Chapter Twenty Fifty Four: Pryor Engagement.

Chapter Twenty Fifty Four: Pryor Engagement. 

'We have a situation,' Ororo thought to Harry as he and Jean made their way towards the scene of where the Hand was throwing things down with the X-Men. 'But…..I really have to ask you a question, is Jean right there with you?'

'Yes, I am,' Jean thought, to say she was confused might be putting things mildly. She knew that she was going to regret asking this but at the same time, there was really no choice. 'Why wouldn't I be there, with Harry….'

'You better come here…..' 

Ororo was cut off and Harry and Jean kept moving forward. They had not had a good lead on the Hand for some time, after the incident months and months back. They were still out there, fighting their war against the League of Shadows but exactly where they would go from there, they had no idea.

'So what do you think's up?' Jean asked and the two of them arrived at the front door of the museum, just in time to see Kurt disarm one of the ninja's with his tail and vanish with a BAMF, causing the Hand Ninja to fall back onto the ground.

"Keep your eyes peeled, elf!" Logan growled as he busted the sword of one of his enemies and then he took him down to the ground. The Hand dog piled on Logan but Ororo sent a gust of wind, hurling them into the wall.

Jubilee used a blast of fireworks to distract them. They were about to use the young Asian mutant as a knife sharpener but Iceman froze the weapons in their hand and Beast used his large feet to pluck the weapons out of their hands.

"Get her!" Elektra yelled and Logan blocked the Sai that had been stabbed towards her. "Out of my way, Wolverine this is….."

"I don't know what your game is, but you're not going to attack an innocent bystander," Logan said and there was a moment where the largest ninja prepared to nail him in the back.

Said ninja never got the chance as Harry blew through the door and knocked the assassin in the face. He sent him flying into a mummy display and he landed to a crash.

Next several shuriken flew through the air but Jean blocked them with a telekinetic shield. She kept them in the air and her eyes widened as she saw the terrified girl sitting in the corner. She was identical to Jean, down to the red hair and the green eyes. It took her a moment to process this and Harry had to heat vision the dagger that was aimed at Jean's head out of the hand of the ninja because she was distracted. A ninja flew against the wall, planted by Logan as he nursed some burned fingers and broken ribs.

"Jean, you know…."

"I KNOW!" Jean yelled as she blocked more of the knives as Elektra grabbed Jubilee from behind and placed the knife to the girl's throat.

"Let me go!" Jubilee said as the razor sharp blade was inches from piercing into her throat. She tried to blast her adversary but her hands were now held behind her back.

"I know you, you aren't going to slice a kid's throat," Logan said although he was about ready to take her down.

"The girl….she's dangerous," Elektra said as she looked at them. "She killed a scientist trying to get away and she's….."

"You're mad," Cyclops said as he stood in a heroic stance and he stared the girl down. "Let, Jubilee go."

"I can speak for myself," Jubilee said but Harry rushed over and pulled her out of the way, at super speed, and Jean grabbed Elektra, knocking her into the wall.

The redhead girl watched the scene as she looked at the other girl that showed up. It was like she was looking into a mirror, it was quite a traumatic scene to her. Especially considering that guy with the visor just called her Jean and she never remembered the name in her life. She shook her head as Elektra stood and got up to her feet.

"Why did you go after her?" Harry demanded and the X-Men took a step back, as the Hand was also called off by the woman.

"We went after her because she was an experiment in the custody of a scientist who worked with the League of Shadows, she's a weapon," Elektra argued and she held her Sai between her fingers. "Arcane, you do not know the Pandora's box that you are opening if you allow her to live."

"Yes, well I know one thing, the Hand might be mistaken, this girl doesn't look like she can hurt a fly," Cyclops said and for once, Harry Potter was in agreement with Scott Summers. Surely that was the sign that the Apocalypse was nigh.

Elektra escaped suddenly in a cloud of smoke and while Harry could go after her, he decided not to, until he got more answers.

