Chapter 9 (Remy)
I feel a pang of anxiety about leaving Nori behind, but I'm sure she's safer back there on the jet. I wish she weren't here at all. But I try to shake that from my mind. I need to focus or somebody's going to get hurt, and it might be me.
Logan keeps sniffing the air and looking troubled. "I think—I don't know," he says. "I think—they're here."
We quickly cross the distance between the jet and the remnants of the lab. It's strange to be here in the daylight. The charred ruins are downright spooky. Wolverine, Beast, and I can see in the dark, and we take point. Claustrophobic Storm refuses to enter the dark basement, and she waits for us aboveground. I start charging cards to give a little light for the others. I hold them for as long as possible before letting them go off. We don't have to go far through the labyrinthine basement before we run into the Brotherhood.
Mesmero smiles at us, face bathed in the emergency lighting that's strung up in this part of the basement. "So lovely to see you again, Gambit. But where's Echo?"
My blood runs cold. "She had better t'ings to do than come look at your ugly mug," I say. I'm trying to keep my tone light but I'm not sure how successful I am.
Sinister says, in that creepy purr of his, "She's with Xavier. They're trying to block your ability, Mesmero."
"Are they, now? How fascinating," Mesmero says.
I hate them so much I think I might throw up. That would be extremely unprofessional, and I try to keep it down. I'm Gambit, dammit.
"Where's Jean?" Scott asks. His tone of voice, raw and hopeful and lost, cuts me.
Mesmero smiles. "Yes, Cyclops. She'd like to see you, too. Let's go see her."
We all follow Mesmero. I am honest-to-God not sure if Cyke's being hypnotized or not. I'm pretty sure I'm not, but I can't say for certain. Logan's sniffing the air and looking anguished. He'd loved Jean, too, I know. She must be here. But what is she? And why—why had she told Scott to come find her, and then told us not to come? I'm sure that Mesmero was responsible for the change of heart. But what did Mesmero want? Did he want us to come? Or want us to leave? Which message had come directly from Jean? Mon dieu, I do not want to be here. On the bright side, the fact that I'm so uneasy makes me think I'm not being controlled by Mesmero. Unless—he does want us to leave.
We follow Mesmero to a shiny silver-and-glass lab that looks utterly unscathed. It looks incredibly strange surrounded by charred rubble. Inside are Magneto and a red-headed woman, who I assume must be Jean Grey.
Scott and Logan both gasp.
"Scott?" Jean asks, hesitantly.
"Jean," Scott says, reverently. He runs up to her and puts his hands on her cheeks. "How is this possible? Is—is it you?"
"Of course it's me, Scott."
"But—how?" he asks. If it were me, I wouldn't be asking too many questions just about now. But Scott ain't me. I tear my eyes away from the reunion and glance around. We're short a few Brotherhood members. Where are Pyro and Mystique? What is the purpose of this meeting? This doesn't feel right. I wish we had our telepathic link, but Nori and Xavier are dedicating all their energy to shielding us. I wish I knew for sure if it was working.
Mesmero smiles brightly and whispers to Scott and Jean. Abruptly, they turn on the rest of us. Scott shoots his beams at us, and Jean—turns into some kind of fire-creature, flying at us.
Merde. I know what I can fight and what I can't, and I'm no match for this. I turn and try to make my way out of the basement. Sinister's red eyes glint at me from the darkness and I remember him in the Morlock tunnels. Beast follows behind me. Logan and Marrow, both blessed with a healing factor, stand there and take the assault. Magneto sighs and sends Logan flying backward.
Wolverine gives an anguished scream and tries to struggle forward, but the metal in his bones holds him put. It's awful to watch. Marrow's uniform has burned off completely but she's still trying to fight. I watch her pink skin char.
"Marrow! Come back!" I call. "This is pointless."
She looks back at me and keeps fighting. "Bloodthirsty," Nori had once called her, and she wasn't wrong.
Sinister, now standing between Scott and Jean, laughs, and it's the worst sound I've ever heard. With a gesture, he sends Marrow flying back to the end of the hallway. He, Mesmero, Scott, and Jean vanish, leaving Magneto looking—confused? At the moment, I don't care. I run to Marrow and check on her. The group makes its way back to the jet. Logan and Marrow are both naked and their skin is still burnt, though regrowing. Logan's lost in his rage, and I focus my attention on trying to soothe him back to reality. Nori will be better at this task than I am, I think.
But when we get back to the jet, we find Xavier unconscious, Nori sitting on the floor and staring out blankly, and Magma crying.
Hank pulls out some extra clothes for Logan and Marrow. Marrow quickly dresses but Logan doesn't notice the offered handout. I bend down and touch Nori's shoulder.
