Title: The Dopplegang Effect
Author: Becka
Chapter 13: In Destruction, Creation
o
"That bitch!" Spike railed, pulling Logan into Xander's room. "That bloody bitch!" The vampire let loose a string of curses that actually impressed Logan.
Suppressing a smile, the mutant asked simply, "Who?"
"Who d'you think, mate?" the blonde man asked snidely as he began to pace. "That fuckin' bint o' yours!"
"Rogue?" Logan hazarded.
"Are you _daft_?" Spike gave him a look that said he clearly thought so and continued, "O' course _Rogue_."
Logan watched the blonde man pace furiously and decided that if he didn't calm the vampire down a bit, Xander wouldn't have a carpet to come back to. "What did she do that's so bad?" he asked. "She's jus' a kid."
"_Kid_?" Spike spit out the word like an insult. "Let me clue you in on a little secret, mate. Females aren't _born_ children. They don' grow up like the rest o' us. They come out from 'tween their mum's legs plottin' how ta make their daddies buy 'em somethin' pretty, understand? They're bloody _born_ knowin' how ta pull a fast one on us blokes. Lyin', deceivin'... _any_ bint on this earth makes me look like a fuckin' _altar boy_!"
"What. Did. She. Do?"
"Swear on me duster, should just give up on the lot. Bein' bent is ten times easier, ta very much." Spike muttered. He shook his head and said, "I'll tell you what the bitch did. She _saw_ two o' that Magneto fella's group take Xan-pet, an' she didn't say a fuckin' _word_ 'bout it."
Logan's anger flared and he growled, "That _bitch_."
o
The man, his... Master? helped to steady him. Two cold, impersonal hands reached for his neck, and he flinched back. There was a flash of something he couldn't quite place in Sinister's eyes, but then the man smiled and said, "They collared you. Please, let me help."
As the man fiddled with the collar on his neck, he asked hesitantly, "Do... do I have a name? Or is my name Doppelganger?"
"You are my Doppelganger," Sinister replied evenly. He paused, then added. "Dual, for short."
"Dual," he repeated, testing the sound of it on his tongue. It didn't sound right.
The collar opened with a soft click, and Sinister stepped back, holding it up so that Dual could see it. "They used this to block your powers. They were afraid of what you could do."
"Powers?" he replied stupidly.
"You're a mutant. Most likely the most powerful mutant on this planet." His Master - that was still going to take a little getting used to - smiled widely as though that statement seemed to please him. He gestured for Dual to follow him and together they made their way through the smoking remains of what he assumed was an enemy base.
The dark-haired mutant stared at the bodies that littered the ground and asked in a quiet voice, "What... what happened? I don't remember any of this..."
Sinister explained, "You are one of my Marauders. We wish to destroy the human's in this world who persecute us, and subjugate the mutants who help them. This group-" He toed on of the bodies distastefully before continuing, "-is known as the Brotherhood. They captured you and tried to use you against me."
"This..." Dual shook his head. "... this doesn't sound like anything that would happen to me. But," he nibbled his lip, "I guess I wouldn't know. Do you know why I joined you?"
"You were raised by humans, both prime examples of who we fight against. When you were a child, they hurt you. You came to me for help."
/That's it, boy. Fuck. So tight- /
Dual sharply turned his head to the side. Was that... a memory? Did... did his _father_ actually do that to him...?
He reached for it in his mind, but it danced away, leaving him with only a vague understanding of what had happened. It seemed as though what Sinister was saying was, in fact, true. The shadows of his memories whispered to him, urging him to believe this was real, and to embrace this life again.
Dual stepped over the body of an older mutant dressed in red. His tattered cape covered most of his body, but there were severe burns visible, and several cuts that bled sluggishly. However, the dark-haired mutant was listening so intently to his Master that he didn't see the man on the ground reaching to him with both hands. The first hand pleaded for help. The second begged for forgiveness.
o
Sinister led him through the underground base he claimed was their home. There were several mutants in the hallways, but they did their best to avoid the duo. It seemed as though they were... scared.
After a series of quick turns, they entered what appeared to be a laboratory, and his Master turned to him and said, "Will you trust me in this?"
"In what?" he asked curiously.
"You and I were working on a genetic boost for your system that would make your mutation manifest completely. We were ready to use it when you were taken... and I know you don't remember any of this, but it was what you wanted. Will you trust me?" The man's voice was as smooth as honey.
"I..."
"Please, Dual. You wanted this. It will be painful, but you wanted to become powerful enough that nothing could stop us from realizing our dream." Sinister paused, perhaps for effect, and added quietly, "So that you could take your revenge on the ones that hurt you."
"I..."
A tiny voice inside his head whispered, / Do it. This was your dream, wasn't it? He only wants to help... /
Slowly, Dual nodded. "All right. What should I do?"
Sinister smiled broadly. He showed Dual where to lay down and took a moment to explain the various machines and what they were going to do. Then he used a small needle to inject the first stage into Dual's veins. His Master faded to the background, and lights switched on above him. He felt hot and tried to tell Sinister that, but his voice refused to work. He tried to sit up, but his body wouldn't listen to him.
