What the Future Holds
Part 9/?

By CRIM§ON

Xavier sat staring, at the place were Sinister had stood, for a long time after he'd left. The words he had uttered had taken an odd effect on him. He found himself unable to forget what Essex had said to him, but what he found himself pondering most was that he was sure Essex had done unintentionally.

Sure the obvious questions were floating around in his mind, such as: Would Gambit really be so little help? What was his connection to S.H.I.E.L.D.? Are his shields really so powerful? Is he himself really so powerful? If Sinister did change Gambit, would Xavier be able to use Gambit's new found power against their enemies? But more to the point, what Sinister had said to him when he first started speaking.

Xavier, for all intents and purposes, was completely helpless without his powers. If he was a normal person, living a normal life, his disability would not be as important. But he was not a normal individual. He was Professor Charles Francis Xavier, leader of the Uncanny X-Men, world leader in mutant/human relations, a scientist, doctor, teacher and mentor. Yet all this meant nothing without the X- Men. They were everything to him, and he wanted revenge for their loss, but he was completely helpless... Suddenly Xaiver's mind caught his surviving X-Men's thoughts. Wolverine and Gambit were actually plotting against him, and he was completely helpless... Or was he?

A small alarm started sounding on his desk, but he was so deep in his reverie that he completely ignored it. Sinister had wanted Gambit terribly bad, so bad, in fact, that he was willing to enter the home of his greatest enemy and bargain with him. The question Xavier now had to ask himself was, exactly what would he be willing to give me? He looked at the light on the desk thoughtfully, What indeed? A sudden presence caught his attention.

"Sinister."

"You have made your decision." It was more of a statement than a question, and Xavier wondered if he was that transparent.

"I have. How much would you be willing to trade to have Gambit back in your care?"

Sinister looked suspiciously at Xavier. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Something you said to me the last time you were here has been playing in my thoughts. Something you implied intrigued me."

"And what might that have been?"

"You said that you would be enthralled to see me stand at anyone's side."

Sinister's face became contemplative for an instant before returning to it's original blank mask. "You wish to stand again."

"More than that. I wish to be able to exact this revenge personally. For that I would need a completely new body."

"A new body...?" Xavier turned the monitor around and showed Sinister what the computer had found. "Ah. I understand. It is a difficult procedure but it can be arranged. However, first there is the small matter of my payment."

"Of course. I will arrange for it. I believe I know how to make it work, but I will need your help."

"Of course. But I would like to ask, what made you change your mind?"

"Gambit is a wild card. He suspects my intentions and is trying to turn the others against me."

"That is to be expected from him. For now we should discuss your plan, my presence here puts this at risk."

"Your presence here is part of my plan. Your leaving would put the plan at risk. Tell me Sinister when you teleport, is it possible for you to take someone with you?"

Sinister's eyebrows twitched at this, but he still nodded in response.

"Excellent."

Inside the rec. room, Joseph and Warren were having a half-hearted conversation, while Jubilee slept on the coach, Bobby stared blankly out the window and Sarah slunk away into the shadows.

"Why is it that Psylocke did not accompany you back to the Mansion?"

"She and I had different views on whether or not we should have come back. She wanted to settle down and lead a normal life, with me. I wanted to come back to the X-Men and live a hero's life with her. In the end I decided that no matter what, I was, am and always will be an X-Man at heart, and nothing will ever change that. She didn't want to come back, so I came back alone." He replied solemnly.

"Do you regret your decision then?"

"If I hadn't come back, you wouldn't have had my support in that fight, things might have turned out differently and there might have been even fewer X-Men left now than there was before."

The two looked at each other and became quiet in a hurry. Warren turned contemplantatively to look at the rest of the people in the room. "No," he said with a sad smile on his face, "I do not regret my decision." He looked at Joseph who had followed his glance.

"You do not miss her then?"

"More than words can say. But the X-Men are my family, and I would give my life if it meant saving any of them."

Joseph just nodded in response, as Wolverine and Gambit came in the door.

"Remy?" Bobby said as the noise of their arrival broke him out of his daydream. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Remy smiled at him, "Heard de same t'ing 'bout you homme."

"You are feeling better then?" Joseph asked out of concern.

"Non. But I had t' talk t' you all."

Intrigued, the others came to the center of the room and sat on what was left of the furniture. Bobby woke Jubilee up and he and Logan sat down beside her.

"We're listening," Joseph replied taking a seat next on the arm of the chesterfield, as Gambit sat on the love seat next to Marrow.

"Where's Reyes?" Logan asked before Gambit began.

"She's in the kitchen, we'll wait for her."

"Wait for who?" A feminine voice asked from the door.

"Betsy!" Warren exclaimed upon seeing her and Cecilia enter the room.