"Who are you?" Harry asked in a gentle but firm voice.

"I don't….I don't know," she said as her eyes darted to the shadows. "I woke up….they were chasing after me, I don't remember anything, I don't know my name, I don't even know if there's anyone out there looking for me."

'Gwen….could you please take a look at any missing person cases, girl about seventeen to twenty one years old, red hair, green eyes, pretty much looks like she could be Jean's doppleganger,' Harry thought to Gwen.

'Already on it, Harry,' Gwen thought as she got to work. If they could find a potential missing person, then they might be able to figure out anything.

"The Institute is closer, it is at your disposal if you need it," Hank said to Harry and Harry opened his mouth. "Even though you have long since moved on, Professor Xavier has not forgotten about all you have done with the X-Men and how your work has helped ease the tension with human-mutant relations."

Harry thought that would be the best although a mysterious girl with no memories being shadowed by the Hand of all people, well that was something that he was curious about to put things mildly. He was going to have to find out things.

'Jean, can you….I feel bad for even asking this,' Harry thought to her and Jean looked at him with a raised eyebrow. 'But I need you to read her mind.'

Jean sighed, she understood that there were things that needed to be done sometimes and she read the girl's mind but suddenly her head hit a wall.

It was obvious that she did not lose her memories because some random bout of amnesia, someone was blocking them, but as to why, they had no idea? Harry would have to stick with this girl and figure out what happened and hope that Gwen's search bared fruit.

'Her name is Madelyne Pryor,' Gwen thought to Harry and Jean about ten minutes later after the girl was brought to the Mansion. 'She was believed to have died in a plane crash about six months ago, it was on the West Coast. However, she resurfaced and there were three sightings of her about a week ago. Eye witnesses state that there was a man who resembled a scientist who went after her but he dropped dead, apparently of a brain hemorrhage.'

'That's very shady,' Harry thought.

'No, it's very Sinister,' Gwen corrected him. 'Another man was seen in the vicinity and he's a dead ringer for Nathaniel Essex."

'Wonderful, as if that guy hasn't caused enough problems,' Harry thought as he pondered what happened. 'So, I'm guessing that he's abducting plane crash victims, experimenting on them, and wiping their memories but this girl….Madelyne Pryor, she got away.'

'I'm guessing so, and given that she resembles me, you figured that Sinister would get off on that,' Jean said.

"Does the name Madelyne Pryor ring a bell to you?" Harry asked the redhead and there was the faintest traces of recognition in her eyes. "You were in a plane crash, people thought you died."

"I don't know," the girl said as she looked up at him and she felt frustration.

"We'll figure this out, Professor Xavier should be able to help you," Cyclops said as she looked at the girl.

"Right, Professor Xavier," the girl said nervously as she looked at this young man. "Were we friends?"

"Um, yeah," Cyclops said, taken off guard. He had never met this Madelyne Pryor girl in his entire life. She did look like Jean's twin but he was over that and all romantic entanglements regarding her. Harry won that battle, it was time to move on. "So, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to check out Sinister's last known lab," Harry said. "We'll send word with Ororo if we find anything but it might be another dead end."

"Right," Cyclops said, he was curious about why there was a doppleganger of Jean Grey running around.

'There's pretty much little to no chance that Sinister is even here, you know,' Jean thought as she bit down on her lip nervously and she walked towards the lab which looked pretty abandoned. Harry threw his head back and sighed as he looked over his shoulder to face Jean.

'I know he might not be here, but there might be a clue to where he might have been and we need to know why he's been kidnapping plane crash victims….other than she's a dead ringer for you,' Harry thought to Jean and Jean nodded, that was the most obvious thing. One of the windows of the lab was busted which put Harry on edge. 'There's someone there, I don't know….and I don't like it.'

A broken window, no matter what the circumstances, was always a cause for suspicion. His green eyes was locked on the source of the intrusion and whoever was in there, might already still be there. Rogue, Kara, Betsy, and Kitty turned up to join them, which Harry was glad because they needed all of the back up that they could get.

