Sonatina in Three Movements

Bakenokawa looked around the room she was housed in. She remembered that it was in a complex called the “Jedi Temple” on Coruscant. Faint music that sounded quick and lively to her ears wafted to her room on a slight breeze.

Jedi... the memories that came to her were not especially pleasant. The blonde could remember hating the Jedi when night fell and wanting to destroy everything they stood for. She shuddered. Something with her kind and gentle nature had gone terribly wrong. The Jedi healers were only now beginning to understand all that had happened to her. Or all that could.

When the night fell on the planet that Bakeru was on — or chronologically, if she was in space — a terrible change came over the girl. Instead of being a gentle blonde, she was a raven-haired killer. It was almost like she was some kind of instrument that an evil being would first play gently, then with such harshness that it shook her very soul.

Her musings were halted by a sharp sound. “What?” Before she could say anything else, three red-suited women broke into the room, and two of them grabbed her arms. The third lifted a comlink to her lips. “We have her.” The transmission was too short to trace, and the four were gone in a second.

Falling out of the bolthole onto her hands and knees, Bakeru gasped for air. The place she was in seemed to be writhe with flames. Everywhere she looked there was an ugly dark fire burning. They gave off very little light, only an oppressive heat and thick smoke that hovered near the ceiling. “Where is this awful place?” the girl asked.

“Where angels fear to tread,” Ariel smiled with malice. “You’ve been here before.”

“Where angels fear to...? Oh no!” Bakeru backed away, still on her hands and knees. “Not again! Let me go!” Her voice was frantic as she spoke.

The Sith had no respect for her terror. Instead, they seemed to relish it. Geri and Emi grabbed the fleeing girl’s arms and hauled her upright so Ariel was face to face with her victim. The Alpha Sith held out a very large needle and waved it around a bit before thrusting it in Bakeru’s arm. “Don’t worry. This will hurt horribly.”

Bakeru started screaming.

There was raspy breathing coming from somewhere. It took Bakenokawa a few moments to realize that she was the source of the unhealthy sound. She tried to wipe sweat out of her eyes, but her arm wouldn’t move. When her eyes would open all the way and she could see out of them, she realized that was because her arm was half way across the room.

The fact didn’t really surprise her. The Jedi healers told her there was something odd about her body; that it was because she was part machine wasn’t all that far out of the reach of her imagination. Her dreams made more sense now as well. If she were part droid, shocks flowing through her body would be normal. What she couldn’t understand was why none of the Jedi had picked up on it.

Ariel walked in quickly carrying a notepad. “They didn’t pick up on it because you’re the perfect blend of technology. Machine, human, and a little bit of Sith. I’m still working on that last part.”

“Stop it,” Bakeru begged. “I don’t want to be your servant!”

“You’re not my servant,” Ariel explained. “Just my... hobby. Before I became the Sith I am today, one of the things I liked to do in my spare time was torture small animals. Now, I’ve moved a step up.” The woman’s eyes flashed evilly. “Torturing humans.” A sigh escaped her mouth. “Only part time, however. Tell me if this hurts.”

Instead of replying with a spoken word, Bakeru screamed.

“Wonderful!”

The blonde shook her head. “That,” she gasped, “would not have been my word for it.” The girl looked over at her left arm unhappily. If she had it, maybe she could escape. Belatedly checking, Bakeru found she had both her legs and her right arm attached. Jerking the restraints with unnatural power, she freed herself. “Let me put of her,” she quietly threatened Ariel. The Sith only smiled.

Bakeru had no intentions of staying there any longer. She raised her hand and used the Force to hurl a set of beakers at Ariel. Fire came to the yellow-red eyes of the evil being just as black fire came to her fingertips. “Black Fire Engulf!” Ariel laughed.

Flames that she couldn’t put out slowly engulfed Bakeru’s body. She screamed as they seemed to rip her soul from her body and incinerate it. “No!”

“My theory,” Ariel said coolly, “is that when you are mostly mechanical none of your goodness will remain. Then you will be a servant of the Dark Side. And loyal to your master.” She shrugged as the other girl fell to the floor in pain. “It’s only a theory as yet...”

Silence fell over the room as Ariel messed with her mechanical and animal toys. There were so many things she wished she could do, but so little time to do them. Such as life.

Bakeru watched her. “Why are you doing this to me?” She wanted to keep talking and beg the evil Sailor to stop, but she didn’t.

“Because my mistress commanded me a long time ago to create her the perfect servant to the Dark Side. Someone we could use to destroy the Sailor Jedi. That’s you, angel wings.” Ariel sounded distracted.

“What are you doing?”

Ariel looked up at her in frustration. “Be quiet. The program won’t work if you keep distracting me. Do you want to suddenly explode? It would be raining bits of you for at least a week.” The Sith smirked. “That would be nice to encode into the program... you know... just in case...”

Bakeru didn’t look thrilled. “No, that’s okay.” She turned back to her quiet musings and wondered what she’d done to deserve such pain. The anguish in her soul threatened to consume her. Before coming to this place the first time, Bakenokawa couldn’t remember anything. Sometimes she wondered what she’d been. Even the Jedi could penetrate the dark cloud over her earlier memories. And, truth be told, there was little else they could do put try and help her past the darkness. Before the Sith had recaptured her, the girl had almost worked past it all and almost never transformed into her evil alter ego. She was sure that this would negate all the progress.

