"Not really... very old actually. Very, VERY old... And kept out of public domain of knowledge for very good reason. Will they hurt him? Max?"

"How does it work?" she questioned, eyeing the gem with a new sense of curiosity, "it has to have some sort of basis to it. You can't conjure a rabbit out of a hat from nothing."

"...It's not of this world or any among this plane of existence. Regardless it's magic based and a part of me. It doesn't have a basis. It just works when I want it to."

She couldn't help but laugh a little, "right. So you can cut me in two without killing me and find my card with a snap of your fingers and it just... happens." she took up her clipboard again and headed for the door, "I'll get the extraction team"

Celeste was a bit confused by that example and it was clear on her face. That wasn't how it worked at all. But when she headed toward the door, her eyes grew large.

"Wait! NO. You can't remove it."

"Oh really?" she looked back, seeming rather skeptical, "you see we take a couple scalpels and cut it out like a tumor and tada, all gone, just like magic" she waved her hands dramatically, clearly making fun of Celeste's explanation.

Celeste sighed, "Nick is gonna kill me..." She mumbled, "Alright. alright... You can't cut it out because it's infused with my rib case... It's a part of my body, my soul... my immune system. I'm not really human... more like... a celestial being. Hence magic based..."

She still didn't seem too persuaded but at least she was facing Celeste now instead of heading out the door, "... oooookay... I'm listening."

Celeste explained the story that had been past down from her family and also listed a series of names and dates of girls who were her past vessels. "And if you don't believe me you can go look those names up. And even if you did remove my gem, it would kill me and the gem would simply return to the shrine like it has every time I die."

It wasn't long before the scientist was writing all of this down. It was too bizarre to be false. "Alright, I will then" she nodded once she had finished. Then she placed her clipboard back down on the table and went to the medical drip that was feeding Celeste the drugs and made a small adjustment, "until then, you should probably take another nap."

"Wait no- What do you...do to...mutants...here..." Celeste's head flopped back.

"We put them to good use, for all of mankind" she replied simply as Celeste passed out again.

*

Meanwhile, back at the school, Thor was livid. He was just about ready to start tearing the whole planet apart to find Celeste and it was taking everybody to calm him down.

Coco was beside himself. He had been able to track them so far but lost the trail at some point. He felt just as strongly about finding Ceres but Thor's freaking out wasn't helping anyone.

It was finally Miss Turner who marched up to Thor and put a hand on his hand, "Calm." She stated and would not take her hand off him till he did so. "Calm..."

Finally the god took a deep breath, "my apologies" he sighed, "I only meant to protect her... and I have failed."

"I wish I knew where they were" Horatio frowned, "but this timeline has become... so different from the others now."

"Good God." Miss Turner said, patting his hand and letting his head go.
"We'll find her." Ciara said, "Save your energy for the rescue."

"-_- as if I'm going to be part of that" Horatio mumbled.

"I've got sheild doing a sweep of the area" Fury stated as he just got off his com, "looks like they had gone for a walk but we lost their trail around the same place as the cat. We're looking into a few local organizations but there's not a whole lot to go on aside from a few mutant disappearances in the last few months."

"So perhaps they were after Max and Celeste only got in the way?" Horatio wondered.

"That seems like the most likely explanation" Fury agreed, "but we haven't had any headway with these guys yet."

"Meow!" CoCo stated. Which meant something like "The cat has a name you know."

"And if they saw her using her magic... they may take her thinking she's a mutant too..." Ciara added.

"So what you're saying is that Celeste and Max are missing and we have no leads to find them and they're probably being experimented on to the nines because people know about mutants but not magic." Horatio stated, "does that sound about right?"

Ciara patted Horatio on the back, "Way to boost morale. Fury, you said there were other missing mutants in the last couple of months. Where excalty did they go missing?" She asked, looking at the holo map.

"It's a fairly large radius" Fury replied, drawing out a circle that included all the last known spots of the missing people, "which is why we haven't been able to narrow down who it could be yet"

"Damn..." She mumbled, "Have there been any odd land purchases in the area? Any odd construction...." She was trying to come up with something. God they needed a lead.

"So far everything checks out" Nick fury replied, "We know a thing or two about weeding out secret societies and bases but like I said, there's not much to go on here."

"I know. I'm just... thinking out loud." She said, meaning no disrespect to Shield. "I'll lead a team and cover this area here after I call in a favor." She circled an area on the map. " Horatio, remind me to send a big box of Genoshian Chocolate later." She added calling up Oracle.

"Hey. How's the most wonderful lady I know doing?" She asked, walking away from the group

"Currently dealing with an outbreak of Scarecrow poison in the water supply" Oracle replied, the sound of her furious typing clearly heard over the com, "What do you need?"

"He broke out again?!" She sighed, Oracle wasn't going to be much help, "we've got missing persons. This matter is Shield LVL 10 clearance importance. The areas too big... I'll send you the info we have so far. If you have the chance, I'd be grateful."

A large blue glowing ball about the size of a person appeared by the group. It disappeared revealing a girl, in a similar outfit as Ceres but sky blue and a Shield badge on her belt. "Ok, Nick. This better be important. I was just about to light up those bastards like a Christmas tree." She said in an almost cheerful voice.