UFC: The Return of the Exiles.

Summary: Clarice Ferguson aka Blink is recruited to lead a new team of Exiles to restore balance to the multiverse.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: The 5th of my Unfinished Chronicles.

The place; nowhere.

The time; doesn't exist.

All that can be seen is a desert that stretches out forever.

In the air a shimmering portal appears and out of it falls a woman with pinkish skin wearing a green battle dress. She has slightly differently coloured short hair, pointed elf-like ears, triangular marks on her face and pupil-less solid green eyes. Her name is Clarice Ferguson aka Blink.

Blink rolls across the sand a few times and comes to a stop. She gets up to her feet and dusts herself down. She hates this part. Has done ever since she was recruited to the Exiles by this being called the Timebroker. It was the Exiles' job to repair 'hiccups' as Timebroker called them. Essentially tears in reality. They would travel to parallel worlds and fix them.

Blink looks around. This place was where they were brought whenever Timebroker wanted to assign them a new mission. Her heart sinks at the thought because she had lost so many friends in these infernal missions.

Speaking of her friends where were they? She's all alone.

"They're not coming."

Blink spins round, immediately on edge, at the unfamiliar voice. What she finds isn't Timebroker. He's a short blading man with a rotund middle. What she finds is a tall man dressed in a hooded green cloak that completely hides his features. "Who are you?" Blink asks warily.

"I am many things," the man replies mysteriously. "However if you refer to a name I am most commonly referred to as the Spectre. I am His servant."

"His?"

"The Creator of All."

"You mean God?"

"As much as you are capable of understanding the term; yes."

"What do you want?"

"The entity you know as Timebroker has been...assigned other duties. I have been sent here to guide you."

"Why?"

"It is His will."

Blink wants to laugh mockingly at that statement.

"Your mind is plagued with doubt," Spectre observes.

"Can you blame me?" Blink asks considering what she is facing here.

"No. It is human nature to doubt and question."

"Did it ever occur to you or God or whoever that maybe I'm a little tired of this crap!" Blink yells totally frustrated at being used like a pawn. Mimic made that point often that they were being used.

"Your anger comes from grief for the beloved you lost."

Blink has to hold back the tears and the urge to punch this guy. He is referring to Mimic, who Blink had been in love with, who is just another person that had died on this seemingly never ending quest she is on. Another person she had failed to keep safe. She takes a few steps away while the Spectre remains unmoving, inhumanly so. Humans fidget on the spot as muscles tire but this guy did not move a millimetre. Blink composes herself and turns to face him. "Why should I do anything?" she asks. "Are you going to threaten me with non-existence like Timebroker?" she asks because how she ended up working for him was that her reality ceased to exist and Timebroker claimed only he kept her alive by 'unhinging' her in time.

"No. Free will is His greatest gift. You shall have a choice Clarice Ferguson."

Blink can't stop the mocking laugh this time. "Choice? When did I ever have one? I grew up in a world ruled by Apocalypse. Joined the resistance to fight what we knew was a hopeless war and then Timebroker sent me on this quest with no hope it would ever end. I've lost friends, seen worlds destroyed. Maybe it's selfish but when do I ever get anything for myself?"

"You require hope," the Spectre surmises. "Very well. I can give you hope Clarice. I have summoned you here because there are dark forces trying to destabilise the entire balance of reality. I need you to lead a new team of Exiles to stop them. The fight shall be difficult and you may not survive but if you do when it is over if it is still your desire you may choose a world to live upon and be left in peace. This I can promise in His name."

Blink should be cynical of this but in reality she has never been offered that. Timebroker never offered her any end to this insanity. Blink thinks for several minutes. If she stops now then what have all her friends died for?

The best way she can honour them is to see this through to the end she decides. "Alright. I agree...if you tell me where my team is," she adds the amendment at the end.

"I sent them home to their realities although perhaps you shall see them again if I deem they are required. For the task ahead you shall require a different team with different abilities."

Blink is sad. She didn't even get to say goodbye. A portal opens in front of her. "Where does this go?"

"To where you will find your first new team member," the Spectre informs her. "Although the danger shall be great."

"When isn't it?" Blink asks the rhetorical question. "So who am I looking for?"

