Note From Author: Well, what is there to say? Umm, yeah. Go ahead, burn me at the stake for not updating in a long, long, long, long, long, long time. Well the chapter is short, the end reveals something about Asher. What shall happen? Who am I talking to?

Chapter 12

'Imagine there's no heaven,'
'It's easy if you try,'
'No hell below us,'
'Above us only sky,'
'Imagine all the people'
'living for today…'

'Imagine there's no countries,'
'It isn't hard to do,'
'Nothing to kill or die for,'
'No religion too,'
'Imagine all the people'
'living life in peace…'
-A Perfect Circle-Imagine-

Leo trudged through the freshly fallen snow, Kurt bounded after him.

"I don't understand what you don't understand when I say 'leave me alone." Leo snapped around, catching Kurt by surprise.

"Traurig, aber ich kann nicht Sie verstehen. (Sadly, but I cannot understand you)" Kurt replied in German.

Leo glared at him. "Very funny."

"I zought you vould get a kick out of zat one." He smiled.

Leo turned back and began waking again. "You really piss me off, you know that?"

"Ach, c'mon, ve are brozers, ve're supposed to piss each ozer off. You know vat zey say, 'blood is zicker zan vater'."

"Yes but gravy's thicker than both." Leo grinned, waiting to hear Kurt's response.

Kurt stopped, dumbfounded. "Vat?"

"Exactly my point." He stepped up to the door, and opened it.

Kurt scooped up some snow and threw at Leo, getting him on the back of his head.

"What the hell?" Leo spun around. "That's it you blue furred beast, I'm, going to kill you." Leo lunged for Kurt.

BAMF

"Ha, ha. You can't catch me." Kurt stood in the doorway to the inside.

Leo stood up, and was about to charge at Kurt, but Kurt slammed the door shut.

"Zere, if he vants to be alone, he can." Kurt started to walk away, until a knock came from the door. "Forget it, I'm not opening za door."

Leo thrusted open the door in his dragon form.

Kurt let out a small whimper.

'I'm sick of your bull shit.'

"Dear Gott." Kurt froze.

BAMF

Leo dragon grinned, then turned into his human form in order to get inside.

"That's a great way to treat your brother." Tobius said. For the past week, Tobius has been in his room, trying to get over the flue.

"Look who's talking, you and Kathy never get along."

Tobius shrugged.

"And you're sick damnit, get back upstairs, I don't wanna get sick too."

"Yes master." Tobius morphed into a cat and slinked up the stairs to his room.

"I didn't think anyone besides me could tell Tobius what to do." Kathy smiled.

Leo looked up and grinned as he saw her walk down the stairs. "Stepped out from your dungeon?"

"Hilarious." She said sarcastically.

"Well I try."

Kathy smiled with sarcasm. "Are you quite through tormenting every person you see?"

"No. I still have you."

"You did that quite enough a few months ago." Kathy walked past him to the kitchen.

Jean walked up to Kathy. "Just the person I'm looking for." She smiled.

"Oh, shit." Kathy slumped, and sighed. "What now?"

"You are the only person without a Christmas list."

"Your point?"

"Don't you want anything for Christmas?"

"Not really." She tried to walk past Jean again.

"Well, there has to be something you want."

Kathy sighed. "You know what I want? I want a yacht, and a nice gun, so I could shoot the president. That's what I want." She smiled.

Jean sighed. "I can never get a serious answer from you, can I?"

"Nope, and you never will." She made her way to the kitchen.

"What about you, Leo?" Jean asked him. "You must want something."

"Happiness." He said plainly and walked up the stairs to his room.

Jean sighed. "What the hell is all these peoples' problem?" She muttered under her breath.

Kathy peered from a corner. "All of "us" peoples' problems are a few things. A big one is Tigris"

"Shut-up, you wise ass." Jean snapped.

"Sorry, not like it's my fault that you tend to be a control freak." Kathy turned around.

"I am not a control freak."

Kathy stopped and smirked. "Isn't it neat? The way we all hide in our own little corner of our brain, believing what we tell our selves. Not everything is perfect in the world. Sometimes we just have to grin and bear it." Kathy giggled like a school girl. "But I'm sure you would break down if you realized that the world isn't perfect."

"You know, Kathy. We don't have to be enemies."

"Friends nice, enemies are fun." She grinned and walked on.

Jean sighed and shook her head. One day, she was going to teach Kathy a lesson.

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Asher slumped into a kitchen chair, wings drooped.

"Well, hello there, Mr. Van Helsing." Kathy smiled.

He looked up, and gave her a nasty look.

"Well, someone seems to be a bit pissy." She poured herself some eggnog. "Mm. Now that is some good 'nog."

"Tell me something. You got through all this pain be cause of Leo, but you don't kill him."

"Well, why would I want to. Just cause something looks to be evil, doesn't mean it is. I killed people for a living since I was thirteen. Some people would call me evil, but I am clearly not." She sat down next to him. "He might have tried to kill me, but I've done enough of killing in my life. I don't want to take another life."

