Paradigm Shift

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), would you happen to know why Dodo is in a bowler? Strange creatures... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are very nice and wonderful and special for archiving. :) ProPhile is loverly for sending the plotbunny my way. :) Readers/Reviewers: First, Thankyouthankyouthankyou. Second, *happy dance * that you're reading this fic still! *g *



"Slow down," Logan said shortly. "Half Pint, you talk. You three...shut it." The cacophony of voices had almost made him slash something expensive just to get their attention, but a quelling glance from Storm had silenced that urge. Kitty was staring at him with scared eyes and he sighed. "Go on..."
"Well, I was going to look for Kurt and I had to duck Paige and Jono and then I went to talk to Forge first and he kinda wormed it outta me where I was going and Piotr heard because he was helping in the work room and they both said they wouldn't let me go alone so they tagged along. I figured I'd check on Tabby first since she missed her meeting with Beast and she's kind of high risk and all and..."
"Breathe, Kitty," Piotr hissed. She was turning a disturbing shade of red as she spewed a nonstop stream of words and he was quite sure that was not normal.
She glared but took a deep breath before soldiering onward. "It looks like there was a fight or something in the apartment." Cutting her eyes to Piotr and Forge, she fought the unladylike urge to stick her tongue out at them. "And I still didn't find Kurt."
Logan turned his gaze to Wanda and raised a brow. She sighed and told in brief, bland terms of her return to the apartment and what she had found. "Then these three show up and make me come back here. We're wasting time here, yapping like this. I, for one, am sick and fucking tired of this kidnapping shit. I swear to God, if Pietro is behind this again, I'm skinning him alive."
Forge said sotto voce to Piotr, "I think she would, too..."
Logan fought back a smirk and said, "This is what we're going to do. No arguments..." He fixed a pointed gaze on Kitty who ducked her head demurely. "Forge, you know what Kurt and Remy ran off to get, right? You, me and Banshee are gonna go hunting. Kitty, you are going to stay here. No ifs, ands or buts. Warren and Piotr are your own personal guards this evening. Wanda, close your mouth before you catch flies. I haven't forgotten you. You and Storm are gonna go look for Tabby and Amara."
Storm raised a platinum brow but made no other protest. "Come, Wanda. We'll start at the apartment and work from there."
Kitty did not look directly at Logan until he forher her to, tipping her chin up with one finger. "Half Pint, you hear what I said?"
"No arguments," she reiterated. He narrowed his gaze at her and she smiled tentatively. "I'm not going to argue with your plan."
"Good," he said but without conviction.
In a very sweet tone, she asked, "Can I at least talk to Jean before I'm locked in my room for the evening?"
"Sure, Rapunzel. Talk to Jean all ya want. Just know you ain't goin' nowhere tonight..."
She nodded in apparent agreement and hugged him suddenly, surprising him and making him stagger slightly before hugging her back. "I love you, Logan."
He blinked over her head at Piotr and Forge, both of whom were looking highly amused at his taken aback expression. "I love you, too, Half Pint..." _Why do women always say that when they want to get out of trouble with me? _ "You sure you understand what I'm tellin' you?"
"Sure, Logan. I got it. I'll just go talk to Jean and go to my room." She turned towards Piotr and her smile slid into a tight-lipped expression. "You don't get to stand outside my room. I want Warren to. You can...you can go sit somewhere else. Just because Kurt's gone..."
Piotr clutched his chest in mock-agony. "Katarina, you wound me! You think that I would take this opportunity to woo you, just because you are without a present boyfriend?"
"Da," she spat back at him, followed by a muttered litany in Russian that made his ears turn pink as she left the room without a backwards glance.
"She, ah, doesn't seem to trust me much," he said for the benefit of the non-Russian speakers in the room.
"So I gathered," Forge muttered. "Okay, let's get this thing underway..."
Logan nodded, his ears following Kitty's progress to Jean's room. When he heard her pause, then enter, only then did he begin detailing the plan.


Scott was doing his very best to look like he was nonchalant, but he was fairly certain his face was as red as his glasses as Kitty stood inside the doorway to Jean's room, hands on her hips and verging on fuming. He smoothed the sheet over his legs and made sure his nether regions were covered before addressing her. "She'll be out of the shower in a minute. Want me to send her to your room?"
"No, Warren's going to be standing guard or some junk to make sure I don't get out."
"What?" Scott felt his eyebrows creep up infinitesimally. He stared at Kitty as she rattled off the encounter downstairs. "So why do you need Jean?" he finally asked.
"I'm not going alone!" Kitty said in exasperation, throwing her hands up.
"Going where?" Jean asked, emerging from the half bath, toweling her hair as she walked.
"I'm going after Kurt and Remy," Kitty said as if it were the most simple concept on the planet.
"Going after them where?" Scott asked, feeling more confused with each passing second.
Kitty sighed. "Too long to repeat. Look, some weirdo stuff is going on, okay? And, like, I am so not going to sit around and let Kurt, even if he's some other Kitty's Kurt, get all, like, messed up or some junk. I mean, I can understand wanting to go after Jubilee and all, but..."
"Whoa," Jean said, waving her damp towel like a surrender flag. "Jubilee's missing?"
"And Amara. And Tabby." Kitty shook her head. "I think we all need LoJack1 or something."
Scott snorted, stifling a chuckle before saying in a very "Fearless Leader" tone, "Kitty, if Logan told you to stay, you're going to stay."
"I'm not arguing with him, so I'm not breaking a promise or anything. And he said, and I quoted, "you ain't goin' nowhere," which is true. I'm going _somewhere." _
Jean smirked. "She's right, you know."
"You're encouraging her."
"No, I'm just agreeing with her."
"Jean..."
"Mommy, Daddy, I hate it when you fight!" Kitty said flatly, earning a startlook ook from the couple. "Look, I'm not going alone. Safety in numbers and all that..."
"Does Lance know Amara is missing?" Scott asked, seeking to divert Kitty.
"Not yet. But he will," she said, inspired. "He can help, kind of, Storm and Wanda...three people looking is better than two, right? And that'll free me up to look for Kurt."
Jean sat on the edge of her bed, smoothing her robe over her knees. Fixing Kitty with a considering gaze, she said, "Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me "I "Is that a yes?" Kitty asked suspiciously.
"That's a yes," Scott sighed.
Kitty bounced on her toes, smiling brightly. "Okay, I'm going to go back to my room because I did said I'd do that, but this is where you start to come in, Jean..."
Scott groaned inwardly as Kitty prattled out a plan, Jean adding details or suggesting alternatives. Finally, after ten minutes of furious plotting, Jean said, "Scott, go put on pants. We're heading out in twenty minutes."
"Hey, how'd I get sucked into this?" he protested, pulling the sheet more tightly around his waist. Jean raised her eyebrows at him and he sighed. "Right. That's how. How are we supposed to get past the Professor?"
"Got that all figured out," Kitty said.
"Care to tell me?" Scott asked, standing carefully, trying to maintain a modicum of modesty around his ersatz sister.
Jean shook her head. "No telling. Kitty and I have that part covered. Go put on pants and come back here."
Kitty eased from the room as the couple chattered onward. _The hard part is getting out of here with a herd of mutants. Finding Kurt is going to be much easier than that! _

