Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men!

Chapter 1: Ten.

Remy didn't have to turn on the lights of the storage room when he got in there, not so much because he knew the precise location of things in there very well, but because his old thief habits were still kicking. The faint line of light that came from the hallway was more than enough for him to orientate himself in the narrow place, which was covered from top to bottom with shelves full of food containers of all sorts. It smelled like spices in there and the buzz of three large freezers gave the place a little bit of life, like it was darkly breathing.

"Beans, chips, more beans… où est le fichu…?" he muttered to himself, as he ran his fingers over some of the items.

There weren't many things he could cook, but gumbo and jambalaja were two of them. However, that day wasn't about Cajun food.

"Aha!" he finally found what he was looking for, so he took the glass bottle and got out of there.

A lot of things he could have been doing on a Saturday night: stealing (just for the heck of it), hitting bars, hitting on girls, partying, drinking… but none of that even crossed his mind when he was around her.

And there she was, at the bottom of the kitchen, with her back to him. He sneaked upon her though she was expecting him, of course; but he just liked to have some moments to just blatantly stare at her: her long, auburn hair… just her whole frame, her whole persona was something he could spend hours looking at.

"Is there any?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Y' know yer wish is my command, cherie" he presented her the bottle: "Violá, l'huile d'olive."

"Thanks, mister" she smiled, then put the flour package back on the counter. "Alright, now we gotta make strips".

"We gotta strip?!" he leaned over the counter: "Remy like de sound of dat."

She narrowed her eyes at him: "Ah can't believe that's the kind of crap that actually gets yah girls".

"Well it hasn't worked with de Roguey yet, but I keep tryin'" he winked.

"Great, now we're gonna make strips with the dough, 'kay? Clear enough?"

"Crystal clear, chere" he had already removed his gloves a while ago, to help her peel the potatoes for the gnocchi. Her hands were bare too.

"Just…"

"Oui?"

She was busy kneading a long roll.

"…just be careful with these puppies" she waved her hands at him for a moment, all sticky with dough and flour: "Ah don't wanna knock yah out 'fore dinner".

"An' after dinner?"

She looked up the ceiling, in mock annoyance: "Mah Gawd, LeBeau, Ah can't believe the way yan can twist every darn thing Ah say".

"Hey, I ain't twistin' anythin'! It just an innocent question, is it 'kay like dis?"

"Yeah, just sprinkle a little more flour on it".

Nothing could compare to this kind of evenings they spent, and that were getting more and more frequent. Of course he recognized her power was a little issue, but if one thing he had learnt as a thief, as an Acolyte and now as an X-Man, was that 'impossible' didn't exist.

The screen of Rogue's cell phone was a mess of dough and fingerprints stamped on flour, but she didn't seem to care much, as she scrolled down for the next steps of the recipe. They diced the rolls (if the verb "to dice" can be applied to a semi squashed and completely uneven cylinder of squishy material) while talking and teasing each other all along. Could she deny it? That she liked to be around him as well? At least she tried to hide it as much as humanly possible, because… well, the list of reasons might not be too long, but it was drastic enough.

"Tell yah what, Remy" she stated, once all of the rolls were diced: "I bet Ah can put all of them in the pot before yah".

"Ah, oui? An' what are we bettin' on?" he questioned, while holding his tray already. Each of them had one, full with raw, homemade gnocchi.

"Well it was just a sayin' but… okay; Ah can come up with somethin'". She increased the heat of the burner. The water was already boiling. "If yah lose…" she came a bit a closer to him, looked him up and down.

"If I lose?" he echoed mischievously, raising a brow.

Okay, maybe she didn't always try to hide it.

"Yah'll wash the dishes" she said in fake naivety, grabbing her tray as well.

"Not what I expected but guess I'll have t' settle for dat. An' what do Remy get if he wins?"

"What do yah want?"

"Uffff, cherie, don't ask me dat if y' don't wanna hear de answer."

She laughed: "Come on, just say somethin'".

"If I win…" Should he say something dirty? Push his luck a little more? "…y'll help me prepare some gumbo t'morrow, how 'bout dat?"

She raised her brows a bit, but her gorgeous smile became wider, like she was acknowledging he had made a huge effort to be a gentleman there.

