Harsh Words

[cable]

cable thought he better get back in to training. He walked in to the gym he only had shorts and trainers on and it felt odd. Normally he would train in his combat gear and this gym did not have what he wanted but he knew there was a few people in the school who wanted to talk to him so he was going to give them the chance.

He was impressed the tech her was good for this time the equipment had been modified to fit in with mutant powers Such as helping people who were super strong to push there powers. People appeared to give him a wide birth. The metal of his arm and back glinted in the light as he climbed on to the treadmill. With a small gesture it started and the speed built up and started to run.

The thing moved faster and faster. He pushed him self faster he went past normal speed his body could handle these paces for longtime he was more than a telekinetic his body was enhanced beyond human normals. he had been running for half an hour when he felt some one looking at him.

[lorna]

She was dressed for a run. Unfortunately, when Lorna had opened her curtain after getting dressed, she noticed the snow and had cursed softly. Of course, it was the middle of winter in New York, it was going to snow. But did it have to be so deep? She honestly hadn't been paying any attention to the weather report but even she could tell there were more then a few inches on the ground.

Which meant none of the roads or paths would be clear yet. Damn, damn, damn. Not a great way to start off the day.

So she'd slipped out of the sweatpants and sweatshirt she'd put on and made her way toward the gym wearing a moisture wicking tank top and a pair of workout shorts. At least she'd been able to keep the same shoes on as it didn't matter whether she'd worn them inside or out, they were the most comfortable running shoes she'd ever owned.

She could feel something before even entering the room but when she did, Lorna paused. Of all the people to run in to first thing in the morning...It was going to be one of those days, right?

Lorna almost turned and left, coming back later but then her inherited stubbornness kicked in. Why should she have to be the one to leave? This was her home and had been for far longer then he'd been here. She was still standing in the doorway, arms crossed when he noticed her.

She had to actually force her legs to move into the room. Wasn't this how she'd run into the first time? Only then, it had been in Central Park when the weather was still halfway decent.

[cable]

"you know even with out my powers i can feel your eyes digging in to my skull." he did not stop or move in truth he had seen her reflection for only a second in a mirror but his brain worked faster than most. His Bionic eye had recorded the image and well that second was all he needed. " so is this when you yell and threaten to rip the metal out of my body? Well i hate to tell you its as much organic as it is metallic. Its also not that magnetic but then there is a lot of it."

He knew she would be unable his powers would hold it in to place. Granted it would hurt if she did but it would grow back it was a cancer and it would slowly kill him but then he had time and now was that time. "so come on let the verbal assault start."

[lorna]

“You know,” she replied to him as she moved closer to the treadmills. “I don't have any desire to kill you. Make you suffer a bit, maybe but I find murder to be rather distasteful.”

Besides, murder was what Magneto did and no matter what evidence had turned up, namely a letter from her mother, she wasn't like Magneto, would never be like him. In fact, now that she was beginning to realize that what Cable had told her very well could be true, she was doing everything in her power to stop from being anything like the man who might have sired her.

His metal body may not be pure inorganic metal but there was still enough there for her to feel him like she could others with metal body parts. No, he didn't send her powers buzzing like Logan could but it was enough to make her very aware of the man in the room. More aware then she really wanted to be.

Walking to the treadmill that he was on, she stopped in front of it so that he would have to be pointedly ignoring her if he didn't look at her. Not that she didn't put it past him to blatantly ignore her but she wasn't going to make it easy. Besides, when she spoke to someone she wanted to see their faces.

“Cable, Nathan, whatever you call yourself,” she began, leaning against the mirrored wall that he currently faced. “I am not here to yell at you or make a scene. I didn't even know you were here until I walked in.”

She looked up at him, smiling as innocently as she could. “If I were going to yell at you, I'd call you a no good bastard who thinks more with his gun then he does with his brain,” she continued, her voice placid and the fake smile still on her lips.

