The Song of Eternity

Canto 10 : The Gift

Verse 4: Moving On

One can only live in the past for so long,

All wounds fade and heal given enough time.

They have had enough time.

Elena stared into the fireplace at Xavier's mansion. She frowned as she suppressed a shiver from the cold outside. Autumn had passed and winter had arrived. It had been about two months since Vincent and the others had disappeared and miraculously returned. Vincent, Damon, and the twins had been playing at clubs in Boston Friday and Saturday nights since then, leaving Elena the chore of watching the young mutants more times that she wanted to.

Things had calmed down around Bayville, the main populous of humans had accepted the mutants, but still were a bit wary. The children's high school was holding a dance and Xavier and Magneto felt it was important for the kids to get back to a sense of normalcy... and behave themselves. Elena was sitting in front of a fire at the mansion, in a long black dress with the back cut out wishing she had a gun on her. She was nominated by Vincent to help chaperone the dance and keep the mutant and non-mutant kids in line while Vincent and the others were at their gig in Boston.

"Cheer up Elena, what else did you have planned tonight?" Ororo laughed as she sat down in a chair by Elena. She was wearing a dark blue dress with her hair up to chaperone as well.

"Anything besides my job," Elena sighed as she looked up at the ceiling. "It seems this is all I do anymore," she muttered as she glanced at some of the teens running around in various states of dress, some of them were going to the dance, while others were not, and pestering the ones who were. "They better start heading out soon, the dance starts in half an hour," she said as she glanced down at her watch.

Just then the doorbell rang, Xavier and Magneto answered the door, acting as good hosts. "Ororo, your escort is here," Xavier called over.

"See you around Elena," Ororo chuckled as she walked to the front door and exited.

"Who the hell?" Elena swore as she and some of the kids went to various windows to see who was escorting their mentor. She squinted through a bit of falling snow and recognized the dark shaven head. "Damon?" she asked herself in surprise. "But he's supposed to be in Boston," she thought to herself as she turned around, bumping into a tall someone in a black tuxedo. "You...?"

"Shall we?" Vincent asked as he offered her a bouquet of blue flowers, matching her dress.

"What's going on?" Elena asked as she lost her cool Turk demeanor and was obviously flustered.

"We called off the show earlier in the week and figured this would be a good surprise," Vincent explained. "So, are you ready to go?" he asked again as he nodded at the bouquet of flowers.

"You have some nerve, Vincent Valentine," Elena said as she stormed to the door. "Well? Aren't you going to open the door for me?" she demanded as she laughed to herself that she was the one making Vincent lose his cool now.

Murphy walked into the main doors of the hotel that the dance was starting at in fifteen minutes. He wore a pair of black Dickies and one of those T-shirts that are supposed to look like a tuxedo top. He made his way through the crowds as he noted the mutants that he was there to keep watch on. He stopped off for a glass of punch to be stopped by Lance and Kitty. "Murphy, why are you here?" Lance asked him.

"We called off the show," he explained as he pointed out Damon and Vincent at other places in the crowd.

"Aren't you here with anyone?" Kitty asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Ha, not a chance. When the time comes that I eventually return to the world where me and Cole came from, there's someone there waiting for me," Murphy laughed.

"Speaking of which, is Cole coming?" Kitty asked.

"He never was one for parties like this, but who knows. The boy's changed over the last couple months," Murphy explained as shrugged his shoulders and drank his punch.

20 minutes before the dance. Rogue was in a foul mood. They had run out of the power suppressing drug the day before and had been unable to synthesize more before the dance. "Not like I had someone to go with, or anything to wear," she muttered as she stomped through the halls of the mansion. Xavier, Magneto, McCoy, and Creed had stayed at the mansion, letting Storm and the others take care of security. Madrox, the source of her irritation, was the only other teenager in the mansion. "Jamie! I am gonna break all of your necks if you don't get me that TV remote now!" she screamed.

She spun around to the giggling 13 year old. "I hid it in your room," he laughed as he ran off before she could give chase.

