A/N: Thanks reviewers, I'm glad you enjoyed my last chapter. And now...I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!

Somewhere Else

The Past, Six Weeks Ago

Remy held the gold watch to his ear. The watch was silent. He regarded the pale clock face; the hands were frozen in time, unmoving. The watch The Witness had given him was broken. Remy had lost track of time. He swallowed compulsively. His throat felt tight. He placed the gold watch back into his coat pocket. Remy stood in a small pool of dim light, cast through the bars of the grate above him. He shivered in the wet darkness. His sneakers were sodden, his clothing saturated with water and grime. Occasionally, the ceiling would drip and a cold fat drop of gritty water would slide down his neck into his shirt. He sniffled and rubbed his nose on his coat sleeve.

A shadow fell over him and he stepped out from under the grate. The girl, Alice, was standing above him. She looked down at Remy through the grate bars.

"And still you have found nothing," she said coolly. "Perhaps I should impress upon you a deeper sense of urgency."

Remy took another few stumbling steps back, splashing through the silty water at his feet. Alice would hurt him at the slightest infraction, cause him terrible pain inside his skull.

He drew a shaking breath and spoke with bravado: "I know you won't kill me. If you were gonna, you'da done it by now."

Alice smiled her cruel smile. "No, young man. But I could make you wish for death. I suggest you continue your search, post haste."

Remy cast a disheartened glance down the length of dark tunnel. His surroundings were not only cold, dark, and damp, but also reeked of decay like the fine slick mud of the bayou. He was in some sort of underground network of tunnels. He realized that though the tunnels may smell like parts of home, he was far from New Orleans. There was no way a labyrinth of underground pathways like this could exist in his home town. However, like New Orleans, these tunnels had flooded at some point, leaving behind a half-foot of sludge, trash, broken concrete, and tiles. Portions of the tunnel had collapsed, and it seemed he could go in any direction for only so long before encountering a blockage. He'd found remnants of clothing, cookware, and furniture that led him to believe that these tunnels had at one time been inhabited. Remy had a map of the tunnels laid out inside his mind, and he returned to this spot under the grate after each failed search.

Remy's stomach cramped. Though he hadn't eaten anything in some time, he was not hungry. He had a constant headache and experienced waves of nausea. Alice regarded him for a moment through the grate, then moved away.

"Water, water, every where..." she said tauntingly when she returned. She dropped a bottle of water through the grate bars. It landed in the mud with a splash. "Sustain yourself, lad."

Then she left. Remy moved slowly to the bottle of water and retrieved it from the mud. He looked up at the grate. He had tried to move it to no avail. He had tried to use his powers, but he could not. His abilities came to him reflexively, like an eye blink. Now that they were gone, the sensation of flexing his mutant powers felt like a phantom limb. Try as he could to trigger that reflex, he could not summon the charge.

Remy returned to his search. Alice had told him he was looking for a rabbit hole. Remy thought she was being facetious. But he was instructed there would be some pathway down here to another world. Remy didn't want to venture any further into the earth than he all ready had. Surely, anyplace lower would be Hell. He returned to a stretch of tunnels that branched off in two directions. On one side he had drawn a black X on the crumbling walls with some mud. There was nothing to be found down that way. It ended an an impenetrable round steel door, buried halfway in sludge and debris. He turned down the opposite length, one he had not yet fully explored. When he found a patch of concrete that lifted clear of the mud, he stepped up onto it. He was glad to have found some place out of the wet. Remy sat and drank his water slowly. It would make his stomach feel full for a while anyway. He drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around them. He rested his forehead on his knees and closed his eyes.

He was so, so sorry for having left home. He wondered if Jean-Luc was looking for him. Remy thought back to the night he'd first time-traveled on accident. Jean-Luc and Tante Mattie had come to find him. The thought of it now made him sad. Now he hoped to be so lucky as to have someone searching for him, to see the reassuring light from their flashlights bobbing towards him from the darkness. Why did he ever think he'd be better off without them, his family?

Remy turned his head and stared out into the darkness. He continued to sit, conserving his energy for the next few hours of searching. His eyes blinked slowly and he drifted into a daze. When he heard the first soft sounds of scratching, he thought it was in a dream. But then the scratching noise came nearer. Remy's eyes flew open and cast about, though the rest of him remained motionless.

Rats, he thought, and he looked for signs of the rodents; a flurry of movement or the pale flash of bare pink tails. It wasn't a rat he spotted, but something else. Remy sat frozen on the spot as he saw a dark, vaguely humanoid shape scurry though the shadows. It made a soft chirping and clicking noise as it moved, like a bat. It even had tall, pointed ears like a bat. Its eyes were bulbous, but slitted to a squint. Remy breathed shallowly as the thing drew nearer. The creature paused at a branch in the tunnels and made its echoing click sound. Its ears swiveled about. Then it continued down the tunnel and out of sight, scrambling on all four of its long thin limbs.

