Dark Matter

[Black Widow]

Blackwell’s Island — Hellfire, the Great Hall

They were discussing Brenthon, and then the Morgan’s new digs. Haleigh was suspicious of the place, but then the hospitality of the house had left much to be desired. She wasn’t going to be comfortable in a haunted, otherworldly dimension that clawed at her fresh scar tissue on first ‘welcome’. Cameron had no interest in going, but the way he mentioned Alison not reaching out made her glance over at him.

They were hashing out ideas on how to recover Alexia from Limbo. Haleigh presented the challenges as she understood them, and mentioned a few angles she had tried unsuccessfully thus far. Refreshingly, everyone agreed it needed to be done, and no one wanted to do anything without Delilah’s input. Seph suggested Brenthon might be of some help. Haleigh was unfazed by the prospect, having expected this development in some form. As she cut through some of her French toast, her gaze went to her husband. He hadn’t even formally met this Brenthon guy yet. Haleigh, herself, didn’t trust Brenthon any farther than sniper range, but he HAD seemed sincere about some things. And if Seph vouched for him, then Haleigh was open to working with him. Cameron said that if Ava trusted Brenthon, that was good enough. Haleigh nodded at that, setting down her knife to reach for her coffee.

Cameron began to talk about how he’d cared for Delilah, a while back. Haleigh’s hand shifted from going towards her coffee to pick up her tequila sunrise instead. She stared into the glass as she drained it and set it back down. She didn’t bother ordering another, since she knew her staff was already working on bringing her a reload. She went back to eating her breakfast. It was difficult to listen to what he described. She hadn’t been there for it, and didn’t like thinking of Delilah in such a depressed state.

There was something else, too. A reminder that Delilah had reciprocated for him, when he was in his coma. She had cared for him in a way that Haleigh just couldn’t. Haleigh couldn’t bear to sit there helplessly, combing his hair and sponging his skin while he suffered as a result of her decisions. That was not her way. She needed to be out destroying things, killing things. So she left it to Delilah to care for Cameron’s body. It was an intimacy Haleigh would never achieve with him, even in marriage.

Cameron admitted he was not objective when it came to Delilah, that he would defer to Ava and Haleigh on the matter. There was a dead silence, and then Seph said they’d take care of it. Haleigh nodded again, swallowing her French toast. Despite the quality, it still felt like swallowing stone. She cleared her throat and quickly agreed with her sister.

”Yes, let us do the leg work. We’ll need your support later, but we can get the ball rolling. Seph, can you reach out to Delilah? I’m sure she’d rather fuck a turkey baster full of acid than sit in the same room with me, so any thing I suggest is automatically a bad idea. But coming from you…. There’s a chance she’ll consider it.”

Ava replied that after running the idea by Delilah she could introduce Brenthon.

“Good. I’ll convince Morgan and the others that this decision needs to be made by Delilah alone and that it’s time to respect what she wants, even if it’s a little risky.”

They had made some kind of progress. Any idea was better than none, and maybe Delilah would have ideas of her own after realizing how much support there was for bringing Alexia out of limbo. Then Cameron remembered Alexis, yet another old flame for him. Haleigh‘s face remained placid as she explained that Alexis was not in the mood for making amends. Her sister added confirmation, but he would not be dissuaded. Haleigh set her fork down to reach over and touch his arm. It was a fleeting move, but only because she was trying to avoid upsetting Ava with too much PDA after her loss of Alek.

”I get where you’re coming from, Cameron. If you want to try to reconnect with her, you have my support. I just don’t want you to be hurt when she blows you off like she did us.”

She said sincerely. His next matter of discussion was reconstitution of the Six. She knew why he felt a sense of urgency to fix things. She knew he was not truly comfortable with the whole Hellfire situation, that he had agreed to do this for her but that he was worried it would never really be done. Seph was absolutely NOT helping with her true but unfavorable assessment of the current state of their former team. Haleigh’s gaze cut over to her sister, who asked how they could reconstruct something left in ruins. Haleigh smiled ironically.

