Remy knew he had to get home again. He missed his wife and children. They probably thought he was dead. He had almost died. The war finally hit the guild, hit their home. He had fought them off, even killed a couple of them. When he fell Slyvianne had killed another and the other had fled, that was almost the last he saw, he lost consciousness then, and had nearly died. he was glad Slyvianne had fled with the children, at least he knew that she and the children were safe, wherever they were.
When he had regained consciousness he was alone and in great pain. Since he was alive he knew he had to save himself. He remembered the teleportation spell Marguerite had taught him. Unfortunately he made an error with the spell. He teleported himself to another reality. He hadn't known that when he woke up there though, in fact he hadn't remembered anything, except his first name. A beautiful African woman named Ororo Munroe had been taking care of him. She had found him lying unconscious and badly hurt by the side of the road. She said he'd been unconscious in her home for two days. She had taken care of him till he was well. Then he had helped her out any way he could, and she had helped him try to remember who he was. They had briefly been lovers, but decided that they were more suited to be friends after about six months. Besides he was beginning to remember things, one those was that he had a vision of a striped haired lady that tugged at his heart. He and Ororo had decided he must have some sort of French ancestry, based on his use of French. After about a year he decided to set off alone to try to find relatives. It had taken four more years but now he remembered everything but the spells Marguerite had taught him. If he could only remember the spells he could get home. He decided to make camp for the night. While he was cooking his meal over the fire, a strange looking man approached with a little boy that reminded Remy of his Perren. The boy looked about Perren's age when Remy had last seen him. That was five years ago now.
"Mein frende, perhaps we may share your fire for tonight?"
"Oui."
"we are traveling to visit a friend of mine."
"I'm travelin' sout', maybe we travel de same way for a while." Then Remy turned to the boy who had been staring at him silently. "So petite, you want Remy t' tell y' a story-"
"Your name is Remy?" Kurt stared at him then.
"My daddy's name was Remy." The boy said, surprised.
"You do look much like Matthieu's father, although some years older. He had eyes like yours as well."
Matthieu's eyes were unusual as well, one eye red on black, the other a deep green on black. His hair was unusually colored as well. It alternated dark brown and white stripes. Remy had a good feeling he knew who were Matthieu's parents.
" What happened to his mama and papa?"
"They died when I was a baby, Uncle Kurt saved me." Kurt gently hugged the little boy as Matthieu gravely told what he knew. Then Kurt continued. "Perhaps we can share our stories." Remy nodded and Kurt started. "Matthieu parents and I were part of a group called the X-Men." Kurt pulled a photo from his pock et. "I show this to Matthieu every night so he will know who his parents were." Kurt pointed out two young people in the group picture. They were much younger than he and Sylvianne were when they were attacked. They looked about the same age as he and Sylvianne were when they were married. Remy knew he had been correct in his speculations about the boy's parentage.
"Rogue was quite young when she came to the school, just barely 13. She always used Rogue for name, we didn't know why until she married. When she told us it was Agatha Bernice we understood why. She insisted on being called Rogue even after her marriage. Truthfully Rogue suited her much better than her birth name. Gambit, that was Matthieu's father's codename, met Rogue before any of the rest of us in the X-Men. A boy tried to steal a kiss from her on her thirteenth birthday. Her power manifested for the first time and the boy was rendered comatose.. . She was sent from her home with only the clothes on her back and a shot gun to protect herself. After a week alone, Gambit came across her. He had also been exiled from his family. He had wed the daughter of the head of a rival guild. However her brother strongly objected to this and challenged Remy to a sword duel. The brother died in the duel. It was decided by both guilds that the punishment would be exile, despite that it was self defense. It was providence that the two found each other. Gambit had been wandering vaguely north, not really having any real destination in mind. He stopped in this town around noon and got something to eat. He heard about Rogue and what had happened in this restaurant. It was still the main topic of conversation. Being a mutant himself and sympathetic to anyone in trouble, he searched her out. At first she was afraid of him, but it didn't take long for him to gain her trust. He asked her where she'd like to go. She told him New York City, she wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. He was game and they traveled on his motorcycle. They met up with the X-Men on the way. The Professor, he was our leader, had been looking for some more new members, and had a machine that was picking up their mutant signatures."
