The Shadow's Redemption

The Shadow's Redemption

Platonic! X-Men x New X-Men! Reader

Eventual Nightcrawler! Kurt Wagner x Necromancer! Reader

Summary: When you arrive at the X-Mansion, you are forced to open up about past trauma to grow and become the person you were meant to be.

Trigger Warnings: Trauma, Abuse, Violence, Emotional Distress, and Loss

Word Count: 2570

When you arrived at the academy after years of fighting the X-Men, let's just say that not everyone was very welcoming. However, the Professor welcomed you with open arms after Mister Sinister's control over you was severed.

Cyclops, Scott Summers as you would come to know him as, was maybe the biggest obstacle of your transition from mind control survivor to X-Men in training.

"I refuse to work with them! They've tried to kill me and the team on multiple occasions. They are dangerous, and don't know how their powers work! That's only scratching the surface Professor!," You could hear Scott yelling behind the thick door to the Professor's office.

Your eyes were trained on the floor, and your knees instinctively curled up into your chest. You knew the abuse that Sinister put you through and you would never willingly go back, but in the back of your mind you could only think, 'At least he wanted me'.

Once the thought entered your mind, the yelling stopped and the door burst open. Scott stormed off past you giving you the dirtiest look as he passed.

"Come in, dear, we have much to discuss," The Professor welcomed you into his office with his voice, knowing how much you feared telepathic communication after Mister Sinister. "I have decided that you will have a team of mutants to mentor you, Storm, Wolverine, and Jubilee. They will each help you with different aspects of your powers, Storm will help you keep total control over your powers, Wolverine will assist with hand to hand combat, and Jubilee will assist you in self-defense and social integration at the academy"

You spoke quietly, "I don't need you to assign me friends".

He gave a hearty chuckle at your comment, "I'm not assigning you friends, it will be your job to make friends with the team, I'm just setting you up for success, my dear," He looked down at a stack of papers on his desk, "Wolverine will see you in the Danger Room now, have a good first day"

With that you looked up at him confused, "My apologies, I will show you to the room"

Easily you could've figured the layout of the building using your powers to take knowledge from the dead, but instead you silently followed the Professor's chair across the building.

~~~

Your fists hit the punching bag, barely making it sway from side to side.

"Come on, you've hit me harder than that, Bub," That comment made you give him a little glare.

"If I could use my powers, this punching bag would be ripped to shreds in seconds," The quiet but powerful statement made Wolverine grumble.

"Sometimes you can't count on your abilities to get you out of a situation," He grasped your wrist in his hand and showed you how to move your arm. You shook him off and tried again.

"Bit better," He circled you and the punching bag for what felt like an eternity, "Punch the bag like your angry at it"

Your eyebrows creased and you tried to feel your anger. As hard as you tried you remembered the telepathic calm Mister Sinister would inject into your mind whenever you started to revolt against him. Just like you did back then you fell to your knees, tears falling from your eyes.

~~~

“I’m going to take you down. I will escape, and you will pay,” You snarled from your place on the cold metal chair, twisting the rough rope tying your wrists to the arms of the chair.

“Oh you poor thing, I give you a new life, a fulfilling one, and you threaten me? Tsk tsk,” He grabbed your face in his hands, “Tell me what do you feel now?”

The artificial calm entered your mind. It infected your anger with a stillness, a complacency that made you regret yelling at Mister Sinister in the first place. You could feel the pit in your stomach grow, and your breathing quickened but the power suppressant collar he had on you kept you hyperventilating.

“See, you like it here, I care about you, and we make a great team,” You tried to shove the thoughts out of your mind, but nothing worked. So you cried, the tears reminded you of how you’ve lost something, something that may never return.

~~~

Wolverine's eyes widened and you heard him talking to someone, "Xavier, I think I made a mistake... uh huh, they're umm cryin'... why me?... fine"

You placed your head in your hands and continued to cry, you felt the ground shake a little as he sat next to you.

"You know, I was taken too," After a moment your shaking settled and you looked up at him your eyes filled with hurt, "I was turned into a weapon, experimented on, tortured, locked up, I don't wanna talk about that, but I escaped"

You wiped the tears from your eyes, and looked him over for once you noticed the scars marring his skin.

"I changed for the better. It took a while, well maybe still, but I'm finding myself. The academy is a good place to start lookin, Bub"

Your eyes locked onto Wolverine's, "Thank you for believing in me, Wolverine"

His eyes rolled, "Don't call me that, Logan's just fine," He quickly got up from the ground and extended his hand to you.

