The Cat, Witch and the Wormholes

Chapter 13. Fantastic Ms. Fox

"You promised that there will be no excesses!" Very agitated Legend shouted loudly.

"I promised?! Are you accusing me of this?" Alexandria snapped at him, jumping up from her seat at the table. "It's you and your people who almost lost Wards! You knew how important this girl is, and still managed to lose sight of them!"

"We couldn't know that there would be a Butcher!"

"It does not matter at all that it was a Butcher, it could turn out to be Elites and even the Slaughterhouse Nine!"

"And what, we now have to follow their every step?"

"Yes! Even if you have to take them to the toilet under supervision, and help them to take off their pants!"

"This is ridiculous! Wards should be independent! This is the essence of their program!" Retorted Legend. "And I already said that the girl needs to be placed in a safer place!"

"Enough!" Shouted Doctor Mother. "The past cannot be changed, but it is also not necessary to rush to extremes. Girl is alive and everything turned out well."

"How well we are not sure yet." Legend sighed and sat into his chair. "A week has already passed, and she shows no signs of possession, but no one can guarantee that Butcher simply not hides her true identity carefully."

"The reports of other Wards said that the cat killed the Butcher, and then fled, escaping from the scene." Clarified Contessa pointing at files on the table.

"There is no cat! I'm tired of repeating it again and again." Grunted Alexandria plopping down to a chair.

"You deny the obvious, it has a full-fledged living body that breathes, eats and requires sleep. It has his own will, independent of the girl, and it did not react to their separation for long periods of time while she was at school."

"As I said, it is a semi-autonomous biological construct."

"But he is too autonomous, even when she was in an unconscious state, he showed his will independent from her and committed acts in no way connected with her." Legend stood his ground.

"And I can’t plot my steps around him." Commented Contessa. "As if he does not exist, the path simply refuses to take into account his existence. And any plans that would include the death of the girl immediately lead to the loss of my ability to use my power for a short time."

"Just like him." Shuddered Legend.

"Zion." Angrily spat Alexandria.

"Not quite. I can still path the infliction of grievous harm to her, or to find a way to neutralize her for a very long time. And generally everything, except her immediate death."

"This is good, so she is not invulnerable to us, and only her death will lead to negative consequences." Summed up Eidolon.

"But all this does not negate the fact that the cat is just a projection."

"Then what about his biopsy? All the tests taken showed that he was an ordinary cat, and only some spectrograms found unknown residual energy radiation, and a blood test found incomprehensible superheavy particles that are superior to any heavy elements known from the periodic table."

"And girl also have this residual energy trace."

"But there is no this superheavy element in her blood. And their abilities are quite different. She does not have the same superregeneration as a cat, her energy shields are much weaker, and he does not know how to teleport, and can't shoot fire projectiles from his limbs. And besides, covert observation recorded that he learned to work on a computer. You should have seen his search queries! He is a fan of history and space science fiction."

"And the girl?"

"Oh, she prefers to read about magic, science, animals and for some reason about ponies."

"Every girl loves ponies!" Contessa smiled widely.

"Not everyone, I liked to play with toy cars more." Chuckled Alexandria while flipping through Sunset file. "Well, let's say a cat is an independent creature, but then we have to admit that animals can also trigger, because he is clearly not one of ours Case 53's."

"Maybe he is a Changer too? Turned into a cat, and can't turn back or just doesn't want?" Legend made a suggestion.

"No, our Thinkers unanimously says that he is definitely not a former human being and does not have the powers of a Changer."

"Maybe he is an alien?" Answered smiling Eidolon. "We already have one alien, Zion, why not have another one?"

"No, it will be too much. An alien cat, never heard anything more sillier."

"Or, alternatively, he may be just a random guest from one of the parallel Earths."

"Portal in Madison, do you think he is from there?"

"Everything is possible, well, he did somehow arrived to Earth Bet."

"An alien cat who arrived to Earth Bet through a portal from a parallel world. You are too carried away with fiction."

"Okay, the main thing for us now is to decide whether he is a projection or not, and accordingly to this we will proceed further with the girl." Legend gently punched the table. "I do not believe that the girl is a Master and that the cat is her projection, which means that only he became a victim of the Butcher, and now the Butcher is somewhere in the cat's body."

"It sounds so idiotic."

"But this Sunset has no manifestations usual for the Butcher, and her behavior and character have not undergone obvious changes."

"I also think that the cat was on its own, and its unnatural protection against the Precogs played with you, Rebecca, a cruel joke." Said Eidolon smacking his palm on the file.

