Chapter 14 - The Trouble With Remy
For the past several weeks, Marie had what she thought was probably the best assignment she'd had since she had agreed to join with the X-Men: she was supposed to spend all her time with her boyfriend. At least, any time she was not teaching French. Then, Storm had agreed to watch Remy. Thus far, absolutely nothing of note had happened, other than the fact that all that extra time together meant he was in a grand mood all the time, which she appreciated.
She especially liked watching him work with Charlie, who seemed to adore him. Marie stayed at the outskirts of their lessons, but it was clear to her just observing them that he loved getting to do this part, showing someone so young how to fall in love with their powers.
So, all in all, this had been an easy assignment — until she left Remy alone for just a few minutes.
She hadn't thought it would be that big of a deal — it was simply a matter of a student who had a question on their French homework. But ten minutes later, when she came back to the room that she shared with Remy, he was nowhere to be found, the only indication that he had left the fact that the window was open.
She breezed through the window out onto the grounds, flowing over the lawn and then down to the beach as fast as the winds could take her, but he had enough of a head start that she simply couldn't find him. His car was gone, and when she didn't see him in any of the closer roads, without knowing which way he went, there was no way she could find him.
She returned to the school in a foul mood, annoyed with Remy especially because they had plans to spend the evening out together at a new restaurant in town that she had been wanting to try out.
She breezed back into the school through the same open window, and when she saw that Remy still wasn't back, she let out an even louder huff of annoyance before she decided that she was not going to wait for him before she ate.
Marie was nearly to the kitchen before it occurred to her that she should at least tell Storm what had happened. She was still getting used to working on a team after working alone her whole life, and "reporting" was not something she liked to do. It was, in that regard, much easier to be on Storm's team than Cyclops'. But if something was the matter with Remy, than she should get the rest of the team involved, no matter how annoyed she was with him for leaving her in the lurch.
She found Storm with Amadi and Forge, playing with their little girl as Amadi animatedly told them both all about all the games she had played with her friend Sying, who treated her like one of his little sisters and spent all his time with her when he wasn't studying with his dad in that alien ship of theirs. The Lee kids were staying with Forge and Storm for the time being, because their parents were celebrating ten years of marriage by going out for a transdimensional space trip, and Amadi seemed to think it was the most amazing thing ever. But when Storm saw Marie — and saw the look Marie was wearing — she got to her feet.
"'E ees gone," Marie told her in an undertone, not bothering to hide her annoyance.
"What happened?" Storm asked, already moving to start looking herself.
"I spent a few meenutes talking with a student and then — no Re-mee," she said, shaking her head. "Almost like he was waiting for me to turn my back. Le scélérat."
"That doesn't sound right at all," Storm said, though Marie could easily see the fury rising up in her eyes.
"I am telling you what happened," Marie insisted. "'E ees gone, and what's more, I could not find him when I searched."
"That doesn't seem possible," Storm replied, shaking her head. "How could he slip away that quickly?"
"'E took his car," Marie said. "And perhaps he had a bit of a head start, I admit. I could not follow him past the roads; I do not know which ones 'e took."
"We'll check into the traffic cameras," Storm decided. "I'm sure that we can get into the system and find where he disappeared to."
Marie sniffed. "Eef he is so determined to be gone—"
"He has never simply disappeared like this before," Storm insisted. "He would never leave us — leave you — behind with no warning. This is not like him."
Marie shook out her hair. "'E has never done it before," she had to agree.
"So let's find out why before we string him out like a drowned swamp rat," Storm suggested.
At that, Marie finally started to smile. "Oui, I suppose we should do as much," she said, stepping back so that Storm could go through the door ahead of her. Then, she followed the headmistress out of the school to track down the traffic cameras first.
Although Remy didn't know it, it had been the better part of a day since he had disappeared from the LA school. He didn't know how long he had been gone, but he knew that he had to have left for an appreciable amount of time, since he was standing near the front gate to the Westchester school with absolutely no recollection of how he got there.
It was almost a relief, because it meant that all that missing time he thought he had lost was, in fact, missing. But he didn't know how he had managed to get this far to Westchester, and with no phone or comm on him, the best way to get back to LA would be to get someone in the institute to let him borrow their phone so he could call Storm.