Remy unfolded himself and sat in a crouch. Something prompted him to move forward, though he wanted nothing but to run in the opposite direction and away from the creature. Slowly, he began to follow. He approached the branch in the tunnel and peered down it. Down the length he could spy the creature. It moved cautiously, calling out in clicks before moving forward. It turned down another tunnel and disappeared. Remy crept along the edge of the tunnel, where it was slightly raised from the muck and he wouldn't splash so much. He reached the turn and peered around the corner. The strange creature had vanished, but Remy saw something else in the darkness. It was a strange flickering blue light.

He made his way towards the small light. When he reached it, he saw it was a sort of gemstone, like a diamond that glowed with an inner blue fire. It had been crammed into a crack in the wall. He touched it with his forefinger. The light was so bright, it left spots in his vision. Remy heard the soft click of the creature and froze. It was echoing from somewhere. He glanced about, searching for the source of the sound. There, below the shining diamond, was a crack in the tunnel wall. It was the rabbit hole.

Remy crouched and peered through it. It was dark, but he could hear the creature. He slipped through the fissure in the concrete wall, feeling his way blindly in the darkness. His hands encountered dark wet rock; his feet, uneven ground. In the distance, he could see another flicker of blue. He moved towards it. When Remy reached the glowing rock, he could see the cavern open up like a wide maw of some giant beast. He could hear the flow of water. He came to a precipice and looked down. He could see the silvery flash of rushing water below. In the distance were faint pinpricks of blue-white light leading a path into the darkness. Over the sound of the water, he could still hear the faint clicking of the creature.

Remy slipped down a switchback path that led downwards to the water. Once there, he could see a few long flat rocks that made a crooked bridge across. He traversed it. The clicking was louder. He was nearly on top of the creature by now, it was in front of him and slightly below. It moved over the rocks cautiously, pausing every once in awhile to sound its clicks. It seemed frightened, Remy thought. He came to the edge of a rock and from beneath the toe of his sneaker, a small pebble detached and tumbled downwards. The creature heard the sound and paused. It turned its head to look up in his direction, though Remy thought the thing likely couldn't see but only hear. He could see the flash of its sharp pointed teeth. It made a soft scree-ing sound, it's ropy muscles tightened to spring. Remy stood frozen for an instant.

Before the creature could leap, there was a large splash and a sudden flash of movement. Something erupted from the river; a huge monster that resembled an eel-like fish. It curved sideways and its jaws opened, revealing terrible rows of fangs. The monster's mouth closed with a snap on the goblin-creature and in a flash it was gone, disappearing beneath the surface of the water.

Shaking, Remy dropped to his hands and knees. His body shuddered with fear. He glanced upwards, thinking to return to the relative safety of the tunnels. But his body wouldn't obey. He was forced onward. He was definitely going to Hell.

He moved as silently as possible, fearful of attracting any attention with noise. Having spent some time in the tunnels however, he likely smelled terrible. That was how the next creature found him. Remy hugged an outcropping of rock as he saw the huge furry monster nose its way out of a crevice in the wall on the opposite side of the river. Its nose was pink and composed of a cluster of long wet tentacles, which scented the air. Remy could see its long yellow teeth as the mole-like monster raised its head. With the rushing river separating Remy from the creature, the thing grew frustrated as it was denied the tasty and smelly snack that lay just on the other side of the cavern. Finally, with a snuffling grunt, the thing returned to its lair.

Remy was pressed onwards and ever downwards. He slipped down a length of smooth slick rock, climbed over stones, and at last reached a point in the river where the water calmed. Remy's feet found grainy sand. He began along the shore. The light had increased and he could now make out distinct shapes. He climbed up a bank towards the light which flashed on the cavernous ceiling overhead. At the top of the bank he looked down to see a bowl of a verdant valley. Several hut-like cottages clustered around a great shining manor. Remy blinked at the sight. It was like looking down into a fairy tale; that is, if you ignored the remnants of burned bodies strewn about.

On his way towards the manor, he encountered more of the goblin-like creatures. They were all dead, their bodies twisted and mutilated. The mud huts were uninhabited. He came to the outer wall surrounding the manor. From the bank above, he had seen there was a main entryway. He veered away from it to walk along the outer wall. Along the wall, he came upon a chicken coop. There were a few chickens roosting inside. To Remy, they looked scrawny. He walked past the coop to a gate in the wall. He peered through the bars into a small courtyard. Remy pushed through the gate. He saw an alleyway and walked towards it. The alleyway went on for several feet. To his left was a doorway.

