Chapter One: Revelations

No characters belong to me. The X-Men and associated characters belong to Marvel. GI Joe and related characters belong to Hasbro. Althea Delgado (as she exists in this fic), Xi, Brittany, Daria, and Quinn Delgado, and Claudius Delgado belong to Red Witch. Only Watson the butler is mine (as far as I know).

This fic takes place after 'Fair Exchange.' This was intended to be a short story, but it grew and grew. It serves as a little prelude to the next story in my mind. Don't worry- the Misfits, GI Joe, and the X-Men will show up eventually.

            Emma Frost watched the fencing practice from a distance. Both pupils were excellent given their level of experience. It was the smaller, far more slender duellist which held most of Emma's attention, though. The girl was good- damn good. She, like her elder brothers, was a natural athlete. Much physical training had honed her into a thing of beauty, one which even Emma, who had little interest in physical abilities, could appreciate. Of course, Emma thought proudly, there was also the girl's special… conditioning, which made her a success. Finally, the object of her attention won the match. She raised her mask soon after.

            "You really have to try harder," she smiled. Even from where Emma was standing, she could hear the girl's voice clearly. Tall and deceptively slender, her straight blond hair and cool blue-green eyes rendered the girl the living image of her mother at sixteen. "Stick to football and rugby, Brian. Fencing just isn't your sport."

            The other fencer raised his mask. "One of these days, I'll make you eat those words, Betsy," he promised. If Betsy- Elisabeth Braddock, who hated that nickname- was their mother at sixteen, then her brother Brian Braddock was the image of their father at the same age. Blonde, blue eyed, very tall, and filling out his frame with muscle, Brian would easily be a large, strapping man just like his father.

            "Oh come off it, you two," the instructor broke in. Jamie, or more formally James Braddock, was also the image of their father, but while Brian was still growing, Jamie was already a man. His hair was blond, and his blue eyes were grinning. "Face it, little brother- our sister just spit-shone your hairy arse."

            "Piss off, you prat," Brian muttered. Emma sighed- where did the Braddock children get their vulgar vocabulary from?

            "I heard that, ass," Jamie replied before tackling Brian. Soon, the brothers Braddock were engaged in yet another of their famed wrestling matches. As if oblivious to the fray, Elisabeth walked off in the direction of the showers. In Emma's direction. Emma quickly stepped out where she could be seen. Elisabeth gasped.

            "Ms Frost? What are you doing on this side of the Atlantic?" Elisabeth was surprised. She had met the members of the American Inner Circle before, of course, but she had seldom seen any of them in the Braddock estate outside of Malden, England.

            "I'm visiting you, dear," Emma smiled. She had made many trips across the pond in recent years, not that Elisabeth had ever remembered them fully.

            "Why, I'm honoured," Elisabeth said. Emma smiled- she covered up her surprise in record time. The girl had the potential to be an asset to the American Hellfire Club, but not to the White Queen- not as she was. Not without the adjustments Emma was making.

            "Of course you are," Emma smiled.

            "Oh, excuse me a moment, will you? Elisabeth asked, and before Emma could reply, the girl went off toward her brothers.

            "That's really not necessary, dear," Emma said hurriedly, but Elisabeth, separating her brothers, didn't respond. Ah, well- it wasn't as if she hadn't done this before.

            "Sorry, Ms. Frost," the young men muttered in unison, before Jamie stepped forward. "May I offer you a drink, Ms. Frost?"

            "Yes, you may, James. It is rather hot today, isn't it?" Emma began to enter their minds, slowly dominating them. It was something she could do quickly, but she had developed a taste for slowly overwhelming a mind, which she indulged as often as possible.

After the Braddock's showered and changed, Emma had high tea with them. She quickly dispatched Jamie and Brian into a psychic stupor while she got to work on Elisabeth. It was one thing to manipulate the servants of Sir James and Lady Elisabeth Braddock. It was even acceptable- barely- to manipulate their children (and in Elisabeth the Younger's case, it was necessary), but to intrude upon two members of the British Inner Circle, even if they were in the way, was unthinkable, if only because the consequences of detection were most… unpleasant, hence the need to ensure being with Elisabeth (without the elder Braddocks around) for as long as she needed to be.

Lifting a scone to her lips, Emma nibbled it while she deeply penetrated

Elisabeth's psyche. There it was- the cocoon which Emma had formed two years ago in the back of Elisabeth's mind was still intact, and still holding. Emma's astral form smiled even as it made the cocoon ever so slightly permeable. The essence of the woman within began to bleed out, and mix with Elisabeth's subconscious.

