Stunned, she followed him. Sinister took her to a room with some kind of...incubation tube table lying in it.

"Recognize this yet?" he said.

Memory rang in Emma's mind.... Voices...cold metal...

She gasped. "The.... It.... You..."

"Yes," Sinister said. "The X-men did do a lot of the work for us. Though without my gem of an assistant, we'd never have found all your pieces.... We teleported you here. Surprised?"

"No," Emma said. "Just horrified."

"Very droll, Miss Frost.... You should be thanking us. If we'd not stepped in, your mind would have been in a state of disrepair it would have taken months for you to crawl out of. If you did at all," Sinister said. "We saved you all that time and hassle."

"At what price?" Emma said. "You did it wrong...or you did that on purpose."

"Very clever, Miss Frost." Sinister showed no remorse, naturally.

"You...b-----d," Emma said. "Do you have any idea what you put me through? I've been dying."

"Yes," Sinister said. "I knew that would happen."

Emma fell silent. Really...what could you say to him? He had no pity or humanity in his soul.

Shine was right about it--evil people weren't moved by emotion.

Forcing herself to be more composed, she said coolly, "And you did it so sloppily anyway. How droll."

Well, that got more of a reaction.

"Listen, you fool," Sinister said, "healing you was a complicated matter. But I could have completed it, had it served my purpose. There was a very useful reason to leave you that way.... I knew if you broke down, you would never stop looking for the cause of it, until you came right back to us. After that failure of my weaker half's, Morph, and that little turncoat Mystique, and that World Hopping fool Likstar stole you out of our holding prison--and you were all right, it wasn't that important. We only kept you there because it was so obscure--I knew that it was only a matter of time. And you see, here you are. You couldn't have sat this out. It's not in your nature."

Emma felt sick.

"So you expected me to come back, but that doesn't really answer why you would bother fixing someone only part of the way," she said.

"Ah, well, for that, I wanted to show you this." Sinister gestured to a computer. "My clever device here...it receives transmissions from brain waves... Took a long time to perfect it. If I'd had it when Morph was brainwashed, I never would have been foiled. I call it my Failsafe."

Emma stared at it, not understanding for a moment, then suddenly she put a hand to her forehead.

"My mind..." she said. Hollowly.

"Well...sadly it's not quite that accurate," Sinister said. "I tried just detecting brainwaves all on their own, but it ended up picking up too many people's to be of any use, a real hassle, really. It was telepaths' problem all over again. And machines lack will power, as you know, to learn how to tune it out, so I modified it."

He picked up a small, bug-sized microchip and showed it to her. "This is just a sample. I began working on these years ago... Morph had one, before it was removed. But it was flawed. The control could still be fought... It was...a little too noisy."

Emma didn't understand that. But she had a bad feeling she was about to, and she wouldn't like it.

"Recently I finally figured it out, with a little help from a new friend of mine, Magneto," Sinister said. "Seems he helped build something similar...Cerebro. Maybe you've heard of it. The trick was to create something that my machine here could lock on, and would translate brainwaves to computer code. Sound complicated? It was...but we have finally succeeded."

Emma gasped. "So...the brainwashed telepaths...this is how you've been doing it... You put that in their heads."

"Very good," Sinister said. "Of course, telepaths have higher resistance to regular mental suggestions. But that's precisely where you came in. We found if we weaken a telepath physically first, and put them through an emotional experience of some nature (an old friend of mine was useful for that--you've probably never heard of him, Sauron...he's caged now--a little too jumpy around mutants to be free around here)...but anyway, with his help, we wore down their will, and at that moment, we found, inserting these chips would go unnoticed by them. And the chip would slowly begin to control their will..."

Emma covered her mouth. Sickened even more.

"As an added bonus," Sinister said, "all the info the telepath absorbs from the people around them gets sent directly to me. Allowing me, in a sense, to be everywhere almost as much as them. And that is where I really have to thank you, Miss Frost, for being so good at your job."

Emma stared at him.

