Disclaimer: I don't own the recognizable characters or places mentioned in this obvious work of fiction.
As promised! I'd love to hear your thoughts on where I'm taking this.
Marie opened the balcony door slowly, blinking rapidly in the sudden darkness. She was sure she'd heard something out in the darkness…
"Hello?" she called, wondering if what she'd heard had been real, or just a figment of her exhausted mind. It was probably nothing. She was jumping at shadows nowadays "Hello?" Slowly her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she was able to pick out the black clad figure seated at the end of the small balcony. Marie squinted into the darkness; sure her eyes were playing tricks on her
"D-Drachen?" Marie asked with a stutter, her voice high with disbelief and a little fear. The figure looked up at the sound of her voice. Her face was in shadow and her scarlet curls stained black with the night. "Is that really you?" Marie asked softly, hesitantly. She stepped out on to the balcony and quietly closed the door behind her, checking over her shoulder to see if anyone had noticed her exit. Mr Summers and Ms Grey would be furious… they had sent out searches, not even the Professor using Cerebro had found any trace of her… But no, they were all too caught up in the Christmas celebration that had overtaken the Mansion. The students that were leaving for the holidays were celebrating with those who were staying prior to their departure in the morning. Marie turned back towards Drachen and immediately started shivering. The winter wind raising goose flesh on her arms. It was so cold! Each year she swore was the coldest yet and despite her years away from home Marie couldn't get used to cold Decembers.
"We've all been so worried! Are you okay?" Marie asked, teeth clenched to keep them from chattering. Her heart jumped with joy to think her friend was back with them. She'd been so lonely, especially since Logan- Marie cut that thought abruptly short. Drachen didn't need her tears. Not now.
"I'm so cold," Drachen whispered, lips wreathed in frost fire, and voice sounding like the winter wind "So very cold." She grimaced, head tilting and face twisting with pain "There's a hole in my chest where my heart used to beat. My light. My fire." The dark-clad figure stood slowly "I gave it away. And now I'm empty. So empty. So cold." Drachen trailed off, eyes lost in the darkness, watching visions only she could see. "I've lost something… something important… if only I could remember what it was…"
Marie took a step backwards, chilled by the despair that was pouring from her one time friend. Looking down she noticed that the snow cover on the balcony was starting to melt around Drachen's feet. And not just melt; the puddles were starting to steam. Marie began to feel slightly afraid. Maybe coming out here alone hadn't been the best idea. Marie wondered suddenly where Bobby was, and she couldn't help wishing that he might choose this moment to come and find her. Her eyes snapped back to Drachen's face as she began to speak once more.
"I gave him everything. And now there's nothing left. The hole is getting bigger; with every breath I lose a bit more of myself to the darkness. It's eating me alive. And its so cold," Drachen took another step forward, towards the light, towards Marie. Marie stepped back in fear, she didn't know what was happening, but she knew that this wasn't her friend. Not now, not anymore "Soon there will be nothing left. Nothing but the darkness, and the cold." Marie felt a chill as Drachen took another step towards her. Her friend's skin was porcelain white and lit from within, her lips translucent. But her eyes… her eyes were burning. Marie could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise as she looked into the dancing flames. She felt sweat break out all over her body as the heat coming off Drachen's body assailed her
"Drake, please. You're scaring me," she begged, wringing her hands. She had backed up to the stone railing bordering the balcony.
There was nowhere else to run too.
Marie shot a look towards the closed door to her left, contemplating her chances of escaping her friend, or whatever is was that now wore her friend's face.
"I just want to be warm again," Drachen said in a broken whisper "The cold is killing me," Marie gasped as Drachen took another step closer. The icicles decorating the railing around them were starting to melt.
"I'm sorry," Marie whispered feeling an echoing ache in her own heart. Logan's loss had hit her hard as well. He had been her friend, her rescuer, and sometimes a substitute for what her father could never give her; advice and love.
"I'm sorry that he left you. That he left us. But that doesn't mean we have to lose you too. Come back. Please," she swallowed, throat dry "Why don't you come inside? Come inside where it's warm. Come home." Marie gestured to her left towards the door, moving closer towards the light spilling from the party inside, closer towards safety. The faint sound of music was spilling out onto the balcony.
