AN: Unlike my usual stories, this one is still a WIP so updates will be much slower than usual.

Also, When Remy charges something in Evo, it glows golden, not magenta, so that's how i describe his powers in this fic.

Set after season 4.

Chapter One

Rogue turned over and sighed as she heard footsteps approach her cell. She didn't even have a bed to sleep on, or a blanket. Apparently they could be used to hide things, so the prisoners had nothing but a toilet in their cells.

She knew they weren't coming for her because she could hear three sets of footsteps. One set meant one of the scientist had come to check up on the prisoners vital signs. Two sets means guards who had come to collect a prisoner. Three sets meant two guards were bringing a new prisoner.

Poor bastard.

He or she would probably be terrified, would look to those around them for comfort and reassurance, only Rogue couldn't offer anything like that, which is why she kept her back turned. The cage next to hers was empty and had been for a little while now, so it was likely that she'd be their new cell mate. She would let the others try to comfort him though, they at least still had hope. There was no point in bringing the new guy or girl down any more than necessary.

The days had blurred into weeks and now she had no clue how long she had been here. There was no natural light here, just the constant glow of the fluorescents overhead. They didn't even turn them down at night.

She heard the electronic ping of the forcefield around a cell being switched off, someone being pushed and landing on the floor, then the forcefield being re-engaged. She had heard these sounds so often that she knew what they meant, even with her eyes closed.

Made from a cross-hatch of energy beams on four sides, there was no privacy in the cells. At the back there was a latrine with screens about a meter high on three sides, but anyone standing in front of the cell could see exactly what was going on.

Showers were weekly affairs, and the guards took them one at a time to a cold, windowless room where they could wash under lukewarm water. Still there was no privacy as a guard always stood watch. At least for the women, it was a female guard.

"Chère?"

Rogue's breath caught in her throat. She almost didn't dare to hope that it might be him, that she might have a friend in here. Maybe she had finally gone insane? It wasn't like she didn't already have enough people in her dead to drive her crazy, after all.

Still, hallucination or not, she turned to see Gambit in the cell next to hers, dressed just as she was, in blue hospital scrubs. She couldn't help but smile at him, then she burst in to tears.

"Rogue? Rogue, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry," she said, crawling over to the edge of her cell to be closer to him.

"What for?"

"I was pleased to see you," she sniffed. "I wouldn't wish this place on my worst enemies, let alone a friend."

"Oh, chère." He wondered if he was too late, if her mind had already gone. He couldn't blame her if it had, she had been in here almost three months, after all.

"I'm sorry," she wiped at her eyes. "Some reunion this is, me blubbering everywhere."

Remy breathed a sigh of relief at her words; they hadn't broken her spirit yet, he wasn't too late. She was far too thin and her voice sounded hoarse, but at least she was sane.

"So, chère, gimme the local info, where are the hot spots, what's the food like, who's open to bribes?"

Rogue actually smiled a little at that. "Oh, it's so good to see you, Gam-"

His hissed breath and fierce expression stopped her saying his name but she didn't know why she couldn't say it.

"Good to see you too, chère." He smiled as though nothing had happened. Whatever the reason, she decided not to ask now.

"I'm sorry they caught you."

"Well, I suppose if I have to be a glorified lab rat, at least I have a belle cell mate."

He moved around so that he was lying on the floor, his head close to Rogues cell. Pretty soon she had mimicked his position and their heads were inches apart, separated only by the beams of the forcefield. Remy made small talk with her, trying to keep her spirits high.

He'd been there about two hours when a bell sounded, and up through the floors came a tray of bland finger food and a plastic glass of water. Remy reached for the tray and dragged it over to where he was lying.

"You not eating, chère?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I'm on hunger strike."

Remy had noticed how gaunt she looked but he had never dreamed that she had stopped eating.

"They allow that around here?" he asked.

Rogue shook her head and looked at the floor.

"Rogue?"

She gave a deep sigh, then replied. "Each day after my tests, they hold me down, shove a tube down my throat and force feed me."

