Absolutely

It was dark in the Temple because of the simulated night. Inside the rooms that housed the Sailor Senshi, very little was amiss. Mori Hoshi had a brown teddy bear with a purple ribbon tucked under her arm. Bakeru had a bright light on in her room as she slept. Annika Nesicha was dreaming of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Seijoutai Priire slept with one knee tucked up against her body and one leg stretched out. Riko had her paw protecting a "borrowed" treasure. Mika Kaipi had three cats curled up at her feet. Emi was counting nerfs. And Kleppa Deciembre... she was watching hearts break.

The sun burst over the Coruscant skyline, reaching up to the highest of the buildings that formed the city-planet. Reds poured themselves over all the stark metal, painting it in shades that one could only call ominous. Those who knew how to read the skies for its warnings shivered. Red may have been the most beautiful color of sunrise...

...but it was also a warning of storms and troubled times.

"Master Yoda asked that I go. Alone." Emi looked stunned. "M-m-me." She wasn't even sure she'd heard right.

"I think it's a bad idea." Priire glared at Emi.

Annika rolled her eyes. "Oh you would! Where are you going, Emi?" The blue-eyed senshi pointedly ignored the glare Priire shot at her. "Priire just needs more caf."

"Like dumped on her?"

The blonde pilot glared at Falcon and proceeded to throw a donut at him. The boy caught it and popped it in his mouth with a grin. Person rolled his eyes.

"Donuts!" Mika shouted, having seen the flying treat from halfway across the Room Behind The Waterfall. She dove for the plate and tripped, knocking down Falcon, Person, Annika, Emi, and a tray full of breakfast pastries. "Uh... oops!"

Everyone started laughing, prompting the anti-social Priire to take herself and her caf to less jocular surroundings.

The planet was not beautiful. There was nothing about the landscape that would inspire poetry, songs, or even stories. In short, it was ugly.

Emi wrinkled her nose at the chopped-up land. It was colored in tired shades of brown, broken only by shadows that seemed as depressed as the land they covered. And to top it all off, the entire place smelled funny.

She flipped her black ponytail behind her shoulder and stared at the place. Her mission was to simply take stock of the planet and report back to the Council. Annika and Mori were bubbling over with helpful hints... so Emi had a notebook and recorder to record everything in.

Although she didn't think "it's ugly" should be her first entry.

"So this is where I get to stay?" Emi asked, trying to be cheerful. She'd heard stories from the other senshi about staying in fancy hotels and palaces... the shack she was housed in was nothing of the sort. The senshi forced herself to smile and thank the little girl who had shown her the place. After the child left, Emi sat down on the bed and sighed.

Maybe Master Yoda wanted her to learn how to help people.

Emi brightened at the sudden thought. Of course! That had to be it. He wouldn't send her to such a downtrodden planet if he didn't want her to see what she could do to fix it.

With that thought to cheer her, Emi pulled out her pillow and fluffed it up before lying down on the bed to go to sleep.

With renewed purpose, Emi walked around the main town. Her eyes sought out every broken bottle and hungry child. Unfortunately, trash and malnutrition were everywhere. It broke her heart to see everyone around her in low spirits, and made her determined to fix it.

Suddenly, her first opportunity arose.

"My baby!" a woman cried, reaching out her hands. Reaching out for her in turn was a tiny girl, tears streaking through the grime on her face. The child's frantic shouts were what caught Emi's attention first.

Slipping into an alley, she produced her Silver Henshin Stick and transformed. "I am Silver Sailor Seikatsu!" she declared to the would-be kidnapper. "Brought forth by Love and Redemption, I have been dispatched her to protect this world and its people!"

The man dropped the child and began to back away. "A senshi?!" he gasped. "There are no senshi on this world!"

"Well, there is now," Seikatsu informed him. "And I won't stop until evil is extinguished."

As the man ran off, the little girl attached herself to Seikatsu's leg. "Thank you," the child said, hugging her savior. "It's all better now, Mommy. We gots a senshi now."

The mother was too happy to get her baby back to correct the child's bad Basic. "Thank you so much," she said to the silver senshi. "We're so glad you're here."

Seikatsu just smiled.,/p>

Emi collapsed on her bed with a huge sigh. "Whew!" she announced to no one in particular. Then, remembering her mission, she flipped over and grabbed the recorder. "Entry one," she giggled. Then, a little more serious, she continued. "I didn't think this planet was very pretty at first, but it's getting prettier. It's muddy and smells a little funny and the people are so unhappy sometimes... but I think I can help. It's not going to be that hard to just... you know, neaten it up."

