Gambit ran like hell for the cave ahead. he had been blinded for a moment by a brilliant flash of light, then when it cleared he had found himself in a totally different battle than the one he had been in. He didn't know where he was, but it certainly wasn't in front of the U.N. building. People were dressed strange and even the weapons looked odd. He didn't know anything about this fight so he was getting his butt to safety, where he could sort out what had happened to him.
After the battle was over he left the cave, and went roughly northeast, if this was still earth. He decided going in a direction neither one of the two fighting groups had gone. As he wandered the next few months he realized he was on earth, just not his earth. He had no idea what year it was. All he had picked up by his few conversations with other travelers was there had been a big war some years, and that the world itself had been damaged by the war. Countries fragmented and then reorganized under empires ruled by powerful dictators, with rebel groups resisting here and there. The big war had gone on several years, and the rebel groups were continuing the fighting on a smaller scale. Apparently nuclear bombs hadn't been used, but some biological and chemical bombs had been at first. Later just incinerating bombs. His background served him well in this world, he obtained the things he needed by charm, gambling or when necessary,stealing. That though, he hated doing to anyone here, no one seemed to have anything. He tried to just steal from the dictators' troops, the only people he saw who had plenty of anything and everything. Living standards varied greatly, some of the poorest lived like medieval peasants, while those with usable skills lived like the early Victorian middle class. A few places had electricity and restored trains, here on the west coast of the former United States. No one but the dictators' lackeys and troops had cars or trucks, generally armored. Most of the people walked or went by horse driven vehicles. Horses had again become a valuable commodity. As were most farm animals. In some ways it was a bit like a re-visitation of the two weeks in 1860 that he and Rogue had been stuck in together, but this was worse, because Rogue wasn't here. He wasn't sure what year it was in relation to the year he had come from, not that it made that much difference, this world was so different from his. he wondered if this world's versions of the people he had known were alive. Of course, with his luck all his friends would be working for the dictators and be bad.
In the months he had spent here had hadn't met anyone he had known. he had however, heard familiar names for the dictators: Gyrich, who used Sentinels and human troops, no mutants, to rule the former west coast of the U.S. Sinister controlled the Great Plains with vicious mutant clones. Magneto controlled the northeast to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers with mutant troops. The southeast was wild, with various factions having control over small areas. Supposedly Candra had an interest there, but other than keeping the other dictators out of her land, she was much more interested her western Europe and north African empire.
After nine months on the west coast Gambit decided to head east to see if would find anything interesting. Anyway, if he was going over the mountains he better go now. As far as he could judge it was early fall. It was warmer than the world he came from, but there was a definite downturn in the temperature now. He figured the warmer temperatures most of the year was due to the war making the greenhouse effect worse. However, as he found out last winter, starting just a couple of weeks after he got here, the winters were colder and wetter than they would have been on the west coast of his world.
He was about midway over the Sierra Nevadas when a couple came right up to him on the road. They seemed very familiar. When they got within speaking distance Gambit recognized them, even though the woman was obviously some years older. Gambit guessed at least 10 years. It was Jubilee, and the man with her was Wolverine,recognizable, despite the heavy beard. Gambit touched his own beard, ruefully. He wondered if Rogue would even recognize him now. He'd used a knife to keep it from getting bushy and long, but that had been the best he could do. Most men wore beards out here, the ones that didn't were of a racial background that beards weren't common.
"Hey, you lost?" was Jubilee's opener.
"Mebbe." Gambit responded warily. Even though they were his friends in his world, he didn't know how their different experiencesin this world would have affected them. For all he knew they could be on a dictator's side. It wasn't likely, but still...
Jubilee was talking to Logan, "I think he's a lost one, he seems... different. Jubilee's weak telepathic power had detected Gambit's differentness.
"Listen bub, you don't have any to trust us, but we can help you, if you want it." Logan said to Gambit.
Gambit smiled, Wolverine certainly sounded like the one he knew.
"I'm Jubilee and mister grouchy is Wolverine. We're getting ready to make camp, if you're hungry you can share our stuff. It's not great, but it's edible."
"I'm Gambit. My food's `bout as good as yours probably, mebbe we can both share, neh?"
