WARNING: Spoilers ahead!! (Kind of? XD)

Was going through my google docs the other day, and came across the original chapter outline I made for Control, as alluded to in this post from more than 2 years ago. It was pretty neat to see how much things changed from the original plan (and which things stayed the same! 😉).

It seems like I started this outline around the time I was writing Ch. 25, since there’s a break between this one and the previous chapters – and that’s also where the ‘notes’ begin. I put notes in quotes there because these jottings are scanty to say the least! Apart from the random capitalizations and bad grammar, it made me lol a bit to see what I chose to frame out at this point, while leaving major plot-points such as Kagome’s revelation of Inuyasha’s death (and her own) still floating around in the ether XD

Anyway, thought you guys might enjoy this behind-the-scenes glimpse too!

1. The Eye of the Storm (Prelude)
2. What Ails You
3. The Dead Don’t Lie
4. Into the Dark
5. Wishful Thinking
6. Keep the Secret
7. Bump in the Night
8. The Cold Light of Day
9. Waking Nightmare
10. The Killing Ground, Pt.1
11. The Killing Ground, Pt.2
12. The Beast
13. Rat in a Cage, Pt.1
14. Rat in a Cage, Pt.2
15. Ghost Girl
16. Bait and Switch
17. A Rock and a Hard Place
18. Beast Tamer
19. Kagome-sama
20. Dreams
21. Battle Lines
22. Full Circle
23. Warning Signs
24. Ren the Rounin

