Log: Remy/Pete/Amanda
Nov. 11th, 2005 02:22 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsRemy leaves the mansion to find out if his guess about Amanda's whereabouts is correct. If he is right, the chances are he won't sethe next morning.
Tired. Useless. Broken.
Remy looked into the mirror and sighed. That's what he was now. A fractured image of who he'd been, nothing more than an afterthought to those around him. He dressed carefully, using the handrails to step into the black pants, struggling to pull down the sweater. It was his armor. Sunglasses, dark jacket. It was all black, hiding him within.
He'd need it. He picked up the cane, and limped off. There was still a job to do. The journals told him that he was alone on this one. It didn't matter. Gambit used people and discarded them the second they had no more value to him. Remy LeBeau didn't. That was the difference. That's what he hung on to.
Limping up stairs. The pain helped. Cleared his head and kept him sharp. He didn't know what specifically had caused the break, but it had been coming as long as he'd been back. Since Wisdom put personal ahead of important.
No one else saw. He beat back the fury. She was an eighteen year old girl. She'd been to the place where the only value that you could feel was what someone would pay for you, and it took more than a year to come out of that. It wasn't right to give up on her yet.
Remy hit the foyer, the students flowing past him with the same sideways looks they always did. The shadowy figure before, now the equally mysterious cripple in the halls. He was silent as they left.
Almost all.
"Chere." Remy nodded to Marie-Ange, from her perch at the bottom of the stairs. Her face was pale, set against her long red hair.
"Are you leaving?"
"I have to go and see 'manda."
"What are you going to say?"
"Dat she has to make her choices."
"Are you going to try and bring her back?"
"If I can."
"Good." She stood there, staring at him for another minute before taking to the stairs. Remy watched her disappear before turning back and limping painfully out the door.
Remy and Pete meet for the first time since Hong Kong, and this time, the fight is verbal, but no less deadly.
The cab took him all the way to the front doors, to a place that was more used to limos than yellow taxis. Remy fought himself out of the back seat and on to a stable footing on the street. The bulky brownstone in front of hime was surprisingly restraining, considering the money collected within. Remy settled himself and walked in. Chances were that he wasn't coming out alive. That didn't worry him.
"May I help you?" The doorman took in the man with a distainful look, obviously dismissing him. In response, LeBeau drew out a cigarette and lit it with the end of his finger. That gained him a few more seconds.
"Pete Wisdom. Get him."
"I'm very sorry, sir, but Mr Wisdom is otherwise indisposed." The man sniffed. "And we thank people not to smoke here."
"Why? You don't know what dey going to not do." Remy blew a plume a smoke into the man's face. "Wisdom. Now."
"I think you should leave, sir." The man waved for a couple of guards, but didn't expect Remy's hand to shoot out and grab him by the head. In a second, his face was pressed against the paperwork on his lectern, with Remy's hand glowing ominiously purple around him.
"Let's try dis again. You going to call up and get Wisdom here, and Remy not kill you and de trained monkeys on de way here." Remy leaned close to the man's ear. "And dis not a negociation, homme."
There was a long dangerous moment before the man picked up the phone and spoke carefully into it.
"Who? Are you on crack again? Yes, alright, keep him there. Do *not* let him past you. I'll be down at once."
Pete slammed the phone down, and left the office at a brisk walk, frowning, and fishing in the pocket of his jacket for his cigarettes. As he got the balcony overlooking the lobby, he paused to light one while he looked down. It was him. So something was very, very wrong here.
"Alright, let him past." Pete waved the security guards, who took a step back to allow the other man to approach the stairs.
"This isn't a social call." He didn't bother to make it a question.
"Non, it not." Remy said, dropping his half smoked cigarette on the expensive carpet and grinding it out. He walked forward, the said ugly limp in his left side, obviously needing the cane for support. There were other little things; the focus of his look, as opposed to Gambit's normal flickering gaze. The opaque sunglasses. Most of all, LeBeau was subtly favouring his right eye, using it to keep Wisdom in sight.
"What happened to you? Get run over by Cain?"
"Non. Remy slipped climbing off of you sister." LeBeau paused, pulled another cigarette from the pack and lit it with the tip of his finger. "I'm here to see 'manda."
"Mmmm." Pete looked him up and down. "That's an interesting theory." He gestured to a side room, a small private lounge area, before stepping inside himself, not taking his eyes off Remy the whole time. "Sit down, have a drink, and we can talk about it."
"I don't think so." Remy hobbled painfully beside Wisdom. "We not going to have a drink. Or a seat. And we 'specially not going to have a friendly talk about it." LeBeau drew on his cigarette and blew a plume of smoke into Pete's face when he turned. "You're going to make whatever arrangements you need to make to get me into manda's room. I know she's here."
"Suit yourself." said Pete, sprawling in a chair himself. "I had no intention of being friendly, but I lose nothing by being polite. Judging by that stick you're leaning on I don't imagine it's terribly pleasant for you to be standing, and even assuming Amanda was here, and even assuming I were about to make arrangements for you to see her, it'd take a little while to get everything sorted out. You might as well sit. And while you do, you can tell me why the hell I should trust anyone from Xavier's near my family ever again, after the way that place seems to have fucked us over the last year. And then, maybe, we can talk about the rest of it."
"You must be loving dis, Wisdom." Remy's smile was pure venom. "First you sell out de entire mansion for dis place and dat very nice suit you in. Den you take apart de Professor's network because you know dat he'd rather hand you de intel you need to gut him rather den out de agents. Finally, you wait for 'manda to implode, knowing dat she'd come here for you. And de one person dat is ready to fight things on your terms is now a cripple, neh? Must be like Christmas."
"But here's de catch. Remy resigned." Remy lowered himself slowly into the chair. Wisdom obviously hadn't heard about Remy's leaving, considering the look on his face. "Xavier is on his own, and dat means I'm off of de rules. Which means dat I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure dat you bastards don't get de chance to twist her into someone like you. 'manda de one who gets to make her choice, and it sure as hell not going to be wit' only you and dat life-sucking bitch in her ear."
"That's nice for you, old son. But y'know, I quit Xavier's myself, and it didn't magically get me everything I wanted, now did it? And unless you've suddenly turned into a better actor that I think you have, you're not in much state to do 'whatever it takes'."
Pete took a drag on his cigarette. "Oh, and for the record: I've got nothing to do with Amanda and Selene's deal. It's exactly like you say: she gets to make her own decisions. And one of them appears to have been fucking off out of Xaviers, and not telling anyone where she was going. So, given that, and the general level of a pain in my arse that you've been this yesr, I don't really see why I should stick my neck out for you, just on your say so."
"Dat's right. Remy forgot dat you a business man now. So, I guess we make a deal." Remy leaned forward, unreadable behind the sunglasses. "You stop fucking around and do whatever it is dat you have to do to get me into see 'manda. In return, Remy doesn't dump de entire contents of your files on to de internet in the de meantime."
There was a moment of stunned silence in the room, broken only by the hard whisper of LeBeau's voice, for Wisdom alone. "All de secrets dat you bartered into dis place, Remy put out into de sun. I doubt dat de authorities will be able to do anything wit' dem, but airing de details of your life might answer a lot of questions for de less legal componants of your career."