"You're surprised?" Sinister said. "I'm sure you imagined you were useless this entire time...but, really, your condition was the perfect excuse to get you around the X-men. And knowing your character, it was easy to assume you'd find out all about what they knew... I hate to boast about myself, but you have to appreciate the genius of the whole plan. Them never suspecting that, the whole time, you were really working for us."

"I wasn't." Emma was faint with horror. "You...put something in my brain, that's all."

"Oh?" Sinister said. "I think you knew we were there. Deep down. You just didn't like to admit it. It was almost quaint, really...all that yelling at us to 'get out of your head.'"

Emma had the feeling that people do in war where the foe goes from being something vague and undefined to being something 5 feet in front of you, that you either have to dodge or kill at once...becomes real.

Or the feeling that you have when you discover the cause for a problem you assumed was your own, and instead find it was someone else deliberately sabotaging you the whole time.

Anger. Rage. Fear. Hatred...and that horrible, awful certainty.

"You..." she said, in a tone that had all those emotions in it at the same time.

"Yes...well, all of us," Sinister said. "But you can't expel a thing out of your mind when it's embedded in the very cells of it, can you? A nice try, Frost...perhaps if it was usual telepathy you might even have succeeded, even broken...but with this?" He eyed the chip. "Even you couldn't break it...and of course without your diamond form...you couldn't block it either. It was perfect. Quite the best spy I've ever had. Feel free to applaud."

Emma didn't move.

"You seem angry," Sinister said. "I would have thought you'd be impressed by our level of attention to detail. Setting up the trigger to be memory, so that any attempt to find us out would only torture you further. That was a brilliant stroke, wasn't it? And every time you tried, your mind would black out long enough to send us all the information we needed... You're so stubborn that you sent us an update almost every day for a while. I was irritated when your new friends began to talk you out of it, but since you had the audacity to come here and confront us to our face, it no longer matters."

Emma screamed and ran at him blindly--it was stupid, but she had no other reaction at such a moment.

Sinister caught her by the neck and chin with an ease that was not natural, and regarded her without the slightest sign of being ruffled by her outburst.

"And now that you're here, we'll extract every last bit of information you have on your team's plan to stop us," he said, deadly and cold. "And those fools who dream they could outwit us will see that we are always one step ahead. I'd say they've been apprehended even now... Oh, you'll love this--we're going to tear you all apart from inside... We could have just killed you ourselves...but I thought it was more poetic this way. After all, we remade the whole world, and what's that without remaking our enemies also? And you, fortunately, get to be part of that. Didn't we remake you? But, you're incomplete still. There's one final stage...and then you'll be perfect."

Emma struggled and said, with difficulty, "I think you waited a little long, didn't you? I'm useless to you now. I can't use my power enough to fight anyone."

"Have you not been listening to any of this?" Sinister said. "Who do you think fixed it that way? It was I...and I know how to undo it. In fact, Miss Frost...I daresay we can make you better than ever... I'd say we can make you even twice as strong as you were before, if you'll simply cooperate--then again, your compliance isn't really a factor. People don't know what's best for them. That's why I must show them."

"You monster." Emma struck to break free. "You are not making me into one of your puppets! Perhaps you took my power, but I never wanted to help you! And I won't help you!"

"My dear Miss Frost...you really won't get a choice," Sinister said. "And I assure you, you will want to help us. It's very easy to convince people of what's best for them, with the right argument."

He dropped her suddenly, and she hit the floor, gasping.

Sinister picked up the remote.

Emma, desperate, lunged for it, and he stepped back easily and pressed a button.

Searing pain flashed in her mind again...so bad she almost blacked out.

Then she went blank.

Sinister turned to his Failsafe and watched as it began to spit out coded messages.

"Well, if this isn't enough to defeat them, I trust we'll get the rest soon enough," he said. "It's just a matter of time, really, now."

He pressed a button, and some of his assistants came in.

"Put her into the Synergizer." He gestured at Emma, who was staring into space for the moment. "Before she snaps out of it. And bring the other. You know who I mean. If we're going to be ready for my old friends' arrival, we'll have to work quickly. And the other one is ready?"

