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Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
 
 
 

The Companion Picture - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Dandelion
Last updated: 12/03/2009 06:26:08 PM

Chapter 28

It was hard to say one way or the other what it was that caused Lorna Dane to wake up and say 'To hell with it, it's time I start living again.'

She wasn't particularly certain what it was that caused her to go over the edge in the first place. She figured she'd attribute it to shock. After all, she'd discovered Alex was dead, X-Factor was targeted by their superiors, sent away from her team with no backup and little instruction, and trailed by a team of operatives that she ended up killing.

It had been a bad day.

Flinging herself towards the Bermuda Triangle using the errant electro-magnetic waves certainly didn't help matters. She wasn't particularly used to filling herself up with that much raw energy. It was like a drug. The high was incredible, as close to utter ecstasy as anything she could imagine, and the crash down was quite possibly the most devastating feeling she had known.

She understood at last the enigma of Magneto.

Brett stood in the kitchen her eyes fixed on some unspecified point in space. She wasn't content. It wasn't Remy, she had never been happier in that regard. She was certainly happy here on this forgotten island too.

The thing of it was that she had started feeling strange things in her mind since she and Remy had become intimate.

She wondered if it was the stirrings of the memories she had taken from him in Israel. <How very ironic,> she thought with a wry twist to her lips. <Just when Ah'm satisfied with my personal life something just has to come along and muck it all up. It makes a body want to quit all together.>

"Good morning, Brett," Magnus strolled in casually.

"Hi," she replied, thinking unreasonably that Magnus had no right to look so at ease when she wasn't.

"Sleep well?"

She stuck her tongue out at him and stalked out. "None of your damn business, is it?"

Magnus was left looking perplexed with a carton of milk in his hand. "What did I say?"

Brett flew down to the beach mulling over a few choice words in her head. "Moron, idiot, absolute buffoon!!" She kicked savagely at the sand. "He was just asking to be polite, he wasn't alluding to anything."

She sighed deeply and tossed a wave towards the seagulls above her. "Look at me, Miss Overly Sensitive!"

She had a strange feeling, something akin the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. It was like watching a horror movie and knowing the person on screen was going to get whacked next, but Brett felt like she was the character in the movie rather than the viewer.

It was a position she didn't care for. The other shoe was about to drop all she could do was wait for it.

"Something wrong with Brett?"

Remy paused in the doorway, blinking as Magnus waited for his question to be answered.

"You tell me, man," he drawled. "You seem to be knowin'."

Magnus shrugged shoulders, his face remaining impassive. "She seemed particularly touchy. And preoccupied."

Remy looked thoughtful. "I didn't notice anything wrong." This was true. Brett had been sunny and cheerful the last few days. At least as far as he could tell and he was usually a pretty good judge.

Magnus scratched his head, looking uncomfortable.

"No," Remy told him before the question was raised. "It's not about you, whatever it is."

Magnus looked unconvinced.

"Look, if there's a problem she'll bring it up on her own, and if you're still worried tomorrow, I'll talk to her. Okay?" Remy rummaged through the stock of breakfast cereals emerging with a box of Honeycombs.

Magnus shrugged. "All right. You'd know best, I imagine." He watched Remy pour himself a bowl full of the cereal and sit down to eat sans spoon or milk. "Why bother with the bowl, Remy?" He deftly changed the subject. "Why not cut out the middle man and eat right out of the box?"

"Dat'd be rude."

Magnus rolled his eyes. He paused looking upwards towards the ceiling. He felt something, a twinge, at the edge of his magnetic perception. He knew what it meant. Their house guest was on the prowl.

"Hi Brett."

Brett looked up to see Lee strolling across the sand towards her. She waved silently smiling a greeting.

Lee walked up slowly, in no apparent rush.

"What are you doing out here all by your lonesome?"

"Ah might ask the same of you," Brett tossed a stick into the water.

"I don't have a boyfriend," Lee replied jovially. "I have an excuse to be alone."

