Disclaimer: "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is owned by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Other than the character "Kenneth Tam", not one character mentioned here is mine.

Pyrenees, Spain, November 10th 2010:

An old man with a cane, wrapped up for the snow that keeps falling in this area. As this man went higher up, his vision went from bad to worse, what with all the snow blinding him. In the end, he had no other option but to take out something from his pockets. That something appeared like a blue stone, shaped to look like a miniature person, and for some reason glowing brightly. Despite all the modern technologies, this man wanted to use something a bit more nostalgic. At some point, he also realized just how dark things were getting. He turned to look at where the sun was. Or rather, he turned to look at Lucifer, which is what people have started to call the sun that Jupiter became, just six months ago. For the months that have passed, there was no night, as when one sun went down, Lucifer would rise. But this time, this one has set along with the first sun, so the night has returned. This didn't make his trip any easier, but this man was determined to not let this little inconvenience stop him.

After some time, he finally arrived where he wanted to be. Wherever it was, it had the appearance of a large castle. He put his blue stone back in his pocket, before he went to the castle's door, though it was big enough to call it a gate rather than anything else. Here, he pulled on a cord, which rang the bell. After some time, somebody opened the door. It was a man, who would be a man-servant, if it wasn't for the fact that he looked a little more like a clown. His face was black, too black to be African, not even shaped like that of an African, and his lips were unnaturally red. If anything, this man had the appearance of a Caucasian that painted his face to look... like a black clown. Some may wonder if this man, or the one he's serving, has some kind of issues with black men.

"Black Pete?" the old man asked the servant.

"Who are you?" the servant, Pete, questioned.

"I came to see your master, Saint Nicholas." the old man answered.

"I'm sorry, but my boss is very busy." Pete told him, "We're already behind schedule, as in a month we must..."

"I don't expect you to understand this." the old man interrupted, "But it's really urgent."

Pete sighed: "All right. I'll see what I can do."

Pete went back inside, leaving the old man to wait. After some time, Pete opened the door again, much more widely this time to let this old man in.

"He's in his study." Pete told him, "Shall I take you to him?"

"Please do." the old man replied.

Pete lead, and the old man followed.

When they made it to the aforementioned study, that belonged to this Saint Nicholas, the said saint was reading what looked like a long scroll, where he was putting ticks next to names, judging from what he was reading out loud. Once he heard Pete and the old man enter, he stopped reading and looked at them. The old man was hooded, so it was hard for him to see his face. However, the old man had a very long beard, like Nicholas himself, except that the latter's beard was white, whereas the old man's appeared to be grey.

"Ah, the man who could not wait." Nicholas said, "Patience is a virtue. Did you know that?"

"I do." the old man answered, as he raised his head to look at him, "But I have virtues that overshadow that."

As this man raised his head, Nicholas could see his face more clearly, and immediately recognized him: "You?!"

"Yes. Me." the old man said, just before he took off his robe, flashing the blue stone he used before.

Nicholas was about to pick up his staff, but the old man used the power of the stone to shoot that staff. Pete rushed in to help, but the old man's own cane was enough to knock him down.

"Pete!" Nicholas shouted, just when the old man shot another light at him.

With Nicholas down, the old man could approach him. Nicholas tried to get up, but he was too much weakened from the blast.

"Don't worry, my saint." the old man assured him, "You will not feel anything."