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The sky was dreary when she first arrived to Genosha. It remained dreary as she was introduced to the Interim Council in their meeting hall. It was filled with familiar faces—ranging from old friends to former enemies.
However, she knew these faces were not familiar to her, but to the woman whose memories she borrowed. These were Jean’s familiar faces. Not Madelyne’s.
She tried to swallow that fact as she went through the motions of greetings. She made it a point to introduce herself as Madelyne.
She was brought onto the Interim Council because she was an X-Man. Which she was. She had been on missions; she had seen action. She was much of an X-Man as Jean Gray was. But still an uncomfortable feeling gnawed at her. The feeling that the Interim Council only wanted her because she was a clone of Jean Gray, not because she was Madelyne.
She did her best to shake off those feelings as introductions continued. It led to a briefing of expectations and her responsibilities on the Council. Moira, the only human there, mentioned off-hand something about an absent member, but Madelyne had been so wrapped up in her thoughts, she hardly caught it.
As soon as the onboarding finished, Madelyne was shown to her quarters, her “new home” as Moira put it. It was an apartment, on one of the top floors of the tallest skyscrapers in Genosha. It was a short walk, or flight, away from where Madelyne would be working.
The apartment itself was rather spacious, fully furnished with a full kitchen, living room with a fireplace, one-and-a-half bathrooms, and two bedrooms that served as a main bedroom and a guest bedroom. The windows in the living room were wall to ceiling and opened to a balcony that overlooked the ocean.
It was far too big for her. Maybe it would feel less overwhelming if Scott were—
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she banished it. She shouldn’t be thinking of him. She shouldn’t even be wishing he was here. But even as she tried to push it down, it still bubbled up like a pot beginning to boil.
It wouldn’t be hard to reach out to him through psychic rapport. Maybe she should. Just to let him know that she arrived safely…
A quick succession of knocks from the apartment’s front door interrupted her thoughts. With a wave of her hand, she pulled it open as she turned on her heel. However, she used more force than intended. The door slammed against the door stopper and rattled from the momentum, spooking both her and the person at the entrance.
“My apologies. Am I interrupting?” a baritone voice, thick with a German accent, floated over to her.
Madelyne blinked, and she couldn’t help the smile that broke across her face as she saw yet another familiar face. “Kurt!”
Kurt returned a warm smile, gingerly stepping through the threshold of the entrance. He hardly changed since she had last seen him. He wore a red and black spandex suit that complimented his blue fur. His dark curly hair was its usual mess. Tucked underneath his arms was a stack of books.
Gliding forward as though beginning a dance, he took Madelyne’s hand and dipped down, pressing the back of her palm to his forehead. “It is a pleasure to meet, Miss Pryor.”
Madelyne felt her cheeks burn. Right. This was their “first” time meeting. “T-the pleasure’s all mine, Kurt. And Madelyne’s fine.”
Quietly, she stepped back. Kurt obliged her motion, dropping her hand and straightening up. He ran a three-fingered hand through his hair, as if attempting to get it presentable. He continued to speak, his warm smile not once leaving his face.
“Then, Madelyne, I apologize for not being at the onboarding meeting. I had Council duties to attend to.”
“Council duties?” echoed Madelyne. This is who Moira must have meant then. “I had no idea you were on the Council.”
“Ja, I am,” Kurt nodded enthusiastically. “I am the liaison for communities of faith here in Genosha.”
“All of them?” Madelyne raised an eyebrow.
“Currently,” Kurt chuckled. “It is quite the job! But that is enough about me. How are you, Madelyne? Finding everything to your liking?”
“Everything is…” Madelyne paused as she glanced around the apartment.
“Big?” offered Kurt.
Madelyne blinked, her gaze flicking back to him. She smiled softly. “Yes. Big.”
