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"She can’t stay here." The voice was older, firm, authoritarian. Her uncle.
"I know." The second voice was quieter, with a soft edge. Her aunt. "If she stays much longer, she’ll be dangerous to us. We could end up like the others."
The little girl’s green eyes glistened with unshed tears. It was this way every time. They always dropped her like a sack of nerf droppings. "They said they loved me." Her words were whispered into the darkness and echoed sadly. Then she repeated it a little louder. "You said you loved me!"
The two adults were startled. They hadn’t realized the little blonde was listening in. "Oh, we do love you, dear," the woman started.
The girl cut her off with an angry look, her blonde hair framing her scowling face. "No! I believed it once and you lied! Like all the others!"
She flew down the stairs and pushed past them out into the biting cold.
Seijoutai Priire sat up straight in bed. She could still almost feel the
cold she’d run out into that night. Her running hadn’t stopped outside the
door. She kept going, taking her aunt and uncle’s ship and flying off into
the night. The nightmare that had woken her up was the only that could
still scare her. She knew in her mind that it wasn’t real anymore, but it
had been once. What scared her the most was its meaning. The dream always
told her of betrayal coming. The faces of her aunt and uncle weren’t the
ones she remembered. It was that blasted Jedi and Kyoko.
The blonde had been almost glad to leave her aunt and uncle’s house. They were nice, but their son was terrible. He teased her cruelly about the marking on her right arm, saying she was a streetwalker. Priire hated it. When she first arrived, she’d taken the name the Jedi gave to the flower as her last name. He’d said it meant "Big Rock, Stone" but she didn’t like that. Instead, she told everyone it meant "Asteroid." The boy teased her with that too, calling the poor blonde "Sludge." She hated him for that. Betrayal. The thought of those she supposed to be her friends turning their backs on her wasn’t a new one. It happened before, and she knew it would happen again. But would it be with these Sailor Senshi? Priire was undoubtedly one of their number, yet what did they need her for? There was that new Sailor - Annika. She was a pilot. She could ferry the Senshi around. What if she left? Would her friend Coru come with her? Or would the redhead stay? She found a place were she belonged, Aster couldn’t ask her to leave that.
Besides, this dream was always an omen. It warned her that her trust was going to be broken soon and that she should leave. And it was always right. Always.
To shake the disturbing thoughts from her mind, Priire slid out of her bed. Years of stealth aided her in leaving the room she shared with her sister-friend, Coru. This was something she couldn’t share with the girl who she trusted most. It might seem like she didn’t trust her either.
The troubled blonde headed slowly down to the Talon’s hanger bay. She could always find solace in her little ship. If that didn’t work - well, she’d approach this problem like any other. With a blaster in her hand.
She reached the hanger and looked inside. From a distance the shooter looked like a woman, but she couldn't be sure. Being as quiet as possible, she hid behind a nearby ship. It was definitely a woman behind the blaster, but Annika still didn't have a good enough view to tell who it was.
There were certain things she could tell about her though. One of Annika's greatest strengths is her empathetic nature. She could tell the woman was focused, worried, and fearful. She didn't want to just approach her while she was firing, so she waited. She spun the blaster on her finger and placed it into the holster that was strapped to her thigh. Annika's foot slipped and the woman turned around with her weapon drawn.
"Priire?" she said. She should have been able to sense that she was one of the Sailors. Priire's troubles were strong, and it probably blocked her senses. "What are you doing down here? I thought you were asleep."
"I was," Priire said, shrugging. "I had dream and decided to work my frustrations out. I didn’t really want to go out on the planet." The ships were in for a bit of touch up work. Somehow Priire’s starfighter and her freighter had accumulated a lot of carbon scoring.
"A dream?" Annika looked interested. Your subconscious had a strange way of working fears and premonitions into dreams.
Priire’s natural instinct was to clam up. She never told anyone much about her feelings, but the Hawkbat stuff had changed it. So the girl bypassed her natural instincts and went with trust. Staring from the beginning, she gave the other Sailor a rundown of her history, finishing by skimming over the most recent hurts. "You see, every time I left somewhere, it was one of two things. Either I had this dream or I was bored. When this dream came to me, I never told anyone. I just left. Then the roof would fall in. If I’d have stayed, I might have been taken down too. But for the dream. Sometimes I wonder if it’s really the Force." The girl grinned lopsidedly. "Maybe I really am just crazy. What do you think, Princess?"
The other girl looked at her, probing. Annika was sure that Priire was telling the truth, but it seemed a touch outlandish. The blonde had been strangely reluctant to talk about her recent past. Maybe there was something there. "Has anyone betrayed you recently? Or have you betrayed anyone?" she asked.
Priire’s face hardened. "Yes." Her answer was tight with emotions. Her hand balled into a fist as she thought.
Normally talkative, Annika was empathetic enough to know that she should be quiet. She let the younger girl get her emotions under control. "Both." Priire said, calmer. Taking off a glove, she showed Annika scars crisscrossing her hands. "See that? That’s what happens when you try and leave a merc organization."
Surprise ran across Annika’s face. Her planet had dealt with mercs before. They were ruthless killers, in her experience. It was hard to believe one of the Sailors had been among their number.
"Ask that Jedi or Coru," Priire said, softer. "I can’t talk about it."
Priire re-holstered her weapon and walked over to the door, leaving Annika behind to ponder what the blonde said. There wasn’t much contained in her words, but they suggested a place to get more information.
"She's sleeping. As you should be," he said firmly.
She bowed respectfully. "Yes. I'm on my way back to my room, thank you." She walked briskly down the hall, back towards her room.
