BIOGRAPHY - Page 13
Back at the Institute, Piotr received a surprising call from a man he didn’t know existed, his uncle Anatoly Rasputin. Anatoly was Bratva (the Russian mafia), and his brother Nicolai cut ties with him when the children were still young. However, Anatoly now reached out to Colossus and Magik out of concern because his leader Viktor Komolov had used dark magic to resurrect Omega Red for the Bratva. The Rasputins came to Russia with a team of X-Men but it proved to be a trap. Komolov needed Illyana to finish the spell which would make Omega Red’s return permanent. 
Anatoly betrayed them and remained loyal to the Bratva. The X-Men managed to rescue Illyana while the fight with Komolov restored Piotr’s powers, allowing him to become Colossus once more. After Piotr turned his uncle and the Bratva over to the authorities, Kitty greeted him with a kiss. She had taken the time she needed and was ready to explore their relationship once more. [X-Men: Gold #10-11]
The X-Men had several adventures that followed, such as another skirmish with Mojo and a journey into the Negative Zone to fight Kologoth and his arisen destroyer god, Scythian. During 
this mission, their starship crashed on an alien desert and Piotr was seriously wounded. Separated from their teammates and lost without resources, Kitty was forced to confront the possibility of losing him. They reunited as a group and made their way home safely, but it was enough to make Kitty Pryde seize the moment. Once they were back at the Xavier Institute, Kitty proposed to Peter and asked him to marry her. [X-Men: Gold #13-20]
The chaotic life of the X-Men kept Peter and Kitty busy fighting against Mesmero’s Brotherhood, being imprisoned at the Box under false criminal charges, and confronting the return of Scythian when he breached the Negative Zone for Earth. [X-Men: Gold #21-25] Given this, it might seem reasonable that the couple were dragging their feet when it came to wedding planning. Even so, 
Colossus felt there was something off between them, which Kitty wasn’t willing to discuss. Once they settled on a date, Piotr tried to explain his reservations to Kurt, but instead his best man jumped into planning a bachelor party. A wild trip to Las Vegas was not something Colossus wanted, but he went along with it for his friends. Before he could examine his feelings or break out of his funk, Colossus was attacked by the Sentinel A.I., Alpha, who abducted him. [X-Men: Gold #26]
Colossus became a test subject for Alpha and Lydia Nance. His biology contained remnants of the Legacy virus, as well as the building blocks which Kavita Rao used to create the Hope serum that neutralized the X-gene. Building on that work, Alpha and Nance devised a new anti-mutant nano-gen which could kill all mutant life on Earth. With the X-Men in hot pursuit, Alpha launched himself and Colossus off Earth to an abandoned Roxxon space station. The A.I. completed his work and 
fired the nano-bombs, but fortunately Alpha Flight, Storm, and the other X-Men were prepared to intercept them. Colossus was severely weakened from Alpha’s experiments, but he risked his life to help the X-Men get their ship free of the space station before it exploded. Kitty nearly lost Peter again, and the emotions of the moment led her to renew their love and move up the date of their wedding to as soon as possible. [X-Men: Gold #27-29]
[Note: Between X-Men: Gold #11-29, Colossus’ armored form was altered, apparently as a side effect of the nano-cloud interacting with his X-gene. He became a uniform chromed metal, without the segmented plates which have been his signature look for years. It was not remarked upon on-panel until Alpha suddenly mentioned he was fixing it in #29. Behind-the-scenes, one could assume the creative team tried to make an artistic change to Colossus’ look and received push back.]
Looking for a quick venue, they decided to have the wedding ceremony on the Westchester grounds, just down the hill from where Scott and Jean were married. All their friends were in attendance, with Kurt as best man, Rabbi Yarkin overseeing the wedding, and Kitty’s mother 
giving her away in place of her late father. Vows were exchanged and the ceremony would be completed once Kitty and Peter placed their wedding bands on each other’s fingers. Kitty put Peter’s ring on but, when he moved to slide her ring onto her finger, she phased. In a sudden, startling act, Kitty had a flash of insight and declared she couldn’t marry Peter. She phased through the ground and left him standing there before his friends and family. As quietly as he could, Piotr asked Kurt to teleport him anywhere else.
That evening, Piotr found Kitty on the shores near Breakstone Lake. Fittingly, eerily, she sat on the same hillside where he once broke her heart telling the tale of Zsaji. Piotr remained calm and gave Kitty every opportunity to explain what happened. She could only put forward that their history was too messy to build a proper foundation on. Kitty claimed she still loved Peter, with all 
her soul but she could not marry him, today or perhaps ever. Piotr could not understand what she was feeling, but all he could do was respect it. [X-Men: Gold #30] She was somehow surprised the next morning when he tried to leave without saying good-bye. The pain was too much to be around her at all right now, and so Colossus left both the Institute and the X-Men behind in order to get space from Kitty. [X-Men: Gold #31]
Colossus got an apartment in the city and spent some time just drinking and trying to understand what had happened to him. He was visited by Havok, who intended to put together an X-Men team but didn’t have Kitty’s approval. Piotr wanted to be around friends and hit things, so he signed up. These X-Men had a short run and ended up framed as terrorists when they attacked 
federal agents with the Office of National Emergency. The O*N*E was secretly working with the Reavers on anti-mutant technology, but that didn’t clear their names. They found themselves drawn to the Xavier Institute to stop Sentinel-enhanced Reavers from harming the primary X-Men. Piotr had a brief reunion with Kitty, but he made it clear he wanted nothing more to do with her at the moment. [Astonishing X-Men (4th series) #14-17]
Colossus spent more of his time alone mourning his losses, although Domino sought him out for an absurd heist against the Crimson Dynamo to cheer him up. It worked, and Piotr and Neena caught up on old times. [Domino (3rd series) Annual #1] When a massive call to arms went out, Colossus assembled with virtually the entire historic roster of the X-Men to fight Legion and the X-Man. This fight led to them all being sucked into an alternate timeline and believed dead by the rest of the world. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #9-10] Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it, and Piotr tragically relived his doomed love with Kitty Pryde in this universe, only for it all to fall apart again at the end. [Age of X-Man crossover]