AN: I just have to say, Mignonette is my favourite character in this chapter. I just want to hug her and call her awesome before I run away in fear of my life when she tries to kill me for having the audacity to touch her without her express permission, hehehehe.

Chapter 35: Wanted Dead or Alive, Preferably Dead

In the end it was decided that Gambit and Rogue should get off at Slidell, the station before New Orleans, and it was there that Etienne picked up the pair. Once they had arrived safely at the Guild Headquarters, Henri arranged for their luggage to be picked up from the station in New Orleans.

"Sorry about all this, Roguey," Gambit said as they entered the lounge room.

"Not your fault, sugar," Rogue replied with a shrug. "We're safe now, anyway."

"And we shall see to it that you stay that way," Mercy said firmly, looking up from her chair. "It's good to see you two."

"Remy!" Aimee exclaimed.

She jumped up and raced over, giving him an enthusiastic hug. Gambit chuckled and hugged her back.

"You didn't happen to miss me, did you petite?" he asked.

"No, not at all," Aimee giggled. "Hi Rogue."

"Hey," Rogue smiled.

"Hi," said Sebastien softly from the corner of the room.

Gambit looked up and caught Sebastien's eyes. For a moment the two looked at each other, then Sebastien looked away.

"Désolé, Oncle Remy," Sebastien said, looking down at the table.

Gambit let out a long, slow breath, then made his way over and half sat on the edge of the table.

"Sebby," he said firmly. "You should have told the whole story to begin with."

"I know," Sebastien mumbled.

"It was critical information. Regardless of whether Marcus believes you or not, you gave him an excuse to come after me—and Rogue by association. I swear, if he harms a single hair on her head because of this, I will—"

"Remy!" Mercy glared at him.

"—string him up by his toes and use his guts for garters," Gambit went on as if she hadn't said a thing. "And then I'll come for you."

"Stop threatening my son! He's been through enough as it is," Mercy scolded.

"I never said what I'd do when I came for him," Gambit retorted.

Sebastien didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

"Hey," Gambit said softly, putting his hand on his nephew's shoulder. "Look, I know we haven't been on the best terms these last couple of years, but I'm glad you're alive, okay crab-boy?"

Sebastien cracked a smile and nodded.

"I'm glad you're still alive too, Oncle Remy. I really, really didn't meant it when I said... you know," Sebastien insisted. "I don't know why I said that."

As it turned out, it was a good thing that Rogue and Gambit got off at the earlier station. The Thief sent to pick up their luggage reported that he'd spotted Marcus and his cronies hanging around.

"He's definitely gunning for you then," Henri said. "Remy, Rogue, I think you two should skip the combined Guild party this year. Sebastien and Aimee can't, I'm afraid—they're expected to attend—but you two aren't even technically members of the Guild. No one will think anything of it."

"D'accord," Gambit nodded. "If I'm not there, he can't make a scene. Well, not one involving me anyway."

"We can only hope."

"So chère," said Gambit a couple of days later. "What do you think about a Christmas Special marathon tonight?"

Rogue laughed.

"Okay," she said agreeably. "But we should be out here."

"In the lounge room?" Gambit said, turning his nose. "But the bed is all so much more comfortable."

"We promised Logan no overnight movie marathons in your bedroom unless there was someone else with us," she pointed out. "And everyone's going to the Guild party tonight."

"Oh yeah, we did too," he replied, rubbing his chin. "He need never know..."

Rogue looked at him with a smile on her face. Gambit sighed melodramatically.

"Very well, we shall honour our promise," he said, personally surprised to find he honestly wanted to.

A couple of hours later at the combined Guild Christmas party, Bella Donna made her way to Henri and Mercy.

"Things seem to be going rather well here tonight," she observed. "Dare we hope we might finally be making an impact?"

"I think perhaps, we have our daughters to thank for that," Mercy said, gesturing to where Mignonette and Aimee were gathered with a group of their friends from both Guilds.

"Perhaps we do," Bella Donna agreed. "There's some hope there."

"Oui, there is," Henri nodded. "Maybe we'll even convince the Whores Guild to join us next year."

"Perhaps. I don't really blame them for turning us down so far," Bella Donna replied. "Young Remy isn't here tonight?"

"No," Henri said. "We felt in the light of... what happened with Marcus and Sebastien that as Remy and Rogue were not Guild members, it would be safer for them at home."

"Probably wise."

The leaders continued to be pleased at the rather peaceable atmosphere that evening, so very different from the tension of previous years. Bella Donna hoped that the council members would take note, and perhaps finally, they could end this civil war.

