Endless. Weightlessness.

These are the things the man known as Nathan Dayspring feels as his body is contorted by the rippling waves of energy at the center of the gateway to Limbo. He's no stranger to these jarring feelings of forces beyond his control. Cable has felt this energy wash over him before, when he time-ripped two-thousand years into the past, our present. Suddenly, the sensation stops, and Nathan has something to hold onto.

He opens his eyes and sees that he is kneeling in a canyon. The rock is black. The dirt is pale brown. The sky is crimson. And the fire...oh Lord, the fire. It's everywhere. The demons are everywhere, too. They crawl in an inhuman fashion about the rock terrain. The fire sizzles their hides, but they do not scream.

Cable's telekinetic shield immediately surrounds him, protecting him from the heat and humidity. This was Hell. It didn't matter what people called it. Oblivion. Tartarus. Realm of the Damned. Limbo. They were all the same.

Apocalypse had used the M'Kraan Crystal to reshape the Earth, and used Nate Grey to open a tare in the fabric of reality, allowing demons to scour the world. En Sabah Nur then repressed everyone's memory of what the world used to be. That is, if they survived the culling. Cable's mind was able to see beyond Apocalypse's orchestrations - thanks to his innate ability to tap into the Fifth Dimension.

Nathan stands up, wiping the dust off his torn cloak. He flings his arms to his sides, causing the cloak to reveal his garments. Mostly weapons and battle gear were strapped to his body, over worn clothes. Homemade armor fit over his chest and abdomen snugly. His military boots were aged and falling apart, being held together with rolls of bandages. His techno-organic arm is left exposed, as it was taking on a spiky appearance. In a holster fastened to his right thigh was his psimatar hilt.

Nate never realized how important that weapon was until now. So far, it has been the most effective weapon in his arsenal. No need for rearming, compact and easy to use, a bayonet, spear, staff, and plasma gun all in one. That, and his energies almost share a mutual relationship. The psimatar is fueled by Cable's psionic power, and at the same time, the effect of using it is soothing on him.

He was led into the depths of Limbo on the whims of a vision. An elderly version of Gambit and someone who looked like Apocalypse, only younger. Same grayish skin, same muscular physique. There was something else, though. The teenager had rather noticeable red hair...

"Just like our mother," a voice says from above.

Cable looks up and sees a feminine figure, a fiery aura around her. Her hair was buzzed to half an inch. Scars filled her face. All around her were green-skinned monstrosities, all having multiple scars burned into their face, as well. Cable peers closer at the woman in the center, "Rachel...?"

The woman's face curls into a snarl, "I am the Hound Mother, trespasser. You are not welcome here in Belasco's Limbo."

"Rachel, it's me, Nathan! Your brother! Apocalypse has turned everything upside down! I need your help to find the Twelve! I--"

Cable is cut off mid-statement as the demonic Hounds tackle him at the bottom of the canyon.

"Kill him!" Rachel growls.

Cable's forehead is torn with a burning pain. Not the work of the Hounds, it was another vision. This new precognition peers into the future once more, Witness and the younger Apocalypse surrounded by demons. They had armor on and their skin was red, they weren't like these Hounds. They were true Limbo soldiers.

Wait...

There were others with them. Cable peers closer, and can make out eleven other silhouettes in the background. It was the Twelve. They were here in Limbo. Somehow, Apocalypse's child was aged to young adulthood from Limbo's strange flow of time. The question is, how was he brought here? How did Witness get here?

"I don't have the time for this!" Cable shouts as his left eye lights up, sending a telekinetic force through the Hounds, knocking them into the walls of the canyon. Cable reaches for his belt and pulls out two large futuristic guns. They click as tiny targeting computers whirl into place. Nathan opens fire, vaporizing the Hounds upon contact with the plasma blasts.

"ARGH!" Rachel howls, actually sounding like a wolf, "My babies! You killed my pups!"

