Shout outs:

Mark C: Yeah I always liked that version of her better then the original. Warren will get more involved but they won't get rescued until a few more chapters.

Lil Jean: Nope that's it for now on the new characters.

Episodic: That's why I'm a realist, I take what life throws at me, even if I don't like it. But trust me Betsy getting caught had it's reasons and you'll see them in this chapter.

TheLegendaryManHimself:

Aaron: Yeah we like the Warren/Betsy relationship too. You'll see how everyone gets along later of course, but things might get a little worse but don't worry it will all work out in the end.

Wen1: Something like that not exactly but close.

Sparky Genocide: The people who want to kill Selene is forming around the block, you tend to rack up a lot of enemies over centuries of of being like she is. You'll see how they get out just be patient it's coming.

The Uncanny R-Man: Actually I never knew Betsy's Ultimate origin I used the main Marvel one with my own twists to it. Don't worry the first Act is a bit dark but the story does lighten up. And Shaw will get his when the X-Men go after him and he really gets is near the end.

Thanks to: X00001, Chica De Los Ojos Café

CHAPTER 9: INTRODUCTIONS AND HELPING HANDS

Betsy, having finished changing, looked around the dismal place and took note of the grim state of the others. "What's going on here? And what have they been doing to you people? When I was down here earlier I got these flashes of what was happening." She said, leaving out how horrible the sensations were.

Emma sat down and sighed. "Well, The Hellfire Club is expanding its 'membership' in a way. They plan to make Jean, that's the red head over there, into a new queen. They want to use her powers since she has a lot of potential, so they've been sending these nightmares into her heads to weaken their minds so this one mutant, Jason, can mess with their memories more easily and completely control them."

Betsy didn't like the sound of that and noticed how the two girls seemed to me shuffling a around in a restless state. She also notice a few red marks on the one girl's arm that was out of the bed sheet. "And the other one? What happened to her?"

"She tried to escape and Selene, who I'm sure you'll met later, punished her." Betsy could feel the venom in the blond woman's voice at that name and the anger in her eyes. "She was whipped and then she had the guards rape her."

Betsy paled a little upon hearing that. Normally she wasn't one to let fear control her, but the fact she didn't have her powers and was already a prisoner of people that would do that…Well, it made her realize she was in a lot more trouble than she thought.

Emma looked at Rogue with sympathy. It was a few months back when Selene had done that to her as well, only she had three days of punishment and it was the members of the Inner Circle that had their way with her while she was still restrained. She had been alone for that, but when Rogue had been dragged in naked and she saw the state she was in, Emma helped her out.

She had noticed that Vincent had covered his eyes and couldn't help but grin a little at that. It was nice to see at least one male with a sense of decency in this place. Anyways, Emma had to drag Rogue to the bathroom, even though it was mainly just a little alcove cut into the wall with a toilet and an old sink with a shower curtain in front of it. But Emma got out a rag and washed up Rogue as best she could, getting all the vile substance off her and holding her head over the toilet as she threw up the contents of her stomach. Emma knew from personal experience how sick you could get from swallowing too much of that fluid.

She put her in a bed and knew that Rogue was kind of out of it and Emma didn't blame the pale girl. Although now she had no makeup on from Emma cleaning her up, Emma had taken the medical supplies she had been issued to use on Vincent and treated all of Rogue's injuries knowing it would sting. She remembered vividly how Rogue had whimpered painfully as she touched up all the whip marks. But it had to be done to prevent infection and also to help with the healing. In a day or two, the red marks would fade, but she knew that the horror of the incident would always be there.

"What about him?" Betsy asked seeing the sleeping boy. She looked over him and even though he had a nice body she could see a few old scares, bandages, and cuts that were healing, including one on his cheek.

"They're trying to get why he's different then other mutants out of him and also to break him enough so his mind is weak enough to be altered telepathically."

"Why hasn't he said anything?"

