To say things were not going Shade's way lately would be a serious understatement. Recently, the shadow mutant had received a new job as a bodyguard for a local singer while trying to run the Order single-handedly- well at least the criminal side of it. With many of the larger figures locked over a power shift. Shade had been working like a slave trying to keep up with the constant demands of the more 'hands-on' aspect of their dealings. And it wasn't helping that they were getting more resistant from their clients. Shade had even had to start outsourcing for some help. So it was only natural that something had to give. And give it did. Luckily, the shadow stalker was about to escape with his life, barely.

His past few missions had been disastrous at best. The most successful had ended with him in a garbage can, thrown out with the trash, but that was not nearly as embarrassing as getting his rump thoroughly kicked by a woman, and an Adapted at that. He had been beaten by friend and foe alike, while managing to get the singer that he was supposed to protecting kidnapped. But that was by far not the worst. On top of all that, there had been a certain incident that had occurred in the Sanctuary's recreation room that the shadow mutant would rather not talk about...ever again!

However, even with all the self-sulky and recovery that he had been going through lately, Shade was feelings somewhat cheerful presently. Why? For he had stumbled across an idea that might very well help to eliminate all his problems in a single swoop. It just required a lot of planning, as well as A LOT more work on his part, but this opportunity was too good to pass up.

With the Order in such a fragile state from the ongoing power struggle and recent leadership change, the shadow mutant knew he had to move quickly in order for his plans to manifest into results. Furthermore, Shade had to delicate. This was a dangerous web he was weaving and something that might be considered traitorous by other members of the Order who did not understand the entire picture. Therefore, Shade could trust only in himself, and no else. Time to get to work.

The shadow mutant pulled out a black box from under his bed. Opening it, Shade withdrew the contents. It consisted of many folders organized by name. Many of the names were familiar to the shadow mutant, others not so much, and still others were people Shade had just met. However, there was one thing that related all of these characters: the Order. The shadow stalker removed the contents of the folders and sorted though the data. On a blank wall in his room, Shade began to tape the needed data to the wall. He started with a picture of the member in the middle then added the data around them. When he found a connection (previously known), Shade would connect them by stretching a piece of black rope between them.

When he was finished, there was in fact a very large spiderweb staring back him. The web was very dense in the middle and slowly dispersed as one moved towards the edges. Across one of the picture, there was a large red taped "X". Shade ignored that picture. Instead, he followed a black line between that connection to the picture of a young redheaded girl who he had recently battled alongside with against the X-men.

"Looks like you are first."

Where the hell is this kid!? Shade thought to himself as he made probably his fifteenth trip through the Sanctuary. He had been searching for the little redheaded adopted child of Lori's all day with no luck. Shade had checked the dining hall, the library, the gymnasium, and the training room. He had even poked his head in the rec room (God damn that room to Hell) for a total of three seconds before discovering the girl was not inside there. No Kaitlyn Faust anywhere. Finally, he turned to the most reliable resource in the Sanctuary for all mutant members inside: Lisa, the secretary.

If anyone knew anything more about the Sanctuary than Lisa, then it was a mutant would could read minds. No one was as knowledge as Lisa. It scared Shade sometimes. And it also made him want to kill her sometimes too. But that would probably be too much of a clue to the others about what was going on, especially this early in the game. So Shade appeared in the foyer, walking out of his usual spot, tucked away in some pillars in the darkest corner of the entrance hall. And like always, there was Lisa sitting behind the desk. And like always, she asked him the same exact question.

"Hello Shade, how are you this afternoon? Can I help you with anything?"

"Actually Lisa, there is something I need. Have you seen Kaitlyn around recently?" Shade asked as sweetly and innocently as a mass murder could manage.

"If she is not here, then she is probably at the X-mansion." Lisa replied, politely as ever.

"The X-mansion? Why?" Shade responded, his voice returning to its usual harshness out of surprise.

"Yes, for school. Would you like her number to contact her?"

"Yes, thank you, Lisa. That will do." Shade replied as he quickly snatched the Post-it note with the girl's phone number out of her hand.

At the X-mansion, huh? This could be interesting. If everything worked out correctly, Shade might be able to kill two birds with one stone. He had been needing to get into the X-mansion. This looked like his way inside. Quickly disappearing into the nearest shadow, Shade 'jumped' into his way across the Sanctuary until he ended up in his room. He stuck the phone number to the picture of the redhead as he began to dial.

