Chapter Six: Best Friends Forever
The next day at the Scout meeting, very little Scout business was discussed.
"So Cassie," Serena said in a wheedling tone, "How did your hot date with Andrew go?"
"Hmm?" the older girl had been staring off into space, clearly not focused on the meeting, which was unusual to say the least. Cassandra was usually as intent on business as Amy or Luna.
"That must have been some date if you're still this, umm, distracted," Serena giggled.
Cassie glanced at her watch and rose to her feet. "It was, but if you want details, you'll have to ask those three," she nodded at Raye, Mina, and Lita. "I've got to go. I promised to meet Zoë at the library in fifteen minutes. See you later girls, Your Highness." She nodded goodbye to Serena and left, humming softly under her breath.
"What did she mean, ask you three?" Luna asked, the tip of her tail twitching as she turned suspicious amber eyes on the guilty looking Scouts.
"You didn't spy on them did you?" Amy asked in disbelief. The three culprits exchanged sheepish glances. "Oh you did, didn't you?" the blue haired girl shook her head disgustedly.
"So that's where you were last night!" Artemis glared down at Mina from atop a shelf.
"So what if I was Artemis?" Mina raised her chin in defiance.
"I can't believe you guys!" Serena exclaimed. Luna nodded in agreement before the Princess continued. "You followed Cassie and Andrew around on their date and didn't invite me?!" Luna fell right off of the table.
******************
Meanwhile at the arcade, Darien sat down at the counter, ordered his coffee, and began to grill his best friend.
"So what did you do with Cassie last?"
Andrew looked at the dark haired boy for a second before going back to wiping down the counter. He didn't even bother to ask where he had heard about their date. "Oh just the usual stuff. Took her to dinner. Went to a movie. Took a long walk down by the lake in the park. Took her home. Proposed. Kissed her goodnight. Then I went home." The blonde arcade guy waited calmly for the explosion.
"You WHAT?!!"
********************
"He WHAT?!!!"
"Keep it down Zoë!" Cassie smiled blandly at the people who turned to stare at the disturbance to the library silence. "The whole world doesn't need to hear about it," she whispered between clinched teeth.
"You turned him down, right…Right?!" The eyes turned back to them and a librarian started in their direction.
"Yes," Cassie hissed. It was obvious that they needed more privacy. She stuffed her papers back into her backpack. "Come on." Cassie got up and led her friend upstairs to a huge room filled with bookcases filled to over flowing with millions of out of date magazines. They went to the very back corner and sat in the aisle under shelves of ancient National Geographics.
Zoë stared at her friend in silence. Cassie began to squirm under the unrelenting green eyes.
"What?" she finally asked.
"What happened after that?" Zoë demanded, exasperated.
Cassie's eyes unfocused as she thought of the intense moments of the preceding night. "I told him that I couldn't marry him." She paused until Zoë made an impatient gesture for her to continue. "Then he said that he'd convince me otherwise. Then he, he kissed me." Cassie blushed furiously.
Zoë grinned at her discommoded friend. "That must have been some kiss!"
"It was," breathed Cassie. "It liked to have curled my hair!" she continued in a normal, wry tone of voice.
"Hey! Maybe he can kiss me and straighten my hair!" Zoë pulled her long, curly dark blonde hair back into a low ponytail.
"Wait just a second! Just because I won't marry him doesn't mean I'll let you get your hooks into him!" She glared at Zoë until both broke into laughter.
"Seriously though," Cassie continued after the laughter had subsided, "Please don't tell anyone about this."
"I won't!" her friend declared stoutly.
"Pinky swear?"
"Pinky swear!" The two girls hooked their little fingers together and then…something happened.
Images of the past superimposed themselves over each other's faces. Hundreds of snapshots of time flashed across their minds as two best friends met again after 25,000 years.
After what seemed to be an eternity, they unhooked their fingers and sat back staring at each other. "Zoicite?" Cassie asked in a breathy whisper.
"Princess Athena?" Zoë whispered before breaking into tears. Cassie wrapped her arms around her friend in a hug and cried with her.
