Retrieval of Self

by ishkaw

A training exercise crashed by a group of mercenaries leads to capture and to a dilapidated building hiding a sinister secret. Their failure as a team causes the X-men to question themselves, each other, their abilities, and their humanity.

8. Chapter 8

Warnings: Cussing. I cuss. Too bad, so sad.

Wow, really long time no update. Truly sorry about that.

Just fyi, I do plan on finishing this fic even if it takes me for the rest of my life (hopefully it won't). But, if I ever do decide not to continue it, I will post my notes for future chapters so you guys can at least see where I was headed.

I really appreciate all the reviews a lot!! They certainly motivate me, and I love getting each one. You guys rock.

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Retrieval of Self: Chapter 8

And then Rogue blasted all the puny soldiers into oblivion using Scott's borrowed optic beam. The others cheered as the clandestine warehouse burned down. Revenge was theirs.

Or at least that's what Rogue imagined in her mind as she helped Jean settle into her seat.

"You gonna be alright?" Rogue asked as she knelt next to Jean, trying to examine all of her injuries.

"Yes, I'll be fine. I just need to sit for a spell," Jean wearily replied.

Rogue nodded and stood back up, fists clenched tightly. The rising bruises she could see on Jean's face only caused her anger to grow from a simmering stew into a churning vat of lava. Jean didn't seem injured anywhere else really, just tired as she clutched her head between her hands. Trusting that Jean would tell her if she needed anything else, she turned her attention to the blood trail leading to the seat Scott was being forced into.

"Stay the hell down," Logan snarled as he placed a forceful hand on Scott's shoulder.

"But-"

"You're to stay in this seat until I finish bandaging your leg. Got it, bud?" Logan pushed down on Scott's shoulder in emphasis before angrily tearing open a packet of bandages from the X-jet's first aid kit.

"I just wanted to see how the others were doing," Scott grumpily muttered as he reluctantly complied.

Softening his tone, Logan began disinfecting the gash on Scott's leg. "Yeah, I know. But ya gotta stay put or risk worsening this wound. The others are in good hands."

Scott nodded in understanding, but that didn't stop him from turning an anxious face towards Jean.

Rogue caught his eyes and nodded to show that she was keeping watch over her charge.

"Logan, I am completely perplexed at how to proceed here," Hank announced from the back of the jet.

Rogue looked back to where Kitty and Hank were kneeling down beside Kurt. Her stomach did a flip-flop as she finally got a chance to check on the state of her friend. She was so used to the navy blue of Kurt's fur, that she was completely taken aback by the almost black shade to it. But what really made her stare was the golden glow emanating from his slightly parted mouth, almost as if his insides were on fire. Kitty was holding his hand, looking like she was about to burst into tears and throw herself onto Kurt's chest.

"How did this transpire?" Hank voiced the question that was in Rogue's head, though she would've had probably added what the and a well placed hell to her question.

"It was fucking Dr. Falk and his goddamn serum of some shit." Logan angrily finished tying the bandage around Scott's leg, causing him to wince. "Sorry, Slim. How does it feel now?"

"I think you cut off my blood circulation," Scott answered as he rubbed his leg. "But, no, it's good. It's not bleeding anymore at least."

Logan inspected his work then stood up from his kneeling position. He took a glance down at Kurt before turning his attention back to Hank. "The son of a bitch was injecting something of some sort into Kurt since we got captured, but right before we escaped, Kurt got a huge overdose." If only Falk was in front of him right now. Then, Logan could give him what he deserved and strangle him until his head popped off. Instead, he just crossed his arms angrily to stop himself from ripping a new window into the X-jet. "And this is what you got." Logan didn't glance down again at Kurt, not wanting to see his failure at protecting his charge. "It seems to have changed his powers a bit too. Before he passed out, he teleported. But I tell ya, he left this patch of flames from where he ported. Even set some asshole on fire." He let loose a smirk of satisfaction at that memory.

