Remy Etienne LeBeauGambit

A master of kinetic energy, Remy LeBeau starts out as a thief and foe to the X-Men but becomes a reliable ally to the merry mutants.

An Ace Up His Sleeve

Gambit is allegedly a product of Black Womb, a black-ops government-funded project involved in the investigation and initiation of human mutation using recently acquired advanced extraterrestrial technology, under the guidance of geneticist Nathan Milbury (Nathan Essex, AKA Mister Sinister), Amanda Mueller and others. It is believed that Black Womb’s experimentation upon a couple produces, either in their son or grandson, a mutant infant with burning red eyes whom they abandon in a New Orleans hospital. Believing the child to be le diable blanc (“the white devil”), the one prophesied to restore the Old Kingdom, Thieves’ Guild patriarch Jean-Luc LeBeau follows the instructions of the Guild’s prophet, the Antiquary, and kidnaps the infant from the hospital, placing him in the care of a gang of street thieves led by expatriate Guild member Fagan who raises the child (now named Remy) and teaches him the ways of thievery. 

When Remy is around 8 years old, Remy seeks to save a young girl from being accosted by a group of thugs; however, the girl turns out to be Bella Donna Boudreaux, daughter of the Assassins Guild’s patriarch and trained since birth in the killing arts. Remy and Bella Donna become best friends and eventually fall in love. When he’s around 10 years old, Remy tries to pickpocket Jean-Luc, who takes the boy in off the streets and adopts him into his own family. Remy’s mutant nature manifests at puberty, though he keeps it secret.

At age 15, Remy accompanies his cousin and best friend Etienne Marceaux on his “Tilling,” the ritual initiation test of the Thieves’ Guild; however, they are captured by the immortal mutant Candra and sells them to the deformed mutant slave trader the Pig, who plans to sell them and others to Hydra to train as soldiers. Remy escapes imprisonment and discovers his trademark move when he picks up a playing card that Etienne had dropped, charges it with energy and throws it at the Pig. Fleeing the Pig’s clifftop headquarters by diving into the sea, Remy was rescued by a passing trawler, but Etienne drowns.

When nearly 18 years old, Remy travels to Paris with his adoptive brother Henri to undergo a tract of passage into the Guild by stealing the valuable pendant named l’Etroile du Tricherie (“the Cheating Star”) from Canadian financier Martin Herzog; however, Genevieve Darcenaux had already stolen the pendant, and Herzog had hired the mercenary Victor Creed, AKA Sabretooth, to retrieve it. After Gambit successfully seduces Genevieve and takes the jewel, Sabretooth captures both Genevieve and Henri. Forcing Gambit to return the jewel, Sabretooth drops them both from the Notre Dame cathedral. Gambit chooses to save Henri, learning too late that Genevieve truly loved him and would have given him the pendant. Subsequently, as part of a peace pact between the Thieves Guild and the Assassins Guild, a marriage is arranged between Remy and Bella Donna; however, Bella Donna’s brother Julien objects to the union and challenges Remy to a duel. Remy kills Julien in self-defense, but the Guild excommunicates Remy from the Guild and banishes him from New Orleans in an attempt to maintain the nonaggression pact between the two guilds.

Calling Card

Via direct physical contact, Gambit can transform the potential energy (stored energy and the energy of position—gravitational energy) contained within an inorganic object, converting it into kinetic (energy of motion) energy; specifically, this is biokinetic energy, kinetic energy generated by living beings. Once he has energized an object, Gambit can mentally cause it to explode with concussive force after a set time limit, though he usually allows such an object to detonate upon impact. By charging an object and keeping it close to his forehead, he can create a static interference that shields his mind from telepathic detection and intrusion by even the most powerful telepaths. Gambit cannot use this power to charge organic objects.

Gambit subconsciously taps into the potential energy surrounding him and channels that energy into himself, giving him near-superhuman agility and dexterity. At their peak, his powers form an ambient biokinetic aura around his entire body. He also possesses a hypnotic charm granting him subtle influence over most sentient minds, compelling others to believe what he says and agree with anything he suggests. More powerful minds, however, can resist his charm.

