Gambit Annual 2000

Issue Date: 
August 2000
Story Title: 
<BR>Endgame ?- Assasination Game, epilogue (1st story)<BR> Shadow Thieves (2nd story)
Staff: 

Fabian Nicieza and Cam Smith (story and art), Thomas Derenick (penciler), Eric Cannon (inker), Tom Smith (colorist), Richard Starkings & Comicraft‘s Troy Peteri (letters), Mike Marts (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

Brief Description: 

First story :

Gambit and Archangel battle in the skies over New York, but as the X-Men arrive, Warren departs without revealing his reasons. In the mansion Gambit is examined and his powers are more erratic than ever. In the New Son’s Crystal Cathedral, Courier blames for having deliberatly fought in the public to alert the X-Men, but Warren on the other hand is sure that Courier too helped Gambit by contacting the Thieves Guild, who then helped him defeat the many villains during the Assasination Game. Quiet Bill is still opening doorways to alternate realities, and in very few Gambit actually survived the coming events. Bill is no longer sure of the New Son‘s actions and transports the X-Men and Gambit into the Cathedral. They never would have found it themselves as it is hidden outside of time and space. Turns out that Warren only played along with the New Son to expose his plans. In the end New Son attacks Remy, Warren and the Courier, but Remy is able to counteract the energies, because the New Son is nobody else than Remy himself; only from an alternate reality, older and more experienced. Before any questions can be answered, the Cathedral collapses. The New Son is taken through a portal, the others get back to earth in Siberia. Gambit writes a warning on the ground that the place belongs to the New Son.
Second story :

Jean Luc tracks down the Antiquary to Moscow. Although he kicked him out of the Guild years ago, he now needs his help to resurrect the Old Kingdom. Later Jean-Luc meets with Dr. Strange, whoi says that he has chosen a difficult path.

Full Summary: 

First story :

Remy, barely alive after repeated assassination attempts, is tied with barbed wire to crossed timbers, bleeding energy from cards in both hands, while an angel descends upon him.
Courier checks in with the New Son, who arranged the whole Assasination Game to make Remy force his powers to their peak.
Warren attacks Remy, angry about the Morlock Massacre. They struggle in mid-air, then Warren drops him, then swoops him up again when he survives the fall. Denti and police squad cars follow, amazed that X-Men would fight each other, and Remy uses a grappling hook to latch onto a news helicopter. Remy is finally worn out and slips, but Kurt bamfs in and catches him. Warren won't explain his actions and flies away; Kitty and Piotr take Remy aboard the Blackbird.
The New Son berates Warren for fighting in public, since he has kept himself secret in his crystal hideaway.
Back in Westchester, Kitty runs tests on Remy and says his power is erratic. Remy comes clean, explaining the New Son rescued him in Antarctica (after being stranded there in Uncanny X-Men #350) and asked him to work with him to save the world. From whom? Remy.
Quiet Bill is still opening portals to other universes for the New Son, so he can see if any version of Remy survived. Bill explains that the Crystal Cathedral exists between moments in time.
Courier confronts Warren, saying he purposely drew the X-Men's attention so he wouldn't be able to kill Remy. Warren is pretty sure Courier secretly alerted the Thieves Guild to the Assasination Game, knowing they would help Remy defeat the other assassins.
Kitty is unable to find Warren's bio-signature anywhere on Earth. Then Bill opens a portal, and the X-Men enter. They arrive in the Crystal Cathedral and are attacked by the New Son's technicians, who turn out to be empty containment suits. Remy sends the X-Men and Bill to find Huey, while he goes to face the New Son. He links up with Warren, who has been his mole the whole time.
A rift opens, and the New Son arrives with Courier, held in bands of crackling energy for his betrayal; he attacks the two X-Men as well. Remy recognizes the energy signature and uses his bio-charge to cancel out the New Son's, who reveals himself to be Remy from an alternate reality, older and more experienced.
The colliding bio-charges start to collapse the Crystal Cathedral, and one of Bill's portals falls onto the New Son, taking him away. Courier finds another, and he/she, Remy, and Warren get back to earth, to the wastelands of Siberia, with more questions than answers. They activate a homing beacon for the X-Men, and Remy writes a warning in the ground: Chateau New Son - Abandon all hope ye who enter.

Second Story :

Near Moscow, Jean Luc breaks through a security system he devised, but then has to face hell dogs. Milk Bones with sedative do the trick. He trips a magic spell, and space disorients.
He faces the Antiquary, whom he kicked out of the Thieves' Guild years ago, but now he needs his help to resurrect the Old Kingdom, even though he knows who will be the first host. They talk.
Jean Luc returns to his hotel and finds Dr. Strange there. He says he has chosen a difficult path.

Characters Involved: 

(First Story)

Gambit

Courier

Archangel, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat (all X-Men)

Carl Denti

Huey

Quiet Bill

New Son
In flashbacks

X-Cutioner II

Batroc, the Leaper

Constrictor

Zaran

Crossbones

Bella Donna, Gris-Gris, Emil Lapin, Theoren Marceaux, Claude Poitier (all unified Guilds)

(Second Story)

Jean Luc LeBeau

Dr. Stephen Strange

The Antiquary

Story Notes: 

The Annual is set between Gambit #19 and #20.
The issue contains a very helpful charts of the New Orleans guilds :

Thieves Guild : Remy (Gambit, current Guild Patriarch), Jean Luc LeBeau (his father), Theoren Marceaux (Harvest Master, deceased), Genard Alouette (Harvest Disseminator), Minister of Tome, Minister of Hoard, Zoe Ishihara, Emil Lapin, Mercy LeBeau (Remy's sister-in-law), Claude Potier.
Assassins Guild: Bella Donna Boudreaux (Viceroy of the Unified Guild, Remy's ex-wife), Marius Boudreaux (her father, deceased), Gris Gris, Questa, Fifolet, Singer, Candra.
And Tante Mattie is Traiteur to both guilds.

Issue Information: 
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