Guys! This is... my last chapter! Thank you so much for reading this far and for being so encouraging. You guys rock and you're all the reason that I came this far with something I started just for fun. I hope to write something else that you will enjoy soon ^_^

/Zen out

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo demanded. She'd thought it was all over – Ryou and the Mews had virtually said it was okay for Kisshu to stay. And right when she'd been about to sigh in relief, Pai had spoken of war. He'd just helped them! What was he doing now?

"Yes, what are you talking about?" Kisshu repeated through clenched teeth. Ichigo wasn't sure if he was so stiff because he was angry or because of the pain.

Pai turned to look at them with flat, sad eyes. "Do you think just because we stop fighting that Deep Blue will stop wanting Earth? Or that if we stop, others will not come? Home still requires help."

"But you can fix it," Taruto spoke up from where he stood next to Pudding. "With the pendants—"

"You can't take our pendants!" Mint interrupted, shock and outrage clear on her face.

"Even if we had two pendants," Pai said, looking unphased, "I cannot guarantee my solution would work."

"But it might," Ichigo pressed. "It might work. Isn't that enough to make you want to try?" She glanced around her then looked at Ryou. "Where did Keiichiro go? I thought I saw him here earlier."

"He was," Ryou replied as he frowned. "I sent him back to the cafe. He doesn't often come out to the battles, and he could do little here to help."

She turned back to Pai. "You could work with Keiichiro. I'm sure between the two of you, both of you being as smart as you are, that you could come up with something that would work. And you probably wouldn't even need to take the actual pendants."

For a moment there was silence. Pai seemed to be calculating the odds, and everyone else held their breath.

"It is possible," he began slowly, "that we might come up with something together that I would not think of on my own. Your pendants are an interesting technology I would be interested in learning more of."

Ichigo relaxed a fraction, as did everyone else.

"Well," she said with a sigh, "it looks like we might become unlikely allies."

Everyone looked at her, but before anyone could speak, Kisshu groaned and his knees buckled. Ichigo gasped and helped him sit down as gently as she could.

"I'll be okay kitten," he said breathlessly. "I just... now I do need rest. I'm just so tired."

"You're not just tired," she snapped, her hands hovering over him as she wanted to touch him but feared causing any more pain. "You're hurt and you should have just let the rest of it wait. It would have waited." She paused and looked at his tense face. "I would have waited."

He caught up her hand and she smiled.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"For trusting me, for starters," Kisshu said with a grim smile. "I didn't give you a lot of reason to trust me. I said a lot of the wrong things at the start. I was angry."

"You were just trying to save your people," Ichigo said quietly. "I know that now. And you were angry at how we were treating the Earth. You've every right to be," she added. "We are killing it, and we will continue to kill it if we don't do something to change it."

"You can't just change a world," Ryou said, interrupting their conversation. He had his arms crossed tightly over his chest and Retasu hovered at his shoulder.

"We've got to do something," Ichigo argued. "The places Kisshu showed me... some of them were beautiful, I wish you all could have seen them. But some of them... there was nothing but garbage. Garbage and useless violence. It was horrible. I don't know that we can stop the violence," she added, "but if we are going to stay on Earth then shouldn't we be doing something to protect it?"

"I think you're right," Retasu said, surprising ichigo by speaking up. There was a fierce edge to her voice as she spoke. "We should do something. It's our responsibility, not just as Mew Mews but as people. As humans." A blush rose into her cheeks and she glanced at Ryou, but he only nodded in agreement.

"The fight is definitely not over," he said, glancing at Pai, "in more ways than one. Deep Blue may yet find other warriors to fight his fight, and both our planets are still in danger. Maybe together, though, we can do something about it."

Ichigo liked the sound of that. "Together."

Kisshu squeezed her hand and she glanced down at him, finding him smiling up at her.

"Together," he repeated, although when he said it, it sounded as though he meant something different. He meant the two of them. The two of them together. She leaned forward and kissed him gently.

"I love you Kisshu," she whispered against his mouth.

His hand came up to rest in her hair and she sighed.

"And I love you kitty cat," he said before pulling her closer for another kiss, this one deeper and warmer. She'd never been more happy or felt more safe.

The End! Thank all of you for reading this far 3