READ BEFORE READING!!!!: This fic is current under construction. After going back and rereading it, it needs a major update. Some of these chapters might not be going well with what is going on due to the update. I'll be posting at the top of each revised chapter if it is done or not. This chapter has been revised.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any of its characters.

It was a dark windy night in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The crowds of tourists had turned in for the night, leaving the streets bare with the exception of a few locals. A tall red bricked building that looked as if it had been around for over a hundred years sat in the middle of two others with a sign blinking red trying desperately to attract customers. The tan sidewalk was cracked around the entrance of the small bar and the street lights had gone out around it.

The bar was crowded with the locals who came on a daily basis to relax from a hard day of work or to hang out with friends and play some pool. Men sat at the bar trying to pick up woman to get lucky for the night while others sat there trying to forget their troubles.

A new Jazz song began to play on the music player in the background of the slightly humid bar as the clock turned ten. A group of men five men sat at an old circled table playing a game of cards. Each had a cigarette dangling from their lips or between their fingers as they held the cards in one hand and eyed each other.

Each of them were locals of the city and knew the town on the back of their hand. Three men that sat closest to the door were professional assassins that were eyeing the two thieves that had challenged them to a game of poker. The one in the middle went by the name of Julien Boudreaux and was the top assassin in the room and in the entire state of Louisiana, with his sister Belladonna coming in close to second. He had grown up learning how to kill from an early start and enjoyed his work. He was the heir to the Assassin's Guild, a crime organization that produced the best assassins in the world, after his father stepped down or passed on. It had been around for hundreds of years and always rivaled it's fellow Guild until a few years ago.

Remy LeBeau sat across from Julien with a sly smirk on his face as he knew he already won the round of cards. He was young, confident, and could win a girl's heart without even trying. He was the second son of Jean-Luc LeBeau, leader of the Thieves Guild, who used to be the assassins rival. The two guilds had been at war for hundreds of years until they had finally found a peace between them. It caused a mix reaction between members of the guilds. Some were happy they no longer had to watch their back and could concentrate on their work instead. Others like Julien, hated the thought of the two guilds finally getting along.

Next to Remy sat a fellow thief who looked nervously at his cards and then back at the assassins across from them. Many of the thieves knew that Julien hated and wanted to kill them the first chance he got. He looked over at Remy who had a piece of auburn wavy hair in front of his red on black eyes as he stared Julien down. His friend enjoyed antagonizing the assassin and feared that one day it would come back to bite him in the ass. "I fold." The thief stated and placed his cards on the table in the center.

"Y' in, mes amis?" Remy asked Julien with a smirk on his face. He watched with interest as the assassins were looking at their cards and debating if they should quit or try to go for a win. It was a cat and mouse game that the thief always played with them and a reason why he never lost. They could never tell if he was bluffing or not.

"I fold." The assassin sitting to Julien's right said and laid the cards down and looked away.

Julien eyed Remy as if he was trying to read his mind. The thief had already taken two hundred from his the other night and he didn't want to lose more. He clenched his cards tighter in his hand as he laid them down. He hated Remy more than any of the other thieves. To Julien, this young punk acted as if he owned the place and needed to be kicked down a few notches. Julien leaned back in his chair, ignoring the creaking sound it made as he did so, and watched as his friend to the left folded.

He clenched his teeth together as Remy took their money once again with a satisfied smirk plastered on his young tan face. 'We'll see whose smiling soon.' He thought to himself, but kept his expression neutral.

"Looks like de cards are not in y'r favor, non?" Remy said to the assassin's across from him and received glares from each of them. They hated that the leader of the Assassin Guild was making them get along with this snot nose brat. If anyone else had said that to them he would be dead on the floor before he could take his next breath. Instead, they had to keep their rage in check.

"Enjoy y'r luck while y' still can, LeBeau. It's gonna run out one of dese days." Julien warned the younger Cajun as he stood up from the table with his friends beside him. Remy waved his hand like it was nothing. They had made threats to him before and nothing ever happened. He knew they couldn't lay a hand on him without receiving punishment for violating the peace agreement.

"Hopefully y'r dere to witness dat, until den, I'll see y' sore losers later. Hope de wounds don't hurt bad when y' lick dem on y'r way home." Remy told them as he began counting his winnings, making sure to hold them up to piss the assassins off more.

Julien gave a small smile and nodded. "Actually, I was so hoping we could have another game tomorrow, if you don't have anything else planned." He requested, knowing Remy would take the bait.

