Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER THIRTEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), the typo box is missing...I think a plot is afoot... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink get musecookies for archiving. ;) ProPhile gets dancing muses for sending the plotbunny. :) Readers/Reviewers: Ducks. In the freezer. It's disturbing. They're wearing mucklucks and trying to build igloos using push up pops. *sigh *

"Kitty, I ask you this as a friend...are you high?"
"Jubilee!" Kitty threw up her hands in exasperation and said, "I was hoping maybe you'd understand..."
"I'm trying. I really am! It's just..." She shook her head and trailed off.
"I know, but how impossible does it seem really? Look at us, look at almost everyone we know...we shouldn't exist by all rights..."
Jubilee shrugged. "Speak for yourself. The world needs more sparklies. Look, supposing what you say is true and you two haven't been into the wacky weed, what am I supposed to do about it? Why are you telling me?"
Kitty frowned. "I don't know. I just...I guess I needed to tell someone soouldould talk to them about it and you seemed like the best person..."
"Really?" she asked with a note of amusement. "Big mouth ol' me?"
"Jubes, you know we were kidding..."
"Do I?" she asked, bouncing to her feet. "For all you know, I could run out of here and tell everyone I know!"
"You won't!" Kitty said, stopping Jubilee's jittering. "Not unless you want everyone to know about the contents of that box under your bed..."
"Oh, you so suck!" The words held no malice though and she returned to her seat on Kitty's bed, squarely in the middle, as her friend paced.
"I just...I don't know how to deal with this, not really... He's Kurt but not Kurt..."
"You know, we'd make a killing if we wrote all this stuff down and sold it to _Passions _."1
"You're not helping!"
"Well, I don't know what you need from me!" she cried in response. "Kitty, let's just say I understand everything that's going on right now and I can accept that this Kurt isn't Kurt but from some random alternate dimension... How is he getting back?"
Kitty sat on the floor, not looking up at Jubilee as she spoke. "We don't know...Forge is working on it."
"What if he can't fix it?"
"Don't say that!" she hissed. "Never say things like that!"
"You have to consider it."
"I don't want to."
"Tough tits Kit. You gotta." Jubilee slid off the bed and onto the floor, nudging Kitty with the toe of her sneaker. "I'm sure it'll all work out, it always does for you two, but if it doesn't...are you going to try and make things work with this Kurt or what?"
Kitty was doing an admirable job of not crying. In a voice tight with emotion, she said, "I don't think I could. He's not mine. He's someone else's Kurt."2
"So you'd rather be alone than try to get with this one?"
"Yes," she said resolutely, turning the ring on her finger out of nervous habit. "What if this were you and Remy, wouldn't you do the same thing?"
Jubilee wrinkled her brow as she considered it. "I don't know," she said after a moment. "I'm young. I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life moping and pining just because I'd technically lost the person I love. I'd always love him, I'd just have to move on eventually."
"Not me," Kitty said. "Kurt's it. No one else. Ever."
Jubilee sighed and stood. "I'm supposed to work with Logan in the gym in a few minutes. Want me to tell him you're having girl problems so I can stay and talk?"
"No," Kitty said glumly. "Go ahead. We can talk later..." She mouthed the appropriate responses as Jubilee left but she did not quite register what she was saying. Instead, she dragged herself to her feet and rummaged through her desk drawers. _Thank God I'm a packrat... _ She pulled out letters, pictures, notes, two diaries and random memorabilia, piling it all on her bed. Taking a plastic storage box off the top shelf of her closet after much struggle and a minor avalanche of shoes, Kitty dumped all the contents-her winter sweaters-onto the floor and swept the items from her desk into the box. _It's the only way he's going to get Borg'd3 into here for now. Maybe it'll help him when he gets back home...I sound like I could use a good...um...well, I sound like I need influencing over there... _ She grimly marched herself into Kurt's bedroom to sit and wait.

"So what you be wantin' from Remy?" the thief asked casually, rolling an unlit cigarette back and forth between his fingers.
