Disclaimer: Marvel Entertainment owns everything, with the exception of Cat who is my own creation. This is a work of fanfic, no copyright infringement intended. Lily rush and the cold case quad are not mine, someone else owns them.

Author's notes: this story takes place in a world shown in the Legacy quest book 2 by Steve Lyons. In that book a demon shows Sebastian Shaw a world where the X men are gone (how is not stated) and Storm is Shaw's White Queen. I'm a huge Cold Case fan as well as X Men fan, so I combined to the two to create this story. There's no date due to the elasticity of Marvel time. Enjoy.

Chapter 2 Alpha Flight

In its own way, Department H, home of Alpha Flight, was as impressive as Sebastian Shaw's office. It towered over the surrounding buildings and was iced with Canadian snow. The message sent out was clear.

Mutants were here to stay. They were not going to run and hide.

For all the confidence the building eluded, the tight security undermined it.

It was understandable. Yesterday a major victory had been won in Mutant rights. There were many who wished it was not so.

As a result it was nearly an hour after their arrival that they were shown into an interview room.

A man with short black hair stood there. He introduced himself as James Macdonald Hudson and explained that he was there to assist them.

"Which in English means he's here to make sure we don't give away any secrets. And that you don't bully us."

A tall muscular woman with dark brown hair and bluely green eyes stood in the doorway, while she spoke. Next to her stood a short hairy man, with longish black hair and blue eyes that made both detectives uncomfortable, though neither was sure why.

"Detectives Rush, Valens. This is Cat and Wolverine. Umm," he looked behind them, "where's Nightcrawler?"

"Still in the showers." Cat responded, sinking into a chair on the opposite side of the table.
"He was last to run training."

"Despite all 3 of you been instructed to report?" Hudson asked, his voice full of ice.

"Elf was too het up," Wolverine had sat down. "Didn't think you'd be happy if he was in the infirmary."

"I suppose we don't get your real names?" Lily asked sweetly.

"names are for Friends, darling' and I ain't sure you're that yet." Wolverine said.

Lily bristled slightly at been called darling, making Cat smile.

"Don't worry. Unless he's known you about 60 years he calls all women the same sexist junk. As he treats us as equals, we don't bother protesting too much."

A distraction was created by a bang and a stench of brimstone. Smoke swirled around and as it cleared, a figure appeared. He resembled a demon in a painting, covered with indigo fur. His ears and teeth were pointed, his eyes were amber, and from a hole in his trousers a forked tail poked out.

To do the detectives justice neither of them reacted too badly. As Nightcrawler, as the figure was introduced to them, took his seat, Cat smiled.

"We are correct in presuming that this is linked to the death of Ororo Munro? There isn't some dead Mutant in Philadelphia with a Canadian passport."

"We're looking into the death of Ororo Munroe." Jeffery's confirmed.

"Hope he's paying you well." Cat replied. She might have said more, but Nightcrawler interrupted. He spoke English fluently, with only a slight formality of grammar that indicated that it was not his native tongue.

"We last saw Ororo at about 7 o'clock that evening."

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The meeting chambers of the Hellfire club were below New York Headquarters. It was a joyless, dark, dusty candle lit room.

Nightcrawler shifted in the uncomfortable, rigid straight back chair.

"Keep still." Cat hissed her lips barely moving. "We'll be out of here soon."

"Not soon enough." Muttered a voice, Northstar's, near Cat's elbow.

"We promised we'd listen, nothing more." Cat whispered in reply. She forced her attention back to the meeting.

"I wonder if the White Queen might like to attend to the matter personally?"

The speaker was a fat, balding, business man, some 10 years Shaw's junior, but who looked older, who held the post of Black Rook.

"Given she was a member of the X men before...their unfortunate demise."

Next to Nightcrawler Wolverine tensed, and Cat's hand shot out to restrain him. Ororo clutched the table, as Shaw attempted to rescue her.

"Ms. Munroe does not feel ready to issue a public statement yet. It is too soon."

"It might be prudent," the black rook observed. "Given current circumstances."

Cat released Wolverine, her own face turning dark.

"we are after all equally eager to quell the rumours that the X-Men were terrorist, and indeed that the Hellfire Club were instrumental in their demise."

"If only they had not been so arrogant." Sighed a white bishop, a large middle aged woman "so stubbornly sure that they alone occupied the moral high ground."

Cat, Wolverine and Nightcrawler were on their feet and nearly all of Alpha Flight looked murderous.

No one knew what would have happened next because suddenly,

"NO!" all the confusion, all the pain, all the disbelief was released in that single syllable. She buried her face in her hands, but everyone was staring at her.

She slowly got to her feet, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"If you would excuse me," she murmured "I have had a very trying day and I am not feeling myself. I am going to my quarters."

As she left Northstar muttered, "Tu ou Vous?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The meeting broke up about 5 minutes later." Cat finished. "That was the last time any of us saw Ororo."

"Anyone who can confirm that."

Cat reached down and retrieved a computer disk.

"All Alpha Flight members are tagged, to aid in location in battle, retrieval of bodies that sort of thing. Because of the...unusual circumstances, a backup copy was kept of the security records." She handed the disk over. "You run that, you'll see that none of us were anywhere near the Hellfire club from 9:30 onwards."

"Thank you." Jefferies said, accepting the disk

"Why did you all hate Ororo so much?" lily asked.

Cat answered again for her teammates.

"Get in touch with New York. Read what happened to the X men." She shrugged. "The entire team was injured. We could locate everyone with the exceptions of Hank McCoy, Jean Grey, Scott Summers and Ororo Munroe. Hank McCoy was recovering from the Legacy Virus; it's upon his specialised blood cell that the cure is based. Cyclops has been leader of the X men since it started. Can't see him doing something like that. That left it between Ororo Munroe, a.k.a Storm and Jean Grey, A.k.a. Phoenix. And guess who was announced by Shaw as the newest member of the Hellfire club inner circle less than a week later."
"Ororo Munroe." Lily said.

"Storm." Wolverine confirmed.