...
"And the Lord said unto Man, 'Be wary of the shapeshifter, for she is deceitful of tongue.' And Man replied, 'Yes, Lord, but have you considered that she can turn into Salma Hayek?' And the Lord fell silent, for Man had spoken wisely."
...
Raven Darkhölme…
Her reputation for violence was awesome and her devotion to causing chaos legendary. She was, in another life, one of the great architects of Krakoa's downfall, an entire nation burned to the ground in pursuit of her revenge. Her kind was a rarity. Raven Darkhölme did not fear the police, she did not fear society, she did not fear God, she did not fear Hell, and she neither feared nor loved her fellow man. There were stronger mutants, but few were more dangerous.
And Adonai used to love her for it. There were few characters more entertaining than a pure chaos goblin who gave zero fucks about anyone and committed atrocities whenever the intrusive thoughts won. Used to love was the important distinction, because chaotic evil was fucking hilarious from the safe side of a comic-book page and much less charming when the psychotic blue shapeshifter was real and lived on the same planet as him.
And she was here, wearing her iconic white dress with a skull belt.
Fuck.
Tabitha kept the pistol trained on Mystique's forehead. "Want me to shoot her, boss? I get the feeling she isn't here for the lunch reservation."
"Give it a moment." Adonai raised one hand lazily, signaling for Tabitha to hold while his eyes remained fixed upon Mystique. "She went through all this trouble to get my attention, and I'd hate to ruin the performance before we reach the climax."
"How nice of you." Mystique straightened from the wall and rolled one shoulder as though testing how badly the impact had bruised it. Her smile returned as she swept a loose strand of crimson hair behind one ear. "How did you know I wasn't the real Alison?"
I really am a masochist~
That wicked smile on her blue face, paired with the dangerous glint in those yellow eyes, was already sending his thoughts straight into the gutter. His gaze traveled shamelessly down her generous figure, lingering on the thick blue thighs exposed between the slits of her white dress before climbing back toward the deep neckline and the frankly magnificent tits threatening to spill out of it. Apparently having a homicidal shapeshifter smiling at him like she was deciding whether to fuck him or slit his throat did wonderful things for Adonai's libido.
Wonderful.
"You kissed me."
Mystique stared at him for a moment, tilting her head with feline curiosity as she waited for the rest.
"Alison and I don't have that kind of relationship," Adonai said with genuine regret. "You didn't do your homework well enough."
Mystique gave a quiet laugh and wiped the last trace of blood from beneath her nose. "I'll remember that for next time. I suppose I gave the girl too much courage."
"If there is a next time," Adonai replied coldly, the humor leaving his voice. "Now tell me where Alison is."
Mystique began forming another playful expression, then it vanished from her face in an instant. Her legs folded beneath her, her body curled inward, and a violent tremor ran through her as though she were an abused child hearing her father's footsteps coming down the hallway.
One of Nen's simple but useful applications was Ren, which allowed Adonai to flood his aura with hostility and turn bloodlust into something very real. Any competent Nen user could protect themselves with Ten, but this world had no Nen users beyond Adonai himself, and that made the effects rather interesting.
The blue-skinned woman who had been grinning at him seconds earlier now sat trembling and half-paralyzed, staring at Adonai like a frightened schoolgirl watching a sleep-paralysis demon crawl toward her bed. Her instincts understood his hostility even if her mind had no idea what was happening.
Granted, Mystique's actual mutation offered little beyond shapeshifting, but she was still Raven fucking Darkhölme, one of the most dangerous characters Adonai remembered from the comics. Reducing her to this state through sheer ill will was an achievement in his books.
Welcome to the big leagues Mr. Ezra!
"I'm not in the mood for games anymore, Raven, so you're going to give me quick and direct answers." Adonai stepped closer until his shadow fell across her, then crouched just enough to bring himself nearer her eye level. "Where is Alison?"
