When I was seven I had an older sister who was eight. Despite the obvious family resemblance, which was in our sky blue hair and red-ish pink eyes, we were very different. My sister was taller and leaner, her hair was softer and longer and thinner and her eyes were longer. She also styled her hair differently; I wore my hair in the same type of meatballs that Princess Rini did, my sister on the other hand simply wore pigtails. We both talked fairly similar but the differences in our attitude were obvious. My sister was always getting into trouble she’d eat the freshly baked cookies when mum would have said not to eat them till they were cooled, I always waited then ate them. She would steal lollipops from the free samples and run around hurling insults; I snuck the candy away instead of going for the wide-open approach. Despite our age difference it was always me who looked out for her, when she was punished for taking Lady Jupiter’s hair ties it was me that she came crying to, and it was me who showed her how to get the ties without being caught. I taught her how to sneak, how to move without sound, and she taught me how to have a good time and what was worth troubling ourselves over. We were both handmaidens to the royal court; I served Princess Rini whereas my sister served Lady Saturn. The obvious personality quirks affected us, and I found that when I was seven she was eight and the gape was sometimes evident. One day I remember so clearly: I’d been playing with her royal Princess Rini, we were playing a tea party game, and despite her eight years of age over me she still played all the games that I enjoyed. I remember going off to get a ball so we could play tips with her other friends and when I came back I saw her and Prince Edios playing the kissing game. When they saw me laughing they begged me not to tell, so I did as my lady wished and kept it to myself. The rest of the day was full of fun and merriment for everyone and I found that all too soon it was time for me to go home. So I said goodbye and hopped inside the hover car. When I got home I snuck passed my parents and ran up to the room I shared with my sister. I opened the door and noticed her at the study desk, curious I walked up to her peering over her shoulder on my tiptoes. She was staring transfixed at something. I came around to the side of the desk and gasped. Sitting on the middle of the desk was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even though I knew immediately what it was. It was a sailor scout transformation wand and I couldn’t help but stare transfixed. The wand was about ten inches long it had a soft metal, orange love heart on top of it and fluoro coloured ribbons trailing off of it. My sister jumped when she saw me, and I pulled away from the object on the table and looked at her. “Where did you find this? It’s a sailor scout transformation wand.” I asked. She nodded and managed to speak. “I was running errands, ‘cause of that thing that happened yesterday, an’ I sort of got lost and I stumbled into this room with all these coloured lights and… I don’t know what came over me but I knew I had to take it.” I glanced at the wand. “We can’t keep it! Its not ours! We could get in a lot of trouble for this. C’mon we have to put it back where you found it.” She sighed heavily then nodded. I reached out a hand and grabbed it. Without thinking words flowed from my mouth. “Chibi Rainbow!” I couldn’t help it, I didn’t mean to say the words, but what happened next was only natural. I closed my eyes and felt myself become lighter when I opened my eyes I watched as my body sparkled and turned transparent. Different coloured ribbons flew out of the wand and covered me completely. I whimpered even in the middle of the transformation and closed my eyes, when I dared to open my eyes again I let out a terrified scream. My sister stood staring at me in utter amazement as the sailor clothing sparkled then disappeared and I screamed loud and clear. I didn’t notice that the wand had somehow gotten into my pocket, all I could think of was the fact that I didn’t want to be a sailor senshi, I didn’t want to have that kind of responsibility resting on me. I remembered all the stories that Princess Rini had told me, how although it was great to have magical power, there was a price and so I screamed and wished the clothing away. I didn’t know that it had gone, all I knew was that I didn’t want it. When my sister finally clamped a hand on my mouth and managed to convey that I was normal again the door burst open and our mother rushed in, quickly followed by our dad. I sniffed once or twice and managed not to start screaming out that I didn’t want to be a senshi, I may have only been seven but I wasn’t stupid, if mum or dad found out I’d be rushed straight to the royal court and questioned, and then my sister would get in trouble and I would be in even worse trouble. So I kept my mouth shut and let my sister do all the talking. When our parent’s had finished scolding us and left she turned to me accusingly. