Chapter 1
Nothing will ever be the same again.
So Nathan Summers mused as he sat up against the backseat of Dopinder's cab, staring out the window as the trees and brush blurred into a blur of green. Trees and wildlife, something that had been rendered completely fictional in his time, in the future. Whether he liked it or not, he was in foreign territory and clearly out of his depth.
Colossus had graciously offered a room for the time-traveler, and with no knowledge of this time, Cable had no choice but to accept. Domino had a place of her own and left promptly after seeing that everything was fixed, hotwiring a pick-up truck quickly.
Cable knew that he was taking a big risk; if his father discovered the truth behind his origins, he could be altering history. If this took every wrong turn, he might not exist. His jaw clenched as he thought of the possibilities. His head snapped up slightly as the tree line broke, displaying the School in its white-marbled glory. Too late to back out now...
"What's going on in that Terminator head of yours?"
Gritting his teeth and groaning under his breath, Nathan turned away from the window to stare directly ahead of him. In the passenger seat in front of him, Wilson had turned around so that he was staring back at Cable. At that precise moment, Nathan wanted nothing more than to telekinetically throw the idiot out the window, or at least clamp his lips shut. The telepath had even attempted to read his mind a while back when they had been on opposite sides of the battlefield, but the mind of the merc had proven to be a jumble of chaotic thoughts and things that made no sense. Just the thought of it gave him a headache...
"-earth to Cable!"
Nathan groaned. "Talk to someone else," he ground out through clenched teeth. "I've run out of patience to deal with you."
Wade whined pleadingly. "But Colossus won't talk to me at all! And I'm tired of listening to Dopinder's Tom Cruise analogies. It's kind of getting disturbing at this point," he stage-whispered.
Cable shut his eyes tightly and counted down in his head. You just saved this idiot's life. You can't kill him. "I'm not in the mood, Wilson."
Thankfully, Wade got the hint and pouted, spinning around in his seat to face forward as the taxi pulled up into the driveway before the front doors. Nathan took one last look out the shut window, looking up at the building. Steeling himself, he exited the car as Wade and Colossus had done already.
The double doors of the mansion slammed open, and a gruff-looking man stormed outside, beelining toward Deadpool. Cable stood where the taxi had once been seconds before, behind Colossus as he watched in amusement. The mutant had unleashed metal claws that were pointed directly at Wilson, who was slowly backing away with raised arms. "Whoa! Let's talk about this, Wolvie! Use your words to express your feelings..."
"You've got a lot of explaining to do, bub," the other growled menacingly before leaping at the loud-mouth merc, who yelped as he ran in the opposite direction. Cable quickly identified the mutant to be Wolverine, still standing away from the epicenter of this display of violence. Meanwhile, Wade was running circles around a perplexed Colossus with Logan in full-fledged pursuit, spitting curses all the while. Colossus shot Cable a look of desperation, and Nathan sighed, taking one step forward to help when the doors opened again.
"Logan, that's enough!"
All heads turned to face the head of the School, Charles Xavier, flanked on either side by none other than Scott Summers, Jean Grey, and Ororo Munroe. Cable's shoulders tensed at the sight of his father, but he schooled his face to betray no other emotion. Xavier turned his head to face Wolverine and Deadpool, both of them being held in the air by their collars by Colossus.
Wade started talking rapidly. "Really? Why did you decide to make your grand fucking appearance NOW? Where were you when I was in here the past few days? Why weren't you helping with the goddamned Juggernaut?! By the way, is it really the Patrick Stewart timeline that we're in? These are so confusing..."
Logan snarled. "Just let me shut him up, Tin Man. I'd be doing the world a fucking favor!"
Xavier held up a placating hand. "No, Logan. Wade is welcome here as a mutant. Piotr, could you please put them both down?" The metal mutant did as directed, and Logan glared at a seemingly oblivious Deadpool.
The telepath in the wheelchair smiled warmly at them all. "Yukio and Negasonic Teenage Warhead have returned and told me what happened with the Juggernaut. Why don't you all come in and fill me in on how this all happened?"
Nathan soon found himself in the large office of the founder of the School, leaning against a nearby wall as Wade sat down in one of the couches. Cyclops, Phoenix, and Storm stood near the Professor as Logan reclined near the door. Xavier turned to Cable, eyes curious. "Why don't you sit down, stranger? My name is Charles Xavier. I run this school, which you must know by now is a school for mutants."