"She's fine," Mystique managed, though the words trembled on the way out. "I knocked her unconscious and tied her up in one of the private rooms downstairs. She hasn't been harmed."
"How?" Adonai asked, watching her carefully. Alison was no slouch, and quietly overpowering her without attracting attention wouldn't have been easy.
"I impersonated one of the restaurant staff and slipped something into her drink while she was waiting for you." Mystique tried to raise her head, managed it for barely a second, then dropped her gaze toward the carpet again. "She never saw me coming."
"What happened to the employee whose face you borrowed?" Adonai continued. "And how did you know Alison would be here today?"
"I attacked him before his shift and left him tied inside a van in the parking garage. He's alive as well," Mystique said. "I've been following Alison Blaire for several weeks. I knew she would eventually cross paths with you, so I waited until an opportunity presented itself."
Adonai kept his movements unpredictable whenever possible, especially when meeting someone privately, and Alison had taken much the same approach. Someone successfully anticipating where they would cross paths meant either surveillance, leaked information, or some other dangerous means.
Adonai studied her for another moment before releasing his Ren. Prolonged exposure to that much hostile aura could potentially kill someone without Nen to shield themselves, and he had already gotten what he wanted. Mystique immediately sucked in a deep breath and nearly doubled over, breathing like someone who had been held underwater until the final second.
Once she had recovered enough to speak properly, she gave them the exact location where Alison was being held, along with directions to the van in the parking garage.
Adonai glanced toward Tabitha and gave her a small nod.
"Go find Alison and make sure she's actually fine." Adonai gestured toward the elevator with two fingers. "Check the employee as well, then keep everyone downstairs until we're finished here."
Tabitha hesitated and tightened her grip on the pistol, looking from Adonai to Mystique before reluctantly taking a step backward. "You sure you want me to leave you alone with Smurfette here?"
"I'll manage."
Tabitha gave Mystique one final murderous look before lowering her weapon and leaving. Booking the entire floor suddenly seemed like one of Adonai's wiser displays of financial irresponsibility.
That left him alone with Mystique. Adonai regarded her for several seconds as he considered what exactly he intended to do with her. He eventually gestured for her to follow and walked toward a table beside the window, where he calmly pulled out a chair and sat down.
Mystique followed more slowly, still hugging her arms around herself while occasional tremors ran through her body, and she seemed reluctant to meet his eyes. Adonai trusted none of it completely. With people like Raven Darkhölme, it was safer to assume everything could become part of an elaborate scheme, including their humiliation, fear and defeat.
"You wanted to talk to me." Adonai uncorked the bottle, filled one glass, then the other, and pushed hers across the white tablecloth with two fingers. "Well, now you have my attention."
Mystique wrapped her fingers around the stem without drinking. Adonai found the sight strangely disappointing. Seeing her trembling across the table did spoil some of the mystique around Mystique.
Mystique had once seemed like this almost mythical creature of violence and deception, someone who could become anyone and appear anywhere. Now Adonai knew exactly what she looked like when genuinely terrified, and whatever danger she represented to the rest of the world, he could no longer imagine Raven Darkhölme ever posing a serious threat to him personally.
"You can put the terrified little girl routine away now." Adonai lifted his glass toward her in a mocking toast before taking a sip. "I already know you're dangerous, and you already know I can kill you. We've established the important facts, so perhaps we can finally have the conversation you kidnapped Alison to arrange."
Mystique's yellow eyes narrowed. She rolled the stem of her glass slowly between two fingers, watching the wine circle inside before finally raising it toward her lips.
"I borrowed her face for an afternoon, and she'll wake up with a headache and an interesting story." She took a measured sip and placed the glass down with steadier hands. "I came here to talk, Adonai. Everything else was simply the easiest way to arrange some privacy. You're a hard man to get a hold of."
"Chloroforming my friends is generally a poor strategy for diplomacy." Adonai rested one elbow against the arm of his chair and idly turned his glass. "Still, I'm listening. Did Magneto send you?"
