Chapter 12

When the cargo bay doors opened and the guards stepped inside, they saw what they were expecting. Four mutants chained to the walls. Four men stepped inside to release the mutants and got the surprise of their life when they were attacked by they who should have been immobilised.

The fight that ensured was shorter than any of the X-men anticipated. Sure, they succeeded in disabling the four, but once they got out of the plane their collars starting emitting some kind of pulse around their necks. The pain was enough to drive them to their knees and though it only lasted a moment, it disabled them long enough for the guards to immobilise them again on the truck.

This time there were guards sitting in with them as they travelled to their final destination: an enslaved mutant construction crew laying down tracks for a new high-speed rail system. Once they arrived, they were lined up outside the truck.

"Let's see," said the official with the clipboard. "Ahh, Jubilee. Emits fireworks."

He looked her over.

"Well, I'm sure we'll find a use for you. Gambit. Bio-kinetic charging. Kinetic... I don't suppose that means telekinetic by any chance?"

Gambit said nothing. The official sighed and pressed a button. The pain surged again for a moment.

"I asked a question, slave."

"I can't move t'ings wit' my mind," he coughed out.

"Hmm," the official looked over his notes. "It says here you can make things explode, so I can work with that. We do have a tunnel to grind through a mountain coming up. Iceman. Well, the name says it all, doesn't it? I suppose we can use you to keep things refrigerated."

Bobby pursed his lips but said nothing.

"And Rogue. Power borrower. Anyone without powers gets put into a coma. Works through the skin."

"Odd," Rogue thought to herself. "Why would I be described as a 'power borrower' and not a 'life stealer' or something more accurate?"

"Well, I suppose we can use you as a reserve in case of accidents or something. Now, listen here, for now you will be joining the crew as labourers. We have a lot of track to construct and we're behind schedule. Your powers will be turned on while you're working. This should not be seen as an opportunity to escape: we will not hesitate to turn the pain on or detonate your collars as we see fit. What's more, any escape attempt will endanger your fellow slaves - we will not hesitate to punish them as well. And Rogue? I'd better not see any trails of comatose guards."

The official nodded to the guards, who escorted them to the rest of the mutant labourers who were busy digging. They were given terse instructions, handed shovels and 'encouraged' to start working.

"We're not seriously doing this?" Bobby complained.

"What choice do we have, mon ami?" Gambit asked. "One, he did lay out the consequences fo' escape quite clearly -"

"So you're saying we shouldn't even try?"

"Deux, we don't know where we are. What's more, if we did managed t' escape, say steal one o' their trucks, dere's only one way we could go, really. Dis place be rather barren. Dey'd probably catch up wit' us before we got t' the airport no? And the airport be the only way we can get back home. Trois, if escape be dat easy, dese folks would have already done it."

"Four," Jubilee added. "I'm not inclined to leave and not free everyone else as well."

"D'accord. For now we wait, we watch, we learn. We look for the flaws in the system, den we make plans."

They were hard at work for sometime before a tall, arrogant man with a blue collar ornamented with red abruptly teleported behind Jubilee. He put his hands on her waist and she squealed in fright. He chuckled and turned her around.

"Hello little one," he smirked at her.

"Get off me," Jubilee demanded.

She stomped on his foot and was about to jerk her knee into his groin when he teleported again A moment later, Jubilee was reaching for her neck, sinking to the ground as the pain setting kicked in.

"Hey, leave her -" Bobby began, only to find himself felled to the ground by pain himself.

The teleporter chuckled as he turned the pain setting off again.

"I'm Trans," he informed them, before grabbing Jubilee's arm with one hand and trailed the other up her side. "And if you don't want to spend your time here miserable, you're going to have to be very, very nice to me."

Jubilee spat at him. Trans sighed and hit the pain button again.

"Naughty, naughty," he said, pushing her down on the ground. "Jubilee right? You know, you're just not starting things off right, girl."

Jubilee lashed out at him. She hadn't been doing combat training for years without learning how to defend herself. Once again the shock of pain sent her reeling.

