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Chasing The Night; 05/23-evening- (617 Pete & Kitty)
Topic Started: Jul 20 2013, 10:45 PM (1,066 Views)
Pete Wisdom
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
Excalibur 617
To hell with strategic planning, at least for the moment. They'd just improvise until they had a chance to lay right side across the bed. Right now, Pete was enjoying things the way they were.

The kiss might have ended too soon, but there would be more. He'd promised this was only the start of the negotiations, and he had plenty more in mind before they were done.

He liked this. He liked being able to touch her. And her touching him, like now, with her hand slipping from the back of his head to trace along his neck and up the stubbled contour of his jaw.

All the while since she'd been taken, until the moment he crossed over himself and held her in his arms, he'd felt like something was missing. That sense of being utterly cut off from Kitty in a way that couldn't be breached. The wrongness of it. Learning where they'd been sent, seeing her over the webcam, all that had helped put his mind at ease, but it couldn't bring that sense of wholeness.

Kitty shifted closer, her breath leaving a caress almost as tangible as her skin. Her eyes linked with his as a fond grin grew on her lips. "I'm pretty fond of that, too," she said. "I felt like that, too, though," she continued a moment later. "Especially in that fight in the Negative Zone. I'm used to you being right there, it felt strange for you not to be."

The start of all of it had been the worst for that, hadn't it? Bad as it was for him and Rachel, he could guess how much worse it had been for Kitty. Not much idea where she was and no idea who else had been taken and what was happening to them. Four months didn't seem like a long time, but Pete couldn't imagine doing what he did without Kitty at his side anymore. They just belonged together. Didn't often think it in those terms, but being separated like that made it almost impossible to think of anything else.

If that little, troublemaking blonde, or whatever fate she was working in conjunction with, had just sent him along in the first place, it might have saved a lot of trouble.

And just what was Kitty grinning so wickedly about now? "Annnnd then I kind of tackle hugged Wisdom."

Ah, that was it. Pete chuckled softly, as much for Kitty's earlier retelling of that as his own picturing of the whole thing. He remembered himself handling it much better, but then again, they'd been trying to put an end to Dream Nails at the time. "Sounds to me like his reflexes need work," he said. "Though to be fair, you do that with almost everyone. Might be you should come with a warning label."

Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing they were out of arm's reach of those pillows just yet, after all.

Kitty's fingers continued to trace his jawline, almost absently. "It's been years since I had any trouble staying solid," she said, and Pete's brows began to rise, "So you shouldn't have any problem touching me all you want."

"Good to know," Pete said, smiling softly while his hand slid up to her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. He canted his head to the side then, giving her a curious look. "When was this, that you had that sort of trouble?" he asked.

He was pretty sure he'd remember if he'd heard about her having problems controlling her powers before. It couldn't have been when she'd first discovered them, or a lot of what she'd done with the X-Men would have been a lot more difficult to pull off.
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Shadowcat
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Immaterial Girl
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Yeah, she'd had that feeling, too. Like there was something missing. She'd gotten so used to working with Pete, to him being right there, it was strange for him not to be. Add that to worry about where he might've ended up, if he'd gotten snatched too. About who else was taken and where they might be, if they might've been all scattered along the dimensional sidereal.

It hadn't been a fun time, and it'd been a little strange without any of Excalibur around at all, but there'd been Logan and Warren and the Ororo from this universe. They'd gotten through it and gotten out and even managed to pull a few useful things out of it. And bring some good news back to Sue Richards and Johnny Storm.

With Pete there, it might've been easier in a lot of ways. It also might've kept her from tackle hugging Wisdom as soon as she saw him at the strip club.

A soft chuckle floated out of Pete. Yeah, he'd heard that story already. Actually, he'd had that experience himself at least a couple of times now. Once back at Dream Nails, once just tonight. "Sounds to me like his reflexes need work," he said and Kitty grinned. Probably. She still wasn't sure she was forgiving him for calling her Hermione, either. "Though to be fair, you do that with almost everyone. Might be you should come with a warning label."

Rolling her eyes again, she quirked an eyebrow his way. "Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Don't you have any sense of adventure?" Being Pete, even if he did he wouldn't admit it. That'd be too easy. He'd claim adventure just kept attacking him out of nowhere or something, instead.

As far as touching her went, that wasn't anything she was going to complain about. Pete could do it all he wanted, she decided, as her fingertips skimmed his jaw, stubble tickling lightly at her skin. It'd been years since she'd had any problem staying solid, so that wouldn't be a problem.

Though it wasn't until after those words were out that she realized Pete didn't really know about that, did he? Or maybe not more than what was in a file somewhere at Black Air. She hadn't got the chance to tell him the whole story. The one that explained how Franklin fit into her life and why.

"Good to know," Pete said, smiling softly while his hand slid up to her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. He canted his head to the side then, giving her a curious look. Yeah, here it came. "When was this, that you had that sort of trouble?"

Brows drawing together slightly, Kitty paused for a breath, hand sliding back, curling over the side of his neck. "When I was fifteen. When the Marauders went into the tunnels and killed most've the Morlocks, I took a hit from one've Harpoon's energy spears. I was trying to phase Rogue out of the way at the time." Which probably didn't make any sense without knowing why, did it? "Scrambler knocked out her powers. If Harpoon had hit her, it would've killed her."

