Presenting, chapter TEN! So happy to have reached chapter ten! Thanks so much to all of the reviews and follows and such! Well, off to Paris this time! Not much to say, but please enjoy! :)

New instructions were waiting for them when they returned to their hotel. Remy cursed and refused to listen to them until he'd taken a shower. For once his southern gentleman streak broke and he demanded to take the first shower. Rogue pouted but allowed him to go first, he was far muddier and as he pointed out, he'd had to go to confession.

Once clean and in warm, dry clothes, Remy settled back to listen to the message.

"Remy, de spirits be moving fast. You gotta move faster! Get yourself to France on de double. Once dere you gotta get a skull. I'll leave you more instructions later but dis be no ordinary skull. It belong to an old magician. Remy, I don't know everything but dis gonna be dangerous. But if you be careful and take care of your self den you should be fine. Hurry on and come back soon."

The machine clicked off and Remy looked up at Rogue. "Well, looks like we're headed to Paris." H said. He didn't bother hiding his excitement. They were on their last find and as soon as that was done they could go back to the states and be done with the whole mess.

Paris stretched out beneath the airplane as their plane touched down in France. Remy was a little more than excited, after the nasty tunnel in Rome and his near death experience in Egypt he was glad to be back in what he considered proper civilization. "C'mon," He said, taking Rogue's hand. "I'll show you all de best places."

She laughed at his enthusiasm and allowed herself to be dragged along.

Tilly's instructions involved catacombs beneath an old cemetery. She said the remains of a powerful magician were held there. They were to bring back his skull. She'd warned them that it would be a little more difficult than the trip in Rome, she said the magician had placed spells over his grave. Remy said that would be no problem.

They checked into yet another hotel and set up shop there, looking over a map to try and find where the cemetery was located. It turned out to be a small one. That would be good, fewer people would be there. Remy took her, arm in arm to go and see it. They played tourists again.

"How about youn' me stay after a little bit and see the Eiffel Tower?" He asked, winking. "See it all light up at night? Have us a proper date on this trip?"

She smiled slightly, still refusing to give him any satisfaction. "Well, Ah suppose. I got nothing better to do." She batted her eyes. "Though with all these Paris boys running around you never know what could happen. One of them might just sweep me off my feet."

Remy laughed. "Not a chance! You got me."

She pretended to scoff but still locked arms with him again as they approached the cemetery. It was small and walled in. A private cemetery. Rogue lifted them over the wall and they hovered for a moment over an old burial vault. Before she set down beside it. It was a small, close packed little lot of medieval graves. Most of them were overgrown. Whoever owned the lot didn't take much care of it.

The cemetery was located on the outskirts of Paris, a few miles from the city. Remy and Rogue had passed the day away pretending to be on a country walk before finding it.

They looked a round, examining the crumbling headstones and few vaults that were sticking up put of the weeds and wildflowers. Rogue checked the hand written message she's taken from Emmeline's voice mail. According to her the magician was buried in one of the vaults. They were to look for an unmarked vault. Gambit picked his way through the overgrown weeds looking while Rogue saved herself from the trouble by flying above them.

She let out a cry when she spotted it and he was left to pick his way across the cemetery to the place she was hovering over.. Sure enough she had found an unmarked vault with a star and moon carved into the sealed door. "Should we go in now or come back later?" She asked. They were dressed as civilians.

Remy thought for a minute. "Guess we could go in and take a look." He was apprehensive about doing so. With the exception of Rome and the Smithsonian they had been faced with supernatural forces twice before and if this was a magician then they well could be again. Rogue drew back and slammed her fist into the door of the tomb, it went straight through and she drew it back and began prying away bits of stone and brick.

Late afternoon light filtered into the tomb illuminating all but the darkest corners of the tomb. Looking in they had to strain because there was no immediate sign of a body. Or a casket or anything. The tomb was empty. Rogue looked at Gambit, confused. "Remy. . ." She started.

His eyes were searching the darkness for any sign of a body. They found a metal ring on the floor and groaned. "Chere, you think you can pull that up?" He asked, directing her attention towards it.

She sighed, realizing what they would have to do. "You wanna come back here when we have our suits on?" She asked.

