Chapter 13

Scott watched in agony as the huge bald man dragged his wife away and boarded her onto the helicopter. He was unable to make a move to stop them as he felt as though the earth was spinning and he couldn't get his bearings. He'd only suffered from vertigo once in his life. This version of vertigo was a thousand times worse.

He couldn't even yell his wife's name for he knew he'd vomit if he so much as opened his mouth. He could hear the helicopter taking off and the whirring of its blades sounding farther and farther away. To add to his anguish, Scott had no idea where his children were. Scott then felt strong arms lifting him off the ground and helping him get back on his feet.

The motion was too much, and Scott bent over and vomited all over the grass. "Easy, kid! Breathe deeply!" Scott realized it was Logan behind him who was steadying him.

"Jean! They… got… her!" Scott said, in between deep breaths. "My… kids?! Where are they?!"

"Easy, my friend, I saw Kurt teleport both Rachel and Nathan. I'm sure he's with them wherever they are right now," Ororo said, putting her hand on Scott's shoulder. She too was recovering from the effects of the vertigo, but she wasn't at the heart of the vertigo wave like Scott was.

"I'm communicating with Kurt telepathically right now," Professor Xavier said. "He teleported them to the mansion and away from here. He's with them right now."

Satisfied his children were safe, Scott said, "Got… to go… after Jean!" Scott pulled away from Logan's grasp, trying to make his way in the direction of the mansion. His one and only intent was to get on the Blackbird and follow. But just two steps sent him tumbling down. Luckily for him, Logan was quick and prevented him from hitting the ground.

"Yer in no shape to go after anyone, bub!" Logan said.

Scott, having had a few more seconds to get some more of his bearings, turned and weakly clutched Logan's shirt collar and yelled, "They have my wife! Every moment we waste means they're getting farther away!"

"They're already too far away, Scott," Hank said. Scott stumbled forward heading straight to the mansion… to the Blackbird. Hank stepped in his path.

"Get out of my way, Hank!" Scott said, angrily.

"You're not thinking straight, my friend," Hank said, gently but firmly. Scott tried shoving Hank with all his might, but he was as weak as a kitten and more disoriented than a drunk.

"Scott, please… They're too far now. By the time you catch up, if you can even catch their trail, you'll be heading straight for a trap. If you chase after them without giving us a chance to regroup, you'd be putting Jean in more danger than she already is," Ororo said, trying to reason with Scott.

"I'm not just going to do nothing!" Scott yelled. "All of you get out of my way."

The professor went up to Scott and said, "I'm sorry, son… but you leave me no choice." Scott felt a psychic intrusion in his mind. He tried to put up walls, but it was no use. The professor rendered him unconscious.

Twenty-four hours later

The mansion's med bay

Scott slowly opened his eyes. He didn't recognize where he was at first, then realized he was strapped to a gurney in the mansion's med bay. His first instinct was to blast the damn straps off, but he couldn't move his arms to get to his visors. He tried breaking free, but he was so weak, he couldn't do much more than make rattling noises as he twisted and turned his wrists against the straps.

"I see yer awake." Scott turned and saw Logan standing by the entrance to the room.

"How dare you! Get these off me!" Scott said, angrily.

"Easy there, bub! I was against puttin' you in restraints. I was outvoted. Apparently, the rest of yer friends didn't trust you not to go after Jean if you by chance woke up and they didn't notice," Logan said.

"Get these off me," Scott said menacingly to Logan.

"Just promise me you won't go running half cocked tryin' t' rescue yer wife. We're all worried 'bout her, but you above all should know, we need a plan first," Logan said as he began unstrapping Scott.

Scott slowly sat up on the gurney. He reluctantly had to agree with the Canadian… they needed a plan. He rubbed his chafed wrists, trying to get some blood flow going again. He closed his eyes tight, trying to reach out to his wife through their rapport. He could feel her, so he knew she was alive… but someone or something was blocking their communication.

"Rachel and Nathan… I remember Ororo said that Kurt got them to safety… Where are they now?" Scott asked.

"We've been takin' turns watchin' 'em," Logan said.

Scott just raised an eyebrow at Logan, not quite believing he'd play babysitter.

"What? I like kids," Logan said with a shrug.

"How long have I been out?" Scott asked.

"About twenty-four hours, give or take a few minutes," Logan answered.

