NOTE: This issue takes place after Gambit #7, so go read that first. It is VERY essential to the story.

The gun is held at his head. If he makes one wrong move, I fire. His head slowly turns when he hears it cock.

"Bishop..." he mutters.

"LeBeau," I reply, holding the gun steady. "When we first met, I told you I would be watching you.* And now it looks like I've got good reason to."

( *WAAAAAY back in Marvel's X-Men #8 - Dino )

"Looks like it," he says. "I heard 'bout Worthington's estate. After I saw his press conferences,* I assumed dat you guys moved on t' greener pastures?"

"I wouldn't know. I left the team a week before the explosion occured."**

( *Archangel's estate was destroyed in X-Men Omega #24, and his press conference was in #26 - Dino )
( **Bishop left the X-Men back in X-Men Omega #18 - Dino again )

"Y' left de X-Men?" he asks. I could detect a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Long story," I reply. "I've been living in Chicago since then. And I recently discovered that you're wanted for murder."

"Yah, funny story, actually," he begins. "I'm bein' framed."

"How do I know you're being truthful?"

"C'mon Bish, when have I ever given ya a reason t' doubt me?"

"There aren't enough hours in the day for me to run down that list."

"Dunno what scares me more," he says. "De fact dat y' got a gun pointed at my head, or de fact dat y' just made a joke."

"I've gone through some... changes as of late, Gambit," I warn him. "Come clean. Now. Before my trigger finger starts to get itchy."

"Could y' at least lower de gun?" he asks. I press it harder. "Okay, okay... it all started when--"

"No one be interested in y' lies!"

My instincts take over, and I spin on my heel. There are four of them. I recognize them from the X-Men's files. Bella Donna, Questa, Fifolet, and Singer. The Assassins Guild of New Orleans. Bella Donna and I have met once before. I've never encountered the other three, but I know Rogue has.*

( *Back in the Rogue limited series - Dino )

Bella Donna steps towards the front of the group. She looks at me and scowls.

"Dis is 'tween Remy an' me, X-Man," she states. Obviously she remembers me from our first meeting.* Her accent is thicker than LeBeau's. "Don' be meddlin' in family affairs."

( *Again, in X-Men #8 - Dino )

"I'm not an X-Man," I tell her. "Gambit is under my watch. And that's how it will remain."

"Have it your way," she states and raises her arm. A plasma blast is flung from her outstretched hand, striking me square in the chest. The force of it sends me flying back.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I had forgotten that my powers are gone. I never knew energy blasts could hurt so much.

"Back off, Belle!" Remy exlaims. He charges up and hurls several playing cards at the Assassins. Then, he runs to my side to help me up. "An' here I always thought y' could absorb energy."

"I lost my powers."

Gambit looks at me, and then looks back to the Assassins.

"Oh joy..." he mutters. "This day jus' can't get any better..."

I get to my feet, and suddenly, I feel different...

When I look at Gambit, I feel... rage. He is the Witness. The Witness was the last one to see the X-Men alive. But... the X-Men didn't die. I stopped Onslaught from killing them.* Yet now, Gambit is wanted for murder. He says he's being framed.

( *Back in Onslaught: X-Men - Dino )

That's something a thief would say. He's an expert at lying. He formed the Marauders.* He will be the last man to see the X-Men alive. He is the traitor. When I look at him, I see the blood on his hands. I...

( *It was revealed back in Uncanny X-Men #350 - Dino )

"Somethin' th' matter, pup?" he asks me. And when he looks at me, I see the face of the Witness. I see his hands stained with blood. The blood of the X-Men. I know what I have to do.

I take aim with my gun.

"Dis ain't th' time, Bishop..." he mutters. He motions to the Assassins. "We got more important t'ings t' worry about..."

He's trying to turn the situation around. Trying to point out another enemy. It won't work, LeBeau. I know who you are. I know what you will become. And I know I'm the only one who can stop--

Wait... this isn't right... something's not right here... I'm... I'm being toyed with somehow... Someone is manipulating my emotions... and if the X-Men's files are right, then the Assassins have someone who can do that...

