Wikihood/arc/P18/Ending

We Open the scene to 'I Didn't Know The Gun Was Loaded', by The Andrews Sisters. James Rosenberg, looking fresh and youthful as he had been back during the time of his initial disappearance, is sitting alone in his chair, glass of whisky in his hand, looking out of the window into the stretching horizon of Midway City. Through the slight reflection from the window however, James is also keeping his eye on the door behind him, eagerly waiting his guest's arrival. Cut to the corridor. Debonair D'Arque, dressed in his finest, is hastily walking for what seems to be miles to him, with every security checkpoint clearing and allowing for his entrance. Finally, after making a long trek, he finds himself at the final checkpoint, a mahogany door with a manual lock. He walks up to it and turns the knob, opening the door and taking him inside the room. Rosenberg notices D'Arque's entrance, but does not move from his seat. Instead, he greets his rival verbally, in a calm and almost warm manner.

JAMES: Donovan, my old friend. It has been so very long.

D'Arque takes a moment to process the moment, but then the expression on his face turns into his typical one of disgust and anger.

DEBONAIR: Oh fuck you. Nobody gets to call me by that name, especially not you.

James gets up from his chair and walks towards Debonair, facing him with his arm out, as if to offer a handshake.

JAMES: Come now, Donovan. We've spent so long fighting each other through a series of proxy wars, I see no reason why we can't at least be civil when we finally come to meet face to face.

D'Arque looks at Rosenberg's hand, still outstretched, then finally shakes it. Rosenberg smiles at D'Arque and then walks over to the whisky cabinet, picking up an empty glass and an unopened bottle of Bourbon. He gestures towards D'Arque, non-verbally asking him if he would like a drink. D'Arque nods, and Rosenberg proceeds to pour out a glass, which he hands to D'Arque. Turning his own chair around, he motions to one that is nearby.

JAMES: Please, take a seat.

DEBONAIR: I.. I would rather stand, thank you very much.

Rosenberg chuckles.

JAMES: Suit yourself, then. I'll sit down, while you carry on standing up. That is obviously how you want it.

James sits back down, crossing his legs and looking at D'Arque. D'Arque looks around the room, slightly amazed at how well it and everything inside of it had been preserved for all these years, including it's lone inhabitant.

JAMES: You look like a man with many questions, so please, feel free to ask me anything.

DEBONAIR: ...

D'Arque stands in silence, staring at James, as if to look into his very soul. Then, he speaks.

DEBONAIR: This is a trick, isn't it?

D'Arque waves his arms around, trying to feel the air around him.

DEBONAIR: Everything about this is a trick, made specifically to mess with my head, I know it!!

Rosenberg laughs.

JAMES: I assure you, Donovan. Everything in here is completely real. If anything, this room is the last remaining part of me that has any semblance of reality to it, in fact.

DEBONAIR: DO. NOT. CALL. ME. DONOVAN!!!!

JAMES: Fine then. Do you really wish for me to call you by your... assumed name?

D'Arque crosses his arms and makes a skeleton pout.

DEBONAIR: It is not my assumed name, it's my name! Donovan died a long time ago, buddy! You're speaking to Debonair now.

JAMES: Pfft. If you say so.

DEBONAIR: Nonetheless, if this is all real, explain yourself. How can you sit here and look me straight in the eye, and claim to be real? You look so... so...

JAMES: Young?

DEBONAIR: YES!! So.. youthful, and energetic, and... you even have your skin. You have skin, and muscles, and... ughhhhhhh, what I would not give to look like that once more! It's just so crazy, I mean... HOW?!

JAMES: That is indeed a good question. Please, sit down and I will tell you exactly what is going on.

D'Arque finally decides to sit down at the chair adjacent to Rosenberg's. Cut to the scene outside of Rosenberg Tower, with the Wikihood gang and Stephanie speculating on what is going on. In the background is the sound of several police sirens and ambulance vehicles, as Midway and Townindale are both in utter chaos.

