Thank you smearedliner and rogue1984 for the reviews! And never fear -- you shall find no "Ryro" fic here!

kmf's stuff: No, this is not a Ryro fic! Remy, after all, is the one who found her. But that's not important. This is the end of our first story. Expect our next one soon! Probably tomorrow if we have enough motivation to get it up by then.

curt's crap: Ah, first one down. And I grew up with the cartoons... If you have Rogue, you have to have dear Remy. And Remy isn't complete without Rogue.

-----w-e---a-r-e---t-h-e---n-a-m-e-d---a-n-d---w-e---a-r-e---k-n-o-w-n-----

Epilogue

She hurt. The pain was centralised between her shoulders, but it radiated down throughout her body. She moaned when she tried to move, pain lancing through her.

"Hey now, p'tite cherie. Don' move so much." The voice was deep and soft, the drawl comfortingly reminescent of the family and home she had run away from down South. Rogue opened her eys, not able to help her gasp. She was surprised when it was only met with a small, crooked smile.

"I'm...I'm sorry." Odd how being around someone from the same neck of the backwoods as yourself emphasised the accent that had become less pronounced. But it came back full of glory -- her "I"s more like "Ah"s.

"No need, ma chere. I know my eyes ain't exactly whatcha want t' wake up n see first thing," he responded. "You ain't from 'round here, neither, eh?"

Slowly, she sat up, the man offering her a hand and helping her. "N -- no, I...I'm not." She looked around, completely at a loss. She was in an abandoned building, she gathered, but where? Who was this man who was being so kind to her, that made her feel so at ease?

"Where you from then, ange?"

She looked up at that. The man was leaning against the wall, looking over at her. His glowing red irises set in black made it hard to read his eyes, but she didn't get the feeling he meant her harm. He seemed to care a lot, for some odd reason.

"I'm from Mississippi. You're Cajun, huh?"

"You a smart one, cherie."

"Where am I? Why are you here?" The haze she had woken in had faded and she was highly alert.

"Slow down, p'tite. No need to get scared. You in New York, now."

She groaned.

"Take it you's tryin' t' leave here, huh?" He shook his head. "Don' it always work dat way? But you with John Allerdyce's team --" He stopped at her expression. "I take it now you done heard a him."

"He fuckin' betrayed us!" she couldn't help but burst out. John had always put her on edge -- what with being the trying kind of person he was. But he had left to join Magneto and his Brotherhood. He had turned against them... But who was she to condemn? She wasn't even considered a mutant anymore.

"What's wrong, belle?"

"Nothin'. Just...just a lot of old memories." And uncertainty of the present, not to mention the future.

"Understandable, den. So I'm bettin' you wanna know ma name, den, eh?"

She actually hadn't even thought to ask. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes. He extended a hand, which she took and they shook hands.

"Dey call me Gambit."

"Rogue."

"Nice name. I...I guess I'm gon' leave you alone, give ya some time to adjust n all..." He headed towards the door to exit the small room.

"Marie."

"Huh?" He turned back around, and she was glad. He pushed back a fall of longish auburn hair from his face.

"My name...it's Anna Marie Raven." It felt good to finally say her name again. So she'd changed the last name... But the first part was more than anyone but her family and herself knew.

The man smiled. "Remy. Remy LaBeau. See ya after a while, Marie." And with that he left.

-------------

John had never felt so needed before, and the concept, quite frankly, scared him. But he had resolved to stick around. He had seen Remy carry Rogue back to their 'home' and that had sparked a guilty feeling in his gut. He had decided it would be wrong for him to leave.

He had decided that it would be wrong to leave Remy, who had saved him and become a friend, or at least an ally, and it would be even more wrong to leave Rogue a second time. She had been a good friend and though she got on his nerves more times than not, he couldn't deny it.

The only thing he could do after the battle was sit back and smirk at Remy, who he could already see taking a liking to the girl he had saved. So, he would stay and lead the resistance. After all, he thought to himself, somebody had to.

-------------

Coverage of their little drop-in/assassination was everywhere. And the mortals where speaking out -- loud and obnoxiously. But they made it clear how they saw it: "This is war; we're going to rid the world of your kind."

And to that, the mutants' silent response was: "Well, if you want a war, you've got it."

(The lyric in the page break is from "Image of the Invisible" by Thrice.)

-Cue playing Disturbed's "Voices" as "credits" roll-