Chapter 14: Fiddly Bits part 2

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Kitty hugged her favorite teacher again, sad that she was moving out soon but also happy for her that things between her and Harry were going so awesome. Ororo was her role model in many ways especially after she no longer had to control her emotions and Kitty knew she was going to miss the older woman terribly. But she wasn't about to stand between Ororo and her personal happiness.

"Before that I think that Jean should share her own future plans with you all." Charles interjected. Charles hoped that the other teens would convince her to stay, but held no real hope for that. He was more concerned that she give them warning about her imminent departure, allowing them time to get used to the idea.

In this he underestimated the distance that had begun to grow between Jean and her fellow teammates. She hadn't been around regularly for a while, and even before that, she didn't participate in many of the team bonding times. While her friendships with them were still solid, they had all deduced on their own that Jean was moving on. Even the old Scott hadn't been dense enough to miss it, though he would never have taken it as calmly as the newer, more mature Scott.

Jean shrugged. "Alright, so it's like this. Harry and I have figured out several engineering projects, and with Harry ready to start putting out his potions and from there moving into other markets, he's offered me a job. I've accepted, and I'm moving in with him and Ororo at his safehouse." The X-men knew about what had happened at Hogwarts, but not where it was or its name, and without Harry doing the telling Jean wasn't prepared to blab about that secret.

The teens were all silent for a moment exchanging glances but then Scott shrugged. "I've known for a while you wanted to move out and stretch your wings a bit, so that's no surprise. I have to admit you working for Mr. Potter didn't occur to me, but it's probably good that you won't simply be out and about without anyone to back you up close by."

Rogue looked at him, a faint smile on her face at how well he was taking this.

The others all nodded agreement while Evan and Kurt congratulated Jean on getting a job already. Charles saw this and sighed, smiling faintly knowing now that despite Jean leaving them the teens would remain friends, which was all he could hope for at this point.

After that the group broke up, with Logan leading the boys outside for their daily run. On the threshold he frowned for a moment, smelling a strange scent on the wind and not for the first time either. He wondered where the hell that strangely familiar scent was coming from, and where he had run into it before for that matter. After a moment however he shook it off and led the way out toward the woods at a run.

Rogue and Kitty went with Ororo for some girl time after she told them about their grades so far, then a martial arts lesson from her in the danger room before Ororo asked the two to help her go through the names Charles was considering to replace her at the institute.

That left Jean and Charles who went with the redhead down to the basement to work on Cerebro.

While the talk was somewhat stilted, with Jean still tense around him, it came much closer to friendly then their last conversation because Charles started it by apologizing. "I need to apologize to you my dear, on so many levels it is hard to imagine." He looked down at his hands, folded in his lap while Jean did not look up from where she had opened the top of the huge computer/scanner. "I was wrong to put those blocks on you in the first place. If I didn't the Phoenix might have been able to leave your mind eventually without harming you." That was actually wishful thinking on his part, but Jean wasn't about to interrupt him to point that out.

"I then compounded my error by not telling you about them at the earliest opportunity. I could say I took conscience with my fear, and that is part of it, but I simply felt so strongly that keeping them in place was the right thing to do that no other opinion occurred to me. I wish there was some way to make amends, but I know it is far too late for that. The best I can hope for is you look back on your time here fondly, and if you ever need to, know that the doors here will always be open to you."

Jean smirked rather saucily at that last to herself. My home is wherever Harry and Ororo are, with Emma at this point a very welcome bonus. I will never need to come back here or see my parents ever again, and both are a relief in many ways. The last more then the first certainly but still. "This place is a fantastic school Professor as well as a home, but all children need to leave home at some point, and I've been ready to do so for over a month now. Your keeping secrets was only part of my desire to leave, my own ambitions and dreams were the majority."

She paused for a moment, hooking up a small current amp to the computer, frowning at how little electricity was actually running through the system before looking over at Charles, her jade yes dark. "I don't know if I'll ever trust you like I did before Charles, but that doesn't mean I will close the door to the possibility entirely. However there was something else recently that added to my distrust until I realized that you weren't actually in control of it."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what exactly was that?" Professor Xavier's tone was hesitant.

"When you first tried to convince me to stay I felt a sudden pressure on my mental defenses. It was like a powerful wind was battering at them ,trying to get through, trying to make me trust you. Emma told me she felt the same when you tried to convince her to stay the second time. I honestly didn't think it was anything until I ran into the same effect. I beat it off, and you didn't even seem to notice, so it's some kind of telepathic field you're putting out at the subconscious level at times to get other people to trust you, to agree with you. I was too angry at the time to mention it, I just wanted to get away really, but now I think you need to know about it and try and control it if you can."

Charles was utterly horrified at the implication. "I, Jean, you must know I would never…"

"I think you think that Professor, but that doesn't change the fact the fact that you do give off that trust me field." Jean looked down at her machine for a moment, frowning slightly at what she saw. "Hmm…we may need to rewire this, it isn't using nearly as much energy as it is taking in. Then if that doesn't work I'll look at the search parameters, and then the helmet interface, see if there's anything wrong there."

