Disclaimer: Primes sparkling does not own X-men or any of Marvel's characters. She only owns her oc's.

Warning: Mentions of death and suicide attempts

CHAPTER 6

GRANOLA BARS

She shivered under the cold breeze that blew through the trees, curious about the new comers that had no choice but to visit the lonely patch of Forrest in the middle of nowhere. She tried to rub some warmth back into her frozen arms which were covered by her thin long sleeved shirt. Under her beanie, her ears twitched as she watched Kurt through the trees sit on the grass below her on his own. Her heart broke at the sad look on his face. She was tempted to go over to him, but she was aware that Rogue wanted to speak to him on her own and decided to rest back on her own thoughts. She fingered the silver locket that hung around her neck. It was old, and something that had belonged to her parents and her parents' parents. It was round and engraved with faded patterns that wove into each other with finesse. In the center of it a mermaid lounged comfortably and hung onto the smaller circle it had been carved in. Max sighed and she pulled it off to look at it properly. She leaned back against the bark of the tree.

"Oh Cathy," she murmured, "What would you do in my place?"

"Who is Cathy?" Kurt asked and if it weren't for her tail holding her to the tree, Max would have painfully fallen to the ground. As she was she looked up into Kurt's golden eyes. He hung upside down from his tail on a branch above them and gripped the wood with his two toed feet. She just about jumped out of her skin.

"Jeash Kurt wear a bell would you?" She said as the blue mutant dropped onto the branch next to her, "you scared the begebeers out of me."

"Traurig Kleine," he said with a toothy grin, but Max could sense that something was bothering him, "but I cannot help it if a schön mädel was sitting in my tree."

"What's kleine mean?" She asked once she settled back into her branch.

Kurt chuckled warmly, "it means little one."

"Oui, I'm not short! I'm under tall," she said mock punching him in his arm. She looked up to him, "is everything alright? You seem a little down."

His smile dropped away almost immediately and Max felt a sense of alarm alert her when she noticed his tail flick around in distress and his fingers curl into fists.

"I remember everything," he said and wordlessly Max reached over and pulled him to her. She said nothing while she rocked him, sensing that he was not finished yet, not even a sound escaping her throat when he lifted her into his lap so that she didn't have to strain herself trying to comfort him. He tucked his face into her shoulder, "they came for me after the show, back in Germany, when I vas praying in the church. Zen sey took me to zis place in zie mountains and sey hurt me. Sey made me attack zee president."

Max said nothing. She did not know what to say to that. She felt a wave of utter rage flow through her at the wrongs that had been done to her Alter and hugged him tighter in an attempt to sooth it. He was alive and in her grasp now and she thrived in it. Plus he was really warm and her body was extremely thankful for it. His body shook and small gasps broke out of him and she quickly realized that he was crying. In response she ran a hand through the dark curls on his head, not caring that he was getting her shirt full of tears. After a while, she felt him begin to calm down and carefully curled her tail around his frame.

"Comfy?" He asked and Max jumped, sure that he had fallen asleep. She blushed when she realized the position they were in but made no move to get up.

"Yeah," she sighed, "you're nice and warm. I can move if you want me to though."

"Nien, its fine," he chuckled, "so who eez Cathy?"

"She was my sister," she said softly, tucking her head into his coat to fight back her tears as the pain in her head reminded her of what was no longer in her life, "she died of a broken heart a couple of years ago."

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said softly and bowed his head.

Max shook her head, "I've come to terms with it."

"Do you vant to talk about it?" He asked and Max kept quiet for a long time.

"It hurt for a long time," she said after a moment, clutching at the worn locket in her hand, "still does. After she died I became distant with the world. My brother was out of the country when it happened so he wasn't a lot of help. For a long time, I just suffered until I decided I wanted it all to stop and one day I got myself a really sharp knife and took it to my wrists."

Kurt rubbed a finger over the scars, "vat happened zen?"

"An old couple found me bleeding out in an alley. They took me in, saved my life and gave me some new clothing on my back. They showed me such kindness and even wanted to adopt me, mutant or not. And I wanted nothing more than to live with them."

"Vhy didn't you?" Kurt asked softly still holding her wrists.

"I came home one day from school to find their corpuses on the living room floor," tears ran down Max's face, "after that, I fled town and kept running until the Professor found me and offered me a home at the school."

"Vhen zis is all over do you zink he vill do zee same for me?" Kurt asked softly and he wiped a large finger over her cheeks, clearing away the tears.

"I know he will Kurt," she sat back with a blush, "maybe you could teach the children German."

"Vill they not be afraid of me?" He asked and Max grabbed his hands, squeezing gently.

"Once they get to know you they will love you," she said seeing his surprise, "I just know it, besides you can help me with my classes."

"Vat do you teach?" He asked, "I forgot to ask."