She looks up at me and I recoil at the unfamiliar expression in her eyes. "Hey, cher," I say. "You all right?"
Magma takes a deep breath and says, "I don't think she is. Or Xavier."
"What happened?" Hank asks.
"Nori did that—that fire thing again. Probably half an hour ago. But she didn't really talk, she just screamed. Xavier passed out. He—he fell out of the chair. I put him back in but I don't know if—if he's hurt. But he's been out since then. And then Nori stopped doing the fire and she just sat down on the floor and she—I've been trying to talk to her but—but it's like no one's home in there."
Half an hour ago? How long had we been gone? I tried to put together a timeline. Had this happened at the same time Jean had attacked all of us? Perhaps just before? Sinister had known they were here, known they were shielding us. This is the worst, I think, and then I laugh. I laugh and laugh and at some point I realize I'm actually sobbing. I breathe deep and try to pull myself together.
Logan focuses his eyes on the two of us. He's still out of it—he's growling and naked—but he's registered that we're in pain. He kneels next to us.
"Hey, Logan," I manage to say.
He runs his hands over Nori's face, over my face. He feels us like a blind person trying to understand what we look like. I close my eyes for a brief moment and enjoy his touch, despite the circumstances. Finally, he shakes his head. "This ain't right," he says.
I laugh. "No, it ain't," I say. Everyone's watching us. I gently caress Logan's hand for a moment and look into his eyes. He's coming back into his senses, and I say, "Maybe you want to put some pants on, mon ami?"
He glances down and says, "Uh, yeah." I reach my hand out to Hank, who passes me the bundle of clothing Logan had earlier rejected. Logan dresses himself in sweatpants and a T-shirt and sits on the floor next to Nori. His breathing is still ragged.
"What happened down there?" Storm asks. "Where's Scott?"
There's a long, long silence before Hank finally answers, "He's gone."
"Gone? I don't understand," Storm says.
"Just—vanished," Hank says.
"Sinister took them, I think," I say. "He can teleport. And he can take people with him." I'd seen him take Nori from me that way, and I give a little shiver at the memory.
"Where would he go?" Storm asks.
Hank frowns and says, "Let's get back to the mansion. I'd like to examine Nori and Charles. And… we need to regroup."
"We're just going to leave Scott and Jean with Sinister?" Storm asks.
"We certainly are not," Hank says. "But we're in no shape to help them now, even if we knew where they were."
Storm gives a reluctant nod. "All right. Let's get ready for takeoff."
She and Hank ready the jet. I bend down and say, "Nori, cher, let's get you off the floor."
Her eyes flick up to meet mine and she shies away from me. I grimace and pull her up. Her body is rigid with fear, and Logan takes a deep breath and gives a low growl.
"Easy, Logan," I say. "I'm just trying to get her buckled into a seat."
I awkwardly maneuver her into an aisle seat and snap the harness around her. She runs her hands up and down the belts and looks terrified. I sit next to her and hold her hand, and she relaxes slightly.
Logan comes and sits across the aisle from her. He reaches his hand out for hers and she takes it silently. When we land, Logan and I maneuver Nori to the medbay. Hank wheels Xavier behind us. Hank works on Xavier, testing him and connecting him to all kinds of wires.
Cecilia, who'd been waiting for our arrival, starts to examine Nori. I tell her what Amara had told us, about the Phoenix.
She sighs. "Would you believe, they never covered this kind of thing in med school?"
I don't laugh.
Nori doesn't respond to any verbal questions or commands. She meekly lets Cecilia change her out of her black leather uniform and into a hospital gown. Cecilia helps her into the big white tube for a CAT scan. Next she deftly puts an IV drip in Nori's thin, tattooed arm.
It's not the first time I've seen her out of it in the medbay, but it might be the spookiest. Cecilia and Hank confer and Cecilia adds something to the IV bag. Nori quickly falls asleep. Logan paces anxiously around the room. Xavier is unconscious on a nearby bed.
"What's the story?" I ask Cecilia.
She sighs. "There doesn't appear to be anything physically wrong with her. We're treating her with a high dose of lorezapam. It's the most common drug used to treat catatonia. It—it's also known as Ativan, which I know she was already taking for her anxiety, though in a much lower dosage. We—we'll just have to wait and see."
Hank says, "Noriko's proven to be extremely resilient, Remy."
I give a terse nod. "And—Xavier?"
Hank looks sad and shrugs. "Again, nothing is physically wrong with him."
Logan says, "I'm goin' out for a smoke." I nod absently and silently decline the implied invitation. I sit at Nori's bedside and wait. I spend too much time here.