Another pause to gather her thoughts, eyes shifting down for a second. Not something she really talked about. It hadn't been a good year for her, that particular one. "It hit me while I was phased. Nearly killed me, and stuck me in a phased state, steadily losing molecular cohesion." Lifting her eyes again, she looked back over at Pete. "That's how I met Franklin. Moira couldn't stop the degeneration, so Ororo went to the Fantastic Four. It...didn't work out well. Not exactly a steallar time in the history of super heroes."

The FF seemed to be falling apart, the X-Men weren't much better, and she was literally falling apart. Definitely not fond memories.
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Pete Wisdom
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Pete was almost willing to bet that the only one who'd been surprised that Kitty had tackled the other Pete with a hug has been the other Pete. Not that it was a good enough reason to excuse what had to be poor reflexes. It couldn't have been that hard to dodge if he'd really wanted to.

Given enough time, though, Kitty would probably do that to everyone she knew. She had a knack for turning herself into a ballistic hug missile. In fact, she probably ought to come with a warning label.

That observation might have earned him another pillow attack, but Pete was willing to take that risk. As it turned out, she merely rolled her eyes and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Don't you have any sense of adventure?"

"Left it in the same place as me morals," Pete replied with half a shrug. "Why d'you think it always manages to sneak up on me?"

Being able to touch Kitty as much as Pete wanted was a very good thing. He didn't believe there was an actual limit to how much he wanted to touch her. Or how much he liked her touching him.

The part before that, however, was another matter. Trouble staying solid. She'd spoken in the past tense, but Pete's curiosity was still piqued. How long ago had this been?

There was a pause, the sort that usually went before taking a hard plunge into dark waters. She took a breath, more signs of the same, while she drew her hand to the side of his neck, fingers curling over the curve.

"When I was fifteen. When the Marauders went into the tunnels and killed most've the Morlocks, I took a hit from one've Harpoon's energy spears. I was trying to phase Rogue out of the way at the time."

The Morlocks. Although there weren't many who ever knew about that lot, Pete knew plenty about that massacre. Black Air even had its own name it. A hidden society with extraordinary abilities, suddenly wiped out? It was just the sort of thing that drew Scicluna's interest, and she hadn't wasted much time in sending agents there to see what secrets had been left behind that they could skim off.

As for the rest, it was all new to Pete, but he knew enough about their powers to wonder how Rogue came to need Kitty to rescue her from a second rate mercenary's energy weapon.

Kitty probably anticipated the question, because the answer was out of her lips before Pete could so much as raise an eyebrow. "Scrambler knocked out her powers. If Harpoon had hit her, it would've killed her."

Pete nodded in understanding. That would have been all that mattered to Kitty, wouldn't it. No time to waste thinking about the risk to herself. It had needed doing, and that was all that mattered.

And then?

That part wasn't so easy to talk about by the looks of it. Kitty fell silent again, her eyes dropping away. Another deposit in her bank of painful memories. Pete pressed a little closer to her, lowering the hand at her shoulder to her back, stroking it lightly. Any comfort he could offer.

"It hit me while I was phased. Nearly killed me, and stuck me in a phased state, steadily losing molecular cohesion." Some of that was a bit more technical than Pete liked, but he got the main idea. Kitty's eyes lifted back up, and even though the light from the television behind them hadn't changed, the shadows on her face seemed to darken. "That's how I met Franklin. Moira couldn't stop the degeneration, so Ororo went to the Fantastic Four. It...didn't work out well. Not exactly a steallar time in the history of super heroes."

That was one way to put it. "Suppose that explains the look Franklin gave you when I asked him about how you came to be his older sister," Pete mused quietly. Christ. She'd nearly been killed, and then things got worse. Glancing toward the head of the bed, Pete said, "This might be a good time to resolve that tactical error after all," he told Kitty.

The former spy gave her a moment to agree or not. Either way, he'd rather she was as comfortable as possible for this. He had a feeling this would be nearly as unpleasant to hear as it would to tell.

Once that was settled, and they were ready to continue, Pete brought his lips down to hers, kissing her lightly. "How bad did it get?" he asked, drawing back to meet her eyes.
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Shadowcat
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The Morlock Massacre. Coming right on the heels of her breakup with Peter. Of Ogun and Lilith, her parent's divorce and her father going into witness protection over his involvement with the Yakuza.

Fifteen had been a hard year for her above and beyond any and all of the normal teenage stuff. Her injuries from Harpoon had just been the thing that seemed to cap it all off. The thing that underlined just how bad it had gotten. Not just for her, personally, but for all of them as a group.

Even if the rest, all the nasty little details, weren't something she talked about much, Pete would know at least the broad details of the Morlocks. How they'd all been wiped out practically overnight. He might not know how the X-Men had gone into the tunnels, tried to do what they could, look for survivors. Look for whoever had butchered what amounted to an entire underground community.

