Author's note: This is two-part story. Translations please look below. Pls review, too.

Part V

I Absolve You of Your Guilts

Guilt is one of the strongest emotions ever known to anyone who are capable to feel. It drives you forward. It pushes you back. It makes you do things you never thought you would ever do. For Louis du Boudreault, the most important part of guilt is how a person is able to push it to the deepest abyss that is in his soul and deny its existence.

Louis sat at the edge of the rink, watching the people skate. Watching the normal people skate. How they relish in that name, that title! As if God had bestowed upon them the best gift alongside that title. Normal.

He turned to Melinda who sat beside him, looking at the skaters but not really looking at them. Louis knew. He made sure she was as compliant as a cow who had just been put a ring through the nose. She would reply to his questions like any normal person would, but in truth it was his mind who orchestrated what she would say and react. Whenever this happened, from a distance they would look like a normal couple merely having a good time.

It had been easier with Carter. Carter Clemence was a man filled, to the extent of overflowing, with guilt. Louis could see it seep out of his being every time he faced Carter. What happened when he absorbed his guilt was beyond his wildest expectations... and more.

More than enough to create a plan that would eventually kill three birds with one stone. The first bird had died, though, so there were two more birds to kill.

Absorption of guilt comes with a price every time. A portion of the person's memory connected to the guilt will fade away, leaving only vague images. While the mind tried to recover the missing pieces, this left the mind weak from outer invasion. This would be the best time for him to manipulate a person because the mind has partial control over the body. Or that was how it seemed to Louis when he first used this ability.

When you bury something inside you, you never expect people to find them. But they come out. They always do. Sometimes even worse than the last time you saw them. Their intensity doubled, tripled or trebled over the passing time. Time may heal old wounds, but the guilt just burrows deeper and deeper until one day they explode out of you like a blood-filled paintball and splatter their secrets to the outside world. And then you are left crying for your past sin.

It was just as it had been with Melinda. Such a soft-spoken lady, such wonderful manners she had. A magician in the kitchen as well as in the social skills, she was adored by students in the school where Remy resided for the last three or four years. And when he found it, it was so well hidden that he wasn't sure at first that the image he had seen was her guilt.

And it all made the pieces he had seen in Carter's guilt clinked neatly to pieces. Almost all of them, anyway. The final piece had just entered his psychic-field; Louis could feel something in his head pulsed almost erratically when Remy suddenly appeared at the other end of the skating rink, his anger a panacea to Louis' drained energy.

Angered people were a good source, and Louis intended to see it would remain that way for a long time. At least until Remy's glorious death.

Louis opened his arms wide open and tilted his face a bit to the side, the friendly kiss gesture. Remy frowned. I'm not going to kiss a lying pig like you. He saw Louis' expression changed, surprised, maybe, but then it faded into a wide smile that would have looked genuine if Remy didn't spend his exiled times in Paris with l'Enfants en Terriblè*. Louis always smiled like that to a person he would have killed minutes later in cold blood. Like the kids in A Clockwork Orange, he'd tap-danced while shooting the unfortunate person.

"Why, Remy, how you break my heart! Why would you call me that? It's been - what, six years? I've missed you." His voice dropped a notch and his brows furrowed. Still smiling, he went on. "And so would dear Penny have."

Remy stared back with equal intensity. "Gambit didn't kill Penelope, damn it! Louis, how many times Gambit have to tell you, Penny didn't die because of moi! Someone killed her and framed moi instead!"

He skated closer to Louis, the proximity was enough to almost see sparks flying between the two. "Oh, yeah, sure. And then there's Father Christmas with his fucking big balls filled with presents to give to all the good children of the world! Drop it, Remy! You've never been able to admit you killed Penelope because you thought you're the only one good enough to have her and if you can't, no one else can!"

Remy pressed the skate blades deep into the rink surface enough to bury it a good three inches deep. "Louis, t'ink what you want, but Penny never died 'coz of my hands. Gambit didn't even have de reason to kill her! I loved Penny, dammit! I would not even dream to kill her!"