Remy wished that he could say that he couldn't imagine anything worse, but he could. He had already experienced worse at their hands.

"I'm sorry, chère."

Rogue shrugged.

"Maybe today'd be a good day to end that hunger strike," he said as quietly as he could. When she looked up, shocked, he gave her a wink so fast that she almost missed it.

A smile began to twitch the edges of her lips as she realised that something else was going on but he glared at her, quelling her expression before an overeager guard could notice her smiling on the camera feeds.

"Maybe later," she said with a theatrical sigh.

Remy ate his food but it seemed to have been prepared with the sole purpose of have absolutely no taste whatsoever. Still, food was food and beggars couldn't be choosers.

Rogue ate hers about an hour later, and she ate slowly so that no one would think that she suddenly had a reason to eat. The hatch in the floor opened again a while later but nothing was there.

"They want the tray back," Rogue explained. "If you don't, they'll give you ten seconds of the pain setting next time you're being tested. They up it by ten seconds for every infraction."

So Remy placed his tray in the hole, like a good little prisoner.

They talked for a while longer, until Rogue' eyes began to grow heavy. She was pretty sure the last meal they had been served was dinner, so it was probably getting on for evening. If she was honest though, ever since she'd stopped eating and been force fed, she was much more tired than usual. She didn't mind actually, because at least while she was asleep she could go anywhere. Only when she was awake was she trapped here, in this 6"6' by 6" cell.

Remy let her sleep for a few hours. If his internal body clock was right, and knowing that they would take his watch he'd been training himself, it was just gone 8 o'clock at night, so he had another two hours to go before he could make his move.

Gradually the soft conversation from other cells began to quieten and a few hours later, most of the other prisoners seemed to be asleep too. Remy crossed his arms under his head and closed his eyes as well, all the better to lull the guards into a false sense of security.

"Rogue, Rogue!"

She heard he name being called but so quietly that she almost didn't hear it in her sleep.

"Rogue!"

"Wa-"

"Ssh, don't let them know that you're awake."

Rogue adjusted her position so that she could see Remy without fully opening her eyes. She noticed that his left bicep was bloody and more importantly, his power neutralising collar was unlocked. Her heart was hammering in her chest but she daren't move. She daren't hope.

"In about three minutes all hell is going to break lose, so be ready, okay?"

She gave a tiny nod and waited what felt like hours for any signs of action. Finally she heard a loud bang in the distance, an alarm began to wail, then a second bang caused the lights and the forcefield's went off. After a moment of stunned silence, everyone began to run.

Rogue almost took off with them, but Remy's wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her too him.

"We got a different escape route, chère." He bent down and touched one of the food hatches, charging it and blowing a hole on the floor.

"Come on," he said, climbing down into the hole.

Rogue wondered how there could be enough room for them on the food escalator, but she soon heard another bang so followed Remy down the hatch, then through a hole into what looked like a water run-off drain.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along in his wake.

He picked up a rock which he charged, using that to light their way with a gentle, golden glow. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing. She could vaguely hear other explosions and alarms going off in the background but she didn't have time to wonder what they were.

She could barely keep up at times, but his grip never loosened so she had no choice but to keep running or fall over and be dragged.

Finally Remy stopped and charged part of the tunnel wall. Rogue expected them to go through it but he ran straight ahead instead.

Finally they reached the end of this tunnel, only to find that the way outside was covered in a huge metal grate!

Rather than charging the whole grate, Remy began charging small lines on the metal, at the very top and bottom of each bar, then at the sides. The metal melted rather than exploding and when he was done, Remy lifted the massive grate out and gestured for Rogue to go through first. To her surprise he then asked her to help him hold the grill back in place while we remelted the metal, almost welding it back into place.

"We don't have time for this!" she snapped, her nerves now far too frayed to remember that he was her rescuer.

"If we put this back, they'll never think that we came this way and they'll never even check the route we take."

She supposed that made sense, but rational thought was proving rather hard at the moment.

When he had finished and the grate was almost as good as new, they ran down the water channel, which was thankfully only a few inches deep with water at the moment.

