Remy coughed weakly.
�Now LeBeau, the real work begins. You will be mine in all ways.�
�Now that doesn�t seem very likely does is it?� Remy�s voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper and distorted from the injury to his jaw, how many weeks ago?
�Oh no,� said Sinister. �On the whole I�d say it seems quite probable.�
They took him to a new room, the same as all Sinister�s rooms really, steel walls, concrete floor, no windows. There was a skylight but it had been painted black. In the center of the room a metal chair had been bolted to the floor.
Remy was chained to the chair, arms behind his back, legs to the loops in the concrete.
�Now,� said Sinister, �Let�s begin. LeBeau, I believe you�ve met Pestilence?� A woman stepped out of the shadows and came to stand beside him. �You and she are about to become much better acquainted.�
Pestilence walked behind Remy�s chair. She picked up a small headband that had been hanging from its back and slipped it over Remy�s head. Then she picked up a matching headband and placed it over her own temples. She grabbed Remy�s head from behind.
The assault on his shields came so swiftly Remy went reeling. If he hadn�t been chained he would have fallen from his chair. He grunted, trying not to scream. Maybe he couldn�t have even if he had wanted to. He wasn�t sure his body was obeying him anymore.
<No.> He thought. <No. No. no no no>
After a minute Pestilence withdrew. A thin band of sweat had formed against her lip. �I�ll need to try again.� She said. She sounded surprised.
Remy tried to smile. �Surely you didn�t think it would be easy.�
�As a matter of fact I did. But it�s all right if you want to play hard. I enjoy a challenge as much as the next girl.� She jammed some sort of stun gun into Remy�s ribs. His back arched against the pain. After a few moments she pulled it off. He sagged against the chains drained.
Suddenly she was back in his mind, tearing at him, demanding entry trying to pull him apart from the inside. Remy fought back. He was an expert at this, he had been keeping people on the outside for his entire life.
But his strength was crumbling. She worked on him for hours. His shaking had increased until it was almost spasms. He saw Pestilence come towards him again and knew that this time he would not be able to hold her out.
Instead she stopped. �I need to rest.� She said. �This has proven an interesting challenge, but I will make no further progress tonight. Tomorrow, if you can keep him from regaining much strength tonight, should be sufficient to end it.� Sinister nodded his approval and she turned and left the room.
Sinister walked over to Remy�s chair. �Keep you from regaining too much strength LeBeau? And want might be a good way to accomplished that.� He leaned over and unlocked the locks. Remy�s heart had speeded up. <Oh God, no. Please. Not this too.>
Sinister ran his hand down Remy�s battered arms. He tutted. �Victor has done a job on you. But don�t worry Remy, I gave him careful instructions not to damage you in any way that could be permanent. When you are� more agreeable we will get you fixed up good as new.�
He stroked Remy�s hair. �Except for the mind of course. Sad to say those changes must be permanent. Don�t worry. I�m sure you will enjoy my way of seeing things more than you ever enjoyed your own.�
He reached down and with one hand yanked Remy�s emaciated frame out of the chair. �Now how are you going to pass a long sleepless night LeBeau? Willing or unwilling? I assure you, they will both be pleasant for me.�
Remy struggled as hard as he could, driven by the knowledge that this would probably be that last fight of his entire life. He was exhausted, weak from lack of sleep and lack of food, beaten, and crippled. His resistance was little more than a token, but Sinister seemed amused by his efforts none the less.
Sinister�s touch was terrible. It sent stabs of pain through Remy, reminding him of things he had sworn he would forget. As Sinister pushed into him Remy�s eyes flew all the way open and he whimpered.
He was so cold, colder than he had been in Antarctica, so cold he couldn�t understand why he hadn�t died of it. He wanted to die. He prayed for it even. It made no difference. God did not answer.
�Oh Remy.� Sinister was murmuring. �Oh Remy, I have needed this for a long time.� His cries began to mount in volume as he neared his climax. Then as he began to come he planted both hands against Remy�s head and gave a long guttural cry.
Remy screamed as his head exploded in pain. Sinister�s twisted emotions, pain, revulsion streamed into his mind with no way for Remy to block the flow. On the tide came Sinister�s own impressions of Remy, <weak, slave, slut> and his visions for the world, visions so dark Remy could barely comprehend them. Overlaying that was rage, so violent it was like nothing Remy had ever felt before, and a deep encompassing hatred, a contempt for all life. His mind tried to retreat from the inundation, but there was nowhere for him to hide.
Sinister stood up, feeling cleansed, as he always did after sex with LeBeau. �Oh LeBeau, it feels so good to let all of that go. I�ve missed out little sessions together.� He zipped up his pants and stood over the crumpled form before him. Remy was all but unconscious. �I�ll go get Victor now.� He said, �It would do no good for you to fall asleep.�
He picked up Remy�s body from the floor. Remy�s eyes were empty and oddly faded. He looked at Sinister impassively.
After the treatment he had just had at Sinister�s hands, Creed�s ministrations seemed almost a blessing.
