(For more detailed information on the trial proper, read the section in the Gambit History)
To all intents and purposes, the Trial of Gambit was a kangaroo court with the sole goal of dividing the team. Staged by Magneto in the guise of Erik the Red, it revealed Gambit's role in the Morlock Massacre; how he had assembled the Marauders and assisted them in finding the Morlocks. Any defense Gambit attempted to make was quashed immediately, although it did emerge when Rogue was forced to kiss him that he had no idea of what his work for Sinister really involved and was sickened when he discovered that it involved murder. This kiss became more significant than merely a manner of discovering the truth; it also became the means by which Gambit was judged, or judged himself, after the Trial:
GAMBIT: Rogue... I... thanks for believin' in me. I promise what I was ain't what I am now.
ROGUE: Who said Ah believe you, Remy?
GAMBIT: Rogue?
ROGUE: Ah jus' said Ah wouldn't let ya die in there. Out here, it's up t'you whether you live or die. Ah don't care anymore.
GAMBIT: Rogue! I don't care if you leave me here, chere, but you have to understand --
ROGUE: You think Ah can understand you? You think wrong, mistuh.
GAMBIT: Fine, then. I've earned your hatred. But at least get me somewhere that'll give me a chance ta get back home.
ROGUE: Home? You ain't got no home, sugah. Not with me... not with the X-Men. Fend for yourself. You seem to have done a good job of that in the past.
GAMBIT: But... I love you.
ROGUE: You're honest with the people you love, Gambit. Otherwise... it's a gamble.
The ironic echo of Seattle was clear here - the only two times that Gambit has directly told Rogue that
he loved her have been when he was about to lose her - as was the echo of his own fears and doubts:
her hating him and him losing his home with the X-Men. Clearly, then, when Magneto forced Rogue to kiss
Gambit, she absorbed more than his memories from the Morlock Massacre and was acting under the control
of his self-loathing when she left him behind. The degree to which she was influenced is disputable,
but later issues do, in fact, reveal that she returned repeatedly almost as soon as his mind had finished
influencing her own. Nonetheless, the knowledge of this did not lessen her sense of guilt and his sense
of abandonment after Antarctica.