Sidestory:
Yo Quiero Romanus

by Angie, Jenny~Pie, Lori, LS, Sky, and Tami

Once again, fast food conglomerates, we love you, and our stories exist only to honor you. Hey, at least we were nicer to Taco Bell than we were to McDonald's!

Rayya frowned at her car. Damn, how was she supposed to fit people in it. Somehow, over the course of just a week, her entire back seat had disappeared. She bent down and plunged her hand through the pile of clothing that had replaced it experimentally. Oh, there it is, she thought as she hit the velour cushions. With a sigh, she withdrew her hand, checked her watch, and shrugged. No real time for any extensive cleaning.

"Ahem," Julius cleared his throat as noisily as he dared. "I'm waiting here, Rayya."

"I know, I know," she replied with a grin, glancing over her shoulder to see her guardian sitting sullenly on the dorm's increasingly warm black-top parking lot. "Just give me a sec." Quickly, she circled to the back of the car and popped the trunk. Within a few high-speed moments, she had cleared her back seat of all debris and tossed the pile into the trunk, slamming it closed with satisfaction. Then she unceremoniously tossed Julius in the back seat, patted his head, and moved to take her place at the wheel.

"Why can't I sit in front?" Julius whined as he attempted to make himself comfortable.

"Because I'd rather one of the others up here with me. They don't try to hog the radio," Rayya giggled. "Okay, then. Guess Gwyn's first since she's closest." As she started the car and pulled out, she wondered what on earth had possessed them all to decide that Taco Bell was a suitable meeting place...

The effervescent Ms. Kelly stood outside her apartment squinting in the daylight. Has it been so long? She wondered, lazily scratching the blue dolphins tattooed around her belly button, and readjusting her red tank top. Her roommate Jonah looked like he'd seen a ghost when she'd woken up that afternoon. The things she did to be a senshi. Reaching into her tan camel skin jacket, she withdrew a pair of green tinted, gold rimmed sunglasses. As she donned them thankfully, Rayya pulled up and honked happily.

"What? No limo for the Romanus? When do we start seeing some perks!?!" She joked, sliding into the passengers seat. A condescending groan from the back seat made her smile even wider.

"Good to see you too, piglet!" She said to Julius, blowing him a kiss with candy pink lips in the rear view mirror. "You did tell him we're going out to get ribs, right?" She asked Rayya seriously.

Rayya shook her head, supressing the grin. "I thought it'd be so much nicer if we surprised him," she replied. "My little Jules just loves surprises, you know."

"The only surprise I'd like to see would be the two of you taking things seriously for once," Julius growled.

Rayya sobered instantly and twisted in her seat to glare at the pig. "I do take it seriously, Julius," she replied softly. "You saw how seriously I take it now."

Shaken by the look in Rayya's eyes, Julius retreated against the seat back. Of course, he remembered. Finally, he shook his head. "Fine, we'll just go get ribbed."

Rayya's look immediately morphed into disgust. "Oh, that's gross," she whimpered.

"You started it."

"Whatever floats your boat piggy, but you be polite today, or tonight... we dine." Gwyn giggled at his reflection for a few moments, then started to shuffle through her bag. "So Ray, who are we picking up on our way to the prestigious meeting place?"

"Oh, um." Rayya adjusted her seatbelt and restarted the car with a grin. "Wade," she answered. "You'll love him. He's a complete sweetie... I'd have picked up others but that would've been awfully cramped." She laughed, all sobriety gone now. "He's a mite on the big side."

Gwyn saw the truth of this statement when Rayya's car soon pulled up near a cutesy whitepicket-suburbia house. Wade Salter, 6'5" and the Romanus equivalent of Godzilla, beamed and opened the door at the back. "Think I'll fit in here, y'know," he joked. "Hi, 'ayya. You look pretty today. T'anks for pickin' me up." His blush was nuclear. "An' this must be Gwyn, right?"

Rayya giggled, "Yep, that there's Gwyn."

"That's me cowboy." Gwyn replied, turning in her seat to face him. "Sailor Fortuna to some." She gave Rayya a suspicious glance and mocked a whisper. "Don't believe anything she said about me, the Doctors said I'm fine now." She looked at the giant in the backseat for a second. It was pretty cramped back there. "Now I understand why we only get one guy on our team. You look like you could take out ten guys without breaking a sweat."

After another second of glancing around the back she realized what she was looking for.

"Hey, um... wasn't Julius sitting there a second ago?"

Before she could continue, however, an angry yelp erupted from the area behind her seat. "Will you watch where you're putting those tree stumps, boy?" Julius squealed, scrambling backwards and up off the floor. "There is someone else back here, you know!"

"Oh! Oh, man, Jules, I am soooo sorry," Wade gasped, pulling Jules to safety and setting him down in the chair beside him. He fished out the small bucket that was between his thighs for safety and carefully set it down next to the little pig. "I'm so clumsy'n stupid. Here, you jus' sit down an' Livvy can sit next t'you." He smiled in an effort to make up for it. "I understand you'n her met?"

There was a sound that was very much like a turtle trying to sniff snobbishly underwater.

"Yes, yes, we have... Met." Julius nodded at the bucket and then promptly turned to stare out the car window.

Rayya twisted in her seat and glared at him. "Julius, don't make me warn you again about behaving," she began sternly. "I'll have to hand you over to Gwyn for obedience school." The threat was rather ruined by her forcibly restrained giggles. She righted herself in her seat then and checked her seat belt. "Okay, if that's finished then, we'll just head on out." She grinned and started the car. "Here we come... Taco Bell!"

As the terrific trio made their way into the small fast-food joint, there was Priscilla, all decked out in her work duds, including the ridiculous visor...

Without giving a second glance at the three, she rolled rather lifelessly into her spiel, "Hi, welcome to Taco Bell, may I take your order?"

During the momentary lull of decision making, she glanced at Rayya a few times before getting a spark of recognition; "Hey, don't I know you? Rayya, right? You were with that short, purple haired chick, weren't you?"

Rayya laughed softly and beamed at the absent-minded girl. "Mind like a steel trap, Silly," she commented teasingly. "Rusty and illegal in 48 states. Yeah, I'm Rayya." She motioned to her companions. "This is Wade and Gwyn." Then she pointed out the glass doors to a small, sulking pig. "And I'm sure you remember Julius, eh?"