"Stormy gon' love dis," Remy muttered to himself as he let himself in at the gate and walked up the long driveway, shaking his head at the situation.
Thankfully for him, the first person he saw was one of the few that was unlikely to ask twenty questions about anything. The garage door was open, and Logan was inside working on his motorcycle and drinking. Which meant he was probably going to be easier to deal with.
Remy didn't get all the way to the garage before Logan stopped wrenching on the bike and looked up at him, leaning on the saddle of the bike with his arms crossed. "You look a little lost," Logan remarked.
Remy shrugged lightly. "Need to use de phone. Mine ain't available."
Logan looked him up and down and pulled his cell out of his pocket to hand to him. "You go in and I'm sure there'll be questions."
Remy nodded at that. "Sho' nuff," he had to agree as he put the phone to his ear to call up Storm. When she picked up on the other end, he let out a breath. "You got a minute to pick up an ol' Cajun from Westchester?" he asked, and Storm sounded both relieved and exasperated at hearing where he was.
"Take a bamf," Logan said quietly, already back to work.
"Hey, now dat ain't a bad idea," Remy said with a smile. "Never mind, Stormy. I'm gon' be dere real soon, n'est pa? Gon' borrow one o' de lil' blue imps." He waited for Storm to get through telling him to get home fast so they could figure out what was going on before he let out a sigh. "Yeah, I know," he told her before he hung up and handed the phone back to Logan.
"They're easy enough to bribe," Logan explained before he took the phone and put it in his pocket. "First one you find, tell 'em I'll give 'em a shot of whiskey when they get back."
Remy nodded at that and made his way inside, where it was easy to find the bamfs; they were in a group with all of the kids "helping" in the kitchen. It was a few hours ahead of a big birthday bash for Billy and Teddy's twins, and that meant cookies, frosting, and plenty of chances for the kids and the bamfs to get sugared up.
Remy slid into the room quietly, preferring to simply get a bamf and get out, though of course, as he crouched down by the nearest imp and explained the arrangement — whiskey if the bamf would go with him for just a moment — a couple of the kids noticed, and what followed was nothing less than a mobbing of hugs.
"This is a very long way to go just to sneak a cookie," Elin said, though she handed him one of the mis-decorated cookies anyhow.
Remy grinned at her and ruffled her hair. "What if ol' Remy jus' want to say 'hi' to some o' de prettiest girls he know?" he teased.
She tipped her head to the side and looked at him with one eye closed. "You shouldn't lie."
"I ain't lying, petit: you real pretty. You know dat," Remy told her easily.
"But you didn't come here for cookies or kisses," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"No," Remy agreed. "But I ain't 'bout to turn down either. Be a fool if dat were de case, non?"
"Oui," she said with a smile.
He ruffled her hair again and took a bite of cookie. "Jus' passin' tru," he told her. "Your daddy tell me I kin borrow one of dese here bamfs if I ask 'em right. So's ol' Remy can get back to where he need to be. But it real good to see you, petit. You growin' way too fast."
"I'm growing just right," she argued. "You just don't come by often enough."
"Well, mebbe I got to fix dat," Remy decided.
She gave him another hug around the neck and kissed his cheek. "See you soon?"
"Definitely, petit," he told her and kissed her forehead before he ruffled her hair again. He got a few more hugs and kisses from Kaleb and Chloe as well — both of them grinning and giggling and in a hugging mood — before he could get back to what he was doing and pulled aside one of the bamfs.
"What are you doing here?" Charlie asked before Remy could tell the bamf where he wanted to go, and Remy looked up at the obvious tone of concern that the little girl was sporting.
He grinned up at her crookedly. "Like I just went an' told lil' Miss Elin, ol' Remy's jus' passin' tru. Though all de hugs and cookies ain't bad," he teased her lightly and in an easy tone that he figured would keep her from worrying.
Charlie crossed her arms over her chest and leaned forward so that she could drop her voice to a whisper. "You're worried. Maybe … maybe my dad can help," she offered.
"I ain't dat worried, petit," Remy replied warmly. "Don' worry your pretty lil' head about dat."