Emma smirked. "He's not going to give them the satisfaction and there's no way he would surrender to these people. I know that much from him."

"You've known him long?" Betsy asked sitting down staring at the face.

"Not really, we just started talking." Emma looked at him. "It's been so long since I just talked with someone…It really felt nice for a change." Betsy thought she caught something in Emma's voice and the way she looked at him, but put it aside for later. Now was trying to figure out what to do.

-Warren's Apartment-

It was late at night now…Too late for comfort in Warren's opinion. After his fight with Betsy, he had tried to calm his nerves and get some sleep, but his thoughts just wouldn't stray from her for any amount of time. He tossed and turned in his bed and constantly looked at the clock as the hours came and went. Over and over, he went through how he would apologize to her. But the longer the night went, the more worried the winged mutant became.

"3:30 AM…She should be home by now," mused Warren as he gave up trying to sleep and simply lay flat on his back, staring distantly at the ceiling.

For a brief moment, Warren found himself starting to doze off. But when he reached over to the other side of his bed…He found it cold and empty. Gently, he stroked the part of the bed where Betsy usually rested beside him. Her powerful scent still hung strong and Warren could almost taste her as if she was still there. But there was just one problem with that…She wasn't.

Suddenly, the winged mutant was jolted out of her dazed state by the ringing of the phone beside his bed. Disoriented, he picked it up and answered.

"Hello?"

"Is this Warren Worthington III?" said the voice on the other line.

"Uh, yes it is," said the winged mutant, who suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"This is New York Police Department. I'm afraid we have some bad news about you're girlfriend, Miss Elizabeth Braddock."

'No…' thought Warren immediately knowing something horrible must have happened to her.

Warren didn't realize that he hadn't said anything into the phone for a while, for he had been too lost in thought upon having his worst fear about this whole situation realized.

"Mr. Worthington? Are you still there?"

Warren quickly forced himself back to reality.

"Um…Yeah. Is she okay? Do you know what happened?" asked Warren,

"Unfortunately no we don't. You see, we found her car completely wrecked with nobody in the driver seat. We have no idea what happened to Miss Braddock, but the driver's door was ripped completely off and we haven't been able to find a trace of her whereabouts."

Warren didn't know how to take this information, who or what would have done that to her car? Or why take Betsy period sure her family was wealthy but it just didn't seem right.

"Mr. Worthington, I'm sorry about your girlfriend, but you have the personal assurance of the NYPD that we will find Ms. Braddock safe and…"

But before the policeman could finish his words, Warren hung up the phone. With a deep, uneasy sigh he knew he had to face the truth. Someone had taken her and he needed to find her. He doubted the police could handle this and he needed to do this himself anyways. There was no way he would just sit by and wait that something would come up.

Warren as he stood in solemn silence in the darkness of the night looking out the window at the city. I can't do this alone. I need help…And there's only one man that can help me now.'

Xavier Institute – The Professor's study

Things hadn't gotten any easier at the institute for the Professor or his staff. His constant and thorough search with Cerebro had still yielded nothing as to the whereabouts of Jean and Rogue. The residents of the institute grew increasingly weary for their well being the longer that they were gone, but there was little that Xavier could do in order to ease their fears. He too did not know the state of his two missing students as long as he remained in the dark. Professor Charles Xavier had never felt so helpless before in his life. For all he knew, his students were being tortured or had already been killed, experimented on, or other such horrible fates that haunted him lately. But he refused to give up hope.

In addition to his exhaustive search, Logan had been acting increasingly distressed lately and had barricaded himself in his room. While some students tried to find out the reasons or this, Storm had dissuaded most of these attempts. Xavier himself tried to talk to find out more about this, but he had his hands tied with the search.

Xavier had forced himself to take a much needed break in his study. He had only rested a few hours, but his worries for Jean and Rogue were just too great for him to overcome. Now, coffee and books were some of the few things that could calm his tense nerves. He would return to Cerebro soon, but hope for finding his missing students grew increasingly hopeless the longer he had no luck.