When Gambit’s powers were enhanced to their maximum potential, he could charge any object within his vicinity, including organic objects, without the need to physically touch it. Gambit could also manipulate the potency of an object’s energy release, utilize stored kinetic energy to travel through time, and heal himself by tapping into his body’s own kinetic energy. Following his climactic battle with the New Sun, Gambit lost this enhanced level of power.

As the Horseman Death, Gambit's hair was turned chalk white and his skin became an onyx black color. Gambit could manipulate the potential energy of objects within his vicinity and convert the materials into toxic substances, such as transforming oxygen into poisonous gas. Once converted, he could effectively project the gas at a range of up to 15 feet. Although he could project it beyond 15 feet, the gas gradually dissipated and lost its effectiveness.

Gambit is fluent in English and French, and can also throw small objects—including knives, throwing spikes and playing cards—with extraordinary accuracy. He is an extremely talented thief, adept at lockpicking and sleight of hand. He is an experienced combatant, utilizing both street fighting techniques and acrobatics, and he is highly skilled in the martial arts of bojutsu (staff technique) and savate (French kick-boxing).

Gambit’s high-impact, lightweight, modularly aligned body armor is composed of high carbon, titanium steel alloy meshing. A layer of freon gel constantly pumps through the armor’s lining to mask his body's thermal signature. The suit’s utility belt houses weaponry and devices such as ionized ferrous dust (which masks his presence on video cameras), talcum powder (used to view infrared beams), a mini-laser torch (used to cut glass), lockpicks and other devices. His trench coat is made of a synthetic stretch fabric lined with Kevlar and a woven silica fiber cloth (Beta cloth) to provide protection against ballistic penetration up to .45 caliber as well as effective insulation against fire with a melting point of 650 °C. 

Gambit often carries a few decks of playing cards upon his person, usually in a leather satchel or utility belt. He regularly wields a telescoping steel-alloy battle-staff (extending up to 10 ft in length) that can be broken down into two short clubs, which are strapped on each thigh. On occasion, Gambit has charged his staff and allowed it to discharge explosively against someone, yet the staff is not destroyed in the process as most of his charged objects usually are; the composition of his staff that allows this process is unrevealed.

Bad Hand

Gambit first allies with Mister Sinister, helping him gather core members of his private army, the Marauders. Though he realizes Sinister’s goals included genocide against the Morlock community, so he abandons their criminal ways, joining the X-Men instead.

En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse, transforms Gambit into his Horsemen of Death but a fellow Horseman, Shiro Yoshida, AKA Sunfire, helped free Gambit of Apocalypse’s brainwashing. Though Gambit suffers from the re-emergence of his Death persona.

When Gambit’s Earth-9921 counterpart, the New Sun, attempts to assassinate him, he burns through his enhanced powers to defeat his alternate reality self. 

Alongside the X-Men, Gambit faces many fearsome foes, including Amahl Farouk, AKA Shadow King, Sebastian Shaw, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and dissenting Thieves’ and Assassins Guild members.

Full Dance Card

Originally, Gambit allies with Mister Sinister, but the Ragin’ Cajun ultimately leaves him as he can’t condone his actions. For a time, he inherits his father’s role as patriarch of the Thieves’ Guild and merges it with the Assassin’s Guild, which becomes known as the Unified Guild.

Remy befriends X-Man Ororo Munroe, AKA Storm, while she has amnesia and he helps her recover her memories and advance her thieving skills she originally developed on the streets of Cairo. He then aids Storm and the X-Men against the insane psionic entity, the Shadow King. Storm recommends him to the X-Men and he joins them despite being a natural loner. X-Man James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, doesn’t trust him right away, but they eventually find common ground in their natures and checkered pasts. Though he keeps his colorful past with the Marauders hidden from them for some time, he becomes a loyal and trusted teammate.

He even finds a compelling reason to stay on the team: Anna Marie, AKA Rogue. Their chemistry is undeniable though his secrecy about his past and Rogue’s inability to touch anyone without stealing their memories and life force leads to an on- and off-again relationship. Over the years, overcoming their obstacles and his secrets, their relationship culminates in marriage and they form a formidable super-powered duo.

