Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Dark Stars

Episode 2: Friend or Foe?

In the darkness of a throne room, a humanoid with an air of royalty sat in her throne, waiting for one of her subjects to enter the room. As dark as the room was, the area around her throne was the murkiest. All that was visible on that side of the room were the sovereign's outline and that of her huge throne.

"My Queen," the frightened voice of her servant echoed through the room and the double doors creaked open, almost drowning out the sound of the voice.

"How many times, Zekelia, have I told you not to keep me waiting?" the queen's voice resounded threateningly. She looked like she was absolutely bored. She had her legs crossed and she rested her head on her left fist, as if impatient. She raised her left hand and pointed at the woman that cowered before her.

"I'm sorry, Highness, I will never – Aaaahh!" Zekelia screamed in agony as the queen she'd served her entire life made a pain like no other course through her body. The pain was so great she could no longer stand and fell flat on her face. "I'll never do it again! Please!" She shouted, calling on what she'd learned of her queen and begging shamelessly.

The queen lowered her hand as Zekelia stopped screaming and unsteadily started to pull herself to her feet. "So, tell me. Why have I not yet received the Shining Star you were to retrieve for me? Did you run into trouble, my servant?"

Zekelia was on her feet now. The pain was still pulsing in her body, but she could not let her queen see her weakness. "My minion was destroyed by a group of girls…"

"Girls?" the queen said. There wasn't a trace of surprise, but a tinge of humor in her voice. "You mean to tell me that a Nether Realm warrior was defeated by a faction of children?"

"Yes, Majesty, but they're much more than that. They have great power at their disposal and appear to be able to access this power by saying some incantations," Zekelia said, her amethyst eyes glaring into the darkness of the throne room.

"Really? Well, now that you know about them, you won't be caught unawares. Were you able to assess the Shining Star?"

"Yes. There was nothing unique about it. Just a plain one."

"Good. I believe I have another target for you." The queen raised her hand again and Zekelia closed her eyes feeling the energy signature of the target that the queen had chosen. "Don't mess this one up."

"Of course, Majesty," Zekelia said. She bowed low, then turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"You'd better not," the queen said, her eyes glowing white though the dark. "Soon, this whole planet will learn to fear the name of Queen Amanara."

"Hey, minna-san, what's up?" the soft voice of a dark-skinned girl was heard as the door to the room slid open and Sandra stepped in the room in Rei-chan's home where the Sailor Senshi often held their meetings. She'd not been there to help the Senshi battle a few hours before, according to the Tsukino Usagi grapevine, a boy was almost robbed of his… Shining Star.

"Kon'nichi wa, Sandra-chan," the teenage girls responded to their friend's greeting. Putting a tuft of jet-black hair behind her ear, she took her place at the circle of girls and two cats and the meeting of the inner senshi resumed.

"As I was saying," Luna said, "we have detected a powerful new force here in Tokyo. It's definitely not from around here and, if the attack on that boy is related to this, it's not a force for our side."

"What's this I hear about some other senshi?" Sandra asked.

"There were three others at the Game Crown Center," Usagi said excitedly. "The Star Senshi! They helped us to beat the enemy."

"Helped? They did it all on their own, they didn't seem to need us!" Makoto said, folding her arms contemplatively.

"Well, at least we have a strong force on our side for going against the new bad guys!" Usagi said almost defensively. Her excited smile was fading.

"I dunno, Usagi-chan," Rei said, taking her usual worldly cynical attitude. "For all we know, they could be working with the bad guys and fought their own side just to gain our trust… Or they could be acting on their own to get these Shining Stars for themselves!"

"Yeah," Usagi said, it finally setting in that they didn't really know if these new senshi were on the side of good or evil. The Star Senshi had left before they got a chance to ask them many questions…

Sandra noticed Usagi turn her gaze downward. She knew the former moon princess believed that there was good in everyone and she liked to believe that all could harness this good. After believing these three girls to be allies, it must have been a real let-down to have to accept that they might be quite the opposite.

"What are these Star thingies?" Sandra asked Ami to change the subject.

"Shining Stars?" Ami said, typing on her light-blue mini-computer. She leaning over so Sandra got a view of the screen. "They're orbs of pure energy that come from our very being." The image on the screen was the outline of a human with a white sphere floating beside it. "The Star Senshi said it has our inner-most thoughts and secrets. We don't know what the enemy could want with them and since I haven't been able to pinpoint the enemy's position yet, we can't find out till they attack."

"So we just wait? That's our plan?" Rei asked, obviously not really liking this approach.

