Chapter 5: Flashback
NINE YEARS EARLIER….
Remy had been watching through the crack of the living room door for some time, Chantal paced frantically across the living room, her long thick dark blonde hair flowing behind her as she moved, stirred by a breeze from an open window, the night-time sounds of the swamp drifting in from outside.
"I won't marry him!" Chantal was saying, her voice was furious and resolute, she stood proud, five foot nine, with a lithe figure, long dark blonde hair hanging just below her back, one eye green, the other brown, her tan slight but healthy.
"This is an opportunity!" Remy heard his father say, "Why would you want to go to college, this is more important! Candra is giving you the opportunity to stop the war between Thief and Assassin!"
Remy watched worriedly, he'd been hearing the argument for the last half hour. Chantal had informed their father she had been accepted to a very good college, that she had intentions of studying medicine, and becoming a doctor, perhaps even a scientist. Jean-Luc seemed to have other ideas set for Chantal, and that night had only decided to tell her that she was betrothed to Julien Bordreaux.
Remy, being eleven, didn't know too much about the Bordreaux family, only that they were dangerous, and he'd been told to stay away from them at all costs, his father had claimed they were 'murdering bastards', and that was all Remy really needed to know. In fact, even at age eleven, Remy didn't know too much about the Thieves guild either. He knew what his father was, and what he did, yet, he knew very little about it, and was eager to learn, his father made promises that some day Remy could be a Thief, just like him. Remy had always thought this had sounded as if it was something of an honour – but this wasn't the way Chantal seemed to feel about it.
"I'm not a Thief!" Chantal's eyes were wide, Remy felt his heart thumping, his small thin fingers curled around the door, watching his older sister, who looked close to tears. "I never wanted to be a Thief, and I never wanted to be betrothed! You had no right! You have no right to tell me who to marry!" she was screaming at him.
"If you marry Julien, you'll never have to worry about money again, the Bordreaux family is one of the richest in the Big Easy, petit!"
Chantal looked away, her eyes tearing, she put her hand to her mouth, to try and stifle the sobs that were coming out.
"Your mother would want this, you know she would…" Jean-Luc tried to sound soft, and logical about the situation, Remy, who was eleven, and barely understood what betrothed even meant, could tell by the look Jean-Luc's face that this was definitely not what their mother would have wanted.
Chantal looked to the floor, she touched the ring, hanging from the chain around her delicate neck, "Mother isn't here to make my decisions for me anymore, father, and if she was here, she'd want me to be happy. You know she didn't want me being a Thief! You know that! You made me be a Thief! You forced me to learn! You're going to force Remy to be one too!" Chantal shrieked.
"Remy wants to be a thief!"
"Remy is eleven years old, he thinks what you do for a living is 'cool'. Just wait until he's my age then he's really going to realise what you're like, and you'll drive him away just like you're driving me away!"
"I'm not trying to drive you away!" Jean-Luc cried, "You're my little girl!"
"The only reason you want to marry me into THAT family is to find their weaknesses so you can off them one by one! I won't be the one to marry into that family! I'm only seventeen!" she cried at her father indignantl.
"Eighteen in two months, old enough for marriage…"
"No!" she hissed. "I'm not going to do this."
"You don't do this, we exile you from this family, Chantal."
"I don't care," Chantal headed towards the door, Remy dodging just out of the way in time. Chantal glanced at Remy before passing, she placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm no longer family," she said, "and now you must think of me as your enemy…" she whispered. "Because that's how I'll see you all!" she cried back at their father, and then she rushed off without even taking time to gather any of her things. She was gone.
OCTOBER, 2003
When Chantal LeBeau had pulled off her mask, revealing her face, beautiful, and familiar, Remy's twenty eight year old sister, Remy had let go of the bag in shock.