With a deep sigh, Xavier closed his book and took another sip of his coffee. He wheeled himself over to the bookcase in search of something else to occupy his mind, but before he got there he sensed an urgent presence with his telepath that caused him to turn his attention to the large window overlooking the front lawn.

"Professor Xavier!" said Warren in normal clothing and not the 'Angel' garments he normally ware when he went out, through the window as he frantically knocked on the glass, "Professor Xavier I need to speak with you! It's important!"

Sensing a great deal of anxiety in his mind, the Professor quickly opened the window and allowed the winged mutant to fly in.

"Warren…This is a rather unexpected visit," said the Professor.

"Yes, and I'm sorry for the ungodly hour. But something horrible has happened and I need your help and I need the X-men!"

The Professor could sense that Warren was quite hysterical at this point. But he didn't know what he could possibly do given the current crises he was dealing with. "Calm down Warren," coaxed the Professor, "Now tell me…What's wrong?"

Warren forced himself to take a deep breath, knowing that it wouldn't help bring Betsy back any faster if he let his emotions get the best of him.

"It's my girlfriend…Betsy. She's was kidnapped lat night, her car was totaled and the door was completely ripped off. "She was visiting this group in New York called the Hellfire Club."

"The Hellfire Club?" Xavier said with a certain amount of intrigue. He had heard a few things about the lavish organization and believed his stepfather once tried to enter but was denied membership.

"Yes. You see we…Got into a fight about her going to some party that they were hosting. I tried to stop her because I know these people are bad news," explained Warren as he recalled all he knew about the dark nature of the club, "They view themselves as the elite of the world and don't care who they crush under their feet in order to get what they want. And all they care for is power and money. That…And let's just say they lack a certain moral code in some areas." He remembered how all the full members had to wear those ridiculous clothing and the women had to degrade themselves with wearing practically nothing.

Warren's feelings for Betsy and his concerns for her current state took over once more as Xavier felt a wave of worry wash over the winged mutant's mind.

The Professor didn't like this. "Warren was Betsy a mutant?"

Warren looked a little curious. "Yes. Why?"

"We have a crisis on our hands that is similar to yours I'm afraid."

"Crisis? What do you mean?" Warren asked the man, who he now realized looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep lately.

Xavier rested his tired head in his hands once again as he was forced to remind himself of the situation once more, grim as it may be.

"Two of my students…Jean and Rogue, have kidnapped as well. It left one other, Scott, severely wounded and nearly dead. It left another, Gambit, in an equally grave state. We have been searching for them for days on end with not a single trace of them be it physical or psychic."

"Not a trace?" said Warren curiously, "Even with Cerebro?"

"I'm afraid not," confirmed Xavier, sounding tired from days of exhaustive searching, "I fear that our two problems may be related. Two mutants go missing from people who acted quickly and knew how to handle mutants and then days later your lady friend is also taken by mysterious means…I don't believe that this is all coincidence."

"What do you think is happening?" Warren asked sitting down after absorbing this information. He got an awful feeling in pit of his stomach about all of this.

"I honestly don't know." Xavier sighed, his weariness even more apparent in that moment. "But maybe with Betsey we can gain a new avenue to look into. You said she was at the Hellfire Club last? Maybe it's time we had a talk with whoever runs it."

For the Professor, it was good to finally have some extra help. And he would need all that he could possibly muster to keep searching while maintaining order within the institute. But in addition to his gratitude, he had a strange feeling as to where this would lead and couldn't fight the deep sense of foreboding that this whole situation was a lot more complex than he could have ever imagined.

Xavier Institute – Infirmary

Scott hadn't gotten any better as the days passed. Mentally and physically, he healed from the injuries to his nervous system, but he was still having some strange nightmares that Xavier as both a Professor and a psychic could not explain. They went beyond mere concerns for Jean…No they were something deeper. He kept struggling in his sleep. The Professor could not understand why it was happening or how for that matter. Scott never really remembered all of it like all dreams, but certain impressions were left behind.

