"I thought you said the device would keep them paralyzed and unaware for thirty minutes," Jace hissed. He scurried up a nearby tree and pulled Ral up after him.

"Well how was I supposed to know they had an E.M.P.?" Ral snapped.

"God dammit," Jace snarled. The tree was now surrounded.

"Come down now, return the ring and make no action of resistance."

Jace growled, "Ral, do you have anything else?"

"I have a smoke bomb but they have guns," Ral said.

Jace's eyes narrowed, "Let me see it." They can't hit what they can't see.

"Um, Cat Ears, that's not a very good idea. They have guns."

"They can't hit what they can't see," Jace insisted.

Ral reluctantly handed the bomb to Jace. Jace dropped from the tree and held his hands behind his back.

"A...cat boy?" the leader of the squad asked in disbelief.

"It's not real dummy," Jace snapped, "Ever heard of costumes?" Ral slid ungracefully out of the tree and landed next to him.

"Put your hands on your head and return the ring to us."

Jace lifted his hands up and dropped the smoke bomb to the ground. He grabbed Ral's arm and darted off. We can't take a plane back. Neither of us can drive. I knew it was a bad idea to try it in the middle of broad daylight but I was getting impatient. God Ral's slow and he's slowing me down. He growled and concentrated on drawing energy from himself, "We're going to go back to the school."

"How?"

"Teleportation."

"Are you sure you can go that far?" Ral asked worriedly.

"If I can't we're dead and we don't have the ring piece of the treasure. Take you pick," Jace snapped.

"Alright. Alright," Ral sighed.

Jace visualized the room the two of them shared in Colorado. And I'm more than likely an idiot for trying this but I'm going to get there. He drew on the tiniest amount of mana. Sure it was poisonous but it would give him the power boost he would need. There was a maximum amount a planeswalker could draw upon without killing themselves, though the mana would still poison them. He teleported and both he and Ral ended up in their room. Jace smirked. He felt lightheaded and sick to his stomach but that was something he could ignore. He looked at Ral, "Stay here until the start of class tomorrow. I'm going to go see if I can't find the medallion."

"Why? Beautiful-"

"Isn't going to give it up if she has the choice. I need to look at both of them and hopefully having two will make it easier to discern the location of the third and final piece," he jumped out the window and landed in the nearby tree. He was going to try her room first. If it wasn't there then it was more than likely on her person and he'd have to deal with trying to talk her into giving it to him. Or he could wrestle it away from her but he didn't like the odds of attempting that. She could probably overpower him through sheer size, not to mention how vicious she was. He didn't fancy the injuries that would result from trying to get her to relinquish the medallion by force. He slid into the girls' dorm and up the stairs. Finding Lilianna's and Chandra's room was easy. It perpetually smelled like odd herbs and charcoal with the slightest hint of something sweet. He shook his head. Those two are so...odd. Getting through the lock was somewhat difficult, about as difficult as Erin's door. He closed the door behind him. She should still be in class unless I missed something. He preemptively opened the window just in case if she did return to her room while he was still in it. He carefully looked through her desk and her room. I wouldn't expect her to hide anything on Lilianna's side of the room. I don't think the two trust each other at all. He continued to search with no results.

"The two of us don't get along very well."

Jace froze, "Damn." He darted across her room and slid out the window.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" He heard Chandra yell after him.

"Nothing," he responded, loud enough for her to hear. He could feel the medallion's aura now that he had the ring on his person. It was in the right pocket of her uniform skirt. Jace cursed under his breath. Man. That means this is going to be way more difficult than it really needs to be. Why wasn't she in class anyway. His landing was rougher than he would of preferred because he was distracted. He scrambled to his feet and darted back to the boy's dorm. That was awesome. Oh well. He felt hungry but sick at the same time which was not a combination he liked.

"So?" Ral asked when he returned to the room through the window.

"She has it in her pocket," Jace sighed. And I'm gonna be sick. That must be the effects of the mana poisoning. Damn. Oh well. It'll fade eventually and I'll just deal until then.

"I got bored so I got you this," Ral held up a medium sized stuffed lion.

Jace gritted his teeth, "Really? I don't want anymore of your stuffed animals!"