Silence again reigned in the room. Bakeru wanted to summon the Force, to call for help, but she had no idea if such a course was even feasible. It probably wasn’t. Not with a Sith standing guard over her like she was a prized pet. Worse than a pet — an experiment.

When she was good and travailing with the Sailor Jedi, Bakeru had learned that they were the kindest of people and she had no desire to hurt them any more. She knew that she’d hurt them by masquerading as a friend. That was the curse of her name. Her full name — Bakenokawa — meant masking one’s true character, while her nickname — Bakeru — meant to appear in disguise. She looked down at her machine-ridden body and sighed. Her true everything was masked. The girl wasn’t even sure if the truth was changing. Maybe instead of being good she was turning bad. Instead of being human she was turning into a machine. Instead of being herself, she was turning into Sailor Death Star.

Ariel hadn’t finished the job she’d started. When the Sith sent Sailor Death Star out to ingratiate herself with the Sailor Jedi, Death Star’s body was only partially taken over by the machines that now consumed her. That was her mistake. Now, Ariel would complete her duty and create the perfect instrument of the Dark Side. She’d call her Hitan. That’s what Ariel’s creation would be to the Sailor Jedi — anguish!

“Ah, yes.” Ariel’s eyes lit up. “The final touch.”

Bakeru opened her eyes slowly to see what Ariel held in her hands. It was a large black crystal shaped like a sphere.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ariel asked, her voice brimming over with emotion.

The other girl didn’t look very impressed. “Not really. I don’t think I like it at all.”

“Learn to like it,” Ariel growled. “It’s going to be your new heart. You’ll be almost all machine and perfect for our plans!”

The sphere trembled slightly, and Bakeru thought she caught a wisp of frantic music coming from it. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Ariel laughed. “Just think, angel wings. Instead of being disguised, you’ll just be anguished!” The woman’s laughed turned cruel. “And then you’ll destroy the cause of all my troubles.” Her eyes flashed. “Both of them.”

“What if I don’t want to!” Bakeru yelled. “This isn’t my choice! I don’t want to be an instrument of your madness!”

“You don’t have a choice. You lost your choice when you came here the first time.”

The air was so thick with tearful fear and simmering hatred that it could have been bottled. “Just stop this!” she screamed. Her body shivered as tears began to stream from her eyes. “Stop it!”

Enunciating each word with deliberate arrogance, Ariel told her “I. Don’t. Want. To.” As her words rang out, the evil woman’s hands shoved the crystal towards Bakeru. The sphere flattened, then formed into a wedge that drove itself into Bakeru’s chest. She screamed louder, and the music that before she’d thought was coming from the sphere became louder, crescendoing until it became unbearably loud in Bakeru’s ears.

Ariel cursed. “It’s not working!” she yelled, surprised. Another vile curse left her lips. “What the...!”

Bakeru had torn her arms free of the restraints and was holding her hands around the black crystal. The dark mass was slowly giving way to her pressing hands, moving away from the girl’s body. Even with her eyes closed, Bakeru knew just where to shove the crystal to fling it right at Ariel. The Sith yelled as she was thrown backwards by the impact.

Opening her eyes, Bakeru pulled herself free of the restraints around her legs. Large, mostly transparent wings held her aloft with fast movements that sent papers flying through the room. “Angel Wings...” Ariel growled. She peppered the air with another curse. “You’re dead.”

“Not really...” the winged girl said. Every movement of her wings created a splash of music. “When you used the Dark Side to trap me and create Sailor Death Star to inhabit my body, you only repressed me. That’s why Bakeru continued to exist. Making me mechanical couldn’t force my body to accept Sailor Death Star; only removing the crystal that was entrusted to me would do that. When you tried to force that dark crystal on my spirit, it brought the crystal inside of me to full power.” A wing that was at the same time solid and see-though pointed to the fiery area. “I hope you don’t mind my destroying this. It’s a festering pit of evil.”

Ariel screamed and exited the den through a bolthole. Two ripples in the Force indicated that Geri and Emi were gone as well.

Bakeru gasped for breath as she powered down. She knew, now, what her past was. The girl was the guardian of a very special stone, the Singing Heart Crystal. It would give great power to a senshi, when that senshi needed it. Bakenokawa... masking one’s true character... that would be her name for a while yet. And she could still call on the power of Sailor Death Star. Bakeru promised to herself only to use her power in defense off good and right. She assumed an odd position for a moment. Her hands were balled into fists that she held tight against her shoulder, then moved to linger below her chin. With a sudden movement, she spread her arms, and the great wings shimmered into being. With a smile, she summoned the nameless power that let her first destroy the building, then transport herself back to the Jedi Temple.

“Bakeru!” Annika cried, hugging the girl. “The healers said you were healed!”

The girl nodded. “Completely!”

“Wait’ll Priire hears. Baby, you better hide out!” Solai suggested.

Annika shook her head. “Nonsense. I’ll... I’ll/... I’ll stick Obi-Wan on her if she does! Bakeru’s our friend now.”

The emotion-filled meeting left Bakeru with a smile on her lips. A new page was turning in the songbook of her life, and she rather liked the music she saw there.