Hank worriedly placed a hand on Kurt's head, feeling an intense heat radiating off from him. "This does indeed seem dire. Having a sample of the serum would be propitious, but that will be nigh improbable." He shook his head but then snapped his fingers in excitement. "But perhaps this serum is similar in components to the one I developed. That shall at least will provide a foundation for my research. I'll examine his blood once we convene at the mansion but as you can tell, I have not been so successful at reverting the effects of such drugs." He gestured down at his own blue, furry self.

"Um, guys," Rogue interjected worriedly. "I think Jean's passed out."

"It seems Murphy's Law is full force today," Hank sighed to himself, rubbing a hand to his forehead. "Watch over him, Kitty," Hank gestured towards Kurt before heading over to the front of the X-jet.

"Stay in your seat unless you want me to rip your leg off." Logan glared down at Scott who had been struggling to stand up and make his way over to Jean. Scott huffed in frustration, but complied with his orders.

Jean's head was bobbing slightly with the shifting of the jet, her eyes peacefully closed.

"I tried shaking her a bit, but she didn't respond." Rogue shrugged helplessly.

Kneeling down, Hank pried open Jean's eyes. "Her eyes aren't dilated, and her breathing is steady." Hank observed. "Did she sustain any afflictions to her head?"

Logan shook his head. "No, but she did use a hell of a lot of power, pretty much giving us our shot to escape. Was pretty impressive. Never knew she had it in her."

Hank hmmed to himself, checking Jean's pulse. "All her vitals are regular. If she expended an excessive amount of power in such a expeditious manner, then she'll require rest to convalesce but should make a full recovery." Hank sighed as he retreated to the back. "Kurt, though-"

Evan's voice from co-pilot seat cut him off. "Auntie O says we're almost at the mansion and to prepare for landing."

Rogue breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that somehow now that everyone was back together, everything, no matter how dramatic Hank made it seem, would work out.

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Forge sat outside the medical lab, worriedly chewing on his lower lip. During the rescue, he had stayed with the Professor at the mansion to help him with any problems that Mondo Cool Cerebro might have. When everyone had returned, he barely got any information about what happened and had only caught a glimpse of his friend as he was rushed past to the medical lab.

Now all he could do was wait outside the lab as patiently as he could along with a foot tapping Rogue, a pacing Evan, and a nail-biting Kitty. If that wasn't enough to get on his nerves, he was also somehow caught in the crossfire shooting from Kitty's and Rogue's eyes. Poor seat choosing on his part, but he was stuck between them for now. Rogue, though, acted as if his mutant power was invisibility because she kept glaring darkly through him to Kitty who merely rolled her eyes in response.

"They shouldn't be in there like this, ya know," Rogue broke the stare down with a mumble just loud enough voice for Kitty to hear.

Kitty, already on edge, took the bait. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Rogue stood up abruptly from her seat, walking a bit a ways before turning around angrily. A bit dramatic, Forge thought, but it certainly captured Kitty's full attention. "Maybe if a certain someone hadn't forced me to run away, I coulda helped them out," she finished, poignantly crossing her arms.

"Well," Kitty rose up to face Rogue. She certainly wasn't going to take this barrage meekly sitting down. Putting her hands on her hips, she sassed back, "that certain someone happens to have saved your butt."

Sighing to himself, Forge tried to drown out the pointless bickering between the two girls. At least one bright spot was that he was no longer barricaded in between the two. However, if this was how the X-men reacted in times of pressure, he was more than glad he'd turned down Professor X's offer to join them so he could spend time with his parents. Their friends were lying injured in the room right next over, and they decided to fight. Ridiculous. Forge could only shake his head in bewilderment.

"I don't remember you protesting! In fact," Kitty gestured wildly with her arms, "you were the one grabbing my hand so tight I couldn't, like, even feel it!" Her voice crashed against Forge's ears like a screeching cockroach. Any attempts he could make at ignoring them would be hopeless, he figured, so he decided to lean back and watch the show.

Before Rogue could counter, Evan moved in between them. He knew just what to say to break this up. He should be given a gold star just for braving their wrath, and now he could be acknowledged for the wisdom he, or well really his aunt, possessed.. "Hey, hey now guys, no need for a cat fight here. Nobody was at fault, yeah? Sometimes we all make mistakes but what's import-"

Kitty and Rogue both redirected their piercing glares at their new target, quickly shutting Evan up. He took a large gulp, immediately regretting his decision and vowed to leave the advice to the adults from now on.

