The dark before the dawn

[MorningStar]

The Parthenon

Cameron was talking about clothes, but she wasn’t really hearing him. She didn’t care about clothes. Clothes were Morgan’s thing. She didn’t care if she wore this bathrobe for the rest of her life. Right now, she didn’t want to move from this spot, from the light.

Somewhere between attacking Alison and arriving here she had realized she was never seeing her daughter again. Not with THEM against her. She couldn’t get to Limbo and even if she did, Morgan and Ororo would just take Alexia somewhere else.

So what was the point?

Cameron was yanking her up off the floor. She resisted as much as she could be she just didn’t have the strength to do much. Then he was forcing her into the kitchen.

“I’m not hungry.”

She kept saying it but he refused to let go of her arm. She just wanted to lay back down. Here, in the bedroom, on the floor – anywhere, it didn’t matter. He let her sit at least. She leaned her head back and rested it against the back of the seat. She stared silently at Cameron.

He just kept TALKING. It hurt her brain, all that talking. All that thinking. It made everything confusing and all she wanted was calm.

“Okay, Delilah. You NEED to eat. And...You need to start talking.. How are you feeling? Did sleep do anything to help ease your mind? Where's your head at. I need to know so that I can know what to do next.."

“There’s…nothing to be done next. Doing anything would be pointless. Talking about it is pointless.”

 

[Prophet]

The Parthenon

"There's...nothing to be done next. Doing anything would be pointless. Talking about it is pointless.."

Cameron let out a sigh.

"Yeah, because sitting there like a coma patient while you replay everything in your mind is by FAR the better option..."


[Thinking for a moment]

"I'm sorry. You know, I know where you are coming from. I've been there. I've felt hopeless. Nobody knows what it's like being a perpetual "victim" quite like I do..."

He grabbed another helping of strawberries from the platter in the middle of them, and added some to his plate, and then to Delilah's for good measure. For a second he replayed in his head the brutal torture he received at the hands of a woman he had fought so hard to bring into his life. His older sister, Erika.

<< Erika moved over Cameron's body as dark magicks swirled around her. >>

"Come on Little Brother! Don't CRY!"

<< She snapped her fingers as a wave of flames rushed over Cameron's broken and beaten body, his eyes so beaten in and bruised that he could barely open them. >>

"Because our BITCH of a SISTER can't help you NOW!"

Snapping back to reality.

"But, honestly Delilah. Our circumstance is our circumstance. What's done is done. But we CAN control what we do NOW, in this moment..."

[looking at Delilah]

"And your reality is that you have given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Alexia. A baby girl who has the exact opposite power that you do. A baby girl that has inadvertenly tried to DRAIN your life force... and now, she is in Limbo. With Ororo. You can't see her, you've cut ties with Alison, Morgan and Maxim..and you're here with ME..."

[eating a strawberry]

"It's a shitty reality, Delilah. But it's yours. And YOU have got to work through it..because all of this doom and gloom, this incredible desire to not "exist"... it's NOT you, Delilah. It's been a long time coming, and until you start TALKING about it...you're always going to feel... [gesturing his hands in a random motion in front of him] like this..."

He stood silent for a moment. Last night he may have been very kind and understanding, but now they were in an environment that he hoped Delilah could trust, with a person who had SHOWN her that when the chips FELL, he was right there for her. If there was going to be a person to talk to, it would be him. He was trying to get her to "feel" something, because as long as she had SOME emotion, be it sadness, anger, etc. She had a chance.

"And being like this.. does no good for your daughter. She's out of your care at this moment..but she's alive, Deliilah. It's not the ideal circumstances, that's for damn sure. You have a daughter named Alexia and she is ALIVE. I repeat that because you need to hear it...because I KNOW that you love her.. I just feel like you aren't looking ahead. You aren't realizing that this situation isn't permanent..."

[wiping his fingers off with his napkin]

"Your feelings about Alison and Morgan, are YOUR feelings, and I can't tell you how you SHOULD feel. Nobody can..but that aside..right now, your love for your baby girl needs to override this incredible betrayal that you feel..because my sister, no matter how much you HATE her right now, DID cast a spell on Alexia, before taking her to Limbo. She blessed your child with the gift of clarity and memory.

