Interview 1: Gambit, AKA Remy LeBeau speaks with Dr. Henry McCoy...all spellings are the editor's -- Ed.

Dr. McCoy: I imagine you were rather bitter about your betrayal.

Gambit: Damn right, cher. Remy did good for the criminal underground, and then the underground turn him in to the haters.

D: What was the facility like?

G: Big old prison, got up for mutants. All run by rules, gotta get up at nine. Gotta eat at 10. So on. Gambit didn't mind that too much. He'd heard of worse.

D: So tell me how your troubles began.

G: (smiles) Gambit always hook people up with what they want, take what he want, cher. That's Gambit. Didn't know he took the warden's private stash, did he? So Gambit on punishment.

D: What is a punishment?

G: (shrugs) Different things. Solitaire lockup, tied up, beaten, gagged, sometimes torture.

D: (horrified) Torture?

G: Yeah. Rack, boot, especially if you can regenerate.

D: So what happened to you?

G: Pretty girl come to rack up Gambit. Gambit like her. Pretty brown hair, nice smile, seem to care for Gambit. We talk. She just tie Gambit up and leave, not make him be racked. Then...

(silence)

D: Go on.

(silence)

D: Gambit, we need to have a record of what happened to mutants, so this doesn't happen again.

G: (reluctantly) He come in. Tall man with silver hair. Said pretty girl tell him to rack Gambit hard. So he did.

(silence)

D: Do you need a few moments?

G: Naw. Just hard to think of words. Then he say that he supposed to make sure Remy never steal again, and she said to kill him. But he gonna just ...

(silence)

D: Is that when he rendered you sightless?

G: (restless fidgeting) Yeah. Big old knife. That the last thing Gambit ever see.

D: But you got out again.

G: Yeah. Ken up the way pass on a message. Mutants break us all out. Gotta be careful and clever.

D: And something happened.

G: (pause, fidget) Yeah.

D: What?

G: Heard her voice again. Pretty girl who want Gambit dead. Been cursing her for months, then she expect take Gambit out for more pain. She pretend it all to save Gambit. But he know better.

(silence)

So he pretend to fall, charge up her guard ID card, and...