"Well was gonna go out with dis femme dat I met earlier. I supposed I could squeeze y' into my schedule. She wasn't much of a looker anyways." Remy shrugged. He had a new woman almost every night. Most he didn't bother to call, others who he enjoyed for a little while, and some could grace his bed before being kicked out in the morning. His brother disapproved of his behavior many times and tried to get him to settle down, but he was young and good looking and wanted to go out with every girl in the city.

There were only three women in his life that he respected and somewhat feared. The first was his sister-in-law Mercy LeBeau. She had always been protective of him while he was growing up and could kick him out of his outbursts when he was angry over something.

The second was his Tante Mattie. She was the closest thing he had to a mother. When Jean-Luc found him on the streets when he was ten years old, he was cold and shivering, not to mention scared stiff of his new surroundings and didn't trust anyone. She helped open him up and assure him that everything was going to be alright and he wasn't going to be back on the streets. He learned soon that she also had a mean temper. When he and his cousins had hotwired a jet at the age of thirteen she found out and was not pleased and made sure he would not be able to sit for a week.

The last was his first love and best friend, Belladonna Boudreaux, Julien's sister. He met her before Jean-Luc adopted him around the age of eight. He had been hustling the streets and found her being attacked by two men in suits, or at least he thought she was being attacked. He ended up defending her against her body guards and knocked them out. He thought he impressed her, but soon found out she could handle herself if needed. She hadn't had many friends and they gradually started becoming that. As they got older, they developed feelings for each other against their family's wishes. They tried dating for a while, but didn't want to end up hurting each other, so they stayed friends.

"Y' want a ride home, homme?" Remy's friend asked him as he stood up and dug through his pocket for his car keys. Remy looked down at his silver Rolex on his wrist and saw it was only nine o'clock at night. It was still early and his friend wanted to go home? They had been friends for three years and he thought his friend knew him better than that.

"Non, I'll catch y' later. Besides, not leavin' my baby here by herself." Remy told his friend who frowned at him. Like his brother, his friend had been worrying about Remy's life style, thinking it would end up getting him in trouble one of these days.

"Remy, I don't have a good feelin' about tonight, mon ami. I'll hook y'r bike up to de back of my car." His friend suggested, but Remy wouldn't hear it. The young Cajun was determined to do what he wanted and not take orders from someone else.

"Y' worry too much. Y' always so stressed out about life, y' got to learn to relax and enjoy life. Nothin's gonna happen to dis ol' thief. I got better luck den de lucky lady herself." Remy smirked and his friend rolled his eyes. His friend could be way too arrogant at times.

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn y'." His friend sneered and turned to walk to the door before he started arguing with him.

Remy stood and opened his black leather wallet and stuff the money into the fold before closing it. A woman at the bar was eyeing him appreciatively. He winked at her before he turned to leave the bar. The woman watched him go with a disappointed look on her face. she was hoping he would come over and offer to buy her a drink. She turned to the half empty beer next to her and downed it.

Remy ran his hand over the leather seat of his Harley-Davidson. He had gotten it a week ago and adored the bike more than any of his other possessions. The bike had black in the front with a flaming Ace of Spades surround it and running along the sides. He had it specially done for a price, but it was worth it.

He swung his leg over the seat and started the motorcycle and listened to it purr. He swept his brown leather duster behind him and put his gloves on before he finally sat down. He ran his fingers over the rail before he finally took off down the street.

Remy debated in his mind of where he was planning on going. There was a night club that he usually attended, but lately he had been getting tired of seeing the same people night after night. Most of the women in there knew him and he had rejected half of them, breaking their hearts. He had heard there was a grand opening of a new club about twenty minutes away and thought about giving that a go. He hoped that maybe there he would be able to find fresh meat.

He turned down onto the highway and sped around the cars that were driving too slow for his taste. A green Suburban honked its horn at him as he cut in front of it. He only chuckled to himself and let go of the handle to his motorcycle to flip the person off.

Remy put his hand back on the handle bars and continued to speed down the highway, not caring if there were any police present. He had been pulled over many of times, but when your father is the head of one of the biggest crime organizations in the nation, the police tended to let you go more often in fear of their lives and their belongings.

He frowned as he got stuck behind a large semi-truck that was driving in the left hand lane. He wanted to go into the other lane to get around the slow moving vehicle, but the green Suburban he had passed was occupying the lane. He glanced over and saw the woman sitting in the car flip him off as she drove on by.

"Bitch." He whispered to himself in annoyance. He looked in his mirror and saw no cars following him or the green Suburban at the moment. He swerved his bike into the other lane and watched as the other vehicle drove away from the truck.