Survivors had amounted to a handful. Callisto, Healer, Caliban, Mask, a few others. And they'd found the people responsible for that, if the Marauders could even be considered people. Sabertooth, Vertigo, Scrambler, Harpoon and the others weren't much more than killing machines and they'd found that out the hard way.

With Scrambler taking out her powers, Rogue was a sitting duck for Harpoon. She hadn't even thought about what she was doing, but it wouldn't have mattered if she had. It would've been the same outcome. There was no way she could watch another teammate go down.

Pete nodded, not saying anything, though. He'd get that. Hell, anyone she knew would get that. It was automatic, that kind of reaction, no time to think about possible consequences. But even if it hadn't been? Who was just going to stand there and let it happen?

It wasn't hard to see the unspoken question in the former spy's eyes, or on his face, but she was already working her way toward that. Letting momentum carry her to, and through, the parts she still remembered way too clearly. If she closed her eyes, Kitty knew she could be back in those tunnels again, with the sounds and the smells and the sudden, blinding pain, like being ripped apart, molecule by molecule. Positive she wouldn't be waking up.

She'd meant to phase Rogue out of the way, but it hadn't worked quite that way. Mostly, she'd taken the hit from Harpoon's energy sphere while she was partially phased. It hadn't killed her, but it'd come close. It had effectively ripped her apart, though, or at least begun that process. Damaging the bonds holding her molecules together and slowly but surely breaking them down. Trapping her in a phased state that Moira couldn't stop.

So Ororo had gone to the Fantastic Four, who were having problems of their own, and that was how she'd first met Franklin Richards.

"Suppose that explains the look Franklin gave you when I asked him about how you came to be his older sister," Pete mused quietly and she nodded. Some of it, at least. Not all, though, but they were getting to that part. "This might be a good time to resolve that tactical error after all," he added and the brunette nodded again.

"Yeah, I think it would be." Not to mention, it'd giver her a few seconds to get it all into some form in her head that she might be able to translated into words. So she worked on doing that while they shifted around and at least got themselves pointing the right direction on the bed again.

Plopping her head down on the pillow, she turned onto her side again, so she could see him, hand reaching for his as he leaned over for a soft kiss. Yeah, she could definitely use that about now. The brunette managed a small smile his way. She wasn't sure he was as ready to hear this as he thought he was.

"How bad did it get?" he asked, drawing back to meet her eyes and she let out a slow breath, brown eyes on his blue ones.

"Bad, Pete," she told him honestly, "Really bad. Betsy having to hold my mind together to keep it intact bad." Psylocke had only just joined the X-Men and it'd been nearly as hard on Betsy as it had on her. "Ororo and Logan so desperate they turned to Victor Von Doom for help bad," Kitty added, forehead creasing as she looked over at him. "Are you sure you want to hear all this?"

God knew, part of her didn't want to admit just how bad it had gotten, what it had all nearly come to, but she wasn't sure he exactly knew what he was getting into, either. Heir to a Hell dimension was one thing, this was something else entirely.
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Pete Wisdom
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Excalibur 617
Apparently Franklin hadn't been kidding when he said this was a long story. It explained that look on his face when Pete had asked how Kitty had come to be his older sister. Maybe Kitty hadn't expected them to stumble into this particular window to her past, but they were here all the same. Wasn't hard to tell this was going to be a hard one to get through, and any comfort available should be afforded to her.

Fixing their current failure in strategy suddenly looked like a much better idea.

The agreement was in Kitty's eyes before she put it into words. "Yeah, I think it would be."

That settled it, and the next few moments were spent rearranging themselves properly along the bed. Pillows now beneath them, where they belonged as they lay on their sides facing each other. A soft kiss to punctuate, and settle Kitty a bit more before they plunged into what came next.

The air seemed to grow think with pensiveness, making it feel like they were teetering on the edge of a cliff they might not be ready to go over. It was odd, almost so much that Pete almost had trouble placing it. There wasn't much, hardly anything at all, that could give them that much pause with each other.

Just how bad had it been?

Kitty looked at him, releasing a long breath before she said anything. "Bad, Pete," she said in as frank a tone as he'd ever heard. "Really bad. Betsy having to hold my mind together to keep it intact bad. Ororo and Logan so desperate they turned to Victor Von Doom for help bad," she continued, eyes finding his as her brows knit together.

Lips pressed tight enough to drain of color, Pete drew in a long breath through his nose. No, that was a level of bad he hadn't suspected. There'd never been any talk to even hint of something like that in Kitty's past. Not from her, or Wagner, or anyone else. Like she was being eaten away by her own powers. If they'd gone to the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom, it was because the choice had been between that and watching Kitty slowly die right in front of them.

"Are you sure you want to hear all this?"

Time seemed to stretch into eternity in the silence that followed. Pete took his time, not because he needed to consider his choice. He knew what his answer would be before Kitty was two words into the question. His arm slipped around her back and he pressed in tighter.

"If you're not ready to talk about it, I'll wait," he told her finally. His lips felt dry, and he drew them in to moisten them before continuing. "It might be the sort of thing that turns out to be too hard just yet. Can't promise it won't be." God knew he'd been through enough experiences himself that he'd needed time to come to terms with on his own, much less consider sharing with anyone. Even someone as close as Kitty. There were some things that he couldn't be sure how bad it would be for Kitty to hear.

