Call it a failure to adapt; call it a dislike of people. Maybe even, call it a need for adventure. But every day he spent at the Crystal Palace, Zue seemed a little angrier with the world.

The servants of the Moon Court had discovered that there was no pleasing the feline of the Zodiacs, the newly married Prince-Consort Aeon's grouchy Guardian. Zue had, early on, quashed all hopes of friendship among them, mixing rude manners and a sharp tongue to systematically discourage all gestures of welcome. Even the other Guardian Cats weren't spared his misdirected disgust; he and Artemis never did rebuild those bridges, not that either of them seemed to care to.

It was the soft, sterile life that tortured him. The dishes of cream, the adoring eyes, the soft fabrics and quiet passions and pleasant manners. The people here didn't make their own way, didn't fight for their lives. From birth, they were spoonfed happiness, growing fat and docile from it. And this idle, thriving civilization made Zue seethe, and fed a tiny, growing darkness in his heart.

It was a vulnerability that anyone could see. Even in a time of peace, it was dangerous; or perhaps especially in such a quiet time, when the slightest crack could be the handhold some new enemy needed, the doorway for a fresh disaster.

Aeon was the one who had brought Zue to that place; it was for his sake that Zue stayed, miserable though it made him. And so when it came time to confront the brooding, angry Guardian, there was no one else that it could be but the Prince.

But the close bond that he held with Zue didn't make the matter any easier, and the one-time Prince of the Zodiacs had his own fiery spirit to contend with. The people of the Moon Kingdom would never have thought of the vicious poisons two close friends could inflict on one another.

Because Zue was childish and wouldn't even give a new life a chance.

Because Aeon had forgotten where he came from.

Because Zue didn't care about Aeon's happiness, just his own damn self-importance.

Because Aeon cared about these Moon folk more than the Zodiacs.

Because Zue couldn't stand to see that Aeon cared more about someone else than his damned cat.

Then, out of this painful fight emerged something important:

Aeon did not need Zue anymore.

Those were the cat's words, not Aeon's. And perhaps it was even the truth. Aeon was one of the Moon people now; he could drink their refined drinks, wear their refined clothes, partake of their many refined conversations. But Zue was not a Guardian Cat of the Moon Court, and it was for a very good reason. He was useless here. He didn't care for politics or philosophy; he had no advice on proper graces. Everything that Aeon might need here, Zue could not give him. And when that was true, Zue himself lacked purpose. Lacked content. Lacked anything but that hollow anger. Just the thought of spending the rest of his days living this life, just to maintain the semblance of support for a prince he couldn't truly do anything for, was destroying him.

The fight finished on that sour note. Both combatants went to their corners - Aeon to take comfort in the arms of his Queen, Zue to lounge listlessly at one of the windows facing away from the blue globe of earth, staring out at the blackness of space and soaking in the lonely world he'd built so carefully around himself. Once, among the Zodiacs, he had looked at empty space as a hanging proof of what he was meant to do, of everything he must defend against. When he looked at space from the Crystal Palace, however, all he saw was how little he mattered.

Following was a time during which Zue barely saw his Prince at all. At the time, he thought that those were the blackest days of his life. He had lost his only friend in the Moon Court; he had alienated all others. Even if there was someone who would have given him a chance, he was consumed by self-pity, unwilling to see it. There came a time that Zue couldn't even find reason to walk around the palace, but only found a place to watch a pointless vigil over the stars and remain there, sometimes as long as a day. Something was going to break - and it would either be this way of life that Zue had come to live, or Zue himself.

Before that point came, though, Aeon intervened. Zue remembered little of what the prince had actually said at that time - something about a social affair, some celebration to attend, and oh yes, the Zodiacs were going to be there, so Zue really should come along.

Zue said he would think about it, and rolled over to face the wall.

Which was when Aeon hauled him up by the scruff of his neck and informed him his attendance was not optional, and that was the end of it.

The Zodiacs were especially vivacious that night. The difference between the Zodiac Guard and the Moon Court was stark, and especially so when the time came for cheer. The Zodiacs were wild and excited compared to the restrained motions of celebration that the Moon people enjoyed; they drank and ate heartily, made noise and brag and called for sprightly music. Zue and Aeon both were trapped in the midst of their old comrades, pressed with questions about the "easy living" and given answers in return of the affairs out at the fortifications.

They made a fine evening of it, as they always did. It wasn't until the whole lot was drunk beyond even their own unreasonable standards that Zue was able to slip away from the celebration. As he padded the halls of the palace, Zue thought to himself; it had done him good to see the Zodiacs again, to imagine himself as something more than a housepet for a while.

His thoughts did not go far, however. As he passed by a bedroom of the palace - one that he was fairly certain had been unoccupied before - he heard curious noises. (And not curious noises ala, oh God the Zodiacs are playing checkers again, but something more uncommon.)

So Zue paused. He tilted his ears, trying to puzzle out the source of the sound - and when the answer wouldn't quite come to him, he wedged his way through the slightly-cracked door to investigate.

In the slice of the room now illuminated by the light from the hall, an exquisitely hand-crafted little crib stood. And from it, there were little noises. Babbles and whines, small fussing complaints. The sounds of a storm building, Zue thought as he slunk nearer. Where were this thing's caretakers? What if the thing started crying? Zue didn't know much about babies, but he was pretty sure that once they started crying, someone was supposed to do something to stop it. Before they exploded, or something.

But nobody was coming, and the cries were getting more pointed. Harumphing to himself, Zue aimed a perfect leap onto the banister of the crib, looking down with mixed curiosity and dread to the crib's inhabitant--

Soulful, teary pink eyes. Slight dusting of mint-green hair. Sound of a questioning coo, a grasping motion of one waved hand.

Zue's fur rose up to their tips, like a shiver passing over his skin. And that hollow place in his heart lit up like a match touching oil.

That was the moment he'd found Princess Chronos. And it was the following day, when the newborn was presented to the Court and all her Zodiacs, that Zue was named her Guardian.

----------

The dream was gone.

If Sue had woken then, he would have known that, barrier dispelled and curse lifted from the site of Barren Pines, Princess Chronos had just collapsed and slipped back into her simple human form of Serenade Soriano. He would have also known then that he himself was human again, if notably less clothed than before.

As was, though, Sue never even realized that he'd undergone the full transformation into being a cat; or that the Zodiacs had awakened at last; or even that he'd missed seeing his princess in this life's glory. When he awakened in a hospital room much, much later - alone, and filled with insurmountable confusion - all he would have to occupy his mind was that small dream, left to him as he'd slept in the radiance of his princess.