"You'll learn," he smirked at her.

He teleported then and appeared by Rogue's side.

"And you're Rogue right? The power-borrower?"

He grabbed her and pulled her close.

"Ever teleport before?"

"Yes," Rogue replied as blandly as she could manage.

Put off by the impassive expression on Rogue's face, Trans attempted to get a reaction by feeling her up, roughly moving his hands over her clothes where they definitely did not belong. Gambit clenched his jaw, glowering at his back, and tried really, really hard to resist the urge to take to Trans with the shovel. He gripped the shovel so tightly his knuckles turned white.

"Ya done yet? Ah kinda have work ta do."

Trans hit the pain button and Rogue fell but blatantly refused to cry out. He knelt down beside her as the pain subsided and patted her on the head.

"We'll talk again later," he said and teleported away.

"Chére -" Gambit began.

"Best way ta deal with his sort is not ta react," Rogue interrupted, her voice still bland. "He'll get bored eventually."

"Or he'll take it as a challenge."

"Ah don't much like it either. Ya okay Jubes?"

"Yeah. How can you just stand there and take it?" she asked in disgust.

Rogue knelt down beside her.

"Because by not reactin' Ah'm not giving him what he wants," she told her placidly, although her breathing started to get heavier. "He likes it, Jubes. He likes it when ya fight back and and scream and try ta get away. He enjoys breaking ya down and hurtin' ya. He gets off on it."

"Uhh, Rogue?" Jubilee swallowed, not liking the expression on her face. "You're scaring me."

Rogeu shuddered and shook her head, the alien expression gone.

"Oh, crap... Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry, Ahm sorry," she said, standing up again and putting her hand to her head. "Sorry. Ah just, Ah... Trans reminds me of one of muh psyches. He gets excited... crap, Ah'm sorry."

"Which one?" Bobby asked with a frown.

Rogue shot him a look.

"This particular nasty piece of work is a rapist by the name of Antonio, and Ah don't like ta talk about him."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

There was an awkward silence.

"Did you notice his collar was different?" Jubilee asked.

"Oui," Gambit replied. "I'm t'inking he must be an upper class slave, or a slave with privileges or a collaborator or somet'ing like dat. Besides, he has the authority t' use one o' dose pain thingys."

"We're fresh meat, aren't we Rogue?"

"Probably. In which case ya need ta be extra careful not ta attract his attention. We're slaves here, and if he's allowed ta play around with us girls..."

"Fuck."

"Exactly."

"You sure you just want to hang around and watch Gambit?" Bobby demanded.

"If yo' have a plan, mon ami, I'd be more than happy t' hear it," Gambit replied gravely.

Night fell. Their powers were turned off and they were herded into a couple of trailers. As soon as their powers were shut off, Rogue immediately sought out Gambit's hand, but as the trailers were fitted with small, individual cells, they were soon forced to part.

Gambit sat against the wall of his cell, his thumbs pressed against the bridge of his nose as he reviewed what they had learnt today. He'd spoken to other slaves, tried to make his queries discreet. He'd been right about Trans being a collaborator, and he was definitely nervous about Rogue and Jubilee's well being given what he had heard. He needed a plan and fast.

Gambit was watchful the following morning when they were roused from their 'beds'. He took Rogue's hand as they walked out of the cells, his eyes looking for the official who would be turning their powers on. He turned to Rogue and ran his finger over her cheek.

"Stealing a moment?" she smiled.

"Somet'ing like," he murmured back.

He kissed her gently, holding her close as their powers were turned back on.

.

She - no, he, Gambit - scooted out from underneath the panel.

"I got it," he said smugly.

"All right! Let's fly dis baby," said Henri.

He stood, sat down in the chair for the co-pilot, and with a grin to his brother and Emil, they activated the military jet.

.

He hoisted himself up over the balcony and caught the eyes of the beautiful blonde in the adjoining room.

"Remy?" Bella Donna exclaimed, opening the door and coming outside. "What are yo' doing here?"

