He held the form against him as Storm drove as fast as she could back towards the mansion. He was desperate. He could only hold her tight and wish and hope he could push his life into her. He heard her shallow breath, could feel her erratic pulse. He dared not 'port with her. He ran when they got to mansion. He laid her delicately on a life-support, and hurriedly flipped switches, not noticing when the intruder alarms went off at his un-authorized appearance.
The professor came, fast. "I've heard the abbreviated of what happened to her. I think she'll make it if we get the support on fast enough."
Kurt nodded, but even when the support maxed and regulated her breathing and pulse, he refused to leave. His tail was twined about his legs nervously and he bit his lips until blood came. He sighed when the machine took her off critical.
"She just kept up…" he whispered, remembering the bright shine of her love. She had only been saving him. That was her life-debt. And she loved the X-men because they had accepted her. No. She couldn't. That wasn't Diane. His glowing eyes were bright as he watched her recovering. The life-support was doing wonders on her deplenished power and energy. He stared at the glowing screen, but didn't see it. He didn't hear the professor come up behind him.
"She loves you." he said softly, confirming Kurt's hard to believe thoughts.
"Well, of course, she loves all the X-men…" he stared, then trailed off. "Yes." He sighed. "I have known it since…since you made the rapport…" he blushed, remembering that the strong bond that had taken a lot of the Professor's power was now gone.
"You love her too. Is that wrong?"
"N-no."
"If you are worrying about the rapport, I will give you another."
"Diane needs it. Thank you."
"This is how you know you love her. You think of her first." the professor reprimanded softly. "That is similar to always thinking of yourself. You always need to think of everyone, whether you'd rather think about yourself, or someone else."
Kurt blinked, nodded, then smiled slightly. "She really does, you know."
"Yes, but Diane is learning that she isn't alone even without the mental connection. She is learning that you always had one. Right from the moment she gave you her life-debt. It is more subtle than a direct rapport, but it is there."
"Thank you Herr Professor. I'm almost glad it's out."
"You are the settling type. Diane is too. But I must ask…" The professor didn't want any married couples in the X-men. This was because if one died, the other…Nightcrawler nodded, understanding. He didn't want to settle either. He didn't want to hurt Diane or himself, and a married X-man could do just that.
"I'm also glad you keep me from asking her." He said softly, "Because I can't trust myself not to. Or her to say no." Then he 'ported to his room for some well-needed rest.
Diane was awake now. She didn't need to ask herself where she was. She could smell the slight brimstone. She was back in her room. Now she opened her eyes just a crack. No. She was in Kurt's room. He was sleeping next to her. She sighed. He now knew some of her secrets, and she winced. He'd certainly try and talk to her about them. That was something that she wouldn't do. She felt the ringing silence in her mind, and winced again. She missed him. Then her eyes widened. How had he been in her mind if there was no connection? She blinked a few times, and grumbled something in Celtic. She didn't understand, not at all. Nor did she really care. The X-men were alive. That's what she cared about. That's what she needed. Then she looked at Kurt. He was asleep, relaxed, and he had a contented look on his face. Diane didn't try and hide it from herself anymore. She loved him, more than the other X-men. It had been in the back of her mind since she'd given the life-debt but she'd pushed it out. Now she rolled closer to him and curled up against him, trying to absorb his content, but all she got was warmth, both of the spirit and of the flesh. She closed her eyes and drifted off again. She was still exhausted.
Kurt's eyes opened slowly. He felt Diane curled against him, and smiled. She had not been snuggled when he'd fallen asleep, but he had no complaints. She must have been cold. Her hair, which she had not tied back as she usually did to sleep, was everywhere. It smelled nice. He buried his face in it and sighed. He put an arm around her, and felt her burrow closer. He sighed again. She must have admitted it to herself, he thought, otherwise she would never had snuggled against me on her own will. Diane. He sighed a third time. She was soft, he contemplated, her skin, her hair, her…lips. Then he brushed his lips on her forehead and got up, where she curled in the warm spot where he'd been lying.