Charlie frowned at him. "I don't like it when my family is scared."
Remy let out a breath and did his level best to get his emotions under control, particularly with her staring up at him with wide eyes. "Don' know what dey is to be scared of," he said gruffly. "Ain't no body gon give ol' Remy de heebie jeebies."
Charlie had to smile the slightest bit and shook her head. "You're silly," she told him before she ran over to wrap him up in a quick hug.
Remy wrapped her up for a second right back before he ruffled her hair. "Gon' see you next week for more lessons, petit," he promised before he turned back to the bamf and the little guy jumped up on his shoulder. They were just about to teleport when Charlie startled just before Remy put a hand on her shoulder, and she went with them as they left Westchester and wound up in a big, old house that she didn't recognize.
Charlie spun around to face him, wide-eyed, because just before they had teleported, Remy's song had shifted. And her eyes only widened when his already red eyes seemed to be glowing slightly.
The little bamf took one look at the slight red glow and let out a little sound of pure distress and fear, but before he could get to Charlie to grab her and disappear, a glowing pink card blew up in his face, knocking the little guy out. "Put the little rat in a cage," Remy said, and though the voice was most certainly his, the accent was completely gone, and his tone was cold and commanding.
Charlie's eyes widened even further as one of the biggest guys she had ever seen came over to pick up the bamf and take him out of the sprawling room, and she didn't notice she was slowly backing away from Remy until she accidentally backed into a table by the wall. She let out a little sound of surprise and then bit her lip when she saw Remy turn her way.
"No need to be so scared, my dear girl," he said evenly with a little smirk. "I simply want to see how you've improved and if you can be improved further."
She shook her head. "What happened to Remy?" she asked in a shaky voice. "You're not him."
"No, I'm not," he replied.
"Well, bring him back," she said.
"Not until he's needed," not-Remy answered.
But that just got Charlie mad as she narrowed her eyes at him and squared herself up as tall as an almost-ten-year-old could get. "You bring him back right now or I'll — I'll scream so loud!"
He smiled at that. "That's your father talking," he said in a pleased tone.
"He's going to kick your butt when he finds me," she said, still drawn up and glaring defiantly.
"He's not going to find you unless I let him, Charlotte," he told her.
"Nobody calls me that," she said, starting to edge away from him toward the nearest door, totally terrified but still holding the glare. "If you were really Remy, if you paid any attention, you'd know that."
"I'm well aware of the ridiculous name those simians call you," he shot back coldly. "It's not fitting for a young lady of your age."
She glared at him with both of her hands in fists at her side. "Well, you don't know anything."
"A wild exaggeration, to be sure. You'd be correct to say that I don't know much anymore," he agreed. "But I will."
"No, you won't," Charlie said before she broke into a run for the door — though to her frustration, she didn't get very far at all, running practically right into that same huge guy from before like a human wall. She didn't know the first thing about fighting anyone, but she did know that getting kicked in the shins hurt, so she did that. The big guy picked her up of the ground instead of getting as upset like the kids on the playground would if she tried that.
"Put me down! Let me go! I want to go home!" she screamed at him as loud as she could, loud enough that if anyone was around, surely they would hear it too. But no one came to help her, and she couldn't do anything but scream and cry as the big guy carried her toward the stairs.
Logan had gone back to working on his bike when his cell phone rang again with Storm calling, and not too long after he'd sent Remy off to leave with one of the bamfs.
He shook his head when he saw who it was and answered it with a smirk, though he didn't get more than a 'hello' out before Storm cut across him asking if Remy had other things he was doing before he returned to LA.
"Sounded to me like he was in a hurry to get back," Logan pointed out.
"Well, he's not here," Storm said in a clearly exasperated tone.
"Alright, calm down," he said, standing up and putting his socket wrench down. "I'll go see if the bamf came back. Let me call you back once I figure this out."
"Call me back sooner if he's not there," Storm said.
"You got it," Logan agreed, already pushing the door to the house open. He didn't get far before he found the kids and the majority of the bamfs. He took in the group — happily watching a movie — and then picked up one of the bamfs by the scruff of his neck. "Where's your little buddy?" he asked. "He was supposed to come back."
