X-Men: Red
Part 1 of 4


Previously published as: Cable #27   "Days of Future Past no More"
by Chris Delaney 

The Characters in this story are the property of Marvel Comics.


This is the most universally hated story I have ever done.  Months later I
still saw comments complaining about it.  Nobody has ever liked anything
about it in all the time that I have had it on the net.  People criticize
it for Magneto recovering so soon (he was doing a Rachel Summers with his
power ala UXM #208-209), that dislike the characterization of Cable (yet
it is very consistant with his early appearances), I was blasted for the
Domino-Tyler connection (although I loved the dramatic effect it produces) 
and they dislike my tendency to have dramtic things happen.  Life happens.    

When this was published in X-writers, it was one issue before Cable died
-- the first big name victim of the Legacy virus.  

Please don't judge the rest of this arc by this story.  Even people who
like my stuff, hated this.  Unfortunately, the rest of this series will
make little sense without it.  :(

David R. Henry is a nod to a fave poster of mine over on RACMX (from the
days I had access to newsfeed).

Prologue 

	Graydon Creed surveyed the howling mob and  felt the screaming 
bloodlust of the assembly roar in his veins.  He felt uplifted with 
the glory of the moment; the ecstasy of their praise was even 
better than sex.  He grinned; his attempt to run for president was 
going better than he had ever imagined.  The poor fools, they 
wouldn't even notice that they had lost their freedom until they 
had handed it to him.  To Graydon Creed.  The son of the most 
savage mutant alive, he had been abandoned by his parents as 
powerless.  Fools!  They would see where real power lies!

	Behind him, Senator David R. Henry smiled as the hatred 
of the crowd fed him.  It had been only a couple of days since he 
had been beaten by Phoenix but he was already growing strong.  
How easily the humans hated he thought, how easily they could 
be prodded to hate even more.  Soon he would be back to full 
strength.  Then, when he was strong again, he would lead the new
Hellfire club against the crippled remains of the X-Men and put a stop to
Xavier once and for all.   


Main 

	What is it about this century that brings so many of the 
lost wanderers in time to it?  What do they seek here?  It began 
innocently enough, the coming of Kate Pryde into the past in a 
desperate attempt to change the future.  But they kept coming 
like locusts and now they may derail the train of all of history.  
Some, like Bishop, are truly men out of their own time; refugees 
from an alternate reality.  Others, like Nathan Summers, know 
things that they should not know!  Have seen too much of that 
which should remain hidden.

	Child of my greatest ideological foe, you sought to rend 
time asunder and make your father's dream a reality; instead you 
got a nightmare.  A world of slaughter where even I was driven 
insane by the temporal flux.  I cannot permit this and you will be 
the instrument of my undoing of the past and the future.  Scream 
Legion, and let your cries echoed helplessly throughout my 
domain.  For you will die that the future may live.




	Cable glanced warily around at the assembled crowd.  
Reverend Stryker was speaking of the trials and tribulations of 
his time in prison and his quest to purge the world of the godless, 
unclean mutants.  He was reminded of a catchy phrase he heard 
once "One dog howls and the pack starts baying, Blood for the 
Gods it's cheaper than praying".  It described what was going on 
here perfectly.  "Keep close," he muttered to Domino as he 
edged closer to the podium. Too long had he followed Xavier's 
way, was this the result?  He had come to the past to control the 
future; not to watch madmen destroy his own kind.

	For a few moments he hesitated.  His father wouldn't 
understand and neither would his step-mother Jean.  But his real 
mother Madelyne would have; she had the same reaction to the 
atrocities of Genosha; and he was as much his mother's son as his 
father's.  Domino had argued for this so persuasively.  No, it 
would be cowardly to back out at this point.  He reached under 
his coat and thumbed off the safety on his plasma pistol; checking 
the exits carefully.  

	Perfect, three shots would kill the three speakers on he 
podium.  Senator David R. Henry (he was the one who had 
convinced him to alter his plans at the last moment, from 
mayhem to murder. A deep feeling of unease and disquiet filled 
him when he even looked at the man, almost as if something evil 
and boated lay behind his eyes), Graydon Creed (the man who 
would be King) and Reverend Stryker (a bloody butcher who 
had once nearly killed both Xavier and Magneto).  He glanced at 
Domino; she was his back-up but seemed strangely distracted.