”They same way we always have; on the eve of an apocalypse dire enough for us all to set aside our differences in order to save an ungrateful flatscan humanity from its inevitable extinction.”

She suggested, before taking a sip of the fresh drink that was delivered.

“I’m sure a real good disaster will happen soon, we’re way overdue for one. It’s been months since I murdered Nic, Morgan’s even had time to recover from that-- sort of.”

 

[Prophet]

Blackwell's Island - Hellfire - The Great Hall

Naturally, considering she was not there with them, the topic at brunch moved towards Delilah. It was a bit of a double edged sword, because he wanted her there, but he knew she would never deign to be there with them, as they were currently. He had bent his own morals to support his wife, and he was fine with that decision. But he knew it was one Delilah would never make for herself. And seeing her so happy last night with Gavin, it caused him to be a bit more emotional about the situation than he would have otherwise. Because he had seen her at her absolute worst. In the aftermath of her suicide attempt. That never left him. Despite how far they had both come since those days, it was a time in his life that he thought of everyday. Because there were times he really thought he was going to lose Delilah forever before he could ever reciprocate how good she had been to him. Thankfully, his family seemed to feel the same.

Ava: "We'll handle it."

Haleigh: ”Yes, let us do the leg work. We’ll need your support later, but we can get the ball rolling. Seph, can you reach out to Delilah? I’m sure she’d rather fuck a turkey baster full of acid than sit in the same room with me, so any thing I suggest is automatically a bad idea. But coming from you…. There’s a chance she’ll consider it.”

"No...Haleigh...I want you to be the one that reaches out. She doesn't hate you. She's just angry."

To say his best friend's relationship with his wife was storied was an understatement. But he knew Delilah. She loved Haleigh. She just hated a lot of the decisions Haleigh made. She was angry, and had every right to be. Cameron had been angry at first. But if anyone was going to be the herald of Delilah getting her daughter back, he wanted it to be Haleigh. It would diffuse a lot of the anger, and it would maybe serve as a stepping stone for them to finally move on from the anger they harbored for each other. All he knew was that while he had helped his wife move forward personally during their wanton honeymoon adventure, Haleigh needed somebody like Delilah to hold her feet to the fire a bit, because Delilah was the best at it. So much of what he learned about himself emotionally had been at her hand, at her endless, incessant questions, or her admonishment of his behavior, of her holding him actually accountable. Haleigh always made the dark decisions when it came to Delilah so she could avoid her. And he knew why. Delilah had a way of stripping you down to your brass tacs. Where there was nothing to hide behind. You had to come correct to her, if you wanted her love. And that wasn't easy. It was why it seemed like Haleigh could do the most horrible things to Delilah without regret. The regret was there. But the actions Haleigh took meant she never had to look into any kind of mirror Delilah might hold up to her. It was a defense mechanism, but if they were going to fix things, she was going to have to let down a wall she had only been willing to let down for him. Not many deserved that wall dropping, but his best friend, Delilah, did.

The conversation moved towards Alexis and his desire to engrain her back into the group. It went about as well as expected.

Ava: "She doesn't want our help, Cameron. You can't force someone to accept it."

Haleigh: "I get where you're coming from, Cameron. If you want to try to reconnect with her, you have my support. I just don't want you to be hurt when she blows you off like she did us."

She had touched his arm, and everything felt okay. He knew it was surreal for everybody, including himself, that he was married to Haleigh Davidoff now. But it felt so good. So right. Her touch. Her words. So much of his life was spent defending his behavior and who he was, it was...honestly, really healing to have somebody by his side now who just supported him. And even better...that support wasn't blind. It was just real. He didn't need to explain every feeling and emotion and reason why, because she knew them. She knew parts of him nobody else could ever dare to know. But she didn't know everything, and those parts she didn't know called to him when he thought of Alexis.

