We Can Explain...

We Can Explain... Chapter Thirty Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta... I think Watari did something to the email system... InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, and Dracena... *twirly dance * Thank you for archiving/hosting! *twirls some more * ProPhile: *glomp * Readers/Reviewers: The armadillos are in a biting mood. Watch your toes. They know The Alamo opens tomorrow and they're trying to get me to take them. Ever try to take a herd of armadillos to a movie theatre? It never ends well...

"Nothin' here, either," Rogue sighed, slapping the cool tile in frustration. Kurt dropped from the ceiling with an audible grunt, his legs nearly buckling beneath him. "Lemme guess...nothin'."
Kurt nodded, sinking to the ground to sit with his knees pressing against his chin. "Remind me," he breathed, "to listen to Kitty next time." He glanced up at his girlfriend, how she was huddled over her legs on the floor not far from him, and in a new tone asked, "Katzchen, are you going to be ill? You don't look so well..."
Kitty nodded miserably. She flinched away from Lance's outstretched hand as he tried to offer her help up and said, "I think I know where we are..." She looked up, her eyes swollen. "I want to go home now." She felt like she was going to vomit. The better part of the past hour had been spent with her convincing herself that there was no way they could be in this room, in this place. It was impossible, she told herself over and over. Ruth had died in New York and there was no way they could be in New York. It was impossible, she repeated, the mantra slowing to a halt as realization hit her.
Kurt narrowed his eyes as he watched what little was left of the color in Kitty's face drain away. It was like they were the only two in the room for the moment, Jubilee's fretting and Lance's pacing and Rouge's muttered curses as she checked a third time for a possible escape. They had been left alone in the numbingly white room for about an hour with no sign of Phobos or Demos, or anyone else for that matter. They were all getting punchy, to say the least, and Todd was sounding truly awful. "Liebes, talk to me," he murmured, crawling towards her. He was still dizzy but the food earlier had helped allay some of the more severe effects of his condition. He ignored Lance's sigh of annoyance and forced himself to move to Kitty's side. "Bitte, what's going on?" He found her wrist through the yards of satin fabric she had been made to don and squeezed lightly. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
She shook her head furiously, pressing her lips together into a thin line. She closed her eyes tightly and took three deep breaths before she could speak. "Ruth. This is where Magneto had Ruth."
Kurt recoiled slightly as if werewere fire and scorched him. "Are you sure?" he finally asked softly. Lance had stopped pacing and Jubilee had stopped muttering. He hoped Kitty would not clam up in the face of the sudden silence, and he breathed a sigh of relief as she worked her mouth to speak, words slow in coming through obvious fear.
"I know this place like I know my real name. It's part of me now. Every night before I go to bed, I see her here. Every morning when I wake up, I know she was in my dreams, dying here."
"Well," Jubilee snapped,itatitation and fear making her cruel, "why don't you remember a way out of here?"
Kitty choked on a cry of outrage and, before Kurt could stop her, was on her feet and at Jubilee. She grabbed her by the upper arms and shook her, making the Asian girl's teeth snap in surprise and violence. "Shut up," Kitty cried, shoving Jubilee away from her. "I don't remember the way out because I was too busy watching my cousin get tortured! Maybe I don't remember because I have tried every day to forget that it's because of what we are that she had to die!"
Jubilee's face became hard for a brief moment before sympathy and remorse took over. "Kitty, I'm sorry..."
Kitty slapped her hand away. "Leave me alone!" She spun away from Kurt and Jubilee and nearly knocked Lance over in her hurry to get away.
"Kitty," Todd managed, his voice rusty, "don't move." He had only been half-listening to the heated spat, his eyes focused somewhere on the glaringly white floor, when the flash of Kitty's pink skirts caught his eye. As she turned, there was a flash of her leg and something not quite right. "Hold still," he murmured as she froze, surprised by his sudden command. He rose creakily to his knees and brushed some loose skin off his face, ignoring Amara's faint grimace of disgust and muttered comment as he made his way towards Kitty. She flinched away slightly as he reached for her leg, pushing her skirt up without so much as a warning. There it was, the discoloration that had caught his eye: a dark lump under her skin, like a discolored mosquito bite. He pressed against it gently. "That hurt you?"
"No...What're you doing?" She tried to move away, but he grabbed her tightly and pulled at her leg in an effort to bring her closer, nearly unbalancing her. "Todd, let go of me!"
Amara, Rogue and Jubilee pressed in close. "What is that thing?" Rogue demanded, slightly horrified.
Amara reached out to touch it, stopping just short of Kitty's skin. "Ew."
Kurt pushed them all away, dropping to his knees beside Todd. "Katzchen, was ist das?" He brushed Todd's fingers aside and felt the warm place on her leg where the lump had lodged itself. He pressed it a little harder than Todd had and Kitty gasped as her skin split. A trickle of blood seeped onto Kurt's fingers as he pressed harder. "I'm sorry, Katzchen..."
"It's okay," she muttered, trying not to cry. She grabbed Lance's arm for balance as Kurt gently but painfully pressed the lump under her skin, trying to force it to the surface. It felt like fire under her skin, spreading from where Kurt's fingers applied pressure all the way up her leg to her hip, spreading across her belly. She felt nauseated as the lump was worked out of her skin, the feeling of something alien moving in her disturbing and disgusting. She heard Kurt murmuring soothing nonsense and felt the intense stares of her friends as he worked the item free. For a moment, she almost forgot where she was as she felt rather than heard the pop of the lump coming through her skin. The warm spill of blood was quickly staunched by Todd's sleeve. "Is it out?" she asked although she already knew the answer.
Todd and Kurt bent over the bloody lump of metal by some unspoken mutual consent. It was smooth and oblong, like a capsule, and had a fine seam running it's length. Todd looked up at Rogue and made a face that was almost a smile. "Find a friend and start lookin'. We've gotta do a strip search."