The village of Winzeldorf is set in the heart of Bavarian Alps, and the snow-tipped giants surround it from all sides, making it both; extremely picturesque, and equally isolated. The only road leading in and out of this valley is curving its way through the lowest points between two of the mountains and leads further West, through and out of Schwarzwald - The Black Forest. This is a road quite a few locals take on a daily basis, committing to a nearly two-hour drive for the sake of working in the city of Munich, either for the sake of better income or just looking for job opportunities that Winzeldorf did not offer.
Most locals, however, chose to stay in their little ecosystem; many worked in the steep fields, growing crops or caring for farm animals, others had their little businesses sprinkled around the village. Within this community you could find anything, from locally baked bread, through seamstress to a low-end mechanic. For that reason there were more than a few people who never left the valley, and many more who left it only on special occasions.
A fifteen year old boy peeked out the corner and down the descending cobblestone road, admiring the charming, traditional look the village retained due to those seclusive ways in which it operated. Progress of the modernizing world kept passing this area by, for better or for worse. But his eagerness to see the other end of the spectrum - the big cities he saw in the movies - didn't take away from his appreciation for observing this more traditional, but very bright environment. It seemed so endearing to be able to join the people going about their days, in and out of little, colorful window shops in the main square.
But of course, he couldn't join the hustle. He did, however, dare to overlook it from the roofs a few times in the past. This time he didn't feel so courageous.
Somebody's footsteps were becoming louder down the street, and slowly a long shadow emerged in the moonlight, moving in his direction. Without a sound, the boy stepped back, far enough for the deeper shadows of the alley to fully consume him. Without a single move other than his fast beating heart, he waited. The shadow came into his view on the pavement.
The boy held his breath and shut his eyes. He listened, but the man didn't slow down to peer in his direction. He only opened his eyes when he was sure the stranger moved past the alley. He let out the air slowly and let his tensed shoulders losen.
Barely three or four hours ago, he was sitting at the windowsill in his house, wishing out loud that he could go for a walk.
"[Oh, honey…]" said his mother with the usual regret. "[You know it's not safe…]"
"[I know]" he told her softly, but later that same evening he found himself zipping up his hoodie and climbing out the window of his bedroom. The fear of being exposed was pushed aside by something more powerful. The hunger of being alive outside of those walls.
'I'll stay away from people this time' he vowed to himself. 'It'll be alright'.
But even nestled in the night he was beating himself up for taking the risk by coming into the populated area. He didn't want to give his mother any more reasons to worry about him. And with that in mind, he took the route back out of the village, moving quietly through the roofs where he was far safer than down on the ground, in the ordinary world.
Ten minutes later two golden, softly glowing orbs moved through the forest, and it was almost all you could see move through the darkness that welled beneath moonlit trees. The cautious eyes did not belong to another animal living in the Schwarzwald, although sometimes the boy questioned whether this isn't where he'd fit in, rather than the walls of his family home. At least he wouldn't have to hide from his neighbours; a wolf or an owl were far less judgemental than humans.
His mind dwelled a lot on that judgement lately; sometimes he'd look at his three fingered, blue palm and try to understand where the aggression towards him comes from. He knew what he reminded them of - he read the Bible as well. He saw many depictions of the devil and his spawns, and he found more than enough correlation between that and what he saw in the mirror to understand their fear. Yet what he went through this year went beyond what he could understand. The raw violence of those months stood alone to anything he experienced before.
And he was not ready to deal with any of that.
He stumbled on a branch, and it wasn't his eyes that failed him. He stayed down for a moment, just remembering to breathe. Some memories are better left buried.
Locking that pandora box again, he pushed it back in his mind far enough that he didn't need to start processing it just yet. 'Mom just said you look like you're feeling better, don't screw it up.'
Shortly he was on the move again, and picked up the pace, eventually letting himself go and dropping to sprint on all four. The darkness was broken up by the moon and the stars, the silvery glow caught him occasionally as he moved through the shadowy forest more swiftly than most animals actually inhabiting it.
A faint glow made shadows around him appear even darker, and it brought him to a stop immediately, with a heart trembling at the thought that it could be somebody's flashlight. By the time he spotted where the light came from, it was no longer a faint glow but rather a bright spotlight with no direction, and - no source. He was too confused to do anything but try to get a look through his fingers.
White and blue orb of light just hung mid-air, pulsating as if it was a living creature. For a moment the boy remembered all the alien movies and books, and a thought crossed his mind - did they come to claim him? Is he one of them? A discarded experiment? Or is it because he's so different that they want him for research?
He had many theories throughout his life as to why he's so different to other people, and being an alien seemed as good as any for the longest time. But a man who offered him the sanctuary recently said he was a mutant, and that there were others a lot like him out there. Was this orb of light somehow connected to all of this? Was it sent or created by someone like him?
He found himself resisting the urge to run, even as the light intensified, forcing him to completely cast his sensitive eyes in a different direction. And then the light burst, expanding faster than he could register. For a moment he thought his life was over, but instead the light dimmed and he was able to look at it again.
What looked like an oval pane of glowing glass hung in the air, framed with blue flames that were subjected to gravity different from that of this planet. A deep but soft rumble echoed around the portal-looking phenomenon, and the boy watched it, baffled. He didn't experience much of the world, but knew this is not something that was known to exist in it.
But then again, so was he.
