Remy LeBeau sighed as he and what was left of his family moved what was left of their belongings to the dreary tunnels beneath the city of New Orleans. He had felt that they had moved far beyond tunnel-dwelling and here they were, going back. And not only that, they were bringing the Assassins too! That was unheard of, but yet, they were doing it.

"It’ll be hard, Remy, but what other choice do we have?" Remy’s cousin, Theoren Marceaux was always the voice of reason within the Guild. He was one of the older members, and had lived through a lot of different changes. He knew the Guild had survived several obstacles over the years and would continue to do so in the years to come. "It’s jus’ a minor setback. Besides, it might not be so bad, goin’ back. At least it’s a bigger space dan de safehouse was."

"I’m surprised de X-Men gave up, actually." Remy replied as they walked. "If dey were so set on destroyin’ us...why’d dey stop?"

"Dey stopped b’cause dey had no choice, Rem." Remy’s newly-returned-from-the-dead brother Henri commented as he met them in the tunnels. Leaning against him was a much drained Emil Lapin, who was another cousin. "Emil made dem back off. It was de only option."

"What’re you talkin’ ‘bout, mon frere?"

Henri sighed and let Emil sit down. "Tante Mattie gave Emil her empathy powers. She knew from de moment he was born dat he’d be de one who would have de best chance at usin’ dem. He’s much stronger’n she’s ever been. He can take peoples’ emotions an’ project dem back at dem thousand-fold. An’ dat’s what he did to de X-Men. Dey couldn’ handle it. So dey had to back off b’fore dey got killed. Dat’s how strong his powers are."

Remy knelt down in front of his favorite cousin and spoke softly, concern in his strange red-on-black eyes. "Emil? Are you okay?"

Emil looked at him, his blue eyes dull. "I’m tired."

Remy nodded. "I’ll bet. C’mon, let’s get you home to your fam’ly."

A short time later, Henri and Remy brought Emil to the section of the tunnels that had always been designated to be Clan Lapin’s home. Each of the thieves left claimed their own family homes, and the assassins who didn’t have thieves to live with claimed some of the vacant sections of tunnels.

Emil’s wife, Allie, met them there with their two young children, Alexander and Elizabeth. Allie was pregnant with their third child, another girl, but hadn’t started showing yet.

"Oh my lord what happened?"

Emil sat down and absently ran his hands through his thick red hair. "Usin’ my powers to dat kind of extent wears me out. I jus’ need to rest. I’ll be fine."

"Okay...go lay down. I’ll take care of Alex and Lizzie and keep them out of your hair."

Emil stood up and hugged his wife. "T’anks." Then he went into the bedroom and fell asleep almost instantly.

"Is there enough room for all of us here, even with the babies coming?" Grace Alouette asked, looking around the dreary set of rooms. Grace was the newest member of the Alouette family. She was a beautiful mulatto with short black hair, creamy dark skin and brown eyes. She was also completely deaf and didn’t have the benefit of hearing aids.

Her brother-in-law, Genard, laughed softly and signed his response to her as he spoke it. "You’d be surprised how many people can fit into these sections of rooms, Gracie. We’ll be fine."

Grace nodded and went to help her partner, Genard’s younger sister Danielle, with the unpacking of the few items they were able to bring with them. Thanks to the wonders of science, Danielle was pregnant with their first child, conceived using the DNA of both girls.

Genard turned to his father, Pierre, who had recently come back from Paris. For many years, both Genard and Danielle had believed their father to be dead; indeed he had lived his excommunication from the Guild as if he were. He had no contact with any of them until they contacted him two years prior, after they discovered a letter he wrote to them just before he left. The siblings had gone to Paris to see him and after that Danielle corresponded with him via letter and phone call until the mishap with the X-Men, when she called him and begged him to come help them. He did, and now he didn’t want to leave.

"I don’ wan’ go back to Paris, Genard. I wan’ stay here..."

Genard sighed, his brown eyes serious behind his glasses. "I don’ know if you can, Papa. You know we’d love to have you stay, especially Jean-Michel, who has taken quite a shine to his grand-pere, but you’d have to ask Remy an’ Bel. Dey’re de ones in charge of de decision."

Pierre sighed as well. "I know. I jus’ wan’ be here. I wan’ be a member of dis fam’ly. I don’ care ‘bout bein’ a thief anymore, I jus’ wan’ be what I am: a grandfather."

