Chapter 7

Gambit groaned and slowly came to. The first thing he noticed was that he was bound in an upright position by his arm and legs to a flat surface behind him. The second thing he noticed was that he was in some sort of alcove. The walls were dark grey, panelled horizontally, and seemed to continued behind him as well, although he couldn't confirm that. Through the circular opening in front of him he could just see a short set of stairs headed down. There appeared to be a single, large round door hanging off the left side.

On a platform on the other side of the stairs, he could see Marrow and Erg now dressed in Purifier uniforms without the rank bands. Marrow's already had holes it in from her uncontrolled bone growth. It was then that Gambit realised that he was also dressed. Marrow and Erg were also bound upright. A spherical object with flashing lights sat on a table between them. To the right there were a couple of men by a console.

Gambit turned his head to appraise what was binding his left wrist. At first he was confused, but then his confusion turned to horror as his mind comprehended what he was seeing. There was a metal band around his wrist which was firmly attached to the metal, vertical panel behind him. They hadn't bothered with a lock: they'd just soldered him into place. He turned his head to the other side, and then checked his feet.

He swallowed hard and reminded himself that a lock wouldn't really help him without his lockpicks anyway. Clearly the only course of action was to charge up the bands and...

His powers were gone.

He couldn't charge it.

He couldn't escape.

No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Gambit swallowed again, and then again. He felt like he was going to be sick. He couldn't escape. He was stuck in this place with no way to free himself. It was Stryker, Sinister and Jessica all over again.

Helplessly, unmindful of any injury he might cause himself, Gambit began tugging at the restraints, knowing all the while it was useless. He pulled and pulled and tried to fit his hand through, but all to no avail.

"Ahh," said one of the Purifiers. "So, you're awake."

Gambit looked at him, knowing there was a wild expression on his face. He kept his mouth firmly shut though. He didn't trust his voice not to give his rising panic away.

"Hmm," said the other Purifier. "Then the other two should wake soon."

"You've probably noticed your powers don't work," said the first. "We have a dampening field in place. Don't worry... we'll turn it off soon enough."

Gambit didn't like his tone of voice. He especially didn't like the chuckle that came from the lips of the second. The second took Marrow's chin and held up her head.

"Ahh, you are awake," he said, sounding pleased. "Then your friend will be up also... ahh yes, trying to play doggo? How quaint."

"What do you want with us, flatscan?" Marrow demanded.

"As far and you and your eyepatch wearing boy here," the second Purifier said, smirking at Erg, "are concerned; death. We just thought you might like to see your friend off."

"Yes," said the first as he continued his work at the console. "After all, even with our advances in technology, it's still a long way to Genosha. I'm sure that when he explodes over the capital city he wants to remember you two as you were when last he saw you: with your blood spilled on the ground."

"Trust me," said Erg. "If anyone's blood's gonna be spilled, it's gonna be yours."

Marrow was about to add her own two cents when she realise something: although she couldn't grow any more bones, the bone she'd start growing earlier to cut through the leather straps was still in her arm and it was in perfect range of the straps now binding her. Slowly, so not to attract attention, she began working away at the strap.

"I have to say," mused the second, "these power dampeners are very useful. It's just a shame they have such a small range."

"Yes, the psionic dampeners have a far better range," the first agreed. "And it's most ... convenient that the power dampeners can be reversed."

"Indeed," said the second with a broad smirk at Gambit. "We were most impressed with what security footage we collected from your little attack on our base in Illinois. Whatever it was that you did with those missiles, you increased their explosive power at least ten fold. Good thing our little delivery system is chock-full of missiles, just waiting for you to use your demon-spawn abilities on them. The power amplifier will take care of that."

"I wonder if the amplifier will also increase the explosive potential?"

"Mon dieu," Gambit said, his eyes wide with sick horror, "you're going t' use moi t' wipe out Hammer Bay."

"And here we were thinking it would be years before we could accomplish that," the second said smugly. "I hope the satellite in orbit gets good photos."

"And we're just about ready," said the first Purifier.

Marrow finally got through the strap. She grabbed the spherical thing on the table - which was just within range - and hurled it at the second Purifier, who was closest. Marrow found her powers were working again as the sensitive device broke against the Purifier's head.