"Okay, Ah've never tried it but Ah can give it a shot" she said, "ready?"

"Always."

"Go".

They started taking the gnocchi one by one and letting them fall in the bubbly water.

"Y' sure dey should be dis sticky?" he asked, trying to get rid of one of them, that seemed attached to his thumb with super glue.

"Ah don't know, Ah've never made this before, but yeah" she took a look inside the pot: "Ah'm scared they end up all crushed and crumbled together like a big ol' mess".

"Don't worry chere, I'd eat 'em anyways".

"Oh, how sweet of…"

Her sentence got suffocated halfway through, in a gasp that almost made her choke.

The trays, along with the gnocchi, went tumbling down to the floor, soon followed by Rogue and Remy's inert bodies. His face fell right against the white, tiled floor, and as much as he made blind efforts to move, he just couldn't. It was like their bodies had been ripped away from them, leaving nothing but numb, empty space.

The world went completely silent, except for a hollow sound of void and later on, a far away whistle making its painful way through their ears.

Remy's eyes burnt in the ache of trying to look in Rogue's direction. He achieved it. He saw her laying close to him with her two wide open eyes in a crying plead of horror shooting from green pupils.

Then, nothing more.

(…)

"Chere, wake up. Rogue?"

His voice was the first thing she became aware of. It gave her a calming feeling for few seconds, when the world around appeared again, out of focus and way too bright, but still there.

"Y' okay?" she heard again.

He was so near she could see his hand over her left cheek, his thumb brushing her skin. Then, it hit her all at once.

"No…" she managed to utter as she pushed his hand away, clumsily crawling backwards on her elbows.

He had just touched her face. He was still awake, telling her something she couldn't compute. And the way they froze in the kitchen…

"What…?"

There was Kitty sitting on the floor, besides her, with her knees up to her chest and her usually perky eyes, looking at her in complete panic. She was wearing some sort of yellow collar, just like Storm, Jean, Kurt… some others were there as well, either scattered over the floor or walking back and forth.

Rogue brought her hand to her neck; there was a collar, too.

"What happened?" she gaped at Remy.

"Dey did" he gestured in the opposite direction.

She turned around heavily and realized of their precarious situation.

Some sort of silver, shiny field surrounded the seven or eight X-Men. On the other side of it, she distinguished three figures.

"I believe I have everyone's attention now, don't I?"

Rogue had never heard this voice before, or seen this person. However, his two companions…

"If you don't release us right this instant, Shaw…" Scott commanded.

"What will you do?" The man approached to the prison and poked the shiny layer with a finger; something like thin cracks spread from the spot where he touched it. Then, the lines vanished. "Hm?" he waited for an answer, his hands behind his back now: "Come on, I'm listening".

"I'm gonna cut your goddamn head off" Logan's gruff voice finally broke the silence.

"Good luck with that" he snorted, then looked up and around at the cell: "Keep trying to cut through it, please. It amuses me".

"Enough with the chatter, you'll tell us what you want right now" Scott was standing right in front of the man.

That's when Rogue realized of something she should have noticed before, but maybe the dozing off had blurred her senses a little bit: Cyclops wasn't wearing his visor or shades. And Remy had touched her face…

"Mah Gawd…" she mumbled faintly, feeling utterly vulnerable: not only were they locked in this… field of whatever sort. They had no powers.

She looked around again in desperation. No one seemed to have any kind of clever plan going on right then. Kitty stood up, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. Rogue got on her feet as well, with Remy's help.

"Amazingly enough, you're completely right. I have no interest in talking to any of you so I should go straight to the point" Sebastian Shaw conceded, going back to his place between the other two people Rogue recognized as the bitchiest tramp in the world, Emma Frost, and a guy… she wasn't sure about his name, but he was a teleporter. Behind them, Rogue recognized the entrance gate for… "I need the security code to open up and activate Cerebro. And I need it now".

