Years since Rogue's powers returned: 36-37
Chapter 53: You May Even Kill Us All, But You Will Never Defeat Us
Quentin was rather surprised when a little chocolate cake, hand decorated with a number 18 written on the top, appeared with his breakfast. He grinned when he realised the significance and mentally projected towards Rogue.
"Thanks for the cake!" he said. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you liked me."
"Happy birthday, Quentin," Rogue replied tolerantly. "And don't let it get to your head. It's your eighteenth birthday, it deserves to be recognised."
"I couldn't agree more," Quentin said, especially pleased by the gesture as he figured that his birthday was just going to go by with no one commenting on it. "Hey, you weren't doing a little countdown until I turned eighteen, were you?"
"What was that I just said about letting it go to your head?"
"Well, you do know how some people do countdowns until hot young studs like myself become legal..." Quentin said slyly.
"Yes, I do know, and I think it's creepy," Rogue informed him in no uncertain tones. "Now, go enjoy your cake, and remember; now that you're legal I'm going to be less lenient about letting you off about sexual harassment."
"So try not to get caught?" Quentin suggested cheekily.
Rogue responded by giving him a mental smack over the head. Quentin chuckled and broke off contact to enjoy his cake.
Vanessa caught up with Gambit just as he was quietly shutting the nursery door after putting William down for his nap. He smiled at her and gestured down the hall in the direction of their bedroom. Vanessa nodded and headed to their bedroom with Gambit right behind her.
"Okay, so the plan is that you're got a job first and then you're going up to see Rogue?" Vanessa inquired.
"Yeah," Gambit replied as he pulled out his travel bag. "Unfortunately, there's not going to be enough time to come back here before going to Houston. I'm really sorry."
Vanessa shrugged as she sat down on the bed. "It's okay. We've been separated for longer."
"Yeah, but that was before we got married and had a kid," Gambit pointed out as he opened up the bag and set it on the bed. "I feel like I'm leaving you in the lurch."
"We'll be fine, I promise," Vanessa assured him. "Besides, Rogue needs you too."
"Yeah..." he said slowly as he pulled things out of the wardrobe.
Vanessa eyed him curiously. "You seem uncertain?"
"No, it's not that. I'm just worried," Gambit admitted as he packed his bag. "I mean, she seems fine on the phone and everything, but she has had problems with depression in the past and I'm a little nervous about how she's handling me getting married and being a father now. I know how much she'd really like to have a family of her own."
Vanessa nodded slowly. She had to admit she was a little concerned herself, knowing Rogue's real feelings for Gambit. A part of her had been a little anxious Rogue might have spoken up at the wedding, despite the fact that she'd made it clear she had no intention of speaking out about her love for Gambit.
"Well," she said, "this is your chance to find out. And at the risk of sounding callous, she's just going to have to learn to deal with it, if it is a problem for her at the moment. She can't expect people to tread on eggshells around her or put their lives on hold." Vanessa paused briefly. "That sounded mean, didn't it?"
Gambit chuckled and threw her a grin as he headed back to the wardrobe. "Tough love, eh chère?"
"Yeah, I guess." Vanessa rubbed her forehead and sighed. "I'm sure she doesn't expect people to tread on eggshells around her. Hell, for that matter, I'm sure the last thing she wants is to get depressed about this. We can't exactly control how we feel. Man, now I feel like such a bitch."
"I'm sure, no, I know she is trying to deal with it," Gambit assured her. "But as you say, we can't control how we feel and... I guess being isolated doesn't help. For that matter when her friends have had families in the past, she's been cut out of their lives a bit just because they're so busy raising the kids and stuff, you know? I don't want that history to repeat with me."
"Of course not," Vanessa agreed. "All the more reason for you to see her as normal."
"I was thinking about staying this time..." Gambit admitted as he shoved some pants into his bag. "Like I said, I don't want to leave you and William in the lurch."
"I promise we'll be fine. It's important that you go," Vanessa insisted. "William and I will be okay. And it's not like I don't have help if I need it; Mum and Dad are more than willing."