He leaned in and kissed her deeply, his hand caressing her face.

"I couldn't resist the chance t' see yo'."

"Reckless boy. Julien would kill yo' if he knew."

"Julien ain't here, ma chére."

.

He landed on his feet, paused and looked around. He grinned, then promptly wiped the smile off his face.

"Ain't an escape 'til you're free and clear, LeBeau," he reminded himself.

Sticking to the shadows at first, he made quick his departure from Stryker's island.

.

"Are you Remy LeBeau?"

He caught his playing cards in his hands.

"Do I owe yo' money?"

"No."

"Den Remy LeBeau I am."

He took off his hat, looked up at Logan and gestured to the empty chair.

.

He stared down at Julien's body and swallowed hard. On the one hand, he was amazed he'd actually defeated the trained assassin. Not to mention relieved. On the other, he felt sick to his stomach. He hadn't intended to charge that dagger when he threw it at Julien. Didn't mean for it to explode when it sunk into his upper chest.

Now they were debating what was to be done to him. Forget that Julien had challenged him to a duel to the death on his wedding day, he'd killed an assassin. The Assassins guild didn't like that, not one bit.

.

He regarded the man before him. Why he felt the need to dress like a theatrical vampire, he didn't know. But he was prepared to deal with a few eccentricities if he had to.

"Can yo' help me?"

"Yes, Gambit," said Mister Sinister. "I do believe I can."

.

He climbed to his feet, although they threatened to collapse beneath him. He couldn't let them get away with this slaughter. They were children! If he'd only known this was where he'd been leading them.

He leaned against the sewer wall and looked inside. Bodies strewn everywhere. Perhaps it was a fool thing to do, to think he could actually stop all six marauders, but he had to try.

He stumbled forward. Sabretooth had gotten him good.

"Heeelp... me..." whimpered a still small voice.

"Coming petite, I'm coming."

.

"I can't seem to find my lighter, can I borrow yours?"

He put his cigarette back into his mouth and turned to the blonde he'd just slept with, seeing a cigarette already hanging from her lips. He touched the end of it with his finger and ignited it with a light charge. Her eyes widened.

"Neat trick."

"I thought so."

"What else can you do?"

He reached over and put one arm around her back, holding her close so she couldn't jerk away unexpectedly. His other hand he put on her breast and charged her negligee beneath his skin. The magenta glow lit up brightly, shining through his fingers, indicating the high intensity of the charge. Were she to pull away now, before he could take back the charge, the resulting explosion would kill them both, take out her apartment and probably most of her neighbours as well.

She gasped, the cigarette falling from her lips as she clutched onto his shoulders and he allowed himself a smile at her whimper. Slowly he removed the charge and dropped his cigarette. As he stamped it out, he leaned forward and whispered into her ear:

"Round deux?"

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and hauled him back into the bedroom.

.

He smirked as his drinking partner collapsed. There was an extensive line up of glasses on the table.

"Guess I win," he said to the watching crowd.

"How are you still conscious?" one random guy demanded. "No one's ever out drunk Kenny."

"Really? Dat's interesting mon ami. Must be the first, no? How about another round t' celebrate my victory?"

.

He watched as the guard continued on his rounds, then slipped silently down the rope. He retrieved the forgery he had prepared earlier and switched it with the original in its display below. He locked the original in place in his trench coat, then hauled himself back up the rope and through the new hole in the roof of the museum.

.

"Rogue," he breathed into the ear of the brunette in bed with him.

Kate giggled, kissing his neck.

"Rogue? That's new."

He forced down the horror he felt at his slip. He'd never done that before.

"I'm sure I could t'ink o' some more names, if yo' don't like dat one, cherie."

.

More and more memories flooded through Rogue's mind, overlapped with his thoughts. Rogue pushed him off, then saw a magenta glow around her hands. Hurriedly she pulled her gloves off, tossing them up into the air where they exploded as Gambit slumped to the ground.

Almost immediately pain forced Rogue to the ground, clutching her neck.