"The God who was not born a God and was rendered mortal."

Blink rubs her head. She hates all this cryptic nonsense. Why can't they just give a straight answer?

"He will find you upon your arrival," the Spectre tells her.

"Who?!" Blink asks in complete exasperation.

The Spectre raises a hand and Blink find herself yanked towards the portal by an unseen force. As she falls into the portal the Spectre instructs her to, "Find the Last Son of Krypton."

Blink finds herself landing hard upon the ground just like it happened with the Timebroker. As the saying goes the more things changed the more they seemed to stay the same. She gets back to her feet and looks around herself. She is the middle of a street in ruins. There are hollowed out shells of partially demolished buildings and the smell of fires and death linger in the air.

Blink sighs sadly. She has seen too many worlds like this. Her own world didn't look much different from this. She looks up at the sky and her brow furrows slightly. It is daytime although the sky is so full of dirt most likely it is not very light but what catches her attention is that the sun is red in colour instead of yellow.

"MUTANT LIFEFORM DETECTED," bellows a metallic voice from above as a pair of giant Sentinel robots land in front of her. One raises its hand and fires an energy blast which Blink only just manages to dodge but the force of it still sends her crashing into the burnt out hulk of an old car.

Blink winces in pain as she desperately tries to get her body to move or her mind clear enough to create one of her teleportation portals as the Sentinels advance on her.

Blink looks up just as a red energy beam hits one of the Sentinels and makes a hole clean through its head. Before the other can respond the same happens to it and the two Sentinels topple over crashing to the ground dead.

Blink raises her hand to her head. She hit it when she hit the car. She hears footsteps and looks up at what she hopes is just whoever saved her. She spots a tall man dressed in army boots, urban camo pants and an armoured vest. His arms are exposed which allows Blink to see the left one is metallic, some kind of cybernetic replacement most likely. He holsters two advanced looking pistols into holsters strapped to his legs and holds his hand out to her.

"Come with me if you want to live," he says.

Blink takes his hand. Once on her feet she gets a chance to look at his face. The left side is scarred and his left eye she can see has been replaced with a cybernetic implant that emits a faint yellow-orange glow. His right eye is natural and is deep cerulean blue while his hair is completely white, swept back apart for a single white curly lock flopping over his forehead. "Who are you?" she asks him, although he does bear a striking resemblance to someone she does know.

His left eye flashes bright for a moment. "The name's Cable."

They didn't hang around to wait for more Sentinels as Cable led Blink through the ruins of whatever city this is to the ruins of an apartment building. He led her down to the basement where he promptly sat her down and started to treat a cut on her head she didn't realise she had.

"It's only a scratch," Cable says in a softer, more caring tone, than he had used up to this point as he sticks a plaster on what is only a small cut.

Blink looked around at the room they are in. It was a wreck yet you could tell someone lived here. There were pieces of equipment and weapons lying around. There were opened tins of food stacked away in the corner as well.

Blink looks at her rescuer. She could seem similarities to other Cables she had encountered in other realities yet this one's face was different enough to make it clear he, unlike the others she met, was not the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey(or her clone depending what reality you happen to be visiting).

Cable pulls a dirty chair over and sits down across from Blink. "So why don't we start with who are you and why were you stupid enough to be out during the day?" he asks her in an interrogation like tone of voice.

Now this bit Blink has done many times before and she summarises who she is and why she is here. On Cable's face there is little to no reaction so it is hard to judge whether he believes her or not.

"So you are here to recruit someone for these Exiles?" he asks her to clarify.

Blink nods.

"A group who go around repairing reality?"

Blink nods again.

"Did it ever occur to you that this Timebroker and Spectre are playing you?"

"Often," Blink admits. "But they can open portals in reality as easy as you or I can blink. It isn't like you get much of a choice and for the moment I'm just going along until I see if this Spectre is what he claims."

Cable looks at her intently for several minutes. "I believe you."

"You do?" Blink says with some surprise.

Cable smiles ever so slightly. He points at his artificial eye. "This does a lot more than see," he explains. "I've been scanning you since the moment you arrived and your molecules are resonating at the incorrect frequency for you to be native to this universe."

