Destiny on the prowl

Days later…

The quiet council met; the members who encircled the table took their chairs one by one. Four tables with three seats each. Each table represents a different corner of the island of Krakoa and, with it, a different segment of its culture and hierarchy. Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr and Irene Adelrich sat at the autumn table, taking their seats as the others rounded the room to find their chairs. Professor X, Magneto, and Destiny held themselves to be the record keepers and the foundation of the island nation.

Bennet du Paris, Selene Gallio and Hope Summers took their seats at the Winter table. The trio took in the sight of the rest of the council’s members as they sat, finding folders on their table showing updates of the island’s progress reports. Exodus, Black Priestess and Hope, who were the blade of the council… If needed.

Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde took their seats at the spring table. Kitty immediately pulled a folder towards herself to open and read while Shaw and Frost looked to the last table to be filled. The black King, White Queen and Red Queen, respectively, who were the economic eyes and ears of the nation.

Piotr Rasputin, Ororo Monroe and Kurt Wagner took their seats last at the summer table. The council was now in session as Xavier spoke up to address the matters of the day—the Colossus, Storm and Nightcrawler, who represented the moral heart of the council and island.

Doug Ramsey, also known as Cypher, stood nearby between the four tables and the massive living tree that was Krakoa itself, standing ready if called upon by the other members to speak on the island’s behalf personally. As the meeting began, one of its members occupied herself while the others listened.

Irene Adelrich — once blind, once merely Destiny — now thought with the quiet confidence of a woman who could see every thread of fate and taste every possibility on her tongue. The enhancements Raven gifted her sharpened her potent foresight in ways she only dreamed of; she could see things far more clearly than ever before, reading concepts and paths as if through a dream. Now it was all crystal clear to her. A library of different paths through time that could be taken, just by making a specific choice or not. But the serum had given her more than sight, strength and shapeshifting. It had given her… A hunger.

Whether it was due to Raven’s direct influence, the serum or just her repressed desires finally given voice. But she now hungered for more. Hunger for food, hunger for sex, for POWER! Ignoring Charles' drone on telepathically to the council, her eyes gazed over the other members like a wolfess staring at a flock of sheep. She could see every alternate future for every member play out before her. But then she focused her attention on one member and held back a chuckle.

Sebastian Shaw had been plotting again. She had seen the threads before, but not as clearly through her powers of foresight as she did now: secret meetings with Orchis agents, caging the people of Krakoa for their powers. Compromising the medications the island sold for political clout. Whispered promises of absolute control over the island when they would invade, the slow gathering of allies who still believed the old game of mutant exploitation could be played without consequence. Oh my, he was busy indeed.

Irene had decided it was time to end those particular threads. After all, if Emma’s appetites could be indulged, why not hers?