Cast

Nate Grey/X-Man: Former leader of Generation X. Before leaving the team, he appointed M to take his place as leader, leaving the new second-in-command position to Chamber.

Rose/Lyte: Newly divorced from Nate Grey. Rose is pregnant with their first child.

Tanak/Darkness Realm Ruler: A seemingly perfect copy of Nate, save for his entirely black pupils. He replaced Nate as ruler of the Darkness Realm.

Ariel Chylde/Nightmare Queen: Tanak’s new wife and joint ruler of the Darkness Realm. Her devotion to her husband originates from a former crush on Nate himself, though Tanak returns the love that Nate never would.

Gemini: Another near-perfect copy of Nate that is determined to keep him from harm.

Chapter 1

The glowing light of the television set provided little opposition to the rest of the darkened room, but this night, it matched the mood perfectly. Professor Charles Francis Xavier, founder of the X-Men, stared at the set, an impassive look on his face. Behind him, his children, his students, his X-Men. Not just the X-Men, but almost every living student that ever entered the hallowed halls of the Xavier Institute. The unified ranks of Generation X, X-Factor, X-Force, the recently disbanded Excalibur, and of course, the X-Men, made the small room a tight fit, but none complained. In fact, there was an eerie silence as their eyes and ears focused on the evening news.

"This is Jack Ryder, coming to you live from Capital Hill. For the past few years, the nation has either ignored or refused to deal with the vigilante known as the Gray Wanderer. On some occasions, authorities have tried to arrest him, but all attempts had failed. He's danced along the fine line of justice and criminal activity, sometimes endangering innocent people in his one-man war on what some have come to call "evil mutants." Though the man or mutant question had often been directed at the Gray One himself, his true nature was still unknown. Tonight, however, his reign of terror came to a screeching halt in Washington, DC, when he brutally murdered the mutant known as "Sabretooth."

"The records of Victor Creed's psychopathic killing-sprees are well-documented, but even the President was in favor of the Gray One's capture. Authorities found him near Creed's corpse late last night. And, for the first time anywhere, the Gray Wanderer was unmasked. He has now been identified as Nathan Grey, youngest son of Scott and Jean Grey-Summers."

Ryder continued with his report, but no one in the room was listening anymore. The rumors were true, every last one of them. One of their own had broken a cardinal rule of Xavier's set long ago: X-Men don't kill. It sounded easy enough, but truthfully, more of the X-Men had killed than most of them would have liked to believe. But this was the first time one of them had ever killed willingly, because of rage, loss of will, and quite possibly, fear. Some had expected this from Nate; they had whispered he would turn traitor many years ago, following in the infamous Remy LeBeau's footsteps. Few knew of Nate's hidden dark side, and wondered if it had finally overcome him in a single murderous act. Others marveled at it, wondering where this bright-eyed boy had gone wrong. Still others wondered how Xavier would react.

Nate was one of Xavier's favorites, one of the children bound to him by the dream so strongly that only death would separate them from Xavier or the dream. But the professor retained his gaze, never daring to let his mental defenses weaken, for a fear of what might be discovered in his brilliant mind. It was times like this he regretted training so many telepaths, for several were only second to him in power.

It was Penance that broke the mold, moving stealthily towards the man and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Charlie, are you all right?" she asked, sending calming emotions to her troubled friend.

Xavier welcomed her childlike thoughts and replied, "I don't think any of us truly are, child, especially not now." She nodded, sensing his personal anguish. He held himself responsible for all his students, and when they fell away from the fold, he blamed himself continually.

Ariel Chylde stared at her husband, wondering what kind of man he truly was. Was he the ruler of the Darkness Realm, the one everyone feared and respected? Was he the warlord that crushed all opposition to the throne? Was he the man that she had fallen so hopelessly in love with? Or was he the cruel, heartless king that had just sentenced an entire kingdom to its doom? Ariel decided that he was all these things, and it scared her. But what scared her more: what her dark mate had been, or what he might later become?

They both stood alone in the garden, each waiting for the other to speak. Finally, Ariel could no longer contain herself. Approaching her husband from behind, she wrapped her arms around him. "Beloved," she said, "why have you done such a horrible thing? Did those people really deserve what you have decreed?"

"Those people," he replied, "had threatened the throne for many years, my Queen. At your bidding, I ignored their hatred of me. But when their king swore that he would kill you and serve your head to his people on a golden platter, I could take no more. They die at sunrise; the matter is closed."

Ariel smiled grimly and ran her hand through his reddish-brown hair, playing with the white strands that dangled before his black eyes. "Do you love me so much, Beloved? You don't have to slaughter an entire kingdom to prove it."

He shook his head. "No, my Queen. Proving my love for you had nothing to do with it. I will suffer no fools, especially those that threaten to take away the most important thing in my life." He turned to Ariel and embraced her, inhaling the scent of her perfume. "I would die without you," he whispered.

“That sounds a bit too dramatic, Beloved,” Ariel suggested.

Her husband shook his head. “Drama had nothing to do with it. You are my heart, in every sense of the word. I won’t let anyone take you away from me. Ever.”

Ariel smiled and kissed his cheek. “You say the sweetest things. I can never stay mad at you.”

“Why should you look for anger when our love is nothing but happiness?” he asked.

“Well, I am the Nightmare Queen around these parts,” she replied. “I should look for some sort of despair.”