"Okay, okay, I give up. We will consider the cat his own persona. But then we find ourselves in a situation where the cat has become a new Butcher."

"I do not think that capturing the Butcher in the form of a cat would be a challenge." Self-confidently said Eidolon.

"Well, then go and try to catch him." Legend face-palmed in annoyance. "So, I will let the girl go, there is no point in keeping her in confinement any longer."

"Agree." Alexandria nodded.

Seth groggily awoke, the heavy eyelids slowly opened and a harsh morning light hurt him painfully in his eyes. He took a deep breath and it responded with a dull pain in the lungs. His whole body trembled, as if from thousands of small electrical discharges. Thoughts in his head were confused, but he remembered that he should not have woken up. He jumped off that pier in order to permanently stop the threat of the Butcher, at the cost of his own life.

Ignoring the pain in his neck, he turned his head and looked around. Apparently someone saved him and brought him to their home. The arrows in his body were missing, and his belly and chest were tightly covered with clean white bandages. He tried to rise on his paws, but then a wild pain pierced his brain, and a cacophony of voices appeared in his head.

They shouted, pressed on his mind, whispered and sobbed, demanded and blamed him. Dozens of voices screaming at the same time, without stopping even for a moment, tried to force his mind into the corners of consciousness. Seth gritted his teeth, and tears flowed from his eyes. But he was not going to give up, was not going to admit defeat in front of voices seized by insanity. He didn't live for thousands of years, he didn't survive in that reckless dive into the water, only to be defeated by some maniac.

And if these voices are trying to push him into a corner of consciousness, then they are mistaken if they think they will succeed. He is Goa'uld, he will not be defeated by these mongrels! Yes, he cannot expel them from his mind or silence them, but he doesn't need that. And if he cannot defeat them in open confrontation, then he will act as real warriors do - he will bypass them! He will lure them into the depths of his subconscious and lock them here in a trap of his memories, just as he once locked up the minds of his former hosts.

Tens of thousands of years of memories of his ancestors and progenitors, and his own thousands of years of memory. And either these voices themselves will go crazy, drowned in the depths of his memories, or they will simply disappear dissolving in the stream of consciousness. Well, even if not, it is always nice to have an unwilling companion locked in your mind, who can't leave. Life at least will not be so boring and lonely for the next eternity.

And as he expected, the voices made a mistake following him into the depths of his mind, and he easily threw them to the streams of his memories. They will not get out of here for a very, very long time. And with a sense of accomplishment he took another deep breath and opened his watering eyes, staring in surprise at the barrel of the gun closely pointed at him.

"Oh, I see you finally woke up." Said a pale-skinned blond girl who held the gun close with his face. "I already began to think that you would never wake up. It was more than a week has passed since I found you on Sandy Hook beach." Then she smiled broadly and switching the gun's safety set it aside. "And apparently you even managed to beat the voices in your head. Sorry for the gun, well, you know, the girl needed to protect herself."

Dumbfounded Seth could only nod.

"Wow, you really understand what I'm saying!" She smiled broadly at his questioning look. "No, I'm really surprised because I still can not understand what you are. My power tells me all sorts of crap, as if you are a alien unicorn from outer space."

'Oh, really, what the hay are you talking about?' Quietly mumbled Seth.

"You are talking! That is so cool!" Exclaimed a girl and Seth's eyes nearly bulged.

'You, you can understand me?'

"Of course I can, you speak very clearly."

'But I do not speak! I'm meowing! And I myself hear my meowing!' Seth uttered in surprise.

"You meowing? But I hear quite normal speech, slightly strange, but understandable." A look of incomprehension appeared on her face. "Fuck! Apparently my power is making fun of me again!"

'Incredible! No one in my long life could understand a word of what I meowed!'

"Wonderful! I am now also a cat interpreter!" She raised her hands to the ceiling in frustration.

'But this is great! This is exactly what I needed!'

"What? What for?"

'Okay, it will be quite difficult to explain.'

"Do say." She jumped onto the bed on which Seth lay and sat with her legs folded in front of her.

Seth looked at this girl, who looked not much older than Lily, the new friend of Sunset from the Wards, and wondered if he was not too hasty. After all, he sees this Tau'ri girl for the first time and cannot know what she was thinking of. Maybe she is an enemy or a traitor, who knows to whom she will tell what he tells her.

"You do not trust me." She said in the matter of the fact.

'Well, I do not know you, and your motives are not clear to me.'