"I can never go home," Drachen said hollowly. A sudden sound from inside the Mansion startled Marie and made her jump. Taking her eyes from the haunted figure in front of her she looked inside for the source of the noise, praying it was a rescue and feeling a flash of guilt for thinking she needed one. Her eyes shot back to where the creature that was no longer her friend had been standing. Drachen was gone.
...
Drachen felt her heartbeat slow as she entered the grounds of the house where the New Brotherhood were marshaling for their final assault. The little army they had created was going well, or so it said. Their numbers had swelled and by now most, if not all of the rooms in the house were full. It was a house the same way that the Mansion was a school. Rooms upon rooms set on sprawling grounds. But unlike Xavier's School the house's former grandeur had been brought low and in some of her clearer moments Drachen saw this. The wallpaper was peeling, the grounds were rough and over grown, and the rooms stank of rising damp. And it was cold. So cold. No matter how close she stood to the ancient fireplaces, or how many coats she piled on she was still freezing. Still cold. It radiated from her. Starting in her chest where her heart used to be and burning its way outward towards her fingers and her toes.
The attack would come tomorrow, just as the sun kissed the horizon and evening fell. Their weapon, hard won, would change the tide of battle with her ability to manipulate genes, giving the Brotherhood the advantage. An advantage they planned to use to wipe the X-Men from the face of existence. Then they planned to turn their might on the humans. The Mutant Registration Act was only the first of the planned injustices that the humans were attempting to persecute them with. It was their rallying point, not to mention a recruiting list of the damaged and demented, and Drachen had given it to them gladly, once he had explained to her the need. She would follow Logan anywhere, anywhere he asked her to go. Even into death, for death was where he had gone… It wouldn't be long now. Mere hours and they would be together in Morte. United in death, as they had never been in life.
Drachen wondered idly if it would be warm there. The place you went when you died. Anything would be better then this. Even nothing. Anything to end the burning cold that was slowly consuming her; one broken heart beat at a time.
Pushing open the door of the study Drachen didn't bother to announce her presence to those within. She turned towards the Shade of her love, sitting behind the battered mahogany desk. She would have laughed, in another time, not so long ago, at the image of her burly cage fighter holding a pen and making carefully precise notes in a leather-bound ledger. War plans for the coming battle. Plans of death and slaughter. Plans of victory and triumph. Plans she would not see to fruition. She crossed the room and dropped a perfunctory kiss on its whiskered cheek, watching as it flinched away from the chill of her flesh. She was so cold. So cold. Why would it not share some of its warmth with her? It had barely touched her since the day it had brought her here, though they slept close at night now. The Shade liked to keep her close. To watch her. To keep her calm. To control her.
"Come to bed… Precious," Drachen invited through cold-chilled lips, dropping her coat and offering a chilly, yet sultry smile. A look of surprise passed over the Shade's face, but it was quickly covered. Drachen almost smiled as it caught her meaning clearly. A lustful smile bloomed on its face and it rose
"Well hot damn sweetheart! I thought you'd never ask," the figure made its way towards her and for a second, just a second, Drachen allowed herself the luxury of a smile as she sank into its embrace. It felt so good. So good to just be held. If only she wasn't so cold. It made her bones ache. Made it difficult to sleep – the never ending burning, the constant chill... Drachen took a deep breath, and the space where her heart had once been cracked a little more, shards of her chest falling into the sucking abyss. She leaned in closer in an effort to prevent herself from flinching backwards from the pain.
Because there were two things she couldn't copy.
And one of them was scent.
...
Hours later two bodies lay entwined in tangled, sweat soaked sheets. The Shade of Logan lay next to her, snoring softly in the darkness. It slept deeply, well satisfied by their encounter, having taken something that she had kept safe for Logan. But he was gone now. And soon, she would be too. Drachen's limbs were sprawled carelessly, her breathing slow and even. But her eyes… her eyes were open and staring, and they burned blue in the darkness.