Disclaimer: I don't even own the computer I'm writing this on....

Star-of-Chaos All right, I succeeded in making something of a cliffhanging suspension thingie. Wow. And thanx for liking the Storm line, I just needed to do that.

Caliente Read this chapter and you'll know what happened. Sort of. One tiny question: when you say that Remy and Bishop are 'uber' tight together, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I know 'uber' mean 'above' in German, but are they a bit too tight or. or what? *apologetic look* anyway, thanx for liking it.

Dark Elf3 Kill, I dunno, maybe not so much as 'kill' but more something along the lines of 'lethally injure'. It's all in the way you say it..

ishandahalf I'm hurrying as much as I can, but my mind sometimes refuses to cooperate....generally in two situations: 1) when I am, 2) when I'm not.

Jordanz Great! My story is great! *sigh* I'm happy now.....

wyndsong *buries head in shame* I do not believe I wrote that.*sees mental picture*...although…maybe.no, I must correct it! Thanx for pointing it out!

Ima Super Mute Ant Wow, what did you have for breakfast? Wait, did you say geniusly wonderful? Ah, thou appreciates good literature when thou comes across it.

AGST Medio-core is pun(k). It's a song about how so much music is not original nowadays (although I know a lot of people who would say the same about punk, not to my face though, people fear me.....). But Gambit doesn't know the song, so for him it was a pun. It's just a pun with a background story. Can I have Remy back for the story please? Or maybe I'll just borrow Johnny Depp.

Leann Glad you liked my 'fighting scenes'. Gambit does talk a lot, but you'd be amazed on how little he actually says.

A/N There's nothing like a useless saying.

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16. Green is not my favorite color

Fissie

Some more men in green approached them fast. Bishop gave in a warrior growl and launched himself at them like a man who lost his mind. Which was close enough to the truth.

Gambit smirked. ''If you can' beat dem, ravage dem like a maniac, non Bish?'' He said while somersaulting over a few crates and a few men. Blasting those away, he jumped over a container, aided by his bo.

No one saw him after that...

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The trip home was silent; no one dared to speak. Bishop's fists had been clenched so tight that they had been deprived of any blood rushing through. Scott had a I-told-you-so face, but didn't say anything. Somewhere even he had started to believe the Cajun was one of them in the end and would not betray them. He was wrong. Jean wished she could have just peeked inside his mind, but rapidly dismissed the thought hoping the professor had not picked up on it. Beast was too busy helping Kurt and Kitty back to the land of the living to think about anything else. Storm did not believe he would ever betray them, they were his friends after all. She was certain of this. She hoped her determination would not prove false. Wolverine never thought of the kid as a traitor. Sure, the kid lied, didn't listen to any rules, didn't know about discipline and didn't trust anyone, but a traitor...It fit the picture all too perfectly. But his nose had never deceived him, the kid didn't smell like he would do that. Rogue just stared out of the window. She didn't want to think about it. Why would he betray them? What possible motives could he have? She couldn't help but thinking about it.

They got out of the Blackbird and headed directly to the War-Room. Xavier was already there, waiting for them. He had already been informed of what had happened.

Once seated, Bishop couldn't help but saying the thought that had haunted his mind. ''It's too late now. I should've killed him when I had the chance. I have failed.'' His voice was bitter.

''Bishop, we are not dead yet. Let us not jump to conclusions.'' Storm said, trying to comfort the man from the future.

''Why would Gambit team up with the Friends Of Humanity?'' Such a simple question, but no one could give Evan an answer.

''It didn't seem as though he would run off with the FOH. It I hadn't interfered he would have killed them.'' Scott said, more to convince himself than anyone else.

''Maybe that's just what he wanted us to think.'' Wolverine indicated.

''He's an obvious mutant himself. Why would he work with people who would kill him if they knew how his eyes looked? It makes no sense.'' Jean wondered.

''Maybe he did not betray us to FOH, but the fact remains that he got away. Alive. He could team up with anyone.'' Bishop reasoned. 

''Why would he do that? Why would he want to betray us? He's with us now.'' Rogue was certain she didn't need to hear the answer. But Bishop told her anyway.

''Money.'' A simple statement, yet full with accusation.

''Money? Never.''

''Harleys like that don't pay themselves, kid.'' Wolverine acknowledged.

''He's a thief. In my time, he works and deals with humans, like he's one of them. Money is the only thing that drives him.''

''I do not believe that. He cares for us.'' Storm knew that had to be true. Though Remy would never say so himself, she saw it in his eyes. Remy cared for them, like a family.

''He cares for fine art, but he sells it the highest bidders, to criminals, murderers, it makes no difference to him.''

''We're his friends. ''

Bishop raised his voice. ''Not his friends, merely people he lives with until something better comes up. And apparently, something better came up.''

''He did make that mysterious phone-call.'' Rogue hadn't said it to anyone in particular, actually, she thought she hadn't even said is aloud, but everyone looking at her proved her wrong.

''What phone-call?''

She didn't mean to accuse Remy, but all the facts had to be put on the table. ''To some guy, Ah think. He gave Remy an address, but Ah don't know what they were talking about. It's probably got nothing to do with this.''

''But it might! Can't recall anything of it?'' Scott tried.

And so, accusations were made, rejected, denied, made again, proven, dismissed, verified. And the accused wasn't there to say anything in his own defense. 

After fifteen more minutes of discussion, Xavier put an end to all the unfounded, random allegations. ''We are jumping to conclusions. One is innocent unless proven guilty. He could have been captured like the other children. Now, I have understood that they matched your every move. They predicted our every strategy. I do believe this indicates that they know about us.''

