Chapter 12 (Remy)

I sit in the Sit Room and listen to Nori explaining how she'd found Jean in Antarctica. I try, with some success, not to think about the way her pretty lips had looked wrapped around my cock a few short hours ago.

"Antarctica?" Marrow asks skeptically. "Like, where the penguins live and stuff?"

Nori lights up. "Yes! Where the penguins are!" Then she looks a little sheepish and says, "Yeah, I don't know why she'd be there. But, um, she is."

"What about Magneto?" Storm asks. "Has he made any improvements?"

Hank shakes his head "no," and says, "He is in the same condition as Professor Xavier. Neither of them shows any signs of physical harm. But—they are unresponsive to stimuli. Nori has a theory that—the Phoenix has… consumed their energy."

"Well, can the Phoenix spit it back up?" Logan asks.

Nori shrugs. "I hope so," she says. "I think—it's just a hunch, but I think Jean will be able to do it, once she's out of Mesmero's control." It suddenly occurs to me to wonder why the Phoenix hadn't—eaten, or whatever it did to people—Nori. Thank God it didn't. Is it going to? Nori glances at me and sends me a little flutter of reassurance with her empathy. I look at Logan and realize the same thought must have occurred to him. This is something he can't fight, and he's not crazy about the idea.

Marrow says, "'Scuse me, but, the Phoenix has come through Nori like five times now, and it's—eaten two people. How do we know we can trust her?"

Logan growls faintly. Nori gives a gentle smile and says, "I don't know, honestly."

Hank says, "I think that the Phoenix has severed its connection to Nori. She was experiencing significant physical and mental symptoms when it was linked to her."

"Yeah, that was the funnest," Nori says.

"Also, Aiko said the Phoenix was gone," I add.

Marrow still looks suspicious, but she nods.

"Well, what are we gonna do?" Logan asks.

"I think Nori was right, before, to suggest that we need to target Mesmero."

"Do we know for sure that Mesmero is with Jean?" Ororo asks.

Nori shakes her head. "No," she says softly. "Jean kind of—overpowered everything else."

Logan says, "Look, we can talk all we want, but we know we're going to Antarctica. We might as well leave now."

I bite back a laugh. Ororo says, "I must agree. I think that Echo, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Marrow, and Gambit should go. Magma, Beast, Cecilia—you stay."

Hank raises his eyebrows. "And if—someone should require medical attention?"

Ororo says, grimly, "You saw the Phoenix. If anybody really gets hurt, you probably wouldn't be able to help anyway. And you—you should be here for the children. But we should still take those tranquilizers you had before. And—what was the drug you gave Nori?"

"Lorezapam?"

"Let's take some of that, too. Just in case," Ororo says. "Will we need to modify the jet for such cold weather?"

"We'll be sure to run a thorough pre-flight check, both here and when you leave Antarctica. But our Blackbird has had a number of significant modifications. It should be fine. And if it is too cold for takeoff—perhaps you can warm things up," Hank replies with a smile.

Ororo nods. "Very well. Let's go suit up."

We grab our jumpsuits, Ororo points out a large cabinet full of black parkas.

"Wow, Xavier prepared for everything," I say.

"Just about," Logan says.

Nori peeks up at Logan and me from under a black, fur-lined hood. Her face is lit up like a thief in a jewelry store, and she says, "You guys. We're going to Antarctica."

I grin back at her. "Yep, cher, we're goin' to a frozen wasteland to fight a super-powerful mutant. A perfect vacation."

Her smile dims slightly, and she says, "We're going to where the penguins live to save a super-powerful mutant."

I push her hood down and kiss her forehead. "Ma fille douce," I say.

Hank and Ro are finishing the pre-flight check when Mystique and Pyro stroll into the hangar. Logan growls, and Nori looks skittish. The last time she'd seen Mystique, she'd gotten a pretty nasty concussion. I step in front of her and she peeks out behind my arm.

Pyro laughs. "Scared, Echo?"

"Yes," she says. The honesty momentarily freezes Pyro in his tracks.