"Can't you light the way again." Rogue asked. The moon was far from full tonight, and what little light it did give off was obscured by some rather tall trees on either side of the ditch.

"Not outside. It'd draw them to us like moths to a flame. Besides, I can see in the dark."

Their thin shoes were sadly inadequate for an escape attempt and the stones dug painfully into their feet. Finally Remy dragged Rogue out of the run off channel and through the thick woodland that was either side.

Their arms and legs were scraped, grazed and torn by the undergrowth but they pressed on. After they had been running for close to half an hour, Rogue's strength finally gave out and Gambit was forced to slow down as he picked her up and carried her.

"I'm fine, I can walk, Cajun!"

"Maybe, chère, but this is my rescue attempt, why not let me play the hero for once."

Rogue really was tired, malnourished, and exhausted in fact, and he'd cleverly phrased his reply in such a way to appease her. He wasn't her hero, she was just letting him play the hero.

It wasn't too long after that that they came to a cave and Remy finally stopped, setting her back on her feet once they were inside.

"Why are we stopping?" she asked. "Shouldn't we keep running?"

"Mindless running gets you caught, chère. Remy spent a month planning this break out, don't go ruinin' it for him."

Rogue shut up, for once without sulking. Gambit put it down to her fatigue. Her eyes had adjusted a little to the dark, so she found a rock to sit on while she watched Gambit run around the cave. He'd clearly been here before because there was just so much stuff already here.

"What's that?" she asked as he positioned something near the entrance.

"It's a little like your image inducer, a holographic projection that makes the entrance to this cave look like solid rock."

"How long are we staying here for?" Rogue asked.

"I had planned on two nights, but you're gonna need your strength for the next leg of the journey so we'll see how it goes."

He left the mouth of the cave and came to the bags near where she was. He rummaged until he found a small electric lamp, which cast a low and eerie light around them.

"Want that collar off now?" he asked.

She remembered that he had already removed his own in the cell.

"How can you do that?" she asked.

"Easy, chère, I'm a thief." He lifted the bloodied sleeve of his scrubs and using his index and first finger, pulled something out of his arm.

"You implanted a lock pick into your arm?"

"How else was I going to get it in there with me?" he asked, trying not to let her see how painful taking it out for a second time was.

"You're bleeding again!"

"I've had much worse." He wiped the bloody pick on his top, then approached Rogue.

She put her hands around her neck, covering most of the collar.

"These things have explosives in, Gambit, you'll blow my head off!"

"Have a little faith, Rogue. My own head is in tact, isn't it?"

She had to admit that he was right so although she was nervous, she removed her hands and leaned her head back.

He worked slowly because as uncomfortable as this position was for Rogue, she would be a lot more uncomfortable without a head. For once Rogue sat completely still and didn't complain at all. Finally with a small snapping sound, the collar came open.

"There," he smiled as he gently slid it from around her neck. "All done."

Rogue once again clasped her hands to her neck, something that she hadn't been able to touch since they first captured her and snapped that bloody collar on.

Remy put a pair of latex gloves and got antiseptic wipes out, raised the hem of her trousers and began cleaning the cuts and abrasions he found there. He was focused on his task, taking care not to hurt her too much, so Rogue took the opportunity to study him. He was actually a pretty good looking man, she admitted, if only he weren't so cocky all the time. Well no, that wasn't quite true either, she quite liked his cocky, charming attitude at times.

He moved onto her arms and throughly cleaned the wounds there too.

"I can do that."

"Don't want you being sloppy and getting an infection," he said with a teasing smile, though he didn't take his eyes off his task.

Rogue wanted to return the favour, especially for that wound on his arm where he'd pulled the lock puck out. Twice! She was just so unused to touching people that she felt awkward even offering.

"Here," Remy handed her a pile of clothes.

"You thought of everything, didn't ya?"

"I tried. Don't worry, I'll keep my back turned while you change, or you can turn the light off if you'd prefer."

"You already told me you could see in the dark."

