Chapter Three
Dreamer, Aura and Solitaire were doing a training exercise in the forest surrounding the mansion early on Thursday morning. A game like "capture the flag" only with no real teams.
Dreamer waited behind one of the huge trees as Aura passed, creating an image of the flag everywhere she went. A basic ploy, but easy enough to fall for. She was skilled enough to make everything seem real.
He could sense Solitaire not far away and grinned to himself. This would be easy.
Suddenly, he sensed a strangely familiar mutant further away from the mansion, closing in fast. Wait… make that several mutants. This couldn't be good.
Forgetting the exercise, he stood and called, "Aura! There's someone headin' this way, an' Ah don' think they're here ta pay a friendly visit!"
She turned and frowned. "You can sense someone? Do you know who they are?"
"No, but they're awful familiar, Aura," he said urgently.
Her eyes widened. "You think…"
"Ya, Ah'm thinkin' they maht be comin' f' us. Warn Solitaire."
As she vanished through the trees, Dreamer faced the direction of the approaching mutants. ((There shouldn't be many that Ah recognise; we blew that place ta all Hell six months ago. It'd be a miracle if he survived, let alone th' others.))
He was partly right. As four mutants appeared, he only recognised two of them, Shriek and Blade. The others were unfamiliar.
Shriek glided out of the trees and smiled darkly, her eyes sparkling. "Hello, Dreamer. Been a while," she said, her musical voice climbing the scale of notes until he winced at the high pitch. Beside her, Blade popped the raking knives out of his forehead and forearms, making him look like some sort of dinosaur.
The other two mutants didn't look remarkable, just big, bulked-up and strong, the sort of soldiers he'd always liked. Shriek smiled and said, "Dreamer, meet Sonic and Dylan. They've been dying to meet the three kids who made the master so bloody pissed off."
"Not happenin', Shriek," Dreamer warned. He was suddenly aware of Aura's voice in his head.
** Keep 'em talking for a few seconds. I'm gonna make it look like they were talking to an illusion that failed. As soon as they turn away, head for the mansion. Solitaire and me are safe. **
** Got it. He's got new cronies, Kris. Worse-looking than Racketeer ever was. **
** You're worried about this, aren't you? You never call me Kris or Kristin except when you're really upset about something. Dreamer, we'll be fine. You think Xavier's going to let them do anything to his students? **
He forced his attention back to the four mutants. Shriek said, "you don't give us trouble and I won't have to hurt you, Dreamer. You always knew he'd be back."
He saw the image of himself appear on the opposite side of the clearing. The other mutants swiveled to it and he took off, running toward the mansion.
He heard Shriek's outraged cry behind him and the crashing sounds of the mutants following him. But his training had been more full-on and he easily outran them.
Xavier and the others were waiting when he reached the mansion. The Professor simply said, "I think you three owe us an explanation."
Half an hour later, the X-Men, including the teenaged recruits, and Cat were sitting in the den. Cat was there because she'd stumbled upon them talking.
Dreamer spoke first. "Y'all know we were on th' street when Jean brought us here, raht? Well, we'd only been livin' that way f' a few months. B'fore that, we were workin' f' a guy called Sinister."
"He found us when we were kids," Aura explained. "I was five, Dreamer and Remy were seven. We'd run away from the orphanage and frankly I don't think we'd have lasted long on our own. He took us in, treated us like family. He trained us to be thieves and strong fighters, stronger than even he expected I think."
"Our powers showed up earlier dan most," Remy said. "When we got older we figured he'd given us somet'in' t' make dem appear early. But when we were kids we were just scared of dem."
"We had no control," Dreamer recalled. "Remy'd be blowin' stuff up whenever he touched it, Aura'd be makin' illusions without wantin' ta, an' every tahme Ah went ta sleep Ah saw th' mahnds of everyone in th' place. Sinister offered us control, if we worked f''him."
"We were kids, we didn' know what we were doin'. We knew dat stealin' stuff wasn' right, but we didn' know what else t' do. Sinister offered us de only chance t' control our powers an' we took it. F' 'bout four years we worked f' him an' we didn' question what he told us t' do."
Aura's eyes darkened and she looked down. "Then, when I was nine and the guys were eleven, we messed up one of our missions. We got what Sinister wanted, but the cops came halfway through. They didn't catch us but Dreamer got shot in the arm, and we were all scared half out of our minds. Later Sinister had one of the other mutants removed the bullet without any form of painkiller, to make us more careful he said, and he punished us for our mistake. He knew what we were most afraid of and he exploited that."
