+05.09.1995 Tuesday+
"Good morning. Where's Scott and Jean?" Kurt asked when he found only Ororo in the kitchen the next morning.
"Hello, Kurt. They just left to school" the woman smiled, sipping her late coffee. "Starting next week you won't get to sleep in, either."
Wagner shrugged with a smirk. "I don't mind going back to school. Maybe I didn't go to it long enough to get sick of it" he grabbed toast bread and some cheese.
"I have a feeling your girlfriend is a little more reluctant" Monroe chuckled low.
"Eh. With a good company like myself?" the boy pointed thumbs at himself. "She'll love it!"
"I'm glad to see your spirits so high. I have something for the three of you" she said, and when the boy turned to look at her she pointed to three boxes sitting on the island counter.
Wagner left his toasts to well, toast, and opened the box marked with his initials. He smiled down at the folded garment inside. "Awesome! I didn't get to wear my uniform in years."
"Did you get the same design?" she asked curiously.
The boy pulled out the black spandex with a red 'V' shaped design in the front. The box also contained red shoes specifically tailored to his feet, a pair of yellow gloves, and a yellow belt.
"Yeah" he agreed, a smile playing on his lips at the old memories evoked by this costume.
"Interesting" the woman got up for a closer inspection. "People who make these usually only get general pointers from us, but details like this red design are all on them. Interesting how they came up with the same thing twice."
"I suppose there was nothing to influence them to change it" Kurt looked up at her. "I don't think everything needs to change just because we traveled back in time" he speculated, his voice softening. He certainly hoped some things would stay the same.
The woman looked back at him, a brief smile quickly dying on her lips. "I don't think there's much of a chance that a lot of it can stay the same either."
"Just because we're here" Kurt sighed deeply.
Monroe put a hand on his shoulder. "But things are meant to be changed. If they weren't then you wouldn't be here to begin with."
xXx
Fallen had a sense of being detached from reality when she first looked in the mirror after putting on the battle uniform she received. It wasn't that the design was bad - simple black bodysuit with a zipper in the front starting at her bellybutton and ending with a classic shirt-like collar on top, that could be zipped up into a turtleneck. Both the zipper and material on the inner side of the collar were a pale yellow color, matching a bulky belt, gloves and boots. It lacked character, but was easy enough on the eyes that she wasn't going to complain.
But it was the sole idea of wearing an X-Men battle uniform was so strange it made it hard to identify with the 14 or 15 year old in the mirror. She never saw herself trying out to be a hero. Even when they discussed coming to this dimension, joining the main crew and trying to be a frontliner was always something she passed off as an unlikely scenario.
Now, it was the only one she had.
"I might as well give it my best shot" she told her reflection.
There was a knock on her door.
"Come in."
Forge poked his head inside before fully entering and spreading out his arms with a questioning look on his face. "I feel weird. I never had one of those before."
She ran her eyes over his own black catsuit; while he also had a yellow belt and gloves, he had a black zipper and an orange design that went over the sides of his legs, crossed over his chest and then through his shoulders, down his arms.
He twirled awkwardly.
"What do you think?"
"Yours is cooler than mine" she cocked her head, amused.
He grinned. "You think so?"
"Look at you two!" Wagner beamed proudly the second he walked in. "Is it just me or is it exciting?"
Forge and Fallen exchanged short looks.
"I think you're the only one who knows how to deal with these training sessions" the young man said. "I'm used to staying behind the scenes."
"Don't worry, Danger Room isn't designed to hurt you" Kurt patted him on the back, still smiling widely.
"Right, safety's in the name" Fallen commented. She smirked, looking Wagner up and down. All of these years she never saw him in this iconic uniform that the rest of the world couldn't imagine him out of.
'I can imagine him out of it alright' she bit her lip, trying to prevent the telling smirk from spreading on her lips. She turned back to her mirror and busied herself with braiding her hair for the training before the zipper concealed on the front of Wagner's uniform would become too distracting.
She cleared her throat. "It's about time we head downstairs, isn't it?"
xXx
Danger Room looked and felt very different when you were actually inside of it, instead of up in the control room. It seemed even more spacious and the walls curving towards the ceiling made her head spin a little the first time she looked up.
"Is it really able to produce realistic holograms?" she asked, running her eyes over what looked like advanced projectors ringing the walls far above them.
Forge was eager to respond; "Yeah! It uses a combination of nanotechnology, quantum computing and solid light- or so-called hard-light" he added, like he was disappointed that such a lay-man term is being more commonly used. "So photonic matter is created by inducing interaction between photons. It allows for creating a realistic feeling of any material and recreate its basic properties."
"But we won't be needing any of that today" Ororo's voice boomed through the speakers. "Also be aware, that one of your new instructors that you haven't had a chance to meet yet, is here with me to watch your evaluation."
Forge grimaced ever so slightly at Fallen, unsure if this display of knowledge might be held against him later on because of an unauthorized listener. The girl on the other hand focused on the fact that there is someone new in the picture already.
"Alright, we'll start slow. Just keep an eye on your surroundings and avoid getting stuck, knocked over or hit with anything" Ororo announced.
Looking up the brunette could barely, but see a dark-haired man looking down at them from the control room with his arms crossed against his muscular chest. The most famous Canadian antihero himself, Wolverine.
'Great' she thought just as she was forced to cast her eyes down because various elements of the room started shifting. 'No pressure' she mentally patted herself on the back with little hope of making it through this evaluation with dignity intact.
xXx
"The tall one" Logan watched the room below be set into motion. "Seems to know a lot about the system."
"Forge" the woman said and took just a second to figure out what she's going to say next. "He was very interested in learning all about the technology we use. He's an inventor himself."
