Sorry for the delay! School hasn't been treating me well, but I've finally managed to get it all done!

Shout out to K-Bomb, requested by your friend Skyla (gee, I hope you still read this after the uber long break, sorry about this) stay classy :)

I promise I will try and get Valkyrie's chapter up sooner, but for now, here's China.

Having power had always pleased China. And now that she had an abundance of power, being the Grand Mage of Ireland, she was (almost) free to do what she wanted with it.

Of course, there was the annoyance of behaving herself, but she could find loopholes. She was China Sorrows; she could do practically anything.

However, her little pleasures would have to wait. There was still the issue of Eliza Scorn to deal with first.

China wondered idly if she would have to kill Scorn. Not that it would bother her, but there was the issue of the death not being traced back to her. She couldn't possibly do it herself, not with these shoes on…

Someone knocked on the door to her office. Frowning slightly, she waved her hand, activating a symbol that would show her who was waiting outside.

Her lips curved up into a grim, but somewhat satisfied smile when she saw dear Eliza stood waiting with Tipstaff. She rested her chin on her hand and called "Enter!", watching as Scorn swept into the room. She was impeccably dressed in a green dress with matching shoes, China had to say. As much as she hated the woman, she had an abundance of style.

This was an unscheduled meeting, she could tell by the way Tipstaff was glaring at Scorn. China gave him a gracious smile and a small wave to dismiss him. With her other hand, she tapped a tiny symbol carved into her thumb. It would send a notice to the pager that Miss Low wore, summoning her to China's side. Just in case.

The moment the door swung shut, Eliza smiled her trademark, heart-breaking smile at China. "Well, China darling, we're alone at last! I have been looking forward to this."

"As have I, dear Eliza," China replied, surveying Scorn from where she was sat. That woman wasn't worth standing up for.

"As you probably know, darling, I have been wondering about a few things… and I think you know what they are." Scorns eyes narrowed, but her voice was still sugared.

"Oh, your benefactors?" China shrugged her shoulders delicately. "That was a simple task to accomplish. A spy here, a hitman there, some blackmail in between – it was all very fun. Now your precious church is on the verge of collapse, is it not?"

Scorns lips pressed into a thin line, and when she spoke, all pretence at sweetness was gone. "Right in one, darling. Therefore, you know why I'm here."

China laughed. "To ask for more sponsors? Dear Eliza, we don't condone the worship of insane gods in the Sanctuary. Or to kill me?"

"The latter," Scorn said, and she launched herself at China.

They fell back, Scorn on top of China, raking her face with her nails. She tapped a symbol on her arm and tried to hit Scorn across the face, but she pinned her arm and slapped her, hard. China moved quickly, twisting her free hand into Scorns hair and head-butting her in the nose. She cried out and loosened her hold, allowing China to kick her off and stand up. She tapped a twin pair of symbols carved into her forearms and sent a wave of blue light towards Scorn, who dodged it at the last minute, blood flowing down her face. She wasn't so beautiful any more.

Where the hell was Low? China thought as she moved aside from a kick and brought Scorn down with a dagger of red light. She was China's bodyguard, and had been doing a fine job of it too, apart from now. Scorn lunged at her, a knife in her hand, and China twisted, pinning her to the wall. She struggled for a few moments, but seemed to realise that China was too powerful, and gave in.

"Oh China," Scorn said, breathing heavily. "We could have been the best. We could have ruled the world. Together."

"That is true, Eliza dear," China told her, subtly positioning the knife over Scorn's heart. "But you are insane, and alas, I am not. It would not have worked."

Scorn chuckled and moved China's hand down to her stomach. "Not yet, dear. Let us reminisce, before one of us dies. Do you remember the first time we met?"

China actually cracked a smile. "I was the most beautiful woman in the room, wasn't I?"

"I was going to say exactly that," Scorn laughed. "That I was the most beautiful. We started conspiring immediately, I recall."

"That we did," China murmured. "We had the same ideas, before I came to my senses."

"And the same tastes," Scorn purred. "For old times' sake, darling?"

"If I say no?" China held her seductive, bright green gaze.

"You won't," she breathed, and leant forward.

They were kissing, just like the used to do all those centuries ago. The electricity, the raw passion, was still there, not dulled by the years. They kissed long and hard, like the old days.

And then China slipped the knife into Eliza Scorn's heart.

She leant back as Scorn coughed, blood running from her lips.

"Eliza, dear, I might have loved you once, but you are insane. Go to hell."

China locked eyes with Scorn once more. Scorn managed a final, bloody smile, and spoke one last time, with an obviously huge effort:

"I have loved you, I do love you, and I will love you."

Eliza Scorn died.

She lay the body out on the floor, surprisingly gently, for her enemy. She walked back round to her desk, and checked herself in the mirror. No blood, no tears in her dress, nothing. She was still perfect.

Finally, Tanith Low walked through the door. She glanced at China, then at the body, then back at China.

"She was a bitch anyway," Tanith said, pressing a button on her mobile phone to summon what China presumed to be a clean up team.

"She told me she loved me," China told no one in particular. Tanith froze up for a second, and then turned to her.

"And I loved her," China continued, still not speaking to anyone. "Once. A long, long time ago. Until I realised that love was a waste of time and Eliza was insane."

Tanith was giving her a look.

"What?" China snapped.

"So you are human," Tanith smirked. "You do actually have feelings."

China rolled her eyes. "Get out of my sight."

Still smirking, Tanith strolled out of the room, and she sighed.

All love, she decided, was idiotic. She was China Sorrows. All of her love was used up on herself.

That thought made her smile as the body was removed from her sight.