Chapter Eleven

"KURT!" Alice screamed, running heedlessly towards the place where her husband had vanished in an impossibly bright flash of light. Tessa still lay there, her eyes wide and unfocused, her right hand clutched in a tight fist. A small crowd began to gather and it seemed that everyone started to talk at once.

As rumors began to fly - a human had set off a bomb...a mutant had tried to attack the President...Nightcrawler had been blown up as he intercepted a bomb heading towards stage...Nightcrawler had been the one with the bomb...Nightcrawler had killed the girl...the girl had killed Nightcrawler - the President and the other world leaders were instantly surrounded by Secret Service Agents, who hurriedly worked to bundle them safely into helicopters which had already been primed for take-off. The reporters followed, shouting questions and generally making the confused situation worse as the stunned X-Men worked to pull themselves together and figure out just what had happened.

"Over here!" Logan's gruff voice called from the front of the mansion. "I think I found Kurt!"

Alice crossed the lawn at a speed that put Quicksilver to shame.

"Where is he?" she demanded, her dark eyes wild.

Logan winced.

"Over there," he said, pointing to a small, dark figure lying sprawled and unconscious under the trees. "But, Alice, there's somethin' I've gotta tell ya—"

"Tell me later," she snapped, rushing to her fallen husband. When she saw him, however, her piercing scream nearly shattered Logan's sensitive eardrums.

"What's happened to Daddy?" Edmund asked, frightened to the point of tears. "Why did Mummy scream like that?"

"I'm not sure what happened, Runt," Logan said, his rough voice surprisingly gentle as he squeezed the pale-blue boy's shoulder. "Scott," he called to the approaching leader of the X-Men. "You watch the kids. I'll try to get to Alice before she can do anything she'll regret."

Scott barely had time to nod before Logan was running towards the distraught Alice at top speed.

"This is not my husband!" she screamed once she saw him, dangerously near to losing control. "This is not my Kurt! What has happened to my husband!"

"Calm down, Alice," Logan tried to soothe her, taking her gently by the shoulders. "Get a hold of yourself. Your power—"

"I don't care about my bloody power!" Alice shrieked, stumbling as she backed quickly away from the unconscious boy at her feet. "I want my husband back!"

Suddenly, Alice stiffened, her almond eyes widening until they were almost as round as two coins.

"Uh oh," Logan said, gathering her up in his arms before she could fall. Turning back to the crowd that was gathering in front of the mansion he shouted, "Scott! Get Jean over here! I think we're gonna to be needin' her real soon!"


Kurt Wagner groaned softly as his foggy mind rose to consciousness. His right side ached, particularly his hip and shoulder where he'd absorbed the brunt of his impact with the ground. Opening his eyes took some effort, and he sat up with a sharp wince of pain, trying to get an idea as to where he was.

"Ach, man, I really do have to work on my reentries," he groaned, running a hand through his long, almost shoulder-length hair and picking out a few leaves. He groaned again as he realized his holowatch had shorted out. Again. "Well, at least I made it home."

Kurt turned his gaze to the mansion, surprised at how different it looked. It seemed bigger, older somehow. There was ivy crawling up the walls, though he couldn't remember ever noticing ivy before. Climbing awkwardly to his feet, he shook his head to clear it.

It was then that he noticed the crowd.

A group of strangers was gathered in front of the building, about twenty feet away. They were staring at him in a gape-mouthed shock that seemed disturbingly familiar. He had seen that look many times before, back at the circus, on the faces of the people who had just realized that the Incredible Nightcrawler was not wearing a costume. It usually appeared during the calm moment of silence just before the screaming started.

Kurt froze, a sudden, familiar fear gripping his heart. He could only stand there, trapped by their stares like a deer in the oncoming headlights of a car. He couldn't even think to teleport.

Then, to Kurt's deep relief, a familiar face broke through the crowd and started jogging towards him, her long, brown ponytail bouncing behind her.

"Kitty!" he cried out, waving her over to him. "Kitty, what is going on here? Who are all these people?"

Kitty stopped in her tracks, then took a startled step back, her face twisted in horror.

"Eeew! Like...like, what are you?!" she stammered, raising her arms in front of her in a protective gesture.

Kurt gasped, her words knocking the breath from his body as cruelly as a savage kick to the chest. If he was frozen before, he was paralyzed now.

Turning back to the mansion, Kitty screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Professor! Mr. Logan! Anyone, help me!"

As Kurt watched, helpless, Wolverine came charging forward from the crowd, followed closely by Professor Xavier in his electric wheelchair. The crowd gasped, and it seemed everyone began to speak at once. Kurt, however, was deaf to all but the conversation going on right in front of him.

"Kitty, what's wrong?" Professor Xavier was asking the terrified girl.