"Hey," Aimee said, nudging Mignonette and pointing. "Where's your cousin going?"

Mignonette looked and frowned.

"I don't know, but David, Harvey, Pepin and Sarah are leaving as well, so I'm guessing they're sneaking off early," Mignonette said.

"Good riddance," Aimee muttered.

"Hey, let's follow them," Mignonette said, grinning. "Maman's been wanting to find out where they've been hanging out."

Aimee looked at her friend for a moment, then nodded. After taking a moment to make sure that they weren't spotted as well, they slipped out after Marcus and his friends. It took them a moment to find them again, but the good thing about them having Sarah with them was that her pink hair did tend to make her stand out, even in the dim lighting.

The five climbed into a car. Aimee went straight for one of the cars nearby, instead of letting Mignonette go for hers, and hot wired it in seconds. Mignonette chuckled, and they drove off after them. At least now if Marcus realised they were being followed, he wouldn't know it was them, at least not by looking at the car.

"Oh!" Aimee gasped. "I know where we're going."

"Yeah... Isn't this the way to the Thieves Guild?" Mignonette frowned. "Why would Marcus head there?"

Aimee swore and pulled out her phone. She pressed it to her ear and waited while it rang.

"C'mon, pick up, pick up," she muttered and as soon as she heard Gambit answer cut in with: "Remy! You and Rogue have to get out. Marcus is headed your way."

"Merde," Gambit muttered. "Merci for the warning, petite."

"What was that about?" Rogue asked, looking up from the TV as Gambit hung up.

"I should have thought of this," he said as he grabbed her hand. "Marcus is on his way here. There's practically no one here with everyone at the party."

"Oh."

"C'mon, we need to get out."

Gambit lead her to the mantelpiece in the lounge room and rotated one of the candlesticks. To Rogue's astonishment, the wall slid open and Gambit pulled her inside. He hit a switch as the door slid shut behind them, and a stairway was lit up before them. He gestured for her to be silent, and Rogue followed him down the narrow stair. The trip seemed endless, but at last they reached the bottom and Gambit hit a button for the exit to open.

They were promptly greeted with four guns pointed straight at them.

"Well, well," Marcus smirked. "Isn't this convenient? And here I was planning on using your secret exit as my secret entrance. Hands in the air, LeBeau, or White-Streak gets it. If I seen even a hint of pink, she goes first."

Reluctantly, Gambit obeyed. There was no way he was going to be able to get his cards before those guns went off. For now, he'd just have to hope for an opportunity—and that Aimee would have the sense to call Henri.

"Get in the car," Marcus ordered, then grabbed Rogue by the wrist. "You can sit with me."

Rogue clenched her jaw. She could have gotten out of his grip rather easily, but she was neither prepared, nor in the position, to deal with the guns pointed at them at well. Rogue and Gambit therefore obediently got into the car. David sat on the other side of Rogue and twisted her around so he could tie her hands behind her back.

"Let's see," Marcus said as the car started and they were back on their way. "I heard this little rumour, LeBeau, that you're really Remy Senior and you've been posing as your own son all this time."

"...Have you been sampling the wares from the Runners Guild?" Gambit asked, giving him a strange look. "Because I think that your chances of becoming Patriarch are going to plummet if the Assassins Guild council were ever to find out you were doing drugs."

"The Runners are not a real Guild," Marcus snapped.

"Oh..." Gambit said slowly. "Then why are they called the Runners Guild then?"

"Because they had the audacity to call themselves one when they formed during Prohibition. The Assassins, the Thieves and the Whores Guilds are way older than those upstarts," Marcus paused and glared at Gambit. "Oh very cute."

"What?" Gambit asked innocently.

"Senior already knows all about Guild history. You're trying to make me think you can't be Senior by asking stupid questions," Marcus said.

"Yeah," Gambit mused. "This coming from the guy who's accusing a fifteen year old of really being forty-one?"

David snickered and Marcus glared at him.

"Mon père is dead," Gambit said determinedly. "Your père poisoned him. I'm not who you want me to be. Just let us go."

"The Cure messed around with your body's aging process," Marcus mused. "You know, I have to admit that is a pretty far-fetched story. Who knows, maybe Sebastien has been sampling the Runners wares. Thing is, LeBeau, ultimately, it doesn't matter to me if you're Junior or Senior. Mon père was murdered, and no one paid for it. I'm going to fix that. If I can't have Senior, Junior will suit me just fine. You're so much like him, it doesn't make much difference to me."