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a sailor scout?” she exclaimed. She pounced on top of me and waited for an answer. “I didn’t know!” I retorted. She sighed heavily again and hopped off of me. “Well we can’t tell anyone can we? If anyone found out we’d never see each other again.” We sat and thought for a while, finally I stood and grabbed some of my hidden lollipop stash, handing her a purple lollipop while I assaulted a pink one. She smiled gratefully. “Thanks, I was getting a craving.” I nodded and we sat down to think again. Tentatively she spoke up. “You know, I noticed that you had a bow on your back,” I blinked then nodded I hadn’t had a chance to check, I’d been to busy screaming and trying to get rid of it. “So, what’s your point?” I asked. She got that grin on her face that meant she’d thought of something nasty. “Well, I was just remembering how that nasty baker hadn’t let us have any of those cream puff rolls… and well, I was just thinking about how we could get revenge.” I felt my eyes widen and I looked up and over at her. She had a very big grin on her face and I felt a similar smile tugging on my own face. “Hmm, I don’t know, it could be risky.” I started. Her grin widens and I couldn’t help myself. “Really? Well you don’t have to… if you’re too scared.” And I was gone. About three months later I sat at home read a storybook about some princess who’d been locked in a castle by an evil witch, and the princess had really long hair. It kind of reminded me of someone I knew but I couldn’t quite figure out whom. I was just about to get to the part about the prince climbing up her hair when the phone rang. I walked over and hit the talk button and the videophone snapped on. I was surprised to see Princess Rini on the other end. She looked up at me and seemed relieved. Her cheeks were tear stained and she looked pale. “Oh thank god its you! Please, can you come over?” she blurted out. I blinked surprised then nodded. “Sure.” She gave a weary smile and then hung up. I pulled a jacket on and raced out to the hover car I didn’t need to say where to go, the car knew that I only ever went to one place alone. When I got to the Princess house and came in I noticed that there was an air of dread and sorrow hanging over the entire thing. Tentatively I went into the lounge room and saw my Princess sitting on the couch. She looked up when I came in and summoned me over. After I finished my curtesy I went over and sat on her lap like she told me to. She wrapped her arms around me and started to cry, huge hiccupping sorrowful crying. She was holding onto me like she was going to drown, it was a little tight but I didn’t mind. When she couldn’t seem to muster up any more tears she just sobbed empty. I whispered soothing words to her gently patting her back while she sniffled. When she was finished and my shoulder was considerably wet she managed to let go of her death grip on me and talk. “Princess Rini, what is wrong?” I asked handing her some tissues. I found it quite odd that she had called me, I was half her age and she had other friends, but something about her manner said I was the only one she could talk to. I kept my tongue and waited for her to speak. “I- I’m sorry, I didn’t have anyone else to talk t- to, it’s just, I can’t stand it! I don’t want them to leave me behind! I don’t want to be alone! And they don’t understand! I can’t stay without them. W-why do they have to leave!?” she blurted out, a single tear crept down her face and I couldn’t help but whip it away. “Oh, Rini, what has happened?” I forgot to use her title simply because she was so distraught. I couldn’t think of something so bad that she couldn’t speak to her mother about. What was it that she needed to confine in me so much that it brought her to tears? Her voice nearly gave out when she opened her mouth and I waited for her to find it again. Finally she mustered up the strength. “They’re leaving! They’re going away! They say they’ll come back but I know it’s not true! They’re going away and never coming back! And I can feel it; I can feel the call! I don’t want to go! And I don’t want to be left behind! They aren’t coming back! They aren’t! And I don’t want to go!” I felt my heart stop in my chest. It was as if time stood still for a moment, as if I couldn’t breath; I had all the time to feel her words constrict inside my head, all the time to feel the power