After a moment, Pete threw his head back and laughed loudly, before fixing Remy with a grin.
"Oh, that's good. That's very good. Well played." He paused, the smile fading. "You're right, I have no particular desire to spend the next few years cleaning up that kind of mess. Much easier to smooth my colleagues here over later, I think. I'll make the arrangments, and send someone in to show you to her room in a minute."
He stood up, and headed for the door, pausing on the threshold, to add, in a voice like granite:
"I'd to claim this has been fun, and we must do it again, but the very next time you try a stunt like this, I'll kill you where you stand, and worry about everything else later."
"Remy look forward to dat, Wisdom." LeBeau shifted his cane between his hands. There was a moment of silence before Pete finally walked out the door. Remy avoided the sigh of relief, stilling himself and using the techniques learned at the Agency to keep his thoughts equally difficult.
What he'd done had been a major gamble. Dumping those files would have made things immensely difficult for Wisdom, maybe even enough that his influence with the Inner Court might have dried up. But it also meant tying Xavier's in with a number of things that the government alone would have not found acceptable. Nations tended to be a little touchy over their own people spying on them. If Wisdom hadn't have taken the bluff, Remy would have been dead in seconds.
He took a deep breath, and opened the door.
Remy and Amanda finally meet again. They're conversation is cut short by Heinrich, but not before Remy is able to make her finally ask some questions of herself.
"Did you want anything else, miss?"
"No, thanks. The aspirin's fine. You can go."
Amanda waited until the door had closed behind the manservant Selene had assigned to her before shaking out two aspirin from the bottle that had been left and swallowing them down with a sip of water. The headache was part of the damage ripping the bond out - at least she'd actually been able to get out of bed this week without her nose gushing blood. The Club had a couple of telepaths on tap - they'd managed to repair the worst of the damage, if not the echoing silence in the back of her mind where before there had been a constant presence. Until the link was gone she hadn't realised just how constant that noise had been.
With a sigh she set the water down and turned back to the book in front of her. History and etiquette of the Hellfire Club. Preparation for the upcoming ceremony, along with the drilling in her expected duties. They were even continuing her studies, providing a tutor once she'd been fit. All this, just for her.
It made her nervous.
Her head came around angrily at the sound of the door opening. She had left specific instructions not to be disturbed. Even though it had only been a couple of weeks, it was easy to become accustomed to the command of the servants. No one wanted to cross the new Black Knight.
The angry words died on her lips.
"Remy ask if dis was a bad time, but can't 'magine dat dere's ever going to be a good one in dis place." He was standing in the open door, dressed all in drab black. Unless you knew to look for the cane, no one would have guessed the man there was crippled for life.
She shouldn't have been surprised. Only it had taken longer, far longer, than she'd thought, to the point where she thought he wasn't coming at all. She'd grown complacent. And now she was afraid, deeply afraid. Remy being here could only mean one thing.
"I'd ask how you got in, only that'd be stupid. What's with the cane? New affectation?" she asked, going for bravado. Yes he was probably here to kill her, but that didn't mean he'd succeed. Hadn't that been part of the deal? Getting the control to defend herself?
"Something like dat. Heard dat it's de new style." Remy didn't move, didn't take off the sunglasses or offer any hint to his intentions. He shifted the cane further in front, leaning on it lightly. "See dat you been changing you style as while."
The black leather outfit, cut in the style of Victorian fetish, was not designed for lounging, but was the expected garb for the Inner Court. It was ridiculous and overwrought, but that's what the Hellfire Club expected from it's new inductees. Even with the sunglasses in the way, she knew that nothing had escaped his gaze.
Amanda shrugged. "You like it?" she asked mockingly,, shifting slightly and crossing her legs. He wouldn't be taken in for an instant, but he'd be expecting it of her, and she could lure him into thinking he was calling the shots here. Perhaps even get them both out of the situation alive. "'S not exactly comfortable, but it's expected."
"Remy bet it is." He made a small gesture. "We just going to talk in de hallway or you going to invite me inside?"
Amanda nodded, and Remy walked inside. The ugly limp. Only the cane was keeping him up as he hobbled painfully over over to a chair in the corner and lowered himself into it. With great care, he took off his sunglasses and tucked them into his jacket pocket. He folded both hands over the top of his cane and rested his chin on top of them, mismatched stare on her.
It took all of the control Selene had taught her and then some to keep herself from reacting to the limp, the greyed-out eye. Even so, her eyes widened slightly. She'd Healed him, hadn't she? Hadn't that been what all this was about? How could this be? The answers came as soon as she raised the questions - it hadn't been enough. The power she'd taken - stolen, really - it hadn't been enough. "There was too much damage," she found herself whispering.
"Dat's what dey told me." His eyes never moved. "In fact, dere so much damage dat Remy die on de table."
The silence stretched out between them. Remy was watching, waiting for her to talk. He was willing to be patient. He was good at that. Over the last few days, his maddeningly quiet questioning had been pulling together information about what had happened the day they'd pulled him back, and piecing each hour of Amanda's from that.
"They tell you what happened next?" Amanda wouldn't have put it past them not to. They hadn't told her about his condition, no-one had. It was such a shock, seeing him like this, broken, the piercing stare clouded.
"Oui." He smiled bitterly. "Not all at once, but dey finally filled in all de details." He gestured at her with the cane. "Dey told Remy de reason dat I'm not dead is dat you reached down and dragged me out of de grave wit' both hands."
"I couldn't let you go, not like that." Finally she dropped her gaze from his, a faint flush colouring her pale cheeks. "I couldn't lose you too. Not like..." She didn't have to say the name. Remy knew fully well who she meant, moreso than most.
"Can't say dat Remy inclined to argue much." No matter what, she had saved his life. Maybe that was too easy a way to explain his faith in her. In reality, he knew her from both where she came from, and where she ended up. Remy knew that the odds were against him getting out of this meeting alive. Threats to Pete aside, there was an advantage to having him killed to other members of the Inner Circle, Selene first and foremost.
"Even with how I did it?" she asked quietly, eyes still on her lap, the ridiculous corset. She looked like a fool and she knew it. "It matters to everyone else. 'S why I left, in the end," she said, looking up at him at last. Well, mostly. But Lorna was the sacred cow she couldn't just drag up, not yet. Not until she knew what his intentions were.
"It does. You scared dem. Fear's a powerful weapon." His voice was deliberately flat, no openings or hints hiding in it. "But de power itself? Dat's not really much of an issue to me. You can suck de life from people, de Professor can rewrite some homme's mind as easy as I pour a drink." He looked down for a moment, the first time he dropped her gaze. "And Remy can kill a person faster den you can blink. Dose all things to be afraid of."
"I was as careful as I could be. I didn't want to hurt anyone, only I couldn't let you die. I never meant..." She cut herself off - Selene no doubt would be fully aware of this visit, would be listening in and she couldn't show weakness. Not here. "So why are you here, Remy?" she asked, using his name at last. "Is this," and she gestured around at the room, herself. "This is an issue, isn't it?"
"You think so?" Remy settled back on his hands. There was the first crack. Remy wasn't there to save her. Only she could do that. The question was whether or not she was in too far to make the right decision.
