What is the truth?
Montana, in the mountains,
- Why have you come here, to Montana? – Kisshu asked.
- What kind of question is that?! – Zoey growled, then sighed. – Like it wasn't obvious, anyway. I wanted to ski with my friends.
- But why have you chosen this place?
- I don't know… Chris suggested…
- Does he know anything about the Cyniclons?!
- How would he?! I haven't said anyone anything about the Cyniclons or about the Mew Mews, ever! – Zoey stated. - The only people who knew about it were the other Mews, Eliot and Wesley and they remained silent as well. …But… Why is it so important for you? Why have you come back…?!
- I'm still the one asking! – Kisshu exclaimed. – Had any of you noticed that we were back, before you felt me?
- What?! So it's not only you…
- Damn it! – Kisshu hissed. – How can I be such an idiot?!
- Kisshu! What is going on?!
- Still! Answer the question!
Zoey did not want to, as she became more and more doubtful, but Kisshu's voice was so strict that she couldn't defy him.
- No. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't know. And I haven't contacted the others for months. …But would you finally tell me…!
- Just one more question! Wesley and Elliot…?
- What's with them? With the two of them I haven't spoken for like a year…
- Is that true? They haven't contacted you?
- Why would they?
- That's what I needed to know – Kisshu said, and intended to leave. – Bye…
- Wait, I just remembered! – Zoey shouted in surprise. – Kikki told me last year that Wesley and Elliot went on an archeologist mission to find out more about the Cyniclons' past! – She didn't know why she was telling it to him. Maybe, she didn't want him to leave.
- As it won't make any change, my kitty… I can tell you, that I've already known.
- Did you?
- Partly, I came to find out whether they have told you something about any discovery they might have made.
- They haven't but… Is that why you are here?! You and the others need something from your ancestors' cities?!
- It could be the reason…
- Is it about the Mew Aqua again? I thought there was none of it left.
- There's none of it left on Earth, indeed – Kisshu answered. – That's not why we're here.
- So why…?!
- Don't worry, my darling! As I said last time, I'm not going to stay for long, and so are the others.
- Please, Kisshu! – Zoey begged, as she felt that he was really about to leave again. – Please! – She stood up and grabbed his left arm with both of her hands.
Kisshu looked down at her in surprise.
- What? We're not planning to hurt anyone this time, I promise.
- It's good to know…
- So can I leave now!? – he asked, but Zoey tightened her hold of his arm.
- You scared me in NYC, and then left me in doubts two days ago! The least you can do is to FINALLY explain the situation to me! Please!
- The less you know the better.
- Please! Kisshu! I need to know!
- No, you don't. – he claimed. But Zoey just wouldn't let him go and she was looking into his eyes with her gleaming, big, pink eyes. He couldn't resist. – Fine. – he sighed. – But you need to promise me, that you'll remain silent! You cannot tell anyone what I'm about to say!
- But…
- In this case… Bye, kitty cat!
- NO! I won't tell! I promise! – she promised at last.
- Swear to me!
- …I swear – she sighed.
- Alright… - he took a deep breath and pointed at the trunk with his free hand. – Let's sit down. – They sat down, but Zoey was still holding his arm. – Won't you release me? – he asked, but deep inside he quite enjoyed it.
- Not until you tell me!
...
- You really have changed! – Kisshu told her with a smile. – What would your boyfriend say if he saw you grabbing me like this, little kitty?
- I don't have one! – she said. Kisshu looked at her with curiosity and she decided to tell him. Maybe, if she told him a few things, he would talk as well. – I broke up with Mark three and a half year ago. After that, the team split up. Three years ago I came to NYC and the others went on their different ways as well.
- So the Mew Mews are indeed disbanded.
- I finished High School, and sooner or later the others did as well. We needed to go on with our lives. Only Kikki and Bridget stayed in Tokyo. Corina is in Paris and Reneé is in Los Angeles. Also, until now, there were no aliens to fight with.
- I see. After all, we were the very reason of the existence of the Mew Mews. – Kisshu realized how easily they can have a conversation this time. Something had definitely changed between them.
- Probably. But I decided not to let my powers get rusty – she sighed, and she finally let go of Kisshu's arm. - I'm chasing criminals in New York these days.
- I saw you – Kisshu said with a wide smile on his face. Then he changed to a different tone. – Why did you break up with Mark? I thought he was the only one for you… At least that was what you said back then.
- Well, he wasn't! – Zoey said nervously. – I don't even know why I'm telling it to you, but… - It felt okay to finally talk someone about it who would understand without being another Mew Mew. – The first few years were cool. He was really understanding regarding my …cat part. But… we started to grow up and… he found it more and more disturbing that… he was dating a… cat.
- Really? – Kisshu asked with sympathy.
