Paradigm Shift

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, do you think the menagerie need passports? I'm not sure if they'll photograph...hmm. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are special in a good way for archiving. :) And I haven't found any parapets to fling myself from yet, but ProPhile is still a lovely smutbunny for sending the plotbunny for this one (geez, I have got to get away from bunnies for a while). Readers/Reviewers: Just to review...odd numbered chapters in the "Forever" universe, even numbered in the AU. And thank you thank you thank you!!!!! :)

It was times like this that Pietro hardly thought of Rogue at all. Tarot, while not exactly smiling, favored him with a pleasant expression as she pushed him back against the headboard. "If you like, you can call me by my real name," she said throatily.
"What would that be?" Pietro asked, unblinking. _Naked girl in bed good...two naked girls in bed, better. _
Roulette snickered. "Marie-Ange."1
Pietro frowned. "I thought you said it was..."
"Shut up," Tarot snapped. "It's Marie-Ange."
"Okay," he shrugged, pulling her against him for a kiss. She sighed and relaxed, her bare breasts pressing against his chest in a very enticing manner. Pietro let his eyes drift shut as the kiss deepened, his hands skimming down Tarot's back to her upper thighs, pushing against her in a testament to his interest.
Roulette said haughtily, "I'm here to, ya know." Tarot and Pietro each made noises of frustration and pulled apart.
"This was your idea," the French girl said accusingly to her would-be lover. "I told you she whines too much!"
"Shut up, Tarot," Roulette snapped. "Oh, I'm sorry...I meant, 'Shut up, Marie-Ange!'. What kind of a stupid name is that anyway?"
"I don't know, _Jennifer _, why don't you tell me?" Tarot said tersely, moving off of Pietro and standing beside the bed. Hands on her hips, she said with growing ire, "What good are you here, anyway? All you do is bitch and moan about how filthy this place is, then complain because you're not getting laid. Empath is dead, those...freaks...killed him! Emma is in a nut house! We're trying to start over, Roulette! If all you're going to do is be a drain, fuff!"ff!"
Roulette stood slowly, eyes narrowed. She was naked as the day she was born but she still automatically reached for where her pocket should have been, looking for her plastic chips. "Tarot, you are a brat, you know that? The Hellions are no more! Firestar is God knows where, Warpath went back to the res to do whatever it is he does, Roberto defected...We can't start over!"
Tarot growled. "You're not welcome here, Roulette. Leave!"
"Now let's not be hasty," Pietro said, his reverie broken by the threat of losing one of his bed mates. "I'm sure Roulette just doesn't understand what we're trying to do..."
The blonde fixed Tarot with a fierce smile and crawled back onto the bed next to Pietro. "I understand just fine..."
"Not that, you whore," Tarot spat. "Pietro is resurrecting the Brotherhood!"
Roulette's smile slid fractionally. "So? I don't mind a bit...Emma is crackers so I need someone to serve," she said, purposefully using entendre.
Tarot rolled her eyes. "For the love of..."
Pietro favored her with a nearly pleading gaze. "Tarot...Marie-Ange..."
"Fine," she sighed, getting back onto the bed and stretching out next to him. "Just remember what you promised me..."
Pietro was transfixed on Tarot's slightly parted lips. She scared him more than a little, her intensity and capacity for violence in the right circumstances greater than his own even on a bad day, but she did not try to take his reins. Instead, he marveled, she seemed content to let him try and rebuild his father's falling pseudo empire. Content so long as he brought her along for the ride. "I remember..."
"What did you promise her?" Roulette asksounsounding jealous. She draped her leg across Pietro's hips, rubbing purposefully.
"He promised me," Tarot said smoothly, "that I get to go first tonight."
"Oh," Roulette said, losing some interest. She did not really care who got to go when, just that Pietro remembered she could be just as valuable if not more so than her former teammate. "Well...okay then."
Tarot smiled and stretched up to kiss Pietro again, her hand spreading across his chest and pausing as she brushed against Roulette's fingers. _In for a penny... _ With barely concealed annoyance, she brushed her fingertips across Roulette's breast, lingering at her stiffening nipple. _Just pretend like you know what you're doing and no one will be the wiser. _ "Pietro," she said, breaking the kiss just long enough to talk, "have you ever done this before?"
This gave him pause. He thought unwillingly of Tabby and the baby she was carrying, his first clear thought about her in months that did not involve kidnapping or some other Magneto-based command. Slowly, he nodded. "Just never with two girls at once."
"Well," Roulette smiled, "I have..."
Tarot was proud of herself for not jumping as the other girl's hand began making lazy circles on her lower back, moving slowly but surely southward. She plastered a smile on her face and promised herself that from there on out, it would only be Pietro in her bed and no other, so long as he was useful to her, then kissed him again. Pietro tangled his fingers in her hair, holding her against him as her hand worked between them, grasping his already hard length. Roulette began kissing his neck, nipping and suckling just below his jaw as he felt what little blood was left in his brain take a quick trip downward.
"When you are quite through," Magneto's cold voice broke through the sounds of murmurs and whispers, "see me downstairs."
Pietro's eyes flew open in time to see the swish of his father's anachronistic cloak disappear around the door frame. "Shit," he hissed, pushing both girls off of him at once. Roulette hit the floor with a thump and a curse, but Tarot rolled to one side and got off the bed nearly regally. Pietro dressed quickly (the only way he really could) and was downstairs in a flash,2
Tarot pulled her shirt on over her head, not bothering with a bra, and turned to address Roulette. "If you'll excuse me, I have matters to attend to..."
Roulette glared at Tarot as the red head stepped into her jeans. "You're a prostitute, you know that? Instead of money, you whore yourself for power..."
Feeling quite a bit like needling the other girl, Tarot said, "To sound absolutely Germaine Greer3 about it, all women are essentially prostitutes, aren't we?" Roulette's mouth fell open and Tarot laugh "Le "Let that rattle around in your empty head for a while!" she called over her shoulder as she went downstairs to take her place by Pietro's side. Magneto barely even looked up as she came in and she felt this was a good sign.