"No one sends me anywhere," she said firmly, offended by the suggestion. "Erik and I have worked together when our interests aligned, and I have walked away whenever they stopped aligning. No more, no less."
Adonai hummed and took another drink. "I saw you following his lead in the Morlock tunnels. Your blue skin stood out among all the black leather and melodrama, so forgive me for drawing the obvious connection. What exactly were you doing with him if you don't work for him?"
"Mystique does what Mystique wants," Raven replied with a careless, almost feline shrug.
"Then enlighten me." Adonai set his glass down and tapped one finger against its rim. "Why are you here now?"
"Because I liked what I saw the last time." Mystique studied him for a moment before a slow smile touched her lips. "You stood before Erik when you had every reason to bend. You were angry, uncertain of what came next, and he offered you that most seductive of gifts, an answer to all your woes. He gave you an enemy for your suffering and a purpose for your anger and a place beside him from which the world might suddenly appear simple. There are men who have surrendered themselves for less. But you were different. I watched you look upon Erik Lehnsherr without fear in your eyes and hear everything he had to say and still be yourself.
"There are great men in this world who gather other men into their gravity. Erik and Charles are one of them. Each believes he has looked upon the suffering of our people and found within it some hidden commandment meant for him alone to read. And between them they have made their quarrel seem so big that younger mutants are expected to choose which great man's footsteps they shall spend their lives walking in."
She met his eyes directly. "Then there is you. You looked upon both roads and said, I will walk neither. There is something rare in that. A man who can stand before those who came before him, take from them what wisdom he finds useful, discard what he finds wanting, and then carve his own road through the world is someone worth following. There are few things more attractive than someone with enough will to carve his own destiny into the world."
It was probably a weakness of character that, despite knowing perfectly well Raven was stroking his ego to ingratiate herself with him, Adonai still found the experience immensely gratifying. Oh, flatter me, wicked woman, pour honey directly into my ears and tell me how magnificent I am! ♡
A compliment was a compliment when delivered by an absurdly attractive blue mutant, even when said mutant was almost certainly lying through her perfect teeth while plotting something unspeakable behind those yellow eyes.
"We have that in common." Mystique traced one fingertip around the rim of her glass, seemingly satisfied that she had his attention. "Neither of us enjoys being told where we belong. Neither of us accepts that Erik or Charles gets to define what mutantkind should become. We both want our people to prosper, and we've both chosen to pursue that in our own way. There is an intimacy in recognizing that quality in another person, Adonai. Those who truly belong to themselves are uncommon creatures. When one encounters another in the wild, one cannot help wanting to come a little closer and see precisely what manner of creature one has found–"
"Mystique," Adonai said, lifting his wineglass between them. "I don't give a fuck about your life story. Get to the point."
For a moment she only looked at him, and then the corner of her mouth curled upward in a predatory grin. There was no offense in it. If anything, she seemed pleased.
"The point," Raven said, "is that I want to help you. I want to see this dream of yours made real, and I think I can help you make it so."
Adonai paused halfway through lowering his glass. He certainly hadn't expected that, and as a rule he was immediately distrustful of anything he hadn't expected. He eventually leaned back, draping one arm across the chair while regarding her with open amusement. "You want to follow me?"
"I do."
"Why?" he asked. "Erik and Charles have been doing this longer than I have been alive. I have been at this for what amounts to five minutes by comparison. So what makes me so special that Raven Darkhölme suddenly feels generous?"
If she was surprised he called her by her full government name, then she hid it well.
"Generous?" Raven laughed softly and shook her head, allowing her red hair to fall across one shoulder. "You're mistaken. Erik and Charles are idealistic fools. They spend so much time opposing each other that neither seems to see how similar they are. Both have a grand theory about how the world should work, and both keep trying to force reality into it."
