A/N: Special thanks to everybody that reviewed my last chapter-
Pandora's Sorrow- I think you just might get your wish, and also get to see Rogue do a lot more than just stand up for herself.
Enchantedlight- Glad you loved the fight scene!
mela- Hope you have a great holiday!
Star-of-Chaos- Yeah, I agree with you, and I'd say not being in the right state of mind is an understatement in describin' Wolvie's behavior in the last chapter.
Jean1- I intentionally tried to show that deeper side of Logan, but I think the movies wanted to start Logan off as that brash and rude loner, like when he first showed up in the comics. If anything, movie-verse Logan has been a sweetheart in comparison.
Lucas'sgirl- Not a big Jean fan I see. I can definitely understand your reason why.
Angel of The Fallen Stars- They were supposed to get married, but her calling things off really wasn't her fault. She was being mind-controlled by a villain named Mastermind, who had powers similar to Jason Stryker's but was a lot more powerful. He wanted to use her as his pawn in a plot for revenge against the X-Men, and he used his powers to brainwash Mariko into believing that she really didn't love Logan. He knew that being dumped at the altar by his lady-love would be the most hurtful thing he could do to Logan.
Ishandahalf & Episodic- Well, here it is, finally. I hope everybody enjoys…
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"You see anyone?" Rogue asked.
"Nah, belle. Looks like de coast is clear, at least for de time bein'." Gambit replied, as he stood on a couple of crates and peered outside of a window.
After escaping from the chaos back in the alley where they had been fighting the Hand, Gambit and Rogue cris-crossed their way through a good majority of Tokyo. Gambit wanted to make sure that they weren't being followed by the hired hit-men the Silver Samurai had turned loose on them. Eventually, the pair ended up at the loading docks down by the waterfront, where they sought refuge in one of it's many warehouses.
"We lay low in here for de rest of de night, then we move out at daybreak. It'll be a lot easier t'get around then." Gambit said, as he jumped down from the crates and walked over to take a seat on the warehouse floor next to Rogue, "De last thing those Hand-ninjas'll be expectin' is for us to go walkin' around in broad daylight." Gambit answered.
"Sounds like something Logan would say." Rogue said, as she commented on Gambit's plan.
"You mean de 'wild man' back there?" Gambit asked her, "How you be figurin' dat 'Kid Creole' sounds anythin' like him?" Gambit asked her.
"Because, that's the kind of survival stuff that he taught us back home." Rogue informed him.
"Us?" Gambit continued to inquire.
"Me, and the other students at the school I go to." Rogue answered.
"You mean to tell me dat some school board actually certified him to teach?" Gambit laughed in astonishment.
"Well, not exactly." Rogue confessed, "See, it's not your regular school."
"What make it so special then?" Gambit continued asking, as his curiosity was piqued.
"It's a school for mutants. They teach us all how to live with our powers there." Rogue revealed to him.
"Sounds interestin'." Gambit commented, as he looked over at Rogue as they both sat on the floor and leaned up against some large boxes in the warehouse "You know, somethin' just hit me. We been so busy fightin' and talkin' about stayin' alive, dat we ain't been properly introduced to one another."
Gambit then took one of Rogue's gloved hands into his own and stared intensely into her eyes.
"Everybody calls me Gambit. But you, you can call me Remy."
As Rogue gazed into his eyes, a strange, yet familiar sensation came over her, just like the first night when she met Gambit. It felt like she immediately knew everything about him, and that she could trust him as though they had been friends their entire lives.
"And your real name, Rogue?" Gambit asked her.
"You already know my name." Rogue smiled.
"Yeah, but I'd just like to hear de words roll off dat pretty tongue of yours." Gambit clarified.
"It's…Marie." Rogue said, as she still felt strange even answering his request. It might have been because she had become so used to everybody simply calling her Rogue. But, something inside told Rogue that there might be more to it…
"Marie. Dat's a beautiful name." Gambit said, as he kissed her gloved hand.
Rogue just looked at Gambit and smiled, before she responded to his assertion.
"You lie like a dog. But, Ah do appreciate you payin' me the compliment."
"There really ain't no words dat can do justice in describin' a lovely creature such as yourself." Gambit said, as he leaned in close to kiss Rogue.
At that moment, Rogue wanted nothing more than to kiss Remy as well, but now she knew that something was wrong. Why was she letting her guard down like this, especially when she knew better? Gambit was a complete stranger to her, but what was it about him that made Rogue suddenly feel like she would do anything for him?