When the worst of the tears had passed, Zoë sat back and wiped her eyes. "Is all that I remember true? The Silver Millennium, and Prince Endymion, and that bitch Beryl, and everything?"
Cassie nodded solemnly. "Yes, it all happened. The Silver Millennium fell and Queen Serenity used her Silver Crystal to send us forward to this time."
"Yes," Zoë added shamefaced, "Then Beryl broke free and…and I betrayed my Prince again! Oh Cass, what kind of monster am I? I betrayed everything I believed in 25,000 years ago and then I did it again in this time! I killed poor Nephrite. Then I almost killed Endymion with a crystal in the back! I didn't even fight fairly!" The distraught girl broke into hysterical sobs.
Cassie grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her roughly. "It wasn't you! Beryl gained control of you. You were just a pawn in her cruel game!"
Zoë regained partial control of herself. "It doesn't matter. My Prince will never forgive me and I'll never forgive myself."
"Zoë, please…"
"He'll never forgive me! I broke the oath I made to serve and protect him eve unto death." Zoë stared down at the floor, her inner demons howling at the gates of her sanity. She longed to throw them open and surrender to the spiraling, black madness that waited.
Cassie stood up abruptly and held out her hand. Zoë stared up at her for a moment before taking the proffered hand and climbing unsteadily to her feet.
"Come on!" Cassie commanded as she swung her backpack up onto her shoulder. Zoë followed her silently as she led the way up onto the roof.
"Where are we going?"
"To my house. We need to have a long heart to heart talk."
"And your house is on the roof of the library?" Cass grinned at the sarcasm. It was a good sign.
"Nope." Cassie made her way to the center of the flat roof. "Give me your bag." Zoë handed it over with a skeptical look. Cassie tossed it up and it disappeared. Zoe's chin dropped to the ground. Then Cass did the same with her backpack.
"Where? What? How?" Zoë stuttered.
"Oh I just put them in my sub-space pocket. Don't you just love those things?" Zoë just shook her head in disbelief.
"What are you going to do now? Pull a rabbit out of your hat?"
"Better than that." Cass grinned devilishly. She held out her transformation pen. Zoë looked totally confused. "If I am the Princess of Athena then I'm also…" Zoë just blinked. "I'll just have to show you." She held her pen above her head and shouted, "Athena Star Power!" In an instant, Sailor Athena was smiling at the dumbfounded girl.
"You're a Sailor Scout?"
"You always did have a fine grasp of the obvious. Now its your turn."
"My turn?" Zoë squeaked. She took a deep breath. "Well what do I do?"
"Good question."
"You don't know!" Zoë glared at the Sailor Scout.
"Well! Earth transformations are different. You don't have a trigger phrase. Don't you remember how?" Sailor Athena rubbed the back of her head. She hadn't expected this problem. Of course, she hadn't expected to find any of Endymion's Guardians, at least not among the living.
Zoë pushed back her frustration at the whole trying affair and concentrated on finding a way to transform. She reached down inside herself and tapped her long dormant power. In an explosion of rose petals, Zoicite, Guardian of the Royal Family of Earth, appeared. Zoicite stumbled and almost fell because she hadn't really expected it to work.
"Welcome back Zoicite!" The two young women smiled at each other.
"Well," the Guardian said, "Let's get going before someone sees us!"
"That's my girl! Always eager to go!" Sailor Athena sprinted to the edge of the roof and leapt to the next building. Zoicite followed at bit more slowly.
"What else could possibly happen today?" she whispered under her breath before leaping after the Scout.
*******************
They finally landed on Cassandra's balcony at the Whitmore house. Athena used her control of sound waves to vibrate open the lock on the French doors and stepped in.
"Come on in Zoicite," she called over her shoulder. Perseus had been asleep on the bed when the doors had opened. He raised his head and opened one sleepy eye to see who had come in. When he saw the ex-Negaverse general, he jumped up so fast that he fell off the bed in a heap.
Athena laughed. "So much for cats always landing on their feet!" She knelt down by the indignant gray lump of fur. "Are you all right Percy?"
