Disclaimer: The X-Men, all other characters from the Marvel universe, the Marvel universe itself, and the trademark Marvel are the property of Marvel, strangely enough. I'm pretty sure "X-Men: Evolution" is, too. If anyone feels like coming after me with a big stick, play nice or I'll turn evil on you ;p
Just as people grow, so does their sense of self. As their sense of self grows, so does their power. With mutants, this is a painfully observable growth. With demons, it is generally just painful to those they affect.
Thus far: X-Men build, etc., Mystique is Kurt's blood and Rogue's adoptive mother, Kurt travels through demon dimension, Rogue's absorption not as temporary as we thought, Apocalypse BS, Rogue saves the world, Kurt and Rogue shun Mystique, Professor X presents a heavily abbreviated view of the future, we go from here.
"Well, for something that took a whole day, that debriefing was certainly 'de brief,'" Rogue said darkly, mimicking Gambit at the end. "Who wants to vote on me getting the rest out of the Prof and telling it with the names actually in there?"
The show of hands indicated that everyone except Scott and Jean - and Piotr until Kitty nudged him and whispered in his ear - thought that this was an excellent proposition. Even Logan, laughing for once, raised three claws in the air before departing from the rest of the group.
"You can't be serious!" exclaimed Jean, who knew she had something to hide from a 'private conversation' with the Professor. "If he didn't tell us particular details, he had a reason."
Rogue turned to face Jean and grabbed her shoulders. She looked to
the telepath like she was about to slap her, and the gaggle of
mutants stopped behind them. "Are you kidding? The Professor's
head is almost as messed up as Mystique's! Beside, you know I
don't like havin' all these voices in my head - and the Prof ain't
exactly the picture of a quiet psyche. No way was I actually gonna
do that." She looked to the rest of them, asking them
"Y'all knew that, right?"
This was met by a general chorus of nod's and yeahs, including Scott
shrugging, and smiling crookedly at Jean.
"Oh, right, of course you were joking," Jean said, backing up, and let out a nervous laugh. It was bad enough having to fight a mind-controlled Professor Xavier, but knowing she was later going to be the one on the side of evil was killing her inside (of course, neither she nor Charles had the slightest idea that it wasn't actually her), and pretty much anything related to it made her jumpy.
The group as a whole started moving again, following behind a partially storming Rogue, and smaller groups broke off, until finally it was only the small group of Scott, Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and Piotr entering the foyer from one of the back doors, such that it was only a familiar clicking sound that alerted Rogue to a presence in the room. As she stopped suddenly, everyone else did too - sometimes her mood was enough to command the people around her. Trying to keep her head under control, she dredged up the memory of taking out Sabretooth, and from there concentrated on any memory of his she could find. She sniffed the air, and listening harder, she located the source of the sound - a certain Cajun shuffling cards on the couch that was maybe five feet in front of her. If she wasn't seething anger before, she most certainly was now. Signalling the others to follow, she walked forwards until she could see the top of a mess of hair, and then she pounced on him over the back of the couch, grabbing his coat collar.
Remy, seeing the southern gal straddling him, knees planted by his waist, hunched up and scowling, was so shocked he actually dropped a card, but he regained his composure quickly, setting the rest of the deck down on the coffee table next to him.
"Well, well, chere, looks like de Rogue is a little angry," he said, grinning. "I wonder why that could be?" He knew he was skating on thin ice.
Rogue was less interested in playing games with him even than she normally was. She pulled him from the couch until their faces were an inch apart. "Where were you?"
Still grinning cheesily, LeBeau replied, "pull me a little closer and you can see for y'self, chere." As an afterthought, he added, "You can see Gambit's reasonin', too," and grinned wider.
Rogue, predictably disgusted, dropped him, and stood up from the couch. Remy half - sat up, and crossed his legs. "O'course, I would figure chere would want it from the horse's mouth, not his mind." He patted the seat next to him.
"So?" prompted Rogue, glaring at him, and remaining standing.
Kurt slid into the seat on the far side of the couch from Gambit, and relaxed into a position almost as laid back as the Cajun's own. "Why do you vant to know vere this dummkopf has been, sis'?" LeBeau scowled at him and flicked some dust in his direction - it burned in the air just in front of his face. Kurt didn't flinch at all.
"He could've been there - he could've helped," replied Rogue.
"I'd also like to know how he managed to get in here without setting of any of the security systems," Scott interjected, stopping next to Rogue. If his hand hadn't been around Jean's waist, the three of them would have looked like an inquisition panel.