"Remy and Ah aren't joined at the hip. We're lovers, not Siamese twins."

Lee laughed pleasantly at Brett's joking indignation.

"Lee you ever get a feeling in your gut that something's going to happen?" Brett looked out over the water.

"The calm before the storm? Sure. Lots of times." Lee glanced at Brett's expression. "You too?"

Brett looked at her.

"I've got the gutty feeling," Lee pressed a hand to her stomach. "Like something's just around the corner. I came out here because everything's pretty much out in the open. I thought maybe I wouldn't feel like something was stalking me, ready to pounce." She shook her head. "Hasn't worked. But I'm glad to know someone else feels it too."

Brett nodded, feeling a little relieved herself. "Ah just wish Ah knew what to do about it."

"I'll be honest," Lee remarked, her voice frank. "Lorna doesn't help matters. It's like living with a drug addict. She just stays in her room and scarcely moves. When you talk to her most of the time she's completely spaced out. It's a bit creepy, don't you think?"

"Ah'm beginning to get very concerned," Brett agreed. "Lorna never used to be like that." Lee sighed. "I feel like I should be doing something, but I haven't the faintest idea what."

"Ah know," Brett's voice was quiet. "Ah know."

<She's coming downstairs,> Magnus followed the magnetic signature with hismind. <The mystery woman moves at last.>

He prepared to greet her when she came in, but his voice caught in his throat.

He wasn't expecting her to be quite so beautiful.

Remy turned around, feeling a presence behind him. "Well, Lorna," he stood up. "It's good to see you out of your room."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. I'm sorry I've been such a burden."

Remy shook his head, dismissing her apology.

"You needed help, we could give it. Our pleasure. Call it southern hospitality." He flashed her one of his megawatt grins.

The sound of someone's throat clearing - Magnus' - made him glance towards his friend. Only years of practicing his poker face kept him from laughing right out loud. Magnus couldn't have looked more eager than if he were a kid on Christmas morning. Lorna seemed not to notice, or pretended not to.

"Let me introduce you two," Remy remarked.

"Magnet to magnet." He chuckled dryly as Magnus sent him a swift stern look. "Magnus Lensherr meet Lorna Dane. Lorna Dane meet Magnus Lensherr." Reminding herself that Magnus was still an amnesiac Lorna put on a friendly smile. It wasn't that hard to do considering the appreciative look he gave her. It had been a while since anyone had looked at her the way Magnus was. She had to admit, she liked it, despite the oddity of it all. She stuck her hand out to shake his in greeting.

<SHRACK!!!>

A blinding flash of blue-green magnetic energy had Remy seeing spots and his watch going haywire.

"Gah!" he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. He shook his head to clear his vision. Lorna and Magnus gazed at each other with expressions that were crossed between apprehension and interest. Remy grinned impishly. "Now dats what I call chemistry."

Lorna relaxed her posture and smiled at Remy, appreciating the joke. She looked back at Magnus. "It's very nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Well, now that all the introductions have been made," Remy spread his arms wide, making a mental note of the sparks between Lorna and Magnus. He had always thought that Alex Summers was a bit too much of a straight arrow for someone as interesting as Lorna. "Why don't we sit down and have some breakfast?"

Lorna's face turned regretful. "I wish."

She sighed. "Look, I have very important news that I have to tell everyone here. I just hope I'm not too late."

<Nothing like a premonition of doom to ruin the atmosphere,> Remy thought. Still, he could see she was very serious. "All right, we'll round up the troops. I'm guessing Brett and Lee will be pretty happy to see you up and about."

<We'll see how long that sentiment lasts, >Lorna said to herself.

"I could kick myself, really, for letting my emotions take such complete control of me. I hope I haven't put any of us in danger because of it." Lorna stood stiffly in the center of the room.

"What do you mean, Lorna?" Brett asked, not unkindly.

"The United States Department of Defense seems to have a vested interest in the Legacy Virus." Lorna's voice wavered a bit as she remembered her friend and teammate, Jaime Madrox.