The memory had suddenly returned back, it came surging into his head with ferocious precision, it had so long been forgotten, his father pretending as he'd never had a daughter, so disgusted by the way she'd run out on the family. He'd disowned Chantal, the whole family, even the guild, had disowned her. After so much time of being told he had no sister, it had become much like a repressed memory, something he'd never thought of again – until this day. The ring around her neck, had been his mothers, and she'd always worn it around her neck ever since their mothers death when Remy was nine.
The explosion came seconds after Remy had let go of the bag, he hadn't had the time to absorb the kinetic energy back into himself in time to stop a detonation. The blast was bright, the heat, incredible, he the earth seemed to shake around them, they heard the rumbling, and the creak of the wooden pillars as they fell, the earth coming down around them, he saw Chantal from behind a curtain of earth falling violently from the ceiling, and finally she fell, being covered in the thick lumps of earth coming down. Remy fell to the ground as a pillar landed squarely in his back, immobilizing him.
The wooden pillars that had collapsed nearby still burned intently, now the entrance was completely blocked off with earth – Remy knowing at once it would take hours to dig himself out. Remy tried to pull himself up, but he dropped back down, pain teeming through his spine, his cheek hit the earth and he lay there for a few moments, trying to gather some strength, at least enough to hopefully pull himself up.
Smoke was filling the tunnel fast. He glanced back to where Chantal had been, the pillars there had fallen, casting the earth above it to collapse onto it. Only one pillar remained nearby, and this was probably the only thing holding up the earthen walls and ceiling. Remy began to panic. He really was going to die.
Both ends shut off, fire oozing and smoke billowing, the smell became even stronger, and with such little air already in the small space left between both closed ends, Remy knew soon he'd pass out if he didn't get out soon. The only way he could think that would gain him an exit would be to try and blow some of the earth away before the fire or smoke got out of control, but doing this could also chance everything to cave in around him, he wasn't strong enough to run out of the way before the vibrations would cause the final pillar to collapse, bringing down everything.
"Chantal…" Remy called out, hoping to god she had not died. Despite all the trouble she'd caused she was still family – despite it might not be blood. "Chantal…can you hear me…"
There was no reply from the mound of earth where Chantal had been brought down. Remy began to panic more. It was strange that Chantal had left for almost the same reasons he himself had left New Orleans, although he hadn't wanted a career in medicine or science. Although she'd sworn him – an eleven year old at the time – now as an enemy. He suddenly found himself on her side, and whether she had created MutantX or not, she still had relation to him, he understood something he hadn't understood before.
But if she was now dead, he would never understand why she'd created MutantX in the first place, she had never been a mutant, and certainly didn't seem mutant to him. Now he might never know.
Remy felt his consciousness slipping, he was beginning to cough violently, the smoke still filling the tunnel, the smell of burning chemicals even more apparent now than they had been, the fumes filling his lungs, making him dizzy. How long had he been down in the tunnels? An hour? Why hadn't anyone come to find him yet?
God…Lord above…if you're listening, don't let me die, I'll do everything in my power to atone for the wrongs I've done in life, just don't let me die, he thought desperately, he closed his eyes tightly praying. "don't let me die," he croaked in a pained tone.
It wasn't death he was afraid of, it was never seeing Rogue again that was. The thought of dying without ever having seen her one last time, without ever having apologised to her for sleeping with another woman, without having apologised for losing his temper with her when he'd found out about her feelings for Jared.
The blackness was closing in on him even more, the heat from the fire now becoming even more incredible, and beginning to feel sore on any exposed skin. He tried to pull himself up but the pillar still on his back wasn't allowing him the freedom. He was definitely trapped, there was no chance he was going to escape. The only choice he would have was to charge a card and cause an explosion to clear the pile up of earth. It was a risk. A ninety percent chance of everything collapsing on him, it would kill him quickly.
He located a card on the floor, he'd dropped it during the fight with his sister. He reached for it weakly and grasped it, he slotted it into the nearby pile of earth, and he closed his eyes, trying to focus clearly on forcing his kinetic energy to charge the card up.
He didn't find out if the card ever charged up or not, because he was no longer conscious to know.