Cable reluctantly left his spot against the wall, passing by Wolverine who kept giving him shifty looks as he sat on the same long couch that Wade was reclining in, moving to the opposite end to put as much distance between himself and the red merc. "My name is Cable," he said shortly, clenching his metal hand tightly and then releasing it.
"What kind of name is 'Cable'?" Scott sounded from behind the Professor, a suspicious tilt to his voice.
Nathan gritted his teeth as his cybernetic eye flashed in aggravation. "My name is of no concern to you," he said in a low voice. "I've traveled through time to come here. My family was killed by a mutant who called himself 'Firefist.' You know him as Russell. I came here to kill him and prevent the deaths of my family. Deadpool stood against me, and we teamed up to fight the Juggernaut. In the process, Deadpool prevented Russell from becoming a killer, and that was it."
Ororo frowned slightly. "Why didn't you just leave after it was finished?"
Deadpool piped up. "Well, the funny thing is, I actually almost died in the process of saving the kid, so the Terminator here used his second charge in his time-traveling device to rewind time and save my life! The second charge was supposed to get him back, but now he can't go back. Or is it forward?" the merc paused, tilting his head in thought.
From the door, Logan groaned. "Jesus, you mean that the fucker was dead and you brought him back? What the hell were you thinking?"
Nathan sighed. "I find myself pondering the same question as well."
As Wade shouted betrayal toward Logan and Nathan, Jean leaned closer to Xavier. "If he's not a mutant, he can't stay," she said under her breath.
Colossus stood up. "There is no need," he rumbled. "Cable is a mutant. He and Wade will stay here."
Logan jolted in response, walking forward. "Now wait a goddamn minute-"
"Is he a mutant, though?" Scott asked, fixing a scrutinizing look through his visor at Nathan, who met the gaze with one of his own. "The metal doesn't make him a mutant."
Feeling frustrated by the lack of progress being made in this conversation as the others continued to argue, Nathan looked to the mahogany desk in the room, fixating his gaze on a glass paperweight in the shape of a sitting cat. He stood up suddenly, his cybernetic eye glowing, and a blue aura encompassed the glass paperweight. The object levitated and flew towards Nathan's outstretched hand as he caught it effortlessly.
(And if it caused both Logan and Scott to jerk away from the path that it took as it was flying through the air, who was he to complain?)
"Look," Nathan started as he stood up, "I am a mutant who has been displaced through time. I won't be staying here long, trust me. I just need to find my footing in this time, and I'll be out of your hair."
Xavier stared at the glass paperweight that Nathan held in his hand for a second longer before he looked up with that warm smile. "Of course. Scott, could you please show Cable to his room? I trust that you already have a room, Wade Wilson."
Wade waved a hand in dismissal. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be leaving; I have a session with a bottle of lotion and Mr. Left Hand, so if you'll excuse me..."
The women in the room recoiled in disgust as the merc left the room, and Nathan shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger and thumb. Jesus Christ...
Scott cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So... I'll bring you to your room, then." Nathan nodded once, grabbing what little belongings he had packed in a duffel bag (mostly weapons and first-aid), following after his father into the hallways of the School.
Along the way to the dormitories, Scott made sure to point out certain places to the stranger, often turning to look behind him when Nathan did not utter a sound that confirmed his understanding. The only thing that was flowing through Nathan's head was images of the School as it was in the future; a desolate and abandoned wreckage that had only shown evidence of it being a single-story structure. He could still see the blackened skeletons lying in the rubble...
"-you alright?"
Nathan's head snapped toward the sound of the voice. Scott was staring at him through his optic visor, head tilted in concern. Cable nodded once to satiate the other's worries, looking forward after Scott had turned to resume the tour.
"So, what's the future like?"
Cable took a sharp intake of breath, shutting his eyes tight to shut out the visions swimming in his head. "Horrible," he replied. "It's an apocalyptic mess; people kill others for water and other essentials that you have at your easy disposal. Pollution runs rampant; there is no wildlife in existence. If you aren't fortunate enough to live in a city, you have to survive in the wastelands; long expanses of desert that used to be oceans."
Scott turned around again, and although Nathan couldn't see his eyes, he knew that the other mutant was skeptical of his statement. "Don't believe me?" he snapped, irritated by the blank look he was receiving.
"Yeah," Cyclops responded, stopping suddenly in an empty and abandoned corridor. "I'm supposed to believe that you came from the future? And that you came back to kill a kid? Sorry to say that I'm a little skeptical."
