Part Six:  The Rolling of the Dice

     "Selene?" Magneto was startled by the Red Queen's appearance
in his study, to say the very least.  Somehow, she had managed to
elude Cerebro's scanners, and gotten into the very heart of
Xavier's mansion itself.  Besides that, it was almost dawn, too
late for any visitors.
     "Oh, Magnus," she shuddered, her raven hair falling into her
smoldering eyes.  "Something terrible has happened."
     "What's wrong?" he asked the beautiful woman in red leather. 
Magneto offered her a chair, and a cup of tea.  Selene accepted,
gratefully.  "What has happened?"
     The master of magnetism had a rather strained relationship
with the seductive sorceress.  He trusted that Emma Frost and her
Hellions would keep away from his pupils, the New Mutants, but he
was not as certain of Selene.  Magneto had understood the
necessity of erasing Wolverine's mind last year, as had Charles
before he departed for unknown worlds,  But for the moment,
Magneto was in charge of the X-Men and the New Mutants, and he
didn't trust Selene.
     "The entire London Chapter," Selene's voice bordered on
tears.  "I returned from a shopping trip two days ago, and they
were all dead.  The Court, Lords Cardinal, the servants, all of
them, just dead."
     "WHAT?" Magneto exploded.  Certainly, he had never been
close with Selene, but the Hellfire Club was the closest thing
she had to a family, and he knew full well what it was like to
lose a family.  "Have you contacted Shaw or Frost?"
     "I can't reach them!" She wailed.  "I feared the worst for
them as well, so I came to you.  If the Black King is dead, you
are the leader of the Club until we select a new one."
     "I will find who did this, Selene," Magneto told her,
standing before her.  She rose and embraced him, her head buried
in his shoulder.  She was shaking uncontrollably, and Magneto
thought that she was weeping.
     He felt strange, as if he was weakening.  He tried to pull
away, but Selene's grip tightened.  She was draining his life
essence.  Desperately, he tried to create a force field around
himself, but could not.
     Magneto screamed.  The door to his study burst open,
revealing Storm, Rogue and Wolvesbane.  Ororo raised her hand,
showering the psychic vampire with electric blue lightning. 
Selene screamed, falling backwards.
     "Ya ain't getting out'a here, Queenie" Rogue drawled.  "Not
after what y'all pulled tonight!"
     "What?" Magneto struggled to rise.
     "She killed 'em" Rahne growled, her lupine form interfering
with her speech.  "Doug, Sam, Alex, she got the bloomin' lot of
'em!"
     "And you would have been next," Selene hissed.  "Don't get
your hopes up, X-Men, X-Bitch," Selene laughed.  "Magneto
wouldn't have submitted to the new Hellfire Club, so he had to be
eliminated.  This is just going to prolong your suffering.  I
could have taken you all painlessly tonight, but you didn't
cooperate.  You, the Avengers, The Fantastic Four, the Inhumans,
Eternals, you're all going to be destroyed.  The goddess is
coming.  Remember Magnus, how you failed your students, how you
failed Xavier, when your body is crucified in the streets of new
york."
     Rogue launched into the air, but Selene vanished.   
     "Emmm...." Magneto collapsed.
     "You two, keep him under constant guard," Storm said, "and
I'll gather the others in the War Room.  She is too dangerous for
any of us to be alone with her running around the school.  She's
already taken three of our number, and nearly four."

