06

Last time I checked, the disclaimers were still in chapter one, but they may have gotten up and walked off…

*** *** ***

Rogue struggled futilely with her chains. "Why did you kidnap me again, you fuckin' bastard!" she yelled at Magneto. "Your damn machine is broken! You don't even have any use for me anymore!"

"That's where you are wrong, my dear," he said. "All the while I've been in prison, Mystique's been busy having another one made. This time I'm going to mutate all of Washington, D.C., and no one's going to stop me."

"You're an idiot. Only a moron would recycle the same plan twice like that. Especially seein' as the plan was ridiculous in the first place."

"You need to learn when to bite your tongue, child."

"Yeah, and you need to learn how to stop being a freakin' moron."

Magneto just gave her a disgusted look and stomped off, his cape waving behind him. Rogue slumped in the corner of her cell and hoped someone would rescue her.

*** *** ***

Remy got out of the cab in front of the gates of a huge mansion, hoping the cabbie had been right on the location of Xavier's School. He'd expected more difficulty in finding it once he flew into New York, but he hadn't had any trouble at all.

"Mebbe de Saints are on Remy's side f'once," he muttered. He walked through the iron gate and up to the front door, which swung open before he had a chance to open it. A beautiful, redheaded woman stood in front of him.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Jean Grey-Summers. How may I help you?"

"Uh, I'm Remy LeBeau—a friend of Rogue's."

Jean could sense from his emotions that something bad had happened. Her breath caught and her eyes grew wide. "Where is she? Wait, come inside. We can talk in here."

Jean led him to a room inside. Another man walked into the room, and Jean said, "Scott, something's happened to Rogue."

"Dammit. What?" Scott asked.

"I'm not sure yet. He says he's a friend of hers." Jean gestured to Remy.

A woman with dark skin and white hair came in after Scott. A fourth person came into the room after her, and something about him made Remy uncomfortable. The man was glaring at him, with an unlit cigar hanging from between his teeth.

"Remy—right?" Jean said.

"Oui," he said, looking around at the strange assortment of people who had gathered.

"Remy, what happened to Rogue?" Jean asked.

"Magneto got her. I tried t'stop 'im, but I couldn't."

Suddenly, the glaring man launched himself across the room, with what Remy thought must be metal claws shooting out from his knuckles. The man pinned Remy to the wall with the claws and growled, "You let that fucker get Marie?"

"Logan, let him go," Jean said. "I'm sure he did the best he could. This isn't his fault."

Logan pulled his claws back in with a growl and stepped away from Remy. "So dat's Logan," Remy thought, finally having a face to go with the name Rogue had always said with such pain.

"We must let the Professor know that Magneto has Rogue," Storm said, speaking up for the first time since she'd come into the room.

"He already knows," Jean said. "He's already gone down to Cerebro in an attempt to locate Rogue."

Remy jumped about a mile when a young woman suddenly walked right through the closed door. "Hey, you guys, turn on the television now," she said, her tone grave.

Jean looked at the television and it suddenly blinked on. Remy recognized the man on the screen from the attack at Jacques's. It was Magneto.

"Greetings Brothers and Humans," Magneto said. "I am taking over the United States of America. You have twenty-four hours to recognize me as President, or I will mutate all of Washington, D.C. And do not even think of attempting escape. You will be sorry."

The screen suddenly switched to footage of statues flying from the ground, crushing fleeing cars and people. Groups of soldiers led by Magneto and Mystique flooded the city, sending people into panic. Sabretooth rampaged, killing people and destroying national monuments.

"Turn it off," Jean said after a moment. "I can't watch anymore." Scott pulled her to him, trying to soothe her.

"We had some idea that the Brotherhood might be growing in number, but not to this degree…" Scott said.

"We let our guard down," Storm said. "We believed that with Magneto in prison this could not happen."

"Well, it has happened, 'Ro," Logan said. "And Rogue's in the middle of it all."

"Y'all are de X-Men, right?" Gambit asked, finding his voice.

"We're the senior members of the team," Scott said.

"So you can do somet'ing about dis. You can save Rogue."

"I  hate to say this, but I don't know how much good we'd be against the army Magneto has compiled," Scott said.

"So what, you're jus' gonna let him kill Rogue?"

"Like hell we are," Logan said. "Look Cyke, this may be a suicide mission, but we can't not try at least. Marie's in trouble. We gotta go after her."

"Logan is right," Storm said. "And it is not only Rogue in danger, but the whole country—if not the world. Is it not the job of the X-Men to fight this?"

