AN: Okay, so, I completely and utterly apologize for how long it took me to come up with a chapter! *cries* But before I get to the responses, let's just clear some stuff up, so that I can review some of the flames that I have received in other X-Men fan fics and thus, hopefully avoid them in this fan fic. First of all: this is AU. So I don't care if so and so is from Factor and so and so is from such and such. It's Alternate Universe. No holds barred or whatnot. Anything goes. I could Spiderman in here, and it wouldn't really matter, except that it would make it a crossover. ^_^ Age is out the window. Pasts are out the window. Powers have been toyed with. It's all part of the genre! Secondly, I'm not an X-Men genius. Yes, I love X-Men; yes, I have some comic books, but I know very little when you think about the fact that the only ones I buy are the ones that have Kitty, because she IS my favourite character. So to anybody who wants to say that I fooled with their characters, because in such and such an issue I say this: It's AU! And if you really think that it's important to me in a story where, in case you haven't noticed, there isn't even an Xavier institute, you can mail the comic to me! ^_^V
*coughs* Now, back to the groveling. Aw, heck, I'll save that to the next chapter. ^_^ Let's get on to some responses!! *perks back up*
ishandahalf: Halloween candy? It's been that long since I last updated? Ahhhh! I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry! I will start writing chapter eleven immediately!! (I tried to get it written over Christmas break, but I forgot what the treasures looked like and I had no internet, thus no way of checking.)
roguechere: I am perfectly horrible at grammar. I'm doing my best to learn more. Hopefully, you'll find less errors in this chapter. Then again, this chapter IS fairly short, so there's room for errors.
Rory: That's okay. You don't have to like the Cable/Bishop subplot. It's just foreshadowing. (Hint, hint; nudge, nudge.) And I kind of wish that Gambit had told her in a verbal way as well. C'est la vie. But who knows? Maybe he will later on, in between chapters?
Irony1: I like making kissing scenes. Having been kissed very few times in my life, it leads to a large number of times sitting at a point in a story where two people kiss and I have to come up with a way of making it special for that couple. Except,…. Well, usually it turns out to be a type of kiss I want instead. -_-; I'm sure that if the person that had challenged me to write this fic was actually reading it, she'd have problems with that scene, but she's not and all you people who liked that part are!
Mag carter: Actually, I think it's always Gambit's fault because the people who moved to New Orleans have their roots buried in French history. (Obviously.) It's the French in him that causes him to get into trouble. (Incidentally, I went to a French school, my Grandpa was French, this IS only a joke…)
Enjoy the chapter, people! ^_^
Chapter Ten
Spyke tapped his foot as he waited for Cable and Bishop to arrive back on the ship. When they did, he emerged from the darkness. He looked no more than in his mid teens, but he was oddly commanding of the area around him. Evan's lip curled disdainfully. "You two really make me sick," he said, catching their attention, although the power that seemed to radiate off his dark skin had already caught it. "And boy, did you two ever screw up. I can't believe it. Two grown men out in the world and you break every single law that we have, as time travelers."
Cable was unable to contain his annoyance. "You the hell are you, kid?" he growled, in a wolverine-like way. Evans found it hard to believe that Cable was not related to Logan. That would have made so much sense. Bishop hung back, his eyes appraising. "Are you seriously going to try to tell me that a little kid like you is a time traveler, or have you just been eavesdropping?"
The youth's frown increased. "Apparently you're not so much an idiot as my time makes you out to be, Cable." The white-haired man let out a snarl. "Oh, get off it! You two screwed up! Did you really think you'd get away with it? You told Robert Drake about the future, you pulled a modern day weapon on Gambit, you even went so far as to give them technology that you knew didn't belong to them! I only wish that I could tell you about the results of your stupid actions, but that would also get me in the hot seat, and I'm not stupid enough to let my whole life go down the drain because of anger, or a grudge."
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a tiny ceramic disk, no bigger than his thumb, and pressed the invisible corner. Bishop and Cable had screwed up, and now they had to pay the price.