"Isn't it?" Amanda was confused. Where was the Remy who had verbally torn strips off her for going back to Manuel? "You aren't here to take me back? Tell me I'm throwing my life away?"
"If I have to tell you dat, den dere's no point." His eyes narrowed. "Selene de type of person dat you need to learn from?"
The flash in her expression was like an open book for him. Had she really gone the same way as Wisdom? Was that all it had taken? His hands tightened slightly on the cane, barely noticeable and the only hint to his inner thoughts.
Amanda was quiet for a long time. Part of her had hoped that he'd take her out of this, make things better. Take her with him, like they'd spoken about. She pushed that false hope away, squelched it firmly. It belonged to the helpless girl she had been, needing people to save her, protect her. She wasn't that person any more. "Nothing comes free," she said at last. "The power to save you... it had to come from somewhere."
"Non. De knowledge had to come from somewhere first, chere. And dat wasn't a situation in which you had no other choice." Finally there was the steel. Remy's body might have been shattered, but it was obvious that who he was hadn't broken with it.
She flinched minutely. "Maybe. Didn't feel that way at the time. I had to do something about the addiction, before I really hurt Meg. Before I turned into someone like Rack. Strange was gone, Moira couldn't help any more... what else could I do? Ask Manuel to take it all away so I was hooked on him instead?"
"Dat's not how dis is going to go. Dis what you used for Nate when he come to talk to you?" Remy said, his words slicing deep. "You know better den dat, 'manda. You honestly think dat Remy ready to believe de line you worked up ahead of time?"
"I didn't even get this far with Nate - he'd already decided I was evil before he stepped in the room." Remy hadn't, of that she was sure. He might have forgiven Lorna because he was in love with her, but he hadn't given up on her entirely. If he'd been there to kill her, she'd already be dead. "I got tired of needing, Remy. Not just the addiction - needing people to help me, to save me. Needing people and then them not being there. I thought if I had control, it'd stop." It was probably more honest than she'd been with anyone in months.
"Dat led you to dis place?" He shook his head slowly. "Non, dat's not enough, 'manda. You know better den to honestly think dis place is de answer." There was little pity in Remy. Pity was part of what she was running from. All he had to offer her was truth.
"It's not. Just... I made a choice, Remy. I've got to see it through. As much as I might want you to take me out of here, save the day... I can't let you do that. Not any more." Amanda took a breath, aware of how it looked in the ridiculous corset. "I can't go back to what I was before."
"Remy didn't come to take you out of here." There it was, finally out in the open. Her expression was like a physical blow but there was no other way. Remy set his jaw and simply stared at her.
"Then why are you here?" She spat it out, angry and confused. "To show me what a shoddy fucking job I did? To rub my nose in it? Or to tell me 'bout how you and Lorna love each other so bloody much you're willing to forget she shoved nails through you?" Amanda knew she was probably going too far, but she couldn't stop. She'd had enough of his mind games, of him staring at her with that cold expression, the same one she fancied he wore when he killed. "If you're here t' put a fucking end to me, then bloody well do it."
Remy struggled to his feet, using the cane to lever himself up. "Dat's what you were expecting? Sounds like you think dere's a reason dat Remy should." He limped over slowly, until he was directly in front of where she was sitting. "You going to tell me dat Lorna was de one dat pushed you to dis next?"
"You're expecting me to, aren't you? I saw the two of you, you know. They wouldn't let me in the medlab to see you, so I used a scrying spell. Caught the whole tender moment." For a second, her expression was hurt, confused. Then it smoothed out into that unnatural calm she'd worked so hard to achieve. "But I can't blame it on anyone else, not even her. 'S all down to me, in the end. My choice, my deal." My fault.
"It's all about choices. Yours, mine, Lorna's." Remy leaned down, very close to her and his expression suddenly thunderous. "But you not making dem. Not yet. Dis is you grabbing on to de first way out dat you see, and trying to pretend dat it's a real decision."
He straightened back up, his expression back to the same almost blank questioning look he'd come in with, the sudden anger gone so fast that she almost wondered if she'd imagined it. "You know dat Lorna loves me, chere. Even offered to be wit' me."
"And you love her. I know. I saw it. What the fuck does any of that have to with me?" Amanda knew she sounded petulant, but she couldn't seem to keep the sulky tone out of her voice. Perhaps because Remy's words had hit a nerve. Smug bastard always had a knack for seeing straight through her.
"Because I said no." Remy said simply.
She blinked at him, confused. "Why'd you do a stupid bloody thing like that for?" she asked, slipping momentarily back into the strong South London accent. "Not 'cause of that pathetic wet lump of a boyfriend of hers." She couldn't see how it applied to her, in any case.
"Can't see it?" He cocked an eyebrow at her, the devilish expression made sinister by the almost blind eye. "'manda, de point is dat she loves Alex more. To take dat would be acting like de only thing dat mattered was Remy's own feelings. Dat de promises dat I made are less important den what I want. Gambit would have. But I'm not him."
He gestured to the room around him. "I told you once, dat dere's a line inside. Doesn't matter what you do, unless you cross dat line. De day you do, dat's when you become past de point of return. Because every other decision past it, no matter how large or small, gets dat much easier."
Oh. There it was. Amanda fell silent as Remy's words sank in. "And what if that line's already crossed?" she asked at last, her words almost a whisper. "What if you've made that decision and can't turn back from it?" She remembered Manuel's pain, the way he'd grasped at her ankle even after she had smashed the link to fragments, and sympathetic pain twinged behind her eyes.
"Have you?" Remy said quietly. He wanted to be able to simply gather her up and take her out of this place. Worse, he knew that if he tried, she'd go with him. But the problem was that it would just postpone the inevitable. The only one that could save Amanda this time was herself, and he bled inside knowing that.
She wanted to say she hadn't. Only she remembered Nathan's words and expression when she'd realised she hadn't considered the babies in her healing spell, felt again Manuel's anguish at her sleeping with Remy, at Frank's death. The reaction of the school to how she'd saved Remy. She'd crossed the line all right, had done so the minute she'd used that calling card to contact Selene and strike this damned bargain in the first place.
"I think you should leave," she said at last, pulling together the shreds of her composure. "There's nothing for you here."
"Dat right?" Remy's face was unreadable, again only the tightening of his hands on the top of the cane served as any indication of his thoughts. "Dat's a shame, because dere's a lot out dere for you. You always got a place wit' me, wit' Moira, wit' Tante."
Before she could respond, he was back leaning in close, a vicious smirk on his face. "Unless you want to say dat dis is easier. Remy see it on your face, 'manda. See dat you already looking at de way someone else wants."
"Tante wants to take away the magic - is that how you want me? A helpless little victim for you to save to make yourself feel better about yourself? And Moira's got Nate and the baby - she doesn't want me now she's got family of her own." Why wouldn't he just go? Write her off the same way everyone else had? "I can't keep relying on other people to be there, Remy. No matter what they say, it always ends up the same. They fuck off and I'm left trying to put things back together. At least this is on my own terms - Selene isn't trying to be my mother or my friend. She doesn't care about me and that makes it a whole lot more simple."
"Just like Rack. Guess you right. Dat makes it a lot more simple. No one can blame a tool after all." Remy's voice turned cruel. "Dat what you want to be, 'manda? Just another pawn for someone else? Doesn't matter whether it's sex or power, we both know what selling youself leads to."
