Chapter 16: Cursed Blood

A short trek down the Pyramid brought Mew and Kairi back out into the warm sights of Sancturia. Mew stretched his one working arm over his head and let out a big, bellyaching grunt.

"Mmmm yeah! Its nice to back in someplace sunny!" He remarked with his usual jolliness.

Kairi grimaced as she responded, "I can't believe I'm saying this but...You're right."

"Yep! This really is a nice looking city during the day, if I do say so myself!" Saturn boasted with her head bobbing slowly.

"Indeed." Mew replied.

Him and Kairi then stared at the scenery for a little while before slowly pivoting their heads to the left. They looked at the brainy little scientist and she sharply turned to greet them.

"But you..." Kairi spun back to point at the Pyramid then thrust her finger back at Saturn while blabbering, "A-And we...!"

"Geez, just how fast is your ship?" Mew snatched up Kairi's question for himself.

"Hahaha! Rule Number 727: A Heroine Never Reveals her secrets!" Saturn boasted with her head up so high she looked like she'd fall over.

"Still you missed us already? Didn't take you for being a clingy type!" As Mew joked around the brainiac had already worked out a retort.

"Don't confabulate about your self-importance like that bucko! I was already on my way here before you soooo rudely interrupted!" She planted her fists on her hips and ran right up to Mew with her head leaned down.

She pressed her chin up to his chest and stared up. She now looked like some kind of emu. In that odd position she declared, "For your information buster, I'm the one in charge of maintenance here!"

"Y-You are?" Kairi blurted in shock.

Mew turned and gestured one hand out to say "Well it makes sense" as though her surprised was unwarranted.

Saturn peeled off Mew and stood right up with arms crossed. She leaned back and looked positively full of pride.

"Indeed! If I didn't maintain the thermodynamic engine powering the anti-gravity repulsors, or check the wiring on the quantum irregularity siphon, or refueled the tanks with quasi-ion pandimensional matter rearrangers, or Blah Blah Blah..."

Mew slowly dozed off then jolted himself awake to turn to Kairi. He gestured a hand up and she did the same with both while looking all wide-eyed. He then looked back at Saturn, who after a whole minute of this, finally got to the point.

"-This whole city'd be kissing the bare buttocks of the arctic sea! And that's not even getting into the cloaking system or the temperature regulators. Cause if I-!"

Mew planted his hand over her mouth and went, "Ok we get it. You're a hard working elf and Santa's proud of you."

Once he let go Saturn sneered and lavishly fluttered her fingers out, "Yes yes no applause necessary! I know I'm awesome!"

She then crossed her arms up and yelled, "Now if you'll excuse me...Maintenance awaits!"

She ran twenty feet then grinded to a halt. She spun back around, ran up to Mew, then grabbed his shoulders in her tiny hands and dragged him down to her eye level.

"I got my eye on you punk. So don't try anything funny!" She firmly declared into Mew's blinking, restrained expression. With one last smirk Saturn let go and went on her way.

Once she was gone Mew settled down to laugh. Kairi took this opportunity to remark, "I reeeeally hope they don't get any crazier than this..."

Mew crossed his one arm and put on a really good Saturn impression, "Rule Number 72: Don't count your chickens before they hatch!"

"That's NOT what that means," Kairi bluntly groaned, and rubbed the side of her head, "What lets just...go."

Starting the trip back to the Aurora household Mew chuckled and drew Kairi's begrudging interest in what he was thinking.

"What now?" She grumbled.

"I just find it funny the Planetary Aurians are considered fairy tales when two of them frequently visit the city."

"Well its not like they were picture books!" Kairi shouted in an uppity offended tone. Mew wound up laughing some more.

Gabriel was standing guard where they left him. His eyes creaked open lightly on their approach, and he pulled himself off the door.

"You're late." He said with a bit of dry wit to his voice.

"Ran into a bit of a roadblock on the way back chief." Mew joked.

"Ah, Catherine," Gabriel nodded slowly then said, "An endless bundle of energy that one. But her genius is second-to-none. Most of us have been more than happy to name her the leader of our little rag-tag group."

