After the X-Men crashlanded on earth, they found themselves in a cave in Antarctica, where two bounty hunters by the names of Spat and Grovel were pursuing Gambit to fulfill a contract. Remy realised that the past from which he had been running had finally caught up with him, and he seemed prepared to accept whatever punishment would be meted out for his crimes. However, before they could return him to their boss, the majority of them were intercepted and captured by Nanny - Magneto's evil, little robot who he had created to take care of the X-Men while they were incapacitated (as told in Uncanny X-Men #112-113).
While Joseph, whom Nanny mistook for Magneto, was seperated from the rest and Beast and Tish eluded her clutches, the couple and the two bounty hunters were chained in a cavern. Naturally, their powers were neutralised, although the device seemed to have a bizarre effect, if convenient in terms of the plot, on Rogue, who suddenly started being controlled by people she had absorbed in the past. As a result, she was beginning to piece together the residual memories from the time she absorbed Gambit in Israel and beginning to be very disturbed by the picture they were making:
ROGUE: The memories Ah have floatin' in my head. They're yours... The ones Ah picked up from the time we kissed. Ah can see it your eyes.
GAMBIT: Yes.
ROGUE: Please, Remy... Tell me what they mean. Tell what was so horrible... so terrible... that you buried so deep in your mind that even Ah can't deal with it in my own. Not for me. For you.
GAMBIT: You want t'do something for me, chere?
ROGUE: Anything.
GAMBIT: Den please, don't ask me. Even though you got no reason to, Rogue... Trust me. Just this once. Trust me, and I promise dat de moment I can make things right again, I'll move heaven and earth t'do it. . . One more thing, chere. With your powers negated, it means this may be our one night.
ROGUE: Our first. Our last.
The last statement (or, more baldly, whether they had sex in the cave) has been the cause of much controversy and debate among fans. On one side, people argue that Rogue has real problems with physical intimacy to the extent that she has probably not gained control over her powers as a form of self-protection; that Gambit would never be that crude when it came to sleeping with one of the few women he loved; that neither of them are stupid or thoughtless enough to make love while captive (especially without birth-control). On the other, people say that the textual evidence is there - what else could be meant by "our one night", or "fully express their love for each other" (in UXM #349)? - that Gambit knew that his secret would come to break them apart and he was trying to hold onto what he had left; that Rogue would have leapt at any chance to touch him. As stated, it is a contentious issue and has yet to be resolved to anyone's satisfaction. Nonetheless, no matter to what extent they did "express their love", it was not enough to keep them together when the truth about Gambit's past was revealed in a mockery of a trial.