And maybe for that reason, he was open to trusting this wonder rather than to fear what felt like raw power held by it. He moved closer, slowly and carefully, his tail swaying with curiosity and worry. A soft breeze seemed to be radiating from the face of it, but the blue flames were neither hot nor cold, and the glass-like pane of it wasn't actually reflective. The more he looked at it, the more it seemed like a pane of pure, swaying light.
Semi-conscious he reached to its surface, before stopping himself. Touching it seems like the kind of idea he always yelled at characters in books and movies for having. But being in the moment, he knew why they never listened.
His fingers connected with the light.
And for the shortest moment, he truly, genuinely, didn't exist.
xXx
The portal's face swayed and rumbled, like the belly of a glowing beast after a good feast. Just seconds ago the boy was swallowed by its light, and now it was ready to return him to existence.
His body hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, taken by surprise and completely devoid of his usual agility; as he rolled across the wild grass he barely had time to register the portal's existence before it went out like a match, leaving them blinded in the darkness.
Them - he realized with dread immediately setting in his heart - he wasn't alone. Two other people were spit out by the portal and went flying alongside him. As soon as that registered, the boy got up like the ground was on fire, and he took a few big steps away from them. But he didn't leave; with a pounding heart he made himself stay, because whatever just happened to him - they were a part of.
The two figures groaned with pain at the rough landing and took long enough to collect themselves to a sitting position for the boy to nervously notice things about them. One was a white girl in a leather jacket who looked about his age, her brown hair was in disarray exposing multiple piercings on her ear that reflected the moonlight, just like the many rings on her fingers as she lifted one hand to her head. The other person was a tall man in his twenties, with darker skin, unruly black hair and a warm coat. He seemed to have dropped a chunky, metal box that rolled a few feet further away from him.
The boy's eyes jumped from one to the other, and his mind followed with calculating his escape routes. It was just two people in the middle of the night, and knowing that he can easily outrun them was the only reason why he stayed.
"Holy fuck, that hurt" the girl said in english.
"Something went wrong" the young man sat up. He also spoke English, but neither of them seemed to have a British accent. The two of them were probably not from Europe, but it was the least interesting detail about the entire situation.
Neither of them looked in his direction yet, but now that they managed to sit up their attention was on the surroundings. The young German didn't know if they could see him very well - or at all - in the deep shadows he went into, but he knew they could spot his eyes. He was too preoccupied with watching the two strangers to conceal them.
"I think we ended up in the wrong year, I need to check this out" the man said. His eyes barely brushed past where the boy was standing in the darkness, he seemed to be looking for the metal box instead. "But you guys are okay?"
The boy's eyes immediately darted through the darkness looking for the third person, but he only confirmed what he already knew - there was no one else. He kept quiet.
"My shoulder hurts when I try to move it, but I'll be fine" the brunette proceeded to get up, clearly trying to keep her right arm relatively still.
"How about you, Kurt?"
The boy's heart stopped and he went cold for a moment when his own name left the man's lips. Why did he know his name was just a cherry on top of a mountain of questions that went through his head in a nauseating rush.
The man was still looking almost blindly through the deep shadows for the box. The girl however turned her gaze to Kurt - not just in his direction, she was clearly looking right into his eyes. So it's not like they didn't know he was there. They not only knew he was there, but they also knew his name. The boy was frozen.
"Who…" his voice was so soft it wouldn't even reach their ears. 'Who are you' his thoughts screamed, on the other hand. 'What was that glowing portal and what happened, how do you know me, what do you want with me?!' but he couldn't articulate any of that.
"Kurt?" the girl's voice was tender and her eyes were becoming more worried. He couldn't imagine why. She took a first small step in his direction, and it was like someone hit 'play' on his paused body; he quickly moved back, three steps back for every step she took towards him.
She stopped.
The young man behind her finally got up to his feet with the recovered metal box in his hand. "Got it!"
But the brunette's eyes remained trained on the boy's glowing eyes.
"Kurt, are you alright?" she asked with growing concern.
"Who… who are you?" he finally asked. "How do you know me?"
This brought the tall man's attention to him at last, and his eyes opened slightly wider. "Dude, are you playing with us?"
Kurt couldn't imagine what kind of games he was supposed to play with these strangers.
The girl ever so slightly moved towards him again. He moved back, his heartbeat picking up again.
"...He's not playing" the girl whispered. "He's genuinely scared…"
It was very peculiar for the boy to hear. Usually he was the one people were scared of, and nobody seemed to have any regard for the fear he felt in return.
"...What… was that glowing thing…?" he heard himself asking.
The brunette's worried eyes lingered on him as she slowly turned her face to the tall man. "What's going on…?" she looked briefly at her companion before locking her gaze on Kurt again.
The man's eyes also locked on Kurt's, and the boy felt his fight or flight response kick in. But he made himself stay still; he was far enough that they couldn't get their hands on him before he'd run away. And he needed to understand.
The man stood behind the girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "Kurt… what year is it?" he asked carefully.
The question was just another speck in the pile of odd. For a moment the answer didn't seem obvious to the boy; perhaps it was too trivial a question to focus when so many other questions seem necessary to be asked.
"...Nineteen ninety-five..." he answered slowly. "...Why- Who are you…?"
The brunette's eyes were now trained on the tall man. "Forge?" she asked, her voice demanding but somewhat shaky.