Glancing at Wade, and shrinking back a bit at his height before grinning at him and Gwyn, she nodded, "Howdy, Wade 'n' Gwyn. The name’s Priscilla, and you'll have to excuse me for not taking your order, but," with a gesture at the clock, she winked, "It's time for my shift to switch."

Grabbing a backpack, and hopping over the counter, she rolled her eyes at the miserable pig, "Of course I remember Jules. How on Earth could I forget, considering he and Aeneas were about to rip each other's heads off, and, by the way," she opened the bag, revealing a fat, black, sleeping rabbit, "I'm sure the two will be so happy to see each other. Shall we go outside, or are you wanting some food, Bunyun?"

Directing her hazel gaze to Wade, she offered him a friendly smile to let him know she was only kidding.

Wade had racked his brain throughout the entire conversation to remember which senshi who was, before remembering a passing comment his turtle had made before. "Oh! You're Clio!" he said without thinking before slapping his hand over his mouth.

"Um, maybe we better get outside," he said lamely, blushing wildly, knowing how much Livia would berate him if he knew how careless he was. "Y'know, more privacy an' all. Maybe somebody had better order while we go out. I know Livvy ain't gonna like being kept in the car for long."

"And neither is Julius." Rayya handed her car keys to Wade with a smile. "Go and let loose the beasts, handsome. I'll order some basic foods and we'll all split 'em up outside." She nodded towards Priscilla then. "And don't worry. Gwyn doesn't bite unless she's provoked and Wade, sadly enough, won't even bite then." With a wave, she shooed the three towards the doors and then turned back to beam at the new cashier, a gawky teenage boy. "Well, hello," she began the ordering process.

Chuckling fondly at Wade's comment, Priscilla shook her head, hefting her backpack onto her shoulders, and jostling Aeneas awake. Groggily peering out of the backpack for a few moments, Aeneas finally shook himself. "Priscilla, let's go outside, so I may speak with the other guardians."

With a roll of her eyes, Priscilla grinned at Gwyn and Wade, "Well, the rabbit wants us outside, and he gets kind of huffy if I don't listen to him, so let's get movin', 'kay?" Without waiting for a reply, she made her way out the doors, and into the waiting clutches of Julius.

Hopping out of the bag, Aeneas stared at Julius irritatedly for a bit, before Priscilla dropped the now empty bag on top of him, "Don't cause trouble, or I'll turn you into lucky charms."

Julius hopped out of the car, nodding his thanks to Wade who had opened the door for him. "Pleasure to see you again as well, Aeneas," he replied, only a slight hint of chill in his low voice. "Where's Rayya gone to?"

"She's gone t'get our stuff," Wade answered, pulling a bucket from beside the pig. "Livvy, you hokay?"

"Ai'm fine, deah," she replied. "Just a touch ohf sunstrooke, ai'd imagine." The turtle lowered her voice haughtily. "Ahnd, going by my companion, most laikely foot and mouth."

"Livvy, that's not nice," Wade hissed.

Perking his ears up at the new voice, Aeneas shook off the bag, "Ah, you must be Livia, guardian to Neptune, I believe? I'm Aeneas, the...unfortunate guardian to the absentminded Sailor Clio."

With a roll of her eyes, Priscilla grabbed Aeneas by the scruff of his neck and glared at him, "We have a vat of grease with your name on it, Fuzzy."

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," the abused rabbit squeaked out. After being deposited rather gruffly on the ground, he shook his fur out, "Well then, as soon as Rayya gets out here, we'll get down to business."

"Did someone say my name?" a sweet alto interrupted before Julius could make a tart response to Livia's comment. Rayya slid a heaping tray onto the nearest table and smiled around at the others. "Chow's on," she continued as she took her place on one of the unforgiving plastic benches and pulled a kid's meal towards herself. "So what about me?" she asked softly, unpacking the paper bag of goodies.

"Well, you're being too good to everyone and working hard as usual, that's what about you," a voice said directly behind Wade.

Everyone jumped and turned to look. Theresa stood there, her lavender hair down instead of in braids for once, grinning at them. No one had seen or heard her approach, and it was an open area, so it made no sense.

"Am I late?" she said.

"Nah," Rayya said. "Just getting started. Where's - ?" she trailed off, but she didn't need to finish the sentence.

There was nothing directly in Rayya's voice that indicated she wasn't glad to see the alter ego of the Senshi of Vengeance. But she dropped her eyes to the table as if it was hard to look at the other girl. Theresa knew it had nothing to do with her, but what they'd been through.

"Sleeps during the day," Theresa said. "Bats are strictly nocturnal, thank God." Aenas and Julius were staring at her with a peculiar stillness. Livia wasn't in sight. Theresa paid no mind to it, wondering what kind of rapport everyone else had developed before she'd come along to the Romanus.

"Well, well." Gwyn spoke up with a smirk. "If it isn't Batgirl. Is the bat really sleeping, or does he still wanna switch sides?"

She then leaned over the table of junk food, wrinkling her nose. Reaching far over the bags of sweaty looking taco's and what-not, she plucked up a big slushy and walked back to sit on the hood of Rayya's car adjacent to the tables. Flicking some hair out of her face, she peered down into her bag and pulled out a small bottle of Jose Quervo, pouring some of the delicate amber liquid into the cup, and shaking it. Everyone shifted uncomfortably, and even Rayya (hard to believe) was remaining silent.

Snickering to herself, and hoping to lighten the dismal mood, she looked up and ventured a crack on the Senshi of Vengence. No big deal if she looked like a jerk, she rather enjoyed pushing Theresa's buttons.

"Hope you brought some Tums or something in your utility belt. That Taco Bell stuff is rough."

"Not if you don't load it with hot sauce," Rayya commented dryly, holding up three empty packets of the extra-hot and indicating the saturated soft taco in front of her. Then she motioned towards the empty space next to her on the bench. "Hey, Theresa, pull up some food and a seat," she continued with a faintly uncomfortable smile. "I'll introduce you around to the rest of these characters, huh?" Food temporarily forgotten, she stood and circled around to the others, touching each team mate lightly as she named them. "This here is Priscilla, Clio, history, y'know?"

"The hot sauce is the best part," was Priscilla's comment as she bit into a hot sauce laden taco, and gave a slight wave, "Howdy, chick. Just call me Silly, or Sil. But, don't call me late for dinner."

