Kitty didn't mean to startle away from Nightcrawler.
She didn't, really! She knew he was nice, and she knew he was doing his best to become friends with her, and even though he tried to hide it, she knew it hurt him every time she flinched away. And she didn't want to; she'd been trying to train herself out of it for a while, especially after they all briefly thought he died on his birthday. She'd felt so guilty for the way she'd treated him, so when he'd come back, she'd made a personal vow to treat him better. And she was trying. She was.
But whenever he teleported unexpectedly, and whenever he got too close, she couldn't help but flinch.
She had plenty of time to work on it, at least. She'd stepped up her training with the other X-Men, and that meant more time in the Danger Room with all of them. And she and Nightcrawler often had similar assignments; she was practicing phasing with objects, and he was working on teleporting with people. Soon, she was fairly certain she'd move up to phasing with people as well, but she wasn't quite ready for it yet. She could see the way it weighed on Nightcrawler too, when he would get larger and larger objects to teleport with. Sometimes, the others would volunteer to teleport with him, but they never seemed to enjoy the process much. Kitty wondered what it would feel like. She wondered if she'd find Nightcrawler more or less scary afterwards.
She wasn't scared of him, not really. She just couldn't kick the stupid startle response.
As if Nightcrawler could read her thoughts, Kitty heard a familiar bamf and flinched slightly as Nightcrawler appeared across the room from her in a burst of smoke. "Ah, Kätzchen, there you are," he said, smiling around the friendly nickname as always. "We have been looking for you. Ororo wishes to do an extra training session before the professor returns, so hopefully we can beat the level he assigned us in the Danger Room."
"Aw, again?" Kitty groaned. Professor Xavier had assigned them a new level in the Danger Room, a harder one than they'd done before, and thus far, they'd failed every time. They were getting better - the last time they only just barely failed - but it was still difficult and disheartening, and it was hard to motivate to do it.
"Once more for today," Nightcrawler agreed. He held out a hand. "Do you want me to bring you to the Danger Room?"
It was an offer to teleport together, Kitty knew, although why Nightcrawler would offer it just before a training session, she didn't understand. Teleporting an additional person exhausted him; why would he do that to himself right before whatever Ororo was planning on putting them through? She wondered if it was for her benefit, if Nightcrawler had been able to sense her curiosity and was attempting to sate it. But she didn't know if she even really wanted to try teleporting, so she shook her head.
"Thanks, I'll walk."
"Then I will walk with you," Nightcrawler agreed. He opened the door and bowed extravagantly. "After you, my lady."
He was funny, and he'd be charming if he didn't have the blue fur and the tail and… well, most of his physical characteristics, to be honest. Then again, Kitty remembered, he did have a girlfriend, so apparently there were some people who found him charming regardless. She tried to understand, she was really trying, but he just looked too weird.
She tried not to flinch as she passed him in the doorway, and she mostly succeeded, although she was pretty sure it was obvious how tense she was. Nightcrawler didn't say a word, gamely walking along with her down the hall.
"So, what do you think of life among the X-Men so far? Is it what you expected?"
"It's a lot of work," Kitty admitted, looking ahead and really only barely catching glimpses of Nightcrawler out of the corner of her eye. It was easier to talk to him like that, sometimes, when she could almost forget what he looked like. "I knew it would be, but I didn't realize how much."
"Herr Professor works us hard," Nightcrawler agreed. "Tell someone if he tries to work you too hard, Kätzchen. From the stories that Scott told us about the first X-Men, it seems that the professor can be even more of a taskmaster when helping young mutants first develop their powers. Luckily, the rest of us knew what we were doing enough when he approached us that he didn't need to teach us everything."
"You still do training with him, though," Kitty countered.
"We do, but it's not quite the same as yours. And the rest of us were old enough and did enough training with Scott beforehand that the professor couldn't train us the same way he'd trained the old X-Men, although not for a lack of trying. Do you know, he tried to give Logan demerits to influence his behavior?"
"Demerits?" Kitty repeated, wrinkling her nose. "Like some sort of fancy boarding school?"
"In a way, this is a fancy boarding school," Nightcrawler replied with a grin. "But you are closer to a student's age than the rest of us."
"You're not that much older than me," Kitty protested. "You're only twenty-one. And Piotr is only eighteen."
"Ah, but Kätzchen, that makes us adults, and you still a child."
Kitty glared. "I'm not just a kid! I'm an X-Man!"
"You are, yes, but you are also only-"
Nightcrawler stopped abruptly, his whole body going tense. Kitty stopped too, looking at him warily.
"Nightcrawler?"
"Something's not right," Nightcrawler murmured. "Do you hear- Kitty, get down!"
Nightcrawler almost never called Kitty by her real name; the second he did, she moved automatically. She dropped, phasing into intangibility for good measure, right as the wall behind them exploded.
"Get somewhere safe!" Nightcrawler yelled to Kitty as the dust began to clear and more shots began to blast into the hallway. "Find the others!"
"I'm not leaving you!" Kitty protested. "Whoever this is-"
"Is more than a match for either of us," Nightcrawler finished. "We need the team. Go, Sprite, that's an order!"
Kitty stepped back, then she froze as a robot stepped through the opening in the wall. The blasts seemed to be coming from two guns braced on its shoulders, and it was presumably behind the explosion as well. Kitty had the feeling it was stronger than it looked, and she was proven right almost immediately when it grabbed a chunk of the wall and hurled it at Nightcrawler. He was hardly able to teleport out of the way quickly enough, and when he reappeared, his eyes sought her again. The robot hadn't seemed to notice her, so he couldn't say anything, but she could read the look on his face well enough.
