Finally its summer. So soon I may not be posting for a little while. Not much longer than normal. I'm going to the Whittington center this summer. It's a camp in New Mexico for two weeks. So just a warning.
"Remy, Remy wake up." Evelyn's voice wafted through the mist in his mind and the Cajun charmer bolted up in his seat. He blinked, knuckling his eyes to clear away the spots. He arched his back and groaned as the disks in his spine cracked.
"Bonjour mon petit, what brings you here?" he drawled, hoisting himself up to as much of a standing position as the van allowed considering his tall frame. "She alright?" his nonchalance was forced, but he couldn't let her know that. That would be bad for his image.
"Yah, we found her." Evelyn smiled, and Remy sighed internally. His empathy told him she was still concerned, but that emotion was overruled by the relief.
"Was she lost?"
"Yes, in a sense." She waved a hand, offering no explanation. "Just came back to let you know what was going on." At his nod, she turned back to Marie's body, then stopped short. "Remy?"
"Oui petit?" he looked up to her thoughtful expression.
"In her mind, she has copies of everyone she has ever absorbed." He nodded, remembering Marie telling him about that particular side effect of her mutation.
"Oui, I remember."
"Well, she has a little you up there." He smirked a little at that, just holding back the lewd joke on his tongue. "Yah Haha, very funny." He raised an eyebrow. "You were projecting. Put your dirty mind away so I can finish giving you a compliment and get back to what I was doing."
"Oh, then by all means carry on. Remy loves compliments."
"Yah I would never have guessed." She rolled her eyes, amused. "As I was saying. The psychic of you in her head helped her. It meant a lot to her. I just thought you should know."
Remy nodded and Evelyn turned back to Marie, closing her eyes and becoming completely still once again.
Nice to know this Cajun is good for something now and then. He thought morbidly, recalling many times when he had been far from helpful. Hell if it wasn't for him, Marie would probably still be in the prison back in the big easy safe and not in a practical coma. Or better, she would be safe in some dingy hotel or something, completely content to have never met him at all. Of course the world would probably have ended but that was beside the point.
I helped her. Why did that make him feel so good? On one hand helping people was nice from time to time, but a thief can only spread so much sunshine. Still, why did he feel an attachment to this girl? Why did he want to protect her all of a sudden?
0-0-0-0-0
Marie watched from a distance as Piotr set a large oak tree aside, placing it in the small organized pile of foliage that could be replanted. She was mildly surprised at the amount of plants that could be returned to their place, for it almost equaled the burn pile.
"Well she certainly is getting a lot better." Storm was telling Evelyn quietly, thinking they were out of earshot. "But I have some concerns."
"Yah, me too. But we just have to hope for the best. Maybe if we're lucky, she will recover quickly and we'll be able to get out soon. The air supply is running down and we need her help to get everyone out."
"Perhaps we could commission the real gambit and he could start trying to tunnel out."
"That wouldn't work. We're most likely underneath too much sand. If he starts digging, the san will just flood into the van and trap us even more."
"Then how do you propose we get out? We're running out of time." The weather witch snapped exasperated.
"I have a theory. If it works, it won't put any more pressure of Marie." They leaned in closer and Marie couldn't make out what they were saying anymore. She was getting really tired of people trying to tiptop around her. She wasn't weak.
God if only she could get back to her body, she was sure she could find a way out. She just had to make them stop paying attention to her.
"Like Rogue, is there something wrong?" Kitty asked and Marie realized with a start that she had let her emotions creep through to manifest themselves on her face. She quickly covered herself and looked at the valley girl.
"Yah Kitty, I'm alright." She could tell Kitty knew she was lying but the younger girl didn't call her on it. She simply nodded, not quite hiding the skepticism in her eyes.
"Kitty?" storm called to her. "Could you come here for a moment?"
"Be right back." Kitty told Marie, then stood and headed over to the white haired goddess.
Marie watched her go, then carefully sat herself up, leaning against the stump of a tree for support. Pietro zipped over to her and she sighed. Couldn't a gal so much as move without someone trying to help her?
"Any idea what they're talking about?" the speedster asked. Marie shook her head and he sighed. "Their probably planning on taking over your body and using it to wreak havoc on unsuspecting civilians." He muttered darkly. "It seems like something they'd do."
Marie chuckled and eyed the boy suspiciously. "You say that like you know from experience." He shrugged and she smacked the back of his head, though it did little to stop the smirk growing on his face.
"Still," he looked at the trio again. "I feel like they've got something cooking."
0-0-0-0-0-0
"You want me to what?" Kitty hissed, perturbed that they had even suggested the idea, much less given it serious thought.
"We want you to connect with Rogues body and phase us through the sand to the top." Storm replied evenly. "It is the safest way to get us all out."
