What is to Come
It starts with a warning and weaves its way throughout their lives as enemies become allies, unspeakable threats arise and the X-men transition from teenagers into adulthood. Only one thing remains certain for them: The X-men will fight for the good of mankind.
AU Post series combining elements from Comics, Wolverine and the X-men, X-men TAS, X-men Evolution, and using X-men Evolution's settings and background history, for the most part. A/N Updates will be slower, about once a week.
Chapter One
Gambit had remained with his family for just a day following his rescue mission. He had been on his way back to Bayville when he had his first 'slip'. Gambit was not used to slips, though he had suffered from them (as most do) when his powers manifested. He had figured out how to control the power by the time he was fourteen. As far as he was concerned, the ability to cause anything he touched to explode meant that he had to gain control of it quickly. It had been a complete shock to him after having control for the last five years, his bike began to glow beneath him.
Worse still he had been unable to pull the charge back into himself. With mounting horror, he pulled into the next (thankfully deserted) rest stop, jumped from the bike, and ran as quickly as he could toward the bathrooms. The resulting explosion, which reached him as he reached the door, had thrown him several yards into the woods as it left the biggest crater he could remember ever creating.
His last thought before passing out was that he was grateful no one else had been around. He woke, a couple of hours later, to the realization that he was no longer alone. He was confused, but also concerned for the person sitting across from him after all he had no idea why he had lost control.
There had been times - many of them- that he had since wished that something had happened then. The man who sat there across from him in that hospital room, had turned out to be the worst monster he had ever encountered.
"Hello, Mr. LeBeau." the man said. "I'm Dr. Essex, you seem to have run into some trouble."
"Did anyone get hurt?"
"Aside from yourself, no."
"What happened?"
"Your lost control, my boy, your powers have spiked, and you no longer can control them, not without help. "Dr. Essex replied, as he stood and walked over to Gambit. "You could try on your own, which would have disastrous results, or you could allow me to assist you."
Gambit was still confused, his head was killing him and making thought difficult. He knew however that if that had happened in a crowded area like a mall, or his family home, or a place like Xavier's, there would have been very few survivors. Still reeling at this realization, he slowly nodded his head, agreeing to allow the man to help him.
Had he known that the next few weeks were going to be filled with unimaginable pain, he would likely have taken more time to think about his agreement, however it wasn't the torture of the procedures that made Gambit sick to his stomach. It wasn't the brutality of the experiments that made him look for a way out. No it was the realization that Essex was the most sinister man he had ever encountered.
Three weeks after he had arrived Gambit realized he was a prisoner. A week after that, he realized he wasn't the only one who was imprisoned there. He had been wandering the halls looking for an escape route when he found the other experiments.
It was another six weeks before he had been called into Essex's office. Essex had decided it was time to discuss Gambit's payment. With growing horror, he listened to the man all the while keeping his expression impassive.
Essex didn't want his money, of which he had been willing to part, what he wanted was an assassin. Gambit had done a lot of terrible things in his short life. He was a thief and proud of it. He had become a mercenary to get away from his family which he was not so proud of, but this... he nodded numbly, before taking the file and walking out of the room. He needed a way out, and he needed it now.
~0~o~0~
Rogue was seriously reconsidering the Professor's offer to let her finish the term remotely. Bayville High had made the offer at the end of the year, just before their battle with Apocalypse and at the time she had refused. It was bad enough that she would be graduating half a year late thanks to several absences over the last two years, it would be worse (in her opinion) to hide while she finished.
Then Apocalypse happened, and the whole world watched. She hadn't thought anything of it at the time after all, she may have given the 'final blow' but the whole team - the teams in fact- had played their part. At her first day back to Bayville High however, it became painfully apparent to her that was not how the world had seen the event.
For the most part the reaction had been positive, but it was still hard on her. Rogue preferred to remain in the background and distant as much as possible. Her mutation, the ability to absorb the memories and powers of anyone who touched her, made being around others difficult for her. She had yet to learn to control her powers so touch made her nervous.
She lost count of the number of people today who insisted on patting her shoulder or shaking her hand, and so she had decided by the final bell that she was not coming back if she could help it. She would talk the Xavier and Logan about it as soon as she got home. It wasn't as though running away pleased her, but the stress of all of the attention made it impossible to concentrate.
Rogue was distracted by these thoughts as she walked to the parking lot, passing between the main building and the gym through the narrow alley where she had once been kidnapped. This thought occurred to her as a hand snaked out from a darkened doorway and pulled her through it. A hand clamp over her mouth as someone whispered. "Shh, I'm not going to hurt you."
Rogue's eyes widened with anger as she intentionally stomped as hard as she could on his foot and elbowed him in the stomach at the same time. There was a grunt of pain in response but his grip didn't change as he said in a slightly louder voice. "I ain't kidnapping you Cher, I need your help."
