Jesse's experience was different from his friends. Very different.

"What the Hell is going on?!" Jesse was freaking out as he tried to coordinate the second set of legs he now had. Which was really hard given the knees were bending the wrong way!

'The knees are bending the right way as far as I can tell.' A voice in Jesse's head said. 'What way are they supposed to bend?'

'Human knees bend forward, not back!'

'But you're a centaur, not a human.' The voice spoke reasonably.

'I was human a minute ago! I was just dressed as a centaur! I didn't expect to actually turn into one.' Jesse paused. 'Wait, who the Hell are you and what are you doing in my head?!'

'I am Ceridian, a teacher.' The voice replied. 'Why are you attempting to emulate a centaur?'

'You're Ceridian?! I turned into Ceridian?!'

'You recognize my name?'

'You teach heros, of course I recognize your name!'.

'I teach children in need of care and guidance. I teach them to open their minds and respect the world and those born to it. That my teachings have led many to engage in heroic acts is not my purpose, but it shows they took my lessons to heart. And you haven't explained why you're emulating a centaur.'

'It's Halloween, Mr. Ceridian, you either dress as a monster or a hero. I dressed as you. You happen to be a centaur.'

'You do not fear me because I'm a centaur? And you respect my work. Interesting.'

'Ixion made the centaurs with a noble heart, that means you can choose to be good or bad, just like humans. And you teach heros. That's noble. Doesn't matter if you're a centaur or a human, what matters is if you choose to be good or bad.'

'Wise belief. Your teachers have taught you well. What's your name?'

'Jesse and my parents taught me that, not my teachers. Look, I would love to spend time talking to you, but this isn't my body, I'm human. I could probably get use to this body eventually, but it's not natural to me. Someone must have done Magic and made this happen. Those little monsters running around were kids a minute ago. Kids I'm responsible for. They could hurt someone and not know it. And those people fighting them, they were kids a minute ago too and now they're heros. Heros who think they're fighting monsters. They could hurt people too, but think they're hurting monsters.'

'Someone has done this on purpose? That's very disturbing, especially since it appears to mostly be children being affected. Do you know who might have done this?'

'I have a good idea, yeah. My friends and I were just talking about it a couple days ago. Two of my friends are psychic and one of them said how this guy, Ethan Rayne, worships gods of chaos and he did this before, turning people into their costumes. But we thought, with the Council trying to find him, he wouldn't - but I guess we were wrong and he did it anyway. Last time he invoked Janus and yeah, I know, Janus isn't a god of chaos, he's a god of change, which isn't the same thing and a protector.'

'Very true. Which begs the question, why would Janus allow his power to be used like this? Children will be harmed even if we can find and correct the problem quickly. I don't imagine Janus will be pleased with that fact, at all.'

'Not a question we can get an answer to, at least not right now. Right now we need to get those heros to understand the monsters they're fighting are transformed kids. Once they understand that, they'll get the transformed monster kids to safety and we can find my friends and then we find Ethan Rayne and fix this mess. Maybe somewhere in there we can get an answer on why Janus would go along with this, but it's way low on the list of priorities.'

'Excellently reasoned, Jesse. And you're correct in your reasoning as well. Transformed or not, heros will not willingly harm children, regardless if they appear to be monsters and they will seek to help them. And the children's safety must be the top priority, followed by discovering the source and then figuring out how to stop it. I must commend your parents on their own teaching of you and how well you attempt to apply their lessons.'

'Thanks, I'll be sure to tell them, once this mess is fixed. I hope my friends are okay. But if they've transformed too, then they probably are.'

'Who did your friends choose to emulate?'

'Faith is dressed as Xena, hero Xena, not warlord Xena. Which might actually be a problem if Faith as Xena isn't aware that she's pregnant and starts fighting. She's not really showing yet. And if anything happens to that baby, it'll kill her and Xander.'

'I understand.' Ceridian assured him. 'A child is a precious gift. Is Xander also seeking to emulate someone?'

'Autolycus, you ever heard of him?'

'Yes, Heracles has spoken of him. He steals from humans with no understanding of nobility and gives the money to their victims. He's chosen an unusual form of nobility. Anyone else?'

'Cordelia, Xander's girlfriend, she dressed as an Amazon Queen.'

'That might be a problem, depending on which Queen, since centaurs and Amazons were at war at one time '

'Maybe, since she wasn't dressing as a specific Amazon Queen, but as Cordelia, Queen of the Amazon's.'

'I hope she hasn't decided to conquer everyone.' Ceridian joked.

'Oh boy. Cordelia's already a Queen who's conquered everything she set out to conquer. And no, I'm not joking. Come on, we got to hurry.'