Disclaimer: I am making no money from this.

A/N: To Certh who commented on the French in my last chapter- my French is lousy (so is my English but that's another story), hence I use the Internet which is about as accurate as…something not very accurate. Well volunteered though- next time I shall just message you instead!!!

This is the last chapter of NATWWAL, and I'm amazed at how much interest this story has had. Thanks so much to everyone for reading. As I said in the story description, this was written so Corrinth and I can use Origins: Wolverine as part of our timeline. Consequentially if you're interested there are plenty more Gambit-based stories on my profile page. My current favourite is 'Fallen', which I re-read recently and was rather pleased with!

P.S. Does anyone know where I got this title from? Ten points if you can remember it from the film!

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

06 – Epilogue

There was a knock at the door of Professor Xavier's private office. Logan didn't wait for an answer; he entered anyway with a cigar clamped firmly in his mouth. It wasn't as if the Professor didn't know who it was. Xavier had promised to help him try to recover his lost memories, fifteen years after whatever event had stolen them from him. Now that he had recovered from 'loaning' his powers to a mortally injured Rogue on Liberty Island, Logan was hoping they could start to make progress. The Professor smiled as Logan entered and was about to say something when the telephone on his mahogany desk suddenly rang.

Xavier frowned, bidding Logan sit down as with his left hand he reached out to pick up the receiver. Logan saw a micro-expression cross the Professor's face, a tint of disgust and regret. Then it was gone, and Xavier was greeting the caller with an impassive tone of voice.

"Christopher, I have not heard from you in a long time. What can I do for you?"

On the other end of the call in France, the man named Christopher bit his lip. He had been one of Xavier's first students, in the same class as Cyclops and the White Queen. The survivors of Three Mile Island had a lot to be grateful to Xavier for. Still, Christopher could not quite forgive Xavier for casting him out, a punishment for letting his burgeoning powers destroy another mutant.

"It is good to hear your voice Professor, how are Scott and the others?" both men knew that Christopher did not care how Cyclops was. The pair had never seen eye to eye, even before the incident with Bishop.

"They are well," Xavier replied.

"And the feral, Logan, has he found his way to you yet?" asked Christopher. Xavier froze, trying not to look at Wolverine. Logan was oblivious; he had stood again and was browsing a bookshelf full of college yearbooks. He couldn't work out who they could belong to, Jean perhaps? They certainly weren't the Professor's as the dates were all too recent. Christopher interpreted the silence at the end of the line for confusion. "You forget Professor that timelines run through my fingers like threads. It must be past time for him to come to you."

"Yes," replied Charles brusquely. "Yes, indeed."

"Does he have his memories? Or are they still lost?"

"Don't you know?" Xavier replied, his patience evaporating. "I would have thought you could tell. What do you want Christopher?"

"Your help," Christopher admitted. "I need your help Professor. There, I've said it."

"With what?" Charles asked.

"Go to Cerebro and I will show you," said Christopher, then he hung up.

Xavier hesitated before he put the handset back in its cradle. Logan turned around at the sound of the click, one eyebrow raised in a silent question.

"I apologise Logan, I am required elsewhere. A former student of mine has got himself into difficulties and I dare not ignore his plea for help, for all our sakes."

"What do you mean?" said Logan.

"Christopher has the ability to read timelines, even going into the future," replied Charles as he turned his wheelchair and headed towards the door. "He can see how things fit together, relationships and events. Once in a while he has met an individual who was susceptible to the influence of this power, and he has been able to move them from one point in the timeline to another."

"Time travel," Logan was incredulous.

"Precisely," Xavier replied. Logan kept pace with the Professor as they headed for the lower levels of the mansion. "There was a student here named Bishop who could absorb the powers of others and feed it back as raw energy. He and Christopher became friends. Christopher discovered that he could make Bishop travel through time. For a while they experimented without my knowing, but Bishop would always come back. When Bishop started to change, to obsess about travelling through time, I was forced to act and discipline Christopher for the use of his powers. I did not act soon enough. Christopher relented to Bishop's plea and sent him on one last trip. Bishop never returned. Shortly after that Christopher left the mansion and I have not heard from him in close to ten years."

"Until today," Logan finished for the Professor. They had reached the doors of Cerebro and Logan stood back. "You think he's done it again? Sent someone on a magical mystery tour?"

