Beyond the Mask

Author: Illussen

Chapter 8: Failed

When Anna woke up, she found herself hanging on a wall, with her hands cuffed. She watched that the other asleep X-Men were in the same situation and she felt guilty. She was the one that brought them into this trap, planned by her own mother.

"Don't bother to use your powers." a voice came. Anna turned her head to see her mother looking at her.

"Why's that?" she asked.

"That little thing on your pretty head. It's called an M.P.A.S."

"Mutant Power Annihilation System. Wild guess, stops mutant powers."

"Smart too."

"I 'play' with computers. Tell me, mother, why did you do all this? What do you want from me? From the X-Men?"

"Why don't you let me to tell you a story?" the White Queen said and took a seat on an arm chair placed in front of Anna. "17 years ago, I was associated with the Hellfire Club. Maybe you've heard this."

"Yes. Also heard that you were a selfish bitch. Some things never change."

"Your insults do not offend me. Anyway, after a while I decided to find another associate. And I found one. Can't tell the name, because I really do not know it. But he had advanced technology for that time. So we decided to create a super-mutant. How the humans try to enhance their good for nothing race we tried to make ours better. Being one of the most powerful mutants and my associate being another one we combined our DNA, creating you. I was the one that kept inside me for the nine months, that's why you are somehow your mother."

"I was better without one." Anna commented.

"And I was better without you because I didn't need a daughter then and I still don't need one. You, my dear, are nothing more than a failed experiment. Selena, that's the name of the project, failed, creating somehow a monster. Because at 4 years your powers appeared. You weren't a super-mutant how we expected but you had three powers when the majority of mutants have just one. You have a slightly enhanced strength and often you can feel what others are feeling. But you call it instinct. You were only 4 years old and it was impossible to control your powers. That's why you were a monster. If we'd have let you unleash your powers you could have killed many people. Which was good. Still, you could have killed me. The target of my experiment was to create a mutant that could handle the force that it was given. Project Selena had to be closed forever. I proposed to kill you but my idiotic associate said that no. He took you and since then I don't know nothing about you. I don't know how he succeeded to control your powers at make them appear later but now I understand why was he trying to 'help' you. So that he can use you later. But I got to you first. I plan to reopen project Selena. Another try to create a super-mutant. But I need your DNA. Now you see why you are here."

"And them? Why are they here?"

"Because, my dear, I can use them too."

"Take their DNA too? To improve project Selena 2 because the first one didn't work? Do you think you can steal our powers just like that?"

"Yes. Because you can't do anything about it. This time Selena will be a success. You will be there just to see then you'll die. With your friends." Emma added and pushed a button. The X-Men woke up and looked confused around. Anna just closed her eyes and cursed her self for getting in this situation.

Author Note: Heh, turns up that Emma is a mad person. No such a big surprise. I think that you are curious to see who the 'father' is. You'll find out later. Bye and see you in chapter 9.