INTERLUDE

"You know, I don't remember this story bein' so detailed," Logan smirked, taking a quick swig of beer. "But then, I never heard the whole thing, neither."

"That's what was so great about it," TJ said. "It was an adventure, and Dad would add to it every night. He never told the same part twice."

"Hmm," Logan grunted thoughtfully. "But what about the eye? When does it get to that part?"

"I'm coming to it," Kurt said, smiling at his friend's impatience. "Let's see…they took me up through the gate to Asgard, and I spent a few weeks living with Loki and his wife, the goddess Sigunn. All the time, though, I was trying to figure out a way to get back home. What I didn't know was that my presence in Asgard was causing something of a split among the gods. Loki, Thor, Frey and Freya, and a few others felt I should be allowed to leave. Tyr, the god of war, argued that sending me back after seeing Asgard was too dangerous. He thought I should be killed. Margali's talisman protected me from that, though. As long as I kept it on, Tyr couldn't touch me. As for Odin, he refused to listen to anybody.

"Finally, Loki had had enough debating. With Freya's help, he and Thor smuggled me out past Heimdall—the all-seeing, all-hearing guardian of the gate—and took me down the rainbow bridge. They left me at the home of the Norns.

"The Norns were three wise sisters who lived at the foot of Yggdrazil, a giant ash tree that supported the nine worlds of Norse mythology. My talisman was useless there, so I had to rely on my wits to get them to tell me how I could go home without Odin or Tyr finding out and chasing me down. Finally, they agreed to give me the knowledge I sought—but only for a price."

"Your eye!" Rosie called out, as thoroughly absorbed in the story as TJ. "Just like Odin himself!"

Kurt grinned. "You got it, Rosie," he said. "You see, the Norns were fascinated by my golden eyes and they coveted my ability to see in the dark. I agreed to the trade, and they set me three impossible tasks to complete."

"You had to build a boat out of stone, fashion an oar out of water, and make a sail from the skin of the Midgard Serpent," TJ interjected with a smile. Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"So, you remembered!" he grinned. "But do you remember how I did it?"

"Well…" TJ pondered. "You carved the oar out of ice, and getting the Serpent to give you an old skin was easy because you knew his father, but I forget about the stone boat."

"Pumice," Kurt explained. "Frey let me use his magic ship, Skidbladnir, to fly to a volcano where I gathered loads and loads of pumice stone, and then Loki got his friends the dwarves to help me craft it all into a boat."

TJ snapped her fingers. "That's it. I can't believe I forgot."

"This story is really something else," Rosie said, shaking her head. "It's a shame you haven't written it down. What happened next?"

"Well, when the Norns saw I had successfully completed their impossible tasks, they told me which rivers I needed to take to make my way back to Germany. They also had me take a dip in the snake-infested spring of Hvergelmir, saying that it would make me invisible to Odin's searching eye."

Wanda shivered visibly. "Eeew," she said. "You never told me that part."

Kurt chuckled and squeezed her hand. "I figured the Midgard Serpent was enough," he smiled. "I know how you feel about snakes, meine Liebe."

"So then what?" Logan asked, pretending indifference but clearly interested. "The Norns scooped out your eye and sent you on your way?"

TJ made a face at her uncle's graphic choice of words, but Kurt just shrugged. "Ja, basically. But they did not so much scoop it out as magically transport it away. This is a G-rated story, after all."

Logan snorted. "Whatever. It's all kid stuff anyway. Why don't you tell us all what really happened? Now that's a story worth listenin' to."

Kurt gnawed at his lower lip with a sharp canine, clearly hesitant. "Well, you see," he said, "the truth is I don't actually remember much of what happened during the fight. I had been hurt…well…very badly, of course, and…" He trailed off, his lone eye focused on the table. "It's just difficult to pull all the images together."

Wanda pursed her lips in concern, then looked over to Logan. "You were there that night, Logan," she said. "Why don't you try to fill in the gaps?"

"What me?" Logan frowned. "I'm no good at tellin' stories. 'Specially with kids around."

"I am not a kid," TJ attested firmly. "Go on and say what happened. I can handle it."

"Yes, say it, Logan," Kurt said, his expression stoic. "Wanda is right. I have been avoiding this for far too long."

Logan scrunched up his face. "You sure, Kurt? I know this is some pretty sensitive stuff for you…"

"Yes," Kurt nodded firmly. "I would rather hear it from you than read the facts in some cold, formal report."

Logan looked at his friend for a long time, then finally nodded. "OK, pal," he said. "I'll tell it to you straight.

"All this happened some eighteen years ago, when TJ here was just a kid in diapers. Apocalypse had been buildin' up his following for some time, and it was pretty clear we'd be the one's who'd have to stop him. Cyke was still with us then, and the old Prof. But it was Nightcrawler and me who would end up in the thick of it when the shi—sorry, Wanda—'crap' hit the fan…"

Stay tuned for Layer Two: Making the Whole World Blind, coming soon to a computer screen near you!