"You're not the leader?" Mew sounded shocked.

"I had to humbly decline the offer. My duty is to Sancturia..." Gabriel frowned a little bit as he looked at his wrist and remarked, "And I do not even know the first thing about how any of her technology works. Even operating the watch she made to hide my skin color from my people proves to be a challenge."

"Wait, so green is your normal skin color?" Mew pressed at him for more info, "What's up with that?"

Gabriel glanced at him from the corner of his eye then lowered his hands and put on a smile, "Perhaps that can be a story for another day. For now, isn't there something we must attend to?"

Mew slapped his forehead and went, "Right, the training! Almost forgot!"

With a deep chuckle Gabriel turned to Kairi and asked her, "Did you learn anything new today from watching Mew fight?"

"I-I think I did..." Kairi responded with her face hidden under the shadow of her cap.

"Well you can tell us at the dojo later. But for now I think its time we covered something fun!"

Mew a big ol' smile as he entered the house and went straight to the basement. When his student and fellow teacher joined him he took a few seconds to do some warm-up squats. Kairi's drooping eyes followed his every move until he stood up with a bounce looked to his notes.

"Today you're going to learn all about the finesse of..." He hopped and thrust one fist skyward, "Aerial combat!"

"H-Huh?" Kairi stammered after a momentary pause.

"Well I noticed you tend to jump around a lot so I figured you don't know how to fight in the air." Mew replied.

"T-That's not..." Kairi pouted then slowly faced the mirror once and asked, "Can't we...learn something else?"

"This is the next step! No sequence breaking or excuses allowed!" Mew waved his pointer finger up and said with a bit of sly grin, "So don't go saying you get vertigo, cause that won't fly in my classroom."

Laughing at his own pun he fails to see the red in Kairi's cheeks as she remarks, "O-Oh yeah! I get very sick if I'm too high off the ground!"

"Nonsense!" Mew said with a dopey smile, "That only happens in planes or jets!"

"How...how would you know? I-I could be a rare case!"

"What you are right now is a fruit case. Come on, what's the big deal?"

Kairi suddenly threw her arms down and shouted, "I can't fly asshole!"

Mew softened up as the fury in her voice flew right in his face. Looking a tad embarrassed he whistled then whispered, "I take that back. That's a pretty good excuse."

Kairi huffed and puffed and looked red as a beet. While giving her space Mew turned to Gabriel and wondered, "Isn't flying part of the basic education around here?"

"Only once you're an adult. Allowing children to fly free would lead to a...few problems if they roamed outside the city." He explained.

"Ok so children can be a buncha eager beavers, big whoop!" Mew then swung his arm out towards Kairi and exclaimed, "But people her age are smart enough to know not to get caught by the outside! So nah, that's dumb! Screw the rules, I'm going to teach you how to fly right now!"

Kairi bucked up and stared at Mew with her mouth ajar. He raised three fingers and counted them down as he said, "And it'll be easy as 1-2-3!"

"You're always making everything sound so easy!" Kairi yelled in exasperation, "What makes you think that I can learn-"

The moment Mew finished counting down his coiled fist sprung forward and sent a bullet of air at Kairi's head. She widened her eyes and jumped to the right to avoid it. Her heart visibly raced against her chest and Mew lowered his fist with a grin.

"Cause you've already shown yourself to be a fast learned when you actually try," He said confidently before waggling his pointer finger out and adding, "Just remember it takes more effort to frown than to smile."

Kairi calmed down in a couple long breaths then angrily spat at Mew, "Your metaphors suck!"

"I agree," Gabriel chimed in, "Perhaps I should tutor you in the art of metaphors?"

Mew shook his head between the two and blurted in exasperation, "What I'm trying to say is..."

He stared at Kairi with a smile, "Be a little more positive. You'll do just fine."

Kairi looked at him half-cocked then groaned under her breath. She then raised herself up and closed her eyes to say, "Fiiiiine, what do I do?"

"First you gotta close your eyes and concentrate, like when you learned how to dodge."

"Should I give her another massage?" Gabriel asked on approach to the mat.

Kairi swung her hand up like a stop sign and declared, "T-That won't be necessary...!"