"Sounds good." Logan looked at Gambit, still somewhat warily, but beginning to relax a bit. Well, as much as Logan could relax, Gambit thought. Since they went by the code names, he introduced himself by his too. it was safer, after all. They didn't show any response to his code name so it was a good bet that this world's Remy hadn't been a member of the X-Men, if they existed. Of course he might have and they hadn't or any number of other choices could have happened. The only thing he was sure of right now was that Logan and Jubilee had met and formed some sort of partnership.
"Well, you were right about your food, Gambit, it was as crappy as ours." Logan said after the shared meal.
"Different, but just as bad." Jubilee agreed. Then she continued, "We know a guy who can help you get back home if you want. He goes by Doctor, and he was and is one, real good too. And real smart. Do you want his help?
"Yeah." Remy tried to minimize his use of French words, he hadn't heard anyone else using them and it made him very conspicuous.He had become used to living in the shadows again, not standing out in any way, not making himself vulnerable.
After the meal they got up again. There were a few hours of daylight left. When you traveled on foot you used as much daylight as you could if you were actually trying to get somewhere, not just wandering wherever. Now that he had a destination he wanted to get going.
**************************************************************
After they had walked for a while, goin straight east, while Gambit went northeast, Jubilee said, "You remember that picture Minx has in her tent?"
"The one of her husband?"
"Yeah. Doesn't he remind you a little of this guy?"
"Maybe. Hard to tell with the beard. Her guy was clean shaven."
"Well," Jubilee gently pulled Logan's heavy beard, "shavers aren't exactly easy to come by, are they?"
"He was definitely Cajun, that's for sure, I know that accent too well not to spot it."
"So did I, you gahloot, Minx grew up with them."
"He looked awful young, even under the beard to be the guy. Besides, you said he wasn't from here. You know what her guy's name was?"
"R... something. She just told me once, when you skipped out on me when Janey was born."
"I can't stand women in labor, darlin', make me crazy."
"That's for damn sure! You were more nuts than me, and I was in labor! Slyvianne had you tossed out of the tent and you took off. I didn't see you for a whole year, you big jerk!"
"Hey! That was eight years ago! I came back didn't I?"
"Yeah, yeah... let's drop it before we get into another argument."
"Fine with me darlin'." They walked into a ruined building. Jubilee threw off a tarp.
"Well, they're still helping us. The tank's full and the extra fuel tank is there." Logan said. They tossed their things in the back and got in. Jubilee drove slowly out of the building, then took off down the old interstate at top speed. Their allies here kept up the roads. They saved a huge amount of traveling time back to Minx's camp. First, this time, they'd have to stop by Chicago and tell the Doctor of his coming visitor, who'd reach there in a few weeks. Jubilee glanced over at Logan, and then back to the road. Logan was trying to sleep, as usual, on these trips in the cars. In spite of their problems she still loved him, and she knew he felt the same. She thought about their lives together during that long drive. They met sixteen years ago, right after the war started. She had been 19, and a failing college student. It wasn't that she was stupid, as Doc McCoy told her, years later, it was that she didn't give a damn about any thing but art and music. She had made A's and B's in those subjects. And hey she had been making C's in Math, not bad for college courses if you weren't a math wiz. English and History were her downfall, she made D's and F's. She got bored and started doodling, instead of taking notes in class, and she hardly cracked the books open. Her grades in the foreign language she chose weren't that great either, but hey Chinese wasn't exactly a easy language. She wondered how her parents ever learned it! She had taken it just out of curiosity about her heritage. Her parents had been murdered when she was almost 13. She ended up with some fairly nice foster parents. She felt sorry for them in retrospect. They hadn't really understood why she spent as little time as possible there. They had even been paying for her college education. She had once overheard a conversation her foster mother was having with a friend on the phone. Her foster mom said, "We just don't what going to happen to her..." Jubilee smiled, bet you never thought I'd be doing this! They hadn't really understood her powers either, and she thought it scared them a bit too, but they accepted it as part of her, by saying nothing about to her.
