Born to Darkness: Prologue
by Adriana Scaletti & Jeff O.
Disclaimer: Everybody is Marvel's. The story is settled around X-Men # 34 and Cable # 17. And yes, this is ANOTHER 'Kinda-What-if' (very strong emphasis on IF. You'll see...;) Cable & Domino piece. So I can't help myself. Deal with it. :) This one requires a basic knowledge of Summerses' history. (Aww, c'mon. It can't be that hard! ;) But first, an EXTREMELY interesting quote, from X-Force # 57:
[Mr. Sinister]: "Don't you find it the least bit ironic? That _you_ of all people would stand _against_ me, Domino?"
As you can see now, all eighteen words made me wonder...
Scott Summers is a man of strength and control. A man of peace. A man of family.
A man who _cannot_ control all of what he is, or the harsh reality that surrounds him; yet struggles with his heart and soul. A man who has lived more years than he can remember fighting a war in which victory could means peace, and who in the process has found friends and love and forged a family.
A family that has been victimized and manipulated for as long as he can remember.
Nathan Dayspring is, too, a man of strength and control. But he is also a man of war. A man who used to have a family in a time yet to come, and that has very few friends left.
A man who knows of control, has tested it upon himself in a fight already half-lost and has seen the way it can direct and destroy minds. A man who views life as an endless war, who thrives in battle and who wants little more than to go in a blaze of glory, to finally rest, once the final Mission is accomplished.
A man who sometimes isn't sure if he can even trust himself.
But somehow, he trusts *her*.
A woman know as 'Domino'. A woman of many secrets.
Neither man knows her real name. She, however, knows theirs very well. Her name has been...connected to them, for more than a century now, even if she hasn't faced Scott Summers but four or five times and she hasn't lived more than thirty years.
Scott Summers is the father of Nathan Dayspring. They discovered this only recently, after much tragedy and hardship. Still, the knowledge makes both men feel they had finally found their place in the equation of life, for Scott knows now the man his son has become, and Nathan knows his father and his quest.
She knows *her* father was the one who started that equation, while coldly mixing amino acids to create a single, pre-determinated life. A life that developed into a spiral of sorrow in the process. She knows that, and a few other things.
She knows that last Monday her father became 185 years old. She knows he is an intelligent but somewhat...obsessive man. She knows him at his best and his worst. She knows of times when his worst was everything he had left. She knows her father's many different names. She knows there was a time when he only had one. It was Nathaniel Essex.
Of course she knows.
She just hasn't told *them*. She's sure they...wouldn't understand. To put it midly.
She doesn't want to lose their trust. Not Nathan's trust.
So she doesn't talk about it. She never brings up the subject.
And yes, she prays every night they never find out.
But she also knows no amount of luck can keep a secret -any secret- buried forever.