The man didn't respond, keeping his eyes on the young man for a lingering moment. He seemed to possess an ability to transform his right arm into a piece of machinery and he used it as a shield whenever he ran out of ideas. Wolverine also noticed that should he be hit, the man always tried to take and block blows with his right leg.
"Probably because it's a prosthetic" Ororo explained when he commented on it. "So he doesn't feel the impact."
"Must be a damn good one" he said. The man didn't limp or seem to struggle with his right leg any more than his left. The fact that he couldn't stay on his feet for a full minute altogether was a completely different issue. "He's got some muscle but the poor guy couldn't avoid an attacker even if they sent him a notice the day before" he shook his head slowly.
He shifted his attention to the other boy. This one was shorter, more slender, and very peculiar. For a few minutes Logan watched the unique way in which he moved between obstacles, altering between long leaps, short runs on all four, acrobatic flips and occasionally just disappearing into thin air.
"Teleporter" he murmured. "May come in handy."
"He's the one Professor rescued in Florida last year" Monroe said absent-mindedly.
Wolverine remembered it hazily. At the time he was preoccupied with his own issues, but he did remember Charles leaving for Florida, only to return from Germany on the next day, empty handed and solemn.
He watched the blue boy for another minute before switching his eyes to the last newcomer.
The girl was a chaotic mixture of failure and potential. She seemed to give up on trying to be agile and instead tried to be smart about avoiding obstacles. At the same time she seemed to run on aggression and determination, with little coordination involved in actually utilizing that pent-up energy. She looked strong for her age and size, too, but seemed constantly out of breath.
Long story short she was all over the place with her skills.
"The girl's a wild card" he said eventually.
"In more than one way, yes" Ororo agreed.
"Why's she not using any powers?"
Monroe's lips tightened for a short moment. "She doesn't have any."
She wasn't surprised when the man turned his face to her with a questioning frown.
"She's not a mutant. Just Professor's relative" she said, suddenly thrown back to her younger days. She must have become a wonderful liar back then, because the man didn't pick up on it immediately. "He's her guardian now."
"Chuck thought the Institute was a good place for stray relatives?"
She frowned slightly. "Logan, I don't think it's your place to question Professor's intentions."
"I don't. Just don't get Chuck putting this kid in the line of fire if she doesn't have any horses in this race" he said. "Doesn't she have any other family that could take her in and give her a normal life, not- this" he gestured out the window.
"No, she doesn't" the woman said firmly. "And she does have her personal reason to join this fight even if it's not about her."
The man looked at her, his brow arching questioningly.
"The blue boy" she nodded her head down at the teleporter. "They seem to be quite serious."
The man scoffed. "Kids their age don't know what serious means."
Monroe frowned and opened her mouth to speak, before shutting it closed. She inhaled deeply and rubbed her eyes with a sigh.
"Oh, this is going to be fun" she whispered to herself. She switched up settings on the control panel, already annoyed at the idea of biting her tongue for god knows how long.
"What?" Logan frowned with confusion. "What did I do already?"
The elevator door opened before Monroe made up her mind about whether to answer. She turned around to Professor Xavier who smiled at them and made it across to the window.
"How are our new students doing?" he asked. "Any interesting observations so far?"
"The girl and the robot guy were out of breath at the one minute mark" Wolverine said. "It needs to change. On the flip side, the blue kid seems to be having a blast."
xXx
"Are you fucking serious?!" the girl muttered intensely after a rotating arm shifted its height just before reaching her and ended up knocking her to the floor for a second time within the last minute. She looked over her shoulder to avoid making the same mistake again and pushed herself off the floor, sprinting away from the entire rotating machine.
Once out of its reach she spun around and caught a glimpse of Kurt somersaulting out of the mechanical arm's way and Forge throwing himself on the floor to avoid a disc shot at him from a slit in the wall, just as she felt the floor sink under her feet. She had a split second to realize that the metal panel she's standing on is descending below ground level and throw herself at the neighboring one. She didn't even fully make it to her feet before it started to descend too, and soon she found herself running across the squares as they fell from under her each more abruptly than the last.
Her brown eyes scanned the floor for where the square pattern ends and she dashed in that direction, nearly breaking her ankles due to the height of her flooring shifting on every step. Losing against the artificial quicksand, she ended up kicking off and flinging herself across the last few feet to safety and hitting the floor like a sack of potatoes.
As soon as she stopped rolling across the ground she did her best to get back on her feet as quickly as she could and look around for the next thing the Danger Room would hit her with.
Everything seemed to slow down, though. The rotating arms came to a stop and retracted, the sunken floor panels reemerged to its normal position and all sorts of shooting cannons went back into their compartments inside the curved walls.
*We are done for today* Professor Xavier's voice sounded on the speakers. *We're on our way to discuss the results with you.*
The three of them approached one another and Kurt brought his hands up for high-fives. "It was fun, wasn't it?" he smiled widely.
The other two high-fived him weakly.
"I feel like your experience might be very different than ours" Forge said between quick inhales.
Fallen rested her hands on her sides and leaned forward to catch her breath. "You know what?" she panted. "I could do this more often."
"Oh, you will" Monroe smiled as she entered the simulator with Professor Xavier by her side.
They walked them through the observations, focusing on the areas to work on - primarily agility and stamina for both Fallen and Forge.
"Do you have any combat experience such as martial arts classes?"
"What we had at the Institute" Wagner said. "So general hand to hand, self defense, some karate."
The man nodded and turned to the other two. Forge shook his head. "None."
Fallen sighed uncomfortably. "Only fighting off aggressive men in my screwed up hometown and a few moves I learned second-hand, from Kurt. Oh, and I did go to karate for a few weeks as a kid, now that I think about it. The only thing I learned there though, is that I couldn't do splits to save my life."