Kitty pointed at Kurt, her eyes narrowed with disgust.

"That," she said, pointing rudely at Kurt.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, his building anger snapping him out of his stunned paralysis. "Kitty, what is this? Professor—"

Kurt's words died on his tongue when he saw the look in his mentor's eyes. It was not recognition. It was revulsion.

"Logan," Xavier said, his voice sharp with unpleasant shock. "What is that? If I didn't know better, I'd say it looks like some sort of demon."

Logan sniffed deeply, making a face.

"Ugh," he grunted. "I don't know about that, Chuck, but whatever it is, it don't smell human."

Kurt could feel his world collapsing around his pointed ears as he stood there, rooted to the spot, staring at the fear and disgust twisting the faces of the people he loved, people he had thought cared about him.

"B-but...but Professor! Herr Logan...Kätzchen!" he tried, desperation causing his voice to squeak, "you know me! Kurt Wagner? The blue, fuzzy dude? Can't miss me in a crowd?"

Logan spat.

"You want I should skewer it, Charles?" he asked, not even looking at Kurt.

Kurt's yellow eyes widened. He saw the Professor shrug carelessly just before the world around him was obscured by streaming, stinging tears. Mortified, hurt, and bewildered, Kurt found himself wracked by sobs he couldn't control. He blinked rapidly, struggling to clear his vision just enough to get a good look at the roof of the mansion, then took in a shaky breath and teleported away in a BAMF of sulfurous smoke.


"Oh no," Scott said, breaking off from helping Logan with Alice to look back at the rapidly dissipating teleport smoke. "I was afraid of this. Marti," he ordered, turning to Kurt's stunned daughter.

Marta Wagner tore her gaze from her mother, looking up at him with wide, green eyes.

"Erm, yes, Uncle Scott?"

"Go find Kurt. Quickly, before he does anything stupid."

Marti straightened, then nodded curtly, vanishing in a flash of smoke.

"Jean!" Scott cried, using both his mind and his voice. "We really need you out here!"

From high above came the sound of a window sliding open. Moments later, Jean Summers floated down to land on the stairs next to her agitated husband and the entranced Alice Wagner.

"I was just trying to calm the students," Jean explained. "Have you found out what happened?"

Scott shook his head.

"Not yet." he said. "Quick, I need you to snap Alice out of this!"

"Who has she latched onto?" Jean asked, all business.

Scott grimaced.

"Would you believe me if I told you a teenaged Kurt Wagner?"

Jean stared at him, her green eyes widening as she caught a glimpse of his memories through the special link they shared.

"No wonder she's like this," she gasped, turning her attention back to Alice. Taking a deep, calming breath, Jean slowly raised her hands to Alice's cold temples and closed her eyes in concentration.

Edmund clung to Ororo's long skirt, tears leaking from his hazel eyes as he watched Jean try to reach his comatose mother. Suzie stood nearby, pale and aloof, her golden eyes narrowed with fear and worry though her face was an impassive mask.

Scott turned to Rogue, and Bobby, who were standing beside him. Logan had left to keep the loitering reporters at bay.

"This is going to take a while," he said, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Jean's concentration. "Let's see what's up with Tessa."

As the three X-Men headed across the crowded lawn, they were met by Evan's worried shout.

"Scott!" the bone-plated mutant called out from where he stood beside Tessa's prone form. Kitty and Alistaire crouched by her side, apparently checking her vital signs. "Kitty's found something! You guys had better take a look at this!"

The three X-Men ran the rest of the way to Evan's side, hoping that whatever it was Kitty had found would provide some answers, or at least a clue to the identity of who - or whatever - was behind all this.


Marti knew where to go. Her father had often told her about his favorite 'thinking spot'. The previous Christmas he had even taken her up there, proud to share his private hide-away with his enthusiastic daughter. So, when Uncle Scott ordered her to find her father, she didn't even have to think. She teleported straight to the roof of the mansion.

Marti thought she had prepared herself for anything. Her mother's drastic reaction proved that something terrible must have happened to her father. She had steeled herself, ready for the sight of blood, gore, or even mutilation. She felt she could even deal with memory loss if her father was too hurt to recognize her. The sight that met her eyes as she appeared on the roof, however, was more shocking than any of the possible horrors that were running through her nervous imagination.

A teenaged boy crouched in her father's spot, his long, blue tail wrapped tightly around his knees as he sobbed into his thick, three-fingered hands.

Tilting her head, Marti stared in amazement. Could this boy actually be...

"Dad?" she asked, her voice weak and trembling with disbelief.

The boy didn't look up. Thinking he hadn't heard her, Marti took a cautious step forward and crouched down beside him, her tail lashing nervously behind her.

"Kurt?" she tried.

