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Disclaimer. The X-Men and any recognizable characters
belong to
Marvel, Siku is darqstar's, anyone else is mine. Ask first if you want
to
borrow 'em. I'm not making any money off of this, so don't waste your
time,
or mine, suing OK? You wouldn't get anything anyway, I'm flat broke.
~words~ depicts psychic talk
*words* denotes thinking to oneself
Revelations: Chapter 3
Gambit was awakened early by the
sound of thunder. As he slowly awakened, he realized it wasn't thunder;
someone was knocking rather loudly on his door.
"Come in," he said, still half asleep. The
door opened halfway and Rogue stuck her head in, saying only one word.
"Breakfast." That said, she shut his door
and walked away.
Gambit wondered for the millionth time if she would
ever smile at him again ... or even speak more than one word at a time
to him. He shivered and rolled over. If he hadn't known better, he would
have sworn the temperature in his room had dropped about twenty degrees
upon Rogue's announcement. He threw off the sheet, and looked at his
alarm clock. The bright red numbers read 5:44 am. *Jean mus' be cookin'
* he thought to himself. *She de only one who 'as breakfas' ready dis
early. *
Then again, the only time anyone was up before eight
was when Scott decided it was a good idea to schedule a seven am Danger
Room workout. *Why he t'ink seven A.M. is a good time to slug it out in
de danger room is a good idea, I'll ne'er know* Gambit sat on the edge
of his bed and stretched. As he got up and dressed he quietly cursed
Scott out, as he did every morning he was scheduled for an early Danger
Room workout. He reluctantly tied his sneakers, took one last longing
look at his bed, and headed into the kitchen.
xxxx The Danger Room control room xxxx
approximately four
hours later
"Bobby, look out," Gambit called.
"That's Iceman in here, and I don't need your
help, Cajun," Bobby said viciously, as he turned to spot the object
Remy had warned about flying straight for his head. The object fell
harmlessly to the ground, shattering
into small pieces, as Iceman froze it a split second before it would
have hit him.
*Fool* Gambit thought to himself as he charged some
cards and threw them at a missile that was heading for him. Then he
turned to see how Rogue and Archangel were doing, and threw more charged
cards at a Sentinel grabbing for Rogue. She was pulling off some kind of
tentacles that had wrapped themselves around Archangel, strapping him to
the wall. She didn't notice the Sentinel approaching her.
Gambit's cards struck the Sentinel's neck, severing
its head from its body. It fell harmlessly to the ground. Rogue heard
the Sentinel hit the ground and turned to see what had made the noise.
She looked at the fallen
Sentinel, then at Gambit. He couldn't help but cringe when she looked at
him. There was no gratitude in her eyes, only the same sadness and anger
that had been there since he'd revealed his secret to the X-Men.
He watched as she snapped the last tentacle and
gently laid the unconscious Archangel on the ground. Gambit had been so
distracted that he hadn't noticed the Sentinel coming up behind him
until it was to late. He gasped as the air was forced from his lungs,
the sentinel's hand wrapping tightly around his chest. It lifted him up
and flew about twenty feet in the air.
Rogue turned at Gambit's gasp. She flew to the
Sentinel and put her fist through its face. She caught Gambit as the
non-functional Sentinel released its hold on Remy, dropping him.
"T'ank's chere" he said to her.
"Gambit knew you not let him fall."
Rogue didn't respond as they approached the floor.
Instead she let him go about six feet from the floor, then turned to
help Bobby, who was now surrounded by Sentinels.
Gambit hit the floor with a loud thud. He wasn't
injured when he hit the floor, but didn't make any attempt to get up. He
simply had no desire to. *Wha's de point* he thought bitterly to
himself. *De don' wan' my help
anyway.* He laid motionless on the floor watching Rogue and Iceman
fight, when suddenly the battle scene disappeared, leaving only the gray
walls of the Danger Room, and the four X-Men who had been
training.
Scott's voice came over the intercom. "That's
enough for today," he said, agitation evident in his voice.
"Gambit, come up here please."
He said it like a request, but Gambit knew it was an
order. He thought momentarily about ignoring Cyclops and returning to
bed, then thought better of it. When he'd first joined the X-Men he'd
disobeyed an order from Cyclops, and all it had earned him was a week of
monitor duty, an extra long danger room session the next morning, and a
few of Scott's famous lectures. Besides, Scott sounded extremely angry,
and Gambit had a feeling it was more than just because of Rogue, Warren,
and Bobby's behavior. He watched the others leave,
giving him hateful glares as they left, then slowly got up and made his
way to the control room.
