Control | Moon Knight

34

Cleo drops to her knees, landing on the soft and scorching sand of the Egyptian desert, finding herself on the outside of the tomb as the sun beats down on her armor. Her lips are slightly parted, and her eyes appear dazed and out of focus.

The truth showed itself to her, giving her the impression that she and Marc and Steven were meant to be, but it could never have been.

Star-crossed lovers that will never end up together.

For no matter what feelings Cleo holds in her heart, the men are dead. She watched them die, that much she knows to be true, but what she doesn't know is that they're fighting their way out of the underworld at this very moment. Desperately crawling back to the land of the living.

But upon revealing that bit of truth to his other half, Marc finds himself wrestling with Steven in the hall once more as the Brit is forced to come to terms with who he really is.

A stress ball that Marc created when he was just a child.

Steven punches his other half in the jaw and holds onto his fist as he feels the pain searing through his skin.

" All this time I thought I was the original, but I'm just something you made up," Steven pants as his jaw trembles.

" You got to live a happy, simple, normal life. You understand?" Marc questions.

" But it was all a lie, wasn't it?"

" So what? What? You wanna remember the truth? That you had a mother that beats you? That hated you? That made your life a living hell?"

" You're lying. You're just trying to upset me."

" But you've gotten to live thinking that she loved you. That she was kind. That she's still alive!"

Steven's eyes widen as his stance softens.

It has to be a lie.

It has to be.

He's been calling his mother for as long as he can remember.

He's been receiving her postcards.

No.. she has to be alive. She has to be.

" Dad called me after all these years, about her shiva, and I couldn't do it," Marc admits.

" No, this is all wrong," Steven proclaims, his voice barely registering above a whisper, " This is... no this all wrong. Oh, no, no, no. No, let me out, let me out, let me out!"

When Steven's eyes open, he sees a strange man sitting in front of him, and by instinct tosses the glass of water all over the stranger.

But it's no stranger.

It's the man who killed him, hiding behind a doctorate degree.

Steven saunters around the room, getting a sense of his new surroundings as the doctor attempts to break him down.

Steven's denial is strong, and it keeps going and going, spilling out more excuses as Dr.Harrow dials his mother's number.

But when he's handed the phone, he stares at it blankly as his mind processes the truth that it once refused to believe.

" My mum is dead."

The humming dial tone whispers in his ear as the doctor puts the phone back on the receiver. Steven closes his eyes, and when he opens them, he finds himself in one final memory.

The day of his mother's funeral.

There stands Marc Spector outside his childhood home with a flask in his hands, staring in through the window as his father motions for him to come inside, but he doesn't bother.