Chapter 125: Despair

28th February 2006, New York City

(Nathaniel Essex POV)

Nathaniel Essex, also known as Mr. Sinister to most people, was a genius. He was considered a genius when he was born during the Victorian era, and he is still considered a genius today, to the people that actually know of his existence, few as they may be.

Fascinated by the sciences even when it wasn’t prevalent at the time, he chose to spend his life trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe using cold logic. After all, logic was the only constant in the world. This theory was of course destroyed the second that he laid his eyes on Rebecca Milbury. There was nothing logical about what he felt for her and he accepted that. He later married her and had a son, Adam. He was happy.

But that wasn’t to be; his son was dying and there was nothing he could do at the time to save him. He tried everything, talked to every expert, and when his science failed him, he started to research mysticism. This, led his to Egypt, home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world, where everything was shrouded in tales of gods and magic.

He had been pursuing a rumor about a shaman, capable of healing anyone from any illness, should you be able to pay for it. It ended up being a charlatan, of course, but Nathaniel was desperate and desperate men would do anything to achieve their goals. They also break when they don’t. It was weeks later that he received a letter from his wife telling him that their son had perished in his sleep.

Unable to accept it, the genius went to a bar and started drinking.

He woke up the next day, hungover, in the middle of the desert near a religious site called the valley of kings. Thinking that he must have done something stupid when he was under the influence, ignored the throbbing in his head and went back home to grieve with his wife.

Unfortunately, he still could not accept that his son was dead. He would have his son back even if he had to raise him from the dead. And so, the genius grew colder, as he dedicated himself to his research, focusing on Darwin’s theory of evolution. He always thought that his fellow scientists were cowards by shackling themselves with too many moral constraints. Even he himself had some morals, but not nearly enough to stop him from getting his son back.

It was then that the blackouts started. Nathaniel Essex, one of the most brilliant minds of his time, was waking up at strange places, that he knew he hadn’t slept there, he sometimes missed days at a time. It was maddening. At first, he thought that he might have been sleep walking but sleeping for days straight was impossible. The only possible explanation was that he developed some sort of secondary personality because of the trauma of losing his son. But the genius knew that this wasn’t it, whatever was doing this to him wasn’t a part of him and it scared him.

Nevertheless, Essex continued to pursue his study of the human body, and discovered how malleable human genetics actually were. Humans as a species tend to evolve, change, to survive. It was in a degree and speed that were unseen in any other species and as such, in extreme circumstances, humans started to develop abilities that were out of the ordinary.

He proved this by using a test subject that he found in the slums of London. Yes, it was unethical, monstrous even, but this was one step closer to actually save his son. Choosing to share his discoveries, he was laughed out of the university, and kicked out with the pretense that he had lost his mind when he lost his son. Funnily enough, when he tried to confront them later, not one of his former colleagues seemed to remember him working along side them. It was as if someone had erased his life. This was the moment that he knew that there was something to what he had discovered, that he wasn’t mad.

After his dismissal from the university, the young genius kept his experiments and tried to avoid thinking about the black outs for too much. He wanted to learn more about these humans with abilities, he wanted to explore what he called the ‘Essex Factor’. Hundreds died in his experiments, but Essex started to care less and less. What he was doing wasn’t just to help him bring back his son, but would help humanity advance centuries ahead of its time. What were the lives of a few homeless people compared to that?

Unfortunately, this wasn’t to be; his wife, started to get worried about his behavior, had sneaked into his laboratories and was utterly disgusted about what happened. She started to free all the captives and was caught by a returning Nathaniel.

However, just as their eyes met, Nathaniel blacked out once more and woke up with bodies all around and with his hand choking his darling Rebecca who had uttered the word ‘sinister’ with such hatred and sadness, that it shattered Nathaniel’s heart into pieces. She had died in his arms, by his own hand and it broke him.

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It was then that the second persona had revealed itself before him. It was some weird blue man, wearing some sort of metallic armor engraved with ancient Egyptian symbols. He called himself Apocalypse, the king of Egypt, and father to mutants, the people who had the potential to activate their Essex Factor. He said that he was able to sense him and his pain when he was in Egypt, that he chose him as his next horseman, to give him purpose after his son died. All he had to do was let him in.

And in his grief, Nathaniel almost did and he understood what was going to happen. The genius started to change, his body started to become paler, he felt stronger, faster, his considerable intellect grew even more. However, Apocalypse was not kind, he tried to take over the body of the genius, in an attempt to free his main body sleeping in his prison in Egypt.

