Chapter 12

The War part VI

Cassandra landed on her feet and faced a red faced Scott with a smirk. "Attacking me, will you? That was really stupid." She spoke as she shook her head.

Scott glared at her, then he attacked her with his optic blast, only for it to be stopped by her telekinetic shield. Cassandra grinned at him and side-kicked him in the head, making him whip his head to the side. Scott attempted to punch her, but she dodged the punch easily. Her grin didn't disappear as she punched him in the face with amazing speed, it stayed there as she did a backflip and waited for him to charge her.

Scott glared at her as he charged at her, before he could hit her, she blocked him and kicked him in the gut with her heel, making him get on his knees and cough up blood. As he was coughing blood Cassandra gave him another side-kick on the face, making him completely fall on the ground.

Ororo, Sage, Wolverine, Emma and Jean chose that moment to get out of the mansion. Ororo, Jean and Emma ran to help Scott back on his feet while Wolverine and Sage ran to Cassandra's side to try and detain her.

Cassandra, however, didn't have any plans of resisting, she simply raised her hands in the air and smirked at Scott, who was now standing with Jean and Emma's help. "Next time you get an idea to attack me, don't." She spoke in an amused tone.

Emma turned to glare at her. "Did you have to fight in front of the kids!?" She spoke in her usual cold tone. When Cassandra gave her an unconcerned shrug her glare intensified. "What is this all about anyway!?" Cassandra rolled her eyes at the stupid question, she doesn't really care about explaining so she left that task to Jean.

As Jean was explaining Wolverine got a little closer to Cassandra. "Nice fighting style, you beat him in less than a minute." He whispered.

Cassandra smirked. "Thanks." She whispered back. She then glanced at him. "I'm a better marksman than a fighter, but I know a thing or two about fighting." Wolverine nodded and smirked.

When Jean finished Wolverine spoke louder. "So, it's pretty much Scooter's fault?" He barely heard what she said, but he understood the point. Which is, it's Scooter's fault.

Jean sighed. "He attacked first, yes."

"Can I go back to my ce… err, my room, now?" She asked with a smirk.

Ororo sighed and nodded. "I'm going to take you there, then we'll talk." She said with a serious expression.

Cassandra shrugged. "Fair enough."

…

As Hank worked on bandaging Scott, there was a gash on his stomach, from Cassandra's heel. Xavier entered the room to see Jean sitting there. He glanced at Scott and shook his head. From what he heard, the fight didn't even last a minute, how skilled is that woman really when she managed to defeat Scott, who is a very good fighter, that quickly.

"Professor." He heard Jean's voice, making him turn to look at her. "I… he simply attacked her because she didn't agree with him…" She shook her head. "I knew that he changed since he was possessed by the Apocalypse, but this…"

Xavier sighed, he would like to defend Scott somehow, after all, he was only trying to defend him, but he couldn't say anything. And even if he did, he doesn't believe he is very popular with the most of X-men. He shouldn't have told Sage to seduce Cassandra. That woman is planning to destroy his reputation because of one mistake.

"Well, done." They heard Hank break the silence. "You should be fine, just don't strain your stomach too much. Meaning, no training." He gave Scott a stern look.

Scott didn't answer him, he just stood and started walking toward the med lab exit. Jean hurried up to go after him and put a hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off. She sighed and started walking next to him. "Scott." He remained silent. "Scott." Still nothing. "Scott, would you just stop and talk to me!?" She yelled at him.

He stopped walking but didn't turn to look at her. "Did you see what she did there?" He asked in a cold tone.

Jean sighed and rubbed her temple. "Scott, you attacked her. Everybody would react like that if they were attacked." She told him slowly. Scott's jaw clenched and he continued walking. "Scott…" She called softly.

"She lied." He said, but didn't stop walking. "She lied about the spies, professor wouldn't do something like that."

Jean sighed and shook her head. "Scott, I know he is like a father to you, but he did do some questionable things since Moira MacTaggert's death."

Scott shook his head. "No, he wouldn't do something like that."

…..

Cassandra jumped down on her bed and sighed. "Ah, this is nice." She glanced at Ororo, who was walking through the door, and patted a spot next to her on the bed. "Wanna join me? The longest I've ever gone was 33 hours, but I could go longer." She wiggled her eyebrows.

