Subject: [OTL]: The Chosen Ones [9/12]
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 11:17:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: D Benway <d_benway@yahoo.com>

The Chosen Ones: Part 9 of 12
The Burial of The Dead
Benway did this.

*******************************************************************

This story is not intended for children of any age. It contains
descriptions of human behaviour which many might find distressing.
You have been warned.

The characters belong to Marvel. The story is my own, and copyright
to me. Many thanks for the editorial assistance of Luba K
and Tina S. Other stories are archived at the website of Luba.

********************************************************************

She accompanied the person that she once considered the only person
in the world worth saving into the meeting room. It was a generic,
lifeless sort of place, outfitted by those who thought that the
possession of power could be signified by the appropriate choice of
wallpaper. There was a lot of dead flesh in the room, but it had
been excessively processed and she was disappointed that they had
not left the faces on when they tanned it. She always did.

She could have stayed behind, in Limbo, and perhaps she should have.
She didn't like being here any more. It was a dull, washed out
place, where she could demonstrate very little of the power that she
possessed. The only reason that she came was because she knew that
this was going to be fun.

They were all there of course, from both groups. Amara, Roberto,
and Manuel, sitting in a group at the other end. Jenny, Haroun, and
Marie-Ange on one side of the table, Sam, Dani, and Rahne on the
other. Sam looked unwell, and Haroun kept turning around to stare at
the door. She kept her face frozen in a neutral state, but the urge
to giggle was almost too hard to resist.

As Kitty closed the door behind her, the unasked question flitted
across all of their faces.

"I have news, " Kitty said quietly. "We will soon be free."

Eyes widened. Manuel looked panicked.

"What have you done, Katherine?" asked Amara.

"The leadership of the Hellfire Club has been removed. Emma Frost
now runs this school independently of the club. She has agreed to
work with us in converting this school into a haven like
Westchester. You will be free to come and go as you please."

"Removed?" asked Jenny.

"Sam, what did you do?" asked Roberto. Sam shrugged, and loosened
his tie.

"Where is Douglas?" asked Haroun.

Kitty drew in a deep breath. Silence.

"Doug died in the fight for your freedom."

Silence. For a fraction of second, no one moved. Then, Haroun sagged
forward and slipped off his chair onto the floor. Jenny screamed.
Rahne collapsed against Dani, burying her face in her hands.

"Sam, for fuck's sake, what did you do?" yelled Roberto.

It was hilarious, but somewhere deep inside, something was making
her uneasy. She dug her nails into her palms, to keep the laughter
under control. Marie-Ange was kneeling beside Haroun, almost out of
sight under the table. Small sounds of pain were coming from there.
As a connoisseur, she knew very well how hard it was to obtain pain
of such quality under controlled circumstances.

"We planned to turn Frost," said Sam, quietly. "To play her against
Shaw."

"How far did you take it, Samuel?" asked Amara, sternly. She turned
to Kitty. "How many of them are dead?"

"Shaw is dead," said Kitty. Jenny shrieked again, then stood up an
pointed at Kitty, pointing, sobbing, pointing. A small smile escaped
her lips.

"You killed my Daddy," howled Jenny.

It wasn't true, of course, only a rationalization, and a fairly
twisted one at that. Kitty had told her it wasn't true, since Shaw
had been sterile for years.

"Jennifer, he was not your father," said Kitty coldly. "He was going
to kill one of us. He wanted Rahne or Sam dead as a way of breaking
down our group. He was going to have us fight until there was a
death. We would be doing that right _now_ if he wasn't dead."

"I would have died in place of Doug," said Rahne quietly.

"Who else?" asked Amara.

"Selene is dead," stated Kitty. "Pierce is disabled. Tessa is dead.
Leland is on our side. He's in New York arranging for Emma to take
control of the club."

Roberto and Amara exchanged a worried look. It was very brief, and
she didn't think anyone else had seen it.

"How did Doug die?" asked Dani.

"Shaw broke his neck. We were baiting Shaw, in the conservatory, so
that the dampers would prevent Tessa from using her power to protect
him from Emma. Emma got into him from outside, and was reading him,
but not fast enough. Shaw found out about our plan, and tried to
kill both of us. He was very strong. I could resist, Doug could not.
I did everything I could to save him. We have justice for Angelica."

"Justice be damned," snarled Dani. "She's still fucked up and now
we've got blood on our hands."

"Justice," snapped Kitty. "The only justice Doug and Anjelica
would ever get."

"There is no blood on your hands Danielle," said Amara. "It is all
on the hands of Katherine, Frost, and perhaps Illyana. I would
assume that she destroyed Selene."

