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"A problem you have?" He asked, staring at her.
"No Master Yoda." She replied, sullen.
"Hmm, lying you are. Want to be a Jedi you do not?" He asked, still peering at her face, as if reading some invisible note on her forehead.
"Of course Master Yoda, the Jedi way is my destiny." She replied again, her voice the same sullen tone in her voice.
"Hmm. Perhaps not. Built a lightsaber have you?" Yoda queried, now looking at her belt.
"No Master Yoda, I haven't reached that point yet." She replied, obviously surprised that he would ask that of her, who was only ten standard years old.
"Hmm. I think build one you must, need it you will."
"Oh. Well, all right."
Yoda turned towards the teacher and his shocked class, and announced that he would take Ippin out to find the necessary components for her weapon.
A few hours later they had compiled the machinery, but she would have to find
a crystal and make the saber by herself.
When she went back to her room to start assembling it, she was shocked to find a necklace sitting at her desk. Not just any necklace, a Corusca Gem necklace. The most expensive gemstone in the galaxy and there were several imbedded into the pendant. Ippin pulled in over her head and touched the smooth stones.
She started to work on her saber, but didn't get far before she was called to
dinner. She sighed and put the components away into her drawer. She tucked
her necklace into her tunic, and headed towards the cafeteria.
When she got there she wasn't surprised when everyone stopped and looked at her. She had always had that effect. That was part of the reason she was picked on so much. Her aura was incredibly strong, and almost anyone could feel it. But what disturbed the others was that while she was strong in the Force, that wasn't the reason her aura was so strong, no one knew what it was. Except perhaps Yoda, and he wasn't about to tell anyone, even Ippin, what it was.
But this day there was something different. They seemed...more than just
curious. Almost angry. One of the older kids came up behind her and grabbed
her upper arm. She looked around desperately for one of the Master's, but
none were in sight. The older boy started pulling her towards one of the
tables. "Okay Miss Fuukou. We want to know what's going on, and how come
Master Yoda wants you to build a lightsaber?"
Ippin twisted her arm out of his grasp and glared at him. "One: I don't know. Two: Even if I did know it's none of your business."
The boy grabbed her arm again. "Now listen you, we're tired of you being able to do everything, nobody even knows who you are, your parents aren't anybody important, _you_ aren't anybody important, so tell us before we have to hurt you!"
Another boy-Ippin recognized him as Renjiro-came up. He took the other boy's hand and pulled it away from Ippin's arm. He calmly spoke to the group. "This has gone far enough, you know this is wrong! If you don't leave Ippin alone from now on, I'm going to tell Master Yoda about this." He turned back towards Ippin and whispered to her. "Run, now, I'll distract them."
The older boy started to push Renjiro out of the way, but another one of the trainees came up. It was a young girl, with dark hair and blue eyes. Ippin didn't recognize her, but now they were both standing between Ippin and the bully. Ippin quietly backed away and started running towards her room. They didn't notice till she was already out the door of the cafeteria, at which point Ippin felt their anger. She ran to her room, and after changing into a dark green jumpsuit, quickly packed her belongings into a small bag. She wrapped up her lightsaber components and gently put them in, she would try to assemble it later. She took her few credits and shoved them in her pocket. She locked her bedroom door and waited until after everyone was asleep, and then snuck out.
High up in the Council Chamber Yoda looked out one of the windows. He sighed
as Ippin slipped out and headed in the general direction of the spaceport.
"It has begun."
The next day, Ippin sat in the cargo hold of a freighter. She had tried to
find passage, but everybody charged an arm and a leg for it. She didn't have
many credits, and wanted to conserve them. She was going to leave a note and
a few creds when she left, thanking them for their unknowing ride. One thing
being a Jedi Trainee had taught her was that you always thanked someone for
services, even if they didn't know about them at the time. But for now she
sat. She was trying to see if she could put her saber together, but she
hadn't found a crystal for it yet. And now she didn't know where she would be
able to find one, being a stowaway didn't get you
many opportunities to search for jewels. Suddenly she grinned at herself. It
was obvious; she could use one of the gems from her necklace! Surely a
Corusca Gem, the hardest thing in the galaxy, would work. She took her
necklace out and popped out the largest stone. After adjusting it to fit, she
finished by placing it all inside the casing. She stared at it in awe for a
moment, before pressing the button to turn it on. The blade came out, dark
red at the core, pale orange at the fringe. She smiled happily at it, and
then turning the blade off, fell asleep.