Adonai reached for the bottle to refill his glass. "And you're above ideology?"
"I'm in the business of realism." Mystique watched the wine pour, then extended her own glass toward him without asking. "I care about things that exist. Money exists. Power exists. Information exists. You understand those things. You trade in them." Adonai filled her glass, and Raven withdrew it with a faint smile. "So when I found myself looking for a merchant of reality, I came to you."
"Suppose I believe you." Adonai placed the bottle down and loosely folded his hands over his stomach. "Suppose I accept that you came here out of sincere concern for my dream and a touching desire to help me achieve it. Why should I accept you?" He let the amusement fade as his eyes returned to hers. "What exactly do you offer that compensates for your bloody, chaotic history? I'm building something that requires stability, Raven. I don't need you setting fire to it because you decided betrayal sounded entertaining on a whim."
Mystique snorted and leaned forward to place her glass firmly on the table. "Do you really think you can do this alone?"
"I've managed rather well."
"You have," she conceded. "You're brilliant, and far stronger than I thought you were when I walked through that door. You've managed to put your hand around the throat of half the modern world before most people even realized what you were building." She paused and glanced toward the city beyond the window. "And you are blind."
His eyebrow raised. "Blind?"
"To the shadows," she said, wholly untroubled by his tone. "You understand things insofar as things allow themselves to be seen. But there is another world beneath that one. There are intelligence services within intelligence services, criminal networks that purchase politicians, mutant cells whose names you have never heard and old organizations that were killing people before your grandparents were born. You want to build an empire in a world whose gutters you have never had to crawl through." Her yellow eyes narrowed. "I know those gutters. I am those gutters."
This was definitely comic-book Mystique, Adonai concluded, though that particular tragedy had become obvious the moment Rogue told him about her history with the Brotherhood. Alas, cruel fate, why must you deny me the convenient adaptation?
Movie Mystique would've been impressionable enough that Adonai could probably have recruited her into his merry little circus with a good speech, and the promise of a better future, and he would have welcomed her with open arms. Comic Mystique, meanwhile, was a magnificent psychotic bitch whom any sensible man would observe from behind a hundred-foot restraining order. Her offer had consequently become a matter of profound fucking annoyance.
"Let me be your eyes in the dark." Raven rested her chin lightly against her knuckles, watching him with unnerving patience. "Our methods differ, but the destination is close enough. You want mutantkind prosperous. So do I. And I want to make certain the world does not crush you before you get there." She leaned back then, regarding him with that small, knowing smile once more. "You are trying to play a clean game in a filthy world, Adonai. So let me do the bleeding for you. Let me handle the dirty work while you sit upon your pristine throne."
Oscar-worthy. Absolutely fucking Oscar-worthy.
Adonai could have applauded. If he had known nothing about Raven Darkhölme, he would have swallowed every velvet-soft word and thanked her for feeding it to him. The sincerity in her eyes, the little tremor of conviction in her voice, that gorgeous face arranged into earnest devotion while another mind worked somewhere behind it all… ♡ God, he loved two-faced women.
There was something exquisitely wrong about a beautiful liar performing sincerity specifically for him, every smile hiding another intention, every tender word wrapped around some private scheme. His thoughts practically sang. ♪ Lie to me, sweetheart. Manipulate me. Make it convincing. ♡♪
This world really was overflowing with duplicitous bitches blessed with magnificent acting talent, and apparently Adonai had developed a deeply unhealthy appreciation for the species.
"And I'm supposed to trust you after that speech?" Adonai asked.
Mystique answered with a shrug, apparently comfortable now that the immediate threat of death had receded. She leaned back and crossed her legs again, allowing the slit of her dress to fall open across one blue thigh.
"Keep me close. Watch everything I do. Put a collar on me if it makes you feel safe." Her fingers brushed lazily against the hollow of her throat, and her smile turned deliberately suggestive for half a second. "I have no objection to reasonable precautions."
