Midnight Justice: Part 1

by JenesisX

 


Author's Notes: I've been working on this story for months now, and just lost my inspiration for a while really. I finally decided how to finish this part the other day, though, and rather than just let it sit around in my files until I finish the rest, I figured I'd share what I have for now. It makes a decent enough story on its own, I guess, though lots of things were left unanswered. I do plan to finish this eventually, I just don't know when yet! I hope you enjoy what I've done so far, though, and just have a little bit of patience with me. Some day, I *will* write the rest! =) Thanks, everyone!


The streets of Seattle at night were an unforgiving place, shadows kept so carefully hidden during the day freely lurking about to consume anyone foolish enough to tempt them. Aside from the distant sound of traffic, singing stray cats, and a few shrill sirens cutting through the stale, polluted air, the city itself seemed to be sleeping, no longer the blinding flurry of activity it was during the day. Businessmen and shoppers were replaced by darker figures, drug dealers and thieves moving about their crimes under the cover of darkness. Anyone brash enough to leave the safety of their homes at such a late hour was fair game on the streets.

From the rooftops of the highest buildings, it was possible to see for blocks around, taking in all of the events otherwise hidden by similar structures and dark alleys. It was for that reason two figures were perched atop one of the tallest apartment buildings in the heart of the city at just after one in the morning, unseen by those on the streets but able to observe their every action.

Only one of the figures was actively observing the area below, however, his female companion sitting farther back from the building's ledge atop a discarded wooden crate. While his eyes continuously scanned each car that sped by and every person slinking about in the alleyways or on the corners, his mind also reached out across the city, telepathically searching for any traces of fear or distress that went above the usual domestic argument or drunken fist fight. Though he was deep in concentration, crouched close to the ledge with a deep frown etched across his face, he managed to listen absently to his partner as she spoke from behind him.

"You're never going to find this guy, Nate," the woman said, her eyes never leaving the open newspaper she held in her lap. "The authorities have been on the trail for months, and they still have nothing. This is a big city... Even with your powers, you can't hope to find one person in all of this."

"You don't know that," he replied, never taking his eyes off of the street below. "And even if you are right, I still have to try."

The woman sighed heavily, shaking her head in annoyance. "Stubborn old man," she muttered under her breath, giving up on the argument that had raged for days now and returning to her paper.

"I heard that, Domino..." Cable replied, though his tone was absent and he didn't so much as turn to look at her.

"You were meant to, not that it does any good," she shot back, her eyes scanning the text before her as she spoke. She made a small, disgusted sound a moment later, shifting the newspaper around a bit before her. Her companion noticeably tensed at the sound, and she couldn't quite suppress an amused smirk at having annoyed him. "It's an interesting story, though," she continued in a quiet voice, not phased in the least when his only reply was a small grunt of agreement.

"This guy has been going around the city for three months now, apparently following young women home after picking them out as victims, and then killing them as soon as they've laid down to go to sleep..." Domino said thoughtfully, still scanning the front page article in the paper she held. She'd never been good at waiting, after all, and she needed something to do rather than sitting around staring at Cable's back for hours on end. "And twelve victims later, no one has ever seen or heard a thing..." she went on, slowly shaking her head. "He must be good. And using a sharp object to do the job is more quiet than, say, a gun... His mode of operation is pretty sick, too. He sneaks into the house, then barges into the bedroom with his--"

"Don't you think I've read that?" Cable snapped over his shoulder, blue eyes shining with tension as he glared at her. "I've read everything there is to know about the killer... And you shouldn't be so sure it's a man, by the way. There's no proof of that."

"Serial killers are almost exclusively male, Nate," Domino replied coolly, briefly returning his glare before returning to her reading. "I thought you were aware of that fact."

"I am, but without the evidence I'd rather keep all the options open," he replied, turning away again to stare down at the street. The telekinetic energy radiating from his left eye cast a faint golden glow about him as he crouched there in waiting, his hands clenched tightly around the guard rail just before the ledge of the rooftop. Domino sighed in frustration, turning the page of the newspaper with only the smallest bit of sound. It was still enough to make Cable tense again, though, as if he feared every resident of Seattle had heard her.

