Chapter 6
Present Time:
Gambit was sitting in his hotel room at his computer, checking up on his bets from the day before. The X-Men's tips had paid off and he was rather hopeful about how the fourth and final horse race would go. His phone rang.
"Gambit," he said, not bothering to check the caller.
"How much longer were you needing to make your decision, Gambit?"
Gambit froze, recognising Sinister's voice. He cleared his throat.
"You'll have my decision tonight," Gambit answered.
"Good, I tire of waiting."
Sinister hung up and Gambit shivered as he put his phone down.
20 Years in the Future:
Professor Xavier was not really surprised to find Heaven located in one of the more prestigious areas of the city. It was on the top floor of one of the taller buildings and there were multiple bouncers, not only at the entrance, but at the elevators as well. The Professor was eyed suspiciously by all of them but Rogue evidentially had enough pull with them to get him into the club.
Once in Heaven itself, Rogue led the way past the dance floor and bar to one of many plush curtains along one wall. She pulled it open just enough for her to step through, the Professor following. As the curtain shut behind him, Charles was rather surprise to see Rogue practically throw herself into the arms of the sole occupant of the room and kiss him thoroughly. How she was able to touch anyone outside of the modified Z'noxx chamber at her home, he didn't know.
The Professor looked away uncomfortably while they kissed. The room was dominated by a table for four, a bottle of champagne on ice sitting atop with four glasses. There was a large floor-to-ceiling window which looked out on the city, framed by thick, plush red curtains. Angel wings were engraved into the panelling.
When the kiss started to go on long enough to get embarrassing, the Professor coughed politely. Rogue pulled away, but kept one arm around the waist of the man with black and red eyes.
"Sorry," she said. "Professor, this is Gambit. Gambit, this is Professor Xavier."
"A pleasure to finally meet you," Gambit held out his hand to him. "I've heard a lot about you."
"As have I," the Professor replied, shaking Gambit's hand firmly. "It's good to be able to finally see you in person."
Gambit gave him a nod, then gestured to the well laid out table. "Please, have a seat."
The Professor did so while Gambit and Rogue sat across from him. He noted the static around Gambit's mind, creating a natural psi shield. Between that, and the patchwork state of Rogue's mind, the Professor realised he'd get no easy answers.
"Rogue told me you were expected to be in a coma for twenty years," Gambit said. "I assume you just woke up recently?"
"Yes," Professor Xavier replied. "Just a few days ago."
"Send many messages back to the past?" he asked with a slight smirk.
"Enough," the Professor answered seriously. "And each time, this future has changed in small ways, but not enough to prevent Apocalypse from taking over."
"Oh?" Gambit asked, pouring the champagne. "How so?"
The Professor pondered for a moment, then said: "Well, for one thing, when I first awoke in this timeline, Charlie was a boy."
"Really?" said Rogue, regarding him with amusement.
"Indeed. He'd also been... recruited by the Marauders."
Gambit blanched as he passed the glasses of champagne around.
"The one thing I have been trying to avoid," Charles went on, "is the X-Men's fight with the Marauders over Emma's hand, but it seems inevitable," he sighed. "Jean, Bobby, Kurt and Kitty die each time. The one time I managed to prevent Bobby's death, both of you died instead."
Rogue and Gambit looked at each other.
"Huh, well, you're right about it being inevitable," Gambit said. "Sinister was only ever interested in Emma's hand as a curiosity. What he was really interested in was eliminating the X-Men as a potential threat to his and Apocalypse's plans. Jean was the main target. He had given the Marauders orders to follow the X-Men and to engage them if Jean was present and they had an opportunity. Once I told Sinister I wouldn't be selling to him, he told the Marauders to attack immediately."
Gambit looked down at the base of the champagne glass. Rogue reached over, took his hand and squeezed it gently.
"You didn't know, sugah," she said softly. "It wasn't your fault."
"Agreed," the Professor said, nodding decisively. "And we have a chance to prevent their deaths."
"We know when and where they're going to attack," Rogue said hopefully. "They caught us by surprise, and Kurt teleported off at the beginning to get Scott and Storm, who were on standby at the mansion. He wasn't gone very long, but if Scott and Storm can be with the others at the beginning, that's three more fighters we could have at the start. The other thing that threw us off was that there were three new Marauders in addition to Lady Mastermind: Scrambler, Scalphunter and Riptide. Storm may be our best chance against Riptide; he spins very fast and shoots shurikens out of his body."
"Scrambler can also disrupt powers and electronic devices, things like that," Gambit added. "It's based on touch though, so if the X-Men stay out of physical contact, their powers will stay intact."
"This also means his powers and mine neutralise each other," Rogue said grimly. "Found that out the hard way."
"Scalphunter is a technomorph with a healing factor," Gambit went on. "Lady Mastermind should be taken out as soon as possible. She used her illusion abilities to disadvantage the X-Men extensively, I'm sure that's what got Jean killed."
"Yeah, she was probably so distracted trying to dissolve Lady Mastermind's illusions she wasn't aware of her physical danger," Rogue said, nodding in agreement. "And they're going to be gunning for Jean, so she needs to be protected."