"What do you want?" I ask.

Mystique glares at Pyro and at us. "Where is Erik?"

"He's in the medbay," Nori says. She tries to step out, but I sweep my arm around to keep her behind me. Logan's standing close behind her, hands on her shoulders.

Mystique sighs. "I'm not going to hurt her."

"That's fine," I say. "You can not hurt her from there."

Mystique rolls her eyes and says, "Is he all right?"

"He's… comatose," Nori says. "The Phoenix… attacked him."

"The Phoenix? Girl, you don't know what you're talking about."

Nori nods. "The Phoenix used me as a… vehicle. We have some kind of link. Since I'm the one who… helped Jean." Mystique looks at her hard. Nori says, "Honestly, Mystique, I couldn't make this shit up. I have a feeling you know more about this than I do. He's in the medbay, with Xavier. Same thing happened to him. We… an empath here says that… the Phoenix ate their spirits?"

Mystique narrows her eyes. "Judging by your ridiculous garments, I'd guess you're going to Sinister's Antarctic base?"

We glance at each other, startled. Nori says, "Uh, we didn't know Sinister had a base there, but, yeah, we were going to Antarctica."

Mystique says. "We'll come with you."

Logan says, "Absolutely not."

Nori nudges him and says, telepathically, Logan… play nice. I think… they could help. They… I trust them on this.

You trust everyone, darlin', he thinks back.

I'm also a telepath, she responds.

Aloud, I say, "Maybe we should wait and talk to Beast and Stormy 'bout this."

Nori shrugs. Telepathically, she says, I don't think we're really in a position to turn down help.

"Do you want to see him? Magneto?" Nori asks.

Mystique's face softens almost imperceptibly. "Yes, I would."

"He's in the medbay. We'll go with you," Nori says.

"I know where the medbay is," Pyro says.

I smile brightly. "Still, we'd hate to deprive you of our company." Logan, Nori, and I lead Mystique and Pyro to the medbay. We wait quietly by the door while Mystique examines Magneto. He's laying on a hospital bed hooked up to an IV and some monitors.

"He's on the same stuff as Xavier," Nori offers. "I'm not sure, what it is, exactly."

Mystique nods and strokes Magneto's hair. "Right," she says. "Let's go visit the Phoenix."

When we return to the hangar, Kurt and Marrow are standing by the jet. They look at us, looks at Mystique and Pyro, and back to us. "What is going on?" Kurt asks in his softly accented voice.

"We came to see what happened to Magneto," Mystique says.

Kurt whips his tail in agitation, but says nothing.

Hank and Ororo come out of the jet. Their lack of surprise tells me that Nori's given then a telepathic heads-up. "Hello, Mystique," Hank says. "What brings you here?"

She tilts her head to one side. "We came to see what happened to Magneto. We would like to accompany you to Antarctica."

"I think we could use their help," Nori says. "They know something we don't know."

"We know many things you do not know," Mystique says with a sneer.

Nori telepathically links the entire team and says, Look. We can use their help. We don't even really know where we're going. All I could narrow it down to was a continent. And if it's a trap, well, I think we can take the two of them.

Everyone shifts uncomfortably. "Very well," Hank says.

"Do you guys want parkas?" Nori asks. "You should probably have parkas." Mystique and Pyro make no response, and Nori says, "Yeah, I'll go get them."

I follow her. In the hallway, I say, "You sure you're okay with all this, cher?"

"I'm… more okay with it than I am with a lot of the shit that's happened over the last few weeks. Or, well, over the last five years."

We stop in front of the cabinet and Nori says, "I look super cute in this parka, right Remy?"

I grin and kiss her. "Indeed you do, cher."

She looks pleased and picks up two more parkas. "I don't know if Mystique really needs a parka or not, but it's like, pretty cold there, right? I feel like I'm saying the word 'parka' a lot."

I laugh and take a parka from her. "C'mon, cher, let's go look at the penguins."

"Yes! Fabulous!"

