Chapter Eight

I leaned a little bit more into the door, trying to hear just what was being said on the other side.  I still couldn't hear much, though, they were just talking to damn quietly.

Gambit and Pyro had gone into the kitchen nearly a half hour ago, sending the rest of us away, saying that we could go and do whatever we pleased.  The training session was canceled.  I wanted to know what was going on though.  Was Pyro here to tell Gambit that Magneto needed him back?  Gambit would leave us just like I had always thought just because Magneto had summoned him.  Where would that leave the Brotherhood?

So, I pressed my ear closer to the door in an effort to hear their discussion.

"Magneto needs you gone by tonight."

"Merde, dat ain't enough time."

"He trusts you to figure it out."

"What about de Brotherhood?"

"Leave them behind.  This is too important to risk."

I had heard enough.  He was going to leave.  I couldn't believe that I had started to trust him.  I couldn't believe how stupid I had been.  I had actually begun to believe that we could be friends.  I was so lost in my brooding thoughts that I didn't notice the house begin to shake.

"Lance?"  Remy's voice called out from the kitchen.  He sounded concerned but I ignored him and turned to walk away.  I only got a few steps before I heard the door open and Remy was behind me.  I turned to glare at him.  Pyro was behind him, smirking at me but I ignored him.

"What do you want, Gambit?"  He looked at me slightly surprised.  I hadn't called him Gambit in quite awhile now.

"Y're about t' shake de house down around us, homme.  What's going on?"  He looked genuinely worried.  I tried to calm myself and stop the tremors that were going through the ground.

"You're going back to Magneto," I gritted out, lowly in the hopes that Pyro wouldn't hear.

Remy grinned at me in sudden understanding.  "Y' were eavesdropping.  Y' still don' trust me."   He shook his head and I just stared at him in suspicion.  "Tell y' what, since y' so interested in knowing just what I'm gonna be doin', I'll give y' a chance t' find out first hand."

I noticed Pyro stand up straighter from where he had been leaning against the wall.  "Gambit-" he warned.  Remy just waved a hand to silence him.

 "Y' can come wit' me tonight an' we'll find out just how good of a t'ief y' would make, non?"

"Uhh…" I couldn't think of an appropriate response. It looked like I had jumped to conclusions yet again. Maybe Remy wasn't going anywhere.

Pyro stepped forward. "This isn't a good idea."

Gambit dismissed his statement. "'Course it is. I could use de backup an' I trust him t' watch me." He grinned at me again and I suddenly understood what he was doing. He was proving to me that he really did trust me and that I, in turn, could trust him back. I slowly nodded my head; maybe this could turn out to be a good thing.

"Sounds good." Pyro was not happy with this development but he couldn't exactly say anything to stop it. He was here to deliver a message from Magneto, not to give us orders. "So, what do we have to do?"

#

It seemed simple enough. All we had to do was get in, get the information and get back out again. Sometimes, though, things that seem simple can be anything but.

According to Pyro, it was one of the smaller bases of a newly developed anti-mutant group. I hadn't even known that such a thing existed, that humans could hate us so much. Makes you realize just how petty and pointless our battles with the X-Men are.

They were supposed to have an extensive list of known mutants along with their locations and power levels. Unlike Xavier, Magneto didn't have a mutant finding machine like Cerebro, so he had to find his mutant soldiers another way. I don't think I'd even want to know how these people got their hands on a list like that, though. All I knew was that we were supposed to steal it.

We waited until after midnight before we left. Todd and Fred were already asleep, Remy having decided that too many would only get in the way. Not that he didn't spend as much time training or trying to get them to trust him as he did with me, mind you. He was training both of them much more extensively in hand to hand than he was me. Their powers didn't allow for long range attacks and they needed it more than I.

We met down in the kitchen, Remy twirling the keys to his bike around one finger when I came in. Both of us were wearing all black, although Remy's outfit had numerous pockets with God knows what in them. I almost started laughing when Remy handed me a black mask to cover my face. I suppose I could see the sense in that, though. In the off chance that we did blow our cover, it would be good to get away without anyone recognizing us. Gambit also wore his trench coat and who knew what could be hidden in there.