"So you'll help me?"

"If I can. Now who is it you are looking for?"

"This Spectre guy said I had to find the Last Son of Krypton."

Blink watches Cable's mostly impassive face darken considerably in response to that.

"Then Spectre has sent you on a wasted trip. He's dead," Cable states in a cold harsh tone.

"You're certain?"

"I was there."

"Then what do I do now?" Blink asks because she is pretty much stuck.

"For now rest and when it is dark I will take you to the nearest resistance base. It is not safe for you to stay with me. The Sentinels can track me too easily. More than likely we won't make it that far before they do."

"I can just teleport us there," Blink points out.

Cable looks at her with renewed interest. "You're a teleporter?"

Blink nods. "Yes. I can also generate these lances that can teleport objects or destroy them," she fills in the rest of her mutant abilities. Blink can see deep thought come to Cable's expression. "What?" she asks.

"There are no teleporters left in this world. The Sentinels hunted them all down and exterminated them as priority targets."

"Why?"

"The Sentinels base and manufacturing centre are protected by an energy field that can't be penetrated except by certain mutants who teleport. Due to this those that still fight against the machines can't win this war because no matter how many we destroy they have a secure base where more can be manufactured."

Blink knows where this is going. "You want me to teleport a strike force inside so you can destroy the base."

"Precisely."

"I don't mean to sound callous or uncaring but why should I risk my neck?" she asks.

"Apart from the fact you're most likely stuck here and if you don't it is only a matter of time until the Sentinels discover what you are and send hundreds to kill you?"

"Yeeeaaahhh. Apart from that?" she still asks despite the fact he has already made the point she has to help or face certain death.

"I lied to you."

"About?"

"The Last Son of Krypton. He's not dead...not completely anyway."

"Why would you lie?"

"Two reasons. 1; Because he's as good as dead. 2; I don't know you well enough to trust you."

"So why are you telling me now?"

"Because you're the last hope to win this war and therefore I have no choice but to give you what you want in exchange for your help," he explains rationally.

Cold reasoning Blink must admit but she can understand it. Well she is here to find this 'Last Son' and if this gets her to him then she just has to agree to doing what is probably something suicidally dangerous...or in other words just about a normal day for her.

"You should get some rest," Cable repeats his earlier suggestion and points at a bed in the corner.

Blink goes and lies down in the bed. It is what you expect in a world wrecked by Sentinels but truth is she has slept in worse places.

When it is dark and after Blink has had a nap Cable shows her precisely where the resistance base is in relation to where they currently are on a 3-D holographic map he generates from his artificial arm. This is so she doesn't teleport them inside a wall or something. The base is in some caves in the mountains to the west of where they currently are which she has discovered is on the eastern seaboard of what was the United States before the Sentinels took over in a genocidal war against mankind.

"Are you sure you want me to teleport us inside the base?" she questions his suggestion. "Would it not be better outside?"

"Are you kidding?!" he exclaims. "And miss the look on Kitty's face. Please give a disfigured half-cybernetic man one of the few joys he has left," he practically begs Blink.

"Kitty? As in Katherine Pryde?"

"You know her?"

"A version of her was once part of my team," Blink explains in reference to a Kitty Pryde who went by the nickname Cat instead of Kitty.

"Of course she was," Cable says still trying to come to terms with how weird this was and that was really saying something for him. He picks up a bag of supplies for what lies ahead. "Whenever you're ready," he tells her.

Blink concentrates and opens one of her pink portals which makes the accompanying 'blink' sound that got her her codename. She and Cable step through...

On the other side they enter a room carved out of rock, with alarms blaring all around and a woman with brown hair and eyes in a military style uniform aiming a gun at them. She growls as her eyes fall upon the male of the pair that just appeared. "Cable," she growls angrily.

Cables waves in a deliberately annoying cheerful manner. "Commander Pryde," he greets her.

"You know I should shoot you. That energy spike you caused put the whole base on amber alert."

"Damn," Cable curses with a snap of his fingers. "I was going for a red alert."

Kitty glares at him, wishing for a retort but choking too much on her own rage to be able to vocalise one. She moves over to the intercom on her desk and addresses the base. "This is Commander Pryde. All units stand down," she orders before she explains the cause, "It's Cable."