"If you work on stretching you can learn it in a few weeks" Monroe assured.
"Yeah, I guess" she smiled briefly. "There just always seemed to be something more important."
"Now the things for you to focus on are high school, and training" Professor Xavier said. The girl had the feeling that it was more than a statement. It felt like an instruction to earn her place. "Also, Fallen. Since you don't have any powers to work on, I'd like to suggest that you pick a weapon to train with."
Her eyes lit up, but she tried not to let it show too much. "Can I have a gun then?"
"You are free to train with firearms, however I must ask that you focus on some non-lethal weapon."
"There are non lethal guns like those with rubber bullets and-"
"And you're welcome to practice shooting them. But for the purpose of our training, have a pick of something focused on defense, rather than attack."
Having quit karate as a kid precisely for the reason that it was too focused on defense and too little on attack for her taste, the only way Fallen was able to stop herself from pushing was just staying quiet and sulking internally.
xXx
Todd Tolensky fumbled along the corridor, passing all the chattering students who didn't know quite how lucky they are.
They were putting their heads together in groups, pairs, sometimes walking alone, just going places. Back at home they had people waiting for them, probably a family, most of them happy and cheesy.
And he?
His name was Todd, but most of his 'friends' called him Toad - the frog boy. He could see why of course, his complexion or even his face features - yeah, he knew why and didn't care. Especially the webbed hands. He told them off saying it's some kind of illness if they really tried to pry, but usually they just called him names and didn't care.
In fact, neither have Todd. He's been used to people throwing shit at him - sticks and stones, is it how they say it? He wouldn't bet, doesn't talk much to people and reads even less.
But sticks and stones and shit. Words never break him and all that jazz. After all the shit he got from his birth mom's scumback of a man? These names he heard in the school hallways were worth a laugh. Loud and all-hearted laugh. And Todd often laughed as he was dodging another tired insult.
The laughter only died when he was back home alone and there were no more words worth a laugh. Just him.
He didn't quite shower as often as he probably should, but so what? They don't care about him anyway, so why would he care about their opinion of him and if they like his smell? Yes, he used to dig for food wherever he could, the habit stayed and it's half of the reason why he smells so bad, but he wouldn't just tell them because he doesn't care to put up with more crap they would throw at him if they found out.
His life is his life. Nobody has to know. And at least he's got his freedom and he doesn't have to listen to any stupid parents or doesn't have a curfew. He can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants. He's free.
There's the blue chick, Mystique, yeah, but she doesn't care as long as at the end of the day he will swear to be at her side.
"Sidin' with someone for once feels good, yo" he told himself once. Almost like family, right?
Sometimes he wished it was right and he had anyone to call a family.
Nah, stupid talking. Family is for the weak.
"Tolensky" he heard the cold, familiar voice and turned around to face the school Principal. She was a tall, rigid looking woman with short brown hair and sharp features always locked in a vaguely annoyed expression. "Come to my office for a report during lunch break" she ordered, and without waiting for his answer turned on the heel of her flat shoes and walked away to scold some students who were eating faces down the hall.
Todd turned back around and headed his way, thinking how Mystique's dayjob seemed perfect for her. She certainly seemed to like getting angry at teenagers, and personally he thought the shapeshifter was even scarier in this formal attire than in her real, blue skin.
xXx
"You alright?" Kurt looked up from his form to Fallen who rubbed the bridge of her nose with a tight grimace.
She exhaled slowly. "Yeah. I just can't get rid of this migraine since we got here."
"Have you tried some painkillers?"
"Only every single one in the meds cabinet" she scoffed.
"Maybe you should talk to the Professor" Wagner grimaced with worry. "Get it checked out."
"It's probably just stress" she waved it off and looked back at her form, but the boy took a hold of her forearm and looked at her inquiringly. She smiled briefly at him. "If it gets worse, I'll go. Promise."
"...Fine" he said reluctantly and before he was able to say anything more, the door to Kurt's room opened and Forge stood in them, looking like he had something to say.
Fallen looked over her shoulder at him briefly. "Forge, let me warn you early on that if you don't knock on either of our rooms, you're entering at your own risk. Whatever you see is going to be between you and your therapist."
"Uh- sorry" the man said distractedly. "But you're not very busy right now, are you?"
Wagner sat up and waved the form in his hand. "We're just choosing classes for this semester to try and get most of them together. What's up?"
"Okay, good" Silvercloud gestured as he walked closer to the bed. "So you know how I've been going over my code and trying to figure out where I went wrong?"
"Yeah?" Fallen turned around to look at him.
"I think I got it" he clearly tried not to sound as excited as he was and waited to be prompted.
"Okay, what is it?"
"SO! You know how in the universe there has to be the exact same amount of positively and negatively charged energy?" he started walking the length of the room. "So Kurt and I coming here didn't affect the count because we just replaced the versions of ourselves that were already here - even though I was in the Middleverse, but it's still a dimension within this one. But Fallen coming here must have offset the count because I did not account for it, so it ended up creating pushback and bouncing us into a restarted timeline. And the 'episode 1' was the starting point because that's when the initial energy count would become finalized for a dimension created via collective conscience - the beginning of the story is the reference point and we couldn't affect anything beyond it without starting there."
Kurt stared at him for a lingering moment. "I love you, man. But I did not understand a word out of your mouth."
Fallen put her thumb and index finger two inches apart. "I got maybe 40% of it."
Forge took a deep breath and bit his lip for a moment, looking for a simple way to put it. "Basically I accounted for the atoms making up Fallen's body so she could be brought here, but what I should have done first is remove the same amount of atoms, with the exact same charge, from this dimension. Make room for her so that the universe isn't pushed to accelerated expansion even by such miniscule amount of extra energy. We didn't end up where we were supposed to because if we did, the universe would have collapsed and my code prevented us from possibly ending that timeline altogether by- well, breaking the universe."
