Blueshift

Blueshift Chapter Forty Six (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *sends more hot tea and honey and Watari * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and the missing Dracena are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile…*random gold star * Morgan: *glomp* Readers/Reviewers: I had planned on getting two chapters out today but RL kicked my ass so… moof.


Jamie stumbled forward, catching himself before he hit the floor. “Hey!”
“Sorry,” M’kon said as sweetly as she could managed. “I slipped.” She did not even change facial expressions under Jamie’s glare. “Keep moving, there’s more coming.”
Jamie bit back one of Todd’s favorite words and moved to stand next to Kurt. “She’s mean,” he muttered.
Kurt smirked. “Rahne told me you renamed M’kon Jenny… maybe she doesn’t like diminutives.”
“Maybe she’s just a…”
“When’d you get so snarky?” Kurt asked, cutting him off. He moved over to make room for Jean and Emma, both of whom looked dead on their feet and were hastily dressed, not exhibiting their normal care in attire. “And what happened to you two?”
“Nothing,” Emma said tersely. “We’re fine.” She smoothed her hands over the front of her white sweater, frowning at the few stray fuzzes falling to the floor.
Jean merely nodded and smiled tightly at Kurt, her eyes snapping back towards the door as Lilandra walked in, appearing every inch magisterial. She had shed the deference of the day before. She did not follow Professor Xavier and await his words but rather she led him into his own Danger Room, her cloak sweeping behind her. “We are missing someone,” she said after the briefest hesitation. “No, two someones. The one called Remy and the girl…Aikaterine?”
“Kitty,” Kurt said sharply. “Her name is Kitty.” He had to fight hard against the surge of protectiveness that welled within him. He knew Kitty was perfectly capable of dealing with the situation, in as much as the rest of them were, but he did not like Lilandra’s almost predatory tone. “She’ll be here shortly. I’m sure she just had to take care of somethings with the project the Professor assigned her in Cerebro.” He bit back a scathing comment on how it was her school break and she really did not have to do anything she did not want to do and instead leaned against the wall, folding his arms almost mutinously across his chest.
Lilandra raised her brows and swept her gaze over Kurt. “You,” she said after a moment, “might be a problem. But you will be a useful problem.”
“Remy isn’t here,” Kitty said from the doorway, standing still as a statue. She glanced at Kurt, giving him a small smile as if to say it would all be fine. “He’s…”
“He’s taking care of some family matters,” Jubilee cut in thickly. Her eyes were red rimmed and she was clinging to Kitty’s hand.
Lilandra let the silence stretch for a long moment. “Fine. Kitty,” she said the name with a hint of wry amusement, arching a brow at Kurt, “please stand over here with your friends. Jubilation, you will also receive training but you are in the second shift. Please adjourn to the observation room.”
Jubilee nodded glumly and turned to walk up the metal steps leading to the room overlooking the practice space. Kitty sighed painfully and leaned close to Kurt. “We have *got* to talk later…”
He nodded, his eyes scanning the small group assembled in the Danger Room. Aside from M’kon, Lilandra and the Professor, Jean, Emma, Jamie, Rahne, Scott, Kitty and Rogue stood in a line against the wall, looking for all the world like a police line up. “Any idea what’s going on, Liebes?”
“Aside from me going cuckoo? Not a clue…”
Professor Xavier moved front and center, positioning himself next to Lilandra and waiting until all the murmuring had stopped. “This first exercise will be a test of your ability to think on your feet.”
“Professor,” Kurt chimed in, “you know we can do that al—OW!”
Kitty frowned and helped Kurt to his feet as M’Kon walked away, her sudden and sharp blow to Kurt’s solar plexus not only surprising but seemingly cruel. Lilandra smiled tightly. “Not well enough, apparently.”

Wanda stretched and yawned, pressing against Tabby’s bare back. The bed was not their own, making it difficult for her to get a good night’s rest. Mystique had insisted that they remain at this, as she called it, safe house, until she came for them. “I don’t know about you, baby,” she muttered as Tabby groaned good morning, squeezing her eyes shut against the sunlight seeping between the curtains, “but I think this is bullshit.”
Tabby snorted and shifted, sitting up but pulling Wanda’s arm around her waist. She had not gotten much sleep herself the night before, not that she minded really. “Lucas been fed yet?”
“No,” Wanda sighed. “I just woke up.”
“Liar.” Tabby slid out of bed and padded over to the basinet, naked as the day she was born, and peered down at her son. “He’s still sleeping… yay!”
“Finally!” Wanda groaned, pulling the sheet over her head. “Bout damned time!”
“He’s a baby, Wanda, they tend to have weird sleep schedules.” Tabby made her way back to the bed, wincing at the cold floor under her bare feet. “When did Mystique say she was coming back?”
“This afternoon… she said some shit about things to do at the Boardinghouse…” Wanda flung the covers off her face and stared at the ceiling a moment before asking, “So…what do you want to do about what she asked?”
“Joining the Brotherhood again?” Tabby snorted. “No fucking way. Even with a baby, a low paying job and having to have help from Kitty Pryde to make ends meet, I’m MUCH happier how I am.”
Wanda seemed to digest this statement for a few moments. “What side are we on?”
“Our own,” Tabby said tartly. “We don’t have to choose any side. Choosing sides is what gets you royally screwed.”
Wanda rolled onto her stomach to watch as Tabby got dressed. “If we decided to go back to the Brotherhood, to help Mystique stop what’s about to happen…we’d be taken care of…”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of… we’d be taken care of in the Tony Soprano sense of the phrase.” Tabby pulled her shirt over her head and frowned, rummaging through her backpack. “You bring toothpaste?”
“Small pocket, left side if you’re looking at the front,” Wanda sighed. “Look, the thing is… I know the X-geeks have been, you know, good to you… to us… but…Well, we gotta look out for ourselves, you know?”
“I know,” Tabby replied, resting her forehead against the wooden wardrobe door. “I don’t want to burn bridges to either side.”
“This Essex guy… I remember him visiting when I was a kid,” Wanda veered softly. “He creeped me out. Magneto’s fucking with some dangerous shit right now and I think Mystique is right… he needs to be stopped.”
“Then let her do it.” Tabby shut the bathroom door with an air of finality, the rush of the sink coming on effectively ending the conversation.
Wanda rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling again, sighing as Lucas began snuffling in his bed. “Yeah, I figured you’d be on her side…”