"Oh yeah, Evan. I think Kurt might have to disagree with that," Rogue accused.

"Yeah," Kitty added, both girls now ganging up on him together. "You might've well of grabbed Kurt and thrown him to the men!"

"That's completely unfair!" All sense of taking the high road on this one left Evan as he defended himself. "At least I tried to take down those jerks and didn't just turn tail and run!"

The clamor from all three berating each other caused Forge to clutch his head in his hands. If this was on television, he would've pressed the mute button by now. Hey, that was a good idea. Maybe his next invention would be a real life mute button. He'd be sure to bring it with him whenever he visited Kurt.

"That's enough!"

Everyone shut up, stunned as they turned towards the source of the booming voice. Scott hobbled in on crutches, one leg was wrapped tightly in fresh bandages, hovering slightly over the floor.

"I can't believe this is how you behave when your teammates are injured and unconscious right in the next room." Scott's powerful glare that was so useful for him as the team leader, was now invoked to cast shame on them all. Even though Forge couldn't see Scott's eyes past the ruby shades Evan had retrieved for Scott, the force of the stare was so powerful, he felt ashamed despite not even being involved in the argument.

"I expect better out of all of you." Scott breathed deeply to rein in his temper, which was already frayed at the edges from his stint in captivity. He closed his eyes for a second before reopening them. Calmer now, he addressed them again. "Now, if you think you all can behave, then you can come in and talk briefly to Jean. She's awake now, but still needs her rest. I don't want anything to upset her right now."

"What about Kurt?" Forge asked.

"He's still not awake yet. Hank's taken some blood and is running some tests on him, but doesn't have an estimate of when he might wake up."

"Oh," Forge slumped back into his seat, disappointed and worried.

"Does Mr. McCoy even know if he'll wake up at all?" Kitty asked in a subdued voice.

Scott shook his head in the negative. "I dunno, but I'm sure he will when he's ready. He survived all of Falk's proddings like a champ. Something like this isn't going to break him." Scott put as much bravado into his voice to try and lend credence to his statement, but deep inside he wasn't sure how Kurt was going to handle this. The others hadn't seen how bad off he really was while they were escaping, but there was no need to impress his worries on the others just yet, especially if Hank could pull through and save the day.

"But anyway," Scott straightened up to as full of a height as he could get on crutches to impress upon everyone that he meant business. "So, can I count on you to act like X-men?"

Rogue, Kitty and Evan nodded meekly.

"That's more like it." Scott moved to the side to let everyone through to the lab. "Forge," he said as he hobbled over to him after the others had shuffled past. "I'm sorry you had to witness that. I don't know what's come over them. I hope they haven't been fighting this whole time we've been captured."

"I dunno, man, but tensions are high right now. Maybe they just gotta let out some steam."

"I suppose," Scott conceded. "Anyway, even though Kurt's still out, you can sit by him if you want."

"Thanks, man." Forge made his way over to his friend and pulled up a chair. At first, Forge had taken encouragement from Scott's statements back in the hall, but now close up, he felt any hope in him start to deflate. Besides all the blatant physical changes from the serum, Forge thought Kurt didn't look so healthy. He seemed skinnier and frayed, like the worn hem on a pair of jeans. Forge couldn't think of anything he could invent that would help his friend, so all he could do was sit and wait and hope for the best.

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The click-clack of a pencil tapping was the only sound in the dimly lit office. This time, though, instead of a neat and tidy desk, papers were strewn about, file cabinets half-opened with their contents spilling onto the floor, and one sad, neglected plant added its dead leaves to the pile. Kemp was standing calmly in front of the desk, hands grasped behind his back and no sign of emotion crossed his face. The incessant clacking and cold, hard stare from Falk didn't seem to faze him at all.

Feeling that his glares were getting him no where except a one-way ticket to a migraine, Dr. Falk stopped his tapping and leaned back in his chair. In no mood to engage in a staring contest, Falk jumped straight to the point and asked in a caustic voice, "well? Care to explain to me how this happened."