"So we avoided ending the world" Kurt summarized.
"By a margin, yes" the man nodded. "I'm surprised it didn't create any issues for Fallen. Anyway, I had to figure out why we ended up in 1995 or it'd keep me up. Thought you guys might want to know, too."
"It sure puts things into perspective" Fallen agreed. "Thanks."
Forge nodded awkwardly. "Ok, then. You take care of your school schedule, I'll see you at dinner."
Once he left Kurt laid back down and Fallen turned around to face him again. She scoffed with a smile.
"We almost broke the universe for this relationship" she mused, baffled at how their meeting turned into something so much bigger than them.
Kurt smirked sheepishly. "Maybe now we can save it instead" he said low. "Make the future a little lighter."
She turned her eyes to meet his. "Maybe" she said low. "But even if we won't… if everything else goes to hell, I know I've got you beside me for the ride. And that makes me happy we're here to try."
He looked away from her face with a smile. His fingers started tracing lines along her arm. "Me, too."
Her gaze lingered for another minute on his eyes before her own hand shifted to his jaw. Her thumb gently moved to his lower lip and slowly ran across it, her eyes lingering on his mouth as she bit down on her own lip gently.
His fingers stropped tracing her arm, he inhaled anxiously.
Fallen's brown eyes shifted back to his honey ones. The smallest of smiles played on her lips. "I love you, Kurt" she said softly, well aware that it's the first time after they came to this new reality. She figured he's recovered his memory enough to not be freaked out by this confession.
He didn't look freaked out, but maybe a bit taken aback. His eyes were sparkling with happy emotions, making her heart feel warmer in her chest.
"I love you, too" he whispered back, nervous but not hesitant.
The sincerity of his words swelled her with joy and she couldn't help but let the smile on her lips widen. Her fingers - still on the side of his face - gently guided him closer. He didn't object, meeting her for a kiss that seemed to last like they tried to catch up for all the lost time of the last few days.
At last, she slowly pulled back with a serene smile. Kurt on the other hand looked inquiringly between her eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she brushed her finger along his jawline.
He smiled innocently and shook his head. "It's just that everything still feels kind of new after that memory wipe" he admitted. "Intellectually I remember us being together, but emotionally I'm kind of like… 'wow, this is really happening', you know?"
Fallen scoffed sympathetically. "I had the same exact feeling when I woke up today, in an alternative timeline of another dimension" she told him with a smile. "I guess we'll just need some time to internalize that all of this is, indeed, happening."
Wagner nodded his head ever so slightly. "Maybe I could help you break into this new life by showing you all the parts of the Institute and grounds you haven't seen yet?"
"Maybe later" she skimmed her fingers along his arm and then over his neck. Involuntary smile twisted her lips as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "There might be some upsides to everything feeling new" she whispered. He cracked his eyes open and she leaned closer to his lips; "Not many get to have a first time twice. If you've grown into your memories enough to be down for it, of course" she was about to pull back just enough to see his eyes, but his face followed her own and he caught up with her lips.
She smiled into the kiss and gently pushed him back down onto the bed, crawling on top of him, her legs and arms supporting her weight on either side of his body. She could feel his hands shyly travel up her thighs and under the hem of her shirt. She decided to make it easier and pulled away from the kiss to pull her shirt over her head.
As Kurt's eyes ran up her body and met her own gaze she smiled down at him. "Your turn" she said, her fingers slipping under his own shirt to the bare stomach.
He sat up and removed his shirt, which the girl immediately discarded on the floor. Before he had a chance to do anything other than wrap his arms around her, she was kissing his neck. His breath caught at the sensation and warm shivers spread through his body.
"Wait" he stopped her because something dawned on him, but he still found it hard to put on the brake. "Do we have anything in means of, you know…?"
"Protection?" she asked and he nodded. "I brought a sheet of pills in my back pocket before we went through the portal. Never got off of them."
"So when it came to stuffing your pockets last minute the things that were on your mind were having portable music and immediate contraception" he summarized with amusement.
She shrugged, smirking mischievously. "I couldn't risk limiting my access to either of those, could I?"
xXx
"If you managed to get inside, why the hell did you leave?!" Mystique asked, her voice rising with anger.
"I-I got angry, so what?" Todd said, his eyes following the mad woman. "This dude wanted to wash my brain!"
"You could use some washing but to have your BRAIN washed you'd need to OWN one first" she snapped back at him through clenched teeth. "Did you at least get to know anything valuable?"
"There's a man. Real muscly typo' guy. He has some kinda claws or some shit."
Mystique, or as she was disguising herself at the moment - Ms. Darkholme, groaned. "I know that already. Anything ELSE?"
The mutant searching device, some simulator, they own these things and he knew they were in undergrounds, this IS valuable.
"I asked you a question, you moron" Mystique groaned as she hit her hand against her desk. He looked into her eyes - cold and demanding. She acted like a bitch. The bald guy was at least polite and nice.
He looked away, clenching his hands in fists. "No. Nothing else."
The woman groaned and walked to the door, opened them abruptly and pointed into the hallway. "OUT, NOW!"
And he gladly leapt off the seat, making the chair fall, and left her office, his face twisting at the sound of the door slammed loudly behind him.
xXx
Mystique groaned with anger and frustration, shifting back to her real self and pounding her fist against the wall. "You can't count on anyone here!" she muttered, leaning down to lift the fallen chair.
Then the air became crisp and the hair on her arms stood straight. Some objects on her desk started to shudder on its surface, making its way off the side and clattering to the floor. All of them made of- or including some kind of metals. She swallowed, knowing exactly what - or rather who - caused the phenomenon.
