting and killing your enemies it becomes very hard, if not impossible, for anyone to kill you. In the end it was natural causes that got him.

In the years that followed the Sentinel Crisis Xavier's school grew to be a lot bigger. More and more mutants were appearing on Earth all the time and his school was known to be a place where they could get help controlling their powers and using them properly. Within a decade the X-Mansion alone wasn't enough to hold everyone, even if newer students shared rooms. The professor had another building put up on his estate to house more students. Eventually the school was big enough to require a second such building, and even a third one as the school was becoming a major institution of learning.

Professor Xavier ran the school for as long as he lived. A few years after the Sentinel Crisis, when enough students were old enough, he formed a junior team of X-Men. The new team consisted Colossus, Nightcrawler, Sprite – now going by Shadowcat, Rogue, and Storm who was the leader. Ororo had come to America to go to college and was attending Columbia University so she was around and had been training with the professor whenever she could. Ororo's mother Queen N'Dare actually approved of Ororo taking on the role of leading a team of X-Men as she said it would give her some of the field and leadership experience that a good ruler needed to have.

Some time after forming the second team a third one was formed which was informally called X-3. This team consisted of senior students Cannonball and Alpha who shared leadership between them, and several new students. These included Alex Summers, Scott's younger brother who had finally been found a few years earlier. His code name was Havok and he could create plasma beams from energy he absorbed. With him was his girlfriend Lorna Dane, otherwise known as Polaris, who had magnetic powers like Magneto but, as far as anyone knew, she wasn't related to him (they would all find out many years later that they wrong and she was, in fact, Magneto's daughter). The new team was rounded out by Remy LeBeau who could convert the potential energy of an object into kinetic energy for explosive results. He went by Gambit.

By that time the school was full of students and many of them wanted to be X-Men too when they were old enough. The younger students looked up to them and the newer teams were considered the elite of the school. Lord knows there was a need for them as there were plenty of new enemies that cropped up over the years. Among them were a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants lead by a mutant called Mystique and included the mutants Destiny, Pyro, Avalanche and Blob. There were also Mr. Sinister and his Marauders and Apocalypse and his Four Horseman. The Hellfire Club also came into conflict with the X-Men in future years, and there was Logan's old enemy Victor Creed who went by Sabretooth. Due to being Logan's grandson Harry was in Sabretooth's cross-hairs a couple of times but fortunately Sabretooth never got him.

Lastly, of course, there was Magneto. It took a couple of years but he managed to escape from where the Stranger had put him and returned to Earth again to continue on as he had before, which was trying to take over the world to make it safe for mutantkind and being thwarted by the X-Men again and again.

Cain Marko never reverted to being an evil Juggernaut though he sometimes became Juggernaut to help people and fight evil. He went back to school after the Sentinel Crisis and eventually graduated with good marks. He and Professor Xavier had a much better relationship from then on and if the X-Men ever needed him he would come help. He and Harry became good friends and he had firm friendship with Logan too. Their spars, when they met up, became famous at the school. Some time later the dark god Cyttorak tried to assert control over Cain but Dr. Strange helped him to repel the entity without losing his powers.

Dobby continued to live and work at the X-Mansion for many years. When the school expanded a couple of new house elves were hired to help Dobby with his work. He became the head house elf of the school after that. When he retired from the school Harry invited him to come live at Potter Castle, something he agreed to do at once as he'd always wanted to be Harry's elf. He had passed away just last year, the last of Harry's friends. House elves have very long lives, but by the end of it Dobby was very aged. He couldn't do much work anymore and almost never left the castle, but he was happy with his life. Harry was with him when he died and he was buried in the house elf cemetery on the grounds of Potter Castle.

While the newer teams were held in high regard by the rest of the school the original team was considered something of a legend. Everyone knew who they were. They continued on together as an active team for several years after the Sentinel Crisis. They never actually broke up but eventually people got older and moved on with their lives. But even if they didn't live at the school most of the time anymore or spread out to live in different parts of the country or other countries they would always come together again if they were needed. With the newer teams active, however, they weren't needed nearly as much.

Most of the original team left the school at the same time. Bobby, Warren, and Hank all left to attend college (several years late).

Warren later took over running Worthington Industries from his father and was very good at it.

After college and his marriage Hank went to work as a research scientist at the Brand Corporation. Something happened to him there which he never told his teammates the details of, but it resulted in him mutating further. He gained blue fur all over his body, pointed ears, claws, elongated canine teeth, and enhanced powers building on what he already had. As well as having the name "Beast" he now looked like one, but it didn't change his intelligent and cultured personality and his friends and teammates had no problems adjusting to his new appearance. He would go on to join the Avengers in addition to everything else.

Bobby eventually came out as gay. Nobody cared.

