Disclaimer: I didn't do it. I didn't steal anything. I'm just playing. See? Borrowing...
Lyranfan (review from chapter eight) 'Maggie' is my pathetic excuse to be able to leave Gambit confused. See if Pyro would have called him Magsie or Mags, it would've been much more obvious. And I didn't want it to be obvious, hence Maggie was born. Luckily you came to your senses. :)
Star-or-Chaos Yeah, me too. I liked that line too, after I wrote I went like, wow, that sounds pretty good. :)
Dark Elf3 We all do, don't we? Nah, I know what's going to happen, sort of. More or less. Something like that. In that direction...
Epona This whole fic is based on flashbacks, I kinda liked that idea. Remy has to be funny, it's his obligation in my fics.
Chere My thoughts exactly. Oh yeah, Remy's realizing all right... I wasn't so sure about that scene at first, but I put it in anyway, and I'm really happy you liked it.
Shadow-Spider What's with the hand? You think you're a Jedi or something?...*zap* I must write more, I must write more...
Weapon X 61 (review from chapter 1, 3) Bowl. *buries head in shame* Me English not know so good. Me not from around. Me changed it. ;) Thanks.
Ishandahalf better off, yeah probably, but a lot less interesting. Imagine a Remy-remembers-his-past without an interesting past: ''Hey I just remembered my past.'' ''And?'' ''Nah, that's it.'' Pretty short story. :) More Romy right here.
T. It's an inner brain system of his, he has to. You gotta love that guy. I know I do.
Rogue14 Okay, you got it.
Leann Oh, he's gonna smack himself against a wall after what he'll remember this chapter...
Streetwise Girl And it's gonna get a whole lot more interesting too...
Minion Sure okay, just so long as you review I'm not complaining. Thanx!
Piotr's girl Eh...Pyro's the bad guy in this story so I don't think I'm going to pair him up with anyone. Don't be sad, there's a but to this. But (see?) I'm sort of thinking of another story and I can pair him up with someone there, so just give me ideas. Hope I didn't disturb your sugar high...
A/N Enjoy the repost.
********************************************************
Just doing what comes natural
Fissie
Remy did fall asleep, eventually. A nice dreamless sleep. He wished he could sleep like that for much longer, but somehow at six in the morning he found himself wide-awake again. He had a cruel biological clock.
He stared at the alarm clock and the memories from the previous night came back to him. He couldn't help but thinking about it. Why did his family kick him out? What was the reason? He wished he knew. He needed to know. Everything, every detail. He kept staring at the red digits in front of his face and tried to concentrate. He had to know; he had to remember.
They were still dancing. He had to admit that after two hours of peacefulness he was starting to feel at ease. Maybe, just maybe he had been a bit too paranoid about the whole ordeal. Maybe her family trusted her not to get involved with a Thief ever after that first warning. Maybe their families didn't know that they never stopped seeing each other. Maybe...
His thoughts were interrupted. ''You die now!'' A figure approached him without minding the crowd around them and grabbed his collar.
Remy supposed the guy wouldn't dare doing anything in such plain view and with Belle near, so his comment was cocky. ''Mind gettin' off me? Dis is a new shirt.''
''How dare you make advances on my sister!'' The man was raging mad.
~Advances? Homme, what we be doin' goes far beyond advances.~ He grinned inwardly, but he made sure he had an expression of innocence and surprise on his face. ''Me? Advances? What y' talkin' 'bout?''
''You don't fool me, Thief!'' A knife appeared in his hand and the guy aimed it at his heart.
This time the memory was much clearer.
Remy escaped the man's clutches and ran outside as fast as he could. He heard the guy shooting at him.
Belle had apperantly followed them outside too because he heard her shouting at her brother. ''Julien! Don'!'' She sounded pretty menacing and if it were Remy she was shouting at he would have listened to her. Julien, however, was oblivious of any warning. The guy just kept firing at the running Thief. It was hardly in the Assassin way of doing things, Assassins were always subtle and delicate, but Julien was a pretty messed up kid and a lousy Assassin, so...
Remy kept on running, into the forest, into the swamp. Julien didn't loose track of him.
When he knew he was out of the public's sight he leaped up to a branch of a tree made a flip, jumped back on the floor and threw a charged button from his shirt at Julien's hand. Remy knew better than using his mutant powers in front of any people to see, but when no one was around he would never hesitate to use them. The gun Julien had held in his hand dropped to the floor. For a second, Julien didn't know what to do.
Remy cocked his head and grinned at the hopeless Assassin. ''Y' know, f'r an Assassin y'have a lousy aim.'' He knew he shouldn't taunt the man, but he just loved doing it.
''Shut your mouth!'' Julien shouted in rage. Remy saw a dart in leaving his hand and flying towards his arm. He reacted in milliseconds, grabbing the dart in mid-air, and flinging it back at Julian. The dart hit the Assassin's arm as he fell to the floor screaming and trembling.
