History Before The X-Men
By Time And Life 21
Gambit walked into the library. On the way there, he asked himself a question,
"Why did she wait until today to tell me?"
This only mad him angry. She has known him for three weeks and she had decided to tell him today? He clenched his fists as he stopped in front of the library's doors, but as he did so, his anger faltered. His empathy was picking up something behind those doors. He shook it off as he walked through the doors. The feelings were stronger as he weaved his way through the dim lit library. It was self-hate. He knew those feelings well.
The self-hate was mixed with sorrow, and maybe even a bit of fear? But something else was there. He just couldn't pinpoint it. As he passed a bookcase, he saw, at a table, Scarlett. She was looking at something that is in her hand.
He stealthily walked over to her side and stood there. She didn't look up until she placed what ever she was looking at facedown and looked up. She smiled at him.
"Well, take a seat, I know for a fact that you have a lot of questions." She said as she placed an elbow on the table and placed her head in her hand.
She acted cockily, even confidant, but he could feel the self-hatred and sorrow coming off of her in waves. He shrugged the feelings away.
"I'd rather stand." He said coldly as he moved to the other side of the table.
Silence went between them.
Then, "Who de hell do y' think y' are?" Gambit said as he glared at the woman in front of him.
"Y' come back t' de mansion, an' say dat I'm your son? After two weeks of knowin' who y' are 'round here, y' spring dat on moi. Don't play games wit' me." He said coldly.
"Forgive me for being so callous, Gambit." Scarlett said trying to placate him.
She didn't want to use his name just yet.
"If anything, I should apologize for that." She said as her red on black eyes looked down at the paper on the table.
"I honestly didn't want you to find out that way." She said softly.
Anger rose up in him.
"'Dat way?' In what way were y' goin' t' show y' eyes around here? Wait, you didn't want anyone t' make a connection." Remy seethed.
She frowned at the statement.
"Garcon, if I wanted to not make a connection with you, I would have left this place a long time ago, and never came back." She said looked down.
"Oh? Den prove it. If y' are mon mére, den why'd y' abandon moi in an alleyway on de streets?" He seethed.
Gambit could remember as far back as five years old. A man by the name of Fagen, who had cared for the boy for a few years had decided to teach young Remy the ways of a pickpocket and thief; then when he hit 8 years old, Fagen just up and left. Leaving Remy all by himself on the streets. He lived on his own to get by until that fateful day he pickpocketed the pocket of Jean-Luc Lebeau. He was ever grateful to him. Even if he did have his priorities screwed up later in life. Scarlett's eyes glowed darkly and muttered.
"Merci beaucoup Fagen, j'apprécie vraiment vous dire mon fils sur moi. Le bâtard deviant une visite de moi dans le future." She muttered sarcastically to herself.
She was going to kill the old thief.
"Quoi?" Remy asked confused.
"Nothing." She said as she rubbed her face as stood up.
"Listen, this isn't easy for me. I haven't seen mon fils for a long time. I know what colored eyes mon enfant has." She said as she looked at him with a different look in her eyes.
Pain.
There was pain in them.
"I didn't have a choice." She said finally.
"Choice? Y' didn't have a choice?" Remy said coldly.
"Yes. I was on the run to get away from Essex." She said looking up at him.
"You abandoned me. Left m' t' die." He said with poison.
Scarlett's eyes went wide and she face turned into a look of rage.
"Abandoned you!? I SAVED you!" She shouted at him.
He was taken aback by the small woman's voice.
"I never wanted to abandon my own son!" Her voice cracked and he could see the unshed tears forming.
"If I haven't given you up, the both of us would have died." She said gripping the table.
"Died? I nearly died on de streets of New Orleans e'ry day. If it wasn' for Jean-Luc, I would have died dat day." Remy shouted back.
She lifted a finger and pointed at him.
"You were lucky. Jean-Luc meeting you that day made sure that your future was sealed." Scarlett said as she stepped back.
"The LaChance name literally means 'The Lucky One.' I have had many close calls over the years, the day that The Elite's mission to capture Essex; I believed that I was going to die that day without even seeing mon fils ever again. At least I would have died, knowing that mon fils was well and alive." She said as she started to tear.
"J'étais habitué comme éleveur par Essex. He wanted a clone that he could use, control, and obey him. I was hired to steal medical equipment for him. What the equipment was for, I never asked. I used my talents to get them. La prochaine chose que je sais, I woke up strapped to a table with him leaning over me." She said as she sat down and placed her face in her hands.