Charles nodded absently, all of his attention inwards as he tried to figure out where this 'trust-me field' originated. Soon enough he found it, a wave of controlling power leaving his mind and moving out into the astral plane effecting all around him on a low level even now, but which could be strengthened easily. It was actually part of his mind's defenses, and seemed to have been there for some time. For the first time in a while he felt the stirrings of self-doubt hit him, and wondered what else he had missed if he could have been putting out this power and not noticing.

OOOOOOO

Sebastian Shaw sat in his New York state mansion (it needed the distinction since he had for others scattered around the country) looking down at the newspaper in front of his plate thoughtfully. While he and Edward had known that Emma would strike at Winston and possibly her older sister, Shaw had not actually been as confident in the outcome of such a maneuver. He thought that she would miss, that Winston would strike back, and that it would generally evolve into a power struggle which he could exploit by backing Emma, putting her further in his debt and thereby his control. Adrienne he discounted entirely. As dangerous as she was to Emma, she was a nonentity on the financial field.

He was uncertain what Edward thought would happen, the other King was as cagey as Sebastian himself was in keeping his thoughts close to his chest.

In point of fact Edward did not think much of either death, other than being quietly amused by how well Emma had pulled it off. His fiancé Paris was amused and quietly happy at her young friend's proven ability. Neither however had much time to think about it at all, since Paris was busy planning their upcoming wedding this summer, and Edward was busy researching several of the new, small time heroes that had begun to show up lately, trying to figure out if they were mutants or something else and if they should be painted with the same brush as it were.

This however, this changes everything. For one thing, there was not going to be any kind of chaos that an external opponent could take advantage of. Oh, he was certain that Winston had backers in the company that would not be pleased with the changeover, but in the end they wouldn't be able to do much. After all, unlike Stark or a few of Sebastian's own companies Frost had never put any stocks out on the open market, all of their companies were entirely owned by the family itself.

"The police might try to make an issue of it considering the 'suspect' timing of their deaths," he muttered to himself leaning back and sipping at a fine brandy. "But I doubt that Emma will have left any clues whatsoever and therein lies the second portion of this that changes my perception of young Ms. Frost."

Oh there's a possibility that Emma had simply passed on the word to this Ralph fellow that his wife was sleeping around on him. And thus far the police don't seem to have found anything according to my contacts to indicate that it was more than a simple prank gone horribly wrong or random chance that led to Adrienne's death.

Indeed the police report he had seen (before it had actually been submitted) outlined what the police felt had happened and while a few of the higher-ups were less than sanguine given the timing there was nothing to indicate foul play was involved. The police had found the scanner the bodyguards used to listen in on police reports in the limo, and they pulled the recording from it easily. Their experts had already determined that it sounded like some kind of kiddie radio that alerted the two bodyguards to the supposed police presence incoming. The fact was those radios were sold at every electronics store in the city.

Besides which, while that bogus 'police call' had started the incident by getting the bodyguards up and into the bar where Adrienne was meeting with Hildebrandt (and wasn't that an interesting fillip added to the case) they were the ones who escalated things. Both of them had dozens of small misdemeanors on their fields before they joined the Frost family's security teams. Their profiles painted the picture of two hotheads who sometimes thought with their fists and violence before anything else. On top of that was the fact that one of Robert's bodyguards had killed Adrienne. In point of fact it was the bodyguard who was hiding as a waiter at the bar, which was illegal.

Thus any suspicion would be sent Robert and his bodyguard's way. In the end the police would decide that they had the killer, and whatever else had sparked the initial argument would not be of enough interest to affect the case.

It's a possibility that Emma was able to do all this without resorting to her mutant power, but I don't believe it. The utter lack of clues, the fact that both assassinations happened at the same time, it all points to the fact that Emma has been horrendously downplaying her telepathy ability.

That means she is both more dangerous, and possibly a far greater asset to my own plans for the Hellfire Club and the Hellions than I already thought.

"And while the company may not be vulnerable, she still is physically," he said thoughtfully tapping his fingers together. Decisively he stood up and turned to one of his maids, dressed in a skimpy French maid outfit that was more like something from a porno than an actual uniform. "Have the guards bring the car around. I have an appointment."

OOOOOOO

Fatale looked up as X-23 opened the window and slipped inside into the second-story window that abutted the back of the X-Men mansion, shaking her head resignedly. "You know you're not supposed to be out there, this game you been playing about twitting Wolverine can only have one outcome."

X-23 shrugged then sat down on the ground at her feet sort of like a dog would scratching at her hair for a moment with one hand. "It's only been lately that he's noticed us, I'll back off for now I'm just trying to make him paranoid. A paranoid opponent makes mistakes, jumps at shadows and will miss the real threat."

"I understand that way of thinking and agree with it," said Fatale spinning fully away from the desk she had been working on some papers for in her office chair. Their cover was that of an older sister working as a mid-level manager at one of the banks downtown, not at all incidentally the one that held Professor Xavier's account, who was watching over her younger cousin for a while.