The group arrived at a house that was overwhelmed and choked by weeds and general rubbish. It had clearly been abandoned for quite some time before Marcus and his cronies had taken over. Surprisingly, however, the inside was rather clean and neat. Gambit was directed to the centre of the living room, each Assassin smart enough to keep their distance, even with his hands up in the air. A chair was pulled out and Rogue was pushed down on it. Her already tied hands were looped over the back quite neatly, and her legs were then tied to the legs of the chair. Rogue figured she probably could have give the two who tied her down a halfway decent kick in the face each, but with the third pointing a gun at her still, decided to bide her time.

While Rogue was being tied Marcus turned to Sarah, who was watching impassively.

"Strip," he ordered her.

Sarah obediently began to remove her clothes—not that she'd been wearing all that much to begin with. Her face remained expressionless. Once she was standing completely naked in the room, she stood, motionless and waiting.

"Now strip him," Marcus directed, pointing to Gambit.

"Why Marcus," Gambit said. "I had no idea you were into kinky stuff."

"Funny," Marcus sneered as Sarah began to remove Gambit's clothes. "I know you can't charge anything that's alive—or at least Remy Senior can't. I'm assuming the same applies for Junior. Good thing for me, I have the perfect jailer. Whore, when you're done stripping him—and make sure you kick his clothes out of range—use your bones to immobilise him and make sure he can't even touch the floor."

Sarah shot Marcus a dirty look, but continued with her instructions in silence.

"Pepin, keep that gun pointed at White-streak," Marcus went on. "We wouldn't want LeBeau to get any ideas about charging his clothes while he can."

Pepin snickered.

"Front or back?" Sarah asked when she was done undressing Gambit.

"Stand behind him," Marcus instructed.

Sarah moved behind Gambit, her arms touching his arms, her legs touching his legs and Rogue watched as bones started to emerge from Sarah's skin. At first they came out straight, then they curved and wrapped around Gambit. Four bones from each arm and each leg curled around Gambit's arms and legs. Eight rib-like bones, four on each side, grew from her sides and curled over their respective half of his torso. A flat bone grew from each foot, forcing themselves under Gambit's feet and lifting him just enough off the ground that he couldn't touch it any more. Because all the bones stayed connected to Sarah, Gambit couldn't have charged them even if he'd wanted to. He had to hand it to Marcus; he'd actually thought this through. Guess he inherited something from his mother after all.

Marcus walked around them, inspecting the end result while David picked through the pockets in Gambit's clothing. Marcus observed with a slight smirk that Sarah had even grown a pair of bone supports from her behind, keeping her from falling backwards from dealing with Gambit's weight. He nodded to himself.

"So, what am I going to do with you?" he mused.

"Hey Marcus," David said, holding up Gambit's staff. "Look what I found."

David pressed the button in the middle to make it extend and Marcus chuckled.

"Well now," Marcus said smugly. "I guess that answers the question of whether you're Senior or Junior, doesn't it? If you were Junior, you wouldn't have a Master Thief staff."

"Would you believe it's a family heirloom?" Gambit asked.

"Not likely," Marcus smirked at him, well pleased at this development. It would be so much more satisfying taking out the original Remy LeBeau. "So, Sebastien was on the level after all. Y'know, Père told me a lot about you—"

"Aww shucks. And here I was thinking he didn't like me," Gambit taunted.

"He said you had a high pain tolerance," Marcus went on darkly. "Let's see, how should we go about seeing how high it really is? There are so many possibilities."

"I like branding myself," Harvey nodded. "Electric shock."

"The usual stabbing, although I do have a very nice collection of blades—" David began.

"Oui, we know all about your blade collection," Pepin smirked at him.

"Thing is," Marcus said as if his friends hadn't said anything. "Anything non-living we touch you with, you could charge up, couldn't you?"

Gambit merely smirked at him.

"Sure, a blast big enough to take us all out would probably kill you first, but you might consider that worth it," Marcus continued. "Of course, there's also White-Streak to consider here—the Whore would heal after all. You might risk a smaller explosion and gamble that you could take the rest of us out before we shot White-Streak, isn't that right Gambit? "

"Oui, oui," Gambit said blandly. "You're doing the whole stereotypical bad guy gloating scene. It's getting boring. You've clearly already figured out what you're going to do."

"I'm not the bad guy here," Marcus retorted sharply. "You murdered mon père."

"Hey, what about acid?" Pepin suggested. "You don't actually need to touch him in order to use it."

"It's probably still chargeable, though," Marcus replied.

"Not if you're a Thief," Gambit joked.

Marcus put his hands to his temples, then looked at Rogue, who was ignoring him. Marcus smiled and pulled up a chair beside her.

