The Past Bites
Me: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Past Bites!
Kalaa: Hey you!
Me: Yeah! I'm sorry the last chapter was so short, it was murder to write. Really. I promise this one will be longer. Promise.
Kaiyo: Great!
Melina: What about those...?
Me: Don't worry, they can't get in here. And I'll see to it personally that they get their due.
Melina: (grins from ear to ear)
Azzuen: Then lets not keep everyone waiting. BladeofMoonlight does not own TMM or MMP.
Chapter 10
/No P.O.V.
"I don't even know if we can trust them anymore." Melina broke the silence. Her friends stared at her. "I mean...they've lied so much. And there's this." She nodded to Project Mew Mew. "How will we be able to tell truth from lies? How can anyone?"
There was silence...
"We need to tell everyone." Kalaa said out of the blue.
"Pardon?" Azzuen said, eyes wide.
"What I mean by 'everyone' is everyone close to them." Kalaa replied. "The lying can't go on. Can't you see what it's created?" Mom's double life made me hate her for most of my life. She reflected miserably. And Kish doesn't know I'm his daughter.
"Hate..." Azzuen murmured, catching Kalaa's eye.
"Grief..." Kaiyo added, thinking of his mother.
"Fear and persecution." Melina finished, gritting her teeth at the memories of the paparazzi.
"I'm with Kalaa." Kaiyo said softly. "Its time this storm broke."
Azzuen and Melina exchanged a long look. Finally the son of the bird mew turned back to his friends. "Yes. This storm must break."
"I don't know..." Melina trailed off.
"Melina...the truth can hurt...but lies hurt more." Kalaa told her friend, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know. Don't worry. We'll stand up to those paparazzi together."
Melina blinked. "R-Really?"
"Yes." Kaiyo nodded. "What they're doing isn't reporting. It's harassment. People get jailed for that. Fear of a criminal record might be what they need to understand what they're doing isn't welcome, by you or your mother."
Melina smiled slightly. "I understand." She put her hand on the mew mark on her stomach, and with a purple flash, she had a purple-and-gold pendant in her hand. "I might need this."
Azzuen nodded, getting his own dark blue-and-gold pendant out of his pocket. "Yes."
They nodded together as a group, and then turned back to the computer and began to type.
/Kalaa's P.O.V.
"We're here." Kalaa murmured, reappearing behind Kaiyo after stashing her birth data in Kish's room. She had finally mastered the ability to teleport. They stood across the road from her grandparent's house, holding the data for Ichigo's mew powers and her mew alias.
"Let's go." Kaiyo said.
"I don't know...is this really a good idea?" Kalaa said, taking a step and then stopping. Kaiyo turned around and smiled softly at her.
"It's okay. You were right, you know. The truth may hurt, but lies hurt more. When they find out, they'll be mad for a while, but eventually they'll calm down again. They won't stop loving Ichigo...or hate you. Once they understand, I'm sure they'll except you."
Kalaa blinked. How had Kaiyo known that she was scared Sakura and Shintaro (ichigo's dad) wouldn't accept her because of how she came into the world, because she was half-alien? How?
Kaiyo walked back over to her. "Kalaa...once you come out of your shell of silent anger, you're a wonderful and caring girl, and they'll see that, when you show them the side of you I like so much." He caressed her cheek. "Stop worrying." Gently, he kissed her on the lips.
Kalaa's face flushed dark red. Kaiyo broke away and smiled at her. Gently tugging her across the road, he pushed the data for mew Ichigo and Kalaa's birth data through the mail slot.
Kalaa took a breath. It is done.
/Cafe mew mew
"I'm surprised Kaiyo wants Ryou to know he's half-alien." Azzuen muttered as he and Melina slid through through an open window and into the midst of the cafe. "We know how he feels about them, especially since his parents were killed by a chimera animal."
"But that was ages ago." Melina pointed out. "Maybe he's not so hate-filled anymore. And..." She lowered her voice. "Lettuce and Ryou were dating when Kaiyo was born. Lettuce cheated on him without really meaning too. He deserves to know."
"You're right. But I won't let anything happen to Kaiyo." Azzuen said stiffly as he put the papers on the table in the basement.
"None of us would." Melina said with a playful smile. "Now let's tell your mother you're alive."
Azzuen nodded and telepoted them to the large mansion his mother called home. Putting the Mew Mint data in the pile of papers heading for her parents, Azzuen walked upstairs and into Mint's room. For a moment, he stood there silently, trying to picture himself living in his building, as a normal child. He closed his eyes and put a letter on his mother's bed, where she couldn't possibly miss it.
He teleported back out. Kalaa and Kaiyo were waiting with Melina outside.
His raven-haired friend gazed at the ground. "It's time, isn't it?"
Kalaa put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry Melina. We won't let them do anything to you. It's time their reign over your life ended."
"Mew Mew Moon, Metamorphosis!"
"Mew Mew Skyrus, Metamorphosis!"
"Mew Mew Ace, Metamorphosis!"
Three of them transformed. Melina gripped her mew pendant tightly and nodded. Kalaa teleported them to the hospital.
/Ichigo's house
Ichigo put a cup of hot chocolate down on the table next to the couch, thinking about her time with Kish. He seemed happy, and now that he wasn't stalking her or stealing her kisses, he was actually fun to be around.
She flipped on the news...and nearly chocked on the hot chocolate she was drinking.