Professor Xavier nodded thoughtfully. He was uncomfortable with this talk of 'taking out' and hoped that it would translate into 'disable' rather than 'kill'. He didn't want to tell his X-Men to kill.
From there the conversation turned into a heavy discussion of tactics, and which X-Men would be best against which Marauder. There was discussion of who—if anyone—Rogue should absorb. Rogue couldn't remember exactly which Marauders had taken out the X-Men who had died and the Professor wasn't able to easily access the memory on account of all the voices she had absorbed over the years.
"I'm not going to be of any help, I'm afraid," Gambit said. "I bailed first chance I had. There was no way I was getting in the middle of a battle between the Marauders and the X-Men. I didn't know it at the time, but Sinister had told them not to attack me unless I attacked them first."
"Maybe I should absorb you," Rogue said cheekily.
"You're assuming I'd let you," Gambit replied. "I was avoiding contact with you like the plague, remember? I thought you might try to steal the hand from me or something."
"What did happen to Emma's hand?" Professor Xavier asked curiously.
"I sold it to Sinister," Gambit said. "At the time I thought that the fight was about the hand and if I sold it to the X-Men—or what was left of them—that Sinister would just send his Marauders after them again."
"He did get it back for us a few years later," Rogue said, smiling fondly at Gambit. "Unfortunately, it was still too late for Emma. By the time we found another high level telepath there was no psychic residue left in the diamond."
"I see," the Professor said thoughtfully.
"Hey, Prof," said Gambit, leaning forward on the table. "Can you tell them to tell me they're trying to save Emma? It was driving me crazy not knowing what the big deal was, and if we do change the past successfully, I may not find out later like I did this time."
The Professor smiled. "I'm sure I can arrange that."
"Merci."
"Anything else?" the Professor asked. "I understand that Sinister offered to tell you who your father was."
Gambit froze.
"Remy doesn't like talking about that," Rogue told the Professor. "I'm not sure who his father's supposed to be but whoever it is, it wasn't good news."
"I had a feeling I didn't want to know in the first place," Gambit grumbled. "I really hope we succeed in changing the timeline here, because I'd rather not sell the hand to Sinister at all. How many chances do we get at this?"
"One," said the Professor. "I can only communicate so far into the past."
Gambit nodded. "If the X-Men get slaughtered again, I won't sell to them. Remember, I think that Sinister is after the hand, not the X-Men themselves."
"I'll be sure to make sure they know," Professor Xavier replied. "Hopefully, it won't come to that."
5 Years in the Future:
The resistance group moved on Logan's signal, and stepped out of the shadows to confront those who had interrupted their meeting. Upwind, back the way they came, was a squad of Marauders. Downwind, towards the crossroads, was the Horseman of Death. Jubilee stood by Logan to face Death, while Rogue faced the Marauders with the rest of the group.
For one moment time seemed to slow down as they faced each other off, then Logan roared and lunged towards Death, sparking the inevitable attack. The Marauders and the resistance collided.
Jubilee flung fireworks at Death, disorienting him and keeping him off guard for Logan to attack. Rogue found herself in combat with a young girl, no more than early to mid teens, with claws from her hands and feet. At first Rogue wanted to go easy on her—she was just a kid!—but they were badly out numbered and despite how she looked, the young Marauder girl was tough enough to give even Logan a run for his money.
Death lashed out at Jubilee, sending her sprawling to the ground. Logan could smell the blood even before he saw it. Logan dissolved into a berserker rage; it was just him and Death.
Rogue gasped for breath as the Marauder girl's claws stabbed through her chest.
"So, this is how it ends," she thought.
But Rogue was unwilling to die without doing everything she could to save the lives of her friends. Her clothes had been ripped in the fight, and she had more than enough skin showing to touch the Marauder girl with. Rogue's arm touched the girl's bare one, the absorption began, and as the girl grew weaker, Rogue gripped tighter on her. The Marauder girl had no name, Rogue realised, she was only known as "X-23-B", and had two clone sisters, plus the original, X-23 "Laura". Rogue felt her wounds heal up as she stole X-23-B's healing factor.
Another Marauder came up behind her, and without even thinking, Rogue extended her free hand, and the two bone claws therein. Her claws sliced across the Marauder's neck, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.
Rogue looked at X-23-B. She knew she should let go. She was alive. She didn't need to absorb X-23-B to death like she'd originally planned in order to prevent her from slaughtering her friends. Still Rogue held on, even though tears started pouring down her cheeks. This was a war, and the X-23s had been raised to be weapons. Maybe, in an ideal world, the X-23s could be saved and taught to live a normal life.
But this was not an ideal world.
Rogue didn't let go until every last drop of life X-23-B had was inside her. And then she turned on the other Marauders.
Badly injured, Jubilee came to just in time to see Logan standing over the body of the Horseman of Death. Logan must have heard her move, for he turned his head towards her.
"You okay, kid?" he asked, but before Jubilee could answer, Logan's eyes began to glaze over.
"Logan?' Jubilee asked worriedly. "Logan?"
Jubilee watched, uncertain whether she should move, as Logan shuddered and growled in a nonsensical fashion. She was saved having to make a decision by the arrival of the rest of the group. Rogue sniffed the air.