Get out of here! Go get help!
She hated to leave Nightcrawler. She didn't have much of a choice. Leaving was the only way to help him.
She stopped phasing as she ran, needing to go as quickly as possible. She could move faster while phasing sometimes, if she was using her powers to float, but it required a level of concentration she couldn't afford, not now. Her main priority had to be speed; she needed to get help for Nightcrawler as quickly as possible.
As it turned out, she was wrong. Her main priority should have been keeping a better eye on her surroundings.
"Kitty!" she heard Nightcrawler yell, and then she heard three things in very quick succession: the whine of a blast moving towards her, the bamf of Nightcrawler teleporting, and then a second bamf, this one combined with a scream.
She could feel Nightcrawler's arms tightly around her, but she couldn't feel much more than that for an awful moment. It was like she was being simultaneously compressed and dispersed, like something was yanking her molecules apart from each other and also trying to squeeze them together. It was one of the worst sensations she'd ever felt, and it wasn't until she found herself somewhere else that she realized what Nightcrawler had done.
She'd been wondering what it would feel like to teleport with him. She'd found out.
She wasn't sure where they were; it looked like a bedroom mixed with a gym. It wasn't a room she'd been in before, but it was clearly lived in. She had her best guess whose it was, but she couldn't figure out why Nightcrawler would have teleported her to his room until she realized that his grip around her was going limp.
"Nightcrawler? Nightcrawler!"
"Kätzchen," Nightcrawler rasped, coughing. "Are you alright?"
"What happened?" Kitty tried to grab at him to keep him upright, but Nightcrawler gasped in pain the second her hands touched his back. She pulled back immediately, and then she realized that there was something warm and wet on her hands.
"N-Nightcrawler?"
"I couldn't think of anywhere else fast enough," Nightcrawler explained, looking around the room. "We're on the other side of the school from the robot. I-It should be a while before it- it-"
Nightcrawler's knees buckled; Kitty did her best to grab him without hurting him and only barely managed to slow his collapse. Tentatively, she looked at his back, and for a moment, she thought she'd be sick.
"Nightcrawler, your back-"
"It'll heal," Nightcrawler soothed, as if his back wasn't a charred, bloody mess. He's taken that blast for Kitty, she knew; he'd blocked her and teleported them both away. If she'd kept herself phased, then he wouldn't have had to worry about her; if she'd paid more attention to her surroundings-
"Kätzchen," Nightcrawler said, his voice achingly gentle. "I'll be fine."
He would. Kitty refused to let him die. "Do you have bandages?" she demanded. She didn't know much about medicine, but she knew Nightcrawler had been studying it. Between the two of them, she was sure they could patch him up enough for now. Soon, the other X-Men would defeat the robot, and then they'd be able to give Nightcrawler some real medical care.
"First, we need to figure out a way to warn the others," Nightcrawler said, trying to pull himself upright. Kitty noticed his tail lashing behind him, weak but agitated. "They need to-"
"We need to worry about you first!" Kitty cried. "The others can take care of themselves!"
"We're a team," Nightcrawler replied, a light admonition in his voice. "We must help each other."
"You're not in any state to help anyone!" Kitty whirled around the room. "Do you have bandages or not?"
Nightcrawler had managed to pull himself slightly more upright with the help of one of the many gymnastics bars scattered around the room. He leaned on it heavily as he gestured towards his desk. "There should be some over there. Bring the phone too."
Kitty hurried to the desk and dug around until she found a first aid kit. The phone cord was just long enough for her to bring it over to Nightcrawler, and she handed it to him as she opened up the kit.
"Logan was in the kitchen, I think," Nightcrawler told her, lifting the phone and dialing. "If he's still in there-"
"Stay still," Kitty told Nightcrawler, looking at the contents of the first aid kit with trepidation. She didn't know how to use some of them, but she could figure out bandages, at least. "And if you have any tips…"
"We should clean the wound first," Nightcrawler told her distractedly, still holding the phone to his ear. "Come on, Logan, pick up!"
"How do I clean it?" Kitty asked. "With water, or-"
"Water is a good start," Nightcrawler agreed. He twisted experimentally and winced so badly he almost dropped the phone. "I think- My suit-"
Kitty looked at his back and realized with horror what he was talking about; there were bits of his suit that seemed to have gotten stuck in the bloody mess of the wound. "I-"
"You don't have to worry about it," Nightcrawler told her, although Kitty wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to keep from worrying. "Ororo will help later. She has the steadiest hands."
Ororo would have to pick the threads out of the wound, Kitty realized, and she was guiltily grateful she wouldn't have to do it herself. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Just clean the wound the best you can, and then we'll bandage it." Nightcrawler set down the phone, then picked it up and dialed another number. "Logan isn't picking up, but maybe someone will be in the booth of the Danger Room."
"The robot might have already gotten to them," Kitty warned.
"It might," Nightcrawler agreed, but he didn't stop dialing.
Kitty looked around the room. "Do you- Where's can I get water?"
"The bathroom is down the hall, to the right."
Kitty gaped at him. "What? I can't leave you in here alone!"
"Kätzchen-"
"This is my fault!" To her horror, Kitty felt tears spring to her eyes. "You got hurt because of me! So I need to take care of you, and I can't just leave you alone!"
"Kitty." Nightcrawler reached out for her, taking her hand with only a slight wince. "It wasn't your fault. You did nothing wrong. Everyone can get hurt in fights like this. If anything, I should have moved faster to get us out before the blast hit."
"You were protecting me," Kitty whispered. "So now I need to protect you."