"What are you doing here?" Cecilia asked looking at Remy, while at the same time Warren asked the same question of Betsy.

"I heard Xaiver's mind blast and decided to check it out." Remy nodded at Betsy's explanation as the rest of them gave her an odd look of confusion. "What?" She asked innocently at their scrutiny.

"Dey were mostly unconscious at de time Chere."

She nodded and took a seat on Warren's lap. "Forgive me?"

"Always."

"You still haven't answered my question Gambit. Why--"

Remy held up his hand to signify that he was about to tell her. "'S a long story Chere. Have a seat." She did and he continued, "Logan an' I 'ave been noticing some odd changes in de Professor."

"Besides the renewal of his power," Warren asked non commitantly.

"'S not dat his power is back, but dat it's at least twice as strong, if not stronger."

"I noticed that," Betsy replied distantly, before coming back to herself. "He's creating echoes and mirrors, and I don't even think he realizes it."

Remy nodded. This was going better then he thought it would go. "Dere's more too." The others returned their attention to him, waiting for him to continue and Logan nodded encouragingly. "Dere's been certain changes in his behavior. He's becomin' more aggressive wit' his powers, an' 'e seems preoccupied wit' revenge, which isn' like him."

"We've noticed the preoccupied thing, but with what's happened--" Joseph started.

"You don' understan'. He's so angry dat I don' t'ink dat he'll t'ink twice before killin' whoever gets in 'is way."

Jubilee gave him a contemplative look. "What do ya mean 'More aggressive with his powers?"

"He was talkin' 'bout mind probes an' t'ings like dat when I woke up, an' I t'ink dat he might 'ave been in my head when I was out."

"What makes you think that?" Bobby asked.

"When I woke up my mind was workin' slower den usual. It was already unstable from Sauron, an' he must o' hit a bad spot while my shields were down."

"You just might be right about that," Cecilia agreed. "While you were unconscious, he started staring blankly at you, then suddenly his head snapped up and he let out a grunt of pain, putting a hand to his head. I was about to ask him what had happened, but you woke up."

Gambit pondered a moment, coming to a sudden realization. He must o' asked her t' leave so dat she wouldn' say anything. "When 'e asked you t' leave, you were gonna argue, but you didn'. Why?"

"He told me in my head that I should probably get something to eat. Suddenly at the mention of food I became very hungry, so I agreed. It's funny though, when I got to the kitchen, I wasn't hungry at all."

"Real funny," Gambit muttered quietly to himself.

"Ut- oh..." Betsy said rising from her seat.

"What?" a few of them asked.

"It's the professor! He's in trouble, but I can't get a read on where he is!" She replied slightly panicked. "He's making too many mirrors."

"What's a mirror?" Cecilia and Jubilee asked in unison.

"It's something on the Astral Plane. It's like walking into a fun house and finding a whole bunch of reflections of yourself. New telepaths tend to do that before they become used to their powers. It makes it nearly impossible to reach the person," Betsy replied. "I can't even tell if he's still in the Mansion."

"Remy?" Wolverine asked with a worried tone in his voice. "Can you--?"

"Non," Remy whispered squinting, and Wolverine wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or answering his question. "Too many echoes to fin' him exactly, but he's still in de mansion."

"Echoes?" Cecilia asked Betsy.

She shrugged. "If a telepath leaks too much power echoes appear where ever they were. Have you ever felt like you were being watched but there wasn't anyone there? It's like that." She looked at Remy. "Where do you see the echoes?"

"His study, an' 'is room, de kitchen, de War Room, de Danger room, de 'anger room and...right in here. Dere's someone wit him too."

"I can sense them in the Hanger, Danger Room, kitchen, here, in his study, and his room as well. Concentrate there and try to locate him."

"Not de 'anger-- Dere's someone else wit' him."

"--And obviously not here, but--"

"--But it's too hard t' figure out any more." Ma'be it's jus' a double echo.

"Let's look at this logically. Why are we getting echoes in these places?"

"He was actually using his powers in his room--"

"--Which is why that one was so strong."

"Right."

"And the echo in the kitchen was probably from when he used them on Cecilia."

Gambit nodded in agreement as the rest of the X-Men waited helplessly for them to finish. "Dat leaves his study an' de Danger Room."

"He was in his study for a long time, that's probably why that echo is there."

"As well as the one in here."

"Which leaves the--"

"--Danger Room." Gambit said grabbing a deck of cards off the end table and jumping to his feet, pulling his stitches in the process, "Merde..." he hissed, putting a hand to his side.

Marrow put a hand to his elbow. "I'll stay with him. Go!"

Betsy opened a portal to the Danger Room and quickly sent a message to Warren. Stay with them, Luv. I don't trust her.

