"Wh-what?" She sat up, "He's here? Like here here?!"

"He's locked up" Pietro assured, stepping forward and taking her hand, "He has a collar on and his powers are subdued and he can't hurt you. He'll never hurt you again, not so long as I'm here, okay?" he sighed, "but... we also don't know why he's here, or what he's up to this time and the cuckoos can't get anything from him, and the only person he'll agree to talk to... is you. Which you totally don't have to do at all, we just thought it should be up to you if you wanna face him or not"

Ciara thought about it in silence. After about a min or two she looked up, "...If I do this, will come with me?" She asked.

"Of course I will" Pietro nodded immediately, "you need me and I'm there"

---

A tall chair had been placed in the room where Sinister was now bond in place. The door opened, and in walked Ciara in the purple robes patients at the Helping Hand wore and a large button up sweater. Walking in behind her, was Pietro. Whose hand she was holding.

"You asked for me?" She said calmly, holding tightly to Pietro's hand.

As Ciara stepped into the room one thing was evident, Nate was not himself. His white skin had a glaze of sweat and his eyes looked weary and blood-shot. He was bound to a chair by metal that had no hinges or seams which likely meant that Magneto put him there himself. By the looks of things, he could barely move but he did lift his gaze to her as she spoke and a smile crossed the lips of the ten year old. "Ciara" he greeted, actually seeming to relax in her presence, "How are you?" he had to clear his throat but it didn't make the strain in his voice go away.

"Apparently better than you..." She looked a bit confused, "This is what you look like normally?"

He chuckled, "I assure you, I'm usually much more charming" he coughed a little to the side, "but apparently someone here hasn't figured out that this collar is ON TOO STRONG" he yelled at the mirror along the side of the room. He let out a deep breath and turned back to Ciara calmly, "either that, or they just don't care that their killing me slowly." he flexed his fingers, one of the few movements he was still able to do, "every cell in my body is burning, dying... I haven't felt this way in decades, it feels like death but I suspect it's only aging-which is a sort of dying" he paused, staring into her eyes for a moment as though searching for something, "are you enjoying as much as they are?"

Behind the glass, Scott looked at the others then back at the scene taking place.

Ciara turned her head toward the glass and then back at him, "Why would I take pleasure in someone else's pain? Though I suppose they only feel you're getting your just- desserts from all the lives you've taken, or tortured over the years..." She commented calmly.

She took a deep breath and let go of Pietro's hand and advanced forward.

The speaker flicked on and Scott's voice was heard in the room, "Ciara, don't you dare."

Ciara paused beside the encased Sinister, "You're killing him. If you don't let me turn it down, you're not better than he is." She said coldly toward the glass before turning the collar down just enough so that his healing ability would start working. Not full power but just enough to keep him stable.

She returned to Pietro's side, slipping her hand into his. "Better?"

Nate breathed in deeply with eyes closed, as though he had been holding his breath for awhile and now he was relishing what it felt to hold fresh air in his lungs again. When he opened his eyes they had turned from their natural soft brown to a dull red, "Much better" he replied with a smile, "I suppose it's time for me to explain... so go ahead and ask me those burning questions"

"You mean the questions everyone else wants answers to." She sat down on the chair, squeezing Pietro's hand lightly, "Why are you here?"

Pietro stood behind Ciara protectively.

Nate glanced between the two briefly before refocusing his attention solely on Ciara, "Here? In Genosha? That's a simple one, it's the only place that I'm safe."

"Explain. When I was... in your care we were anywhere BUT Genosha."

"From the time that we first met, I have never left Genosha" Nathan replied, "You, my dear, were with Mister Sinister, precisely the man that I need to avoid."

"You are Mister sinister" Pietro snapped, "The DNA matches, the collar fits-"

"I AM NATHANIEL ESSEX" Nate retorted curtly, his eyes burning in anger, "and why the hell do you think this collar is too strong for me? The self-proclaimed Mister Sinister is more powerful. When I arrived in Genosha I thought it was a blessing, a place to start new-until someone apparently recognized me as this 'sinister' and then I realized what a damned curse this world was." he blurted out, "And trust me, if I go back, I sure as hell would."

"... This world... are you trying to say you're not from this one?" She asked

"That is exactly what I am saying, thank you" Nathan replied, "I'm from an alternate reality, something I cannot prove because that reality no longer exists. This is why I needed to speak with you Ciara" he stared at her, "you're the only person in this world who has known me as well as my counter part here. You are my only proof that I am not the same monster."