"They seem to have a considerable interest in what its effects on mutants are."

"Ah didn't think there was much mystery to that," Brett replied.

"'Specially after Trish Tilby 'enlightened' the world," Remy put in.

Lee looked around her. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Like it or not that report needed to be told. It couldn't remain a secret any longer."

Remy's eyes were cold. "Would anyone have cared it if hadn't been revealed that a human had it, too?"

Lee's face drained of color. "That's disgusting."

Brett looked sad. "It is, Lee, but there's a lot of truth to it. Hank and Charles and Moira have been working for a cure for months. Trish breaking the story, particularly Moira's having contracted the disease has turned mutant animosity into abject hatred."

Lee shook her head. "You've all been fighting extremists so long that it's colored your mind. Not every human hates mutants. I sure don't. And don't think I didn't go through my own trials when I realized I was developing feelings for this guy." She motioned to Magnus. Magnus had been studying Lorna's expressions during the debate but perked up when the attention turned on him.

"When we were here before, every day I had to fight with myself over the fact that this guy hated humans."

"I don't hate humans!" Magnus was indignant. "Most of the people I've loved on this earth have been humans. My grand-daughter is human." He blinked, then looked at Remy. "I have a grand-daughter, don't I?"

Remy's lips turned into a small smile.

"Oui."

"Listen to me," Lee continued. "Your crusade was a mutant dominated earth."

Magnus looked unconvinced.

Lorna nodded. "You see, Magnus, your agenda was to ensure that the holocaust that robbed you of your family would never happen again." Magnus felt sick inside. "And to ensure that I thought that if mutants had control, it wouldn't happen." He looked at Lee. "How did you get past that?"

Lee smiled at him. "I listened to you. I learned to look at you as the man you were at the time and not the man I had only heard about."

"Not everyone is like you, Lee." Brett remarked softly.

"Not everyone is Friends of Humanity fodder either." Lee shot back.

"Hel-LO!" Lorna raised her voice. "We can debate the politics of the average Joe later, okay? May I continue? What I have to say *is* important after all."

"We apologize, Lorna," Magnus replied. "Please continue."

She sighed. "Forge has disbanded X-Factor. He sent me out as soon as he had found out about Alex. I took off, but I was tracked down in the New Mexico desert."

"What were you doing there?" Lee asked.

"Probably recharging," Magnus replied, knowingly. He looked at Lorna. "Am I right?"

Lorna nodded, another curious glint in her eyes. "That and it was where Alex and I lived before I became a Marauder and Alex rejoined the X-Men." She took another deep breath. "Anyway, I was tracked down there by some team of covert operatives. I believe they were trying to capture me, but I killed them."

Brett blinked, but Remy remained serious.

"How many of them were there?"

"Four."

"Standard." He replied.

Lorna looked at him with an odd expression on her face. She wasn't sure whether she should be insulted by the government's only sending a standard sized team after her or not. Nor was she sure whether or not she should press Remy on how he would even know what a standard covert ops team was in the first place. "After I got rid of them all, I wiped the whole place clean. You wouldn't know that anyone or anything had ever been there after I was done." For a moment, Lorna paused, relishing the remembrance of that feeling of power coursing through her. She hadn't realized it until now, but she missed it.

No one said anything, although Remy's face showed signs of being impressed and Brett's seemed to be in agreement with Lorna's actions. "Forge is going to be coming here."

"This is turning into a resort," Lee remarked, her voice tight. "Do you have any idea when?"

"No. He said he'd come when he could ensure our safety," Lorna replied. "I do have a document here that I think you should all take a look at." She pulled a sheet of paper out of her pack and gave it to Brett, who read over it quickly and passed it to Remy and so on. Lee read the sheet as it got to her:

Re: Black Pyramid 001-QT7MY600.7

Explanation of plans available at QTI-L.asp. Stage ops program, level R. Should virus-l be a danger to homo-sapian population ramifications will fall to gov.sanc.ops. Extension of funds not possible at this time, stand by. X-Factor imperative to implementation of plans (re: above).

