Chapter Thirteen

Kurt came out of the teleport with his golden eyes shining, still beaming at Marta. "That was so cool!" he exclaimed, though he kept his voice soft. "Teleporting with my own daughters!" He turned his attention to Suzie, who seemed a bit wobbly.

"Are you OK?" he asked her.

Suzie nodded, brushing off his concern. "Yeah, fine. Why'd you bring us here?"

Kurt's grin broadened. "Ach, I see you have not yet discovered all the little secrets of this mansion. Observe."

Kurt moved to crouch before a small, metal floor vent. The other children gathered around him. With their pointed ears, Kurt, Marti, and Suzie could just pick up the muffled sound of voices below, but no distinct words. From the frustrated expressions on Edmund's and Rachel's faces, however, it was clear they couldn't hear anything.

"Rachel," Kurt whispered to the young telepath, "do you have telekinesis as well?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, a little. I'm not very good with it yet, though."

"Can you use it to loosen these screws?" he asked.

Rachel knelt down beside him and considered the screws carefully. "I think so," she said. "Give me a second."

As the Wagners watched, Rachel scrunched up her face and glared at the screws. After a few moments, the screws began to turn and then to jiggle as they rose from their holes.

"Wunderbar," Kurt beamed, clapping Rachel proudly on the back. "We'll make an irresponsible troublemaker out of you yet."

Rachel flushed with pleasure. Kurt and Suzie quickly finished removing the screws and Marta carefully lifted the vent from its place in the floor. As the five children peered into the dank, dusty hole, they grinned at each other, suddenly able to hear every word almost as clearly as though they'd been in the conference room themselves.

"Who's that speaking," Edmund asked softly.

"I think it's Auntie Kitty," Suzie said. "Now keep quiet."

Edmund sat back on his heels in a sulk. Kurt shook his head slightly and scooted closer to him, taking his pale-blue tail in his own larger one and giving the spade a comforting squeeze. The boy instantly brightened. Marti smiled at the sight and twined her slender tail together with theirs. After scowling for a few moments, Suzie sighed deeply and moved in closer, adding a pale, spade-tipped tail of her own to the colorful group. Kurt winked at her.

"See," he said. "I told you your powers could be useful."

Suzie averted her gaze, then slowly returned his smile. "I suppose they have their moments," she allowed.

Comfortable in one another's company, the five eavesdroppers turned their full attention to the adults' conversation raging below.

*******

"So, let me get this straight," Scott said, leaning forward over the highly polished conference table. "You're from five hundred years in the future, right?"

Kylun scowled darkly from his place at the head of the long table. "I already said that," he growled. Scott ignored him.

"And for the past three hundred years or so, the entire world has been at peace. All weapons destroyed. All militaries abolished. Violence, racism, bigotry, intolerance, all a thing of the past."

Kylun grunted. "There was still a great deal of economic strife and many epidemics. There were robberies and murders, just as there always have been. Only, the wars were fought in political debates and by huge multinational corporations."

Scott nodded. "In other words, for the first time in its history, the human race was at peace."

Kylun glared. "Essentially, yes."

"And now you want to change history to make sure mutants and humans continue to fight in order to...how did you put it...prevent the destruction of the world? Forgive me if I don't quite follow you here."

"There is no need for that ironic tone, Mr. Summers," Kylun snarled. "You could not possibly understand."

"Then, maybe if you tried to explain," Jean suggested gently. "Why did you attack Tesseract and why did you want to kidnap the President of the United States?"

"In the first place," Kylun snapped, "we did not 'attack' that child. She is completely unharmed."

"Physically, perhaps," Kitty said, "but the poor girl is terrified. By the time we got her to the medbay she was in such a panic that we had to sedate her before she did herself an injury!"

"Am I supposed to feel guilty now?" Kylun asked coldly. "What is one girl's fear beside the senseless slaughter of billions of innocent men, women, and children?"

The X-Men looked at each other, alarmed by this statement. Kylun sneered.

"So, you begin to see?" he said. "Her distress will pass, but those lives can never be restored--unless I succeed in my mission!"