It wasn't unheard of for alternate versions of people to enter their dimension and stay. But it was very rare. "If you're an alternate version of the Sinister in this reality, how do you know I could tell you apart from this reality's Sinister?... I'm sure Horatio could also tell you didn't belong here as well. And what happened to your dimension?"

"Because Ciara you know me" he insisted, "Nathan, Nate, I'm your friend. We went to movies, talked about science, theories, politics and some of the most ridiculous 'what-if' scenarios ever. We stayed up all night together to watch Olber's Comet pass through the sky, you've fallen asleep in my arms" he stopped for a second because for just that moment he had revealed just how desperate he was feeling-just how much he was clinging to her for safety and that was the last thing he wanted Scott to see. Nathan forced himself to relax in the chair again, he hadn't even realized his hands had clenched so he quickly loosened his grip and breathed, "I have no way to contact the Time Reaper and I somehow doubt he cares what happens to me" he added evenly, "as for my dimension... I have no idea. I was in the process of disposing of one of my failed inventions-I had been meaning to do so for some time but I hadn't gotten around to it. It was supposed to be a time vortex but when the world began to collapse around me it must have reacted to the temporal energy and turned on.
That comic book you found, the one that showed me stepping through a portal into Genosha? That was me entering you dimension for the first time. The portal fell apart behind me with the rest of my world."

Ciara thought what he was saying through.Horatio. Get here. Now....Please. "But it was THIS reality's Sinister I showed the comic book to... How did you know about it?"

"No, you showed it to me" Nathan replied, "Sinister hasn't been in Genosha, he hasn't needed to be. From the moment I stepped through the portal we were linked because of the gem in our foreheads" he explained, "It wasn't until this collar cut off the connection that I was finally able to remove both the gem and his control over me." Nate paused again for a moment, trying to figure out his next words carefully, "I did... in that sense, betray you. There were things I had to do, information I had to pass on-even that lab that I built. The worst part was that I did not understand just how different we were, I thought he and I were working together but it wasn't until he convinced me to continue his experiments here in Genosha, that I realized what I had gotten into and by then he had his hooks into me.
We share the same need... the same hunger for knowledge. I'm sorry to say that it is not something I have always been able to control. My mutant experiments were always meant to better mankind, to take the problems that mutants were having and fix them. However the longer this went on, through the decades my hunger grew and there were... casualties. I got carried away and I couldn't see the signs before it was too late. Just one more test, one more, one more..." his gaze had drifted, looking into the past as he spoke but now he refocused on ciara again, "Sinister's hunger is worse than my own. Where I still managed to draw the line, he ignored it completely. He wouldn't let the subjects go once they were better, he would just keep attacking them with one experiment after another until there was nothing left. It made him stronger than me, and so much more... Sinister."

Ciara rubbed her arm. "I see..." She stood up, "HORATIO! IF YOU DON'T SHOW UP RIGHT NOW, I'M NOT TALKING TO ANY OF YOUR VERSIONS AGAIN!" She boomed. She pointed at the window. "Dad, write it down in your notes."

"Ciara McCoy" Horatio, looking about 27 stated sternly from the side of the room, "I do not have time to come see you at your every whim."

Nathan couldn't help but stare, "... fascinating..."

"I know but I'm on the verge of losing it and you're the only one who can tell me if he isn't this reality's Sinister." She said, finally letting her emotions ring clear. She had been strong on the outside but she couldn't keep her cool anymore. Was this Sinister playing with her? Or was this really Nate?

Horatio paused, "... wait... what?" he turned to Nathan, suddenly appearing right in front of him. Horatio touched Nathan on the forehead, right in the little hole where his gem used to be.

"Hey-ow" Nathan jerked his head to the side, unable to really pull away, "FYI, that gem went in BEFORE I got my healing ability. It's sensitive."

"This is... wrong" Horatio looked confused and then it dawned on him, "That's why everything's changed... that's why it's so different... you were never there before" he turned to Ciara sharply, "He is not the Sinister from his dimension. I have to explore this-I'm sorry, I have to go" he disappeared instantly.

Ciara's shoulders relaxed and she turned to the glass, "Papa. Unbind him please."