"It was a failure on my part," answered Kemp, his cool gaze meet the Doctor's irritated stare.

"Of course it was," Falk snapped. "I didn't ask you whose fault it was, but about how did this happen. "Do you think I would be so careless as to let my specimens escape?" Not stopping for an answer, Falk continued on, enumerating exactly all the failures on Kemp's side, and ignoring any possibility of his contributions to the escape.

Kemp didn't answer the rhetorical question and let his employer continue on with his tirade. He clenched his fists tight to prevent himself from firing off a retort of who exactly was at fault by being so arrogant as to be alone with a mutant with unknown powers. To prevent himself from any careless comments that might jeopardize his employment, Kemp instead began to picture the horrible, torturous things he could do to his escaped captives. He had lost two good men in their escape, many had suffered various injuries, and one was severely burned all over his body. But more importantly, his pride had taken a hard hit. His team used to be one of the best known forces for hire in the area, but he had made some unusual mistakes of judgments in hiring new recruits. It was just so hard to find reliable help nowadays, he sighed to himself. When he recaptured the muties, Kemp had plans, most of which would be banned by the doctor because they would probably kill or seriously maim his precious specimens, but he could still think of many different ways to inflict pain that didn't involve physical harm.

Kemp came back to the problem at hand when he realized that Falk was staring at him, waiting for a response. Not knowing what Falk had asked, he simply relied on his best intimidation mechanism and just stared, using his piercing gaze to prevent any challenges.

Falk rubbed his hands against his temples and sighed. He hated having to repeat himself. "I asked, if you would kindly pay attention to the one who pays your salary," Falk snidely remarked, "why, oh pray tell, did my ingenious mechanism of tranquilizer darts in my lab not go off at the first sign of disobedience from my specimen?"

Readjusting his stance, Kemp tensed his shoulders at the question. He couldn't deny whose failure it was on that point. "The men in charge of triggering the mechanism, it seems, were not up to the task of keeping to their posts. They have been summarily dealt with already."

"It seems that you and your men have made a lot of errors along the way. First, letting half of the mutants escape, then the incident in the van and now this." Falk leaned forward over his desk. "I pay a very steep sum for your services. Highly recommended and all, and this is what I receive." He gestured with his hand and scoffed. "Pathetic. Now how do you propose you fix this mess you made."

Kemp stoically took the disparagement and jumped right into his planned speech he had mentally prepared for this confrontation. "While having the targets land right by our base of operation was a great if temporary boon, I propose we revert to the original plan of capture." He turned around and picked up a folder he had placed on one of the brown Chesterfield chairs, opened it, and placed a map of the X-mansion on Falk's desk.

Falk leaned in, listening intently.

"Having this opportunity to capture and observe four of the mutants has already greatly increased the chances of our success. We now know the powers of all, but one of the mutants and as to what extent their powers are at. Moreover, they will all be vulnerable now and unsuspecting of an attack so soon after their escape. At least three of them will be injured from their long confinement in their cells and in their brash escape. The others will be distracted with helping them recuperate."

"And will you're 'competent' men be prepared for this?"

Kemp ignored the derision in the word competent and nodded. "I will only take those I trust the most and who have proven themselves before in previous missions." He pointed down at the map. "One of my men has already provided a fairly detailed map of the outside of the mutant's base as well as a fair assessment of the inside based on his observations and blueprints.* I merely need to work out the details on the approach my men shall take. We'll be ready in two nights time."

"Good." Falk nodded and turned back to his computer. "I expect better results."

Seeing that as his dismissal, Kemp left to finish his preparations.

Falk grinned to himself, pleased that it seemed everything was back on track. He had straightened Kemp out as to his expectations and fully anticipated success. Now he could concentrate again on the intriguing data he was compiling from his experiments on his favorite specimen. It was no wonder he had thought his serum was a failure at first. He had been looking too hard for a gross change, but now as he reviewed from the first week compared to the last day of injections, he could see the differences in the data. They were subtle, but constant variations that increased incrementally after each dose. He leaned back in his chair, anticipating having his test subject back in his care and retrieving the surely stupendous results of the full injection on his demon specimen.