"Don't be so harsh on him, Mystique" a reverberating voice said behind her and she turned around rapidly, dropping the chair back onto the floor with a thud. "We don't want to lose people now, do we?" he said, causing her to back against her desk. Usually it was her place to emanate power in this office, but right now she felt small as she looked at the broad-shouldered figure emerging from the room adjacent to her office.
"O-of course..." she was trying to remain calm, and hated the sound of her voice becoming smaller with her. "I'll be more careful…"
She caught a glimpse of something floating beside her and turned to see a bunch of pins and paper clips floating in the air above her desk, creating perfect horizontal eight. The sign of infinity conjured by the sheer power of magnetism.
"I hope you will" said the master of magnetism himself, and even his voice had a metallic quality to it. Smooth, cold, resonating.
Scissors and paper knife razors flew just by her face and she shifted with startlement, trying to shield her face with her arms.
"And remember" he picked up again, "this is only the beginning."
xXx
Kurt's eyes were absent as they rested, covered by bedsheets in the middle of the day.
"What you said before about aging back and it making us virgin again and all of this concept made me realize I don't understand one thing about all of this" he said. "Why did we age back to this specific age each?"
"I wondered about that, and I actually asked Forge on our first night, back in Winzeldorf" she replied. "I couldn't rest and you know how I am when there's a plan, especially one that fails. I need to get my facts straight" she said. He looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate. "His theory is that he and you just went back to the age you were at this point in the timeline. So he's back to approximately the age he was when he got in and out of the Middleverse, and you're the same age you were when you came to the Institute. You replaced your own selves. It's like your bodies came back to their reference points at this point in time."
That part made sense to him, and more or less it was what he'd speculate. But there was no reference point for her in this dimension and he fell short trying to understand why she didn't appear the exact same age she was before stepping into the portal on the other side.
"How about you then?" he asked.
She shrugged slightly. "I suppose maybe your point of reference was used for me, but to be honest I don't even know the actual age of my body to be sure. I can clearly see changes in my body, face, even the length of my hair, and the more telling things like the disappearance of all my tattoos and some piercing holes" she pointed to her nose and lip as an example. "That's the only way I can assume my age, it pretty much replicated what I looked like at 14 or so."
"Around the time we met" he smiled involuntarily.
She smiled back and brushed hair behind his ears. "Yes, but now we have a headstart and a few more years to live."
Wagner's face fell slightly. "Maybe. This dimension is inherently more dangerous."
The girl's smile also disappeared. The idea was daunting, this bittersweet awareness that moments like this won't be forever and they can't take any luxury for granted because of the many catastrophic events they knew would be coming.
"Let's not go there yet" Kurt shook his head. "We should probably get up. Doors are not locked" he uttered a smirk as he gently lifted off of her and started fishing for clothes that were sprawled beside the bed.
"Are we even allowed to lock them?" the girl lifted up as he handed her her stuff from the floor.
"We don't even get to keep the keys to our rooms in our rooms" he grimaced theatrically.
Fallen lifted her brows. "Oh. Awesome. Gotta love your privacy" she said with a sarcastic delight.
xXx
"So if everyone takes turns to cook the diner, when do we three start having our turns?" Forge decided to try to fully understand the responsibilities system now, that he was supposed to be a permanent resident and not just a guest at the Institute.
"After your first week here passes would seem reasonable" Ororo - who's turn it was today, placed a big pot of soup on the table.
Professor Xavier smiled at her. "Yes, I agree."
Logan grabbed a bowl and sat at the table. Ororo eyed him. "You should wait for everyone."
"Look, when a rule is reasonable, I respect it. When it's not, it's not" he said before proceeding to get a serving.
The woman shook her head with a grimace before turning around to bring the second course beforehand.
The sound of their voices preceded them, but soon Jean and Scott appeared in the door. "Good, you're just in time. What about Kurt and Fallen?"
"We're here, just a step behind" the brunette said walking in with Wagner close by. "It smells delicious in- Oh" she stopped seeing the new man at the table. Or was he new? She knew exactly who he was. "Hello" she said, uncertain of what she should say or do.
The man was looking at her for a moment without a word before turning his gaze to Kurt and observing him the same way. When he finally responded, it wasn't what she ever expected to be the first words said to her by the famous Wolverine; "You two reek of each other."
Kurt seemed startled as he peeked at her with an expression that said, we're in trouble, how do we deal this. She quickly decided to play it off cool and grimaced; "It's nice to meet you too. Is telling strangers they smell your way to say hello, sir?"
She expected it to put her in trouble, not even due to breaking rules but because you don't talk back to Logan, yet it just gained a few amused smiles and surprisingly, either nobody realized what the man meant, or they simply decided to act like they didn't.
"I saw your evaluation" the man seemed mildly amused at the memory. "You and you" he pointed to Fallen and Forge, "start doing mandatory laps every morning. I want you in the front yard at 6 a.m., sharp."
Silvercloud and Harris exchanged looks. They should have expected it.
xXx
Not long after the common dinner was over, Fallen was taken off guard by Professor Xavier's voice breaking through her thoughts, asking her to see him at the office. As she arrived, she saw that Kurt was already sitting there with the man.
"Come in, I'd like to talk to you two" the man beckoned with a gesture of his hand. She closed the door and joined Wagner in front of the man's desk. "After dinner Logan came to me to address today's situation" he picked up. "Specifically, he asked me if I allow my underage students to 'do the dirty' under my roof."
The brunette's eyebrows traveled high up her forehead. She opened her mouth to speak.
"Before you say anything, I know you're technically adults" the man said, almost apologetically. "However you currently present as teenagers, and I can't enforce rules on my actual adolescent students if I don't hold you up to the same standard."
