Quick note: It's actually a scene from episode 10 of my X-Men: Revolution, but it works as a stand-alone and I really wanted to post this. All I'm saying is that if you're interested in learning more about what happened before and after or just following Kurt on his journey - it's there for you to read!
"What was life like for you, Kurt? Tell me your story" Mystique looked at the boy sitting on the other side of her desk at Bayville High.
"I always knew that my parents weren't, well, my actual parents. They never tried to hide that from me, but I always felt like a part of this family and I knew they love me no matter what. And I loved them too. They were wonderful to me, made me who I am. But outside the home I learned that people fear me, even feel disgusted. Whenever they saw me, they chased me, tried to kill me, burn me... they yelled I was a demon, a freak... that I must be killed. They referred to me by 'it'. 'It must be killed', 'What is it?', "Look at its tail'. I was even captured and held captive for a Freak Show... kept in a cage, 'like all the other animals'" he quoted bitterly, his eyes focused rather on the edge of her desk than anywhere near his mother. "Until I came to Xavier's institute I had no one beside my parents. And up until that point I always wondered who were the people who chose to get rid of me so early on. I didn't hate you" after these last words, he took a moment to let them sink in silence as he wetted his lips. "I just felt sad for you."
In fact, all he felt here, sitting in front of her on that chair, in the private yet cold reality of her office, was just sad. All the other emotions were barely there. So in the ocean of sadness he wanted to let one more, bitterly intimate conclusion, be out there for her to know;
"...As much as I tried not to blame you for leaving me... I can't stop wishing you'd go differently about it, because ever since I found out you just sent me down a river for them to find, I felt- I felt rejected. And I really didn't need to feel rejected by my own birth mother on top of being rejected by everyone else."
For a moment, silence lingered, only students in the hall were audible behind the locked, semi-soundproof door. The woman's eyes weren't so cold and unwavered anymore.
Eventually, Kurt's voice broke the silence again; "You wanted to hear my story... This is it. Now tell me yours."
"First of all" she started at last. "I didn't just randomly sent you down a river. I took time to find the right family. I watched you swim down in that basket, ready to jump to your rescue if it flipped or got stuck. I watched them after they fished you out to make sure they would take care of you and not- not fuck up like me" she finished with a grimace. Then her eyes met his again. "So don't say I gave your life up to random chance. I cared for you more than you realize."
"Then why did you give me up in the first place?" Kurt's brows slightly narrowed, but he couldn't bring himself to sound judgmental. He just wanted to hear an honest answer for once.
For a moment she was gazing at him, and he could hear her slow breaths as she, perhaps, sought the guts to say what she said next; "Because i knew you would never have a good life beside me."
Kurt slightly shifted at those words.
"I would screw up as a mother same as I screwed up with Rogue. Maybe even more, because when I was giving you up to those people, I knew that what I'm about to do would make you feel far worse than knowing you were abandoned. Giving you up was the only way I knew to give you at least a chance on life."
Wagner inhaled deeply, his breath shook a bit. "How... how did you end up pregnant with me in the first place?"
The woman's eyes closed, like she knew the question would come, and the memories it brought up were heavy. "At the time..." she took a breath, "I was married to a man named Christian Wagner. He was by no means a love of my life, but he was kind and wealthy. I wanted to have a child with him, but he was fertile. Then, during of his business banquets I met this man, tall and handsome, we spent days together, and I... fell in love" the way she said that made her look disappointed with her past self, annoyed even. "Before I knew it, I knew he were a mutant, he knew I was one too, and I was pregnant. And as soon as he found out, he was gone."
"He left you because you got pregnant?" Kurt asked in a low voice.
"Turns out this bastard only waited for me to get pregnant. It was his plan all along, because for some sick reason he wanted to have as many children as he could. I met quite a few of them. And I learned all the women he chose to bear them, looked no less like a mutant than myself. You'd think he wouldn't be like that. He was not one bit more normal looking but it turns out it was still some sick fetish of his."
Kurt's mind involuntarily brought up the memory of his relationship with Amanda, of her odd mutant fetish and his naive blindness towards it, just because he didn't want it to be true. Funny how stories can sometimes run in the family.
"Anyway" she shifted, resting her back against the chair. Kurt lifted his eyes to her again. "Since my husband was fertile and I was pregnant, he asked for fatherhood tests. I knew if he finds out it's not his child I would be kicked out and lose the privilege of living in the mansion where everything's served to me on a golden plate. I wanted this luxury, not only for myself but also for the baby on the way. I was almost seven months pregnant at that point, and I just- got rid of Christian."
Kurt didn't need to ask her to specify the means. He felt cold shiver go down his spine and suddenly he didn't want to be in this office anymore. He didn't want to be around this woman anymore, more than before.
But he made himself stay. He needed this story to come together at last, to find his closure.
She continued after a moment of his silence; "I pretended to be a devastated widow for the last month before delivering you."
"And when the day came, you were exposed, huh?" that was the version he was familiar with as the most possible scenario.
"Me? No" she lifted her eyebrow ever so slightly questioning his idea. "It wasn't easy to keep up the disguise during labor, but I managed-"
"So it was me" Kurt closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "When they saw me they thought I was some demon and you ran away with me."
She kept watching him with the same questioning look, like he was lunatic. What she said next made Kurt shift back in confusion;
"People who helped me with delivery thought you were an angel."
"What?" he asked and then almost felt like laughing it off, for how ridiculously inaccurate it was. "Usually I hear the opposite. Why would they think that?"
She leaned in, and there was a glint in her eyes as if she realized that she's dropping a big bomb, and almost hesitates. "When you were born you didn't look the way you do now."
It didn't register. It just didn't register. Kurt stared at her.
"You look like every newborn baby, until you opened your eyes and everyone saw they were gold, like halos. One woman even gasped saying 'God, it's an angel'."
Seconds were ticking and it still didn't register. Kurt only managed to whisper faintly; "What?"
The woman shifted back, sitting straighter in her chair. "You wanted the truth. This is it. My metamorphic abilities actually managed to deactivate majority of your father's evolved genes. You would likely still be that way, if they didn't ask to test if Christian was your father within first month and then Magneto didn't come all charming and ready to help..." she then looked away as if she couldn't say the last to his face. "It was him who reactivated your father's genes."
And then it suddenly registered.
Kurt abruptly got up, off the chair like a bolt making the woman shift. His eyes wide open and head shaking slightly in numb disbelief, he found it hard to breathe. "It has to be some kind of joke... You are trying to trick me..."
"Trick you? Into what, how would me telling you this benefit me? You already know Magneto experimented on you, all I did now was to tell you what he did-"
*BAMF*
And so she was left staring into empty space of her office, where her son just was. Her mouth closed, jaw clenched in displeasure. She got up, crossing her arms as she looked out the window. "I'm not about to sugarcoat or wrap it in ribbons. But I can imagine how it fucked up your life" she whispered to the glass. "I grew up being different too. You, I at least wanted to have a family."
And she just wished she'd said that to his face.
Edit: To the angry person who I can't respond to because they left the review anonymously - where in this story do I even mention any OC of mine, leave alone force it down anyone's throat? Also there was barely a brief, one-sentence mention of Amanda and served no other purpose but to just point out that Kurt related because both her and Azazel apparently bought sought after visually unique individuals, and it's a common theme in many fan stories because no one seems to take much liking to her in the X-Men: Evolution canon.
Usually I wouldn't respond to any reviews and take criticism for what it is, but this one just made me go WTF, where did it come from?
