DISCLAIMER: Gambit and the X-Men belong to Marvel Comics. All these characters are used without permission, and I'm not profiting from this piece of fan fiction, so please don't sue me.

Chapter Three

Sinister shook his head, as he looked through the grills of the cat carrier, at the black cat with red on black eyes. Remy hissed at him, his ears were laid back as he bared his fangs at the pallid face.

"Stop that, LeBeau. It's unbecoming and frankly not like you at all."

Oh? Like it's Gambit's fault dat he acting like a cat?

"Well, it certainly isn't my fault your mind was transferred into this feline when we last met."

I find dat hard t' believe.

"If you did not insist on ignoring the powers I've grafted on you-"

Gambit never asked f' any o' dat sh-

"Well, you've got them. Stop being childish about it, and learn how to use those powers properly." Sinister snarled back, "This current state is your fault."

Is not!

"Is too."

Is not!

"Is - Remy ... we are not going to start arguing like children."

The cat spat at him.

Sinister sucked in a deep breath and let it out again.

"LeBeau, it's times like this, when I wonder why I had to find your mutant physiology so fascinating."

Remy looked out of the cat carrier to stare at his human body, which lay hooked up to various monitors and other medical equipment, Y' didn't vivisect my body?

"Of course not. I kept your body alive. It's the only one we have. Until I can learn how to clone it, that is."

Y' still not sure why y' can' clone Gambit's body?

"Or why your body is so adaptable to introduced mutations."

The cat hissed at him, What y' do to Gambit dis time?

"Care to find out?" Sinister placed the cat carrier next to his body, "LeBeau, it would be a much more beneficial relationship, if you would agree to work with me."

Why? So y' can experiment on Gambit anytime y' want, stead o' wasting time t' kidnap him?

"Remy, I did teach you how to exercise exquisite control over your kinetic charge powers."

Not out o' de goodness o' y' heart. Gambit not a Marauder!

"This is getting tiresome, Remy." Sinister opened the door to the cat carrier, "You've already wasted enough of my time, with the separation of your mind and body. It took me this long, to create a tracer to locate your mind. Now we've got to get your mind back into your body. Then we'll talk."

Remy was crouched at the far end of the cat carrier, with a paw raised and claws armed.

"Remy, I hate tetanus shots. They ache for days. If you scratch me, I will have you neutered."

Somebody else already done dat.

"I am not referring to the borrowed body."

Remy retracted his claws and allowed Sinister to pulled him out.

Not going t' be a Marauder.

"Did I give you a choice? Now hold still and let me work."

The black cat sat beside the body, and glowered at Sinister as he started to attach wires to it's head.

"All right? This shouldn't hurt."

Where have I heard dat before?

Sinister ignored him as he flipped a few switches. Nothing happened.

"Oops."

'Oops?' Whadda y' mean 'Oops?'

Sinister stared from the cat, to Remy's body, and back.

"It didn't work as I theorized it should."

WHAT!

Sinister clutched at his head.

"LeBeau, please refrain from shouting in telepathic speech. I can hear you quite well."

GAMBIT, GOIN' T' DO MORE DAN SHOU-

Sinister's hand closed over the scruff of his neck and yanked him off the table.

"Remy, I am not going to ask twice. If you give me any more trouble I will kill you, and save myself the bother of relocating your mind back into your body. Have I made myself clear?"

Oui.

"Got him." Scott's smile was a trifle smug as the X-Men looked at a small 'X' blinking on a map of New York.

"Yer sure that's where Gumbo is?"

"Unless his captors removed his collar."

Storm only gave him a flinty glare.

The black cat walked from one end of the table to the other, beside Gambit's body. It stopped for a moment to scratch at it's collar, before standing and resuming it's trek.

"LeBeau, will you sit down!"

Gambit's bored! Least when Gambit had a human body, he could be doing somethin' when y' didn't have him on de slab.

