"Remy?" Vie called, slowly opening his door. She could see his form in bed, she hadn't thought about what time it was; three a.m. was normal to her. She was about to back out and quietly close the door, when he stirred. Instead, she stepped inside and shut the door.

"Chère? Dat you?" he mumbled groggily. Magneto had kept them pretty busy since leaving New Orleans, so they hadn't seen much of each other over the last couple weeks.

"Sorry, just got back. Didn't realize the time," she apologized, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

He lay on his back, looking up at her. His arms were behind his head, the covers half-way down his midsection, exposing his bare chest. Remy smirked, "No bod'er at all, petit. T' what do I owe dis pleasant surprise?" Vie really didn't know. Truth was, they just hadn't gotten a chance for closure on where they stood since coming home to Magneto's.

Shark's eyes scanned his body. "Don't think I've had a chance to thank you."'

"T'ank me? For Naw Leans? Don't t'ink dat trip deserves t'anks," he shook his head.

"It does. I've severed ties to my family, I got to go home," she smiled. "I got a night on the town in my favorite city. And I haven't gotten to do that in a long time." She bent down and gave him a soft kiss.

When she pulled back, Gambit smiled. "Petit, I..." he was cut off when her phone started going off like mad.

Scythe pulled it out and answered. "Rouge? What's wrong?"

Expecting a Southern voice, she was shocked to hear a growling one instead. "She's gone."

"Wolverine? Who's gone? What happened to Rouge?" Gambit sat up in bed, alert.

"Some old friends of yours took her from school. Left a phone number. They weren't too happy to hear from me."

"What's the number?" After receiving the information, she quickly hung up and dialed the digits.

"Dis bettah be de right callah," a low accented voice answered.

"John," she growled. "Where's Rouge?"

"Safe. But you bettah get back home before de ol' dogs get hungry," he chuckled and hung up.

"How can I help, chère?"

She smiled slightly at his offer. "We gotta get to the swamp.

XxxXxxX

Gambit pulled to a stop on an old dock in the New Orleans swamp at sunset the next day. The last rays of sun streamed eerily through the dense sky green and the water black, Scythe led Gambit into the swamp. "Where we going, petit?"

"A place my family would bring troublesome people. Feed them to the ol' dogs," she explained, leading him further in.

"Ol' dogs?" he asked.

"Gaters."

Once they were deep enough in the swamp to where there was no more dry land, the pair could finally hear voices. Keeping their distance at first, they could see two dozen armed men, Vie's mother, and Rouge tied up and hanging over the swamp. A few men were throwing buckets of chicken bits and blood into the water. The black swamp boiled with activity as gaters swarmed, fed and frenzied.

"Go around back," she whispered and stepped forward into eyesight.

"Well, well. Look who's home," her mother purred. "Come a little closer, darlin'."

Scythe walked closer to the small, flat, clear area her mother and the men were standing on. She glanced over at Rouge and saw she was alive and well enough to struggle. A man standing next to the tree let the rope loose for just long enough to jerk Rouge a foot closer to the frenzied nest of gaters. Scythe did her best not to flinch, they were trying to get a rise out of her. "Release her. Your business is with me."

"Exactly, dear. One last job. You do one last job for me and I'll give you Rouge as payment."

"What kind of job?"

"Kill le Diable Blanc."

"And if I refuse?" Vie asked cautiously.

"I don't think there's a need to ask," her mother smirked and Rouge dropped another foot. "Ok. I get it. How about you let her down. Last I saw Diable, he was still in New York."

XxxXxxX

Gambit was hidden near the tree that Rouge was hung from. He could hear Scythe trying to talk her mother into letting Rouge down. As soon as Rouge was within reach, he was going to grab her. Looking at his surroundings, he noticed there was a thick tree with a branch extending below and a little away from where Rouge was dangling.

Creeping over, he began climbing the backside of the tree. He managed to get onto the branch he had spotted and slowly started making his way to Rouge. He got as close as he could to Rouge without being seen. She was still dangerously out of reach. Gambit was lower and a little closer to shore.

XxxXxxX

Out of the corner of her eye, Scythe could see movement in the tree below Rogue. Without giving it any noticeable attention, she kept an eye on the movement. "Nice try, hun. I got men that saw you ridin' into town with Diable."