I look up at the Assassins, and I take aim and fire at Questa. The blast knocks her out, and a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks becomes visible.

"Gris Gris..." Gambit mutters. He charges up a card and hurls it at Gris Gris. The blast forces Gris Gris to break his concentration and free me from his spell.

Gris Gris is possibly the most-powerful. He uses voodoo magicks to manipulate emotions. Questa, can manipulate a person's optic nerves. She kept Gris Gris hidden from our sight. It's a nice teamwork strategy - but it would have worked better had Fifolet used his powers and make the entire group intangible. I imagine that the reason he didn't may be beacuse he can only control his own density, and not the density of others.

The odds are a bit more evened, now. Bella Donna, Fifolet, and Singer. Fifolet poses the greatest threat, due to his intangibility. Bella Donna's powers are impressive, but what makes her dangerous is her combat skills. LeBeau is a good hand-to-hand fighter, but he was raised and trained by the Thieves - and combat is not their specialty. Bella Donna, on the other hand, has been trained since birth in the killing arts. Singer is the mystery. Her main purpose seems to be communications channeler. In terms of fighting skills, she poses the least threat. But, if she contacts the rest of the Assassins, then we could have a problem.

A strategy begins forming in my head. Before I can put it into action though, the sound of gunfire distracts me.

"GET DOWN!!"

A young, Japanese woman with short hair drops from above. She's dressed in leather, and holding a pair of guns which she's firing at the Assassins. Bella Donna and Singer run for cover, while Fifolet stands there and allows them to pass through him.

"Dammit Zoe, I tol' y' t' get outta here!"* Gambit exclaims.

( *In Gambit #7 - Dino )

"Scold me later, Remy," Zoe replies. She holds one of her guns under her arm as she pulls out some pellets from a pouch on her belt. She hurls the pellets on the ground, and smoke emits from them. "Run!"

We begin to run off, and in the distance, I can see the faint glow of Fifolet's power signature. As we continue to run, Zoe throws more smoke pellets to cover our escape, as well as tossing some in opposite directions to throw off the trail.

Shaw Industries

"Shaw," Shinobi stated once he picked up the ringing phone. "Have you received the information? Good, good. Do they suspect anything? Perfect, let's keep it that way. The last thing we need at this point is Xavier's followers breathing down our neck. It seems like it was all so easy, though. I'm worried that it mig--"

Shinobi stopped. A bald man dressed in a business suit was suddenly sitting in the chair in front of him.

"I've gotta go, now. My one o'clock is here."

He hung up the phone and turned to address his visitor.

"Telford Porter, I assume?

"I heard you were looking for me, Shaw," Porter stated. "I'm curious as to why."

Shinobi opened his desk drawer and pulled something out. He placed it down in front of Porter. It was a photograph of Porter dressed in a bright green costume with a black face mask covering his eyes.

"Do you remember this?" Shinobi asked as he lifted the photograph.

"Those days are behind me," Porter replied. He grabbed the picture from Shinobi's fingers and it vanished in his hands. "I'm a new man."

"Yes, I know," Shinobi noted. "Head of an international drug cartel as I hear it. What is it they call you in Cuba?"

"Que Desaparece el Hombre," Porter stated. "The man who vanishes."

"In other words, the Vanisher."

"What does this have to do with anything, Shaw?" Porter asked."

Shinobi picked up a file folder. He propped his feet up on his desk as he searched through the papers inside. Porter watched him with curious intrigue as Shinbo leafed through. Finally, Shinobi found what he was searching for and looked over it a few times. He then looked back at Porter.

"You were once denied admission to the Hellfire Club, correct?" Shinobi asked. "My father denied you because of your career as the Vanisher."

"Is that why you asked me here?" Porter asked. He stood up from his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. "Is that why you're dragging me away from my business operations right now? To gloat?"

"Not at all," Shinobi stated. "My father and I are not the same man, Telford... can I call you Telford?"