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Kurt was sitting, slightly hunched over on one of the med lab's examination tables. He had woken up sometime late in the night and regretted every minute of it. The Professor had forced the others to head to bed and Forge to go home a long time ago, leaving the only other person in the room a peacefully sleeping Jean on a bed several feet away. Kurt couldn't be more grateful to be alone right now, considering all he really wanted to do was to curl up and die. Okay a tad too extreme. Maybe a long, cold Novocain bath would be a nice compromise. Anything to stop him feeling like someone had set his internal temperature at 400 degrees, bake until you receive one crispy Nightcrawler. He also felt restlessly languid, absolutely drained but too twitchy to fall back to sleep. Not that he wanted to go to sleep either. The images from his past seemed to keep invading any rest he tried to grab. Must have something to do with feeling like he was a furnace.

Instead, to keep his mind off his troubles, he watched the Professor, Ororo, and Logan listen intently as Hank droned on and on about something or other behind Hank's glassed off office. They had retreated there after having first greeted and checked on him when he'd woken up. Normally, he'd have made some joke about the Professor's blue PJs covered in tiny, smiling storm clouds, but he just hadn't been up to the task. Some expression, though, must've crossed his face because the Professor grumbled some excuse about it being a gift from Storm. After relating some of his one-on-one time with Dr. Falk to Mr. McCoy, Hank had then left to finish some crucial analysis, and had returned to his lab for a bit before calling the others in with him. Which left Kurt, alone, with his thoughts running amok.

His tail twitched nervously as he thought about what Hank was telling the others. His fingers performed an inane staccato beat on the table. What if Hank was telling the others that he was going to turn into a 50 foot version of himself, and then there would be helicopters and stern government officials, and maybe he'd wind up climbing the Empire State Building, which as Hollywood has proven, is never a good thing.

Letting out a small growl of frustration at his useless worrying and constant pain, Kurt decided he could be spending his time way better than tying himself up in knots. And what better way to distract himself than to use his keen wit that he possessed, if he did say so himself. After all, he already had a cast of silent actors in front of him behind Hank's office. Now all that was needed was some dialogue that he would oh so graciously supply.

Kurt watched Hank turn back around from his computer, shaking his head in disconcertion. "Damnit, Professor, I'm a scientist, not a doctor!" Kurt said to himself dramatically.

"Hold it together, Hank." The Professor gestured to his PJs, according to Kurt. "Look into these cute, little storm cloud eyes." His gaze was strong and forceful. "Now, feeling better?"

"Pansy." Logan muttered, but his gaze was obviously enraptured by the storm clouds.

Hank ignored Logan and nodded towards the Professor, having recovered his composure.

He turned back to his desk and gathered up some recently printed papers before facing the others again. "It seems from my notes here that," he took a deep breath and a dramatic pause, "you're pregnant, Professor." Kurt couldn't help but smile slightly, amused by himself.

The Professor's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Impossible!" He shook his head in a vehement no. "I never..."

Hank gestured down at the papers in his hand. "Well, it seems as though you have and that you've achieved the impossible and grown a uterus. I suppose congratulations are in order to you," Hank turned poignantly, "and to Logan." This time Kurt laughed out loud at his commentary, but stifled it, afraid he'd wake up Jean.

"Oh! Professor!" Ororo gasped, her hand covering her mouth.

"You're fucking joking," Logan angrily pointed at Hank. "You must've gotten it wrong." He stormed over to Hank and grabbed the papers out of his hands. Logan's eyes skimmed over them, but the data meant nothing to him.

The Professor rolled over to Logan and calmly took the papers from him and handed them back to Hank. "Let's hope he'll inherit my looks," Professor X said to Logan, but Kurt's game was no longer so amusing to him. Obviously, something Hank had shown them on his papers had greatly upset everyone. Ororo looked like she was about to cry, Logan was furiously ranting now, and Kurt didn't think he'd ever seen the Professor look so old.

Kurt dropped his gaze to his hands, wishing he had something he could shred into tiny pieces, but nothing was on the table near him. Glancing up towards Hank's office and seeing that his teachers were still talking, he began to look around the room for a distraction of some sort, but was stopped by his reflection in the polished surface of a nearby lamp.

