Paradigm Shift

Paradigm Shift Chapter Thirty Seven (NC-17)





A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, I think that Billy and Joaquin are hiding he che closet. Werewolves make them twitchy. InterNutter,TC and Maxwell Pink are sparkled for archiving. ProPhile gets more gold stars because he is a nice smutbunny. Readers/Reviewers: My muses finally made it through customs! Whooo! And the villagers rejoiced… the ducks, however, are still in transit…



A/N 2: From here on out, the universes in the story are combined. I will do my best to limit the confusion as to which universe each character belongs to, but this is one of the last chapters so everything is coming together. Again, whooo!







Jubilee did not consider herself claustrophobic but she had decided that she really hated enclosed spaces, a nice view of Remy notwithstanding. Mystique lay very still beside her, breathing slow and even as if she were asleep but she was staring through the clear plastic top of the container they were trapped in. “You know,” Jubilee said conversationally, “I bet I could blow this thing up if you wanted me to…”

“And us with it…” Mystique sounded neutral rather than sniping, which was a first for Jubilee to experience. “And before you even suggest it, having your boyfriend do something similar would result in just as many problems as you doing it.”

“But…”

“Shut up. You’re using all our oxygen.”

Jubilee’s jaw snapped shut with an audible click and she sighed slowly. “You don’t do much to inspire confidence, you know.” Mystique gave no answer other than to growl softly and avert her face from the younger woman’s gaze. Remy was moving around the room, occasionally visible through the plastic covering over them. He seemed, Jubilee thought, to be looking for someway to get them out in between taunts to Magneto. She closed hyes yes and pretended she was in her bed at home, where there was room to breathe and move and no naked bluepe-spe-shifters crowding her and smelling like sweat and wax, for some reason. There was a soft knocking on the plastic over her face and she opened her eyes again, offering Remy a tentative smile, trying to alleviate the worried lines set around his mouth as he tried to talk to her. She nodded as if she understood but in reality she could not hear much other than a faint mumble as he spoke. She nodded again and he returned the gesture, turning back towards the room behind him and disappearing as he paced onward.

Mystique came alive again, nudging Jubilee with her elbow. “Metal.”

“No thanks…I’m trying to cut back…”

“No, you idiot! This room…almost everything in here is plastic or nonmagnetic… Is your friend wearing any metal out there?”

Jubilee blinked and felt her pulse begin to race. Magneto was sure to notice something like that as soon as he was coherent. “I…I don’t know…” She tried to think of everything Remy could possibly have on him that would contain metal and her mind was drawing a panicked blank. “Maybe his boots…the toes…”

Mystique made a noise akin to a grunt and seemed to go very still for a moment then sighed. “He’s screwed then. Magneto won’t let that pass.” As if her words were a signal, Remy hit the top of their enclosure with a thud, on his back. Jubilee screamed in surprise and began banging her fists against the plastic in futility as Remy was lifted by unseen forces and disappeared from her view. It was an agonizing few minutes with Mystique hissing at her to stop and be still, the box growing too hot to bear and the air burning quickly through their lungs. Magneto’s face appeared over them finally, haggard but smiling thinly. “He had more than steel toes in his boots, I think,” Mystique finally said thickly.

“I can’t the,the,” Jubilee gasped as Magneto moved away, shaking his finger at them as if they were recalcitrant childrenher her than his prisoners.

“Told you to shut up,” Mystique replied, her eyes sliding closed.

Jubilee could not quite muster the strength to glare. It felt like she was burning inside, her lungs screaming for air as she tried to move again, her muscles screaming in protest. She felt tears leak from the corners of her eyes and moaned softly. Not like this…not like this… Mystique was breathing in jagged gasps beside her and sweat had stopped pooling beneath them soinutinutes before, something Jubilee knew was not a good sign. Unbidden, a memory of a swimming pool at her parents’ house when she was very young, no more than four, sprang into her mind. She hated it because she was sure sea monsters lurked under the diving board and that made all the adults laugh at her. She hated feeling shamed and small, but she thought to herself that she would gladly trade the box for all the sea monsters that could fit under the diving board and all the embarrassment she could handle.

The blast of cold air that hit her in the face made her gasp, then choke, as air flooded into her lungs. Mystique was doing something similar next to her as dots and shadows swam before their eyes. Jubilee felt hands pull her into a sitting position and a very familiar, warm chest pressed against her cheek as she gulped air. “Remy?” she croaked, then turned her head and was violently ill all over Mystique. “Shit,” she finally breathed, “I’m a gonner…”

Remy pulled her back against him and hoped that she could not feel how badly he was shaking. “Chere, we gotta get outta here an’ get Kitty, d’accord? No waitin’ here wid dese two…”

“We can’t leave Mystique,” she said, moved to help the woman who had been oddly helping her. “She kept me from being…I don’t know. Having something bad done to me!”

Remy frowned but nodded. “Fine. Ain’t got time ta argue…” He lifted Jubilee easily and turned to help Mystique, careful of thol ool ock dck dripping from her and onto the floor of the box.

“Remy,” Jubilee said slowly, noticing something for the first time, “are you…naked?”

“Nothin’ on but a smile, chere…an’ dat ain’t got no metal in it!”