of what she had said hit me and then suddenly time speed up again and I stared horrified at her. “Y-You mean… oh god!” I felt panicked suddenly. As if the world were closing in, coming to squeeze me to pieces. She nodded her head sadly and then spoke again. “Even Luna and Diana and Artemis have chosen guardians to replace them.” I knew I couldn’t breathe, I knew it. She seemed surprised when I stood up and then blacked out, falling to the ground with a little ‘oh’. And that’s right when I passed out. *** Corren, captain of the royal guard assigned to his royal liege King Edymoon, rubbed his pale forehead in frustration. The white cat Artemis sat before him rambling on about god knows what, Corren had stopped listening a while ago and gone into passive mode. He knew that Artemis was working up the nerve to tell or ask him something, but the way to cat was going about it you would think the white fluff ball was worried and nervous about something. The pale haired captain didn’t notice when Artemis stopped talking and looked up at him expectantly, until the cat pounced on him. Corren let out a yell of surprise and nearly squired the poor animal with his sword. Artemis seemed to find this amusing as all hell. “Honestly! And they say YOU are the best swordsman in the kingdom next to the King, mind you. Corren have you heard anything I’ve been saying?” the cat sat down on the taller man’s shoulder. Corren sighed. “I would have been listening, but you’ve been babbling incoherently for the past half hour.” Corren mumbled. The cat had the grace to look a little embarrassed and flicked his tail. “Fine then, anyway! I was going to ask you something, unfortunately you don’t have much of a choice on the matter.” Corren blinked and looked at the cat that winked. “Corren, enjoy your next day as a human because you wont be one after that.” Corren looked at Artemis is pure shock, then the captain laughed and petted the cat. “Nice one Artemis, almost had me worried there for a minute.” He stopped laughing at the look on Artemis’s face. “I’m not joking Corren. I have chosen you to become the next guardian.” With these words Artemis nudged Corren’s shoulder and produced a small pendant. “For the meantime, before you turn into a cat, this pendant will locate a new senshi, I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a senshi we haven’t met yet running around right under our noses-” his words were cut short by a yelling from the direction of Princess Rini’s instant teleporter. The young Princess was making all hell of a sound. Corren reacted on gut instinct and snatched the pendant; slipping it over his neck and then grabbing his sword and running out and down toward the Princess. Several other people joined him on the way and he noticed Lides among them, something was different about his friend but he didn’t have time to ask as he turned a corner and saw the Princess holding a limp body in her hands. Queen Sereanity rushed out and managed to calm her down, finally the Princess took a breath and explained that the girl had fallen down to the ground and wasn’t waking up. Lides stepped forward and took the girl from Princess Rini’s desperate grip. Gently and firmly the palace physciatrist walked away with the girl in her arms toward the guest quarters. The young Princess followed looking distraught still, Corren followed close behind as well, and he couldn’t believe it! What a fuss over someone fainting! Honestly, women! *** I woke to the feel of nice warm comfy blankets over me, I was surprised at how tired I was, the last thing I could remember was passing out after Princess Rini had told me- oh sweet mother of god! I sat bolt upright in a bed and looked around, I had no idea where I was, all I could see was a large room, the overhead light was dim at best, looking around I saw out of a window and noticed that I could see the entire kingdom from where I was. Oh no! They’d found out! I was going to be court marshalled or what ever they called it! I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding and stood up. There was the sound of footfall and the door to the room opened. The captain of the guards… Corren I think his name was, walked in and smiled. “Glade to see your awake little one. Your gave Princess Rini quite a scare fainting like that.” He said his eyes twinkling. My heart lifted slightly, he didn’t look angry, and maybe they hadn’t found out after all. I couldn’t help it; I glared up at him. “I did not faint!” He grinned. “Then what did you do, little senshi?” I was about to retort when I stopped myself, had he just called me, a-a. Oh no! I shook my head and tried my best-confused look. “What are you talking about?” he smiled and held up my transformation