"It doesn't matter, Shaw."

"How much profit do you make in a year?"

"Around nine figures."

Shinobi nodded.

"Quite impressive."

"It pays for my Columbian estate," Porter replied. "Now, what's this all about, Shaw?"

"You've certainly come a long way since your days as the Vanisher, Mr. Porter," Shaw stated. "I'm offering you a second chance."

"I beg your pardon?"

"The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club is returning to its former glory," Shaw stated. "And we need a White Rook. Interested?"

Her name is Pamela Greenwood.

She's a waitress as a bar called Shorty's. A bar in Chicago. Pamela Greenwood grew up in Chicago. Then, she moved to New York for a little bit, but eventually returned to her home.

However, after she left, there was still a Pamela Greenwood living in New York. I know this because I orchestrated it.

"What are you doing, McCoy?"

"Prelate," I state, turning to face him. Like me, Prelate Summers is a refugee of a timeline which has been erased. "Something you need?"

He looks over my shoulder at the monitor.

"Is that the next target?" he asks.

"No," I reply, looking back at the monitor. "This has nothing to do with the Brotherhood. This is a... personal matter."

New Orleans

"I've been very cooperative, Gambit," Bishop stated. "Now, I want to know what's going on. The full story."

Gambit sighed. They were in a Guild safehouse. Zoe sat on a table, her eyes fixed on Bishop. She seemed to observe him as if he were an enemy. There was something about the timelost investigator that she didn't like. Perhaps it was because of the way he acted towards Remy.

"Jean Luc LeBeau is immortal," Gambit began. "Or at least, he was. He was dyin', an' th' only way to preserve his life was t' collect twelve stones. I collected four. I missed out on grabbin' stone number five, an' before I got a chance t' go after it again, somebody murdered Jean Luc. I tried t' track down th' real killer through a source in th' police department, but then she ended up dead. Next t'ing I know, I'm wanted f'r both deaths.

"Now it's your turn," Remy continues. "What you doin' down here, Bishop?"

"I've been doing my best to keep tabs on all the X-Men and their enemies - including former members," Bishop replied.

"Y'heard 'bout Logan bein' a traitor, then? An' th' incident in Syria?" Gambit asked. Bishop nodded.

"The moment I saw you, LeBeau, I made you my responsibility," Bishop stated. "If you had indeed gone rogue as I originally suspected you would at some point, then it was up to me to take you out."

"I feel so loved," Remy stated. He looked at Zoe. "An' didn't I tell you to go find Courier an' wait there for me?"

"You did," Zoe replied. "And I did find Courier. But I knew that you would need help. And you're lucky I came back."

There were a few knocks on the door.

"Speak of the devil," Zoe stated and hopped off the table. She opened the door. Courier stood there, holding a manilla folder in his hand.

"So you found him," Courier stated. "Good."

"What've ya got for me, Jake?" Gambit asked.

"It's not good," Courier replied, dropping the folder on the table. Gambit opened it up and began to look through it. Inside were photographs and police reports.

"There's been another murder," Courier stated. "This is a report of the forensic evidence, as well as the photos of the crime scene."

"Where did you acquire this all?" Bishop asked. Courier looked at him and simply grinned.

"I've got my ways."

"So what's de story on this latest one?"

"The killer wrote your name in the victim's blood," Courier replied. "So you're wanted for questioning. And guess what this victim was killed with."

Bishop picked up one of the photographs and looked closely. He noticed something stuck in the victim's skin.

"Are those... playing cards?" Bishop asked.

"Bull's eye," Courier replied. Gambit's head snapped up, and he and Bishop exchanged a glance. Gambit then looked at Zoe to see that she had a similar reaction. Courier, however, seemed confused.

"Did I miss something?" Courier asked.

"Bullseye..." Gambit stated.

NEXT ISSUE: First, read Gambit #8 for the conclusion of "Manhunt!" Then, be back here in #7 as the Hellfire Club makes their move!