A/N: Wow! Including this chapter, there will only be six more left in the story! It's been fun writing it.

A/N 2: "I'll Cover You" is from Rent (which I just saw, by the way)! Yay!

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. If I did, I'd have better hair (since that appears to be mandatory, over there).

Chapter Twenty: Confessions Part One

New York, Present Day

He was late, like always.

But it didn't matter, Gwen thought, as she sprinted across the grass to her dad's beat-up car. Sigfried Wagner was one of her favorite people in the world, next to Kurt.

Although she worried that he might not reciprocate the feeling, after that night.

Gwen shrugged that thought off, however, and ran into her father's open arms.

"DAD!"

Sigfried twirled her around, hampered by his bad foot. "Sigfreda!"

He set her down, and she used his outstretched arm to steady herself. "Middle name, Dad."

"Ahh, yes. Gwen. In good health and mood, I presume?" His German accent lightly played against his words, giving him an educated air.

"Yeah...what about you? Is your foot any better?"

"The doctor says that it's almost completely healed. I will have to wait a few more months, of course, before they can remove the bandages, but I do not need my cane anymore, as you can see."

Gwen grinned happily. "That's great! Hey, come in, you're probably really tired." She offered him her hand, and he took it, limping along next to her. "How did the meeting go?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I believe that my book will be available for the general public very soon." Sigfried smiled at her, adjusting his glasses meaningfully.

"That's awesome!" She squeezed his arm affectionately.

Storm was in the little lobby of the mansion, arms crossed tightly as she awaited her student and her father. Gwen knew she hadn't gotten sleep for a little while, but at least she disguised it with a dab of concealer. If one didn't know how she normally carried herself, then they wouldn't see that anything was wrong. However, her shoulders were curled over slightly, and her head hung a little too low.

This was going to be, Gwen thought, as she had done so much that day, a hard night.

When they reached the door, Storm gave a welcoming smile. "You must be the Mr. Wagner we've heard so much about. It's nice to meet you." She held her hand out, and Sigfried shook it, uncontrollably staring at her hair.

Gwen kicked his good leg as subtly as possible. "Dad, stop it," she hissed out quietly. He jumped, looking guilty. "Hey, Ms. Munroe-" she winked, putting a faint emphasis on the formal name – "this is my dad. Dad, this is Ms. Munroe, my history teacher."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Fraulein."

Some polite banter was exchanged between the two adults, and Gwen used that time to peek out of the door. It was almost six, so where was Raven? If she had chickened out, then her entire plan would fall apart.

She was supposed to arrive in her normal disguise, as Raven Wagner. From there, she'd pull Kurt and Caroline in somehow, and keep Storm around, so she'd be able to get an explanation for everything. She just wanted everyone to know the truth, about...well, everything they needed to know.

"...yeah, this is pretty much where me and my friends hang out if it's the weekend or whatever," Gwen told Sigfried, gesturing over the TV room, which was empty. "Wanna sit? It's a long drive from Boston, I guess you're probably tired."

Her father smiled appreciatively, and followed her suggestion. "Danke."

"Bitte schoen," she replied, slipping comfortable back into her first language. He settled into the cushions, grunting slightly as he raised his foot and rested it on the table. Gwen was about to slide next to him, when her ears finally picked up on the sound she had been searching for all evening long.

A car motor pulling into the yard, but it wasn't one of Scott's. It had a slight knocking sound, and she knew who it belonged to.

"About time!" she screeched, bouncing up and running to the doorway. "Stay here, Dad! I'll be right back."

Storm had clearly heard it as well. She had come out of her classroom, and was walking quickly back to the lobby, but Gwen was faster. She ran past her teacher, muttering, "Excuse me," and burst outside.

She saw Raven coming out of her car on the gravel driveway, and ran over. The older woman looked quite sick, and Gwen hoped it was from nervousness.

"Hey," she said, waving her fingers in salute. Raven glanced up, let out a sigh of anxiety, and slammed her car door shut.

"Hello," she murmured, straightening. "Is your father here yet?"

"Yeah," Gwen said, looking over her shoulder at Storm, who was marching over, looking confused and wary. "Oh, no. Quick. Get insi- aw, dammit."

Storm had come over, ready to ask questions. "Gwen! Who is this?"

She grinned stupidly, trying – and failing – to look innocent. "A...guest."

Her teacher was not amused. "Who, Gwen?"

