Years later Gambit would remember very little of that summer. The days stretched out before him,
an endless succession of practice sessions and missions with no texture or substance.
The days after Wolverine left slid by and Gambit could only be a little amazed at how quickly time moved when there was nothing to give it meaning.
If he�d thought about it Gambit would have assumed that he would spend the rest of his life like that, blending one featureless day into the next while the people around him grew and changed. But then something did happen.
There had been rumors circulating all summer that a traveling sideshow had been using mutant prisoners in some of its attractions. At first Scott hadn't paid too much attention to them. They had enough real problems, he figured, without chasing ghosts.
But when the rumors began getting more and more bizarre he eventually sent out a small reconnaissance team to determine whether the truth about this circus was as bad as people were saying.
It turned out to be much, much worse.
The side show was not so much an act, as it was a zoo. Above the entry way, a loose arch cobbled together from scrap wood, hung a gaudy, chipped sign that read "FREAKS: See the awesome beast people, and be amazed!".
As Bobby, Gambit and Storm stepped hesitantly into the enclosure beyond, Storm gasped and even Bobby turned a little pale.
They were in a ring of about 20 old fashioned, wheeled circus cages, each perhaps 8 feet long and
half as wide. Inside each of these cages was a person�a mutant, starved, battered, abused, looking
out at the world listlessly. Most were sick. Some were clearly dying. The smell was overwhelming.
"Who could do something like this?" Storm whispered.
They had paused in front of one of the first cages, the sign above proclaimed "The Amazing
Amphibian Girl." Underneath a small sign explained that she could ribbit like a frog and caught flies with her tongue. In addition, she had a bipercated pupil like a frogs. It went on at some lengths about the �scientific nature� of the girl�s �deformity of humanity� whatever that meant, thought Bobby.
A small boy ran up to the girl and began poking at her sharply with a stick.
"Wake up." He said, poking harder. �Wake up. I want to see you catch a fly with
your tongue."
The girl in the cage, who couldn't have been more than seventeen, didn't stir. Judging from the number of bruises on her body, she got worse treatment than a boy with a stick. Around her neck was wrapped a tight metal band which pulsed slightly with a faint light.
Bobby grabbed the stick from the boy. "Sorry kid." He said. "Not today. Why don't you go find your mommy."
The boy stuck his tongue out at them and ran off.
"Charming." said Gambit.
Storms eyes began to go white. "She is a child." She said, her voice shaking in fury. "Who could do such a thing to a child?"
�Easy Storm." said Gambit, "We'll get her out. Making a crater in the middle of a crowded circus ain't gonna to improve mutant-human relations none."
Bobby looked around the other cages concerned. He had already called Scott for backup, but the show was crowded and he didn't see anyway a confrontation in the middle of the day would end well.
Maybe they would have to come back at night�..
A short oily man bustled over to them. "Can I help you?" he asked. "I've heard you've been harassing my guests."
Bobby turned to the man. <Easy, find out as much as you can before you take him out.> "Not at all, we were just admiring your fascinating exhibit.�
The man relaxed a little. "Sorry about my brusqueness. We've had some trouble, you know, radicals, who object to the nature of the entertainment." he sniffed. "Hypocrites. They don't object to the lion tamer inside do they?"
�May I ask where you got the... specimens?" asked Bobby.
"Oh, here and there." Said the man vaguely.
�I see.� Said Bobby. �And did they come to you in this condition?�
The Ringmaster winked. �More or less. Most of them have reverted more closely to their animal form under my care. It is a gift I have, revealing the truth of these creatures, underneath the disguise of humanity they put on. Ain�t that right Froggy?� He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fly. The girl in the cage darted forward, her large, flat eyes fixed on the bug, her hand extended, showing its delicate tracings of webbing.
Bobby looked away, sickened. Apart from anything else, the girl was clearly starving.
�Uh, uh, uh.� Said the Ringmaster. �Froggies don�t use their hands do they?� The girl bowed her head and stuck out her long, sticky tongue, which snatched the proffered fly and withdrew into her mouth so quickly it made a snapping noise.
�Even with all my hard work, they still require a little training.� said the Ringmaster.
Then he leaned in towards Bobby confidentially. �If you want a closer look at any of the beasties, I�m offering a special after-hours viewing, for a fee. It will be much more intimate, give you a chance to really interact with the animals on an individual basis.� He winked lewdly, in case Bobby had somehow missed his meaning. �Just let me know if anything catches your eye. I�ll see what I can do.� He winked again and with a nod sauntered off, leaving Bobby with his stomach heaving.