She continued to detail everything that she'd done that day. Then, she smiled and laid down on the bed, thinking about all the good things she do the next day... and the next...

"I told you she couldn't be trusted!" Priire yelled. "One week alone and she's ruined it!"

Solai ducked. "Baby, baby, calm down. It ain't your fault that Emi's gone wacko!"

"Isn't my fault?" Priire shouted. "And how isn't it my fault?!"

Ippin grabbed her arm. "Aster, calm down. Okay? The stuff she's been sending us is a little worrying... but it's probably just exaggeration."

Priire had a handful of hardcopy that she shoved in her twin's face. "Have you read these?"

Always one to stop conflict, Chikako took the papers from Priire's hand to prevent the agitated blonde from giving her twin a paper cut. "We're going to go check it out."

The green-eyed senshi sighed and flopped into a chair. "I told you guys she shouldn't have been sent out alone."

"It wasn't your decision," a calm voice told her. Kyoko put a hand on Priire's shoulder. "Yoda and I talked it over, and we decided she needed to go out on her own." The blue-haired senshi frowned. "This was supposed to be a fact-finding mission. I don't know where she got the idea to try and right every single wrong."

"Isn't that what we're supposed to do?" Annika asked. "Make everything right?"

Priire shook her head. "Can't. If we tried to fix every single thing that was wrong, then we'd end up as dictators." She pulled a random sheet out of the stack. "Like this."

Annika stared at the paper, on which Emi had chronicled how she was going about making the planet better. It included that she had pressured the current governor to leave his office. She said that the man was corrupt and dishonest...

"Uh oh."

The other senshi nodded. "She's overstepping her bounds. Senshi are kinda like Jedi, beautiful," Solai explained. "Man, we see lotsa crazy stuff, but we can't go and force everybody to do whatever we think is right. Some people -" He shook his head. "- they're just gonna chose what we think isn't good for 'em."

"But," Annika protested, "if it's bad for them, then why do they do it?"

The gray tabby shrugged. "Ask Kendra or Areil, 'cause I sure can't tell you, baby."

Emi looked a little confused. "What are the senshi doing here?" she puzzled. "I'm doing so well."

The black-haired senshi looked around at the world. Instead of being as icky as it had been when she first arrived, the place was thriving in beauty. The land that had been chopped up and broken by the scars of countless mining expeditions was covered is vegetation reaching up to the skies. The people looked happier, with clothes and food. Anyone who did wrong was imminently rounded up and put in jail. Since she was trained in the ways of the Force, Emi could tell when someone was thinking about doing something bad, and it was easy to apprehend them. She shrugged. Well, everyone could see how good she was doing!

"Emi?" Annika called. "Where are you?"

Priire muttered something under her breath. Falcon heard her and had to repress a grin. In all the time she'd been cursing at Emi and the world in general, he hadn't hear her use the same word more than once or twice.

"What happened here?" Kyoko gasped. "This is not how this planet is supposed to look."

Annika smiled. "It's so beautiful!"

The blue-haired senshi shook her head. "This isn't how it's supposed to look." She picked a leaf off the plant nearest her. "This isn't native to the planet. IT could be harmful to the ecosystem."

Before Kyoko could make anymore comments, Yukiko spotted Emi walking toward them. "Emi!"

"Hi!" Emi said cheerfully as she walked up.

Chikako looked like she had her arm around Priire, but really had her hand over Priire's mouth.

"What are you guys doing here?" Emi asked, her smile still covering her face.

Kyoko smiled back at her. "We were reading your reports and wanted to come see what you were doing."

"I made the planet nicer," Emi explained. "It's much nicer now than it was before." She waved her hand around, obviously proud of what she'd done.

"But that wasn't what you were supposed to do."

Emi frowned at Kyoko's statement. "What?"

"You were only supposed to observe," Kyoko said gently. "Then the Jedi would see what was best for this world."

There was silence for long moments. "But I did what was best. I made the people happy."

Shaking her head, Kyoko put a hand on Emi's shoulder. "Maybe. But maybe not." Kyoko took a deep breath. "You made the planet look beautiful, but did you help the people?"

Emi started to protest, but Kyoko pressed on. "It certainly looks nice, but is there anyway to keep this up? Do the people have jobs? Is there an industry they can participate in? Are you going to have to watch over them for forever?"