Of course they weren't blood relations. X-23 was a mixed Caucasian/Hispanic young girl of around sixteen with a wild look to her somehow, emphasized by her hair which routinely looked more like a wild beast's mane than a young girl's hair. She was fit, athletic and the outdoorsy kind of girl. Fatale on the other hand was a black woman with short cropped blue hair, whose own athleticism was hidden under baggy clothing. Thus X-23, or Laura as her fake I.D. called her, was a girl Fatale's (Rebecca on her fake I.D.) brother had adopted. According to their papers the brother was a marine on deployment in Japan.

"If you are going after someone like Wolverine who's almost always on guard in some fashion you do have to throw him off balance first, but remember this is not an assassination mission." And even if it was, she thought frankly, I wouldn't like our chances against him in an open fight on his own terrain. "We're here just to take advantage of any openings that occur, nothing more, nothing less." She frowned at her younger compatriot. "I know you know this, so what's up with baiting Wolverine?"

The younger woman played with her hair looking away for a moment and shrugged. "Smells odd, somehow familiar."

Fatale frowned at that scratching at one ear thoughtfully. She had never been briefed about where X-23 came from, outside of the fact that she had been some kind of experiment, but if it had been part of the weapon X program then it was very likely that she and Wolverine had possibly been around one another before when she was younger. She wondered if Lord Magneto knew that, but decided he probably didn't. After all what would be the point of putting the two of them together if they had a connection that was anything but violent in the past.

"Well that's interesting," she said reaching over and gently rubbing the younger girls head, causing her to rumble happily for a moment. In many ways X-23 was as much animal as young girl. "However you need to remember what were really here for. Are you done scouting out the mansion, figured out where we're going in if we get the chance?"

X-23 nodded. "If we get the chance I know where we're going."

"Good. Now, I think we still have some Rocky Road ice cream left." An instant after the word 'rocky' left her mouth Fatale was talking to empty air as X-23 barreled down the stairs. She shook her head sighing fondly. She liked the young girl, and they had worked well enough together in the past but sometimes her childishness got on Fatale's nerves. That assignment had been a relatively easy assassination even though it took two months to set up. This assignment however was proving to be different.

The two women had been chosen for this mission because of their natural mental defenses. X-23 had natural defenses that were rather formidable, coupled with a somewhat animalistic mind which could fools telepaths even ones like Charles Xavier into thinking that she was merely a random dog or other sort of animal.

Fatale had a different sort of defense. She had organized her mind so much that she had an outer edge where she could program her mind to match that of the personality she was using, allowing that to be her mental defense whatever her body was in fact doing. A telepath could get past it of course, but that would take a concerted effort, something Charles would not do without provocation.

Despite this Fatale was coming to the conclusion they were square pegs attempting to fill a round hole with this mission. They had been in place for several weeks now, and had yet to see any kind of break or weakness in the defenses they could take advantage of. There was always someone around, most of the time Wolverine and Charles. While Charles would probably not be that much of a threat given their mental defenses, Wolverine was another story entirely.

Fatale was not at all sanguine about how she stacked up against the former black op's trooper. Despite her ability to bend light around her to make herself invisible that did nothing about her smell, and Logan's sense of smell was sharp enough to notice her if Fatale tried to sneak into the mansion with him anywhere inside. Even her ability to teleport was of limited utility since she couldn't teleport very far or to places where she had not already been.

Their mission was to take a copy of Cerebro's programming and escape with the X-Men none the wiser if they could (and since this did not directly threaten anyone inside, rather neatly went around the intent based aversion spell Harry had put up around the house, which was steadily weakening every since he wasn't around to power it), but if something didn't give soon she was going to ask to be reassigned elsewhere. Fatale was getting bored, and if she was getting bored, then X-23 was likely close to jumping off the walls.

OOOOOOO

The Frost family protection detail was waiting for Emma on the tarmac and closed in swiftly after she exited the family's plane. Unfortunately several dozen reporters had somehow snuck by airport security (probably after greasing a few palms that was how it always worked in such circumstances) and ambushed her from beyond her bodyguard's defensive circle of bodies.

"Ms. Frost!"

"Ms. Frost any comments on…"

"Ms. Frost do you have any idea why…"

"Ms. Frost was there any indication…"

"Ms. Frost what is your reaction to the news that your sister died in a shootout?"

"Ms. Frost was there any indication your father was having an affair before this happened?"

The shouted questions jumbled together, but the theme was the same Emma thought sardonically. She shook her head smiling internally at the thought while waiting until a police inspector approached her bodyguards to order them to open up. Several reporters tried to break through the police cordon, but they blocked most of them, and her own bodyguards were not in the mood to take any shit from the fifth estate. Emma watched two of them grabbing one particularly pushy fellow who got past the police and literally tossed him over the heads of the policemen.

She raised her hands to stop the rest of her entourage from forcing their way through the crowd to her limo, and faced the police and the waiting microphones, raising a hand to the inspector who had just moved to her side.

Emma had decided not to wear her charms today, the better to appear attractive, and she had dressed the part as well. Of course she wore a white dress, a sober one that completely covered her body. Unlike normally, there was not even a hint of sensuality in her manner, she was feminine but demure, somewhat withdrawn but stern. The crowd quieted down slightly, though the reporters at the back still shouted questions until their fellows shushed them.

