X-Men: Evolution

Blood Magics

24. Locate and Negotiate

Rogue walked down the hallway. She knew she was cutting it rather close to the "bedtime curfew," as she tended to call the rule of being in one's room by a certain time, but between the extended Danger Room session and the scramble for the showers afterward- always a nightmare on a Wednesday- she'd ended up being rather later than she'd expected. Still, part of her felt bad for forgetting him in all the chaos. But no, there was not a part of her that was eager to see him, damn it! The voice in her head that kept thinking that needed to shut up!

She had a deck of cards from the mansion's games closet in hand; she wasn't about to go searching through the things they'd taken off of Gambit to look for one of his decks of cards. For one, it was an invasion of privacy and she needed to respect that even for a prisoner, for two, she was a little afraid of what she might find tucked away on his trench coat- she knew it had been gone quickly through by the adults to make sure there was nothing dangerous there, but she still didn't want to know- and for three, assuming she found a deck of cards, it might not be a complete one for all she knew; he blew them up one at a time in battle, after all.

Easier to do it this way.

Pushing open the door, she entered the containment cell. From there, it was a mere few steps to stand in front of the one that held Gambit, who grinned when he saw her.

"Well, well. I was starting to think you'd forgotten about little ol' me down here, cherie."

The shame intensified. "Yeah, sorry." Rogue muttered. "There's been a lot going on."

Gambit's grin disappeared as he regarded her more closely.

"You alright, chere? You look… worn down."

That was one way to put it, she supposed. The worry over Kurt's disappearance, though she tried her best to handle it and go about her day while efforts to find him were ongoing, was always there. She'd been sleeping badly both from that, and from her recent worry over what had been happening to her. Add in the fact that she'd struggled in school because of what had happened, and that just today the cause was finally found and stopped via an intense session with a couple of psychics that had to put up a barrier to stop her own mind from merging with that of Dragon, then the extra- long Danger Room session after that, and the fact that she still needed to get her homework done for the next day because she hadn't had a chance for any of it yet, and she certainly felt "worn down."

Not that she was about to go over any of that with him.

"Don't worry about it. There's been a lot going on."

"You know I would help if I could."

Rogue gave a huff of amusement, then held out the deck of cards she'd brought. "Here. I cleared it with the professor. Yah haven't caused any trouble and yah tipped us off about the drones… though I doubt it would have been much longer before Wolverine, at the very least, picked up on them, if not the rest of us as well. Still, you let us know, so he said it wasn't a problem for you to have one, as requested."

The bars were more than wide enough to allow a deck of cards through; she passed them through, and he took them.

"Merci, cherie. Much appreciated. And I was being honest, you know. If there's anything I can lend my help with, just say the word." Looking back up at her, he smiled and tried to look into her eyes. Feeling uncomfortably like he was trying to pin her with them, she looked away- she knew that if she let her eyes lock with his, he would succeed. She started moving towards the door.

"Not really. Don't think there's anything you can do, unless the name "Mr. Sinister" means anything to you."

Almost before she finished speaking, there was a fluttering, sort of soft clattering sound like someone dropping a large pile of papers- or in this case, playing cards- that scattered as they fell on the floor. Startled, Rogue looked back at Gambit, whose expression had changed to something like horror. His attention was on her, and not the cards he'd just dropped.

"What… did you just say?" he asked, voice hoarse.

Rogue met his gaze this time, and was shocked to find fear there.

"You do know that name!" She realized.

Gambit stood frozen for a moment; then, his expression hardened. His jaw set sternly; his posture went rigid.

"Yeah, I know it." His arms crossed. "He's someone to stay away from. Far away."

"What do you know?"

"That you don't want to mess with him. That's all I'm willing to say on it. Don't go looking for him, chere. He's dangerous."

"He has Kurt."

"Then I'm sorry, but Nightcrawler is either dead or worse."

"Gambit!" Anger flashed through her.

"I'm not trying to upset you! It's what Sinister does! You're all safer staying away!"

"Gambit, Kurt is my brother."

This gave him pause. She could see uncertainty in his eyes. She pushed further.

