Chapter 4: Showdown
He pulled himself up and began to run, slightly off balance, slightly pained from the fight, he began to run. Visions rushing through his head, he caught up, he threw his bo-staff, catching the dark figure at the ankles, causing them to fall over. He heard the bag of chemicals land on the floor, some sounded as if they had smashed.
Remy threw himself upon the figure, he received a swift punch to the jaw, his head swung to the side, he grimaced in pain, but turned back, trying to yank the mask off, he wanted to see who this was. Ever since he'd seen the ring that had been found months earlier he'd been suspicious that whoever was doing the thieving he had known them – someone he'd known well enough to have recognised the ring. But it came up blank in his mind whenever he tried to remember.
He was knocked to the head, and for a moment his senses were swimming, he wasn't sure if he'd been knocked unconscious even for a moment or two, although his head was searing with images of Rogue, the day she'd come to him shaken and said she'd been raped. It was this persons fault. He wasn't going to allow himself to succumb easy. If anything, this person deserved to die for creating a drug that eventually came to harm the woman he loved.
"It's because of you Rogue got raped!" Remy had his hands on the figures throat, he tried to strangle, he was kicked off, straddled by the figure, they fought more intensely, fists flying again. Remy receiving more blows than the figure, although he managed to get a few hard punches in. Their voices seemed echoed and muffled almost in the tunnel. Remy was becoming aware how much warmer he was beginning to feel, sweat dripping down his face as they fought, as he kicked and swung viciously.
They struggled violently in the earth, Remy found himself pinned to the floor in seconds, the bronze bo-staff against his throat, he swallowed and grabbed a hold of the bo-staff trying to pull it from his neck. He looked left from right while struggling, trying to find an escape, or a weapon. The darkness was too intense for him to see how far his bo-staff could have landed. He tried to keep a clear head, what was nearest? He looked around desperately, he could barely see anything let alone the person who was going to kill him with the bo-staff.
Now, there was only one way he think of that would get him out of the death hold, no matter how dangerous it would be. It might mean losing his own life in the process, but it might be the only way to convince his attacker to let him go.
He gripped harder onto the bronze bo-staff, and frowned, "I know you're a Thief of the Guild," he tried to swallow, his voice faint. How stupid it seemed now that he had not thought of this before, it had only just come into realisation, he realised this should have been apparent from the fighting style of the Thief – who else could have known how to fight in that way but someone of his own guild. Who else could have broken in without detection?
"Ain't no one but another Thief could be as good as I am at fighting, and ain't no one but another Thief who could have gotten away with so many chemicals without yet bein' caught…"
Remy swallowed, his neck hurting from where the bo was pressed hard against his flesh "And I know you know who I am!" he hissed.
The figure looked down at him, he could only see nothing more than a silhouette as he began to charge the bo-staff with the energy of his powers, and he reached out into the earth, grabbing a hold of the strap of the nearby bag of chemicals, he could now smell something faintly medicinal, and something almost similar to sulphur. The scent so strong it filled his senses and left him feeling strangely raw to it.
"And if you know who I am, you'll undoubtedly know what my power does," Remy continued, his voice becoming a little stronger, the bo-staff charging more, becoming brighter, the figure coming into light, through the eyeholes, two eyes stared back at him, one green eye, and one brown. It was so familiar to him, he began to rack his brain. "And thus, you know that whatever I charge up is gonna explode…" he looked up. "So let me go or I'm gonna blow us both up," Remy stated, sounding rather calm about it, despite he was almost petrified.
"Your power can't do that!" the voice replied, he realised it was a woman's voice, the accent similar to his own, but if anything thicker, as if she'd spent far more time in New Orleans than he ever had, "your powers don't generate heat and you can't charge human flesh – even blowing up this bo-staff isn't going to kill us both! It'll merely knock us back a bit!"
Remy smirked, "Right, and I know for a fact that one of the bottles in that bag was benzoyl peroxide…it was the first bottle I noticed had gone missing," he turned his head towards the bag, the strap still firm in his hand, the figure seemed to realise now that it too, was glowing.