"Do you like to hear stories, White-Streak?" he asked her.

"Do they have happy endings?" Rogue asked in reply.

Marcus cracked a smile and began trailing his fingers up her leg from her knee.

"Once upon a time," he said mockingly. "There was a man named Julien. Julien had his own personal whore, and he liked to make use of her services whenever, however and wherever he pleased, as was his right."

Gambit felt Sarah stiffen behind him.

"One day Julien went to a bar with his friends," Marcus went on, his fingers now moving along Rogue's stomach. "There he was, having a good time, when his worst enemy came along. A foul, disgusting little creature named Remy. Remy didn't like the way that Julien was treating his whore."

David and Harvey snickered while Marcus moved around behind Rogue, now both his hands on her.

"Personally," Marcus said into Rogue's ear as he moved his hands up over her chest. "I think Remy was jealous that Père had his own sex slave and he didn't."

Gambit rolled his glowing eyes. Rogue just sat there, stone faced, and attempted to ignore Marcus' hands cupping her breasts.

"But where was I? Oh right," Marcus continued, his hands squeezing her harshly. "Remy tried to—get this—rescue the whore. He and Julien got into this fight. Like every Thief, Remy cheated and beat Julien, but then he tried to take the whore away and you know what happened? She refused to go."

Now all the Assassins chuckled in amusement. Sarah buried her face in Gambit's long hair.

"So then Remy had to walk away with his tail between his legs," Marcus said smugly. "The end. I rather like that ending myself. Do you know what the moral of the story is?"

"History is written by the victors," Rogue replied blandly.

"Close, but not quite. The moral of the story is that Remy has a soft spot for women," Marcus said, his fingers digging into her. "I don't need blades or brands or acid. I just need you. I wonder just how much fun I get to have before Remy starts begging for me to stop?"

Gambit's eyes flashed at him, but he said nothing. Marcus' smirk grew wider.

"You got the toy box, Harvey?" Marcus asked.

"Oui," Harvey smirked. "And the table's all ready."

"Then let's untie our guest of honour," Marcus said. "And find out if she's really a hermaphrodite."

Marcus finally took his hands off Rogue's chest, glanced up at Gambit, moved Rogue's hair out of the way and licked up her neck. Rogue turned up her nose and flinched. David and Harvey made their way around to untie Rogue's legs again and Rogue caught a glimpse of Pepin out of the corner of her eye—ahh, he was no longer holding a gun. Well, now, things just got interesting.

Rogue waited with only a scowl on her face while David and Harvey undid the rope. They were both done at about the same time and as they peeled the rope away, Rogue lashed out at both of them. She succeeded in kneeing David in the face and kicking Harvey's shoulder. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was the best she could do in her position. As her legs returned, she leaned forward, lifting her arms up and over the back of the chair and continued leaning forward, rolling off the chair and straight into Gambit.

"Oh we have a feisty one," Pepin smirked.

Rogue shifted around so that the rope binding her hands touched Gambit's leg, lifting her head back to look at him looking down at her. "You mind?" she asked.

"Done," he replied.

The same moment he said the words, Rogue felt the rope break as the light change Gambit gave it exploded and scampered out of the way just before Harvey grabbed her.

"You know what this means, boys," Marcus said as he moved around to intercept. "First in, first serve."

At first the best Rogue could do was scamper backwards on the floor, pulling herself away from Harvey's approach until she had enough space to stand up and continue backing off.

David finally pulled himself off the floor as did Harvey. Marcus and Pepin closed in on her. In the corner of her eye, she spotted a low table and a lamp sitting on it. A grim smile came to Rogue's lips as she remembered Logan's words: in a fight, anything was a weapon. Rogue grabbed the lamp and threw it at Pepin, at the same time, she swung her leg at Marcus' legs. He dodged the swing, but not her fist slamming in his face.

Rogue shifted to the right, and then narrowly missing Pepin throwing the lamp back at her. It smashed to pieces on the ground, reminding her of some other words of Logan's: any weapon you bring to battle can be used against you. Unperturbed, Rogue dodged, ducked and blocked the strikes from the young men.

"Sarah," Gambit hissed, watched Rogue anxiously. "You have to let me go."

"Can't," she replied.

"She needs my help," he insisted, silently cheering as Rogue's hand slammed into David's nose, breaking it.

"Remy... I want to," Sarah said, her voice thick. "But I can't go against Marcus."

"Bella Donna won't slaughter the Whores," Gambit told her with confidence, then lurched when Rogue was kicked in the stomach and banged against the wall.