"Yeah, I know."
There was silence for a moment.
"Anyway," Vanessa said, "there's something I want to ask you."
"Yeah?"
"There are some people who have recently been rescued from a slave army," Vanessa said, watching Gambit as he packed his underwear and socks. "Well, actually there's a lot of people who have been rescued from the slave army, but the people I'm thinking of in particular are ones who tried escaping in the past or were otherwise deemed 'troublesome' and ended up being mutilated for their trouble."
"Let me guess," Gambit replied "Ears, nose, and lips cut off?"
"Yeah, amongst other things," Vanessa said disgustedly. "Anyway, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if we hosted one here and paid for their surgery?"
Gambit glanced up from his packing. He had learned from the expense account he'd set up for her back in New York that money never lasted very long in Vanessa's hands. She just couldn't not give to people. She wasn't exactly irresponsible about it, she always researched thoroughly before spending resources, at least on major projects, but if she had resources available they would be spent. Gambit was pretty sure that if he gave Vanessa access to all his finances they wouldn't last very long.
It felt a little weird to him. He'd always assumed that if he ever got married he and his wife would share all their finances down to the last cent. He never imagined that he'd have to end up controlling the money and effectively giving his wife an allowance. Fortunately, Vanessa was quite well aware of how she'd gone through the money in the expense account (and was embarrassed about it as it had led to her ringing Gambit up a couple of times and ruefully admitting she gotten a little overboard and needed grocery money), and had no ill feelings towards Gambit about the matter.
"That's fine, chère," he said. "Just let me know what it's going to be and I'll make sure the money's there. And don't forget we only have one guest bedroom."
Vanessa grinned knowingly. "I won't. And thanks."
Sooraya "Dust" Qadir held herself up defiantly before the imposing figures standing before her. En Sabah Nur himself gazed down imperiously at her, his four lieutenants standing just behind him with supercilious expressions on their faces.
"This town is under my protection," Dust informed them, determined to keep her voice steady and somewhat relieved that her niqāb and abaya allowed her to hide the expression on her face and any other body language that might betray how scared she was at that moment.
She'd already been approached by Sixth Element some time ago, and she had told them the same thing. She had been most relieved that she hadn't needed to act. Whether it was because they respected her as a fellow mutant or didn't consider her worth the effort, Sixth Element had allowed her and her town to continue living on peacefully. They didn't bother her and she didn't bother them. Dust suspected that when this world war they were waging blew over they'd be back for her and hers, but would hopefully seek to assimilate them in a more peaceful manner.
However, just because she'd reached an understanding with Sixth Element didn't mean the same would go for En Sabah Nur. Dust, like her fellow Muslims, abhorred the fact that En Sabah Nur dared to go around proclaiming himself to be a god. They refused to recognise him as such, and En Sabah Nur and his lieutenants had slaughtered many, of all religions, for their faithfulness to their beliefs. Dust knew she would never bow to him.
She feared this would be her last day.
"Oh?" En Subah Nur said. "And what are you protecting this town from?"
"From anyone who would try to hurt us," Dust replied, "or force us to worship false gods."
En Subah Nur's smile made a chill run down Dust's spine.
"When you turn to sand, you cannot transform your clothes," he said, causing Dust to catch her breath in horror that he knew. "What would Allah think, to know you were naked in public?"
He leaned in towards her.
"I can make it so you can take your clothes with you when you change shape," he offered with the voice of a serpent.
Dust said nothing. It was embarrassing losing her clothes but there was no way she was going to let En Sabah Nur get to her.
"Pledge your allegiance to me," En Sabah Nur went on, standing up straight again and looking towards the town. "And not only will I give you that ability, I will give you this town. After all, you might be protecting it, but you don't rule it, now do you?"
"Allah sent me here to protect, not to rule," Dust said firmly. "I do not need to rule to protect."
"Ah, but you cannot protect them from us at all," En Sabah Nur replied, his voice showing no sign of frustration with her lack of co-operation.