"That's not your responsibility."
"And it's not your responsibility to protect me! I'm not a little kid, I'm an X-Man!"
Nightcrawler leaned forward again, then winced harder and pulled back. "The best thing to do now is to clean the wound. I'll be fine if you go and get some water, I promise. The robot isn't nearby anyway. We'd hear it, and we're halfway across the school."
"But what if you need something?" Kitty countered. "What if-"
"Sprite." There was the slightest hint of an edge in Nightcrawler's voice as he said her code name, and Kitty snapped to attention automatically. It was only then that she realized how much she'd been spiraling. She was worried about Nightcrawler, and she'd stay worried until he was in better hands, but she couldn't let that keep him from taking care of both of them.
"Sorry. I'll go get water."
Nightcrawler relaxed slightly. "Thank you."
Kitty grabbed a cup off Nightcrawler's desk and phased through the door, carefully making sure that the cup phased with her. Phasing with other objects was easier now that she'd been training with Professor Xavier, but she still had to concentrate hard to make sure they stayed phased properly. She could have just opened the door, which would have been easier, but she was worried that it would attract the robot somehow; that he would hear it or sense the electronics working. Phasing felt safer.
She listened closely as she went to the bathroom, keeping herself and the cup phased. She had to return to solidity when she reached the bathroom and filled the cup with water, but she phased back the second it was full.
And then the water promptly splashed all over the floor.
"No!" she hissed, keeping her voice quiet but unable to keep from voicing her frustration. "Okay, it's okay, just try again. Unphase, turn on the water…"
She was directly holding the cup, which made it easier to phase, but she wasn't directly touching the water, so she had to concentrate even harder to phase it. Perhaps she'd tell the professor afterwards and they could practice with it, but she didn't have time to perfect a new skill while Nightcrawler was waiting for her. She scrunched up her face in concentration, then she slowly phased the cup and the water into intangibility.
She had to walk slowly back to the room to make sure she didn't lose her concentration, which made her anxiety increase, but she couldn't focus on that either, not if she wanted to stay phased. Finally, she made it back to the room, and the second she got all the way through the door, she went solid again with a sigh of relief.
"Kätzchen? Did you run into any problems?"
"Nothing," Kitty replied, sitting down next to Nightcrawler. "Except spilling some water in the bathroom, but it's fine. What about you?"
"No one has been picking up the phone," Nightcrawler said, his voice tight. His face didn't look too anxious, but Kitty could see his tail lashing back and forth again, and she figured that was probably a better judge. "Did you hear anything outside of the room?"
"No." Kitty looked down at the cup of water. "How should I clean your back?"
"Use this," Nightcrawler said, handing her a t-shirt. "Wet it, and then do your best to clean the wound. Don't scrub too hard. If it's clotted at all, we don't want it to start bleeding again."
"Okay." Kitty took the t-shirt and swallowed hard. "Should you- Do you think it would be best if you lay down?"
"Most likely," Nightcrawler agreed, carefully maneuvering so he was lying down on his stomach. He was tense, and not just from the pain; Kitty could tell he didn't particularly like being in such a vulnerable position. She couldn't blame him, not when there was that robot still on the loose.
She did figure that a distraction might help, though, so as she wet the t-shirt, she asked, "Where do you think the robot came from?"
"Its design reminds me of Sentinels, but it's not exactly the same," Nightcrawler replied. "I wonder if it's from the same source, or if someone else is taking the idea for themselves."
"So it's just someone who hates mutants for no reason, like usual," Kitty said glumly. "I hate having to deal with that."
"It is difficult," Nightcrawler agreed, and Kitty felt a burst of guilt as she realized how much harder it had to be for him, with his mutated appearance. At least she didn't look like a mutant on first glance; she could pass as a normal human, which gave her a certain level of safety and privilege. Nightcrawler didn't have that at all. Even she was unnerved by his appearance, and she was also a mutant. With normal humans…
"Kätzchen?" Nightcrawler prompted when she stayed still a few moments too long. "If you don't feel comfortable cleaning-"
"No, I'll do it," Kitty said quickly. She'd been avoiding looking at Nightcrawler's back, but she forced herself to, holding the wet t-shirt in front of her like a shield. It looked so painful, and she couldn't help but think about how the blast had been aimed at her, how it should have been her who was burned and bleeding. She was sure Nightcrawler would argue with her if she said that aloud, but it didn't make it any less true.
"Okay," Kitty said, swallowing hard and wetting the t-shirt. "Any tips?"
"Just be gentle," Nightcrawler said, as if she was going to be anything but. She hated the thought of touching the wound on his back at all; she certainly wasn't going to do anything that would make it hurt more. "Once it's clean, we can bandage it, and then we can come up with a plan to deal with this robot."
"Um, I think the plan is we wait here until the others deal with it," Kitty countered. "You can't fight like this."
"Let's take things one thing at a time," Nightcrawler said. "If you don't want to clean-"
"No, it's fine!"
"You've been stalling," Nightcrawler said gently. "I know it probably looks… bad."
"That's one way to put it."
"And I know that I already look-"
"What? No! This has nothing to do with-" Kitty shifted so she could look Nightcrawler in the eye. "This has nothing to do with how you look. I'm not afraid of you! I just don't like seeing you hurt like this."
"You don't need to pretend not to be afraid," Nightcrawler said gently. "I understand-"
"You don't understand anything, buster," Kitty interrupted. "I'm not afraid of you. I'm trying not to be so jumpy either. You're not scary. It's fine."
