Xavier taught classes in the movie! So, nyaaaah!


4. It's my desire!

"Aunt Carrie!" She screamed, stumbling through the threshold of the small house, blue dress swinging around her in a swirl, Logan trotting silently behind her. "Aunt Carrie!" The storm just outside brewed dark colors, winds beginning to swirl dramatically, twisting down to the ground. "Aunt Carrie!" She screamed again, sprinting into her bedroom.

The room was completely empty.

"Oh no." She put her hands to her face. Her stomach hallowed out in panic as her head whipped around, looking over the room a second and third time. "Auntie Carrie!" She made to sprint for the window.

The floor jerked underneath her and she fumbled in her step, flying forward. Her forehead connected with the window sill, sending her collapsing to the floor.

"Ow." She moaned as she slowly collected herself. Her fingers clamped down around the sill and she dragged herself into an upright position. She gingerly lifted her other hand to her forehead, her gloves came back red. "Sonovagun." She growled, hoisting herself up so her eyes were level with the clear glass of the window.

A gasp ripped from her throat.

A cow flew past the window, struggling in the torrents of wind ripping at it.

"What in the—" She stammered, struggling to pry open the window. She stuck her head out the small gap, the two braids on either side of her head tugging in the wind, just in time to see and old man in a billowing cape go tumbling by in the wind currents.

"Erik?" Her brow wrinkled.

A young man went flying past.

"John?"

Another young man.

"Bobby?" She was starting to get upset. "Ah don' understand." She shook her head, pulling back in. "Logan?" She turned to look at the hairy man.

Before he could respond, an earth shattering tremor rocked the house, sending her flying back into the sill.

"Ow." She grunted again, holding her head. Logan was at her elbow, gently helping her stand. "Did we stop moving?" She asked in mumble.

He helped her slowly towards the front door.

"Logan…" She whispered as the door swung open. "I don't think we're in Canada anymore…"

Around her stood a world of blinding colors and weird people. The man closest to her was wearing a pair of intensly red sunglasses, the woman next to him had stark white hair, the man next to her had blue skin and a tail.

"Uh…hi." The man with the sunglasses gave them a little wave. "Welcome to X." Logan growled deeply in his throat at him.

"This place is amazing." She looked around at all the amazing people in this land of 'X'.

"You killed him!"

She whipped around to find a blue woman with red hair crouched next to the fallen house.

"What?"She tread lightly next to the woman.

"You killed him." The blue woman repeated, smiling broadly.

She looked at what the blue woman was pointing at.

"Cody!" She screamed, on her knees next to the body in a heartbeat. "Ohmygod, Cody! What did I do!" She screamed, pulling the body of the young boy out from underneath the house, a pair of obnoxiously red all-stars on his feet.

"Don't feel bad." The dark skinned woman with white hair smiled warmly at her. "It's a gift."

"What?" She shrilled. "How can you call this a gift?" She demanded, furious.

"We're all gifted." The woman tried to assure her gently.

"Get away from me!" She scrambled away. "Get the hell away from me!" She stumbled backwards, falling. "Oh, no…" she whispered as she saw her feet. Cody's red all-stars. "No, no, no, no, no!" she tried to pry of the shoes, but the laces refused to budge. "Get 'em off!" She started to sob.

But, they wouldn't budge.

She was stuck with them.

"No." She gasped through the sobs.

"Chere." A warm hand fell on her shoulder.

"No!" She smacked away the hand. "You don't understand! None of you understand! Get away from me! Don't ever touch me!"

"Maybe you could go see The Professor." Sunglasses suggested, keeping his distance.

"The Professor?" Her head snapped up.

"The Professor of X."


"Wake up!" There was a loud knocking at her door, bursting her out of her fitful sleep and odd dreams.

Rogue started awake, eyes flying open.

"That was such a weird dream." She muttered to herself.

"Kid!" The banging persisted.

"What?" Rogue hissed, holding on to the side of her head as the inside of her ears throbbed, reminding her that she used to up every morning to the smell of frying bacon, the sounds of birds singing just outside her window, the sunshine on her bare skin. Now, all she had to look forward to in the morning was fighting to be first to the bathroom and rooting through cabinets for something edible for breakfast. Alone.

"Open the door!" The same voice that had jolted her out of her dreams in the first place boomed again.

"Stop bein' so loud!" Rogue stumbled out of bed, complying with the voice in the hopes that if she followed instructions it would quiet down even the slightest amount.

"Are you awake?" Logan demanded as she threw open the door.

"No!" She snapped. "Obviously I'm sleepwalking, because there is no way on God's green earth that I would wake up this early willingly!"