"Tabby honey, you asleep?" Wanda called as she let herself into the apartment. "Sorry I took so long...I really meant to be back in time to take you to see Beast and all, but I got kind of caught up with trying to pin down Mags and whatever the fuck it is he's doing..." She sat on the couch in the dark living room and began the laborious process of taking off her knee-high lace up boots, talking the whole while. "You ignoring me? Tabby, come on. You know I wanted to be there for you. I'm sure being with Kitty wasn't so bad. You like her, you said, right?" She paused and tossed one boot towards the small entertainment center, wincing as it knocked several DVDs off the lower shelf. "I know you're awake. I can hear you moving around..." She frowned at a knot in her laces, debating whether to bite it or not. _ Don't make me hex you, you damn boot. _ "Did you already eat?" she asked a little more loudly, the knot finally giving way under her fingers. "I guess so," she continued, seeking to fill the silence as it became, to her, very uncomfortable. "Well, ignore me then. I'm going to grab some food and I'll be back there in a few." She sat, holding her newly removed boot, and waited. Nothing. Not even the rustle of bedclothes or a sniffle of disdain. _Okay. Be that way. Remind me again why I like girls? _ Wanda aimed the second boot in the general vicinity of the first and was moderately pleased that she did not dislodge anymore DVDs or breakables.

The kitchen, she noticed, was messier than usual. It looked like Tabby had some sort of a fit, glasses upended from the drain board and the bottle of dish soap tipped on it's side, slowly seeping down the drain. "The fuck?" she said softly to herself. The refrigerator door stood partway open, spilling cold air around Wanda's ankles as worry began to gnaw at her belly. "Tabby? Answer me now or I swear to God I'll teach the kid how to curse in Russian." She strode from the kitchen, flipping on lights as she went. The living room, she noticed, seemed exactly the same as when she had left it that morning, save for the addition of her boots on the floor. "Tabby?" Wanda was not ashamed to admit the worry in her tone as she slowed her pace, turning on the overhead light in the narrow hallway leading to the bedroom. She could see the twin beds in the shared room, a last stand of propriety that surprised even her. There was a rustling noise and Wanda paused. "Tabitha, you answer me right now. If I come in there and zap you on accident, I'm kicking your ass..." The scent of burned cloth and paper met her senses as she eased into the room, her hands twitching with restrained power. The window was open but not broken, the curtains flapping in the slight breeze coming in from the night outside. Hesitantly, she turned on the lamp on the dresser by the door and sucked in a breath at the sight before her. Scorch marks decorated the walls, one bed spread ruined beyond repair with what looked like burnt-in handprints and a stack of papers that had been intended for Bayville Community College were a nice, neat pile of charred garbage. "Tabitha?" she said, her voice a whisper.
"Let go of me, you...you dork!"
Wanda jumped and spun, running down the short hall before she registered the voice was not Tabby's. Kitty was suspended at least a foot above the floor, one arm gripped tightly by a man made entirely of metal and the other by an angry, dark-haired man with a bionic arm. "Kitty!"
"Hex them!" she howled, wiggling. "Let me down!"
"I will let you down," the dark haired man said, "when you stop acting like a child!"
Kitty went limp. "I'm sorry."
Wanda snapped, "What the fuck is going on here? Where's Tabby?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out!" Kitty responded. "Piotr, let me down _now!" _
"Nyet," he said firmly, becoming fleshy once again. "We only let you come because you said Tabby never showed for her appointment. Find out how she is then we take you home."
Forge nodded grimly. "Kitty, I can't help Kurt if I'm chasing you around..."
Wanda said sharply, "Tabby's gone!"
"What?" the three X Men said in unison, Kitty hitting the floor in an undignified heap as both men let go of her at once.
"Tabby's gone..." She motioned for them to follow her, stopping just inside the bedroom.
Kitty could not help the small spike of triumph when she saw evidence of wrongdoing. "See? Told you I was right to be worried." At the triumvirate glare she encountered, she spread her hands. "Sorry. Long night."
"Magneto," Forge said with certainty.
"No," Wanda protested. "he hasn't been in Bayville in weeks..."
"Are you certain?" Piotr demanded.
"Fairly," Wanda allowed, doubting herself for the first time. "Kind of."
"You're coming back to the Institute with us..." Forge took Wanda's arm and proceeded to try and drag her down the hall.
"No," she said, twisting painfully free of his grasp. "I have to go after Tabby."
Kitty sighed and said, "You know, you'd think she would have learned how to avoid things like this by now... Oh, shit."
"What?" Forge did not bother to correct her language.
"Amara's with her."
"Institute," Forge said. "Now."
1 That's for Cerebra, who knows a lot about characters. Since this is Evo-verse and NOT comic-verse, a lot of the comic characters are way off canon. But the Marie-Ange thing is because Cerebra pointed it out. Enjoy.
2 Really not supposed to be a joke but it's kind of funny if you think about it. Flash...Quicksilver...oy. Never mind. Too early....
3 Famous feminist who believes, among other things, all acts of penetrative sex are rape.