NOTE: Everything in brackets is really in German. :)
Chapter Twenty-Five: Conference
The cottony clouds had faded from brilliant pink to dusky purple by the time the adult X-Men and their group of unexpected guests gathered into the conference room to discuss the strange, dangerous mission to come.
The Nightcrawler from Earth 723 crouched on a chair at the far end of the long conference table next to his wife Alice, with Rowena, Xavier, Hank, and Scott seated beside them. Rowena held out her scanner, recording the Wagners' statement while they tried to describe what they had seen during the difficult teleport from the park to the roof of the skyscraper where Kurt and Ororo had found them.
Twyla observed them silently from her place in the corner, determined to not to do or say anything that might prompt the adults to send her from the room to join the other students in the dining hall.
Before leaving Xavier's office, Kurt Darkholme had volunteered to track down the Nazi and the priest, and Wolverine had gone with him. Now, the small group of Kurt's doppelgangers sat at the far side of the table, watching each other rather warily. The Nazi kept reaching into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes that wasn't there, then snarling at Darkholme. The truly murderous looks that passed between the two every time their golden eyes met were starting to cause the Professor some concern.
"Wer sind diese Männer?" the shadowy Nightcrawler whispered to himself. His posture was tense and alert, his tail lashed warily, and his wide eyes were shockingly bright in his dark face. "Woher kamen sie?"*
Kurt looked up from his slouch against the wall, where he had been leaning with his arms folded over his chest as he watched Ororo with the Wagner children. Seeing them smiling together, hearing her laugh as Edmund tugged at her arm with his tail...the sweet little scene tore at Kurt's heart. It was almost a relief to turn away.
[Have you ever heard of alternate realities, my friend?] Kurt asked the dark young man, speaking in German.
The shadowy figure shook his head, his eyes and mouth glowing eerily as he spoke.
[No,] he said. [What does that mean? Are you saying that we are no longer on Earth?]
[Well, we are on Earth, but it is not the Earth that you know,] Kurt tried to explain. [This is an alternate Earth, just as I am an alternate version of you. My name is Kurt Wagner, and this is my world you've come to.]
The dark man stared, his tail trembling with disbelief as he took in the sight of the pale human before him.
[You...you are me?] he whispered, his voice hoarse. He shivered and shook his head, his golden eyes blazing.
[But...that is impossible!] he shouted, grabbing Kurt's pale hand and pressing his fuzzy, three-fingered hand against it, palm to palm. [You are normal! A human—a...a flat-scan! Why would God make you normal, but allow Weapon-X soldiers to do THIS to me?!]
He stepped back angrily, fiercely indicating the midnight fur that seemed to absorb light, his terrifying eyes, his glowing mouth, the lingering stench of brimstone that never seemed to leave him.
Kurt couldn't seem to find his voice. His throat had constricted, and his blue eyes stung with painful tears. He swallowed.
[I'm sorry,] he managed to say. [But, I wasn't always like this. I was born a mutant like you…and like them.]
He indicated the other Nightcrawlers at the table.
The shadowy man glared at him, fury and anguish darkening his fiery eyes.
Kurt lowered his head slightly, his heart aching with compassion.
"Please, everyone," Xavier's voice called out, breaking through the scattered conversations and causing all heads to turn to him. "If you would just take your seats then this meeting can begin."
Kurt held out a chair for his shadowy double, but the young man turned away from him, choosing a seat across the table, next to the priest. Kurt sighed, then took a seat between Ororo and Logan, his shoulders slumped and his hands folded carefully in his lap.
Marti looked over at him, her green eyes narrowed.
"Are you all right?" she asked in her London accent.
Ororo glanced at him in concern.
"I'm fine," Kurt assured them both. "This whole thing is just..." He sighed. "It's a lot to take all at once, you know?"
Suzie smirked.
"You can say that again."
Edmund nodded his agreement.
Ororo reached for Kurt's pale hand, pulling it over to her lap and squeezing it gently.
"You're certain you're all right," she asked, her blue eyes searching his.