He realized that this was the monster that had killed his wife, that turned him into a monster in her eyes, that turned him into the sinister being that he is now. And so, Nathaniel Essex fought back and repressed his possessor.

But the young genius was still terrified. This was but a fragment of a fragment of Apocalypse’s presence. That monster was far more powerful than he could possibly be. He could not be allowed to escape. And in the event that he does, Essex would need to be ready for him.

Apocalypse would only be free when Nathaniel would be ready for him. And then, the genius would have his revenge. However, he couldn’t keep call himself Nathaniel Essex anymore because Nathaniel Essex was the name of a human, and the genius was no longer one. He chose a new name, a name that represents what he’d become. What was it that his wife called him? Oh yes, Sinister.

And so, Nathaniel Essex died and Mr. Sinister was born. And that monster had only two goals in his life, to get his revenge on Apocalypse and to fully crack the human genetic code.

He actually succeeded in the latter, being able to clone any person, to give a person, super human abilities, he even gave himself a few, including shape shifting, telepathy and telekinesis.

However, his main goal, his revenge eluded him. He could still hear Apocalypse’s voice in the back of his head, whispering, telling him that he would never be free of him. The once Apocalypse returns, he would perish just like his wife and son have.

The genius lost any ambition of resurrecting his son. For the boy would only be met with a dead mother and a monster of a father. It was time to let the dead rest and focus on the future, mainly on the former kind of Egypt.

Sinister knew that he was nowhere near powerful enough to take on Apocalypse, a man that was so powerful that they considered him a god, and that he would most likely never would be. So, he needed a weapon, something powerful enough to defeat the most powerful mutant that ever lived. He needed a mutant that was even more powerful. But there was no such luck finding one, so Sinister devoted himself to create the ultimate mutant, humanity’s deterrent against things like Apocalypse.

It was in research of mutants that he discovered that the union between certain mutants resulted into the birth of another mutant far more powerful than both its parent. Mutants with powers dealing with energy release tended to amplify massively the powers of their children.

This was completely unforeseen phenomenon and it was proving to be a giant boon to the genetics genius. By using this property, he could slowly build two bloodlines, one with a powerful mutation and another with an extremely powerful energy mutation. And then when they’re both powerful enough, the union of their strongest members would end up resulting into the ultimate mutant. By his calculations, this mutant had to potential to surpass Apocalypse tenfold.

And finally, Sinister would have his revenge, and he would be free from Apocalypse, from the voice driving him slowly insane in his head. Truth be told, this was an agonizing existence and the only reason that Sinister hadn’t committed suicide was because he wanted his revenge. Perhaps after Apocalypse was dead, and the voice was gone, the he would be free to live once more. He could become Nathaniel Essex again. But this was just a dream, perhaps a foolish one, but it was the only thing he had left.

Out of the families he chose, only two had the potential he wanted, the Grey family that usually had telepathy and telekinesis, and the Summers family, that usually had energy emission mutations.

Of course, Sinister chose to repress their powers to avoid them getting any attention and slowly arranged their family tree. It only took a few telepathic compulsions to do it. It was ridiculously easy but needed a lot of attention in case something went wrong.

Everything went fine and it was a few years ago when he tested the next generation of Summers and Greys. And the results were spectacular, amazing even. Jean Grey exhibited the potential to be the most powerful telepath and telekinetic on the planet and Scott Summers was so powerful that once he unlocked his abilities, he would be unlikely be able to contain them.

And so, Sinister decided that it was time to create his weapon. He chose not to repress their powers and started to plan their union. Everything was going amazingly until the Summers family had almost ended when they were in a plane crash, only Scott Summers and his brother Alex surviving the crash by some miracle. It was almost an act of fate telling Sinister that he was on the way to victory.

Sinister tracked the two boys to an orphanage and started to work there as their friendly psychologist Nate. He chose Scott Summers to use in his plan, being the more powerful brother, so he arranged for Alex to get adopted in a very good family, so that he could mold Scott as he wanted and assure that the ultimate mutant was born. He erased their memories of either of then surviving the plane crash so that they wouldn’t keep looking for each other. After all, Alex Summers was his back up, in case Scott failed.

Sinister spent months molding Scott Summers into the ideal foot soldier, adding some sort of infatuation towards the image of Jean Grey, not that he knew about her in the first place. He would have like to go further but the young boy almost got adopted. He unfortunately had to arrange their deaths, which traumatized young Scott which prompted him to run away. Choosing to start the plan, he added a few compulsions in young Scott’s head during his escape, to go towards the Xavier institute where his future mate had moved to a couple of years before. And the rest, was history.