Morbid Angel

Kyoko hurried quickly in the early morning light. Her blue hair was hanging loose around her shoulders, and the mist was so dense, she could hardly be seen. The atmosphere of Naboo was unusually thick, and the sky was heavy with grey clouds. Kyoko would later look back at that morning and wish she had seen those clouds for the negative omen they were.

Her ankles were quickly covered with a thin layer of cold, wet dew that caused her to shiver. She saw the purple-cloaked handmaiden who was a few feet ahead of her turn down a dark path and head deep into the woods. Trying to keep up with her, Kyoko quickened her pace. Several turns and twists later, the mess of trees and hanging vines opened to a clearing.

The handmaiden, Rabé, pulled the hood of her cloak back and looked at Kyoko.

"The Queen is very distressed about this event. Please, do what you can," she said.

The blue-haired senshi walked to the centre of the woods and used her clever eyes to scan the area. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Rabé, I don’t see anything. What it is I’m looking for?"

As if awaiting the question, Rabé sighed. She pulled a small black box from inside her cloak and sat it on the soft land. She pushed a button and the area was illuminated by a pale white light. Kyoko gasped at what her eyes beheld.

Hanging from the branches were the dead bodies of hundreds of Plestles. The native birds were rare and rumoured to exist only in the Naboo swamps. Now their lifeless forms were draped elegantly from the trees.

"By the Force, Rabé, what happened here?"

"No one knows, my Lady. The birds were discovered only an hour ago by a young Gungan. He immediately alerted the Otoh Gunga authorities who, in turn, notified the Queen."

"Could an animal have done this?"

"No, Lady. The Plestle has no natural predator - that is what makes this situation all the more devastating."

Kyoko looked closely at one of the birds. Several of its feathers had been skilfully removed using the Force. She remembered a book she read once that described the birds in detail. Plestles had three colours of feathers; red, green, yellow. The yellow feathers were missing from all the birds.

"Hey! I was going to eat that!!" Annika and Lys yelled in unison. Lysthea shrugged and dug her teeth into the muffin, which caused both Lys and Annika to stick their tongues out.

"Has anyone seen Kyoko this morning?" Kirana asked through a mouthful of Droid-O’s cereal.

"Saché told me she was sent on an errand for the Queen," Minae answered. The beautiful brunette was excited about this trip to Naboo; she had never been and was hoping to get a tour from Kyoko. She looked around anxiously hoping the aforementioned girl would walk into the room. When she didn’t, Minae sighed deeply.

"Wow!! An errand for the Queen!! I’d love to be asked to do something for Amidala!" Annika smiled.

"Yeah right, odango atama. She wouldn’t ask you unless she wanted it to be horribly messed up!" Priire said.

Annika stuck her tongue out at the blonde pilot.

"I can see it now." Priire cleared her throat and talked in her best Annika voice. "...’Please forgive me, Your Majesty, but I forgot to deliver the most important papers. You see, there was this really kawaii boy and we talked for a long time... I think he liked me. Tee hee. I know I’ve got Obi-Wan, but I can talk, can’t I?’..." Priire gestured her hands dramatically and made a sad face.

Chikako chimed in between laughs. "How about this one... ‘Well, I was on my way to complete your errand, but I saw this GORGEOUS pink skirt in the window of this shop, and I figured it was more important. You just don’t find skirts like this all the time!' "

By now the entire table (with the exception of Annika) was laughing hysterically. Kairiku stood on top of the table, then said, "...‘I’m sorry, Queen Amidala, I don’t know how those chocolate fingerprints got smeared all over the papers... honestly!’..."

Kirana was laughing so hard she spit out her mouthful of Droid-O’s. She stood behind her chair and held up her hands.

"...‘What errand? Oh that errand... well... I sort of, just, well, you know, tripped over the table, and this big bottle of some liquid spilt all over them, but I’m really sorry!’..."

Lys and Lysthea said in perfect unison, "...‘WAHHHHHHH!!!! That’s not fair! How was I supposed to know the bookstore was having a one-day only sale on manga? WAHHHHHHH!!!’..."

Priire bopped Annika on the top of her head. "Baka na Annika!"

They all stopped laughing when they noticed Annika’s face was a bright red. It almost seemed like her head was swelling with anger. They all prepared to take cover in case she exploded. Right as Annika opened her mouth to yell, the doors swung wide, and a tired-looking Kyoko walked in.

"Kyoko-chan? What’s the matter?" the white-haired Princess asked, obviously forgetting all about the taunts from her friends.