"Very well," Nightcrawler said, sounding almost amused by Kitty's vehement defense. "But I'm certain my back is unpleasant to look at right now, and if you don't feel comfortable tending to it, or if you don't think you can, then that's alright."
Kitty absolutely didn't want to tend to Nightcrawler's back. She didn't want to even look at it. And she had no idea what she was doing; she couldn't help but worry that she would make it all worse, although she couldn't quite imagine how it could get worse than it was. But none of that mattered, because she was the only one there who could help. Nightcrawler clearly needed someone to help him tend to the wound, and they hadn't managed to get through to the other X-Men yet. Until they did, Kitty was the only person available, and that meant she had to step up.
"I'm going to do it," she told Nightcrawler, lifting the t-shirt. "Are you ready?"
"Whenever you are," Nightcrawler replied. Kitty saw the muscles in his shoulders tense. She took a deep breath, then she lowered the t-shirt against the wound.
To his credit, Nightcrawler hardly made any noise at all. The only sound was a tiny, punched-out exhale, clearly made through gritted teeth. Kitty knew it had to hurt more than that, though. Nightcrawler was doing his best to keep quiet, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt, it just meant he was trying to spare her as much as he could. It was kind of him, and she appreciated it, but it only worked so well.
As carefully as she could, Kitty wiped down Nightcrawler's back, avoiding the spots where the blood seemed more congealed. Nightcrawler had warned her not to mess with spots that were clotting, and he'd clearly lost enough blood already. Kitty had some on her hands to prove it.
"Alright," she finally said when the wound looked about as clean as she thought she could make it. "What do I do now?"
It took Nightcrawler a moment of carefully controlled breathing to respond. "How much of it looks burned, and how much is just cut?"
"Uh…" Kitty looked critically at the wound, trying to stay objective. "A mix, kinda? The middle part looks more like it's burned, and the outer parts more like they're just cut."
"With burns, it is best not to bandage them too tightly," Nightcrawler said. "Can you pass me the kit? I forgot if I put anything to treat burns in there."
Kitty slid the first aid kit over to Nightcrawler, then moved it even closer when he tried to move and hissed out something sharp in German. He looked through it slowly, then closed his eyes and shook his head lightly.
"Nightcrawler?"
"I- I'm sorry, Kätzchen, I- I am having trouble reading the English labels. Could you read them for me?"
"Sure." Kitty slid the kit back within her reach and pulled out a bottle. "This is some sort of pills. Um, ibuprofen."
"Painkillers," Nightcrawler said. "Set them aside for now. Look for a cream."
"A cream? Okay, this one is called bacitracin."
Nightcrawler nodded. "Yes, that one. Put a thin layer on the cuts and the burn."
"You want me to touch it?" Kitty asked, looking warily at the wound. She'd done her best to avoid touching it too much with the t-shirt, especially in the places where it looked the worst. If she was putting the cream on it, though, she'd have to touch the whole thing.
"Gently," Nightcrawler replied, "but yes. The bacitracin will help it heal and prevent infection."
Kitty hesitated, then she steeled herself and squeezed a bit of the cream onto her fingers.
"Okay. Are you ready?"
"I am."
As gently as she possibly could, Kitty began spreading the cream on Nightcrawler's back. He hissed in pain at the first touch, and after a few moments, she noticed that he was muttering to himself in German, just barely loudly enough for her to hear. He didn't seem to be talking to her, so Kitty kept going, still trying her best to be gentle.
"Alright," she finally said, once she'd spread the cream everywhere. "That should be it, right? Just the bandages left?"
"Ja, das-" Nightcrawler stopped and shook his head. "Apologies. Yes, Kätzchen, that should be it. Can you help me sit up?"
Kitty helped pull Nightcrawler into a sitting position and slid a chair in front of him so he could brace himself on it while she wrapped the bandages around his torso. "What were you saying before?"
"Praying," Nightcrawler said, his voice a bit breathless as Kitty adjusted the bandages so they'd be loose enough not to irritate the burns but tight enough to stay in place. "It was an attempt to distract myself. It was only partially effective."
"Do you ever go to church?" Kitty asked. She taped the bandages in place and eyed her work critically. "I haven't gone to a synagogue in forever. I haven't even checked if there's a good one in the area. I've been too busy."
"I could help you look," Nightcrawler offered. "I… occasionally go to mass, but not as often as I should. As you said, I am too busy."
"Will it ever calm down, do you think?" Kitty asked tentatively. "I mean, I love being an X-Man, I wouldn't give it up, but… Will it be easier?"
"Ach, Kätzchen, I wish I could tell you." Nightcrawler sighed, still braced on the chair in front of him. "It is hard. It has been hard since I joined. This is not the hardest time, but it is not the easiest. I do not know what to tell you, except that it is worth it."
"I know that," Kitty agreed solemnly. "It is. But… But I don't like it when people get hurt."
"Unfortunately, it is a fact of life." Nightcrawler twisted just enough to shoot Kitty a wry smile. "Will you help me up? We should go see if we can find the others."
"You're not going anywhere!" Kitty cried. "Do you even think you can walk? Because I don't think you can walk."
"I can still teleport," Nightcrawler replied mildly. "And I cannot abandon the others to the robot."
"We don't even know what's going on with them! For all we know, they already beat the robot and they're just wondering where we are!"
"Or perhaps they are fighting it now and in need of our help," Nightcrawler countered. "I do not mean to be pessimistic, but I must consider all the options. I would not want them to be trapped fighting something dangerous without backup."
"And how are you supposed to be backup? You'd fall over if you weren't leaning on that chair!"
"I will do all that I can," Nightcrawler replied. "Do you wish to come with me? I will not blame you if you do not."