"That's why we're in the wrong place, we ended up in the wrong year-"
"Fuck the year, seriously!" the girl shook her head. "Why does Kurt not remember anything?"
The man- Forge- exhaled nervously. "It's- You can compare it to jet lag, I guess. Because we ended up in the wrong year his memories will need some time to catch up to him. But it's there-" he pointed to his own head, "just a little behind the schedule."
"How long?"
"He might need a few hours- or days. Depends on a lot of factors."
The brunette inhaled slowly, her eyes still on Kurt. The look on her face was worried, void of the violent emotions he always saw in strangers. He found the courage to speak up;
"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Why do you talk like you know me?"
The tall man smiled with what could be encouragement, but whatever positive Kurt saw in that smile was replaced by darker emotions as the man moved towards him; "Because we do know you! You will soon remember that-"
He stopped after just one step but the boy already rapidly recoiled in fear; his breath was quick and his heart beat fast like a haunted rabbits'. Only when he was another few feet away did he look back up at the man, and saw that rather than stop at his own accord he was grabbed by the girl who now urged the confused man back.
"I'll handle him" he heard her whisper to him. "Just give us space. Two of us is too much right now."
The tall man took another worried look towards Kurt before nodding. He walked a dozen steps in the opposite direction and sat down with his metal box in a spot particularly well-lit by moonlight. He clicked something that erected a screen which cast faint, green light on his face.
The girl now turned her entire attention to Kurt, and with the man at a further distance, the boy responded with the same.
"I know you're confused" her voice was barely above a whisper, almost like she knew his hearing was slightly better than most people. Maybe she did. He didn't know anymore. "And I know you're scared" she said, even softer. "I know words don't mean anything, but I need you to know we're not going to hurt you. I'll explain everything to you now, alright?"
His heart was still beating too fast, but the tone of the girl's voice and the caring look on her face were somewhat soothing him in a way he didn't know a complete stranger could soothe someone. It was like he was inclined to trust her, he felt almost like he knew her.
"Listen, I-" she licked her lip before slowly sitting down on the grass in a cross-legged position. "I will stay here. And when- if, you feel comfortable with it, you can come join me."
A little relieved that he's now the only one left standing, and the two strangers somewhat declared to stay where they are and not approach him, Kurt let himself calm his breath and tensed body. He didn't respond, so after a moment the girl picked up softly;
"That is Forge" she slowly gestured over her shoulder. " Or Jonathan."
He looked behind her at the man, who turned his back to them, as if to give them privacy.
"And I go by Fallen" she continued softly. "That 'glowing thing' we all fell out of- was a portal between this dimension and another. You were in that other dimension for a very long time, and that's how I know you" she smirked with sadness.
"I don't know you…" Kurt said low.
"You know me better than anyone. You just don't remember. It's probably because we are in your past."
"My- this is nonsense!"
The adrenaline of just having a chit-chat with a stranger was mixing with exasperation over the confusing and unbelievable situation, Kurt felt he's starting to get a headache from all of it.
The girl took a deep breath and thought for a moment. "It would probably be easier to just wait until you remember everything, but it could take days and I don't want to leave you hanging like that… Look at your clothes."
For the first time since being swallowed and then spit out by that 'portal' Kurt looked down at himself. His usual features were all the same, but his bare two toes peeked out from underneath jean pants he never saw before, and he was wearing some kind of gray shirt he never saw before, topped with a light brown jacket he also never saw before. For a moment the clothes felt so alien he wanted to rip them off, instead he just nervously touched them to confirm it's not just his eyes failing him.
"It's stuff you got yourself in my dimension. It's a little different than what you're used to because it was twenty years into the future" the girl said in a calming voice. "Are you keeping up with me so far?"
He nervously lifted his eyes from his clothes back to the girl sitting a dozen feet away. For all he wanted to say this is some kind of a trick, something in the back of his head made it feel like there is a lot that he missed between going in and out of that portal. A mass amount of time and events he couldn't put his finger on.
His head felt a little light. He shakily crouched down, resting one palm on the cool ground. The girl gave him time, and when he finally regained his balance, he was baffled at the fact that he spent an entire minute staring at the ground, leaving himself defenseless.
He lifted his head; the girl still sat in the same spot, watching him softly. With her leather combat boots, ripped jeans, lots of jewelry and dark eye makeup she could seem hostile, yet the way she looked at him and spoke to him made him feel an odd sense of safety.
His guts twisted. The first time - this year, too - he was asked to trust someone, it started the worst events of his life. This someone who held out a helping hand to him turned out to be the man who destroyed him. The next person who was kind to him afterwards paid for it with their life. And right after that tragedy, he declined the helping hand of a man who offered too much to believe that it could be true.
And he was now debating letting his guard down with someone else.
She waited, giving him time and space to process the unbelievable.
"...Keep going" he said low.
She wetted her lips again. "You will remember all the details of what happened soon enough. For now I think it's important that you know that… First you lived through a few following years of the future in this dimension… Then you found yourself in mine, year 2008, we met soon after and you spent a solid couple years there with me. Then Forge was supposed to take us both back to where you left off in this dimension, to the year 2001, but we ended up in a more distant past, and somehow that caused your memory to be temporarily damaged."
There were so many layers to peel back, Kurt didn't know where to start asking questions. A part of him really wanted to believe this craziness, because it meant there is a future for him that isn't just more of the same.
"In that future- or the other dimension… We are friends?"
