Beginnings

"Nathan?" Professor called out softly.
"Anything?" Cable came instantly alert, angry with himself that he'd fallen asleep.
"Nothing on Roberto, Nathan. Just as there has been nothing in the last three weeks that we've been searching for him. You've been on watch for nearly fifty-eight hours, straight. I told you I could wake you the second I found a trace of the boy. You should rest." Professor tells him.
"If there's nothing to report and you want me to rest, why the flonq did you wake me?" Cable asks, going for a fresh cup of coffee.
"Sam has asked me to prep the PAC-RAT for take off. He and Tabitha are ready to leave. I knew you'd be angry if I didn't wake you." Professor replies.
"You figured right. Where are they now?" Cable asks.
"You should find them in the Hanger Bay by the time you arrive." Professor tells him.
"I'm on my way. If you..." Cable begins.
"If I find the slightest trace of Roberto or Locus I shall notify you immediately, Nathan." Professor tells him.
"See that you do." Cable says, as he heads towards the Hanger Bay.

Cable reaches the Hanger Bay before Sam and Tabitha and checks over the craft before they arrive, Sam loaded down with Tabitha's luggage.
"The ship's ready." Cable tells them.
"You wanna' fly us there, Cable?" Tabitha asks.
"Can't. Too much to do here. I set the auto-pilot return already. Let me give you a hand with that." Cable says, as he takes some of the luggage off Sam's hands.
"Thanks." Sam sighs in relief.
"Are you sure taking this vacation is the smartest thing to do right now, Sam?" Cable asks.
"Well, lessee, since my last break, we formed X-Force, I kinda' died, I came back t' life, you died, we got arrested, I ran the team, you came back, Illyana died, we fought Magneto, the Mutant Liberation Front came back, an' my old teammate Dani Moonstar may be one of 'em, my best friend Bobby disappeared fightin' 'em an' we ain't found hide nor hair of 'em since. So we don't know if he's still alive and well and here we are, now." Sam tells him.
"I guess you do need a vacation, at that." Cable says with a grin for the boy he loves as his own.
"Geez. It's only gonna' be for a coupla' weeks anyways, right? I mean get real here, how long do you think I could survive in Kentucky, you know?" Tabitha says, as she enters the PAC-RAT.
"Of course, it's not too late to ask her to stay, Sam." Cable tells him with a semi-straight face.
"Nah. Mama'll get a kick out of her." Sam replies.
"Sam, you've gone through a lot. Illyana was a friend and a teammate. Her loss will always hurt. And about Roberto, I just want you to know that we're not going to stop looking for him." Cable tells him.
"But it's a needle in a haystack, Sir, I know that. When he was teleported away with Locus during our fight with the MLF they coulda' gone just about near anywhere. From other dimensions to outer space. I just know in my gut that he's still alive, though. So if you find out anything, don't hesitate ta' call. I'll see ya' in a few weeks." Sam says.
"G'Journey, Sam." Cable replies.

Cable looks around, but sees on one about. Odd for their Camp Verde, Arizona, bunker headquarters to feel so empty. Ric and 'Star are off looking for supplies. Sunspot is missing. Feral defected to the MLF. Sam and Boomer on vacation. Warpath and Siryn are in one of the bunkers. Not much of a 'Rebel Fighting Force' to choose from anymore. He wonders, and not for the first time, if he should ask Tempo to join them? She did help them against the MLF, but she seems so unsure of where her commitments lie. Cable wanders about the camp and spots Tempo. He heads towards her.
"Have you made any decisions yet, Tempo?" Cable asks, as he nears the girl sitting alone on a boulder in the camp.
"Decisions? About whether I'm going to stay here or not?" Tempo asks.
"You could try taking your costume off for a change, you know. I'm sure Siryn and Boomer wouldn't mind if you borrowed some of their..." Cable begins.
"Oh, and what's next? We have a slumber party? Watch 'Beavis and Butthead'?" Tempo asks bitterly.
"Actually, if I found out you wasted generator juice on 'Beavis and Butthead' I'd be forced to kill you." Cable tells her, trying to lighten her mood.
"It's not funny, Cable. I don't have a life anymore. None of you do either. Don't you ever ask yourselves why you choose to live this way?" Tempo asks, as she flies off out of sight.
"Only every day, Girl, only every day." Cable replies, after Tempo is long gone.