~~~

You stood outside with Storm, and the wind she controlled blew your hair around. You were mesmerized by Storm's control over the skies making clouds appear and disappear, small thunderstorms flying overhead, even tiny tornado's spinning in the palm of her hand.

"You too can use your powers with such precision, with practice," She assured you.

You started with mediating, controlled breathing, and even visualization to manage your emotions. Allow you to feel them and understand how to understand your powers.

"Think of your happiest memory, now" You scanned your memories looking for that moment. Everything beyond your captivity by Mister Sinister seemed to have vanished, your neutral face turned into a frown.

"I don't have any I can remember," You opened your eyes to see Storm staring back at you. You could've sworn you could see sympathy in the eyes staring back. Her neutral expression finally broke into one of realization.

"What do you feel then," You pondered her question for a moment. You thought of everything he had taken from you, your parents, your normal life, your home, your youth...

"I'm angry," You whispered.

"What was that?" You knew full well she heard you.

"I feel angry," You looked at her with a scared look in your eyes. She just smiled at you.

"Show me how that feels," She stood up alongside you as you walked a little further away from the mansion.

Your breathing quickened, you could feel your eyes glaze over black, and you screamed. You let yourself feel your anger. Your fists clenched, and you could feel the darkness escape from your enclosed palms. You could feel the angry spirits within you scream with you.

The X-Men basketball game stopped and looked towards you. Darkness emitting in tendrils from your body, and spirits appearing around you screaming in unison. They all looked shocked.

Once a wave of relief washed over you and the darkness was pulled back inside, and the spirits disappeared either satisfied for the moment or put to rest eternally. A smile crossed your face for the first time in a long time.

"I can work with that" Storm was smirking at you, looking at you not with fear but a sweet sort of admiration. It made you smile wider.

~~~

That night you didn't take dinner back to your room. Instead you sat with the team Charles Xavier so badly wanted you to be a part of. You weren't nervous around him or Jean after your training with Logan and Storm. You felt confident in your abilities to feel your own emotions, and possibly the influence of a telepath. The Professor assured that when you were ready he could help you with that aspect, and after seeing your powers while on the basketball court Jean offered as well.

People were still afraid of confronting you about your powers, knowing what it felt like to be on the receiving end of your army of undead spirits. However, someone did not have those same qualms.

Kurt unapologetically appeared across from you at the table as you were sat between Storm and Logan protectively, "Hello, schön, saw your display the other day, it was simply amazing"

Your eyes flicked up from your plate and to Logan who simply huffed at the fuzzy blue man across from you.

"Thanks," you tersely responded.

"Ah! So silly of me, I am Kurt Wagner," Quickly he disappeared and reappeared in front of your eyes holding a flower across the table to you, "the Nightcrawler"

You felt your cheeks heat up looking up at him from your meal. You couldn't remember the last time someone introduced themself to you of their own volition.

"I'm Styx," You slowly plucked the beautiful golden marigold from between his fingers, "Thank you, Kurt"

His smile was infectious, and a smile turned one side of your mouth upwards.

"Kurt, sit down we have much to discuss," Still as the Professor spoke to the group about upcoming missions, and successful past ones he would steal glances at you.

One time he made a funny face at you while Scott was busy speaking, which caused you to laugh out loud. Everyone turned to look at you, and Logan simply started laughing too. Storm had a smile on her face because she knew it was the first time you laughed at the mansion.

~~~

You were at the mall with Jubilee and Jean who were helping you pick out some new clothes to make you feel more comfortable. While meandering the racks at Hot Topic Jubilee snuck up next to you.

"You know Kurt totally has a crush on you, right?" The same heat rushed to your cheeks, as you speedily turned back to the clothes to bring out a lacy black top with bell sleeves.