All of them disappeared in a flash of light, and hopefully everything would play out the way it always had, and always will.
The next morning, when Robert Drake awoke, he found himself and his crew suffering from severe amnesia. They could not remember how they came to be in Greece. The past few weeks were a blur. But when Drake saw that theCerebro was sailing when one of his scouts returned from flying around, he counted his blessings. He had no mission, and a perfect opportunity to shoot down the ship of the less aggressive of his adversaries.
"Rouse the other men! We're setting out immediately! I want that ship brought down!"
~*~
After the kiss Gambit had given Rogue, he was asleep for three days. After half a day Rogue began to worry, but cool words from Storm and questions regarding the men who had attacked them from those who had remained on the ship quickly erased the fears. 'Gambit will be up when he's ready,' they all assured her. 'The lummox is probably fine. I bet you he's just staying in bed to be lazy.'
When he did wake up, he found Rogue asleep by his chest. His tired gaze turned wide awake as he realized that she had fallen asleep while she had sat up watching over him. He toyed with the ends of her hair. That's twice they'd woken up together now. He wished that he could wake her up nicely, perhaps by pulling her into his lap and kissing her until she responded, but that was impossible.
Rogue muttered his name, and sighed. When she said it a second time, she seemed to realize that it was real. Her green eyes snapped open, and she stared at him. His fingers didn't leave the tips of her soft hair. "You're awake." Then her eyes narrowed and she slapped him harshly. Rogue didn't use any super strength to do it, but it was strong enough as it was to snap his head to the side. "You jerk!"
"Chere, what'd I do?" he demanded. Then she told him that he had been asleep for three days. Tears spilled from her eyes. He reached out to dry her cheeks, and realized that he was only wearing his boxers. He used a corner of his sheet to reach out and gently dry her cheeks. He was glad to see that she didn't shy away from him. "Pardonez moi. Rogue, I never meant to hurt you."
"Ah know ya didn't, Cajun. But the problem is that Ah worry about ya. Remy, maybe Ah should just leave," she said quietly. "Ah've been thinkin' about that since before ya woke up. Ah'm nothin' but trouble to ya, Remy."
He cut her off. "Funny, but I seem to remember dat I was de one getting attacked in de streets, Chere. And if you really are trouble, den you're worth it." Gambit wished he cold hold her, but he knew that was impossible.
For the briefest of moments, he wondered if maybe she was correct, that she did belong off on her own. But when she looked into Gambit's eyes, she knew that deep down she really belonged on a pirate ship. She was, after all, a rogue.
But Rogue didn't need to hear it. Gambit wasn't good with words, he was good with actions, and she knew what was really in his mind. She didn't need super powers to see it, it was purely visible in his eyes. He loved her. Maybe his feelings were even strong enough to say that she was in love with her. And she returned his emotions with every piece of her being. Neither of them would stop until they had found a way to break her so called "gift" that kept them from being able to show that love in a physical way.
She threw his jacket at him. "Get dressed, Remy. If ya feel up to it, we're finally at st1:placeMount st1:PlaceName Olympus. Mystique says we're not going to go on until ya feel up to it, because we're gonna need your help. Yergonna lead the team up to the top of the mountain." She smiled at him proudly. "Ya feelin' hungry, Cajun?"
His stomach rumbled, but still he said with a straight face, "No." Remy grinned. He just wanted to relax in bed for a little while longer, even thought he had apparently been doing that for a while. But he could smell the treasure from the mountain. He could practically hear gold and precious gems chiming in the air. Though his heart told him to stay with Rogue, his mind told him to move, and his hands itched to grab the treasure he could smell.
"All right, I'm getting up," he sighed. Rogue ruffled his hair, as she couldn't give him a kiss on the cheek. He stared at her, looking devilish with his hair like that. When he blinked coolly, Rogue laughed at him. "What?"
She sighed, and made ready to leave the room. "Nothing. I'll tell you later, Cajun. There are leftovers in the galley for you."
