Chapter 5: The Truth

            Remy had almost been on the verge of drifting off to sleep himself at six thirty am when the sun was shining through the windows and Rogue was stirring from her slumber, her hair sticking out every which way, and her eyes puffy and tired.

            When she saw him, her expression immediately became one of disdain, and she sat up quickly, taking a deep breath.  "Remy…what are you doin' in here?" she demanded, her voice was icy

            "I couldn't sleep," he stated, he sat forward from the slouched position he'd been sitting in, and he ran his fingers through his hair and yawned a little, "you're mad at me I can tell," he began after yawning, he stood up quickly and stretched a little, "I know, you were right, I was wrong – we should have taken the van," he admitted defeat.

            Rogue pursed her lips together, and walked over to the window, looking outside, her arms folded stubbornly, her back facing him, "you think that's why I'm mad…" she said pensively, her shoulders were hunched up a little, and her head hung low.

            "It isn't?" Remy asked, his voice full of surprise.  But suddenly he felt a stab of concern forcing itself into his mind, if she was not mad at him for that, then what could she possibly be mad at him for, he had not done anything else wrong.  "What…have I done?" he asked carefully.

            "You know what you've done, LeBeau," she remarked.

            He knew she was annoyed with him right then, when she was in any decent mood with him, she would call him by his first name, but when she was annoyed, it was anything but, it could be anything from his surname to a number of unpleasant insults and nicknames she'd make up.  Cajun, Gumbo, and Hamfisted Prick came to mind.

            "I…honestly don't know…" Remy admitted, his voice now full of worry, he walked over to her and put his arms around her from behind, "tell me what I did and I'll make it up to you."

            Rogue elbowed him in the stomach, spun around and punched him in the jaw, it had been the second time since he'd lived in the Mansion that she'd done so.  The first time he knew he'd deserved it, and now, he wasn't so sure.

            He winced and moaned, "what was that for?!" he demanded in agony.

            "You know very well what that was for!" Rogue went to punch him again, he ducked and fled towards a safer area of the Rec room.

            "I don't understand!"

            "Last night I had to save your fucking life!  Only to find out you're an amoral, backstabbing, lying son of a bitch!" she screamed at him.

            "I am thankful…" he looked at her confusedly, "But I still don't know what you're talking about."

            "You drowned!" Rogue looked at him, "and when I pulled you out the water, you weren't breathing!" she was so angry she was shaking, he wanted to try and calm her down, but knew he shouldn't go near her, she didn't even know her own strength.

            Remy looked at her, beginning to realise that something had happened when he'd been unconscious, and he was about to find out exactly what that was.

            "I had to give you mouth to mouth…" Rogue felt tears stinging her eyes.

Remy suddenly realised why he'd been unconscious so long, was because she'd absorbed his powers, and his memories, and now he was beginning to realise, she'd seen something in his memories – something he'd never intended for her to know.

"You lied to me," Rogue's bottom lip was trembling, "you LIED to me."

"I did not lie to you…"

"What do you call it?!" Rogue demanded, "You just seemed to forget to MENTION that Carol Danvers and you were in love?!  And that you convinced her to join Magneto!!"

            For this had been exactly what she'd seen in his head, the night before when she'd had to give him mouth to mouth after yanking him out of the lake when he'd almost drowned.  And suddenly the dreams she'd had months ago about being kissed on a beach had been a memory of Carol Danvers ****authors note: see story three "Betrayal" chapter 1 for reference.**** and that Remy had been the dark handsome stranger, he'd been the one convincing her to join someone – it had been Magneto.  Everything else in his head, she could not quite figure out yet, but she'd put two and two together when she saw memories of Carol in her head when she'd touched Remy, when she'd seen his memories of making love to Carol, his memories of convincing Carol to join Magneto.

            "I never loved Carol…" Remy drew his breath, "I told her I did…I lied to her, but I never did…"

            It seemed too much like another of his lies.  Rogue snorted in contempt, "Like I'll believe you now," she wiped her tears with her gloves.

            "How much did you see in my memories?" Remy asked, "did you see everything, or just that I had sex with Carol – and convinced her."

            "I saw bits and pieces, none of it makes sense," Rogue hugged herself.

            "Fine, then let me elaborate," he grabbed her by the shoulder, perhaps roughly, and made her sit on the couch, he sat on the chair, and kept his eyes on her.

            Rogue looked at him, waiting for the explanation, "I don't know if I want to hear another one of your bullshit stories.  I suppose the whole thing about being betrothed was a pack of shit to throw me off your scent," Rogue muttered, she still felt tears coming.

            "No, I did not lie," Remy stated.  "A few things I falsified, but I'll explain," he stated.  "Everything I told you about being betrothed was completely true…and it IS the reason I left New Orleans, I did not want to be married, especially not to Bella Donna, I knew once I was her family would probably kill me any way, make it out like some accident, they hate me, always have.  It was when I was trying to get out of New Orleans that I ran into Magneto – tried to steal something from his house, and got caught…"

            Rogue kept her eyes away from his as he told his story.

