Welcome to Gaia! ::

She had met her princess!

She had met her princess!

Sutai was giddy as she went about her patrol that night. She danced from foot to foot and smiled as wide as... well, something really wide. She swung her brass telescope to and fro, sometimes tossing it up in the air before catching it again. Her crystalline braid swung with her movements, gems clinking together like chimes. Sutai was skipping, dancing and twirling down the street like a ninny and she didn't care.

Polaris had told her to protect the earth and the people in it who couldn't defend themselves. With that in mind, Sutai was out looking for monsters or people that needed help. She was scared, but she'd do what she could! If anything, she can go back to Polaris and say she did a good job! Yes indeed!

But she wasn't prepared for a lovely blonde lady in black. She was staring through the glass windows of a fancy jewelry store. Curiosity getting the better of her, Sutai definitely recognized the woman as a senshi. All caution blew out the window.

"HELLO~! Hello Miss Senshi Lady Person! Can I hang out with you, please?"

"Lost?"

Sutai looked genuinely confused.

"Oh no, I'm not lost. See, we're on the corner of..." Whip out telescope. Check for street signs. "...Washington and 4th!" Sutai returned her telescope to its upright and locked position before smiling. "I'm Sutai!" she exclaimed with glee. She was actually kind of getting used to saying that she was Sutai rather than Anandi. She wasn't supposed to be telling people her true identity after all. Shhh!

Commence the bouncing. Sutai was very busy inspecting every little piece of Lesath's outfit, from her long mothy wing translucent things and her tiara fuzzy bits. It was all adorable! But black! All of the senshi Sutai had ever met wore white. Was this some sort of senshi after-Labor-Day fashion thing or...? "Oh this is so pretty! Does your magic give you these wingy things? And why are you wearing black? What's your name? Oh this looks great with your eyes! Really brings them out, yes it does! You look fabulous in dark colors."

Sutai clapped with glee. "It's very nice to meet you, Lesath!" She was very pretty with her blacks and greens and everything, very pretty! The fuzzy bits on her tiara were Sutai's favorite - they looked like feathers! Or pipe cleaners! But the boots were the best part. Sutai fawned over them especially.

"Isn't it great that you don't have to worry about all those laces? You just magic up and POOF! It's all taken care of for you! Talk about convenient." The page nodded to herself in affirmation. "Oh yes I guess I do look like a fairy. One very nice senshi said I looked like an ice skater or something like that. I tend to agree. Not like we can pick them though, you know? It's all magic and stuff!" Magic made things so nice, but she wished she could just call out a phrase and poof into her school uniform, or poof herself some breakfast, or poof her homework done.

It took her a little while to register the question. What was she doing out and about this evening? ...Oh yeah! Sutai squirmed with the news. "I'm out protecting the innocent from monsters and bad guys! Just like my princess said to. She said, 'we need to protect the people of Earth because they can't protect themselves, so it's our duty!' and so... here I am!" Sutai then posed the question back to Lesath. "Are you out shopping, Lesath? Shouldn't your boyfriend be buying your jewels?"

The page was very pleased she had someone else to talk to! And about princesses no less! "Her name is Polaris and she's super nice and very pretty and she likes to hug people. I like her very much. I'm very lucky to have her! Do you have a princess, Lesath? Does everybody have one? Or just lucky people?" She was genuinely curious and Lesath seemed to know what she was talking about. And she was friendly too! Very friendly. Sutai wanted to give her a hug but needed to find the right time to do so.

On the subject of sparkly things, Sutai nodded fervently. "Oh yes, sometimes they don't get the right one so you have to drag them out here and point it out. Good strategy! My mama does that to papa when she wants pretty jewels for anniversaries and things like that. Papa always picks the wrong ones." The page giggled at the thought of what happened last time - Mama started whacking Papa with a rolled up newspaper.

Mama was scary when angered!

"Oh those blues really would bring out your eyes! Here, you can try mine on!" The ice princess page unhooked some of the many blue crystals that were spun into her braid and handed them to the senshi. They came on a long piece of cord that could be tied around the back of the neck. How they ended up so intricately woven into her braid, Sutai didn't know.