He blinked at her once, stunned at her sudden ferocity, before grinning.

"I'm sorry." Rogue sighed after a few seconds, smoothing her hand across her brow. "I didn't mean to snap."

"Don't be." Logan dismissed. "It's good to see a little fire in those eyes every now and again."

"I'll bust my head against the pavement more often, then." She growled out before realizing she was being unruly and rolling her shoulders. "Is there something you wanted?" She said, a great deal more pleasantly than she had been and a great deal less pleasantly than was her norm.

"I don't know if you forgot, but you still got class this morning, kid." Logan quirked an eyebrow at her.

Rogue cursed wildly and twisted around, throwing open her closet and tearing out clothes furiously.

"What in the hell has gotten into you?" Logan inquired as he leaned against the doorframe, observing her.

"Spit and vinegar." Rogue snapped over her shoulder as she grabbed up a pair of jeans and an oversized and nearly threadbare sweatshirt that she usually only wore to sleep, having no patience for anything more dressy.

"So I see." Logan smirked.

Rogue merely growled in response as she edged around him out of the doorway, clothes pressed against her chest as she scampered away to the bathroom, scowling all the way.

She was blissfully unaware of the cogs outside working to push her life out of her control.


"I heard that she took down the entire Sentinel with her bare hands!"

"I heard that she spazzed out and tried to strangle Tabby."

"I heard that her skull cracked against the pavement and she died!"

"Then why did I see her walking around earlier, stupid? Besides, didn't you know that the Danger Room is programmed specifically not to kill people? Nobody can die in the Danger Room."

Remy's eyes cracked open as he heard voices whispering conspiratorially, rousing him from his fitful sleep on the couch in the rec room. He could only assume they were talking about Rogue.

He considered getting up and demanding to know what these children were talking about, but instead laid still, belly down eyes closed on the couch like the gators in the swamp he had grown up with. Waiting. And for a while there he was a log in the water. Camouflaged. Waiting. Coolly. Patiently. He didn't know what for, exactly, considering he had no mind to eat any of the children crowded in the doorway, but he knew that he would know it when he knew it.

"I heard that she nearly beat Bobby to death and that she spent the entire night with a new kid."

"What? That's ridiculous! Everybody knows that Rogue and Bobby are only still together because Bobby's the only one that'll touch her with a ten foot pole."

Remy tensed but didn't yet interfere.

"If either of them were gonna break it off, it would be Bobby. Every man's gotta have a little touch-and-feel to his relationship, if yaknowwhatI'msayin'."

"Stop being such a pig!"

Remy waited. Waited. His shoulders rolled as his muscles tensed and coiled, ready to strike out, but he stayed. He felt the heat of anger fury to boil under his skin on Rogue's account, but he stilled. And he waited.

"Well, if all of that's true, how come I heard her flirting with some guy in the hallway last night? Huh?"

"Maybe you hallucinated it."

"Shut up. I didn't hallucinate it! I swear, she and this guy were totally gettin' it on when Bobby walked out and caught them."

"I seriously doubt they were 'totally getting it on'."

"Maybe she's finally realized that he's cheating on her with Kitty."

"Who knows, with all the drama that surrounds her all the time. Skunk-head is lucky she's hot, because no one would put up with any of her bullshit if they didn't want in her pan-."

Remy pounced, unable to keep himself waiting any longer.

Before anyone had time to realize much of anything, Remy had a teenage boy pinned to the ground underneath of him, his fist balled up in the front of his shirt, his dark eyes burning through the tinted lenses on the sunglasses that he had fallen asleep in.

"AHHHH!" The kid screamed and his two friends that he had been gossiping with jumped nearly a foot in the air.

"Hush up!" Remy snapped irritably. The kid's screaming immediately cut off. "Bon." Remy gave one curt nod.

"Who the hell are you?" The kid stuttered. "And where the hell did you come from?" He looked around the room wildly, trying to determine if the man had just fallen from the sky.

"I'm nobody, really." Remy assured. "And I come from a place where they teach us t' respect a lady."

The kid swallowed.

"Now, I see y' ain't had the time t' learn this lesson." Remy continued. "And I should take it outta your hide, but y' caught me in a good mood,…" He trailed off, waiting for the boy to fill in the blank.

"Gus." He choked out.

"Gus." Remy nodded. "So I'm just gonna leave you with a warnin'. If I ever, ever, catch you saying a cross, crude word behind somebody's back again, especially a lady, they will find pieces of you scattered so far across this state that I'll havta draw up a map just so they can give y' a proper burial. And that's if I'm feelin' generous. Y' hear me?"

The kid blinked.

