X-Men: Red "A Simple Game of Chess" Part 2 of 4 Originally published as The Darker Side #3 : A Simple Game of Chess and as X-Writer's Saga by Chris Delaney Before I decided to do a second arc, I published this as an epilogue to the X-writers Saga. It more properly belongs here. If you have seen it before, please ignore. Note, the next post will be somewhat similar to the published X-Men #51, but will have new material. Hello. While the X-Writer's stuff that I was most prolific with was the Wolverine/X-Men issues, the stuff I was the msot proud of was my Darker Side stuff. I had originally begun this issue as a reaction to comments that I couldn't write an entire issue that wasn't filled with all sorts of massive events. So I set an entire issue around some very minor events and focused on atmosphere. So this is to give pople an idea of the other side of my X_Writer's writing. Between this and part 10 of the story, there was another issue (Cable #27) which has been omitted as it is the piece of work everyone agrees was absolutley terrible. The next positive comment on it I see, will be the first. All one has to know from that issue is that Cable tired to assassinate the Shadow King (and failed). Oh, and Genesis had put a sleeper personality in Domino back when he had captued and was torturing her. The woman who Mr. Sinister and the Shadow King discuss is Rogue and the quips about the red head suggest that not all is as wrong with Jean as we think, in my version of the story at least. Prelude I glanced across the table at the beautiful features of my opponent as she strove to counter my latest move. I admired her rich black hair and the ripe body beneath the black leather. Hellfire women always dressed as prostitutes and Selene was no exception. What was disconcerting with her was that she actually enjoyed it; as opposed to Emma would had used it or Tessa who had endured it. I sipped a glass of rich red wine. It was the colour of blood I noticed in an amused fashion. Selene missed few opportunities to make a point to me. I watched with amusement as she took my pawn with her knight; it reminded me too much of that night at the rally. Cable had come for me then, although what could have told him I was there I am still not certain. All that saved me that night was his arrogance, the treachery of his mate and his morals. In short, I was saved by plain old luck. I replaced the glass of wine; the thought had made it go sour in my mouth. I had sacrificed a pawn in a desperate game of mental effort. I had been a fool earlier and I admitted it now; much as I enjoyed the devastation of the Savage Land it had cost me too much. Made me weak and vulnerable and that was not to be tolerated. When Cable had come I had barely held the illusion against his mighty telepathy and if his little tramp hadn't turned on him... But then that wasn't entirely accidental was it? I am always amazed at how stupid my contemporaries are! Imagine Genesis thinking that crude mental hack job would hold; but now it would hold through anything. Just the beginning of my vengeance on you, Nathan Summers, just the beginning. I stared at the board considering my next move. Selene murmered and twisted opposite to me. I laughed and she looked mildly offended. Beta female to alpha male; Selene comes from an earlier age of this planet. How simple the head- blind can be. Do they understand so little about the way the mind works? Still, Selene is not an opponent to be underestimated. When I returned from the Rally of the Friends of Humanity, I was weak and exhausted and in no shape to wage a ptiched battle. She was waiting for me; a snake waiting to strike at the intruder who dared covet her territory. This was no Candra to amaze the world with her stupidity; this was Selene who had fed on the souls of men before I was even conceived. Weak as I was, she had nearly proved my match. I overcome her, but at a tremendous cost. However in the act of victory I had gained her loyalty. For as long as I remained strong that is. I watched as she slowly licked her lips with her tongue while her hand strayed across her body. Sex was one pleasure I had never been much inclined towards. My conquest of Jean Grey had been an act of violence and of domination. But this woman - she could excite me as no other ever had. Perhaps it was because we were so much alike. I moved a bishop across the board and Selene's knight fell. I remembered the second part of my vengeance on Cable. The mad dash to contact Gyrich as a respected Democratic Senator. He couldn't overlook the possibility of bipartisan support for his projects and so he had seen me on short notice. So glad that Senator Henry of North Dakota was willing to discuss sentinels with him. He was mine before he even knew it; a slave of the Shadow King. Poor weak little human, he was no match for ME. I ordered the infection of Cable with his soul-brothers Legacy (all three versions just to be sure) as it suited my sense of irony. Then he had vanished. But I was confident. Cable had better learn to come back from the dead because no possibility of a cure existed given his previous infection. I smiled. I glanced at the