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All three shot to their feet, in a mixture of shock and natural alertness.
"Who are you?" Remy demanded. A card automatically finding itself in his hand.
"You don't remember me? That's not a promising start. But that is irrelevant, you will soon learn your place. Now come along." The stranger stepped closer to Remy.
Although Remy's mind screamed at him to stop he found himself moving forward, closer to the stranger. As though he was no longer in control of his own actions. Only Jean and Scott grabbing his arms and forcibly pulling him back stopped him from reaching the stranger.
Scott and Jean stood on either side of him, everything about them radiating readiness for battle, and Remy was glad they were here.
"Why haven't the others arrived yet? Surely Cerebro would have set off the alarms by now." Scott whispered furiously to the other two.
The stranger cocked his head towards Scott. "Your alarm system hasn't detected me, so your colleagues back at the mansion have no idea as to what's happening. I have no business with you or your wife Mr Summers." The stranger turned towards Jean and pointed his arm in her direction. "Sorry Mrs Summers, I can't have you telepathically warning your friends." A small dart shot out of the stranger's armament. Jean sank to the ground, unconscious instantly.
"Jean!" Scott shouted in alarm. "What have you done to her?" Scott asked, his fury and concern clearly etched on his face.
The stranger laughed. "She's merely unconscious, don't worry though, you're about to join her." Another dart shot out from the stranger, and it had hit Scott before he had time to move. He sank to the ground next to his wife.
"Who are you?" Remy repeated his original question. "An' why you doin' dis?"
"I am really very disappointed with you Remy. You'd think that above anything else a child would be capable of remembering his own father."
Remy stumbled back a few paces in shock and fear, but quickly regained his composure. "Non! You not my father."
"I beg to differ. I am very much your father, and I've decided that it's time you came home. I've missed too much time already. I need to find out if anything can be salvaged."
Remy's eyes narrowed at his being talked about like an experiment. "You lie!" he said finally. His face set in lines of defiance. "Time you left!"
"Oh, I'm leaving now Remy, but I'm afraid I'm not going empty handed."
A dart shot out from the stranger. Remy leapt nimbly out of the way but failed to avoid the second dart aimed at the spot where he landed. His world became dark and he sank to the ground to join his friends.
Another figure moved into the clearing. "I see that you were successful David." Sinister said.
"Yes. Defiant brat isn't he? But he'll soon learn some manners."
"Very well. It is time we left before we encounter unwanted company. I cannot block their sensors for too much longer."
David picked Remy up effortlessly and carried him toward the tesserect Sinister had created before stepping through it.
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Jean stirred first. For a moment her mind remained clouded and she wondered why she'd fallen asleep outside. Then she saw Scott.
"Scott!" she exclaimed in shock as memory rushed back to her. Then she noticed the absence of Remy. Jean turned to Scott and began shaking him back to consciousness. "Scott! Come on honey, you have to wake up now."
"What?" Scott mumbled, and then sat bolt upright. "Jean! Remy!" He looked around and breathed a small sigh of relief that Jean was there. Then he too became aware of Remy's absence. "Jean, where's Remy?"
"I don't know, I can't sense him anywhere. We have to get back to the mansion and mobilize everyone. We have to get Remy back."
"How? We don't even know who took him," Scott said.
"I think I have an idea about that," Jean said grimly, as they made their way back up to the mansion.
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"Hey Red, what's up?" Logan asked as Jean and Scott hurried into the house. "Where's Gumbo?"
Jean looked at Scott before looking back at Logan. "We need to assemble the X-Men. Remy's been abducted."
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Once the X-Men had been assembled in the war room Jean shared her bad news.
There was an explosion of thunder and lightening outside, a testament to Ororo's feelings. The other X-Men were expressing similarly violent feelings.
"How did this happen?" Hank asked, after things had quieted somewhat.
"There was a strange man. He appeared out in the woods. He shot myself and Jean with some kind of tranquilizer dart. When we came around Remy was gone," Scott explained.
"Why didn't Cerebro warn us?" Ororo asked.
"I don't know why, but the stranger told us that Cerebro hadn't detected him. Maybe he had some kind of shielding. I don't know," Jean said.
"He didn't breach the perimeters in the normal way." Wolverine stood in the doorway. Unnoticed, after Jean and Scott had met him in the hallway, he had slipped out to investigate.
"What do you mean?" Jean asked.
"I mean I smelt you, Scotty and Gumbo, a stranger's scent, but there was another more familiar stench... Sinister."
There was a sudden, shocked silence. It was unnerving.
"How we gonna get him back then Sugah?" Rogue asked.
"I don't know, but believe me, we'll find a way," Scott said.
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Remy's eyes flickered open slowly. It took a few minutes for him to become aware of his surroundings. He was in a dimly lit room. There were no windows and only one door. The room was bare. In fact, the only thing in the room besides Remy himself, was the pallet he was lying on.
He got up quickly and moved over to the door. He let his spatial awareness take over, but he sensed nothing anywhere near this room. He tried the door. It was locked. Opening the door was nothing to him.
He stepped out of the room and into a long corridor. There was a lift at one end of the corridor, so Remy headed towards it figuring it would be his fastest way out.
The lift didn't take long to reach his level, and Remy hoped that no one had noticed the lift being used. He got into the lift and pushed the button for the top floor. He was hoping that if this was an underground facility then the top would be the ground floor, but even if it wasn't it would be fairly simple to make his escape from a roof.
The lift opened out onto another corridor. There was just one other door at the other end of the corridor so Remy approached it warily. He extended his spatial senses but sensed no movement from the other side. The door was unlocked so he opened it a fraction to peer beyond.
On the other side was a large room. It was filled with haphazardly stacked crates. Remy's senses went on alert but he couldn't sense anyone's presence, yet he knew these crates would be a perfect place to hide behind.
He cautiously ventured further into the room. There were three other doors in this room and Remy had no idea which one, if any, could lead him to freedom. So he decided to try his luck and headed for the nearest one, opposite him.
He got halfway across the room when the floor suddenly fell away beneath his feet and he felt himself falling rapidly, twisting without any way to control or slow his descent. He cried out in shock and the sound was echoed back at him. Remy felt like he'd been falling forever, but it wasn't actually for much longer than a few seconds.
He fell in darkness, and the only was he could judge when he'd reached the bottom was when his body slammed hard into the floor beneath him. He felt and heard the bones in his left arm snap and knew they'd been broken. His leg too was on fire with pain.
Suddenly the lights came on. The sudden brightness caused Remy to cry out in pain, and to try and shield his sensitive eyes. The movement of his body sent jolts of pain throughout him, and he moaned as his vision wavered and bile rose in the back of his throat.
"Glad you could join us son!"
Remy knew that voice. His head shot up and he saw the stranger who'd abducted him.
"Not your son!" Remy whispered painfully.
"Still don't believe me? Well maybe you'll believe your uncle. He was there at your birth after all."
A shadow moved into view to stand next to the stranger.
"Essex!" Remy hissed, his eyes going wide with shock.
"Come now, I know we taught you better manners than that. I thought you loved your uncle," the stranger said smiling. "But anyway I mustn't spoil your last surprise son."
The stranger pushed a button next to him and a door opened. A willowy figure stood in the doorway. The figure stepped forward and the light hit her soft long red hair.
Instant recognition flooded Remy. "Maman!" he breathed.
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end of part 6