"Rachel, Belasco's got you in his thrall!" Cable shouts telepathically. "You have to snap out of it, you're stronger than this! Fight him!"

"I...I...can't! The demon is too strong!" Rachel responds. "Who are you, anyway?"

Cable has had enough. He can't stand seeing the Mother Askani like this. Rachel didn't deserve this defacing of her life. He holds his hands together in front of him. He bows his head in concentration and suddenly opens his arms wide. Rachel is separated from the female demon inside of her.

"Wretched mortal!" the demoness growls. Rachel is dazed and confused by the exorcism. Cable closes his left eye as his techno-organic eye interfaces with the targeting system of his gun. The bullseye lights up between the creature's eyes. Cable pulls the trigger.

Rachel approaches Cable from behind, extremely grateful, "Thank you so much...I don't know what to say. Lord Apocalypse shunted many of us powerful mutants who wouldn't serve him through the Gateway of Hell."

Cable tosses Rachel one of his guns, "You have the power to do what I did, to pull the demons from their minds - if they're possessed, that is. Use the gun to put the creatures out of their misery."

"What will you do? There's only one way out of Limbo, and it's heavily guarded," Rachel explains.

"I'm not looking to escape just yet. I have twelve friends I need to rescue," Nathan explains.

"Let me help," Rachel pleads. "You...you still haven't told me who you are."

Cable frowns touching her cheek, "I'm your brother, Nathan. Do you remember?"

"Nathan...yes...but...it's so blurred...my memory. I know you're my brother, but I really don't remember spending time with you."

"Don't worry about that, we need to find the Twelve," Cable explains as he begins scaling the canyon wall.

"The Twelve?"

"The only mutants who can stop Apocalypse once and for all."

Rachel never thought she'd hear those words. However, somewhere, deep down, she knew Apocalypse wasn't as invincible as he put himself out to be. She looks down on the ground and sees a silvery medallion with a phoenix emblem on it.

"Nathan, I think you dropped something," Rachel calls out. She takes a closer look at the medallion and grasps it in her fist.

Cable grunts as he grips into the rock, looking down at Rachel with his Askani medallion in her hand. He smiles, "It's okay. You can hold onto it if you want." He continues to climb up the rocky terrain.

Rachel puts the medallion around her neck. She takes flight, meeting up with him, "I sense the psionic power within you, why don't you fly to the top?"

Cable has sweat pouring from his forehead. He responds between breaths, "I need to conserve energy...I don't want to reveal my strengths just yet, either."

"Here, I'll lift you," Rachel says as a yellowish aura surrounds Cable.

"Wait!" Cable shouts, but he and his sister were already at surface level.

"What's the matter?" Rachel asks.

Suddenly, hundreds of armored demons begin accumulating around Cable and Rachel. "I was trying to be stealthy," Cable mutters.

"I might not remember much, but I do know that isn't our style," Rachel says as her eyes light up and her hair begins to simulate flame. She pulls the trigger of the gun Cable gave her and begins pulverizing the demons through their armor.

Cable whips out his psimatar and extends it to full length. He generates a massive telekinetic bolt through the Askani weapon, knocking scores of the horde of demons. He takes a running start and flips in midair, at the same time, slicing a demon's hand off that was formerly carrying a sword. Nathan then backhands a warrior in the face with his techno-organic fist, adding an extra punch to the assault. Next, he performs a spinning roundhouse kick, knocking out three demons at once. He twirls his psimatar behind him and slices through five others.

As Nathan looks at his sister, the gun's charge has worn off, but she is still holding her own, using her telekinesis more casually than he ever could. She didn't have the techno-organic virus to worry about, nor the Fifth Dimension to increase her power to unpredictable levels. Rachel simply holds a majority of the demons in midair, promptly tearing their heads off with a mere thought. They seem to vaporize into flame.

Cable and Rachel bump into each other, back-to-back. The demons were still coming. Suddenly, there is a large boulder glowing with pinkish energy falling towards them. Cable opens a telepathic link, "Put up a shield on three. One. Two. THREE!"