He glanced towards one of his lieutenants who was dressed in a black cloak. The lieutenant took a few steps to the nearest tree and placed his hand on it. Dust gave an inadvertent, horrified gasp as the tree immediately withered and died before her eyes.
"Pledge your allegiance to me and you and yours will be spared," En Sabah Nur said coldly.
"We will not turn our backs on Allah to worship a false god," Dust snapped back, her heart pounding with fear in her chest.
Her eyes flashed towards the lieutenants each in turn. She had heard plenty of rumours about them from the various refugees who had taken advantage of the fact that Sixth Element left them alone. The first was a woman with green hair, sickly-pale skin, and dressed far more immodestly than Dust was under her abaya.
"You can send your pestilence."
The second lieutenant was munching away on something, as he had been the entire time. Just looking at him made Dust feel hungry, despite the fact that she'd only eaten recently. She heard stories of people dying of starvation when there was food all around them.
"Your famine."
The third lieutenant was big, burly, and armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons.
"You can fight your war on our very doorstep," Dust went on, and her eyes fell on the final lieutenant. "You may even kill us all." She looked back to En Sabah Nur. "But you will never defeat us."
Rogue looked down at her gloved fingers intertwined with Gambit's bare ones as they cuddled together on her bed. The platinum wedding band on his finger looked so foreign to her eyes, even though she had been there when Vanessa put it on.
"And you're absolutely sure Vanessa's okay with you sharing the bed with me?" Rogue asked cautiously.
She couldn't help but feel worried, despite assurance from Vanessa herself that she was okay with it. Gambit chuckled and planted a kiss on her helmet.
"Nessie's perfectly okay with it," Gambit told her.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Even though you're married now?"
"Rogue," Gambit said, resting his forehead against her helmet and looking into her uncertain green eyes. "It's fine. Nessie understands and she knows she can trust us."
Rogue let out a long slow breath. She knew they'd been through it all before.
"Okay," she said. "Okay, I just... Okay."
Gambit chuckled.
"Lusting after a married man," Quentin taunted Rogue privately. "You're such a bad, bad girl. You should be in the cell with me."
"Go away, Quire."
"I wonder what would happen if Remy knew how you really felt."
"Don't you dare!" Rogue snapped at him, suddenly afraid. He wouldn't tell, would he?
"Playing two women at once, eh Remy?" Quentin said so they both could hear.
"Get out of my head, pup," Gambit said, feeling the young telepath at the fringes of his mind. "Let's not have a repeat of last time."
"A wife at home, a mistress up here," Quentin went on. "You got it made. I'm jealous."
Gambit gave Rogue a look that clearly said "Children" quite disdainfully.
"Quentin, go back to your cell immediately," Rogue said warningly.
"Hey Remy, did you know that—"
"James, vent," Rogue said out loud quickly.
James immediately opened and closed the required sections in the ventilation system that would connect Rogue's air supply to that of Quentin's cell without affecting the other inmates. Rogue counted a few seconds in her head as she felt her powers absorbing Quentin. With the words "Thank you," James returned the sections back to their default positions, shutting off the absorption.
"Knocked him out?" Gambit inquired.
"Yeah," Rogue said, leaned back on the bed, and sighed. "I really hate having to do that so often. I have to occasionally with the others, but nowhere near as frequently as I do with Quire. I'm actually a little worried that I might be taking the years from his life."
Gambit frowned. He'd never considered that idea before.
"Well, I suppose it's theoretically possible, but I would have thought all the side-effects of your power would be dealt with during the coma," he said slowly.
"I hope so," Rogue replied agreeably. "But I've started a new experiment. I've got some plants that I've been putting into my presence for specific, temporary periods of time. Then I put them back in the hydroponics bay and see how well they recover. I have a control group too, of course. I'd like to find out if there's any significant difference in their lifespan."
Gambit nodded as he curled back up beside her. "Sounds like a good experiment to try."
"Yeah, I think so too." She sighed and nestled into his arms. "I'm just... One day I'm not going to be able to use plants for proximity practice anymore. And well, that's a good thing because hey progress, but at the same time, then what do I do? Start using lab rats?"
"Sounds reasonable to me."