"That's a tough trick to learn, mon ami, an'it would take years to tell," Remy replied. "As for your little Apocalypse scenario -"
Kitty scoffed. "Little?!"
"As for your little Apocalypse scenario, I'd have done more harm than good, believe me. I coulda' done little more than throw dust in the man's face, and if I got too close to one of them pyramids, it woulda' all been over."
"Yeah, Cajun, it would," Rogue accused. "You could've stopped the whole thing with your power, and you didn't. What gives?"
"You misunderstand, chere," Remy replied, holding out his hands. "It woulda' all 've been over. The whole sh'bang. The world woulda' gone, 'boom.' Those 'tings sucked their energy right outta' th'Earth, and I couldn'tve separated 'em if I tried."
"I don't believe you," Rogue stated as a matter-of-fact.
"My memories can't lie, chere," said LeBeau, and he removed one of his gloves and held out his bared hand.
Rogue slapped the offending appendage away dismissively. "OK, swamp rat, I'll accept that for now. But answer me this question: What are you doing here?"
"I dunno, chere. I mean, I coulda' stayed wit' Jean-Luc and be stealin' for the rest o' my days, or I coulda' tried to make amends wit' Bella Donna, 'though it would be quicker to just jump off a cliff and be done with it. Comes down to it, I coulda' picked a plush spot in town and taken up a collection, made myself a pretty dollar, and then bought the rest o' my way into a life o' riches. " Winking at Rogue, "I guess my heart was tellin' me to come 'ere."
"Taken up a collection?" asked Scott, raising an eyebrow. As if to demonstrate, the Cajun tossed Rogue a wallet - her wallet.
"There better not be anything missing," the girl growled as Gambit picked up and started shuffling the deck again.
"Oh, there isn't," replied LeBeau, and then he took an apparently random card from his deck and handed it to her. "'cept dis. I had to know, chere."
Rogue took the card from him, and when she looked at it, she smirked.
Queen of Hearts.
"You are one slimy rat, LeBeau," she said, tucking the card into her wallet. "Why didn't you just band up with Magneto again or somethin'?"
"Why don't ya'ask metal face over there that same question?" Remy replied, pointing a thumb in Piotr's direction. "I guarantee his answer's to the same gen'ral effect. He got nothin' to hold 'gainst us no more."
"If you're looking for vengeance, Gambit, the X-Men aren't about that," stated Scott, who thought he could see where and more importantly why this was going.
"Me neither, Scooter," replied LeBeau, standing. "In a past life, maybe. But if dis 'ere Gambit before you was into revenge, I would've done as Jean-Luc asked, and taken down the Rippers from the inside. But I hear that th' X-Men are all about new beginnings... and I need one o' those."
"Well, you're welcome to stay with us, Mr. LeBeau," no-one had noticed the Professor entering the room, "provided you can stay out of trouble. But I must ask, who are these 'Rippers?'"
"Assassins' guild," interjected Rogue, "They got a grudge against Remy. First, because he's a LeBeau, and second because he's married to their leader's grand daughter - not on good terms."
"Don' worry, Professor Xavier, they won't attack a house wit' lots of people, even to get to me," supplied Gambit. "You're a bit far outta' their territory here, anyway."
"I'll take your word on that, Mr. LeBeau," said Charles. "Kitty, could you show Mr. Rasputin and Mr. LeBeau to a guest room each? Thankyou." With that, he left the room.
"What am I, like an usher now?" said Kitty under her breath. But she brightened up and grabbed Piotr's arm. "C'mon, ya big softie, let's get you settled in."
As Remy followed the two out, he put a gloved finger to his lips, and brushed it along Rogue's jaw, as she complied to his pulling her chin around, and before breaking eye contact, he pressed his finger to her lips. Only Kurt saw this - he just shook his head and teleported to his room.
"Y'know, I think I'm gonna pack it in early," Rogue announced to Scott and Jean, still watching Gambit walk away. Walking out herself, that left only the two of them in the room.
"Why would Gambit say that he'd taken the Queen of Hearts from Rogue's wallet? What would she be carrying a card around for?" Jean wondered aloud.
"I dunno, Jean, but he only had one deck, right? Well, look at that." Scott pointed to the card that LeBeau had dropped earlier. "Think it means something?"
On the floor lay the Queen of Hearts.
And there is the first chapter of my first "X-Men: Evolution" fanfic. It hasn't been horribly well proofread, so there may be some errors in there. They'll be fixed by the time the second chapter is up.
It won't be all a Rogue/Gambit thing. This was basically starting it out by putting Remy and Piotr in the right place.
Drop me a review if you please - you never know, I might find time to review one of yours ;-)