"Oh just fine," he said sarcastically, "If you don't count broken necks and hallucinations."
Athena picked him up and set him on his feet on the bed. "I don't know about broken necks, but you're not hallucinating. Perseus meet Zoicite." She turned to the slack-jawed girl. "Zoicite, this is my Guardian Cat Perseus."
Zoicite looked beseechingly up at the ceiling. "Please God, no more freaky stuff today! Give me a day to get used to this insanity.
"It's a bit much, isn't it?" Athena said sympathetically as she sat down on the bed next to her stunned cat. Zoicite rolled her eyes at the understatement and sat down on the desk chair.
Percy shook himself as if to make sure he was actually awake. "Zoicite? I thought Pluto told us Zoicite was dead."
Athena shook her head and with a wry twist of her lips said, "No, Pluto said, and I quote, 'Beryl's Zoicite is dead.' This is Endymion's Zoicite, my best girl friend."
Percy lay back down like a miniature Sphinx. "Someone should teach Pluto how to speak plainly."
"I dare you to tell her that," Athena giggled. The cat glared at her.
"Yes, well," he herumphed, "I suggest the two of you power down before your mother comes up here."
"Good thinking, as always Fuzzball." Athena complied. "Zoicite, you had better turn back to plain ol' Zoë," she added when she noticed that Zoicite was still there.
"How." Zoicite said flatly.
"How?" Cassie blinked.
"Yes, how. You really need to get your hearing checked Cassandra," Zoicite growled, her temper beginning to fray after what had turned out to be a very long day already.
"Umm, just will yourself back to Zoë Wilton," Cassie suggested, trying to be soothing.
"Will myself?" Zoicite raised one eyebrow skeptically.
"Close your eyes and picture yourself in your civilian clothing," Percy added from the bed.
Zoicite closed her eyes, screwed up her face in concentration, and in another flurry of rose petals turned back into Zoë. She smiled unsteadily at Cassie and Percy. "This is going to take some getting used to."
"I know, believe me. I know," Cassie agreed whole-heartedly. They stared vacantly at each other for several minutes, before a knock on the door startled them out of their private worlds.
"Cassandra, are you in there?" a woman's soft contralto called.
"Yes, Mama!" Cassie leapt to open the door. "What do you need?"
"I was just checking to see if you were in."
"Oh, um yes. I'm here. So is Zoë. Zoë Wilton, this is my mother Alexis Whitmore. Mama, this is my friend Zoë."
"It's nice to meet you Zoë," Mrs. Whitmore came into the room to shake the unfamiliar girl's hand.
"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Whitmore." Zoë tried to smile pleasantly, but the strain of the past while showed on her face.
"Hey Mama! Can Zoë spend the night? It is Friday. No school tomorrow," Cassie asked eagerly.
Mrs. Whitmore looked back and forth between the two girls and saw the signs of tears on both of their faces. She often worried about her daughter, about her lack of friends, about her tendency to disappear. The one time that she had confronted her about it, Cassie had told her that she was quite capable of taking care of herself, thank you very much and left the room. Christopher, who had come in at the end of the unpleasant scene, had told her quietly, and with a maturity that was only rarely present in her Casanova-like son, to leave Cassie alone unless she wanted to loose her daughter permanently. Both of her children seemed at times to be so much older than they were. The cool, collected look that Cassandra put on like a mask hid a deeply lonely girl. "Of course she can stay Cassie. Zoë, just make yourself at home." 'And please be a good friend to my daughter. Maybe you can reach her where I can't.' Mrs. Whitmore smiled at them and left quietly.
Cassie shut the door behind her mother and them moved to sit in the floor by the bed. She stretched out her legs and leaned back against the bed. Zoë lay down on her side in the floor and propped her head up on her bent arm. Cassie took a deep breath, "Now about that heart-to-heart…"
The two girls talked all of that afternoon and late into the night, stopping only for dinner and to get snacks. They discussed the bits and pieces that they remembered of the Silver Millennium. They rehashed their new lives. With much coaxing, Cassie was able to get Zoë to tell her what she knew of Zoicite's actions while under Beryl's control. It all seemed like a very long bad dream to her. She had known that something was not right that whole time, but she had no choice because the only memories she had were the twisted ones Beryl had put in her mind. It took both Percy and Cassie to convince the tortured girl that she wasn't responsible for what she did under the evil queen's control.