***

            The woman inside the cocoon stirred. Kwannon was not back in the familiar place of her own body- she was still inside this gaijin child. She could feel her knowledge drain out of her, and return. Nothing too personal left, but the training secrets of the Hand were being downloaded into the child. She was already a competent ninja, and was growing even better with every opening of this prison. The child could now speak and write Japanese flawlessly, even if she didn't know any of it yet. In return, Kwannon was growing proficient in gaijin sport, such as fencing, and knew the' intricacies' of the English tea ritual, which were nothing to the Japanese tea ritual. But the prison was beginning to weaken- Kwannon knew that even if the other woman, the one which bound her into the child, did not. Soon, she would be able to break free, and Kwannon, the Deadly Butterfly of the Hand, would be free again.

***

The melding had to be done slowly over a long period of time in order for it to be unnoticed, but it had worked. It did help that the two women had similar personalities and the same power (except Elisabeth was far, far more powerful). This was some of Emma's finest work- expertly crafted, and expertly hidden. Only someone that knew precisely where to look would be able to find it, and only someone willing to destroy both Elisabeth and her guest would be able to destroy it- a result of the girl's unusual psychic sensitivity, which had made the earliest attempts at manipulating her so damned difficult until Emma had learned how to fully compensate for it. It was a brilliant way to dispose of a potential rival while still keeping her useful. If the body which housed the mind trapped within the cocoon was never able to be repaired, an… accident would be arranged, and very much alive Elisabeth would be given over to the Hand, and the American Inner Circle's debt would be paid, even if the rest of them would never know it. If the body could be repaired, then Emma would put the guest back where she belonged, and the Hellfire Club would still have a finely trained assassin that was completely under Emma's thumb. Elisabeth would then take her place as Black Queen, as Sebastian desired, but under Emma's control. The White Queen would brook no true rivals, not if she could help it- especially if said rivals possessed the potential to match her in power. The beauty of it was that no one would know the full truth of the arrangement except for Emma and Matsu'o Tsurabaya, a genin of the Hand, who had much personal interest in the woman Elisabeth unknowingly kept safe.

            After many long minutes, Emma repaired the cocoon, and released the Braddock's from her control.

            "I'm sorry," Elisabeth said, blinking, "what were we talking about?"

            "You and Brian coming to my academy in Massachusetts, Elisabeth," Emma smiled. This was the goal which Shaw had set her to. She had to make the effort- not just for him, but so that she could have free reign over Elisabeth, who was exploring her telepathic powers.

            The same as always, then, Elisabeth thought as Emma once more went into her sales pitch.

***

            The next day, after Ms. Frost had left, Elisabeth tried her hand at another pastime- berating her elder brothers.

            "I can't believe you two got into another fight! You can't just control yourselves, can you?"

            "No Betsy," they muttered sheepishly.

            "It was a damn good thing Ms Frost chose to overlook your behaviour! I expect she must believe that we are a pack of bloody ill-tempered bores!"

            "Yes Betsy."

            "Sweet Jesus! You're practically grown men! Can't I turn my back without either of you getting into a fight?"

            "Yes Betsy."

            "Apparently I can't, if this keeps happening!"

            "Yes Betsy."

            She sighed, and sat down into the couch. Yet another attempt at recruitment from Emma Frost.

            "Doesn't the woman ever quit?" she muttered. "Can't she understand that we don't have a place in America?"

            "There is a place in America for you, you know," Jamie said quietly, "but it's not with Frost."

            "Please don't start that again," Elisabeth moaned.

            "That Xavier- he has the same powers as you," Brian said earnestly.

            "I don't need to be taught!" Elisabeth said fiercely, and stood up.

            "Maybe not," Brian said, "but maybe he can help you with your nightmares."

            "Nightmares?" Jamie asked, worriedly, and looked into his sister's eyes. "What nightmares?"

            "They're nothing!" she told him.

            "Now you're lying," Brian said quietly. "We're linked, Elisabeth- that's what you said when you came to me about your powers. We're linked- that's why you can always feel me. That's why it took you forever to learn to block me out when you learned how to block everybody else out. Didn't it ever occur to you that even though I don't have any powers, I can feel you?"

            "What do you see, Bri?" Jamie asked him, concerned.

            "I don't know the specifics, but she's having nightmares, that it's the same nightmare every time, and that it's scaring her. And it's related to her power, somehow, but don't ask me how."

            "That's it," Jamie said as he got up, "I'm calling mother and father."

            "Jamie!" Elisabeth shouted.

