Disclaimer: All characters contained here-in, with the possible exception of a few minor extras, are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. I'm not making any sort of gain off this... in fact, I think I *lost* some sanity. Don't sue, about all I could give you is debt.
Author's Notes: This story closely follow the events of Cable #97-105, and X-Force #125, but knowledge of those issues is *not* needed to understand the story. Everything is explained in context. Some X-Continuity has been taking into account as well (mostly the events of New X-Men Annual '01), but what follows is a blend of continuity and what could have been. Hopefully, it's an intriguing one. Thanks to Alison, Lyssie, and A.j. for the betas, and everyone who cheered this story on through the year it took to complete. Rated PG-13, on account of Domino swearing like a sailor.
Dunisnane
Act I
by Timesprite
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspiracies are.
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.
-Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1
"He still thinks we're dead?"
"Probably not," Domino admitted, downing her drink. Sam, she noted, was still carefully nursing his beer. "If he's got half a brain, he'll realize you aren't, anyway. The others... maybe he doesn't care. He probably believes that I think he's dead."
"Well, the fact that he's still breathin' could give him that notion, Ah s'pose."
Dom laughed despite herself. "Don't get me wrong, Sam. I still want to go kick Wisdom's sorry ass for what he did to you--did to all of us--but I'd rather wait and see what he's up to first." She ordered another drink, eyes scanning the crowd. She'd had a hell of a time shaking the goons that had been tracking her all the way from Hong Kong, but she didn't see them now. Only patrons who were doing a deplorable job of not staring at the strangers in their midst. The fact that neither of them blended in very well in Kenya probably had something to do with it. "You got the others situated?"
"Yeah, they're lyin' low. With those folks back in San Fran callin' themselves X-Force," the young Kentuckian's face contorted for a moment, and Domino was sure he was thinking things he was far too polite to ever say, "Ah don't think they'll have any problems."
Domino nodded, sipping her newly arrived drink. "Good. They could use the anonymity for awhile." She leaned back in her chair and eyed her companion. "What are you going to do now?"
Sam frowned again, taking a long pull on his beer before saying anything. "Don't suppose you've talked ta Cable lately."
She stiffened slightly, annoyance abated only because Sam was asking, and he wouldn't trample needlessly on her emotions unless he had a damned good reason. "No," she replied after a moment. "I think it's pretty much over."
"Guess you haven't been readin' the papers either, in that case." He bent down and dug through the canvas bag beside his chair, and tossed her a week old copy of the Tiempos del Mundo. "How's your Spanish?"
"Just fine," she murmured, scanning the pages. "What am I looking at?"
"Check out the news from Peru." He watched as her eyes flitted down the page.
She reached for her glass and downed the rest of her drink. "Shit." She ran a hand back through her tangled hair. "You think he was involved?"
"There's a group o' kids wanderin' around spouting Askani philosophy. Unless Blaquesmith has taken t' tutoring orphans..."
Domino grimaced. "Well, I agree that's a bit odd, but..."
"He checked into a hotel in Lima a few days before the revolt kicked into high gear, and left the day the government regained control."
She sighed. "He was trying to help the government..."
"An' since when has single-handedly quelling coups in third-world countries been his style? A lotta people died, Dom."
"Well," she smirked, "if it was for a profit..." She trailed off. "He's a big boy Sam..."
He picked up the paper and shook it at her. "This ain't right. Ah'm gonna see what Ah can find out, whether Ah got yoah help or not, but I'd appreciate it."
She looked at him for a long moment, seeing the determined set to his expression. "Yeah, okay. You've got yourself a cohort."
----
Domino adjusted the wide-brimmed hat on her head, kneeling in the grass while a ring of earnest-faced children surrounded her, and tugged at the neckline of her tank top, mentally cursing the heat and the fact that she'd decided to wear a skirt despite the fact that she'd had to trudge over some formidable terrain to get to the camp. Still, she'd had her reasons. She'd guessed--correctly, it seemed--that they'd be much more willing to talk to her if she looked harmless than if she'd tromped into their 'territory' in her regular merc gear. As it was, they'd still confronted her with knives and guns, not backing down until she'd convinced them that she only wanted to talk. A part of her had wrenched at seeing children so young behaving so militantly.
"Can you tell me again what happened?" Domino asked in exacting Spanish, trying to get a straight story out of the group of grubby looking children before her. She and Sam had flown into Lima the previous day, and while Sam scoured the city to find out what he could, she was stuck trying to deal with this herd of small children who--quite unnervingly--kept hitting her with warped versions of Askani philosophy, all the while trying to out-talk one another.
"He came into the camp--I helped capture him," one boy replied. From what she'd been able to tell, he'd had the most contact with Cable. The rest of the children seemed to be merely following his lead.
"But he escaped," she replied.
"The police raided the camp," the boy corrected. "He took me away."
"To the hospital, right? You don't know what he was doing there?"
The boy shook his head. "He took me to see Momma, too."
"And then he left. He didn't say where he was going?"
He shook his head again. "Is he coming back?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out." She straightened up, ruffling the boy's hair briefly. "Thanks for the help, kid."
"You'll tell him, won't you? That we're doing what he taught me?"