"You don't know that," she snapped. "And even if you were right—"

"I am!"

"—there's nothing to say that Marcus and his allies would even listen. They're not listening now. My sisters—and brothers—lives are at stake."

Rogue was slammed repeatedly to the ground, all the while being pulled across to the table. Rogue's eyes laid on the box of 'toys'. She hand no idea what was in there, but she managed to throw out a hand, grabbed the first thing that her fingers touched and used it to whack Harvey—who was closest—over the back of the head with it. The swing continued and she clobbered Marcus as well. She scrambled under the table, kicking at Pepin who was trying to hold her leg. Once free of his grip, she scooted through under the table to the other side and made a beeline for the wall where Gambit's staff was leaning.

"Sarah, please," Gambit said, hoping that his hypnotic charm could get past Sarah's fear and defences, even under this less than ideal situation. "They're trying to do to her what you being here was supposed to prevent happening."

"She's not a member of the Guild," Sarah said stubbornly. "Please, Remy, don't make this any harder than it already is."

Having the staff, Rogue decided, made it much easier to ward off multiple opponents. Sure, she had spent the last few years being trained by the very best, but Assassins were trained to kill probably even before they learned to walk, and she was up against four of them. She suspected if they wanted her dead, she would be already.

Actually, while she was on the subject, clearly four of these Assassins was out of her league.

"Batter up," Rogue said darkly.

There was a dull thwack as Rogue slammed the staff into Pepin, sending him flying backwards into Gambit. Gambit smirked and a moment later Pepin's clothes were glowing magenta, bright enough that you couldn't see how his face had paled.

"Merde," swore Harvey.

Pepin stayed right next to Gambit's legs, doing a quick mental check to figure out the best way to remove his clothes without getting caught in the explosion. Rogue whacked David in the face again (his face was having a hard time of it today, that was the third time). Marcus dodged the staff as it came around for him, but she got Harvey in his side.

"You seem to be under the impression that as long as you're touching me your clothes won't explode," Gambit said darkly to Pepin, then added quickly to Sarah as he released the charge: "Désolé chère."

Sarah cried out as Pepin's clothes blew, breaking the bones she had pinning Gambit to herself. That was nothing compared to Pepin's screams as a result of the serious burns he just acquired. Gambit received a minor scorching, barely above sunburn. He got worse injuries from bone splinters.

"Pepin!" Harvey yelled.

At the same time, Marcus pushed Rogue onto the ground from behind. Unable to get her footing, Marcus landed on top of her and began slamming his fists into her back. Unfortunately, Rogue had also landed with the staff under her and was unable to release—oh wait, it could retract, couldn't it?

Now that Gambit's legs were free, he was able to step off of Sarah's platform bones. He crouched down, lifting his arms above his head and pulled himself out of the rest Sarah's bones like she was a shirt. Sarah dropped the now useless bones and for a moment she and Gambit just looked at each other. At last Sarah stepped back and Gambit grabbed bone pieces from the floor, disregarding the way some of the splinters pierced his skin. No longer attached to Sarah, he was able to charge them and throw them at David and Harvey. He would have liked to have aimed for Marcus as well, but his cronies were in the way.

Rogue rolled the staff around and managed to hit the button with her body and retract it just as the bones hitting David and Harvey exploded. Marcus started, looking up just long enough for Rogue to pull the staff out and ram it into his ribcage.

"Bitch!" Marcus yelled, but he grabbed hold of her all the same and forced her to sit up in front of him, a human shield between himself and Gambit.

"Let her go," Gambit said darkly.

"Not likely," Marcus snarled.

Rogue continued to struggle, using every method of self defence she knew to get out of his grip. Unfortunately, Marcus either dodged or endured her blows.

"You think I can't get you from behind?" Gambit asked.

A stream of magenta light began running across the floorboards, but the bang that followed was not from them blowing up, but from a gun. Gambit lifted his head and his eyes fell on Sarah as Marcus dropped to the floor. The gun slipped from Sarah's fingers and there was a haunted look in her eyes as she gazed back at Gambit.

"You'd better be right about Bella Donna," she said grimly.

"I am," Gambit said seriously as he removed the charge from the floorboards and knelt down in front of Rogue. "Roguey? You okay?"

"Me?" Rogue said, her voice shaky. "Sure, I'm fine. Later, when the adrenaline wears off? Probably not."

"Dammit," and all three turned to see a very unimpressed Mignonette standing with Aimee, Sebastien, Bella Donna, Henri, Mercy and a number of others from both Guilds. "Aimee, I told you we shouldn't have waited for everyone to arrive first. We missed all the fun."