She looked at the Roman, who was sitting erect and glaring at both
of them. She wondered how erect and indignant Amara would look after
she had had her arms chewed off. Or perhaps the legs. It was
difficult to know where to start. It differed for every individual.

"We take responsibility for our actions," said Kitty. "They have
left you free."

"Shut up," said Rahne. "Just quiet yourselves. Where is Doug's
body?"

"It's on its way to his parents. We cremated him last night. Emma has
numbed his parents' grief, so they will not interfere. It's
best this way."

Rahne didn't respond. Her mouth worked, and she made small animal
sounds.

"Numbed?" asked Dani.

"She told me that she can make it so they don't remember, when
remembering brings too much pain," said Kitty.

"That is so, so, _wrong_," said Marie-Ange. "You can't sweep this
all away. Will you take him from us, too? For our own good? You're
his real killer, if he won't even live on in memory."

"This is a _war_," snarled Kitty. "People die in wars. We have won a
victory, at a cost. We can mourn Doug later, as can his parents.
Now, we must consolidate our gains and maintain our independence."

"From who?" muttered Dani.

"Are those your words?" asked Manuel. "They sound very much like
Miss Frost's."

"Why couldn't you have let us seen the body?" said Rahne.

It was so funny that she couldn't hold it in any longer. She started
to laugh, giggling, then shaking so hard that it hurt. She was
blinded by tears, and she was surprised by the blow that knocked her
to the floor.

Nobody did that. Ever.

The others were going to see what happened to anyone stupid enough
to hit her.

She began reciting the death spell as she turned towards her
attacker. Dani stood before, her shaking, crying, eyes filled with
pain.

"How could you?" said Dani.

She choked off the rest of the spell and took herself to Limbo.
There she bathed in fire, burning her skin away and renewing it,
over and over. It was very soothing.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The tiny rolls of tape were annoying. It was impossible to pull the
stuff off the rolls, but he had to in order to make up the boxes. He
had made ten so far, and had at least ten more to go. He found it
hard to imagine that the things from a single life could take up so
much space.

They were in Doug's room, packing. Roberto and Amara had disappeared
after the meeting, presumably seeking help from their masters,
whoever they were. He hoped that Kitty would just let them go. She
was at the computer, back to them all, making copies off of Doug's
hard disc. Dani, Rahne and Marie-Ange were on the other side of the
room, packing books into boxes. He didn't like Marie-Ange being
there, but Dani and Rahne had insisted and Kitty had suggested that
it would be a good idea for them all to pitch in. Dani and Rahne
were still very upset but he had been able to talk to them after the
meeting had broken up. Dani was beside herself over Illyana. Yana
seemed to be losing her mind, but Kitty didn't seem to notice. At
least they hadn't had to face Frost yet. According to Kitty, Frost
was locked away with lawyers in her house.

He finished the last box, and went over to Kitty.

"Holding up?", he asked quietly. The other three had been discussing
something in the background, but now they all went quiet.

"Yeah. Just cleaning up the disc. They're going to ship it back to
his parents. Don't think they even know how to turn it on, but I
don't think they'd want to see some of the things on here."

She turned back to the keyboard, and continued typing. He didn't
know what to make of her. Was she grieving? Had she gone back to her
room and prayed for Doug's soul, like he had? Or was that even
something that Jews did? He wasn't sure, but he had included prayers
for her and Illyana too. They needed all the help they could get.

He set to work on the dresser. The first drawer was filled with
socks and underwear. Mundane things, unless you knew that there
owner was dead. He stood staring at the contents, until someone came
to the door and the talking stopped again.

"I want to help," said Haroun.

He turned back to the drawer, and started emptying its contents into
the box. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Haroun shuffle in,
uncertainly. He could hear Kitty at the keyboard. She was striking
the keys very, very hard. Haroun stopped and stared at her.

"Is there something I can do?"

"Haroun, this is not a good-" Marie-Ange began quietly.

"You had better leave," said Dani. "Now."

"But I-"

"Get the _fuck_ out of here you little prick," snarled Kitty.
"You're finished here. Understand?"

Her eyes blazed. Haroun made a small sound, then turned and ran.

"That was cruel," said Marie-Ange.

"You're a fine one to talk," said Kitty.  "Did you try to stop him
from hurting Doug?"

"He was in love," said Marie-Ange.

"That Arab faggot was a predator, nothing more, nothing less," said
Kitty.

"You know nothing," hissed Marie-Ange. "Doug led him on, played with
him, broke his heart."

Kitty turned to her, saying nothing. Marie-Ange backed up a step and
almost fell over a box of baseball cards.

"It's true," said Marie-Ange weakly, then turned and fled from the
room.