"But if it's part of how you came to be who you are," Pete continued, a bit more softly, loosening his grip on her to reach up and cup her cheek. "And I know how much I love you."

Something clicked, then, and his face went more solemn. He swallowed hard, debated whether to carry through, but he was too sure. The pieces fit together too well. "You tried to end it," he said heavily. "The price of saving you was getting too high and you tried to end it." Victor Von Doom. His help didn't come cheap. The people who loved her would have accepted that. In their place he would have, too. But he could imagine how Kitty must have felt about them selling their souls to save her.

And what she would have done once she decided she couldn't let them.
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Shadowcat
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Well, they were at least once again aligned with the bed fung shui, or something like that.

Back up where the pillows were, at least, and turned toward one another. That made it easier, somehow, as Kitty slipped her arm around him, to figure out where to pick the story up again. Or maybe how to pick it up again. How bad had it been?

That was the current question and the room went quiet as the brunette sifted through her memories and her vocabulary to find the words that would convey just how bad it had been. There hadn't been any lack of times she'd been more or less convinced she might die over the last seven years. That possibility was always there in the background, it went with the life. It was something she'd accepted a long time ago.

Being convinced she would die, that was different. Those times, she could count on one hand and still have fingers left. Latveria and slow and steady discorporation was the worst one. The one she was still sometimes surprised she'd come through in the end.

So, yeah, it was bad. As bad as it got, or close enough that the difference didn't really matter anymore. Bad enough that one've Betsy's first duties after joining the team was to try to hold her consciousness together so it didn't just drift away on the wind. Bad enough that Ororo, and Logan, and Erik had taken an offer of help from Doctor Doom of all people out of sheer desperation.

She hadn't liked it, even then. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to live, but she didn't want to live at any price and with Doom there was always a price of some kind. One her friends would end up paying.

And, frankly, it went downhill from there. So Kitty felt like she needed to ask, at least once, if this was something Pete was sure he wanted to hear.

Lips pressed together, the former spy drew in a breath. Went quiet again. He already knew enough about it to answer the original question. There wasn't any use to drag up the rest if he'd rather not know. It wasn't exactly something she was proud of, or liked to think about, much less talk about, so it wouldn't exactly be a hardship to let it drop.

"If you're not ready to talk about it, I'll wait," he told her finally arms tightening around her, and she took a few seconds to think about it. Actually think. Was it something she could talk about? Kitty thought she could. Right now, there was almost a feeling of detachment toward those memories. Maybe there had to be. "It might be the sort of thing that turns out to be too hard just yet. Can't promise it won't be."

Too hard for her? Or too hard for him? Both? Any way he meant it, she couldn't promise anything there, either. Talking about this wasn't something she had a lot of experience with.

"But if it's part of how you came to be who you are," Pete continued, a bit more softly, loosening his grip on her to reach up and cup her cheek as she sent him a small, slightly tight smile. It was definitely that, in a lot of ways. Not so much the event or even that year itself, but it was part of how she'd figured out who she wanted to be. "And I know how much I love you."

Her smile softened and she reached up to lay her hand over his, squeezing it lightly. "I love you, too."

Before she could say anymore, though, it was almost like a lightbulb went on over Pete's head. This close, she could practically see the thoughts popping into his head as he swallowed hard. Hesitated for another short space of time. "You tried to end it," he said heavily and her eyebrows shot up. That was pretty unexpectedly on the nose. "The price of saving you was getting too high and you tried to end it."

It was her turn to hesitate, smile fading to something entirely grave as she finally nodded. "Something like that." A little more complicated. Who Doom was, what he'd done to Ororo (not to mention his history with most of them in general) in the past. How hard it was on her, just going from one hour to the next. The fact she didn't exactly believe him when he said he could cure her. "Is it really that obvious?" Kitty asked a little wryly.

She wouldn't have thought it was, or would be. Not when she was very much a different person now than she'd been then, at fifteen. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Pete did know her pretty well, after all. So maybe it was something she hoped wouldn't be obvious, since it was hardly one've her finer moments.

"I don't think I every really believed Doom could do what he said he could do," she told him, eyes dropping briefly to no point in particular, "and I didn't want the X-Men to owe him anything. They would've, whether he failed or whether he succeeded, so I decided to take it out of their hands."

If she closed her eyes, she could still feel the chill of the early morning air seeping through her as she stepped out of the cohesion chamber. The quiet of that tower room, her footsteps not even making the faintest sound as she crossed to the window.

"It was almost sunrise. I stepped out on the ledge of the tower in Doom's castle and waited for dawn. I was just going to let go. Drift away on the morning breeze." It would've been so easy. She remembered exactly how easy it would've been and her voice was soft, quiet. Fifteen, going on sixteen, old as she was going to get. "That's when Franklin showed up." Looking back up to meet his eyes, her mouth curved a little, though it wasn't exactly a smile. "Just as the sun was coming up. He was only two or three, and he was scared of that ledge, but he came anyway and he begged me not to do it. Not to leave him all alone. Betsy couldn't talk me out of it, but Franklin did. He's been my little brother ever since."