It felt weird to address him by his name, almost like she was doing something wrong. But it seemed to get his attention. The boy stared up at her through wide, bleary eyes, his short, fine fur streaked with tears.

"Was?" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Who are you? How did you get up here?"

"Please, try to calm down," Marti said, holding out a fuzzy, three-fingered hand just like his. "My name is Marta. I'm—" She choked slightly, unwilling to scare him further by telling him the truth. "—a friend," she finished, with an attempt at a comforting smile.

Marta lowered her hand when Kurt made no move to come near her. Instead, he shook his head as if to clear it.

"Woah," he said, his tail lashing wildly behind him. "This is way too freaky. I mean, man! You look just like me!"

This time, Marti's smile was real.

"Yeah," she said. "So I've been told. Repeatedly."

Kurt tilted his head, her smile seeming to calm him slightly.

"Can I ask you a question?" he inquired, looking down at the crowds far below.

Marti nodded.

"Certainly," she said. "You can ask me anything."

"What is going on here? It's like, this is the Xavier Institute, right?"

Marti nodded.

Kurt furrowed his brow.

"But everything's different!" he exclaimed. "Who are all those people down there? When did all this ivy have a chance to grow?"

He blinked rapidly, turning his head away from her. When he spoke again his voice was tight with pain.

"Why didn't my friends recognize me?"

Marti felt at a loss.

"Erm, perhaps if you came with me we could talk to Uncle Scott and see if he can explain everything to you."

Kurt narrowed his sharp eyes at her.

"'Uncle' Scott?"

Marti winced.

"Um, yeah. Mr. Summers. He's sort of the leader around here. He sent me to find you."

Kurt paled dramatically. His dark, indigo face took on a strange, blotchy tint that looked decidedly unhealthy. Marti could almost see the gears in his brain turning as everything started to fall into place.

"Mein Gott!" he gasped, circling her in wide-eyed astonishment. "Gott im Himmel! Bist du meine...meine...?"

"Deine Tochter?" Marti finished with a relieved smile. He recognized her! "Jawohl, Papa!"

To Marti's alarm, Kurt Wagner collapsed at her feet in a dead faint.


"So, what do you think it means?" Kitty asked, brushing the grass from her black trousers as she rose to her feet.

"'Even peace has a price'," Scott read from the crumpled piece of paper Kitty had phased out of Tessa's clenched fist. "'IX-MO will fail us all. To keep Earth strong, we must fight.'" Scott shrugged. "It sounds like some kind of warning to me. But a warning about what?"

"What's Icksmo?" Bobby asked, peering over Scott's shoulder.

Before anyone could answer him, Marti appeared in a BAMF of smoke, crouched over an unconscious, impossibly young Kurt Wagner.

"Oh, my God!" Rogue exclaimed, bending over him. "Is he all right?"

Marti nodded.

"I think so. He seemed to remember I was his daughter, and then he just...fainted."

"Wow," Bobby commented. "No one said Tesseract could do anything like that. Do you think she'll be able to...well...fix him?"

"Wait a minute," Evan broke in, "are you trying to tell me that this girl somehow made Kurt a kid again?"

"Can you think of another explanation?" Scott asked him.

Evan shook his head, feeling quite overwhelmed and completely at a loss.

"What are we going to do about it?" he asked. "Can he still lead Excalibur like this?"

"Like what?" Suzie's churlish voice came from behind the small group. "What is going on here? What's happened to Dad? Why won't anyone tell me anything?!"

As the gathered X-Men turned to face her, Suzie caught sight of Marti, crouching beside an older boy who looked strangely familiar...

"Bloody hell," the twelve year old exclaimed, rushing over to her sister and crouching down to peer into the boy's fuzzy, indigo face.

"Mummy, Suzie said a swear!" Edmund's voice piped up.

Alice sighed tiredly as she approached the group, still looking rather groggy after her ordeal. Jean walked beside her, her green eyes concerned.

"Edmund, sweetie, it's all right," Alice assured him, squeezing his small hand in hers. "There are some moments in life that just seem to call for strong language."

Edmund tilted his head, then released his mother's hand, running over to join his sisters.

"Who is this?" he inquired curiously, leaning over Kurt's prone form.

"It's Dad," Marti told him. "Tessa made him a kid again."

Edmund's hazel-gray eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He stared first at Kurt, then at Tessa, and then he turned his gaze back to Kurt.

"Bloody hell," he whispered.

Marti glared at Suzie, who actually looked sheepish.

The children looked up as their mother approached them, scooting aside to make room for her as she knelt down beside them. Slowly, Alice reached out to brush a long strand of indigo hair from Kurt's fuzzy forehead.

"Kurt, love," Alice whispered, struggling to keep the trembling from her voice. "It's Alice." She took in a shaky breath, her heart aching with guilt and fear. "I'm so sorry, Liebchen. I didn't know what I was doing...I didn't mean to hurt you...please wake up?"