picture of Senator John Picard. He had been a weak man who had been swayed into my camp by fear and uncertainty. His right wing constituency was heavily influenced by the Friends of Humanity and he felt he had to appease them by making an appearance. A weak man and one easily sacrificed to prevent MY death. Stupid Cable, in his weakness he had killed a man who might have supported him eventually, a good man who was too weak to do what he thought was right. Selene moved her king forward one space. Hemmed in by her own pieces the White King is in more danger from her own pieces than from mine. I laugh, our kings are in opposition, just like you and me Charles Xavier, you and me. The problem is that you never understood the rules of the game and that is why I must always triumph. You can beat me a thousand times Xavier, but so long as darkness resides in the human soul I will be there. Oh, I can be killed or banished, but your own weakness robs you of the decisive edge needed to strike for the kill. Or the raw power. I remember Phoenix and the fear as I faced her power unbound at last. I had just killed Erik Lensherr and make no mistake he was dead. A piece of meat with no soul inside: his mind banished to where the head-blind go when they die. I had always thought it would be oblivion but Phoenix had reached across a barrier I could never conceive of breaching and brought Magneto back. Then she had incinerated my body with a blast of telekinetic fury. Had she used her telepathy it is not certain that I would be alive today. The red haired witch; I would make her pay the ultimate price for her defiance. But I was patient and now was not the time. I could wait. I move a pawn forward. One more move and this lowly pawn will be a Queen. Selene reacts like lightening, moving a rook to threaten my Queen. I laugh. Too late little Black Queen. I move my knight and it is over. "Checkmate." I observe. "I see milord... it appears you have proven too much for me." she replies coyly. I almost laugh to see her play the innocent. She reaches across and touches me and it is like an electric spark between us. Our lips meet and I crush her to me. I am hungry and it is time to sate my hunger. Main I had almost refused the invitation to the club. It was rare that I interacted with these degenerates. Shaw had some spine but lacked the vision to see beyond sheets of numbers to the more complicated patterns around him. He had been the best of the lot. Even the doomed crusader Magneto had cared too much about those he would dominate to be of any real use in my schemes. But this invitation had come from a Senator who had mysteriously survived a shooting that had felled Cable. Sources inside the government painted a disturbing picture; as if he had been the target but had been ignored for some strange reason. A celebrity overnight, was it true he had arranged for Cable to be destroyed? Unlikely, and yet some things could only be explained if he had... No matter. I had destroyed a Senator who had tried to use a mutant power to manipulate before. Impersonated him before all of the Senate and made him into the evil mutant he was warning others about. And when the worm had lacked the spine to take his own life... well let's just say ricochet is a killer. I smiled as I entered the building. I wore the outward appearance of Val Cooper's ex- husband, a tall and impeccably dressed black man. I had worn it for many years as her spouse. A fine woman, it was a shame I had to leave her behind but ambition called and she would have begun to suspect sooner or later. I handed my invitation to a scantily clad waitress and watched as she grew pale. She led me through the crowd below, degenerates playing at evil, to the chambers above. I walked into a dimly lit room and assumed my true form. I saw a handsome fellow on a chair with a raven-tressed woman at his feet. How medieval. This sort of ruffian would be easy to manipulate... my mind raced as I thought of possible schemes that I could use this little toy for. Then I recognised the woman... and I screamed. I was almost fast enough to escape line of sight. He hammered through my mental defences like a hot, blazing knife through butter. I sought to generated an energy blast to finish him off but he continued his ceaseless assault; depriving me of my ability to respond. I had thought nobody was capable of this... but to have tamed Selene... Only once before had I been this helpless, as En Sabah Nuhr had moulded me into the man I now was. But that had been a birth, a coming of age and the acceptance of power. This was a breaking; a humbling. I resisted but it was futile. If only I had brought a psi-screen with me, but I hadn't and so was helpless before him. I saw amusement flicker across the face of the man. Damn him. Damn him to hell. I fell to my knees against my will. "It is a sad day when you are one of the great master- minds we have to fear Sinister. How long ago was it that you couldn't even get a skin sample from Scott Summers?" He laughed, mocking me. I struggle but it is useless. He is just too strong. "I...know...your...name..." "I don't doubt it. But that is not why I summoned you