DISCLAIMER The X-Men are the property
of Marvel Comics and are used without their
permission. Sikudhani McCoy is the property of Darqstar and is mentioned in this story
with her
permission. This is a work of fanfiction, intended for entertainment purposes only.
The Reflection In The Mirror
Part Three
By ScarletLady
**Dang it all,** thought Rogue. **Ain't it just my luck? Ah finally figure out what needs
to be said, and hell if'n the person Ah
need to say it to ain't nowhere to be found.**
Rogue felt somewhat relieved at the reprieve, but her conscience wouldn't let her stray
too far from her promise to tell
Remy
what she needed to tell him.
She turned to face Jean head on. Looking her square in the eyes, Rogue squashed her pride,
and asked her first favor from a
member of the X-Men. "Could you find him?" There was a subtle pleading that came
through, despite her almost belligerent
stance.
Jean returned her look. "Rogue
when Remy left
it wasn't, that is, we
didn't, or rather we should have
"
Rogue had never seen Jean so at a loss. "Just spit it out, Jean. Ah gotta know where
ta find him."
Jean opened her mouth, but couldn't make the words come out. She raised her hands in a
gesture of helplessness.
"Hang it girl, talk!" Rogue all but shouted.
Jean stared at Rogue for a long moment, while Rogue's impatience grew by leaps and bounds.
"Let's take a walk," Jean said
quietly.
As they drifted over the mansion grounds, Jean began to speak in a subdued tone Rogue had
never heard from her. "I'm not
sure where to begin," Jean admitted. "Could you tell me why you need to know? It
would help me sort out what you need to
know first."
"Rogue watched her feet as they wandered along. "Guess you know 'bout why Ah
took off after Seattle."
"We know it was caused by something Gambit had done, but we never knew the
particulars. Is it something we should know?"
"Not mah story, Jean. Don't think it makes any difference, nohow. Not to the team,
anyway. When Ah'd
connected
to
Remy, Ah saw things from his past. A lot of things. And when Ah realized that it was
R-Gambit doin' those things, Ah just
couldn't connect it with the person standin' in front of me in Seattle. Those things from
his past
they scared me. Ah don't think
it was any secret that Remy and Ah were
somethin' more than friends. Ah
really
liked
havin' him flirt with me, and him
makin' me mad just so's Ah'd fight back. Ah kept wonderin' how the same person who'd done
those
things, could be standin'
in front of me, and askin' me to trust him. Ah just wanted him to go away. Not to make me
have to say what Ah was feelin'.
'Cause what Ah was feelin' was sick to mah stomach. Ah looked at him, and felt disgusted,
Jean. Ah really liked Remy, but
Gambit kept getting' in the way. What Ah did in Seattle was to throw away Gambit like he
weren't nothin' but garbage. Ah'd
forgotten it were Remy standin' in front of me that day and hearin' those words. Ah hurt
him worse than Ah can live with, Jean.
Ah gotta make it right."
Inwardly, Jean sighed. Knowing she was going to have to admit it all wasn't easy or
comfortable. Making mistakes was ok, no
one was perfect, but the whole team had made a heck of a mistake, and she was the only one
aware of it.
"I don't know if I can find him for you, Rogue. I don't know if even Cerebro could
find him now."
Rogue looked at her with eyes that questioned.
Jean decided she had to start somewhere. "Remy left because of us. The X-Men,"
she clarified. "We blamed him. For you
leaving, for not being what we all thought he should be, for everything that had gone
wrong between you and him. We,
no
I
should have known better, even then." Jean lowered her head, and
studied the leaves lining the path.
"We've all come to love you, Rogue, since the day you came to us. At first, we felt
proud of ourselves that we could help you,
and smug that we were the family you chose for yourself. We patted ourselves on the back
for accepting you, even though
you'd fought against us in the past. We felt self-important as we supported you and your
struggles to live with your abilities. We
turned on Remy like a pack of jackals when you left."
"It was all your fault. You did it. You must be some kind of scum if Rogue ditched us
because of you. We threw all that and
more at Gambit. Oh, we never said it out loud. But then, we didn't need to. He heard every
word loud and clear.
"It would seem there was much more to Gambit than the secrets of his past that he
kept so well. "
Jean stopped, unsure if this was something she had the right to reveal.
"Jean, please." Rogue had taken her pride, and buried it. She needed Jean's
help, and would grovel if necessary.