''Xavier is quite right. I propose we invent a new strategy. But first let us all regain greatly needed strength. There is nothing we can do now.''  Beast got ready to return to his Lab.

''Very well. I will see you tomorrow morning.''

It was three in the morning, they would discuss new tactics tomorrow morning at six o'clock. Rogue walked up to her room wondering what strength she would regain during a three-hour sleep.

She sat on the bed, tired, but not being able to sleep, so she turned on the radio. Kitty would spend that night at the MedLab, with Kurt. She took the necklace and stared at it. Given to her by a stupid flirty Cajun. One day he could made her blood boil, and another day he could make her laugh, but only to herself, naturally. And as her encounters with him passed through her head, one thought came back every time. He never kept her at arms-length. He didn't flinch when she came near. He never backed off, even if she tried to beat it into his thick skull that she didn't want him close to her. But didn't she? She remembered his embrace, the moment they shared on the roof. That was rather nice. But she couldn't allow anyone to come close to her. Did she? And the kiss on her glove...~Am Ah fallin' for dat snake charmer?~ She searched her mind for something that made sense. Nothing did. Only once conclusion was possible. She was indeed falling for him. Hard. ~Damn.~

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Some more men in green approached them fast. Bishop gave in a warrior growl and launched himself at them like a man who lost his mind. Which was close enough to the truth.

Gambit smirked. ''If you can' beat dem, ravage dem like a maniac, non Bish?'' He said while somersaulting over a few crates and a few men. Blasting those away, he jumped over a container, aided by his bo.

He leaned with his back to the container. He looked around and saw no one. ~Good.~ He minimized his bo with a twirl and hid it back in one of the many pockets of his yet again torn trench. There was big gap just below the left shoulder. He looked around again and confirmed no one was looking. ~Let's do dis.~

Carefully he took off his coat. He hissed slightly as he pulled his left arm out. His suit was torn and a big bloody gash was now clearly visible on his upper arm. ~Body armor, my ass.~ He scolded to himself. He reached to his coat and took out a bandana he always carried around. ~Dose guns passed right through it.~ he continued thinking. Cautiously he tied the bandana tightly over the wound. Not perfect, but it would have to do for now. ~Wonder 'f de Assassins know o' dese guns dat can pass though dis armor...Note to self, call an' warn Jean-Luc.~ He put his trench back on and stood up. ~Good as new.~

At that precise moment five Men in Green approached him. Guns set to kill, but no one shot. Instead they just closed in on him.

''What? Dere be a party here an' no one invited me? Dat's not very nice.'' He tried to calm them with his charm, but it didn't work. They closed in some more. They had him cornered. He didn't like being cornered, it made him feel trapped. He could have panicked. In stead he grinned.

''Well, mes amis. Anyone of y' in f'r a game o' cards?'' He got ready to charge an entire deck of cards when suddenly a flash of bright light pierced into his eyes. He wanted to scream of pain. His eyes hurt as if a hundred needles were being stabbed into them. All sense of direction was lost, as he fell to the floor that seemed like miles away.

Dizzy and disoriented he tried to get up, realizing too late that he was being held back as fists and feet plunged into his face, chest and stomach. He tried to escape, but he couldn't find a way out this situation. He couldn't let the floor underneath him explode, he most likely wouldn't survive the blow himself. So instead, tried to charge anything that came to hands to throw it away, but nothing did, someone was holding his hands in the air. The beating continued and slowly Remy began to loose consciousness.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The following morning, 06.00.

''I have tried to locate Gambit with Cerebro, but I didn't succeed.''

''As suspected.''

''Yes...''

Kurt came in last, he had gone back to his room, the one he shared with Gambit. The professor had asked him to look into his drawers and find anything, any sort of clue to help them decide what to do.

''I found zis in our room. It are copies of our perzonal files. Zey were in Remy's drawer.''

''LeBeau must've passed on information to them.'' Bishop just knew it.

''We do not know that.'' Xavier insisted.

Hank had been awake all three hours. He never was one to sleep much. He had come to the conclusion that they weren't going to reach a final decision on what to do about Gambit's disappearance. ''If we can leave the Gambit-issue to a side for a moment, there are children there who require rescuing.''

''Yes, we must focus on that, now.''

New tactics were invented; it was a cunning plot. They decided to use image-inducers to make each team-member look like someone else on the team, thus masking their powers and surprising the enemy. It sounded like such a ridiculous plan that it might even succeed. Every ten minutes the image-inducer would change the image, so that no one would re-associate new appearances with new powers. Once the Men in Green were beaten, they could storm into the other rooms of the building in search of the missing children and to dismantle the FOH from the core.

''Dismantle, not disintegrate. We still need evidence.'' Xavier added as a last comment looking at Bishop and Wolverine.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Two eyes opened slowly. A moan escaped his mouth when he felt a syringe plunge into his arm. His neck felt cold. Everything hurt. He gathered his thoughts. ~Dey used light. Did dey know?~ Gambit was not one to give up easily, so he tried to pull himself up. ~ 'f y' can' beat dem...~ He tried to manage a smile, but his face hurt too much. Slowly he pushed himself up. But his arms were too weak to hold any weight and he fell back to the ground. ~...never mind.~ Two eyes closed again. A motionless body lay on the floor.

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A/N Oh no! The bad guys got him. What did _you_ think? That he had escaped? That he would betray the x-men? Shame on you for not trusting him....Then again, who knows what might be next.

Anyway this chapter was short, and didn't have much to laugh about....sorry. But hey, it had a plan, right? A plan.yes, I call that a plan..don't laugh at me in my face..Could you at least close the door, I can still see you laughing.

I hope my flashback-recap-thingy was a bit clear.

On next: Is he? Could he? Be dead?

Review or the answer will be 'yes'.