Cameron hadn't told the others what he had found out during his war with Malice on The Astral Plane. That he hadn't been a baby when his family was taken from him. That he lived the first ten years of his life with Kelly, Erika, Alison and Jonathon King. In their family home in Los Angeles. That he was being primed to be an heir to Diana. That as a boy, he would sit in The White Parlour of The Hellfire Club, guessing the shapes on the cards the Diana pulled. From birth, he was looked at as a weapon. So was Alexis. Ava, in her human life, was allowed to be just that - human, never truly enmeshed with them until her union with Persephone. Even Diana didn't know Haleigh's parentage for quite some time. Christopher simply wanted Morgan dead. Blaze too. The machinations they went through were afterthoughts. When it came down to it, the two mutant children cursed from birth by Hellfire were Cameron and Alexis. Pure mutants, ready to be used by their families as weapons against their own kind. And not being there for Alexis when she became Blackout, when she turned against the team because of Helena and Diana, it was something Cameron couldn't and wouldn't forgive himself for. He didn't want to be her savior. He didn't think she needed saving, but he had never had the opportunity to mourn her, to apologize. To let her know that he had valued the relationship they had created as much as she had. There was a time in The Six, when Haleigh was dead, when Delilah had yet to join, when Cameron and Alexis relied on each other. He felt like he let her down. And even if she hated him after, he wanted to speak with her...really speak with her.

"If there's one thing I'm used to - it's being blown off by family who thinks they don't need me or want me around. I can handle it. But with Hellfire scattered to the wind...with the whereabouts of Talisman and Enchantrah being unknown...she'll be a target. A tool in the right hands. I just want her to know the door is still open here. She thinks she's already paid her pound of flesh in all of this. But she's just as imprisoned as she was when she was a statue in Limbo. It's important to me she knows she has us."

He then quickly changed the topic to reconstituting The Six. Something he felt very strongly about. It was the only thing he had been thinking of despite his current tenure as White King of The Hellfire Trading Company. Cameron wanted to get back to business as usual, or at the very least, business that felt good to engage in. However, it was not as brightly received as he hoped it would be.

Ava: "Maybe we need to admit to ourselves that The Six is done...Alison is a hermit, your sisters [her tone sharper than intended] are locking themselves away in a magickal sanctuary, Delilah's trying to move on with her life the best she can, and we're [gesturing with the hand that was on her forehead] having brunch at Hellfire as their current regents. How can we constitute something that's been left in ruins?"

Haleigh: "The same way we always have; on the eve of an apocalypse dire enough for us all to set aside our differences in order to save an ungrateful flatscan humanity from it's inevitable extinction."

Cameron chuckled.

"Depressing but true."

Haleigh: "I'm sure a real good disaster will happen soon, we're way overdue for one. It's been one since I murdered Nic, Morgan's even had time to recover from that -- sort of."

He furrowed his brow a bit. Coming back to the city had confirmed a few things to Cameron, the most important of which, was that...whatever The Six looked like going forward, it would not include The Victoria/Victory family...or his sister. He felt it. This was no longer their destiny. And knowing that, put Cameron in a precarious position, because he knew the idea of The Six would be a hard sell when it felt like everyone was folding around him.

"That's the other awkward part of it...our purpose...the thing that brought us together, was to right the wrongs of our mothers and fathers. And we've done so much...but even now...there's so much road to walk. Road that requires purpose. As much as I love them, I think it's time for us to start thinking about a version of The Six that doesn't involve Morgan, Blaze or Alison. So much our team's purpose...it's been sidelined by them. How many alternate realities, how much blood was spilled? How much time wasted fighting our actual enemies because we were embroiled in the world of The Sorceress Supreme? I'm not trying to blame anyone. I'm not even being casually petty. I'm being honest. Hellfire is a philosophy our parents created. Haleigh and I have been all over the world trying to cut out the darkest parts of it, but it persists. And it likely always will. We need people who have the right stakes. Who's purpose isn't to help the flatscans until something better comes along. I mean for fuck's sakes, there's still Purifier rallies in the city. After everything, there are people out there still siding with The Purifiers. I care more about that than whoever is god or goddess of the underworld. I care more about that than whoever is the baddest witch of them all...I c.."

