Paradigm Shift

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm) ...I think the menagerie is in hiding...hmm....check for mermaids. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are supergroovy for archiving. :) ProPhile who disappears sometimes because he has a life, lol, is loverly for the plotbunny. *g * Readers/Reviewers: The ducks send their regards. ;) Merci beaucoup.



"Just...act normal," Kitty said under her breath as she rang the doorbell. "You can turn off your holo..."
Kurt sighed. "I don't think so...not yet." He was a bit disconcerted that Kitty had not yet met his gaze since they left the house that morning and she was speaking to him as if they were virtual strangers. "Kitty, I can wait in the car if you'd rather..."
"No," she snapped. With a slight sigh, she added, "I'm just...I'm out of sorts." Before she could elaborate, the door was opened by a blonde that Kurt recognized almost immediately. She blinked at him and her mouth fell open briefly in a surprised O before she snapped it shut and gestured for them to enter. "Are you Opa's new housekeeper?" Kitty asked by way of greeting, trailing after the other girl.
Kurt stared, rooted to the spot. "Roulette," he finally managed to say without squeaking in surprise.
Kitty and Roulette turned as one, both fixing him with varying looks of ill-concealed annoyance. "What does gambling have to do with anything?" Kitty asked after a beat.
"Roulette," Kurt repeated, advancing towards the blonde, slowly growing more suspicious the longer it took her to answer.
The blonde cocked her head to one side and smiled kindly. "Desculpe-me?"1
Kitty snorted. "Kurt, she probably doesn't speak English. My grandfather is big on hiring people from other countries and he isn't very picky about lage age skills."
"Duende azul mangy. Eu sei quem você é abaixo esse holo."2 Roulette's smile became brittle but did not falter as she motioned for them to follow her. She turned her back on them and walked briskly down the hall, gritting her teeth the whole while. _Thank God I hung around Roberto long enough to pick up something other than an itch. Fucking Hell. Why is she bringing him here? He shouldn't know me...Fuck! _ She paused outside Magneto's study and, as much as it pained her, turned to face Kitty as should have been proper. "Apenas um momento, você acobarda-se."3
Kitty nodded and smiled as Roulette opened the door just enough to slip into the room, leaving the other two mutants in the pressingly silent hall. "Well, she seems nice."
Kurt was seething. He could barely contain the urge to port into the room and have it out with Roulette then and there. "Appearnces can be deceiving, Schatz," he said, just loud enough for her to hear him.
"What was that Roulette deal anyway?" Kitty asked, still not meeting his eyes. She was looking at the Oriental carpet lining the hall, the obviously expensive painting on the opposite wall, anywhere but at him.
"She looked...familiar..." Kurt said disjointedly. _Is it possible? Is this the same Roulette I know? She doesn't seem to speak English but that doesn't mean anything. I can play that card, too, if I have to... _ "It was a mistake."
Kitty made a noncommital noise and finally shifted to face him. "Kurt, about last night...or this morning. Whichever. About that..."
"I understand," he said quickly, waving her explanation off. "I think...I think it is my fault. Where I am from, your counterpart and I often share a bed. It was an automatic response to you...well, you know what I mean..."
Kitty frowned. She did not like how he seemed to have reduced the whole incident to a nonevent, as if she had accidentally stepped on his tail or spilled her soup on him. "No, it was more than that..."
"Katzchen, listen to me. You don't want that, not yet." _As much as it pains me to say that on behalf of my other self... _
"And just who are you to make that decision for me?" she said, her ire rising. If there was one thing she hated, it was being treated like she could not make her own decisions.
"Hello? I'm sort of the other half of that decision!" Kurt waved a hand in exasperation as he spoke. "I mean, if you ever come to that decision...er, I mean _reach _ that decision and you want to do that with me...or him or whatever I'm supposed to call myself here..."
They both jumped a little as the door to the study was flung open. Roulette stood there, smiling tightly, next to a red head of slightly smaller stature. Kurt groaned audibly at the sight of Tarot. "I'm sorry," the smaller girl said pleasantly, only the faintest hint of a French accent tinging her words, "your grandfather was called away unexpectedly on an errand. He should be back tomorrow."
Kitty's lower lip jutted out in disappointment. "But he he knew I was coming..."
Tarot's smile became venomous for a moment before she replied, "The business, I'm afraid, was urgent. He left word that you should go on back home and he'll call later to arrange another visit, later in the week..."
Kurt was tugging on Kitty's arm, trying to get her to back away from the two girls he know a little too well. She, however, was recalcitrant. "But we always visit the same day each week..."
"Katzchen," he said, calmly, his unease growing to near-dread, "your grandfather's...secretary?" he asked hopefully.
"Oui...secretary," Tarot grinned ferally.
"His secretary would know if his business were urgent or not...I'm sure he would not have missed your visit if he had the choice." An idea crept into his mind then and he seized it. "Has he had the chance to visit Pietro lately?"
"Pietro?" all three girls said as one. Kitty sounded shocked as she continued, "Opa hasn't talked to him in years. He went to live with his mother and when he came back after she died, he wanted nothing to do with the rest of the family."
Kurt felt rather than saw the gaze of the former Hellions sharpen. "I...heard about him from the Professor," he lied somewhat easily.
Kitty narrowed her gaze for a moment, looking as if she were about to call him out, but then sighed and visibly sagged. "I suppose he would have, just to get you..." she was about to say "up to speed" but changed it to "to understand me better."
Tarot interupted sharply, "If you don't mind, we have much work to do here. Do you need an escort to the front door or can you find it on your own?"
Kitty felt a spike of annoyance and said regally, "I've been here more often than you have. I can find my own way, thank you." She took Kurt's hand as if it were an every day occurance and proceeded down the hall, back the way they came. A quick glance behind her let her see that Tarot and Roulette were still watching them as she opened the door to the outside. "Bitches," she muttered under her breath, pulling Kurt along.
"Liebes," he said, making her stop halfway down the footpath to the street, "I have to tell you.."
"You got a hinkey feeling, too, huh?"
"Well..ja..." He smirked. "You're not as naive as I was begining to think."
She made a face at him and resumed walking towards the car. "Am I like that in your world?"
"You can be...but not lately," he laughed. "In fact, you seem to be the one getting us all in trouble recently."
"I'm sorry..." she said automatically, but sounding a bit confused.
"Don't be," he said, sounding serious. "Katzchen, about this whole...errand thing..."
She nodded. "Right...here's the thing. They're lying. I know it like I know my own name. We're gonna catch 'em at it and find out where my grandfather is."
"Uh..." He shook himself slightly. "I was going to say that...SureSure you were, Fuzzy." She winked. "Do me a favor, would you?" she asked as she tossed the car keys at him. "Drive down the block and around the corner. Park the car and come back here. I'm going to do some recon..."
"Recon?" he asked, arching a brow.
She shrugged and grinned. "So sue me. I like Logan's tactics classes." Kitty wiggled her eyebrows at him and headed back towards the house, leaving Kurt alone on the sidewalk to watch her go. She veered towards the massive garage and phased through the door, disappearing from sight.
"This is begining to feel more and more like home," he sighed inwardly, starting the car.

