Chains of Separation
Part Two: Mourning and Awakening
Kat Warrior

What happened to Kurt after being taken by Mystique is revealed, but the X-
Men are certain that they have lost a comrade. How will those who were
closest to him handle it?

That weekend, the Xavier Institute was silent with shock. Barely anyone spoke on the halls, and everyone kept mainly to their rooms. They couldn't help but think that they had totally failed Kurt.

Karl had been left behind by Mystique and was arrested by the police, being the only one left in the gym by the time they arrived. The X-Men and Amanda were said to have gotten lost in the halls when the building was evacuated, the lights shut off, and the doors locked. Kurt's disappearance, however, was harder to explain. The others made up the excuse that he had been held hostage, wounded, but managed to get out of the gym and run to the institute because he was afraid of hospitals.

Ororo was sleeping lightly Saturday night, tossing and turning in her concern for the young Kurt. She had arrived too late to stop Mystique. She could have knocked the griffon out of the air with her powers, but that could have killed her captive.

The tall, dark woman raised her head when she heard footsteps in the hall. It really didn't surprise her that others were having trouble sleeping. After all, Kurt had only been taken from them yesterday. She got up and wrapped her robe sloppily about her shoulders before peering out of her bedroom door.

"Elizabeth?" she whispered in quizzical surprise as she discovered the violet-furred girl on the floor. "Why aren't you in your room?"

"I couldn't sleep," she whimpered, hugging her knees to her chest and clutching her prized purple teddy bear tightly. "I kept thinking about..."

"Kurt?" Ororo finished, easing herself down on the floor beside the younger girl. "I know. Most of us can't stop thinking about it. We have to pull ourselves together."

***

Mystique closed her eyes, temporarily blocking out the image of her suffering son. His fair face was contorted into pain, despite his unconsciousness. Perhaps it was better that way, as the hired doctor working the bullet out of his chest would have unintentionally caused him a great deal more pain.

The blue-skinned shape-shifter gently pressed the cool cloth to Kurt's forehead. Sweat was soaking through the silky blue fur, dampening the sheet he had been placed on.

"Can't you work any faster?" Mystique demanded with a hiss.

"Only if you want him dead," came the doctor's reply in his low, quite voice. "Removing a bullet from the sternum is difficult, as I'm at risk at causing him even more damage."

Mystique sighed and sat back. Normally, she would be venting her anger on all possible subjects, but now was no time for that. Her son lay at the hands of death and a doctor. They were in the back room of a hospital, although not legally. No one knew they were there. If they were discovered, her hired lackey doctor would be arrested, and the mutants with him confined for some study. Of course, Kurt would likely die before the scientists could do a thing to him.

The Brotherhood sat or stood by the door of the room they were in, glancing every now and then where the doctor was with Mystique and Nightcrawler. None of them were really worried about the X-Man. They just wanted to go home, wherever home was. Their leader had informed them that they were re- locating to a far-off base where Professor Xavier's mental powers would be unable to find Nightcrawler. Of course, none of the Brotherhood knew where it was...

"Done," the doctor sighed, wiping the sweat off his own forehead. "The bullet's been removed, and he's been stitched together and bandaged. Now he just needs somewhere to rest and heal..."

"Which is where we're going," Mystique interrupted. She stood, morphing into a giant eagle. Kurt was handed to the doctor, and the normally blue female metamorph motioned for her lackeys to get on her back. She took to flight, rushing out the back door and using the small strip of land for a runway.

***

Kurt moaned and tried to roll over on his side, but the shock of sudden pain prevented it. He sat up almost immediately, confused and wondering why he was in so much pain and where he was.

"The gymnasium," he recalled. "I was shot...but I should be dead! And where am I? This isn't my room..."

"Well, the boy awakens," an eerie, familiar voice murmured. "It's about time, my dear Kurt."

Kurt cringed not only from the sting in his chest but also from the other presence in the room. So, his mother had taken him after he'd been wounded. He was surprised that she had bothered to have him bandaged and placed in a comfortable bed. He had expected her to finish the job.

"It's nice to have you here," she continued in a tone that couldn't be deciphered as kind or cruel. She walked over to the small bed he was on and sat down on the edge. She smiled, but Kurt couldn't help but shudder. He didn't like this woman who had given birth to him, but he couldn't help feeling guilty over that. She was his mother, after all. As much as he wanted to love her, it was difficult. She had not only tried to kill his friends on a number of occasions, but she had also thrown him into a river when he was an infant. What kind of mother was she?

