Chapter 17: The Beast with a Billion Bodies

A few minutes ago...

Kairi ran up the stairs in a huff over Mew's brash question. She needed to cool off, get away from the sight of him and that everlasting smile of his.

"He's so annoying!" A statement Kairi's found herself repeating all too often these past couple of days, "Where does he get off saying such...such things?!"

She stampeded her way towards the kitchen, flipped open one of the cupboard doors, ripped out a small glass, then slammed it down next to the sink. Her glare was locked straight ahead, her body quivering with a growl. She turned on the cold water to fill the cup, but just wound up holding the glass in place and letting the water cascade onto her hand.

She imagined the glass as Mew's neck and tightened her grip on it. She made a few garbled noises until a voice saw fit to intervene.

"Is everything alright dear?" The tender voice could only have belonged to her mother. Kairi flinched and turned her head to the right, and found her tending to a hot pot of spaghetti sauce. Whereas usually a mother's voice would be enough to calm someone down, in this instance it only redirected Kairi's glare towards her. Though on the plus side, it did dampen her scowl into somewhat of a pout.

"I-Its nothing..." Kairi whispered as she pulled her glass out of the sink and turned it off.

Auris laid out a knowing smile much to Kairi's annoyance. She then took her attention away from the meal in progress to address her daughter in a teasing tone, "If Mew is giving you trouble, then I can punish him."

Kairi's cheeks turned red and she blabbered out in anger, "Don't even think about it mom! H-He's..."

Kairi paused for a moment as one of Mew's smiles flashed in her mind. It made her heart stop for a fleeting moment and left her with her mouth partially agape.

She then looked to the headband dangling around her neck. She lifted it up and stared at her reflection for a bit. And the reflection seemed to stare back on its own, with its hair being a shiny blonde. Kairi squeezed her hand around the metal piece to cover the reflection then closed her eyes for good measure.

"...Just finish his training, and once you've killed Gravitus he'll be out of your life forever. Him and his smug, stupid grin!"

"He's?" Auris leaned in close with a smile.

Kairi only realized then that she had been out of it for a whole minute. Her hands were a little shaky and some water spilled as she went to take a sip. But then she turned away from her doting mother and grumbled to her, "H-He's just a means to an end..."

And on the way out of the kitchen she made a half-hearted attempt to say, "And he means nothing to me..."

Back in the Present...

Kairi found herself forced to go along with Mew's ignorance once again.

"This is what, the seventh time someone's had to teach this idiot about our culture?" Kairi rubbed her shoulders up against the nearby mirror and let out a sigh, "I've lost track at this point..."

Mew sat down on the edge of the mat and Gabriel took the spotlight on the center. He forced a couple coughs as he pressed his fist up to his mouth. Looking a tad embarrassed, he had the decency to admit to his two students, "I've passed down my knowledge throughout the years but never once have I considered myself a teacher."

"You don't have to worry about me," Kairi closed her eyes and mumbled with an air of superiority, "Its this dense dilweed who needs the tutoring."

Gabriel chuckled softly and raised a counterpoint, "You may be doing well in school, but there's still plenty you can learn."

"Hrrrrm..." Kairi growled inwardly in irritation. She then opened her eyes somewhat to glare at Mew, and shut them up to state, "Just make it quick Gabriel."

"What's the rush?" Mew asked in his usual, grating nonchalance before cracking a smile, "We got all day."

"If it somehow takes you all day to learn this then you're hopeless."

"Heh," Mew got cocky all of a sudden, "We'll see about that!"

"Must you always have a response to everything?" Kairi grumbled, followed by Gabriel letting out another, more coarse sounding cough to get the two in line.

Kairi shut up and Mew did too, proving that such a thing was possible. Gabriel then held his right wrist out towards Mew to begin his hopefully short history lesson.

"Drives represent the physical crystallization of concepts. No one knows for sure when or how Drives came into existence, but we know everything there is to know about how they function."

"Like humans, Aurians have bloodstreams. But where we differ is that our aura flows in tandem with our blood vessels. However...On the day we are born there is something missing from our aura. An essential building block one could say."

"That is where the Drives come in. Attached to each Drive is an invisible, ethereal spike that plunges itself into the empty gap in an Aurian's aura flow. And from that point on an Aurian can use their aura."