"If I have to, sure!" Emi said, pulling away from Kyoko. "I can take care of these people, easy!"

"By taking over their lives and forcing them to do whatever you think is best?" Priire interjected, working herself free of Chikako. "What you think is best might not be!"

Emi fell back from the assembled senshi. "You... you... you don't care about people!"

Yukiko tried to interject a calming word, but wasn't able to get through Emi's rush of emotion. Falcon looked like he was getting a headache.

"All you want is to save yourselves!" Emi shouted, tears filling her eyes. "Well, I'm not going to let you ruin what I made for these people! Seikatsu Force Make UP!"

Chikako's mouth dropped open. "Emi, don't! This is the path back to the Dark Side! Please, just talk to us."

"Talk?" Seikatsu snorted. "Not anymore! You just want to hurt these people."

"Asteroid Star Force... Make UP!" Priire shouted, her hand on her henshin necklace. As if that were the first star-studded domino in a sequence, the other senshi transformed and stood side by side. Tuxedo Starlight shivered as a sudden breath of wind twisted his cape around him. It was a reflection of the high emotions that twisted around the seven senshi. Intermingled anger, annoyance, sadness, and hope formed a web of silver stands that he was afraid everyone could get caught in. Especially if his mother kept running off at the mouth.

"Asteroid-sama..." he started, but she brushed him off, her attention on Seikatsu.

"Emi!" she challenged. "This isn't right and you know it. What you've been doing will probably end up hurting these people."

Apparently, the silver-suited senshi had decided she wasn't going to talk anymore. "Silver... Eternity... Lightning!" Seikatsu shouted, the attack leaping form her splayed fingers.

"See?" Asteroid demanded of the senshi with her. "She's gone and proved me right!" The Dark Sailor blocked the Silver Senshi's attack. "This is why I didn't believe you could change, Emi... because you can't!"

The other senshi looked down in shock at herself. She still had her arm outstretched from the attack, but an almost mist-like blossoming of red had begun with her attacking hand. "No!" she cried. "I... I had good intentions!"

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Asteroid spat back. "Which is where you're heading!"

Another senshi grabbed Asteroid's arm. With knuckles that would have been showing white had her gloves not been covering them up, Eternal Sailor Bakura whispered with incredible intensity, "We can bring her back! We did before."

"No thank you," Asteroid spat again. "I've had you inside my head one too many times."

Stunned, Bakura fell back, blinking tears from her eyes. Asteroid didn't seem to notice the hurt she'd caused in her friend. "You deserve to die!" the senshi yelled, directing the full force of her anger at Emi.

Silver Sailor Death Star held out her hand. "Asteroid! Don't hurt her; she doesn't deserve it!"

"What would you know?" the angered senshi growled. "You're one of them!" The Dark Sailor glared at everyone, her body tense.

She's not angry... she's hurt! Tuxedo Starlight realized, reaching out for her emotions. She's hurt! Emi broke what little trust she offered. The boy shook his head. She's hurt. And she's going to...! His green eyes went wide. "Mo... no!" he amended quickly. The boy didn't think anyone had heard his near-disastrous slip. "You're letting your emotions get the better of you," Tuxedo Starlight said, his voice just loud enough to be heard. "Your heart knows what you gotta do, but your mind won't let you."

"If I do," Asteroid growled, "this'll happen again and more innocent lives'll be lost!" She gestured at Emi with one black gloved hand. The other senshi seemed to be being slowly eaten by the red haze that surrounded her. Her panicked eyes tried to seek out Asteroid's face, but the Dark Sailor wouldn't look at her.

"There's an innocent life in the balance right now!" the long-haired boy informed her, throwing his arms wide.

"Two of them," Sailor Hoth corrected him softly. There was pain behind her ice-blue eyes, but she couldn't do anything that wasn't already being done.

Asteroid looked at all of the senshi around her and began cursing. Wincing, Sailor Bakura put her hands over her ears. "Where do you learn all that?!" the princess complained.

The darker-toned senshi muttered a last plant-wilting phrase under her breath and held out her hand. "I guess if I get to dream about Obi-Wan, this'll be worth it."

Eternal Sailor Bakura stared at her, worried. There was a slight wind that tossed the love senshi's pearls and ribbons around her body. She bit her bottom lip before reaching to take Asteroid's hand. The senshi lifted up a wordless prayer for Asteroid to believe this time.