Louis left his spot and skated to the middle as the visitors kept on skating as if they didn't exist. Remy began to sense something very wrong with the whole picture, but he couldn't quite put his fingers in it.

"Isn't that the strongest emotion, mon ami? Amor. Most of the times it brings good out of people. Sometimes it brings the devil out of a man. Did you kill Penny?" Louis said, suddenly swirled on his blades to face Remy.

"You, mon ami, are not fit to judge me. T'ink of de countless other lives you've taken when you were one of l'Enfants en Terriblè. De Higher ordered to kill just de man, you killed de whole fuckin' family! De Higher ordered to grab Mona Lisa off de Louvre, you smashed your way through de damned tourist and children! You're way too trigger-happy with dat psychic power of yours dat kills people whenever you feel like to do it. Dat was why Penny never liked you! She feared she'd be killed whenever you were near, she'd fear for your life as well as her own. She had loved you, Louis, before you became Pierre de Trois. de Trois was an excuse for you to be de brute that you are now, and by Seignieur's** left hand Gambit'll end dis madness right now."

Louis only made vague hand gestures as Remy said those words and nodded. "And you are not entirely a saint yourself, my dear Remy. We'll leave the trail of broken hearts for the moment, but we'll focus on a certain time." He placed a fingertip on his forehead and tapped it twice, smiling.

At first Remy watched his movement suspiciously, then he realised the motion was meant for him. Whatever Louis was about to do could be up to no good. Suddenly Remy felt nauseous and instantly he lurched backwards. The moment his fingers and palms touched the coldness of the rink surface, he saw an even colder vision swimming before his eyelids. He closed his eyes and wildly shake his head, trying to shake off the vision, but it became clearer.

Remy wished to hell it didn't. With each degree it cleared up, Remy's head throbbed and it finally reached the extent to nearly explode his head.

It was the one where he had inevitably helped Mr Sinister and the Marauders kill the Morlocks.

Piotr was standing on the roof of a tall building. Storm was beside him, surveying the area. "Anything, Colossus?

Piotr was holding a gadget Beast had Storm given him. It was what he had referred to as psychic-activity detector. "Still nothing, Storm... wait. Yes, there is a massive interruption to the northwest."

At that moment Storm's communicator buzzed. "Storm. The detector hits a massive wave band interruption two miles due northwest."

Cyclops' voice came through. "We also detected a massive interruption of band waves half a mile due southeast. Well, then. It seems we've crossed Louis du Boudreault. Our lines crossed over Rockefeller Center Skating Rink. I'll gather Rogue and Wolverine to the Rockefeller place."

"It seems we have hit it, Colossus." Louis had laid psychic dead ends all over New York where he left semi-active psychic dodge-fields as decoys. Now they were certain this was the real one. All the others had been cleared by Rogue and Wolverine.

Piotr sighed. "It's going to be rather hard."

Storm nodded. She knew why. "I hope we have enough time to evacuate the people out of the skating rink."

"I don't think this thing's going fast enough, Ray."

Jubilee sat sulking as Ray pushed on the gas. "Strange. I fixed this thing days ago." The meter didn't even move an inch. "I guess the gas's low. We'll have to stop."

"Stop? The X-Men are already there, and goodness knows what's happened to Remy and you want us to stop for gas?!"

Ray stared helplessly at her. "You make it sound so wrong. I wonder why didn't that hunk of animal tear you to pieces eons ago."

"Hey, don't call Logan animal!" Jubilee rose to Logan's defence. "He's the sweetest man I know and I give you my word he'll tear you to pieces if you don't start driving fast!"

"If he really is sweet, then why didn't he bring you along?"

Jubilee felt as if she had just been punched in the emotional stomach. "I won't answer that," she quietly said moments later.

Ray drove into a gas station. "Won't or can't?" He stopped the engine and stared at the Asian girl. She looked sullen and uncertain. The red glasses she wore prevented him from knowing the real emotions churning behind her mind. "I'm gonna buy some gas and food. Wanna come along?"

