Sins of the Father

In a hidden Citadel belonging to the international arms dealer known as Tolliver, better known to some as Tyler Dayspring, the Adam Unit known only as Zero, which had belonged to the Chaos Bringer Stryfe, turns to his new owner with a query.

EXPLANATION, PLEASE, REGARDING YOUR MILITANT ACTS OF CROSS-TEMPORAL SUBVERSIVENESS WHILE POSING AS A SIMPLE ARMS MERCHANT KNOWN AS TOLLIVER? HOW CAN ONE CLAIM TO BE DESIROUS OF NON-AGGRESSION, YET PARTICIPATE IN DEALINGS CONCERNING THE MACHINERIES OF WAR? FOR WHAT PURPOSE DID YOU DISAVOW YOURSELF OF YOUR ASSIGNMENT PROGRAMMING AND PURSUE THE CONTINUATION OF VIOLENCE WHICH SCARS THIS TEMPORAL ZONE?

I AM CROSS-INDEXING MY DATA FILES. YOU REFER TO NATHAN DAYSPRING ASKANI'SON. KNOWN IN THIS TIME ZONE AS CABLE, THE CROSS-TEMPORAL CHAOS BRINGER KNOWN AS STRYFE, THE MILITARY STRATEGIST OF THE CANAANITE ARMED FORCES NAMED GENERAL HAIGHT AND THE ASCENDED HIGH LORD KNOWN IN OUR TIME AS EN SABAH NUR, BUT HERE KNOWN AS APOCALYPSE.

THE EVENTS YOU REFER TO OCCURRED, OR RATHER, WILL OCCUR SOME TWO THOUSAND YEARS FROM NOW

BUT IN THIS INSTANCE, THE VIOLENCE WAS PERPETRATED FOR THE SALVATION OF ANOTHER. THIS UNIT HAS RECENTLY BEEN LED TO RECONSIDER IT'S PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS. BIOLOGICAL AND MECHANICAL WEAPONS OF WAR CAN INDEED BE USED FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES.

STRYFE HAD PLACED YOU IN A NEUROLOGICAL LINK TO THE CLAN CHOSEN MEMBER KNOWN AS DAWNSILK. CABLE KNEW THAT STRYFE HAD ALREADY DONE SYNAPTIC DAMAGE TO YOU AND IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS TROOP-MATE WHO HAD NOT YET BEEN BIOLOGICALLY TAMPERED WITH, HE WOULD BE FORCED TO SACRIFICE YOU. WHEN FACED WITH A NO-WIN SCENARIO, WHO CAN DETERMINE WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG?

YOU SEEK TO USE THE CHRONAL WATCHERS OF THE CLAN ASKANI' TO GAIN VENGEANCE ON CABLE AND STRYFE?

TO ENSURE THAT YOUR ACTIONS WILL NOT PROVE CONTRADICTORY TO MY PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS, I MUST REQUEST INFORMATION ON HOW TO PROCEED WITH THIS PLAN