With the warmth of Bakura's hand in hers, Asteroid found the strength to admit she might have been wrong. "Redemption is completed in Love," she murmured as a misty blueness formed around her body and her scepter.

The mists around the two senshi were mingling together, far larger than the red mist that threatened to devour Emi. With a oneness of purpose that was propelled by the singular desire to drive back the Darkness and keep it at bay for as long as Destiny let them, Guardian Sailor Asteroid and Eternal Sailor Bakura pointed their devices of light and attacked. "Follow Your Heart!" they cried. The double heart they created wrapped itself around the red mist. The mist fought to keeps its hold on Emi, but was losing ground to the determination of the Sailor Jedi.

"I am so sorry..." the senshi said, begging the Light Side warriors to forgive her one more time. "I'm so sorry!"

Asteroid put a hand on the born-again Light Sider's shoulder. "We do, Seikatsu. I do."

"Priire. I need to talk to you."

The ex-mercenary winced. She knew she'd hurt Annika's feelings, badly. In fact, Priire was surprised the princess would even talk to her.

"You really hurt my feelings..." Annika said, quietly. Her blue eyes were clear and honest. "...I..."

The senshi stopped talking because Priire held up her hand. "Let's grab a cookie or something. I kinda have a feeling we'll be talking for a while."

Annika nodded. She appreciated the fact that Priire was willing to talk to her. Maybe she doesn't really hate me, the princess hoped.

"I'm sorry, Annika..." Priire sighed, handing her friend a pink-frosted cookie. "I don't know why I said that. You didn't deserve any of that."

"Why did you say it?"

Priire resisted speaking for a moment, chewing on her cookie. Finally, the silence became unbearable. What was even worse was Annika staring at her. The girl sighed. " 'Nika, there are just some people who aren't worth the energy. They are going to just keep falling back into their old ways." Half of Priire's mouth twitched upwards. "But maybe... maybe I'm wrong."

"I sure hope so," Annika told her fervently.

For a moment, the two sat enjoying their sweets. The pair was so radically different that they couldn't help but be friends. Each girl was passionate about what she believed in, and when they crossed, sparks flew. But through their disagreements and arguments the two were still friends.

"Hey Annika?" Priire said quietly.

The blue-eyed girl looked up, smiling.

"You've got frosting on your nose!"

Annika's eyes went wide. "Why you...!" Priire was giggling too hard to defend herself from the sudden barrage of fairly soft kitchen items.

"Falcon. Hey Falcon!"

The summoned boy looked up from where he had been polishing his sword. He wanted to practice with Yukiko, and she was so good he wanted everything to be perfect. "Yeah, Ryo?"

Ryo carefully sat down beside Falcon. The band member brushed his blue-streaked blonde hair out of his eyes. "Man, there's this girl. I want to impress her and make her like me... what do I do?"

Falcon frowned. "Dude, something romantic."

Ryo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I knew that. But what?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Cause you're the knight or whatever of emotion. Tell me how to reach her," Ryo said, grinning.

Falcon could tell he was joking, but only partway. "Then tell me who it is."

"Emi."

The black-haired boy grinned. "Emi?"

"Yeah, Emi!" Ryo blushed slightly.

Falcon got a little more serious. "Well... Seikatsu means life. So she's Silver Sailor Life."

Ryo nodded.

"Which means she'd probably like somewhere with lots of life."

"This is Coruscant. There's nowhere without life!"

Falcon laughed. "I know... but I mean life like plants and animals."

"Oh." Ryo frowned. "Is there anywhere like that? Where no one would interrupt us?"

It took Falcon a minute to respond. "The Jedi Temple has gardens..."

"...and really nosy senshi," Ryo finished. "There are no secrets in this place." The smirk on Falcon's face told Ryo that there were secrets, just very well-kept ones.

"Well... there are mountains over there," Falcon said, gesturing behind him. "And I bet there's some valley or something." A grin lit his face. "Oh, you could ask Kalil to ask Nigel - that's his dragon - to take you. "

"Dragon?" the man questioned. "Dang. The only animal I haven't seen around here is a pegasus. But they're myth, right?"

Just then Zarathustra trotted past the boys in search of Kleppa.

"I stand corrected." Ryo shook his head. "Oh boy."

"But yeah... ask him, Ryo. Then you can surprise Emi. Maybe even get a lunch together!" Falcon suggested.

Ryo shook his head. "Dude, I can't cook."