He was going to speak of Alek, but stopped himself. The two met very briefly and it was no a very positive interaction considering he was ready to dig his PSI blade into the deepest part of Ava's brain to neutralize her. But there was a part of him that Cameron did like. Despite his immense strength, Alek was very salt of the earth. Wherever he came from, he had the same bit of grit and mud on his cheeks as Cameron had. There was a centering quality about him, and Cameron wondered what Alek might be like if he had been nurtured by people who cared more about him and less of what he could do for them. But these, again, were thoughts he kept to himself.

"This is a bit deep for brunch. But I can't help but to keep thinking about Alexia. You think Delilah's anxiety is going to stop once her daughter is back? Of course not. We think nobody is going to try to do to her...or other kids we don't even know, what they tried to do to us? There's always gonna be an inner circle. There's always going to be a hellfire like entity. But all that tells me is that we got to make sure we got something to counter that. Otherwise...what the fuck was the point of any of it?"

 

[MorningStar]

Manhattan — EOS Nomad

When Delilah told Gavin that she didn't want to be with anyone else, he concurred. She didn't want to overthink it, but more and more it seemed they had turned a page in their relationship, started a new and exciting chapter. Together. He had acted like such an ass the night before, but now... It was difficult for her to even remember being angry with him, and why.

There was urgency in his movements, but at the same time it was as if he was taking his time, as if they had all the time in the world. That there was no where else more important for either of them to be.

Gavin: “I…. Love….”

Delilah's lips parted, half a gasp escaping at what she thought he was going to say.

Gavin: ”How tight you are….”

"It's only for you..."

She spoke breathlessly, the feel of his mouth against hers, his body against her, making her need him even more. Desperately. She asked for what she wanted and he was oh so accommodating of her wishes.

She felt a change in his movements and knew he was about to lose control. She let herself go, the two of them in a symbiosis that felt like their own persona fireworks show. And she should know.

Gavin turned them over, and she looked down into his eyes for a long moment before resting her cheek on his chest. She sighed happily, not wanting to move from this bed. Ever.

And then his stomach growled.

And two seconds later hers joined in congenially. Delilah laughed.

Gavin: ”Right, breakfast.”

Oh, right. They had been in the process of getting food when other things had taken precedence.

He planted a kiss on his forehead as he got out of bed, and somehow that one motion communicated more feeling than a thousand on her lips could have. He offered her a bathrobe, and she smiled brightly - just the idea that he was the kind of man who would have a bathrobe (and one that was reasonably clean to boot) was enough to give her a feeling of rightness about the two of them.

Gavin: ”I usually just make a cuppa tea, but I can have coffee brought up from the cafe down the block if you like."

"Oh no, I usually drink tea. Don't go to any trouble for me."

Gavin: ”And do you want ham, eggs and cheese, or do you fancy sausage in your muffin?”

She looked at him, biting her top lip, trying to keep a straight face. And losing the battle.

"I'm pretty sure we answered that mystery at least twice in past ten hours."

She slipped into the bathrobe and belted it as she stood, taking a moment to stretch her arms tall over her head.

"I'll prep, you cook."

 

[Eclipse]

Manhattan - Street level, Broadway & 32nd

They arrived in the middle of the sidewalk, in the overly bright light of the morning. He found it amusing that these people had become so desensitized to the supernatural that no one really seemed to care. Or perhaps more precisely, no one noticed. Disinterested or distracted, it didn’t make a difference to Samuel. He was a bit disappointed with the lackluster response, but he was here for something far more important than impressing the random street scum of New York City. He closed the time slip behind his companion and edged over to the little newsstand nearby. He snatched up the New York Post, with its big garish headline, and checked the date.

“Yes, darling, I believe this is the perfect time—”

The attendant at the newsstand was interrupting him to demand two dollars for the paper. Samuel gave him a dark look, considered smiting the creature for the insolence, and then decided it wasn’t worth his effort. He flung the post back in the attendant’s face, its separate pages flying apart and showering the booth. Then he turned on his heel and began to stride confidently away, ignoring the swears of the insignificant. Delightfully, he returned attention to his accomplice.