	He dismissed his doubts and angled for the best shot.  
The hatred in the room wasn't normal in the least.  He had come 
here to break up a gathering of bigots and found a source of evil 
as vile as he had ever seen.  Only in the death camps of the future 
had he felt such a psychic residue of fear and hatred and pure 
evil.  This had to be stopped and he would pay any price to do 
so.




	Tyler smiled as the report came in from his wife.  So, his 
so moral father had finally decided to show his true stripes.  
Tyler wasn't surprised; Cable had been a ruthless soldier in the 
future and had never hesitated to do what was necessary.  Never 
hesitated... 

	He bit back bitter tears as he remembered his own father 
gunning him down.  He had been captured by Stryfe and brain-
washed.  But inside his skull he had been screaming for Cable to 
help him.  For Cable to do anything for him.  But Cable had 
betrayed his love and trust and had shot him like you would a 
rabid dog.  His own father...

	But weakness like that was past now.  He was strong.  
He was the heir of Apocalypse.  The fool had known Domino 
was married but had never ferreted out the details; that she had 
married an arm's dealer by the name of Tolliver.  That she had 
whored for her husband so he could wreak vengeance on the 
man he hated most in the universe.  It had been a plan long since 
hatched, he had programmed her with a sleeper personality to 
cover her true personality and then tortured the sleeper merci-
lessly.  All so that this could be done.  It was rare that he 
indulged himself in such long term planning but this was a case 
where it was going to pay off in spades.

	He gave Domino her instructions.


  Cable's POV

	I was ready.  Domino had suggested a last minute 
alteration in plans, I didn't really see the need as all it altered 
was the order in which I took out the targets, I ignored her 
suggestion; I could feel the evil that the Senator was emitting.  It 
filled the room.  If he was a psi, as I suspected, then he would 
know as soon as I fired that I was here and I stood no chance 
against him in psionic combat.  I wished I could telepathically 
contact Domino but the psionic static in the room was too 
immense to overcome.  I reached into my trenchcoat and pulled 
out the plasma pistol.  From the corner of my eye I could see 
security reacting as I fired.  Senator Henry's head blurred and for a
second I wasn't sure who I was firing at.  Then it exploded, 
spraying blood and brains over the podium.  I went for my 
second snap shot at Graydon Creed but something struck me in 
the back and my shot missed him and hit a body guard as well.  I 
kept firing, trying to spray the stage when I felt white hot agony 
strike me in the lower back.  I screamed, I just couldn't help 
myself, and fell.  My telepathic senses winked out but I could 
sense a distant scream of rage as something hideous faded from 
the room.  

	NO!  Not like this; what went wrong?  Where was 
Domino?  I tried to use my mutant abilities but something was 
blocking them.  Then I saw her kneeling down over me.  She 
whispered, "I can't believe how stupid you were Cable, to trust 
me in the least.  My husband, Tyler, sends his greetings.  I'll be 
going back to him now and frankly I can't wait, he's a much 
better lover than you, Sweetheart."  I try to grab her by the 
throat but she melts away into the crowd.  Then the security 
forces are there; clubbing me into submission.  At least I got the 
bastard, at least I got him.  

	They drag me out, bloody and battered, hurt as bad as I 
have ever been.  I can hear the yells of reporters as my identity is 
splashed all over the news.  Mutant terrorist maims Presidential 
Candidate (did I get Creed?) and kills Senator.  Links to the 
fringe group of mutant freedom fighters the X-Men.  Why did I 
ever trust her?




	Legion screams as he disintegrates into the time stream.  I 
laugh a loudly with primal joy as he finally dies only to be reborn 
and die again.  Then I see it.  A temporal traveller and I 
intercept.  She screams as her voyage to the future is abruptly 
ended. I look at her and smile.  Rachel Summers, nineteen years 
old and having just sacrificed herself to enable that impostor 
Britannic to thrive.  I guess there won't be a Mother Askani to 
challenge me in the distant future any more, it is a strange thing 
time travel.

	Silly fools, to challenge Apocalypse is to court death.  
But what is this; there is an anomaly in her genetic structure.  
She is not who she claims to be or at least not who she thinks is.  
Child of a destroyed future, I will give you a chance at making 
life out of death.  To earn a place in this reality in mortal combat. 

 
	For this I will need the man Cable.  




	Cable lay sprawled on the floor of his cell.  They had 
analysed him nearly to death and drawn all of the appropriate 
conclusions.  They had not been able to contact Charles Xavier 
for comment but a quick discussion with Hank McCoy had 
confirmed he was who they thought he was.  He didn't know 
what was worse: the beatings or when people he had known told 
him how he had broken faith with them.  They hadn't felt the evil, 
they hadn't felt the hatred.  They wouldn't understand what it was 
that he had done.  But he died inside every time he saw the 
disappointment in their eyes.