When we get back to the hangar, I hand my parka to Pyro with a warning glare. He'd felt so personally betrayed when Nori had left the Brotherhood and he was always happy for the chance to lash out at her. And she's so sensitive. I'll knock his face in if he hurts her.

Nori gives her parka to Mystique with a little shrug. "I thought you might get cold, even." Mystique accepts the parka with a nod.

"Well—let's go, then," Logan says gruffly.

Hank nods. "We're ready for takeoff."

We all board the jet. Logan and I maneuver Nori into a seat between the two of us. Her empathy sends out affection and exasperation. I nudge her and she opens our telepathic link.

If either of them touches you, I will kill them, Logan thinks.

Nori replies, I appreciate the sentiment, but I'd really prefer you didn't. Anyway… they're with us, for now.

They left you and Remy and Aiko to die, he thinks, furiously.

Nori's empathy washes sadness over us. I know, she replies. Strange bedfellows.

She turns to look back at Mystique, "So," she says. "What did you hope to get from the Phoenix?"

Nori's guileless interrogation technique isn't always successful, but it seems to work on Mystique, who replies, "We made our bargain with Sinister. He wanted the Phoenix. We wanted Sinister."

"What for?"

"We wanted his scientific skills."

Nori sighs. "Look. You guys almost killed me to get the Phoenix. Can't you just give me a straightforward answer? What was it we almost died for?"

Mystique's lips thin. "Worthington Enterprises had nearly completed their cure. We wanted Sinister to create a vaccine."

"Oh," Nori says. "Did he?"

"Well, yes," Mystique says, sullenly. "But he only gave us five doses and he won't tell us the formula. It isn't the deal we made."

I nod. I'd thought Magneto had looked surprised when Sinister had teleported, taking Mesmero, Scott, and Jean with him.

"And Mesmero—where did he come from?" Nori asks.

"We found him in a carnival sideshow. He—he betrayed us."

"How about that?" Logan asks, derisively.

Nori puts her hand on his with a gentle look of warning.

"What is your plan?" Mystique asks.

Nori glances at the rest of us before saying, "We were kind of just hoping to tranquilize Mesmero or something. We… we're assuming that if he's incapacitated, Scott and Jean will be… normal. Or… they won't fight us. Which, how is Mesmero even controlling Jean? She's so powerful."

Mystique shrugs. "He's very good at what he does."

"Well," Nori asks. "What's your plan?"

"About the same," Mystique admits. "I agree, Mesmero is the key. But Sinister's no easy mark himself."

I nod. "That is for sure."

"What does Mesmero want?" Nori asks.

Mystique shrugs. "The usual. World domination. And I think he's a bit taken with Jean, as well."

Nori scrunches her nose in disgust. "Ew." I thank my stars that Mesmero hadn't been taken with Nori. Wait. Would we remember if he had? I think we would. At least, that's what I choose to believe.

"Wait," Nori says. "World domination? Like what does that even mean? Practically speaking?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure how well-considered his plan is," Mystique says.

"Men," Nori says, with a dismissive headshake. Mystique gives a cat-like smile.

We reach Antarctica and circle around the huge frozen continent. Hank uses some kind of fancy sensors to search for life, and Nori uses her telepathy. The telepathy wins, and Ro puts the jet down in a snowbank that's virtually identical to every other snowbank, except that Nori insists that the Phoenix is inside of it.

We leave the jet and are instantly hit by a freezing wind. I feel like it's cutting right through me. Each breath freezes my lungs. Nori snuggles against me. Through chattering teeth, she says, "I like this more on the Discovery Channel."

Ororo's eyes go white and the wind stills. It's still cold, but it no longer feels like death by frostbite is imminent.

Mystique has morphed her body into appropriate cold weather gear, which she's topped with a black Xavier's parka. I wonder if her faux-clothing keeps her warm. If she feels cold, she's not showing it. She confidently strides to a certain point and sweeps away a little snow. There's a hole in the snow, the edges coated in ice. We shiver and stare at it. It looks like some kind of air ventilation system. Wolverine shrugs and jumps down into the hole.

Nori gasps and peers down after him, calling, "Logan?"

