Dragon's Claws #24

"Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets,
With a third dog one of the two dogs meets;
With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,
And this dog smarts for what that dog has done."
- Henry Fielding 'Tom Thumb the Great'

The council assembled in a specially closed session to preside over the trial of one of their own. His actions had been his undoing and, against all odds, he had been captured with a smoking gun in his hand, metaphorically speaking. The council comprised of Rick Jones, Reed Richards, Black Panther, the Vision and Magneto who for this would not be using Forge as his proxy. A council of five sitting in judgement with, the Vision presiding over the event as the Arbiter.

The accused stood up and Vision spoke, using the monitors to be present since his body proper had been destroyed in the first wave of attacks. His voice was emotionless and it seemed to fit the mood of the room. Nobody had expected it to come to this.

"Nathan Christopher Askani'Son Dayspring Summers, also known as Cable, you are hereby charged with the following: crimes against humanity, collaborating with the Martian forces, treason against the Resistance and the wilful theft of the weapons and equipment stored within the former Arsenal. How do you plead?"

Domino looked over to the father of her child, wondering what he was going to do, but he avoided her gaze.

"I plead guilty to charges two and three, but not guilty to the others. I will not take the blame for something I didn't do." His gaze was something between defiance and resignation. "And those other two charges are not my responsibility."

"We'll see," said Rick. "We'll see."

It was less than twenty-four hours since the breakout at the Arena. As the escaping prisoners fled through the tesseract portals, the agents of SHIELD, marshalled by the Dragon's Claws, had provided covering fire to get their comrades out of there. Heroes, villains, it didn't matter - they were evacuated to the temporary SHIELD base on a small island in the Pacific, formerly used as a SHIELD training facility. The Martians had come in thick and fast, their war machines coming to quell the rebellion, but they hadn't been fast enough, and their weapons of mass destruction had been rendered useless, for they had few people to fight against.

Jessica had led the charge, her powers flaring and working against the enemy with spectacular results, the other team members using some of the weapons of the Arsenal to keep the enemy at bay, all except Jack who had taken to throwing the SHIELD of Captain America, and he used it with a skill and grace not seen since the death of Steve Rogers. The disc hurtled through the air, the adamantium/vibranium alloy doing an exceptional amount of damage and returning to him. It looked so natural, as if he had always been doing it and in the background, Etorian Kaine nodded. This had been one of his objectives and he had accomplished it as well as freeing the captured warriors. Captain America was an icon, and if they could restore the icon, then there was still hope.

Roberto was pretty badly banged up after his fight with Doc Samson. His arm was broken, and how he wasn't a bloody pulp was a tribute to Samson's control, and though he was restrained he had given Roberto a serious pasting. He couldn't think of a time in his life when he'd taken that kind of punishment, and Sam, who was also helping Elena, covered him. Elena had taken a bad hit from Maverick, but she'd wanted it. Like Roberto, she was still going and doing her bit, knowing she could rest later. The two of them had much in common, she had thought to herself, and now they were in the relative comfort of the Resistance Compound, she idly wondered if they had anything more in common. SHIELD had evacuated the training compound to a new base, as the Martians would have been able to track their signature. Now they were back, the Resistance ranks had been bolstered dramatically and now they were out there, looking for payback and making sure that the alien reprisals were curtailed.

There had been a lot of reports about brutal consequences for the civilian populace, so ordered by the War Master Prime. The Martians had lost a lot of face and now they were restoring their authority by random mass executions, and ensuring the deaths were not swift, but slow and painful. No mercy was given as people were placed in the path of tripods and warships and were crushed underfoot, the weights bearing down on them in slow motion, giving them time to be aware of what was happening and the pain of being crushed in to pulp to last as long as humanly possible. There were organised executions of children and women taken to the breeding camps to replenish the Martian ranks. It had taken too long for the Resistance to respond, and they all knew it, so while there was a sense of satisfaction at the result of the Arena mission, there was disgust and revulsion at the sheer evil of the enemy in their reprisals. They hadn't attacked the Resistance directly; they'd attacked the people's faith in them.

"Damn," said Jessica as she reviewed the reports, a tear falling down her cheek. "Damn it all."

"Easy," said Sam. "We knew there'd be reprisals." She closed her eyes. "Nothing like this though."

"I don't know if it was worth it," she whispered. "Bobby and Elena are receiving medical treatment, people are dying… all for what? 270 people. They're not even attempting to capture metas now - it's kill, unless they're female, in which case they'll become breeders. And they still have my DNA tests to find a counter for my powers. We lost the Arsenal, Cable's on trial… I just don't think we won."