He gunned his bike and then noticed that the truck next to him was beginning to come into his lane. He began to curse and began to slow up, but found another car was on his tail. He narrowed his eyes as he looked into the mirror at a bunch of teenagers that were laughing and seemed drunk. He knew his only option was to speed up, but he knew his bike wouldn't make it in time.

The truck honked its horn as he came into Remy's lane. He had no choice, but to go into the grass and risk getting thrown off his bike. He began wishing that he had worn a helmet as he skidded into the grass and was followed by the car.

Just as he predicted, the bike was unable to keep its balance straight when it entered the green bumpy field and tipped over. He landed hard, his head hitting the street since he hadn't gotten over far enough. His body rolled down little ways before he finally came to a stop.

He kept his eyes closed and his breathing was shallow as he felt pain in his legs, ribs, and right wrist. He could feel a trickle of blood run down his forehead as he slowly turned his head towards the starry sky. He heard the car that was behind him drive by, but was unable to see due to his vision becoming blurry.

Bang. Bang.

He heard two gun shots and felt a sharp pain enter his chest and another right below his collar bone. He slowly moved his good hand and brought it to his chest as he was finding it harder to breath. His hand began to shake as it felt a warm thick liquid on his chest. He stared up at the blood on his hand. "Dieu, please." He whispered to himself as he felt blood rise in his throat. Never in his life had he felt so terrified. He knew he had played too far and like Julien had said, his luck had run out.

"Sir, are you alright?" A woman yelled as lights flashed in his face. He didn't bother to turn his head as another car stopped and a woman got out of the vehicle and ran over to him. she had witnessed the entire event and saw him go down and be shot.

'I swear, I'll change. I'll listen. Please.' He prayed to himself as he felt himself growing cold and the ability to breath getting harder. He felt the woman place her coat over his forehead to stop the wound from his head from bleeding.

"I don't want to die." He whispered as his vision blurred on him, making it impossible to see. The woman took his wrist and felt his pulse, only to find it was beginning to slow. She looked back at her car and yelled for her kids to call 911 and then looked down at him sympathetically. She had been training to be a nurse and was going to get her degree in a month. She knew the chances of him surviving were slim to none.

Gently, she brushed away the dirt that was smudged on the side of his face. "I am sorry, sweetie." Was the last thing he heard before everything went completely black.

He felt all the pain that had racked his body disappear and felt whole again. Instead of laying on the cold wet dirty ground, he was floating up right. He looked around confused on what happened. "I got to be dreamin'." He said to himself before he spotted a white light in the distance. He stared at it and didn't know if he should either go towards it or run away.

Soon the blackness disappeared and was replaced by a majestic white glow with fog surrounding him. He waved it away as he started to walk forward. "Dang, what kind of drugs did dey put me on, whatever dey are: I want more." He whispered to himself before he ran into a golden gate that appeared in thin air.

Remy looked at the gate for a moment before he ran his hand over it. He tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge. He frowned at the gate before a smile appeared on his face. there was no gate that could keep him out of anywhere. He placed both hands on the rails before he tried to climb up, only to feel shock go through his system and he was thrown back.

"Merde." He cursed as he sat up and looked back at the gate, rethinking his strategy. To his surprise the gate was now cracked open and a beautiful red haired woman wearing a long white dress was standing there with an amused smile on her face.

"I'm sorry, Mr. LeBeau, but you are unable to sneak your way into heaven." The woman told her watching his facial expression turn to shock.

He was dead? He ran a hand through his hair as he felt himself shaking again. There was no way he could have died. he had only blacked out for a second. The woman had been there to help him. this had to be a mistake were the thoughts that raced through his mind.

He turned back to the red haired woman as he slowly stood up. "Who are y'?" He asked her cautiously.

"My name is Jean Grey, I was told to meet you here and explain your situation." Jean told him watching as he turned around in frustration, still having a hard time coping with the thought of being dead. She gave him a sympathetic look as he tried to reason with himself. She remembered when she died it was the same way, but she accepted it before she left the real realm. This poor young soul clung to life and didn't want to give it up.

Finally, Remy walked up to her, still not believing her, but wanting to know what she had to say. "What's my situation?" He asked her. in his head he began thinking he had fallen asleep in front of the TV again and was going to wake up any minute. This didn't happen to him, this happened only in the movies and in books.

He began to remember the pain he felt as he was ripped off his bike and the pain the street as his head had hit it. he could almost still feel the gun shots from the car that drove by. All of it had felt real.

"Well in most circumstances this is where we go over your life and point out all the good things you've done. However, there are not enough that allows you into heaven. In fact, you've committed more sin than most people do in their lifetime." She explained to him. He folded his arms over his chest and looked insulted. So maybe it was a sin to steal, make a woman cheat on her husband, he accidently killed, but that was in self defense, and some other stuff he didn't wish to think about.