A brief smile crossed the girl's face. "...You could definitely say that."
Before he could question what that meant, Kurt's attention was commanded by movement behind the girl. The man- Forge. Forge stood up from the ground, the metal box under his arm. "I don't want to rush you, guys, but my butt is freezing off from sitting on the ground. Besides, is it safe to stay in the forest at night?"
Something so trivial didn't cross the boy's mind in the face of the supernatural events, but there were indeed dangerous predators lurking in these mountains, and the other two weren't likely to share his ability to climb, run and see in the dark well enough to escape them.
"Where are we exactly?" Forge asked.
The German cleared his throat and picked his words carefully. "In a Bavarian forest."
The brunette shifted from the tall man back to him. "Schwarzwald?"
His brow raised in surprise and concern. He nodded slightly, enough for them to be able to tell in the poor lighting.
Fallen picked up again; "Kurt, listen. I know it's a lot to ask, but can we continue this conversation at your house?"
The boy shifted uncomfortably. With the hostility of the outside world, his house was always a sacred safe-space. His parents made sure to avoid having anyone over so that the secret that he is, remains uncovered.
"I know you live with your mom down in the valley" she sad softly. "It's alright. We're on your side all the way."
Kurt slowly stood up and after a moment of watching the two strangers, he nodded hesitantly.
xXx
He walked slowly, avoiding the branches, bushes, and listening to the steps of the two people walking a few solid feet behind him. He made sure to keep them at an arm's length; even if he was oddly inclined to trust them, the situation was too bizarre to just let his guard down. Usually people following him were out for his head, pitchforks and the entire medieval gear included.
But within a few minutes these two already defied the usual status quo of his encounters with people.
"Where do we go from here?" the man asked barely above a whisper.
There was a short pause, like the girl shrugged. "If you're right in saying that Kurt will soon recover his memories, all that will be left is to try getting our initial plan back on track as much as possible."
"I don't think it'll be possible to make it to 2001. Not with all the equipment left behind, I can't possibly trigger another gateway."
"Then we're stuck here."
"I'm sorry."
"You did the best you could. I'm grateful. Kurt will be, too. Besides, this is still far better than nothing. Kurt will get some of his old life back over time."
"But no one will remember him."
"Still, better than nothing."
"I suppose he'll make the same friends. And at least his mom is still… you know" he lowered his voice even more.
Kurt strained his ears, but whatever followed wasn't communicated verbally.
"Should we contact the Professor?" the man asked again, after a moment.
"We'll have no other choice, sooner or later."
Kurt listened with more intensity. Could they be talking about the same Professor who helped him last year and offered a place to live in the United States?
"But he won't remember us either. He might not be so eager to cooperate."
"He'll cooperate with you two alright. Me, on the other hand…"
Kurt couldn't' hold back any longer, he turned his head to them and asked; "Who's that Professor you're talking about?"
Fallen didn't seem surprised that he was eavesdropping. "Professor Xavier, he runs a sort of boarding house for teens with unique abilities and mutations. Much like yourself and Forge."
The boy's eyes shifted to the tall man, but looking him up and down he couldn't find anything unusually unique about him, in a way that could compare to his own, over the top uniqueness. The man clearly saw the questioning arch on Kurt's face, lifted his right arm and pulled up the sleeve to his elbow. The regular skin suddenly shifted and transformed into a metal, tube-shaped gearbox, for lack of a better word. All kinds of pliers, screwdrivers and other useful items seemed to be hiding in little compartments along the shaft of it.
"I have this biomechanical arm, a gift for building devices and-" he turned his arm back to normal and tapped on his calf instead. It sounded like metal, "-a prosthetic leg of my own design. Nothing spectacular about that one, though."
Kurt stared in awe so much he forgot to keep his safe distance and the two strangers approached him, stopping mere three feet in front of him.
"I've never seen anything like this" the boy said.
"Have you seen anyone like you?"
He shook his head left and right shy.
The man smiled. "Exactly. At Xavier's palace everyone has something unique about them."
"Is that… where I lived in the future?" the words, however bizarre, didn't sound as odd on his lips as they ought to. A part of him started to remember a feeling of spending a lot of time in a place other than his secluded village.
"For a couple of years, yes."
So according to this, he did eventually agree to take that man up on the offer. And if he stayed years there, it couldn't have been so bad either.
A minor headache was developing in the back of his head. There was so much to figure out here.
For now he moved on to lead them into the valley, but this time he stayed closer to the other two.
"Are there any more questions you want to ask us by the time you remember everything?" the brunette asked.
There were many, but one thing made the most impression on Kurt; the sole idea of their friendship. He longed for friends for far too many years to take them lightly now.
"...How long do we all know one another?" he asked low.
"Well?" the girl looked at Forge first.
"You and I, a few weeks?" he looked at her, then shifted his gaze to her. "You, Kurt, and I… I would say four or five years, plus some more when you were in the other dimension and time flowed differently for you."
Then the brunette looked at Kurt. "You and I… a little bit over seven years."
It was a little bit overwhelming to hear the numbers. It felt like a lot of time to know someone for a fifteen year old. But then he had a feeling - only followed by realization - that if he went through all those years of a future, he wasn't fifteen years old anymore. Not entirely.
He also realized that once he remembers all those years, it will change him, and he was part excited for this surge of experience, but part scared not to recognize himself anymore after all of that.