The war started one night when Jubilee was at a party on campus. The first explosion could even be heard above the blast ing music. The next few hours were a blur. she remembered running out the party with everyone else. Then going to her dorm room and grabbing everything she could carry. Then throwing all that junk in her car and taking off as bombs continued to fall on the other side of town. She followed everyone fleeing east for a while. Then spontaneously she decided to go north. It saved her life, because someone bombed the highway east. It also caused her to met Logan. She had kept driving in a daze until she ran out of gas up in the mountains. That's when she cried from the fear and panic that had brought to this place in the mountains, hopelessly lost. Logan came across her the next day, eating the last of her junk food stash in the car. He just asked her if she had come from the city. When she said yes, he asked her if she wanted to come along with him, he knew his way around a lot of places, including here. Somehow she knew he was trustworthy, even if he did look disreputable. She got a few things she wanted from her car: her sketchbook, a photograph album with her family and friend's pictures, a few changes of clothes, and her little cassette tape player and a handful of tapes. She laughed now about the last because 5 years later she could only listen to the tapes by stealing batteries, which she had done at first. Eventually she stopped even bothering. The only music she heard now was her own voice, or when they were in the main camp where there were a bunch of people with instruments and good voices. Of the two of them here Jubilee knew she had the better voice. That wasn't saying much though, Logan was howlingly bad. He'd sing when he got drunk. Blessedly his mutant power wouldn't allow him to be drunk long. She did feel sorry for that poor Gambit guy. He'd have at least a two month walk, and then if he was serious about going home Doc McCoy would direct him to Minx's camp. That would take him another 2 to 3 weeks on foot, less if he gets a boat like we do.
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Gambit's trip across was long, but uneventful. He recognized Chicago, even in ruins and was relieved that his trip was nearing it's end, especially since winter had already started this far north. He was glad to be done trekking through snow. He hoped this doctor could help him get home. He really missed Rogue. He missed almost everyone, really. He went through the ruined streets till he found the destination. It wasn't difficult to find, right smack in the middle of a refugee city-camp. He asked the first friendly looking woman he could find, if she could take him to the Doctor. The woman smiled and asked him who had sent him here. He told her Wolverine and Jubilee. She grinned and said, "Come on." She took him to an underground lab. Gambit recognized Hank McCoy immediately even though his hair was partly gray and he looked completely "normal", except for oversized hands and feet. "M'sieu Doctor?" Gambit realized he'd used French, but decided with someone as intelligent as Henry McCoy would know he was Cajun as soon as he said his first sentence, French or no French. He probably knew as many if not more languages in this reality, and would recognize almost any American dialect.
"Yes that is what they call me, some call me Doc McCoy. McCoy being my family name. May I ask what is yours?"
"What dey call me, or my family name?"
"Either."
Gambit could tell this Henry McCoy was much like the one he knew. Gambit decided to tell him both and let him decide which one to call him. "I go by Gambit, but my real name is Remy LeBeau."
Henry McCoy stared at him for a minute, then asked, "You did say LeBeau?"
"Oui."
"And you aren't from here?"
"Non. Got t'rown here, some sort weird explosion."
"A temporal disturbance, it's happened before. I assume one of the guide groups found you."
"Oui. Wolverine and Jubilee."
"You have a good memory."
"I knew dem where I come from, dey be friends of mine."
"Fascinating."
"You a friend too, where I come from too."
"How do we know each other?"
"We belong to de X-Men. It headed by dis man called Professor Xavier."
"Xavier, I knew a Charles Xavier."
"Dat's him." Remy took a small photograph of the X-Men from his pocket.
"Yes. That's the man who asked me to come to his school. I turned him down though, I decided to finish my college education in my home state. Besides," Hank McCoy smiled sadly,"I had met the woman whom I believed I would spend the rest of my life." Hank picked up a photograph of a younger version of himself with a black haired woman and a young boy. "Patricia Trilby- Trish to her friends and to me. She was a rising T.V. reporter. She turned down a national network new position after we were married. She believed it was better for Tommy if we were all together. I had a good job here in Chicago, this very lab, in fact. She was a highly respected reporter here. Then the war started. At first it was just the northeast and west coast. Then they hit the secondary cities: Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago..." Hank paused, then went on. "I was down here, working late. That's what saved me. Trish and Tommy though...The bomb landed far enough from the house that I was able to identity them easily, but close enough to kill them. After two days...That's how long it took to dig my way out of the lab and walk home." You'd think after fifteen years it wouldn't be so sharp, but some things never fade."