It hit him all at once, and he was grateful he couldn't cry out. Pain like nothing he'd ever felt before burned him. His body shuddered under the strain as the mutation of every mutant he'd ever met manifested instantaneously.
o
Sinister smiled to himself as he watched his new pet cry out in pain. He knew it was extremely dangerous to manipulate Xander's already unstable DNA, but he'd waited so very long for this day.
It had taken him time to bring Magneto under his control, to instill the desire for a perfect weapon to subjugate humankind, and even more time to convince him that the only choice for those experiments was his soon-to-be-born son. Only Sinister's carefully administered control-drugs had enabled him to direct Magneto to what he wanted to do. And when Xander _had_ been born and the testing had begun, results had been... uncertain... at best.
After forcing Xander's power to manifest at a very young age, Sinister had found his mutation to be very similar to Mystique's power. It seemed that if he was around a mutant long enough, he could pick up some of their characteristics. The drawback, though, was that his power wasn't very strong, and it only lasted for as long as he was around that particular mutant. He _could_ pick up characteristics from more than one person, but the more he divided his powers, the weaker those characteristics would be.
Xander had seemed like the perfect candidate for Sinister's most recent genetic breakthrough, and while theoretically it _had_ worked, the instability of Xander's DNA had been troublesome. He'd decided to wait and see how the boy's power would alter in an uncontrolled environment.
The second stage had been a bit smoother. After careful selection, the Harris family had been chosen. At that time though, he hadn't known of the Hellmouth, an anomaly he was still trying to understand. Apparently, whatever energies were floating around Sunnydale had interfered with Xander's mutation, causing it to lay dormant.
He'd decided that the boy's nineteenth birthday would be when he would make his move and reclaim the boy, but as fate had it, Xander skipped town before that had happened. By the time Sinister had found him again, he was just arriving at Xavier's Institute. Rather than risk his own forces, he'd let Magneto capture the boy, and had used his spies in the organization to drive a wedge between Xander and the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood had no idea of Xander's mistreatment at the hands of Harpoon and Forearm, and Xander had no idea that his frequent beatings and rape had not been ordered by Magneto.
However, Sinister was not a patient man, and he'd decided to retrieve the boy and secure the young mutant's trust in him by "rescuing" him from the evil Brotherhood. And, thanks to the use of a certain drug, the boy's first concrete memory was of that moment.
Now, though, Sinister had to smile. Yes, it was dangerous to try and force the boy's mutation to manifest, but if Xander died, there was no real loss. He would simply clone the boy as many times as necessary.
o
"So... what? We jus' waltz on in an' say, 'Sorry 'bout the misunderstandin', mates, but we'll be takin' our Xan-pet back now,'" Spike asked as he and Logan moved through the mansion silently.
"I was thinkin' more along the lines o' tellin' them ta get outta our way and killin' the ones who don't listen."
The blonde gave his companion an appraising look. "I like the way you think, mate."
The pair came to a halt as they saw Scott and Warren blocking the front door. There was a terse moment of silence, and then Warren asked, "So, is it like a raffle or something? 'Cause me and Scott would hate to think you're going to rescue Xander without us."
o
Xavier stared into his fireplace. He knew that a few of his X-men were on their way to rescue Xander, and he fully approved. But there was another problem that he needed to deal with. One, he mused, that he'd let get far too out of hand.
/Jean?/
/Yes, Professor?/
/Come to my study, please./
/Yes, Professor./
A moment later, the redhead opened the door and stepped through. She asked timidly, "You wanted to see me?"
Xavier stared at the girl who he'd come to think of as his own daughter, and the disappointment must have been clear on his face because she flinched and stared at the floor. He said softly, "I've let this go on long enough, Jean. What you did to Xander... and what you're now doing to both Storm and Rogue... it's beyond unforgivable."
Jean jerked her head up and stared at the older mutant with wide eyes.
He continued, "Yes, I've been aware of it for some time. I simply didn't want to believe it was true. You've been blinded by your own jealousy, Jean, and you've been feeding Rogue's infatuation with Logan and Storm's fear of Xander, and it has to _stop_."
"Professor-" her voice trembled a little.
"There are no excuses, Jean. I once taught you that there is always a price we pay for our own actions. And this is yours." He reached into her mind, searching for the part of her that allowed her to access her gifts, and surrounded it with his power. In the span of three seconds, he sealed away her powers behind an impenetrable mental shield.
Jean fell to her knees, and began to cry when she realized what he'd done. It took all of his willpower, but he managed to keep himself from reaching out and comforting her.
"Is... is this permanent?" Her voice broke on a sob.
Xavier closed his eyes and answered quietly, "Only if you don't learn from your mistakes."
o
Dual cried out, and he was grateful he was lying down because he knew he wasn't able to stand. He could _feel_ his body straining itself, pulling itself apart to remake him into something stronger, faster, and more powerful. He knew in that moment that the treatment was killing him.
An image of a faceless man holding him down, and a familiar voice whispered cruelly, /Only one thing you're good for... that's it, boy. Fuck. So tight- / strengthened his resolve.
It was killing him, but he wouldn't die. He _refused_ to die.
He couldn't die until he'd made that man pay for hurting him.
He cried out again, and a voice that he thought was his own, though he couldn't be sure, whispered to him, /Not until you hurt them like they hurt you./
/Not until you hurt _all_ of them, just like they hurt _you_./
o