As Gambit's lips moved closer to hers, the answer finally hit Rogue as she came back to her senses…
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Meanwhile, at the Yashida Penthouse suite in downtown Tokyo, another individual was finally coming back to his senses as well.
"Logan-san, what do you think that you are doing?" Mariko asked him, as she walked into the guest's quarters of her suite, "You should be resting."
Mariko had come back there with Logan, after leaving the back alley located in the Ginza district. After she had cleaned him up, she brought him to this room so that he could lie down and recuperate from the various injuries he had received during his fight against the Hand.
"Thanks for getting me these new threads to replace the ones that got shredded." Logan said, as he finished getting dressed in the black t-shirt and blue jeans that Mariko had sent one of the members of her staff to get for him.
"You still haven't answered my question." Mariko reminded him.
"Well, the short answer is I'm gonna go find Rogue." Logan replied, "I can't believe I sent her off on her own like that, especially with that joker from Louisiana or wherever the hell he came from. If she gets hurt because I let the 'Berserker' inside me take over and make such a stupid mistake, I'll never forgive myself."
Logan then proceeded to walk towards the door of the room where Mariko was standing. As he neared her, he started to feel dizzy and nearly passed out. As Mariko tried to break his fall, she felt as though she would be crushed when his massive weight fell into her. What she didn't know was, while an adamantium-laced skeleton was not very bulky, it did add more than a hundred extra pounds to Logan's frame. (A/N: Makes you realize what kind of physical condition Cyclops must've been in, to carry Logan away like he did at the beginning of 'X1'.)
"Logan, are you okay?" Mariko said, as she struggled to bring him back over to the bed in the guest room.
"Yeah, what happened to me?" Logan asked, as he laid back down for a moment.
"You almost fell down unconscious. Again." Mariko replied, as she sat down on the bed next to him, "It is what I have been trying to tell you. Despite your miraculous ability to heal yourself, you fought nearly a dozen members of the Hand and lived to tell about it. But, your victory was not without a price. Your body has sustained a massive number of wounds, and I believe that it will take more than a few hours for you to recover completely. When we were in the alley, you looked then as though you were going to pass out. My driver managed to help you into the limousine, before bringing the both of us back here. Now, just lie back and relax."
"I told you, I can't do that!" Logan protested, "It doesn't matter how I'm feelin', I made a promise to Rogue. I swore to her that night on the train that I would always take care of her, and I ain't about to go back on my word."
"You are in no condition to go anywhere. I will send some of my best men to search the area for her. After you've had some time to regain your strength and if they have not found her, the both of us will aid them in their search." Mariko told Logan, although it was really more of an order.
Logan looked at Mariko for a moment, then he reluctantly agreed to what she had said. Mariko went outside of the room and gave her request to one of her bodyguard's, and he was soon gone. Mariko then walked back into the room. She then said something to Logan that had been on her mind ever since they returned to the penthouse.
"I understand your concern for Rogue, I am worried for her safety as well. But during the fight in the alley, Rogue appeared to be capable of taking on a small army, all on her own." Mariko pointed out, "Which begs the question, how and why would she learn such things?"
Logan started to come up with another convenient cover story to tell Mariko to explain things, but he stopped himself. He was through with lying about his life, and especially lying to the woman that he loved. So, he decided to come clean about everything.
He started from the beginning, at least from the beginning that he could remember. Then he told her about…
--Weapon X.
--Him wandering throughout most of North America for the last fifteen years.
--Meeting Rogue, and being rescued by the X-Men.
--Magento and Liberty Island.
--His search for the missing parts of his past.
--Colonel William Stryker's attack on Xavier's School for the Gifted, and the realization that he and Stryker were irrevocably linked.
--Jean Grey, his unrequited love for her, and the ultimate sacrifice that she made at Alkali Lake to save them all.
Mariko was mesmerized by what Logan was telling her, it sounded like some fantastic story. But Mariko knew by the way Logan was explaining every detail that he could conjure from his mind, that this was no tall-tale.
"So, that's when Rogue and me came here to Japan. Then we ran into you not too long after that and you know the rest, M'iko." Logan said, nearly two hours after he had started his impromptu biography.
"That is quite an explanation. It does do a very good job in making sense of everything. I am glad that you trust me enough to reveal such intimate details about your life, and about your friends." Mariko said, as she laid down on the bed next to Logan and placed her head on his chest.
"I'd only tell someone that I truly loved." Logan teased her, as he paraphrased the statement that she had made to him back at the pond near her home in Agarashima.