Nathan shrugged nonchalantly. "Believe what you want to believe. All I want is to get to my room and sleep. Think you could make that happen for me?" He checked Scott with his shoulder as he stalked past him, an angry cloud resting over his head. He wasn't sure what Scott had said rubbed him the wrong way, but he suspected that the thought that his own father didn't trust him was a little upsetting.
Scott took the lead again in silence, and eventually, the two came to a stop in front of a certain door. Scott pressed the key in Nathan's palm, gripping his hand tightly and forcing Nathan to look up at him. "I don't know what it is that you're doing here, but if you threaten anyone in this building, I'll be forced to react, and you won't like it. Understand?"
Nathan wrestled his hand away, gripping the key tightly. "Crystal," he said in a low voice. He watched as his father walked away, disappearing as he took a turn to the right. After making sure that Scott had left his view completely, Nathan turned to the door leading into his room, inserting the key as he walked inside, shutting and locking the door securely behind him.
The room itself was simple in layout; a single bed near a sliding door where the dim light of the sunset was trickling in. Opposite the bed was a dresser with a television on top of it. To the side of the dresser was a door leading into the bathroom, and closer to the entrance, a closet. Nathan threw his duffel into the closet, making a note to properly unpack his stuff in the morning. He knew that he needed more practical items now that he would be staying here indefinitely, and he sighed, dragging a hand down his face in exhaustion.
After cleaning himself up, Nathan dragged himself to the bed, reclining on it as he started to close his eyes, ready to drift off to sleep.
As a trained soldier in the future, Nathan had been taught to always remain on high alert when in foreign territory, and he cursed this teaching when he found that he was unable to doze off. He turned on his side, facing the glass sliding door with the curtains drawn shut. By now, the sun had disappeared entirely, which he uncovered after getting up to draw open the curtains, looking out into the backyard of the complex. Nathan breathed in deeply to relieve his body of the stress that had lingered since he stepped foot in the School, opening the door and stepping out onto the balcony.
Outside, the cold air of the night hit his face like someone had poured a bucket of icy water over his head. He welcomed the chill, breathing in the air, and watching his breath materialize as he exhaled. He gripped the railing of the balcony with both hands, staring up at the night sky. In the future, the sky had been red. Red from the clouds of extreme pollution that made it impossible to see into space. The air here was cleaner, and he continued to stare up at the night sky, drinking in the sight.
The sky was not black, but more of a dark, navy blue. White lights were speckled across this dark canvas, sparkling brightly in the night sky. Stars. Mother Askani said that they were stars.
Thinking of the Askani only brought him back to the memories he had of his life in the future, filling him with a pang of sadness and regret. Had he done the right thing, saving Wade's life and rendering himself unable to return to his family? He was an alien in a foreign and strange land, and this only added loneliness to the emotions he was feeling.
Nathan turned away, leaving the balcony and returning to his room, shutting the glass door behind him. He removed his shirt, throwing it on the dresser as he lay down on the bed again, intending to try and sleep once more.
As he was starting to feel drowsy, Nathan picked up on the sounds of hushed whispers outside his door. Sitting upright once again, he frowned and tensed up, retrieving the handgun in his bedside drawer. With his weapon secured, Nathan slowly and quietly rose from the bed, making his way across the room to the door where he could hear the quiet conversation. He held the gun in his dominant hand, gripping the door handle tightly with the other hand. He turned the doorknob slowly, throwing the door open with a resounding bang, leveling the gun at the possible attackers.
Three kids froze in shock as they all looked at Nathan and then at the gun that was being leveled at them.
Shit.
Nathan holstered the gun with a heavy sigh, regretting his decision to get up. "What are you doing?" he asked gruffly. "I could hear you talking outside; it sends the wrong message to guys like me."
The only boy in the triad spoke up, placing his hands securely on the shoulders of one of the girls. "We heard about a new guy that Deadpool and Colossus brought in. We just got curious and wanted to find out more."
"We didn't mean any harm," the other girl to the side with a white streak in her hair quickly interjected.
Nathan sighed again, the stress leaving his body. They were only kids... "Well, here I am. Is your curiosity satiated?"
The shorter girl that the boy had his hands on nodded rapidly. "We're sorry for disturbing you. My name is Kitty. Kitty Pryde, or Shadowcat. This is Bobby Drake aka Iceman," she said, pointing out the boy, "and Anna Marie, but she prefers to be called Marie. Her alias is Rogue."
