BIOGRAPHY - Page 8
Upon dying, Nightcrawler's soul ascended to Heaven. However, despite the eternal bliss that awaited him in this spiritual paradise, he remained transfixed on his friends who still occupied the mortal realm. When a Hell-spawned demon took up residence in the body of his best friend Wolverine, Kurt entered his mind to help him purge the infestation. While there, he crossed paths with Wolverine's friends from the X-Men, who were on a telepathic voyage to save their friend as well. Despite Nightcrawler's efforts to convince his old friends to the contrary, they assumed Kurt was merely another psychic manifestation produced by Wolverine's subconscious mind—a fair assumption, since Wolverine's mind was compartmentalized as such. Nightcrawler unleashed the 
portion of Wolverine's mind representing the Phoenix, which ultimately helped Logan purge his mind of demons and have a fresh start. To Nightcrawler's disappointment, however, Wolverine chose to cling to his need for revenge. When he returned to Heaven after saving Logan, Kurt made one last attempt to change his best friend's mind by relaying some important information about the afterlife: Heaven, he claimed, had the best beer ever. [Wolverine (4th series) #7-8]
In the afterlife, Kurt also discovered that his father, Azazel, had transformed a nest of maggots native to Hell into miniature versions of himself by feeding them his own blood. These little, teleporting, blood-red Azazels, referred to colloquially as "Bamfs," did Azazel's bidding on his behalf. When Kurt stumbled upon an unconscious Bamf, he decided to sever their bond to their master by bonding them to himself instead. Because he no longer had blood to use as the bonding medium, however, he had to use as his sacrifice the only essence of himself he possessed in the afterlife: his soul. Apparently, this did the trick, and Kurt continued converting Bamfs to the side of the angels, their skin changing from red to blue as they fed on Kurt's offering. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #35, Amazing X-Men (2nd series) #4-5]
Meanwhile, the feeling he left unfinished business in the mortal realm persisted. Kurt continued to spend his time in paradise on its periphery, consorting with the Bamfs, gazing into the horizon and hoping his friends among the living would come retrieve him. Kurt got his wish when his father Azazel appeared in Heaven on a pirate ship and began shanghaiing its resident souls to take back to Hell. Instantly reverting to his swashbuckler mode, Kurt grabbed some swords from the raiders and began fighting back and rescuing nearby damsels in distress. Around this same time, the Bamfs managed to create a portal between the afterlife and the mortal realm that ensnared several of Kurt's friends on the X-Men. Amidst the fencing with the pirates, Kurt was reunited with some of his dearest friends as they found themselves trapped in the afterlife.
After gathering all of his friends who had been scattered throughout the various realms of the hereafter, Kurt led a final assault on Azazel and his pirates. These amazing X-Men went into the battle with high spirits and good humor, but the stakes of this fight were no laughing matter: Azazel's shenanigans, if successful, threatened billions of souls. To put an end to his father's menace for good, Nightcrawler executed the only gambit he could think of that would block his father's access to the afterlife entirely: transporting Azazel and himself back to Earth and sealing the portal that led to the afterlife. 
To do this, Kurt had to deepen his debt to the Bamfs. Back in the X-Mansion, the Bamfs merged themselves into a new body for Kurt, which his spirit then inhabited when he returned from Heaven with Azazel in tow. Kurt then performed one final act of blood magic that sealed the portal to the afterlife the Bamfs had built. Azazel was now his prisoner with no path back to Heaven or Hell, and Nightcrawler had saved billions of souls—but at the cost of his own. [Amazing X-Men (2nd series) #1-5]
With Azazel detained, Kurt felt he could relax somewhat. The night his father was being transferred to Ryker's Island, the X-Men held a 'Welcome Home' party for Nightcrawler at their old haunt, Harry's Hideaway. Kurt waited until things appeared to be proceeding smoothly with Azazel's prison transfer to arrive at the get-together. It turned out Azazel wasn't the only parent Nightcrawler needed to worry about that night, though; midway through the party, Kurt discovered that his mother, Mystique, had infiltrated the event disguised as a waitress. Kurt took her outside and made her reveal herself in private. After exchanging a few awkward words regarding Kurt's resurrection, Mystique teased out of her son where to find Azazel and departed to catch him during his transport. Kurt tried to stop her from interfering with his transfer, but ultimately failed, falling unconscious as his twisted parents escaped to parts unknown. [Amazing X-Men (2nd series) #6]
Kurt continued readjusting to life back in the land of the living. In addition to lacking a soul, many of the changes the X-Men had undergone, such as Professor Xavier's death, Wolverine's loss of his healing factor and Cyclops's secession and subsequent mutant revolution, rattled him. Still, he tried his best to cope. To this end, he reconnected with his former lover, Amanda Sefton, surprising her at her apartment one evening. However, shortly after their joyous reunion, Amanda came under attack by a villain calling itself "Trimega." They temporarily thwarted its attack and escaped. Sensing the Trimega may target their mother Margali Szardos next, Kurt and Amanda traveled to their hometown of Winzeldorf to find the infamous Witch of the Winding Way. More Trimegas attacked, but they repelled them and returned to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in Westchester with Margali under their protection.