"I'm in charge of religious studies and dance," she said with a fond smile, "though it can be a little hard to do when you're only a little older than the oldest student there"

"Exactly how old are you?" Kurt asked and Max smiled softly.

"I turned 20 three months ago," she said softly, "what about you?"

"Vou are zo young," Kurt murmured, "I am 26."

"Were you really in a circus Kurt?" She asked remembering the carnival landscape she had watched him in her dreams.

He seemed to perk up, chest inflating like a proud peacock, "Ya I vas the star act with my sister on ze trampese."

"My parents took us once to go see a show when me and Cathy were really little," Max said but then realized what she had said. She hadn't spoken about her parents since the night Cathy's husband had been killed, "I don't remember much of it. I remember there were a lot of lights though."

"You haven't been since then!" Kurt asked and Max chuckled at the look on his face. She shook her head and he immediately burst into some stories about the circus that raised him in Munich. He told her of the feeling of ecstasy that rushed through him when he performed, and the way the place always smelt of popcorn and hay. Some of the tales made her laugh hard enough to cry. Such as the time his foster brother, Stefan, locked him in the cage with the tiger cubs during their travels, and how his foster mother had made Stefan sleep in there as punishment. Or the time they had gone to perform a special show in Transylvania and they told him that vampires preferred certain blood over others. Needless to say he had point blank refused to go out to preform that night and his mother had released the true fury of a woman scorned on those responsible. A frown appeared on her face when he told her of the few times the circus had to pack up and leave early because of an angry mob, or the way some of the children would begin to cry at his appearance.

"You took the insults a lot better than I would have," she said softly and he placed a hand on her cheek.

"Because it iz not my place to be angry at zose who have hurt me, but god's," Kurt said softly but then blushed when his stomach let loose a mighty rumble. She looked up at him with a raised brow but blushed herself when her own stomach made itself known loudly.

"Hungry?" She asked and he nodded before she got off his lap and dug into the deep pockets on the loose and baggie cargo pants that she wore. The link in her mind whined in loss but she shook it off. She pulled out two granola bars and handed own to him. He looked at her curiously.

"It's a granola bar. They're my favorite. They taste sort of like homemade honey oatmeal," she said tearing off the cover on hers. She settled back into her branch and began to nibble on hers as Kurt followed her example and Max suddenly wished that she had brought a camera with her as he took his first bite of the bar. His eyes widened, tail thumping against the bark of the tree and his ears wiggled in delight as he hummed out in pleasure. Max chuckled.

"Good?" She asked in amusement and he nodded. She smiled and quickly finished her own, pulling out another when he looked at his rapper in longing. He thanked her and tore into that one while she leaned back against the trunk of the tree. She could not believe how comfortable it was between them even though they had only physically known each other for less than 24 hours. She had known about him since she was a little girl at the tender age of 7 years old, but she thought that was something she wouldn't share with the demon man until later. Much later. She stared out in the direction of the ship as she pulled out another bar for herself and saw Logan chat up Jean with that sad love struck look in his eyes that she had seen the first time she had watched them interact together. She sighed and Passed Kurt another bar from her pockets, chuckling at his expression.

"How many do you have?" He asked eyeing her trousers. Max blushed and shrugged, eyes twinkling in mirth.

"It's a secret," she whispered holding a finger to her lips.

"Hey runt," she glanced down to see Logan looking up at them from the ground, "get down here will you?"

Max flashed Kurt a smile. She hopped out from the branches and landed softly landed to the Balls of her feet. She heard her Alter BAMF down behind her and rolled her eyes.

Show off.

She turned back to Logan and grimaced. He did not look pleased at all.

"You elf, back to the camp," Logan growled and Max tossed Kurt a sly smile before he disappeared with a puff of smoke, "Max a word."

"Yes Logan?" Max fidgeted under his stare and she watched as the man huffed.

"What's with you and the elf?" He demanded and internally she sighed?

"Always to the point as you usually are," she mumbled, "and I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit," he growled, "I saw how you were sitting on his lap earlier. You've never done that with anyone else."

"It wasn't like that," she felt her cheeks warm up with blood, "he needed comfort."

"Do you comfort everyone with a lap dance?" Logan asked with a raised brow and the flames in her cheeks returned with a vengeance.

"Logan!" She shrieked, "It wasn't like that."

"Sure it wasn't," he said and Max bristled.

"Is there any specific reason why you called us away?" She asked hoping to change the subject of her actions with her Alter.

Logan stared at her ungivingly but eventually gave in, "just make sure you have all your things together. We'll be leaving for Alkali Lake as soon as the Jet's working. That's where Striker's taken the professor and the kids."

She nodded and calmly walked with him over to the tents where an emergency pack of hot chocolate had been broken open and dispersed between the groups.

