AN: Read and Review as always, thanks again everyone for the fantastic support I've received. I have a new ROMY up titled: A World No Longer Safe, so if you haven't already, check it out. :-)

The Final Confrontation

When his view shifted back into focus, Gambit found he was sitting up in the main room of Belle's hideout. He couldn't feel any pain from his injuries which he didn't understand. Belladonna sat next to him reading a magazine looking very relaxed. He tried to speak but no words came out. He tried to stand but his legs wouldn't obey him. It was as though he was watching everything around him but having no control.

What the hell has she done to me? Remy thought in a panic. The next thing he knew, Remy was standing and walked over to Belle. He leant down and gave her a light kiss on the lips.

Whoa. He said to himself. She's making me do this. She's controlling me; I'm like a mind slave, and Gambit helpless to stop it.

When the X-Men burst in not long after, Remy tried to regain control with no success.

Jubilee and Logan were the first through the doors; the others were still pre-occupied by the guards.

"Gambit!" Jubilee yelled. "It's really you." She flung herself at him, but instead of hugging her back, Remy grabbed her arm, twisting it up behind her.

"Oww, what are you doing?"

Wolverine lunged at him. "Let her go Cajun. I don't know what crazy game you're playing but it's time to quit."

Gambit easily managed to dodge by throwing Jubilee aside and leaping out of Logan's path causing him to crash into a desk behind the Cajun.

"I thought you were meant to be injured." Logan grumbled.

"What's going on here?" Rogue asked as her and the remaining members of the team arrived to see both Logan and Jubilee on the ground.

Belladonna let out a long cold laugh. Rogue's normally controlled temper snapped. She looked straight at Belladonna and said, "I'll kill you, you evil swamp witch!" She flew straight at Belle, and with Remy standing at her side he easily grabbed Rogue and pinned her against the wall. This took her by surprise and she said "Remy, what are you playing at, why did you stop me?"

"You won't touch her." Was his cold and unnatural reply.

"What's going on Remy?" She asked again. The other X-Men looked on astounded at the scene unfolding in front of them. Remy was also watching, unable to do anything else.

"He's finally come to his senses. Remy LeBeau loves me Chère; he doesn't want you or the X-Men anymore." Belle told them from her chair.

"No, Remy, you're faking it right?" She asked him still pinned against the wall with unusually strong force. His hand grasping around her throat gave her an answer as he applied pressure, slowly trying to throttle her.

"Remy? Don't make me hurt you." She choked.

No!! Remy was screaming from inside, he couldn't believe what Belle was making him do.

By now the other X-Men tried to move in and break things up when Belle shrieked at them, "Nobody comes any closer or I make him kill her." She couldn't believe her own words; in her state of glee she'd just given the game away.

"Make him?" Logan growled.

"She's using some sort of mind control on him." Jean said probing his mind. "I might be able to break it."

"Remy, you've gotta break her hold on you, think of Oli, and Bekka, our children Remy, they need their daddy." Anna said to him, her voice struggling to surface from underneath his grip. "I love you." She whispered.

Either Gambit had grown inhumanly strong or Rogue was just unable to bring herself to hurt him.

I love you too, Anna hit me, god, do something; you can't let me kill you. Remy tried yelling at her. It was as though she had heard him when a moment later she reached her arms up and threw him with her whole force off of her making him fly into a wall.

"I want everyone else to go back to the Blackbird. I'm going to get Remy out of this, but I don't want to be held accountable for anything I might do here. This is about two women, so let's keep it about two women." Rogue said as she got her breath back.

"We can't just leave you here to face this alone Rogue." Cyclops said.

"Please Scott, just take everyone to safety, I'm bringing this place down." She firmly told him. "Jean how's that mind probing coming along?"

"The real Gambit is awake in there, he can hear and see everything, he just has no control over his actions." Jean said. "It's strong Rogue I don't know if I can."

"That's not the right answer." She replied.

"Gambit's talking to me. He's saying that if I can't help him, we're to leave him here, he doesn't want anyone else getting hurt."

Rogue stared at Belle with a deadly glare. "Well it's not going to come to that. Is it Belladonna?"

"Give it up Rogue, you don't scare me. Remy will do anything I tell him whether he likes it or not."

"Let him go!" Rogue shouted, losing her patience. "X-Men, everyone out now."

They didn't have to be told twice. Now it was just Rogue, Belle, and Gambit.

Rogue flew up to Belle so she was just inches from her face. Gambit stood next to his mistress, ready to strike if Rogue touched her.

"How did you do it? Tell me or I'll take it out of your head. Your choice." Rogue took off one glove to emphasize her threat. "How are you controlling him?" She asked a second time.

"I have no mutant powers Chère, what good is it absorbing me? I've drugged him, and there is no antidote." Belladonna smiled.

"Well aren't you lucky it's not you I want to absorb." In the blink of an eye Rogue had flung her arm out and put her bare hand on Remy's cheek. Absorbing Gambit's life-force had the desired effect, drawing the entire drug out of his system.

"No!" Belladonna shrieked.

"Argh….." He moaned falling to the floor, still conscious but in a lot of pain. He still had broken ribs, bleeding and bruising; now without Belle's mind-altering drug, he could feel everything again.

"I'm sorry darlin' it was the only way." Rogue said crouching on the ground. She helped him up and positioned him to lean on her shoulder, taking all of his weight.

Belle went to step forward, but Rogue cut her off saying. "Come one step closer and I'll kill you Belle, I mean it."

"No, you don't understand, I love him! Remy's my whole life he always has been."

"Give it a rest. You don't do this sort of thing to the people you love." Remy said, blood seeping from his split lip.

Rogue moved with him back to the doors. Belle insisted on following so Rogue put her free hand out and placed it against the wall. Using Gambit's powers she charged up the wall, slowly charging up the entire building. Speaking into her communicator she said, "Logan I need you to come and take Gambit off my shoulder and safely into the Blackbird." Then she said to the ever persistent Belle, "One step closer and I blow it up. I'll blow up the building that's the core to your dark underworld empire, I mean it."

Logan came and put Gambit on his shoulder, "Come on bub, I think you've had enough excitement for one day. Aren't you coming Rogue?"

"Give me a minute." She replied her hand still firmly charging the building.

Belladonna looked at Rogue. "Alright, you win. I give up. I let you leave quietly and we forget this whole thing happened. I'll leave you and your family alone."

"I'm glad we understand each other." Rogue said. "Now, this is my revenge." She took her hand away from the wall, blowing up the building.

The X-Men looked on in horror as the building crumbled to the ground, but to their relief Anna emerged without a scratch. She entered the Blackbird where Remy lay on an infirmary stretcher and took his hand in hers. "It's over."

Gambit just smiled as he drifted off to sleep as the Blackbird flew him home to his children. As he held his son for the first time in a year, Remy LeBeau vowed never to leave them again.