Summary

  In another time, where swordsmen fought against magic, Cable was the Traveler, a healer, philosopher, and warrior, who kept the tribes unified. This day he's a savior, riding to the Relic of Karanada, where danger awaits. The Council of Nirinthia warned him months ago, but he was busy eluding assassins sent by En Sabah Nur. Now he may be out of time.

  The only one in town is a woman, D'Narda, who fears the priests have sacrificed everyone to awaken Skornn. They go into the catacombs to find the relic; the village was built on the site of the Karanda after the city was swallowed whole into the earth. Now her magics sense only silence, and they find nothing but corpses, including the priests. Skornn has fed well, and though the Traveler has seen much death, it never fails to anger him.

  Skornn lurks in the shadows, a large, reptilian form. He knows the Traveler is from another time, where mutants ran rampant; they are both separate from humanity, which Skornn sees as appetizers, whereas mutants are his food.

  Cable wakes from his meditation and falls to the ground; Domino (last seen Weapon X II:13) points out his T-O arm is becoming a claw, so Cable concentrates and puts it back to normal. Something attacked him through his telepathic shields and effected his arm despite the TK sheath guarding it. "Only big trouble can smack me that hard," and he fears a tear in the temporal field.

  Suddenly, Helix ninjas burst through the window. They tell the Askani'son that the Order of the Five Blades has decreed his death. Cable tells Domino they're from 1400 years in the future; she doesn't want to know more. They've fought together for years, and she's never asked about his time travelling.

  They fight. Cable has a psimitar again (cf. Cable 89, 100), and a new blaster installed in his T-O arm; the Helix are soon defeated. Domino asks why they're so hard to beat; Cable says they're genetically modified to kill mutants. She thinks it's pathetic that humans and mutants are still fighting a thousand years from now. As the bodies teleport away, Cable realizes Skronn is back, since they mentioned the Five Blades. He and Domino fly off to Mt. Xixabangma, in the Himalayas.

  There, in a monastery, Shatterstar confronts ninja monks. He came there for solace but still wakes every day with the desire to kill him. Raised on another world, he can't change, so he's being expelled, and not without "quarrel." They denounce him as "anti-life"; although they teach martial arts, they do it only as a means of cherishing life. Shatterstar fights them, saying that's just hot air, and being trained to fight doesn't mean you understand being born to fight. He was genetically engineered for this; the desire to maim and kill is in his blood.

  Suddenly, a tether shoots out and steals the sword from his hand; it's Domino, and Cable says he can't have it back till he stops "trying to kill the nince ninja monks." Shatterstar demands to know what they want; they're not here for him.

  Cable's friends with Zed, the chief monk, and tells him Shatterstar came to this world seeking help, but Cable failed him. Shatterstar disagrees, saying he gave him family and purpose, but he failed Cable. Cable changes the subject and asks for his help; he makes sure it involves mindless violence, and then agrees.

  Rhe Five Fingers of Annihilation is a sword, the only only on Earth that can kill Skornn, which is a mutant-eating creature. Humans from the future are losing their war with mutants and so came back to get the sword, to protect it and bring Skornn back to life.

  Helix attack the monks and make it to the sanctuary; Domino realizes they tracked them right to the sword. Cable wonders if they are able to track him using chronal particals from all the time traveling he's done; some may call it stupidity on his part, but he calls it a plan. They fight; Shatterstar is annoyed by the constant prattle of his teammates but then finds himself doing the same thing. A Helix grabs Zed and stabs him with the sword, letting it drink his blood.

  Shatterstar is infuriated at the ignoble murder; this world knows nothing of mettle, justice, or even humanity. He was bred as a fighter, just like the Helix, yet he was also a mutant. On this world he was given the pretense of humanity, only to have it exposed as a lie. He came to the monastery as a last resort, only to be told he failed, so he now resolves to succeed as a weapon of mass destruction. He quickly overcomes the Helix and grabs the sword, determined to guard it.

  Cable tells him he's not a failure, but a work in progress, and assures him the sword will be a lightning rod for bloodshed.

  Notes: Shatterstar looks identical to Benjamin Russell (X-Force I:61), a mutant in a permanent coma, but is really Gaveedra-7, a genetically bred warrior from the Mojoverse (New Mutants I:100).