So that was what the dampener looked like. How convenient.

The Brotherhood entered the Purifier base over land. Instead of holiday attire, they were in their uniforms, so it was little surprise that a small force greeted them on arrival. The Brotherhood were momentarily taken by surprise as the Purifiers turned out to be much better fighters than they had anticipated. Even after Quicksilver relieved them of their weapons, they still proved to be rather good at hand to hand, powers or no.

Skids' personal forcefield protected her from harm when three Purifiers were on her. Their attacks all 'skidded' off her shield, while she had little problem making them pay for their trouble. Domino took out the stragglers with uncanny accuracy. Havok blew Purifiers away with concussive blasts left right and centre. Pyro cackled as creatures of flame ensured not one Purifier could lay a hand on him without getting burned.

Together they fought their way into the base.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Rogue flew into the sea entrance with Wolverine and Jubilee as passengers. Iceman was ice-sliding to the same locale with Shadowcat and Colossus. They arrived one after the other and Wolverine made short work of the door. The X-men were also in uniform, and both teams were also equipped with gas masks just in case.

There was a delay before they encountered any Purifiers. Jubilee blinded those attackers and Iceman made things slippery for them in between blows in the corridor. Rogue, Wolverine and Colossus generally kicked butt.

When this first battle completed, Rogue took a deep breath and then absorbed the nearest Purifier. She found it distasteful to end up with any anti-mutant psyches in her head, but the need to find Gambit, Marrow and Erg outweighed her reluctance.

"Oh crap," Rogue said as soon as she broke contact, and then continued, making sure the Brotherhood could hear her over the comm link as well. "They discovered Remy could increase the explosive potential of the missiles and recognised him when he was here the other day. They've got their 'delivery system' full of missiles, Remy and a power amplifier so he'll have no choice but ta super-charge the missiles. Their delivery system will get ta Hammer Bay in five hours and it's going ta be launched any time now."

"You know where they're keeping him?" asked Wolverine.

"This way," Rogue said, running down the hall, only to be confronted by another team of Purifiers. "Ah have no time for this! Get out of muh way!"

The rest of the X-men stopped and stared while Rogue took out twelve Purifiers by herself in record time.

"Did she...?" Iceman began.

"Yep," Wolverine replied. "Let this be a lesson to you: never get between that woman and her man."

On the other side of the base, Quicksilver turned to his teammates.

"Mind if I go on ahead?" he asked. "If Rogue is right -"

"Go," said Domino.

She knew all too well that Hammer Bay had the highest population in all of Genosha. If the Purifiers succeeded, there was no telling how many casualties there would be.

"Get. Me. Out. Of. Here," Gambit said tersely.

The two Purifiers were on the ground, probably dead, knowing Marrow and Erg. Erg was inspecting the delivery system.

"Sorry man," said Erg. "I can't find the dampener."

"Erg," Marrow said from the console, "come here a second."

Erg stepped out and Gambit couldn't stop a little whimper coming out. He hated being trapped and restrained. If Erg heard him though, he paid him no mind and joined Marrow at the console. She smirked at him as he peered over.

"Waddya think?" she asked.

"Hey, you found out how to redirect it?" Erg asked. "Nice. Chicago, huh?"

"Well, we know there's still that Purifier base in the city," Marrow pointed out.

"What the hell?" Gambit demanded.

"Are you sure though?" asked Erg, pointing his thumb at Gambit. "He has helped us out a lot over the years -"

Marrow looked at him. Erg shifted his feet, cleared his throat and finally said: "Well, it's your call. I'll just wait outside, shall I? You know and... keep guard."

"You do that," Marrow said.

"Sarah! Erg!" Gambit demanded.

There was no reply, however, until after Erg shut the door behind him. Marrow tapped away at the console.

"Did you think I was stupid, Remy?" Marrow asked.

"What?" he asked, finding himself tugging at the restraints again. "No."

"I know you were never a Morlock," she went on. "So one does have to ask: just why was it that you were in the sewers at the same time the Massacre was going on?"

The sick feeling in his stomach seem to overflow and Gambit felt like he was going to throw up. His breathing started becoming laboured and he shook his head, unable to say anything.

