The long marble hallways of the echoed with the sound of hard steps along them. The clicking of heels on stone betraying the only life within the huge mansion as a shadow passed along the wall. Creaking with old age and disuse a large, heavy wooden door swung open to reveal a chamber unlike anything seen outside of a ‘monster’ flick.

A flick of a switch and soft music filled the room with its sultry beat, and pale golden light spilt over the floor like fine champagne. Heavy gold and green drapes hung next to the windows like some sort of sentry flanking the pale glow of the moon as it shone down on the aged building.

Like something out of an old movie a figure moved to the window to stare out, her body wrapped in a long flowing cloak that hid the contours of flesh, the hood gathered behind her head as the silvery light mixed with gold to encircle her blood red hair streaked with silver.

“Someday,” she whispered softly turning to glance at the picture that sat upon the dresser. “Someday we will have it all.”

The soft whisper was loud within the room and she sighed as she moved to pick up the picture of a man she’d watched over for years. A man she would die for. Shaking her head she set the picture down and turned to the window.

It didn’t seem so long ago that she’d loved Charles without the distance. She’d met him when she was young, idealistic, and naive enough to think that a man could love her. He’d never known about her feelings and she’d distanced herself from him when she realized that his path lay within the light while her’s was in the dark.

So she’d left him a note saying if he needed anything to contact her and vanished from his life, leaving him to his students, his causes, and his fight. She hadn’t looked back in all these years, never let herself dwell on the upheaval that had sent her running deeper into her shadowy world. Now though she knew it was time, there was another who needed her knowledge.

Rolling her shoulders she pushed against the glass and let them fly open into the cool night air. Stepping out into the autumn winds she barely shivered at the frost that clung to the stone, barely felt the freezing temperature as she inhaled the rich aroma of life.

With a quick motion she rose into the air, her cloak floating around her with familiar ease, as much a part of her as her flesh.


Watching the soft movement of the leaves outside his window Charles wondered briefly how to reach Rogue. After the last time Logan had slipped away she’d taken to sitting for hours under the trees waiting, watching for what he wasn’t too certain.


There were nights when he was awakened by the swell of emotions within the young woman as she slept. Those nights were hard because the emotions weren’t bad, there was only love, desire, happiness, and most of all peace flowing within the young woman but still. For the flow of emotions to be so strong as to wake him? There had to be more under the surface and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Hearing a slight sound, one barely audible he turned and smiled, “Ah Seraphy I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I know that Charles,” the soft voice held genuine warmth, and something Charles had always refused to allow himself to name. “You never expect me.”

“No, I’ve never expected you,” he replied softly meeting the dark green eyes before him with a warm smile. In them he read the countless nights of being alone, the days of wanting what could never be, and the quiet acceptance that fate had other plans. Still the woman had come for some reason back into his life as easily, as suddenly as she’d stepped out of it.

“I see you found another one,” the soft query was filled with laughter and knowledge.

“Another one?” Charles replied, he hated not knowing what was being said, what was being hinted at something that happened all too often with this woman. “You speak in such riddles Seraphy.”

Chuckling the woman shook her head, “Riddles Charles? Tsk tsk, you’ve forgotten everything you learned haven’t you. So focused on your causes, on your fight that you’ve forgotten that everything has a price. Black for white, innocence for sin, life for death..”

“Death?” Charles froze in his chair as he assessed the young woman standing before him. Her long black cloak covered the floor easily, surrounding her entirely and spilling across the marble like a black wave. “You’ve come for life.”

“I’ve come for death,” the reply was soft, accepting even as the cloaked figure moved to the window. “So young, so delicate..and yet she holds the key to the lives of at least two people.”

“What do you mean Seraphy?”

“I do not think now is the time for answers Charles,” turning green eyes stared hard at him for a few seconds, “Now is the time for questions, concerns, fears. Chaos must reign for peace to ensue.”

“Riddles again?” Charles sighed, “I have never known you not to say what you mean.”

“You haven’t known me in years Charles. Not since we were very young.”

“The woman I knew was never one to mask the truth,” Charles replied softly.

A soft, patient smile crossed a face unaffected by time, “I do not mask the truth Charles. She is not an angel of life, but rather of death. Death has but one mate and that is misery and grief..”

“That’s two.”

“They are intertwined Charles. In taking one in you must take the other and yet I do not feel his presence here. Why is that?”

“He chose to leave..”

“No. She has unlocked the gates for him. He must be here, must be where they can unite.”

“Seraphy..”

“No,” swiftly the woman turned and knelt before him. “Our time is long over Charles, I have faced that. Now you must face what you do not understand, what you can not fathom. Without him she will die - she dies even as we speak. To save her, you must save him.”

Charles frowned at the soft plea from a woman who’d filled his head with dreams for years. “I can not force him..”

“You don’t see,” Seraphy rose and walked to the window her eyes darting over the scene before her. “It has always been that way. To save a life one must give a life, he has done that why do you not allow him to have his peace here?”

“She is a young girl..”

“She is ancient Charles,” Seraphy turned to face him a dark look in her eyes, “As ancient as he is. Her body is young yes, but her soul, her essence is as ageless as the wind. There is a reality that you do not understand, one you can not fathom..”

“I will not sentence her to misery to save your pride.”

With an angry snarl Seraphy whirled to face him her face twisted with rage, “It is not my pride that is at risk! I am not the one who is preventing the natural progression of events. If you gave half a damn about her you would be willing to let go.”

“She’s seventeen she needs a chance to be a child.”

“Her body is seventeen, her mind is ageless. You can not stop this. If you try you are altering events, and such things have grave consequences.”

