The pretty redhead named Lauren Binns suddenly collapsed. Gambit caught her before she could hit the floor, but saw who had been standing behind the woman. That blonde woman—Avaleyn Nitall—stood there, and she did not look happy.

"Stupid girl. She's been nothing but a problem."

He looked down at Lauren. She had mentioned Avaleyn's name and said that he had rescued her from Nitall. She had said it with such disdain, too. Why would she say such a thing in that manner?

"She seemed to know me; I feel like I should know her, but I don't." He looked up at her. "Why?"

"You met in Chicago and she became obsessed with you, even though you were already with me. I told you the rest of how you got here; that road trip is how you know her," she said.

Avaleyn had told him he had gotten amnesia from a car wreck—Lauren had mentioned the wreck too. She also told him they were lovers and that Lauren Binns had practically kidnapped him because she was jealous. She had been driving the car when they had the wreck.

Lauren had stitches and bruises, like him—that correlated with what Avaleyn said... but still, everything she told him hadn't felt right. He felt no stirrings of emotion in his chest when he looked at Avaleyn; absolutely no desire like what he should feel at looking at a lover.

But the woman in his arms... His eyes turned back to her. He felt very protective of her. Emotions came to him when he looked at her: he longed for her to look at him with those gray eyes again; he was concerned for her; he desired for her to just talk to him again. A light floral scent wafted up to him, and he wanted to bury his face in her hair. The lust he felt was from wanting to kiss her lips and hold her close.

Why? She was supposed to be an enemy, but he felt more about Lauren than Avaleyn. Why did he feel so confused? Why was he feeling like this? What was going on?

"Come on, Remy; let's go before they wake up," Avaleyn suggested.

His name didn't sound right coming out of her mouth like it had on Lauren's lips.

He shook his head. "Something's not right."

"They're mutants, Remy; they've probably messed with your head..."

Gambit kept his eyes on Lauren in his arms. His gaze drifted from her to the queen of hearts lying face-up on the ground. He staggered under a sudden onslaught of visions and sounds: a beautiful smile; laughter; bewitching gray eyes; her voice calling his name; a red-headed woman hugging another redhead—looking like an older version of Lauren.

He did know this Lauren Binns; far more than how Avaleyn said he did. Her, on the other hand, he didn't know.

"Non." His eyes shot up to drill into the blonde woman. "You're the one who's messing with me; I think you've been lying to me this whole time. Who are you and who is Lauren?"

Avaleyn acted like she was exasperated by huffing, but Gambit caught the alarm flicker in her eyes. "I've told you..."

"You're right: you've told me, but it wasn't the truth. Who are you? What am I really doing here?"

She didn't answer; her icy-blue eyes suddenly hardened as her open face turned stoic. Avaleyn threw up a hand and an invisible force blasted Gambit backward. He clutched Lauren to his chest and fought to keep from rolling on top of her. When he stopped sliding back, he rolled over to his knees and looked up.

Avaleyn walked toward him. "I was so hoping you were going to make this easy, but the stupid human had to mess up things... again."

In the blink of an eye, she disappeared; she teleported beside him and kicked him in the face. He fell back, dropping Lauren. Gambit quickly jumped to his feet and threw some cards at her. She disappeared again.

Instinct made him jump with a spinning kick; his foot struck across Avaleyn's face behind him. Her neck loudly cracked as her head turned and she dropped to the ground.

Gambit thought he had killed her since she lay there, immobile. But then her back moved and her arms pushed herself back up. He stepped back at the unnatural sight: Avaleyn rose to her feet with her head still hung at a grotesque angle. With a series of sickening cracks, her head rose back up, and she grinned at him.

"Never thought having the elasticity of a rubber band would come in handy," she said.

She suddenly spat at him and a ball of molten lava flew at him. He threw a card at it as he ran to the side to dodge it. The card and ball met and exploded. Gambit kept running, frantically searching for Avaleyn again, but didn't see her.

All the air left his lungs as something powerful hit him and he fell back. Avaleyn was suddenly on top of him from using super-speed. He fought to hold her, clawing at him, with his staff.

"Your power will be mine!" she yelled as a hand touched the side of his head.

Gambit flung her off him with his staff, then quickly rose; Avaleyn got back to her feet, too. The woman's snarling face gradually took on the appearance of a feline. Her fingernails elongated into claws, and she literally growled. He had no idea on what kind of mutant he faced—especially one who had so many abilities—but he stood protectively in front of Lauren. He would protect the unknown woman at all costs.

A red beam suddenly shot out at her; she used her arms to block the light. When the energy stopped and Avaleyn lowered her arms to look, her skin had changed to indestructible diamonds; Gambit looked too.

The X-Men he had fought—the two men and two women wearing similar dark uniforms—had awoken. The slimmer, less muscular man, had a hand pressing against the side of the red eye-gear shielding his eyes.

"You're not going anywhere, Nitall," the red-headed woman said. She was gorgeous, but she wasn't as attractive to Gambit as Lauren was. "We can't allow you to kill more mutants when you steal their powers."

