Lori McDonald
April 1997
He woke alone.
For a long moment after he opened his eyes, he couldn't figure out what was wrong. He was still half asleep, still half in dreams of sleek limbs and red lips. Then he remembered and sat up.
Rogue had slipped out sometime while he slept. His clothes were still scattered on the floor, but hers were gone.
He started feeling nervous, wondering if he'd done something wrong.
Maybe she just went to get breakfast, and didn't want to wake him. Already half frantic, he showered and dressed and went down to the kitchen.
Rogue wasn't there. Instead, Kitty sat at the table, sipping coffee, while Lockheed crouched on top, gnawing on a sausage.
"Have you seen Rogue?" He asked her.
The young woman smiled knowingly. "Didn't you get enough last night?" She teased.
He gaped at her. "How did you know?"
She blushed and smiled more widely. "I'd get a new door if I were you. You have a very loud bed."
He groaned inwardly. If Rogue learned anyone had heard their lovemaking, he'd never get her to come out of her room again.
Kitty grinned at him wickedly. "You don't have to answer this, but I have to ask. Pete and I were going nuts last night wondering what it was. We heard a crash and Rogue cursing while you kept apologizing to her. I had to phase Pete to keep him from running over to take a look. What happened?"
He turned red. "Oh, uh, I fell off th' bed."
Her eyes widened. "Just you?"
"Um, oui. Rogue was kinda upset 'cause my timin' was bad." He saw she was fighting off laughter. "Uh, did y' see her?" He asked plaintively.
"I'm afraid not."
He nodded and looked at Lockheed. "Did YOU see her?" The little dragon flicked his tail at him, but didn't say anything.
Kitty stared at him over her mug, all laughter gone. "Uh, Remy - Lockheed can't talk."
He blinked, remembering a distinctive cockney accent in his ear. "Are you sure?"
She gave him one of those smiles people used when they were sure he didn't have both his oars in the water. Understanding and cautious. The sight of it made him feel tired. "I've had him since I was thirteen. He's never been able to talk." She scratched the dragon's head and he dropped his jaw in a loose grin.
"Oh," he said softly and left, wondering if he was indeed losing his mind again. Not sure where to look for Rogue now, he wandered.
His wanderings brought him past many of Excalibur's members, most of whom teased him like Kitty had, or looked at him disapprovingly, until he came to the communications room. Always soft-footed, he was extra quiet now that he didn't want to be picked on anymore and made no sound as he walked up to the open door. He could hear Pete Wisdom's voice inside.
"...'bout six foot, one inch tall," the englishman was saying. "Red brown 'air that 'e wears long. Th' most distinctive feature be 'is eyes. Th' iris is red. Everythin' else is black."
He froze, just short of the door, his heart pounding as he broke out into a sweat. He was suddenly terrified, the familiar panic he'd carried so long returning to him. He wanted to scream, or run, or curl into a little ball, but he could barely breathe and so could do nothing.
"And you want the same sort of information on him you had me get on your teammates?" Asked a second voice that sounded tinny, as though it were coming over a comm screen. "You're paranoid, Wisdom."
"Maybe," Pete replied. "But I ain't gonna trust me back ter nobody until I know 'e ain't carryin' a knife. I learned that much from Black Air. An' I don' want just a basic check like Excalibur. Wi' them, I just wanted ter be sure they were who they said. But we ain' even positive th' name we got fer this kid is right. I wan' ter be positive."
"Right, right. I'll see what I can find out."
"Thanks. I'll owe yer one."
"You got that straight."
Slowly, he managed to back away to the corner of the hall, then turned and ran. Wisdom was doing a background check on him. It was a perfectly logical, rational measure to take, but the last thing he ever wanted anyone to do. Remy LeBeau was a clean name, one unconnected to anything wrong, but if Wisdom's spy was any good, if he found the name he worked under - they'd put him in another cage.
Hot tears filled his eyes, tears he didn't want. He wanted to be frozen inside again, hollow, unable to feel his own pain. Or this overwhelming terror. He'd once been so used to it, but now it felt as though someone were crushing him. If Rogue found out - she thought he was a shy, quiet, gentle man. If she found out the truth, if she left him, he knew he'd die.
How could things have been going so well, then turn on him so quickly?
Not sure where he was going anymore, he ran down the empty corridors of the Excalibur complex. Then he ran around a corner and slammed into Rogue. Invulnerable and super strong, she didn't move, while he pitched onto his butt on the floor.
"Rogue?" He gasped, relieved.
She looked down at him with an expression of sympathy and fear. "Ah- ah have ta go." She flew off.
He felt like someone had just thrust a knife through his heart.
"Remy?" He heard Moira call from inside the office. "A wan' tae talk wi' ye."
He didn't answer.
"Remy?" After a few moments, Moira came out of her office and looked at him sitting on the floor, a frown on her face. Quietly, she knelt before him, waving a hand in front of his face. "Coom on, Remy, snap oot o' it."
