Chapter 22: Religious Zealotry

The man kneeled in the back garden away from peering eyes. Rising from the ground in front of him were eight headstones. The man had only known one of the eight individuals engraved on the stones but he prayed for all of them. When the man was troubled or upset, praying helped him but this was also the time he set aside for his daily prayers.

"Brother Kurt?"

"Yes my child?"

Kurt Wagner had been many things in his life. Mutant, believer, freak, gypsy, lover, circus star, hero and terrorist; but the one accomplishment he was most proud of was when he was ordained a Layman Brother of the Eastern Catholic Church. When the circus troupe he was traveling with stayed at a local parish for a winter, the priest there was very impressed with Kurt's fervor and faith. Kurt had already converted three of his fellow gypsies and the priest thought Kurt would be able to convert more in his travels if he was ordained.

Kurt was not sure if he was as successful at converting those whose life he passed through briefly but he was diligent in his duties, he hoped, to reward the trust Father Ignatious had in him.

"May I pray with you Brother Kurt?"

"Of course Rahne, please join me."

Rahne kneeled next to Kurt facing the headstones and together they prayed. This had become a very common occurrence since Rahne arrived at the school. Kurt routinely took his daily absolutions with the dearly departed no matter what the weather. Class Room four had been set up as a room for instruction of religion and for Kurt to use for any services desired. There were three other Catholics present at the school; Shan Manh, Roberto De Costa and Rahne Sinclair. But only Shan and Rahne went to Brother Kurt's services; while Bobby did what most of the Christians and non-Christians did at the school, practiced a more hedonistic life style and less of a religious one.

Charles Xavier's view on religion hinged around whether one had faith. If a student had the faith and wanted to participate in that religion he was more than willing to be accommodating to them while at the same time ensuring that the school's curriculum studied all religions and faiths. Kurt wished more of the students and staff could embrace both God and the hedonistic lifestyle at Xavier's. Kurt differed in that he believed one could embrace both a hedonistic lifestyle and be close to God. Kurt's God was a very forgiving and loving God and he believed that his God wouldn't have made sex so pleasurable if it was not to be enjoyed instead of derided as a thing of the devil.

Shan had stopped joining him for prayers but he was pleased that she still kept his counsel. Rahne on the other hand only showed up when she questioned her faith. Kurt was sure that Rahne was reluctant to join him for prayers more often because he looked and smelled like a demon and Rahne feared that her mutant manifestation meant she was going to go to Hell and so Kurt assumed Rahne thought the same of him. Rahne having been raised since birth in a poor Scottish orphanage run by Nuns who fanatically believed in the 'fire and brimstone' view of the Bible had instilled a faith in her that she simply could not shake, no matter how dismal a future it painted for her.

"Brother Kurt, will you hear my confession?"

"Rahne, will this confession be the same confession I have heard numerous times before? The same confession that I have told you constantly is not a sin and not something that should agonize your conscience?"

"Brother Kurt, I was born in sin and Jesus Christ died so I may absolve myself of those sins from birth. I am still a mutant, a freak in God's eyes and have carnal sins that I can not stop doing. I must be punished for my sins Brother Kurt. Please punish me!"

Kurt had seen many evil people in his life, not those that persecuted him because of his looks; he knew he what he looked like and those who were so narrow minded he was easily able to forgive. But the nuns of the Sacred Suffering Cross Orphanage could not be forgiven. They took in children, young and impressionable and either broke them or brainwashed them with hatred and vile; all in the name of religion. Kurt knew otherwise, he knew that they were evil persons using religion for their own sadistic pleasures and agenda. One day soon, Kurt hoped to visit the Nuns of the Sacred Suffering Cross Orphanage; preferably on a dark and stormy night.

Kurt was not happy with Rahne's plight. She was born with the mutant ability to mimic lycanthropy, She could change from a petite, sweet looking young girl, to a full grown DireWolf; in between she could turn into a Wolf Hybrid Girl; strong, fast and resilient, God's Gift; but in her eyes it was the Devil's gift and she was a sinner. The Nuns at Sacred Suffering knew that Rahne was different because of the number of nipples she was born with. At first the nuns thought they were just moles or skin tags, but the symmetry of their locations down the front of her chest and the obvious pleasure a very young Rahne enjoyed from playing with them told the Nuns otherwise.

To say that the Nuns made life miserable for the young and impressionably Rahne was obvious. He understood that when Rahne was caught turning into her Dire Wolf form, the Nuns decided she had to be burned at the stake; something Kurt had to face more than once in his life. Rahne ran away, straight into the arms of the Professor who wanted to start anew an actual school for mutants. Rahne quickly agreed to the Professor's offer but soon felt guilty of her new life in America. Dani changed everything.