Gwen turned to Raven. "You wanna say? I'm a little worn out."

Raven paused, staring a bit at her, then turned to Storm and quickly let her blue scales ripple through her pale skin, eyes flitting to yellow and back to dark blue.

Storm jumped, startled, then whispered, "Mystique."

Raven nodded. "I need to see...Kurt. Please."

"Sit in here," Gwen told Raven, leading her into the TV room. "Dad, move over."

Sigfried did, staring at his stepmother. "Gott in Himmel."

Gwen turned around in the doorway. "Dad, not now!" To Storm: "Watch them, okay? Don't let them talk to each other. Distract them. Wave your car keys at them or something." Then, without looking back, she ran to Kurt's room.

"Effin' labor intensive," she muttered to herself, and began slamming her fist on his door.

Storm didn't know that much about Kurt and Gwen's family. They had told her a little (he had been adopted into the circus; she had been raised by her father; etcetera), but other than that, nothing. But she could tell by the air of the room that theirs was not a happy dynamic.

Sigfried – Kurt's brother; it was so odd – was glaring at Mystique, who was pretending to ignore it. For someone who had faced so many fights with such carefree boldness, she looked positively scared to death.

When Gwen had returned, she had Kurt and, for some reason, Caroline, with her. She had them both by the arms, and was forcefully struggling against their obvious reluctance.

"You two! I swear – oh, just get in there and sit," she gasped, shoving them in. "Sit! Don't make this harder than it has to be!"

Kurt, as he was moving in, looked up at Storm. She stared back at him, noting that he was wearing his trench coat, something he only did when he was upset. His eye was still slightly swollen and dark.

Storm opened her mouth to say something – she didn't know what, she hadn't seen him for so long, maybe just a simple "Hi," – but before she could, he saw Mystique. It looked like the air had been suddenly sucked out of his lungs; he was so shocked.

"You-" he tried, shuddering a little. "Ra...Ra...Rave-"

"Alright, don't hurt yourself," Gwen told him, coming over. "Just sit on the chair and chill for a minute." He complied, alternating his distressed glances between Storm, Mystique, Caroline (who was standing near the opposite end of the couch, glowering at everyone) and his brother.

"Hello, Caroline," Mystique said.

"Raven, do you know what the hell's going on?" Caroline asked in response. "Who's he?" She gestured at Sigfried, who finally stopped staring at Kurt and turned to her.

"That's my dad," Gwen interrupted, standing in front of them all. "Caroline, you can call him Mr. Wagner. He's his-" she pointed at Kurt – "brother, and her-" she pointed at Mystique – "stepson. Even if they're only five years apart."

Storm, after mulling over that information for a moment, suddenly realized with a jump, if Sigfried was Kurt's half-brother and Mystique's stepson, that Kurt and Mystique were mother and son.

"I should go," she said, shaking her head, horrified and beginning to walk out of the room.

"Nope," Gwen told her, and motioned back to her original spot. " It's a big family reunion. After this whole thing, we're gonna have a picnic outside. But Caroline won't have anyone to do a three-legged race with if you're gone. You're staying." She grinned, and her expression gave her an air of total insanity.

Storm, regardless of what her instincts told her, did what she said. She stood near the area where Kurt's chair and Sigfried's end of the couch met, hoping the former might give some sigh that he was not angry with her anymore – what was wrong? – but he had focused very hard on a spot on the floor, and did not look up.

Okay," Gwen announced, fishing through the pockets of her shorts, "gotta list here of things we need to discuss. I'll just toss them out into the open, and you can pretty much just talk about whatever one you want until we're done." She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and smoothed it so she could read it. "Yeah, so here it is: my mom, my dad's toe, why Kurt lived by himself when he was a kid, Caroline's sucky part in all of this, why I like my hair short, Raven's new look, and...oh, the ink's all smudgy...um, and why we're all here right now. Actually, I'll just tell you guys about Dad's toe now. It got cut off when he was in jail for having a baby with one of his high school students." Gwen twirled her arms and waved at herself. "That was me! The baby, I mean."

"Sigfreda-" Sigfried began, but she cut him off.

"No. I know about it...all of it. I know my mom was fifteen. I know you only saw me for the first year of my life during prison visiting hours. I know about everything that happened. But you know what else? I still love you. So there."