"Mystique was our mother. She gave birth to Kurt, and adopted me. We're as close as we've got to real family. I'm sure you already know that. And… we are family. I'd never call Mystique my mother, not willingly… not that awful woman. Kurt feels the same. But each other as siblings? We're proud to call each other that. And if you know anything that can help us find my brother, then you'd better give it to us. I'll tell you what; I'm going to go get Professor Xavier, right now. Once I get back with him, then we're going to find out what you know. Either you can tell us by mouth, or the professor will take it from you! Either way, I'm not letting anything get in the way of finding out where he is!"

Rogue spun towards the door, stalking towards it, and yanked it open angrily.

"Alright."

Rogue paused, the anger surging through her subsiding a little.

"What?"

Gambit looked grim, and subdued. But he looked at her.

"Alright. You bring him down here, and I'll tell you what I know. But chere, I'm warning you now, it's not good."

Xavier sat in his office, mulling over his next move. He had no idea on where to start looking for this "Mr. Sinister," though he knew Hank was already using the most obvious tool to start looking- and he had no doubt that at least a few of his students would join him in combing the internet for mentions of him, though they would all likely be doing their own independent search. Xavier, however, had mainly one thought; there was one person who might know more about him, simply because he might have been trying to track him down since years ago, after the man broke into his lab.

Magnus, though, was not likely to share the information with him. At least, not as much information as Xavier wanted. The fact that he'd shared as much as he did to Rogue was quite a surprise, at least as he was now. Back when Xavier had known Magnus, had called him a friend, he would not have hesitated to ask him what he knew, and would have fully expected Magnus to help however he could. But those days… those days were gone.

Or were they? Sometimes the man they faced as Magneto seemed as cold and heartless as a block of ice. He had stripped Scott and Alex of most of their emotion in order to gain a sort of "loose control" over them. He'd claimed it was for furthering their powers and told Rogue that the two were not, in fact, under his control, but the only reason to do such a thing would be to remove the moral barriers the two of them had so they would be more likely to obey his commands.

And yet, he'd shown mercy and kindness in the most unexpected moments, such as making sure to return Dragon's dropped belongings to Rogue rather than just… leave them on the ground. It would have been easy for him to do. Yet he'd decided to pick them back up off the ground, and if he hadn't, all three of Dragon's personal possessions would have more than likely vanished forever instead of just one of them. And the one that had was a stone, something Magneto couldn't have picked up with his powers.

He'd also claimed that whatever had been done to Kurt, he'd reversed it. Perhaps, if he managed to speak with him openly, he could at least tell them what, exactly, he'd reversed; whatever experiment that Mr. Sinister tried to do with Kurt eighteen years ago, it might give him an idea on what he could be doing now. More information was better than less information.

While his students had been going through their Danger Room run, Xavier had gone to Cerebro and searched the town. He knew better than to look for Magneto; instead, he tried looking for the Acolytes Pyro, Sabretooth, and Quicksilver. Quicksilver, he found back in the Brotherhood Boarding House along with the others who normally lived there, with no one there who normally wasn't.

What was more interesting was that he located both Sabretooth and Pyro in a warehouse near the edge of Bayview. They were still in town, which meant Magneto was still in town. Magneto wouldn't still be in the area unless there was something or someone nearby that he wanted… and, with the conversation he'd had with Rogue before the rest of the X- Men had gotten there, he did have something of an idea of what that might be.

Xavier certainly wasn't giving him Dragon. But, if he could get Magneto to talk to him, one- on- one, openly and honestly… there might be something that Xavier could arrange with him. There was one thing that he could do…

His thoughts, however, were interrupted by a rapidly approaching presence; Rogue, and she was heading straight for his office with a sense of urgency. Xavier sighed.

What now?

"Come in." He called before she could knock; even if he hadn't felt her presence approach, he knew when she was outside his office by her rushed footsteps, and with how quickly she threw open his door, he suspected she hadn't even intended to knock.

She didn't even come in, in fact; instead, she stood there, eyes wide, chest heaving. She'd run there.

"What's wrong?"

"Gambit knows Mr. Sinister!" she gasped out.

That made any trace of resignation at the thought of yet another problem vanish immediately. "What?"

"I took him… the cards. He kept asking… if there was… anything else. That he could do." Rogue managed. "I mentioned… Sinister's name… he knows who that is! He said he'll tell us what he knows!"

"Have you told anyone else about this?" Xavier asked, wheeling himself out from behind his desk.

"No… I came straight here."

