AN: Thanks so much to everyone who favorited and alerted this story! A special shout out to those who reviewed...you know who you are! You guys are freakin' awesome! XD Also please forgive if I messed up Rogue's accent...or kinda lack there of. She's kinda hard to write! XP

Phalanxx: I love X-23's new series too, its why I included her. :)

Jenna: Hopefully how I explained how the X-men found Gambit so quick makes sense...lol

bluecheesemoon: All things will be explained soon...

Ligeila: Don't worry. Gambit will get to kick plenty of ass in this story!

Gumbosgirl: Because Gambit was with the Marauders the last time the X-men saw him.

Okay on with the story!


Chapter Five: Try to Stop This Fire


They are ready for this battle.

It's been five years since the day the mutant baby had escaped them but they had been ready and had been training for the day she would return. It is as their leader had predicted...she would come unexpectedly but they would be ready.

They have gathered their forces and set up a perimeter to make sure that no mutant got out of that townhouse nestled in a normal human neighborhood. The damn freaks thought to hide among the clean humans and failed. They had snipers, foot soldiers, gunners in vans and even some with rocket launchers. In front, in the back, down the block and both directions and even had satellite thanks to the tech heads.

Today they will succeed in wiping out the mutant curse once and for all.


Gambit let Rogue and Mindee inside, closing the door behind them firmly after looking out to see if there were any others. He didn't see any so of course he knew they were out there, hidden from view with orders to come out if he tried to flee.

Rogue and Mindee were in the living room, looking around the room with a relaxed eye. A couch, a few chairs, a fireplace against the south wall and a stocked entertainment center against the west wall next to the door that led to the kitchen. It looked very much like a bachelor pad. Gambit knew they were looking for signs of Dawn but he had kept the place pretty tidy and informal-there was only two pictures of Dawn and him on the first floor. He could maneuver around the two women and put the frames face down before they could notice them.

"So, what do I owe t' dis pleasant surprise?" he asked with a wide grin. "It's not often I get two beautiful femmes like yourselves into my home."

"Really?" Mindee asked. "I was to understand you were quite a ladies man."

"Ah, dose were de days.." Gambit sighed, a hand over his heart. "Well cherie, dat was when I was young and brash. Don' get me wrong I love de ladies, I love em, but after awhile I discovered real love, lost it an' fell in love again and den lost it. Now I think bein' on my own is de best thing for dis old man." He said jumping over the oversized red couch and sat down, spreading his arms over the back, relaxed and calm. Mindee studied him but without her telepathic abilities she couldn't read him.

"Perhaps. But I believe you are lying." Mindee said after a while taking a seat rather primly on one of his overstuffed chairs.

Gambit laughed, throwing his head back before asking the straight forward young woman. "An' what make you t'ink dat?"

"Your vanity. You can't possibly think of yourself as an old man." Mindee replied. "You're only 35 years old."

"Is dat how old I am?" Gambit grinned. "How kind of you t' say dat cherie! I didn't t'ink you knew how t' reach into your seductive side. Thought you girls lost dat part of yourselves. Glad t' see dat just a myth. Let me tell you beautiful, a young woman like you, flattery will get you everywhere." He threw her a wink.

Mindee's cheeks flushed pink, a very uncommon thing and she went stiff at the effect he had on her.

"Remy." Rogue broke in, her tone heavy with warning as she stepped into his line of sight. He conceded and turned his attention to Rogue standing relaxed with her arms crossed near the entertainment center.

He was rather pleased to see though she looked relaxed, the fists she had curled against her chest said otherwise. She was upset about something and he had a feeling that it was because he had purposely ignored her since he let the two of them inside. And the obvious flirting with Mindee, the blonde blue eye beauty she was, right in front of her, an ex-girlfriend was bound to raise some hackles.

He waved his hand at her flippantly. "Go on den, tell Remy why you're here."

She jerked at his resigned tone, one he always used whenever he felt like he was being blamed for something. She couldn't tell if he was playing games with her but she didn't like it. "You know why we're here." she said getting straight to the point. No use in trying to hide anything from him since he had to know why they were there. He had a psychic damper for crying out loud!

"Do I?" he asked.

"Where is the girl Gambit?" she asked pushing away from the wall.

"What girl?"

"Where is Dawn? Where is your—daughter?" Rogue stumbled over the last word and she hoped like hell he missed it but from the quirk of his eyebrow she knew he hadn't.

Gambit paused, looking over at Mindee who huffed offended, "Like you don't already know that you have a damper over this whole block that keeps me from reading your mind and everyone else who lives here."

"At school. Dropped her off myself dis morning." he replied, locking eyes with Rogue. She nodded slowly. He wasn't going to deny it, there was no point. If they had gotten so far along to know Dawn's name then why hide it now? "Why do you ask?"

