Ryan sat on the old couch in his apartment, looking out the window.  He was very bored.  It was 6 p.m., and he was waiting for Shiloe to call him like she usually did at that time, right after her ballet class.  Then the phone rang, and he rushed to get it.  “Hello?”
 “Um, Ryan?” a voice on the other end said.  It wasn’t Shiloe.  “It’s me, Dani.”
 “Darn,” Ryan thought.  “Oh, hi, Dani.”
 “Okay, Ryan, something very bad happened,” Dani said.  “See, Tantalus attacked the school, and Shiloe was fighting him, and…shelostherheartcrystal.”  Dani said the last words quickly, trying to get the bad news over with as soon as possible.
 “What’re you trying to do, go for the world record for speed-talking?” Ryan joked.
 Dani sighed.  “Fine, I’ll say it slower.  Shiloe…sort of lost her, um, heart crystal.  And Xenos came, and he, well, he stole it.  The heart crystal, I mean.”  There was no answer on the end of the line for a while.  “Ryan?  You still there?”
 “Yeah, I’m there,” Ryan said; it sounded like he was trying to hold back tears.  “So.  Is she, you know, um…is she dead?”
 “No, stupid, she’s not dead,” Dani rolled her eyes.  “She’s at my place.  Still alive, just unconscious.  It’s not like the heart crystal got smashed or anything.”
 Suddenly, Ryan said, “Oh my God.”
 “What?” Dani said, alarmed.
 “You think she’s the whatsisname?  You know, the person who’s going to destroy the world?  I mean, does she have that crystal thing?”
 “Geez, Ryan, don’t scare me like that,” Dani said.  “I thought for a minute you’d seen a ghost or something.”
 “Is she?” he pressed.
 “I don’t know,” she admitted.  “Xenos took the crystal before I could look at it.  Not like I’d be able to tell, but…no, we don’t know if she’s the Destroyer or not.”
 “Oh,” Ryan said, unable to think of anything better to say.  There was a pause, then he said, “You know what would be really funny?”
 “What?” Dani said, sounding impatient.
 “If the Destroyer were Sara,” Ryan laughed.  “Or Chrysta.  Especially Chrysta.  It’d be kinda funny to see this little kid with pigtails destroying a whole planet, wouldn’t it?”
 “Not if it were our planet!” Dani shouted, nearly deafening Ryan through the phone.  “Don’t you get it?  No, I don’t think you do, so let me rephrase our situation in terms you’d understand: if we don’t beat bad guys, whole planet go boom.  Okay?”
 “Well, sorry, Miss Morbid!” Ryan snapped back.  “I humbly apologize for having a sense of humor.  I know what’s going on, I was just kidding.  I’m just trying to make light of the situation, is that so wrong?”  Dani didn’t have an answer for that, and there were a few more moments of silence before Ryan added, “Is it okay if I stop by your place, just to see her?”
 “Sure,” Dani replied.  Although she wasn’t too thrilled of the idea of Ryan coming by her house, she knew he wanted to see Shiloe.
 “All right, I’m on my way,” Ryan said, hanging up the phone and running for the door.
 
 
Dani hung up the phone in the living room of her house, then walked back upstairs to her bedroom where Marie was waiting with Shiloe.  Dani noticed when she walked in that her room looked…different.  She couldn’t quite figure out how.
 “So you called him?” Marie asked.  Dani nodded.  “What did he say?”
 “He’s coming over to see her,” Dani replied.  “Marie…what did you do to my room while I was on the phone?  It looks different.”
 “Cleaned it,” Marie replied.  “I picked up all that junk you had lying around on the floor, and I organized the books on the shelf so they’re not in random order anymore, they’re alphabetized.”
 “But I liked that junk laying around on the floor!” Dani complained.
 “Lying around on the floor,” Marie corrected.  “Laying isn’t proper grammar.  Oh, and I also put your Sports Illustrated magazines in chronological order.”
 Dani rolled her eyes, then turned and looked down at Shiloe.  “How is she doing?  Still have a pulse?  Is she still breathing, or should we take her to the hospital or something?”
 “Well, Dani,” Marie started, “if she had stopped breathing or her heart had stopped while you were on the phone, don’t you think I would have come downstairs and gotten you?”
