Author's notes: This story takes place immediately after the AvX event and departs from there. Knowledge of the AvX storyline, specifically Gillen's Uncanny X-Men, as well as Liu's run on X-23 would be beneficial to your understanding. Warning: story contains religion, politics, unwanted pregnancy, corporate greed, time-travel, clones, sexual situations, language, non-linear story-telling, run-on sentences, and other things that are generally confusing and uncomfortable to talk about in polite company.
If you've read some of my recent fics, you probably know that I don't write "Romy" stories. This one is no different, is almost strictly Gambit-centric, though Rogue does play a significant role towards the end. Stars the rest of the cast of X-Men as well, as well as a smattering of other Marvel characters.
~ oOo ~
New Orleans, Louisiana
The Past, Twenty-Six Years Ago
"Welcome to the Medical Center of Louisiana...Where the Unusual Occurs and Miracles Happen."
The doctor glanced disdainfully at the stainless steel letters set into the marble wall. In his world there were no such things as miracles. Fortune, luck, chance; these words were not part of his vocabulary. The doctor was not a man to leave anything to happenstance. A carefully placed seed had been planted, a germ of an idea. That seed had been nurtured and grew into an interconnected ever-spreading plant. That plant had borne its first fruit. Tonight the man would reap what he had sown.
The seed, a whispered word, had taken root in the ears of powerful men. One of those powerful men had now called upon the doctor to prune the rot, the mutation, that otherwise spoiled his idea of a perfect garden. Doctor Essex, otherwise known amongst the evolved as Sinister, was glad to learn of the child with strange red eyes born to the esteemed gentleman from the State of Louisiana. The information of the baby's birth was followed with a generous donation to the government-sponsored project overseen by Sinister himself along with the inherent suggestion: make the child disappear. Documents had been signed transferring the infant to his new guardian; Sinister had come to claim the child for himself.
Sinister passed through the building's lobby and stepped into an elevator. He rode it upwards through the quaintly outdated hospital that served, in his not-humble opinion, the very dregs of humanity. A soft chime announced his arrival at the maternity ward. As he stepped from the lift he spied a few dim-witted humans moving vapidly about their business; a dull-faced nurse blinking sleepily at her computer terminal and a slouching long-haired janitor shuffling down the corridor with a toolbox in hand. Sinister dismissed them and strode towards the nursery, his footsteps echoing in the dimly lit corridor.
With a twist of his telekinetic powers, he opened the secured door to the nursery and entered the room. His eyes scanned the empty cradles. Sinister's brows momentarily came together in consternation. The room was empty. He returned to the corridor and approached the nurses' station.
"The infant –," he began as he came to stand before the nurse. She looked up at him with a distant expression on her face, her eyes glazed. Sinister probed the woman's mind with his telepathic powers. The birth of a red-eyed child should have been at the forefront of her thoughts, but Sinister found no trace of the baby in her mind. Someone had tampered with the nurse's memories. Sinister's hand tightened into a fist. He began to stride after the figure he had spied earlier, the janitor who had disappeared into one of the rooms. Sinister found the room empty. Sinister whirled away from the doorway. In the distance, he could hear the tiny cry of a newborn. He made towards the sound and pushed open a hospital room door. A curtain fell across the center of the room, shielding the inhabitants within from view. Sinister drew back the curtain to see a young mother beginning to stir from where she lay on the hospital bed. The cradle nearby contained a squalling infant. Sinister regarded the child for a moment. Seeing nothing remarkable about the baby, he turned and left the room just as the mother called out a soft inquiry from behind him.
Someone had taken the infant, Sinister was sure. Someone had beaten him to his prize. But who? No one would have known about the child. The child's father would have gone to great pains to hide his secret. Sinister calmed his temper. No one could hide a red-eyed boy for very long. And even if it were possible, it would only be a matter of time before Sinister's equipment, adopted or otherwise appropriated from Shi'ar, Celestial, and native Earth technology, spoke to the manifestation of a powerful mutant child. Already knowing who the mutant in question would someday become, Sinister knew he wouldn't have to look far afield from this sad excuse for a medical facility to find the child. He would just have to be patient.
From somewhere to Sinister's left came the sharp click of metal on metal. Sinister failed to notice the figure that detached itself from the shadowed corner. The slight figure dressed in loose-fitted and strangely archaic clothing moved into the wash of dim light. His long white hair fell over his face as he regarded something in his palm: a gold pocket watch. He snapped it shut with a final snap.
The Witness watched Sinister depart, a wry smirk on his face. In a dry rasp of a voice The Witness said: "And just a minute too late."
~ oOo ~
Next time: A date with the Devil.