Signed,

W.I. Thynn

She set it on the table again and turned her attention back to Lorna. Lorna sighed. "I couldn't make a whole lot out of it either. It's specific enough to be threatening. And it's vague enough to be utterly confusing."

"I'd say we need a bit more than this to understand exactly what's going on," Magnus said, gesturing to the sheet.

"That's why Forge is coming," Lorna replied. "All I know is that those operatives were real. Alex is dead. And X-Factor no longer exists. You do the math."

"Anyone need a drink?" Remy offered, standing up.

Brett nodded briefly to her lover then looked back at Lorna. "So, what do we need to do to prepare?"

"Good question," Lorna replied, as Remy strolled into the kitchen. "Frankly, I was hoping you all would have ideas."

"Well, I'm a little curious as to how many people know where we are." Lee said. "Not meaning to be rude or anything, but Lorna, how did you know where to find us?"

"Brett wrote me a letter," Lorna explained.

"I told Forge and that's as far as it got in regards to me. I would think that if Forge was going underground he wouldn't tell anyone where he was going either. He's a very 'need to know basis' type of guy anyway."

"It's not as though anyone who wanted to find us that badly couldn't do it," Brett put in. "There are ways. I can't say we're all that protected here."

"We're very well protected here," Magnus put in. "There's that delightful superstition that keeps people out of this area for one."

"Superstitions only go so far," Brett tossed back. "Let's not be cocky."

"Well, there is a significant polarity of electro-magnetic vibrations here, as well, so I imagine that if worse comes to worse, between Lorna and myself, we'd be able to repel any danger."

Lee spoke up. "Yes, but that's a reactive analysis. What about proactive? What if we don't want to be found? You two tossing about your magnetic powers at full force is going to attract attention. Is that what we want?"

"NO!" The reply was unanimous and instantaneous.

"Well, then what do we do?"

"Forge would know," Lorna said, her voice a bit sulky. "He can do anything."

Brett nodded. "True. Anything he can think of, he can build. But until he comes, what? Can we afford to wait that long?"

"How dire *is* the situation?" Lee asked.

"Is this something that's going to come haunting us now? Or is it something that is building up?"

"Forge gave me the impression that it was still in the growing phase," Lorna replied. "The fact that they killed my ex-boyfriend and came gunning after me is enough to convince me that they are loaded and more than ready to act should they feel they need to. I just don't know enough about them to predict *when* they would feel that way."

"Them. Them. Them," Magnus grumbled. "Who is Them? On the paper it said--" he gestured to the table. It was bare. "Where's the paper?"

Lee and Lorna shrugged. Brett cleared her throat as she stood up. "Y'know, Ah bet Remy went and took it with him when he went into the kitchen. He's prob'ly just givin' it a look-see while he's fetching drinks for everyone. Ah'll go and see."

Her voice was bright.

A little too bright for Magnus' piece of mind. He knew exactly what she was doing. She was covering for her man. He watched her silently as she walked out of the room. Lorna was watching Magnus' expression this time. She wasn't too comfortable with the uncertain look on his face. Brett hadn't been gone for much more than a minute when a terrific crash was heard from the direction of the kitchen. "DAMMIT REMY!!"

Magnus was on his feet and out of the room before Lorna or Lee had a chance to blink, but they quickly followed suit.

Brett stood in the outside doorway of the kitchen. Beyond her, the terraces descended to beach level. A fist sized hole in the wall gave an indication of the source of the crash.

"What happened?" Magnus' voice was sharp. "Where is he?"

"Open your eyes, Magnus," Brett turned to face them, running her fingers through her hair. "He's not here. Remy's gone and played rabbit again. He took off. Whatever he saw on that damned paper gave him the spooks somethin' awful."

"How can you be so sure?" Lee asked.