Kitty had once been a happy go lucky girl but this war against the machines had hardened her especially since she lost Piotr. She tried not to think about that too much. It was too painful. Cable's continuing attempts to annoy her to death didn't help. She places her hands on her hips and looks at Cable sternly. "So is there a reason you're putting this whole base at risk by being here?" she asks since she is aware of how easily the Sentinels can track him thanks to all that cybernetic junk in his body.

"Well first off I've scrambled my electronic signature. Even the walking junk piles will take a few days to crack it," Cable explains. He had done that while Blink was sleeping but he was running out of ways to do so. There were only a few ways left he could hide himself so he saves them for vital missions. "Second off have I mentioned how much I like what you've done with your hair?" he asks with his most charming grin trying to flatter her.

Kitty rolls her eyes. "You know the only person what laughably passes as your charm works on is Domino."

"Unlike you she never complains," he argues. "Especially on that last mission we went on..."

Kitty holds her hand up and stops him. "I really don't want to know what you and she get up to. I already have enough bad mental images in my head to last several lifetimes."

Cable had to concede that was true. It was true for everyone who was still alive and fighting. "Ok. I'll get to the point," he says with all humour in his voice now gone. He places his hands on Blink's shoulders and pushes her forward to present her to Kitty. "She is why I'm here."

"And she is?" Kitty asks, taking the woman with pink skin in.

"The means by which we win this war."

A little later a figure walks through the winding passage ways dug into this mountain that was the base for the Resistance. The alloys in the rock made it difficult for the Sentinel sensors to track them. Combined with a few bits and pieces of cloaking technology they managed to salvage from Magneto's base when he fell to the Sentinels' advance it makes this place all but undetectable. It was what allowed them to say alive.

The figure walking was a man in tattered jeans and a wife beater with a worn brown leather jacket on top. His wild hair was parted into two points giving him a feral look. As he walked he was given many salutes and looks of admiration. He was a legend amongst the resistance. He was the man known as Logan.

Logan walks on taking in the many faces some of which were scarred and all had a slightly haunted look within their eyes. It was saddening but what wasn't was the fact that the people he passed were both human and mutant working together side by side just as Charles Xavier had always dreamed. Sadly Xavier never lived to see it. Nor did most of the original X-Men. Even sadder that it had to take the end of the world near enough to make it happen.

Logan walks on when from around a corner a flash of metal comes at his face. Instinctively he raises his claws and ends up blocking 2 near identical claws. "Goin to have to do better than that kid," he says.

From around the corner there is a low growl and what comes into view is a young woman with long dark hair and piercing green eyes. She is Logan's clone X-23 or Laura Kinney to give her her name.

Logan grins at her frowning expression. It was one of their games. Laura would see if old age was catching up with him and if she could tag him. So far she hasn't managed it.

"Don't call me kid," Laura tells him off. She hates that. Has done since the day they met.

"Sure kid."

Laura growls once again and retracts her claws. Progenitor/clone, father/daughter walk together. They had been summoned to the war room for an urgent meeting so they were told. As they approach the room both catch a sniff of an all too familiar scent.

"You gettin what I'm gettin?" Logan asks.

"Yes."

"Cable," Logan groans as they enter the room because whenever Cable showed up it usually meant it was bad.

"Well it's nice to see you too old man," Cable replies sarcastically having overheard that groan. He folds his arms across his chest. "Although I thought for certain you would be dead by now. I'm guessing Laura has been pulling your ass out of the fire repeatedly."

"Yes. I have," Laura states plainly which earns her a glare from Logan. A small subtle smile creeps up her face at her amusement of her verbal jab.

Logan and Laura take their seats around the table as another leader of the resistance walks in. A native American man with half his body replaced by mechanical devices after a Sentinel attack barely left him alive. Forge.

Next is a human member of the resistance. A bald man with blue eyes which fall upon their visitor. "Hello...Clark," he greets him.

Cable's artificial eye flashes brightly in response. "Do not call me that Lex," he spits out furiously.

Lex Luthor bows his head slightly in acquiescence. He had already gotten the reaction he wanted.