"How are Rachel and Nathan?" Scott asked.

"Nathan's fine… oblivious obviously… But Rachel… Well, let's just say seein' her in so much distress just about broke my heart, and I ain't soft-hearted if ye know what I mean," Logan said. "She keeps sayin' that a bad man took her mommy. And it took the professor, Ororo and Kurt to convince her that you'd be okay and was just restin'."

Scott closed his eyes and put his head in his hands. His poor daughter. She'd be traumatized. And on her birthday too. Damn whoever was responsible! Scott swore that whoever it was he'd kill him himself. If he had his memories in tact, would he have done anything differently? Could he have saved Jean?

There was no sense in dwelling on the what-ifs for the time being. He needed to keep his head about him. His wife needed him to keep his cool and live up to his reputation as the great leader of the X-Men and rescue her. And his children needed a father who wasn't going to fall apart.

"Where are my kids? I need to see them," Scott said in almost a whisper.

"Alright, come follow me," Logan said, heading out of the med bay, not bothering to look back to see if Scott was following or not.

5 minutes later

Logan led Scott to Professor Xavier's study where Ororo and the professor were talking. Nathan was sound asleep in his baby seat and Rachel was cuddled up to her Aunt Ororo. Rachel's face was streaked with tears. It was obvious she was inconsolable, and Scott mentally cursed whoever was responsible.

"Rachel, honey?" Scott started.

Rachel jerked up from her Aunt Ororo's embrace, jumped down and ran into the waiting arms of her father. "Daddy! They took mommy! The bad men, they took her!" Rachel cried into Scott's shirt.

"I know, sweetheart. I know," Scott said, rubbing his huge hands over Rachel's tiny back.

"Is my mommy gonna be okay?" Rachel asked, her emerald eyes pooling with big fat tears.

"I will do everything I can to bring mommy back home, okay honey?" Scott said. He wished he could bring himself to say something more reassuring to his daughter. But Scott didn't want to lie, and the truth of the matter was, although he knew Jean was alive out there somewhere, he didn't know in what condition she was in.

"Are the bad men gonna come back and get me too?" Rachel asked, a pitiful look on her little face.

"I will protect you with my life, Rachel. I don't want you worrying about anything okay? That's daddy's job," Scott said. Again, he didn't want to lie to his daughter… the bad men very well could try again, but Scott would die first before letting them get their hands on his little girl.

"When are we gonna get mommy back?" Rachel asked.

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to Professor Xavier about, sweetie," Scott said.

"Rachel, do you want to come play with Auntie Jube while your daddy and the professor talk?" Jubilee said from the door, ready to help any way she could.

Scott gave his old friend a thankful smile and urged Rachel to go with her. Rachel reluctantly let her father go and followed Jubilee out. Scott turned to the professor.

"Please tell me that while I was knocked out for the last twenty-four hours, you've come up with some sort of plan to rescue Jean," Scott said, not bothering to hide the hurt in his voice. He knew what the professor did was logical, considering how emotional he was the day before. But a part of him still felt betrayed.

"Unfortunately, Scott… Before coming up with a plan is even feasible, we need to find out where they took Jean," the professor said. "And I'm afraid we're still working on that."

"I don't understand why you can't just use Cerebro to track her down. They could be torturing my wife right now!" Scott said, his voice cracking.

"I understand your anguish Scott… I can feel it in fact… And I have been using Cerebro… extensively. But someone or something is cloaking Jean telepathically and preventing me from tracing her whereabouts," Professor Xavier answered.

"What do you think we're up against, Professor?" Ororo asked.

"Yeah, what's strong enough t' block yer powers, Prof?" Logan added.

"I'm not sure. We're almost sure that those mutants who took Jean are working for someone. It couldn't be more obvious that they're someone's henchmen, so to speak. That being said, Jean wasn't who they were after, they were after Rachel-"

"You think they'll come back for my daughter?" Scott said, fear lacing his voice.

"It's possible, Scott," the professor answered.

"What would they want with Rachel?" Ororo asked, her anger very evident.

"I don't know that either," Professor Xavier said. "In the meantime, I will continue searching for Jean through Cerebro, but considering I've been at it for so many hours already with no luck, I may have to use more traditional means-"

"Like what?" Scott asked.

"I'll reach out to Moira and leverage her vast resources over at the CIA. I'll see if she has any clue as to who those mutants were," Professor Xavier said.