She made no indications she heard him. Ray shook his head and went out, closing the door gently.

"A little late to be tripping, eh?" asked the pump attendant with a bored face. Ray nodded. He went into the convenient store and bought some junk food and two large orange slushes. When he returned to the car he half-expected she was already gone. Amazingly, she wasn't. Worse, she was crying.

Ray placed the junk food at the backseat and the orange slushes on the dashboard after the attendant bid them goodbye. He gently took her hands, which thank God she didn't pull away. "Look, I'm sorry if I said anything bad and didn't know it. Now, drink something. For God's sake you haven't had your dinner."

Jubilee shook her head and sobbed. "I should have seen it - I should have! Why didn't I tell you guys? Now I managed to send a friend to a war he wasn't expected to leave alive, and the rest of the X-Men to someone they had no idea of fighting. I should have given myself a congratulatory kick-in-the-ass!"

More tears followed. Ray had no idea how to calm her down, and the attendant outside had noticed her little outburst and had suddenly busied himself with a potted plant not far from their car. So he tried to offer her the orange slush. "Drink it, calm down."

Jubilee took it with hands shaking from uncontrolled sobs. "Wow," she said, trying to smile through the tears, "I managed to do two stupid, screwed-up business in one day. Let's have a toast for my stupidity!" She raised the paper cup clumsily and some of the slush spilled out on her. "To Jubilee, whose stupidity managed to destroy a man she adores and friends who she cares in one night!"

With a sudden move Ray took her face and turned her towards him. "Jubes! Listen, goddammit! No one is blaming you, alright!? Everything's gonna be alright! Stop blaming yourself for everything! It's not like every bad thing happened because of you. There are a lot of other things worth doing than giving yourself a continuous kick in the ass."

She watched him with a wonder that was short-lived. "Is being concerned of your friends something not worth doing, Ray?"

"Well, you know I don't mean that," Ray said slowly. "What I mean is blaming yourself won't do any of us any good."

"And so is positive thinking, Ray. I know you have this silver-lining-on-a-storm-cloud kind of attitude, but for once someone's got to play the devil's advocate."

"Not to the extent of placing the blame in oneself! That's mere self piety! That's not doing any help to anyone, either."

Jubilee dried her tears and asked tersely. "So, what are we gonna do, Mr Smart-ass? Go back to our cuddly little mansion and tuck ourselves to bed and dream of cotton candies and fairies while they battle some crazy mutant out there?"

Ray instead took a packet of potato chips and shoved it to Jubilee's nose. "Time to stop talking and start chewing. I'll do the driving and the talking, and you don't talk unless I say the contrary."

She stared at the potato chips and then at Ray. "I think our little discussion is supposed to go on."

"Well, I say it ended just now, so BE QUIET!"

Remy stood up slowly, the ringing in his head synonymous to a death knell. Jour de colère que ce jour-là... it went on and on until Remy's head was filled with it, without the smallest room to even think. When he slowly gained a small control over his head, a punch came out of nowhere and landed on his cheek. Remy fell face down, skidding across the cold harsh surface.

The ringing came and went after the horrible vision of dead Morlocks died away, each time stronger than the first. As soon as he had lifted his head a kick on the left temple made his head cocked to the right, spinning and to land on his back painfully on the same spot where he had just fallen. Remy groaned, and felt blood flowing out of his broken lips, felt his strength draining out of his body.

"You're stronger, Remy," Louis said through the ringing voices inside his head. He kicked him in the shins, and Remy immediately curl up painfully. His voice sounded as if he was gurgling, and more blood flowed out of his mouth. His arms went automatically up to protect his face when he sensed Louis' leg came up there, but it was to his stomach where the foot found its mark. Again, Remy curled in pain, groaning loudly.

All the while the people around them skated as if they were not there, that they were merely one of the Prometheus statue, only to be seen and not to be touched or otherwise. Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers now seemed cloyingly sweet to Remy's ears and it added up to the massive build up inside his brain.