"What's troubling you?" he said catching up with her.
"Well, I was hoping to ask Coru about Priire. I was talking to her a few minutes ago, and something is bothering her. I thought maybe I could help her work through her problems." They walked down the long hallway talking quietly so as not to disturb the other Senshi.
"What exactly did she tell you Annika?"
"Her whole story, at least the parts she was comfortable with. She's holding back something, I just wish she would trust me."
"She does trust you, she doesn't trust herself."
"She told me she was a merc. I could tell she was telling the truth even though it's so unbelievable. The mercies came to Bakura once; they took the Temples hostage and slaughtered the monks until the Queen paid a ransom. The policy of the Court is never to negotiate with terrorists, but my mother had no choice. After they got their money, they killed the rest of the monks except for the two that are live in the palace."
"I'm sorry for your pain," he said.
She smiled sadly and nodded. "I don't want to approach her if it's a subject that upsets her. I'll talk to Coru tomorrow. Thank you," she said bowing to the Jedi again.
"Sleep well," he said. Annika smiled then walked to her room to try and get some sleep.
Priire had left the small hanger bay, but didn’t go back to her room. She
knew Coru was in it - and the pretty redhead had a tendency to wake up and ask
questions. What the blonde really wanted to do was take the Talon and fly
away somewhere. Running, she reminded herself, was not the answer.
She wandered around the dark ship, taking comfort in the silence. Priire always felt better when she walked around her ship. It was like she and the ship had been together so long that they understood each other. Priire talked to the ship sometimes. The Dreamer was a good one to talk to. She wouldn’t contradict you, and she’d never tell your secrets. Priire was sure of the last part, she always checked for bugs and such.
Wandering along, she found herself in the galley. Another good place to go. Guiltily, the blonde grabbed herself a snack. The rich confection she took out was sinfully good. Priire started eating on it, happily.
"What are you doing?"
Dropping her spoon, turning, drawing then aiming her blaster all in one smoothly instinctive move, Priire glared at the girl who interrupted her.
"Shouldn’t you be asleep, Bakeru?" she asked.
"Probably. But I am used to the time change," the other blonde said.
They’d just arrived on the planet. It was the middle of the ship’s "night" but late afternoon on the planet. The sun would go down in about an hour. Priire had decided to stay up until then. "Already? You adapt well."
Bakeru grinned. "Of course!"
"Want some of this?" Priire offered.
Bakeru nodded. She got up and pulled out another bowl and a spoon. The two girls giggled softly as they divided the treat.
Priire looked mock annoyed. "Sh! You’ll wake everyone else and they’ll want some!"
The Jedi sent his senses out, trying to feel what it was. Seeing that Priire was still awake - shaken, but not worried - he attributed the sound to a wild animal.
Coru’s eyes were wide. She saw that Priire wasn’t in bed. Feeling with the Force, she found only four people were awake. The Jedi and Priire weren’t very worried. Priire only hoped whatever animal it was wouldn’t hurt her ship. Ippin trusted the two of them, and faded back into sleep.
Annika was shaken to the core by the sound she’d more felt than heard. It was like someone pulled her heart out and shook it. She shuddered and went to find Priire, who, hopefully, knew more about this planet and what animal made that horrific sound.
Voices were coming from the galley, so Annika went in that direction. She recognized the voices as Priire and Bakeru. Glad to have finally found Priire, her shaking stopped somewhat. Bakeru waved when she saw her, "Hey, Annika. Couldn't sleep?"
She shook her head, "Didn't you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Bakeru said.
"I'm not sure, I can't explain it. Whatever it was makes me nervous. There's an electricity in the air, almost like something is about to happen."
Priire nodded and her eyes grew worried. "I know what you're talking about, I heard it too. I think it's probably an animal in the hanger." She didn’t want to admit it then, but she felt something wrong also. If she and Annika had the same fears, maybe it was something more than a wild animal.
"I don't think it was just an animal. I think it's more than that, I definitely think it has something to do with this time this place and us. Is there something about this planet that I should know?"
Priire shrugged. "I don’t know. I hope it’s just some kind of animal. Scratched paint is easier to fix than-" She left the thought unfinished. Worried green eyes met the other girl’s eyes. "I don’t know." She trusted her engineer and the Bakuran girl enough to be honest with them.
"Well, I’m going to chalk it up to an animal and go to sleep!" Bakeru laughed.
Annika offered up a half-hearted smile. Priire didn’t bother. After the other blonde left, Priire glanced at Annika. "You don’t believe it was an animal either."
Annika nodded. "No. But I’m sure you can handle it."
"Me?" Priire looked a little confused.
"Of course." The Princess looked at the pilot as if she should have known that. Annika assumed that the other girl would take care of the problem.
Priire frowned. "I may be perfect, but I’m not that good!"
"Excuse me?" Annika hadn’t realized it, but she was a Princess among common folk who didn’t particularly want to be lorded over. It wasn’t any fault of the white-haired girl really; she was only falling into her normal patterns. And putting Priire, who hated to be commanded unless someone was paying her, on the wrong side of slightly mad.
"I said that I can’t do everything. And if you’re going to act like that-" Priire said, her eyes flashing at the tone that Annika was taking.
Feeling the full extent of her power and position of Princess-And-Heir-To-The-Bakuran-Throne, Annika was about to retort with something less than princess-like when the door blew in.
"My ship!" Priire cried, hating to see her ship hurt.
A figure dressed like a Senshi, but with death in her eye, stormed in.