He knew that he had always struggled to ascertain the link that Scott and Jean had, but this phenomenon was a completely new and completely unexpected. The Professor wished he could understand it in hopes to help the wounded Scott in his grave state, but something told him that it was beyond his understanding like it always had been. And he only hoped that whatever Scott was fighting in his sleep…He would vanquish it.

His restless nights were taking their toll on him and Xavier was worried that Scott might be pushing himself too hard and might cause himself further serious injury and mental stress.

Gambit hadn't been doing much better. Colossus went in and out of his room with Beast offering what help he could for his friend, but the severity of his wounds promised a slow recovery. Beast had repeatedly stated that it was nothing short of a miracle that he had survived. However, the Cajun hadn't seemed too thrilled despite this uplifting news and Piotr suspected that it had something to do with Rogue.

Despite strict orders from Hank, Gambit was up and struggling to stand up under his own power in the cold, sterile halls of the infirmary which he had resided in since his arrival. He still had a thick layer of bandages wrapped around his torso, over his stitches were, which was where the pain from the stab wounds still stung of course. As the Cajun stumbled through the hallway, fighting the influence of the drugs, he soon found himself feeling lightheaded again and was forced to lean against the wall.

"At it again comrade?" said a slightly humored voice from behind.

Remy turned to see his Russian friend standing behind him.

"Gambit can't stand it anymore homme," said Remy as he sunk to the floor letting the influence of the drugs and his wounds take over again, "I've been down here for days on end when I outta be dead. Y'all shouldn't have saved me…I did what I came here to do. I let everybody know about Rogue. Dat's all I shoulda done because I failed to save her."

"You really feel for that girl don't you?" smirked Piotr as he sat down next to his Cajun friend.

Remy was silent for a moment as he thought about that. The memory of the last conversation he had with Rogue before Deathstrike took her played over again in his mind. He remembered the look on her face, the tone in her voice, and the feelings that seemed to strangely grow from infatuation from when he first saw her to something more when he 'kidnapped' her, he knew that when he got to know her not only did a part of him regret using her like he did, but he was actually growing fond of her too, he had enjoyed his time with her.

"Damn…Is Remy dat obvious?" groaned the Cajun but kept on a smile on his face.

"Gambit…I remember how infatuated you seemed with her after you met her. You kept a surveillance photo of her and I remember seeing you just stare at it," said Peter with a laugh as he recalled some of the memories.

"Remy was just curious." Gambit said off hand, hoping to explain that to his friend.

Piotr just grinned. "What about after that kidnapping run to New Orleans? You talked for weeks about that more times than I could count. Face it comrade…You really have a thing for her."

"Remy never thought he's fall for a girl this hard, especially one he barely even knows." He shook his head at that. He never thought that he could fall for a women like Rogue. He remembered how back in the day he had been quite a ladies man. He enjoyed those times, but here he was thinking about only one woman. The old him wouldn't believe such a thing possible, but he knew better now.

"My friend…If you were just a thief with no feeling or compassion then you wouldn't have been gotten into this in the first place," Piotr argued, "I know you Remy. Despite everything you may flaunt in front of others, despite your past and whatever things you may have done I can see you have a heart. You nearly died trying to save Rogue. That alone is proof enough."

"I still failed…"

"And you mustn't beat yourself up about that. It could have been worse if you hadn't been there and we might not have known until later," said Colossus, hoping to lift the Cajun's sprits from the current rut that he had dug himself into.

Gambit thought about how he had gotten to this point and what he had done. Leaving New Orleans to come back to Bayville had been a big decision for him. It marked a pivotal change in the path he had been going because it meant that he would be distancing himself from his thieving ways for the first time in his memory in pursuit of something outside crime. Now, here he was at the Xavier Mansion having just been saved from the brink of death by people whom he had actually had fought against in the past. It was confusing for him to say the least. Since leaving the Acolytes, he had questioned his future. Now he had reached an impasse upon meeting Rogue. He had failed to protect her and he couldn't deny what he felt for her.