"Look at it this way, you could bring Kaious into the room and he won't look the slightest bit out of place," Ral suggested.

Jace stared at him, "Pets aren't allowed in the dorms."

"But with all the stuffed animals he won't look like a pet will he? Since when have dragons be real?" Ral smirked and tossed the lion at Jace.

Jace had a growing pile of stuffed animals sitting between his bed and the desk. It was composed mostly of stuffed cats of various species and sizes. The biggest one was a stuffed tiger that was bigger than him. That one was on his bed because it wouldn't fit anywhere else. Jace tossed the lion onto the pile, "If your going to get me another freaking stuffed animal the just put it in the pile."

"But then you won't notice," Ral whined.

Jace rolled his eyes, "Leave me alone. I'm sleeping."

Welcome back. Did your adventure go as planned.

Not at all Kurai. Leave me alone. I wasn't lying when I told Ral I was sleeping. Jace laid down on his back on the bed, "Hey Ral?"

"Huh? What's with the serious tone all of a sudden Cat Ears?"

"Nothing. Can you feel the pressure in the air? I think we missed something. Don't bother waking me up for school if I'm still asleep. Just fill me in on what's going on, alright?" Jace rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.

"Sure Cat Ears. But only if you bring Kaious in tomorrow so I can have someone to talk to."

"Fine. Tomorrow, I'll bring Kaious into the room. Jeez," Jace muttered. It took a while to fall asleep but he managed to do so eventually.

Jace watched dully as the new girl ran quickly and precisely through the maze. She was younger than him by a few years but ran through the mazes without hesitation. The small windows in the back of the room allowed him to watch another one of the many experiments that existed run through whatever maze was prepared for them. He watched her dodge past a Templar, barely skirting past the part of the attack that would inevitably lead to her death. She was nicked on by the giant sword but able to continue. She completely avoided the Templar. Her purple hair flared out behind her as she jumped over a pit. Her orange eyes were calm and focused. She was among the oldest of the "third generation". The third group brought into the facility to be put through the project. Many of the third generation experiments were called by their serial numbers instead of whatever animalistic features they happened to portray. The girl had yet to be given a name but Jace didn't plan on being the one to give it to her. She finished the maze relatively easily.

"And the Athena project?"

"Athena herself is progressing quite nicely. However we have the problem of getting the rest of the project up to standard. Only one of them is progressing as smoothly as we had hoped."

Jace's catlike ears pricked. He continued to watch as another of the third generation was thrown into the maze. The boy was small and exhibited no animalistic features which was odd for the experiments but that wasn't what caught Jace's attention. The boy was a living calculator. He could calculate anyone's chances of success in half a second and adjust the calculation due to changes in their condition easily.

"Ah, the Cat then?"

"There are a couple among the third generation but otherwise the rest are worthless. Some are unwilling to let go of their emotions."

"Well. We'll just have beat it out of them. Or convert it all to anger."

Jace's eyes narrowed. The boy finished. He was hurt but he survived. That was the only point.

"The Cat's performance improved drastically when his connections were lost."

"Then kill the Wolf then."

"Of course."

Claudia? Jace sighed. He watched the next one dully. She was so little there was no way she would be able to avoid a Templar and get away in time. However she wasn't the only one running the maze.

"There can only be one winner. Begin."

The Wolf leaped forward. It was obvious that her goal was to get the young rabbit featured girl out of the maze alive. If Claudia were to die Jace would be the last surviving first generation experiment, every other one having been killed. Both made it to the end alive but Claudia was attacked and killed in a very disturbing manner by a Raptor. Jace didn't watch. His sensitive ears could hear the nameless girl's cries of shock, fear and horror.

Jace opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He realized he felt suffocatingly warm. He glanced around but all he saw was white. He gritted his teeth, "Ral?" He shoved the stuffed tiger off of the bed entirely and sat up. He glared at the curtains that divided the room in half, "What the hell? You do realize that I could suffocate and die?"

"You didn't so I don't see the problem Cat Ears," Ral snickered. His voice took on a more serious note, "There's a new principal. She's really cracking down on the rules. Just today she banned the use of rubber bands, chalk, sharpie markers, and foam toy swords."