'Wouldn't put it past Sinister to trash his own lab to make sure that there was a reason for him to flee?' Rogue asked.

'Ororo, please keep an eye on your guest, if Sinister's been messing around with her….well there's no telling if he left any nasty surprises, I'm sure she might be harmless on her own but after what Sinister did to her, I'm not taking any chances,' Harry warned her.

'Already ahead of you, although Professor Xavier has been unable to unblock her memories, there must have been a powerful telepath at work,' Ororo thought as she nervously paced back and forth.

'Jean couldn't, I couldn't, Xavier couldn't, this is all very odd, Emma….are you in the area?' Harry asked her.

'Yes, and I'm on my way to the Institute to see if I have any better luck,' Emma thought.

'Charles might not like that,' Ororo stated nervously.

'Well, you might find that the world does not revolve around what Charles Xavier likes and does not like,' Emma thought as she smiled. 'I will be in touch.'

That seemed to be most agreeable to Harry and the team who made their way there. His emerald eyes shined brightly as he saw them standing in the shadows.

"So, you're coming here to look for answers, aren't you?"

Harry saw her, she was masked, but he recognized the voice of Talia Al Ghul. The woman peered down at him, with her Elite Guard standing next to her. They were about ready to attack but Harry once again stared her down.

"So the Hand was out and the League of Shadows were out tonight, this seems to be a productive night for groups of shadowy assassins," Jean said and Talia snorted.

"Please, do not put us on the same level as the Hand, it's an insult, but we mean you no harm, in fact, we all know that Nathaniel Essex was in this lab but he's fled, he better not have double crossed us," Talia said and Harry jumped on that statement like a dog on a bone.

"What did you think was going to happen when you made a deal with Essex?" Harry asked.

"Not I, it was my father, the Demon Head, the great Ra's Al Ghul," Talia said with poise as she stared down at Harry. There was something in her tone and in her eyes which indicated that she found the deal her father made to be fairly disagreeable but she had no choice but to comply out of loyalty to him. "If Essex has left, he has done so with the test subjects."

Harry heard this statement, and it inspired some curiosity. "Test subjects?"

"Yes, he had managed to acquire the DNA of several test subjects and he had been manipulated it, and one of them became rather dangerous, several of them became dangerous, but Essex decided to release them, as part of his game," Talia explained to him.

"What do you mean dangerous?" Kitty asked.

"They might seem harmless on the surface but there are certain triggers in their mind….which will cause them to fly in a rage," Talia said to them. "Although Essex had help, because this is a project that not even he could mastermind. The scale was massive."

"Who was he working for?" Betsy asked and Talia just frowned at the girl.

"If my father knew that information, he did not share it with me," Talia said and there was a slight hint of bitterness flashing through her voice at the thought of it. "Regardless, I would suggest keeping a close reign on any of those subjects should you find it. We understand the Hand managed to locate one of the subjects after she killed a doctor that they had ties with. And obviously, they have failed, being the Hand."

"No, not failed, we found the girl," Harry said to Talia and he locked eyes onto her. "What's the danger, we need to know?"

"Well, that's the curious thing, I don't know, and Essex has either shredded his notes or taken them with him when he went underground," Talia said and the statement that Essex better not hope that the League of Shadows caught up with him left unsaid although ti was seriously implied.

'Miss Pryor's mind….is a difficult one to crack, although I did find one tiny sliver of information in her mind before she decided to try and cave my skull in,' Emma thought to them.

'Wait a minute, decided to cave your skull in?' Jean asked, as she frowned.

'What do you mean by that?' Kitty demanded and Emma, enjoying keeping them all in suspense decided to tell them.

'Well the very powerful telepath is this girl, which I suspect that's why Essex grabbed her,' Emma thought as she shook her head. 'And she does remember a lab, but the details are sketchy. There was the sounds of trains going behind it however, that was the one detail that I managed to pick it up.'

