Without further ado,

Forgiven. Chapter 6.

When she awoke Kurt was looking down on her. "Kurt?" she croaked, "What are you doing here?"

He laughed, his eyes shining, "Now, shouldn't I be the one asking you that question? And for the record, I've known you two were here for the better part of a week." He offered a hand and pulled her to her feet.

"But how?" she asked.

Kurt looked at her pointedly, "Kätchzen, I grew up here. This valley is my home. I know it as I know my own soul. It spoke to me…" He paused, then with a shrug said, "Plus there were signs."

"But we were so careful." The girl protested, her pride a bit bruised.

'Not careful enough." He chided, "Missing something?" He held up a silver chain with a Star of David hanging from it.

Kitty's hand flew to the spot that the pendant usually dangled from. Her voice filled with surprise, "I didn't even know I had lost it… But how did you find it?"

"I had some help…" Kurt handed her the pendant. Then bringing his hands to his mouth, he blew into them producing a low whistle. Immediately it was answered by a loud croaking sound, and a large black raven flew into the clearing and landed on a stump.

"Kätchzen, I would like you to meet Corvus."

She looked at the bird, "Corvus?"

He nodded, "Short for Corvus Corvax, smartest of all birds. He was my childhood pet." The raven clacked its beak as Kurt spoke.

"You had a pet raven?" She seemed skeptical.

"What? You expected me to have a dog?"

Corvus hopped off the stump and proceeded to bounce over to Kitty's feet, he then began to tug at her shoelaces. The girl laughed.

"Corvus likes shiny things, which is why he picked up your necklace."

Kitty was trying to shoo him away from her shoes but to little avail. Finally Kurt said in clipped German, "Corvis, Halten Sie!" The bird stopped and flew up into a tree, then proceeded to rock from foot to foot, emitting a staccato of clicking noises.

"Now he's sulking." Kurt said shaking his head.

"Will you be bringing him home with us?" She asked.

Again Kurt shook his head, "No, I couldn't ask that of him. This is his home. Besides, he seems to have a girlfriend." He pointed to a nearby tree where another raven watched intently. "Ravens mate for life. I could never do that to him. It would break their hearts."

Kitty gave this some thought and said, "I can imagine how they would feel…" Kurt gave her a questioning look but she changed the topic, "Did you figure out what you needed to figure out?"

Kurt walked over to a nearby log and took a seat, he patted the space next to him and Kitty sat at his side. The German too a breath before speaking, "Indeed I have. And if I remember correctly I promised to tell you about it when I did."

Kitty stared at him intently and hopefully.

"Did you ever know that I had an older brother?"

Her blue eyes connected with his gold ones. She shook her head and waited for him to continue.

"His name was Stefan. His mother Margali adopted me after she found me in the river. And we both know how I ended up there… She was a fortuneteller in a Romany circus. Most of the year we traveled with the circus. She told the fortunes and Stefan and I were in the trapeze. The rest of the time we lived in this valley. Then one day as we were preparing to head out on the road, I noticed a change in Stefan's behavior. Weird mood swings… and his temper got really bad." He paused to collect his thoughts, Kitty kept her silence. "Then children began to disappear from a nearby village, one small child at least every other week. I began to notice that Stefan's temper would get worse just before a child would vanish… I'm not sure how I knew, but I soon realized that he had to be involved. Then one night I caught him red handed…"

:Flashback:

Kurt enters a clearing on a mountainside in the middle of the night to find his brother Stefan standing behind a small boy of about five years old. The child is crying as the taller blond teen holds a knife to his throat. Kurt yells, "Stefan! Halten Sie Bitter!"

Stefan looks at Kurt and gives him a very chilling smile, "Nein!"

The blue boy lunges for the knife, but it is too late. Stefan pulls the blade across the child's throat, spilling his red blood on the ground. The body falls lifelessly to the dirt.

"You shouldn't have followed me brüderchen. Now I will have to silence you." The taller boy's eyes are filled with hatred, and something that can only be described as frenzy. He brandishes the knife and charges at Kurt. The smaller boy is able to push his older brother away.

Stefan laughs, and then tackles Kurt. Kurt is able to roll with the impact, and using his momentum, flings his older brother off of him.

The blond boy lands with a sickening wet crack.

:End Flashback:

"When he landed, he fell on his neck. It broke and he died instantly." Kurt took a shaky breath. This was the first time he had ever verbally told anyone about what had happened. He was surprised to notice that sometime during his story, Kitty had taken his hand. She was currently squeezing it tightly. Tears streamed down her face as she listened. He continued his story, "Our mother blamed me…"

:Flashback:

"I should have left you in that river to drown!" the gypsy woman screamed at him, "You are a creature of evil. Ein Dämon! And it is because of you that my boy was possessed to do those evil deeds!"

"Momma please!" Kurt cried to her

"You are no child of mine. I renounce you!"