"What are you saying?" Jean stepped forward: "There's no security code for Cerebro, only the Professor can start it and he…"

"He disappeared a year ago, I know, no need to fill me in" Shaw continued, with a snake-like voice: "However, that's not entirely true. Do you want me to believe the mighty Professor Charles Xavier would not have a back up plan for this beauty?" he gestured towards the round, metallic gate of the room that kept the machine: "Do you think he would rely only on himself? That he wouldn't confide in one of his trusty X-Men… just in case?"
"But…" Jean began to say.

"But he would have told you? Because you're a telepath? I'm afraid there are many things Xavier keeps from you all. But then again, who? Who will he tell this little secret to? If not…" he stared at Scott, who was standing there motionless: "…to his pet? The second in charge, correct? Cyclops?"

Rogue expected Scott to retort something right off, but he didn't; he was never the best at lying.

"I don't know what you're talking about" he finally said.

"Of course! Of course, silly me" Shaw tapped his own temple with this hand: "Your memory only needs a little push. Azazel, bring one".

The red skinned guy by his side nodded. What happened next was too fast to be followed by the naked eye.

A blur of crimson smoke popped up where Azazel was standing a second ago. Rogue's heart skipped a beat when all of a sudden, something, someone was right by her side, taking hold of her and before she could even react, the world disappeared for an instant as she felt pulled away through invisible space, then found herself out of the cell, where the reddish smoke was still twirling. This man, Shaw, was right besides her.

"ROGUE!" Remy yelled, behind the translucent silver screen, punching its surface once and again: "What y' gonna t' her?!"

Shaw took a pause before speaking again: "See, my fellow mutants, as you must know by now, humans, regular humans, are not precisely my favorite people." Azazel's harsh grip in her arm, right above her elbow, was starting to hurt. But that was the least of Rogue's worries. She had wanted to get rid of her power for so long, and now that she needed it the most, that it could have been useful for her somehow, it was gone. But they always made it through this kind of situations, right? Something had to happen… she looked around, trying to find a weak spot in these people; a way to fool them or escape. But without her powers, without their powers, they were nothing but human.

Shaw continued: "Nevertheless, there is one thing I really do admire in mankind. Do you know what my power is?" He looked at Rogue, who shook her head softly. "I can absorb any type of energy and transform it into raw strength. That is, I could come up with a billion ways of killing someone, but humans! They were creative enough to invent something simple, pure, efficient!" he punched his palm while saying this. "Call it my guilty pleasure, but I'm not ashamed of it. I just really, really, really have a passion for…" he searched for something inside his jacket: "Guns".

It was a black pistol, the one Rogue saw in the man's hand. Her shoulders quivered unwillingly.

"LET HER GO!" she heard Remy and his punches on the field, a million miles away.

"On your knees" Shaw ordered, but it didn't occur to her that he was actually talking to her. It made no sense. "On your knees, precious" he repeated, and Azazel pushed her to the ground, so she had no choice but to mechanically obey, her hands resting on her thighs. "You care about your teammates, right Summers? They're like your family, after all. So this is how it's going to work out. I will count to ten, and if you don't tell me the code before that, I'll put a bullet in her brain. Then in another one of these clowns, and another one, until it's only you left, in which case I'll infringe you with so much pain, plus the guilt of being the cause your little friends died like rats, that you will beg for the merciful embrace of death".

There was silence.

Or maybe not so much, because Rogue could hear her own heart speeding up out of control, as realization punched her in the stomach. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening. Her throat started to burn with the grip of tears and strangely, it crossed her mind the idea that it was lucky they asked her to kneel, because she didn't believe she would have managed to stay standing right then.

"Tell him." She looked up to the front. It was Remy who had just spoken: "Tell 'im what he wants" he urged Scott.

"I don't know it" he replied, but then Shaw spoke to her again:

"Say goodbye".

Her whole body started to shake uncontrollably as she closed her eyes and a dry sob escaped her lips.

"Why can't this girl do what I ask? SAY… GOODBYE".

Rogue looked to the front again. It didn't seem real, the whole scene: they were all just staring at her in shock. Maybe they just couldn't believe their eyes either, just like herself.

She took some breath before pronouncing a weak "goodbye".

Her chest exploded in sobs again.

"Shaw, listen to me, I don't know who told you this information but…"

"One".