"Like I was ever anything else at the school. Heal this person, Heal that one... they even stopped thanking me in the end." Amanda's voice was filled with bitterness. "They didn't want me, they wanted some good little girl who did what she was told and who'd pour her guts into fixing up people when they got hurt saving the world. And when I couldn't do that any more, they just dropped me." Turning her face from him, she went on: "I was only as good as how much I could do for them. Same as it's always been - why should I change now? At least this way the perks are better."
"Sure dey are. Bet Pete said de exact same thing when he left."
"Guess it's all in the family then, isn't it?" she shot back. "You were wrong about me, Remy. Rack taught me too well - turns out I'm as much as monster as he ever was. Proved that the first time I used Meg as a fix."
"Non. Dat de person you want to be? Rack made you into a meal. You crossed dat line yet?" Remy made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "You sit dere in dat stupid outfit and think you can tell me 'bout being a monster? Me?"
He moved so fast he blurred, rotating on the cane and grabbing her by the front of the corset. His hands were unnaturally strong, pulling her out of her chair with an astonished squeak. He wrenched her around so she was facing in front of the gaudy gilt mirror, both of them framed in it. "You look in dere, chere, and tell me all 'bout how evil you think dat you can be." His voice was utter poison, leading her to wonder if he was here to kill her after all.
Her first instinct was the shielding spell, but the words died half-formed as she caught sight of herself. She looked like a gormless twit, she knew that; it had been her first thought the minute she'd put on the outfit. Instead she wrenched away from him, taking advantage of the loss of balance losing the cane had resulted in. "What else can I fucking do, Remy? I made the deal, I have to keep to my end of it. Otherwise it won't be just me she comes down on, it'll be the people I care about as well! " Her hair tumbled forward over her face. "I sold you all out so I could finally get some control, beat this fucking addiction, is that what you want me to say? I fucked it up, I know I did, but there's no going back now. So better you just write me off same as Nate and the rest and forget about me." The last words came out as a strangled sob.
"Remy told you once. You don't get dat excuse." It was heartless, but there was no other way. In the back of Remy's mind, he swore that a lot of people were going to pay for this. Setting it up so the only way he could protect an eighteen year old girl that he cared about was by putting her through hell. "You not protecting anyone, chere. You giving dem de means to hurt and kill everyone you act like you care 'bout."
Even crippled, pivoting on the damn cane and fighting the pain from his leg into another place in his head, there was obvious power in LeBeau; dangerous and unpredictable. "You cross dat line, 'manda, and you give up on me."
"She promised - as long as I give her what she wants, she can't touch any of you," Amanda managed to say, making a supreme effort to pull herself together. Selene wouldn't approve of how easily she'd let him goad her into this state, she knew. It only highlighted what a cock-up this whole thing was. "And I've got control now. Real power. More than enough to take her on if she goes back on her word." Brushing her hair back, she gave him an imploring look. "Please, Remy, just go. I didn't drag you back from being dead to have Selene snacking on you."
"You a liar, 'manda. You not here to protect people from Selene. And you certainly not being taught enough to take her on. You think dat dose excuses going to work on me?" Remy settled himself on the cane, hands folded over the top and legs spread. The way that he was standing, it was as if he was ready for anything that could be thrown at him. "Don't even pretend dat you doing dis for me either."
"I already beat her once when I wasn't even in my own fucking body! I can take her if I have to!" Amanda rounded on him, frustrated by his apparent inability to see sense. Why couldn't he see? It hadn't been this hard with the rest of them, not even Manuel. "It was what she taught me that brought you back. I only wish I'd gone to her sooner; maybe then I would've been able to save Charlie as well!"
Whatever else she might have said was cut off by the sudden movement of Remy's. One second he was with her near the mirror, the next his fingers were splayed across her face, the strength in them like steel. She was totally unhurt, but couldn't open her mouth, the way he was holding her. For a moment, all she could think was that he could snap her neck like a twig, and there wasn't a thing she could do. But the only thing he was doing was stopping her from speaking with astonishing finality.
"Don't say his name here, chere. Not ever." There was a cold light in his eyes, but something more. There was a message there, tied in with the hurt and the cold vicious words.
"I think that's quite enough, Mister LeBeau." The cool voice from the doorway shocked her, but Remy didn't so much as twitch. "I'm afraid visiting hours are over,"
The sound of Heinrich's voice rallied some form of rationality in Amanda and with a word and a gesture she activated the shielding spell, breaking his grip on her face. Glancing in the mirror, she saw his fingermarks tattooed in red across her unnaturally pale skin. "Heinrich," she said with a nervous bob of her head to the men framed in the doorway. "This wasn't... it's not a problem. Really. He was just going."
Heinrich watched her, unblinking, and then apparently decided on a more subtle course of action than killing Remy on the spot. Obviously Selene had been watching, and set her on LeBeau when things got too close. "If you say so, Amanda. Mr. Le Beau, if you would allow me to show you the way out?"
"Remy just leaving anyway. Guess dere nothing here for me." The words hurt, calculated to do so. Remy turned towards the door and limped out on his cane. He didn't spare Amanda a backward glance. He's already done what he needed to do. Now it was up to Amanda to save herself. The doors closed behind him.
"This way, Mister LeBeau."
"Merci." Remy took a look at the woman beside him. "Dat look required, or you all just like de bad Victorian thug image."
"You're remarkably jovial for a man about to be quietly executed behind the building." Heinrich cocked his head to one side. "The Lady watched your performance with my pupil. Not a terribly convincing attempt, I'm afraid. Guilty conscience."
"Dat's between me and my conscience, homme. 'manda made her decision, it seems." It was a lie, but Remy knew he was walking over a pit of snakes. If Selene thought he had gotten through to Amanda, both of them would be dead in minutes.
"Shame about the injury. She said you could have been a useful addition to the Inner Court, Gambit. It's almost a pity to have you killed."
"She won't and neither will you." Remy turned on him, the smirk on his lips. "You won't kill me because I'm not a threat to her. 'manda has already chosen Selene over me, and dat makes me irrelevant. But if you kill me, you know dat 'manda will spend de next few years finding out a way to make her and you pay for it. Alive, I don't matter to her any more. Dead, you took me away from her."
He leaned in, almost nose to nose. "And I know dat 'manda's powerful enough to be scared of."
Heinrich matched his gaze, and finally stopped to listen into his ear piece. A smile come on his lips before he finally clapped his hands. "Bravo, Mister LeBeau. Bravo. You're very right. Killing you might have an issue with her pupil. The Lady says better for you to limp your crippled body back to Xavier's. Gambit could have had anything he asked for in return for his help. You on the other hand," He gestured at the cane. "aren't worth the bullet. Goodbye."
"Au revoir." Remy limped out of the front door, down towards the street. He flagged down a cab and lowered himself into the back painfully.
He had opened the door for Amanda. She knew she had a place to come back to. And he was deathly afraid she wouldn't. Evil had it easier, he thought. There was only one upside. If Amanda made the choice, choose to walk over that line, he'd kill Wisdom and Selene for it. His death didn't matter. Sometimes, all you had left was to die for someone.