He calls up, "It's maybe 20 feet. You guys probably shouldn't jump. This connects to a ventilation system or something, though. There's a tunnel going out."

"Nightcrawler?" Beast asks.

Kurt nods and says, "Wolverine, is there a light or anything? I need to be able to see."

"Not as far as I can tell," Wolverine calls. "You have a flashlight or anything?"

"Pyro, your lighter," Nori says.

Pyro scowls. Mystique says, "Pyro, give it to him. We need to get in there."

Pyro grudgingly throws it down the hatch and Logan catches it. He holds it aloft. "Take me first," Mystique demands.

Kurt glances at Storm, who nods. He awkwardly puts his arms around Mystique and takes her down. In the blink of an eye, he's back up.

Logan calls, "Gettin' crowded down here. I think we'll start out into the tunnel. Echo, can you link us?"

"Yeah," Nori says. She closes her eyes and opens up a link.

We're in, Logan sends. It's a tight fit, but doable. Beast and Storm... you might want to wait up top.

Hank frowns. "We'll let you know if we find... another way in," Nori says. One by one, Kurt takes the rest of us down into the tunnel. He takes Nori second-to-last, and me last. We crawl through the tunnel.

Before too long, Logan announces, It comes out in a lab or something. It's empty right now. But I can smell people nearby.

Sure enough, after a few more minutes we pop out in an empty, sterile lab. Nori looks around and says, "Wait a minute, I've been here before. Oh my God. I can't believe Sinister took me to Antarctica and I didn't get to see even one penguin!"

I bite back a laugh. I'm relieved she's not having flashbacks. She says, "Hey. I'm breaking the link and I'm just going to try to shield us from Mesmero. I'm not sure if I can, by myself, but..." She shrugs. "You know."

I feel the link disappear, but I can't feel a shield. I hope it's there. I hope it's working. I don't want to fall under his control again.

We cautiously follow Wolverine through the underground base. I keep an arm around Nori. She's putting a lot of energy into shielding us and she's only halfway paying attention to her surroundings. I have playing cards palmed in my other hand. We emerge in a kitchen. Sinister, Mesmero, Jean, and Scott are eating sandwiches. It's kind of surreal. Quicker than anything, Nightcrawler teleports over to Mesmero and Sinister and jabs them both with something. Way to go, Kurt! I didn't even know that was the plan. I guess if we're fighting a telepath, it's for the best if not all of us know the plan.

Mesmero collapses instantly. Sinister just smiles. Fuck. Jean and Scott blink dazedly. I know how they feel.

"Vincent?" Jean asks, looking at Mesmero. "No!"

Vincent? Was Mesmero Vincent? What the fuck?

"Did you really think it would be so easy?" Sinister asks. He summons his telekinesis to push us all against the wall. We struggle, but he's powerful. Much stronger than Nori.

"Hey, Jeannie. It's us," Logan calls. "Come help us."

"I don't think Miss Grey is in any position to help you," Sinister sneers.

Jean transforms to her fire form and flies at Kurt. "What did you do to Vincent?"

Scott watches, frightened and confused.

"Jean! It is only a tranquilizer. Please forgive me, he will be fine," Kurt says. "Jean, you are not yourself."

I glance at Nori. She has a distant look on her face that tells me she's up to something, but I don't know what. I look around and notice that Scott seems to be gaining clarity.

"Jean!" he cries. "Jean, stop it."

Jean hesitates, still burning. "Scott?"

"Yes, Jean! It's me. Jean, I missed you so much, I don't know… Jean, come back to me."

Suddenly, Sinister turns his head. With his pupilless eyes, it's hard to tell, but I think he's looking at Nori. "Clever, Miss Oyama. Very clever. But not clever enough. Don't forget, I made you what you are. How can you expect to fight me?" He makes a small gesture with his hand and she screams. She goes limp and would have fallen to the ground if his telekinesis weren't holding her in place, but she doesn't lose consciousness. She just keeps screaming, obviously in terrible agony.

I don't care if Sinister is immortal, I will kill him for this.