Charles sighed and set the headpiece of Cerebro back in its usual place. The machine had failed. Again.

He had tried three times to locate Cyclops using Cerebro, but had been unsuccessful in all attempts. Jean would be terribly disappointed.

He turned his wheelchair and headed for the door.

Why couldn't he find Scott? It didn't make any sense. Unless Magneto had shielded him somehow. That had to be it... damn.

Just before he reached it, the huge metal panels slid open to reveal Jean and Logan. Both looked upset. Jean's reason was obvious, but to an outsider, Logan seemed upset for no reason. But Logan blamed himself for Scott's capture. Logan didn't understand that this incident was fate and could not have been avoided. Sabretooth was stronger than Wolverine and nothing could change that. But still, Logan felt responsible.

"Anything?" Jean wondered, hope flashing across her beautiful face.

Charles just shook his head. Jean remained silent. Logan shifted on his feet uneasily, opening his mouth to repeat what he had been saying for the last hour. Charles cut him off, "It's not your fault, Logan. There was nothing you could have done."

Logan seemed far from convinced as he objected, "I could have killed Sabretooth."

"Magneto would have just sent someone else. Mystique or Toad," Xavier corrected Wolverine.

"I would have killed them too, but either way, Scott would still be here." Logan's voice rose above the normal level, echoing around the room.

Jean shook her head and stepped between Charles and Logan, almost shouting, "That's enough! This isn't helping."

Of course, Jean was right. She usually was. Xavier nodded, Logan just exhaled restlessly, giving in to Jean's superior tone, stature and argument. He obviously knew she was correct.

After waiting for the lingering tension to disperse Jean turned to Charles. "Gambit wants to talk with you." The look on Jean's face was serious, providing a clue to the urgency behind this meeting.

Charles nodded.

* * *

Rogue sat alone on a wall, watching Bobby -among others- playing basketball. She smiled when Bobby scored, and took another refreshing sip of her bottled water. The warm breeze blowing around her, whipping through her soft hair, was pleasant, easing her troubled mind. Her mind clearing of all her permanent troubles, she closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, her pupils adjusting to the presence of the sunlight, the basketball game had stopped, all the players listening intently to a boy with blue, spiky hair. Rogue couldn't recall what the boy's power was, but she was certain that his name was Gregg. Bobby turned his head to look over at Rogue, and he seemed troubled.

She stood as he walked over.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concern seeping into her Southern-accented voice.

Bobby said nothing, just stared with sea-blue eyes. The eyes she had sat and stared into for nearly an hour the day before.

"What is it?" she persisted, raising her soft voice slightly. She was beginning to feel extremely worried. Why was Bobby so hesitant to explain?

"Something's happened," Bobby said simply, all expression absent from his soothing tone.

Rogue shook her head in the slightest way and asked, "What?" She was beginning to feel like a stuck record.

"Something's happened to Cyclops. He's missing." Bobby suddenly looked very distraught, and somewhat pale.

"Who told you that?" Rogue demanded, her voice almost failing. She tried to remain calm.

"Gregg went to see him about something, and he wasn't there. Nobody's seen him. Storm wouldn't say anything when he asked her."

Rogue, still looking into Bobby's eyes, decided it would be a good idea to find Logan, and check this story with him.

* * *

Logan was bored with pointless introductions. Why not just learn names as you go along? It was easier to him done that way. But obviously, no one else agreed with him as Gambit entered Xavier's office, followed by two rather weak looking 'mutants'.

All three looked reasonably normal, except for their dress sense, which -to Logan- was completely 'off the chart'.

One looked like a wrestler, a rather dumbass wrestler at that. He was dressed completely in denim, and he had extremely close cut hair, which stood out against his serious, pale features. Logan thought he looked foreign, but decided it was best not to jump to conclusions.

The other was a small girl who couldn't have been any older than Rogue. She had loosely curled black hair. A large yellow raincoat covered her other clothes, which reminded him of Gambit's ridiculous brown overcoat. In fact, she was quite similar to Gambit in a lot of ways. If he didn't know any better, he could've sworn they were siblings. The yellow gloves on her small hands were missing the fingers. Something else he noticed was that she had chunky shades on her head, which resembled safety goggles. The rims were pink and the lenses were black.

What is it with this girl and the colour pink? he thought, almost aloud. What's her name? Pinkie? The last thought made him smile, and he had to fight to stop a laugh. The name seemed appropriate for her.