"I am fine," he repeated. "But, some of these others..."
He trailed off with a small, sad shake of his head, rubbing the beads of his ever-present rosary between the fingers of his free hand as he turned his attention to the Professor.
Ororo regarded him for a moment longer, then turned her own focus to the meeting.
She didn't let go of his hand.
"...might be beneficial if we knew the circumstances leading to your arrival in this reality," the Professor was saying, directing his words to the alternate Nightcrawlers.
The priest, realizing the shadowy Nightcrawler wasn't following, took it upon himself to translate for the young man's benefit. The Professor paused long enough for him to finish, then continued.
"If there was some kind of common factor, something you all experienced, it might help us to track down this anomaly so we can identify it."
"So," the Nazi said, fiddling agitatedly with a pen. His tail couldn't seem to keep still, and his knee banged rhythmically against the table as he unconsciously shook his foot. "We won't simply be charging into subspace after all. That's something, anyway."
Suzie regarded him from across the table, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a wrinkled pack of gum.
"Want some?" she offered.
The Nazi looked surprised.
"I, ah..."
He raised his sunglasses slightly, then quickly snatched a stick, unwrapping it and folding it into his mouth with a sad kind of desperation.
"Danke," he said as he chewed; uncomfortable, but completely sincere.
"No problem," Suzie said with a slight smirk, shoving the gum back into her pocket. "If you need more, just ask."
"Kurt 816," Rowena said, causing all eyes to turn to the pale human.
Kurt straightened slightly in his chair.
"I believe it would probably be wise to start with you, and go from there. Could you describe the last time you teleported?" she asked. "Was there anything unusual about the experience, anything out of the ordinary?"
Kurt glanced over at Twyla, who had taken the seat across from him and now looked at him with wide, nervous eyes. He smiled gently at the glowing girl, letting her know he had told her the truth before: that he really didn't blame her for what had happened.
Twyla gratefully acknowledged the smile, but couldn't bring herself to relax.
"There was nothing unusual about initiating the teleport," Kurt told Rowena, who held up her scanner to record his words. "The problems came during the teleport. You see, I had gone in to get Twyla out of the path of an oncoming train. There was little time for introductions or explanations. For all the poor girl knew, I was a monster trying to kidnap her rather than to rescue her."
A slight murmur broke out among the gathered Nightcrawlers, and Twyla flushed furiously in agonized mortification.
Kurt shot her a sympathetic look as he went on.
"She naturally tried to defend herself against what she believed to be an attack, activating her powers just as I initiated the teleport. I became very weak and somehow we both came out of the teleport in that strange dimension – erm, subspace, as you called it. We were only there long enough for me to get a good grip on her, then I quickly teleported us both out of that awful place. It was much harder that time because I felt so weak, but we made it without any problems. Admittedly, I don't know what this anomaly looks like, but neither of us saw anything unusual while we were there. It was just blackness: dark clouds and black flames."
Twyla nodded in confirmation.
Rowena narrowed her eyes at the dark-skinned girl.
"How long have you been glowing like that, Twyla?" she asked.
"Ever since I...um..." She gestured weakly to Kurt. "Did that to him. Dr. McCoy says it could be due to some sort of secondary mutation."
"That is correct," Hank said. "It's possible that the energy she absorbed in subspace caused this reaction, hastening the onset of a secondary mutation that would have occurred naturally in adulthood."
"Hmmm." Rowena tapped at her scanner's keypad. "This is very interesting," she said, turning her intense, brown eyes to Twyla.
Twyla shivered slightly.
"Miss Todd," Rowena said, "were you aware that you have no alternates in any other reality?"
Twyla blinked.
"What?"
"It's true," Rowena confirmed, poking at her keypad again. "This does happen from time to time – that the circumstances for an individual's birth only exist on one world – but as you can imagine, it is extremely rare."
"What does it mean for Twyla?" Kurt asked anxiously.
"Nothing, really," Rowena said. "But it does mean that I can't check the Otherworld Historical Database to find out if Dr. McCoy's hypothesis is correct or not. There are no records of any older alternates to compare her condition to." She turned to Hank with a slight smile. "I'll just have to bow to your expertise on this one," she said.
