Return to Light

Lamia sat in her bedroom located deep within Selket, contemplating the millions of ways she could torture Akira. There were several ways she'd tried in the past, but this time she wouldn't rest until he paid, severely. Her cold silver eyes turned to Annika's empty cage, the empty bed, the empty swing... and she gritted her jaw, scraping her tongue over the points of her two longest teeth.

"This is all your fault," she said to the man who calmly paced the floor. "Everything was going fine until you got greedy!"

"You were the one who underestimated the Jedi, you were also the one who suggested leaving Coruscant, and, might I add, you were the one who attacked me, allowing Kenobi to escape with the Bride."

"Shut up!" she screamed, removing one of her long, red, high-heeled shoes and throwing it at Akira, who caught it deftly. He pounced on her and held the sharp heel at her throat.

"Every day," he said, "every day I hate you more."

"Good," she whispered. Using her massive amount of strength, she shoved him to the floor and stood. She ran her hands over her red gown to smooth the folds, and then she cleared her throat. "Cinnamon!" her harsh voice hissed after her assistant. Upon being summoned, the red-headed Spanish girl sashayed into the room, carrying a large black case.

"Yes, Mistress?" she asked. The case in her hand loomed ominously at Akira, and he was puzzled at its significance. He gave Lamia a narrow-eyed glare; she simply smiled.

"Cinnamon," she said lovingly, "take Lilith and capture my dessert." With a limp wrested wave of Lamia's hand, Cinnamon turned and left the room, an evil grin played on her lips.

Akira cleared his throat. "Do you plan on telling me what you're up to?"

"No. I have no desire to tell you anything, let alone the plan that will give me what I want." She laughed softly to herself and walked over to the impressive fireplace to warm her cold skin. By tonight, she would have the Bride back in her possession, and this time no one would stop her from accomplishing her goal, not the Jedi, not the Senshi, and not Akira. The Bride belonged to her, it was her birthright; she was born to fulfill this destiny; to create Oame.

As a peasant child in Romania, Lamia had always been accused of being different - the townspeople considered her a daemon because she was half Gypsy. They would taunt her and throw sticks at her; little did they know that she would one day come to rule the Universe. Not just one galaxy, the entire Universe; for after Oame's birth, planets will surrender under mere threat of a Vampire invasion, and soon whole galaxies. And once Oame disposed of Sailor Yavin, time travel would give them the opportunity to conquer everything. Lamia giggled and poured herself a glass of slivovitz.

"Well, Ibara, if you refuse to tell me, I shall wait here patiently," Akira said, lying back on Lamia's grand bed.

"Do what you like," she casually stated.

Annika Nesicha was deep in the clutches of death. Akira's blood moved quickly to pry the life from her beating heart, and so far, it was succeeding. She had been unconscious ever since Neelgaimon, and the Jedi Healers were losing what little hope they had. Lys and Lysthea had come to see her on several occasions, but there was no change. Obi-Wan Kenobi tried everything he knew, but nothing seemed to shake her from the threshold of death's door. Even the Council was lost for answers. No one had seen a case like this, and they were completely in the dark. Doll had supplied all the information he could but was as mystified as everyone else. He stood guard over Annika's room in the infirmary loyally, protecting her from sights unseen.

"There has been no change," he told Obi-Wan as he came to sit by her side once more. Nodding his understanding, he moved to enter the room but was stopped by Doll.

"This is something she must do herself. If she is to recover, she has to fight the evil herself."

Obi-Wan frowned. "I know. I'm just worried that she will not be able to alone. She's never given herself credit for her strengths - how can she fight for something she doesn't know she has?"

The words made Doll smile. "You have to trust her. She's strong; she doesn't realise it yet, but she can beat this... if she wants to. It was her insecurities that brought her to this place, and she has to battle her way through them. She'll survive."

"He's right, you know?" came a voice from the opposite end of the white-walled hallway. Obi-Wan turned to see Josephine standing only a few paces behind him. Her eyes were swollen and puffy from crying, and she looked tired. "Muren would never give up; she would fight for those she loved, and she would fight for herself. Though her personality may have changed, it is my Queen who is lying in that bed."

"You're right," Obi-Wan whispered. "Annika has so much love inside her, so much kindness and purity... I think my job is to be here for her."

"Why don't you get some rest - I'll let you know if anything changes," Doll offered to the Jedi, who nodded and left to return to his room.