"Nom'll probably make some sandwiches for you." Falcon tried to grin. "She makes the best food."

Ryo frowned. "Could you ask her? She's a little scary looking. Besides, I have to find Kalil and Nigel."

Falcon's eyes went wide. "NO!!" Then, calmer he said, "Uh, I mean, why don't I find Nigel?"

"You're scared of Nom!"

Falcon considered denying it for a minute, then just shrugged.

Ryo grinned. "Come on, can't you ask her? She's so... serious, you know?"

The boy winced. He was about to beg Ryo not to make him ask when Person landed on his shoulder. Not wanting to admit to the falcon (again) that he was scared (to death) of Nom, Falcon agreed.

Emi sighed. It was hard being a Sailor Jedi. There were so many things that good senshi couldn't do. Like help people without thinking it through first. Or doing anything without thinking. Apparently there was something more to this concept of power than she knew.

The girl sighed again, leaning against the secluded tree she'd found. She'd let all of the senshi down... again. Especially Priire and Annika. They're sacrificed so much for her. A slight grin came to her lips as she remembered the shocked look on Priire's face when Ippin informed her that she was wearing a pink bow in her hair.

Suddenly, Emi felt something small and hard hit her head. Her hand flew to the offended portion of her skull as she looked up. "Hey! What?"

Ryo grinned at her from his perch in the tree. Swinging down, her apologized. "Sorry. Trying to get your attention."

She smiled at him. "Tha... that's okay!"

"Out of curiosity," he said casually, "you want to go on a picnic with me?" Before she could answer, he took her hand. "Great! Nigel said he'd take us. And Nom packed dinner..." he informed her, enticingly.

"How can I say no?" Emi giggled.

"Great!"

Emi's silvery eyes were wide. "We're going to ride on Nigel?" She looked thrilled.

Ryo grinned. "Yep." He grabbed her waist and swung her up on the back of the huge dragon, then he hoisted himself up behind her.

From the ground, Kalil looked a little worried. "He can't talk back to you," the brown-haired man warned. "So..."

A smile spread across the face of the blonde-and-blue-haired singer. "Don't worry." Ryo put his arms around Emi to steady her - she was so thrilled with the idea of riding a dragon that he was afraid she'd fall off - and informed Nigel they were "cleared for take off."

The dragon beat his huge wings, sending dust up around them. They could feel Nigel's powerful wing muscles contract and expand beneath them as he prepared to launch the three of them into the blue sky. An instant before they left the ground, Emi could feel the lift from his wings make the dragon seem lighter. Suddenly, almost before she knew it was happening, they were airborne.

Emi stretched her arms out, letting the wind blow all around her. Ryo, worried she'd fall, kept his grip on her. "I think I'm flying!" Emi exclaimed.

"I know you are," Ryo laughed. He looked below them, watching the ground being eaten away by the dragon's every powerful wingstroke. "Hey. Close your eyes."

"What?"

Ryo grinned. "Come on. Close your eyes. There's a surprise I want to show you."

She turned and looked at him, a little surprised. Then with a shrug, she closed her eyes. As Nigel's wingstrokes became shorter, Ryo put his hands over Emi's eyes to make sure she wasn't looking.

Nigel pushed wind out from under his wings in powerful downstrokes. Small debris flew up around them. When the dust settled, Ryo moved his hands from Emi's face.

She gasped. The sun was sending cascades of light down the mountainsides, creating swirls of golden yellows and royal reds on the grassy plain that Nigel had brought them too. The grass was thick and green underneath the golden splendor, swaying in the gentle wind. Everything in sight was kissed by the yellow sun.

Ryo swung Emi off of Nigel's back and watched her stare in awe at the life-filled land. The guitarist patted Nigel's head in a silent thank you. Nigel himself rested his head on the grass and faded his scales to a sunset red.

For a long time, Emi stood in the midst of the life-filled valley, soaking it all in. Behind her, Ryo whistled to himself as he spread out a purple-checked blanket - borrowed from Mori - on the grass near a strand of trees. The spot overlooked the cliff that held the panorama of sunset flaring behind the Coruscant mountains. Unpacking the basket that Nom had put together, Ryo grinned in appreciation. He didn't know the long-haired warrior well enough to tell if she'd gone all out on the food, or if this was "normal" for her, but the food was easily restaurant quality or better. He suspected better.

Emi turned around and grinned at him. "This place is so perfect! Thanks."

Ryo handed her a plate of piping hot food. "I got a question to ask you."