Hank returned her smile with a small nod.
"So," she went on, turning her attention to the gathered Nightcrawlers. "Kurt Darkholme. You were the first to arrive in this dimension. Could you describe your experience for us, please?"
Darkholme leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his armored chest.
"I was on my way to see my mother," he said, his tone curt and gruff enough to match Wolverine on a bad day. "I was aboard a submarine with a group of American refugees. We were running out of air. I waited for the sub to reach the surface, then teleported out, hoping to find a way to help. The effects of oxygen deprivation made teleporting difficult, but there was nothing unusual about the experience. Except, of course, that instead of materializing on top of the sub, I ended up in a dark room: a large space I heard that man," he pointed to the human Kurt, "call the Danger Room. I have been here now for over a day."
"Is your mother Grandmother Raven?" Edmund asked curiously.
"Her name is Raven Darkholme, yes," Darkholme said, glaring down at the boy. "But she is not your grandmother."
Professor Xavier couldn't hold in a sharp gasp.
Kurt turned to him, his blue eyes wide with startled confusion.
"Was?" he asked. "Who is this Raven Darkholme? Do you know her, Herr Professor?"
"Her code name is Mystique, if that rings any bells for you," Darkholme offered.
"Mystique!" Kurt gasped, his alarmed shout echoed by both Ororo and Logan. "Nein! I mean— No! She can't be! There is no way! We met briefly, but she hardly even looked at me... If she had been...wouldn't she have...? Ach, Gott!"
Kurt buried his face in his pale hands, his shoulders shaking as he struggled to control his emotions.
Darkholme smirked darkly and shook his head.
"While I was growing up, my dear mother often told me how close she'd come to abandoning me after I was born," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised to find she did exactly that in one or more of these alternate realities."
Excalibur's leader grunted, and raised his hand.
"Right here," he said. "Although, to be fair, she did try to contact me when I was a teenager."
Kurt looked up at Rowena, his blue eyes rimmed with red and his pale face drawn.
"Is it true?" he asked. "Is Mystique my real mother?"
Rowena nodded.
Kurt turned his wide eyes to the Professor.
"Did you know about this?" he demanded.
Xavier shook his head, his mouth opening and closing a few times before he answered.
"No, Kurt," he said at last. "I knew nothing about your natural parents. But I do know that Jean suspected this. That night before the events at Alkali Lake, when they caught you listening in on their conversation from that tree..."
Kurt flushed slightly.
"...Jean caught a flash of...something...from Mystique, something painful, like a memory she had consciously suppressed. This worried her, and I know it was on her mind before she left the jet to hold back the waters of Alkali Lake. I was planning to ask her about it...but I never had the chance."
He lowered his head in grief, strengthening his mental shields in an attempt to block out the waves of anguish emanating from Scott's direction. Scott's expression, however, remained stoic and emotionless behind his visor, despite his inner pain.
Logan shifted in his seat, casting a glance over to Ororo, who still held Kurt's hand. His gaze softened despite himself. Apparently, that trip to New York had finally done the trick. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying hard not to think of Jeannie, then he shook his head with a deep sigh. Not everyone was immortal, after all.
Kurt nodded, consciously working to calm himself.
"Well," he said with an attempt at a smile, "I always have wondered who my real mother was. Until now, I had believed that she was dead. To find out that she is alive, to finally know who she is... I—I should... I should be..."
His throat was too tight to let him continue; he felt he was choking on his own words. He trailed off, pressing his forehead against his palm and squeezing his curls tightly between his fingers as he fought to swallow the painful lump in his throat.
"It's all right, Kurt," Excalibur's leader said softly, his golden eyes glowing softly with sympathy. "It's not easy finding out that your mother is...well...a coldblooded criminal. There's no kinder way to say it. But, it was her choice to live the way she does and to act with such brutality and indifference. You bear no responsibility for her crimes."
He leaned forward, folding his hands on the table.