No…wait.

Hold her a bit longer. Hold her sitting up with her back to your chest …

::Stepping several feet back, she holds her TIME STAFF out in front of her, again horizontal, with the large red garnett jewel in the crown of the staff now directly in front of the baby. The jewel once again humed softly and glowed with an intermittent pulse::

:: Alison spoke in a quiet but directing tone::

Take her little arm, place her HAND ON the garnet jewel.

:: Bishop hesitates…and Alison’s eyes dart up at him::

Don’t hesitate! Just do it!

:: Bishop’s hand places the little Alexia’s hand on the garnet jewel. It’s hum shifts up in pitch and the jewel now glows a bit more brightly::

Little Alexia Morganna. Born were you, from two people, who’s lives and loves cross time and space. Yours is a life full of possibilities and HOPE. I, Harbinger, The Keeper of Time, do bestow upon you, the GIFT of CLARITY and MEMORY.

As you touch this garnet jewel on my time staff…my magicks now have touched you like the dew touches a flower in the morning. You will REMEMBER your father AND your mother.


:: Referring to the interactions both Bishop and Delilah have had with Alexia since she was born and stabilized::

Time may be “in the way” for you now, little one…but ALL things and people must live and move through time. You WILL see your mother and your father…when the time is RIGHT. But now with this gift, the touch of my time staff and my magick, you will forever be comforted by the memories of your mother and father, their gentle touch…their expressions of love for you.


Nothing changes now…you will still sleep the sleep of the innocent…but as you grow…you will NOT suffer the cruelty of not knowing who you are…and who you came from.
As I say it…let it now be so.

::The sound signature associated with Harbinger’s magicks is heard as the garnet jewel emits a soft, sparkling red ray of light that gently washes over Alexia, who YAWNS contentedly before settling once more::


She’ll remember you, Bishop…and Delilah. The few precious moments you’ve shared with her. Your words to her. They will comfort her in dreams as her mind forms and will help lead her BACK to you both when the time is right.

:: lowering her time staff, she lets go of it and as it begins to fall, it stops and soon corrects itself, now hovering beside Alison…the garnet jewel once again humming softly and glowing with an intermittent pulse. Bishop slowly, gingerly hands the baby to Alison, who carefully gathers her into her arms, cradling her and covering her a bit more with the blanket Bishop wrapped around her. She looks up at Bishop, with a look of sadness in her colbalt blue eyes that she doesn’t try to hide now…but that sadness is tempered a bit by knowing she’s given the baby a gift FEW others could imagine, let alone bestow.::


I will take her to Ororo, now. Just as I told you. She’s WAITING for me out our rendezvous point.

"She's going to know who you and Maxim are. She's going to remember you, and she WILL understand why this has happened... and FURTHERMORE? She deserves to be reuinited with a Mother that is worthy of her time. A Mother who values her life and wants to live it... Otherwise...ALL OF IT..will have been in vain. If anything, Alexia represents the ONE THING that you DID have TOTAL CONTROL over. YOU created that baby with Maxim. You NURTURED that baby in your womb for nine months..and dammit..you HAD that baby. She is a part of you and always will be.."

[staring at Delilah with sincerity]

"And not to wax poetic about my own life, Delilah. I had one of the most terrible women on the face of this planet as a mother. I lived most of my life as an ORPHAN. And I can tell you, as HORRIBLE as Kelly was, as DEMENTED as she became... when I sent her through the Siege Perilous..I hurt inside..."

:: She had given him the Siege Perilous. Something that Ororo gave her as a personal gift. She was extending it out for Cameron. It was quite the intense moment and deep down both of them felt somehwat of a mutual connection but that way deep down in the depths of each of their soul. Something they would most likely never speak about again. Still he nodded to Alison and grabbed the Siege Perilous from Alison's hands. He turned back to his mother and with a rage and intensity that scared almost every single person in the room he thrust it out at his mother and screamed at the top of his lungs ::

"THIS IS LONG OVER DUE YOU CRYPT KEEPER BITCH!!! DIE!!!!!"

