Chapter 5

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Kurt teleported there in stages. On a normal day he would have just taken public transportation, as teleporting somewhere new was a long, drawn-out hassle. He plotted out the furthest jump he could manage from the school, and from there he could only teleport to places within sight. It took him three hours to get from Xavier's school to the apartment block in Bushwick, Brooklyn where he was supposed to meet her.

Public transportation would have taken half the time, but it was verboten to him, for now. Everyone in NYC knew his face and they would have tried to cart him off to jail in an instant. When that failed, they would have attacked him. He knew. It had happened many times before. Looking the way he did, it didn't take much for the humans to turn on him.

Kurt landed on top of an abandoned garage and looked across the street. 97 Stanhope Street was a five-story, rectangular red building that looked like it had once been a warehouse. Peering into some of the glowing windows he could see that the space contained several loft apartments, all furnished. Wondering what was in store for him, he took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket to read one more time.

Nightcrawler,

You told me once that if you had my powers, you would always walk incognito among the humans. If you still cling to this desire, come see me at 97 Stanhope St., apt 3, in Brooklyn at 9pm on Tuesday. I may be able to help you, if you can accept the aid of a former enemy.

RD

So Mystique was going by her human name, Raven Darkholme, now that she had lost her powers. Kurt knew this might be a trap, and feared she might try to shoot him with the cure and rob him of his powers. But he couldn't resist her invitation. If she knew of a way he could disguise himself, he had to find out.

He teleported in front of the building's main door and rang the buzzer for the third floor. She buzzed him in right away and he entered the building; the hallways were grey and narrow, and he eschewed the ill-maintained elevator for the grimy stairs. There were no windows in the halls, and the flickering fluorescent lights made it feel even more claustrophobic. He was glad tight spaces had never been a problem for him.

There was only one door on the third floor, and Kurt hesitated for just a moment before knocking. Perhaps he was being monumentally foolish; he would find out soon enough.

"You came." The door opened on a frighteningly beautiful, tall blonde woman in a cobalt-colored dress. Kurt had forgotten just how aggressive her beauty was. In her human form her blue eyes and red lips stood out dramatically from her pale skin, and her hair was long and wavy. He had been partial to her blue skin, for obvious reasons, but there was no denying her conventional, human good looks either.

He ducked his head and took a deep breath before speaking, annoyed with his own shyness and trying not to show it.

"Yes. Your letter was most convincing."

"Come in, Nightcrawler."

"Thank you." He stepped past her, feeling even more nervous as he saw how much she towered over him—by three or four inches, at least. He glanced around the apartment then. It was a large loft, much more pleasant than the building's hallways. The ceilings were at least 12 feet high and crossed with metal beams; plenty of places for him to retreat if trouble started. The kitchen was on the left side of the large room, set off by a long, thin dining table ringed with chairs. On the right, closer to the wall of windows, was a sitting area with a sleek, white leather sofa and chaise longue.

Towards the back of the room was a serious fitness area. Weight machines, standing and hanging punching bags, and a cabinet with one door open to reveal an impressive array of weapons. Kurt's eyes lingered on the nunchucks, swords, and guns—and those were just the ones he could see. Although it put him on his guard, he was glad to see that while Mystique had turned human, she had not been tamed.

"You can sit down if you want," she gestured towards the couch. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No," he said awkwardly, not used to her being accommodating. One corner of her mouth tilted up.

"I promise I won't poison you, if that's what you're thinking." She pulled open the fridge and took out two beer bottles, tossing one to him and opening the other for herself. He did the same and took a drink, despite his distaste for American beer. "Sit down, please." He did and she sat on the chaise, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees to look at him. "I've seen your face all over the human news. Did you really kill all those mafiosos?"

"Of course not!"

"I didn't think so. Shame. I hoped that Xavier was getting more serious about fighting his enemies. So the X-Men have nothing to do with the disappearances that everyone's talking about?"

"No, nothing. And they are not disappearances. I was there at that restaurant, which is why the humans think I had something to do with it. While I was there I saw that the men didn't just disappear—they were vaporized. Shredded. It was most disturbing." Mystique—or rather, Raven's eyes widened, but she didn't look disturbed. She looked excited.

"Did you see the mutant who did it? They must be extremely powerful, level 4 at least."

"I saw no one. That is the strangest part, and that is why the humans assumed that Wolverine and I, as the only visible mutants, must have been responsible. No one has actually seen this vigilante."

