Hellfire - Blackwell's - Great Hall
Haleigh: "Plus it's not a very hospitable place. When I first arrived, the house put me into some kind of illusion involving my fucking mother. What a welcoming party, am I right?"
Ava: "Glad I missed that welcome party."
"Yeah I have no plans to visit...and Alison still hasn't reached out to me.."
His mind went to his sister for a moment. There had been nothing wrong between them. They had been on a good path for quite some time now. But for whatever reason, she had removed herself from his life. He knew she was mourning Nicolas, but it was getting to be borderline ridiculous. He felt bad for her. He knew eventually that placing herself on that island would eventually turn her into one herself, but he had been hopeful that he would be included as part of her circle, as Ava and Morgan were. It hurt to realize that he wasn't. More than he was going to say to either his wife or his sister-in-law. What they were going through was more important, and more timely.
Thankfully, they didn't dwell as the conversation moved over towards Delilah and Alexia and the desire to reunite the two. Something, it seemed all three of them had agreed with. Haleigh spoke of Delilah not wanting to supress her daughter's powers, to which Cameron agreed. And he couldn't help but to feel a swell of pride at Haleigh's mention of them being Alexia's godparents. Cameron always knew he would be a good father, but the idea of ever bringing children into this kind of world was something he just couldn't settle within himself. And the only person he could ever see bringing a child into the world with for all intents and purposes, just physically couldn't. But that didn't bother Cameron. Haleigh was enough for him. And he had every intention on spoiling the fuck out of Alexia and making any man who ever intended on acting as a father to her incredibly uncomfortable.
Haleigh: "So, if I stroke Morgan's ego enough, we might be able to get her to agree Alexia can at LEAST be brought into our realm. The issue is that she's still pretty resentful of Delilah for being resentful of HER making decisions without Lilah's input. So that's a challenge, but I think it can be done. I've made a lot of progress with Morgan personally lately."
Cameron was dealing with the revelation that Haleigh was Morgan's sister just fine for the most part, but he was still cautious. There was no way that Morgan would not eventually use that to attempt to manipulate Haleigh, and his mind's eye had seen that she was in fact, already attempting to do so. Cameron enjoyed the relationship Haleigh had with Ava. That was sisterly. Whatever Blaze and Morgan had...was something deeply rooted in trauma and something he in no way shape or form wanted hoisted on his wife. And he also, too...knew what it was like to have a sister that was never going to be what he wanted or needed.
"Well...I will leave that to you, Hales. I don't have the patience for it anymore. Alexia isn't Morgan's child. And if she doesn't want to be a willing participant in reuniting a mother with her child, a child she took...then there's gonna be a fucking problem..."
Haleigh: "Whatever we come up with, we need to make sure we run it by Delilah herself. She gets REALLY bent out of shape about being excluded, so let's plan to include her before we execute any plan.?
Ava: "I may have a solution to that. When I was catching up with Brenthon earlier, we discussed Limbo and Alexia. He suggested that he could help her control her powers enough to return to Earth and be around Delilah without hurting her. Their powers are very similar in nature, and because of his time spent in Limbo, he's seen various versions of Alexia....some not so favorable. I understand that the two of you have just met him, but he has no ill intentions toward Alexia, he actually cares about her. He wants to help her get out of Limbo so he doesn't have to see her become....a shell of herself."
He really did not like hearing about the idea of realities of Alexia being raised in Limbo. Of there being "bad" outcomes for her. In fact it enraged him. But there was no sense in getting mad in what had yet to happen or happened in another timeline. Because he was sure in multiple timelines, they had likely all betrayed and killed each other. The White King took a long sip form his bloody mary and sighed.
"Look, personally? I feel like the last thing she needs to know is that there is an Alexia out there grew up in Limbo. She'll trust Brenthon just about as much as she trusts Morgan. But all we can do is present her with options and let her choose. Whatever happens next...for Delilah and Alexia...has to be HER choice. Haleigh is right. In fact...she should have been at this brunch. But I'll be damned if I can't help but feeling like she is actually better off without us lately...."
He paused for a moment before looking at Ava.
"But if you trust Brenthon, I do too. Delilah wants to be in the loop...he's part of that loop. It's not worth hiding from her...I just...."