Kurt hummed as he glanced around her apartment. “I was offered similar housing when I first arrived. High-above. Much too large for one person. I ended up requesting a smaller apartment, closer to the ground. For myself, a place to sleep and cook a delicious meal that was close to the life of Genosha is more than enough.”
He spoke fondly of his arrival, warmth and love apparent in his words and eyes as he recalled the memory. Jealousy flickered in Madelyne’s heart.
“If you want, I can arrange housing that is more comfortable for yourself,” Kurt continued, his gaze flicking to her.
“No, no,” Madelyne quickly cut in. “I’ll…grow into it.”
“If you change your mind, all you need to do is call.” Kurt adjusted the books underneath his arm. Madelyne caught the spine of one. It appeared to be a German translation of the Quaran. “Outside of the apartment, how are you finding Genosha?”
“The Interim Council was very welcoming, and the skyline is very beautiful,” Madelyne murmured. To her surprise, Kurt gasped, his eyes wide.
“Oh, Fräulein, do not tell me you have not properly toured Genosha yet!”
“Well, there really wasn’t much time between the flight and the onboarding…” Madelyne began as she shrugged her shoulders.
Kurt interrupted with rapid tsks of his tongue as he shook his head. “You must see Genosha! Come!”
As he stepped forward, offering his hand, thunder rumbled overhead. Kurt and Madelyne turned to the windows and spotted a much darker sky. Rain streaked down the glass as lightning flashed over the ocean.
“Well, perhaps when the weather is better,” murmured Kurt. “I shall be your personal tour guide, Madelyne, and show you all the sights!”
“That sounds fun, Kurt,” Madelyne murmured. Though to be honest, she was now beginning to feel the exhaustion of her travel weigh on her. An eight-hour flight would do that to a woman, on top of being immediately whisked away to talk work with her newest colleagues.
Though she gave no physical sign of her tiredness, Kurt seemed to pick up on it with surprising speed.
“Ack, here I am prattling on and suggesting a tour. You have just traversed across continents and oceans to arrive here. You must be exhausted, Madelyne.” Kurt quietly stepped back, his hand hovering over the doorknob.
“I am a little tired.” She was exhausted, and each passing minute only proved to bring her closer to teetering over, right in front of Kurt. Still, she smiled as she waved goodbye to him. “Sorry I couldn’t be a better host for my first guest.”
“Bitte, Madelyne. If anything, I am the one hosting you. And making a poor show of it, at that.” Kurt matched her smile. “Let us make up for our poor hostings another time. Until then, Auf Wiedersehen.”
“Goodbye, Kurt,” Madelyne murmured.
Kurt dipped his head briefly as he stepped back into the hall, closing the door quietly as he departed.
The silence of his absence weighed heavy on Madelyne as she moved away from the front door to flop down on the couch. Her muscles that were tight like an overwound toy immediately turned to butter as she sank into the polyester cushions. Before she properly realized, sleep had already taken her.
Her next few days were filled with meetings followed by more meetings followed by reading over briefings back at her apartment. Today had been particularly long, nearly entirely focused on the high inflation that Genosha was dealing with. The literature she was reading now was a myriad of suggestions from economists, sympathetic to Genosha’s plight, on how to alleviate it. It was a little over her head. When she had been asked to join the Interim Council as an X-Man, she thought it would be wrangling the likes of Frost and Shaw and less handling the day-to-day minutia of operating a country.
She had begun to develop a headache when she decided to make herself a cup of coffee. While sitting at the kitchen countertop, still half-focusing on the paperwork, she began opening cupboards and plucking a mug and instant coffee mix with her telekinesis. Such simple actions hardly required her brainpower anymore, so now she could do it on autopilot.
After a few minutes of reading, her coffee was ready. She held out her hand and guided the mug into her palm. However, a small clink on the countertop startled her. It nearly broke her concentration and caused her to drop her mug.
Her eyes darted up from the report she was reading to see a second cup of coffee sitting on the countertop, prepared with one cream, one sugar. Just how Scott likes it.
