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"Hey, Priire!" Shuoro had just entered the Room Behind the Waterfall. Priire was the only one occupying the room at the time, so Shuoro decided to start a conversation. "So... how are you?" the silver-eyed girl asked.
"Bored... extremely bored," replied the blonde.
"Where is everyone?" asked Shuoro.
"I'm not sure; I think they went shopping," came the reply. There were a few minutes of silence, then Priire spoke up. "Hey, Shuoro... can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What's on your mind?"
"Well, I was kind of wondering about why you came here from the future, what made you come to fight with us, why you seem like the 'lone wolf.' It's not too personal or anything, is it?"
There was another moment of silence. "Umm... well, I don't really like talking about it, but it's just us, and I can trust you with my secret, right?"
Priire replied enthusiastically with a "Rightey-o! I swear I'll never tell, unless it's okay with you first."
"Okay, then, here goes nothing..."
"In the future where I came from, the war between the Rebellion and the Empire is still going on. Even so, Bespin was a peaceful place. We never really had to worry about being attacked. Yeah, there were Storm Troopers around sometimes, but they never caused any trouble. One day, I was walking around the palace gardens with my best friend, Ananda, and my boyfriend, Travis. It was a warm, sunny day, with a light breeze. As we were walking, a dark portal appeared in the sky, not too far off. We broke into a run to see what was going on. By the time we got there, something had started to come through the portal. It was a Sith. Following the Sith out of the portal was a small group of Sailor Sith, maybe two or three of them. We tried to hide before they could spot us, but it was too late. They had seen us, but I don't think they knew there were three of us. We ducked behind a cluster of bushes and tried to keep quiet, but they were already headed towards our location. Ananda and Travis turned around to look at me, and it broke my heart. They had tears forming in their eyes, and they reached around and hugged me. Then, they shoved me down into a small hole that had a little crevice in the side - the Sith couldn't see me there. Before they were found, Travis and Ananda forced a sad smile and told me that they were doing what they were to save me, so I could have a future and one day become the Queen. When they were found and dragged from the bushes, not once did they struggle. They were beaten as I watched in safety, and they were whipped and cut with daggers. I couldn't stand it anymore. I jumped up and screamed in grief from watching two of the people I loved the most suffer for me. One of the Sailor Sith turned to look at me, and gave me the most horrid, disgusting, evil grin that I will ever see. Then she took out her double-bladed weapon of death and killed them both."
Tears were streaming down Shuoro's face by that point in the story. Some were forming in Priire's vivid green eyes as she leaned over to comfort the other girl. "You don't have to finish if you don't want to," said Priire.
"No, it's okay, I can finish it," Shuoro replied with a watery smile.
"I couldn't believe what had just happened. I felt like a million blades had shredded my heart. I stared at the two limp, torn, battered and bruised lifeless bodies that had, only a few minutes ago, been lively, radiant figures that I adored so much. For some strange reason, I stopped crying and went into a rage. I screamed at the Sith to bring my friend and lover back to life. There was a twinkle in the murderer's eye, and another nauseating grin. 'How much are their lives worth to you?' came the question.
" '...Their lives mean everything, even if it's my own!'
" 'Is that so? Well, it is possible to bring them back, but you shall pay the price.'
"I replied, 'And what price is that?' The twisted mind of the Sailor Sith told me that for Travis and Ananda to be brought back, I must become a one of their own. I was surprised that it could be done as easy as that. I had no desire to become one of them, but if it would bring back the ones that I cared for, I would do it. I agreed to become a Sailor Sith, but only after Travis and Ananda were alive again. My plan was to have them brought back, then run for it. The leader must have read my mind, because she said, 'Okay, we will do it your way, but they will have no memories of you, or what happened, and they will leave to go on with their happy little lives.' That made me sad. They wouldn't remember me, or anything we had shared. But I still agreed to it.
"The two bodies were surrounded by mist, then there was an intense flash of light. The mist cleared away, and I could see Travis and Ananda standing there, as if nothing had happened. There was a confused look on their faces, like they were lost. They turned to look at me, then at the Sith. They seemed puzzled; then they turned and ran across the gardens to the gate into the city, and they disappeared. I turned around to face the Sith; the leader had an evil, mocking twinkle in her eye. 'Are you ready to join us?' she asked.
