* DISCLAIMER * This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group. 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' was written by William Shakespeare.

* WRITTEN BY * Samy <samerc@utu.fi> Merchi

* CONTINUITY * This story takes place in my Shadows of the Future timeline, a couple of years in the future.

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Sunspot! Magma! Darkchilde! Karma! Chance! They all believed inpurity and goodness once, but life has made them scour the vilerecesses of their souls, or crawl thru the gutters of society. They are familiar with darkness, pain, poverty, the streets: the flip sideof human nature. And they have decided to band together, in order to change society and prevent other people from having to go thru whatthey have had to suffer.

Samy Merchi presents: The FALLEN ANGELS

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SUNSPOT

aka Roberto Da Costa -- a Brazilian businessman whose multinational conglomerate Da Costa International provides the resources and finances for the Fallen Angels' operations. He uses his awesome solar powers of absorbing and rechanneling energy in leading the Fallen Angels.

DARKCHILDE

aka Illyana Rasputin, she is the mistress of the magical pocket dimension of Limbo. A powerful sorceress of both white and black magic, she is now determined to be the guardian of innocence and childhood, devoting much of her time to helping children in any way she can.

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PREVIOUSLY IN FALLEN ANGELS

Roberto Da Costa founded this second team of Fallen Angels and brought together the various individuals who had been adrift, searching for something to do with their lives. Now the Fallen Angels have found their old friendships, and in doing so, have been able to leave the past behind, and move on with their lives -- find focus for and  rediscover themselves, who they truly are.

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************* * REHEARSAL * *************

"The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood, stop up th' access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, wherever in your sightless substances you wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry 'Hold, hold!'"

"Illyana?"

"'Berto!" the young woman smiled brightly as she stood in the middle of her darkened room, flickering candlelight the only lighting available, providing a soft, eerie mood in which the pale milky Russian face looked very...pure? as it turned to look towards the doorway. "Perfect timing! You wanna help me out with some lines?"

Roberto quirked an eyebrow as he leaned with one shoulder against the doorframe. "You are rehearsing for the play?" he asked first, butl eft the question mostly rhetorical, shaking his head slightly beforeshe could answer. "I am not familiar with Macbeth, I am afraid -- Iam not a literature person. Science and business have kept me more than busy up until now, and I doubt that will change anytime soon --"

"Ah, stop being a spoilsport!" Illyana smiled and walked over to the doorway, her long, blood-red dress making silent whisper-hissing sounds as the light, veily, mostly see-thru cloth slid against her skin as she moved. "Come here", she said, taking hold of Roberto'sarm and tugging him away from the doorway, and into the room.

A bit reluctantly, Roberto acquiesced, and stepped into the room,looking around. The faint lingering scent of roses and incense floated into his nostrils, as it always did around Illyana, but they were just remnant scents -- there didn't seem to be any ritual going on at the moment despite the white candles lighting up various cornersof the room. "-- so, what do you want me for?" he asked with a half-hushed whisper, almost afraid of breaking the soft tension of the lighting.

"Is that a trick question?" Illyana smirked with a teasing glint to her eyes. She stepped behind Roberto and closed the door, stopping the light from streaming in from the hallway, after which she walked over to her bed, and picked up a sheaf of papers stapled together at the upper left corner. She stepped back over to Roberto. "We're at this point", she said, pointing a spot in the text with her delicate index finger. "You be Macbeth, I'll do Lady Macbeth."

"Can't I do Lady Macbeth instead?" Roberto smirked, giving a brief wink.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, you silver-tongued devil?" Illyana smiled and poked Roberto lightly in his ribs, before moving over to her desk and sitting down onto the edge of it, so her feet didn't quite touch the floor, dangling just above it as she crossed her legs and looked towards her teammate. "Any questions before we go?"

Roberto looked at Illyana quietly for a few moments with a 'get real' expression, before he, the smile nevertheless remaining on his face, asked, "Who's Macbeth?"

Illyana managed to maintain a straight face for a moment, before letting out a slight laughter as she placed her right hand over her   face. She shook her head a bit, and then let her hand fall away againas she looked towards the Brazilian. "You're coming to the premiere",she then said, determinedly.

"I am?"

"Yes. You are."

"When is it?"

Illyana's smile slowly melted into a thoughtful expression as she considered that. "It's a Friday five weeks from now... The 23rd?"she suggested the date a bit uncertainly.

"24th", Roberto corrected her, and then held a slight pause, before allowing a smile to again rise to his face. "I'll make sure to be there", he then said, and let the hand holding the script fall down as his concentration moved from it, to the blonde woman. "I know how much this thing means to you", he said softly.

Illyana looked a bit uncomfortable, and looked away from Roberto's eyes. "I like acting", she just said, and then held a long pause."You can guess why."

Roberto nodded with a slight frown of concern, and then decided to change the topic. "Would you like to brief me on this scene, then --I would like to know at least what this is about..."

For long silent moments, Illyana let her gaze linger on the flickering, slowly-swaying light of one of the candle-flames. Eventually, her face gently turned to face Roberto's, her eyes watching his across the floor. "Yeah, sure", she just said with a vaguely sad expression, and then slid off the desk and let her feet touch the floor again. "Now, Macbeth is one of King Duncan's captains, and he's getting power-hungry -- and the three witches have prophecied to you that you'll be king", she explained, "and you've just told me that in a letter." She ran a hand thru her hair, as she went on. "You're just now coming home, and we're going to plan to assassinate King Duncan so you can become king."