"Wait so..." Mew interrupted with a raise of the hand, "Aurians are defenseless from birth?"

"What, did you think Gabriel was this strong as a baby?" Kairi scoffed at Mew's stupidity.

Yet Mew had to grin and crack a joke at it, "Now that you mention it I did have this funny image swirling around of baby Gabriel swinging a sword around."

Mew whirled a finger around his head and Gabriel cracked a hearty chuckle. Kairi glared at him but couldn't bring herself to get angry.

Gabriel then put on a straight face and remarked, "But yes. An Aurian is defenseless until they are eight years old. That is when they are given their Drive."

"How does that work exactly?" Mew interrupted yet again, "Does it just appear to them or...?"

"Did you NOT notice the giant archive building on the North side of town?!" Kairi yelled out, peeling herself away from the mirror.

This shook Mew and Gabriel, who up until this point were enjoying a normal conversation before she rudely interrupted. Mew's attitude remained pleasant as he explained, "Well gosh no. I've only visited the South side of town."

"...Oh," Kairi felt a bit of remorse only to quickly doubled-down on the bluntness, "Well that's not my fault!"

Mew just hung his eyelids and sighed. Kairi glared at him some more, so Gabriel had to work fast to get the conversation back in order.

"Anyways..." He spoke soft, but with a firm voice, "As Kairi said, there is a building to the far North of Sancturia where all Drives are stored. On the day of their eighth birthday, Aurians are taken to the archive to be bequeathed the Drive that shall remain their partner until their end of days."

"Question," Mew continued unprompted, "Why wouldn't Gravitus be able to just take the power of all the Drives for himself?"

Kairi gawked but pinched her lips shut and thought, "...That's a good question actually..."

To which Gabriel already had the answer, "Because even to the strongest Aurians, there is a limit to how much power they can wield."

"An Aurian's Drive is predetermined from birth. The Aura chooses it ahead of time."

"You're saying the Aura is sentient?" Mew lazily tilted his head.

"How else can this behavior be explained? Its certainly not biological," Gabriel's deep response would be pushed to the wayside as he got back on track, "And to help expedite the process of Aurians receiving their Drives, Lady Auris is the one tasked with picking them out."

"Aaaaah, gotcha. She would have the easiest time knowing wouldn't she?"

Kairi looked at Mew with a puzzled expression and mumble of, "What does he mean by that?"

Gabriel suddenly coughed and Mew perked up, as though he did something wrong. Then after a smile he asked a rather strange question.

"But what about Aurians that can wield two Drives?"

"What?" Kairi slowly opened her eyes and peeled herself away from the wall, waving her hand out and scoffing at the notion, "Aurians can't wield two Drives stupid. Where would you even-"

She turned towards Gabriel and though he was not in discomfort, his confusion was an odd expression for him to wear.

"Who told you that?" He said in a pressing tone.

"What?!" Kairi widened her eyes all the way and couldn't believe that Mew said something stupid that just so happened to be true.

She looked to Mew and saw him clamming up by sucking his lips inward and glancing around. She knew right away that he wasn't planning on telling the truth.

"Oh umm...Bobby told me. Said it was in an old history book?" He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. He was lucky that Gabriel didn't feeling like pressing the issue.

"Hmmm..." Gabriel closed his eyes and remarked, "It doesn't matter."

"S-So its true then?" Kairi asked, her entire world blown.

"...Some Aurians are strong enough to wield two Drives," Gabriel opened his eyes and shook his head, "But one hasn't been born in the last two-thousand years."

"How does that work exactly? Cause you said an Aurian needs a Drive to be able to wield aura. So if they need two Drives..."

"No. One Drive is sufficient enough even for someone capable of wielding two." Gabriel intervened as though he knew from experience.

"Alright, got it!" Mew clapped his hands and suddenly stood up, then pointed at Gabriel's wrist to ask, "So how come you don't have a Drive visible on your wrist?"

Gabriel raised his wrist up to his face and smiled at it. Kairi looked at him and found herself feeling the same as Mew did, an overwhelming sense of curiosity that formed from a realization of how little she knew of Gabriel's past.