wand, twirling it around in his hand. “Hey! That’s mine!” I blurted it out before I could stop myself. Corren’s grin got bigger still. “I know.” Was all he said. I couldn’t help what came next, it’s a natural childhood reaction to any kind of bad situation; tears welled up in my eyes and I took a huge sobbing breath, and then started crying at the top of my lungs. Corren jumped back from me like I’d bitten him and he winced. I couldn’t have cared less, I just continued to cry. The door opened a second time and Lady Hope walked in. well her name was actually Lides, but she was referred to as Lady Hope mainly because she helped people sort out problems and that kind of thing, and she was older then me so I had to call her by her last name. I knew she had a real job but the word is too hard to remember. She frowned at Corren and snapped at him. “What did you do this time Corren? Honestly, picking on small children! The poor girl’s just woken up from a faint!” she muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like men! Then she wrapped an arm around me and hugged me. Despite my will to keep crying I ended up stopping anyway. Then the anger came. “It’s not our fault we found the stupid wand! We were going to put it back but we couldn’t! And I didn’t use it all that often! I don’t understand how you can all be so cruel about something so little! I took really good care of it! I didn’t know what it would do to me! You can have it back but please don’t hurt my sister! It wasn’t her fault! And she wasn’t involved! And you’re making a big deal out of something that’s really nothing! I’m sorry I ever touched the stupid thing!” the two of them looked at me stunned and I got up and ran out of the room. Now I don’t like to brag, but I can run pretty fast when I want to. I ran as fast as I could down the corridor and noticed an open room, quickly I ran in and closed the door behind me, breathing heavily. Had I of bothered to look in the room before I entered it I would probably not have entered it. But when I finally turned around and calmed my breathing I came face to face with a huge drooling monster. The creature had giant arms and huge feet as thick as tree trunks! It had two pinpoint eyes and a huge pointed teeth mouth. It was drool and looked asleep, or at least until I screamed it was asleep. I probably wouldn’t have screamed if I hadn’t have been so shocked. But well I was shocked, and I did scream. I ran out the door as fast as my feet would take me, and of course I continued to scream. How was I supposed to know that I’d run into a monster-infested area? I was only seven after all. But well as you can well guess, my screams didn’t just wake that one monster… the intire wall opposite me burst open in a shower of rubble and out came three other monsters, much like the one I’d first seen. I saw Corren and a few of the senshi come in my direction. Corren’s eyes widened when he saw the four monsters surrounding me. He was surprised? He wasn’t horrified or anything? I couldn’t believe it. Without thinking I saw my transformation wand in his hand and I held out my hand for it. He looked at me oddly. I didn’t have time for this! The monsters were starting to get closer and he and the other senshi weren’t close enough to be able to help me if one of the monsters decided to take a bite out of me, which it was evident that they did. I felt my knees go weak, I was so scared I couldn’t move. I watched in rapt horror as the creature came closer and closer, I was dead! I closed my eyes, oh god! A little thought was pushing at the back of my brain yelling for attention. Words! I had to say something before I died. I opened my mouth, trying to remember what it was I had to say. Oh god I could feel the monster’s breath in my face, it was about to swallow me whole or chew me to pieces! I screamed again. This was it! This was the last straw! I opened my mouth to scream a fifth time but what came out wasn’t quite a scream. “CHIBI RAINBOW!” Corren must have been startled when my transformation wand rushed to my fingers; I could almost feel the rapt attention of everything in the room. But I don’t know, maybe it was the stress of the situation, I think I passed out of consciousness, and my subconscious took over because all I could see was a pink cloud. *** The captain of the guards had been surprised when he’d felt the powers of a senshi coming from the little girl, the fact that she’d known about it had been even more of a surprise, but as he stood there, dumbfounded as he watched a seven year old kid turn into a senshi, well to say the least, he was beginning to wonder about this dream. The little girl went into senshi form in a matter of nano seconds, the situation for her was