"I don't know that I'm comfortable with that. I mean, I realise why people experiment on animals but at the same time... At what point does it become cruel?"
Gambit gave a shrug. "I find it hard to sympathise with rats, ma chère. 'Sides, ain't like you're torturing them. They's just going to go peacefully in their sleep. Never know, moral aversion could help you."
Rogue sighed. "I guess."
"Think of it this way," Gambit went on with an encouraging smile. "This is the first time I've ever heard you talk about what you're going to do when you've mastered not absorbing plants."
Rogue considered that for a moment. "I guess it is."
Gambit's smile broadened and he planted a kiss on her shoulder.
"What about physical practice?" he asked, knowing that he hadn't brought up the subject for a long time. "You still doing that?"
"Yeah, whenever I'm in the mood," Rogue replied. "It doesn't feel like I've been making any progress there. I have a feeling I'm going to be practicing with plants for a very long time."
She sounded so dismal that Gambit was sorry he brought it up.
"So," he said. "Any new ballroom programs?"
"I finished my medieval one," Rogue said, brightly, happy about the change of subject.
"Which you created so that you could wear your outfit from the wedding?" Gambit asked, wondering if this subject was a mistake too.
"Well, it started that way, but since I ended up as a merry woman rather than a courtier, I'm programming a forest ballroom sim," Rogue replied. "I got a new gown for the medieval one. It has knights and ladies-in-waiting and stuff."
Gambit grinned. "Sounds great. We'll have to try it out."
Rogue turned her head and grinned back at him. "Yes we will, Sir Remy."
"Sixth Element has just retreated into India."
Bobby glanced up from his desk as the young officer anxiously put the official report on the table.
"Thank you," he said.
The officer gave a nod, looked like she wanted to ask something but thought better of it and departed. As the door closed behind her, Bobby picked up the report and began flipping through it.
He had no idea what to do, no clue what the optimal response was. He was relieved for all the good tacticians he had on staff because he did not feel like he was one of them. Sometimes he wondered how he'd ever ended up as Director of the X.S.E.
One thing he thought was clear was that the war between En Sabah Nur and Sixth Element was not over yet, despite Sixth Element being forced to retreat. In fact, Bobby even found himself cheering Sixth Element on. He didn't agree with their philosophies but in his mind they were definitely the lesser evil when compared to En Sabah Nur.
For the most part, Sixth Element were content to leave the places they overtook alone, provided there was a mutant in control. In not, they'd install one of their own to work in conjunction with a local mutant of their choosing. En Sabah Nur, on the other hand, insisted on pledges of allegiance from mutants and put any baseline humans in slavery. If anyone caused him trouble, he wouldn't hesitate to have them killed. The satellite photos of the destruction caused by the amries of the New Egyptian Empire were sickening.
Bobby pressed a couple of buttons on his computer and as a world map appeared on the screen. He noted that it had been updated only an hour ago. Various colours showed him the current known locations for known military assets. Aside from the retreat to India and that some of Sixth Element's other assets were on the move, all was pretty much as he expected:
Sixth Element's power was scattered across their territory. A good proportion was taking care of the forward assault into new territory—or had been until they clashed with En Sabah Nur—but they had a significant portion of their firepower spread throughout their territory. En Sabah Nur, however, had the bulk of his heavy hitters with him, with only a handful to keep the peace in Africa and everything between India and Egypt. Both sides had their own issues with resistance fighters to deal with, but En Sabah Nur appeared to have done a better job suppressing the resistance than Sixth Element had.
Bobby wondered if an alliance with Sixth Element was in order. Somehow he couldn't see the world leaders of the countries he was trying to protect going for that.
Rogue felt Quentin's mental presence approach as she sat down in front of the TV. She ignored him, not in the mood to rebuke him and far more interested in watching the TV show that Blake had been consulting on: Blue Moon. The show was set in the current era and based around the idea that there were ancient alien ruins on the far side of the moon. Blake was rather excited about the episode Rogue was about to watch because he got to have a bit part in it.