Sighing, she stripped off her mud-caked cloak and pulled out a chair. Kairi-chan got down from the table to retrieve a blanket that she draped around her future mother’s shoulders. Kyoko looked stressed and frazzled. Her usually bright blue hair was damp from the light rain that had begun to fall only an hour ago. She was still wearing her dressing gown, and it was streaked with mud and deep green grass stains. She placed a heavy-looking book on the table and closed her eyes.

"We might have a problem here," she whispered.

Priire picked up the book. " ’Mythology and Superstitions of Ancient Naboo,’ " she read, "Does this have something to do with the problem?"

"Yes. My head hurts so much. Kairiku, can you pour me a glass of juice, please? Thank you." Kyoko drank the juice in one large gulp, then stood tall. She sighed again before speaking.

"This morning, long before the sun rose, I was summoned by Rabé. All I was told was that my expertise was needed to assess an event that alarmed the Queen. I was led deep into the woods, where I encountered a situation that will possibly mean the end of this world."

An audible gasp was heard from more than half the room. Kyoko started to pace back and forth while pulling the dark green blanket tighter around her shoulders. She didn’t want to tell them too much, as she herself wasn’t exactly sure of the details, but they had a right to know, and a right to prepare.

"Birds. Dead ones. A rare species called Plestle. They are native and said to be myth, but I saw easily over a hundred of them this morning. All dead. They are multicoloured with yellow, red and green feathers. All the yellow ones had been removed." She stopped and placed her delicate hand on the cover of the book.

"I remember reading this book when I first came here. It deals with old mythology of the indigenous peoples of Naboo. One of the stories deals with a beautiful, young Prince." Kyoko sat down once more and opened the book. "He loved to walk the hills and plains of the Nubian swamps, and one day he came upon a group of brightly-coloured birds. They sang a glorious song, it was so pretty, it made him cry," she read.

"Everyday, he would walk down to hear the birds singing, and everyday they sang even prettier. He was particularly fond of the yellow feathers of the birds, and had a cape made for himself to resemble them. Prince Vizi thought nothing could possibly spoil the purity and happiness he felt when he was in the presence of the birds. But the young Prince had a twin sister. Where the Prince was kind, she was cold. Where he was generous, she was cruel; where he was good, she was evil. She was jealous of the birds, jealous of the time he spent away from the castle, but she was mostly jealous of the cape.

"Princess Kizi begged her brother for the cape, but he refused, saying instead that she needed to find that which she thinks is unique and pattern herself after its inner light. He tried to convince her that her strength was her sharp, clever mind, and when put to good use, could help restore peace to Naboo. He wanted her to find something that helped her see that beauty within herself, for she only wished to own the cape out of jealousy and envy.

"Instead of heeding the words of her brother, the Princess became enraged. She was determined to get the cape and hurt her brother at the same time. One day, she followed him on his daily sojourn to see the birds. Once there, she hit Prince Vizi on the head with a rock and tied him to a nearby tree. When he awoke, he saw that his sister had murdered the birds and violently ripped the yellow feathers from their lifeless bodies.

"The prince began to cry but was soon interrupted by the shrill laugh of his sister. She strolled from behind a large overgrowth of moss and turned in a circle. She had crudely fashioned the feathers into a cape and wore it about her shoulders and flaunted her devious handiwork. Prince Vizi was so distraught, he lost the connection to his inner light, and he cursed his sister. He forced her to forever walk the lands of Naboo even after her death, never to be released from the bounds of hatred.

"The gods," Kyoko continued reading, "were so furious at Prince Vizi for allowing himself to fall into darkness that they cursed him as well. He must spend Eternity in the swamps of Naboo, trying in vain to undo the damage he has done to his inner light."

The senshi all were stunned. They didn’t know what to say, and they sat in silence. Chikako spoke what they all were thinking. "What does that have to do with the dead birds from this morning?"

"Well," Kyoko began wearily, "it seems Princess Kizi had long been trying to harness the power of the Dark Side. She and several of her loyal followers formed a secret cult. Before the Princess died, she wrote a powerful spell, one that would break the curse and raise her from the dead, but it required too much power. Power they didn’t have. The cult lasted long after she died, and rumours have it that they still exist today. The death of the birds and the missing feathers leads me to believe that..."

Minae filled in the rest. "That her followers are close to resurrecting her, so they made her a cape from the yellow feathers." Kyoko nodded.