The walk back to his quarters was long, and it gave Obi-Wan time to think. Lately he had been questioning his role as a Jedi. Several times he had found that he neglected his responsibilities in favour of Annika. He couldn't do that. He was a Jedi; he made vows and took oaths, and this was his life. But without Annika, he didn't want to live. Sometimes, he'd imagined just flying away with her and never looking back; he'd forget his life as a Jedi and start over. However, he knew Annika would never let him forsake the path of the Jedi; she had the foresight to know he would regret the decision.

Envy. He was envious of those couples that were free to live and marry, without any strings attached. He was envious of the Force bond that Yuki shared with Ben. Occasionally, Obi-Wan found it was difficult to be in love with someone who was virtually Forceless. They couldn't communicate the way other senshi could; they couldn't experience the same connection. Ordinarily, he found it amusing to watch Annika's awe and enthusiasm when he would explain the Force to her; then there were other moments when he needed someone to relate... and she couldn't. Naturally, she would listen intently and smile and nod, really just allowing him to vent his frustrations. She knew him better than anyone else ever had, more so than Master Yoda, even more so than Qui-Gon. With one look, she knew his emotion; she always knew the right thing to say, the right thing to do. She always made him feel calm and at ease, and he liked the way he felt when he was with her. "Maybe she is Force-sensitive after all," he whispered to himself before relaxing on his bed and nodding off to sleep.

Back in Selket, the door to Lamia's bedroom door opened, and Cinnamon walked in, carrying the black box from earlier; this time she was placing a dart gun back inside it.

"Well?" Lamia spat.

"Mission accomplished." Cinnamon flashed a toothy grin. Lilith walked through the door holding the small, sleeping body of Ame Kenobi.

"Marvellous!" Lamia cried. "Get the holovid - we're going to be sending a message to someone."

The spectral fingers of death slowly made their way around Annika's heart and began to squeeze. In a short while, her life would cease and she would be a vampire, her soul lost to an expanding blackness that was a threat to everything good and decent in the universe. When she was drawing her final breath, she suddenly felt awash in a cold light. It enveloped her being and shook her violently. Images of her life paraded across her mind - images of her children, images of Obi-Wan, images of her friends. They were all beckoning her to come back, but she felt too far-gone. Annika seized in pain as time slowed down dramatically, making sure her final moments were agonising.

I can't believe I'm dying, she thought. It wasn't scary for her, but it was unbelievably sad. She could hear her heartbeat slowing... slowing... slowing... stopping.

"Buna Mama," said a tiny, fragile voice.

"Who's there?" Annika cried.

"Hello Mama, my name is Kurai Oame."

Annika could see the image of a small silver-haired girl with cold, dead silver eyes peering at her. The little girl was dressed in an elaborate black wedding gown. Her hair was lying loosely around her face, and she when she smiled she revealed two vampire teeth.

"Oame? You're not born yet."

"But, I am here... inside you. You live and I live. I am the physical embodiment of you, Mama. If you die, I will die... ce fel e teta e si fiul - like mother, like daughter."

"No... you can't die."

"It is a fact," she said in her child's voice, which was still sinister and morbid.

"I don't know how to get out of here, Oame. I want to live; I don't want to be a vampire! I've got to get out of this to help you!"

"Good, but your time is short. Even now the Jedi Healers are preparing to tell the senshi of your death. Your heart has stopped beating, you are in limbo, and you must fight your way back to your life."

"How?"

"Unde-i dragoste putina, lesne-i agasi pricina - faults are thick where love is thin. You claim to be the Senshi of Love. Prove it. Use the power of your Love to defeat the faults that led you to this place."

"I want to," Annika sobbed, "but I can't overcome death!"

"Iubirea ca moartea e de tare - love is as strong as death."

Several senshi stood over Annika's body, weeping. Doll had told them in a short while Annika would reawaken as a vampire and that she would be dangerous, but none of them believed it. Obi-Wan walked into the room and knelt before his fallen Princess. Lys and Lysthea had disappeared, along with Ame. They no longer existed, their lives having been erased by Annika's gloomy transformation into a vampire.

Suddenly a bright flash of light emitted from Annika's heart, and it slowly cascaded down her body until it covered her completely. The light grew and pulsated for a few more moments before dying back and vanishing. Annika pulled in a sharp intake of air and sat up quickly. She blinked and looked around the room to see seven Sailor Senshi all ready to attack her.