:End Flashback:

"She left with the circus and never came back. I stayed here in the valley alone for almost a year until guilt and loneliness drove me to head for the village. I felt responsible and no longer cared what happened to me… I made it easy for them to find me. The memory of their missing children still fresh, they saw me and figured, 'Here is the demon responsible!' They were going to burn me. And I was going to let them. I felt it was what I deserved." He paused to take a breath.

His eyes moved around a bit as if he were watching something, "I would have died if The Professor had not intervened. I had never met another mutant before; and the crowd's words, as well as the words of Margali had me believing that I was indeed a demon. I've spent the last three years trying to repent and seek forgiveness for what happened to Stefan. That is why I needed to come here."

His tail had remained limp all through his story. Looking over he saw Kitty's face covered with tears. He reached over with his hand and brushed them from her face with his thumb, "Shhhh. Liebling, it is alright. Everything is fine now."

She was finding it hard to meet his eyes. Finally she spoke, her voice shaky with emotion, "What did you find these last two weeks Kurt?" He noted that she used his given name and not 'Fuzzy' or 'Elf'.

He smiled a genuine smile at her, "I found that I had been forgiven long ago. In fact, I was never in need of forgiveness at all. I had saved Stefan when he could not save himself. The guilt I felt was my cross to bear, a gift from God to lead me closer to the path of Jesus. Any sin of mine was forgiven long ago when The Lord gave me everyone at the institute to be my new family. I was saved when he gave me my friends. I've done a lot of praying and soul searching these two weeks… The answer I have been seeking was before me all along. My place in the world is with every one back home, as an X-Man. Loving, trusting, fighting along side of, and protecting all of you. That is my mission from God."

Kitty looked at Kurt and her heart welled with emotion. She knew than that she loved this boy. No, she loved this Man. His strength and compassion filled her with the strength to face the world and she could not imagine her life without him in it.

She threw herself upon him and hugged him with all of her strength. He returned the embrace just as firmly. She wanted so badly to tell him how she felt, to profess her love. But, she knew that now was not the time to do so. He had come to some deep revelations himself, and did not need her feelings to confuse him any further. She could deal with that back home.

Finally she stood up, "Does this mean you are ready to go home?"

His tail swished behind him and he smiled, "I will be ready and waiting in the morning. It's a pity I won't see Logan's face when you tell him that I knew you were here."

Kitty laughed, "Don't worry, I'm sure he will grumble about it all the way home."

The two shared a laugh. Corvus croaked loudly and took off, followed by his mate. The two teens watched them go.

"Well, I had better get back to my cave and pack." Kurt announced. He gave Kitty a hug, "See you in the morning Kätchzen."

"See you in the morning Fuzzy." She smiled.

Then with a Bamf he was gone.

She began picking up the camp when suddenly there was another Bamf and Kurt was standing right in front of her.

"Gah!" She yelled, "Warn a girl next time!"

The blue mutant grinned from ear to ear, "One more thing I forgot to tell you…"

She placed her hand on her hip, "yeah? And what's that?"

"This…" And with that he pulled her into a very passionate kiss. When they finally pulled apart for air he whispered in her ear, "God forgave me when he gave me you, My Angel." Then he was gone in a puff of brimstone.

Kitty was still smiling when Logan came back. The Wolverine sniffed the air then asked, "Did I miss something?"

Kitty just smiled. Her cheeks flushed red, "As a wise man once told me, Life is fulla crazy shit."

Epilogue

The flight home from Germany was made in relative silence with Kitty and Kurt holding hands in the passenger compartment, neither of them speaking much, just taking comfort in each other's presence. Somewhere around hour four, Kitty had drifted off to sleep. Kurt eased himself out of his seat, careful not to wake her, and made his way to the copilot's seat.

Logan looked over at him, "Things seem to be going pretty well with you and The Half-Pint."

"Jawöhl they are." The younger answered. "Are you going to threaten me with what you will do with my hide if I hurt her?"

Logan laughed and thought about the knife she had planted in his gut, "Kid can take care of herself." And he left it at that. They sat in silence for a bit.

Finally the Canadian felt compelled to ask, "So, did you find what you were looking for?"

A serene smile formed on Kurt's face, "I think I had it all along."

The rest of the flight was made in silence.

THE END

Author's Note: There you all go. The conclusion to Forgiven. I hope you all enjoyed the ride, and thank you for reading. I think I am finally getting the hang of this Fan Fiction writing. I can't believe all of the support I have received from all of you! It would take too long to name all of you individually, but it was because of your reviews that I decided to post each chapter.

As for the sequel... I have two ideas for stories floating around, and I am trying to decide which one should take precedence. The first idea, reveals who the mystery girl in Logan's vision was, as well as delves deeper into recent Marvel Continuity. Pending Title, "Madripoor". The other idea deals more with Kurt's cultural heritage as a Romany gypsy, and involves an adventure for the two new lovebirds. Well actually both stories involve an adventure for the two new love birds haha. Let me know which you would be more interested in seeing first. Either way it may take me a while to start posting. School is kicking my but, and there is much rebuilding to do after all of those storms.

Live and Love. -Tarsier1