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Annika, Yuki and Ippin sat crowded too close to the holovid projector, and occasionally a squeal or a dreamy sigh was heard emitting from them. Several other residents of the Room Behind the Waterfall sat around watching their behaviour and were completely perplexed.
"What can you possibly see in them?" Mika asked. She made a disgusted face and crinkled her nose. The thought of changing the channel did occur to her, but she realised that she rather liked her fingers unbroken. The blonde odango atama girl sat next to a snickering Priire, a sarcastic Rune, a disinterested Kairiku, and a confused Miyuki. A song started playing on the holoprojector, and Priire groaned.
"Don’t they ever get tired of singing ‘See ya later, see ya later, see ya later’?" The braided blonde rolled her eyes at the N*aboo song.
"Aster!!" Ippin yelled over her shoulder. "This is the ‘N*aboo Biannual, Galaxy-Wide, Mega-Music Spectacular’! They will be singing all of their hits!"
"Hits? Isn’t that stretching the truth a tad bit?"
"Oh shut up!" Ippin threw a red pillow at her twin, who was giggling profusely. All attention was focused back to the N*aboo special when they heard Justin say:
"Yeah - Lance is obsessed with Sailor Yavin. We tell him all the time that the Sailor Jedi are just a myth, but he doesn’t believe us."
The holo-camera panned into Lance’s room, and one whole wall was completely covered with pictures of the flame-haired Yavin. A huge framed poster of her was hanging above the blonde boy’s bed.
"These," he says, "are my Sailor Yavin dolls. I’ve got the action figures from Burger Monarch, the collectible resin model, the porcelain plate that was limited to only 28 firing days, the paper dolls, and the special edition doll from Coruscant! Of course, it’s all in original packaging."
"Not to mention the hours he spends searching ePay for rare Sailor Yavin stuff," Chris nodded.
Lance pulled out cards and calendars, postcards, and key chains, all featuring the Time Guardian. "I got these on ePay yesterday," Lance said, pointing to a plush doll and a small plastic Schylar.
Joey rolled his eyes. "Why don’t you show the whole galaxy your fanart?" he mockingly smiled. Unfortunately, Lance took him seriously.
"Good idea!" He produced two notebooks from under his bed and flipped through the pages; some of the images were rather impressive.
The interviewer asked, "Do you ever draw any other Sailor Jedi? Or is Sailor Yavin your forte?"
"Sometimes I draw the others. I can draw Chandrila and Ralltiir fairly well. I can’t draw Bakura to save my life. She’s awkward."
Back in the Room Behind the Waterfall, the girls howled with laughter. Annika, who happened to be Sailor Bakura, was reacting in a typical fashion.
"Awkward?!? I am not! How dare he! I’m graceful and elegant!" the white- and pink-haired Princess claimed. She struck a royal pose and batted her eyelashes, but failed to notice she was standing on Yuki’s foot. The blue-haired girl yelped with pain and shoved Annika to the floor, causing her face to grow red with anger. "Yuki!! Watch what you’re doing!!" she growled.
"Me?!?!?"
The girls laughed harder, all except Ippin, who was too busy listening to Lance. It’s not everyday a member of the hottest boy band in the galaxy has a crush on you. She sighed and imagined herself dancing with Lance as the N*aboo song, ‘The Force Must Have Given a Little More Midichlorians to You’ played.
"Oh, hi Riku!!" Annika’s voice rang through Ippin’s ears, bringing her back to reality and back to the very cross-looking Riku.
"What’s up?" the red-haired Ippin asked sweetly.
"I just heard that one of those little boys in N*P.U. is stalking you."
"It’s N*aboo, not N*P.U.! And Lance is not stalking me!"
"That’s right! He has a crush on Ippin! I think it’s sweet!" Annika chided.
Priire took great interest in the mad look on Riku’s face and took the opportunity to try and cut the ribbon that tied him to her twin sister.
"Besides Riku, what have you got to worry about? Lance is only cuter, richer, funnier, sweeter, and more romantic than you. Ippin likes your plainness, don’t you, Coru? Of course, I bet Lance could sweep a girl off her feet with that deep voice of his. Wouldn’t you agree?"