“Remy!” she cried, almost affronted, “What the Hell…”

Mystique lurched to her feet in the least graceful movement anyone had ever seen her make. “Idiot,” she hissed at Jubilee. “It was they way way to make sure he had nothing for Magneto to use against him…” She looked down at herself in disgust, seeing the vomit on her torso. “It’s natural besides.”

“Doesn’t mean I want everyone seeing his…bits!” she snappfeelfeeling more and more like herself.

“Time an’ place, p’tite, an’ dis ain’t either…” He grabbed his jeans off the floor and opened his mouth to say something, but eye eyes rolled back in his head for a moment and he staggered forward. Magneto had risen to his feet again after Remy’s second attack and used the Cajun’s own bo staff to administer a sharp blow to the back of his skull. Mystique shoved Jubilee towards a door and forced her through as Remy turned to struggle, still naked, with Magneto. “Go!” Remy shouted, seeing the two women still standing in the room. “Get Kitty!”

Jubileied ied to duck past Mystique but was forced back again in time to see Remy and Magneto tumble through what appeared to be a solid wall. Silence crashed down in the room and then came a slow, sibilant breath from Mystique. “What…what…” Jubilee stuttered, staring at the place where they had disappeared.

“Fucking fools,” the older woman said softly. “He had activated the portal already and Remy just got in the way…” She sighed. “Fine. Where is Kitty then?”

“How the Hell should I know?” Jubilee shouted. She balled her fist and lashed out at Mystique, making contact, albeit weakly from her recent trials, several times before the shape shifter grabbed hold of her hands. “Ow!”

“The Institute, then,” was all she said as she pushed Jubilee through the door.



“Where you hea headed?” Evan asked around a mouthful of apple. “I thought you were in bed, Kurt.”

“Uh…” Kitty felt her heart plummet to her feet but Kurt stepped in.

“We’re just going on a little walk,” he said smoothly. “We’ve decided to talk some things out, you know what I mean?”

“Kurt,” Evan sighed, “Amanda’s called here twice tonight and she’s still really hoping to work things out between the two of you…”

“Oh, is she now?” Kitty said before she could stop herself.

Kurt kicked her ankle. “Evan, if are are so concerned for Amanda’s welfare, you can have her!” Under his breath, he added, “Looks like Rogue is moving on herself,” but Evan was too irked to hear him.

“Damn it, Kurt…”

Kitty sighed. “Evan, fuck off. We’re going for a walk.”

Evan blinked at her. “What did you just say?”

“Fuck off…we’re going for a walk.” She smiled sweetly and added, “I’m asserting myself.” She took Kurt’s hand and pulled him past Evan and towards the mudroom door.

Kurt was glaring at her, muttering “You are going to give us away, Katzchen!” when Evan stopped them again.

“Hey, Kit,” he said just as she opened the door, “you gain weight or something? Looks good on you…”

Kurt’s expression became smug. “Told you so,” he sing-songed.

“Can we discuss this when we’re back in the right time and place?” she bit out as she hustled him into the garage. “I left the car outside the gates, parked in some thick brush…”

“Car?”

“Magneto’s,” she said shortly, phasing him through the garage door and onto the dark grounds.“A boost, please?”

Kurt lifted her easily and waited until she had disabled the security lights flooding the grounds before asking, “You didn’t steal a car, did you?”

“Borrowed it, more like…” She grinned at his mildly horrified expression. “Now, where was this Maker guy meeting us?”

“Right here,” a voice rumbled out of the darkness near the rhododendron.

Kitty gulped audibly and pressed back against Kurt. “Whoa…Forge…”

“He keeps calling me that, too,” the Maker said with a trace of a smile. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? This place is of of creeping me out. Some kid just spit slime at me…”



Evan was on his third glass of whole milk when Kitty and Jubilee wandered into the kitchen, discussing nail polish and clad in nightclothes. He ignored them as he poured a th gth glass, but something Kitty said made him draw up short, spilling the milkthe the tabletop. “Well, Kurt said I should, like, just ask him for German lessons when he comes back… I dunno. Maybe it’s some fuzzy elf version of first base or something…”

“What?” Evan barked, slamming the jug of milk back onto the table next to the rapidly spreading puddle. “You just left with Kurt…how are you here?”

Kitty snorted. “Kurt’s in bed…why would I leave with him dressed like this?” she asked, spreading her arms to indicate her oversized t-shirt and bunny slippers.

Jubilee made a face at him and added, “She’s been up in my room for like, an hour now…I’ve got a date and we’re picking out polish, ya know…”

Evan shook head violently. “No…” Quickly, he repeated his scene with Kurt and Kitty earlier and watched as Kitty’s face went from amused to incredulous

“Oh my God!” she said, a mixture of excited and annoyed. “Another me! It has to be!”

“You rhymed,” Jubilee said dryly. “Dude, lay off the moo juice. It’s making you loopy. I’m going back to my room, Kit. Bring the munchies when you’re done freaking out, okay?”

“No!” Kitty said sharply. “We can still catch them! Come on!” She dove for the car keys hanging on the hook by the door and did not stop as Evan tried to grab “H “How long ago did they leave?”

“Five minutes, maybe,” he sighed, knowing he was being dragged along whether he liked it or not. Jubilee was rolling her eyes and following them out the door, muttering about her pajamas the whole while.

“We can catch up!” Kitty called over her shoulder as she started the Jeep, waiting for them to get in.

Jubilee poked Evan in the side as she climbed in after him. “If she goes bonkers, I get her room.”