They got off the gunship before Remy could finish contemplating Rogue's absolutely guaranteed safety—a safety he was almost certain would happen anyway—over jumping ship.

Still, they walked in the direction of the bridge.

Remy knew the blueprint by heart.

He heard the footsteps easily.

They were surrounded.

Not that he expected anything else.

He internally groaned a few times. Sure, he owed Rogue… a lot, but really? Was it worth it?

Too late.

He had made worse decisions, to be honest. Besides, he had a debt to pay. Paying it was his top priority. Doing what he liked came second for once. Unfortunately. He had hurt Rogue over and over and ruined her chance of a clear conscious over and over. He had to make it up to her somehow.

Okay.

He reminded himself to stay calm. If he had managed to pull off that escape in the not-pirates' place, this was practically nothing. Even compared to the Louvre thing he did once for almost a million dollars, it was not that hard. He could manage.

Gambit took a deep breath. It was over. Rogue was safe. Nothing else mattered.

His mind was impenetrable. The Jedi were soft. His secret was safe. Rogue was safe. He was not particularly safe, but when had his safety really mattered? Rogue was okay.

He heard blasters cock.

He took another deep inhale. His signature cocky aura reappeared.

Time to perform.

"I'm insulted."

Ahsoka felt the hintings of a smirk. He deserved it. Whatever charisma the man had, he was a bounty hunter that had sold them out.

"Then be insulted. I don't care. As long as you're where you belong."

Anakin had warned it. Rogue rushed forward. Ahsoka grabbed Rogue's arm, noting how soft the sleeve was. She had grabbed the edge with intentions of stopping the appearance of any weaponry, only grazing skin.

The reaction was instantaneous from both of them. Not, "let Gambit go" like she expected, but pure terror radiating from Rogue.

From Gambit, concern.

Not for himself. It was directed outwards.

But he had something else. Not attached to his words, but still there. Under the surface, threatening to break free. Pure hate. Pure anger. Something else she could not identify, but equally pure.

"Let go of me!"

"Don't touch her!"

Ahsoka's grip loosened from the fear. She should not be so afraid, but that hatred from Gambit...

Anakin and the clones were better at handling it. They gave Ahsoka a chance to grab Rogue's shoulder by not reacting.

Stupid. She was a commander. She should not make those mistakes.

"Rogue, stay back. It's not worth it."

She did not breath a sigh of relief when Gambit stopped feeling that darkness. Stopped radiating it. She did not. She was not afraid.

"Of course it's worth it."

She yanked her arm out of Ahsoka's new grip.

She had made the grip without skin-to-skin contact.

It had been too much to try again. And she was tired. Tiredness was not the primary reason. For all she heard about the mercenary named Gambit, he seemed like a nice enough guy. Way nicer than the people he collected his bounty from, that was for sure. He was even a little funny and gentleman-y.

It had evaporated fast.

Then it returned.

But Force, he looked ready to murder Ahsoka.

No, he was ready to murder Ahsoka.

If she had not let...

"No, it's not, cherie. Don't worry about me."

When he held his hands up in surrender, that seemed like proof enough. Still, a master thief and bounty hunter should not surrender so easily. Ahsoka heard a rumor that he once killed a prince on a militaristic planet in their own palace. Without a scratch.

So, yes. Not trusting him to actually be surrendering was rational.

This was a trick.

"Don't worry about you? Who do you think 'Aah am?"

Rex put handcuffs on Gambit, who maintained eye contact with Rogue. "You an X-Man. As far as I know, this you' job."

"But—"

"Rogue—"

"Stop talking."

"Yeah right," both Ahsoka and Anakin replied to Rex at the same time. She could have sworn Rex rolled his eyes.

"Magneto and Professor Xavier agreed on nothing. When two people with their intelligence disagree on everything but finally agree on something, it's usually right. The one thing they knew in their hearts was people like us have no future in the spotlight, not in this galaxy."

People like us.

She took a step forward.

Ahsoka did not stop her.

She knew Gambit was surrendering. The fear was irrational. It was not fear. It was being rational, of course. She wanted to hear what they had to say. "What do'ya mean?"

"You know what I mean, Rogue. It your choice. No one know how they may receive ya, not with the Jedi running around. It human nature to fear what they don' understand."

Ahsoka felt very confused.

What did any of that mean?