"That's what I thought," Marrow said in response to his silence. "You never saved my life, you just spared it. You were with the Marauders."

"Sarah -"

"Shut up!" Marrow practically screamed at him. "I don't want to hear any more of your silver-tongued lies, Gambit! You murdered my family!"

"Marrow, you can't do this -"

"The hell I can't," Marrow said, her hand slamming down on the launch controls.

"Hate me if you must, but another massacre -"

"No! I'm sick and tired of the flatscans killing us," Marrow shouted as the delivery system door began to close. "It's their turn now."

The door closed, sealing Gambit in darkness. He felt and heard the vibration and hum of the engines as the delivery system took off. He yanked and tugged at the restraints, his skins being rubbed raw in the process.

And then he felt his powers come back. He could feel a nipping at his energy, as if something was trying to drag the charge out of him and he knew in the moment that if he tried to blow up his restraints, he'd only end up blowing off his hands and feet as well. His breathing was heavy and he had to make a concerted effort to calm himself down.

"Remy, think," he told himself. "Okay so Sarah wants yo' dead, dat's... dat's... well, she's hardly the only one. But I ain't going t' go out taking the population o' Chicago wit' moi so I gotta stop dis t'ing somehow."

"Sarah! Erg!" Rogue exclaimed as she reached the hallway outside the launch bay. "You're all right! Where's Remy? Did they launch already?"

Marrow and Erg looked at each other. At the same time, Quicksilver joined them.

"Sorry," said Marrow. "They've launched already. You're too late."

"No," Rogue insisted. "No, it's never too late. Quicksilver... do you mind if Ah borrow ya?"

This was going to hurt.

Since Gambit couldn't blow the restraints off him without over charging them, then clearly he was going to have to blow himself off the restraints. He let his power leak out of his body and felt the amplifier take that little bit of energy and multiply it. He sent the energy across the panel to which he was bound, leaned as far forward as he could and released the charge.

Bang! Thwack!

Gambit groaned as he hit the sealed door and wasted a few seconds while he fought off the dizzy spell caused by the impact. The back of the Purifier uniform he'd been dressed in was reduced to rags as a result of the explosion and he was peripherally aware he'd been burned although he couldn't feel any pain just yet.

He could feel the amplifier sucking away harder at his power and try as he might, more and more energy was leached out of him. The room started to glow with magenta light that got brighter by the second. Obviously, blowing open the door and jumping out wasn't an option.

He turned and looked around. His eyes fell on the panelling. If he recalled correctly, the panels on the walls were slightly longer than the missiles that they had been manufacturing. His eyes lit up, and not just because of all that kinetic energy he was leaking. He pressed his hands against the nearest panel and to his delight, discovered that it was capable of sliding across. He pushed the panel aside and inside he found a missile and a lever conveniently labelled "manual launch". The space taken up by the missile was just large enough for him, so he pulled the lever.

Immediately, the outside panel fell out and the missile moved outside. There was only a moment's pause before the missile fired up and launched. As soon as it cleared, Gambit rolled out through the hole and went into free fall.

After Gambit had fallen some distance, he extended his arms in front of him. He had no idea if this would even work to slow his decent, but he was never one to simply accept his fate. He charged up as many air molecules as he could and let them blow. He did it again and again, keeping his eyes closed tight to avoid the flash of the explosion blinding him. It could have been just his imagination, but he thought he could feel his body stop just for a second with every explosion.

It was hard not to miss the giant ball of magenta light in the sky and Rogue flew straight towards it.

"Remy!" she cried out as she reached the delivery system and at the same time, spotted the hole.

With Quicksilver's powers at her disposal, it had been an easy matter to catch up with the delivery system. It was just as easy to appraise the matter quickly: hole in the system, Gambit was no longer inside - a quick look around below and there he was, just behind her.

Rogue took hold of the delivery system. Without Gambit to sustain the charge, there was nothing to keep it from releasing. Ms Marvel's super strength gave her all the skill she needed to hurl the delivery system right out of the atmosphere as if it was no heavier than a baseball. She turned almost instantly and zoomed towards Gambit, snatching him up in her arms.

"Chére!" he exclaimed. "About time yo' got here. I thought I was going t' have t' do all the work m'self."

