At the mansion, several scenes were taking place.

Kurt and Wanda were happy that Talia was safe. Considering the circumstances, they decided not to get married, despite Magneto's threats. They did not have any feelings for each other, at least, not yet, and a pregnancy that was the result of both parties involved being under mind-control was not exactly the basis for a relationship.

Juggernaut had insisted on talking to Charles alone. As he had no helmet, Charles judged him not to be a threat, provided he use a low-grade telepathic projection to keep him somewhat subdued.

When Charles learned of what Sinister had told Cain, he was very worried. Sinister's vision for the future would be terrible indeed.

But for now, he needed to help Cain work through the trauma he had experienced. He, of all people, the Juggernaut, had been in essence raped by a woman. And now his son or daughter was growing inside of her, and he didn't know where she was.

Scott had just left for college, but beforehand Cain had insisted on explaining to him Sinister's apparent plan to correct his weakness.

"Ruby quartz armor. Listen, Scott. If he attacks again, he'll use ruby quartz armor to protect himself from your blasts. You're gonna need to make certain you have a way to cut through his armor."

"Why, thank you, Juggernaut. I must say, being on the same side is... weird."

Kurt and Amanda were talking on the lawn outside the mansion.

"So, Kurt, you have a daughter now? And it wasn't exactly... good grief, I don't know how to explain what happened. It's so weird. So this Essex guy got you and Wanda to - to get pregnant?"

"Uh... Vanda got pregnant. As far as I can tell, I didn't," joked Kurt.

"So, what does this mean for us?"

"I vish I knew."

Wanda was cooing at the baby in her crib. The little "elfette" as Logan called Talia, was happy. Wanda took out another bottle of formula. While she did feed the baby naturally, she found that it was so ravenously hungry that she needed to supplement its feed with formula. It was as if the baby's metabolism were sped up enormously...

At his new base, Sinister was livid. "That dolt named Logan hit Slayer in the back of the head so hard that her brain is damaged just like brother's! Damn it! I can't seem to heal it!"

"How's her brain damaged?" asked Ruckus.

"Her eye beams have become constitutive."

"Huh?"

"Constant. She is always firing them, just like her brother. Pity, she'll need green goggles just like he needs red ones."

"By the way, nice armor, boss."

"Thank you."

Dr. Essex walked over to his supercomputer. He pressed a button, and a tattooed face appeared.

"Yes?"

"Mesmero. Have you contacted En Sabah Nur?"

"Yes."

"When will you unlock the third door?"

"Preparations are underway. Are you still willing to uphold your part of the bargain?"

"Yes."

The screen switched off.

"Apocalypse can do what he wants," whispered Sinister. "But in the end, artificial selection beats natural selection hands down. The process MUST be controlled. If he fails to see that, then he shall be dealt with."

FINIS

My history of Sinister is an attempt to reconcile the fact that in the comicverse he was a wild-type human modified by Apocalypse with the fact that in XME Apocalypse is imprisoned.

In the comicverse, Juggernaut was not a mutant, but gained his powers from the Gem of Cytorak. In XME, he was a mutant who used mysticism to activate his powers. As the Gems of Cytorak get a namecheck by Magneto in "Cauldron Part II" as crystals which give off mutation-enhancing radiation. So I decided to relate them to Juggernaut.

Sinister is Latin for left, Dexter is Latin for right, so Ms. Dexter's name was a bit of a play on words.

Slayer Summers' first name has nothing to do with Buffy, has everything to do with Krull, a most excellent movie.

I never saw the Marauders in action, but I saw the Nasty Boys in the 1990s X-Men cartoon series, minus Ramrod. So I used the Nasty Boys instead of the Marauders.

What is Sinister doing with the tissue samples of all the mutants? I'll answer that later.

Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner is a character from an alternate universe in the comic book series "Exiles." She is the daughter of Kurt and Wanda.

Mutants ARE humans. They're just not wild-type humans.

The green sludge in Sinister is how Scott's blasts affected him in the 1990s X-Men cartoon.