"What can I do, Professor?" Scott asked. "What can any of us do in the meantime?"

"… Pray."

Meanwhile

Jean was on the ground, clutching her knees and trying with all her might to reach out to her husband telepathically. She was imprisoned in a tiny, cold, damp cell, she suspected was underground somewhere. She tried telekinetically opening the cell door, but it was no use. She couldn't tap into her telekinesis. She suspected it may have something to do with the needle marks in her arms. She was obviously drugged to a degree.

She prayed with all her heart that her family and friends were safe. She didn't remember much more after she was dragged away. She had no idea if Scott was hurt or if any of her friends were. Thankfully she remembered that Kurt was able to get her children away from those monsters.

She knew Scott was alive. She could feel him through their psychic rapport… but just barely. Someone or something was interfering with their psychic connection. It was preventing her from communicating with him and she was sure the same would happen to Scott if he tried the same on his end.

Jean's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps echoing from the walls. As the sound of footsteps became louder and louder, a man came around the corner and approached her cell. It was dark and with the added hindrance of the bars, she couldn't see him all that well.

"Ah, Jean Summers… my consolation prize…" the man said.

"Who are you?" Jean asked the man whose cold, ominous presence sent a chill down her spine.

"I've been called many things over many generations… But you may call me, Sinister… Mr. Sinister."

The man walked closer and a tiny sliver of light hit his face. Jean gasped. His face was devoid of any color… It was practically white. He had red shining eyes with no visible pupils and a red diamond upon his forehead. He was also intimidatingly tall.

"What are you?" Jean asked.

"Such a frivolous question. What I am is not important, Jean."

"What do you want? Why were you after my daughter?" Jean asked, getting up and grabbing the cell bars in her anger, wishing she had her hands around the man's neck in front of her.

"Your offspring with Scott Summers has the potential to grow up and become the most powerful mutant on earth. In fact, I got to see her potential from afar when your daughter from the future made a visit about a decade ago. Although that version of your daughter obviously hadn't tapped into her full potential…"

"How do you know about that? How did you know about our daughter from the future?" Jean asked.

"I've watched you and your husband from afar for almost all your lives. I never stopped watching you. Of course, I would be privy to those you have contact with. I will admit, I was disappointed I didn't learn that Rachel Winters was in fact Rachel Summers, your daughter from the future, until it was too late. I never got a chance to steal her DNA ten years ago… Imagine my glee when several years later, you and Scott Summers didn't need any manipulating to breed with each other." The man laughed maniacally.

The man disgusted Jean. "You still haven't explained what you want with my child."

"How do I describe this to a feeble mind… hmm… Think of your daughter and son as lottery winners in the game of mutant genetics. Your genes and those of your husband's combined is the recipe for the perfect mutant. Your genes combined with anyone else's wouldn't be of any significance, and neither would your husband's be with anyone else but you."

"I still don't understand what you want with my child!" Jean said.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… Your lack of imagination disappoints me. Try picturing having a dozen grown Rachel Summers serving me. Who could stop me? What could stop me? What couldn't I do? Imagine the power I would wield when I finally unlock what exactly in your daughter's genes make her so special. Imagine the possibilities," Mr. Sinister said, smiling.

"You want to steal my daughter to experiment on her?" Jean asked.

"I want to steal your daughter so I can unlock her genetic make-up and create clones of her… dozens of them! Like I've already said, I've watched over both you and your husband for many years and I've even stolen your DNAs. I've tried for years to create an offspring of both you and your husband in my lab but have failed each time, the specimen not surviving for more than a few weeks-"

"You monster! How dare you play god with our lives?!" Jean yelled, trying to reach for the man's throat through the bars.

The man called Mr. Sinister merely stepped back and ignored her outburst and kept talking. "Anyway, you can imagine my jubilance when you and your husband managed to accomplish together naturally what I couldn't in my lab… twice."

"You want my son too?" Jean asked, appalled.

"Your son would work just as well for my purposes, but he is far too young and too fragile. I didn't trust those brutes I sent to be able to handle a baby. They'd probably bring him back dead to me… Your daughter, being a little older, was the better option, practically speaking," Mr. Sinister said, as if he was talking about the weather.

"Then what do you want with me?" Jean asked.

"You, my dear, are bait."

To be continued…