BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Operating out of San Francisco, Gambit accepted a mission to procure the gem of Cyttorak, which was stolen from the Juggernaut. On that mission to South Korea, he crossed path with Storm and Shadowcat, who intended to return the gem to the Juggernaut. Gambit and the two X-women worked together and, eventually, Gambit chose to give them the gem instead of disappearing with it. While he originally had no intention of returning to the X-Men, Storm persuaded him that the issues between him and Rogue, not to mention the other X-Men, needed to be resolved before they ended up becoming enemies on a permanent basis. Gambit complied, but refused to tell them how he had made it back from Antarctica. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #361]
When they made it back to Westchester, Remy did not move back into the mansion, choosing instead to live apart in the boathouse formerly occupied by Cyclops and Phoenix. Wolverine quickly made it clear that, while they were glad to have him back, if he’d play them for fools or break Rogue’s heart again, he’d regret it. Rogue and Gambit tried to discuss their difficult relationship a short while later, but the discussion was interrupted by the attack of a rather odd foe named Kali. Afterwards, Gambit was able to assuage Rogue’s feelings of guilt by explaining that she had left him because of his own self-disgust and hatred she’d absorbed from him. However, Gambit was not able to say out loud that he loved her as she did. This was not so much because of his emotions but because, at that point, he was rejoined by the very jealous, green energy being he had bonded with, who threatened she’d kill Rogue if Gambit ever touched her again. [X-Men (2nd series) #81]
For the X-Men, it was business as usual over the next months, same as for Gambit and Rogue, whose relationship floundered between moments of affection or frustration and angst. This didn’t stop Gambit from having his own missions apart from the team. This included, among other things, stealing certain items for the mysterious New Son, such as a parts of a Celestial spaceship, which he stole from an ancient Chinese temple, and later from an archeological team. Gambit had not much time to wonder what his mysterious employer wanted with those artifacts, as in the process he made several enemies, among them the X-Cutioner, and gained the admiration of the brilliant but naïve archeologist, Sekmeth Conoway, whose life he saved. [Gambit (3rd series) #1]
At the same time, Remy‘s powers strangely grew, apparently due to additional bio-energies of the green ghost woman running through his system. He was now capable of creating time-delayed charges. As he suspected the cause, he was not to eager to have himself examined by Moira 
MacTaggert at the Muir island complex. On the other hand, it provided him with a perfect cover for the next mission he had to do for the New Son – namely stealing certain data pertaining to mutants, collected and researched by Moira. Gambit underestimated the complex’s failsafes, though, and, when he accidentally activated them, the data core was about to be ejected into space. Remy jumped aboard the rocket and took a copy of the files, almost dying in the process. He handed a second copy back to Moira, pretending he had saved her data. [Gambit (3rd series) #2]
Beginning to dislike the things the New Son made him do, Gambit secretly followed his contact, the Courier, to get more information on their mysterious employer, but instead stumbled into a meeting of a group called Crew A.S.K.E.W. Suddenly, a yellow gas cloud was released, disfiguring all the scientists, and afterwards two mercs called the Mengo Brothers arrived to transport all of them to the Pig. Gambit grabbed the canister with the gas and ran, but the Mengos chased him through New York. On the fighting scene was a homeless mutant named Quiet Bill, who randomly called up teleportation portals, and the captured scientists were sucked through them. Gambit made a deal with the Mengos, but doublecrossed them, keeping the canister. Knowing that the Pig would now want it back, he arranged for Quiet Bill to be left in the New Son’s care. [Gambit (3rd series) #3]
As curious as Gambit was about his mystery employer, the same seemed to hold true in reverse. The New Son had employed a mutant named Fontanelle, who could gain access to other peoples’ minds via their dreams, to interrogate all people who knew Gambit and sift through their memories. She started with those closest to him, like his adoptive father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, and his confidant, Tante Mattie. After having been visited by Fontanelle in their sleep, they summoned Gambit to New Orleans to warn him about her. Once there, Gambit also learned that the New Orleans guilds were falling into disarray, caused by the demise of their mutual benefactress, Candra. [Gambit (3rd series) #4]
In the wake of a fallen teammate’s funeral, several X-Men including Gambit were kidnapped to another dimension, where they became embroiled in a battle between Juggernaut and the mysterious Trion. Thanks to different laws of physics in this dimension, the X-Men’s powers were acting in bizarre unprecedented ways. The X-Men eventually resolved this matter but, in the process, Gambit accidentally injured his new teammate Marrow badly. Eventually, the X-Men were 
sent back to their universe but, unfortunately, several years into the past and several light-years away on the Skrull homeworld. A training camp for Skrull spies – Skrull mutants to be exact – who had to learn to pretend to be Earth superheroes. All for nothing, as Galactus arrived to destroy the Skrull world. Gambit grew increasingly worried about the critically injured Marrow, whom he felt especially protective about. Although Marrow wasn’t aware of Gambit’s role in the slaughtering of the Morlocks, she was the young girl he had rescued back then, all grown up. Taking her to a Skrull clinic, Gambit managed not only to heal her, but also to give her control of her painful bone-growing mutation and a more pleasant look. As a consequence, Marrow hero-worshipped him. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #366-370, X-Men (2nd series) #86-90]
Back home again, Gambit was called in by his father, since a mind-sapping gas emitting mutant boy, Shirow, was kidnapped by the Pig from the Thief Guild. Shirow and his adult sister, Zoe, were members of the Tokyo branch of the Thief Guild. Gambit tracked the boy, whose powers were growing out of control, but couldn’t prevent him and Zoe from being kidnapped by the Mengo brothers, who caught them all. The Pig planed to use Shirow’s mind- and skin-altering gas to create world peace (in his own way). Zoe managed to break free and release Remy, who confronted the Pig, goading him and reminding him that he was the one who took his eye years ago. After a fight, he used the remaining gas on the Pig, ordering him to walk off a cliff. [Gambit (3rd series) #6-7]
When, during a training session, Marrow accidentally stabbed Gambit through the chest with one of her bone daggers, they found that his body reacted on pure instinct by channeling a biokinetic charge into the bone, allowing him to safely detonate it after pulling it out of his chest. Miraculously, Remy wasn’t injured during the process. After Xavier pressed him, an examination revealed that Gambit’s body had been pushed to work at highly elevated level of biokinetic activity – his power was being charged to dangerous levels, nudging them in a specific direction. The responsibility lay with the second bio-signature within him – the green ghost being. At that moment, the ghost showed her face and disappeared with Gambit.