"Oui." Remy said quietly.
Then to distract Hank from his pain, he said, "Dis is de you I knew." Gambit pointed to the X-Men's picture.
"How in the world could I end up looking like that?" Hank suddenly felt more "normal" than he had in his life, what was oversized hands and feet, compared to blue fur and fangs.
"You tried to `cure' your mutancy, instead y' mutate even more."
"Oh my. I must have been quite young and foolish. I am glad I had more foresight here. Although I do have the technology here if I wished to experiment on myself. I don't think I will, know ing the results of my experiment elsewhere. However when I've mentioned this technology to some mutants who have passed through here, many have requested my assistance eagerly. I assume though, you are here to find a way home?"
"Oui."
"I am afraid to tell you that we have a bit of a safety system. I can't take you home, but now that you have made it here, and still want to go home I can send you to someone who does have the resources to send you home. If you still wish to once you meet her... Since you have told me a bit about myself on your world, I will give you some information. Hank put a CD ROM into his computer. "This is from a dictator's news report, so as you can imagine the reportage is exceedingly biased against her. I'll not bother with the sound."
"Her?"
"Yes, you may recognize her face."
Remy did indeed recognize the face, even though this woman was a number of years older.
"Yes. I recognized her too, from your picture, even though she is much younger there than she was when I first met her. What do you call her where you are from?"
"She go by Rogue."
"Intriguing. I've never heard that name attached to her. She often uses Minx or Vixen though. They do have somewhat the same meanings. I assume you care for her in your world."
"Oui! We goin' get married soon. We were..."
"Then you must be eager indeed to return to your world."
"Dat definite!"
"Hmm... your lives must have been very different in your world."
"What make y' t'ink dat?"
"Slyvianne, that is her name, although not her birth name, was abducted by Candra when she was 10 years old. She was brought up by Marius Bodreaux as his adopted daughter. He changed her name. She wouldn't say what her birth name was, but apparently it was appallingly bad and she was much happier with her new name and family. She told me she was a love child of a `poor white trash tramp' who thought of her child as a burden. Her adoptive sister and father weren't too bad, better than her mother at any rate, but she despised her adoptive brother. All she said was that he was a pervert..."
Dat was true, Remy thought.
"When she was 16 a marriage was arranged between the guilds, she married your counterpart. For several years the marriage was in name only. Her husband thought of her as too young for him, and he was still sowing his wild oats with a number of women, none seriously though, except for-"
"Belladonna."
"Yes. Were you involved in your world?"
"Oui. It turn out bad t'ough." Gambit had a closed look on his face, he wouldn't say anything more about it.
"Oh. It must have been worse than here. At any rate as they matured Mr. LeBeau began to fall in love with his wife. He realized what he felt for her sister was only affection. He resolved that he would make up for his past behavior. He would be faithful to her from now on, even though they could not touch. Before he told Sylvianne though, he had to break off with Belladonna.
Gambit winced, he knew Belladonna.
"No, the scene wasn't pretty, but perhaps it wasn't as bad as your expression leads me to believe yours was. This was the tale Sylvianne told me. Belladonna screamed and yelled and Remy left her house. Then he told Sylvianne what he had decided to do. She went into her room and pulled a surprise out of her drawer, something she had asked her father-in-law to obtain for her-"
"A neutralizing collar?"
"Exactly. She had told Jean-Luc LeBeau a year or two after she married Remy that she loved him, and if he could come to love her enough she would wear the collar and Jean-Luc would have grandchildren. Of course this pleased Jean-Luc, so a collar was quickly was procured."
"Stolen." Remy grinned.
"Indeed. To continue with my tale, though, Sylvianne put the collar on and walked in her husband's bedroom, they had separate bedrooms because of her power-"
"Oui."
