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31 October
Annika double checked the list; she had everything they would be needing. The candles she bought at Ye Olde Coruscant Candle-Makery, she couldn’t find a cauldron, so a big kitchen bowl was in its place. The herbs and flowers were also easy to find, as most of them grew in the Senshi garden. There was one ingredient that she had particular trouble finding. It was called Dissendium, and it only grew on Alderaan. Annika, being Annika, decided that it was too much hassle to fly all the way there, so she replaced the herb with something called Disapparate. She figured it would be close enough.
Annika had been reading one of the books that Coru had brought back from Earth. The title was bizarre - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. But after reading it, she insisted that the overworked Ippin travel back to earth and fetch all the other Harry Potter books she could find. Immersing herself in the books, she came to a grand conclusion. She wanted to be a witch. And witches cast spells. She knew Nom was a witch, and she also knew that Nom would never agree to participate in what she and some other mischievous Senshi were planning for that night.
Tonight was Halloween, at least that’s what Yuki’s calendar read. And according to Yuki, it was a day when souls of the dead made their way to the afterlife. The thought of ghosts terrified and interested the white-haired Annika. So she read more books about this strange Muggle holiday. Something else Annika had been annoying everyone with was the use of the term "muggle." To Harry Potter, it’s anyone who isn’t a wizard or witch. To Annika, it’s a non-Senshi or non-Jedi - in other words, Peetie.
Some of the Senshi that showed up in Annika’s room were also fans of Harry Potter; others were curious to see what accident Annika would cause this week. In any case, she glanced around the room at the participants; Kairi-chan, Lys (one of Annika’s future daughters), Ben (the birthday boy), Coru, Yuki, Kumo-chan, Suta, and Priire were standing and looking very anxious.
"OK everyone, let’s sit down. In a circle!" Annika pointed out places were they should all sit. She placed the silver bowl in the centre of the circle they created and placed candles around it. Every time Annika would light one, Kairi-chan would use the Force to put it out.
"Kairi-chan!!!!! I’m being serious!" Annika fumed at the giggling odango atama. Finally allowing her to light them all, the candles flickered over the dark room, casting shadows over the walls. Annika shuddered but remembered that they were only shadows.
"Now, everyone hold hands," she said in a quiet voice. She opened the book she had in front of her, called 1001 Cheap and Easy Spells for the Novice. She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by a suspicious Priire.
"Did you consult Nom on this?" she asked.
Annika looking more than frustrated said, "No. I know what I’m doing, when have I ever done something that hasn’t worked?"
Four senshi stood up to leave.
"Wait!!! Okay, so I’m not the most graceful person in the world! Come on! This will be fun... please?" she begged the standing girls. They all sighed but sat down anyway.
One by one, Annika added the ingredients to the kitchen bowl. She tried to use some Force ability to light them afire, but she couldn’t. Kairi-chan, apparently reading her mind, made a flame from one of the candles jump into the bowl. Suddenly Annika’s room was filled with a putrid odour and a thick green smoke.
Coughing, Yuki said, "Are you sure that’s supposed to do that?"
"Y-yes," Annika lied. After a few minutes the smoke and smell faded, leaving a small but strong fire in the bowl. Once again, the senshi clasped hands and closed eyes as Annika began to chant strange words.
"Schlemiel... Schlimazel... Hasenpfeffer... Incorporated..."
"What?" Kumo-chan asked.
"Huh? Oh, wait. That’s from that muggle show Laverne and Shirley. Sorry."
"Again with the word ‘muggle,' " Priire said raising an eyebrow.
Clearing her throat again, Annika began to chant. "Sato... keki... amai... kyande..."
Nothing happened. Opening one eye, Annika realised that she forgot to add the Disapparate. She tossed it in the bowl and shut her eye. She chanted the words again, and this time her bedroom grew very warm.
The senshi felt a great rush of wind lift them off the rug and swirl them around. They opened their eyes to find themselves in a blackness.
"Annika!" Priire’s voice echoed. "What happened?"
"I don’t know! That spell was supposed to make a whole bunch of cakes!!" she said, crying.
Coru looked around but couldn’t determine in just what dimension they were floating in, and before she could try to open a portal home, a great white light overtook the blackness, and they were falling. Tumbling further and further down, they saw green grass approaching fast. Whereever they were, it wasn’t Coruscant. Using the Force, they all glided down safely, their feet making contact with soft, blue-green grass. All except Annika. They could hear her yelling as they saw her flailing her arms madly while falling faster and faster. She splashed down into a big pool of ice-cold water.