He didn't blink. He was safe, enclosed in a familiar shell that wouldn't let emotion or thought inside.
It didn't work as well against pain. "Doon't ye dare go catatonic on me! A nae worked wi' ye so long tae watch ye turn into a vegetable now!"
She slapped him, and the pain and shock of it cracked his shell. Moira looked at him critically and slapped him again, harder. He gasped and put up an arm to stop her from hitting him a third time.
"That's mooch better. Now, ye wanna tell me why ye did that?"
He looked at her, the tears back. "Rogue hates me."
She raised an eyebrow. "What makes ye say that?"
He swallowed. "B'cause las' night, we made love, but now she won' talk t' me."
Suddenly, Moira looked very old. Reaching under her glasses, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "So that's what th' lass was tryin' tae talk tae me aboot."
"She hates me," he repeated.
"Oh, stop that, ye idiot. Did ye force her?"
He gaped at her. "NON!"
"A didn' think ye had. A'll talk tae 'er tae see whoot th' problem be." Her eyes narrowed. "Ye did use protection, didn't ye?"
"No..."
Her eyes blazed. "Ye idiot! Ye unthinkin' fool!" He flinched.
The alarm blared out.
Immediately, she was on her feet as Pete's voice sounded over the PA. "We got incoming, people. Get ter th' bleedin' runway!"
"Stay here," Moira ordered and ran off.
He sat there for a moment, not sure what to do. He WAS a member of Excalibur, wasn't he? Perhaps if he showed how useful he was, Excalibur wouldn't get rid of him when Wisdom found out about his past.
He ran after Moira, catching up with her and the bulk of Excalibur outside at the edge of the island's small runway. Rogue was with them too, circling overhead.
Above, the X-Men's Blackbird was struggling to come in for a landing, looking like it was fighting to fly through a storm. As they watched, it barrel rolled and almost crashed.
"Bloody hell!" Wisdom breathed. "Ain't they got a bleedin' collar on 'im?"
His neck crawled. Collar?
"Yes, but they're not designed to hold Omego Classes."
"Oh, great. We're screwed. Why the soddin' hell are they bringin' him here?"
"The Proteus Chamber will contain his powers." Kurt looked at him. "Remy, stay out of this."
"But-"
"Just obey me." Kurt turned back to the landing ship.
So much for his plans to be indespensible. Excalibur didn't want him already. He had to fight the urge to retreat back into himself.
The Blackbird landed awkwardly before them and the side hatch exploded outward from waves of energy that blew his hair back from his face. Eyes wide, he watched Excalibur move in to try and help Jean, Bishop, Cyclops and Wolverine drag another mutant out.
Through all the yelling and struggling, he could see the prisoner was wearing an inhibitor collar around his neck, just like the one Sinister had locked around HIS throat, though this one seemed made of plastic. But unlike him, the enraged mutant was too powerful to be fully contained and bands of energy were rolling out from him, filling the runway with electricity.
That energy picked Colossus up like a doll and tossed him into Rogue, knocking them both down, and spun Douglock in circles. Logan's metal claws were turning on him and a sphere seemed to protect the prisoner from energy blasts. The X-Men and Excalibur were trying to take him without hurting him, but he didn't have the same compunction and he wondered what kind of power the man possessed without that collar.
"Knock him out!" Moira yelled to Jean.
"I can't!" She yelled back. "It's all I can do to keep him from flying! His will is too strong!"
Abruptly, the prisoner broke free and he gasped. He was an older man, still well muscled and fit, dressed in red with short, silvery gray hair. He KNEW that square, weathered face. He'd seen it in the tunnels beneath the X-Mansion, when the man came to grieve the deaths of the Morlocks. He'd felt a connection to him, a sense of understanding.
"REMY!" Moira screamed. "RUN!"
Weakened, needing a hostage, the mutant lunged at him. He stood uncertainly, watching him come. Excalibur worried that he wouldn't fight for himself, but the truth was he lived his life based on instinct, not fact. Instinct told him to attack the FOH members who sabotagd the hospital as enemies, but not to do so in his training with Kurt, since Kurt was a friend. Now he looked at a man whose words to the Morlock graves had seemed to echo in his soul, and his instinct said he was safe.
His instinct was wrong.
The older man slammed into him, a protective bubble closing the others off, and a gloved hand clamped around his throat, lifting him off his feet.
He panicked, scrabbling at the heavy glove with his nails, eyes wide, too terrified to think of using his powers. He kicked instead, hitting his attacker, and the mutant looked at him in annoyance. "Sleep, boy," he ordered.
The man's powers flowed into his brain, affecting... something, and he went limp in his grasp, his eyesight fuzzing over as fast as when Sinister used to stick his needles in him. He thought he heard Rogue scream his name, but he couldn't be sure before he was dropped and the world around him went away.
End of Part Two**********