"Y' ready t' go, den?"

I nodded and he turned to walk out the door. "We're taking your bike?"

"Oui, it's easier t' hide."  We walked into the driveway and he straddled his bike, revving the engine, and waiting for me to get on. After a moment, I slid on behind him. "Hold on!" he yelled over his shoulder and I gripped his hips as we virtually tore out of the driveway and down the road. This was way better than my jeep; I had to get myself one of these.

Remy parked the bike a ways away from the building that we would be breaking into and we had to walk the two blocks to get there. Once there, I crouched next to Remy in the bushes as he checked out the building. He had gotten a blueprint of it from Pyro and already knew both the layout and the security measures, which according to him weren't much.

"Alright. Y' see dat building?"

"Building?" I asked in confusion. "What building? There's a building?!"

"Shut up."

"Ow," I complained as I rubbed the back of my head where he had hit me. Gambit does not pull his punches, ever.

"Jus' remember dat our goal is t' get in dere wit'out trippin' de alarms."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I got it."

"Good. Lets go, den."

There were no security patrols outside the building so getting up to it was easy. There were guards posted inside, though, as well as security cameras and lasers. It didn't matter because we weren't planning on using the doors anyway. Once we were pressed against one wall, Remy reached into his trench and came out with a small grappling hook. He quickly secured a line to the roof and we scaled the wall. True, we could have just used the fire escape but it was rigged so going up the wall was the better choice.

Once on the roof, we found the air conditioning ducts and, once we got the cover off and Remy had disarmed the security alarm, we crawled in. It was a tight fit and, as Gambit had gone first, I had a less than pleasant view. This would lead us directly to the office that we needed to get to, though.

Once we got to there, Gambit removed the air conditioning cover and dropped through into the office below. I followed, making considerably more noise than he had. He didn't look at me, though, just went over to the computer and began typing in commands.

I stood and watched him. The waiting made me nervous, well more nervous than I already was. I had never done anything like this before, small time shoplifting, but not this. I was afraid that any moment someone was going to walk in and catch us. Or that I would trip up and get us both thrown in jail. They'd know that we were mutants, though. Would they bother giving us over to the police or would they just kill us for being mutie scum? I silently urged Remy to hurry. How could he be so calm? I began to pace.

It only took him a few minutes but it seemed more like a lifetime before he had all the information he needed.

It was when we were about to make our way back into the vents that the alarms began blaring. I looked to Remy in barely concealed panic.

"Remy-"

"Just go."

I didn't hesitate and pulled myself into the vent, hearing Remy climb in behind me. We made it to the roof, all the while the sounds of the alarms barely allowing me to keep it together. Once on the roof, Remy ran over to the grappling line. He instantly leapt back, knocking me down with him and the crack of bullets echoed around us. I had been right, they would kill us.

I watched in horror as Remy crept back over to the side of the roof, two charged cards in his hand. He tossed them at the guards below us and then yelled at me to go. I was panicking so much that it took me a moment to understand.

"Lance!" I clambered to my feet and ran over to him, grabbing the line. "Go t' de bike." I felt myself nod and propelled myself down the wall as fast as I could, hitting the ground at a run.

I turned my head back to the building only to see it lit up and security guards coming after us. Remy wasn't there, though, I couldn't see him. I paused momentarily in my flight, frantically looking for him. As spun myself in a circle a hard weight hit me from behind, hard enough to knock the breath out of me and the sound of guns sounded again.

I turned my head, finding myself on the ground, Remy right there with me. He grabbed me by the collar and hauled me back to my feet.

"Keep goin'."

"But we can fight-"

"Non, run. We got what we came for."

We ran like mad to get out of there. Lucky for us we kept in good shape and the rent-a-cops following us couldn't begin to keep up. We were a block away when I felt Remy lurch and stumble next to me. I latched onto one of his arms to steady him and slowed our pace.

"Remy, what-?"

"It's fine, just keep goin'." As he said this, though, he stumbled again and collapsed against me.