Danielle Moonstar was recruited right after Rahne and became very excited when she heard that Rahne could transform into a Dire Wolf. Dani had previously turned down the Professor's offer, she was happy living on the Cheyenne Reservation in Colorado. Dani had quit going to 'white man's school' and lived off the land with her companion, He'eo'opoeso, a full grown female mountain lion. Not long after the Professor's offer was turned down, a brash young male of her tribe proclaimed that he was a man and would prove it. The boy knew where Dani liked to camp and approached it downwind.

Dani was dancing to the rain god because she thought the mountainous land needed rain while He'eo'opoeso watched infrequently while bathing herself. The boy shot and killed He'eo'opoeso and when he moved to claim his right to manhood, a distraught Dani fought him, pushing him down the side of the mountain. The boy fell over sixty feet, critically injuring himself. Dani was arrested, sitting in jail despondent for three weeks until the boy died. The Chieftain called Charles Xavier, wanting her to go away vice submitting the tribe to a messy and embarrassing trial. This time Dani grudgingly accepted the Professor's offer.

Dani and Rahne did become fast friends, sped on by Dani's mental ability to speak with animals. They formed a link similar to Phoenix and Cyclops and the one Marvel Girl and Siryn were trying to form; but only when Rahne was in one of her animal forms. At first Rahne loved being with Dani, but she found it hard to resist her while in animal form. It didn't take Dani long to show Rahne the pleasure that could be had between a girl and her wolf. Rahne loved everything that Dani showed her and hated those memories when the lust had died down and she recognized what horrible things they did. Dani didn't stop there. Soon Dani was joining Rahne in her bed. Rahne prayed for absolution and screamed in pleasure as Dani reminded her just how tender and sensitive her eight nipples were.

Thanks to the Nuns, Rahne was always embarrassed by her multiple breasts while growing up. Once puberty arrived, her upper nipples, those in the same position that the other girls at the orphanage had, grew encompassing her almost non-existent breasts; the next row of two at the bottom of her rib cage had no teat and were just thick nipples, thimble in size. The third row of two bothered Rahne the most since they were parallel with her belly button and the most obvious and vulnerable, these were half the size of the two above them. It took a long time before Rahne realized that she had a fourth row of nipples, even though they were spaced about the same distance apart as the rest, they were very miniscule in size, no bigger than the skin tags that hung down from Sister Bertha's bulbous neck. Great packages come in small size Dani had told Rahne because of the eight nipples, these two loved to be pulled and rubbed the most which sometimes caused problems if Rahne wore hip-hugging pants, which she hated, or skirts tight at the waist when walking because the final two nipples were right above her pelvis on her hips.

Dani had insisted Rahne wear a pair of hip-hugger jeans one time when the Year One's took a field trip on a rainy Saturday to the mall. After only an hour of walking, Rahne couldn't stop fidgeting or make a coherent sentence. Dani took her back to the school van where Rahne couldn't even protest properly when Dani started stripping her naked. In the back seat of the school van Dani feasted on Rahne's outpouring and Rahne willingly, without transforming, returned the favor to a naked Dani. Afterwards Rahne's guilt overcame Kurt's valor and he punished her the way she had been clamoring for.

The way she wanted Kurt to punish her now, a punishment that not only sickened Kurt but thrilled him too; one more reason why those evil Nuns must acknowledge their sins.

"Rahne, if I punish you, which I insist you do not warrant, I must tell you this, I don't take pain in your pain; no, I take pleasure in your pain. Is that what you want, ja?"

"Yes, Brother Kurt, please allay me of my sins so that I may love my God without false pretenses."

"And what did you do to deserve this punishment again?" Kurt asked though he knew the answer.

"I lay in sin, against the Bible and God's eyes, with another female. I did things to that female that I should not have done and I let her do similar things to me. I bared the mark of the devil in our coupling. Many times. Please forgive me Brother Kurt."

"I do forgive you child."

"Then punish me as I deserve, so I may be cleansed in God's eyes."

"Very well child, meet me in Room four. I will be there shortly."

"Thank you Brother Kurt. May God be with you."

"And may God be with you."

Kurt felt sick to his stomach as he watched the young Scottish lass rush to the room of her chastisement. With a puff of black smoke and stench of brimstone Kurt was gone.

Only to appear before the Professor's door. Emma, staying behind the door, opened it from the inside before he could knock.

Joking, "Were my reservations reverberating that loudly through the mansion?"

"Please come in Kurt."

Emma shut the door behind him and when he noticed that Emma was naked, he gave her a wink. Anyone who thought God wanted his creation hidden by clothes was a fool.

"No Kurt, not you, Rahne. Both Emma and I felt her anguish and decided to confer together with the anticipation of your visit."

