Raina knew Emerald had another sister. She'd met Ruby. But when she opened the door of the art studio in downtown New York City she had no idea she'd be meeting Sapphire the final component to the Lupine sisters. She heard only bits and pieces about Sapphire.

The bell jingled as Raina walked in. Right away she knew this was the right studio to come to. Dr Gray had sent her out with specific orders to pick up some gloomy work for the charity event he'd be holding later this week. He wanted something that reminded the deep pockets just how awful life could be and why they should donate lots and lots of money to their conservation cause.

He'd given her a 20,000$ business card to spend here. She knew art could be pricey but hoped she could get her money;s worth. After all this money had been an investment by one of the pockets. He'd want to see it put to good use. After the event they'd auction it off for charity, maybe keep a piece or two for the staff room depending.

Raina walked about looking at the pieces. The place was virtually deserted. She figured people didn't buy art in a recession. She wondered where the owner was.

Temporarily deserted would be the proper term for the gallery, considering this was an off week for it. It was a rather strange little gala with strange little pieces from various artists, but it would seem that the art that was most prevalent was the art by a one, SL, or better known as Sapphire Lupin. The art ranged from an often realistic style with the portraits of women and men to a more imaginative or darker style style with drawings of wolves running on water or a snake constricting around a test tube and a beaker blood staining its fangs.

Behind an Easel that had not yet been started on, sat the oldest Lupin herself, Sapphire Lupin, staring at the easel as she tried to think of her next piece. She had heard the woman come in and rose from her seat in order to greet a possible customer. Though she did not own the Art Gallery, she was its best selling artist so she didn’t want to throw the chance of a possible sale away. Cold, eerie blue eyes fell on Raina with a tiny glint of curiosity lighting up within them. She had seen this woman hanging out with her younger siblings before and he couldn’t help but wonder what sort of relationship she had with them.

“Welcome, I see that you have found us our not so busy day.” Sapphire told the woman, placing a strand of black hair behind her ear. The mysterious beauty paused for a moment before stating. “Is there anything I can help you with, I may be just one of the artists but I know all of the artists here by heart and I can help you find what you are looking for.”

Raina looked up. Odd. This woman looked very familiar though she was sure she'd never seen her before. There was something about her that Raina just couldn't put her finger on. She smiled anyway. "Hi, I think you can help me!" she nodded still looking about the gallery.

"I'm looking for some pieces, possibly abstract... with a darker colour pallet and well... a darker theme." she explained. "Nothing too crazy, but enough to inspire the rich to give to the poor?" she laughed and extended her hand.

"My name is Raina." said the red-head. "I work for the New York City Aquarium. We're having a fundraiser for conservation efforts and we're looking for something to set the mood of despair without... you know... being too much." she laughed. "Trying to guilt some richies out of their money Im afraid." she said with an embarrassed blush.

It was driving her crazy. Who was this woman?

Sapphire listened to the woman, rolling her eyes a little at the blush. The woman didn’t need to be embarrassed all because she was trying to guilt the rich people out of their money. Sapphire had murdered people for money before so this woman had nothing to worry about.

It was at this point when the oldest Lupin sister recognized Raina as Naveeds sister and she made her mental note that she wasn’t allowed to murder her for any reason. It would be rather bad for a relationship with a friend if he found out you murdered his precious younger sibling wouldn’t it? So Sapphire went over to one of the covered paintings and removed the cover from it. The painting was one of hers and it was a beautiful painting painted in a darker color palette, of a Mermaid holding a gold doubloon near the bottom of the sea floor as various other doubloons rained from the sky. The sea water was painted a dark blue while the coral, fish, doubloons and the mermaid were painted in lighter colors to stand at a contrast to the darkness surrounding them.

“Would this be something you are interested in Raina?” Sapphire asked, the cool calm words escaping her lips. “I painted this one myself and while its not one of my best I believe it suits your purpose. Oh, and My name is Sapphire Lupin.”

