Night. A full moon. A starry night.

Remy LeBeau never took the time to enjoy it, or even acknowledge it before. But now, perched atop the Worthington Estate nestled in the Colorado Rockies, it was the perfect chance.

He hung his head low, his long hair concealing his face from view. However, his glowing red eyes clearly shone in the night.

His thoughts wandered to what had been happening to him. When Sabretooth had invaded the mansion and cut the power a few days ago, he murdered several people and left them in the foyer, for Gambit to find. There was a message written in blood that said, "I'm watching you, Cajun." Gambit noticed movement in the rafters, and hurling several charged cards, he was shocked when he discovered it was Rogue who he hit.*

(* Issue 5-Dino)

One of the many injuries he inflicted on her, except this one was physical while the others were emotional.

The rain was coming down in buckets, yet he made no move to hide himself from it.

"When it rains it pours, eh sugah?"

Remy made no reply, just kept his head down.

"Remy... we got some things that we need t' talk about," Rogue said, sitting next to him. She held an umbrella over his head and her own.

"It ain't dat easy, chere," Remy replied. "I done a lot o' t'ings I regret... But de one t'ing I regret de most is doin' you wrong..."

"Ya'll didn't do me wrong, Remy..." Rogue said. "Ah think that we've both done things we regret, especially to each other. What happened the other day with Sab--"

"Don', chere," Remy interrupted. "I screwed up. I shoulda realized dat Creed wouldn't be dat easy t' spot... Instead, I ended up hurtin' de person I cared about more den anyt'ing else..."

"Remy, it's all right..." Rogue said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Ah'm fine. It wasn't anythin' life-threatenin'. Ya just knocked the wind outta me is all."

"No chere, dere's more to dis..." Remy said. "We been t'rough a lot. An' dis relationship of ours has always been rocky. An' whenever one of us wants t' fix it, de other ain't interested. It ain't gonna work dat way... maybe it's time we realized dat..."

"Whaddaya sayin', Remy?"

"I'm sayin' dat f'r both our sakes, I'm gonna leave de team... At least f'r now. Until t'ings calm down..."

"Remy no! Ah don't want you ta do that!! We can work this out if we just try!! We can--"

"No more words, Rogue... We both need a break... some time alone..."

With that, he stood up and walked to the roof entrance.

"Remy... ah... ah love you..." she mumbled to herself. "Why won't ya realize that ah'm willin' ta do anythin' for ya? For us?"

"It's the best we can do for now," Bishop said. "We're keeping him heavily sedated. And, if Creed is able to shake off the tranquilizers, Psylocke has established a mental link with him."

"If he so much as bloody breathes wrong, I'll be all over him," Psylocke said.

"I would like to say I'm impressed Bishop, but I'm not," Pietro interjected.

"I'm not trying to impress you, Quicksilver, I'm just explaining the facts," Bishop countered, an obvious anger detected in his voice.

"How's Blink doing?" Crystal asked, changing the subject.

"She'll be all right," Bishop replied. "Creed didn't do too much damage, but she did lose a lot of blood. She's resting down in the infirmiry right now. Although, I must admit I am a bit confused. Logan told me that Sabretooth was taken away by the authorities and placed under extreme security. He couldn't have broken out himself."

"You're saying someone liberated him?" Quicksilver asked.

"Precisely," Bishop replied. "Also, how did Creed know our location? No one but Warren and the other team knows we're here."

"Perhaps someone's been keeping tabs on u-?" Psylocke asked. She was cut off as Shard came over the intercom.

"Sorry to bother you," she stated. "But we've got a visitor. Forge just arrived at the front gate."

"How goes the rest of the monitoring duty?" Bishop asked.

"So far, so good," Shard replied. "Nothing exciting ever happens here. Think I'll take a quick break."

"I don't think that--"

"Go ahead, Shard," Crystal interjected. "Not to worry, Bishop. We don't need someone on monitor duty 24 hours a day."

"But if someone like Sabretooth--" he began

"--If someone like Sabretooth cuts the power, whoever's on monitor duty won't be of much use," Crystal finished. Bishop sighed and surveyed the team's new prisoner, considering what to do with him.

Gambit continued to fill the duffle bag with clothing.

"So, you're leaving?" Shard asked.

He said nothing, just continued to pack.

"Where will you go?"

"Dunno," he replied. "Might hang around de T'ieves Guild."

"All because of what you did to Ro--"

"Don' go dere," Gambit said, glaring at her. "It don' concern you. Tell Bishop I'm leavin'."

"Tell him yourself," Shard said. "He's in the training room right now with Forge."

