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Priire's eyes were wide. Her dream was similar to the one Annika had — unbeknownst to her — had... but the effect was wildly different. Instead of being vaguely comforted in the last words of the dream, Priire was spooked. It scared her to have some tell her to "follow her heart" when she wasn't sure where her heart was going.
She rolled over on her belly. Priire believed strongly in dreams. Before, her dreams had warned her of dangers that were sneaking up on her. This dream-within-a-dream had shown her telling people that things couldn't be done. That an explosive in the Senate building wasn't possible. That she couldn't save her friend. That Annika couldn't borrow her fire dragon shirt. That she wasn't going to wear those stupid high heels, wedding or no wedding! That Kairiku couldn't catch her. That the Sith could not be saved...
The strange mix between importance and frivolity disturbed her. The beautiful woman of her dream had told her that the Sith could be saved if Love and Redemption worked together. Priire had laughed bitterly and informed her that the Senshi of Redemption saw no hope in the three Sailor Sith.
The woman had only smiled again. "Follow your heart," the woman had said. "And you will lead them to theirs."
Priire kicked off her covers and swung her feet to the plush rug that lived near her bed. It was a rare thing for her to be sleeping in her own bed. She much preferred one of the bunks on her ships. That was her destination as she slipped out of her room and down the hallways. The Black Fire Legendmaker, her best-kept secret.
Someone else, in her pink kitty slippers, was following Priire.
~*~*~*~*~
The Legendmaker, Priire grinned. It was a pretty little ship with nice lines and — if she did say so herself — a wonderful paint job. The black fire flames that seemed to be eating away at the ship were of Priire's own hand. She wasn't much of a drawer, but she did like to paint big things like ships and walls. The girl ran a hand over the side of the ship, opening the hatch. Priire walked in with an easy grace, heading for the library.
The pair of pink kitty slippers pussyfooted their way to the hatch and peeked in. Actually, Annika herself did the peeking. She didn't see anyone so she walked in.
~*~*~*~*~
By the three moons... what is she doing? Annika thought to herself as she hid behind one of the chairs in the library. It was obvious what Priire was doing... but the why was layered in mystery.
Priire was carefully moving the crystal figures that graced one section of the library shelves. The blonde glanced around, and tapping her bare feet on the floor. Annika tried to hold in a laugh when she saw that Priire's PJs had "NICE BASS" and a fish on them. The princess held her breath, and Priire didn't notice her.
With a motion that was smoothly practiced, Priire pressed the upper right-hand corner of the shelf. Well-oiled servos didn't make the slightest sound as the top of the shelf pulled away from the rest of it. Priire grinned and slid under the shelf.
Weighing her desire to talk to Priire against her fear of ghosts, UFOs, and the bogeyman that Annika was sure Priire had hidden in... wherever she was... Annika walked over the shelf and covered her eyes as she slid in.
~*~*~*~*~
The princess didn't uncover her eyes until she heard the oddly reassuring click of a blaster safety turning off. "P... Priire?"
With a sigh, Priire reholstered her blaster. "Annika!"
"I wanted to talk to you and you came in here... so..."
Priire couldn't help but grin. "And so another joins the conspiracy. Welcome aboard the true Black Fire Legendmaker."
"Conspiracy??"
The blonde nodded. "Yup. You can't tell anyone about this room or I'll tell Obi-Wan..." Priire whispered something in Annika's ear that made her blush.
"I'm quiet!"
Priire dropped onto the beat up couch and motion for Annika to take any chair. "So. What do you think?"
Annika's eyes were wide as she followed Priire's hand gestures, encompassing the room. A frown crossed Priire face as she saw Annika's eyes widen. "Oh..." the blonde blushed and tucked her hands under herself. "Sorry. I don't usually wear gloves to sleep in."
The scars were awful. And those were only the physical scars... Annika shuddered to think what the mental scars from that kind of pain were like. "It's okay," the white-haired girl said, shrugging. "I don't really mind."
"Sure you do," Priire said softly. "You're just too polite to say anything. Maybe I need to take lessons from you."
"From me?" Annika asked, her face showing surprise. "I need lessons from you on how to be strong and fight like I mean it and how to be tough!"
Priire shook her head and reached for two glasses out of the case behind her head. "That's the last thing you need. You don't know what that kind of stuff does to you. Stay innocent. It's much nicer." The blonde set the glasses down and reached for a bottle. "Gets you in lots less trouble. And there isn't half so much stuff hanging over you."
"What is that?"
The blonde Sailor grinned. "Not what you think it is," she laughed, turning what looked like a wine bottle around so Annika could read the label. "Sparkling something or other. Non-alcoholic. I learned that lesson a long time ago." The grin on Priire's face soured a little before she corrected it.
Annika shook her head. "There's a lot nobody knows about you, isn't there, Priire?"
The other girl didn't answer for a moment. Holding the bottle in one hand and the corkscrew in the other, she seemed to be indecisive about something. Annika hoped that Priire would open up to her, but it didn't seem likely.