Scythe glared. "If your men saw us, why didn't they attack us?" She saw Gambit creep slightly into view to get closer to Rouge. So far, all attention was still on Scythe. She kept her mother talking. "And what about after I kill Gambit? You think you're going to be able to bribe me forever to work for you? When I left, I left for good." Gambit was now standing tall on the branch with expert balance, reaching up to Rouge. He could just reach her legs. Rouge felt a glove on her ankle and stopped kicking. "You think you can get me to do one job for you, and what? I get homesick? Embrace my mother and come back home? You are pathetic. Putting all your stock on one woman, currently more than unreliable." Scythe could sense the large waves of rage and disappointment coming from her mother, she had struck a nerve.

Her mother signaled Rouge to be dropped another foot. "I'm not playing, girl," her mother warned. Scythe could see Remy now had a much better grip on Rouge and was cutting her free with a pocket knife.

Scythe smirked, "Neither am I." She reached behind her back and pulled out her twin hand held blades and extended them into two five-foot weapons of her namesake. Every man noticeably tensed and readied themselves.

Vie's evil smile induced goose bumps as she lurched forward and ran at the armed men. "Cut the rope!" her mother screamed over the ensuing chaos. The men fired at Scythe as she dodged and blocked bullets with her blades. Once close to the men, her blades really began working. Scythe spun and stabbed and blocked her namesake weapons with the greatest of ease. Half the men abandoned their guns for knives and other hand weapons. She had taken a slash to the forearm by the time someone had noticed a body hadn't dropped into the feeding frenzy. "There, on the tree!" Some random voice shouted. Shots, aimed at Gambit untying Rouge, fired.

Gambit pulled Rouge into him, shielding her from the bullets. A few large rounds slammed into the branch, revealing that the branch had been halfway hollowed from age and insects. Gambit and Rouge plummeted into the black, boiling swamp. A gater that had been circling Rouge got a little too close and brushed up against her bare forearm. It rolled belly up, unconscious, after Rouge accidently drained it. With a new comfort in the water, Rouge swam and evaded the other feasting reptiles and crawled onto the opposite shore. With Rouge temporarily safe, all Vie's attention was on Gambit. Where the hell was he?

Most of the gaters suddenly scattered and Vie's mother suddenly got very happy. "The gaters are spooked. You know what that means," she purred. "Big Daddy's coming." Big Daddy was a fat, old, fourteen foot beast of an alligator that had been around since Vie's mother was a child. The beast ran the swamp and had grown large on the people they had fed to him over the years.

Scythe had cut down a majority of the men and the rest stopped to watch as she dove into the water after Gambit. He had finally sputtered to the surface. Two large eyes and a snout appeared. "Remy," Vie shouted as she made her way towards him. He was barely staying afloat, she could see that he had lost a lot of blood, whether from gun shots or the gaters, she couldn't tell yet.

When she finally reached him, Remy was unconscious and staying afloat with only a dead log. As she treaded water, she put her milky hands on his face. His cheeks were cold and he wasn't responding as she tried to rouse him. "Come on, you damn thief. Wake up," she snarled desperately.

"You runnin' out of time, girl," the taunting voice of her mother called. "Big Daddy already here." Sure enough, Rouge was calling for Vie's attention from the shore and pointing out two large eyes and a large snout, the distance between each showed the size of the beast they belonged to. Scythe began slowly swimming Gambit towards the shore, facing Big Daddy. She knew the beast was fast, far faster than Scythe could possibly swim. She kept her movements slow and non-threatening, hoping to close the distance to the shore.

Big Daddy swam in slow lazy circles around the couple. At the moment, he was keeping a distance. He was sizing Scythe up to see if she was edible. Her lifeless and unnatural appearance kept him away and wondering, but Vie knew the bleeding, living piece of meat she was holding would soon be too alluring and Big Daddy would take his chances. Hearing a splash near the shore, both Vie and Big Daddy jerked their attention towards the sound. Rouge had leapt into the water and was making her way over. "Dammit, Rouge! Get back," Vie shouted. Rouge ignored her and swam between the slow moving pair and the hungry gator. Vie realized what Rouge was doing. "Draining him won't mean shit if he takes a chunk out of you doing it."

Rouge continued to ignore her sister. Once she was nearly within arms reach, she made her move. Lunging straight forward towards gaping, knife filled, jaws, she went left at the last second as said jaws snapped with a sickening pop. Rouge lay a bare hand on the scaly snout just as it closed. Being the formidable beast he is, Big Daddy jerked jagged jaws towards the hand that touched him. But halfway through his attack, Rouge's power set in. The snap was slightly off target and the beast became sluggish and stupid, making its way half-heartedly towards shore to collapse.