"I'm like, not going to just take Rogue's body from her." Kitty insisted vehemently.
"Child we know this doesn't sit well with you, but it is the only foreseeable option. We cannot come all this way just to die of oxygen deprivation."
"What we mean, is that we all want to get out of here alive. Rogue is far too weak to do it herself and she doesn't know how to use the powers of the psychics she had. Storm told me what happened when she lost control, and I think that's the key to our problems." Evelyn said smoothly. "We don't like the idea any more than you do. But we don't have any other options."
"What does Rogue like, think about this?" Storm and Evelyn exchanged a glance.
"If we're going to get out, we need to do it quickly. I'll explain to her what our plan is but time is of the essence."
"I will do it." Storm stood, offering a hand to each of the other women and helping them up. "She is more likely to listen to me." Evelyn nodded and they walked quickly towards Rogue.
0-0-0-0-0-0
Marie didn't like this plan. She didn't like this plan at all. Sure she trusted Kitty with her life, but that didn't mean she wanted her to take her body.
"I didn't think they'd actually do it." Quicksilver murmured. Marie nodded, her eyes transfixed on the valley girl as she walked towards the connection to HER body. Her anxiety increased when her friend was cocooned in the silky strands.
Remy patted her shoulder. "The chaton knows what she's doing. You can trust her. Remy's sure of it."
"That's not the problem." She whispered. Remy raised an eyebrow. "I trust her with my life. But it's my body."
0-0-0-0-0
"Like stop squirming." Kitty snapped at Remy as they phased up through the sand towards the surface. "I don't know about you but I don't think becoming one with the sand is like, how you want to die."
Remy had to resist shuddering. He looked over at Evelyn, who simply shrugged and looked up as the light of day began to reflect through the rapidly decreasing layers of sand.
Remy gasped as they rose back into the dessert heat. He rolled himself over, his breath heaving out into the air. "Remy ain't ever doing that again." He panted. Evelyn chuckled but otherwise didn't comment.
"You so need to like, get over it gambit." Kitty scolded him. "It's not all that like, hard to do." She rolled her stunning green eyes, looking to the sky as if to ask why people were so squeamish. Evelyn rolled to her feet and pulled Kitty up through the covering of her shirt. The black leather gloves she had worn were buried in the sphinx.
He pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on as he studied the landscape. The sand storm must have been fairly large, for not only was the news van completely buried, but so were the helicopters the X-Men had arrived in. the great sphinx's paws were almost covered in sand and from his post a few hundred yards away, he could see a group of people surrounding the stone giant. One of the figures shifted and Remy recognized the uniform of a United Nations soldier.
"We'd best be going before the boys in blue see us." He told the girls, who nodded. Together, they stealthily made their way over the dunes, keeping low so as not to be spotted. They ducked around an abandoned truck as an armored convoy passed by and Remy tried to ignore the pain he was feeling from the girl beside him.
Kitty was pale, even more so then usual and her breath came in shallow trickles of air through her lips. She swiped her hair away from her eyes again and with a start he realized her body wasn't completely healed. The spot on her shoulder where she had been shot by Cyclops trickled a bit of blood and she held herself like she was trying not to move more than necessary. Gently, he touched her back, frowning as her muscles tensed further and the pain increased.
"We can't walk very far. We won't be able to make it without being spotted." They probably could, but with Kitty suffering the way she was would only make things worse. They needed a safe place to rest and for Marie's body to recuperate enough for them to figure out what they were going to do next.
The guild. He bit his lip. His family had property all over the world, including Egypt. Safe houses near popular tourist spots were an essential in his line of work. There would most likely be a place around the sphinx that was owned by the thieves' guild.
He looked at Kitty again, feeling the pain she felt thanks to his stupid powers. His heart wrenched for the girl and his decision was made.
"We need to stop for a minute." Remy whispered to the girl. Kitty couldn't quite cover up the relieved expression on her face and he smiled at her knowingly. Easing her down to the sand, he walked a little ways away, dropping behind a sand dune as another convoy passed, the soldier's heads sticking out of the bullet proofed windows looking for any sign of trouble.
Reaching into one of the inside pockets of his coat, he pulled out a small black palm pilot. Flicking the switch to bring the LED screen to life, Remy tapped in an intricate mixture of symbols, numbers and letters, finally unlocking access to the device. The data was encrypted, symbols that to anyone but a high ranking thief would be less than useless. But Remy wasn't just anyone. The language his family had secretly scribed themselves came as naturally to him as French and English. He scanned the contents, picking a suitable location, then shutting down the device and crawling back to the girls.
"We really should like, meet up with the X-Men soon." Kitty was telling Evelyn in that newly acquired valley girl accent of hers. He preferred the sassy southern spitfire to the cheeky Chicago girl controlling her body. "They're going to like, be totally panicking if we don't let them know were okay." So Evelyn hasn't told Marie what happened. He raised an eyebrow at the blonde. She was nervous, a little apprehensive and very, very unsure. It was small of him, but he kinda found it amusing.
