Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still don't own the X-Men and frankly I don't think I ever will.

Chapter Three

The white light stopped upon hitting the walls of the building, dissipating into a light layer of dust on the warehouse floor. Determining that the danger was over, Jean hesitantly let down her force field and slowly sank down to the floor, the extreme use of her power had considerably drained her. She wearily raised her gaze to the select few mutants she failed to protect.

She could barely make out Rogue and Gambit's half hidden forms from behind a pole, Wanda and Pietro were on the far other side of the warehouse, and Scott… as well as Fred the Blob, they were so close to her it was a painful reminder that she hadn't saved them. "Yo!" Toad's odd voice interrupted Jean's dismal thoughts, "they're still breathing," he cried from his position next to Scott and Fred.

Lance ran over to the prone figures of Wanda and Pietro and found them still alive and breathing as well. Kitty quickly made her way over to Rogue and Gambit's bodies, sending a curious look back at the guy known as Colossus. 'It was kind of cute how he tried to protect me from that light,' her mind giggled at the thought, 'although, it was Lance who dragged me over to Jean. How is it that there are suddenly too many guys in my life, I thought that was impossible!' Kitty shook her head to clear away her thoughts and abruptly stopped at the sight of Gambit and Rogue.

They were lying on the floor with their arms around each other in a tender embrace. A faint smile appeared on the young girl's face and she turned to face Kurt who had recently teleported to her side. "You know, this would look like so cute if I didn't know how much Rogue hated this guy," Kitty giggled in amusement at the thought that the pair actually cared for each other… Rogue would have definitely told her about any romantic feelings for Gambit… wouldn't she?

At that thought, a slight frown marked Kitty's pretty features as she again regarded the couple with an increased surveillance. Kurt smiled at Kitty's varying facial expressions; she always dug way too deep into others relationships. "Come on Keety, stop vorrying about them, Jean vants us to take them to ze med lab back at ze mansion," the fuzzy blue boy grinned as grabbed a hold of Kitty, Rogue, and Gambit before poofing them to the X-van.

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Scott groaned in pain as he slowly opened his eyes to be met with many brightly colored objects. Shaking his head in confusion, he believed he was hallucinating, he hadn't seen colors for many years because his visor and sunglasses tinted everything to a red hue. He raised his hand to check on his sunglasses as a habit only to find they weren't on his face. Closing his eyes quickly in panic, he wondered why his mutation wasn't kicking in. Hesitantly, he opened one eye and was shocked to find that nothing had changed, no red beam shot from his eyes, in fact, nothing happened at all.

Gradually he opened his other eye to regard his surroundings in puzzlement. It looked like he was in some sort of carnival, and for some reason he felt extremely warm… in a comforting way. Snuggling back into this warmth, Scott gazed up at the stars in contentment when he suddenly felt something shift from around his shoulders. Glancing warily to his side he spotted a large arm draped casually around his thin form. Hesitantly, he turned to his other side to see who was holding him and saw Fred staring right back at him. Scott let out a yelp in surprise and quickly jumped to his feet. "Fred! What the hell were you just doing?" Scott shrieked hysterically at the large boy still stretched out on the grass.

"Me!" Fred yelled back, "I just woke up to find you snuggling into my arm."

"God Fred, don't be gay," Scott whined back and hesitantly looked around to see if anyone had witnessed his embarrassing episode.

It was only then that Scott noticed that there didn't seem to be anyone else in the entire carnival, it looked completely deserted. Cocking his head to the side, he silently wondered where he was and where the rest of the X-Men were. "Don't tell me this is heaven… the food selection is supposed to be better," Fred snorted as he got up and stood beside Scott.

"That's doubtful Fred, this is probably some consequence of that white light. Come on, lets try to find a way out," Scott commanded, once again slipping into his leadership role.

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"What a headache," Pietro muttered in annoyance as he opened bleary eyes to take in his surroundings.