Only the tightening of his hands on the cane betrayed his emotions on the long drive home to Westchester.
***
Tired. Useless. Broken.
Remy looked into the mirror and sighed. That's what he was now. A fractured image of who he'd been, nothing more than an afterthought to those around him. He dressed carefully, using the handrails to step into the black pants, struggling to pull down the sweater. It was his armor. Sunglasses, dark jacket. It was all black, hiding him within.
He'd need it. He picked up the cane, and limped off. There was still a job to do. The journals told him that he was alone on this one. It didn't matter. Gambit used people and discarded them the second they had no more value to him. Remy LeBeau didn't. That was the difference. That's what he hung on to.
Limping up stairs. The pain helped. Cleared his head and kept him sharp. He didn't know what specifically had caused the break, but it had been coming as long as he'd been back. Since Wisdom put personal ahead of important.
No one else saw. He beat back the fury. She was an eighteen year old girl. She'd been to the place where the only value that you could feel was what someone would pay for you, and it took more than a year to come out of that. It wasn't right to give up on her yet.
Remy hit the foyer, the students flowing past him with the same sideways looks they always did. The shadowy figure before, now the equally mysterious cripple in the halls. He was silent as they left.
Almost all.
"Chere." Remy nodded to Marie-Ange, from her perch at the bottom of the stairs. Her face was pale, set against her long red hair.
"Are you leaving?"
"I have to go and see 'manda."
"What are you going to say?"
"Dat she has to make her choices."
"Are you going to try and bring her back?"
"If I can."
"Good." She stood there, staring at him for another minute before taking to the stairs. Remy watched her disappear before turning back and limping painfully out the door.
Remy and Pete meet for the first time since Hong Kong, and this time, the fight is verbal, but no less deadly.
The cab took him all the way to the front doors, to a place that was more used to limos than yellow taxis. Remy fought himself out of the back seat and on to a stable footing on the street. The bulky brownstone in front of hime was surprisingly restraining, considering the money collected within. Remy settled himself and walked in. Chances were that he wasn't coming out alive. That didn't worry him.
"May I help you?" The doorman took in the man with a distainful look, obviously dismissing him. In response, LeBeau drew out a cigarette and lit it with the end of his finger. That gained him a few more seconds.
"Pete Wisdom. Get him."
"I'm very sorry, sir, but Mr Wisdom is otherwise indisposed." The man sniffed. "And we thank people not to smoke here."
"Why? You don't know what dey going to not do." Remy blew a plume a smoke into the man's face. "Wisdom. Now."
"I think you should leave, sir." The man waved for a couple of guards, but didn't expect Remy's hand to shoot out and grab him by the head. In a second, his face was pressed against the paperwork on his lectern, with Remy's hand glowing ominiously purple around him.
"Let's try dis again. You going to call up and get Wisdom here, and Remy not kill you and de trained monkeys on de way here." Remy leaned close to the man's ear. "And dis not a negociation, homme."
There was a long dangerous moment before the man picked up the phone and spoke carefully into it.
"Who? Are you on crack again? Yes, alright, keep him there. Do *not* let him past you. I'll be down at once."
Pete slammed the phone down, and left the office at a brisk walk, frowning, and fishing in the pocket of his jacket for his cigarettes. As he got the balcony overlooking the lobby, he paused to light one while he looked down. It was him. So something was very, very wrong here.
"Alright, let him past." Pete waved the security guards, who took a step back to allow the other man to approach the stairs.
"This isn't a social call." He didn't bother to make it a question.
"Non, it not." Remy said, dropping his half smoked cigarette on the expensive carpet and grinding it out. He walked forward, the said ugly limp in his left side, obviously needing the cane for support. There were other little things; the focus of his look, as opposed to Gambit's normal flickering gaze. The opaque sunglasses. Most of all, LeBeau was subtly favouring his right eye, using it to keep Wisdom in sight.
"What happened to you? Get run over by Cain?"
"Non. Remy slipped climbing off of you sister." LeBeau paused, pulled another cigarette from the pack and lit it with the tip of his finger. "I'm here to see 'manda."
"Mmmm." Pete looked him up and down. "That's an interesting theory." He gestured to a side room, a small private lounge area, before stepping inside himself, not taking his eyes off Remy the whole time. "Sit down, have a drink, and we can talk about it."
"I don't think so." Remy hobbled painfully beside Wisdom. "We not going to have a drink. Or a seat. And we 'specially not going to have a friendly talk about it." LeBeau drew on his cigarette and blew a plume of smoke into Pete's face when he turned. "You're going to make whatever arrangements you need to make to get me into manda's room. I know she's here."
"Suit yourself." said Pete, sprawling in a chair himself. "I had no intention of being friendly, but I lose nothing by being polite. Judging by that stick you're leaning on I don't imagine it's terribly pleasant for you to be standing, and even assuming Amanda was here, and even assuming I were about to make arrangements for you to see her, it'd take a little while to get everything sorted out. You might as well sit. And while you do, you can tell me why the hell I should trust anyone from Xavier's near my family ever again, after the way that place seems to have fucked us over the last year. And then, maybe, we can talk about the rest of it."
"You must be loving dis, Wisdom." Remy's smile was pure venom. "First you sell out de entire mansion for dis place and dat very nice suit you in. Den you take apart de Professor's network because you know dat he'd rather hand you de intel you need to gut him rather den out de agents. Finally, you wait for 'manda to implode, knowing dat she'd come here for you. And de one person dat is ready to fight things on your terms is now a cripple, neh? Must be like Christmas."
"But here's de catch. Remy resigned." Remy lowered himself slowly into the chair. Wisdom obviously hadn't heard about Remy's leaving, considering the look on his face. "Xavier is on his own, and dat means I'm off of de rules. Which means dat I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure dat you bastards don't get de chance to twist her into someone like you. 'manda de one who gets to make her choice, and it sure as hell not going to be wit' only you and dat life-sucking bitch in her ear."
"That's nice for you, old son. But y'know, I quit Xavier's myself, and it didn't magically get me everything I wanted, now did it? And unless you've suddenly turned into a better actor that I think you have, you're not in much state to do 'whatever it takes'."
Pete took a drag on his cigarette. "Oh, and for the record: I've got nothing to do with Amanda and Selene's deal. It's exactly like you say: she gets to make her own decisions. And one of them appears to have been fucking off out of Xaviers, and not telling anyone where she was going. So, given that, and the general level of a pain in my arse that you've been this yesr, I don't really see why I should stick my neck out for you, just on your say so."
"Dat's right. Remy forgot dat you a business man now. So, I guess we make a deal." Remy leaned forward, unreadable behind the sunglasses. "You stop fucking around and do whatever it is dat you have to do to get me into see 'manda. In return, Remy doesn't dump de entire contents of your files on to de internet in the de meantime."
There was a moment of stunned silence in the room, broken only by the hard whisper of LeBeau's voice, for Wisdom alone. "All de secrets dat you bartered into dis place, Remy put out into de sun. I doubt dat de authorities will be able to do anything wit' dem, but airing de details of your life might answer a lot of questions for de less legal componants of your career."
After a moment, Pete threw his head back and laughed loudly, before fixing Remy with a grin.