Sirius moved back to Britain most of the time and mainly managed his family fortune and estate although he also never lost touch with his teammates. He never married and Harry remained his heir and became the Black Lord when Sirius decided to give up the lordship many years later.

Scott and Jean finally admitted their feelings for each other, much to the relief of all of their friends. Although Jean left the school when most of the rest of the team left Scott stayed and became one of the main teachers of the younger students. He would take over as headmaster when Professor Xavier retired. Scott and Jean remained in a committed relationship which eventually led to marriage, but before they married something very drastic happened.

You may remember that when the X-Men first went to Hogwarts Jean had locked eyes with Fawkes the Phoenix and had been given a vision of an enormous firebird that filled up the universe. She didn't know what it meant at that time but years later, going through a huge crisis, the details of which are also another story, she made contact with a cosmic force known as "The Phoenix" and became that force's host, thereby gaining virtually limitless power. All of what happened after that, well, many things happened after that and they make up many stories that there isn't time to repeat. Suffice it to say, Jean became one of the most powerful people who ever lived – but this isn't her story, it's Harry's story.

And Harry? He stayed in America for much of his life. On the magical side he got his OWLs and his NEWTs. His grades were very good, if not quite as good as Hermione's, but then again no one got higher grades than her that Harry knew of. On the mundane side instead of taking the GCSEs and A Levels he took the PSAT as a junior, the SAT as a senior, and several Achievement tests. When he graduated from Ilvermorny he was third in his class. After that he went to Columbia for university. He chose it because it was a great school and it meant that he didn't have to go far from the X-Mansion. He left for college at the same time as Hank, Bobby, and Warren although they all went to different schools. He double majored in business and music – business because he'd wanted to learn it for a long time and music for the heck of it. He'd gotten decent at the guitar by then and while at college helped form a band. They never went anywhere beyond club shows (including at CBGBs a few times) but it was fun.

During the summers between school years Harry interned at various business. He did one summer at Worthington Industries and another one at Stark Industries. The last summer before senior year he went back to Britain to oversee how his estate was doing and also to check in at Hogwarts, visit his friends, and just have fun.

When he was a junior at Columbia he was invited to become an Avenger as Lightning and he did. He served as an Avenger for a couple of years before moving on. He remained lifelong friends with Thor.

Harry's friends in the magical world all had good lives. After Hogwarts Ron joined the Chudley Cannons as their keeper and helped them to actually start winning games. He married Lavender Brown and they had three children, all boys. Harry was the godfather of their first born son. In addition Ron pioneered the first magical chess tournament which was held in London when he was 25 and included players from all over Britain and other countries. To no one's surprise Ron won that first tournament and several more in the following years although not every year.

Fred and George opened a joke shop in Diagon Alley. It was so successful that they were able to open other shops, first in Hogsmeade, then in Paris, and several other countries after that.

Neville stayed connected with Xavier's school although he never became an X-Man. He decided he wasn't meant to be a fighter. He eventually married Luna Lovegood who was the only other student at Hogwarts beside Hermione and the Weasley kids who knew about Harry's involvement with the X-Men so Neville never had to keep his own mutant power secret from her.

Hermione attended Oxford after Hogwarts. During her third year there she ran into Hank who was doing an exchange term there. They hit it off again at once and by the time Hank went back to the U.S. they'd started dating. They kept it up even after they were separated by the Atlantic and eventually they got married much to the amusement of both Harry and Warren who had discussed this very possibility once upon a time.

It wasn't until some time after their wedding that Hank mutated into his blue and furry form. It was then that Hermione proved her true worth. While others might have used Hank's extra mutation as justification for a divorce Hermione stood by her husband all the way. They were a true power couple, even if they never tried to rule the world.

For as long as he lived Draco Malfoy kept his part in Voldemort's defeat a secret. It only came out after his death when his descendants had the record of his hearing at the ministry unsealed. With the truth finally known Draco was posthumously awarded an Order of Merlin Second Class in recognition of what he had done and the risk it had entailed.

Harry met Ororo again when he enrolled at Columbia and they picked up their relationship from where it had left off. It was much easier now that they were in the same city and no longer had to use magical mirrors to talk to each other. When they both graduated from Columbia Harry proposed to Ororo who accepted him. They were married a year later in Kenya. Warren was Harry's Best Man and Princess Shuri was Ororo's Maid of Honor. All of their friends in both worlds attended the wedding. It was the beginning of a long and happy marriage for them.