"I will tell you right now, that ANY mother, even the WORST kind is better than no mother. The fact that I can say that even now, after everything she put my family through, proves that. To lay eyes upon the woman who brought me into this Earth, the woman who's blood courses through my veins. It was worth it...."

Cameron was quiet for a moment, sitting with the overload of words he had just given to Delilah. He knew he was taking somewhat of a risk, but he also hoped she realized that she was OUT of options, and that Cameron wasn't coming at her to attack her. He was coming at her as a friend concerned with her well being and an earnest belief that he could help her.

"You can't be with her now, Delilah. But you will be..and what are you going to do then? Who is the woman that you want your daughter to KNOW?"

 

[MorningStar]

The Parthenon

"Yeah, because sitting there like a coma patient while you replay everything in your mind is by FAR the better option..."

Cameron was spooning MORE fruit onto her plate. She didn’t want to eat what was already there. For a second, she thought about throwing it at his head.

"It's a shitty reality, Delilah. But it's yours. And YOU have got to work through it..because all of this doom and gloom, this incredible desire to not "exist"... it's NOT you, Delilah. It's been a long time coming, and until you start TALKING about it...you're always going to feel... [gesturing his hands in a random motion in front of him] like this..."

If she had wanted to talk, she would have called Karen. Of ANYONE, she would have thought Cameron would have allowed her to stay silent. She looked at him for a second, not unlike a sullen child looking at a parent who is lecturing them. But when she spoke, it wasn’t with anger or hatred – it wasn’t the way she had spoken to the others the night before. It was just matter-of-fact honesty.

“I know what my reality is, Cameron. But I’m not sure I’ve been myself in a very long time. I’m not sure I know what myself IS.”

"And being like this.. does no good for your daughter. She's out of your care at this moment..but she's alive, Deliilah. It's not the ideal circumstances, that's for damn sure. You have a daughter named Alexia and she is ALIVE. I repeat that because you need to hear it...because I KNOW that you love her.. I just feel like you aren't looking ahead. You aren't realizing that this situation isn't permanent..."

“How do you know that, Cameron? You keep saying that ‘this is not permanent’ – but none of you really KNOWS that for sure. Alexia might NEVER be able to be in the same room with me without killing me. ORORO might never let us try.”

She pulled her right knee up to her chest and hugged it to her.

"Your feelings about Alison and Morgan, are YOUR feelings, and I can't tell you how you SHOULD feel. Nobody can..but that aside..right now, your love for your baby girl needs to override this incredible betrayal that you feel..because my sister, no matter how much you HATE her right now, DID cast a spell on Alexia, before taking her to Limbo. She blessed your child with the gift of clarity and memory. She's going to know who you and Maxim are.”

She let out an almost imperceptible gasp at this. There was a moment when she almost – almost – started to cry again. Somehow knowing what you’d lost seemed so much worse than if her daughter didn’t remember her at all.

“She’d never even know Maxim’s NAME if I had anything to say about it – which I don’t.”

She pushed the plate of food away from her.

“The fact of the matter is, even if I get to see her again – how long will it take before she can control her powers enough? Five years? Ten? Fifteen? She’ll already be grown up. Raised by SOMEONE ELSE. I will never get to be there for her when she scrapes her knee or has nightmares. How she will hate me for letting her be taken away. How can a child understand that? What if your mother had come back when you were fifteen? How would YOU have felt, Cameron? You want to talk about this? Well, then, tell me that.”

"You can't be with her now, Delilah. But you will be…and what are you going to do then? Who is the woman that you want your daughter to KNOW?"

Delilah stood up, an incredulous look on her face, holding the white cloth napkin that had been in her lap in her hand.

“I want her to know that I MISSED her. That I WANTED her. Maybe Morgan and Alison could have just forgotten about it and moved on – or wiped it from their minds entirely. But I can’t do that. I WON’T do that. If I act like nothing has happened then it’s like she didn’t matter at all.”

