Title: "Her Death Song"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: R for abuse
Summary: Emma hears her death song every night in Scott's bed. Not a Scott/Emma fic.
Warnings: Abuse
Disclaimer: Emma "White Queen" Frost, Scott "Cyclops" Summers, Sean "Banshee" Cassidy, all other characters mentioned within, Generation X, and the X-Men are & TM Marvel comics, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Each strike against her bare back brought another sharp reminder of all the failures she had caused. She was a failure, pure and simple, and around her, people suffered. Not just people. Humanity had every right to suffer, but the ones who suffered around her were always the ones she was foolish enough to care about and, in so doing, cause them to suffer.

The whip sang as it flailed through the air once more, and with each strike, she was reminded of those she had loved and caused their loss. Her students, both the Hellions and Generation X, were gone due to her own ineptitude. Those who remained were too afraid of her to ever let her close to them again.

The loss of her Hellions had been almost more than she could bare, but one man had brought her back from the brink. Charles had been credited with her rescue, but in truth, it was none other than Sean Cassidy, the greatest Irish man to ever breathe, who had given her something to hold on for and renewed her will to live and try again. She had lost him, as well, when she had lost her second group of students.

She didn't deserve to be here, to walk the hallowed halls of this school every day, but she did so so that she might receive her penance each night. Her upper lip curled in a silent snarl of disgust at the irony of the identity of her punisher. Every one else thought him to be such a good man, an idle X-Man, and the perfect leader, the prim and proper Boy Scout as Wolverine so often called him, but Scott Summers had a dark side that he kept hidden.

Emma knew Scott loved her as much as he could have possibly loved any one other than his soul mate, Jean Grey, and she knew why he loved her. It wasn't for her looks, her power, her brain, or even her money. It was because Emma gave him a chance to unleash his dark side, and unleash it he did every single night since she had first gone willingly, seeking what only she could have known she'd find, to his bed.

He hit her again and again, breaking her skin open and causing rivulets of blood to run from her tender flesh to spoil the white silk sheets that adorned their bed. She flinched every time, knowing that that small action reassured him that he was in charge and encouraged him to keep hitting her. She kept her face pointed toward the floor so that he would not see the true emotions that she allowed to run rampant during this time.

Her tears poured down her face, goading him on even more, but he was not the reason for her tears. He never had been and never would be. She cried for all who she had lost and, she knew, would never get back. She cried for each and every one of her students and for the brother she'd lost long ago, but most of all, she cried for Sean and all that she'd hoped to share with him but knew she never would now.

Anger bubbled within her as she thought of why she had lost him, but it was fleeting as it always was for she knew, when all was said and done, it was still her fault. She should have known that the good people Sean and her students were would never have set well with her killing her own sister, even if it had been the only way to save them from her vicious clutches.

She remembered his smile and the charming Irish brogue that had always thrilled her ears each and every time she'd ever heard him speak. She remembered the way his emerald eyes had looked into hers, always with reassurance, hope, and just a hint of a glimmer of what she'd hoped was something more until the very end, when his hatred had crumpled her heart and his fury had taken her will to continue to live the life she'd fought to hold on to for years.

Scott hit Emma again, and she flinched once more as she buried her face into their sheets, the scent of her own blood assailing her nose. She closed her eyes against the tears and wept. One day, she knew, she'd find the courage to put herself out of her misery, but until then, the cost of spending her days doing all she could for mutantkind and her nights succumbing to the wicked wiles of the leader of the family of mutants she'd once ached to belong to was a small penance indeed for all the ways she'd failed those she'd ever dared to love. The whip sang a death song as it struck down upon her again, and she recognized and readily accepted the song that would lead to her own death.

The End