Paradigm Shift

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm)...last chance to change your mind, lol. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are sparkled and shiny for archiving. :) ProPhile is a busy little smutbunny but he still gets musecookies for the plotbunny. :) Readers/Reviewers: Almost done...a few more chapters to go then...*gasp * a new story! With smut and angst and plot and only one dimension! *G * And I really really really love you all for reading and reviewing.


"What about Jubilee?" Remy asked, breaking the silence that seemed to stretch on forever. "She's still missing..."
Professor Xavier nodded curtly and replied, "We will find her. You, however, are confined to the Institute until further notice. _All _ of you are confined, in fact. Except Kurt."
At this, the blue mutant looked up sharply, startled from a slow slide into self deprecation. "Was? Am I in more trouble?"
"No, Kurt, you're not in trouble..." Professor Xavier leaned forward slightly and said in a more grave tone, "We have found what caused your incident and believe times are auspicious for another...switch."
Kitty's face went through several expression changes at once, from hopeful to anxious to sad and back to hopeful again in the blink of an eye. "Kurt," she said breathlessly, "you can go home!"
"What about Jubilee?" Remy demanded again, this time more loudly. "She gonna be stuck over there!"
"Sit down, Gumbo," Logan said gruffly, pushing the suddenly standing Cajun back onto the sofa. "The Professor's got a plan..."
Kurt barely listened as the Professor detailed punishments first. He was acutely aware of Kitty sitting very close to him, her fingers twisting in her hair out of nervous habit. Rather than looking ashamed or afraid of her penalties for disobedience, she was bright and flushed as if excited. _Am I really so bad, that she would want to get rid of me? Ah...but she's not getting rid of me. She's getting a better version of me. And I go back to being quiet little Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler who hides in the shadows because he's too much of a freak for someone like her to love me. _ He jumped when her fingers curled around his, her sly glance making him blush deeply under his fur. "Katzchen," he murmured.
"Shhh," was her only response as she squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"Further," the Professor was saying tiredly, sternly, "you will all be expected to aid in the completion of the new wing of the Institute. See Logan in the morning for work schedules and duties. Finally," he sighed, "it goes without saying that I am gravely disappointed in all of you. I can appreciate the need to help your friends and, in fact, find it commendable. However," he said, cutting off a barely worded protest from Scott, "It was _highly _ irresponsible to leave like you all did and even more irresponsible to act without knowing the full details of the situation." He slid Kitty a glance fraught with meaning and she ducked her head, squeezing Kurt's fingers harder. "That said, I believe it is Jean and Amara's night to prepare dinner and Scott and Todd's night to clean the kitchen. Please see to your duties. Everyone else, in the spirit of our growing school, I expect each of you to turn in a two thousand word essay by tomorrow at noon. The subject is..." he paused, anticipating the groans he could feel building around him, "paradigm shift1. Define it, explain it and apply it. Individual work only, cite sources, and try not to overuse 'and', do not write in first person and remember that 'um' is not a word, thank you."
Logan caught a subtle signal from the older man and he moved to open the door. "All of you except those with KP, get your asses in gear on the paper. Kurt, Kitty ,stay here."
Kitty gently disentangled her fingers from Kurt's as everyone else trooped past, eerily silent. Remy paused at the door as if to say something, snapped his mouth shut and turned in a flurry of tangible anger, his footsteps pounding on the steps leading to the second floor. Jono and the Guthrie siblings were the only ones that had avoided punishment, having stayed out of the debacle to begin with. This somehow irritated Kitty in a way she could not define but she knew deep down was petty jealousy. The study was irritatingly silent until Logan popped his knuckles, making Kurt twitch and the Professor frown. "Professor Xavier," she said hesitantly, "this is all my fault..."
"No," he said wearily, "it's mine."
"I blame myself," Logan said. "I should've been paying more attention to the kids and I didn't. I haven't been very attentive to my responsibilities..."
"Logan," the Professor said, quelling his tirade. The large man shifted under Professor Xavier's intense gaze and Kurt had the distinct feeling that there was a strongly worded, one-sided conversation occurring over his head. "Now, Kitty...Kurt..." the Professor said soothingly, moving closer to the two teenagers, "while I am not happy about the events that have transpired in my absence, I am not going to penalize you for acting in the best interest of one another."
"But...everyone else is in trouble...why not me?"
"Oh, Kitty, you are most assuredly 'in trouble,' but your punishment is deferred in the best interest of Kurt."
Logan shifted uncomfortably, not quite able to look at Kitty directly. "Half Pint, we need you to do something..."
"What?" she said anxiously. "If it'll help Kurt, I'll do it!"
"Katzchen, you don't know what they want yet...too many people have gotten into trouble because of me here. Jubilee is missing because of me..."
"Kurt," she said, ignoring the other two men in the room for the moment, "listen very carefully to what I am saying... believe it or not, people care about you. People _love _ you and I feel very safe in saying that we would have done this all over again if it was the only way to help you."
Kurt turned his face away from her, feeling a painful swell of emotion. "Here, maybe...At home, I am...ignored..."
"So help me, Kurt, if you start that self pity crap I am tying your tail in a knot!" Kitty said, ignoring Logan's snort of amusement.
