Soon, the New Son returned from his exile and revealed that everyone had misspelled his name the whole time; it actually was New Sun. He brought Gambit to his own Earth, which was in ruins, and explained that, when they followed their prophecies of the Old Kingdom and the Diable Blanc, they unleashed a chain reaction that literally brought “heaven on Earth,“ as cascading energy waves caused it to burn like a new sun, killing everyone besides himself. The New Sun tried to remake time but failed, breaking through to other universes instead. He wanted to prevent the same from happening on any other Earth, finding many in ruins, always with the same outcome. Therefore, he had decided to kill Gambit before he would cause the same events on Earth. They fought at the site of the Old Kingdom and Gambit blasted his “twin“ full force, burning out his increased powers in the process. The statue of the King toppled, its spear stabbing New Sun and, as that alternate Earth evaporated, Courier pulled Gambit through one of Quiet Bill’s portals back to Earth. [Gambit (3rd series) #22, 24]

After the tragic death of Moira MacTaggert at the hands of Mystique, Gambit infiltrated the hospital she was held in, intending to kill her. Storm stopped him and, together, they learned from Mystique about Destiny’s mysterious diaries and the predictions they held. [Uncanny X-Men #389] Storm decided to take a team of X-Men away from the mansion to find the diaries. Among the X-Men, she wanted was Gambit, but Rogue begged him to stay. She was part of Storm’s team too, but her powers were out of control, making her a threat to everyone, and she couldn’t bear for him to get hurt. [X-Men (2nd series) #109]

After some of Storm’s group had already left the mansion, Bishop found himself plagued by nightmares about himself and Gambit fighting the X-Men, caused by a symbiont living beneath his skin. This entity, the Bete Noir, had power that rivaled the Phoenix Force itself and threatened to consume Bishop's body and unleash its evil upon the universe. Stryfe tried to hunt down Bishop for that power and Gambit, the only X-Man not under the villain’s thrall, took Bishop to his native New Orleans to meet his mysterious benefactor – the Witness, a man who could “remember” all potential futures. Bishop was puzzled to see the two men at the same time, as he still believed that the Witness was Gambit‘s future self. The ancient man called LeBeau neither denied nor confirmed that suspicion. At first, they tried to contain the energy build-up within Bishop with a modified version of Havok’s old costume but it was too late, as the entity was about to break out. An uncharacteristic self-sacrifice by the chaos-bringer, Stryfe, freed Bishop and the world from the threat of Bete Noir. Afterwards, neither man returned to Xavier’s mansion. [Gambit & Bishop #Alpha, 1-6]

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