"Wow," Jubilee said, emitting a low whistle. "It looks almost just like home...without all the construction."
"Construction?" Mystique said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. "Oh, yes...the _school... _"
"What? I think it's great...and why am I even defending it to you? Once we're back home, this never happened, right?"
"You're in no position to make bargains or dictate terms, Jubilation," Mystique said neutrally. She pressed a button and the screen before them went blank. She ignored Jubilee's snort and eye roll as she stood, towering over the much smaller mutant. "We don't make a move until this evening."
"What? Cover of night and all that?"
"No...I have many things to do before then. You will stay here and not touch a thing. Do not use the phone, do not read a paper or magazine or book..."
"Can I watch television?"
"No."
"Listen to music?"
"No."
"You suck."
Mystique paused, one hand on the doorknob, poised to exit. "Jubilation, has anyone ever told you just how irritating you are?"
"It's all part of my charm. Look, I'm not going to stay here like a prisoner all day...I'm coming with you."
"Like Hell." Mystique opened the door and strode out into the hallway, a close approximation of the one in the Boardinghouse Jubilee had seen only in passing.
"How am I supposed to help you if I don't know why you dragged me along? I'm not a mushroom!"
"Pardon?" the older woman querried incredulously, turning slowly to face Jubilee.
"You're keeping me in the dark and feeding me shit. What the Hell am I doing here?" She stood, arms akimbo and jaw set, the very picture of defiance. Mystique was nonplussed.
She fingered the skull-shaped ornaments hanging around her waist, walking slowly towards Jubilee as she spoke in a rolling voice, dangerous and bored at once. "You and your little friend disturbed one of Magneto's latest experiments. It seems the one called Forge in your world once created a device for the Department of Defense that had a fatal flaw. Instead of the teleportation device4 they had comissioned, it seemed to..."
"Whoa. Lemme guess. Skip dimensions?" She sighed. "Kurt just got sucked in..."
"Kurt," Mystique said, stopping just in front of Jubilee, seriously invading the girl's personal space, "is not a device. He is not a quantifiable entity in the sense that they would never be able to create what he does in a lab. The teleportation they sought was much more simple. Kurt does not cross dimensions, per se, but rather...Oh, Hell. Why am I explaining this to you? The short version is that Magneto found out and is screwing with all sorts of things."
Jubilee could not even blink as she stared at Mystique. "What do you need me for?"
"You were about to be a guinea pig for the latest stage of things...they wanted to see how many more dimensions exist...some say an infinite amount, others are much less expansive."
"They were going to send someone...me...through this thing?" She frowned. "What thing is it?"
"That," Mystique sighed, "remains to be seen. I have not been _allowed _ in the chamber when it is being used."
"So...they want to send someone through over and over and...eeesh. That wouldn't be good for a person would it?"
"You catch on quickly," Mystique snarled.
"Whoa, there, chickie," Jubilee snapped, pushing against the older woman with her palms to her shoulders, "don't get in my face and get all bitchy just because I want to find out why you need me. So far, I can't see the reason!"
"The reason is," she said through clenched teeth, "I want to get my son back where he belongs. I died for him once and I'll do it again if I have to!"

1 Viva Portuguese. It means "Excuse me?"
2 "Mangy blue elf. I know who you are under that holo."
3" Just a moment, you cow."
4 Apparently, in 2002, some scientists were able to create a device that teleported a mouse or a fly or something. I lost the article but I'm sure you could look it up if you really wanted to.