Nexus

 

Disclaimer: Not my stuff!

 

 

            Scott had been worried about Logan lately.  The man’s performance wasn’t the thing that was bugging him though.  Logan had been going non stop for months on end and Scott was more worried about when Logan would hit his limit.  It was something he had kind of dumped on him because Scott had mandated that Logan be on every team they had, of which there were three, and Logan had been going off and doing things on his own out of necessity.  With everything he was doing, the wear was starting to show on his friend.

 

            To be honest, Scott was hoping that Logan would start to see his leading potential because there was plenty and everyone trusted him.  He had even heard Alex complaining that Logan was practically taking over his team when he was there… although Alex hadn’t been complaining to Scott.

 

            Approaching Logan about something like that though was… useless.  Weakness was something the man would not tolerate feeling or appearing in front of others, including Scott, so Scott would really just have to let him do what he thought was necessary until it became enough of a problem to make him deal with it.

 

            Sighing to himself, Scott took his dinner into his office where he could work and eat at the same time, passing by Logan on his way through the halls to his office.  One thing he found being the Co-Headmaster of the school was that there was never a shortage of work to do—which really suited Scott fine especially since he had a wonderful woman by his side to help him.  Briefly, his thoughts brushed over the woman he was working with and had chosen as his lover.  They weren’t married yet, and perhaps they would never be, but it didn’t matter—they were deeply in love.

 

            Turning on the lights, Scott went over to his office and set his plate down, settling in to see what he had to do for the evening.

 

            Unexpectedly, Scott’s heart jumped in his chest and he looked up from his calendar, thinking how odd that was.  He didn’t have a heart problem and nothing he was reading was particularly frightened him, so why did his body react that way?

 

            **Scott!** he heard in his voice and turned his attention to Emma.

 

            **What is it, love?** he asked.

 

            **It’s the Phoenix, Scott.  She’s back,** her mental voice expressed the preparation for a fight and Scott couldn’t help the apprehension that clenched more firmly at his heart.  Jean.  Jean was back.

 

            **Where?** he asked as he got up to move wherever he was needed.

 

            **Storm has just gone to intercept her on the front grounds… she’s falling Scott,** Emma explained.

 

            Moving the instant she told him where, Scott was out his office door and running to the front door.  Logan was nearly beating him to it.  “It’s Jean,” Scott said to Logan.  It wasn’t a good sign that she was back.

 

            “I figured by all the fire,” Logan said as he opened the door and pointed to the bright, yellow ball of flames falling to the earth at an alarming speed.  Scott looked at what Logan was pointing to and saw the unholy ball of flame as it descended against the night sky.  The bird shape became clearer as it got closer and Logan started running for where he thought it would fall.  The shape of the bird was familiar but in an odd position—falling on its back as it careened through the air as if stunned.  Storm was visible in the air trying to slow her friend’s decent and casting a bit of rain to ease the flames out.

 

            Logan ran for the figure as it took on more human shape and the fires died, making it safe for him to approach.  Ororo had slowed the Phoenix down, but she was still moving at a good clip as she got closer to the ground.  Logan saw the physical shape mimic that of the bird as he got within range, both arms relaxed, but buffeted up by the wind in a mockery of wings.

 

            The ethereal flames stuck to her hair as she fell and Logan knew that if he didn’t catch her that she wouldn’t survive the fall, if she was still alive anyway.  Jumping into the torrent of air that tried to stop her descent, Logan grabbed her frail form, impacting with it rather hard, but forcing her off course and rolling with her unconscious body on impact with the lawn.

           

Logan tried to protect her head as they fell and relished the feeling of Jean's body pressing against his.  It had been so long since he had seen her.  The flames hadn't hurt her or even singed her hair, he noted as it was still in her face, but it was a darker color than it had been since he had seen her last. 

 

            Looking at her as they rested in the grass, Logan brushed away her hair from her face... and his body clenched at the realization that this was not Jean at all.

 

            "R—Remy?" he balked at the face that greeted him resting in the crook of his arm.  How could that be? The force they saw and that Emma had most likely sensed was definitely the Phoenix Force; how could it reside in anyone other than Jean?  And hadn't he seen Gambit walking around earlier that day trying to brush away that little feral Foxx that was after him?  Who was this?

 

            The eyes below him started to stir with motion and Logan cradled the form he now realized was masculine in hopes that it would get him to wake up.  "Remy," he said again, this time as less of a question. Fluttering eyelashes peeled back to reveal the familiar red on black eyes that were uniquely Remy's.

 

            Scott came up behind Logan and looked over his shoulder at the form Logan held protectively.  His breath was lost to him and he didn't know if it was in shock or relief.  Possibly both.  Ororo joined them and looked at the man who was just opening his eyes.

Her hand rose to cover her slacked open mouth as she drew in a breath of cool air.