"Meaning you're a dead woman," the other man with the wickedly strong metal claws said.

"Such power..." Avaleyn was so lustful, she was literally drooling as she stared at the X-Men. She glanced at Gambit. "With your power along with theirs" —she looked at the four mutants— "I will truly be unstoppable."

She clapped her hands and multiple upon multiple Avaleyn clones appeared. At that moment, armed soldiers emptied out of the hallway the X-Men and Lauren had come out of. The men all had a glazed look in their eyes like she was controlling them.

"Don't kill them, just subdue them for me," Avaleyn ordered.

The clones and soldiers attacked; the X-Men met them.

"Don't hurt the men!" the telepath said. "They're being possessed!"

The X-Men fought off the wave of clones along with the soldiers. Most of them were disarmed by the telepath or lost their guns as they were blown back by the black woman's wind. The man with the claws sliced through some guns and roughly tossed the soldiers away.

The red-beam guy shot the laser at a clone; that Avaleyn absorbed the beam, then, with a smirk, shot it back at him. The red-headed telepath suddenly jumped in front of him with a hand raised, blocking the attack with some invisible barrier. She pushed the beam back, and it deflected into the clone; it obliterated while taking out some others in the process.

The man with the claws sliced through the clones, chopping off limbs and heads when they converged on him. One Avaleyn clone kept re-growing limbs and her head when cut off, so he dove at it with both claws straight into its heart. He began to rip it in two when the clone vanished.

The black woman with long white hair and vibrant blue eyes—which were now completely white—had a strong wind blowing back soldiers, and shot mini-tornadoes out of her hands. The dark storm boiling over all of them struck any clone with a lightning bolt if they ventured too near to a fighting comrade.

Gambit had all of Avaleyn's attention. They ran around each other: her shooting ice spikes at him, throwing sticky tar at his feet to trap him, and him throwing cards at her, touching the ground to make the hidden pipes rupture, and hitting the Avaleyn mirages trying to grab him with his staff.

Suddenly, she melted into the ground. Gambit searched the ground for a sign of her; he stumbled forward when she was suddenly on his back—transferring over into his own shadow.

He slammed onto his back to loosen her hold. When she grunted and her legs unlatched around his neck, he performed a back-handspring to face her, then brought his staff down to impale her. She vanished, and his staff banged onto the concrete.

Gambit began to spin to look for her when his feet were yanked out from under him. He looked to see a shadowy black tendril around his ankles and followed the multiple tendrils back to Avaleyn's outstretched hands. With a wicked grin, the tendrils began to retract, dragging Gambit to her.

He fought to free himself, throwing cards back at her; the tendrils fanned out around her swatted the projectiles away. He was able to knock the tendrils off his feet; before he could get away, another tendril shot out to snake around his neck. The tendril pulled him quicker to Avaleyn.

Right as he reached her, Avaleyn suddenly grunted when her arm was cut off by the man with the claws. All the tendrils disintegrated, dropping Gambit. With irritation on her face, she turned to deal with him.

"Haven't you learned? It'll grow back."

She jolted and cried out in shock and pain when Gambit's staff pierced through her chest, straight through her heart.

"I don't think that will," Gambit said behind her.

He put his foot on her back to rip out his staff; when it came out, Avaleyn slumped frontward from the momentum and didn't move again.

"Go; forget what you saw here," the telepath ordered the soldiers.

They looked around blankly then slowly filed out; soon, it was just the five mutants in the destroyed warehouse. It looked like a war zone: broken concrete; water pipes spewing water; huge pools of water; knocked over and ruined forklifts; scattered and broken boxes and crates; Avaleyn Nitall lying in a dark pool of her blood.

Completely drained, sore, and bleeding, Gambit just wanted to lie down, but he went over to Lauren and kneeled by her. Even though ghostly pale, she just looked like she slept. He touched the hand that had once held the queen of hearts—now it lay far from her; the hand was cold but there was slight warmth.

He heard approaching footsteps, and he looked up; the slightly bloodied and battered X-Men stood there.

"I can check her out if you let me," the redhead said.

"You know Lauren?" he asked.

She nodded. "We're friends."

He didn't get the impression that the telepath was lying, and she was looking at Lauren with such concern; he gestured for her to join him. She dropped down on the other side and went to work, checking her pulse and other vitals. He watched her every movement like a hawk, making sure this wasn't a trick to hurt Lauren or to get him as his guard was down.

"She's still alive," the telepath announced. "It looks like Nitall tried to drain her life, but left enough that she'll live. I wonder why..."

"Will she be okay, Jean?" the man with the red eye-gear asked.

"I don't know; hopefully the Professor can say." Jean looked at Gambit. "We need to get Lauren back to the mansion. She'll get help there."

Gambit nodded, then ignoring his tired muscles, scooped up the woman as he stood. Remembering the queen of hearts, he began to search for it when the woman that can control the weather suddenly handed it to him. He took the card with a nod; she smiled at him, then turned and headed out. Jean hurried beside her. Gambit followed their lead, with the two men behind him.