"AHHHHH!!!" she wailed. Yuki levitated her out of the water and placed the dripping girl firmly on the ground.
"Serves you right! You could’ve killed us! From now on, let’s leave the magic to Nom, okay?" Suta said sternly at the very cold Annika.
"We had better transform just to be on the safe side," Lys suggested. In moments, Sailors Bespin, Chibi Bakura, Yavin, Bakura, Asteroid, Chibi Naboo, Corellia, Hoth and the Coruscant Knight were standing there. Sailor Yavin tried desperately to get an idea of their location but was having no luck.
"Look!!!" Annika squealed, causing the other soldiers to whirl around. Her finger was stretched out pointing to a group of rose bushes. "I bet there are at least twenty of them! Look, red, and yellow, white, and pink... look at them!!"
Sailor Chibi Bakura rolled her eyes, "She’s that way in the future too. I remember one time when future Sailor Chibi Naboo told me a story about how Annika drooled over a plate of pastries so long, she was almost killed by a youma."
The little group exploded with laughter. Sailor Bakura marched over to Sailor Chibi Naboo and bopped her on the head. "Kairi-chan! Why did you say that! It’s obviously not true!!! I would never do that! How dare you be so mean!" Steam was practically pouring from her ears. Kairi-chan was equally mad.
"I didn’t say it! Why don’t you hit future Chibi Naboo on the head!"
"Oh, that’s right. Sorry!" she smiled.
Asteroid pointed out the white house that they stood not three feet from and suggested they seek shelter in there before someone saw them.
"You mean muggles?" Bakura grinned.
"I guess so." Sailor Asteroid shrugged her shoulders.
The house was quiet as they used the Force to unlock the door and sneak inside.
A tall girl with two long brunette ponytails sat in a grey chair. Her back was to the senshi as they crept into the hallway. They noticed she was typing on an ancient-looking datapad, one like the girls had never seen. As she moved her fingers, words appeared on a screen that was directly in front of the brunette’s face.
"Who do you think she is?" Sailor Bespin asked.
"I don’t know, I hope she’s friendly," the Coruscant Knight whispered.
As if sensing them, the brunette girl tensed up and slowly turned her head. Her eyes grew wide and she opened her mouth, maybe to scream, but she fainted before she could make a sound.
Sailor Chibi Bakura ran to her to try and wake her, but backed away when she saw her face.
"What’s wrong," Corellia asked from the hallway with the other senshi.
"She... she... she looks like Annika."
They rushed over to gaze at the still unconscious girl and noticed, in fact, that she did look like Annika. The only difference seemed to be the girl’s brown hair. Exchanging bizarre looks between Sailor Bakura and the girl on the floor, Sailor Hoth was the first to speak up.
"Let’s put her on this bed so she won’t be on the floor. We can wake her there," the always smart ice-blue-haired senshi said. Sailor Corellia pulled a pink blanket up to the girl's shoulders.
"Wow! Look at her room! I love it! It’s all pink!" Sailor Bakura exclaimed.
"Yeah, it looks like a mini version of your room of Coruscant," Chibi Naboo noted, which gained more bizarre looks in Annika’s direction.
"Um... everyone?" Sailor Bespin said. She was sitting in the grey chair reading the flickering screen. All the senshi crowded around to see what Kumo-chan was talking about. When they read what was on the screen, their mouths collectively dropped open.
"She’s a spy!" Sailor Asteroid said, "How else could she know all that information about what went on in Annika’s room? And about us dropping into her backyard? Look, she even wrote about us standing in the hallway!"
Sailors Yavin and Asteroid combined powers to create Force-ropes around the girl, who was still unconscious. Then, Sailor Hoth used the Force to slowly guide the girl back to reality. She opened her eyes, took one look at the sailor-suited soldiers standing in front of her, and laughed.
"I’ve hit my head again! I knew it! I knew one day I would hit it too hard!" she said, laughing. She looked the group over and smiled.
"Sailor Bakura!!" she yelled, "Wow! The Sailor Bakura!"
"Well..." Sailor Bakura started, "thank you. Yes, it’s me," she smiled.
"Don’t get too close to her! She’s a spy," the Coruscant Knight reminded everybody.
"I don’t think she’s a spy! She’s seems great to me!!" Annika said.
"Hey, Annika," Sailor Chibi Naboo said. She pointed at the wall. There, plastered above the headboard of the bed was a giant picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi. No one could properly define the look on Annika’s face, but they all knew to take cover.