            "I won't stand by and hear of you having nightmares about your powers, Betsy. I won't, and you can't stop me, not unless you try to control me with your powers, if you know how to do that."

            "Maybe I can," she said dangerously.

            "And even if you could, you won't," Brian said as he stood up. "You would never hurt us, or control us, Betsy. It's not in you. You know it, and we know it. We're only interested in your welfare. Mother and father are in New York- this 'Bayville' or whatever the hell it's called isn't that far away." He looked straight into her eyes. "They won't stop loving you if you tell them you're a mutant. We didn't, and we never will."

            Elisabeth suddenly teared up. It was stupid, really, but ever since that awful day when the BBC showed the footage of people with special powers fighting that over-large robot she'd been afraid, afraid as she hadn't been since her powers first developed, when she went to Brian, and together, they eventually went to Jamie. And there it stopped- almost. There was a quartet of American sisters that had accidentally discovered the truth- a set of triplets, and their older sister, who was a few months younger than Elisabeth. Nobody else knew- not her closest friends, and certainly no other members of their family, not even her favourite cousin, Brittany (who was the closest thing to an older sister she had and who had seen some very strange things in GI Joe), and especially not her parents. She didn't want to say the reason why she didn't want to contact this Xavier, but Brian, as always, managed to see into her heart, right to her greatest fear. Rationally, she knew that he was right, but her heart wasn't sure. Hearing Brian say what she had told herself so often made it more real. She suddenly hugged him. Jamie soon joined in, and the Braddock children stood, embracing, for many minutes.

            "What would I do without you prats?" she asked, smiling, even though her tears were falling.

            "Not nearly as well," Brian grinned.

            "Do you want to tell them?" Jamie asked her.

            "Yes- it should come from me, shouldn't it?"

***

            Brian and Jamie waited outside the library. Inside, Elisabeth was telling her parents the truth about herself.

            "I don't hear any crying," Brian said suddenly. "That's good, isn't it?"

            "It's bloody soundproof, idiot. You wouldn't hear a thing unless the door was open, you know that!" Then, gently, "How is she?"

            Brian frowned. "Hard to say. She's in turmoil, that's all I can say for sure."

            Minutes later, the door opened. Elisabeth emerged, face pale.

            "What happened?" Brian asked, racing to her side.

            "They knew," she said in wonder. "They've always known. They wouldn't say how, but they've always known."

            "Bloody hell," Jamie whistled. "Why didn't they say anything?"

            "They were waiting for me to come forward and tell them," she said, slowly. "They told me that they love me, that that will never change, but they're disappointed that I didn't finally tell them sooner- much sooner."

            "And?"

            "And- and-" she swallowed. "I'm leaving."

            "What?" her brothers asked her.

            "They got tired of waiting. When their business was done, they went to the Xavier Institute in Bayville. They talked with Professor Xavier, and there's a place for me there, if I want it. I said yes, father called the Institute, and it's all settled. Mother and father will be coming back tomorrow. A teacher from the Institute will be with them. I'll be leaving that same day."

            "Just like that?" Brian asked, horrified.

            "Yeah, just like that. They were going to talk to me about it when they got back, but since I called them, they decided it was best not to wait. I gather that the Professor wants me over there, especially after he learned what I can do. He wants to help me learn to use my powers."

            "You already know how to use your powers," Jamie snorted. "Is he upset that you're self-taught? I imagine he was, and he seems to have turned out okay."

            "It's not that simple," Betsy frowned. "I went through some hard times when I was learning how to shut people out, and to be honest, I still can't do it all the time. If this man can teach me better techniques, I owe it to myself to learn them."

            "You know that," Jamie chided. "You just don't want her to go so soon."

            "And you do?" his younger twin siblings asked him in unison.

            "NO! I just want what's best for Bets."

            "Can you both do me a favour?" Elisabeth asked.

            "What?"

            "Can you please just call me Elisabeth? No little pet names until I go- okay?"

            "Deal," they said solemnly.

            "Bets," Brian snorted.

            "Betsy." Jamie said solemnly.

            "Butterfly."

            "Brat."

            "Barmy."

            "Bad ass."

            "Shut up!" she shouted, and started to chase them around the manor.

            Watson, the family butler, smiled. He had just been apprised of the situation by the master, and he thought it was good to hear Braddock Manor filled with the shouts of its boisterous youngsters chasing each other. It could well be the last time for God only knew how long.

A/N:

For those that might not know, gaijin is Japanese for westerner. If I am wrong about this, please tell me via review.