A large clown head was teetering back and forth from a spring directly above him. The clown's eyes were a dangerous blood red and seemed to be staring at Pietro threateningly. "That's freaky," he muttered under his breath, his cool blue gaze traveled throughout the mirrored hallway that seemed to stretch on forever.

He slowly rose to his feet and carefully made his way down the hallway. Seeing no immediate danger in this odd setting he tried to use his mutation to speed down the hallway. However, it wasn't working and no matter how hard he tried to run at his super speed it was all to no avail. He was so caught up in his dilemma he didn't see Wanda until it was too late… too late being when he ran into her. "Wanda," he squeaked out and jumped back a few feet, "fancy seeing you here."

Wanda stared at him unblinking with her angry lavender eyes for a while before raising her arm to call forth her hex power. She soon realized that some force had shut off her mutation and glared menacingly at her brother as she slowly began to stalk towards him. Upon realizing that her power didn't work either, a sly smirk graced Pietro's lips and he snidely remarked, "I'm not afraid of you anymore Wanda… you're nothing without your powers!"

"Really?" Wanda questioned mockingly, glanced at the mirror directly to her right before jabbing her elbowing into the surface with enough pressure to shatter the glass.

Pietro stood absolutely still in a state of shock, 'She's completely INSANE!' his mind shouted as he cautiously watched his sister's every move.

Wanda stared at the glass pieces on the floor before selecting the largest shard of glass and gripping it steadily in her hand before raising her vengeful gaze to rest on Pietro's terrified one. "I hate you and our father with every fiber of my being and hope that I can play some part in both of your demises. And I think this is the perfect situation to get my revenge against you for letting father lock me up in that mental hospital," Wanda spat in fury before raising the shard of glass like a dagger and menacingly approached Pietro's trembling figure.

Staring at his crazed sister and the glass shard, Pietro quickly turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction of his sister… his very life depended on it. Whatever that bright light was, it placed him in a horrible nightmare.

"That's right, go ahead and run dear brother. Catching you will make this chase all the more sweeter," Wanda muttered under her breath as she followed behind her brother at a steady pace.

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Soft lips urgently pressed against hers as Rogue lay there in a state of darkness. Sighing from the sensation, Rogue blindly reached up with her hands to gently grasp the person's hair to bring his face closer to her own. A strange burning feeling settled at the pit of her stomach, somehow urging her to continue this blissful feeling. Rogue kissed her mysterious lover back harder, using her hands to keep his face as close to her as possible. In her dream-like haze, she could barely feel strong hands slowly moving over her entire body. They explored every curve her body offered before one settled comfortably on her hip while the other slowly made its way to gently grasp the nape of her neck and attempt to pull her even closer against the stranger's muscular body. 'What a dream,' Rogue's mind sighed in pleasurable bliss, 'an here Ah thought that light was going ta kill meh… wait a second, tha warehouse, tha light, Gambit…. ah shit.'

Rogue's eyes snapped open in surprise and she came face to face with Gambit. His tall body was comfortably stretched on top of her and his eyes were still closed as he leaned in to kiss her again. Rogue was about to protest in an outrage when she felt the pad of his thumb slowly trail along her jaw line as his lips once again began to lovingly probe her. Rogue inwardly shrugged and once more responded to his kisses. 'Ah don't know why mah power isn't kicking in and at this point Ah don't care. After all, it's not everyday that Ah get ta kiss someone… Gambit would just have to do,' Rogue reasoned with her mind and she could vaguely hear herself snicker at her own weak excuse.

She snapped out of her thoughts when Gambit's hands once again began roaming. She felt his palm just barely graze the underside of her breast as he slowly began kissing her down the column of her slender neck, the most sensitive area of her body. Rogue tried biting back the moan from escaping her lips but it was too late… it slipped out and the Cajun was beginning to open his eyes. Rogue frantically realized she had to do something quick, there was no way in hell she was letting Gambit think his kisses meant anything to her. She let out a loud shriek and kneed Gambit in the balls before roughly pushing him off of her. Gambit let out a surprised yelp as he rolled off of her body in pain. "What tha hell did yah think yah were doing Gambit," Rogue yelled at Gambit who was still curled up in a tight ball of pain.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Gambit slowly rose to his feet on shaky knees to face the now standing Rogue. "Y' see what Gambit said was true… y' kisses do leave a man weak in de knees," he gave her a painful grin before bending over to place his hands on his knees and draw in deep labored breaths.