Ororo sat down on the chair and gave Cassandra a stern expression. "Speak." She commanded.

Cassandra pouted. "I can make all your dreams come true." When she got a glare, she shrugged. "Suit yourself." She paused to make herself comfortable. "In a kingdom far, far away, there was a truly evil king called Charles, he ordered his… 'wizard', Forge, to make a device that will help him track powerful creatures called shapeshifters. There was one truly powerful shapeshifter called Raven he was interested in." She looked at Ororo to see her looking at her strangely but nodding for her to continue nevertheless. "You see, there were people who wanted to find Raven, and kill her, so, king Charles threatened to tell these people where she's hiding if she doesn't work as his spy."

Ororo's eyes widened. "Mystique? Mystique is professor's spy?" Her question got her a nod. "So, tell me if I got this right. Professor had Forge make a device to track Mystique and he uses this device in order to blackmail her into working for him."

Cassandra appeared thoughtful. "Well, you see, Forge made that device and gave it to the government, but he also made another device which will keep Mystique hidden from the other device, as long as she works for Xavier."

Ororo nodded. "I'm going to talk to professor about this." She started to rush out of the room.

"Wait!" Cassandra yelled. "If you do that, Xavier is going to turn off the device."

Ororo turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "So what? The woman deserves what is coming to her."

Cassandra sighed. "While I do agree that her methods are a little… extreme, I believe she has the best interest of mutants in heart." Ororo gave her a dubious look. "Look, she might not use the same way you and other X-men use, but she's fighting the same fight you are." Ororo opened her mouth to protest but Cassandra cut her off with a glare. "The goal is the same, a world where mutants can live in peace. Granted, you are trying to create a world for humans and mutants to coexist in peace, which will never happen by the way, and she is trying to create a world without humans, which is just as, or even more so, ridiculous, but the goal is pretty much the same."

Ororo gave her a measuring look. "You really believe that mutants and humans can't coexist?" Her tone wasn't angry, as Scott's would have been, it was merely curious.

Cassandra sighed again, she wasn't serious for so long since, well, she couldn't remember how long has it been. "Eventually, perhaps more people will be at least tolerant of mutants, but there will always be bigots. And bigots that go against mutants are usually well organized and well-armed." Ororo was about to speak but Cassandra cut her off again. " 1863. African Americans were released from slavery, today, we see them being attacked, and even killed by racists every day. 1987. Homosexuality stopped being considered as a mental illness, today, we still see hate crimes against homosexuals. It won't be any better for mutants."

Ororo appeared to be thinking it over, finally, she sighed and walked back to sit on the chair. "So, what do you propose we do about Mystique?" She asked with a resigned tone.

Cassandra smirked. "Nothing." When Ororo looked at her questionably she quickly continued. "For now, at least. I don't care much for the way he forced her to work for him, or the way he uses her." She then looked Ororo directly in the eye. "He has other spies, you know? And he wouldn't want those spies to meet with the X-men, he would leave them to die on the field just so you don't find out about them. Even Sage would be dead if her powers weren't as useful as they are, even then, he waited to see if Shaw would pay for her before he sent you guys to save her. He let her be tortured by Bogan simply because he wanted to keep her in Hellfire Club." She watched Ororo carefully as she said all of this, and she could see the exact moment the woman lost all her faith in Charles. Perfect. "I can also bet that you don't know the full extent of what happens in the Hellfire Club. Did Sage or the professor ever tell you about it?" Bingo. That's when her eyes hardened and Cassandra knew that she had an ally in this woman. The war against her Charles started wouldn't be won by strength or powers, no, it would be won by intelligence and charisma, and Cassandra is far more intelligent and charismatic than Xavier could ever hope to be.

…

Castle was sitting in his car in front of the Fisk Tower, watching for any sign of activity. Even though Shaw was dead, Castle knew that the war between Fisk and this Hellfire Club wasn't over. He might as well use that war to get to Fisk.

He noticed three vans coming out of Fisk Tower's garage and his eyes narrowed to see behind the tilted glass. What he saw made him pause, there were people, dangerous looking people, inside the van. "What is he up to now?" He muttered to himself. He decided to follow them and find out.

…..

