Dark Dawn
Chapter Five: The Way Back Home
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any other related material. It belongs to Marvel and Fox. I do not make any money on this.
The cold November morning started as any other morning at the mansion. The students and teachers ate breakfast, and went to class. The X-Men squeezed another training session in the danger room in before trigonometry. Now that the new teachers had been employed for a while, Ororo was starting to think, the school was finally finding its way again.
Logan was starting to really enjoy being the leader of the X-Men. At first it was more a necessity than a genuine pleasure, but now he felt comfortable in the role as leader. A role which finally felt natural and Logan no longer had a problem with filling Cyclops' shoes.
They had no idea, what was about to happen…
X
Scott and Remy arrived at Xavier's school for gifted youngsters around noon. Everybody was inside, because of the bad weather, and most of them would be gathered in the dining hall for lunch.
Scott didn't want to 'come back from the dead' as a blind man, so he asked Remy to go inside and fetch a pair of his custom made sun glasses, designed to keep his deadly rays in check. Scott carefully explained to Remy, where the glasses might be, and Remy went inside. But first he followed Scott to a place where he wouldn't be seen by someone from the mansion.
It wasn't because Scott wanted to make some dramatical, theatrical entrance, but he didn't want it to be too casual either. He could imagine, what a shock it would give the students, if they suddenly saw their presumed dead teacher and leader standing in the driveway.
X
After hiding Scott behind the garage, Remy went inside the big mansion. The sight of the various expensive art works placed in the halls made his fingers tingle. Once a thief, always a thief. But Remy knew he had only one mission this time (he could always come back some other time and steal a painting or two.) He needed to find Scott's glasses.
He walked up the stairs of the main hall, to the students' floor. Then went up the next stairs to the third floor, where teachers and guests slept. He went down the hall to the third door on the right, where Scott's room should be.
The door wasn't locked, so Remy went straight in. Not that a locked door was ever a problem for him. In the bedroom it seemed like people were still living there, and Remy started doubting if he was in the right room, but a picture of Scott and a very beautiful red-haired woman on the bedside table, convinced Remy. The woman was probably his late fiancée.
The entire room, was exactly as Scott had described it. Remy thought people must have found it hard to let go.
Remy opened the door to the closet on the left and found a small drawer, exactly as Scott had described, and found the ruby quartz sun glasses. He couldn't help but let out a triumphant grin.
As he opened the door to go out into the hall again, he was stopped by a young woman with brown hair with a white streak.
"Who are you? And what were you doing in Scott and Jean's room?" The woman asked with a suspicious and demanding tone.
"De name is Remy, chérie." Remy said and smiled his most charming smile.
"I haven't seen you before. What are you doing here?" she asked, still suspicious.
"I'm visiting one of my friends 'ere. W'at is your name, chérie?"
"R- Marie. My name is Marie." She said.
"A beautiful name, for a beautiful girl." Remy said, still smiling. He moved closer to her, as he suddenly remembered Scott telling him something about a girl named Marie. She was the girl, he and Ororo had rescued some years ago.
"'Ow close were you to Scott?" Remy asked her.
"What kind of question is that?! Did you know him?"
"Oui, I know him." Remy said "But 'ow well did you know 'im?"
"I don't know…" Marie was clearly hurt by the question "I mean… he was my teacher, my leader. He saved my life several times. But we never really talked or anything… at least not about anything particularly personal."
"But you miss 'im?"
"Of course I do?!" Remy could see the tears filling up the beautiful girls eyes.
"Shh, cherie, Remy didn't want to make you sad." He said and laid an arm around her shoulder.
"Don't do that!" Marie said, and moved away from him.
Remy was used to the women swooning over him, so Marie's cold attitude surprised him.
"Fine! Sorry… uhh… I need to go, okay? It was a pleasure meeting you" he said and kissed her hand while bowing gracefully. Then he walked quickly down the stairs and hurried out to Scott.
"What the hell took you so long?" Scott asked, when he heard Remy had arrived.
"Sorry… I was 'eld up by a girl named Marie" Remy said, and smiled.
"Rogue?" Scott said, not understanding why she would have introduced herself as Marie, but that could wait "Did you find the glasses?"