Alkali Lake was a large expanse of water that seemed to span out in one direction as far as the eye could see and burrow into the mountain in the other. It was mostly covered in ice but some of the water was running as it entered the valley between the white caped hills. The blanket of snow that covered the soil was thick and covered the majority of the trees that had long since lost their leaves but were too stubborn to die. Max tapped her fingers on the hand under her chin slowly onto her skin one by one. To the others she appeared to be glancing out of the window, but Max was slowly concentrating on her abilities. She did not know why she did it, because she knew her sister was dead. Yet when she had dreamt that night in the tent she had shared with Storm, it had not been of Kurt but of her beloved twin, warning her to protect him. She frowned. Bracing herself, Max lowered the Shields she held around her delicate mind and flinched inwardly at the amount of fear, hate and discomfort that struck her from all sides. She felt her empathy expand and feel for Kurt's mind, purring in delight when it felt the positive feelings of faith that hid his fear. Carefully, she wrapped a layer of defense around it and shielded his mind from everyone around him as well as her own. She was a bit disappointed, but knew it was better this way as the strain of carrying dual shields began to build over her shoulders. It would have been for the best.

"Alright, so here is the dam itself," Jean pointed to a structure on the projector that they had pulled out of the console, "the actually base is located directly below it."

"Now this is the walkway," Work explained, "and these are the current water levels."

Max felt her heart sink as she gazed at the image. There was no way in, "if we even tried to blow the doors Striker could flood the dam and kill us all."

"Leave that to me," Logan murmured and Max glanced over at him from where he was leaning against a wall behind Kurt, "something tells me that Striker wants me alive."

"No," Magneto shook his stubborn head, "the person who has to go inside must know how to open the mechanism for the door. What are you going to do, scratch it with your claws?"

Logan had nothing to say for that and max had to agree that it made sense. Although it did not want to anything to change her need bust in his face with a chair.

"I rather prefer to live," the old man continued.

"Kurt," Storm asked, but the blue mutant simply shook his head.

"I must zee vhere I am going or I could land in a wall," he said and Max flinched, not even wanting to have to think about if he were to die.

"Then what are we going to do?" Rogue asked after a moment of silence defended on the group.

Mystique simply smiled, "leave that to me."

The first guard had been easy to take down. He had been staring into an empty room with a loose hold on his gun and a bored expression on his face, when Max had come up behind him fully invisible from the world and pushed her fingers into a specific spot in the muscles between his neck and shoulder. He fell like a log and she glanced over to the others who stood in shock at her move and smiled. She was proud to have figured out how to a Vulcan nerve pinch after watching an old Star trek episode with Rogue one school weekend and found it to be quite useful. Her moment of fame was cut short however when an entire group full of soldiers came running down the hall. Like an action movie, every once seemed to slow down as the X-men ran for them. Logan refused to hold back, and speared two of the men without remorse. He had always been a good fighter and Max could not help the shiver of fear that rolled through her frame as she saw the violence and felt the men die through her weakened Shields. She ducked when a soldier that had snuck away from the group tried to sneak up get behind her and hit her in the head with the blade that had been attached to his rifle. It cut off the edges of her pony tail and under her hoodie her ears flared in anger. She spun around on her hip, lifted her leg as she was crouched and slammed her heel into the man's stomach. The young adult dropped with a grunt and Max pulled her leg down onto his head before he hit the ground. He twitched but did not get back up again and Max huffed. She felt the back on her head, and wanted to scream when she felt how short he had cut her neon blue locks.

"Dammit," she hissed towards the body, "do you have any idea of how long it took me to grow it that long?"

"Max stop fussing about your hair, it will grow back," Storm said before she electrocuted the man attempting to hit her.

"That's what you said the last time and I looked like the Wookie reincarnated for a week after," Max grouched but then ducked at a body nearly slammed into her. She turned to see Kurt fighting off three or four people at once and suddenly Max understood how he had single handedly took out the secret service men without getting shot. He fought well, moving smoothly and with ease even as he teleported between them to throw them off guard. There was something dangerous about it, but Max knew it had to do with the fact that not once did his expression change as he fought.

'He will protect us well,' her subconsionce told her, 'strong and dominating. Good stamina.' Max blushed as her eyes widened as her mind brought up all the ways her Alter could put that stamina to good use. What was she thinking! This was not the time for her mind to bring up fantices of what she wanted Kurt to sinfully do to her body, when they were in a rescue mission with a high chance of death over their heads. She shook her head as the last of the guards fell as quickly jogged to catch up to the group as they set off. The control room was easy to locate and they got in to find Mystique at a control panel. Max had known that the blue mutant had been a master hacker, but the people who had told her of how ggod the woman was did not do her justice. Within seconds she was pulling up a whole bunch of maps and data that had been hidden behind a maze of fire walls and passwords. Max leaned closer trying to make any use of it, but could not see what she did. Max huffed and resorted to using her own methods to get around and allowed her empathy to flare. And that was when she saw it. Her double shields around her mind had prevented her from noticing it before, but now one layer filtering her thoughts less and it was as obvious as day break. The thin, twirling swirl of blue dust that connected Mystique and Kurt was unmistakable and completely unnoticeable to the naked eye. Mystique was Kurt's biological mother. Shocked was putting it lightly, but Max was pulled out of her musings when the faint trickle of fear belonging to very young minds became apparent to her senses.

