The Eighth Deadly Sin

“I say we break out of here next time Pushy leaves,” Priire whispered under her breath. “Pushy” was Priire’s nickname for the Jedi healer who seemed to continually hovered over the two girls. Desperately, Annika nodded. The pair had been cooped up in the room for far longer than either could stand. Annika was especially unhappy because “Pushy” wouldn’t let Obi-Wan inside for very long.

A glance around assured Priire that the healer was gone. “All right, Annika,” Priire said slipping over to the window. “Hand me the sheet.”

Not very many minutes later, Annika was falling out of the window onto Priire’s head. “Oof! Lay off the doughnu...” The words froze in her throat.

Priire shook her head. The mental flashback made her wince. “Ow.”

Annika echoed her sentiments as she picked herself up off of the ground... and Priire. “First order of business... find Obi-Wan!”

“No,” Priire dragged her behind a bush. “First order of business — find out what they’re trying to hide from us.”

“I feel so much better.”

Annika raised an eyebrow. “You know, if I hadn’t seen you do it, I would have never believed how many knives and blasters you just hid on yourself.”

A sorrowful look filtered over Priire’s face. “Yeah. I know. It’s a disgrace. Used to be I could hide at least twice as many...” She laughed at Annika’s shocked expression. “Princess, you have no idea.”

“And I don’t think I want one, either.”

That sparked another laugh from Priire. “Now. If you had a secret, where would you hide it?”

“Under my bed! No one would find it there!”

Priire snickered. “Annika... no one can find your bed. Your room is a wreck!”

Pouting at her friend, Annika asked, “Well... where would you hide it?”

“In the hangar bay.”

Annika rolled her eyes. “The hangar bay? All that’s in there are your shi...”

The odango-haired princess frowned at the flashback. She shook it off, deciding that it was only something miswired in her brain. “I don’t know."

“Let’s go...” Priire said, faking a smile. Something felt wrong. Seriously wrong. As if there was a force moving in the Room Behind the Waterfall that could only be explained away by the presence of pure evil.

“Emi-chan! Duck!” Melesse squealed.

Starr covered her eyes with her purple paws. “I can’’ loo’!”

As much as she tried, the former Sith was not quick enough to avoid the kickball that was inadvertently aimed at her head. It knocked her to the ground, and she came up spitting dirt. Melesse dashed over to the red-eyed woman’s side. “Oh, Emi-chan! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to...!”

Emi grinned and put her arm around the little girl. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it. Let’s go play some more, okay?”

Melesse agreed happily. She loved playing with Emi!

Annika grumbled softly at Priire. “Did we have to hide in the rose bushes??”

A smile tugged at the corners of Priire’s mouth. “But Annika! You take such good care of them that they’re big and great to hide in!”

The pink-haired girl had a feeling that her friend was just saying that... but she liked it anyway. “Ouch!”

Priire stifled a giggle. “Careful, Princess. You’ll ruin those prett...”

Priire froze for a moment, trying to figure out where the thought had come from. She hated it. There simply wasn’t enough room in her mind for two.

“Priire! Look!”

Focusing her green eyes in the direction Annika indicated, Priire growled. “Sailor Sith. Looks like Ayameru and Iyagaru. How the Sith did they get in here?”

“I don’t know! We’ve got to stop them!” Annika exclaimed.

The pair of Sith were cloaked in shadows with only their eyes showing. Annika pointed to where the Sith were focused. “Look, it’s Melesse and Starr. Is that who they’re after?”

Priire shook her head. “I don’t think so.” The blonde pointed. “Check that out.”

“Emi! We ought to go help her! The Sith might kill her!”

Priire gave Annika a strange look. “And the problem with this is...?”

She frowned. “Priire... something happened to Emi. She changed. I can feel it down in my heart!” Annika looked deep into Priire’s eyes. “Trust me on this one... please?”

“I... can’t. She’s a Sith. None of the Sith deserve to live.”

“What about you?” Annika shot back angrily. “You used to be just as bad as they are!”

Priire looked away for a moment. “I didn’t deserve to live, either.”

“So what changed?” Annika asked, quieter. “What makes you different?”

There was a breath of silence. “I... changed.”

Annika grinned. “So why couldn’t she?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Priire said, her voice suddenly cold. “I think Melesse and Starr are going to need our help."

“Sif!” Starr squealed, jumping behind a plant. “Dis is no’ goo’!”

