kid cable

“That’s just a normal Tuesday man. People stopped batting an eye over that shit after Battleworld.” 

They’re broken. As loathe as they are to admit it, the diamond exterior of the Stepford Cuckoo’s has been chipped. It’s Esme’s fault, Phoebe has asserted during the bad moments. The others are quick to shoot down that kind of talk. We’re are the Five-in-One, they remind her. We are never alone. Being never alone means that they suffer together. In all fairness, there’s no other way that they would want it. No matter how excruciating life may be, to watch a sister suffer alone would be worse.

Time tore them into their own people before they merged back into one. Gone are the days of dyed hair and different outfits. Esme and Sophie had missed all that anyway. All they know is the pale hair straightened into a flat curtain, the matching robes of black and white. Yes, they are the Five-in-One. That’s how they’re meant to be. Romance has thrown a wrench into that. First it was Esme falling for Cable, then Phoebe and Quire. Cable returned to the past and Phoebe concealed her paramour. Esme wept, Phoebe thrived. Now, Esme weeps no more.

“Hello, Cable.” Four voices ring as one. Sophie, Phoebe, Irma and Celeste form a protective huddle around Esme. She stands in the center of her sisters, eyes trained on the floor.

You’re a bother, thinks Sophie. Most definitely a bother, Irma agrees. But Esme loooooooves him, Phoebe teases. Celeste just laughs.

“You’re not a bother,” Esme disregards the voices of her sisters in her mind. “And that’s sweet of you. Do you want to take a walk?” A walk away from her sisters. They huff.

“Yeah.. yeah I would love to.” Nate couldn’t hold back the crooked smile that stretched across his face. He glanced between the identical blonds around Esme and knew what they were thinking— you didn’t need to share a mind with them for that. But then his eyes landed on Esme and he held out a hand for her to take.

“What happened to Jean is unsettling, to say the least. I am not sure why some people are blasé when we clearly have cause for concern. If there is an answer out there, I will find it.” Wanda is steadfast in her resolutions. 

Poor Esme. She’s yet to be corrupted, yet to see the light. Emma knows that her daughters need to be culled in one fell swoop. Their Hive Mind will make it impossible to take them out one by one. While Emma refuses to explicitly pick a favorite daughter, she does have an admitted soft spot for the lovelorn Esme. Emma knows what it’s like to love a Summers. Truly, it’s a terrible business. “Consider me fueled by our recent success,” Emma smiles. “We’ve done a good thing and that makes me happy. Is that so wrong, Nathan?” Of course, Emma still must play the role of the good mother. Her countenance sobers. “To confirm: you’ve taken up with my daughter?”

“I wish I could say you were wrong, but you’re not. This was deliberate. I’m not impossible to kill. Everyone likes to make fun of me for dying so often.” Even so, Jean had been especially powerful as of late. She understands why Exodus did why he did. “It feels like overkill, though.”

“What about my face makes you think that I’m calm about all of this?”

Esme sits crosslegged on his bed, concern knitting her features into the picture of concern. Her sisters are elsewhere in the Island and their Hive Mind has been reduced to a low hum. She’s sound of mind once more, and infinitely grateful for that. “My mum doesn’t seem too concerned. She’s not happy with the situation, but she’s being a bit blasé? Sophie thinks I’m being paranoid. Ms. Frost is just busy. Things on the Council have been tense ever since Sinister murdered her and a few others before getting fed to the Island.”