"I…" Sam had nothing to say to her, no words of comfort. Jessica was doubting herself, she had chosen this and the consequences were heavy on her. "It's not your fault. If I've learnt anything in my decades of life, it's that sometimes things happen for the greater good, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time."

Jessica looked at her. "I keep seeing Pen in my dreams. He tells me I'm Pen Dragon now, but I wonder… what would he have done?"

"He's dead, Jess," Sam answered. "He died several hundred years ago. He would have done what we did, despite the consequences, in spite of them. Pen Dragon was an arrogant and infuriating son of a bitch, but he did what was needed to be done. Don't think he'd have done anything differently."

"I don't know what to do," said Jessica. "Is there a Dragon's Claws left? Do we have a purpose? Look at Jack, the council unanimously voted to make him Captain America. He won't stay with us long, he'll have things to do. He's out now."

"We're here for a reason," Sam answered. "Remember what Kate said when we got in to this, why we agreed to join Pen Dragon. We needed to be here, to make a difference. Whether we're a team or not, we're alive and the world can be saved. There's a better chance of it happening if we work together, because we know what can happen if we don't." She placed her hand on Jessica's shoulder. "Have faith, we do, Pen did. Don't let the responsibility of what you are interfere with who you are." Jess didn't say anything and Sam sighed. "We'll work it out." She walked away from her leader and almost walked in to Fury, who was standing there.

"Nice work, Agent," he said. "With luck, she'll take your words to heart."

"You think so?" said Sam. "I don't know if I got through."

"She's your friend. You did." Fury nodded and Sam gave a little smile and took her leave and he walked over to where Jessica was looking at the monitors. "Drew, you're needed in the council room. It's time for your testimony."

"Why aren't you answering?" Kaine muttered as he tried to contact his source in Otherworld. There had been nothing for a while now and Kaine was worried. He'd done everything he'd been told to do, and now he wanted to know what to do next. Would he remain with the Dragon's Claws, or would he go out solo again, or would he even be recalled to Otherworld itself, because he knew damn well there was still trouble in the Starlight Kingdom. Maybe something had happened, maybe there was violence and he was cut off. He hated this, and there was still no reply.

"Penny for them?" asked Jack as he entered the room that had been set up as a base of operations for the team in lieu of the Arsenal being an empty shell.

"I wish I could explain it all," said Kaine, thinking back to the debriefing where he had informed the Council and Dragon's Claws of as much as he could. Yes, he was an agent of Otherworld; no he didn't work for King Britain, Roma or Merlyn, at least not directly. You never could tell up there who was playing which game and with whom. He had been sent down to find weaknesses in the alien defence after their intrusion through time and make sure that didn't happen again as Kate Pryde-Rasputin had her hands full keeping the timeline from collapsing. There were too many temporal incursions placing a strain on a fragile time stream and she needed to focus on that. He'd received instructions to dismantle the Arena, and use Dragon's Claws to help do it as the time of unification was coming and the world would be complete again. It needed to be ready for what was coming and no, he couldn't say what that was. Prophecies were rarely explainable by even the most learned lore-masters and he wasn't even close to that. Every other question he had been unable to reply to and he had been excused. "Things are moving very quickly."

"I'd noticed," said Jack. "In the space of a few weeks I've gone from being the Scourge to Nomad to Captain America. That's why I'm here, Eto. I wanted to know…"

"Why?" Monroe nodded and Eto sighed. "You were pulled in to this because of the Arsenal, your access codes and I knew the Arsenal wouldn't be enough. So did my mentor, but he knew the value of the shield, not just to the world but to you as well. You grew up idolising the ideals of Captain America; you worked and trained with a few of them as well. The Scourge identity wasn't yours, but without it you had no tie to the Arsenal, or to the rest of the war."

"By giving me the shield, you gave me purpose?" Jack wasn't sure he liked how it was being played here. "I've been moved about the board, like everyone else."

Kaine nodded. "Sorry. It's the problem with Otherworldly guidance - it's all a game, and we're all pawns and though some of us get promoted, we'll never be higher than a knight." Then an alert sounded, signalling an intruder in the complex and Kaine and Monroe looked at each other. It wasn't that rare for intruders to get in, but they were supposed to be on heightened security because of the Arena raid. Without a word, the two men went to find out who had just made a very big mistake…

"And that's how we ended up in the Arena. Cable informed me he was going to lead the aliens to the Arsenal in order to convince them he was on their side, when he claimed he was on ours."

