Cable stood in shock. Maybe shock wasn't the right word for it.it was more like disbelief. Adamant and utter disbelief.

"Repeat that!"

The person who sat across from him sighed. His long dead wife's 'sister' had gone through great pains to find him. Spanning time itself just to deliver this piece of information. She knew he would have a hard time dealing with this, that he might send her to hell and ignore her. But she owed it to Aliya to find out the truth and to tell her husband what she was planning to do.

"Once again, oh chosen one, we have found evidence that the children may have survived the destruction of the camp and are here and alive in this time," She repeated calmly for what seemed to be the 100th time. Hope lazily wiped the condensation from her glass with one finger. She had found Cable in what was now known as South America. In her time it had been the location to the biggest killing field on Earth. The location of Stryfe's greatest massacre. It unnerved her to see the land so vibrant and green, teeming with life.

Cable ran a hand down the length of his face. When his camp had been destroyed, when his wife had been murdered, they had also lost the 106 children that had lived there. He had been against it at first, to have the children live with them, he claimed they were not safe. But Aliya, Jenskot, had convinced him otherwise. She had said it was good for morale, the soldiers having their families so close. He suspected that she did not want to be separated from their children either. That decision would haunt him for the rest of his life. The explosion not only destroyed the camp, but the bodies that had been caught in the blast had been burnt beyond recognition. And not all of the bodies were in one piece, most of them weren't.

Cable repressed a shudder. "Hope are you sure."

"Look I would not be here if I thought otherwise. We went through great pains to create another time flux. Not to mention the risks. I owe it to my sister to find out what happened." Hope tossed back her head and drank down the 20th century alcohol in one swallow. She wrinkled her nose. Whiskey was definitely an acquired taste.

"Well then let me see it."

"You don't want to see it."

"Hope."

"Nathan."she leaned across the table folding her hands. "You don't need to see it. Just trust me this time."

"I do need to see it. I need to make sure. If only for my own piece of mind." Hope sighed and fished in the pouch at her side. She pulled out a small disk that looked like a miniature cd and a slightly larger device that was its player. A holodisk. Inserting the disk she handed the player over to her friend. He took it and placed the device half under the table, away from the prying eyes of the rest of the patrons of the shack that passed as a bar.

He took a deep breath as he pushed an unseen button on its side. An image appeared seemingly in mid air. He made out the image, children, dirty, half-starved.being prodded by magistrates.Stryfe's personal guard. There was yelling in his once native language, the children looked terrified. The image produced by the holodisk blurred for a moment and then refocused. His heart stopped at what he saw before him. His 'son' Tyler was fighting several guards, dressed in a replica of the armor Stryfe himself wore. He seemed to be trying to reach someone in the crowd of children as they were herded past. The holodisk blurred again as the audio cut out, but at this point, he did not need the audio to understand what happened next. A shock of blonde hair emerged from the group of children. A little girl, maybe 5- 6 years old, with eyes that were so blue, so bright, they were almost neon, started to call to Tyler. She was so tiny that she almost made it past the may lay of guards to his waiting arms, but seemingly out of nowhere a guard swooped in and snatched her away. Tyler fought against the guards that had come to restrain him and might had made it had not one of the guards taken an electrified prod to the back of Tyler's next.

Cable quickly shut off the device and leaned back in his seat.staring at the ceiling. There was no doubting her now. He had seen it with his own two eyes. How could he have not known.he should have known. His child, his children.that madman had them for so long and he didn't even realize it. He should have felt something, done something.

"Nathan, I am sorry but my time here is limited. I know this is hard for you but there is no way you could have known. We only ran across the information recently ourselves. I think Stryfe had been plotting something, but with his death we will never know. Nathan." He felt her hand on his arm, gentle and warm. He forced himself to look at her.

"I should have known."

"You could not have," Hope's gaze was piercing.

He sighed. "Where do we go from here?" Her eyebrow rose. "What you didn't think I'd just let this go? It's my child for Christ's sake!"

"Nathan, lower your voice," Hope's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I only meant to spare you pain. I have no idea what condition we may find the children in; I do not know what was done to them. This may be all for naught." Her voice was calm.

"Hope.is she alive?"

She paused for a moment. "Yes, I believe so."

"Then I'm going." He looked at her resolutely. "Where?"

"She is here."

"Here? Hope that doesn't make any sense. How can she be here?' Cable stared at her, furrowing his brows. He knew he was right; the whole situation didn't make any sense. How could children, his child, from 2000 years in the future be in this present day time-line? Although time travel was possible in the time he hailed from, it was scarcely available. He himself had destroyed the last remaining time flux. So how was it possible for children to get their hands on such a device?

Hope shook her head. "No, it doesn't make sense but that's the direction the data we've gathered lead us in.they are here, there are a few of them and they have been here for quite some time."

"Do you have a location?" Cable began to fiddle with his glass. She was here this whole time? So close? How could he have missed this.He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"The trail went cold once they arrived. We found data in the archives that tells of a group of children found out wandering in the desert near where the Azbacj camp would have been in our time."

"Azbacj.oh god..." He knew that name too well. It was one of the most notorious slave camps in Styrfe's control. A more accurate description of it would have been a concentration camp. He remembered the stories that he had heard as a young man. Stories that had made his blood run cold, and he was a soldier. People simply did not survive Azbacj, they could only pray for a quick death. To think his children were subjected to that.

"I do not know if they were actually held there, it is merely a reference point," But when Cable faced her she could not meet his eyes.

"Regardless, we thought if I was able to do a bio-scan in this time-line, I may be able to find at least one of the children and work my way backwards from there. I just need another reference point before I go back."

"How long do you have?"

"Three days," Hope now took the holodisk and stored it back in its pouch. "In three days I need to make it back to my jump point. That is all the time we have to keep the generator active. After that time, it will be destroyed."

"Then you really don't have enough time," Cable commented as he drank down the remainder of his glass.

"No, but I thought with your help?"

"That goes without saying but this time I may actually have to ask for help myself."

Hope chuckled. "Ask for help? You really have changed my old friend. Who do you have in mind?"

Cable stood up and placed a few bill on the table. "Seeing on how this is a family matter, I thought it would be a good place to start."

"You don't mean?!?"

"What, you don't feel up to meeting your revered 'First Ones'" he tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, failing miserably.

"By the bright lady, you truly have no respect for your heritage." Hope rose to follow him as he started to exit the bar.

"Nope, not even a little bit." He turned to her and his eye flashed with the hint of the dangerous energy he was master to.

"And you wonder why the gods have abandoned you," she said attempting to mutter under her breath.

"Hope there are a few hundred reasons the gods would have abandoned me, none of which would have anything to do with me mocking my heritage or the lunacy it has spawned." He responded calmly as he climbed into the open jeep as Hope slid alongside him.

"Yes well, it probably would not hurt to stop," She retorted with the hint of a smile.

Cable's face grew serious again. "We find my daughter and the gods can have whatever they want from me. That I swear."