Obviously hurt, Riku turned and walked out. Ippin turned to her twin. "Why didn’t you just punch him?" She ran after her boyfriend and passed Obi-Wan Kenobi on his way to talk to Master Windu.
Obi-Wan shook his head as he watched Ippin console Riku. Relationships were complicated, especially for a Jedi, and he knew the Council frowned on personal, intimate relationships because of the stress it can cause. Many a good Jedi were felled by love. Obi-Wan’s relationship with Annika grew more complicated that morning.
Annika woke him early crying over a nightmare:
"It was terrible... I was being choked by a red noose... you weren’t there, and I was killed."
With the rare exception, Annika was all but Force-less, so the chance that she had a premonition was zero... still... Obi-Wan wondered. Was he putting her in unnecessary danger? What if he was in over his head with her? He watched as Ippin and Riku walked down the path into the garden hand and hand and smiled.
Master Windu was watching the children playing a game of "Force-tag," and Obi-Wan found him standing on a hill overlooking the Jedi Temple. Sensing the presence of a fellow Jedi was simple, so Mace Windu put up a hand to silence Obi-Wan. The Jedi children were having trouble tagging one girl in particular. She was extremely talented in the Force and was blocking their every advance.
"She’ll make a great Jedi someday," Master Windu noted with pride. They watched the children for a few more minutes before turning and making their way back to the Temple. Coruscant was not a beautiful planet - it was a large city and, as such, paid the price with its lack of proper environment. Yet even with everything he had seen in his lifetime, Mace Windu was still surprised when he passed the garden that belonged to the Senshi. It grew out of spite, fed from the magic of love, and it was growing more everyday. He smiled.
Obi-Wan thought that Master Windu didn’t understand love, but he did. When he was younger, he watched his friend Qui-Gon Jinn fall in love. He saw the happiness and hurt it brought. Experience isn’t necessary to possess wisdom, nor was it a prerequisite to giving advice.
"I know why you’ve come to see me, and I’m afraid there isn’t much I can tell you."
Obi-Wan grew disheartened. "But Master Windu, you must have some insight."
"I do, but you need to remember that problems of love and relationships are something that the Council is not interested in solving. You were fully aware of the hazards and dangers of falling in love."
"I didn't expect it to be this difficult."
"I understand that, and I know that you want me to give you an answer, which I cannot do. You’re looking for truth when there is none."
"Is there nothing you can tell me?"
With a sombre note to his voice, the wise Jedi said, "Annika did have a premonition."
"You will give me backstage passes." Priire motioned her hand in the face of the teenage girl behind the counter. Her eyes blurred out of focus, then she said, "I will give you backstage passes."
"That’s what I thought!" the blonde pilot grinned. She had flown to Alderaan in the middle of the night to buy these tickets, and with a little clever manoeuvering, Sailor Yavin was going to put in an appearance for the boys of N*aboo. The one thing Priire hated more than N*aboo was Riku, so much so that she’d rather her dearest sister date one of them, than Riku. Smiling to herself, she stuffed the red tickets in her pocket and patted her holster.
"I didn’t even have to use you this time - Kousotsu will be proud," she mumbled to her favourite blaster.
"Do you think he’ll be able to see this?" Ippin asked Miyuki.
"Yes. It is a rather large sign... maybe you could make it smaller?" Miyuki asked. She studied it carefully. Ippin had written in large red letters, "LANCE! I’M SAILOR YAVIN!!"
"And," Miyuki continued, "you might not want to reveal that you’re Sailor Yavin."
"Well, I want him to notice me - maybe we can be invited backstage!"
"You don’t have to worry about being invited, you’ve got backstage passes," Priire said, throwing them into the centre of Ippin’s arts and crafts circle.
"Where did you get these?" asked Miyuki.
"Well..."
Ippin raised her hand. "Never mind, I don’t want to know." The beautiful redhead counted the tickets - there were four. She was guessing one for herself, one for Annika, one for Yuki, but who was the other one for? One of the Chibis, maybe... but Ippin certainly hoped not. She wouldn’t be able to get close to Lance if she had to drag around one of them. She sighed.