"Children," the Professor said calmly.
"Sorry, Professor," they said as one, turning meekly to face their mentor.
"As I was saying..." he paused as if expecting another outburst. Receiving none, he pressed on, "The place you found with Remy seems to be the source of the dimensional disturbance." In layman's terms, and as sanitized as possible, he related the story of Forge's invention and Magneto's revival of the device. "Which brings me to this...We need to first of all make sure that this is indeed what it seems to be and secondly, work a switch."
"How?" Kurt asked, tentatively hopeful.
"That's where Kitty comes in..." Logan crouched on the floor before her, bringing himself to her eyelevel. "Half-Pint, we need you to do something that may be dangerous."
"No!" Kurt practically shouted. "I won't let her endanger herself for me!"
"I think," Kitty said sharply, "that's up for me to decide. It's my life and I can choose to endanger it for you if I want to!" She pointedly turned fully towards Logan, a silent dismissal of Kurt's protest. "Whatever it is, I'll do it."
"Kitty," the Professor said firmly, "you shouldn't jump into things without assessing the situation first."
"If it's going to help Kurt, I'll do it," she said, her voice hard. "What is it, Logan?"
He sighed and said carefully, "We need for you to go through this...thing...and get our Kurt..."
"Why can't I do it?" Kurt asked ptivetively.
"We don't know what sort of effects it would have if one were to meet oneself," the Professor said almost sheepishly.
Kitty nodded. "Some of the books I've read say there would be no effects, others are more...dire..."
"What if Kitty meets herself?" he asked, clutching at her hand tightly, as if to hold her in place.
"Well, that's the tricky part..." Logan sighed.
Professor Xavier sighed. "We need you to break into the Institute on that side of things. Your ability to phase is more advantageous than Kurt's teleporting ability... We cannot be sure where the other Kurt is and cannot risk them meeting...You, however, can phase into the house after lights out and search for him without the blind risk of teleporting."
"But what if I find myself?"
"Don't."
"Professor, Logan...She runs the same risk I do. Don't let her do this!"
Kitty took a deep breath and shook her head. "No...No. I have less of a risk. You would have to talk to yourself and be with yourself for a long period of time possibly and who knows what that would mean. I can avoid myself..."
"What's needed of you, Kurt, is an accurate idea of what the interior of the Institute looks like, where your room is, especially." The Professor gave him what should have been an encouraging smile but only served to make him more tense.
Kitty let out a breath she had not been aware she was holding and removed her hand from Kurt's grasp, wiping her suddenly sweaty palms on her jeans. "Okay. Okay...that's not going to be hard."
"Katzchen," Kurt said, sounding tearful. "Please don't do this...let Lance or one of the others. There's no chance of them running into themselves at the Institute. There, they are still in the Brotherhood..."
A thoughtful look crossed the Professor's face. "Excellent point, Kurt. Kitty, choose one of the former Brotherhood members to go with you. Safety in numbers."
"No problem," she said, nodding. "Remy. Remy needs to go, too."
"He cannot go on his own to look for Jubilee," Professor Xavier said tersely. "You must stay together!"
Kitty nodded but whatever she was going to say was cut off by Logan's hand over her mouth. "Semantics, Chuck."
Professor Xavier looked a bit amused. "Ah, yes... A future debater on our hands. You and Remy must stay together at all times, only enter the Institute, only find Kurt and speak only with Kurt. You will not deviate from this course nor will you expound on it. Understood?"
Kitty nodded. When Logan's hand was removed from her mouth, she said, "Yes, sir. Remy and I will get Kurt, tell him what is going on, and arrange a time to switch."
Kurt caught her omission of "only" but did not say anything. He very much wanted Jubilee found and to know she was safe before he was returned to his own world. "Katzchen, I don't know what to say," he began.
"Say that you won't be all mopey when you go back home," she insisted. "Say that you won't hide from me at every turn and that you'll try and be friends with me and if I get all twitty and bitchy, you'll snap me out of it."
"I can say it, but I can't promise it," he said a bit sadly.
Oblivious for the moment to Logan and the Professor, she leaned close to Kurt and whispered, "Tell my other self that you know about the birthmark on my lower back. It should unfreeze her ice princess act, wondering how you found out. If she asks, it looks like a foot print."
"Kitty!" he said, a bit embarrassed.
"And tell her," she continued, leaning even closer, "that your tail is very dexterous...unless I miss my guess, she's really been wondering about that little tidbit for a while now." As Kurt tried valiantly not to blush, she stood up and clapped her hands once. "Okay. When do we do this?"
"As soon as possible," the Professor said, smiling faintly. "Mystique has been too quiet lately and that does not bode well. Kitty, I leave it to you to inform Remy of what part he is going to play. Kurt, go with Logan and help him create a floor plan for the Institute in your world. Now if you will all excuse me, I have an infant to visit."
1 A favorite of one of my anthropology professors, that phrase. A paradigm (para-dime, for those who might not know how to pronounce it) is a world view or set of ideals. A shift in the paradigm is a change in worldview, values, etc. Nifty, huh? An example is the shift from a geocentric view to a heliocentric view back in the dark ages. Fun stuff to know and share. Now you'll all kick ass at Trivial Pursuit.