"And you already know Gwyn." Rayya glanced at the alcohol-filled cup in her friend's hand with an unreadable expression as she passed by.

"C'mon Ray," Gwyn drolled in a mock Irish accent, stretching out on the hood and laying back against the windshield. "You know it's always happy hour somewhere."

Reaching the final member, Rayya patted the tall young man's shoulder, squeezing slightly. "And this is Wade, Neptune." She half-chuckled then as she returned to her seat and added, "And the various escapees from the latest Dr. Doolittle are Aeneas, Julius, and Livia's in the bucket."

"I resent that comment," Aeneas's reply was somewhat muffled, considering Priscilla was giving him all of her lettuce and tomato, "Anyway, I suggest we call this meeting to order. Any new business?"

"Is everyone here first?" Wade worried, managing to get over being slightly wide-eyed and shy at so many senshi. He put Livia down on the table and counted off on his fingers. "Um, we have Gwyn, Rayya, Priscilla, Theresa, an' a bunch of guardians. Dunno 'bout Jamie, she might be along later, maybe not. Asa said that he was plannin' on havin' a migraine, so I don' think he's coming - that's Cupid and Aesculapius - but otherwise... yeah, we're all here."

"Thiank the Gods," Livia muttered.

He beamed widely. "Hokay, since that's all done, like Aeneas said, you guys got any news?"

"Here's the flash Waterboy," Gwyn laughed wryly, without getting up. "We're being hunted by crazed kids in costume. My question is, what are we gonna do about it?"

"You're going to fight them and protect yourselves, of course," Julius announced. "What else?"

"Gee," Rayya replied softly as she poked at her soft taco thoughtfully. "I thought we'd throw a little tea party and invite them all over for scones." At the strange looks directed at her by the others, she smiled faintly. "Sarcasm. Welcome to our country," she added. "Really, though... I guess he's right." She unrolled the taco in front of her and then rerolled it. "We watch each others' backs."

Barely before Rayya had finished her sentence, a classic jade '69 Beetle convertible with silver daisies painted all over the polished exterior pulled up, roaring a horn set to play "La Cucaracha" on demand pulled into the parking spot next to her car. A girl dressed in a halter top created from what looked like an American flag and tight hiphugger jeans with a rhinestone-studded belt that didn't have any stones matching the red, white or blue stripes stepped out of the driver's side, shaking out her magenta bob.

"Wadey Boy!" Lissie shrieked as she headed towards the group of senshi, beginning to speak in the southern debutante accent Livia seemed to favor. "Am I late or anything? I saw a neon pink leather jacket in the vintage store and had to have it . . . impulse shopping will be my death, dahling. And where's my favorite ninja turtle. Don't tell me you didn't bring Livvy, she was the whole reason I was coming! That and the option of mooching tortilla chips off people, but who cares?

Animated and loud as ever, Lissie her way into a seat next to everyone's favorite ocean warrior, and began her introductions, grabbing the hand Rayya wasn't using to shove a taco into her mouth and shaking it warmly. "Name's Felicity but I'm only called that when I'm in trouble, so call me Lissie unless you're mad at me. Sailor Thalia, senshi of comedy and all things Adam Sandler as I worship at the altar of Sandler, Monty Python and Kevin Smith." She paused for a split second as if to allow someone else to speak, but spotted Gwyn holding her alcohol first, and immediately brightened.

"There's someone I already know! Good ol' Jose and I are always seeing each other at cast parties! I know it's pathetic to use narcotics and alcohol as early as lunch, but c'mon, Aldous Huxley? The Doors of Perception? It's a creative vice. Hell, Picasso, Hemingway, Stienbeck, even Marlon Brando were all raging alcoholics. It's the instigator of either genius or complete stupidity, I always say, but I'm willing to take the chance. Besides, I have Wadey Boy here to be the designated driver, so I'm all safe. Now, where's La Belle with a Shell?"

And with that animated and somewhat one sided entrance, Priscilla lost all powers of speech. Eyeing the girl with a wary gaze, she frowned slightly. Finally stepping forward, she stuck out a hand towards her, a smile finding its way back to her face, "Hi, I'm Priscilla, or Sailor Clio. The rabbit in the backpack is Aeneas..."

Lissie beamed that smile that always held some part of a sardonic smirk in the way her dimple puckered with merriment, and waved at Aeneas, winking suggestively.

"I take it you wouldn't go for any playboy bunny jokes, would ya?"

Retrieving her hand, she sat back down at the table and munched on a taco before piping up again, "I think it'd be funny if we found out the Graikos's identities, and sent Aeneas or Livia to spy on them," she grinned, shooting an apologetic look to Julius, "No offense, Jules, but it'd look weird to have a pig hanging around...anyway, I haven't been in any fights with any of the other teams...what're they like?"

"Bad," Wade said darkly. "Rayya's almost died once, I know, an' I've been thrown off buildin's and had stuff thrown at me more times than I can count. The Graikos - that's our opposite team - have some real nasty guys in it. It's no picnic, eh, Livvy?"

"Whah?" Livia said distractedly, having crawled out of the bucket to be in paroxysms of delight over Lissie, her favouritest senshi of the bunch. "Whai, of course not, no picnic whatsoever. But ai do wish thaht yoo hadn't let thaht nasty Graikos Hyperion boy find out whoo yoo were."

"Ah, leave him alone, Livia, sweetie," Rayya interrupted gently. Carefully, she folded the paper back around her taco and looked up with a slight smile on her face. "Things happen and I think he makes up for it by saving my sorry tush that night." Then she redirected her gaze to Priscilla. "Silly Silly," she teased lightly. "Remember Persephone? She was Graikos... That poor little thing."

Julius shook his head and cut in. "Yes, well. Welcome, Felicity, to the club." He rolled his eyes. "I have yet to decide if they're the Twilight version of the seven dwarfs or the Mickey Mouse Club on speed."

Theresa, who had been studiously quiet, snorted with laughter. "I've got a feeling they're somewhere eating fast food, and having the same discussion about us. And really...who are we, anyway? To them, or each other."

She glanced at Rayya while she said it, wondering what all they were referring to and realizing she had a lot to catch up on. She took another bite of her chalupa kid's meal and muttered, "Bastards don't have mexi-fries here, do they."