The woman’s cold blue eyes looked at the other woman, waiting for her reaction at the fact she was the oldest of the Lupin family. While she did look like the other Lupins in certain ways, what was most distinctive was that she didn’t look nearly as animalistic as her siblings or mother for that matter. It was one of the mysteries of the gene that the Lupins had in them, that was not yet known to anyone but family and their previous ‘master’.

Raina followed the woman and watched the unveiling of the piece. It was absolutely stunning and really seemed like it would fit her show perfectly. She turned to tell the woman she liked it when she introduced herself. She was a Lupine sister. Emmy's older sister to be in fact. Raina took a tentative step back. She suddenly felt very nervous. She'd heard rumors of this sister.

"You're... Emerald's sister." said Raina "Emmy is one of my best friends!" she said. Well maybe as close to a best friend as Raina could get seeing how Em risked her neck to help Raina save some dogs a while back. Raina always thought it was funny she gravitated to the mutants with animal powers like Em and Sara. "Ruby is great too." she stammered. She was sincere in what she said but she was also sincere in her nervousness around this sister.

Sapphire was very familiar with the overall feelings of nervousness that were often evoked by her saying who she was. It was apparent that she had built up quite a reputation among other mutants, mainly due to the fact of how easily she switched sides in the mutants vs humans miniature ‘war’ that often went on. In all honesty, Sapphire didn’t give a damn of who won all she cared about was the safety of her family. If it took her massacring all of mutant kind to give her family what she believed they needed, then so be it.

“You know my sisters, well that’s good, I hope you have been keeping an eye on them since their return to the mansion a few months ago.” Sapphire told Raina, with a calm and cool voice. While she was partially glad that her younger siblings had made a friend but the other part was very jealous that this woman got to spend more time with her sisters than she did and though she did not show it on her face, her very soul began to burn with building hatred for this woman. She smiled that sweet and slightly sadistic smile at Raina.

“You seem somewhat nervous may I ask if its because of the rumors you have heard about me? I have heard of some pretty bad ones, ones calling me the angel of death or some nonsense and I’m wondering if you heard any of them All I do is just paint my portraits to earn a living as well as occasionally visit my siblings.” There was a pause as a tendril of Darkness arose from the ground, grabbing the discarded sheet and placing it in the corner of the room with various others. She turned back to Raina with the same smile. “Im just a normal artist with the exception of the mutation.”

Raina plastered on a smile and beamed motionless at the woman. "You could always come and visit Emmy and Ruby any time you like you know!" she suggested. "I think they'd appreciate it!"

Another moment of silence as Sapphire explained about her reputation and then an actual piece of darkness started moving things around. Sure, she was a regular artist. And Raina was a clownfish.

"Well you know people... they all talk..." she didn't know what else to say. "I guess I will take that piece, do you have any others?"

Sapphire chuckled in response to the woman’s words. “I doubt Emerald will want to see me, it isn’t exactly a Lupin Family tradition to forgive and to forget, if you get what im saying.” Sapphire was very well aware that it was possible for her younger sister to never forgive her for what she did nearly ten years ago but she really didn’t care. What she did was only for her sisters benefit, to make them the best they could be, even if they had to be in pain for it to happen.

“Mmmm, perhaps,” Sapphire pondered aloud, walking over to one of the tarps and pulling it off of the painting. It was one very similar to the previous one in color scheme but for more outlandish in choices of mythical entities. There was a leprechaun giving all of his gold into the pouch of a smiling Kangaroo who was dressed in rags. “I think I may have been drunk when I painted this.”

Raina stared at the painting and her eyes darted back to Sapphire, then back to the painting. Leprechaun and Kangaroo? Definitely no. Drunk? Huge possibility. She hesitated. "You know, on second thought I think this piece will do just fine." she said motioning to the one she was ready to purchase.

She pulled out a check book and started scribbling the cost down and handed it to her. "Thank-you very much. It should be great exposure for the gallery!" Not that she was ever coming back here again. What did Naveed see in this girl?