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“You did what?”
Priire smiled and very carefully repeated what she’d said earlier. “I lost the Black Fire Clone in a sabacc game.”
“You lost a sabacc game?” Annika yelled.
“You lost the Clone?” Ippin yelled.
“What were you thinking?” they yelled together.
Slapping her hands over her ears, Priire tried to block some of the noise. “Look, there was a girl who wanted a ship, so I helped her out a bit! It’s not that big of a deal!”
Ippin and Annika both screeched some more. “I had a picture of Obi-Wan in there! Hidden!” Annika wailed.
“I know, I found it. Nice bod.” Priire winked.
Annika’s eyes went wide. “Why...!”
Ippin helped Annika glare at Priire while the blonde girl tried to sneak out of the room. Before she was all the way gone, Priire stuck her head back in. “Oh, I’m going shopping.”
Both of the other senshi were too annoyed to register what Priire had said.
~*~*~*~*~
“Come on, Koumi! It’ll be fun!” Priire said with a smile.
I don’t want to go, Koumi said, crossing her arms.
Priire made Baby Ewok Eyes© at her. “Pweeeeese, Koumi-chan? Pweeese?”
Koumi sighed. Okay. Where are we going, anyway?
“Shopping!” Priire exclaimed. She shouldered her bag and started to walk out, dragging Koumi with her.
You hate shopping! Koumi said. Why on earth are we going shopping?Priire offered up an impish grin. “There’s just some... stuff... I need. We should be back here in less than a week.”
A week!
The blonde pilot laughed at Koumi’s expression. “You’ll love it,” she promised.
~*~*~*~*~
Koumi was not loving it. So far they’d traveled for two days in the Black Fire Talon, been deposited on a backwater little planet that no one in their right minds would go to, and finally Priire had been looking at ships all day. This was not her dream vacation.
Unhappily, Koumi started roaming the streets... all right, in all honesty, there was only one street to roam in the town. And it had one cantina, one general store, one adult bookstore, and one collectibles shop. Boooring.
“Watch where you’re going, sithspawn girl!”
Turning her dark blue eyes on the man who’d run into her, Koumi frowned. She hadn’t bumped into him. The dark-haired girl started to walk away.
The man grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “I said,” he growled, “watch where you’re going. Or you might get hurt.” He made like he was going to hit Koumi.
Koumi shrugged. When she was younger, she'd picked fights all of the time. And, coincidentally, she’d gotten very good at winning them. Before the man could land his punch, Koumi had twisted away from his and jabbed him sharply in the gut. He doubled over but straightened as quickly as he could. Koumi was standing there, staring at him. She’d tried not to start quite so many fights now that she was a senshi... but he’d asked for it.
The man rushed at her, but Koumi easily sidestepped his charge. She had her fingers laced together and slammed them down on his back. She’d aimed it so that he was unconscious, not paralyzed.
She looked up from where the man was to see Priire — with a huge grin on her face — apparently raking in winnings. “I told you Koumi could take him!” she said happily.
Koumi walked over. Did you set that up? If so...
“Nope. I just took advantage of the situation. You want half?”
The black-haired girl laughed and nodded. She didn’t notice the Jedi Knight walking up behind her.
“That was uncalled for.”
Priire turned to look at the Jedi Knight. “And you are...?”
“Ka’rebb,” he responded. “You should not have been fighting.”
The blonde pilot started separating out the winnings into two piles. “Listen, Jedi, you weren’t here and you don’t know what happened. So, if you wouldn’t mind keeping your nose out of it?”
“You shouldn’t talk to Jedi like that,” a brown-haired boy said, grinning. “It’s bad news, Priire.”
“Kirran?”
The Jedi padawan turned his head sharply. “Koumi?” he gasped. “I...”
Without a word, Koumi turned and walked away.
~*~*~*~*~
“You blew that one,” Priire sighed.
Kirran and Ka’rebb were sitting with Priire in the cantina having a drink.
“I know,” Kirran said. He ran his fingers through his brown hair. “I didn’t write the letters.”
Priire shrugged. “That’s not the point. The point is that she thinks you did. And you’ve got to make it up to her. Any ideas?”
“Do something romantic,” Ka’rebb suggested helpfully. “Take her out to eat, talk to her.”
“She won’t talk back,” he complained.
A grin crossed Priire’s face. “She’s gotten better... really. Koumi’ll talk a lot. To most people.”
Kirran looked unhappy. “I miss her.”
Priire shrugged to disguise the light that had leapt into her eyes. “I’m sure it’ll all work out,” she comforted him.
~*~*~*~*~
“You call
The man smiled. “I knew you’d like it!”