In Salem Center, Westchester, New York, Cable and Domino stand over a grave. Cable knows her body was cremated. He knows she's not here. Not buried underneath the cold, cold ground. In his time, the dead are broken down and used for whatever cellular material could be drawn from them. No pomp, no ceremony, no grief.
"Nate, why are we here?" Dom asks softly.
"This grave is a monument to a woman who was my mother. She wasn't even a real person. Madelyne Pryor was a clone of the X-Man Jean Grey. She had a son by Scott Summers, me. Who was sent to the future and had a clone drawn from my DNA that would grow up to become the Chaos Bringer, Stryfe. Stryfe died by my hand while he was trying to kill our father. When you put it all together, exactly what is real and what isn't get's a little hazy, doesn't it? I needed to talk to you. I needed you to help me." Nathan tells her.
"Help with what, Nate?" Dom asks.
"With my head, Dom, with my heart. With what's going on inside of me. For the last few weeks, ever since I defeated an assassin named Sinsear, I've been screwed up. He was from my future, sent to this time to kill a previous assassin. Another refugee who made the time jump, who had rebelled against his programming." Nathan explained.
"Who was this assassin sent here to kill? Stryfe? He found out you already had done that and went after you instead?" Dom asks.
"Not quite, Dom. Sinsear came back in time to kill an old friend of the both of us. He came back to kill Tolliver." Nathan tells her.
"What? Wait a minute, after what Tolliver did to me, kidnapping me for a year and replacing me with that metamorph, Vanessa, just to get back at you, I couldn't care less who wanted him dead, believe me, but even so, why would an assassin from your future go after a two-bit arms dealer like Tolliver?" Dom asks.
"You know I killed Tolliver, Dom. You were there. I never even knew who he really was when I did it. The guilt of having done it once was hard enough, but..." Nathan's voice trails off into a hoarse whisper.
"Nate, stop talking in riddles. Who was Tolliver?" Dom asks.
"The truth the man keeps dancing around, my dear Domino, is that the mysterious, ever elusive Tolliver, it turns out, was none other than Cable's one and only son, a lad called Tyler." A voice straight out of a horror film says from behind them. They turn to find Mr. Sinister standing before them smiling.
"I've startled you. My apologies. I know of you both, especially Mr. Cable, but allow me to introduce myself. I am called Sinister and we have much to talk about. Now then, my good Nathan Dayspring, having unburdened yourself of that quite hefty weight, what say we talk of the many, many links between us. For without me, you would never have been. What say we chat about your Mother for a bit?" Sinister asks with the same evil grin still on his face.
"Not exactly sure, Dom. Sinister's a chess player, who uses mutants as his pieces." Cable explains.
"And life is the game board How poetic a description, Nathan. I do like it, really, but galling as it may be to admit, in this particular set, I am as much a pawn as any of you. And that is why we need each other." Sinister tells him.
"No way, Buddy! I've been around long enough to know who to trust and, Mister, I don't trust you." Dom says, drawing her plasma pistol and levelling it at Sinister's head.
"Put you silly toy away, Beatrice. For what little harm it would do me. I still find the presumptuousness of your threat very irritating." Sinister tells her, as he points at the gun and fires a blast of his own, which sends it flying away.
"Now then, shall we proceed?" Sinister asks.
"You mentioned my mother." Nathan says.
"Yes. Lovely girl, really. I made her everything she was, you know. I grew her in my cloning tanks, gave her a name. She was beautiful, Nathan. So close to the original, as to take one's breath away. I wanted her son for my own. To nurture, to cultivate, to possess. I wanted to see the child develop into what he was meant to be. A perfect blend of genelines and bloodties. A perfect melding of a powerful mutant heritage. The Savior, perhaps, of his people and, in turn, the b>Planet." Sinister explained.
"That's a bit of a load to put on one kid." Dom says.
"Proved by what Stryfe turned out to be." Nathan says, trying to mislead Sinister.
"Stryfe, you say? What has he to do with any of this? He was but a pale side-effect of my plan." Sinister tells him.
"What? Stryfe was Nathan Christopher Summers, son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor." Nathan lies hoping he can convince Sinister.
"Ah, Nathan, they have lied to you, haven't they?" Sinister asks.
"What are you saying, Sinister?" Nathan asks in reply.
"I have grown tired of trying to impart information on you Children of the Atom only to see my words get lost amidst a wash of ignorance. Now, you will sit still, while we have our discussion." Sinister tells them.
"Why are you even bothering with all this, Sinister? What's your angle?" Nathan asks.
"I have three things to say to you, Dayspring. One: There is a strong reason why you felt compelled to visit this gravesite tonight of all nights. The woman represented by this headstone was not a figurative mother to you, but your literal one. Two: The son is party to the sins of the father. This has been a self-evident truth to the Summers family line time and time again. Acknowledge this, Cable, and accept your Destiny." Sinister tells him.
"You said three things." Nathan says after Sinister is silent for a few seconds.
"Three: Do not think of time as your enemy, but rather think of yourself as it's master. Once, long, long ago, I had to make decisions similar to the ones you now must make. Do not lose yourself to the vagaries of time, of what may or may not be, what should or should not happen. Let the monster out now, Cable. Let him out willingly, and it will be the final step in losing him forever." Sinister tells him, as he reaches out and touches Nathan's head and releases a powerful pulse which knocks Nathan back ten feet, crashing into his mothers headstone.
"Nathan!" Dom screams and rushes to his side.
Sinister disappears in a blinding flash of light.
"Nate! What happened? What did he do to you?" Dom asks.
"He gave me my freedom, Domino. He gave me my life!" He tells her.
Domino's blood turns to ice in her veins. For it isn't Nathan's voice which tells her this, but Stryfe's. Before she can even fully comprehend what's happened, Stryfe downs her with a psi-bolt.
"I'll never understand exactly what it is he sees in you, you pathetic Genejoke." Stryfe says, standing over her unconscious body. He reaches up and rubs his chin. "Stab His Eyes! He shaved off the beard. No sense of style about you, Nathan. No sense of style at all." Stryfe says, as he walks off into the night in Nathan's body.