House of Cards

Remy wandered the world as he plied his skills as a master thief, aided by his mutant power. When his powers flared out of control, Remy approached Mister Sinister for help. Sinister removed some of Remy’s brain tissue to reduce his power levels, thus affording him control. Now indebted to Sinister, Gambit undertook several missions for him but soon wanted to leave his service. Sinister charged Remy with one last mission—assembling the Marauders—for which Remy received his excised brain tissue as a symbolic payment. When Sinister had the Marauders massacre the underground Morlock community, a horrified Remy tried to stop them but was almost killed by the Marauder Sabretooth. Despite this, Remy saved one young Morlock girl named Sarah.

Eventually, Remy encountered the X-Man Storm, who had been transformed into an amnesiac child and had turned to theft. Remy helped her escape her enemy, the malevolent psionic entity Shadow King, and they became thieving partners. After an encounter with the villainous Nanny restored Storm’s memories, Remy helped her locate the missing X-Men. Storm then sponsored Remy’s membership in that group, and he quickly became a valued team member. 

Remy soon became interested in his teammate, Rogue, who absorbed the thoughts and abilities of others through skin-on-skin contact. The pair began dating, but their relationship became troubled after Bella Donna sought Gambit’s help to defuse a war between the Guilds. Rogue was stunned to learn that Bella was Gambit’s wife, but still joined her teammates in uncovering a Brood plot to conquer the world by controlling the Guilds’ children. Accompanied by Rogue, Remy later returned to New Orleans to help save Bella’s life by obtaining the Elixir of Life from Candra. Bella was saved, though her memories were gone after accidental contact with Rogue. When Bella later sought revenge on Rogue, Remy came to Rogue’s aid even though it meant opposing Bella. 

When David Haller, AKA Legion, changed events in Earth-616’s past diverging an alternate timeline, Rogue kissed Remy before the temporal wave struck. After the Earth-616 timeline was restored, Rogue left Remy in a coma to follow up on a memory she had absorbed from him. When Remy awoke from his coma, he realized Rogue had absorbed his memory of his deal with Sinister, and he set off after her. Although she remained unaware of the truth, Rogue ultimately left both Remy and the X-Men. She later returned with Joseph, secretly a clone of Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, whom Remy quickly came to dislike. After aiding the interstellar Shi’ar Empire against the threat of the techno-organic alien Phalanx, Remy was captured and brought before a mock trial held by the true Magneto, then posing as Erik the Red. When the truth of his role in the Morlock massacre was revealed, Remy was summarily cast out of the X-Men and abandoned in Antarctica. Starving, Remy made his way back into Magneto’s citadel where he encountered the psionic essence of dead mutant Mary Purcell. The wraith-like Mary bonded with him, allowing him to survive until he reached the Savage Land, a hidden jungle nestled in the icy wasteland. There, Remy struck a deal with the enigmatic New Sun. In exchange for passage back to America, Remy agreed to run errands for him.

On returning home, Remy encountered the X-Men again when he tried to steal the fabled Crimson Gem of Cyttorak for his new employer. He agreed to rejoin the team, mainly for his self-respect and for his love for Rogue; however, Mary began to threaten Remy and his friends if he didn’t agree to stay with her forever. When the X-Men finally found out about Mary, the wraith fled with Remy to her old hometown, where she tried to force him to merge with her and become a new type of hybrid life form. While Remy struggled with her, Rogue charged in with a containment unit, which ultimately dispersed Mary. The full effects of this ordeal are not yet known, as Mary had been subtly manipulating Gambit’s body and increasing his powers to ever-higher levels.

Later, during a trip back in time, Remy’s powers were restored to their maximum potential by Sinister and he used them to return to the present. Soon after his return, Remy served for a time as patriarch of the Thieves’ Guild in his father’s stead, as well as leading one of two X-Men teams. Gambit was also responsible for merging the Thieves’ and Assassins Guilds into the Unified Guild, of which he served briefly as patriarch.

Meanwhile, the New Sun organized an assassination game for a cadre of super-powered mercenaries with Remy as the target. The attempt failed, and Remy learned that the New Sun was actually his Earth-9921 counterpart. In his own reality, the New Sun’s kinetic-charging powers had flared out of control, burning the world and killing everyone but himself. As a result, the New Sun hunted down and killed his counterparts in other realities so they would not repeat his mistakes. During their final battle, Remy burned through his enhanced powers to defeat the New Sun, ending that threat and returning Gambit’s powers to their normal level.

