"How are we going to handle this? Let her go back to wherever she came from?" Snapped Eclipse as she turned to face Uranus, eyes flaring.
"Look, I didn't say that!" the blonde retorted, basically screaming back.
"Calm down! Listen to yourselves! Fighting about this isn't going to place the kid anywhere faster!" Sailor Ison intervened, earning a sigh from Venus.
"Save it for the tournament. Tsuki, you said she could control fire right? But yet she has burn marks on her arms. Do you think her powers could have flared out of control?" Venus asked, trying to ignore the wind senshi's pouting.
"She's a prodigy at best. Most who awaken their star seeds powers need years to just be able to manipulate their core element. There is no way that burns that bad could come from her powers awakening." Eclipse stated, recalling the angry, fresh wounds on Karunā's skin.
"What do you propose then? To keep her here?" Uranus growled out, earning a glare from her half-sister.
"Fuck off Haruka." Tsuki growled back before turning back toward the others before replying "I think she should stay within the palace grounds. With powers like that she could be easily manipulated into serving someone who would rise against the queen."
Ison narrowed her eyes at the ruler of darkness, wondering just what the younger girl was keeping from them.
"What do you know?" the senshi of speed questioned after a while, earning a sigh.
"I had Luna and Ami run a background check on Karunā late last night after I noticed signs of physical abuse. Her full name is Karunā Hein, she is fifteen years old and has been in the foster system for two months. Her parents died in a car crash around three months ago." The twenty four year old answered, earning a shocked look from everyone.
"We need to take a vote on this. I'll go run it past Serenity and Endymion." Ison stated standing up, though Uranus only smirked.
"Hey Menyani….Try not to break anything."
"We'd better get ready for that tournament. How many of the senshi is going to compete anyway?" Tsuki asked as they waited, earning a smirk from her sister.
"You, me, Makoto, Danny, Rei and Seiya from this side of the universe. There may be some fighters from other star systems though." Haruka replied.
"Well…that just means I have to pull out all the stops. You, Mako and Rei are the only ones on our ballot that I'm afraid of." Tsuki retorted, earning a laugh.
"It's settled." Menyani announced, reentering the room.
"Karunā can stay…But under a joint care from the both of us." She stated, earning a groan.
"Great…well I'll go tell the bandit the facts then I'll go change into my fighting gear." Tsuki stated before making her way out of the room.
The shadow soldier froze at what she saw Karunā outside on the cement training field, her moves similar to dancing as fire shot from her bandaged hands. The tank top that she wore revealing scars and bruises as well as other—healed—burns.
"Karunā! Take five and come here!" Tsuki called, shocking the girl who slowly came over.
"Eclipse-Sama." She stated, bowing clumsily, earning an eye roll.
"You don't have to bow. I came here to tell you that you are to live here." The senshi of darkness stated, eyes narrowing as she glanced over the tanned skinned girl.
"Really? As a slave or what?" The teen replied suspicious of the woman's motives though to her surprise Tsuki started laughing.
"By the imperial silver crystal! Where do you get this idiotic ideas?" the dark senshi cursed, earning a shocked look.
"We don't keep slaves kid. Now if you don't mind I need to get ready for the fundraiser." Eclipse stated before walking off.
Karunā stood there in shock, glancing down at the bandages again.
What if every one is right and fire is evil? I mean…It has taken a lot of lives.
The girl thought, however just as she thought that a voice stated
"Then use your powers to prove them wrong."
Whirling around she saw Tsuki standing there, smirking.
"Wait how did you….Did I say that out loud?" The fifteen year old stammered, earning a laugh.
"I can read minds." She answered simply before adding "you control fire because of your star seed….essentially making you a senshi. A mere element is neither good nor evil, it relates to how people use it."
With that Tsuki formed a ball of dark energy in her left palm, allowing her full powered form to show.
"The black moon clan were known for trying to kill Queen Serenity the first of the Silver Millennia empire. When I awoke as Eclipse in the era directly before the great freeze I was just a scared, smart assed kid who had far too much bullshit on her mind to function. I was terrified that I was destined to become evil…to actually fight against the group of girls that didn't trust me but had the power of the world." She began, her eyes becoming distant as she stared at the crackling energy.
"Wait…but you guys are so close. I saw how you all acted at dinner last night!" Karunā stated, earning a sigh.
"It took time for us to gain trust in each other. Pluto-Sama and Neptune were the only ones who gave me a snowballs chance in hell. It wasn't until I spent time in a special training chamber hidden deep in the galaxy caldron itself that I learned the true meaning of my powers and could fully use them." Eclipse responded before glancing down at the stained bandages on Karunā's arms before asking
"Those scars can be covered with gloves, I have a pair that I use to wear on Kinmoku a long time ago…You can have them. I don't need them anymore."
As soon as the words left her mouth Tsuki remembered what Chibi-Usa's parting words had been to her.
"When you first become a teacher try not to blast your ward through the coliseum. Mama still jokes about that in the future…even if she does agree that the person could be a pain."
The sense of Deja-vu overwhelmed her a bit; though she shook it off.
"Thanks…Eclipse-Sama." The teen began, only earning a glare.
"Okay…drop the Sama crap. I deal with that enough during political duties and whenever I go out in royal garb."