"Yeah. There's a lot no one knows. There's a lot that even I don't know."
That sounded odd to Annika. Something about Priire that Priire didn't know? The white-haired woman wasn't receiving an answer to her unspoken question from the other girl's sad green eyes. "Oh."
Priire laughed as she popped the cork out of the bottle. "Hmm... I hope this was a good year." She scrunched up her face and made Annika laugh.
"What all's in here?"
The pilot shrugged. "Couches, some books, a dead body, and several wines of years and vintages that would make Xarae green with envy."
"A dead body??"
Another shrug at Annika's horrified statement. "Not really. Did you close the hatch?" Priire said as she looked upward.
"The hatch?" Annika followed Priire's eyes. "Oh. Is that how you get in and out?"
"I feel like I'm being set up," Priire sighed as she filled another glass.
~*~*~*~*~
Emi was creating a bouquet. Usually she'd use flowers particular to various senshi then practice her Force-lightning on them. This time... this time she didn't want to. Her heart wasn't in it. Instead, she picked her favorite flowers — purple morning glories — and wrapped the vines around the stems of red roses. They looked pretty, and Emi grinned. "Hey!" she shouted, putting her fists on her hips.
Geri giggled. "All purty! All blaaack!" the Sith squealed as she watched the flowers go up in smoke.
"You messed them up!" Emi yelled.
The other Sith pouted and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "That's what Sith do! They mess things up! Duh!"
"I hate you!" Emi yelled again, throwing the vase at Geri, then storming out of the room.
For a long and terrible moment, Geri stood there, her mouth open. Somehow, she got the feeling that Emi really meant that she hated her. Geri. Hated Geri. The thought made the moment longer... especially when Geri realized that she'd seen tears in Emi's eyes.
Like the child that her insanity sometimes caused her to seem, Geri wanted desperately to fix what she'd broken. Falling on her knees in front of the pile of ash, the Sith scooped up the remains of the burnt flowers and tried to stick them back together so Emi would like her again.
~*~*~*~*~
"Ow," Yukiko complained, rubbing the sore on her arm. Despite landing mostly in Annika's lap, the ice senshi had hit her arm. "Where is this place?"
Priire waved her glass. "This," she said grandly, "is the true Black Fire Legendmaker. Drink?"
Laughing at Priire's overly theatrical introduction to her ship, Annika passed the glass to Yukiko. The blue-haired girl looked at it curiously, then took a sip. "Hey, this isn't half bad."
"I hope not," the pilot hostess laughed. "I think it was expensive."
Yukiko had to laugh. Priire was splayed out over the couch in her boxer shorts and a Burger Monarch T-shirt with no shoes and one hand holding a glass and a towel. Yukiko wasn't sure why she had the towel wrapped around the stem of her glass and covering her hand, but it only added to the oddity of the scene. "You don't look like you're drinking something nice," the girl laughed. "You look like Luke!"
Priire frowned. "Luke?"
"From the movies." The senshi didn't talk about them much, but most of the older ones knew about the movies that somehow told the story of their galaxy. None of the senshi could act on what they knew except to protect the life of someone invaluable to the timeline.
"He was the son, right?" Priire asked, knowing full well who he was. She'd only watched the movies once... it was an unsettling thing to see your future played out before your eyes. Every scene was firmly entrenched in her memory because it was the future she had to protect.
Yukiko nodded. "Uh huh. He saved his father from the Dark Side in the end... I loved that part."
"I thought it was cool when he got electrocuted."
Annika glared at Priire then turned to Yukiko. "How did he save him?"
"Does this have anything to do with that fight you and Priire had?" Yukiko questioned, frowning. "About the Sailor Sith not being redeemable."
"Which they aren't," Priire said softly, looking down.
"Which they are!" Annika retorted, glancing at Priire.
Yukiko waved her hands. "Calm down! I'll tell you!"
Both girls gave Yukiko their full attention as she began to speak. "Darth Vader was turned from the Dark Side by the love that Luke had for him. Luke believed that there was still a spark of good in his father and he had to find it so that his father would come back to the light."
"See? It happened once!" Annika said with a smile.
A frown creased Priire's face. "Technically... it will happen... or maybe has happened..." Priire laughed. "This language was not cut out for time discrepancies."
"But..." Annika waved her hands around. "It happened! We can make it happen again!"
"Annika..." Priire shook her head. "It will happen then. It can't happen here and now. No one loves the Sith like a son loves his father. No one loves them enough to be able to save them. There isn't that much love anywhere."
Without saying anything else, Annika took a sip from her glass. There was enough love to turn them to the light... she was, after all, the Senshi of Love.
Somehow, Priire knew what Annika was pondering and shook her head. Annika honest to Force didn't know what she was getting into. She didn't. And she was going to be crushed when she found out that the Sailor Sith didn't want to be turned. That, Priire believed was integral in the redemption process. They had to want it.
Priire hung her head on the inside, not letting anyone else see what she was feeling. Priire was very willing to bet that none of the Sith wanted to be redeemed. It wasn't in their nature. She could tell that they didn't want redemption... she was, after all, the Senshi of Redemption.
