New Beginning
By: Marina StormFire
X-Men: Evolution songfic

Summary: My own version of "Cajun Spice".

Disclaimer: I don't own ANYTHING… So sue me if you believe me to be a liar. XP

Chapter 4: Rescue

Marius Bourdreaux and his son, Julian barred Remy and Jean-Luc's way out. "Well, well, well. It must be Father-Son Day." The balding blonde man said, as he stood in the doorway, his son with a bazooka on his shoulder. And if it weren't for the little detail that Julian looked a little too trigger-happy, Remy figured that he and Jean-Luc could take them both on single-handedly each with little to no problems.

"Get back in dere!" Marius ordered, even as Julien was getting ready to fire. But when as they were focused on the problem in front of them, they had both forgotten to watch their own backs.

'C'mon, Rogue. Where are y', fille?' Remy wondered, wondering how he and his adopted father were going to fight through them. As it turned out, he needn't have worried, because all of a sudden, both father and son fell to the ground unconscious.

"Need a li'l hand, Swamp Rat?" the Southern Belle asked, much to Remy's relief.

"Was wonderin' when y'd show, chere." The cajun answered smoothly, as he watched her pull her gloves back on, and head back down the hall.

Just as they got to the end of the hall, gunfire came at the three of them, and they were forced to stay down against the walls.

I held onto you for as long as I could but today
You fell away
Now what I hold are the memories we barely made
I stood on the edge of your bridge until I felt the rain
Wash me away
My confusion left me fast as the vertigo came

After the allotted time was up, Rogue made her way inside and found her way blocked by two men- who had their backs to her. The shorter of the two ordering someone to "Get back in dere!"

She took off both her gloves and touched the back of the men's heads, which afterwards, they were out like a couple of blown lights. Holding her pale hands out in front of her, she asked, "Need a li'l hand, Swamp Rat?"

Rogue was only slightly agitated when she saw that cajun's mouth tip into a smirk, and those smooth words escape his mouth, even as she turned to walk back the way she came down the hall. "Was wonderin' when y'd show, chere."

"Let's go." Was all she said, and was only vaguely aware hearing Jean-Luc asking in an incredulous tone of voice, "She do all dat wit' da touch o' a finger?" and Remy's reply of "F'rget it!" and the two men following her down to the end of the hall when the shots started raining down on them when they reached the end of the hall. Jean-Luc behind Rogue, and Remy flattened himself against the opposite wall across from them.

Rogue had pulled on both gloves and pulled up a memory of the layout of the house, looking for an exit. Finding one that led from a hallway adjacent to their own positions on the other side of the hall, she shot up, saying: "This way!" Quickly tapping her comm three times, hoping that their back-up would help ease the way out.

What I believed to be true it was only a dream
Believed in me
I just projected it over your beautiful screen
I self medicated my way through this mess that we made
So I could stay
There was nothing, but I waited
I waited

Remy couldn't believe that he missed the hallway that would lead out. 'Now y'r really starting to slip up, LeBeau.' He thought, as he heard Jean-Luc ask, "How she know?" Looking at his adopted father, he only said:

"Trust me, she knows." And swiftly followed her with Jean-Luc right on his heels. They followed Rogue down another hallway, where there were some windows that some debris from the outside was whipping up against due to the gust of wind blowing.

Right ahead, was the exit that they were gonna take, but were stopped by two Assassins guarding the door. When all of sudden, that part of the manor was torn apart and the Assassins were blown away and discarded off to the side. Rogue had fallen back, and Gambit had stepped forward to brace her, when above them a young woman with short dark blue hair and green eyes hovered above them. "Go, Rogue!"

Jean-Luc looked incredulously up at the young woman above them. "Dat fille controls de weather?"

Rogue spared a glance back at him. "Nope, jus' th' wind. Let's move!" and tried to make a run for the docks, but was stopped when just overhead they were fired on. They remained where they were when they heard a thud and a snarl, and then an anthropo-morphed voice said, "I'll take this." And they proceeded to hear the startled yelp of a man and the clatter of a weapon being thrown to the concrete. Risking a backward glance at the two men slightly behind her, she made a beeline straight for the docks—acutely aware that both Remy and Jean-Luc were right behind her, plasma firing at them from the roof of the Ripper's stronghold, until it abruptly stopped.

The wooden balcony on which the Assassin's stood was broken from below, where only a lone slightly muscled man stood with what looked like a giant boomerang in hand and attached it to his back before jumping over the wreckage that he brought down and making a run for another motorboat.