Dom gave him a lopsided smile. "If I find him, I sure will."
----
"Did you have any luck?"
They were back at the hotel, the air conditioning cranked in the small room. Dom gave the young man a wry smile. "They pulled guns on me."
"Well, that doesn't sound encouragin'."
She shook her head. "Actually, I did get them to talk, once I convinced them I wasn't the Police or associated with the Shining Path..." She sighed. "It's hardly surprising, really. Violence is all those kids have ever known. They're just trying to survive."
"They have anything useful to say?" Sam asked, deftly switching the focus of the conversation. Kids were a touchy subject with Dom and he knew it--given even the little he knew about her history, which wasn't surprising.
"Not really. There was one kid Nate seemed to have taken a shine to--he's the son of that terrorist you went to see, I think--anyway, apparently Nate dragged him along to one of the hospitals, I don't know why though. All the kid could tell me was that Nate used some kind of equipment on himself."
Sam gave her a quizzical look. "Somethin' with the virus?"
"Not likely. There's nothing on the planet capable of doing much of anything to the T-O. Certainly not anything that'd be in a Peruvian hospital." She rubbed at her temple, trying to massage away a headache. "How'd your interview go?"
"Not well. She was cooperative, but there wasn't much she could tell me. She didn't know who he was, really. Said he'd never really been clear on why he was doing what he did."
"Classic Cable there," Dom replied wryly.
"She's a teleporter. He blew out her eardrum or somethin' to keep her from accessin' her powers. Apparently, he was using his telepathy to undermine the Path's influence. She wasn't really very clear on that. One thing seems certain, though. He really did stop the whole coup on his own."
"He was never an underachiever, that's for sure." Domino pulled at the cotton of her tank top, and flopped back limply on the hotel bed. "Remind me why I agreed to this?"
"It's cause Ah'm adorable," Sam quipped, and Domino noticed he was looking a little sun burnt. Good. She wasn't the only one suffering, then. "You couldn't resist."
She snorted. "Uhhuh... that would only work if I didn't know the deviousness that lies under all that Southern charm, Sam."
"Ah think Ah'm offended."
She laughed outright this time, turning on her side to look at him. "I don't care what he's up to, you know."
"Sure you don't. You've got better things ta do, right?"
She gave him a lopsided smile. "Yeah, like ruling Asia. Why the hell did I let Xavier talk me into that gig? Better yet, why did I let him pair me up with a woman who managed to get herself killed in the first two weeks?"
Sam winced slightly at the casual mention of Gloria's death. Granted, he'd been with the X-Men while Risque had been toying with Jimmy, but it still stung a bit. Domino's flippant attitude was a distressing reminder of how much she'd changed in the past few years. It was painful to see. "Ah think it was all those zeros on the check," he replied, burying the thought.
"I think you're right." She sat up, abruptly peeling the sweaty shirt off and tossing it in a corner, only noticing Sam's embarrassment belatedly. "Uh, sorry." She quickly pulled on a fresh shirt. "Though, you can't tell me you've never seen a topless woman before."
"No--just... it's you, an' no offence, but that's kinda like seein' mah mama naked, y'know?"
"I think you've just managed to make me feel old."
"You ain't," he pointed out. "Er, not that ya were before, o' course."
"Keep squirming. It's entertaining," she quipped.
He shook his head in amusement before looking back at her, expression grown serious. "Ah've got a question Ah've been meaning ta ask ya..." he trailed off. Getting info from Dom was like trying to squeeze blood from a stone, but occasionally she could be surprisingly forthcoming. She arched an eyebrow, obviously waiting for him to continue. "When ya found us, after Wisdom 'died,'" there was a world of contempt in that one word, "you said you'd gone freelance 'cause ya needed the money. Why?"
Something darkened in her face, her posture changing in such a way that he knew he wasn't going to get an answer. Not now, probably not ever. "That's nothing you need to worry about, Samuel," she said quietly.
----
...I can't believe he ate the last donut!...
...Oooh. Chocolate...
...Why is it always now that it rains?...
...That stupid idiot! My lane!...
...Not our fault...he said it wasn't our fault...
Nathan Summers squeezed his eyes shut, as if the physical movement could somehow force away the thoughts streaming through his mind in a jumbled torrent. His shields were all but blown and he knew it--couldn't cope with the sudden ability to hear thoughts half a world away, just like he couldn't control the telekinetic flares that kept forcing him from one hotel to another. He sucked in a breath, trying to concentrate, focus, put all those voices to rest. A distant part of his mind wondered how long it'd been since he'd last slept. Days, probably. He was too terrified to sleep now, afraid of the power that swirled inside him, power enough to snuff out suns like candle flames. All those minds, all those thoughts, strong and emotional. Joy, worry, anger, regret. Sorrow. He clenched his hands into fists, willing it all down, wresting control of his mind from the grip of that maelstrom. He could do this. He had to. He'd go insane otherwise.
----
"I can't believe he's using a credit card with his real name on it," Domino grumbled, squinting at the laptop screen as she tried to get a trace on the card in question. There were perks to being in Xavier's employ, not the least of which was the resources she had open to her. She might have been able to track him on her own, but this was so much easier.
