Disclaimer: I do not own Treasure Planet

A/N: Hey there! Sorry if you guys feel like you've waited a while for an update. Thanks for all the support and everything. I also wanted to mention that I've got another story up called The Storyteller if you guys have time to check it out. I'd be easier if you went straight to my profile page if you're interested rather than looking up the category since its under 'movies' which I'm sure everyone knows is sometimes a trial to look through. Anyway I hold you enjoy the new chapter! Remember to R&R!

Coming of Age

Over a year later...

For Dawn Gray Manson

Cassandra sat in the waiting area clutching her bag with her back straightened in a manner which would make Miss Henderson proud. She actually looked like a lady. She nodded towards the secretary who nodded back and overlooked her for a moment then was satisfied that she was a lady. Sometimes she was beginning to feel like one too. No longer was she that little girl who bound through the woods like a wild animal or some baby lamb enjoying the Spring sunshine while it lasted. She didn't have the luxury of enjoying such things anymore. She wasn't here today to make Miss Henderson proud, in fact in she knew what she was doing and her motivation for doing so she would probably reprimand her and report of her brother. She had to admit she was here for solely selfish reasons, but she couldn't help having the need to justify her selfish reasons. The day had finally come. After putting herself through the treacherous weeks, months, years of being at the Young Ladies Academy, finally the day had come for Cassandra to finally be free. She would finally be able to take charge of her life and her own destiny. So many girls her age and of her own class would only be able to have so much. They believed they were better off than most people when they didn't realise the chains they bound themselves in or if they did they chose to ignore it. It was nearing the end of her third year there that it was her eighteenth birthday.

That morning her friends had come in to greet her and give her their presents. From Diana she received a book she knew she wanted to read however was somewhat of an inappropriate book for a woman to read, so she knew how much it meant for Diana, of all people to get it for her. She revealed later on that she got one of her older brothers to get it for her. She could just picture her brother now smirking to himself when Diana begged him to get it for her and why. They had taken a fancy of Cassandra but only in a teasing manner. They knew they would be over-reaching themselves if they tried to ensnare her. She wasn't speaking from a social perspective either. Socially they were her superiors but she never cared for such things. Selina got her a pair of silk gloves which she thought would match the blue dress Fredrick got her for Christmas. He was shocked to see she was still wearing last years fashion so got a night blue, silk dress in the new style tailored for her. She knew he wasn't doing this out of the goodness of his own heart. He knew that the only way to attract a husband was for the young woman to be fashionable. Why he thought for a second that Cassandra would carry on with the charade she didn't have the slightest clue. She smiled and said thank you. Just so he didn't know that something was amiss.

The woman got out of her seat and checked inside the lawyers office to see if he was ready to see her. She gave Cassandra a look which assured her that even though she was evidently 'a lady', she still didn't like her nor did she approve of what she was doing here. Whatever that was...Cassandra rolled her eyes as soon as she walked out the door. Whatever happened to the women's movement? She didn't even need to continue working here if it made her so sour towards other people. Cassandra had never felt so nervous in her life. Her hands were trembling and she was tempted to take off her coat only there were a few men also waiting to see her family lawyer. She would feel it improper to so do and left her coat on. She closed her eyes and shook her head. She couldn't believe that she had come this far in defying her brother and she was worrying about whether it was the proper thing to do in her taking off her coat. She couldn't believe herself sometimes. She could actually see now why George and Helen were so concerned about her. She felt like she was actually believing that her public appearance was the most important thing for her to uphold. Yes, she needed to come across as a respectable person in order to get into the Interstellar Academy. She had to show that she wasn't some whore nor a delicate daddy's girl who would break from simply falling against the helm.

She came out again and handed Cassandra a letter. "He instructed me to give you this. He cannot speak to you right now as he has an urgent business elsewhere."

"He is my family's lawyer." Cassandra reasoned.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

Cassandra blinked. "Well surely that would mean my case would count as a high priority."