*******************
Remy had been gone for seven weeks now. Logan was trying to hold it together, but inside he could feel himself crumbling. He couldn�t crack. His healing factor shielded his mind, keeping him from breakdown. Sometimes he thought that slipping into insanity for a while would be less painful than the ruthless, constant pressures of his own thoughts.
At nights, when he couldn�t sleep he would sneak down to the media room, remove the tape from the safe and watch it over and over, the expressions in the John�s faces, the emptiness in the kid�s eyes.
<�You missed me princess? I bet you have. You grew up real nice.� > The eyes on the screen changed, shifting, becoming older, sadder, pleading. <�I never told you I was a virgin Cher.�> But what Remy�d wanted hadn�t been granted. He�d lost everything, and Logan, Logan had gotten exactly what he asked for.<�Am I going to wake up one day and find a bill on my pillow? Just get out of my sight. I can�t stand to look at you.� >
On the TV screen the tape ended. Logan blinked. He picked up the remote, rewound the tape and pushed play again.
**********************************************************
The moment he entered the Situation Room the look on Scott�s face told Logan something was wrong. Something other than the obvious that was.
�What�s happening?�
Scott looked tense. �We got another tape.� Logan turned and headed for the media room. �Don�t go in there Logan. Hank and the Professor-�
Logan ignored him and opened the door. He froze in the door frame. The professor looked up, his face ashen, �He vented into him.� He was muttering. �Sinister vented into� Oh God, Remy.� But Logan barely heard him. His eyes were locked on the screen in front of him where Sinister was buttoning his pants, standing over a pale, broken form that could only be his kid. �Oh LeBeau, it feels so good to let all of that go. I�ve missed out little sessions together.�
Logan felt the floor open beneath him. �No,� he whispered. �No.�
Xavier looked up at him with profound sadness. �Hank, would you mind taking Logan back to his room? Then come back here. We need to analyze that tape.�
Logan made it to the door of the med-lab before he went down, falling to his knees and vomiting all over the floor.
Hank knelt beside him and began rubbing his back, murmuring comfortingly. Logan could barely hear him. His worst fears were coming true. He had known it before, but seeing it on that tape brought it crashing down on him. Someone had taken Remy, taken him and was breaking him, past Logan�s ability to put him back together.
�He�s still alive Blue. That monster has him, and he�s still alive. We have to find him.�
�We will my friend.� Said Hank. �We will.�
*****************************
Remy was barely aware of losing himself. Sinister�s attack last night had been so brutal it had taken away most of his sense of self, and with it had gone coherent thought. He seemed only able to feel now, and whether or not those emotions were really his, he could not say.
Creed kept him up until Pestilence arrived back in the room. �Return him to the chair.� She said. Remy was chained again. Pestilence put her hands back on his head and began to push again. Remy remembered vaguely that he was supposed to fight back. He even tried to muster a little energy to do so. But he couldn�t really understand the necessity for it anymore. Protect himself? Who? From what?
Pestilence broached his shields with very little effort. She smiled and turned to Sinister. �We�re ready to begin.�
�Excellent.� Said Sinister. �Now the work really begins.� He moved over and put his hand on her shoulder as she dove deeper into Remy�s mind.
In the chair Remy began to scream.
<He was running. He didn�t have time to look behind him but he could hear something fast on his heels. He rounded the corner, but he tripped in a puddle and started to fall. A hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. It was Logan, he towered above Remy. Of course he did, he was a grownup.
�I�ve been looking for you, you little slut.� Logan growled. �And I�ve brought a friend.�
From the shadows behind him a figure stepped forward. �Hello child.�
Remy whimpered and gazed into the face of the apothecary.>
<He was chained to a tree, his arms pulled painfully behind him. His father was coming closer, not his real father LeBeau, but the man who had sold him. �Papa.� He whispered.
�You always were a failure.� Said the man. �As well as a freak. Look your already hard for me. Your own father.�
Remy looked down and saw that it was true. �No. Papa. No.� he pleaded.
�What are you talking about freak? You obviously want it.� The man began to take down his pants.>
<He was in the sewer, the smell was all around him. Creed was handing a knife to him, saying, �You can be the first to cut the necks of those freaks.�
Remy heard himself laugh, felt his own excitement driving him to kill, even the innocent. Especially the innocent. �Yes.� He said, �I�ve earned it.�>
<In Antarctica Xavier looked down at Remy, chained in his hole. �You have been the destruction of all of us LeBeau. I should have left you to die.�>
<In his bedroom Logan turned from the door, his hand grasping the knife that Remy had plunged into his chest. �I love you,� he whispered as he fell.>
<He�s hanging from his shackles outside the mansion. One by one the X-men leave on the way to a mission, and as they do they spit on him.>
<The Apothecary is standing over him. �It�s time to sleep now Remy.� he said. He sounded exactly like Rogue.>
Long before Remy lost consciousness Sinister reflected that they had good reason to be pleased with the day�s work.