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Author's notes: Thanks so much everybody for sticking with me on this one! Hopefully you enjoyed the ride!

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epilogue

"When can I take my wife home?"

"Has anybody told you how annoying you are?"

Tony Stark - genius, billionaire playboy, philanthropist- and the Avenger known as Iron Man, brushed past Remy's shoulder and tapped the flat screen attached to the front of a large, cylindrical tank. Behind the thick glass, Rogue floated freely while watching Tony work.

Remy spread his fingers on the outside of the tank, the skin on the back of his hand decorated with a crisscross of still healing wounds. Rogue smiled at him and placed her fingers on the inside to line up with his. It was how they touched these last few weeks, but Remy was just grateful to be able to see her pretty face, and not the ionic cloud she had been reduced to after their fight with Vargas. When the monster had finally met his demise, his body weakened under the onslaught of energy she had unleashed before Remy, the kids, and Logan had finished him off, Rogue had lost her corporeal form, becoming a creature composed entirely of that same energy.

Remy had nearly lost her, but thanks to the Avengers and some quick thinking by Erik of all people, they had held Rogue's atoms together so she hadn't ended up dispersing into the atmosphere as Simon Williams once had. They had rushed her to Stark, and Tony had been working tirelessly to help Rogue rebuild herself, holding her in a containment unit once designed to aid Wonderman. The technology was realigning her molecules and helping to reform her body, but it had been a painfully slow process.

It had taken weeks, but Rogue was getting steadily stronger and less see through every day. Though there was part of Remy that wished at times she hadn't been quite so visible. Her costume had been destroyed along with her physical body. She couldn't magically conjure up clothes and they couldn't open the containment unit to give her any. Even though Tony had rigged a privacy screen of sorts to protect her modesty, Remy was sure Iron Man had snuck a peek. If Tony had, it was his funeral when Rogue got out of that tank...

"You said today was the day, m'sieu," Remy turned to where Stark was still fiddling with the computers, and Rogue tapped the glass to get Tony's attention.

"And I'm never wrong. Well, hardly ever wrong." Stark stood and grinned a mouthful of expensively fake pearly whites. "Today, LeBeau, I'm right, and I'm not just saying that because the sooner Rogue leaves, the sooner you're out of my hair and out of my lab."

Remy's face split into a grin. "So, today?"

"Today. As in, right now, if you're ready."

A loud whoop and a chorus of cheers erupted from behind them, and Remy looked over his shoulder to the windows lining the hallway outside the lab. Bobby, Jean, and Fence were all plastered to the glass and grinning like idiots, and Steve Rogers stood with them, his smile decidedly less stupid. Rogue waved, her face beaming. They had all wanted to be in the room, but there was still the possibility of Rogue's powers flaring out of control. Tony was there because he claimed he had to be, and Remy was there because there was no force in the world that could keep him away, but the rest of their friends stood protected behind reinforced glass.

Stark finished his preparations and Remy found a robe for Anna. It had been a long few weeks, some of the longest of Remy's life. The world had kept turning with crisis after crisis, and the Avengers and the X-Men had continued to confront them like they always had, but Remy had bowed out of the superhero game. He was still recovering, physically as well as mentally, and had ate, slept, and breathed in Stark's lab.

Magik had opened the gates to X-Haven, allowing Forge to consult with Stark on Rogue's condition while their team continued their mission of contacting stray mutants. The X-Men's job had been made slightly easier thanks to the research of the A.I.M. scientists on Avengers' Island. Roberto's people had discovered that the Terrigen Mists could be corralled by electromagnetic energy. Tony had been able to synthesize an inoculation that immunized mutants to the worst effects of the mists, and much to the distress of the Inhumans, Magneto had taken it upon himself to round up the roving clouds that still terrorized mutants around the world. Hero or savior? It depended on who you asked these days, but Erik Lehnsherr had always enjoyed toeing that line.

Logan was gone, he had only stuck around long enough to say goodbye to Anna. Remy had a feeling the old man felt his debt repaid somehow, that by saving this Rogue he had somehow righted a wrong. Though Remy hadn't been in the room for the pair's final goodbye, his jealousy and anger with Logan had dissipated. He knew how hard it was to lose Anna, and how tempting it would be if you had a chance to regain a love you had lost. Remy wished his old friend the best he could in a world that was not his own.

