For the longest time, Kurt had no idea of his true parentage. He was happy with Margali and never even wondered about it. That is until he came face to face with the shape-shifting Mystique…
The similarity in their appearance was startling enough…but the fact that she not only knew his name, but the name of his foster mother as well must have been more than a little disconcerting…
Before he could question her further, he was forced to beat a hasty retreat. Momentarily distracted, Mystique took the opportunity to disappear into the crowd…
Knowing he didn’t have a chance of finding her, Kurt let the matter lie as he made his own escape with his fellow X-Men…and though the idea had been planted, Kurt would not have time to dwell on it for some time…
Some time later, Mystique’s adopted daughter came to Xavier in the hopes he could help her in controlling her power. Known only as Rogue, her power to absorb the memories and abilities of anyone she came into physical contact with was slowly driving her out of her mind. Though the X-Men were naturally apprehensive of her presence, they grew to accept her as one of their own…
Mystique however could not accept that Rogue had joined the X-Men willingly, and was determined to get her back. She hired the assassin Arcade to create X-Men facsimiles in order to hone her skills against them. She did exceptionally well…even managing to destroy her own daughter…though it pained her greatly to do so…
And while she was momentarily distracted…the only remaining automaton attacked…
Poised to destroy him…something caused her to pause…however…
Her hesitation was to prove almost fatal…
She ordered Arcade to build additional robots so she could train her cohorts, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, so they could defeat the X-Men and retrieve Rogue…
The precognitive Destiny tried to warn her against her intended course of action…
The subject of the blue-furred X-Man was obviously something Mystique didn’t care to discuss…
Unknown to her that self-same mutant was discussing her…and their possible connection…with Amanda Sefton, one of the few people he trusted…one of the few people who could possibly know anything about his past…
She was as startled as he had been and suggested they get in contact with her mother…
Kurt never managed to talk with his foster mother…never managed to discover if she could add any pieces to the puzzle. He didn’t have the time…
Ororo Monroe, Storm, the X-Men’s field leader lost her powers and left the team. Kurt was named leader in her place…though he hardly felt capable of the position. Especially when his first real assignment as leader didn’t go particularly well…
With the support of his teammates he became a capable leader, but he was still relieved when Storm returned to the fold. Little did he know that the experience would prove to be the preparation he needed for his future position as team leader of the English based Excalibur…
It was not until he’d been leading Excalibur for some time that his thoughts would return to his connection the Mystique. Forge, a long time friend of the X-Men and, at the time, America’s Mutant Liaison Officer, requested his assistance in a matter of great importance concerning the shape-shifter. Teaming him with Rogue he insisted that the pair where the only ones who could possibly reach her…but when Kurt ask why he felt this way, Forge merely told him that there were certain things that should not be learned in a debriefing…
In the end he learned the truth from the most unlikely of sources. The mutant hating Greydon Creed, son of the feral mutant Sabretooth, who himself had a long running vendetta against Mystique, had paid a great deal of money to confirm that she was his natural mother…however, his extensive research had discovered something else…
Not caring any more for his half-brother than his mother, he went on to tell Kurt what he had learned…
Though Creed’s words were designed to hurt him, Kurt wasn’t willing to accept them…
Creed had been disgusted when he had learnt the truth about his parents…discovering he also shared blood with the obviously mutant Kurt was the last straw…and so he took out his frustrations on the most innocent member of his family tree…
While one son attempted to kill the other, Mystique confronted their adopted sister, Rouge, telling her that she was one of only two people she’s ever really cared about…the other being her late friend Destiny. Creed arrived just in time to hear her statement…dragging the unconscious Kurt with him. She told him that she should have made certain he was dead when she abandoned him after discovering he would never develop any mutant powers…Creed countered that maybe she should have done the same thing with her first-born. She told him that it had been a totally different matter…that she had tried to kill Kurt only as a means of self-preservation…
Aiming a high-tech pistol at Creed she was startled to see him teleport to safety. Creed after all was human…
On learning she had been talking to Kurt and not Creed, Mystique’s smug attitude suddenly changed drastically…
Did she truly feel regret at what she’d done? Or was she just doing what came naturally…saying what was needed to save her own blue hide? Creed awoke, angry…he wanted Kurt to extract revenge on the woman that had abandoned him…to kill the mother that he himself seemed unable to finish off. Using his resources as the head of the anti-mutant Friends of Humanity, Creed ordered all three…his mother, brother and sister…eliminated…calling in a heavily armoured helicopter to do the job.
Kurt and Mystique both made for some nearby cliffs to use them as temporary cover. Kurt commented that it was scary how the pair think alike…moments before one of Creed’s bullets found its mark. Rogue headed for the helicopter, intent on taking it out of the fight, but not before it fired a missile, knocking both Kurt and Mystique over the edge of the cliffs. Injured, Kurt’s consciousness began to slip away, as did his grip. Rogue released Creed in order to go to the aid of her family, but she could only save one of them. But who to choose…Mystique, her mother…or Nightcrawler, her long-time friend and newfound brother?
Mystique made the decision for, by releasing her grip and apparently falling to her own death.
Her actions confused Kurt…but not Creed, who, in a surprising show of compassion, allowed his mutant siblings to depart…
And so, in little more than the blink of an eye, Kurt, who believed all his life that he was an orphan, discovered his natural mother was Mystique, one of his greatest enemies…his half-brother, Greydon, was just as deadly…and Sabretooth, who could arguably be called his foster father was the deadliest of them all…
There has been no resolution between mother and son…Kurt hasn’t (knowingly) laid eyes on Raven since her apparent sacrifice. Though he knows she survived, she has since killed her younger son, their paths are yet to truly cross again. But with only one family member that he could ever consider a friend…perhaps it would have been better if he’d remained in the dark…