She threw the napkin down onto the table and moved to leave, then stopped. She turned back to Cameron.

“Thank you for breakfast.”

She quickly retreated back to the guest room, closing the door behind her. She collapsed across the bed, holding one of the pillows to her like a stuffed animal, staring out the window once again.

It was true what she had said. She had always been defined in terms of her friendship with Morgan. If she didn’t have that, then who was she?

 

[Prophet]

The Parthenon

“How do you know that, Cameron? You keep saying that ‘this is not permanent’ – but none of you really KNOWS that for sure. Alexia might NEVER be able to be in the same room with me without killing me. ORORO might never let us try.”

She pulled her right knee up to her chest and hugged it to her.

"Well, Delilah.. it's a far more malleable fate than the one in which she along with ALL of us died at Minerva's mansion..[referring to Alison's vision] and while I support your feelings..YOU are the one who made the choice to have this baby, and certainly...you must have known that any one of US (The Six) bringing a child into this world, is just NOT simple or easy by the very nature of who we are and what we do..."

She let out an almost imperceptible gasp at this. There was a moment when she almost – almost – started to cry again. Somehow knowing what you’d lost seemed so much worse than if her daughter didn’t remember her at all.

“She’d never even know Maxim’s NAME if I had anything to say about it – which I don’t.”

She pushed the plate of food away from her.

“The fact of the matter is, even if I get to see her again – how long will it take before she can control her powers enough? Five years? Ten? Fifteen? She’ll already be grown up. Raised by SOMEONE ELSE. I will never get to be there for her when she scrapes her knee or has nightmares. How she will hate me for letting her be taken away. How can a child understand that? What if your mother had come back when you were fifteen? How would YOU have felt, Cameron? You want to talk about this? Well, then, tell me that.”

"Delilah.. that is staking a LOT of claim in the unknown...and there's no point to any of it. For all we know, in the next five minutes Ororo could come up with a way. And just as soon as it started, it ended. THEN how you would you feel?"

[he took a sip of orange juice]

"Well, let's see.. at the age of fifteen I had murdered an innocent woman in order to be "jumped" into a gang because I had absolutely no family and wanted to belong. Even if she would have been a raging psychopath..and she WAS, I would have welcomed her with open arms. I know what you are saying, Delilah. I know you feel like you are being "cheated" out of being a mother, and that you had no choice in the matter.. but do you REALLY underestimate Ororo THAT much? Ororo is our KEEPER. She guides us, and she helps us even when there seems to be NO OTHER OPTION. That is what she does..it's what she's good at..."

Delilah stood up, an incredulous look on her face, holding the white cloth napkin that had been in her lap in her hand.

“I want her to know that I MISSED her. That I WANTED her. Maybe Morgan and Alison could have just forgotten about it and moved on – or wiped it from their minds entirely. But I can’t do that. I WON’T do that. If I act like nothing has happened then it’s like she didn’t matter at all.”

She threw the napkin down onto the table and moved to leave, then stopped. She turned back to Cameron.

“Thank you for breakfast.”

"Nobody is asking you to act like nothing has happened. I'm not even concerned with your relationships with Alison and Morgan. I'm simply trying to help you understand that although this situation is incredibly DIFFICULT, and although you feel like you want to crawl back under those sheets and DIE? YOU can't.. and in fact.. I won't let you. You just said if you act like nothing happened then it's like she didn't matter at all. I agree..but the longer you stay in this state, the bigger a disservice you are doing to yourself...."

Delilah walked away and returned to her room. Cameron wiped his face and placed his napkin down on the plate. At least she was talking, and that was a good sign...but Delilah was mistaken if she thought that this would be the last time that Cameron was going to attempt to get her to talk about. However, as much personal experience that he could offer for this..he couldn't help but feel somewhat out of his league.