"Get better leibling." he murmured as he went out for breakfast.
The rest of the X-men were happy to see at least one of their missing number was awake. He got hugs and thanks and questions. What had happened? They had all been overcome. How was Diane? What had she done? Was Eternal dead? Jean's body had been reburied. Did that mean someone else could raise her again?
Nightcrawler only held up his hands and said, "I didn't do anything. All I knew was that Diane woke me up and stuffed me inside her head. I don't know if Eternal is dead. Knowing the evil things we have so often 'killed', she isn't. Dead, I mean." Their questions answered for the most part, this breakfast was like they had been before Eternal. It was filled with light, laughter, and friendship.
Everyone looked up as Diane came in. She was wearing a bright green tube top and tight fitting jeans with metallic thread that flared around her ankles. She had her hair up in a tight braid that played around her ankles. Her bright blue eyes stood out in her pale face. She obviously was not completely recovered, but definitely enough to want to get up and go on with her life. Pretending that nothing had happened, she sat down, her braid swinging. Luckily the others had been warned by the Professor not to bother her or she would have been swamped with questions that she didn't want to answer.
She ate breakfast in relative silence, then stopped by the Professor's chair. "I…Professor. I never thanked you for the rapport." she began, unsure of how to explain that it was gone. He simply shook his head, and waved Nightcrawler over. Without saying anything, he reestablished it with a soft psionic glow. Then he left to go and organize his office, which was in a state of disarray from trying to find the source of Eternal.
~*Oh, Nightcrawler.*~ Diane sighed, not wanting to ask what he had learned while inside her mind, but needing to know.
**Fraulin, I've only learned what I already known. You love me. You're afraid of love because it hurts.**
Diane shook her head. Kitty and the rest blinked at her. Life was so normal, somehow. Didn't they…no. They had every right to lead a normal life. They hadn't been surprised at all, it seemed.
**What did you expect, silly? They love you too.** Diane sighed. She knew that, too.
~*Thank you, Kurt.*~
**I do my best.**
"Diane." Storm called along the table. "We're doing our fist session with you added to the team today. Right after this. You need to get into your…ah…suit."
"No need Storm." Diane concentrated, glowed for a second, and was all of a sudden in her costume. Kurt started.
"I'd forgotten what a bright color that was…" he grumbled.
"Something wrong, elf?" she asked calmly, flipping her braid in his face. Suddenly he grabbed it, and rubbed he end against his cheek.
"No one told me your hair was so soft…" he murmured. Diane snorted and pulled it out of his grasp.
"Don't touch it, you cad. It'll come out of the braid, and then where'll I be?"
"A sea of hair, obviously."
"Oh, go away." She grumbled as Kitty snorted into her cereal. Logan chuckled. Diane stood up, and pushed her plate away. She stretched and did a flip and a handspring to limber up. "Okay, I'm ready whenever you people are." Kitty was the next to finished. She bounced around for a while. Pretty soon people began to drift out to the room. Diane handsprung all the way down the hall. She landed in front of the door until the rest assembled there.
"Okay," Storm said. "We all work together to ward off anything that comes flying at us. We work in partners today. Me and Cyclops, Wolverine and Colossus, Diane and Nightcrawler, and Kitty, you help anyone who looks as though they need it. If someone is in serious trouble, you dorp what you're doing and help." She pressed the button and the doors swung inward.
Storm was the first in, then Cyclops, then Diane, Kitty, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler. Diane and Nightcrawler separated from the rest, so did everyone else. Kitty stood in the middle of them all, and Storm gave Professor X a thumbs up. The red light on the wall flashed, and a robot with a force field charged Wolverine and Colossus. Tentacles attempted to wrap around Storm. The floor dropped out from under Nightcrawler.
