When Fantomex left, Psylocke felt herself relax. Her encounters with him usually had one of two themes. Either he 'flattered' her by telling her what an excellent killer she was, trying to appeal to the darker side of her personality by forcing her to accept that violence was a part of her, or he engaged in misguided and clumsy attempts to win her back. As if that would ever happen.

She still didn't know why Cable had allowed him to stay with X-Force. He was annoying, arrogant and lived without the benefit of a moral compass to guide his actions. The last time she'd worked with him on X-Force, back when Logan was running the show, he'd been the loosest cannon on the team. Which was kinda hard to believe, given that the team had Deadpool on it. A sure sign of Cable's desperation, that he was willing to employ a man more dangerous and unpredictable than the Merc with a Mouth.

"whyso sadface?" asked MeMe.

Only when the girl spoke did Psylocke realise she'd been standing in the middle of the room in pensive reflection of old times. Shaking her head to rid herself of her thoughts, she took the seat Fantomex had vacated and turned to address the hologram.

"You don't have to talk like that to me, Hope."

The holographic faced looked rather flustered. "please, MeMecallMe. too many eavestoDROP. stayincharacter, less chance of SLIPup."

"Alright, MeMe," she agreed.

"youTALKwant?"

She nodded. "It's Cable. I'm worried about him."

"SHOULDbe. dadisCLONEdying." The holographic face frowned. "wishIcouldHELP."

"Doctor Nemesis will find a cure. He's a genius. Just ask him, and he'll tell you how much of a genius he is," she said wryly. "But it's not Cable's physical state that worries me. It's... well, this." She gestured at all the surveillance monitors, and the computers which powered the data search. "I admit, it's not the first time he's spied on the world. Back when he had more of his powers, when he was running Providence, he spied on everything. But he had noble goals. He was trying to unite the whole world. Of course, he was completely nuts to even try, but at least he was trampling over people's civil rights for the right reasons. You've heard the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions?"

"YESheard."

"I fear we're getting one step closer to hell each time a new clone comes out of that tank."

"understandconcerns," said MeMe. "DATAspying... wrongfeels. butBOSS says DO."

She leant forward, impressing the strength of her gaze on the young mutant's hologram. "You could talk to him. Not as MeMe, but as you. If he knew you were his daughter, and that you didn't want him to do all these questionable things to help you..."

Already, MeMe was shaking her head. "noCAN'T. sendmeAWAY hewill. makeme SAFER. neverseehim again. better thisway. MeMebeing."

"Sooner or later, he will figure it out for himself. He's a smart man. Sometimes."

"BRIDGEcrossing tooSOON. don'tTELL, please."

"I won't. But when he eventually does find out, I'm going to pretend I knew nothing about it. It would hurt him too much, if he knew that I knew about you and held that back from him."

The holographic face nodded. "understand. THANKyou." She floated around for a moment, backwards and forwards, as if pacing, then finally came to stop beside Psylocke once more. "apologyOWE."

"What for?"

The face changed colour, becoming a deeper shade of pink. "EAVESdropped. otherday. heard you and CABLEfatherclone talking. didn'tmean to. heardyouSAD. offering CABLEfatherclone comfort. SORRYsorry."

Psylocke took a deep breath. Told herself that Hope hadn't meant to spy. That she was just a girl, worried for her father and his many clones. It wasn't as if it mattered. Nothing had come of the conversation. "Don't be sorry," she said. "I'm not."

MeMe's face looked surprised by that. "whyNOT?"

"I gave up my ability to feel sorrow. Sacrificed it to save a life. Long story. Don't want to get into it."

"oh. SORRY."

Psylocke smiled. How very unlike Cable his adopted daughter was. "You can feel sorrow for the both of us." Looking for a change of subject, she gestured at the monitors. "How's the search going?"

"haystackNEEDLE. sooooooo slooooooow." The platform hovered higher, so that Hope could bring MeMe's face to Psylocke's head height. "heLOVESyou."

Psylocke stiffened, and opened her mouth to say that that was nonsense, that Cable had no such feelings for her, that he was dedicated only to Hope, and the mission. Then she realised they weren't talking about Cable anymore, and felt her eyebrows creep down into a scowl.

"Fantomex is a child," she said. "In infatuated child who wants the biggest, shiniest toy on the shelf. He doesn't know what love is."

"heDIEDforyou."

"Have the two of you been talking about me behind my back?" she accused. "Comparing notes?"

"NOno nothingLIKE that. amDATAmutantEXPERT. readfiles, MANYfiles. oldX-FORCEmissions filed away NEATandtidyTIDY at school."

Psylocke got a strong impression that Hope was lying, but she didn't want to get into an argument with the girl who'd already lost her father and her body. "There have been sacrifices on both sides," she said. "But Fantomex wants things I can't give him. I can't be... won't be... who he wants me to be, and him becoming what I want him to be would probably kill him."

"QUERY nofeelings have?"

She closed her eyes, and tried to remember the last time she'd had feelings for Fantomex which hadn't been a lie on her behalf, or a misdirection on his. Their whole relationship had been built on sorrow... sorrow she had sacrificed to save his life. Sorrow at what Warren had become, and what Betsy had done to him to save the world. Sorrow which was now only an echo of a feeling, thanks to a brief stint in her brother's home within Otherworld.

Whatever she had felt for Fantomex, had been nothing but physical attraction. In fact, it was not even that. It was knowing that any relationship between them would be Wrong. And would be Complicated. It was the thrill of the chase. Being pursued. Verbal sparring. Words with hidden meanings. Brief but exciting touches here and there. Knowing she had power over him. Knowing that he would never change who he was just to please her, thus giving her reason to eventually hate him.

She opened her eyes.

"No feelings." Then leant forward, lowering her voice. "Hope. Whatever you are doing, are thinking of doing, or could ever possibly conceive of doing, with Fantomex, is bound to earn you nothing but disapproval from your father."

"whatHE doesn'tknow, won't HURThim."

"Maybe not. But knowing Cable as I do... I know he would want more for you."

"more thanALONEbeing?"

"Sometimes it's better to be alone," she said. And yet, Cable's casual rejection still echoed around her mind. None of the clones since then had even mentioned it. Perhaps he hadn't recorded the memory of her offer on the thoughtlog. She could only hope that he hadn't. If it wasn't on the log, then it would never get back to the real Cable, when Doc Nemesis eventually found a cure. And he would find a cure. Of that she was certain.

"MEETINGtime," MeMe said suddenly. "newCLONEnewSPEECHnewIDEAS. timeforWORKING now."

"You go on ahead," she said. "I'll be along in a moment."

Hope hovered out of the room beneath MeMe's platform, and Psylocke turned to the bank of surveillance monitors. They showed crimes which would go unpunished because they weren't the sort of crimes that would lead to Volga. Wrongs that would never be righted because Cable's mission took precedence. Innocent lives lost or destroyed in the blink of an eye.

I hope you know what you're doing, Nathan, she thought. I truly do.