But when the little guy made a face at him and started to chatter, Logan was quickly rolling his eyes. "Fine. Don't be useful. I'll just take it up with the Elf. Oughta put freakin' trackers on you little bastards.…" He was grumbling to himself all the way until he found Kurt and Kate in the dining room, nibbling on more 'imperfect' cookies with their coffee. "I need to find one of your imps," Logan called out. "Now."
Kurt got to his feet at that and frowned, disappearing immediately in a poof of blue smoke to track down the little guy — but a few minutes later, he reappeared, shaking his head. "One is missing, but I can't find him," he said, clearly worried. "There must be some kind of shielding wherever he is."
As soon as Kurt reappeared empty-handed, Logan was back on the phone with a growl, already on his way to talk to Scott when Storm picked up. "Bamf is missing along with him. Taking it to Scott."
He was halfway down the hall when Kaleb caught up with him. "Where's Charlie?" he asked, running to keep up. "She shoulda come back by now, and she's missin' the movie!"
Logan stopped and turned his way with a frown. "Where did she go?"
Kaleb shrugged with both hands out. "I dunno … she went with Gambles. They do stuff all the time."
Logan closed his eyes and cursed under his breath before he broke into a run for Scott's office. "Slim! We got a problem!"
Scott was on his feet before the door was even open, given the tone Logan was using. "What's going on?" he asked, already joining him in the hall to head for either the hangar or the garage, whichever was needed.
"The Cajun disappeared. He was here, called Storm, and took a bamf to get back home," Logan said evenly, though both of them were headed toward the hangar once Logan pulled Scott's arm that direction. "One of the kids said Charlie left with him, and no one's heard from him."
Scott stopped cold. "What."
"Charlie disappeared with Remy," Logan repeated. "I don't have a solid plan, but I'm thinking I'll grab Kurt and head to Chicago. We gotta get Rachel to get movin' on it."
Scott shook his head and started moving again, clearly more upset than before as he nodded. "Right. I'll talk to Storm and work from that end."
Logan handed him his cell — with Storm still on the line — before he started to run toward where Kurt was. "Call me on Kurt's."
"Tell Rachel to call me the second she's found either of them," Scott called after him.
"You got it," Logan replied just a few moments before Scott heard Kurt swear in German, followed by the telltale sound of a teleport.
Scott stared down the hall for just a second longer before he got on the line with Storm. "I'm going to need to know everything that's been going on with Remy," he told her.
Charlie couldn't open the door to the bedroom where she was from her side of the door — though she tried that — and the window was too high up. She had seen movies where people were able to climb out on vines, but there weren't any by her window to try that on either, and she was still kind of hyperventilating.
She didn't like the bedroom. It had a bed her size and soft pillows and a few dolls and a dollhouse to play with, but she didn't really like dolls. She was almost ten, and she would rather read books.
There was a bookshelf in her room, but she hadn't looked at it yet, because she was too upset to read, and she climbed onto the seat underneath the window with her knees tucked up under her chin to hug them close to her chest. This was not her room. She wanted her bunk bed with Chance, and she wanted her music and her books and her brothers and sister.
She wanted Remy back too, because she knew he was in there. She had been able to feel his song underneath the bad guy's song, that sort of sing-song cadence that he usually had, even though it was caked in fear and anger and helplessness and a lot of the same stuff she was feeling, too.
She had been hiding, balled up in her corner, for a good long time before, this time, she felt something different. It wasn't the dull sort of background noise that the big guys around the mansion had, but it didn't quite sound like music either. Like it was muffled. But … it sorta… kinda felt familiar. Like Rachel felt. Brassy and kind of loud, but not in an annoying way.
She picked her head up and listened harder, and she thought she could hear it again, so she tried to remember how Rachel had taught her to send her thoughts out. She was pretty sure if she could feel Rachel, then Rachel could find her, so she very, very loudly thought about where she was and how much she wanted to go home so her sister could find her.
When Logan and Kurt had first arrived in Chicago, Kitty was instantly thrilled to see them, but on seeing the nearly identical expressions they both were wearing, that faded out quickly, and she was at their side in a blink, listening to what had happened.