Madelyne bit her lip as her chest swelled with an overwhelming feeling of melancholy. Briefly, she considered dumping what would have been Scott’s coffee down the drain. She could hardly stand to look at the mug and all the memories it scrounged up to the surface.
How he would lean against the counter, just a small movement away from a kiss. The way his red glass glinted in the light, reflecting back at whatever he was looking at. Often, she found herself reflected back in those lenses, even when they weren’t in close proximity.
With Scott still on her mind, she flicked her finger and a wall phone receiver darted to her palm.
She glanced over to her fridge, punching in a number from a piece of paper tacked onto the steel door by magnets. However, as she finished punching in the number, her thumb hovered over the dial button.
It would probably be easier to reach out to him psychically. At the same time, she didn’t want to frighten him or catch him off-guard. A phone call would be best, she assured herself. Less invasive. She pressed dial and brought the phone to her ear.
The phone line rang in her ear. By the third ring, a pit formed in her stomach. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. As she contemplated hanging up, the phone line finally clicked, and a familiar voice tickled her ear.
“Kurt Wagner speaking. How may I help you?”
“Kurt!” Madelyne did her best to try to mask the relief that rushed into her voice. “This is Madelyne. Madelyne Pryor.”
“Madelyne!” Kurt’s wide smile could be heard through the receiver. “How are you doing?”
“I’m…fine. Listen—” Madelyne paused, glancing over to the extra coffee mug on the counter. “This is going to sound silly, but I made too much coffee for myself. Do you want a cup?”
“I would be happy to have one, meine Freundin. I will be there momentarily!”
As Madelyne hung up the phone, a quick succession of knocks at the front door followed. She whisked the door open with a wave, and Kurt quickly ported in, appearing immediately at the kitchen counter.
An overwhelming stench of brimstone followed his arrival, but Madylen did her best to pay it no mind.
“Guten Tag, Madelyne!” Kurt took a seat at the counter, spotting the lone mug in front of him. “Already prepared a cup?”
“One cream, one sugar, if that’s okay,” Madelyne murmured. She hoped he wouldn’t ask how odd it was to prepare a guest’s coffee without asking them first.
“More than perfect,” Kurt smiled as he took the mug in his hands. “Tell me, Madelyne. How are you adjusting?”
“It’s certainly…different,” she admitted, glancing down at her coffee.
“Certainly not the same as being an X-Man, ja?” Kurt offered as he sipped on his.
“Well…” Madelyne hesitated a moment, pressing her lips against the rim of her mug. She let out a loose chuckle. “If we can even consider me an X-Man.”
“Nonsense!” Kurt’s eyes went wide as he nearly dropped his mug to the counter. “You are as much an X-Man as any. You have faced countless threats: Magneto, the Friends of Humanity, Apocalypse—” Kurt counted on his fingers as he began listing off all the foes that she—no, Jean Gray had faced.
Madelyne held up her hand, smiling softly. “Kurt, I appreciate the gesture, but we don’t know…” she trailed off, her hand dropping back down to the counter.
Kurt tapped his fingers against his mug, frowning. “You remember it, do you not?”
“Of course I remember, I’m—” Madelyne glared at him before she stopped herself. She dropped her gaze back to her hands. “It’s…not that simple, Kurt.”
Kurt hummed into his coffee as he looked her over. “It may not be simple, but that does not mean you should overcomplicate it. Where does Jean Gray end? Where does Madelyne begin? Does the answer truly matter?”
“Of course it matters,” Madelyne countered. “If it didn’t matter, then why would he go through all this trouble just to…to swap us out?”
“You are searching for meaning from manipulation,” murmured Kurt. “I do not think you will find the answer you seek there.”
“And where else am I supposed to find this answer? From myself? After finding out my entire existence was a lie?” When she couldn’t even trust her own memories? Madelyne couldn’t help but scoff slightly.