"Xavier sent you there to track him down, didn't he?"

"Raven, if you don't mind my saying, I did not realize you invited me here to pump me for information. I see no reason why I should continue answering your questions." She sat back and put the beer down purposefully, then looked at him very seriously.

"No, you wouldn't. But perhaps what I have for you will change your mind. Kurt, I once believed that mutants shouldn't be ashamed to show their true faces when they walk among the humans."

"You no longer believe this?"

"I do. But I now understand that the humans will never accept mutants. I was forced to become human and I have spent more time with them than I would like. If you want to accomplish anything while the humans are in power, then you have to look like them."

"So, Raven, what does this have to do with me?"

"I have something for you." She reached into a small pocket and withdrew a ring, placing it down on the coffee table. Kurt couldn't take his eyes off of it. The band was fat and silver, and at the top it had a pyramid etched deeply into the metal.

"What is that?"

"It's a ring that can make all your dreams come true." He looked back at her, trying to read her face, but she was as inscrutable as ever.

"And why would you want to do such a thing for me?"

"Because I need a friend, Nightcrawler. I am on the outside of the mutant world, and I want back in. I may not have my powers, but I can still fight. I can hold my own," she gestured back at her training area, or maybe at her cabinet of weapons. "And I suspect that you are one of the few mutants who would not mind being friends with a human."

"Charles Xavier would not—"

"Charles Xavier will never trust me. Never. But you and I—we understand each other, Kurt. We both know what it is to be different, and to want to be accepted for what we are. That's why I'm giving you this ring, because it will help you gain acceptance without losing yourself." She looked down at the ring, sadly, and Kurt realized that she must dream of having his problems. She had lost herself.

"What does the ring do?"

"As long as you wear this ring, you will look human."

"Really?"

"This ring turns you into your human form for as long as you have it on. You will still have your powers, but you will look as if you had been born human."

"Impossible." He fixed his eyes on the ring again. "How does it work?"

"I've no idea."

"Where did you get it?"

"Why don't you try it on?"

"Because I do not trust you," he said frankly.

"No, not yet. I would demonstrate for you myself, but as a human the ring does nothing to me. If you'll wait here, I can bring in someone who can help." She stood and walked back towards a door in the back of the room. Kurt jumped to his feet, shocked that someone else was in the apartment and wondering what was about to happen.

She came back out and was followed by what Kurt thought at first was a child. When they walked closer he saw that the person was just extremely short, gray of skin, and on top of that had horns curving back from her forehead, claws, and fleshy wings folded behind her back.

"Gargouille!" he hissed, realizing who it was. "You are Gargouille!"

"I am," she said in a low, crackly voice. "What of it?"

"You attacked Gambit! You are the one they're looking—" Kurt cut himself off, remembering too late that he should give them as little information as possible.

"So Remy has taken up with the X-Men, has he?" Gargouille said scornfully. "And I did no worse to him than he deserved. He was walking around with those rings without a clue as to what they really were."

"Gambit had the ring? And there was more than one?" Sensing that Raven had not brought Gargouille out to attack him, Kurt sat back down on the sofa. They followed suit.

"There are three of those rings in existence. They were created years ago by the Morlocks, a group of mutants who lived in the sewers and abandoned tunnels of this city. These rings are what caused the Morlocks to break up. Since there were only three, they fought over them and ultimately, through their sheer stupidity, lost all of them."

"How did Gambit get them?"

"How does that idiot get anything? He won them, gambling. I saw him win them along with a pile of other jewelry. He had no idea that the rings were special. So when he left that bar in Tennessee, I followed him and managed to recover two of them."

"He says you tried to kill him." She scoffed.

"I wouldn't try to kill him; he is an old friend. But he did fight back a little harder than I expected." Kurt said nothing to this, but found it strange that Gambit hadn't mentioned that Gargouille was a friend of his.

"Gargouille is going to try on the ring, so you can see that it is harmless. Gargouille, if you don't mind?" Gargouille hopped down from the sofa and picked up the ring, slipping it easily onto her thumb.

Kurt watched in astonishment as she grew a foot taller, her skin color changed, her horns receded, and her wings disappeared. Within 5 seconds the gargoyle had disappeared and a short, black woman with close-cut hair and slanted eyes stood before him. She looked entirely human; even her claws were gone.

