The lovely doctor pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh as she perused the documents regarding superhuman activity. How much sleep had she been getting? When was her last meal? Alexandra could hardly say for certain. Her cold eyes were glazed over with an insatiable melancholy. The dark nature of her demeanor painted such a tragic image when combined with her flawless ivory skin and sapphire eyes. But there was an undying fire within those eyes for those who could stand to stare within those depthless orbs, a deathless soul kindled by domineering passions that drove her onward. Indeed, the Mistress of the Mind had been hypomanic these past few days. Even her vacation was interrupted by the incessant scheming of her potent psyche and the introduction of the mysterious Gen Esis*. When she finally had the world, would she find rest? Rubbish. Rest was for mortals. She slammed her gloved fist upon her elegantly carved mahogany desk.

The clock chimed suddenly, snapping the psionic goddess from her thoughts. Even as she looked up toward the clock at the side of the room, she was aware of a figure leaning in its shadow. The darkness over shadowing his face was contrasted with a bright, white smile. "Ma petite..." The Frenchman stepped from his slouch against the wall, tugging on his tailored black suit.

Her blue eyes froze over as he fully revealed himself. "Q. What are you doing here?" She leaned back into her polished leather chair, her gloved fingers tapping upon the wooden surface with impatience.

"My daughter, do not be so quick to alienate yourself from your family. You will have need of us in the future if you are to recreate your precious Hellfire Club."

"You bastard. Since when do you care about what I want? You've seen the future." She pointed accusingly. "You knew the Third Society would take me. I very nearly blame you. If you had told me Aphasic would have captured and severed my consciousness, I never would have lost my throne in the first place." The room shook in her anger, her eyes fading into solid white.

"Now, now, mon cherie. You perceive time only in a linear fashion with no understanding of the future beyond your subjective assumptions. You were dismembered by the quantum machines, that much is true. But look at you now! You have finally reached your psionic potential." He pressed his hands upon her desk, his body leaning toward her. "One of the future's greatest telepaths. And you are not even bound by the waning of years. My little Xandra..." Jacque Quentin stood straight to pace leisurely about the room. "Much like how you were broken down to become something far greater, so has your cabal that very potential. Recall the myth of the Phoenix. One must die to be reborn into something all the more powerful. You see the ashes of your former reign..." a couple of fingers slid into his pocket to withdraw his golden watch, clicking it open to observe the shifting of time as if he could read the future as each second spoke to him, "I see a stoked fire that will consume the world." The watch was snapped shut with a glimmer of eerie red eyes.

Xandra shook her head. Q was a difficult man to take at face value. Nearly everything he said was a manipulation. He was a master of weaving lies because of his complex understanding of time. What he said could be true in one timeline while false in another. Everything was a riddle posed for his own amusement. She knew his prophecy could be real or it could just be his way to get something of her action. He was after all her father. She sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "Even if I was to reignite the Hellfire Club, how would it have any legitimacy?"

His face looked toward her even as his body was turned away, his fingers adjusting his vermillion silk tie. "Xandra, don't be naive. You are far too clever to resign so easily. The Hellfire Club has always been about power. Who holds the power now?"

Alexandra exhaled thoughtfully as she examined the situation. She brushed back her soft, platinum blonde tresses to reveal a pensive expression. In her deep, azure eyes was written the complexity of her past that defined her. The Psyentist was not just a woman of unparalleled beauty, she was at her core an intellectual. Her words very seldom told the full tale of all the machinations which transpired within the deepest recesses of that keen mind. "Well, the Huntington family is in bed with a number of successful businessmen, and Valerie** is herself the current monarch of the current Hellfire Club. At the suggestion of Andres***, I have tried to keep my distance from the Inner Circle." She scoffed remembering how he once told Alexandra that he wanted to avoid her presence. That Hellfire brought out the worst in her. Her blue eyes blazed. Or was it the best?

The anachronistic anomaly tut. "And how many do you think are satisfied with their stagnated existence?" He placed a hand to his chest. "As a successful business man and a time traveler, I welcome the change. The past gets stale even while it has undeniable flair. Eventually the old order rots and must be replaced. The House of Q is one of immortal ambition. A wordsmith of your caliber, a mistress of manipulation could easily sway the masses. I see you've already persuaded the mind of a king. Xenon**** is a powerful ally." Jacque's fingers stroked down his two-tone beard with a sly smile. "But don't just take my word for it. I have it on good authority your uncle knows of a woman who would be a prime candidate for the new Black Queen. A queen needs her army."

Gregory Rėza. Another well-established businessman with a penchant for the eccentric. As if she could ever forget Mr. Q and the Rezurrection were half-brothers. Still, the centuries old lich could offer valuable insight into more mystically minded members. Those were valuable allies as it was one of Alexandra's own vulnerabilities despite the magic in her familial lineage augmented by her vampirism. But something just didn't quite sit well with her about all this business. "And just what do you get out of all this, Q?" She looked up to find him vanished from the room. "Damn."

(*@darkchild)

(**@valerie_huntington)

(***@andres_knightfall)

(****@xenon_)