Future Mysticons

Disappearances

"Well, now we know what's going on. But what do we do next?" Mystica looked around Skypies questioningly. After finding Copper and Pyrite they had all gone to Skypies to try to eat something. Try being the operative word there.

"I wish I knew." Arkayna remarked.

"No one has all of the answers." Zarya told her. "If you did I'd be out of a job." She got a few slight smiles but that was it.

"Should someone go check on Piper?" Kaddy wondered.

"She's not that involved. She's probably fine." Arkayna replied.

"Still, might not be a bad idea to check on her." Kasey said.

"No." Shaylia flat out refused. "I have done enough teleporting and teleporting large groups. I need some rest."

"Fine, I'll go on foot." Mystica stood up.

"What about Captain Kaos? We should stick together." Em said. "It was splitting up that got us in trouble last time." She added, guiltily.

"Apparently he's mostly using sleeping darts; which won't work on me." Mystica pointed out.

"See? There are perks to your power." Kaddy remarked.

"Oh, I never had any doubts about the perks of being immune to all other kinds of magic." Mystica replied. "It's the side effects that I would rather do without."

"Still, maybe you should have someone else go with you." Zarya suggested. "Just in case."

"I'll go." Kaddy volunteered.

"Be careful." Kyle told her.

"Don't worry; I wouldn't make you suffer through losing your sister after losing your mom and girlfriend." Kaddy smirked.

"You're the worst."

"I know." Kaddy's smirk widened.

"But I still love you." Kyle added.

"I know." Kaddy said again, her smirk turning into a genuine, gentle smile.

"Let's go." Mystica led the way out. Kaddy followed her along the streets, always on the alert.

"What are you thinking?" Mystica quietly asked. Kaddy glanced over at her, blinking.

"What?"

"I've never ever had to ask anyone that." Mystica muttered. "Vivyan was always snooping into other people's minds and dragging me along for the ride."

"How rude." Kaddy joked. Mystica turned her head to look at her.

"I'm serious. I've never had to ask you what was going on in your head and it's kind of freaking me out."

"You wear being freaked out pretty well." Kaddy remarked. "I was just thinking of how Captain Kaos even got out in the first place; much less got the resources he must have."

"He couldn't have done it on his own." Mystica realized.

"He had outside help. And guess what other villain from the past showed up at the same time."

"Do you really think that it was Tazma?"

"Why else would she have showed up?"

"I don't know... it just seems like she might actually care about Shaylia. The two of them do have a lot in common."

"And that means she can't be helping Captain Kaos?"

"Fair enough." Mystica conceded as they arrived at the orphanage.

"Hi!" Piper greeted them.

"Well you seem awfully chipper." Kaddy remarked. Most people would have considered it a light, conversational tone; but Mystica knew better. It held a definite undercurrent of suspicion.

"Did I miss something?" 'Piper' asked.

"Vivyan, Chrysy and Mom have all disappeared." Kaddy told 'her'.

"Oh no! What do we know?" 'Piper' exclaimed a little too fakely.

"That Captain Kaos is behind it and can take the appearance of anyone." Mystica replied.

"You wouldn't mind answering a couple questions to make sure that you are really Piper, would you?" Kaddy innocently asked. To the untrained ear, it would sound as if she thought the whole process was ridiculous and that 'Piper' was clearly above suspicion.

"Oh... I guess not." 'Piper' replied, a little hesitantly.

"When is my starday?" Kaddy asked.

"Uh... I can't remember off the top of my head. When is it?"

"Third day of the month of the Phoenix."

"What about my starday?" Mystica asked.

"Wow... uh... I'm really not good with dates." 'Piper' nervously responded, eyes on the ground, wiping 'her' hands on 'her' leggings.

"Fifth day of the month of the Wolf." Mystica replied, eyes narrowing.

"But that is exactly what Piper would say. Congratulations; you passed the test!" Kaddy cheered. 'Piper' looked relieved. Mystica played along with a tight smile. "Come on; we're coming up with a plan back at Skypies."

The three of them started walking, 'Piper' ended up in the lead and Mystica fell into step beside Kaddy and started talking to her via sign language.

"What are you doing? Piper always remembers all of our stardays better than we even do!"

"I know; that is definitely not Piper. But we can't just confront him about it by ourselves. We need backup, so we need to trick him into going where the others are gathered." Kaddy signed back.

"Fair enough." Mystica reluctantly conceded to Kaddy for the second time that day.

A/N Well, there are only a couple of chapters and maybe an epilogue left. My goal is to finish this story by October 10. We'll see how that goes; I'm terrible with deadlines. That's actually one of the reasons I started writing this, to help me get better at delivering when I said I was going to.