All characters owned by Marvel Comics

Author's note: Canon really bit me in the rear on this one. Just when you get a good idea, someone decides the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver aren't Magneto's kids anymore. To get a good sense of the timeline for this story, let's say rather than the Red Skull's lackeys kidnapping Rogue and Wanda and taking them to Genosha in Uncanny Avengers Vol 1, the ladies enlist a team to go after Magneto instead. Like the synopsis said, this assumes Axis never happened. For mature audiences only all the way through, but to be safe I will flag the especially smutty chapters.

Chapter One

"Well, ain't this one sad-ass family reunion…?"

Remy LeBeau, the mutant thief Gambit, barged his way into Serval Industries' spacious conference room, the room's decor fraught with the dark wood and stainless steel that had become the cliche of every modern office building. His entrance had halted an extremely heated conversation and Remy's dark eyes took in the troubled group of mutants frozen angrily in mid-sentence by his interruption.

His X-Factor squad leader Lorna Dane, the mistress of magnetism Polaris, was in private conference with her erstwhile siblings: Remy and Lorna's teammate Pietro Maximoff, code-named Quicksilver, and Wanda Maximoff, the reality warping Avenger known as the Scarlet Witch. The three mutants were the children of the sometimes scourge, sometimes savior of mutant kind, Magneto. Wanda and Lorna were seated at a lustrously monstrous table that filled half of the room's space, and Pietro, whose mutant powers included the gift of super speed and eternal impatience, paced laps around the room.

The Scarlet Witch squared her shoulders and lifted her chin defiantly, her eyes making Remy's blood run cold. "Your presence is neither requested nor required. We are here to meet with Lorna and Pietro. The rest of X-Factor is..."

"We?" Remy questioned as he shot a confused look toward Lorna. "Like, you referring to yourself with the royal 'we' now? 'Cause you the only Avenger I see, cherie…"

"Now, hold on, Wanda…" Lorna leaned forward, placing her hands on the polished surface of the conference table. Her long hair, the shade a shocking green, brushed the tabletop and reflected the color across it in a neon shimmer. "This is my home, my team. Though I don't necessarily agree with you, I do understand your request to keep the others members of X-Factor out of this. But Remy has a great deal of experience here, not to mention somewhat of a vested interest." She caught Gambit's eyes and slightly nodded towards the windows of the spacious room. Gambit started in surprise. Standing at the wall of floor to ceiling windows with her back turned to the group was his former lover Anna Raven, the X-Man turned Avenger Rogue. She had clearly accompanied her teammate Wanda as part of whatever meeting Remy had just walked in on, but the girl hadn't made a sound or even moved since he had entered the room. Remy mouthed a silent 'What the fuck?' to Lorna and she merely shrugged. He took a tentative step towards Rogue, but Lorna held up a hand and shook her head ever-so-slightly. Remy, choosing to ignore Lorna, looked again towards his somewhat ex-flame.

"Rogue! It's been a while, chere. Come on over and be sociable." Silence greeted him and she continued to stand with her back to them, hugging herself. The hood of her green tunic costume was pulled up over her head, and she seemed smaller than usual to Remy, like she was trying to blend into the wall or disappear into the floor. He fought the urge to stride across the room and whip that stupid hood down, kiss her square on the mouth. He sighed, annoyed at their 'ex' status, still mildly embarrassed that he hadn't noticed her standing highlighted against the windows. Some master thief, he thought. It hurt him more than he wanted to admit that their relationship had apparently deteriorated to the point that she wouldn't even give him the courtesy of a greeting. He ran the last conversation they had through his mind and it had been tense, no doubt about it, but he didn't think they had left things badly enough for her to give him the cold shoulder.

Pietro stopped his pacing and came to stand next to Wanda. "Can we please get on with this? Though it pains me to admit it, Lorna's right. Gambit's experience in this area is much more extensive than most of your current teammates, Wanda. Besides, one of his more annoying qualities is persistence. It would be pointless not to include him now that he knows we're all here. He would just listen in somehow, dangle down the air-conditioning vents or hack the security cameras or something equally annoying. We'll save time and irritation by just including him in the discussion."

Crossing her arms under her chest, Wanda leaned back in her chair. "Very well. Lorna, if you would please bring your teammate up to speed on our current mission?" She leveled those icy eyes at him again and a snarky retort bubbled up in Remy's throat, but Lorna stood slightly and placed a hand on his wrist. Mission. He sure as hell didn't like the sound of that.

"Take a seat, Remy, and I'll begin."

