Chapter 9
It doesn't take long to find them, not with the help of cerebro, a computer used to locate mutants. Now that they know what they are looking for they can pinpoint the signature of a certain mutant, a mutant they know; a mutant who is trying to help them.
Emma Frost. A friend of Logan's; or as close to a friend as Logan seems to have. She has been calling out, amplifying Anna's cries for help in hopes that someone might hear her.
They are underground, under the city of New York. The odd thing is that the woman's power registers in two different areas of the underground prison, as though there are two of her combining their powers to call for help.
In the Black Bird Jean and Xavier probe Remy's mind, accessing the once buried memories in hopes of finding entry to the underground laboratory of Nathaniel Essex, a once brilliant scientist gone mad, who has secluded himself under the streets of New York in order to continue with his strange experiments on mutants without objection or interruptions from others.
The Boogey Man.
They find the entrance; a heavy manhole off a side street in downtown. They land the jet and cloak it. There is only Remy, Storm, Beast, Jean, Scott and Logan; the urgency is not lost on any of them and so they had decided not to wait for other members of the X-Men to return. Xavier and Storm stay on the jet while the rest of the small team descend into the sewers below the city.
Once they are underground, Remy begins to panic. His whole body breaks into a sweat as the concrete walls close in on him. His breathing becomes laboured and his eyes dart around the damp tunnels frantically.
The memories are crashing down on him. Burying him beneath a heavy blanket of fear and doubt and guilt. His hands fly to his temples as he grits his teeth and squeezes his eyes shut. Remy sinks to his knees and starts shaking violently. Beast and Jean rush to his side.
It's too much all at once.
He can't do it.
He has to do it.
He has to find Anna.
There is a pause that stretches on forever; then all at once Remy exhales, breathes in and gets to his feet.
Anna is what matters now, not his fears of the place before him, not his worries of her hatred towards him, not his guilt for leaving her behind.
Remy is here now, he will never leave Anna behind again.
When they reach the labs, Logan leading the way, everyone comes to a sudden stop.
It's not the sight of the lab that stops them in their tracks, but the unnerving silence. Everything stands as if frozen in time and nobody moves, afraid that the world might come crumbling down around them all at once if they make a sound.
"He's gone." Jean whispers finally, green eyes wide as she scans the strange room full of half full beakers, metal tables and strange instruments. Logan grunts in agreement.
"Non!" Remy whips around to face the red haired telepath. A new wave of panic is setting in on him. If Essex is gone, wouldn't that mean Anna is gone as well? That he has taken her and Remy is no closer to finding her than when he couldn't even remember her existence?
No. No. No.
He doesn't believe it. Anna is in the underground lab. Remy can feel her.
Remy takes off without warning, leaving everyone behind.
He stumbles through room after abandoned room full of equipment and tables and strange devices, before he reaches the all too familiar hallway; doors lining either side of it. He freezes for what feels like an eternity as it sinks in that he has walked this hallway too many times to count, that he has lived in one of these rooms for months and months and months, that at one point in time he had never believed he would leave this place, let alone step foot in it again had he gotten the chance to get away.
The doors are unlocked. Each one opening to shed light on empty cells and strange set ups. One room reveals a strange beeping, like that from a hospital, as Remy opens it. He finds two rows of people on gurneys all attached to machines monitoring their vital signs. Somehow he knows Anna isn't here and leaves the room for Hank to deal with.
Remy quickly exits the room and walks down the hall only to abruptly stop before a door that is all too familiar to him; a door he has seen in his dreams, in his nightmares every night. He reaches for the handle, feels the cold metal beneath his fingers and hesitates.
Anna is behind this door.
He takes a deep breath as his free hand slips into his pocket and he pulls out the modified power inhibitor Hank had made up recently, the thin metal designed to look like an ordinary bracelet.
Remy turns the handle.
The room is dark; the light from the hallway leaks into the room and slowly everything comes into focus. His cell sits empty, probably unused for some time. He traces the bars with his fingertips, slightly mesmerised by the familiarity they hold, the memories of watching as the man he now knows as Nathaniel Essex would unlock the door and praying each time that he was coming for Remy and not the beautiful, helpless girl in the cell that sat across the room.
A soft moan floats on the air and Remy snaps out of his trance. He looks up, his eyes following the sound to the cell opposite where he stands.
Anna's cell.
He approaches it slowly and suddenly he is thrown back in time, to the last night he saw her; lying motionless on the concrete floor of her cell. He panics, acts on instinct and runs to her, picks the lock and skids to a stop next to her unmoving form.
This time is different however; Remy quickly realizes that Anna is not in pain, not ignoring him; she is simply sleeping. He sighs a breath of relief and instantly all the stress and all the pain and all the worry and all the guilt hit him all at once and suddenly he collapses next to her on his hands and knees and bites back the sobs he's been holding back as he tries to catch his breath and burning tears slip down his cheeks.
He found her. She is right next to him. He is never going to leave her again.
"Remy?"
Remy looks up to find Jean standing outside the cell, tears blur his vision. She smiles softly at him.
"Put on the power inhibitor. I'll make sure she continues to sleep."
Remy nods numbly while biting his lip and wiping away his tears. He fumbles around in his pocket and crawls around to Anna's other side. Slipping the thin metal bracelet over her wrist carefully, he looks at her sleeping face.
She's older, her face thinner. Her body has matured, but her hair remains the same. He longs to see her eyes and turns to Jean expectantly. She nods at him.
Remy runs the back of his hand down her cheek.
"Anna?"
"Anna, please wake up..."
Anna's eyelids flutter open and all Remy can see is vivid green emeralds.
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