Sailor Senshi Lucky!

"Miss Annika? Where's Mori?"

Annika smiled sadly at the little girl and ruffled the child's blonde hair. "She's... one with the Force."

The girl shook her head. "She's dead, you mean."

The pink-haired woman didn't have the strength to make up a lie. "Yes... I'm sorry, Suerte."

Suerte Hoshi raised one eyebrow over her purple eyes and declared, with all the determination of a ten-year-old, "I'm going to be a superhero when I grow up so nobody else's sisters have to die."

Annika, Princess and Sailor Jedi of the planet Bakura, didn't have the heart to tell that even superheroes died.

It was a bad time to be a Jedi. The Darkness had its tendrils everywhere and Jedi were dying in vast numbers and their records were being destroyed. Some of the lesser orders were already vanished without a trace. Of course, at that precise instant, it was an even worse time to be a crook.

"Drop that purse right now!" an authoritative female voice ordered.

The crook looked around for the source of the order. To his infinite surprise, he saw a silhouette of a young woman standing just down the street from him. "Who are you?" he laughed. The girl looked almost comical in her short skirt, cape and mask.

"Your worst nightmare," she informed him with deadly seriousness. She was nervous, but didn't let it show. The girl posed with one hand on her hip and one hand pointing at the man. The gloves that reached to her elbow were white with dark purple ribbing at the tops that matched her eyes. Over a white bodysuit, she had a collar of the same dark purple. A bow of silver pinned with a wooden star was on her chest. The miniskirt she wore wasn't pleated, but flared out from the belt and its many pouches at her hips. Topped off with a silver mask, she looked silly. Or as if she's stepped out of a fairytale.

"I'm not intimidated by an escapee from a costume party," the crook informed her.

The girl glared at him. Now that she was a little mad, it was easier not to be nervous. "I'm not an escapee! I'm Sailor Senshi Lucky! For luck and my homeworld -" the speech went just like she'd planned. Except for the part about the crook laughing his head off. "- I'll punish you! Hey, stop laughing."

"Sailor Jedi are a myth!"

"Are not!" she protested. "Teou!"

From the wooden star in her bow came a two-inch being. The man stopped laughing long enough to look at the blonde sprite. "What the...?" he started.

He never got a chance to finish because the winged created yelled, "Marshmallow Defense!"

To his everlasting surprise, the crook was covered in gooey, sticky marshmallows. It was enough for Sailor Senshi Lucky to catch her breath - even though she hadn't done anything but yell - and pull a length of rope out of one of her pouches. She secured the man with it and giggled. "Sailor Senshi Lucky, defender of the innocent! Oh, here's your purse back." She handed the article to the surprised woman and skipped off, winking as she turned away.

"Ugh...how did they stand these gloves?" the blonde girl complained. "They're hot!"

Teou rolled her eyes. "Good grief, Suerte. Then don't wear them."

Suerte grinned. "But I want to look just like a senshi."

"Then where's your tiara?"

The purple-eyed girl blushed, remembering her failed attempts at making that crucial part of the Sailor Jedi costume. "Well... I..." She giggled. "Have a marshmallow."

As the little fairy ate the sweet treat, Suerte quickly changed out of the Sailor suit, and pulled her wispy blonde hair back in a ponytail. "Whew." As she heard someone coming, she quickly kicked the box containing all of her senshi supplies under her bed and tugged the purple comforter down over it.

"Suerte?" "Hi Miss Annika!" Suerte bubbled, hugging the pink-haired princess. Ever since her mother, father, and sister died, Suerte had lived with "Miss Annika" in the Bakuran Palace. She loved it... and had a tendency, when she was younger, to pretend she was a princess just like Annika.

Annika smiled. "You can call me 'Annika.' " Then, she pulled out a paper from behind her back. "I know how much you like hearing about the Sailor Senshi, so when I found this, I figured you'd like to see it." The princess held up a tattered magazine. The slightly messed up cover showed a familiar visage...

"Sailor Kashyyyk!!" Suerte squealed. She grabbed the magazine from Annika and flopped down on the bed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Annika grinned at her again. As the blue-eyed senshi left the room, she reflected sadly that some day she was going to have to tell Suerte the truth about Sailor Kashyyyk. And she wasn't sure she wanted to.

Suerte stared at the magazine until her eyes got blurry. Then, she stared at the mirror, and attempted to copy each pose that the ancient BanthaBeat showed Kashyyyk in. Finally, she collapsed on the floor. Realizing that she was within reach of her closet door, she pushed it open. There, lined up on a shelf, was her Sailor Senshi collection. It was huge. She had an entire set of three editions of Burger Monarch figurines, and most of six others. But she had every single Sailor Kashyyyk figure. Kashyyyk was her favorite senshi; she always had been.