With the corner of her eye, Rogue saw how Shaw pointed the gun at the left side of her head. She didn't dare to move or to think, even, because… this couldn't be the end. How can death just present itself in front of someone like this? She wanted to disappear, like that teleporter did. If only she had her power… this couldn't be it.

"Two".

Her eyes caught Kitty's. They were pretty much out of orbit, both hands covering her mouth. Yes, this was definitely as unbelievable for them as it was for her. And why was she even thinking about this? Shouldn't she think of something more important now?

"Three".

"Tell 'im de fuckin' code, homme!" she heard Remy yelling again and when she looked in their direction, he was holding Scott by the collar of his shirt. "TELL 'IM" he repeated.

"I don't know it!" Cyclops said again, and a mess of shouts, complaints and voices reached her ears.

"Four".

Scott managed to get away from Remy's grip:

"All right, there must be something like a code somewhere in the computers, but we need time to look for it, if you just let us…"

"Five".

"…find it, we can get it, we'll give it to you."

"He's telling the truth!" Jean cried.

"Six".

The word "bluff" formed inside Rogue's mind and she realized this wasn't one. She wished she would have had more time to… to what?

"Y' don't tell 'im what he wants t' know, Scott, an' I'll kill y' with my own bare hands." She saw Remy standing besides Scott, threatening him: "Say it right now or I swear I'll fuckin' kill y'".

"Seven" Shaw continued, half yawning.

And then, she just hoped Remy would look at her. She had always called him a stalker or a perv for shamelessly staring at her all the time, but this seemed to belong to another life now. He was too focused in arguing with Scott, though. She wished he would look at her just for a moment, so she could tell him…

"Eight".

Kitty was whimpering somewhere back there. Kurt was saying something as well. Then, someone who hadn't said a word so far, spoke:

"Say it, Scott". He turned to face Storm. "Say it now, please".

Jean's mouth opened in disbelief.

"But the Professor…" Cyclops began to say.

A well known metallic sound cut him off, along with a set of three claws resting on his neck.

"I can tell when someone's lying, you scum" Logan hissed: "Say it now."

"Nine".

Please Remy, look at me was the only thought she focused in, as, through her tears, she saw him pushing Scott and yelling at him. Both Remy and Logan were over him, and Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men, founding member and role model, looked like a helpless puppet.

Please.

"Tell him!" Storm commanded him.

"I… I can't!" a desperate Scott shouted.

Rogue lowered her head and closed her eyes again, swallowing the infinite piece of fear she had become. Her life, her memories, every moment she had lived, every laugh and tear, it'd all be gone soon, like it never even existed. How was it possible? But then, she hoped she could… she had to… so she opened her eyes and laid them on Remy, who was still trying to do something for her. As usual. She had never appreciated it much, until now. How absurd the things we regularly do become, in the face of death.

She had to tell him…

"Ten".

"Remy..." she called, and luckily enough, over all the screaming and quarrel, he heard her.

She saw as he turned towards her.

She had got to love that face, those eyes that were staring at her in terror, his voice, his words, everything about him. And she was realizing just now. How fitting.

One last sob came out of her mouth, as she tried to sink in this eye contact, in his stare, and hide in there from all this madness.

She parted her lips to say something.

But she heard it. She heard the gunshot.

It only lasted the fraction of a second, though, before darkness engulfed her forever.

Note: Hi! OK, first off, this fic is mainly Evoverse, but as you can see, it has little touches here and there of other universes. The title itself belongs to the comicverse, it's an exact quote from something Rogue tells Gambit there, at some point. Then we have some inspiration from the episode "Reunion part II" of the 90's animated series. And I took some characters' from the movieverse, such as Emma, Azazel and Sebastian (of course they are in the comics a lot, as well). And to wrap things up nice and tight, I took the idea of the final scene of this chapter, from the TV series "Lost", of which I was (and am) a huge fan; specifically, it relates to the character of Alex. I just saw this episode ages ago, when it aired, and wanted to develop a fanfiction around it at some point. And years later, here I am! Also, please remember English is not my native language, in case you see some mistakes around here. Aaaaaaand… that's it for now. Please don't leave without reviewing! P.S.: Quote from the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie: "I'm gonna cut your goddamn head off".

Next chap, hopefully up within this next week.