Do Not Go Gentle - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Lori McDonald
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 3

With a sob, he dropped Rogue and reached into his pocket. Bringing out a dozen computer chips, he charged and hurled them at the approaching geneticist. They exploded deafeningly and Sinister roared in anger. Smoke billowed out of the corridor, obscuring it.

Turning, he leapt over Rogue and ran to the computer console, his nimble fingers dancing as he tried to figure out how to open the cages. The prisoners were standing up in them, shaking the bars while they yelled encouragement.

The lights flickered off and on a few times, then the door opened.

Immediately, the prisoners began rushing out, many on the higher levels leaping or climbing down. Those sick or wounded by Sinister's experiments were carried by the healthy. He grinned as they surged for the door out and scooped Rogue up in his arms again. She blinked rapidly, slowly regaining consciousness.

The man he'd spoken to came up to him, his face split into a grin so happy it made his heart surge to see it.

"Thank you so much," the man sobbed. "God bless you, I-" His eyes widened. "Oh, no..."

He turned. Sinister was coming out of the smoke. Prisoners began screaming, almost trampling one another as they tried to get through the door.

He thrust Rogue into the man's arms. "Take her, I'll cover you!" The man ran with his burden awkwardly and he pulled out more of the chips, ready to throw them.

He was still terrified, but the instant when he'd first struck back at Sinister had been a turning point. He could control the fear, use it to his advantage, and as long as Rogue was in danger, he wasn't going anywhere.

Sinister looked at him almost quizzically. He just braced himself, ready to move in any direction he had to, glowing chips in either hand. He could sense the prisoners at the door. Almost half of them had gotten through and he could hear the echoes of their feet pounding on the floor beyond as they ran.

"You are as resourceful as you were when I first found you," Sinister said smoothly. "But just as naive."

The scientist lifted his arm and fired a beam of energy at him. He dodged it and threw glowing chips at him. They exploded against his white skin, but Sinister only looked annoyed.

"You cannot harm me! Who do you think you are?"

"An X-Man."

Sinister smirked. "Foolish child. When I am done there will be no X-Men."

He fired again and again he dodged. He knew the beam would kill him if it connected, just as he knew his own powers were all but useless. Behind him, half the prisoners were through the door.

Daring Sinister's iron-strong grip, he darted in and kicked viciously at his knee. The geneticist staggered and he roundhouse kicked him across the face.

For an instant, it looked like Sinister was going to go down. Then he moved, impossibly fast, and threw him against the console so hard he cracked a rib.

He gasped and hit the ground, trying to breathe around the pain. He saw Sinister walk past him towards the crowd still at the door, towards Rogue, and pushed himself to his feet. Grabbing the chair that fronted the console, he lifted it over his head and charged it.

"SINISTER!" He bellowed. The geneticist turned and he threw the chair.

The explosion blew him right back off his feet again. Flames roared up and smoke billowed out from the epicentre. The smoke making him cough, he ran around the devestation to the door. The semi-conscious Rogue and the man were one of the last ones to go through but he didn't get the chance to say anything to them.

Sinister stepped out from the crater in the floor. His costume was ruined, but he was unharmed.

"Keep going," he whispered to the man holding Rogue. "Don't let him get her."

The man nodded. "Good luck." He turned and ran.

He and Sinister stared at one another. "This will avail you nothing," Sinister said.

Somewhere, he found it within himself to grin at him. "Sure it does. De longer I slow you down, de farther away dey get. You never gonna catch dem all now."

Sinister smiled coldly. "I think not. Every one of my subjects is implanted with a homing beacon to prevent just such an escape. Your efforts are meaningless."

He blanched and Sinister struck. Barely, he ducked the energy beam and bolted into the chemical room. The rest of the prisoners had already vacated it.

The fear he'd gotten under control threatened to overwhelm him again. Sinister was right. There was no way to escape him and he couldn't be killed, at least not by his powers. He remembered Cyclops' eyebeams affecting him, but he didn't know now if that was for real or just an act.

Still, he didn't want to be weaponless, and as Sinister walked without hurrying towards the room, he searched for something to use as ammo. Most of the objects were too large to lift, so he finally picked up a sealed white bucket with a handle.

Sinister laughed as he came fully into the room and saw what he was charging. "That will not harm me any more than the chair did," he assured him.

His jaw tightened. "Den maybe dis will," he replied and threw the bucket at the tank marked Phenol.

"NNOOOO!!!!" Sinister screamed.

The dual valves on the front wall of the tank exploded and the heated liquid inside poured out over Sinister, splashing from the geneticist to soak his left arm and side.

Everywhere on Sinister's skin that it touched, the liquid burned and his costume began to melt. The geneticist fell face first into the liquid, but he'd already turned and run. His skin where he'd been splashed was white and cold, and he couldn't move it.

He reached the turn to the exit and pounded around it. Someone had left the door open and he smiled at the sight of the sun.

After a few steps, his run slowed to a walk. A few steps later, he could barely stumble. His left arm and side felt numb and there was a terrible pain in his chest. He couldn't seem to get enough air in his lungs and it hurt to breathe. He felt incredibly dizzy.

Still, he was jubilant, exstatic. He'd faced Sinister and he'd beaten him. He'd saved himself, Rogue and sixty other people. He hadn't been helpless after all. Within him, the person he'd thought destroyed a long time ago surged to full awareness, even as he felt his body falter.

It was that renewed sense of self that let him make it out of the building into a gorse covered field. Most of the prisoners were still running, but some had stayed. The now conscious Rogue was one of them and he could see the Blackbird flying in the distance. It was a beautiful sight. He smiled.

Then his knees buckled.

"Remy!" Rogue gasped.

He tried to catch himself, but nothing seemed to be working anymore. His sight hazing, he watched Rogue and the man roll him over.

"What's wrong with him?" Rogue cried.

"I think he's having a heart attack."

"What?! He can't be! His arm is white, but that's th' only mark he's got on him!"

He felt Rogue breathe into him, the man pumping his chest.

Then he heard Beast's voice. "We came as quickly as we could. Let me see him."

"He cain't breathe, Hank." Rogue was crying.

There were people surrounding him, moving him. Once that would have terrified him, but all the fear vanished when Sinister died. Instead he was happy. He was a whole man inside, finally a free man.

"Cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, liver, kidneys... All the major organs are failing. What was he hit with?"

"Remy, don't ya leave me!"

He wanted to tell her he was all right, that he was okay, but his body wasn't his anymore. It felt as if there were a huge precipice behind him, pulling at him. Hank was holding him back from it, but not by much.

"Have you finished analyzing his burn yet?"

#Stay with us, please, you have to try.# It was Jean's voice, telepathically sounding in his mind.

"Here's the analysis."

"Phenol... oh God..."

#It's okay,# he told her. #I beat Sinister. Ev'body's safe now.#

"Why are ya just standin' there? Save him!"

"I can't..."

Jean sounded like she was crying. #We don't want to lose you like this!#

He felt so tired all of a sudden, and the precipice was so big. It was an effort to answer her. #I saved my soul... I t'ink dat's more 'portant... dan just livin' an' bein' afraid... I'm not afraid no more.#

"Ya cain't just let him die! Ya cain't!"

"I'm sorry, Rogue. There isn't an antidote for Phenol poisoning, it goes straight into the bloodstream. I'm so sorry."

#...Cajun...#

#My name is Remy.#

"Oh, please..."

"...don't go..."

"...don't..."

#Tell Rogue... tell... tell her I love...#

The precipice yawned below him.

"...Remy!..."