As she laid it back by her hip she took a deep breath in and said, "I...I can do it myself."

"Ok so you know how your body produces sweat? Take the same principal behind that and apply it to your energy."

"What?" Kairi twitched slightly in disgust.

"...Start by focusing on your legs...Remember, you want to push the energy out."

Kairi's hands tensed up and she nodded her head. Then slowly, she tried to put Mew's teachings into practice. Mew sat down and closed his eyes to get a better feel for her energy levels. It was in disarray, pushing out all over the place. She still needed that one little push of motivation...

"Come on, you can do it. There's no need to be afraid." Mew whispered softly enough for her to hear.

After a couple of minutes of waiting she began to murmur and her energy stabilized. Mew grinned and thought to himself, "That's the spirit!"

He opened his eyes and watched as Kairi's positioning seemed a little different. On closer inspection Mew saw that her feet were a millimeter off the ground, and that the gap was steadily growing bigger. She wobbled back and forth a little as part of the adjustment phase, and her trembling threatened to undo all the progress so far.

Mew stood up and with a subtle wave of the hand sent a mild breeze her way. It was his hope that feeling the wind caressing against her body would ease her mind. And judging by the decrease in trembling a few seconds later, his estimate was right on the money.

In fact, doing so sped up the act of her rising. Mew smiled and softly clapped at her making progress. Kairi stirred and wondered, "W-What's going on?"

Mew grinned and hollered out, "Why don't you open your eyes and find out!"

She did so right away and turned a mix of pale and green in the face. She tilted her head down. Mew must have looked smaller from her point of view as she continued rising off the mat. Her eyes trembled and with an elated grin she declared, "I-I'm flying?!"

Mew wanted to offer his sincerest congratulations but nearly forgot one important thing. He swung his hand up and exclaimed, "Actually, you might want to-"

Kairi rose too high too fast and bonked her head on the ceiling. She dropped straight down to the mat on her back and groaned in pain. Mew's smile squirmed into a frown and he ran right over to hold his hand out and offer assistance.

Kairi rubbed the top of her head and sat up. She reached her other hand out towards Mew, then paused halfway and brushed his hand away. Once she stood up on her own she blushed and tucked her face under the lip of her cap.

Mew backed off and held his one arm up to his chest. With a close-eyed grin he remarked, "Embarrassing head bonk aside, you did it!"

Kairi pushed her cap up a little and her pupils enlarged as she turned her gaze away from Mew. Her heart looked like it was racing with excitement as she stammered out, "I-I did...didn't I?"

Gabriel nodded from the corner of their eyes and injected himself into the conversation, "Yes you did. This is something to be proud of Kairi."

Kairi's cheeks turned red and she spun away from the both of them for a little bit. She tapped one foot on the ground and then lifted her head towards the ceiling to proclaim, "I want to try it again, just to be sure!"

"Well that's great and all but wouldn't it better if you went outside?" Mew chucked aloud.

Kairi spun her head back for a brief moment then coughed out "R-Right..." as she rubbed the sore spot on her head. Then she ran right for the stairs. Mew and Gabriel had never seen her be this energetic before. It brought a smile to Gabriel's face as he followed her along outside.

Once the three had gathered Kairi pumped her fists up by her chest and closed her eyes shut. She breathed in and out, then muttered "Focus" to herself a few times. She slowly rose off the ground and was floating ten feet in the air in only a few seconds.

She opened her eyes and caught the envious gaze of the few Aurians wandering around. The next thing Mew and Gabriel knew she was flashing a smug smile at all of them and yelling, "Look at me suckers! I can fly!"

Mew stiffened up, puckered his lips and whispered, "Oh no..."

Kairi held her arms out like the wings of a plane and did a quick loop-de-loop in place. Then she zoomed forward, flying right over the houses of Sancturia with ease, laughing merrily all the while.

Though Mew was glad she picked this up like it was second nature to her, he had a little more faith that she wouldn't use this to brag. As he started rubbing his forehead and sighing Gabriel put a hand on his shoulder and reassured him a little.

