AN: Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

We're gonna take a moment to thank everyone who bothered to drop us a line!

Personification of Fluff: Us here in Canada only have the first two seasons (I think... three and a half maybe) of Evo, so while everybody else has Gambit speaking or Sentinels and the like, we're just learning that -gasp!- Colossus and Gambit DO exist in this world. Therefore, we didn't know that there was another season until we started writing this story and went online and downloaded episodes. So... in conclusion, that never happened. Kitty, as I learned it anyway, was originally called Sprite.. Maybe Ariel. She takes the name Shadowcat after fighting some sort of a demon. Because it's AU, this never actually happened. She'll take the name eventually though. A certain Russian might help her. Kurt, who I, sadly, know little about, is supposedly a monk at one point. If Kitty's nineteen in this story, that makes him... thirty maybe? I don't really know. Just go on with it.

Carolyn: I have a voice in my head too!!

Ishandahalf, I liked the Scott thing too. -I'm shutting up now.

TheWalrusWasPaul says:

Carolyn: Thank you! You scare me, but thank you.

Ishandahalf: Yes, yes our name is very cool, your name is hard to type, but we love you anyways!(Keep reviewing) And YES YES YES!!! Rogue and Remy are the GREATEST!!! Go obsessions!

Rita: Go us.

Lulu: HA! I knew I wasn't alone in my shouting! '^_^;

Keika: Yes! See he doesn't look cool! What were they thinking?! Aw, wasn't their moment sweet? Aww..fluffy.... WHY DIDN'T SHE DROP THE BLOODY CARD?! GGGGAAHHHHHH!!!!! *Ahem*

Eve: Yeah! Now remember, the first chapter's free, but now that we know you're hooked, we'll have to talk about cost. Yeah that's right, we're the drug dealers of the fanfiction world... give us your soul! MAUWHAHAHAHA!!!!! .....We're only kidding... or that's what we're gonna tell you anyways! :)

Disclaimer: We own nothing, except everything.

Chapter Two: The Jack of Hearts and the Ace of Spades



The once thief, now henchman, known as Gambit flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. Magneto would have his head! His plan was to weaken the girl, then convince her that the X-Men had betrayed her. Then, once the girl was near death from starvation, Magneto would step in with food and tell her that he would help her get revenge on those who had, in her now slightly demented state, betrayed her.

Gambit's role in all this was to make sure she remained in the literal and proverbial dark. He was to guard her cell and keep her from escaping. Easy enough. Magneto knew Gambit would have no problems containing her. There was only one thing he hadn't planned on. Gambit had a conscience.

With a tired sigh, Remy reached into his pocket and pulled out three cards; the ace, king, and queen of hearts. He focussed on them until they became blurry and he was forced to close his eyes.

"What is Remy tinking? Goin' and helpin' dat girl? Dis whole plan be a bad ting. . . ." he muttered to himself, keeping his eyes closed. "Gambit don't want de femme to die. She be one of de most beautiful femmes Remy's seen." He realized what he was saying and sat up, placing his head in his hands. "What am I doin'? Goin' after dat girl! She be an X-Man... one Magneto needs for his plan. De femme won't survive what Magneto has planned. . . ."

He recalled the feel of the girl's body pressed against his. Even with the bars in the way, it had been amazing. He sighed again and reflected on Magneto's plan.

"Dis whole plan be a bad ting... Magneto's a fool to tink peace can come from war. Killin' de normal humans won't solve our problems... dat only makes it worse, turn us into everyt'ng dey say we are."

He sat down with his thoughts jumping from Magneto's plan to Rogue, and back for the rest of the night, until the sun began to rise. Gambit did not know what he had to do. . . .



****



'It's like a wasteland,' Katherine thought. That kind of scared her. After all, she had been there; it made her realize exactly how bad the fight had been. The lights had all been blown, allowing the shadows to creep unchecked into the city streets. All of the buildings had been cleared of even the wandering night shift. Thin walls had been erected, the first signs of the arriving builders who were going to repair the destroyed buildings. The sites had also been deserted, the equipment waiting patiently for the morning.

As eerie as it was, Kitty rather enjoyed the dark streets. It kept her mind noticing the environment pulling itself out of the muck to become dreary servants of the night as opposed to wondering about her friends. She imagined anything would come out and attack her, keeping her senses on high alert.

Bending down, she poked a previously unnoticed piece of green goo. Kitty picked it up with a pair of electrician's pliers. It was rock hard. She furrowed her brows. Why would Magneto use green crap to capture people? He controlled metal, not sticky stuff whose colour rather resembled. . . .

