"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
[xxxxx]
Chapter 22: Only the Beginning
Lenore slept for the next two weeks. After the first week she was moved from the infirmary to her bedroom, where everyone took turns watching over her. She slept with her mouth wide open and hardly moved, which concerned Logan, but Hank said there was nothing to worry about. Her heart and breathing rates were both normal, and all they had to do was let her rest.
Control slept for the next two weeks. After the first week the house doctor was dismissed, and Camouflage and Panther took turns watching over her. She slept with her jaw tightly shut and constantly shifted her position which concerned Camouflage, but Panther reassured her that everything was fine.
A fortnight after her inner battle, Control awoke in an unfamiliar apartment. It was cold, and when she stood up from the bed she saw that only a thin cotton T-shirt and nylon shorts covered her.
Camouflage was asleep, slumped in a chair in the corner of the room. Control was curious to probe into her thoughts, but her own mind was too weak to concentrate on much of anything.
On the clock it read three AM, but Control wasn't tired so she took a blanket from her bed and wrapped it about herself before venturing out of the bedroom.
The apartment was small, with an adjoined living room and kitchen but no dining room to speak of. Panther was asleep on the couch with a book lying open on her chest. Control carefully lifted it from her hands and laid it on the coffee table before turning out the light and heading out onto the balcony.
It was cold but she didn't mind, and only wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders. There was still snow on the ground and it was could enough for her breath to be seen, but the winters in New York were long and there was no determining the date just from the weather. Control could tell she had been asleep for a long time, but whether it had been three weeks or three months, she did not know.
The balcony door opened and from behind and Control turned around to see Panther shivering in the cold.
"How long have I been asleep?" She asked, struggling to keep her voice steady. No matter how tired and weak she was, Control had to be strong in the eyes of the Superiors. She was their leader, and if the leader fell, then so did the army.
"Two weeks yesterday." Panther said as she stood next to Control and looked down at the lonely dark street.
"And Albino? Where is she?"
Panther seemed to falter and looked down at her bare toes, pink from the cold stone that they stood on. "She ran off with Quicksilver." She said reluctantly. "I don't think she'll be coming back."
"I wouldn't bet on it." Control agreed. "And Magneto?"
"He said you've convinced him your control over the Phoenix is gone, and that he is braking off all ties with the Superiors."
Control smiled a bit. "You agree with him, don't you?"
Panther looked at her, a bit surprised. "I—"
"Oh, calm down." She interrupted and shot a smile at her comrade. "I don't blame you. I would feel the same way if I was in your position — worried, confused, shocked, lonely, questioning your own ethics and past decisions... no, I don't blame you at all."
There was an odd silence, and Panther bit her tongue, trying to keep her thoughts steady in case Control was reading them.
"Where is Hawkeye?" Control asked, not curiously, but just as a question to fill the gap in conversation.
"Dead." Panther answered, just as casually.
"You're sure?" Control asked, watching her out of the corner of her eye.
"No, we're not sure." She paused. "But he's no where to be found and the police report says there was a body uncovered in the wreckage."
"And you're not bothered?"
"He died for a good cause. That's enough to comfort me."
Control wasn't surprised. It was no secret that Elizabeth and William were never in love, the sole reason she had approved of their marriage. "A marriage of convenience," Albino had always said, but Control knew it was much more. Rather than actually loving one another, it was more that they loved being married to each other.
"What's our next plan of action?" Panther asked in a serious tone.
Be strong, Control reminded herself. A leader must be strong in the eyes of her followers. But she could not think of a strong answer, so she just shook her head. "I have no idea. But I do know one thing — this is not the end."
[xxxxx]
When Jacob Barrington looked back at the passing weeks, it was if the events of the past three months were just some realistic dream his brain had thought up during a lazy Sunday afternoon nap.
No one really talked about what had happened to Control, or the Superiors or anything else that happened on that night. Once he had tried bringing up the subject with Rogue, but she just said she had some homework to finish and ran away to her room. His teachers took no hint of it either. It wasn't a subject he expected to come up in day-to-day conversation, but everyone acted like had never happened. He at least expected some recognition for his heroic actions that wintry night — perhaps a trophy or a plaque of honor, an invitation to join the team maybe, or at least a measly "Thanks, Snake."
He was complaining about it to Evan one evening shortly before Christmas break when they were returning to their dorm from dinner.
"Maybe nobody wants to talk about it." He shrugged. "It was pretty traumatic for everyone."
Jake scoffed. "Are you kidding? It was awesome! I mean, sure, I might have sprained my arm, but it was a small price to pray to be an X-Man for a night. Besides, how would you even know? Anything about it? You weren't even there."
"Rogue told Amy who told me. Man, that chick will come up with any excuse to talk to someone." Evan sighed and shook his head.
Jake smiled. "Or just you."
"What do you mean?" He asked, furrowing his brow. "You aren't saying that—"
"That's right, bro. She's got it bad for you." Jake gave his friend a pat on the back and laughed a little. "Aw, c'mon man. She's not that bad." He said when he noticed Evan's mortified face."
"No, bro, you don't understand." Evan said, knocking Jake's hand off his shoulder. "The girl has no more intelligence than a lampshade. Yesterday she asked me if Yao Ming was a river in China."
Jake laughed aloud.
"Bro, I'm serious. The only thing she knows anything about is shades of nail polish. I thought she just followed me around because I'm the only guy who's actually nice to her."
