Rogue walked into her room and took off her backpack. It dropped to the floor with a large thud. It had taken a while for the Apocalypse dilemma to die down, but finally there was a break from the constant news barrage. Unfortunately, there was no break from homework. She sighed, walked over to her bed and sat down.

"Huh?" she said in surprise. Resting neatly on her pillow was a small wrapped package. She tore the paper off to reveal a deck of playing cards. Rogue raised her eyebrow as she shuffled through the cards, finding all the aces missing. At the top of the pile was her card- the Queen of Hearts with black writing scribbled on the face. I be at da beach, sundown, no friends.

Rogue looked out the window. It was late afternoon; the sun would be set in a few hours. That gave her enough time to attend one of Logan's training sessions. Yeah right. She placed the cards in her pocket and left her room, carefully shutting the door behind her.

She found herself in the kitchen, digging through the refrigerator, looking for something substantial enough to impersonate dinner. She settled for an apple and a soda, a not so appetizing combination, but you know how teens are. Rogue walked out of the kitchen, nearly running into Erik.

"Sorry Mr. Lehnsherr, I wasn't paying attention." He stared at her with a weak attempted smile. After what seemed to last forever, he spoke. "Don't eat too much, dinner's in less than an hour."

Everyone at the institute was weary of him, save the Professor. It takes a while to adjust to sharing breakfast with someone that's come close to killing you. Even when they were batting Apocalypse together, they were uneasy allies. Xavier was crazy to have let him in.

Erik wandered off to sit at the empty table, resting his head on his hands and staring into space. Feeling a small amount of pity for the lonesome man, she looked back for a few seconds and then continued on.

At the table Erik was deep in thought, remembering…

Shard lies in a hospital bed at the institute, unconscious. He sits down next to her. Charles wheels into the room.

"I'm sorry Erik, but there's nothing else we can do. Her body has fully healed, but her mind is not present. I cannot detect a conscious." Xavier looks at his old friend in pity. Erik steeples his fingers and rests him head on his hands. He sighs deeply. Xavier continues on a higher note. "What I don't understand is how you were so badly defeated by Apocalypse before and how you later tore him apart in a burst of rage."

Erik looks at Xavier with his icy blue eyes. "Maybe it's because I was fighting for the wrong reasons at first."

Xavier considers this as Erik resumes his blank staring state. He is obviously not in the mood to talk. Xavier silently wheels out of the room and leaves Erik and Shard alone in a room. Erik looks down at his friend sadly and gently strokes her cheek.

"Don't worry, I'll find you. I promise."

It was almost sundown. Rogue walked along the rocky shore line, looking around. She spotted a white object in the sand and picked it up. It's the ace of clubs. Come on chere, come on, it read. Putting it in her pocket with the rest of the cards, she continued forward at a faster pace.

It wasn't long before she found another card –the ace of diamonds- resting on a large piece of driftwood. Rogue become more and more anxious with each second.

What is your game, Remy? she muttered to herself. A bit further up she found the ace of hearts on a large boulder. She took a nervous bite of her apple and chewed.

It was getting dark as the sun is almost fully set. She turned to look at the dark sea; its waves were now more menacing without the light. Gambit stepped from the shadows behind her and speaks.

"Looking for dis', cherie?"

Rogue spun around, started. Gambit held out the ace of spades and smiled.

"Here, you found me." He placed the card in the hands of the startled girl. It didn't take long for Rogue to recover.

"Why did you call for me?" she demanded.

Gambit picked up her apple (she had dropped it) and brushed the sand off it. He offered it back to Rogue but she refused. He shrugged and discarded it. "Well, I be wondrin' of ya wanta take another lil' excursion wit' me."

"What do you really want?" she asked. Gambit placed his hand on the back of his neck and looked away.

"I was hoping you do me a favor."

Rogue sighed and began to walk away. Gambit ran in front of her and stopped her retreat.

"Look," he began, "I sorry 'bout last time. But you gotta come wit' me. I wo-"

"I'm tired of being used. Why can't everyone leave me alone!" She pushed past him and continued on. Gambit grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"I don' want ya for your powers, chere, I wan' you for you. So come wit' me. We have 'nother adventure. You an' me; Gambit et Rogue; it your choice, chere; I won' force you. But I wan' your help. Trust me. It be fun."