"Oh, that's good. That's very good. Well played." He paused, the smile fading. "You're right, I have no particular desire to spend the next few years cleaning up that kind of mess. Much easier to smooth my colleagues here over later, I think. I'll make the arrangments, and send someone in to show you to her room in a minute."
He stood up, and headed for the door, pausing on the threshold, to add, in a voice like granite:
"I'd to claim this has been fun, and we must do it again, but the very next time you try a stunt like this, I'll kill you where you stand, and worry about everything else later."
"Remy look forward to dat, Wisdom." LeBeau shifted his cane between his hands. There was a moment of silence before Pete finally walked out the door. Remy avoided the sigh of relief, stilling himself and using the techniques learned at the Agency to keep his thoughts equally difficult.
What he'd done had been a major gamble. Dumping those files would have made things immensely difficult for Wisdom, maybe even enough that his influence with the Inner Court might have dried up. But it also meant tying Xavier's in with a number of things that the government alone would have not found acceptable. Nations tended to be a little touchy over their own people spying on them. If Wisdom hadn't have taken the bluff, Remy would have been dead in seconds.
He took a deep breath, and opened the door.
Remy and Amanda finally meet again. They're conversation is cut short by Heinrich, but not before Remy is able to make her finally ask some questions of herself.
"Did you want anything else, miss?"
"No, thanks. The aspirin's fine. You can go."
Amanda waited until the door had closed behind the manservant Selene had assigned to her before shaking out two aspirin from the bottle that had been left and swallowing them down with a sip of water. The headache was part of the damage ripping the bond out - at least she'd actually been able to get out of bed this week without her nose gushing blood. The Club had a couple of telepaths on tap - they'd managed to repair the worst of the damage, if not the echoing silence in the back of her mind where before there had been a constant presence. Until the link was gone she hadn't realised just how constant that noise had been.
With a sigh she set the water down and turned back to the book in front of her. History and etiquette of the Hellfire Club. Preparation for the upcoming ceremony, along with the drilling in her expected duties. They were even continuing her studies, providing a tutor once she'd been fit. All this, just for her.
It made her nervous.
Her head came around angrily at the sound of the door opening. She had left specific instructions not to be disturbed. Even though it had only been a couple of weeks, it was easy to become accustomed to the command of the servants. No one wanted to cross the new Black Knight.
The angry words died on her lips.
"Remy ask if dis was a bad time, but can't 'magine dat dere's ever going to be a good one in dis place." He was standing in the open door, dressed all in drab black. Unless you knew to look for the cane, no one would have guessed the man there was crippled for life.
She shouldn't have been surprised. Only it had taken longer, far longer, than she'd thought, to the point where she thought he wasn't coming at all. She'd grown complacent. And now she was afraid, deeply afraid. Remy being here could only mean one thing.
"I'd ask how you got in, only that'd be stupid. What's with the cane? New affectation?" she asked, going for bravado. Yes he was probably here to kill her, but that didn't mean he'd succeed. Hadn't that been part of the deal? Getting the control to defend herself?
"Something like dat. Heard dat it's de new style." Remy didn't move, didn't take off the sunglasses or offer any hint to his intentions. He shifted the cane further in front, leaning on it lightly. "See dat you been changing you style as while."
The black leather outfit, cut in the style of Victorian fetish, was not designed for lounging, but was the expected garb for the Inner Court. It was ridiculous and overwrought, but that's what the Hellfire Club expected from it's new inductees. Even with the sunglasses in the way, she knew that nothing had escaped his gaze.
Amanda shrugged. "You like it?" she asked mockingly,, shifting slightly and crossing her legs. He wouldn't be taken in for an instant, but he'd be expecting it of her, and she could lure him into thinking he was calling the shots here. Perhaps even get them both out of the situation alive. "'S not exactly comfortable, but it's expected."
"Remy bet it is." He made a small gesture. "We just going to talk in de hallway or you going to invite me inside?"
Amanda nodded, and Remy walked inside. The ugly limp. Only the cane was keeping him up as he hobbled painfully over over to a chair in the corner and lowered himself into it. With great care, he took off his sunglasses and tucked them into his jacket pocket. He folded both hands over the top of his cane and rested his chin on top of them, mismatched stare on her.
It took all of the control Selene had taught her and then some to keep herself from reacting to the limp, the greyed-out eye. Even so, her eyes widened slightly. She'd Healed him, hadn't she? Hadn't that been what all this was about? How could this be? The answers came as soon as she raised the questions - it hadn't been enough. The power she'd taken - stolen, really - it hadn't been enough. "There was too much damage," she found herself whispering.
"Dat's what dey told me." His eyes never moved. "In fact, dere so much damage dat Remy die on de table."
The silence stretched out between them. Remy was watching, waiting for her to talk. He was willing to be patient. He was good at that. Over the last few days, his maddeningly quiet questioning had been pulling together information about what had happened the day they'd pulled him back, and piecing each hour of Amanda's from that.
"They tell you what happened next?" Amanda wouldn't have put it past them not to. They hadn't told her about his condition, no-one had. It was such a shock, seeing him like this, broken, the piercing stare clouded.
"Oui." He smiled bitterly. "Not all at once, but dey finally filled in all de details." He gestured at her with the cane. "Dey told Remy de reason dat I'm not dead is dat you reached down and dragged me out of de grave wit' both hands."
"I couldn't let you go, not like that." Finally she dropped her gaze from his, a faint flush colouring her pale cheeks. "I couldn't lose you too. Not like..." She didn't have to say the name. Remy knew fully well who she meant, moreso than most.
"Can't say dat Remy inclined to argue much." No matter what, she had saved his life. Maybe that was too easy a way to explain his faith in her. In reality, he knew her from both where she came from, and where she ended up. Remy knew that the odds were against him getting out of this meeting alive. Threats to Pete aside, there was an advantage to having him killed to other members of the Inner Circle, Selene first and foremost.
"Even with how I did it?" she asked quietly, eyes still on her lap, the ridiculous corset. She looked like a fool and she knew it. "It matters to everyone else. 'S why I left, in the end," she said, looking up at him at last. Well, mostly. But Lorna was the sacred cow she couldn't just drag up, not yet. Not until she knew what his intentions were.
"It does. You scared dem. Fear's a powerful weapon." His voice was deliberately flat, no openings or hints hiding in it. "But de power itself? Dat's not really much of an issue to me. You can suck de life from people, de Professor can rewrite some homme's mind as easy as I pour a drink." He looked down for a moment, the first time he dropped her gaze. "And Remy can kill a person faster den you can blink. Dose all things to be afraid of."
"I was as careful as I could be. I didn't want to hurt anyone, only I couldn't let you die. I never meant..." She cut herself off - Selene no doubt would be fully aware of this visit, would be listening in and she couldn't show weakness. Not here. "So why are you here, Remy?" she asked, using his name at last. "Is this," and she gestured around at the room, herself. "This is an issue, isn't it?"
"You think so?" Remy settled back on his hands. There was the first crack. Remy wasn't there to save her. Only she could do that. The question was whether or not she was in too far to make the right decision.
"Isn't it?" Amanda was confused. Where was the Remy who had verbally torn strips off her for going back to Manuel? "You aren't here to take me back? Tell me I'm throwing my life away?"