	He coughed a dry wracking cough and ignored the 
swellings that had begun on him.  It was legacy virus, his vestiges 
of telepathic talent that he could exercise through the power 
inhibitor had even told him when they had infected him with it.  
Less than 12 hours ago, when he had first come in, at the order 
of Agent Gyrich. They wanted to study it's effects on a mutant 
from beginning to end and it appeared he was their guinea pig. 

	He couldn't believe that yesterday he was with a woman 
who had loved him; betrayed him.  That only a few days ago he 
had felt so cocky after fooling Deadpool and had felt so 
invincible.  Now he was going to die a slow, painful death at the 
hands of sadists.  How quickly life could turn.




	The more I study her the more certain it becomes.  A 
scan of her memories, now while she is unconscious and cannot 
resist, tells of her psi-link to Wolverine that fateful night he 
almost killed her.  Other anomalies persist: the time Ahab turned 
Cyclops into a hound and he couldn't sense her; something that 
was impossible for they should have been genetically linked.  
Memories of her childhood; guilty glances of her mother to the 
berserker Wolverine.  The evidence was all there, confirmed by a 
genetic map.  Rachel Summers wasn't a Summers at all; she was 
the daughter of Phoenix and Wolverine!

	So, Sinister thinks Scott Summers is the key to the 
future.  His mating with Grey produced Cable.  My son's mating 
with her produced Rachel.  I will match the two of them together 
and we will see whose bloodline is more fit.




	Cable groaned.  They had taunted him with the know-
ledge that Rev. Stryker was coming by later today.  Cable tried 
to shut out the noise from the television set in the hallway; Rev. 
Stryker was giving a speech condemning mutant terrorism.  He 
had failed and there was nobody who would ever take him in.

	The news continued, telling the story of a doomed UN 
mission that had claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers and 
resulted in the deaths of many notable people; including Nick 
Fury, the mutant terrorist from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants 
Rogue (did they never forget, never forgive?) and the mutant 
overlord Magneto.  Who else was lost he wondered?  He had felt 
an echo like the death knell of one he knew but he couldn't place 
it; he was just too blasted weak.

	"Stab his eyes!" he cursed thinking of Tyler.  He had 
perverted a simple strike into a disaster.  But then that was his 
intention wasn't it.  He felt a tingle as a teleporter smashed 
through the shields of the holding cell and spirited him away to 
an unknown fate.  Truth was, he no longer cared what that fate 
was.  




	Apocalypse cursed his body as he forced himself to walk 
across the room.  His death at the hands of his son had weakened 
him greatly and he would be a long time recovering.  He stared at 
his two captives as they slowly woke up.  

	"Apocalypse!" Cable swore.

	"Indeed.  I am glad that you know me Nathan.  I have 
been waiting for this day for a long time."

	"I'll resist you to the end butcher.  The future is not 
immutable and you can be killed..."

	"Ah, but it is.  For I, Apocalypse, have made it so.  Look: 
see the last death throes of Legion; Xavier's bastard son as he 
spasms and dies.  Do you know what he is doing?  He is 
releasing all of his temporal energy to create a time storm."

	"You're mad Apocalypse.  The consequences..."

	"Do not concern me.  What is wrong Dayspring?  Do you 
not have the courage to face an unknown future?  For that is 
what I have done!  I have ensured that no matter what transpires 
we can only deal with it one day at a time.  That there will be no 
more jaunts into the future or the past.  We all stand equal once 
again."

	"But what about us?  If you have done what you say then 
why are we still around?" Rachel inquired.

	"You are anomalies and as such can be selectively 
eliminated."  He released them and they tumbled into an arena.  
"You are to fight to the death to determine who has the right to 
survive.  Who is strong enough to prove they are worthy to 
continue to exist?  Only one of you will walk from this pit... 
which one will it be!"

	"Sorry, kiddo!" Rachel snarled "We're X-Men!  We don't 
kill our own... ever!"

	Cable measured Rachel looking for a sign of weakness.  
Then he stopped himself, this sort of ruthlessness was what got 
him into this trouble in the first place.  "She's right, Apocalypse!  
We don't kill our own!"

	"I notice you had to hesitate, Cable.  To think about it.  
What does that say for your precious morality?"