What are you planning behind those pretty yellow eyes, Raven? he wondered eagerly. He almost hoped it was something elaborately evil. ♡
"Use my skills," she continued. "Use my face, my contacts and my experience. I can become your rivals, their wives, their drivers, or anyone else who gets through the door. I know about your little corporate problem, and I can help you with that." She spread her hands. "I'm offering you an extraordinary weapon completely free of charge. Don't let your anger over Alison waste a perfect opportunity."
Adonai considered her proposal. Annoyingly, it was a good one. Raven was overselling herself, but even after discounting for ego she was still an experienced infiltrator with one of the most useful espionage mutations imaginable. The coalition currently attacking his companies had money, political access and private networks that conventional intelligence gathering would struggle to penetrate. Mystique could walk into a board meeting wearing the chairman's face.
The problem was trust.
Ah, trust, that fickle little whore who abandoned every interesting woman the moment she became interesting. Raven Darkhölme came gift-wrapped in beauty, and approximately nine hundred reasons never to believe a single syllable leaving her mouth. She was temptation wearing lipstick, deception in a white dress, catastrophe with fantastic tits, and Adonai's brain responded with an enthusiastic ♡ DANGER! DANGER! WIFE MATERIAL! ♡
Alas! Betrayed by my own deplorable taste in women once again! Adonai mourned theatrically inside his head. He would never trust her. At least not as she currently was. Fortunately, he had a solution for that. His smile slowly spread, bright enough to make Mystique's own falter for the briefest instant, and with the lazy flourish of a magician revealing the final act, he lifted one hand.
A book appeared neatly within his palm, and Mystique's eyes snapped toward it. Adonai placed it gently upon the table between them with almost affectionate care, like a groom setting down an engagement ring while thinking, Congratulations, darling. You've wandered into the wrong romance.
"You see, Mystique, Rogue has told me enough about you that trusting you blindly would be very stupid of me." Adonai rested his fingertips beside the old book and nudged it several inches toward her. "So prove yourself. If you really want to work with me and help me build my Eden, put your hand on the book and swear your undying loyalty to me."
Raven's yellow eyes immediately dropped to the book.
Suspicion was expected. Suspicion was probably Raven's natural state of being by this point, right alongside breathing and lying through those lovely blue lips of hers. What caught Adonai's attention was the tiny flash of relief that appeared before it, a subtle loosening around her eyes that disappeared almost as quickly as it came.
Almost.
"Oh? now that is interesting," Adonai murmured, his smile slowly widening as he leaned forward over the table. "You knew about my little book already, didn't you?"
Raven looked from him to the book again, and whatever relief he had caught earlier had disappeared completely.
"If I put my hand on that book and swear myself to you, then whatever oath I make becomes permanent," Raven said carefully, watching his face while she spoke. "I would be bound to whatever terms I agreed to, and I wouldn't be able to betray them afterward. Am I wrong?"
Adonai's smile became a delighted grin.
"That's a bingo!" he exclaimed, pointing at her before settling back into his chair. "Which raises the question of how you know that. Everyone who knows what this book does is already eternally loyal to me. They couldn't betray its existence even if they wanted to." He watched her eyes carefully, enjoying the tension gathering behind them. "Did Destiny tell you about it? Can she really see things in such detail?"
Mystique froze. Her entire body went rigid in the chair, with one hand still resting beside her glass and her yellow eyes widening until she seemed to have forgotten how to blink. Her lips parted slightly, but nothing came from them and looked as though someone had reached inside her skull and pulled out a secret she had buried there herself.
Well, shit.
He had been right. He had been hoping that he was not dealing with comic-book Mystique.
"You…" Raven finally managed, her voice catching strangely as she stared at him. "How do you..?"