"Um, Aster? Who’s this one-"
"It’s mine!" Priire said with a smile.
If there was a word to describe the look on Ippin’s face, it would have to be a combination of shock, horror, surprise, doubt, suspicion, and plain terror. Priire hated boy bands... HATED. A wave of light-headedness swept over her as she tried to form the words necessary to ask the delicate question.
"Did you just say... this is your ticket?" Ippin asked with more than a note of disbelief in her voice.
"Yeah, I figured I’d check them out - I have to admit that one song of theirs, 'I Impel myself Demented,' is kind of catchy."
Then to even Miyuki’s shock, Priire started singing, "I lie awake, I impel myself demented, impel myself demented thinking of you..."
Ippin’s mouth gaped open as she watched her twin sister sing the song into the hallway. Once the blonde pilot was out of earshot, she stopped singing and spit repeatedly. She jammed her gloved fingers into her mouth and scraped her tongue. Finally she just held her mouth open with a look of disgust.
"What’s with you?" Ciel asked upon encountering Priire.
"I ha to rush ma teef," she attempted to speak. Shrugging her shoulders, Ciel went back to her task - find Annika. Unfortunately, Annika was nowhere to be found. Ciel had checked everywhere, when finally UsaNeko bounded up.
"Usa-chan, do you know where Annika is?"
Lying wasn’t the right thing to do, but under the threat of no kitty treats for a month, UsaNeko had promised not to mention anything. The fact is, the little white and pink kitten did know where Annika was, she was doing something she shouldn’t be doing, but...
"UsaNeko?"
"Well, Mistress Ciel, the truth is..."
A yell interrupted the kitten - it was Minae.
"Ciel!!! I’ve found her!!" Minae was pulling a large, thin box around the corner. On the opposite end of the box, two long thin hands were trying to pull it back. The well-manicured pink painted fingernails were a dead give away.
Minae tugged on the box. "Give... them... to... me... An... nika..." the brunette strained to say.
Ciel rushed over and helped pull; two against one, Annika’s hands slipped and the contents of the box went flying. Glazed doughnuts were everywhere; three of them were clinging to the ceiling, one of them was tangled in Ciel’s hair, and about seven of them were on the floor. Annika licked some glaze from her fingers and smiled.
"Sorry! I’ll buy you some more, Minae!" the Princess said.
"Wait, don’t you have some namana candy in the kitchen?" Ciel asked.
"No! No, I don’t." Annika unskillfully tried to lie. A mad dash was made to reach the bowl of candy, causing all three of them to stumble over each other, and they crumbled into a monkey pile in front of one of the bathrooms.
"Excuse me," Priire said opening the door. Her mouth was now minty fresh, and she felt much better. Stepping over the mess of senshi, she ran into Ippin.
"Hi Coru!" she said.
"Woah!" Ippin waved her hand in front of her face. "What did you do? Swallow a tube of toothpaste?"
"Something like that... did you want something?"
"Yeah, let’s get away from this." She gestured to the knot of girls. They walked back to the arts and crafts room. Priire had a feeling she knew what she was going to be asked, and she didn’t have a good answer.
"Before you say anything Coru, let me just say this: Yes I do have an ulterior motive for going to the concert, but it’s not what you think," said Priire hurriedly.
"I don’t think anything! That’s my problem! I can’t think of any reason why you’d want to go! And don’t tell me it’s because you like their music - I know that’s a lie!"
"Okay, okay. It’s a surprise."
"Huh?"
"I know it doesn’t make sense now, but it will, and you’ll just have to wait and see."
Ippin stomped her foot and threatened to pout, but Priire ignored her and walked away.
Later that night, Annika raced across the Jedi Temple; she had wonderful news and needed to tell Obi-Wan. She was going to see another N*aboo concert AND meet them privately backstage!! Of course, Obi-Wan really wouldn't care too much - he'd probably shrug his shoulders and smile. Annika was used to his seriousness, but sometimes she wished he'd talk to her about those serious things. The most he ever did was warn her to be careful or to try not to trip on the furniture. Their conversations consisted of very few things of substance.
