Chapter 20- The Real Graymalkin

Earth’s Orbit- Aboard the Graymalkin, 2008- March- 20 (Local Date)

Nathan Charles Christian Summers (Cable)

The energy field needed to be reinforced twice, before Cable was stabilized enough to materialize, and even then, it wouldn’t release him right away. Just as he was about to complain, it did and he fell to his knees on the receiving pad.

“Professor, what’s wrong, that took longer than usual?” Cable asked the walls and ceiling.

“I did warn you, that you should recalibrate your virus. That if you change too much from it. It will take longer for my systems to locate and synchronize with your body and reconstitute you.”

The voice came from both his implants and from the various emitters installed in the ship’s hull. He nodded before rising to his feet again, once he did, he removed the power cell in his rifle and moved to stash it on an open spot in the weapons rack beside the pad.

“Congratulations, you managed to accomplish three tasks in this last operation.”

“Prevented Destiny from meeting the Redeemer. Tested Kane and pushed him into becoming stronger, and got the dimensional shard on its way to the Citadel.” Cable recounted. As he did he walked around the room, stashing and storing the extra weapons that he carried with him.

The gauss-magnum went into its magnetic cradle to recharge. The vibranium throwing knives got piled next to the sharpening station. The adamantium combat knives were stacked nearby, just so they would be close since he couldn't really sharpen them. Then the grenades and body armor went onto their various spots in storage.

“Have they tried to called us yet?” Cable asked the Professor.

“Not yet.”

“How long did it take me to slide this time?” he asked next.

“You lost two and a half days, to your transit.”

“Shit, I told Kane I would be back in four.” Cable grumbled.

“You might still make that timetable if you skip sleeping, and actually get in the lab. So that I can corral your techno-virus, back to something more manageable.”

He nodded at that, and made his way deeper into the ship. As he passed the various racks and tables Cable grabbed a clean shirt from a basket next to the room’s exit. The doors slid open as he walked near them, Cable would look into some of the other rooms only to make sure everything was alright with them. After about the third such check, he asked. “Anything wrong with you or the Gray that I should know about?”

“You should really relax, instead of looking for another thing to fix.”

“Professor?” Cable grumbled.

“Everything is within parameters, and my Utility Drones are doing what work that I need to be done around the ship… You have a call incoming, shall I patch in here?”

“Bout time. No, I will take it on the bridge.” Cable replied, and made his way to the main corridor and then to the double doors that led to the command room.

The large room had over a dozen workstations, which he always felt was too much. Given that it was only him and the Professor for the ship's crew. He walked to the nearest one, and pressed the proper button that lowered the ship's central emitter. Once lowered it powered up and projected a clear image of the man that was calling him.

“Perceval.” Cable nodded along with the greeting.

The long-haired man in grey robes nodded back.

Cable still had a hard time looking the man in the eyes, something about them unnerved him. Only his, none of the rest of his kind that he had met. The glowing purple amethysts gave the cyborg the feeling that he could read his thoughts and feelings, just with his eyes, and not his magic or mutant powers.

"Congratulations are in order. You over achieved with that last operation." Perceval said, that although the image and the sound did not synchronize. Then again, being able to send a message through time was something few people could achieve in the first place.

Cable waved away the compliment and asked. "What do you got for me?"

“Oh, so eager? Shouldn’t you think about taking a break?” as the robed man spoke the image synched up better. The man’s lip and the words actually being close to same time with one another the longer he spoke.

Cable shook his head, before saying what was really on his mind. “Doesn’t it bother you?”

"Oh, I know what this is about now," Perceval said while crossing his arms.

“I knew that we would need to do some pretty shady things. That I would have to harden my heart to accomplish some of the things needed to be done to fulfill my mission." Cable's cyborg hand strained as he dug his own fingers into his palms, and he glared at the image.

Perceval squinted as he agreed. “Yes, you will. We are building a ‘Better Future’, and that will call for…”

“Us to kill our own allies?!” Cable shouted.

