Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters featured within this fan
fic, though I did consider purchasing Marvel stock. Does that count? But,
seriously, I make nothing off of this.
A/N: I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter (for anyone out there actually reading this), and will strive for a more viable schedule in the future. Graci.
"Logan?"
"Stay down here, Hank, this ain't gonna be pretty!"
Hank opted not to listen to his feral teammate and bounded back up the oak stairway behind the shorter X-Man. They needn't have bothered.
"Scott?!"
No answer.
Hank gaped as he walked the perimeter of the bedroom.
Logan sniffed away in the bathroom, confused. "They ain't here, Hank. They're gone."
"I knew that, somehow," replied the *blue man. "Though I certainly don't profess to hold your nasal prowess, I do well hold my own-"
"Teleport," Logan interrupted. Wasn't time to let Beast babble, thought Logan.
The Beast knew his teammate wasn't being rude, just focused. ("Professor,") he called out, ("Scott and Mr. Sinister are gone.")
("I know, Henry. I cannot sense them any longer. Just like Jean. If you can, corral Logan, and return to the mansion. We have much to discuss.")
Far away, no place, Scott Summers' mind is aflame; disorienting colors, disturbing images all plague his thoughts. And when did he get so cold?
The colors and images have faded. He sees nothing but red darkness forever. Groggily glancing up, he notices a light shining down, enveloping him.
"Don't try to get up, Mr. Summers," calls a voice in the dark.
Scott immediately recognizes the voice, but forgets it all the same.
"Nathan?" he calls to the voice.
"Excuse me?" the voice returns, almost off-guard.
"I'm sorry, son," cries Cyclops, shivering. "I never.did right by you."
"Ah," sighs the voice. "Dayspring(*). My ultimate goal in flesh and blood, tainted by Apocalypse. You must realize, as one father to another, I had only the best intentions in mind when I sent Madelyne to intersect your path." "SINISTER!" growls Scott as confusion gives way to fury and he lets loose a powerful optic-blast. Unfortunately, the blast is redirected back to him in less than a second.
Mr. Sinister steps out of the darkness now, but only just enough to allow the stasis-field that envelopes Scott to eerily reflect his pale features (much as it did with Cyclops' optic-blast). His face, powdered anemia with glowing red eyes and those thin, blood-soaked lips, was the only portion of his visage viewable. Well, except for that that damned diamond on his chest hanging there in space, seemingly of it's own volition.
"What have you done.with my wife." Scott huffed.
"Scott, Scott, Scott," sighed the elder man. His voice was a sing-song of monotone cacophony; so many different sounds overlapping one another. "I realize you have much reason to doubt me. But think on this. Had I wanted to eviscerate Mrs. Grey-Summers, I'm quite certain I could have done so before your nuptials. I have always believed that your seed combined with Grey's would produce the most powerful alpha mutant to ever live! Such an offspring would surely have the power to free me, free us ALL, of the ancient one-APOCALYPSE!!"
As Sinister drew closer to the stasis-field, Scott lowered his head. "But you-," he began, but faltered off.
Sinister took advantage of this pause to make his point. "Scott, I know I've meddled far too often in your life, my boy. But there was a time when you were the only son I ever had. And, after little Alex left the orphanage, I was the only father you would come to know."
"NO!!" cried Scott. "You killed Jean! YOU were the one who sent Sabretooth after my wife!! You-"
"Victor Creed has become too unstable; he no longer listens his own voices, let alone mine. I don't pretend to know why Creed took it upon himself to sully your wife. I only know he runs risk of tainting her with his messy gene structure."
Scott winced, both visually and audibly. The thought of another hairy roughneck having their way with his wife was not settling, especially not the way his head was spinning. "No," he mumbled. "No, it's not true. You cloned him. Made him, again."
At this, Sinister threw his head back in laughter. "HA! If only I could. Then I wouldn't have bothered chasing you around in the various incarnations of X-Men. You cannot "clone" Alpha-level mutants. They are too powerful, which makes them susceptible to degeneration at the molecular level. Besides, Creed's DNA is lost to me. You X-Men saw to that when you destroyed a section of my tesseract chamber. Don't you remember?"
"What are you babbling about?" demanding a quivering Cyclops.
"Four X-Men: Gambit, Psylocke, Rogue and Beast entered my laboratory and deleted an portion of my genetic code filing, including Creed's sample. They entered through the orphanage YOU grew up in. I rather thought you would have known about this."
