FYI: This story falls along the early issues of Wolverine and the X-men and after the Dark Angel Saga in Uncanny X-Force. While the timelines are going to be similar to what they are in the comics, there, of course, will be changes to accommodate this story ;)

Chapter 2

A day later…

Kurt hung quietly from a pole projected out of the ceiling, arms crossed loosely over his chest. There had been no sleep to speak of the night/day before. What sort of sane person could sleep at a time like this anyway? Instead, he had taken the time to delve further into the alien technology of the room.

He found that it was technologically aware; reacting to many of his needs via request. He had made a few poles pop from the ceiling, the table from the floor and, though embarrassing to ask out loud, an enclosed toilet. No sink, just toilet…better than nothing nonetheless.

His request to let him outside to see the sunset wasn't part of its many functions, but it didn't hurt to ask.

The "dinner" the evening before had been the only meal they had given him and he had refused it. Now if it had been a bowl of grits and a piece of bread, he might have eaten it; but a fancy dinner like that, so soon, had a caution flag on it as big as Bobby's ego. A caution flag that, he was coming to find, might have been false advertising.

His body was slowly going into the pain stages of hunger and his head was pounding from lack of water. Though giving in went against his instincts and initial training, he would have to get something into his stomach soon if there was going to be any chance for him to escape or even last the next few days. Now, if only they would give it to him.

He remained hanging and waited, honestly, too tired to move. They surely wouldn't let him starve would they? They had "brought him back", so he must be valuable to them in some way. Or at least that's what he hoped.

He had barely realized the hum had started when he was yanked from his hold on the pole and launched down at the back wall; hands, feet and tail locking into place. Even with the possible concussion from the wall, he sighed in relief as Cerbera walked in carrying another tray of food. She looked the same today, but wore a crimson blouse instead of blue.

"Good day, Mr. Wagner," she said, still quite professional.

"Is it? I hadn't noticed," he said with a breathy groan, "And...it's Kurt."

She sat the tray down, "Very well, Kurt. I hope that you will eat this time. I can assure you that there is nothing nefarious mixed in."

"Hmph, and dat…is comforting…how?"

She bowed her head, "I will leave you now."

"Vait please, there is…something I must ask," surprisingly, she paused and looked back up.

Well, he had her attention…with nothing to say. The lack of food was messing with his brain and had suddenly left his mind blank. Just great…

He sighed in failure, "Never mind." He would definitely have to plan better next time. Eat, get your brain working properly then ask questions.

She raised an eyebrow and began to turn. In that short moment before he lost sight of her eyes, he noticed a quick change in her retina color from hazel to being ringed with light blue and everything suddenly stopped moving. Kurt recognized this instantly. He had been in something like this before, with Xavier, in one of his psi-links. Could she be a…

~ This conversation will only last a few milliseconds. They do not know I can converse with you this quickly, but you must keep everything short and not react afterwards ~

…Telepath?

~ Understood ~ he agreed, trying to get his fuzzy thoughts in line, ~ Vhy am I here? ~ He made sure to put his words in a tone to voice that he still didn't trust her.

~ Unfortunately, I am left in the dark in most cases and cannot give you much. Even so, I can say that they have extensive experiments they will perform with your abilities in many ways that have not been done with you before. I do not know what they plan on doing with the information they acquire, but you should not take anything that happens here lightly. ~

~ Did they do dis to y… ~

~ This is all I can give you now, Kurt. Follow their rules, learn as much as you can, stay alive and stay sane. ~ "Very well," she said as she let him out of their telepathic conversation and her eyes reverted to their original color.

"Till next time den, fraulein, and I'll be sure to stay near the vall so I don't break my back," he said, giving her as much of a smile as he could manage.

She returned with a quick smile from her eyes, bowed, then walked through the wall.

His bands separated and he landed on the ground. Managing to stumble/crawl to the table, he pulled the tray to the floor and began to ease his failing systems. He had to hold himself back from eating too fast though; so much food on an empty stomach could ultimately do more harm than good. He finished enough food to satiate his hunger and spent a good twenty minutes sipping on the full pitcher of water, then returned, this time, to a full perch at the top corner of the room to let everything settle.

Though his body would take at least a day to recover completely, his mind was already beginning to clear thanks to the liquids.

Experiments? New ways? Stay sane? The last one was already under question that was certain.

Whatever sort of comfort Cerbera had meant to give him, it was not having the desired effect. Life in this little white room was going to get exciting and clearly, not in a good way. But, he hoped that one positive had come out of this…he might have just found an ally.

Westchester, New York two days later…

Logan walked down the back lawn of the recently opened Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, crossing over the newly laid grass to a small, bordered garden under a wide willow. It had been Kitty's idea to put a memorial garden there for all the friends lost over the years. He was against it at first, saying that they were starting over and didn't need something like that. But, in truth, Logan was glad that she had been so adamant about it as he knelt by a particular marker.