A short time later, he woke up in a small town, Manhattan, Indiana, recalling some of the ghost’s memories. Both Gambit and the X-Men researched in their own way: The ghost, Mary, had been a sickly girl who seemingly died when her mutant powers kicked in transforming her to an energy being. Later, she was discovered by Magneto, who brought her to his Antarctica base, which is where she met Remy. Mary wanted to do something to make her life worthwhile by creating a new 
superior life-form, though both her and Gambit’s lives would have been consumed by this act. At the last moment, Beast managed to adapt Magneto’s containment unit to drive Mary out of Gambit’s body. Mary was close to dying and Gambit tried to save her by charging her up. Regardless, her energy form exploded. It is unclear whether she died or something else happened to her. [Gambit Annual ‘99]
Shortly afterwards, Xavier dissolved the X-Men, apparently without reason. While some of the others went vacationing together, Gambit left on his own, only to later secretly break into the mansion to find out what was wrong with the Professor. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #372] It turned out that the Xavier had noticed signs that one of the X-Men might indeed be a traitor and, not being able to tell which one, he had been forced to make this radical move in order to single out the threat among their own ranks. Resolving to help, Gambit remembered a certain device in Sinister’s possession that would be of use. Though to bargain with him, Gambit first needed to enlist Sabretooth help find him. Eventually, Gambit double-crossed the mad scientist and left with what he came for. [Gambit (3rd series) # 8-9] With the device, the X-Men were capable to prove that “Wolverine,” who was killed only a few hours before, was actually a Skrull imposter. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #375]
After the X-Men’s fight against Apocalypse, the mastermind behind the real Wolverine’s abduction, Gambit was asked by his father to retrieve a jewel called the Momentary Princess, which was endowed with unique powers and data. The jewel popped up in Leipzig, Germany for a few minutes every 27/29 years. It was a time-travelling gem sent into the time stream by the Witness in the year 2084. Getting embroiled in a fight with Sekmeth Conoway and the Strucker twins over the Princess, Gambit - all of them, in fact, failed to retrieve it. [Gambit (3rd series) #10] However, working together with Sekhmet, Gambit procured another object with temporal energies - the Tomorrow Stone - and used it to save the life of his former friend, Spat – the bounty hunter who was getting constantly younger for once taking a blow for Gambit. [Gambit Cyber Comic: The Hunt for the Tomorrow Stone]
Finally, the time seemed right for Gambit’s father and Tante Mattie to inform him why they had always took such an interest in him and why Le Diable Blanc always such a big role in Guild history. They told him that he had saved their lives in the late 19th century and showed him photos to prove that he had been there - at the same age he was in the present day.
Making use of Dr. Doom’s time machine, Gambit traveled to the year 1891, alongside the unwilling Courier. In the past, Gambit learned that his then-teenage father, along with Belize Marceaux, had been taken prisoner by Candra, who was unwilling to renew the Guild pact because of an earlier 
failure on the Guild’s part. Candra wanted the help of Dr. Essex aka Sinister against the looming threat of Apocalypse. Introducing himself as someone who she would meet in the future, though his past, Gambit promised to help Candra, but the Guilds preferred to do the job themselves.
Gambit, Courier and young Jean-Luc headed to New York, where Sinister worked under the cover of an Obstetrician named Milbury. Courier shapeshifted into a woman and made an appointment, but Sinister discovered that “she“ was a mutant with morphing abilities and captured her. With the help of one Amanda Mueller, an accused child-killer (because she had suffered many miscarriages), Gambit too tracked down Milbury. Since Sinister had reduced the Courier to a puddle of fluid, Gambit had to make a deal with Sinister in order to save his friend’s life. Sinister let the Guild track down Ozymandias to get a hold of his texts on the Old Kingdom while he restored Courier in exchange for a bit of his DNA. Unaware that Courier was a man, though, Sinister inadvertently made his female form his default template.
Remy and Sinister followed the Guild to Ozymandias’ place and defeated Candra, who was then turned over to her fellow Externals, who were not happy that she had risked disturbing Apocalypse. Sinister erased the dangerous knowledge of the Old Kingdom from the Guild’s minds and locked the information deep in Gambit’s subconscious. At the same time, Sinister noticed that Gambit had undergone brain surgery before. Gambit and the Courier accomplished all they came for, but now found themselves stuck in the past. [Gambit (3rd series) #12-14]