Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER TWENTY ONE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), they've abandoned the eyeliner for lipstick. This is turning weird. Especially for Dodo, since he has no real lips... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are wonderful for archiving and wasting space on my stories. *g * Readers/Reviewers: Okay. I'm very disturbed. The ducks are staging a production of Cabaret with a goose as the Emcee... What worries me most is that they could find garter belts to fit... That's just wrong. And yes, I do need medication it seems, lol. Lots of it! Stop the ducks from taking over! *ahem *

"What do you mean you don't know where we are?" Kurt said in a near-growl.
"I don' got de map!" Remy snapped.
"You went there earlier!"
"But I had de map den! I didn' need ta remember!"1 He threw his hands up in the air and made an incoherent noise of frustration. In truth, he was more upset with himself than he would admit. _What kinda thief get los' on de way to a job? I gotta get out more... _
Kurt took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. "Remy, I can appreciate your concern for Jubilee, but I think that you're failing to see the big picture here... _I need to go home and I need whatever it was Forge sent you for!" _
Remy scowled. "Dat? I got dat already. We don' need dat..."
Kurt closed his eyes and thought happy things for a moment. "Okay. I'm sorry I snapped. That was uncalled for. Jubilee wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for me."
"Don' get all self pity on me, homme. I kick yo' ass back ta l'Allemagne2 if you start wid dat..." Remy passed a hand over his stubble-roughened jaw and sighed wearily. "D'accord. I 'member dis road cause Jubilation, she say dese trees look like fairy tale trees..."
Kurt looked around the narrow road, the trees pressing in from all sides. They were dark and sinister, even though the sun had not completely set. "I can see that..." His night senses offered him far more insight into their surroundings than Remy had and Kurt easily picked out variations in shadows and magnetic fields that indicated something nearby. "Come on," he said. "I think we should go this way." He hopped off the back of the motorcycle and looked around once more. "Ja, this way..."
Remy peered into the dark and shook his head. "It look familiar but I gotta admit...I ain't sure."
Something made Kurt pause, turning on his toes towards a deepening in the shadows, a shift that was virtually undetectable. Remy got off the bike behind him, muttering under his breath about looking for signs, but Kurt paid no attention to the Cajun. He could not hear or even truly see what had gotten his attention. He just knew that something was there. Watching. Waiting. "Remy," he said quietly, "I don't know what your mutation is. Is it very useful?"
"Useful? Whaddya mean, useful?" he said indignantly. "Course dey useful!"
"Shhh..." Kurt waved a three-fingered hand in Remy's direction. _ I wonder if he always talks so much? _ The shadow he had been watching seemed to want to be noticed. It moved slightly in one direction and stopped again. "Because," he finally said very quietly, "you might need to use them." Kurt shut off his holo and in the gloaming he became all but invisible. "Follow me."
"Homme, you gone round de twist, ain't ya?" Remy sighed, following the outline of Kurt towards the woods, pushing the motorcycle across crunching gravel. "Hol' up...I gotta hide de bike."
Kurt waited impatiently, the shadow waiting with him. Remy pushed the bike through some underbrush, cursing at the snapping of branches. "Schnell," Kurt hissed.
"Moment," Remy whispered loudly. He reappeared, looking a mixture of triumphant and irritated. "I found de place where I hid de bike earlier. We on de right track." He sighed then and added, "But I be tinkin' I got de poison ivy."
Kurt snorted. "I'll buy you ointment on the way back! Come on!" He practically dove through the thick brush towards the shadow, Remy following perforce. Kurt was hard to keep up with, passing in and out of view with alacrity. Remy, despite his best efforts, made more noise than was possible safe considering what they were doing. He was so wrapped in trying to be quiet that he ran into Kurt's back after what seemed like forever but was more like thirty minutes. "Shhh!" Kurt hissed again. "They're gone!"
"Who's gone?" Remy demanded. "If someone were here, I woulda seen 'em or heard 'em!"
"No...you weren't meant to...they just wanted me to see..." He peered into the dark and tried to sense them again but failed. "Shit."
"Kurt, if dis be some wil' goose chase..." Remy shook his head warningly. He was not sure how to deal with Kurt in the first place, since this was not quite the Kurt he knew. They had been in uncomfortable silence since leaving the mansion and this sudden spate of commanding conversation was almost unnerving for Remy.
