Club Luna

It was starting to get dark out but Nina's birthday party was still going strong.

The only ones who'd left were our parents, after the cake they decided to head home and leave the rest of the festivities to all us young folks. Which was kind of funny considering the birthday girl was probably the oldest person any of us knew.

Then again, despite being almost fifteen hundred years old she still acted like a kid sometimes, but I thought that was part of her charm. And I was glad she was getting a chance to actually enjoy all this stuff. Like the party and the cake and everything. I still hated to think of how much of her life she'd spent alone.

I tried to push those thoughts aside though and just focus on the happy stuff. The birthday girl wanted more hot chocolate, so I volunteered to take care of it. I was in the kitchen dealing with that while everyone else kept the party going out in the backyard.

The kettle was nearly boiling when I was surprised by a knock at the front door. As far as I knew we weren't expecting anyone else to show up, and as I moved to answer it I found myself wondering who it might be.

The first thing to cross my mind was maybe Melody came after all, which would be cool. Even if she missed dinner and cake and stuff, it'd still be nice to see her.

By the time I opened the door I'd pretty much convinced myself that's who I'd find waiting, so it was kind of a record-scratch moment when I discovered a familiar but very unexpected person standing on the front step.

"Ms. Sutton?" I asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

She looked the same as always, a kindly grandmother type in her late fifties or early sixties. Her greying blonde hair was done up in a bun and she was dressed in the same business-casual style she always wore when I saw her at school. The only thing missing was her glasses, but I was pretty sure she only needed those for when she was reading.

As confused as I was to see her there, I was also concerned to notice the police car and ambulance that were both parked on the street in front of the house. I didn't see any police or EMT people around though, so I figured maybe they were here for one of our neighbours instead.

Meanwhile Ms. Sutton gave me an apologetic smile as she replied, "Hello dear. I'm very sorry to drop in on you like this, but I'm afraid it couldn't be avoided."

That made me frown, "Why, what's wrong?"

"I really didn't want it to be like this Cass," she sighed and shook her head. "And I want you to know, I did my best to convince them to look the other way."

Something definitely wasn't right, and I felt myself getting more uneasy as I tried to make sense of what she was saying. "Who are you trying to convince? What's going on?"

The friendly librarian I'd known for the past four years replied, "I've been watching your friends for some time dear. And you as well of course, ever since you joined them. I really hoped you'd all leave the supernatural behind after Miss Hawthorne moved away."

"You used to be such a good child," she added with another sigh. "I was so disappointed when I realized you were the one handing out those enchanted plush toys. Now look at you, dating witches and living with werewolves. I'm sorry Cass. The Council has had more than enough, they've decided it's time to address the situation here once and for all."

The uneasy feeling solidified into what felt like a ball of ice in my gut. I gulped then nervously asked, "Why are you telling me this? Why did you come here?"

"Because I liked you, and I wanted to say goodbye," she replied as she reached her hand out towards me.

Before I could say anything else her hand flared with magic. It struck me in the face, but other than some spots in my eyes from the bright purple light there was absolutely no effect. Like any other spell it was simply absorbed and fed into the existing pool of power inside me, as insignificant as adding a drop of water to the ocean.

When she realized her spell failed Ms. Sutton's expression went from sad and resigned to confused and maybe a little worried.

Once again I was interrupted before I could speak, but this time the distraction came from the backyard.

"Cass!" Kaylee screamed. "Help!"

My girlfriend's cry sent a shock of adrenaline through me as I realized Ms. Sutton was just a distraction, there had to be more council people in the backyard. And they were attacking my girlfriend, and all my other friends.

My heart skipped a beat as I turned to look over my shoulder towards the back door, and sure enough I saw purple flares of magic back there. My emotions churned as I felt fear, anger, betrayal, and even helplessness. Only I wasn't helpless, and I wasn't alone. I knew someone who'd be able to fix this for me.

"Cassandra?" I half-whispered to myself as I darted for the back door with a burst of demonic speed. "I need you! Please help our friends!"

Ms. Sutton was left standing alone on the front step, the door was wide open so she'd have seen how fast I moved. What she couldn't see was how Cass the shy friendly demon girl was replaced by Cassandra the Goddess of Chaos mid-way through our dash to the backyard.

The instant we burst out through the back door our eyes swept the scene and our gut clenched with worry.

There were five strangers back there, three men and two women. One man and one woman were both in police uniforms, but neither of us believed they were really cops. The other woman and the second man were wearing EMT uniforms, but we knew they were fake too. And the last guy was an older gentleman, dressed in a dark suit and tie. Somehow we both knew he was in charge of the others.

The next thing we noticed was all our friends' bodies sprawled around the backyard, the purple glow of magic flickering over their unmoving features. The two wolfgirls, Brooke and Paige, Willow Sasha and Kaylee, they all lay motionless on the ground.

Even Nina had collapsed, but it wasn't magic that brought her down. Instead there were a couple thin metallic wires that led from her inert form back to the taser the police man was holding in his outstretched hands. Seeing that reminded me of Brian and his comment about electricity being one thing we were still vulnerable to. Except that was before we gained Sasha's power. That's when we were just part demon.