The tense silence that rose from his question broke as outside the townhouse a car alarm went off, catching them off guard. Rogue walked to the window to check out it out, lifting up the curtain slightly, enough for Gambit to see that it was his car that was flashing and going off.

He frowned slightly before he quickly moved his eyes through the doorway that led to the kitchen and he saw the car keys that he left on the kitchen counter (in plain sight) were gone and give a slight smile. No doubt they were now hanging on the wall next to the basement door and Dawn was out of sight and hopefully on to the next safe house. 'A girl who's just like her papa.' he thought, wiping away his smile as Rogue and Mindee turned their attention to him again.

"Isn't that your car?" Mindee asked.

"I don' know, maybe?" Gambit asked.

"Stop lying Swamp Rat. It is, we ran the plates and had Cypher track it here through the traffic cams when first came looking for ya!" Rogue let go of the curtains. "That's how we found ya in the first place."

"Oh. Really." he nodded. It made sense to him. They were using the same tactic he would have used, admittedly a lot faster than he liked. He cursed silently as he walked to the kitchen to fetch his keys. They were moving faster than he planned and Dawn was alone. She had the plan down in her head thanks to all the drills he put her through but she was just a kid. She wouldn't be able to handle things on her own-

His thoughts broke off when he saw a small X cut into the wall right under the keys. He traced it with his fingers and pulled away some white dust and felt the sharp corners of the cut. It was new and made by something very sharp. He chuckled as he clutch the keys in his fingers, twirling them on a finger as he headed back to the two X-women.

Dawn wasn't alone. She had some very good company that would protect her and keep her hidden until he found them again.

'Laurie, you're a godsend.'


"Whew!" Dawn said as she finished pushing the storage boxes back into place against the concrete wall to hide the fake wall that covered the hatch she and X-23 just crawled through. "That was too close!"

"Indeed. Quick thinking with using the car alarm to cause a distraction for us to escape down to the basement." Laurie commented as she looked around the basement they were in. "Gambit created these hatches for escape didn't he?"

"Uh-huh." Dawn nodded. "Papa created a bunch of things for me in all the places we have. Just in case he said, so I would always have an escape. He paid some money to people to say that they needed to dig up old piping under the neighbors townhouses as an excuse to make these hidden hatches in their basements. They run in both directions to the end of the street. Can't be too careful he said."

She was across the basement, searching the wall for a hidden button, "Aha!" when she found it. She pressed the code in and the fake wall gave away to show the hidden hatch. "Come on Laurie."

"We'll go to the end of the street this way?" Laurie asked as she gently pushed Dawn behind her as she opened the hatch slowly in case there were people and sensing none, she pushed it open all the way. She crawled through.

"Yep." Dawn said as she followed.

"Then we will go to the very end and then enter the street." Laurie said. "From there we'll go to the next safe house to supply ourselves." She looked down at Dawn, sensing the tension under Dawn's cheery demeanor. "Gambit wanted to get you out of the city. He will want to know that you are safe."

"I know." Dawn struggled to brighten her smile. "He's always thinking of me. But he never thinks about himself. What if they take him away? Those people he was talking too?"

Laurie put her hand on Dawn's shoulder. "Then he will escape and come back to you. You know no walls can hold your father when he has someone to get back too."

Dawn giggled, to hide her tears but Laurie smelled the tears anyways. She didn't speak of them as she and Dawn headed to the next hatch. She prayed that Gambit would find his way to Dawn soon. But until then, Laurie will be there for Dawn just as they were for her all those years ago when she needed it.

"Girl, you're some piece o' work." X-23's claws popped out of her hands and she whirled around to face the voice. Even though there was low visibility because of the downpour, she could see clearly. She hid her surprise pretty well she thought when she saw Gambit leaning against the wall, under some cover from the rain with a grin on his face. "I've been trackin' you for ages it seemed."

"Don't be lying Papa." Another voice said, younger and higher pitched than she was used to. A young girl with brown/green eyes poked her head out from behind him, her head covered by a oversized black hood. "We been following you for ten minutes only. Hi, my name is Dawn."

"Laurie. Why were you following me?" X-23 demanded, pulling her claws back in. The two didn't give off any dangerous vibes and she wasn't going to leave her claws out against a little girl. Against this Dawn. Gambit still wore his brown trench coat but the uniform was gone to be replaced with an all black look. Dawn she noticed, bore the same look with only a bright pink wool gloves on her hands.

"We saw you alone. Thought we oughta come over an' say hello." Gambit said pushing off against the wall."Didn't think I'd see you wanderin' wit'out de X-men runnin' around."