”As I was saying, Shade, this should be the ideal timeframe. This particular year is ripe with advantage. The Six is defunct; half of them are at Hellfire — the half that even like her. The others are dead or dying. She’s quite isolated, in fact. She’s left Bishop for some Irish rugby boy — no, no. It’s that british bean counter who lives here -- he won’t put up much of a fight, doesn't even have powers.”

He theorized, as they walked south on Broadway past a cell phone store. He looked gravely at her then.

”Remember, only get one of those things if you want to be in the Spider’s web. Even the anonymous ones can be tracked. And she WILL be trying. No matter the timeline, that cyborg is trouble. The mind reader, too. We would do well to avoid them.”

He stopped at the crosswalk and gave the traffic camera a deliberate smile and wave, because he liked to antagonize. They crossed Broadway on 31st, and his pulse quickened. So close to snuffing out the Morningstar. He had to remind himself to slow down, to savor this. He opened the door to the lobby of EOS Nomad, scoffing with disgust at the opulence of the place.

”I swear, she has always just ingratiated herself to the lap of luxury, while the rest of us get cast aside. We are going to rectify some injustices today.”

He said, just before they were challenged by the concierge. Samuel glanced around for a guard or a witness, finding neither, with a flourish of his wrist he slipped the concierge through time. He smiled at his partner in crime.

”How long do you think that man will survive the ice age? I give him 30 minutes in that polyester suit.”

 

[Black Widow]

Blackwell’s Island — Hellfire, the Great Hall

The ideas were coalescing into something workable enough. They were going to get Alexia back to her mother, back where she belonged. There was still plenty of preparation before any action could be taken. Haleigh was sure she could convince Morgan, and so she asked Ava to pitch the concept to Delilah. Cameron interjected then, insisting that Haleigh be the one to talk to Delilah. Haleigh sighed heavily.

She didn’t think it would go over very well. Delilah consistently and convincingly acted repulsed whenever Haleigh tried to work with her now. Haleigh didn’t blame her for that, she didn’t really think it was Delilah’s fault that Haleigh had been so effective at alienating her best friend. It was almost the worst outcome possible, but preferential to Malice wanting Delilah dead. Of course, cruelly, that had been the ultimatum in the end. At least she had been able to stall long enough for Cameron to pull off his plan. It was a bittersweet victory, in Haleigh’s opinion.

However, it was highly likely that Cameron knew what he was talking about, so despite the discomfort, Haleigh nodded. Even if he was mistaken, it was clearly important to him that she try. So even if the damage to their relationship was truly irreparable, she would try again. For him, and for the sake of her goddaughter. Her gaze shifted to Seph, an almost pleading glance.

”I’d still like you to be there. You’re the best person to vouch for Brenthon.”

She asserted, and then the topic shifted to Alexis. Cameron was determined to reach out to her. Both Ava and Haleigh tried to warn him but he wouldn’t be dissuaded in the least. Finally, Haleigh expressed her support and told him that she just didn’t want him to get hurt. He reassured her he would be fine, and so she just shrugged in concession.

”Alright, have at it. You may want to talk to Arthur to track Alexis down; he’s been keeping tabs on her for us.”

She said, and then the next subject was reconstituting the Six. Seph didn’t think it could be done, but Haleigh wasn’t worried. She didn’t even think they needed to try. All they really needed was an apocalypse, and they were overdue for one. She said as much while Cameron wondered if the Victorias were going to be a part of it, or if they even should be. Haleigh hadn’t really given that much thought. She wasn’t interested in forcing anyone into it. Either they’d help, or they wouldn’t. Haleigh would work with the assets she had available, as always.

”If the end of the world happens anytime soon, don’t count on them being able to lend a hand. Hecate claimed to have fixed Morgan magically, but I can tell you right now, she still isn’t doing great. She may not be okay until we get Nic back to her, but in my opinion the Alexia situation is higher priority.”