<Hurry up guys, I don�t know how much more of this I can take.>
He caught up with Gambit at another cage across the lawn. �I�m pretty sure this nut jobs a mutant.� Bobby said. �He�s somehow using his powers to warp these people, distort their powers, or manifestations, and�dehumanize them, physically, as well as with these cages and God know what else.�
Gambit didn�t respond. Bobby glanced down to see what the other man was staring at and the world tilt out of control around him.
There, in the cage, was a man, chained by the neck, filthy, snarling, his eyes burning with hatred and unmistakably Wolverine.
�Logan.� Bobby whispered, staring into the blank eyes of his friend. �No�.� He felt himself begin to gag and swayed forward, catching himself on the first solid object to meet his numb fingers, the edge of the cage.
Instantly the beast in the cage gave a scream and sprang forward, teeth barred. Bobby lurched back, and would have fallen if Gambit hadn�t caught him.
�Easy Iceman.� He hear the flat, cold voice in his ear. �Keep it together. Freaking out ain�t gonna help no one.�
Bobby felt an irrational surge of anger. <Who are you calling Iceman, Gambit? We�re surrounded by �beasts� but I only see one person that�s inhuman.> Then Gambit released him abruptly. Bobby spun round to see the Ringmaster hurrying towards him again.
�Let him out.� He managed to choke the words out.
The Ringmaster looked at him blankly. �Are you insane? He�s rabid. He�d kill us all.�
�Let him out.� Gambit echoed flatly. �He�s a friend of ours.�
The Ringmaster smirked. �That is your misfortune. I hawk and flog the animals. I don�t associate with them, nor do I lower myself to converse with those who do.� He started to brush by Gambit.
In one smooth gesture Gambit grabbed the man and thrust him up against the bars of Wolverine�s cage. The feral rushed towards him, his teeth snapping inches from the man�s neck.
�I could kill you.� said Gambit, in a voice so flat it was more terrifying than the slavering man inside the cage.
Bobby looked at his teammate in fear, knowing that Gambit was telling the truth. He could kill this man with out a flicker of hesitation. And if he did, he wouldn�t feel a moment of regret.
But neither would Bobby. Bobby shivered. <God, what�s happening to us? Is this Gambit�s influence?> He felt the situation spinning out of his control.
That was when the team showed up. Scott was the first one out of the Blackbird. His eyes swept the field, taking in the situation instantly. The muscles in his jaw worked, but his voice was calm.
�Gambit, put him down.� Gambit dropped the Ringmaster without a second�s hesitation, and didn�t spare the man a glance as his body crumpled to the ground a Gambit�s feet. Bobby shivered again.
The next few hours were among the most horrifying that Bobby had ever known. The X-men were overcome, almost crazy with grief and anger over what had been done to their team mate. A million decisions had to be made, how to transport the caged mutants to medical care, where they should go, what to do with the Ringmaster, what to do with Wolverine, who showed no sign of knowing any of them, no sign at all of being the teammate they remembered.
None of them were thinking clearly, Cyke was maintaining his fa�ade of calm, but in reality Bobby had never seen him so shaken on a mission.
It was Gambit who took over. Gambit made the decisions, and talked the X-men through the steps of carrying them out.
The prisoners would go to Muir Island, they would travel sedated, since there was no way of knowing at present how they would behave once released from their cages. Did Beast have enough sedative? No? Cyke, Bobby and Hank would fly back to the mansion and return with the needed supplies, and the small plane. Then Gambit would fly the Blackbird to Scotland with the sedated mutants inside, and the rest of the X-men would take the small plane home.
�Wolverine?� Scott asked weakly.
�Obviously he will go back to the mansion with you.� Said Gambit. �He needs to be home with his family now.� The warmth of the sentiment was betrayed by the indifference of his tone.
******************
No one on the team could imagine what Logan had gone through in the past six months, but that didn�t stop them from obsessing. In fact they couldn�t even stop themselves. In the two weeks after bringing back the feral man every team member suffered from nightmares, visions of torture, of degradation, pain and starvation so vivid few could speak of them once awake. But Gambit�s sleep remained untroubled, as it had been since the accident more than half a year before, as it had seldom been in the whole of his life.