"We think so," the assistants said. "One concern...not all of the X-men are not apprehended. Some are still in the basement of the other version of this lab."

"I've taken care of them. You just worry about the ones we have here," Sinister said. "And, in fact...it may be time to release a few more of my servants. Tell Apocalypse I'm going to initiate the Fail-safe Protocol."

"Yes, Lord Sinister."

[Who was shocked to hear the truth about Emma's experiences?

Would you believe me if I said I was planning it from way back when I first introduced her episodes of memory loss and PTSD? It's been months of getting here, but I did drop hints for anyone who was really paying attention.

Actually a lot of the upcoming chapters were planned for months. I guess I'm a patient person for pacing.]

* * *

https://youtu.be/hILaSh78yHQ

What had happened to Shine after she followed Apocalypse into her own portal?

Well, first of all--using a portal on him was not the wisest idea.

While she didn't sense any immediate hijacking of her power, the shock was jarring, and she hit the dirt painfully.

Of course, she'd not known where else to take him except outside the city, near the moat.

Apocalypse was already on his feet when she fell into view.

He raised his hand and blasted at her.

Some instinct or divine signal made Shine raise her sword before she even really had gotten her bearings, and deflected the blast anyway.

She slowly got to her feet, feeling a bit wobbly.

"You dare to abduct Apocalypse!" Apocalypse was mad.

"What? Did I scare you?" Shine's sass came out so naturally with this guy.

"I fear nothing," Apocalypse said.

"Then why do you fight me?" Shine asked.

"Fool." Apocalypse had always been one to monologue. Both him and Sinister. "I knew of your coming ages before you ever showed up. Rest assured, we have planned your destruction--"

"And yet I still caught you off guard." Shine didn't even let him finish.

"Stop interrupting me." Apocalypse said this in such an offended tone, like he expected she'd just automatically listen to him.

"Stop boring me." Shine was over it.

She held up her sword. "You know what? I'm so done with this."

"Listen, Ant--" Apocalypse began.

"No, you wait just a gosh-danged minute, Buster," Shine cut him off. "Before you tell me how feeble I am and how impressive you are, and all that crap, let me just explain something to you: I'm basically the Lord Frieza of heroes who fight people like you. This whole tyrant speech gets so unbelievably old. I already know--you have all the power, you're destined to rule, and anyone who gets in your way will be squashed like a bug or dirt or whatever your favorite insult of choice is."

She gestured around. "And I've been stuck in your hellish world for a whole day and a half, and I've seen enough of it to be tired, annoyed, and also a bit heartbroken. So the last thing I want to do is stand around and listen to another guy who thinks he's god just because he's got a few more tricks up his sleeve than the average super-powered person just trying to get by in the world. So, much as I'm sure you think all this is going to impress me, it's really not, and I really don't care. If I had any doubt about needing to stop you, bub, I wouldn't be here. As Logan would say. So...can you just....you know? Fight me or shut up?"

Apocalypse listened to this with the most obvious look of disbelief imaginable.

"What?" he said, like none of it had made sense.

"And what's more--" Shine was on a roll now. "--I've caught on to all this, the time travel and crap. You're trying to make up for the fact that you always lose. Every time. Which for a super-powered being is pretty pathetic. But not the first one I've met. You know, they're never as immortal as they think they are. Actually, I don't believe real immortality exists. Eternal Life, sure. Life that has no beginning and no end, really, it was always there. That's God--but just not being able to die? That's nothing special. And rarely permanent. Even God has died, \\--it just didn't stick."

"You little insect," Apocalypse said.

"And that's probably the 40th time I've heard that." Shine was not even faking this. She really was just done with him.

Maybe he could tell; he didn't seem to understand how she was being this cavalier.

"I don't need to convince you," Apocalypse decided. "I just need to kill you quickly."

"Yeah, well, after the way I just showed you up, killing me all the way out here, where no one can see, won't be that impressive," Shine said. "I mean, who's to say you killed me? Maybe I just got away...could pop back out somewhere else. But if you want to waste my time further, go right ahead."

She frowned at him. "I have time to kill, I suppose."