"Me?"

The handsome man grinned. "Well, I'm not asking Nigel." He set his fork down on top of his food and looked at her. A few strands of the Silver Senshi's dark hair had come loose from her hair tie, and framed her innocent-looking face. The way the setting sun wrapped its light around her, she appeared to be made from the finest gold. Ryo's grin faded to a soft smile. "I think you are the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. And I can say that, cause I've been around a whole lot of beautiful women."

Emi blushed and opened her mouth like she had something to say. Ryo stopped her.

"And I want you to be my girlfriend, because I. Love. You." He put his finger right on the tip of her nose so that she wouldn't get confused on exactly which "you" he was talking to and about.

Cross-eyed, Emi stared at the finger on the tip of her nose for a minute, before following the well-defined muscles of his arm to his face. "Me?" she asked softly. "You...?"

He nodded.

There was silence for a minute, and Ryo felt a little nervous. He hadn't let himself think about the fact that she might hate him or something... until now. "I really like you, Emi. A lot."

She still looked stunned.

"Um, I asked Grin what to do." The blonde guitarist struck one of Grin's poses. "He said just say, 'Yo, dudette. You wanna date?' "

That broke Emi out of her shock. She laughed.

Ryo paled. His eyes went slightly wide and he looked like he was about to say something.

"This makes today even more perfect," Emi said, smiling. "Because ever since the first time I saw Aoi... err, Mika... in concert, I thought you were the most handsome guy ever."

The color came back into Ryo's face. "More handsome than... Grin?" He posed again.

Emi giggled and leaned closer. "More handsome than anyone." She smiled at him. "And I mean that."

The sun was sinking lower in the sky, casting an even deeper mantel of red over the entire area. Grass floated in the wind, accepting the new shade that was painted like watercolors on them. Nigel opened his eyes, peering through the darkening evening, his skin fading with the sunset to a richly-toned red. The dragon could see Emi and Ryo, and a slight smile drifted on his fearsome face.

Ryo stroked Emi's face with his hand, pushing strands of hair out of her eyes. She looked up at him with stars in her eyes and a smile on her face. Gently, their lips touched and they kissed.

Behind the two, the sunset flared into a final burst of gold and red before beginning to fade into the purple and blues of night.

"Hey Priire," Ippin said sweetly, trying to get her sister's attention from Riku, Ippin's boyfriend. "Look at Emi."

Priire turned from where she was about to pound Riku - giving him time to get away - to see what Emi was up to. "Hey... isn't that Ryo?" Priire narrowed her eyes at the couple, holding hands. "Hmmm. I better go see what's up."

Ippin grinned. "Riiiiku, she's gooone! You can come out now."

Priire walked over to Emi and Ryo. "Hi you two."

Automatically, Emi blushed. "Hi, Priire!" Ryo said cheerfully, unknowing the danger he'd placed himself in.

"So. You two are..." Priire wasn't able to finish her sentence, pull her blaster to threaten the boy with, or even move before Mika was on the scene.

"Back!" the blonde ordered Priire. "That's one of my band members. Don't kill him or otherwise cause him bodily harm, or you'll face the Wrath Of Mika And Her Mighty Kitty Claws!"

Mika's pronouncement was even more humorous than usual because she had a duckbill on her head. Apparently some station was running an all night "Attack Of (fill in the blank with any very scary number of items)" so she and Chouko were having no small amounts of fun playing "MST".

Priire started laughing. "Okay, okay! I'm not going to hurt him..."

Mika walked off.

"...much..."

"I never thought anyone could love me!" Emi confided. "It's just so incredible! Having someone who loves me just like I am..."

The stuffed kitty said nothing as Emi picked it up and spun it around in her arms.

"You just have no idea!" She collapsed on the bed. "I'm in love. And he loves me... it feels like I can do anything I want." The senshi frowned. "Well, I guess I can do anything. But I have to only do what's best for everyone. Not just me. And not just what I want."

She pondered that revelation for a minute.

"I wonder..." Emi sat the stuffed cat down. "I wonder if that's the last beautiful thing I have in me? I thought I have my all to the Sith. Then Annika and Priire showed me that I hadn't. Then I showed them that I hadn't given everything to the Jedi, either. So all the things I had were turned ugly again."

The cat made no movement as Emi stared at it.

"Maybe the love that I'm feeling is the last beautiful thing I have. I guess I'd better hold on to it," Emi decided, her lips upturned in a smile.