Quentin watched the show with her, his mind nestled by hers, nice and cosy. He liked it when she decided it was too much effort to tell him off. He liked it better that she was having misgivings about how often she was absorbing him too.
Rogue smiled when she recognised Blake. He was playing a medic and only had about three lines. Although the lines were serious in nature, Blake had a good humoured way of delivering them. Rogue figured he was going for the "good bedside manner" approach. She hoped he would get a chance to appear in another episode someday.
Although he was loathe to leave Vanessa and William for so long, only a month after he returned home, Gambit was off again, this time on an even longer trip. He'd gotten something of a shopping list from the Guild that required entering the territories of the New Egyptian Empire and Sixth Element. That list included locating baseline human members of the Guild who'd gotten themselves caught, recouping losses on various Guild members' investments (both legal and illegal), and some commissions. He also wanted to detour via Madripoor and check in on the new Princess Bar, which he hadn't seen yet despite being the new silent partner. When he gave Vanessa his vague itinerary, she felt the need to add to his list too.
Gambit had to do a few crash courses in multiple languages for the trip. He made a point of learning particular key phrases that would be of most use to him in conjunction with his hypnotic charm, as well as the usual useful phrases for any traveller. Although various people were still working on technology-based translators, translating a language was more of an artform and less of a science, and so an accurate "universal translator" was still a long way off. Nevertheless, for his jobs at least, technology-based translators served Gambit well enough. Worse case scenario, he had plenty of friends in the Guild who knew Asian, African, and Middle-Eastern languages.
In the dark of night, Gambit arrived at the lab. What kind of lab it was he had no idea. He only knew that it was a facility that the Guild investor's club had invested in and been screwed over thanks to new laws about baseline humans not being able to own property, businesses, and other such things. A lot of investors as well as customers and suppliers had been hit hard by such laws, whether local or overseas. Some had managed to recover, most hadn't. Some had the benefit of being a mutant or knowing someone who was and were able to escape having their property confiscated, but even they didn't get away completely unscathed.
Gambit evaded security with practiced ease. There was nothing particularly interesting or innovative about what they had, and it was an easy thing to find an appropriate place to hook his computer up to the network. It had to be his computer, what with the language issues. From there he began a download of their data and got into their online banking where he set up a series of withdrawals to occur. All amounts were consistent with the kind of amounts in their transaction history; an important point as anything too big would likely result in the account holder getting a call from the bank wondering if it was legit. He also refrained from wiping them out completely, although it was tempting.
Once his electronic bank robbery was done, it was just a matter of waiting for the data to finish downloading. Since it looked like it would take awhile, he got up out of his chair and went for a general tour, looking for anything that might be worth selling on the blackmarket. He was limited in what he could carry out, but being greedy on a job was a good way to get into trouble and best avoided anyway.
As he looked through the various storerooms, Gambit started feeling like he was being watched. It was most unnerving, especially as he couldn't see or hear anyone, nor did any of the scanning functions on his phone (which he had been using in conjunction with a translation program to understand what various labels were saying) register the presence of anyone. Despite the lack of evidence, he knew someone was watching him and he found himself checking the download every two minutes, willing it to go faster as his anxiety and discomfort increased.
Gambit was just stuffing a few prospective goods for the blackmarket into a crate he'd found when his feelings of being watched were vindicated. A nearby fire extinguisher began to change shape before his eyes. His hands flew to his pocket, locating his playing cards and he had one charged just as the fire extinguisher finished returning to it true form: a curvaceous, blue-skinned woman with red hair. Gambit had never met her, but he knew her by reputation.
"Mystique," he said.
Mystique looked blandly back at him, her eyes running over him and his crate.
"Gambit," she replied, and he didn't know whether to be flattered or concerned she knew who he was. "What are you doing here?"
"I should think that was pretty obvious, given you've been watching me for the last half hour," Gambit said, matching her tone as he put a bottle into the crate. "What I want to know is what you're doing here."
Tight-lipped, Mystique didn't reply straight away. She sauntered over to him and he couldn't help but admire the sway of her sexy body. It had been awhile since he'd last seriously checked out a woman other than Vanessa, but then no one else had swaggered up to him in all their naked glory either.