"I'm gonna save her…" said Gambit with determination, despite his wounds. "I swear…I'm gonna find her and save her from the pricks dat took her. I owe her dat much. I owe her a lot…"

-New York Restaurant, Later that day-

Xavier had managed to contact Sebastian Shaw and he and Warren, who had his wings hidden like he normally did, were sitting at a table waiting for him to show. They waited patiently for his arrival until finally, a man showed up in a black suit that looked like it was worth quite a huge sum with oddly out of date haircut that seemed to fit him somehow and two body guards in dark suits.

Shaw had wanted to get Xavier off his trail and had planned on this. Plus, he was curious about actually meeting the man, so he wore a more suitable clothing then the 18th century clothing and he also wanted to look in the man's face. He wanted to play him, so he kept on a personal psychic dampener to hide his thoughts along with his bodyguards. He also chose a place that was far enough from the Club to ensure that he couldn't pick anything up. Even though the building that the inner circle operated out of was shielded, he didn't want to take a chance.

Shaw sat down and shook Xavier's hand. "Professor Charles Xavier…I must say it is a great honor to meet you." He turned to face Warren who had a look on his face that told Shaw he'd rather be somewhere else, but he didn't mind. "Now you said you wanted to ask me about my party last night? Well I'm sorry you weren't invited, but I wasn't sure the Hellfire Club would be to your tastes. But if you wanted to I'm sure-"

Xavier held up a hand and kindly smiled. "That's not necessary. We're here to ask about a friend of Warren's that was at your party, but disappeared after it." Xavier was a little put off by this man for a couple of reasons. First was the pleasant way he was addressing them, which countered what Warren had told him about the members. The next was that he didn't sense anything from him. It was like he wasn't even there, but he hide this surprise from his face. "Her name is Betsy Braddock."

"Braddock, Braddock…It sounds familiar, but I can't place a name with the face. You have to understand there were a few hundred people there."

"She's Asian, about 5'9 with long purple hair and is twenty years old." Warren said to him.

Shaw got a faraway look on his face as if remembering something. "Oh yes…I do remember the woman now. Lovely thing really, if it wasn't for the hair she might not have stood out so much, but it was such a unique look that just seems to stick out in your mind. You know what I mean?" Warren nodded at that. "Well let me see…I do recall talking to her at one point and she didn't seem to care for our way of thinking."

"And that would be?" Xavier asked him.

Shaw smiled. "You see Professor…The Club and its members are above the rest of the world in a nutshell. We are the elite of this planet. Businessmen, politicians and other positions of power and wealth…We are the new aristocracies of the world. I mean men like us Professor. Men and women of high society…Of high breeding and intelligence. We are the true masters of this world."

Xavier saw now that Warren's views were right about this Hellfire Club. "That is a very high opinion of yourself."

Shaw smiled. "It's also the truth. We hold more power and wealth then any one king, emperor, lord or dictator in history. Our wills make and break laws and in certain areas, we are rulers in our own right."

"And what exactly to you do with all this power?" The Professor asked cautiously.

"To gain more power and wealth basically. Only the strong survive and the weak fall."

"This is all well and good." Warren interrupted having heard enough. "What about Betsy?"

Shaw shrugged. "Well, like I said she didn't seem to care for our views and told me she had to leave. That was the last I saw of her. I am saddened by the news of her though, and I wish you luck." Shaw played that part so convincingly he thought he deserved an Emmy for it. He could see even though Xavier and Warren were uncomfortable around him, they didn't see any reason to not to believe him either.

"Well I thank you for your time." Xavier told him.

Shaw grinned on the inside knowing it was time to drive the nail home with this little act. "Of course, our kind should stick together…And I don't mean the social elite." He whispered the other part out as he leaned over the table slightly.