Some two thousand years in the future. The synthoid known only as Boak enters the chambers of the Mother Askani' herself, with a Sister of the Askani' Order following behind him.
"It is time. She has been properly prepared." Boak tells the Askani' Mother.
"Thank you, Boak. As always, your assistance has been immeasurable." Mother Askani' tells him and turns to the young girl. "May the strength of The Chosen flow through you. You must save the Chosen One's parents at all costs. They must be warned of the return of the Chaos Bringer and the danger he represents. G'Journey to you, My Child."
"Thank you, Bright Lady." The Askani' answers, bowing her head. The Mother Askani' reaches out her hand and touches the young Askani' and she is instantly transported back two thousand years to today, at he Westchester home of Charles Xavier.
The Askani' girl immediately runs for the door to the mansion, but is stopped short as a powerful wave of pure evil rips through the psionic plane shocking her for a moment. "No! I'm too late! He back already! By the Bright Lady, no! Now more than ever the parents of the Chosen need to be protected."
The Askani' youth resumes her run for the mansion door, but for the second time is stopped short, as a teleportational portal opens up in her path and Zero and Tyler step from it.
"Askani' help me! You?!" The Askani' girl exclaims.
"Good evening, Sister Askani'." Tyler replies.
"You are Tyler, Son of Dayspring. I know you from the rec-scans. Why are you here? Why do you have an Adam-Unit with you? You should not intrude in Askani' ritual. It is forbidden, Kinsman." She tells him.
"Old rituals, Askani', for old times. Like you, I'm here to prevent the disturbancess in this core-time node from propagating themselves, good Sister, and as for Zero, well, he's here, Kinswoman, to make sure you help me do that." Tyler tells her and then motions for Zero to subdue the girl.

YOUR CURRENT CORPOREAL STATUS, NEGLIGIBLE THOUGH IT IS, PLACES YOU WITHIN THE SPECTRUM UPON WHICH THIS UNIT CAN CONTROL ENERGY SIGNATURES. I MUST PREVENT YOU FROM ENGAGING IN VIOLENT ACTIVITIES.

The Askani' found herself in Tyler's citadel, imprisoned within bands of energy courtesy of Zero. Tyler goes to a display case and removes the spiked helmet of Stryfe, which he had retrieved from the moon, following the last battle between Stryfe and his father, Cable. Tyler raises the helmet to eye level and speaks to it, as if it were Stryfe himself.
"Such pain and anguish you brought to all our lives. So embittered and self-defeated, that you had to bring your own brand of misery to any and all who dared seek to live a useful, beneficial life. And now, even dead, you can't seem to keep yourself from getting involved in the affairs of all the merry timewalkers sharing space in the here and now. You've come back, haven't you, Stryfe? But now, with your own body lost, dissolved and cast out across the time stream, only your mind can continue to rain chaos down on all who've opposed you. There was only one way, Stryfe, for me to gain revenge on both you and my father and that was to see you both inhabit one body at the same time. And now, with the helpful machinations of Mr. Sinister, my goals can be accomplished. Quite simply, sweet justice and the opportunity for you both to meet your inevitable ends at my hands. There is much to do and yet little time to do it." With this Tyler turns to the Askani' and says, "Isn't that right, my unhappy guest? And isn't it ironic that you, a fellow traveller through the folds of time, are being kept captive by me, of all people, a member of the Sacred Family."
"Release me from this prison, Tyler Nathan'Son. You must be confused. For you jeopardize the lives of the Chosen's Parents. You jeopardize everything." Askani' replies.

THIS UNIT APOLOGIZES FOR THE INTERRUPTION IN YOUR PILGRIMAGE, ASKANI' BUT YOUR PRISON IS MERELY AN ENERGY MATRIX WAVELENGTH WHICH HAS BEEN SYNCHRONOUSLY ATTUNED TO YOUR OWN ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD. YOU ARE NOT FLESH AND BLOOD, AFTER ALL. IN THIS TIME, YOU ARE A BEING COMPOSED OF CORPOREAL ENERGY. CONTAINING YOU WAS A PRIORITY THIS UNIT COULD EASILY ACCOMPLISH WITH MY PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS.