"Ignore him," another voice says as a woman with bluish-white skin enters. She has a dark spot around her left eye and is dressed in a looks can kill black leather outfit. She steps up next to Cable and brushes a kiss across his lips. She strokes his cheek affectionately. "You know he only does it to rile you up...which is something only I get to do. You're so much more fun when you're riled up," she says with a wicked smile and a certain glint in her eye.

"Dom," Cable pleads looking almost embarrassed by her words.

The mutant known as Domino laughs throatily as she takes her seat.

During all of this Blink has simply stood in the corner observing.

"So what's this about?" Logan asks looking at Cable.

Kitty stands up to address the room. "Cable has brought us the means with which we might be able to penetrate the shield around the towers complex," she says in reference to the Sentinel's central primary base where their leader is.

Everyone looks at her in surprise especially Lex and Forge who have spent years trying to figure out a way to break through the barrier with no success.

Kitty signals at Blink for the mutant to step forward. "Everyone this is Clarice Ferguson, codename, Blink. She's a teleporter and has an interesting story to tell," Kitty introduces Blink.

Blink takes a breath and once again summarises her life story.

"And we're suppose to buy that?" Logan asks sceptically. Parallel worlds. His head hurts just thinking about it.

"The theory of parallel worlds is a well established one," Lex rebuffs Logan's complaint. He himself has several working theories about how it is possible to travel from one universe to another.

"Her molecules are vibrating at the wrong frequency. My ocular implant detected it," Cable backs up Blink's story.

"The question is can her teleporting abilities really bypass the shield," Forge expresses the relevant point.

Kitty nods. "Precisely." She looks to Blink. "We will need to run some tests to determine how your teleportation power work," she tells Blink in an apologetic tone because no-one likes to be tested like a lab rat.

Blink figured they would so she agrees.

"Assuming her powers work when can we be ready to strike?" Laura asks.

"We've been ready for years," Kitty points out. It has always been their desire to attack the base but never had a way around the shield since the Sentinels wiped out every teleporter on the planet. "However our numbers are not what they were," she says sadly in reference to how many have been lost. "We only have the resources and manpower to attempt this once. If it fails...we lose the war and we'll be extinct by the end of the year," Kitty bluntly lays out the situation they are in.

Domino asks a question. "So this testing. It's going to take a few hours right?"

"Most likely," Forge replies.

Domino grins wickedly and gets to her feet. She grabs Cable by the collar of his armoured vest and drags him out with him protesting all the while and grumbling about how she is always doing this. There are several chuckles at how whiny the big tough Cable can be whenever Domino works her stuff on him.

"Oookkkayyy," Kitty says. "Remind me to avoid going anywhere near Dom's quarters for the next few hours," she requests due to what she knows Domino is about to do.

Laura meanwhile has moved next to Blink so she can assess the stranger in her own way.

"Something I can help you with?" Blink asks feeling uncomfortable under the close scrutiny.

"You said you were sent here to find someone. Who?"

"Honestly. I don't know. Cable said he knew him and that if I helped he would take me to him."

"Who?" Laura asks again.

"The Last Son of Krypton."

Lex chuckles a deep mirthless laugh. "He hasn't changed."

Blink looks at the bald man. "What does that mean?" she asks confused.

"The Last Son of Krypton was just dragged out of here to have the time of his life," Lex says in a humorous tone.

"Cable? He's..."

Lex nods once. "Cable is what he calls himself because he believes the person he was died the day he was turned into that melding of man and machine. Really it's just his way of emotionally coping with things he couldn't otherwise. All the terrible stuff happened to another person whose memories he just happens to possess," Lex explains how Cable has come to be who he is.

Blink lets that sink in. Then the Spectre didn't lie to her. She was found just like he said. Maybe there is an end to this finally for her after all...assuming she survives the battle she is about to face.

Yeah, her life is just great isn't it?

Author's Note: If you've been reading my SmallvilleX universe you would know this 'Clark as Cable' idea made it in there but in fact I created him for this story that I could never really get going. I never even worked out a proper list of AU characters(from both DC and Marvel) to use...though I would have almost certainly brought Morph back at some point. He's too funny not to use. Thanks to everyone who has previously written reviews.