The boulder hits the ground, and produces an explosion, amplified by the surrounding flames. The affect is devastating on the demons. An invisible sphere surrounds the two siblings, however, leaving them unscathed by the explosion. It was if the boulder was made into a bomb.

When the smoke clears, Rachel observes someone tumbling down a small plateau, followed by the demons that caused the poor soul to fall. "Look!"

Cable peers closely, with his eyes, and his telepathy, and realizes who has fallen...and who helped them wipe out a couple demons with the exploding rock. "Gambit? I guess he wouldn't serve Apocalypse?"

"I don't recognize him from the group of mutants that were sent here with me," Rachel explains.

"We should still help him...he's a friend," Cable says. His eye beams with yellow energy. He concentrates further as the energy turns to bright white. Team of six demons trailing Gambit are vaporized, molecule by molecule.

"Wow!" Rachel laughs with awe, "That was...amazing!"

Cable doesn't seem to be sharing his sister's excitement, "I was trying to fling them away, not disintegrate them."

"Oh," Rachel says. "We better check on that guy."

"Right," Cable says as they begin running over to Gambit, who is face-first on the ground, appearing to be breathing slowly.

Nate kneels on one knee as he slowly turns Gambit onto his back. He had a five minute shadow and his hair was a little more frizzily that normal. He still had a long, dark trench coat on.

"...dey...," Gambit appears to say.

"What?" Cable asks.

"...dey took the chil'...," Gambit says with labored breathing.

"What child?" Rachel whispers to Cable.

"I'm not sure," Cable responds. Wait, the visions. Witness and Apocalypse's son. Gambit must have brought the child here to Limbo. But how could the child have been born from Jean's womb in such a small period of time?

Cable gently grabs Gambit by the shoulders, "Where did they take him?"

Gambit points to a tall, spiky mountain in the distance, surrounded by hellfire. Cable glares into the distance, anticipating the next step of his destiny.

"That's Belasco's lair," Rachel says chillingly.

"Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six." -- Revelation 13:18

The Citadel
Giza

Holocaust rams his armored fist through a miniature statue of Charles Xavier's limp body with a bullet through his skull. It amused his father. The ageless tyrant arises from his throne, set thirty steps above the floor of the six-hundred and sixteenth level of the Citadel.

"What is it now, child?" Apocalypse asks, almost annoyed at Holocaust's immature outbursts.

The skull beneath the circular face plate seems to snarl, "I hate when you call me that!"

"I'm over five-thousand years old, Holocaust. Compared to me, everyone is a sperm and egg that do not even exist," Apocalypse bellows. "You should be honored I address you at all." He walks down the steps to face his son, "Why did you wreck my favorite trinket? It made me smile."

"I'm...having trouble agreeing with your methods, father," Holocaust says, looking wearily at Apocalypse. He steps backwards for a couple feet.

Apocalypse's eyes squint, with his mouth crooked open slightly, as if he were trying to solve a difficult enigma, "How so?" He smiles to further taunt Holocaust.

"The father of my native reality was never this--!" Holocaust shouts.

"The father of your reality was killed by Magneto," Apocalypse reminds, banging his chest, producing a clanging sound against the gold armor. "I have placed Magneto in a concentration camp with no powers, but all of his memories of Auschwitz. Fitting, yes? Your father couldn't hold a torch to ME!"

Holocaust scolds, "You allowed Cable to travel into Limbo and free the Twelve!"

"I do not recall the Twelve being set free," Apocalypse sighs. "Belasco's forces would overwhelm my eternal enemy."

"I don't understand why you left...your...my brother alive, either!" Holocaust shouts. "He was just a little over a year old a few weeks ago. Now, being in Limbo's erratic timestream, he's grown to maturity and has developed powers--"

"A year? Has it been that long...?" Apocalypse wonders.

