A/N: Hey! Ok, so this fic came to me at about 1am while I was sitting in my room watching informercials. It is loosely based upon the trailer for the new Vin Diesel movie "A Man Apart" and takes place very AU.
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Rogue or Gambit or any of the X-Men. They are properties of Marvel Comics and Stan "The Man" Lee. I am just playing with them and promise to put them back when I'm finished. ;)
Plot: A rather dark (for me) story about Rogue and Gambit. Yes, someone gets killed (not too graphic) and the other goes thru a tough decision.
Enjoy!
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It should never have come to this….
Remy LeBeau, also called Gambit, sank slowly to his knees in front of the fresh grave. A light sprinkling of rain fell on the graveyard, turning the sky gray and running down the marble headstones like tears down a cheek.
Gambit reached down and took a handful of the damp earth in his fist. He sank his hand deeply in, as if searching for something buried in the moist soil. He let the cold, moist earth squeeze between his fist, sprinkling out from between his fingers.
"Rogue…chere…damn…" he began, stopping to wipe the tears that stung in the corners of his eyes. He took a deep breath to calm himself before he ventured to continue.
"Rogue…I'm sorry….." He dropped his head in shame, afraid to even face her headstone. The etched stone a horrifying reality that Rogue, his love, his life, was really gone. That she was there, beneath the cold ground and the wreaths of flowers, their sympathetic ribbons hanging limply in the rain.
This should never have happened…he had wanted to go on the mission alone. It was a simple plan, or so he thought, just a routine reconnaissance mission, to check on the possibility of a Mutant Hate Organization. But Rogue insisted that she go along. She convinced Cyclops that she would be an asset to the mission, but Gambit knew in his heart that she just wanted to be able to spend some time with him, alone, and away from the chaos and distractions at the Mansion. Cyclops finally relented, so Rogue and Gambit, alone at last, set off on their journey. Laughter and conversation filled the air as they traveled. If only they had known the horrific events that would take place later.
The building was silent and dark as they approached the wrought iron fence surrounding it. At first glance, it would have seemed that no one had been there in a very long time. When Rogue pointed this out, Gambit showed her the lock and chain slung across the gate. They were brand new and would be easily manipulated at the hands of a very skilled Cajun Thief.
Rogue looked on, almost proudly, as Gambits deft fingers quickly turned the tumblers in the lock, causing it to fall away and allowing them access to the perimeter.
They were nearly ten feet away when all of a sudden, FLASH!
Bright lights! Barking Dogs! Alarms sounding! Men yelling. Men in gray uniforms began pouring into the yard by the dozens, surrounding them with military precision. Above all the din, Gambit sensed Rogue tense for battle. He did as well, slipping a deck of playing cards from his jacket pocket and withdrawing his collapsable stave.
But this was not like any regular hate group they had fought before. As they shadows grew nearer, Gambit recognized a patch on a uniform of one of the men. The patch was that of the Genoshian mutant front, a false "mutant utopia" that had captured and forced mutants into slavery. Not too long ago, Gambit had been one of their prisoners. But Rogue and the rest of the X-Men had come to the rescue, destroying the Genoshian stronghold and freeing the imprisoned Mutants. But at the sight of the Genoshian logos, the feelings and memories of being surpressed and beaten came rushing back to Gambit.
"Remy….." Gambit heard Rogue's voice waver. She too had apparently recognized the uniforms. For her, the feelings were somewhat muddled. She had not been imprisoned, but she still had hated what they had done to Gambit, and her fellow mutants. But she was torn as well, for the Genoshians had created a device that could surpress a mutant's power. For a mutant such as Rogue, unable to touch anyone, the appeal of control and the irony that it would come from someone who hated her kind both disgusted her, as well as tore her up inside.
As the men grew even nearer, Gambit caught of flash of round metal in one of their attackers hands. At first Gambit mistook it for a gun and he readied a card, the Ace of Spades, at his fingertips. But at another glance, his stomach turned as he recognized one of the mutant control collars.
Just as he opened his mouth to warn Rogue, he was hit by a powerful blast that caught in him in the back shoulder and sent him sprawling to the ground. He blacked out, but only for a minute. He came to as Rogue screamed his name. He rolled over and groaned, catching sight of Rogue making her way to him while fending off the mass of soldiers.