"Use small words…" Pietro quipped and resumed his pacing. Remy bit his tongue. Damn, Magneto's kids are pretty uppity, makes you want to slap them. Lorna wasn't as bad as the twins, but Remy had been her teammate long enough to have witnessed some of her holier-than-thou moments. Despite having nearly identical powers to her famously villainous father, Lorna had only found out she was Papa Magneto's child recently. Nature versus nurture, he wondered? Was extreme arrogance an inherited trait? There were the Summers brothers after all…he brushed the thought away and sat on the edge of the table close to Lorna, his back turned slightly to the Scarlet Witch.

"As you know, our father is a wanted man," Lorna folded her hands in front of her. "He's always been on the government's radar, but since Utopia and his break with Scott's team, he has gone completely rogue…er…renegade." Remy smiled crookedly at Lorna's Freudian slip. He winked at her and she scowled. He smiled a little broader and looked up towards Rogue, opening his mouth to say something flirty to her to get her attention. "Don't…" Lorna whispered hotly.

"What d'you mean don't?" he hissed back. "What the hell's going on here? Is she part of this discussion or not?" He leaned on an arm towards Lorna and glared around the room at the other mutants. He was happy as hell to hear that Magneto was once again showing his true colors, he just wished it had happened before the old man had sweet talked his way into Rogue's panties. Though she had broken things off with the villain well before this currently messy situation, her presence here today was slightly problematic. If Rogue had volunteered for this train wreck of a mission, maybe things weren't as finished between her and 'the Master of Magnetism' as Remy had hoped.

Thinking of Rogue and Magneto together still made Remy's stomach bottom out. He knew Magneto was an old itch the girl had needed to scratch, but part of him wished he had been wrong about Rogue's long standing infatuation with the infamous villain. Frustrated at the time with the status of his relationship with Rogue, Remy had ended things, practically giving her permission to be with the other man. Their love, for better or worse, had always bordered on the dramatic, but Remy had meant it when he told her that he had never loved another woman like he loved her. Now that she was single again, he had been looking for the chance to prove that declaration.

Lorna met his scathing stare and raised one green eyebrow in warning. Remy leaned back in a huff. He knew he was in the room at her behest, she could just as easily kick his ass out. "As I was saying," Lorna continued, "he's out of control, and not just his usual megalomaniac world domination shtick. He has taken on the role of mutant messiah in a much more cold-blooded fashion, vigilante style, hunting and murdering individuals he deems to have wronged our kind somehow."

"Wronged?" Remy furrowed his brows. "Like, how?"

Wanda's steely voice caused him to turn. "His first targets were humans who had murdered mutants, perpetrators of hate crimes, if you will. According to SHIELD, his latest maneuvers involved the slaughter and torture of the surviving members of the Marauders," she said slowly. "From what I understand you don't really need an explanation as to how they've wronged mutant kind."

Bile rose in Remy's throat, leaving the faint taste of vomit behind. He knew all too well the many sins of the Marauders and more that a few mutants gleefully threw his forced associations with the group in his face. "And who the hell appointed bucket-head judge, jury and executioner for mutant kind?" Remy yelled angrily. "And you, Ms. "No more mutants" Maximoff," he jabbed a furious finger at Wanda, "where t'hell d'you get off…" Lorna's arm shot out and pushed his hand down to the table.

"Watch your mouth, Wanda," she growled, magnetic energy crackling around her and causing the hairs on Remy's arm to stand on end. "Remy's right. All of us in this room have done horrible, nasty things we're not proud of. We all have blood on our hands, none more vividly than our father. Who is he to judge when his own past is so completely fucked up?"

Continuing his frenzied pacing, Pietro's voice seemingly rang from all corners of the room. "I am not in the mood for an ethics debate, as we five may be some of the least qualified people to participate. I think Gambit is caught up. Please get to the point of you and Rogue's visit, Wanda, not that I can't guess what it is you want from us."

Wanda nodded, but Remy's eyes sought out Rogue again. Why was she here? Like Pietro, Remy could make a good guess. She and Wanda had come alone, meaning they were probably doing this mission, whatever it actually was, off the Avengers' books. Did she still care that much for Magneto that she would risk her life and her coveted place on the world famous team to, what? Bring the man in?

"Yes, Pietro," Wanda began as Gambit pulled himself back to the discussion. "Our father's recent activities have placed him on the Avengers' to-do-list and they want him dispensed with quickly. However, Alex has bargained with the rest of the team's leadership. They do not want a repeat of what happened with the X-Men on Utopia, and would like to avoid a full-scale conflict if possible. We have been given a short window in which to bring him in peacefully, if we can. If we fail, the full might of the combined teams will be unleashed upon him."

Remy snorted. "Bring him in peacefully? You're joking, right?"

