Oh mother tell your children, not to do what I have done.

[verynaughtymutant]

Cable could be called a great deal of things but he wasn't a coward. He wasn't scared of physical pain, or death, or of what people thought of him or of making the hard choices. He wasn't afraid of anything, really.

So when he opened his eyes to find that the trees and sun of Tabula Rasa had turned into stone dark tunnels and the birdsong replaced by the familiar march of pounding feat, he reacted more with annoyance then fear. This was another trick by his hosts, presumably, and he intended to treat this one just like he treated any other. He would sit patiently in a comfortable seat and wait for it to be over with as little fuss as possible. He'd long since grown tired of other people trying to make him dance on their strings and didn't like to give them the satisfaction of reacting.

It wasn't until he heard the voices that he knew that something was wrong. Around him were soldiers, which wasn't unusual and they were looking at him expectantly, which also wasn't unusual but, in this case, he recognized them. They all wore faces and voices that should have been forgotten over the years but somehow never had been.

"Dayspring," he heard himself being addressed by a name he'd long discarded and realized, vaguely, how much younger he must be, "do you think the Autosystems are still on line?"

And that was when he knew which day it was. And for the first time in a very long time, he was afraid of what came next.

Comments

[tearsthrulife.livejournal.com]

Catching the body was no trouble at all for Rahne; only slightly more difficult was reminding herself that she was meant to be careful with him, that he wasn't a part of it, not letting her physical instincts override what she retained of her mental ones. She knew his situation, though, had been there herself, and that reminder wasn't one she could easily shake. Nearly a year had passed, but she hadn't lost sight of what she'd done, and hand in hand with it went why she'd done it in the first place. He could be helped, stopped from doing something he would regret, the chance she hadn't gotten.

Without a word, she pulled him close, pure adrenaline keeping her upright and pressing forward when they'd been through this so many times, now. Not having the luxury of time to be able to stay and fight anyone necessary, she moved as quickly as she could to the others, jaw set. They were on a short schedule, and she'd be damned if she were going to have to start all over again.

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

It only took a second for Rahne to get Tyler back to Hope and then they all bodyslided out of the tunnel, Stryfe raging behind them, and reappeared back in the Clan Chosen camp.

"Good job," Cable told Rahne and Zell, as he rose back to his feet, before switching languages to address the beaming soldiers around him. "Good Job."

Hope had reached forward to grab her nephew as he began to wake up and Cable took the opportunity to turn away. With any luck the loop would end before he had to speak to him.

Only he could hear Hope shouting his name and he knew that, illusion or not, he couldn't ignore his son for long.

So he turned back as Tyler got to his feet.

"Dad," he said hesitantly, "I thought you'd given up on me."

"No," Cable managed to make it sound sincere even though he knew he was lying. "No, Tyler, I never did."

And then, though he wasn't quite sure how, he was holding his son in his arms and there were tears on his cheek and how he hated, hated the fact that he had to go through this when his real son was long dead. That he couldn't afford to just ignore this illusion in case that meant the loop would repeat again.

"You're my son," he said, slipping into English without quite realizing it. "You're my son. I would never give up on you."

And then the world shifted one last time and Cable was back on the Island.

(OOC: Zell's post skipped with permission so I could do the wrap up.)