obviously required something fast. Corren watched as she fell to the ground, dodging the open mouth that went to bite her head off easily. She rolled under the monsters and pulled something off her back, Corren raised an eyebrow at the multi-coloured outfit that she wore, and she seemed to be completely… colourful? The bow that she loaded five arrows onto was decorated very strangely. Corren couldn’t help but wonder at the fact that the child was loading five arrows up, she was, after all, a child; how on earth did she expect to hit anything? He blinked a few times as he watched her shout the command. “Rainbow Arrows!” the five arrows launched through the air toward the monsters. Corren ducked to the ground, no one was that good an aim that something wouldn’t miss. He blinked when he saw all the monsters stumble backward, the one that had tried to bite her had two arrows sticking out of its chest, another sticking out of its leg another on its arm, and the final arrow hit its forehead. The monster fell to the ground heavily. The rest of the fight was mainly a spectacle for Corren. He watched Sailor Chibi Moon and Eternal Sailor Moon team up and use their own attacks on one poor monsters. Super Sailor Jupiter took out one of the things herself. And the last monster stood facing the girl. The small girl loaded another five arrows and let fly with a command. Once the monster fell to the ground, well, the girl just collapsed her senshi uniform vanishing into thin air. *** I woke up a second time after blacking out in a warm cozy bed. This time however I knew where I was, home! My sister was watching me carefully. She smiled brightly at me and patted my head. “Lollipop?” she asked. I nodded, feeling very drained. She handed me a red pop and I managed to sit up in bed to eat the candy. She sighed and plonked down beside me. We sat like that for a while, enjoying the candy and each other’s company. Neither of us wanted to speak. I was afraid I’d never get to see her again, and well she was afraid of the same thing. How did I know this? Simple, I am a sister; we know each other’s thoughts almost better then twins. Our thoughts were basically revolving around the transformation wand, sailor scouts and sorrow. Neither of us was willing to break the silence first, finally I turned to her and we stared for what seemed like eternity into each others eyes. There was pain and loss in her eyes. There was hopelessness and worry in mine. In that instant, my sister and I were so close, and yet so un-alike. Finally the door opened and Corren came in; he broke up our moment as if it was never there. I looked up at him, feeling so old, feeling so helpless, so in control and without a shred of control. He shook his head sadly; there was no choice to be made. I sighed and stood up; my sister came with me. She wrapped her arms around me and whispered into my ear. What did she whisper? I cannot say, it was something I have remember forever and yet I forget in an instant, words that go unspoken, yet we all say them. I must say, Corren and I became very good friends, even though that very same day his turned into a cat, just as Artemis predicted. The senshi all left in their own time, I personally saw Princess Rini off, and I cried with her, and I laughed and I waved goodbye, I saw the last of them leave, and I don’t think I will ever forget. And so, now this leaves us at the end of my tale, I am still here, for my time has not finished as a sailor solider. Will I be forever young like Princess Rini was? Will I grow out of my ‘chibi’ place in the senshi line up? And now all I can think of to sum up my recount of that which has passed are but a few words, words which hang in the dawn of my mind and come to me when I don’t think about it. Why write a recount? I suppose one such as myself has decided that so much has happened and come to be that someone must know of what happened when the other senshi left. In my own way I feel responsible for it, I was the proof that new ages were coming. I lay awake at night and wonder, I wonder if I had simply not answered the phone, if I had simply not been home, I wonder if they would have stayed. But then I know that if I did not answer my Princess’s call, I would have let down a friend, a friend who needed my help, and I could never have let that happen. And so, now I must go. “My sister… Crystal goodbye… what has now passed.” The end. Authors notes: how was it!? I must know! Tell me! Email me, flames welcome… well not really. But dear god I have to know! Did it make you cry? Wonder about life? I need to know! ^^ Disclaimer: I dont own Sailor Moon, i wish i did, but i dont, and i'm not making any money out of this

Crystal Goodbye: What has now passed.