"Sithspit!" Priire cursed. There was no time to change into their own Sailor Senshi personalities before the black-suited girl yelled out "Death Star Laser Beam!" A beam of greenish energy shot out from her and downed the two other girls.
Priire woke up, annoyed. Somehow she had ended up where she hadn’t started
out and had no idea where either place was. The girl was also bound hand
and foot. Checking quickly, she found that the back of her flight suit was
destroyed. She bit back a curse, realizing that the outfit was ruined.
She’d have to find something to replace it before she could leave wherever
she was.
The scratches on her back hurt. She tried to figure if they were deep gashes or if they’d just broken the skin. It felt somewhere between the two. What a pain!
"Excuse me," Priire called sweetly. "Would you mind?" She held up her bound wrists.
The boy stood there, shirt in hand, staring at her. Priire almost felt sorry for him through her amusement. It wasn’t everyday a guy came into his own room and saw a girl a little older than himself tied up on his bed.
Looking dumbfounded, he activated a lightsaber and held it up.
"Don’t move," Priire warned him. Just barely touching the blade, she burned off the ropes on her hands. Priire untied her feet and stood up. After a good stretch, she leaned over and kissed him firmly on the lips. "That’s so Mori won’t be mad with me again." Grabbing one of his towels, she wrapped it around herself and walked out.
Confused, the blonde teen collapsed onto his bed.
Another, slightly older man was sitting in the living room area. "An-" he started, then stopped, his eyes wide.
Priire waved at him cutely and gave a cheery hello as she walked out.
When the girl was gone, the older blue-eyed man walked back to the younger one’s room. He saw the boy sitting on the bed completely stunned. "I have a dumb question."
"Yeah, me too," the boy replied.
"No, Master. I came in and she was tied up, lying on my bed. I helped her with the ropes, then she left."
"You didn’t sense her presence before you entered?" Anakin shook his head no. "Neither did I. That’s strange. If you do see her again, try to find out exactly what happened," he said. Saying goodnight to Anakin, he quickly made his way back to his room. He didn’t understand why he didn’t sense her presence, and he decided to talk to the Council about it in the morning.
"Hey!" she mumbled. The lights came on overhead causing her to wince. Soft, warm hands moved over hers, untying the ropes. "Thank you," she whispered as her feet were also untied.
"Are you all right?" Annika focused her eyes on the person kneeling in front of her, he had blonde hair and blue-eyes. She noticed his lightsaber hanging from his belt. "Are you all right miss?" he asked again.
"Yes. Thank you for freeing me," she said, regaining some strength. She stood and walked toward the door. The blonde Jedi grabbed the girl’s arm, "Wait. I need some answers from you."
She jerked her arm back and stormed down the hallway.
"Annika! What happened?" Priire asked, relived. She put the knife away as the other girl started talking. Priire laughed a little as she told her part of the story. The two had been right next to each other but never knew it.
The blonde frowned. She was angry that whoever it was had taken advantage of her so easily. Deciding to practice her skills more often, she sighed. "Should we tell the others?"
"Not now," Annika decided. "They need to sleep."
Priire agreed. It had only been a few hours, she guessed, and the other Sailors did need to sleep.
When they entered the ship, the other Jedi told them to go find the Captain. "She’s in her quarters. Kumo-chan, would you show them?"
Kumo-chan’s eyes had stars in them. "Sure," she said, lightly. "Anything!" Anakin was following behind, and snickered. Girls seemed to love his master. Obi-Wan shot an evil look to the padawan.
They arrived at the Captain’s quarters after a while. Obi-Wan wondered why it took so long, but decided against asking. "Anakin," he said, summoning his padawan. "Why don’t you go in and ask?"
Anakin shot Obi-Wan a look that told him he didn’t want to. Of course, Obi-Wan already knew that. The boy walked in and cleared his throat.
Priire looked up and smiled. "Yes?" she said sweetly, recognizing the boy.
Ani’s mouth dropped open and he back out of the room.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan chastised.
"It’s her," Ani said, looking stunned. "It’s the girl! The one who-"
Obi-Wan thought that the apprentice was only trying to get out of asking. Sometimes he was so shy around girls! Kenobi walked in and started to speak.
"Do you want your towel back?" Priire asked innocently. By the light in her eyes, it was clear she loved every minute.
As Obi-Wan backed out, the mischievous blonde called up Annika. "Hey, Annika, come down to my room, would you?"
Clearing his throat, Obi-Wan Kenobi strolled over to where the girls stood. He wanted an explanation for the night before, but neither Annika nor Priire could give him one. He folded his arms, "So you don’t know how you came to be tied up and in our rooms?" The girls shook their heads. From the stern look in Kenobi’s eyes, Annika could tell he didn’t believe them. He rejoined Anakin and they continued their discussion, glancing occasionally at the two girls.
"Have you remembered anything about last night?" Priire asked Annika.
"Yes, a little. I remember what we were talking about. That night, after I went back to bed, something woke me up. At first I thought it was an animal, but my instincts told me it wasn’t."
Priire nodded her head remembering it as well. "That’s right. We were talking about it with Bakeru. She went to bed, then- everything gets fuzzy." The blonde furrowed her brow in concentration.
"That’s all I recalled too, until this morning. I remember seeing a bright light then feeling a sharp pain in my side. I don’t know what happened. At first, I thought maybe we were in an accident, but that doesn’t explain being tied up. I checked my room and didn’t notice anything missing or different. Have you?"
Priire was about to say no, but she knew her knife was missing, and the Black Fire Dreamer was experiencing some sort of problem. It could have been a coincidence, she wasn’t sure. "Have you talked to Bakeru? Maybe she saw something," she asked the white-haired girl.