Wagner grimaced with confusion. "So what, you're trying to ban us?"
The man seemed conflicted. "I'm going to put it differently. Don't be obvious about breaking rules that were set for younger students."
"We weren't" Fallen argued. "It was Logan with his out-of-the-line comment."
"You have to understand that he doesn't know you've aged back."
"Either way, it's none of his business what we do behind closed doors."
"You're minors, and he's your teacher. That's all as far as he knows."
Fallen gritted her teeth so hard she thought she might break them.
A few minutes she was storming across the lawn behind the building.
"This is exactly what I was worried would happen!" she hissed. "All of the sudden we're treated like children and are required to obey our elders! I run away from my 'elders' for fucks sake, and almost a goddamn decade ago at that! The audacity of these people!"
"It's a new situation, I'm sure Professor is still figuring out how to approach it properly" Kurt said as he almost jogged and needed to make a leap now and then to keep up with her angry strut.
He was caught off guard when she suddenly stopped to look at him.
"You know what he is figuring out? Whether to keep me here or if I'm going to be more trouble than benefits" she stated with a frown.
"He already said you can stay" Wagner assured.
"But there are clearly unspoken rules. And I feel like he's only brought up this entire thing to see if I can fall in line. He was in my head, Kurt. He knows falling in line doesn't sit well with me" she spoke calmer now, but with confidence in her words. "He wants to see if I will go on streak and be a disruptor. And if I do I'm afraid it's a bye-bye Institute for me."
Kurt was quiet for a moment, eventually taking her hand and leading deeper into the mansion's grounds.
"I think you're wrong about his intentions" he said at last. "I think it's just easier to reprimand us than to explain to Wolverine why he wouldn't."
"If he's going to stay on the fence when it comes to revealing the truth about how we came here he might eventually decide it's easier if we're not around to potentially reveal it or influence something we know would happen" the girl's voice grew fainter and quicker. "I don't know what I was thinking when we made that deal with Xavier."
"Fall…" he stopped walking.
"Now it's either we keep our heads down and pretend clueless teens or we're probably back to zero, on the streets and left to-"
"Fall" he said a little firmer and this time the girl stopped to look at him. The boy put hands on her shoulders and smiled at her sympathetically. "You're spiraling. Not everyone is out to betray you" he assured. "And even if we had to leave the Institute, we'd be fine. You know that."
The girl's eyes glistened with sadness. "Yes, but I don't want you to lose anything because of me. That's the opposite of why we came here."
"Everything's working out alright, just look around and take it all in" he turned his face to the side, and she followed his gaze. Too preoccupied she didn't notice until now, how they arrived on the cliff overlooking the endless bay. The view was beautiful, some might even describe it as breathtaking. "I think that we probably ended up in the best case scenario. I get to make my friends again without being that awkward, in-your-face mashup of everything I saw in coming of age movies..."
"You were obnoxious as an actual teen."
"And you still fell in love with me" he remarked. "So now not only do I get to relieve that period of time with my wonderful girlfriend, but we can save lives that were lost in my timeline. We can help people that we didn't know what was going on with before. Maybe change the world for the better, who knows."
She shook her head. "Professor would never allow this."
"Not yet" Kurt replied without hesitation. She didn't look so sure. "Trust me. I've known him so much longer than you. He'll come around. We just took him by surprise, even by his standards."
+6.09.1995, Wed+
It was twenty minutes past six in the morning, but Kurt was already up and looking out his balcony. Finally the two figures emerged from around the corner of the building and jogged along the building. He waved down at them happily as they passed by his balcony and soon disappeared behind the other end of the mansion. A few minutes later they returned. He waved at them again. They flipped him off in unison. He laughed and kept waving at them every time they passed by.
It was an amusing way to start the day.
But most of the time they were out of his line of sight, and he was left to his thoughts. For the last few days those thoughts kept circling back to the same thing - ever since he remembered his mother died in a few years, in the version of the future that he knew. While the Professor didn't seem willing to affect the future regarding the big picture, this was a more personal matter and Kurt wondered if there was anything to be done to change the fate.
His mother became a mother later in life than most women, since his parents were refused adoption time and time again and basically gave up on it by the time he wound up at their house as a baby. She had to go through all the ups and downs of raising a child at a more advanced age, and was left the only parent when Kurt turned 12. All the responsibilities of parenthood and finances were on her since, requiring her to push her limits a lot.
He needed her to have time, space and peace to focus on her own health now, so that her heart can stay strong for longer than before. And perhaps there was a way to grant her that leisure right away.
He turned around at the sound of the door opening. Fallen, still slightly winded and dressed in her workout clothes, slipped inside the room.
"Why do we have to run the laps and you get to just laugh at us?"
Kurt smirked. "Because I can run the laps and keep my lungs on the inside of my body."
She gave him a tired look and fell heavily into the chair by his desk. "I need a shower. But I also need five minutes before I can stand on my feet again."
Wagner decided to use this time to share his thoughts with her and ask her opinion on the idea he had to solve the problem of his mother's decaying health.
She leaned down, resting elbows on her knees as she listened to him with an absent look on her face. When he was finished, she focused her gaze on him and nodded. "I think it's a great idea" she said low.
A few minutes later she was in the shower, and he was at the door of Professor Xavier's office.
"Yes, come in, please" the man said.
"Do you have a few minutes, Professor?" Wagner asked politely.
Xavier smiled at him and started putting away the bunch of research papers he had spread on his desk. "Of course. I always have time for my students. Sit down, and tell me what is it?"
Kurt felt a bit awkward about his request and he fumbled with his hands a little as he explained about his mother's health and how it caused her heart to fail her completely a few years from now, in the future he knew.