[cable]

"Technically i am a bastard i think. My parents are not married as for Not thinking a head, well i do i think 100 years a head. It may not seam like i do but every thing i do is to benefit humanity in the long run. Long term answers to a long term problem i don't put band aids on a broken bone. As for the gun's let me tell you some thing i can shatter a mountain with a thought if i want to."

he kept running a smile creping on his lips as he did "as for the killing part i dont think you could even if you wanted to. Not because i am stronger or faster than you or even more powerfull but for a simple reason, you don't have a killers soul."

[lorna]

Lorna wanted to bang her head into the nearest wall when Cable calmly told her that he really was technically a bastard. That wasn't exactly how she'd meant that at all. His parentage was a bit weird for her, especially since he didn't know who his mother was and it wasn't Jean, who was actually married to Scott. Granted, the idea that he was Scott's son was a bit too much for her to really grasp as well. It was just...weird.

“Good for you,” she muttered when he talked about looking ahead and trying to fix today's problems with tomorrows solutions. It just didn't sit right with her. None of it did. Just because he knew the future didn't mean he could just come back and meddle in their past. It was a catch twenty two and she really didn't like any of it.

“I frankly don't care what you know about our future. What you did with Xavier was wrong. There are other ways of getting our attention and because of your actions, Amara got hurt. Is that what you were doing? Weeding out who you thought wouldn't be able to handle whatever you say is coming at us?” she demanded.

When she'd found out about Amara, she'd been concerned. When she found out that the entire kidnapping was a ruse on his part, she'd been pissed. Still was, for that matter. “It was senseless and needless violence,” she added.

“You're lucky I don't have a killing soul. If I did, you'd likely be number one on my hit list,” she told him, glaring at him.

There was something about him that made her so angry she could scream.

[cable]

"really what if i told you there was some one in the school who is going to decimate 99% of the mutant population with a few simple words. If i gave you the ability to stop it would you? Join the club, i have spent my whole life with people trying to kill me so one more, well lets say i am not going to lose any sleep over it.

Amara was a mistake she should not of been hurt, i am no perfect i may be dam close but i am close to it. " cable did not know what to say to that he did feel slightly guilty about what had happened.

[lorna]

“Is going to or might?” she asked regarding the one who supposedly was going to decimate most of the mutants. “Aren't you here to like change all that so that life is perfect for everyone?” she added, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Why she disliked the idea of someone knowing her future so much was beyond her but it just irked her to no end. It was almost like he was dangling the information in front of her then pulling it back as soon as she reached for it. If he knew their future, good for him but if he didn't stop toying with her about it, she was likely to do something she'd regret. Lorna had a temper and for some reason, Cable was more then capable of triggering it faster then nearly anyone she'd ever met.

When he claimed to be damned close to perfect, Lorna rolled her eyes. “Nathan, you are about as close to perfect as I am and that's not even close,” she informed him.

He owed Amara big time, in her opinion. If he wasn't so interested in playing god, her best friend wouldn't have been hurt and that was all there was to it. It was also getting on her nerves that the whole time she'd been there, he'd not stopped running. So with little more then a thought, she attempted to shut down the electronics with the use of her powers. If it worked, the machine would spark, smoke and be completely useless. It would also stop abruptly and the thought of Cable falling off the treadmill was enough to almost make her smile.

[cable]

"thats Dependant on your perspective really. " he laughed. The treadmill stopped most people would fall of but cable floated an inch above the machine. "Yes that is why i am here but i am looking at the long term. I could kill this person and believe me i want to but its more complicated than that. here is a question for you? have you ever wanted to go back and chance some thing you done?" he sat down in the air and looked down at the treadmill now puffing smoke.

HE was tempted to fix it but it was clear Lorna did not like the idea of multi tasking when you were talking to her. she would be mad if she knew the truth that he was talking to some one else back on the island.

[lorna]

Okay, so she had to admit she was a bit disappointed that he didn't go falling onto his butt when she stopped the machine. However, she wasn't surprised. For all she knew, he was poking around her head, knowing everything she was going to do or say before she even did it. It was annoying but her former best friend was one of the world's most powerful telepaths. As much as it galled Lorna, she was used to being around them.