“I am not altering anything,” Charles started only to come to a sudden stop at the flash in Seraphy’s eyes.

“Come; let us take a walk through the world you seem so determined not to acknowledge exists. The one you refuse to see when it is right in front of your face.”


“What do you mean?” Charles gaped at the woman who walked toward him with slow, steady countenance upon her.

“You sentenced me to this cloak as easily as you would sentence a criminal to death,” Seraphy whispered softly. “You turned away from the love I offered, focused on your war and forgot that I was even around. I understood that, I forgave that..” she paused for a moment. “I will not forgive this.”

Shivering at the sudden drop in temperature Charles glanced around sharply his anger stirring as he realized he was sitting in his office at the school but it was not his. The room itself was dark, cold, and impersonal not what he wanted for his students to learn in.

“What have you done?”

“Lets see if you can handle the results of your meddling old man,” Seraphy snapped sharply. “You made it clear she was a child and as such needed time to grow up. Without the reassurance of her other half, she kept to the idea that she was a child. Turn around Charles, look at her. Tell me what it is you see.”

Turning in his seat, Charles stared out the window at a lone figure standing on the lawn watching the incoming storm, her dark hair whipping in the wind. Long dark gloves covered her hands; as did the dark clothes she wore cover her body.

Her face once so alive was impassive, dead almost as she stood in the face of the wind. “She should come in.”

Come in?” Seraphy whispered. “To what? Fear? Loathing? She’s been here for six years alone Charles. Six years past the last time you ‘released’ Logan from his post by her side. She’s been made into a pariah by her peers, mocked by those who were once her friends, reviled on the team. Everything that you so love to have has become a reality. Two months ago, several of her esteemed teammates brutally attacked her,” Seraphy muttered. “And you did nothing. You let them rape and torture her because you didn’t want to see it. The only thing that came out of this that was good was the fact that she didn’t get pregnant - something she has Logan to thank for. He’s taking over her mind slowly as surely as a shadow spreads on the ground in the sun. He is the only one who is making an attempt to ease her pain, her suffering.”

“You’re lying,” Charles stared at the young woman who seemed to shake within the storm’s force.

“No, I am not,” Seraphy muttered softly, coldly. “You sentenced her to death; Logan is helping her carry out the sentence. A few more minutes, a few more pints of blood that soaks the ground around her feet and she’ll join him on the other side. You might as well have killed her. Might as well put the knife in her heart. You are the epitome of disregard.”


With the slight burring of his surroundings Charles was sitting watching the school at dinner time even as the roar of a motorcycle filled the air. Tensing slightly he turned to the loud thud of a door and stared at Logan who stalked in and glared at everyone before approaching his shadow.

“What’s going on?” Charles whispered.

“A life for a life Charles,” Seraphy whispered softly, a hint of glee in her voice. “You sentenced Rogue to death and in that sentencing you’ve angered the one you should never have angered.”

“Logan won’t..”

“He’s here for your head,” Seraphy whispered softly and shrugged before rising and turning away. “Funny isn’t it? You always believed you’d die an old man in your bed. You never once thought that your end would come at the end of six adamantium claws. Your end and the end of your entire team, because they’re all going to die tonight. Your team and those who raped her will die most painfully, slowly as he savors the scent of their fear, their agony, and their blood. And there is nothing you can do to stop it. Nothing you can do to prevent the loss..”

“This will not happen,” Charles gasped at the lacing of pain through his chest as Logan stuck him with his claws. “She wouldn’t..”

“She’s dead!” Seraphy shouted. “You killed her Charles. Just as surely as you killed me. It was your choice and you failed her.”

“But it’s not too late,” Charles shouted angrily as he was once again enswathed within his office, his gaze meeting the icy one across the room. “I can help her, ease her..”

“Find him, restore the balance old man,” Seraphy snarled angrily, “Or we will meet again and it will not be pretty. You think Eric is an opposing enemy, he has nothing on me. I can destroy you without a conscience and I will do it. I won’t allow you to sentence another to my fate, not as long as there is a breath in my body.”

“She doesn’t..”

“Do as you must,” Seraphy replied softly, tonelessly. “If you don’t, Death will come to call again old man and she is hardly pleasant. I can make your passing peaceful or I can make it painful – it’s your choice.”

“You aren’t the same woman I knew so long ago.”

With a bitter laugh Seraphy turned to stare at him, “She died when you sentenced me to these robes. I’ve become what you saw – but then that’s what you expected I guess! Remember Charles, find Logan – return him to his place by her side or watch everything you’ve ever wanted crumble into dust.”

“Do not...”

“Who’s threatening,” Seraphy whispered softly her anger falling away, leaving only a blessed emptiness. “I have no use for threats Charles, this you already know. I’ll be generous, I’ll give you three days then I shall return. For each day after the three, I will take from you one person. One member of your precious cause, until you do as I have said.”

Charles stared in shock as the woman walked away from him, her cloaks hiding the curves underneath them but he remembered only too well how she’d looked at one time. The young, slim figure of a girl that had blossomed into a young woman – knew the lightening quick reflexes that had more than once saved his life.

“What if I know where he is?” Charles whispered. “It would take him a week to return to us.”

“Then I suggest you get on that.” Seraphy replied softly. “He must be reinstalled in his proper place before the next full moon.”

Charles stared at her as she vanished like a wisp of smoke. A moment later he was reaching shakily for the phone. He would get Logan back here, and then he would release both of them from this place.

With them free he knew they’d end up in Seaphy’s company – after all she was the highest ranking of the angels…and he wouldn’t allow his team to fall prey to the fate of two.