He had noticed his darkened fur when he woke up, he wasn't that oblivious, but just chose to ignore it, hoping it would change back soon... somehow. But his eyes and mouth, he hadn't had a chance to see until now. Were they both really glowing gold? Hoping he wasn't going crazy, he widened his mouth. Why yes, it did look like he had swallowed a jar of fireflies. That was just peachy. Snapping his mouth shut, Kurt sighed to himself and put a hand to his head. Could his day get any worse? He really wanted a mirror to examine himself closer.

Spying around the room, he saw Hank's iPhone lying on a table a few feet away. He could use the back as a makeshift mirror like he'd seen Jean do before. Kurt slid off the table, tried to stand, but his slide turned into a trip all the way down to Floorida. Ok, maybe getting up wasn't such a good idea. Actually, maybe that was a really bad idea, because now to accompany feeling like he was being fried in a wok, he also felt like he just got off a tilt-a-whirl. And while he loved rollercoasters, right now he didn't think he could even handle a little spin in a teacup. He tried to focus on a black mar that was on the tile to stop the churning, but the cool tile felt so nice. Maybe he could just lie down for a spell and -

"Kurt!" Ororo cried out anxiously, rushing over to his side. It seemed as if the impromptu meeting about the Professor and Logan's baby had been adjourned. Kurt had to laugh at that thought.

"Why are you laughing? Are you okay?" Ororo looked at him as if he had finally lost the last of his marbles.

"Let's reposition back up on the table," Hank said as he and Ororo maneuvered him back up. "What were you attempting to accomplish anyway?"

"I just wanted to get a mirror to see." Kurt gestured down at himself.

"Oh, certainly." Hank nodded and started to look around the room for one.

"I was going to use the back of your iPhone, actually."

"Yes, an excellent proposal." Hank went and retrieved the phone for Kurt. By now, Logan and Professor X had joined them by the table. Kurt thought they all looked like they were sucking on a Warhead. None of them, though, seemed like they wanted to jump right in and tell him about what they were discussing in Hank's office. Well, if they wanted to beat around the bush, then he was willing to play along. He wasn't looking forward to anything they had to tell him.

"Here," Hank said as he handed him the phone.

Kurt swallowed nervously before turning the phone over and taking a look. Well, it was as he had thought, jar of fireflies, just in sharper focus. He wondered if his inducer would be strong enough to conceal it.

"Actually, Kurt, there is something important we must discuss."

Kurt looked up at the gravity in the Professor's voice. He handed the iPhone back to Hank before beginning to fiddle with the end of his tail. He could practically feel the turbulent emotions emanating from his teachers.

"Hank, if you care to explain."

Hank nodded before turning to go put his phone down. "Let me start at the beginning so you can understand fully what is happening to you." He stood for a few seconds at the table, dreading having to face Kurt while delivering the bad news. He wished the Professor hadn't passed the buck to him, but since he was the one who understood the complications from the serum the most, he realized why he was stuck with the task. "It seems this Dr. Falk was attempting to amplify your mutant powers, perhaps even testing various serums to observe their efficiency. He was progressing slowly, from what you have relayed to me."

Kurt nodded. So far nothing Hank had told him was anything new to him. Dr. Falk liked to talk either to himself or to Kurt, he didn't know which, while running his experiments.

"However, when Falk overdosed you, the process was accelerated, significantly and..." Hank trailed off there and went to pick up his stack of notes he brought with him. Flipping through them, Hank sighed and shook his head. "I've tested my conclusion repeatedly, and though I make no claim as a doctor, I'm certain I've achieved accurate results."

"Get to the point, Hank," Logan grumbled. "You're just making it worse for him."

"Yes, well." Hank adjusted his glasses before putting the papers aside again. "Logan recounted that when you teleported as you were escaping you left a conflagration behind."

Now that was news to Kurt, but he didn't say anything, agreeing with Logan and hoping Hank would just skip the rest of the explanation and go straight to the obviously bad news.

"It seems you have some affinity for fire in your powers we were previously unaware of."