" 'No, but I guess I have to do it anyway,' I replied. She held up a strange glowing orb in front of her. The glow was blood red in the center and fizzed into black. The glow started to pulsate - then a beam of dark light shot out at me. When it hit me, it was like being slammed through a brick wall. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I just stood there while they changed me. After what seemed to be about ten minutes, I started to have feeling in my limbs again. They were tingling like crazy. I was a little bit dizzy for a couple of seconds. A brooch was lying on the ground in front of me. It had the symbol of the Empire on it. Around the edges were several small blades. The top of it was inlaid with gold, silver, and many bloodstones of different sizes. There was a larger bloodstone in the center; it let off a dark energy. 'Pick it up,' said the lead Sailor Sith. 'Shout "Sith Acid Power, Make-Up!" It will allow you to become Sailor Sith Acidspray, our newest member.'
"I had no choice. I picked up the brooch, and held it out in front of me. I shouted the phrase, and my body was filled with the dark energy of the transformation.
"I know that my life has been drastically changed. I have taken the black path of the Dark Side, but I had to do it to bring life back to those that I loved. A mirror appeared in front of me. I could see how exactly I had changed. My eyes had turned from a glowing silver to a burning, bloody red. Running through my hair were bright red streaks. That was not the only change in my hair. During the transformation, my hair had changed from my princess odango style to a ponytail. It was tied up in a rubber band that had two silver balls at the ends. I was wearing a sailor fuku. My choker, bows, and shoes were red. My sailor flap was black, and the stripe was red. My glove bands were red on the two outer ribs, and the middle ones were black. My brooch had changed to a heart shape and had become solid black. There was a gold star in the center of my choker, and a silver gem in my tiara. I had transparent gold sleeves and black boots with silver laces. It was an amazing thing to see, but I still frowned at my reflection because I knew it had become a thing of evil."
"Wait a sec... you got streaks when you became a Sailor Sith. So... why do you still have them?"
"From then on, I would slowly become a being of almost pure darkness. I would go on pillages with the other Sailor Sith and watch countless innocent people die before me. Sadly, after a while, I wouldn't feel anything for those people. I felt nothing for the dead or for their battered families. The pain that I felt took control of me. I know I did many unforgivable deeds, but at that time I didn't care. I never cared until one day when I went back to the place that changed my life. It was five years after I had become a Sailor Sith. There wasn't anything planned at the time, so I took a little time away from the other girls and went back to the Bespin palace gardens. I sat there alone for a while, thinking about what had happened over the years. I got up and walked out into the city. I went around through the markets, and found myself in a park that Travis, Ananda, and I used to have picnics in. I was somewhere in the center of the park, and sat down on a bench. I looked around at the people that were there, playing, laughing, people with happiness in their lives. Something caught my eye. A flash of purple hair. I knew only one person with that color hair. I stood up to see who it was. It was Ananda. I followed her from a small distance away. She stopped, like she was waiting for someone, so I also stopped and knelt behind a bush. A moment later, Travis appeared. Surprisingly, I could feel tears rushing to my eyes. I don't know what came over me. I could feel an enormous wave of sadness coming over me. I felt a little bit of my stone heart began to soften. I wanted to rush out and hug them, to hold them, to be with them for just a single moment. But I couldn't. They wouldn't know me, since their memories were erased when they were brought back to life. At least I knew they were happy.
"I left Bespin immediately after that. I left the galaxy and came to Earth. I wanted to be away from the Sailor Sith and everything that reminded me of my life on the Dark Side. After several years on Earth, I had almost forgotten about everything that waited for me on the other side of the universe. I had made many new friends and had a quiet, peaceful life going. One summer night, though, my life would change again. I had a dream. It almost seemed real. There was something familiar about the dream. In the dream, I was walking in a garden. There was a big fountain in the middle area. I walked to the fountain. When I reached it, there was a girl sitting on a stone bench. She almost looked like me. Her hair was black and in a ponytail, and also had red streaks. Her eyes were silver, not red - my eyes hadn't changed back from being a Sailor Sith. The girl was wearing a sailor fuku. Her skirt, sailor flap, and glove bands were silver. The bows, bootlaces, and sailor flap stripes were golden. The choker was red. The girl's brooch, hair-ties, and tiara gem were bright red bloodstones, and her earrings were a reddish-pink. Somehow, I thought I knew the mysterious girl..."
