☀︎︎☀︎︎☀︎︎

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  AS CHARLES SHUT HIS eyes and his mental battle with Apocalypse began, Olivia believed that was that — they could get Peter and Raven to safety and get out of there. But as they watched Charles, his breathing became sporadic and his brow tensed. A sudden breeze caught all of their attention. As she turned around, Olivia suppressed a gasp as the wall that separated them from Apocalypse turned to dust and was blown away into the air. They could see Raven and Peter more clearly now and Olivia's eyes immediately connected with the silver-haired boy. She could see how much pain he was in, yet he smiled widely at her, mouthing, 'I'm okay,' before quickly grimacing as another wave of pain hit him.

With their one line of defence gone, Apocalypse could access them easily. With a smirk, he began to approach. But suddenly, a bar of metal slammed in front of him, blocking his path. Holding her breath, Olivia watched as Magneto hovered down, and another bar was placed, forming an X shape. She smiled to herself — real subtle, Eric. Apocalypse turned slowly, sneering at the floating man. "Huh betray me?"

"No," Eric spoke clearly. "I betrayed them." Though she didn't know him personally, Olivia felt her heart swell with joy.

Flicking his wrist, an armada of all kinds of scrap metal hovered menacingly behind Eric and with a wave of his hand, he sent it flying, directed at Apocalypse, who formed a bubble of fire around himself, burning down the metal as fast as it hit him. Snarling, Apocalypse struggled to walk towards Eric.

Hank tapped Olivia's shoulder. "We need to get them out of there," He pointed to Raven and Peter. Olivia nodded curtly, eyes narrowing in determination. Hank signalled to Scott. "Let's jump," Without a second thought, Olivia and Hank ran forward, Scott stumbling behind him. Olivia tucked her neck and rolled onto the broken ground while Scott held onto Hank, who steadied him as they landed.

"I got Peter," She told them, rushing to the groaning boy. She looked at his ankle, which was held solidly into the ground and tried not to grimace at his snapped leg. "I'm gonna get you out of there, just hold on," Rubbing her fingers together, she jumped at how much electricity sparked — the lightning strike had charged her. Aiming her hands at the rock that surrounded Peter's foot, she quickly shot a small and powerful electric blast that shattered the stone to bits.

Peter stumbled forward, but she was right there to catch him. She pulled his arm over her shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist. Trying to hold back another grimace, Peter smiled weakly at her. "My hero," His voice was hoarse.

Olivia shook her head to hide her blush. "Come on," She looked to her left to see Hank carrying Raven over his shoulder, while Scott aimed his lasers at Apocalypse. Together, she and Hank moved Peter and Raven to safety. Slowly, Olivia eased Peter down against the stone wall. Hank placed a nearly unconscious Raven next to him.

"Olivia, stay here with them," Hank said hastily.

Nodding, Olivia watched nervously as he rushed off. Peter held her hand tightly as he continued to groan. She couldn't fully see what was going on but she could hear — she could hear that they weren't winning. She was torn between staying and protecting Peter and Raven, or going out there to protect everyone else — it was all too overwhelming. "Hey, hey," Peter's voice was soft, like a whisper. Olivia turned to look at him. "Chill out," He searched her face intensely, causing her to blush once more.

"Don't worry about me, Peter," She told him softly, squeezing his hand a little tighter. "I'm fine," She turned back to the matter at hand. She couldn't hear Scott yelling anymore or Hank's roar, only the ongoing clanging of metal. Then, she heard Scott call out for Hank, but the man in question did no respond. Olivia suddenly became very nervous — was Hank okay? Why wasn't he answering? Her stomach tightened at the possibilities of why.

A loud bang sounded, followed by the agonized screams of Apocalypse. Olivia didn't think, she ran around the corner and the sight she saw was amazing — Jean, high up in the air, her power surrounding her like a force of nature. Apocalypse stood below, screaming out in pain as his armour was stripped from him. She let out an accidental whoop of happiness. Jean was finally doing what she denied herself off and Olivia couldn't be more proud. Finally exposed, Eric was able to impale Apocalypse, shoving as many metal scraps as he could through the mutant.

Scott, broken free, hastily removed his glasses and aimed for Apocalypse, melting the metal further into his skin. But, the all-powerful mutant had a plan. A thin purple bubble, one Olivia recognized as what he used to teleports began to surround him. "He's getting away!" She called, rushing over to Hank and Scott. Sticking her hands out she aimed for the bubble, hoping it would work. She fired as much power as she could at him, electrifying the bubble. Slowly, it began to break apart, but not fast enough. "I need more!" She called out. The one to answer that call was none other than the storm girl.

Following Olivia's lead, she shot her lighting for the bubble and almost instantly, with their power combined, it began to disintegrate, leaving Apocalypse exposed to Jean's wrath. With one final push, Jean's power burned him away to ash, leaving nothing but the metal that had once impaled him.