"I am gonna hurt that boy some time," she muttered as she went to her door and opened it in shock. "What in tha' hell?" she swore as she took in her surroundings. Her room was exactly how she had left it 10 minutes ago, with one small change. Laid across her bed were a beautiful red dress, a bouquet of white roses, and a folded piece of paper. She opened the piece of paper and read it to herself.

Rogue,

Outside. Five minutes or we are going to be late.

"So how long have you had this planned?" she asked Vincent as they sat together at a table sipping water.

"What do you mean?" Vincent replied as he studied her frustrated face.

"Even with the damn Jenova and mako out of you, you are still a cryptic bastard," she swore at him. "All of this. How long have you and Damon been planning this?"

"What makes you think I planned any of this in advance?"

"Deep in your mind, you are still a cold, logical Turk Vincent," she told him, with an unamused look on her face. "I know you more than anyone ever could, you wrote the book on my training. You assessed this situation, calculated all your risks, made back up plans," she rattled everything off on her fingers.

"I'm sorry?" Vincent replied as he felt something he had not in quite some time, color rising to his cheeks.

"Damn right you should be," Elena said as she stared angrily at him. "You and your damn Turk training," she swore as she stood up. "Get up," she ordered the surprised Vincent, who complied.

"I'll leave...," Vincent apologized as he started to shuffle his way away from the table.

"The hell you will, get out here and dance with me. We should have done this a long time ago," she laughed as she grabbed his hand and pulled him out as the first song started playing, doing something that no one had done in ages, bringing Vincent Valentine to a full blush.

"So, this was all the work of Vincent?" Ororo asked as she and Damon stood outside the hotel.

"Yeah, he finally let his heart take control of his head and went after Elena," Damon nodded. "All his plan, more or less."

"And why are we outside?" Storm asked him.

"Dance doesn't start for another 5 minutes, we watch to make sure no nuts get in until then and we have to, cough, then we can go in," Damon coughed as he tried to hide something.

"Well, you may have your secret. Whatever it may be," she chucked. "So, what was your world life, before Chaos?" she asked the enigma before her, trying to make small talk.

"It was...very simple," Damon replied as he looked up at the stars. "We were a very simple society, nomads, our land was a desert during my time. We lived in peace until that bitch Jenova came. Then everything went downhill and we had to ally with the Cetra," he scowled when he said their name. "I gave up everything for them, and this is the gratitude they show me," he shook his head.

"Do you regret the choices you made? Would you change them if you could?" she asked him genuinely.

He paused for a moment before shaking his head. "No. If I had not done it, no one could have. You have to do what you think is right and hope for the best," he mused as he closed his eyes.

"Very philosophical of you, Mr. Blackheart," Ororo smiled.

"Tell anyone and I'll kill you, Mrs. Monroe," he joked as he heard a vehicle approaching.

"Is that...?" Ororo asked him as they recognized the driver and passenger.

"Yep," Damon smiled.

"Good for them, and its Miss Monroe, Mr. Blackheart," she replied as she headed into the hotel, leaving another Turk speechless.

Rogue was on an emotional rollercoaster. Anger, surprise, happiness, fear, more happiness, and now shock. She had changed into her dress and thrown on make-up in what she considered to be an impossibly short time before rushing outside to her date. They had broken the speed limit nearly the entire drive to the hotel, but Rogue just had closed her eyes and prayed that they'd make it. They had walked in the hotel door just as Damon was giving out orders to two of Stone's soldiers that were on loan for the night for added security.

"Better hurry up you two, the music is starting," Damon told them as they walked past him towards the ballroom.

"Shall we," her date grabbed her hand as they wove their way through the tables to the dance floor.

The music started the second they stepped on the floor, as if by fate, Rogue thought. She sighed and wrapped her arms around her partner as a few tears started running down her face.

"What's the matter?" Cole asked as he looked down at the teenager in his arms.