Remy and Kurt picked through the fresh rubble of what had once been an above-ground building above an entrance to a subterranean complex. "What happened here?" Kurt asked on a breath.
Remy shook his head and whistled low, impressed. "I knew she got it in her..."
"Was?"
"Jubilee done dis. You seen de sparklies, eh? Dat were her." He kicked at a smoldering piece of cinderblock and smiled slightly. "She mean business, oui?"
Kurt turned a full circle, slightly stunned. The Jubilee he knew would never do something like this. In fact, he did not think she even could. "Why would she do this?"
"Cause she had to, homme," Remy said, giving him a quizzical look. "You ain't ever had ta use yo' powers ta save yerself?"
"Not like this..." he bit his lip and looked up at the sky, seeking balance in his muddled mind. "If a mutant uses their powers in an unauthorized manner, it is punishable by one year to life in a special prison, wearing a mutant restraint collar and doing hard labor. Unless you are able to get probation. Then it's just the collar."
Remy blinked several times in rapid succession. "Pardon?"
"We can't use our powers unless it's authorized. It's all part of the gomentment controls. The Mutant Registration Act that was passed when Kelly became president."
Remy felt sick. "You...you gotta be registered?"
"Ja," Kurt said, walking carefully over the rubble, looking for a sign he was not sure if he could recognize. "We are registered at birth, if we're obvious. Mutants like Kitty, though, ones that don't show...they don't have to register until age twelve. Everyone gets tested before they enter middle school."
oa."oa."
Kurt shrugged. "The Professor, he is good to us. He's one of the ones fighting the registration act. He remembers the last world war and how ignorance killed millions. He sees that happening now. Already, some mutants have been killed for their...differences. Some...I should say many." He chanced a look at Remy and saw the dawning horror on the Cajun's face. "I'm sorry. I should not tell you these things. You aren't meant to know them..."
Remy shook his head. "Non, it ain't a bad ting, homme." He sighed and sat heavily on a large chunk of debris. "I jus' tinkin' dat dis life, it ain't so bad, eh?"
Kurt nodded. "I was just thinking the same thing. When I go back, I'm going back to a world where Kitty doesn't even give me the time of day, we are prisoners in our own lives and I am a freak among freaks."
Remy frowned. "Dere ain't nothin' good?"
Kurt sighed painfully. "Ja, but..." he fell silent for a long moment. "Kitty is a good thing in my life. Even if she doesn't want to be. And the Professor helping us.... That's good, right?" He wondered again at the similarities between the worlds, but felt a painful twist in his chest as he remembered again that the training they went through here was not nearly the life-or-death scenario that it was in his world.
"Tres bien," Remy replied. The weight of Kurt's words lay heavily on them like a pall for a long time as they stared around the debris. Finally, Remy stood and said, "We ain't gonna find anythin' if we just mopin' here. We're goin' down, mon ami..."
Kurt nodded, glad to be relieved of a portion of his burden and distracted at once. "Down," he agreed.
Remy bowed gallantly, gesturing towards the gaping hole that was once covered by a trap door. "Apres vous, mon ami."
"Danke. I think." Kurt closed his eyes and stepped out over the hole, bracing for the impact. When he hit bottom, he rolled to one side in in time to avoid being crushed by Remy. "Now it's my turn. Whoa."
Remy blinked at the sight before them. "I concur." A dull colored metal room opened before them, the walls bare of anything but the marks of brushed metal. On the farthest wall, there was a series of colored buttons, all blinking brightly. A faint whirring sound began and seemed to run the length of the room before fading away. "What de hell that?"
Kurt stared in disbelief. Magneto appeared out of thin air, looking bored by it all. He was walking as he materialized and just kept moving, not even seeing the duo seated on the floor or noticing the gaping hole in the ceiling. He curved towards the right and a door opened in the metal wall. It slid closed behind him with a barely audible hiss. "That," Kurt said, "is a problem."
1 A theft recovery system used on cars.
2 The Godfather. Don Corleone says it to the guy who asks a favor on the daughter's wedding day.