"Of course I want to come with you! Someone needs to make sure you don't end up passing out in the hallway!"
Nightcrawler's lips twitched into a faint smile. "Thank you, Kätzchen. I appreciate the care."
"I still don't think this is smart, though," Kitty added. "For the record. I think it's actually pretty dumb."
"Noted."
"And if I could stop you, I would."
"You could, perhaps," Nightcrawler admitted. "I would not be surprised if you could beat me in this condition."
"I'm not going to fight you!"
"Then we will go together to fight the robot instead."
Kitty sighed deeply, then she got to her feet and held out a hand to Nightcrawler. "Come on, then. Let's go."
Nightcrawler heaved himself to his feet with Kitty's help, and he managed to stay upright without her having to hold him up. She didn't trust how long that would last, but it was better than she'd feared. His first step wobbled a little, but with only a bit of support from Kitty, he made his way to the door.
"Since I wasn't able to reach the others, we should make our way to the Danger Room, and hopefully we'll find them there," he declared. "Unless you have a better idea."
"My better idea is that we don't go looking for them at all," Kitty grumbled. "But fine, we can go to the Danger Room. Are you going to teleport us?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think it would be safe," Nightcrawler admitted. "I could teleport us into the control room, but if there's been a fight, it may not be exactly as it usually is, and we could end up teleporting in the middle of debris. Unless you could phase us?"
"Uh…" Kitty looked down at her hands and remembered how hard it had been to phase the cup of water. "I don't think I'm ready for that yet."
"We'll have to try it some other time, then." Nightcrawler reached to open the door. "Are you ready, Sprite?"
"I'm ready, Nightcrawler."
"Then we go." Nightcrawler muttered something under his breath, then he pushed the door open.
The hallway was, thankfully but anticlimactically, empty. "This way to the Danger Room," Nightcrawler said quietly, leading Kitty down the hall. "It's not too far."
Nightcrawler didn't look like he could go too far, so Kitty figured that was a good thing. Of course, once they got to the robot, there was the question of fighting the stupid thing, but Kitty had the beginnings of an idea.
"Do you think the robot would short out if I phased through it?" she asked. "A lot of tech does. The professor always yells at me when I phase through his computers when he's working."
"It might," Nightcrawler replied. "If you could do it safely, it would be worth a try."
"If you and the others distract the robot, I could probably do it," Kitty said slowly. "But then it would be focused on you."
"I can teleport out of the way if necessary," Nightcrawler said. His lips curved into a slight smile as he added, "I'll be quicker than last time, I promise."
Kitty had no idea how Nightcrawler could joke about that, not when his back was in the state it was in, but she had to admit, he wasn't entirely wrong. If he just had to keep the robot's attention but he didn't actually have to physically fight it, he could teleport out of the way every time it got close. He just had to be an appealing enough target that the robot didn't notice Kitty.
If the others were still okay, then they could help, but Kitty wasn't sure she wanted to plan around that. She didn't think the others were dead - she refused to think the others could be dead - but they could definitely be incapacitated. She didn't think they could count on their help.
"What do you think the robot wants?" she asked as they continued towards the Danger Room. Nightcrawler, thankfully, didn't seem to be flagging too much; Kitty was pretty sure it was mostly adrenaline. "Like, do you think it wants to kill us, or capture us, or…"
Nightcrawler hummed. "I don't think it would mind killing us, given the intensity of its blast, but I'm not sure that's its primary goal. I think it could have done more if it really wanted us dead. I wouldn't be surprised if it wanted to capture us for some reason. Or at least some of us. If this is anything like the Sentinels, they were usually attempting to capture us, but they did not mind much if some of us died in the process."
"Do you think the others are okay?"
"I…" Nightcrawler sighed. "You are an X-Man, Kätzchen. I will not lie to you. I don't think they are dead, but I'm not sure if they are… okay. I would not be surprised if mine was not the only injury in this fight."
"Wouldn't they be safe in the Danger Room, though? It's hard to break in there."
"Ja, but if the robot got into the control room, then it could make things… difficult. It's happened before."
"Do you think we need better security?"
Nightcrawler laughed, sounding almost surprised by it. "I don't think any security would be better than us. And I don't think it would help much. Our problem is not so much fighting off the enemies that find us, but the fact that they find us in the first place."
"So we need to be sneakier about our home base?" Kitty asked. "Do you think we should find another place? Maybe somewhere that's not the home of a known mutant supporter?"
"Herr Professor may be known as a supporter of mutants, but his connection to the X-Men is yet unknown," Nightcrawler replied. "I believe that some of our foes simply have the ability to sense mutants somehow. Some of the Sentinels almost seem to… smell us."
Kitty wrinkled her nose. "Like Logan?"
"In a way, yes."
"Gross."
Nightcrawler's lips twitched. "Indeed."
Kitty knew the layout of the mansion fairly well, but she didn't know it as well as Nightcrawler; he never hesitated as he led Kitty to the Danger Room. He took a few shortcuts that she didn't know existed, and she made a mental note to ask him about them later, once the threat was dealt with. She didn't technically need shortcuts in the same way as he did, given that she could just phase through the walls and make her own shortcuts, but they were still cool.
"Alright," Nightcrawler said in a low voice as they approached a hallway that Kitty recognized as leading to the Danger Room, "are we going to go with our strategy from before? I distract, you phase through the robot?"
"What about the others?"
Nightcrawler sighed. "We'll see what condition they're in. If they're in the Danger Room, we can stop the simulations from the control booth, but it may be difficult to reach the control booth if the robot is still there."