Jean and Bobby had been helping out the Avengers, allowing them to stay close but keeping them busy. Jean had been using her telepathy to aid in the recovery of Roberto, Tabitha, and James, but Monet was another, sadder story. Her body had not survived the initial attack in Genosha, and the X-Men mourned the loss of another teammate and friend. The X-Force trio, however, had regained consciousness shortly after Vargas had been killed. Thanks to Jean's hard work they were slowly piecing together their memories, but Remy didn't know if they would ever fully recover. Carol Danvers never had after she and Rogue had fought all those years ago, and he could only assume Vargas's version of Anna's powers worked the same.

Betsy was still searching for Warren. They had looked for Archangel, teams of Avengers even returning to Genosha and scouring the island, but there had been no sign of him. Rogue had managed to get the psychic dampener on Warren's wrist, so Remy had hated to point out that Psylocke's telepathy would be useless in finding Archangel, but he knew from experience that he wouldn't quit if it was his love in danger.

A recovered Mystique had stayed in X-Haven, and was helping Ororo and company make preparations to return to the school to the real world. Raven had been in constant contact with her daughter, but Anna had been squeamish about having her mother, who was still not fully recovered from her injuries, anywhere near her dangerous powers.

"All right," Stark barked. "I think we're ready here."

Remy draped the robe on a stool perched near the containment unit, and he and Tony stepped behind a heavily shielded partition.

"You want to do the honors?" Tony showed Remy how to disengage the containment unit and, saying a silent prayer, Remy pressed the button. There was a hiss and a flash of light that dropped the men to their knees.

"Anna?" Remy called out, unable to see, his world a snow-blind white. Where was she? Was she OK? Had it worked?

"I'm here, sugar."

The sound of her voice bought him to his feet and he scrambled around the partition, meaning to wrap his arms around her, but she stepped back hastily. He slowly approached his wife, but her wide eyes resembled a skittish doe in the forest.

"Chere?" he held a hand out to her.

She wrapped the robe around herself and swallowed. "I'm okay, it's just so…" she held trembling fingers out for his and he grasped her hand, wonderfully warm and solid and real, and he carefully drew her against his chest and held her there, unashamed at his own tears that soaked her shoulder.

"I can't keep them out forever, but I'll get you a couple moments alone," Tony said and exited the lab, but Remy barely noticed, his attention focused almost solely on the woman in his arms.

"Did it work?" she whispered, and Remy felt a brief flare of the anger he thought he had laid to rest weeks ago. Rogue had nearly died to destroy Vargas, a monstrously unfair trade that Remy knew she would make again and again to save her friends. She had made the choice without him, again, but he had kept his secrets from her as well. Death, still buried deep inside, but quiet for the time being. Round and round, the same old hurts. They still had so far to go.

He held her out slightly and cupped her face in his hands. "Oui. He's gone. It's over." He wanted to scream at her for almost dying, too, but he was so relieved to have her whole and standing in front of him that he realized he didn't give a goddamn what she had done, only that she had survived.

"How do you feel?" The cheeks he stroked with his thumbs were wet with tears, but the eyes shedding them had changed colors, her usual emerald green variegated with startling flecks of crimson. She had changed, they both had, like teacups that had shattered and been glued back together.

"Weird, but okay, I think." Those eyes held his and the questions neither of them wanted to voice were there, written all over her face. She was alive, but what was she? Was she still Anna? Was she still...human? Wonderman had been anything but, and Stark's scans had been inconclusive.

"Remy, it was the only way…"

He swallowed her apology in a slow, deep kiss. "I know." He leaned his forehead down to rest against her. There was so much more to talk about, his work since the battle to try and manage the monster that would forever live inside him, but it could wait. Whatever happened, they would face it together.

"I love you," she said softly.

"Know that, too."

He felt her eyebrows knit together in a frown and she tried to playfully shove him away, but he chuckled and brought her back for another kiss. "Forever, Mrs. LeBeau. I won't settle for anything less."

The doors to the lab crashed open and they were enveloped by friends, family, and teammates, but they kept their hands twined together, unwilling to let go. A love worth dying for? Remy allowed himself a small smile. What more could an old thief ask for?

The End