"I'll go keep an eye on her so she doesn't get into trouble." Said as Kairi speeds right on by them, cheerfully yelling to the humbled crowd, "Look at me! I'm lighter than air!"

Mew sighed but then smiled at her flight of fancy as at the very least, she was happy. He then glanced at Gabriel and told him, "She's in your hands Big Green. I'm just gonna rest a bit..."

He retreated back into the house and sat down on one of the couches. His broken arm gave him some grief when he accidentally leaned up against it and the pain shot up to his brain like a rusted metal spike.

"Ssssss...!" Mew hissed and gently moved his hip off it, lamenting that, "Hooo boy this isn't gonna be an easy fix..."

Suddenly his vision was obscured in the shadow of something smooth and soft, and a familiar friendly voice teased him with a high-pitched "Guuuuess who?"

Mew's smile turned wobbly like jello as he answered, "How many guesses do I get?"

"Hmmm, three." They answered.

"Do they have short gradient hair?"

"Yessss." They replied in a sing-song manner.

"D-Do they have a rockin' body?" Mew stuttered with a big grin on his face, and he tickled the side of his chin.

"Oh absolutely." They replied.

"And are your hands currently covering my eyes, Auris?" Mew ended the estimation on what he felt was a high note. Unfortunately as the ten fingers on his shoulders would soon prove, he was just a little bit off.

"Sorry, try again." She said as she lifted her hefty curtain from over his face and laid them atop his head. Mew slowly stared up and just barely was able to look past her chest to see her smiling at him playfully.

He reacted with shock and pulled his head out from under her chest. His face turned bright red and he nearly stumbled right off the couch. Auris giggled and then walked around the couch to sit herself right down beside Mew. She reached for his broken arm and gently lifted it up. The pain was dulled a bit by her stroking his skin from elbow to wrist, but instead brought out a sense of arousal from deep within Mew's loins.

"Do you want me to kiss your boo-boo and make it feel better?" She asked.

"B-Boy am I learning a lot about myself this week..." Mew tightened his eyes shut and with a weak smile of resistance he replied, "A-Are you serious or..."

Auris' hand glowed a gentle sea blue as she slowly rubbed her fingers up and down Mew's entire arm. Mew stared and watched without a word as he could feel his bones mend back together and the rigamortis in his muscles vanish. All the whole Auris hummed a melody that took Mew's mind off the pain that lingered as she worked.

Once she was done she released her grip on his arm and he was able to lower and flex it without feeling a thing. As he gave his arm the whole glance-around he remarked, "Holy crap you've gotta teach me how to do that!"

"That..." Auris leaned away and put a finger up to her lips, "Is an Aurian secret."

She gave him a wink and then sat herself up against the arm of the couch. Mew looked at her and saw that she had this curious look in her eye. Mew sighed and suspected her intentions almost right away, "Ahh...now you want to talk."

"It'll be sufficient recompense for the massage you just got."

"Fair enough but it probably won't take long for your daughter to come back." Mew said while leaning back on the opposite end of the couch.

"Oh I think we'll have plenty of time." She whispered deeply.

Mew shrugged his shoulders, enjoying how refreshed his arms felt for a moment, and said to her, "Alright then lets start off on Saturn."

"Ah yes, Catherine. A real sweet heart that one." Auris said while brushing the back of her hand up by her lips.

"Really? I must've missed the memo..." Mew cut the sass out and went straight to the point, "Yeah she is. A little too sweet for someone working under Gravitus."

Mew rolled a hand around in the air and added, "Its not just her. Every Planetary Aurian so far besides Gabriel is working for Gravitus willingly...But none of them have struck me as bad people."

Auris gently lowered her eyelids and laid her hands atop her waist. Evading Mew's gaze she spoke softly in a reprimanding tone, "Did you forget the conversation we had last night about the evils of charisma?"

"What's going on with the Planetary Aurians goes way beyond a few charismatic speeches. Saturn's weird but when we butted heads I could tell that her cause of justice was genuine. If Gravitus is as much of a threat as you say he is then why would she ever believe his talks of 'peace'?"