Deep inside I was panicking. I felt nauseous with fear and worry, at the sight of all my friends on the ground. I had no idea if they were just asleep or if these people had done something worse to them, and I was torn between wanting to help them and being afraid to find out what happened incase it was something awful.

My fears and emotions didn't seem to affect not-me, her magic quickly washed over the backyard to check on all our friends. Both of us were relieved to learn they were all just unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. Nina would be ok too, but I knew from experience getting zapped with electricity was painful.

"Ah," the guy in the business suit commented as he looked over at us. He seemed completely calm and self-assured, as if he wasn't the least bit concerned about us. We noted he had some sort of European accent as he commented, "You must be Cassandra. I'm not surprised Grace failed to neutralize you, she's been soft on you people all along."

"Who are you?" I heard myself ask. "What have you done to my friends?"

I was expecting not-me to be angry, or at least I thought she'd sound all calm and confident. Instead our voice sounded anxious and timid. Then I realized, Cassandra was pretending to be me. She was letting these people think we were the same shy quiet nervous girl I'd always been. They didn't seem to have any idea who or what we really were.

"My name's not important," the old guy stated in a dismissive tone. "You wouldn't remember it anyways, not when we're finished with you."

There was another brilliant flare of magic as the guy in the EMT uniform hit us with a spell. Once again it had no effect, the magic was neutralized and the power absorbed. The guy who'd cast it looked surprised his spell failed, while suit-guy just looked vaguely irritated that nothing happened.

"Beatrice if you would?" the older man commented as he gestured to the police lady. Then he added as if to himself, "We'll have a closer look at this one and her sister in a moment, to find out why they're resistant to our magic. They're probably wearing protective charms or amulets."

Meanwhile the police woman pulled a taser from her belt, aimed it at us and pulled the trigger all in one fluid motion. Cassandra and her chaos magic was faster though, and the weapon misfired. There was a quiet little pop as the weapon shorted out through the grip, then the woman's muscles went rigid. A moment later she crumpled and lay twitching on the ground.

"I think that's enough of that," I heard myself say, and this time our voice was all calm confidence. At the same time our magic washed out over all six intruders, telling us what we needed to know about them.

Victor and Beatrice were impersonating police officers, while Edward and Lois were the ones in EMT uniforms. Like we suspected they were all operatives from the council, and each of them was about as powerful as Mrs. Reeves the witch hunter. They were exactly the sort of people May Hawthorne warned us about when she tried to shut down the club, and on its own Club Luna really didn't stand a chance against them.

Except despite all their power and experience they were little more than thugs with magic as far as Cassandra was concerned. Just some foreign creeps here to do awful things to our friends.

A few meters behind us stood Grace Sutton, she'd followed us into the house and closed the front door behind her. She was watching, but we knew she had no plans to interfere unless ordered. From her thoughts we learned she was a spy rather than an operative like the others. She wasn't as strong as them, and her talents were better suited for observation and infiltration instead of fighting. The past eleven years she'd been assigned to our high school, to keep an eye on May Hawthorne's activities. Apparently the council believed May was a rogue witch, they had no idea what our former teacher really was.

Suit guy was by far the strongest of the group, and the most interesting, although that wasn't saying much. Dario Vargas thought of himself as a powerful wizard. He was ruthless and ambitious and wanted to join the Council's upper echelon, he wanted to join their board of directors. And to round things out the man was also speciesist and queermisic. He didn't like supernaturals in general, and didn't like Club Luna in particular because most of us were queer and a couple of us were trans.

We also found out he was the one who paid Kyle and Danny to attack Melanie, and he incited Steve Ford into assaulting Willow. We also confirmed he and his thugs were responsible for luring us out to that cave back in March, to get photographic evidence to use against us.

In fact it looked like Kaylee was right that the whole situation was a set-up to get us to expose ourselves, but it wasn't exactly the council. It was this Vargas guy's idea, he wanted to get rid of Club Luna to make himself look good. And to do that, first he had to make us look bad.

All that stuff passed through our mind in an instant, and Cassandra came to a decision as soon as she'd processed the information. It took but a thought to render Lois Edward and Victor unconscious, all three of them crumpled to join Beatrice laying incapacitated on the ground. Another thought dispelled the magic on all our friends, and a little touch of power was enough to wake Nina as well.

Suit guy's calm smug demeanour cracked as his thugs all hit the ground, and he immediately flung a powerful spell at us. Cassandra let it hit, it was just another drop added to our ocean of divine power.

"Dario Vargas," we stated as we locked eyes with him. Cassandra pulled more information from his mind and read it back to him, "Born in Seville in nineteen sixty-two. Took an interest in the occult at age thirteen, discovered a natural talent for magic by age fifteen, and recruited by the council at age twenty-one. Became a council 'troubleshooter' at twenty-nine. And finally promoted to the leader of that division after two and a half decades of lies, backstabbing, and murder."