“So now coming back in time to get rid of all the bad things that could happen is complicated? With the way you enjoy messing with people's lives, I would think you'd have hardened yourself against it by now,” she retorted.

When asked if there was anything in her life she'd want to go back and change, only one answer came to mind immediately. Only it wasn't something she'd done and all it would do would prevent her from ever being born. As much as she wanted to deny the truth, she was beginning to see that she couldn't. If only Cable had kept his mouth shut back in New York, she'd still be blissfully unaware as to who her mother had had an affair with.

“Well, sure but nothing that is terribly important. Unlike you, I've led a rather mundane life. But you probably already knew that,” she replied, smirking at him.

She was tempted to poke him and see if he'd go head over heels with the way he was sitting in mid-air. Why she wanted to do that was beyond her. It was childish but he was irritating her in ways she couldn't explain. What she should have done was walked away the second she saw he was in there but no, in true Lorna like fashion, she had to walk into the lions den and try to pet the beasts. Did she have a secret death wish or something?

[cable]

"Its changing time is hard. Its basic quantum physics, Its hard some times you have to have some suffering for the good of all kind. IF you could hurt a hundred people to save millions would you? What if you know that if you hurt the wrong people you would kill millions instead. I am here to stop a war and like it or not its not going to be nice.

I have payed the price time and time again. I know what its like to lose love ones and see every one you care for die in burning fire. I gave up my life and every one i loved to save a world i was born in to but never known."

Cable smiled as he sat there. " go on ask the question that every one seams to want them to know. The gossip wild in this place all you have to do is ask. I promos it will be the truth."
HE wondered whether she would no one else had asked apart from His father and Xavier of course.

[lorna]

Why did he keep throwing the exact same philosophical questions her way? He apparently knew her, knew of her from his time in the future (although how he'd know of her two thousand years in the future was beyond Lorna) so he should know how she would answer every single thing he'd asked. Cable, Nathan (that was still taking some getting used to), already said she didn't have a killers soul so why did he keep asking if she'd sacrifice a few to save the masses?

For all intents and purposes, she'd tell him no. There had to be another way, a better way. Death was not the answer each and every time, no matter how much doom and gloom he spewed from his lips. Lorna wasn't one to simply roll over and give in to the inevitable. She was a fighter, a scrapper and although she tended to stay away from some situations, she would never turn her back on anyone who needed help. That just wasn't in her.

So she chose not to answer his question. He knew it already and they both knew that.

“You talk about stopping a war but what you are proposing is nothing short of war itself. Is that your idea of making things better? To continue with war yet have it on your terms? Everything in life does not have to revolve around fighting with guns and mutant powers, Nathan. Have you ever once thought about trying it a different way? Maybe Xavier's way?” she asked him.

Honestly, the man thought about war more then she thought about sex and that was saying something. She was sorry about his past, she'd told him so back in New York but just because his past sucked didn't mean that everything for the rest of his life would suck.

It dawned on her right then just what it was about him that irritated her so much. It wasn't all this war talk, it wasn't even that he'd revealed to her that her father was one of the most notable terrorists of all time. It was that he'd essentially given up on life because of his past and felt that everyone else should do the same. Lorna wasn't a warrior, hadn't been raised in a time where all that was known was war, bloodshed and treachery. She had been raised with hope that there was still good out there and dammit, she saw it every single day.

Ironically, she had the sudden urge to prove to him that he was wrong to turn his back on his own humanity. No matter how much metal coated his body, the organic substance sucking his life away as he'd claimed to her once before, it wasn't an excuse to simply give in to the inevitable and allow it to happen. No, she didn't know how painful it was, how much of his energy was spent fighting it or any of those things. All she knew was that underneath, he was still a human being. He'd been born, he'd lived and yes, he would eventually die. Just like the rest of them.

He likely knew everything she was thinking, saw the realization dawning like a light bulb and would likely tell her she was wrong. Because he seemed to enjoy telling her she was wrong. That didn't stop her from thinking she wasn't wrong, though. If he knew her at all, he knew she was about as stubborn as a person got and when she set her mind on something, she followed through.