After she was certain they were all listening Emma spoke. "I'll be making an initial statement now, after which neither I nor my younger sister or mother will make another statement until all the facts of these two cases are known both to us and to the authorities. As to the events that occurred last night local time, I know as little about it as all of you. I was not here; in fact I have been away from home for a little under a week now on various projects, and in fact, was coming home tomorrow to finish up my high school finals." She did not say that all that was public record, or that witnesses could attest to that fact, it would be much more believable if the fifth estate had to do their own legwork for those sorts of things.

"At this moment I know only three facts. One, my older sister Adrienne was apparently meeting with someone from a rival company, this is news to me, and why she was doing so I do not know." A lie of course, but that would point the newspaper reporters at Hildebrandt, which would probably force Hammer to reassign him elsewhere in the world. That was a good thing, because the man was a little too competent for Emma to be happy to have acting in her own backyard.

"What caused the shootout is unknown to me at this time, but the fact is that it is a tragedy that one so young was taken from us so cruelly." A bald-faced lie, Emma fully intended to dance on her sister's grave or possibly piss on it, depending on her emotions at the time. "She was my sister, and I will dearly miss her." Hah, I didn't miss you did I sister dear, one shot you said, and as I told you, I only needed one.

"Second, in regards to my father's murder, it has only recently come to my attention that he was looking outside his relationship with my mother for affection. Several of the female stewardesses came forward during our flight back here after this story broke informing me that he flirted with them or more. I would like to think that the statute of marriage is inviolate, that once you take those vows they mean something. But a man who broke them in his own case would certainly not care about breaking them in another's. Third, while I am afraid that I will not be able to continue to employ Imira after this scandal, I will make certain that Ralph's children are cared for. The Frost family will set aside money to take care of their education and well-being. The sins of the parents should never be placed upon their children, and I'll make certain that his two children will be looked after."

In point of fact that was the only thing about this whole endeavor that made Emma feel guilty. Ralph had too many' discrepancies' in his own past to make me feel at all guilty about using him as a pawn, but the wife isn't so bad. She was simply a woman whose particular kink was being dominated by a powerful individual, and despite my own feelings towards the man, my father was powerful. The children however, that is where I feel truly guilty. They didn't know anything about their father's past, they simply saw him as their father a larger-than-life figure. And the fact that their mother cheated on him, well that will hit the oldest one hard I imagine. Still I will do what I can.

"Ms. Frost," one reporter shouted, "The timing of these two murders is a little too close to be a coincidence, can you comment on that?"

"Comment on what exactly?" asked Emma cocking her head. "You've just stated your impression. Do I agree with it? I don't know. I am not a police investigator, I was not here when this all went down or on the site of either of these two murders so I cannot tell you anything. I deal with facts sir, not suppositions."

That seemed to shut him down, but another reporter took his place. "Ms. Frost, your older brother died several weeks ago, could there be someone after your entire family? Do you feel safe?"

Emma cocked her head, smiling internally. "I feel safe enough with the security measures that I have taken for my own life, especially considering that none of these deaths happened on Frost Corporation grounds or at our home. And I will reiterate, I have not been informed of nor have I seen anything to connect any of these three deaths together. It has simply been a very trying time for my family, and I am certain I can trust the humanity in you all to give my mother, my younger sister Cordelia and I time to grieve for these new losses."

That seemed to take the wind out of several reporters' sails, and since none of them wanted to be seen as badgering her they backed away.

Emma decided to end it there for now. "Again, this is only my initial statement, I will make another statement later after more facts of these events become known, and after my remaining family members and I have had time to grieve. Good day to you all."

With that she turned away and her bodyguards forged a path through the crowd of reporters and cameramen to the limo. The police inspectors stayed with them for a time. "We may want to question you at some point Ms. Frost. At the moment you are not in any way a suspect or anything like that, but given the timing we have to look seriously at any connection." That was standard police practice, when in doubt look at the victim's family.

"Of course," said Emma nodding. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Emma was certain that the police would find nothing to link the two murders together. The timing would spawn conspiracy theories but with nothing to actually back them up they would soon dissipate. The only thing that could possibly throw a wrench in the works was someone outing her as a mutant complete with her power.

But that was a very closely kept secret. Adrienne hadn't even shared it with Hildebrandt and his hit team that was supposed to kidnap Emma. Given what Adrienne had thought she knew about Emma's power and their powers and numbers that had made sense at the time. Shaw and Leland of course had an idea of her powers, and she was wondering when Shaw would make his own appearance here. But neither of them would out her as a mutant since she could do the same to them. There was almost no way either would take that risk and the other Inner Circle members didn't know about Emma's powers.

Her younger sister Cordelia was a wildcard, since she had yet to exhibit any mutant powers and she might have a clue as to Emma's own powers. She certainly knew about Adrienne's. Still that was one issue she could take care of swiftly, since the girl was going to be home soon. She had called her boarding school and informed them that Cordelia had to take all of her tests quickly so she could come home and help the family deal with this crisis. This had actually gone over very well since the young hellion was a troublemaker of the first degree and the school was in fact thinking of not letting her come back next year.

Soon enough Emma was in her limo and on her way. She sighed and leaned back taking a moment to rest before turning her head to look at the chief of security.