"What is that?" he asked, nervously gesturing to the metal box carried by Forge.
"This?" the man pulled the box into a better view. "I call it the Transporter, it's like a remote for other equipment, it helped me trigger the portal you saw. It's basically a big data drive that communicates with the much larger devices I had in the future of this dimension and then the same one I set up in the other dimension."
For a few minutes they walked in silence - either that or the other two talked, but Kurt was too busy trying to conjure an image that dangled at the edge of his memory.
"...Does it mean anything to you… if I say a white-no, not white, more like… yellowish… big building, lots of grass and trees around it…?"
"Yes! That's the Xavier Institute!" Forge grinned excitedly. "You're starting to remember!"
The brunette smiled at him softly as well. "Wasting no time, Captain Wagner."
The boy lifted his eyebrows. "Is it a mockery of my love for pirates?"
"But it's as sympathetic as mockery ever gets."
He involuntarily smiled back at her.
They arrived at the edge of woods; lights were rarely on in the buildings past sunset, and tonight was no different. White houses with dark, wooden ornamentations on the outside and steep roofs were standing more and more densely the further into the village you looked. Instead of down the main, cobblestone road, Kurt led them along the woods and only walked onto a soft path when they approached the house on the edge of the street.
"I left through the window, so I don't have keys on me" he fidgeted. "I'll go and unlock the doors from the inside."
"Can't you just teleport in?" Forge asked.
Kurt's eyes twitched. He did experience something he could only describe as teleportation this year, this is what that Professor Xavier approached him about initially. But he was still developing his control over this new skill and it could get loud and ugly when he missed the mark. He didn't want to give his mother a scare in the middle of the night.
"Just go ahead, whatever's easier for you" the girl told him.
He still somewhat scolded himself for bringing two strangers right to his doorstep as he made it around the house, up a tree to his bedroom, and down the stairs to the front door. He hesitated just a little before turning the lock and cracking the door open for them. For the first time in his life, Kurt Wagner was letting guests into the house instead of hiding upstairs.
He exhaled nervously as he stepped aside and let them into the hallway and briefly gestured to the coat hanger and shoe rack below it.
"Just please, be quiet" he said just above a whisper as he locked the front door again. "I wouldn't know what to tell my mom if she wakes up and sees you."
The other two removed their outerwear and proceeded to remove the shoes that got dirty during their walk back through the forest. Kurt also felt hot, but as he reached to remove his jacket and felt the alien garment under his fingers he felt uneasy. He removed it and looked at it in his hands, and then down at his entire alien outfit.
"Wait over there" he gestured to a cracked door down the corridor. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
He made it back upstairs, avoiding the one step that always creaked. He closed the door of his bedroom as quietly as he could and rested his back against them. Did he bring home trouble or his first friends? Tonight wasn't supposed to get so crazy.
He took a deep breath, threw the new jacket onto his bed and grabbed a new set of clothes from his wardrobe. Clothes that he actually knew to be his and that he felt more comfortable in, not so tight and exposing and just not of this time. He changed into a loose set of light brown cargo pants and a plain orange t-shirt. He left the new clothes 'from the future' along with the jacket and a wristwatch he didn't have before, and grabbed a gray hoodie instead. His old one as well as other stuff he was wearing tonight was probably lost beyond the portal forever.
He took a moment to pull himself together and went back downstairs, to the living room. Fallen and Forge were sitting on the sofa, talking quietly. They stopped when he came in and watched him close the door without another word. If they expected him to be the first to say something, he had little to offer.
"We were just discussing what to do. I think it's best if we wait until you remember at least enough of what happened to believe us before we take the next step" the girl said finally.
"And what would the next step be?" he moved to the armchair to sit, but he couldn't shake the odd sensation like his own house wasn't his anymore, or like he hadn't been here for a long time. "Talking to that Professor you were talking about?"
"That's the best thing we could do at this point" Forge said. "We were supposed to appear at his Institute if everything went according to plan. But he doesn't know about it since it didn't happen yet."
"Now we have to make sure he chooses to have us anyway" the girl added, a grimace on her face showing she's not expecting it to be easy.
"...He already offered me to come there" Kurt said slowly. The other two looked at him waiting for what he's got to say, but they didn't look like it came as a surprise. "Last year he-..." he never talked about it to anyone, and memories of that year were trying to push and pull him in many directions. "He helped me get out of trouble and brought me back to Germany. Then he told me and my mom that he'd like me to come to his school… Institute for the Gifted Youngsters, if I remember correctly."
"That's correct" Fallen smiled briefly at him.
"But you refused" Forge deduced.
"Ja" he was starting to feel more comfortable talking to them. He sat more comfortably in the armchair. "I just got back home after months of- not being able to. I needed time to just try and- move on. I wasn't- ready to take any new chances."
As he looked at the other two he could see by the looks on their faces that they knew more than he told them. Especially the girl's eyes made him feel like she knew more details about that year than he ever told anyone. Ha had a gut feeling that was true. He looked away, wondering how much these two near-strangers really know about him.
"Lately I've been reconsidering his offer" he picked up again. "But it's scary, you know? I never-" he bit his lip for a moment. "I never knew anyone other than my parents. That Professor promised that at his Institute there would be people who wouldn't be scared of me or be repelled by me, but- everything in my past experience told me that it's not… not possible."
"It gets better" Fallen whispered almost passionately. "It gets so much better than this, I promise."