The unconscious boy made no sign of movement. The three children looked at each other in wide-eyed concern, but Alice leaned forward and gathered him up in her arms, resting his head on her lap and rocking him slowly she stroked his hair.

Scott, Rogue, and the others lowered their eyes, their hearts aching in sympathy for Alice and the frightened children.

"Uughh," Kurt groaned, raising a hand to his head and slowly opening his eyes. "What happened? Where am I?"

He blinked up at the smiling Alice in confusion, then cast his bleary gaze around the rest of the small group. His bright eyes widened in stunned recognition when he saw Scott looking down at him through his ruby-quartz glasses, his arm wrapped around Jean's waist.

"Scott!" he blurted out, breaking free of Alice's gentle embrace and jumping to his feet. "Jean! Rogue?" His eyes widened further as he took in his 'sister's' long, flowing hair.

"Mein Gott, it's true!" he exclaimed, excitement slowly spreading across his dark features. "I've teleported to the future! Where's Kitty?"

"I'm right here," Kitty Stuart said, turning from where she was helping to strap the still unconscious Tesseract to a stretcher.

"Kurt, tell me," she said, "how much can you remember?"

A slightly goofy smile spread over Kurt's face as his eyes became distant with memory.

"I remember you agreed to be my date for the Social," he said dreamily. "I brought you breakfast in bed."

He blinked, his smile broadening into an excited grin.

"So, tell me everything, Kätzchen," he said, his tail twitching behind him. "How long have we been married?"

Alice shot to her feet, pale as a ghost and glaring daggers at Kitty. Alistaire Stuart mirrored her reaction, only his glare was directed at Kurt. Kitty stood trapped between them, her eyes wide and helpless.

"But-but we're not..." she tried. She was relieved when Evan cut her off.

"You mean, you think 'Kitty' is your wife!" he exclaimed, incredulous.

Kurt looked around in confusion, his bewildered gaze darting to each of his friends in turn.

"You mean she isn't?" he asked, a royal purple flush rising in his cheeks as he cringed with deep embarrassment.

"I should say not," Alistaire huffed.

Kurt turned to stare at Marta, his tail twisting itself into agitated knots.

"Then, who...?"

Marti looked helplessly to her mother, who was desperately struggling against tears of her own.

"He doesn't know us," Suzie said bluntly, her dark scowl masking her fear and hurt. "He really is a kid."

Jean's eyes narrowed as she gently probed his surface thoughts, searching for a way to help jog his memory. What she found shocked her so deeply she swayed on her feet as she broke contact.

"Jean, what's wrong?" Scott asked, his face drawn with worry.

Jean blinked up at him, then turned to stare at Kurt.

"Suzie's right," she said, her voice near breathless with incredulity. "We were wrong, Scott. Tesseract didn't change him after all. This Kurt Wagner really is sixteen years old!"

"How's that?" Bobby asked, squinting his eyes in confusion.

"He's a teenager," Jean told him. "This isn't the Kurt we know. Somehow, he and our own Kurt must have been switched in time."

"What!" Alistare exclaimed. "But that is impossible! The laws of physics clearly state that—"

"They're coming!"

The argument stopped as all eyes turned to Tessa, who was sitting up on the stretcher, staring into space with wide, terrified eyes.

"Who's coming?" Scott asked, trying to keep his voice gentle despite the fact that the bizarre events of the day were rapidly wearing down his patience.

Tessa shivered violently, then pointed to an empty stretch of grass just beyond the stage. A moment later, the gathered X-Men gasped in shock to see a shaft of brilliant, white light appear in mid-air and slowly spread out until it grew into what looked like a rounded door. As they watched, stunned, a shadow appeared in the center of the blinding portal. The moment the figure stepped through, onto the lawn of the Xavier Institute, the portal vanished with a snap and a small, metal orb zipped out to hover playfully over the stranger's head.

"My name is Kylun." the tall, muscular, purple-furred man announced in a deep, rumbling voice. His yellow, cat-like eyes narrowed as he turned his accusing glare to each of the gathered X-Men in turn.

"I have come to put an end to your quixotic, utopian Dream before IX-MO can cause the destruction of the world."

"Just when I was thinking this day couldn't possibly get any weirder..." Bobby commented under his breath.

Kylun advanced on him, a hand on the thick hilt of one of the two enormous swords strapped to his back.

Bobby's eyes widened, and he took a stumbling step backwards.

"Idealism can be as dangerous as hatred if it is allowed to go too far," the enormous man growled, his orange hair lending menace to his fierce expression as the long strands blew around his face in the October breeze. "Don't you realize that even peace has a price?"

To Be Continued...