YOU ARE SUBJECTING THE TIMECROSS DESIGNATE: ASKANI' TO UNDUE PAIN. IT WOULD BE IN YOUR OWN BEST INTERESTS TO CEASE SUCH ACTIVITIES

Domino awoke lying on the cold, wet ground of the cemetery. She knew what had happened through her link with Nathan. She had felt that link broken, as another mind took possession of Nathan's. Stryfe! Dom knew that this would be too much for X-Force to handle, so she makes immediately for Xavier's mansion to enlist the help of the X-Men and, Nate's wishes or not, tell them the truth while there was still time.
Dom uses the access codes Nathan has given her to gain entrance to the mansion. She can hear voices, Scott, Jean and Professor Xavier's, coming from the den. It sounds as if they are discussing Stryfe already. How could they know?
"I tried my best to save him. I did what I thought I had to do...and...Good Lord, he returned to us as Stryfe, a man twisted by hate. Can you give us any assurances that wouldn't happen again? Because I can't take it, Sir. I can't lose another child." Dom hears Scott saying.
"Scott, you never had the opportunity to properly raise you son, and that is a tragedy. Are we products of heredity or environment? In our case, we are most certainly products of both. Do either of you truly believe that Nathan Christipher would have turned out the way he did if both of you had spent your entire lives with him?" Charles asks.
"Xavier's right." Dom tells them, as she enters the den. "The baby wouldn't have grown up that way. He didn't. The real child of Summers and Madelyne Pryor, the real Nathan Christopher grew up to become the man you know as Cable!" Dom tells them, figuring she might as well get their full attention right of the bat.

Inside the sanctuary of Tyler, the rending of two people's souls continues. For by using Askani's future-cognitive memories in conjunction with his own image projecting abilities, the man named Tyler, for the first time in his crazed, battle-scarred life, can see and feel the actions and events which had led to his current state of madness. As he watches the images from what is to him a far distant past, Tyler thinks back on what Askani' said, how these revelations before him will make him or, conversely, break him. For a fleeting moment, he fears in his heart that he will be broken and he watches Scott Summers make the ultimate sacrifice and then behold what happened after the babe was sent into the future.
"Medical Alert! Node transmit concluded. Immediate attention is needed in the transmat pad! Contact Mother Askani' tell her the Chosen One has been successfully delivered from the womb of time." Boak orders and in moments Mother Askani' arrives.
"You have summoned me, Brother Boak?" Mother Askani' asks.
"I have, Mother, there is a problem. The Chosen One has a protective electromagnetic field enveloping him. It is rather remarkable. Apparently, the sentient remnants of a mechanical entity from his own time. It is the only thing keeping the child alive. The techno-virus he was infected with is rapidly killing him. His life signs are fading." Boak tells her.
"It is as I feared then, we arrived too late to prevent the catastrophe. We must prepare the cloning tanks." Mother Askani' orders.
"No, Mother. Never have I questioned you, but we do not clone each other. Eugenics is for En Sabah Nur, the son of the morning fire. If we follow that path, Mother Askani' then we are as guilty of forfeiting the value and meaning of life as Apocalypse is." Throeblood, father of Tetherblood, tells her.
"It was one of my novitiates who went back in time to save us. I tell you, her sacrifice shall not now end in failure. The child is the Chosen One and as such, he must live, Brother Throeblood." Mother Askani' tells him.
"You know many things, Bright Lady, to which we are not privy, but to countenance the duplication of a human being?" Throeblood says.
"Throeblood, my child, watch your tone and do not seek to question me, of all people, about that which has been and will yet be. Go now then, Boak, we have little time to waste. Clone the child. Give night a fighting chance for dawn. Give us all a Dayspring, so that tomorrow and yesterday will be a better place." Mother Askani' orders.

"So the baby was cloned!" Tyler shouts upon seeing this. "But the original, the one afflicted with the techno-virus, did not die, as was suspected."
"That is correct, Tyler, but the clone was healthier by far than it's cellular template. The scars of the techno-organic virus with which the original had been infected in this time node barely manifested themselves in the clone, but something did go amiss. For the clone which was created in the expectation of hope, became in time our greatest fear." Askani' tells him.
"Are you saying that that the clone, unscarred, unaffected by the ravages of the childhood disease, grew up to become the Chaos Bringer, Stryfe? My father, Cable, was the true son of Summers and Madelyne Pryor?" Tyler asks.
"That is correct, Nathan'Son." Askani' replies.