"Hiding in plain sight?" Sam asked, leaning to look over her shoulder.
She shook her head. "He's done it before... but even so, he'd never leave such an obvious trail." Her fingers flew over the keyboard, muttering under her breath. "This is not like you, Nathan. What the hell is going on?"
Sam stood and sighed. "Ah told you there was somethin' not right going on here."
"I don't suppose you've got any idea what he was up to before this?"
"Just some disturbin' reports about him causing a couple of high profile murders back in the States. But you heard 'bout that."
"Yeah." She sighed. She'd never admit how utterly relieved she'd been to find out it hadn't been him after all. Almost as glad as she'd been to see Scott Summers alive and well. For awhile, she'd been really worried for Nathan--not that she'd had much of a chance to act on it. Getting possessed, killed, possessed again, double crossed, and led to believe her team was dead had left her dance card a bit full. The X-Men had all been disturbingly silent over the whole thing. A silence that seemed all the more ominous now, given what she knew.
She worked for a few more minutes in silence, trying not to dwell of the situation too much. There could be a perfectly rational explanation for all this--it wasn't as if they'd uncovered anything truly disturbing, after all. Just Nathan acting slightly more reckless than she was used to. But there could be a reason for that, too. Given his periodic bouts of secrecy, strange actions on his part were not altogether unheard of. If not for the fact that Apocalypse was already dead, she probably wouldn't have batted an eyelash. She frowned, eyebrows drawing together in concern. Sure, there was a rational explanation--or was she simply too stubborn to believe that anything could be wrong? "I should have stayed in Hong Kong," she muttered under her breath.
"Problem?" Sam's voice jolted her out of her reverie.
She shook her head. "No, I just..."
"Look," he rested a hand gently on her shoulder. "Ah only asked for yoah help because Ah thought--"
"What did you think?" She turned her head, locking her eyes on his. "That we'd find Nate and be one big fucking happy family again?" She gave him a bitter smile. "It isn't going to be as easy as that. We've all changed, Sam."
Anger flashed across his face for a split second. "You don't think Ah know that? Ah know Ah've changed, an' even the blind could tell you have, but Cable's been like a father t' me, an' Ah don't turn mah back on family."
Domino winced inwardly at the hurt in his voice. "I'm sorry," she mumbled in apology, turning back to the computer. "Ahha! Got something."
"You found him?"
"Looks like. He reserved a hotel room in Macedonia two days ago." She fired up the portable printer, then went back to the computer. "Feel ready for a change of climate?"
Sam cracked a smile. "You bet."
----
Silence. Darkness.
The world was locked out, held securely at bay by shields forged of iron will and immense power. Every mind on the planet swirled outside those unbreachable walls, hers to read, to touch with something less than a conscious effort if she so chose. Today, she did not--instead throwing the floodgates open in search of one mind in particular. A mind that should have been easy to pick out from amidst the swirling masses, as familiar as it was.
It should have been easy.
Instead, as she reached out, she was met with a disruption that made her falter as it tore like a riptide through the sea of minds, leaving eddies and hazardous whirlpools in its wake. Hurricane-like, its eye was hidden from her, unreachable, untraceable. The only clue to its location was the destruction it left in its wake, so brutal that even a novice would have seen it. It tore at the astral plane, leaving tatters and lacerations in its wake that throbbed with a deep, golden light.
----
"Think we found him?"
"Maybe they're just remodeling," Domino replied wryly, staring up at the shattered remains of the hotel across the street. They'd arrived in Skopje earlier that morning, finding the city in a state of minor turmoil. From what they were currently seeing, it wasn't hard to tell why. "Local paper said it was a bomb blast. There's a lot of tension between the different ethnic factions--it could be possible."
"Yeah. And they just happen t' bomb the building Cable was stayin' in."
Domino sighed. "Yeah, I know. Doesn't look good. Especially since there's an office building a few blocks over that looks similar. I can understand taking that out... from what I dug up yesterday it looks like a laboratory was leasing the floor the blast originated from. But a hotel packed with civilians? It doesn't make sense."
"Maybe someone else came looking for him?" Sam offered, pulling his coat more securely about his shoulders. Going from summer in Peru to winter here in Macedonia was jarring, to say the least.
Domino pursed her lips. "Possibly. It did come after the attack on the lab. I guess there are rumors of something going up pretty spectacularly further up in the mountains after this happened, but I couldn't actually find any confirmation of that. Not even a cover-up story. Which is... interesting."
"What do you think?"
"I think that someone was obviously up to no good in that laboratory, and Nathan decided to fix it his way. Maybe someone took offence at that and tried to get rid of him." She dug around in the pocket of her coat, and handed him a slip of paper. "I've got something I want you to check out. There's a woman, a technician at the lab, I think. Anyway, they thought she'd been killed in the blast, but she showed up again the day we flew out of Peru. She's staying at the orphanage at that address. Why don't you go talk to her, see if she can tell you what they were up to at that lab. It might give us a clue as to just what the fuck Nate was up to there."
"Where are you going?" Sam asked. He knew a brush-off when he saw one, and he was pretty sure Dom was sending him off on a fairly pointless mission.