Gambit washed and dressed, and then ate as much food as he could without feeling ill. He may have slept three days, but he now felt as fit as a fiddle. When Gambit came out on deck, the size of the mountain before him took his breath away. They hovered just above the cloud line, so he couldn't tell how far down it was, but he knew that it still extended far above him.
Katherine floated up next to him, quite literally. "It's pretty, isn't it? I never thought that mountains were this big. It makes it easy to see how the ancients used to think gods lived up here. On a day like today, they wouldn't have even been able to see the top."
"Captain!" Jean's shout cut off Gambit's reply. The red head had been startled when Xavier suddenly lurched forward, holding his head and wincing in pain. Everybody flocked around him, drawn by the curiosity of what could normally make such a stable person ache. "Captain Xavier, are you alright?"
"Yes, Jean," Xavier winced again. He looked up and spotted Gambit hanging around in the back of the crowd around him. "Gambit, you're up. We must hurry. There's danger coming. Captain Drake….."
Mystique frowned. Bobby wouldn't be able to sail to the mountain like them, but they could still pose trouble. After all, they were mutants too. She went right into action. "The entrance is down at the base. Wolverine, take us down. We'll have to divide up into teams. Half of us will stay out here and keep Drake at bay, the others will go in and get those items." She could feel Xavier's eyes on her. "If we retreat now, Charles, Drake will know something's up and will not leave this site until he finds out what. I don't know about you, Charles, but I didn't come this far to be scared by an ice cube!"
"Agreed." There was a long pause, and everyone could tell that the two were having a mental conversations, silently agreeing on whom should be going where. The group held their breath.
"Gambit," Mystique said. "You will, obviously, be leading the team into the mountain. Colossus, Katherine,Nightcrawler, and Rogue will go with them. The rest of us will stay here."
"Including Pyro and Angel?" Wolverine growled, wondering if they had been left out.
Xavier smiled at him. "Let them sleep. We have Mystique's shape shifting ability, your strength, Jean's telepathy, Scott's eyes, your claws, old friend, and Storm's weather that will help to keep Drake and his pirates from getting the treasure first. Storm, if you would be so kind, a thick fog should slow them down."
The blue skinned mutant suddenly shifted, gaining the swift wings and sharp talons of a bird of prey. Flapping her wings, she lifted off the ground, but when Xavier mentally asked her what she was doing, she drifted to the wooden railing and perched there for a moment. Her eyes were still golden, and her gaze no less deadly as she looked at the other captain. He killed my old men, Charles. He killed Lance and Pietro. I'm not going to let him get away with that. She paused. Aren't you going to try and stop me, Charles?
The man shrugged. His lips were tight, his face thoughtful, but there was a certain amount of respect in his eyes that nothing could ever hide or vanish when he talked about her. Raven was crafty and bloodthirsty, but she had a heart, and perhaps the rather unequal balance was what made him respect her even when he didn't like what she was doing. "I doubt that I could stop you if you wanted, Mystique."
Rogue watched as she flapped away, feeling suddenly forlorn. She thought about the teams for a second. They had Colossus' strength, Katherine to get them out of a tight squeeze, agility, Gambit's eyes and crafty senses, but what did she offer to the group? Her ability to fly? Was that it?
Gambit smiled at her, as if reading her mind. "Don't 'tink about it too much,Chere. You might get a headache if you do. Nobody knows what goes on in Xavier's mind to let us know how it works, and why he does de tings he does. Let's suit up!"
"Gambit!" Kitty exclaimed, pursing her lips. "Are you sure that you're okay? Are you up to..."
They were the same questions that Rogue was asking herself. However, after seeing the glare that Gambit gave Katherine, the Southern girl was glad that she did not bring up the topic of whether or not he was fit enough to
lead a team into the mountain. Even her glare wasn't as icy as that! Of course, his facial response did nothing to actually answer the question.
Five minutes later they were suited up and standing on the lip of the opening. The hole engulfed even Colossus, who had gone into his metal form prematurely. Gambit went in first, as he could see the best in the darkness, followed by Katherine, Colossus, Rogue, and Kurt to keep an eye on the darkness behind them. They moved slowly, allowing Gambit to get a feel for the cavern system.