"It's the only thing we can do," Minako answered for Ami.

That was pretty much the end of the meeting. Sandra walked away with a sense of worry. She'd not known about her previous Silver Millennium life and her Senshi powers as long as her friends and she was not as use to the idea. With every enemy defeated, she was glad to return to a… relatively normal life. But with each new evil force that emerges, she is forced to lock this bliss away and accept what has been given to her: the duty to defend the planet earth against the forces that threaten it.

She sighed, but her reverie was interrupted as she sensed a familiar force. She turned to see where this feeling was coming from. After scanning the streets, people giving her strange looks, she was able to single out three girls. She sensed something familiar from them… something she'd sensed from the Sailor Starlights; the power of the stars.

The girls chattered excitedly as they passed the dark-skinned girl. One of the girls, a brunette, turned her gaze to Sandra and stopped talking for a while as they passed. Sandra's hazel-brown eyes and the girl's blue ones met. In that moment, something very strange happened. It was as if they made a special connection, like they reached deep into each other's soul and saw each other's power.

The girl stopped in her tracks. This caught the attention of her friends, who hadn't been aware that she'd stopped participating in their conversation.

"Um, have we met?" the girl asked, moving a tuft of hair from her eyes. "You seem familiar."

Sandra gasped slightly, her shyness taking over. "I don't think so…" she said softly.

"I'm Rinde," she said. "These are my friends Hoshi-chan and Arekandera-chan." She indicated her two friends. The three of them bowed as customary greeting, Hoshiko and Arekandera wondering what was going on. "We just moved here."

"Oh, I'm Sandra," the dusky teen said. During that brief moment before, Sandra had seen something she doubted she was supposed to see. She saw the image of Rinde floating in the night sky among the stars and felt the familiar energy of Venus around the brunette. But that was not all. She saw a swirl of light that engulfed Rinde and she transformed… into a Sailor Senshi. Sandra knew that Rinde must have seen something similar and probably knew of her Senshi powers. But she couldn't say anything. She didn't really know if her friends were Senshi too, and didn't want to risk exposure.

Before Rinde could say anything else, she was interrupted by a loud scream. The four teen girls turned in time to see the crowd of pedestrians start running in all directions to escape something that had just arrived. Sandra sensed a dark presence; she was needed.

With Rinde, Hoshi and Arekandera distracted by the noise and chaos, she turned and ran off to behind a building where she could transform unseen.

"Philiopa Cosmic Ethereal Power!" Sandra shouted, holding her henshin wand in her hand. Within moments, she was infused with the power of her past life and became once again Super Sailor Philiopa, adorned with blue, white and yellow.

But Philiopa didn't have to wait long to see who the enemy was. As soon as her transformation was over, the creature that had scared everyone before landed directly in front of her, looking intently into her brown eyes.

The creature was shaped like a woman, but with red skin. She had bright-orange hair that was held in a ponytail and wore a black bikini.

"I finally found you!" the creature said. "Inferno's the name and Shining Stars are my game. Your energy signature matches that of my target, so I'm taking yours!"

Philiopa took a step back with wide, frightened eyes. This was definitely unexpected!

"Kiss of the Deep!" Philiopa shouted, calling forth the power of water to attack Inferno. But she was too fast and dodged the onslaught. And if that was all, Philiopa would have been ecstatic, but instead the creature plunged her fist into Philiopa's stomach and then flung her into the street. Philiopa rolled painfully on the asphalt, grunting in anguish.

"So you have the power of water, do you?" Inferno said, walking up to the girl. "Well a lot of good that'll do you against my speed!"

Philiopa got to her feet, albeit shakily. "I won't let you get my Shining Star!" Philiopa said with determination. But she flinched as Inferno moved so quickly it was as if she'd teleported. And, as if that weren't enough, Philiopa felt the creature's hand on her chin as Inferno appeared behind her.

Before she had chance to react, she felt an incredible heat on her back. Then, she felt as if her heart was being torn out of her chest through her back. She screamed in agony, and then was suddenly quiet as her eyes slipped shut.

"Pathetic child." Inferno dropped Philiopa and she fell on her stomach, the sound of her skin hitting the asphalt resounding. "Now, let's see what your Shining Star holds." In her hand was the orb, about the size of a tennis ball, that she had extracted from the dark-skinned girl's body. It was glowing brightly. Never before had she seen a Shining Star glow so brightly. This one definitely was special…

"Not so fast!" the voice of another girl shouted from some distance away. Inferno turned to see three more senshi standing side by side in the street.

