Author's Note: Holy-Background-Dump Batman! This actually was supposed to be part of the last chapter but it went on longer than expected so that's why these two chapters are a bit odd in their construction. And for those of you worried that I'm spending all the time on Gambit's origin story, don't worry, Rogue isn't going to get off the hook that easily.

Thank you for reading! Love ya'll!

Chapter Nineteen

Home of Robert Lord

Gambit continued his story, "Day of da wedding came…"

Remy and Bella Donna kissed each other soundly to the applause of the Thieves and Assassin's gathered in the Cathedral. Over the past year the two had gotten closer and closer, Remy falling deeply in love with the golden goddess who had captured his attention so long ago.

During the outdoor reception in the Park, Remy and Bella Donna got separated as various friends and family congratulated the couple and the peace their marriage symbolized. Remy and Henri managed to skip away to the outskirts to talk, married man to married man.

"LeBeau," a voice shouted, several men stalking over to the brothers.

Remy rolled his eyes, "Julien, any further insults you'd like to throw at me today?"

"What my sister sees in a piece of thieving trash like you I shall never understand," Julien said through gritted teeth.

"Come on mon ami," Remy grinned, nothing could ruin his mood, "you need better material dan dat, something with a little more pizzazz."

"You haven't insulted his questionable grooming habits yet," Henri offered.

"Hey, I shaved today," Remy defended himself, then shrugged, "but yeah, dat's good, I like dat, nice solid foundation to start on."

Julien was not amused, "Remy LeBeau, seeing as you're now technically part of da the Assassin's Guild by marriage, I challenge you to a duel under Guild Law."

Remy tilted his head quizzically then glanced over at his brother, "I think someone drank too much of da spiked punch."

"Da punch has been spiked?" Henri asked.

"Course it has," Remy winked.

"Do you thieves have no respect?" Julien gestured to one of the men with him, he was carrying a long box.

The LeBeau brothers looked at each other then shrugged, saying together, "Non."

Julien popped open the box, two silver rapiers laying snuggly inside. The assassin grabbed one and tossed it in Remy's direction. The thief caught it easily by the handle, examining the weapon, it was the real deal and not tampered with.

"You must be joking, mon ami," Remy laughed, abet a nervous one.

"Da Thieves Guild is a blight on dis city," Julien took the other sword, giving it a few test swings, "we should have squashed you, not had dis travesty of a wedding. You've corrupted Bella Donna, infected her with lies dat have started to spread through da Guild."

"Julien," Henri warned, trying to impose himself between the men only to find Julien's cohorts rounding on him, "you don't want to do dis. Especially here, now."

"Non," Julien started to stalk forward, "dis is exactly where and when."

The assassin took several swipes at the thief who automatically parried away each strike. Henri took on the others, getting one down but unable to reach Remy as Julien continued his attack, Remy defending himself only and having to back up to do so.

"Dis is lunacy, Julien!" Remy shouted, blocking each blow of the other man's sword.

Julien kept on his assault, Remy forced to defend himself against his brother-in-law until he could get into the right position. The assassin over extended and Remy moved inside his defense and kicked him in the leg, a dirty trick against fencing rules but it sent Julien to the ground. Remy stood on the other man's blade as he was hunched over.

"War's over," Remy shook his head at the man.

"Dis truce will make us weak," Julien snarled.

Julien snapped the blade on his rapier and jumped up to stab Remy in the gut. The thief instinctively blocked and twisted the weapon away from himself, but something happened and the broken tip drove into Julien's soft middle instead of off to the side.

"Why!" Remy shouted at the stupid man as he pushed himself off the blade to fall to the ground, opening the wound to bleed.

"Dere will never be peace," Julien said, blood starting to spot his lips.

Remy backed away, utter disbelief and terror on his face… what just happened?

"Julien!" Bella Donna ran next to her brother, checking for life signs, she may not always see eye to eye with Julien, but he was still her kin. One of Julien's backup was also checking for a pulse against the man's neck.

"What did you do?" Bella Donna asked and Remy wasn't sure if she was asking him or her brother.

"He… he…" Remy tried to get the words out, how could he tell his wife that her brother just committed hari-kiri using Remy as the instrument of his death?

It was then he noticed a rather large group had gathered, both Assassin and Thief. Most had seen what had happened, knowing that Julien's move was intentional, but that didn't cover the fact that the son of the Assassin Patriarch was now dead.

Someone pulled Bella off of the body as the others started to pick up the fallen man. She tried to move towards Remy but Marius and John-Luc showed up. Remy couldn't remember much of what followed next, only that he was dragged one direction, Bella another.

"He didn't die," Rogue whispered, trying to figure it out, "unless that was someone else at tha party?"

"Non," Gambit's eyes had gotten darker as he retold the tale, "dat was Julien. You of all people should know you don't easily forget a man you murdered."