Olivia let out a sigh of relief — it was finally over. Jean, Eric, and Storm all hovered back to the ground and all looked equally relieved. Hank grabbed Scott and jumped back to where Charles laid, while Olivia went back to check on Raven and Peter. Raven looked considerably more awake than when she left her. "You're looking better," She smiled at her.

Raven nodded, clearly exhausted. "Yeah..."

"I feel great!" Peter chuckled and as he tried to move audible gasped and ruffly sat back down.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Your leg is practically broken in two, you can't stand on your own, dummy,"

"Dummy?" Peter smirked. Olivia's breath hitched and her face darkened in embarrassment.

From next to them, Raven coughed uncomfortably. "If you two wouldn't mind flirting in front of me that'd be great," She rolled her eyes and moved to sit up.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Hank rounded the corner. He immediately rushed to her aid. "I got you," He smiled softly, helping her stand. "The jet isn't far,"

"It's like we're invisible," Olivia laughed as she watched the two blue mutants walk off. "They're so in love it hurts my eyes," She chuckled and moved to help Peter up. Slowly and carefully, she did so, resuming the position of her arm around his waist and his around her shoulder. They carefully began walking to the jet, Peter hopping on his good foot.

"Thanks for saving me out there," He said softly. Olivia noticed that his cheeks turned slightly pink.

"It's not a problem," She shrugged. "Anyone would've done the same,"

"I guess," Peter shrugged as well. "But it meant a lot,"

Olivia looked up at him and smiled softly. "I'm glad I could help," They stared at each other for a moment, both realizing how close they were to each other. Their cheeks heated up as they looked away sheepishly.

"Are you two coming or what?" Jean called out, waving them down from the jet.

Olivia chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Yup! Don't leave without us!"

  Returning to the school was nice, even though it was completely destroyed. Luckily for them, Eric decided to stick around to help rebuild. The students of Xavier's stood outside of the school, watching as Jean and Eric expertly put it back together. Olivia stood next to Peter. The lightning girl, who's name she learned was Ororo Monroe, walked up behind them. "Mystique told me he is your father," She nodded towards Eric. Peter looked back at her and nodded. "Are you gonna tell him?"

Peter looked back up at Eric and sighed. "I might. One day. I think for now I'm just gonna stick around her for a while," He placed shades on his face and turned to Olivia, smirking. "They got some smoking hot teachers,"

Olivia laughed with a scoff and nudged him playfully. "Watch it, young man," She teased.

Ororo shook her head and chuckled. "Me too...but, not because Olivia is smoking hot," The three of them bursted out laughing.

Saying her goodbyes, Ororo left to talk to some other students, leaving Peter and Olivia alone once again. Peter nudged her softly. "Wanna sign my cast?" He gestured to the the cast that covered nearly his entire leg.

Olivia looked it up and down. "I don't think there's much room for me on there," She looked back up at him. "It's pretty full."

Peter smirked widely and pulled out a black sharpie. "Oh, don't worry. I saved you a spot," He turned so she could see the back of it, where  right in the middle was a giant blank space. "Go on. It's all yours,"

Placing the sharpie in her hand, Peter nodded. "How can you be sure I won't just draw a giant penis?"

He laughed loudly. "I have my faith," He lowered his voice. "But I won't mind if you did,"

Olivia rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Of course you wouldn't," Kneeling down behind him, she began her masterpiece. With some line work and shading, she drew the perfect electric guitar with her signature underneath.

Struggling to turn and see it, Peter managed a small peek at the drawing. His face broke out into a wide smile. "That's sick, Olivia!" Pulling her in, he hugged her side. "Thanks. It's perfect,"

Just like Cairo, they found themselves in close quarters once again. Olivia quickly pulled back, coughing to hide her blush. "Uh, I think I'll check on Charles and Hank. Will you be okay?"

Seemingly disappointed, Peter nodded. "Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'll catch ya later,"

"See ya," Olivia quickly scurried off and she found herself yearning to go back.

  "This is nice, Hank!" Olivia commented as she was the first to enter the new training facility. "And these suits are amazing!" She patted her new leather suit.

Hank smiled. "Thank Raven for those. She designed them,"

She quickly hugged Raven as she moved to her spot and she was followed by Scott, Jean, Peter, and Ororo. Peter sped next to her, showing off his fully healed leg. "You look great," She whispered."

"You're not to bad yourself," Peter teased back.

She didn't get to retort as Raven stepped forward. "Forget everything you think you know," Raven walked up and down the line, eyeing them up. Olivia suddenly felt very self conscious. "Whatever lessons you learned in school, whatever your parents taught you. None of that matters! You're not kids anymore. You're not students. You're X-Men." She turned to Hank, and with the press of a button, the room lights dimmed and the training session began. Olivia looked around at her team members and felt a swell of joy. After all these years, she finally had a family, one that would accept her for who she was — a mutant.

AUTHORS NOTE
ahhh not sure how I feel about the ending all to much but Apocalypse has finally come to a close! So now we get to all the fun stuff in between the ten years before Dark Phoenix! Thanks for all the current love and support on this book and I hope you enjoyed all of it!