25. Fire with Fire – Kagome falls to Sesshoumaru’s level of lust and hostility
26. Girl in the Glass – Kagome uses Sesshoumaru to act out a sordid fantasy
27. The Road to Hell – Kagome and Sesshoumaru’s activities escalate to Kagome’s growing distress; Kanako offers to be a stand-in for Kagome with Sesshoumaru
28. Dog Days, Pt. 1 – Kagome mulls over Kanako’s offer; Ren and his dog soldiers return to Edo after routing the bandits; Ren asks Kagome to take them into her service
29. Dog Days, Pt. 2 (Alt title may be The Tactician) – Kohaku questions Kagome’s judgment about Ren; Toutousai and Myouga visit Edo; Kagome learns more about Hirokin & confronts him
30. Hard Nights – Sesshoumaru presses Kagome for more; Kagome takes Kanako up on her offer, sinking to a new low
31. Might Is Right – Ren encourages Kagome to turn Edo into a proper fiefdom; Kagome takes measures which Kaede openly opposes; Kagome and Sesshoumaru start edging Kanako out of their rendezvous 
32. A Jaundiced Eye – Kaede’s sudden death shakes all; Grief-stricken, Kagome pushes coldly forward with her plans to fortify Edo; Learning of her assignations with Sesshoumaru, Kohaku confronts Kagome in a jealous rage
33. The Tipping Point – Kagome learns that it was Kanako who betrayed her secret to Kohaku; Enraged, Kagome confronts the slighted girl, who bemoans how Kagome has used her; Kagome experiences a crippling crisis of conscience, of which Sesshoumaru takes advantage
34. Need – As her past vows weaken under her own scrutiny and others, Kagome and Sesshoumaru’s intimacy perilously deepens
35. Castle Without A King – As the fortification of Edo nears completion, Kagome begins to question Ren’s true motives; Kohaku approaches Kagome with a proposition, which she refuses and Ren gets word of
36. Love and Lust – Rin learns from Ren that Kohaku proposed to Kagome and confronts her in anguish; Rin claims that Sesshoumaru is also in love with her, which Kagome balks at as only lust and confides to Rin that what Kohaku feels for her is the same, because of her past advances toward him (which she blames on a moment of misdirected longing)
37. Changing Tides – Ren openly defies Kagome, pitting the spurned Kohaku against Sesshoumaru in a bid to seize Edo for himself; Kagome is forced to tell Kohaku the terrible truth in order to prevent him from challenging Sesshoumaru
38. The Bargain – Kagome asks Sesshoumaru to help her get rid of Ren, but his price is too high; she strikes a dubious bargain with Hirokin instead, with Tessaiga as her bargaining chip; meanwhile Rin solicits Kohaku, who uses her callously in order to spite Kagome
39. Pandemonium – Thinking he has Kagome cornered, Ren summons Kagome to his castle and threatens to set fire to the outer towns of Edo if she refuses to step down and support him instead; Kagome refuses and is imprisoned while the towns are set aflame; Using her power, she baits a demon horde to descend upon the castle; Ren’s army is routed; Kohaku fights his way to Kagome and slays Ren; Kagome purifies the demons and calls in her debt to Hirokin, who douses the fires in a supernatural flood
40. Aftermath – Hirokin demands Tessaiga from Kagome, who refuses on principle and threatens to turn him over to Sesshoumaru instead for his treachery; To Kagome’s surprise, Hirokin is pleased at her loyalty to Sesshoumaru and remarks that she is worthy of being his intended; Kagome balks at this notion and returns to Edo, which to her horror is in ruin
41. Dark Days – Kagome struggles alone to rebuild a city who has lost all faith in her and the gods; Rin discovers she is pregnant and despairs; Kagome discovers Kanako’s string of betrayals and expels her from Edo
42. Reprisal – On Rin’s behalf, Kagome seeks out Kohaku and asks him to return to Edo; Kohaku extorts Kagome and eventually agrees; Kanako’s drowned body is dredged from a river nearby
43. Cutting Ties – Kohaku returns to Edo to the adulation of the despondent citizens; Rin and Kohaku are married; Disgraced inwardly and outwardly, Kagome leaves Edo behind and goes west with Sesshoumaru, whom she abuses one last time in an attempt to be rid of him
44. At the Grave – Kagome escapes from Sesshoumaru’s fortress, wounding his guards in the process; arriving at Tatsumi castle, she visits Mayuri’s grave, where she encounters Lord Tatsumi, and learns that Mayuri was his lover and Yahiko is his son; Lord Tatsumi invites Kagome to stay on as head priestess in his lands
45. Such Husbands  – Kagome’s power and influence in the west grows; Intimate once more with Sesshoumaru, she tells him that Lord Tatsumi has proposed that she marry him; Sesshoumaru is unconcerned with the prospect of such a union, which angers Kagome
46. Lady of the West – Kagome marries the ailing Lord Tatsumi, yet her relationship with Sesshoumaru is unchanged; Having adopted Yahiko as her own son, she schemes to displace Lord Tatsumi’s daughter as heir to the kingdom she is striving to enlarge through conquest; Sesshoumaru scoffs to Kagome that her reign and schemes mean nothing, which causes her to launch a campaign against him and demonkind
47. Nine Moons – Inukimi pays Kagome an unexpected visit, beseeching her to drink from a cup which grants her a strange vision of nine moons – two full and seven half, with a dark gap between the first two and the rest; under this mysterious omen, she and Sesshoumaru’s mother peaceably part ways
48. The Mark of the Beast – Amid the various demonic outcries against her, Hirokin tells Kagome that a mad priestess is threatening the region and must be contained; Kagome goes to confront this priestess, only to learn that the madwoman is the harmless, raving revived victim of Sesshoumaru’s lust, who believes her name is “Kagome”
49. Control (Alt title, Inferno)  – Horrified, Kagome puts the pitiful mad priestess out of her misery; In a daze of terror and revulsion, she learns of Hirokin’s treachery toward her and feels a trap years in the making closing around her at last; Crazed and hemorrhaging reiki, Kagome attempts to flee the West; her unchecked transcendant power blazes out of control, setting holy fire to the land until Sesshoumaru arrives to contain it; ripping off the rosary, he declares to Kagome that their courtship is over and advances upon her in full control of himself
50. Beloved – Sesshoumaru overpowers Kagome; Confessing to her the terrible truth which she has discovered, that it was she alone he has wanted from the start, he forces her to confess her own love for him; brutally he lays claim to her in the moonlit clearing where they fought, and having survived the mating, Kagome follows her demon husband into the dark