Captured

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I would like to thank my beta, Lucodarkknight G, for his help in this chapter.

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1st March 2006, New York City

(Nathaniel Essex POV)

Sinister spent months molding Scott Summers into the ideal foot soldier, adding some sort of infatuation towards the image of Jean Grey, not that he knew about her in the first place. He would have like to go further but the young boy almost got adopted. He unfortunately had to arrange their deaths, which traumatized young Scott which prompted him to run away. Choosing to start the plan, he added a few compulsions in young Scott's head during his escape, to go towards the Xavier institute where his future mate had moved to a couple of years before. And the rest, as they say, was history.

The genius watched as his plans came together. He had implanted a camera in young Scott's eye when the boy first arrived to the orphanage, unknowingly to the young mutant. This has served him splendidly, to both determine the psyche of his test subjects, and the progress on their relationship. If he was honest with himself, Sinister was disappointed in how Scott Summers turned out. Even if the brainwashing had been done in a hurry, the boy shouldn't have ended up being this psychotic and misadjusted.

But Sinister was running out of time with the boy running away and he had prioritized the subliminal commands and the general mission of getting closer to Jean Grey that he must have messed something up in the boy's personality. The human mind is a delicate thing, who knows what actually happened? Maybe this was the boy's original personality? If so, Sinister thanked whatever gods were out there that the Summers boy wasn't his weapon. Hopefully the boy's offspring will not share that quality with him.

How Xavier didn't realize that something was wrong baffled the genius. He had been ready to release the boy's clone to the institute and getting it to fight the original. He had enough time to properly brainwash the clone. And this would explain to the X-men why the original behaved the way he did. Sinister didn't dare do anything inside the mansion because Xavier would undoubtedly recognize that something was wrong. Even if Sinister was experienced and powerful, his anonymity was his greatest weapon. The genius didn't want to rule the world or something as idiotic as that, so there was no need to broadcast his existence; it would only attract powerful enemies.

Sinister had backup plans upon backup plans. He didn't dare leave anything to chance. However, he was pressed for time; Apocalypse was wakening. The genius saw from young Scott's eyes that an agent of Apocalypse had kidnapped Xavier, probably to get him to release him somehow. Sinister didn't get a close look at the attacker, but he wasn't foolish enough to think that Apocalypse himself came to take the bald telepath. The so called X-men and the brotherhood might have mistaken the attacker for the former king of Egypt but Sinister remembered what the monster felt like and suppressed a shudder. If that thing had come directly, there wouldn't have been any survivors.

However, they had planned to go to Egypt, to the valley Apocalypse was imprisoned at and there was nothing he could do to stop them. So, he wallowed in despair, watching the feed, hoping that his test subjects would survive. The man was more worried for the Grey girl than for Summers. He had successfully cloned the Summers boy, but for some reason, whatever clone he made for the Grey girl did not survive beyond being fetus. It was like there was something missing, stopping its growth. It had almost turned him mad to figure out what was the issue.

Anyway, what happened in Egypt remained a mystery as the feed stopped for some reason the second they neared the tomb. After hours of anxiousness, Sinister discovered that the X-men were victorious and were under the illusion that they had defeated Apocalypse. Sinister wanted to laugh in derision, them? Killing Apocalypse? Although they did mention some weird shadow woman killing him. What did they know about Apocalypse? They thought him a man, like their previous enemies. They though him human. But they were wrong, at best, what they were fighting was a possessed man. Like what he would have become if Apocalypse had been able to possess him. What he could become if he let the malicious voice in his head win.

And while Sinister was grateful that his test subjects survived, he knew that Apocalypse was stirring. He would wake soon. He didn't have time to kill. He needed his weapon as soon as possible.

It was why he came to Bayville under the disguise of Nate the psychologist. He didn't have time for his usual finesse. He needed to act now, before it's too late. He spoke to Scott, catching up like a new friend. Convincing him to bring Jean Grey with him. With access to the redhead, he could start his plan.

He had to take her. It was the only way. For the survival of humanity, he had to. Sinister knew that he would be pursued by the X-men. But that was a small sacrifice to make. And, after nine months, after she would have given birth to his weapon, he would let her go, without any memories about what happened.

He didn't like it. He didn't like being this rash. But Apocalypse is coming and he was running out of time.

At least the first part of the plan had worked out as young Scott was able to convince the Grey girl to come visit him. The girl was surprisingly mistrusting of Scott. It was odd. The redhead had been different after the events of Egypt. She was more distant, more cautious. It didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but he hostility over Scott meant that any amount of manipulation would take too long to work. His decision to kidnap her was the correct one. However, he had to wait until the girl returned to the mansion. It was bad enough that the redhead was learning under the sorcerers of Kamar Taj. He had to take some additional precautions so that they wouldn't be able to track him and he definitely couldn't take her while she lived in the Sanctum.