"How I know about your lady amour, you mean?" he asked, enjoying the way her expression tightened at the words. "Or are you asking how I know that Irene Adler can see the future? You'll have to be more specific, my dear Raven. You underestimate how difficult it is to remain discreet when someone already knows what to look for," Adonai continued, drumming his fingers beside the book. "Still, it seems I hit the mark, which means Destiny somehow knew that I possessed a book capable of enforcing loyalty."
That was less amusing.
Actually, that was fucking concerning. Adonai had spent years keeping the exact mechanics of his abilities hidden whenever possible. And now some blind precognitive lesbian he had never met apparently had advanced knowledge of it.
"You're thinking about how best to kill me," Adonai said casually, and her eyes immediately returned to his face. "I'd abandon that particular train of thought if I were you - you won't be able to kill me today or ever."
"How do you know about Irene?" Raven asked again, each word coming through clenched teeth. "You know my name, you know hers, and you know what she can do. I want to know how."
Adonai chuckled and picked up his glass.
"And I want many things in life, Raven, but God has cruelly refused to provide most of them on demand," he said before taking a small sip. "Now, I have good and bad news for you. Since I believe in maintaining morale among new employees, I should probably give you the good news first. You will be working for me. Congratulations, darling, your interview has been successful.
"Killing you would make Rogue sad, I think, and I would hate to make your lovely adopted daughter sad," Adonai continued, setting his glass down again. "She is very dear to me, you see, which has done wonderful things for your chances of leaving this room alive. The bad news is about your girlfriend. Now that I know Destiny has seen enough of my affairs to warn you about this book, I can't allow you to walk away without proclaiming your eternal friendship."
Mystique's gaze moved from Adonai to the book and returned to him again, her face settling into that familiar unreadable calm while calculations moved behind her eyes. He could almost imagine the gears turning as she searched for the angle that left her with something resembling victory. Adonai allowed her the silence and enjoyed his wine. She had entered this restaurant expecting to maneuver him into accepting her, and now she had achieved exactly what she supposedly wanted under circumstances she clearly had never intended. A control freak like her wouldn't be happy.
"I have one condition," Mystique said eventually, her voice steady again.
Adonai snorted and leaned comfortably into his chair. "Darling, you are in absolutely no position to be making demands. Still, let it never be said that Adonai Ezra lacked generosity toward beautiful women, especially beautiful women currently negotiating from the bottom of a very deep hole." His lips curved with amusement. "Go ahead, Raven. Tell me your condition."
"Leave Destiny out of this," Mystique said, and every trace of her earlier seduction vanished. "I'll work for you, and I'll swear that I will never act against you. I'll perform whatever work we agree upon, but Irene must remain free. You will never put her hand on that book, and you will never involve her in this arrangement."
Adonai hummed thoughtfully. "And how exactly am I supposed to know she won't spend the next twenty years searching through possible futures for a way to take revenge on me?"
"Because I give you my word," Raven said, and there was no smile accompanying it. "You leave Irene alone, and she will leave you alone. I will see to that personally."
Adonai stared at her and burst out laughing.
"Get a grip, woman," Adonai said when he finally recovered. "You're a fucking terrorist who will happily commit whatever atrocity your current objective requires. What the fuck do you think your word is worth? …Still, you're going to work for me, and I'd prefer our professional relationship to begin with some good faith between us. So I'll give you this much. I will leave Irene alone as long as she does the same for me." He smiled. "Deal?"
Mystique held his gaze for several seconds and her attention returned to the book. "How exactly does this thing work? Do I put my hand on it and swear eternal loyalty, body and soul?"
"What possible use would your soul have to me?" he asked, genuinely unimpressed by the suggestion.
Mystique smirked and tilted her head with an expression of such artificial innocence that Adonai found it indecently attractive. There was definitely something wrong with him.
"You didn't mention my body," Raven observed.
"Put your hand on the book, Raven."
Raven laughed softly before placing her palm against the cover. Adonai gave her the terms carefully, and Raven repeated them. The book accepted the oath with the same quiet certainty Adonai had felt before, and the tension sitting somewhere behind his ribs finally loosened.