Melesse ducked into the hallway to transform. “I’ll help protect them!” she declared. “Because I’m Chibi Mimban!”

“Geri!” Emi exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“I miss you,” Igiyaru pouted. “I brought your flowers back.”

Emi’s eyes filled up with tears. She was about to sniffle a reply when Ayameru rolled her red-yellow eyes. “We don’t have time for this foolishness. Emi, you are to come back with us.”

“Never!” Emi exclaimed. “You’re wrong about the Sailor Jedi! We should be fighting for them! Not against them!”

At this point, Chibi Mimban made her entrance. “I may be a small Sailor, but I can still fight big! For imagination and reality, I will punish you! Mimban Scream of Silence!”

“Black Holes Surround!”

“No!” Emi cried. “You can’t hurt her! I won’t let you!” the dark-haired woman sobbed unhappily.

From the shadows of the rose bush, two figures stepped out. One was lightly dressed in cottony pinks, while the other was clothed in stormy black and blues. “We are Sailors Asteroid and Bakura!”

“For Love!”

“For Defense!”

“For Peace!”

“For Redemption!”

“We won’t let you get away with this!” they chorused. “Baka,” Bakura added.

Asteroid grinned, twirling her Redemption Crystal. “See? Don’t I make a better speech?”

Sailor Bakura sighed and waved her wand at the blonde. “Mine was just as good! It was!” She looked around and noticed Emi sitting on the ground. “There she is!” Bakura shouted, pointing with her wand.

Turning sharply, Asteroid used her Redemption Crystal to emphasize her point. “You stay out of this... what the...??”

The two crystals began to glow brightly. Before long, the silvery blue glow from Asteroid’s and the pink glow from Bakura’s intermingled and became a silvery purple.

Somewhere in the back of their connected minds, Asteroid and Bakura heard the dream-woman’s voice again. “Follow your heart!”

Asteroid bit back a curse. “Not again,” she moaned.

Fixing an evil glare on her, Bakura yelled, “Yes, again!”

“For Love and Redemption, then.” Asteroid grinned suddenly. “Maybe I should stop fighting this... maybe some people are meant to be saved.”

“Follow Your Heart!”

A double purple heart engulfed Emi and lifted her to her feet. She was engulfed by the silvery-purple glow until it covered her entire body. Suddenly, the sliver seemed to coalesce around her body, forming her normal Sailor Sith suit... only in a glistening sliver. When Emi opened her eyes, they were silver as well. Even her hair seemed to shimmer like silver.

“I am the Silver Sailor Seikatsu, brought forth by redemption and love! I will defend this place!”

“I am Sailor Asteroid! And I stand with her!”

Sailor Bakura resisted yelling out her glee. Instead, she said, “I am Sailor Bakura! And I stand with her, too!”

“I’m Chibi Mimban!” a tiny voice spoke up. “And I do too!”

“Silver Eternity Lightning!” Seikatsu shouted.

Ayameru cursed as she ducked the attack. She cursed again when she remembered that they couldn’t use their boltholes to escape. “We’ll be back!” she threatened, dragging Iyagaru out a conveniently-placed blaster hole in the wall.

“Sailor Seikatsu?” Asteroid questioned. The two words held more questions seeking answers than they seemed.

“Ye... yes,” Seikatsu said quietly. “I guess that’s me. I guess you don’t want me around.”

From the murky depths of her past, Sailor Asteroid heard some of the words that Kyoko spoke whenever Asteroid was on the verge of not being accepted to the Sailor team because of her evil past. “I think we should just keep her as part of our team. Like Numa-chan said, ‘A team we are.’”

“I think we should keep her,” Asteroid said quietly. “She is, after all, a Sailor. We can’t very well turn back on one of our own.”

This time, Sailor Bakura did shout with joy. She also grabbed Asteroid in a big hug.

“Ack!” Asteroid yelped as Seikatsu joined in. “I don’t do hugs!” Don’t think that doesn’t mean I trust you, Asteroid thought to herself. I don’t.

An eternity away from the happy scene, a hand with claw-like nails rested on the edge of a crystalline throne. Slowly, the nails tapped out a rhythm on the hard crystal. Ayameru kept her head down. It wasn’t hard, as she was bowed on one knee with her right hand in a fist at her left shoulder. Perhaps this was how Geri had gone insane. That insufferable tapping would drive anyone to distraction.