She raised one eyebrow and David responded swiftly. "The police haven't found anything thus far to link the two crimes Ms., Ralph seems to have acted all on his own. The only question there is how he was able to get a shotgun into the front of the car without either of the other two bodyguards assigned to Mr. Frost's detail yesterday noticing. I've suspended both of them, they should never have been taken by surprise, though of course we're still paying for their medical bills. Their reaction times were slow and sluggish, and they should've noticed the shotgun before they got into the car."

Emma nodded. "I will wish to overhaul our security detail entirely at any case, but what the heck happened with my sister?" Her tone was honestly confused, not that she really was but she wasn't about to allow anyone know she had been connected to Adrienne's murder, no matter what they might think already. "Her main bodyguard, Jeff something or other, I thought he had a level head on his shoulders."

"Jeff Clayborne, yes miss. He was injured in a biking accident a day after you left ma'am, broke his leg. He wasn't with them when this whole incident went down, the two that were there were James Simpson and Stan Masters.

Emma leaned back obviously trying to bring up an image of their faces to mind, though of course she didn't need to. Then she opened them and shook her head. "I remember one of them, Stan. Wasn't he the one that got in trouble a few years ago for causing a fight in a coffee joint or something?"

"Yes ma'am, both of them are hotheads and overreacted badly. If they were still alive I would recommend you fire them, but as it is," he shrugged.

Emma nodded. "Release their files to the police, and release Ralph's as well. Both their service files and the background checks we ran on them before hiring them. That's another area where my father was noticeably lax in, and I will want wish to correct it."

"Yes miss," David replied smiling faintly. An ex-police officer turned bodyguard he had always felt that the Frost's hiring procedures were extremely lax for their security detail, but the old man was more interested in ability and bought loyalty than in character.

The man's phone rang, and he picked it up irritably wondering who was calling him, but a moment later he looked over at Emma. "Ms., Sebastian Shaw of the Shaw Conglomerate is waiting for us in the mansion."

"In the mansion?" Emma asked sharply.

"Yes Ms., I don't know how he did that without any security alerts being sent to me, but he's there apparently. That was the butler Willikins, not one of the four guards I left at the mansion, I don't know what happened there."

Emma scowled. She had thought that Shaw would go for the subtle play, not an overt attempt at force, but if he wanted to play that game well she could at least respond appropriately. "Radio the other cars, tell them all to get kitted out. We'll head in through the garage of course, but I'll want you all armed and ready. I don't know what this is about," she said quite untruthfully of course, "but we need to be ready for anything."

OOOOOOO

Sebastian Shaw waited calmly, sitting at the head of the Frost dining table, though he would have preferred to be sitting behind Winston's desk upstairs. Unfortunately the butler had refused to give them the key, and he wasn't about to try and force the issue. He was here to talk, this show of force was simply that, a show. Sebastian didn't want to force an actual full-on confrontation, not one that could in any way be traced back to him at least. Though if one happened, he was prepared to deal with it. After all, he thought sardonically looking up through the ceiling up towards the third floor. I don't need Emma around to control the Frost family fortunes, which would enrich me as much as Emma would aid me. A grieving widow is after all a rather tempting target. Especially if you add grieving mother to it.

Around Shaw stood ten of his personal guards including two of his Hellions and two of the cybernetically enhanced Bruisers that he often loaned to the Hellfire Club. All of them wore the dark blue spandex suits with purple gloves and white helmets of Hellfire security save for the two Hellions who wore purple spandex suits with golden gloves.

The black King was impressed when Emma came in surrounded by the family bodyguards, all of them armed. Of course they were nothing to match his own men, but despite that Sebastian wasn't going to start anything. While his powers made him immune to energy attacks, that didn't imply he was bulletproof.

Suddenly as Emma crossed the floor toward him two panels on both sides of the dining hall opened, and out of each came a gun turret, changing the odds dramatically.

"Can't you let me alone in my grief?" Emma said moving swiftly towards him. She ignored his now tense men and her own as they took up position all along the wall behind her, keeping well clear of the gun turrets fields of fire.

Sebastian however refused to be cowed or act surprised, instead responding mockingly. "Are you grieving? My, you hide it well. But I was thinking we should talk, about the future, and about our relationship."

"Our business relationship," said Emma emphasizing the word as she poured herself a glass of wine from the cabinet along one wall. For a moment she was standing directly between two of the gun turrets, and yet to look at her you would have never been able to tell. "Was that of a supplicant paying off a debt her father forced her to take on. I'm no longer a supplicant Sebastian, I am head of the Frost family now. I will pay you the price appropriate for your selling my father the factories he wanted, I'm sure you know that I've already worked off the payment for Leland. I will also continue to help you find your second spy, but that is all."

"Yet you are still vulnerable," he said sipping at the wine he taken from the Frost cellars. Say what you will about Winston he had excellent taste in vintages, this is an excellent Romane Conti. "After all, you are untried as head of your family, you could use someone to help you along."

"I have been trained since birth for this," Emma replied, now sitting down in one of the chairs at the table two places down from him, leaning back and smiling sardonically. "Trust me when I say it will not be an issue."

