Chapter 7

"Woke up in de hospital some time later. Said dey found me in the street. Comatose."

Remy sits at the big table in the briefing room, his hands won't stop shaking. He feels weak.

Xavier, Jean and Remy had passed out; the only difference between the three of them was that Remy wouldn't stop screaming before he ended up on the floor curled into a ball.

After Storm had calmed him down, had assured him he wasn't back in that place, that he was safe, Remy told them everything; all that he had suddenly remembered from that time when he was younger, caged and hopeless.

Now, as Remy sits there, he can't hear the X-Men as they talk amongst themselves. He can't hear anything but her voice; Anna's voice, so full of tears and pain. He stares at the table wide eyed and head in hands; all the forgotten memories washing over him one by one; drowning him. He closes his eyes, trying to answer the questions racing through his mind.

How could he have forgotten such a big chunk of his life? How could so many important memories be missing from his mind? Had her mutation been triggered that day? Had her power somehow took them all from him?

But then Remy thinks: did he really forget her? All those nights, waking up in a sweat, searching for someone, but never finding them...he had always been searching for her hadn't he? Had known something was missing, right?

Slowly Remy is pulled from his trance and back to the briefing room.

"-my? Remy?"

He looks up at Storm with confusion.

"Where did this all happen Remy?" Storm asks gently.

"Oh." Remy squeaks as he gathers his thoughts. He answers the question as if he were talking about the weather.

"It happened here. In New York."

Everyone stares at him in disbelief.

"That's impossible..." Xavier whispers, his eyes wide, "we would've...I would've sensed such pain this close to us."

Remy shrugs and rests his head back in his hands to steady himself. He doesn't know what to feel, the shock isn't wearing off; he feels numb.

Logan leans against the far wall, up until now he has had nothing to say about the strange situation that is unfolding before them all. He speaks up, suspicion lacing his words.

"Tell me, Cajun, if you could pick the locks on your cells so damn easy, how come you couldn't get out of that place?"

Suddenly there is a fire lit within Remy's chest and all the numbness, all the shock melts away like ice in a flame. Remy's eyes snap open, glowing a deep red ember as the anger at what Logan is suggesting courses through him. Remy's chair goes flying from him as he jumps up and lunges towards the short Canadian man.

Maybe Logan is setting him up, maybe Logan isn't actually expecting it, although that seems very unlikely to everyone in the room, but Remy gets him down. He pins Logan's shoulders down with his knees and reaches into one of the inside pockets of his coat, withdrawing 3 glowing cards charged with kinetic energy.

Logan smiles at Remy and cocks an eyebrow.

"Ya don' tink Remy tried? Ya don' tink I risked myself ev'ryday tryin' to get out of dat hell?" Remy spat at the man beneath him.

No one in the room moved, not wanting to set either of the mutants on the floor off.

"Dere was no locks on de main doors, mon ami. Not de regular type anyway. I tried, mon dieu, I tried. I couldn't get through dem wit'out bein' electrocuted."

"Then why didn't ya fight Cajun? Why didn't you protect that girl with everything you had? Instead of leaving her alone every night. Instead of letting that psycho take her for his twisted experiments. Every. Single. Day."

Remy grits his teeth, he wants to scream his next words at Logan, but the fire inside him is fading, the anger disappearing.

"We was jus' kids...we...I..." Remy stumbles on his words as all the strength leaves his body and the cards in his hand fizzle out and return to their normal state.

"Ya right." Remy says as he gets up, his eyes downcast, "I shoulda done more, I shoulda stopped de boogey man. I shoulda remembered. Because o' me she wasn't protected. Because o' me she wasn't safe. Because o' me..."

Remy can't continue, but Logan has no problems stating what Remy leaves unsaid as Beast helps him up off the floor.

"Because of you, she's probably dead."

"Logan!" Storm glares at Logan as she helps Remy back to his seat. "You cannot possibly blame him for something that he had no control over. They were children; children that had their lives, their very innocence stolen from them. He was beaten and made to feel helpless and alone, what could they do?"

Logan, who resumes his spot in the doorway, snorts.

There is a silence that stretches across the whole room. Broken only when Jean stands.

"Anna's not dead."

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