- Yes – she sighed and stared down at her feet. – In the end, he actually said that it was too hard for him to date someone like me. Someone who can turn into a cat any time, and who acts like cat whenever… - She didn't mean to get emotional right now, when Kisshu was there, but she couldn't help letting a few tears roll down her face.
- Humans are so narrow-minded! – Kisshu stated as he wrapped his left arm around her. She didn't seem to oppose. She actually liked this gesture, but didn't mention it. – So, did you date other guys after that? – He couldn't resist asking, but he tried to be gentle.
- I went on a few dates… - she said as tears were flooding her eyes. - But I never dared to let anything become too serious. I knew that no one would understand. Seriously… - she looked up at him. – Who would date a cat?
- I would – Kisshu shrugged, looking deeply into her eyes. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, but… She seemed so shattered and he wanted to cheer her up.
- Oh, come on! – she replied, but she actually laughed a bit as she wiped her tears away. – Then why wouldn't you kiss me last night?
- I said I would date you, but I can't – he sighed. – And don't think I wasn't flattered by your attempt to kiss me, but… We shall not be together!
- Why? It don't seem like you don't like me anymore.
- Fair enough – Kisshu said, as they both looked at his arm embracing Zoey. Then he placed his arm back to his lap. – But it doesn't matter. I have responsibilities now. More serious responsibilities than six years ago…
- Would you tell me about it? – she asked, looking at him with true concern.
- As I've already promised… Fine. – Kisshu glimpsed at Zoey. - How much do you remember?
- About the end of the Battle? – She asked and he nodded. – Not too much. I thought that both of us died.
- That would have been a pity for both of us – he sighed.
- Definitely. I really thought we were going to die. But the others told me what happened after I fainted. The Mew Aqua healed everyone. After that, you and your partners helped us to get back to the ground and saved the city…
- We only annihilated Deep Blue's castle so that it cannot cause any more damage.
- You and your friends saved our lives! – Zoey looked up at him with gratitude. – I've never had the chance to say thank you for it.
- You, kitty, saved everyone else's life when you released the power of the Mew aqua. We were quite even.
...
- I… I felt so bad when I saw you dying - Zoey admitted. - And when you fainted in my arms, I… It broke my heart!
- Really? – Kisshu asked a bit surprised looking in her eyes. – You were worried about me?
- I was. I'm not sure why, but… We weren't enemies anymore. It wasn't fair to you or to your friends.
- Do you think so? We tried to destroy you and humanity…
- Just to get the planet of your ancestors back. And maybe if we had been a bit more understanding… than it would never had come to war!
- I guess you did think much about me and the past. – Kisshu was staring at her with more and more admiration. Zoey has really changed since then. She never seemed to be so understanding back then.
- We should have been more benevolent… - she claimed. She hoped this way she could fix her mistakes in the past. – I'm sorry for never really listening to you. You only tried to explain your situation and I never gave you my attention. I judged by the cover…
- Zoey…
- I was glad when they told me you'd survived and that you, Pai and Taruto had taken the last part of the Mew Aqua to save your planet.
- See, it's really nice from you – Kisshu sighed, - but don't worry about not being kind enough to us. We did hurt people, no matter the circumstances, and we did want to destroy you the first time.
- Yes it's true, but…
- I truly appreciate that you realized a few things, honey, but… I did too. Even if you had been more understanding, it wouldn't have made a change!
- Why not? – she looked at him blankly.
- Ahh – he sighed and put his left hand on Zoey's right arm which made her blush a little. – Haven't you realized after that much thinking? – he asked with only a little condemn in his voice.
- What?
- Your and the other Mews' attitude wasn't the reason of the war between us, my dear! Even if you had felt pity for us… the war would have gone on.
- But how could you say this?! – Zoey shouted. She tried to raise her fists next to her chest to demonstrate her disagreement, but Kisshu grabbed her other arm too and kept her hands down.
- All of you were only soldiers! – he claimed intensely. – You were the means of the war, not the reason. And I can't even say that those bastards, Elliot and Wesley are to blame… The reason why we were fighting endlessly was…
- Our misunderstanding. But if we…
- You still don't get the whole picture! It was the SELFISHNESS of the humans and THEIR misunderstanding, not only the opinion of a few Mews! Although, most of the humans didn't know about us, imagine what would have happened if they had! Wesley and Elliot only represented the way how the others would have reacted. The humans would never had accepted us or offered to share this planet with us!
- But if we had made them understand too…
- Sorry to say things like this again, darling, but you need to see! The humans are terribly selfish! They can't even share this planet with themselves. They make war all the time. Living together never would have worked! We had realized it long before we revealed ourselves to the Mew Mews, and that's why we tried to destroy all of you. We guessed the only way to live on this planet was to end humanity.