"I'm thinking she could have a chance of living a much longer life if she could stop working and start going to the best doctors, get all the medication and rest and whatever they'd recommend" he said.
"And you'd want me to provide funds for that" Xavier speculated.
Kurt's surprise was very brief. He knew it was quite clear that this is where he's going with this. "It'd be only until I'll be able to work full time and afford to do it myself. And I'd get you all the money back once that happens, too" he assured, realizing he's squeezing his thumbs in hopes of getting a positive response.
Xavier watched him seriously for a moment before smiling gently. "I think it's a noble cause. I will support your mother and cover her medical bills as long as you need me to."
Kurt's eyes lit up with hope. "Really?"
"Yes, really" the man's smile became a little more evident. "You can probably imagine it's not going to be a problem for me financially, and supporting our ally is something I'll be more than happy to do."
The boy got up from the chair with a determined look on his face. "Thank you so much Professor! I promise I'll give it all back someday!"
+4 days later, 10.09.1995, Sun+
Fallen drove her fist into the punching bag, time and time again, sometimes switching to a kick or two. Her muscles were sore, her limbs feeling both weekend and warmed up for a fight. Evenings in the gym became her time to let off steam these past few days, slightly easing the stress of adjusting to this new, bizarre reality of living in different times and dimension than all of her life until little more than a week ago.
She heard someone at the door behind her. "Seems like you'd found your favorite place here, kid."
She turned around to the man watching her. She was so familiar with the idea of him, but as a person he felt like a stranger; a perfect embodiment of how she felt about everything. But some things and people - most of them, she was sure - would soon start feeling more familiar.
"I'm trying to get into shape as quickly as I can" she said, turning back to the punching bag. "With no powers to train, this body's all I've got."
"At this rate you'll overwork yourself and won't be able to build any muscle."
"I'm not trying to build muscle. It'll come in time. I'm trying to build muscle memory" she said. "I don't want to only have the strength to move, I want to know how to move without having to think about it."
"If you're learning something, at least learn it correctly" the man walked over to her. "Get in the stance."
As she did the man adjusted the position of her arms and shifted her foot with his boot. "Now, throw a punch."
She looked at him hesitantly.
"Don't flatter yourself. You can't hurt me."
She took a deep breath and flung her fist at him; he blocked it easily.
"Again" he said.
She threw another punch. He blocked it again, throwing her hand off course and causing her to lose balance for a moment.
"You have to be lighter on your feet. Your feet need to follow the rest of your body rather than dictate your position" he instructed. "Again."
For the few following minutes she was trying desperately to get at least one punch through Logan's defenses. He was taller than her by a margin, but much wider in his shoulders and with so much core strength that stopping her punches didn't seem harder to him than stopping punches of an average 3 year old to most adults.
She knew that she was strong for her build and planned to get as strong as her 5'2'' frame would allow her - still brute strength will never be the thing she can rely on. As much as she wished she could. But it could never work when most of her opponents would have special powers and enhancements at their disposal.
She needed to have the technical abilities and other skills down by the time she's faced with real danger.
"You might want something to help along" Wolverine said as she briefly voiced that concern.
The man walked over to a storage room inside the gym and after a moment he came out with a pair of wooden sticks. He threw one to her and she barely managed to catch it.
"A long stick" she said critically looking up from the object.
"It's a bō staff, kid" the man said. "Good weapon if you know how to use it."
"And I assume you're going to teach me that."
"Let's start with the basics" he assumed a fighting pose, clearly waiting for her to mirror it.
She took a deep breath to recover from the hand-to-hand training and did her best to replicate his stance.
"Elbows lower" he said.
Another dozen minutes lasted with the man showing her how to maneuver the staff and correcting her every step of the way.
"You've been here for almost a week now" she picked up, panting. He didn't respond. "Aren't you going to ask me what I'm even doing here not being a mutant?"
"Chuck says you're related" he stated flatly.
Clearly the man found this explanation too convenient, but chose to leave it at that and the mutual understanding was to stick to that story.
She didn't want to say anything more and cause him to want to question the situation after all. All she knew is that she would have questioned the hell out of it in anyone else's place.
Wolverine stopped and rested the edge of his bo staff on the floor. He extended his hand to her.
"You can train on your own as well. Fists aren't all there is. Go now. You start school tomorrow."
She nodded and handed her staff back to him. It was indeed getting late. She wasn't sure how to feel about starting school tomorrow, though. It wasn't even that she felt too old for that, but rather that she was just over it. It was a period of her life she thought she left behind.
+Following morning, 11.09.1995 Mon+
Fallen finished doing her eyeliner and shifted back from the vanity mirror in her room and regarded the high school version of herself. Maybe there was some good to the situation - maybe she could have a little bit of that as-seen-on-TV high school experience that she missed out on. Enjoy it while it lasts.
*BAMF* and Kurt was suddenly looking around for her in the middle of the room. He smiled seeing her, and after looking her up and down his smile widened.
"You look nice" he said. "It's rare to see you in a skirt."
Fallen looked down at the short, red-plaid skirt and her over the knee black socks, all this paired with the white tank top she was wearing at the arrival to this dimension. "Yeah, I figured if I'm supposed to play the role of a high schooler, I might as well dress up as my stereotypical idea of one" she smirked at him. "My version, of course" she sat down to put on her combat boots.
"Scott and Jean will be waiting for us at the garage in five minutes" Wagner checked his watch for time, after already having checked it for battery life twice today. Exciting as it was, going back to school made him a little nervous.
"Alright, we can go" the brunette finished tying her boots and got up to grab her leather jacket and a black messenger bag with all her school supplies inside.
Kurt extended his hand to her. "Express route?"
"Or we can just walk. I don't need to smell like sulfur on my first day" she smirked. She did grab his hand, although bringing it down and pulling him along to the door.