"No. I haven’t been able to find her." She was about to say something else when Anakin Skywalker approached them.
The Jedi padawan looked at the two of them. "I don’t know you," he said pointing at Annika. "But I do know you, and I want to know how you got into my room and why," he commanded, forcefully.
He didn’t know it of course, but commanding was the wrong tone to take with Priire when things weren’t going right. Considering that her back hurt, her ship was messed up, and she couldn’t even remember the night before. Annika ducked behind Kumo-chan.
"Excuse me," Priire asked softly. Soft was the calm before the storm.
"I said why were you in my room?" Anakin said louder.
Priire’s hands clenched, she refrained from throwing something at him, but not much else. "And who do you think you are to talk to me that way in my ship?" the girl growled, towering over the boy menacingly.
Obi-Wan was surprised at the almost physical force of the girl’s words. He waved his hand, using the Force to tell her to calm down.
It didn’t work. Priire turned on him, and sent a snarl his way. "Don’t you try any of your Force nonsense on me." She then proceeded to give the two Jedi a five-minute discourse on HER ship, HER property, and HER rules. She had her hand on the blaster she’d picked up from her room earlier.
Anakin was cowered in the corner. He was really a brave person, but she had a blaster! Priire was going to growl something else, but Annika put a hand on her arm. "Priire, I think you made your point."
Priire blinked. Then the girl smiled and apologized. "I’m sorry, it’s been one of those nights."
Obi-Wan attempted to judge the best approach to take with the fiery blonde. He couldn’t think of one that wouldn’t sound patronizing, so he just asked.
"What can you tell me about last night?"
Priire paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. Then she told the Jedi her story. She skirted around the part about the Sailor, not wanting to say anything that would give their identities as Sailors away. Grinning, she told about Anakin appearing in the room that she’d been left in. Kumo-chan laughed, but the other Jedi just glared at her.
"Annika?" Priire asked, offering her the floor to tell the Jedi what happened to her.
It was hard for her not to giggle because of the strange look that covered Anakin's face. His eyes were squinted and he looked completely confused. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, wore the face of complete calm. The other Sailors had, by now, gathered close to hear. Annika stepped in front of the Jedi and told basically the same story as Priire, with one exception.
"…that's when Jedi Kenobi kindly helped free me from the bindings. I had no idea I was in his room, or how I got there."
"What?!?" Anakin spun around to face the older Jedi, "You said she was walking away from your room and that you saw her from behind. You never said she was tied up too!"
"Well…I didn't feel you needed to know the whole story, until I knew the whole story. Besides, I did see her walking away, and I did see her from behind, so technically, I told the honest truth…from a certain point of view." Anakin's face took on a look of utter frustration and he stormed off the ship.
Annika and Priire doubled over in laughter. Obi-Wan bowed deeply and hurried after his angry Padawan. Ippin turned to face the still chuckling girls.
"Seriously, you don't know what happened?" she asked, folding her arms.
"Can we talk about it later Coru, maybe after dinner? I really need to perform a diagnostic on the Dreamer."
"When is dinner anyway? I'm starving. I think I'll go find out," Annika proclaimed. She walked down the ship's ramp, avoiding the questions she knew the Senshi were going to ask. She couldn't blame them, but there was nothing more she could tell them, her memory of that night was still gone. She made her way down almost to the kitchen when a now familiar voice called her name. Looking behind, she saw Obi-Wan Kenobi walking toward her. She let out a small sigh…he was indeed gorgeous. "The last thing I need right now is another silly crush," she thought. The seriousness in his eyes brought her back to reality.
"Annika," he began, "I hope you won't mind, but Padawan Skywalker and myself will be joining you and your friends tonight for dinner. My instincts tell me there could be danger and our presence might be needed. I don't think there is any reason to be alarmed, just a precaution." He patted her on the shoulder and walked back up the hallway.
She pondered that a moment hanging upside down. Warm meant that the thing was on and she'd need to be very careful. If it had a self-destruct mechanism on it, she could blow herself and her friends into millions of little tiny pieces and spread them over a few hundred klicks. She moved closer to it, still hanging upside down. Suddenly, someone touched her. Instincts faster than thought took over. Priire's spine straightened and her bare feet defined a pair of smooth arcs, one slamming into the upper body and one lower. Head and gut, the clinical part of her mind said later.
While her feet were moving, so were her hands. Priire found the back of the station she was working in and shoved against it. This gave her the leverage she needed to get free of the dark area. Giving her eyes time to adjust, she threw and easy roundhouse punch, that knocked the still standing figure to the ground. Catching her balance, she drew her blaster and trained it on the spot where the figure lay.
All this had happened in seconds. Priire paused while time restored itself to its normal flow, and then realized that she'd done it again.
"Ow," Anakin Skywalker whimpered.
"I am so sorry!" Priire exclaimed. "I didn't mean to…" She looked unhappy.
Anakin let her help him up. "What did you find?" he gasped out.
Priire's eyes narrowed, then relaxed as she remembered that he was a Jedi and could feel such things. "I don't know. Something bad, that's for sure."
The Jedi nodded, then put a hand to his head and swayed. Priire caught him before he fell and looked the boy over. "I think we ought to get you down to sick bay."
Anakin couldn't disagree.
Priire stretched her hands and rubbed them. Glancing down, she realized that she didn't have her gloves on. She tucked her hands into a pocket, trying to find the lost gloves. Anakin watched her curiously.
"What happened to your hands?" he asked, having seen the scars that crisscrossed them.
