Hell hath no greater fury ch.1

It was two a.m. when, then eleven year old, Artemis Rose had found out she was a vampire.
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What had woken her up was not the overwhelming thirst that had gripped her, but rather an excruciating pain that radiated throughout her frame. It had felt like someone was trying to rip out her spine. She had tried to get up – she hadn't known why then and still doesn't know now – and go to her step-brother's room, because his was the closest and have him call for help. She didn't even make it two feet from her bed when her wings finally broke through the skin. She screamed loud and long from the pain in her back and the pain in her mouth, she could feel her canines elongating and hollowing out. Everyone in her house save for herself slept like the dead, so it didn't surprise her that it had taken several agonizing minutes for anyone to rouse themselves and come to her aide. She had been curled up in the fetal position when her step-brother had come in. He came rushing to her side, but misunderstanding his motives due to past abuse; she leapt up and lunged at his throat, biting into his jugular. It was now his turn to scream. The scream hurt her ears. With a feral hiss, she let go and flew out the window.

As she flew far, far away from her familiar suburban home, she realized that she could never be among normal humans. It was too dangerous. She was looking for a place to land when she noticed she could read the minds of the people below. It scared her a little, but didn't really concern her. Landing in an abandoned warehouse, Artemis curled up into a ball and cried herself to sleep. However, even her dreams provided little comfort. She saw herself killing, ripping, and tearing. When she woke with a start, she saw that everything that had been next to her was now floating ominously above her. With a thought, she brought them back down to their proper places.

"What am I?" she whispered, burying her face in her hands.

                        

nine years later

Artemis was pulled aside by one of her favorite "students," Takeda Akane.

"Rose-sensei, I hate to bother you, but my brother Ayume and I found three people here that are requesting a bed for the night," she gave her customary bow, her blue-black hair covering her face like a veil as she straightened out again.

"Take me to them," Artemis said, as she always did in such situations. The last thing she needed was to let some psycho into her makeshift school.

The first thing she heard was a very angry, female voice with a strong Australian accent shouting, "Why can't we just come in? They said this was a-".

Artemis decided to temporarily seize her vocal chords there. It wouldn't hurt her, but it would get the girl to shut up long enough for her to hear why she was being detained. Artemis rounded the corner and saw that the Aussie was not alone; she had three others with her.

"Calm down, my angry friend, I just had to make sure you weren't going to knife us in our sleep," Artemis said, nodding as she looked through the frightened trio's minds and found nothing of interest.

"Don't worry about your sister, Syd, I'll return her vocal chords to normal once she's out of ear shot. Rochel, don't worry, we're safer than most people would think, and Sydney, do me a favor: once you're out of here, go to some anger management classes. It could do you a world of good." Satisfied with her assessment, she wandered off to see if any of the sick bay residents showed any signs of improvement.
                 

Street corner, New York, Four years earlier

Livvy was doing what she loved to do: sing. She was good at it, it paid the rent, and most of her other bills.

She didn't know it yet, but Livvy was a mutant whose power was slowly making her blind. She didn't know it then, and even if she did, she wouldn't have cared. She sang to live and she lived to sing. Plain and simple.

Today was the day that would change her life forever. It was the day she would meet a confident girl, no older than fifteen, who would change her world forever. It was the day that she met the girl named Artemis Rose.

"And the other one is hailing a taxi cab," Livvy finished to a round of deafening applause. For a street performer, she sure had a large fan base. As the day wore on, people came and went and finally, just as the sun was beginning to set, it was time for her to pack up and go home. It was then that she felt someone watching her, not in a creeper kind of way, but more like a curious one. She looked up to see the most beautiful girl ever. The girl had evergreen eyes, porcelain skin, lips the color of a pale rose, and fiery hair. The funny thing that Livvy never found out was that the girl thought that Livvy, the 5 foot, fairy-like girl she had come to retrieve, was equally beautiful.

"Can I help you?" Livvy asked, brushing her snow white hair nervously from her equally pale blue eyes.

"Are you the singer known as Siren?" the girl asked. This freaked Livvy out a little, the only people who know that nickname were the other street performers, who had become her friends.

"How do you know that nickname?" Livvy was worried that someone had ratted her out.

"You weren't ratted out, you sent for me." Just as Livvy was about to ask what the hell she was talking about, she found she couldn't talk. It didn't exactly scare her, but it did freak her out ever so slightly.

"Are you hungry, Siren? I'm headed out for dinner anyway, it'd be my treat."

Livvy thought for a minute and nodded. The girl smiled and motioned for her to follow. With a flick of the girl's wrists, Livvy could talk again.

"How did you do that?" she asked, rubbing her slightly sore throat.

"I'm not quite sure, but it's a nifty trick I've learned over the past couple of years." The girl's English accent now very apparent, and rather out of place on Livvy's street corner.

"So, do you have a name?" Livvy asked warily. Her time on the streets had taught her to distrust everything, even if it offered food.

"My name is Artemis Rose, and I run a school for mutants. Livvy, you are a mutant. Your ability is to hypnotize people with your singing. As of yet, we don't know how powerful you are, but what we do know is your ability is causing you to go blind. If you stay here on the streets, you will go blind and never learn how to control your power and put it to use. If you come with me, we may be able to save your sight and teach you how to better control your gift."

It was a lot to take in, but it made sense somehow, and Livvy made the one decision that she knew she'd never regret. She went with Artemis.
                

School, present day

"You put your arms around me and I'm home." Siren knew that her song had at least lifted some of the kids' spirits she could feel it. Her lips curled into a beautiful smile and she felt for her eyes: a dog by the name of Jasper.