"Believe me, Kurt," he said. "I've tried living with her guilt. It doesn't help anything, and it will never bring you closer to her." He sat back with a humorless smile. "Just some friendly advice from someone who's been there."
Kurt sighed.
"I'll try to keep that in mind," he said. "Danke, mein Freund."
He took in a deep breath, then looked up at Rowena.
"So, who's next?"
"I've already taken the statement of the Nightcrawler from Earth 723, so now it's over to you," she said, pointing to the Nazi.
The brightly uniformed Nightcrawler chewed thoughtfully at his gum for a few moments, then said, "I can't recall anything unusual at all."
"Would you care to qualify that statement?" Rowena asked.
"Not particularly," the Nazi replied lazily, absently checking the state of his fingernails.
Rowena glared at him.
He lifted a wry eyebrow over his shades.
"Honestly," he said in his clipped, precise accent. "There was nothing strange. I had been sitting in a tree watching this pathetic little would-be assassin mill around der Fuhrer's pathetic little garden party for some twenty minutes, doing absolutely nothing more than tremble and stare. I decided to give the fool a good scare, just to get things moving, so I teleported. Only, instead of popping in on the chair next to him, I found myself in your kitchen, Herr Xavier. I suppose now it's up to my teammates to spot the assassin before he spikes the punch, or whatever dastardly deed he was planning to perpetrate. Just another day in the glorious life of the elite Lightening Squad, ja?"
He smirked.
"To tell you the truth, though," he admitted, "finding myself once again in an alternate reality has pretty much made my year. Things have been so dull lately. Once I realized what had happened, I spent a lovely afternoon wandering about this lovely mansion. That is, until I was found by Mama's Boy over there."
He gestured with his thumb to Darkholme.
Darkholme seemed to expand in his armor, his golden eyes flashing as he bared his fangs.
"Just try it, mein Freund," the Nazi snarled in return, running his thick fingers over the hilt of his sword. "I'll teach you the penalty for teleporting my cigarettes into a tree."
Xavier's eyes widened. So, that's how Darkholme had stopped his smoking...
"Keep it up, you Nazi Schleim," Darkholme growled, "and I'll 'port your greasy head in next to them, sunglasses and all."
Logan shot Kurt a wicked grin.
"I'd pay good money to see that," he said. "Never would 'a guessed you had it in ya, Elf."
"I don't," Kurt retorted, embarrassed and concerned at the way his doubles seemed so eager to get at each other's throats. The open hatred in their golden eyes reminded him of his own violent outburst in the Danger Room, and he didn't like it. "They do."
"Yeah, but they're still you, essentially," Logan pointed out. "They just grew up in a different environment."
Kurt looked over at the snarling Nazi and shuddered.
"I don't want to know what kind of environment could have made me turn out like that."
"That Darkholme guy seems pretty tough, though, eh?" Logan observed. "Guess that's what comes from bein' raised by Mystique."
He spat the name out like a curse.
Kurt raised an eyebrow, though he found himself relieved to realize Logan didn't hold Darkholme's parentage against him.
"We will now turn to Kurt 615," Rowena announced, forcing the conversation back on track. "Since you've been translating for him all along," she said to the priest, "would you mind continuing for the benefit of those here who don't understand German?"
"It would be my pleasure, my dear," the priest assured her, and smiled.
Rowena smiled back.
"Good," she said. "Please ask him how he came here."
The group waited while the priest asked the shadowy young Nightcrawler the question, then while the young man answered.
"Because I was born a monster," the priest translated, "I was stolen from my family and experimented on. I was fourteen years old when Weapon-X took me. I don't know how old I am now. They accelerated my growth, they altered my appearance and my powers, they tried to force me to kill. Only one mutant had ever escaped from them. He was called the Wolverine."
Logan straightened, his interest perked.
The priest went on.
"I knew I would probably be shot down, I knew that even if I did escape, my family would probably be terrified of what I had become at the hands of those evil men. But, if the Wolverine could do it, it had to be possible. So I tried it, but it wasn't long before the soldiers found me. They started shooting, but I saw a snowmobile in the distance. I was teleporting over to it, but instead of landing on the snowmobile, I ended up here."