The girl's green eyes darkened. "Something a long time ago," she spoke quietly. "Dangerous things."
Anakin could see that whatever it was, it had hurt her. He reached out with the Force, and only felt more of the same deadly intelligence he knew her pretty head housed. "Hey, it can't be that bad."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. There are people with worse problems. I met," his voice dropped down to a whisper, "I met the Hawkbat once. Now, that girl had problems. She was two sides of one coin."
Priire's eyes danced. "You met the Hawkbat? And what do you mean 'two sides of one coin?'"
"Well, you could see in her eyes that she was a killer. Her instincts were almost as good as yours are. When I saw her, I could feel that she was always watching her back, her partner's back, and evaluating the danger each person presented." Anakin paused, arranging his thoughts. "Then, Master Obi-Wan and I could feel that she was fighting something inside that was telling her not to do what she was doing. I felt that the girl had two people inside of her, with different ones showing up at different times."
Her eyes having lost the dark touch, Priire looked thoughtful. "I guess I was."
Anakin turned around and looked at her. He peered into her turbulent green eyes, and reached out with the Force. He backed up a few steps. "By the Force…"
"Don't worry," the ex-mercenary told him. "I gave it up."
"You're the Hawkbat??"
Priire corrected him and held up her hands. "I was the Hawkbat. I still have her instincts and her cunning, but the murderer that she was is gone." Sad green eyes met Anakin's spooked blue ones. "You're not in any danger from her."
The two were quiet for a spell and Priire turned her hands back to healing.
"Oh no!" Anakin gasped.
"What?" Priire asked. She was putting some of the salve on her back where she'd scraped it coming out of the ship's insides.
"I was supposed to get you for dinner! I bet we've missed it by now," Anakin looked glum. Priire matched his expression.
"Great. I missed breakfast, missed lunch…" she sighed. "Let's see if there's anything left of dinner. If not, I'm sure I could find something. There's never nothing to eat here!" The girl laughed easily, relaxing more than she had in the past few days.
"You missed breakfast and lunch?" Anakin questioned, surprised.
Priire nodded. "Yeah. Breakfast was at your place, and lunch sacrificed itself to a diagnostic." The relaxation she had felt evaporated.
The Padawan faintly felt her change of emotions. She was a very guarded being. "What's wrong?" he asked as they started towards the mess hall.
Carefully, the girl told him parts of what she knew. "When that thing attacked us, I'm guessing she planted a very sophisticated device in the Dreamer's main control panel. I saw it, and had started exploring it when you scared me." She offered up a sheepish shrug. "I was in a very defensive mood. That's why I attacked you so harshly. If it had been any normal day, you'd have only been kicked."
Anakin laughed as they rounded the corner to the mess hall. "I won't scare you again, that's for sure!"
"Speaking of being scared," Priire muttered. The two older Jedi glared at her as the two walked in. Obi-Wan glared at Anakin while the other Jedi gave Priire a harsh look. Ippin looked at her with horror. "What did you do this time, Aster?"
"I um…" Priire paused, abashed.
Anakin took over for her. "I scared Priire, and she showed me the folly of it."
Annika sighed jokingly. "Priire! What did you do?" The two were having fun teasing the Jedi.
"I kicked him." "She kicked me." The two said laughed as they spoke at the same time. Priire went on to tell the story of how Anakin had scared her and that she'd found some strange device.
"Where's Bakeru? I might need her help on dismantling it." Priire looked around. The only ones in the room were the two Jedi, Annika, Ippin, Kirin, Kumo-chan, Mara, and Priire herself.
Obi-Wan looked around. His danger sense alerted him with an urgency he'd not often felt. "I sense a disturbance in the Force," he said in the almost deep voice Jedi used to announce such things.
Ippin and Anakin put their hands down near their respective lightsabers. Kumo-chan, Annika, and Kirin excused themselves at Priire's signal. Mara moved her hand near her lightsaber in preparation. Priire's eyes suggested that she leave, but Mara declined.
Priire trembled slightly before the cry came. It was again the mournful sound of a rip in the basic fabric of the universe; rending molecule from molecule and atom from atom. It was a disillusioned harbinger of deadly evil.
Her blaster slid from her holster as four lightsabers snapped to life. It was as if the four blades of good were an offence to the evil. "Sithsipt," Priire cursed, ignoring the disapproving Jedi, as the lights went out. "I…I have a bad feeling about this," Anakin whispered, reserving the loud sound for the creature that came in next.
"My ship," Priire groaned as another door met its doom to the evil Senshi's wrath.
With fluid grace, three figures appeared in the broken door.
"The calvery has come," Priire whispered, seeing Sailors Bakura, Hoth, and Bespin.
"Don't do that," Sailor Bakura warned as the evil Senshi moved to attack.
The black-haired girl spun around and faced her new opponents. Her black eyes sparkled and she smiled bitterly.
"I am Sailor Hoth!"
"I am Sailor Bespin!"
"And I am Sailor Bakura! Together we will punish you on behalf of the stars!"
"I don't think so," she laughed venomously. The evil Senshi flipped up and over the Jedi. "Death Star Laser Beam!" A bolt of green energy flew from the black suited Sailor and headed straight for the three Jedi.
"Bakura Crystallization Freeze!" Annika threw her attack, freezing the green beam mid-air; it broke apart and crashed into pieces. She and Priire glanced at each other. They realized the evil creature that stood before them, was the same mysterious being who had attacked them. Anger flashed through Priire's eyes, she shot off blast after blast, each one missing the evil Senshi; she was way too fast.
