Remy's Story
Sam took his phone from Remy and leaned forward to spin the bottle but before he managed to do that the door opened and Fury marched in. Tony smiled widely.
“Nicky! Just in time for a game!”
But Fury just looked at him with an annoyed face expression.
“I don’t have time for that Stark. We have a…”
He seemed to, for once, be totally put off balance when he noticed Remy.
“You?!”
Remy tilted his head.
“You know Remy?”
His voice was calm but they could hear that he was surprised. Fury stared at him for a few more seconds and then he shook his head.
“Not really. I read Stryker’s files.”
“Oh.”
Tony noticed that the thief was getting uncomfortable so he quickly dragged Fury’s attention to himself.
“What was it you came with Nick?”
Remy threw him a thankful look. Fury went over to the table and put a file on it.
“You wrote to me last night about the files that Ross had about people in UN. He had one file. Igor Malikov. Russian delegate. Worked for KGB in Russia. He got away from them. When he got to the States he was blackmailed by Ross into joining Hydra. Juliette Babineaux. French delegate. She had been in jail for theft, abuse and arson. She didn’t want anyone to find out. Same story here. Ross blackmailed her. The other people are gone. Three died. One was captured by KGB when Hydra sent him on a mission to Russia. Five gave up their places as delegates, took their families and hid. That’s all I could find on them.”
They had all straightened a bit when he was talking. The game was now over. The serious business had started. Tony opened the file and pulled out two photographs. A man with short blonde hair and green eyes was glaring at them from one of them. On the other was a pale woman with long black hair and dark blue eyes. She looked pretty good but in her eyes was something crazy. Tony sighed.
“Remy? Can I talk with you for a second?”
The thief nodded and followed Tony into the elevator. The doors closed and Tony turned to him.
“You still don’t trust them.”
It wasn’t a question so Remy didn’t say anything. Tony sighed again.
“We’ll have to tell them. They need to know what we are up against. And you are the one that can give us the best information.”
Remy looked away. He knew that. But to have so many people that he had to live with judge him. Tony must’ve understood what he was thinking about because he put a hand on Remy’s shoulder.
“They won’t judge you Remy. Many of us have done things in the past that we regret. Pepper is most probably the only clean person in there. But you don’t see us judging each other. They won’t hate you.”
Remy dragged in a breath.
“They will hate Remy. Remy knows that.”
Tony looked at him for a long time and then said calmly:
“Let the shields down.”
If anyone else had told him to do that he wouldn’t have listened. But he trusted Tony not to use it against him. He slowly created a connection with Tony and sent his feelings over to him without lowering his shields at all. Tony staggered backwards when he felt the fear that was coming towards him from the cajun. He had trouble taking in a breath and felt almost as if he was going to have a panic attack. Remy quickly cut the connection between them and the fear disappeared. Tony looked at him with wide eyes. How could that man keep so calm face when he was so scared? Tony took a deep breath.
“I promise Remy. No one will hate you.”
Then, after a moment of silence, he asked:
“Have you told anyone?”
Ramy nodded slowly.
“Natasha and Wanda.”
“And how did they react?”
That made the thief stop and think for a minute.
“Wanda doesn’t seem to care. Natasha was angry in the beginning but then apologized and asked Remy to explain.”
Tony smiled.
“You see.”
It was quiet for some more time and then the thief nodded. The elevator door opened and they went out. Tony went back to his seat while Remy flopped down onto the loveseat. Fury had already sat down on the empty sofa. Tony cleared his throat and they all turned to him.
“There is something I need to tell you about Ross plans. But before I start Remy will tell you something. It will make you understand the whole thing better.”
He leaned back and Remy took a deep breath. When he started to talk they all noticed that he was once again talking in first person.