"You've been a very naughty boy Dario," not-me continued. "I don't care how many of your own friends you've betrayed and killed in your quest for power, and I don't care enough about your council to wipe them from the face of the Earth right now. But you came here into my territory, and you went out of your way to attack my friends? I will not stand for that."

By the time not-me finished talking suit guy was obviously sweating. Meanwhile all our friends were back up on their feet, they'd heard everything we said and they were a mix of anxious, wary, and ready to fight if necessary.

Meanwhile suit guy tried to put on a show of bravado, he glared at us as he demanded "What in hell are you? You're no ordinary witch."

"My name is Cassandra," not-me replied in her usual calm confident voice.

Then I felt her shift some of our divine power out of the shard and closer to the surface. It was more than enough to let everyone present feel it, but she made certain both Ms. Sutton and suit guy took the full brunt of it. Behind us the old librarian sank to her knees, while Vargas practically fell to his. In fact he looked like he was a half second away from prostrating himself on the ground before us.

Not-me continued to stare at him as she calmly added, "And I am the Goddess of Chaos."

We saw it in his eyes, the expression on his face, and read the sentiment in his thoughts. In that moment, Dario Vargas knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had made a terrible mistake.

I'd been watching all of this as a silent bystander, from somewhere deep inside while Cassandra was in control. Now I had to speak up. I asked not-me, "What are you going to do with them?"

Nobody else seemed to hear me, none of my friends or suit guy reacted to my words. They didn't seem to hear Cassandra's reply either as she responded, "What would you have me do Cass? You know we can't let them go."

"Please don't kill anyone," I asked her. "And please spare Ms. Sutton? Maybe just talk to her or something? Send her away, but don't hurt her."

"As you wish," she told me, before her attention returned to the council people. Or the two who were still conscious anyways.

Cassandra stated, "My inner demon has asked that I show you people mercy, so for her I will spare your lives. Dario Vargas, for your unprovoked attacks on my friends and family you and your thugs will spend the rest of your days being loved, cherished, and cared for."

Our magic surged and suit guy vanished, along with the four unconscious thugs. Then we turned to face Ms. Sutton, who was still kneeling just inside the back door of the house. She was obviously scared, almost trembling, and her eyes were downcast rather than try and face us.

"Grace Sutton you may leave," not-me stated as we looked at the older woman. "Inform your council that they are not welcome here. If I find any of them within a thousand kilometres of this place, they will face my wrath. You have twenty-four hours to leave or resign."

The older woman shuddered, "There's no option to resign. They'll hunt down anyone who tries to quit..."

"Then use this, after you've passed on my warning," Cassandra stated as she tossed a frosted plastic capsule to land in front of Ms. Sutton. "I'll arrange a new identity, so you needn't worry about them ever finding you again. Now go."

The librarian gulped, but she picked up the capsule then got to her feet. Without another word she turned and fled our house. Just like that it seemed like the crisis was over. I felt not-me pull our divine energy back inside again, and all our friends breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cass!" Kaylee exclaimed as she hurried to our side. "What did you do to them, where'd they go?"

The others all gathered around as well, with expressions of shock, worry, concern, or in Sasha's case, a wide smile.

I still wasn't in control though, all I could do was watch and listen as Cassandra replied calmly, "I'm sure we'll see Vargas and his thugs again tomorrow at the animal shelter. When we feed them and clean their cages. Don't worry though, they'll find new homes soon enough. They're all very fluffy and cute after all."

Nina still looked a little anxious as she asked us, "What did you mean about an inner demon?"

"That would be Cass of course," not-me replied. "She's our shy anxious friendly demonic half."

Willow frowned, "What's that supposed to mean? If you're not Cass then who are you?"

"She's Cassandra," Melanie stated quietly. "The goddess of chaos."

My other self nodded, "Correct. I am our divine half, Cass is our demonic half."

"Speaking of which," she added, "I'll turn things back over to her, now that the crisis is past."

My perspective shifted slightly, and I suddenly found myself cringing in front of all my friends. I felt my cheeks go red as I blushed. "So um, I guess we don't have to worry about the council anymore?"

"Yeah I guess not," Willow responded with a laugh. "Considering they got their asses handed to them by an actual literal goddess? I bet that's the last we hear of any of those creeps!"

That seemed to defuse some of the tension and stuff, and before long everyone went back to relaxing and enjoying the rest of my little sister's birthday party. Everyone except me that is. I was still anxious and uptight about the whole thing, especially the part where the other voice in my head just introduced herself to all my friends.

Fortunately Kaylee could tell something was bothering me, and she had a pretty good idea how to help. She reached out and pulled me into a tight hug, then leaned forward and planted a firm, passionate kiss on my lips.

"Whatever you're worrying about right now," she whispered as she held me tight, "It can wait for some other day. Whether you call yourself Cass or Cassandra, you're an amazing girl. And I'm lucky to be your girlfriend."

That left me blushing again, but in a good way. I smiled and kissed her back, "Thanks Kaylee. I'm lucky to be yours too."

~ End of Episode Fifteen ~