Melina was standing with three mew mews, Kalaa, Kaiyo and that boy Azzuen, in front of a horde of paparazzi. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Melina's voice was so loud it made the ground shake. She was holding a boom mike. Half the crowd fell over.
Ichigo stared. What are they doing?
Kaiyo was holding two swords, Kalaa's blaster was glowing with power, and both of Azzuen's bows were drawn. Melina was holding a pendant and she was staring down the people who had been hounding her for so long.
"I don't care if this is your job, or gets you money or kicks or whatever reason you have for this." Melina snarled into the mike. "You've harassed me and mom, and we've practically been fugitives for as long as I can remember. And that has to stop, right now. If this starts again, I will report every last one of you to the police!" She pulled out a pendant. "MEW MEW MIDNIGHT, METAMORPHOSIS!"
Melina's mew form was purple and black. Her ears and tail were dark gray, and her eyes glowed a deep violet. Her weapon was a midnight blue whip.
She, Kalaa, Kaiyo and Azzuen took a step towards the crowd. They paused...then took a step back. Ichigo watched, eyes wide, as they stepped back again, then again, as Melina advanced, backing away, surrendering.Kalaa raised her gun. The crowd dispersed in all directions, and the camera catching the footage was carried away.
Ichigo mechanically switched the TV off. As she sat there in shock, Kish teleported into the room.
"Kish?" Ichigo looked at him in confusion.
"Kitten, why didn't you tell me sooner?" Kish looked hurt.
"Told you what?" Ichigo asked, confused. "I don't..."
"About Kalaa." Kish answered.
Ichigo nearly tripped over her own feet standing up in a hurry. "How did you...?"
Kish held up a series of papers. As Ichigo read it, she recognized it. Kalaa's birth statistics. She stared wretchedly at the ground. "I didn't know how to tell you. I was so ashamed of my stupid mistake that I just couldn't face anyone with the truth. Kalaa has every right to hate me, she does."
Kish shook his head. "I could've helped you. If I hadn't started what happened 'that night', maybe this wouldn't have happened..."
"But then Kalaa wouldn't be here." Ichigo muttered.
Kish nodded. "True." He put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll make the best of it. Promise."
Ichigo's eyes widened. "Y...You're not mad? You don't...hate me?"
"I am mad." Kish replied stiffly. "For keeping it to yourself, for not telling anyone about Kalaa. If we don't know you or your child is in danger, how are we meant to help you? And Kitten...I could never hate you." He put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll try to talk to Kalaa together."
Ichigo felt her eyes watering, and she did something she never thought she'd do. She hugged Kish tightly. "Thank you so much, Kish."
Kish looked surprised, but then he relaxed. "Anytime, Kitten."
Then Ichigo's cell phone rang. "Yes?" She answered it.
"Come to the Cafe right now." Ryou's sharp voice sounded on the other end. "We have some things we need to...discuss."
Ichigo gulped and nodded. "Right." She snapped her phone shut before Ryou could say anything else. "I have a bad feeling about this..."
Kish shook his head. "Don't worry koneko, if he starts doing something he shouldn't I'll give him a stiff whack he won't forget soon."
Ichigo smiled, for the first time in ages. "Thanks. It's nice to know there's someone to back me up."
/Cafe Mew Mew
"Lettuce, what is the meaning of this?" Ryou was demanding loudly as Ichigo and Mint got inside. He was waving papers over his head. Ichigo recognized them immediately. Kaiyo's birth statistics. Who's spreading these?
"Shirogane-san..." Lettuce's voice faltered.
"Lettuce-oneechan, you have a son?" Pudding's eyes were wide open.
"You cheated on me with an alien!"
"Ryou-kun-"
"I can't believe this! You're SHAMELESS! I trusted you, and you went behind my back and-"
"Stop Mr. Shirogane." A young voice sounded from the entrance. Everyone spun around. Ichigo's chest constricted when she saw who was there.
Kaiyo was standing at the entrance. Kalaa was with him, and so were Melina and Azzuen. Ichigo met her daughter's eyes and gave her a pleading look. Kalaa looked back at her, golden eyes glittering with aprehension and, strangely enough, a tinge of fear.
"Stop yelling at mom." Kaiyo shook his head. "I sent you that myself."
"Wha-" Ryou's mouth nearly hit the floor. "Why-?"
"There was a web of lies constricting the lives of everyone here. We felt that you deserved to know what was going on." Azzuen said quietly, suddenly finding the floor interesting.
"There's been an impending storm in your – OUR lives." Melina added, in the same quiet voice. "It made life so difficult to live, always wondering when someone would point and yell or discover the secrets...it was like being on the run, except you hadn't been found guilty."
"That storm needed to break." Kalaa finished, her voice firm as stone but somewhat gentler than the last time Ichigo had heard her speaking to any of them. She wasn't hissing hateful, spiteful words, nor was she attacking them in any form. She was simply stating the truth, in a calm and believing manner. "The truth can hurt..." She made eye contact with her mother, a look of sadness and apology in them, "but I think we all know by now that lies hurt much more." She took a step forward. "We're just children...so I suppose you'll have to decide what will happen to us." And she waited.
Ichigo took a deep breath, making her decision. "It's okay, Kalaa. If you'll let me...I'd like to take you home and raise you...the way I should have when you were born."
End chapter
Author's Note: We all knew it was coming. The revelation! What will happen next? Stick around for Forgiveness and New Life to find out! Thank you for reading! It means a lot!