Etana rests in her office, feet up on her desk as she ticks off a few names.
"Great, we've got an Ethics tutor."
"Who?"
"Oh, you know, someone."
"Tana…"
She grins.
"I've called in a few favours. Guess who I got to teach Art and Technological Design?"
I close my eyes.
"Tan, it wouldn't by any chance be a Renaissance painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist and botanist who you have on your speeddial?"
"Oh, you guessed. Pooeh. I was going to surprise you. Oh well. I can still amaze everyone else."
"Who else?"
"Oh, you know… Eloise wanted to come here –I gave her the position of vice-principle and French teacher. The building work is coming along nicely –I told you using robots would be a bad idea and look! The Catheri are doing a wonderful job."
"I can't believe you called in a two-hundred year old favour for saving a race of extra-dimensional beings by asking for them to build a school!"
She shrugs.
"They can ignore time. Well, not ignore it but get things done a whole lot faster than us poor three-dimensional beings can."
"Tan."
She sighs.
"And Michelangelo's got the statue half done-"
"Michelangelo?"
"Oh yes, sorry, forgot."
"I hate it when you do this."
"Sorry. I can't help it. To you they're famous historical figures. To me they're just…friends… Well, not really friends. Leo's the only one I consider a friend. But I get on with Michelangelo. He's a quantum being. Long story, bit of an accident. But he's a genius when it comes to getting your statues in on time."
"What did you decide on?"
She pulls out a sketch and throws it to me. It shows a serpentine dragon and a phoenix, coiled together with wings outstretched in a yin yang shape. She smiles.
"The Avengers Academy commissioned a statue of Tora and the Jean Grey Institute has the Phoenix Memorial Statue so I wanted something…tying the two."
"What's this?"
I point to a thin line between them. She smiles.
"Phoenix is Future. Dragon is Past. That is the Present, which links the two together. He isn't too fond of metalwork but he's using gold, silver and copper. Now, is there a reason you're here, or are you just here to moan about budgets, etc. Because if you are, I've already heard all that, goodbye."
"No. It's Hank. You missed your appointment."
She rolls her eyes.
"If I wanted to go, I would."
"That's the fourth you've missed."
She sniffs.
"Boring. I have better things to do. Well, I've already let him take blood tests. See, I'm fine. Oh, and the child's a mutant."
"What…?"
"You heard me. Don't pretend you didn't."
She's reading a report but I can tell she isn't really taking anything in.
"Tan?"
She presses her head to her hands.
"You don't understand!"
"Tell me, then!"
She sighs.
"I'm a one-in-a-million child. All the other cross-breeds –and believe me, there were others- they all died in childhood. Their Neyaphem parts attacked their Cheyarafim parts and vice-versa. I could kill this child by being me. And I've been avoiding all these cheery little sessions with Hank because… Because I don't want to know the truth."
And all I can do is wrap my arms around her and hope for the best.
