The face Rahne saw when she regained consciousness was not a strange one. She knew the man from brief glimpses of him when she and her teammates had sneaked off from school on various adventures. He fought their former headmaster Magneto, once. He was not a friend or ally; he was a scheming, controlling, greedy man. She didn't know much about the man himself, but she knew that he had used his wealth and influence to thwart the operations of the X-teams many times. She also knew that his ultimate goal was to take over the entire world. She had peeked in on the strange activities of his exclusive society, the Hellfire Club. She did not like, respect, or trust this man.

In the blink of an eye she was charging him, but to no avail. By the time she realized she was unable to shift to her wolf form, he had already grabbed both her wrists.

"Do not resist me," pleaded Shaw, "I have no wish to hurt you. That is why you aren't restrained."

"You're a liar! Where have you brought me?" Rahne demanded, still struggling against her much stronger captor.

"This is my safehouse, my fortress. I brought you here because you were the only one I could save! The Federal Government is hunting mutants and killing them! I was too late to save the rest of the Hellfire Club. Please! Stop fighting me - I promise I will not hurt you!"

"I don't believe you! Why can't I use my power? What have you done?"

"Mutant powers don't function here - the Sentinels would detect us if we used them. I'm going to let you go now ... Just listen to what I tell you, and try to calm down. We must stay here for the time being. It's not safe out there. The Sentinels are murdering every mutant they can find."

She could tell what he was about to say.

"No one else at Xavier's school survived."

Hours passed as Shaw let Rahne alone to mourn her friends. He was playing the part of the repentant criminal, and playing it to the hilt. He told her he would leave her to herself for as long as she needed, and that he would be downstairs in his chambers if she needed anything, anything at all. He was hardly sympathetic by nature, but his theatrics proved at least partly successful — Rahne had stopped fighting him and seemed open to the notion that, like it or not, she had to put some small amount of trust in him.

Shaw paced the floor in his room, occasionally glancing up to the video monitor of Rahne's room. He despised modern things such as that, and regretted that he had to rely on modern technology so often in his endeavors. His mood was not the best.

"God's bones, does the girl EVER stop crying?"

"Perhaps she has good reason," quipped the demon from the magic circle behind Shaw.

Shaw spun around wide-eyed and pale. He was not used to the demon yet, and was truly ready to finish the entire business so that he could be rid of him. He had to make himself ignore the thought that this might not be possible.

"I intend to keep her unaware of my intentions, and our deal," spoke Shaw, trying to sound confident. "She is young, and emotionally unstable, it seems. Whatever her problems may have been, it certainly appears that I will be doing her a great mercy by ending her life."

The demon's laugh was sarcastic and condescending. "You humans, always seeking to justify your selfish actions. I sense doubt in you, Shaw. Your every emotion is open before me. The moon is nearly full, Shaw—the time is near. If you fail to carry out your end of this 'deal', there shall be dread compensations taken ..."

"I am resigned to my purpose," replied Shaw, "and nothing shall prevent me from acquiring what is rightfully mine. This world will bow to my reign, or it shall suffer ... but what of you, demon? What fulfillment do you seek? What stimulation do you gain from virgin sacrifices? My files show that the girl is a religious zealot, and that could render her soul out of your reach — if you believe the Bible."

"And what does the Bible say of souls such as yours, Shaw?" The demon grinned maliciously. Shaw nearly stuttered as he attempted to change the subject.

"What exactly do you gain from all this?"

"Your fear is gushing out like a tapped keg of wine, human. I savor it. Were I free, I would enjoy it even more. Fear is the emotion I command, and the terrors that can plague the human soul are the very substance that I feed on ... every memory, every emotional scar, every grief and regret that haunts a man or woman is mine to contort and construct. Your minds are my kitchen, my playground, and my bedroom ... but only living souls are subject to my powers. Your despair is the blood in my demonic veins. Your weak wills never hold up against the horrors I produce in your agonized minds. My ultimate enjoyment is to drive you so far past the brink of hope that you end your own pathetic lives.

"But this time, my goal is different. The spell by which you conjured me is ancient, Shaw. You opened a rift between earth and a much worse place when you called me up and captured me in this circle. A place I did not give much thought to before, but that seems quite appealing to me now. I seek to rule this realm, and would simply take it, but the powers that be require me to fulfill certain payments first. They are beings long forgotten by your kind ... powers and entities so old and so very evil that you cannot imagine them.

"Once the girl is slain, I shall depart, and you may go back to your life with the assurance that Xavier's followers will soon all submit to your authority. But should you fail me, Shaw ... there is no circle that can contain me indefinitely, nor any spell that can protect you!"

Wolverine made a quick phone call to Xavier's and left a message that he was leaving the country for where he believed he would find Rahne. He made it clear to the Professor that he had taken great pains to collect his information, but the Professor insisted not to know the details. He would have trouble sleeping if he knew Wolverine had been ransacking a church, terrorizing the phony minister there, not to mention breaking into the Hellfire Club single-handedly, murdering thirty-seven guards one by one. He had used ruthless methods of obtaining information from each of them until he reached Shaw's private quarters/office. There, from subtle clues and things only he would discern, he determined Shaw's location. He had to obtain some information from Shaw's computer, which he accessed with the help of a Hellfire official who had to type with only one hand, seeing as how Wolverine had amputated the other.