'On it,' Chloe said, beating Gwen to the punch.

Gwen meanwhile conducted her own investigation with some interesting nuggets of information being uncovered.

'MADELYNE'S GONE!' Ororo thought and then she and Emma both blacked out on the ground before they could respond even further.

Kara spoke for them all when she said one word. 'SHIT!'

Harry did not like when a situation was out of control. Perhaps it might have been selfish for him but he did in fact like to be in control more times often than not. And when he was not in control, things felt like they were spiraling downwards. His green eyes locked forward as he slowly figured out the pickle that they were in.

Gwen was really plugging away at the research and it seemed like every moment she dug up something, it added another new spin. There was a moment where the girls and Harry returned to the Xavier Institute, to try and retrace Madelyne Pryor's steps. He smelled a rat, although given what Gwen was about to give him, perhaps he should have smelled several rats.

'So, I've been trying to track Essex's movements, but he's hard to pin down but I did managed to inadvertently stumble into something interesting, that's actually connected on the other project….that being Miles Warren, of course,' Gwen said, and she knew that naturally Harry and everyone listening in knew.

'Warren and Essex, they have a connection, then?' Harry asked.

'Well one could say that, I got the records from the phone company on Warren's personal line and he has seven phone calls in the past three months to Nathaniel Essex and who knows how many more times he's meeting him in person,' Gwen thought. 'So, I managed to trace something else on the papertail, Henri Decard has also been talking to Miles Warren. It's an alias obviously, because the real Henri Decard died twenty five years ago, he was an eccentric man.'

'Nyssa would like to inform you that alias has been adopted by her father,' Selene chimed in.

'So we've got a case of identity theft from beyond the grave,' Kitty mused as she snapped her fingers. 'Wait….do you think….Madelyne Pryor…..identity theft….from behind the grave….duh!'

'Could you please parse that into sentences so I could understand your train of thought?' Gwen thought but Lois jumped in before Kitty had a chance to explain.

'Well, I hate to interrupt you, but I dug up something on Miles Warren, like you asked,' Lois thought to them.

'And it is….'

'Well he was working on Osborn's little adventures with replicating the Captain America super solider syndrome, but he was not following Osborn's orders to the letter, he had his own goals with what he wanted to do,' Lois thought. 'He was fired from OsCorp for having an attitude problem. This Warren guy, he must be in his forties or fifties, but he looks like he could be in his thirties. So he's been indulging in sometime. And that makes his trying to pick up college students a bit more skeevy than it would normally have been.'

'Did it have any details what Warren was up to?' Chloe thought as this was getting a bit more interesting the more information that was dragged up.

'Sadly no but I guess I'm just going to have to dig deeper,' Lois thought and Harry walked into the Xavier Institute.

He saw Xavier down on the ground, having been knocked out. Nightcrawler, Storm, and Jubilee were knocked out as well. Emma started to come true.

"Well that will teach me to let my guard around under a seemingly harmless girl," Emma said as she got up to her feet. "I'm not sure if that's entirely of her own doing….."

"Where's Summers?" Harry asked as he looked around and Kurt got up to his feet as he shook up the cobwebs.

"Scott….I don't know, she must have grabbed them or maybe whoever grabbed her grabbed him, I don't know," Kurt said as he shook off the cobwebs. He had a headache, and he had headaches before. "The Professor….."

"She knocked Xavier out as well, I'll try and revive him, maybe he saw something before he went down," Emma said as she kneeled down before Xavier.

"Madelyne Pryor died on that plane, I'm sure of it," Xavier said as he was helped into his chair by Kurt and Ororo. That got his share of disturbed and rather confused looks with Jubilee being the one to jump in, utter confusion dancing through her eyes.

"Wait….if…..she's dead, how can she be here?" Jubilee asked but Bobby shook his head, his head pulsing. He felt colder than normal.