Mutant businessman Sebastian Shaw later framed Remy for the death of Australian crime lord Viceroy. Aided by Rogue, her X-Men teammates, and former Triad member Paul Hark, AKA Red Lotus, Gambit cleared his name. Soon after, Remy helped the X-Men oppose alien warlord Khan’s attempted invasion of Earth. The invaders captured Gambit and used him to power a portal that would bring their full invasion fleet to Earth. Trying to rescue Remy, Rogue ended up trapped with him. The X-Men’s enemy, the enhanced human Vargas, then halted the process by plunging his sword through Rogue’s back and into Remy’s chest. Remy survived, but found that he and Rogue had lost their mutant abilities. The pair sought to live a normal life together and retired from the X-Men.

“Normal life” ended when the couple became embroiled in the X-Men’s fight against mutant predator Elias Bogan. After Bogan’s defeat, the X-Man Sage reactivated Remy’s mutant powers and he rejoined the team. Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, re-assigned him onto Alex Summers, AKA Havok’s X-Men squad, and Remy accompanied them to China to investigate a mutant manifestation, whereupon they clashed with the Eight Immortals. One of Remy’s charged cards blew up in his face during that fight, blinding him. As he recuperated, Remy seemingly developed the ability to foretell the future as he learned of an impending attack on the Institute by Bennet du Paris, AKA Exodus’ Brotherhood of Mutants. With the young telepathic mutant student Mindee of the Stepford Cuckoos acting as his eyes, Remy helped repel the assault. 

Later, Remy encountered Bella once more when her new boyfriend Donyell Taylor, AKA Bandit, sought to usurp control of the Guilds. Aided by Detective Noreen Tanaka, who had sworn a vendetta against Remy, Bandit sought to kill Gambit; however, he was ultimately forced to ally with Remy and Bella against rebellious Guild members.

After the return of Apocalypse, Remy sought to infiltrate the eternal mutant’s ranks by offering himself willingly to become a Horseman; however, Remy was unaware that Apocalypse’s transformation procedure would also brainwash him, and he emerged as the newest Horseman Death. Alongside fellow new Horsemen War (Gazer), Famine (Sunfire) and Pestilence (Lorna Dane, AKA Polaris), Remy attacked the X-Men, but when Sunfire broke free of Apocalypse’s control he fled, taking Gambit with him. Sunfire then freed Remy from his Horseman conditioning by using his flame powers, and the pair returned to the Institute to do the same for Polaris but left empty handed. Subsequently, Sinister recruited Gambit and Sunfire into a new incarnation of the Marauders. Sinister also reversed Apocalypse’s alterations, restoring Remy’s original appearance and powers.

Foreseeing the birth of a mutant child who would shape the future of mutantkind, Sinister had the Marauders slay precognitive mutants around the globe in an attempt to blind the X-Men to the event, then set the Marauders against the mutant heroes; during this conflict, Rogue was struck down by her estranged foster mother Raven Darkhölme, AKA Mystique, one of Gambit’s fellow Marauders, and captured. In the end, mutant cyborg hero Nathan Summers, AKA Cable, escaped into the timestream with the child, and Mystique apparently slew Sinister. Remy sought to stay with a recovered Rogue, but she sought solitude and departed, leaving Remy alone.

After learning that the New Orleans Assassin’s Guild had accepted a contract from Black Womb’s Amanda Mueller to kill Sebastian Shaw, Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut, Carter Ryking, and Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, Gambit followed and helped save Xavier’s life. Attacked again by the assassins, Remy was saved by Shaw’s arrival, though too late to prevent Xavier’s capture. Following him to the abandoned Almagordo research facility, Gambit and Shaw sought to prevent Mueller from engineering Sinister’s rebirth.

Gambit soon aided Rogue on a mission, and when Xavier helped her control her powers, she and Remy shared a passionate kiss—the physical contact with Rogue not harming him. Though Rogue struggled with romantic feelings for Magneto and later Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch. Gambit soon became embroiled in a conflict with the Dark Avengers, led by Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, which led to the creation of a mutant nation of Utopia on Asteroid M. Gambit sought to join the mutants there but his fellow X-Men weren’t ready to accept him after his actions and relationship with the Marauders was revealed. He stayed despite the friction. When Gambit came into contact with a telepath, his Death persona came out and ensnared the telepath in a playing card. Gambit returned to normal and fled.  