"Do you know Gambit is truly a remarkable individual?" A total non-sequitur that
Rogue wasn't sure she was meant to answer.
"How so?" seemed safe enough, and hopefully would get Jean talking again.
"It would seem that Remy LeBeau managed to conceal more than one mutant ability from
Cerebro, the Professor, and myself."
"Huh?" was the most Rogue could manage at this point.
Jean once again searched for a starting point. "When we first met Remy, we were
searching for Storm, as you know. We'd
finally located her, thanks to Cerebro, but she was accompanied by another mutant, with a
power signature unlike any we'd
ever seen before. We should have paid more attention to that anomaly. Overlooking it has
done a great deal of harm.
"You know we found Storm with Remy, and Ororo refused to return without him. I think
maybe you should know why Storm
refused to leave him."
Jean drew Rogue into the story, as if she'd actually been there.
The X-Men were fanned out in a half-circle, with Remy and Ororo as their focus. Jean was
speaking to Remy, telling him about
Ororo.
Remy listened with more than his ears, and felt the truth of what she said.
"Petite?" he murmured to the child in his arms. "What
you t'ink, eh?" Truthful or not, he was *not* turning this child over to these people
without knowing it was what she wanted.
Ororo hid her face alongside Remy's, and her arms tightened in a stranglehold around
Remy's neck. "I do not recognize these
people, Remy. But I think they would not come with so odd a story if it were not
true."
Remy knew any number of lies people could present as truth, but it he couldn't dirty the
innocence of his companion. Remy
needed the words from Ororo. "You wan' to go wit' dem, petite?"
Ororo's grip tightened even more. Remy didn't even think of protesting, knowing this might
be the last time he held this beloved
child. "You are my friend. These people are not. Because there might be truth in what
they say, I will go, but not without you."
Remy's stranglehold on his feelings loosened for a moment in sheer, unmitigated relief. He
lowered his guard enough to give a
quick hug to Ororo in gratitude, and once again donned his mask of caution to face the
X-Men.
"Petite say she go, but she don' go nowhere wit'out me."
Jean and the rest of the X-Men flared startlement and distrust. No way did they want this
unknown mutant among them, neither
did they want Ororo spending more time than she must with this man.
Remy absorbed the impact of their feelings without comment. He was far too used to that
particular reaction to let it hurt him
anymore.
Jean marshaled her arguments, and looked at Ororo. "Child, I know you don't remember
us, but you have a home, and people
who miss you greatly. We would like our friend back. " She continued to tell Ororo of
her life, and emphasized repeatedly how
much she'd been missed. "We've been looking for you for months, Storm."
"My name is Ororo," were the first words she'd spoken directly to the X-Men.
"Yes, it is. Your name among us is Storm, because of the way you control the
weather."
"Little Stormy not much bigger than a raindrop herself, " Remy whispered in her
ear.
"Do not call me Stormy!" Ororo was growing more confident with each passing
moment, having determined in her own mind
that these people did not mean her harm.
Remy knew they wouldn't hurt their Storm, but had no such certainty about himself. The
minute he put her down, he was
vulnerable, in more ways than one.
The minute the thought crossed his mind, Ororo wiggled to get down. Remy's grip
automatically tightened, not wanting to
release the child, but realized he would look as if he'd been hiding behind her if he
didn't set her on her feet.
Jean watched as Remy knelt to put Storm down, and didn't slide her down his body as many
would have done, if they were
trying to keep an eye on them at the same time. Jean had no doubt that this man was
supremely aware of their every move, but
Storm had priority at the moment.
Placing little 'Stormy' (he couldn't help it, the name just fit so well!) on the ground,
he stood, and again faced the strangers,
braced for he didn't know what.
"Petite don' go wit'out me," he said again. Storm stood beside him and took his
hand. "Remy is my friend. I would like him to go
with me."
Jean had a quick mental pow-wow with her teammates. The general consensus was, to quote
Logan, "nobody got a prayer of
prying Storm away from that dirtball she'd hooked up with."
After checking in and clearing it with the Professor, who was most curious about this
unknown mutant, Jean cleared her throat,
and said "Well, it would seem that some introductions might be in order then."
They looked at Remy. He didn't even blink as he looked back from behind his dark glasses.
They waited. He waited. Storm
grew impatient. "I'm Ororo, and this is my friend Remy."
