"Hunh?" Gambit sat up, looked around, and rubbed his head. "Where Gambit
be?" A soft pink mist made it impossible to look more than a few feet. The
mist seemed to be self-illuminating.
"This is heaven." A voice answered.
Gambit turned in the direction of the voice. "Remedy?" He called.
"X-Man heaven anyway." The voice continued.
"Rem?" He asked again, beginning to loose hope.
"Yes Gambit, I'm here." The man stepped out of the mists. He wore small round glasses and his hair short around his face.
"What's Gambit doin 'ere?" He became worried. "You say we could put it all back the way it belong."
"No worries my friend" The author spoke in a tone smoother and more soothing than he was capable of in real life. "I just wanted you to see something." And the author pointed in to the distance beyond Gambit, making him turn yet again.
There were several beings in the mists coming toward them.
"Marie!" Gambit knew her at once and rushed forward to greet her. He threw his arms around her and pressed his face to hers. "I thought I'd never get to touch you again." He raised his head to see the other figures, as they became clear.
"Kids!" He breathed, reaching wildly and pulling them to him. "I thought you would be gone now. De story, she' over." He explained.
"No worries dad." His daughter smiled.
"Your friend brought us here instead." His son smiled at him. "And we'll be waiting here when it's you time to come to us for real Dad."
"Bu' Wha' about Marie?" He held her close. "When da real Rogue come to heaven?"
"Ah'm a piece of her Remy." She smoothed the hair away from his forehead. "We'll come together like two drops of water." She tapped the end of his nose with her finger.
"But you won' love me no more?" He looked crestfallen.
"I'm the part of her that always loves you Remy." She smiled at him. Her last look at the man she loves. "And if nothing else, she'll know what you were willing to do, for me, for the kids, for everyone."
Remy turned toward The Author again.
"Gambit, he never ask fo' dis much." He looked imploringly. "Gambit jus' had to know."
"Did you find out what you wanted to know?" The Author asked.
Gambit nodded in thought for a minute before he visibly brightened. "Gambit did it!" He grinned wildly like a madman. He hadn't noticed when his family had vanished but he could feel the time growing late around them. "Gambit did it!" He called out to the vast reaches of heaven. "All on his own!" The noise refused to echo and just kept going.
"Was it everything you wanted?" The Author asked.
"Jus' a chance to see if I could a don it right. To live like a free man and see if I 'till a good one." He nodded again. "To see if Gambit's love be jus as good as anyones." He smiled grimly, as it was now over. "Ever'tin' I ask fo'." He agreed.
"Now don't forget me." The Author told him.
"No worries mon ami!" Gambit went to wave but instead sat bolt upright in bed. Echoing through his mind were the words "And no one remembered a bit of it except Gambit all the days of their lives."
And as a result, the Marvel universe re-raveled itself quite nicely.
He pulled on his robe to ward off the chill and started down the hall towards breakfast.
"Mail for you Gambit." Scott was sitting at the table sipping his coffee. He gestured to the slim little brown Fan Fic package on the table. Gambit snatched it up and tore it open.
Scott went to take a sip of his coffee.
"Wha' time you all tink it be?" Gambit asked, poking his head around the edge of the one page story he was to star in.
Scott turned his wrist, looked at his watch and spilled his coffee in to his lap.
"Man!" Scott jumped up, sopping through his robe and his pajama bottoms.
"Sorry Mon Ami, I don write 'em, I jus de 'tar" And Gambit handed him the paper which read:
Gambit asks Scott for the time and Scott spills his drink on himself.
"Was this one more to your liking then?" Scott asked, pulling napkins out of the cupboard.
"A few more like dis and I quit de professional field entirely." Gambit smiled.
"Whatever." Jubilee pushed past him, headed for the Orange juice.
EPILOGUE:
Gambit sat quietly in his room with his new laptop.
He wrote:
Remedy=Chill was sitting at his computer when suddenly all he became aware of a slight tingling in his forehead. He closed his eyes and could see the idea of mutancy in the human beings of his own world. It floated like a great jewel in his mind. It pulsed with swirling patterns of colored energy. Instinctively he knew that if he were to touch it, to raise his arm and bring his fingers to his forehead, then the idea would be free. It would tear around his world like a plasma fire until it was no longer the world he knew.
He could make out the shape of his hand through his closed eyes. He saw it rise and reach. He felt his cool dry fingers touch his forehead and for a moment, nothing happened.
Suddenly, he felt an electric current flowing between his fingers and the idea. His head threw itself back and the idea surged with an almost infinite power. Suddenly the idea broke free and like the beam of a great lighthouse it tore up in to the sky above his home.