Jessica's testimony against Cable had done the mutant warrior no favours. It had certainly painted a picture of his guilt in all of the cases, and combined with the evidence, there was no doubt he was guilty of the final three charges. Crimes against humanity would follow if they were proven and it was getting quite close. Cable's own testimony was not convincing, that a mysterious stranger had rescued him and the weapons from the Arsenal and left him there in a state of paralysis for SHIELD to find. Even if it were true, nobody would believe it and he couldn't recall what had happened in the Arsenal. He remembered the explosion but nothing before it. It was not helping his cause.

"Thank you, Agent Drew," Vision replied. He was not only monitoring the verbal responses but those of body language as well. Both of them believed they were telling the truth as they knew it, which meant that one of them was in total control of themselves, down to their very heartbeat, or there was something amiss. They were working on a fair trial, and given the evidence submitted by Cable, Domino and Jessica, there was a bit of conflict but those were on the charges Cable to which had pleaded guilty. It all came down to the physical evidence for the third charge, as Cable was the only one there and anything else was supposition. As Jessica sat down, she noticed an agent come in, silently and just place his hand on Rick Jones. Jones and the agent conversed and Rick stood up.

"Apologies for the interruption, but there is a Code 17 situation outside." Code 17 was the term for an armed and dangerous intruder entering the base and the council were all on their feet. "I recommend we seal the council room and let base security handle it. The active members of Dragon's Claws are giving an assist."

"Permission to leave?" Jessica asked, wanting to join her team.

"Not just yet," said Rick. "There's still a matter within your testimony to clear up. The traitor within the resistance. From the information gathered by your team and Pen Dragon's investigation, there is the chance that traitor is Cable."

Hence, the first charge of crimes against humanity, Jessica mused and she looked at Cable, who was on his feet, Domino holding him back as the last thing anyone needed now was a fight in the chamber. "Of course," she said. "What would you like to know?"

The War Master Prime's mood was better than it had been since the very public fall of the Arena, but it was still dark. Executions were his way of allowing his troops payback for their humiliation and they had relished in it. The breeding camps were increasing production and the human females were being used at a substantial rate, and each of the new breeders would be giving birth to new Martians at a rate of one every two weeks. Normally they needed another two weeks to recover from the intense manipulation of the reproduction organs, going against the thing they were originally designed for, but he had countermanded the rest period. The women would breed or they would die and those that did not survive would be thrown out like the rest of the rubbish.

However, he seemed to feel that his measures were not working. Instead of blaming the heroes for their predicament, the chattel that was humanity was becoming more defiant of the Martian rulers. They should have been broken by the deaths that were being inflicted on them, blaming their former heroes for upsetting the status quo and the War Master Prime did not understand. In their timeline, the humans would have easily capitulated. What was different here?

Then it came to him. In their timeline, there was no opportunity for such reckless heroics. The vaunted Killraven was only one man and he had never been able to do the damage that had been inflicted on them. The greater the risk, the bigger the prize and the heroes had shown that after all these months of being brutally oppressed in the Arena, they had not broken. They had found a way and it inspired these humans to endure. Even their inside man within the Resistance had not been able to stop what had occurred and he had tried. If the War Master Prime could execute him he would, but he needed the man, now more than ever. As long as they believed that the traitor was Cable, they wouldn't look for him. However if their agent messed that up, then he was on his own. The War Master Prime needed to ensure that the war was turned back in their favour.

A final solution was needed and the Prime knew what he needed to do. It would take time to arrange but it would forever alter the shape of the war and the Martians would cleanse the Earth of the heroes and humans. They would take what they needed and bring and end to the spawn of humanity.

"Make preparations," he ordered. "We're going to destroy the Moon."

"Who the hell is this guy?" Jack asked as they searched the corridors, each of the three Claws taking a patrol. "He's like a shadow."

"He's good," said Kaine over the comm link. "Very good. The way he took out the perimeter, hurt them but didn't kill them."

"He's avoiding the cameras as well," Sam radioed in. "Telepaths are finding it hard to fix on him too."

"Brilliant," muttered Jack. "This is ridiculous."

"Wait," Kaine started. "I think we've found… what the?!" There was a sound of confused movements and shouts and then there was a very eerie silence. Jack ran, following the corridors to where Kaine's last location was and Eto was lying on the floor, unconscious and surrounded by his team.

"Eto?" said Jack, lightly tapping him. "Eto, wake up." Eto moaned slightly but didn't open his eyes and Jack frowned. Who the hell was this guy? he wondered, and then he noticed that there were grooves in the wall as if something had carved in to it. He looked at Kaine, wondering if those were the result of his claws, or of the claws of someone, and his eyes went wide at the possibility… "It couldn't be," he muttered, but he also knew stranger things had happened.