	Rachel ignored the war of words and focused her 
concentration on her telepathy.  She no longer had access to the 
Phoenix Force but she was still terribly strong.  Her frantic 
message for help seemed doomed to failure; until she met the 
mind of a man who had never been a telepath until the Legacy 
virus had unleashed his potential.

	
  Magneto's POV

	I can feel her call for help, I can feel her calling to me and 
I ask myself why I should care that she is.  I feel the scars of 
Wolverine's claws on my chest and the ravages of the disease 
that wrack my body.  Shi'ar technology has repaired in hours what should
have taken days and I can use my power to overcome the rest of the
damage long enough for one mission -- if the greater problem afflicting
me permits me this grace. I look across the room to Jean's
body and Rogue's ravaged figure.  I am not strong enough for this.  I am 
too weak.  But there is nobody else.  And he won't be expecting 
me.  I summon my helm and step forth into battle.  I had thought 
I had found peace but the only peace I will ever find is that of the 
grave.




	The arena was filled with crackling energy bolts that fired 
across it at random.  Rachel had managed to deflect them up 
until now with her telekinetic ability but she was tiring rapidly.  
She whispered to Cable that help was on the way but he didn't 
believe.  Hope was something lost to him on the day he chose to 
cross the line one last time.  It had to be done he reminded 
himself thinking of the sick horror he had faced that day.  He had 
been as scared as he had ever been but he had faced his fear and 
overcome it.  But then everything had fallen apart and now he 
was going to die here at the feet of his greatest enemy.

	Apocalypse was laughing at the plight of the two 
refugees from the future as they foolishly aided each other.  
Didn't they realise that he was true to his word; only one would 
survive and Rachel was much stronger.  She would realise the 
true path, her blood would sing it to her, and she would kill 
Cable.  It was inevitable.

	Then the ceiling exploded and a figure in red armour tore 
into the room like a bat out of hell.  Impossible, Magneto was 
dead; he had died in the Savage Land.  Apocalypse cursed; he 
wasn't ready for this, still too weak.  He unleashed his wings and 
sprayed the room with spikes of death but Magneto deflected 
them with a magnetic shield.  Damn him, why didn't he say 
anything.  He fired a force bolt that would have shattered a 
building but Magneto turned it aside effortlessly.  The room itself 
began to attack him as everything metal came alive and gouged 
at him.  His attacker remain silent, eyes blazing with magnetic 
fire.  Apocalypse fled the room, there were resources elsewhere 
that would enable him to fight back.  Time was on his side, the 
future was bright for him for time was still on his side; he would 
triumph.  There would be another day and he would make 
Magneto pay for this humiliation.  Pay in blood.

	Magneto lowered himself into the shattered remains of 
the arena.  He looked at the two occupants clutching each other.  
"Come with me if you want to live," he said in a flat, emotionless 
voice.  And Cable saw hope once more.


Epilogue   Cable's POV

	I don't begrudge Ray her decision to stay on Asteroid M; 
Lord knows I would too if I could.  But I have responsibilities 
elsewhere; not the least of which is finding a cure for this damned 
plague.  I cough and feel guilty; I never liked to show weakness.

	We are even now, Magneto and I.  He tried to kill me 
once but he saved me and I figure that clears the slate.  He is a 
good man and I must admit; if there is a dream that most speaks 
to my own it is his.  Xavier never understood that the world is 
forged in blood and fire not in poetic ideals.  

	It is nice to know I have a home to return to and I will 
find access to the Shiar technology here a boon, especially the 
teleportation equipment.  But that is the least of what I have 
gained.  I have been through the fire of betrayal and I think, at 
last, I understand what drove both Stryfe and Tyler mad.  But at 
the end I saw a man who has never given up hope.  Who was still 
willing to carry on no matter what the cost was.  This man, who 
had all the reason in the world to give up or turn bitter, who 
risked his life to save us from a madman.  I realise that we fought 
the same foe on opposite sides of the world and we both paid 
great prices to overcome him.  With threats like that out there we 
cannot afford to be weak and divided.  A time of war has come.

	So I do something I never thought I would do.  I swear 
fealty to Magneto.  The fealty of an Askani Warrior is not given lightly
-- but if any of us is to survive we will have to learn to work together.   
I figure I'll look Blaquesmith up, the little runt was wiser than he knew.



Chris Delaney   Department of Mathematics- Lakehead University
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" - I. Asimov

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