"What about this?" You held it up to your chest and turned back to Jubilee.

"Cute," She snatched it from your hands and put it in the basket, "but you can't avoid this, do you think you like him?"

You opened your mouth to say no, but you closed it because you did find him frustratingly adorable.

"Ah! You didn't say no!" Jubilee put her hand out for you to take which you reluctantly did, "He has never gotten so smitten with a new person this quickly, you two would be so cute together! Golden retriever and black cat relationship type thing ya know!"

You kept walking down the aisle, "Come on! Get excited with me! You two would so be a match," her fingers snapped and a small bright firework lit up your face.

You chuckled but something held you back, "I'm not sure I'm ready. For years the only person who I talked to was Sinister. I'm not exactly sure I'm dating material"

Jubilee exaggeratedly rolled her eyes at you, "You are a total catch, I mean the chic funeral attire, creepy spirits you have at your whim, the cold tendril thingys, who wouldn't want to date you," You gave her a sharp glare and she put her hands up defensively,

"I'm just joking, obvi, seriously you're so cool and anyone would be lucky to have you. If you're not ready I won't pressure you, but I don't know if Kurt's giving up anytime soon"

~~~

You focused on raising a singular spirit from the dead. Placing your hands in the grass behind the mansion. A blue spirit emerged from the Earth and sat with her legs crossed next to you.

'Hello, what's your name?' She was just a child, and yet she felt peace in death, you could feel it.

"People call me Styx, how 'bout you?"

'It doesn't matter, why have you brought me here?'

"I'm trying to learn more about summoning, my power"

'I had powers too'

"Tell me about them"

A smile crossed the young child's face and her eyes lit up, 'I could see the future, but a bad man took me away. Injected me with something. My body couldn't heal it like the others,' Her smile vanished, 'I dreamed of being an X-Men'

"I'm sorry that happened to you, no one deserves that. I'm an X-Men in training, you know," That was the first time you said that out loud.

'Really?! So you know Jean Grey! and Storm! Do you know Charles Xavier?!,'

You smiled at the young girl, "Yes I know them. Storm is like my best friend you know"

A gasp escaped the young girl's lips, 'That's so cool! You know maybe if you took my power, it would be like I'm part of the X-Men too'

"If only I could do that, I only can take knowledge from others," You chuckled.

She giggled at you, 'You can, silly, I can see the future, so I would know. Just take my hands'

You turned to face the young girl, and you held her hands in yours.

'Just focus," And you did, 'Think about my clairvoyance, think about the future'

And you did. There was a tingling sensation in your palms, and in a moment she was gone just an echo of a sentence, 'Call me Claire.'

~~~

You had two new powers to train, and you closed yourself off in your room working on honing in on looking into the future. Sometimes you would see centuries in the future, and sometimes seconds. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to this, just guesses.

While focusing you heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!" You yelled, and in a moment Kurt appeared in your room.

"Hallo! How are you Liebe!" He joyfully appeared next to you on the bed.

"Oh, hey Kurt. I'm doing well, how are you?" You carefully placed your hands on your lap, not wanting to try to see the future with Kurt in the room.

"Good, now that I'm with you," He gently shifted on the bed to look at you better, "Liebe, I have a question, but I don't want to scare you off"

"Ask me," You looked into his eyes, and a dark blush crossed his face.

'Hold his hand, see the future,' Sometimes Claire would speak to you. Usually to help you understand how to use her powers, and so you took his hand in yours.

Surprise crossed his face, but he quickly cleared his throat and used his confidence while it lasted, "Will you, do me the honor, of going on a date with me"

You saw yourself saying yes. You dress up, Kurt taking you to a fancy restaurant, and a dance at the end of the night. You saw another date where you shared your first kiss with him.

You could've seen more but you blinked away the visions. It didn't take you more than a second to respond this time.

"Yes, I would like that very much"

"Gut, sehr gut, how is Saturday?," You smiled at him and nodded, "unglaublich, I will see you then!"

With that he poofed out of the room and outside you could hear him cheering and Wolverine giving him the most big brother chat you've ever heard.