And she'd been right, Doom couldn't have fixed her. Thank god they hadn't had to depend on him to.
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Pete Wisdom
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It was a good thing Franklin figured the story of how he'd become Kitty's little brother could wait. Kitty may have told him it was okay at the time, but now that she was asking if Pete really wanted to hear it at all, it put a whole new shade on the matter.

She'd already told him enough to explain the trouble she'd had staying solid. Whatever else there was, she expected it to be as hard for him to hear as it was for her to tell. She may be right. He couldn't promise how it would go for either of them. Some memories were like that. Too wild to predict, even when you knew and trusted the person you were talking to as much as Pete trusted Kitty.

Was she really ready to talk about this? It was as fair a question as whether he was sure he was ready to hear it. Whatever it was, it could wait. There was a considering look in Kitty's eyes as he held her. No immediate answers, but he hadn't expected any. He knew she'd give his question, and all the rest of it, the kind of thought it warranted before deciding on anything.

No matter what she decided, whether she told him the rest or not, he was sure of at least one thing. He knew how much he loved her; who she was. Everything they'd been talking about, good, bad and worse, it had all helped lead to her becoming that person.

The tightness that had shadowed her smile fell. It became softer, warmer, and she placed her hand over his where it cupped her cheek. She gave it a squeeze and said, "I love you, too."

Pete turned his head slightly and gave the back of her hand a slight kiss. Strangely, laying things out like that put Pete at more of an impasse than he'd been before. He was halfway to saying they could leave at that for now. But at the same time, he felt himself about to tell her he did want to hear it, no matter how hard it would be. At least he'd be ready. He hadn't been at all prepared for the window into Rachel's past, after all, and that hadn't done them any harm.

Before he could say either of those things, however, something clicked. A gut certainty he couldn't contain. He didn't use the word itself, but he didn't have to. He might have been just a little too right, actually, given the way Kitty's eyebrows flew up. He'd already started though. It all fit together. Made too much sense.

Kitty didn't say anything. He could feel her hesitating, watching her smile turn grim. A moment later she confirmed with a nod. "Something like that." There'd be more too it, yeah. But he was close enough that there was no getting around it, now. Then, in a wry voice Kitty asked, "Is it really that obvious?"

Shaking his head slightly, Pete said, "No." Brows knitting together, he considered it a bit more, just to be sure of that answer. "No," he said again, "it's not that." Which didn't make explaining how he knew any easier, did it?

He gave it another second of thought and said, "Pryde." He gave his head a slightly wry shake. "The one from here. Doesn't much act like she was eighteen, if you take me meaning." He may have only spent a short time with her, but it had left a strong impression. He supposed that all Kittys probably had that much in common. "Picturing her in that sort of position sort of fills in the blanks of everything else I'd already guessed."

For now, that was the best explanation he could come up for it, and it would have to do, since Kitty still had more to say.

"I don't think I every really believed Doom could do what he said he could do," she explained, letting her eyes fall for a moment. "and I didn't want the X-Men to owe him anything. They would've, whether he failed or whether he succeeded, so I decided to take it out of their hands."

Pete held still as he listened. The air felt like it had gone still. Even the telly seemed quieter.

"It was almost sunrise. I stepped out on the ledge of the tower in Doom's castle and waited for dawn. I was just going to let go. Drift away on the morning breeze."

The way she said it, Pete almost pictured it, but squeezed his eyes shut for a moment to blot the image out before it could form. This was hard, even after figuring it out, and he didn't need it in his mind's eye making it harder. He opened his eyes again, hand drifting back to her shoulder and giving it a light press.

"That's when Franklin showed up." Kitty's eyes went back up, looking at Pete, and her expression changed enough to tell him this part was a better part of the memory. "Just as the sun was coming up. He was only two or three, and he was scared of that ledge, but he came anyway and he begged me not to do it. Not to leave him all alone. Betsy couldn't talk me out of it, but Franklin did. He's been my little brother ever since."

"Good lad," Pete said quietly, nearly smiling. A brave lad, and there were too many reasons to count for why Pete was grateful it had worked out that way. He leaned forward and gave Kitty a slow kiss on the lips. "I hope it got better after that," he said once he'd pulled away. "If that's not the worst of it..." he let that hang. He couldn't say he couldn't imagine anything worse, but if there was, well, maybe he'd have to think three or four times before deciding if he wanted to hear more.
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Shadowcat
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He was close. Surprisingly close, actually. Probably it shouldn't have been a surprise, he'd been a spy after all. All the same, Kitty's brows inched their way upward.

Maybe she was fooling herself, but Kitty liked to think it wouldn't have been that obvious. She liked to think there'd been a lot of changing between that desperate fifteen year old and the older, hopefully at least a little wiser nearly twenty one year old she was now.

Pete gave his head a little bit of a shake, seeming to think about that. "No." Brows knitting together, he considered it a bit more, just to be sure of that answer. "No," he said again, "it's not that." Okay. That made her wonder what, exactly, it was then. Curiosity, it always got the better of her and she did like to watch Pete's mind work.