Priire laughed. “She is a beaut.”
The ship in question was a moderate-sized shuttle. Its streamlined shape was fitted between two much larger and newer ships.
As Priire jumped onto one of the stubby wings, she gauged the size of the interior. There was a hatch on the wing that Priire ran her fingers over. It was flush to the hull, and she’d be able to hide it easily with a good paint job. “Oh, I think I’m in love.”
The man laughed.
“How much?” was Priire’s next question. She ran her eyes and her fingers over more of the hull before going back inside.
“True love... she is hard to buy, no?” the man asked.
“Don’t play these games with me,” Priire sighed. “If you want a fortune, just tell me!”
The man laughed and named a sum. Priire bartered with him for a few minutes before settling on what she considered a good price.
“Perfect,” the one-time mercenary grinned.
~*~*~*~*~
“Black Fire Tuxedo. Uh... no. Black Fire Freedom. Ugh. Diffinently not. Black Fire Lover<./i>. Well... maybe. But maybe not. Black Fire Asteroid!”
Priire sighed. She had her feet propped up on the control panel of her new ship and was trying her best to think of a name. It was harder than it had ever been. With this ship she wanted to pay homage to everything that was close to her... Kousotsu, Coru, the Sailor Jedi, the stars, the legends... she sighed again.
“Arg,” Priire growled at the ship. “Name yourself!”
It didn’t, of course. The blonde shook her head and started pacing around the ship. One of the rooms had shelves upon shelves lined up along all the walls, save for the viewpoint that took up most of the fourth wall. “Coru is going to love this!” Priire laughed, imagining her twin filling the shelves with anime, manga, and hardcopy books. Priire ran her gloved fingers over one of the shelves. “Huh?”
One part of the shelf was different from the other parts. “Different” was the only way she could thing to describe it. Being able to find hidden places — safes, trapdoors, and the like — had served her very well as the Hawkbat. Now, it was serving her curiosity.
Priire took her gloves off and felt for a latch, catch, indentation, anything that would give a clue as to the mechanism that activated the door. She took the scanner that was in her pocket and ran it over the area. “Ahhh...” the girl said as she depressed the upper right-hand corner of the area. With a groan of under-appreciated servos, the area lifted away from the base of the shelf. Priire giggled. The area was big enough for someone to slide into…she grinned and slid, feet first, into the opening.
~*~*~*~*~
“Spice? It’s Kirran. I know you probably won’t answer, but I just wanted to talk. Call me back?”
Beep.
“Yeah, I know, it’s me again. I just wanted to see if you’d answer.”
Beep.
“I bet you’re getting tired of me calling... but I... I just wanted to talk to you, Spice.”
Beep.
“Actually... I wanted to tell you something. I... I miss you.”
Beep.
"That’s not really what I meant. Umm...”
Beep.
“Spice... I love you.”
Koumi glared at the machine with tears in her eyes. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Kirran anymore... she just didn’t know if she could trust him. And trust was the most important thing to Koumi.
“You never know what you have until you lose it,” Priire had told Koumi before leaving that morning. Koumi believed her now.
The girl rewound the messages to listen to them again. Before she could start the tape, someone in all black burst into the room. The mask and cape that the person wore disguised the being’s gender and face. Koumi assumed it was a man as she was scooped up and thrown over the man’s shoulder. She tried to use the Force to stop him, but he must have been using a yalsamari, because she couldn’t feel anything. Especially after he shot her with some kind of tranquilizer and she passed out.
~*~*~*~*~
“Spice? Is... is that you?”
There was a grumble from the black haired girl. Where are we? she asked.
Kirran shrugged. “I don’t know! I was just sitting alone in our room and this being dressed in all black came in and abducted me! I found myself in this room.”
I can’t feel anything outside this room! Koumi exclaimed. This is weird...
“Welcome to the first flight of the Black Fire Legendmaker. Please make yourself comfortable. The pilot cannot be bribed. Enjoy your meal and in-flight dinner!”
“SEJIOUTAI PRIIRE!” Koumi yelled. She glared at the ceiling then looked at Kirran. I’m not eating. I want OUT!
Kirran frowned. “I’m sorry you hate me so much.”
I don’t hate you...
Koumi sighed. It’s just those... letters...“I didn’t write them!”
Koumi started to think/say something else when a hidden door slid open. “Please proceed through the door,” Priire’s voice came.
I’m not going, Koumi frowned.
They could hear the smile in Priire’s voice. “Then I’m going to vent the atmosphere!”
Kirran frowned. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Sure I would!”
A panel on the wall began to slowly slide open. In the small crack they could see the stars outside of the ship. Things began to fly towards the opening panel.