Gwyn shifted lazily on the hood, squirming a bit in the sunshine but too damn lazy to move. "So... what I'm thinking is...." She paused a minute to take a long luscious sip of this wonderful drink. "We know who Hyperion is, right? Why don't we grab his ass off the street, knock him up a bit, and get him to spill his yellow-bellied guts. We find out the identities of all the Graikos, and take their transformation items." She mock wiped her hands. "Problem, sol-ved."

"Ahnd then we kill him?" Livia inquired thoughtfully. "I quaite like it."

"No!" Wade growled, folding his arms together. "That ain't fair, Livvy. We haven't killed any o'them an' Zach ain't gone after me yet. I don' think he's gonna - I frightened him outta his wits the last time. If we're gonna play this, let's play this fair, y'know?"

"Faih doesn't come into it," his turtle replied. "Pity some of them don't need transformation items, though, or Miss Gwyn's plan maight work."

"It... It wouldn't." The soft, slow words issuing from Rayya caused the others to turn towards her in surprise. Instantly, Julius was hovering at her side, for once offering no smart comments only silent support. Rayya was oblivious to him and merely stood, catching her purse as it slid from the seat reflexively. "Fair is fair," she murmured as she moved towards the building's wall. "Not fair is not fair." She shrugged and leaned back against the wall, taking a deep breath. "Sometimes there's a point where you just can't go." Words said, she dropped her gaze and kneaded her hands, covered by the long sleeves of her shirt, together.

Theresa also stood while Rayya was speaking, waiting for the other girl to look at her. When she didn't, Theresa said, "Sometimes you have no choice." She looked pointedly at Julius but didn't add anything else.

With a loud movement Gwyn leapt off the car in a fury. "Goddammit Rayya!" She seethed, throwing her drink in the street and walking towards her. "You can't stop blaming yourself! What's the point of trying to even all these things out? Trying to decide if what's fair, what's unfair. It's ridiculous! These things don't exist in this wacko scenario. It's all just - complete bullshit." She stopped to brush the hair from her face, finally taking a second to calm down. Looking down at her shoes, she finally continued in a more human tone.

"I'm sorry the girl is dead. I'm sorry that things worked out like that, and that there's no way to fix it. But you didn't want it to happen, and you didn't know that would happen. What's not fair is that this happened to you, and it's not over." She distractedly wiped a tear from her cheek that she had thought she could keep from dropping. "I really hate watching you like this."

Wade, who had been looking wide-eyed and bemused all through the conversation, slowly got up from the table and stood beside Rayya at the wall, hovering over her protectively. "'ayya? What's - what's wrong? What're they talkin' 'bout?" He looked up at the others, blue eyes woeful. "Theresa? Gwyn? What's happenin'?"

Theresa looked at Wade, started to open her mouth to answer, then realized it really wasn't her decision to make, yet. "Rayya, honey?" she said softly. "You don't have to talk about it yet, if you don't want to. I can fill everyone in on the whole thing. It's up to you."

Eyes fixed on the ground, Rayya inhaled deeply. "I... Well, they're gonna have to..." Slowly she raised her gaze, violet eyes shimmering with tears barely held in check. She glanced around at the others, pausing on Wade's worried face. Then she smiled faintly at Theresa. "Might as well be me, huh?" she murmured. "It was just as much my fault."

She took another deep breath and tugged her sleeves down again. An eerily calm look settled on her face then as she gazed around at her teammates. "We've drawn... First blood," she said slowly, each word falling like a lead weight from her lips. "Gwyn, Theresa, and I fought a Graikos about a week ago. We won. She..." Rayya paused and bit her lip hard before continuing, "She went over the roof. Theresa and I... Sent her over. It was... She died." The muscles in her jaw flickered as she tightened her lips into a grimace and looked around again, blinking hard and fast.

Wade went ashen under his usually tan cheeks, moving an arm around Rayya's shoulder gently, internally wincing at his earlier comments. "Oh, 'ayya," he sighed. "I'm - I'm sorry. That's... that's jus' awful." Everybody could see that he was stumbling over what he was trying to say, still in shock mixed with pity for the perpetrators. There was no revulsion in his eyes, however; he was merely very, very sad. "I know... you wouldn' mean t'do that ever. It was jus' an accident. If you'd wanted t'kill her, it would've been way different, but you didn', I know, I..." He sighed, looking around gravely at Theresa and Gwyn, swallowing quite hard. "Can y'tell me how it happened? Did anyone see it was us?"

"We saw her watching us, and went to have a look," Theresa said. "The whole thing just...got out of hand, that's all. We didn't go up there to be friendly, that much is true. But we didn't have any intention of killing anyone, either. We startled her, and she - her name was Acacia..."

"She was just eighteen," Rayya murmured, leaning slightly against Wade for a brief instant before pulling away with a miniscule shake of her head. "She... She wanted to be an actress when she grew up... The newspaper said so." Rayya blinked hard again. "She had such sad green eyes," she added softly, unnecessarily.

Theresa seemed to duck her head with guilt, but pressed on anyway. It had to come out. "She struck out at us, and we responded. When Gwyn got hit trying to keep the rest of us from getting hurt, me and Rayya...well, we meant to put the Graikos out of commission and get away. She fell from the top floor."

She paused. "I don't think...there's no way she even knew. She couldn't have suffered, Rayya." She looked at Wade. "I'm not sure...who saw us. We were all seven stories up, so no one from the street would have. But..."

"But there was another senshi there." Gwyn interrupted. "I saw her sneaking around a roof a little ways from us. I couldn't get close enough to see her, and I don't know if she was on our team, but she did attack the Graikos."

Rayya shivered. "Blood," she whispered. "She made her bleed. That much I remember."

Priscilla took Rayya's hand gently, staring sheepishly at her feet, "I'm sorry for asking you to, Rayya...but, maybe we should get off the subject," Glaring at Aeneas, who'd opened his mouth to interrupt, she continued quickly,"For awhile..."

"Yeah," Theresa said quickly. "Let's, uh... well, who the hell are you people anyway?"

When they glanced at her with a little surprise, she added, "I have a really good recipe for bat soup."

Rayya shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself as her eyes stayed focused on the ground. The barest hint of lightness returned to her voice as she interrupted, "You met 'em all, Theresa. It's just the getting to know that's left." Slowly, she slid down the wall to sit on a convenient bench and lifted her face to look at the others, eyes still damp but showing a trace of life.