When Rogue was taken captive by the power-siphoning Marius St. Croix, AKA Emplate, in an attempt to rescue Roxanne Washington, AKA Bling!, Gambit argued with Cyclops over the mission and the argument triggered his Death persona to re-emerge. Rogue’s connection to the Stepford Cuckoos allowed her to sense the persona underneath and begged him to ask for help from the Professor or Emma Frost. Though he still struggled with this persona, he noticed that Laura Kinney, AKA X-23, was dealing with her own struggle and he sought to help her, landing them in hot water with Claudine Renko, AKA Miss Sinister, and a deadly battle against ruthless pirates. 

When Cyclops and Wolverine divided over their ideals for the X-Men, two two teams formed under each; the former in Utopia and the latter in Westchester at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Gambit joined the staff under Wolverine. Though he was close to Rogue at this time, she avoided him. He ended up growing close with Joanna Cargill, AKA Frenzy, and they shared a casual relationship.

Gambit soon returned to his lawless tendencies and stole an ancient artifact from millionaire vulture capitalist Borya Cich. The artifact burrowed itself into his chest and attempts to remove it with help from his friend Fence failed. He soon encountered the captivating femme fatale and fellow thief, Joelle, who offered him a way to get the artifact out, but the key was in a temple in Guatemala. There, they found the second relic, which caused the artifact to voluntarily leave his chest. The pair of artifacts opened a portal to another dimension, unleashing a monstrous, empowered god. Gambit defeated the monster but lost the artifacts and Joelle fled, but not before she kissed him. He returned home to come face-to-face with Cich and his armed thugs who demanded recompense. Gambit would have to work off the debt by testing teleporting devices. But Cich instead tortured Gambit until British agent Pete Wisdom from MI13 came to his rescue and helped Gambit get back home. Later, Wisdom asked Gambit to help him hunt down Death Reaper who sought access to the magical realm of Avalon in Otherworld. Meanwhile, Gambit was removed from his role as Guild leader, on account of his time with the X-Men, and the Unified Guild dissolved, with the Assassin’s Guild and the Thieves’ Guild separated once more.

After saving a research group from Herbert Wyndham, AKA High Evolutionary, and refusing hero status, Gambit soon encountered the mysterious Joelle again who had dealings with Lonnie Lincoln, AKA Tombstone. She claimed to need a cure for her daughter. Gambit helped her secure the cure but he and Joelle were surprised by Rogue’s intervention, who was tracking Gambit’s activities. Joelle vanished, while Gambit and Rogue were left to fight Tombstone and his men. They soon learned the cure was a weapon, and in tracking Joelle, they learned that she was simply seeking to end her life as she no longer aged and had lost her daughter to time. She used the “cure” and died in peace.

When Fence was left for dead by Tombstone, Gambit stole technology from Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, and despite being pursued by Stark’s ally James Rhodes, AKA War Machine, Gambit escaped with what he needed. War Machine followed and seeing that Fence was dying, ended up helping instead of taking Gambit into custody.

Gambit soon sought the thief of the bell from the New York Stock Exchange but received a recorded message asking him to choose between his life as a hero and as a thief. He chose to be a thief and gets knocked out by friend and business partner Fence, only to find himself imprisoned by his own adoptive father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, and the Cardinals of the Thieves’ Guild. His father informed him that Gambit was a candidate to take control of the Thieves’ Guild as its new leader. As a final test, Gambit must retrieve a ring belonging to another candidate, Nil, but in doing so ends up in a trap and ends up at the mercy of Borya Cich in a penitentiary. He was soon assisted by Wisdom and Rogue with the Avengers, and Gambit overpowered Cich’s superhuman inmates and allies. He was invited to join the Avengers but refused on account of needing redemption, and rejoined the X-Men, but secretly joined the Guild as its leader.

Wolverine soon discovered that Gambit hadn’t given up his thieving ways and confronted him about it. Lorna Dane, AKA Polaris, invited him to join X-Factor on behalf of Serval Industries and President Harrison Snow, and against his suspicions, he joined up. During this time, Gambit ended up having an affair with Snow’s wife.