Mariko and Logan stayed like that through the rest of the night, holding onto each other while they could. They knew there was no guarantee of what a new day would bring them.
While Mariko slept, Logan had a hard time doing so himself. Despite Mariko sending her top men to search for Rogue, and Logan coming to the realization that he had taught Rogue fighting skills that probably made her one of the most dangerous teenagers alive, he still wondered and worried if she would be all right until he was well enough to go find her…
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"You ever pull a stunt like that again, and you're gonna lose more than just a couple of teeth!!" Rogue yelled, as Gambit went flying a couple of feet across the warehouse floor.
Gambit had just learned, first hand, that thanks to Wolverine's training Rogue could throw a punch faster and harder than most of the men he had met in his lifetime. After being squarely decked in the jaw by Rogue, Gambit sat himself up on the concrete floor of the warehouse and tried to figure out what she was talking about.
"What de hell was dat for?" Gambit asked.
"Ah know when someone is tryin' to hypnotize me." Rogue said, as she stood up, "Ah should've known something was up that first night when Ah met you at Mariko's home. Guess you didn't count on me finally figuring it out, huh?"
"I got no idea what you talkin' about, chere." Gambit told her.
Rogue knew very well what the signs were when someone was trying to control or influence her mind, as did all of her fellow junior X-Men. Professor Xavier had spent numerous hours working with her, Iceman, Shadowcat, Colossus, and Jubilee on the subject. He had honed the psychic defenses in their minds to help protect them from enemies that may use telepathic or hypnotic powers on them. Enemies such as Mesmero, an old foe of his original X-Men.
But in Gambit's case, he had never received any formal training in learning to use his mutant powers. He only learned how to control his ability to kinetically charge objects through trial-and-error. Gambit's adoptive family, one that loved him as if he were their own flesh and blood, had trained him to be a superb thief and had given little consideration to the more subtle aspects of his mutant ability. Had someone like Professor Xavier been given the opportunity to instruct Gambit when his powers first emerged, Gambit would have had a better understanding of his ability to influence other people's perceptions of him. It was an innate ability that made it possible for Gambit to charm almost anyone into liking him.
Meanwhile, Rogue was chiding herself for not picking up on the signs sooner, and she now started to wonder if it was maybe because she really didn't want to?
"Gambit may know a few card tricks, but he don't need to pull nothin' like dat wit' the ladies." Gambit told her, "'Sides, it was just one little kiss."
"With me, there is no such thing as a 'little' kiss." Rogue revealed to him.
"In dat case, plant a big one on Gambit and let him be de judge." Gambit smirked, as he made another small joke with Rogue, just like he did with everyone. But to Rogue, her unique situation was anything but a laughing matter.
To her, it wasn't about whether or not she wanted to kiss him, or any guy for that matter. It was more about the fact that she really didn't have much of a choice when it came to being intimate with someone else.
"Why don't you just go somewhere and leave me the hell alone. Ah don't wanna have to hear anymore of your dumb-ass comments." Rogue said angrily to Gambit, as she walked away from him. Rogue went over to another part of the warehouse, where she sat down next to some crates and faced away from him.
"Look chere, I wasn't tryin' to get you upset or nothin'." Gambit apologized, "I know you gotta be feelin' the sparks goin' off between us too, but I didn't mean to push t'ings faster than you was ready for."
As she sat there, Rogue started to cool down when she thought about how, despite the way that she had first met Gambit in Agarashima, he had fought alongside her and Logan in the alley. He had even brought her to the warehouse with him to keep her safe, after Logan had told her to leave. He could've easily ditched her at anytime, to make traveling a lot easier for himself and to ensure his own safety.
"It's not your fault, Ah've just got my own issues about people touching me." Rogue responded.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know anything like dat happened to you. I guess people can be really sick sometimes, non." Gambit sincerely said to her, as he took her comment to mean something entirely different than what Rogue had meant them to.
"No, it's not anything like that." Rogue said, as she turned back around. She gave Gambit a partial-smile, feeling appreciative of his seemingly genuine concern.
"Then, what're you talkin' 'bout?" Gambit asked her.
"It has to do with my mutant power." Rogue began, "When Ah found out Ah was a mutant, Ah learned Ah wasn't blessed with the ability to make things glow and explode, or make ice sculptures just by thinking about it, or shoot fireworks from my hands, or walk through walls. All Ah got was the power to kill whatever person came into close contact with me."
"You mean, like a death-wish power or somethin'?" Gambit asked her.