Logan grinned approvingly at the shadowy young man.
"Good for you, kid," he said. "I bet you'd 'a made it, too."
The priest translated, and Nightcrawler's dark face lit up like a sunrise.
"Dankeschon, Herr Wolverine!" he exclaimed.
He turned to the priest, speaking rapidly. The priest smiled, then nodded.
"He says he is certain that he would have made it, because he had your example to inspire him. The knowledge that escape was possible helped him keep his hope in that dreadful place."
Logan looked impressed.
"Hey, Kurt," he grunted under his breath, nudging the human in the arm. "How'd ya say 'you're welcome'?"
"Bitteschon," Kurt told him, and smiled.
Logan nodded, then turned to the younger Nightcrawler, looking him straight in the glowing, yellow eyes.
"Bitteschon, mein Freund," he said. "Even though it wasn't really me," he added, just loud enough for Kurt to hear.
"Yes," Kurt acknowledged, "but he's still you essentially, ja? He just grew up in a different environment."
Ororo stifled a smile.
Logan would have glared, but the sight of the shadowy young Nightcrawler's beaming face put a stop to that. He couldn't help wondering how long it had been since the kid had last smiled like that.
"And now I suppose it is my turn at last," the priest said, looking around the table. "Like the others, I experienced nothing unusual when I initiated the teleport. I had been tracked down by one of Ahab's hounds; a dear girl I had known many years ago, when she was just a child."
He lowered his head, his golden eyes tight with anger and sadness.
"Her face had been scarred, she wore a spiked collar around her neck..." He shuddered. "Poor child...she had been completely brainwashed by her tyrannical government. She was threatening me, stalling until her loathsome master could arrive. I abhor violence as a rule, but I had to make sure my friend Pietro had time to get the orphaned mutants we were protecting to safety. I was planning to teleport in behind her, to knock her out as painlessly as possible then make my escape, but I ended up on the roof of this mansion instead."
Rowena tapped at her scanner's keypad, then frowned.
"I have plugged in the paths which, based on your accounts, you all must have taken through subspace, but the only point at which they converge is this mansion. It seems we're just going to have to go in and see what we find once we're there."
"I believe we should keep this party small," Xavier suggested. "This anomaly is extremely powerful, and I want to keep the risk to a minimum."
Rowena nodded.
"I agree," she said. "I will need Kurt 723 as a guide, since he was the only teleporter here who has actually seen this anomaly. Because of the difficulty he enountered combating the pull of this force, I believe two other teleporters should accompany us – just in case the energy disturbance interferes with my portal once we're inside. Based on my observations, I believe Kurt Darkholme and Marta Wagner would be the best choices, as they have the strongest teleporting abilities and most developed sense of spatial awareness."
"Wait one moment," Alice exclaimed, rising from her chair. "It's one thing bringing Kurt in there, but Marti—"
"I understand your concern, Mrs. Wagner," Rowena interrupted her, "but of all these teleporters, only Darkholme and Marta have shown that they are able to teleport without adverse consequences, despite the effects of the anomaly."
"She means puking and nosebleeds," Suzie translated for Edmund's benefit.
"I want to go, Mum," Marti said. "I want to help out. Usually, I'm stuck in the control room or something while you and Dad and everyone go out on missions. I'll only be there as back up, anyway, isn't that right, Historian? I most likely won't even need to teleport."
"In a best case scenario, you would be absolutely right," Rowena said.
"'Best case scenario'?" Alice repeated. "No. No! I don't like this."
"Dad!" Marti started, but she stopped when her father raised a hand.
"I don't know if I like this either," he stated. "But, Rowena is right, Alice. Besides," he pointed out, "with the imminent collapse of the multiverse getting closer every second, even sitting still is risky. I think Marti should be allowed to come. In any event, I will be there with her."
Alice scowled for a moment, then sighed, slumping her shoulders slightly.
"Well, when you put it like that..." she said.