"Good. I'd like to hear it first, before we decide what to share with the others. I don't want anyone to get excited over it just yet." He warned Rogue. Even as he spoke, his own hopes rose a little; any information at all was more than what they had. Even if there was no indication of where to go, even if Gambit could tell them what kind of person they were up against…

"Right."

Xavier reached Rogue at the doorway; she stepped aside so he could exit, and he took the lead on making their way back down to the containment cells in the basement.

Xavier was surprised when they got there; every time before now, the man's body language had been loose and unconcerned, even when Logan had been snarling in his face. But this time, for the first time, his posture was tense. And even more surprising, Xavier could feel his emotions leaking through. Gambit seemed to have a mental barrier all his own, different from the ones Xavier taught his students how to raise. When his students employed their mental barriers, it simply felt like pushing against an invisible wall that tried to keep him out; when he'd tried probing Gambit before, curious as to why the former Acolyte had expressed a desire to join them instead, his barrier had been like trying to watch a TV that was only displaying static, leading him to think that this barrier was something passive that his mutant power supplied. It wasn't perfect, which was why he'd reinforced it with a mental block against Mesmero (and why Mesmero had been able to get past it before that), but it certainly prevented Xavier from seeing anything without at least using enough effort that Gambit would realize he was there. And Xavier didn't want to invade his privacy that much, he'd just wanted to verify his intentions.

Right now, though, that barrier was leaking enough that Xavier could feel fear and worry. And that worried him; up until now, the man had seemed pretty unshakable.

"Gambit. Rogue said you have information on Mr. Sinister that you're willing to share with us?"

The man shifted, clearly reluctant; for a moment, Xavier wished Rogue would leave the room so that only he knew the full story and could filter it if needed, as he could sense this was not going to be good, but he knew full well that asking Rogue to leave would be asking for an argument that would waste a lot of time.

"Yeah." Gambit muttered. "Look… before I give my story, I'll give you the same advice I gave Rogue. Stay away from him. He's dangerous. You don't want to get involved with him."

"I see. I'm afraid that we must, however. We have reason to believe he's kidnapped Kurt."

"Rogue said that too." Gambit said flatly. "And I'm sorry, but chances are, Kurt's already either dead or even worse."

"Worse?"

"He likes his experiments. I got lucky."

The man's expression got, if possible, even darker. Xavier frowned.

"I will take the warning into account, but we can't just abandon one of our own. Could you please tell us what you know, so that we know what we're up against?"

Gambit gave a sigh that seemed resigned, and nodded. "Just wanted to give you my opinion. I had an… encounter with the man in New Orleans, about… four years ago? Give or take. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting into, and… well. I was having trouble with my power at the time. Everything I touched was exploding, and I mean these were big explosions. I couldn't reign it in. I was trying to stay out in the bayou, miles from any people I could hurt… and then a man approached me. Told me his name was Nathaniel Essex, and he had experience dealing with people like me. I could see he was a mutant himself; couldn't possibly not be one with his appearance. He told me he had a way to prevent my powers from getting out of my control again, and he would do it in return for a favour. At the time, it seemed like the answer to my prayers."

Gambit sighed. Xavier could feel guilt added to the mix of emotions coming off of him.

"I agreed. He performed a small surgery on my brain, removed a piece of the brain stem I think, and just like he said… it worked. My powers were completely under control again. Then he asked his favour, and I… I didn't know, at the time. It sounded completely harmless."

Gambit's eyes fell to the ground. Xavier's misgivings increased.

"What did he have you do?" Rogue asked, her voice a whisper.

Gambit shook his head. "Don't make me say it. I can't. I never would have done it if I'd known. Please believe me."

"Gambit…"

Rogue's voice was still soft. Normally, knowing Rogue, she would have been getting irritated as his refusal… but she, like him, could see the guilt and shame that filled in his face.