Sebastian shook his head and waved one hand in the air. At that signal his guards trooped out of the dining hall, leaving only the two with golden gloves behind.

Emma frowned than nodded over her shoulder at David, who frowned but nodded in turn. Her own men left as well, leaving her with the four turrets for defense.

The Black King smiled faintly, raising one finger in a signal. "And the future? The future of mutant kind for instance? What do you think of that?"

Suddenly Emma felt a small, almost friendly niggle on the outer edge of her mental defense. It was subtle, yet carried overtones of friendliness, as if it was trying to wheedle its way inside her mind through her emotions. Emma's mental defense and emotional control however was more than enough to brush it aside. She took a sip of her wine again, feeling back along the attack and wondering who had sent it at her. This led her to one of the two teens standing like guards behind Sebastian. They were both swarthy types, one looked Spanish while the other looked like he hailed from the Middle East. Since that one had what looked like a jetpack on his back Emma discounted him. The other one looked decent, with dark black eyes, black hair swept back and a smile on his face.

Emma was not fooled. She had seen that same smile on Adrienne's face too often not to recognize a cruel and arrogant bastard when she saw one. Target acquired she lashed out with one of her telepathic pain blasts.

The teen staggered, gasping as his brain suddenly felt like it was on fire.

"I think if your young friend tries to get into my mind again I will burn out his frontal lobe." Emma growled.

Chuckling quietly at having learned another aspect of the young woman's telepathic powers, Sebastian raised his hand again. The two Hellions left, with the one with a jetpack on his back helping the other one walk for a few steps. "Honestly I can't take him anywhere, young people, always trying to push their boundaries. I apologize, Empath will be disciplined for whatever he tried. This isn't the first time he's used his powers on a woman at an inappropriate time. But you didn't answer my question."

Emma took noted of that bit about the young man using his powers on women 'inappropriately'. Since Shaw was a bare step above a rapist that wasn't something she liked hearing. For now however she couldn't do anything about it. "I think the future will sort itself out. I have enough on my plate right now. Get to the point Sebastian."

"I propose an alliance," said Shaw leaning over the table towards her. "You have proven yourself much more capable than you let on Emma. But you are still one woman, and the wolves will be circling."

"Let them circle, they will find me ready for them. And as for an alliance, an alliance to what end, pray?" she countered.

"To the betterment of mutant kind, and to put us, you and I and the Hellfire Club on top of the world." Shaw replied blandly

"World domination, are you serious?" Emma shook her head scornfully. "Why would anyone want to dominate the world, all that paperwork."

"You joke but it isn't just for power's sake. You watch the news, you know how the world is turning against mutants. In America you could liken it to the African American Civil Rights Movement, though blacks don't seem to see the connection. Rather human of them," he sneered. "It's only a matter of time before we start seeing our own Jim Crow laws and when that happens mutantkind will have to stand together against our oppressors."

"But that time hasn't come yet. You're trying to paint the fact that mutant kind is already in the corner, we're not. We may never be if we can start pushing for equality."

"Equality is a pipe dream," Sebastian responded bluntly. "A socialist bit of dogma that can never come about. There'll always be the haves and have-nots. You and I are already haves, and I refuse to allow myself or other mutants to become have-nots."

"You raise some interesting points, but your defense of them is lacking and I do not agree with them." said Emma shaking her head and smiling faintly. "The time is not yet come to have that discussion, and I will not align myself formally or informally with you. I will stand on my own two feet, and I will show the world that this Frost is well worthy of the family name."

Sebastian stood suddenly looming over her. "And if I were to force the issue?"

Emma looked up at him calmly, not showing any of the sudden spike of fear she felt. "Then I would suggest you be very quick, because if you don't I will lobotomize you before you can touch me."

The man almost looked like he was going to try it anyway, but then stood back, smiling faintly at having startled another clue as to the young woman's full powers out of her. My god what an ally she could be. Empath could never attack like she is implying, the best he can do is influence the emotions of people around him. She could be a hidden dagger to our enemies, and I do have time on my side… "So we are neutral to one another, that is the best you're willing to give me?"

"Benign neutrality," Emma nodded, calming down internally. Her telepathic attack however was still poised, ready and waiting. In point of fact she was tempted to do so anyway, but the fact that he probably been seen coming here, and his own guards were still outside the door stopped her. She could probably have lobotomized all of them given time, but the people who saw him come here?

And anything but a brute force mental assault would be swiftly found by the man's own mental defenses. She could implant something, but she could not get rid of the impression that someone had been in his head, and someone like Shaw was paranoid enough to be able to figure out what happened later on, and possibly overcome it given time. "I will not move against you or with you. Any dealings we have in the future will be business dealings, not social and certainly not political. That may change in the future, but that is all you are going to get for now."

Sebastian sighed then surprised her by chuckling. "I came here expecting to collar a kitten, and I find myself facing a lion. Very well, benign neutrality as is. Yet may this neutral party ask you what your impression of my fellow King is?"

