The Dark Siders Chronicles

There were three Sailor Sith in the room: Geri, Emi, and Ariel. Each of them seemed to disregard the other’s presence. Each was involved in their own little world of evil doing.

Geri was playing with a bouquet of water lilies, white roses, and pink roses. It had been a very pretty bunch of flowers until Geri got a hold of it. She would randomly pluck a flower out and pull its beautiful petals off. Foreshadowing, without realizing it, Ariel’s work, the Sith giggled to herself and grabbed another flower to destroy.

Emi was carefully planning her next meeting with Mystique, the Sith Queen. An artful master of ingratiating herself with others, Emi planned to easily preempt Ariel’s place as Alpha Sith. Maybe even get Ariel destroyed all together! That would be the perfect ending to her tenure as Beta Sith and perfect beginning to her new life as the Alpha Sith.

Ariel herself cared little or nothing for Mystique’s so-called reign. The dark woman knew that Mystique’s time as Queen would soon be up, for the shapeshifter was no match for the power or the influence of the true Evil Queen, Kougo Ada, Kendra. No matter what her name, the dark Queen’s power remained. And would remain as long as Ariel was there.

The Alpha Sith was in the process of examining the newest attacks of the Sailors. “More and more darkness,” she commented. “The dark angels are multiplying.” “Angel” was her most recent term for the Sailor Jedi. Ariel’s hatred of the Jedi Order was so deep that the fire-eyed woman wouldn’t even say their name. Just the word “Jedi” was so repulsive to the Sailor Sith that she felt it fouled her mouth to even say it and so refused.

“What?” Emi asked, sounding bored. The girl shut off her computer and turned to her fellow Sith.

Looking up at her fellow Sith, Ariel stared at her. “The Dark Attacks. From the ones they called ‘Dark Siders’,” Ariel hissed at the irreverent girl. “You remember them? The ones that almost destroyed us and — I believe — are the reason for our true Queen’s downfall.”

Emi wrinkled her nose. “Stupid senshi. They were using our side of the Force. And we couldn’t corrupt it. Darth Sidious said that they couldn’t use the attacks anymore and we’d lost that powerful hold over them.” She pouted and swept her hair back behind her shoulder unhappily. “Besides, who cares about failures that were so far back in the past?”

“They are back. Three more aids in darkness. Fear, one of the easiest weapons to use against another being. The one that send them quickest to their knees. The one that makes all tremble.” Ariel’s eyes lit with a fire so sudden and dark that even Emi was afraid of her. Anyone who looked into those eyes for long would be lost, consumed by the darkness that Ariel projected. “Mystique will get the blame for this set. Even Geri can’t screw up a plot that is planned to fail. There will be no way we can stand against their attacks. If we lay in wait for them, they will have to come to us. For now, however, we will seem to fail in our set upon task. Mystique will find that blame on her shoulders is a heavy burden. And then...” the words trailed off in to a black abyss of the darkest laughter. “She will be felled!”

“Ugh. I don’t think I like this place very much.”

“Priire, you complain too much.”

“I’m not complaining about you being here,” Priire retorted.

Bakeru looked at her sheepishly. “I said I was sorry...”

Annika put a hand on the reformed evil Sailor’s shoulder. “She’s just being a nerf herder. Lay off, Priire! Besides,” the princess continued, “I think this place has its own... unique... charm.”

“Right, unique is,” Numako agreed. “Dry, cold, filled with sick-looking vegetation, right, also is.”

Standing next to Priire were Nom and Boshi. They were a contrast all to themselves. Boshi was shorter than either of the other two. Her spiked violet hair made her look a little taller, but not quite as tall as Nom’s six feet. With black hair tipped with green, Nom was by far the darkest-looking of the three girls. Priire was a close second in both height and darkness. Her golden blonde hair made up for the darkness of her clothing. They stood together, with Priire eyeing the other group of three Sailors that were standing together...

Xarae, Lys, and Nami weren’t huddled, because Xarae seemed to be a part of the group without being too close to either of the others. Despite that, it was a fine line. Shortest of the three, but with the longest hair, Xarae stood with cerulean blue eyes that were more troubled than usual. She brushed her long brown hair behind her shoulder and looked at her companions. Nami had seafoam green hair with royal blue streaks waving through it. Troubled gray eyes looked back at Xarae. Lys was by far the tallest, but had the very shortest hair. It was streaked like Nami’s, but it was brown with blue and purple running through it, as opposed to Nami’s sea colors. All three looked less than pleased with their lot in life. Or Xarae’s case, in life after death.

Priire looked at them. “Are you all right?” she asked quietly.

With a smile, Xarae turned to her. “I wish you’d stop tormenting Bakeru.” Looking at Bakeru, she winked. “Just give her some candy, she’ll be fine.”

The blonde grinned like a dope. “Well... everyone’s for sale...” She reached over and let Solai migrate from Mika’s shoulder to her own. The gray tabby licked his shoulder and sighed as Mika tripped on something completely unseen.

“Mew!” a tiny kitten voice came from under Mika. “Mew!” Pinku said accusingly. “MEW!”

“Sorry,” Mika sighed.

“There’s trouble coming,” Schylar said, her calico nose in the air.