It had been six months since Ippin left the Jedi Academy. No one had come
after her, but that was expected. She mostly hopped ships, stowing away when
possible, and working when not. She was nearly eleven now, and still people
didn't take her seriously. She considered herself a Jedi in most senses; she
could use the force and knew the code by heart. And believed every word of
it. But for some reason it took a demonstration of her power for someone to
believe her, and sometimes that would scare him, her or it, off. But she had
to admit to herself that having the Force was useful, considering that she
had hair the color of flames it would have been impossible to hide if not for
her disguise training. But again she tried to avoid
using the force, she had heard tales of things that could make the force
disappear, and she didn't want to lose her abilities if that happened, as she
had heard many Jedi do. So basically she acted like any
ten-going-on-eleven-year-old girl who was out on her own. She didn't lie and
cheat like some did at least not any more than was necessary for survival.
Presently she was working on a ship headed towards the Yavin system. Ippin
had heard of it but never been there. She knew that in the core of the gas
giant for which the system was named there were crystals, rare jewels that
were found nowhere else in the galaxy. She knew they would be stopping at a
space station that orbited around the planet, and decided to take a chance and
try her hand at Corusca Gem mining. Most people were afraid of diving into
the unknown core of a planet, but there were those who would risk it.
Daredevils that either thought themselves invincible, or didn't care if they
never came back. Ippin was neither, but she still wanted to try it.
When the arrived the next day Ippin had her things packed and was ready to
start her life as a Corusca miner.
When Ippin arrived asking to rent a miner-the ship used to dive into the core
of the planet-the manager thought she was joking. She was only
ten-going-on-eleven, after all.
"Excuse me young lady, I think you're in the wrong place, Corusca Gem mining is very hazardous, you could get hurt doing this." He said condescendingly. He smiled slimily at Ippin. She glared at him, and grabbed his collar. "Listen dude, I may only be ten, but I trained at the Jedi academy for nine of those years, and believe me, I am more heavily trained than half the adult men on this station!"
With that she pushed him away. The middle-aged man backed away holding his hands up in front of him. "All right, all right." He backed over to his desk and grabbed a set of keys. "Here, this is for #15, the Lucky Star." He said, tossing her the keys. Ippin smiled pleasantly, thanked him and set her payment on a nearby cabinet.
The Lucky Star really lived up to its name, Ippin thought as she came back to
the station. She had become a semiprofessional Corusca Gem miner, and had set
records for nabbing the small jewels. While she did sell most of her gems,
the largest and most beautiful she kept for herself. As soon as she could she
replaced the gem she had put in her lightsaber. She still practiced
regularly, fighting imaginary foes in her quarters. After a while she found
she had made quite a fortune for herself, or at least had enough money to buy
herself a ship. But not any ship. No, she thought smiling. Her ship would be
as special as her Corusca Gems. But she had to find this ship first. She had
heard of the beautiful handcrafted Nubian ships, with
their unique mirrored hulls, and decided that her ship, would be a Nubian.
It wasn't until nearly a year later that her ship was done. When she had
first asked for the ship, her age had again been questioned. She had tossed a
pouch of Corusca Dust at him, and after telling him exactly what she did for
a living, had agreed on the plans and announced that she would return when
the ship was completed. When she came back she found the most beautiful ship
she could imagine. It's mirror-like hull reflected anything, even darkness.
And also had a unique feature that could make it seem to disappear when in
space by reflecting the blackness, and another that could make it reflect but
the light around it so that it seemed to be made of pure light. She loved
her. She named her, 'The Crystal Prism' and immediately got a
cargo to haul. For months she simply flew about hauling and selling. She made
a good living; not as good as she had as a miner, but a one good enough to
survive.
Once when she was carrying fresh produce, she stopped at an Asteroid Mining facility. When she landed-under the guise of having a damaged ship-she was greeted by a smiling blonde, who introduced herself as Priire. The had become fast friends and often helped each other out, once or twice Ippin had even gone so far as to help Priire with her missions as a mercenary. But that side of her friend frightened Ippin, and she rarely saw it unless they were amongst the shadier members of the universe. But despite the frightening mercenaries who seemed to love following Priire-and sometimes came after Ippin because of her association with Priire-around, Ippin was very close to the girl. You could easily say that she was the only true friend she'd ever had, and they had even given each other nicknames. Priire's declaration that she would call Ippin 'Coru' had startled her originally, she had quickly thought up a name for her friend. 'Aster' was what she was from then called, she had explained that since Ippin mined Corusca Gems and was called Coru, and Priire mined Asteroids, she ought to be called Aster. One time when they were looking through Ippin's things they had come upon her necklace, she usually wore it but was afraid it would be stolen where they were so she had put it away. Priire had thought it beautiful, but it seemed to look familiar. She snapped her fingers and pulled out her own hematite necklace from under her shirt. She took it off and compared it to Ippin's. It was identical except for the different stone. The inscription was even the same, though neither could read it. It wasn't in any language she knew, and she knew how to read most of them. Aurabesh-the written form of basic, Corellian...that was one thing that always baffled them and they often discussed it. They spent many hours making silly suggestions as to what it could say. Once they had said that perhaps it told them the secrets of the universe, and had lapsed into silence. They had never guessed it was simply their transformation phrases, written in the language of Earth.