Emma looked off to the side obviously thinking hard for moment, though in reality she was thinking of how much to tell him rather than what to tell him. After a moment she said bluntly, "He hates and fears mutants. It's not a personal thing like it is with Pierce, who ran into a mutant sometime in the past and was nearly crippled by him. I think Pierce is a much more dangerous person at present than Edward simply because he's chaotic and unpredictable. If you move against Pierce, I may help you do so. Buckman however I will not move against until I have proof that there is more going on other than his feelings."

"And if I was able to tell you that he was funneling money to some project or other? Would that do?"

"It would give me someplace to look," said Emma frankly. "But again I will keep my own counsel on this. And I will not condone any attack be it business or physical, there's just no need for it at this point in time. On top of that my friendship with Paris is real, and I will not see her harmed."

Sebastian scowled slightly before regaining his equanimity. It was not anywhere near what he had hoped for, but Emma had impressed him several times during this little meeting with her poise and control. She would make a formidable ally, and he did have time on his side. While her help at present would be good, her help in the future could prove instrumental. "Very well, if it comes to a point that we do need to move against Pierce I will inform you, your help in planning and performing such a maneuver might be beneficial. And if either of us comes upon information about Edward we will share it?"

Emma nodded thoughtfully. "I can agree to that."

"In that case I will bid you adieu," replied Shaw, sitting down the wine glass he had been holding. "I do hope that you decide that the future of mutant-kind is important to you, we could do much as allies. Until next time." He bowed his way out. Soon David came in to inform Emma that Shaw and his bodyguards had left the mansion's grounds.

Emma dismissed David and when the doors closed behind him and Emma let out a short sigh of relief before finishing her glass of wine. That had been a very trying experience, but as she gazed up through the ceiling toward her father's study, Emma knew that was only the beginning of her trials to come.

OOOOOOO

While Ororo and Jean were talking to the kids and working on Cerebro respectively Harry had gone up to High Note to spend time with Melody and work on some projects there. After filling the young girl in on how well the prank did, complete with falsetto voices and illusions drawn from his memories, he sat her down to do a bit of homework that Ororo had assigned her.

It was math this time, which was not an area where Melody was anywhere close to what where she should've been given her age (possibly 12, her papers were rather unclear about her age). Unfortunately her powers worked against her here, making Melody almost utterly unable to comprehend the written numbers. So instead Ororo had given her word problems that had to deal with math rather than the actual numbers, and several aural lessons on separate tapes to listen to. Melody seemed to be getting this better, but it was not exactly her favorite thing in the world, though she seemed to follow the recorded lesson.

Sitting next to her Harry opened up his own 'homework' beginning to read through the tome he had found on using wards to speed up time and began to practice the arrays so that he could use them in the future. He did this for several hours, then went to talk to the house elf that was in charge of the farming areas.

The head elf here was an elderly house-elf almost as old as Dilly named Gordon. He was one of the few elves to have a actual real name that didn't sounds silly, and he carried himself with an air of seriousness that most house elves could not pull off to save their lives. Gordon was also one of the few elves who did not need Ororo's lessons on elocution. He had told Harry that he had been part of a family of wizards that were devoted to farming, and had in fact supplied their enclave with the majority of its food. They had sent him away to Hogwarts releasing Gordon from his bond to them when the dementors attacked their settlement.

"How are things going here?" Harry asked.

"They are going well Harry sir," replied Gordon. "The house elves who hadn't farmed before are used to the workload amount, and we have enough to continue to take care of the farming. However when the plants start to bloom, and it comes time to harvest time…" he looked down almost abashed. "We may need some more help at that point."

Harry nodded. "I'll ask for volunteers among the rest of the house-elves and transfer ten more up here full time, this place is going to get quite a lot busier in the future, and I'd like a workforce in place before that happens. Tell me, how fast do house elves age?"

Gordon stroked one of his drooping age lined ears, then shrugged. "We age according to how much magic is in the bond master, fast with little to no magic, slow for lots of magic. My former Masters were strong, and I am old." He chuckled. "I remember when young Nessy was but a baby, as well as Cory and the other young ones. Still, the passage of time does hit us. I am, in human years about a hundred and fifty not counting time in the sleeping place, and I should see another 60 odd years, maybe more given the power you give us through our bond. Why?"

Harry scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I'm trying to decide if I want to add some runes to the expansion charms in this area, to speed up time inside it. The demand for the potions we're making will be through the roof, and despite the massive amount of farming area we have, one or even two crops a year won't cut it." He knew that meant he could simply raise his prices, but in reality the money he was going to get for this was only half the reason he wanted to get them out into the public. Harry really did want to use them to help as many people as possible.

Gordon frowned. "That would mean house elves age faster, yes sir." He was pleased that his new master had thought of them and had not simply added the runes as some Masters would have.

"So I'll have to think of some way to protect you from the effects of that array. Ah well." Harry shrugged. "I already had Nessy pick up some books about uniforms for you all, I can probably figure out a way to protect you from it and incorporate the protective array into the uniforms. Maybe a counter time-turner, slowing down time in direct relation to how much it sped up in the rest of the area? Something to think about. Anyway, Melody is doing some homework, after that I would like one of you to pop down to Hogwarts to get me so that she and I can have dinner together tonight."

Gordon nodded. "I will see it done master."