"Ack!" she screamed before ducking under the bed. "What are you doing?" she yelled.

They all stood in disbelief. Annika was under the bed with her hands covering her head.

"I thought she was supposed to be dangerous," Sailor Hoth said. "She seems more like the old Annika."

"Hey! What do you mean, 'old Annika'?" the girl yelled. "I am not old! I'm eternally twenty-three!"

Obi-Wan fell to his hands and knees and looked at her. "Annika?"

"What? Obi-Wan?" She raised her eyes to meet his, and upon seeing his smiling face, she jumped into his arms and smothered him with kisses. He pulled her back and ran his thumb over her teeth, and then smiled when he realised they were back to normal.

"You're not a vampire?" he asked.

Annika shook her head. "No." Her eyes filled with tears. "It was so hard to fight, Obi-Wan! I had to do it all by myself! But guess what? I did it! But I was so scared!" She flung her arms around his neck and hugged tightly.

Obi-Wan helped her to her feet. She was so radiant that she almost glowed. He gripped her hand as the Healers came over to inspect her. They did a complete scan of her and found her to be very much alive; she was in excellent health, as was her unborn child. Everyone sighed in relief and shook their heads.

"This has been the strangest day," Sailor Centrali laughed.

"What else can you expect from Annika? She's never simple," Sailor Asteroid smiled.

Annika and Obi-Wan walked out of the infirmary to see a worried Lys and Lysthea, who had both been crying; they enthusiastically hugged their future mother.

"Where's Ame?" Annika asked. Lys and Lysthea looked at each other and shrugged.

"I haven't seen her," Lys said, getting worried all over again. She knew that Ame wasn't fond of Annika, but it wasn't like her to disappear. Lysthea ran to see if Ame was in her room, and when she came back with a frown on her face, everyone was worried.

After a thorough search of the Room Behind the Waterfall and the Jedi Temple; there was still no trace of her. Xarae could tell she was alive somewhere, but she couldn't get an exact location - her presence was being obscured by darkness. Annika, Obi-Wan, Priire, Yuki, Xarae, Ciel, and Doll were sitting in the library when Boshi entered, carrying a small package.

"It's addressed to you, Annika," she said quietly. The box was black with a silver ribbon delicately wrapped around it. A small card lay tucked under the bow. Annika withdrew it and read the message written in blood-red ink aloud.

"To my dearest Bride, with all my love, Lamia." She removed the top of the box, not knowing what to expect. Her hands shook and her heart beat fast, but she was relieved when she saw the contents of the box revealed only a small, shiny holodisc.

"Should we see what she wants?" Priire asked, taking the disc from Annika's hand and placing it in the projector.

The seductive image of Lamia waved and flickered as everyone sat riveted to the scene. Lamia smiled and waved her long fingers at whoever was watching.

"Hello! I won't bore you with pleasantries, because quite frankly, I have nothing to be pleasant about. You've got something I want, and I've got something you want. I suggest an even trade." Annika's eyes grew in horror as she saw Lamia hold up Ame by her hair. The small girl wriggled and squirmed under Lamia's powerful grip; she couldn't say anything because a piece of black silk had been used to gag her mouth.

Lamia continued. "You see? I assume you want this back, so here's what we are going to do. You will deliver the Bride to Selket's front doors in an hour, or I will have dessert tonight. And please, don't make the mistake of thinking I have a heart or a conscious, because I will kill her. I'll record her very slow and painful death on a holodisc, then send it to you, along with her bloodless, mangled corpse as evidence, if Annika is not where she should be when I say she should be. You have one hour, and your time starts... now. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock..." The wavering image snapped off, and Annika ran to the door but was stopped by Doll.

"Get off of me! I have to go! I can't let her hurt Ame!"

"Maybe she's bluffing!" Ciel said, but Doll shook his head.

"No. She'll do it," he said.

Obi-Wan stood up and walked over to Annika. "Doll, escort Annika to her room - make sure she doesn't leave."

"Obi-Wan, you can't do this! You can't lock me up - I have to go!" The Jedi shook his head and stood aside as Doll forcefully dragged her out of the room.

"What are we going to do now?" Ciel asked.

"I have no idea," Obi-Wan sighed.