Life had a way with karma.

She heard footsteps coming closer. There were three thumping noises. It did not sound like the pirates, those brutes were louder in their footsteps. And the thumping noise sounded a lot like punches.

Usually, karma meant every bad decision she made came back to bite. Maybe life decided to be nice for once.

She had gotten caught freeing prisoners (read: future slaves and/or lab rats) from pirates. She had succeeded. Now, someone was returning the favor.

Probably.

She tensed up, ready to either spring out or struggle depending on who opened the door.

Her skin tingled right before the door opened. There was something else… something familiar. Something light. Something glowing.

She could feel energy connecting them, a feeling most other people had probably never felt. She had; it was the only thing she understood from this whole sensation.

It was somewhere in the depths of her mind, somewhere from someone she once touched.

She had a pretty good guess as to who it was.

The door fully opened.

A Togruta stepped out.

"Oh. Hey." Why on Earth was he with a Togruta? She was way too young to be his partner, and she looked too light on her feet to be untrained. Was this a student or something similar?

The alien blinked. "Hi." She grabbed something that looked eerily similar to the hilt of a saber… and ignited it.

Cool.

She had heard of them somewhere… what were they called?

The laser-sword, or condensed plasma blade, or whatever it was, cut through her electric bonds. She fell to the ground, catching herself in a squat just in time. Her training paid off; she never imagined all those brutal and exhausting days of being thrown off cliffs would actually do something useful.

Those thoughts would remain inside her head and not in Logan's ears.

"Want a hand?"

She denied the Jedi's (she remembered reading something about Jedi in the news once, their laser swords were their signature thing) offered hand, standing up on her own. "'Appreciate it, but no. I got this."

The Togruta looked confused, but let her go towards the door without touching her. The air was cool to her bare arms as opposed to the painful heat the pirates liked putting her in.

It was nice.

She stepped out.

She heard the movement of paper moving. No, not paper.

Her head snapped in that direction. "Gambit?"

He had this obnoxious smirk on his face. "Long time no see, cherie."

Rogue spent a long moment processing it, even though she had almost been certain it was him. Another mutant was great. Gambit of all mutants was not really great. Or it was even better. She obviously had suspected it through Jean's telepathy that kept becoming accessible without contact, but to see live confirmation… it was complicated.

"I'm almost happy to see you."

"Good to know my services are appreciated, Rogue." His concentration to sound like a very soft New York accent was worth noting. He must be messing with her; he always found a way to do that.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was in the area." He was doing that accordion fold thing was his cards, looking like he had not come exactly for this purpose. "Picked up a rumor they had a girl who sounded like you, I thought it could not hurt helping you out, ma cherie."

"Don't call me that. I'm not yours." His flirting was barely tolerable without it going that far.

Still, she got the message.

The two others did not know about their gifts or their past. She had to keep it that way.

"You two know each other?" the human asked.

"Yeah. Rogue and I are old friends."

Jerk. "Friends is a strong word." Co-workers at absolute best, but based on the situation, Rogue had a feeling she could not even call him that much anymore.

. The Togruta came closer, holding her hand out to shake. She declined it, a bit of guilt forming before she banished it. Years of practice helped. "I'm sorry, I really don't like touching. It's nice to meet you…?"

"Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano. This is my Master, Anakin Skywalker."

Okay… Padawan meant student, she guessed?

"They call you Rogue?"

"Yup. That's me." Rogue smiled, giving Gambit a desperate look. He got it, throwing her a long-sleeve shirt. That he somehow had.

And gloves.

Okay, what the hell?

She accepted it immediately, hiding her pain as she pulled the shirt over her head taking more effort than it should. "Uh, thanks." She had actually meant for him to take her out of the awkward conversation. Nonetheless, this was much better. It also gave a bit of information the other two did not understand. He came expecting her. "Really, thanks."

"No need to thank me." He was an awful liar; he looked so satisfied. "Are you okay, Rogue?"

"I'm fine." She was not fine. "I never thought I'd be grateful to Logan." He had asked them if they wanted to do a training session in case they ever got caught by the government or their next murderous bad guy. Accepting it was something she had regretted until a week ago.

"That's not a good thing."

"I said, I'm fine. I'd be better if you would stop bothering me."

He held his hands up in mocking surrender, scanning the area at the same time as Rogue. He was better than her at pretty much anything to ever exist if they were going to hide their powers. She had to put a bit of trust into the former Acolyte. "We gotta go."