"Gabriel..." She whispered his name in concern and the man glanced at her for a moment.

He then lowered his hand and remarked, "The circumstances behind the Planetary Aurians having their powers are different from most other Aurians, but they still operate with the same principles. As it stands now an Aurian that uses their Drives frequently enough will eventually have it dissolve into their aura, making their power a natural part of them instead of something that must be activated via a bracelet."

"So what you're saying is that Drives are nutrients and adrenaline acts as enzymes to break it down?" Mew's apt comparison drew the others' attention towards him in utter shock. Mew waved a hand up by his face and went, "What?"

After some blinking in silence from them Mew shrugged and said, "Well whatever, I think I get it now."

"Boy wouldn't that be the day..." Kairi thought, knowing that he'd be asking even more dumb questions in the future.

"Hold on," Gabriel stated, surprising Kairi with his willingness to drag this out, "There's one other thing you need to know about Dirves."

"Oh yeah..." Kairi slapped the side of her face and thought the same thing Gabriel would say, "The Tier System."

"Tier system?" Mew's eyes lit up like candlelights.

"Of course," Kairi grumbled, "Bring up power levels and he goes gaga over it..."

Gabriel dove right into what he needed to explain, "Yes. All the Drives in Sancturia are separated into five tiers based on power, functionality, and versatility. Tier 1 Drives are the weakest, and Tier 5s the strongest."

"Hmm," Mew waved a hand around and asked, "Just to give me a better idea of how that works could you use the Planetary Aurians as references?"

"Absolutely." Gabriel held his left hand out and started to write symbols and numbers with his aura until he had covered the Planetary Aurians they had fought up to this point, including himself.

"Mercury's Hot and Cold Drives, Saturn's Containment Drive, and Mars' Emotion Drive all fall under Tier 1." He said while pointing to the far left column.

"Saturn's only a Tier 1?" Kairi blurted in confusion.

"That doesn't make sense. She was doing crazy stuff like containing physical force in her aura." Mew added.

"Intelligence makes all the difference when it comes to a Drive. Even one who wields a Tier 4 Drive could lose to a Tier 1 Drive," From there Gabriel moved right back to the flow of the previous topic, "Jupiter's Extension Drive falls under Tier 2, Venus' Gas Drive a Tier 3..."

He then motioned to the last column and said, "And my Nature Drive is a Tier 4."

Kairi looked at the columns in greater detail and wondered, "What does my Beast Tamer Drive fall under?"

"Tier 3." Gabriel replied, gently etching the symbol of it under that column.

"Man though..." Mew smiled and looked a little dizzy thinking about all this, "That's gotta be like a million different powers at the LEAST."

"Not necessarily," Gabriel chuckled slightly, "There are plenty of duplicates amongst the first three Tiers. Its only Tiers 4 and 5 that are one of a kind due to how powerful they are."

"So if someone claims one of those Drives then future generations are just shit outta luck huh?"

"When an Aurian passes, the Drive's power is returned to its original state to be passed on to future generations." Gabriel answered right away.

"Huh, good to know," Mew replied with an honest nod of appreciation, "So just how many people own a Tier 5 Drive anyways?"

"Among the current generation of Aurians?" Gabriel put a hand on his chin and thought on it a bit, "To my knowledge, no one."

"No one," Mew frowned a little in suspicion and asked, "Not even Gravitus?"

His nonchalant mention of that was in contrast to Kairi freaking out slightly at the thought.

"No," Thankfully Gabriel alleviated these concerns a little, "He only has a Tier 4 Drive."

"Whew..." Kairi sighed out, but then bucked up and proclaimed, "I-It could be a Tier 6 Drive for all I care and I'd still kick his ass!"

"Well it must be pretty strong if Gravitus beat Gabriel," Mew remarked then got a goofy grin as he demanded of the samurai, "So spill it Big Green what's his power?"

Gabriel turned to him and dryly chuckled, "Does his name not give it away?"

Mew stared blankly at his face and shook his head. Kairi sneered and was happy to see Mew get taken down a peg. Gabriel's sigh was the icing on the cake.

"Kairi?" But then he turned to her for an answer and she froze up on the spot.