"I want something," she said, sliding one hand up his muscular arm. "Something very specific." She leaned in towards him and whispered into his ear: "And I don't want you getting in my way."
Gambit gave a nonchalant shrug as he looked into her sinister yellow eyes. He removed the charge from his card and slipped it back into his pocket.
"I'm after more general stuff," he replied. "Why don't you tell me whatever it is you want, and I'll be sure not to pick it up."
Mystique looked at him, as if calculating whether to trust him.
"Stay away from Lab 6," she told him, "or I will kill you and you'll never see me coming."
Gambit glanced over where the fire extinguisher had been. As far as he'd been aware, Mystique was limited to humanoids. But then, she had been a victim of the Cure, and Rogue had mentioned finding out that Mystique had been one of the few like herself, whose powers had come back stronger than ever.
"Worry not, ma chère," Gambit replied, taking Mystique's hand and kissing the back of it. "Lab 6 is all yours."
"Good," Mystique said as she stepped back from him, towards the door. "Don't you forget it."
Gambit watched as she departed, then got back to his looting. Finally, the download completed and it was with much relief that he finally got to leave. He didn't see Mystique again, but neither did he get that sense of being watched, so he was happy with that.
Nevertheless, very curious about what was so interesting about Lab 6, when Gambit got back to his hotel room he ran the data he downloaded through a translator. It wasn't easy finding exactly what work was being down in that specific lab and what he found made him frown, wondering if he should be concerned. Lab 6, it seemed, was working on some kind of missile, the exact specifics of which he didn't entirely understand, partly because of the rudimentary translation and partly because he just wasn't a rocket scientist. He made a mental note to inquire for more details once the data got back to the Guild, and went to sleep.
Rogue paled as she took in the latest news. India had been devastated by the war between Sixth Element and En Sabah Nur. Satellite photos made her feel sick at the very sight; so many innocent people slaughtered just by having the audacity to live in the area.
Amongst the casualties were the leaders of Sixth Element. Apparently realising they were fighting a losing battle, Sixth Element surrendered and pledged their loyalty to En Sabah Nur. En Sabah Nur, whom the European and American press were starting to call Apocalypse.
Rogue's eyes fell to Sri Lanka, just off the coast of India. As far she as she knew the fighting hadn't gone there, but based on what had been done previously, En Sabah Nur wouldn't be content to just let everyone in former Sixth Element territory live and let live. He would go around, extracting pledges from all the leaders, major and minor, and enforce baseline human slavery.
All her sponsor children, current and former, were baseline humans.
She gritted her teeth and stared hard at the map, noting all the places where her children lived. She needed to go and save them. There were no ifs, whats, or buts about it. She couldn't just stay on the moon while her family was in danger. She couldn't turn her back on this horrific war any longer. It was past time she stepped in.
"James, please put a call through to Bobby," Rogue said.
"Yes Madame."
After a minute or two, Bobby's face appeared on the screen, He was looking somewhat haggard like he hadn't slept much lately.
"Hey Rogue," he said wearily.
"Hi. Look, I'll make this quick," Rogue said. "I want to help. With the war, that is. I've got family in Sri Lanka, and I am not going to see them enslaved by that asshole."
Bobby looked at Rogue for a long moment.
"Fine," he said. "Teleport in and evacuate them. But only them. No one else. No fighting, no heroics, no killing or taking prisoners of war. Just rescue your family."
Rogue frowned, a little puzzled by his instructions. Bobby held her gaze.
"Well, thanks," she said slowly. "But I don't just... Bobby, you need me to help you fight this war. En Sabah Nur's no laughing matter. Apocalypse is a damn good name for him."
Bobby shook his head. "I seem to recall you saying some years ago now that you didn't want to be a weapon of mass destruction. In fact, I definitely remember your abhorrence to that idea being one of the main reasons why you tried to justify killing yourself."
