A Sinister End

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

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2nd March 2006, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda sighed in relief; she had won. With that in mind, she started to remove Jean's bindings and get ready to get her out of here before blowing up this entire laboratory.

Suddenly, one of the room's walls exploded, revealing another humanoid person. It was Sinister, but in his main body. How? She had destroyed the body herself.

"Oh, young Wanda. What a clever girl you are. Your plan was a good one. It would have worked, even. Unfortunately for you, I have added several healing factors to this body. If even a single cell survives, the body will regenerate. It would take some time, of course. But an explosion, would only hold me back for a few seconds. Don't worry, young Wanda. I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to hurt you really, really, bad!"

Wanda shuddered as she felt the bloodlust in the man's voice. She was in deep trouble.

Sinister didn't wait around and sent a telekinetic blast at her. The teenaged witch noticed how large the attack was and felt how dense it was. She knew that there was no way she could block something like this. Now, even a battle of wills was out of the question considering the gap in power between them.

Adding in the fact that he has been using his powers for centuries, Wanda was at a distinct disadvantage. The teenager had no idea what to do. Her teacher had explicitly told her to avoid this scenario. The only thing she could do, is to try and keep herself and Jean alive enough for Jasmine to come get them.

Even catching him off guard wasn't an option; the man, no, the monster, in front of her would heal in seconds. Her thoughts were interrupted by a wave of black telekinetic energy coming at her. Wanda propelled herself into the air, dodging the attack, and in return sent in chunks of the wall at her opponent.

These chunks were easily deflected by the smirking scientist, "Not bad, girl. Let's take it up a notch, shall we?"

Sinister started to float into the air, then concentrated his telekinetic energy into his hand. A black sphere started to appear in his hand. Without even knowing what that was, Wanda knew that this attack would be dangerous. Then once the attack was charged, Sinister released it and a veritable giant black beam shot towards the teenager, reaching her before she could even blink. The explosion that the beam caused was extremely powerful, so powerful that even Sinister had to close his eyes.

The man looked around and found no traces of the witch. He looked confused, probably trying to determine whether or not the attack could have vaporized his opponent. Unfortunately for him, Wanda had countered his attack by simply not being there. The charging time gave her enough time to create a simple illusion, this time focused by the Ankh, allowing her to get behind her opponent by the time he attacked.

"Disappointing," she heard her attacker mutter, letting his guard down.

Wanda had to say that she relished the widening of his eyes when he was suddenly attacked by chunks of the walls he had destroyed. Sinister was then surrounded by stones and concrete, each one attacking the man, trapping him in a sphere of her own making.

Wanda kept piling stone after stone to the newly formed sphere that imprisoned her opponent. Wanda slowly touched the sphere and using her transmutation, turned the chunks of stones into one singular stone, making the prison even more rigid.

However, Wanda didn't know what to do after that. She couldn't kill Sinister; his regeneration made it almost impossible that's if she managed to land an attack in the first place. She couldn't just stay here and keep him imprisoned; he would escape easily without her constantly reinforcing the stone. So, the only option she had was to leave him there, take Jean and get as far away from this place as possible.

As Wanda started to move towards her friend, the sphere started to crack. Oh shit, Wanda needed to get out of here, pronto. The teenager didn't even have time to get her friend before the stone sphere was shattered in a bang that sent her flying back into the wall.

Emerging from the sphere was Sinister, looking amused and angry at the same time, "I haven't had this much fun in a fight in a very long time, young Wanda. Tricking me with an illusion was a masterful move girl. However, you have started to anger me, girl. I would say that I won't enjoy what I'm about to do to you, but I really will. You just had to make it personal by trying to kill me."

Wanda suddenly raised into the air. She couldn't move, she could barely breathe. She wasn't ready to die, not like this. She had just started to have a life and she didn't want to give it up because of this freak.

The teenaged witch started to feel some pressure build up in her mind; her mind shields were under attack.

Sinister looked at her with a sadistic smile, "Quite the mind shields you have. It truly is a shame that I'll have to rip them apart. You seem to be very well informed, Wanda. I just have to know where you got your information. Don't worry, by the time I'm done with you, you'll barely qualify as a vegetable, so you won't be able to understand what I'll do to everyone that's close to you. Am I not merciful, Wanda?"

