Emily woke suddenly in the side-reception of the school. The large, main entrance greeted most people, but the contractors and repairmen that where not regulars of the school came though the side entrance. Something about ease of administration. Emily really didn’t know. Nor did she know why she was alive after being shot in the head. That thought brought her to Jane.

“Jane!” She shouted, sitting up violently and letting the blanket that covered her fall off. Her sudden outburst didn’t seem to shock, frighten, or even bother the person sat opposite her. She wasn’t a receptionist, the long, flowing dress, as striking a red as her equally long, equally flowing hair made her seem like the guest of some fancy hotel rather than a receptionist.

“She is fine. So are the others that collapsed in your class. Not quite sure, yet. Gas leak probably” The woman told Emily. She had a beautiful voice, a divine voice. It run like bells in her mind, and for a few moments Emily forgot where she was. Then she remembered.

“Don’t make me out to be an idiot! I know what happened in there. They came in, they killed Jane, I killed one of them…” then the reality of her exclamation hit her. She had killed someone. How, she didn’t know, but he was dead. But then, so was Emily. And yet here she was, arguing with a large breasted woman.

‘Wow, they aren’t large, they are fricking huge’ Emily thought. A shadow of a smile crossed the woman’s face, and then her eyes, wondrous green eyes, met Emily’s.

“So you remember. Out of the eight that collapsed when we…reset the classroom, you are the second to remember. Laas seemed sure you wouldn’t, sure Jane was the only one able to keep her memories when part of a reset like that, but I knew you would” She said, with a touch of admiration. Emily looked at the woman for a few seconds before shaking her head.

“This is all, so confusing. What happened? What reset? Where’s Jane? Who are you?” Emily demanded, barraging this woman with question. Not that it unbalanced her at all, she just sipped some tea from a fine china cup Emily was sure hadn’t been there a few moments ago.

“Which question is most important to you?” The woman asked, her smile growing as Emily frowned.

“Why? Are you only going to answer one of them?” Emily questioned her, in a tone half an inch from angered bellowing.

“No, just wanted to know which answer you wanted first. They are all quite complex” She explained, sitting some more tea as she continued to gaze into Emily’s eyes. For her part, Emily seemed slightly more pacified, but the situation was still difficult to comprehend. After a couple of seconds of staring, Emily took a breath.

“Where is Jane?” She asked, in a much more measured tone. It was a question that made the lady sat opposite smile.

“I was hoping you would ask that one first. You and Jane get along very well, yes?” She asked, but not waiting for a reply. “Eliot and Silverfang picked her up about half an hour ago, she should be around their place now. Safe, and secure.” She finished. Emily nodded understandingly. Jane had told her about Eliot and his wolfy-friend, enough to know that they were good friends.

“Until dad wants her home. Then no one is safe from Shadow” Emily commented. Jane had also told her about him, not that she needed to. The sadistic, one-eyed bastard was well known everywhere.

“Well, subjective really. I would say no one in the current area is safe, but that is subjective as well. Quite a few people are. But I digress, you still have…three questions? Or was it four?” She asked, finishing her cup of tea and placing them softly on the table between them.

“I don’t know, I just blurted them out, four I think. The next one would be, what’s a reset” Emily said, a statement more than a question.

“Short, easy answer? Or the longer, more in depth one?” The woman asked in return. When the woman got the ‘longer’ reply, she smiled. “Well then. Someone had, a few months ago, foreseen the need to prevent a catastrophe, and placed very difficult to see wards around everyone’s classroom. Laas was going to put very similar wards up tomorrow, but things happened slightly quicker than we thought they would. When the tutor, Jane and yourself where shot and the rest of the students ran away, the ward around your classroom was activated, and the chronological order of events was turned back to just after you and Jane arrived at the classroom.

The best thing about this, however, was that the rest of the school remained on the current timeline and so the two people that broke into the classroom where intercepted on their way there. Unfortunately, some of the more attuned children in the class where thrown from the roll-back and subsequently collapsed. The school nurses where called, and they were all checked out, to make sure nothing serious was wrong, then their parents or guardians where called to come and collect them for the day.” She finished, looking at the cup on the table longingly. Emily seemed to be following the explanation poorly, but when she heard that parents where called her eyes grew wide, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car.

“Who did they call for me?” Emily asked frantically, looking to the door with a growing sense of dread.

“They called me. I put myself down as your guardian when you started here, much like Eliot and Silverfang where put down for Jane” The woman told Emily. While it certainly calmed her down, but replaced the worry with confusion.

“I…well, I guess this just leads me to the next question – since you answered two, because two of them where basically the same – who are you?” The woman smiled and flicked a hand though her hair.

“Well, I have a few names, but I believe you call me ‘Simba’.” She replied. Emily simply stared back at the woman, eyebrows high and jaw dropped, unable to say a word.

“You…are a cat? A Male cat that speaks” She asked, the second half petering out into a statement of insanity rather than a question.

“No. I just took a cat form. And my name isn’t Simba either, that’s just what you called me” Simba replied, and then got agitated. “I said my name wasn’t Simba” The woman who didn’t like being identified as Simba but gave no other means of identification commented hotly, without provocation from Emily. “You really want to do this now?” She asked, as if arguing to herself like a mad woman. But, before she could continue this display of insanity, Emily interjected.