"I need for you," Forge said, pausing to keep from growling at him, "to...procure...some items for me that I do not have easy access to."
Kurt nodded almost anxiously. "Please?"
Remy remained carefully neutral. He licked his lips and shifted his weight to his other foot. "What sort of items we be talkin' 'bout?"
Forge sighed. "I have a list."
Kurt reached out tentatively, touching Remy's wrist fleetingly in a gesture of pleading. "Remy, right? Remy, I need your help. Badly."
"You been all kinds a twitchy lately, homme...what's wrong wid you?" Remy leaned closer and peered at Kurt. "You look more scared 'n a long tailed cat in a room full o'rockin' chairs."
Kurt glanced at Forge who shook his head slightly, making a moue of warning. "Um, just didn't get much sleep is all..."
Remy smirked. "Sure, mon ami...dat be why you lookin' like you more scared 'n a murderer at de gallows..." He shrugged in a very Gallic fashion and said, "Bien, no matter...what you be needin' and where you be needin' it from?"
Forge smiled tightly and produced a list scribbled on the back of a hardware store receipt, the writing cramped and crawling across the paper like spiders. "Most of this stuff is experimental in nature."
"Mind me askin' what you be needin' all dis for?" Remy was looking at the list with something akin to excitement. It had been so long since he had been on an honest-to-goodness thieving expedition that he was anxious to get going, forcing himself to listen to Forge explain how secretive this project was. "Why de Elf be in here den?"
"Um, because he needs me to...test...it..." Kurt said haltingly, watching Forge's face for reaction.
Forge nodded curtly. "I want to make sure it can stand the rigors of teleportation. Just in case."
Remy nodded slowly. "Sure, homme. Whatever you say...Jus' so you know, I'm takin' along a...helper."
"Helper?" Forge and Kurt said together.
"Oui," he said, smiling, "I'm takin' Jubilation."
"No," Forge said sharply. "No one else goes with you. It's too dangerous." He was sure that Remy could make it in and out of the lab on his own, but he shuddered to think of Jubilee-loud, brash Jubilee-trying to make it in and out undetected. "She'll slow you down."
"Non, she won't. You don' know dat gal well at all. Now, gimme de map and lemme get outta here."
Kurt slid back into the shadows as Forge drew out a rough map for Remy, one showing the not necessarily secret but certainly high security lab that was used by a cutting edge electronics and research company, located fifty miles south from Bayville in a secluded area, away from prying eyes. The two older men seemed not to notice as he eased out the door and for that Kurt was grateful. _I'm making people steal for me...I'm too much trouble here. Maybe I can find somewhere else to go and wait, somewhere out of the way... _ He was so lost in thought that he did not notice a black-clad form step into his path until the last moment. "Oh....hello."
Jono stared back at Kurt, letting the blue teenager gawk. _*What's so surprising? You've seen me plenty before. _*
"Oh...uh...sorry." _What the Hell? What's wrong with him? Well, it can't be that bad...I'd be covered like that if I could get away with it... _
_*You don't seem like you're feeling well...want to go lurk with me? _ * Jono was feeling charitable. Paige had managed to sneak out from under her brother's scrutiny and spent the better part of the day watching movies in the basement with him, the tiny dark room he had chosen for himself not as depressing when she was there.
"Lurk?" Kurt asked with some trepidation.*Yea*Yeah...you know, lurk...we do it all the time... _ * Jono wished he could smirk. Kurt was blinking up at him strangely. _*Well? _ *
"Sure, I'll lurk." Kurt was not sure what lurking entailed but he had the feeling that this was something he should be familiar with and enjoy to a point. Belatedly, he realized the entire conversation had been half telepathic and that almost bothered him. "Um, where do we lurk?"
_*You must be bad off. We go downstairs or skulk around the others to give 'em a good scare... _ * Jono crossed his arms over where his chest should have been and managed a glower. _*Kurt, want to tell me what's wrong or are we going to play the silent game? _ *
Taking a chance, Kurt challenged, "Would you spill your guts to me?"