"This was considered a higher priority." Cassandra gave her on last glare, snatched the letter from her hand and walked out the office.

~ (***) ~

She hoped he refused her to see her because of another case otherwise the only other conclusion she could come to was that he was working with her brother. She needed to find herself another lawyer. One which wouldn't put her aside just because she was a woman of eighteen. She knew that if Fredrick found out about her plans he would foil them and change the deed. He would still be able to as soon as she was able to read the deed and he would find some way of stopping her being able to take advantage of whatever her father was willing to give her. The last thing he wanted was a sister to enter the Interstellar Academy. That wasn't the role a woman should take in this society. Not in his eyes anyway. He was blind to all the changes and women's rights that had been passed in the government. However for as long as she was under his roof, she had to abide by his law. Just as long as he carried on thinking that she was just being an obedient sister he wouldn't touch his father's will. Once she had the money he couldn't touch it. He couldn't even make a mark on the page of his father's will. That night she was sat in her bed reading the letter she had received from her father's law to inform her of the money she had inherited now that she was of age. She also had another letter to read from Mr Hawkins who congratulated her on her eighteenth birthday. It was painfully formal to the point where he was almost ridiculing her and threw it aside when she was finished and turned to the lawyers letter soon after.

….I hope you are aware, Miss Richardson, that your father was very concerned for your future and if something should happen to him that you be protected as securely as possible. From what I have seen in the will he has more than protected your welfare but he has secured your future. You are now to receive 500, 000 Drubloons which I am sure is well enough to live on for the coming years until you can find yourself in some occupation or a marriage.

However your father believed, and I'm sure you are if you are your father's daughter, that you were a woman of independence. I am hoping that you could write to me so that we could make an appointment so we could discuss organising and account, along with affairs regarding your future...

"Cassandra?"

Cassandra looked up to Diana who had probably been trying to grab her attention for a while and was now trying to see what was in the letter which was so engrossing. Cassandra put it away and gave Diana a look. Sometimes Diana could be a little nosey of other people's affairs but then again Cassandra couldn't blame her. She was so concerned about other people, it was just her nature. Also she would want to have a diversion if she was in Diana's position. The engagement had become official and everyone passing her by in the corridors would nod to her. Some people would congratulate her on her engagement and wish her a happy marriage. Aurelia was in trying to keep in Diana's good graces considering where she was headed she needed friends in high places. If this occurred Selina or Cassandra would give them a fake smile and drag Diana away from the mess. They knew her enough to know that she couldn't deal with things like that. It was up to Cassandra and Selina to act at her protectors as Sophia was no longer there. A few months after Diana's engagement a man named Neville Rochford had been visiting the Calibers often and taken a liking to Sophia. Thankfully it was a happy match but Cassandra thought it a waste. She was so young and such a strong, independent woman.

"Don't worry its not a love letter." Cassandra chided.

"I would be nice to hear someone was in love." Diana grumbled. Cassandra glanced over at Diana on the other side of the room and smiled.

"There's always Sophia." Cassandra replied, making Diana giggle. Yes, there was always Sophia to look to.

Cassandra laid down on her bed and turned her eyes to the window. She wished it was a love letter. Perhaps maybe even if Mr Hawkins letter was a little more cheerful or friendlier than it already was then perhaps she would feel less agitated about her current affairs along with Diana's. Perhaps she wouldn't be so scared for her. It would convince her that love was nothing messy and would delude herself into believing that Cassandra was just being prejudiced. But she knew that her gut was always right. She looked up at the stars and thought of what her mother told her years before when she was a little girl. Those days when everything was simple because everything was solved for you already. Now she had to solve her own problems. She had to look after herself. Sometimes it was so tiring to look after yourself. Sometimes she wished that she could have someone look after her but then...No. She couldn't have any of that. A couple years before she died she was reading her a bedtime story and she held her in her arms and they both looked up at the stars and her mother whispered to her the words, The sky's the limit but I know your path will go as far as stars go. Cassandra remembered gazing up at that little cluster of stars and remembering that she was going to what her mother hoped for her. To go beyond the stars.

