"That's so cool!" was the first thing Rogue admitted. Sure, she could have said pretty much anything, and she could have said that to Anakin too, but it just was so cool. She had to share it with someone who would actually at least pretend to care. Mr. McCoy, Logan, Jean, and Bobby all had similar moves, all involving Rogue on one of the sides. Rogue had done the same thing with Gambit when he first joined the team. She had done the same with Wanda once during training before they realized the two most volatile powers at the time on the planet should not be training with each other that much. Piotr had done it when there was a fire they were stopping without Bobby or Storm.

The jumping part was natural.

The being-levitated part was so cool.

Jean never had that good of control, and all of their memories of her were a bit tainted.

Even thinking about her was a stab in the heart.

But doing it with someone else, it was just awesome.

The two Jedi shared a smiling look even though it was directed at her only uneasy friend on this crazy world.

"Nothing to do with you, I mean. Anakin did the cool stuff," she added, knowing he would know she was being blunt.

"No kidding." He slipped his weird bo staff back inside his coat. "We definitely tripped a few alarms. They must have thought we'd never get up here."

Anakin shook his head. "They disabled all of their ships. It must be a precaution."

"Obviously." He rolled his eyes. "You didn't expect it?"

"More of a hope."

On cue, eight assassin droids and a pirate decided to walk in. No, as much as she wanted it to be, it was not the opening to a punchline.

"Shit."

Despite the dire circumstances, Rogue could not help it. The opportunity was irresistible. "Language." He turned his head to see her wide smirk, rolling his eyes.

"Shut up, Rogue."

"Can I borrow it?" Her asking was more of a formality at this point. She knew Remy was going to refuse. The only way she was taking his powers was if she stole them. She would never steal them.

"No."

"Please?"

"My answer hasn't changed in the last fifteen times, Rogue."

She grumbled, putting her hands into a fist. Times like this and she really wished she could access old powers at will. Maybe some flight from Jean and that awesome superstrength from the Juggernaut.

"Any ideas?" Anakin asked, igniting his lightsaber.

"Nope."

"I can take the pirate and use him to deactivate them. Can you three handle those droids in the meantime?" Rogue asked.

"It won' work. They're assassin droids." Remy surveyed them carefully. "They don't have an off-switch for exactly that reason."

"Any other plans?" Ahsoka asked.

"I…"

"Can't you just—"

"No!" Remy actually looked a little scared. "I can't do it."

His powers could solve their problem in seconds, or at least much faster than they were on route to do. She knew why he was refusing, she knew how sucky it could be… that did not mean she agreed with him.

Then again, he had been one of Magneto's Acolytes.

She had been inside his head.

He had a more pessimistic view of this than a full-bred X-Man. They would have plenty of time to talk about it, and for Rogue to try her hand at changing his view.

A buzzing sound filled Rogue's ears again… no. "There's going to be an explosion soon."

Ahsoka deactivated her saber. "I don't think we'll be needing to fight."

"Huh?"

"Look up."

A Republic cruiser.

Well, now was as good a time as any.

She was pretty sure she heard Remy curse quietly. Whatever. He would survive. Remy Lebeau had never let himself be chained to anything he did not want to be. This was the only way any of them would get out alive, he could suck it up.

He sighed. "We still have to fight, petite. They too slow."

Anakin charged, letting out some nonsense battle cry.

Much quieter but with an equal dramatic flare, Remy pushed himself forward.

Rogue looked at Ahsoka. She knew the two boys would know they could not take two. She could take five humans with their level skill, but Rogue was out of her element. Anakin seemed like the type to be overprotective of Ahsoka, excluding the fact she might not be experienced enough anyway.

Ahsoka caught her gaze.

They would fight. They would win. The Republic would offer them a hand to help with that.

But not because of the Republic. It was because she was an X-Man. She was one of the first. She was Mystique's daughter. She served on the X-Force. She was Rogue.

The assassin droids got closer. Close enough to blast.

The battle ensued.

Remy dodged a blast by a hair effortlessly. He pushed energy into the balls of his feet to pick up his speed, throwing his staff into one of the droids while kicking another.

Of course, since he was talking about assassin droids, they were both perfectly fine.

At this point, he and Anakin were the most capable fighters in this situation. He had to act like it. He had been trained to avoid killing strikes whenever possible, there was never a reason for a thief to murder in cold blood. It was the only moral standard he could always hold himself to.

Even with Magneto, his fighting style was not really murder. Remy had never taken joy or satisfaction in killing, although he never bothered losing sleep over it when necessary. Not anymore.

All it took was charging his staff with kinetic energy a bit differently to completely bypass that.

These were droids. Robots. Not humans. Not Sentinels either, but not far off.

He sliced one into three pieces. His thrown card slide straight through it, exploding the droid into shrapnel by hitting the power core. A blast bolt almost touched his hair. His legs independently moved, kicking one of them back.

He spent precious time looking at a reflective surface to get a good idea of what was happening with the others. Especially Rogue.

Anakin was handling three pretty well, all things considered. Ahsoka and Rogue were both straining with one each-Rogue far more than Ahsoka-but they were fighting. Good. The silent agreement neither of the men had to even look at each other to make was working. Their younger counterparts were alive. Rogue was doing fine.

Honestly, Rogue's ability to fight like that without her powers was incredible. He would compliment her on it when they had time for a long talk, once the battle and danger was over. Once they left the Republic's ship together, they had all the time in the world.

He should focus on something else. Like not dying before the Republic's reinforcements got down here.

He cursed his lack of super strength a few times when he was brought to kicking to keep both of the droids from getting past time. His shoes offered some protection, but it hurt. At least he now had material to defend his boots' honor against Jean-Luc.

Distantly, he noted Anakin finishing off his own droids right as the Republic's clones dropped down. One duck later, one of the clones finished off one of his legless droids.

Gambit sent his staff into his last droid, letting the kinetic energy demolish it.

It was very satisfying.

Especially when he grabbed the staff again, throwing it to kill the pirate in charge with practiced ease.

"Hop on," Rogue called from one of… those were gunships, right?

Whatever they were, Remy glanced around him. Rogue looked urgent. The explosion would go off soon. Her ability to tell was only mildly concerning. As a rule of thumb, if Rogue's powers were not acting weird, there was a problem.

He would ask how she knew when they had time to talk like the coworkers with many mutual friends they were. She might punch him if he suggested they were friends.

Putain de morale.

She was never going to forget if he did anything less than this.

Who was he kidding? He would never forgive himself if he did anything less than this.

He slipped his staff into his coat, pushing himself to his top speed and grabbing two of the clones by the edge of their armor with his gloved fingers. Desperation and a ticking clock were no excuses to leave fingerprints.

He threw the clones up, twisting to the side to maximize his throwing strength. His arm would hurt like hell later from all the kinetic energy he just shoved.

What a waste of time.

Gambit flew halfway across the hanger in an instant to grab the last two without jetpacks. The bare minimum, but that was all he needed to do. The others had already gone up with ropes, but these two were injured. Their packs must have been destroyed, or they were being idiots and waiting.

He charged them with just enough kinetic energy to throw them up to Rogue.

Red eyes looking around, he settled on some personal satisfaction.

Might as well blow up the place on his terms.

"Gambit, hurry the hell up!"

He glared at Rogue, now thirty feet in the air. Annoying.

Never mind then.

He sprung up, making it all the way up in two kinetic-energy aided jumps and some vertical running.