"I am certain of it," Xavier replied. The Cerebro doors welcomed the Professor and he passed through. Logan let him go. The doors closed between them and the lights lit up along the gangway to the Cerebro console. Xavier moved forwards to take the helmet and place it on his brow. At once the lights shifted, and it was the work of moments for Xavier to locate his former student. Despite being in Nice, Christopher could have been standing next to the Professor in Westchester.

"Just so you know," Christopher said straight away. "I haven't touched my powers in this way for ten years."

"But you have used your powers," Xavier told him bluntly. "I have heard about your gambling problem Christopher."

"How can it be a problem when you always win," Christopher was dismissive. "A man has to live Professor."

"And now you have slipped back into sending other people through time," Charles said. "You promised me you would never do that again, not after what happened to Bishop."

"I didn't think I could, do you know how rare it is to find someone who is capable of being influenced by my powers and sent through time? It doesn't matter anyway, this time I had no choice but to act. I remembered him Professor. I remembered seeing him when I was just a kid locked in a cell on Three Mile Island. When I saw him today he hadn't changed at all, and I knew then that the timeline was telling me I had to send him back."

"Who did you send?" Xavier asked. He reached with his telepathy to find the man Christopher had affected. The image formed in the centre of the Cerebro chamber, in front of Xavier and the mental projection of Christopher. A young man sat shirtless at an old dining table. Bruises covered his arms and side, mottling his pale skin black and blue. There was a burn on his back which had blistered, but he didn't seem troubled by it. He was using a laptop computer, and all around him were scattered pages of lined paper covered in handwritten notes. Xavier turned the image around so he could see the young man's face. He gasped as events from fifteen years ago replayed in Xavier's mind. "Je ne suis pas censé être là. I'm sorry. Take care o' the kids."

"You know him," Christopher whispered. "You recognise him too."

"Indeed I do," replied Charles. "Fifteen years ago I offered him a place here at the mansion. He replied that he did not belong here. At the time it did not make sense to me, but he was adamant so I did not press him. Now I understand."

"Damn it," murmured Remy quietly. He turned from the laptop and started to shuffle through some of the papers. Xavier frowned.

"He's trying to figure it out," Christopher told Xavier. "Bishop did the same thing, obsessed about finding some record of what he had done in the past. Something about the time travel messes with your memory. Bishop said when he was back in time it took him a long while to work out who he was. When he got back, Bishop always wanted to make sure what had happened, had happened. Our friend here is trying to find out of he really did crash a 'plane into the ocean, or whether there was a cover-up to hide what happened on Three Mile Island. It will destroy him Professor; I don't want that to happen. I owe him too much. We all do. Scott, Emma and the rest. Just as much as we owe Wolverine…"

"What do you want me to do?" asked Charles.

"Take the memories," Christopher replied. "Make it so it never was for him. Otherwise it will consume him completely."

"Your power has shown you this?"

"Yes," Christopher hissed. "If you don't help me his life is as good as over."

"Alright," Xavier agreed reluctantly, "leave me. I will do what I must."

Christopher faded from the room, leaving only Charles and Gambit. Gently Xavier applied a small amount of pressure to the younger man's mind. #You don't need to do this,# Xavier told him calmly. At the same time he guided Gambit's hand, closing the webpage he was looking at. #Some things are better forgotten,# Xavier continued, using Remy to clear the browser history and cookies from the computer, #Let it go.#

Slowly forgetting the events of the last few months, Remy gathered up the pages of notes he had made and shuffled them into a pile. As the computer shut down, the Professor calmly employed Gambit's mutant ability. The papers started to glow fuchsia and orange. Then, on the night breeze from the open window, the paper disintegrated in Remy's hands. The Cajun thief blinked, opening his fingers as the last fragments disappeared. What had he just been doing?

"Rem?" Blaze was stood in the doorway from the bedroom, clutching a white sheet to herself whilst half asleep. Her hair was wild, her eyelids heavy and her mascara was smudged under her lashes. The sheet did little to cover her nakedness, but she didn't seem to notice. "What are you doing?"

"I…" Gambit looked at the laptop and found he couldn't remember. "I don't know."

Blaze shook her head slightly, bewildered. Then she turned and went back to bed. Gambit stared at the black laptop screen again for a moment, before closing the screen and following his girlfriend into the other room. They had a big day tomorrow, a job to complete in Nice and then they were due in Paris the day after. As he climbed into bed besides Blaze who was already sleeping, his last thought was 'I could really use a 'plane…"

The End…

(…and yes, I did mean to leave Blaze with her memories of Gambit's adventure, just in case…)