“Ayameru. What, pray tell, is wrong with you? You foul up the simplest mission. I have come to expect better of you.”

The Evil Queen’s words were harsh to her most loyal follower. “My Queen...”

“I have not given you leave to speak!” Kendra said sharply. “When I discovered you on that backwater little planet, I believed you to be the epitome of the Sailor Sith. Why must you constantly prove me wrong!”

Standing and stepping off the raised platform her throne was on, Kougo Ada moved down to where Ayameru was kneeling. The Alpha Sith hadn’t moved. Digging her claw-like nails into Ayameru’s chin, Kougo Ada forced her face up. “My best Sith. I have a new mission for you.”

With those words, the Evil Queen stood and strode out of the room.

Ayameru let a few minutes go by before she rose and wiped the blood off her chin. Whatever mission it was, Ayameru would bear it proudly. And carry it out to the fullest.

A wide-eyed Annika was perched on the edge of a waterfall. She hardly moved as Priire collapsed beside her, with somewhat the same blank-eyed stare.

“I had the creepiest dream last night,” Annika whimpered. “I had a blaster in my hands and I was killing all these people. Only I couldn’t see their faces, and it scared me!”

Priire raised an eyebrow. “Mine was worse,” she said sarcastically. “I dreamed that I lost my boyfriend to another girl. And the really weird thing was that it was Obi-Wan.”

“Mine!” Annika pouted.

Priire nodded. “That about covers it. You just described one of my least favorite nightmares."

“You have nightmares?” Annika gasped. “You??”

The other girl winced. “You make it sound like something bad.”

Annika gave Priire a half grin. “I didn’t expect you to have nightmares. I mean... with everything...” She blushed.

Priire laughed. “Well, your head holds one of my worst fears, and I guess my head holds one of yours. How do we get them out?” she sighed, a little frustrated.

“Grow out of it, you will.”

Priire turned suddenly, putting her hand to her blaster. She relaxed when she saw it was only Master Yoda. “Master,” she said, bowing her head.

The green troll looked up at the two girls. “Each other's dreams you are having, yes?”

The pair nodded. “Something like that.”

Yoda waved his hand about. “Aftereffect it is, from saving Emi. No good deed, unpunished will go.”

The way he pronounced that solemn state made Priire’s skin crawl. “What do you mean?”

“Rewarded, good is not always. Live with that you must. Decide if worth it, it is. But correctly chose you must. Or die many people will, on both planets, yes.”

As he hobbled away, Annika glanced at Priire. “So... what did he say? That if we don’t make good choices, our planets will die?”

“Kinda funny,” Priire mused. “Considering one of us doesn’t have a planet.”

“He must have meant something!”

Priire grinned. “Maybe he meant that we’re supposed to be nice to Emi and welcome her in no matter how much it turns my stomach.”

Annika giggled. “You’ve got to be kidding. She’s so sweet!”

A shrug lifted Priire’s shoulders. “I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about her. I really do.”

There was silence for a few minutes. “I hope the dreams go away soon. I hate them.”

“Yeah. It’s strange. We don’t mind out own nightmares as much as someone else’s.”

Ariel closed her eyes and rolled her head. She could feel the power from the Dark Side engulfing her like boiling water. There was so much power in and around her... it was wrong to be the wielder of such awesome power and that only made it more right in the Sith’s twisted mind. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and she was more than willing to be corrupted.

Emi closed her eyes and smiled. It felt like there was a new light inside of her, aching to get out. She could do anything she wanted to with it. Anything. It was good, so anything she did with it would be good. It was so cool to be able to handle so much power without the fear that it could hurt someone. The power was more than enough reason to stay on the Light Side.

Priire closed her eyes and sighed. She let the mask that she’d been holding rest on her chest. It was covered in the same kind of blue-black fire that engulfed her ships. The only difference was that it was the Hawkbat’s mask. She’d worn it whenever she’d gone on one of her infamous missions. The power it held over others was forbidden to her now. She wanted it to stay that way.

Annika closed her eyes and fell back onto her pink couch. The whole day had been stressful. She’d wanted to go shopping, but this little voice inside of her head kept saying things about deadly sins and stuff. In the end, she’d decided to stay in her room. Yanking out her diary, she read the latest entry. Sins. She counted up. There were seven of them that she’d recognized. There was a pain in her head as she realized her list wasn’t complete. Almost on its own, her hand wrote...