He realized that keeping his feelings in, keeping his perspective to himself, especially when it came to Delilah, did nobody any favors. He had blind spots when it came to her, because he loved her in a way that he didn't love the others. She was more than just blood, or sister to him. She was something different altogether. But he felt for Delilah as strongly as he felt for Haleigh, just in a different way. And he had been by her side when they weren't, even if it wasn't intentional, or even actually possible at that point.
"I spent a year...taking care of her...literally. Bathing her. Brushing her hair. Making sure she ate. Making sure she was...alive. I have to defer to both of you...because I don't know that I will ever be able to see things objectively when it comes to her safety...or well being.."
His mind raced back only for a moment, to those days. Because he couldn't dare to ever "live" there again. In his entire life, he had never been more scared. Never felt more helpless. She was a shell. A vegetable. This woman who had been so protective of him. So there for him. To see her like that. Of how he spent every waking moment with her, seeing and experiencing the totality of her pain without being able to fix it. It had changed Cameron entirely as a human being. And while there were great benefits from that, there were also...incredible hindrances. He would not be able to survive another round. And he promised himself that no matter what happened, no matter if she ended up hating him for it, that if he could spare her from ever again getting to the place that place, he would do it. It was ironic because it was that very thing that helped him be a bridge between Delilah and Morgan and Alison.
Thankfully, yet again he was able to steer the conversation in a different direction, this time towards Alexis Quartermaine. The last thing he remembered before "dying" was her arrival at Hellfire, the revelation she had been there for quite some time, and the fact that she hated all of them and was only back to get revenge on Helena. None of it sat right with him and he said as much.
Haleigh: ”Yeah, good luck with that babe. She doesn’t want to talk, but I can tell you where she’s at. She hates everyone for the whole statue thing, not that I can really blame her. Having experienced the horror of being under my mother’s complete control personally, I think we might’ve overreacted to Alexis’ quote-unquote betrayal at the time. I imagine I’d be pretty pissed if I spent a dozen or so years trapped in stone for the misfortune of Malice choosing me as her first Six puppet.”
The time he had spent on The Other Side and The Further had been illuminating to say the least. It was there he had learned that he hadn't been dropped off at a church as an infant, but that he had spent the first ten years of his life with his mother and his sisters. And that he was starting to have flashes of a blonde woman in all white getting him to guess what was on the backs of cards she was holding when he was just barely more than a toddler. That he was fairly sure that he had in fact been the first Six puppet. But when he came back, Rampage was dead, his wife was broken...most of The Six was broken, and the trauma of his life had taken up enough space in The Six. He had put them through so much. This was his time to be the hero. To be the support they had been for him.
"And we are all too smart now to believe that time heals all wounds..."
He hadn't been around for Alexis' supposed betrayal. In fact, he had fled the team and his life in general. Morgan had declared war on him, using Alycia Barnett as her pit bull to bring charges against him. To destroy him. Because she blamed him for The Inferno. His sister was trying to brow beat him into submission, and he had been a very weak man. So he fled. Left the country and fucked off for months until he was captured by Erika and Diana, tortured, killed, and then subsequently captured by Barbas. It was not his best year. But Alexis had been his friend. Sometimes his only friend on the team. Sometimes more than his friend. In fact, he was sure that had Haleigh not been returned to them by fate after The Inferno, they would have fallen in love. They were right at the cusp. When he returned to the team, and learned what happened to her, he had never forgiven himself. Had he not ran, he could have helped her. He could have prevented Malice and Helena from doing what they did.
"We owe it to her to reach out."
Ava: "I reached out to Alexis after the old regime was destroyed, offering her a position in the Inner Circle. She declined. She doesn't want anything to do with Hellfire or The Six. She only seemed to focus on finding Helena and killing her. But, that was also seven months ago, I haven't spoken to her since. But I doubt her mind has changed."
He furrowed his brow.
"She's a founding member of The Six. Delilah named her daughter in honor of her. Whatever path she's trying to walk...as much as I want to let her walk it..I can't. She needs us. Because she isn't going to get revenge. Not in the way she wants...I think the three of us know that. We have to try and start building a safety net for her."
[pausing]
"It's been a long time...but we have to start thinking about reconstituting The Six. What that looks like. What we want going forward. I'm just afraid if we don't talk about it soon...it will never happen."