"So you joined the X-Men to repay yourself? So you can think that doing something good, can help you?" He stared at her.

"Well, I don't really know. I'm not religious, thinking that if I do some good deeds, I'll go to heaven instead of hell, but it more like repaying the families of which I killed their loved ones." She sighed. "It is very hard to kill another human."

"Obviously, after you killed one, you found it like a drug. You got addicted to it." Asher said, doubtful of what she said.

"You're right. It is addictive. That's why I carry a gun around, to cheat a little." She smirked.

"You realize you are no better than Leo. Just killing for pure pleasure."

Kathy stared at him long and hard. "I killed to survive, Leo killed for joy." She slid off her chair, and took a few steps backwards.. "You have to remember, Asher, you kill Leo, I die with him." She turned around, and walked out of the kitchen.

He glanced back at her, then shifted his gaze at the counter top. 'If she is to die when Leo is killed by my sword, then it shall be.'

"That isn't the best thing to do, Asher." Jean said. "For such a secretive guy, you think awfully loud."

"You will say nothing of this." He snapped.

"Leo and Kathy might not be my friends, but I won't let you kill Leo, and have Kathy die."

"Emotions are feeble. An obsolete thing that humans are equipped with."

"What about Rouge? You care about her." Jean put her hand on his shoulder. He shook her off.

"You should watch yourself, Jean. You don't know when the Demon will arise." He got off the chair, and looked down on her. "Tigris didn't pay three million to spare Leo's life, because another will die." He grabbed her wrist.

"Let go of me!" She shrieked.

"Shhh." He placed his hand over her mouth. "We don't want the others to know, now do we?"

She started at him, frightened. 'How could you? We accepted you. Trusted you, and you betray us.' She narrowed her eyes.

"That's the way the bad boys play." He smiled gruesomely. "Now, be a good girl, and say nothing of this. Do you understand?" She nodded. "Good." He let her go.

"And you think the X-Men are naive?" She took off in a brisk sprint.

"No!" He ran after her.

'Professor!'

'Yes Jean? What is wrong?'

'Asher is working for Tigris!'

"Get back here you bitch!" Asher was about to spread his wings, in order to glide after her, but something stopped him. Leo rammed into him, knocking him on his ass.

"You fucking bastard!" He kicked Asher in the gut. "You little double crossing shitter!" Leo grabbed him by the base of the neck.

"No better than you. You are a murderer, You killed my parents. The only way to get you back was to work for Tigris. He wants you dead, and all who stand in his way."

"Let go of him!" Rouge yelled at Leo.

"No. He works for Tigris."

"You lie!" she yelled back at him.

"Rouge," Asher said to her. "please don't hate me."

Rouge froze. "No. Y-you lied to me." She removed the glove from her hand. "You deserve to pay."

"No." Leo stuck his hand out in front of her. "I want to make sure he dies a slow, and painful merciless death." He tightened his grip on Asher's neck.

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"Asher has been put under sedatives. He should be asleep for a bit." Charles said.

"What are we going to do?" Logan said.

"Well, we have to do something. But we can't kill him, or turn him in to the police."

"Keep him as a hostage." Logan suggested.

"We can't do that. He might find a way to escape. "

"Not unless we keep someone guarding him."

"Who?"

"Get a guard dragon." Logan smirked.

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Asher sat in the darkness. He couldn't see where he was, but could tell his hands and feet were bound.

"God damn, those little crappers." He muttered to himself, as he fiddled around with a switch blade. "I'll fucking kill them. All of them." He cut through the first ropes. He took off the blindfold the covered his eyes. 'That's better' Lastly, he cut through the ropes that bound his feet.

"You're not going to leave so soon, are you?" Leo stood in a corner.

Asher snapped around. "Boy, you gotta a lot of nerve to be here."

"And you got a lot of nerve to trick the X-Men like that."

"You mean like, you?" Asher raised an eyebrow.

"I'm no 'X-man', I'm just some screwed up guy that decides to stay here." Leo walked up to Asher. "I can leave any time I want to." He stared at Asher coldly. "Do you know what it's like to be stabbed in the stomach and not die? Oh wait, you don't, because you're mortal, unlike me." Leo took a step away from Asher. "This is a nice sword." Leo examined Asher's choice weapon. "So, how does it handle when someone gets stabbed by it?"

"Not bad, pretty smooth. You don't feel a thing. Well, the victim does anyway."

Leo grinned. "Well, let's just test it on you then?" Leo shoved the sword into Asher's gut.

The Demon froze. A mad smile crept up his face. Then laughter. "You really think that will kill me?" Asher pulled away from the sword. "That only hurt of a second." Asher balled his left hand into a fist. "I'm sure this will hurt you though." He punched Leo right in the jaw, making him fall backwards. "For a dragon, you're not as tough as you act." He smirked.