He looked up shyly, but found nothing in her face to make it seem like a lie. His chest was gripped by loneliness of the past mixed with hope of that better future that the two of his guests were supposedly a part of. He needed to swallow and take a deep breath to stop his eyes from becoming watery.
He needed a change of subject.
"Fallen… are you coming to the Institute with us as well?"
"That's the plan" she fell back onto the sofa.
"Do you have any- odd traits?"
"You mean mutations or powers?" she asked before smirking briefly at him. "No. I'm from that other dimension where Gen X didn't evolve. At least not to my knowledge, not yet."
"Gen X?" Wanger asked.
"The thing that causes this type of mutation. Probably all people in this dimension are carriers of the inactive Gen X, but not where I come from. So unless it magically joined my DNA when I came here then I think it's impossible for me to develop any powers."
"So why did you want to come here and join an Institution for mutants?"
This time the girl wasn't so quick to answer. She looked back at him for a moment before resting back again and smiling briefly at him. "You'll remember soon enough."
It puzzled him, but was just one question in a sea of things he didn't understand or fully believe about this situation.
And most bizarre part was, that the more he tried to focus on the supposed lost memories of the future, the more he did feel like what felt like a half of his life passed by tonight.
"...I lived in a big room…" he started speaking absently, trying to grab a hold of images in the back of his head. "...with a double, glass door leading out onto a balcony… there was a view of some kind of ocean or a large bay…"
"The Institute" Forge smiled widely.
"...But I also remember some kind of- almost black-and-white apartment with a large, glass wall…"
"That was our place in New York" Fallen was also beaming at him.
"Our place?" Kurt opened his eyes wider as he looked up to the brunette.
She wetted her lips to buy time to weigh her words carefully. "Like I said before, you and I lived together in my dimension."
Despite the gut feeling that it was real, Kurt still felt like it was a fake story he made up in his mind. But he couldn't find any more believable explanations why these two strangers fell out of a portal with him and seemed to know him and be friendly with him, or why his clothes were different after falling out of said portal, and why strange memories seemed to float just out of his reach, causing him to develop a headache.
The best he could do was to act on the conviction that it's true, but always keep in mind that it might not be and remain appropriately careful.
He rubbed his temples for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts.
"You need time, and that's alright" Forge said. "But is it an option that we stay here until your memories are restored? It can take a few hours, but it can also take a few days, and we were not prepared for this situation."
"...Ja. I'm sure my mom won't mind either, I just- have to find a way to explain it to her..." he trailed off. How is he supposed to explain something he doesn't understand? He got up slowly. "I'll get her to agree for you to stay here tonight, and tomorrow… Tomorrow you're welcome to try to tell her everything. Don't mind me, but I'll stay on the fence."
He left, quietly closed the living room's door and approached the closed door of his parents bedroom, for the last three years occupied only by his mother. He knocked softly, but since it didn't seem enough to wake her up he just quietly slipped into the dark room and made it to the side of her bed.
"[Mom…]" he nudged her slightly.
The woman stirred and opened her eyes, squinting with sleepiness and confusion. "[...Kurt, it's the middle of the night… Is everything alright?]" she rubbed her eyes and switched on the lamp on her nightstand.
"[...I- I think so. But something happened that I don't fully understand…]"
He told her everything with full honesty - about his night stroll that already had his mother riled up, and then about the glowing portal and how he was sucked in and spit out of it in company of two people who claimed to be his friends from another timeline. He told her he's got a weird sensation that they're right, but his memory is supposedly 'lagged' and would take some time to be restored.
The woman listened to him, her gray eyes opened a little too wide for comfort, but the boy fully related to his mother's disbelief. On the other hand a more instinct-driven part of him and the way the two supposed strangers were acting made him unable to just discard this obnoxious story. That's also something he tried to convey to his mother.
"[Are you sure you haven't dreamed all of this?]" she asked.
He hesitated. "[You can see for yourself. They're in the living room.]"
She blinked, baffled. "[You brought strangers to our house?]" she whispered intensely as her eyes shifted to the bedroom door with a frown. "[Kurt, you know how dangerous it is! If they have bad intentions you led them to the only place-]"
"[Mom]" he stopped her, absently looking at her bed. "[I don't know if I believe all of this yet, but I believe they do not have bad intentions. If they wanted to hurt me, they had plenty of occasions back in the woods."]
The woman looked into his eyes with concern, but her shoulders slumped with defeat.
Kurt reached to her hand. "[I think they're friends.]"
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "[Say we believe their story. You brought them here. What now?]"
"[They were saying something about waiting for my memories of the future-timeline-slash-other-dimension to come back. Until I see if they do or not- I don't know. I just don't]" he was quiet for a moment before picking up again; "[Can we have them stay the night and try to figure this out tomorrow?]"
His mother looked even more defeated now. "[...I want to meet them first]" she threw away her duvet and grabbed a warm bathrobe, adding in a mutter; "[I want to make sure they don't try to kill us in our sleep.]"
xXx
When the woman arrived at the door, the two people in her bedroom instantly stood up with alert looks on their faces. She looked them up and down, looking for any immediate danger, but saw no telltale signs of hostility or objects that could cause harm. There was a metal box sitting on the coffee table, but neither of them seemed interested in picking it up right now.
The two of them said their 'good mornings' in an uncoordinated chorus.