     "What are you talking about?" Sebastian Shaw demanded of his
only son.  Shinobi, dressed quite casually for this meeting with
his father, was smiling conceitedly as he told his father some
new aged nonsense about predicting the future.
     "I'm talking about the Hellfire Club," The younger Shaw
smiled.  "Where we've been, and, more importantly, where the gods
will take us."
     "You've found religion," Shaw snorted.  "What brought this
about?"
     "I didn't find them," Shinobi smiled wickedly.  "They found
me."  He advanced on his father.
     "And what did they tell you to do?" Shaw sneered as he
poured a drink.  His back was to his child, a mistake, but he
didn't have anyone around him to point that out.
     "They told me that the old era of the Club is over," Shinobi
smiled.  "They told me that its time for a new black king."
     Shaw whirled around, but it was too late.  His son was
within arm's reach.  He reached out for his father.  Shinobi
activated his mutant power, becoming intangible, and reached into
Sebastian's chest.
     "NO!" the older man choked.  Shinobi's hand was solidifying
inside of him, directly in his heart.  He reached out to claw his
son, but found his own hands passing right through the usurper.
     Sebastian Shaw lay on the floor, trying vainly to get his
heart to start beating again, choking and sputtering while his
only progeny watched in glee.  He knew that the boy wouldn't get
away with it.  Emma would know.  She'd peel his soul like a piece
of fruit when she met him.  Or Jean!  Jean could sense the
treachery and relieve him of his life without even trying. 
Selene would drain the life energy out of him.  No, Shinobi would
not go unpunished.
     "Are you finished yet?" Selene entered the room.  Shaw
stared at her with his last few seconds of life.  Not the Red
Queen, she couldn't be a part of this.  The last thing Sebastian
Shaw saw in life was his son in the red queen's arms, kissing her
passionately.  She was a part of this.

     Elisabeth didn't like to be alone on sunny days, but this
was pleasurable to the fate of the other members of the club. 
Poisoned, dumped into the prison of the Hellfire Club's dungeon,
her powers chained by an inhibitor collar, Psylocke definitely
didn't want any company.
     How could Brian have done this?  She had been spared, but
she felt the deaths of the Black King and Queen.  Amanda Sefton
hadn't stood a chance, her magick useless without her will to
focus it.  Dazed by the poison in her food, Psylocke had watched
the black queen mercilessly shot by a Hellfire Mercenary.  Brian
had entered the room then, and his sister had appealed for help. 
But he denied her request, choosing instead to eliminate Marcus,
the Black King, himself.  One quick rap across the skull with
Brian's superior strength and the wizard had fallen, his neck
snapped.
     Psylocke shuddered.  
     "Ya got yerself sum company, 'Sir Betsy,'" the Irish guard's
brogue came through the cell door.
     "If I weren't wearing this damnable collar..."she
threatened.
     "Right," the guard was not impressed.  The door opened, and
two other figures were tossed into the cell with her.  Blonde
women.
     "Courtney!" Elisabeth recognized the first.  "Meggan!" 
Brian had betrayed not only his sister, his king, and his queen,
but his wife and his lover as well.  
     "Don't worry, Bets," came a new voice.  Psylocke looked up
from the unconscious women. Her eldest brother was looking into
the cell.
     "Why Jamie?" She begged.  "Why have you done this?"
     "Because we could, luv," He smiled.  "We knew that you
genteel ladies wouldn't have anything to do with what happens
next, and you might even try to stop it, so we decided to let you
sit it out."
     Psylocke screamed, throwing herself against the door to the
cell in a vain attempt to open it and rip her brother apart. 
Jamie prudently stepped back, but the look on his face told Betsy
that her outburst wouldn't go unpunished.
     "AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH" She screamed as his power began to
work its evil on her.  Elizabeth swelled, her body beginning to
resemble a potato.  She writhed as her clothes were torn, her
organs seemed to be fighting to break through her skin as her
bones turned to jelly.
     "Don't try that again," Jamie snickered at her, and then
turned and walked away.  His sister's body returned to normal,
but pain still creaked through every inch of her being.
     Psylocke lay on the floor weeping for some time.  Then she
realized something.  Jamie's little punishment had caused her
unimaginable pain, but she'd visit it on him, and Brian, ten
fold.  Jamie's manipulation of her body had broken the inhibitor. 
She snuggled up against a wall, waiting for Courtney and Meggan
to awaken.  Oh yes, how she'd revisit the torment on her
betrayers.  She'd avenge Amanda and Marcus, and she'd be fully
supported by Selene, Phoenix, Shaw, Emma, Warren, Firestar,
Kitty, Dazzler, Magneto, Shinobi, The Hellions, Night Thrasher,
Tarot, Warpath, indeed the entire inner circle.  The Black and
White Rooks would fall mercilessly to the White Knight.  She
smiled.

Daniel Thomas

"...But I do not enjoy the killing...I AM NOT VIOLENT!! And I will put an
arrow through the brains of
anyone who says I am!!!"-Artemis (Artemis Requiem #4-DC)