Scott stirred in his prison of light, sweating profusely. This doesn't sound familiar to me at all, he thought. Am I losing what's left of my mind?
"You're missing the point, though," Sinister stated. "I gain NOTHING from Mrs. Grey-Summers' disappearance. In point of fact, I am here to help."
Scott's rage was now boiling over. "HELP?! You monster! You kidnap me as a child, under false pretenses of raising me; you clone the love of my life to further your 'genetic testing'; you make some grand prophecy of me having another brother-"
"First of all," Sinister interjected ", I did not 'kidnap' you. Fate delivered you unto me. I DID give you a home and raise you just as anyone else would. I fed you, clothed you, taught you,. all the values and traits that are attributed to you, I instilled within you!
"And," he continued ", I did NOT force you to marry Madelyne so soon after Jean's death. Nor did I breathe Jean's life-force within the shell of her 'clone', the Phoenix force did so. Just as it kept Ms. Pryor alive in spite of the degeneration factor. And I certainly had no desire to see you abandon Madelyne and your son upon hearing that Jean Grey was alive (though, I admit, that situation did work out to my advantage). The fact is, Summers, you needed something-someone- to blame. And I was such a deliciously easy target. Well, here I am."
By the time Sinister returned attention to him, Scott had curled up into a ball at the bottom of his "cell." He knew that, in this, Mr. Sinister was undoubtedly correct. He did abandon his wife, and child, the first chance he got. And he has been trying to make it up to both of them ever since that day.
BWOOP-BWOOP-BWOOP-BWOOP-BWOOP!
"What the hell is that?" asked Scott.
"The stasis-field has been monitoring your bio-rhythms," Sinister explained. He began typing away at a translucent touch-pad at the head of the field. "It has detected an anomaly in your blood stream."
With Sinister's attention diverted, Scott settled into his "cell" defeated. His memories were swirling around him as visual memories, dancing in the dark. He'd lost one wife in madness. One child, to neglect. A mother and father to circumstances beyond his control. Now, he's lost another wife. A lifetime to lose an entire family. How could things get any worse?
"Scott," Mr. Sinister began ", when was the last time you ate? Or ingested anything for that matter?"
At first, Scott didn't even acknowledge the question. Then, slowly, he began to look up. "Breakfast," he muttered ", at breakfast, yestereday."
"At the mansion, I assume?" Sinister inquired.
"Yes," Scott answered. "At the mansion.with Jean."
"And.no one else?" Sinister pressed.
Almost sleepily, Scott replied ", Logan."
Sinister sighed deeply. I was afraid you'd say that.
Scott's head flopped to one side as he turned it. "Why you say that?"
Sinister detached a portion of the stasis-field generator for Scott to view. "In your bloodstream," he began ", I found a large concentration of Japanese Valerian Root extract. It's commonly known to produce highly psychotropic effects on those who would ingest it."
Sinister continued on his with his explanation, but Scott Summers was beyond comprehension at that point. He was concentrating, with all his might, to remember the morning prior.
At breakfast, with.Madelyne? No, that's not right, he thought to himself. Jean. Breakfast with Jean. And someone else. Did 'Lynne poison me?
"Hey, Summers, drink this!" called a gruff voice, deep within his memory. "It'll put some hair on yer chest!"
Logan.
Logan!
LOGAN!!
"Scott?" Mr. Sinister realized Scott Summers was no longer listening.
"It was Logan," Scott hissed. For the first time since the conversation began, Summers rose to his feet within the stasis-field. "Logan did this to me. And he was there this morning when Jean was missing. Hovering over me, spouting off crazy things."
"Now, Scott," cooed Sinister ", let's not jump to conclusions. Let's take this one step at a time. A good first step would be to cleanse your system of the toxin in question. Shall we begin?"
Author's Notes: Nathan Dayspring Askani-Son, AKA Charles Nathan Christopher Summers is the love-child of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor.
Madelyne Pryor is a clone of Jean Grey, created years ago, but brought to life when the Dark Phoenix destroyed itself in the blue area of the moon (UXM # 137, explained during the Inferno X-Over).
Sinister did, in fact, lose Creed's DNA to the X-Men (X-Men 2nd series # 34).
I'm hoping, by now, anyone reading has figured out that poor Cyclops has been "slipped a Mickey", so don't get to angry with me for his out of character behavior. Like what you've read? Lemme know! Don't like what you've read, please let me know, in detail.