"I said: Do you hear me?" Remy hauled the kid up by the front of his shirt.

"Ah- Yes! Yes! I heard you!" Gus choked out spastically.

"Good." Remy grunted, letting the boy up. "Scram."

The boy did so.

The two girls he had been chatting with stood rooted to the spot, eyes wide with what could have been either terror or awe.

"Woah…" The one with black hair and the obnoxious jacket that was nearly a seizure-inducing shade of yellow breathed.

"That was…" The Asian looking girl with purple hair and what seemed to be a jagged red tattoo over her eye gaped.

"Totally awesome!" Jubilation Lee exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air. "Did you see how he just came out of nowhere?" She gushed. "And he threw that jackass to the ground and told him what was what!"

"All to defend a woman's honor." Betsy Braddock fanned herself. "How fantastically noble of you!"

"Ah, God! Did you hear that threat?" Jubilee bounced up and down over to Remy. "That was a top notch threat!"

"Who the devil are you?" Betsy asked in awe. "I simply must know!"

"Remy LeBeau." Remy introduced himself, bowing slightly at the waist. "Y'all can call me Gambit."

"Gambit." Jubilee tried the word out on her tongue. "Gambit. Gambit. Gambit. Gambit." She grinned. "I like it. I'm Jubilee. This is Betsy."

"Are you new here, luv?" Betsy asked hopefully. "A student?"

"Oui." Remy nodded, not noticing how they both swooned with his application of French. "I just rolled in here yesterday."

"One moment." Jubilee held up a finger to Gambit, clearing her throat. She and Betsy both whirled around, stepped out of the room, screamed for a second, jumping up and down, and walked coolly back in.

"Do you know which classes you have yet?" Betsy inquired composedly.

"Yeah." Remy dug around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out what looked to be a schedule, unfolding it and handing it over.

Jubilee and Betsy had a short wrestling match over the schedule, but Betsy came out on top, tearing the paper out of Jubilee's grasp.

"Ow!" Jubilee whined as she inspected her fingers for paper cuts.

Betsy frowned as she read over his class list. "I'm afraid we don't have any classes together." She tried her damndest not to pout.

"Lemme see!" Jubilee snatched the paper out of the other girl's hand. "Wow…" She inspected the classes he was taking. "You're in some tough classes. I don't have any of these…" she looked up at Remy. "You do realize that you Advanced Philosophy class starts in ten minutes?"

"Quoi?" He grabbed back the paper and looked it over. "L'Enfer!" He hissed as he discovered Jubilee was right and scrambled away, calling back a hasty farewell.

Jubilee and Betsy watched after him.

"He was wearing sunglasses inside." Jubilee sighed longingly after him.

"How ruggedly mysterious." Betsy breathed airily.


Remy was five minutes late arriving at the office of Charles Xavier, where the Advanced Philosophy class was taught. He had only stopped long enough to change his clothes and grab anything he thought he would need before dashing away to his first class at the Xavier Institute.

Apparently, however, punctuality was something observed liberally in his new domain and he unknowingly interrupted Xavier's 'Welcome to the new semester' speech.

"Uh… sorry." Remy coughed awkwardly as a dozen pairs of eyes turned to observe his tardy entrance. He only recognized three. One was Xavier's.

"Hi, Gambit." Marty and Regan grinned in chorus before realizing it and turned on each other.

"Look, psycho," Marty glared. "Just because we're related doesn't mean that I won't burn you down in a fist fight."

"Skank," Regan glowered. "I. will. cut. you."

"Ladies," Xavier interrupted wearily. "Please." He intoned.

The two sisters shot each other scathing looks before turning away.

"Class," Xavier smiled at the others pleasantly. "This is a new student, Remy LeBeau."

"Call me Gambit." Remy requested to everyone in the room.

"I hope you will all work to make him feel welcome." Xavier's intelligent eyes swept over the room and it was understood that this wasn't an optional activity. Everyone nodded agreeably and Xavier smiled. "Very good. Now, Mr. LeBeau, if you would take a seat, I can continue with our first lesson."

Remy slid into a chair near the back of the small group, determined to keep to himself.

"Now," Xavier looked across his desk at a stack of books. "Where was I?"

"Development of emotion and morals." A petite brunette in the front offered. That was when Remy realized that this brunette and the panicky one from the Danger Room were one in the same. The one that The Ass was cheating on Rogue with.

Remy sunk down in his chair, silently glaring at the girl from behind his dark glasses for some time before he actually realized he was doing it.

"And I would like for you all to read these books." Xavier continued whatever lecture he had started that Remy hadn't been paying attention to, holding up the stack of reasonably sized books that had been perched on his desk. "Would you pass these out, Kitty?" He handed the stack to the brunette.