Scott gave Gambit exactly what he expected. A
lecture. "I'm disappointed in you Gambit. I know you weren't
injured in that fall, but you laid there, not moving, anyway. You simply
gave up. You barely tried throughout this
whole session. I've noticed you've been slacking lately, but today was
the worst performance I've ever seen ... by anyone."
Gambit tried to control his anger as Scott talked;
finally he gave up trying and spoke out. "Wha's de point, Cyke? You
saw how they acted, heard what de said, dey made it quite clear dey not
wan' Gambit 'round."
"Trust is a delicate thing Gambit. You betrayed
our trust in you by not telling us sooner. It will take time to earn it
back."
"How dat gonna happen, eh?" asked Remy, his
voice a mixture of anger and hurt. "How you t'ink dey gonna trus'
me again when you don', ne'er did."
Scott opened his mouth to say something, then shut
it, deciding to hear Gambit out.
"Don't try to deny it Scott, 'cuz Remy see it in
your face, and in your actions. You don't say anyt'ing to me unless it's
necessary. You not put me on a mission in seven months, since I revealed
my secret, an' dere been
plenty." Remy stared at Scott, waiting to see what he would say.
Scott was silent for a moment before finally
speaking. "You're right, Gambit. I never completely trusted you
from the moment we met, but I trusted you enough to watch my back, and
the others, in a mission. I don't know if I can do that now. The others,
however, with maybe the exception of Bobby, trusted you almost from the
beginning, especially Ororo. You betrayed that trust by not telling us
of your involvement in the Morlock Massacre. You obviously didn't trust
us enough to accept you. I won't put the team in danger by bringing
along someone they don't trust."
Remy felt his heart sink. He realized he was probably
fighting a losing battle, and without being dismissed, he turned and
walked out of the control room.
Scott watched Gambit walk out, shoulders slumped, and
thought about calling the others up to the control room to let them know
how disappointed he was in them. He realized it wouldn't do any good and
dismissed the thought. He had tried talking to them, and yelling at
them, and it never seemed to faze them. He had hoped that by making them
train together; they would eventually release their animosity towards
Gambit and learn to trust him again, but it only seemed to strengthen
their hatred towards him. He knew Gambit was honestly trying to earn
back the X-Men's trust. He had, after all, remained and endured the
harsh treatment when he could have easily left.
Gambit took a shower, then returned to his room. He
flopped down on his bed wearing only boxers. He was exhausted. The
training session had lasted nearly three hours, longer than the usual
hour and-a-half to two hour
sessions. He tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. He got up and
finished dressing, then decided to get a snack and take a long walk.
Scott walked to the boathouse he and Jean shared,
silently going over the events of the training session, and his
conversation with Remy in his mind. He still couldn't decide what to do
as he reached the boathouse. He walked in the front door and into the
kitchen. Jean was standing at the counter preparing an early picnic
lunch for the two of them. She was putting in the potato salad, his
favorite, as he entered the kitchen.
"How did it go, " she asked. The look on
his face, and the tension she felt in him through their rapport gave
Jean her answer. "That bad? "
"Yeah. That bad. Probably the worst one
yet," Scott replied sadly. "But I don't want to talk about
it." He walked over to the counter and pulled Jean close to him,
kissing her passionately.
She leaned into his kiss, matching his passion. They
slowly broke the kiss, Jean smiled as she looked into his eyes, barely
visible behind his ruby quartz's glasses. "Let's go, lover,"
she said to him as he returned her smile. She knew their picnic would
give him a chance to talk about other things and give him time away from
the burdens of leadership, if only for a few hours.
He picked up the basket with his left hand, wrapped
his right arm around his wife's shoulders, and set out for their
favorite spot by the lake to enjoy their lunch.
Bobby and Warren each took a shower and decided to go
to Jake's for a drink. They walked to Rogue's room and knocked on the
door.
"Come in " she told them.
"We're going to Jake's for lunch and a drink,
wanna come along?" Warren asked her. She was sitting at her
vanity brushing her damp hair.
"No sugah, you two go on and have a good time.
Ah think Ah'll just stay here and relax for a while."
"Suit yourself," Bobby said, and he and
Warren left her room.
Rogue set down her brush after they left and went
over to the door and shut it. She then went over to her bed, laid down,
buried her face in her pillow, and cried.
OK. I know it's a little short but there's chapter
3.
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