Rouge swam with Big Daddy's ease to Vie and Gambit. She took the other side of Gambit and together the sisters swam him ashore. With him finally out of harms way, Vie looked Remy over. He was shot, twice in the left shoulder and once in the right shin. "Give me your over-shirt," she ordered Rouge. Rouge quickly stripped it off and handed it over. Vie tore it into several strips. She handed one to Rouge. "Tie this as tight as you can over his leg." As Rouge worked on the leg wound, Vie began tying up Remy's shoulder. When Rouge was done she called Nightcrawler for a ride out.

Vie took Gambit's bad shoulder and Rouge took his other. Together they dragged the tall mutant slowly to the edge of the swamp. After nearly an hour of heaving Gambit through the mucky terrain they reached an area of grassland. Overhead they could hear the hum of jet engines. A few moments later, the Blackbird landed before them.

XxxXxxX

The next night, Vie was awoken by the sound of Gambit stirring in his sleep. She had passed out in a chair in the infirmary next to the cot they had placed Gambit in when they arrived. He was in pretty bad shape. The three gun shot wounds were stitched and bandaged along with his entire left arm. It had been shredded and mangled by Big Daddy's jaws, leaving it to dangle like hamburger meat. After hours of skillful surgery done by Beast, his arm would be functional but severely scarred.

Scythe stood and ran her milky fingers through his auburn hair. Remy stirred slightly. He slowly cracked open two puffy blackened eyes as wide as the immense swelling would allow and looked up to Vie. "Hey," she said softly, smiling gently at him. He parted cracked lips and Vie placed her finger tips over them to silence any attempts at speaking. "You look like shit," she teased.

He chuckled weakly and coughed. "Rouge?"

Scythe nodded. "She's fine." She slowly stroked a scrape on his right cheek. "Thank you." Vie coughed lightly.

Gambit narrowed his eyes in concern. "Have you been takin' your meds, chère?" His voice was gravely and hoarse.

"Yes, I'm fine. Probably just a cold from being in that damn swamp." She coughed again then smiled reassuringly. Gambit remained unconvinced. Vie coughed, harder this time, raising a fist to her lips to stifle the sound. Remy tried to push himself to a sitting position. Scythe put a hand firmly on his good shoulder to stop him. "You'll rip your stitches," she warned. "I'm alright. Get some rest," she urged. When Gambit still remained un-phased, she said, "Move over." Remy inched his way to the edge of the small infirmary bed. Vie lay on her side to him and carefully lay an arm across him. Together they passed into sleep.

XxxXxxX

Gambit was slapped into sobriety when Vie began hacking into her hands. She sat and dangled her feet over the side of the bed. Clamping her pale hands to violet lips, she tried to muffle the sound. Remy sat, ignoring the pain shooting throughout his body. "Petit?"

She suffered through another severe bought of coughing. Vie shook her head but didn't face him. "Lay down. Your stitches." She hacked and noticed that there was now black blood on her hands.

"Damn de stitches, chère. You need help," he insisted.

"I'm fi..." Vie collapsed on the floor, landing on her hands and knees, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth. Gambit leapt up and kneeled next to her, his large hands on her shoulders.

When her coughing fit didn't stop Gambit called out for anyone near-by. With his advanced hearing, Wolverine was the first to come running. "What's...?" he stopped short when he saw the black blood pooling beneath Scythe's bowed head, navy hair spilling like a veil around her. He vanished back out the door to retrieve Beast.

Vie's body was now convulsing and shaking violently. Gambit pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the stitches ripping. He stroked her hair, feeling useless.

Beast and Wolverine came running through the door. "Get her on a bed," Beast instructed. Gambit rose with Vie in his arms and lay her on the bed. "Keep her on her side," Beast said while filling a syringe. Gambit rolled her to her to her side and rubbed her back as Beast injected the syringe into her thigh. Finally, her coughing quieted. Vie grew still. Her mouth and chin were covered in blood, streaks running down her neck. Her breath came in a shallow wheeze.

XxxXxxX

Everything was silent; yet the sound of the blood pounding in her head was deafening. There was a dark, blurry haze framing the world. All Vie felt was a stabbing pain in her lungs. Her shark eyes rolled in their sockets trying to gather what was going on. Her lungs were on fire. She saw Remy and Beast moving in and out of her field of vision. Then she felt nothing, blissful nothing. Not the fiery knives in her chest. Not the warmth of Remy holding her. Nothing.

She closed her eyes.

And then she was gone.