Mystique turned to Sigfried. "Fifteen! That's-"

"Cut it out!" Gwen yelled over her. "We're done with that. Talk about something else. Here's a good one for Raven: why did Kurt live alone when he was a kid?"

At that, Storm automatically stopped watching the scene playing out before her and instead studied Kurt. His head was still down, but his eyes were shut.

"Kurt," she whispered as quietly as possble, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "Are you-"

Quick as a flash, he grabbed her outstretched hand and squeezed it. "Traurig," he murmured, and then let go.

"He wasn't alone," Mystique spoke up defensively. "Rolanda and Caroline-"

"Rolanda," Gwen said, for Storm and Sigfried's benefit, "was Caroline's mother, with whom Raven and Kurt lived after they were kicked out of the Wagner household."

"Yes, but I left him with her. He wasn't alone."

"My mother died two months after you left," Caroline told her, with a disturbing lack of sadness. "She found out I was getting married. Heart attack. Really made Emmett feel welcome." She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Not that that made a difference, I guess. He left me after he found-" she grinned maliciously – "Kurt in my house."

Storm bristled at that. She did not like the way she said Kurt's name, as if it was some stupid joke. Although she had just found out that he had known Caroline before she came to the mansion, she felt that there may have been some sinister reason for why he had kept that to himself.

"So you had him with you?" Mystique asked her, frowning suspiciously at her use of him name. "All that time? I thought you didn't like..." she glanced at Kurt "...doing that sort of thing."

Unbelievable, Storm thought. How could a mother leave her son alone with someone who didn't like him? She had just said so herself!

"I didn't." Caroline tilted her head to the side, clearly aware of what Mystique had just said. "In fact-" she narrowed her eyes meaningfully – "I hated it."

Kurt twisted the end of his tail around his chair leg and seized it securely. It looked like he was in pain.

"Stop it!" Storm cried out. She stared angrily at Caroline. "Stop it. Stop talking. Don't say anything. And why did you leave him alone, Mystique?"

"Mys...tique?" Kurt eyes opened and his head snapped up, and Storm realized what she had just done. "What?"

"Oh, right, I forgot!" Gwen said. "Yeah, she's Mystique."

Kurt glared. "So you got her to come and pretend to be my mother? What could that possibly-"

"No! Not pretend!"

"Oh. Ohhh." He sank back down into the chair and closed his eyes again.

"What," Sigfried demanded, "is going on?"

"Good question, Dad." Gwen sighed. "Raven's a mutant who can change shape. Her codename is Mystique. She works for the Brotherhood. Raven Wagner is her disguise for being Grandpa's wife and Kurt's mom. Now, please answer St- Ms. Monroe's question."

"You're a mutant!"

"Dad, sit down, she's cool. Stay." She sat down on the coffee table. "Okay...go!"

"I-" Mystique began. "I didn't think I was leaving him alone. I swear, Kurt. I just didn't know...how to take care of you. You were better off without me."

Gwen's jaw dropped. "So you thought he'd be okay with a seventeen year old psycho who hated him? Are you completely evil or just stupid?"

"Hey!"

"What were you thinking, then?"

"I...don't know. That day, he was...he just looked so miserable when he was with me, but he...smiled when he was sleeping." She looked down at the floor. "He was so young, I just thought if I left he wouldn't get screwed up by me anymore. He had turned six the month before...so there was still time for me to get away so he'd be fine."

Kurt opened his eyes. "You left in November."

Mystique looked up. "Yes. You remember."

"Ja." He frowned. "But I wasn't born in October."

"Yes, you were."

"My birthday's November sixteenth."

"No...it's..." Mystique began muttering to herself and counting on her fingers. "Oh, god."

"This model parent moment brought to you by Raven Wagner," Gwen announced. "Now, even though that was a totally stupid response, you did answer the question, so let's move on." She looked back at her list. "Well, here's why I like my hair short: when I was fourteen, I went to visit Kurt at his circus like I always did when I was in Germany over the summer, his adopted brother went crazy and cut off my hair. I'm just going to leave out the rest cuz it's really, really creepy." She made a face. "I kept it short because I'm proud I survived his insanity."

"How did you know him?" Sigfried asked, jerking his head at Kurt.

"Because when I was eleven, I found out you had a brother. And I know that, because-" she breathed deeply – "I can read and control minds. Dad, I'm a mutant too."

A/N: So...dang...long since I updated, sorry.

Haven't seen X3...is it good?

Stay tuned for the rest of the story!