We Can Explain...

We Can Explain…Chapter Thirty Seven (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…I REALLY mean that Busiest woman alive thing!!!! InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena get glomps for archiving/hosting! ProPhile: Read the smut yet, lol? Readers/Reviewers: Okay, Im going to try and make the threads all come together now, lol. Bear with me. J And Happy Passover to those who celebrate.


Todd tried not to scratch but he could not help himself. He was not due a shower or lotioning for days but was peeling like he had missed a year of care. He had barely regained a sense of equilibrium, being flung violently between realities, at least so it seemed. As Jubilee and Amara dressed, he laid back and closed his eyes, too tired to move and grateful they did not try to make him. He remembered totelotel, feeling very sick and being embarrassed in front of Rogue. After that, things became fuzzy, blurred and hot like he was swimming in oil. He could hear Kurt and Kitty talking, feel Rogue near him, but it did not match up with what he was seeing. It was like, he thought tiredly, having the television on mute and the radio on fuzz at the same time. What he thought to be true had changed. He no longer saw the hotel, no longer felt the hot sickness that had been crowding his brain and stomach. Instead, he saw Lance. For a horrible moment, Todd thought he was dead but he realized that while he was seeing something strange, he was still very much among the living. He hurt too much to be dead. He felt suspended, weightless. It was like watching a train wreck. As he began to feel more and more heavy, he heard himself screaming at Lance, telling him not to do something, not to go into a room, but he could not quite figure out why it was so important to stop him from going into that little place…
“Oh…fuck. Meant to tell you, Lance. It’s a trap…” Todd’s tongue felt thick in his mouth and he wished he had not drank the entire pitcher of water at once.
Lance sighed, fiddling with his tie. “Thanks for the warning, pal.” He sighed and glanced over at Todd, frowning. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks,” Todd sighed, struggling to sit up. Rogue was helping Amara with her dress and Kitty was huddled over Kurt, stroking his hair back from his face. “Lance, c’mere a sec…” He looked over at the others and felt some relief that they were all too preoccupied to notice his worries. Lance crossed over to him and bent over, leaning close to hear Todd’s rasping voice. “You need to take it out.”
“Pardon me?” Lance took an involuntary step back, not sure just what Todd was about. “Take what out?” The girls were quiet, Jubilee making frustrated noises as she paced furiously, waiting for Remy. The whole thing reminded him of a play Professor Xavier had made them read about people stuck in a fancy hotel room and it turns out they’re in Hell. _At least they had a fucking clue about what was going on! _
Todd made a face and struggled to stand, skin flaking off with each motion. “When I puked, I puked up this silver thing…”
“Dude…cut back on the junk!” Lance wrinkled his nose. “At least watch that you don’t eat trash!”
Todd snarled and hurriedly, brokenly, relayed what had happened to him. “I think that thing in me is what got me sick…it had to be that fly, yo!”
Lance glanced behind him to where Amara had moved to join Kitty and Kurt, then sighed. “I think you’re hallucinating. I ain’t got a silver thing in me any…where…” He trailed off, remembering the lump on Jubilee’s neck. “Shit…”
Every head in the room snapped up to face the door as it swung open to reveal Demos, smiling thinly. “Are we ready? Good. Phobos has arranged for a brief tour before the ball.”
“A tof wof what?” Kurt demanded. He sounded stronger than before but still weak, for him. “We want to use the phone. Now. We’re not going to stay here another second unless you let us contact home!” He drew himself up straight and walked forward steadily, the odd angle of his tail the only sign that he was having trouble balancing. Chin held high, he continued, “We don’t know what sort of sick game this is, but we’ve been through worse than your petty little holographic displays.” He was grasping at straws, hoping to trigger some sort of response either positive or negative. _Come on, _ he hissed inwardly. _Show us which way to jump. _
Demos just smiled like some beatific saint. He was still very androgynous but since they knew he was male, it seemed that the masculine traits were taking more precedence in his features as he began to speak. “You may contact your home as soon as you complete the tour. Phobos is aware of your…distress…and has arranged for the tour of our…home…after which she has arranged for you to contact your…Professor Xavier.” He spoke as if the words were foreign to him, pausing before the unfamiliar phrases. “Now, please hurry.”
“Where’s Remy?” Jubilee’s voice tore the atmosphere of the room like the tearing of silk. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me where he is!” She was striving not to look worried and failing miserably. Her eyes were pools of nervousness and involuntary tears as she stared into Demos’s eyes. “Where is he?”
Demos sighed and rolled his eyes. “He is fine. Phobos had a simple job for a master thief. He is already meeting some of our other guests. Now, come along.”
Jubilee made a noise in her throat, something like a choked scream, but otherwise did not acknowledge the order. Kitty clutched at her hand to offer support and spoke up. “Let us call home first. We’ll do what you ask if we can call home first.”
Demos underwent a remarkable, rapid transformation. He darkened, the pale shade of his skin becoming nearly red as he seemed to grow and fill the doorway, his breathing strenuous. “You will do as you are told!” His fists struck the doorframe for emphasis and there was a flash of bright light where everything seemed to vanish and become pure white, then settle back to something like it’s former self. “No more questions!” he snarled, turning on his heel to stride from the room, expecting them to follow.
Rogue shook her head. “No fucking way,” she murmured. “I ain’t followin’ him!”
Kitty nodded in agreement. “No. Kurt…”
They did not have time to form a plan much less a unified response. Demos was back, impatient and furious. “I have no idea why she chose you,” he snarled. “You’re nothing more than cast offs! S!” !” He slammed the doorframe again, twice in quick succession. “You will learn to do as you’re told!” The flash of light happened again, this time fading into white, shining tile. The opulent bedroom was gone, replaced with a sterile white room. It was bare of any markings save for the runnels between the grouted tiles. Demos was no where to be seen. The room was so cold they could see their breath in front of them, the rasping in Todd’s lungs echoing off the walls.
Kitty froze, unable to even release Jubilee’s fingers from her deathgrip. She knew this place. It was burned into her memory, something she saw when she closed her eyes at night and when she woke up in the morning. The last time she had seen this place, Ruth had been there.