" 'Umm... hi?' I said to the girl.
"' Hello...' came the reply.
" 'Have we met before?' I asked her.
" 'No, but I seem familiar to you... because I am you. You once were the kindhearted princess of Bespin. Something happened to turn your warm heart to stone. The time has come to turn you again to the side of good, but now you have a mission. You, as a princess, have yet another duty - the duty as a Sailor Soldier. Your mission is to travel to the distant past, where you have not even been born. You will have to find your fellow soldiers and aid them in destroying the evils of the universe. You, as a Sailor Soldier, will stand for light, because of the light your heart will be filled with. You will also stand for battle, because of the battles that you have been through, inside and out, and the battles to come. You will have to learn to trust people again. Your mission will be a difficult one. You may not survive. If, hopefully, you successfully complete your mission, you will be returned to that one fateful day that changed your life. The only difference is, you will never have to go through the pain, and you won't remember anything that has happened. You will wake up, and it will be as though it was all a bad dream. And then you will shake it off and forget about it...'
"The girl walked away and vanished. Then I woke up. Something seemed... different. I was still in my room, but something definitely seemed different. I got up and walked over to my mirror, and just about fell over. I was sixteen again. Yeah, it's only five years younger than I had been, but still! Anyway, I went over to the window. I opened the curtain and almost fell over again. I had been teleported back to the beginning of the twenty-first century, in Miami, Florida. I went back to my bed to go back to sleep. As I was lying back down, I put my arms under my pillow - that's just how I sleep - and my hand struck something hard. I sat up and reached under the pillow. When I brought my hand back out, my fingers were clenched around a round brooch. It was black, with a silver Rebellion symbol spread over the bottom half. On the top half was a golden star, with two red crescents on either side. There were several bloodstones inlaid in the Rebel symbol and four slightly bigger ones at four points around the edge of the brooch. Connecting the four stones were four golden waves. I held it up close to my face so I could get a better look at it. As I was examining the brooch, I could hear the voice of my 'other self' calling out to me. 'Shining Bespin Force Power, Make-Up!' was what the voice said, giving me my transformation phrase. I was alone, so I tried it out.
"I spoke the magic words, and the transformation began. The first thing that happened was that I could feel a heavy veil being lifted from my soul. It was cool. My body was tingling from the warm light that radiated through it. I was floating in a silvery-gold dream. When the transformation ended, I felt as if I had been given another chance at life. I strode over the mirror once again, to see what the 'good' me looked like. My eyes had gone back to silver. I thought it was odd at the time, but my hair was still in a ponytail, and still with red streaks; but my hairties had changed to red. My boots, skirt, glove bands, and sailor flap had turned to silver. The bows, choker, bootlaces, and flap stripe were gold. My brooch, tiara gem, earrings, choker star, and skirt trim were red. It was so... incredibly hoth!"
The two girls sat in silence again with big goofy smiles plastered to their faces. They broke out laughing, so much that they fell on the floor and started crying. When the laughter died down, Priire spoke through exaggerated gasps.
"Wow... why were we laughing?"
"You know what? I don't know!"
They went into another, but calmer, laughing fit. Shuoro spoke this time.
"I think maybe we were laughing because even though there's a serious war going on, it feels good to know that what we're doing will help the future come out good... and the fact that I couldn't find any words made me smile, which made you smile, which made us both smile even more until we exploded!"
"Sounds good to me!" said Priire. "So, do you feel like you can trust people now?"
"Yeah, actually, I do! It's nice to know that there are people that I can trust to keep my secrets secret, and they will be there when I need them. It's been a long time since I could put that level of trust and friendship in anyone. I'm glad that I met up with you and the others - you're all like my great big family now."
"Really? And we all feel the same about you!" came a voice from the doorway. Kumoko had entered the doorway during the last sentence and overheard. "Don't worry, I won't let the cat out of the bag. I'll leave that for you to do, when you're ready. They're all coming back, so... yeah. Whatever."
Kumoko went back out to sit by the waterfall. Shuoro and Priire smiled at each other, then went out to welcome everyone back.
About the Senshi in this story:
Priire/Sailor Asteroid
Shuoro/Sailor Chibi Bespin
Kumoko/Sailor Bespin