The truth was he hadn't been expecting her at all, but boy, was he glad.

"Ah thought Ah'd make ya sweat a bit," Rogue replied tolerantly as she flew them back to the Keys.

Gambit chuckled.

The teams exchanged stories over a much appreciated lunch. Psylocke, now wide awake and back to her usual self, listened with interest about everything that when on. While Rogue had been rescuing Gambit, the Brotherhood and the X-men had destroyed the Purifier base and sent the Purifiers running for the lives (the ones who weren't killed by those who had no problem with that kind of thing). Marrow, and Erg to a lesser extent, kept as far away from Gambit as possible and avoided his gaze.

Fortunately, the only injuries amongst them were minor. Gambit had red raw rings around his wrists and ankles where he had wore off the skin tugging at the restrains. He had a number of burns over his body as well from explosions being far too close to his body. The worst ones were over his hands, arms, and the backs of his lower legs. There would probably be some scarring in those places once he had healed, but for the most part the scorching was akin to bad sunburn.

His boxers by some miracle, actually escaped intact. As this had been the pair that Rogue had once bought him, Gambit declared to her that they were officially his lucky boxers.

"There's something I don't get though," said Domino. "Rogue, you said you had to fly inland to rescue Remy, but... why would it go inland at all? Genosha's in the opposite direction."

"Ah know," Rogue replied with a shrug. "Ah have no idea what that was about. All Ah know is that was the direction that the tracking system was picking it up in. Thanks for the loan, by the way, Pietro. Ah never would have made it in time otherwise."

Pietro shrugged. "No problem."

Marrow quietly approached Gambit where he sat on the beach, looking out at the waves. She took a deep breath and sat down beside him.

"You didn't tell them," she stated.

There was silence for a time, and finally Gambit replied:

"When I was nineteen, almost twenty, my powers started going out of control. I was blowing up everything, clothes, food, stuff just by looking at it, overcharging everyt'ing wit'out even trying. My own power was killing me so... so I went t' Sinister 'cause he was able t' help me," he said. "I didn't know den what type o' man I'd gotten myself in debt t'. Amongst other t'ings, I was sent t' recruit the Marauders. My final job was t' lead dem int' the sewers unseen by the Morlocks. I didn't know until it was too late what was planned."

"Remy -" Marrow began.

Gambit held up his left hand to silence her, and with his right pulled out a small, round grey container.

"In here is the part o' my brain dat Sinister had t' remove in order fo' moi t' control my powers. I keep it wit' me t' remind myself dat sometimes the smallest t'ings have the highest prices," he told him. "I remember very well the day I received dis. It was the day o' the Massacre. I told him dat dis was the last, don't call, don't write, dat I was out o' the game. I said 'As o' t'day yo' can't afford me no more'."

There was a bitter laugh as Gambit put the small container back into his pocket.

"Do yo' know why Sinister wanted the Morlocks killed?" he asked her.

"That's one question I've never been able to answer," Marrow admitted.

"Because he believed the Morlocks were not'ing more dan a 'waste o' genetic material'."

Marrow spluttered indignantly.

"Yo' have every right t' be angry wit' moi," Gambit went on, cutting into her tirade before she could get very far. "Mebbe we should have talked about dis sooner, I don't know, but what yo' did t'day... Fine, yo' want t' kill me, fine. Dat I can get over. Yo' sure as hell aren't the first and yo' won't be the last. But sending me t' blow up Chicago? Thousands o' people would have died, Marrow. Yo' wanted t' use me t' slaughter more people. Yo' wanted t' kill far more people dan ever died in the Morlock tunnels."

"Hey, the flatscans have been killing my people for years," Marrow retorted defensively.

"Dere would have been mutants in Chicago too," Gambit replied mildly. "And I know dat Kitty's family lives dere. But hey, what do yo' care? They're just collateral damage, necessary sacrifices required t' rid the world o' a few thousand wastes o' genetic material."

"I'm nothing like him!" Marrow exploded. "How dare you compare me to that monster!"

Gambit stood up.

"Our debt is settled, Marrow," he said. "Dis is the last."

"No, Remy -"

"Don't call, don't write. I'm out o' dis game."

"I'm not a monster!"

"As o' today yo' can't afford me no more."