"Well, you see….Essex must have did some kind of Frankenstein thing and brought her back from the dead, that seems to be the kind of thing that she did," Bobby said to them as he tried to shake the cobwebs off and Harry frowned.

"Maybe, but Kitty was saying something about identity theft," Harry said as he was beginning to piece the things together. "The resemblance to Madelyne Pryor, the girl that went missing after the plane crash, I think it's a pretty good coincidence that might have proven to fool most people but fooling us, that's another matter entirely. However….there's an even more interesting coincidence I want you all to consider, her resemblance to Jean."

Jean's mouth hung open and she remembered that Essex did have her for a few days years ago, which was more than enough time to scrap DNA samples and the realization dawned upon all of them.

"We need to find Scott, Essex has been interested in his DNA for years as well," Xavier said as he prepared for the X-Men and the Team to mobilize.

However the X-Jet was gone which made them thing that Scott went after the girl himself, not aware of the danger that he could put himself in.

'Oh, Summers, you fool,' Harry thought to himself but there was a dagger that flew through the open window.

Harry caught the dagger in his hand, surprised at his reflexes and there was a note tied to it and there was a message, short, brief, and to the point.

'The Docks.'

It was research time as Gwen was in there immediately to see if Essex had any labs around the area of the darks. Time spun out of control as Harry awaited her answer and he did not have to wait for long.

'I've got something,' Gwen thought to him.

Scott Summers walked down the docks, he was lead there and he stared over his shoulder. There was a second where he doubted what was happening but he wanted to prove that he could solve this problem on his own. His heart hammered against his chest and Summers kept walking forward. He peered over his shoulder and there was a few seconds he paused. The wind blew as he looked between a crack and he saw someone down there.

"Did you ever realize that you're entire life was a lie or you didn't have much of a life to begin with?"

Cyclops spun over and he saw the girl, Maddie, standing there and staring at him. Her eyes looked at him, cold and devoid of life, and she was not scarred.

"You are an extension for Xavier's will, you're not your own person, Cyclops," Maddie said to him in a ghostly tone. "And I was an extension to someone's will as well. It was nothing but mind games. A girl died, several people on a plane died, just as a way for him to mind fuck, you, Jean, and Har-Rell. That's what happened, you know. Everything is a lie. Everything you think you know about me is a lie, everything I thought that I knew about myself as a lie, it's all nothing. You think that I'm free, well I'm not free and you're not free."

"What are you talking about?" Scott asked and he could hear her, but he could not see her.

"It's all a game to people, but it's not a game, these are people's lives that are on a line," Maddie said as she stared through the shadows from him. "We thought that we both lost parents in a plane crash but we were mistaken. Essex knows more about you, than you do about yourself, he has watched you, you're entire life."

"What are you talking about?" Scott asked and Maddie gave a sad round of laughter.

"It's obvious that everything you know is a lie, perhaps Xavier was in it, maybe he wasn't, did you even bother to ask SHIELD about what happened to your parents, your brother is ignorant as you are, but there was a cover up somewhere," Maddie said as she looked at him. "You were a tool to be used in this war, in this game, survival of the fittest. You were the perfect poster child."

"Your memories were blocked….."

"To protect me," Maddie said as she stared back at him sadly. "I knew….I recognized you, as someone I thought was a friend but you don't even know who you are, Scott, so how could I recognize you? I stare in the mirror and I see the mark that he left on me. I'm only the beginning, this is far more than you could imagine."

Cyclops stepped forward but she was gone.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" he demanded as she did not answer at all.

"It's too late, Scott, it's too late for us all," she said to him cryptically and she closed her eyes. "It is a shame…."

Scott Summers felt something prickle on the back of his neck and he turned around. Maddie, wherever, she went was gone and there was something else that caused him to wonder what was happen. He saw the figure in the shadows standing there and he shouted.

"YOU!"

Elsewhere, Harry, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, Bobby, Kitty, Kara, Rogue, and Betsy showed up as Kara heard something off in the distance and Harry paused.