"Hello, Kaitlyn? This is your Uncle Shade. I heard you are staying in the X-mansion. Could you do me a favor...?"

-"Holy cow! Did you hear about Isabel!? How she was manhandled!?"

-"I can't believe she did not kill that guy!"

-"What do you think about Isabel and that white haired guy!?"

-"Is that Isabel's boyfriend? I hope not. I think he is kind of cute!"

-"Who is that white haired guy?"

It seemed like the entire Sanctuary was ablaze with the talk about how the bonemancer had been singled-handed silenced during one of her usual temper tantrums by a nobody. Whenever someone would mention their thoughts about the attack on the bat-winged mutant, the next question out of their mouth was had they seen the way Lady Isabel had reacted to it and how she had almost instantly been stopped by a certain, previously unknown, white haired man. And who was this white haired man? That seemed to be the question of the hour. And it seemed no one had the answer to that very important question.

Shade was asking, himself, that very same question. Who was this white haired stranger and more importantly, how was he controlling the violent temper of Isabel Duskmoor with nothing more than words and a single hand on her shoulder. Everyone else who might try to do such things would have ended up without a hand in the very least. Shade needed to know, because he knew that in order for his plans to be accomplished, he would have to come up with some way of dealing with the maniac of a bonemancer that was Lady Isabel, and this appeared to be the key to ensuring that she did not step in his way.

The shadow mutant had gone over the video from the foyer and had seen for himself that the white haired man had indeed stopped the rampaging brunette will little more than his meer presence. The greatest shock was the way Isabel reacted to seeing the man. She had frozen in her tracks, stopped dead. Her demeanor instanly changed from her usual fiery self to that of a scolded child that having been caught doing something wrong. Shade had never seen her act that way before. If the shadow stalker was going to find any way to stop the chaotic brunette with the giant bow, this was obviously the way.

However, the problem now was finding this mystery man. The best image that Shade could retrieve from the security camera was very blurred and only gave a hint to the actual features of the man's face. Obviously, the shadow mutant needed more information about this stranger. The only problem was who could he seek out that information from without drawing any suspicion. Perhaps, he should go to the most creditable source of all: Isabel. But then, another question almost instantly arose: how would he aks Isabel about the incident?

Taking the badly distorted securtiy camera photo, Shade taped it onto the wall of his room that held the spiderweb construction he had made from his collection of data. Next, he took a new piece of string and connected the picture of the burnette with the large, green bow on her head to the one of the new mystery man. It was pertinent that Shade learn more about the relationship between these two mutants before he made any kind of move, one way or another.

The plan had worked perfectly! Of course, no one would suspect that due to Shade's present in the prison cell in the bottom of the X-men's fancy mansion. Katelyn had managed to slip through mansion and retrieve the files Shade had needed for his future endeavors. The X-men do-gooders had arrived just in time to save the day, and although Shade had not intended to nearly kill the young redhead, the attack was sure to throw off suspension about them working together. However, it would also keep Katelyn under a close watch so that she could not slip off to the Sanctuary anytime soon to tell the members of the Order "council".

Shade made a sound of disapproval at the thought. Of course, raising Lady Syn and her brother to powers of authority was a responsible enough move, but the other members were laughable, at best. Lenna was an Adapted; not even a mutant! By right, they should have slit her throat when she had walked so gracefully through those lovely golden doors. As for the massive Roach, he was useful enough. Yet, he had only just joined the Order cause, and he acted like Lenna's pet insect most of time, doing her bidding without question. They should have at least asked Shade if wanted a spot at the table. He had proven himself on multiple occasions. Heck, he had nearly died several times following orders from Lady Syn. However, that had gotten him no where. Shade was seen as a pawn on the board, not seen as a real threat. Well, everyone would soon see just how deadly this pawn could be.

Silver Streak had locked Shade down in a brightly illuminated cell, after seeing that his wounds were not life threatening. The shadow mutant had also been relieved of his large overcoat and body armor, leaving only his black pants and shirt. It seemed the X-men were taking no chance of the darkness mutant escaping as the light never left the cell, even when he slept. In order to kill time as he waited for his captors to decide what they were going to do with him, Shade pulled black daggers from underneath his shirt as he materialized them for a moment before their structure deteriorated and it faded into smoke.

