And we're back. Real life concerns have kept me from writing, but I'm finally ready to dig back in (thankfully, I was able to at least resolve the chapter six cliffhanger before I got too busy).

In case you might have forgotten in the interim, I don't own Glee. I don't own the awesome Rachel/Kurt/Blaine spin-off they've been hinting at. All I own is the idea of Sateen, and I don't even have the money to get to Gliese 581to find out if it's really there.

Chris Colfer is gorgeous. Spread the word. Maybe one day he'll hear it enough that he'll believe it himself.


Star Consort - Chapter Eight

Kurt was surprised when Mercedes sat down beside him at lunch the next day. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked. Mercedes looked pale, like she hadn't been sleeping much recently. And her eyes were staring at her tater tots with more than her usual intensity.

Contrite, or maybe she was still afraid of him.

Kurt sighed, unable to look at her, either. He really missed her, but he hadn't done anything wrong. He didn't know what he was supposed to be doing in this situation. "I'm not the one that's uncomfortable with you sitting beside me."

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, well…. I heard your dad's back together with Finn's mom. It's got to be pretty rough on you."

"Thank you for your concern."

"How's your mom doing?" Mercedes asked.

"I don't know," Kurt admitted, disturbed. His dad had told him his mother was planning on calling later today, but beyond that he knew nothing. "She's back home now. I know my grandmother is there for her, but I hate not being able to do anything."

"Probably doesn't help that your dad and Mrs. Hudson are probably all PDAs all the time."

Kurt chuckled a little at that. "Actually, I think Carole took this as hard as my parents did. They're happy, but they're… subdued. At least in front of me, anyways."

Mercedes was quiet for a moment, then asked "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Surprisingly, Kurt was doing far better than he thought he would be. Of course, he'd thought his mother had been dead all this time. Having her back, even divorced, was a hell of an improvement for him. "I spent last night at Jute's place here in Lima. He kept my spirits up."

"Is that all he was keeping up?" Mercedes asked, both concerned and curious.

"Yes," Kurt insisted. "We just talked."

"About what?"

Kurt shrugged. "Everything. Life. Love. The mysteries of the universe. Surprisingly the answer to life really is 42."

Mercedes laughed. "You'll have to explain that to me."

Kurt looked at her thoughtfully. It seemed like things were back to normal. But he couldn't let it go without comment. "It'll have to wait until we have more time. So does this conversation mean that's likely to happen?"

Mercedes' eyes became totally engrossed in her tots again. "Kurt, I made a mistake. You shared something really personal with me, and I made a bad week for you a hundred times worse."

"I wouldn't say a hundred," Kurt quipped. "Sixty-five, seventy tops."

That coaxed a tired smile out of Mercedes. "You have no idea how embarrassing it is to have RACHEL BERRY outperform you as a friend. I bet when you tell the rest of Glee, I'm the only one who reacts as badly as I did."

"You're also the only one who threw a rock through my window when I came out. I've never held that against you," Kurt reminded her. Though technically it wasn't RIGHT when he came out, the point still stood. "And I don't know if I'm telling anyone else right now. It'll be bad enough hearing Puck's reaction when he finds out my mom's single."

Mercedes winced. "Ew." Another pause, and Mercedes wrapped her arms tightly around Kurt. "I'm really sorry."

Kurt closed his eyes and let a little of his tension ease up. "Thanks, Mercedes."


Kasha was going over what Burt had sent Bebe about the break in when Prince Caysi showed up. He just stared for a moment, but then Kasha seemed to sense he was there and looked up. "Caysi." She looked tired and sad, but her smile was genuine enough as she stood and walked over to him. "It's good to see you."

"I'd say the same, but to be precise it's hearing you that's good right now."

Kasha's head bowed a little, self-consciously. It was odd that people she hadn't seen for years while she'd been on Earth had been by to see her frequently while she was in stasis. It was her own son and her- that she remembered seeing quite recently, that had been away from her for so long. "A common reaction from what I've heard."

"Your mother said you'd returned for good," Caysi commented. "My condolences."

Kasha tried to get herself under control. "It's for the best," she insisted. "Really, the only way this could have worked out would have been if Burt and Kurtling had stopped living while I was ill. I could have never asked for that."

Kasha still had her head down so she couldn't see Caysi's face. But it was unexpected to hear the tenderness in his voice when he said, "I could never be grateful for anything that caused you pain."