Gwyn looked down at her, a sorry sigh quickly turning into a smile. "You know," she said causticaly. " I think you just stumbled onto a book title! Getting to know your fellow Senshi." She took a thoughtful swig form her bottle. " And we could throw Theresa's soup recipe in there too! Jesus... with new senshi sprouting up all over the place, we'll make millions!!!"

"Yeah, well, I can't deny it, so, give me a swig of that, would you?" Theresa said, pointing at Gwyn's drink. "This chalupa is driving a hole through me."

Gwyn raised an eyebrow, handing over her bottle, but stuck out her free hand as well. "Alright, but if you're drinking, hand over the keys to the batmobile." She demanded seriously.

Theresa gave her a wary look, took the bottle, and slapped the open hand lightly. Gwyn nodded and mock-placed the key in her jacket pocket.

"Anyway," Theresa continued, "I've got a decent handle on the whole team division/superpower/senshi idea, but it seems I don't know much about anybody but Rayya and Gwyn. I have a feeling we'll be working together a bit more...and if we're gonna protect each other from unnecessary stuff, we should...well, you can't watch someone's back until you know their fronts a little better."

Gwyn looked down at her shirt, confused.

Priscilla snickered at the look on Gwyn's face, "Is your chest talking to you?"

Aeneas growled the best he could up at Priscilla, "This isn't a time for jokes, this is a time for planning, a time for..." Unfortunately, his speech was cut short by a gob of lettuce that magically went from Priscilla's taco to his mouth, "I think that's enough out of you...anyway, I agree, that we should get to know each other better, and probably start patroling in groups. Those Graikos dudes will be out for our blood now..."

Lissie looked around at the new faces, but for once her thoughts were introverted. She'd known Acacia a little bit, had been in one or two community theater productions with her. The news of her death still made her feel a little sick to her stomach, knowing someone who died, even if only a little, having made a big impact on the usually perky teen. Now that she knew the circumstances regarding the death that the newspapers hadn't mentioned, Lissie had simply sat whistling Adam Sandler's "I Ran Over the Taco Bell Dog" to herself, numb to the whole situation. She'd lost her appetite, but came out of her glazed stupor to join in the now changed conversation, still wondering how the hell she'd managed to get so angst-strickenly introspective while humming a song about a chihuahua pancake.

"So now it's the 'get to know you' portion of our program? Okay, well, I'm Lissie, I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain... oh, c'mon here, people!" she shouted as she noticed the still shellshocked faces of her new companions. "I'm sure it's bad for business if we all sit here like inebriated teenyboppers who'd just seen Titanic for the 236th time, and hadn't gotten over the fact that Jack dies! Oh, and Gwyn, no offense about inebriates. They're cool, almost as cool as manic depressives."

Gwyn slid the eyes behind her sunglasses up towards Lissie slowly. "Um,... thanks. I uh, have some reason to be looking here, but I can't remember what it is now..." She squinted like she was getting a headache, and looked around for where her liquor went.

"ANYWAY," Lissie continued in her erratic speech, "I do theater, I wanna be a SNL star when I grow up, my mom's a lesbian, I like Pinkey and the Brain, and I hopefully will do a successful hostile takeover bit and become dicator of the world, and have llamas be the official mascot of my fascist autocracy. Any questions?"

"Um...I think that covers it," Theresa said, glancing at Gwyn. Then, giving Aeneas the eye, she said, "When you do take everything over, though, can I be the evil sidekick?"

"Well, I - uh..." Gwyn sputtered, slightly thrown off by being forced to assimilate all the information at once. She waved her hand weakly at the bottle in Theresa's hand, still talking distractedly. " For some reason that sounds familliar..." She took her shades off and squinted at Lissie. " Some girl was babbling crazy stuff like that at a bar a couple weeks ago... Was that you?"

Lissie turned to look at the girl... wasn't her name Gwyn?... and racked her brain to find the possible previous meeting. "Did the conversation include Bob Barker, talking vegetables and the cannon the Great Gonzo always got shot out of?" She answered, as if it made a difference. "Oh, and the evil sidekick position is all free. Can you do a Boris and Natasha voice, though? I wanted someone Stalin-esque."

"Vee vill send rabbit and turtle, vee vill overtrow gofernment," Theresa drawled. "Stalin-esque, though, well, I'm not into getting embalmed and stuck behind glass." She gestured at Gywn with the liquor bottle, getting her attention and handing it over. She wondered why the girl was so distracted all of a sudden, aside from the word salad Lissie had just served them.

Taking the bottle and tossing it back forcefully, Gwyn drained the last of the liquid with a bit of a grimace, a blush rising in her cheeks. She shook her head, and seemed to take on yet another mood swing.

"Sorry but, we're not getting anywhere with this, and I haven't heard any better ideas guys." She coughed into her fist and looked over at Rayya and Wade. "So I'm going ahead with my plan. If you guys are with me or not, that's your choice. And I really can't pretend to give a flying fuck if it's fair or not. No one has to do anything they don't want to."

Wade, who had been grinning at the girls' antics beforehand, sobered at Gwyn's words and looked at her tiredly. "C'mon, Gwyn. Let's not do anythin' hasty. We're all with you here. If we begin to split up, then we're doomed already."

He looked around at the series of faces bleakly. All young girls. What sort of person had sentenced them to do this? If they took the wrong step now and fell apart, then they were all dead already, and as hard as he might try he couldn't protect them all. "We're all in this together, an' we all might as well be friends now, 'cause this is gonna be a long, hard road. Hey, Livvy?"

"Mmmhmm?" the turtle inquired.

"Who leads the Romanus?"

"Jupiter, deah. One of the Deus, at least. Minerva or Juno would be mai next guess, but obviously, they're not heah."

"Hokay." He leant his face on one of his hands. "I think what we better do first is get a leader until we find one of those guys. Anybody here got experience? Anybody here -wanna- do it? Aeneas an' Livvy an' Jules can help y'make decisions, I bet, but you're gonna be makin' calls as to what we do. Anyone up for it?"

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Rayya was shaking her head violently. "Not me," she said firmly, voice still tense from the early revelations. "I couldn't... Be responsible for any of you. I like you way, way too much." She bit her lip. "I don't want to kill you," she whispered so softly that maybe only Wade caught her pained words.