A/N: I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter (for anyone out there actually reading this), and will strive for a more viable schedule in the future. Graci.
"Logan?"
"Stay down here, Hank, this ain't gonna be pretty!"
Hank opted not to listen to his feral teammate and bounded back up the oak stairway behind the shorter X-Man. They needn't have bothered.
"Scott?!"
No answer.
Hank gaped as he walked the perimeter of the bedroom.
Logan sniffed away in the bathroom, confused. "They ain't here, Hank. They're gone."
"I knew that, somehow," replied the *blue man. "Though I certainly don't profess to hold your nasal prowess, I do well hold my own-"
"Teleport," Logan interrupted. Wasn't time to let Beast babble, thought Logan.
The Beast knew his teammate wasn't being rude, just focused. ("Professor,") he called out, ("Scott and Mr. Sinister are gone.")
("I know, Henry. I cannot sense them any longer. Just like Jean. If you can, corral Logan, and return to the mansion. We have much to discuss.")
Far away, no place, Scott Summers' mind is aflame; disorienting colors, disturbing images all plague his thoughts. And when did he get so cold?
The colors and images have faded. He sees nothing but red darkness forever. Groggily glancing up, he notices a light shining down, enveloping him.
"Don't try to get up, Mr. Summers," calls a voice in the dark.
Scott immediately recognizes the voice, but forgets it all the same.
"Nathan?" he calls to the voice.
"Excuse me?" the voice returns, almost off-guard.
"I'm sorry, son," cries Cyclops, shivering. "I never.did right by you."
"Ah," sighs the voice. "Dayspring(*). My ultimate goal in flesh and blood, tainted by Apocalypse. You must realize, as one father to another, I had only the best intentions in mind when I sent Madelyne to intersect your path." "SINISTER!" growls Scott as confusion gives way to fury and he lets loose a powerful optic-blast. Unfortunately, the blast is redirected back to him in less than a second.
Mr. Sinister steps out of the darkness now, but only just enough to allow the stasis-field that envelopes Scott to eerily reflect his pale features (much as it did with Cyclops' optic-blast). His face, powdered anemia with glowing red eyes and those thin, blood-soaked lips, was the only portion of his visage viewable. Well, except for that that damned diamond on his chest hanging there in space, seemingly of it's own volition.
"What have you done.with my wife." Scott huffed.
"Scott, Scott, Scott," sighed the elder man. His voice was a sing-song of monotone cacophony; so many different sounds overlapping one another. "I realize you have much reason to doubt me. But think on this. Had I wanted to eviscerate Mrs. Grey-Summers, I'm quite certain I could have done so before your nuptials. I have always believed that your seed combined with Grey's would produce the most powerful alpha mutant to ever live! Such an offspring would surely have the power to free me, free us ALL, of the ancient one-APOCALYPSE!!"
As Sinister drew closer to the stasis-field, Scott lowered his head. "But you-," he began, but faltered off.
Sinister took advantage of this pause to make his point. "Scott, I know I've meddled far too often in your life, my boy. But there was a time when you were the only son I ever had. And, after little Alex left the orphanage, I was the only father you would come to know."
"NO!!" cried Scott. "You killed Jean! YOU were the one who sent Sabretooth after my wife!! You-"
"Victor Creed has become too unstable; he no longer listens his own voices, let alone mine. I don't pretend to know why Creed took it upon himself to sully your wife. I only know he runs risk of tainting her with his messy gene structure."
Scott winced, both visually and audibly. The thought of another hairy roughneck having their way with his wife was not settling, especially not the way his head was spinning. "No," he mumbled. "No, it's not true. You cloned him. Made him, again."
At this, Sinister threw his head back in laughter. "HA! If only I could. Then I wouldn't have bothered chasing you around in the various incarnations of X-Men. You cannot "clone" Alpha-level mutants. They are too powerful, which makes them susceptible to degeneration at the molecular level. Besides, Creed's DNA is lost to me. You X-Men saw to that when you destroyed a section of my tesseract chamber. Don't you remember?"
"What are you babbling about?" demanding a quivering Cyclops.
"Four X-Men: Gambit, Psylocke, Rogue and Beast entered my laboratory and deleted an portion of my genetic code filing, including Creed's sample. They entered through the orphanage YOU grew up in. I rather thought you would have known about this."