Remy felt a cold feeling rush down his spine.
A breeder? She was being used as a breeder? He thought with horror.
"He spoke of how powerful I am with my powers. I was trained with these powers since I was a petite enfant. I know how to utilize kinetic energy to my advantage." She said as she took out a card, the Ace of Spades and charged it.
A blood red glow surrounded the card and it glowed brighter and brighter until sparks started to fly off.
Her eyes were also glowing intensely as she looked at the card.
"He was so fascinated by it." She said as she absorbed the charge back into her hands.
She them put it by the paper that was face down.
"He told me that my with my powers, I could go nuclear. Blow up an entire city if I wanted to." The fear returned to her eyes.
"He wanted a child that he could raised with certain genetic capabilities and use that child as a pawn in his own sick games." She said leaning back into her chair.
Her eyes lost focus.
"I fought back every time he came. Then it came to the point when he came in with a smile of Satan himself. 'You are pregnant. Congratulations, dear.' He had said. At that point, I tried everything to kill myself. But I couldn't. He had his cameras on me at all times. I gave up." She said sadly.
"Je ne sais pas combien de temps j'étais là-bas. But I knew that when I hit the six month mark, The Elite came in." She said as her eyes had an unspoken happiness to them.
"Renegade took out Essex. I thought she was an ange vengeur." She smiled.
"She was mon meilleur ami. There was no doubt that she would have come for me. After getting me out of there, we went into hiding." She said as the tone of her voice fell. She then looked at Remy, with a guilty look on her face.
"I thought about abortion." She said softly.
Remy could feel the self hate radiate off of her in waves.
"Then I remembered something. I'm catholic. I couldn't stand the thought of getting rid of a living, breathing thing. So adoption was another option. I waited until you were born." She chuckled. He clenched his fists.
Was she laughing at the fact that she abandoned him at such a young age?
He was about to spew something at her, but then she surprised him.
"When you were born, I refused to give you up." She said smiling gently.
"For deux années, I made sure you were un bébé en bonne santé. Hanna had a degree in Medical, so she made sure she had everything for me. She would do your check-ups and when you got sick, if hardly ever, she would look at you." She smiled.
Then she looked at him and frowned.
"Don't think for a second that I never loved you. When you were a little close to 2, you were kidnapped. I hunted down ces salauds and I made sure that they would never take you away again." She said angrily, eyes glowing with a murderous glow.
"I learned that Essex was searching for me and you." She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.
"And dat's y'r excuse f'r abandoning moi?" Remy spoke up.
She looked at him with surprise and frowned.
"No. I was only thinking of your safety. J'avais prévu de fausses pistes partout, but every time I thought I had lost The Marauders, they show up and I would barely escape with my life." She shuddered.
"À l'époque, I had left you with Thomas and Azazel. Hanna was with me as backup." She started to tear.
Remy couldn't feel angry with her. He was still mad, but she at least she was telling him of the little past that he had.
"I begged her to manipulate the future." She said as she reached her face and wiped away the tears.
"Quoi? Manipulate de future?" Remy questioned.
Scarlett nodded at him assuredly.
"Oui. She can see the future and manipulate it to her will, mais dans une mesure. She had seen many futures that have you and myself dead. I die, you die, or we both die. She said that our separation is a fixed point in time. Even if she could manipulate that point, she would have a violent physical backlash for that." Scarlett said as she leaned forward.
"I was left with little choice. The only place that Hanna had said that would be safe for you was New Orleans. I haven't been there since the arranged marriage between Jean-Luc and I. But I refused to go to the LeBeau guild for them to raise you." She said sighing.
This perked Remy's curiosity. He had often heard references to New Orleans between Hanna, Thomas, and Azazel. He would have to find out later. He then decided to take a seat as she started to speak again.
"I knew a contact in my Guild that would be able to take care of you." Her voice cracked. "Fagen was his name." She said looking down at the table.
Fagen. Remy thought with surprise. Fagen was part of the LaChance Guild?
He had always thought that Fagen was a low life scoundrel with no allegiance to any guild.
"He said he would take you in for a price. I paid him 200,000 francs and then some for him to care for you." She said sniffing.
"I never wanted to leave you with him. Everything I had done for you, just to give you away to a man like him. I knew he would teach you something's to live on the streets, but I also knew that Essex wouldn't look for you on the dangerous streets of New Orleans." She said sighing.