"Nothing, this is just so fast and I thought I'd never experience anything like this," she explained as she wiped away the last of her tears. "Why all the last minute stuff anyway?" she asked him as she looked up into his eyes.

"I'm not one for being direct really," Cole admitted as he looked away. "I almost didn't even do it," he told her.

"Well...I'm glad you did," Rogue told him after a minute of silence as they continued dancing.

Murphy sat up on the back of a chair in the back of the room, stifling laughter. Vincent, Cole, and Damon were being dragged along the dance floor like little puppy dogs. "Ah, dangerous Turks, very dangerous," he chucked as the wiped away tears from laughing so hard. He almost didn't notice the young woman in the pink dress sit down in the chair next to him.

"Why aren't you out there enjoying yourself?" the girl asked him with big green eyes.

"You know how it is, some people aren't really meant for this kind of a scene," Murphy shrugged. "But you know how it is, don't you Aeris?" he chuckled at her.

"Very perceptive of you Murphy," Aeris replied as she looked out at Vincent and the others. "How do you know me?"

"Flower girl, pink dress, all of the stories from Vincent, Elena, and Damon. Not the mention that being partially transparent is a dead giveaway," he said as he waved his hand and it went right through her.

"Cut that out," she told him. "Why are you not enjoying yourself like the others?"

"I am enjoying myself just fine, seeing them happy," Murphy sighed as he explained. "I really just want them and everyone else to be happy," he smiled as he looked at the flower girl.

"Oh, you have someone waiting for you," Aeris realized.

"Bingo," Murphy chucked. "And as fun as this is, I can't wait to get back," he admitted.

"She is a lucky woman," Aeris nodded.

"Yeah, I just hope they can keep it together around here without me when my time comes," Murphy said solemnly.

The dance was almost over and the band had just announced that it was time for their last song. Everyone seemed to be having fun, a few humans had even danced with some of the mutants, but no violence occurred.

"A pretty successful night, no incid-," Vincent was cut off when Elena put her fingers up against his lips.

"Shhh," Elena quieted him. "Vincent, why did you wait so long to do this?" Elena asked the man who went pale.

"I am not used to being normal again," Vincent said nervously.

"Bullshit," Elena swore as she held him tight. "You are Vincent Valentine, you adapt. What is the real reason?" she asked as she looked up at him.

Vincent stayed silent as he looked into her eyes. "I was afraid of being human again. Afraid of living. Afraid of loving. Afraid of rejecti-," he stopped talking as his lips unexpectedly met Elena's.

After the kiss broke, Elena smiled back up at Vincent. "You don't have to be afraid anymore."

Cole had been mostly silent all night as he danced with Rogue and occasionally talked to classmates. Rogue on the other hand had been talking up a storm about everything, and now with the last song of the night playing, she had moved on to the subject of the band.

"So how do you know how to play guitar?" she asked him.

"Just something I picked up a while ago," he replied.

"Cool," she smiled. "I do have a pretty big question for you about one of your songs anyway," she told him.

"Go ahead," he nodded.

"The one song, Cailin, where did you dig up the name?" she asked him, studying his face.

"I knew her once....before I came to this world. We had a relationship," he responded.

"You are really good at not lying, but not telling the whole truth either, you know that," she responded as she noticed his eye twitch. "I've had these dreams for a while now, of things that are so fantastic and wonderful. They are about me...and yet they aren't," she mused as she looked up at his face. "Rogue is just a name I use, in case you haven't guessed. My real name is Cailin," she told him as his face got white as a sheet.

"I did not know," his voice cracked.

"There are a lot of things you don't know," she smiled. "I know all about you, I just didn't realize it until recently," she looked at him as she brought her lips close to his ear. "I won't tell anyone though. Travis, I promise, I'll keep your secret," she whispered in his ear.

He stumbled back from her as if struck by lightning. "I must go," he said hastily as he backed away, looking around him as if the walls were alive and going to get him.

"I'll be here when you need me," she told him as she looked down in sadness, as he quickly walked to the hotel exit and hopped in his car and sped off into the night.