"I've got a few military officials to talk to. I've got a sneaking suspicion something deeper was going on here--those mountains would make a nice home for a military installation, don't you think?"
Sam gave her a scrutinizing look. "Maybe Ah should come with ya."
"You're not going to like my methods, Sam."
"Still, it'd be safer."
"And we're still lagging behind Nathan. The sooner we find out what he was doing here, the sooner we can get back to finding him. And to do that, the best way is to split up." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Sam, don't argue with me on this. I appreciate your concern, but in case you haven't noticed, I can take care of myself."
He gave her a long look, sure she knew he was questioning that statement, but he knew better than to argue with her. She may have been a whole lot closer to his age since 'Junior' had done whatever exactly it was that'd seemingly knocked her age back a few years, but she still had seniority, and he still had ingrained responses that firmly told him she was boss. It was just getting harder and harder to take her commands without question--maybe it was that he'd matured, maybe he was just more bitter, but he could no longer see her as the self-confident soldier she'd once represented. Somewhere along the line, he'd got a glimpse beneath the façade she wore with everyone. A fragment of a woman only Cable knew. Maybe. Something told him they were all more damaged than they had been when X-Force had last been together. He didn't want to think about how long ago that had really been. It hurt too much.
With a sigh, he broke eye contact, glancing at the address and shoving the slip of paper into his pocket. Inwardly, he wondered when he'd become the responsible one. He shouldn't have had to worry about Domino--or Cable for that matter, but he was, and he couldn't help it. "Fine, you win."
Dom nodded, and glanced at her watch. "Be back here in two hours, and we can try to sort all this out."
----
Sam Guthrie brushed snow from his hair and coat as he stepped into the darkened church. Even in the relative dimness, he could make out signs of a recent firefight. He walked to one wall, running his gloved hand over a line of bullet holes. It was probably too much to hope this was all coincidence.
"Can I help you?"
The voice was sharp, the English accented. He turned to see a blonde woman standing in the doorway near the altar, fixing him with a murderous look.
"Ah s'pose that depends. Ah'm lookin' for Viktoria."
"I'm her," the woman replied. "Who are you?"
He walked over to where she stood, extending a hand. She flinched slightly, as if expecting violence. After a moment, he let his hand drop. "Mah name's Sam Guthrie, ma'am. Ah think we might have a mutual friend. His name's Nathan."
Her eyes narrowed for a moment, before seeming to come to a mental conclusion. "Come with me."
He followed dutifully as Viktoria led him out of the church and down a long hallway. He could hear children's voices, and remembered that this place was an orphanage as well. A small dark haired boy darted from a room down the hall, calling a greeting Sam couldn't understand. Viktoria kneeled to give the child a quick hug, said something in reply, and sent the child off. She straightened, casting a glance over her shoulder. "They killed Father Mikael--double-crossed, and there was no one left to run the orphanage... I no longer had a job." She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Someone needed to take over." She led him into a tiny, spartan office, and he took the seat she motioned to. "You know Nathan?"
"Ah do. Look, Viktoria, Ah need to know what happened here. Ah take it he had somethin' to do with the destruction of the lab you used to work at?"
Viktoria pushed at her glasses again and nodded. "They were making a virus. It was supposed to kill the ship--the Ethnic Albanians. He destroyed it."
Sam nodded. "Ah figured it was somethin' like that. But ah take it that wasn't all? The hotel...a bomb?"
She shook her head. "Not a bomb. He did that."
Sam blinked. "Nathan bombed the hotel?"
"No." She pursed her lips, obviously thinking, possibly trying to find the right English to say what she needed to. "There was another man. He shot Nathan. And then..."
"Shot him?" Sam arched an eyebrow.
Viktoria gave him a serious look. "In the head--killed him. And then the building exploded. It was..." She paused. "His tele... kinesis?"
Sam nodded slowly. "That's the word... but... it's not possible. He couldn't..."
"Do you think I'm lying to you?" She accused. "You asked. I am telling you what happened. He said he had a virus..."
"The T-O."
"He removed it. His powers were not right."
"Removed? That's not possible."
"You said that already. I am telling you it is."
"Fine, okay," Sam waved a hand in a conciliatory gesture. "Ah'll take your word. He left then?"
She shook her head. "No, there was more. The Albanians, they were cloning... to breed us out."
"Well, that's an interesting tactic," he replied. "Lemme guess, mountain base?"
She nodded. "He took me there. ...bodyslided?"
"Bodyslide... he did that?"
"Several times." She paused again, studying his reaction. "Not possible?" A hint of amusement crept into her voice.
Sam sighed. "Looks like anything's possible. He took out the base, then."
"Yes. Both sides are back to square one, now. It has not solved the hatred. But, I am trying. He taught me to see past hatred, but there is more to be done. The children..."
Sam gave her a long look. "Askani," he said finally.
"There is a lot of good in the lessons."
"An' a lot of harm, dependin' on who's interpreting it," he replied. It looked as if this trip hadn't been nearly as useless as he'd thought it'd be. But if even half of what she said was true, and not just garbled in translation... he couldn't even begin to comprehend it. He'd have written all of it off as pure delusion, but Viktoria knew far too much. Watching her, he was certain she believed what she said--and she'd obviously spent time with Cable. It just didn't make sense. "Viktoria, do you know where he was going next?"
