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“Are... are you a fairy?”
The ordinary-looking blonde turned around at the sound of the little voice. “Why do you ask?”
The little boy who’d asked the question coughed before answering. He was in the terminal ward of the hospital, wasting away. Even the vast resources of Coruscant couldn’t save the little children in this ward. Nothing could. “You have wings! Big black ones! I can see them,” he insisted.
“Really?” the girl asked, turning around to look. “I don’t see any.”
A little more hoarse this time, the boy suggested something else. “Can you grant wishes?”
A smile crossed the girl’s face. “Only if you catch me!” She would, if at all possible, get him whatever he wished for.
Determined, the boy’s hand shot out and grabbed the edge of her shirt. “How many wishes do I get?” he asked, eyes bright.
She laughed. “First, tell me your name.”
“I’m P’arri. You don’t have a name, do you? No, you’re a fairy.”
“What do you want to wish for?” she asked with a smile. “It might take me a while to grant it,” she warned.
P’arri squinted at her. “You can’t stop us from dying, can you?” At the shake of her head, he let out a little sigh. “Well. Then come closer and I’ll tell you.”
The wish he whispered in her ear made the girl’s eyes open wide. She also noticed that all the children in the ward were watching her. “That I can do,” she said softly. Turning to the whole ward, she smiled. “P’arri said his wish was for everyone to have a wish!” She looked at them carefully so they’d all understand her next words. “I can’t give you each a wish. But,” she continued quickly before the children got upset, “I can give everyone one big wish! This will be the only time I can do it, so think very hard about what you want to wish for.”
All of the children’s eyes were wide as she continued. “When you’ve decided, P’arri will touch this star-” Everyone was amazed as she produced one out of thin air “-and say the wish. Then, as soon as I can, I’ll grant it.”
The ward was quiet as the blonde left it. Tears didn’t come easily to her green eyes. A singular exception glistened on her eye before she blinked it away.
~*~*~*~*~
“What should we wish for?”
“I dunno,” P’arri shrugged. “What about a bunch of candy?”
One of the other boys shook his head. “I can’t have any.”
A little girl sat up in her bed. “I know! Let’s wish for someone famous to come visit us!!”
“Who?” a boy asked.
P’arri’s eyes lit up. “What about the most famous-est and powerful-est people on the whole planet of Coruscant?”
“Jedi?”
“No!” P’arri said. “Even better...” As he explained everyone started giggling. This would be perfect. The happiest day of their all-too-short lives.
~*~*~*~*~
“Ippin, you’ve got to come with me!” Priire pleaded. “Come on. I’ll get you an autograph of the entire N*aboo band...”
“Without killing anyone?” Ippin demanded.
Priire sighed. “Sure.”
“Then it’s a deal! Where are we going?”
Priire pulled a datapad out of her pocket and wrote down Ippin’s name and what she wanted. “I can’t tell you, Coru. But you’ll need to transform before we get there. Um, now I have to go find some more of the Sailors. Don’t go anywhere!”
She wasn’t quite sure what her twin sister was doing, but Ippin was afraid it meant trouble. When Kami, Koustosu, Chrone, Mika, Annika, Numako, Aisu, Yukiko, and Koumi walked in, she was more and more sure that something was afoot.
“You mean Priire didn’t tell you where we’re going, either?” Ippin frowned. “What did she offer you?”
Annika frowned. “She just gave me a bag of cookies.”
“Cookies!” several of the other senshi yelled and attacked the white-haired girl. She screeched and tried to run away. Annika backed into Priire, who was coming through the door.
“Okay, everyone!” Priire shouted. “I don’t want to tell you where we’re going, but you’ll need to be in your Sailor forms.”
All of the Sailors and Knights looked at her. Kami brushed his purple hair out of his turquoise eyes. Because his back was turned to her, he couldn’t see Yukiko melting on the floor. “Why can’t you tell us?”
Priire blushed. That in itself was enough out of character to make the others wonder even harder what the usually energetic blonde was up to. “I... well, you’ll see when you get there, okay?”
Everyone shrugged, but followed her.
~*~*~*~*~
P’arri watched the door. Maybe the fairy would come back today. She hadn’t come back the day before, or that day before that, but he believed in her. He believed that she was real. And he believed that she would come.