"I feel sorry for her at the same time." Cassandra said without thinking. Diana glanced over at her and frowned.

"Why?"

Cassandra shrugged her shoulders. "Well...I always thought that she would do so much better than that. I'm not saying Mr Rochford is bad. In fact he's a wonderful man but I always thought that..."

She glanced back at Diana nervously thinking of the right way to put it but she already finished her sentence before she could even open her mouth again.

"She could be an independent woman." Diana finished. Cassandra stared at her with her mouth agape. She tried to say something but Diana intervened.

"Honestly, you and Selina think I don't know one thing about you. I know you two aren't going to have the most conventional of lives and I really hope you do as well. I know you two are too spirited and willed to be stuck in a marriage. Also I would pity the men who married you." She added.

Cassandra laughed at her friends joke knowing she meant well. "I'm...I'm sorry we've been keeping a lot from you but it's because we don't want to hurt you."

"Because I'm so delicate?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Because of the life which has been set out for you." She replied.

Diana sighed and put down her book. "Cassandra, you and Selina should not feel guilty for making a better life for yourselves just because of the position I am now in. In fact I would be insulted if you didn't try to be free of the bonds some traditionalists in our society are still trying to shackle us into."

Cassandra knowing all too well of the meaning of those words watched her feeling like it was to have your heart break. She had heard that saying so often and had never experienced it for so long she almost ceased in believing that it was possible for it to be even felt. Those words burned into her mind and her soul everyday since she had arrived here. Ever since she was told her prison sentence she always remembered that motto rather than the one of the institution so that she wouldn't be condemned to the life which she always despised from a distance. She saw it as she looked around at the corset wearing, painted faces of the girls she passed in the corridor. She would always cling her books to her chest and remember that she wouldn't turn out like them. She would be different. She was more strong-willed than they were. When she went out into town with her brother or when she was with some distant aunt Fredrick insisted she spent time with or escorted her when she went out into public she felt so suffocated in the dress she found herself wearing when she stepped out the door. It just surprised her that she was hearing those words from Diana. She was never one to be a radical like Selina or herself. She was more of a conformist, and she wasn't saying that to be critical. It was more of an observation.

"I know." She whispered. "I know."

She was quiet for a moment and took out the letter. She unfolded it and stroked the page. "A lawyer who worked for my father and still works for the family I suppose sent me a letter. He said I've inherited some money now that I'm eighteen."

She got out of her bed and handed it to Diana. She scanned the letter and her eyes widened when she saw the amount that her friend should inherit. She turned to Cassandra with her mouth open but with no words coming out.

"That's a lot of money Cassandra. Are you sure this is the right amount?"

"My father never made mistakes. I'm sure George inherited his money by now, along with Fredrick and as will Victoria. My father would surely give us an equal amount of money so my question is how he got so much money when we lived such a comfortable lifestyle. I mean we were rich but we weren't royalty either. That's the thing which is confusing me."

"What about your mother?" Diana asked.

Cassandra shrugged. "All I know is that she came from a slightly richer family than my fathers. Mind my father had to work quite hard to get to the station he was put in...So I'm not sure where he would've got this money."

Cassandra shook her head. "It's a mystery to me."

Diana gave her a look and Cassandra knew that she was hesitating at saying something. "What?"

Diana tilted her head to the side. "I...Well my father told me once about the Celestial Wars when I mentioned your father once. He was going on about what a good man your father was and that he was surprised that the war didn't change him."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, your father may have told you many stories about his time in the services but there may have been some tales he may have failed to tell you. My father told me that some Space Captains were commissioned to go deep into the jungles of Belthora. No one knows why. They didn't come

back with any weapons or something of trade. Treasures. Nothing. They came back with information though on some rebel groups hiding in the mountains and jungle villages. At the end of the war it was discovered that many villages had been massacred-"

"What are you saying Diana?" Cassandra demanded.