Remy's arms went around his stomach, trying to suppress the pain. There he encountered something familiar, but for the love of God he didn't remember what it was. He moved it and out they fell of his hidden coat pocket. As Louis was from behind him while he lay there all curled up, Louis didn't quite notice what was happening to him. He was saying:

"Why did you kill Penny, Remy? Was it because you were afraid I would have got her at the end? Was it because you were jealous of our previous affair? Yes, I had been in love with Penny and I was about to marry her when you, son of a bitch, you came along with that strange eyes and sweet talk! Somehow you managed to sweet-talk her into leaving me and the best thing was, I even became you partner! You, a motherfucking son of a bitch who stole my lover, you, who managed to get even with me twice, YOU, motherfucking sonofabitch!"

If the words could signify what Louis had done to Remy, the page would have small holes with boots imprints on them. Louis kicked his back endlessly that Remy felt if he did it for another minute, he could swear his vertebrae would have snapped into two and his guts spilled out in front of him. His hands, as he screamed painfully, were trying to catch hold on what had just fallen out of his pocket. Shoulda brought Gambit's rod shoulda call the rest shoulda brought more cards dammit dammit

"Irony! I'll give you irony, my dear Deux! Yes indeed!" To Remy's utter despair, Louis pulled him up off the cold surface with one clean jerk. The cards, in the feeble hold of his hand, fell away onto the surface and he watched his chance of at least hurting Louis pass.

Louis was oblivious to it all; all he was aware of right now was the pain Remy was feeling and his guilt, yes, the most important thing of all. Remy's guilt. "Do you know why I brought Melinda here, my dear Deux?" he asked, whispered, a sudden change from his heated words. "Don't you ever wonder why I killed Carter Clemence and let you see the body? Do you know why is this why I think that this an equivalent to Orff's O Fortuna?"

Remy turned weakly at Louis whose grin nearly split his face in half. He said with great difficulty, "You shick... sonofabitch, dat's what you are, fukhheadsch...."

Louis' grin changed into something that bordered on the absurd and sickly funny. He tapped his forehead again. "Watch. And learn, Cajun."

Even with all the pain racking his body, the pain in his head was the worst he felt ever, or since. It felt like the sun had just woke up and it shone so bright and so intense at the same time that it dries up every drop of moisture all around the place. It felt like dehydration, only what was being dehydrated was his brain, fast and merciless.

Almost immediately everything faded into darkness and slowly Remy could see stars. So, de mothafucka provided eye candies, no? Remy thought, almost laughing. They twinkled silently, staring at him with the olden lights. He looked down, and he was in an alley. Slowly he walked down the alley, aware that a sobbing sound was coming from before him. He wanted to hide, but his feet were stuck to the ground.

There is no hiding from the past, Remy. Watch. And learn.

He did. There was nothing else he could do.

Moments later he saw a figure, a woman's. She stooped at the opening of the alley and stood there for a while before she turned to leave. Suddenly there was a cry, like a baby's. And she stopped, hesitant. After another few moments she stooped and now Remy could see that she was holding a baby. The baby cried, and judging from its wail, a strong baby. She began to sing with a tone that was filled with sadness and longing at the same time:


Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Depuis que j'ai vu Silvandre
Me regarder d'un air tendre,
Mon coeur dit à tout moment:
Peut-on vivre sans amant?

She tried to suppress her own crying as her baby quietened down and seemed to have fallen asleep under the lullaby. Suddenly she became startled and she let down her baby and ran past him. Under the light Remy could see her face clearly, sad, beautiful, and afraid.

She was Melinda.

Remy's mind went to pieces.

Part VI

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine*

*eternal rest give unto them, O Lord

By pure chance, Jubilee and Ray drove past The Rapier. Jubilee, still silent after the heated exchange earlier on, had amused herself by staring at the billboards. The moment she saw the hotel's billboard - which had a finely done rapier placed vertically over the letter - she recalled the last tarot card Remy had received. She urged Ray to stop and follow her into the hotel. At the receptionist she asked for either Pierre de Trois or Louis du Boudreault. The second name was available, but he had just gone out with his wife.