Kasha looked up at him, but the moment was gone and Caysi was looking at her with simple courtesy and charm. "Thank you for your concern," Kasha told him.

Caysi was silent for a moment, clearly unsure. Ultimately, he decided to go back over to the table Kasha had been sitting at. "I still have a few moments before my meeting with your mother. Is this the information on the home invasion Prince Kurt was involved in?"

"Some of it," Kasha told him, glad to have something to focus on besides everyone's damnable concern for her. "There was another break-in, at Carole-Hudson's."

Caysi raised a surprised eyebrow. "That's-"

"Yes. Also Burt's new woman." Kasha started going through papers again. "It's part of the reason why he realized he wanted to be with her more than me."

"Why would someone do this?" Caysi wondered as he looked at the files. "Besides you, of course," he teased.

Kasha laughed at the light remark, the first time she'd done so since she'd come home. "Well, it was certainly no help to me. The police are concerned there might be a link, but I can't see why. The men that went after Kurt are dead, and even if they weren't why would they break into Carole-Hudson's apartment?"

"You don't think…" Caysi wondered.

"No," Kasha replied. "The first attack doesn't support that. Honestly, I'm the only other link between the two. And I've got an alibi for the first one," she added with a small smile.

"Well, my nephew has a plan in the works," Caysi noted. "Hopefully he'll be able to find you something else."


Kurt hurried over to Carole's apartment the second that Glee was over. He hated leaving Mercedes just as they were friends again. But he'd explained that Jute had an idea regarding the break-in, and Mercedes had agreed that Kurt needed to be there for that.

When Kurt arrived, he encountered the expected security tape blocking off the section of corridor outside Carole's door. While Jute was planning on jumping right into the apartment, Kurt didn't have the time or the inclination to reprogram his jumper.

They did have a plan for Kurt getting in undetected, though. He might not be able to literally bend light rays around him like Jute could. But Kurt was made mostly water, and Jute didn't see any reason why Kurt couldn't shift his own body so the light would go right through him.

Kurt looked around to make sure no one was in the corridor. There wasn't. "Okay," he told himself. "Time for Ninja Action Kurt."

It seemed like it was working. For a split second. After that he could literally feel his body frothing in an attempt to do as he asked. He shut down the attempt seconds before the accompanying nausea could overwhelm him.

Kurt was sitting on the floor with his head between his knees when the door to the apartment opened. "Kurt? It's you."

Kurt raised his head to face his boyfriend. "I think the transparent water trick needs some work."

Jute raised a hand and the ends of the corridor darkened the way Kurt had come to expect when Jute extended his cloaking shield. "Are you all right?"

Kurt stood up. His stomach was still in knots, but he didn't seem to be in any danger of going splat on the ground. "Yeah. So I'm guessing you were able to find a third and fourth for this?"

Jute's jaw tightened just a little. "Yes. I was only able to find two who were willing, and I thought ready, to do this. And you might not like my choices."

Kurt couldn't imagine why Jute was bothered by that. "It's not like you invited-" But then who else would Kurt object to, other than- "It's Paysin and Ramie, isn't it?"

"We don't have to do this," Jute cautioned.

But Kurt sighed. "Yes, we do." And with a spine much stronger looking than it felt at the moment he charged into the room to face his boyfriend's ex, and that ex's current partner.

The two jumped, a little startled. But Ramie nodded in greeting. "[It's good to see you again, your Holiness]," he noted formally.

Kurt nodded back. It was just as formal (really too formal by Sateen standards), but at least it was cordial. "[It's good of you to come. Particularly at this hour,]" Kurt added, knowing how early it was on Sateen.

Paysin stepped forward, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of small talk at this point. "[Any time, Holiness. So what are we going to be doing here]?"

"[Well, as far as I know Ramie and I - and our instructor - are the only ones to have done this in about 70 cycles]," Jute noted. "[But Ramie told me you've shared power with him and I've been teaching Kurt some of the same]."

"[Right]," Paysin allowed.

"[So all we need to do is link up, and Ramie and I will do the procedure]," Jute told them as he took both Kurt and Ramie's hands.

Kurt didn't like the sound of that at all, but this was something he had to do. "[So what is this going to do]?" he asked as he put his other hand on the one of Jute's that Ramie was holding. He felt a little better when Paysin did the same thing, and looked just as unimpressed as Kurt did.

Jute looked at them both, mildly concerned, but stayed on topic. "[No one has been in here since the attack, and thanks to the police we know when that was. This will make anything new stand out enough to be seen by the naked eye]."

