Remy tensed the moment he heard footsteps. For all that bravado, he was worried.
Not about escape.
Escape was easy.
As long as he ended up anywhere but the Jedi Temple, he could do it fine.
And he would escape before he got to Coruscant unless plans A through D all failed.
A different question remained.
He was a mutant.
Appearance, they saw as someone with another species in his family line.
It was normal.
Blowing stuff up was not.
And that was him. Someone with fifteen years to learn the tricks. Someone who knew how to persuade and manipulate people.
Someone who had spent nearly five years building a reputation, and five years learning the rules of the galaxy.
He was normal to them. A normal bounty hunter. He was charismatic and could be funny. He was reckless and had a thick accent. He was different but normal.
Rogue's difference... she had surely spent the same five years. The difference between them had nothing to do with the amount of time they spent in the galaxy or the amount of time in the world.
It had everything to do with her way of seeing it.
She had suffered from her powers. From Mystique, too. She had never suffered the way mutants like Remy and Ororo suffered. Not like Spyke or Kurt. She tried, she truly did, but she had been saved before seeing the worst of the world. Xavier had saved her, and Remy agreed with his mission. Protecting mutantkind was one thing he would always do. It was good that Rogue had never seen how few exceptions there were to the rules until she was older.
But no matter what she saw now, she would be too naive.
He had no idea what would happen if she showed her powers.
If he showed his gift, he would be thrown in the Jedi Temple. Probably studied, but he could handle it. Some nice persuasion and he would be fine. No one would be afraid of him just for it. He had too much control.
He never let people see how little he had.
But if the first mutant the galaxy saw was Rogue, everything would be different.
Remy's were weird. Everyone agreed. They also saw him as weird. His powers were just an amplifier for their opinion of him. He could run a ship or make a temporary lightsaber. He could free a team from any prison. He could blow up a ship. He could assassinate a senator. One was scaled up. The other was a skill any bounty hunter with his reputation could do.
They would see mutant powers as they were: a piece of the ones who held them.
Simply a part of life.
Dangerous if the mutant was dangerous. Safe if the mutant was safe. Unstable if the mutant was unstable.
Rogue's were not weird.
They were terrifying.
They saw a kind and fierce girl-because they would always see as her a girl-with odd skin. Then they would see her take the goddamn life force out of someone.
It was an awful way to make a first impression.
If the others came, they would get murdered or imprisoned in an instant if Rogue was first.
Including Gambit himself.
So, he had two options. Neither of them depended on him. Better wording would be: there were two options. They depended on a too-empathetic woman not letting anyone touch her.
Either Rogue would reveal her power or she would not.
Gambit could hide his.
Only two of his dozen plans—some only half-formed ideas—required his powers in ways people would realize.
He could hide them.
Not if Rogue made them suspicious.
He needed Kitty in a way he never thought he would need her. She could give an inspirational speech or something. He had no idea where a Jewish bisexual kid managed to get so good at giving speeches
If he revealed his powers, there would be no escape.
He would spend the rest of his life in a cell at the Jedi Temple, assuming he got to live long enough anyway. Or he would spend the rest of his life on the run, and then in the Jedi Temple.
Simple solution:
Use his other skills. Gambit had been the name of a thief long before it was the name of a mutant.
Trust Rogue. Rogue had trusted him before, and he had let her down. It was time to trust her.
Annoy the Jedi enough that they would never imagine he was important or powerful. He had always possessed that particular skill, it got him out of a few dangerous binds.
The footsteps got louder and Remy LeBeau vanished once and for all in favor of the cockiness he needed from his alter ego.
"Padawan Tano and Knight Skywalker, what an honor." He bowed with a flare and a flamboyant smile, lowering his accent a tad. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"