The German chuckled. "Fine."
They left the building and headed up the driveway to a freestanding garage with multiple car doors, one of which was open, exposing a vintage red convertible with two white stripes going across its mask and rear. Scott was resting against the driver's door, chatting to Jean in the passenger's seat.
"Hey there" he waved at them and gestured to the back of the car. "Jump in. You want to be early to get your schedule and stuff."
xXx
Raven looked up from her desk when a muted knock broke through the isolated door of her school office.
"Yes?" she asked loud and Louise's blonde head popped inside.
"The new students are here" as always, her secretary sounded a little intimidated. "Do you want to see them or do I take care of it?"
Darkholme sighed. Xavier's kids. She wasn't looking forward to it, but at least she'd get to keep an eye on them if they attend her school.
"Let them in" she put away her pen and waited for a few seconds. The two teenagers who walked in seemed to look at her apprehensively, but she was pretty sure Xavier wouldn't have told them about her alter ego of their formal enemy. He wasn't bold like that.
After a brief and unenthusiastic greeting on both sides, she gestured for them two sit down in front of her desk and started browsing the stacks of documents in her drawer to find the documents Charles Xavier submitted. Louise took care of the rest, but she always made a point of double checking if everything was correct.
"Alright, Ms… Harris" she read off the first folder and looked at the girl sitting to the right with her arms crossed and a probing look in her darkly made-up eyes. She eyed her outfit that included a skirt she found too short for a school setting and a tank top that showed too much cleavage for her age. "First of all, if you don't want me and other teachers constantly on your case, you might want to rethink your fashion choices."
The brunette lifted her eyebrow critically but didn't say anything. Great, another one of those I don't give a damn rebellious types.
"Since it's your first day, I'll give it a pass. But next time don't hope for it" she warned and briefly browsed the folder to make sure all necessary documents are included, filled out. She found it satisfactory and swapped the folder for the next one. "And Mr…" as her eyes landed on the last name, she felt her throat close.
Her eyes were re-reading it, like she constantly expected to find that she made a mistake and swapped some letters in her head.
"Wagner" the boy said in a low voice, pronouncing the last name in a perfect German accent.
But she already knew how to pronounce the name and didn't need him to aid her. She knew it very well, for it was her own over a dozen years ago. And while the last name was very popular in Germany, it didn't feel like an accident. Especially since the boy would be about the correct age.
She lifted her eyes to the boy, for the first time paying actual attention to anything other than the apprehensive expression on his face. The features of his face struck a familiar cord with her, like she was looking at a younger version of a face she knew briefly, but never forgot. At first she thought it's the light from outside of her window, but now she realized there is, indeed, a blue tint to the color of his dark hair. And the way he nervously rubbed the palm of his hand with two, tightly connected fingers of the other. As if there being two was just an illusion to fool her eyes.
She cleared her throat.
"Right. Yes, of course. Mr Wagner" she said. The name tasted off now, after so many years. She forced herself to push aside her thoughts and all the facts coming together. At least for now.
She got up, a little more abruptly than she usually would, and for a moment struggled to focus enough to find the file where she kept locker combinations and corresponding student names. Finally finding it she dropped it heavily on the desk and grabbed two sticky notes to write down numbers and combinations for two free lockers. Her hand squeezed the pen so tight her knuckles turned white. She didn't look at the teens even for a moment until she handed them the notes.
She handed them the notes and immediately busied herself with the papers she set aside earlier, about to return to planning expenses for this semester.
"Excuse me now, I have a lot of work to do. Grab your schedule from the secretary, and if you can't find your classroom ask her or other students for directions. Go on, now."
They didn't need to be told twice and soon the door behind them closed. Left in silence, she stopped pretending that she can focus on the finances and her eyes slowly shifted to the boy's folder than she didn't even browse. Uncertain, she opened it and looked at the date and place of birth.
"Bavaria" she whispered to herself, closing the folder with a shaking hand. And now he's here, across the world, living at Xavier's. She felt both saddened and angry, but at the same time the encounter caused a small bit of joy to well in her stone heart.
She exhaled, letting go of the tension in her muscles.
"You were never supposed to be a part of what's coming" she said low.
xXx
Kurt leaned closer to Fallen's ear so that he couldn't be overheard by any of the students they were passing on the way to their first class.
"How do you feel about your first meeting with my other mother?" he looked back at the office his biological parent resided in when she wasn't doing anything too shady.
Fallen raised one eyebrow. "She basically suggested I look slutty" she stated. "Not that I have a problem with looking slutty, but I don't think she meant it as a compliment so…" she smiled at him humorlessly. "Don't expect us to bond at any point."
Wagner chuckled. "I don't think she wants to bond with anyone, ever, anyway."
"Yeah, you never came even close to having any sort of relationship with her, huh?" the brunette sighed.
Wagner shrugged with a brief grimace. "These days I like to think it's for the best."
The hall was filled with the bell ring and students started quickly dispersing to the nearby classrooms.
"Come on. We'll take care of the lockers after the first period" Kurt nodded his head in the direction of the first class on their schedule. It was officially time to assume the role of a regular couple of high schoolers.
A role they'd have to keep up until danger becomes too immediate to play silly games of play pretend like that
Next time on X-Men: Revolution:
It's time that our Travelers are no longer the freshest students at Xavier's Institute, but while the Professor sends representatives to recruit a potential new student, Mystique is also looking to expand her new group she dubbed the Brotherhood. It's officially off to the races to have dibs on every new teen who discovers their abilities, so will Professor Xavier decide to utilize his peculiar students' knowledge to have a constant head start? He might have limited options because it turns out that something threatens the integrity of that information.
To be continued in Episode 2.0: The X Impulse