As he did, the Professor materialized a hologram of himself on the bridge. The seven-foot, six-inch blue-skinned man, with ice for hair on his head and on his arms. Wore only an armored kilt, and a utility belt.

The purple-eyed man glared back as he stated. "She was not the woman who helped raise you. That woman died at the Battle of New Solitude. The woman you killed may or may not have become that woman. But in the end, you made the choice. You did what was necessary. And for that, I am proud of you. Those on this end of things are proud of you.'

"But we need to all do as we agreed to. To do whatever it takes to make a Better Future for that timeline. Because we only have one opportunity to make it, and if we do, the hardships that we went through need to be felt by no one. To prevent the Nation of Might from being only a nightmare for you and not everyone’s.”

“You mean ‘you and me’.” Cable corrected.

Perceval shook his head, as he said. “No, if you succeed, the person you see before will never be.”

Hearing that really brought home what Cable had left behind, and that the people he was meeting were not necessarily the people from the stories he heard growing up. ‘Perhaps I should think they aren’t, for both my own safety and the success of my mission.’ He thought

Then various red lights went off in the background of the image. "We have a new operation for you." Then several windows appeared in the air in front of Perceval, before he added. "That's interesting and somewhat unexpected."

“What?” Cable asked, unable to see anything through the screen, and they weren’t sending him any of the data that they were looking at.

“His Servant has changed.” The other man stated.

"Well, that's to be expected. Destiny can't become his Archer if she's already dead and judged by Death."

Cable nodded with the Professor's observation. However, Perceval corrected them. "Not his Archer, his Rider has changed as well."

“For the better or worse?” Cable asked also surprised. He had been raised on the stories of the Redeemer and his eight Servants, so he knew each of them by heart. To hear that someone else wouldn't be bound because of him killing one of them was kind of terrifying to think about.

The mage frowned before answering. “I am not sure. We are still reading and calculating the complete fallout of your actions. That and someone keeps firing off the damn Time Stone, generating a lot of interference, so the timeline isn't wanting to settle."

“So what’s next, sending me after his Saber?” Cable asked sarcastically, trying to pull them back on the topic of his next mission.

Perceval smirked as he replied. "You and I both know, that even with the state-of-the-art weapons you have, you wouldn't win in a fight with her. She is a league above you." He closed several windows before pushing on towards whatever device they were using to transmit.

The workstation before him lit up, as it received the data stored in the window that the mage had sent over. Cable tapped a few controls and pulled up the new data.

As he did Perceval explained the operation. "In six weeks, the X-men are scheduled to attack the Mutant Control Agency in D.C., where they will destroy all of the digital and hard files the group has on hand. What they don't know is that there is a digital backup at a second site. This was arranged when the agency director made a deal with Trask Industries to start Operation Hunter."

"The start of the modern Sentinel program, and the introduction of the Mark 2s," Cable muttered.

Perceval nodded, before stating. “Your primary objective is to destroy their servers, but only after the Professor downloads a copy of their registry list.”

The Professor’s hologram nodded, after which Cable asked. “Why? A list like that is like holding onto raw uranium, deadly to the owner.”

"You're correct. The majority of the people on that list will not want to join the cause, currently." Perceval agreed but then added. "However, with it, we can leak some of those identities to the proper teams for future recruitment.'

“Trasks’ lists aren’t just people who have come forward, but a general list of any homes or families that have looked up ‘signs of a mutant’ on the internet. This means some are currently normal people as far as everyone is concerned. As you know, Charles’ Cerebro only detects active mutants, but with the list and me, I can tell you if they are, or their siblings or relatives are, and if those people might be more receptive to recruitment, to say the Brotherhood, or the X-men, or even your own team."

“Besides, as time progresses, we will be threatened by more than just Enhanced and Mutants.”

After hearing the Professor’s comment, Cable muttered. “I hate aliens.”