Suddenly the air is pierced by a sonic scream coming from one of the bunkers. Cable double-times it towards the source and nearly bumps into Theresa storming out.
"Theresa, was that a sonic scream? Is everything all right?" Cable asks.
"Fine." Theresa replies, with not even a glance his way.
"Should I call Ric on the car phone and tell him to add a few monitor screens to his shopping list?" Cable asks.
"Yep." Theresa replies, as she rounds the corner and out of sight.
Warpath comes, as usual, following in her footsteps.
"The advice I gave you, James. In regards to confronting Theresa bout her drinking and telling her how you really feel about her?" Cable asks.
"Was bad advice." James replies without missing a step.
Cable enters the Communications Bunker the pair of angry youths have just exited.
"It feels like it's falling apart. I can't let it, not when I'm so close to getting my life back on track again." Cable releases a deep breath it seems as if he's been holding for years. "Professor?" He finally asks.
"Yes, Nathan." Professor replies. "Raise Comm-Link Alpha-One." Cable says, just a bit too loudly, as if making a pronouncement of doom. "By what she's still letting come through our psi-link it'll probably be my doom." Cable thinks.
"The signal is going through now, Nathan." Professor tells him.
"Thanks." Cable replies.
"Nathan, what else is a neo-sentient, silicon-cycled, multi-giga-hertz mega-parallel processing entity for? The call is online." Professor says quickly, enjoying seeing Cable so nervous.
"You're making a bad habit of this." Are the first words out of her mouth, as her face lights up the large screen in front of him.
"Hi." Cable manages to get out.
"Nathan Summers, you...you...oh...What is it, Nate?" She asks sharply.
"I need you, Domino." Cable almost whispers it, knowing she doesn't need the words to know his heart anyway.
The seconds stretch by with no reply. "Just a stare that can see right through to my soul. Monitor screen and psi-link not-with-standing, she always could." Cable thinks.
Finally he adds, "Badly."
"By The Bright Lady! She's going to make me say please isn't she?" Cable thinks as even more seconds tick off.
"Okay, Nate. After everything you just went through, how could...I..I say no?" Dom's voice cracks, but she recovers quickly.
"By The Dream. She wasn't making me beg. This is as hard for her as it is for me." Cable immediately looks down at the console and pretends to adjust it so Dom will think he summed it up to a bad connection. This is what he tells himself at any rate. Surely it's not to hide the moisture gathering in his own eyes, but to keep from seeing it reflected in hers and knowing he caused her the pain that put it there.
"I'm in L.A. now...I'll be there in...a few hours." Dom says softer than he's ever heard her speak.
"Dom...I.." Nathan still can't look at her or he knows the dam will burst.
"I know, Nate...I know." Dom cuts the connection.

Nathan stands motionless for five and a half minutes after the connection has been broken before he speaks.
"What was it that Mother Askani' said of me? 'Telepathically I'm strong enough to sense a stray thought a continent away. Telekinetically I could extinguish a star with something less than a conscious effort.' It's all PIPE! I couldn't even tell I was making love to a stranger for a year!" Nathan turns to leave.
"Nathan you can't.." Professor begins.
"I'll be on the summit waiting for Dom. Keep monitoring for Bobby and alert me immediately if anything turns up." Nathan tells him, as he goes through the door.
"Yes, Nathan." Professor replies.

Cable has been gone from the room only seconds when suddenly a new presence appears, or had he been here all along.
The short mis-shapen figure nods his head and smiles with satisfaction.
"The Askani'Son has summoned her. All will be well, shortly." The gnomish figure says in an oddly alien sounding voice.
"Yes, but was it necessary to allow..." Professor begins yet another sentence only to be cut off.
"Yes. It was necessary. The boy had to be humbled. Above all else, with power such as his, he will need humility. Or else the day might come when he would not see the ants which we would be beneath his heel. What is...is. All will proceed as planned, now. The boy has many lessons yet to go, but for the rest he shan't be alone, if he remembers anything which I taught him. It is good." With this the small figure simply fades into and becomes one with the desert air.
"I hope you are right, Blaquesmith, I hope you are right." Professor says to the now empty room....or is it?