He nodded. He had no desire to go under ground again anytime soon and was perfectly happy to put it off. They turned and surveyed the damage they'd done to the tomb. Deciding no one would notice they turned away and walked/flew back to where Gambit had left his bike.

Still, it was all too soon when they found their costumes and struggled into them, Rogue dawning casual clothes over hers to hide better in public. They road all the way back to the cemetery with only a little daylight left to spare. Gambit had packed several flashlights for the trip into the earth. They found the tomb in just the same condition as when they left it, no one had found their little break in. Rogue pulled up the floor by the metal ring again and they began the decent underneath the cemetery.

With flashlights shining they were surprised to see that the walls were partly stoned. It was dark and dingy and there were words on the walls in what Rogue thought was a made up language but in all likelihood were spells. She had a bad feeling but she didn't voice it.

Gambit could feel something dark at the end of the tunnel or whatever it was they were in too, he couldn't place it but it gave him an uneasy feeling.

However, after nothing interesting happened for a very long time, the bad feelings that had been plaguing them began to slip away as the two of them went further down into the darkness. They struck up a conversation, Gambit thinking mostly of his plans for a date and not so subtly asking her opinion on several ideas. It was not until about fifteen minutes had passed that the first sign of things not being alright came.

A strong wind came out of the tunnel facing them, making a good effort to blow them back out the way they'd come. It was ineffective but left them chilled and shaky. Whatever it was left an odd dampness in the air and it hung heavy on them. It wasn't earthy like it should have been, it was too thick and nasty. The darkness of the tunnel swallowed up any attempt at shining alight to the end and the closer they grew to the end the heavier the air grew. It was like fog but thicker and did not infringe on their ability to see,

Rogue began to feel her heart race. Whatever it was she didn't like it. She didn't know why but some kind of primal fear was telling her to turn around and leave. He grabbed Gambits arm. "Sugar, maybe we aughta come back here another time."

He looked down the tunnel. He was feeling the same thing she was. For some reason his mind was screaming to go back. He looked towards the entrance which they could no longer see and then down they way they were going. He had a childlike desire to run away and he knew it wasn't right. He was conscious that someone or something else was making him feel this way but there was nothing he could do. As they took a few more steps something shook the ground beneath them and a deep rumbling voice echoed, speaking a ort of unintelligible gibberish. They halted, listening. Whatever it was was angry sounding.

And then, pressing on they found the casket at last. In a hurry to be gone, Rogue pried the lid off and for a third time they expected to be greeted with a corpse or at least some sort of body but instead, all there was was a skull on a pillow. It sat, bare and empty and brown, eyes staring ahead unseeing. It was creepy and yet looked harmless at the same time.

Carefully wrapping her hands in a dishtowel she'd grabbed from the hotel kitchen, Rogue lifted the skull up and then almost dropped it. In her hands the skull turned and opened it's jaw.

"Who are you?" It asked in the deep rumbling voice from before. It was not speaking either English or French but they understood it perfectly. "I said, Who are you?" It demanded.

"M-mah name is Rogue. .." She stuttered.

The skull shook in her hands. "Why have you taken me from my resting place, witch?"

"A-ah'm not a witch."

"Then why have you taken me? Do you do the bidding of a witch?"

"Y-yes. She said she needs your help."

The skull was silent for a minute before it's empty sockets glowed red. "I have no desire to help the living. Put me back and you may go."

Rogue shook her head. "Can't do that."

"Very well. Then you will suffer."

There was a horrid shaking and the walls began to move. Gambit, who had been standing silently gasped. "Chere, now would be a good time to leave." Boney, white hands were clawing through the earthen walls.

Still holding the skull, they turned and began to run back up the tunnel.

"I warned you!" The skull said. "You brought this a pone yourself. This is your doing, thieves."

Rogue shoved the angry skull into her bag and flew. A claw of a hand reached out and grabbed her hip, causing her to scream. The boney white figures had not managed to claw all the way through the walls yet but they were close. Another angry skull stuck out of the dirt and opened it's crooked mouth to scream at them. Rogue kicked in midair but could not shake it off. "Gambit!" She yelled.