Peter looked around them, and couldn't see a thing. "I have a bad feeling about this," the Russian grumbled.
"Shh!" Katherine silenced him. "You're never supposed to say that!"
The Cajun held up a hand for silence, and they stopped when he did. He smiled, but the only one who could really see it was Nightcrawler. Katherine knew he was smiling because she had known him for a long time, and Rogue simply knew. Scooping up a handful of dirt off the ground, he threw it in front of him, and suddenly an axe swung down from the ceiling, clicks in the darkness telling them that more of them were following suit, a hall of bladed pendulums blocking their route.
"Ah blame their presence on Peter," the Southern belle teased.
Gambit grabbed Peter's hand and drew him forward, setting the large Russian in front of him. "D'accord, Peter. I want a middle strike, exactly when I say, compris?" Peter nodded. Gambit watched the pendulum swing, and then told Peter to strike when it hung in front of him. Faster than his size would have them believe, his fist pushed forward, shattering the first of the swinging pendulums. Gambit nodded approvingly, and then told Peter to take one and half steps forward. After figuring out what he meant by half a step, size wise, Peter took a step and half forward and punched again, on cue. Fifteen strikes later, the last of the pendulums were down, and Gambit led again.
Only a short while later, Gambit stopped them again. The floor was mosaic, and slanting shafts of light illuminated symbols and letters on each of them. "How do you suppose they have sunlight inside a mountain?" Katherine wondered out loud.
"It's an old trick, Kitty," the Cajun replied, inspecting the floors, running a finger between the cracks. "They use mirrors."
"Oh... Hey, that's the symbol for Jupiter!" she exclaimed, sitting down beside Gambit, her fingers tracing the symbol that much resembled the off spring of the number four and a backwards letter 'L'. Katherine looked at the rest of the tiles were the mosaic floor started. "This represents Mars, and this one the moon, and that one that looks like a trident is Neptune. They're planetary symbols."
"For Roman named planets, Katzchen."
"But the Romans took the gods from Greece. I suppose they could have taken the symbols too."
Gambit pressed down on the symbol for Jupiter, and the tile crumbled and he nearly fell through the hole left by the broken tile. "Just as Gambit thought. De tiles need to be walked in de correct order, whatever that may be. De proper places have pillars underneath, and de incorrect ones..." He drew a finger across his throat to demonstrate what happened to those who stepped on the wrong tiles.
Katherine stood up and dusted off her clothes. "They're planetary symbols, used for astronomy. I bet I know what the correct order is. You have to put the planets all in order. It's going to be difficult. Everybody follow me. Gambit, stay close to Nightcrawler. He can teleport you if you slip. Rogue, since you have Peter's strength, you can grab him if he slips. Okay... the first planet is Mercury..." She stepped on the tile that looked very much like a female symbol but with horns, and she suddenly disappeared.
She reappeared a second later, floating, and she became tangible again once she was away from the hole she'd caused. Her cheeks went bright red. "Wrong tile." Her companions gave her a 'I can't believe we entrusted this girl with our lives' kind of look, and she didn't notice. Instead, she tentatively placed her foot on the tile that had a circle with the dot in the centre. When it didn't cave in, she stood upon it all the way, laughing nervously. "That was stupid of me. I should have known better than to start with Mercury. The Sun is the first planet, apparently. Then comes Mercury."
Little by little, and without any further mishaps, the group of five crossed the mosaic floor, and continued ahead. Rogue whispered with Gambit, and he was so distracted by her presence that he suddenly went through the floor. Rogue leapt after him, and managed to catch her wrist. Gambit looked down on the spikes that had almost pierced his body, and then up at the woman who had saved his life. The sunlight from above made her hair look like a halo. He smiled at her thankfully. "You make a good partner, Rogue. De traps are becoming harder to point out, even for me."
Rogue flew back up the shaft and placed him on the ground. "I can take care of this." She walked ahead of the first trap, and disappeared several times when the ground gave way beneath her, but each time her flying ability kicked in and she was unharmed. Katherine floated Colossus across the first trap, pausing behind each pit Rogue uncovered. Kurt grabbed Gambit and teleported, following suit.