Xavier sighed, everything is falling apart in front of his very eyes. He just talked with Ororo and she seemed even colder to him than before. What's worse, he couldn't read her to find out why. Cassandra is probably using her powers to protect Ororo's mind from me. He rubbed his temple. Scott was right, I shouldn't have trusted that woman, and God knows what else she knows. That thought gave him a pause. Could she know about Mystique? If she does and tells somebody… He shook his head, he doesn't want to even think about it.

A knock on the door surprised him, he looked up to see Emma standing there. "Can I help you Emma?" He asked in as normal tone as he could, given the circumstances.

Emma smirked at him. "What did you do to her?" At his confused look she hurried to explain. "What did you do to make her tell on you? From what I saw, she is an opportunistic woman, she would rather keep this information to blackmail you with it. You did something to piss her off."

Xavier sighed, he thought about that possibility, did she do this because he told Sage to seduce her. He didn't think that would make her angry, after all, she was a member of the Hellfire Club, she should be used to that level of manipulation. "I don't know." He decided to say in the end.

Emma nodded. "Well, you did something." She moved to sit on the chair in front of his desk. "What did you think would happen once the rest of the X-men found out?" She asked him coldly. "Did you think they would like you having assassins and spies? After Tessa?"

Xavier rubbed his temple. "I didn't intend for them to find out." He sighed. "What do you want Emma?"

Emma sat up in her chair. "Who are the spies Xavier?"

Xavier sighed. "You know I can't…" He was cut off by a loud explosion. His eyes widened. "What's going on?"

Emma didn't answer him, she just stood up from her chair and started running towards where the explosion was heard. When she got out of the mansion her eyes widened to see about a dozen men with guns, led by Ronald Aimer. She rushed to attack them, but stopped when she saw them put on gas masks and throwing grenades, from which smoke started coming out.

Wolverine, Jean, Rogue, Gambit, Betsy, Sage and Thunderbird came out of the mansion shortly after her and stood next to her. "What's going on now!?" Wolverine's agitation was clear in his voice. "Ah, whatever!" He shouted and draw his claws out once no one answered him.

He rushed to attack them but as soon as he came near the smoke he started coughing. "Ah, sorry buddy, but that smoke will make even you faint." Ronald's voice said. "Shoot!" They heard him order just before they started running for the cover from the bullets.

-What now?- Emma heard Jean's voice in her head and gritted her teeth, how should she know.

-You know, firefly- They all could hear Cassandra's voice in their heads just before they saw her jumping out the window. –you could just use your telekinesis to protect yourself from smoke.- They could somehow hear Cassandra's ever present smirk in her telepathic voice. "Wait, I know you." She spoke out loud to Aimer. "Or, at least, I know the man whose face you're wearing." She smirked at his surprised expression, he was standing farther away from the smoke, so he didn't wear a mask. "That's the first person I've ever killed." She then tilted her head. "Well, sort of."

"Kill this bitch!" Aimer shouted. The goons started shooting at Cassandra but she raised a telepathic shield so the bullets didn't even reach her.

Cassandra yawned. "That's the best you've got? Because if it is, you're toast." She said just before she used telekinesis to take the guns away from men. She then looked at the gas cloud that started to disappear. "You know, you shouldn't throw gas bombs out into the open, it stops working way too quickly." Her voice was bored, and her words managed to sound like a lesson.

"Okay, I don't know about you guys but I'm not going to let her hog all the fun." Betsy spoke before she rushed off to join Cassandra.

Cassandra glanced at Betsy as the woman stopped to stand next to her. "Well, how nice of you to join me, sweetheart, I was kinda getting lonely here." She spoke with a smirk.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, luv." Betsy answered with an identical smirk as she created a katana. Betsy might have decided to join Cassandra, but the others were all too happy to stand back and see what Cassandra can really do.

"On three?" Cassandra asked. When she saw the goons charging at her she smirked.

"Three." Betsy said before attacking her group. It wasn't said, but it was good manners to leave half of them to Cassandra. One guy was about to punch Cassandra when she blocked his fist and grabbed his neck to lift him in the air with ease. He was thrown at one of his friends just before his second friend was about to kick Cassandra in the face. Cassandra grabbed the leg of the guy who was about to kick her and strained it enough to break. He fell on the grass with a scream of pain. She smirked as she saw the fourth guy's reluctance to attack her. Since he was too slow in attacking her, she just attacked him herself. She just approached him and hit him hard enough for him to fall unconscious. The fifth guy fell just as easily.