Picking up a figure, Suerte turned the character over in her hands. "You were more lucky than me," she sighed. "A real senshi!"

She felt two little feet on her forehead and looked up to see Teou staring at her. "Still dreaming you're a senshi?" she teased.

"Yeah..." Suerte smiled. "And I am!"

"I am Sailor Senshi Lucky! For luck and my homeworld..." She posed just like Kashyyyk did in the magazine. "...I will punish you!" Sailor Senshi Lucky glared at the men in front of her. "It's not right to steal from people, no matter what! So drop all that stuff right now!"

The men didn't give her a second look.

"You asked for it!" she told them. "Oscuro!" Sailor Senshi Lucky waved her hands and suddenly, a dark fog covered everything. She was able to take advantage of the dark and tie up the men.

"Gotcha!" she giggled as she took off.

After they were out of earshot, Teou fluttered down to Suerte's shoulder. "Nice work." Teou frowned, but Suerte couldn't see her. "Let's not go home, okay?" She didn't sound very convincing.

"Nah!" Suerte said flightily. "I want to go read my BanthaBeat again!"

Teou winced slightly. This was going to get interesting.

"Annika! We have some serious troubles." The green eyes of Seijoutai Priire weren't joking. Even though it was only one year after the events that the senshi referred to as "Episode Three" privately, the Darkness was growing. "The Darkness is eating up planets left and right."

"And senshi," the beautiful Princess said, quietly. "Mori's gone."

Priire look down, her jaw locked. "Sith." Quiet filled the kitchen for long moments as Priire digested that. "I felt something. I didn't want to think to worst. Cathar's gone too." That senshi wasn't dead, just sent back to the future where she belonged.

"Almost everyone else is underground," Annika sighed. "Hiding."

The blonde laughed very softly. "A few years ago I'd have insisted that hiding was the wrong way to react to this. I'd have told everyone to stand up and fight." She shook her head. "But then we'd all be dead."

Annika nodded. "There's so much death."

"Not only from the Empire. There are a few unaccounted-for Sailor Sith out there."

"You're kidding," Annika sighed. She knew that Priire wasn't. There was too much at stake.

A slight smile crossed Priire's face. "And - get this!" She tried not to laugh. "There's a new senshi out there." She gestured to the walls of the palace.

"What?! Now you are kidding. I would have known if there was another senshi on Bakura," Annika insisted, waving around the donut she was eating.

Priire grinned. "She's not a real senshi." The Dark Sailor twirled the hematite necklace she wore. "More like... a pretender. Like she's playing at being a senshi."

"Light?"

The blonde nodded. "So far she's been doing good. But..." Priire froze.

Annika looked worried. "Do you sense something? Sith? Imperials?"

The other woman was frantically searching her jacket for something. Finding it, the senshi pulled out what looked like a communit. Priire frowned at the thing for a minute before tucking it back into the pocket of her leather jacket. "I've got some stalkers around my ship. I think there's trouble at the hangar. Wanna come check it out with me?"

Annika nodded. She didn't want Priire destroying the entire spaceport.

Tightly controlled aggression flowed through Seijoutai Priire. There was a time when she would have let it all out in a raging display of fury, but that was a long time ago. Now, she raised an eyebrow at Annika. "They're trying to take my ship apart."

"Is that a new one?"

Priire rolled her eyes. "So I don't get back here as often as I'd like. No need to rub it in."

Annika grinned. "You did promise to help with Suerte."

"Yeah, I brought her another Sailor Kashyyyk action figure. It's really cute... but can we please go beat up the bad guys now!?" She looked pained, though her eyes were still angry. "Before they take my ship apart!"

Suddenly, they heard a new voice. "I'm Sailor Senshi Lucky! For luck and the love of my homeworld, I will stop you in your evil tracks!"

Priire poked Annika. "Hey, that's the girl I was telling you about!"

"Kawaii!" Annika squealed. "Look at the cute purple mask!"

The Sailor-suited girl raised her hands in a defensive posture to defend herself against the much larger men. Despite the fact that she shot marshmallows and had an incredible grasp of martial arts, the girl was fighting a losing battle.

"Should we help her?" Priire asked rhetorically, as she wrapped her fingers around the hematite stone that she wore.

"Of course!"

Sailor Senshi Lucky was being held by two of the men while the other proceeded to pummel her. From behind the man came a double flash of light. "Don't you know it's not nice to pick on people smaller than you?" the white-haired senshi said. "I am Sailor Bakura, guardian of this planet!"

