Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

Eight and a half months later, things were normal around the mansion. Jean and Scott were getting ready to go off to college while the rest of the students were planning for going back to school.

About 9 pm in the evening, suddenly the mansion began to rattle. Metal flew everywhere. The front door burst open and in walked Fred, terrified.

"'Kay, boss! 'Kay! We're in!"

Magneto flew inside and flew up the stairs. Suddenly he spotted a blue tail hanging out of a doorway. He concentrated his magnetism to make teleportation impossible, and flew right over to Kurt. He grabbed Kurt's throat, and turning Kurt around, began to wring his neck.

Just then, Mystique rushed in. "What the Hell are you doing, Lensherr?"

"I'm killing your son, Kurt!"

"Eric?" Xavier had just wheeled his way in.

"I'm killing Mr. Wagner. When I am done, you can send his remains back to Germany."

"Eric! Stop that!" Suddenly the room was full of angry X-Men, all of whom were aiming at Magneto with their attacks, or preparing to rush him if they didn't have long-range attacks.

"Why the Hell are you killing Kurt?" Mystique had rushed up the stairs when a large wooden cabinet that apparently contained a lot of metal flew at her, knocking her down the stairs.

"I think this is why." Wanda, in a wheelchair, was wheeled in by Pietro. She held a little bundle in her arms and was obviously no longer pregnant.

Magneto released Kurt's throat a little and flew Kurt down to look at the bundle. A little blue face looked back. Looked, in the figurative sense, as its eyes were closed. There were large pointy ears (longer proportionally to the head than Kurt's), and looking down, Kurt saw a three-fingered hand.

"She has two-toed digitigrade feet and a tail," snarled Magneto.

"So?" asked Kurt weakly. "Vhat's wrong vith that?"

"Nothing. She is a beautiful baby. But it does mean that I know who has been deflowering my daughter! You got her pregnant. You die. Any self-respecting father would do the same."

"Maybe it wasn't me. Maybe it was... Scott? Wait, no - Evan? Bobby? Eeeeeeep." Kurt's throat was being squeezed again.

"Father! Don't kill him!" Wanda looked desperate.

"Why not? He should have known better!"

"I never did anyzing vith Vanda! Honest!" squeaked Kurt.

"Oh, so I suppose she got pregnant all by herself?"

"Maybe you experimented with her baby like you did vith me!" spat out Kurt. "So zat's vhy it looks like me!"

"Father!" screamed Wanda. She couldn't summon the strength to hex him, having given birth only an hour before, in an infirmary in one of his nearby bases. "It's not his fault! It must have happened at Essex's."

Magneto released Kurt and thought for a second. "Of course! You're both second generation! So he'd love to breed a third...."

Wanda looked up at Magneto in dismay. "So - so little Talia here is an experiment?"

"Yes." The voice that said this was cold, hypnotic, and almost robotic. "I will take her now."

Everyone turned to see a ghastly figure. Chalk white skin, jet black eyes and clothes, a red diamond on the forehead, razor-sharp teeth, and glowing red eyes. He raised his hands and shot our yellow blasts of energy at Magneto, Wanda, and Kurt, rendering the first two unconscious and knocking Kurt backwards several feet. Fortunately, Wanda was holding little Talia in such a way that she did not drop her when she lost consciousness. Logan ran up and sliced through the man with his claws, but the man just laughed and blasted Logan into a wall. Charles tried to read his mind, but the blocks were so powerful that Charles fainted. Evan shot bone spikes at the man, but they passed through him without doing any real damage. Beast ran up and punched the man. His head stretched away from his body, but quickly snapped back and he punched Beast into the chandelier. Storm hit him with lightning. No effect. Rogue ran up and touched him, but her powers short-circuited and she fainted. One by one, all the attacks against him failed, and he had everyone knocked out except for Mystique, who was glowering in a corner, and for Kurt, who was stunned and unable to move. He walked over to the baby now resting in Wanda's lap.

Just then, Scott walked in. He had been out buying supplies for college, and he saw everyone lying unconscious on the floor and saw a nightmare walking toward an unconscious Wanda who was holding something that looked like a baby.

"Oh, my God! You!" As the figure turned toward him, Scott saw a face from his nightmares at the orphanage. He remembered dreams of just such a face watching him when he slept, and taking pieces out of his arm "for study." The face was evil, and the memories included a sense of horror that he had always felt at the orphanage, the sense that something was studying him, watching him, and using him.

"No, Scott, don't attack! Run!" yelled Kurt. "You can't hurt him!"

Scott didn't listen. He raised his glasses and squinted at the man, so as to avoid blasting the entire room. The chalk-skinned man threw his head back and laughed. Then the optic blast hit him. He flew back several feet and grimaced in pain. He looked at his midsection. It was full of steaming green sludge.

"Who are you?" demanded Scott.

"Nathaniel Essex!" said the man calmly. "Also known as Mr. Sinister."

Scott opened his eyes again. Another blast turned a good six inches of the left side of Sinister's abdomen to sludge. This time, though, Sinister counterattacked with the yellow blasts he shot from his fingers. Scott was knocked down for the count. Sinister grabbed the baby, and, touching a device on his waist, teleported away.