"And just what is your 'mission'?" Evan asked, his eyes narrowed under his thick bone plating.

Kylun sighed deeply, his harsh expression slowly softening into one of intense pain and extreme exhaustion. Jean furrowed her brow, bringing a hand to her temple as she raised her mental shields against the sudden onslaught of emotion.

"We are not violent people," Kylun said after a long pause. "Even my swords, the only weapons of their kind, have been designed so they cannot harm anyone who possesses true virtue and a peace-loving heart." He reached up to touch the thick hilt of one of his swords, then sighed again as he dove straight into the heart of his explanation.

"The N'Zann arrived forty years ago, seven years before my birth. There were only a few of them at first...a scouting party as it turned out. They offered to trade technology for nickel."

"Why nickel?" Rogue asked curiously.

Kylun turned to her. "Because it is the only metal they can use to contain themselves comfortably." At the confused looks that response prompted from the gathered X-Men, Kylun explained further.

"The N'Zann are gaseous creatures," he informed them. "They use nickel to create flexible skins for themselves so they can travel beyond their own dense atmosphere without dissipating."

Kylun shook his head, his cat-like eyes tight with anger. "We were such fools," he groaned. "Such arrogant fools. Centuries of peace had made us weak. We were so excited to actually meet real aliens. We truly believed they'd come half-way across the galaxy just to contact 'us'..." he trailed off, his nostrils flaring.

"Once they realized we posed no threat to their plans, all talk of trade ended. Before we could realize that this time, talk wouldn't work, they'd already begun to strip-mine the globe. Entire continents were decimated, millions died at a time as entire cities were literally scooped into space by energy shovels, the earth and the buildings processed in the bellies of those great ships in a desperate search for every last molecule of nickel the N'Zann could extract.

"There are now only a handful of us left. Barely seventy million humans remain on all of Earth, Mars, and the Moon."

Kylun looked up, his distant eyes focusing into a sharp, accusing glare he directed at each of the gathered X-Men in turn.

"And it is because of you that the Earth and the entire human race will ultimately be destroyed," he spat. "You were the ones who founded the International X-Men Organization!" He sneered. "IX-MO...the pacifist organization that ultimately brought an end to terrorism and war throughout the world. You were the ones who taught humankind not to fear those who are different. It is because of you and your teachings that the N'Zann were able to destroy our world without a fight!"

He growled bitterly, his voice dripping with acid. "To think that humanity cheered when the last bomb forged in hate was exploded harmlessly in space. Little did they know that symbolic act would ultimately lead to our downfall.

"My mission was to have my friend Widget," he gestured to the small, metallic orb that was darting curiously around the room, "open a portal between our two times. In order to do this, we needed a mutant in this time who could manipulate time and space to open a portal of her own in order to solidify the link. A friend of mine, a very powerful telepath, used Widget's portal to contact and manipulate your young Tesseract into using her powers on the President so we could bring her to witness the horror that is our time. We planned to return her to the ceremony unharmed, but with newly opened eyes.

"Unfortunately, something went wrong, and I was sent to find out what and to fix it if I can. All of humanity depends on it." He sighed deeply, hanging his head slightly.

"It was a shameful plan, I know. But you must understand our desperation! We thought that if we could just convince the President of the necessity of re-opening hostilities between mutants and humans, of keeping the anger and fear just strong enough to keep Earth alert, to prevent the abolishment of the weapons that we could have used to rid ourselves of the N'Zann before it went too far..."

He took in a shaky breath, his large, yellow eyes closing with the pain of memory. "It sounds ridiculous, I know. A group of pacifists creating a portal to the past in order to beg the leader of a nation just healing from a devastating war to reignite the very hostilities that nearly caused the destruction of the world that dark, December morning so long ago. But, better the Earth be blown to kingdom come by its own people than slowly torn apart by alien filth who care nothing for its unique beauty!

"When the N'Zann looked at us, they didn't see life. They didn't see unique cultures and peoples or wondrous animals and plants. They saw only a cheap source of raw materials, and they were more than eager to destroy that life to get at them."