Jubilee made a small sound of distress, while Rogue's eyes were huge with horror. Chantelle's hair had turned dark blue with streaks of yellow and red, and Solitaire's arm was around her shoulders, a stunned expression on his face. Bobby and Raptor both looked angry while Kitty and Kurt looked absolutely horrified.
"Even den, it wasn' too bad. He still t'ought we'd be on his side all our lives," Remy said. "But as we got older we realised dat what he was makin' us do was wrong, an' dat he wasn' de sort of person we wanted to be workin' f'. But by den it was too late."
"He found out that we were thinkin' of leavin'," Dreamer continued, his gold eyes darkening as he spoke. "So instead of bein' workers, we became lab rats. He did experiments on us, on our powers, ta fahnd out what th' full extent of our abilities was, or just ta do experiments f' th' sake of it. In th' end Ah think he jus' did whatever he could think of ta make us regret thinkin' 'gainst him."
"About six months ago it got too much," Aura said. "We'd been thrown into the cell together after another torture session. It was awful… I could tell what he'd done to the guys, just by looking at them. Remy's always hated labs, so Sinister did most of the experiments on his power. For some reason telekinesis fascinated him. And I hate snakes, so he'd tie me to a chair and let them crawl all over me.
"Dreamer's claustrophobic, so badly that being inside a normal room for too long freaks him out. Sinister had a special room made, two metres by two metres by two metres, and he'd throw Dreamer in there for days on end. Me and the guys had always had a psychic bond, so me and Remy'd talk to him for as long as he was in there, trying to keep him calm. Me and Dreamer would do the same for Remy, and they'd do the same for me."
"When we were all tagether again, we… well, Ah don' actually remember much 'bout what happened after that. What Ah c'n remember is some sorta link between th' three of us, that sorta amplified our powers. Aura dropped some sorta illusion over th' whole place an' me an' Remy blasted our way out. We left Atlanta an' came ta New York. Couple months later, Jean brought us here."
"We always knew there was a chance he survived the explosions, but we'd hoped he wouldn't be able to track us," Aura said. "Looks like we were wrong."
"De lunatic will do anyt'in' t' get us back," Remy added. "He always said we were his 'finest possessions'. Sick bastard."
"We're sorry we didn' tell y'all b'fore," Dreamer said. "It's hard ta talk 'bout sometahmes. Ah… Ah'll understand if y'all don' want us around. We're endangerin' th' rest of ya."
"Don't be ridiculous," Storm said. "You're here now, and we don't let people hurt our own. We have to stick together."
Solitaire said softly, "that's where you got those scars from, isn't it? The things he did to you?"
"What scars?" Jean asked.
Aura, Dreamer and Remy exchanged a glance, then Dreamer said, "we were sparrin' th'other day an' Solitaire saw some of th' evidence of what Sinister did."
"Show me," Jean said. "I'm a doctor, I want to see if there's any permanent damage."
"Here?" Aura's voice was incredulous.
Jean nodded briskly. "Yes, here. We need to see what this Sinister is capable of, and we've all seen bad things before."
Remy slowly unbuttoned his shirt, going first by unspoken agreement between the three of them. As he pulled the fabric away from his body, gasps echoed around the den, then a shocked silence.
Rogue's small, horrified voice broke the silence. "Oh, Gawd…"
Remy's body was covered with small, crisscrossed scars, burns and the white lines of restraints. His upper arms had tiny crescent-shaped scars and several long slashes, like someone had scored his skin with a knife. Cut into his right shoulder were small tally tables, marking something that they weren't sure of but had a sinking suspicion about what it was.
After a few seconds, he shrugged the shirt back on. "It's not as bad as it looks," he said, trying to reassure them.
Jean got to her feet and snapped, "infirmary, now. All three of you."
@ @ @
Much later, Xavier, Logan, Scott and Storm greeted a horrified Jean Summers-Grey outside the infirmary. At their questioning glances, she shook her head. "It's worse than what Dreamer showed us. I think we should do this where nobody is likely to intrude. What I have to show you isn't pretty."
They went to the lower levels, where Jean had first showed them the X-rays she'd done on Logan a little under a year ago. She placed the first photograph she'd taken for medical evidence on the screen.
Storm gasped and turned her head away, and Logan let out a growl. The enlarged photograph clearly showed the whip scars, scalpel cuts and what looked like snake bites on skin.
Jean cleared her throat and said, "this is Aura's lower back. From what they told us, snakes were allowed to bite her, probably enraged and then placed on her. All three of them have numerous whip scars and scalpel scars, most from some sort of surgery that I can't imagine a use for."
She placed another photograph, this one the skin of a male's upper back, marred with the same small crescent-shaped scars they'd seen on Remy's arms and shoulders, and burns.
