Stryfe appears to sniff the air with pleasure, "Ah...you're singing my song, flatscan trash."

The sounds of crying halt the Chaos Bringer's advance on the CIA agents. He kneels beside Julia, who is cradling her dying twin brother, Eugene. Julia sniffles, "Stay with me, bro...c'mon...why is he cold...?"

Stryfe looks towards the ground, "I am sorry, Julia. Really, I am. Sometimes family leaves you. It hurts." He turns his attention back to Paris and Raymond.

"You're gonna pay for that, you goddamn mutant!" Paris shouts as he takes out his gun with his healthy hand and pulls the trigger. The white-haired man simply stands his ground as the bullets never leave the barrel, causing the gun to backfire and gauge Jack's left eye.

"ARGH!" Paris screams, grabbing his face.

Stryfe telekinetically shoves him through the window of a deli. He turns his attention on Agent Raymond. "No, wait!" she pleads.

"How would you like to feel the neural breakdown you caused in that dead boy laying on the ground?" Stryfe asks her as he lifts her up to his eye level with a simple mental gesture. He smiles viciously.

"You are a monster!" she shouts.

"You think I'm Cable?" Stryfe laughs. "That poor fuck. So powerful...and forced to protect you weaklings. I, on the other hand..."

Tracy suddenly feels herself being turned around and forced against her will into an alley.

"Wait, Nate!" Julia whimpers, rushing up to Stryfe. "What about Eugene?"

"Do you miss him that much?" Stryfe asks.

Julia nods.

"Very well," Stryfe sighs. "Let me touch you on the forehead." Julia bows her head and Stryfe places his fingertips on her skull. She lets out a yelp as her brain is shut down. She slumps onto the sidewalk as blood pours out of her nose, right next to her brother.

"There you go, my dear. Death. The sweet release," Stryfe mutters.

"HELP!" Tracy shouts as she is still suspended in midair.

"They can't hear you," Stryfe laughs. "Right now, my telepathic suggestion is keeping everyone's mind on Manhattan focused on everything but your voice..." He looks at his reflection in a window, "Yes, a goatee would look good, indeed."

Siberia.

An explosion rocks the main gate of the Dukani complex. Many warriors are killed instantly. Standing there as the smoke clears are Nathan and Rachel Summers, Cable and the Mother Askani. Siblings, timelost and fighting for the future.

~I can only temphase you for a few minutes before anchoring you will start to strain me,~ Rachel whispers telepathically to her brother.

~A few minutes is all I'll ever need, Rach,~ Cable smirks as his left eye explodes with energy.

Rachel grabs a hold of her brother's arm as yellow energy encircles them. A flash bursts in Cable's eyes as the immediate area is replaced by a bluish tint. Time has become slower with the telekinetic abilities of Rachel.

Suddenly, the Dukani agents appear in normal color as they begin to temphase as well. They activate their psimatars and begin charging towards Cable and Rachel.

"I'm counting 241," Cable says as his techno-organic right eye analyzes the Dukani.

"Then you'll need to hurry," Rachel says as her eyes begin to glow and her hair begins to wave. "I'm going after Sanctity." She telekinetically flies off, traveling to the heart of the complex.

Cable activates his psimatar and holds a massive rifle in his left arm. He pulls the trigger as the Dukani begin charging him. They are blasted down by the energy beams of the rifle. Nate smirks, "That's electromagnetism, ladies. Even you can't block that!"

He discards the rifle and begins blasting away with his psimatar, forcing twenty Dukani back. While still in midair, Cable holds out his techno-organic arm and shoots out twenty separate spikes made of the same techno-organic material. They are skewered through the gullet.

A telekinetic blast focused down to an inch diameter whizzes by Cable's ear. The blast was intended to pass through him like a laser cutter. A similar blast catches him in the left thigh, burning a hole through it. The techno-organic material is slow to heal around the wound.

Cable retaliates by telekinetically popping the eardrum of the psimatar-sniper, causing the woman to fall twelve stories as she loses her balance off her perch. She lands on two of her companions, who are decapitated by a psimatar blast by Cable.

Nate twirls his psimatar behind him, and runs another Dukani through her chest. He retracts the lance back into its hilt to pull the weapon from her innards. He starts smiling at the remaining Dukani. There were about 200 left. Cable was still ridiculously outnumbered.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance," he mutters.

"Laua haop kah, Askani'Son!" one Dukani shouts, pulling the purple cloak off of her body, revealing a black bodysuit with silver armor pieces covering various parts of her body. The rest of the Dukani follow suit.