"So, does dis mean I get to go back?" He asked her and started moving in closer to her. He didn't know why he had wasted all this time, instead of talking to this woman, he could make her bring her back. He could make her begging him to let her bring him back. 'Not bad lookin', wonder how experienced she is.' He thought to himself.

"Why don't we forget about all dis," he took her hand in his and caressed it. "Dere so many other things we could be doin' besides all dis talk." He suggested to her. to his surprise, which didn't happen often, she was not affected. She only smiled and took her hand out of his and brought it to his cheek.

"I'm sorry, but you can't charm you're way into heaven." Jean told him as if she was talking to a child. Remy pulled back and glared at her. his charms always worked on women. "Now you've been given three choices: first you can float around here for eternity, which is fairly boring and I wouldn't recommend. Two, you can go to Hell." She told him.

"Didn't like y' anyways. Y' too old." Remy retorted and gave her a dirty look.

"I am talking about the real Hell with lots of flames and pain for the rest of your existence." Jean explained better, but Remy still didn't like the choices she gave him. "Or you can redeem yourself and have a chance to go to heaven and spend eternity in happiness." She gave him his final choices.

Remy snorted as if it was a joke. He was still waiting for himself to wake up and decided to play along. 'You're not dreaming, so snap out of it.' Jean said in his head, startling him. no one was able to invade his head due to his psi shields. "This is real. All the pain you felt moments ago happened. You were killed when you were thrown off your bike and got shot. The ambulance arrived three minutes after you took your last breath. Even if they arrived before then, you wouldn't have survived. You had broken your wrist, internal bleeding, three ribs with one puncturing your lungs, a severe hit to the head and cut. Shall I go on?" Jean asked him. she didn't want to come off harsh, but he had to realize that what he was facing was very serious. Whatever he chose would affect him for the rest of his existence.

Remy stared at the ground as the fog swirled around his legs and blew passed him. He swallowed before he looked back up at Jean. He could almost hear his brother, Henri's voice in his head telling him to stop acting as if everything was a joke and start taking things seriously. He could feel tears cloud his eyes, but he refused to unleash them. No one was ever going to see him cry. "How can I redeem myself?" He asked her silently, finally accepting his situation.

"This is something that we do not allow often, but at the moment they are allowing. There is a girl on earth that is severely depressed and finds her life not worth living anymore. She needs guidance and someone to talk to. All of her friends have turned away from her because of her powers. Her only friend has left and the only other person she looks up to left because of certain reason. If you are able to change her life around and point her in the right direction, we will allow you to enter heaven." Jean explained to him.

"So I be like a guardian angel or somethin'? Dat don' sound too hard." Remy smirked at her. he figured he would have his girl wanting to live in less than an hour. All he had to do was turn on his charm and she would be the happiest woman on earth.

"You do know you no longer have your powers." Jean told him with a small smile as he looked disappointed. So maybe this would be harder than what he expected. His only other options was burning or floating around. Maybe helping this girl wouldn't be so bad, at least it was someone to talk to besides this Jean Grey woman.

"Fine, I'll be dis fille's guardian angel, devil, whatever." Remy shrugged carelessly. He may not have had his powers, but he knew he could still get women to do what he wanted without them. He predicted he would be in paradise in less than a day. "Now, who is she?"

"Her name is Rogue. She doesn't give out her real name to anyone, unless she trusts them fully. Only a few people know her it, myself included. You will recognize her by that she has white stripes in her brown hair and green eyes." She explained to Remy who was looking bored until she mentioned the green eyes. He always had a thing for a girl with green eyes. Didn't matter if they were brown, blond, they could have no hair and he would still be attracted to them. "Also no one will be able to see you that is one of the first things you must explain to her so she doesn't start freaking out. It may cause the situation to get worse for her." Jean told him and Remy nodded as if he had heard her say this over and over again like a nagging mother.

"Yeah I got dat, now when can I go?" He asked her before she could say anything else. He was getting tired of the bright white light and fog.

"You will go after I am done explaining." She said to Remy's annoyance. "I want you to understand that if you fail, you will be going to Hell with no more second chances." Jean folded her arms in front of her. she had hoped he understood what he was getting into. It was not going to be as easy as he thought.

"Well if dat happens, I can work on my tan." He told her with a smirk before he disappeared.

End of Chapter 1

PLEASE READ: If anyone is rereading this story for a second time, can you tell me if this sounded better than the original version? I'm hoping that it improved it. if you are a first time reader,