To Meet One's Destiny

He cannot sleep. Since returning to the Xavier Institute in Salem Center, New York, his temporary home, something has kept him awake. After what happened in Siberia he should be exhausted. But he cannot sleep.
At wit's end he has reached far into his past, and relearned something very personal, very special. He had almost forgotten long ago.
And for the first time in days, he begins to relax...

Her name is Ororo Munroe. She has been many things in her life, and orphaned thief in the streets of Cairo, worshipped as a Weather Goddess on the plains of Kenya. Of late she is a leader of that oftimes outlaw band of mutants known as the X-Men. She is the woman called Storm.
His name is Nathan Dayspring Summers. Like Storm, he has led many lives. A rebel fighter in a war-torn future, a soldier of fortune in the recent past. Currently, he is the leader of the team of mutants, young men and women with extraordinary powers, called X-Force. A warrior with an attitude also known as Cable.
Mostly, Cable is a private man and to many, that comes across as a man who keeps secrets...even from those who know him best.
Storm respects the right to privacy in anyone's life, but finding Cable in this position, using his telekinetic ability to levitate several feet off the ground, upsidedown is a bit unusual to say the least.
"Something I can help you with, Ororo?" Cable asks without turning at her silent approach.
"Cable, What are you doing?" Ororo bends over and asks softly.
"I think you would call it...meditating." Cable telekinetically spin in mid-air righting himself. "I find it very comforting." He telekinetically brings the Askani' medallion towards him and takes it into his huge hands. "It's...Askani' in origin. Part of what I learned as a child growing up in the future."
"'Askani'' that would be...your Religion?" Ororo asks.
"It's more of a...way of life, I guess." Cable explains. "A kind of thinking or philosophy."
"You are a most unusual man." Ororo smiles, warmly. "I would have thought you would be off target shooting in order to relax."
"I'm not just about guns and ammo, you know." Cable replies, as he lowers himself to the ground and stands, once again placing the medallion around his neck.
"So I am learning." Ororo's smile grow warmer. "I am...glad that you have chosen to move back to the mansion. It allows us to...talk."
"Talk." Cable repeats. "About...what?"
"Akkaba." Strom replies, and her smile vanishes.
It is only a name. But it's meaning overwhelms Cable with a wave of guilt and...shame.
"If I had known what we would've found there...if only we could have gotten there sooner." Cable says, softly. "I close my eyes and I can see what my son...what Tyler did to those people there. And he's still out there. Capable of even greater acts of...insanity."
"Why does it have to be like this?" Ororo asks. "Why does the pursuit of peace and harmony only seem to be achieved as a reaction to...death and destruction?"
"I wouldn't have taken you for a cynic, Ororo." Cable remarks.
"Normally, I am not. But I sense a darkness on the horizon...I know you are troubled, Nathan, what Tyler did was unspeakable."
"Then, that makes what I have to do all the more urgent." Cable tells her.
"Meaning?" Ororo asks.
"This came in the mail today." Cable says, producing a postcard and handing it to her. "It's odd enough that anyone knows I'm here. Odder still, it was addressed to 'Nathan Dayspring' not many people know me by that name."
"...By the Goddess..." Ororo whispers upon reading the card. "Have you shown this to anyone yet?"
"Well...I would have Domino, I guess. But she's...off somewhere." Cable replies.
It is a picture postcard of the Rocky Mountains, and on back, with letters torn from a magazine is spelled out, 'thinking of u hope u r thinking of me'
Then you must show it to Professor Xavier. Immediately!" Ororo tells him.

The Rockies. Unlike their pristine picture postcard look, they are a brutal and hard lot of mountains, that create a wall separating east from west in North America. The people who live here are mostly decent, God-Fearing folks. So, when talk of a serial killer, a wild, feral creature slaughtering men and women, came to light, it spread like wildfire.
She cannot sleep. Not until she learns the truth. Since she heard about these killings, it seemed somehow disturbingly familiar.
She hides in the shadows, as another hunting party passes by, thinking, "Seems my luck is holding out. The last thing I want to do is trip over that gang of trigger-happy nitwits. Give a few men some guns and some badges and eventually somebody'll wind up dead."
Her name is Domino. For a while now she has run with Cable. She is a superb athlete, a mutant with an uncanny ability to have things fall into place for her. Domino's intentions, her past, and for that matter, her full name, are known only to her. Like Cable, she is a private person, or is it that she has something to hide?
"Look at this mess!" Dom' curses, as she sees how the hunting party has nearly obliterated the trail she was following. "They'll be lucky if they can find their way home, much less 'a mutant bigfoot killer.' Listen to me, now I'm doing it. Gotta keep hoping I'm not going to find out, what I think I already know is true." Dom brushes away the trampled snow to reveal a huge, almost paw-like print. "I hate it when I'm right. Only one man would leave a footprint like that. And with his guerilla training, that hunting party has a better chance of catching a cold. Unless you know exactly where to look..."

