The Eighth Deadly Sin

“Hey, Obi-Wan. Where have you been?”

Nothing fazed Kousotsu, Obi-Wan thought bitterly. “Here and there. I heard Annika was hurt.” The older man tried to copy Kousotsu’s easy-going attitude.

The dark-haired man shrugged. “She’s unconscious. The healers have no idea why.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help it. His eyes got wide. The Jedi healers knew more about the physical body and its connections to the Force than any being alive. If they didn’t know what was wrong... “Have they got any idea?”

Kousotsu leaned back in his chair. “Unfortunately, they think that Priire and Annika might be linked somehow.”

“This is a bad thing?”

“They’ll snap out of it,” Kousotsu said quietly, watching Obi-Wan’s face.

Obi-Wan turned his anguished eyes toward the other. “How do you know? How do you know that this isn’t the time... the last time?”

Kousotsu let a smile tug at his lips. “It can’t be,” his voice reflecting just enough of the smile that reached for his face to take the serious edge off. “Annika has children to live for.”

“But what about Priire?” Obi-Wan gestured toward the stone-faced blonde, casting a sad glance at her equally stone-faced companion. “She... you..." He let the sentence fade off.

The smile stopped tugging at Kousotsu. “She’s been dead too many times not to come back from this one.”

What he’d said was almost humorous, but neither man laughed. Instead, Obi-Wan gently brushed the hair from Annika’s face and reached for her with the Force. It was a tender gesture that she would have given anything for him to repeat... under normal circumstances.

Obi-Wan jerked his hand back as Annika’s eyes leapt open. They weren’t hers, somehow... he heard a chair hit the floor and dared a look at Kousotsu. Then a double take just to make sure. Priire was curled into the fetal position and seemed to be trying to pry her head open.

What his eyes didn’t think they saw, his ears were sure they heard. Both girls were... if not screaming, then something psychically deeper. Priire was saying something about someone getting out of her head...

Healers burst into the room like a flock of brown birds, shoving the two men out of the way and hovering around Priire and Annika. Sedatives passed hands and flowed into the veins of the girls, rendering them unconscious.

Obi-Wan glanced at Kousotsu... wordless communication between the two found they were wondering the same thing.

What the Sith had happened?

In another room, another girl was having some of the same problems. She, however, was awake. And very, very scared.

“I’m sorry...” she started to say, wiping tears out of her eyes.

The Jedi across from the girl shook her head. “It’s all right. You can cry. You deserve it after all you’ve been through, Emi.”

The girl shook her head, letting the locks of hair she’d loosed from her ponytail fall around her face. “I’m feeling strange things. I’ve never... really cried before.”

Putting an arm around Emi’s shoulders, the lady healer smiled. “It’s all right. You’ve got a place now where people will accept you and help you. Let them, all right?”

Emi nodded, the tears she’d shed glistening on her cheeks. Then she paused and ran her fingers through her red-streaked hair. “Are...” Emi blushed as she realized she couldn’t remember their names. Their real names. Somehow, it was suddenly important to her. “Are Asteroid and Bakura okay?”

“I... I’ll go check, okay?” the Jedi said, stressing a smile.

Sadness filled Emi as she realized that the Jedi healer did know... and it wasn’t good. After the older woman had closed the door, Emi buried her head in her hands unhappily. Silent sobs racked her body as she considered the cost of her freedom. What if Bakura and Asteroid weren’t ever okay? Could she live with that?

Before the girl could finish her self-deprecating thoughts, she felt a tiny hand on her knee. “Oooo, you’re pretty,” an equally tiny voice said.

Emi blinked. “Huh?”

“Siths aren’t pretty,” the girl told her matter-of-factly. “So you were wrong!” The last sentence seemed addressed to the little girl’s companion.

“Am not!” she protested, putting two small fists on her hips. “Not!”

Emi looked very confused. “I…don’t understand.”

“And she cry!” That seemed to be the smallest girl’s final argument, because she looked satisfied.

The older of the pair turned to Emi. “I,” she said importantly. “I told Niji-” she pointed at the other girl “-that you were a Sith. And she didn’t believe me.”

Niji nodded, puffing herself up so she looked bigger, too. “And I told Melesse that you weren’t! And I was right!”

“Are not!”

Shaking her head, Emi let herself laugh quietly. “You’re both right.”

The little girls stuck their tongues out at each other and both shouted “Told you!”

Emi laughed a little louder. “You two are cute. I... I guess I’m not a Sith anymore.” A happy light lit in Emi’s eyes. “Wow.”