Logan did not get better. He didn�t speak. He showed no signs of recognizing the people around him. He growled. He attacked anyone who came near him. These attacks weren�t the deadly assaults of a trained fighter but the clumsy, savage attacks of an animal, easy for the other X-men to fend off. Still it was becoming increasingly apparent that for his own sake, Logan could not be left free to roam around.
�I don�t know how we can put him in a cell.� Said Rogue. �Being locked up was what brought this on in the first place.�
�We don�t know what brought this on.� Said Hank. �With his healing factor there are no scars, no way of knowing what was done to him.�
�Well the cage couldn�t have helped.� Said Cyke. �But at the same time, we have another obligation here. We can�t run the risk of him escaping the grounds and attacking a civilian.�
So Logan was placed in a holding cell. Everyone tried to make it as homey as possible, they brought down his bed and a few trinkets from his room and even hung up a couple of posters. But nothing could disguise the cage for what it was.
Logan shredded the posters and soiled the bed. He threw himself against the force field of the cell again and again, until he would drop exhausted then wake to batter himself against it once more.
�I don�t know what to do for him.� Said Hank desperately.
�We could sedate him.� Suggested Scott.
�We could. And then what? Would we just keep him drugged out until he dies? That will be long after we�re all gone.�
So they did not sedate Logan. Instead the team visited him frequently, tried to talk to him, tried to tempt him with things he had liked from the time before. The professor and Jean both tried reaching out to his mind, but neither had any success. Scott woke up that night to find Jean crying silently beside him.
�Jeanie�.� He pulled her close.
�I couldn�t do it.� She said, her voice muffled against his shoulder.
�Shhh, it�s okay/� He rubbed her back. �Even the professor couldn�t reach him.�
�No!� she cried. �That wasn�t it. I could reach him but, I�. It was like Logan wasn�t even there. It was like touching an animal.� She began to cry harder. �What if he�s gone Scott? What if he never comes back? What if he spends the rest of his life like this?�
Scott tried to comfort her, the best he could, but Jean had only said aloud what they were all thinking. What if? What would they do then?
Gambit began spending long periods of time next to Wolverine�s cage, watching as the older man snarled and trying to attack him through the field. He didn�t look at Wolverine with sympathy, or pity and horror, the way the others did, but rather with his usual detached reserve, as if the damaged mutant were a puzzle he was trying to solve.
Finally, after a month, during which Logan had made no progress, Gambit approached Scott.
�You must let me take him.� He said. There was no need to ask what <he> meant.
�Absolutely not.� Said Scott.
�He needs a chance, Cyclops. Being stuck in that pen day in and day out, being takin� for walks like a dog isn�t helping. Let me try something else.�
�He�s too dangerous, you couldn�t take him alone, and I can�t spare half the team resuscitating him, much as I�d like to. The FoH have been rioting. They�re opening up three new internment camps across the world. Now, we have word that Apocalypse is on the move�� Maybe this summer, when things have calmed down-�
�We don�t have the time.� Gambit cut him off. �You know the longer he stays like this the less chance we have of getting him back. You know that. Let me see what I can do.�
�He�s dangerous.� Said Scott weakly.
�He won�t hurt me, he couldn�t, hasn�t got anymore coordination than a rabid dog. Cyclops,� Gambit looked at Scott with his dead eyes. �This is Logan. That don�t mean nothing to me anymore, but it has to mean something to you. You really gonna let him lie in his own filth because the FoH is kicking up dirt? Is that gonna be your excuse for watching him go like this?�
Scott hesitated, torn.
�Fine.� Said Gambit. �Then do him a favor. End it now.�
Scott paled. �What?�
�You heard me. Logan was your best friend. You�ve known him for most of your life. You know he would never want this. You know he would rather die than live the rest of his life in a cage. What you�re doing now, this is the worst thing he could imagine. At least give him the respect of a clean death. Don�t make him die eating his own shit.�
Rage rose up in Scott, startling him. It was a rare emotion for him, but right now he thought, he could kill the bloodless, inhuman thing in front of him. For the first time he really understood why Logan had fled the mansion seven months before, understood Logan�s hatred for the thing that Remy had become.
But mostly his anger was directed at the world, because he knew Gambit was right. Logan deserved better than to be locked in a cage. He certainly deserved more than to spend the rest of his life treated worse than a house pet, and Scott knew he really only had one choice.
�Alright.� He said. �You can take him. I�ll give you six months.