"If I have to tell you dat, den dere's no point." His eyes narrowed. "Selene de type of person dat you need to learn from?"
The flash in her expression was like an open book for him. Had she really gone the same way as Wisdom? Was that all it had taken? His hands tightened slightly on the cane, barely noticeable and the only hint to his inner thoughts.
Amanda was quiet for a long time. Part of her had hoped that he'd take her out of this, make things better. Take her with him, like they'd spoken about. She pushed that false hope away, squelched it firmly. It belonged to the helpless girl she had been, needing people to save her, protect her. She wasn't that person any more. "Nothing comes free," she said at last. "The power to save you... it had to come from somewhere."
"Non. De knowledge had to come from somewhere first, chere. And dat wasn't a situation in which you had no other choice." Finally there was the steel. Remy's body might have been shattered, but it was obvious that who he was hadn't broken with it.
She flinched minutely. "Maybe. Didn't feel that way at the time. I had to do something about the addiction, before I really hurt Meg. Before I turned into someone like Rack. Strange was gone, Moira couldn't help any more... what else could I do? Ask Manuel to take it all away so I was hooked on him instead?"
"Dat's not how dis is going to go. Dis what you used for Nate when he come to talk to you?" Remy said, his words slicing deep. "You know better den dat, 'manda. You honestly think dat Remy ready to believe de line you worked up ahead of time?"
"I didn't even get this far with Nate - he'd already decided I was evil before he stepped in the room." Remy hadn't, of that she was sure. He might have forgiven Lorna because he was in love with her, but he hadn't given up on her entirely. If he'd been there to kill her, she'd already be dead. "I got tired of needing, Remy. Not just the addiction - needing people to help me, to save me. Needing people and then them not being there. I thought if I had control, it'd stop." It was probably more honest than she'd been with anyone in months.
"Dat led you to dis place?" He shook his head slowly. "Non, dat's not enough, 'manda. You know better den to honestly think dis place is de answer." There was little pity in Remy. Pity was part of what she was running from. All he had to offer her was truth.
"It's not. Just... I made a choice, Remy. I've got to see it through. As much as I might want you to take me out of here, save the day... I can't let you do that. Not any more." Amanda took a breath, aware of how it looked in the ridiculous corset. "I can't go back to what I was before."
"Remy didn't come to take you out of here." There it was, finally out in the open. Her expression was like a physical blow but there was no other way. Remy set his jaw and simply stared at her.
"Then why are you here?" She spat it out, angry and confused. "To show me what a shoddy fucking job I did? To rub my nose in it? Or to tell me 'bout how you and Lorna love each other so bloody much you're willing to forget she shoved nails through you?" Amanda knew she was probably going too far, but she couldn't stop. She'd had enough of his mind games, of him staring at her with that cold expression, the same one she fancied he wore when he killed. "If you're here t' put a fucking end to me, then bloody well do it."
Remy struggled to his feet, using the cane to lever himself up. "Dat's what you were expecting? Sounds like you think dere's a reason dat Remy should." He limped over slowly, until he was directly in front of where she was sitting. "You going to tell me dat Lorna was de one dat pushed you to dis next?"
"You're expecting me to, aren't you? I saw the two of you, you know. They wouldn't let me in the medlab to see you, so I used a scrying spell. Caught the whole tender moment." For a second, her expression was hurt, confused. Then it smoothed out into that unnatural calm she'd worked so hard to achieve. "But I can't blame it on anyone else, not even her. 'S all down to me, in the end. My choice, my deal." My fault.
"It's all about choices. Yours, mine, Lorna's." Remy leaned down, very close to her and his expression suddenly thunderous. "But you not making dem. Not yet. Dis is you grabbing on to de first way out dat you see, and trying to pretend dat it's a real decision."
He straightened back up, his expression back to the same almost blank questioning look he'd come in with, the sudden anger gone so fast that she almost wondered if she'd imagined it. "You know dat Lorna loves me, chere. Even offered to be wit' me."
"And you love her. I know. I saw it. What the fuck does any of that have to with me?" Amanda knew she sounded petulant, but she couldn't seem to keep the sulky tone out of her voice. Perhaps because Remy's words had hit a nerve. Smug bastard always had a knack for seeing straight through her.
"Because I said no." Remy said simply.
She blinked at him, confused. "Why'd you do a stupid bloody thing like that for?" she asked, slipping momentarily back into the strong South London accent. "Not 'cause of that pathetic wet lump of a boyfriend of hers." She couldn't see how it applied to her, in any case.
"Can't see it?" He cocked an eyebrow at her, the devilish expression made sinister by the almost blind eye. "'manda, de point is dat she loves Alex more. To take dat would be acting like de only thing dat mattered was Remy's own feelings. Dat de promises dat I made are less important den what I want. Gambit would have. But I'm not him."
He gestured to the room around him. "I told you once, dat dere's a line inside. Doesn't matter what you do, unless you cross dat line. De day you do, dat's when you become past de point of return. Because every other decision past it, no matter how large or small, gets dat much easier."
Oh. There it was. Amanda fell silent as Remy's words sank in. "And what if that line's already crossed?" she asked at last, her words almost a whisper. "What if you've made that decision and can't turn back from it?" She remembered Manuel's pain, the way he'd grasped at her ankle even after she had smashed the link to fragments, and sympathetic pain twinged behind her eyes.
"Have you?" Remy said quietly. He wanted to be able to simply gather her up and take her out of this place. Worse, he knew that if he tried, she'd go with him. But the problem was that it would just postpone the inevitable. The only one that could save Amanda this time was herself, and he bled inside knowing that.
She wanted to say she hadn't. Only she remembered Nathan's words and expression when she'd realised she hadn't considered the babies in her healing spell, felt again Manuel's anguish at her sleeping with Remy, at Frank's death. The reaction of the school to how she'd saved Remy. She'd crossed the line all right, had done so the minute she'd used that calling card to contact Selene and strike this damned bargain in the first place.
"I think you should leave," she said at last, pulling together the shreds of her composure. "There's nothing for you here."
"Dat right?" Remy's face was unreadable, again only the tightening of his hands on the top of the cane served as any indication of his thoughts. "Dat's a shame, because dere's a lot out dere for you. You always got a place wit' me, wit' Moira, wit' Tante."
Before she could respond, he was back leaning in close, a vicious smirk on his face. "Unless you want to say dat dis is easier. Remy see it on your face, 'manda. See dat you already looking at de way someone else wants."
"Tante wants to take away the magic - is that how you want me? A helpless little victim for you to save to make yourself feel better about yourself? And Moira's got Nate and the baby - she doesn't want me now she's got family of her own." Why wouldn't he just go? Write her off the same way everyone else had? "I can't keep relying on other people to be there, Remy. No matter what they say, it always ends up the same. They fuck off and I'm left trying to put things back together. At least this is on my own terms - Selene isn't trying to be my mother or my friend. She doesn't care about me and that makes it a whole lot more simple."
"Just like Rack. Guess you right. Dat makes it a lot more simple. No one can blame a tool after all." Remy's voice turned cruel. "Dat what you want to be, 'manda? Just another pawn for someone else? Doesn't matter whether it's sex or power, we both know what selling youself leads to."