She shook her head. "I am sorry. He didn't say."
He stood, running a hand back through his hair. "All right. Thank you." He extended a hand, and she took it this time. "Good luck with what you're trying to do here."
"It will not be easy work. But, someone must do it."
----
"Everything was lost--both sides. But we have more resources... if we press our advantage--"
"General Popov--"
"What is it? I'm on the phone."
"There's someone to see you sir,"
Domino smirked to herself, listening to the exchange between the general and his aide, smoothing her hands over her skirt. She's stopped to change quickly before coming to the installation--she probably could have bluffed her way in through sheer persistence, but sometimes persuasion of another sort worked just as well. After all a good mercenary used all the tools at their disposal, and she'd never been one to shy away from using all her assets. Even if it did mean the guards at the gate had taken longer than was strictly necessary in patting her down. She ran her hands over the outfit one last time, giving the aide a sly smile as she did so. Sam would most certainly not have approved.
Popov scowled. "I'm busy. Tell them to wait."
"Sir... I don't think..."
"It's all right. I'll take it from here," she said, stepping forward and slipping past the aide, who gave her a slack-jawed look, unable to protest. She strode into the small, bland office, heels clicking smartly on the linoleum tiled floor. "General Popov?"
The general blinked several times, then turned his attention back to the phone in his hand. "I'll call you back." He looked back at her as he set the receiver on its cradle. "Can I help you?"
Domino smiled broadly at him, taking a seat in one of the chairs adjacent to the desk. "I certainly hope so. I'm looking for someone. Someone I have reason to believe you had a recent run in with?"
Popov leaned back in his chair, eyeing her speculatively. "Who are you?"
"Of course. I'm sorry. My name's Luisa Mendoza. I'm here representing an organization that has... interests in the man I'm lead to believe you encountered. I was hoping perhaps you could help me? He's a rather distinctive man...six foot plus, white hair. Sound familiar?"
"I'm afraid I would not be able to tell you anything you do not already know. He appeared out of nowhere, and caused considerable setbacks for me and my men."
"He bombed a laboratory... we would be interested in knowing what might have attracted him to the area." Popov narrowed his eyes at her. No fool then; he wasn't about to tell her more than he felt she should know.
"I am afraid that information is classified."
Domino leaned forward, fixing her eyes intently on the general's, throwing as much intimidation behind the look as possible. "General," she said slowly, voice calm, calculating. "We have evidence of your efforts to 'deal' with the ethnic factions... it would be best if you cooperated with me now. I have other ways of finding out, you understand, and none of them would look good to your superiors, if you follow my meaning. It would be best if you cooperated now."
It was almost all bluff on her part, but experience had taught her that with governments of this sort, there was always something being covered up. And even if you didn't know the specifics, a little pressure in the right place could yield surprisingly beneficial results. She kept up the intense gaze, aware that he was starting to squirm under the scrutiny.
"It was a virus," he said finally, breaking eye contact, and Domino leaned back in her seat, crossing her legs gracefully. "It was meant to target the Ethnic Albanians only. Lock onto specific DNA sequences... we were in the testing phase."
Domino arched an eyebrow at him. "Biological warfare. Inventive... certainly an efficient way to deal with your... problem."
Popov scowled. "It would have been. The project has been entirely scrapped now. We lost everything, thanks to your... friend. At first, we suspected the Albanians had hired him..."
"But then he destroyed their project as well?"
"Cloning." He made a disgusted face. "To force us out by sheer numbers."
"A far less elegant tactic," she agreed. "I assure you, he was hired by no one. His motivations are his own. Rest assured my colleagues and I are doing everything in our power to track him down." She stood, leaning across the table to offer her hand. "You've been most helpful, General Popov." She shook his hand.
"One thing," the general called as she turned to go. Domino froze mid step, hoping she'd be able to make a quick escape before the general realized how little she'd actually given him in return for the information. "I assume you know his name?"
She glanced back over her shoulder as she continued to the door. "He calls himself Cable."
----
Faces passing in a crowd, voices, minds, shoving, jostling, ringing loudly in his head. He wove his way through the marketplace, ignoring the shouts of vendors, trying futilely to pull the shreds of his shields back together. It was a tenuous fix at best, full of gaping holes, but it kept him moving, and that was all that mattered. He couldn't stay in one place, not for too long. There was something out there, nothing he could pinpoint, just something he could feel. Something that made him feel hunted, cornered.
The sky above was robin's egg blue. He kept tipping his head back to stare at it, heedless of the throng swirling about him. It seemed to go on forever, arcing from horizon to horizon, interrupted only by the white-hot blaze of the sun. He closed his eyes, feeling the heat on his lids, trying to shake himself loose from the chaos around him. It didn't work--it never did. He felt trapped, trapped by powers that should have set him free, trapped by the force he could feel shadowing him, trapped by another force that seemed to lead him onward, like the call of the Pied Piper--whether towards salvation or doom, he didn't know. All he could do was follow.
----
"Jesus Christ... I think I just about froze something off. Hurry up with the damned key."