Solai lifted his nose and watched the sky for any sign of the trouble Schylar promised. “I feel Sailor Sith... man, those chicks get on my nerves.” He shivered. “You good gals ought to transform and get ready for a Sith storm.”

Iridonia’s gray wings unfurled from her back as she transformed. They seemed darker today. Maybe it was just the cold.

Chibi Bakura stood next to her with Sailor Calamari beside her. “It’s going to be bad, isn’t it,” Chibi Bakura said. It was half a question and half an answer.

Nodding, Iridonia answered. “It was last time...”

Calamari looked a little unsure of herself. “Maybe we’re just working ourselves up for nothing. Maybe it’ll all go away on it’s own. Maybe...”

“We should stop talking and get to the butt-kicking!” Sailor Cathar yelled. “Bring it on!”

Like it was some kind of magic spell, the three Sith appeared. Asteroid glared at them. “What do you want?” she growled.

“What everyone wants,” Ayameru purred. “To cleanse you of your darkness. Free you from your chains...”

“Yeah, and give us what in return?” the Dark Sailor asked.

Iridonia touched her shoulder. “This is our fight. Let us fight it. Alone.”

Asteroid looked at her. “We’ll be here,” she said, stepping back as Chibi Bakura and Calamari stepped forward to join Iridonia.

“What do you want with us?” Chibi Bakura asked. She stood with her arms crossed and glared at Ayameru, Eimin, and Iyagaru.

“It’s not exactly what we want with you, it’s what we want with your powers.” Ayameru smiled. “Black Fire Engulf!”

Instead of blasting the three girls like it normally did, it cut them off from the rest of the senshi. Illuminated through the dark fire were the faces of the other senshi. Some seemed to be wondering what was happening. Some were worried, especially Bakura. And three knew what was happening and feared for the three girls in the flames.

"Understand now?” Ayameru asked with quiet malice. “You’ve been cut off. You had to face your worst fears, and you didn’t make it. You couldn’t stand up to the things that scared you the most without retreating to darkness, without becoming...” Her voice trailed off and her eyes were filled with black fire as she continued. “...a dark sider. The touch that your fear of evil gave you pushed you over the edge. Made you fall into the trap that everyone has before them but most escape. You didn’t. You walked right into it!”

Chibi Bakura shook her head. “No, we’re not! It’s not because we fell into darkness...”

“Maybe you were led,” Ayameru suggested. “Maybe we groomed you every day of your lives so that on this day you could return to our fold and become one of the Sailor Sith you were always destined to be!”

Her careful choice of words led the Sailors to believe Ayameru was putting everything behind her speech, but carefully chosen keywords were planed to set off triggers in the minds of the Sailor Jedi.

Sailor Iridonia shook her head. “Our destinies are intertwined with good, not your death-filled evil. I know destiny and death far too well to fall for your traps!”

“Then fall for this one...” a smooth voice said. Mystique stepped from behind her three minions. The woman’s outfit changed to a dark robe, inhabited by an evil presence everyone could feel. “Or this one...” She changed from Sidious to spooky-eyed droid that made Chibi Bakura cringe a little. “Or even this one...” Mystique changed form again, this time to a man who looked like he was dying. Calamari paled.

“Anything else you’re afraid of?” she asked, cruelly. “Anything that your minds are hiding and your eyes can’t accept that you could see in the flesh... or the metal skin, as the case may be.”

Ayameru smiled from behind Mystique. There was no way the Sailor would fall for Mystique’s parlor room mind games. They were too strong for that. More subtle measures were needed to bring them down. Ayameru hated losing to the Senshi, but pride was sometimes the cost of higher goals.

“I... I can’t deal with this!” Calamari cried. “We’ve got to destroy them. We can do it! We have the power.”

Iridonia started to say that they shouldn’t, that it was too dangerous, but there wasn’t much choice. She could either refuse to help and doom the combined attacks, or refuse to let them, making the girls continue to be terrified... or they could try and destroy the evil.

“Take my hands,” she told the two Sailors on either side of her. “And concentrate.”

“What are we...” Calamari started to ask.

“You’ll know.”

Iridonia’s voice was a power filled whisper. “Sidious...” The other two Sailors echoed her.

“Droid...”

“Spaceflight...”

She steeled herself. There was no turning back. In one voice the three spoke the next word.

"...fear...”

Just like before, there was no time. Time had given way to a higher calling. To a power that had to be released in any form possible. Ribbons of blackness, metal, and space seemed to hold the moment in forever, waiting until just the right time...

“Bondage!”

Xarae, Lys, and Nami collapsed to the ground. The firewall that had blocked the others was gone. Priire ran over to Xarae, gathering her in her arms. Lys was scooped up by Annika and Koumi tried to wake Nami. “Wake up, guys!”

Solai nudged Xarae’s leg with a cold nose. “Ugh,” Xarae said. “Your nose is cold.”

“Don’t get near me, cat,” Lys threatened. Nami just grinned.

“You fail me, Mystique,” a voice that could be easily compared to a snake said. “Again and again you fail me. It is considerable that you are not the one for this job. Perchance your destiny lies elsewhere...”

Rene Shootingstar could feel something moving in the air. It was like a dark living thing that wrapped itself around various Senshi and seemed to become part of them. The thought scared her. Something dark was on the move again...