"Oui" Remy said and handed Scott his glasses. "By the way…" he said, while Scott put his glasses on "Your fiancée was very beautiful"
"Thanks" Scott said through clenched teeth. He looked around the place he loved so much, and felt the hesitation flush over him again. Now that he had his glasses, he didn't even have to go inside.
"Are you coming?" Remy asked, at the sight of Scott's hesitation.
Scott took a deep breath, sighed, and then said: "Yeah, let's go!"
X
Ororo didn't know what to think, when Marie reported her experience with the strange Cajun man. She had never heard of a guy named Remy before, and neither had the other teachers.
She had asked one of the students, gifted with telepathy, if the man was still in the mansion.
"Uhm… he went outside, but now he is in your office, waiting for you" the girl answered.
"Oh my goddess!" Ororo gasped "Thank you very much, Phoebe."
Ororo hurried to the office, to see whatever this man wanted.
Remy was sitting in her chair, with his feet on the table. "You must be Ororo!" he said, and got up. He walked over to her and took her hand "De name is Remy LeBeau" he said and kissed her hand.
"What do you want?" she asked, pulling her hand away from his grip.
Remy's face, became serious and he started biting his lip. "You see… de thing is… you remember your friend Scott?"
Ororo frowned in deep confusion, and nodded.
"I dunno how to say dis… 'e is not dead!"
"How can you say such a thing? What do you want?!" Ororo said. She had learned to be skeptical, and however fantastic her life might have been, people did NOT come back from the dead.
"You t'ink I am a liar? Come and see for yourself!" Remy said, and took Ororo's hand. He closed the door, and behind it Scott was sitting on the sofa.
Ororo gasped and put her free hand to her mouth. "Scott? It is not possible. This must be some kind of cruel joke" she said, and started crying.
Scott stood up, and walked over to her. Remy let go of her hand and stepped away from the two friends' touching reunion.
"Ororo, it's me" Scott said, and took her by the shoulders.
"How?" she sobbed.
"I'll explain later…" Scott said, and embraced his old friend.
"Oh my god!" she sobbed, and clung to Scott as hard as she could. Afraid he might disappear.
After some time, Logan opened the door to see why Ororo was crying. The first thing he saw was Remy, sitting on the desk.
"Who the hell are you? What are you doin' here? What have you done to Ororo?" Logan asked, but quickly sensed a scent, which he hadn't sensed in a long time. Scott's.
Remy pointed to Ororo and Scott, with a big smile.
"Scott?" Logan said, dumbfounded.
Scott let go of Ororo, who was still crying, and put his hand out to Logan.
"Nice to see you again, Logan" Scott smiled, enjoying every second of Logan's confusion.
"It's really you…" Logan said in a low voice.
Scott let his hand go down his pocket, seeing as Logan didn't take it.
Ororo managed to stop crying and dried the tears away.
"Uhm… it's good to have you back…" Logan said, still not getting what was happening.
"It's good to be back" Scott said "Where's the professor?"
Both Logan and Ororo gasped, as they realized that Scott didn't know the professor had died.
"What's wrong?" Scott asked.
"Scott…" Ororo said in a soft voice "The professor is dead."
"WHAT?"
"I'm terribly sorry…" Ororo said "He died shortly after you… after we lost you."
"But how?" Now it was Scott's turn to cry. He had just come back from 'hell' to find his foster-father, teacher and mentor dead. Wasn't it enough that he had lost Jean? That was the reason he hadn't been able to contact the professor. He was dead.
"I'll tell you later" Ororo said "But first you tell me, how this" --she gestured to Scott-- "happened."
So Scott reluctantly told Ororo and Logan, everything about how Dr. Essex had 'recreated' him, how he had met Remy, and how they had escaped. Really he would have rather run off somewhere to cry alone, but had to push his emotions away.
"Sounds a little farfetched to me." Logan said, still a bit suspicious of Scott's resurrection.
"I agree," Scott said "But it's all I know"
Logan didn't know what to say to that. Scott smelled as he always had, was wearing the glasses he always had, talked the same way… It had to be him, but the professor (and Jean) had thought him dead. Jean killed him!! But then again, everybody had thought Jean dead too…
"So, now that I'm done, can you please tell me how the professor died" Scott said, to Ororo.