"Hellion, take care of Jubilee," Rogue said authoritatively. "You need to get her to Elixir asap."
"Right," Hellion said, lifting Jubilee off the ground telekinetically. "What about Logan?"
Rogue swallowed.
"It's too late for Logan," Rogue said, fighting to keep control of her voice. "The Horseman of Death is dead, that makes Logan the new Horseman. We need to go before he turns on us."
1 Year in the Future:
Rogue walked into The Dirty Glass, taking a moment at the door to look around. It was crowded and stuffy, but at least there were no signs of any Marauders. She headed towards the bar and bought a beer. It was only when she opened said beer that her eyes fell on the one Marauder she had missed: Gambit.
Rogue pursed her lips and pretended not to notice Sinister's favourite little Marauder drinking something out of a glass. Unfortunately, he did notice her, and took it upon himself to join her.
"Long time, no see," he said.
"Not long enough," Rogue replied, refusing to look at him.
"Aww," Gambit said, running his free fingers down her arm, "don't be like that, chère, I'm just being friendly."
Rogue looked down at his hand. "Well, that's remarkably brave of you. Last time we met, you couldn't stay far enough away from me. What happened? Finally grow some balls?"
"I was just taking precautions before," Gambit said, continuing to caress her arm. "I had no way of knowing you wouldn't try to absorb me to get the hand."
"Yeah, speaking about that hand," Rogue said, glowering at him. "I seem to recall you saying you were going to sell it to us."
Gambit coughed uncomfortably.
"Well, I was," he insisted, "but... but then the Marauders attacked you."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," Rogue replied sarcastically.
"Oh come on, Rogue," Gambit said irritably as Rogue took a swig of her beer. "A diamond hand is not worth losing lives over. If I had gone through with the sale, they just would have gone after you at the Mansion. So excuse me if I didn't want more deaths on my conscience."
"Yet, you still joined the Marauders," Rogue pointed out snidely.
"I could see which way the wind was blowing," Gambit replied. "We all do what we have to in order to survive."
"Even if it means the loss of your personal integrity? Oh, what am I saying?" Rogue said. "You didn't have any in the first place."
"I know what's important," Gambit said firmly. "And a stupid chunk of diamond isn't worth anything if you're dead."
"That diamond hand belonged to a telepath named Emma Frost who had the ability to change into a diamond form," Rogue practically spat at him. "She was still alive even after she was shattered into pieces in that diamond form. We were trying to save her. I'd say that 'stupid chunk of diamond' was worth a lot to her."
Gambit let out a long, slow breath.
"I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
"Why do you think we didn't tell you? We couldn't trust you!"
Gambit skulled down his drink and signalled to the barman.
"Another please," he said as he put his glass on the counter.
"Trying to drown your guilt?" Rogue asked nastily.
"I didn't know that the hand belonged to a living being, I only suspected it was mutant related," Gambit replied tersely. "I know where Sinister keeps it. I'll see if I can get it."
Rogue snorted.
"Too late now. We need a telepath to put her together, and Jean Grey is dead," she said bitterly. "No thanks to your little friends."
"I was not going to get in the middle of a fight between the X-men and the Marauders," Gambit said. "I did what I had to in order to avoid more deaths. I'm so sorry that offends you."
"What offends me is the hypocritical garbage that's coming out of your mouth," Rogue snapped. "You go on about trying to save lives, but you're with the Marauders, Gambit. They take the lives of innocent people in Apocalypse's name every day."
Gambit picked up his refilled glass and looked at it dismally.
"Yeah," he said grimly. "Don't remind me."
Nothing more was said between them, although they stayed together while they drank. Shortly after Rogue finished her beer, she spotted Boom Boom's arrival.
"Excuse me," she said, not knowing why she felt the need to say anything. "I need to go to the Ladies'."
Rogue strode over to the bathroom, making sure to make eye contact with Boom Boom on the way. A few minutes later, Boom Boom joined her.
"Gambit's here," said Boom Boom in a low voice as she walked over.
"I know," Rogue replied. "We were talking earlier."
"Yeah, well, he's waiting outside the door." Boom Boom said, eyeing the bundle in Rogue's hand anxiously. "We still making the switch?"
"Yeah," Rogue said. "It'll be safer with me."
"You sure?" Boom Boom asked, sounding dubious as they made the exchange.
Rogue folded the paper once more.
"Not even Gambit's a good enough pickpocket to get this without touching my skin," Rogue said decisively as she hid the paper inside her bra. Boom Boom chuckled wickedly.
"I'll go keep Gambit busy," Rogue said.
"Good luck, hon," Boom Boom said with a nod. "You're gonna need it."
"Thanks," Rogue said dryly.
She left the bathroom, and found Gambit waiting outside the door just as Boom Boom had said. She glared at him.
"You weren't waiting for me, were you?" she demanded, "because that's just a little stalkery."
"I was hoping you and I could spend sometime together," he said. "You know, forget allegiances for awhile."
Rogue sighed and noted the pool tables on the other side of the bar.
"Fine," she said tersely. "Wanna play some pool?"
Gambit smiled. "Sure."