"Pryde." He gave his head a slightly wry shake and that brow on her forehead lifted a little higher. Yes. Still here. "The one from here. Doesn't much act like she was eighteen, if you take me meaning." Ah, yeah, she definitely did and Kitty nodded. Stuck somewhere in her life about the time it hit too much do deal with. Like she was in a holding pattern. "Picturing her in that sort of position sort of fills in the blanks of everything else I'd already guessed."

Giving that some thought, she nodded slowly. She could follow his reasoning, though there were flaws there he didn't know about. The Kitty Pryde from this world never went through what she had with that injury. In a lot of ways, the younger girl had been through much, much worse and, as far as she knew, never tried anything like that. It wasn't something she'd ask, god knew, but if she had to guess?

Well, if the Kitty from here had ever taken that as an option, she probably wouldn't still be here. As much as she hated to say it, there didn't seem to be a lot of people left to watch her back.

"Yeah, I can definitely see how you'd get that from her," Kitty agreed, then took another breath and finished the story. How she'd never really believed Doom could do what he said he could. Succeed or fail, it wouldn't matter to him, the X-Men would still be indebted to him and no one could fool themselves that there wouldn't eventually be a bill to pay.

So just before sunrise, she'd stepped out onto the narrow ledge of that tower in Castle Doom, like a lost princess in a dark fairytale, and waited for the sun to come up. Take her fate into her own hands and drift away on the morning breeze, in the first rays of dawn. At fifteen, it'd all seemed tragically poetic.

It wasn't easy to say now, and it obviously wasn't easy for Pete to hear. He closed his eyes and she wrapped her arm around him a little tighter, eyes still lowered toward a nonexistent point on the bed covers. No, not a time in her life she was proud of at all.

Kitty waited, raising her eyes again and giving him a tight smile as he pressed his palm gently to her shoulder. The rest, it was a little better. This was the point where Franklin came in. Just a baby, really, but he came onto that ledge, scared to death, and begged her not to do it. That did what Betsy or anyone else could've managed. It got her off that ledge and back into the containment tube.

From then to now, he'd been her little brother.

"Good lad," Pete said quietly, nearly smiling and the corners of her own lips curved up. He had no idea. That little boy had saved her. He'd ultimately probably saved his family from self-destructing. In a lot of ways, he'd saved Rachel, too, only he hadn't been a little boy then. A story for later, though, Kitty decided, eyes closing briefly to return the kiss that Pete leaned in for and that did a lot to dispel the cloud she felt like had been gathering in her head. "I hope it got better after that," he said once he'd pulled away. "If that's not the worst of it..."

He let that trail off and Kitty's smile went a little sideways before she could stop it. This was the X-Men they were talking about. Of course that wasn't the worst of it.

"Yes," Kitty confirmed, then let the smile melt away back to something more grave, "and no. I was right, Doom couldn't save me," she told him with a shake of her head. He'd almost waited to late to even try and she remembered that with a clarity she didn't want, either. The feeling of everything she was, every part of her, starting to drift irrevocably to nothing. Screaming without any sound and Betsy straining with every ounce of power she had, futilely trying to hold her mind together as it dissolved.

"But Reed Richards did. He pulled himself together at the last minute, figured out what needed to be done, and managed to pull me back together by the skin of his teeth." It had been close. So close that even now she didn't like to touch on those feelings. That panic, that sheer terror, right before she would've drifted into nothing. "Even after that, it took over a year before phased wasn't my normal state anymore and I didn't have to make a conscious effort to stay solid." Head tilting forward, she rested her forehead against his, exhaling slowly. Letting the build up of tension and memories float away like she nearly had. "I never, ever want to go through anything like that again. Or a year like that again. It was like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Over and over again."

And, yeah, it'd helped make her who she was, and she was glad of that, but she could've done with a little breather all the same.
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Pete Wisdom
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It wasn't quite fair to either Kitty, but his encounter with one from this dimension had left an impression that he couldn't help transferring into a picture of Kitty at the age of fifteen. She did seem like the sort who, pushed to the limit, might start seeing her own death, especially one that was probably unavoidable to begin with, as a solution a hopeless situation. Especially if it was on her own terms.

"Yeah, I can definitely see how you'd get that from her," Kitty replied, seeming satisfied with his assurance that this particular part of her story hadn't been as obvious as she worried it might be.

It seemed to loosen the knot a bit to work the rest of the story out of Kitty, even if that hadn't necessarily been Pete's intention. Picturing her out there, waiting for her own power to tear her apart, bit by bit, wasn't exactly something Pete had been prepared for. He wasn't sure he could have ever been prepared for something like that. It helped to hold her close, though, to feel her skin against him and hear her voice as she continued.

Franklin, still barely more than a toddler, had saved her life. Talked her back when nobody else could. That was he'd become her little brother. Good lad. A remarkable lad, who Pete had no trouble picturing would grow even more remarkable as he grew older. It was no wonder his future self had caught Rachel's eye.

The remark drew a bit of a smile from Kitty. Then they were kissing again, and that seemed to help brush away the darkest of feelings attached to her story. He hoped things got better after that, because the idea of it getting worse wasn't his favorite thing in the world. One might say it frightened him, even.