"Hey Coru," Priire suddenly said, breaking the silence one-day when they were relaxing on Priire's ship, the Black Fire Dreamer.
"Yeah, what is it Aster?" She replied, yawning slightly before turning to look at he blonde.
"When is your birthday?"
Ippin looked at Priire in surprise. "My...birthday? Well...at the academy, we're taken so young, and we don't celebrate as we grow...we don't really have them. Why? When's yours?"
Priire sighed and put her hands behind her neck and stared at the ceiling. "I don't know either. I never stayed with one relative long enough to celebrate and once I got out on my own...you understand."
Ippin sighed also, then sat up. "I've got an idea, why don't we just pick days, maybe days that mean something to us, and then from there on those'll be our birthdays."
Priire sat up and smiled at Ippin. "That's a great idea...you pick first."
"Okay...I pick December 5th, that's the day I left the Academy. Your turn."
"Okay, I pick the anniversary of the day I struck out on my own, May 9th."
"Great! Now, from her on, we'll always call each other on our birthdays. You call me on mine, I'll call you on yours, okay?" The girls smiled at each other and shook hands on it.
That had been several years ago and they had kept their promise religiously.
Not one birthday had they missed, and along with a call a small gift always
appeared on each of their birthdays. It had been a while since they talked,
which was why Ippin wasn't expecting to hear from her friend, though she was
happy for the distraction, she currently didn't have any jobs lined up and
needed something to do, all day she had been puzzling over things. She had
been restless lately; she hadn't been sleeping well, despite the fact that
her Corusca Gem crop was better than they had been in years. She had just
been thinking of her friend, when she got the call.
"Coru? It's Aster," the daredevil pilot said, her voice coming from the speaker below the still-blank screen in front of her.
The picture faded in, showing a smiling blonde with bright green eyes. "Aster? I havent seen you in forever!"
"I know, Coru," Priire grinned.
"Still have your Talon?"
"The Hawkbat with talent hides her talon," she answered cryptically.
"Still the Hawk?" Ippin asked disapprovingly. "You said you were getting out of that Aster!"
"I know, I know." Ippin noticed a group behind Priire were giving her very interested looks. "I have a favor to ask, Coru."
"If it has anything to do with a no-fail venture...."
They laughed. "No, nothing like that. A lot of weird things have happened to me lately, not the least of which is hooking up with a dozen or so people. You know my Dreamer isnt that big..."
"Where are you?" Ippin asked. "Ill bring the Prism and we can make ourselves a little convoy!"
When they were finished talking, Ippin headed back into her quarters, finally some excitement!
Coru!"
"Aster!" The two girls hugged happily. Priire introduced her friend to all the other Senshi. "Everyone, this is Ippin. Coru, these are Zyta, Kumo-chan, Numa-chan, Kyoko, Mori Hoshi, Megami Hisui," Priire said, pointing to the girls as she said their names. "And this is our resident Jedi."
He looked at the redhead and smiled. "Ippin, it seems like I've seen you before."
"You probably have...Renjiro right?" Ippin asked him, her voice slightly edged.
"Yes...where do I know you from?"
"I was at the academy, you were one of the few who defended me before...before I left when I was ten."
"Oh. I remember you, you always skipped classes." He replied, smiling at her.
"Yeah. There was no point in going anyway."
Priire opened her mouth to say something else, but it was lost as the two ships shuddered. "Hey!"
Ippin looked offended as well. "I thought you said this was a safe place!"
"It was!" Priire turned to the Jedi. "Can you pilot her in a fight?"
"I would rather not."
"Fine. Take the Dreamer down into the atmosphere of this planet and keep her away from the fighting. If you do need to fight back, tell the computer and shell release the controls to you. Ask her for help, and shell help you. I designed her to be pretty much user-friendly." The blonde rolled with the ship as another blast scored a hit. "Everyone else, strap in!"
Ippin had disconnected the two ships by now, and no one had time to wonder where Priire was heading. The girl was glad no one was watching as she flew down the corridors to a back hanger. "Hawkbat One Override," she told the computer as it let her in. "Talon, start up one." Another shudder flowed through the ship as she leapt into the cockpit and fired the engines. She paused a moment, relishing the sense of power that came with the Black Fire Talons activation. Then, with grim purpose, she danced out of the hanger bay.