When he urged her to ask him about his parentage, she looked up and saw he was smiling. Strangely, he looked a lot like his father in that moment. Which was a bit squicky to think about so she pushed that thought aside. “Gossip and rumors have always run rampant in here. This home is filled with so many people that it's impossible to keep it out. Yes, I'm curious, of course. There was a time Jean was my best friend and to know that something happens or has happened to break apart one of the best relationships I've ever known is sad. So, Nathan Summers, who is your mother?” she asked, looking up at him but not really smiling.

[cable]

"no i talk about stopping a monster there a difference. The reason Xavier way will not work is this its people like me will the killers soul. People like Wade and Domino and Magneto we well we can kill. As long as people are like us teh world will never change and Xavier way will never work. The only way to get rid of us is to kill us and then the people are no better than we are.

No the world needs to change the way it looks at its self and yes force may be needed but it is a short term answer to a longer problem. Humans are violent its in there nature and that takes a lot to change. Tell me are you religious?" He smiled it would be interesting to see how she answered.

"Your going to love this its will sound like a sci fi film but its Jeans evil clone. I know it sounds stupid and even in my time its a bit odd. Technical jean is my mothers sister. When i was a baby i was infected by this techno organic virus that is eating my organic flesh and organs. Some one came back in time and offered to save me."

[lorna]

They were going in a circle. Everything he said was replied to by an answer that was opposite of what he believed. And her beliefs were thrown out the door like last weeks garbage by a man who'd led a harsher life then she'd likely ever understand. To say they were at a stand still would have been an understatement. They were definitely at an impasse, both of them having inherited a stubbornness from their fathers that would keep them on opposite sides of the philosophical fence for the remainder of their lives.

He could talk until he was blue in the face but he wasn't going to make her believe that his way was the right one. She wasn't particularly concerned that he could be right. If he was, so be it but she wouldn't be convinced until it had been proved to her. That was partly why she'd chosen the field of geology. Rocks and earth didn't lie. What was found there was cold hard evidence and nothing was going to change limestone into diamond or vise versa. There was no gray area, no fading of the lines. It was one or the other and nothing more, nothing less.

“I am not like you or like Magneto,” she said to him softly but with determination. “I do not want to be and honestly, there is nothing you can say to me to turn me into you. I enjoy my humanity too much to throw it away at your word. If that makes me a coward or something less then perfect, so be it. I've never claimed to be something more then I am.”

Lorna looked at him oddly when he asked if she was religious. What on earth did religion have to do with anything? “No, not particularly,” she replied. “My parents never took me to church when I was growing up and all I know about religions is what I studied in college. Why?” Cable didn't exactly strike her as the religious sort unless he was claiming to be the deity. In her opinion, he was conceited enough to do such a thing.

Then he pretty much told her to ask the question that everyone else seemed to be avoiding. Why? Were they afraid of this man? Yes, he was powerful, could kill her in his sleep but oddly enough, she didn't fear him. Instead, she found herself growing more and more fascinated by him the more she opposed him. Damn, she needed to get away from this place more.

As he told her about Jean's clone, her mouth fell open slightly but whether it was in shock, horror, disbelief or a combination of the three, even she couldn't tell. Her mouth moved a bit, as if trying to form words that just couldn't be made. Finally, she managed to say, “What? An evil clone? So help me, Cable, if you are joking, I am going to do more then try to throw you into Breakstone Lake.” With that, her powers activated, creating a soft green glow around the young woman's body, a side effect she'd never been able to turn off.

That had to be the most absurd thing she'd ever heard and while Nathan was definitely a bit more dramatic then most men she'd ever come across, she had yet to actually hear him lie outright. There was always a first for everything, though.

[cable]

"Its no lie and i would feel the same if i had no lived it. I am glad you said that you are not like your father and nothing I could say would change you. I have never tired to change you. I hope you never have to lose your humanity. If i am honest i lost mine a long time ago so that others would not have to. I did the dark things so others would not have to."

he looked at her truth be told she could power up all she wanted to he could kill her with a thought. "i dont lie the truth can some times be better than any lie i could make up."