The moment she had return to the institute, Sinister knew it was the time to act before his access to her becomes restricted once more. He had to be quick about it, and very cautious. Scott would play an important role of this.

Still, the girl's caution, while admirable, caused a few problems. There was a possibility of her asking someone to follow her, or something similar. He couldn't leave anything to chance. This had to go as smoothly as possible.

To avoid any complications, he decided to give a mission to his team called the Marauders. It was led by Gambit who He had brought back from his spying on Magneto. The other three members of the team were unknowingly clones he had created, each with a different skillset and et of abilities. There was Lady Mastermind, a mutant capable of creating illusion that could almost fool even him, Polaris a female clone of Magneto that while less powerful than her sire, had much more control over her abilities. And finally, and a clone of Sabretooth that was barely more man than beast, but he did follow orders well and served as the brawn of the team.

Of course, Gambit took orders from Sinister himself but it was nice to allow them the illusion of independence and free will. The man had a very interesting ability in the fact that he could transform any type of potential energy into kinetic energy. He had met the mutant when he was barely a boy, whose abilities were too powerful for him to control. Sinister was able to pretty much lobotomizing the child to remove a great percentage of his potential, giving him a very powerful loyal underling.

Still, it was a shame how the man would never reach his full potential, especially considering how powerful his abilities were if the man ever bothered to explore them. While he would never be an Omega level mutant like Jean Grey has the potential to, he could have come incredibly close.

But now was not the time to think about the past, but about the future. Almost a century of planning led to this. He waited in the café that young Scott asked him to come to. Almost exactly on time, both teenagers arrived. The girl looked visibly uncomfortable with this meeting but this didn't matter. What actually mattered was that she was here.

The genius took a jovial tone and introduced himself, "Hello, you must be Ms. Grey. Scott told me that you'll be joining up with us this evening," he then turned to the glasses wearing mutant, "And Scott, how much you grew, my boy. It's been a while. It's nice to catch up after all this time. So, tell me, how have you been."

Both teenagers obviously relaxed, even the redhead, while still on guard, wasn't as vigilant as before.

For the next half hour and so, they spoke to each other, not saying anything outside the usual social conventions. An old story there, a couple of Scott's childhood stories, and the girl was slowly trusting him. Well, not exactly trusting him, but trusting that he wasn't going to hurt her. He needed her to be completely relaxed. He couldn't afford to let a hint of his intentions known to the redhead. While he knew that he could defeat her due to his experience, the girl was still a powerful mutant and Sinister couldn't afford taking any risks.

He even had to let the girl into his mind, at least the part he allowed her to see, where he created the persona of Nate, the child psychologist whose intention was to see how one of his old patients, Scott, was faring. The girl had visibly relaxed after that mental probe.

"Now, let's talk about why I actually wanted to meet the both of you."

Both teenaged mutants looked at him questioningly, probably not understanding what this was about.

Before they could question anything, the redhead was hit with a tranquillizer dart. It was a special concoction he created in the fact that it almost immediately blocks a mutant's abilities.

"The people… are… going… to see," the girl slurred, trying her best to remain conscious. She was probably wondering why her powers stopped working.

Sinister chuckled, "My dear, there are no one here but us," he then called out, "Lady Mastermind."

The room suddenly shifted, and slowly the people started to disappear, showing an empty café.

Sinister continued in a solemn tone, "I'm sorry, my dear. I really am, but this is for humanity's survival. It's the only way."

The girl finally lost consciousness then.

Sinister then heard some loud noises and a few explosions. Bringing the Marauders with him was the right call after all. Before he could do anything, he created a telekinetic shield to block young Scott's optic blast.

The boy raged at him, "Why are you doing this Nate."

"This is far more complicated than you could ever image, child."

"I trusted you," the boy yelled at him and jumped at Sinister, his fist raised.

Sinister didn't even deign to block the punch. "My boy, I created you. Why would I ever allow my own creation to be able to harm me."

The genius was right, of course, the boy's fist stopped with barely an inch in front of Sinister's face.

The boy looked shocked, gaping at his own fist. Sinister ignored the boy and walked to pick up the unconscious redhead. Just as he picked her up, the front entrance of the Café blew up, revealing two girls. He recognized one immediately, it was Kitty Pryde, a teammate of young Scott. The other one was an unknown. He knew her name, Wanda Maximoff, the sister of Pietro Maximoff. However, the genius didn't know much about her powers other that it included some form of telekinesis that was related to the red energy she released. However, the genius knew that there was something more to it.

The girl's eyes were glowing red, and had her usual red energy glowing in her hands.

She spoke slowly and in a low voice, she was whispering really, but Sinister was able to understand her as if she was next to him, "Put down my friend if you know what's good for you."