"Good, thank you Gordon." And with that and a final wave Harry left the farming areas. He spent a few minutes looking over the rest of the asteroid fortress, looking at the power supply first and then the rest thinking of where he wanted things to go in the future. But that was for the far future, right now he had other things to do.

If Emma knew his priorities however she would have been very angry, as instead of writing up a job offer or going out to interview some of the people she had named as possible candidates for certain jobs immediately, Harry instead went down Hogwarts, and began to plan out what the Castle would become.

At the height of its power Hogwarts in his old dimension could house as many as 800 students per house. While this castle had enough classrooms and was large enough to sustain that population that was where the similarities ended. Ravenclaw tower was not a dormitory, nor was Hufflepuff. Harry wasn't about to make the house elves move, and in fact was tempted to tell them to start building another village for themselves up on High Note unaware that they had already begun work on one. And Harry actually was rather amused by the place this library was laid out, thinking his fellow Ravenclaw's would have been proud to know their tower had become the repository of wizardly knowledge.

There were also not nearly as many teacher accommodations, Harry had only found three of them so far minus the headmaster's. Of course they had already planned to make the seventh floor including the headmaster's tower into the living quarters for Harry, Jean, Melody and Ororo, and possibly the rest of the team Harry intended to put together.

"I can do the same to the sixth floor for teachers and the Gryffindor dormitories should do well enough for the first class. I can expand as needed later on." Harry muttered, walking down to the dungeons. He waved at a few house-elves working on the slimy mold that seemed to fight back against their cleaning efforts, sometimes regaining lost ground the moment they turned away. "The question is, do I want to keep the Slytherin dormitories? Hell, I wonder why they were completed when the Hufflepuff's dorm wasn't." he wondered idly.

After looking over them again he decided the answer was no, he did not want to keep them. Frankly the very idea of housing students underground in what amounted to caves and dungeons did not appeal to him. "I fear it would force upon them a certain frame of mind." He muttered, shaking his head. Then he raised his arms, calling upon the magic in the walls that was his to command as headmaster and set to work.

Over the next hour he used Hogwart's inherent magic to connect all the dormitory rooms of both the girls and boys into two large rooms that could be used for target practice and martial arts training in the future. After that, he used the center area and transformed it into a meeting lounge which would be for the team to go over training results, plan out real operations etc. etc. Then he had a final thought about his lady and her claustrophobia and devised a spell to follow her around in the basement that would combat it.

Nor did his changes stop there. Done with the former Slytherin dormitory he went on making more renovations to the rest of the former dungeons. He changed one of the classrooms into a armory, though of course at this point it wasn't stocked.

At that point it was dinnertime and he broke off his work to have dinner with Melody. Jean and Ororo sent Cory back to tell him they would stay at the mansion until after dinner there, so it was fine.

Melody shook her head as Harry put a plate of chicken fingers down to go with the French fries, buns and sandwich things. "Going up and around on High Note has thrown off my sense of time a bit Mr. Harry. Could I just choose one and stay there?"

"Sure Melody," Harry reached out and rubbed her head, smiling as the girl leaned into his touch. "I have no problem with that. Which one would you like to stay in?"

Melody hummed thoughtfully as she sipped at her grape juice, basking in Mr. Harry's head rubbing. Mr. Harry's songs were so warm these days. Light and airy and full of fun, strength and joy with dozens of songs and different instruments all at once. It was fun to be around. Of course Ms. Jean and Ms. Ororo had the same thing, but to a slightly lesser extent. Ms. Emma's song seemed to be changing as she spent time around the others, that was good. "Could, could I stay up in High Note? I like to sing with all the birds up there. There aren't so many animals around here."

"That was caused by some of the defensive wards keeping them away so as to preserve the grounds and the castle, they'll filter back into the woods now that the wards have been weakened to normal levels." Well, he amended mentally I took down the anti-animal wards anyway. The rest of the wards were simply at their regular setting, more than enough to keep out anything Harry could think of, magical or mundane. In point of fact the pure defensive runes were so strong even if the castle was found he doubted anything short of a nuclear attack would get through. And if someone does send nukes against us here, I'll just raise the wards back to wartime footing, Harry thought grimly. To get through after I do that they'll have to hit us with enough power to sink all of Scotland.

He forcibly brought himself back to the conversation. "Still if you want to live up there for a time that's fine by me. Eventually we'll be taking in students, possibly some your age and we'll want you to join them down here, but until then High Note is fine. I'll move it over New York again so that it's time matches up to the mansion, Jean and Ororo will be spending more time there this week. Ororo will be anyway, she wants to stay there to provide support for Kitty and the others during the testing period, and she will be helping Charles conduct interviews to take her place as a teacher there. I don't know what Jean will be doing."

Melody nodded happily and the two continued to eat. After that Harry did as he said he would, taking her back up to High Note and then transferring the asteroid base from where it had been over the center of the USA to over New York.

Once there with Melody in her 'log' bed, the two watched Bed-knobs and Broomsticks together. "Mr. Harry, could you make a bed like that?"

"Sure, that would be easy. I once knew a set of twins whose father had put so many spells on an old car it became sentient. And then there was my godfather's motorcycle. It could fly at least, not certain about apparating."