Late that night, Percy left to do his cat-ly rounds. Cassie and Zoë lay in the dark bedroom, finally silent after their long talk. Cassie was about to fall asleep when she half-heard Zoë say something. She rolled over and peered over the edge on her bed at the pallet on the floor.
"What did you say?"
"I said, we never finished our discussion of your date."
Cassie felt her cheeks heat. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "Don't you think you've heard enough from me today?"
"Nope."
Cassie sighed. "What do you want to know, nosy?"
"I want to know what happened to spook you so."
"Who says I'm spooked?"
"Cass, I've known you for two lifetimes now. So spill it!"
Cassie closed her eyes. "I really don't know what happened. The Athena power was involved somehow, but it was more than that. It's like…like we're connected on some deep level. I've never felt anything like it."
Zoë raised herself up onto her elbow. "You know what that sounds like?" Cassie grunted negatively. "It sounds like you and Andrew are soulmates."
"Soulmates?" Cassie rolled the word around her head. It did sound right.
"Yeah, you know, like Serenity and Endymion."
"I don't know. I suppose its possible, but what can I do about it? I have my duties as Sailor Athena. And there is that new mess stirring in the Negaverse. And…"
"And you're making excuses!" Zoë interrupted emphatically.
"And I'm making excuses," Cassie suppressed tears thickened her voice. "I'm terrified Zoë. What if this is some one sided thing?"
"If it was one sided, would he have proposed?"
"I suppose not."
"You suppose not! Of course he felt it too. You just have to wait and see what happens. Give it time, after all you have centuries."
"But he doesn't." Cassie whispered as her tears fell silently on her pillow.
Zoë had no reply to that one. The girls lay in silence for awhile.
"Cass?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you think Malacite is alive somewhere?"
"I don't see why not. All of the Earth Guardians are probably around here somewhere."
"How do we go about finding him, them?" Zoë asked, her voice full of longing for her lover and her companions.
"I don't know. Silver Millennium survivors seem to pop up when the time is right. No doubt Pluto has a hand in that. Unfortunately getting information out of her is about as easy as finding a ruby in the sands of Mars." She paused trying to think through her growing sleepiness. "One thing we do have to do though is introduce you to Endymion and the Scouts."
"I can't face them!"
"Yes, you can!" Cassie's voice was suddenly implacable as the cool warrior part of her soul came to the fore. "We don't have the luxury to take this slowly. A new enemy is coming, if it's not already here. I know it is connected to the Negaverse and your first hand knowledge could prove invaluable. I feel in my bones that this battle is going to be even more brutal than the fall of the Silver Millennium."
Zoë felt the solider part of her respond to Cassie's tone. In that moment in a dark room, in the wee hours of the night, Zoë accepted who and what she was: she was Zoicite, warrior, guardian and retainer to a Prince, and this time she vowed silently, nothing, not even her own fears, would keep her from her duty. She was mildly surprised at how good it felt to again take up the responsibilities that she had once born. "You're right, Princess Cassandra. I will do whatever you think is necessary to serve my Prince and his Princess," she said formally. She continued in her normal tone, "Who are Endymion and Serenity and the Scouts anyway?"
"You don't remember? I thought you already knew who Endy was at least."
"That part of my, um, former activities is a blank."
Cassie grinned at the dark ceiling; "This is going to be fun."
"Cass! Tell me who they are!" Zoë demanded; a sudden feeling of impending doom loomed over her.
"Now, now. That wouldn't be fair. Besides, I can't wait to see your face when you find out."
"Cassie!" Cassie just giggled evilly and refused to answer. The girls finally drifted off to sleep as the sky turned rosy with dawn.
Next time on Sailor Moon: Serenity's Court
Cassie has found one of Endymion's Guardians, but will Darien or the others accept her? Find out in Zoicite: Friend or Foe.
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