Mystique was safe….Well, safe-ish.
That was probably the highest category of safety any sane man could achieve where Raven Darkhölme was concerned.
Adonai kept his face calm while Raven slowly removed her hand. She turned her palm upward, examined it, then rubbed her thumb across the center as though expecting some physical evidence of what had just happened.
"How much of this did Destiny foresee?" Adonai asked, watching her inspection with mild amusement. "I'm curious how much of our little conversation was already sitting inside Irene's head before you walked through that door."
"Some of it," Raven answered, flexing her fingers once as though checking whether the book had physically changed anything. "She knew we would reach an agreement, and she knew I would place my hand on your book and swear something to you. The details were unclear, and she couldn't tell me exactly what we would discuss or what terms we would settle on."
That caught Adonai's attention. "Unclear how?"
"Ever since you appeared, the future has become a cesspool of unpredictability and chaos," she continued. "Irene can still see possibilities, but events surrounding you shift constantly, and the closer a person or event gets to you, the worse her vision becomes. She described it as fog spreading across everything you touch. She can see shapes inside it, sometimes even important moments, but the details disappear or change before she can properly follow them."
"...Wait, if she can't see events around me clearly, how did she know what my book actually does?" Adonai asked, glancing down at the cover before looking back at Raven.
"She didn't know," Raven said, and the satisfaction creeping into her voice told him exactly how much she was enjoying this. "Irene saw you bring out the same book on several occasions when you were making important agreements with people, and she saw enough afterward to know that those people remained loyal. I deduced the book was magical and connected to whatever agreements you were making. You were the one who confirmed everything else."
The blue bitch had baited him.
"Fuck, you tricked me into revealing my own ability," he said, shaking his head while Raven looked entirely too pleased with herself. "I suppose that's on me for jumping the gun. I saw your reaction and got excited. Embarrassing."
"I did tell you I was useful."
"Yes, yes, your genius has been acknowledged, and the commemorative plaque will arrive by Friday," Adonai replied, waving her smugness away. Adonai let the amusement linger for another moment before his thoughts returned to the reason he had wanted Mystique sitting across from him in the first place. There were several things Raven could provide him. She was a very old woman after all.
"You're familiar with a man named Nathaniel Essex," Adonai said, and the change in his voice made Raven's amusement fade. "You probably know him better as Mister Sinister. I want you to tell me everything you know about him, and please spare me the innocent act this time. I already know you and Irene worked with him in the past and had your own schemes involving him."
Raven raised an eyebrow.
"One wonders how you know so much about Irene and me," she said, studying him again.
"Keep wondering," Adonai replied. "Now speak."
"You're going to have to be more specific."
Adonai frowned. "About Nathaniel Essex?"
"Yes."
"What exactly requires clarification?"
Mystique gave him a curious look. "Which one do you want to know about?"
Adonai slowly lowered his glass.
Raven continued before he could interrupt. "There are four clones derived from the man who used to be known as Nathaniel Essex, and each inherited a different portion of his work and ambitions. So if you want useful information, you're going to have to tell me which Essex you mean."
Adonai stared at her. His knowledge of Marvel comics immediately produced several deeply unpleasant memories involving diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades.
Of course.
Of fucking course this universe had decided to include that particular piece of continuity too.
"FUCK!"
AN: This chapter was supposed to be significantly longer and include something other than just the talk with Mystique, but my buddy invited me over to help with some "minor" thing that somehow turned into two days of unpaid labor because the fucker was moving out and decided renovating his entire apartment was my problem too.
So unfortunately, I couldn't devote enough time to the chapter to make it as long as I originally intended.
As always, advanced chapters are available on my Patreon. If you want to read ahead, vote on which story gets updated each week, or simply support my writing so I can focus more on it, you can check it out here: /abeltargaryen?