"Christ, Remy." My voice was shaking. I half drug him into an alley and behind a dumpster. It was pitch dark so I couldn't see much but as I let my hands trail down his torso I could feel the blood that had soaked through his shirt. "Oh God, Remy this is bad, fuck, I don't know…" My hands were trembling as badly as my voice now. Remy could not die in this alley.

"Don' worry,'s just a scratch," he slurred at me.

"You're bleeding to death in an alley!" I yelled at him. Damn him for always being so calm.  I tried to calm myself and remember what it was I should do. Pressure, I should apply pressure. I stripped off my sweater, leaving my tee shirt, and balled it up to press onto his wound. He hissed and tried to pull away. "Don't be an idiot, this will help." He relented and tried to relax, letting his head drop back against the wall he was slumped against.

I looked around, having no clue what to do. I couldn't hear the guards chasing us; they probably didn't want to go in for a public chase. An anti-mutant group like that didn't seem like something that would be totally legal. Who knew what they did in there? But what would I do about Remy? I looked down at him and noticed that his eyes had closed.

"Damn it, Remy, don't pass out. Come on, I need you to help me," I begged him. He didn't stir though and I began to curse under my breath. I couldn't call the hospital, forgetting the fact that I don't a phone, they probably wouldn't help him anyway. I had no idea how to get hold of Magneto. I really only had one choice. "You had better still be alive when I come back."

I stood and ran out of the alley. There was no phone nearby and I wasn't about to go looking for one but there was a car. I broke in easily, glad that there was no alarm, and hot wired it. I ran back to Remy again. He looked up at me through glazed eyes.

"What's goin' on?"

I kneeled next to him and slipped my arms under him knees and back. His head rolled forward to rest on my shoulder as I lifted him. "I'm getting you out of here." He didn't say anything else, I wasn't even sure if he was awake or not as I took him to the car. I managed to get us both in the car, him slumped across the seats with his head resting on my thigh, and left with a squeal of tires.

After only a few seconds, the deafening silence in the car began to get to me. Remy's breathing had turned shallow and I snatched up one of his hands, gripping it tightly. I began to talk, anything to dispel the silence.

"You're a moron, you know that Remy? What the hell were you thinking, pushing me out of the way like that? You should have just kept on running." There was no reply. I kept talking. "I'm sorry. For being such a jerk to you. I think I understand what you mean about trust but couldn't you have thought up a better way to get it through my thick head? Getting yourself killed every time you need to prove something to me is not a healthy way to live." He still didn't say anything but we were almost there. "Hold on a bit longer, Rem. I am not worth dying for."

The gates loomed ahead of us, closed as always but that's never a problem for me. A push with my powers and they were lying useless on the ground. Their other defenses were taken out in the same way and I pulled up to the stair case with a spray of gravel. They were already out there, not suited up for once, and probably waiting for me to start something.

I pulled Remy into the driver's seat and then hefted him into my arms again. I walked up to the stairs with him and spoke before any of them could say anything.

"I need help." They all looked at me in shock for a moment before Beast came down the stairs and to my side. "He was shot. I don't' know how to get hold of Magneto and I can't take him to a hospital," I started babbling and Beast quickly checked him over.

"It's okay, we'll help him." He tried to take Remy away from me but I wouldn't let go. I think I was halfway in shock myself. I couldn't believe that something like this could happen. We had been in fights and sometimes we would get hurt but nothing like this, nobody had ever been this close to dying. Beast looked up at me and I'm sure he must have seen the fear in my eyes because he let me keep hold of Remy as he motioned for me to follow him. The other X-Men parted for us but I didn't even really notice them. Things had taken on an almost dream like quality and I was too busy watching Remy to notice much of anything else.

A/N: Yeah, once again everything is now beta read by Marilyn and Ahra. I am almost finished writing the next chapter so it shouldn't be too horribly long before I post it.

SailorWade: There is a good chance that Pietro might be included but I'm not really sure yet, I'm not all that confident about my ability to write him so we'll have to wait and see…