This was my mistake
Broken are plans we made
So I will be traveling any place
Cuz anywhere's better than
Here we rest in peace
Rubble beneath the feet

As soon as the man got into the hidden boat, a redhead girl moved their boat out, a black hawk flying just overhead to meet up with Rogue's boat that Gambit was operating.

The three of them didn't spare a glance at the wrecked balcony behind them as they quickly jumped into the spare motorboat, with Jean-Luc on the tail end, as he untied their 'borrowed' boat. "Hold on, chere. Dis 's gonna be a ride." He saw her nod from the corner of his eye. As he started the motor, he glanced at her again, and though it looked like she was afraid, his empathy told him that she was having the time of her life—mentally laughing at the thrill of the adrenaline rush on the inside. He could almost see the vague curl of her mouth tip up in a small smile. Mentally giving himself a slap, he concentrated on getting the three of them out of there. They were joined by another boat that- one glance at Rogue told him that they were their backup. And not far behind them were three boats of Assassins, one of which was a fully recovered Julian—who looked as furious as a bull that has a red flag waved in front of them.

He drove the motorboat efficiently through the maze that was the bayou, and heard Rogue say loudly, "They're followin' us!" and when she turned front again, her face had fear written all over it. "Watch out!"

Narrowly avoiding the water mine, one of the three boats of pursuers wasn't so lucky and hit the mine. With two boats of Assassins still on their tail end, Gambit let loose a barrage of charged cards which seemed to miss their target completely.

Rogue turned to the boat next to them and hollered over the noise of the motorboat. "HAZARD!" and pointed back at their pursuers. She saw him give a wicked grin and detaching the giant boomerang from his back, let it fly at several overhanging branches that didn't hit their pursuers, but manage to land in front of them—literally teaching the two Assassins in the boat, a flying lesson.

I shouldn't have followed you anywhere
Cuz anywhere's better than here

The loss of his fellow Assassin's didn't seem to faze Julian at all, as he sped passed them, firing his bazooka at them. It didn't hit the boat that Remy, Rogue, and Jean-Luc were in, but it did hit the one that Hazard and the red-haired girl were in. Though just before the two of them hit the water, the red-haired girl had a palm out flat and hummed; and platform of water caught them and carried them to the roots of a cypress tree.

Julian and Remy dodged several water mines so far; as Julian fired several more –missed- shots at them, until Julian's patience ended and he came up beside them and rammed into their boat's side, causing it to capsize—spilling the three of them, Remy, Rogue, and Jean-Luc into the murky swamp waters.

The struggle to hold on to something was futile, as Remy and his two companions were spilled into the bayou waters. He was relieved to see Jean-Luc climbing ashore, but when he glanced at Rogue, his heart nearly stopped. There were two gators heading her way, and knew that she had no chance to escape them… until he saw an enormous shadow over them and saw what appeared to be an eagle swoop down and grasp Rogue's outstretched arms as she grasped the dangerous talons. He couldn't afford to watch what would become of her, until he could save his own skin.

Julian was circling around Remy like a shark before going in for the kill. Gambit caught a break, when Julian ventured too close, and managed to charge the boat. The Prince of Assassin's jumped before the boat exploded.

Windy came in and created a minor funnel or sorts around the Assassin and sent it back toward the wreckage of the Assassin's headquarters, while Marina created a small whirlpool that would help Remy get to shore.

Where is the space I could move, where could I rest my head
There's nothing left for me here
It's hard to leave behind
The one thing that made me feel alive
So I slide
From paranoid to paradise

Just then a pair of legs appeared in front of Remy, and when said cajun looked up, it was into a pair of golden-yellow slit-pupiled eyes. "Need a hand, Gambit?"

Remy smiled slightly, and gratefully took up Hawkeye's hand, as the other mutant pulled him up to his feet. When he looked at who all was there, he saw 4 unfamiliar faces—the fifth being Hawkeye. He was relieved to see Rogue was alive and well, as well as Jean-Luc.

As Rogue approached Remy, she was glad that he was alright. After Hawkeye had swooped down to rescue her from the gators, she had watched as Julian had almost or very nearly run him over with the boat, but watched as Gambit had charged the boat and watched it explode when it hit a boulder and exploded. She saw Windy make up the funnel and whisk the Prince of Assassin's back to his torn-down and wrecked 'castle', while Marina made up the small whirlpool to help the Prince of Thieves back to shore.

"Y' okay?" she asked, as the mutant with the boomerang on his back put her jacket over her shoulders, when she saw Hawkeye help Gambit to his feet on the banks of the swamp.

