Mina felt like she needed a shower being in that taxi cab with the beef and cheese eating D. Vito and his robot lackey. It was sad. Once that smell of cheap prosciutto wrapped around mozzarella was a welcoming smell. Now, it was just as repugnant as the artery clogged heart of D. Vito.

  She waited in the lobby with a look of abject horror too. Her dead boyfriend was sitting across from her in that taxi cab. He once hid a noble heart beneath his caustic exterior, but now it was nothing but wires and metal.

  None of her friends had arrived yet and she didn't blame them. Being in this courtroom had traumatized Raven, Trudy and Winona. And even if law had saved their lives, it could easily lay them down too.

  She grasped a styrofoam cup of the cheap bland courtroom java that the lobby had. She didn't want any sugary extrapresso surprises for her already leaping heart. She just wanted to bury her sorrows in coffee that tasted like cheap dirt.

  But when all hope was lost, she felt a soft pillowy glove on her shoulder. And her a sarcastic but kind mew.

  "Good to see you in pink again, Undergrad. It really suits you."

  Mina knew immediately who it was.

  "What the huh? Ashley, why are you here?"

  Ashley Ryan smirked with her lips curled slightly cat-like. She was dressed in her brilliant emerald green prose-cat-er suit. "Aw, you don't think we're friends now? I don't lend my suits to just any two-bit attorney. Especially a lousy defense attorney."

  "Gee thanks," Mina remarked, but she couldn't disguise the smile on her face. She was happy Ashley came.

  "Ashley," she said softly. "Can I tell you something horrible that happened? Something absolutely posit-scary?"

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Ashley continued to smirk. "You're not single anymore?"

  Mina's eyes bulged open. She did not expect that answer from Ashley in a hundred billion years. Ok, maybe a hundred million since they got closer.

  She turned bright red and shook her head. "No! Much worse! Blind is still alive! But barely!"

  Seeing Mina was having a near panic attack, Ashley guided her to one of the benches in the lobby. "Okay," she said softly. "Maybe it's best I get out of my catty mode! What do you mean he's still alive?"

  Mina in tears told Ashley everything. How D. Vito has driven her to courtroom. How he vowed vengeance on her for killing his son. And how the Dark Persecutor was really Blind.

  "Geez Louise," Ashley remarked. "Even on my worst days, I never would have wished that on William. I've even realized that a lot of my hatred of him was me projecting my denial onto him."

  Mina nodded and sniffed. She didn't want to insult Ashley's own search for her true self, but agreed that the hatred for Blind was unneeded. Especially now.

  "What can we do about this?" she asked. "The court show must go on, because D. Vito has threatened to end the world. It's either I go to jail or it's game freaking over."

  Ashley closed her eyes to think. "That is a tough one. Something I can't solve in a minute. But right now...I think you need something else."

  "Whuh...what?" Mina asked, before she felt the soft embrace of her rival turned friend. She had just been embraced in a cathug.

  Mina's eyes bulged again incredulously. But she slowly eased into the hug. It was the only touch she really knew since Blind had become a cold unfeeling machine. Ashley was surprisingly quite the gentle pussycat, rather than the proud ferocious lion she was when they first met.

  "We'll get through this," Ashley said, hugging her tight. "You're really a lot stronger and braver than you think you are. After all, you went up against me and I have a 4.1 average!"

  Mina smiled through her tears. There was the classic Ashley snark. She didn't even know if it was physically possible to get a 4.1 average but knowing Miss Valedic-snorian, it probably was possible.

  "A good lawyer," Ashley remarked. "Will always find a way, despite the odds. And I know these are very low odds, but that never stopped you before."

  They pulled away and looked into each other's eyes. Ashley was still smiling. "Ashley..." Mina said, also smiling. "Thanks."

  And she planted a kiss on the lionesses cheek.

  "Umm...uhh...uh...?" Ashley said, grinning but also looking slightly cross eyed. "What's that for?!"

  "I dunno," Mina laughed. "But the way you're talking, I don't think you're gonna have that 4.1 average anymore."