"Nice?" Jake scoffed as they entered their room. "The only nice thing you've ever done for Amy was inviting her to go see Transformers 2 and that was only because you didn't want to be a third wheel with me and Jubes."
Evan shut the door behind himself. "Hey, I coulda asked Tabby instead."
Jake plopped down on his mattress and stuck one arm behind his head. "If you had any conscience you'd remember Tabitha was sick that week."
"Whatever. You wanna beer?" Evan asked as he lifted up the rug in between their two beds.
"Yeah, sure. We've got lite, right?"
"We sure do, Jane — oops, I mean, Jake." Evan said sarcastically as he felt around underneath the rug for a loose floorboard.
"Hey, I'm concerned about my health." Jake said with a smile.
Prying up the floorboard, Evan pulled out two cans of lite beer and threw one to his friend. "Why don't you just buy some fitness videos? I'm sure you can just borrow some from Wolverine."
"Ha-ha." Jake said mockingly as they both cracked open their beers, took a long drink and sighed. "So what did Amy say to you anyway?"
"About that night? Oh, I dunno..." Evan sat down in his desk chair and turned toward Jake. "I wasn't listening most of the time. I think she said something about absorbing a witch's powers or something. I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean but..."
"The Scarlet Witch. You mean she absorbed the Scarlet Witch's powers."
"Yeah, whatever. Oh! I remember now. She said if she still had the witch's powers she would be able to touch Bobby again."
Jake groaned. "Oh, God... no this stupid 'I wish Bobby and I could be more connected' bullshit. She's suck a girl sometimes." He took another swig of his beer.
"Yeah, but you wouldn't mind if she wished it was you she could touch." Evan said as he laid down on his bed.
Jake let his telekinesis hold his beer and sat up to look across the room at his friend. "Excuse me?"
Evan sipped his beer and looked at the ceiling. "You heard me. It's no secret you've go the hots for Rogue."
Jake grabbed his beer out of the air and laid back down. "And where did you get that preposterous hypothesis? Did Steve tell you that?"
"No, you did. Every time she's around you practically—"
There was a knock at the door and quickly Jake and Evan shoved their cans under their beds. Jake grabbed his DS from the end table and pretended to be playing and intense game of Pokémon Platinum while Evan popped a few spikes out of his arm and began to throw them at an imaginary target on the wall.
"Come in!" He called, and Tabitha entered the room, smiling.
"It took you long enough." She said. "So what were you doing when I knocked? Please tell me it was steaming hot buttsex! I want to know all the details."
Jake shut his DS and grabbed his beer from underneath the bed. "Very classy, Tab, but keep dreaming. We were just enjoying some post-dinner drinks." He presented the beer can. "Would you like one?"
"It's tempting, but no thanks. If you remember, I'm rooming with pretty Kitty this year and she'd probably freak if she smelt something on me."
"Suit yourself." Evan said, taking a swig out of his can.
"I could hear you guys talking from outside. Any new interesting gossip?" Tabitha took a seat at Evan's desk, sitting backwards on the chair.
"How hard Jake has it for Rogue." Evan answered quickly. "Apparently he thought nobody knew about it."
"I do not like her. Maybe as a friend, but definitely nothing more than that." Jake said, trying to hide his annoyance.
"Oh, puh-leez." Tabitha said. "It's not like we're making fun of you. Besides," Her voice turned to a mocking Southern accent. "She's real perty."
"You're a douche, Tabitha." He said, finishing off his beer and throwing the empty can at her. She dodged and the can hit the wall, but no one cared enough to pick it up.
Tabitha rested her chin on her arm. "Speaking of Miss Rogue, her boyfriend's out for you, Jake."
"Me?" Jake sat upright, a bit surprised.
"Isn't that what I just said?"
"Why's he after me?"
"Somebody started a rumor that you and Rogue were getting a little more than friendly."
Jake scoffed angrily. "How would that even be possible — y'know with her... disabilities?"
"Well, there is your telekinesis." Evan offered.
Tabitha nodded. "Ant it's not that hard to believe with the way you guys act around one another."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."
"Let's demonstrate, shall we?" Evan said to Tabitha, and she nodded. "Oh, Ah'm so vulnerable n Ah just want somebody who can hold me late at night when it's rainin' outsade n love me fo' who Ah really am." He mocked Rogue in a high-pitched, horribly feigned Southern accent.
"Well, hey baby..." Tabitha said in a deep voice and pretended to slick back her hair. "I think I might just be the steamin' hot hunk of man-love you're lookin' for."
"Oh, Jake, if only Ah wasn't involved with Bobby, we could be together fo' evah and evah."
Jake scowled as they made kissy faces at each other and laughed. "You two sound like a horrible impression of Scarlett O'Hara and Johnny Bravo."
Another great quote from Winston Churchill! Perhaps his most famous, if I am not mistaken.
Sorry this chapter is so short... but the next chapter is the last and probably the shortest besides Chapter 1. Chapter 2 will be up tomorrow and if not then, within the next week. Anywho~ I must attribute the "preposterous hypothesis" to New Zealand's Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of "Flight of the Conchords". "Preposterous hypothesis" is a line from their song "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros". It's pretty hilarious. You should watch it if you haven't before.
I also apologize for the atrocious (but purposeful) spelling mistakes when Evan is mocking Rogue. I just wanted to accentuate (get it? accentuate?) the bad Southern accent. I also apologize for Tabitha's "buttsex" reference. I hope that won't lose me too many readers.