~*~*~*~*~
"I'm bored," Kaedama Chrone complained as she collapsed onto the couch.
"Hi Bored! I'm Kairiku!"
Chrone gave the thirteen-year-old a glare. "My name isn't Bored - that's how I feel. And I'm getting more and more that way!"
Kairiku grinned and bobbed her head. "You look like a Gungan!" Aisu giggled. "Mesa Gungan toooo!" The little Hoth senshi danced around like she really was a Gungan... until she fell into the table and knocked the cookies off. "Oops!"
"I wonder what we would have been if we weren't Senshi."
The question from Chrone seemed out of place as the three girls started picking up the cookies and eating more than they safely returned to the plate. "Huh?" Kairiku tried to ask around a mouthful of cookie.
"What would we be doing?" Chrone dropped to her hands and knees to get a cookie out from under the table. When her head resurfaced, her odango-headed friend was sitting between the couch and the chair, pondering the question.
"Where would I be..." the little girl asked, letting the question trail off. It must have had a deep answer, because Kairiku settled deeper into the little crevice she'd sat down in. "Probably still in college, being very lonely. I didn't ever have many friends." She shook her head. "But that's okay. I have lots of them now." The girl's eyes brightened. "Where would you be?"
Chrone laughed sadly. "I'd probably be still stuck out on the streets trying to make a living doing whatever I could to get through the next day. I hated that."
Kairiku's eyes were wide. "Yikes! That sounds awful."
"Uh huh." Chrone looked away, her hair falling in her face and reminding Kairiku of the earlier Sailor Cathar. "Koumi and Priire rescued me." The blonde girl frowned and asked another question. "I wonder why Priire hates me so much."
"Priire doesn't hate you!" Kairiku exclaimed. "No way."
"Then why doesn't she like me?" Chrone complained. "She won't even call me by my name! It's 'Chrone'. Really."
Kairiku laughed. "Yeah. My parents used to call me 'Kairi'." She stuck her tongue out. "Bleh."
Chrone joined her in laughing. Then a little more serious, she said, "I don't mind being called 'Kae'... I just want to know why she does it."
A hand dropped on Chrone's shoulder and made her jump. "I hear what you were talking about." Nom sat on the arm of the couch and focused her eyes on Chrone. "Kaedama Chrone. Chrone Jis'a was one of Priire's friends. And she was a senshi. Priire feels... I am not sure about this... but I believe Priire feels a deep sense of responsibility for the senshi. And it hurt Priire when Priire couldn't save her friend. I think she feels it would tarnish her friend's memory."
"But..."
"But nothing. You are not her. And Priire cannot bring herself to use Chrone's name when you are not, to her thinking, Chrone." The Dathomirian woman stood up. "The sense of responsibility that Priire has for you is not dimmed by what she calls you. There is a lesson that I am afraid she must learn before she knows this." She began to walk out.
"Where are you going?" Kairiku asked, a little surprised that Nom would leave so quickly after telling them something so important.
A smile that was as close to impish as Nom got spread over the woman's face. "I am going down-level. A new establishment has opened up, and I must test it out."
"Burger Monarch!" Aisu squealed. "Can I go?"
Nom shook her head. "No."
~*~*~*~*~
Geri sniffled. "Emi hates me."
"We all hate you," Kendra growled. The beautiful woman seemed to force the words up through a bubbling pit of evil.
"No... she really hates me."
Kendra shrugged.
Walking out to the main living space of the Sith, Geri saw Emi on the couch. "E... Emi?"
"I'm sorry, Geri! I didn't mean to yell at you! I don't really really hate you. I was just mad."
The admission was coupled by a strange sensation. Emi felt so much better after apologizing to Geri. She gasped. Was she going soft? Did she really not hate Geri? Geri... her best friend. Emi's eyes went wider. Could Sailor Sith have best friends?
The questions made her get another funny sensation. Droplets of water started running down her cheeks almost as fast as Emi was running to her room. She didn't want to be a Sith if she and Geri had to fight!
Maybe... she didn't want to be a Sith at all.
~*~*~*~*~
"Follow your heart!"
Priire sat straight up in bed. Actually, since she wasn't on a bed, per se, she fell off. The belly of the Legendmaker had been her choice for places to nap in hopes that the strange dream wouldn't follow her there. "Follow this heart," Priire grumbled, throwing her book at the wall.
Strangely enough, the book fell open, not to her bookmark, but to the last few pages. Nestled there was a picture of Annika, posing like a queen in front of some carnival's version of The Love Boat. The sign behind her read, "Follow you Heart." The odd-seeming coincidence sent shivers down Priire's spin and her feet in motion. She was going to find Annika and ask her about the dream. If Annika had dreamed the same thing... Priire didn't want to think about what that would force the two of them to do or to confront.
Confronting the ultimate form of evil in your galaxy was never a pleasant thought. Even less so when one had the feeling that surviving the encounter was entirely up to the careless hands of fate.