Rogue stopped struggling and he removed his hand. He still kept a tight grip around her waist refusing to let her move. "That's exactly what you should have said last time, Swap Rat, that you needed my help."
"I know. Listen I don't have much time 'fore they realize I'm gone. Gotta get a good cover for when that happens."
"Who-"
"It don't matter, that's my problem. There's a group of mutants that need the X-men's help. Now. Tonight."
"How-"
"I just know, that's all you need to know." Remy said as he pushed a file folder into her hands. "Everything you need to know is in there. Good luck."
Before she could react or even turn around he was gone. She caught a brief glimpse of his coat as he slipped out of the doorway. Frowning she opened the file, as she wondered if she should just throw it away, after all she had been tricked by this man before. She read the first two lines in the folder and eyes wide with fright she shoved it deep into her bag. Rogue ran full force to the parking lot, arriving just as Kitty and Kurt unlocked the door fighting over who got to drive.
"Get in, shut up, and buckle up." Rogue said in a rushed voice, as she jumped in the driver's seat.
Kitty started to protest, but Kurt took one look at Rogue's face and climbed in. "What happened?"
"Gambit just grabbed me." Rogue replied as she hit reverse, not waiting for Kitty to buckle her seat belt.
"What?!" the other two screamed together, looking around as if they expected him to be in the car with them.
"He's gone now, that ain't what's important, I need to talk to the Professor right now!" Rogue replied as she slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting another car. There was a line at the exit of the parking area.
Kurt looked at the line, looked at his sister, and then glanced at Kitty before he said. "Park."
Rogue frowned at him for a moment, before returning her attention to the horn. "Rogue, park, I can get us there faster."
Rogue reluctantly pulled into the closest parking space as Kitty moved to grab Kurt's shoulder. Rogue pocketed the keys as she gripped her backpack and took Kurt's hand. With a wisp of blue smoke and the smell of sulfur they found themselves right outside of the Professor's office.
Kitty wrinkled her nose and waved the smoke away as Rogue marched into the office without knocking. Xavier, Logan, and Dr. McCoy were in the middle of a meeting as she walked in. Without hesitating she opened her bag and pulled out the folder.
"Gambit just gave me this. "Rogue said as Logan growled, when passed him he smelled the man on her clothing. "Evan's going to die in the morning if we don't do something."
Charles Xavier calmly picked up the file, and began to read. He showed no outward reaction to Rogue's claim, though he was in fact very shocked by it. He carefully read the first page before he looked up at Logan long enough to instruct him to gather the X-men.
Rogue followed Logan out of the door to go change into her uniform. She had hoped that Xavier would look at the file and tell her she was wrong, or that it was fake. Judging by the slight strain in his voice this was far more serious than she had thought though.
Kitty and Kurt had been waiting for her in the hall, Logan barked 'Suit up' to them as he passed. They looked questioningly at Rogue as they all made their way quickly up the stairs to change. She shook her head, guessing that Xavier would explain the situation and assuming they didn't have time for questions. Especially as she didn't have any answers.
Ten minutes later Xavier rolled into the War Room, which was crowded with uniformed confused X-men. Most of them had barely reached the front gates when Logan had told them to go to the War Room in an unusually short tone. Logan was always short, so they knew whatever happened was serious. Logan however had not followed them back inside, instead he headed toward the Greenhouse.
As Xavier entered the room, it shook with a clap of thunder. Rogue and Xavier both guessed that Logan had broken the news to Ororo. Xavier continued on however, not wanting to waste time waiting for the two of them to arrive.
"We have a mission, someone has threatened the safety of the Morlocks, and we need to help them relocate to a safe place by morning. However, we also need to convince them that there is indeed a good reason to relocate. Rogue, Nightcrawler, you are going to go with Storm into the tunnels to meet with Evan and the others. Wolverine will lead the rest of the team to keep watch and ensure no one approaches the tunnel during this meeting."
~0~o~0~
Gambit hoped they would listen to his warning. It was the only thing he could think of when he had found the way out this morning. He had actually briefly thought of Magneto as well, however he had no idea how to find his former employer. He had, in fact, spent months building a false trail so the man could not find him when he chose to escape.
It wasn't until he managed to slip out that it really hit him the false trail had been a double edged sword. No one had been looking for him, but even if they had been they wouldn't have found him. Sometimes he was his own worst enemy.
He made sure to be well away from Bayville before being spotted. He allowed a gas station camera a brief glimpse of him, before he further laid the trail by renting a motel room under his real name, as much as that went against everything he was ever taught, and then found the first bar he could. He immediately joined a back room poker game where he made sure to win so well that the others were complaining loudly about him.
He needed it to look like the only reason he left the base was to engage in his normal pre-battle behavior. If there was any hope for those poor people, Essex must not suspect he shared the information with anyone else. That's why he had made sure to photocopy the entire file at the library and still had the original file in the bottom of his bag which was at his side. He was both relieved and depressed when one of Essex's guards arrived to collect him an hour later.