"Insolent, little--" Apocalypse began.

"And that's 112," Shine said. 

(She hadn't actually been counting, she was just trying to annoy him--and it was working.)

"All right, worm," Apocalypse said.

"Fifty," Shine said.

"Worldling." Apocalypse seemed to just want to use something she couldn't count.

Shine didn't say it, but she thought, Three.

"If you're so sure that killing you here will be a waste of my time--"

"My time," Shine corrected. "I daresay you have nothing better to do."

Apocalypse ignored that. "Perhaps I should return your impertinent gesture in kind, and change the field."

"I'm sorry?" Shine didn't like the sound of that.

Apocalypse held up a hand, and one of the Tears opened in the air around them.

Shine turned and held her sword out to it.

"Don't even think about it," she said.

The Tear pulled back from her, almost like an animal would, and seemed to whine.

"What is this?" Apocalypse said.

The Tear hissed.

"What do you mean you can't devour her? Do it!" Apocalypse said.

Another hiss that sounded like one of derision.

"Oh, is it telling you that I'm not someone you can just suck into all this?" Shine said casually. "Here's the thing, Mr. False God, I told you already, you mess with things that you don't understand, and you get both. Yeah, bad and the good. One could almost say that what you're trying to be, I already am. And not because I'm smarter or stronger than you, but because I was Chosen.... That's all this is about, really. And I don't know why it was me and why it wasn't anyone else--but I know what I'm supposed to do. People like you try to take it all for yourself, people like me try to give it all to set things right. One would say it would never end.... You fear that, don't you?"

Apocalypse turned to regard her coldly. "You know nothing, mortal."

"Who actually said I was mortal?" Shine's eyes flashed gold. "My kind has been compared to gods also, Apocalypse. Don't think it's so unusual.... Now we're not, at least not how you think of gods, but I suppose certain elements of divinity are passed to all of us, as part of this, and I, for one, don't have a problem with it, so long as I don't get a big head. But I don't have to think that highly of myself to know that what you are is far, far beneath me. What you grasp at always says the most about what you really are."

It would be safe to say no one had ever insulted Apocalypse like this in his entire life.

And given how old he was, that was something.

He was used to people saying they'd stop him, and failing, and getting mad at him for destroying their lives. Same old, same old, really.

And not everyone acted afraid of him.

Others begged for mercy.

But no one ever had stood there and looked at him like he was wasting space. Or claimed to be better than him based on some merit that made no sense. Chosen? Whatever that meant.

He'd normally have found it amusing, but Shine didn't look like she was kidding or hurling blind insults.

"Impossible," he said, as if he wished it, rather than believed it. "You are weak. But for that weapon of yours, you can barely stand."

"True enough," Shine said, not at all worried, it sounded like.

(This was not quite true, but her worry was not the sort Apocalypse could detect--it was too well hidden behind her belief in what she had to do.)

"Then you are putting on a show," Apocalypse said. "Even if my Doorway will not take you, you cannot hope to last against me."

"Do I really have to?" Shine said, so casually...it was kind of...unsettling.

"What do you mean?" Apocalypse said.

Shine looked around, and then she deliberately sat on a large rock and put her sword in her lap.

"What a joke," she snorted. "The great and mighty Apocalypse.... Turned out you're just what I thought you were. A coward."

"What?!" Apocalypse said.

"I'm not afraid of you," Shine said. "Why, you could blast me to bits right now, and I'd not be scared. I'll go to heaven, you know, and if there's a moment to look back, like some people think, I think I'll just turn and look down here at what killed me, and laugh."

A pause.

[You know...even to me that was kind of intimidating.]

"You would die like a rat," Apocalypse said.

"Yeah, well, Jesus died on a tree like a thief." Shine shrugged. "You think I really care that much? I mean, going out fighting for what's right is the best way to go. Unlike you, I don't fear death with the same passion and desperation. I don't want it to hurt, but I've looked this in the face enough times by now to figure, either I believe what I say I do, or I don't. And if someone like you could shake me, I'd be pretty pathetic, now wouldn't I? You brainwash people into obeying you because you have no better ideas. You will be one of the great jokes of all eternity, when we all stand around and laugh at those who opposed God."