And by the time they'd found Rachel, she was already looking for her little sister in the new, more advanced version of Cerebro in their basement. I heard it when you explained to Kitty, Rachel projected out. And I already told Dad I'm workin on it.
At that, all three of them backed out of the room to leave Rachel to her work, and thankfully, it wasn't long before Rachel both projected and shouted at once. "Got it!"
They rushed back to her as she was concentrating, trying to break through a psychic barrier … "It has to be man-made," she said. "... I can't find the exact spot, but I know generally where we need to go."
"Give me an idea, and I will get us closer; we can search from there," Kurt said.
Rachel looked up at him with fire in her eyes as she projected the location she'd found to him, and an instant later, they were in Washington.
"Get Scott," Logan said to Kurt.
Kurt nodded. "I'll be right back," he promised, disappearing in a poof of blue and reappearing only moments later with Scott in tow, looking both furious and worried, somehow at the same time.
"You found her?" he asked Rachel first and foremost.
"She's somewhere with psychic shielding," Rachel said, coming clean. "But I could feel her."
Scott nodded, already looking around them at the trees. "Well, can you follow that feeling?" he asked. "Or is this as close as you can get?"
"I can probably follow it closer …" Rachel said.
Scott and Logan shared a look, and Logan headed wordlessly out into the woods, starting a search pattern at a dead run.
Rachel was still concentrating hard when Logan hit the comms. "You're not going to believe this, Scott. I've got a thick scent trail from a group of Marauders."
Scott stopped in the middle of his search and shook his head hard. "That's — that's not possible. Unless… someone's co-opted them…"
"I didn't think so either …" Logan replied, and there was a short pause. "Cajun's in the middle of the trail. It's light, but there is no doubt it's him."
Scott brought a hand to his face and slowly brought it down. "Alright. I'll catch up to you," he said, already starting to run to catch up. "What is he doing…" he muttered, half to himself.
"I just got his scent, not his intentions," Logan replied quietly.
Scott caught up to Logan about the same time that the trail got a little stronger, closer to a clearing in the trees that opened up to the large, sprawling grounds of an old home. "Any other scents?" Scott asked.
"Marauders and Swamp Rat," Logan said. "Charlie's scent is light enough though I can't tell you for sure if they carried her or if it's just leftover from him holding her earlier."
Scott nodded, though he had a hand on the visor he carried just in case. "Right," he said, falling into step with Logan as they headed for the large house.
"I can take 'em down if you spot her," Logan said quietly.
"If I find her, I'm not going to need help," Scott told him frankly.
"Just get her out, and I'll keep your path clear. I don't want her to see what happens after."
Scott nodded and then paused and glanced Logan's way. "Last time, before Azazel, he had Daken's powers."
Logan turned his way and nodded. "But that was in his body. If he's using Remy, he's only got what Remy's got." He paused and drew in a deep breath. "That was part of why he kept bits and pieces of all of us. Or why he kept picking us up."
"That's assuming he hasn't moved on from Remy — or isn't using him remotely," Scott pointed out.
Logan stopped and let out his breath. "I know he seems like it, but he's not a monster. If he didn't have the stuff to take control of him telepathically, he can't do that. And if he had … he wouldn't have gotten through Noh's system."
"I just don't want to underestimate him," Scott said quietly as they headed through the gardens, overgrown from disuse.
"I'm not," Logan promised. "We know what he likes to give himself. I'm just trying to be sure that I'm not going to back down if I can find an opening to take him out."
Scott nodded at that, and the two of them hit the back door — what was probably a staff entrance to the house — a moment later. Scott blasted the door off its hinges, and the two of them plunged inside, with Rachel and Kurt teleporting in after them to start tearing through Marauders as well.
The fight with the hulking brutes was just as miserable and tough as they ever could remember it being, but as they got closer to the traditionally styled lab that was set up overlooking the gardens, it was clear that Nathaniel Essex, as they knew him best, simply was not there. Not in body, anyhow. The glare of pure hatred aimed their way by Remy was shocking — the glow in his eyes even more so, even for a group of hardened X-Men. It just wasn't what they expected to see, especially from a friend.