"Not quite. See, Ah suck the life right out of anyone that makes skin-to-skin contact with me. The first boy Ah ever kissed ended up in a coma because of it," Rogue continued, "And it almost happened a second time with another guy Ah was dating. We were up in his room and Ah was stupid enough to think Ah could control it. Luckily, Ah was able to pull away before it did any permanent damage to him. After that, Ah swore Ah wouldn't ever touch another living person until Ah was sure it was safe."
"Maybe Gambit is stronger than you give him credit for?" Gambit smirked again.
"Maybe Gambit's going to find out if Ah punch as hard with my left hand as Ah do with my right, if he doesn't cut it out?" Rogue warned him.
"All right, All right," Gambit smiled as he conceded, "So, this school you was tellin' me about, how you manage t'find it anyhow?"
"More like it found me." Rogue said, as she started a brief description of her life over the last year and a half, "After Ah put Cody, the first guy Ah was tellin' you about in a coma, Ah ran away from home. Ah got as far north as Laughlin City in Canada, before Ah ran out of money. That's where Ah met Logan. He took me in, reluctantly at first, and we became really close. We ran into some trouble, and the people that run the school found the both of us. After that, Logan promised he'd always look out for me, and he knows Ah'd do the same thing for him. Ah thought we were like a team, the two of us. But tonight, it was like he suddenly forgot all of that."
"I don't know what was up wit' your friend tonight, but it's been my experience that t'ings have to change eventually. Dat's just how life is." Gambit told her.
"And that's your expert opinion, huh?" Rogue said, as she disagreed
"I ain't claimin' to be an expert in anythin'. I'm just talkin' about how t'ings ended up changin' between me and de people I was close to in my life." Gambit responded.
"And what about that life? Ah've told you about myself, but Ah still don't know anything about you." Rogue pointed out.
"What you want to know?" Gambit replied.
"Well, how did you become a career criminal at such a young age, for starters?" Rogue said, as she reminded him of his break-in at Mariko's home.
"Been raised like dat since before I could walk." Gambit started, "I come from a family of t'ieves, and they taught me how t'be de best in all de world."
"You talk like you're proud of that fact." Rogue responded.
"Why shouldn't I be?" Gambit challenged her, "De Thieves' Guild is de finest and most powerful family in all of New Orleans, and we're known world-wide as de best t'ieves alive."
"It still isn't right, that's why." Rogue explained, "You can't just go around stealing things from honest folks."
"And what would you have me do, just quit?" Gambit asked her.
"Yeah." Rogue said simply.
"It's not dat simple. This is who I am, this is who I was raised to be." Gambit replied, "Bein' a t'ief is all I know. Some things you just can't change."
"You can change, if you really want to." Rogue said, as Gambit came and sat back down next to her again.
"For someone who's so willin' to punch my lights out, you sure are concerned about my moral character. Why's dat?" Gambit inquired.
"Ah don't know, Ah guess it's because you seem like you could be a half-way decent guy, underneath that scoundrel exterior of yours." Rogue grinned, "That, and Ah suppose everyone deserves a second-chance."
"So, you're my second-chance, huh?" Gambit smiled, "It's funny you even brought dat subject up. De only reason I took dat job from de Silver Samurai in the first place was t'get outta New Orleans for a while."
"How come?" Rogue asked.
"There was dis girl I was seein' back home, a real nice girl. But her Daddy was none too happy about de fact his little girl was goin' wit' a 'no-good t'ief'." Gambit began, "See, her family's part of a group called de Assassin's Guild, de deadliest group of hired killers that side of de Mason-Dixon, and they don't get along wit' de Thieves' Guild at all. Our two families been at war wit' each other for so long, dat even they don't remember why anymore. I was naïve enough to think dat the love de two of us felt for each other would be enough to overcome all those years of hatred. But they proved me wrong."
"Sounds pretty horrible." Rogue commented, as she sat against the crates with her knees pulled up close to her. She had her face resting against her hands, listening intensely to Gambit's tale of star-crossed love.
"Dat ain't even de worst part. Belladonna, dat's her name, also had a brother dat didn't like de idea of us bein' together either. One night, he happens to find me and her together, and he comes at me wit' a sword. So, we fight right then and there, and he says dat only one of us was gonna walk away from it still breathin'." Gambit told her, as he paused for a moment.