"His wife?" Jubilee asked the receptionist, disbelief evident in her voice.

He gave Jubilee a look that she thought as reassessing her. "Why should that matter much to you?"

"Just tell me where is his room."

"That, my dear, is a confidential matter. We do not kindly give out room numbers to anyone."

Ray intervened. "I think my sister meant to say she needed to see Mr du Boudreault because she is his acquaintance." Ray leaned across the counter-top and whispered, "Please, sir, she's been raving to meet this guy who left her two years ago and I'm afraid she'll blow my head off if she didn't see this man right away. Lovers' spat. Now she's had his baby and she wants this French man to be responsible."

The receptionist coolly listened to this, and gave Jubilee a disgusted look as he said, "I should be able to pass him a message and he'll be sure to receive it." He forwarded to them a pad and a pencil. Ray took it and gave it to Jubilee whose stares turned to black daggers as he whispered to her what should be written there.

She slammed the pad on the counter-top when she was done, the black daggers still coming in rains. "There."

The receptionist turned to place the note into the 325 box and when he faced them again, they were still there. "Well?"

"Where is the ladies' room?" Ray asked after a hesitant pause.

Jubilee knew Remy had been in the suite. The door handle was a clear indicator. Ever the careful thief, he had closed the door and replaced it with another handle that had been unspoilt by his powers.

"How did you know Remy came here?"

"The last card he received was an Ace of Swords, otherwise a single sword. Sword is another word for blade or rapier." She let her sentence trailed off, assuming Ray knew how she came to the conclusions. Her eyes were restlessly scanning the dark room for any clues.

"Kindly please tell me what are we looking for here," Ray said as he activated his luminescent hand. After gathering enough light waves from the surroundings, it gave him ample energy to light up a room with one hand.

"That du Boudreault must have taken Melinda here and did something to her. But it seemed there's nothing to tell us what had happened. Now-" Jubilee paused. She saw a writing pad lying carelessly upon the floor. "Ray, come here."

He did, and Jubilee picked the pad up. She slanted it at an angle opposite to Ray's luminescent hand and sighed thankfully. "Get me a pencil." Ray groped for one off a dressing table, and she started to smudge her fingers with the lead and then quickly she rubbed them onto the pad.

"What is it?" Ray asked as Jubilee held up the pad, looking happy for the first time since the whole mess had started. She beamed at him. "I know where Remy is."

You... are one big liar,..." Remy said as he tried to stand, but his legs refused to. He had to support his upper body with what strength left inside his arms. "You... are one, fuckin' big liar, Louis..."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere, my dear Deux," Louis said as he skated in circles around Remy, like a shark circling its prey. "But that's the truth. And most of the time, you wanted to know what the truth is. Don't you?" He stopped in front of him as Remy tried to pull back his strength into his legs but it was being resisted, and Remy could see sweat falling from his face as it turned to ice on the cold rink surface.

Tchaikovsky was still playing in the background.

"Now the truth's here and... you hate it. You hate the truth I've worked so hard to gain for you, for you to see and realise and know how low your origins were." Louis resumed his walk around Remy. "The offspring of a common whore and the biggest conman, no wonder you have such... charming traits and a penchant for stealing. I wonder whether Melinda pick pocketed her 'clients' when they were done with her?"

The last sentence was said with such mockery and disgust that Remy would have twisted Louis' head open and stepped upon it on the could surface if not for this cursed... whatever that was holding him from gaining full control of his body.

"And Carter Clemence is - oh, I'm sorry, how insensitive of me! Was, yes, was, a great conman, but he finally fell down from his grace yesterday. But at least he's still doing a good job becoming a snowman! Hahah! I should have stayed around and watch the expression on your face when you found his body yet not knowing that had been you father all along."

Remy felt his legs were finally waking up. He moved them slightly and felt it began to gather strength. "You are sick, Louis. Why did you do dis? Why do you have to bring dem into dis? Had not'in' to do at all with moi. You have Gambit here. Let Melinda go."