"Well, that was easy." Betsy spoke as she glanced around. She chanced a glance at Aimer and saw him running away. "Hey, that guy is running away!" Cassandra turned to look and was about to run after him when she heard the sound of a shotgun.

Cassandra heard 'Aimer' cry out in pain and fall on the grass. When she glanced from where she heard the shotgun to see Castle standing there. She didn't spare him any mind for now and went to check on 'Aimer', only to see him clutching his leg. "Let's see who sent you, shall we?" She spoke before entering his mind as forcefully and painfully as she could. She smirked. "Well, mister Smerdyakov, you made a great mistake by even attempting this ridiculous plan."

The X-men who were standing there, watching, ran up to her while glancing at Castle. "What did you find?" Jean asked as she glance at Wolverine, who began to stir.

Cassandra barely glanced away from Chameleon, who was now in his real shape, as she spoke. "He works for the Kingpin." She paused to make Chameleon sleep. "He was supposed to kidnap the firefly while wearing the face of Aimer, who is a member of the Hellfire Club, so the rest of the X-men would attack the Hellfire." Her face showed disgust. "A poorly thought plan."

…..

They were all, including Punisher, who looked uncomfortable, sitting at Xavier's conference room, talking about what they should do now. Cassandra was pretty bored and completely muted their conversation to think about more interesting stuff, sex. That's why she was surprised when somebody called her name. "Huh?" She looked around, as if to check who called her.

"Are you even listening!?" Scott asked angrily.

Cassandra looked at him with half closed eyes and yawned. "Honestly? No. Your plans are stupid, your presentation dull and, honestly, you are boring me to death." She answered matter-of-factly.

"What do you propose we do then, oh genius one?" Frost's sarcasm was easily noticeable but Cassandra didn't pay it any mind.

"Why, thank you for noticing. Did you know I finished all of my college classes when I was sixteen." She spoke with a grin. "Anyway, why should we do a full frontal assault when we can simply brainwash Chameleon into thinking he got the firefly, and that the rest of us are those goons of his and let him take us to Fisk tower, where we will beat Fisk and his allies into submitting to me and bowing to me like their new queen of crime."

Emma nodded. "That's actually a very good idea. Well, except for the part where they make Cassandra the queen of crime." She spoke to Xavier, completely ignoring Cassandra's pouting face.

Professor nodded thoughtfully. "Jean, do you think you could do that?" He asked the redhead.

"Why should we make firefly do that?" Cassandra said as she waved a dismissive hand. "Let me do it, I'm a much more powerful telepath." She glanced at Jean. "No offence firefly. Plus, my powers and telepathy will be very useful, and it is my plan."

"No way in hell!" Scott yelled as he jumped up. That move, however, made his injured stomach hurt. He grunted as he moved to sit down slowly.

"Easy there buddy." Cassandra spoke in a mocking tone. "You don't want to hurt yourself too much." –Or make me tell your wife.- She continued telepathically.

Scott glared at her, but remained silent. "Ah, mean, why not, Cassandra already proved us she is more than capable." Rogue spoke.

Cassandra smirked at her. "Oh, baby, you have no idea." When that comment got her a glare, she had gal to look innocent. "What? I was talking about fighting." She then grinned devilishly. "What did you think I was talking about?"

Jean shook her head. "Even though Cassandra is persistent, narcissistic, hypersexual and incredibly flirty, I agree we could use her help." She spoke to both Scott and Xavier, who looked reluctant.

Cassandra nodded. "Thank you firefly." She took Jean's comment as a compliment even though it wasn't intended as one. "Very few people notice all those qualities."

Punisher decided it was the right time to speak up. "Listen, I don't care about the rest of you but I'm definitely going." Everybody turned to look at him in surprise since he didn't say a word since they got into the room. "But I saw this girl in action, and she is pretty good."

Xavier nodded slowly. "Okay, Cassandra can go." He sighed. I just hope I don't regret this.

AN/ Another chapter. If you've read Princess Alexandria's 500 miles, than you maybe noticed that this Xavier was inspired by Xavier in her Hellfire arc. (Inspired or a cheap rip-off, you decide.)

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