"Of course," she said out loud, cutting her train of thought short. "This is a lot harder to fight than metal. Storm can't electrocute it, and Wolverine can't claw his way out. Heck, depending on what this stuff is made out of, it could even prohibit Professor Xavier's psychic abilities."

Katherine headed towards the large hole in one of the construction sites. The hole had been caused by a gigantic robot. She floated down to gap, hoping the mechanical giant was still there. That was much more her thing. If the sentinel was down there, she would have it apart in no time.

Unfortunately, the hidden base was just as abandoned as everything else. She wasn't even able to determine who had been operating under the construction site. There was no sign of her fellow X-Men, nor Magneto, nor humans. There were computers, but even Kitty couldn't find any information on them. She felt obliged to acknowledge the supreme job somebody had done in deleting the entire computer.

She swore beneath her breath, retracing her path. It wasn't difficult to head back to the giant hole because her footsteps were the only one which encrusted the dusty ground. For having been abandoned less than forty-eight hours ago, whoever had left it had gone to the extreme of making it look like it had been unmanned for years.

Anger crashed down upon her head like on of Lance's avalanches. This was the only lead she had! If the green blob didn't give her any information, then how would she ever find her friend? If the mansion hadn't been destroyed, then perhaps Jean Grey could have risked using Cerebro. . . .

"Could have. Should have. Would have. It doesn't mean much now, does it?" Kitty passed by what could have been some type of a cell block. She stopped, and turned. What had that been?

Leaning so that she could see slightly better, Kitty touched her fingers to the wall. There were claw marks in that wall! Had she been blind she would have known the owner. There were only three claws.

"Wolverine!" She triumphantly jumped up and down. 'Wolverine was here! Does that mean the others were her too?' Her hopes fell. 'Well, even if they were here, they clearly aren't here now.'

Reaching the entrance, she went into her intangible state and began to float. Her molecules were spread so thin she was no longer floating, but actually walking on other molecules. Kitty thought as she slowly made her way to the surface. The lab had been destroyed, and Dr. McCoy had been taken hostage. She needed to try and find a way to analyse the strange new weapon she had found.

Kitty smiled. Had she been the Grinch her hair would have curled until they resembled little horns. The Blackbird had survived. She had learned to drive the Blackbird before she had learned to drive a car. She could head back to the house and steal it, then head to Muir Island and to Dr. McTaggert. Muir Island had the best lab Kitty knew of. 'If Moira can't figure out this green shit. . . .'

Gently floating to the surface, she became solid once more and was almost immediately drenched. It was raining. Kitty held out her hand, catching the fat raindrops.

"Wonderful," she muttered. Water had plastered her hair to her neck, and she had trouble seeing. "Just peachy. This is exactly what I need right now. It's already pitch black. Now it's pitch black and wet."

Turning from the hole, she bumped into something soft. Kitty felt it stop raining. Someone else was out there with her!

A flashlight flickered to life. Blinded only for a second, Kitty's hazel eyes cleared, and her jaw fell open. Standing under an umbrella, she found herself staring at a man that made her heart began to beat in double time.

He seemed a few years older than she, and was astonishingly tall. Katherine's neck was starting to cramp from trying to look him in the eyes. They were a beautiful shade of baby blue. Under his level gaze they seemed emotionless, but there was something about the way he stood or the way he held the umbrella protectively over them both that made Kitty believe his stern face was lying. His shortly trimmed hair was so dark, even in the flashlight's limited rays they held a blue sheen. He had a strong chin which had a small cleft. Broad shouldered, he made Katherine

feel like she really was a kitten.

She tilted her head to the side and closed her mouth. She was so embarrassed about bumping into him that she felt like sinking into the ground, temporarily forgetting that she could. "Do I know you?"

The man said nothing. As they continued to stare at each other, she became mystified. His eyes were slowly turning into pure silver.

Horrified, she covered her mouth with shaking hands. It was like his skin was melting away! Or as if something were climbing over it. In what felt like the blink of an eye, the man's skin had changed. Katherine recalled touching it before, and knew it was indestructible metal. The last time she'd seen this person, she had left him underneath a building.

"You!" she exclaimed, not certain if it came out as an astonished whisper or a shout. He did nothing, just kept looking at herm sheltering them both from the rain with the umbrella. She took an awkward step back, her foot slipped in the mud, and she suddenly realized what was happening. She was going to fall over the cliff.