- But you changed your minds in the end.
- Yes, because we realized the same thing as you did. Humans have feelings, friends and families as we do, and they can love too. If killing all of them is the only solution, then…
- Kisshu… - Zoey sighed as she learned that there was indeed goodness in him and his friends.
- Then all of it just does not worth it! We agreed on this with my partners. That's why we switched to your side in the end. First Taruto, me and then Pai. Also, we realized that Deep Blue was only abusing us. He never really wanted to save our people.
- I heard you accusing him with that.
- That's when it all became clear - Kisshu explained. - We couldn't win because it was an uphill struggle all the way! We had only been serving the selfishness of one person, not the welfare of our people. As our survival shouldn't cost the lives of others! That's what we failed to understand for so long. We had been soldiers too. But when the Mew Aqua gave us a second chance we knew what we shall do. The war must have been stopped!
- Kisshu. I'm glad that you and your friends came to this decision. If only all of us had realized earlier…
- Part of me even grateful for you and the Mews. If it hadn't been for you, perhaps we would have destroyed the humans before they had even realized what was happening. It would have been a terrible mistake.
- So what happened after you left? – Zoey asked. She started to emphasize with him even more than before. They were both soldiers? It's like they never really had a choice.
- We flew back to our planet, that we called The Pit. That was the planet our ancestors found after Earth's ancient climate made it impossible for them to live on it anymore. That happened three hundred thousand years ago… - he decided to tell the whole story to her in case she's interested. – Do you care about the whole story?
- Yes! – she nodded. This time, she was eager to listen to him. – I'd like to know.
...
- My ancestors had been living on this planet long before humanity. They had built beautiful cities and developed amazing technologies. They had learned to live in harmony with nature and with each other as well.
- It must have been great - she supposed.
- That had been our golden age - Kisshu said. - But three hundred thousand years ago due to the rapid and cruel climate change my ancestors had to leave. The Earth has it's natural, periodic changes in the global climate and that time the heat increased too high to endure. My ancestors left with the hope to find another livable planet. But all that they found was a planet that was covered with ice and snow. But their supplies ran out, they had to stay there. Also, given the poor environmental sources of that planet, they never managed to gather enough equipment for another journey…
- But for three hundred…
- They sent explorers to every direction, but none of them ever found another planet with the adequate atmosphere, water and vegetation. Not even one that would be at least as hospitable as The Pit. So my people was forced to stay on that lean planet, and only few of them survived. There had been millions of us, and now there's only a few hundred thousands of Cyniclons left…
- This is so awful – Zoey said and Kisshu saw her eyes were flooded by tears.
He was still holding her arms, but now he let go of her and looked blankly at the peaks of the mountains. He was touched by her sympathy, but looking at her tears would only cause him more pain.
- The few people that survived were kept alive by a dream and a hope. They hoped that one day, when Earth's climate would turn back to normal, they would be able to return to this beautiful planet. Earth was the place parents told stories to their children about while blizzards were raging outside. Storms, that were ten times stronger than the storm of yesterday. – His eyes became a bit wet too, so he raised his look upper to the sky. – Me, Pai and Taruto dreamed so many dreams about this jewel of a planet and our return. Then one day the elders decided to sent scouts to find out whether our previous planet became hospitable again. Three of us volunteered.
- But… weren't you too young to do that? Taruto was a kid and you were only… - Zoey said as she wiped away her tears from her face. Kisshu wiped away a few tears too.
- I was 46 and Taruto was 26.
- What?!
- We live two times longer than humans. It's like I had been 23 and he had been 13. Pai were 28 in human age. During our struggle to survive on The Pit the Cyniclons became weaker. Fewer people reached the old age and the older ones are much weaker. Also, the elders needed to stay with the folk and the parents needed to take care of their families. So they let us go. The rest you can guess…
- You finally reached the planet of your dreams… - Zoey said with sadness, - only to realize that humans had taken over it and they had been wasting it away.
- I couldn't word it better – Kisshu sighed, as finally looked at Zoey. She noticed a few more tears that he tried to hide.
- I understand why you tried to exterminate us. As you said, humans do not seem like people who would like to share their planet. But I'm glad that you let us live.
- We too - Kisshu agreed. - When we returned to The Pit, with the Mew Aqua, a new solution came to the picture. We thought, maybe we could change the climate of The Pit to be more hospitable. But the conditions had worsened much while we had been away…
- What happened then?
- We told everything to the elders about Earth, Deep Blue and the Mews as well. – Zoey looked at him with curiosity. – They agreed with our final decision. Exterminating an entire race cannot be the solution. But changing the climate of an entire planet was a dead end too. How could we even think that it was possible?! – Kisshu shook his head and took a deep breath.