"I have a greater dislike towards the gods," Perceval added.

“Anything else?” Cable then asked.

The mage nodded and pointed out. “Secondary objective.”

‘Of course.’ Cable thought and tapped a couple controls to reveal the target. A middle-aged black man's face filled his screen, its sister screen had the man's bio. "Who the hell is Gorge Bridges?"

“Trask’s head of security.” The mage answered straight forward for once.

“And what am I doing to him?” Cable asked, half expecting to be another hit job.

"Kidnap and flip him," Perceval answered and then added. "Five weeks after your raid, he will be killed by a sniper. His death was ordered by his boss Donald Trask. The man thinks that Bridges is stealing money from the company. But he wasn't."

“What was he doing?” Cable asked.

“He is a double agent for SHIELD.”

Cable glanced at the hologram of the frost giant before asking the mage. “Is this wise?”

"There is a risk that this may backfire on us, but in the end, this may also open up some roads for us," Perceval admitted, and then cautioned. "Don't let him know you know that he is a double agent, everything points to that going the worst way possible if you reveal it too early."

“What do we know about the assassin? Should I wait and take them out instead?” Cable asked, wanting to know more about his options.

The screen flickered in front of him again, and he groaned at the sight of it. As he saw a younger, but also very familiar face to him. It showed him a very pale woman with raven black hair and a black tattoo mark around her left eye.

The mage smirked as he explained. "Her powers make her age slower, so she was much older than the thirty-something body she had when you two first met would have suggested. The fact that you managed to get her pregnant was also probably a result of her powers."

“How old is she now?” Cable asked, more out of curiosity rather than a desire to kindle an early romance.

Perceval smiled as he answered. “She will kill Bridges on her nineteenth birthday. So she is totally legal for you.”

"I prefer older women," Cable muttered, before shutting off the data in front of him. Then he leaned back and asked. "No tertiary objective?"

The mage shrugged before suggesting. “I would suggest destroying any hard files or blueprints that they have for the Mark-two sentinels, but I doubt you will be able to truly stop them from being built. The damn machines are like roaches.”

Cable agreed to the suggestion but didn't say or do anything to make the man think that he did.

"One last thing, in case we don't speak again in time. Make sure you're free in late October or early November." Perceval said rather suddenly.

“Oh?” Cable asked unsure of what he was supposed to be doing then.

“You will be meeting him then.” The man told him, rather cryptically.

Cable pressed his hands on his hips as he asked. “Who?”

The mage answered. “The Redeemer.”

Cable had to take a deep breath at hearing that. Then he asked. “Any suggestions on what to say to him when I do? After all, he is your old man.”

Perceval rubbed his eyes before answering. "Nothing in particular, you need to remember at this stage he is rather cold. Treating people on how he perceives them. Allies and guests like family, and strangers as unknowns, and enemies as vermin that only need to be eliminated. Do not make him think you are an enemy."

Just as Cable was about to nod to the man, the image went black and the emitter returned to nest hidden in the ceiling. Then he sighed and moved over to navigation. It was the only station that he had personalized.

Beside the flight stick was a photo. He picked it up and looked at it.

In it was him in the middle. On his left was his wife Domino, on his right was Destiny, her crossbow replaced with the plasma rifle that he now used. And in front of him was his daughter, Mabel. She was waving at the camera while also trying to make her teddy bear wave too.

As he stared at it, he felt the regret of what he did return. His organic eye started to swell up and tears started to form. His cyborg arm returned the photo to where he liked it, as his real one wiped away the beginning of his tears.

Without looking at the hologram, he asked. “Do you regret it?”

“What?”

"Becoming a thought engine," Cable explained his question to Giant.

“At the time, I was dying… I didn’t qualify for any Servant classes, so it was this or quit. And I am no quitter.”

Cable nodded at the hologram’s answer. “I need you to help me, so I don’t become a quitter too.”

“I will do what I can.”