"It's not goose chase...come on!" This time, he grabbed Remy's wrist to lead him through the brush. "It's got to be near here somewhere..." There was a faint, very muffled scream and a then an explosion felt rather than heard, the earth beneath their feet shaking as if with a shockwave. Silence fell thick and fast then, even the night birds going still. "That..." Kurt began and Remy made a slashing motion with his hand to silence him. Kurt nodded. "Right. That way." In unspoken tacit agreement, they both set off in the direction of the scream. Kurt found himself wishing for the shadow to come back as it seemed to have been guiding him but had to settle for instinct. Faintly, as if from beneath their feet, they could just make out the sound of voices raised and vaguely metallic noises. Kurt sorely wanted to drop to all fours and run, but he knew Remy would not be able to see him then. He forced himself to keep the awkward bipedal gait as the trees thinned and the woods opened to a sloping, small plain, bare of anything but grass.
"Now what?" Remy asked, more to himself than Kurt. His answer came quickly. A burst of bright sparkles lit up the sky like fireworks, followed closely by the scent of something burning.
Kurt nodded. "There's our sign."


Rogue felt woozy still, a product of so much time spent in bed without attention to her well-being. She swayed on her feet as she waited for Todd outside the room he shared with Lance, the floor seeming to roll beneath her as she dug her nails into her palms, trying to fight down the swell of nausea within her. "Babe, what is it?" Todd asked out of nowhere.
She blinked and focused on him, smiling sickly. "Just not feelin' good is all. Still a bit off my feed."
"You shouldn't have tried to eat that sandwich at lunch," he chided. "You haven't really eaten in weeks. It was too much for you!"
"Sorry, mom," she said, the sarcasm thin.
Todd, rather than be insulted, clicked his tongue at her and took her shirt-clad elbow. "Time to lay down again."
"No...I want to go outside."
"It's after ten," he said. "You need to rest."
"I've been resting since...since what happened happened. I want to go outside for a little while!"
Todd sighed. "Okay, but if I get yelled at for letting you go out..." He trailed off as she merely raised a brow at him, a shadow of her former self returning. He led her down the stairs, stopping to let her rest several times before they reached the bottom. Once they were on the cold marble of the foyer floor, she shuddered. "You're not wearing shoes, are you?" he said. "You need to have something on your feet."
She made a face. In truth, she had been contemplating going to bed but only had made it as far as kicking off her boots when she felt an overwhelming need to see Todd again. She hated that she felt so dependant on him lately but she could not help it. He was, she thought, like a human security blanket to her now. She hoped he didn't mind but could not find the words to address it. "It'll be warmer on the grass," she said.
"Until then..." Carefully and more quickly than she would have expected, he picked her up, making sure his bare hands were no where near any exposed skin as he carried her towards the door. "Um...mind?"
She giggled softly, feeling giddy, and turned the knob to open the door. "Sometimes phasing is a good thing to be able to do," she said, her voice less rusty than the day before. Todd merely grunted in response and headed across the front lawn towards a narrow copse of trees that Rogue identified as severely misplaced mimosas.
Once he had her settled on the grass, he flung himself down on his back and sighed. "You're heavier than you look."
"Oh, Todd," she said flatly, though smiling up at the sky, "you know how to sweep a girl off her feet."
"It's a gift." He grinned to himself. "You sure you want to be out here? You're still kinda weak..."
"I need to be out here," she said quietly. "I'm sick of seeing the inside of my room. I'm tired of haunting the house. This is the best I've felt in days and I want to enjoy it." She slowly laid back on her elbows and sighed. "The Professor's been helpin' me out a lot and it doesn't hurt so much now."
"Hurt...pain?"
"Hurt-mental," she clarified. She turned her head to look at him and found his eyes wide and almost scared. "I've had people in my head before, you know."
"But not like this," he said.
"No, not like this..." She closed her eyes and sank back onto the grass, stretching her arms above her head and twisting her fingers into the almost too-long blades. "It has it's advantages, though."
"Does it?" he asked, not quite believing her. "How?"
"Well," she said, a ghost of a smile returning to her wan features, "I'm a little empathic now. I can't feel stuff like Jean and the Professor can, but I've got a good idea of how people are feeling. I can't manipulate emotions like Empath could," she said, not choking on the name as she feared she would, "but the Professor said I could learn now, if I wanted to." After a short pause, she added, "Which I don't."