"Oooo, Futuristic Psi-Bitch Barbie's mad," Cable taunts. He begins blasting them with his psimatar, but they block his blasts with a TK shield. They charge up to him. Cable flips out of the way and attaches a bomb to one girl's chest. He telekinetically detonates it, taking out at least fifty of the Dukani out. He then runs with his back to the blasts, attaching trip mines to the wall. As the Dukani follow him, they pass through the bombs' advanced lasers and are blown up.

The field leader, with her long, blonde hair, shouts, "You son of a bitch!"

"Oh, you learned English from my mind?" Cable asks as he cracks the neck of a Dukani held in a headlock in his left arm. He then flies upward and dive-bombs on five others, crushing them into the floor. "Y'know, English is like a second language for me. I know Canaanite, but I know English better. It pisses me off when I have to communicate with the people I'm going to kill, but...you're trying to turn my native era into your corporate, post-apocalyptic hellworld. I want you to hear this!"

"Kill him!" the field leader, Kyleah, shouts.

Telekinetic blasts surround Cable from every angle. He creates a TK shield around his body, but is having trouble fending the blasts off. Kyleah flips downward to the ground level from the height of the top of Sanctity's throne and punches through Cable's shield, catching him in the jaw.

Cable stumbles backward as he drops his psimatar, which is crushed under Kyleah's heal.

She smiles, "Try talking now." She telekinetically grips Cable's neck, choking him.

Ten years ago...

Tanya runs through the fields, chasing an oriole with a broken wing, "Heh heh! Come 'ere, pretty golden bird!" Her brown hair is messy as the wind blows through it. Her brother, Larry, calls out to her.

"Tanya! Get back here!" he shouts. She stops and turns towards the sound of his voice. Larry runs up to her and grabs her hand. "Come on, mom and dad are freaking out."

"I saw the pretty bird," Tanya says, looking back towards the place she last saw it.

Larry sighs, "They're already pissed at you for that shit you pulled with the house windows. They had to dip into my college fund to pay for replacements. Now I gotta get a job this summer...God, you're always fucking things up for this family."

"I can't help it if I can move things with my mind, Larry," the eight year old Tanya says innocently. "'Sides, you can see the fut--"

Larry smacks Tanya in the face. She begins crying. "Don't you EVER tell people about that!"

Tanya rubs her cheek, wiping her eyes, "I think the future is cool...you don't know what's gonna happen. Why are you so afraid about your powers? I'm not."

"Because," Larry sighs. "It's this thing dad's planning...I don't...oh, God!" He falls onto the grass and begins convulsing.

"What is it? Larry?" Tanya shouts.

Larry's eyes stop zigzagging. He catches his breath, "I saw you...and a bird of fire..."

"And then what?" Tanya asks, intrigued. She pulls the hair out of her eyes.

"And then...nothing," Larry responds in awe.

Sanctity meditates silently in her private quarters, surrounded by darkness, save for the faint bluish glow coming from her forehead. Her eyes open and she looks to her left. She hovers upright and sighs, "Hello, Rachel." She turns around and sees the form of a young woman with two glowing yellow eyes and hair that appears to be on fire.

Rachel walks into the room, which creates an instant flash in the room, illuminating the darkness. "Hello, Tanya. So this...is your creation? The Dukani? Very ingenious...using my Askani techniques and combining it with something insanely aggressive." She looks up at the Dukani emblem hanging over Sanctity's bed. "A decapitated phoenix? You don't know how sick that really is..."

Sanctity laughs, "Come now, Rachel. The Askani were meant to destroy oppressors. The Dukani were made to replace them. It's in the interest of the people."

"Showing off a headless bird which is the symbol of life in some cultures...? That's in the interest of the people?" Rachel asks. "Well, if you're that intent on cutting the head off of a phoenix...start with me!"

Sanctity shouts out as she activates her psimatar and lunges for Rachel's neck. Rachel dodges it and kicks Sanctity in the stomach and telekinetically flings her into the huge gold gong-like emblem, causing her and it to fall onto the bed.

Tanya spits out blood as she twirls her psimatar over her head like a helicopter. The ends of the weapon were glowing bright yellow. Rachel activates her psimatar. Sanctity lunges her weapon forward, which connects with Rachel's.

"You're not as strong as you once were, girlfriend," Tanya laughs. "No Phoenix to boost your natural gifts."

"I don't need it," Rachel winces as she feels the pressure of Tanya's psimatar weighing down on her.

Tanya laughs, "I just realized...it seems my family has a thing for creating armies of killing machines...heh."