The cat stopped for a moment to regard the body, Well, t' be fair, y' do have Gambit on de slab. But what's a cat t' do?!

"I did have a problem with vermin-"

Gambit scowled at him.

"I thought not."

A few minutes later ...

"LeBeau! I will not ask you again!"

The black cat blew a raspberry at the pallid scientist, prompting Sinister to grab him off the table and tuck him under one arm.

Still later ...

Sinister looked around puzzled, in the course of the last half hour or so, he had started to hear a low rumble. He had checked and double checked his instruments, but as far as he could tell, it had not come from there. It took him a moment, to realize that the rumble was coming from around his person.

Sinister stared down at the crook of his arm where he had last placed Gambit. True enough, Sinister had unconsciously taken to scratching the cat under it's chin, and Remy was responding to the attention by purring. Sinister started to curse.

"LeBeau? Gambit?!" Sinister whipped him out in front of his face, and shook the cat in front of him. " Remy?!!"

Huh? What? What?

"Just checking."

Y' done yet? The cat yawned in his face.

Sinister wrinkled his nose, "Fortunately, I should no longer need to worry about cat breath."

Y' c'n return Gambit t' his body?

"For all intents and purposes, yes. Now, I know my instruments failed because of your psi-shields."

What dat mean?

"If you want to return to your body, you will have to let down your shields so that I can access your mind."

Non! De last time Gambit let y' in, y' near t' erased Gambit! Y' took over Gambit's mind!

"Unfortunately, you have little choice in this, Remy. If you want your body back, you will have to return to me."

Non! Gambit not a Marauder!

"Remy, you either let down your shields, or I will break them down. You are of greater use to me in your own body." Sinister carried the black cat towards Gambit's body.

Gambit don' want dis!

"That is not your choice, LeBeau."

"An' it ain't yer business ta decide for Gumbo." Wolverine's growl was never more welcomed by the Cajun.

Wolverine emerged from behind the door, closely followed by the full team of X-Men. They spread out quickly, battle ready for anything Sinister could possibly throw at them.

"Put our cat down, Sinister."

"Gambit belongs to me, X-Men. I suggest you leave." Sinister immediately shifted his grip to hold the struggling cat under his arm.

"Remy belongs ta himself! And with the X-Men!"

"Oh? Does the X-Men accept Marauders in it's ranks now?"

"The Cajun weren't in the bunch that slaughtered the Morlocks, Sinister." Wolverine's growl put the other X-Men at ease, "I don't forget a scent."

"Release Gambit, Sinister. The X-Men are not leaving without him."

"In his own body?" Sinister's free hand hovered over the still figure on the table, the energy crackled over his hand ominously. "Or as a cat?"

A kinetic explosion blew two legs off the table, tipping Gambit's body on the floor away from them, and sending Sinister reeling in the other direction. Caught by surprise, Sinister's grip loosened sufficiently for the black cat to squirm free.

Cyclops was there immediately with his optic blasts as soon as Gambit got clear. As was Rogue, who punched the stumbling mutant away from Gambit's body and the cat. Storm's follow up bolts of lightning kept Sinister off balance long enough, for Bishop and Wolverine to get into position between Sinister and his captive.

Sinister cursed as he saw Gambit being protected by Phoenix's telekinetic shields. There was no opportunity for him to turn the situation back under his control.

"I will yet bring you back into my fold, LeBeau."

Y' can't make me!

"That is not your choice."

With that, Sinister disappeared in a flash of light.

Scott and Jean knelt beside Gambit's body as they looked at the black cat.

How much did y' hear?

"Enough to know you were once one of Sinister's experiments. Why didn't you tell us?"

It - didn't start out dat way. Remy's tail flickered from side to side, Gambit ... dere was a time when Gambit was losing control o' his powers. Gambit didn't want t' hurt nobody.

Rogue gasped, "That theater? That was one time ... Sinister found ya then?"

Oui.

Scott looked back at Rogue for a moment, he didn't quite understand the reference, but he could guess.