Her husband smiled, striding over to her and kissing her soundly on the cheek.
"I'll make certain no harm comes to either of us while we're away, OK?"
"You'd better," Alice retorted, "because if you two come back dead, I'll kill you."
Kurt almost laughed, nuzzling his nose against her dark hair.
"Now who's the one with the corny lines, Lieb?"
He smiled, his golden eyes warm.
"We will be all right," he assured her, his tone serious this time.
As Kurt and Alice embraced, Twyla rose from her chair and walked over to Xavier.
"Professor," she said…a little shakier than she would have liked. "I—"
"No, Twyla," he said, answering her question before she'd even voiced it.
"But Professor, I can't help feeling that all of this is my fault! I messed up Mr. Wagner's teleport. What if that had something to do with this energy thing being able to make its way into subspace?"
Xavier shook his head.
"Twyla, the first time you entered that dimension it triggered a secondary mutation. I don't want you to risk exposure again."
"The damage is already done, though, isn't it?" she asked, turning to Hank. "What difference can it make if I go again?"
Hank shook his head.
"There's no way of knowing, Twyla," he said. "So little is known about what causes secondary mutations..." He sighed. "Basically a second exposure could accelerate the progress of your mutation, have no effect at all…or, it could kill you."
Twyla looked like she was about to object, but Rowena cut her off before she could open her mouth.
"Kurt 723, Darkholme, and Marta," Rowena called out, "please follow me to the lawn. I don't want to risk opening a portal into what is essentially an expanding black hole in this enclosed space."
"A wise course of action," Hank said.
"I don't know about the rest of you," the Nazi said, striding over to the door after the chosen four, "but I want to see this."
"Me too," Suzie added.
The Nazi seemed decidedly fidgety as he looked down at Suzie.
"Erm, Kind," he said, "I was wondering if—"
"Yeah, you can have another piece of gum," she said, reaching into her pocket. "Just don't call me 'Kind', OK? I'm not a little child, and my name is Suzie."
"My mistake, Fraulein Suzie."
The gaunt Nightcrawler smiled, taking a second piece of gum from her pack and shoving it hastily into his mouth, his tail lashing like the pendulum of an overwound clock.
Suzie shook her head.
"You must smoke at least ten packs a day, huh," she said. "Bet you drink, too."
The Nazi scowled at her, then turned away, his leg jittering irritably.
Suzie snorted, then turned her attention back to Xavier.
"Well?" she prompted. "Can we watch?"
"We will watch from the foyer window," Xavier told her, though his eyes were fixed sharply on Twyla, "but we will not go outside. Is that understood?"
Twyla scowled, but Suzie and Edmund chorused, "Yes, Grandpa Charles."
Xavier raised an amused eyebrow.
"You know," he said as he wheeled past Kurt and Ororo, "I rather like the sound of that. Don't you?"
Kurt and Ororo stared at each other, flushing deeply.
Logan struggled to keep up his gruff demeanor.
"C'mon, you two," he said, "let's get movin'. If you wait too long to join the others, the teasin' will only get worse."
While the X-Men and the alternate Nightcrawlers gathered around the bay window in the foyer, Twyla Todd snuck quietly down the hall toward the side entrance. Unseen and unsuspected, she slipped from the mansion and hurried to the front lawn, arriving just in time to see Rowena open her portal.
A strong wind instantly grew up around the small group as the anomaly sucked in static electricity, electromagnetic energy, and heat energy from the air. It whipped their hair around their faces as they stepped through the bright, circular portal: first Darkholme, then Kurt and Marta, and finally Rowena.
Twyla ran from the cover of the bushes, reaching the portal just as Rowena's ponytail faded into the near-blinding light. Without stopping to think or even to draw a deep breath, she dove inside.
The portal closed behind her with a loud, crackling SHAZZP, sealing her and her four companions in the mysterious dimension known as subspace.
To Be Continued...
*Translation: Who are these men? Where did they come from?
References Include: Age of Apocalypse: X-Calibre, Issue #2; Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2; Excalibur: Heartbreaker, Issue #35.