The private study of Professor Charles Xavier, foremost authority on mutations and the founder of the X-Men.
"It is unsigned." Xavier remarks, upon reading the postcard. "Yet you seem fairly certain Tyler sent this to you."
"Yep." Cable replies quitely, leaning with both fists planted on the window sill. "I have a kind of...link when it comes to things involving Jenskot's son. What I don't know is why Tyler sent it...Is it to taunt me? Or is it a cry for help? If I could find him...maybe the nightmares would stop."
"Odd." Xavier remarks. "You referred to Tyler as 'Jenskot's son'..."
"I did?" Cable stiffens. "Well, Jenskot was his mother and...you know what I meant, Professor."
"Do I?" Xavier asks with a strange look in his eyes.
"Look, in my last...encounter with him, Tyler assumed a new name...Genesis." Cable, again, turns to face the darkness outside the window. "He believes he has the power now to assume Apocalypse's Mantle. I need to know, straight out, can you use your psionic powers to locate one man on a planet of three point five billion people? I've never fine tuned my power to be able to accomplish something like this."
"Again and again..." Xavier steeples his fingers before his face. "...your life and Apocalypse's are intertwined, past, present, future. Like a...film loop that plays over and over."
"And I'm more determined than ever to break that chain." Cable tells him. "Innocent people lost their lives, Professor. I have to stop him."
"I understand, Cable, but...for several weeks now, someone or something has been creating a psionic disturbance on the Astral Plane." Xavier explains. "Simply put, finding Tyler psychically seems extremely unlikely. Even in the best of times, a psi is not God. Perhaps with Caliban's mutant tracking methods we could begin a preliminary search?"
"No." Cable replies, softly, knowing the only person who can help him now. "This requires someone with greater expertise." After a moments silence, Cable asks, "Not to change the subject, but have you heard from Renee Majcomb, yet?"
"No, I haven't." Xavier replies, again with that strange, almost calculating, look in his eyes.
"Weird." Cable remarks. "She acted as if she were going to contact you right away. Doesn't that concern you, Xavier?"
"Everything concerns me, Nathan. Everything..." Xavier replies cryptically. And suddenly Cable feels a deep chill as the hairs on the nape of his neck stand on end.

Hours later. The Rockies. Dom' pulls her bike up to a lonely cabin.
"Been ridin' for hours. His place is far enough from where the killings took place, that he just might be innocent. How could so many years have slipped by since I first came to this house...since I first met him? Please, God, don't let him be home. Let him be in Europe. Or in Asia on a job." Dom' produces a lockpick and proceeds to pick the lock. "Gettin' through a high tech security gate is cake, compare to pickin' an eighty-year-old rusty deadbolt." Finally the lock tumbles. "Hello...?" Dom' calls out. "No answer. I don't know if that's good news or bad." Dom' thinks, as she steps into the living room of the cabin. "Oh, my...it's exactly how I remembered it. Funny, how some people never redecorate...never let go of the past...Look at this.." Dom' picks up a picture of herself, Cable and Grizzly taken on one of her first missions with the pack. "...How young we all were...we were gonna knock the world right on it's...Theodore, what could've happened to you?"

Baltimore, Maryland. A nearly abandoned shipyard...where a rusty Frigate that hardly seems seaworthy site. The least likely place you'd find the mysterious man named...Blaquesmith. And that's just how he likes it.

"Nathan." 'Smith greets him, without turning or rising from his workbench, where he is working on some gadget or another. "So good to see you. I was wondering when you'd be back."
"Just couldn't stay away." Cable smiles at the small dwarfish figures back. "How long have you known I was here?"
"The moment you stepped on board." 'Smith replies. "You should know my friend, the old ways are often the most reliable." 'Smith finally turns and hugs Nathan warmly.
"That so?" Cable asks, innocently. "Then how come you got broken into?"
"I'm working on that. I'm working on that." 'Smith replies testily.
"And..." Cable asks. "How goes the search?"
"It's taking a lot longer than I hoped." 'Smith replies, then states louder, "Computer: Access file number D478J."
"Not to be impatient--" Cable begins.
"You?" 'Smith asks smiling from ear to ear, as the computer brings up the enhanced image of the being who broke in on 'Smith earlier.
"--But we can't tell who it was any better than we could before." Cable continues. "What if he comes back? Listen, Blaquesmith, maybe you should come with me--"
"As I said," 'Smith interrupts. "Our elusive intruder was cloaked. Hey, I don't like anybody picking around in here any more than you do. Particularly when it involves you. I've taken extra security measures."
"Are you sure it's enough?" Cable asks with genuine concern. "You know I have the utmost respect for--"
"Nathan, yes!" 'Smith interrupts again. "How can you even ask such a question?"
"Because I know you." Cable replies, crossing his arms. "And I know how you can get...sidetracked. Just be careful." Cable's attention is drawn to another monitor in 'Smith's lab. "What do we have here? A map of Europe. Swiss Alps, Geneva, Paris...who are you tracking, Blaquesmith?"
*SNAP* 'Smith cuts the monitor off with his remote. "Nothing important. Always the curious one, aren't you? I assume you had a reason for this visit...or did you just drop by to inquire about my health?"
"I came here because I need someone I can trust." Cable tells him softly. "Despite what happened in the past, I do trust you."
"Ever the warrior, hmmm, Nathan?" 'Smith shakes his head sadly. "Is there that much that you were taught that you've forgotten?"
"Or maybe it was a responsibility I was never meant to have." Cable replies. "I didn't ask to be the so-called 'Chosen One.'"
"Then just keep on ignoring your destiny." 'Smith replies, turning away. "You've done a pretty good job of it already."
"Look," Cable reaches out and places a hand on 'Smith's shoulder. "I didn't come here to fight. We've had too much history between us to go over this again. I...I need help, Blaquesmith. I need you to help me find Tyler. He's been trying to contact me."
"Tyler..." 'Smith bows his head and sighs. "The burden you must bear."
"You of all people know the promise I made his mother...th...that day." Cable whispers.
"I was only making an observation." 'Smith tells him. "I know it sounds obvious, but have you been to his sanctuary? Where you and your parents fought him and the Chaos Bringer. I've been scanning it for months now. The computer has been registering activity."
"Thanks for the lead." Cable turns to leave. "Guess I don't have much choice then...Don't know what he wants, but I've got to check it out."
"Don't fool yourself, Nathan." 'Smith calls out to him. "Genesis is far more powerful than you imagine."
"How would he know that?" Cable wonders.