"Just as things were beginning to get interesting..." Hank grinned, "There was a commotion on their front lawn. Someone was shouting at the house. They went to the window. It was Belladonna. She had thrown all the gifts Remy had given her over the years into a pile and set it on fire. She yelled, `Here's your damn crap back!' Then she turned around and left. Sylvianne didn't see Belladonna again until the night the war hit the guild. It wiped them out except for a few who hid themselves well, or escaped like Sylvianne and her two children.
"What happen to-"
"He died, protecting her and the children. She was slightly injured, but managed to drive off the last attacker. When she fled the house her husband's pulse had stopped, despite her desperate efforts to save him. She feared reinforcements would come and kill her and the children. So she grabbed both of them by the hands and fled, taking nothing else with her then. Before she left New Orleans however, she went to her foster family's house. She found them all dead, except Belladonna, who was dying. Belladonna asked her to forgive a youthful foolishness then gave her a gift and told her to go before someone came back to make sure they were all dead. The gift was a fighting suit- similar to Belladonna's,but designed to fit Sylvianne. It was black with dark green armor plating at vulnerable points. Sylvianne quickly put it on under her clothes while the children said their goodbyes to their aunt. She gave them both assassins children's training bo staves, and told Sylvianne to be sure to train them how to use them. Then Sylvianne picked up Belladonna's bo staff at her insistence and fled with the children. They went north. After a few days traveling alone they met up with a refugee group. They traveled with them and ended up here. I treated her injury- it had not quite healed yet. She decided to stay here and help me feed and take care of the refugees. We developed a close friendship. After a while she decided that she wanted to do more, she wanted to stop the dictator's oppression. So she started raiding with a few other trained warriors and thieves. After briefly getting captured once, early on, she decided that this was not the place to keep her base. That's when she moved down to Natchez, Mississippi, where her home base still is."
Gambit grinned, she had gone home, or nearly to it. Natchez was just a bit north of where Rogue had grown up. This Sylvianne had still spent some of her early years in southwest Mississippi. She would know the area well.
"The base is at Natchez-Under-the-Hill."
Gambit laughed. "Appros for thieves and raiders, neh?"
Hank smiled."Yes. That was part of the reason she chose it. It struck her sense of humor that it would again be used as a `hideout' for `outlaws'...
Gambit was seeing more and more that this woman Sylvianne was like Rogue, personality wise, even though her life experiences were so different. He wondered what her years in the guild had been like and what the marriage had really been like. He hoped this world's Remy had treated her well.
************************************************************
Gambit traveled down the Mississippi as much as he could in a small canoe he "found". It still took him nearly two weeks to reach the camp. Unknown to him was how much his arrival was expected. Not only had Jubilee and Logan returned and told Sylvianne of their speculations, another of her guide teams: Kitty Pryde and Peter Rasputin had finished their circuit at Hank's camp two days after Gambit left. Hank told them about Gambit. Because they had an old speedboat to go down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers they were able to reach the camp in a few days. Hank knew who Gambit was and had Kitty and Peter relay that message.
Gambit heard music and knew he must have reached the camp, he pulled the canoe up on the bank, he had only taken a few steps when he was surrounded by five young women with weapons. Gambit smiled and said, "Me alone wit' five ladies, all you have t' do is ask, cheres."
The oldest looking women shook her head and smiled amused, "Oh you must be Gambit, we've been expecting you." The four other women smiled then and lowered their weapons.
"Oui. Dat's my name. So what are your names, pretty ladies?" Remy flirted.
The women all giggled then. "It's him alright!" They said in unison. Then the youngest one ran ahead into the camp, while the other four flirted back as they walked slowly into the camp.