Sutai frowned and looked genuinely concerned when Lesath admitted to not knowing her own princess. "What? But..." Standing between the dark mirror and her reflection, the naive page pleaded with her older companion. "...but that isn't fair! You're part of her court and the least she could do is come see you! I mean if she really cared about you, she'd make the time to come see you! You're her friend and well... you do nice things for her, right? So she should do nice things for you!"

Polaris was always around when Sutai needed her and therefore the plucky page thought the same should apply to all royalty. Why, they wouldn't be royal without the love and protection of a court. The least a royal could do is interact with her people every once in a while no matter how busy they got to be. Besides, what could a princess be busy with? It was beyond her realm of thinking for the moment. Everything in Sutai's head was very pre-Pixar Disney.

"So, Lesath, you could... you know, go into her throne room and be like," The page stamped her foot and put on her best frowny face. "Princess! I'd like to get to know you so you should hang out with us sometime! We'll throw a party or... or something!" Throwing up her hands in enthusiasm, Sutai smiled. "Something like that. You know, show her you mean business! And your boyfriend too."

The Polaris Page was utterly perplexed by Lesath's description of her princess. Shouldn't royalty be warm and inviting if you love them so? To her, having a princess who wasn't super nice to you didn't seem like any fun at all. She tilted her head. "It's good she saved your life! If she didn't, well then I wouldn't be having this conversation with you about pretty necklaces and boyfriends but..." The dark skinned girl tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But why isn't she friendly? Do you only love her because she saved you? I just... I mean, I mean no offense! I really don't! I'm sure she has her reasons but... you shouldn't love her because you feel you have to. That's not love at all."

Sutai shook her head. "I want you to have a good relationship with your princess! It's very, very important! That's why I feel very blessed to have a princess who loves me and takes care of me. She's really very nice and she hugs me and tells me I'm doing a good job! So I work very hard! She believes in me, so I don't want to let her down, you know?" She giggled and played with the ends of her skirt. That is, until Lesath posed her next statement.

Color her confused again. "Well, thank you very much, Lesath! I like you very much too. Do you fight against the monsters too?" To Sutai, that was what the war was all about - fighting youma, protecting citizens and hanging out with her princess. She didn't yet realize that there was a unified faction set against them and that she was, in fact, talking to one of them right now.

So Lesath knew about the monsters too! "It's good that you haven't had to fight them! They're really terrible and they try to eat people! They tried to eat me too! So I had to whack it really hard with my telescope and I barely made it out alive... It was terrible." Sutai nearly shook with fright from the memory alone. She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked back at her senshi companion. "But... but I told myself, I said, I have to do this! because I don't want bad things to happen you nice people like you and Camelot and Tsui and all of them. So I do my best to protect people from the monsters."

The Page of Polaris cleared her throat and smoothed out her skirt while she listened to the dark senshi's explanation of the war. A right side and a wrong side?

"Umm... which side is right, Lesath?" she asked, voice quiet, like they were sharing an unimaginable secret. "I mean, I try to do good things and protect people, like with the monsters... you know, I try to stop and help other people who are doing the same thing and everyone's just been so nice. Especially my princess. I love her very, very much. She's like a big sister to me. I try to do right by her and you and everyone I meet!"

Sutai's little crystal heart broke at Lesath's words.

If you see people that look like me, with black outfits…don’t talk to them, Sutai. They are your enemies. They will try and hurt you.

But Remarque did no such thing! That can't be true!

"But... but Lesath?" the page started, voice cracking under the weight of disbelief. "...but... you're nice and why can't we... just be friends?" Sutai started to sniffle, tears threatening to break through and cascade down her face like so many stars. She clasped her hands together in a plea to Lesath. "You know... I mean... the war is so terrible and it... it hurts so many people... why can't we just all forget about it and be friends... and talk about fun things like s-s-shopping..."

The Dark Mirror Senshi Sutai thought of as a friend gave her a very grave warning - never speak to them again. They would hurt her, or worse. But wasn't Lesath different? Wasn't Remarque different too? "I just... I just...

And she broke down into tears.