A/N: Okay, EXTREMELY sorry for being so lazy with the updates. I had major writer's block for I'm not sure how long. It is a bit of a shorter chapter too, so sorry for that. It's kinda of cliche and cheesey, I'm just trying to pull some surprises. :P Enjoy.

Hidden Hospitality

Written by Lexi

Chapter Nine: Passion Controls, and Visitors Stroll

Lexi ran her frail fingers through her silky black locks of hair. Her dark blue eyes peered around her-... the room she resided in.

This place was no home, she had decided. It wasn't a sanctuary, it wasn't even a headquarters, it was a basket case. A giant, fucked up, insane asylum with weaponry. A complete battle ground for the war against the good and the damned, the saints and the sinners. Maybe that was what she liked about it to begin with, though. It defied all that she thought she had once stood for. Good, heroism, etcetera. This place, this lair, was the complete opposite of all those things. It was, in a word; evil. Or more appropriately, the symbol for evil.

And it held evil's pure creator, it's God, it's fighter, Slade. Lexi possessed no words to describe this mentor of criminal ways for her. He was indescribable. This... this thing. He owned her, he owned everyone, he owned everything. He had the power and the capability to build or destroy whatever his demonic, sociopathic mind could ever desire, and he got away with all of it. No one would ever be able to comprehend how he did it all either. Slade would just go on along his merry little way, acting as he wanted.

And Lexi hated every vital trait about him.

Yet, she couldn't help but feel this intense presence of respect for the man. Maybe even liked him. It was perplexing how much one person could hate, loathe, and fear another, yet still care so deeply for them, all at the same moment in time. Lexi couldn't stand being within 40 feet in distance with the man, but she never wanted to be away from him. It made absolutely no sense to her at all. The only thing she was sure of was this... she wanted to prove herself to him. Why, she didn't know. She just desired it.

Lexi ignited a small flame in her palm, and stared with her glazed eyes at the sparks and color it created. It almost symbolized everything in her mind, the pain, rage, power, and passion...

That was it wasn't it? Passion. It was the main source of every thought she made, every action she created, all made from pure passion for the man convinced he had complete ownership over everything about her. And he did, in a way. Because everything she did was always for him, and it always would be. No matter good or bad, out of anger or a longing to prove herself to him, despite his bitch of a daughter.

Rose had to be put out of the way, somehow. She was holding Lexi back at lengths that drove her insane. All Lexi wanted to think about now were plots and schemes on how to eliminate "daddy's little girl..." She wanted her gone, for good.

She wanted her dead.

Suddenly, an alerting alarm sounded through out the lot. In the corner of Lexi's eye, for the first time, she noticed a red flashing light in the top corner of the wall in "her" room. It resembled a police siren's light, which it probably was. Just expertly stolen by the King of Thieves.

Lexi calmly jogged out the door to the gigantic main area of the hideout. She was met by Slade and Rose, both of them staring at the huge screen that now broadcasted the various security cameras set around the place. "Hey what was tha-"

"Shutup!" Rose snapped back at Lexi, interrupting her question with glaring eyes. Her snow white hair flowed over her shoulders when she wasn't in uniform, and her eyes gave an evil feeling around. Lexi raised her eery, shadowy blue eyes right back at her in return.

"It seems we have a visitor..." Slade's deep, alluring voice ran through the ears of the two girls. Their eyes peered up at the over-sized screen and saw a young, scruffy looking, boy, no older than 15, skulking the back corridors. His appearal was tattered and torn, he had scrapes and cuts on his face, and his dirty blonde hair was shaggy and messy.

"What should we do?" Lexi questioned in an un-needed whisper. It's not like this stranger could hear them from his location in the gigantic place, but she felt the uncontrolable urge to remain quiet.

Slade remained at a silent pause for a few moments, reviewing the perculiar and random entrance from this boy. His eyes slid back over to the screen for a second and saw the boy staring in awe at the rifles, swords, and other weaponry that aligned the walls of the room he had intruded. It had been a sort of "training" room. Slade made a note to remind Wintergreen to lock the doors when he finished cleaning the place...

Then, the un-uniformed villain arose from the leather chair he had been relaxing in, bent over to press a strange button on the large desk infront of it, and began to speak into it. "Shutdown the lights on the entire premisis, and remain where you are until I order otherwise. We have a strange guest I'd like to welcome..."

"As you wish, Master Wilson." Replied an elderly, yet distinguished voice sounding out of a speaker next to the button. Lexi began to wonder what else she didn't know about this place...