Yawning, the captured Orderling pulled another dagger out, observing it for a moment before it disappered into nothingness. He wondered who they would send first, and if they would be friendly. Silver Streak had promised to show up and entertain him, but it was the ice forming mutant that Shade was most interested in seeing again. It had been a long time since the alleyway with the Stalker. The shadow mutant had heard talks that Cold Steel now ran the X-men. Well, if that was the case, the cold one was sure to visit him too. Shade had a proposal ready for him that he was sure the ice mutant could not refuse!

For a while, Shade had been contempt to wait for Cold Steel or Silver Streak or any other X-men for that matter to arrive. Hell, even Katelyn's little face would have been nice to see around. However, there had been no visitors to his cell except the fellow who brought his food. He had tried casual conversation with the man, but obviously, he had been instructed not to talk with Shade. It was fruitless to try anymore. Instead, Shade had thrown rude comments at the man, hoping that one of them would rise the man to try and strike him, but those had not worked either.

After that, the shadow mutant had become anger, shouting insults at the wall, as no one was around to hear him. He tried countless times to try and break through the walls of the places, picking at them for a few seconds before his blades would disappear in smoke. It had wielded no results except for sore fingers and blistered palms. The "glass" wall of his cell proved just as impermeable as the walls. At one point, Shade thought he might have dislocated his shoulder, throwing himself against the transparent wall, but the pain was magically gone the next morning, as if someone had healed him when he was asleep. That had ended Shade's violent phase.

Lately, Shade's boredom had turned to lethargy. For most of the day, he would just lie on his bed. His meals went untouched, except for a few bites. The only time he would leave his bed was to use the restroom, and he was starting to find that difficult. Over the past few months, Shade's once strong body had deteriorated until he looked more like a skeleton than a human being. His skin was drawn tight across his bones; his muscles had withered to almost nothing. He had refused to change clothes anymore, so he had developed a musky smell.

All in all, the once powerful mutant known as Shade was no more. In his place was only the sunken shell of a man who was slowly dying in a confined cell. To make matters worse, the man who was Shade was feeling like he was going insane. Recently, he had begun to see shadows, shadows in the bright light that might offer him refuge, but when Shade tried to enter them, they would disappear into nothing. The sane part of Shade's brain told him that they were only mirages, pictures that were forming in his head from his lack of food and his hope to escape his prison.

"Shadow, shadow..."

Words felt strange on Shade's tongue as if he had not used it in a month. He whispered the word over and over to himself in a raspy voice that sounded foreign, even to him. All he wanted was a shadow. Some bit of darkness to hide in where he could escape this prison, escape this world.

"Shadow, shadow, shadow..." The man who had been Shade whispered the word to himself until fatigue overcame him, and he faded into the dream world that led the only escape from the small, white room that was his world.

(Set in 2016)

Shade sat alone in his room once again, contemplating his next move. He had spent months gathering intel, for Cold Steel and for himself, finding out everything he needed to know about his latest target. He had spent more months trying to circumvent the chains binding him around his left wrist, the chains that held the invisible dagger positioned against his beating heart. Shade rubbed the chains subconsciously. They were symbols of his servitude. Yet, recently, he was finding it easier to avoid the stabbing pain in his heart. The negative feedback was slowly working its way into his subconscious, softening his approach to the world. Shade no longer saw passing people as targets for killing, murders waiting to be committed. However, it had not softened his feelings towards one individual: that Adapted.

Lenna. Shade hated every Adapted, but he hated that her the most. What was an Adapted doing as a leader of the Order? As the swore enemy of every mutant, the Order should be eliminating every Adapted, not ruled by them. It felt like another chain wrapped around Shade's wrist. And he knew that she did not have the interests of mutants as her motivation. She only cared about the normal things humans craved: money and power. That was all the Order was for Lenna, a means to an end. She would betray the Order as soon as it did not benefit her anymore. Shade did not intent to let that happen.

The cold sting of death piercing his heart interrupted Shade's thoughts. No, he did not wish to attack her, Shade told his newly found conscience. The invisible dagger inched away from his heart. Lenna would come willingly to her own death. Shade wouldn't be able to stop her.

Shade materialized a blade of shadow and threw it across the room, pinning it to the picture of the blonde haired Adapted. Two lines connected her picture to the two most important things to Lenna, her adopted daughter and her boyfriend. She would do anything for them. With a threat on both of them, Shade doubted Lenna would realize that she was walking straight into a trap, or she wouldn't care. Either way, she would be walking straight towards her death.