"Hm, you're right. And I just realized my family has a thing for kicking your family's ass!" Rachel shouts as she generates a massive psionic pulse, knocking Sanctity back against a wall, creating an impression in the metallic surface.

Tanya wipes blood from her mouth, laughing, "You little spoiled brat. At least your parents were mutants. Mine were geneophobic right wing bastard humans!"

Rachel sighs, holding her psimatar at the ready, "Ugh, don't give me the woe is me speech. My family was killed by the very things your father created."

Tanya sighs as she drops her purple cloak on the floor. Her hair pieces remove themselves from her head and gently float over to the night stand. "You know...I always looked up to you as an older sister. Hell, you were better than my brother, always trying to hide who he was...what he was."

"You played Blaquesmith and I," Rachel says, shaking her head. "You used the Askani to further your own means. We were meant to overthrow Apocalypse."

"And that's what I did!" Sanctity shouts. "I ensured Nathan would travel to the present and defeat Nur..."

Rachel pauses, "What did you say? Tanya...what did you do?"

"I told Stryfe Summers and Grey were his parents and they abandoned him in the future. It during my training of him as a Dukani. I didn't teach him to temphase, which was our agreement. He would have become almost invincible," Tanya explains.

Rachel's eyes widen, "Why did you...?"

"Stryfe? He was Nathan's clone. He was Plan B from the moment we created him, Rach," Tanya says.

"But you realize Stryfe would eventually cause Nathan so much pain...," Rachel stops herself.

Tanya shakes her head carelessly, "I planned it, Rachel. You said it yourself Nathan would eventually need to travel to the present. Why would he, when he was so attached to his wife and son in the future? With them out of the way, Cable would have no quarrels abandoning his friends, his rebellion. He would travel over two millennia into the past and battle Stryfe. Between the two of them, their hatred of Apocalypse was equal. Whoever managed to survive the proverbial duel of Cain and Abel, that chosen one would then kill Apocalypse...and allow the Dukani to pick up the pieces..."

"How did you manage to persuade Stryfe to do such a thing?" Rachel asks.

"Oh, the torture he planned for Cyclops and Phoenix?" Tanya laughs. "That was his intent all along...I told him he had to persuade Cable to follow him into the past as well. Cable wasn't as powerful then as he is now, so Stryfe thought it would be amusing. Killing Aliya and brainwashing Tyler was a good method of persuasion on Stryfe's part, wouldn't you say?"

"My mom and dad were part of the mythic Twelve, Tanya! Stryfe was close to ruining everything!" Rachel shouts. She points her psimatar at Tanya. Tanya twirls hers around, energy blazing out of the blade. Rachel growls, "Nathan told me about Mastermold. You uploaded the Twelve's identities into its mainframe. Are you trying to screw things up...? What were you thinking?"

"God, you're always fucking things up for this family..."

"So it seems...," Tanya shrugs. "I made some bad choices, but everything still worked out, no?"

"You realize if Cable found out about this, you would die?" Rachel asks.

Sanctity grins, "Of course, but he won't find out about it."

Rachel's eyes glow, "Right...but I know what you intended to let Stryfe do to my parents. And you're right, I'm not going to let you die by Cable's hands."

Tanya rolls her eyes, "Ooo, is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"You're going to die by mine," Rachel mutters coldly.

Rachel lets out a shout as she flips into the air, driving her psimatar upon Tanya. She blocks the blade and jabs Rachel in the back with the blunt end of her lance-like weapon. Rachel retaliates with a kick to Tanya's jaw.

Tanya is forced onto the floor, sliding for several feet. Rachel growls, but two Dukani agents ambush her from behind, blasting her in the back. Suddenly, ten more agents appear on the scene and advance on Rachel with their psimatars. Rachel's eyes glow as she breathes calmly through her nose.

She was once trained against her will to track and kill mutants. Rachel remembers it all, although she doesn't like to. In this case, she chooses to. Without warning, the Dukani agents are strung out hovering in a circle high above the floor of the throne room. In a synchronized motion, all of them have their necks cracked. They fall to the ground, dead.

Tanya begins applauding, "Bravo, Rachel. Never knew you had it in you."

"Well, now you do," Rachel says as she leaps at Tanya and claws at her face with her nails. Tanya squeals and manages to deliver a stiff left hook to Rachel's chin. The Mother Askani stumbles backward a few steps just as Tanya throws her charged psimatar at her.