_*Good point. Okay, to the rec room... Bobby and St John are making out in there. If we time it right, we can make one of 'em scream like a girl... _ *

Amara barely looked up as Todd entered her room. Months ago, she would have fried him before he made it past the doorframe but now, she found that she did not care much. He made a beeline for Lance, sitting on her bed reading Manga and burst out, "I think Rogue's cracked!"
"That's not news," Amara drawled, closing her book and rising from her window seat. "She's been weird since I met her."
Todd gla "N "Not like that! She's not coming out of her room, she barely eats, she sleeps all the time..." He flung his hands up wordlessly, falling silent but obviously highly agitated.
Lance shoved the reading material to one side and frowned. "She's depressed...we all know that. The Professor said she'd be like this for a while."
"But it's not like her!" Todd wailed.
Amara sighed. "I can't believe I'm caring about this, but listen to me...she's going to be like this for a long time probably. She killed someone, Todd. She killed someone on accident but they're still dead. She's having a hard time managing the new abilities she absorbed and dealing with all of Empath's baggage, too. Just..." she gestured vaguely, "bear with her."
"I want her to be better _now _," he said petulantly, thesiblsibly wilted. "Sorry. I'm just..."
"Stressed?" Lance offered. "Top drawer on the left in my dresser. Only take one-I know how many I have left."
Amara bit her tongue to keep from saying something that she knew she would regret. Lance had been doing well, not smoking nearly as much pot as before, maybe once or twice a week instead of many times per day. _Small battles...one step at a time _, she reminded herself. "Have you been sitting with her this whole time?" she asked as gently as she could.
Todd nodded, not quite acknowledging Lance's offer but mentally filing it away, tempted by the idea that he could bring on some form of relaxation with little effort if he needed to. "Pretty much. I go downstairs to eat and I'll shower when I get too funky but I don't want to leave her alone...This is the first time I've really been out of there for more than a few minutes in days."
Lance shook his head. "Dude, you've got to get out some. She's not going anywhere."
"I want to help her..."
"You can't help her if you're clinging to her," Amara said.
"Didn't it help when Lance was here when you were all slice and dice and depressed?" Todd asked, purposefully tactless.
Amara raised a brow and said coolly, "Yes, it did, but I did not kill anyone. I was the victim."
"Isn't Rogue?" Todd demanded before turning on his heel and storming from the room.
Lance rolled his tongue around his mouth briefly, weighing his words before saying, "Well, I think someone needs a nap."
Amara laughed shortly "You think you can get him away from Rogue for an hour or two later?"
"Probably. Why?"
"Don't worry about why. Just do it in about..." She looked at her alarm clock and narrowed her eyes, thinking. "Get him out of there at ten till six. I'm going to find Jean and Kitty. Keep him gone until eight. No matter what you hear coming out of that room, don't come in. Got it?"
Lance stared at her. "Have I ever told you how hot you are when you're scary?"
"Shut up."
1 Really bad soap opera. Outlandish plots, vaguely supernatural things...just fucked uBig Big time.
2 Random aside...years ago there was a show who's name I can't remember for the life of me but it was like Tales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone in that it had little ten minute or thirty minute stories of a weird or horrific nature. One was about this guy who was 18 or 19 and still afraid of the dark because of a childhood fear of "The Shadow Man". Long story short, he ends up making a deal with the Shadow Man from under his bed that he'd sleep with the light off so long as the creature left him alone. He got the Shadow Man to start tormenting people for him through this method and one night it backfired. He went to watch the Shadow Man hurt someone for him but instead, he was grabbed and as he was being strangled, he was saying, "But you're my Shadow Man!" and the creature said "I am the Shadow Man from under someone else's bed..." *ahem * For some reason, that "someone else's Kurt" thing made me think of that. Pretend I'm not babbling.
3 We are Borg. You will be assimilated.