The sun is, now, hanging low in the late evening sky over Camp Verde. Cable sees the jeep coming two miles before it turns off the main highway and onto the dusty access road leading into the camp. He telepathically let's Dom know he is on the summit so she doesn't drive straight into the camp. He wants a chance to talk to her, away from the others first.
Cable's thoughts are interrupted, as Tempo flies up to join him on the summit overlooking the camp.
"You're leaving, aren't you?" Cable asks.
"Yeah. I can't live this life anymore. I want to go back to college, get a job, two point five kids. That's what I want. Is that too much to ask for people like us?" Tempo asks.
"Of course it's not, Tempo...and of course it is." Cable tells her.
"I know what I did was wrong, Cable. I've made my share of mistakes. I just want to thank you for not turning me over to the authorities." Tempo says.
"You're young, Girl, you can change. Good luck. If things don't work out, you know where to find us." Cable tells her.
Tempo flies off, and with her departure, comes an even more important arrival. And for Cable, the sight of her alone is reassurance enough that things will start falling back into place. Because when ever Domino is around, things have a habit of doing just that.
Dom stops the jeep within a foot of Nathan and kills the engine, slides the seat back, throws one shapely leg up to rest on the dash and turns to face him.
Cable has spent hours up here preparing for this meeting. It appears to him that she did likewise, she's much more composed then when they talked earlier over the comm-link.
"I'm glad you could come." Nathan tells her.
"Let me get this straight, you want me to hang out with you here, in these barracks?" Dom asks.
"You never were one for silk lace and soft carpeting." Nathan replies, with a grin that he reserves just for her.
"I'm starting to regret that, Nate. What do you expect out of me?" She asks.
"I expect you to be yourself. The kids need that. They need you." Nathan replies, still keeping the grin in place, though she hasn't responded to it.
"Oh, I get it. Isn't that rich? Be myself. How can I do that when the Domino all these kids knew was that scheming, metamorph, witch Vanessa Carslyle impersonating me?" Dom snaps back at him.
"And I've impersonated a heartless soldier, and Stryfe has impersonated me. Around here, we're used to that kind of thing." Nathan tells her.
"Y'know, I should have my head examined for even considering this, after what you did to me." Dom says.
"Dom, if I'd had any idea you were being held, don't you know I'd have moved heaven, earth and all seven hell's to free you?" Nathan asks.
"I know you, Nate. I know what you're capable of. How the hell could you not know she wasn't me?" Dom yells back at him.
Nathan took a deep breath and held it for a moment before answering her.
"I've been asking myself that very question, Dom. All I can tell you is that she had every memory, thought pattern and our link was there. How she did it I don't know, but it was there, Dom. I'll give you my memories of it, if you want." Nathan offers.
"Oh, no. I'm mad enough now. I sure don't want to know more." She tells him.
"By Askani's Tortured Soul, Dom, I swear to you, I never knew." Nathan says in a voice that Dom's never heard from him before.
"I've never heard you say that before. What's it mean?" She asks, this time in a much softer tone then she's used since she arrived.
"I guess it would translate best as by everything I hold holy, by everything that gives my life meaning." Nathan tells her.
For several seconds, all is silence, as Dom locks her eyes with his and Nathan tries his best to put all he feels for her into the look he gives her in return.
"Alright, Nate, alright. You can turn off those lost puppy eyes. I'll stay, but you'll have to move slow and easy with me for a while yet. Can you handle that." Dom asks.
"Whatever it takes, Dom, whatever it takes." Nathan tells her.
"What's the situation here?" Dom asks, trying to change the subject.
"Dom, I'm torn between what I thought my mission in life to be and what I've learned I must do in order to accomplish it. I've realized that after having been away from these kids for so long, my return hasn't gone as smoothly as I'd hoped it would. Just as I've found my direction in life, I've seen X-Force lose theirs. If I'm going to give these kids purpose and some kind of balance in their lives, I need to find my balance first. And that's what you've always given me, Dom. You're my anchor. When I was lost in a sea of self-doubt, pity, and anger you taught me how to laugh again. When my thoughts were all of death, you taught me how to live again. I need that now, Dom. I need you. These kids need you." Nathan tells her.
Dom is silent, once again, as the seconds tick away. Finally, very softly, she asks,
"Do you remember what I told you that time time you called me in Istanbul and said you could use my help?"
Nathan's heart swells fit to burst, as he realizes that she is really going to stay.
"I'll never forget, but I'd like to hear you say it again, none the less." Nathan tells her.
Dom steps out of the jeep, takes Nathan's hands in hers, looks up into his sparkling eyes and softly whispers,
"When and where, Big Guy, when and where."

8/25/98 More to come soon, True Believers, as Nathan, Dom, Cyclops, Phoenix, Professor X, Mr. Sinister, Stryfe and Tyler all come together in a little tale called "Sins of the Father"

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