"Fucking good riddance," muttered Kitty.

Rahne shot her a nasty glare and then left, followed by Dani.
Something was up here. He lit out after them, and caught them at the
top of the stairs.

"Dani, what is this?"

"She had a crush on Doug," said Dani.

"She was too afraid to tell him, " said Rahne. "It broke her heart
when Haroun fell for him, but she told me that it made Haroun so
happy that she forgave him."

"You're close to her," said Sam.

"Who the hell else was there?" said Dani. "You weren't."

They turned and continued down to the Hellion's floor. He went back
to Doug's room. Only Kitty was left in there now, and she wasn't at
the computer. Instead, she was standing with her back to the door,
holding something up to her face. One of Doug's shirts, from the
laundry basket. He cleared his throat. She turned, her face a
picture of pure terror. She fled past him, down towards her room,
still clutching the t-shirt. He stood there for a moment, then went
over to her door and knocked. No response. He knocked again.

"Kitty, it's me, Sam."

No response.

"Kitty, it's-"

The door opened. Kitty was standing there with red, very cold eyes.

"Let's finish this. We don't need them."

He followed her back to Doug's room. They finished it, alone.

********************************************************************

She knocked before entering Emma's study, since there were outsiders
there. She had composed herself since the battles of the morning,
and there wouldn't be a repeat episode of any unseemly emotion. She
would see to it that there wasn't.

"Come," said Emma.

She entered. Two men in suits were sitting in front of Emma's desk.
The older one looked at Emma quizzically. The younger one ignored
her.

"Miss Frost, this is most important matter-"

"Shut up George. Katherine, this is George Binnie, my attorney. That
is his assistant, Donald Roberts."

The younger one nodded, but continued staring at his laptop. There
was a nasty edge to Emma's voice.

"This is my protege, Katherine Pryde. She is a party to all of this,
and is here to listen to what you have to say to me."

The older man frowned at her, then turned back to his folder.

"As I was saying, Miss Frost, the matter is not at all clear. We
have not been able to contact Mr. Leland or his representatives at
this time, and so the status of these liens cannot be established."

"So just what is my position?" asked Emma.

"At the moment, I cannot say that you have clear title to anything."

"Anything?" she said, quietly.

"Listen," said Emma, tonelessly.

"Miss Frost, the situation is hardly that dire," said Binnie. "Title
cannot be established now, but once the SEC finishes going over the
corporate files in detail-"

"SEC?" said Emma. "What do they have to do with it?"

"They are investigating the matter on behalf of you and all of the
other shareholders of Frost Industries. Once the investigation-"

"There is to be no investigation."

"It is not a question of what you want, Miss Frost. The SEC is bound
to investigate fraud on this scale. An announcement of the
investigation has already been sent to the wire services, and will
be on the front page of The Globe tomorrow."

"Stop it!" screamed Emma. "Do anything you have to. Just stop it."

"Miss Frost, many years ago when I advised your father, I warned him
not to enter into any deals with Mr. Shaw or with the Club. I gave
you the same advice upon the death of your father. As he did, you
have kept your relations with club in a distinct sphere from your
relations with our firm. I only wish that you had kept the business
away from them, as well."

"It was a minor loan," said Emma. "Seven million."

"You signed the documents in the presence of Mr. Shaw's counsel. We
could have advised you of the consequences. Every asset you possess
has been pledged as collateral for loans that will never be repaid.
I have no idea what he did with your money, and I suspect that you
should not tell me."

"There must be some arrangements that I can make. Some private
arrangements."

"Emma, fraud on this scale cannot be covered up. My partner
Mr. Walcott is on his way to Washington at this very moment to
address the Senate finance committee and the Chief of the Federal
Reserve Bank. The effect on global markets is expected to be
significant. I would suggest that you contact Mr. Leland and attempt
to sort out-"

The lawyer stopped, put a hand to his head, then sat down in his
chair quickly.

"Emma, stop it!" she said.

"You really are telling the truth," said Emma, quietly.

"Yes, Miss Frost," said Binnie, mopping his brow with a handkerchief.
"I suffer from migraines, They don't usually come on
this quickly."

"Get out," said Emma.

"Very well, Miss Frost," said Binnie. "I will be in touch as soon as
we hear from Mr. Leland."

The two lawyers tidied up their papers and left the room.

"Emma, what the fuck was all that about?"

Emma was slumped in her chair, staring at some point far behind her.

"Sebastian fucked us over. I made him a loan. Harry set up the
documents. We were supposed to keep the club business separate from
the businesses. That was the deal. Leland mortgaged everything that
Pierce and I own to finance the club's activities. Now, it seems,
the government is coming to my aid. At least until they find out how
we spent it."