"What if the robot got into the Danger Room?" Kitty countered. "Or what if-"
"Let's go see what is actually happening before we worry too much about 'what if's," Nightcrawler interrupted gently. "I can scout ahead-"
"No way! I'll do it!"
"Kätzchen-"
"You look like you could fall over at any second, and I can phase through walls to make a quick escape if I need to. I'm obviously the better choice."
Nightcrawler sighed, his tail lashing behind him, but he didn't protest. "Alright, but be careful. Don't take any risks. And just go scout and come back here."
"Trust me, I'm not going to try to fight the robot myself," Kitty replied. "See you in a minute!"
Concentrating, Kitty phased enough that she could walk on air, and she ran down the hall as quickly as she could. She could hear the sounds of fighting as she got closer, but she didn't hear the whine of the robot's blaster that she'd heard before. Either one of the X-Men had already taken out the blaster, or…
The door to the control room was open, and the mic must have been on, because Kitty could clearly hear the sounds of fighting from inside the Danger Room. From sneaking a peek, it looked like Nightcrawler's theory had been correct. The X-Men were all inside the Danger Room, fighting its seemingly infinite creations. The robot, meanwhile, looked as if it was interfacing with the systems somehow. Kitty wondered if it was trying to break in.
They'd have to make sure to stop it before it did.
She raced back to Nightcrawler as quickly as she could. She saw him before he saw her, which let her catch a glimpse of him slumped against the wall and visibly exhausted before he noticed her and straightened into an almost-normal position. "What did you see?"
"You were right. The X-Men are in the Danger Room, and I think the robot is trying to break in. It's doing something with the computers."
Nightcrawler frowned. "There's protections on the computers, but if it's able to get in there, it would be able to get into a lot of our files."
"Do you think that's why it's here?" Kitty asked. "To get information?"
Nightcrawler's expression darkened further. "I know the professor has information on many mutants he's encountered."
Kitty didn't need him to spell it out for her; if this robot had been built by some sort of mutant-hating organization like they thought, then accessing those files could be fatal for the mutants listed in them. It wasn't just about protecting the school or the other X-Men, not anymore. Now it was about protecting all the innocent mutants who had no idea of the danger that could be coming for them.
This was the sort of thing that the X-Men had been founded for, and Kitty was going to prove her worth.
"If the robot has the computers on, I need to be careful not to phase through them," Kitty said. "I could end up deleting some of the professor's information, or I could end up messing with the controls for the Danger Room."
"I can lure the robot away from the room," Nightcrawler offered. "Then you can stay phased without having to worry about affecting the computers."
"I don't think it's going to be that easy to lure the robot away," Kitty countered. "It's focused on the computers. I think it would probably rather get the information from them than fight you."
"Hmm." Nightcrawler frowned. "You may be right, Kätzchen. But you're safer if you can stay phased the whole time."
"I'd rather stay phased too, but I can be careful," Kitty replied. "And we need to stop the robot as fast as possible."
"Not if it risks you getting hurt."
"I'm an X-Man," Kitty retorted. "If I end up getting hurt, I know the risks. But if we let it get to those files, then the robot will go after innocent mutants who didn't sign up for a fight. I'm not going to let that happen."
Nightcrawler looked at her for a long moment, then sighed and dragged his hand over his face. "If anything happens to you, Ororo will kill me."
"I can take care of myself."
It wasn't entirely true. The awful wound on Nightcrawler's back - the wound he'd gotten protecting her - proved that. But she wasn't going to let innocent mutants die just because Nightcrawler and the others were overprotective of her. Kitty was an X-Man; if she had to go down, she'd go down fighting.
"Alright," Nightcrawler finally agreed. "But you will let me distract the robot, and you'll be careful. Ja?"
"Okay," Kitty agreed. "Let's go."
"You said he was in the control room?"
"Yup."
Nightcrawler offered her a grin that bared his fangs, then he was gone in a burst of brimstone. Kitty phased and followed.
She heard the whine of the blaster charging before she reached them, and she made sure she was intangible enough that it was no threat to her. She couldn't distract Nightcrawler, not again. She had to focus on her job, and he had to focus on his, and hopefully they'd both end up fine.
"Missed me!" Nightcrawler taunted as the blast hit right where he'd been a moment earlier. "You are too slow, my metal friend. If you wish to catch Nightcrawler, you must be faster."
The robot's hands were no longer at the computer, which was a good thing. Kitty just hoped that wasn't because it had already gotten all the information it needed. Even if it had, she supposed, it would be alright; unless the robot had some way of transmitting the information wirelessly, it wouldn't be able to act on it without leaving the school, and she didn't intend to let it leave the school.
"Too slow again!" Nightcrawler called, but Kitty could see the way he was flagging already. She needed to move, and fast. The problem was, she also had to be careful, and she also had to stay hidden. She was intangible, but she wasn't invisible, so the robot could see her if it just turned around.
She'd have to move before it had a chance to.
Nightcrawler teleported away again, and Kitty tensed, preparing to lunge forward. She would throw herself through the robot, she'd disrupt its circuits, she'd-
The robot was aiming at Nightcrawler again, and from the look on his face, Kitty was pretty sure he was in no state to teleport again, not this quickly. Ready or not, Kitty had to move.
She ran towards the robot, then she dove through it. She could feel its systems fritzing out around her, but she'd been half a second too late; the weapon was already firing. It would hit Nightcrawler in an instant, so Kitty moved faster; she phased back into solidity and tackled Nightcrawler to the ground. It would hurt his injured back, and she hated to do it, but it would also save his life.