"Well, I'm not sure how much I can do..." he said. "But I can get some Shi'ar holographic projectors installed in here. It might take a couple of days. Also, I'll arrange for a SHIELD transport to take Sabretooth away."

"There's no need for that," Bishop said. "Someone hired Creed to attack us, and I want to know who. Psylocke's tried scanning his mind for the information, but found nothing. Apparently, whoever it is has placed psionic scramblers in Creed's mind, preventing a telepath from figuring it out. I'm sorry to say that Psylocke doesn't have the strength to overcome them, and to be honest, she's not sure if any psi does. In the meantime, I want to keep Creed here. Do you think you can develop some restraints for him, as well as a more advanced cell?"

"I'll get right on it. As of now, that's more important than the training room. Anything else you need?"

"Yes, but this next part is complete confidence," Bishop said. "After the battle with Thunderbird,* his powers had an... unusual effect on me. It may have something to do with the fact that I was struck after Cortez boosted Thunderbird's powers. But, for some reason, whenever I absorb energy, I can't seem to control it as effectively as I could before. The energy nearly erupts immediately. Cortez used his powers on me once before. He nearly burned me out. Attempting to absorb the little extra he gave Thunderbird seems to have altered my powers beyond my control."

(* Back in issue 4-Dino)

"It shouldn't be a problem," Forge said. "I can see about rigging something up for you."

The door to the training room hissed open. Gambit stepped in, dressed in his uniform, a duffle bag in one hand, his bo-staff in the other, resting on his shoulder.

"Hello Gambit," Forge said. "Long time no see."

"'Lo Forge," Gambit stated.

"You going somewhere, LeBeau?" Bishop asked.

"Dat's what I came down here t' tell you," Gambit replied. "I'm leavin' de team."

"Why?" Bishop asked.

"I got my reasons, hommes," Gambit replied. "I'll be seein' you around, Bish. Nice t' see ya again, Forge."

Two Weeks Later

"There..." Forge said, standing up. "The cell's finished."

He tapped a few buttons on the keypad, and several concentrated beams of energy formed a cell for Sabretooth.

"You can bring him out of the trance now, Betsy," Forge said. Psylocke stopped immediately, breathing a sigh of relief that the ordeal was over.

Creed's eyes slowly began to flicker open. Immediately standing, he attempted to rush out, to attack the X-Men, but was shocked by the energy bars.

"They work fine," Forge announced. "Now for the second test...."

He turned to Bishop, who readied the plasma rifle in his hands. Forge then entered a numerical sequence into the keypad. The bars vanished.

"Come on, Sabretooth," Forge said. "Attack me."

"This is some kinda trick..." Creed muttered.

Forge drew his gun and dropped it on the ground. He then raised his hands behind his head, and put his back to Creed.

"Go ahead."

Creed wasn't stupid. He knew that if he tried anything, the X-Men would be all over him. Yet, perhaps this was his chance...

Creed moved over to Forge, but instead of attacking him, he darted out the cell, pushing past Crystal and Psylocke.

"STOP HIM!!" Bishop ordered, firing energy blasts with his rifle at Creed.

Sabretooth ignored it, and kept running. He saw someone walking in the opposite direction. It was Rogue.

Leaping in the air, he prepared to bring his claws down on Rogue. It was the first time he noticed that his forearms had some sort of restraint on them, with cords running up along his arm. There was an opening in them for his adamantium claws, however.

As his claw came within a few feet of Rogue, a tremendous electric charge ran through his body. He fell to the ground, his body convulsing with the voltage being sent through him.

"It looks like the test was successful," Forge said, running up to Rogue. The rest of the team was right behind him. "Let me explain to you how the restraints work, Creed. If you try to kill anyone, you will receive an extreme electric shock, as you just did. However, unlike your restraining collar, if you try to remove these restraints, they will immediately release thousands of tiny nanomachines into your bloodstream. Once these nanomachines reach your heart, they will send voltage through your heart, stimulating a heart attack. Not enough to kill you, but definitely enough to take you down. When you're in your cell, your feet will be shackled to the floor, held down by powerful electro-magnets."

"Won't he always be in his cell?" Blink asked.

"No," Bishop replied. "Creed's tracking skills are extremely valuable, as is his strength and ferocity. Plus, whoever hired him to kill us obviously has it in for us. We need to find out who it is, and Creed will lead us to him."

"Like hell I will!!" Creed exclaimed.

"You don't have a choice, Creed," Bishop retorted. "From now on, you're an X-Man."

NEXT ISSUE: Is Bishop going insane?!