A/N – Sorry for the extremely late update. Thank you jschmidt and Telepathic Angel for your reviews. Hope you enjoy this chapter. And a special thanks to Kate, for giving me more motivation for this.

Disclaimer – I do not own the X-Men or the Askani

Nathaniel Essex sat in his office in the mental ward, his desk covered with many open books, scrolls, manuscripts, and a small bit of a tapestry. His lab coat was tossed on the floor, and his button up shirt was undone at the first three buttons from his neck. He would read part of a passage from a certain book, than quickly read over another passage from another book, than occasionally check a manuscript, at the end of each cycle he would pound his fist on the desk, or simply throw the book across the room. After several hours he just gripped his hair and rest his against his arms and curse to himself, gnashing his teeth. "Damn that man…he used a Japanese seal!" he cursed as stood up and paced up and down his office, looking at a scroll on his wall that had numerous seals written on it. "Why did he have to use a Japanese seal? There are no counter curses for a Japanese seal… damn you Grey.

Nathaniel walked to his pile of books on the Library, and flipped a few pages as he ran his hands through his hair, down his cheek, feeling the stubble that reminded him that he needed to shave, and finally though his patch on his chin, where he rested his hand and read the aged manuscript. After a few minutes, he stopped and ran his finger over a passage of text, as if to make sure he didn't skip a row. After rereading it, he got up and walked to the scroll on his wall, and looked over them all. Reciting the passage he just read in his mind; "…A seal is not just ink or blood on paper or a person. It is a living contract, that will do what it is created for until its 'death'." Seeing the seal he was looking for he taps it with his finger and wondered to himself. "I wonder…if I can not remove the seal…can I kill it?"

He walked to a painting on the adjacent wall, and ran his fingers along the frame of the painting; Suddenly the "painting" shimmered a bit and vanished, revealing a safe. He pressed the number sequence on the keypad, and the safe opened. Inside the safe were some files, a laptop, a few very old scrolls, a small handgun, and a small black case. He took the handgun and the small black case, than closed the safe door and walked a small fridge that was near his door, where he usually kept small frozen dinners, drinks for late nights. He opened the small freezer compartment revealing some pouches of blood. He thumbed open the small black case revealing a small pen, and took it out, than twisted it, causing a small needle to extend from the tip. He than stuck the needle into the port and watched as some of the blood went from the pouch to the pen.

Of the things that Nathaniel created, this "pen" was one of his favorites. It functioned like a normal pen, but was not meant for holding ink; rather its writing supply was blood. In the fields of researching and creating seals, Nathaniel knew that many seals, at least the more powerful ones were made of, or required blood. After a few seals, Nathaniel found that he and others grew tired of constantly cutting themselves or dipping their fingers in bowls of blood to make seals, which most of the time turned out to not work because of how sloppy they turned out. So he developed a special pen, based on the design of normal fountain pen, but made some necessary modifications. Such as the pen had a small cooling unit in the casing, so that the blood wouldn't coagulate as quickly, once it was exposed to heat. To draw the blood from its container, one just had to twist the pen like they were trying to open a normal pen and a needle would slowly extract from the tip, than one would simply pull back on the pen's clip (like drawing ink into a fountain pen) filling the chamber with blood. Than you would twist the pen again, retracting the needle and you were all set. To write with this pen, all you had to do was push down on the surface you wished to write on, this would push the stopper inside the pens tip back and allow the blood to flow out. One would have to write slowly, or there would be breaks in whatever one was writing, but the preciseness of the completed work was always well worth the time. (AN: sorry for this boring paragraph, but I wanted to make clear what the pen was and how it worked.)

Satisfied, Nathaniel pocketed the pen in his lab-coat's breast pocket, and his pistol, a Walther P22, in his slack's pocket. He exited his office, locking the door behind him and made his way to room 137. On his way there he stopped by the security guard's main desk to sign the normal papers for visiting a patient. "Good evening…or rather early morning Cliff. Quiet night?" he asked as he signed the papers rapidly.

"As quiet as it can get with half the patients howling about everything from bugs to the army of squirrels waiting to take over us all." Mumbled Cliff checking some of the monitors and the papers that were just signed making sure everything was in order.

"Cliff, these people all need help, and the best attention and treatment we can give them. Lets no belittle their behavior and conditions."

"I'm sorry Doctor, ill try to be more courteous." Only half meaning his words.

"Thank you, now please blind the cameras to room one thirty-seven, until I come back."

Cliff sighed softly and turned the cameras off. "Doctor, there are other, legal ways of…. satisfying yourself. You don't have to…"

"What are you accusing me of here, Cliff?" snapped Nathaniel, knowing what was going through the guard's mind.

"Nothing sir! I was just talking out of my ass…haven't slept much of late, and I don't know what I say half the time." Cliff replied quickly, trying to cover up what he said earlier.

"Well, get some sleep later today. That comment borderlines false accusation and will not stand for it!" retorted Nathaniel, raising his voice a little.

"Yes sir." Cliff said quickly "The room is ready for you."

Nathaniel strode off to the room without responding.

"Ass." Mumbled Cliff as he took he book back out and read some more.

Soon Nathaniel was standing at the door to room 137. He swiped his ID card into the scanner, and heard the locks click, granting him access. Before entering the room, Nathaniel took out the pen and shook it up a bit, moving the blood around, and double-checked the safety on his firearm. Satisfied, he placed his palm on the door and began to push it open. "Lets try this again Miss Grey." He though as he walking into the room, eyeing the unconscious girl on the floor, secured by the straitjacket.