"I-I don't have a clue!" She admitted to herself. Thus the egg was now on her face, and Gabriel's sigh peppered her with his shame.

"Gravity. He wields the Gravity Drive." The man answered for them.

Mew's eyes lit up with a cry of "OOOOhhh..." and after a little more thought he started laughing out loud, "Hahaha! His name is based on his power, what a loser!"

Kairi watched on, awe-struck at how easily he brushed aside everything he knew about the tyrant to treat him like a joke. It was infuriating. It left her steaming mad. She wanted to yell at him to take things seriously but knew by now it was a fool's errand. All that could be done was remind herself that this'll all be over soon.

"Still, gravity eh?" Mew's demeanor stiffened up and Kairi could've sworn he sounded a little serious, "That might be a tough one..."

He then snapped his fingers and remarked, "Ok! I think I'm all set now!"

Gabriel wiped the aura away with a swipe of the hand and said, "I believe you are. I am glad to have been of help."

There was one major thing Kaiir was still confused on though, "So how does this help with my training?"

"It doesn't!" Mew's careless words shocked her to the core, "I just wanted to educate myself!"

Kairi's eyes widened to their limit then narrowed into a furious glare. She tucked her fists down and yelled, "We wasted...how much time?!"

Mew staggered back and threw his hands up in front of his chest, "Do you want me to be an idiot or not? Make up your mind, sheesh!"

"I want you to make SENSE you, you..." Kairi squeezed her eyes shut and screamed, "BUTTFACE!"

That shut Mew up and all it took was Kairi feeling like a child afterwards. Her racing heart forced her to slow down and take a deep breath to calm herself. And that allowed Mew to open his dumb mouth once again.

"Why don't we get back to training then?" Was for once, something smart he suggested.

"Whatever," Kairr stared at her Drive and wondered, "So do you want me to activate it now or...?"

"Not yet," The two dreaded words, "There's something only you can answer."

"What?" Kairi growled with her head tossed back.

"Tell me how your Drive works. What are its limits, abilities, gimme the works."

"Ummm..." Kairi was briefly taken aback by how simple a request that was for someone like him. She looked down at her Drive some more and slowly got around to answering.

"With the Beast Tamer Drive I can summon different creatures out of aura. They got the innate abilities of regular animals only amplified slightly. Using my whip I can infuse the creatures with my aura to buff them up further."

Mew propped up a hand to his chin and blinked a few times. His strange way of staring agitated Kairi who swung her hand out then down while exclaiming, "What?! That's it!"

"Yeah yeah its a good baseline," Mew said while bobbing his head up and down, "But I need a little more outta ya."

Mew started by pointing one finger up and asking, "How many beasts can you summon at a time? Just one?"

"Ummm, yeah?" Kairi faintly shrugged her shoulders as her voice trailed off.

"What's up with that?" Mew bluntly wondered, which Kairi kindly interpreted as him saying something's wrong with her.

Gabriel coughed at him and intervened on her behalf, "The Beast Tamer is a Summon Type Drive. That means, depending on the type of thing being summoned, there is an upper limit to how many things can be summoned."

"And you're saying that Kairi's stuck at one?" Mew remarked.

"Its possible. There are a lot of dangerous beasts out there." Even Gabriel wasn't fully certain on that.

"Yeah, I'd definitely hate to fight one million poisonous spiders," Mew says in a joking manner, then cracked one eye open towards Kairi and asked, "Or would insects qualify as Beasts?"

"Of course not, they're filled under another genus genius." Kairi sputtered in annoyance.

"Ha. Genus. Genius," Mew laughed softly like some sort of frat boy, "Wordplay."

"Yooooou...!" Kairi swung up her right fist, pulled the sleeve back, and was ready to charge in.

"Ahem!" Gabriel kept them in line.

"...Hmph!" Kairi weakly drew her fist back and kept her eyes on Mew. After the heated air between them died down, Mew continued.

"So why do you only use lions, tigers and bears?" Mew asked, throwing in a timeless, hilarious whisper of "Oh my" and a chuckle devoid entirely of shame.

Kairi rolled her eyes at both the joke and his attitude while bluntly answering, "Cause how many things are going to stop a giant bear?"

"Me. Venus. Most of the other Planetary Aurians. Gravitus."