Ororo and Scott went outside, to watch the graves of Charles Xavier, Jean Grey and Scott Summers. It was the most bizarre experience Scott had ever had; seeing his own gravestone. Ororo told Scott everything that had happened after he 'died'. And Scott listened with horror. He sat down, and the cold grass in front of Charles' grave, and cried his heart out.
The flowers and candles, which Peter and Kitty had placed there the night before, were still there.
X
In the office, Logan and Remy were still staring at each other. Ororo had wanted to talk to Scott alone, so Logan and Remy had been left in the office.
"You afraid Scott's gonna come back an' steal your place and your girlfriend?" Remy smiled.
"Ororo ain't my girlfriend!" Logan growled.
"You didn't say 'no' to de question…"
X
A few of the students had seen Ororo and Scott from the windows, and soon the word had spread to the entire mansion. Scott Summers had returned from the dead.
Ororo noticed the curious faces, and knew a little 'press conference' was called for. Soon the school was gathered, once again, in the auditorium.
The talk was even louder than when the new teachers had been introduced.
Once again Ororo was on the stage, with the microphone.
"Dearest students… I have gathered you here today, because a dear friend has returned." Ororo said "We all heard of his death, and accepted it, with time. But we didn't know that he was actually resurrected, and now he is back. I know it sounds very strange, but see for yourselves… It is with great joy in my heart that I welcome back; Scott Summers!"
Scott entered the stage, and the entire room fell to silence, as the students rubbed their eyes in disbelief. After a few silent moments, the students started clapping and cheering, and a few of his closer friends leapt up to embrace him, eyes full of happy tears. One of them was Kurt, who thanked the Lord several times in German, before embracing the man he (in Scott's opinion) hardly knew.
Afterwards, Scott tried to find Remy. He found him in the living room, talking to young blonde woman.
"Oh!" Remy exclaimed "It's Mr. I-don't-care-about-the-guy-who-helped-me-escape-from-Sinister-I-would-rather-run-off-with-ms.-Sexy-African-chick!!"
"Sorry about that" Scott said "But it seems that you had no trouble entertaining yourself while I was gone."
Remy bowed, and smiled. "Never do!"
"Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for me, and give you a ride back to town.
"Who says Remy's leaving?"
"You did. Yesterday…"
"Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today" Remy said, one very special lady, had caught his attention, and he didn't plan on leaving until she loved him.
"Alright, suit yourself. I promised you would be welcome anytime. I'll have Ororo find you a room." Scott said, and left.
X
After finding Remy a room, Scott finally had some time alone. The last couple of hours had been, the most surreal he had ever experienced, and that was saying a lot. As he returned to his (and Jean's) old room, he sat down on their bed. The recent events were stumbling around in his head. He lay down on his back and carefully rubbed his temples. He didn't realize he had fallen asleep until he heard a knock on the door. Hank entered.
"Scott."
"Hi Hank!" Scott said, a bit sleepy.
Hank sat down on the bed beside him. "I'm at a loss for words! It is really you. It shouldn't even be possible. Would you mind if I examined you downstairs? It's not that I don't trust you, but I need to know how this happened"
Scott wasn't really in the mood for playing lab-rat, but was rather curious himself, so he agreed.
X
Some hours later, Hank had performed any examination and test on Scott that he could think of.
"Fascinating!" Hank said to himself, while Scott was drinking a glass of orange juice, still sitting on the examination table.
"What's wrong?" Scott asked.
"There nothing wrong, actually. According to these result you are completely healthy and very much real. I'll get the DNA results back in some weeks, but everything seems to be fine." Hank said, pulling his glasses off. "How exactly did this Sinister guy explain it?"
"He said… uh… something about… actually he just said he created me again" Scott said
"And you didn't ask how?"
"I was a little shocked, alright?" Scott said, feeling aggravated. "I'm sorry, Hank. I didn't mean to snap… It's just been a really long day, and I've been on an almost non-stop motorcycle ride from Alkali Lake to the school."
"I understand my friend." Hank smiled "I need to get back to the UN office anyway."
"Why?" Scott asked.