 

            The eyes looked up at the one face it was well in range to see and a smile appeared over his face, though it was exhausted.  "Logan...." he moaned lightly and reached up to caress his face, although he didn’t get there.  Fading quickly, the stranger's eyes rolled back into his head and his eyes closed, guiding him into the land of dreamless sleep.

 

            Turning his gaze from the man in his arms to his longtime friend, Logan said, "He's sleepin'..." as if he didn't know what else to say.  What else was there to say?  It was obvious that they were all shocked to see Remy’s face on a person seemingly possessing the Phoenix Force.  There were really no questions they could ask each other—they knew none of them had the answers... well, except maybe for Gambit.

 

 

 

            Scott carried the unconscious man through the halls and Logan followed him analyzing the suit the young man was wearing.  It was black with an orange and red emblem of the Phoenix on it, although the bird was more streamlined than the symbol Jean had used.

 

            It took him a moment to notice, but he also noted that the man had on a necklace with a gold chain that held a magenta crystal, like a pinkish ruby or a deep pink tourmaline.  It would have rested just above the head of the Phoenix but as he was scrunched up in Scott’s arms, the necklace looked like it was in fact the eye of the Phoenix.

 

            Logan wondered what the black on his suit meant. When Jean appeared, if she were to appear in the costume with black and red, she was the dark Phoenix and should be avoided at all costs, but this man... he hadn’t seemed angry in his brief moments of wakefulness.

 

            All the same, Logan would wait by the side of the medical bed for him to wake up because if he woke up and started causing trouble, he would need to be stopped by a non-energetic method.  No one else would really be a match for it.

 

            Once the man was strapped onto a medical bed, Gambit was called for so they could ask him about the stranger’s appearance.  Walking into the room, after being paged, Remy looked for Scott.  "Y' wanned t' see me, Scott?" he asked.  He had been in the middle of grading the written portion of his exams and the page had overridden his attention to them, so he would have to get back to it at some other point that night.

 

            "Remy, you don't have a brother, do you?" Scott asked out of the blue.

 

            "What?  Not dat I know of, why?" he said.  Remy didn’t even know who his parents were, to say nothing of whether he had any siblings or not.  He had always been curious, but there was almost no way he could ever find out, so he had tried to accept it and move on with his life.

 

            "Well ya got somethin'," Logan growled off to the side.  The man hadn't woken up yet and Hank didn’t expect him to for some time seeing the level of exhaustion in his body.

           

            Looking over at Logan, Remy's attention was drawn to the person laying unconscious on the exam bed. Blinking, Remy approached him tentatively and his eyes didn't leave his face.  Raking over his features, Remy analyzed who this could possibly be.  Their faces were exactly alike—Remy had looked in the mirror often enough to know.

 

            Seeing that he was trying to tell if things on them were exact, Logan also compared their faces.  Nothing was different.  You could take a photograph of them and compare and they would be the same.  There was one slight difference, but that was in hair length.  Remy wore his relatively short compared to the long hair that was mid back length on the unconscious man on the table.

 

            "Yer faces are exactly the same.  What's the deal on twins, Hank?" Logan asked.

 

            "Even with identical twins there do tend to be small differences.  Face shape or height one might be able to tell the difference in.  Weight differences," he mentioned as an afterthought.  "The young man laying on the table here is a bit lighter than you, Remy and I am preparing a blood test so we can see how much like you he really is."  Hank had hooked him up to an IV so he could replace the small amount of blood that he took and so he could get nourished.  His body wasn't it good shape.

 

            "What's dis he's wearin'," Remy asked looking at the outfit with a Phoenix crest on it.  It was very pretty, but it wasn't like Jean's.

 

            "We dunno, but he fell outta the sky in a ball o' fire shaped like a bird wearin' it," Logan explained. He wasn't happy about having to sit there watching a punk sleep who just might wake up and try to kill them all.

 

            "De Phoenix?" Remy asked perplexed.  "Isn' Jean—"

 

            "She at least used to be, Remy.  Maybe she felt she needed a new host, but that still doesn't explain where he came from," Scott pointed out.  Remy nodded, still looking at the man who could fool Jean-Luc Le Beau into believing that he was Gambit.

           

            Remy had a very uneasy feeling looking at him, although the slumbering face was peaceful.  “He say anythin’, or he been asleep dis whole time?” Remy asked.

           

            “He recognized me, but he wasn’t awake long after ta say much o’ anythin’,” Logan provided.  Nodding, Remy kept staring at him.

 

            “What… do we do?” he asked, really not knowing where to go with this.

 

            “At this point there’s not much we can do but wait for him to wake up.  I’m sorry, Logan, but I’ll need you to stay with him until then.”