"But I saved you!"

'And I didn’t seek salvation, and besides, why did you, after finding me, not inform the authorities about me? They are probably looking for me.'

"I wanted to tell them, but then my power told me that they were looking for you because they thought you were the new Butcher."

'Great! Now, instead of helping me, they will try to arrest me.'

"Well, you do not have much choice. You can surrender to the authorities and they will lock you in the deepest hole they can find, or you can trust me and together we will find a way."

'Unbelievable! I got out of one trouble and immediately found myself in another. Just me and my luck!'

"Well now you have me! Great and mysterious Lisa Wilbourn!" She stood up in the pompous pose and made pas. "I have not yet come up with an alias, so do not tell my name to anyone!" Lisa winked at him.

'Okay, I will try to trust you.' Sighed Seth. 'You can call me Midnight.'

"But this is not your name!" She stamped her foot down. 'This is the name that Phoenix gave you.'

'Hey. How do you know?'

"I'm a psychic, nothing can hide from my inner sight!"

'Psychic. Great, just great. The last thing I need is a psychic.' Seth grunted dejectedly. 'Okay, my real name is Seth.'

"Seth, like the biblical Seth or ..." Her eyes widened in realization. "No fucking way! Please tell me that this is not what I think."

'I do not know what you think, I'm not a psychic!'

"How old are you?" She jumped back onto the bed and stared at Seth closely.

'What does it matter?'

"It does! Tell me!" Demanded Lisa.

'I was born when ...'

"More than five thousand years! Holy fuck!" She suddenly interrupted him.

'Hey, how do you..'

"I told you, I'm psychic!" Her smile became foxily wide. "So you are a God. A real, honest to God, God. I met a real god! Bloody hell!"

'Well, not really a real god. Rather, I and my fellow comrades positioned themselves as gods for your ancestors.'

"But you can do magic and miracles, right?"

'I can, but not because I was a god. This is a long story that includes a bunch of unnecessary adventures and my misfortunes.'

"And yet I want to know! And why are you a cat, I thought your totem animal was a donkey."

'A donkey? Why? Okay it does not matter right now. Well, it all started about five thousand years ago, when your ancestors raised a rebellion ...'

"A Unicorn! And an alien!" She interrupted him again by shouting.

'Could you stop interrupting me?'

"Oh, my bad. It's just that my power tells me everything you want to tell, and I can't help it."

'What kind of Special Talent is that?'

"Uhm. Well, this is something like a super deduction which Sherlock Holmes had, only more super and, apparently, allows me to understand the cats. Only you are the first cat that I can understand."

'I can tell you with confidence that I am probably the only cat that can speak, because all the cats I met only meowed and I could not understand them.'

Lisa smiled and then laughed.

"Sorry, just thinking about the absurdity of this whole situation." She wiped away a small tear from her right eye. "I never thought that when I ran from home I would find and pick up a cat that belongs to the Wards, who would be an alien unicorn, who is actually a fake god from a deep space."

'Tell me about that.' Seth plopped on bed. 'My whole life is a mess, and now I'm stuck on this backwater planet very far from home.'

"And yet, how did you manage to beat the Butcher?"

'Oh, I have practice, juggling multiple personalities is a trifling matter for me.' He waved it off.

"Well, I always wanted to make friends with God, but cat is fine too." She grinned, and her green eyes sparkled with mischief. "And you promised to tell me a story."

'Only if you stop interrupting me.'

"My lips are sealed."

'Okay, lets see. It all started over eight thousand years ago when my ancestor Ra found your planet...'

Seth reluctantly awoke in the rays of the morning sun. The body no longer hurt as much as a couple of days ago, and so he was able to stretch and rise to his paws. From the kitchen of this little apartment came the smell of roasting scrambled eggs and bacon, and Seth gently sprang onto the fluffy carpet and stomped on the call of a delicious smell.

"Ah, our sleepyhead is awake." Quipped miss Wilbourn. "And here I was thinking that only I love to sleep longer."

'Morning to you too.' Grunting, Seth struggled on a stool. 'Bacon?'

"A true English breakfast!"

'Well, at least not a hay.'

"I can't imagine how all these ponies can eat so much hay."

'I once also was a pony, and I will tell you that hay tastes pretty good. It was only when I became a cat that the taste of hay immediately ceased to please me.'

And while they were having breakfast, Seth was thinking about how his life would be if he stayed like a unicorn. Surely he would have managed to conquer the world, but most likely he would have died in the days of Discord.