"You know," Katherine pointed out while Rogue was dusting herself off and pulling hay out of her hair, grumbling something about the appalling conditions of the floor. "I don't think that a regular human could have done this. The mosaic floor was easy enough to get across with brains and balance, but fifteen swinging axes? Ten pits with spikes at the bottom? It's nuts."
Nightcrawler nodded. "I agree, Katzchen. I think zat these treasures vere meant for us mutants to find. And I stress the plural. It would be difficult for any single mutant to make their way through zes traps, even if zey were a teleporter like myself, or if zey had ze ability to phase like Katzchen."
"Well, we're not out of the woods yet," Gambit said, peering into the darkness. Their light had disappeared, hopefully only for a moment. Perhaps Storm was conjuring up a storm outside! But that thought made them worry about their companions. Drake had already killed two of their numbers, would there be a third? Or more? He shook his head and proceeded forward carefully. "Nobody is afraid of spiders, are dey?"
"Dare I ask why?" Rogue grumbled, walking forward with him. She knew why when she suddenly felt sticky cobwebs against her face. The feeling of repulsion this caused meant that she let out a tiny, feminine screech, which escalated when she felt the cobwebs she was frantically tearing away from her face get into her mouth. "Ew! Ew ew ew ew ew!! This is goddamn sick!"
There was a sudden clicking sound and the ground began to shake. Everybody froze, even Rogue, although she was certain the creeping feeling on her neck was a spider. Dust and small rocks feel from the sky. Katherine huddled next to Peter, as the small rocks didn't bother his metal skin. Rogue glanced at the spider web she had pulled at in her haste rid herself of the sticky substance, and swore. The spider web itself had been a trap! Then, Nightcrawler noticed what was happening first, as Gambit was trying to figure out how to get a very large spider off of Rogue's shoulder without getting bitten... by the spider or by Rogue.
"A wall is coming down!"
Peter's response was immediate. He lunged forward and took the slab of rock falling from the ceiling with both hands, bracing himself under it and against the wall. His friends were stupefied. "I can hold it," he promised, his accent thick from under pressure. "But you best be quick."
"Let it fall!" Katherine begged. "I can phase us through it afterwards!"
"Nyet, Katya. This, I think, is what Captain Xavier wanted me to do from the very beginning. Hurry up and find the treasures. I shall hold it until you return."
Gambit dragged Katherine forward, and she left him reluctantly. They continued forward and did not meet any more problems until they came to a dead end. Gambit cursed colourfully, and turned to Kurt. "You didn't see any other hallways or anything, did you, Kurt?" The German shook his head, and Gambit cussed again. "Katherine, take a deep breath, and phase to see if you find a way out of there."
Katherine phased through the wall, and Gambit kicked at it, wishing he could knock it down. The mountain shook again, and for the second time in who knew how long, the floor dropped out from underneath Gambit. In fact, it dropped out from under Nightcrawler and Rogue as well. The first was quick enough to teleport, but the second fell down the same narrow shaft as Gambit. The hole was so tight that Rogue could not start to use her powers in case she ran out of room and became trapped. As it was, she feared she would get stuck already, and that Katherine would be quick enough to return and phase them out of the trap. And there really, really weren't spiders in the shaft with her.
Suddenly, the ground was there to meet her and she skidded, and stopped moving. Gambit was right there with her. She was about to ask him if he was okay before she realized what she was staring at. The rabbit hole that had wound them around in dizzying circles had landed them into a huge cavern, one that had to make up most of the interior of Mount Olympus. And it was filled in piles that reached from floor to ceiling, in gold. Neither of them, even the second-in-command pirate himself, had not seen so much gold before, let alone in one place. There were dubloons, and raw gold, rings, crowns, tiaras, sculptures, anything one could imagine made out of gold was present.