Warren nodded and went to Gambit and Marrow as the others went through the portal.

Gambit sat back on the love seat for a moment then jumped back up with a horrid look of minced fear and pain as he wrenched his stitches again, "Wait!" He yelled, but was too late.

"What is it?" Warren asked, as Gambit started running to the door.

"He's not in de Danger Room."

"What?" Sarah and Warren exclaimed in unison as they took off after Remy.

"How do you know?" Warren asked when he got up beside him.

"De other echo. It wasn' Xavier," He told him then turned his attention away. "C'rebro, Sinister's in de Mansion."

"Sinister?"

"Oui. C'rebro? Merde. Dat means it's just gonna be us."

Marrow replied to him forcefully. "Good. I wanted another shot at him."

"Are you serious?!? He cleaned our clocks last time! We need the oth--"

"We need t' get t' him. He's got Xavier in his room, which means he was looking for me. Xavier musta known I wasn' in dere an' tol' him I was so dat we would notice 'im 'portin' in. But he decided t' take Xavier with 'im to cover 'is tracks."

"So Xavier was stalling to try to let us help you."

"I t'ink so." He replied as they ran up the stairs.

Marrow got to his room first flanked by Gambit and Angel. She was just about to burst in the door when the door burst into her. The three of them were sent flying backwards. Warren flew through the top of the banister and Marrow fell half way down the stairs before she managed to stop herself. Gambit hit the railing and stayed at the top.

"Tag," Sinister said coming towards him as he recovered. "You're it."

Gambit picked up a piece of the railing from behind his back and charged it. "Well den let me return de Favor!" He yelled throwing it at him.

Sinister ducked under the glowing piece of wood then turned back to Gambit to gloat. Before he could say anything though, Marrow jumped at him and the two rolled back into Xaiver's room with Angel hot on their trail. When they stopped rolling Sinister threw Marrow across the room to the left, where he had an open portal, muttering "Genetic trash..."

As soon as Marrow was clear, Angel flew into Sinister's stomach and carried him upwards until he hit the ceiling, then he let him go, getting out of the way so that Sinister would fall to the ground.

From his position at the door, Gambit threw half a deck of cards at him before he had time to recover. "Get de Hell out!" He ordered as he leaned heavily against the door frame, and Angel landed by Marrow to help her up.

Sinister looked up at Gambit with pure anger burning in his eyes, eclipsed only by the hatred in Gambit's. "I have come here for a purpose and I will not leave until I accomplish that purpose."

Remy's attention was caught for a moment as Xavier let out a groan from the right side of the room. As soon as he turned his head Sinister raised his hands to him, making ready to fire.

"Remy!" The three other X-Men yelled in unison, as Marrow started in his direction, and Angel lunged for Sinister.

Remy's head snapped back to Sinister just in time and he fell backwards to the floor before the blast could hit him, while at the same time Angel pulled back so that the blast didn't even graze him.

Without even blinking at his miss Sinister turned his attention to Marrow and fired at her, sending her flying back yet again to the left side of the room. He then started towards her at a high speed. Warren, upon seeing this flew straight at Sinister once again. Not to be taken twice by the same attack, Sinister used his power and strength, and jumped at Angel, taking him out of the air. He stood looking at Marrow for a moment as she got up, all the while holding a struggling Warren in his arms. He looked back at Xavier for a moment then started towards the disorientated Marrow. She, in response, started backing up away from him.

"Marrow non!" Remy yelled in a futile attempt to warn her of the mistake she was about to make.

No sound was made as she hit the portal and fell back. The only noise in the room was of Warren's struggling, and the other X-Men arriving behind Gambit.

Sinister turned at their arrival, still holding Angel in a choke hold. Ignoring them, he inched backwards as he spoke, "They are not what I came here for Remy, but I will make use of their acquisition. I give you five minutes to follow me through the portal before I close it. Any of the other X-Men show up and I kill them on sight. I assure you if you don't come back to me, I will merely try again, and eventually I will succeed, even if it means killing off what is left of the X-Men."

Gambit stood up bravely with defiance written all over his face. He took a look at Xavier then at the portal, and finally at Wolverine. There was some emotion in his eyes and Logan wished he knew what it was, but before he could ask, Gambit took off at a dead heat, heading straight for the portal.

"Oh my--"

"Holy--!"

"Remy--!"

"NO!"

Without a sound the portal vanished behind their friend, as Gambit once again proved his loyalty to the X- Men. With that last look Logan knew what it was he had seen in his friend's eyes. It was faith. It was love and it was hope. Faith that they would stop Xavier. Love for his comrades, and above that, hope that he would, by doing this, be able to protect them from having to face Sinister again.

TBC...

"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly." Fredric William