Brett turned back towards the outside again. "I can feel his fear," she replied quietly.

Remy sat on a crumbled ruin of a wall looking at the paper that Lorna had brought with her. <It starts,> he thought in despair. <No matter where I go, dat shadow always be comin' after me.>

Brett had taken to the skies. She looked in earnest for her wayward love, determined to find him, and find out what had caused him to run. <Dammit, Remy,> she thought in anger. <When are you gonna stop hidin' from me? When are you gonna realize Ah'm on your side?!>

Magnus remained with Lee and Lorna, though his attention was diverted to the outdoors. Lorna sat down at the kitchen table and leaned her chin on her hand. "I have to admit, I feel a little guilty."

Lee sat down with her. "Don't worry, Lorna, we aren't in the habit of shooting the bearer just because we don't like the message."

"Thanks ever so," Lorna replied dryly.

"Don't worry about Brett and Remy, they'll patch things up, no problem."

"I think my concern is more of why he ran off so suddenly. Something obviously bothered him in that document," Lorna sighed. "I don't like it when the team doesn't work together."

Magnus snapped his gaze to her rather sharply, and Lee also pulled back at the remark. Lorna looked from one to the other questioningly. "We aren't a team," Magnus told her, his words clipped. "We aren't on a mission for world peace or anything of the sort. We're a group of people whose interests have brought them to the same place for the time being. We aren't crusaders. Remy is entitled to as many secrets as he wants to have, same as everyone else here."

Lorna didn't say anything for several moments, feeling very much like she put her foot in her mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way, really. I am so used to the way Xavier does things. If there is a group of mutants congregated together for any length of time, they're a team. Whether they want to be or not, it seems."

Lee smiled. "It's okay. We aren't a team, here, but I guess we're all friends. We're worried about each other, but we respect each others privacy."

Lorna looked at the table. "What if one person's privacy endangers the rest of us?"

Magnus leaned against the counter, his mouth set in a firm line. "We all have pasts that may come back to haunt us. The nerve of anyone who attempts to ostracize Remy for failings that we are all guilty of. I'd like to think that some of us do not suffer from delusions of grandeur so much that we play the role of the hypocrite when we see a dark reflection in the mirror."

"That's not fair, Magnus," Lee replied.

"You're telling me?" He looked at her with wide eyes and turned away.

Lorna stared at the table. "He's right. He's so right." She looked up. "You know, for as long as I worked with X-Factor, I thought I was doing good things, that's the whole reason I stayed. Even after losing friends, and seeing lives torn horribly and irreparably apart, I thought we were doing something good. I believed in it. It kept me going through a lot of crap. We couldn't eat out in public without being chastised for what we were. I kept telling myself, people aren't really this stupid, they just don't know, and I can help fix that.

"So what happens? When it comes to a point where I can actually put all of those painful lessons to use, what do I do? The exact same thing! Maybe people really are that stupid, and I'm one of them." Lorna sighed. "You'd think that spending so much time being the brunt of such folly would teach me a thing or two."

"People aren't that stupid," Magnus replied quietly. "They're just afraid and there is always something that people are going to be afraid of. I didn't judge Remy, because, well, look at me, at who I am."

Lorna shook her head. "I played it dirty for a good long time and when it came back to it, I was excused because I was Lorna. I couldn't be held responsible for my actions because Malice had taken control of me. I settled into X life again and played neat and pretty with the other X mutants and all was forgiven. No one wants to face the truth. Malice may have had control, but I was in there, too, and I didn't fight because I didn't want to."

Lee leaned back in her chair and smiled warmly. "From everything Brett has told me, Remy has never really been accepted because, how was it that she put it? 'He didn't join in their reindeer games,' I think was the wording." She laughed. "Everything will come out when it needs to. Remy is our friend, he won't put us in danger."

"So there you are."

Remy looked down to see Brett standing on the beach below him. He didn't say anything. Brett remained where she was. "You know, we're getting predictable, sugah. First Ah run off and you follow me, then you run off and Ah follow you. Ah sure hate being predictable, Remy. Ah know you hate it, too."