"Don't flatter yourself Cajun, under normal circumstances, that type of kissing would have killed you," Rogue snapped in annoyance, inwardly hoping that she didn't hurt him too much.

"Really, den let's try again chere, just so y' can prove that y' re right," Gambit smirked at her from his crouched position before standing straight up and began to approach her with outstretched arms.

"Don't even think about it Gambit," Rogue threatened and started backing up until she ran into a log causing her to fall over backwards.

Rogue fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap, causing her to shoot a dirty look at the immobile log for causing her fall. 'Wait a second… a log?' her mind shouted in confusion.

As if reading her mind Gambit's eyes roamed around the entire area as he nonchalantly offered her a hand to help her up. Not even thinking about what she was doing, Rogue took his hand and used its support to help her stand as she too looked around. The pair was standing on what appeared to be a grassy hill surrounded by a deep forest, miles away from any mode of civilization. "Where tha hell are we Cajun?" Rogue asked uncertainly as she turned to face her "enemy."

"Gambit has no idea chere," he shrugged and glanced in her general direction.

Staring at his face Rogue let out a short gasp as she stared into his eyes. Gambit gave her a quizzical look as she leaned closer to him in order to get a better look. "Cajun… your eyes…" Rogue trailed off as she stared at him.

"Don't tell Gambit dat y' just realized he has devil eyes," Gambit sighed in disbelief before he muttered under his breath, "y' would tink dat after a significant amount of winking dat mon chere would know what Gambit's eyes look like."

"Gambit, yah don't have devil's eyes," she murmured and raised her glove-less hands closer to his face before subconsciously lowering them again, "Ah know what yah eyes looked like, they were beautiful. But yah eyes now… they're brown."

Gambit stared at her with a faint smile on his face as his mind sang out in joy, 'de fille didn't realize dat she just gave Gambit a compliment.' "Chere, Gambit's guess is dat we lost our mutation in dis dream world… dat's why y' lost de white streak in y' hair," Gambit grinned.

Rogue's mouth slightly opened in a surprised "o" at his statement and realized how true it was when she held out the front of her hair to see it was a matching chestnut color with the rest of her hair. She watched as Gambit withdrew a playing card from his trench coat and tried to charge it to no avail. Gambit sensed her gaze and look up at her with a mischievous gaze before smirking, "One more thing ta check… well double check."

Gambit quickly wrapped one arm around her waist to pull her close while the other hand reached out to tenderly cup the side of her face as he leaned down to kiss her. Rogue saw him slowly move down to kiss her and realized he was giving her a chance to escape. Smiling at the cute gesture, her brazen side took over for the Cajun was moving in just too damn slow. Rogue reached up and seized the collar of his trench coat with both hands, and roughly pulled him into a long, deep kiss. She felt Gambit smile against her mouth as he pulled her quickly against his body, allowing her arms to wrap around his back underneath his trench coat, the warmth emitting from his fighting uniform teased her with the thoughts of how his bare back would feel under her searching hands. The couple's passionate kiss slowly ended and Rogue hesitantly pulled herself out of his embrace before grinning, "Well, Ah guess ma power is turned off."

"So it would seem chere," Gambit smirked.

"Well, don't just stand there Cajun, let's get a move on… who knows where tha' exit is," Rogue drew in a deep breath to slow her rapidly beating heart and slowly made her way down the hill.

"Do y' really want t' leave dis place so soon chere?" Gambit questioned as he jogged over to walk next to her and snaked his arm around her waist.

"Don't even think about it Cajun," Rogue scolded and playfully slapped his arm off of her waist, "sorry ta break it ta yah sugah, but ah'm just using yah for yah kisses."