"Why? Those are so-Michael and David were involved in this weren't they?"

Ral snickered, "Yeah. They used rubber bands to launch paper and the sharpie markers. They were sword fighting with foam swords in the hallways and running from security quoting some movie or other."

"Which movie?" Jace asked.

"The Road to El Dorado," Ral said.

Jace shrugged, "Alright. Whatever. So she's really cracking down on the supposed chaos that inhabits this school?"

"Yeah. And apparently there's a whole half a school visiting for the year. They're a little odd but not that bad," Ral shrugged.

"Alright," Jace slid off the bed, "As promised I'll go get Kaious." He slid out the window. Damn. Why does that keep cropping up anyway?

"Jace?!"

Jace froze. He turned in surprise and his eyes widened in shock. He started at the boy for a moment. His eyes weren't very expressive but what they did express was shock and recognition. Jace stared at him for a moment longer, "How did you even-what?"

"You would not know this so my name is Cain," the boy's right eye was blue while his left one was green. Otherwise there was nothing odd about his appearance.

"Cain huh? Did you choose it?"

"Yes. It was suggested that I do so."

"Oh," Jace nodded, "And you are…?"

"I am visiting here from Ascension City along with my peers some of whom you know as well."

Jace swallowed nervously, "Great. So you got out?"

"Yes."

I see he still keeps his hair straight. And he still doesn't use contractions when he talks. Why the hell are they showing up now? How many of them got out anyway? Ugh! Why? Why can't the past just leave me the hell alone? "Wait a minute. You came from Ascension City right?" Jace stared at Cain.

"Yes. Why?"

"Was it the closest place to you when you got out?"

"Yes. We were found by a group of kids that are also here just outside the city."

So then, logically speaking, it would make sense if I was here as well. But then how did I get off. I got off. How? Ah damn. I should probably go get Kaious before dawn. "Well...see ya." Jace darted over to the wall that surrounded the campus and scaled it.

"Jace!" Kaious squealed in excitement as he opened the door to the house.

Gideon looked at him in surprise, "What are you doing out of your dorm this late?"

"Ral wants someone to talk to because I ignore him," Jace said. He looked at Kaious, "He wants to talk to you apparently. It was part of a deal we made."

"Oh," Gideon sighed before looking at him quizzically, "I thought-"

"It changed," Jace said quickly. Kaious sat on his head as Jace turned back to the door. He sighed, "Whatever."

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Kaious said as the door closed behind them.

"Just...old...acquaintances popping up all of a sudden," Jace shrugged. I mean it's not like we were friends. I didn't really interact with any of them.

"You mean from-"

"Yeah," Jace nodded, "But then that would imply that I was here and I was able to get off when I first planeswalked. I don't know how but if I could do it once then I can do it again right?"

"Well…I guess the only way to do so would be to replicate the circumstances which I for one don't want to do," Kaious suggested.

"I guess you're right." Jace climbed back up the wall and stared at the boys' dorm building.

"Which ones?"

"The super calculator is the only one I've met as of right now but he said that there were others with him so..."

"So?" the dragon prompted.

"I don't know," Jace shrugged, "I mean once you move on the past is left in the past right?"

"Sometimes it comes back up in unexpected ways. However if they are also free then I doubt there's anything to worry about other than awkward interactions!" Kaious tried to sound cheerful and certain but Jace knew better. Jace glanced up at him, "Yeah. Right."

Ral looked up as Jace climbed back in through the window. Kaious was sitting on Jace's head but flew off to sit on the desk. Jace looked incredibly distracted, disturbed and calm at the same time. He cocked his head to the side, "You alright Cat Ears?"

"Fine. I'm going to sleep." Jace disappeared behind the curtains that divided the room in half.

Ral didn't believe he was fine for a minute but also didn't want to accidentally mention that would set Jace off. He sighed, "Alright Cat Ears. Even with the ring I can't seem to pinpoint the third part. The third parts the person right?"

"Yeah. I would be easier with the medallion wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Ral nodded.

"I'll figure out some way of getting it," Jace promised, "but for now I'm going to sleep."

"Alright."