"Belief isn't gifted, its earned. And for better or for worse that man has pulled the wool over all their eyes. Even Gabriel is no exception to that..." As Auris closed her eyes Mew widened his a little.

"What are you saying?" He wondered, feeling a twinge of dread.

She creased up a smile and remarked, "I shall always be grateful to Gabriel for keeping to his oath after all these years...But it is that same oath that allowed Gravitus to lie and keep him subservient all this time."

She dangled a hand up over her chest and lifted her head up all the way to state, "The truth isn't that I am a hostage to keep Gabriel in line...Gabriel is the hostage to keep me in line."

"W-What?" Mew's mind was frazzled for a moment but after shaking his head he threw his hands out and blurted, "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Doesn't it? If you keep seeking the truth-"

"No!" Mew slammed his hand up against the back of the couch and narrowed his eyes towards Auris. His teeth were bitten in a scowl that was a mix of frustration and disappointment.

"I've had it up to here with the secret keeping Auris! I want to trust you, I really, REALLY do, but you can't keep doing this!" As Auris showed no physical response Mew gripped the head of the couch and stared her deep in the eyes, his irises flashing a dim shade of yellow as he growled and begged, "Just give me one good reason why I should trust you. One reason. That's all I'm asking."

Auris closed her eyes and whispered, "I can do you one better. I shall give you...two."

She then pulled herself off the couch and turned her back to Mew, giving him a brief respite. Then she turned around and suddenly had a sharp butcher's knife drawn in her right hand. With a glistening smile she raised the knife up near her face and had Mew in a state of shock.

"Where did you..." Mew narrowed his eyes, shook his head and punched the back of the couch as he started to stand up and say, "You better not be thinking of threatening me with a knife."

Auris closed her eyes and with a demure expression she started to lower the knife to her neck and remarked, "I just think its time we...cut to the chase."

She placed the sharp edge of the blade up against her skin. Mew gasped and swung his hand out but was too late. She gently glided the blade across her neck in one clean stroke, and at least a pint of blood splashed out onto her robe.

Mew felt his stomach churn and his vision grow faint for a moment. But what snapped him out of diving into a spiral of despair was that not even a second later he saw Auris' smile spread. She held the knife up beside her face and it was clean as a whistle. And her neck, which Mew saw get cut in a straight line, had no wound to speak of. All that blood that splattered onto her skin started to get sucked right back in through her pores until the only proof that she did this existed entirely on her clothes.

Mew could feel his blood leaving his face as he got a little woozy and collapsed back onto the couch. And "D.", with his nasty little laugh, jollily whispered into Mew's mind, "Told you so."

Mew stared blankly at the ceiling until Auris entered his view. She tucked the knife away in her cleavage and then used her amazonian strength to pick Mew up and sit him upright on the arm of the couch. Then she gently patted him on the head like nothing had changed.

"Did you actually believe that the full extent of my immortality was to keep me from growing old and withered?" She asked with her smile in a thin crease.

Mew didn't have a comeback. No quip, no insult, not even a "Huh?" He just continued staring at Auris as she sat down opposite of him and put her hands on her waist.

"My father's greatest 'gift' to me...Eternal life. I cannot grow old, and I cannot be killed...Not unless I am destroyed down to the very last molecule. I will stand beside time and walk its long and winding road to the end of days," Her gaze turned hollow while her voice retained its mature allure, "That is the curse of the Aurora name. The curse of our blood..."

Mew cracked a grin and started laughing to himself, "Ha...haha. Y-You say that so easily..."

"After two-thousand years of living you learn to adapt." She replied nonchalantly.

Mew paused and took a large gulp. Then he tried to sit himself back up and meekly inquire, "Y-You said your father did this to you. H-H-How exactly?"

"I could explain it all, but..." Auris started to reach for the shoulders of her robe to pull them off, "Perhaps it'd be better if I showed you."

She revealed her skin down to the shoulders, which her undershirt did not reach. There Mew saw something that made his stomach churn. It was part of a massive rune that glowed with a gruesome, dark crimson hue. The detail on the rune was frightening. It looked like it cut into her like a scar. And judging from the size and shape of it, the rune had to have stretched over the rest of her body.