"What do you think, what kind of pony could I possibly be in Equestria?" Lisa suddenly asked.

'Definitely not a unicorn!'

"Why?"

'You think too much about money, so you probably would be a circus earth pony or a traveling salesman. And unicorns are not adapted to long-range trek, they get tired quickly.'

"Why would I become circus pony?"

'With your Special Talent, you would be able to perform at fairs as a sibyl and you would have a lot of customers. Ponies are very gullible. I know it for myself.'

"U-hu, it would be great, but unfortunately in this world I would very quickly be arrested by the Protectorate."

'Yeah, to prohibit earning with your Special Talents is a very stupid law. As if they are specifically forcing all the gifted to go into crime and shady business.'

"Maybe it's true?"

'Do not make them sound so evil. They are the government, not the secret evil organization from the comic books.'

"We still need money if you want to get out of this planet as soon as possible."

'We?'

"Of course we are! Do you really think I will miss the chance to visit another world?"

'No bucking way! I won't let some murderous monkey get into Equestria!'

"Without this monkey you will fail! And I'm not some bloodthirsty psychopath!"

'I read your history, all that you did was kill, kill and kill again for the sake of murder. You have no place in such a peaceful place like Equestria!'

"I will not deny that humanity has always been cruel enough, but we are not all such, among us there are those who want peace!"

'And you think I should make an exception for you?'

"Am I supposed to stay here after I help you?"

'I do not know yet. And I will not be the only one who will decide this!'

"Your partner, this unicorn girl from Wards."

'And then there is Princess Celestia, who instead of sending you back, could easily kill you or do something even worse!'

"Oh, so you're worried about me! It's so cute!" She smirked.

'Yes, I'm worried, but this is not the main reason. I just do not want your kind, the Tau'ri, to find your way to Equestria and destroy this paradise of peace.'

"Okay, but you and your friend will need money for an expedition and details for the portal."

'We will find the way.' He jumped to the floor and headed into the room.

"Well, let us sell something from your technology, I am sure that Toybox, Dragon or Protectorate will pay any money for a spaceship or just a hyperdrive."

Seth instantly turned around and bared his teeth at Lisa in fury.

'I WILL NEVER ALLOW YOUR KIND TO GET ACCESS TO THESE TECHNOLOGIES!' His eyes glowed brightly in yellow light. 'I WILL KILL MYSELF ANYONE WHO EVEN DARE TO TRY!' His words exuded rage and hatred. 'AND YOU ARE MISTAKEN IF YOU THINK THAT I WILL MAKE AN EXCEPTION IN THIS CASE!'

His mind was filled with malice, and the desire to kill settled in his soul.

"I beg you, stop, please, it hurts me, argh!" Lisa cried in pain.

'WHAT? WHY DiD You...' Seth suddenly stumbled and nearly fell, his eyes watering and his head was dull.

"Why did you do this to me? I did not want anything like that. I just made a suggestion." The crying girl was lying on the floor.

'Oh, I, I did not want to, I did not know that this would happen.' He backed up hesitantly.

"What the fuck was that? I did not know that you have the power to instill pain remotely."

'But I have no such magic! Nothing like this has happened before.'

"It's Butcher. This is her superpower, you seized her abilities when you killed her."

'Oh, horseapples! I'm so sorry.'

"See, you are no less bloodthirsty than us." Lisa smiled faintly.

'I'm sorry, I did not want to.'

"It's okay, ugh." She winced in pain. "Just don't do it anymore to me. Peace?"

'Peace. And I'm still sorry.'

"I'll be fine. Just give me a chance to prove that I won't do any harm to your friend and your beloved Equestria."

'I'll consider it.'

"Well, it's a start." She stood up. "I guess I'll have to lie down for a while. Fuck, it was like a Cruciatus from a Harry Potter's book."

Seth did not understand what book she was talking about, but still guiltily lowered his eyes.

"After I rest a bit, I will look for a rental car."

'Car? Why do we need a car?'

"We are in New Jersey, and from this place to your girlfriend's school in the northwest of New York is almost 45 miles, this mean that getting there on foot will be problematic."

'You want us to visit her at school?'

"Not us, just me, because it will be extremely difficult to explain the presence of a wanted person in my car."

'Fine, but how you will convince her to come with you?'

"Do not worry about it. I have everything under control." She smiled darkly.