Remy fixed his red-on-black eyes on Rogue's bright emerald green, as he wrung out the water in his trench coat. "Oui. Could be better t'ough." He replied huskily, feeling like his throat was parched. He felt her indecisiveness on what to do next, and wondered if she would stay in town for a little while.

Rogue gave herself a mental shake from her indecisiveness, and looked him straight in the eyes. "If we c'n talk somewhere private, we c'n get down ta tha' li'l chit-chat tha' ah promised ya earlier."

This was my mistake
Broken are plans we made
So I will be traveling any place
Cuz anywhere's better than here

Remy nodded. "Y' got a place t' stay at, chere?" he asked, and nearly smacked himself in the head, when he found himself being stared at by the majority of the assembled back-up from that night's excursion. "Nev'r min' tha' question. T'was pretty stupid t' ask."

He was met by quiet chuckles from the older man with the boomerang on his back and felt Rogue tug on his hand. "Didn' get a chance ta introduce ya ta our back-up earlier," she said, and pointed to each one as she introduced them. "Th' one wit' th' Boomerang is Hazard. red hair ovah there is Marina. Windy is the blue-haired green-eyed gal. Shiftah is…" she trailed off looking around for the one that she was going to introduce him to, until she looked behind Remy. "behahnd ya." Was all she could say.

Remy turned and found an nineteen-foot gator smack dab right behind his legs, which made him jump backwards towards Rogue and her companions—making them laugh out loud. He heard Rogue sigh out loud. "Shiftah, ah swear, one o' these days, somebody's gonna come along and shoot ya full o' holes f'r ya hide. An' nobody's gonna save ya then."

It fascinated Remy to see this particular gator shift to a human form, which had bright hazel-amber eyes that had slitted pupils. Shifter's human form was of a lanky, yet muscular and strong build. His shoulders not quite filled out, but he appeared to be Remy's own height, his face sported a crooked grin, under a narrow nose and beside high cheekbones. The shifting mutant looked to be about Remy's own age or thereabouts.

"Aww, c'mon, Rogue, jus' havin' a bit o' fun." Came the playful/pitiful whine from the mutant. Remy heard Rogue scoff and looked like she wanted to cuff the shifter for his comment.

"Yeah rahgt."

[Instrumental]

Turning back around to finish the introductions, she pulled her arms through her jacket that Hazard had in his thin pack. "An this," she finished, nodding in Hawkeye's direction. "is Hawkeye. The 'eye-in-the-sky.'"

"Plaisir de vous rencontrer tous." Remy replied, giving them a relaxed grin to his ever-present pokerface.

Hawkeye nodded his head, as well as the others who gave their own greetings. Glancing down his watch, he noticed the time. "We gotta be goin' pretty soon. Will ya be in town f'r a bit, Rogue?"

Rogue looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "I'm gonna have t' beh in town f'r a bit, Hawk. Ya guys got mah pack. Can' reallah go anywhere wit'out it."

Chuckling, he gave her hug, which she reciprocated, hugging him as tight as she could before pulling back. "If th' ol' safehouse in town is good t' go, ah'll stay there, an' anyone tha' wants t' see meh, c'n look meh up there."

This was my mistake
Broken are plans we made
Here we rest in peace
Rubble beneath the feet
I shouldn't have followed you anywhere
Cuz anywhere's better than here

Glancing at them over Rogue's head, he saw both Gambit and Jean-Luc—who had been surprisingly quiet during the introductions, exchange a glance and a nod. "I don' think i's gon' be a problem, is it, gentlemen?"

Gambit turned to the rest of them and shook his head. Glancing at everyone, he saw them nod to each other—apparently agreeing with the arrangements.

"We'd better get, befo' them Assassins decide t' turn th' lot o' us inta gator-bait." The girl with blue hair—identified as Windy, said, as she watched the sky darken. It was pretty late and it was guaranteed to be a long day after the following morning.

With a collective nod everyone started the long walk back to the Heart of New Orleans for a good night's rest. Explanations could wait 'til the following day… or would they?

A/N: Bonjour, Mes amis! How is everybody? I FINALLY updated the last chapter of this part of the story and I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. I am working on the details of a possible sequel to New Beginnings, that starrs Rogue's past and whether or not she returns to the Institute.

So if you have any ideas that you'd like me to use, go ahead and send in a review or PM me, whichever you feel comfortable with, and I will see if I can incorporate it within the story.

French-English Translations:

Fille- girl

Plaisir de vous rencontrer tous- Pleasure to meet all of you