"Sometimes that which we see with our own eyes is the hardest to believe," Kurt whispered to himself, standing up slowly as he peered at Gargouille in astonishment. "You look like a human."

"That's the idea."

"But do you still have your powers? Or does the ring rob you of those?"

"I can't fly. Anything that depended on my physical form doesn't carry through. But the powers I developed at puberty? Speed, strength, acute hearing and vision, and so on? Still got 'em." To prove it, she darted around the room faster than Kurt's eyes could follow, and then picked up the sofa with him sitting on it. "The ring is a dream come true," she said when she sat down next to him, still wearing the ring.

"And it is impermanent?" He had purposely chosen not to take the cure because his mutant form was a part of his identity. He didn't want any ring to take that from him.

"Only lasts as long as you wear it." Gargouille pulled the ring from her finger and Kurt watched her morph back into her grey, four-foot-tall self. She tossed the ring at him and he caught it. "It's yours if you want it, Nightcrawler."

"I would like to accept. But my concern is that you will expect something from me in return." He turned to face Raven again, who he sensed was in charge.

"We might. But we won't ask you anything you're not willing to give, because what would be the point? You'd just betray us. I told you, Nightcrawler, I'm looking for a friend, and I think you and I can trust each other. Giving you the ring is just a gesture to begin that friendship."

"May I try it on?" Kurt asked, convinced by the frankness in her voice.

"It's yours," she shrugged. "There's a mirror over there." Kurt jumped up and walked over to the mirror on the far wall, and, staring at his reflection, he slid on the heavy ring. He closed his eyes as his body began to change, not willing to watch the distortions twisting his form. He gave it a few seconds and then opened his eyes, and nearly screamed in surprise.

He was human. Caucasian, with short, dirty-blonde hair mixed with too many grey strands. He looked a little old for a man in his forties, with lines in his forehead and bracketing his mouth. His eyes were light brown.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, Mother of God," Kurt repeated the Hail Mary to himself over and over as he stared at his own form, twisting and turning to see different angles. He took off his jacket and looked down at his pale, hairy arms. The tattoos all over his body were the only part of himself that he recognized. He could walk down the street and no one would have any idea he was a mutant.

Raven walked up behind him then.

"This is what you'd look like as a human. Do you prefer it?"

"I—I do not know. The person in the mirror is not me, but he is someone I longed to be when I was younger."

"Well now you can be both." Kurt turned to her and held out his hand. She shook it.

"Thank you, Raven. If this is a gift freely given, then in the spirit of our new friendship, I accept it."

"You're welcome."

"I had better be getting back to the school soon, unless there is anything else?"

"No, nothing else." They started walking back towards the door, and he paused by the sofa to shake Gargouille's hand. The diminutive woman gave him an ugly grin.

"Enjoy your new toy."

"I will put it to good use. Thank you both. Raven, I look forward to the next time we meet." He smiled at her. She smiled in return, but as she nodded he saw her eyes flash yellow. "Merciful heavens!" he cried, taking a step back.

"What?"

"Your eyes. They—they were just yellow a moment ago."

"That's impossible!" She turned to look down at Gargouille.

"I didn't see anything," she said.

"Of course not," Raven said, but as she spoke her eyes flashed yellow again. Gargouille gasped.

"Raven, your hand!" She pointed at Raven's left hand, where a tiny patch of blue was slowly expanding on the back of her palm. She stared at it for a good ten seconds, and then abruptly lifted her head to look at Kurt. The expression in her eyes had become dangerous, and he took a step back.

"Grab him!" she hissed, and Gargouille leapt at him. Raven's glare had given him enough warning, though, and Kurt teleported up to one of the beams that lined the ceiling. He landed on his feet, crouching, but Gargouille was already up there, waiting for him on another beam.

"She told me you'd come here first if trouble arose," she gloated. Kurt tried to teleport again but his balance was much worse in this human form, and he instinctively steadied himself. That hesitation was all Gargouille needed, and she leapt again and caught him.

With her arms wrapped so tightly around him, Kurt would take her along if he teleported. He struggled but she was incredibly strong, and he could hardly even breathe in her grip. She jumped from the beam, expanded her large wings, and flew them to the ground.

Raven—Mystique—was waiting for them. She stabbed Kurt in the arm with a needle, and with his next breath he found himself falling from consciousness.

"I'm sorry," Mystique said, and then the world faded away.