Author's Note:  This is basically my attempt to try and puzzle out how and why certain characters ended up where they did in the future, as seen in Xavier's visions in the last episode.  What could have prompted Magneto to have joined the X-Men isn't something I touch on too in-depth here, but it is alluded to briefly.  This is more about Lance and how he wound up working for Shield even after the events of seasons three and four, particularly. I always found him to be a character with a lot of potential for interesting internal conflict and a lot of personal growth.  Same for Kitty, really, but Lance tends to get overlooked a lot more.  I also wanted to touch on their relationship again, as I always really liked it in the show and wondered how things might turn out in the future.  For people who might be interested, I listened to a lot of Elliot Smith (<i>Between The Bars</i>, <i>Say Yes</i>, and <i>Miss Misery</i>, most notably) and the Pillows while writing this.  The title and lyrics I used are from a song of theirs, <i>One Life</i>.  There are a few references to stuff that didn't happen in the show, since it's been several years since the last episode and these events are pretty heavily involved in most of the decisions these characters have made so far.  I mostly just allude to them, though, as an in-depth analysis would be rather distracting from the main thrust of the story.  Maybe I'll get around to writing her story as I envision it, but I wouldn't hold your breath.  This is really long now and if I have to explain any more, I'm afraid I'll have totally failed in the actual writing of the story.