That thought rolled around Annika's head, and she stopped running and opted for a slow walk. He didn't trust her; if he did, he would share his problems and concerns. He treated her like a stupid child, like the stupid, immature, child she was. He'll never treat me with respect, will he? she wondered. Her footsteps ceased, and she sat down onto the cold floor.
"Why does he do that?" she whispered to no one. Suddenly, awful thoughts filled her mind; she thought of Obi-Wan lying to her, Obi-Wan betraying her; tears began to trickle down her face. A black hole slowly disappeared behind her.
Emi slipped in front of Kendra and smiled triumphantly, "Mission accomplished."
Kendra smiled. If she can get one, she can get them all. Turning pleasant thoughts sour was something not easily done; it took her several months of experimenting to find the right combination of chemicals. One after the other they would crumble under the Dark Side.
"Good. You're sure it worked?" the evil Queen hissed, running her fingers along the arm of her throne.
"Yes, right now that Bakuran brat's mind is being slowly twisted. With any luck, she'll be one of us soon. It wasn't easy to find her though - why did you want her first?"
Kendra gritted her teeth. "Because I hate her most."
Ariel was sitting nearby and said, "Personally, I hate Asteroid. We all know she's a Sith trapped inside a Jedi body."
The Evil Queen raised her hand and slapped Ariel across the face knocking her from her chair. Blood poured from her nose. Geri, who was playing with a ball of string, started laughing hysterically.
"Oops. Ariel fall down, go BOOM!" she laughed. Geri took her string and tied it into a noose, then, slipping one of her dolls into it, swung it back and forth. Kendra looked down at her Sith with disgust, then turned on her heel and left the room, her black dress billowing behind her.
"It's a good thing I saw you, Miss Annika," Chakra said, helping the white-haired Princess out of the Healing Room in the Jedi Temple.
"Yeah," Annika whispered. Chakra hadn't intended on following her, but instead also had something to tell Obi-Wan. That's when she saw Emi open a vial behind Annika; she saw a black smoke fan out in all directions until Annika inhaled it. With Chakra watching, Annika sat and began to cry, and before the little girl could transform into Sailor Chibi Dathomir, Emi had disappeared. It took only moments for Annika to be healed, but she still seemed distant.
"What's wrong, Miss Annika?"
"Nothing, I feel fine, I'm just tired. That's all, Chakra. Thank you," she mumbled under her breath. The truth was, while she had technically been healed, the thoughts still bothered her. She had questions to ask Obi-Wan... serious ones.
She found him preparing a bag in his quarters. The dull browns and greys of his room hit Annika like a ton of bricks, and she realised just how different they were.
"Obi-Wan, I have to talk to you," she started. He turned his blue eyes toward her and sighed.
"Can it wait? Anakin and I are leaving on a diplomatic mission, and we won't be back for several days."
Annika's heart sank; he didn't even pay attention to her. He packed his bag and spat the words over his shoulder, only looking at her briefly. She felt selfish and guilty, but she couldn't leave, not without asking one question.
"Do you really love me?" she asked. For once in her life, she wasn't asking to be reassured or comforted. She wasn't feeling depressed or insecure. She was sincere. If he didn't love her, she wanted to know why he pretended. The wait seemed like an eternity.
Sighing, he said, "I'm tired of answering that question."
Suddenly, a pair of scissors fell off of his desk and landed squarely onto a red scarf Annika had left two days earlier; it might as well have been her heart. Obi-Wan leaned over and placed the scissors on the desk and shoved the scarf into Annika's hand. He breezed past her with his bag over his shoulder... he didn't even kiss her goodbye.
"Wait! Obi-Wan!" she cried out to him. He stopped but didn't turn around.
With all the strength she could muster, she said, "I don't think we should see each other anymore." Annika didn't know what to expect. On one hand she thought he would beg for forgiveness, and on the other...
She had never thought about the other hand. It didn't exist to her, but now, as Obi-Wan Kenobi stood motionless with his back to her, the other hand became more real. Say something! she pleaded in her mind. She wasn't happy when he finally did speak.
"Fine... I understand." Then he left.
Annika walked back to Obi-Wan's desk, picked up the scissors, and cut her scarf in half.