"Oh, didn't they tell you?" Hank asked, and Scott shook his head "I was made UN Ambassador of the United States"
"You did? Wow, that's fantastic! How did this happen?" Scott said, his mood suddenly lifted.
"Well, as you know I used to be Secretary of Mutant Affairs, and after what happened on Alcatraz Island, the President thought it was time to promote me, since the X-Men and I saved the day."
"Amazing, so what are you doing here?" Scott said.
"Well, Ororo has had a rough time. She's been carrying a lot of weight, and I had to help her out." Hank said, "Well, I hereby declare you absolutely and definitely Scott Summers. It's good to have you back."
"You too"
X
Scott's return was on everybody's lips. The common room was filled with students discussing what had just happened.
"Maybe it's just a shape-shifter pretending to be Scott!"
"Do you think he'll be our math teacher again?"
"Could Xavier be raised from the dead as well? How about my grandma?"
Bobby, Marie, Jubilee, Kitty, and Peter were sitting around a small table
"I hope he will be our team-leader again" Bobby said.
"Why? What's wrong with Logan?" Marie asked.
"He's good at the fighting stuff, but he sucks at tactics!" Jubilee said. "It's all testosterone and no brains!!"
"It's true…" Kitty said "Even I can do better tactics than him!"
"Well, that shouldn't be a problem either, since you're a super-brain" Peter said.
"I didn't mean it that way. I'm just saying…" Kitty said, feeling her cheeks get warmer. She usually didn't respond to those compliments any more. She was actually growing rather tired of them. But it mattered when Peter said it, because she knew he really meant it.
"You're just saying that every bone-head could do better tactics than Logan!" Marie said, defending her mentor and friend "What if he hears you?"
"So, what?!" Jubilee said.
"Scott always told us to admit our weaknesses, so we could take advantage of our strengths" Bobby said.
"Whatever! I think Logan really enjoys being the leader. He feels like he has finally found his place." Marie defended.
"Yeah, Scott's place! Bobby's right. There no use in having Logan as team leader if Scott is better." Jubilee said.
"Fine… but Logan won't give it up without a fight." Marie said.
"He better!" Jubilee answered, "'cause otherwise we'll commit mutiny"
"Stop being so dramatic!" Kitty said "Last week you said that Logan was the best thing that ever happened to this school!"
"That was just because, she saw him with his shirt off" Bobby said.
"Shut up!" Jubilee said and hit Bobby on the arm.
X
As it started to become late, Marie was the first to say good night and return to her room.
On the way, she met Remy again. He was waiting for her outside her room.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him.
"Jus' wanted to see you again, chérie" Remy smiled.
"How did you know this was my room?"
"Well, maybe I didn't."
"… Okay… Wait a minute. How come you are still here? I thought you were just going to drop Scott off and then leave again."
"Me too, but dere 'as been a change of plans. I'm staying. At least for some while" Remy said.
"Oh, okay." Marie was generally confused by this man "Why don't you come inside?" she sighed. For some weird reason she didn't like talking to him in the hallway.
In her small room, Remy sat on her bed, but Marie sat on her desk chair.
"So tell me, what you were doing in Scott's room earlier" she said.
"Getting his sunglasses" he said.
"Why?"
"Because 'e didn't have any, when 'e was resurrected. As soon as 'is body could absorb de sun again, his powers returned and he couldn't see. I guess 'e t'ought it would be too odd if 'e showed up wit' 'is eyes squeezed shut."
"Alright." Marie said, and now she asked the question, which had been burning in her mind, since she met him again "Why did you want to see me again?"
Remy smiled "Because, chére, I 'ave never seen a more beautiful woman in my life, and Remy's seen a lot of women."
Marie got up and looked out the window, so Remy wouldn't see her blush.
"Is somet'ing 'rong?" Remy asked, and got up as well. He stood behind her, and put his hand on her shoulder.
"No!" she said, and pulled away "I gotta go to bed, so if you'll…"
"I understand. It's was nice talking to you again." Remy said, and kissed her hand, before she could pull it away. "Au revoir"
The chapter title "The Way Back Home" is by The Wreckers off the album, Stand Still, Look Pretty.
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