"If I could have turned back the time, I would have taken you way to some far off place where Essex would never find us. I would have taken you back to ma famille in France, and raised you there, but knowing Essex, he would have found the Guild and would have killed us off if he had the chance." Scarlett said sadly.
"When the Marauders caught up with me, I was fighting to live. It was six months that I was on the run from Essex. Six mois depuis que j'ai quitté il vous. At the time, I thought I was being suicidal when they caught up with me and I was nearly beaten to death. I left alive every single time with injuries that probably would have killed me, if it wasn't for the healing factor that I have." She said as a tear went down her face.
"I was on my last leg when he caught up to me in Chicago. I was knocked out and I awoke in a warehouse." She said as she shuddered.
"He practically beat me and tortured me as he demanded where you were." She paused.
Remy just didn't have the heart to say anything.
"I told him that I killed you." She said chillingly.
"I told him with a smile too, though in the inside, I thought that he would see through my lie. I was glad to take whatever hit came my way. If I died there, at least I died protecting you." She said standing up.
"Instead, he said that I wouldn't have made a very good mother after all." She leaned on the table.
"Thinking back, I thought he was lying. J'étais une bonne mère pour vous. I cared for you, I feed you, I played with you, I sang to you. But I guess… since I gave you up, maybe I wasn't a good mother after all." She said with sadness.
She looked in his eyes with pain as she stood up and reach into her coat, taking out a small metal pole and a deck of cards. Those were his! He has been looking everywhere for them. She placed them in front of him and she sighed.
"I'm glad to know that you had become a master thief. I'm also glad to know that Jean-Luc, however a charmant âne he was when I met him, raised you as his own. You were safe that was all that matters to me. If I were to die now, all I would be thinking is that I know that you are alive and well." She smiled sadly.
Remy was stunned.
She smiled at him and chuckled.
"I don't expect you to call me mother, and I don't expect you to even be friendly with me after this. But I want you to know one thing," She said as she place he hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her.
She had such a proud look on her face that he was just stunned there.
"I'm very proud of you." She smiled.
He just sat there. She was smiling gently at him and spoke.
"I may not deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me for everything I had put you through. If you need anything, just let me know." She said as she took her hand off of his shoulder, almost reluctantly, and left the library.
Remy stood up after five minutes of silence. Then he noticed something. She left the paper and the ace of spades that she had on the table. He picked up the Ace of Spades then the paper, but when he turned it around, he almost dropped it in surprise.
What he held in his hand was an old picture. A younger Scarlett, perhaps in her early or mid 20s, and in a white church dress, red-brown hair was curled in soft waves, smiling brightly at the camera with her red on black eyes glowing happily, and in her arms and on her hip, was Remy himself as an infant in a little dress suit, he was grabbing a fistful of hair and pulling on it, but she didn't seem to care in this picture. They were close to the camera, but you could see the outlines of the church behind her. Remy himself was looking at the camera with a bright curiosity.
Remy chuckled to himself. He was still a little mad at Scarlett, but he had the information from her to know who she is. She was right. She did save him. He looked behind him and saw the open library doors where his mother had left open. Maybe he may forgive her. Just not now. Until then, he sat back down looking at the picture and studying it intently, as if its secrets that it holds would tell him everything. Not paying attention to his surroundings and ignored the ringtone that told him that it was his brother calling.
Scarlett was on her way beck to her room. Tears were going down her face but she didn't wipe them away. She was glad that she told Remy about what had happened. She would wait for her son to accept her. Until then, she was just another teammate and acquaintance. She didn't care. She was just glad that her son knew about her. Just as she reached her door, she heard Hanna call out her name running up to her. Scarlett looked up at her friend.
"Yeah, Puis-je vous aider?" She asked. Hanna was breathing heavily.
"I need you to make a forgery…" Hanna started to say, but noticed the tears that were falling from Scarlett's eyes.
"You talked to Remy." She stated.
Scarlett nodded.
"Ouais. I did." Scarlett said smiling.
"Good. I'm glad." Hanna smiled at her friend.
"Your turn." Scarlett chuckled.
Hanna's face dropped and she shook her head.
"Not now. I have a feeling that it won't be that easy. Now, about that forgery…" Hanna trailed off.
"What do you need?" Scarlett said as she entered her room.
"A detective's ID." Hanna said as she sat on Scarlett's bed.