After Cable has left, 'Smith removes the Askani' medallion from around his neck and assumes the position of meditation, thinking, "I'm putting myself in real jeopardy by playing Nathan this way. And, unfortunately, it's far too early to tell him what I know."
Quietly, Blaquesmith begins the ritual. It is a melodic sound, the Askani' language, like none other heard on this planet...at least, in this era.
"�����" 'Smith intones, and suddenly he is alone no longer. A beautiful almost angelic female appears before him.

There are only a handful of being at any time, who are capable of making contact with her. Once she was simply known as Rachel Summers, the daughter of X-Men Scott Summers and Jean Grey in some other timeline. To save this planet, she traveled into the future and started a revolution that brought down the High Lord, Apocalypse. In that time yet to be, she was called The Mother Askani'. Priestess. Warrior. Leader. She was all this and more...a force of nature. And in her etherial presence, Blaquesmith trembles.
"I know you are troubled, Blaquesmith." Rachel telepathically soothes him, then adds, "But each of us must play their role with so much at stake...and you accepted your duties long, long ago."
"Yes..." Blaquesmith hesitates and bows his head before telepathically continuing. "What if that destiny demands...I put the Askani'Son's life in danger?"
Rachel's eyes seem to glisten as she telepathically answers, "His trials are not yet done. In truth, they are but beginning."
With this, Blaquesmith is once again alone. And he weeps, for what he knows awaits the one he loves as a son.

The cabin in the Rockies. Domino's hunt continues...
"Searched every room...except...the attic."
Domino has precious few memories from her childhood. There are days when she wonders the reasons for that. But, sometimes, in the middle of the night, she still remembers...a woman with chestnut hair singing her bedtime songs...and telling her as she drifted off: 'Sleep tight. Don't let the Bogeyman bite.' In her childish imagination, Domino believed that the Bogeyman lived upstairs...in the attic.
*KREEK* *KREEK* *KREEK*
Domino stiffens, upon hearing the sounds from above as she ascends the stairs. "Maybe it's just a couple of rats. Sure, it's rats....I hate rats." Domino throws open the entry to the attic and nearly faints dead away.
"...oh, God, no..."
Several bodies hang from the rafters in various states of decomposition. The smell is overpowering. She has experienced it on battlefields all across the globe. In villages with names she couldn't pronounce. Where there were no hospitals, no Doctors, no medical aid of any sort. A horrifying nightmare. That will only get worse.

GRRRRRR

At Tyler's sanctuary, Cable makes his way through the dark with a light in one hand and his plasma rifle in the other.
"Maybe he's not here after all."
The last time Cable was here, Tyler and the android Zero captured and tortured an Askani' woman in an effort to find the truth bout Cable and Tyler's origins. To all appearances, it seems that the place has gone untouched since then. And in an odd way, Cable is almost relieved.
"Something moved!" In an instant Cable's gun is locked on target. "A rat....I hate rats..."
Cable eventually reaches the center of the sanctuary. "TYLER! If you're here, show yourself!"
His voice is filled with bravado, but his heart is empty. For if he now, at last, has to face the boy he raised. The boy he loved. The boy who killed and took obscene pleasure in it...will he be able to do what he must?
Cable picks up movement and approaches, bathing in his light the form of a nude woman lying face down on the floor.
"What the--" And his blood freezes in his veins, as he recognizes the body before him.
"No...By The Bright Lady...it can't be..."
Cable, gently rolls her over. The young girl blinks at the bright light, and speaks, "�����"
He never thought he would see her alive again. To be able to hold her. To hear her voice...in the hellish future that Cable came from, she died in his arms. This woman, however is not dead. Somehow, she is alive. ALIVE! His heart screams with joy, as he ever so gently, takes her in his arms.
His wife.
"Aliya." He allows him self to speak her name.

Our Journey Continues With
Lost Souls

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