Sinister Opponents

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1st March 2006, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda nodded and the walked forward but were interrupted by some sort of force field.

The witch was starting to get angry, "I'm starting to get angry at those damn things."

Wanda gathered what must be her most powerful telekinetic blast yet and threw it at the entrance. It obliterated the force field along with the entrance. Slowly, both mutants walked inside the Café and saw the man, Nate, carrying Jean, preparing to get out.

Wanda spoke to the man, in a threatening voice that even frightened herself, "Put down my friend if you know what's good for you."

The pale man looked at her in amusement, "Ah, you must be Wanda Maximoff. It's nice to finally meet you, girl."

"Who the hell are you? Why do you want Jean?"

"Ah, I've gone by many names of the years, it would be confusing to tell you every single one. I guess, you can call me Sinister. After all, it is an apt description of who I am. Don't worry, I'm only planning on borrowing your friend for a while," he gestured towards the unconscious Jean, "don't worry, she'll be returned in one piece. But let's not focus about this old fossil and his plans, let's focus on you, Wanda Maximoff."

The teenaged witch felt as if she was a lab rat that's being examined by a notoriously sadistic scientist. The look on the man's face, full of curiosity and hunger terrified her to the core. She tried to get a hold of herself as he continued, "I was extremely surprised when I found out that you were outside the Vault. Very surprised, indeed. And with no sign of you ever being there, no less. Every file, digital or physical, no matter where it is, online or on a secure server, suddenly didn't include your incarceration. No one even remembers you ever being there, the prison warden included. Even using telepathy, I was unable to see anything wrong. It was as if you really haven't been at the Vault. No one remembered except for mutants, for some reason. I don't think even I could do this without centuries of planning. So, tell me, girl, how did you pull it off?"

Huh, had Jasmine gone this far to make sure that she would never go back to the vault? Wait a minute, "How the hell do you even know me? And why do so many people have files of me? I can understand the people at the Vault but not much else."

The man looked like he was about to burst into laughter, "Girl, I always like to keep tabs on dangerous mutants and their offspring's. Your father was particularly powerful, so I kept tabs on him. When you and your brothers were born, I looked at your potential. Be proud, my dear, your potential far outstrips your father's."

"That man is not my father!" the witch bellowed.

"Oh, touchy subject. But I have to admit that whatever your potential could be, I didn't expect you to defeat my marauders so easily. I'll have to speak with them later."

Wanda was happy to remove that smile from his face, "I don't think it will be much of a conversation. After all, you can't talk to corpses."

The teenaged witch was right, the pale man stopped laughing as soon as she uttered these words, "My, my, how ruthless of you. I expected you to be like the hippy loving idiots that the X-men are. But, no, you didn't show any mercy."

"If someone tries to kill me, I'm not going to limit myself for no reason. But that's enough of this, hand over Jean and Scott, or you'll end up like your precious Marauders."

Sinister laughed once more, "Sure, but about the Marauders. While I am disappointed that they perished, there's something you missed."

The teenaged witch looked at him confused, "And what is that?"

The man's grin got even wider, "There are four members of the Marauders, not three."

Before she could even register what was being said, she heard Kitty scream next to her. There was a woman that was able to sneak in on them somehow and knocked out her friend. It took barely one second to be able to understand what had happened, they were tricked by a very subtle illusion that hid her. Wanda should have been able to sense it, if she wasn't distracted with her conversation with Sinister and her oversight had cost her a teammate.

At least she'll be able to deal with the woman now. With barely a thought, the teenaged witch telekinetically sent the woman flying through the entrance. The witch didn't care what happened to her opponent, Jean's life was a lot more important.

However, dealing with the woman proved to be the distraction Sinister needed to attack her. Wanda sensed the telekinetic push that would have sent her flying away and was barely able to shield it. Still, her shield, was extremely underpowered and broke easily, sending her back. At least the thing redirected most of the damage.

So, the man was a telekinetic and a telepath like Jean. That would prove to be troublesome. Wanda tried to send a telekinetic attack at him and was immediately blocked, and countered with the pale man sending a bunch of debris at her.

Wanda was still able to redirect the projectiles, but now had a sense of the man's power, if he wasn't holding back, that it. The man was powerful. More powerful than her, in term of raw power, if barely but not as strong as Jean. However, the man was a lot more skilled with his powers than she was and it was obvious. The man was practically playing with her.

She needed to turn this into a contest of powers to even have a chance at this. Wanda took a deep breath, prepared her attack, and sent in a red beam of telekinetic energy at the man. The man seemed to recognize what she was doing and responded by sending in a black beam of his own.

Both beams of energy met in the middle of the Café causing an explosion that pretty much sent everything flying back except them, wrecking the entire place. Even Scott was sent flying back.

Both opponents were fighting, visible sweating from the strain. Jasmine told her that this should never be used except when you're fighting someone that's a lot more skilled than you but who's not more powerful than you.

Unfortunately, while the large skill gap was covered, the man was still more powerful than her, if only slightly, and he knew it. Sinister had a smug blood thirsty smile on his face, showing that he understood why she did this and just indulged her, just to torment her.

Huh, he didn't know that she had a card in her sleeve. An unreliable card, to be sure, but definitely a card. Wanda was stuck when using this attack, but so was Sinister. No telekinetic shield should stop an attack like this, except if it's by someone that's exponentially more powerful than she if. The attack could be avoided or dodged but should someone agree to it respond to it, they would be stuck as well. Not able to use any magic, or in this case, mutant abilities until the battle is broken up.

So, yeah, Wanda didn't need to win the thing, just bind him to this attack so that he could be attacked by someone else.

