Act 15

It happened again. Gaston had been tending to his horse when he felt a terrible pain in his head. He'd expected to wake up in the stable, but stead, he woke up in his bed after yet another dream…

"Tuxedo Mask, please find me, set me free again." The princess cloaked in shadow pleaded.

Gaston stomped angrily. "Tell me who you are and how to find you and maybe I will!" He was getting tired of this.

"Find the Imperium Silver Crystal and you will find me," she told him.

"Ugh! I need more information than that!" He shouted.

"Find the Silver Crystal." Her voice sounded faint, almost echoing, as the dream began to fade.

The hunter rubbed his head. "The dream again. I don't get it. Who is she? And why does she keep calling me Tuxedo Mask. What is a Tuxedo Mask Anyway?" He rubbed his aching temples furiously. He got dressed and grabbed his bow and arrows. He needed to think, to relieve some stress.

"The cat c…climbed the tree," Bunny read the simple sentence.

Wonderful!" Molly applauded. She looked over to a disgruntled black cat. "See Luna? She can learn this easily."

Luna looked haughtily to the ceiling. "She should already know it!"

Bunny glowered at Luna while Molly asked. "Why? Most girls in small villages, such as this one, don't learn to read unless you count a cookbook. And she's trying to fix it now. You simply can't ask her to change herself to suit you."

"Thank you Molly." Bunny said. She stuck out her tongue at the cat. "I'm not used to all of this Luna. You won't even teach me!" "Because you're a stubborn, spoilt lazy, brat only concerned with chasing that witless buffoon!" Luna fired back.

Bunny stood, her lip wobbling dangerously. "Luna, you're just being mean! I hate you and I won't help you!" She tore off her necklace and threw it down, running out of the room, sobbing.

Luna shook her head. "That girl'll never learn."

Molly's gaze grew hard. "She will if you teach her and stop acting like she's beneath you just because she's the product of her environment!"

Luna jolted to a halt. Was she out of line? Thinking about it, she knew that Bunny was trying. She was just upset that she had to start from basically scratch with Bunny. There was no groundwork to work with, but was that Bunny's fault?

Bunny raced down the stairs through the bookstore and outside. She ran until she hit something solid, blinded by her tears. Two strong arms steadied her before she could fall.

"Are you alright?" A strong, confident voice asked.

Bunny looked up and gasped in the midst of her sobs. She froze up, but her tears were still prevalent.

Gaston sighed. "Don't cry, you didn't hurt anything."

Bunny's lip continued to tremble helplessly. She thought about what Luna said. She was trying so hard but… "I'll never be good enough!" She blurted out as she erupted into new sobs.

"Whoa!" Gaston exclaimed. "Back up the wagon a little there. Good enough for what?"

Bunny wept, unable to control her words in her depression. "Good enough for you."

Gaston gaped. He knew most of the girls in this town were in love with him. But to actually see a young girl crying over it…

"Oh is that what's wrong?" Gaston boisterously laughed. "That's nothing to cry about. No girl is 'good enough.' But that's okay. I'll make do." He flashed a charming smile, attempting to cheer her up.

Bunny just cried harder. "But you thought Belle was good enough. I want to be like Belle! Strong and smart!"

Gaston laughed again but saw she wasn't amused. "You're serious. Okay… well…" This was a new thing for him. "Look, I'm flattered Bunny, but you shouldn't be trying to change yourself to please anyone, least of all a man." Where did that come from? "If you're going to do that stuff, do it for you, not me."

Bunny looked at him. Those were words she never expected to hear out of Gaston. Some foreign emotions stirred in her chest. "Thank you…"

"Bunny!" Molly's voice called as the other girl ran out to them. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She said though she really meant she was sorry that Luna was being so mean. "Hello monsieur, you must be the famous Gaston! I've heard so much about." She curtseyed.

Gaston puffed up at the term "famous." Grinning he responded, "Yeah, that's me. You are?"

"I'm Molly, the bookshop owner's cousins," she said. "I'm teaching Bunny how to read. Come on Bunny. I'll help you through it." She took her friend's hand and guided her back to the bookstore, leaving a very perplexed Gaston. What just happened?

Molly sat Bunny in front of a stubborn looking Luna. "Now Luna, you need to apologize."

Luna couldn't look Bunny in the eye as she ground out the words. "I'm sorry Bunny." She sighed. "I've been very hard on you. You're right. I can't just throw you into this without giving you some instruction. To that end, Molly is your cousin in the bookstore?"

Molly shook her head. "No, he had to go into the nearby city to pick up a new shipment. He won't be back until later tonight."

Luna stretched. "Good. Girls follow me."

She led them down to the bookshop and down into the secret room beneath it. When she saw their shocked expressions at even the existence of such a room, let alone what lay within it, she couldn't hold back a smug look.

"Luna, what is this place?" Molly asked.

Luna smirked. "This is our command center. I borrowed some computers from the Moon Kingdom to make communications and research easier. And...in here..." She led them through another door. On the other side was an enormous very empty room. On the floor was drawn a large oval around the perimeter. Blue mats lay in the center. "Here you'll be able to train for combat. Away from the prying, judgmental eyes of your peers. Over at the opposite end of this room is another room. You'll find training gear. Go suit up, meet me back out here when you're ready."

Bunny looked at Molly. Molly looked at Bunny. Neither knew what they could possibly be in for but they would do what they were told. In this, they were on even footing. It was time to get this started.

AN: End of Part 3 at last.

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