He charged up the skinny white arm, making it explode and sending bits everywhere. The bone turned to dust in the air and fell to the floor. They ran faster, hearing feet behind them. Panic stricken and with building fear they pounded on. Several times Remy had had to turn and blow up one of the perusing skeletons and Rogue han punched several of them to pieces.

They neared the exit and ran faster. It was just barely night out and even in the dimness of the fading light a single glance over their shoulders brought on a world of fear. There was an army of chalk white skeletons running up behind them.

"Oh God!" Rogue yelled, speeding on ahead.

Gambit was close on her heels. He could almost feel the boney hands swipe at his coat tails and he darted for the exit. He was almost to the trap door when a hand reached out and grabbed him. He slipped and hit the ground. Up ahead Rogue had failed to notice. She was too busy trying to escape herself and keep from dropping the skull which was how spinning in it's bag. '

One of the skeletons grabbed his ankle and it's boney fingers bit into his flesh. Cold and dead it attempted to drag him back into the army of dead. He cried out, flailing his arms, trying desperately to reach one of the dead and charge it to smithereens. Rogue turned around and looked at him, her eyes wide.

"Remy!" She screamed, her voice cracking. She turned heel and flew strait for him. "Fight 'em off!" She cried.

He reached out and dug his nails into the tunnel walls, tearing away dirt and stones. The skeletons were climbing up his body in their hast to drag him to his death. Bits and pieces exploded but nothing large enough to stop the dead army.

Rogue grabbed his hand and began pulling him away from the dead but they held on, refusing to lose him. "Let him go!" She yelled.

With his free hand Remy slapped the tunnel wall and gave it as much charge as he could. He would bring the tunnel down or be damned. His fingers caught on a stone and he held on. "Rogue, get me outa here befo' de whole tunnel blows!" He yelled. The skeletons increased their efforts and one of his nails tore loose when his hand was pried away from he stone. He let out a yelp as Rogue caught the flailing arm. Sh pulled with all of hr might as the tunnel began o glow.

"Hurry!" He yelled.

With a loud cry she let go of him and flew strait into the thicket of bones. She punched and fought her way until none of them had hold of Gambit. "Blow the whole thing up, Sugar!" She said. He was more than willing to oblige.

With a rumble the tunnel exploded. It didn't just fall, it didn't just cave, it didn't even collapse. It exploded. The roof came down and the skeletons were crushed instantly. Having darted back up to the head of the tunnel, Rogue and Gambit caught their breath. No skeletons followed behind them.

Inside the bag, the skull chuckled but said nothing.

Rogue pulled it out. "Was that you?" She asked, furiously.

The Skull spun in her hands. "Return me!" It ordered. "Return me!"

She shook it. "Did you make those things come after us?"

Remy walked to the door of the crypt. His blood turned cold. "Uh, chere, we may have a problem. Do you t'ink you could fly us outa here?"

"What do you mean?" She looked out into the dark graveyard. More of the dead had crawled their way up and stood around them. "Oh God. . ." She whispered. "Remy, grab on. Hold on to my waist."

He did as he was told and she shot upwards, through the roof. They crashed trough in time to see the bones below them circle in on the small tomb. The skull inside the bag let out a cry and then fell silent and as it did so, the bones below turned to dust and were carried away by the wind.

Rogue looked down at Gambit who was wrapped around her waist and breathed a sigh of relief.

They flew back to the hotel and lay down. The skull stayed silent, watching them. Since leaving the graveyard, it had said nothing and they weren't sure if it was empty of spirit now or just keeping silent. Something told them it was just keeping silent. It wouldn't have mattered anyhow, at first chance, Rogue had thrown the damned thing in a duffel bag and gone to take a shower. "Sugar, how about we take that date tomorrow?" She asked, drying her hair as she exited the bathroom. She stopped and smiled a little to herself.

He was passed out on the bed, arm thrown up over his head and injured hand dangling limply off the bed. He still wore his jacket and armor. She smiled and worked at pulling his boots and coat off. He mumbled indistinctly in French and tried to hug her. She giggled a little once she had managed to get him down to his shorts. "Sorry, hun. I'm not going any further than that." She pulled the covers over him and then, kissing the middle and index fingers on her right hand she pressed them gently to his forehead. "Nighty-night."

Thank you for reading!

So, I think the next chapter will be a shorter one where they go on a date. I'll update soon!