"I can knock him out, Slim," Logan said between slashes.
"It would give Rachel a chance to find Charlie," Kurt added.
"Do it," Scott said, blasting back a Marauder that got too close with a little more ferocity than usual.
Logan kicked the Marauder he was fighting high in the chest and then made a rush for Remy. For a moment, it looked as if Sinister had some serious control over Remy as the cards flared up in his hand and he twirled the bo-staff with the other.
But Remy was fighting him.
The charges on the cards flared for a moment before they dimmed down to nothing, earning a growl from the man inhabiting Remy's body half a second before Logan landed his first hit. The cards went flying, and the bo staff swung up, but it was obvious that Essex had never truly trained with the thing.
His attempt at defense was weak, especially with Logan going in and utilizing his vast library of martial arts. It didn't take long before Remy's body was laid out unconscious and still, bleeding through his nose and mouth as the others cleared out the room of what was left of the Marauders, leaving Scott free to start calling out for Charlie.
"Logan — basement," Scott called out as he took the opposite direction, running up the stairs that led towards the bedrooms.
"On it," Logan called back, sending a fist full of claws through the Marauder he was fighting before he took off at a run.
But to Scott's relief, he and Rachel found Charlie upstairs in an old-fashioned bedroom, not downstairs in a cell or on a table. As soon as the door was open, Charlie looked up from where she was curled up in a window seat and then immediately rushed for them, and Scott dropped to one knee to catch her in a hug and to reassure her that she was safe now.
"I knew you were coming," she whispered into the hug.
Scott nodded and kissed the side of her head. "We brought Logan and Kurt with us too," he told her, just to make sure she knew that there were enough people to keep her safe.
"I know," she said, still hugging him and holding on tight. "I could hear them. I heard Rachel when she found me."
Rachel crouched down to give Charlie a hug as well, pulling her tight. "You were reaching out, weren't you?"
Charlie nodded and hugged her for a while longer before she picked her head up. "You gotta save Remy too," she said, entirely serious and wide-eyed. "I know he looks like the bad guy, but it wasn't him! He's still inside there."
"We're taking him with us," Scott promised.
"Good." She nodded and straightened up a little, still holding onto Scott as he picked her up to carry her out of there.
When Scott got back downstairs, he could hear a large fire crackling below them, and when Logan emerged from the basement, he was smoking. "Something I picked up from the missus," he admitted with a nearly imperceptible smirk Kurt's way. "Nothing will be salvageable," he added to Kurt as he and the Elf picked up Remy to bring him along, tied and gagged.
Kurt smirked Logan's way in response. "It's a good policy to have."
"You really missed out when we went after Victor," Logan said conversationally. "Nothing but big fires and whiskey."
Kurt let out a sigh. "And here I could have been doing that instead of spending quality time with my father."
"Anything's better'n that," Logan pointed out. "It was really good whiskey, too. Hated using what we didn't drink it to set the next fire."
"Sounds like a waste," Kurt said, shaking his head.
"If you'd have been there, we wouldn't have had to burn your share. Ask the bamfs; they liked it too."
Kurt shook his head. "You are mean-spirited."
"I'll remember that next time I get a chance to disappear with your wife with no warning."
Kurt gave him a look for that one. "That was not my doing." But then he caught the smirk Logan had and had to simply slug him in the arm.
By that time, the three Summerses had come down to join the others, and Charlie looked overly concerned when she saw the state Remy was in. "He's still Remy in there," she told Kurt.
"Remy was fighting him," Logan reassured her. "He's still there."
Charlie nodded once. "He's so mad," she said, a bit wide-eyed as the bamf who had come with her and Remy attached himself to her, smoothing out her hair and kissing her cheek repeatedly.
"He's only gonna get madder," Logan said, watching her carefully. "You alright, punkin'?"
She snuggled the bamf and made sure to give him a kiss too before she glanced up at Logan. "I knew you guys were gonna find me," she said. "I heard Rachel looking."
"Weren't gonna leave you alone, little darlin'."
Charlie nodded at that, though by then, she was tired and scared and tired of being scared, so she simply hid in her father's shoulder all the way home.