"Identify yourself, warrior," Anakin demanded. He tried to use the Force to determine who she was, but he couldn't. The room fell eerily quiet and everyone stood very still. The black-haired woman placed her hands on her hips, "I'm Sailor Death Star."
Sailor Bakura's senses alerted her that the evil Senshi was about to attack again. Before she had the chance, however, Sailor Bespin struck first. "Bespin Cloud Surround!" The beautiful, yet deadly clouds of her attack caught Sailor Death Star off guard and they began to choke her. Just as quickly as they surrounded her, they disappeared. "Is that all you've got, Bespin?" she spat out.
The Jedi charged her, lightsabers swinging. Anakin came at her from the front, while Obi-Wan circled around to the back. She spun around, "Death Star Laser Beam!" The green beam hit Jedi Kenobi in the chest, knocking him back several feet. "Master!" Anakin ran over to the hurt Jedi.
"This isn't going to be easy", Sailor Hoth warned.
"Where's Priire?" Sailor Bakura asked, noticing the blonde girl was missing.
"Right here." The girls turned and smiled, seeing Sailor Asteroid standing in the doorway. "No one messes with my ship and gets away with it." Then turning to the evil Sailor, she called, "Senshi of stone, defense, and redemption…I'm the Dark Sailor, Sailor Asteroid! And I'll help them punish you for the stars!" Sailor Asteroid struck a dramatic pose and then stuck her tongue out at Sailor Death Star. Coru dropped her head into her hands at the girl's lack of respect.
"Let's do this right," Asteroid said, with a malicious glint in her eye. She circled the evil Sailor and evaluated her. By the blonde's quick and sudden moves, she led Sailor Death Star to two faulty conclusions. First, that Asteroid was an inexperienced fighter. Second, that she was trying to hog all the glory.
Moving silently, Sailors Bakura and Hoth approached from the backside of the evil one. Ippin and Mara formed the sides of a rough circle, pinning the Dark Sailor and evil Senshi in the middle.
"Death Star Laser Beam!"
"Asteroid Gravity Force!"
The two attacks met between the girls. Asteroid's bent the stream of deadly green energy, pulling it to the ground.
"Hoth Blizzard Blast!"
"Bespin Cloud Surround!"
Grinning appreciation at her friends, Sailor Asteroid preformed a perfect back flip out side of the circle of harder than normal gravity she'd projected around the evil Senshi. The two blinding attacks had her blind and frozen. For good measure, Sailor Bakura used her Crystallization Freeze to form a fence around the perimeter.
If Sailor Asteroid's eyes had been blasters, the evil Senshi would be a dissipating cloud of protons. "You are in some major trouble, Death Star," she growled. "You have violated my ship by unlawful entry and placing of unauthorized items in her, and attacked my guests with no reason."
"They're Jedi!" the dark girl snarled as if that explained everything.
"And that's a reason to attempt to kill them?" Sailor Asteroid turned from her, disgusted. Mara and Ippin watched their charge as Asteroid and Bakura walked over to the Jedi.
"Anakin, is Obi-Wan ok?"
The boy shook his head. "I don't really know. He's in a Jedi Healing Trance, but if it'll help…" he trailed off, unhappily.
Kumo-chan ran back into the room with a medical scanner. Sailor Asteroid gave her an appreciative grin. She was glad that someone had thought to get it.
"Evil Spirit Enclose!"
"Aiiieeee!" Sailor Asteroid yelled. Her favorite expression of sudden surprise or shock wasn't wasted. The girl had put Sailor Death Star mostly out of her mind—a mistake. While the evil Senshi could do nothing with her Death Star Laser Beam attack; there were other avenues of evil she could turn to. One of which was the just used Evil Spirit Enclose.
"I hate this job," Sailor Asteroid mouthed at Anakin, whom she'd landed next to. The pretty girl tried to wiggle out of the Evil Spirit Enclose, but it was no good.
Sailor Hoth, Kumo-chan and Anakin hauled the spaced out Jedi Master behind a table. They huddled in the protective embrace of the Hoth Ice Reflection Surround, which hid them.
"Redemption Crystal Power!" the newly arrived Sailor Vjun cried. Sailor Asteroid broke free of the evil spirit, and turned on her attacker. Sailor Death Star had shed the crystal fence Bakura had set up and used another of her attacks to negate the gravity field.
Sailor Asteroid's Asteroid Shower Power combined with Sailor Yavin's Corusca Gem Daggers followed closely by Vjun's Vjun Lightening Power. The three converged on the evil Sailor and beat her to the ground. Carbonite Freeze from Sailor Bespin combined with Bakura's Crystallization Freeze to encase her once again. "What are you?" Anakin asked, surprised.
Everyone looked at him, unsure of whom he was asking.
"Oh boy. This is going to be a long day," Anakin sighed.
Sailor Asteroid walked over to the Jedi Padawan and placed a strong hand on
his shoulder. The boy looked at her skeptically; he had good reason to doubt
her. "Basically, we're the good guys," she said.
"Good girls," Bakura corrected.
"Whatever," she laughed. "We're Sailor Senshi, Anakin." Sailor Asteroid wasn't much for long explanations.
The young Jedi Padawan nodded in recognition. "I've heard of you, but only vaguely. There isn't much written information about the Sailor Senshi. To be honest, I thought it was a legend. I do wonder why Master Kenobi and myself weren't able to detect your real identities."
Obi-Wan Kenobi stood up and walked over to Anakin, causing Sailors Bespin and Bakura to sigh dreamily. Anakin rolled his eyes. The wounds on his body had completely healed and only his robes showed the scars of battle; torn and dirty.