Scott nodded. "Then we better get going. We don't have any time to lose. Jean, contact the other members of the team and tell them to suit up and meet us in the war room."

"Um, pardon me, but could I join you?" Remy asked.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Scott said. "This is a dangerous mission and…"

Before Scott could finish his sentence, Remy had grabbed five cards from his pocket and thrown them all simultaneously at the wall, each one hitting the same spot and dissolving with a small explosion.

Scott cleared his throat. "Uh, let's see if we can find a uniform your size."

*** *** ***

Remy moved his limbs around in the tight-fitting leather uniform. "Mon Dieu, how do dey move in dese t'ings?" he wondered out loud.

"You get used to it," Logan said, walking in.

Remy looked up. "I'll jus' take your word on dat."

"You Marie's boyfriend?" Logan asked.

Remy thought about that question for a moment, not quite sure how to answer, but opted for just a simple, "No."

"You sure about that, kid? You seem awfully fond of her, comin' all the way up here just to save her."

"Rogue means a lot t'me."

"You love her?"

"Dat's none of your business, homme."

Logan snarled. "What if I make it my business, gumbo?"

"You can finish the pissing contest later," Scott said, pulling Remy and Logan back into the present, "Right now we have to save Rogue."

Remy grabbed his duster and put it over his leather suit. "Why the hell are ya botherin' to put that thing on?" Wolverine asked.

"Pockets," Gambit said with a shrug. Logan and Remy gave each other one last glare before following Scott into the war room.

*** *** ***

Remy did his best to pay attention as Scott gave the briefing. Everything seemed so surreal to him. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since he'd been in Louisiana, a little emotionally distraught, but otherwise okay. Now he was standing in a war room, dressed in leather, watching the strangest map he'd ever seen.

"Remy?"

Remy looked up when Scott said his name. "Yeah?"

"You have any sort of nickname or anything that you could use as a codename?"

"People call me Gambit."

"That works. Use it in battle to keep your identity secret. As for the team, I'm Cyclops, and this is Storm, Wolverine, Iceman, Pyro, Jubilee, Colossus, Shadowcat, and, well, Jean."

Jean gave a small smile. "My old codename was terrible," she explained, "And I haven't been able to settle on anything I like."

Gambit nodded, trying to get all the names straight in his mind. Storm patted his arm. "It will be fine, Gambit," she said softly. "We will save Rogue."

As the X-Men went towards the X-Jet, Wolverine noticed all the sympathetic looks and words of encouragement the team was giving Gambit. What did they know about this guy, or his relationship to Marie? Jean had said she didn't sense any threat from him, and that he did genuinely care for Rogue, but Wolverine still didn't trust him. Sure, Remy had said he wasn't her boyfriend, but Wolverine didn't believe that. Not that it mattered. They'd save Marie, and then she'd be his again. Wolverine knew this Remy character would stand no chance up against him. Marie would forget about Remy as quickly as she had about Bobby.

Wolverine smiled as he strapped himself into the jet. They'd save the world again—and Marie—and then he'd have her back for good.

*** *** ***

Rogue tried to drown out the sounds of terror and death that seemed to be all around her. She couldn't tell where she was, but she knew something horrible was taking place. She kept pleading with herself to wake up, to make this all a dream, but she knew it was horrifically real.

She was even more certain that she was going to die than the first time Magneto captured her, when she was seventeen. Then, she had been afraid, but somehow she'd known that Wolverine would save her.

She didn't know that this time. Wolverine didn't even know she was there, and if he did, why would he care? He'd probably gone off to Canada somewhere to work out his aggressions in a cage or a bed. Or both.

Rogue kept thinking about the last time she'd seen Remy. She hated to imagine what Sabretooth must've done to him. He was probably dead, she decided, and it was all her fault. She couldn't forget the way he'd looked when he'd asked her to be with him, to tell him that he was what she wanted. She hated herself for leaving that night, for not just staying in his arms. At least she would've had more time with him before…

Marie didn't even want to think about it anymore. She buried her face in her hands and cried.

*** *** ***

"So, Gambit, what do you do?" Kitty asked, trying to break the uneasy silence in the X-Jet on the flight to Washington.

"Like as a job ya mean?"

"Yeah."

"I'm a t'ief."

The X-Men all gave him these little, shocked glances, and Logan made a sound that could best be described as a disapproving growl. "Oh," Kitty said softly, obviously embarrassed she'd asked.