- So what did you do? – Zoey asked putting her right hand on his left arm.
- The cold and the blizzards became more intense and made it impossible to tolarate. My people had to leave their planet again. We had to make a hard decision… - He took one more deep breath and finally looked into her wondering eyes. – We used the power of the Mew Aqua to build new ships for a new journey, large enough to carry all of our people… back to Earth.
Zoey stared at him shocked, so he tried to explain.
– We had no choice! Our race were about to become extinct - he said. - So we decided to come back to Earth, but for only a short period of time. We knew the humans would never accept us, that's something we learned the last time. We didn't want any more war or fighting with you. We only came to upload our supplies and get ready for a new journey…
- To upload your supplies? – Zoey asked quietly when she finally managed to speak.
- Our people were weak, starving, and freezing. The Pit only provided us enough food and fuel to make it to Earth. We needed to gather some strength and resources, otherwise we would never survive a longer journey in order to find a new home.
- That's what you're planning? Finding a new home, somewhere else?
- As we can't stay here for eternity… We have no other choice. But we travelled months just to get here, we have to rest for a while.
...
- I understand, Kisshu – Zoey said leaning closer to him. – I understand you had no other choice.
He looked at her with surprise, but soon his eyes were filled with warmth.
- I didn't hope you would – he smiled. – I thought you would be thrilled.
- I am… But I remembere you promised me that you're not going to hurt anyone this time - she explained showing him that she trusts him.
- That's true - Kisshu replied. He was happy that she trusted him this time. - Me and my co-leaders have forbidden our people to fight with or to hurt any humans.
- You… and you co-leaders?! – she wondered. – Does that mean…?!
- Back in The Pit, after our return from Earth, me, Pai and Taruto had been elected to be the three leaders of the Cyniclons.
- But… Aren't you too young to…?
- As I said, our people are weakened and there are less elders now. Also they learned how hard we tried to ensure their survival, risking our lives for them. We would indeed do anything for our people and they trusted us for that. We do take advise from the elders, though.
- So you're a leader of the Cyniclons now? Is this what you meant by other responsibilities?
- Yes – Kisshu nodded. – We have many things to do until the new journey, and my people count on me. You can see, that I don't have time for romance. I shouldn't even have searched for you in the first place…
- Well, I don't mind that now. I always wanted to tell you how much I'm sorry for being so hateful to you six years ago.
- Then… Thank you for telling me, my dear. However, it sadly won't change the situation. Although, Pai, Taruto, me and the elders convinced the Cyniclons that warring with the humans would be unreasonable, they still don't like you. They hate the humans for stealing and wasting their promised planet…
- And I can understand them…
- Still. On some level we are still are enemies. Even if we're not planning to fight, my people won't like it if they learned that I'm seeing a human girl. Excapt Pai and Taru, they have no idea that I'm with you right now.
- I see – Zoey said sadly.
- I'm sorry, honey – Kisshu said, placing his hand on her shoulder, - but it would be better this way.
- When are you leaving?
- In a few months. As soon as our ships are ready.
- And… - Zoey only realized. – How come no one ever noticed you and the others?! If you are so many as you said, then how…
- That's why we cannot stay for even a year. To hide from the humans we created an alternative dimension that we attached to Montana…
- What?! Attached? How?!
- It would be hard for you to understand the technology. The point is, that the alternative dimensions have to be attached to a part of the real space. Last time our hideaway was attached to Tokyo. Now we needed a bigger dimension, and we looked for a remote land, so we chosed Montana.
- Remote? – Zoey raised an eyebrow.
- We arrived two months ago. We had no idea that there there was a ski center in this part of Montana.
- So this other dimension… How does it look like?
- I shall not tell you more details – Kisshu claimed. But Zoey kept on looking into his eyes with desperation. – Fine. It's as big as Manhattan, has a Mediterranean climate, and there's no sun or moon. There's always a white daylight. We built a city inside it, that's where my people live for now.
- A city? In another dimension?!
- It requires much energy to maintain the existence of our dimension. That's why it needed to be attached to the real space. Our dimension consumes Earth's energies to remain stable. That's why we need to leave as soon as possible! We're not evil. We don't want Earth to suffer the consequences.
- I see – Zoey nodded. – You're only doing what's inevitably necessary for your survival. I'm not judging any of you for this.
- It's good that you see it this way, my kitty. However, few other human would be on your opinion. So would you remain silent about it? – Kisshu gently touched her chin and looked into her pink eyes. - Will you keep our secret?
- Yes, I will – she promised looking back into his golden eyes. How would she betray him after all of this? His people have suffered enough.
- Thank you, Zoey - He sighed and released her chin.
They both felt much more relieved now.
…
To be continued…