With the greatest effort he forced his head to look up at Melinda's direction. She was still sitting there like some puppet, her eyes empty and lifeless, yet her hands were moving pointlessly about her.

Remy recalled the times he had been near Melinda. There was not even the smallest hint that she ever tried to tell him he was her son. She had been a normal woman, wonderfully honest and even put up to his pranks and flirtations. She acted similarly towards the rest of the students like she never knew him.

Now as Remy thought, how hard it must have been for her to try act normal while her long-lost son was only an arm's reach, while she could have simply told him that she was his mother.

But the consequences... the consequences would have been either a fairy-tale ending or simply disastrous if she did so. The suddenness of this news would have turned his world upside-down. He might have even called her an impostor, in this crazy world where even bloodlines are not considered sacred. Nothing is sacred anymore.

He might have denied her.

Thus the probable reasons why she didn't tell him at the first place. Guilt, guilt and more guilt impeded her footsteps like jagged broken glass all stuck with the sharp edges up, slowing her down, terminally shutting down her own will to call him 'son'. Who would have been happy to meet the person who placed you in some unknown alley in New Orleans and made you believe you were an orphan from the day you were born?

"You see, Remy," Louis' voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "How your maman wanted to meet you but can't? How badly she wanted you to know she's your mother but feared the consequences? Well," Louis spread his arms open like some icon saint blessing a pilgrim, "I am here to do exactly that. I fulfill her will. And yours."

"Dis... is not what it shoulda been... Gambit never asked for your help..."

Louis' arms dropped, his face a study of feigned rejection. "Now you're being unkind. I reunited you with your mother, I let you meet your father in the best way he should have been-"

"You killed my father and you turned my mother into a catatonic human being!" Remy shouted as he stared at Louis, his arms started to gather energy. "You destroyed my family and Gambit's s'posed to be thankful!?"

"Now you know how I felt when I lost Penny, you sorry little thief." Louis stopped again and knelt down. "How does it feel? Tell me, Remy, or Shadow Deux, how does it feel? Guilty? Sad?" He forced Remy's face up and stared at him. "Tell me."

Remy's voice came out as a croak. "Non." Then he spat out thick blood mingled with saliva onto Louis' face. Taken aback, Louis tightened his hold on Remy's chin and wiped the goo off his face with the sleeve of his coat.

At that moment Remy's hand that had held bits of ice tightly went up to Louis' cheek and pressed there. The ice had been charged and it was burning with latent energy, and the moment it was pressed onto his skin Louis screamed in pain. Remy merely tightened his hold on Louis' face. He felt something wet and thick and hot flowed down Louis cheek and Remy smiled as he hung his head low.

"Take dat," he said with a smile in his voice. That instant Remy was pushed down flat onto his back. Louis immediately rose and held his burnt cheek, screaming and cursing loudly in pain as he kicked at Remy again and again.

At that instance Remy felt his legs steadied and his hands managed to grab at Louis' kicking feet and pulled him down. Louis fell down with a grunt and another curse escaped his mouth. To stall his rise Remy made a strong kick which would have been feeble and harmless if not for the bladed skates he wore. Louis shouted again.

As his sight, coordination and feet steadied he immediately skated to where his cards had fallen. It was strange to be able to move again, free from whatever Louis had done to him just now. As he picked them up again he began to sense another clamping sensation around his mind that directly went to his legs and body.

Fight dem fight dem fight the bloody Louis control fight the bloody sonofabitch tries to control you again but not dis time Louis no Remy's back Gambit's back better than ever cos you killed moi father an' you made my maman a vegetable Gambit'll turn you into a vegetable an' let you rot in the salad bowl oh yes Louis yes hear me? hear me fighting you back? Gambit's stronger now and Penny I didn't kill Penny it was a freak accident someone framed Gambit to make it look like Gambit killed her fight dem fight dem fight dem fight

Louis was still lying upon the floor and rolling around. Only then Remy realised he had kicked Louis in the eye with the blunt edge, and it seemed he had hit where it hurt the most. The atmosphere around him began to lighten, and some of the skaters who had been skating endlessly for the past hour stopped, panting loudly for breath. Some seemed to have awakened from a deep trance and when they saw a bleeding man lying on the rink surface they panicked and started stampeding outside.