The blast hit the wall right above their heads, just as the robot behind them fell.
"K-Kätzchen," Nightcrawler forced out, his voice breathless and pained. "You w-were supposed to stay phased."
"I just saved your life, fuzzy elf!" Kitty cried. "You'd better be glad I didn't stay phased!"
Nightcrawler managed a weak smile. "You'd be lighter on top of me if you had."
"Oh, oops!" Kitty scrambled off Nightcrawler quickly. "How's your back?"
"I'll be alright," Nightcrawler assured her, but he didn't move to get up until Kitty offered him a hand. "We should deactivate the Danger Room before one of the others gets hurt."
"Good idea." Kitty scanned the control panel, trying to remember the command buttons Professor Xavier had taught her. Next to her, Nightcrawler made an amused noise and leaned past her to press a button. Immediately, the holograms in the room disappeared.
"Congratulations," he called through the microphone, "you were just saved by the incredible duo of Nightcrawler and Sprite."
"Kurt," Ororo replied, sounding relieved. "We were worried. Are you and Kitty alright?"
"More or less," Nightcrawler replied, as if he wasn't leaning more and more weight against the control panel with every moment. "We could probably use a hand getting this robot out of the school, though. And patching up the hole it left in the wall."
"Sounds like you two had all the fun," Logan said. "How about next time, you let us out earlier so we can join in?"
"I would rather there not be a next time, mein Freund," Nightcrawler replied, and this time, there was an audible thread of pain and exhaustion in his voice. Kitty wasn't sure if the others could hear it, but she certainly could.
"Do you want to sit down?" she asked him quietly. "I can talk to the others."
"The others should join us up here," Nightcrawler replied. "But I think I will accept your offer to sit."
Kitty could see the way the others went tense as the words carried to them. Logan turned and made an immediate beeline for the exit, the others close behind him. Kitty only had to wait a moment before they arrived in the doorway of the control room.
"Kurt!" Ororo swept to his side, her eyes wide. "What happened to you?"
"It's alright," Nightcrawler assured her, managing a smile even though Kitty could see the pain on his face. "Kitty already helped me to tend to it. Although I may need your help too, Ororo."
"Anything you need," Ororo promised.
"Got hit by the robot?" Logan asked, kicking it. "Looks like you fried it good."
"I phased through it," Kitty said, "but I'm not sure how long that'll keep it down."
Logan extended his claws. "I'll make sure it stays down."
"It looks similar to a Sentinel," Piotr remarked as Logan began shredding the robot. "Do we think they are related?"
"Logan, leave the head intact," Ororo commanded. Logan sliced the head off in one movement and pushed it aside. "Perhaps we can gain some information from it. But first, I believe we ought to clean up. Kurt, you mentioned something about a hole in the wall?"
Nightcrawler blinked up at her. "Ah, yes, I can-"
"The robot blasted Nightcrawler when he was protecting me," Kitty burst out. "It's bad. I washed it and put some cream on it, but he needs more help!"
"Kurt?"
Nightcrawler looked a bit sheepish. "It is not so serious, but… Kitty is not entirely wrong."
"Can you make it to the infirmary?" Ororo asked, brow creased in concern.
"Don't worry about it, 'Roro," Logan cut in, and he scooped Nightcrawler up without another word. "Elf's not that heavy."
"What- Logan, put me down!" Nightcrawler didn't really blush, not with his blue fur, but Kitty could tell he would be blushing if he could.
"Nope," Logan replied, walking out of the room while Nightcrawler continued to protest. Kitty did notice that he didn't teleport away, and she wondered if it was because he didn't actually mind that much or if it was because he was too tired to do so. Ororo swept Kitty into a quick hug, then she followed after Logan and Nightcrawler.
"You did well, Katya," Piotr said from behind Kitty, wrapping his arms around her. "Were you frightened?"
"I don't sound much like an X-Men if I say yes, do I?" Kitty asked ruefully. "I was, though. Especially when Nightcrawler got hurt." She hesitated, not daring to look up at Piotr as she continued. "He took the hit for me. I wasn't phasing, and the robot shot at me, and so Nightcrawler teleported between us and got hit, then he teleported the two of us to his room. I- I did what I could to tend to it, but…" Kitty whirled around and buried her face in Piotr's chest. "Oh, Piotr, it was awful!"
Piotr ran a comforting hand over Kitty's hair. Even as he did, though, Kitty couldn't help but think that he'd been friends with Nightcrawler for longer than he'd even known her. She was the reason Nightcrawler had gotten hurt; if Piotr blamed her, he would be right to do so.
"Are you mad at me?" she finally asked, when he didn't speak.
"Mad?" Piotr repeated. "Why would I be mad?"
"Nightcrawler got hurt because of me!" Kitty cried. She still couldn't bear to pull back and look Piotr in the eye. "It was my fault!"
"No, Katya, it was not. It was the robot's fault. It hurt Kurt, not you."
"But only because I wasn't paying attention!"
"You're not the only one of us who has made a mistake. And Kurt will be alright. I'm certain he doesn't blame you."
"Maybe he should."
"He will not. That is not how he is."
Kitty sighed, finally looking up at Piotr. "He's a really great guy, isn't he?"
"He is."
"And I haven't really been fair to him, with the way I've been acting."
"You have been trying," Piotr said loyally. "That puts you above many others."
"I could try more." Kitty nodded firmly to herself. "I will try more. I don't care how he looks, Piotr, I'm going to be nice to him, and I'm not going to be scared of him, and I'm going to tell him that right now!"
"He will appreciate it," Piotr replied with a smile, "but perhaps you should let Ororo do her work first, and clean yourself up?"