"Yes. But Princess Kizi will need a host body to come back. She can’t exist without one, and it is an old superstition of Naboo that if you see a yellow bird, you are the one Kizi has chosen. The only cure is to quickly look into a mirror so you will remember who you are and not be separated from your inner light."

"How do we fight her?"

"We don’t. Not until she returns... but even then, it may be too late." Kyoko stood and walked toward the door. "I’m going to rest for a while. I’ve had a very tiring morning." The senshi all voiced their well wishes and thanks to their leader as she slowly left the room.

"What can we do? We can’t just sit here and wait... sit and do nothing," Chikako said.

"I know, but you heard Kyoko. Kizi will have to find a host body. That could be anyone... even one of us," Lys spoke grimly. She ran a hand through her hair and rested her head on her hands.

Kirana had been thinking. "Maybe we could lure her into a body we knew was weak, one that could easily be destroyed?"

Annika leaned on the table. "We can’t do that! We can’t sacrifice someone!"

The blue-skinned Omwati girl looked startled and her face flushed a bright pink. "Well, I didn’t mean..."

"Look, this is no time to be kind and loving. Our main objective has got to be clear. Princess Kizi must not be allowed to gain power, and if that means a sacrifice-" Priire said, her eyes flashing with the same cleverness that aided her as the Hawkbat.

"No!! There has to be a different way!" Annika cried indignantly.

"I don’t want to argue about this, Annika. Either way someone will have to die."

"You don’t know that, Priire!"

Lysthea stood and tried to calm the mounting tension in the room. "What about the crystals? Priire, your crystal is about redemption, Annika, yours is love... maybe if they were used together, they could destroy the spirit of Kizi and not hurt the body of the person?"

Priire shook her head violently; her braids swung around her head. She began to pace with one hand on her hip and the other on her blaster. "I really don’t think Kyoko would be this worried if the problem could be solved by a crystal, or two crystals, or a million crystals."

"I’m going to go find Chakra. She’s the Guardian of Inner Lights - maybe she has some ideas," Kirana said. Chikako left with her; she mainly wanted to clear her head. All the talk of dying was upsetting her. She didn’t want anyone to die either - no one did. But Priire did raise a good point. How could they defeat Kizi without killing the host body?

The room, minus two senshi, still seemed crowded to Lys. She didn’t like seeing her mother upset, but she knew better than interrupt her. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were on a mission to Chandrila and wouldn’t be available to fly to Naboo, no matter how grave the situation, meaning they were on their own this time.

Kairiku, who had been silent, was just struck with a thought. One that made her spine shiver and brought tears to her eyes. She quietly spoke to no one in particular. "What if she invades one of us? Then what will we do?"

Priire looked sharply at the blue-eyed girl. Kairi-chan was smart, and it was no good hiding things from her or trying to soften the truth. Annika took the moment of silence to ask a question that Priire anticipated, but still had no answer for.

"That’s right. What if it’s me? Will you kill me, Priire?"

The pilot’s green eyes showed a sadness but remained firm. She looked down at the floor.

"Well, I guess that’s your answer," Annika said with tears welling in her eyes. She turned and ran from the room. Lys, Lysthea, and Kairi-chan ran after her.

Priire looked at Minae and said, "I wouldn’t kill her, you know. I’d sacrifice myself first." She turned and walked away leaving Minae to ponder the days events.

She hadn’t been with the other senshi for long, but it was evident that they did care deeply for each other. Sighing, she stood and started clearing away the dishes, stacking the cups and plates at one end of the table, and placing the silver pieces in the centre. Kirana’s cereal bowl was still cold. Minae walked around the table with it in her hands when a bright flash caught her attention. Quickly, she looked in the direction of the light and gasped.

Kirana’s bowl slipped from her shaking hands and crashed violently onto the pale floor, covering Minae's bare toes in cold blue milk. A bright yellow bird was perched just outside a nearby window.

"No," she whispered. Slipping on the wet floor, Minae stumbled around the room frantically searching for a mirror. She could feel something inside herself begin to change. Hurry. She had to hurry. There! On the far left wall hung a simple, gold framed oval mirror. She ran to it and stared deeply into her own eyes.

Even though she saw only her reflection, she still had a terrible feeling in her heart. Suddenly she clenched her eyes shut and ran down the hallway to her room. For a second, she thought she saw a different face in the mirror, someone she didn’t recognise - a strange woman with long green hair and light purple skin. It was so quick... maybe it was her mind playing a trick on her? But something inside her was continuing to change. She could feel it.