Wanda tried to fight him; she really did. But his mental probe kept coming and coming, slowly knocking down her shields piece by piece. It wasn't painful at first, but slowly, the more he attacked, the greater the pain had become. A few minutes later, it was unbearable and Wanda couldn't help but start screaming.

The teenager just wanted the pain to stop, she started to forget about the fact that she was on a mission, she started to forget about Jean, about Jasmine. The only thing that she could focus on was the pain.

Suddenly, there was some weird bang, and the pain stopped. Wanda whimpered as she fell to the ground. What just happened? It slowly came to her, trying to rescue Jean, fighting Sinister, losing to him and him trying to break into her mind. He was scarily close too. The witch had almost given in to him and the thought disgusted her to the core. But why had the man stopped?

Wanda opened her eyes and was met with a familiar redhead with green eyes looking at her in concern, Jean. The drugs must have worn off. Even though Wanda had lost against Sinister and Jean would probably fare no better, the teenaged witch felt safe.

Jean looked at her, "What happened?"

"Scott was brainwashed and took you to him. He wants to make you get pregnant with Scott's baby to make some sort of super mutant that he would use to kill Apocalypse."

Jean looked disgusted and confused, "Ignoring the pregnancy thing, isn't Apocalypse dead? Didn't Jasmine kill him herself?"

Wanda nodded, "yeah, but this guy, who calls himself Sinister by the way, got possessed by him or something so he isn't convinced that he's dead," Jean looked like she wanted to ask more questions but Wanda stopped her, "Look, Jean, it's a long story. I'll tell you everything later. What you need to know, is that we're fighting someone who's like Wolverine on steroids, but with telekinesis and telepathy. He had me on the ropes when you rescued me. Thanks for that, by the way."

"You're welcome. I don't think that he's going to be a problem anyway, I just blasted him out of the building."

"Doesn't mean squat here. I told you, he's like Logan but on steroids. We need to get out of here, fast."

Jean looked around, "And where is here, exactly?"

"We're in a lab for human experiments in an island north of Madagascar."

"And how the hell are we getting out of here?"

Wanda sighed, "Jasmine is our way out!"

Jean's eyes lit up, "Ms. Sayre's here? Then we're saved."

Wanda shook her head, "No, it's some sort of test or something. She said she wouldn't intervene, said something about it being my mission and my responsibility."

"WHAT?" Jean yelled.

"Seriously, Jean, this isn't the time for this. We need to get out of here, fast before he comes back!"

"I'm afraid, it's too late for that, dears," a male voice interrupted them from behind.

Crap, he was here. Wanda was exhausted, had a headache so strong that her ears were ringing. She didn't have the strength to fight Sinister. Why didn't Jean run, like Wanda told her. The teenaged witch knew that the redhead had some trust issues but this could get them killed.

Jean's eyes started to glow and she sent a telekinetic blast at Sinister who just swiped his hand, deflecting it as if he was swatting a fly.

"Cute," the man commented.

Jean visibly started to get angry at his nonchalance. Damn redheads and their tempers. She looked at Wanda and said, "You're on defense. I want to kill the damn freak."

Wanda didn't have the energy to actually protest. Jean sent another blast at Sinister. This time, it was far larger and denser. And the man actually had to shield against it, "Now, that's more like it."

The witch was disturbed by Sinister's smile. And she was right to do so; the man returned fire with a bast of his own. It was then that Jean started to understand how powerful their opponent was. The telekinetic blast was on another level compared to either of theirs. Wanda had to knock some sense into her friend, "Use a portal, don't block his blast. It'll tear your shields apart like a hot knife through butter."

Thank God that Jean listened to her, and created a portal towards the blast, sending it at Sinister's back who turned and blocked it. Jean took advantage of the milliseconds of distraction by creating her telekinetic saber and trying to decapitate their opponent. A good idea, Wanda did the same and ran at him.

Unfortunately for both of them, Sinister had grown up in Victorian England where swords were pretty commonly used and thus, he had learnt how to wield one and had years of experience doing so. The man's physical enhancement was enough of an advantage, his experience was like a cherry on top.

In a fraction of a second, Sinister had created two Psionic swords of his own and started fighting both teenagers at once. The man didn't look like he was taking them seriously but he was easily overwhelming them.

"Psionic swords, sorcery, you're full of surprises, Jean Grey. I'm afraid, this has gone long enough," Sinister commented.