“You would not be the first. And I am afraid you won’t be the last,” Kurt offered solemnly. His tone took Madelyne by surprise, as though he spoke from experience.
“Have you…” Madelyne dared not finish the thought.
“Not to the level of your predicament.” Kurt reassured her with a small smile. “But it was certainly a shock. But from it, I found new friends…and family. It took some time to see, but from that which I lost, I also gained. When I realized it, I was grateful.”
Grateful was the last thing Madelyne felt. Even the one thing that she knew was hers and hers alone was gone entirely. She lost her husband, her son, her entire family. And what has she gained? A bureaucratic position at the head of a fledgling government? It felt like peanuts compared to what she lost. She would trade it in a heartbeat just to be back home.
How dare he, a hostile part of her hissed. How dare he try to even relate to what we went through.
“The weather has improved,” Kurt mused, his eyes on the windows. Bright sunlight streamed through them as white, puffy clouds lazily drifted across the blue sky. “Care for that tour?”
Madelyne glanced at the windows before glancing at her paperwork. Stay stuck inside with boring paperwork and the grievances of her past life hanging over her?
“A tour sounds good about now,” Madelyne murmured.
Kurt beamed at her response and offered her his hand. “Then, without further ado, let us be off!”
The moment Madelyne touched her hand to Kurt’s, she was immediately whisked outside to where the life of Genosha greeted her. Kurt proved to be the most enthusiastic tour guide, traipsing her around to every nook and cranny the city had to offer. From restaurants overflowing with the smells of homemade meals, to spontaneous dance parties that cropped up in the streets, to the ins-and-outs of the transportation that encircled the island, there was hardly a place Madelyne hadn’t seen by the time they arrived back at the main square.
“And this is where I shall end it,” concluded Kurt as he dropped down onto the steps leading up to the Council’s main building. “Where you started. A nice touch, ja?”
“Certainly full circle,” Madelyne murmured as she surveyed the city from their vantage point. The city she had gotten to intimately know felt so far once again. Life breathed from every corner where mutants freely walked without fear of persecution or ostracization. She had not seen such joy, such wonder, in all her years. Madelyne began to understand Kurt’s desire to move closer into the city.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a young mutant at the bottom of the steps. She was clothed in niqab. She paused for a moment and glanced at the sky before conjuring a patterned rug out of thin air. As she laid the rug on the ground, a pair of two mutants, one with skin that had flecks of rock and the other that passed as human, stalked over. They seemed to say something to the girl, but it was hard to hear due to the distance. Based on their body language, they seemed irritated.
Beside Madelyne, Kurt’s tail flicked. She glanced in his direction and saw he was watching the scene with a slight frown. He shot a smile at Madlyn once he noticed her gaze.
“One moment, dear Madelyne.” He briefly saluted her before porting down to the bottom of the steps.
The pair of mutants seemed to be trying to intimidate the mutant-girl into moving, as they puffed out their chests and moved closer to her. Kurt’s port put him squarely between the pair and the girl.
He swung his arms around the two mutant’s shoulders. Based on Kurt’s body language, he was speaking lightly to them, a large smile plastered on his face. He quickly turned them around, ushering them away. However, as they turned back around, Kurt’s body language changed. He straightened up, his tail slightly lashing. He stepped forward, as though he was speaking now with an authoritative tone.
The two mutants stalked away. The human-looking one took a moment to spit at Kurt. Kurt hardly flinched and kept his gaze on them until they disappeared from view. He then turned to the young girl behind him, a large smile on his face.
He spoke briefly with her before porting a few meters away, crouching in the shade of a pillar, still within her sight. The girl continued with her prayers as Kurt watched over her. As she finished up, she waved goodbye to him. Kurt, in typical fashion, bowed before porting back up to Madelyne.
“Trouble in paradise?” murmured Madelyne as he settled down beside her.
“There are growing pains to be expected when gathering so many so quickly,” Kurt answered. “Despite all that unites us, there are those that only focus on that which divides us.”