Her stomach jumped into her throat, keeping back any scream she might have made. Katherine felt the rain hit her, and the world fell away as the metal ground of the hidden base rushed to meet its helpless victim. . . .



****



Peter entered the kitchen and found Gambit sitting draped across a kitchen chair, making his cards go flying from hand to hand in a typical card tycoon's trick. Peter poured himself a small glass of vodka and asked the Cajun what was wrong. Remy only seemed to lounge around playing with his cards when something was troubling him or he was incredibly bored.

Gambit ignored the large Russian for a moment or two, pondering life's questions. Peter was a fairly decent guy, but he was also one of Magneto's henchmen, stuck in the same boat. But had Peter decided to go in that boat, or had he been lured by the same ideals as Gambit?

Little did he know that while he pondered Peter's loyalty to Magneto, the blue eyed mutant was wondering the same thing about Gambit. Only a few days ago, Peter had been ordered to go to the abandoned sentinel base in case any of the X-Men show up to find clues as to their prisoners whereabouts. He'd acquired a seat in a nearby hotel, and sat down to wait, but he didn't have to wait very long. Sure enough, one of the X-babies showed up.

His thoughts drifted from the dining table to that night in the rain. Peter recognized her the moment she turned around and found strange shelter under an unexpected umbrella. From the files Magneto had told his henchmen to memorize, a task Colossus had found incredibly difficult, he had known who she was. Katherine Pryde, nineteen years old, computer genius, with the ability to phase. But when he had stared at her he'd found so many things the file had left out. It didn't say anything about how her eyes seemed to shift from hazel to green or brown, as if they couldn't decide what shade to be. It didn't say anything about how she looked so adorable, or how short she would be compared to him.

But even had he not remembered Katherine from her file, he would have known who she was.

Against his better judgement, he'd changed to his organic steel form. Then he had watched in horror as she went over the edge of the looming hole. He couldn't let her fall!

What else was he supposed to have done?

'What if Gambit knows?'

'What if Colossus knows?'

Gambit shuffled himself a game of solitaire and hunched over them. Although he seemed like he was playing, his mind couldn't focus. Not with her in the cell, starving to death. He tried to think of a way that would allow him to discover the purpose for Colossus being a member of the new Brotherhood, and decided for the direct approach. "Peter, what was it dat made you become one of Magneto's men?"

"Illyana," he quickly answered, smiling as he though of his little sister.

He paused. "Do you believe in what Magneto's offering us, mon ami? Do you believe dat peace can come from war?"

"Tovarish," the larger man chuckled. "I come from Mother Russia. I know that peace never come from war. Then again, I also believe it cannot come from politics alone. Peace must be wanted by all for it to exist. Peace can never be true if it is forced."

"But,"Gambit pointed out. "Den peace will never happen. Gambit and Peter will die, mon ami. Isn't it better to force it one people and risk the few instead of the many?"

Peter thought of Katherine and regretfully shook his head. "It is never worth that, Remy. A life is a life. It doesn't matter how many of them we take, for only one will make us cursed." He leaned his elbow on the table as he arched closer to Gambit. "Why do you ask? Why all the questions? Have you been questioning the morals behind our hostages as. . . ."

"G'day, mates," Pyro said as he sat down, jumping into a chair. "What are we discussing t'day?"

"Rien," Gambit told the Australian. He gathered his cards and said a quick goodbye, leaving the Russian to deal with John.

Peter played the unintelligent Russian he almost always did. Often, after hearing him speak, many people would consider the large man too stupid to be able to do anything other than what he was told. Magneto repeatedly criticized his unintelligence. He smiled at Pyro. "I am about to make lunch. You want some, ya?"

"No thanks." Pyro pursed his lips as Peter began to make himself a double portioning of his meal, the same way he always did. Something strange was up with those two. . . .



****



The doors leading to the cell bay opened with a clang, causing Rogue to look up in surprise. Gambit hadn't visited her in what seemed like days. Maybe it was him, and he was bringing her something to eat! Her heart soared. She hadn't eaten in days and was really, really hungry.

"Cajun? That you?" she called. When gambit had left after their last encounter the lights had been turned off and it had been dark ever since. The darkness was slowly driving her crazy. She didn't know how much longer she could handle the total darkness.

"Not quite, my dear," came a smooth voice. "Although Gambit, or rather, 'Cajun' as you call him, is here."

All of a sudden the lights came on in a blinding flash, causing Rogue to cover her eyes with a startled cry. She heard footsteps approaching her cell, but couldn't open her eyes to see where it was. "Gambit?" she called wearily.