~*Nightcrawler, grab the bar!*~ She held out her hand and light poured from it, solidifying as an iron bar connected to the floor. She tensed her legs and leaped into the air, flipping as the floor underneath her feet attempted to rise. She landed on the floor next to it as it rose into the air. It stopped half way up. Nightcrawler 'ported to the top of it. Diane leaped again, and landed catlike on the top with him. She prepared to leap to the floor, but Nightcrawler put a hand on her arm, warningly.
**Don't go down there, If you touch the floor for more than a few seconds, it'll drop out.**
~*Storm needs help.*~ she shot back. ~*I've got an idea.*~ Indeed, Storm was having problems getting away from the tentacles. Cyclops's blasts only bounced off. Diane leapt, then back-flipped and handsprung across the touch-sensitive floor. She landed on her hands. Then she leapt to her feet, she let her hands glow instantly, and one of the tentacles snapped away as an invisible noose pulled it out. Then another snapped, and another.
Finally Storm was free. She soared to the top of the room, where she could monitor everyone's problems. Kitty was helping Cyclops deal with the still frantically waving tentacles. She would phase through them, which would mess up their electronic make-up and then Cyclops would zap them. Wolverine and Colossus were smashing at the robot, but it obviously was not working. She threw a lightning bolt, but it was only absorbed by the robot's force-field. She cursed, then turned. Nightcrawler was porting away from the wall gun that kept firing shots at him. He and Gaea could handle that.
Gaea returned to find Nightcrawler evading a gun the fired little pellets at him. She created a ball of her power around the gun. It fired it's fatal shot, which bounced back into it's muzzle, exploding the gun. She looked up Storm. The leader of the X-men had been caught in the wild stream of a huge ceiling fan. Cyclops could shoot that out. She turned. Wolverine and Colossus were still smacking at the robot, but it did no good. Suddenly Kitty came running, now finished with the tentacles. She ran straight at the robot, and prepared to run straight through it. However, she just bounced off of it. Obviously it's field was erratic, and had little pattern. She couldn't phase through it.
Gaea whirled, and saw Kitty about to be trampled by a robot. A plane of air appeared around Kitty and the robot ran right up it, crashing into the ceiling. The only thing that came down was a rain of springs and sprockets. Cyclops fired twice at the fan, which released Storm so fast she almost didn't glide safely to the floor. They'd won once again.
Diane blinked several times as she noticed that nothing came at her or the other X-men. She blinked again. Nightcrawler peered at her.
"No one told me that you were a gymnast. I didn't know you had as much dexterity as me."
"I'm a dancer, stupid."
"Do that again. I want to watch while I'm not preoccupied."
Diane rolled her eyes at Kitty, who smirked. Then Diane handsprung around Nightcrawler, landing on her hands in front of him without a wobble. She stands there for several seconds, then flips neatly, landing on his shoulders.
"Hey! Diane!"
"Whoo. I haven't tried that one in a long time. I used to do it to my old…uh…" she quailed suddenly.
"Old…" Nightcrawler prompted, eyes narrowing into golden, glowing slits.
"F-friend…" she mumbled, averting her eyes. She leaped off, flipping twice before landing.
"We will talk of this." Nightcrawler murmured, watching her warily. She had said old, so maybe…In her old life, someone as beautiful as her would not go without a boyfriend, he reasoned with himself.
Diane's eyes flickered briefly, then she blinked several times and sighed. It happens to her every time…Too good to last. She grins wryly to herself. She really should have known she'd slip sometime.
**Diane?**
~*…*~
**Fraulin, I'm not mad. Just curious.**
~*…Scott…he…was…the first to call when everyone found out I was a mutant. The first to tell me to stay away from him…*~
**That's why you were so afraid to…let yourself care about someone else.**
~*Yes.*~
Kurt patted her arm reassuringly. She sighed. In one of the few rare times in her life she'd reached for a handhold…and found one. She closed her eyes for a moment, got a hold on herself, then let her eyes twinkle in appreciation. She knew that these were the kinds of things that Nightcrawler used to tell her emotions. Then she noticed that the rest of the X-men had left silently, politely. She closed her eyes again and shook her head. Sometimes she wished that these people wouldn't be so showing about what they thought of her and Nightcrawler.