"Well, I am here and I am not happy. I may look like a demon but I do not like torture. Charles if you have not taken care of those beasts in the guise of God's women, I feel I may have to, the damage that they do to those children must stop!"

"I agree Kurt and I have been working on it. Nothing drastic yet, but if it comes to it, I will take drastic measures."

"Thank you sir, that is a relief I needed to hear."

"Kurt, as we talked before, giving Rahne what she wants is for the best. Her Faith has allowed her to discount any counseling Charles or I have given. Her life is very simple to her, she sins, she is punished and forgiven of those sins and the cycle repeats. That is the only life that she will accept right now because she is literally waiting for her god to take her away from this purgatory and send her to hell."

"But you want me to punish her, ja?"

"Yes, Kurt, we want you to punish her and more. This time we want you to do something further!"

Rahne did not like classroom four, it was comfortable like every other room at the school, but it held too many sacrilegious items within. The Cross of Christ along the north wall pleased her soul, but the Star of David in the North East corner and the Icon pointing towards Mecca on the East wall were offensive, but it was the multiple pagan symbols and other false idols that was too much for Rahne, so she closed her eyes as she knelt before Christ and prayed.

Brother Kurt arrived before she finished her thirtieth Hail Mary. He seemed distraught but she did not feel it was in her place, as a sinner, to ask what troubled him.

"Rahne ... sit with me please. I would like to talk."

Rahne demurely nodded and took the sit next to Brother Kurt, keeping her head bowed.

"No, not as Brother and disciple but as equals."

Rahne's looked at Brother Kurt with a hurt expression, "But Brother Kurt, we are not equals. You are a spiritual leader and I am but a follower."

"We are all equal in the eyes of God Rahne. Be my equal now."

"But why?"

"Because, I am worried about you." Kurt reached out to grasp Rahne's hand unsure what her reaction would be since they had never been intimate in any way. Most can not get past how Kurt looked and he begrudged no one because of his looks; his enlarged canines, pointed ears, yellow pupil-less eyes. He had pupils, but the yellow film over his eyes that allowed him supernatural night vision masked them. His felt like fur covered skin and hands and feet that only had three digits each combined with a forked prehensile tail made him look every bit of the demons of lore. Rahne flinched but Kurt was hoping that it was because his oversized hands were rough to the touch; they weren't good at manipulating items, picking up a piece of paper was a nightmare for Kurt, but they were one reason why he was so excellent at acrobatics.

"But Brother Kurt, my Faith is strong; I am just weak in resisting the Devil's call to Sins of the Flesh."

"That is what I wanted to talk to you about Rahne, ja?"

"And that is why we are here for you to punish and forgive my trespasses."

"Rahne. Let us talk. We are talking about sex and desire, I want, no, I need to know when is sex and desire not a sin."

"It is always a sin!"

"Always?"

"Unless, uhmm, procreation is involved, but sex is not allowed, nor is foreplay or anything kinky or wicked!"

"Wicked? Like what you and Dani do, ja?"

"Yes. That is why I need to be punished; for my trespasses."

Kurt lifted Rahne's down trodden chin with the side of a folded index finger; the fervor on her face as she fought back tears tore him up and made his next move of baiting her tear at his insides.

"There is no need to cry Rahne, I know you feel terrible. Tell me again who was it that taught you that sex was a sin?"

"The Sister's at the orphanage; Sister Bertha and Sister Rose Marie. Sister Catherine too."

"And do you understand the Order that they belong to?"

"Order? They are Catholic Nuns, they don't belong to any Order outside of the Church, they serve God."

"Yes, they serve God, but they belong to an Order inside the Catholic Church. The Order tells them where they stand in the Church, in the hierarchy of the Church."

"Forgive me Brother Kurt, but I don't understand. I..."

"It is okay, ja, that is what we are here for, to enlighten you in ways of the Church, not of Christ."

"How can they not be one and the same?"

"Being one with Christ is being a believer and follower of Christ, being one of the Church is indicative of more ... mundane responsibilities. The day to day running of the Church has nothing to do with the spreading of the Gospels or teaching the Faith. The Sisters' running the Sacred Sacrifice Orphanage did so in God's name, but taking after abandoned infants or teaching a child how to tie their shoes has nothing to do with religion."

Kurt cursed himself because he knew he was not getting through to her; Rahne was single minded in her devotion and would probably be in training for sisterhood if her mutant ability had not manifested.

"Rahne, when a girl decides that being a nun is her calling, she takes a vow of chastity such as those Sisters did. When they take that vow, they are giving up fleshly love for Love of God, they are considered married to God. Do you understand that, ja?"

"Yes, I wanted to married to God as well, but Father Flynn would not let me."

"Who was Father Flynn?"

Rahne closed her eyes, wishing she had not said his name.