Upon Mew saying the bad name Kairi's eye lit up and she spat at his face, "Ok fine I get it! Stop rubbing it in!"

Mew sighed and rolled his hand around by his face, "I'm just saying you got a lot of versatility up your sleeve. Maybe try using a bit of it?"

He flashed a smile at the end. Kairi pouted and wanted to argue with Mew on principle...But she couldn't. A lot of anger welled up inside of her head but it refused to be let out. Cause though her clouded thoughts she saw herself getting beaten and taken down time after time again. Not just by Mew, Venus or Mars, but by other people throughout her life.

As children laughed and adults stared in disapproval from the past, Kairi squinted her eyes shut in the present to try and dispel them. Their echoes remained, taunting her with insults. The emotions swelled and felt set to burst out as a scream. What stopped her, however, was this cold, heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. It rose up to her heart, then further up to calm the raging tempest inside her head. This wasn't sadness, it was helplessness.

"I just want to be stronger than everyone else...Especially that bastard Gravitus...!" Kairi bit her teeth and looked towards Mew.

Even after everything she's said he's stuck around and helped her out.

"His mouth's a non-stop fountain of bullshit but..." Kairi saw him smile just now and felt even more of her rage get pushed away. She hated this feeling, this sense of comfort that came from being around Mew. He had to still be up to something, she thought, "Because no one is this selfless..."

"Selfless". Kairi paused upon hearing that word in her head. Cause she didn't intend to think it, it just slipped out on its own. And from there her mind wandered on its own, remembering how its Mew's selflessness that taught her how to dodge, how to fly...

She closed her eyes and for a brief moment recalled the elation of having the wind grazing her body as she flew high over Sancturia, and the envy of those below her. It felt good. Really really good. Possibly even the happiest she had been for a few years now...

"Ok! Ok!" She suddenly blurted out as a unanimous agreement regarding Mew's suggestion. Her cheeks reddened and she looked away, muttering to him, "W-What are you suggesting...?"

Mew's eyes lit up and with a big grin he crossed his arms up to his chest and said, "I'm glad you asked!"

He then took a couple steps back to the edge of the mat and told her, "We're going to recreate our first encounter!"

Kairi stared at him with a dull-eyed glare and murmured dryly, "You are not to get within twenty feet of my mother ever again."

Mew raised his brows then cheekily replied, "Ok fine. Our second encounter."

He snapped his right hand up by his face and Kairi suddenly felt a bit of heat tickling the back of her neck. She turned around and saw a familiar fireball floating in the air.

Mew crossed his arms and told her, "Your job is to come up with an animal that can disarm traps before you hit them!"

"Couldn't I just swing my staff?" Kairi asked while summoning it lazily in her right hand.

Mew shook his head and hand and reminded her, "Think of it in terms of our battle. Right now you're flying backwards because I kicked your staff. So you're stunned and can't really react in time with your weapon."

"Hrrmm..." Kairi turned her back to the fireball and closed her eyes. She rushed through her memories like flipping the pages of a large book, and stopped on a document of a small, winged creature.

She concentrated on her aura and the fireball at the same time, projecting the creature's form outward and manifesting an eagle to the side of the fireball. It swooped down from the air with a screech and pierced the fireball with its beak, thus setting it off without Kairi getting an ember on her clothes.

Kairi swung her head back and whispered "I-It worked?" as if she didn't think it'd go through. She then looked up at the ceiling and saw her little eagle hovering in place, screeching with the pride of its feathered flock on its shoulders before it vanished at her command.

Mew clapped his hands and started moving to the left side of the mat. Gabriel got out of his way and Mew gestured Kairi towards the opposite side of the mat. She slowly made her way over, trying her hardest not to smile.

"Now I want you to summon your tiger." He asked and she complied on the spot, looking rather confused all the while.

"What now?" She said while exchanging glances with her pet beast.

Mew closed his eyes and remarked, "Its sometimes hard to stop your cat from getting drenched in public. So what we're going to test here is your ability to shift animals on the fly."

Mew whipped his hand around in circles a few times to summon a ring of water with a malleable form. He then held his palm up to it and remarked, "I'll be aiming for the beast's head. No tricks here. All you've got to do is send your tiger at me and change it into something that can get by unharmed."