"Like I was ever anything else at the school. Heal this person, Heal that one... they even stopped thanking me in the end." Amanda's voice was filled with bitterness. "They didn't want me, they wanted some good little girl who did what she was told and who'd pour her guts into fixing up people when they got hurt saving the world. And when I couldn't do that any more, they just dropped me." Turning her face from him, she went on: "I was only as good as how much I could do for them. Same as it's always been - why should I change now? At least this way the perks are better."
"Sure dey are. Bet Pete said de exact same thing when he left."
"Guess it's all in the family then, isn't it?" she shot back. "You were wrong about me, Remy. Rack taught me too well - turns out I'm as much as monster as he ever was. Proved that the first time I used Meg as a fix."
"Non. Dat de person you want to be? Rack made you into a meal. You crossed dat line yet?" Remy made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "You sit dere in dat stupid outfit and think you can tell me 'bout being a monster? Me?"
He moved so fast he blurred, rotating on the cane and grabbing her by the front of the corset. His hands were unnaturally strong, pulling her out of her chair with an astonished squeak. He wrenched her around so she was facing in front of the gaudy gilt mirror, both of them framed in it. "You look in dere, chere, and tell me all 'bout how evil you think dat you can be." His voice was utter poison, leading her to wonder if he was here to kill her after all.
Her first instinct was the shielding spell, but the words died half-formed as she caught sight of herself. She looked like a gormless twit, she knew that; it had been her first thought the minute she'd put on the outfit. Instead she wrenched away from him, taking advantage of the loss of balance losing the cane had resulted in. "What else can I fucking do, Remy? I made the deal, I have to keep to my end of it. Otherwise it won't be just me she comes down on, it'll be the people I care about as well! " Her hair tumbled forward over her face. "I sold you all out so I could finally get some control, beat this fucking addiction, is that what you want me to say? I fucked it up, I know I did, but there's no going back now. So better you just write me off same as Nate and the rest and forget about me." The last words came out as a strangled sob.
"Remy told you once. You don't get dat excuse." It was heartless, but there was no other way. In the back of Remy's mind, he swore that a lot of people were going to pay for this. Setting it up so the only way he could protect an eighteen year old girl that he cared about was by putting her through hell. "You not protecting anyone, chere. You giving dem de means to hurt and kill everyone you act like you care 'bout."
Even crippled, pivoting on the damn cane and fighting the pain from his leg into another place in his head, there was obvious power in LeBeau; dangerous and unpredictable. "You cross dat line, 'manda, and you give up on me."
"She promised - as long as I give her what she wants, she can't touch any of you," Amanda managed to say, making a supreme effort to pull herself together. Selene wouldn't approve of how easily she'd let him goad her into this state, she knew. It only highlighted what a cock-up this whole thing was. "And I've got control now. Real power. More than enough to take her on if she goes back on her word." Brushing her hair back, she gave him an imploring look. "Please, Remy, just go. I didn't drag you back from being dead to have Selene snacking on you."
"You a liar, 'manda. You not here to protect people from Selene. And you certainly not being taught enough to take her on. You think dat dose excuses going to work on me?" Remy settled himself on the cane, hands folded over the top and legs spread. The way that he was standing, it was as if he was ready for anything that could be thrown at him. "Don't even pretend dat you doing dis for me either."
"I already beat her once when I wasn't even in my own fucking body! I can take her if I have to!" Amanda rounded on him, frustrated by his apparent inability to see sense. Why couldn't he see? It hadn't been this hard with the rest of them, not even Manuel. "It was what she taught me that brought you back. I only wish I'd gone to her sooner; maybe then I would've been able to save Charlie as well!"
Whatever else she might have said was cut off by the sudden movement of Remy's. One second he was with her near the mirror, the next his fingers were splayed across her face, the strength in them like steel. She was totally unhurt, but couldn't open her mouth, the way he was holding her. For a moment, all she could think was that he could snap her neck like a twig, and there wasn't a thing she could do. But the only thing he was doing was stopping her from speaking with astonishing finality.
"Don't say his name here, chere. Not ever." There was a cold light in his eyes, but something more. There was a message there, tied in with the hurt and the cold vicious words.
"I think that's quite enough, Mister LeBeau." The cool voice from the doorway shocked her, but Remy didn't so much as twitch. "I'm afraid visiting hours are over,"
The sound of Heinrich's voice rallied some form of rationality in Amanda and with a word and a gesture she activated the shielding spell, breaking his grip on her face. Glancing in the mirror, she saw his fingermarks tattooed in red across her unnaturally pale skin. "Heinrich," she said with a nervous bob of her head to the men framed in the doorway. "This wasn't... it's not a problem. Really. He was just going."
Heinrich watched her, unblinking, and then apparently decided on a more subtle course of action than killing Remy on the spot. Obviously Selene had been watching, and set her on LeBeau when things got too close. "If you say so, Amanda. Mr. Le Beau, if you would allow me to show you the way out?"
"Remy just leaving anyway. Guess dere nothing here for me." The words hurt, calculated to do so. Remy turned towards the door and limped out on his cane. He didn't spare Amanda a backward glance. He's already done what he needed to do. Now it was up to Amanda to save herself. The doors closed behind him.
"This way, Mister LeBeau."
"Merci." Remy took a look at the woman beside him. "Dat look required, or you all just like de bad Victorian thug image."
"You're remarkably jovial for a man about to be quietly executed behind the building." Heinrich cocked his head to one side. "The Lady watched your performance with my pupil. Not a terribly convincing attempt, I'm afraid. Guilty conscience."
"Dat's between me and my conscience, homme. 'manda made her decision, it seems." It was a lie, but Remy knew he was walking over a pit of snakes. If Selene thought he had gotten through to Amanda, both of them would be dead in minutes.
"Shame about the injury. She said you could have been a useful addition to the Inner Court, Gambit. It's almost a pity to have you killed."
"She won't and neither will you." Remy turned on him, the smirk on his lips. "You won't kill me because I'm not a threat to her. 'manda has already chosen Selene over me, and dat makes me irrelevant. But if you kill me, you know dat 'manda will spend de next few years finding out a way to make her and you pay for it. Alive, I don't matter to her any more. Dead, you took me away from her."
He leaned in, almost nose to nose. "And I know dat 'manda's powerful enough to be scared of."
Heinrich matched his gaze, and finally stopped to listen into his ear piece. A smile come on his lips before he finally clapped his hands. "Bravo, Mister LeBeau. Bravo. You're very right. Killing you might have an issue with her pupil. The Lady says better for you to limp your crippled body back to Xavier's. Gambit could have had anything he asked for in return for his help. You on the other hand," He gestured at the cane. "aren't worth the bullet. Goodbye."
"Au revoir." Remy limped out of the front door, down towards the street. He flagged down a cab and lowered himself into the back painfully.
He had opened the door for Amanda. She knew she had a place to come back to. And he was deathly afraid she wouldn't. Evil had it easier, he thought. There was only one upside. If Amanda made the choice, choose to walk over that line, he'd kill Wisdom and Selene for it. His death didn't matter. Sometimes, all you had left was to die for someone.
Only the tightening of his hands on the cane betrayed his emotions on the long drive home to Westchester.
***
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