Kitty looked down at herself. She was covered in dust and ash and, in the few spots where it had gotten onto her, Nightcrawler's blood. And her normal clothes weren't as sturdy as her costume, so they were ripped in a few places too. They were definitely a lost cause.
"Oh. Yeah, that's probably a good idea."
"Kurt will be alright," Piotr told her again, "and no one blames you for what happened to him. If you were the one to phase through the robot, you saved us all. You are a hero, Katya, and we are all lucky to have met you."
"You're a flatterer," Kitty told Piotr, pointing accusingly at him, then she phased up through the ceiling to get up to her room.
It didn't take long for Kitty to strip out of her filthy clothes, wash herself up, and redress. Once she was clean, she headed out of her room and towards the infirmary. She hoped Ororo would be done treating Nightcrawler's wounds so she could talk to him. She also hoped someone had given him painkillers, because she remembered suddenly that she'd set aside ibuprofen for him, but he'd never taken it.
When she entered the infirmary, Ororo was gone, and Nightcrawler was propped up in a bed with new bandages around his chest. Logan was sitting next to the bed, smoking a cigar, but when he caught sight of Kitty, he stood.
"Looks like the kid has something she wants to say," he told Nightcrawler, who blinked up at him sleepily. "I'll be outside."
"If you're tired, we can talk later," Kitty told Nightcrawler, noticing guiltily how exhausted he looked.
"No, Kätzchen, I'm fine," he told her anyway, offering her a smile.
"Don't let him get up, no matter what he says," Logan told Kitty, then he slipped out of the room. Kitty sat down in his empty chair, and even though she'd come specifically to talk to Nightcrawler, she found she had no words to speak.
"I need to thank you again for stopping the robot when you did," Nightcrawler said, breaking the silence. "If it had fired that last blast, I'm not sure I would have been able to get out of the way in time."
"You saved me," Kitty replied. "It's only fair that I saved you too."
Nightcrawler's tired smile widened. "You are right, of course."
"I…" Kitty looked down at her hands. "I wanted to apologize."
"If it is about what happened with the robot, you have no reason to."
"No, it's not that. I am sorry about that, but I- I haven't been fair to you."
To Kitty's surprise, Nightcrawler's expression only softened further. "You don't need to apologize for that either, Kätzchen."
"But I was mean to you!" Kitty protested. "I judged you for no reason!"
"If you knew how other people had treated me, you would not call your behavior mean," Nightcrawler replied. "Did you know that I first met Professor Xavier when he saved me from a mob that was dead-set on killing me? They came very close."
"They wanted to kill you?" Kitty demanded, then she redirected herself and added, "Just because I wasn't as bad as some people doesn't mean that what I did was right!"
"You never acted out of malice," Nightcrawler said mildly. "You were simply afraid, and I cannot fault you for being afraid."
"Maybe you should! How can you be so forgiving about it?"
"If I refused to forgive everyone who had once been afraid of me, I would have very few friends left," Nightcrawler admitted. "Fear is not a crime."
"But…" Kitty deflated slightly. "I hate it when people act afraid of me, just because I'm a mutant, even though I haven't done anything. But that's exactly what I did to you!"
"Fear is not a crime," Nightcrawler repeated gently. "It can be irritating, yes, to face the fear of others for no reason. But the fear itself is not the problem. The true problem is what people allow their fear to push them to do. Many let it push them to hate, or even to violence." He offered Kitty a small smile. "You did not, and so I have never been angry with you for it."
"I'm still going to be better," Kitty declared. "I'm not scared anymore. I wasn't for a while, really, just kind of… startled. But I'm not going to be now!"
"Ah, fear is not always so easily conquered."
"It will be for me!"
Nightcrawler's lips twitched into another grin. "Perhaps it will be. I may be too quick to judge."
"I promise," Kitty declared, holding out a hand. "We can shake on it."
Nightcrawler hesitated for a moment before extending his own hand. Kitty supposed that it had probably freaked a lot of people out before; the three fingers were obviously abnormal, and even through his gloves, she could feel what felt like claws on the fingertips. But she wasn't going to be afraid. She wasn't afraid of Nightcrawler anymore.
She took his hand without hesitation and gave it a firm shake. "We're agreed."
"We are."
"I can leave you now, if you want," Kitty offered, suddenly remembering how exhausted Nightcrawler had looked when she first entered. "If you're tired."
"You are welcome to stay, but I do not know how much longer I can remain awake," Nightcrawler admitted. "If you leave, you can tell Logan that I do not need to be watched and he can return to his own business as well."
"I don't think that'll stop him," Kitty admitted.
Nightcrawler sighed. "Nein, neither do I, but it is worth a try."
Kitty giggled. "I'll let you sleep," she said, then she tentatively leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Nightcrawler's forehead. "G'night, Nightcrawler!"
"You may call me Kurt, if you like, as the others do," Nightcrawler offered. "Or you could use a nickname, if you prefer, as Logan does. I believe you called me 'fuzzy elf' before?"
Kitty couldn't stop her cheeks from flushing slightly. "Okay, fuzzy elf," she said anyway, because if he was going to tease her, then she was going to own it. "Sleep well."
"Thank you, Kitty."
He meant the thanks for more than just the well wishes, Kitty knew. She still wasn't sure that she deserved them. She'd saved him, but he'd saved her first, and otherwise, she'd just offered him the basic human decency that she should have offered from the beginning.
But she couldn't change the past, so she'd just have to make them a better future.
"G'night, Kurt," she said gently, and she waited by her friend's side until he fell asleep.