The longer Mew looked at it the more drained he felt. The rune was sapping him of strength and making him woozy. But then Auris covered herself right back up and he went back to being in tip-top shape.

"What the hell was that?" Was a basic if not damning question on his end. Mew had never seen anything so twisted in his life. It was like the language of the Elder Gods had been grafted into Auris' skin.

And the answer, Mew would find, laid on the tip of Auris' tongue, "The Anti-Genesis Theorem."

"The...what?" Mew sputtered, surprised that she seemed to read his mind.

"A magic formula the Ten Sages created as an answer to my husband's growing power. It is the complete inverse of the ten elements, and any beings whom rely on elementary energy to function grow weaker and weaker in its presence until they die. And by grafting the formula onto a living being's body, they can be granted other abnormal powers far beyond mortal comprehension."

"S-So your immortality, and your clai-"

"Are my blessing," Auris laid a hand down near the bottom of her waist, "And my curse."

Mew looked down but then got a bit embarrassed and thus looked right back up at her face. He waved a hand out and wondered, "So Kairi...?"

"No. The Anti-Genesis Theorem isn't something that's passed down through blood." She hastily replied to a question that was never asked.

Mew's mind was thrown into chaos enough, but in his attempts to push aside the clouds he had lost track of the time. Thus by the time he thought about getting back to the subject of Gravitus, he was shocked upright by a holler of "I'm back!" from Kairi at the door.

Mew and Auris swung their heads to the door and, in a scene that mirrored his first encounter with Kairi, Mew's face turned bright red as she stared at the two of them sitting on the couch. Kairi squinted her eyes, planted her fists on her hips and leaned in looking ready to chew the two out angrily.

But upon Kairi's mouth opening Auris stood right up and distracted her with a worrying sight.

"M-Mom your clothes..." Kairi gasped in pale fright.

"Oh I was preparing some spaghetti sauce and spilled some of it on my clothes. Clumsy me!" She put on the act of an innocent mother a little too well, as even Mew believed she was telling the truth for just a moment.

And quickly after Auris put her hands down at her waist and recognized the elation her daughter shown earlier, "You seem to be in a good mood today my dear. Did something happen?"

Kairi fluttered her eyes then retreated back a little, looking a little embarrassed to admit, "Y-Yeah I uhhh...learned how to fly."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Auris clapped her hands a few times then said, "Mew has been teaching you well."

Kairi swung her head up and her pupils shrunk to the size of pins. She then yelled out somewhat angrily, "Y-Yeah he has! So keep your hands off him mom, cause he's mine!"

Kairi's skin turned pale as she found Mew and Auris staring blankly at her little outburst. With a rough cough she turned aside and 'added', "A-As my trainer...You know?"

"Oh well, pardon me for interrupting then." Auris turned towards the kitchen, flashing a sly smile at Mew for a moment before making her way there. Mew stared at her the whole walk and realizes that he's just been played like a damn fiddle.

"Oh she's good. She's TOO good."

His frustration was knocked out of his skull by Kairi socking him on the back of his head and saying, "Hey idiot! Quit daydreaming and get a move on!"

Mew turned to her and rubbed the back of his head. Kairi was in a huff but also, seemed to be very happy. She smiled smugly and after a little laughter she went towards the stairs. When she was gone Gabriel finally returned to the house sweating from his stone-cold face.

"Wow, she really ran you dry didn't she?" Mew joked, a much needed reprieve of amusement after the staggeringly overwhelming revelations over the last few minutes.

Gabriel stared at him narrowly then made his way back to the basement. With nothing better to do except stew in his own thoughts, of which there was a lot to mull over, Mew figured he'd head down and sort all that out later tonight.

Kairi and Gabriel were back in their positions near the mat. Kairi was riding the high off of mastering flying in a matter of minutes and had a big grin on her face.

"Alright, what's next?!" She demanded to know.

Her attitude was borderline cocky and so Mew had no guilt on his mind when he told her, "Flying was the easiest thing I had to teach you. You still have to learn how to utilize it in combat."