Remy just stood there phased and helpless. ~It's jus' a dart...~
The clock in front of him said it was seven o'clock now. So the wide-awake and shocked Cajun decided to go downstairs and make himself some serious breakfast. ~An' t' smoke a serious cigarette.~ He needed to calm down. Nervousness killed the cat.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Remy went downstairs expecting to be the only one awake. But it being seven o'clock on a Monday morning meant that everyone was slowly waking up, washing up, eating breakfast, talking and hurrying for school.
Remy entered the kitchen. ''Morn'n'.'' He said to the people there. Apparently his vocal chords did not yet agree with him being awake.
''Good morning.'' Rogue said absentmindedly. She was reading the newspaper with much interest. Well, interest...Kitty hadn't stopped nagging her about how the date had gone and a simple 'nothing' would not suffice. Rogue, like always, didn't feel like talking about the dinner at all and so she had started reading the newspaper with uncanny interest.
Kitty was almost squealing with excitement. Rogue never ever said good morning. To anyone. But she had said good morning to Remy. In her mind this could only mean one thing.
Rogue looked up to Kitty in annoyance. ''Kitty. Stop squealing like an idiot.''
Kitty couldn't help herself anymore. ''I just think it's so cute!'' She screeched.
Rogue glared daggers at her and she composed herself again. Slightly.
Remy wisely decided not to say anything to Rogue. He could think of a million things that would make her blush, but he didn't feel like being punched again. So instead of making comments about their date yesterday, he grabbed an apple and a cup of coffee and directed himself towards the table to sit down. Then Logan entered the kitchen. In mid-stride Remy turned around and headed for the door to the garden, which coincidentally was exactly opposite to the door Logan had come in through. Eating breakfast outside seemed like a very good idea right now.
''Hold it, Cajun.'' Logan snarled.
Oh yes, being outside right now was a perfect and brilliant idea. Especially when it meant being far away from a man with a code name 'Wolverine'. Remy began running.
''Is something wrong?'' Storm asked Logan in her usual serene voice.
''The kid ruined my bike.'' Logan growled and ran after Gambit.
Rogue looked up. ~Ruined?~ She hadn't noticed anything. Of course, she didn't know that 'ruining a bike' is biker's slang for 'slightly scratching a bike invisibly for the human eye'. Bikers are sensitive people.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Having survived morning, Gambit decided to spend this afternoon set up a nice plan for a jewel theft. He needed to remember his basic skills and started remembering certain other breaking and entering activities.
''Like dis.'' Gambit whispered in the dark. The lock to the metal door made a small click-sound and Gambit opened it. Amazing are the miracles a simple paperclip could perform.
The figure next to him shrugged. ''Why don't we just burn down the door?'' Pyro didn't get the point.
Remy sighed. ''Cos den chances o' gettin' out undetected will diminish significantly.'' He closed and locked the door again. ''Now, you try.'' Remy had decided that Pyro needed lessons in thieving. And what better teacher than a Master Thief?
''Okay...'' Pyro took a lock-pick and started fiddling the lock. After ten minutes he still hadn't gotten any further. ''Damn!''
Remy motioned the Australian to be quiet. They didn't want to disturb anyone. ''Patience, mon ami.''
Pyro calmed himself and continued fiddling and poking the lock.
After five more minutes and a hundred more whispered curses the lock clicked open. ''I did it!''
''Shh.'' They entered the room. ''Now, dis is de computer. Turn it on.'' Pyro sat down behind the desk and turned the computer on.
''It's got a password.'' He said while looking up at Gambit. ''What are you doing?''
Remy looked at the many books on the bookshelves in the room. ''If I were Maggie: a delirious mutant wid a severe superiority complex, what would I use as password?'' He passed a finger by the books. ''Can' be a series o' numbers, too obvious.'' His gaze traveled another shelf. He spotted a potentially interesting book, called 'Atlas of the nervous system'. He took it and opened it. ''I'd want it t' be some long an' difficult name, impossible t' remember. And, narcissistic as I am, it will have somethin' t' do wid de center o' de world, me.'' His eyes fell on the section 'Cerebellum.' From the little cared about mutations he had learned that the mutation of many mutants sprung from the cerebellum. ''An' since I think I'm smarter den everyone else, I use a latin term.'' His gaze fell on a word, highlighted with yellow marker pen. Try 'corpus cerebelli'.''
Pyro typed in the words. ''Acces denied.'' The computer voice sounded.
Remy smiled. ''Figures. Too easy, non?'' He looked at another highlighted word. ''Try 'lobus flocculonodularis'.''
Pyro gazed up to Remy and raised his eyebrows. ''You just made that word up, right?'' Remy shook his head. Pyro sighed. ''Spell it?''
''Here.'' Remy handed the book over and Pyro typed in the words.
''Acces granted.'' The voice said.