"Sure thing, professor." Kitty smiled and passed around the books.

Remy inspected the one that landed on his desk. The picture of a vaguely humanoid figure, outlined by the deep red of sunset, (Or sunrise. It was difficult to tell.) decorated the entire front of the book, and, in thick, bold letters, the cover read 'I, Robot', underneath, a smaller 'Isaac Asimov'.

Remy inspected the text, flipping it over and scanning down the blurb on the back.

Sounded... unexciting.

He frowned down at the book.

Why did philosophy always have to be boring? Advanced philosophy seemed to be faring no better.

The sound of the door at his back opening broke him out of his revere and he turned to see whoever had just walked in.

"I am so sorry, Professor." Rogue panted as she rushed into the classroom. Her hair was wet and she looked flushed from some sort of activity. She was wearing a pair of well worn jeans that fit her incredibly, a dark green shirt that had a plunging neckline and clingy hem, and a pair of black gloves. "Jubilee burned my sweatshirt when she saw what I was wearing and I had to-." She looked up and met Remy's stare. "You!" She gasped and dropped all of her books.

"Me!" Remy grinned as he stood to help her gather them.

"No, no, no!" Rogue snapped, batting away his hands. "I got 'em."

"I insist, chère." Remy snatched up a book before she could get her fingers around it.

"Give it back!" Rogue stamped her foot like a child and lunged for the book.

"Say 'Please'." Remy held the book out of her reach.

"I'd beat you half tah death right now if I didn't think you'd like it." She glared at him. He merely smirked in return and she huffed a sigh. "Please?"

"There now." He handed the book back to her. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"More than you know." She smirked at him.

"Are you two quite done?" Marty inquired derisively.

"Far from it." Remy smirked but took his seat.

Rogue looked around the room for a moment before realizing that the only seat left was the one next to Remy's. She took her seat quietly, not wanting to disrupt the classroom anymore than she already had.

"As I was saying," Xavier cleared his throat. "You are to inspect the relationships between humanity and robots and define and outline the driving philosophy from both viewpoints. I would like you to analyze the similarities between the two and compare and contrast these artificial intelligence's philosophies to Aristotle, Hume, Spinoza, or Descartes'. We will discuss these ideas and comparisons next class. Dismissed." He waved them away.

Rogue plucked up the book on her desk and tossed it into her bag without really looking at it before following after her classmates out the door.

"How are y' feeling, chère?" Remy asked as he fell into step beside her, indicating the back of her head.

"Not too bad." She smiled. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't feel like a ray of sunshine and rainbows, but I've had worse before."

"Hm." He seemed to brood on his, rubbing his stubbled chin. "Worse how?" He finally asked.

"It's a long story." Rogue sighed. "Magneto, Statue of Liberty, Logan had to save my life, stuff like that."

He nodded. "Where y' headed?"

"I got an hour before I have to be anywhere." She replied. "I was gonna catch up on some sleep."

"Rogue!" Someone called to her from the end of the hallway and she looked off to see Bobby waving to her.

"I gotta go." She shot an apologetic look to Remy as she walked away. "Seeya' 'round, Remy!" She called before jogging up to Bobby. He kissed her hair softly before they both disappeared into another hallway.

Remy watched after them darkly.

"She's settling for him." He turned sharply to see the brunette, Kitty, standing quietly behind him.

"What?" Remy's brow creased.

"I thought you'd want to know that she doesn't really like him." Kitty stepped forward timidly. "She stays with him because she's afraid that he's the only one that's ever going to really want to get close to her. She likes Logan well enough, but he won't ever see her as more than a kid. And that scares her."

Remy opened his mouth to ask why she was telling him this, of all people, but all that came out was "How do you know?"

"Because," Kitty smiled sadly. "I know that's the reason she didn't get mad at me when I told her that her boyfriend was cheating on her."

There was a pause in conversation where Remy was allowed to consider this before Kitty stuck out her hand in introduction.

"Kitty Pyrde." She said, wondering if he was going to reject the hand.

"Remy LeBeau." He accepted the hand after a moment. "Gambit."

"Well, Gambit," Kitty grinned with relief. "If you need any help with anything, please, feel free to ask me."

"I will, petite chatte," He assured her with soft, maybe even slightly lukewarm, smile.


A. Logan is totally Toto in that Wizard of Oz dream sequence.

B. Nobody likes Gus.

C. I love philosophy.

Also! If you think I just brought on a random Wizard of Oz dream sequence for the hell of it, you have another thing coming!

Just so you know: I'm a genius. And modest. And gorgeous, but I digress.