The smile on Kitty's face bent out to her cheek. Not exactly a good sign, but it showed she at least had a sense of humor about it, now. Probably gallows humor, but humor all the same. "Yes," she said, and her smile faded, replaced by a more somber expression. "and no. I was right, Doom couldn't save me," she continued with a shake of her head.

Looking into her eyes, he got the sense that she was opening windows of her memory that would have been too horrible to share with anyone, and the last thing he'd do was try to get her to change that. He just stayed with her, the cadence of his breath nearly matching hers, giving her all the time she needed to tell her story in whatever way she had to.

"But Reed Richards did. He pulled himself together at the last minute, figured out what needed to be done, and managed to pull me back together by the skin of his teeth. Even after that, it took over a year before phased wasn't my normal state anymore and I didn't have to make a conscious effort to stay solid."

That last bit brought them to the part that had caught his attention and sent them down this path in the first place. An entire year of not being able to touch anything or anyone unless she focused. Like learning how to walk after getting both legs broken. Worse, most likely. She shifted her head toward him and lay her forehead against his. A soft breath came out of her. "I never, ever want to go through anything like that again. Or a year like that again. It was like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Over and over again."

Pete drew in a deep breath himself and slowly let it out. "Too right," he agreed. All that he'd heard tonight, along with all that he had already known. And however much else she hadn't gotten around to telling him yet. "Anyone else," he said, shifting his head back to look her in the eyes. "Any one thing going different in the end with any of it..." All that at once was almost enough to make someone believe in miracles. "...Wouldn't expect them to survive. Or hold on to their sanity if by some chance they had. But you did. Only you could have, I wager."

Lucky her, she'd probably think to that. He knew he wouldn't care to wear that sort of badge around, no matter what it said about him. He brought his hand back to her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "And I'm thinking you're long overdue for a year where everything goes right, yeah? Maybe a lot more than that."

It might not balance things in any real sense, but that wasn't the sort of thing that usually stopped him. And he knew if there was any way he could help make that happen, he'd be the first one in.
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Shadowcat
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She'd been right, but then she didn't think anyone had really been surprised by that. Doom had been desperation. A last ditch effort when everything else had failed. He couldn't save her, either, and she still remembered how that felt. That silent scream as every molecule in her body began to just...disperse, like dust on the wind.

Nothing she could do to stop it. Or Betsy could do to stop it. Everything that she was, blowing away like dandelion seeds in the wind. Kitty remembered how that felt; the panic, the desperation, the knowing that she'd never see her sixteenth birthday and that the inside of that lab would be the last thing she ever would see.

Pete was silent through all of that, the retelling. Just there and quiet as she laid out the details, or as much of them as she could manage to put words to. How, at almost the literal last second, Reed Richards had come in, pulled himself together from his personal crisis and did what Doom couldn't. Managed to pull her back together, but waiting so long had taken it's toll.

It was a good year, maybe a little more, before she could say that solid was her normal state again. That she didn't have to concentrate to make contact with the world as anything but a ghost.

Her head bent toward his, forehead making light contact. Let out a breath. It was an experience she hoped she never had to repeat. Not just that one, but that year. The year she was fifteen and everything went wrong, and kept going wrong. On and on.

She hadn't handled it well, not at that age, but she'd be okay if she never got to see how she'd handle it now.

There was the sound of Pete drawing in his own breath, letting it out again slowly. It was a lot to dump onto him, she knew. Especially for someone who hadn't lived in that world - the one of spandex and super powers, and magic and super-villains - for a good chunk of their life. He was used to the normal world. Or at least the world that was a lot more normal than the one she was used to.

"Too right," he agreed and she tightened her arms around him a little more. "Anyone else," he said, shifting his head back to look her in the eyes. "Any one thing going different in the end with any of it..." All that at once was almost enough to make someone believe in miracles. "...Wouldn't expect them to survive. Or hold on to their sanity if by some chance they had. But you did. Only you could have, I wager."

That brought a smile to her face as she met his eyes. Is that how it seemed? Maybe it would, actually, from his perspective. No, not just her. She wasn't that unique, in the scheme of things. She couldn't think of one of them that hadn't gone through similar or worse. Sometimes a lot worse. Maybe not as young as she had in most cases, but that sure hadn't helped her handle it any better.

"It was a near thing, no both counts," she admitted, fingers stroking idly along his shoulder. "It happens a lot more than than you'd think." Collectively, they didn't get a lot of serious injuries, a lot of real deaths, but it seemed like they got a lot of breakdowns. "Peter nearly died in that fight, too." Had killed Harpoon, after that spear hat hit her, hadn't told anybody he was hurt until he just keeled over. "Kurt was in a coma for a couple of months."

By the time he'd woken up, the X-Men were 'dead' and they were on their own.

"That's how Excalibur started, actually," Kitty added. "By the time he woke up, we thought we were the only two left." And the rest, as they say, was history.

Pete's hand moved to her shoulder, gave it a supportive squeeze. "And I'm thinking you're long overdue for a year where everything goes right, yeah? Maybe a lot more than that."

Grinning softly, she cocked an eyebrow his way a little mischievously. "Don't tell me you're turning into an optimist on me, Pete Wisdom. I won't even know what to think."