"If you two are done with whatever bounty hunter reunion is going on—"

"I ain't a bounty hunter. Or even a criminal. He's the thief," she grumbled, sliding in front of them. Remy was fast, the Jedi looked like they had kept up with him, and Rogue was not that fast. They would have to let her lead their pace. "Hey, Gambit, can I borrow—"

"Absolutely not."

"You can manage without."

"So can you. I owe you, but you just blow up the base." Rogue actually almost slowed down in surprise. She was an idiot for dismissing something so integral to everything she knew about Remy Lebeau. His accent… he hid it so smoothly. He always altered it a little to keep everyone on their toes, good enough that she thought the Cajun thing was fake until she absorbed him the second time, but this was almost flawless.

Wow.

She should probably hide her own.

That seemed like a lot of work.

She would not.

The fact the Cajun was putting the effort to hide the accent he slightly exaggerated back at home was concerning, to say the least.

"You aren't a—"

"Go right—"

"Bounty hunter or thief, then what are you?"

Rogue took the right, imagining a hoard of angry Sentinels chasing her. Good motivation to speed up. It was a pretty weird thing that she had done it so much. The adrenaline overpowered her injuries, giving her a good excuse to shut down Logan's voice inside her head telling her to control her adrenaline.

"Just a friend of his. He owes me, big time."

Remy made no reply. Good to know, he agreed enough to shut up.

"Not in his line of work?"

"Not at all. I'm a rule-abiding citizen." And no time before that had ever existed. Totally. Absolutely. "I was studying to work somewhere in healthcare or education, was gonna minor in study of languages, before… this." She gestured widely about exactly what 'this' was. Only one person in this galaxy understood what it was. "He's not that bad once you get to know him, you know?"

The Jedi sounded like they were sharing a look of disbelief. Remy called out another direction, throwing in a bit of French that went over her head.

"You know each other that well?" Anakin asked.

"Not really." Rogue shrugged. "Like I said, he owes me."

"I don't owe you, cherie."

She just rolled her eyes. Gambit was going to be an asshole, she would let him be an asshole. He most certainly did owe her; he never made up to her after New Orleans. Joining the X-Men did not count; it counted less after he threw away their ideals the moment he lost them.

Ahsoka suddenly launched forward, her plasma blades whipping out and ending the careers of two pirates Rogue had missed.

Rogue skidded to a stop.

Wow.

"Wow."

"You're nimble, chevalière."

Chevaliere… what did that mean…? It sounded so familiar. Feminine form of chevalier, but what did it mean? "That just sounds wrong," she declared as they filed into an elevator. "She ain't a chevalière."

"You shouldn'ta' skipped you French class."

Damnit, why did he always have such good quips ready?

She pulled up her sleeve threateningly. "I can learn."

"That isn't how it works, Rogue." She shrugged. Taking languages was totally possible, but it was a bad idea at this point in time. Her high school French should be enough… sure, she would have flunked it if she had not touched Remy that time, but what mattered were results.

"How long—"

"Two and a half minutes. It's a big base."

Anakin sighed. "This is going to be awkward."

"Really? Had no idea," Rogue muttered. She then felt a buzzing in her ear. "You feel that, Gambit?" Was it a mutant thing?

He shook his head. The Jedi had different reactions. Specifically Anakin Skywalker. "What do you hear?"

"A buzzing sound, sounds like that thing Logan would throw in the Danger Room when we were working on—oh god. Lightsaber people, cut this open. We'll be faster jumping."

Without a pause, something that made Rogue feel like a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders, Anakin ignited his lightsaber and began to cut a hole. It was nice to know they trusted her. "You sense it too?"

"I don't sense anything. I hear something. Like electromagnetic energy."

Gambit cursed in French. Or he could have been complaining of missing a card for all she knew. French was a dumb language. Whatever was going to happen after that never happened.

Anakin finished cutting his hole.

Ahsoka jumped first, followed closely by Rogue. And then Gambit. Anakin stepped off, the elevator blew up.

Oh.

That was a problem, wasn't it?

Honestly, Rogue should have been more concerned.

If anyone was wondering, after research (fandom. com is awesome) when I realized I was on the verge of liking Gambit in Evolution, Remy and Rogue have a three-year age gap. He starts off as nineteen and she starts off as sixteen. It feels like really relevant information for anyone like me who was fully convinced he was in his mid-twenties.