"He's close," Harry said as he kept walking forward but then he saw a pair of ruby colored sunglasses lying on the docks, in a puddle of blood.

He saw the burned remains of a shoe lying a few inches away from the visor and Kurt turned up as he looked into the distance.

"SCOTT!" Kurt yelled as he wondered where he could have disappeared off to but there was nothing there.

Logan showed up and his expert senses were engaged as he sniffed the air. His stomach turned at the smell of blood but there was something else in the air that he could not put together.

"Some kind of exhaust fumes," Logan grunted as he looked around. "The girl's gone and Summers….the kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Harry searched the docks for something, anything that would point in in the right direction of the person that he was going to assume was a kidnapper, unless he found a body. Then the crime would turn a turn for the grisly.

'What if Maddie did it?' Kara asked Harry but there was no answer that was given, her question left hanging in the air and she waited impatiently, hovering a few inches about the docks.

Harry thought that it was possible, very possible, almost too possible, that she could have done it. However, she would have had to move very quickly for anything to happen.

'I don't sense anyone else here, this is extremely odd, even a blocked thought pattern would give a slight hint,' Emma thought to him as she peered at the ugly stain of blood, with the pair of glasses and the shoe being the only thing left.

Harry thought it was extremely peculiar, exactly why a shoe and a pair of glasses would be left behind and not another scrap of clothing. There had to be something there.

His Red Sun went off and Harry pulled it out. There was a loud screeching hum that caused the X-Men and the Team to be taken aback and a weird font appeared on the text screen cell phone with one chilling message.

'A Jackal was behind this.'

The phone went dead, with Harry preparing to trace the call but once again, there was nothing.

"I honestly do not believe that she was completely responsible for what happened to Scott," Harry said, finally answering the question. "Scott must have seen something or heard something that he shouldn't have, however."

Xavier did not say anything.

"No body, Chuck, there's still a chance that the kid could be out there, although things are not looking good," Logan said as there was a sense that they had lost a founding member of the team on this day and Harry turned around and he paused before adding.

"I'll let you know if I find anything," Harry said after a few seconds. Jean walked next to Harry and the others followed him out the door.

"Something happened," Jean whispered to him and there was a nod, as Emma walked on Harry's other side, with Kitty, Rogue, Betsy, and Kara bringing on the rear. "You honestly don't believe she could have done it."

"Scott might have been a grade A douchebag at times, but it takes a really bent person to actually want to kill him, and I know that if I killed people for being douchebags, I'd have to commit suicide," Harry said somberly as he kept walking on forward. "And there's a chance….a minor chance that he was out there."

"He saw something but what did he see?" Kitty asked. "Jackal….what is that….do you even know?"

Gwen, who had decided to stave off sleep for the time being, had something to say. 'Jackal could mean many things….but here are the two most likely prospects. For one, Jackal is a rumored terrorist group that was an offshoot of HYDRA, although there are a lot of HYDRA offshoots after they splintered. I'm not sure how accurate the information is. Or Jackal is a project that was abandoned by LuthorCorp all those years ago, Lionel Luthor undertook it, take it for what you will.'

'Jackal….I've heard about it but it was long since demolished and I don't have many details about it,' Tess said. 'I expect Lionel would lie through his teeth about it and Lex doesn't know anything about it. It was before either of our times.'

'What I want to know is who sent you the threatening message?' Chloe asked and Harry sighed.

'Good question, wish I had a good answer for you to match it,' Harry thought but he heard something rustling in the bushes. He stood, rigid as there was a few seconds where he saw someone. It was a female assassin and it was not Talia or Elektra this time. She had long silky black hair and dark eyes. She had a fit body, wrapped in tight robes, with golden trim on them. She carried a blade and the Team eyed her nervously.