"How dis t'ing work?" Remy said vaguely uncomfortable that some machine could pick up his movements.
"Mutants give off a particular mental signal, even if their abilities aren't mental, When used by a psi this machine allows them to track and find mutants."
This didn't ease Remy's mind a bit, he hoped this machine didn't exist in his world. It would have been all to easy to find a kill mutants with something like that. He was curious about this X-Men group. "I remember maybe hearin' `bout dose X-Men, dey were a fightin' group, neh?"
"Ja. We fight to protect others. The dream we aimed for were for humans and mutants to co-exist in peace."
"Look like it not come true."
"Ja...Back to my story though. When they became members they were quite young. Rogue was 13 and Gambit was 18. At the time Rogue was like a younger sister to him, and some of the other X-Women were among his many girlfriends for a while. In particular Jean Grey, much to her future husband Scott Summers jealousy. Rogue, though adored Gambit. She had a crush on him from the start. He began to fall for her too as she grew up. By the time she was 16, Gambit was hopelessly in love with her. Although due to his reputation we weren't quite sure of his intentions at first. We debated and debated it when they weren't around, until Rogue herself took it out our hands literately. She went down to the med lab and `borrowed' a neutralizing collar and went up to Gambit's room. Two days later they announced they were getting married. A year later Matthieu was born. Jean Grey married Scott Summers the same years. One year later everyone but Matthieu and myself were dead. The attack came in the middle of the night. The security system was knocked out first. Gambit and Rogue were the last to fall. Gambit handed Matthieu to me and asked me to escape with my life and the child's. I begged him to at least let me save him too, since he was still alive. He shout ed `Non! Partir!' that he was dying, Rogue had just died, he would die with her, not separated from her. I reluctantly did as he asked and teleported myself and Matthieu as far as my exhaust ed and injured body would allow me, some 20 miles east. I live with the guilt of being the only survivor, save Matthieu. There is one more survivor, she survived by not arriving to become a member until the day after the massacre. She told me after I told my story what she had found. We are traveling to visit her."
"Who is she?"
"Her name is Ororo."
"Dat's who I'm going to see!"
"You know her as well?"
"Oui. She found me laying unconscious beside de road and nursed me back to healt'" Remy then told Kurt how he came to be here, and why he couldn't get back.
"It is sad that you cannot remember how to get back home. I have heard though that the key to remembering what you have forgotten is to remember every detail you do remember."
Remy invited them to share his fire this night and to travel with him since they were both going to see the same per son. Kurt agreed it was a sound suggestion.
Kurt's earlier suggestion proved prophetic. Remy had vivid nightmares and words of the spell to get him home came to him in the dreams. He decided to wait to say anything until they reached their destination. He wanted to at least say goodbye to Ororo before he went back home. In the three days it took to get there the boy Matthieu in a child's logic decided that since Remy was the same person as his father from another place, he would be his daddy. Remy found himself feeling what he could only compare to what he felt towards his own children and unconsciously related to Matthieu like he had to his own son Perren. He liked this Kurt Wagner too, he was more like a brother than his own foster broth er had been. He would miss all of them if they didn't want to come back with him. As soon as they had all greeted Ororo he said, "I finally remembered de way home. I'm goin' home. If any o' you want t' go too you're welcome t' come. Dere certain ain't nothin' here t' stay for `less y' got someone else you'd like t' come too."
"Remy is right. This world is dying. I do not like it. Perhaps your world will be better." Ororo answered.
Kurt nodded in agreement. As soon as he did 6 year old Matthieu did too. Ororo went back into her house and picked up a few items she wanted to take with her. Remy said the words of the spell, hoping this time he would get it right!
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The title is another Lorenna Mckennitt song. I just pictured this older Remy who had never left the theives guild in this alternate world slowly regaining his memories and surviving the best he could with this world's Ororo as his only real friend. And Kurt with Mattias meeting Remy and telling him the tale of this world's Gambit and Rogue and their fate.