“So, what are you called then?” Emily inquired, deciding to ignore the outburst from Cancer and instead ask a question that calmed the woman who was Simba but didn’t like being called such when not a cat.

“Well, the ‘I have many names’ thing was a lie, for dramatic purposes really. I only have one other. I am the Celestial Creation, Cancer.” Cancer said, in a grand and rather regal tone.

“Like, the star Crab?” Emily asked. Cancer sighed softly and nodded.

“Yes, like the star Crab. Or The Zodiac, as clever people it.” Cancer replied, with a slightly sarcastic tone. Emily sighed softly and shook her head. People, she could understand, and as long as Cancer kept being personish, all sarcastic and generally not turning into a cat, she was fine.

“Does my cat form disturb you now you know I am not just a talking cat?” Cancer asked, stepping around the table and smiling down at Emily, who stood so Cancer wasn’t looking down at her.

“I didn’t say that” Emily replied, indignantly. Now they were both stood, she saw that Cancer was rather small for a grown woman, but Emily was tall for a still growing woman, so her standard of measurement was shot.

“No, you didn’t. Anyway, quite amazing how well you are talking this. Did you expend all your surprise when you found out your cat could talk, and everything else is just, taken in stride?” Cancer asked, softly giggling at the idea. Emily, having had her compliancy brought to the foreground, frowned.

“I…guess I have. That’s weird.” She muttered, scratching her head softly. If anyone else’s cat appeared like Cancer and told them they were a ‘Celestial Construct’ – some instinct told her not to ask what that was, because she wouldn’t understand it – then they would probably be screaming or calling the police, or at best just laughing and scoffing. Emily was taking Cancer’s words at face value. And then Emily looked at Cancer’s face and saw her slightly distracted, and muttering to herself.

“He is here as well? I guess it is only to be expected” Cancer muttered, before smiling back at Emily. “Anyway, got some protocol to follow. You being Yesura and all, there is something that needs to happen. And something Jane needs to do as well, but Sean is a much slower person with much less respect for protocol.” Cancer told Emily in a louder tone, no longer muttering.

“Sean? Like, Sean Woodhouse, super famous guy of everywhere?” Emily asked incredulously, wondering what he had to do with anything.

“Yes, the same. His sense of a low-profile is slightly shot though. But he is still a good help with situations like this. Jane is someone him and many, many others have been looking for, since humans rubbed two sticks together and set fire to their fingers” Cancer explained, which made Emily laugh softly.

“Well, they could have saved a lot of time by looking in the right time period. Jane is in a slightly later era than Pre-history” She joked, and then her smile faded when she saw Cancer was serious.

“Much like you are Yesura, Jane is also something else. Something very old, and very powerful. But unlike you, who can, with a little help, talk to animals and melt the minds of those who threaten your safety, Jane is locked from us by a series of metaphysical walls. Some self-imposed, others created by people that wanted to keep her hidden forever. It is why finding her was so difficult.” Cancer informed. Emily, however, seemed lost in her mind. ‘Dam, maybe the whole ‘you killed someone’ thing was a bit rough’ Cancer though, before softly taking Emily’s hands. “If you think about it, you never technically killed him.” She consoled, but Emily just shook her head.

“That doesn’t stop me remembering how he looked when I did what I did.” Emily told Cancer in a ragged voice, before looking up. “What did I do?” She asked, tears running from her eyes, but a tone of morbid curiosity.

“You overheated his neurons and the brain tissue dissolved into mush. Quite an advanced technique, really” Cancer admitted, but Emily wasn’t in the mood to hear that her brain-melting skills where good enough to be congratulated by a cat woman construct thing.

“Death is always hard, but sometimes necessary. Don’t dwell on death if you must cause it, but do not cause it without reason” Cancer consoled, smiling warmly at Emily while dabbing at the tears. “Now, what do you think about coming to meet a few of my friends?” Cancer asked. To which Emily nodded softly but said nothing. “Ok, give me a moment” she said, turning from Emily and throwing her arms wide, her hands making a glamorous flourish as she did so. The space in front of her rippled, and then suddenly a large archway had appeared.

“Can you see that?” Cancer asked Emily, who had finished off the rest of her tears and was steadying her voice again.

“The, giant archway that has just sprung up?” Emily asked, looking around to see if anyone else had seen it. Oddly enough, no one was around, not even the receptionist.

“Yes, quite amazing actually. Only those with strong abilities can see the archway. You are one of those that believes in Magic, aren’t you?” Cancer asked casually, holding out her hand for Emily.

“Well, I never disbelieved it. Especially not as I grew older. The dream of someday developing powers and enacting revenge on every one who had scorned me was a sweet one” She said, with almost vindictive glee as she took the hand.

“Well, I do hope when you do gain control of your powers, you don’t do any such thing” Cancer warned Emily in a very stern voice, almost like a teacher would speak to a student.

“What do you mean-“ Emily started before Cancer pulled her through the archway. It was a strange feeling, like being pulled though jelly, or what Emily imagined being pulled though jelly would feel like, never actually having gone through such an act.