"Bobby—"
"No, Rogue. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have someone with your kind of fire power at my disposal," Bobby said, looking very much like it pained him to turn her down. "I'm sure it would be a great way to finish this war off once and for all. But I can't. I can't because then we'd be no better than En Sabah Nur or Sixth Element. Hell, Rogue, I'm a class five mutant in charge of the security for all of North America, with strong influence in Europe and Australia. I have people afraid that I'm going to turn on baseline humans because on the surface I am no different from En Sabah Nur. I have actually had attempts on my life, Rogue, and my body acted instinctually every time. I pretty much can't be killed in iceform, I just reform myself."
"Yeah, I know," Rogue said quietly, recalling wondering if she was really so different from En Sabah Nur and Sixth Element herself.
"Although there was that one attempt involving an incinerator, but you know, water vapour," Bobby went on with a shrug. "Anyway, the point is we have to do this ourselves. You've got enough power to play god, Rogue—"
"I would never—"
"No, not now you wouldn't," Bobby said firmly. "I know that. But later? You're going to be long lived, if not immortal, Rogue. You intervene now, put everything back on track, and the moment your back is turned, everyone's going to start mucking up again. So you'll stop the next war, and the next one, and the next one, and so on and so forth. And whether you set yourself up as a god or not, people will start to revere you as one all the same, because us humans are stupid and fallible, and we don't learn from history, except for the ones who do and they're doomed to watch everyone else repeat it."
"So instead you're asking me to turn my back on everyone and see them be killed and maimed and tortured and—"
"That's—"
"How is desensitising myself any better?" Rogue snapped. "How can you expect me to cut myself off like that?"
"Because I would rather deal with a Rogue who loves everyone so much and is willing to give them a little tough love, only intervening when she absolutely has to," Bobby retorted hotly, "than a Rogue who becomes the very thing she never wanted to be, a weapon of mass destruction, who gets desensitised to killing!"
"I... I wouldn't actually have to kill anyone..." she said slowly as Bobby's words hit her in the gut.
"Then there'd just be more people in your prison," Bobby replied. "Rogue. We have to handle this ourselves. For our sake and yours, we have to do this ourselves. I promise that if we're ever in a position where there's no other way out except with your help, I'll ask. You can consider yourself our trump card, if it makes you feel any better. But until that happens, if it happens, stay out of this war."
Gambit carefully opened up the door and headed down the stairs to the basement level. He gave a discreet knock on the door, picked the lock, and opened it. He was greeted with the sight of a gun pointed right at him and immediately a charged card was in his hand. The gun lowered.
"Gambit," Floyd said evenly.
Gambit removed the charge from his card and grinned slyly at his fellow thief.
"Little worried someone's come to take you back into slavery?" he inquired with a smirk.
Floyd's only response was to mutter under his breath "of all the people they had to send..." Gambit chuckled wickedly. He was rather amused by the irony himself.
"So, what's it like being a victim of human trafficking for once instead of a perpetrator?" Gambit asked.
"You going to get me back to the States, or not?" Floyd snapped back at him.
"Fear not," Gambit said grandiosely. "I, your kindly master—" Floyd growled at that "—will see to it that you get safely back home. But first we have to pick up Harvey and Joan. And I have to make contact with some of my wife's friends."
"Oh right, your wife," Floyd sneered as he picked up his meagre things from the dark, dirty basement where he'd spent the last three months in hiding. "Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes ex-cop."
"If you ever have the privilege of meeting my wife," Gambit replied with his arms folded across his chest and a big smug grin on his face, "you will thank her most profusely for having friends, mutant friends, in Africa who are just as passionately against human trafficking as she is. Because they're the ones who are making this little people smuggling operation possible."
Floyd swore at him. Gambit just laughed.
"Hey!" Rogue said, wagging her finger at Blake over their video-chat while wearing a big grin on her face. "Why the hell didn't you tell me that you were going to have such a big role in the first episode this season?"
"Because I wanted to see your reaction," Blake replied with a knowing smirk.
"Oh really? Was it everything you hoped for?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Also, I have news."
"Yes?"