"Looks like we'll need some help after all." He thought, pressing the emergency communicator button that was concealed in his belt buckle, before turning his attention back to his beloved.
Rogue was preoccupied fighting the soldiers, she failed to see one of the men sneaking up behind her with a control collar, open and ready to be clamped around her neck. Gambit opened his mouth to yell to her, but only a dry raspy gasp escaped his lips. He struggled to rise as the man caught Rogue by surprise, clamping the collar around her neck as she spun and punched him square in the chest. The man flew a few feet and landed with a thud. He did not rise.
Rogue's eyes went wild as she clawed desperately at the collar. Without her powers, she could not break the strong metal bond. But she did not try long, because she knew that these collars also came equipped with a dead-man's switch. The instant she tried to remove it, it would detonate an explosive device within the collar. Without her powers, she would not survive the blast.
The men attacking her ceased, apparently figuring that she was no longer a threat. A man stepped forward to snap on a pair of handcuffs and was rewarded with a sharp jab to his voicebox. The man choked and fell to the ground as a few of his buddies rushed forward to attend to him.
"Hmph," Rogue thought smugly, "I may not have my powers, but at least I'm not completely helpless." She whirled to face the rest of the men, who now continued their advance.
"Anybody else?!" She asked, tauntingly.
A man at the front raised his gun, when suddenly a cry went thru the yard
"Fall back!"
The men instantly began to retreat, running for any cover they could find. It took Rogue a minute to figure out why, but when she looked in the sky, she could not help but grin.
The X-Men's customized SR-71 Blackbird hovered in the sky above the complex. Its spotlights whirled wildly about the ground, seeking out the men who had attacked Gambit and Rogue.
Gambit had managed to crawl closer to the house and away from the stampeding men. He leaned against it as he probed his injured shoulder. White hot pain spread from it as he did, and black spots danced in front of his vision, causing him to nearly black out. He blinked once to steady his vision and after he did, he found himself staring down the barrel of a semi-automatic pistol.
He looked up to find himself looking at a man who' face he had almost mercifully forgotton. A tall, very muscular man, with cold gray eyes,and the sinister sneer that curled his lip. The only difference was the scar, which ran down the length of his face, cutting thru his eyebrow and continuing down his cheek. But scar or not, Gambit would always have recognized those eyes. They were the eyes of the warden, the man who had tortured him on Genosha.
"You…" Gambit practically whispered, feelings of despair creeping up on him.
The warden laughed, a cruel and evil laugh. "You remembered….how touching." He sneered at Gambit, the gun never wavering from its spot, aimed between Gambit's red-on-black eyes. "I'm surprised to remember me, after you left me to die."
The cell which Gambit had been kept had been mercifully smashed to bits by Rogue's super powered fists. The rest of the cells had not been able to take the pressure of the battle that raged above it. Gambit remembered clinging to Rogue as she bore him off into the sky, and him taking a look at the jail as it crumbled and seeing the warden crumble along with it, buried under tons of cement, steel, and concrete.
"But you see, I have survived….Genosha has survived," he gestured with his free hand to the chaos around them. "Genosha can never be stopped while it still has its loyalties live on."
The warden pressed a boot into Gambit's injured shoulder, sending waves of intense pain thru the Cajun's body. He struggled not too, but finally let out a blood-curdling cry of pain as the warden ground his heel deeper into the wound.
"I've been dreaming of this day a long time, mutant." The warden said calmly, chambering a round into his gun. "I've saved one bullet, and it's all for you.
"See you in hell, mutant." The Warden smiled.
Gambit squeezed his eyes shut, unable to move or concentrate enough to charge something. But as he closed his eyes, a strange calm washed over him, and he found himself thinking of Rogue.
"I love you, chere."
CRACK! The gunshot echoed off the building wall. Gambit's eyes flew open to find Rogue, still collared, with both of her hands wrapped around the warden's gun hand. She struggled to wrestle the gun away from the powerful warden, but to no avail. Without her powers, she wasn't strong enough to keep the gun in control. In desperation, she jumped in front of the warden, trying to use her smaller stature as leverage. A horrible scenario of someone being shot flew thru Gambit's head as he rose, struggling to his feet.