"Aaaand...GO!" Mew tossed the water out and Kairi hastily sent her tiger running along. She closed her eyes and had to think even faster than before.

"Something small, something fast...!" What more reliable ally could there be but the long-eared lucky-footed rabbit? At the will of Kairi's thoughts the tiger's ferocious frame morphed into a diminutive bunny rabbit. There its fleet feet let it hop past Mew's water untouched and for good measure, hop up and kick him in the gut.

Mew coughed up a little air and the rabbit hopped in front of him playfully. Kairi giggled so softly she thought Mew wouldn't hear it, but despite all logic he did and chuckled back.

"Alright alright, you're doing fine so far..." After Mew brushed off the pain in his gut the rabbit was sent off on its merry way.

Mew then cricked his neck around and remarked, "But now comes the true test of your skills."

Mew summoned his sword, held it up firmly before his body, and peered out around the edge to say, "Summon your bear and hit me with your best shot."

"Huh?" Kairi widened her eyes for a moment but then shrugged and summoned the bear beside her. It stood on its hind legs and growled.

Kairi decided to whip it a couple times to increase its size, but had to stop because of the limited space. She then had it charge forth and slam its beefy claw against the dull side of Mew's blade. Mew held it off with ease and made this whole exercise seemed rather fruitless to Kairi.

She puckered her lips and stared at the clash of strengths until Mew suddenly said, "Think about what you've learned so far! You can do it!"

He cheered her on without a hint of sarcasm. Kairi perked up and closed her eyes, looking deep within herself for the answer Mew wanted her to reach.

"He's holding off my attack...What...what did he tell me to do?" She flashed back to yesterday and vaguely recalled him talking about "balancing one's defenses".

"So he's focusing all his strength into his arms. That means I need to attack his legs!" She opened her eyes and only now realized his sword covered the front of his body.

"He's only vulnerable from behind...But Ursa Maimer is unable to reach there." So she thought on it a little deeper and wondered if what Mew said was true.

"C-Could I be able to summon two beasts? I...I never tried it before..." Doubts plagued her gut for a couple moments but then she firmly held her whip and felt a fire light up in her heart, "But...now's a better time than any!"

She concentrated her focus away from the bear and on the space behind Mew. The connection with her bear tampered with her ability to split her focus onto a new beast. She felt the physical pull between the two creatures tug away at her mind with great pressure.

It was like her mind was on fire. She prevailed through on sheer force of will, until the creature of her design came to be.

"Baaaa!" Mew froze up at the sound of this high-pitched bleat and turned his head back. A small goat reared its mighty horns at him and charged forth, striking the back of his legs.

Mew was knocked off his feet and sent flying over the proud herbivore with a look of utter shock on his face. Then without the strength of his stance keeping him steady, the bear pressed down on its claws and pinned Mew onto his back.

The force of impact dislodged the sword from his hand and the bear standing victorious over him with a roar. Kairi's heart started racing against her chest and she let out a quick, huge gasp. She then shook her head, dispelled the bear, and ran right up to Mew.

Before he could raise his head she planted the tip of her staff under his chin. She was shaking as she smiled and declared, "Got you!"

Mew threw up his arms in surrender and chuckled, "Alright, you got me..."

He then suddenly swept his right leg towards Kairi's feet but she jumped over them and landed closer to his waist. She pressed the staff up harder and deepened her grin with a chuckle. Mew then dryly laughed and murmured, "Ok, this time for real..."

"Uh-huh..." Kairi lifted her staff up and allowed Mew to stand. Kairi couldn't stop herself from smiling. Her heart was about ready to burst, and for once her cheeks were bright red with joy instead of embarrassment.

"Hehehe!" She giggled in a rather high-pitched tone.

"Good job!" Mew declared, not feeling the least bit emasculated by being put under the staff, "I knew you could do it!"

Kairi's elation ended on that compliment. She dispelled her staff, turned away, and her cheeks' shade returned to pink. She crossed her arms under her chest and declared, "I-I knew I would! Obviously!"

"Well lets not stop there. We've got a lot of light to burn, so lets see what else we can get outta that 'A' brain of yours!" Mew enthusiastically clapped his hands a few times and pushed Kairi towards working throughout the rest of the day with Gabriel's help.