Sam didn't glance up from trying to coax the lock to their cheep hotel room into opening. "Bein' half-naked in the middle of winter might have somethin' ta do with that," he shot back, and thumped his fist on the door in frustration. "You try it."
"Y'know, this is precisely the reason I didn't let you come with me..." Dom reached over, jiggled the key in the lock for a moment, then turned it, throwing the bolt back. "There we go."
"Ah'm just sayin,' there had ta be other ways of gettin' the information we wanted without resorting ta dressing like--"
"A two-bit whore?" Dom finished helpfully as she pushed into the room, making a beeline for her luggage. "Maybe. But it is the fastest." She paused, crouching to pull a sweatshirt and jeans from the bag before continuing. "If it makes you feel any better, he didn't touch me. No one did... well, unless you count the over-friendly security, anyway." She rocked back on her heels and looked up at him. "I don't need you to look after me, Sam."
He shrugged. "Ah know. But Ah want to."
"Sam..." She sighed, pursing her lips to blow hair out of her eyes as she let the rejoinder die unvoiced. She crossed the small space to the bathroom, clothes in hand. "So," she commented, voice muffled by the door between them. "What did our lab tech have to say?"
"Nothin' you're gonna like. Or believe, for that matter." Sam sat on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his arms, mulling over the myriad of ways he could explain what he'd learned.
"Oh?" The door opened, and Dom gave him a curious look. "Nutcase?"
"I wish," he sighed.
Dom frowned slightly, seeing the expression on his face. "Okay, so what's up? Don't keep me in the dark here." She seated herself cross-legged on the bed behind him. "Sam?"
He turned, distressed look still stamped on his face. "This woman... Ah'd be tempted ta write her off as nuts if she didn't know what she knows."
Domino blinked at him, suddenly concerned. "What do you mean?"
"She knew about the virus, for one thing."
"Well, he could have told her about it," Dom replied, "Unusual for Nate, but not impossible." She knew her former partner had silently struggled over issues regarding the virus--as adjusted to it as he seemed on the outside, somewhere deep down, Nathan Summers had always been self-conscious because of it. Still, it didn't rule out the possibility entirely.
"Ah know. That's the problem, actually."
"What?"
"She said he'd... removed it somehow."
"Wait. The virus? But that's not possible, is it? The Askani couldn't even cure it and those witches could time travel, for fuck's sake."
"Ah didn't think so, either. But that's what she said, and she backed it up by sayin' the hotel wasn't a bombing. Wasn't planned at all. Some guy shot Cable, an' that's what happened."
"Fuck. Sam, she could be making it all up."
He gave her a solemn look. "You really think so?"
She sighed. "No. Crap. I should be happy about this, right? We should both be fucking ecstatic..."
"Ah know. An' all I can think is that this don't sound good. There's one other thing, too."
"Oh, god. There's more? Wait, let me guess... Stryfe showed up."
Sam chuckled despite himself. "Nah, far as she told me, the only clones were in that base that went up in the mountains." Domino nodded slightly, acknowledging that she'd gotten the story from her own investigation, no doubt. "But she mentioned bodysliding."
Dom arched an eyebrow. "Now you're just pulling my leg. That's been disabled since you over-eager rug rats trashed Nate's space station."
"Hey, Ah was just as surprised as you were, trust me. But how else would she know 'bout that, really?"
"You're right, you're right. Goddamnit. I suppose it was too much to hope that we'd just stumble across him doing crosswords or something equally benign. I've suddenly got a very bad feeling about all of this, Sam."
"Well," he replied, "Ah guess that makes two of us."
----
He'd always been something of a light sleeper, though over the years, he'd certainly learned the trick of grabbing some shuteye whenever the opportunity presented itself. It was a trick that wasn't doing him any good at the moment, however. He let his head fall to the side, eyes peering through the darkness to the bed mere feet from his own. He probably could have slept through the restless thrashing Dom did in her sleep--that he was sort of used to by now. Besides, it was no secret to anyone that she never slept that well. He'd certainly been witness to Nate lecturing her about it often enough. She wasn't, however, and that was the problem. She was laying there, still as the dead, making a sound that reminded him disturbingly of a kicked puppy. Or maybe just a cornered animal. Whichever was closer to the truth, the fact remained that it was leaving him with a knot in his stomach so tight he felt vaguely ill.
After another long moment of indecision, he pushed himself upright and swung his legs over the side of the bed. It had been going on long enough to kill any hope that it was merely a fleeting bad dream. She was obviously in the grips of some terror he could only imagine--not that he wanted to dwell on probable subject matter at all. All in all, he would rather stay ignorant of most of Domino's history--the glimpses he'd had were more than enough to convince him that knowing much more would only hurt. With a sigh, he stood, crossed the small space between their beds, and reached out a hand to touch her shoulder.
An instant later he was staring down the barrel of a Browning HP, suddenly grateful for the knowledge that the weapon probably couldn't do him permanent damage. Not that he was really in the mood to test that theory. "Dom?" He asked quietly, taking in the glazed look on the mercenary's face, convinced now that she wasn't really seeing him. "Dom," he repeated, more firmly this time, trying not to flinch as the weapon remained trained on his face. After an agonizingly long moment, she blinked, seeming to come out of whatever daze that'd held her transfixed.