The idea fractured and splintered and broke away from itself, raining bits of sparkling and swirling colored energy down in to the minds of his fellow men and women across the planet. Of course this all happened on an astral level. No one noticed except Remedy.
And when the idea was finished, and it had fully escaped in to this new world, Remedy too forgot all about it.
And just a few months later we find him.
His business had been doing well. He was buying a new house. His telepathic abilities were as strong as ever and he felt good.
He stepped on the gas and felt the sleek little sports car lunge forward under his command.
It had been months since the world's psychic abilities had reemerged en mass. All the telepaths and empaths began halting wars around the world because they couldn't handle the emotional and psychic backlash.
Industry and innovation were flourishing. Everyone's new abilities gave us vast new resources and insights in to the world around us. Remedy could feel the world as it teetered on a great new age of discovery and exploration.
Sure there was the occasional frightened person, still in denial about the truth, and the world, and the natural path of mutation.
But none of that seemed to matter to Remedy at the moment. He stood up on the gas pedal so that he was looking above the small convertibles windshield, letting it sweep his hair away from his face.
The last few months had been a blur. The operation that made his glasses a memory, the mad changes in the world that somehow he found to be of comfort. Had it all been just a metaphoric moment ago?
And he almost absently turned on the radio. It was the Rolling Stones singing Sympathy for the Devil. He turned it up and sang as loudly and off key as he liked.
"Pleased to meeeeeeeet you!" He howled out loud. "Hope you guess myyyyyy name!"
And he sped of in to the distance into a strange new world, without a clue in sight, that he was also the cause.
"But what's been puzzeling you, it's just the nature of my game. I mean it. Get down now."
Suddenly Jubilee burst in to the room. "Gambit. Mails here. You've got fanfic." She tossed a few short stories on to his bed.
"Tank's petite." He waved back.
He hit upload and watched his story vanishing in to the great network beyond. A story that was being written in real time, not over the past. A story that need never be rewritten. A story that would exist as truth forever.
"What'cha doin'? She asked.
"Jus' upload da story to nonfiction.net." He told her. "Between de spell and grammar checkers, Gambit almos' speakin' English!"
She smiled broadly. "So I guess you're in the alternate universe mood hunh?" She smirked. "The top ones called Return to the North Pole."
He looked dead serious for a moment until he looked down at it himself. It was called simply "The Thief".
"Jubilee." His tone was one of warning and a card sprang to his fingers, crackling with energy.
She let off a mocking shriek and took off down the hall.
"This is heaven." A voice answered.
Gambit turned in the direction of the voice. "Remedy?" He called.
"X-Man heaven anyway." The voice continued.
"Rem?" He asked again, beginning to loose hope.
"Yes Gambit, I'm here." The man stepped out of the mists. He wore small round glasses and his hair short around his face.
"What's Gambit doin 'ere?" He became worried. "You say we could put it all back the way it belong."
"No worries my friend" The author spoke in a tone smoother and more soothing than he was capable of in real life. "I just wanted you to see something." And the author pointed in to the distance beyond Gambit, making him turn yet again.
There were several beings in the mists coming toward them.
"Marie!" Gambit knew her at once and rushed forward to greet her. He threw his arms around her and pressed his face to hers. "I thought I'd never get to touch you again." He raised his head to see the other figures, as they became clear.
"Kids!" He breathed, reaching wildly and pulling them to him. "I thought you would be gone now. De story, she' over." He explained.
"No worries dad." His daughter smiled.
"Your friend brought us here instead." His son smiled at him. "And we'll be waiting here when it's you time to come to us for real Dad."
"Bu' Wha' about Marie?" He held her close. "When da real Rogue come to heaven?"
"Ah'm a piece of her Remy." She smoothed the hair away from his forehead. "We'll come together like two drops of water." She tapped the end of his nose with her finger.
"But you won' love me no more?" He looked crestfallen.
"I'm the part of her that always loves you Remy." She smiled at him. Her last look at the man she loves. "And if nothing else, she'll know what you were willing to do, for me, for the kids, for everyone."
Remy turned toward The Author again.
"Gambit, he never ask fo' dis much." He looked imploringly. "Gambit jus' had to know."
"Did you find out what you wanted to know?" The Author asked.
Gambit nodded in thought for a minute before he visibly brightened. "Gambit did it!" He grinned wildly like a madman. He hadn't noticed when his family had vanished but he could feel the time growing late around them. "Gambit did it!" He called out to the vast reaches of heaven. "All on his own!" The noise refused to echo and just kept going.
"Was it everything you wanted?" The Author asked.
"Jus' a chance to see if I could a don it right. To live like a free man and see if I 'till a good one." He nodded again. "To see if Gambit's love be jus as good as anyones." He smiled grimly, as it was now over. "Ever'tin' I ask fo'." He agreed.