"It appears that my warning came to you much too late," Shiva said as she stared Harry down. Harry kept his gaze set on hers, keeping himself calm and cool and collected. Moments grinded by on the clock as Harry watched her. "It's a pity that someone was caught in the crossfire but I can assure that the League had nothing to do with this attack."

"If I believed you…."

"You have no reason to but the fact is, Nathaniel Essex has many plans and the League of Shadows were not privy to them," Shiva said in a calm voice but Kitty stood forward and stared the woman down.

"Well, you might not be in the loop about your boss, making all of these calls to Miles Warren, another guy who was in contact with Nathaniel Essex," Kitty said hotly. "Guess you don't know as much as you think that you know."

"I have no idea what this game is," Shiva admitted and there was a tone of sincerity in her voice that made Harry believe that as far as she knew, Ra's Al Ghul was not behind the attack. "As for this….Pryor child, well the girl existed, she went missing. Draw your own conclusion to what happened next. I will tell you that you have passed your test so far with flying colors."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Test….."

"All will be revealed in due time…."

"Who is the Jackal?" Kara demanded as she looked at Shiva.

"I have no clue, no one of that name works for the League of Shadows," Shiva said as she held her blade out. "You have a spirited group, Mr. Potter. I hope for one that they do not enrage the wrong person."

Shiva slipped off into the shadows but Harry managed to slap a subtle tracing spell on her. He was not going to let this one.

'Report back to me when the residue on Scott's sunglasses are scanned, I'm going after Shiva and I'm going to get to the bottom of this,' Harry thought and the girls nodded in agreement as Harry disappeared off into the night. He was really curious to see what he could accomplish today of all days.

The mystery of tonight was just getting weirder. This mysterious Jackal and the person that warned Harry about him or them was beginning to unsettle Harry greatly. He was pretty sure this entire case was going to be one that was going to get more confusing before he had any answers.

He had one more person that he knew could ferret out the answers, although she had her own problems in Gotham City. However, it might have been time to call on the goddamn Batwoman and see if she could find puzzle pieces that might have been missed by Harry.

Shiva returned to a shady looking motel at the edge of town although if she was meeting with someone, that's what Harry would have to find out soon.

Ra's Al Ghul was dressed in a green cloak as he made his way to the lab, with Ubu following him closely behind and Talia joining him as well.

"So, you think that he is here?" Talia whispered to her father and Ra's lifted one hand, not saying a word to his daughter. She had been left out of the loop once more. "I was under the assumption that you did not know where Essex was."

Ra's knocked on the door, for a second time ignoring his daughter's words. Talia was not going to lie though, the less time she spent in the presence of Nathaniel Essex the better things were going to be.

"Open up, Doctor Essex, I know that you're in there," Ra's said as he turned to Ubu. "If he does not come within the next ninety seconds, break it down."

"Yes, master," Ubu grunted as he cracked his knuckles. He prepared to serve his master and serve him well but the door creaked open.

"No need to shout, Great One," Essex said in a weedy tone of voice as he lead Ra's Al Ghul inside.

"Why have you been avoiding me, Essex?" Ra's asked him.

"I have not been avoiding you, I believe that there is a snitch inside the League of Shadows that may be appraising certain parties of the fact that we are in touch," Essex said as he looked at them. "And I trust that the girl has been found."

"No she has not," Ra's said to Essex and Talia gave him a questioning gaze.

"She is a dangerous pawn that has gone off of her leash, although she did allow me to acquire something that I have been after for quite some time," Essex said with a wide eye. The girl had that uncanny ability to disappear and he needed to get his hands on her before the girl would find out that she, much like the original, could potentially tap into the Phoenix Force. Then it would compromise Essex's plans, all of them.

"The Hand wishes to seek the girl as a bargaining chip, most likely because as always, they desire what the League wants and for no other reason," Ra's said, offering his own unique spin on the situation.

"Perhaps," Essex said as his voice looked rather crisp. If he knew where the girl was, he was not telling either Ra's or Talia. "I believe that you require something, from me, the heir that you wished to have."