Kairi stopped grinning and with a careless roll of the shoulders remarked, "Shouldn't be that hard right? I just need to apply what I know about ground combat to the air!"

Mew crossed his arms up and said, "Just because you can drive a car doesn't mean you can fly a jet."

He then turned to Gabriel and nudged his head at him in hopes he made a good comparison. The man stiffened up and whispered, "I don't know what either of those things are."

Mew sighed then swung his head back in exasperation, "POINT IS...There's a whole different set of rules to combat when you're flying."

"You've got to worry about balancing the momentum of your attacks with the speed of your flight, otherwise you'll just be tumbling everywhere," Mew then pointed at his chest a couple times and said, "Doesn't help that you've got a little extra weight up front."

Kairi immediately set her glare on him and Mew throws his hands up with a hasty self-defense of, "I'm just saying to keep that in mind, geez!"

"Sure you are, pervert." Kairi couldn't be prevented from saying that however.

Mew closes his eyes and sighs to her, "Look just give it a test run for a bit and you'll see what I mean."

"Oh? And are you going to be my training dummy again?" Kairi asked with a bit too much enthusiasm.

"Not a chance. Just take a few swings at the air for a little bit." Mew then vacated the mat on the opposite side of where Gabriel stood.

Kairi pouted in disappointment but then used what she learned to levitate off the ground and suspend herself in place. There was no cause for alarm regarding her hitting the ceiling this go around. She then pulled out her staff in both hands and squinted her gaze forward.

She lifted her staff, swung it down with great force, and instantly went tumbling forward through the air. She dropped her cap and her ponytail flew in her face by the time she got back upright. She brushed the hair away with her breath then turned around and tried again.

She still went tumbling but this time floated upside-down when she was done. With a bothered groan she tried AGAIN and the results weren't any different. Mew had a good laugh at that and gracefully laid back up against the wall to see her try and work it all out.

After a few minutes of observation Mew was bothered but his old pal "D.", who grumbled in his mind the words, "You're still bothering with this nonsense after everything you just learned?"

Mew whispered to avoid arousing suspicion, "I admit everything I learned from Auris is bonkers but it WAS an effective way of earning my trust."

"Trust schmust. So she bled her black heart out to you, so what? She continues to make you dance to her tune and you just go 'Ok!' and let her do it!"

"You know what 'D.'? I think you're jealous because she's good at manipulating and you suck."

"How does your mind possibly jump to such asinine conclusions?!" The demon replied in a raspy tone, "She still kept that hidden from you until you forced her hand. She lies, tempts and manipulates everyone around her to do things her way...Including her own flesh and blood."

Mew looked to Kairi and saw her having a somewhat better time swing her staff mid-flight. He remembered for a moment the quick excuse Auris came up with to hide the blood on her dress and whispered aloud, "It does seem like Kairi doesn't know..."

"And if that wench doesn't trust her daughter, why should you trust her?" "D.'s" hallow whispers then faded into the recesses of Mew's mind.

"You're talking to yourself again." Kairi's blunt comment snapped Mew out of that brief funk he was having.

He looked up and she was looking down at him. Mew just swung his hands up and laughed, "What are you the conversation police?"

He then waved a hand down and remarked, "Come down for a moment I wanna ask you something."

Cautiously lowering herself to the ground Kairi kept her staff out as she murmured, "What?"

Mew knew he'd be walking on glass shards but went "Screw it" and asked, "How do you feel about your mom?"

Gabriel's eyes perked up and narrowed in on Mew's location. He kept going anyways despite the slight discomfort on Kairi's face, "Cause I couldn't help but notice you guys got a somewhat rocky relationship."

Kairi scoffed and turned her head away. Then she stammered out, "W-What's that gotta do with anything?"

"I was just curious, y'know."

Mew's nonchalant attitude set Kairi off something fierce and she threw her arms down to yell, "Well butt out! Its none of your business!"

After a long-winded growl she dropped her staff and ran for the stairs. Mew blinked a few times and rubbed the back of his head in confusion. Gabriel enlightened him by bluntly stating, "I don't know why you thought that was a good idea."