"And not me," Theresa said softly. "I may be older than most of you, but I'm a lowly Soros. Besides that, any one of my friends or coworkers can tell you I suck at delegating and I'm not much for compromise. Shit, my guardian can tell you about a thousand reasons why not. I'm sure Julius and Livia and Aeneas have a few ideas about who's closest to the mark, though. I think the shelled and furred among us probably know a lot more than they'd like us to think."

Priscilla shook her head, chucking a few wrappers into a nearby garbage can,"Not I, said the lowly Soros. Hey, Lettuce boy, any ideas for a leader?" After getting a light kick to his midsection, Aeneas spat out some of his lettuce and glanced around at all of the senshi,"Well, I'd be all for you getting the job, just so I can boss other people around, but...well, Bacchus, Neptune or Fortuna'd be my next bet, seeing as how the other two Deus didn't show up, even though Bacchus doesn't want the job, we have to put her in as the other Deus...Livia, Julius, you need to cast a vote as well...it's between Neptune, Fortuna, and Bacchus. My vote is for Neptune."

As Wade blanched at that particular idea, Lissie grinned, glad she was already out of the running. "First off, if Gwyn enjoys such fine beverages such as this on a regular basis," she said, pointing towards the bottle of alcohol, "she has my vote. God created liquor so the Irish wouldn't take over the world, but Gwyn could certainly come close when in an alcoholic haze." She glanced around, looking aptly at the other faces of her teammates. "Bacchus obviously is a reluctant leader, and Wadey over there is... well... Wade, so realistically I have absolutely no clue as to who should rule. Why don't we just create a communist animal-archy and just make the pets do all the hard work. They knew we were senshi long before we all did, obviously. And Livvy could do a mean Scarlett O'Hara when it's after the war and she's struggling to save Tara."

Julius snorted slightly, a sound that almost sounded like a human snicker of disbelief. "I'm all for us guardians leading in theory," he announced, looking approvingly at Lissie. "However, we have this small problem with mobility... And lack of thumbs."

"I can lock him in the closet far too easily," Rayya suddenly said with another faint smile.

"Yes, yes." Julius glanced at his charge. Irked as he was by the comment, it was still an improvement over the guilt she had been nursing for the past week. "Anyway... Good Gods above us," Julius shook his head with a sigh, "I'm not sure a definite leader is a good idea for this bunch. Ray - er, Bacchus... Oh, screw it. Rayya would be good at keeping you all alive but she, quite frankly, sucks at confrontation. Wade is, may I remind you, a big marshmallow with more chivalry than sense. Gwyn just might be borderline alcoholic, reports are still pending." His sharp gaze cut off any attempts at retort from Rayya and she sunk back in a funk. "All of you have strong points. I suggest you pool them. None of you are likely to tear the others down for the role of leader, right?"

Lissie pondered the pig-man's words, blurting out quickly, "That makes too much sense, Porky. Too much sense is too damn easy, and bound to fail. I'm still going with Irish over there, because a country that successfully launches 'Riverdance' in spite of an alcoholic majority has already proven it's worth. Do I get free drinks for this endorsement?"

Noting Aeneas's mouth widening to give Lissie a good long lecture about respect for your guardians and what not, Priscilla stuffed the lettuce back into his mouth, "Well, that's all well and fun, Lissie...it's Lissie, right? Anyway, I think it'd be best if we just did what the pig suggested. We all have our good leadership qualities, but we fall short of a great leader. So, if we agree not to maim each other in some horrible battle trying to get at the leader position until we get Jupiter or Juno back, then I think we'd be nifty-spifty. Plus, Quinn...er, Gwyn, could get drunk without any of us reaming her out for it..."

"That tears it then." Gwyn replied, after raising her eyebrows at the Quinn mistake. "Although I hate the idea of not being able to do whatever I want, I see what Wade meant about staying together. We all seem pretty considerate, so I guess we can work out things by simply voting, ruled by majority." She paused, looked at the four legged creatures, and muttered lowly. "And maybe the guardians could get an equal vote, or something...."

"And as for the drinks/endorsements thing, I'm all up reimbursing you right now, Lissie. Let's go hit up a bar or something." She tossed her empty bottle in a recycling can. "Taco Bell has gotten kinda... tiresome."

Wade stood up timidly from where he had been keeping a close eye on the stricken Rayya. "Keep contact," he advised Gwyn. "We gotta stick together or we'll end up six feet under, y'know?"

Rayya nodded slowly and then frowned thoughtfully up at Gwyn. "Are you gonna get a ride home with Lissie, then?" she asked. Rolling her shoulders back to ease a kink, she added softly, "'Cause I really don't feel like drinking. Again."

The blue-haired boy nodded his approval at Rayya. Good girl. Las' thing she needs. "Let them go on ahead, 'ayya. I can see you get home, then."

Gwyn frowned at Rayya in return, biting back a bit of a guilty feeling, and nodded. "Wade," she said looking up at the boy. "I don't plan on ditching any of you guys. I'm sorry if you got that impression. I'm just determined to win without losing any of our people, got it?"

He just smiled. "I know, Gwyn. S’okay. We’re all gonna stick together."

Lissie got up to follow Gwyn, taking her up on the drink offer without hesitation. "Alrighty, Wadey-Boy. All for one, one for all and all that crap? Or do we need to do the buddy system? If so, Gwyn and I are already gonna be drinking buddies, so we should be excused. Can Livvy come with us? I have a big purse that can hold a tupperware bowl filled with water so she won't get dehydrated. The other option is to find an empty beer keg to stick her in ..."

Seeing her ward's mouth immediately open to protest in wide-eyed fear, Livia lumbered forward on the table. "Ai can taike care ohf maiself," she said hurriedly to Wade. "Lissie and Gwyn ahre perfectly naice, and besaides, ai should be instructing them anyway. Anyway," she muttered to herself, dropping the accent, "I haven't been in a good bar in centuries. Oh, for a human liver." Brightening up and staring back at Wade beseechingly, she whimpered, "Pleeaaiise?"

Wade handed Lissie the little bucket warily, dropping Livia in with a wet plop. "You two take good care of her, hokay? C'mon, 'ayya. Let's get y'to the car."

Priscilla stood and streched slowly, taking the lettuce out of Aeneas's mouth, much to his relief, "I suppose I was so quiet you four forgot I was here...no matter, I live far far away in a galaxy a long time ago..."