 “Oh.  Uh, right,” Dani said sheepishly.  “Heh.  Um, but have you checked her recently?  I mean, you seemed to have thought that putting my Sports Illustrated in order is the number 1 priority.”
 Marie looked hurt.  “I have not!  I checked on her every five minutes, and I just did right before you came in.  I may be a lot older than you and not as close with your friends, but I do care whether they live or die.”
 “Okay, sorry,” Dani said, looking down.  There was a long silence for a while, which was broken by the doorbell ringing.
 Dani immediately jumped up.  “It’s Ryan!” she cried, running downstairs to get the door.  “I can’t let Mom see that I have a boy over, otherwise she’ll check me into a mental hospital.”  She skidded to a halt in front of the door and flung it open.  “Hi Ryan!”
 “Forget my name again, fearless leader?” Moira asked, stepping inside.
“Oops,” Dani thought.  “No, I just expected Ryan to be here since I just called him.”
“So where is she?” Moira asked.
“Upstairs,” Dani replied, leading her up.  “Look, I’m really, extremely, really sorry about—”
“Get over it,” Moira interrupted.  “You’ve apologized once.  I know you’re really sorry, so you don’t have to tell me a million times.  I know you think that doing so will make you seem less at fault and that if you do maybe I’ll forgive you, but it’s not happening.  I’m not a human, I won’t fall for those stupid tricks.”
“Um…okay,” Dani said nervously, hoping, in a way, that Moira wouldn’t hit her again.  She hadn’t minded the first time, but if she did it a second time it might actually hurt.  “Well, here we are.”
She opened the door for Moira, who just pushed her aside.  “I’m capable of opening a door myself, thanks anyway.”
“Dani?” Marie said.  “I thought you said Ryan was coming.”
“He is coming,” Dani said, following Moira into the room.  “She just arrived first.”
Moira was kneeling next to the bed that Shiloe was on.  “She’s still alive, right?”
“Well, Moira,” Dani said, imitating what Marie had said to her earlier, “if she had died, don’t you think I would have called you, or something?  Or possibly I would have told you when you came in?”
Moira didn’t say anything to this.  She took Shiloe’s left wrist and checked her pulse.  “Well, her heart’s still beating,” she said.  Then, she held out her hand and it hovered over Shiloe’s mouth and nose.  “Still breathing too.  Even though someone in particular who destiny stupidly chose to be the leader let the enemy get away with her heart crystal…”
Dani glared at her.  “I’m the leader because I’m the princess.  Marie too.  You aren’t, so I don’t think you should be talking about how I’m doing as the leader.”
“See what I mean?” Moira said.  “You’re the leader because you just happened to be born to the King and Queen.  So they made you the leader, even though someone like Shiloe would be a much more competent leader, you are just because you’re part of the royal family.  If you think about it, it really doesn’t seem fair, does it?”
Dani and Marie both thought about this for a while, before Marie said, “You’re right, maybe it’s not fair.”
“Thanks a lot, Marie, for being on my side,” Dani snapped.  “Okay, Moira.  You think you can lead the group better?  Fine, go ahead!  Be the leader, and see if I care.  I resign.”
“Wait, Dani, I didn’t mean it that way!” Marie cried.  “You can’t do this.  You can’t resign, it’s destiny that you be the leader!”
Dani shrugged.  “I don’t care.  Moira wants to.  Don’t you, Moira?”
“No, I don’t,” Moira said.  “I never said I wanted to be the leader.  I said Shiloe would make a better leader.  Not me.”
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Dani jumped out of her seat.  “Okay, this time it really must be Ryan!”  She ran downstairs, only to find that her mother had gotten to the door before her.  “Wait!” Dani cried out, but to no avail.  Her mother opened the door to find Ryan just outside.
“Dani, there’s a boy here for you,” her mother said, puzzled.
“Actually, Mom, he’s here for Marie,” Dani lied.  “Marie, uh, she told him she’d be here so…here he is!”