"I'd like to know the answer to that one myself. I could sense a strong connection to the Force in each of you…but I detected no indication of, of, this," he said waving his hands in the direction of the girls. He was obviously not used to being surprised, and seemed somewhat annoyed and embarrassed by the situation.
"We still have a slight problem here," Sailor Bakura interjected, "What are we going to do about Sailor Death Star? We can't keep her encased forever."
Obi-Wan spoke up, "We can take her with us, her place is in prison."
Sailor Hoth shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea. There's something familiar about her, I just can't figure out what it is."
Sailors Vjun, Bespin and Asteroid agreed. Sailor Yavin turned to Annika, "Do you think you can sense her identity?"
"I'm not sure. I can try." The other Senshi and the Jedi watched as Sailor Bakura kneeled beside the defeated evil Senshi. Relaxing her mind into a soft trance, she attempted to penetrate the strong mental shields inside Sailor Death Star's mind. Her first and second try failed miserably.
"Try one more time," Obi-Wan urged.
Taking several deep breaths, she sunk deeper into her trance and finally, partly because of her strong determination and partly because of the exhaustion settling over Sailor Death Star, the mind shields began to crumble. Sailor Bakura's first impressions were of pure evil and darkness…then, something else came through. Completely different feelings surfaced. Gentler feelings of love, compassion and happiness. Without warning, the mental shields grew stronger, knocking Annika from her trance.
"Did you find out anything?" a hopeful Asteroid asked.
"Maybe. I'm not certain how to say it, but… it's as if there are two of her."
"She might be an innocent woman being controlled by Dark Side magic, perhaps I should heal her," Anakin offered.
"I don't think you'll be able to get close enough to attempt a Jedi healing, she seems to be getting stronger" Sailor Vjun said. The group stood there, frustrated and confused. Suddenly, Sailor Hoth gasped. The Senshi and Jedi followed her wide-eyed gaze.
"What the…" Sailor Asteroid trailed off.
"What's going on?" Anakin said. Everyone in the room now looked and saw the trapped figure was no longer Sailor Death Star, but the missing Bakeru.
"What?" Bakeru asked, confused. "What happened?"
"What happened?!"
Sailor Yavin kicked Sailor Asteroid for her outburst.
"Ouch," the blonde Sailor protested. "Bakeru, do you remember anything about what happened last night?" she continued, almost growling.
Bakeru shook her head. "No. Why?"
Cooler heads prevailed and locked Asteroid in the closet while the others told Bakeru what happened.
"So you mean I'm really a bad person?"
Bakura shook her head. "No. You're not. You just change at night."
"LET ME OUT," Asteroid yelled. "Please!"
Yavin sighed. "Don't do anything stupid, Aster," she warned as she let the blonde out.
"Bakeru, can you remember anything about what you've done as Sailor Death Star?" Sailor Asteroid asked, trying to be calm.
The girl frowned. "Nothing."
Sailor Asteroid was not happy. No one understood her feelings of anxiety because she'd only told Anakin about the strange object that had secured itself to her Dreamer's insides. "Sithspit," she muttered under her breat. Then speaking louder, she added, "We could have a problem here." The girl went on to explain about the object in her ship's controls. "Anyone want to help?" she asked, with an ironic smile.
"Annika," Priire called to her friend. The blonde had once again wiggled behind the command consul with her feet up in the air. "Hydrospanner," the inverted girl commanded.
Annika handed two of the tools to Anakin. He looked at them and made an educated guess. "This one?"
"Works for me," half of Priire shrugged. She worked with the hydrospanner for a few moments, then yelled for help.
Obi-Wan reached her side first. "Put your hand here," she instructed. "Don't move."
Kenobi put his hand where she told him to, holding as still as a rock. Kumo-chan stood on her other side, waiting for instructions.
"Kumo-chan, hold out your hands. I'm going to put this thing in them, don't move."
Anakin stood next to her ready to offer a helping hand.
"Can I move my hand?" Obi-Wan asked quietly.
"No," was Priire's reply. "Annika, hand me the other hydrospanner. And a J clip. Oh, and if you see my wits out there…"
Annika laughed. As she handed the upside down blonde the requested items, she asked a question. "What is that thing?"
Priire shivered. "It's basically a bomb. It was tied into the navigational array, with a line running through the life support. It also had an arm into the computer, setting up a chain-reaction…" she paused for a moment, fixing the J clip into place.
"Boom!" Anakin finished. "It's gone, though. Right?"
"Yup," Priire told him. "But what do we do with Bakeru?"
"I think it's obvious what we have to do," Annika said, adopting a more regal tone to her voice. Priire shot her a disapproving look. Realizing she wasn't on Bakura, Annika cleared her throat and began again, this time being softer. "We can't just abandon her. She's one of us."
Priire agreed. "We can just lock her in a closet at night. Besides we beat Sailor Death Star once, we can do it again."
"I'm still not convinced she can't be healed," Obi-Wan offered.
"And if she can't? What if Bakeru becoming Sailor Death Star is something too ingrained to heal…" Anakin said.
Annika grabbed the opportunity to speak, "I say, we take her with us and deal with Sailor Death Star. We don't even know if this will happen every night. After all, this is the first time she's showed up."
Obi-Wan furrowed his brow and said, "Yes, but what if it's not the last? What if she places another device in this ship? What if next time you are not able to defeat her?"
"I'm sick of 'what-ifs'!" Priire said angrily, "We're not leaving her and that's that." She flopped back down in her seat and folded her arms.