He stuck a small fencing sword through the soil beside Kurt's stone, the metal reflecting the changing shadows through the leaves like a chromed mirror.

"Thought you'd like that, Elf," he said with his signature smirk.

His smile vanished as he remembered everything that had happened since his best friend was killed a year and a half ago.

Would things have been different with all of them if Kurt was still alive? Would the X-men have stayed together? Could one person really be that important for a team? Logan sighed and agreed with himself. If there was anyone that had some sort of chance to fix what had happened, it would have been Kurt. He was always the one who kept them all from tearing at each other's throats, like the only sane person in a group of super powered lunatics.

"Wish ya could see the school Kurt," he looked up the hill through the branches of the willow. The school seemed so quiet now compared to the usual craziness. Logan rolled his eyes and rubbed his brow in muted humor; he knew that wouldn't last long, "You'd probably just laugh at me."

Right on cue, an alarm blared across the lawn. At first, he thought it was another one of the kids blowing up something in the cafeteria, or maybe Hank testing another one of his "upgrades" for the school. Those always ended up closing down a Wing for at least a day. He rolled his eyes again and grumbled up the hill but stopped in his tracks when he saw Kitty and Rogue sprinting toward him, a look of panic across their faces.

He met them at the middle of the lawn, "What the hell's goin' on!?"

"Ce…rebra…" Rogue managed to get out through gasps, "Rachel…you've gotta get in there!"

He took off past them without a word.

They ran through the halls and down to the spherical chamber of Cerebra, where Rachel stood frozen in front of the screens. Though she managed to keep it from her face, she had the same look the other girls had in her eyes.

Hank had joined them through the halls and ran up next to Rachel, spectacles down on his nose.

"What has got you girls all worked up!? Who did it find?" he said, looking down at the information screen that held the results, "…this…this can't be right. We calibrated for…"

"What is God's name Hank!?" Logan yelled.

Hank looked up at Logan, more worry in his eyes than surprise, "It's…"

"It's Kurt…" Rachel said, "He's alive."

Logan's stomach jumped into his throat but he kept his body language calm, "It...it's gotta be some kind of malfunction. You sure it's not Darkholme's signal?"

Hank, already coming to that conclusion, was typing fast, "Absolutely, even though Darkholme has the same genetics, he has a very slight difference in his signal than Wagner because of his alternate dimension origin. I made sure to compensate for that variation. Wagner must have used his teleporting powers just long enough for Cerebra to pick it up." He typed some more, cross-checking the results over and over again, "Yes, it's identical to our Nightcrawler, Logan. It's him."

"Where?"

A short time earlier that day, location unknown…

The first surprise was the extreme growth of the room. It grew from a 20 x 20 cube to almost 100 x 100ft in about thirty seconds, complete with multiple pillared levels and a huge expanse of poles. He had jumped into a corner during the start of the change but now found himself at its center on a narrow pedestal about 30 feet off the ground.

The voice echoed throughout the chamber like a sports announcer, "For our first event of the day, we will test your agility and stamina under extreme conditions."

As the first time he had heard the voice in days, Kurt was far from impressed with its try at extreme conditions. He smiled wide, "Clearly you have never been in the Danger Room, mein freund."

Clearly…he had spoken too soon. The pedestal became electrified, giving him an unpleasant shock through his feet. He reacted instinctively, porting to the nearest pole.

~ Vait…I can teleport? When did dis… ~ ZAP!

He flipped to another pole, grabbing it with a hand and tail.

"Careful where you tread, Kurt. You may get burned."

He growled. Fine, if they were going to play it that way, "En guard."

The room reacted to his challenge, sending him flipping, twisting and porting all over the place, not allowing him to keep any form of contact with a solid for more than two seconds before being shocked.

He couldn't tell how long this "test" would last, or how long he had been going, until the shocks began to catch up with him. The full two days he had had to gain his strength back were definitely not enough for this kind of physical effort. He would miss a handhold and have to port to keep from smashing into the ground, only to flip onto an already electrified pole or platform. And to make matters worse, most of these ports were vertical, stealing more of what little energy he had than his normal horizontal jumps.

Completely winded, he did a final hand spring from one level, over an electrified pole to a lower level, but slipped in his footing and landed hard on the ground ten feet down. He laid there; muscles shaking from over exertion, lungs burning, hoping he hadn't broken anything from the fall, and prepared to take the electrocution that he was sure would come. Instead, he was met with the horribly cheerful tone of the room.

"Well done, Mr. Wagner," the voice said, "You have earned a desirable C-."

He didn't move, "I…vill be sure…to study up next time."

"See you this evening, then."

"Wunderbar…" he groaned as the room slowly reverted to its original size.

Translation - Wunderbar (wonderful)

For those of you not in the know, Kurt Darkholme is the Nightcrawler from the Age of Apocalypse universe. He opted to stay in the main Marvel Universe as a part of X-force.

Till next time...