The man sent a minor telekinetic blast at Jean, sending her flying away before parrying Wanda's sword with his left one and use the opening to stab Wanda in the gut. Wanda felt the breath leave her chest and an unbearable pain in her stomach.

Sinister spoke to Jean in a monotone voice, "I have just stabbed your friend, missing every single important organ in her gut. One millimeter to the right and she would have bled out in seconds. Don't worry, she's still dying but she won't bleed out for a few minutes. You could keep trying to fight me, Ms. Grey and let your friend bleed out. Or, you could stay like a good girl, and I promise to take good care of young Wanda."

Jean looked like she wanted to lunge at him. Her hair started to float, and trickles of flames started to appear in her hands.

Sinister immediately noticed the danger and raised his psionic sword to her throat, "No, no, no, Ms. Grey. One step and your friend will lose her head and you wouldn't like that, would you."

Wanda was starting to get dizzy, but suddenly, everything became clearer, somehow. It was like the world around her started to make sense. She knew exactly what to do, and the Ankh on her neck started to glow red. The witch grinned at her captor, her teeth red with her blood, "How would you behead me, when you can't move your arms?"

Sinister looked confused for a moment, before realizing that something was wrong. He couldn't move his arms. This was Wanda's first actual reality manipulation spell. She changed reality in a way that Sinister couldn't physically move his hands. Wanda didn't doubt that the man could eventually break free from her spell, but it was enough for now. Wanda threw herself away from the man, probably a bad idea considering her stab wound, but she needed to let Jean take advantage of the distraction she made before Sinister could break out, "Now, Jean!"

Jean leapt at Sinister, her hands filled with the weird fire. As soon as the fire touched Sinister, the man started to scream, burning from the inside out. But he wasn't actually burning; he was being disintegrated. Wanda watched in fascination as Nathaniel Essex started to be ripped apart atom by atom until all that was left of him was dust.

Mr. Sinister, formerly known as Nathaniel Essex, was dead. He died alone and unfulfilled, having never achieved his revenge.

With that realization done, Wanda started to relax. Jean was safe. Suddenly, she found herself in Jean's arms. It felt nice, "Wanda, Wanda, I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you. Stay with me."

Jean was crying and was trying to stop the bleeding somehow. Wanda didn't care, or maybe she didn't have the strength to care, "I'm happy to have known you, Jean Grey."

"Wanda, please. Don't leave me."

An amused voice spoke to her, "She's not going anywhere, Ms. Grey."

It was Jasmine.

Jean looked furiously at her history teacher, "Where were you? Why did you leave her like this?"

"I was just here. You just didn't notice me and I let her fight Sinister because she's going to learn from the experience. She needs to understand that not every fight will end up in an overwhelming victory. It worked, after all, she has learnt to use an aspect of her magic."

"She's dying, you cold hearted bitch!"

Jasmine looked amused, "Is she?"

Wanda just realized that the pain had faded away. "What, how?"

Jasmine kept her smug smile, "I enchanted your clothes to passively heal any injury. Wouldn't want you to die on me, would we. You did great, kiddo. I'm proud of you."

"Why didn't you tell me about the healing factor?" Wanda asked, trying to hide her blush at her teacher's compliment.

"In a real fight, you rarely know your opponent's full capabilities. You needed to learn how to adapt, and you did, brilliantly. If I had taught you a little more magic, your sphere would have worked a lot better and you would have captured him."

Jean asked her teacher, annoyed, "What about when she was stabbed? Why did you let it happen?"

"Any injury that isn't in the head, would have been healed by the suit. Plus, the guy was so distracted by you two that he didn't notice me in his head. The moment he would have seriously injured any of you, or if the thought had even entered his mind, I would have frozen him. He didn't want to kill either of you, to be honest. He wanted Wanda's knowledge and needed Jean for the super mutant he wanted to create."

Embarrassed, Jean still protested, "You still should have helped us!"

Jasmine answered solemnly, "you are children now, but you won't always stay this way. You'll go travel the world, trying to find your place in it. And I can't always be there behind you. And if you end up in trouble, I won't always be there. You needed to learn not to depend on me all the time, or you wouldn't survive on your own. I had faith that you could defeat Sinister and I was proved to be correct."

Jean looked down and Jasmine continued, "Now, let's get home. Are you two love birds going to keep hugging each other for the whole trip?"

Both teenagers blushed but still didn't let go of each other when the portal appeared out of nowhere and swallowed them, sending them back to Sayre Manor.