"Why did you choose to come now?" Bobby asked curiously. "I mean, why steal the President away in the middle of her eulogy? Why not just zero in on the Oval Office and open your portal there?"

Kylun shot him a disbelieving look. "Surely I have made that clear," he said.

"Not to me, you haven't," Bobby said, rather tactlessly.

"Bobby--!" Rahne warned.

Kylun turned to her, his cat-like eyes bright with interest. "Are you Scottish," he asked her.

Rahne nodded. "Aye," she said. "That I am."

Kylun smiled, a gentle smile that softened his fierce face into something far kinder. "My parents were from Scotland," he said. Then, his eyes darkened and his face tightened into its more familiar scowl. "It is now little more than a waterlogged crater, along with the rest of the British Isles and much of Europe."

Alice paled, but when she spoke her voice was steady. "So, why did you crash the Professor's funeral?" she asked Kylun, her eyes sharp and direct. "And, what went wrong? Why has my husband been switched with a sixteen year old boy?"

"What do you mean?" Kylun asked her, genuinely confused.

"Kurt intercepted Tesseract before she could reach the President," Alice explained angrily. "Somehow, when he tried to teleport her away, he and his sixteen year old self were switched in time."

Kylun regarded her through shocked eyes. "Is that what happened?" he asked.

"Yes," Alice snapped. "And I want to know how you plan to fix this mess you've caused!"

"I understand your anger," Kylun told her calmly, "but I'm afraid that at this point I have no more idea than you do as to what happened to your husband." Straightening, he turned to face the rest of the group.

"We chose this day because the death of Professor Charles Xavier and the posthumous publication of his book marked a turning point for humanity. It was only after this that IX-MO gained true and lasting influence over the political affairs of the world, ultimately taking the place of the UN and the World Court as it opened itself to all humans, not just mutants. If we could disrupt that, if we could make normal humans continue to harbor their distrust of mutants, then perhaps things would change."

"Yeah," said Evan angrily. "It'll be WWIII all over again!"

"Evan's right," Kitty agreed. "There must be a better way than reigniting hostilities."

"I'm open to suggestions," Kylun said, sitting back in his chair. "I told you we are a peaceful people. If you could come up with a way to rid us of the N'Zann that does not involve centuries of violence, we would be more than happy to help you carry it out."

The X-Men fidgeted uncomfortably in their chairs, the entire weight of humanity's future suddenly thrust upon their shoulders. Before any of them could respond to Kylun's challenge, however, a soft BAMF sounded in the corner, accompanied by the faint scent of sulfur. Alice and Scott both shot to their feet when they saw the five young eavesdroppers standing there, their faces set in expressions of somber defiance. It came as no surprise when Kurt stepped forward as spokesman for the children.

"We think we know what went wrong with Kylun's time portal," he told them. "And we've come up with a way to contact the older Nightcrawler as well."

Scott was the first to recover. "What do you kids think you're doing here?" he demanded.

"Trying to save the world, man," Kurt retorted, looking Scott straight in the visor. "Isn't that what we X-Men do?"

To the surprise of everyone present, Scott's drawn face suddenly broke into a broad grin. "I should have known," he chuckled softly. "Were you listening in through that vent?"

"Of course," Kurt said easily. "You're the one who showed it to me in the first place. Although, I think the Professor knew we were there."

Scott nodded, still smiling though behind his visor the light had gone from his eyes. "He did. He always knew what we kids were up to."

He waved them over to the table as Jean used her telekinesis to grab some extra chairs. "Come on and pull up a chair," the X-Men's leader said. "To tell you the truth, we could really use a fresh perspective on this situation."

Kurt grinned and strode over to the group, but the rest of the children seemed hesitant and uneasy.

"I will not bite," Kylun assured them gruffly. "Sit down. We are wasting time."

Rachel scampered over to sit between her parents while Marti and Suzie went to sit beside their mother. Edmund chose to sit next to Kurt. Once they were all settled, Scott returned to his business-like tone.

"So," he said, leaning forwards slightly. "What have you kids come up with?"