"Sam... I--" Her arm dropped, gun resting in her lap as she stared at him for a moment longer. "Sorry," she said finally, looking away. She felt his weight on the edge of the mattress, wishing he would just go back to bed instead of trying to console her. She flipped the safety back on the weapon and slid it back into place beneath her pillow.
"It's alright," he replied, noticing the way she was avoiding looking at him. Probably guilt at having pulled a weapon on him, he thought tiredly. Not that she'd really done it on purpose, but knowing Dom, that wouldn't be much consolation. "Ah probably shoulda known better. Good thing Ah'm immortal an' all," he joked weakly. She still wouldn't look at him. He ran a hand back through his hair, feeling suddenly very out of his league, and more than a little worried. "Look... you gonna be okay?"
"I'll be fine." The response was clipped, no nonsense. She wasn't about to give him a reason to fuss over her. She was the adult here, damnit. Sam wasn't supposed to be looking after her. "Look," she continued, adopting a more civil tone, "We've got a plane to catch in the morning. Go back to bed."
He looked away, staring at the peeling wallpaper on the opposite wall instead. "You don't fool me," he said after a pause.
"I'm not trying to fool you," she growled in frustration. Stupid, stubborn boy. He was too much like Nathan in that respect. "I told you I'm fine."
"An' Ah say you're not."
Domino shoved down the urge to scream from aggravation. "It was just a nightmare," she pointed out tersely.
He turned his head, meeting her eyes. "Ah'm not talkin' bout the nightmare."
"Sam, don't make me boot you in the head. You used to know better than to stick your nose where it didn't belong."
"Yeah? That's 'cause Ah knew Cable'd do it for me. Somewhere down the line, he fell down on that job, though."
She wanted to hit him. She really did. Domino clenched her hands in fists, fingernails biting painfully into her palms. The fact that she had a disturbingly maternal attachment to the blond young man in question was about the only thing that was keeping her from belting him. "That was out of line."
"Was it?" He shrugged. "Ah'm just sayin,' at some point, he stopped noticin' when you were hurting, even if it was plain as day to the rest of us. An' then he left."
"Well, he wasn't given much of a choice. I was gone by then anyway."
"From what Ah heard, he shouldn't of let ya go in the first place."
"I didn't give him a choice in the matter."
"Look, Ah'm not gonna claim to know what all went down. Ah was a bit too busy helpin' dig bombs outta Cyclops at the time. But those people hurt you, an' everyone just let you go." He shook his head. "Makes me kinda angry now. Maybe Ah just overestimated how much the others cared... Ah wouldn't have let it happen. Look where it got us."
"Damnit, Samuel, I am not some child that needs supervision. I just needed space."
"Space. So you could perfect this... mask you've managed ta make? Well, maybe ya fooled the others, but Ah'm not buyin' it."
She crossed her arms and glared at him. "You're trying to fix things you can't even fathom, Sam. I made the choice to walk away. It was my decision. What makes you think you'd have any right to interfere with that?"
"The fact that you've got one hell of a poor track record in decidin' what's good for you an' what's not. The fact that Cable felt the need to tell me to look after ya if anything happened to him."
She snorted. "I shouldn't be surprised. That arrogant bastard. As if I'd fall to pieces without him around?"
"Ya really want me ta answer that?"
"No, I'd prefer you keep the amateur attempts at mental health assessment to yourself."
"Fine." He stood, throwing one last glance over his shoulder her at her. "But Ah meant what Ah said. Ah don't turn mah back on family. That includes you."
----
"This is how they were found by the police--most are catatonic, even the best of them are functioning at the levels of infants." The doctor turned to his red-haired companion. "It was gracious of the United States to arrange for your visit... but I'm not sure there is anything to be done. They are only being held here until we can find other facilities to move them to."
"How many did you say there were?"
"Eighty-three. Nearly seventy-five percent are completely comatose."
She steepled her fingers, pressing them to her lips and closed her eyes, concentrating. Reaching out, her mind should have felt the thoughts of the nearly two dozen people who occupied the ward around them. Instead, she sensed only empty pits, no more aware of their surroundings than the furniture or the walls, living only because their brains were intact, functioning on automatic in the absence of a mind to enact conscious control. And hanging over them all, glowing like a neon signature, was the same familiar presence she'd felt ripping through the astral plane days ago. She'd followed the devastation here, unprepared for what she'd find. "How did it happen?"
"We are not entirely sure. The local government has been having trouble with underground fighting arenas. It used to be cockfighting or dog fights, now, it's people. Mutants. You must understand Brazil has not had the same problems that have plagued your country--we leave the mutants to themselves, and no one is troubled. But in the last year these arenas have become popular--especially among the poor who have no other assets. They send their children to fight, to kill each other." The doctor closed his eyes, crossing himself quickly, an almost unconscious gesture. "There was a disturbance at one of these arenas... people were fleeing in a panic. When the police arrived, there was no one left to question. They tracked down witnesses later--there was a foreign man, an American. They said he tried to disrupt the match... the authorities haven't been able to locate him."