Aeneas shook his head, hopping into the backpack obediently, "It's supposed to be a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

Priscilla stuck her tongue out, zipping the back pack up and slurping the remnants of her soda,"I get the picture. Gwyn, Lissie, I bid you happy drinking....Rayya, you go home and sleep for as long as possible...and Wade..." She scooted over to him, and stood on her tip-toes, whispering into his ear, "Take good care of Rayya."

Bouncing back onto her heels, she sauntered back towards the door, "Well, I've said my fare-wells, my number is in the book, under Priscilla Gwidon, I have my own phone line so you don't

have to worry about an angry father answering. So, gimme a call, and now...I'm back off to the world of tacos and cinnamon twists..." Grimacing, she pushed the door back open and sauntered in.

Gwyn smiled after the girl and turned to Lissie. "She thinks we forgot about her! Listen, there's a place about two blocks from here. You should leave your car for a couple of hours, and when we're done we can come back and make 'Scilla give us free food! And if she won't, we'll sing that whiny "Enchirito" song until she begs us to leave. That'll let her know we care."

Half-smiling at Gwyn's interesting threat, Rayya waved after Priscilla and then turned back to Gwyn. "You two take care of yourselves. Livia, too, or Wade'll have a complete fit." She glanced down at a faint sound from Julius. Sighing and rubbing the back of her neck tiredly, she added, "Sure you don't want to take the pig, too?"

Lissie made an evil grin that only meant foreboding to Porky. Turning to her New Best Friend, Gwyn, she said quietly, "Remember the scene in Animal Farm when all the pigs got wasted on booze?" She winked conspiratorially at Gwyn, once again giving Julius a menacing grin. "Napoleon and Julius were both European military geniuses, so why don't we make the pigs similar in another way by staging an Orwellian reenactment?"

Julius snorted. "Oh, lovely. Just how I planned on spending my evening. Hanging out with Frick and Frack and the Turtle."

Disregarding whatever the pig guardian had to say, Lissie took Livia's bucket to the backseat of the beetle, and secured it tightly with a seat belt. Opening the door for the pork, she forced the slab of bacon in next to Livia, buckling him tightly as a little kid would do with a favorite dolly. Motioning for Gwyn to hop in shotgun, Lissie turned to the other Romanus in attendance and gave a classic Princess Di Beauty Queen wave. "Take care everybody! Don't do anything I wouldn't do... wait, never mind. Everything I'd do is illegal. Anyway, Rayya, don't keep beating yourself up over the Hades thing. It was an accident, and you have to be at peace with it otherwise you'll be spending the rest of your life throwing your money away by seeing some quack yuppie psychiatrist who thinks life's a soap opera and he can be the director."

Halfway into the door, she turned and looked at the awkward but telling way Wadey and Rayya had been standing with each other. Even if she wasn't a math wiz, she put two and two together, and offered her blue haired friend some advice, even if in her history of advice giving she'd always had to eat her words later. "Wadey-poo, remember, that Sailor Cupid chick isn't here right now. Be careful or you'll be emptying your bank account on therapy, too."

She hopped into the convertible beetle, shutting the doors and putting on a pair of gaudy, glitter-covered Elvis sun glasses for driving. Speaking in a bad French eurotrash accent, she called out, "Bon voyage, mes amies. And remember, it's only illegal if you get caught." With that, she put her key in the ignition, and prepared to leave.

Rayya reflexively waved sunnily at the departing wonder duo and then she turned to Theresa and Wade, blinking slowly. "Did they just kidnap my pig?" she asked.

Theresa nodded, scooping up the remnants of her meal and stuffing it in the nearest trash can. "He should go for a pretty penny on the black market. I mean, a smartass talking pig..." She grinned. "On second thought, he's got better manners than most of my coworkers. Maybe if the whole guardian thing doesn't work out for him, he can come run the place."

She looked at Wade and Rayya. "Well, are we gonna make this a regular thing? Get a clubhouse, do each other's hair?"

Wade grinned at her comfortably. "What, an' have a sign on the door, 'No Graikos Allowed'? Naah. If not that, we're gonna keep in contact anyway, an' meet like this once every week or two, y'know? Jus' so that we can keep safe."

"Definitely." Rayya nodded firmly. "I want everyone to make it to a ripe old age." She smiled faintly. "Then we can have wheelchair races and dye each other's hair that lovely 'old lady blue.'"

"Hmmmph. Well, let's do it at my apartment, then, since I live alone and no one can point and laugh," Theresa said. "Seriously, if we need a meeting place, we can use mine. Taco Bell is kind of...um..." She paused and looked as if she might say something to Rayya for a moment, but grabbed her and hugged her instead, releasing her just as quickly.

"Everything will be okay," Theresa said. "We'll make it okay. Just remember that." She paused to fiddle with her keys. "I gotta go, I've got errands to run. I'll fill the bat in on all this, and we'll be in touch, right?"

"O’course!" Wade said stoutly. "Wouldn’t miss anythin’ for the world. Glad t’meet you, Theresa."

Theresa grinned and wiggled her fingers at Wade. "Nice to meet you and the hero on a half shell. Be good, and if you can't be good, run fast. Bye guys."

She walked to her car, and was gone.

Rayya waved to the last member of the Romanus team departing from the Taco Bell parking lot. Sighing, she turned to Wade and forced a faint smile. "Ready to go, handsome?" she asked softly.

"Ready as I'll ever be." They both started walking, and he looked down at her, a quizzical expression on his tanned face. "Hey, 'ayya - you hokay? Y'know?"

Somewhat nervously, Rayya tugged again on her sleeves, balling her hands up into them, and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess." She blinked, avoiding his earnest gaze. "What else is there?"

"Nuthin' much, I jus'..." Wade looked at her evenly. "Wan' me to drive for you a little? I bet those hands hurt."

"Um." Quickly, she hooked her hands behind her back and smiled up at him. "Hands? Nope. What hands?" Then she began walking briskly towards her car again, inwardly cursing her cowardice and stupidity.

His voice was gentle. "The hands that you've been drivin' with, eatin' with, movin' with all day, 'ayya. I may be completely brain- dead dumb but not enough to see that you're hurt." They reached the car and he carefully snaffled her keys out of her pocket, unlocking it and opening her door for her.