At first they lived mainly in America. This lasted until Ororo's mother N'Dare stepped down from being queen of magical Kenya. Ororo was in her late 30s by then and she and Harry had 4 children (which meant that Bobby won the bet from the Quidditch World Cup). First was their daughter Lily N'Dare Potter-Munroe who was next in line to the throne of Kenya after her mother and would become queen in her turn when Ororo stepped down from the throne many years later. Her Godparents were Warren and Hermione. The second child was a son, Logan T'Challa Potter, who was the Potter heir and who inherited the Killigaer earldom as well as the Peverell and Black lordships eventually taking the surname Potter-Peverell-Black. His godparents were King T'Challa and Princess Shuri and he spent a lot of time in Wakanda while he was growing up. The last two children were fraternal twins, a boy, Charles Henry Potter-Gryffindor-Slytherin, whose godparents were Ron and Luna, and a girl, Hanuni Katherine Potter-Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw whose godparents were Scott and Jean. As you can probably guess from their surnames the twins would inherit Hogwarts between them.

All of their children inherited the claws that their father, grandmother, and great-grandfather had. It seemed that the claws were becoming a permanent family trait as future generations of Harry's family had them too. Logan spent a lot of time with each of his great grandchildren teaching them how to use their claws effectively, something Harry was grateful for. They also got the healing factor although it didn't give them lives as long as their great-grandfather's. But since magicals live longer than mundanes anyway it didn't matter.

When Ororo took over as Queen of Magical Kenya they moved to Nairobi for a large part of the year. Now that magic was out in the open the magical part of Kenya was easier to oversee as it didn't need to be kept secret anymore. Harry's first two children attended Uagadou but the twins were sent to Hogwarts since they would one day own that school.

The years passed, as they tend to do and Harry's and Ororo's children grew up, got married and had children of their own who did the same, and so on. To his great joy Harry lived to see several generations of his descendants be born. To his sorrow he outlived Ororo, his children, and even his grandchildren. While magicals do live longer than mundane people Harry lived a good deal longer than even the average magical. Most magicals died some time after 150. Not many made it to 200 and, although it had happened before, living to 250 was extremely rare. Harry wasn't the oldest wizard to ever live but he was up there in age even if his grandfather had him beat by about half a century.

Harry came out of his revery and returned to the present with a small smile on his face. He knew he would die soon and had wanted to come back to the X-Mansion one more time. He wasn't ill but he was old and tired. He was more than ready to go on what Professor Dumbledore had once called "the next great adventure."

He held his right hand out in front of him, the palm facing upward. He concentrated and soon little bolts of electricity were dancing above his palm while he watched. He'd never gotten tired of doing this. Even after all these years he still looked at the dancing lightning bolts with wonder.

He yawned and let the electricity fade away. He kicked off his shoes, lay down on his bed, and closed his eyes. He'd just rest here for a little bit...

He was found some hours later by one of the school staff having died in his sleep with a peaceful expression on his face and a smile on his lips. So passed the last of the original X-Men.

"Harry."

Harry heard the voice as he lay with his eyes closed. It sounded so familiar.

"Harry" it came again. If he didn't know she was dead he would have thought it was his wife Ororo.

"It's me Harry" came the voice again as if reading his thoughts, "open your eyes and get up."

"Huh?" said Harry as he sat up abruptly and looked around. It was his room at the X-Mansion but it was different too. It was brighter and more colorful than it had ever been with an ethereal air to it that it had never had before. As Harry sat up he saw he was dressed in his X-Man uniform although his mask was pulled back from his head.

"What – ?" began Harry as he looked at himself. He felt incredible. As if was in his 20s again.

"It's all right" said Ororo's voice, "you're probably still a bit confused. It's normal."

Harry looked toward the voice and his mouth fell open when he saw Ororo standing there, looking like she was in her 20s again herself and dressed as Storm, her X-Man alter ego.

"Ororo" he said getting off of the bed and going to his wife. They hugged.

"I'm dead, right?" asked Harry as the hug ended, "I have to be if you're here."

"Yes" said Ororo, "I've been waiting for you, as has everyone else."

"Everyone?" asked Harry.

"Everyone" said Ororo, "our families, our friends, our teams. I got to be the one to greet you because I'm your wife."

"Thank God for that" said Harry. He pulled on his mask and became Lightning again.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Storm.

"I'm ready my darling" said Lightning. She held out her hand and he took it. The window of the room opened. They took to the air and flew out of it. Somehow the opening was big enough for both of them to fly through it together but neither questioned it as they were too wrapped up in seeing each other again to care.

"I missed you" Lightning said to his wife.

"I missed you too" was the reply. They smiled at each other. With that, Lightning and Storm flew off to their Next Great Adventure.

THE END

A/N - And that's a wrap folks! I can hardly believe I made it all the way to the end of this thing but here we are. Thank you for going on this journey with me. I hope you enjoyed reading my story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I mentioned two chapters ago that I might do some one-shots to expand on loose ends that the epilogue summarizes. There certainly is plenty of room for that. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. For now, at least, the story is over.

Meanwhile, as always, please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. Stay safe and well everyone and I'll see you all around some time.