"So how do you know Rogue anyway?" Bobby asked, curious about how his former fiancée could have ended up with a Cajun thief.

"She was a waitress at a place I go to a lot," Remy said.

Logan growled again. "Marie's been waitin' tables?"

"She liked her job," Remy said.

"She did, Logan," Jean said.

"How do you know that, Jeannie?" Logan asked.

"Because I've been in regular communication with Rogue ever since she left," Jean said.

Logan had figured that Jean had known where Rogue was, since she had had her number after all, but he hadn't thought that Jean had known that much about what Rogue was up to. Why didn't she tell him? Did she know how badly he wanted to find Marie?

"You knew Rogue was workin' in some dive, waitin' on men like him and you didn't do anything about it?" Logan asked Jean.

Jean sighed, exasperated. "If I had thought that what you're implying was the case—which I know it wasn't—I would've attempted to convince Rogue to come back to the mansion, but even if I had seen the need to do that, it would've been a waste of my time seeing as she is an adult and capable of making her own decisions."

Logan didn't say anything, but the look he gave Remy convinced the younger man that Wolverine would kill him in a heartbeat if given the chance.

They made the rest of the trip in silence.

*** *** ***

"So do we have any idea where they're keeping Rogue?" Iceman asked.

"Well, I'd have to go for the Capitol Building, seeing as the top is ripped off, and somethin' that looks a lot like that machine Magneto had on Liberty Island is there," Wolverine said. Iceman gave him a dirty look.

"Hold on everyone, I'm putting her down," Cyclops said.

Everyone held on to the arms of their seats until their knuckles were white, and Gambit decided to take a clue from them. Cyclops set the plane down, and the whole cabin shook. "He's not the best at landings," Jean whispered to Gambit.

"Uh, again, sorry," Cyclops said. Gambit couldn't help but smile a little. There was something about these people that made them strange, and yet so normal at the same time.

Cyclops unhooked himself from the pilots seat and stood up, turning around to face the other X-Men. "Okay team, presumably Magneto is based in the Capitol Building. We break in, find Rogue, get her out, and destroy Magneto's mutation machine. All reports at this point say that the military has been mobilized to take out the troops Magneto has gathered, but I believe if we can weaken him here, we can help prevent this from escalating into a full-scale human versus mutant war."

The X-Men all looked at him and nodded, their faces grave with determination. "All right team, move out," Cyclops said.

The X-Men moved on Cyclops's command, using the cover of night to sneak towards the Capitol. Gambit was amazed at how well they moved as a team, seeming more like a single entity than individuals. Even Wolverine seemed in sync with the group.

Once they reached their destination, they found themselves faced with Magneto's guards. At the sight of the X-Men, the guards began to fire. Colossus stood in front of his teammates blocking the bullets. Iceman froze the ground under their feet, causing the guards to slip. Jean sent out a telepathic bolt and finished the job, knocking them all unconscious.

"Well, that was relatively easy," Jubilee said.

"Makes me realize why people always say 'a lil' too easy' in movies…" Gambit muttered.

"Door's locked," Cyclops said. He started to blast it in, but Gambit stopped him.

"Non, dat will make too much noise. Let me do it."

"Quickly, Gambit," Cyclops conceded, stepping away.

Gambit pulled a set of lock-picks from his duster and quickly got the door open. "Um, you just broke into the Capitol Building in less than a minute," Jubilee pointed out.

Gambit shrugged. "Like I said, petite, I'm a t'ief—an' a good one at dat."

"Right now, I'm glad you are," Jean said. "That was amazing." Gambit winked at her, and she blushed. Scott bristled.

"So are we going in or not?" Pyro asked.

"We're going in," Cyclops said. "Keep alert."

Inside, the Capitol was in shambles. Wolverine ran his fingers over a set of five marks on one of the walls. "Sabretooth's handiwork," he said.

"Is he de big one wit' all de hair?" Gambit asked.

"I take it you've made his acquaintance," Wolverine said sarcastically.

"He's de reason I couldn't save Rogue," Gambit explained.

"I was able to save her once after fighting him and sticking my own claws through my chest," Wolverine said.

"Boys, behave," Jean scolded. Gambit noticed how quickly Wolverine's temper fizzled when Jean talked to him.

"Wonder if de Wolverine's got a soft spot for de femme," Gambit mused.

"So where do you think they're keeping Rogue?" Shadowcat asked.

As if on cue, a scream tore through the room. "That was her," Wolverine said.