"No," Holocaust informs arrogantly, "that thing's mitosis rate was faster than a mitochondria. Jean Grey gave birth to him before she and the rest of the Twelve were sentenced to eternity in Limbo!"

Apocalypse laughs as he walks up to sit on his shadowy throne. He stretches and puts his hands behind his head. "Oh, forgive me for wanting an heir. Why would my newborn son pose a threat to me if the other Twelve of Power were imprisoned in Limbo? After all, I needed a pure legacy."

Holocaust's armor brightens with energy has he becomes more agitated, "But...you still, I mean...that's...you....ARGH!"

Apocalypse grips his chin, "Still...I did not expect Witness to be a future version of Gambit from Limbo. He has appeared many times throughout the timestream in various eras. I assumed he was a time-lost soul like Dayspring. Instead, he tells the present version of himself to raise my son in Limbo...the jackal. I had no choice but to lock up my rightful heir with the rest of the Twelve, Witness included."

"You are irrational!" Holocaust shouts.

Apocalypse's eyes turn to bright red, "In my world, only the strong survive, Holocaust. Care to test yourself? Want to prove who is the bigger man?"

Holocaust reels his gauntlet back and lets forth multiple blasts of bio nuclear energy upon his father. A transparent yellow field of energy surrounds Apocalypse however, leaving him unharmed. The Four Horsemen seem to step out of the shadows to each side of Apocalypse's throne. Death had her green armor over her smooth, pale green skin. War had rusted armor over his red skin. Famine wore black armor over her light gray skin. And Pestilence's form was a techno-organic mass of ivory.

En Sabah Nur has seen many attempts on his life over the years. Everytime, it gets more and more hilarious. He can't help but laugh, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" He sighs, wiping away a tear, "I needed that, thank you. Really."

Holocaust growls, attempting to charge Apocalypse, but he is flung fifty feet into the stone wall on the opposite end of the room with a combined telekinetic shove from Death and War.

Apocalypse smiles as he observes the cracks in Holocaust's armor, "Freeing the Twelve is one of many challenges Cable must face, child, before he can lay a finger on me."

Holocaust's eyes roll back into his skull as he loses consciousness. He hears one last thing uttered by his father:

"As Cable and the Twelve challenge me, they must face my Horsemen as well..."

"I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades accompanied [her]. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and plague, and by means of beasts of the earth." -- Revelation 6:8

Limbo

The trio of Nathan and Rachel Summers, and Remy LeBeau have been climbing the mountain for what seems like hours now. They were all tired and needed a break. Only Nathan seemed to be unaffected by the lactic acid stinging his muscles. He had a motivation the others could not comprehend, only because their memories have been blocked.

Gambit holds his hands to his hips and arches his head back, gasping for air. It was a mixed blessing, since his bruised ribs stung each time he took a breath. He looks up, and can barely see the summit of the large spike of a mountain, "Air's gettin' thin."

Gambit begins to walk backwards slightly, until he loses his step and topples backwards over the ledge. Cable's eye lights up, intending to use his telekinesis, but he can't risk it, not with his lack of control. He holds out his metallic arm as a thick wire shoots out from his knuckles. The wire grabs onto the collar of Gambit's trench coat.

"Oh my God!" Rachel shouts. The fabric begins to tare under the pressure on the trench coat. Rachel telekinetically grabs hold of Gambit, "I've got him!"

"Good, get him up so we can--WHUMPH!" Cable grunts as he is flung backwards by a blast of fiery energy. Rachel is hit by a similar blast, leaving Gambit helpless to gravity.

"ARGH!" Gambit shouts as he immediately takes hold of a protruding rock about ten feet below the action on the cliff. He had to help Rachel and Cable. They helped him, he has to return the favor. While dangling for dear life by one arm, Gambit reaches into his coat and pulls out an old package of playing cards.

Gambit charges the rock with explosive energy as he skillfully uses all his strength to flip onto the rock, landing on it by his toes. He then jumps off of the rock by timing it right, as the resulting explosion propels him upward onto the cliff.

