The New and the Neo

Unlike Rogue who gained her position as leader through a rigorous test, Gambit seemed to slide into the role. Or, to put it more bluntly, no-one knows precisely how he got the position. His team consisted of Storm, Phoenix, Beast, and Cable. At this time he was also in charge of the Thieves' Guild.

Gambit's leadership seemed to begin in Venice when he sent jokers to the team as a signal to meet him there. When they arrived, however, they were ambushed by the Neo (a group of highly-evolved beings seeking revenge for the death of their leader). In defeating them, Jean tried to retrieve the memories that they had stolen from her. Unfortunately, she chose to link herself to a dying Neo in order to do so. The X-Men had to go into her mind to rescue her, where they confronted and defeated a psychic branch of the Neo, called the Lost Souls.

Finally, after they had saved Jean, Gambit revealed the reason he had summoned them with the cards: someone, who had done a favor for the New Orleans Thieves' Guild, had asked for quid pro quo and Remy needed their help to pay him back. The team consented with some reservations.

Trading Places

The person, who called in the favour Gambit owed, turned out to be Alexei Vazhin from the KGB. One of his agents had gone to investigate a new nightclub that had quickly gained an unsavoury reputation. She had never returned from the mission. His department specialized in research, so lacked the operational capacity to rescue her. He wanted Gambit - and, by extension, the X-Men, to infiltrate the nightclub. Reluctantly, the team agreed to support Gambit and infiltrated 'The Slash' in disguise.

As it turned out, its infamous reputation was well-founded. In addition to dancing, it served as the base of operations for an interdimensional, slaving cartel. As the X-Men attempted to free the agent, the slavers became aware of their presence and attacked them. The X-Men managed to defeat them, but most of them managed to escape by various means. However, they were able to capture one of the kingpins, a creature by the name of Tullamore Voge, and returned him to the KGB for interrogation.

Unfortunately for the team, Voge's troops, the Crimson Pirates and their Sea Dogs had gotten word of their patron's capture and attacked the KGB to rescue him. In the process, they managed to add the X-Men (with the exception of Jean and Beast) to their stock. They also took Archangel, Psylocke and Colossus prisoner from the other team. Realizing they were out of options, Gambit suggested that they pretend to become their allies in order to destroy them. In particularly, they helped them in a raid on Madriporian bluebloods. However, when Rogue and the remaining X-Men got word of their apparent betrayal from Beast and Jean, they sought them out in order to stop them. A massive fight ensued between the two teams, and, in particular, between Gambit and Rogue.

However, at the end of the day, the only loser was the Goth (who was in charge in of the whole cartel) who was killed when Rogue threw a charged card at him. He was already supersaturated with the energy he had absorbed from he other X-Men's attacks, and the excess caused him to explode.

Stepping Up and Stepping Down

After that arc, little of note happened in Gambit's personal life for a few months. Around him, however, huge events were unfolding. Senator Kelly was assassinated, sending shockwaves throughout the world. Moira died from a brutal attack by Mystique. Piotr sacrificed himself to activate her cure for the Legacy virus. And one of Destiny's diaries came to light.

Because of these events and because Destiny's diaries represented an irresistable chance to foresee and change them (ignoring the fact that it has always been said that what she sees is unchangable!), Storm proposed that she form a team to find them. After recruiting Rogue, Storm, Thunderbird, Psylocke and Bishop, she asked Gambit to join the team with them. However, it was Rogue who answered for him, saying that he should be left out of it. (For more details as to the why, check out part 22 of the RoGambit continuity!) Persuaded by her argument, Gambit agreed to stay behind.

Fortunately, however, this promise did not last for long, as he soon showed up in X-Treme X-Men...