Time passed so fast that when Auris hollered out for dinner Kairi almost mistook it for a lunch call. The training didn't leave her AS tired as it did yesterday but she still had to take her time heading to the kitchen.

Tonight Auris served up a heaping bowl of spaghetti and meatballs with a side helping of sourdough bread painted with garlic butter. The noodles were thin and the sauce looked absolutely packed with flavors and spices.

After everyone had dished up they got around to eating. Things remained relatively quiet until, shock of shocks, Mew opened his mouth.

"You know..."

Kairi closed her eyes with food in her mouth, groaning that she didn't intercept his blabbermouth prematurely.

He turned to Auris and gently rested his fork beside his plate. He then planted his hands together and bowed his head slightly, his voice soft and almost...respectable?

"I haven't thanked you enough for letting me eat dinner with you guys. This kind of feeling of togetherness...isn't exactly something I have back home."

Mew's voice got a little somber at the end. A play for pity, perhaps? Yet despite that rather rash thought Kairi took the bait dangling from his words and asked, "What? You don't get along with your parents?"

Mew paused for a moment then looked straight at Kairi across the table and said in his casual tone of voice, "Only if corpses can talk behind your back."

Kairi clamped down a bite of her steaming hot spaghetti and reactively swallowed it down. She pounded her chest a couple times and started coughing to help the food digest. Then when that little embarrassing show ended Kairi slowly breathed in and out and looked up Mew. Despite the gravity of what he said he just looked like his normal self, smiling along without a care.

"Your parents are...dead?" She gasped, a strange feeling welling up in her chest.

"Yep!" Mew blurted, "Ever since I was five I want to say?"

"..." Kairi closed her eyes and that feeling extended to her gut as well. It twisted her up on the inside and made her ask, "And...you live on your own?"

"Pretty much!" Mew cheerfully replied, adding a joke to the mix, "On the bright side, it really cuts back on the water bill!"

"How...how can he say that? Not having any parents would be..."

"But enough about that!" Mew suddenly broke Kairi's melancholy by saying, "Since you seem to be in a talkative mood tonight I hope you don't mind me asking something."

Kairi looked around and say that Auris and Gabriel had no reaction to what Mew had said. She was the only one sitting around thinking, "Am the only one who thinks this is crazy?!"

Nevertheless she mustered up the courage to respond, "W-What do you want?"

"I notice you seem to be very interested in Earth stuff," When Kairi tilted her head Mew pieced together his evidence out loud, "You use a lot of Earth beasts with your Drive, you're like one of the few people who wears normal everyday Earth clothes, and with your grades and the kind of education you receive you must really be into our culture."

Mew cracked a grin and wondered aloud, "You planning to live down there when you turn twenty?"

It was a little too big of a question for her to handle right now, especially after how he handled talking about his parents' death. Kairi's head felt woozy and she found herself pushing away from the table. Her meal was half-eaten but she was too sick in her stomach to down another bite.

"I-I'm sorry I...I have to go!" Kairi's body moved autonomously towards the stairs. She ran up to her unlit room and threw herself face first onto the bed. There she lied for the next hour feeling discomfort in her gut.

She remained motionless, her body becoming stiff and sore all around. Even her soft bed couldn't make her feel any better. A sudden knock on the door took her by surprise and she barely tilted her head back.

"Hey, you alright?" It was Mew's voice.

Kairi's face twisted up in anger as Mew tried to think he could make amends for what he's done, "I...think I screwed up again. So I just want to say-"

"GO AWAY!" Kairi pulled her head band off her neck and tossed it straight at the cloth door. It missed the mark, landing at the foot of the door. She sat up on the edge of her bed, her heart racing until she realized what she had done.

She stared at her headband and as her heart retreated into the pit of her stomach she dropped to the floor on her knees and scrambled over to pick the headband up. She cupped it up under her chest and started to wheeze.

"...I'm sorry," Mew finished, sounding a little disheartened, "But I hope to see you in the morning. So...good night?"