"We parted ways." X-23 replied, turning away from them, her wet hair heavy against her back. "I don't have anything to do with them now or in the near future."

"Sounds good. I plan to keep it dat way myself." Gambit said walking towards X-23, his hand on Dawn's shoulder. "So, want some company?"

"No." X-23 started to walk away from them, not slowing down when she heard small steps hurrying to catch up with her.

"No one wants to be alone Laurie." Dawn said at her side. "You don't have to face this thing that you're doing alone. We can be there for you."

"I am better off alone."

"No you're not. You need someone Laurie." Dawn stopped, as Laurie continued walking. She shouted. "I need someone Laurie!"

X-23 stopped and looked over her shoulder to see Dawn standing there, her hands in fists at her side and her eyes firmly on the ground as her shoulders shook. Her hood had fallen back and the rain fell on her exposed head. "I only have Papa but you have no one. Sometimes Papa needs to go away and-I don't know what you're doing right now but, I can feel that you need someone with you to do whatever it is that you're doing. You need answers."

Dawn looked up at X-23, the rain running down her face. "Papa said that you're a good person who had bad things happen to you. You're just like me. You're just like him. You're like us and we don't have to be alone anymore."

X-23 frowned as she turned to the girl, studying her. She was so young, no more than six years old and yet she spoke like she had experienced something dark and terrible. She bent down to stare Dawn in the eyes and found what she was looking for.

"Yes."

Dawn's face lit up and she turned to Gambit. "She said yes!" She quickly ran up to Laurie and grabbed her hand, small fingers intertwining with her own larger ones. "Yes."

"How many more houses until we reach the end of the street?" Laurie asked as she closed the hatch behind her as Dawn skipped to the next one, carefully moving the stuff out of the way without making it look it was moved. 'Gambit really did train her well.' Laurie thought as Dawn keyed in the code and stepped back for Laurie to take lead.

"Five more houses but we gotta be careful because one of the houses turned their basement into a game room for the kids." Dawn said, crawling behind Laurie after the all clear. "They're usually playing some kind of game and turn the sound up loud so we could just slip right through without them noticing. Sometimes Papa and I just sit in the back when they play movies. It's funny."

Laurie smirked. 'Leave it to Gambit to teach Dawn the fun of sneaking around.'


"What's goin' on Gambit?" Rogue demanded. "Why was your car alarm goin' off?"

"I have no clue Rogue." Gambit replied as he pushed away from the window, his keys still in hand. "Sometimes de alarm goes off for no reason. I bought it cheap an' had it installed by less trustworthy folks y' know."

"Damnit Gambit, stop playing games! Stop spinning us 'round with lies! This is serious! Cerebra has blown a fuse after detecting a new mutant. All odds are that it is Dawn who had manifested. She needs to go to Utopia for her own safety."

Gambit whirled on Rogue. "No she doesn't! She's never goin' t' dat hole you call home as long as I'm alive!"

Rogue stepped back at the heat in his voice and the fierce glowing in his red eyes. "Remy."

"You t'ink I don' know what you're up t' but I do. So she's de first mutant t' have come since de baby five years ago. Big whoop. But we know what happened back den." Gambit backed away, his chest heaving as if he had run for a very long time until he hit the couch. He clenched the cushions in his fingers and his head fell forward so his eyes were staring at the ground. "I saw what happened when a mutant manifests. I was dere remember? Dawn...she doesn't deserve what happened t' her...not again. I made a promise t' her. I plan on keepin' it."

"De X-men can find another child t' paint a giant bulls-eye on. Dawn is stayin' as far from de X-men as I can get her." Gambit looked up, his head turned towards the window. "So you can all just-" His eyes widen and he ran forward, grabbing Rogue and Mindee by their wrists and pulled hard as a rocket crashed through the front window and exploded.


Laurie held Dawn in her arms as they felt the tremors beneath their feet and over their heads. Dawn clutched Laurie's arm in her hands, her eyes wide as she looked up at Laurie. "What was that?"

Laurie shook her head before picking Dawn up in her arms, not a small feat considering Dawn had grown since she had last picked her up a year ago. She ran up the stairs to the last house they had reached, ignoring the sounds of surprise from the owners as she slammed the basement door open and ran out the back door to the alley. A few others had sense to escape their own townhouses and were in the alley as well, running away from the source of the explosion.

Dawn held on to Laurie, her chin tucked over her left shoulder as she looked wide eyed back at the black smoke floating up into the sky. She held on tighter to Laurie as she figured out where the source of the smoke came from, breathing in a shuddering breathe as they turned on to the street and she lost sight of her house.

'Why?'

'Why?'

'Why...me?'