Professor Xavier interrupted his thoughts as he greeted the two strangers, "Welcome to my school."

"These are some pals of mine from down south," Gambit said in his Cajun accent. "This is Dmitri, also known as Colossus. He can turn into metal at will... almost like a living statue, you could say," he continued, indicating the large man. Then he pointed to the girl. "This is Jubilee. She can create bright lights and energy which is quite blinding, and painful when it hits you."

Xavier took it as his turn to play the name-game.

"This is Dr. Jean Grey," he began, "she is capable of using both psychic and telekinetic capabilities."

Jean smiled warmly, as best she could under the circumstances, and nodded.

"This is Ororo Munroe, known as Storm. She can control several elements of the weather, which is most useful for distraction."

Storm also smiled.

Then Chuck turned to him. "And this is Logan, also called Wolverine. As well as extraordinary healing powers, and heightened senses, he has a very strong metal called adamantium throughout his entire body, and-"

Chuck looked into Logan's eyes, and Logan took the faint hint.

Logan stood.

"Gambit, I think you and your friends will find this quite interesting."

Gambit, Colossus and Jubilee glanced toward Logan.

Bracing himself slightly, he raised his arms, clenching his fists and allowed his claws to glide out from between his knuckles.

Gambit and Colossus exchanged looks which resembled shock and Jubilee gasped quietly.

Suddenly, the door burst open, making Wolverine whirl. He retracted his claws when he realised it was Rogue standing before them. She looked disturbed, so Logan moved towards her.

"Pardon me," she mumbled to Xavier.

Chuck nodded and faced Gambit, "This is young Rogue. I will explain her power later."

Logan was overcome with concern for his young friend. "What's the matter?"

Rogue looked around her, maybe only just noticing the other people in the room. She turned her attention back to Logan, answering his question, "I heard a rumour about Cy-Scott, I mean."

Logan turned to Xavier, raising one eyebrow.

"I think you should sit down, Rogue," Xavier suggested.

Rogue did as she was asked.

* * *

Scott knelt looking at the door, its thin sliver of light shutting out entirely, taking from him the only good thing about the bloody situation; his sight.

He knelt now, his arms feeling that they were about to break from being held in such a horrible upward angle. He would have stood to relieve the pain in his back and shoulders, if they had not pounded his ankles almost to mush. They made him stand when they came to teach him. It wasn't worth his life not to stand.

He knelt now, his head drooping forward and blood running from his shattered nose and a huge gash in his forehead, blood running into his eyes, stinging. That pain was nothing though, he had learnt. What he hated was the red mist it created in his eyes, so much like his visor and glasses had been.

He knelt now, the metal cuffs biting into his wrists where huge puffy bruises had appeared because he had been manacled to the metal posts at waist height for what felt like weeks.

He gave up on trying to get some of the two hours sleep Mystique and that slug had allowed him, and roamed his body mentally.

He knelt now, and felt his uncounted broken ribs, his mashed ankles, his shredded shoulder and the hundreds of bruises and cuts that crisscrossed his bare chest, sometimes going under the belt he still wore, burning where it chafed the cuts. He thought one of his legs was broken under the combat trousers, but he was so numb with pain he couldn't tell. He didn't dare move his fingers to see how many were broken and shattered in multiple places.

All these he catalogued and stored, waiting to wreak his horrible, bloody and above all, painful revenge.

He knelt now, and shifted slightly, ripping open the wound on his shoulder. He clenched his teeth to keep from crying out.

He knelt now, and sobbed.

He knelt now, and thought.

"Jean."

* * *

Gambit flipped another playing card over from the pack that lay face down on the desk. His accommodations were beyond grand: a large king-size bed, a great oaken table, wooden antique wardrobe, pleasant paintings and plush carpet. This was all new to him, unexpected.
Yet still, he felt unwelcome. The fuzzy man with the claws was a little disturbing. The look in his feral eyes was unnerving, almost like pure distrust.

But Gambit just wanted to help. Help defeat Magneto. Help find the mutant named Cyclops.

He just wanted to help.

Gambit sighed and shook his head, his brown hair falling around his face.

He flipped another card: King of Hearts. He quickly flipped it back over and picked up the whole deck. He stood, placing the cards face down on the desk.