“As I’ve already told you I lived on the streets as a child. I became a master thief and was stealing all the time. New Orleans was run by two guilds. Thieves and Assassins. They had been fighting with each other for ages. But then there was a marriage between Bella Donna Boudreaux and Henri LeBeau. It made the two guilds come together. One day I tried to pickpocket Jean-Luc LeBeau. He was the leader of Thieves Guild. I thought he would kill me when he grabbed me then but he took me home, gave me a surname and a family. But they didn’t like it when I used the charging part of my mutation. Then one day Julien, Bella Donna’s brother, challenged me to a fight. I was only using my bo-staff in the beginning. But then he suddenly had me pinned to a wall. I swung my staff and didn’t even realize that the adrenaline had made me charge it. When I hit him it all exploded. He was severely burned. I was put on trial. When you hurt someone from the top the punishment is death. The fact that Jean-Luc had given me his name and that Julien woke up and said that he didn’t hold it against me were the only reasons why I wasn’t executed back then. I was 16 then. I fled and lived on the streets of Baton Rouge. Moved from one place to another. Learned to really play cards. Use my mutation to win. That way I ended up in New York. But then, when I was 18, I lost control again. Destroyed so much that it was a miracle that no one was hurt then. I sought help of the only person who I had knowledge of. Sinister.”
A few persons gasped. They all knew about Sinister. He had been the most dangerous man for a very long time before he suddenly disappeared. Remy pressed on without taking notice of their reactions.
“Sinister told me he would help me but I would have to pay off the debt by working for him for some time. I agreed. He took away a part of my brain tissue. It gave me much more control over my powers. That was when I started to charge the cards and throw them. I hadn’t thought about that before. I worked for him for some time and in the beginning he didn’t ask for anything serious. Some stealing. Kidnapping someone sometimes. Mostly mutants. I got to know Victor Creed, also known as Sabretooth. We became something like friends. Or as much as a beast like him can be friend. Then Sinister said that I had one last assignment and then the debt would be payed. He told me to get together a team of mutant assassins and mutants with broken moral compassess. So me and Creed went out. We got a team together. The Marauders. Back then it was a big team. Me and Creed were like leaders. Then we had Arclight, Riptide, Scalphunter, Sunfire, Blockbuster, Lady Mastermind, Vertigo, Prism and Scrambler. I got the orders to lead them down to the Morlocks tunnels. I did it. I thought it would maybe be some beating up. Maybe stealing and kidnapping. I was the only one who knew how to get down to the tunnels without raising suspicion. When we got there…”
His voice suddenly broke. Everyone was staring at him with different faces. Clint, Fury, Steve and Bruce seemed to be a bit angry. Sharon, Sam and Bucky had more understanding expressions. Pepper and Rhodey trusted the fact that Tony trusted the cajun. Their faces were filled with horror because of what the man had been through. Tony and Vision were watching everyone else. Natasha was listening but kept her face blank. Wanda was sitting close to Remy. When he stopped talking she reached out and took his head. Her thumb moved over the top of his hand and the friction calmed him down. She didn’t really understand what kinetic energy was but she understood that it had something to do with motion. The movement was something he could concentrate on and he slowly moved on with his story.
“I let them in and they attacked the Morlocks. They had let their guard down when they saw me. I was living with the Morlocks sometimes. And when they attacked... I didn’t know. To the last second I didn’t know. They attacked and for almost a whole minute I was too stunned to understand what was going on. When I realized what was going on I tried to help the Morlocks. But Creed got to me. I managed to fight him for some time. But then he got close enough to slash me. I couldn’t fight. So I grabbed one of the children that was alive and escaped through a smaller tunnel. I managed to collapse it behind us before anyone followed. I left her in a safe house and told them to contact Xavier. I had heard about him back then. Even Sinister was afraid of him. Then I crawled into a corner and waited for death. Instead I was found by Stryker.”
It was quiet for long time. Then Clint slowly asked:
“That’s where you have the scars from?”
Remy nodded. Then suddenly Wanda looked around and asked with a strong voice:
“Anyone have anything against Remy?”
Slowly, one by one, they all shook their heads. Remy looked shocked. Then Bucky turned towards Tony.
“You said that this was something that would make us understand something.”
Tony nodded.
“Yesterday I got some information from Friday. Ross is not only putting the Dark Avengers together. He is assembling the living Marauders as we speak.”
Silence drew out over a long time before Steve turned to Remy.
“You have any idea which ones are alive? Can you tell us about them? Their powers, fighting styles, anything.”
Remy, although still shocked that they didn’t hate him or try to throw him out, nodded. He would do anything to get the Marauders. Especially Creed.