She winced inwardly, knowing that her senses couldn't be wrong, but wishing they were. She simply did not want to accept that the nightmare laid before her could be true. "Was there a description of this man?" She asked casually, as if she had only a passing interest.
"Tall. White hair, older. They think he may have left the country already. It's a shame. It would be nice to see why he felt these people deserved this." He waved a hand at the rows of beds.
"It would," she agreed quietly, her eyes scanning the sad spectacle that surrounded them.
----
"Ah. This is more like it." Domino slipped her sunglasses down her nose, looking at the scenery around them. "My motto: when the going gets tough, the tough go to Rio."
"Well, it looks like Cable decided to take yoah advice."
Dom made a face. "This is my crash spot. He got the Swiss Alps. Never knew why he seemed so fond of that place... too much damned snow for my tastes."
"Speaking of, shouldn't we be looking for him instead of sight seeing?"
"We are looking. He got himself kicked out of the hotel, and that was our only real lead, so we might as well enjoy ourselves while we're here." She strode ahead down the busy street, lined on either side with vendors. Shaking his head, Sam picked up the pace to catch up with her.
"You really think we're just going to find him hanging around here."
Domino shrugged. "Maybe. He hasn't used that credit card since booking that hotel room. Either he's still in the area, or he realized the trail he was leaving. Either way, we're going to have to rely on other means of tracking him." She paused as they passed a newsstand. "Hold on..." She backtracked, picking up one of the local papers with a frown.
"What--"
She held up a hand to silence him, paying the man at the booth for the paper and scanning it again. Sam walked back to her, looking over her shoulder. "What's up?"
She held up the paper, which he blinked blankly at. "Uh, Ah don't know any Portuguese."
"Didn't Roberto teach you anything?"
"You mean 'sides swear words?"
The corner of her mouth twitched up slightly before her serious expression returned. "Well, the short of it, we've found our clue. Unfortunately," her gaze returned to the paper briefly, "it's not a pretty one. C'mon. I think I need a drink."
----
"You can't believe he'd do somethin' like that on purpose."
Domino downed her drink, staring pensively into the empty glass. Unfortunately, there probably wasn't enough alcohol in the small bar to get her well and truly drunk. There were days she really hated her high tolerance. "I don't know, Sam. I wish I could say I didn't. But a part of me also remembers him shooting a good friend in the back, leaving us all for dead. And I tell myself, he's changed. He's not like that anymore. But after seeing what we have? I don't know. I really don't." She motioned for another drink and sighed. "I have to wonder what we're doing here, Sam."
"It's ta put doubts like that to rest," he replied. "Ta find out the truth."
"And what if it's a truth you don't like, Sam? What then? Are you going to call him on it?"
"If Ah have to."
She shook her head, retrieving her new drink from the bartender. "You think you know him so well, Sam. But you don't. I've seen sides of Nate that would make you doubt him. He's done things that would make you so angry, and his only explanation--that it had to be done--would haunt you forever. You've seen the good side of him. You've seen the parts of him that haven't died yet, and in that, you're so damned lucky." She took a swallow of the alcohol, closed her eyes as it burned its way down her throat. "I hope that never changes."
Sam watched the woman who'd become something of a surrogate mother to him trying to drown her sorrows in a bottle and sighed. "If you wanna back out of this, it's okay. Ah appreciate yoah help, but you don't have ta keep doin' this if ya don't want to." Inwardly, he was beginning to wonder if it was just the discovery that Cable had apparently mind-wiped dozens of people that was getting to her. His mind recalled a night, years distant now, when he'd finally worked up enough nerve to ask his mentor about the woman he'd brought on the team to be their co-leader. The conversation had been short, to say the least, but he'd walked away from it with a totally different perspective. Now, he couldn't help but wonder how many awful childhood memories the discovery of the fighting arenas here in Rio was dredging up. He watched her set down the glass, fixing him with a look that seemed to say 'I know what you're thinking.'
"No. We're close. I might as well see this through. And hell, you might need me anyway. I just wish I could come up with a plausible explanation for all this." She slumped in her chair, suddenly tired looking.
Sam watched as her eyes locked on a place just over his shoulder, and at the same time, got the creeping sensation that someone behind him was staring. Turning his head, he managed to catch a glimpse of brilliant red hair as the person slipped out of the shaded bar. "Who--"
"C'mon." Dom polished off the last of her drink, and slammed the glass down on the tabletop as she stood. He climbed to his feet and together they pushed their way out of the building. "See where she went?"
"Was that--"
"I think so. Which means, we're probably supposed to follow her," Dom replied.
"There." He pointed to a small cluster of trees huddled together near the edge of the beach.
Dom followed behind him, silent for a long moment, until the distant figure moved out of sight again. "Damnit, why doesn't Jean just--"
Sam stopped dead in his tracks. They were only yards from the trees now, and their 'visitor' had reappeared, watching them with amusement. "That's... not Jean."
Domino blinked. "No shit," she hissed in reply. Aloud she said, "Aren't you supposed to be dead or something?"
"Please, you two should know by now how absolutely impossible it is to kill anyone in my family."
Sam finally managed to pick his jaw up off the ground long enough to manage a stuttered response. "Rachel?"
"Hello, Sam."