"So?!" she asked almost incredulously, she was beginning to sound a little panicked though, that was exactly what Remy wanted.
"I might not be a fucking scientist, but posing as a research assistant at the centre I learned a few things, and benzoyl peroxide can explode upon impact, which…with the amount in there along with all the other chemicals, would provide a very…nasty…explosion" he smirked, "And if I let go of this bag, and the bag explodes and the impact will hit it…the whole thing is gonna go kaboom," He smirked, "now let me go.
The figure leg go of the bo-staff and stood back from Remy, the dirty trenchcoat hanging slightly off one shoulder, her shape now apparent, a tall, lithe woman. Something about those eyes had been so familiar, he still couldn't place her face. "Still using the same old tactics, I see."
"Who…are…you?" His voice was trailing. Something was beginning to tell him this just wasn't someone who knew of him, but it was someone who knew him – or who had known him – very personally. Yet, he couldn't fathom who exactly.
"You mean you haven't guessed yet?" she asked.
Remy stopped the charge of the bronze bo-staff, and held it tightly in his hand, he held onto the bag, still charging it, enough light generating from the bag to light the tunnel up dimly, "No! I haven't!" he hissed, "stop playing games with me, or seriously I will blow this bag up."
"You aren't the reckless type, Remy. You never HAVE been, and you care too much about your own skin to blow yourself up," the woman stated, she sounded as if she was trying to feign calm.
"Wrong. See, I DID care too much about my own skin to blow myself up," Remy held the bag, he thought of Rogue again. After what he'd done tonight, there was probably no way Rogue was ever going to take him back, and without her, life wouldn't really be worth living anyway. Why not die for a worthy cause? He continued to speak, finally "but way I see it, I got good reason to, see if I blow us both up, I stop you from stealing chemicals, and in that, I can stop MutantX from being made," He said, "I can stop Rogue from ever being hurt again."
"Ah yes, your little Achilles Heel," the woman said. "I've watched you, Remy, and you've let her become your weakness, you've lost your touch…"
Her voice, why did Remy know her voice so well? He tried to focus on his memory, the ring, the voice, the one green eye and one brown…what did it all mean.
"Still can't remember, Remy? Jesus, how many bangs in the head have you taken over the past nine years?" she asked, her voice high, and amused, she gave a shrill laugh, it was so familiar. She was familiar, and yet, without seeing her face he could not place her.
Nine…years? Remy thought perplexedly, he frowned, "Nine…years…who…who are you?"
"Think back, Remy…think to nine years ago…" the woman said, her voice almost soft.
"I don't have time to think about the past, the only thing I have time to do is kick your fucking ass so you can't get anyone else hurt because of a stupid pill!" he reached into his pocket an retrieved the Ruby ring he'd been carrying with him since the night it had been found he looked at it, "this is yours I believe," he said. "You left it there that night!"
"You recognised it, didn't you?" she asked, she stood steady, as if she expected him to attack again, "Surely you must do."
"I…don't know…" he said, he felt rather foolish, so incredibly in the dark. Just who was this woman? He held the ring firmly in his grip, "Should I recognise it?"
"Think back, Remy, and try and remember…" Remy had the distinct feeling this woman was smirking at him, amused with him. He felt so much like killing her right then. Yet, something about the fact he didn't know who she was and couldn't blow them both up without at least knowing who she was, held him back.
"Don't tell me to think back! Tell me why I recognise it!!!" he yelled at her, he threw the ring at her, watched it bounce off of her chest and he heard it fall, the chain it was attached to chinking onto the soft earth at her feet.
"Perhaps you've forgotten some things, Remy. Or perhaps Xavier has wiped something out of your mind…"
"Xavier wiped nothing from my mind, Lady," Remy remarked bitterly, "But I'm gonna wipe you off of this planet after what you've done – who are you working for? The government?! Trying to have these pills wide spread, poisons within them to finally rid the world of the mutants who take them!!?!"
"I work for no one," the woman remarked, "But myself," she yanked the mask off.