She looked back at Kurt who apparently forgot to mention they apparently speak english. She moved her eyes between their unsure faces. "It's hardly morning yet" she said, then extended her hand. "But welcome. I'm Margali Szardos" she introduced herself.
They squeezed her hand, giving her their names. Or rather pseudonyms.
They all sat down around the coffee table and she listened to them recount the same bizzare course of events in their own words, and claim Kurt would confirm all of it once he remembers it happened.
"I have seen my son this evening, and you're claiming long years passed by since" she stated, looking critically at them.
"You do know he can teleport, correct?" the man asked. She nodded her head once. "So if you can believe that he can teleport across this dimension by popping into another one, so how big of a stretch is it really that instead of popping back in here he popped into another one where time flows differently?" he leaned in and lowered his voice. "Because that's the driving force behind this entire situation. Just teleporting further ahead instead of back out."
The woman stared back at the young man, but before she collected her thoughts enough to speak, Kurt asked faintly;
"Does it mean I could accidentally disappear somewhere again?"
There seemed to be genuine fear behind the question. The woman reached to squeeze his hand.
Forge shook his head and waved his hands. "No. It took very specific conditions to happen the first time, and then I had to artificially recreate those conditions to let you do it on purpose. Without it you can safely teleport without worrying about it. Your teleporting abilities are nowhere near this powerful to make it just happen."
"And you're saying Kurt will remember everything you said happened."
"Yes."
She took a moment before replying. "Alright. We'll see about that. You can stay the rest of the night in the spare room upstairs, I think it's enough revelations for one night. There's Kurt's old bed and the old double bed, I'll have Kurt bring sheets over to you in a moment. It's the last door on the left."
As the two of them left, she turned to Kurt.
"[You forgot to mention they're not from Germany. Putting me on the spot like that.]"
"[Sorry, mom. But your english is still great."]
"[You're lucky I didn't grow up around here, I wouldn't know a word."
xXx
The headache that started so subtly after the 'portal' spewed him out seemed to get worse ever since, and not being used to this Kurt didn't know whether and what to do about it. How bad does it have to get before it's okay to take painkillers? What kind? Should he keep trying to sleep if it makes it worse?
He fell in and out of sleep, jolted awake by confusion over his dreams. They felt more like distorted memories - the way his dreams about his actual past did. But they were of a life he didn't have, or at least - if you believe the two strangers he met earlier tonight - he didn't yet remember having.
There were many people who seemed to be his friends, but at least some made him feel uncomfortable. There were many odd, action-packed moments where he and a group of people, all dressed in skin-tight black bodysuits, would fight the most bizzare machinery or people. Everyone seemed to have superpowers, and there was the feeling of importance to keeping that fact a secret. There was also this girl from today, Fallen, her face and body often too close for comfort, and yet he only felt weird about it after waking up, but during the dreams it felt natural. There were also some emotionally charged moments of watching what oddly looked like a cartoon version of events, intertwined with remembering how they actually happened for him.
None of these scrambled pieces created an actual picture in his mind, but every time he woke up with another puzzle piece he pondered for a moment and tried to relate it to the rest of it.
Eventually the gray morning light creeped into his bedroom and he gave up on sleep, finding it more exhausting than rejuvenating. He got up, took a shower and went back to his bedroom to change.
The clothes he was wearing the other day, after falling out of the portal, were still on the chair where he threw them before going to bed. They still felt alien but he felt like he's starting to develop a taste for this slightly different style. And he noticed that what he initially discarded as a random pattern on the shirt is actually a print of Michael Jackson's signature. He glanced at his collection of CDs, including all of M.J.'s music and shook his head. He shouldn't treat something as silly as print on a shirt as proof of something so unbelievable.
But the dreams, on the other hand… The memories haunting him throughout the night. Maybe that was a little more convincing.
He put on the same zip-up hoodie he grabbed after losing one in the portal last night. He put it on on his way downstairs.
September is a rather warm month here, in Bavaria, however some mornings reminded the locals of the upcoming winter. That morning thick fog pooled in the valley and enveloped the village of Winzeldorf in a milky veil, the air cold and wet. The cold crept inside the Szardos' home, so when Kurt found Forge in the kitchen he wasn't surprised to see a blanket that usually covered the armchair in their living room, now wrapped around the man's broad back.
"...Hi…" the german said low, uncertain and new to starting any conversation with anyone but his parents.
"Hey, man" Jonathan replied with a brief smirk.
"...You can have something else. Anything" Kurt looked at the glass of water in the man's hand and vaguely gestured to the kitchen drawers and the fridge. "Tea, milk, cocoa. And grab anything you want for breakfast, too."
"I didn't want to abuse your and your mother's hospitality."
"The only way to make us mad is if you refuse to eat" Kurt seemed to force a smirk but immediately his face resumed the tired look.
"Couldn't sleep?" the man asked.
Wagner grimaced. "I had a headache all night. I think it's… because I start to remember things" with his hands slightly shaking, the boy pulled out a plastic tray specifically designed to hold chicken eggs and placed it beside the cooker. "But it's all like scrambled eggs and I can't make any sense of it" he said low, his eyes stilling for a moment on the actual eggs. Then he took a deep breath and proceeded to grab a frying pan and oil. "Do you want any?"
"Sure, I'll have some" the man said politely. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"You can grab bread and butter from the pantry over there and take care of that."