Gambit ultimately returned to the X-Men and joined Rogue in couples’ therapy where they were able to experience each other’s perspectives thanks to Charmaine Grand’s abilities. When the wedding of Kate Pryde and Piotr Rasputin, AKA Colossus, derailed, Gambit proposed to Rogue and she said yes. They were married soon afterward. They spent their honeymoon in space and encountered Xandra from the Shi’ar Empire, who was in the form of an egg. As soon as she emerged, she imitated Rogue and explained how she could alter her appearance as she was the engineered daughter of Professor X and Empress Lilandra Neramani. They were soon attacked by the Imperial Guard and Cal’syee Neramani, AKA Deathbird, so Xandra made everyone think she and Rogue perished. When their pursuers were gone, Xandra and Rogue appeared, though Rogue’s powers started evolving. Cerise took responsibility for the young Xandra, while Gambit and Rogue returned to Earth.

Gambit and Rogue were soon kidnapped into the Mojoverse and forced to play out Mojo’s stories. However, when each scenario ended with Rogue killing Gambit, Mojo sent in the enslaved Rita Wayword, AKA Spiral, to investigate the reason for Rogue’s malfunctioning powers. But Spiral instead freed Gambit and sent him to retrieve a mysterious item hidden in Mojoworld while Rogue took a trip through painful memories to confront the root of her power problem: fear. Rogue soon joined Gamit and Spiral in facing off against Mojo’s forces, only for Mojo to arrive. The trio fought Mojo while Spiral asked Gambit to hold up his end of the bargain and deliver the item, which he thought was a baby but in fact wasn’t and part of Spiral’s soul. Rogue siphoned Spiral’s powers and with Gambit’s power of kinetic energy, the pair defeated Mojo, and Spiral sent them home. 

They newlyweds had a moment to themselves but Rogue soon got a call for help from Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, and jumped into action. Remy’s father had arrived and demanded he come home to New Orleans with him to address the unrest among the Thieves’ Guild over Gambit’s position as King of Thieves. To quell the rebellion quietly, Gambit secretly traveled to New Orleans, only to face opposition from an alliance of the Thieves’ and Assassins Guilds led by his ex-wife Bella Donna and recently resurrected Candra. Gambit was soon joined by his wife Rogue who was there to rescue them, but it went awry and they both ended up in power-dampening collars. Candra offered Gambit a choice, to sacrifice Rogue and remain King of both guilds or Bella Donna and receive permanent exile from his family, the guilds and New Orleans. She gave him an hour to think it over, but Gambit was one step ahead, having stowed a metal ball inside his body. Accessing it, he stored it in his mouth until the time was right. While chained up and asked what his decision would be, Gambit offered Candra himself and his power as sacrifice but then charged up the hidden object and spat it at his captors, causing an explosion that freed him. Rogue freed herself and they fought off their captors, and Gambit made it known to both guilds that he was their king and they best follow.

When Krakoa was established as a sovereign island nation-state, many mutants including Gambit and Rogue, joined their fellow mutants to live there in peace. But when Apocalypse declared his intentions to harness mutant magic, his experimentation left Rogue in a floral coma. Gambit joined Betsy Braddock, AKA Captain Britain, on her new team of Excalibur alongside Jubilation Lee, AKA Jubilee, Apocalypse, and Shipla Khatri, AKA Trinary, to access Otherworld and save Betsy’s brother Brian from Morgan le Fay, while Apocalypse stayed behind to safeguard Rogue in a protective coffin. Gambit suspected Apocalypse’s “playing nice” routine was just that and asked a telepathic friend to check on her, and give her a nudge. Apocalypse lashed out at him for interfering, but suddenly Rogue awoke and upon seeing her love on the ground, she attacked Apocalypse, draining him of his life force, which culminated in the completion of a magic ritual to access Otherworld through a Krakoan gate. Reunited with Rogue, Gambit and team Excalibur ventured into Otherworld and fought Morgan’s forces. Betsy fought Morgan’s champion, a possessed Brian, and won by killing him. But thanks to a resurrected Apocalypse, he placed Besty’s other brother, Jamie, to the throne of Otherworld whose powers of reality warping brought Brian back to life. Celebrating, Gambit and Rogue had some alone time where they spoke of kids. Now that Rogue had control of her powers, she expressed that she didn’t want them and Gambit was perfectly content with her choice.