"What about all the money from the drugs and the smuggling? You have
to have it all hidden away somewhere."

"Leland handled all of that. I know of some places, but it's
difficult to hide that much money."

"Emma, Fortune says you're worth 4 billion dollars. You must be able
to get to some of it."

"Kitty, right now, technically, I'm worth whatever is in the petty
cash accounts. About 2 million maybe,  12 million before the party
last night. I might not even have that if the government lawyers are
on the ball."

"Do you have to go through Leland?"

"Yes. No-one will act unless they hear from him. He's taken on
Shaw's mantle of power, before I could. Apparently he's gone to
great lengths to present himself as an unwilling accomplice."

"Could you force someone to give us enough cash to fight back?"

"I thought you wanted everything lily white and pure."

"We can be, once we're free of this."

Emma smiled. It chilled her.

"The accountants will be all over us on Monday. I could force it out
of someone, but the lack of a paper trail would raise suspicions. We
need someone in the club who holds cash that I have title to, but
doesn't have good security."

"Is there anyone?"

"There is a banker in Switzerland that we could lean on. He's the
only weak link in Leland's network."

"What happens if we don't lean on him?"

"No money, no school, I go to jail, the government takes you off to
a camp somewhere."

"Do it."

"It may not work."

"We're damned if we don't. Do it. Lean on him. Get enough to hide
your tracks and keep the school going. You could come out as the
hero in all this."

She wondered if Emma could see how much she was sweating. She had
gone over half the records in Emma's database with Doug, but there
had been no sign of this.

"It wasn't in the datafiles. We only kept that on paper."

Which explained why she hadn't seen it.

"How are the kids holding out?" asked Emma.

She suddenly felt a headache coming on. Something that she had just
thought of-

"Kitty?"

"I'm alright. Just a bit tired, that's all. They're not taking it
well. Everyone's pissed because there was no funeral. They wanted to
see the body. Haroun's on everyone's shit list. Yana's losing it. We
have to get her some help, and soon. It took a lot out of her
killing Selene."

"Then go to her. Spend some time with her. Perhaps that will help."

It was a splendid idea. She turned and left the room. She was
halfway down the porch steps when she saw the lawyers getting into a
black Jaguar. One of the lawyers was taking a pill, because he had a
headache. He had a headache, because Emma had fucked with his mind.
She had a headache. She hadn't said anything about the substance of
her computer searches of any sort to Emma, ever. Frost could read
her mind. She turned and ran back into the house.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

She remained where she had been, slumped in the chair. Stupid for
having trusted Shaw. Stupid for having trusted Leland. Stupid for
having almost let Kitty know she could read her mind. So damn close,
and yet-

There was something against her throat, cold and metallic. She fired
off a mindblast that would have destroyed any unshielded mind within
10 feet of her. She cut it back as she felt it ricochet off Kitty's
barriers, now almost intact. It was almost too late. The blast
knocked her off the chair onto the floor. She probed for Kitty's
mind, but the barrier was back in place. Through the few cracks in
it, she could sense something burning as brightly as the sun. Kitty
kicked her, twice. She looked up at the little girl, who was holding
a decorative knife in a very lethal throwing grip, aimed at her
heart. She could barely move.

"How long?" growled Kitty.

"Since that psi came after you. Rachel." It would have been fatal to
lie. She knew it.

"Did you know that Shaw knew about our plot?"

"Yes. Shaw knew some of it."

"Through Tessa?"

"Yes. She could read you and Douglas."

"Why did you let him die?"

"I was reading Shaw. I couldn't believe what I found there. I became
angry. I smashed things up. When I got back in his head, he had
already attacked Doug and I did all I could to stop him. I couldn't
hit both of them at once, and I knew you could handle her."

"Can you read my mind now?"

"No. But I don't have to."

"I don't care if you can or not. Your life is mine. If you try to
get away, Cordelia ends up in a whorehouse in Thailand. Doug and I
found the convent and the places where you get the girls for those
parties in New York."

She looked up the face of a killer. Pain exploded in her back. Kitty
had kicked her expertly in the kidney.

"That was for Doug. You wanted an advantage, and it cost Doug his
life. I will never forgive you for that, ever."

Kitty twisted and threw the knife. It struck a mahogany armoire and
lodged there, quivering.

"You try to kill me, you try to do anything, Illyana comes after
you. You can watch what she does to Cordelia before she does it to
you."

"I won't try to get away,"

It was true. She didn't expect Kitty to believe it.

"Whatever."

The girl turned and left. She continued to lie on the floor,
weeping, for some time.

[Next: Newton III]

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