A white car waited for her as she stepped from the doors of her orphanage.  The voices of the children she was leaving behind called after her, and she smiled as she waved to them, sliding into the car's front seat.  She brushed a green ringlet from her face as she turned the keys in the ignition.  The car was a birthday gift from the Californian government.  They had been holding it for her since her parents died, and now she was old enough to drive it and take up residence in her parents' apartment.  The feeling of freedom overwhelmed her, and she smiled into the car's mirror as she drove out onto the street.

Etienne Delacroix watched the car disappear on the horizon, a smile playing on his lips.

"It's almost time, Kaitlyn...." he said to himself, leaning against the orphanage's side wall.  He glared at a couple of children that had their faces pressed against the window and were staring at him as if he were some sort of psychopath. "Goddamn kids."

He knocked on the glass and all but one scattered.  The little boy opened the window and glared at him.

"Stop hanging around here, mister.  You bother us."

"It's a free country," Etienne said dismally. "But it doesn't matter, since I won't ever come here again."

"Good!" the boy slammed the window shut, and Etienne clasped his hands over his ears, cursing.  He pondered standing there and talking to himself idly for a few minutes, but instead he turned and began to slink away.  He needed a drink.

A tall, silver-haired man stood in a cold void, a plaintive look in his emerald eyes.  He had died a few hours ago, expecting to be greeted with the fires of hell, but apparently this was this the purgatory he had to go through first.

"Okay, so I massacred a few hundred people and tried to take over my planet.. what happened to forgiveness of sins?"

"Quiet." a soft voice spoke in the man’s mind, and he narrowed his eyes in response.  He paced the void, thinking of how unfair it was to not even be able to look his prosectors in the eyes. "You guys need to get a physical form or something."

"That's irrelevant to the situation.  Although you should be burning in the pits of the lowest level of hell  for the way you've lived your life, we’ve decided to make an exception."

"Oh, this should be fun..." the man said, masking his nervousness with sarcasm.

"You will go to a planet by the name of Earth… where you will be reincarnated… as a fish." The voice said,  drawing out its words for dramatic effect.  It ignored the man’s comment.

"What the hell!?"

"Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to talk… at least telepathically, as we do."

"Joy."

"And you will be able to return to your old form…"

"Great!"

"But…"

"I hate that word," the man sat down, glaring at his hands and stewing over his penalty.  A fish.  What kind of nonsense was this?

"Only after you’ve learned the lesson we want you to."

"And what lesson is that, perchance?"

"You have to learn to care for someone other than yourself.. which is why we’re sending you as a mentor, to a girl.  You must guide her, and tell her what she needs to know."

"What does she need to know, o righteous ones?" The man asked, rolling his eyes.

"We were just getting to that."

Kaitlyn sank into the soft sheets of her bed, closing her eyes and laying back, her head hitting the pillow with a thump.  She rolled over, slipping under her covers and glancing at the clock on the bureau beside her bed.  The red numbers on the clock’s screen flashed seven-thirty.

"Still early…" she said to herself, yawning and closing her eyes.  "Eh.. I’m too tired.. and I got school tomorrow.." she mumbled, her voice getting softer as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep

"I can't believe it's been three years," Etienne spoke into the wine sloshing about his glass. "Watching her, ascertaining what I thought.."

He took a swig from the cup, tracing the outline of the photograph in the frame next to his mirror.  A younger Kaitlyn stood inside it, her smile wide as she leaned against a tree.  He'd devoted those past three years to her, but, reflecting, he supposed it didn't really matter.  Being an inhabitant of a remote corner of the negaverse meant he didn't exactly have better things to do.

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beee-*
Kaitlyn’s fist came down on her alarm clock, silencing the device’s sleep depriving beeps.  She dragged herself out of her bed, opening her unpacked suitcase and throwing on a random t-shirt and a pair of faded denim shorts.

"I don’t wan-na go to school todaay.." she whined to herself as she pulled on her boots and splashed water on her face.

Today was the first day of her junior year, and she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.  She sighed, shouldering her backpack and heading for the door.  No use avoiding the inevitable.  Kaitlyn grasped the doorknob and twisted it, pushing the door open and almost hitting a small glass fishbowl sitting on her doorstep.

"Huh..?" Kaitlyn stopped herself just before knocking over the bowl, kneeling down and looking at the bowl and the silvery scaled, green-eyed fish that was swimming around inside it.  A waterstained piece of beige paper was taped to the bowl, with a single word scribbled on it: Umi.

"Umi, huh?" Kaitlyn picked up the fishbowl and carried it inside, putting it down on the top of her television set before going back and closing the door to her apartment.

"Yes, Umi.  I know it's a stupid name."

Kaitlyn froze.

"Who said that..?"

"I did."

"Who is ‘I’?"

