DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES

by Glaivester

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.

Summary: PG-13. Fourth in the "Essex Plan" series. Kurt has been captured by his father, the Red Skull. The X-Men must rescue him and stop the Red Skull's plans to launch a genocidal virus on the world.

A/N: This story will focus mostly on the Apocalypse/Red Skull and Kurt/Red Skull storyline ("/" is not intended to indicate a pairing); the other strands will be reserved for future stories. Pairings in this story will include: Juggitty and Tabremy. ~ is used to indicate telepathic communication.

Chapter 1 Foreshadowing

Friday late afternoon (in Switzerland, mid-morning back in Bayville), after Thanksgiving:

Kurt woke up groggy. He could hardly remember the events of the previous day. He noticed that he was in a large, four poster bed with one of those canopies over it. He actually felt quite comfortable. He then noticed that he was wearing an old-fashioned nightgown and cap on his head.

He tried to teleport to the dresser drawer he could spy on the other side of the room, but he was unable to do so. He also noticed that he felt weaker than normal. It was as if all of his mutant powers that were not entirely physical were turned off.

He then felt the collar around his neck. He remembered watching as Beast and Professor X had worked on Wanda's necklace, and how they eventually called in Forge to help them, and then finally handed the project completely over to him. It had taken a week, but he had managed to take it apart and to put it back together so as to get the bugs out. And so Wanda's powers could be suppressed so as to allow her to sort through her emotional problems without causing massive destruction. This collar, Kurt felt, was probably the same thing, albeit less stylized or hidden.

He looked at himself in the mirror. The collar was yellow with glowing red in front. From the corner of his eye he could see Valkyrie walk in.

She looked sort of strange, to say the least. A seven-foot-tall strapping blonde, she wore steel armor fashioned something like a one-piece bathing suit, but a modest one, not cut in the revealing V-shape like that purple-haired English supermodel Kurt had heard of . She had a helmet like that of Asterix the Gaul, with wings on it. She carried a sword, a battleaxe, a fixed mace, and a chain mace on her belt. She also wore knee-high fur-trimmed rough leather boots.

"Here is your food," she plopped down a bunch of ethnic German food on a tray. "Eat, and your father will see you shortly."

Kurt remembered now, his attempt to save his mother, only to be captured himself.

Back at the X-Mansion, Nick Fury was examining the X-Men's latest - er - acquisition. She was lying on her back, unconscious in the infirmary, her right shoulder bandaged and healing. Scott, Charles, and Hank were there with him.

"So her name is?"

"Apparently," said Scott, here on Thanksgiving break, "her name is Lyssa Summers. At least according to the ID she carries. We have known her as Slayer. She is, apparently, a clone of me with the X chromosome doubled and..."

"I know how to make a female clone from a male," interrupted Fury. "Remember X23?"

"Okay, well, she's also been enhanced, apparently. I'm not certain, but I believe that it was the change of sex which altered the color of the eye beams."

"Emerald quartz instead of ruby," stated Fury matter-of-factly. "So her beams are green?"

"Yes," said Scott.

"So what do you plan to do with her?"

Charles spoke this time. "Let her stay here and try to teach her how to be an X-Man. Perhaps she can learn something other than death, destruction, and the desire to control everyone else's lives."

"No can do... she's much, much, too dangerous and knows too much about Sinister for us to let her out of our sight. As soon as she recovers from her wounds, we will take her to our facility. And if Dr. McCoy can prepare any relevant research notes on mutants, we would like to have him do so. I would like for him to come too."

"Why?" asked Hank.

"Because, you know a great deal about the genetics of mutation, and are by far the most intelligent biochemist that we have access to."

"What about Mr. Richards?"

"Reed is smart, but he is much better at physics and non-biological chemistry. And you have been specifically researching the X-gene. We wish to discover how Sinister enhanced her, and to see what we can deduce about Sinister's methods and abilities."

In Sinister's base inside the pyramid in Egypt, Apocalypse was making plans. Big plans. He had already arranged for the Red Skull to activate the pyramid in the Shansi province of China. Well, technically, the Red Skull's henchman Pocket would do so. But once activated, the pyramid would call the now-active Eye to bring another of Apocalypse's transport vessels out of subspace and to use it to complete the activation. He would need to reassure Sinister that the Red Skull had done this on his own, and that it had nothing to do with him, and that he did not have any access to the pyramid. Then he would be safe until the third dome was set up, at which point he would have his body cleared of the virus and be able to overthrow this young upstart Sinister once and for all.

Or, in the meantime, he could just let the Red Skull use the technology of the pyramid to enhance his own plans. Even if Apocalypse could not get free from Sinister any time soon, he would be able to help the Red Skull to bring all of Sinister's plans to naught by using the Nazi as an agent of chaos. A good, all-out nuclear war would destroy Sinister's plans of a carefully controlled and manipulated war and allow the best warriors to be selected by fate.

That was the difference between them. Sinister was a deist. He believed that God had abandoned the universe, and that we had to make fate ourselves. Apocalypse did not exactly believe in a personal God, but he believed in something active and out there. Apocalypse believed that whatever forces had shaped the world would also bring about paradise if humankind were simply to set things in motion and let fate do the rest.

"Well, well," said Sinister, walking in. "I have finally been able to decide on a date to begin. Two weeks from today."

"Pardon?" asked Apocalypse.

"The first target will be Northern Ireland. An attack there will restart the Irish-English conflict, and each side will want to have mutants to defend against another such attack. So I will send Pestilence [A/N Hairbag] to attack a Protestant community."

"And you are telling me because?"

"I need to brag to someone who does not agree entirely with me. Merith is too much like me for me to get any satisfaction over her praise."

"Like father, like daughter?"

"Indeed. And I will also get War [A/N Ruckus] to attack Dublin. You see, there is a mutant there with a similar power to his. Sean Cassidy. I want him for my menagerie."

"And in Northern Ireland?"

"The British government will ask for help enhancing their agents, the Braddock twins."

"You have much faith in yourself, Nathan."

"It's the only faith to have, Nur. The only faith to have."