APPEARANCES BY: Rogue, Gambit, Emil Lapin of the Thieves' Guild, Candra the External, Bella Donna, Fifolet, Gris-Gris, Questa, Tante Mattie, Cody and numerous unnamed Assassins.

SUMMARY: This issue picks up literally right where the previous one left off. Rogue is in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the middle of a heated battle against dozens of masked assassins. Rogue fights them easily, relying on the many hours of training she's had with the X-Men. As she fights, she thinks about Gambit and hopes he keeps his promise to stay away.

Meanwhile, of course, Remy is doing the opposite of keeping his promise. As he rides his motorcycle across the causeway over Lake Pontchartrain, he sees someone waiting for him, sitting on the rail, smoking a cigarette. Remy stops when he realizes the person is his cousin and probably best friend in all of New Orleans, Emil Lapin. Emil warns Remy that if he keeps going to New Orleans, he's going to end up dead. When Remy questions who is after him, Emil scoffs at the idea that it is their guild, saying that Remy is already dead to the thieves. He then tells Remy that the Assassins know Rogue and Remy are coming and that Bella Donna is really angry. He informs Remy that Rogue is heading to the Boudreaux mansion and when Remy says he's going there too, Emil reminds him that if he goes, there's nothing he can do to help him. The scene ends with Remy riding off towards the city and Emil staring after him wondering why Gambit always gets into trouble for women.

At the Boudreaux mansion, Candra and Bella Donna speak of the events that are taking place, and how both Remy and Rogue are doing exactly what Bel wants them to do, whether they know it or not. Candra seems to be more concerned with Gambit than with the old score Bel has to settle with Rogue.

Rogue gets a good warm-up fighting the assassins on the streets of the French Quarter, but she leaves them and heads to the mansion, knowing if she doesn't, she could end up out there all night and not do what she came to do. Meanwhile, Gambit has arrived in the Warehouse District of New Orleans and as he is contemplating where to look to find someone to give him information on what the Assassins are up to, an intangible Fifolet appears behind him and grabs him unaware.

When Rogue arrives at the mansion she finds it's very quiet. The assassins are nowhere to be found, but she knows they're there. Gris-Gris is the first to appear. He has brought with him Cody's hospital bracelet and one of Remy's gloves, to show Rogue. All this does is make Rogue angry and she lunges at Gris-Gris, throwing him against a wall, demanding to know where they are and only gets a rather cryptic reply from Gris in return. This makes Rogue even angrier and when she informs him she's not afraid of his voodoo magic, he throws a powder in her face. She backs off, the powder stinging her eyes. Fifolet appears beside Gris-Gris and the two of them mock and torment her. It is unclear whether or not the powder actually had the effect on Rogue it was supposed to, but for a few moments, she does appear to be truly afraid of them. When she refuses to cooperate, Fifolet moves closer, intending to beat up on her again. That is when Rogue's anger shows through again and she punches him in the jaw, knocking him to the floor and probably knocking a few of his teeth loose in the process. Rogue then confronts Gris-Gris, who tells her that she should be afraid of him not only because of his magic, but also because of the powers given to him by the Benefactress. Rogue and Gris go face-to-face and Rogue tells him she's not afraid of him, but rather that he should be afraid of her. She then proceeds to send him crashing through the window.

Rogue keeps going, looking not just for Cody but for Remy as well. As she walks, she hears what appears to be Gambit's voice behind her. She turns and sees Gambit…only it's not Gambit. Rogue realizes this when "Gambit" starts making advances on her. The image of Gambit changes to that of Cody, and when Rogue asks the stranger who he is, she gets yet another cryptic reply. As they fight, the character changes again, this time to Carol Danvers. The stranger goads Rogue into fully attacking and ends up getting himself thrown into a wall. The impact knocks him out. Candra appears then and tells Rogue that the assassin she just knocked out is named Questa.* Candra explains that she takes the assassins, taps into them and finds any mutagenic potential and bring it out, giving them powers overnight. Then Candra takes Rogue to where Bella Donna has Remy, Cody and Tante Mattie tied up against a wall, all of them unconscious.

Bella Donna is at first angry that Candra brought Rogue to where they are being kept, but then she changes her mind, saying how now she gets a chance to kill Rogue with her bare hands. They lunge to fight each other but are suddenly frozen in place, having been locked in Candra's telekinetic grip. Candra tells them she's decided to make things interesting, by taking their powers away from them before they fight. Bel glares at Candra, and accuses the External of abusing her powers. Then she reminds them that she's a trained assassin and doesn't need powers to kill Rogue. They begin their fight and Bel brings out an unexpected weapon, a knife, stabbing Rogue in the shoulder with it. The issue ends with Rogue grabbing for the knife and Bella Donna claiming that Rogue is about to die.

QUINN'S OPINION: Again, I really enjoyed this comic. I liked how Rogue fell back on the training she gets with the X-Men when fighting the assassins. My favorite thief is in this one too, his first official appearance ever. This lays a bit of ground-work for the real Gambit series a few years later, showing a bit of the bond that still exists between Remy and his cousin Emil in spite of time apart and Remy's excommunication. Emil takes a big risk going to warn Remy but he does it anyway. Gives me the impression that he and Remy would do anything for each other, no questions asked. The funniest scene in the book was when Rogue threw Gris-Gris, a man who is considerably bigger than she is, out the mansion window. Rogue also had a great confrontation with my favorite assassin, Questa, in this one, which like all her fights with the assassins, ended badly for Questa. Candra's decision to take Bel's and Rogue's powers from them is a nice, unexpected touch and the ending of the book makes readers wonder just how Rogue will get away and who will end up winning the fight.

*In this series, Questa is a female character, but a few years later in the regular Gambit series, the character is male. Since I love the male version better than the female version, and since the male Questa has more appearances in the later series, I decided to just make the character male from the beginning. So if you read the comic and see the female version, don't get mad at me. It's my own decision, if you don't like it, tough. ~QL~