"As you can see, I still got a use for oxygen. I tried to explain to both of our family's dat I didn't want to kill him, dat it was self-defense. But all both sides could t'ink about was revenge and continuin' their squabble, business as usual. Later on, my Daddy told me dat it probably be a good idea if I left New Orleans, and never returned. Poor Belle, she was already traumatized by de fact dat I killed her brother. When I told her I was leavin', she called me a coward, and every other name under de sun. Then she say dat she don't ever want t'see my face again! So, I took de first job offer dat had a one-way ticket out of town, and here I am."
As Gambit recited what had happened to him before leaving New Orleans, he was staring off into space recalling the image of each memory that had been etched into his mind, while he described them to Rogue. When he finished and returned back to the present, he looked over in Rogue's direction and saw something he wasn't expecting.
"Rogue, chere, why you cryin'?" Gambit asked her.
"Now Ah can understand why you'd have such a cynical attitude. Even though you tried to change both your and Belladonna's families, in the end they turned the girl that you loved against you. And then you had to leave your home on top of that. It just sounds so sad and unfair." Rogue answered, as she wiped the tears that were streaming down her face.
To a casual observer whom didn't know her, on the surface it might appear that Rogue's greatest gift was her ability to drain the life and powers of another person, or her capability to inflict a tremendous amount of physical damage on a foe. However, her greatest gift would probably be her ability to sympathize with another's pain, despite the fact that she had so much inner-turmoil of her own to deal with.
"De way you actin', I suppose Shakespeare himself couldn't have come up wit' anythin' more tragic, non?" Gambit smiled again, as he pulled a handkerchief from one of his pockets and helped Rogue to dry her eyes.
After Rogue had calmed down, Gambit made an observation about her.
"You know, you're somethin' else. Gettin' all broken up over someone else's heartache." Gambit told her.
"You must think it's pretty stupid, huh?" Rogue responded, as she felt a little embarrassed.
"Nah." Gambit continued smiling, as he proceeded to stroke her hair, "I t'ink it's de sweetest thing I ever seen."
Gambit and Rogue continued talking, even though it wasn't necessarily about important details of their lives. They talked a little about their hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow. But mainly, they talked about whatever topic happened to spring to mind, and their conversation lasted the entire night.
By the next morning, if Rogue had previously thought that the sensation of Gambit feeling like an old friend was just a figment of her imagination, she now knew it was a lot closer to becoming reality…
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In the very late evening hours at a moderate-sized home outside of Tokyo, Detective Takimoto of the police precinct in the Ginza district arrived to pay the home's owner a very important visit.
After being let inside by a housekeeper, the detective walked inside, where he was led to a meditation room currently in use by the owner.
"Mr. Yoshida?" Detective Takimoto asked, as he tried to get his attention.
"To what do I owe this intrusion?" Shiro Yoshida said, as he looked up at the detective. Shiro had been sitting in an area on the floor, busy with his meditation exercises.
"I've just come from the scene of a major disturbance in the Ginza district. There is big trouble, I am afraid." Takimoto replied.
"In case you have not noticed, you are the officer of the law, not me. Why are you telling me of this?" Shiro asked him.
"Because, I have an alley full of dead ninjas, and they were apparently some of your old friends, the Hand. It appears that someone, or a group of someone's, went through them with some new type of triple-sided blade." The Detective replied.
"The Hand are far from being friend's of mine. But I ask again, why are you telling me this? The only reason that I fought that group of assassins before was to repay my debt to the Japanese government, for their help in solving the problems that my and my sister's mutant powers were causing us. I believe that our debt was paid in full, and quite some time ago." Shiro said, as he looked back down and started his meditation again, "I believe you can find your way out."
"I just thought that you might be interested, since the word that I've been getting from informants on the street is that a relative of yours, Lady Mariko Yashida, was the intended target of this hit-squad that we found hacked to pieces." Detective Takimoto revealed.
"Is she alright?" Shiro asked with a concerned expression, as he looked back up from his meditation.
"We believe so, at least for the time-being. We sent some officers over to her penthouse in Tokyo to check on her, but she was reluctant to go into any details with them, almost as though she were hiding something. Normally, this kind of matter would get sent to the special investigations unit, but since I'm the resident expert in the strange occurrences that go on in this city, the chief has put this case squarely in my lap. I thought that perhaps you wouldn't mind going over to see if Ms. Yashida is really okay, and if she can give you any further details that might be helpful in my investigation." Detective Takimoto asked him.
"Detective, Sunfire will soon know exactly what is going on!" Shiro said, as he stood up in the meditation room.
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Next Chapter: After the Hand's surprising defeat by Logan & Co., the Silver Samurai decides to bring in the big guns…