"So talk to dem. De worst dey can do is say no, but I highly doubt either one of dem would do dat. You’ve served your excommunication wit’out complaint. Jean-Luc isn’ here to tell dem dey can’ let you come back, especially since you’re already here."

"Genard is correct."

Both men turned to the sound of the beautiful voice and smiled at the woman it belonged to. Desiree Alouette was Genard’s wife. Known in the Guild as Singer, the raven-haired beauty was one of the remaining assassins. After the two Guilds unified in 2000, Singer and Genard had fallen in love with each other and eventually gotten married. They were the proud parents of Jean-Michel, and were soon due to have their second child, a girl they were going to name Genevieve.

Singer continued, looking at the two men from behind the dark glasses that kept them from being subjected to her light burst power. "Bella Donna is not an unreasonable or unfair woman. She will not disagree if Remy says he believes you should be allowed to stay, especially as you don’ wan’ be a thief anymore."

Pierre smiled at his daughter-in-law. "T’ank you, Singer. Dat means a lot to me. I’ll have to go talk to Remy."

Jean-Michel toddled into the room, his eyes lighting up when he saw his grandfather. "Grand-pere stay?"

Pierre nodded. "I hope so. I want to."

"I want you to stay, Grand-pere. Pwease?"

Pierre picked him up and cuddled him. "I’m gon’ ask Remy an’ Bel if I can. If dey say yes, den I’m stayin’."

"Okay Grand-pere."

In the bedroom she was going to share with Grace, Danielle was trying to organize the few things she and her partner had brought with them. She eventually stopped and looked at her partner and signed. "I’m sorry, Grace."

Grace tilted her head. "What for?"

"For the fact that we’re now living in a shabby, dingy group of rooms in shabby, dingy tunnels under the city." Danielle replied. "It’s damp an’ dreary an’ overall crappy down here. You deserve better dan dat..."

Grace laughed slightly. "Danielle...I don’t care where we live. We could live in a cardboard box for all I care. As long as I’m with you, I can live anywhere you put me."

"Honest?" One of Danielle’s worst fears was hurting someone she loved, and it bothered her that Grace might not be happy in their new home.

Grace went over and hugged her. "Honest. I love you."

Danielle hugged her back, relieved. "I love you too, ma chere. I always will."

Elsewhere in the tunnels, one of the assassins, Questa Devereaux, was trying to get his young family settled into their new home. Questa and the other assassins were very new to the idea of living in tunnels. Their home had always been a huge mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans, but along with the thieves’ safehouse, the mansion was destroyed in the battle with the X-Men.

Questa was a very troubled young man. He had been severely abused from age three to age twenty-five, and had been left scarred horribly from the experiences. It wasn’t until he met the lady who became his wife, Loralei Saint-Lorraine, a woman with as troubled a past as his own. It took them quite a bit of time, but they eventually learned to open up to and trust each other and in turn they got married. They became parents in 2004, to a son they named Justin.

Justin stood in the middle of one of the rooms they had claimed for their own, crying his poor little heart out. He didn’t understand what was going on and why they had suddenly come to this dark, scary place.

Questa picked his small son up and cuddled him. Unlike his own father, he was a loving and doting parent, determined to not let the events of the past carry over into the future. "Aww...it’s okay petit. I know it’s scary down here, but you’ll get used to it. Mama an’ Papa will never be far away, I promise."

Justin laid his head against his father’s shoulder, still crying. Questa walked around with him, trying to calm him down. The small child bore a very striking resemblance to his father, something that they noticed already. Loralei mentioned it as she stood watching them from the bedroom doorway.

"He looks so much like you, even now."

Questa smiled and slowed down his walking as he noticed his son was calming down and starting to fall asleep in his arms. "I know…strong genes I guess." He continued walking slowly until the baby was asleep and then put him in the crib, which was the first thing they brought with them.

"Is he scared to be down here?"

"Oui, I t’ink so." He looked around. "I can’ say I blame him. It is dreary and scary down here."

Loralei nodded. "Yeah...but I can understand why the thieves lived down here for so long. With a little work, these rooms could be very warm and homey. Who cares where they are? I think that was part of the point. Mercy told me once that they didn’t have much but there was always a lot of love and they never went without food or clothing. What else does anybody really need, if you think about it?"