 

            “I know, I know,” Logan groaned.  He knew exactly why he was there and he wasn’t budging, but dang it—it was going to get boring in there super quick.

 

            “Why does Logan need t’ stay?” Remy asked, looking at Scott.

 

            “We don’t know if he’s dangerous, Remy.  A black uniform on Jean would have meant Dark Phoenix and we can’t risk that with all of the children.”

 

            Remy frowned, his attention finally turning to Scott.  “Logan’s here in case he go crazy,” he surmised.

 

            “Yes,” Scott answered.  Without another word Remy left the room.  He didn’t want to have to see himself impaled on Logan’s claws, even if it was just a copy of him.  What he was really afraid of was the expression of enjoyment that would be on Logan’s face when he did it.  A chill ran up Remy’s spine and he went to find Rogue.

 

 

 

            Anna was getting ready for bed and answered at Remy’s knock.  Smiling when she answered the door, she was in her pajamas and she looked very good with her hair down around her shoulders.  She didn’t wear it like that very often any more.  “Remy… why ya callin’ so late, sugah?” she asked, her gloved hands holding the door jamb casually.

 

            “Y’ hear ‘bout de commotion downstairs?” he asked her.

 

            “Ah heard the wind pick up unusually a bit ago, but Ah didn’t hear anythin’ else.  Why?”

 

            “Dey got a guy downstairs dat look jus’ like me… only… he’s de Phoenix,” Remy explained unsteadily.  He wasn’t so sure about how to explain it.

 

            “What?  What happened ta Jean?” Rogue asked concerned.

 

            “I don’ know, chere.  We haven’ heard from her since she saved New York.  Dis guy is just…” Remy sighed.  He looked so much like Remy that it scared him.  Could Sinister have cloned him?  If he did, how would he get the Phoenix to possess him?  “I’m worried dat he’s a clone,” he said a little nervously.

 

            “Ya thank Sinister would do that?  Why wouldn’t he’ve done it before now if he could?”

 

            “I don’ know dat eider,” Remy said, getting agitated that Rogue was asking the same questions of him that he was asking himself.  “Logan’s… down wid him now… he’s out like a light.  I tink… Logan jus’ wants t’ kill ‘im when he wakes up,” Remy whispered.

 

            “Now, why would Logan wanna do that, Remy?”

 

            “Tink he be holdin’ a grudge ‘bout not getting’ t’ be wid you, chere,” he said quietly and leaned to rest against her door jamb.  Logan had not been kind to him lately and there was this weird stress in between the three of them that was given added pressure with Foxx trying to hang all over him.

 

            “Remy…” Rogue said leaning closer to him.  “There ain’t nothin’ between me an’ Logan,” she tried to console.  “Everybody was crazy that night.”

 

            “Dere might not be now, chere, but dere could be—easily.”  That was actually something that scared Remy and he found himself bracing for the blow all the time ever since the night of quarantine.

 

 

 

 

            Logan had to say, he was about ready to fall asleep when his ears told him the man lying on the exam bed next to him was waking up.  He looked over at the man’s face before his eyes blinked open again to reveal the red over black under those cream eyelids.  The look the man gave him was tired and relaxed, then he smiled at Logan.  “Logan…” he said and Logan wondered if that was the only thing he could say for a moment.  “’S good to see you.”  He looked around the room and saw a big furry blue person in the background and his heart sped up a little.  “Dis is…?” he asked nodding to Hank in the corner.

 

            “This guy is Hank.  Ya know him?” Logan asked, seeing that he apparently didn’t recognize everyone.

 

            “Oui…” he said tentatively.  Looking over at Logan he gauged his response to the infamous man and relaxed a little.  “He looks a little different dan I remember,” he said noting the last Henry McCoy he knew of was a blue, furry man, not a blue, furry cat-man.  The man he knew was a monster to begin with who was as cruel as Apocalypse, but more sadistic.  He trusted Logan though.

 

            “I have gone through some drastic changes recently, my Acadian friend,” Hank said with a hint of sadness. 

            “Y’… ever have pierced ears?” he asked a little tentatively.

 

            “You’re referring to the ‘Dark Beast,’” Hank said mildly.  “I am not he.  Although that you know of him begs the question ‘where do you come from?’”

           

            “I came from a universe where de Black Beast was de only Beast dere was.  He was Sinister’s pupil… workin’ f’ Apocalypse.” 

 

            “You come from the same time line as Nate Grey then.  Fascinating,” Hank remarked and started to run tests on Remy’s health.  “Logan, why don’t you go get Gambit so he can come down here to meet our guest.  I assume you realize you are not the only Remy Le Beau here?” he asked to Remy as he leaned up on the elbow that didn’t have the IV in it.  Logan left at Hank’s request.  It was fairly clear that the kid wasn’t going to go crazy and he did figure that Gambit would have a lot to ask this man.