Gambit smiled at her and replied, "Dat's fine wit Gambit chere, Gambit'll always be here ta help a femme (woman) in distress. An since it seems we'll be gettin t' know each other better allow Gambit t' properly introduce himself… Remy LeBeau at your service mademoiselle (miss)."

"Well then Remy," she smiled and liked the way his name sounded as it rolled off her tongue and by judging his sudden hungry expression; he liked the way it sounded as well. She watched him slowly stalk towards her with obviously one purpose in mind, in her nervous anticipation stuttered out, "yah can still call meh Rogue."

"Remy never planned on calling y' anything else chere," he whispered and once more captured her lips with his own; slowly stretching the kisses out so that each kiss sent a shock wave of shivers through her body.

Remy had no idea why he kept having sudden urges to kiss this girl breathless, not that he was complaining, but he normally had more restraint on his emotions. As their kiss deepened, Remy playfully nipped at her bottom lip with his teeth as he pulled her body flush against his, savoring the close contact.

Rogue was at a loss, she hadn't the slightest clue why she didn't have the power to push him away. Her body was on fire, causes the slightest touch of his skin against hers to send pleasurable shivers down her spine. She vaguely felt her leg slide up his side, immediately grabbed by his seemingly waiting hand to pull her even closer to his firm body.

Just as Rogue gathered enough strength to push him away before she knew she wouldn't be able to resist him, Remy began placing soft, light kisses along her throat. 'That's it' her mind sighed, 'Ah'm done for, he went for the neck.' She instinctively tightened her hold on his shoulders as the rest of her body went limp in his arms.

Remy's hand raced up to support Rogue's head, which had somehow fallen backwards in the midst of his kisses. He paused in his exploration of her neck and was going to stop before he lost control when he felt her smooth fingers trail up the side of his face before lightly grasping his hair and lowering his mouth back to her throat as she whispered "Remy."

'Dat's it,' Remy's mind sighed in acceptance, 'dere is no way Remy can stop now after his fille said his name like dat.'

Still cradling her head in one hand, his other hand raced to the curve of her hip to pull her gently against his frame as their two bodies molded together perfectly. Lowering his mouth once more to her silky throat he placed another soft kiss there and then another before his lips traveled back up to her lips. In fact, those kisses could have gone on for a long time if a gruff voice hadn't shouted, "Remove your hands at once from Lady Marie!"

Remy ignored the man because he wasn't kissing a Marie; he was kissing his Rogue. It wasn't until he felt the tip of a blade at the back of his neck that he slowly pulled away from Rogue. Remy's eyes flashed in anger as he surveyed the group of seemingly medieval knights who had surrounded the couple with drawn swords. "Lady Marie, are you alright?" an elderly looking knight asked politely while staring at a very flushed Rogue.

"Sorry ta burst yah bubble sugah but Ah'm not yah Lady Marie," Rogue replied and she looked at all of the men in the group trying to determine if she could fight off all of them.

"Marie," a middle aged, bearded man shouted from his regal position on a black stallion a few feet away from the surrounded couple, "step away from that thief immediately!"

Gambit tightened his grip on Rogue's waist as she turned towards the man on the horse, yelling, "And who tha hell are yah trying ta tell meh what ta do."

"I'm your father," the man dryly replied.

The young couple looked at each other in shock. First the weird scenery, then the medieval knights and now Rogue had a father, who surprisingly had a British accent… something was very wrong.

"Remy don't know about 'y chere, but dat was the last answer Remy be expecting," Remy whispered in Rogue's ear, pulling her closer to his body with one hand as his other hand disappeared into the pocket of his trench coat, searching for his bo-staff. He had a feeling that this situation was going to get ugly.

A/N: Well, that's all for chapter 3. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful reviews. Every time I check my email and see a review alert I can't help but feel a little giddy. I actually just finished chapter 7 (aka the final chapter) and my stories have been getting edited a lot faster… so believe it or not the entire story will be completely published by the end of next week. Hope you are all enjoying this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.