Jean said, "from what I've been able to tell, from the scars and from memories I picked up by skimming their minds, the guards… forced themselves on all three of them. I don't think there's any internal damage, or much physical damage other than scarring, but I can't say the same for their emotional and mental states. It took both Aura and Dreamer to calm Remy enough to let me anywhere near him in the infirmary. I didn't want to force myself into their minds, not that I'd be able to get inside Remy or Dreamer's minds. They have the strongest psychic shields I've ever seen, even stronger than yours, Professor. From what I picked up on my dip into their minds, telepaths working for Sinister often forced them to use their powers to hurt people. I think that's what affected them the most, harming others with no way to stop it."
"Are they going to be all right?" Storm asked.
Jean sighed. "Physically yes, apart from the scarring. But even that may fade over time. I'm more worried about their mental and emotional states. Realising that the man who had essentially been their father was evil must have been a terrible shock for them, and then to have him torture them… it's understandable that their minds are still trying to repress what happened to them as children, and younger teenagers. I'm sure they'd benefit from some sort of counseling… you all know the effect rape has on people… but knowing Remy and Aura they'd never agree. Dreamer might, but he thinks he has to stay strong for the other two. When they were with Sinister he was their leader and he never showed weakness in front of them if he could help it. It's an ingrained habit."
She rubbed her temples, as if she had a headache. "I don't think they'll ever really get over their respective fears, the ones that Sinister exploited to ensure their obedience. We've all seen Dreamer's claustrophobia, even if he doesn't know that, and I saw just then the way Remy gets in places that look like labs. Thankfully, there aren't many snakes around here but I imagine Aura would be as bad with them as Dreamer and Remy with enclosed spaces and labs."
Logan growled suddenly, "if I ever get my hands on the sick bastard who did this, I'm going to rip his head off!"
"Relax, Logan," Xavier said calmly, although they could all feel the anger exuding from the Professor. "There is nothing we can do right now but make sure Dreamer, Aura and Remy are safe and give them support if they need it."
"They wouldn't want us to treat them any differently," Storm said. "It's why they hid it from us for so long. They were afraid that if we knew the truth we'd treat them differently."
"How are they now?" Scott asked.
Jean replied, "they wouldn't talk about it to me, but I know they haven't been getting much sleep lately, not without nightmares anyway, so I placed them under a telepathic sleep. It was hard in Remy and Dreamer's case, but I think they'll be better for it."
"It was the right thing to do," Xavier agreed. "They could use a night's sleep without nightmares or memories."
"Can't you do something for them?" Logan asked. "You know, remove their memories or something?"
"Even if I could get into their minds, Logan, which I can't because of their exceptionally strong psychic shields, it takes a good deal of time, control and power to alter such a large swath of memory without leaving loose ends. Besides, what would I replace them with? A lie? They took a big step, confessing their past to us, and I don't think I could in conscience abuse that trust. I couldn't let them live a lie, not even to reduce their pain."
@ @ @
Late that night, Aura woke up from the telepathically-induced sleep. She looked at her watch and swore softly. Scrambling out of the infirmary bed, she pulled on a jacket and headed outside.
She ran across the mansion grounds and, using the agility and strength she'd tamed during her days as a thief, climbed over the fence surrounding the grounds. She made her way through the forest until she reached the lake.
He was waiting patiently, looking like a marble statue under the light of the full moon. She ran up to him and hugged him tightly, tears forming in her eyes as his strong arms encircled her and he held her against his muscular chest.
"What's wrong, Aura?" he asked softly, pulling away slightly and looking down at her with worried blue eyes.
She sniffled and replied, "Sinister sent some of his cronies after us today. Somehow he found out where we were. Please, tell me you didn't have anything to do with this."
"I'd never do anything to hurt you or your friends, Aura. You know that."
She stood on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his mouth. "Yes, I know. I just had to be sure. I'm so scared… what if he succeeds next time?"
"He won't. For as long as I'm alive, I'll make sure you're safe. I won't let anyone hurt you, Aura."
She smiled and looked up into blue eyes, running her fingers through his golden hair, shining in the moonlight. Then she frowned. "Are you sure you should be here?" she asked. "What if someone saw us? I mean, a guy of your status having midnight liaisons with a girl from a mutant high school?"
"My reputation can't get any worse than it already is, Aura. Besides, I like being with you. I really don't care what other people think."
As they spoke, they sat down on the riverbank, his strong arms around her shoulders, holding her to him. She leaned her head on his chest and said, "I love you. You always know how to make me feel better. My guardian angel."
TBC. In Chapter Four, Damien's henchmen attack the mansion. We find out who the prisoner is.