Niji grinned triumphantly. “I was right!”

The door was partly ajar, Emi noticed as she looked up. There was also a pair of eyes peeking through. Melesse followed Emi’s eyes then tugged on Niji’s sleeve. “Uh oh! Someone’s coming!”

Both the little girls dashed for the door, as if they thought they could move fast enough for the Jedi healer to forget they were ever there. She only smiled then walked over to Emi. “What did you think of your little visitors?”

Emi bit her lip, then grinned. “I loved them! They were so precious... and I realized that I never wanted to hurt them again.” She looked down. “There’s a very tiny part of me that’s surprised at that... but it seems so natural!”

The Jedi smiled. “That was some powerful attack that pair threw at you. It seems to have worked a miracle.”

“How are they?”

A frown shadowed the face of the healer. “We’re... not sure.”

“They’re sedated.”

Every healer in the room relaxed. Despite their ages, Annika and Priire were strong. And because the pair weren’t in their right minds — the healers didn’t even know if they had right minds anymore — they were a little more given to wild displays of animal-like fear and fighting. Especially Priire. Annika seemed to lean more towards the “flight” instinct, while Priire was much more of a fighter.

Something strange was going on inside of their combined heads... only no one knew what.

One of the Jedi healers sighed, then looked right at Kousotsu and Obi-Wan. “From what we can figure out and from what you’ve-” he nodded at Kousotsu “-told me of her earlier experience with Sailor Sith Ayameru, we think that Annika and Priire were mentally connected when they preformed their attack. It took so much power from them that they relied heavily on each other for strength. They didn’t know, I suppose, to break contact and became interlinked. Some kind of defensive mechanism on Priire’s part, I think.”

“Annika’s not dead,” Obi-Wan stated more than asked, his blue eyes glancing at her still form.

The healer shook his head carefully. “No. But neither of them is going to be forced out of this link. They have to break it themselves. And even then there might be some odd aftereffects.”

Obi-Wan sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“So... we can’t help them?”

The Jedi shook his head negatively at Obi-Wan’s frustrated question. “I would suggest, however, that someone keep a watch over them in case they do wake up.” Something in the Jedi’s tone of voice suggested that he didn’t expect that to happen. Ever.

Both men sat down beside the two girls.

In the interest of making conversation, Kousotsu turned to Obi-Wan. “So. How many times has your girlfriend been dead?”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “Does nothing at all about this even concern or faze you?”

Kousotsu shrugged. “I take things in stride.”

“Twins. Would you take *twins in stride?” Obi-Wan asked, referring to his future daughters.

Trying to be serious, Kousotsu shrugged. “Diapers are your problem,” he smiled.

Emi was studiously watching Niji and Melesse build a castle out of blocks. Each block was a different shade of green, ranging from mint green to forest green. Niji stretched up to put a parsley green block on the top of the stack, but couldn’t reach. Melesse was busy on the other side of the castle, so Niji turned to Emi and offered her the block.

Instead of taking it and placing it on the top, Emi scooped Niji up and set the tiny girl on her shoulders. From that perch, Niji could reach the top and place her block just like she wanted it.

And Emi was happy.

Heavy breathing made Obi-Wan jump. He’d promised Kousotsu — who was worried about Priire, despite his nonchalance — that he would stay awake and watch the pair while Kousotsu went and told everyone that Obi-Wan wasn’t going to be available to teach.

He’d obviously failed on that account.

After Obi-Wan had blinked his eyes open, he glanced at Annika first, then Priire. “I have the most awful headache...” Annika moaned. “Waaah!”

Obi-Wan wrapped his arms around the wailing girl and thumbed his commlink. “Kousotsu!” he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the girl’s wailings.

Kousotsu understood, even if he couldn’t hear the words. At least, Obi-Wan assumed he did, considering the aforementioned Knight burst into the room a few minutes later. He moved quickly over to where Priire was curled, her hands on her head.

While Annika seemed in no physical danger — other than someone throwing something at her — Priire was acting as if someone was preparing to hurt her badly. Kousotsu gently laid a hand on her shoulder and watched her carefully as she turned to look at him.

Her eyes were a little wilder than he remembered and much more tired. “Kousotsu?” she asked softly.

He nodded, then pulled her close to him and let Priire rest her head on his chest. Kousotsu held her close and let her know that he was with her no matter what. That was all either of them needed at that moment.

Of course, neither senshi had met the Room Behind the Waterfalls' newest tenant. And, if the Jedi wanted less than all-out war, they would keep the three apart for a while. Yet, if everything went as it had been planned, there would be no stories to tell.