It was a bit of a low blow, but it struck true and the man was already in enough pain, "There's more, isn't there."

"Four days passed," the thief continued, "it was tense, the funeral took place, no one was sure what dis meant for da truce. Julien's act was intentional, but Marius' son was dead at my hand. Dat's when I received word from Bella, we'd run away, put all da war and blood behind us. She would escape from her Guild House, I needed to procure a getaway vehicle."

Remy snuck across the edge of a gator filled swamp, coming to the docks that held the Assassin Guild boat house. The Assassin's preferred country estates as lots and lots of grounds for someone to have to sneak across was good for security. Inside the boat house would be the keys to a motor boat that would get them across the swamp to where a car was stashed. From there, North, East or West, he'd let Bella pick.

He could just hot-wire the boat but that would alert the two guards who sat inside the boat house, playing poker. Slipping through a window, Remy found a tackle box and quietly grabbed a round bobbin. Charging it quickly he tossed it over a covered yacht, the item landing on the card table, exploding on contact.

The guards distracted, he came up behind one and knocked him out with a swift punch. The other man recovered and threw himself at Remy, taking him to the ground. The two fought, throwing punches, the larger Assassin going for the Thief's throat. Managing to plant his foot on the guard's torso, Remy kicked hard and the man flew back but wasn't about to be stopped.

Winded and coughing, Remy's hands felt around for anything he could use. His hand felt the familiar slick of laminated playing cards. Ace and an Eight. They took the charge quickly and he flicked them expertly at the man who was knocked out by the concussion created by the explosion.

Remy turned over to get back on his feet and stared down at the cards scattered about… he snatched up several and tucked them into his sleeve.

Grabbing a set of keys from the case, Remy ran out of the boat house and down the dock to the boat he had chosen earlier. A small speed boat, flat and quick, exactly what they needed.

All the lights in the mansion kicked on and he looked up to see a dark clad figure running down the dock. The cloak was midnight blue, not black, a true assassin would never be caught in black on a job, or a thief for that matter, though everyone seemed to think it was their favorite color. It was his Bella and he quickly undid the mooring line before starting up the engine.

Crack!

The front windshield burst and his head shot up in time to see Bella, barely thirty feet from him now, fall down in a slump.

Remy moved just as a shot tore across his arm, tearing open the skin. Slipping three cards from his sleeve he sent them after the large gas tank sitting further up the dock, the resulting explosion set off a fireball which spread to nearby boats.

Rushing up to his fallen wife, she stared up at the sky, her body shuddering, her mouth whispering, "Jueyin Meridian, always favoring the left."

"Bella," Remy pulled the cloak aside and saw a gushing wound where her liver would be, black blood spilling out. A wound there was no coming back from…

"Remy," she said breathlessly, reaching up to touch his face one last time before her eyes went cold and her hand dropped away.

"No, non," the thief muttered, cradling the woman in his arms for what seemed like forever.

The fire was starting to subside and men made their way onto the dock. Kissing his Bella for the last time he made the decision to run, to find his revenge. Jumping into the boat he kicked it into high throttle and sped across the swamp… something dying inside as he did so.

Rogue stood with a heavy heart, wanting to say she was sorry but knowing that it would sound hollow to the man, something she was very familiar with.

"I'm da cliché," he splayed his arms before collapsing them, "but I like it dis way."

"It's better than tha alternative," she hoped he could hear the true understanding in her voice.

Two broken souls stood together in a dark room on the eve of one of the most celebratory days of the year.

Perhaps in a different world in another life, Rogue would have moved forward and held the man in her arms. Let him kiss her, touch her, drown away his pain in her body. But that was what he had been doing all this time. Being one cliché so he wouldn't have to be the other.

It was better this way, better they couldn't touch, it wouldn't have solved anything and only make matters worse for both of them.

"That's why yah couldn't come back," she whispered.

Gambit's eyes met hers…

He had been angry, upset, mad as hell, and this allowed for him to get caught by his fellow thieves who dragged him in front of his father twenty-seven hours later. The mutant left on his knees in the middle of the Patriarch's study.

"Gee, Remy," Henri came up beside him, noting his brother still wore the same blood stained clothing he had on when he held his Bella in his arms, "you slept or ate anything?"

"Been hunting," was the younger LeBeau's answer.

"You can stop hunting," John-Luc was tapping his hand against his desk, "I've spoken to Marius, we've come to a compromise."

"What?" Remy said harshly.

"In return for him keeping da truce and not sending every assassin in da Guild after you," John-Luc's words were even, only his tapping fingers betraying his emotions, "you are to be excommunicated from da Thieves Guild and to leave N'Orlean, never to return."

"Non!" Remy jumped up, almost knocking Henri down, planting his hands on his father's desk. "Bella is dead, Julien got himself killed, I'm gonna find out who's behind dis and make him pay."

