Author Note: Forced: Creator of a Falling Star is actually a sequal to the fanfiction I wrote, Bands: Darkness Within the Light. If you'd like, you could go back and start there, but it's not necessary. This prologue will pretty much sum up what happened in the first one, and there will be points in the story that will tell what happened, too.

Feel free to drop a review (I try to reply back all the time; though if you're not signed in I can't). I'm always happy to hear what people think. Without further ado, I present you with Forced: Creator of a Falling Star!

Forced
Chapter 00 – Prologue

My name's Essa. Yes, that's my real name and no, I didn't change my name. I know it's not remotely Japanese, even though I'm a Japanese girl. That's the name my parents gave me when I was born. Why? How should I know? I can't exactly ask them… Well, I guess I could go up to their graves and demand an answer, but I wouldn't get one, now would I?

Yeah, my parents are dead. So is my brother. So that leaves me pretty much alone. Well, except for my uncle, aunt and cousins.

When I was twelve, I ran away from home and went on the missing children's list. My parents were still alive then, so it wasn't like I ran away because I didn't want to live with my aunt and uncle. I didn't even know about them yet. Seriously, they came as a complete surprise to me.

Anyway, as I was saying, I ran away from home. Why? Have you ever heard of the Sailor Senshi? Well, that's why. One of my two best friends found something amazing, something she just had to show us and that something made us into Senshi. And not good Senshi either. We became a trio of Dark Senshi.

Sailor Universe, Sailor Space and Sailor Star. I was Sailor Star. Universe, the one who found the power in the first place, was the leader of our little group and the one who had control over both Space and me. You heard me right, she controlled us. Had I known that the power was evil, I never would have become a Senshi. Never.

But once I was in the mess, I couldn't get out of it. Not for a long while, anyway.

Universe had this great plan for us. Why she had this plan, I can't tell you, but she did. The plan was to stop Crystal Tokyo, but we weren't about to rocket into the future to do that. No, we would deal with it here and now. We would kill the princess and the rest of them before they had a chance to make Crystal Tokyo come into existence.

I was about fourteen I think by the time we made our first contact with Princess Serenity, well, Serena as she's more commonly known, and the rest of her friends. The battles began and I damn near killed her once or twice. I didn't want to, but under Universe's control I had little choice. It was only thanks to Darien – yeah, I think it was Darien – that that control was broken. And it was then thanks to Queen Serenity (the spirit of Princess Serenity's mother) that I got a 'good form'. I became a 'good' Senshi, and fought alongside Sailor Moon and crew to defeat the rest of the Dark Senshi and bring them to good.

Well, that was the way it was supposed to go. When I found out about my parents' and brother's deaths – because both Space and Universe knew how and when they died – I was furious and mortified. While I'm sure Serenity would have just healed the two Dark Senshi with her crystal or something to that effect, I took care of them myself. I…

Because of something unrelated to this whole Dark Senshi mess, the police found me again. With my parents dead, my options were either that they find me some relatives or find me a foster home. I don't know which would have been worse, considering both families would be strangers to me. In the end, I ended up with my uncle.

My uncle is my late mother's brother, also Japanese. His wife is a Russian woman. Did I mention that these relatives were in Russia? Haha, yeah. My uncle went to school in Russia – or something like that, anyway – and that's where he and his wife met. After falling in love, they got married, yada, yada, yada. They gave life to my three cousins, all younger than me.

So, off to Russia I went. Now, I knew no Russian whatsoever. Not even simple things like 'hello', 'yes' or 'please'. Nope, I had to learn it all from scratch. Even two years later, I still get things wrong. Languages aren't my strong point. I mean, come on, when I had to learn English back in Japan I was struggling. But I'm learning. I have to, or else be one of the few who only speaks Japanese. That wouldn't get me far, now would it?

Speaking of learning, I had two years of school to catch up on. I guess it goes without saying that that's how I spent my first summer there. School everyday, even weekends, for hours and hours on end. But there was no way my uncle and aunt were letting me just stay out of school. No way in hell. Either I was learning it all, or I wasn't living under their roof.

Don't get me wrong, my uncle and aunt are nice people. Education is just really important to them. You should have seen their faces when they were told how much school I'd missed and how long I'd been gone. They didn't even know about me before the authorities told them, so they couldn't have known when I ran away. My mother and uncle had lost contact with each other when they moved.

On top of all this, I have also been forced into seeing a shrink – err, a psychiatrist, I guess is the proper term. Since I ran away from home, they wanted to find out why (of course I couldn't tell them!) and they also thought I would need some help coping with the loss of my parents and brother. Let's just say that the shrink isn't making a whole lot of progress, but there are some things that I've been able to tell to her that makes her feel she's making progress. See, one reason I ran away was because I was suddenly a Senshi and under someone else's control. But the main reason I let Universe transform me into a Senshi, besides that I didn't know we'd be evil, was because my parents fought a lot. So, I just tell my psychiatrist about the mental strain I was under because of my parents' fighting. I'm not lying, I'm just not telling the entire truth.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned Spike yet, have I? He's my cat, since what's a Senshi without their guardian cat, right? He doesn't have any special marking on him like Luna or Artemis, though. He just looks like a normal black and white cat. Unless he started talking, you would never know the difference. My aunt, uncle and cousins certainly don't.

Yeah, Spike's been by my side this entire time. I don't know why, considering all I've done, but he's there. Supporting me. Being my best friend. Helping me deal with what I've done. He really wants us to get our lives back in order and back to normal. He's convinced we're well on our way, but there are times when I just don't know.

Are you wondering if I fight the evil bad guys over here in Russia with my Senshi powers? The answer to that is a definite no. When I left Japan, I got rid of my Senshi powers. I dropped my pendant into the sea, getting rid of it forever. I couldn't handle going back to being a Senshi. No…

I guess you're wondering what happened to my parents, my brother and the Dark Senshi. They were all murdered. There was never any suspect, never any evidence. They're cold cases, cases that will never be solved. But I know who the murderer is…

I really don't know if I should tell you. You'll probably hate me for it, and with good reason. I would never blame you for hating me. I hate myself. Sometimes I swear that I can still see their blood before my eyes.

There has never been a Senshi that kills… That's right. My mom, my dad, my brother and my two best friends were murdered… By me…

I could easily pass it off as 'oh, I was under the control of others', but in the end, their blood in on my hands. And it won't go away. Even though my life looks like it's heading down a better road, it torments me. I can't tell my shrink or my family! They'd lock me in an asylum, for one. They'd look at me as an abomination. Maybe I am, though…

So instead, I just keep it all locked inside. As long as I never get my power back, I'll be fine. All I'll have to deal with is the guilt and the horror… Hopefully it won't drive me insane.