Already several days have passed since the moment when Sunset was released from the cell, and it would seem that she should have been glad that the fears of her superiors turned out to be groundless, but the absence of a faithful friend beside her was ached her heart. All these days his searches did not stop, but not a single trace of him was ever found. As if he vanished from the face of the earth.

Her teammate Lily was still friendly, but as if something had changed between them and she began to keep her distance. Sunset could not understand what exactly she did wrong, what caused fears in her comrades. She was ready to sacrifice herself for their salvation, and spent a whole week in solitary confinement without the opportunity to talk to anyone other than the Dragon. And now they were afraid of her.

Of course, the Dragon was very friendly and kind, always ready to answer her questions, or to support her morally at any time of the day. But Sunset had the weird feeling that something was wrong with the Dragon, as if there was some kind of tension in her behavior, and she gave off a feeling of being locked in a cage. Although it may have been Sunset’s own feeling of being imprisoned.

And Sunset quietly and peacefully spent the necessary time until she was released. But now she had to go to school again. Not that she didn’t like it, after all, the lessons of the natural sciences were incredibly informative, as humanity advanced in studying the laws of the universe much deeper than ponies, and classes in the music club brought her joy, but it seemed to her that she was wasting her time in vain, instead of looking for an opportunity to return home, or to participate in the searches for Midnight.

Sunset shut the locker and left the school. Today she didn't go to a music club, and so it was still quite light outside. Schoolchildren flocked home or went for a walk, and she walked slowly toward the bus stop. Of course she could call the Protectorate and they would have sent a car for her, but there was not much need for this, and even on the bus she would get to the tower pretty quickly.

She noticed this girl as soon as she went to a stop, she smiled very broadly, and her eyes seemed to glow with joy. The blonde, with bright green eyes and pretty freckles on her face, was dressed a little not for the weather, in a light blouse and a folded skirt. It was March and the temperature did not rise much above fifty degrees. And by her red nose and ear tips it was clear that she was slightly cold.

"Hello! I'm your fan!" She happily announced. "I was waiting for you here to get your autograph!"

"What? But why? How did you know?" Confusion rose on Sunset face.

"A friend of mine knows you and he said where to find you!"

"You shouldn't have come! It is forbidden! You will be punished!"

"They will punish me only if you tell them about this."

"And what, I have to keep it a secret?"

"Of course, my little pony, each of us has our own secrets." She smiled mischievously.

"What? How did you find out?"

"Oh, I'm just a psychic!"

"And what, you're gonna blackmail me?" Sunset got angry.

"No! I am your fan!" The girl hastened to convince her. "And I want to show you something."

"What exactly?"

"Not here, too many prying eyes. Let's go to my car."

"To your car? And how will I know that this is not an abduction attempt?"

"Do not be a chicken! Come on!" And she ran across the road toward a parked white car.

"I hope I will not regret it."

Sunset followed a mysterious fangirl to her car, and before getting into it looked at the salon for the presence of strangers, and not noticing anything dangerous, got into the car.

"See, nothing terrible happened!" Grinned girl.

"Well, what did you want to show me?"

"You are so impatient!" Mockingly grunted a girl and got a tablet out of her bag. "Here look."

The young heroine had nothing else to do other than accepting what was happening and picking up the tablet she pressed the playback. And on the screen was a recording of Midnight, on whose head a festive hat was put on, and a sign hung on his neck - 'I peed in shoes'. And on his face was an expression full of annoyance. Suddenly, this girl appeared next to him and started happily chirping to the camera.

[ ...Hi, hi, if you watch this, then your friend is my hostage! And for his release, I demand a can of pistachio ice cream and a new Beyonce album... ]

Sunset put the tablet away and looked at the girl with a face that expressed universal irritation.

"I told you that I need to show you something!"

"What the hay is this! Why do you have Midnight and why have you not yet reported this to the authorities?!"

"Easy, easy, hold your horses, Nelly, it's not as simple as you think."

"What's the big deal?"

"You see, those who are looking for him are not going to return him to you, in their plans to stick him in a cage and hide him away."

"What? But why? How do you know about it?"

"I told you that I am a psychic!" She smirked.

"Okay, but then what should I do?"

"Fasten the belt, we'll take a little ride."

"And where are we going?"

"To my home, of course, so that you can meet him." Girl winked at Sunset and started the engine. "Oh, and I'm Lisa, Lisa Wilbourn. And I already know your name. I'm sure we will be best friends!"

"And why does all this remind me of someone?"

Somewhere in Canterlot, in a room on the highest tower of the royal castle, the young pink princess sneezed loudly.