Soon, Gambit discovered a gem and started carrying it around but couldn’t explain what it was. It contained Candra’s life force, which she had hidden away from Apocalypse who was after ancient mutant bones to create a permanent gate to the Starlight Citadel in Otherworld. Gambit started seeing an astral version of Candra, lied to Rogue about it, as Candra begged Gambit to protect her from Apocalypse. But as soon as the Citadel’s leader and Omniversal Majestrix Saturnyne saw the gem, she demanded it. Betsy heard a call from Excalibur member Julio Richter, AKA Rictor, who was on the other side of the gate and notified her telepathically of what the gem contained. Betsy ordered Gambit to throw it into the Krakoan gate. Doing so completed Apocalypse’s ritual, establishing a more permanent gate in the Citadel.

With Excalibur, Gambit faces more mysterious and magical mutant affairs, from facing the nefarious Coven Akkaba, determined to unseat Captain Britain and losing their leader to the cosmos for a time, to a war in Otherworld. Gambit and Excalibur soon faced an alliance between the anti-mutant Coven Akkaba, Morgan le Fay, Merlyn and King Arthur who were attempting to expel mutants from Otherworld. Arthur’s army conquered the Starlight Citadel and Excalibur soon faced the might of the evil alliance attempting to wrest control of Otherworld. Gambit fought the forces alongside his teammates and they were able to survive with the help of the multiversal Captain Britain Corps. But the battle for the Citadel was lost to the mutant-hating despot Merlyn and his allies. His reach expanded to the UK and the gates to Krakoa were now closed. Gambit was recruited into the Knights of X, a roundtable of nine mutant Knights, to quest for the Holy Grail of mutantkind, the Siege Perilous. But they received a distress call from Mad Jim Jaspers that the Crooked Market was under attack. Gambit led part of the team to rescue him while Betsy led a team to Sevalith to pursue the Siege Perilous. While attempting to save Mad Jim, Merlyn intervened and Gambit unleashed a little bit of the Starlight Citadel’s magic upon him in the form of a Death card, but it backfired and he seemingly perished in the process. Though he was found transformed into a castle of cards and brought back by Besty and Rachel Summers, AKA Askani. When restored, Rogue greeted him by welcoming him back in her loving arms. Gambit was the final piece to help unlock the Siege Perilous—a door to Krakoa where mutants waited to help defeat Merlyn’s anti-mutant hordes. The combined mutant force finally defeated their enemies.

When Rogue’s adoptive mother Irene Adler, AKA Destiny, tasked her with finding teleporting mutant Eden Fesi, AKA Manifold, due to his essential role in mutantkind’s survival. Gambit joined her, and in tracking him down, they discovered he was investigating the Power Broker, who was selling mind-controlled superhumans to the highest bidder. Gambit’s questionable morality during the mission put Rogue off but they had bigger fish to fry when Power Broker’s forces implanted a mind-control chip in Rogue. Gambit attempted a rescue, which led to a fight between the power couple. When things looked dire for Gambit, he reminded Rogue of who she was and it helped her regain control. They left the Power Broker to suffer the consequences of his actions at the hands of those he manipulated.

During Krakoa’s Hellfire Gala, the mutant-hating organization Orchis led by Nimrod assaulted mutantkind. Orchis targeted X-Men Team candidates and successfully killed telepath Jean Grey and all human witnesses in attendance to frame the mutants for the massacre. The event left surviving mutants scattered, including Gambit. He soon joined Madelyne Pryor’s team of Dark X-Men to seek out and protect mutant refugees. Though their home base, the Limbo Embassy, was attacked by Orchis, who used Earth-91240’s Goblin Queen (an alternate universe demonic version of Madelyne) and her Bamf Dragon to ambush the embassy. Gambit helped the Dark X-Men fend off the attackers while Madelyne defeated her devilish doppelgänger. Gambit reunited with Rogue in the Morlock Tunnels beneath the embassy’s halls, and believed Madelyne would come with Hell’s cavalry in a time of need.