Her husband nodded slowly. "I never t’ought of it like that. I think you’re right."

Gris-Gris was a master at the art of voodoo magic, and had a reputation for being a mean, heartless killer. That reputation was slowly changing though, something that spelled relief for the thieves in the Guild. Three women were behind the change in Gris and each of them was equally important.

Gris found out shortly before he met Amelia that the den mother of the Guilds, spiritual healer Tante Mattie, was actually his birth mother. He had been told all his life that his mother was dead, but in reality, his father had raped the healer and sworn the whole Assassins Guild to secrecy, including Mattie, who didn’t overcome her fear of any repercussions until many, many years after her rapist was dead and buried. The knowledge that his mother had been alive and well all those years of his life came as quite a shock to her son, but he recovered quickly and even started calling her Mama. She had always been a very important influence in his life and he strived hard to make her proud of him.

He met Amelia not long after he learned Tante Mattie’s secret. At the time they met, she worked in a museum as an exhibit designer. Gris used some of his earnings as an assassin to help fund her Black History exhibit when no one else would, so it wouldn’t get shut down. Unfortunately, not long after that, it was shut down anyway, and Amelia lost everything. Gris offered her a home with him and the rest of the Guild and she accepted. They were married several months later and Hija came along awhile after that.

Gris himself would admit that Amelia brought out even more kind, good things in him than his mother, but the strongest influence in his life was his baby daughter. From the moment Hija was born, everything Gris said or did was for her. He based every action he made on whether or not he thought she’d be proud of him later when she found out about it. He wanted to be the best father she could have; he wanted to be a father she could be proud of and brag to her friends about.

"Finally...!" Amelia whispered as Hija finally fell asleep. She followed her husband out of the room. "I thought she’d never go to sleep."

"Me neither. She’s ornery tonight, jus’ like everyone else I t’ink. Dis is a bigger adjustment dan all of us gettin’ used to livin’ in de safehouse together." Gris replied as he hugged her.

Amelia hugged him back. "I think we can do this. We’ll be okay."

"I know. I b’lieve in us. I b’lieve in all of us."

"I can’ do dis anymore. I jus’ can’ do it." Mercy LeBeau said, nearly wringing her hands.

"Mercy you don’t know that." Nara Marceaux said, trying to be reassuring. Nara was Theoren’s wife and both she and Theo were visiting with Mercy while Henri was in a meeting with Remy and Bella Donna.

"Yes I do. He was dead...dead for so many years. I got used to it. Part of me will always love him, but I’m not in love wit’ him anymore. I think of him more as a really gold friend now. I can’ be wit’ him. I have a hard enough time sleepin’ in de same bed as him. I keep wakin’ up, feelin’ like I’m sleepin’ wit’ a ghost."

Theo sighed. "I know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout, Merce. Do you t’ink dere’s any way you guys can come to some kind of compromise?"

"I don’ know. I’m still tryin’ to come to terms wit’ de fact dat he adopted Jessica wit’out tellin’ me an’ den got killed b’fore anyone could find out. De poor girl was in a foster home pretty much since de day she was adopted b’cause her father got killed an’ her mother didn’ know ‘bout her. I wish I’d known...I would have taken her here...I would have raised her...it would have made livin’ wit’out him so much easier..."

"But she’s here now. And so is he. You can be a family again." Nara commented, brushing her long dark hair out of her face.

"Not honestly. I want to, for her sake, but I can’ live a lie with him. I jus’ hope he understands..."

"You’re much better at dis stuff dan I am. Dose shelves are amazin’."

Claude smiled, a faint blush in his cheeks. "T’anks. I like workin’ wit’ wood an’ makin’ stuff."

"I can tell. You do great job. I’m gon’ go explorin’, okay? I’d like to take a look around."

"Sure, no problem. Want some company?"

"Actually...not dis time. I’d like to check t’ings out for myself, y’know?"

The smile on Claude’s chiseled face widened. "I understand. If you get lost, dere are buttons to push all along de tunnels dat will light up in de main area an’ alert whoever’s dere dat someone’s lost."

Fifolet nodded. "T’anks."