T'Challa pondered what Jessica had told him. "So Pen Dragon believed that someone had compromised Stark Industries to get to SHIELD, and in doing so had created a gap within the Resistance communications?"

"Yes, and his investigation led him to Japan, where Lei Kang of the Kokuryu-kai, or Black Dragon Society attacked. At first it appeared to be personal against Pen Dragon, but we later learned that he and his people had been paid to infiltrate Stark and plant the equipment. Pen Dragon was to be killed and their involvement with the Kokuryu-kai would be put up to… personal dispute."

"The Black Dragon spoke to them and commanded it to be so," said Magneto and Jessica looked at him. "Roberto and I have spoken on this matter," he said and Jessica inwardly frowned. That was something that Pen had been afraid of, and while they all knew Bobby would back them in a fight, he would always have a loyalty of Magnus. "A very effective cover."

"I've been part of the team looking in to the problems with the communications," said Reed. "What was done was in advance of our technological capability and I have had enough experience to tell. The alterations had to come from the future. It would have been as recent as approximately 100 years from now, or further." Cable's history was well known, that he was the son of Scott Summers, taken three thousand years in to the future by the Askani sisterhood to become the saviour of humanity in the war against Apocalypse.

"Cable, how long have you had problems with SHIELD?" asked Rick. "Or other law enforcement organisations? You were a wanted terrorist for quite some years, before it was revealed to be Stryfe."

"If you're suggesting I avoided them by spying on them with my knowledge of advanced tech, I'm going to be insulted," said Cable. "I was that damn good, I didn't need them."

"So you believe," said Vision. "However there were many moments that should have resulted in your capture."

"I'd get lucky from time to time. I hung around with the best." He squeezed Domino's hand, hoping that if ever there were a time her powers could get them out of something, then it'd be now because otherwise it was over. The evidence wasn't looking good. "Ever considered it could have been Stryfe?"

"A possibility to be certain, but you yourself have said Stryfe is dead, and the fact that things have kept happening are inconsistent with that hypothesis."

"Nathan." Reed looked at the man, a man he considered an ally, who had helped save his son from Onslaught. "Do you have anyone who can speak in your defence, anything that will help?"

"No," said Cable, softly.

"I think we need to make a decision," said Rick, looking to Vision.

"I concur," Vision said. "Since Cable has pleaded guilty to collaborating with the Martian forces and treason against the Resistance, we concur. The charges of the wilful theft of the weapons and equipment stored within the former Arsenal and the more serious one of crimes against humanity will be decided. Magnus?"

Magnus looked Cable in the eye. "Of the theft of the equipment, guilty. It therefore follows that, along with the evidence of treason, he is also guilty of crimes against humanity." Jessica felt strange to hear Magnus speak of a crime he had been accused of twice himself.

"T'Challa." The Vision referred to the Wakandan leader.

"I abstain on both charges," said the Black Panther. "I do not feel there is enough evidence to persuade me of guilt or innocence."

The Vision noted the tally. One guilty, one abstention. "Reed?"

"I agree with T'Challa. However I recommend that Cable is detained until the matters can be investigated properly."

"Rick?" asked Vision.

"Guilty. Both counts." He said nothing else, but his tone had been so harsh, so decisive that it took everyone by surprise, almost forcing him to speak again. "We've lost too many people because of this bastard. He'd have cost us the war."

Vision looked to Cable. "Two votes of guilty, two abstentions. Even if I abstain or presume you innocent, you have been found guilty."

"Wait a minute," said Domino. "It's surely undecided!"

"This isn't a court of law," said Rick. "The Council rules are clear. Abstention counts as a null vote, unless it is a majority decision not including the Arbiter, which is the Vish. Two votes won't save him. Sorry, Dom."

"Rick has put it correctly," Vision confirmed. "Nathan Christopher Askani'Son Dayspring Summers, also known as Cable, you have been found guilty on all charges and the sentence is death. May God or whatever deity you believe in have mercy upon you."

"This isn't fair," said Dom, tears in her eyes and Jessica stood there helpless. Cable was bastard but he'd done what he'd done to save his family. Death should be commuted. "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!"

"That'd be my cue," said the agent who'd come in to alert them of the intruder. "The decision's void, Cable's innocent and the real traitor is in this room."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" said Rick standing up, only to have a fist slammed in to his face, sending him sprawling.

"I've been waiting to do that to you for three hundred years," said the agent, removing a latex mask to reveal his true face and Jessica inadvertently let loose a whoop of delight.

It was Pen Dragon.