The door squealed slightly on rusty hinges. Remy cringed, then pushed the door open just wide enough to slip through. Once through the door, he found himself in a stable. He passed a large metal tube composed of rusting sheets of metal that was as wide around as a tractor tire and stretched upwards past the rafters. On the tube, something like a huge gear turned slowly above. Steam puffed out of it in intervals. He did not know what to make of the machine, but something in his head shifted. The skin at the back of his neck crawled and he could envision Alice's cruel smile. At the front of the machine was a sliding door. Remy approached it and pressed an ear to the door. Suddenly, it rattled and Remy jumped back. The gear made a groaning noise and came to a halt. Remy walked backwards away from the device to come up against one of the stable stalls. He stood for a moment, bracing himself against the wood while waiting to see what the machine would do.

Two clawed hands descended on him from above, clutching at the front of his shirt. Remy cried out in fright and yanked away from the grasping hands. His shirt tore and several angry claw marks appeared on his chest. Remy scrambled away, turning to see an enormous bear of a man inside the stall. His hair was wild and blond, his insane eyes were blue. The man snarled incoherently at him and reached out with burly arms through the bars of the stall. A second man appeared in the next stall, looking exactly the same as the first. He joined in the snarling, biting the bars in his desire to tear Remy limb from limb. Remy ran.

He came up against the front door of the stable and pulled the door open. It slid aside and he darted through. He was now in another courtyard. He ran over the open ground, feeling exposed. He came up against the manor wall and crouched against it, trying to catch his breath. There was a window above his head. He peered through it to see a kitchen. The kitchen was empty.

Remy pulled open the door and entered the house. It was quiet. He passed through the kitchen into a dark hallway and started up a creaking wooden staircase. At the top, he found another door. He opened it and saw a dimly lit hallway. The floor was carpeted. Along the walls were glass-shaded lamps that glowed softly against dark wood-paneling. It seemed to be the main part of the house. Remy padded silently into the hall. His own sweat stung the scratches in his chest. He itched at them carefully.

Remy came to a balcony and looked down into a foyer. Above was a skylight of milky-white glass. A crystal chandelier hung at the center. Below was a black and white checkered floor of marble tile. Remy could hear footfalls sounding across the tile floor. A woman appeared from below him. Her hair was red and she wore a long, old-fashioned looking gown. She walked towards a decorative screen and passed behind it. Behind him, the grandfather clock began to chime.

Remy started down the staircase, following the woman. He came to the wooden screen and peered through it into the room beyond. It was a library. The woman approached a desk and the man seated there. Remy nearly gasped in shock. It was the pale man from the hospital! Only he was dressed in ornamental Victorian-like garb and his dark hair was long. A stillness fell upon Remy and he felt as if his entire body were gripped in a vice. The man and the woman spoke quietly and at last the woman turned to leave. Remy saw that her face was beautiful, her skin like porcelain against the flaming red of her hair. Her green eyes however, were cold and her smile cruel. She passed by Remy's hiding place and started across the foyer to the staircase.

At that moment, Remy felt as if his body were seized by an unseen force. His body moved rigidly of its own accord, as if he were a stiff-limbed puppet on strings. He was dragged unwillingly from behind the screen and into the library. He wanted to scream.

The man at the desk stood upon Remy's sudden entrance. The pale man regarded Remy with curiosity. His long-fingered hand smoothed his neatly trimmed beard.

"Well," the pale man said finally. "What is this? An unexpected guest."

Remy came to stand before the pale man. Remy's posture was confident, though he felt nothing of the sort. His jaw seemed to unhinge itself and to his shock and horror, he was speaking against his will.

"I would speak to you, fraud," Remy said.

The pale man's mouth curled into a smile. "Ah...," he breathed. "I wondered if you would come. You flatter me with your consideration, my progenitor! But tell me, if it were in your power to do so, why not come yourself? Why send this slip of a boy?"

Remy had no idea what the pale man was talking about. He spoke again: "I wished to send a message, you foolish degenerate."

The pale man tossed his head back and laughed. "Oh! Do you disapprove of your most recent incarnation? I only longed for the creature-comforts you so long denied yourself. Wine, women, and song, yes?"

Remy stood and stoically stared at the pale man. Inside, he was rebelling. He struggled to force the invasive presence from his mind. He felt sick and violated.

"Well, what is your message?" the pale man asked. He leaned forward slightly.

Remy drew a shaking breath. For a moment, his mouth opened but no words issued forth. There was a battle raging inside him and the muscles in his neck and shoulders grew painfully tight as he fought.

"I'm waiting...," the pale man said in a sing-song voice.

Finally, the words worked their way from Remy's throat. "Your masquerade is over, impostor," he croaked. Then Remy felt a pull, the reflexive response as he released his powers. They came back to him in a sudden rush, flooding his body, his limbs, and the inside of his skull until all he could see was bright blinding light. Then the world ignited with the same light, the charge swallowing everything in a white-hot glow; the floor tiles, the book-lined walls, the ceiling, and the pale man himself. And then the world exploded.

~ oOo ~

Next time: Where the clone's map will take you...