Roberto smirked slightly. "All right -- so basically we're just power-hungry bastards who'll resort to anything to work our way up? Kind of like Shaw?"

Illyana nodded with a slight smile starting to dance in her eyes and on her lips as her mood slowly started brightening.

"I can do that."

"I knew you could."

"Oh shut up", Roberto smiled and poked at Illyana's upper chest gingerly. "Let's start, then?"

"Okay", Illyana nodded, and cleared her throat a bit. "Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen kniftsee not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry 'Hold, hold!'" she spoke very emphatically, letting her emotions come to life as she paced slowly across the room.

Roberto rapped his knuckled against the wooden desk, to signify his entrance.

"Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor", Illyana smiled warmly, turning to face Roberto now, letting the love blossom outwards from her heart in the blood-red colors of her spider-silken dress, "greater than both by the all-hail hereafter, thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present, and I feel now the future in this instant."

"My dearest love", Roberto said affectionately as he stepped close to Illyana, and though his other hand was occupied with holding the script, his free hand took her right hand, and held it lightly,"Duncan comes here tonight."

"And when goes hence?" Illyana asked with soft curiosity as her hand tightened a bit on Roberto's as her body moved closer to his, the light transparent cloth briefly brushing against his dark blue suit.

"Tomorrow, as he purposes", Roberto read from the script.

"O never shall sun that morrow see!" Illyana whispered, and placed her free left hand onto Roberto's cheek, caressing it gently as she went on. "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower --" she intoned, and very lightly touched the tip of her nose against his "-- but be the serpent under 't." She then stepped away,turning her back to Roberto. "He that's coming must be provided for;and you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch", she said strongly, commandingly, "which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom!"

"We will speak further", Roberto simply answered, adhering to the precise words as much as Illyana did.

"Only look up clear", Illyana said in a slightly warning tone, looking at her 'husband' over her shoulder. "To alter favour ever isto fear." She held a long pause, before saying a bit sharply, "Leave all the rest to me."

Roberto peered at the script for a moment, and then quirked aneyebrow. "That's it?" he asked.

Illyana grinned a bit, her lips pulling back to reveal her teeth."Thus endeth Act 1, Scene 5", she answered.

"That wasn't so bad", Roberto smiled, and put the script down on Illyana's desk.

"It isn't, is it?" Illyana said with a bright smile. "I love acting! It's so --" She struggled a few moments to find the right word. "-- I don't know...liberating?"

"I wouldn't know", Roberto answered, not seeming to really care for a few moments, until he looked into Illyana's eyes, and said, in a very quiet tone, "But you don't know how glad I am that you've discovered it."

"It lets me feel", Illyana admitted quietly, as she walked over to one of the four corners of the room, and silently, her hand moved over to the candle, her pale fingertips pinching down on its wick, andsnuffing out the flame, extinguishing a quarter of the room's lighting. "Not be afraid."

"There is nothing wrong with being afraid, Illyana", words flowed quietly from Roberto's lips as he watched the Russian woman turn towards another corner of the room.

"Isn't there?" Illyana simply replied, and left the question hanging in the air as she started moving again, sliding smoothly across the floor towards the corner adjacent to the one she had been in. She paused next to the candle in that corner, and again, her hand went next to it, her fingers waiting near the flame to snuff it out."You're not afraid of anything", her whisper echoed in the room, as her fingertips killed the light, extinguishing a third of the remaining lighting in doing so. The room started becoming dark.

"I was afraid of you", Roberto answered.

"Yes", Illyana retorted, as she moved over to the next candle, one of the remaining two. "You *were*. Not anymore", she shook her head as she pinched out the penultimate candle, and then glanced towards the Brazilian in the faint illumination of the one remaining flickering light source. "You've grown. You understood what and who I was when we were New Mutants. And you still understand. But you always had problems even with your *own* dark side back then, let alone with anyone else's." She paused. "You've learned to deal with darkness while I was gone. You're stronger. That's why I --" She bither lip lightly, and turned her eyes away from Roberto, and to the one remaining candle. "-- trust you. We have so much in common thesedays."

"That does not mean I fear nothing", Roberto said.

"Don't you?" Illyana asked, as she started drifting towards the last corner.

"No", Roberto shook his head. "I have my fears, as all of us do.And there is nothing wrong with being afraid, Illyana", he then said, as he stepped towards her.

She stopped next to him, and next to the candle. "What're you afraid of, 'Berto?" she then asked, her pale blue eyes watching his chocolate brown orbs with genuinely innocent, soft curiosity.

Very gently, Roberto placed his hands onto Illyana's cheeks, holding her face tenderly, and then placed a light kiss onto her forehead. "I am afraid of losing Dani", he whispered, and then let his hands fall from her cheeks as his eyes fell to the light of the remaining candle. For a moment, he stared at it, and then, in silence, lifted his gaze to Illyana's eyes. Neither of them was sure how long a time passed, before he turned around, and headed towards the door. Six words lingered in the air as he left.

Illyana's eyes fell to the floor as she hugged herself in thesilence. The words had died out in the room, but they still rang thru her mind, again and again.

"I am still afraid of you."