“Do you usually deal with situations like that?” Madelyne asked, nodding to the girl that was departing.
“It is not…unusual. A different scenario, maybe, but the same story,” Kurt sighed. “It is hard, but I do not mind it. I could not ask those that arrive here to depart from that which makes them whole for their safety, so I simply must do what I can to ensure they can be themselves wherever they choose.”
“That’s…very kind of you, Kurt,” Madelyne murmured.
“It is why I joined the Council.” Kurt flashed a smile as he reclined back on the steps. “There are those like Magneto, who believe that mutants must create their own culture, free of human influence. New music, new art, new religion.” Kurt waved his hand as he listed everything off. There was a bored look on his face as though he’d heard the spiel a million times before and could recite it from memory.
“I take it you don’t agree?” Madelyne couldn’t hide the humor in her voice at his body language.
“We are more than our genetics. If we define ourselves solely by that and forget everything that came before it, we risk losing ourselves in the process.” Kurt suddenly sat up, turning to Madelyne. His face was serious as he took Madelyne’s hands in his own.
“I am Kurt Wagner, a mutant. A blue, fuzzy one at that,” he added on with a slight grin. “But I am also Kurt Wagner, a Catholic and a priest. An acrobat. A performer. And a myriad of other things. If I came here, only defining myself by the fact that I am a mutant, then I would lose all the things that make me Kurt Wagner. And you…”
Kurt paused a moment, his grip tightening on her hands as he pulled them closer to his chest. He spoke warmly, his eyes softening. “You are Madelyne Pryor.”
Madelyne breathed out a laugh. “Kurt, I—”
Kurt quietly interrupted, nudging away her doubt. “Madelyne Pryor is a mutant as well. A very powerful one if I may add. But is there anything else Madelyne is?”
Madelyne’s skin prickled underneath Kurt’s gaze. She felt the need to rip her hands away from his and leave. But she swallowed that desire and instead attempted to answer his question with a hesitant tone. “Madelyne is…was a mother.”
Kurt chuckled warmly at her answer. “One does not stop being a mother, dear Madelyne. Motherhood simply changes.”
“I…” Madelyne felt a pressure build up behind her eyes as her breath caught in her throat. She spoke in a whisper, desperately wanting him to understand, but fearful of anyone overhearing. “I gave him up, Kurt.”
As soon as the confession slipped from her lips, she desperately wanted to take it back. No one outside the X-Men knew the circumstances of what happened. She wasn’t even sure if anyone on the Council had been debriefed on it.
And why would they? A bitter part of her snarled. Why would they need to know that?
Her shoulders tensed slightly as she steeled herself for a look of disgust from Kurt for her failure as a mother. But instead, all she found was sympathy in his gaze as he gently squeezed her hands.
“I can see how much you loved him. To part from him, you must have had a very good reason. That must have been hard for you.”
“It was…on both of us.” The memory of Scott flickered in her mind, storming out of the medbay, refusing to participate in abandoning his son, as he phrased it. Did they abandon him? She had only…
“I only wanted to do what was best…” Her voice shook as she spoke. She took in a breath, trying to steady it. “And this was the best I could do.”
“I’m sure they will come to understand that, even if they do not now,” Kurt murmured.
Madelyne briefly wondered if he could read minds with how quickly he picked up on her thoughts. She took in another breath, trying to keep her tears at bay. “I…have to go.”
She stood slowly, Kurt helping her up. Her hands lingered in his before she finally let go, dropping hers to her sides. She felt wind rush underneath her hair as she began to hover on the steps. She paused a moment.
“Thank you, Kurt,” she murmured.
Kurt returned a small smile. “Anytime, Madelyne. If you ever have extra coffee again, I would be happy to have some.”
Madelyne smiled at the suggestion. “It was one cream, one sugar?”
Kurt laughed. “I prefer my coffee black, actually.”