The only thing the two of them shared was a weird accent. And those were even quite different.

"I… don't know. I'm still proud of it. It makes me special."

Ahsoka motioned for Rex to let them finish before the infamous Gambit was taken to his cell. This was valuable information. Rogue had done nothing wrong, so it was their only chance at getting that information from her.

"I'm proud of it too. Both of ours. The only problem is they are not."

"But… you have to have a plan to get outta there, right?"

"Don't worry about Gambit." That sounded like a 'yes.' "He still the boy who grew up in New Orleans crime. I know my way around prison better than you thin'."

He gave her a blown kiss, then let the clones take him away.

"Are you going to break him out?" Ahsoka asked.

"No. If he wanted my help, he shoulda' taken it."

Oh.

They were weird.

"Are you going to give us any information about him?"

"Not anything he won't give. Who knows, you might hit the jackpot. That jerk's pretty fickle." Talk about volatile relationships.

They tried anyway.

Not that it worked. She just glared at Anakin every time he or Rex asked, sometimes deigning to give a snarky comment but otherwise silent.

Checking her nails through the gloves was bordering humorous for her, clearly.

She and Skyguy shared a look, sighing in sync.

"In that case, Jesse, can you show her to her quarters? The Jedi Council and the Chancellor will want to hear about this when we bring him in."

He nodded, starting to whisk Rogue away. He reached for her shoulder. She stepped out of the way.

"Don't. I'm cooperating."

Did it have something to do with her non-human parent? Ahsoka tried to think of a species compatible with humans possibly resulting in that odd skin, but nothing came to mind. She did it operating on the assumption Rogue had hyper-sensitive skin. Perhaps just a personality quirk or fear of touch. She would discuss it with Skyguy later.

The pair walked off.

"Something's up. I don't like it," Skyguy declared. "I also don't like that you thought we should let him finish manipulating that girl."

"Excuse me? I was trying to get information out of him, and we did. Neither of them are going to talk, we had no other way."

"Doesn't mean I had to like it. What'd you think we got after that?"

Ahsoka put her hand on her chin, thinking hard. "Her whole touching thing seems to be suspicious. And Gambit's speech… we need to know what he meant. They, for some stupid reason, think they're similar. They're obviously not."

"We don't know anything about Rogue."

Ahsoka knew something. She knew Rogue was a good person. The Force screamed it. She knew Gambit had blood, good blood, on his hands. The Force screamed that too.

"We know she got caught by the pirates for trying to disrupt their slave trade. That's all we need to know."

"You don't think there are bad people out there who hate slavery?"

"Of course there are." Everyone knew how many bounty hunters hated slavers. Not the majority, but enough to be significant. "I wasn't finished." She folded her arms over her chest. "I felt it through the Force too. Rogue isn't Gambit. She's a good person. She could be a Jedi if she had the Force."

That brought an awkward pause.

It was interrupted when Rex cleared his throat. When did he even get back? She needed to meditate later if her instincts were this off-center.

"One of them definitely has the Force. I saw that stunt. No human can go that far."

Right. The 50-meter jump Rogue had made with Gambit boosting her. It was higher than even Obi-Wan could go.

"I don't think she does. It would explain his skills." Between his sleight of hand, complete immunity to mind-tricks—she had discovered it while they were trading insults a while back—and absurd ability to get into anywhere at anytime, there was something unnatural there. He had no suit of Mandalorian armor or decades of experience. It was odd to think of a bounty hunter as being Force-sensitive, but it seemed reasonable. "I wouldn't say he was trained. I would be surprised if he knew."

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions." Wow. When was the last time Skyguy was being rational? "I say we ask him." Never mind.

"You're joking."

"No."

"He definitely won't be truthful."

"But he'll answer. It'll give us a clue. If it's no, he'll say so or he'll say yes. If he is really Force-sensitive and knows it, Gambit's not going to tell us. He'll dodge the question to the end of time."

"That's pretty smart, Skyguy." Was he an imposter all the sudden? It seemed like an Obi-Wan plan. Too cool-headed.

Ahsoka elected not to voice her thoughts. Skyguy would be able to counter it too well.

"What do you think, Rex? You're the expert on this."

Rex contemplated it. "Wait a few minutes. Then, yes. Let's work on a question list in the briefing room. It'll probably require some… deviations from normal."

Three nods. They headed to the bridge.