"I still don't get the point of this, you know," Domino said a moment later, setting the newspaper aside and standing from the crate on which she'd been seated. "Murderers are a common thing in big cities like this, as sad as it is. Why, all of a sudden, are you engaged in a personal war with this particular psychopath?"

"I don't think I'd go so far as to call it a war..."

"All right, fine," she said, rolling her eyes as she began to pace the rooftop behind him. "I was just wondering why the hell you've dragged me up on some god forsaken apartment rooftop every night for the last three days in a row, in the freezing cold I might add."

"Shh... And I didn't drag you anywhere. You asked to come."

"Only because I want to know what's gotten into you," Domino admitted, folding her arms across her chest for warmth. She was freezing even in her heavy winter jacket, though Cable didn't seem to notice the drastic drop in temperature from just a few hours before. She watched her breath turn to white smoke in the air before her as she continued pacing, wondering just how cold it really was at thirty stories up in the middle of winter. "Come on, Nate, what's the connection here? Do you know this guy? One of the victims?"

"No, nothing like that," Cable said with a faint shake of his head, leaning an elbow on the railing as he knelt before it and tiredly rested his chin in the palm of one hand. He sighed, a tension evident in his expression despite his efforts to hide it. Domino frowned and walked around to his side, glaring down at him accusingly.

"Then what is it?" Domino asked with a rising annoyance in her voice. "It must be something pretty important, because you're pushing yourself too far scanning this whole damn city. It's obvious, whether you want to hide it or not!"

"I'm not pushing myself too far," Cable muttered in reply, though he looked a bit embarrassed that she'd noticed. She was right, he admitted to himself. He already had a splitting headache from the continuous, long range telepathic scan, though he did his best to block out the pain and concentrate on his task.

"Don't lie, Nate. I've known you for long enough to know when you're exhausting yourself."

Cable suddenly bolted to his feet and turned to face Domino, looming over her and glaring down with angry eyes. "Fine. I stopped scanning. I couldn't concentrate with all of your talking anyway. Are you happy now?"

"No! You never answered my question." Domino folded her arms stubbornly, glaring right back at him. Anyone else would have been intimidated by the thickly built, six-and-a-half-foot-tall Cable giving such a withering look of annoyance, but not she. She'd worked with him for long enough to know that while he did have a temper and a stubborn streak as long as her own, he would never do anything to hurt her even if he did lose his cool. On the rooftop in the middle of a mission he seemed to view as very important, Domino knew he couldn't explode without giving away their cover, and he couldn't run away or hide from her questions very well, either. Sooner or later, he was going to have to answer her, and she wasn't going to give up until he did. Still, she remained a bit cautious as she studied him, not really wanting him angry with her. The man could hold a grudge indefinitely, after all.

Cable sighed, looking heavenward in frustration. "The why of any situation is secondary to the situation itself," he said flatly, turning to peer over the ledge of the roof again. It was a fortunate move, for if looks could kill, he would have been dead and buried.

"Damn you, don't start quoting your Askani proverbs at me now! I want an answer, a real answer, and I want it now."

"How did you ever survive as a mercenary all these years when you're this loud?" Cable complained, briefly sounding like an irritated child. "No, let me guess... Because you're lucky." His voice dripped with sarcasm, and Domino did her best not to lose her temper completely and start a shouting match on some poor tenant's roof in the middle of the night. Instead, she bit her lip until the urge to call him a few particularly nasty words passed, then spoke in her coolest tone.

"Answer the question," she demanded to his back, her entire body tense with annoyance. She almost hoped he could sense her negative feelings through their psi link, so he would have to suffer for being so secretive and stubborn for once. She got the impression that he'd been partially blocking the link over the last few days, though, and the thought scared as much as irritated her.