"Non," John-Luc stood, facing off his son without an inch of fear of the devil inside, "You're gonna let dis go, Remy LeBeau. Walk away."

"NO!" Remy turned and stalked out the door, using two of the playing cards still in his sleeve to knock down the guards who brought him in.

As he stomped down the hallway the mutant thief threw cards in every direction, destroying everything from mirrors to potted plants.

"Remy," Henri shouted as he chased his brother down the hallway, grabbing him to spin him around. The mutant flicked out one last card, barely catching himself before tossing it in the man's face.

"I can't let it go, Henri," Remy told his brother.

"I know," Henri looked at him sadly, "but you have to look at dis like a thief, with your head as well as your heart. Don't you think Marius is looking for da man who killed his daughter? If he hasn't found him by now, what makes you think you will?"

Remy wanted to argue, his jaw contorted with anger.

"And think of father," Henri continued, "he just watched Marius lose both his children, don't you think he's scare he's gonna lose you? He'd rather see you banished dan dead."

"Bella," Remy said the word, filled with pain.

"I know, I know," Henri held his brother by the shoulders, "but she wanted da peace as much as da rest of us, would she want you to throw it all away? To put da families in danger?"

Remy looked away, not wanting to hear his brother's words but knowing they were true. He stared at the last card he had to play… a King of Hearts… creased and rumpled, starting to wear at the edges. Normally he would will energy into such an item, but this time he funneled his heart, everything that made him feel. He'd hold onto the card, storing it close to where his heart was supposed to be, as a reminder that he had one, once.

And then Remy LeBeau walked away… making one sacrifice for the sake of a bigger goal… and Gambit was born…

"Do you understand now, Rogue?" he asked softly but his tone was as serious as she had ever heard it.

"Yes," she answered, knowing that this man had held two people whom he loved dearly in his arms as they crossed the veil and it shattered something inside him. And here she thought she was the most broken one of the two… but there were no prizes for first or second place in that competition.

"Good," it was almost like he said it to himself than her.

"Yah didn't have ta tell me tha whole story," she pointed out quietly, starting to get worried, "and a man like yah, he values his secrets…"

Gambit's eyes met hers again and a smile crossed his lips, the kind of expression one gets when they have finally resolved an issue they had struggled over. "A thief has to balance what he wants and what he needs, what's in his heart and what's in his head. Petite, I'm a great thief, but I'm not da best," he admitted to her, "Henri was da best, I know what he'd do in dis situation, and it would protect both da families. Dat's in my head…"

"But it's not in your heart," she whispered, all too familiar emotions flooding back through her memories.

"Non," he let out a laugh, "Jueyin Meridian, always favoring the left," he said as if it answered everything. "I finally figured out who killed Bella, who's behind all of dis, and I'm gonna make him pay for what he's done. Den things are gonna get real messy as I said. If you still want to be a part of dat, den you should know what you're fighting for."

Gambit was her friend, he was hurting, and nothing she could say would take any of that away but she had to do something. "I'm fighting for you," she made sure to stress the correct pronunciation on the final word.

"And here I thought you were smarter dan dat," he said the insult without malice, sadness though, as if he had hoped she'd tell him something else, that she would run away.

Rogue wanted to reply but was unable to find her voice, the man taking the silence as his cue to exit. Wrapped up in turbulent emotions, the red headed mutant was left to wonder when did all this get so damn complicated?

…

Remy LeBeau stood at his window which had a view of St. Charles Blvd, his tux shirt was off, a tank clinging to his body. He was meant to be getting changed but was stopped by the beautiful lights outside. It wasn't terribly late, just after midnight, and revelers were already on the streets with lamps and costumes, celebrating Mardi Gras Day early.

He had a plan, a great plan, but none of that mattered anymore.

There was a soft knock at his door and he didn't bother to acknowledge it. Could only be Rogue, likely come to tell him she was leaving… that's what he hoped. The family, they knew what they signed up for joining the Guild. The Southern beauty thought she was just along for a fun ride, something different than the usual, not that he could blame her for wanting that.

But now everything had fallen apart, he didn't want her to get killed over this, not for him.

All the same, he felt the need to hold off on her telling him just a little bit longer…

The door slowly opened, padded feet walking in and shutting it behind them. Looking over his shoulder, Rogue's hair was damp and she was dressed in her green striped pajamas with heavy socks and gloves completing her usual look. Even in her most vulnerable of fashion, she still looked like she could kick his ass.

"Coming into a man's room in da dead of night," he attempted some banter, finding he'd miss it when she was gone, wasn't often he found someone who held their own against his charms, "folks would find dat unseemly."

She frowned before the words clicked and her eyes glanced over at the large bed, as if she hadn't even considered the delicacy of the situation. "I…" her cheeks flushed a bit and he turned his whole body towards her to take the brunt of her confession of leaving.

"I…" she tried again, "I wanted ta tell yah a story."