"Y'know, fuzzy elf, I really should work on re-creating myself and others in different places. I kind of…"
"Need some one to practice on. I suggest you try yourself first, then you can do me, but only if you try a little harder to move my clothes."
"You don't have to rub it in. That was this first time I ever did it, or, of course, I could have let the robot stab you, if you preferred."
"Of course, leibling. I was teasing. Let's go somewhere different than the hallway, hmmm? Especially if you do it again."
Diane muttered something about justified homicide and headed back to her room. Nightcrawler followed her, shaking his head. What a temper.
When he got in, Diane was on his bed, her eyes closed. She was concentrating. Her whole body glowed. Then, like on Star Trek, she began to slowly dematerialize. He watched as the particles slowly began to reappear next to the bed. Suddenly it stopped. She was half in one place, half in the other. Nightcrawler winced.
"Ooh…splinch…" he murmured.
~*Kurt Wagner, you dolt, do something. I can't concentrate like this.*~
**Diane Marilynn Fischer, I don't know what to do!**
~*PUSH!*~
Nightcrawler, sighed, grimaced, and pushed the two parts of Diane together. The pieces merged slowly as Diane used every fiber to -literally- pull herself together. She sighed. I've got to get this down. She concentrated again, and this time focused on re-creating herself on the bed. She concentrated until she had a picture of exactly what she wanted to do before she released her power to do it. She moved herself, literally molecule-by-molecule, to the bed. She collapsed, gasping as she finished. She didn't really notice that Kurt was staring at her. She blinked, and created her costume on herself, pretending that she didn't see the red color underneath his blue fur. "Sorry." she murmured. "Forgot about my costume. Whoo. That's hard…" she panted. Nightcrawler simply shrugged, rolling his eyes in exasperation. That girl was so hard to fathom sometimes. But, he thought wryly. Females usually are. Then he grinned.
"Let's not try that on me today, hmmm?"
"I don't think I could do it again. Whew. It's exhausting."
Nightcrawler rolled his eyes again. Then he sighed. Diane is so strange sometimes. He thought. But I still love her. He shook his head, and looked up to find Diane sound asleep, exhausted from her efforts. He tiptoed out.
A wolf-like creature stalked out of the forest. There was meat here. Fresh…good…*snarl*
With an inhuman snarl, a beast, half human, half wolf leapt from the shadows at Nightcrawler. He had little time to do anything before it leaped on him. As he fell, he remembered vaguely wondering what had jumped him.
The beast, rose, leaving Nightcrawler, scraped badly but comparatively unhurt. It snarled again as it heard the X-men coming in response to intruder alert. The first thing to hit it was a bolt from Cyclops. The beast kept coming. With a howl of rage, it leapt at Kitty, who phased as it's deadly claws swept through her. Somehow it kept up, snarling as it cut Storm down with one deadly swift swipe. Cyclops fell with the next. Kitty didn't have time to phase. The last were Colossus and Wolverine. For all his claws and rages, Wolverine was no match for the pure blood-lust of this half-wolf. Colossus didn't stand a change against the ball of fur as it leapt for his head, smashing it against the wall. Still snarling ferociously, the wolf headed for Diane's room. There was no, scream, only another snarl of rage. The body of the wolf-thing flew down the hall. Diane stood, fists clenched, usually long teeth bared. Suddenly she began to change. Her spine cracked, her knees buckled, fur sprouted on her face, hands, arms. She prepared to leap on the still forms in the hall, then suddenly turned, loping off down the hall.
Nightcrawler woke with something heavy on top of him. It was the still form of the thing that had attacked. He shuddered. It was in a humanoid form, and as he got up, he saw the rest of the X-men, who had not been expecting anything, had been decked by the creature as well. Where was Diane? He could no long feel her in his mind, she must be terrified out of her wits! He ran for her room, but there was nothing there but a stain of blood on the sheets. He rushed back out, ready to scream. The rest of the X-men were up.