"What, it was an honest question," Mew said with genuine ignorance, then tilted his head down and bit his teeth into a scowl to remark, "...Was it really that bad?"

"Lady Auris told you something in the short time we were gone, didn't she?" Gabriel deduced with shocking accuracy.

"How did-"

"I could see it in your eyes. They're as pale as a ghost's." Gabriel walked to the other side of the mat and got in close enough so that they could communicate in whispers.

"She entrusted you with her darkest secret, didn't she?" He said while leaning in to Mew's ear.

Mew widened his eyes and replied with a slow bob of his head, "Yeah...Yeah she did."

"Hrrmmm..." Gabriel closing his eyes could've meant many things. From Mew's point of view though he saw it as him feeling conflicted over her decision.

"It can't be helped. If she decided it was appropriate to tell you, then that infers a great deal of trust in your ability to handle the truth," Gabriel glared and firmly told him, "Which means you are not to discuss this with Kairi, no matter what."

"But why doesn't she know? She's going to find out eventually!"

"If you're worried about the immortality don't be. Lady Auris already told Kairi about that," Before Mew could interject Gabriel added, "But she knows nothing about the others parts of her curse..."

"That still doesn't sound very fair if you ask me." Mew sighed and rubbed the back of his head some more.

"Your desire to help is admirable, but there are some battles you can't win," Gabriel glanced at the stairs and sighed himself before he noted, "This is something that mother and daughter must settle on their own."

"I just wish I knew why. It sucks not knowing things sometimes..." Mew sighed louder, as though this was becoming a contest of who could sigh the most.

Gabriel glanced at him with a bit of a smile and offered a bit of his wisdom to ease Mew's mind, "Trust in Lady Auris. She may seem cold on the outside, but if her hope after all these years isn't proof enough of the strength of her character...Then I do not know what is."

"I guess you're right. I don't know the first thing about what it's like to be a mother." Mew cracked a bit of a grin at that and Gabriel joined in with a chuckle.

"Yes well...Its not as easy as it sounds. Even harder when you consider she's doing it on her own."

"Oh yeah, she's a single mother..." When that clicked in Mew's head he turned to Gabriel and started to ask, "What happened to her father?"

But he was interrupted by Kairi coming back down the stairs looking a lot less red in the face and holding a glass of water in her right hand. She looked at Mew for a moment then swung her head up and downed the whole glass in a second. She then walked on over to the mat and without being prompted levitated off the ground and resumed training.

Mew and Gabriel watched in silence for a few moments. Kairi was angry but used that anger as motivation to swing her staff without going tumbling in the air. After watching that for a few seconds Mew cautiously approached the mat and said "Hey" to draw her attention.

"What?" She growled angrily at him.

"I'm sorry for what I said. It was way out of line and you have every right to be mad." Mew gave his sincerest apology but she didn't say a word back or even turn to look at him.

After she took a few more swings she suddenly swung her staff down at Mew's face, stopping just before it touched his nose. She lowered herself to the ground and pushed the tip of her staff up to his face.

"I. Am not. MAD!" She yelled.

"Well you're stressed out and I know that its my fault," Mew closed his eyes, put his hands down and smiled as he said, "So just this once I'll let you hit me if it'll help you vent a little."

Kairi paused then reeled her staff as far back behind her head as her arms would allow. Mew could hear her grinding her teeth together and fidgeting at the idea of smacking him clean in the face. But that devastating blow never came to pass. She simply smacked the mat once and turned away.

"Forget it...Its not going to change anything..." She admitted in a melancholic tone.

Mew silently sighed in relief and then opened his eyes. He then got up onto the mat in a hurry and said, "So lets do something that will make a change!"

He tucked his hands in his pockets and hopped on one-foot over to the notes. There he got a bright idea and shouted out to Gabriel, "Yo Big Green, I need your help on this one!"

"What can I do for you?" He asked while walking on over to the mat, with Kairi still acting a little on edge beside himself.

Mew raised one hand up and snapped his fingers straight before his chest, "You're going to teach me everything there is to know about Drives! And then...I'm going to help her master her Beast Tamer Drive!"

Next Time: Beastly Bravado