"Wait a second..." Sailor Yavin said, ignoring the tirade Bakura had launched into about how Obi-Wan was her Jedi. "I think I know where we are," Yavin continued. She had noticed the collection of Harry Potter books and various manga that lined a shelf on the brunette girl’s wall.
"I think we are definitely on Earth... only... in a different dimension."
"What does that mean? Can you get us home, Coru?" Asteroid asked.
"Yes. But, I’ll have to meditate to find the exact dimension we’ll need."
"Good. While you’re doing that, we’ll control Bakura," she laughed.
Speaking of the pink-fuku-ed sailor... "He’s mine! My Jedi! How dare you have this and all these other pictures of him on your walls! I’ve never been more insulted! You keep your look-alike paws off my man!!"
"I think you’ve made your point, Annika," Sailor Corellia said.
Priire informed them that Yavin was deep in meditation trying to find the right dimension that would lead them home. So, with nothing else to do, they explored the pink bedroom.
"What’s your name?" The Coruscant Knight asked the brunette.
"Melanie. But everyone calls me Bunny." Annika scoffed at this - the rabbit was her symbol. Some people take fanhood too far! she thought. Looking around the room, she saw a pink button with a girl holding a pink lightsaber on it.
Star Wars Chicks? What is that? she wondered. Shrugging her shoulders, she glanced at some of the other pictures on the walls. One of Darth Maul hung behind the flickering data screen. Hope Xarae doesn’t see that, Bakura thought. There were pictures of Sailor Moon and a woman whom Kumo-chan informed her was named "Marilyn Monroe."
"Chibi B! Look!" Annika said, pointing to a rack of music disks. One of the first things Coru brought back from her trips to Earth was a music player. Annika rifled through the music.
"Tori Amos... Fiona Apple... Hikaru Utada... Judy and Mary... Radiohead... I don’t like any of this. Wait!" she said. "Sailor Moon music!!!!" She grabbed a handful of the plastic cases and tried to decipher the strange symbols on the reverse side.
"You know something, Annika," Sailor Chibi Bakura said, "I think I get what’s going on here too."
"Me too," Chibi Naboo said, "This girl, Bunny, is this universe’s version of Annika!"
It was Sailor Bakura’s turn to faint. Luckily, Sailor Hoth caught her and placed her on the bed next to the smiling Bunny.
When she came to, Sailor Bakura had a realisation.
"So, if this is a version of me, I guess that explains the picture of Obi-Wan! So, how long have you two known each other," Annika asked Bunny. She was eager to share stories about the blue-eyed Jedi.
"Actually... I’m not with Obi-Wan. That’s not even his real name. It’s Ewan McGregor, and he’s an actor. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a character he plays in a movie called Star Wars."
That was easy to understand for the senshi born on Earth, but the rest were confused.
"Oh! So, you’re with this Ewan person?"
"Nooooo. He’s married to a woman named Eve."
"Nani?!?!?" Annika asked with tears in her eyes.
"Different universe," Priire offered.
"I know, but... destined in one universe, destined in all universes right?" Annika pleaded.
"Not necessarily!!" Sailors Bespin and Hoth exclaimed happily. Annika shot them looks that could break glass. They both started humming and looking nervously around the room. Sailor Chibi Bakura giggled.
"They have a daughter together," Bunny said.
"What?" Chibi Bakura yelled. Annika giggled.
Sailor Yavin re-entered the room, seeming exhausted. She threw up her hands and shook her head. She wasn’t able to find the proper dimension.
The Coruscant Knight sighed. "Well how long are we going to be stuck here?"
"I don’t know. Maybe forever." The red-haired Yavin frowned.
"I know what will work," Bunny said. "Just point your time staff at the ceiling and say... oh, I don’t know... butterscotch."
"That doesn’t make any sense!" Sailor Corellia stated. But Yavin tried it anyway, and sure enough, a cloudy portal appeared. Through it was Annika’s bedroom just as they had left it.
"How did you know that would work?" Sailor Hoth asked.
"I just made it up!" Bunny shrugged. She was instantly released from the Force-ropes, and the Sailors climbed through the portal to arrive back, safely and soundly in Annika’s room.
For a moment, they were dazed and stood still.
"What just happened? Why did we transform?" the Coruscant Knight wondered.
"I don’t remember," Sailor Bespin said.
"All I remember is chanting those words, then feeling very warm... then standing here," Bakura said.
"Well, what a stupid ending!" a powered-down Priire said, "I mean, why did we just forget?"
"Yeah! It does seem convenient," Kairi-chan remarked.
"Why whenever I’m around you something weird happens Annika," Suta asked.
Shrugging her shoulders, Annika smiled and said, "It’s the story of my life."