"Gee, let’s think here… I said my name was Umi… there’s a little piece of paper attached to the fishbowl that says "Umi" on it…hmm!  Puzzling mystery, eh, Sherlock?"

Kaitlyn rubbed her forehead. "I am definitely losing my mind…"

"The only thing that’s being lost here is my dignity."

"Not only are you a talking fish, you’re a sarcastic fish, too," Kaitlyn flopped down on her bed.

"I doubt you’d be very pleasant if you were stuck as a fish for the next hundred years or so, either.  Anyway, I suppose we ought to be getting down to business, before those idiots who did this to me decide to add on to my sentence."

"Business?  Sentence?" Kaitlyn said, puzzled.

"Well, this is gonna be harder than I thought… all right… let’s start with introductions.  You’re Kaitlyn Sinclair, correct?"

"Er, yeah," Kaitlyn leaned back on her pillow and rubbed her forehead.

"I’m Umi.  Well, Umi isn’t my real name, but I can remember my real name because THEM took it away from me."

"Them?"

"No, THEM.  The people that did this to me.  They reincarnated me as a fish, and not JUST a fish, but a mentor fish, to you, specifically."

Kaitlyn ignored the mentor fish part for a moment and said, "Why were you reincarnated as a fish?"

"Oh, you know, the usual… killed a few hundred innocent people, tried to take over the world..."

Kaitlyn swallowed thickly.

"Relax, I’m not gonna hurt you... like I could, in this wretched excuse for a body..." Umi’s thoughts had a whiny note to them, as if he were still getting over the shock of being transformed into a fish. "…anyway.  My business is to teach you about what you were born to be."

"A failure?" Kaitlyn said, only half joking.

"Teehee," Umi said before continuing, "you were born to be a guardian of uh.. what was it?..oh, yeah.  A guardian of all creation."

"A what?"

"You, Kaitlyn,"  and here Umi’s words took on an arrogant, all knowing note, " are Sailor Mana, Senshi of life, of the Mana Tribe, and of the balance of all that is good and evil…or, uh, you know, something like that..."

Kaitlyn blinked and shook her head.

"This is it," she muttered, standing up and pacing. "It’s finally happening.  I’m going completely insane."

"You don’t believe me?"

"You’re damn right I don’t believe you."

"Hmph.. take this." The water in Umi’s tank glowed brightly, and a few seconds later, a purplish blue pen popped out, landing on Kaitlyn’s bed.  Kaitlyn gingerly picked up the beautifully crafted pen, staring at the circle fashioned inside it.  The circle was divided into four sections by a cross, with another, smaller circle behind the cross.

"Wo-ow,"Kaitlyn whispered.

"Hold that up and yell "Mana Power, Make Up," okay?"

"Are you out of your fishy mind?" Kaitlyn said, blinking.

"Just do it and stop asking so many questions!"  Umi snapped.

"You know, I really should be in school…today’s the first day and they might get worried or something if I’m not there."

"Oh, yes, just show up now and tell your teachers you were late because you were at home, conversing with a talking fish.  That'll really make a good first impression."

Kaitlyn winced.  He had a point.

"Oh, fine, fine, have it your way," Kaitlyn held the stick into the air and yelled, "Mana Power.. Make up!"

Silence fell for a few moments, and Kaitlyn was about whine at Umi for making her make a fool of herself when suddenly her entire body began to glow a shimmering prism blue green.  A calming haze settled over her panicked mind, and she had the vague sensation that she was spinning.  When the fog over her mind cleared, she was standing at the foot of her bed, one hand on her hip, the other making a V with her fingers.  She wore a gold tiara that had a green gem in its center, and the outfit she wore vaguely resembled that of a sailor’s, with an extremely short purple skirt, and a blue bow that had a circle shaped green clasp on it.  Her lapels and her armbands were purple, topped off by a pair of green boots on her feet.

"Lookin’ sharp, Sailor Mana," Umi said, pressing his scaly face up to the glass.  Kaitlyn blushed, looking at her skirt.

"Don’t look at me like that, Umi, you’re scaring me," she said nervously, flattening the skirt.

"Heeheehee…anyway…THEM didn’t tell me much about your past… THEM just said it’s up to you to remember."

"I know my PAST," Kaitlyn scoffed. "My parents died in a mysterious accident when I was four… after that, I spent most of my life in an orphanage until I was old enough to drive and live in this apartment by myself." Kaitlyn sat down. "I considered myself lucky to have so much left of my parents, since a lot of people don’t have anything."

"Uh…no.  That may be whatever past THEM cooked up for you on Earth, but that isn’t your REAL past…your REAL past is locked away in the farthest corners of your memory.. Don’t worry, it’ll come back to you as time goes on, now that you're aware of your power."

"What is it that I do, exactly?" Kaitlyn asked, "I mean, besides wearing a skimpy outfit with a short skirt."