Diana licked her lips. "I'm saying that when that was discovered the names of those Captains were wiped from all records along with the payments of their silence. However there was one of them which actually helped the investigators find out the truth. One which may have felt guilty all these years for what he had done."

Cassandra got to her feet and turned away. "No, my father would never have done that."

"War makes people do things they don't want to do, Cassandra-"

"NO!" She cried.

Cassandra shook her head unable to believe that her father would kill so many innocent people. She found it hard for her to believe that her father had killed people full stop but that didn't stop it from being true. He was in a war for goodness sake. But did that mean that he could be excused for killing a few people? Just because of the time in history they just happened to be living and participating in? He was a good man. He was a man of justice and would never be bought so cheaply for silence over such a thing. He would rather be hanged. Her father was always so kind, so gentle he would not even raise a gun to a pirate without giving him or her a fair trial. However the more she thought about it the more it made sense with the huge inheritance. Perhaps there were some things which her father kept from her. Maybe this was something which had been conducted with Captain Felnela, that may have been the real reason why the Richardson's always held a grudge against the Felnela's for so many years.

"Wh-why would he do something like that?" She said aloud. She wasn't asking Diana this, she was asking herself. "It doesn't make-"

She raised her shaking hand to her lips to stifle her sobs. She couldn't erase the memory of her parents. The happy memory. She couldn't allow this to mar the memory that she had of them.

"Cassandra?"

Cassandra stood up straight and wiped her face from the one tear which escaped from her eyelid. She turned round and faced Diana.

"Why would your father mention that when you said my father's name?"

Diana looked away and shrugged. "He didn't say. He just started talking about the Celestial Wars and then started going down another thread. He does that Cassandra he's getting old now."

Cassandra shook her head. "No. There must be a reason why he did that. No one mentions something like that just on a whim or because it seems vaguely related."

"Yes they can." Diana insisted.

Cassandra shook her head and turned around. She stared at the wall darkly and without turning around.

"I don't think I can carry on having this conversation with you."

"Cassandra, no. We need to talk about this-"

"Diana." She interrupted sharply. "I can't have this conversation right now. I think- I need some sleep. I can't think about this right now. Okay?"

She immediately regretted snapping at her when she saw the expression on her face. It was the same look a parent saw when their child had realised they had pushed their parents beyond their point of tolerance. Cassandra was almost frightened of the expression on her face. She seemed almost accepting of the fact that she was never going to get an answer out of Cassandra. That like many other battles between them, this was going to be yet another she was never going to win. She hated her assertive nature now. She was pushing people away. Not saving them from their problems. It wasn't her place to judge them but then again Diana was different. She needed someone to fight her battles for her because...She just wasn't strong enough. She was too scared to make the selfish decision and thought solely of her family. It was something to be commended but at the same Cassandra wished she could think about herself for once. Diana nodded and slipped back underneath the sheets not taking her eyes off the back of Cassandra. It would be best to leave this conversation until morning. She stood there for a while just staring at the wall. Diana started to become frightened and almost got out of bed to see if she was okay. The rustle of the bed sheet made her head turn slightly. Diana slipped back in and feared she might do something. Cassandra eventually slipped into her own bed and slept.

That night was long and sleepless. Neither of the girls slept. None of them talked to one another either out of fear that the other may be asleep or if not it would unsettle that peace between them which hung within the uncomfortable silence between them. They both had things on their minds as well. They were too preoccupied with their own thoughts to talk to one another. For Diana is was out of anxiety and guilt. She should never have said anything but she would feel that heaviness weigh down on her more which each day that would pass by with her not telling Cassandra what she knew. She was also guilty of what had happened to her friend now that she knew this. For Cassandra it was out of fear. Fear that her father wasn't the man she thought he was. Fear of what was going to happen after this day. She had to admit that this life was comfortable, it would be easy to just slip into it and allow her to slip into another comfortable, secure life as a man's wife. But she knew she couldn't do that because it scared her more to give in knowing that she could have had another life when she was already trapped.