His jaw dropped, and his fingers itched to touch the piles of gold. The last time they had itched this bad was... when was the last time he had wanted to scoop up Rogue and carry her off and have his way with her, in true pirate style? Oh yes, twenty seconds ago. "Dis is all real, right, Chere? I mean, I'm not imagining it, no?"
"My god, this is enough money to give everybody what they want. We could all retire right now, Remy." He helped her up, and then continued to hold her hand as they walked between the mountains of treasure. Rogue felt like she was in a daze. "Remy, we lost Kitty and Kurt."
"Dey can take care of themselves. Besides, I don't know how to get back up to where we were before. We might need to send a message to Captain Xavier, asking if Jeanie can float us in a rope. And as long as Katherine and Kurt are waiting at de top of de shaft for us, where dere shouldn't be any traps, we are perfectly safe down here. And then dey can always get us out of here together."
She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked hand in hand, neither of them really knowing where they were going. Rogue didn't have the feel for tunnels or mazes when it came to those involving treasures, and Gambit was distracted by glittering mountains and the Southern belle hanging off of him. "Whatever you do, don't touch any of the gold, Chere. It could be a trap in itself."
"Why don't Ah fly up there and see if Ah can't see ah door or something, ta give us a direction, Remy?" she asked, not particularly wanting to part with him, but she was already longing to see the outside: blue sky, fresh air.... away from tempting piles of gold and a sexy Cajun.... whatever.
Gambit nodded and Rogue flew up high, looking around. She didn't know how this particular cavern was lighted, but she could see clearly in all directions. "There's a door north of here."
They headed in that direction, and soon came across a large door that was taller than the piles of treasure they had walked hand in hand between to get there. Thanks to Rogue's stolen strength, they were able to push the doors open. And there, laying on a table of marble, were the gifts they had been searching for. Both of the mutants stared at them, overcome with emotion. They were speechless. But soon they turned to each other, crying out gleefully, wrapping their hands around each other in celebration. Gambit was sprouting things off in French faster than Rogue's mind could translate, even with some of Gambit's memories.
Slowly, they stopped dancing in a tight and dizzying circle and just held each other, their skin never touching. "Remy..." "Rogue...."
Just as Rogue began to feel as if she was being drawn into Remy's eyes, drawing closer and closer to him with each drawn out second, able to feel his breath on her lips, the click of a pistol stopped them from doing something incredibly stupid, but also something they desperately wanted to do. They turned, Gambit putting his body in front of hers, and found Drake standing there in front of them, a gun in one of his frozen hands.
"Isn't this cute?" he asked rhetorically, stepping closer, his cornered prey taking a step back in response. "A thief and a rogue together, and in love. And a mountain to be their crypt."
"How did you get by everybody?" Gambit demanded. "The captains, and the others."
"You know, as strong as people like Wolverine or Storm are, they can't do much when they are frozen stiff," Robert said with a careless shrug.
"So ya shot them, but yer gonna kill us with a gun? What the hell is up with that?"
He shrugged again. "I felt like a change. Besides, I have no fight with either of you, so the least I can do is give you both a painless death. A relatively painless death, anyway. The crew of the Cerebro on the other hand, can be handed in for a bit of a profit here or there, as long as the peasants of the world don't find out. But as for Mystique, or Wolverine, they have a lot to answer for. I'll have fun making them feel as much pain as I have over the years, especially thanks to Wolverine's healing factor. As for the kitten, the freak and the Russian, well, I'll leave it up to your imagination."
A blast of sound filled the cavern, so loud in the huge space that the tinier pieces of gold fell from their places. A weight hit Rogue as Gambit stumbled, and even through her gloves she could feel slick warmth as she caught his body. "Remy? Remy?!" She laid his body on the ground, staring at a red spot in his stomach that grew, each heartbeat bringing him closer to death and Rogue closer to tears. She didn't want to start crying in front of him, but she couldn't help it. Gambit's covered fingers dried her cheeks gently, as she brushed his hair. He managed to smile at her, but then the second shot rang out, and Rogue registered her head falling unto his chest, and then there was nothing.
~*~
AN: I also apologize for the cliffhanger. *twisted grin*