"Remy LeBeau, " he offered, after looking into Stormy's anxious face. Since
these people seemed like they were plenty
important to Ororo's future, best he see how the land lay before totally alienating them.
"We're a group called the X-Men. I'm Jean, this is Scott, Logan, and Bobby. Our other
teammates are waiting for us with the
leader of our group. The Professor would like to meet you and thank you personally for
watching over Storm."
Remy let the words slide past him. These people weren't important except as a way of
keeping close to Ororo. He waited, and
watched.
A bit awkwardly, Jean held out her hand to Ororo. "We came by jet. Would you like to
see it?"
Ororo was a basically trusting person. Which was why she'd allowed Remy to become her
protector. But demons of anxiety
clawed at Remy when she saw how she went to Jean without hesitation. Remy controlled
everything about his environment from
his movements to his feelings. He knew he couldn't control the child, but having her leave
his side amongst a group of hostile (at
least to him) strangers was not easy for him.
After a look at the rest of the X-Men, who were making their opinion of him exceptionally
clear without having as yet uttered a
single word, Remy turned to follow Ororo and Jean. "Don' t'ink none of dem goin' to
turn dere back on me." Remy was knew
they couldn't make a move he wasn't aware of, so the act of turning his back on the rest
of the team didn't strike him as
particularly hazardous. To the men of the X-Men, though, the act smacked of indifference
to the threat they embodied. *That
man either has more power than Magneto, or less sense than Sabretooth* Cyclops thought.
Either way, the answer was not
comforting.
Arriving at the mansion brought it's own set of difficulties. Ororo took one look at all
the plants growing around the house and
immediately was entranced. "Remy, everything is so green!" And off she went to
examine them more closely.
Iceman had tried to lead Remy to the Professor. Bobby should have known better than to
make even the innocent gesture of
tapping an unknown quantity on the shoulder.
In total silence, Remy turned, and had Bobby flat on his back with a knee on his neck.
"Don' be doin' dat again, homme, neh?"
Bobby's eyes had narrowed in anger at the ease of his humiliation in front of the others,
who had come running up when they
heard Remy speak.
"Let Iceman go, Remy" Cyclops said.
Remy looked at Iceman, and tilted his head to the side as if considering whether he would
or not. Bobby felt his humiliation turn
to outright hatred that this man would count him and his abilities out without even
blinking.
With the silence and grace that characterized his every movement, Remy flowed back to his
feet, and walked past Bobby to
Ororo. "Let's go meet dis Professor, petite."
The period following that conversation with the Professor was a time of stress, and strain
as the team did it's best to absorb
Remy, now renamed "Gambit".
Jean came back to the present, and blinked. "I should have seen it then. I should
have seen it." Jean sounded so ashamed of
herself that Rogue was startled.
"Seen what, sugah?"
"Gambit is an empath. Perhaps the most powerful ever. His empathy is the reason his
shields are so incredibly tight, and render
him virtually invisible to a telepath. He'd connected with Ororo as a child, and her
situation and his were similar enough that his
mind equated helping her with helping himself. Ororo got caught in the resonance between
his emotions and hers."
Rogue absorbed this information in silence. She needed time to assimilate it, but she knew
there was more to come. "You said
more'n one ability. We knew he could release kinetic energy."
"I said he'd concealed more than one ability. And done it from two of the most
powerful telepaths on the planet." Jean actually
sounded admiring.
"So, what was the other?" asked Rogue.
"Well, it may be an offshoot of his empathy. But it would seem that Remy LeBeau is
capable of some form of astral projection."
"Some form of? Speak english, sugah."
"The astral plane is a place where you can project your thoughts, and they take
physical form. Astral projection is placing your
thoughts on that plane. What Remy does isn't that. From what knowledge I've acquired over
the last several months since Remy
has left
" she shrugged, not knowing how to explain.
"What?" Rogue was getting impatient again, and her voice reflected it.
"It's only a feeling, and I can't prove it. This might all be my imagination, and I
want you to understand that Rogue."
"What, Jean?" Rogue was about to scream in frustration.
"The closest I can describe it would be a kind of "co-habitation". Remy can
project his mind into another's without the owner
being aware. It's also entirely possible that Gambit himself doesn't know this. If the
past few months were real, and not my
imagination, Gambit has been here, among us all, often."