Gambit turned pale. "She's in pain," he said.

Without another word, the X-Men ran towards the direction of the scream.

*** *** ***

"I told you, I can control my powers now," Rogue said, tears in her eyes.

"Well then stop controlling them, child," Magneto ordered.

"Never. I'll die before I'll let ya use me to kill all those people."

"Have it your way. Mystique, convince her."

"With pleasure," Mystique replied. She pulled out a small gun and shot Rogue in the leg. Rogue screamed and fell to the ground, clutching her leg in pain.

Magneto knelt down in front of her. "Have you changed your mind? You'd be amazed how many places you can be shot without dying—right away."

Rogue spit in his face. Magneto stood up, wiping his cheek. "Have it your way now, but in the end I will have my way."

Fresh tears were pouring down Rogue's cheeks as she held onto her leg, desperately trying to make the pain go away. "I won't give you what you want. And I know I'll just die in that machine of yours anyway, so why should I give in?"

"My dear, if you give in, then you'll be sacrificing your life for all of our kind. If you chose to make me kill you here, well, you'll just be dying a senseless death, and I know you don't want to do that."

"Burn in hell, bastard."

"Mystique, shoot the other leg."

Mystique drew her weapon, but before she had a chance, something flew across the room and knocked the gun from her hand. "I don't t'ink so," Gambit said from the doorway.

Rogue looked up. "Remy!" she exclaimed, her pain momentarily forgotten at the sight of him—alive.

The other X-Men stepped out of the shadows, ready to fight. Sabretooth stood beside Mystique and growled.

Logan looked over at Marie. She was so happy to see Gambit that she didn't even notice Wolverine was there, and that hit him hard. Suddenly, he caught the scent of something frighteningly familiar. He sniffed the air. Blood. Marie's blood. "Rogue's been hurt," he said.

Jean broke her way to the front and ran to Rogue, telekinetically throwing Sabretooth across the room when he tried to stop her.

"Rogue, what happened," Jean asked.

"I've been shot," Rogue replied, wincing in pain. "In the leg."

Jean took a look at the injury. "We have to get you out of here."

"How?" Rogue asked. "I doubt they're exactly just gonna let us walk outta here."

Jean looked up at the battle that had just broken out, and realized Rogue was right. Magneto had obviously alerted his followers, and a small band of them had come up, joining Mystique and Sabretooth in the task of protecting their leader. Jean ripped off a part of Rogue's slacks and tied it around her wound. "Here, keep pressure on the wound and try to slow down the bleeding. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

Rogue nodded. "Thanks, Jean."

Jean went to join in the battle, and Rogue watched from the sidelines, wishing there was something she could do to help. Suddenly, she felt herself pulled up off the ground.

"I can see Wolverine wanted with you, frail," Sabretooth said as he held Rogue out in front of him. He caressed her body with his eyes, licking his lips.

"Put me down," Rogue pleaded, the pain in her leg amplifying.

Sabretooth just snarled, rubbing her cheek with his claws.

"Pardon moi, Monsieur Chat," Gambit said, coming up behind Sabretooth. "But I believe you better put de femme down 'fore I have t'kill you."

Sabretooth wheeled around to face Gambit, throwing Rogue down and making her scream in anguish. She hit the ground clutching her leg and whimpering, fresh tears stinging her eyes.

Sabretooth roared, but Gambit stood his ground, ready to lay down his life for Rogue if need be. Sabretooth swung one of his massive paws towards Gambit, but Gambit moved with uncanny speed.

"Missed me," Gambit taunted.

Sabretooth bellowed and charged towards Gambit, who pulled three cards from his duster, charged them, and threw them at Sabretooth, hitting him in the eyes. Sabretooth roared and began to swing blindly at Gambit, who blocked him with ease. But as Sabretooth's eyes healed and his eyesight returned, he began to strike with better aim, and Gambit felt himself tiring. He threw more cards at Sabretooth, but they seemed to just be bouncing off him as Sabretooth became too angry to feel the pain anymore.

Suddenly, Sabretooth's claws connected with Gambit's abdomen. Gambit sunk to the ground. He touched his stomach, then looked at his hands and saw them covered with his own blood. He faintly heard Rogue scream his name, but all he could focus on was the pain. Sabretooth stood over him, ready to strike the killing blow. Gambit prepared himself for death, but it never came. Instead, Sabretooth froze for a moment, and to Gambit it looked as if his veins were popping out of his skin. Then, he fell to the ground.