The lance's velocity is enhanced by Tanya's telekinesis. Rachel thinks quickly and temphases herself, causing the psimatar to travel much more slowly through the air. Rachel easily moves out of the way and allows time to resume. The psimatar sticks through the wall on the opposite end of the room.

Sanctity growls and blinks the psimatar in Rachel's hands out of existence. She laughs, "Your weapon is somewhere in the solar system during its birth...five-billion years ago. Would you like to join it?"

"That wouldn't be very honorable," Rachel says as she gets into attack position.

"No, it would NOT!" Tanya yelps, grabbing her temple. A vein sticks out of her forehead like an underground river. She drops to one knee and looks up at Rachel. She tries to reach up to her, but she falls limp on the metallic floor. Rachel broke a vital blood vessel in her brain, causing an aneurysm.

Rach takes a ring device and stretches it out. The hoop hovers itself around Tanya's body, encasing it in a sort of energy stasis field. She presses her earpiece, "Prosh, bodyslide by two, prison quarters."

"....hurk....ughh....uuh.....kkk...," a voice sputters as it falls onto the floor. Cable lowers his hand, releasing his telekinetic grip. He has a gash on his forehead. In his other hand is Kyleah. She's watched at least forty of her fellow Dukani suffer an agonizing death.

He scowls, "You're going to pay for those Russian and American soldiers you killed." Before Kyleah can respond, a headband of sorts is in Cable's grasp. He slips the device on Kyleah's head, negating her powers. Cable throws her to the ground as he telekinetically snaps some restraints around her wrists.

"Prosh, bodyslide remaining 17 survivors to prison quarters," Cable commands. As the seventeen Dukani are teleported, Cable begins throwing a bunch of charges up on the walls. Each have a ten-second delay. "Rachel, you better be home, sweetheart."

Cable bodyslides just as the bombs go off...

"...stop....please!" Tracy whimpers as she is laying face down on the ground of the alley. Her clothes have been torn off. She has been poked by various sharp objects repeatedly. Blood was dripping all around her back, oozing up to her neck and down to the crack of her butt.

"I want to know who sent you to kill me," Stryfe yells in Tracy's face. Tears roll down her cheek and onto the ground. Her face curls up in a sob, but no sound comes out of her mouth. She was being choked, again.

Stryfe releases. Tracy gasps, "I told you....it was....Haight....now, please...."

"Well, I was just making sure," Stryfe laughs sinisterly. "I actually had the answer the second I saw you, but I wanted to make it more fun by torturing you..."

Stryfe notices the red diode sticking out behind her earlobe. He telekinetically rips the nanotechnology out of her head, causing her to scream. "Mind control device," Stryfe mutters, observing the tiny chip. He vaporizes the chip in his palm with his mind. He smiles, "General Haight, huh? That cocksucking weasel used to be my top advisor. Always knew that bastard human was a backstabber. Hehehehe. Too bad when someone tries that on me, they die considerably painful deaths. Well, have a good evening, Agent Raymond."

Stryfe flies off into the night sky, leaving her to die...

The following morning...

There's a knock at Rachel's apartment door. She immediately picks up on the psi-signatures of two of her Askani students, Matt and Iris.

"Come in," Rach calls out.

Matt slowly opens the door with a look of sorrow in his eyes. Iris is holding the morning edition of the Daily Bugle in her hands. It was on the front page, in bold letters.

MUTANT TERRORIST CABLE KILLS TWO CHILDREN, ATTACKS TWO FEDERAL AGENTS

At first, Rachel is in disbelief. She gets to reading the article and screams when she finds out the two children killed were Eugene and Julia. She continues to read and discovers the events transpired during the exact time Cable was with Rachel in the Dukani complex.

"Stryfe...," Rachel mutters. Tears stream down her face.

Cable sits in front of a computer screen, reading the same headline. Irene is behind him, as she spent the night on Greymalkin.

"I'm sorry, Nate," Irene says. "The Dukani are defeated though, right?"

Cable stares emotionless into the screen.

"Nate?"

"Shut. Up."

Irene is startled by this. Cable suddenly gets out of the hover chair and proceeds to walk over to the far end of the main deck, opening the armory. He looks behind him, glancing at Irene. "You better write one hell of a retraction story on this bullshit. No way am I taking the fall for him again!"

"But--" Irene is suddenly bodyslided.

{{Nathan, won't she be in danger?}} Prosh asks.

Cable mutters, "Stryfe isn't after her...or me, for that matter. Not even Scott and Jean."

{{Then who?}}

"I don't know...but I think I know who does. Find Tracy Raymond and Jack Paris' hospital rooms."