~ (***) ~

When the dawn came everything was brighter than any other dawn she had seen. None of them had slept but when there was the first sign of light they still had that same feeling of wakefulness when you woke to a new day. Cassandra reached out to the window quietly in case Diana was asleep and peered out the window. She felt like this was it. This was the countdown to the end. Well, it wasn't the end, but it was the end of an era. It was the end of a period of time when she just had to put up with the struggles everyone else was throwing at her. She almost forgot about the conversation from last night. It was the same but it was almost like she didn't realise how bright it actually was. She dressed and walked out in the gardens early in the morning. She needed some air. She needed to think about what she was going to do next. First she would write to Mr Wick, the lawyer to tell him a date for them to meet. She would ask Selina first when she and her mother could escort her so that the school nor her brother would be able to find out about anything. She would have to begin to make preparations now. When she returned to her room she found Diana sobbing on her bed, holding a letter in her hand and Selina with her arm around her. Selina looked up when she came into the room and laid her friend down gently and marched up to her, slamming the door behind her.

"What's going on?" Cassandra asked.

"Where have you been?" Selina demanded angrily.

"What is going on?" Cassandra hissed.

"She's been crying her eyes out and you haven't been here to comfort her." Selina snapped.

"About what? What's happened?"

"There's a letter." For a moment Cassandra thought she was referring to hers and was about to talk but Selina continued. "A letter she received this morning from her Grandmother. The Duke has demanded that she now take a voyage in two weeks time for it is time for them to marry."

Cassandra gaped at Selina. Until now she believed that this wasn't really going to happen. That he might break it off and all would be well. Obviously this was not the case.

Cassandra took in a deep breath as she peered at a distraught Diana through the crack in the door. "How is she?"

"How do you think? She also mentioned you both had an argument last night." She commented.

"How was I supposed to know she was going to receive her prison sentence today?"

Selina frowned and her and leaned against wall with one hand as she gave her a calculating look. "You know, we may see eye to eye on the whole marriage thing but I was never as extreme as you. I'm a sceptic yes but I do know that there can be some happy marriages like Sophia's something you won't admit to. You act like its a horrible, terrible thing everyone should avoid like its some disease."

Cassandra stepped back and shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe it is."

"Not always, Cassandra. There can be some, genuine cases where people can be happy together." She replied in a shaky voice.

"And Diana is one of those cases?"

"Of course not. But I am getting sick of this. I'm starting to think that it really has something to do-"

"It's got nothing to do with Captain Hawkins!" She screams.

Selina stepped back and nodded her head. "Thought so."

Cassandra sighed and turned back to the sobbing girl in the room, alone with her burden. She was certainly glad that she didn't have a pushy Grandmother like her. Or that her brother was that pushy. She knew that if she screamed at him enough that she would be able to stop him from making her marry someone against her will. He may be the head of the family but she was the terror of the Richardson's and she didn't receive that reputation for no reason and without any effort involved. She knew she couldn't leave her now. She had to wait for her own chance at freedom before Diana departed from her own. She had to give her friend all the comfort that she needed in order to let her go without a guilty conscience. She secretly began to blame herself. Maybe if she had went about last nights argument in a different way maybe it would be a letter of breaking it off. It was two weeks so she would be able to find some time to see Mr Wick before she left so hopefully everything could be settled before she returned from the voyage. She was going to with Diana, she may not have been there for her this morning but she was going to be there for her on the last weeks of freedom and on the night before they would last see each other for a while or at all for that matter face to face. Like Diana wanted she was going to make a future for her own.