And then he made some observations on Hellfire, and ultimately asked what the point of any of it was. Haleigh looked at him gently. He was still processing some issues that Ava and Haleigh had long since worked through. They had been at Hellfire a lot longer. They had suffered a great deal for it. He had come in when the deal was done, he had helped with the overthrow but he was much removed from it. It was good, because it gave him a different perspective, but it was also a bit of a detriment. It meant he had a tendency to second guess the situation, while Haleigh and Ava were both possessed of an unshakable conviction in their purpose. They had already sacrificed so much, that it had to be worth it, in the end.

”The point is that we are making progress. It’s not perfect, it’s not pretty. It’s not a linear path, sometimes it’s not even fucking logical, what’s happening to us. Sometimes it’s just pain, and suffering. But the purpose is to make things better. We've got it to the point where we CAN bring Alexia back. That’s progress. Will there still be problems? Yes. We’ll deal with those issues when they arise. We WILL make this world safe for Alexia, and all those other kids. Which reminds me, I need to check on Jake’s situation.”

 

[Shade]

Manhattan - Street level, Broadway & 32nd

It was so bright.

She followed Samuel through the slip and they were thrust into the middle of a bustling city. Weren't cities supposed to be dark? The buildings blocking the sun and all? But this. She shuddered visibly. Sunlight was everywhere. It made her skin crawl.

She instinctively drew tendrils of shadow to herself, blocking the glaring light from her body. She didn't care if it made the flatscans around her afraid. She hoped they were. She wanted them to notice her. Fear her.

But no one seemed to notice either of them. How stupid these normies were.

Eclipse: “Yes, darling, I believe this is the perfect time—”

He was looking at a newspaper, checking for the date. You'd think he would be past that, with his power over time and all. He let the pages scatter to the winds to the ire of the newsstand drudge. Shade laughed at the man's sheer inability to do anything about it, then quickly following Samuel as he strode down the street.

Eclipse: ”As I was saying, Shade, this should be the ideal timeframe. This particular year is ripe with advantage. The Six is defunct; half of them are at Hellfire — the half that even like her. The others are dead or dying. She’s quite isolated, in fact. She’s left Bishop for some Irish rugby boy — no, no. It’s that British bean counter who lives here -- he won’t put up much of a fight, doesn't even have powers.”

She rolled her eyes hard.

"What does the time really matter? Today, tomorrow, last year - what can she really do against the two of us? She's weak."

Her face twisted into a grimace, full of hatred.

"She was always weak. And always will be."

It shouldn't bother her, that Delilah was here, shacked up with some dude. She steeled her face. She didn't want Samuel to see the emotion it caused in her.

They passed a store selling some kind of electronic device.

Eclipse: ”Remember, only get one of those things if you want to be in the Spider’s web. Even the anonymous ones can be tracked. And she WILL be trying. No matter the timeline, that cyborg is trouble. The mind reader, too. We would do well to avoid them.”

She scoffed.

"Let them find me. I don't care."

Samuel waved to a camera at the intersection. Shade scowled at it.

He kept up his usual long stride, moving to the large double doors of an apartment building.

Eclipse: ”I swear, she has always just ingratiated herself to the lap of luxury, while the rest of us get cast aside. We are going to rectify some injustices today.”

"A LOT of injustices."

She shook her head, looking at the opulence around her.

"Typical."

The man behind the desk looked like he was going to get in the way of things, but Samuel made quick work of him - and as always, with a smile.

Eclipse: ”How long do you think that man will survive the ice age? I give him 30 minutes in that polyester suit.”

"That old fart? He'll have a heart attack within five minutes, if something doesn't eat him before then."

She grinned, looking at him for his approval of her joke. She pressed the button to call the elevator.

"Let me guess: penthouse?"

She rolled her eyes again. MorningStar was pathetic. Totally pathetic. Shade couldn't wait to drain the life out of her.