"Detective's… you are going to investigate the murders of the mutant families?" Scarlett said as she entered her bathroom. She turned on her sink and placed a washcloth in there. She wanted to wash her face.
"Yes. I need you to make on for Thomas as well." Hanna spoke.
"Pense qu'il peut obtenir quelque chose hors des cadavres?" Scarlett said as she turned off the water and placed the hot rag on her face.
"You know as well as I do that I need his help. He might sense the echoes of the bodies and who might have killed them." Hanna said thoughtfully.
Scarlett scrubbed her face raw and sighed.
"Renegade is on the case again." Scarlett muttered.
"By the way, how did the talk go with him? I halfway expected the library to be in a mess." Hanna chuckled.
"It went fine I think…I just hope that he can forgive me." Scarlett said as she came out and jumped onto her bed next to Hanna.
"He will in time." Hanna said smiling at her friend.
"If he does." Scarlett muttered.
"You'll be fine. By the way, you and Thomas are going to start teaching the kids in Logan's class a week from now." Hanna taunted.
"Haha, funny; A thief and an Assassin with a feral mutant, teaching a class full of kids. Yeah, I can't wait, I'll be teaching the kids how to steal without getting caught, and Thomas will be teaching them sharpshooting. Sonne comme beaucoup de plaisir." Scarlett said sarcastically.
Hanna laughed ah her short friend.
"Well, thanks for going to work on it. I'll need the forgeries by tomorrow. And I wish you the best with Remy." Hanna said comfortingly.
Scarlett nodded. For her to earn her son's respect, she would have to be patient and work for it.
"I'll have them done by tonight." Scarlett said as she sat up.
"Thanks, Scarlett. I owe you one." Hanna smiled.
"Just don't look into my future again, hein?" Scarlett said as she poked Hanna in the arm.
"I'll try not to." Hanna chuckled.
The two women spent the rest of the day talking with each other and wondered what the future held for them now.
TAL21: AH HA! Internet! Finally! My brother was fixing the modem and it works like new! I hope you enjoyed this chapter in a way, no fighting, but at least there is conflict between Scarlett and Remy. Now, the murders of those families. What is Renegade up to? Why does she need Blaze? Uh-oh…Rouge is hiding in the background and wants in with the investigation. But she's going to do it her own way. Meanwhile, Kurt is speaking with his girlfriend about his father. She wants to meet him. Azazel Teaches the young junior X-men about Ethics…his way. And while chasing down some of them in his larger metamorphic form, he runs into Kurt and his girlfriend. Oh the drama and Humor! And why is Scarlett in the kitchen? ON WITH THE SHOUT OUTS!:
Jay Eddon: I'm glad that my style of writing is great for you, i have always tried to make my writing style unique. :) And no, i didn't get your poetry blog address, fanfic has a tendency of not making links on here.
NZreviewer: Background stories are hard to make unless you have thought them through long enough. Trust me, i have worked on The Elite's background for months now, and i hope that you guys will enjoy them when the time comes for me to get them out there! :D As for muses, of course! I always look to my reviewers as Muses. Sometimes it's just something in their reviews that spark on the plot and continue the story in many ways. Some reviews don't realize that. :)
Yuki: As always, opinions are appreciated. Keep in mind, Scarlett is a complex character. You assumed that she was an irresponsible mother by giving Remy up just so that she can run around and play super hero. That is not the case. If you were to be chased down by a mad scientist and he wants your child so he can use him as a pawn in the future, you would protect your child or die trying. When she met Remy again as an adult, she had felt sorrow for not returning to him and see him grow up. But she can tell that he is a great thief and a man of character to her. And for her, she is proud of him and his achievements. All she hopes for now, is forgiveness for her sins, in a sense of her abandoning him. Anyways, that's my side of things. As always, Opinions are greatly appreciated. :)
TAL21: That's all for Tonight! I'll see you monday for the new chapter! I hope you had enjoyed this chapter and drama! :D Thing are going to get interesting as Renegade and Blaze will be working the investigation and Rouge tags along inconspicuously. Azazel will be dealing with annoying kids, and Scarlett is in the kitchen. Let's hope that things will be awesome in the next chapter! :D PLEASE LEAVE DETAILED REVIEWS AND OPINIONS! :D
Question Time!: 1) Why does Renegade need Blaze to come with her on the investigation of the murders of the mutants families? 2) What is your favorite rock band? (Mine is Breaking Benjamin, Skillet, Creed, and Within Temptation.)
KEEP ON READING AND WRITING! :D