A loud commotion outside the door made him perk up.
“Arg. I wouldn’t have tripped if I could see!” a girl’s voice complained. “Is this really necessary?”
A more familiar voice answered her. “You would have tripped if you could see, too.”
P’arri’s eyes lit up. “She’s here! The fairy’s back!”
All of the kids were silent as the door creaked open. When several figures stepped out of legend and into the ward, a few of them cried out in joy. “The Sailors! They came...”
Sailor Asteroid pulled the blindfolds off of the other girls and the two knights. “See, P’arri?” she said with a smile. “I granted your wish.”
Bakura recognized the ward they were in. “But... Asteroid…this is the... you mean you come here??”
A smile crossed the face of the blonde. It was half-apologetic and half-defensive. “Can’t I be a do-gooder too?”
“I... sure. I just didn’t think that you..."
Asteroid shot a glare at her. “Blowing up stuff isn’t the only thing I do well.”
The other Sailors and the two Knights were already moving through the ward. Asteroid had given each of them a bag of candy and things. They were giving it out to the kids and talking with them.
“Oops,” Hoth said. She had been trying to give a little girl a snow globe that she’d signed. It slipped out of her hand and bounced onto a pile of blankets. The globe was just out of her reach. Her hand was almost within reach of the globe. Almost. She couldn’t quite get it though. “Arrg.”
Someone’s arm brushed against hers. Little hearts began circling her head as the Coruscant Knight handed her the globe.
“Thanks,” she whispered. Handing the globe to the little girl, she grinned.
“I think you have a crush on him,” the little girl said. “Are you going to marry him?”
Hoth laughed. “I don’t know.” Chibi Hoth tugged on her sleeve, demanding a piece of candy to give to one of the boys. The distraction was a perfect excuse for Hoth to stop blushing.
A yelp from one of the other girls made everyone turn to see what was wrong. “Booby trap my bag, you did!” Sailor Dagobah accused Asteroid. “Get you back I must.” She combed confetti out of her pigtails and grinned at the other girl. “Deserve it I did not... at least, this time...”
“I’m Sailor Cathar. I protect forest and animals,” Cathar explained to one of the boys. She flipped her long blonde hair behind her shoulder. “See?” She held her hands in front of her, palms facing inward. Concentrating, the Sailor swirled the Force and created a picture of her homeworld.
The boy, who had never been to such a planet, giggled with happiness. “Wow! It’s so beautiful! I wish I could see it all the time.”
Holding the picture was stressful to Cathar, so she let it go. “I wish you could too.”
Sailor Kessel tapped Cathar on the shoulder. Here, she said, holding out a round ball. One of the things that Kessel could do with the Force — besides speak — was form matter into different shapes. She’d taken one of the things from her bag of goodies and formed it into the shape of a planet. Using the colors that had been swirled into the original item, she made oceans and landmasses. The boy was delighted.
“I think you just delight in surprising people.”
Asteroid turned to look at Tuxedo Jedi. He’d put his arm around her waist and was looking at her through his masked eyes. “Maybe it makes me feel better. Helping kids that no one else seems to feel much for...”
Her voice trailed off into silence. Tuxedo Jedi rubbed his finger across her chin where the faintest remnants of a scar were visible. “Trying to tell me something?”
She shook her head, then rested it on his shoulder. “No... I’m trying to tell myself to get over it. Look at all these kids. They’re all so happy and they’re dying. I should be happy because I’m not dead.” Asteroid wrinkled her nose. “That didn’t come out quite right.”
“Hey... can I have a wish?”
“What?”
The man’s blue eyes twinkled. “You gave all these kids a wish... don’t I get one?”
She cocked an eyebrow at him and playfully pushed him away. “Imp!”
Before she could say anything else, however, P’arri leaned over to the masked man. “You have to catch her first,” he said seriously.
Asteroid yelped as Tuxedo Jedi grabbed her around the waist and spun her around. “Gotcha!”
“What are you going to wish for?” the girl that Sailor Hoth was standing next to asked.
His eyes sparkled. “I’m going to wish that the lovely star fairy would forget about everything else and give me a kiss.”
Asteroid granted his wish. She was, after all a fairy.