"Why did you take me?" he heard himself asking. "Why didn't you just leave me there? They could have taken good care of me."

"Mother knows best," she replied flatly. "You're being taken good care of here under my supervision. As much as you might disagree, I know you better than most of the people at the institute. You're in good hands."

Kurt didn't look convinced. He looked down at his three-fingered hands, resting idly in his lap. Maybe, just maybe he could believe that she really wanted to take care of him.

"Lie back down," she commanded calmly. "The doctor said that you need to rest in order to recover properly." Mystique stood, allowing him to slowly and painfully ease down back into the mattress. She pulled the blanket up to about his shoulders and then turned and left the room.

As soon as she had gone, Kurt sighed in relief and frustration. Her presence made him nervous, and he was glad to see her go; but he was also still stuck with her. He had no clue where he was, making him unable to teleport, and doing so might make his condition worse, anyway. He was trapped, basically a well-kept prisoner.

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he couldn't help thinking about...them, the loved ones who were either worried sick or thought him dead. The first person to enter his head was Amanda, followed by his teammates, the adults at the institute, the trainees, and lastly Elizabeth. Of all them, Amanda and Liz hung in his mind the most. He had a romantic attachment to Amanda, and he was like a mentor to Elizabeth, the one he often addressed as Violet One. Surely those two would miss him the most.

***

Liz sighed as she strolled along the street, watching the cement under her sneakers. She'd just had to get out of the mansion and get away from the chilling, gloomy silence of the halls. She missed Kurt, too, and felt in her heart that he was truly dead, like her parents. But she couldn't let that grief plague her forever.

She glanced up when she thought she saw Amanda out of the corner of her eye. Yes, there was the dark-skinned girl, sitting on a bench just on the outskirts of the park. She had a bag in her lap and looked like she was throwing bread for some pigeons.

Liz sighed and walked over to her, feeling that Amanda needed some company.

"Hi," she greeted quietly when she came up to the bench. She didn't ask "How are you?" as the answer was obvious.

"Oh, hi Liz," was the unenthusiastic reply. The pigeons fluttered away momentarily, startled by Liz's sudden appearance. With most people they weren't so skittish, but she smelled too much like a cat for them to not be cautious.

Ignoring, them, Liz plopped down on the bench not too far from Amanda. She sighed, leaning back with her hands in the pockets of her baggy khaki pants. She lifted her hat from her face a little so she could see her surroundings better.

"You come here often?" Liz finally asked, glancing at Amanda.

"Kurt and I did," she replied quietly. "We'd feed the birds and the goldfish that live in the fountain. Sometimes, when there weren't any kids around, he'd push me on the swing."

"Must be nice, having so many good memories of him," Liz sighed, watching people go this way and that on the sidewalk. "I didn't get to know him as long as you did. I think my best memories are of my second day at Bayville when he comforted me after Biology Class, and that time he and I snuck down into the kitchen for a midnight snack."

Amanda looked up. "He did that?"

"Oh sure," Liz continued. "He told me he was an expert at it, but there weren't many sugary foods in the cupboards, so we both ended up with bananas. He seemed kinda disappointed that he had gone through all that work for fruit he didn't like much."

Amanda giggled, covering her mouth. "It must have been nice, getting to see him day in and day out. I wish I could live there, especially if it meant getting to be a mutant."

"Getting?" Liz repeated quizzically. "I thought most humans considered it a disease or something."

"Only most," Amanda pointed out. "I'd love to be one of you, especially if it meant being with Kurt."

"Right now, all of us would give anything to see Kurt again," Liz pointed out, "but it's really nice to meet a human who feels that way. You're a truly kind person, willing to give up being liked by regular humans just to be with the boy you love. That takes courage, too."

"Thanks," Amanda murmured, tossing more bread crumbs to the birds. She crumpled up the empty bag and put it in her pocket.

"You wanna go somewhere?" Liz asked, suddenly standing and startling the birds away. "The other girls and I were gonna stop and get gut-bombs in honor of Kurt."

"Sure," Amanda replied, also standing. "It would be an honor to meet all of his female friends. Ya know, find out more about him."

The two girls started off down the street as the sun began to sink behind the distant hills.