He had been informed where everyone's rooms were, just in case he needed anyone. He decided to go and see the 'claw guy'.

On his way down the hall, he heard a door open ahead of him. He continued walking, only to see the beautiful Dr. Jean Grey poke her head out of the large door.

He stopped in front of her. "Hi, something the matter?"

She turned to him, and he realised how red her eyes seemed.

"Nothing. I just thought I heard someone," she replied, voice shaky.

She had definitely been crying.

He glanced behind her to see an overly large room.

"Big room," he commented. "Looks big enough for two people."

She just nodded in subtle reply, half-heartedly and went back inside, the door clicking shut behind her.

That was odd.

He continued down the hall, and came to a halt outside of 'claw guy's' room, knocking lightly.

"Come in," came a low grumble of a voice.

Gambit entered cautiously, almost expecting the man to jump out and try to kill him.

Instead he was sitting on the edge of the bed, a blank look on his face.

"Logan, right?" Gambit said, thick southern accent cutting through the silence like a knife.

The man nodded.

Gambit narrowed his eyes. "What's up with Dr. Grey? She looked like she'd been cryin' or somethin'."

Logan stared up at him, expression cold, almost hard. "That's because she's involved with Cyclops." Logan's voice sounded menacing, almost a low growl.

Crap! Gambit thought, mentally kicking himself in the ass, remembering his joke to Jean Grey about the size of her room.

All he could manage was a quiet, "Oh."

"You didn't know that?" Logan inquired, raising his eyebrows.

Gambit shook his head violently, exaggerating the movement. "No. I don't seem to know an awful lot," he replied, raising his voice without realising it. He automatically returned to his normal volume; "This mutant Cyclops... I don't even know his power."

It was true. Gambit knew of the X-Men, but he didn't know a whole lot about them: their powers, their names -apart from Xavier- or their histories. None of this had been explained to him until recently, the situation hadn't been described. Now this beast of a man was taking out this lack of clarity on the victim... him! It wasn't his fault if this group was so unorganised that two of them couldn't take down one other freak of nature. They made out like this Sabretooth or whoever was seven foot tall. If one of them had been captured, and the other nearly killed, then that was purely their fault and no one else could be given the blame.

Logan looked up at him, that familiar anger still clear in his brown eyes, along with something else, something else that was unexplained. "He has this energy that flows out of his eyes. That's why he wears the sunglasses or the visor all the time."

"Can't he control it?"

"No. Ever since he was seventeen, he hasn't been able to see normally. He sees it all through a red haze," Logan continued to explain, a certain edge becoming clear in his gruff voice. Then he sighed, and his tone became quiet and somewhat sympathetic. He lowered his gaze as he mumbled, "He's never even seen Jean properly." He looked back up at Gambit, and Gambit finally understood the guy's attitude toward the already sensitive subject... Logan obviously felt responsible for the disappearance of Cyclops. That was understandable. Gambit would have felt the same way if it were him. Anyone would.

"I know this is a sensitive subject for everyone, but..." Gambit began quietly, carefully, "what's his real name?" Something else that remained untold.

Logan exhaled slowly, and replied, "Scott Summers."

Gambit simply nodded.

"What about you?" Logan inquired, changing the subject, obviously finding no reason to continue on the issue. "What's your real name? Your parents couldn't have called you Gambit."

Gambit smiled and he felt himself go red as he answered, "Remy. Remy LeBeau."

The change in the conversation had clearly eased the anger in Logan as it vanished from his features. He smiled in response and gave a small laugh.

"No wonder you call yourself Gambit!" He laughed a little louder. Gambit didn't mind, as he laughed with Logan. He was just happy to see Logan pleased.

Maybe now, Logan wouldn't be tempted to kill him.

But then again, maybe not.

* * *

A/N: There are, as I'm sure you've noticed, a couple of differences in this addition as well. I feel it is, as always, my duty as author to explain. :) So here they are... Colossus' name was changed purely for the shameful reason that at the time of writing this, me and my -at that time- co- author, did not know his actually name, and so he is called Dmitri throughout. I hope this doesn't majorly bother anyone. My apologies if it does. Also, you may have noticed the age Logan gave for the beginning of Cyclops' powers. The cartoon version differs, but I have taken my, naturally, from what Bryan Singer intended before the scene was cut. Thanks, and keep reading! I'll have another chapter for you soon.