[picking up his cell phone, he dialed and waited for the voicemail]

"Hey Karen...it's Cameron. It looks like i'm going to need some help. Please call me once you've gotten home and are settled... and thank you in advance for helping tend to my sister. Please give my best to Mike. Talk to you soon..."

Sighing to himself, he began to clear the table and pack away the leftovers into his large and industrial size refrigerator. He hated what was happening, and there was a part of him...remnants of the OLD Cameron that just wanted to reach into her mind and "FIX" it himself. He could do it so easily. But it wasn't his way anymore. Delilah NEEDED to come to some conclusions about herself ON HER OWN or she was never going to get through all of this. Although he was worried, he was CONFIDENT that Delilah could rebuild from these ashes. She had gone through the ringer, but then again, so had he. He had gone from one of the most polarizing and downright terrible people in The Six, to where he was now...and that didn't come overnight. That came from the CONSTANT self-evaluation and the WILL to "do different" and from THAT understanding, he was able to finally BE who he was..outside of Alison's little brother, or businessman, or ANYTHING. He wished the same for Delilah.

[to himself, looking at Delilah's plate...full of food]

"Okay...if she doesn't start eating.. I WILL compell her to..."

Cameron put the dishes away, cleaned up the kitchen, put Security on high alert at his penthouse, and decided to take a walk in Central Park to clear his head. Round two with Delilah would happen later that night, and...if necessary, Round Three and Round Four. He would get through to her..he just needed to figure out how.

 

[Seer]

And so

<< The Six gained a new member, while several old allies and a founding member returned; an unquiet spirit returned to haunt them; a light failed; a new life began & a sisterhood fell apart, swallowed by a blackhole that had first begun many moons ago.>>

<< the problem with a black hole is that it will only keep growing and nothing, not even LIGHT can escape it.>>

<< While the Six had managed to end the threat of Circe under the Blue Moon, a deeper, more personal darkness had moved across their horizon.>>

<< Sudden change and transition were never easy for the Six but they often forgot just how resilient as individuals, and even MORESO as a group, they actually were. Moves were made, always with the goal of best outcome possible and while Delilah may have forgotten...or never truly believed to begin with...Harbinger knew better....>>

<< ZOOMING through the halls of Minerva's Mansion into Harbinger's Executive Study, we see Images of the crystaline chess board that Harbinger had once revealed to Black Widow on the eve before Master Mold's attack.>>

<< The beautiful, shimmering crystaline figures - all of the Six and their allies along with the Sister hood can be seen on various spaces of the board and soon, they began to move, with Morgan and Alison now on the outer edges of the board near Haleigh and Persephone's figures, Cameron, Nicolas, Blaze, Cassandra more toward the center, with Sharon, Alycia just behind them; Karen and Michael behind THEM. NEW figures appear- Bishop, Ororo and in Ororo's arms, a tiny crystaline baby. Delilah's piece shimmers and glows, it trembles as it starts to move away from the center...toward the outer edge, almost FALLING OFF the chess board but Cameron's figure glows bright red and Delilah's figure quickly slides back to the center, right next to his. While Ororo's figure, with the baby in her arms STARTS at a far corner of the board but before our eyes...we see her piece move one...TWO spaces forward toward the center.>>

<< Every move, every CHANGE on this cosmic chess board reprsents progress TOWARD something. Just as Alison had showed Haleigh before.>>

<< Delilah may think her time with the six, with Morgan and Alison is over...but the irony is, She asked to be RETURNED to them, to the Six by Hecate and Athena, and while they couldn't guarantee anything else, they made sure to be true to her request.>>

<< She has forgotten the one thing she should remember the most. ALL times, places and even PEOPLE are possible in the lives of the Six, lives that have time and again, circumvented the laws and hold of time and space. >>

<< Her life has begun anew, and though she may not see it now...time IS on her's and Alexia's side...and if nothing else...Cameron will make sure she stays to see that come to pass.>>

<< Things are dark now, cold and distance. But every season, every time has it's place and runs its course. The darkness will give way to light, lives will change, hearts will mend. But to see that and so much more in the lives of the Six, their allies and even their foes....we must watch. >>