"He's here!" Anna ran into Sylvianne's tent and immediately ran out again. Sylvianne quickly pulled out an old fushia dress from the small chest of things that she had recovered from the house, when she returned after two years. The few surviving thieves had taken all the money, jewelry, appliances, food, and most of the furniture, but most of the clothing had been left as well as all the photographs and videotapes. She and her group took all the photographs and videotapes, and a few pieces of the smaller portable furniture left. She also took all her practical clothes, but only a few items of Remy's and the children's that had sentimental value for herself. The others she let the other members of her group take. The children had long since outgrown the clothes, and Remy... She didn't find his bones when she returned, so she assumed the few guild members who survived buried him somewhere. She held a tiny hope that somehow he had revived himself and fled, that they had just never found each other. The rational part of her mind knew he was gone. But when she saw that old fushia dress she had to take it too. It had been Remy's favorite. He had bought it just before he told her he would be faithful to her, no matter what. He whistled when she put it on, making her blush and smile. Then they had done other things...Sylvianne smiled briefly at the memories. She knew this wasn't her Remy, but maybe he could come to love her and stay. She pulled the dress over her head, then almost cried when she realized that the ten pounds she had gained from her two pregnancies and not been able to lose, made the zipper in the back balk. She sucked her breath way in and managed to get the zipper up. She lay on her bed in seductive pose and tried to breath shallowly. She heard his footsteps on the old concrete and felt herself start to hyperventilate. She recognized the walk, he even walked the same!
He threw back the door curtain and grinned, "Hey, chere."
Sylvianne breathed out sharply and heard the zipper break. "Oh no." she moaned.
Gambit looked a little disconcerted, "Somet'ing wrong chere? Should I not be here?"
"Oh it's not yah. Yah beautiful, it's the dress, the zipper broke." Sylvianne wrapped her blanket around her back as she stood up.
"It still look good on you."
Those words with that voice brought back a flood of memories. Remy had said pregnancy looked good on her. Made him want her even more. He said she looked good in maternity clothes too. It made her feel good when she felt fat and ugly. She could tell it was an honest statement, not just something to make her feel better. "Merci." She thanked Gambit.
That one word made it concrete to Gambit that this was not his Rogue. Oh, the added years had made it obvious, but by casually thanking him in French that really made it clear. Rogue knew French, could speak it fluently, in fact, but she very rarely used it, and her accent was different. This woman spoke with a blend of Cajun and southwestern Mississippian.
"Yah must be tired and hungry, sit down and ah'll bring the food ovah tah yah. Mah husband taught me tah cook pretty good, but we had a `letric stove. Ah'm not so good ovah a campfire."
"Dis be good as anyt'ing ma chere Rogue cook, I'm sure. She be a good cook too, an' not t'ink she is."
"Who...who was Rogue?"
"She be you, where I come from."
"Do yah love her?"
"Oui! We engaged!"
"Oh."
"Chere, I hear from de Doctor `bout your husband..."
"Oui. Ah loved him very much." She stopped his words gently with her own. Then she took his hand and walked out with him to the musicians. She pointed out a tall young man that had long dark brown hair with a narrow white stripe braided down the back and red on black colored eyes. "That's mah son, Perren, he's 18. Then she pointed out a young woman with auburn hair with a short white puff of hair for bangs. Her eyes were a dark green on black. "That's mah daughter Denise, she's 16."
"Dey are beautiful, cherie, like dere mother."
Sylvianne blushed. "Merci. But my son is handsome like his father, neh?"
Gambit smiled."You as good at de flattery as me, chere."
"Especially when it's true."
"You wanna dance, chere?"
"In this dress, no." She laughed. "Let me change though, and you'll see how much ah love tah dance, mon chere." She smiled mischievously, and Remy knew she meant that as a double entendre. She ran lightly back to her tent as Remy watched the musicians and dancers. The musicians had managed to keep and carry quite a variety of instruments. He saw no electric or larger instruments, but anything relatively easy to carry was represented. A teenage boy was playing an old Cajun accordion, a young woman was playing bagpipes. A little girl had a type of flute, a middle aged woman was playing a stringed drum, and an older man was playing an acoustic guitar. The sound was nice, but quite eclectic. No one style seemed to be the dominant influence on the piece. It was just a lively dance tune. There were about 15 other people with instruments scattered around, listening to the music, a watching the dancers or talking, apparently waiting their turn to play. He saw Allison Blaire talking to another woman. This song apparently had no lyrics. Slyvianne came back and smiled at him, then whirled around. The long tunic she wore now flared from her hips to flow in a wave with her movement. Gambit grinned and took her hands, whirled her around, then settled into a Cajun two-step.
Slyvianne smiled and let herself drift with the sensations, it had been so long...
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The title of this part comes from the title of a Loreena Mckennitt song. That song gave me the image of Slyvianne and Gambit dancing in her camp.