"Gambit!" Lorna scowled at him and Pietro skidded to a halt between the two of them.

"He's absolutely right, oh-sisters-of-mine," he intoned sarcastically. "Do you really think the sight of his darling children will suddenly show him the error of his ways? That you can throw yourself at his feet and beg for mercy on behalf of mutant kind? Or that the vision of loveliness that was his latest floozy will make him pine for what could have been?" Pietro gestured angrily towards the still silent Rogue.

Remy jumped to his feet. "Watch it," he barked, getting chin to chin with Pietro, his fists balled at his sides.

"Pietro…" Wanda's tone warned her brother from making any further comments.

Lorna stood and shoved her way between the two men. "All right, let's take a step back here, boys." She pushed hard on their chests and Gambit sat back on the table, his red on black eyes glowing furiously. Floozy? What the fuck did Pietro know? For most of her adult life, Rogue's mutant powers were uncontrollable and deadly. Even though she had a body that was built for sin, she had only even kissed a few people in her lifetime, let alone been intimate with them. As much as it hurt him to admit it, the girl should be allowed to hump her way up and down the eastern seaboard if she wanted to, make up for a little lost time. As far as he knew she hadn't, but to call her a floozy was really shitty. Remy sighed and looked towards Rogue again. No reaction. Dammit, she still hadn't moved an inch. What was going on here? He tore his eyes from her to Pietro who had taken a step back and had smugly crossed his arms.

"So, let me get this straight," Pietro sneered, "you're fabulous plan, Wanda, is that we're supposed to hunt him down, which mind you always turns out so well with him, and, as one big happy family, which apparently now includes his ex-girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend, convince him to turn himself in? Just us? No Captain America or Thor, or extra X-Men? Just us? What a fabulous plan, sister. A master strategist as always." As arrogant and irritating as Pietro could be and was, Remy had to admit he had a point. Magneto was stubborn as hell. Best case scenario, they were going to get their asses kicked.

"Despite his somewhat zealous exterior, our father is a logical man," Wanda pleaded somewhat unconvincingly, "We appeal to that sense of logic, that he can do more harm than good for mutants by continuing down this path he has set for himself. He will see the reason in our argument and come back with us to face jury of his peers."

Pietro laughed, a strangled high-pitched laugh that caused Lorna to step back from him. "Logical man? Has our father been replaced by some sort of parallel universe doppelganger trapped in our dimension? Or perhaps another clone? Or maybe…" Pietro's eyes lit up as he caught sight of the silent Rogue. "Or maybe this is a trap? Is that it? Oh, Wanda, you are truly his worst child! Now I get why Rogue is here! With her, the Avengers are all here, aren't they? She absorbed all of their powers again, sucked them right up. Death comes in a pretty package, the old man will never know what hit him!"

Wanda sat bolt upright and looked worriedly in Rogue's direction. A puzzled Remy thought he saw anguish in the Witch's eyes. "Pietro, that's not why Rogue is here…" she started but Pietro cut her off.

"Why the hell else is she here? None of us seriously believe our father loved her enough for her words to sway him from his chosen path, even she knows she was just a voluptuous distraction. If she hasn't come equipped with a full arsenal of Avenger's powers what else is she good for? Her own powers aren't useful enough in a fight unless someone's close enough for her to drain dry…" Remy stood again and started swearing under his breath, his mutant power charging his gloves, his fists appearing to glow with pent up kinetic energy just itching to light up one smart-mouthed speedster. "…and I doubt you two get along well enough for her to be your moral support. Or are you friends now, Wanda? BFFs? Is she the newest member of your cheering squad? I notice your usual lap dog Simon isn't here, is she his replacement?"

A strangled cry escaped Wanda's lips as she stood. Remy took his eyes off Pietro for a split second to turn her way. In his peripheral vision, almost too fast for him to perceive, Remy saw Rogue finally move. She turned and in the same motion fired red blasts of energy from underneath her hood, catching the surprised Quicksilver squarely in the chest and cracking him into the opposite wall. Remy vaulted over the table and ran towards Rogue, a screaming Wanda hot on his heels. Lorna knelt to examine the dazed and sputtering Pietro.

"Chere!" Remy reached out for Rogue, but she turned back towards the wall of windows. Cocking a fist back she smashed through one, shattering it to pieces. Remy backpedaled into Wanda, shielding them both from the shards of broken glass with his ever-present trench coat. The concussive force knocked the pair to the ground and Remy turned his face towards Rogue in time to see her fly out of the gaping hole and head skyward. He grabbed a stunned Wanda roughly by the arm. "Y'got about one second t'tell me what the hell you've done to that girl," he hissed venomously.