Nathan nodded tiredly. "I'm Cable."
The boy, Bobby, opened his eyes wide. "You're an X-Man?"
"No," Nathan quickly cut in before they got the wrong idea. "I'm just a mutant staying here until I can leave. I won't be staying around for long."
"Oh," Marie murmured dejectedly. Nathan gave them a confused look that Kitty picked up and clarified, "It's just that we don't get too many adult visitors. Or kids for that matter. There used to be more, before..." she drifted off, looking down at the ground awkwardly.
Nathan tilted his head, waiting for her to continue. "Before what?"
Bobby sighed, scratching the back of his head. "It's just that recently, kids have been disappearing from the school. It used to be just one or two at a time, but now five to seven kids are disappearing every night. Parents are afraid to send their kids here, and we've kind of been getting lonely."
Nathan leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms as he listened in with piqued interest. "You think that there's someone out there doing this?"
Marie pursed her lips. "Mutants are always being persecuted against. And the X-Mansion is a hotspot for mutant traffickers. I think that children are being abducted by these thugs."
"Why doesn't Xavier do anything?" Nathan asked, pressing for more information. Bobby sighed heavily, a frown forming on his face. "He can't pick up their locations with Cerebro," he replied sullenly. "He thinks that there's some sort of psionic barrier that's preventing him from finding the others."
Nathan frowned, deep in thought. Xavier and the others had not informed him of this. Surely this counted as something important to bring up to a future resident? Or maybe it's because they don't fully trust me.
"Go back to your rooms," Nathan finally said to the kids, who looked up to him in surprise. "If you wanna help, you can do it by being safe. The X-Men don't need the additional stress of more students getting kidnapped."
"That's the thing, though," Kitty said with a jolt of emotion. "Jubilee wouldn't have gone without a fight, and there was no sign of a struggle in her room. It was like she left on her own accord. We might be next; how do you expect us to sleep?"
Nathan threw his arms in the air, feeling extremely frustrated. "Well, what the hell do you want me to do?"
"We heard that you took down the Juggernaut," Bobby piped up. "If you took us to find the others-"
Nathan was quick to cut him off. "No. First of all, I was not alone in taking down the Juggernaut, and besides, that was Colossus who did the heavy lifting. Second, I am not taking kids out on a suicide run with nowhere to go."
Rogue turned away. "I told you," she muttered to her friends. "Let's just go."
Something in her voice rubbed Nathan the wrong way, and he was quick to understand why. "You're going to go anyway," he said slowly, "whether I go with you or not."
Bobby shrugged. "It would be nice to have an adult with us, but we can't just sit here like waiting ducks and do nothing."
Nathan groaned. "You know, I could just tell Xavier and the X-Men about what you are planning to do."
Kitty smirked. "They're in Genosha, talking to Magneto. Apparently, he's had some disappearing mutants as well. They're calling a truce."
Nathan sighed, looking at the three kids' expressions. They were determined, yes, but also afraid. And he knew that he could not in his good conscience let them go alone...
"Stay here," he said reluctantly. "Let me pack, and I'll see you at the entrance."
The three scampered off excitedly, leaving Nathan to wonder what the hell he had agreed to. Goddamn it. He stormed inside his room, pulling his shirt back on and took his duffel, swinging it around his shoulder as he walked through the halls to catch up with the kids.
Along the way, he passed by Wade's room, and he paused in sudden thought. If the X-Men come back and see that three kids are gone as well as myself, they'll be quick to point fingers at me.
He knocked firmly on Wade's door, and the gesture was quickly answered when Deadpool swung it open, grinning openly at the sight. "Cablebear! What can I do for you on this beautiful night? Midnight stroll? Romantic candlelit dinner?"
Nathan struggled to keep his cool. "No - Wade, listen. I'm going with these kids to look for their friends. I need you here to hold down the fort and tell Xavier and the others when they get back that I did NOT kidnap them. Can you do that for me?"
Wade nodded rapidly. "No kidnapping. Got it."
Nathan nodded once, looking at Wade a little longer than he should have with narrowed eyes. I can only hope that he is able to relay the message...
He turned away, leaving Wade as he closed the door, making his way outside where the kids were waiting for him. "Whose car should we take?" Rogue asked, scanning the parking area.
Nathan shrugged, mind set. "Who's the least likely to get pissed off?"