“We give, Priire, we’re eating!”
Priire laughed, and they could hear her fiddling with something. “Oops.”
Unfortunately, it was a new ship. And Priire didn’t know all the ins and outs of it yet. When she’d meant to close the panel she’d opened it. All of the hair on the heads of both Kirran and Koumi was standing straight up, and their eyes were wider than plates.
“Sorry about that!” Priire apologized as she put a forcefield up around the open hole in the ship.
After they regained their very stressed-out senses, Kirran asked Priire a question. “So. What all did you find back here?”
There was a long pause before Priire answered. It sounded like she had her mouth full. “I found a few couches, a table, a still, a dead body, and a book called Legendmaker.”
“A dead body?” Kirran stuttered. “You found a dead body back here?”
Koumi frowned at him. Be serious. Of course she didn’t. Priire’s just an IDIOT.
“Am not.” They could hear Priire frowning. “But anyway, I did find a body back there. It’s ok, I knew the guy. He was a real jerk.”
Exchanging a stunned look with Koumi, Kirran spoke. “And this is a reason to not report his death?”
Priire’s voice hardened. “Let me put ‘jerk’ in perspective for you. This man made... oh, let’s say the Hawkbat... the Hawkbat look like a schoolground bully.”
A shudder ran down Koumi’s back. For Priire — who was, in fact the Hawkbat — to say something like that, maybe the man did need to die. She smiled as Kirran changed the subject. “What was the book about?”
“It started out with this little girl on a far-away planet who kept having nightmares. She got so scared one night that she looked up at the stars and wished for a friend to take the scared feelings away. The star that she wished on grew brighter and brighter after she’d finally fallen asleep. Soon, the star was so big and bright — because her wish was so pure — that the other stars became jealous. They made the brightest star fall to the planet where it wouldn’t compete with them any more.
“When the star found that it couldn’t go back to the heavens, it went to the little girl. She was so happy that her wish had come true that she told the star it could live with her forever.
“The little girl and the star lived together for a long time. The star told her stories of all of the ships that he had seen and the things that roamed the heavens. As the girl grew older, she began to write down the stories that the star told her. The girl became famous for all of the stories that she had written down and sold.
“One day the star told her that he had to leave. He told her that he had to go back to the stars where he belonged and help steer the ships on their courses. She was very sad and cried for a long time. The star leaned over and touched her forehead then disappeared.” They could hear Priire grinning. “From that moment on, the girl was known as Legendmaker, with the power of the stars.”
Even Koumi grinned. That’s such a Priire story.
“Uh oh,” Priire exclaimed a moment later. “I’m getting a page from Ka’rebb. Kirran, we’ve got to turn around. Oh no, never mind.”
“Never mind? Never mind why?”
“Ummm...” Priire stalled. “Ummm... because he was calling to warn me that some pirates had just lifted off from the spaceport and were looking for a fight?”
Banging his head against the wall of the ship, Kirran asked “And...?”
“I just spotted them. Heading our way.”
I want out! Koumi shouted at the two of them. This is not fun... She gasped as the unsecured table started sliding toward her. Kirran stopped it with the Force.
“Priire!” he yelled. “Koumi’s going to get hurt!”
He sounded so genuinely worried that Koumi took a second look at him. Maybe... you never know what you have until... The thought trailed off in Koumi’s head.
The ship inverted itself, and Kirran caught Koumi as she fell. “Priire!” he yelled helplessly.
Koumi raised an eyebrow and shrugged. Why not?
“Why not what?” Kirran didn’t have to wait long for the answer. Koumi grabbed his head and pressed her lips to his.
They didn’t even notice as the Black Fire Legendmaker skimmed through a cloud of debris to touch down at the spaceport.
~*~*~*~*~
“Koumi, Kirran,” Priire said. She smiled as the two turned their heads. “The little secret hiding place? That’s our secret.”
Kirran grinned. “Oh?”
Matching his smile with one that was a little more threatening, Priire answered, “Oh. Yes.”
Koumi grabbed Kirran’s arm and suggested they leave before Priire got her blaster out.
~*~*~*~*~
“You did what?”
Priire smiled and very carefully repeated what she’d said earlier. “I blew up a pirate cruiser, bought a new ship, and found a pair of pants that I really like.”
“You blew up a ship?” Annika yelled.
“You bought clothes?” Ippin yelled.
Priire and Koumi just laughed.
About the Senshi in this story:
Priire/Sailor Asteroid
Annika/Sailor Bakura
Ippin/Sailor Yavin
Koumi/Sailor Kessel
Kirran