"You little upstart!" Apocalypse snapped.

"Oh, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one," she said. "Don't believe me? I'll show you. Listen to this--" She put her hand up like she was reciting.

"'Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth (that's you, Apocalypse) set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us."

"'4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.'"

She stopped, smiling smugly.

"You dare to mock me?" Apocalypse said.

"Oh, what are you going to do, kill me?" Shine said. "Then you really won't be able to stop it. Besides, it's of little consequence now. You've pissed off God enough to make all this inevitable. Count your days--they will not be many. After all, man's life is but a vapor, even one who's lived a thousand years. The Bible says that's like a day to God. God is outside Time, you fool. Did you think you would strike at Him just by messing with it? More like striking at yourself. I hope I get to see it, but I don't really need to.... I think you need this more than I do."

She leaned on one hand. "Well...aren't you going to try to attack me?"

Apocalypse glared, and then he gave a roar of anger.

Stomping on the ground, he made it shaking so hard, it began to split.

Shine jumped off her rock and darted back, but it still tripped her up.

The earth slipped into the moat, and Shine tumbled with it, but she caught herself on the edge...dangling now.

Below, the reptilian abominations of Sinister's looked up at her like she was fresh meat.

Apocalypse came to look down over the edge.

"All that high talk, and you fall like everyone else," he said.

"'The righteous may fall 7 times, but he will surely rise again'," Shine said, gritting her teeth. "'But the wicked will be suddenly destroyed.'"

Apocalypse reached down and grabbed her by her hair, holding her aloft.

Shine screamed--because you can't not scream when someone does that--but it was less of fright than of just pain.

Not enough for Apocalypse, apparently.

"You will be shown the errors of your ways, Wordling," he said. "And you will be cut down."

The Tear reappeared, and Apocalypse stepped into it.

It tried to fight having Shine go in, still, and Shine felt like fire hit her body in waves like a microwave.

Apocalypse yanked her anyway.

The effort would kill her!

Shine somehow pulled her sword out and threw it into the Tear's opening.

Light and color flashed out of it so fast that she couldn't make it out, but then she was plunging forward.

* * *

Shine's head buzzed, and she unsteadily pushed herself up.

Her sword was stuck in the ground in front of her, like a cross, and at least it looked intact.

She felt ill...and sore all over...

But her idea to make a doorway within the doorway to smooth her way in seemed to have worked.... She wasn't in a coma...unless this was a messed up dream.

Apocalypse was lying several feet away.... Apparently that trip hadn't hit him so well either. No matter how powerful someone was, portals could still take it out of them.

All around the area--which was fuzzy and undefined, like a pocket dimension would be--there were panels.

They opened and closed in a chaotic sequence: now one looked out on a city, then it was a room, then it was a person.

Shine sat up more, though still shaky, and grabbed her sword handle.

Somehow that gave her enough energy to stand, and she peered in the panels.

To her shock, she saw the X-men...make their way along the Temple...

Then she saw the Arena...the fighting...

Time wasn't consistent in here, probably, because she could see the fights happening, just as they'd happened after she'd found Apocalypse...though not nearly enough time should have passed for that.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Apocalypse stood up now. "Being shown everything...being able to predict everyone...the power of moving outside of time."

"We're not outside of time," Shine said. "Not fully. We're just outside the flow of our times.... Anywhere there is change, there is time." She pointed at the panels. "And they are changing."

"Dispense with your clever analysis," Apocalypse said. "I know all about what you are.... We have been watching you for some time.... Had we deemed it wise, we'd have approached you to help us."

"I would have spat in your face," Shine said.

"So we gathered," Apocalypse said. "But you did help us in another way. Our informant within your ranks was able to give us much information on dimensions and worlds and time.... We have known of the so-called pitfalls of our plan for some time, and of all your plans of stopping it."

"That so?" Shine said. "I had wondered if you were watching us.... And this is how? But this is just images." She frowned. "You can't learn that much. There's more, isn't there?"