"And Sinister offered to help you bring your powers under control?"

Oui.

"Only he didn't stop there."

Oui.

"It became an endless trek of testing and experimenting."

Oui.

"Remy," Scott reached down to stroke him comfortingly, "You don't have to be ashamed. Sinister manipulated you. It wasn't your fault. I know Sinister enough to guess that he took you, when you were most vulnerable. And you accepted his help, because he looked like the only one able to give it to you."

The cat flinched slightly, and arched it's back under his touch.

He made - he wanted t' make me a Marauder.

"But you never wanted to be one."

Non. Kept me in cause he couldn't clone me, an' he didn't want t' risk losing my body.

"But you did try to leave."

He - wouldn't let me.

"But you eventually escaped."

Ran 's far 's Gambit could get. Dat's when I met Stormy.

"All this time, you've been avoiding even Hank's labs, because of what Sinister did to you?" Jean asked as she stroked his head.

The cat continued to stare at the floor, it's tail flickering.

The homme, called me his living experiment. Gambit, was never a telepath, before ... I - I don't know half o' what he did t' my body. I don't know what he did dis time.

"Hank can -"

Gambit visibly cringed at this.

"Remy, Hank isn't Sinister. He's not going to experiment on you."

"Sorry, its jus ... it's jus dat Remy found out de Dark Beast used t' work f' Sinister. An' he was hiding among us f' a time."

"I will be there for you, Remy." Storm offered, "Trust us, and let us help you."

Okay, Stormy.

"Don't call me that."

"You still want to get back in your body, don't you?"

Course I do.

Jean's hand came under his chin, not to scratch it, but to lift his head so that she could look into his eyes.

"Will you trust me then, Remy?" She asked him softly, "I can return your mind to your body; but that means you're going to have to let me past your shields so that I can pull out you of the cat and back into your body."

Will y' see my memori-

"Remy, your past is your own business. I promise you I will not betray your trust, and even if I do see some memories I will keep your confidence. I won't judge you Remy. None of us have any right, or are in any position to judge anyone else. Will you trust me?"

Red on black eyes gazed into the green eyes of the telepath. In those eyes, Jean could read the uncertainty, pain and guilt of the man whose soul was in the cat.

Y' promise, chere?

"Of course, Remy. Will you let me help you?"

Oui.

Remy opened his eyes to find himself back in his room and looking up at the X-Men who surrounded his bed. He raised his hand to feel his face.

"Oh t'ank god. I'm back. T'anks Jeannie."

"Good to have you human again, Remy." Scott grinned, "Not, that it hasn't been fun-"

"Merde. I don't ever want t' be in dat much trouble again."

Rogue grinned as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

Remy looked down at the unaccustomed warmth against his chest, and saw the cat, whose body he had been in for the past week, snuggled against him. It opened it's green eyes and purred to him.

"Hey dere, guess I gained a pet cat from dis."

"You going to keep it?"

"Guess I have to. See'n how close we were f' de last week."

"Great, you owe Bobby and me sixty bucks for toys and cat supplies, Remy."

"I what?"

"Hey, you didn't eat cheap. We bought you quality stuff."

"Okay, okay. I owe him dat much." Remy reached over to stroke his cat, who purred even louder at his touch.

"Do you feel up to joining us for dinner, Remy?"

"Sure, why not? 'Least I c'n sit at de table again, stead o' under it. What's f' dinner?"

"Fish."

~Thud~

"Bobby! Ya did that on purpose!" Rogue started to slap Remy's face gently, "Remy? We're having chicken, Remy. It's mah southern fried chicken. Wake up. Remy?"

"Good one, Bobby." Scott reached over to grab the black cat, "And while Remy's out of it, I am going to get this cat de-clawed."

"Oh no, you're not!" Storm snatched the cat away from him.

"But ... but ... it's not Remy anymore."

"That doesn't matter. No!"

"It'll save the furniture-"

"NO!"