"We'll explain everything soon enough Cheri. Remy got a place for us to stay until we can get things sorted out." He covered for the blonde, who looked relieved she didn't have to explain. "It's just a few miles from here. Think you can make it?" she narrowed her eyes and stiffened a bit. Kitty may have been more of a girl then Marie, but she didn't like people assuming she was incapable of anything either.
"I'll be fine." She squared her shoulders; hiding the twinge of pain it caused her well.
"You sure belle?" he smirked. "Remy could always carry you. He wouldn't mind."
"I like, sure you wouldn't." she smiled a little as they set out towards the east.
0-0-0-0-0
Remy unlocked the lock to a deserted shack seventeen miles from the sphinx. The floor was dusty and the only appliance was a busted up old TV. Kitty coughed and Evelyn blanched a bit.
"Um….Remy? Are you sure this is the right place?" Evelyn asked, as if waiting for him to burst out laughing and lead them somewhere else. "It doesn't really seam your….. style."
Remy had to keep his poker face on, though it was hard. "Of course petite. This is one of the best guild safe houses in the world." Kitty raised an eyebrow and Evelyn sighed. She shifted her weight to help the other girl down to the floor, but Remy just took her shoulder and pulled Kitty into his arms. She yelped and quickly tried to cover any exposed skin that could hurt him.
"Are you like, crazy?" she hissed at him, a slightly terrified look on her face. "I could absorb you. And Rogue would so totally be like, livid." The Cajun chuckled.
"So I like to live dangerously" he drawled, amused more then he let of as they walked towards the opposite end of the shack. Kitty mumbled, though he knew from his empathy she wasn't nearly as annoyed as she claimed to be.
They walked over to the far wall and Remy shifted Kitty so he could use one of his hands. He tapped the wall and a key pad popped out. Both girls jumped and Remy allowed himself a small smirk. Keying in the combination, he then leaned down and looked into a hole in the wall. The red retina scanner verified his identity and the floor across from them against the far wall opened to reveal a set of stairs.
"Ok." Evelyn allowed. "That is more your style." They crossed over, descending, Kitty still in Remy's arms. The stairway was lit with fluorescent light bulbs, glowing from old fashioned lanterns. The railing was made of oak and imbedded with swirls and curves, forming a rippling ocean in the glistening wood.
As they reached the bottom, the corridor expanded into three branches. Remy led them down the first one and tapped a button near the floor with the top of his boot, sealing them inside. A few yards more and there was another set of tunnels. This time, Remy chose the third one and off they went again.
A few more turns, a few back tracks and false walls later, they were in a nice living room furnished with Victorian style furniture. He laid Kitty out on a bed in one of the connected rooms and she immediately closed her eyes. Sleep over came her and he smiled, knowing she was giving Marie her body back.
He closed the door, and then walked over to find Evelyn studying the room with the expression of a child in a toy store.
"Like it?" he asked the blonde. She nodded, her gaze still fixed to the setting. He chuckled and plopped down on the sofa.
"It's beautiful." She murmured to herself, Remy's acute sense of hearing the only reason he picked up on it. She touched the finely made cherry wood coffee table and ran her fingers over the intricate carvings covering the top.
Remy left her to her musings and went into his own bedroom, turning out the light and reveling in the darkness, though it didn't take long for his mutation to kick in and allow him to see as well as he would in daylight. He lay on the bed and closed his eyes.
The ring of a phone brought him violently out of his sleep and he reached over to the specialized land line build into the bed side table of his room.
"Hello?" he said into the receiver, his tone showing no evidence of the sleep he had enjoyed just moments ago.
"Remy?" whispered the voice on the other end of the line. He immediately recognized it as the gruff brotherly tone of his frère, Henri.
"Henri?" he asked, shocked that he was calling and wondering how in the hell he knew where to reach him. "How did you-"
"Bonjour mon frère," he said seriously. "I have news." Remy say up straighter at that. Since his exile he had only received calls from his family when something pertaining to him came up. And more often than not it was negative.
"Alright." He braced himself for the worst.
"There's a chance, and nothing for sure yet. But there is a chance," Remy braced himself. "That you can come home soon." Henri exclaimed. He sounded like he was laughing. Remy let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding and laughed joyously.
"H-how," he managed between fits. "When did this happen?"
"Turns out Bella gone soft on some assistant of her fathers. So….." he trailed off. "They haven't completed negotiations yet, but its close. Père is pushing for them to lift your exile as part of the treaty, and he doesn't see any reason why Marius would deny it. To be honest, I think Belladonna wants you back too. If only to apologize."