"Yeah, cause you know how much I love fire," Kurt quipped, but even he could hear a twinge of nervousness running through his voice.

"Well your past aside, it seems the serum has augmented your internal temperature to extraordinary levels. Perhaps with continued low doses, your body would've eventually adjusted, but with such a huge quantity injected all at once." Hank sighed again. This was one of the reason he had decided early on in his career path to become a scientist rather than a doctor. No delivering of bad news. "But of course I shall research and discover a counter to its effects -"

"Listen, Elf," Logan interrupted, tired of Hank puttering about the issue and worried that if Hank dragged it out anymore, Kurt would end up twisting his tail into a permanent corkscrew. "Basically what Hank's saying is your body temp's too high. You're literally burning up from the inside out. If Hank doesn't find a way to stop it, then you're gonna die."

"Logan," the Professor admonished half-heartedly. He was glad, though, that Logan had finally told Kurt, but the stunned and disquieted look on Kurt's face wrenched at the Professor's already aching heart. "Of course, Hank will work on discovering a way to reverse it effects," he tried to reassure, placing as much confidence in his voice as he could.

"I believe I might be able to create an antidote, if you will," Hank asserted. "But I require more information about the serum. A sample would be ideal, but any observations you could provide, Kurt, would be most beneficial."

"I, um-" Kurt didn't really know what to say. He was sorta still stuck at the whole "you're gonna die" part.

"Perhaps it would be best to give Kurt some time to take this in." The Professor put a hand on Kurt's knee. "Would you like some company or anything to eat or drink?"

"I think I'd rather just be alone right now," Kurt quietly answered. He usually liked to try and deal with his problems by himself, but right now he was still in shock and felt confused. He wanted to hold onto someone tight and yet at the same time find a dark room to curl up in and, well not die, since that's precisely what he didn't want to do, but just be alone.

Professor X nodded. "If you need me or anything at anytime, don't hesitate to ask."

Ororo, her eyes red, gave Kurt an enveloping hug to which he clung to tightly, taking needed comfort from it. "You can ask for me at anytime. But you'll see," she pulled back, brushing some of his hair behind his ear in a motherly fashion, "it'll all work out."

"I'll be in my office, working, if you require anything at all," Hank said as he gathered up his papers. "But please, refrain from any attempts at teleporting right now. It could complicate matters greatly."

"And might set the mansion on fire too," Logan added.

Kurt nodded in acquiescence. He had no plans on porting anytime soon, not with the way he felt, though the passing out part might not be so bad.

With a pinched smile, Hank placed a reassuring hand on Kurt's shoulder before returning to his office.

Logan gruffly nodded. "I'll send the kids down here as soon as they wake up, so be prepared for an onslaught." He lingered a bit more by Kurt's side, not openly affectionate like Ororo, and he couldn't help but remember his irrational behavior towards Kurt while they were captured. Not sure how his platitudes would be accepted, he gave a gruff squeeze on Kurt's shoulder before turning to leave.

"Could you get the lights?"

Logan stopped by the doorway at the softly asked request. "Yeah, sure thing." He turned back around to reach for the switch, looking one more time at Kurt who was sitting so forlornly on the table. Logan started to say something, but nothing came to mind that didn't sound inane or a false promise. So, he turned off the lights and watched from the doorway as Kurt's silhouette laid down on the table. Clenching his fists, Logan left the room, planning on having a long and difficult Danger Room session to take his frustrations out on.

Kurt was glad to be alone by himself, and tried to desperately sleep, but it would be hours until he could escape his thoughts.

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Please review! I do read and appreciate them all even if I am terrible at responding to them. And each time I get one, I always think about how I should desperately update this fic.

I can't claim as to when I'll update again. Hopefully it won't be as long of a wait since I do have more of it planned out.

Notes:

- Blueprints, for the most part, are public information and can be accessed by anyone. Thus, Kemp's men having blueprints of Xavier's mansion.

- "Damnit, Professor, I'm a scientist, not a doctor!" - is a reference to Doctor McCoy's similar lines (but reversed since he was a doctor) on the original Star Trek. Extra ironic since they are both McCoys.