Streaking over southwest Texas, the X-Men's modified SR-70 Blackbird aircraft slides in low, under air traffic control radar screens, on their way towards Camp Verde and a meeting between their past, present and future.
"We will be there shortly, but I fear it may not be soon enough." Xavier says.
"I've tried reaching my mind out to his, Professor, but I don't feel anything. Just a void waiting for us." Jean tells him.
"Cable and Stryfe have always been difficult for our psionic abilities to read, Jean, but if our mysterious friend Domino's explanation of events is accurate, that would explain why you felt Stryfe's disturbance again earlier today. Though I still question why you feel that after his first assuming control of Cable's body, Stryfe would walk headlong into Cable's home, his base of operations." Xavier tells them.
"Think like a warrior instead of a social service worker, Xavier. Stryfe is back on earth with no weaponry, no means of transport. All he has going for him is Cable's body. Where else would he go to get what he wants other than Cable's base?" Dom asks in reply.
"If his control of Cable is absolute, how far are we willing to go to stop him?" Xavier asks.
"As far as we have to, I'm afraid. It's what Nate would want. We've reached the base. Land this bird here." Dom tells him.
"This is where Cable and X-Force live? Why would they choose to exist in such a...hovel?" Xavier asks.
"Maybe because a hovel is as good as Nathan ever got. What is it, Xavier, you've gone white as a sheet?" Dom asks.
"Good Lord! Psi-screams for help, but they're so weak. There are gravely injured people here. We must hurry!" Xavier tells them.

Later, in the Medi-Lab, Xavier explains Theresa and Rictor's condition.
"They both suffered some internal hemorrhaging from the sheer force of the hits. Rictor clearly sustained a plasma hit. Siryn seems to have suffered a classic psi-attack, but the medical equipment performed laser surgery on them." Charles tells them.
"Professor, Jean, Siryn's coming to now." Scott tells them.
"Theresa! Thank Heaven! For a moment, Child, you had us a little worried there." Charles tells her.
"Rictor is coming around as well, Professor." Scott tells him.
"Theresa, what happened?" Charles asks.
"It was Cable, Sir. He hit me with something so cold, so fast my brain felt like it was exploding. I can only imagine he shot Ric when Ric came to help. There was something odd about Cable, Sir. Something different." Theresa tells them.
"We suspect that he's being controlled by the mind of Stryfe, Siryn." Jean explains.
"The question is raised, however, can Cable, since his return from the incident on the moon, actually have been Stryfe all along?" Charles asks.
"No! That is'na possible, Sir. We would have known. Stryfe would never have been capable of the kindness that Cable has recently shown." Theresa tells them.
"I trust you judgment, of course, Theresa. It is simply that we must explore all the possibilities." Charles says.
"No, we don't. Not anymore. I just accessed Nathan's personal diary. It verifies that my suspicions and Siryn's trust are both dead on target." Dom says, as she motions for the others to follow her into the Monitor Room and replays Nathan's entry for his last will and testament for all to see.
"Hey, Dom. How goes it? If you're looking at this, that means I'm probably dead and all I can say is I hope I took some of the suckers with me. You know what I was just thinking? You never got to see me with the goatee. Stupid, huh? Don't know why I grew it. For the life of me, I can't remember. Like that time you got drunk and had an AK-47 tattooed on your..." Dom fast-forwards a bit past this entry. "...Anyway, for some reason, I keep thinking there's something about that goatee. It means something. I don't know what. Kinda weird, huh? for something as small as that to unnerve me, but after all the things I've been through in life, I know even the little things matter. Ciao, Dom, see you in the next lifetime."
Dom freezes the image of Nathan on the screen and turns to face the others. While Jean walks over to the screen and places her hand upon the image of Nathan, as if this might help her to reach him.
"Cable's concern suggests that Stryfe may have been in possession of Cable's body more than once. We must find him, Jean. Not just to save Cable, but to force Stryfe to tell us the cure behind his Legacy Virus." Charles tells her.
"I know, Sir. If only we could telepathically scan his, their, minds. It is so frustrating to know that a man who could be as close to my own flesh and blood as I am likely to ever find, is out there and I can't feel any of his whispered thoughts or feelings what so ever." Jean says softly.
"Jean, don't put yourself under so much pressure...Wait, what is happening to the equipment?" Charles asks, as everything in the room dims and a bright glow begins to form in the middle of the floor.
"Professor, stay back! Something is using the energy from the comm-systems array for a teleportation beam. It's emerging from a teleportation rift now." Scott tells them.

WEAPONS OF WAR MUST BE NEUTRALIZED. ARTIFACTS OF PEACE MUST BE PROMOTED.

THAT WAS CORRECT, SCOTT SUMMERS, BUT THIS UNIT WAS NOT FUNCTIONING TO THE FULLEST OF HIS CAPACITIES DURING THAT ASSOCIATION. MY PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS ARE NOW PROPERLY ENGAGED, BUT IN CONFLICT. THIS UNIT NEEDS TO REGAIN IT'S SYSTEM'S CONFIDENCE. WILL YOU, AS A PROVEN PROPONENT OF DESTINY, BE WILLING TO PUT AN END TO A WEAPON OF WAR AND DESTRUCTION, EVEN IF IT MEANS KILLING YOUR OWN SON?

Our Journey Continues With
There Shall Come A Day Spring

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