"I'm glad..." Todd felt his brows creep upwards at the idea of his girlfriend being able to control emotions, even a little. _On the plus side, we'd probably never fight again. On the down side...well, that's just creepy. _
"I can tell that you're feeling very affectionate," she said, her eyes still closed. She brought her hands down to rest on her stomach and clasped her fingers together. "It looks like...like clouds behind my eyelids." Her smile slid somewhat and she continued, "You shouldn't worry so much. I'll be fine."
"So says you." He reached for her hand but stopped short, belatedly remembering their lack of a barrier.
She felt the spike of longing run through her like a hot river, centering in her chest and spreading downwards. She was not sure if it was purely hers or if Todd's want mingled with it, but she did not mind either way. _It's nice to feel something good again... _ "Maybe," she said as sultry as she could, "when I'm more up to it, we could find out if this whole empathy thing makes...certain activities...any better."
"Really?" he asked hopefully, before he could stop himself.
"Really."
They fell silent for a long time, Rogue's hand creeping over to sneak into his pocket in lieu of holding hands. "You feel better now?"
"No," she laughed."
"How about now?"
"Nope."
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
"No."
"Damn."3

Kitty was beyond pissed off. She was so angry she could not think of a word to describe it. Instead, she took to pacing and making disturbingly Logan-ish noises at Beast whenever he stuck his head into the med lab to check on her. "You'd do well to sleep some, Kitty."
"Why don't you just knock me out again?" she snapped, not the least bit contrite.
Beast sighed. "When you have calmed down, you will understand..."
Kitty flung her hands up in the air and cried, "I had things to do today! I had to bring Tabby over for her appointment, for one, and talk to Kurt..."
"I asked Amara to bring Tabby," Beast said, cutting her off for his own peace of mind. "She never came...I assumed she blew it off."
Kitty gritted her teeth. "You didn't check?"
Beast drew himself up to his full height and in his most firm "I'm the grownup here!" voice, said "No, I was a bit preoccupied with helping the Professor on matters concerning Kurt!" Inside, he was cursing himself for not noticing the missed appointment earlier. "If you'll excuse me," he said, "I have some calls to make. I suggest you go to bed and rest. The Professor will most likely give me permission to release you in the morning."
Kitty fought the urge to shoot him a one fingered salute and stomped back to the narrow hospital bed. Beast watched her to make sure she settled in before turning to use his phone. She heard him dial and the tinny sound of the phone ringing as she phased herself through the bed and then the floor, ending up in the first basement. ++Hello?++
"Jono!" Kitty yelped, pressing her hand over her mouth as she became solid again. "Sorry!"
++Come looking for Kurt? He and Remy aren't back yet... ++ Jono would have smiled at her discomfort if he could. Kitty was looking everywhere but at him, Paige curled up on the old sofa next to him in the dark room that served as his den, of sorts.
"They went somewhere?" she asked, his words sinking in.
++Hours and hours ago. Took the motorcycle. You didn't know?++
"No..." _Shit. _ "Did they say where?"
++Heard Remy say something about finding Jubilee.++
"Damn it!"
++Kitty, what is it? ++ He leaned forward as Paige stirred beside him.
"They've gone and done something stupid," she growled. "I have to go find Forge and get out of here!"
Jono looked from Paige to Kitty and back again. ++Give me ten minutes and I'll try and help you.++
Kitty looked at him consideringly. "I remember what happened the last time we all went on a recon..."
"Hell," Paige muttered, "I'm not gonna get any sleep, am I? Kitty, go get Forge. Jono, find my other shoe. We'll all go wherever the then come back and get some sleep, okay?"
Kitty nodded. "Sure...Let's meet upstairs by the front door in twenty minutes, okay?"
++Sure, ++ Jono said, not quite trusting her.
Kitty smiled and let herself out of the room, heading straight for Forge's workroom. _Like Hell we're all going together... _
1 Kind of a riff off Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he and his father are arguing about going to Berlin or Venice and the map to the grail...
2 French and Cajun for Germany. Go forth educated, lol.
3 Taken from That Seventies Show, an older one where Eric and Donna are contemplating sex.