"Clever," Apocalypse said. "I'm not surprised you guessed it, however. A World Walker like yourself has seen more of human deception and frailty than anyone else, save for myself. We could be alike, if you had not chosen to blind yourself to it."

"I believe we're shown things for a reason," Shine said. "Not to take power...to help."

"And why should beings like us bother helping anyone?" Apocalypse said. "Even if you are no more than a human, still, you have the secrets of time and reality in the palm of your hand. There is no use in aiding these humans. They are small minded and afraid of the truth. They cut us down--because we surpass them."

"I suppose they do." Shine looked away from the panels. "I suppose everyone has wanted to do that. I have too. But I was changed...and having been changed, I see much clearer now than you ever have--the folly of promoting oneself in a world like this. You see it as a tool, something to be molded to fit your wishes. I see it as full of wonder. Each one I've been to had its secrets...but they were to be enjoyed, marveled at. I couldn't have put them there, any more than I could take them out...but you try to take them out. To remove all that might  do you good, really, as my teacher would put it. You eschew humanity, because you have contempt for the ordinary."

"And you don't?" Apocalypse said. "No one with your experience could not see how predictable humans are."

"Oh, I suppose," Shine said. "But we all are looking for the same things.... I think that is why we repeat ourselves so often. All on the same journey...some of us will never get there...but the steps to it are likely to be similar, from world to world. And those who stray away will take the same paths also. The devil never really changes. God never has either, but He's too vast to be predictable. Who can go to Him and say they know what He will do? Only those who know His promises--those are the only ways to predict God's actions.... I don't know how He will stop you, but I know He will. That's a promise. In the meantime...I have only to do what I can."

"And you can do nothing," Apocalypse said. "Perhaps you got in here, but my newfound ministers of judgment will not let you leave. Perhaps you were right--destroying you without anyone to know of it is useless...but there are still preparations to be made, and it now occurs to me that if I try to kill you, you may just slip away, as before. But trapped here, you cannot bother me. And you can have a front row seat to the destruction of your small, little team of reprobates who think they can defy me.... Count their hours, if you will, World Walker. They will not be many. Already some of them are at death's door.... Look."

He pointed.

Shine looked.

She saw in one panel...the Arena...and...Spray.

She gasped and covered her mouth.

Apocalypse laughed. "And so it goes, for all who defy us. The others will be next. And you still don't see the futility of defying me? It has been this way from the beginning."

Shine turned to him, eyes blazing.

"Do you think that changes my mind, you snake?" she said in a tone of pure hatred. "I can't even look at you as human, not after you've sold your soul so many times, for power. Sure, I detest you--in a sense--because of what you represent to me. The utter hubris of fallen humanity, the thing I fight all the time to try to prevent this hellscape of a world of yours from ever becoming real. And I intend to fight that fight if it's the last thing I do--and it well might be.... I am heartbroken about that girl, as with all my friends who you're tormenting at this time--but it will not change my mind. And giving someone like you the satisfaction of seeing me upset about it is the last thing I want to do. I will cry when I have my own time to do it. Not for you."

She was almost more angry than sad right now--she knew the patterns of evil too well from seeing them work to not see what this was.

Apocalypse, seeing she was not going to break down--which he'd have enjoyed, to wipe the smugness out of her demeanor--grew angry.

"Well, in that case, enjoy your tears in solitude," he said. "When I come back for you, it will be for you to witness the opening of a new era...but I will kill every single one of your followers first, or else enlighten them. And you can watch, and we'll see if you speak so high when you leave this place."

So saying, he walked into another doorway and vanished.

Shine sank to the floor.

She heard the hissing noises of the Tears, laughing at her.

She held up her sword and flashed it. "Don't push it," she warned. "I don't know what I can do here, but if you think my Father is going to allow you to tear one of His children to shreds, well...shall I remind you what happens at the end of the book?"

The hissing cut off sharply.

Shine put her head in her hands.

"God...I need you.... Where are you?" she said miserably. "I can't stay here.... Please, do not let this be it. Show me the way out of here."

https://youtu.be/3GxquKlUXiY