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“ Basterds help the Crew train, the Crew helps gather more information for the Basterds. Seems pretty win-win.”

Having successfully demolished one snowman, Rose reached for another. The sugar was making her feel a bit better.

“ I’ve only heard of Corrupted Senshi, I’ve never met one. The Nega said by corrupting Senshi they could make them turn against their friends and family; sounds like magical brainwashing to me.”

A wild guess, but how else could it be explained? Blackmail? Soul-stealing? And Tallulaah’s question did briefly throw Rose for a loop, at least until she clarified.

“ I only saw Chibimoon at the Senshi meeting, thought I sent her a message saying that if she is ever in need, she can call on me. I know we’re supposed to be looking for Serenity, but having someone here, well, that makes things a bit more real for me.”

"The corrupteds wear black. I didn't get much more out of the one Bellatrix and I met, though her name was Tisiphone and her secondary color was yellow. Seemed pretty intent on stealing Bell's starseed, but I think that was back when the plan was still to kill us."

Already her brain was spooling out a whole list of questions about corrupted senshi that she wanted to go through and systematically answer, but it would have to wait. She'd do it later when she had the benefit of Microsoft excel and a quiet place to think.

"Chibimoon is a Serenity," explained Tallulah, talking with her hands in addition to her mouth now. "I mean, the one we saw at Halloween was the old queen? And then the princess from our dreams, the blonde one, she's Chibimoon's mother and in our timeline she's dead."

"It's like - you guys have seen the most recent Star Trek movie, right? With the time travel and the Romulans and Leonard Nimoy?" The metaphor only worked if you'd seen it, otherwise it was confusing and major spoilers. "So Spock goes back in time to an alternate universe where things are different from how things happened in the universe he came from?"

She gave the other girls a look to ask if they were following all this. "The same thing happened to Chibimoon. But the thing is she's the only remaining member of the whole royal lineage and I don't think it's a coincidence that she survived." In other words, Tallulah was sold on Small Lady being their best replacement for the princess, even if not everyone else was.

"And yes, we probably should have a new name. It wouldn't be fair to make the crew all become Basterds or the Basterds all become the crew - that would be like one team was absorbing the other, when really they're combining into something new. Anyone got any ideas?"

She was sure she would, but she needed a moment to think.

Sydney mentally filed the corrupted senshi’s description into the back of her mind. However vague it was, it could prove to be useful someday, at least she knew to avoid senshi who heavily donned black. “A Serenity? There’s more than one?” She knitted her eyebrows together as she mumbled. Sensing a mind-boggling story, Sydney crammed another cookie into her mouth.

She had never seen Star Trek, but at least she knew the gist of it (outer space and stuff . . . right??) and her lack of knowledge didn’t muddle the explanation that much—Chibimoon was a Serenity from another dimension. Huh. Sydney thoughtfully chewed, grateful that her mouth was filled with food and she couldn’t stupidly babble to the other two girls.

Then it was name brainstorming time. Oooohhh. “Syndicate? Makes us sound mafia-like. O-Or—“ She rattled off other names, each one sillier than the previous one and each one oozing with more internet jokes, but at least she seemed closer to her usual self.

“ I don’t think our short skirts, or hot pants-” Rose gave Sydney fake glare; this had become a running joke of sorts, “ or butt bows are going to let us seem very menacing or mafia-like. Unless we’d be a fashion mafia, but the point still stands.”

Bows were not scary. Period. Not even on Negas.

“ S.S. equals Secret Police.” Rose winced. “ That should probably be avoided.”

So Rose thought, and munched on her mangled cookie remains, and munched some more.

“ I like Serenity’s Army, but anyone that gets the reference won’t take us very seriously. Maybe as a secondary name, a nickname? Kinda like Team WTF was for Motley Crew.” A small, but real grin appeared at those words.

“ Maybe we could be The Senshi Alliance? That way we’d keep the letters S.A. for Serenity’s Army.”

If Tallulah knew Sydney was looking at her like she'd been hitting the eggnog a bit too hard, she didn't acknowledge it. Instead she finished her last cookie and brushed her hands off. "I think thats it," she nodded. "Find out who's coming into the merge with us."

She knew the Basterds would probably lose one or two people - it was a big team already. Someone, somewhere was sure to object. "Sydney," she added, "You'd better give me your phone number, and I'll call you both to make plans for our first meeting and hammer out our mission statement."

Tallulah Cowden was starting to plan, and nothing was going to stop her. At this rate, she'd be up all night drafting declarations about true princesses and usurpers to the throne.

She raised the remainder of her hot chocolate. "To the Senshi Alliance and Serenity," she toasted.

Sydney frowned. That was right. There was the possibility that not everyone in the Motley Crew would willingly comply with the team merge. The idea had completely slipped her mind. As her frown deepened she pulled her legs even closer to her chest as she tried to soak in this revelation. She hoped—wished—that everyone would agree without much trouble. Although they did not contact each other often Sydney still considered them friends and special comrades.

“Ah. Phone number. Right.” She shook off the thoughts about her team and got to her feet while curiously searching for a piece of scratch paper and pencil. Sydney scribbled her cell phone number on the paper and handed it to Tallulah. Since she had finished her drink a long time ago, the redhead simply smiled and echoed, “To the Senshi Alliance and Serenity.”

Sydney glanced outside, slowly trailing over to Rosa’s window. “Nah. I suddenly left my house so my dad’s probably worried. I should get home,” she answered.