"You're a bit thick, aren't you?  You're supposed to protect this planet."

"From what?" Kaitlyn  frowned, brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face. "…who’m I supposed to be fighting?"

"People from the Negaverse, mostly."

"Negaverse?" Kaitlyn said, puzzled.

"Sort of a network of evil, I suppose."

"So, people like you, basically," she said dryly, kneeling to watch him swim about in his bowl, and also so that he could no longer stare at her skirt.

"You’re a real crackup, you know that?…Negaverse agents are everywhere.  They could be anyone… your friends, your teachers…"

"Sounds great," she brushed her hair away from her face and the tips of her gloved fingers strayed over her lips.  When she looked at her hand she realized there was lipstick on it, and she thought, 'Hm.  Free makeover.'  Umi, meanwhile, continued.

"Doesn’t it, though?  Oh! Forgot to mention something…since you were born of Mana, which resides in all things on this and every planet, you have the power to understand the language of any living thing, from human languages to plant languages."

"Really?" Kaitlyn said, rubbing her head. "Well, uh, can I talk in these languages or just understand them?"

"Any language that is spoken to you, you will reply in that language.  If you wish to speak another language, concentrate on it and you will."

 "Okay.. Let me get this straight.  The past that I, as of now, remember, is wrong.  I was not born on Earth, I was born on some other planet.. Fa'Diel, I think you mentioned it… I’m a Sailor Senshi and I’m supposed to defend life and the universe and blah from the Negaverse."

"And anyone else that happens along,"  Umi added, noting that he had not mentioned the name of Kaitlyn's birth planet, though she had remembered it, anyway.

"Yeah.  Them, too.  You are my guardian, and you killed a lot of people and so on, and all of this is being overseen by the mysterious THEM."

"That’s pretty much it, yep.  Except for one thing... we're moving to Vinton... some little nothing town in the middle of nowhere."

 "What?  Why?" Kaitlyn blinked.

"How the hell should I know?  Don’t worry, you’ll like it there. Everyone has hair like yours."

 "Is it natural?" Kaitlyn asked, fiddling with a strand of her green hair.

"Presumably."

"Well, okay…but how’re we gonna get there?…I mean, I’m not really loaded or anything. I’m just living off some money my, uh, parents, left behind.  And a little job I have at a department store."

"Er…well, that could be a problem…I’ll talk to THEM tonight and see."

"Oh, and I’m sure THEM will solve everything," Kaitlyn rolled her eyes.

"Of course THEM will.  THEM are omnipotent.  In fact, if THEM wanted to, THEM could kill us all right now, violently."

"Well, that makes me feel better about this whole thing."

 "That’s all I have to say to you for now. Dismissed!" Umi said, ignoring Kaitlyn’s remark.

 "Yes, master," Kaitlyn said sarcastically, pausing for a moment. "Just a minute, though.  How do I get out of this getup?"

"Say ‘Detransform.’ "

 Kaitlyn did as was told, her head spinning.

"That was a rush," she said, rubbing her head.

"This is too much for me to take in all at once.." she mumbled, crawling back into bed.  She yawned, closing her eyes, secretly hoping that when she woke up, Umi would be gone and her life would be normal again.

"Riisee and shine!"

"Umm…?…just five more minutes.. om…"

 "GET UP!"

"Ack!" Kaitlyn sat up straight in her bed, frowning. "UMI!"

"Mmyeeess?"

"Don’t do that."

"Well, I had to get you up SOMEhow… you’re going to be late for school."

"What!?" Kaitlyn scrambled out of bed, slipping and landing on the carpet with a resounding thump, wrapped up in her bedsheets.  Squirming, Kaitlyn threw them off and jumped up hastily, darting over to her open suitcase.  She yanked a fresh  shirt and shorts from the case, taking off her old ones (after a sharp glance at Umi) and throwing the clothes on at lightning speed.  She pulled a pair of socks on her feet and jammed sneakers on, after which snatching her purse off her bureau and removing a brush, running it quickly through her green ringlets.

"Do you do this every morning?" Umi asked.

"Yes, pretty much," Kaitlyn said, sticking her tongue out at the feelings of amusement that accompanied his thoughts.  She stuffed the brush in her purse and opened her apartment door.

"Ahem."

"What?" Kaitlyn paused and turned around, looking at Umi.

"First of all, I spoke to THEM.  We’re leaving on Thursday, so don’t get too comfortable with your new school."

"All right..." Kaitlyn said, blinking.

"Oh, and one more thing."

"Yeah?"

 "Get some fish food, will you?  I haven’t eaten in days."

 "Whatever you say, Master Umi," Kaitlyn said in a singsong voice, leaving her apartment and closing the door.