Xavier raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me that you're a mutant?"

"Please not so loud." Shaw looked around. "Do you have any idea how devastating it would be to my holdings for the world to find out about me? I mean, humanity barely tolerates us. What would they think of mutants in positions of wealth or power?" He looked at Warren and could see the blond mutant shift a little uncomfortably.

"If I may ask…" Xavier started to ask him.

Shaw grinned. "Not at all. I seem to just take force and basically give it back twice as much. I also employ other mutants. You know, to give them a place where they feel comfortable and have a life. I also make sure that a few of the telepaths make mental shields and barriers around all my employees in order to prevent industrial espionage. You see, a few companies have found that having telepaths is quite handy and have tried numerous times to try and get inside information. I can't tell you how hectic the business world has become since mutants were made public."

"I see…" Xavier hadn't heard of this, but he wasn't surprised. When mutants went public he knew that there would be those that would use them for their own gains and it seems he was hearing first hand accounts. Plus it explained why his mind was so closed off…Yet…Something was still off, but he didn't know what.

"You know I admire you in a way. Your work with mutant children is quite remarkable and I applaud your efforts. It must be trying at times." Shaw said in sympathy.

Xavier sighed without realizing it. "Yes…It can be."

"Well I've been meaning to ask you for awhile now if you needed any funding or resources?" Shaw extended his arm. "I have much in the way of resources that I could offer you. Plus, I get the feeling the business world wouldn't readily accept any members of a certain 'genetic type' for employment and I could offer internships and or jobs for any students that whish to try an live a normal life."

Xavier thought about that. His school was mainly for teaching, but what of those that would want to live an actual life? Could he help them with that as well? Even though this offer was something he could desperately use, especially with his missing students, there was something about Shaw that made him…Uneasy. In ways extending to the man and not just his views. "Well I'll take that under advisement, but we really must be leaving. We still have Miss Braddock to find."

"Farewell and godspeed. I hope you find the young lady." Shaw told them and when they left, he nearly laughed himself silly. That had been a good acting job if he didn't say so himself. He threw him off the trail and looked Xavier right in the eye and lied to his face. He wondered what the expression would have been if he told them he had Betsy and his two other students and what he was doing to them. He wondered what he would have done if he told him how he took the red head to his bed and how she screamed out.

Just thinking about that night made Shaw a little excited. She was young and a fine specimen. After he broke her, she would make an excellent Red Queen…More precisely, his queen and she would do anything his will demanded of her. In fact, he was going to have Jason work his magic on her again for tonight. The first time was just a taste, but now he wanted more of her and he planned to see what her physical limits truly were.

He grinned to himself at his accomplishments. So far Jason was also working on Rogue. Her mind was a bit more fragile and he broke away the shields holding back all the other personalities. So far she had been unresponsive for the last few days, trapped in a nightmare of her own mind. She wasn't far off now and Jean's memories were also slowly being altered.

Jason said that with a telepath of her quality, he had to work slowly. Then there was Emma, she was still resisting and she was stronger than the other girls, mainly due to the hardships she had endured. The boy Vincent was starting to frustrate Selene. She had to hold back many times to make sure he was still physically able to serve them.

After they broke his will, he would tell them what they needed and hopefully make more like him. His potential was great, but they still didn't know his full power. Also, he would be the greatest enforcer and knight that the Hellfire Club could certainly use, he was sure of it.

He sat back in his chair pleased with currently events. When Jean was turned he would use her power on Betsy to get to Warren. Then he would have a foothold in both the Worthington and Braddock estates. Everything was working out fine and his plan was coming true. Soon, not only would he have some of the most powerful mutants under his command, but he could start to take over the other Hellfire Households and make himself the Black Emperor. From there with the combined might of the entire Hellfire Club, the world would be in his power and there was no one to stop him.

NEXT UP CHAPTER 10: MIND GAMES