Gambit winked. He picked up the antiseptic wipes and a bandage, then turned away and began cleaning his wounds, starting with the large one on his upper arm.

Rogue got changed as quickly as she could and was pleased to see that he had remembered shoes (good quality hiking boots) and gloves (the climbing variety if she wasn't mistaken, the kind that had excellent grip).

"Done."

True to his word he hadn't turned around, but apparently he had no such qualms about changing in front of her as he began undressing.

Rogue tried not to look as he stripped down to his boxers but she seemed unable not to. She knew Remy had a good body, even seeing him fully clothed, that much was obvious. What she hadn't realised though, was quite how fit he was, and she meant fit in the 'phwoar' sense of the word, not as in 'fit and active'. His stomach was literally what you might call washboard and his hip bones pointed tantalisingly towards other treasures that were sadly hidden by his boxers. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice her staring, so she felt free to enjoy the show.

"See something you like, petite," he asked as he pulled a T-shirt on.

Rogue jumped. "In your dreams, swamp rat!"

Remy just smiled and began rummaging in another bag. He unrolled two sleeping bags on the floor, side by side, then went into another bag and handed her a bottle of water and two energy bars.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked as she accepted them.

"I'm just lookin' out for ya."

"'Looking out' doesn't include getting caught by the Weapon X Project and their pet mutants."

Remy got down into his sleeping bag and Rogue moved to sit on hers, so they were the same level.

"You helped me rescue mon père, I figured I owed you a rescue."

Rogue nodded but she still didn't really understand why he'd go to so much trouble for her.

"So, where are we anyway?"

"Paraguay."

"What! What the hell are we doing there?"

"The facility is surrounded by jungle and for the right price, the authorities look the other way."

"So how do we get home?"

"That's gonna take some time. We've gotta stay here until they've searched the local area, then we gotta hike forty miles to the next town. From there I've got a ride waiting and we'll drive into Argentina-"

"Shouldn't we head north?"

"They have the authorities on payroll here, we need to get into a different jurisdiction as soon as possible. Once we're in Argentina though, we should be able to catch a flight back home."

Rogue nodded but she was clearly thoughtful.

"What's up?"

"Well, not to sound disrespectful or anything, but why did you come, why didn't the X-Men come for me?"

"They didn't know where you were."

"You didn't tell them?"

"No." Gambit clearly didn't see anything wrong with that. "Look, chère, I knew that the X-Men would go in all powers blazing, but that whole facility is set up to handle mutants and I knew that approach wouldn't work. This kind of job required patience, planning, practice and stealth, things that your friends generally don't find easy."

Rogue was kind of hurt that he didn't consider himself one of her friends.

"Not everyone has my iron will, you know," he added with a wink, making her smile.

"But they'll be worried about me!"

"I know, and as soon as you're safe, we'll call them."

"Okay, but how did you do it? Plan it?"

"You don't need the boring details, chère."

"Why not? We've got nothing else to do until they call off the search."

Remy considered her for a moment then shrugged. "Okay. First I had to get the blueprints for this place but as I say, the public officials here will happily take bribes so that wasn't hard. Then I befriended about half a dozen guards while they were on leave to get information on their security."

"Wait, there is no way they told you that!"

"I had a psychic friend of mine reach into their minds, then make then forget the whole encounter," Remy shrugged as though it was no big deal. "So by now I know how long it takes mutants to be processed and reach here, how the guards work and their shift rotations, the name of the firm that installed their security, and about the existence of these collars. Next I break into the security firm to steal the specifications of the alarms, sensors, that kind of thing. Next was the tricky part, getting my hands on some collars to practice with. The guards didn't know who made 'em, so I had to steal the memories of one of the executives who fly down every few weeks."

Rogue was starting to get slightly awed by how intricate this whole plan was.

"So once I know who makes these collars, a firm in Kansas of all places, I went and stole 50 to practice on."

"But they explode!"

"I wore safety equipment," he answered cavalierly, but when he next raised his water bottle to his lips, Rogue noticed that his hands looked a little pink, especially his finger tips. The burns were healing but were no more than a few weeks old. He clearly didn't want her to know though, so she didn't mention it.