"I have not forgotten about that plan, Essex, and you better not have double crossed me…."

"I'm hurt that you would have such an assumption," Essex said crisply as he walked forward. "Trust me when I say that I have given you the heir that I feel that you deserve."

"Very bring give me it, I wish to have a son that would be worthy of ruling the future of this world," Ra's said as he clasped his hands eagerly. "I require a worthy heir."

The implied swipe at Talia's worthiness was not missed on her but the girl stood in line like a dutiful soldier, even though there was an annoying twitch in her eye that indicated that she was not too happy with her father's undermining of her talents.

"Behold, the future, I believe that it is the perfect combination of your daughter and the Batman," Essex said as he unveiled the curtain.

"What is this?" Ra's demanded. "You double crossed me….."

"You wanted a strong heir, my studies told me a female would be stronger than a male given the combination between the Detective and your daughter," Essex said with bared teeth as a young girl of about twelve years old walked forward. She looked like Talia's miniature in every way, only she had piercing blue eyes.

"Perhaps a demonstration would be in order," Talia said as Ra's guard stepped in.

"Yes, we'll see if she is worthy," Ra's said although he was skeptical about this. "If she is worthy, she will live, but if she is not worthy, then she would not live long enough to understand the scope of her failure."

The guards surrounded the young girl but she watched them, her eyes carefully and amazingly blazing. She blocked one of the blades with expert ability and cracked the elbow behind the assassin's back. With another fluid movement, she plunged the blade into his stomach.

She dodged an attempt to decapitate her and applied pressure which brought her enemy down to the ground. He fell with a thump and she jumped over the top of the head of the enemy. A loud crack echoed as he was driven down.

Another assassin was sliced ear to ear with cold and punishing furry then the knife was brought back into the throat of the final assassin.

"I think these results speak for themselves," Essex said calmly and Ra's turned to his daughter.

"You deal with her, you're a female," Ra's said as he stormed off. He needed to return to the League of Shadows temple to figure things out.

"Come," Talia said, she was rather annoyed by the fact that she had this responsibility fostered upon her. Genetically speaking, this girl was her daughter.

Ubu followed her father out of the door, like a dutiful soldier that he was and Talia left.

Essex turned towards a screen in the corner. "We know that the game has just begun, don't we?"

A modulated and monotone voice could be heard from the other end of the communication link. "Yes."

"I thought you would," Essex said as he turned around. "Tonight's events….well wrong place, wrong time, weren't you, Mr. Summers?"

"Do you find it problematic what happened?" the modulated voice said coldly and crisply.

"I have enough of Scott Summer's DNA for my plans, it is sufficient," Essex said as he held a jar with a pair of eyeballs submerged in stasis fluid and viewed it with a wide grin. "Whether….Madelyne….knew what exactly happened, she was gone from the scene when you arrived. I'm sure the girl wonders if she was responsible for all three murders."

"Osborn knows," the modulated voice stated.

"I know, but will Osborn talk?" Essex asked.

"It is a risk," the modulated voice continued to speak to him. "And if Osborn knows, the Luthors might find out."

"Understood," Essex said to him.

It was all a well concocted scheme, almost a hundred people perished in a plane crash in a scheme to just fuck with Harry Potter's mind, alone with Jean Grey, Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, and many others. The girl had been stalked, harassed, to the point where she was nearly driven to a mental breakdown, all for Essex to lure her onto that doomed flight. He made himself an integral part of that girl's life for eighteen months and cashed in big times.

There was so much that could have gone wrong but so much that could have gone very right. It was all an experiment to see if he could drive an innocent redhead teenage girl, whose only crime was that she resembled Jean Grey, to madness and use her as a pawn to screw with Harry Potter's mind and in turn drive him to his own mental breakdown.

Revenge, for foiling his plans, that's what Essex's games were.

His game was not over, rather the game was just beginning.

"I will speak to you later," the modulated voice said. "Jackal out."