"Scott, hit him! NOW!!!" the witch bellowed.

The leader of the X-men looked at Sinister and touched his visor, but he didn't press the button. Why wasn't he pressing the damn button. Fucking dickhead! Wanda fought four mutants, one of them happening to be a lot more powerful than her, and still managed to hold her own. But the fucking asshole couldn't be bothered to press a mother fucking button? What is wrong with this guy?

"What are you waiting for? Hit him! Press the fucking button!" the witch yelled once more.

Still, nothing was happening. Does this guy really hate her that he would let some asshole who kidnapped his crush kill her instead of him attacking him?

This didn't make any sense. The boy is crazy about Jean. A little too much, in Wanda's opinion, but behind his creepiness, Scott cared about Jean. Whatever the case, he would team up with anyone, even her or the brotherhood just to protect the redhead. Then why was he hesitating? Why wouldn't he hit the man who is trying to abduct her? The man was obviously a scientist and they had no idea what kind of sick experiments he would do to Jean while he's 'borrowing' her.

Scott Summers, the leader of the X-men would never abandon any of his teammates to such a fate. So, what is going on?

Her desperation must have showed on her face because Sinister laughed at her predicament, "The look on your face is priceless. The betrayal, the confusion… It's all so delicious. If it makes you feel any better, girl, it's not his fault. The boy is incapable of harming me in any way."

So, it was a telepathic attack of some kind. Maybe with a subliminal compulsion inserted in his subconscious to not hurt Jean's abductor. It was probably put there during dinner. Her only way to survive this is to remove the compulsion somehow. But she can't use her telepathy in a battle of wills. She needed to break the beams.

Luckily Jasmine had taught her a stick to use when wanting to break a battle of wills. Wanda concentrated for a second and manifested a small rune in the middle of the beam. You couldn't cast any other spell during the beam but that doesn't mean that you can't layer a spell over it. This was the only rune Jasmine had ever taught her, and if she was honest, Wanda had no idea how that worked. Wanda only knew what it looked like – Jasmine was very insisting that she knew it in case of an emergency – and that it destabilizes whatever magic it touched. The Rune travelled towards the middle of the battle, between hers and Sinister's beams and destabilized both of them, causing a pulse of magic that sent both of them back.

Expecting this, Wanda shielded herself and immediately sent a full telepathic probe towards Scott. What she found, terrified and sickened her. Whatever was stopping him from attacking Sinister was at the forefront of his mind and it was definitely more than just a compulsion. This was deeply rooted into Scott's very being. It engraved into his mind in a way.

This couldn't have happened in a few hours, not even a few months. It would take years to instill something to be as connected to someone's core as this. This meant that Sinister had access to Scott for years. Were they in league together? No, it was absurd. You don't brainwash someone that's voluntarily serving you. Which meant that Sinister started doing this without anyone noticing. The pale man shouldn't be able to do this to Scott without Xavier noticing; the bald telepath would sense someone's core personality being twisted and that there was something different to this. No matter how much of a dick this guy is, he would never allow someone to hurt his students this way, this badly.

This meant that this happened before Scott went to the institute. Wanda really had no idea about Scott's past but Sinister must have kidnapped him or brainwashed him somehow when he was young, twisting his very core. No wonder the guy was a creep and misadjusted; anyone would be, if this happened to them.

But why would Sinister do this. Scott was a child back then. And so far, Sinister could have used him as a sleeper agent and he could have killed the X-men by now. So, this wasn't why he did this. Maybe he wanted a spy? No, there are better way to spy on the residents of the mansion and he wouldn't need something this sophisticated to do this.

The only reason he would do this, would be to get Jean. For some reason, the redhead had been his goal all along. Did he arrange for Scott and Jean to come to the institute and meet? Sinister destroyed a boy's life just to have Jean. Did he know about the Phoenix Force? Maybe, but unlikely, even Doctor Strange hadn't known about it, only Jasmine did, somehow.

Wanda looked at Sinister and asked him with a solemn tone, "How long have you been planning this? All of this, just for Jean?"

The older man actually smiled at her, "You're a smart girl, Wanda Maximoff. I have been planning this for a long time, decades, really. I wouldn't have gone so far, if I wasn't desperate. This is the only way. It's a shame that your potential will be cut short but I can't have any unknown variables for this."

Before she could reply he turned to Scott, "Activate command Cable password Rebecca."

Scott's entire demeanor shifted and the boy looked like a soldier ready to for an order, "Cable is online, sir. Ready for orders."

Wanda started to understand what was happening. She didn't know Sinister's manipulation of Scott's mind was this deep. She needed to get out of there, fast.

Wanda tried to use a telekinetic pulse but was blocked immediately by Sinister who then sent his former black beam at her. Downed and disoriented, Wanda couldn't dodge and could only respond with her beam of energy.

Stuck in the beam, she couldn't do anything when Sinister said, "Cable, terminate Wanda Maximoff."

To her despair, Scott unleashed his concussive beams at her, hitting her from the back. The spells on Wanda's clothes helped mitigate the damage but it still hurt like a bitch and Wanda could feel that she had broken a few ribs. Wanda would never doubt Jasmine's recommendations again. These clothes had probably saved her life.

The witch was sent flying towards the entrance, next to the unconscious Kitty Pryde. Wanda heard Scott slowly walk towards her. Wanda knew that the next hit would be fatal so she crawled, trying to desperately escape, dragging Kitty with her.

Scott had caught up to her in seconds and Wanda closed her eyes, preparing for her death, which never came. Instead, she felt like she had a hook somewhere behind the navel pulling her away. The witch passed out not knowing if she would survive or not.