No reply.

She looked up at him, her eyes snapping.

"Remy, what the hell is wrong with you? Ah'm on your side you good for nothing swamp rat!!"

A ghost of a smile flickered across Remy's eatures at her sharp words. I know, sweetness. I know."

"Then why all this?"

"You've got pieces of me locked up inside you, you know."

Brett blinked. "What? Wh-- How would you know?!"

"It's part of me, isn't it? Don't you think I'd know?"

She looked perplexed.

"I know. You still don't really understand your mutant power. Why would you, after all, it's pretty tricky, and no one else has really been able to figure it out. I bet you could do it, though, if y'wanted."

She stared up at him for a moment, a cold feeling at the back of her neck.

He pointed to her. "See, you're doing it. Usin' the parts of me."

She shook her head, clearing it. "Remy, Ah don't want to play this game anymore. What happened? Why'd you run off?"

"The mirror cracked."

She lost her temper. "Dammit Remy, Ah want you to tell me!!"

"You a Stones fan, sweetness?" His eyes looked sad but determined.

"What?!"

"The Rolling Stones. The group."

"What?" She shrugged. "Yeah, Ah like 'em all right. What does it have to do with anything?"

"In their own words. 'You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you'll get what you need.' I think I'm gon' stay out here for a spell. But you'll be able to find me again, I'm sure." He dropped a wadded up piece of paper down to her.

She caught it and looked up at him again questioningly, but he was gone. "Fine then, be mysterious," she muttered. "Ah *will* find you if Ah decide Ah want to."

Magnus stared at the polished bronze mirror in the temple thoughtfully. It had been a while since he had visited, for good reason, but Lorna's revelations had compelled him to return. If it was at all possible, he would prefer to solve one mystery before he got mired in another. Not that it was all that easy to keep from getting mired. Brett had returned and offered very little in the way of information. She revealed that she had found Remy and that he wanted to be alone, but very little else. She had retired to her room and no one had heard from her since.

No one seemed to want to pursue any discussion regarding Lorna's information after Brett's return. Least of all Lorna, who went for a walk to get to know her new home a little better. And Lee went to her boat, saying it was calming and she really needed something to soothe her nerves. So Magnus had returned to the temple.

It seemed to be waiting for him.

"I can hear you out there somewhere," the lilting voice called. "Teach, where are you? I can't see very well in here. You were right, you know? I lost my temper and went after Forge without really thinking it through."

Magnus went closer to the shimmering mirror, trying to discern where the echoing voice was coming from. It seemed to bounce off of everything and echo deep into his mind.

"Maybe it was the right thing though. I did make it all stop, you know. I had to go away for a long time though, and I left behind something that needed to die. It did too. And it hurt a lot of people doing it, which is only right, because that part of me could only manage to hurt things. No matter how much it wanted to make things better." Magnus' mind reeled. Everything this voice said seemed to strike a nerve though he couldn't figure out for the life of him why or how. "You aren't quite sure what to make of me," the voice seemed amused. "That's okay, you never really were certain. Though you tended to be better at dealing with me than any other instructor I had. I'm holding on until you get everything straightened out. I've found a little pocket for myself that seems safe. For how long is anyone's guess."

Magnus reached out for the mirror, his fingers stretched, just about to touch. A flare of energy caused his stomach to fall to his feet and his mind to do cartwheels. The voice disappeared and the mirror dulled until it

was merely polished bronze again. Magnus clutched at his head and did all he figured he could do to keep his brain from leaking out of his ears. Someone was messing with the electro-magnetic field in the area. He shot out of the temple to see Lorna standing on the beach glowing like a green flare.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he screamed. Lorna turned abruptly, meeting his angry gaze with one of her own. Her arms dropped to her side and the energy she was building ceased, leaving a ringing in Magnus' ears. She looked at him, judging his expression. "You tell me."

 

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