"The kids," she breathed in horror, "they're here, I can feel them."

"They're a level below us, Xavier is one the same floor as us" Mystique said but there was a strange going in her eyes as she glanced at her, and Max picked up her pleading to not mention what she had learnt to Kurt. She was reluctant to agree but did none the less and turned her attention to one of the screens when she heard Jean cry out. She noticed Jubilee right away holding onto some of the younger children that climbed to her in fear while some of the older boys tried to touch the wall only to be shocked.

"We need to find them," Storm said and Max nodded, "Max lead the way. Kurt, you're with us."

"We'll get the professor," Jean agreed, "Right Logan?"

But there was no answer. Max knew that there wouldn't be one. She had felt his mind move further away, but had said nothing in respect for the need he radiated to find out about his history. It was something he needed to do on his own. None the less, Max turned around with the rest of the group and confirmed her suspicions when she saw his ear piece lying on the floor.

When people dance, they tended to work out muscles they never knew they had before. As such they were most of the time fitter than most others. It was important to have these levels as healthy muscles meant a less of a chance of hurting yourself, and that you can move faster than others for longer. And at that moment, Max could not help but be utterly grateful for her profession as she ran through the halls like hell itself was on her heels. She was followed closely by Kurt and Storm who had allowed her to take the lead due to her empathy which she used to lead them closer to where the several minds of children called out to her. Her sneakers slipped across the floors when she rounded the corners too sharply but she barely noticed it as the cries became louder and closer. Now physically able to hear them, Max allowed Storm to overtake her and they were forced to draw to a stop outside of the large doors that kept the kids from them. Max pounded against the door with her fists, but it was of no use.

"Max," Storm warned, eyes turning white as she activated her powers, "stand back."

"No," she shook her head, "Don't. They're in a giant metal box remembering?"

"Right," the weather witch seemed to deflate slightly, but refusing to give up, Max looked around her. The walls of the base were rusted though and in need of a serious do over. Some of the pipes looked like they had seen beter days and were completely chewed through. From the ceiling hung wires that sparked and twisted into dangerous connections and one or two were even laying across the floor. The vent grating was hanging from a sole surviving screw that seemed to almost be at its life's end. Somehow Max knew that if the Floodgate opened that nobody would be missing the base. Eyes narrowing, she turned her attentions back to the grating and tapped Storm on the shoulder.

"I have an idea, but we need to hurry," She had Kurt lift her up to the ancient grating, leaving Storm to wait for them, "I can feel more soldiers on their way."

"Then go," Storm turned her eyes white again, "I'll cover you."

Nodding, Max covered her hands by her jacket and pulled at the grating with all her strength. It came off with a snap and with a deep sigh; she pulled herself up and into the small crawl space. She pulled up her nose in disgust when the putrid smell of mold and sweat met her senses.

"Let's get this over with," she murmured and crawled through the small space, aware of Kurt's lumbering form following, struggling just as much and if not more than her because of his larger size. When she saw the first piece of light appearing from a duct no more than ten feet away, she found that the smallness of the vents no longer bothered her as the terrified wails of the children both physically and mentally assaulted her. She let out a sigh of relief when she could visibly see the small frames of the teens in the room before her and was about to ask Kurt if her would be willing to help when she smiled. He was already gone.

BAMF!

Jubilee's scream bought her out of her day dream, and she glanced up into the room. Cowering away into the shadows the children cowered and held onto each other, fearful of the creature that had suddenly appeared before them. Max worried that thy had upset him, but it seemed like Kurt simply took it in stride. He offered a three fingered hand out to the small boy who had hair as white as Storm's who Max recognized as Cody. She winced, but to her complete surprise, the eight year old shakily pushed his way out from the group and gave him he Vulcan salute. Her mouth dropped open. As far as she knew, Cody had only ever responded well to her and the Professor, and now it seemed Kurt was on that list as well. Kurt taking it in stride, raised his hand so that his palm was facing towards Cody, making it look like her was holding a rather crude version of the greeting. Cody took another step and thinking quickly, Kurt BAMFED out with him in his arms only to appear a second later without him. Seeing their chance out, the other children quickly followed his lead as Max quietly let she drop to the floor and waited for her own turn.