Rogue ran to Gambit, her leg now healed from the powers she'd borrowed from Sabretooth. She'd pushed his angry voice to the back of her mind, ignoring the borrowed-urge to kill Remy. Instead, she pulled him to her, cradling him in her arms.  He was making little noises of pain, and Rogue felt her heart breaking. "You're gonna be all right," she said soothingly, brushing his hair back from his forehead. "You're gonna be just fine."

Remy smiled at her the best he could, not having the strength to say anything. He coughed, and Rogue noticed blood was coming from his mouth. "Oh God, Remy, please don't die," she begged, her tears forming anew. "Please. I love you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but it's true. I love you…"

Remy just nodded as his eyes closed.

Rogue felt panic grip her. "Remy—no. Wake up, please, just wake up." He didn't stir. "Jean!" she started screaming. "Jean!!!"

Jean came as soon as she could. "What happened?" she asked.

Rogue gestured to Gambit. "Sabretooth got him," she explained. "I stopped him from killing Remy—touched him—but—oh God, Jean, is he dead?"

Jean took hold of Remy's wrist. "He still has a pulse," she said after a moment. "It's weak, but it's there. We need to get him out of here, though. He's fading fast."

Rogue tried to stay as calm as possible, knowing that freaking out wouldn't help Remy at all. "What should I do?"

"Stay with him. Make sure no one gets him. Can you do that?"

Rogue nodded.

"Good. Hopefully, this will all be over soon. The army's down there, fighting Magneto's people, and Scott's trying to get through to the machine so he can blast it," Jean took Rogue's hand and gave it a light squeeze. "It's all going to be okay. I won't let Gambit die."

"Thank you."

Jean nodded and ran back to the battle.

*** *** ***

Wolverine caught the sight of Rogue from the corner of his eye. She was holding a blood-covered Gambit in her arms, crying and murmuring things to him that Wolverine couldn't hear over the din of the battle. Wolverine felt a surge of possessive anger. Marie was his. He would get her back, no matter what it took.

Wolverine snapped to attention when he felt someone kick him hard in the stomach. He recoiled, then looked up to see Mystique staring at him with a look of perverse glee in her eyes. His claws shot from his hands, and he lunged at her, ready to finish what he'd started years earlier. Mystique stood her ground, and right before he plunged his claws into her, she morphed into Rogue, making Wolverine stop in his tracks.

"Why don't ya kill me now, sugah?" Mystique asked, mimicking Rogue's accent perfectly.

"Don't do that…" Wolverine said, trying to keep his tone from being pleading. The Wolverine did not beg—especially not from the likes of Mystique.

"Why not?" she asked, reaching up to stroke his cheek. "Bring up too many memories for you, Logan? I know you can see her over there, crying over another man, holding him to her chest. You wish that was you, don't you? You probably wouldn't even mind being in pain if it meant that Rogue cried those tears for you."

"You're pushin' it, Mystique," Wolverine warned. "You may look like her, but I know you're not, and I would hesitate to kill you."

"You're hesitating now," Mystique purred.

Wolverine snarled and impaled her stomach, the same way he had the first time they had faced off. For a moment, it was Marie's eyes looking up at him, full of pain and pleas, and the image tore at his heart. Mystique sunk to the floor, back in her blue form, and Wolverine shook his head, trying to clear that horrible image of Marie with his claws in her gut from his mind.

It reminded him so much of when she'd tried to stop his nightmare on their first night at the mansion—a memory he wished would fade with all the ones that had been stolen from him.

Wolverine heard an explosion and looked to see that Cyclops had destroyed Magneto's machine. Magneto was lying on the ground a few feet away with Jubilee kicking him while he was down—literally. He could hear her telling him something about the idiocy of messing with one of the X-Men, and how if he did it again she would personally kill him.

As much as Jubilee annoyed Wolverine, he had to admit she had spunk.

"Fall out, X-Men!" Cyclops yelled as Magneto's machine went up in smoke. Most of Magneto's troops were down, and the ones that weren't couldn't ignore defeat. Below the Capitol, a battle still raged, but the X-Men knew that wasn't there place. They'd come to stop Magneto himself, and they'd done that. The army could handle the rest.

Jubilee gave Magneto one more kick before running out with the others. Colossus went over to Rogue and picked up Gambit to carry him out. Wolverine heard Marie plead with Colossus to be careful with Remy, and Logan tried to ignore the sharp pang in his heart. Instead, he just made sure that everyone was out safely before following the team to the X-Jet.

*** *** ***

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