"Oh, great! More of them!" Inferno groaned in annoyance.

"Return that Shining Star now!" Sailor Love Star continued. "We are the Star Senshi," Sailors Star and Justice Star joined in, "and in the name of the Moon, the Stars and Venus, we will punish you for the evil you have done!"

"Aw, isn't that cute! You will punish me? I'm soooo scared!" Inferno ridiculed. With a wave of her hand, the Shining Star was absorbed into her body.

"What have you done?" Justice Star said with surprise as Love Star and Star gasped.

"Why, I've locked it away. Now, to get to it, you have to defeat me. Hurry, now. Your friend will not last long without it," she laughed loudly. "Let's dance!" With that, Love Star had to dodge a fiery punch from Inferno that left a scorch on the ground. With a cartwheel, she landed in a battle stance, amazed at how quickly Inferno had moved towards her.

"Minna, watch out!" Sailor Love Star said to the other Star Senshi. "Sailor Philiopa's element is water and even she couldn't defeat her. She must be as strong as she is fast."

Justice Star and Star glanced at each other, wondering how Love Star knew that, or even knew the Sailor Senshi's name considering neither of them had heard of Philiopa before.

"Got that right," Inferno said as she once again took Love Star by surprise. Just as she did with Philiopa before, she sneaked up behind her, grabbing onto her chin and sending heat over her body. But this time, she had no need to keep her alive.

"No!" Sailor Justice Star and Sailor Star shouted in concern as Love Star started to scream. Inferno must have thought her speed protected her from their attacks. They knew her plan; she expected them to attack and then she would dodge and let the attack hit Love Star. But there was a major flaw in her plan.

"Justice Star Radiance!"

"Cosmic Shine Desolation!"

The two summoned the power of the stars and aimed it towards Inferno. The fire-elemental creature screamed in agony as the attack hit with incredible power and velocity. Letting Love Star go, she realized the mistake she'd made. These Senshi were of the stars, the celestial producers of light. Their attacks were made out of light and so moved at the speed of light.

"Love Star!" Sailor Star called as Love Star landed on her feet and saw that Inferno was in too much pain to move with her normal quickness. "You ok?"

"Yeah," the Senshi of love said. She didn't waste any more time. "You're space dust! Starry Bowl of Hearts!" she shouted, commanding her powers gracefully to form an attack of love and the stars, which smashed into Inferno. The creature of fire screamed in anguish and vanished, leaving nothing bust dust where she had just stood.

Well, almost nothing. Floating near the ground was the brilliantly glowing Shining Star that had once been safely inside Sailor Philiopa.

"Yes!" Love Star said, running up to the glowing orb. She quickly grabbed it and rushed towards Sailor Philiopa, who still lay on her stomach, except now, her eyes were slightly open. Concentrating on the orb, she willed it to return to its host. But she still wouldn't wake up.

"Sandra-chan," Love Star whispered, "wake up. You have to…"

"Sandra?" Justice Star and Star said in unison, surprised. "Sandra-san is…"

"What do you think you're doing!" a voice demanded. The Star Senshi turned to face their challenger and saw a group of five; the inner Senshi.

"What'd you do to her!" Sailor Mars shouted.

"Nothing!" Justice Star shouted back. As the three Senshi Stars stood up. "We're the one's that saved her!"

"Yeah, right!" Jupiter said.

"Get away from her!" Eternal Sailor Moon commanded, her innocent heart crushed to see that who she'd once thought were allies had hurt her friend.

"But…" Sailor Star began.

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

With wide eyes, the Senshi Stars dodged the combination attack, thankful that the Inner Senshi had good enough aim to avoid hitting Philiopa.

"Hey, what're you attacking us for!" Sailor Star shouted.

"It's alright, Star," Love Star said. "Let's just go. They won't believe us."

"If you say so," Justice Star said. Star nodded in reluctant agreement and with a few good jumps that landed them on the rooftops of nearby buildings, they were off.

"Sandra!" Sailor Moon called in concern as she saw the dusky girl transform back to her civilian form. With Sailor Moon leading the way, they ran up to her, leaning beside her. "Mercury, what's wrong?" Sailor Moon asked, tears beginning to stream down her face.

Mercury took out her mini-computer immediately and punched some keys. "She's hurt badly. Those burns are really bad!" Mercury said. "We have to get her to Hotaru. Maybe she can heal her."

With Sailor Jupiter carrying the dark-skinned girl, they were off, too, hoping it wasn't too late to save their friend.
Written by Ken (Thanks!)