"You understand, I'm not doing this to inconvenience you. I hold you in the highest esteem, you see. I just want the little bitch you've been sleeping with."

Wolverine snarled in Soamna Thepis's face. He jerked convulsively against his bonds. He and the rest of 'em had been put in shackles, hand and foot, spread-eagled side by side.

The seven of them took up one wall of the sterile white lab. Opposite them, an identical set of clamps, anchored to the wall, awaited a prisoner. Nearby, another Genoshan collar lay on a lab table, along with the a thick headband, the purpose of which remained a mystery.

"Excuse me," Storm interrupted politely, "but I don't understand. If you wanted Celeste, why did you not take her when you ambushed us?" He smiled. Clear blue eyes sparkled gleefully beneath a shock of platinum blonde hair. In a voice as compelling and angelic as his appearance, he said, "Because, my dear, it will be so much more fun if Her Majesty comes crawling to me."

"So dat's it, neh? We jus' de bait, hein?"

"Exactly so, my Cajun friend. Exactly so."

"Who says she's gonna come? Maybe she'll just walk away."

"Tsk, tsk, Rogue. If you know her at all, you know Celeste has never been one to 'walk away' from anything." He grinned, almost childish in his amusement, "Even when she knows she cannot win."

"Who's sayin' she can't, bub?" Wolverine growled.

"I am, Logan. Of course, you don't know of our history." He laughed musically. "Such a pretty little thing she was, last time I saw her. It took her three weeks to recover from our little...interlude."

Echoing in his mind, Logan heard her anguished words from the day before. "He raped me!" He snarled and jerked against his bonds. Besides being shoved into manacles, he was fitted with adamantium sleeves. *Well, ain't life a box of chocolates*, he thought sourly.

"Oh, yes," Thepis went on with relish, oblivious to Wolverine's rapid transformation from human prisoner to bestial captive, "We managed quite well together. She really is a nice way to pass the time. In fact, I can't remember a time when she-"

The fluorescent lights flickered and went out. A thick blanket of darkness, as black as the spaces between the stars, settled over the room. Thepis chuckled. "She's late."

A siren's voice, barely recognizable as Celeste's, drifted through the room. "Did you think I wouldn't came, Soamna?"

"I was betting on it, Sweetheart."

"Then ante up." The words were barely finished before a silver-painted figure raced past the doorway.

Thepis smirked and left the room with determined strides. "You do know how to make things fun, Princess. . ."

Celeste appeared in flash of star-spangled light. "That's Your Majesty to *you*, you cretin." She rushed toward the X-men, claws extended and ready to rip through their shackles. There was a sickening thud as she jerked away, just inches from her goal. She had slammed into an invisible wall, and fell back. Blood ran from her nose, which was throbbing painfully now. Celeste focused her eyes on the "air" that stood between her and her friends. A blue-green force field suddenly became visible. She scanned its borders, trying to find some sort of switch to deactivate it. There was none. It was sustained solely by the master's will. Screaming, Celeste threw herself against it, clawing and scratching at the blue-green mist. It burned where it touched the naked skin of her hands and shoulders, but Celeste was beyond noticing. She had so little time before He abandoned her shadow and came back for the real thing. She fought harder, using her mind and body, spirit and soul to bend the barrier. It shimmered and bent under the onslaught, but it wasn't enough. She had so little time. . . .

An invisible hand squeezed her throat. Her eyes flared wide as the oxygen flow was cut off. Fingernails bit into her flesh, ripping across the white skin. Celeste collapsed as bright red blood spilled over her clothing and pooled on the floor. And she had just had this outfit dry-cleaned, too. Dimly, she identified the loud clamor behind her as Logan calling -or was it bellowing?- her name.

"I hate you," she muttered, on hands and knees. He appeared in front of her, as fragile and transparent as a soap bubble, slowly becoming a thing of flesh and blood.

"I assure you, the feeling is mutual."

She snarled and surged to her feet. Swords clashed together. "Shall we dance, my lord?"

"As you wish."

The icy civility of their words couldn't hide the fact that this was a death match. And they both knew it.

Celeste danced away, moving backwards and out of his reach. He advanced on her. They fought with cool determination and immaculate precision, hoping to wear each other down. One mistake, one reckless move, and someone would be a corpse before they could flutter an eyelash.

They spun and clashed together, moving with shimmering flashes of light, faster than any eye could follow.

Joy swelled in Celeste's heart. She was winning! She could feel it. She had forced Thepis into taking the defensive, and, slowly, he was retreating from her. Celeste slammed the door shut on her elation. She had to concentrate. One mistake, and she'd be sent back to the palace in an envelope. Now! Celeste raised her sword high as she saw an opening. He was overbalanced, and he was going to pay for it...