Rogue sighed and submitted. "I don't know why I'm doing this, but I'll trust you. You gonna get me killed 'cause of this."

"Don' worry, Gambit will protect ya." He grabbed her hand and ran off into the woods with Rogue alongside him. Hidden behind a bush was his bike.

"Now we ride!" he exclaimed. He reached into his pockets and trench coat, looking for his keys. "Where did dose darn-"

Rogue held up a finger with the keys twirling around it. "I'll come on one condition," she said.

Gambit raised his eyebrow and grinned.

"I get to drive."

"You make a hard deal, cherie." He tries to snatch the keys from her but Rogue is too fast. She pulls the keys in before he can get them. Gambit sighs.

"D'accord chere, d'accord." Rogue smiled as he gave in.

"But if my bike get one scratch…" They climbed on, Rogue in behind the wheel. She started the bike and they sped off down the dirt road, kicking up a lot of dust.Gambit was almost thrown off.

She say I get her killed… He thought to himself as they rode into the darkness.

At the Xavier Institute everyone was sitting down for dinner. Rogue's seat was empty.

"Has anyone seen Rogue?" Kurt asked. Everyone looked at each other for a moment and continued eating.

"Haven't seen her since school today," Kitty replied. "She has a major Algebra II test tomorrow. That girl's probably cramming right now."

"I guess," Kurt conceded. He took a bite a chicken and realized that Erik was missing.

Beast walked into Rogue and Kitty's room with a plate full of food. "Here Rogue, you missed-" He stopped and looked around. The room was empty. Placing the plate on a dresser, he picked up Rogues backpack, untouched and filled with her homework.

"Hmmm…" he thought and walked back to the living room, where Xavier and some students were gathered.

"Rogue is not in her room," he reported, exchanging worried looks with Xavier. "And her homework is untouched," he added.

"Where could she be?" Kurt asked.

"I don't know," Xavier replied, "but I sense that another mutant is involved."

"Rogue wasn't the only one absent at dinner," Kurt suggested.

"Erik." Xavier mentally scanned the area. "He's in his bedroom…"-he narrowed his eyes- "And using his powers right now."

Meanwhile, Erik was lying in bed, having a nightmare. Metal objects floated and danced around the room. He tossed and turned, muttering, "Where are you? Where are you?" over and over.

Suddenly the door burst open and he sat up, hand on his head. The objects fell to the ground.

"Where's Rogue?" Scott demanded.

"What? Rogue?" Erik looked dazed and tired not to mention ticked off that his room was invaded by a bunch of kids. "I bumped into her in the kitchen a few hours ago. Haven't seen her since."

"Come on, let's leave Mr. Lehnsherr alone. I'm sorry we disturbed you Erik," Xavier apologized. "Rogue is missing. We were just a bit worried."

"It's okay Charles." He fell back into his bed and stared at the ceiling. Xavier and his students leave the room and shut the door behind them.

"For former super-villain, he sure has a messy room." Scott indicates to Jean all the items strewn across the floor.

"Everyone has their weaknesses. He's only human," she answered.

"He'd probably kill you if he heard you say that," Scott joked. Jean elbowed him and they walked off, arm in arm, searching for Rogue.

The next day, Rogue stopped the motorcycle outside a harbor in Boston. She looked around and parked the bike in a lot. They got off and began walking along the dock.

"Dere!" Gambit pointed with his staff. "Come on chere, follow me."

They quietly approached a large, Europe-bound cargo ship. Men at the dock were loading it. The two quickly snuck onboard and into the cargo hold. They find a place behind some crates and sacks of who-knows-what to settle down.

"Sorry chere, I got tired of trains," Gambit joked. The cargo hold's door was closed and it became pitch black. He lit a card and illuminated the area.

"So where are we going?" Rogue asked.

Gambit opened a crate and took out two apples. He tossed one to Rogue and took a bite out of his own. "First stop: France."

Rogue looked at her apple and began to eat it.

"Sorry chere, I buy us first class tickets, but money don' come dat easy anymore; since I stop thievin' dat is. Hope you like dem apples. We be havin' a lot of dem for a couple weeks."

"So what will we be doing up in France?" she asked.

"Well-" The two were flung back a little as the boat started moving. Gambit helped Rogue up and they found a seat with their backs against some crates.

"Here we go, cherie; we be off!"