His footsteps trailed off down the stairs, leaving Kairi alone. She picked herself up and dragged her concrete legs back to the bed, where she sat down and laid on her back. She held the headband in front of her face. The dim lighting made it harder to see the reflection, but she could still make out that it had blonde hair.

But slowly, the smile that reflection had was being overtaken by Mew's smile. Kairi squeezed the headband under her chest and let out a pale whimper to her lonesome self. She stuttered and stammered as her body felt cold and hollow.

"I-It feels like I'm losing you...P-Please...Don't vanish from my heart..." Kairi closed her eyes shut and whispered in the darkness of solitude, "Shina..."

Meanwhile, in an unknown quarter of Sancturia...

A rectangular metal box rises out of the ground, hissing out the pressure surrounding it. The front parts like its made of liquid metal and Saturn steps out with her arms stretched up and her lab coat covered in oil and metal dust.

"Woo hoo! Baby girl gave me some trouble, but once again the great heroine Saturn has triumphed over the evils of rust and energy deficiency!" In celebration, Saturn took off her lab coat and hung it over her right shoulder. The cold night air tickled her skin and rewarded her for her exhausting work.

"Patting yourself on the back I see..." A sardonic voice taunted Saturn from behind. She spun around on one foot and saw someone with pointed ears and pale gray skin standing in the shadows of the elevator.

"Even though you have failed Gravitus spectacularly." The person clung to the shadows like it felt right at home for him.

Saturn smirked and with a flick of the wrist addressed him in a mockery of a medieval accent, "Art thou to be my chaperone, ne'er-do-well?"

"Charming as always," The man replied, "But it shall do you no good here."

Saturn hung her head slightly, rolled her eyes, and whipped her hand around whilst asking, "Whaddya want Pluto?"

"I expected failure from the dog and the rabble surrounding him, but you?" The man scoffed and venomously spat in Saturn's face, "I expected better."

"What can I say! The better fighter won this time!" Saturn proclaimed, "But I'll beat him on round two, just you wait and see!"

"...You don't get it do you?" Pluto leered his eyes at the girl, the dim moonlight revealing a pair of dirty yellow irises, "Gravitus is on the cusp of fulfilling his lifelong dreams. Soon, the Neo Drive shall be delivered to its long-desired master, and with it...Gravitus shall become unstoppable."

Saturn crossed her arms and rocked the skies of Sancturia with her laughter, "Hahaha! Gravitus has been trying to get the Neo Drive for two-thousand years! I've tossed every bit of my scientific know-how at that thing and there's not a single way he can wield it!"

"...Its true what they say. Justice is blind." Pluto closed his eyes and turned away from the haughty little girl in scorn.

"You'll soon find out how wrong you are..." He whispered.

Saturn narrowly squinted her eyes and pushed her fists up to her hips, wiggling them around to make them act as levers to lean her body down.

"What do you know that I don't?" She inquired.

"More than you and the seven other fools would care to admit," Pluto pulled himself off the elevator and turned his back to the girl, "But by the time you know the truth, it shall already be too late."

"Hahaha!" Saturn boisterously laughed, "Sit on your empty throne of lies all you want Disgraced King! For soon your crinkly butt shall occupy a seat of steel...In jail!"

"Heh..." Pluto creased his withered lips into a nasty smile and twisted his head back to retort, "We shall see who will triumph shortly. That whelp's pathetic justice...Or my vengeance upon this God scorned wretch of a rock..."

"Underestimate the Elemental Overlord and you'll pay with your life Pluto." Saturn warned.

"Ha! I fear no shadow from the past," Pluto waved his right hand out and remarked, "Regardless of the performance of those two fools before me that peasant boy shall meet his end upon the tip of my blades. After all...Lord Gravitus is but two days away."

Saturn's glasses nearly slanted off her nose as she remarked, "He's coming back early?"

"Of course...The prize he's sought is at last within his grasp. His long labors of 2,000 years...At long last, the Neo Drive shall be his." Pluto slithered away into the shadows, leaving Saturn to snap back with one last biting comment.

"You're lucky you're useful!" And then she had all the time in the world to muse to herself.

"Hmm..." She propped her head up and nudged her glasses back into place, the lens' fogging up as she snickered out, "Things are about to get reeeeeeeally interesting."

Next Time: The Fairy Tale Princess