Pietro shook himself off and shoved Lorna's caring hands away. He sprang at Remy and Wanda. "Get your hands off my sister!" He punched at Gambit but despite his impressive speed he was again thwarted as Remy dodged the hit and rolled to a crouching position with a handful of glowing cards at the ready. "That's impossible! You're not that fast, LeBeau," Pietro spat at him, turning to make another go.

"No, not impossible Pietro. Merely improbable," Wanda said in a low voice. Both men turned to her. She was still on the floor in a ring of shattered glass, but had raised a hand, the tell-tale signature of her mutant probability altering powers evident.

Remy, suddenly unable to move, felt the blood freeze in his veins, saw Pietro's jaw clench in a similar manner. They had both experienced magnetism controlling the iron in their blood on enough occasions to know Lorna had also deployed her power. "That's enough," Lorna boomed, her control of magnetic energy holding the struggling men at bay. "Are you going to behave or do I have to send you to your rooms like children?" Remy could plainly see the anger on her face, but she also looked just as confused as he felt by what had happened. He nodded the best he could and reclaimed the kinetic energy from the playing cards in his hand. She released her hold on him, but kept Pietro immobilized. "Sit!" she barked at Remy, who immediately grabbed the nearest chair. "Wanda, I think you owe us an explanation here. That was weird, even for Rogue."

Wanda remained on the floor, Lorna towering over her. She curled her legs underneath her and leaned heavily on one arm, turning her face towards the floor. "I suppose I do. I had hoped this would be resolved by now, but unfortunately…"

"Wanda…" Lorna warned.

"Yes. You're right. My apologies." She took a deep breath. "I assume you all know what Rogue did recently? Against the Celestial?" Remy and Lorna nodded while Pietro remained frozen in place. Despite the situation, Remy's heart swelled with pride in his chest. It wasn't every day you saw the woman you loved fight back a god intent on destroying the Earth, using her power to combine the strength of nearly every superhero on the planet. On television no less. He DVR-ed it. "When the battle was over," Wanda continued, "Rogue was overwhelmed. It was too much for her, all of the powers and personalities, she was drowning in them, couldn't let them go. I wanted to help, so I…" Her voice faltered. "I used my chaos magic to allow her to release the powers, but…something went wrong."

The color rose in Remy's face. "Keep going Wanda," Lorna released Pietro and laid a hand on Remy's shoulder.

Wanda took in a shaky breath. "Rogue has always had difficulty with Simon's powers. Something to do with his ionic structure, his unique physiology…" She halted and bit her lip. Remy's stomach bottomed out again and the vomit taste crept back up his throat. He wanted her to stop, to scream at what he feared was coming. Flight. Super-strength. Cyclops-rip-off lasers. None of these powers were Rogue's.

"Wanda," Pietro moved softly towards the Scarlet Witch and knelt beside her, his earlier animosity replaced by brotherly concern. "Wanda, where is Simon? Those were his powers, weren't they?" He placed a hand on Wanda's shoulder and she sobbed harshly.

"Yes. He's apparently trapped. She absorbed him, not just his powers, but his very being. He…disintegrated or…dissolved into her, body and soul."

Every curse word Remy could think of flew out of his mouth in a blind rage as he jumped to his feet. Oh, Anna! He scrubbed his hands angrily down his face. Life was so fucking unfair sometimes, how could something like this happen to her again? Hadn't Carol Danvers been enough? "You did this!?" he hurled at Wanda, "you and your damn chaos magic!?" Lorna's hand on his shoulder squeezed pleadingly, but fury was turning Remy's world a bright angry red.

"Not on purpose!" Wanda held a hand out pleadingly towards Gambit. "I'm so sorry Remy! I truly am! The Avengers are working on fixing this, I am working on fixing this! I promised I wouldn't leave her side until we found a way to separate the two of them! That's why she's with me! We've been working on this together!" She looked at Remy pitifully. "I know she's the woman you love, but Simon is the man I love. I am going to find a way to make this right."

"Fuck!" Remy slapped Lorna's hand away and stalked towards the door. He had already wasted too much time with these arrogant assholes. He needed to find Rogue.

"Gambit!" Wanda cried out. He wanted to ignore her and keep walking but something in her voice made him stop. "There's more!"

He turned violently towards her, causing the usually confident Witch to shrink into her brother's shoulder. Pietro glared warningly at Gambit. "Well!?" Gambit roared.

Wanda swallowed hard but wouldn't look at him. "Whatever happened short-circuited her own powers. She can't control her absorption abilities again. She can't touch anyone. I'm so sorry Remy," she said brokenly.

Remy's heart shattered into a million pieces and he sprinted from the room to find Rogue.