Gambit took a step towards her. She was strong. To see her reduced to this was killing him. He was about to reach out to her when his companion stopped him.

"Do not disobey my wishes, LeBeau."

Gambit frowned, but stepped back. "Oui, Magneto."

Rogue had managed to clear her eyes by this point and saw that it was indeed Magneto standing over her. His helmet reflecting the overhead lights. She glared at Magneto and slowly rose to her feet. "What do you want with me, Magneto?"

"Nothing but our freedom, my child," he said. "I need a mutant with your strength to aid my team." He flipped his purple cape over one shoulder. "What do you say, my dear? Will you join is and fight for the freedom pf mutant kind?"

Rogue didn't give any response other than to spit in his face.

Magneto reeled back and cried out, "How low class, woman!" He growled as he pulled a small remote out of his belt and pointed it at Rogue. "This is what happens to those who disrespect me." He said calmly as he pressed a big, red button int the middle of the remote and Rogue screamed in pain.

She fell to her knees, clutching her sides. It felt as though her ribs were trying to pierce her skin. She kept screaming as Magneto smirked at her.

Gambit watched Rogue. How could torturing the girl help gain their freedom? Was this cruelty really the way to further Magento's cause? He remained standing in silence, not knowing what to do. He knew Rogue had done nothing to deserve this pain, but he also knew he was not powerful enough to go against Magneto.

Tears were streaming down Rogue's face as Magneto finally released the button and ended her pain. She fell on her back and tried to force her eyes open.

"You see, child? It is useless to refuse my offer. Just agree to join the Brotherhood and you will be released from your bonds." He said as he extended a hand to Rogue.

She rolled over on to her stomach and slowly pushed herself to her knees. Glaring at Magneto, she tried to get to her feet but her body was still too weak.

"Magneto, why not just brainwash her?" Gambit asked. He wasn't sure why, but seeing her in pain hurt him. It hurt him more than any torture he'd ever witnessed.

"Because, fool, brainwashing is relatively easy to undo!" Magneto snapped. "If she agrees, however. . . ."

"I'll never agree!" Rogue shouted, cutting him off.

Magneto turned his full attention to the girl. "I am sad to hear you say that, my dear." The look on his face was beyond menacing. "I had hoped I would not have to resort to more violence." He turned to Gambit. "Grab her," he commanded as he opened her cell using his metal controlling powers.

Gambit quickly moved into the cell and headed for Rogue, who had backed up into a corner. He grabbed her shoulders, but not as roughly as he would have. He bent his face towards hers. "Just agree, chere. You don't know what Magneto is capable of." He tightened his grip on her shoulders. "Please, chere. . . ."

Rogue looked at gambit in confusion. "Why would ya tell me this? You're working for Magneto, ain't ya?"

"Gambit!" came Magneto's voice. "Hurry it up. I do not have all day."

"Oui, Magneto," Gambit shot over his shoulder. He quickly turned back to Rogue. "I work here only 'cause dey pay me, Petite. Remy doesn't agree with torture." He covered his head. "Chere, I don't want to see you tortured anymore. Please, agree to join us. Je vous enprie."

Rogue shook her head. "Ah believe in peace, Gambit. Ah won't agree to work for war." She held her head high as she spoke, w\looker braver than she truly felt.

Gambit sighed and pulled her towards the door of the tiny cell. Magneto stood there, keeping his eyes on Rogue. "I will give you one last chance, my dear. Will you join our team?"

"Ah would rathah die than join scum like you," she spat.

Magneto's smile was almost too sweet. "I was hoping you'd say that." He turned to Gambit. "Bring her along." Magneto turned and began to walk down the brightly lit corridor, his boos clanging against the metal floor with each step.

Rogue kept her eyes straight ahead, her thoughts on the Cajun who held her shoulders. He was being paid to do this? She was pleased to discover that he wasn't doing this because he believed in it. 'A small comfort in difficult times,' she mused as they continued down the hall.

All Gambit could think about was how wrong all this felt. Magneto claimed he was rounding up the most powerful mutants in the world in order to create a powerful force. A force so powerful that they would be able to force the government's political hand in their direction. A world for mutants governed by mutants. They would force bills on mutant rights to be rejected by force! Magneto explained that Professor Xavier's peaceful methods had failed -miserably. Now it was time for him to step down, to make way for a more successful method of persuasion.

As they reached the black door at the end of the hall, both Rogue and Gambit felt a chill. What was to take place beyond that cold steel door they could only guess. All they were sure of was that it would not be pleasant -for either of them.

~*~ To be continued.......MAUWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!