The shadows cast by the fluorescent light peeled away from the wall, seizing her hands and tightening like a vice around her waist. The grip of demon hands tightened until the Empire Sword dropped from her nerveless fingers.

"Nooooo-!" Her head connected with the wall with a sickening bang. More blood, this time the dark crimson fluid of an artery, flowed from the back of her head. Automatically, she jerked away, hauling herself forward. Her pelvis gave an audible crack as they tried slamming her body against the wall of the lab next. The little devils were trying to cram her into those shackles, and they weren't being gentle about it. Then again, Celeste wasn't going willingly.

With an menacing click, like the lid of a coffin sealing shut, all four clasps closed around her at once. A cold metal band shoved against her throat, the hands holding it gouging into her tender flesh. A small mercy was granted as a finger was thrust between her skin and the collar, loosening it just enough for her to breathe. Well, it would be a bad thing for her to die now, wouldn't it?

Celeste hung there silently for several long moments, trying to uncross her eyes and consciously knit her skin cells back together. By the time the blood ceased its flow, Callie could look on the bright side. If she wasn't chained to the wall, she would have collapsed at her enemy's feet in an undignified heap. *Then again*, she thought bitterly, *what use do I have for dignity now? There is no honor in defeat.*

She raised her chin a few inches, enough to see the shadowlings that had put her in her own private hell. They were children with golden ringlets and wide, trusting blue eyes. Still, their innocent veneer didn't disguise their yellowed skin and pointy features. Or the most obvious clue, the tiny black horns that peeked from under their hair. Cute. She'd been defeated by a band of demon dwarfs. Callie glared at them again. They were stereotype demons, with horns and fangs and claws almost unnoticeable beneath their angelic facades. Well, hell, nobody said a villain had to be creative.

Pure, unadulterated cruelty would get the job done well enough. She looked up, finally, into the now-dark, empty eyes of her captor. "Should've known you wouldn't play fair," Celeste slurred.

He looked aghast. "Where's the fun in that?"

Callie ignored him. "So what are you gonna do with me now? I suppose it would be too much to ask for you to let them go." Her head bobbed in the general direction of the X-men.

"Them? Heavens, no. They don't know it yet, but they like to watch." Watch what?! Celeste's lips compressed and she glowered at the man all the more. That was the point of his vague phrasing. The imagination was a powerful thing, after all. One eyebrow arched, and she drawled, "My, goodness, fear of the unknown is so passé, don't you think?" She was not about to cower from the power of suggestion.

"Ah, Celeste, I've missed you." At his warm, almost loving words, she turned her head away in disgust. He cupped her chin with laughable gentleness, and turned her face toward him. "Even when you're writhing in fear on the inside."

She continued to stare at him, even when she grew lethargic, and her lashes lowered halfway. A sudden noise filled the room, pulsing and fast. She hissed when she realized what it was. He was taunting her with the sound of her own heartbeat, beating fast and hard like the wings of a wild bird against the gilded cage of her ribs. He laughed and leaped backwards in order to avoid her snapping teeth, the two-inch-long fangs having burst from her gums as the fury boiled over the edge.

He waited until she stopped fighting her bonds, gasping for breath and drained of energy, before thrusting two fingers between her lips and forcing her incisors back to their normal length. Their gazes locked as she sank her teeth in.

He howled like a wounded beast and jerked away from her. "It's your turn to bleed," she wheezed at him, spitting out the acidic black liquid. Her only comfort was that for once it wasn't her own.

His fist smashed across her jaw. It was a double whammy. Her neck snapped as her head was flung backwards and cracked against the wall behind her. She saw stars, or, rather, tiny devils with pitchforks, do a slow spin around her head. She spit out teeth this time, two molars and a wisdom tooth. She couldn't even do the normal, frail thing and cry. It hurt too much.

"I trust there will be no further problems," He swivelled far enough to reach the black headband. He caught it up and slipped it over her forehead. "But just in case, I've designed this to slow your brain activity." Tiny electrodes clicked and the band glowed a peaceful, soft white. "You will submit to me, Celeste. I'm giving you three days to choose between your friends and death. Simple, I think. But I warn you, girl," he shook a finger at her, like a father admonishing his child, "any more defiance, and I'll start killing off your friends.

"Now, I had best be off. It would be most ungrateful for me not to discuss this with Mr. Sinister, when he offered me this fine equipment at such a low cost. I made a little deal with him, you know. Soon, he'll get the Summers' and I get the rest of you." He nodded, as though agreeing with himself. He trailed his finger down Celeste's jaw, "But rest assured I will return to you soon, my sweet." The lights went out as he left, plunging the room into darkness.