Blake grinned broadly, a bright twinkle in his eye. "You're going to be seeing me more often. I'm going to be a semi-regular from now on."
"Ooooh seriously?" Rogue asked excitedly.
"Yep."
"That's awesome!"
"I know!" Blake replied, unable to remove the grin from his face even if he wanted to. "This is like... This is a dream come true, really. I mean, the consulting job was cool, and I was happy to accept that, but I didn't imagine for a second I'd get a bit role. Or that the bit role would end up in a semi-regular role."
"Never know, next season you might be one of the regulars," Rogue suggested.
"I'm not sure I dare to start thinking like that," Blake said. "I mean, yeah, it would be amazing if that did happen, but I think I'd be okay with it if it didn't, you know? Besides, just because I have this role, promoted to semi-regular though I may be, that doesn't necessarily mean I'll have an acting career after this show. Would be nice though."
"Well, you never know. It might happen."
"Maybe, but I'm not going to count on it," Blake said. "I am, however, going to enjoy this and make the most of it while I have it."
"Sounds good to me."
Floyd looked sourly at the crates he and Harvey had to load into the private plane Gambit had been flying around during his trip over Asia and Africa. Harvey ignored Floyd and began loading crates onto a trolley.
"Remind me why you're not helping, again?" Floyd said irritably.
"Because this is slaves work," Gambit replied, dusting off his high fashion long coat. "Now be a good boy and start loading, before I have to whip you for show. We wouldn't want to arouse suspicions, now would we?"
Floyd glared at Gambit, but did as he was told. Gambit breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to where Joan was waiting with a number of women he was also going to be smuggling out of the country. With them were two of Vanessa's friends, Kagiso and Naledi.
"And that," Kagiso said as she handed Gambit a thumb drive, "is all the paperwork done."
"Thanks very much," Gambit replied, accepting it. "Your help is very much appreciated."
They would be flying straight out of the country and he was hopeful that the falsified documents wouldn't be needed, but there was no telling whether they'd be intercepted or told to land or anything.
"No, no, if not for you we wouldn't be able to get these girls out at all," Kagiso insisted. "I just wish we could organise a regular route."
Gambit nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Right now it's not feasible, but if something comes up in the future, you can be sure that I'll let you know."
"Thanks. I won't assume something will work out, but I'll hope it does," she replied. "Now, don't forget about the microchips—"
"I haven't—" he began, knowing she was talking about the microchips all the slaves were being implanted with to track ownership and other such things. Those would definitely be removed when they got back to the States, that was for sure.
"—and remember that these guys are looking for people smugglers," Kagiso said, and went on irritably: "We can't possibly deplete them of their precious labour force, now could we?"
"Heh. No, never, who could conceive of such a thing?" Gambit replied in kind with a smirk. "Don't worry, ma chère, I've had plenty of experience smuggling things out of countries and getting through security systems. 'Course, I'm not usually smuggling people, but first time for everything hein?"
When the cargo was finishing being loaded, Gambit and his 'slaves' got on board. Gambit made a point of keeping Floyd away from the women. He didn't trust his fellow thief not to try to take advantage of them in some fashion. All the women, including Joan, had all been raped, although none of them had been formally employed as sex slaves. Gambit was particularly concerned about how Joan was handling it. She was so quiet and weepy, and very much unlike herself, which Gambit had to concede was understandable under the circumstances. When he'd caught up with Joan, she cried into his shoulder after a jumbled recounting of her couple of days as a slave, while Floyd seemed to think the whole thing was funny. Gambit really wanted to kill Floyd right then.
Gambit was rather proud of his new private plane. It severely cut down on flight time; with the use of gravity stabilisers, it was capable of flying at high g-forces without crew and passengers having to endure g-force training beforehand. It also had a few special custom features, including concealed compartments, and the ability to change its outer markings.
As long as the New Egyptian Empire border patrol didn't decide to stop them for some reason, they should be home within a matter of hours.
AN: I did try to end this chapter in a way that didn't seem like a cliffhanger, but the words refused to cooperate. So here's me telling you outright: Gambit successfully smuggled everyone out safely :p