“Um, yeah, that’s right,” Ryan said.  He and Dani hurried up the stairs, with her mom looking at him in bewilderment.  “Okay Dan, that’s the last time I’m covering for you.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Dani said, opening the door to her room.  “Oh, Moira’s here, by the way.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Ryan said, entering the room.  “Hey, Mo.  Hi Marie.”  Moira didn’t say anything.  Marie just smiled and waved at him.  “So, what have you been doing?”
“Marie cleaned my room,” Dani announced.
“Oh, really?” Ryan asked, looking around.  “Huh.  Thought it looked different somehow.”
“And we’ve also been talking about what a horrible leader Dani is because it’s her fault this happened to Shiloe…” Moira put in.
“Well, not exactly,” Marie said, sensing a fight.  “Actually, Moira just said—”
“Hey, hold on a second,” Ryan interrupted.  “Since when is it Dani’s fault?  I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did make a mistake like that, but…”
“Oh gee thanks, Ryan,” Dani replied sarcastically.
“Oh, so apparently Dani didn’t tell you the whole story when she called you, eh?” Moira asked.  “What happened was that Shiloe was fighting Tantalus, but he stole her heart crystal.  Then Dani did the only thing she’d done right all day: attack Tantalus and make him go unconscious.”  Dani glared at her a little, but said nothing.  “But then Xenos came, and he took the crystal.  Dani let him, even though she was standing right there and she could have easily grabbed it from him.  Xenos said he was going to check and see if it was the Dead Crystal, but he didn’t.  He teleported away.  So it is her fault, because she could have stopped him easily.  If you don’t believe me, ask Michelle.  She was there, and she saw the whole thing too.”  Moira smirked, proud of herself for revealing the truth to Ryan.
Ryan looked stunned.  “Dani?”  He asked Dani for confirmation.
“It’s true,” Dani said quietly.  “I could have gotten it, but I didn’t.  I could have stopped him though.”
“Yeah, and you know what else you could have done?  You could have just killed Shiloe, that’s what!” Ryan yelled.  “Suppose he never returns her heart crystal, and she’s in a permanent coma.  And suppose that, say, he destroys her heart crystal.  She’ll die.  And it’ll be your fault!”
“Actually, if he destroys it it’s his fault…” Dani reasoned.
“But partially yours,” Ryan argued.  “And that counts too.  Because you made the mistake of practically handing her crystal to him on a silver plate, you now have a responsibility for her.  And I won’t let you forget it.”
 

“Well done, Xenos,” Cleopatra 90 praised her minion, as he presented her the heart crystal.  “I assume this is the heart crystal that I asked you to get, right?  That of Sailor Spica?”
“It is,” Xenos said.
At that moment someone else teleported into the room.  Cleopatra 90 looked up.  “Who’s there?”
The other person stepped forward from the shadows, and they could both see clearly now that it was Tantalus.  “Don’t give Xenos the credit, Cleopatra 90.  It was I who retrieved the heart crystal of Sailor Spica.”
“Really?” Cleopatra asked, looking from Xenos to Tantalus, then back to Xenos again.  “Is this true?”
“No, it’s…OW!”  Xenos was interrupted by a rock that Tantalus had just thrown hitting him in the back.  “Yes, it’s true,” he admitted.
“I got the heart crystal to begin with,” Tantalus said.  “Then Sailor Zephyr attacked me and I lost consciousness.”
“That’s right,” Xenos said.  “I was watching from the field and when I saw him faint, I teleported over to snatch the heart crystal.”  He laughed, “Zephyr barely even tried to stop me!  I told her I was going to check the crystal, but then I just took it and teleported away!”
“Hmm,” Cleopatra 90 said, examining the crystal.  “Well, it’s not the Dead Crystal.  It appears to be very powerful, though.  Do you know what happened to Spica after you stole the crystal?”
“No, I didn’t stick around too long afterwards,” Xenos said.  “Why?”
“Well, I’d assume that the other sailors would have taken her home and looked after her, right?” Cleopatra reasoned.  “So maybe if we make her into a wraith, she’ll be near them at the time and she can attack them!  And we can make her into a wraith, we have her heart crystal after all.”
“Brilliant!” Tantalus exclaimed.  “Absolutely brilliant, Cleopatra 90.”
“Yes, I know,” Cleopatra said.  She held the crystal in front of her, concentrating on it.  “Wraith…come forth.”
 
 

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