The dodge-field was crumbling. Only Melinda didn't seem to change. Remy quickly skated towards her while pains still racked some parts of his body with every move he made. He finally made it to her side and slowly made her stand.

"Mel,...?"

Her eyes were as empty as a dead lake. The cheerful glint had been replaced by a shadowy light that created an illusion of a cataract-filled eyes.

"Mel... maman... it's Gambit,...

As the word escaped his mouth he felt a drop of moisture fell upon his cheek and travelled down. Melinda was staring at him with the blank look.

"Maman, it's Gambit... your son... come back, maman... listen to me... come back...

A glint in the eyes. Had they widen just now? Had they moved with humane feelings?

Melinda's mouth began to move. Remy watched them open and close as he tried to steady her. "Oui, maman... say somet'in'... anyt'in'..."

Her hand went up to touch his unshaven cheeks and Remy closed his eyes as it travelled up to the planes of his forehead and nose, relishing the feel of her hands on his face. "Remy... pardonnez moi***..."

Remy's eyes opened immediately. Melinda was crying as she now had both of her hands around his face. Remy covered him with his own and smiled. "Oui, maman...";

"REMY! MELINDA!"

As sudden as Jubilee's voice had intruded from amongst the panic-stricken crowd, Remy saw Melinda's eyes widen and the next he found Melinda standing in front of him, spreading her arms, protecting him from whatever that would have come. A sickening jab! suddenly held time and space in suspension in Remy's mind as he saw Melinda fell down, agonizingly slow, onto the cold surface. Her arms entangled around his, it made her whole body turn around before she came with contact onto the surface, and there had been a brief horror in her expression replaced quickly by a smile as Melinda's soul slid away from existence.

"Heh, I still have the last laugh," said Louis, his hand covering his bad eye and another held a tarot card.

Breathless, Remy looked up from Melinda and saw Louis sneering at him. Despair gave way to rage, and before he could even think, four aces flew across their distance and Jubilee found herself wet with sticky red fluid that was Louis' blood mingled with his brain moments after one massive explosion decapitated him.

Jubilee, stirred from the trance, slowly walked over to Remy who stood still over Melinda's body. She shivered when she saw what had killed Melinda. Upon her head stuck a tarot card with the symbol Death on it. There was no blood, period. She knew the rest of the X-Men were right behind her as soon as the stampede had cea, but she didn't care even if she would be suspended for a lifetime because of this. She deserved it.

She walked closer to Remy, her arm immediately linked to his as he suddenly fell upon his knees, his wide shoulders shaking. One hand covered his face and the other opened weakly, letting the rest of the pack fell down. He began to cry.

"Remy...," Jubilee began, but she could not find any other words.

"Melinda was my maman.. my maman, and she died before she could even tell me dat..." Remy sobbed unashamedly. "Carter Clemence was my papa... and Louis killed him and made him into a snowman..." here Remy began to laugh madly as his tears flowed on. " Snowman!"

Rogue, also crying, knelt beside them and started to caress his hair. "We're sorry, sugah...," was all that she could say.

Words of consolation began to flow from each of them, but Remy simply shut them off. He cried as he released Jubilee's and Rogue's arms. He cried as he took Mel's body in his arms and stood up. He cried as he walked out of the rink, singing to himself the very song Melinda had sung to him the day they were separated, and today he sung it to their reunion.

And separation. Again.


Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Depuis que j'ai vu Silvandre
Me regarder d'un air tendre,
Mon coeur dit à tout moment:
Peut-on vivre sans amant?

THE END

Author's Note: Ah! vous dirai-je maman is the original song in which Twinkle twinkle little Star came from. Roughly translated it says about the thoughts of a boy who hated to be told to think like grownups. Any errors in the French languages are entirely mine. If there was such a thing as pig French, then it's me =)

*The Children of Terror

**The Lord's

***forgive me