"Now don't forget me." The Author told him.
"No worries mon ami!" Gambit went to wave but instead sat bolt upright in bed. Echoing through his mind were the words "And no one remembered a bit of it except Gambit all the days of their lives."
And as a result, the Marvel universe re-raveled itself quite nicely.
He pulled on his robe to ward off the chill and started down the hall towards breakfast.
"Mail for you Gambit." Scott was sitting at the table sipping his coffee. He gestured to the slim little brown Fan Fic package on the table. Gambit snatched it up and tore it open.
Scott went to take a sip of his coffee.
"Wha' time you all tink it be?" Gambit asked, poking his head around the edge of the one page story he was to star in.
Scott turned his wrist, looked at his watch and spilled his coffee in to his lap.
"Man!" Scott jumped up, sopping through his robe and his pajama bottoms.
"Sorry Mon Ami, I don write 'em, I jus de 'tar" And Gambit handed him the paper which read:
Gambit asks Scott for the time and Scott spills his drink on himself.
"Was this one more to your liking then?" Scott asked, pulling napkins out of the cupboard.
"A few more like dis and I quit de professional field entirely." Gambit smiled.
"Whatever." Jubilee pushed past him, headed for the Orange juice.
EPILOGUE:
Gambit sat quietly in his room with his new laptop.
He wrote:
Remedy=Chill was sitting at his computer when suddenly all he became aware of a slight tingling in his forehead. He closed his eyes and could see the idea of mutancy in the human beings of his own world. It floated like a great jewel in his mind. It pulsed with swirling patterns of colored energy. Instinctively he knew that if he were to touch it, to raise his arm and bring his fingers to his forehead, then the idea would be free. It would tear around his world like a plasma fire until it was no longer the world he knew.
He could make out the shape of his hand through his closed eyes. He saw it rise and reach. He felt his cool dry fingers touch his forehead and for a moment, nothing happened.
Suddenly, he felt an electric current flowing between his fingers and the idea. His head threw itself back and the idea surged with an almost infinite power. Suddenly the idea broke free and like the beam of a great lighthouse it tore up in to the sky above his home.
The idea fractured and splintered and broke away from itself, raining bits of sparkling and swirling colored energy down in to the minds of his fellow men and women across the planet. Of course this all happened on an astral level. No one noticed except Remedy.
And when the idea was finished, and it had fully escaped in to this new world, Remedy too forgot all about it.
And just a few months later we find him.
His business had been doing well. He was buying a new house. His telepathic abilities were as strong as ever and he felt good.
He stepped on the gas and felt the sleek little sports car lunge forward under his command.
It had been months since the world's psychic abilities had reemerged en mass. All the telepaths and empaths began halting wars around the world because they couldn't handle the emotional and psychic backlash.
Industry and innovation were flourishing. Everyone's new abilities gave us vast new resources and insights in to the world around us. Remedy could feel the world as it teetered on a great new age of discovery and exploration.
Sure there was the occasional frightened person, still in denial about the truth, and the world, and the natural path of mutation.
But none of that seemed to matter to Remedy at the moment. He stood up on the gas pedal so that he was looking above the small convertibles windshield, letting it sweep his hair away from his face.
The last few months had been a blur. The operation that made his glasses a memory, the mad changes in the world that somehow he found to be of comfort. Had it all been just a metaphoric moment ago?
And he almost absently turned on the radio. It was the Rolling Stones singing Sympathy for the Devil. He turned it up and sang as loudly and off key as he liked.
"Pleased to meeeeeeeet you!" He howled out loud. "Hope you guess myyyyyy name!"
And he sped of in to the distance into a strange new world, without a clue in sight, that he was also the cause.
"But what's been puzzeling you, it's just the nature of my game. I mean it. Get down now."
Suddenly Jubilee burst in to the room. "Gambit. Mails here. You've got fanfic." She tossed a few short stories on to his bed.
"Tank's petite." He waved back.
He hit upload and watched his story vanishing in to the great network beyond. A story that was being written in real time, not over the past. A story that need never be rewritten. A story that would exist as truth forever.
"What'cha doin'? She asked.
"Jus' upload da story to nonfiction.net." He told her. "Between de spell and grammar checkers, Gambit almos' speakin' English!"
She smiled broadly. "So I guess you're in the alternate universe mood hunh?" She smirked. "The top ones called Return to the North Pole."
He looked dead serious for a moment until he looked down at it himself. It was called simply "The Thief".
"Jubilee." His tone was one of warning and a card sprang to his fingers, crackling with energy.
She let off a mocking shriek and took off down the hall.