"Well that's-this is great. Do we know when-"
"I said it wasn't for sure yet Remy." Henri chastised gently. "I just thought you deserved to know. When we know, you'll be the first to find out." Remy huffed out a breath, but otherwise didn't complain. This was after all, much better than he had even thought to hope for.
"I appreciate it, Mon frère."
"So, when you came in the motion sensors picked up two other people. From what I saw on the feed, am I far off when I ask are they your newest petite amie's?"
"Actually, oui, you are." he replied smugly, ignoring the small voice at the back of his mind wishing it was as his brother had suggested. Henri waited a beat. "Am I going to get an explanation?"
"How about I explain when I see you."
"Alright then. Au revoir mon frère. Rester en sécurité."
"No promises." The line died and Remy placed the phone, making sure it was out of sight.
I might be going home. It echoed through his mind, coloring each of his thoughts with a tint of cautious hopefulness. It had been a long time since he had hoped for such things, such impossible things. He would be able to see his family again. He could go into the city without watching over his shoulder. He could take more jobs there.
He wondered what Marie would think if she knew he wasn't even supposed to be in New Orleans the day they met. The only reason he had been there at all was because the client had specifically asked for him. And the price of course. Always the price.
Relieved as he was that Evelyn hadn't told Marie the truth about him, he felt it a fruitless gesture now. She had absorbed him and probably knew all his dirty little secrets. How she wasn't afraid of him he didn't have the foggiest idea.
These two girls were a mystery to him. Marie, Rogue, with her untouchable skin and dark secrets lurking in the shadows. No wonder she put on the façade she did, though the thief saw straight through it. She pretended not to care about her powers, putting on her touch-me-not demeanor simply to protect herself and others. But it ate at her. It tore her apart inside, the need she felt to be loved, to be needed, to be wanted. She hid it well, and he doubted even her X-Men friends saw completely through the guise. How would she take it when she found out they had abandoned her? He didn't care to speculate.
Evelyn, the blonde beauty from Texas, with blue eyes that sparkled like the most precious sapphires his family had ever acquired. He thought highly of her, despite knowing her for less than a week. She had secrets, like everyone else, but she didn't hide them as much, perhaps having something to do with her powers hearing things that should be private. This amazing young woman had found a way around his shields, allowing her to read his mind, granted she had to try, or he had to be projecting. But that was still beyond the grasp of most telepaths. And yet she didn't take the chance to go where no mutant had gone before. She left him be.
She seemed to have taken to Marie, protecting the younger girl as much as she thought appropriate. Like an instant older sister. She and Mercy would get along well.
Knowing sleep would not come; he brought himself out of his room and walked into the common space. Evelyn was asleep on the couch, her fingers brushing the vintage carpet lightly and her body rose up and down with each intake of breath. He smiled, recalling her enthusiasm for antiques upon entering.
He quietly made his way through a corridor to the bathroom, and turned his mind off as he turned the nob and let the water run down his back.
0-0-0-0-0-0
"Are you sure?" Kurt asked Marie as she walked down towards the lakes edge. "Kitty said your body would need more time. She said-"
"I know what she said Kurt." She snapped, then gently touched his shoulder as if to soften her sharp tone. "I need to do this."
"You couldn't just wait a little while?" he asked unconvincingly, knowing arguing would do no good at all.
"I can't." She hugged her younger brother tightly. "Gotta see what's happening up there in the real world now don't I."
"Alright, but be careful." He warned. "Jean said you shouldn't be doing too much."
"I promise." She kissed his cheek, and then touched the silky strands of her connection, allowing them to twist through her fingers and bring her into the light.
0-0-0-0-0
She blinked her eyes dry from lack of use, like she had slept with contacts in. she hurt everywhere, just like Kitty had said. But I can handle it, she told herself. She wouldn't back down from something as inconvenient as pain. She couldn't let it beat her.
As her eyes adjusted, she took in the room around her. It was vintage in design, with silky curtains hanging from a red wood canopy. There was a crystal shade on the lamp resting on the nightstand but no windows and only one door.
Where am i? Confusion and worry began to seep into her emotional wave pool, mixing with the pain she already felt. Shouldn't she be back at the institute? She scrunched her eyebrows and gritted her teeth through the fresh wave of pain.
The door creaked open and a glowing pair of red on black eyes peered in from the doorway.
"Hey chere, how you feeling?" he lowered himself to the edge of her bed, not even jostling her weakened body. A light pressure on her hand and she looked down to find her hand covered in his through the blanket. She rewarded him with a weak smile and his face softened.
"W-where are we." Her voice was raspy, the whisper barely formed.
"Safe house." He whispered to her.
"What happened?" he hesitated and Marie felt her dread increase. "Remy?"
Princess Apollo: I love McDonalds. Lol thanks for reviewing.
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