Cable sighed, following a passing car with his eyes as it ran a red light, then sharply turned left about a block away. With the aid of his techno-organic eye, he saw that it was just a few slightly intoxicated teenagers, and not the infamous serial killer he sought. "You wouldn't understand," he told her quietly, his deep voice as quiet as he could manage. "My reasons don't matter all that much, anyway, Dom. What does is stopping this killer before he... or she... hurts anyone else."

"You know, that's what really pisses me off about you," Domino said, her calm tone in sharp contrast to her words. "You're always telling me, and everyone else, that we 'wouldn't understand' what you're doing or why you're doing it, yet you never tell us to give us that chance. Why don't you try me on this one? I'm supposed to be your partner, after all."

"It's silly," Cable protested, looking away from her concerned gaze and back over the ledge of the roof.

"'Silly' is one of the last words I'd use to describe you, Nate," Domino said with a faint smile. "Now, words like stubborn, conceited, irritating, brooding, arro-"

"All right, I get the idea!" Cable exclaimed, turning to face her with his first real smile in days. "You know, you're not very nice, Dom."

"I'm not supposed to be. Now come on and let me in on why I'm up here in such pleasant company, freezing my ass off when I should be in bed."

"Are you cold?" Cable asked with concern, looking her over for a minute. "I could--"

"Nathan. Stop avoiding the issue."

"Right..." He sighed, then sat down on one of the wooden crates, gesturing for Domino to take the one across from him. Once she had, curling her legs beneath her and folding her arms across her chest for warmth, she watched him intently across the small distance between then.

"Okay, I'm listening," she coaxed when he didn't speak for nearly a minute. Normally, she had a low tolerance for his secretive ways, though she knew she put up with a hell of a lot more than most people would be able to, and for much longer at that. That night, though, she was cold and tired, and her patience had more than run out. "Any day now, Nate..."

"Will you stop rushing me?" he snapped, finally looking up from the rooftop beneath his feet and meeting her eyes. His expression quickly softened, though, and he sighed as he studied her annoyed glare. "I'm trying to remember everything exactly as it was. It was a long time ago... For me, anyway."

"Oh god, not another time-travel story," Domino groaned, holding a gloved hand to her forehead. "I'm not sure I can take one of those tonight."

"You're the one who wanted an answer so badly," Cable said, raising an eyebrow at her. "Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Yeah, yeah... Go ahead."

When Cable finally spoke, he seemed to be looking over Domino's head, his eyes unfocussed as he searched inside himself for the right words. "This happened in my future time, as you already guessed," he began, his voice a bit hesitant. He always seemed that way when talking about his past, Domino noted. "Tyler was no more than six years old... " Domino tried to do the math in her head, to figure out how long ago the time of which he spoke really was for Cable, but gave up in frustration a moment later. She couldn't even figure out how old he was much less anything else.

"Anyway... One morning, we found a member of the Clan dead in his tent... Murdered brutally," Cable went on, still avoiding looking at her as he spoke in a quiet voice. "We did everything we could to find out what happened, but there was no evidence and no trail to follow. We held a service for the man and went on... But a week later, we found a woman dead, killed in the same way."

"Your camp had a serial killer?" Domino asked in disbelief. From what she had seen of the place on her brief visit there, it had appeared to be quaint, yet peaceful and unified. If you didn't know there was a war going on and see all of the weapons and old injuries around the place, you could almost believe they lived completely normal, happy lives. "One of your own?"

"I'm getting to that," Cable sighed, shifting his gaze from over her head to the slim railing, all that separated those who came too close to the edge from becoming just another stain on the cracked sidewalk below. "It happened three more times over the next month. I had guards everywhere, around the clock... We patrolled the camp constantly, we told people not to sleep alone and to be extremely cautious... But everything I tried failed, and the killer always managed to get to someone else."

"Nathan, I don't see how any of that is your fault," Domino interjected when she saw the familiar looked of pained guilt in his eyes, shaking her head at him in annoyance. At the same time, she tried her best to hide the deep sympathy she felt for him, carefully keeping her old emotional walls in place. "It sounds like you did everything possible to keep your people safe and catch the killer."