"Where is she?" he asked frantically. Everyone only stared at him. He immediately 'ported outside, to look there. He caught a glimpse of a furry wolf-like form plunging into the forest. He followed it. When it stopped, he watched, wondering if there was a pack of these things or something. His eyes popped as the figure bubbled, and formed back into Diane.
"Diane!" He ported down from the tree. "What happened?"
Diane's small form shook. "Don't touch me." she growled in a voice not her own. She bared a lengthening fang.
"Diane!" He 'ported back to the mansion, afraid, more for Diane than for himself.
"Professor!" He cried, "She's…turned into some king of…wolf!"
"A werewolf. She was bitten. There is no known cure…she'll be crazy-mad, filled with a bloodlust…Nightcrawler…I'm sorry…we have to…"
"No cure! Ooh…Diane…" He closed his eyes tight, baring his fangs. Not Diane!
"We have to fight her Nightcrawler, these beasts have impossible strength. They are very rare, and I'm surprised this one made it this far without being killed by silver or fire. All of you need to be equipped with a device that shoots silver, sliver bullets work best. I'm sorry. I don't like to lose a good X-man…or one that has changed us all as Diane has…"
The professor handed out hand-guns. Kurt closed his eyes. He couldn't…
The X-men crept into the forest. Far in, Diane heard them. In her human form she had some sense of sanity. She didn't know how long it would last. She knew what she had to do. For the safety of the X-men, she had to kill herself, but how did a werewolf kill herself? She'd have to go find the X-men, tell then to shoot her with silver. It had to be someone that loved her…oh. She groaned. I can't make him do it. I have to. She found his scent easily. She walked right underneath the tree he was in, making a good target of herself. She didn't expect him to leap out of the tree and land in front of her.
"What happened?"
"Don't ask. While I'm still in control, SHOOT ME! DO IT!" She screamed at him. Her control was slipping, he smelled far too much like prey now.
"Diane…I can't…"
"You have to! Someone who loves me has to do it, or it won't work. " Her spine cracked, she was changing.
"Leibling…" He closed his eyes as tight as he could. He heard her knees pop, her body changing. He held both hands out in front of him like a TV cop. He pulled it. The sound was something he'd remember forever. She howled with the voice of an animal, then dropped on his feet. He looked down. She was turning swiftly back to human, didn't that mean she was…No. He wouldn't think of it. He picked up her limp form, tears streaming down his face as the rest of the X-men came running at the sound of the shot. She was still so beautiful…He teleported back to the mansion, ignoring the cries of the others. He held her close to him, letting himself cry. Suddenly he was completely still. He had felt a faint stirring. He disappeared to the medi-lab.
He checked it. She was alive, if only very faintly. The computer didn't know if it could do anything, but it extracted the bullet. It had come that close to her heart. He watched nervous. She would not be well for some time, and it was still too early to tell if she was still a werewolf.
The rest of the X-men came trampling in. What had happened? Why was Diane on a life-support? Was she alive? Was she still a werewolf? Why did he bring her back? How had she lived?
The Professor wheeled up to Nightcrawler. "She…I don't know if she'll be Diane again when she wakes up…If she isn't…Kurt…we have to kill her. She'll only go on killing, you can't tame a werewolf."
"No need. She will be fine…if she wakes." said a calm voice from behind the professor. It was Dr. Strange. "The sliver bullet will kill her wolf-self. She should have died from that shot, but her will to live, her love, was so great that her human-self survived. However, it is not likely, as the computer shows, that she will live through the ordeal. I wouldn't set your hopes on it. I wish I was not the one to break such news on you." Nightcrawler couldn't listen anymore. No…she couldn't die…no…He disappeared again. The tears flowed again, his heart felt like it had been torn open.