"Rogue!" he cried desperately, fearing for her safety.
The momentary lapse in her fight proved to be all the warden needed. He yanked the gun down and sideways, and for a frightening moment, disappeared between the two of them as they fought for control. Suddenly the gun went off…..and a strange silence filled the air.
No one moved, no one breathed. What was only a few seconds turned into hours as everything seemed to move in slow motion.
Rogue moved first, dropping her hands and stumbling back a step. A red stain was visible on the warden's shirt as she moved. She stumbled back further as Gambit rushed up to meet her, ignoring the pain in his arm. He came up behind and her spun her around to face him.
"Rogue, are you…." The question died on his lips as he saw the dark red stain spreading across the stomach of her uniform. She pressed a hand to her stomach, looking confused as she pulled it away, stained with her blood. She looked up into Gambit's eyes, which held utter fear.
"Gambit?" she asked quietly, her knees wobbling as they gave out beneath her. Gambit caught her and gently lowered her to the ground, holding her to him.
"Don't move, chere, Gambit will get help." He said, panic rising in his voice. He manuvered out of his coat and pressed it to the wound on her stomach.
"No….don't go….stay with me." Rogue asked, weakly reaching out to clasp his hand.
Gambit brushed back her hair from her face, tracing the curve of her lips with a the back of his knuckle.
"I will." He said simply, fighting to hold back the tears in his eyes. The wound was bad, he could tell by the amount of blood that pooled around them.
"Gambit…" Rogue breathed, weakly coughing, "I'm glad….I'm glad that at least if it had to end like this, at least you're with me. I love you, Remy."
Gambit choked back a sob and clutched Rogue to him even tighter. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling her sweet rose oil perfume.
"I love you too, ma cherie."
But there was no reply. Gambit pulled Rogue back at looked into her face. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing had ceased, he lifted a hand to her throat, manuvering around the damned collar. No pulse. She was gone, slipped away like a thief in the night. Tears now flowed freely down Gambit's cheeks as he lifted a hand to Rogue's face, stroking her cheek. He bent his head and tenderly brought his lips to her forehead. He clutched her tightly, as if fearing to let her go. He was still in that position when the X-Men found him.
The next week passed in a blur for Gambit and most of the other resident's of Xavier's School for the Gifted. Rogue's funeral was held on the cliffs behind the mansion, overlooking the ocean. She had always loved that spot, and could often have been found sitting on a rock, looking out over the deep blue waters. She was buried in the Xavier family plot, where former members of the team also had found their place of eternal rest.
And that's where Gambit sat now, tracing her name over and over with the tip of his finger. The epitaph read "Rogue, 1979-2003, beloved friend and teammate, May she finally be granted the peace she was too often denied in life."
"This isn't right, Rogue." Gambit whispered in anger, "This wasn't your time. We didn't have enough time together. God, I don't know how I'm going to go on without you, chere. Because despite everything that happened, everything we've gone thru, you were there. Even when my world was turned upside down and I didn't know what to do or who to trust, you were there, to guide me, to hold me, to love me. My constant, my touchstone."
He paused to catch his breath, glancing up and blinking in to the rain before he continued his heartfelt outpouring.
"I don't know how I'm going to live without you, chere. But I know what I have to do. Find the person who did this, who took away your light and turned my world to darkness. Maybe you wouldn't approve, maybe you tell me that X-Men don't kill, but I'm doing this for us, because I love you. I just hope that when I get to the otherside, the powers that be realize why I did it. Put in a good word for me, neh? I'll be with you soon enough."
Then Gambit reached into the pocket of his long brown coat and withdrew a single red rose. He raised it deeply to his nose, the sweet smell reminding him of Rogue and how much she had loved roses.
He gently lay the rose at the base of her headstone, giving one last loving caress to the name of his beloved, before rising to his feet.
"I love you, Rogue, but don't watch me now."
And turning, he slowly walked away from the graveyard, a man with a mission of vengeance, for the most important emotion of all. Love.