NICOLETA: I can't believe it. This is the end, right here.

NOXIGAR: I'm just glad that the deaths and mayhem have stopped. If you had told me a year ago that World War III would've erupted on our front lawn, I would've laughed in your face, and rightfully so.

CHAOS: I'd say it's more on scale to the Vietnam War than a World War, myself. Like, big, but not, super big, y'know??

STEPHANIE: After all this time, the two of them have finally met. You can only wonder what's going on.

CHAOS: Let's hope Old Rosie takes that bag of bones down for good.

Lex taps Chaos on the shoulder.

LEX: But what if D'Arque wins, what do we do then?

CHAOS: We take him down ourselves.

NICOLETA: I hope Remolay and Toma are safe.

NOXIGAR: Hey, relax. They're doing the best they can, they're helping people. Besides, they can handle themselves.

Nicoleta stamps her foot in anger.

NICOLETA: It's not like me to be so fucking worried! But it's not like us to be in a situation like this...

CHAOS: It'll be fine, I promise. We just have to keep waiting.

Cut back to the conference room. Rosenberg and D'Arque are sitting across from each other.

JAMES: Really, it's quite amusing to me how long you've been wanting me dead, when the two of us are really not that different. We're both dead men walking, really.

DEBONAIR: I'm glad you've accepted your fate, rich boy.

Rosenberg chuckles.

JAMES: Oh no, I mean it in a much different sense. I mean that my death has been overdue for quite some time. Not in a destiny sense, mind you, but in a physical sense.

DEBONAIR: What do you mean? You look much better than I've done in several generations.

JAMES: Cryogenics tend to do that to you, Do... Debonair.

DEBONAIR: Wait, what? Cryogenics? Are you trying to tell me that this whole time, you've been a popsicle?

JAMES: Correct. The reason for my continued survival for so long was not the work of magic or anything hocusy pocusy, but through cryogenic preservation. My entire body was kept preserved by the machine while my brain was wired up to my entire mainframe, allowing me to stay conscious for all this time, while keeping a tight control over my entire empire.

DEBONAIR: Hah. That is so fuckin' lame. Oooh, look at me, I'm Mister Science Guy, I can freeze myself and not fuckin' die like the rest of humanity!

Rosenberg frowns.

JAMES: I wouldn't consider it much different to what you've done, thank you very much. At least I have my skin.

DEBONAIR: At least I could walk.

JAMES: S-seriously? Even now, after all this, we are meeting face-to-face, and we are still bickering like two incessant children. Do you even remember why we started fighting?

DEBONAIR: ...

D'Arque pauses, trying to think of an answer.

DEBONAIR: You know what, I actually don't. It's... strange. Anyway, what exactly was wrong with you?

JAMES: I have always been a curious man. Curious about everything in the world, but the one thing that had always managed to elude me, was magic.

DEBONAIR: Magic?

JAMES: Correct. The entire concept of magic was something that frustrated me to know end. Ticking in my head like an incessant clock, I seeked to find the explanation of magic, and what it really was. To my very dismay, I had found nothing. Magic had become the very motivator for my technological pursuits. I believed that if I could not find magic, I would have it come to me instead. And it was one very fateful evening where I met someone who claimed that he could give me the answer I was searching for. This mysterious man, known only as... X.

D'Arque is visibly shocked by Rosenberg's utterance.

DEBONAIR: No way, that cannot be true! X does not exist! He's a myth!

JAMES: In hindsight, I wish I had believed that myself. I wish I had turned my back the man and told him to back off. But there was something about him, an aura radiating from him... It felt as if being in his presence gave me all the ideas I was looking for. So I followed him. He promised me many things, money, fame, adoration. I did not care for any of that, I cared only for answers. It was through him where I began to build my empire, everything you see with my company's name on it had nothing to do with me, it was all him. I felt like it was me at the time, but looking back, I realise he was working through me. Using me, like some sort of puppet.