Silvercloud scoffed and went to get the items. "I meant helping you with remembering. I bet it must be a nasty process. You seem very shaken."
Wagner wet his lips and took a moment before he continued with both the food as well as the conversation; "It's just that the things I do remember- or I think I remember- are the most random, like seeing just half a second from random parts of a movie. Some of it seems… disturbing, out of context. Or it's just disturbing, I don't know."
"It must be overwhelming."
"...Yeah."
"You know, I haven't been there to see your life every step of the way, but if you tell me what you remembered, maybe I will know the context of those situations and I'll be able to help you understand some of it."
"Is Fallen joining us for breakfast? So I know if we need more eggs."
"I don't think so, she fell asleep less than 2 hours ago. We were up discussing, well, everything."
"Okay."
"So… Do you want me to help you sort through what you remembered so far?"
Kurt took a deep breath and finally managed to smile for more than half a second as he glanced at the man. "I appreciate the offer. But maybe just start by helping me remember you."
"Oh. So how we met and all that jazz?"
"Ja" the german focused his eyes on the pan where he scrambled the eggs and braced himself for a new dose of information.
"Okay, so… I know this is going to sound crazy" the man lifted his palms defensively.
'Here we go' Kurt thought. Of course it couldn't be as simple as just being introduced by someone. Of course it had to be 'crazy'.
"I was stuck in a pocket dimension due to a technology I created prior to developing it into the one that we used to come here."
"A pocket dimension?"
"Yeah, so it's not a fully developed dimension but rather a small dimension inside a fully developed dimension" the man explained. "I was stuck there for over two decades and you accidentally ended up there- sort of how you accidentally ended up in Fallen's dimension later on. Seems like a thing you do" he joked and maybe Kurt would have found it funny if not for the generally overwhelming circumstances. The man saw that attempts at humor will be futile right now. "Anyways… Thanks to your ability to teleport and my tinkering with it, we managed to get out of that dimension and we were friends since" he let go of the butter knife and bread to spread out his arms in conclusion.
Kurt was too tired to be baffled at this story any more than he was already at the entirety of the situation. He put the scrambled eggs onto two plates and carried it over to the table.
"Did you also live at that Institute then?"
"Thanks" Jonathan grabbed some of the buttered bread he prepared and duig into the eggs. "I visited quite often. Helped as a sort of technician and tried out some of my new ideas at the place. But I never lived-lived there."
"So you don't exactly know what it was like there…" the semi-questioning voice made Kurt sound disappointed.
"I think I knew enough. Why?"
"I just have very mixed feelings about it. I don't know if I liked it or not and I don't remember enough to figure it out."
"Well…" for a brief moment Forge wondered if he should paint a picture to sooth the younger boy, one void of inherent flaws. But he decided against it. "I'm not gonna lie to you, mate. It's not going to be perfect, nothing is. But you chose to come back here, and I think that alone tells you more than I could by just recounting the good and the bad."
Kurt smiled faintly at the man. Even if their friendship was going back years, having a friend felt new and that alone humored him more than his actual words.
They were almost done eating when Fallen joined them in the kitchen.
"Morning, guys" she said. With yesterday's dark makeup removed and nothing to replace it with, the tiredness of her eyes was clear to see. She was also wearing the same clothes as the other day, grass stains were on the side of her ripped jeans from when she fell out of the portal.
"Good morning. Grab whatever you want to eat" Wagner tried to sound positive despite his headache. The girl sleepily smiled back and went to the kitchen drawers. "You don't have any of your stuff, a change of clothes or anything" Wagner noticed out loud.
"Yeah" Forge said as he tried to scoop what's left of his food. "We'll need to take care of that once we arrive at Xavier's."
"You seem certain we will go there…"
"It's just hoping out loud" the man smirked briefly as he got up to clean up his plate.
Kurt shifted his eyes to the girl who grabbed cold milk and cocoa powder.
"Do you want eggs like we had?" he was new to being a host, but once the initial shock of last night wore off he tried to relax into this new situation.
The girl looked back at him with a tired smile. "I think I just need some sugar in my system before I can think about actual food. I'm half asleep."
"Speaking of sleeping" putting away the clean plate, the man yawned theatrically. "I haven't slept tonight at all, but I think I'm finally ready for a nap" he said. "Give me at least a few hours before you wake me up. See ya!"
With that the man left the room and headed upstairs to the guest bedroom. The other two exchanged looks.
"Did he just fake yawn out of here?" Wagner asked.
"Definitely."
"But why?"
The brunette didn't respond and more decidedly focused on what she was doing to bite her tongue. After a short moment she picked up; "How are you feeling?"
"Tired, more than anything" he responded honestly. "And confused. But I can't deny that-... What you two said must be true."
"You're remembering things?" she glanced at him, a hopeful glisten in her eyes.
"Ja. It's all very out of order now but I've remembered enough to believe you."
She sat down opposite of him with her cup of cocoa, intently watching him. "What did you remember so far?"
He felt oddly comfortable with the intensity of eye contact between them, but trying to put into words the notions of pictures and emotions he remembered caused him to cast his eyes down, and they landed on the palm of her hand. He trailed his gaze along the familiar set of silver rings and suddenly was overcome with the urge to reach out and hold her hand.
He grimaced with confusion at this seemingly habitual impulse. At the same time, his heart beat faster and stronger.
"...I'll let you know when I make sense of any of it" he whispered eventually.
To be continued in part 2...