            "He was ready to kill me at first, until I told him why I was stealing, I needed money to escape New Orleans – and he took me under his wing, said he'd get me out, and help me…turns out I was fooled…" Remy got up restlessly and walked over to the window, he pulled the drapes aside a little and looked out, "working for him was hell, you did as you were told, you never asked questions, and there were very little benefits…you had no life of your own," he stated. 

            "When are you going to get to the part where I'm involved in all this – because I know I am," Rogue growled.

            "Patience," he muttered, "Anyway, months go by, it was about maybe a month before I broke into the Mansion with Carol…" Remy began again, "Magneto hands me a plane ticket to San Francisco, gave me instructions to find Carol Danvers, this beautiful blonde girl, just about to graduate high school…a mutant," Remy wandered around the room aimlessly as he continued, "I went, and found her, and had her under surveillance for a week or so, I found out almost everything there was to know about her, what school she went to, where she lived, where she had a part time job – in a coffee house – and where she went with friends.  And I made it my job of being everywhere she was, and always hiding in the shadows, or where I wouldn't be seen – she never caught on…"

            Rogue wiped more tears.

            "Then Magneto tells me to charm her, make her think I loved her…" Remy stated, "so I approached her, and started seeing her everywhere she was – made it impossible for her to ignore me, used every trick in the book to get her to believe I loved her," he explained.  "Seduced her, that sealed the deal, the fact that I'd made love to her made her think I loved her, and when I told her I did, she believed it, believed every single word…"

            "You bastard…"

            "I know…I agree," Remy coldly remarked, "anyway, I managed to seduce her two weeks, got her believing I loved her, Magneto knew she'd only join him if she had good enough reason…"

            "And reason being that you loved her and she loved you," Rogue remarked bitterly.

            "Yes, so I convinced her, and she fell for it…"

            "I had dreams of that night when she finally agreed, I saw it in her head in bits and pieces, and then in dreams that were unclear," Rogue felt more tears trickle, "I saw how much she loved you, you fooled her…"

            "I…kept the ribbon as a reminder for what a fool I was…" Remy looked at Rogue, "I gave it to you in an envelope, folded up inside my own marriage license – two reminders of mistakes I made," he stated.

            "Is your story finished?" Rogue looked at him.

            "Do you want it to be?" Remy asked, "Or do you want to know what happened that night…" he asked, he looked at her pointedly, she knew the night he meant, the night when he'd broken into the mansion.

            "I need to know the truth," Rogue stated.

            "I can only elaborate so much…" Remy stated.  "After Carol joined Magneto tells me and her that we had to come here and get you, take you by force, but not harm you at all," Remy stated, "Only you caught us out…" he explained, "and when you attacked Carol – and absorbed her powers, I hated you for it, at that moment, even if I didn't love Carol, I wanted to revenge her so much, but for some reason, before I had the chance – when you and Carol were falling from the sky, I was hit from behind, and found myself with Magneto – at a warehouse were he would operate…"

            Rogue looked at him, "why me?"

            "I'm not entirely sure," Remy looked at her, Rogue could see this was one thing he wasn't lying about, there was a strange look of fear in his eyes, "there were things Magneto would not tell any of us, we were just told what to do and would not ask questions, if we did, we paid…" he looked at her with desperate eyes.  "You were a key element in some plan, all I know is he wanted you on his side for some reason, you're a powerful mutant, chere, you can absorb anyone into you and use their powers, that's a powerful gift.  This is the only reason I could figure out he wanted you…"

            Rogue looked at him, "but you didn't know this at the time…"

            "I did not," Remy stated, "I knew he wanted you with us, and I was to bring you to him, that's all I knew…but then the night I appeared here, bleeding and in need of help, that was the night I found out the truth…that Carol was a sacrifice," he looked at her, "he intended for you to absorb her powers, knowing you'd realise it was the only way you could stop her from taking you…and he knew that you wore silver – he can do anything with any metal, that man, and when he knew you wore rings…"

            "He was there that night?!" Rogue demanded, she stood.

            "Yes, I didn't know it at the time," Remy stated, "that night, I was intent on killing you, I was so angry that you wouldn't let her go, that you'd want to kill her…and I was blinded with this rage I didn't even understand…and when he stopped me, I went insane…I screamed at him, and demanded why I should not kill you…and that was when he told me that you had not tried to kill Carol – that Carol had been a mere sacrifice…"

            "What happened then?" Rogue shuddered.

            "When I found out, I tried to leave…and he let me…but he told me that if I was leaving, I'd bare the scar to remind me that I was involved with Carol's sacrifice whether I wanted to admit it or not – even if it was an accident on my part that I did not realise this at the time…"

            "He stabbed you?" Rogue looked at him.

            "A shard of metal flew at me from somewhere – this is the only lie I made up, that I was stabbed by Bella Donna's bother, it was Magneto."

            Rogue looked at him, she could not believe this, he'd known all along, and she could not believe it.  "I need to think," she left the room quietly, leaving Remy LeBeau standing alone, with his regrets.