here. If I had wanted to look at incompetents I would have Candra around as a trophy. What a waste... beautiful body, immortality, powerful TK and the mind of a retarded gerbil. Ah well, life has it's little disappointments. If I were you I would be praying that you are not one as well!" He sipped at a glass filled with a deep red liquid. "It is too bad I don't care to release you. You are missing a most exquisite wine." He smiled and caressed Selene. This was different than his normal pattern. This was something I could use... "I don't think so my good Essex. So, be a good boy and behave yourself and you will still have a mind left when you leave. Otherwise... well, let's say I can extract anything I want. It is just a matter of how much pain you want to endure in the process." "What... do... you... want..." I mutter. "What are you planning for the X-Men?" "Nothing... I swear it... I mean... AAIIIIEEEEEE!" "Wrong answer. Don't lie to me, Sinister, I don't like it." I begin to talk, the truth spilling out as I babbled to him of genetic potential and the need to cultivate the Summers line. Of plans and schemes and traitors and of a betrayal most foul. Then he stopped me, the bored expression leaving his face. "What do you plan to do with her afterwards?" My mind races. What could he possibly want with her? "Her Kree physiology makes any attempt to control her problematic and couple that with her power..." "I know this. What are you doing with her after you finish the analysis?" "Blowing her head off and dropping her body in a ditch somewhere was the plan." I admit. "Nonsense. What a waste. What do you think Selene? Should we prevent this waste of genetic resources? Do we have need of a new convert?" "The girl can be useful. Her mind is weak and her unusual make-up will prove no barrier to your power, my love. I say we take her and make her ours." She smiles and I am reminded of a venomous snake curled up around a branch. I shudder at the comparison, a sign of how badly this mental assault has affected me. "So be it." He pierces my shields once again and roams around while I am helpless. Who could ever have dreamed a telepath could ever be this powerful. I fight him but it is hope- less... - - - - - - - - I stare at the grey buildings on the busy street and strive to recall why I am here. This is most disconcerting to suddenly forget... no, wait I remember. It is time to pay a visit to an old associate. How silly of me I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. For a second a foreboding feeling strikes me. As if I am being watched combined with the trace of a just forgotten notion. It is nothing and I dismiss it. I mock myself. It is my own vanity that gets me into trouble. Sometimes, even after all these years or perhaps because of them, I forget I am only human. I remember a weak man named Paris Bennet who had once trusted me and the price he had paid for not paying attention. For his own vanity in his need for an ideological successor. I must be careful, I am playing for the highest stakes possible and there are no second chances. I walk down the street contemplating my plans for a certain X-woman. I have delayed them too long and I have decided to enact them now. Curious that I would think of this now given why I am here but I guess sometimes things just work out well. But a little voice somewhere whispers that there are no coincidences. I shiver despite the heat. I thought it would never happen. That I would never have a tool this powerful just deliver itself into my hands. The poor Shadow King, like most men he figured a woman's mind goes to mush when romance beckons. Fool! He has worn the shape of a woman and he should know better. But no matter. He is mine and that is all that matters. Epilogue I watch Essex as he fades into the distance. This is where I am most comfortable, in the shadows and pulling the strings. What a stroke of luck that Mr. Sinister was gullible enough to come here thinking he could use me. I planted just enough to tease and tantalise, to reel him into me. To where he couldn't resist. Now he departs not even remembering that he fell at my hands. I smile and laugh at the irony of it all; the schemer trapped inside another schemes. I hear Selene behind me and I smile again. I never realised it could be like this before. Never understood all those foolish cattle and their silly panderings to each other. But this woman, she puts my blood on fire. I think of her and I suddenly want to be with her again with all my soul. But I put the feeling aside to watch the dying of the day and the coming of the night. My night. I watch as the sky turns blood red and the light of day falls before the pervading shadows. Blood red slowly fades into grey twilight and then pitch black emerges. The blackness of my soul, of my dream unleashed on the world. There is a world out there, rich in pain and anguish. Filled with those who are weak and helpless and cannot defend themselves. The cattle roam, not realising the wolf is already among them. And I am hungry. Chris Delaney Department of Mathematics- Lakehead University "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" - I. Asimov