"You've made a lot of progress, old friend. I'm proud of you." Siren knew that voice like the back of her hand. It was the voice that had convinced Daredevil himself to come and teach her how to adjust to her blindness, it had sung her and her dorm mates to sleep every night, it had convinced her to put the knife and pills down, it meant safety and warmth. It was the voice of Artemis Rose.

"Thanks, teach," she said getting up."Hey, how's Ricky doing?"

Ricky was the school's jokester, he could make just about anyone smile, even his overly depressed sister. He was the only one who had known Siren when she went by Livvy. After all, he was her brother, he was also the only one in Livvy's family to ever get leukemia.

"From the looks of it, if we can't get him to a place that can treat him, and soon...." The silence was all she needed to hear. It was bad, real bad.

Siren's brother wasn't the only one who was really sick. There was an entire wing devoted to children who were terminally ill. Siren had heard from some friends of hers of another school for mutants in Westchester. From what she had gathered, the headmaster of that school was monitoring some new mutants - mutants Siren happened to know. She formulated a plan and set it into motion. With any luck, the headmaster of the other school would help her brother and all of the other kids. So, after she had finished packing up, she set off to find Syd, Sydney, and quiet Rochel.
                 
                        

X-jet

"I can't believe he sent us of all people to pick these kids up," Logan complained for the third time in five minutes.

"Calm down, mein Freund, it vill be over soon," Kurt said as he began their descent.

They touched down 200 yards from the abandoned factory. It didn't look like much of a place to spend the night, but both of them had stayed in far worse.

It was then that they saw a white blur coming at them. It took Logan all of two seconds to realize that it was a guard wolf. It took Kurt two minutes to knock both it and its twin out. They shifted back into people the moment they lost consciousness. What they saw surprised them, the two kids were no older than Kitty or any of the new mutants, yet they fought as well as any of the X-Men. Whoever was here knew how to train mutants and knew how to do it well.

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Artemis had just finished making her rounds when the Takeda twins contacted her with information she had never wanted to hear: her school had been found by what appeared to be two hostiles. Her connection to them broke when they were knocked out. She searched mentally for the intruders and found them in few nanoseconds. No one harmed her students or staff without paying for it – no one.
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Logan sniffed the air looking for signs of any other guards. The coast seemed clear. It was then that he felt someone quickly touch and exit his mind - he looked over at his friend who nodded - he had felt it too The two went back to back immediately, prepared to take on anything. Lurking in the shadows where she couldn't be seen nor smelled was, now very angry, Artemis Rose. She took a moment to assess the invaders, and spreading her wings, took flight. They didn't hear her coming till it was almost too late.

"Oh no, you don't, bub," Logan said as he put the assailant into a choke hold. What he saw surprised him, the person who had tried to attack the duo was about the same age as Kurt, mid to late twenties.

"Let me go!" the girl shouted, aiming a kick for his shins but missing - barely.

Logan heard something tapping against the pavement, his head snapped towards the noise. There was a fairy-like girl with a cane standing there, she looked worried.

"Artemis, it's my fault they're here. I had heard from reliable sources that the school slash boarding house they live in were looking for Syd, Sydney and Rochel. I had also heard that they have a state of the art infirmary. I figured if I could lure them here, we could show them the death ward and they could get some of those kids the help that they need," this girl looked about the same age as Artemis.

"Siren, they attacked Akane and her brother Ayume! You put the school in serious danger! What if the rumors that you heard were just that - rumors? We could have been killed!" Artemis now looked livid. She struggled to get out of Logan's grip.

"They attacked us first, ve vould never harm without cause," Kurt said, trying to soothe the girl.

"Sensei!" a voice, presumably Akane, given it was female, shouted worriedly.

"Put her down!" A male voice behind him growled.

Logan turned around to see two people; one was Akane, the other was presumably her brother, given the resemblance.

"Akane-chan, Ayume-san, we mean your sensei no harm. She attacked us first." Who knew Logan's time in Japan would come in handy now. "Same thing with you two. Normally, we don't engage others, but you didn't give us time to tell you we aren't gonna hurt anyone. Do tell me one thing though, how does a girl your age become your sensei in the first place?"

"Ok — next question: how come the professor, the most powerful telepath in the world, never found this place?" Logan then let go of Artemis, figuring that she would be more cooperative if she was free.

"Simple, she rescued my brother and I me from being burned as evil spirits. She took us in and taught us everything we know; we've been with her since she started this school." Akane finished and Logan realized that this would be another one of those more questions than answers pickups.

"That's easy enough. All of my students have a basic mental connection to me. I simply block any outside mental contact, leaving our school invisible. Unless we happen to be housing guests; that is the only time our school is compromised," Artemis said, with the same casual tone as someone when talking about the weather.

"You're coming with us, Artemis, and so is the original trio we came for." Logan knew that Xavier would want to meet this kid, badly.

"Take one of the kids in death ward in my place - I refuse to leave knowing that they are here dying, because we lack the funds to help them." This took Logan by surprise, he knew only two people who talked like that: one was standing next to him, and was, just as surprised as he was, the other was back at the school.

"How many kids are in this death ward of yours?" Logan asked, now shifting to Wolverine (he never noticed the shift, but others did).

"Forty-seven." Both Wolverine and Kurt could see the helplessness in her eyes. "I can take you there, if you like, but I'll have to ask you to let me stick you in a telekinetic bubble. These kids are so sick a simple cold could kill them."

The pair nodded their consent and Artemis led the way. Logan was the only one who could hear her crying.