Scott stirred in his prison of light, sweating profusely. This doesn't sound familiar to me at all, he thought. Am I losing what's left of my mind?
"You're missing the point, though," Sinister stated. "I gain NOTHING from Mrs. Grey-Summers' disappearance. In point of fact, I am here to help."
Scott's rage was now boiling over. "HELP?! You monster! You kidnap me as a child, under false pretenses of raising me; you clone the love of my life to further your 'genetic testing'; you make some grand prophecy of me having another brother-"
"First of all," Sinister interjected ", I did not 'kidnap' you. Fate delivered you unto me. I DID give you a home and raise you just as anyone else would. I fed you, clothed you, taught you,. all the values and traits that are attributed to you, I instilled within you!
"And," he continued ", I did NOT force you to marry Madelyne so soon after Jean's death. Nor did I breathe Jean's life-force within the shell of her 'clone', the Phoenix force did so. Just as it kept Ms. Pryor alive in spite of the degeneration factor. And I certainly had no desire to see you abandon Madelyne and your son upon hearing that Jean Grey was alive (though, I admit, that situation did work out to my advantage). The fact is, Summers, you needed something-someone- to blame. And I was such a deliciously easy target. Well, here I am."
By the time Sinister returned attention to him, Scott had curled up into a ball at the bottom of his "cell." He knew that, in this, Mr. Sinister was undoubtedly correct. He did abandon his wife, and child, the first chance he got. And he has been trying to make it up to both of them ever since that day.
BWOOP-BWOOP-BWOOP-BWOOP-BWOOP!
"What the hell is that?" asked Scott.
"The stasis-field has been monitoring your bio-rhythms," Sinister explained. He began typing away at a translucent touch-pad at the head of the field. "It has detected an anomaly in your blood stream."
With Sinister's attention diverted, Scott settled into his "cell" defeated. His memories were swirling around him as visual memories, dancing in the dark. He'd lost one wife in madness. One child, to neglect. A mother and father to circumstances beyond his control. Now, he's lost another wife. A lifetime to lose an entire family. How could things get any worse?
"Scott," Mr. Sinister began ", when was the last time you ate? Or ingested anything for that matter?"
At first, Scott didn't even acknowledge the question. Then, slowly, he began to look up. "Breakfast," he muttered ", at breakfast, yestereday."
"At the mansion, I assume?" Sinister inquired.
"Yes," Scott answered. "At the mansion.with Jean."
"And.no one else?" Sinister pressed.
Almost sleepily, Scott replied ", Logan."
Sinister sighed deeply. I was afraid you'd say that.
Scott's head flopped to one side as he turned it. "Why you say that?"
Sinister detached a portion of the stasis-field generator for Scott to view. "In your bloodstream," he began ", I found a large concentration of Japanese Valerian Root extract. It's commonly known to produce highly psychotropic effects on those who would ingest it."
Sinister continued on his with his explanation, but Scott Summers was beyond comprehension at that point. He was concentrating, with all his might, to remember the morning prior.
At breakfast, with.Madelyne? No, that's not right, he thought to himself. Jean. Breakfast with Jean. And someone else. Did 'Lynne poison me?
"Hey, Summers, drink this!" called a gruff voice, deep within his memory. "It'll put some hair on yer chest!"
Logan.
Logan!
LOGAN!!
"Scott?" Mr. Sinister realized Scott Summers was no longer listening.
"It was Logan," Scott hissed. For the first time since the conversation began, Summers rose to his feet within the stasis-field. "Logan did this to me. And he was there this morning when Jean was missing. Hovering over me, spouting off crazy things."
"Now, Scott," cooed Sinister ", let's not jump to conclusions. Let's take this one step at a time. A good first step would be to cleanse your system of the toxin in question. Shall we begin?"
Author's Notes: Nathan Dayspring Askani-Son, AKA Charles Nathan Christopher Summers is the love-child of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor.
Madelyne Pryor is a clone of Jean Grey, created years ago, but brought to life when the Dark Phoenix destroyed itself in the blue area of the moon (UXM # 137, explained during the Inferno X-Over).
Sinister did, in fact, lose Creed's DNA to the X-Men (X-Men 2nd series # 34).
I'm hoping, by now, anyone reading has figured out that poor Cyclops has been "slipped a Mickey", so don't get to angry with me for his out of character behavior. Like what you've read? Lemme know! Don't like what you've read, please let me know, in detail.