"Well. We're not going to get anything solved right now. Perhaps we should talk about this later." Obi-Wan stood and motioned for Anakin who followed him out.
"I'm going to go to, I promised I'd play a game of holo-chess with Ippin," Kumo-chan explained.
Priire started turning knobs and pushing buttons on the Dreamer's console, ignoring the only person left in the room, Annika.
She studied the still angry blonde. She was focused on nothing in particular, she was trying to divert her thoughts from something painful. Annika remembered how Priire jumped to conclusions and got angry and hurt at the mere thought of abandoning Bakeru. Annika couldn't help but wonder if this situation meant more to Priire than she let on. Maybe it had something to do with her past. Annika remembered the dream Priire told her about a few nights ago in the hanger. A betrayal of trust. That part had certainly come to pass with the help of an unknowing Bakeru. Leaving. Priire said after she had the dream she always left. Always. Rather than press her on the subject, Annika's instincts told her to let the pilot have her space. "I think I'm going for a walk. We'll talk later Priire. All right?"
"All right," she said still focused on her ship.
"All right," Priire muttered again when Annika was gone, "No it isn't 'all
right'!"
Her hands kept flying over the controls, checking every single thing in the ship, making sure that Bakeru hadn't done anything that might endanger them later.
They wanted to leave her. Leave Bakeru. Just toss her out like a sack of nerf droppings. Maybe it was paranoia, but Priire saw many similarities to herself in Bakeru's situation. She too had been something of the night, a masked killer who never had one thought for those she tortured. When they found out, everyone's first instinct was to drop her like a dozen fire gems. But everyone calmed down, Mori and Coru stuck up for her, and she stayed. She wondered to herself what the others would say. A decision wandered across her mind as her hands wandered across the controls.
Annika's Silver Swan was one ship that Priire had never had the chance to "run a diagnostic" on. Which really meant that she wanted to play with little ship.
"Princess!" Priie shouted down the corridor.
"I wish you'd stop that," Annika frowned at her.
Shrugging, Priire replied, "Hey, you came, didn't you?"
Annika glared at Priire. She wasn't really mad at the girl, but the day was wearing long on her.
A sudden change came over Priire. She got defensive and evil sounding. "You be carefully with that," she warned direly. "I've been known to hold grudges a day and half!"
Priire's look of dead seriousness broke through to Annika and made her laugh. After holding the "glare" for a few more seconds, Priire started to laugh as well.
"You wanted to help me with a diagnostic on the Swan?"
"Sure."
"And I said we'd talk?"
Priire offered up a roguish grin. "If you can get it out of me, sure we'll talk."
"You know, for a small ship, it's very powerful," the blonde pilot said.
Annika smiled. "My planet is well known for is innovative mechanical designs and applications."
Priire laughed, "So, just how many times have you said that?"
"It's obvious is it? In my duties as Princess, I'm expected to make Bakura seem as wonderful as possible. It's true, however, my planet is well known for its industries. Bakura has a rather terrible past."
Priire's hands stopped poking around the inside of an unarmed gun turret and looked at the white haired girl. "I know all about terrible pasts, remember? What happened that was so bad?"
Annika began slowly, "When Bakura was first settled, it was more or less a vast open plain of agriculture. An ancestor of mine, Hikarino Eisei, turned the planet into a thriving industrial center. She bought droids to handle the work and the planet became prosperous. Then, quite suddenly, something happened to the droids' programming. They went on a rampage and killed almost the entire population of the city. Because we are a peaceful planet, we had no defenses. Eventually, all of Bakura was subject to the mercy of the droids. We might still be today if a Jedi cruiser hadn't crashed in Salis D'aar. With the help of the Jedi, our people were able to regain control of the planet." Annika said, "But that was a long time ago. Long before even my grandparents were born."
"No one ever found out what made the droids go haywire?" Annika shook her head. Priire cleared her throat and began tapping on repulsor lifts. Desperate for a break and a snack she suggested Annika join her in the galley.
The two girls talked and laughed as they ate sweet, powdery confections. Out of nowhere, Priire told Annika of her past, not all of the details, but the basic story. She told of how she was abandoned by her family, how she was on her own for almost her entire life. The bad things she did and the good things. "There aren't that many good things," she said solemnly.
"Yet," Annika reminded her. Priire smiled and nodded her head. Annika understood why she was so quick to defend Bakeru, why she insisted on taking her side.
Priire felt relieved after sharing her past. It felt as if a small moon had been lifted from her shoulders. She let out a sigh. "How difficult was it to confide in me?"
"Are you kidding? I would rather have fought a Sailor Sith!"
The two girls laughed. Priire stood up; she had a mischievous grin on her face. "You want to eat all the sweets on the ship until we get sick?"
"That's such a silly question. Of course I do!"
"Sorry to interrupt," Obi-Wan said from the doorway, "but the other Senshi have made a decision about Bakeru."
Priire turned a powdery nose to the handsome Jedi. Dread filled her as she stood, still holding a desert. "Let's go."
"We heard that you decided," a deceptively easygoing Priire said motioning to Annika and Obi-Wan.
Kyoko nodded. "We have."
And the decision would be…?" Priire's overly formal tone indicated how hard she was trying to keep herself in control. Annika noticed it and laid her hand on her friend's shoulder.
A moment of silence assured that Kyoko's next words would ring loudly into the empty hanger. Their last echo faded away, Priire relaxed.
"So you're taking her back to the Jedi Temple to see if she can be healed?" Priire asked, smiling. "And if she can't, you still keeping her there?"
"That's great!" Annika cried. "Perfect, in fact."
Priire just smiled.