''Hooray for self-centered idiots.'' Remy grinned at the small victory, took the book and placed it back on the shelf.
Pyro took a pen and a piece of paper. ''Don't put it away yet, mate. I have to write it down. Might prove useful.''
Remy didn't. In stead he spelled it out for him. ''Lobus. Flocculonodularis. Floc. Cu. Lon. O. Du. Laris.''
Pyro wrote it down and shook his head in amazement. ''You memorized it?''
''Course, only save place t' keep it.''
Remy almost laughed at the irony of that memory. He had taught that insane Aussie one or two tricks about breaking and entering, and what better place to start than in one's own home and someone else's room. ~Poor Maggie.~ He smiled. Maybe him and Pyro had been friends at some point after all. They probably had been.
But no matter that now, he remembered his basic skills and that was the most important thing. Now all he needed was a target.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
He grabbed something to drink and a banana from the kitchen and went down to Xavier's office. There he installed himself for an afternoon behind the main computer. He surfed around the Internet searching about jewels and such until he came across a very, very interesting page. Christie's Auction Homepage. He almost started drooling.
~Let's see.~ He started searching the data base and found what he was looking for. ~Oh. Nice jewels.~ He clicked. ~Up f'r auction next week. Dat means dey're probably in de vaults dere already.~ He smiled. ~Real nice.~ He figured he might as well go for the big score. The idea appealed to him. A lot. Memories about successful heists and perfect thefts came back to him. He loved being him.
Remy was standing in front of the Heart of the Loire; one of the biggest diamonds in the world. And it was all his. He had charmed his way into the high society. He had dined with the richest people in Paris. He had danced and talked and smoked cigars. He had snuck out without anyone noticing and this was his prize. He didn't have much time so he had to proceed quickly. All security had been evaded and all that separated him from that diamond was a large think glass cubicle that protected it. Usually he didn't like using his powers, but he had to leave his trench home, he didn't want to risk being caught and he was feeling lazy. So he traced his finger by the glass in a circular movement. The circle of glass exploded slightly and Remy pushed it in. Gingerly he took the jewel and placed it in a small velvet bag. Style was everything.
He was such a slimy little rat. He loved it. He had them all fooled, they thought he was part of the establishment and now...they'd never know who did it.
He heard footsteps closing in; he'd have to get out of there fast. Before making an elegant exit through the window and over the rooftops, he placed an ace of spades, his trademark card, where the jewel used to be. He smiled again; it was perfect. The card gave it that little bit extra. It had style, flair, cockiness, a ha-ha-I-tricked-you-all air to it and arrogant certainty that he would not be caught. He wouldn't be.
~Dat's it.~ Remy knew just what he needed to do. He nodded to himself clicked a few times. He took a bite of the banana and glanced at the screen satisfied. ~Oh yes.~ He brought the long drink glass to his mouth and hit the 'enter' button.
Xavier was headed towards his office. It was time for the weekly report meeting with Logan, Ororo and Hank. Before entering the study, Xavier spotted Remy sitting in his office, with a glass of water in his hands, checking the computer.
''Remy?'' He entered the room.
Remy quickly hit a key and gulped down the glass. ''Hi.'' He said as calm as he could.
Wolverine entered the room as well. He sniffed and looked at the glass.
''Is that my vodka, kid?'' First his bike than his vodka, that kid was playing with fire. And two sets of adamantium claws.
''Might be.'' It was, actually.
Xavier was concerned with other matters. ''What are you doing on my computer?'' He tried not to sound angry, but he did not appreciate students using his computer without permission.
''Scott said he found no data on m'. Jus' recheckin'.'' He managed to sound trustworthy and truthfully. His natural shields prevented Xavier from noticing his lie and the aroma of the strong vodka that now surrounded him prevented Logan from smelling the lie.
''And?'' Xavier asked.
''Nothin' so far.''
Xavier decided to tell the youngster. ''I normally don't allow students to use my computer just like that.''
''Oh. Sorry.'' Remy sounded slightly disappointed. He got ready to turn off the computer.
''How much longer will you need?'' Xavier asked with a slight smile. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to let the child search a bit longer. He seemed keen on finding out more about himself. Besides the chances of him running into information on Magneto were very slim, since there was nothing to be found on that man on the Internet and the files Xavier kept on Magneto were in another computer.
''Half hour?''
''Very well. But next time ask permission first.''
Remy nodded. ''Sure will.''
''We'll meet in Hank's study this time.'' Logan wanted to protest but Xavier didn't let him. ''Just this once.''
And so the two men left again.
Remy let out a mischievous grin. ~Enough play. Let's get t' business: de security system.~
After about half an hour of searching and typing and hacking he was certain he knew everything he needed to know. He grinned. Good preparation was half the fun.
********************************************************
A/N A messed up chapter, but I hope you liked it. And yes, lobus floccunlonodularis is a word. :)
Review and it will all get clearer soon. Someday...