
Tallulah Cowden had a baker’s dozen of reasons why she would never join arms with Chaos.
One and Two had helped her move into her new apartment, set up her Ikea furniture and left a pie warming in the oven. Her father pulled her aside and, with his typical stoic composure, asked her if there was anything he could do. And Tallulah said no, there wasn’t – the most he could do for her was to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, because she’d never forgive herself if anything happened to him. No one would ever reach Sailor Europa through her parents, but they would be her anchors. Her extended family had already lost one child to Chaos. She would not let them lose another.
Three was blue haired and bright-eyed. She was the best friend Tallulah could have asked for: so long as Magellan stood against the darkness, Europa would as well.
Four glowed brightly, a beacon in the night. Her Princess may have been lost and lonely before, but now she was found, and if Chibimoon could fight back from within Chaos’s grip, then Europa could fight it back as well. Even if she could not force her team to swear loyalty to the moon princess, Europa felt certain in her faith. Chibimoon would always find a loyal servant in Europa: she need only ask.
Five was as loyal a second-in-command as any captain could ever ask for. Selecting Ganymede as her most trusted deputy was not a decision Europa took lightly, but she was certain it would pay off. Having the Senshi of Lust at her side made her more confident in the Jovians as a whole.
Six was going to be brilliant, so brilliant, Callisto just didn’t know it yet.
Seven Tallulah had grown up with, and Europa would fight alongside Themis until the bitter end.
Eight had stared darkness in the face and come back from that dizzy edge, and Europa admired Kallichore more than she would ever say out loud.
Nine was possibly the smartest person in the room, but she was so quiet about it… Europa didn’t doubt that Pasiphae was the girl she wanted on her side when it came down to life or death strategy, and her powers of observation weren’t something to take lightly. Every team needed a voice of reason, and Europa had found hers.
Ten was a tiny, ginger wisp of a cat, but Tomlin believed in Europa, and Europa didn’t want to disappoint him.
Eleven was plural: Euanthe and Cyllene and Valhalla and Sessrumnir and Vindemiatrix and Babylon. Europa had found a second family in her court, and she was going to protect them just as fiercely as she planned to protect her first.
Twelve was multitude, every senshi and knight and civilian who dared to fight back against the darkness. If they could stand against it, so could she.
Thirteen was dead and gone, as far as Europa was concerned. But Europa would fight back with every fiber of her being against what Leto had become, because no human being deserved to be twisted into something so opposite themselves the way Kat had been.
Tallulah Cowden had a baker’s dozen reasons, plus one. Plus was herself, the girl she’d grown up as, the woman she would be, the senshi who joined the two in the middle, and the past lives stretching out across the cosmos. If she could not fight for others then she would fight for herself. Uncorrupted, every inch the warrior she was meant to be. Anything else was treason.
Tallulah Cowden had a baker’s dozen reasons to keep fighting, and then some more, and every single one of them made her reach for her henshin pen each evening and go looking for trouble. She had a star in her heart, and it would light up all the dark corners of her world.
No giving up. No surrender. Fourteen reasons, and Chaos would never get ahold of her.