"So then what?" She prompted.

"Well it was pretty easy after that. A little over a week ago I came down here, bought the car we'll be using, hiked here to leave our supplies, then broke into the base to leave those bombs on a timer."

"You planted those a week ago?"

Remy nodded.

"But what about their security? Surely they'd notice a few bombs sitting there for a week?"

"Like I said, chère, they were more worried about mutant powers, not something that any old human could do. Their regular security systems are good in theory, but I'm a master thief and they're lax about guard patrols. They think it's the people inside the facility who will cause trouble, not those outside it. Then I just had to go back home, draw attention to myself and let myself get caught."

"There is no way you did all that in four weeks!"

"Well, maybe more like eight from start to finish."

"And how did you get put in the cell next to me? Surely you couldn't have managed that?"

"No problem, their cells are allocated by computer, so a friend of mine wrote an addition to their program which I hacked in and left. Basically it just meant that the cell next to yours wouldn't be allocated until yesterday, when I knew I'd be coming."

"Wow. I never knew break-ins were so involved."

"Been doin' it since I was a kid," he shrugged – no big deal.

Well Rogue thought it was a pretty big deal. Mercenaries who hired themselves out to people like Magneto did not spend two months planning something with no pay out. So maybe he was going to ransom her back to the X-Men. Or maybe someone else wanted to use her power for their own gain and paid him to rescue her.

"Are you being paid to rescue me?" she asked before she could stop herself.

He looked into her eyes for a moment. "I swear, I haven't taken a single cent."

Rogue nodded, deciding to take him at his word.

"I hope the others got out," he said.

"The others?"

"Prisoners. There are over a hundred mutants in that facility, chère."

"You let them all out?" She now felt slightly ashamed for thinking he was going to ransom her or something.

"I opened all the doors, chère, but without powers, I don't know how many actually got out."

She looked at him with something akin to awe on her face.

"Not entirely selfless," he said with a cheeky grin. "The more of us they have to chase, the more easy it is for us to get lost. Still, if only one or two get to the authorities with those collars on, they'll be believed."

"But what if they hurt themselves getting it off."

"They know how dangerous they are, besides, long as you've got a talented locksmith, should be easy enough. What took me the time was learning to do it blind."

Rogue didn't know what to say to that.

"So, you want to talk about what happened in there?" Remy asked kindly.

"Why do you care, swamp rat!" she said. She hadn't meant to sound to harsh, but that was her normal defence mechanism and right now, she absolutely did not want to talk about it. Period.

"You still hungry?" he asked.

Rogue shook her head, embarrassed about snapping at him.

"Maybe you should get some sleep," he suggested.

Rogue nodded and got into her sleeping bag. Remy turned off the light then did the same. He lay there for a long time, thinking that Rogue would be fast asleep, so he was surprised when she softly called his name.

"Oui?"

"I'm sorry."

"Ne t'en fais pas, mon chère. Now go to sleep, you need your rest." [Don't worry about it, my darling]

"Night, Gambit."

"Good night, Rogue."

They both smiled to themselves, pleased that the air had been cleared.

Gambit was awoken a few hours later by a cry and he bolted upright, ready to face whoever had caught them.

There was no one there though. A few moments later the cry came again and he realised that Rogue was having a nightmare. He took some deep breaths as he tried to relax. He went over to her and gently rubbed her back through the sleeping bag.

"It's okay, Rogue, you're safe now chère. Remy's not gonna let anything happen to you, okay?"

While he thought that she was entitled to a few nightmares after being held for three months by the Weapon-X project, they couldn't risk anyone hearing her.

She seemed to calm down so Remy moved his sleeping bag closer to Rogue before he got back in and put an arm around her. He hoped that feeling another presence with her, something she hadn't had in was the facility (or for years really) would comfort her, perhaps remind her of when she was a child and being comforted by a parent after a nightmare.

Besides, he had always wanted to get his hands on Rogue's body, so any excuse.