"The victors return with the spoils." Pyro tried to keep his mood light, but he hated seeing them like that, like there was a part of her that belonged to Gambit at all. "Mystique's in place?"

"Yeah." Rogue dumped Carol's body unceremoniously.

"Careful with the merchandise, chere." Remy interjected. "She's still a person, non?"

Rogue threw him a tight smile. "Why don't you find her somewhere comfortable to lie down then? Pyro and I will be there in a second."

Gambit looked between them, deciding to give them a second to sort themselves out. He grabbed Carol's body bridal style, and turned his attention to Pyro. "Point me in the right direction, mon amie?"

Rogue had picked up a little French just from having known him, and she thought Pyro would object to the pet name if he knew what it meant. Of course, Remy called everyone that, and even if he didn't, he had a way of talking to Pyro with a bite that was nowhere near friendly.

Pyro pointed in the general direction of their holding cells. His body was tense in the way it had just been lately, all the time. The second Gambit's footfalls became silent, Pyro's eyes landed on her. "Do you have something you need to tell me?"

"Yeah. Y'all got any adamantium around here?"

Pyro let out a held breath, forehead scrunched in surprise.

"It's the only thing we can be sure'll be stronger than her." Rogue smiled, flexed her hands a bit. "She's got some kind of superstrength." She laughed a girlish laugh. "And she can fly!" She burst into giggles.

He let her have the moment, waited for her laughing fit to subside with a big smile on his face. "I better report all this to the boss. I'll ask." He walked slowly, closed the space between, ran his hands down the side of her arms. "We'll be down in a second."

She felt so loved when he was focused on her like that. "Yeah."

He kissed her on the temple, rested his forehead against hers.

"I'll go find Carol, make sure Remy didn't get lost on the way to the holding cells."

Pyro didn't miss it when she called him by his birth name, Remy. He wondered if he calls her Marie, could imagine it, almost heard her birth name in that mangled accent. But, she was laughing again, and he didn't want to spoil it. So, he just pushed her lightly in the right direction. "Go. I'll be right there." And he turned away from her, toward Magneto.

Remy had found the right place by the time she got there. She found him setting Carol's body down gingerly. He seemed to be singing her something in whispers as he arranged her to sit against a wall. He combed her blonde locks smooth with his fingers.

"Remy." She wanted him to jump at her voice, but he's smooth as silk as he turns to her.

"Chere?"

"We should get to the other side of the glass." She pointed to the two-way mirror reflecting them. She turned as he said 'lead the way'. She busted the doorknob on the way out from lack of care. He chucked like he knew he's getting to her, followed her into the opposite room.

"How long them powers going to stay with you?"

He looked at her like he was remembering something, and she thought about how everything she touched glowed pink until he taught her how to call the energy back into her body. She'd been that way for days, afraid to touch even inanimate objects, and he'd pitied her enough to swallow his pride so she wouldn't have to be that afraid of her skin at least.

"I don't know." She thought about how he'd slinked away after, fled any room she entered, avoided the places they'd spent time alone together. "It's different different times. I can make it go faster if I want, and I get less. But, I think…" She thought about draining Pyro's powers when they'd trained, about kissing Bobby those few times he'd convinced her. She'd barely gotten anything from them. "I think what I get lasts longer when people fight the drain." She felt like one of those animals with hooked claws.

Magneto came down with the adamantium she asked for. She watched with Remy as Magneto manipulated it into rope and knotted it around Carol's collapsed body while Pyro held up the parts of her for him.

"Can they hear us?" Remy asked her.

"Shouldn't be able to."

They watched Pyro handle Carol's body like she was a doll, a thing even. It was so different than how Remy had done it, from how Pyro touched her.

Remy swallowed, took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly. "What are you doing with him?"

Rogue sneered.

Pyro knocked on the glass, like he'd heard them, to let them know Carol was all tied up. He crossed over, and Rogue gave him a kiss while hoping Gambit watched.

Magneto made an order when he left the room for Pyro to tell him when Carol came to. Rogue stayed, because Pyro stayed. Gambit stayed, because Rogue did. They watched through the two-way mirror.

When she woke, Carol put everything she had into her binds, but they held. Pyro laughed, wrapped an arm around Rogue, laughed into her hair. She almost felt a little proud of herself, but Remy's eyes got dark as Carol's body slumped over, panting, spent.

"What're you thinking, swamp rat?" Rogue threw out, trying to sound nonchalant as her stomach fell. It was a sensation she didn't think she knew anymore, a burn and a twist.

His stare fell on her heavy, focused, red. His jaw clenched, scrapping side to side.

"You're going to make me repeat myself?" she asked.

His lips pursed. "Just seems to me that maybe you don't have an excuse to be so high and mighty anymore." She could feel a scoff repressed in Pryo's chest.

"What's-" she cut herself off. What's that supposed to mean? She could feel his answer in her mind even though he technically wasn't in there anymore, hadn't been since before she left him and everything else behind. At least when he'd made a deal with the devil, he hadn't known it. But she had, and she'd done it for the very same reason, the very same promise, control. She could almost feel him flipping through the deck in his pocket, remembered the sensation of their curved edges pressing into her own fingers while they'd played together. "If you got something to say, just say it." Pyro's arms wrapped around her, and she felt warm. Still, she realized that the indictment might be welcome too. It'd been so long since she'd heard her own moral compass beat inside her, his would do.

"I didn't sign up to steal women from their beds." He paused, jaw clenched then relaxed, hands busy. "Did you?"

"You've never done a ransom before?" Pyro asked him. His voice was deep, suspicious, but a little something else too, mocking.

She knew the answer, knew his every secret. She almost answered for him, but hesitated at just the right moment with her boyfriend's arms around her body, pulling her in to sink.

"Enough times to know they can go wrong." Remy was doing it again, locking his eyes on hers even when he talked to someone else. She wondered if every thought he spared anymore was for her. No, ridiculous, of course not.

"You didn't have any problem with it back on the road." She shot back. He didn't see any issues until he'd seen Carol struggle, and she hadn't until she'd seen his eyes.

"I suppose there's a second best time to wonder if something is the right thing." He turned, and she knew he was going to slink away and she wanted to stop him, but she couldn't. She was here. She was in her lover's arms. She didn't feel guilt. She couldn't. She wouldn't. Maybe he didn't belong here. Maybe he wanted to be better, wanted soft sentiments, and all she just wanted control and love. She had everything she wanted.

Pyro kissed her through her hair, brushed it away as she bared her neck to him for access like an instinct, and his lips brushed against her nape. He told her how proud he was of her bare skin to bare skin.

He was so warm. She didn't know how to feel anymore. She wanted to crawl inside of him for all the comfort it would offer her.