"Right." Another figure, her dark blues and blacks a direct contrast to the other's pinks and whites, waggled her finger back and forth. "Naughty, naughty. I am Sailor Asteroid, guardian of the stars! For those stars..."

"Love and peace..." Bakura added.

"We will punish you!" the pair finished together, posing.

Sailor Senshi Lucky's mouth dropped open. "You... you're real!"

"Of course we are, love!" Bakura informed her. Turning to the girl's attackers, she frowned. "You'll regret trespassing here. I'll make sure of it!"

Asteroid nodded. "Yeah. And if you lay another hand on my ship, I'm really going to get mad!" The senshi posed aggressively, glaring at the three through her black mask. The girl almost grinned at them. "I am, after all, the Dark Sailor." Cupping her hands, the senshi closed her masked eyes and called on the stars. "Starfire... Surround!" The stardust she blew out of her hands knocked one of the men to the ground. Bakura got the other one with her Peace and Love Shock.

The third man just ran away. Especially after the blonde girl slammed her fist into his face.

"Wow."

Asteroid crossed her arms. " 'Sailor Senshi Lucky'?" she asked.

The girl stared into Asteroid's masked face and nodded. "That's me. I always wanted to be a Sailor Senshi. After my sister and family were killed by the Empire, I knew I couldn't let them get away with it."

"Oooh, boy. Have you got a lot to learn, little one," Asteroid said, shaking her head. "Being a Sailor Jedi..."

"Is a calling, a destiny. You can't just decide to become one. You have to be chosen by the Force," Bakura finished up. "It's not something to be taken lightly."

The little blonde stomped her feet. "I am not taking this lightly!"

Asteroid was about to say something else, when a little voice spoke up. "I am afraid that I have a little confession to make."

"Teou?!" Bakura exclaimed. "But weren't you with...?"

The two-inch fairy looked abashed. "I was supposed to protect her," the faerie pointed. "Mori wanted Suerte to be safe."

Asteroid looked away for a moment. "You're kidding. Teou... Mori must have said something to the effect of 'don't let Suerte run off and do something stupid!' "

" 'Stupid' is a very relative term," the wood faerie protested. "Now, I would have called exposing yourself like this 'stupid.' "

"Wait!" the psuedo-senshi exclaimed. "You know the real sailor senshi?!"

Teou sighed. "You should have told her the truth."

"She was too young!" Asteroid and Bakura said together.

"Too young? To know what?" The purple-masked female was getting annoyed. "I want to know!"

Asteroid smirked. "No time like the present." Closing her eyes, she let herself power down. "Hi. I'm Seijoutai Priire, Sailor Asteroid. Close friend and associate of Mori Hoshi..."

"Also known as Sailor Kashyyyk," Annika finished for her, having also powered down. "I'm sorry, Suerte."

Suerte had pulled off her mask and stared at the pair. "Priire... Miss Annika...?" She looked shocked. "What are you saying...?"

"Your sister was Sailor Kashyyyk," Annika said softly. "She... she died protecting Kashyyyk. The Empire was prepared to destroy the entire planet, but she stood in the way as the last barricade between her planet and total..."

"Annihilation," Priire finished succinctly. "It was either her life, or the lives of her planet and people."

Suerte still had a stunned look on her face. "You mean that all my life the one person I looked up to most was my own sister? And you didn't tell me?!"

Priire looked straight at her. "No. We didn't." Her face was painted over with intensity. "Now is a bad time to be any form of Jedi. In a very few years, there will be almost nothing left of the Jedi. And nothing at all - not even a trace memory - of the Sailor Jedi. They'll be gone like the wind."

"It's already happening, Suerte. So many of the senshi are gone, and so many more of us will be gone before the Darkness ends," Annika said, her heart heavy.

"I know... but I can help! I'm strong and good. I can fight!" Suerte insisted.

Priire looked the girl up and down. "You think you can handle this?"

"I'll help her."

"Teou!" Annika exclaimed again.

"I know, I know," the faerie said. "But I kinda got her into this. And I'd like to help her out some more."

"I don't know..." Priire said. "You are a liability. There isn't any time to train senshi. One of which you aren't."

Annika rolled her eyes. "Liability? Hah. That's what we said about you!"

"I am not feeling the love." Priire pretended to pout, but it didn't last long. "Then, Suerte, what can I say? Other than the fact you can either hang with me or stick around Bakura." The pilot shrugged. "I'm just hopping around the galaxy, keeping tabs of people and getting up some supplies."

Suerte stared at the two. "You mean it?! Wow!" She bounced over and hugged Priire and Annika at the same time.

"Enough hugging!" the ex-mercenary pleaded.

Annika and Suerte just laughed.