Fifolet left and started exploring the tunnels. He was looking for something he hoped he’d find, and eventually he did. A fairly large room, not used anymore for anything, with long tables and shelves on the walls. With a little work, some electricity and a lot of time, he’d be able to turn it into what he wanted it to be: a greenhouse.

He never told anybody about his love for plants. He loved plants of all kinds, starting them and nurturing them and watching them grow. It was a fascination of his that dated back to his teen years. This out of the way room in the tunnels would be a perfect greenhouse for him to garden to his hearts content without needing to leave the tunnels.

Fifolet got started fixing up and cleaning the dusty old room immediately. Before he knew it hours had passed and he suddenly realized he should probably go home before Claude got too worried.

It was too late.

"Where have you been?" Claude exclaimed the second Fifolet walked into the room. "I was worried sick!"

Fifolet tossed his long dark hair over his shoulder. "I’m sorry. I got caught up in what I was doin’ an’ didn’ notice de time passin’."

"Okay." Claude hugged him. "I forgive you. I was jus’ worried."

"I know. I promise it won’ happen ‘gain."

"T’anks."

Zoë Ishihara sighed for the eighteenth time since she claimed a part of the tunnels for herself. As just about the only member of the Guild family who didn’t have someone to live with, she was lonely. And she didn’t like it one bit.

"I don’t know why I even bother..." Zoë said to herself. She was a transplant to New Orleans from Japan, and she missed her old home. Still, she had to remind herself that she was excommunicated from the Tokyo Guild and wouldn’t be able to return no matter how much she wanted to.

She lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling. "Yes I do. Jean-Luc and the thieves here were nice enough to open their Guild to me and let me into their family. That’s why I bother. I appreciate them and everything they’ve done for me. I just wish I wasn’t so lonely..."

Remy was glad he could finally focus on one thing, instead of always bouncing back and forth between his work as Guild patriarch and his work with the X-Men. While being Guild leader was never his first choice, he accepted it and threw everything he had into being as good a leader as he could possibly be. This was made much easier now that he didn’t have to spend any time in New York with the X-Men.

For her own part, Bella Donna was glad Remy was back full time and leading the Guild. In her own way she still loved him, and felt he was doing a good job being patriarch. She wasn’t quite sure she wouldn’t do a better job if given the chance, but she was prepared to accept the hand fate dealt her. She firmly believed that fate had brought her and Remy together in the first place as children, just so they could co-lead the Guilds into the future.

Still, Bel was lonely too. She hadn’t been in a relationship with anyone since she and Remy’s ill-fated marriage, and it was getting a little hard to take.

"Can I walk you back to your room?" Remy asked.

"Sure, I’d like dat." Bel replied with a smile, her violet eyes twinkling.

As they walked, Bel cast a couple of sideways glances at Remy, careful not to get caught. She had always admitted to herself that she loved him and probably would for the rest of her life, but she had only once told him of that in recent years. He hadn’t felt the same. She accepted that and went back to keeping her own feelings quiet. But now that that crazy hussy Rogue was out of the picture for good...why couldn’t it be possible for her and Remy to maybe try to make things right where so many things had gone wrong before?

She was more than willing to give it a shot. All she had to do was hope he was willing too....

One member of the Guild family wasn’t living in the tunnels with the rest of them. His name was Jean-Louis Marceaux, he was Theoren’s younger brother, and the reason he didn’t live with them was he always felt left out. And he always felt left out because he used to be a girl.

Jean-Louis was born Marie Lucille, or Lucy. All her life, Lucy felt like a gay man was trapped in her body and eventually, after she grew up and moved out, she went ahead and got a full sex-change. Much to her surprise even her traditionalist older brother didn’t have a problem with it. He was happy as long as she was happy. And as Jean-Louis, in a rock band, she was happy.

So Jean-Louis lived in an apartment not far from where the safehouse had been. He played in his rock band and had a blast. It was at a club on the night after the band’s first show that he met Stefan LeBlanc.

Stefan changed his life forever from the moment they met. He accepted Jean-Louis for who he was and he accepted the truth without blinking. Who Jean-Louis was and used to be wasn’t important, as long as Jean-Louis was true to himself. That’s what mattered to Stefan, who had found himself falling for the musician during that night’s concert.

It wasn’t long before Stefan moved into the apartment with Jean-Louis. The two men shared everything, including their deep love for each other, and soon became the most important people in each other’s lives.