"When you're dealing with saving people's lives, trying doesn't count for very much, Dom," Cable said, his words heavy with emotion that revealed he spoke of more than that incident alone. "I did try, though. By the second killing, I was constantly walking around the camp with my gun, looking everywhere and questioning people on anything odd they might have seen. I wouldn't even sleep half the time, until Aliya would come looking for me and drag me back to our tent..." A faint smile of fond remembrance played across his lips, but quickly vanished, replaced by a deep frown of regret.

"No matter what I or anyone else did, the killer managed to keep doing what they wanted, sneaking into our camp and killing people in cold blood, then getting away without ever being seen or heard..." Cable continued. Domino was intrigued, listening intently as she studied him. He seemed so tense that, for just a moment, she wanted to reach out and comfort him, but she quickly pushed the thought aside and simply nodded. "He killed eight people before it was all over... And one of them was a child."

"That's horrible," Domino said, feeling a bit ill. "It's one thing to go after people your own size, who have a chance to fight back. But a child..."

"I know. This was a sick individual, obviously... I think it would have hit me hard no matter who he killed, but when he killed that little boy, I lost it. Valan was Tyler's best friend..." Cable paused, allowing himself a weary sigh before going on in a quiet voice. "You shouldn't have to tell a six-year-old that someone killed their friend, and there was nothing his father could do about it... Eventually, the killings just stopped and the murderer moved on... probably to kill somewhere else. And I was never able to give those who died and their families any justice..."

At that moment, Domino understood exactly what the last three days had been about. Cable felt as if he had failed his own people when they had been haunted by an invisible killer, much as the authorities of Seattle were now failing the people they were sworn to protect. But it was more than that. She knew that he blamed himself for every loss, every death, that had ever occurred during the rebellion he led, including that of his wife. Somehow, this killer was bringing back memories of his past and sharpening the guilt he always fought so hard to hide. It must have driven him crazy until he simply had to act on it, explaining why he'd been so tense and irritable lately, even for him. Maybe, she thought, he felt that if he could catch this killer, he'd partially make up for what he perceived as his failure to his Clan when he couldn't stop people from dying... and to his own son, who had to live through far too many of those deaths. Sighing heavily, Domino began to regret how harshly she'd been treating him the last few days, though she remained irritated that he hadn't shared his reasons with her earlier.

"Nate, I'm sorry," she said quietly, laying a soft hand on his shoulder. She wasn't sure if she was apologizing for their current situation, or for what he had gone through that night in the future, but she supposed it didn't really matter. He finally looked up and met her eyes, a weak smile of gratitude replacing his frown.

"Thanks, Dom."

The two sat in silence for nearly an hour after that, Cable returning to his perch at the railing while Domino stared at his back and wondered just how much she still didn't know or understand about the man she'd worked with for so long. Even with all of the unanswered questions, she felt closer to him than she did to anyone else, something that terrified her when she realized on occasion that it might be much more than friendship she was feeling. Shaking her head, forcing the thoughts from her mind, she allowed him to go about his mission of redemption in silence, until exhaustion began to win out.

Yawning, she stood and slowly walked up behind him, placing a hand on each of his shoulders. He looked up in surprise, as if he'd forgotten she was there, and she found herself smiling with amusement.

"Remember me?" she asked, lifting her hands and folding them across her chest as she raised one eyebrow at him. She won a slight grin from him as he rose to his feet, also looking exhausted and ready to collapse. "Come on, let's call it a night. It's getting so late that it's almost early again."

He glanced down at his watch and then nodded reluctantly, seemingly too tired to argue with her. "You're right... I guess nothing is going to happen tonight. Let's head back and get some sleep..."

"Best news I've heard all night." Taking his arm, she turned and led him toward the fire escape they'd used to reach the roof hours before. As tense as the evening had been, Domino believed that she had gained something invaluable that night despite the arguing and darker feelings they'd shared. Though there was still much she didn't know, and probably wouldn't ever discover, about him, she'd learned just a little bit more about Cable and his motives that night on the roof. It wasn't much, true, but at the moment she was exhausted and it was enough.



Back to Archive