"[How long is this-]" Paysin started, only to break off with a gasp.

The entire room was covered in marks that glowed the way white does under a black light. Kurt tentatively let go and the marks remained. He flipped open his phone and started taking pictures of the boot prints glowing on the ground "[These look familiar. Just give me a minute to place them]."

"[Split up]," Ramie recommended. "[This won't last for long, and we shouldn't be here long enough to do this a second time]."

Kurt took Carole's bedroom; he may have been willing to let Ramie and Paysin help him, but he didn't want them going through her personal effects.

It didn't take long to finish documenting everything that he found. More boot prints, but surprisingly little else. In fact, it didn't seem like they'd touched anything; there weren't even glove prints. There was jewelry missing but not much else, a glaring difference between the two attacks. And Kurt could only think of one way something could have been taken without being touched.

Kurt went over to the closet to make a closer examination of what Carole had hung up. It revealed that Kurt's guess had been right: whoever had done this came with bladed weapons. The police hadn't yet picked up on all the nicks all over the place. Even with the spell they were so small as to be nearly invisible. Only on Carole's shirts could Kurt feel the places where something sharp had shoved them around.

He'd already taken pictures of the cuts, so Kurt occupied himself looking through Carole's closet to see what could still be salvaged. That was when he saw it.

One of Carole's blouses had been shoved to one side by the blunt edge of a [dueling weapon]. A [dueling weapon] with the crest of Sateen's Presidential Guard on it. The mirror image of which was staring back at him from Carole's blouse.

Kurt gasped and let go of the blouse when he heard someone behind him.

It was Ramie. "[Did you find something]?"

Kurt didn't know what to say. He couldn't bear telling Jute something like this. Although no one would blame Jute or his grandfather, it didn't seem right embarrassing them like this. "[No]."

Ramie smiled, legitimately bemused. It made him look a lot less intimidating, and Kurt thought he saw what Jute might have found appealing for all those years. "[You're not a good liar, Prince Kurt-Hummel. Though I've heard you make a practice of being brutally honest, so I shouldn't be surprised. Show me, please]."

Kurt sighed, frustrated. Although he could order Ramie out of the room, that would cause a bigger fuss than the one he was trying to avoid. So he lifted up the blouse again. "[I'm assuming you know what that is]."

He did, that much was obvious from the dropped jaw. Ramie stared at the symbol for a while before collecting himself. "[Rush, the Captain of the Presidential Guard is charged with the task of erasing the mind when a prisoner is condemned to be Erased. He's very good with the mind. Surgically good.]"

Kurt wasn't sure he knew what Ramie meant by THAT. "[I don't think forgetting this is going to help much]," Kurt replied.

Ramie turned away, lost in his own thoughts. "[No, I suppose not.]"

"[I don't want to tell Jute yet,]" Kurt told him. At Ramie's shocked expression he added, "[I need to know more. Why they'd do this for one thing. And if I can't lie to him then you're going to have to.]"

"[Are you pulling rank on me?]" Ramie asked in disbelief.

"[To make sure you don't go off half-cocked? You bet I am.]"

Ramie actually considered that. He nodded calmly and started to walk out. Just short of the door he turned back to Kurt. All trace of calm gone again. Talking again about something that seemed unrelated. "[You have to understand, Kurt-Hummel, that I am aware of how I sound. I know Jute is sorry. I know I was unfair and unreasonable with him. And yet there is an anger in me that I can't name or define. And now you show me this?]"

Kurt put this together with Ramie's non-sequitur about Captain Rush and gaped at the implications. But before he could say anything the mask was back in place and Ramie was dutifully returning to the living room to report that Kurt was finished looking for clues and they could go.

Jute poked his head into the bedroom. He was immediately concerned. "I'm taking Ramie and Paysin back to Sateen. Are you okay?"

Rather than try to lie at that point, Kurt pulled himself together and quipped, "Your ex and I appear to be getting along. I can only conclude I'm suffering from dangerous hallucinations."

Jute chuckled, kissed his boyfriend goodbye, and left. As soon as Kurt knew they were gone, he activated his own Jumper to take him home. Kurt left his Jumper in his top dresser drawer (where he kept his muscle magazines, as he didn't trust Finn not to 'borrow' the Jumper without permission) and went downstairs.

His dad was there, watching TV, and Kurt had never been so glad to see him. "Dad, I need to tell you something….

(to be continued)