"I can't. Let's just say… people died, alright? As a result, I found out that a whole bunch of good, innocent people died… and as soon as I found out, I went back to his lab to confront him. And he… well, he was in a real bad mood about something. I couldn't tell you what. But we fought… he was throwing things around both physically and with his mind like they didn't weigh anything. He almost had me at one point… but, thing is, he was so mad even to begin with that he didn't realize my brother had come with me. Our fight distracted him while my brother looked into things… and then, right at the last second when he had me pinned against a wall, and he was about to put some sort of green liquid in me with a syringe, my brother showed up behind him and managed to set a laser on him. None of the things I charged to explode seemed to do him much damage in the fight, and he made a few things explode right back at me- it looked like he was using my own power!" Gambit shook his head. "But the laser that my brother set on him, that hurt him. That did damage that my explosions weren't doing. And in that moment, my brother was able to get me out, and we both bolted. Then my brother told me what information he was able to get off his files… he was performing all kinds of experiments. We found out that, rather than Nathaniel Essex, he preferred to go by Sinister, and he performed experiments both on others and on himself. As far as we could tell, if he had a DNA sample, then he could give himself another person's mutant abilities with it, which we assumed is why he was able to use my power during our fight."

"Able to take other mutations with a DNA sample… a similar power to yours, perhaps?" Xavier mused, looking at Rogue.

"I don't think it's a mutant power that lets him do that. I think he just infuses himself with the person's X- gene with his experiments." Gambit corrected. "At least, that's what we got from the information we stole. He's done it with several people. He was also trying to turn others into mutants, as well, experimenting on whomever he got in off the street to try to turn them into a mutant, but those experiments weren't going so well. The people he was trying those experiments on were all dying. Sounded like pretty terrible deaths, too. I'll spare you the details. But between that and the fact that the green liquid he was trying to put into me, which as far as we could tell seemed to be some sort of serum that lets him control people, Sinister is someone that everyone should stay away from at all costs."

"Green liquid, you said? Like an acid- green colour?" Xavier asked sharply. Gambit nodded, and Xavier looked at Rogue. "That sounds like what was on that eighteen- year- old camera footage. What he was trying to use on Kurt through Mystique."

Rogue nodded back, then looked at Gambit. "Why didn't he just use that on you during the surgery?" Rogue wondered. "No offense, but that would've been the easy thing to do."

"I've wondered that myself. I can only assume he needed me as myself for my… favour." Gambit's voice was low and disgusted with himself. "I thank God every day that my brother isn't the same lowlife our father is. We destroyed the information that we got, and we both got well away from that lab. He stayed in New Orleans with the family, but after a while, I felt like I just couldn't anymore. Between Sinister's proximity and what my father was like, I'd had enough. I walked away. I walked away, and hoped that I would never see or hear of that man ever again. And I didn't… until today."

"I see. I apologize for bringing up painful memories, but thank you for telling us more about what we're dealing with. Do you perhaps know where the location of that lab is?"

"I do, but I doubt he's there now. It probably got trashed during the fight, and I don't think he would have stayed, at least not all this time."

"You're most likely right, but if we check it, we may find some clues." Xavier told him. As Gambit told him the location of the lab, he listened with one part of his mind, and went back to the thoughts he'd had earlier that evening with the other. Gambit's account of what he knew had Xavier very worried indeed. It sounded very likely that Kurt might have been subject to multiple experiments by now… and this control serum was at the top of Xavier's concerns.

However… that brought him back to Magneto. Magneto had done something that had reversed it, if it was indeed the same thing. That meant that talking to Magnus had just become all the more important; Xavier had to consider the very real possibility that when they arrived to save Kurt, they might have to fight Kurt first… it was a worst- case scenario, but one that he had to prepare for.

And if Magnus had something that could fix that particular problem… perhaps he would trade Xavier the solution in exchange for something that Magnus wanted. And Xavier had an idea on that.

Noting down the location of the lab that Gambit knew about, Xavier moved to leave the room, Rogue behind him, when his attention was caught by one last call from behind them.

"Chere… please, be careful. Whatever you do, please, don't add y'self to the list of people that man's hurt beyond repair. Please."

Rogue paused; Xavier moved just a little further ahead before stopped, too.

"I'll be fine, Swamp Rat." Rogue said finally, then started to move forward again. Xavier immediately did so as well, and a small smile managed to cross his lips- the first genuine one in a while, it felt like- at the thought that perhaps the reason why the former Acolyte had decided to switch sides and asked to join the X- Men was maybe not so mysterious, after all.

A/N: Answers from someone that the X- Men were least expecting... Gambit knows Mr. Sinister. And, even if this information was a surprise, perhaps Gambit is not such a mystery after all... he's not the first person to at least try to join the X- Men in order to be close to a certain one of them.

Of course, Gambit kinda told Rogue that much already. XD