He flips out three cards from the pack and with a flick of his wrist, sends the objects flying into three demons that were about to scalp Rachel. Two overly muscular red demons are dragging Cable by his feet, preparing to throw him over the edge. Gambit picks up some gravel on the ground and throws it at the demons.

The results are minimal, but it distracted the two creatures long enough for Cable to telekinetically stop the inhuman blood flow to their brains. They slump over. Cable gives a friendly nod to Gambit.

Nathan gets to his feet, brushing off the dust on his cloak, "I'm getting a little sick of this shit."

Without warning, a telekinetic bubble forms around Cable, Rachel, and Gambit. The sphere rises into the air, ascending towards the summit of Mount Belasco. Demonic guardsmen attempt to follow on their bat-like wings, but cannot keep up. The outside pressure changes with every passing second, but Cable's enclosed environment prevents his comrades' blood from boiling.

Belasco himself sits on his throne of horns as two green-skinned lackeys slither around him like a duo of serpents. Just twenty feet in front of him is a large pool of magma. Just ten feet above the pool is a metal cage, filled with thirteen prisoners. The steam from the lava has produced a sauna effect inside the cage, each of the Twelve and Witness were clothed only in skintight leather wrappings. The uncomfortability is at an all-time high. Welcome to Hell.

The Lord of Limbo silently taps his fingers together, until an explosion of the outer door to his castle startles him. A large orange light is cast inside of the ancient walls, partially blocked by three figures.

Gambit peers into the cage, mentally counting to himself, "Dere's thirteen in dere." He peers closer, at the old man sitting on the far corner of the cage. "I know dat guy...merde."

"You two take care of Belasco, I'm getting the Twelve," Cable mutters. He always had that take-no-shit attitude about him. Whatever works. He's the interim leader of this rescue mission, after all.

Belasco jumps to his feet, pointing at the three mutants, "Kill them!"

From behind his throne, there is an explosion of brimstone. The same puff of smoke appears behind Cable, Rachel, and Gambit, as they feel a sharp kick to their spines. They fall to the ground and turn to see their attacker.

Standing before them was a lanky, indigo-furred demon with piercing yellow eyes and two foils in each of his three-fingered hands. A tail whipped from side to side behind him as his teeth glared with sinister delight.

"It's a demon!" Rachel shouts.

"No," Cable sighs, "it's just another helpless pawn." He quickly takes out a gun and sorrowfully pulls the trigger, hitting Nightcrawler in the chest before he could teleport out of the way. Nate walks up to the motionless body of Kurt Wagner, a small circular patch of burnt flesh located around his sternum. Nightcrawler winces in pain. "Sorry Kurt," Cable whispers.

"You didn't kill him?" Gambit inquires. Suddenly, the trio are surrounded by a shadowy force. Cable's eye glows as he picks up a familiar presence.

"Psylocke?" he mutters. An Asian woman, dressed like a nymph, generates a blade of pure psionic energy and drives her fist into Cable's forehead. Cable grimaces slightly, but returns the favor by overloading Betsy Braddock's telepathic capacity. She slumps over and the shadow seems to seep away into the cracks of the stone walls of the castle.

Belasco sighs, looking down at his two green lackeys at the foot of his throne. They return the look in a questioning manner. Belasco's eye twitches as he snaps his finger, causing the two demons to burst into flames. The demon reaches behind his back as flames condense into the form of a golden trident. With a magical blast, Gambit and Rachel are flung into a wall. Cable remained.

Belasco smiles, pointing his three-pronged weapon at Cable, "Hmph. I forgot my magic doesn't work on you. * Guess I will have to settle this the old fashioned way."

* (Check Marvel's Cable #14 -- Brad)

Cable extends his psimatar to full length and throws his cloak to the floor, "Fair enough. Oh, and just so you know, I've mastered the old fashion."

Belasco simply laughs as he swings his trident until it hits the blade of Cable's psimatar.