Despite the objections of the X-Men, Margali was allowed to stay with them while they figured out why they were under attack. Unfortunately, this turned out to be exactly what the mastermind behind the attack had planned all along — and why she sent the Trimegas after Kurt and Amanda in the first place. That mastermind? Margali Szardos. Once inside the X-Men's headquarters, Margali was able to forcibly extract from the X-Men the memories she needed to figure out how they traveled to the afterlife to rescue Nightcrawler — information she intended to use to bring the entirety of the afterlife under her control. Margali then opened a rift in the fabric of reality that led to the hereafter and prepared to subvert it to her will using her powerful magics. Nightcrawler and Amanda fought back and ultimately defeated her, but the rift remained open. Sensing that it could only be closed from the other side, Kurt and Amanda attempted to travel through the portal into the afterlife so they could seal it shut.
However, because Kurt had willfully chosen to leave Heaven once before, he was no longer allowed back in, leaving Amanda as the only one who could make the journey. To prevent the love of her life from destroying himself trying to reach her, Amanda sealed the rift with Kurt in the material world and her in the afterlife, asking him to find a way back to her somehow. Nightcrawler was left devastated as he found himself back in the realm of the living without the woman he loved. [Nightcrawler (4th series) #1-4]
Kurt picked up the pieces of his heart after losing Amanda. He got more comfortable with the Bamfs and learned he could piggyback on their teleportation powers to overcome the limitations of his own. For instance, he found he could teleport "blind" into places the Bamfs had already visited, and combine his powers with theirs to teleport much farther than the previous three-mile threshold that used to limit what he could do. He also accepted a role as an instructor at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, where he helped train young mutants to use their powers. He took a particular liking to a plucky student named Rico who had a scorpion-like physiology.
One evening, while on a joyride with Rico on the Blackbird, Kurt received notification from Storm that a powerful new mutant signature had emerged in his vicinity. He and Rico went to investigate and discovered a team of scientists under attack in their laboratory by the Crimson Pirates, who were in search of a mutant genius named Ziggy Karst. 
Kurt remembered the Pirates from a past encounter and knew they were mercenaries connected with the infamous slaver Tullamore Voge. When he intervened, Kurt sparred with a Pirate he recognized named Bloody Bess, from whom he extracted the information he needed to rescue the scientists. Upon neutralizing her, Nightcrawler rescued everyone the pirates had captured, including Ziggy, but returned to find the Crimson Pirates gone. He took Ziggy back with him and Rico to the Jean Grey School. [Nightcrawler (4th series) #5-6]
Not long after losing Amanda to the afterlife, Kurt's best friend Wolverine, previously considered unkillable because of his healing factor, died as well. Kurt struggled to cope with losing yet another of the people nearest and dearest to him. [Nightcrawler (4th series) #7] Kurt and Piotr honored Logan by paying their respects to the grave of Mariko Yashida in Agarashima, Japan, and incidentally fighting waves of ninja warriors just like Logan would have. [Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan #1]
Apparently Kurt's brief interaction with Bloody Bess left a strong impression on her. When she and her cohorts came under psychic attack by the Shadow King, Bess reached out to the first person she thought of who might be able to help her: Nightcrawler. In response to her telepathic S.O.S., Kurt 'ported across the globe with the help of the Bamfs to aid her. He helped her stave off the possessed Crimson Pirates for a while, but the situation worsened when the rest of the X-Men arrived in the Blackbird to aid their teammate and were in turn ensnared by the Shadow King as well. Thankfully, Nightcrawler, Psylocke and Bloody Bess were able to resist the Shadow King's possession long enough to send Kurt to the Astral Plane to confront Farouk directly. Kurt defeated him and the trio sealed him back in his prison. However, upon returning to the physical plane, Kurt and Bess were ambushed by the Crimson Pirates — no longer possessed but acting like jerks on their own accord — who then impaled Kurt after he and Bess refused to comply with their orders. Dying once more, Kurt ascended to the afterlife, only to be pulled into the Borderlands by Amanda Sefton. 
Amanda explained the Borderlands were a way station for people with unfinished business, and that Kurt had business to take care of back on Earth. After a brief encounter with the spirits of Phoenix and Wolverine, Kurt was sent back on his way to the mortal plane, where he returned to his mysteriously healed body. [Nightcrawler (4th series) #8-10]
Unfortunately, while Kurt was dead, the Crimson Pirates kidnapped Rico and Ziggy and transported them to the other-dimensional hideout of Tullamore Voge, where they were to be sold into slavery. That simply would not do. Nightcrawler and Bloody Bess traveled to Voge's domain and rescued the young mutants. However, neither of Kurt's two wards were willing to leave without also rescuing the other children Voge had captured. Although Kurt insisted his only responsibility was to the two kids entrusted to his care, he could not deny the truth of their words. So together, the four of them fought and defeated Voge and his cohorts. With Voge in captivity, they returned home with the rescued children in tow.
Nightcrawler took a brief, romantic vacation with Bloody Bess before returning to the Jean Grey School to resume his teaching duties. He explained to his friends that his romance with Bess did not in any way affect the bond he shared with Amanda Sefton, and that he trusted things would work out for the best. While Bess is away getting revenge on the Crimson Pirates for their transgressions, Kurt — soul or no — remains busy at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, serving as a teacher and a role model for the next generation of mutants. [Nightcrawler (4th series) #11-12]