Or I could ride with kings and conquer many lands
Or win this world at cards and let it slip my hands

- from "A Thousand Years" by Sting

Seattle was about as far from New York as you could get without crossing an ocean or a border, and Remy, hunkered down in the front of an abandoned theater, was starting to think about doing just that. It rained too much here; he needed somewhere with sunshine and a nice delta. Or at the very least, some place that offered better things than coffee to drink.

He shrugged and drew his coat more tightly around him. It didn't do anything - the cold rain had already soaked through the supposedly waterproof material - but it was psychological relief, and that he had in very short supply at the moment.

What was he gonna do?

More than anything, he wanted to go back to New York, to the Institute. Who was he kidding? - back to Rogue. But she was gone, lost to him, just as surely as Belladonna had been the night he'd traded his honor for revenge against Mesmero. Not that Belle hadn't been placed out of reach before then anyway. Story of my life, he thought to himself. He kept trying to do the right thing, and it never failed to come back and blow up in his face.

He took out his favorite deck and started shuffling through the cards without looking at them. If the weather had been nicer, he would've been downtown hustling pedestrians with magic tricks. Not the most honest way to earn a living, but it had paid his way across the country. NY to D.C., D.C. to Nashville, Nashville to Chicago, a never-ending ride through the Plains states to
Denver, Denver to Salt Lake, then Vegas, and finally Seattle. He'd been to more American cities in two weeks than he'd been in his whole life; the Guild prefered to travel overseas, mainly to places with lax extradition laws (just in case).

Las Vegas would have been perfect, lack of a delta notwithstanding, but it was Guild territory already and he'd risked a fair bit just setting foot in the town.

C'est la vie. But his life sucked, and he had the proof of it in his hand right now.

The deck held only fifty-one cards, and if anyone should've happened to look through it carefully, the missing card would not have been difficult to identify.

He spread the cards out in his hand and fingered the gap between the king and jack of hearts, wondering if Rogue - no, Carol - would ever find his farewell present, and if so, would she understand what it meant. He didn't think so, and that broke his heart more than anything else. To not even be remembered...

Remy sensed someone's presence behind him and jumped up, charging four of the cards at the same time he tucked the rest away.

A tall figure wearing a purple cape and a red helmet stepped out of the shadows. Remy recognized him from the X-Men's descriptions; they hadn't been exaggerating. He had a feeling they hadn't been exaggerating about the mutant's power, either.

"I have an offer for you," Magneto said, eyes glowing yellow. "One of my... associates has left unexpectedly. I need someone to fill her place."

Remy weighed his options and came to a decision. He straightened and let the charge drain out of the cards. "I'm listenin'."

Magneto smiled.

Final Notes: This entire scene is based on the lovely XM #45, where Gambit's past (Sinister) catches up to him in an abandoned theater in Seattle, all while Rogue is breaking his heart. XM #45 does not have Magneto, of course; that's a ref to "Day of Reckoning."

At the time I wrote this story, I had a third fic planned. However, after many years of saying "Well, I will... eventually", I have to say - it probably ain't gonna happen. Sorry!

And now it's time for thank-yous: Ah, feedbackers - I love you all dearly! I like to pretend that feedback doesn't matter, but it does. It really, really, really does. Sigh. There goes my last shred of creative integrity...