Coru watched and listened to her friend speak to the pilot, using her lasers
to keep everything away from her friends. She sighed as the ship
self-destructed and headed back to the Dreamer to dock.
"Would someone please explain what just happened?" Kyoko asked, confused.
As if in answer to her question, the comm lit up with activity. "Black Fire Dreamer, this is Black Fire Talon."
"Talon, this is Dreamer, go ahead," the Jedi replied.
"Dreamer, this is going to take some explaining. Open main hanger bay."
"I would prefer not to until you explain."
"Open the hanger."
"Priire, what is this all about?" Zyta asked, worried. The Jedi seemed to be trying to protect them from their friend. It didnt make much sense.
"No," the Jedi said with finality.
"Sithspit. You didn't have to be hard about it. Hawkbat One Override Hijack."
He was afraid that this would happen. This mercenary had programmed the ship to respond only to her. The controls died in his hands, taking orders from their mistress only. "Lets go to the hanger," he suggested to the stunned girls. They followed him without a word.
Priire had her helmet off and resting in her hands as she watched the others
enter. She sat on one of her starfighters wings saying nothing.
His hand rested on his lightsaber as the Jedi spoke. "Explanation," he requested.
"Why didnt I tell you about my Talon? Because," she laughed quietly, "The Hawkbat with talent hides her Talon."
Coru slipped in silently, and moved over next to her friend.
"You see, I was really trying to protect you. I mentioned I was a mercenary? I wasnt your average run-of-the-mill merc. My alter ego-Hawkbat-was the closest thing to second-in-command that the Red Haze had. I led and they followed. I wanted to protect you from the tarnish that seems to follow me around. Knowing that I am what I am could get you in trouble in shady areas. Its just one of those things. Mercenaries arent exactly polite company, and Im not going to pretend they are. So..." she trailed off for a second, then gathered herself. "So, if you want me to leave, Coru can ferry you all around." The girl was quiet, her doe-like eyes downcast, fiddling with the straps on her helmet.
"If," Coru spoke up quietly, "you dont want Aster, then Im afraid I can't be here either."
Another seconded her quiet voice. "I havent known any of you very long, but Priire seems to be just the kind of Sailor we need. Shes good in a scrap, and willing to endanger herself for us. I mean, she did fight off those big ships with Corus help. And now, she could have very well kept her identity hidden longer and not subjected herself to this, except that she felt she needed to protect us." The Kashyyk Sailor finished talking softly, always loyal to her friends.
"A Sailor Senshi she is," Numa-chan reminded them. "A team we must be. Divide us this must not. Vote we shall."
Kyoko looked at the sad Sailor and spoke with authority. "I think we should just keep her as part of our team. Like Numa-chan said, A team we are."
The others agreed. Priire looked up with a smile. "Thank you." She leapt down from her perch and landed lightly. Her hand brushed across her eyes, wiping dust out of them, as she said, "Im sorry I cause so much trouble sometimes."
Coru broke the awkward silence with a question. "Whats this Sailor stuff?"
Excited, Priire launched into an energetic explanation of the Sailor Senshi. At the end, Coru asked the same question Priire herself had asked. "What is the transformation thing?"
With a grin, Priire showed her, holding up her necklace and transforming into Sailor Asteroid. Suddenly, the other girl got a funny look in her eye.
"Ippin?" the another redheaded Sailor asked, waving her hand in front of the girls face. "Are you in there?"
"The necklace..." she responded. "But it can't be..."
"Ippin?" Priire questioned.
"What?" the Jedi puzzled. "What necklace?"
"There is Yavin..." Ippin said thoughtfully to herself. "But...it's impossible..."
Priire shrugged. "Worth a shot. Hey Coru. Hold up you're necklace and try saying something like"
"Yavin Power Make Up," the two said together. Coru tried it and was disappointed when nothing happened.
"Oh drats. I could have sworn it would work." Priire said, pouting slightly. Ippin seemed to agree, and looked sad it hadn't. Suddenly her head snapped up with realization. Priire gave her a wierd look, but Ippin was already running towards the door that led to the other docking bay. She returned a few minutes later her lightsaber held high. She repeated the words and transformed into a pretty redheaded Sailor, fitted nicely with a suit of white and dark red. On her forehead was a picture of a diamond shaped Corusca Gem. "I figured it out, when I left the academy I didn't have a gem to use in the saber, to I took it out of the necklace! I replaced it later but I guess I need this particular one."
Numa-chan looked worried. "When just the five of them doing that, funny it was. Out of hand this is getting!"
Kyoko shook her head. "This is crazy. Every where we go its an attack by the Sailor Sith or a new Sailor Jedi!"
"Or both," Zyta chimed in.
"Or both," Kyoko agreed.