Rayya hesitated at the open door and looked up at Wade with shining eyes. "Can't put anything past you, huh?" she whispered. Slowly, she lifted a hand, the action sliding her sleeve back to reveal her guilty secret. A thin bandage was neatly wrapped around her knuckles and slowly fading bruises spotted the surrounding skin. Her violet eyes dropped to the ground as she offered her hand up for view.

His eyes widened, horrified, looking down on her hands. Wade's own fingers encircled her wrists gently, lifting the fingers up to view. "What - what happened, y'know?" he eventually breathed.

Mortally ashamed, Rayya shook her head, refusing to meet his eyes. As his fingers brushed against the inside of her wrist, though, she shivered and a faint sob escaped. "I happened," she murmured. "My fault. It's my fault. All of it."

Wade shook his head fervently. "'Ayya, it wasn' - you were jus' doin' what you were s'posed to do, it was an accident, all of it. I know that you wouldn' hurt a fly, let alone some young girl. You didn't wanna."

Rayya looked up suddenly, her eyes flashing. "Of course I didn't want to. I never wanted any of this," she replied tightly. Her voice was quickly escalating to a panicked crackling. "But I got it and I hurt... No, I killed that poor girl. This," she ripped the bandage from her hand to expose healing cuts, "is the least I could do. Don't you see, Wade? I don't do things like that. But I guess I do. But I don't. Did you know I'm First Aid trained? Yeah, I am. I'm supposed to save lives. Not take them." Her lip trembled and she clenched her hands into fists, bringing the bruises and cuts into stark relief against her whitening skin. "This is the least I could do."

Wade's heart ached at seeing her so desperately unhappy. She was about as much a killer as a child. "Oh, 'ayya..."

He shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts, wishing he could say something not classified as incredibly stupid, taking the bandage back and wrapping her hand up again. "Never hurt yourself. You can'. It won' do anythin' good an' it won' make you feel any better - an' it won' change nothin' but the fact that now you're bleedin' on the outside as well as on the inside, see? You can't do it."

Giving up her battle against the tears, Rayya collapsed forward against Wade's chest. "But what can I do then, Wade?" she sobbed. "What? Thinking didn't help, pain didn't help, whiskey didn't help." Going almost boneless in her misery, in her first chance to share her thoughts with another being, she clung to him.

Awkwardly he wrapped his arms around her, one hand stroking her hair soothingly. "You can help by keepin' on goin'. By stoppin' more meaningless death... by makin' the war end, somehow, I don' know how yet, but we'll do it. I promise."

"You... You promise?" Rayya lifted her face to stare up at him. For a long moment, she studied his face. Then she bit her lip and pushed off of him, stepping backwards. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that the car was directly behind her and she stumbled, the back of her calves hitting the unforgiving metal soundly. Instinctively, she fell forward again, into Wade's arms. "Dammit," she hissed. "I'm a useless human being."

He rubbed her back, righting her once more. "Don' say stuff like that, 'Ayya. Why don' we get in the car? Have a nice sit-down."

Rayya nodded mutely. Before complying with Wade's suggestion, however, she grabbed him tight in her arms, hugging him tightly, her small arms squeezing the air from him in her extremity. Then she quietly sat in the car and allowed Wade to buckle her in, her head held low and submissive.

Wade carefully shut the door on her and moved in the other side, sitting down beside her and resting his head back against the seat. The day seemed unnecessarily nice for the events and goings-on. "I don' blame y', y'know," he suddenly said.

She blinked and slowly looked over at him. "You... You don't?" She sounded like a lost little girl, puzzled by his words.

"Not a bit." He smiled at her. "Although you're stronger than me. If I had been where you went, I would've jus' sat down in a crack an' never come out."

"I tried." Rayya sniffed and leaned her head back. "But the pain went away, the whiskey wore off, and the pig..." She took a deep breath. "Julius helped me... And I went to the gravesite."

Wade nodded. "An' did that help?"

Silent for a moment, Rayya dry-washed her hands together and then she nodded slowly. "Some," she answered softly. "I could... Apologize to her."

Wade smiled at her softly. "I don' think she blamed you anyway, 'ayya."

"How could she not?" she whispered sadly. "I did it. Me and Theresa."

"Nobody 'did it'. It was an accident."

Rayya shifted, angling her body away from him and leaning her forehead against the car window. "Even accidents have causes."

He reached out a hand and tenatively laid it on her shoulder. "Doesn' mean that y'have t'beat yourself up about it, though, y'know? Murder's one thing, an accident's another."

"Murder." Rayya spun in her seat and stared at him, eyes shimmering with new, sudden tears. "There's such a thing as criminal negligence, you know. Accidental murder." Her bottom lip trembled violently. "What's the difference?"

"Murder." Rayya spun in her seat and stared at him, eyes shimmering with new, sudden tears. "There's such a thing as criminal negligence, you know. Accidental murder." Her bottom lip trembled violently. "What's the difference?"

"Don' put it that way." His hand gripped her gently. "Look, 'ayya, it wasn' murder either way, not in the sense - you're in a war here. You weren' even tryin' to kill her. I heard what Theresa an' Gwyn said. You guys hadn' been on a roof, she might be alive. I know what fallin' off a buildin' feels like an' I was just darn lucky, hokay? You weren' out to kill her an' it was just the danger of the place that she didn' survive."

"Survive?" For some reason, that word seemed to touch something deep inside Rayya and she collapsed in on herself, tears flowing freely now. "Oh, god, Wade," she whimpered. "I did that. Didn't I?" Her hands covered her face, tears soon dampening the thin bandages, and her shoulders shook with the force of her release.

"Aww, 'Ayya..." All he could do was put one shoulder around her arms, awkward, trying to be soothing. "You didn' do that. You didn'. She's gone but it could've been any of you, could've been Theresa or Gwyn, could've been you."

A hiccup greeted his earnest reassurances and she whispered through the tears, "No, Wade. I survived." With only a slight fumble, she reached down and undid her seat belt, edging towards him as she sought comfort.

"Yeah." Wade patted her back, a spike of pale hair falling over his cheek as he looked at her shyly. "An' you have no idea how glad I am that y'did, 'Ayya. You gotta keep on survivin'."

Reflexively Rayya hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder. "ThankyouWade," she slurred, her words run together almost incoherently.

He didn't say anything for a moment, just offered himself as a rock, letting her cry on his shoulder. "S'okay, 'Ayya. Always."

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