While he was thinking on that, she could just lean in a little more and kiss him. So she did that, because that was always a good option.
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Pete Wisdom
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That first night at the Crown, when Kitty told Pete how common it was for people to try to kill her (perhaps slightly more than they tried to kill him), he'd asserted that she was used to it by now. He still suspected that was at least partly true, but after everything she'd just told him, he had to wonder if part of the reason she was able to take so much in stride was because she'd been through infinitely worse.

Pete couldn't think of many people with the fortitude to come out of an experience like that, and he didn't exactly associate with the faint of heart. Most of the time the worst any of them had to worry about was a bullet to the head, though there were always more sinister fates waiting those who poked in the wrong places or crossed the wrong people.

Which was why Pete had as many reasons not to talk about his past as Kitty'd had to hesitate over this.

To survive a whole year of that sort of thing? That would take an almost cosmically perfect mix of strength, wits and luck. A smaller dose of any one of those would have meant death or the loss of one's mind.

She hadn't even been fifteen at the time.

Kitty's hazel eyes didn't waver self-consciously. "It was a near thing, no both counts," she told him, but there was a smile on her lips as she ran light fingers over his shoulder. "It happens a lot more than than you'd think. Peter nearly died in that fight, too. Kurt was in a coma for a couple of months."

No, it wouldn't have been just her who'd barely made it through that business, would it? The Marauders had been an especially nasty bunch, and it was nothing short of a miracle that all of the X-Men had managed to escape with their lives, even if, in cases like Kitty's, they'd practically had to move the Earth to keep them.

Saying it happened more often than he'd think, though, didn't exactly sound encouraging. Just one more thing to reinforce what he'd been saying about the spandex set from the start. If that

"That's how Excalibur started, actually," Kitty added. "By the time he woke up, we thought we were the only two left."

"That's a hell of a welcome back to the world o' the living," Pete said. Made sense, though. The two of them deciding to stay on the other side of the pond and starting something new to carry on for their fallen mates.

It wasn't hard to tell that Excalibur had been good for Kitty. All the same, she could probably use a year or more of better than that, just for her, he figured. To balance things, of course. Getting kidnapped to this dimension was a bit of a setback, but they might be able to work around it.

That got a full grin from Kitty, and a wicked arch to her brow as she looked at him. Now what was she up to. "Don't tell me you're turning into an optimist on me, Pete Wisdom. I won't even know what to think."

Now where did she get an idea like that? "I'm still as much of a cynmhhhh..." Pete began to protest, but was neatly silenced as Kitty leaned in and placed her lips against his. He eagerly returned the kiss, hand tightening around her. "Thinking's overrated," he said when they finally came up for air. He rolled forward until Kitty was on her back, sliding one hand down to her hip.

Bending down, he captured her lips in another sensual kiss, because the last one hadn't gone on nearly long enough to suit him.
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Shadowcat
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Surviving. Holding onto her sanity. Both of those had been a little iffy in the middle of that. No, the recovery hadn't been much fun, either. A year, maybe a little more, of having to consciously keep herself solid. Reed Richards had said it would be a slow recovery, and he'd been right.

And there were times she'd thought she wouldn't be able to do it. That she might spend the rest of her life being little more than a ghost. Like the ruined and damaged version of herself from that world of Nazi's. It hadn't only been her, though, hurt in that fight. Kurt was in a come for months. Peter nearly died, then was stuck in his metal form for longer than she liked to think about.

Then, there was Warren, who'd lost his wings, leaving him vulnerable to Apocalypse.

All of that, then the X-Men had 'died' in Dallas, to stop the Adversary, and she and Kurt had thought they were the only ones left. And, so, with Rachel and Brian, and Meggan, that's how Excalibur started. The pieces just came together, with a little help from Merlyn.

"That's a hell of a welcome back to the world o' the living," Pete said and Kitty let out a soft laugh, brows inclining upward.

"You have no idea." Then, just about the time they'd mourned, and grieved, and managed to move on: Surprise! Everyone's alive after all. One or two in different bodies than they'd left with, and with a couple of new additions, but alive all the same.

She and Kurt hadn't ever been particularly tempted to go back, though. Things had changed during the time they'd been in the UK. Excalibur was a positive thing, they'd grown into their roles there and the team had grown in it's own right. Made it's own name.

And now, here she was. Here Pete was, and she was starting something new again. Also maybe starting to think he might be turning into some kind of optimist. She wasn't sure what to think of that, or at least she grinned and pretended not to. Maybe all this other dimensional stuff was affecting him a lot more than she'd thought.

"I'm still as much of a cynmhhhh..." Pete began to protest, but she kind of cheated and didn't give him much of a chance. Not that he seemed to mind, as he tightened his hold on her and she forgot about the rest at least for a minute or two while she kissed him. "Thinking's overrated," the former spy insisted as he rolled, taking her with him until her back was against the mattress, hand moving down to her hip.

"I think so, yeah," she agreed with a laugh, then he was kissing her again and she went back to the 'not thinking' option, arms wrapping around him. There was always time for that later.

[Cont'd for Pete and Kitty in the Triskelion, I believe.]
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