Kaitlyn felt strange as her boots pattered against the shining tile floor of her school’s halls.  This was a brand new high school, built less than a year ago.  It housed only eleventh and twelfth grades, however, a fact which puzzled Kaitlyn slightly.  It seemed like a decent school, though, so she dismissed the thought as  she walked into the lunchroom and slung her backpack down next to an empty seat.  She pulled out her lunch and started to eat slowly, trying to pretend that she did not see Etienne take a seat at the table next to hers.  Kaitlyn could feel his eyes on her, and she bent her head over her food, struggling not to look back at the young man who had been following her all day.

He was dressed all in black—black shirt, black jeans, black boots.  His hair was jet black and uncombed, and his dark eyes glittered with menace.  Looking at him sent shivers down Kaitlyn’s spine.  She could almost feel his eyes, boring into the back of her neck, watching her as she ate.  Finally, she stopped eating and turned around.

"Why are you doing this to me?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.  Kaitlyn half expected him to look at her as if she were nutty and deny everything, but instead he smiled softly and answered, "It's fun."

 "What’s fun?  Scaring me out of my mind?"

Etienne nodded, the smile never fading from his smug features.

Sighing, Kaitlyn returned to her lunch, mumbling, "I can’t wait until I get out of this town..."

 Etienne’s smile disappeared. "What?  You’re moving?"

Kaitlyn froze.

"U-um, no, I said... I didn't say anything…" she stammered hastily as the bell rang. "Oh, look, there’s the bell.. um, bye, Etienne!" Kaitlyn gathered up the remains of her lunch, throwing them into a nearby trash can.  She fumbled for her backpack and darted out of the cafeteria, her heart thumping in her chest, as Etienne slowly stood up, the smile reappearing on his face.

"Leaving, is she?" Etienne said to himself, pacing in the darkness of his chambers. "She must have found out she’s a Senshi…" he said to himself, unable to think of any other reason for her wanting to move so quickly.  He shrugged.

"Oh, well," he said to himself, pouring a glass of wine. "That just means I can get this whole capture business done with faster…" he smiled, sipping his wine.  Now was the fun part.

"Did you get it?" Umi asked eagerly, later that day, when Kaitlyn had returned to her apartment.

"What?…oh.. oh, yeah," Kaitlyn pulled a bottle of fish food from her purse.  She unscrewed the cap and sprinkled some of the multicolored flakes into Umi’s bowl.

"Watch it!…don’t overfeed."

"Can’t you control what you eat?" Kaitlyn yawned, setting the bottle of fish food down.  It had been a long day.

"No, Miss Biology Flunkie.  Fish eat by instinct."

"Well, you’re not exactly an ordinary fish," Kaitlyn pointed out, sitting on her bed and turning on the television set below Umi as she started to change into her pajamas.

"I still have a fish’s body…which comes with a fish’s instinct." Umi said to her as he darted throughout his bowl, gobbling up the flakes as he went.  Kaitlyn nodded absentmindedly and yawned, leaning back on her bed and flipping idly through the channels.  She found nothing of interest, however, and so turned the set off.

"I would highly advise you to start packing...we’re leaving day after next, remember…"

"Aww, Umi, I’ll pack tomorrow.." Kaitlyn said, crawling under her blankets. "I’m too tired now.."

"Is sleeping the only thing you can do?"

"No.." Kaitlyn murmured, snuggling in her blankets, "…I eat, too."

"Great."

*knock knock*

Kaitlyn shifted in her sleep.  Someone was knocking.

Kaitlyn slowly opened one eye, listening to the soft sound of someone at her door.  She sat up in her bed carefully, opening her other eye and allowing her vision to adjust the inky darkness.  She slipped out of bed and turned the light on, pausing to look back at Umi.  He was still in his tank, his fish eyes wide open.

"Umi?  Are you okay?"

No answer.

"UMI!"

Umi’s body jerked suddenly.

"What, what!?"

"Oh.. phew.." Kaitlyn said. "I thought something was wrong with you."

"I was sleeping."

"With your eyes open?"

"I’m a FISH."

Kaitlyn rubbed her head.  "Oh, yeah..heh.. I knew that."

"Sure."

 "Hmph.." Kaitlyn said, when she heard the knock again. Umi swerved his scaly body towards the door.

"Is it not unusual for people to come calling at this hour of the night around here?"

"Yeah, it’s unusual…" Kaitlyn blinked, and then made a face as she walked over and put her hand on the doorknob, slowly opening the door as she spoke.

"It’s probably the men in white coats, coming to take me away for talking to my telepathic pet fish," she joked, turning away from Umi to face her visitor, but the only thing that greeted her was the warm night breeze.  Kaitlyn blinked again and poked her head outside, the wind swirling around her.

"Who is it?"

"Um.. there’s no one here," she answered, yawning and trying to make it sound as if she were talking to herself.  "Must be some bored kids or something…"

"This late?"

"Well, I don’t know!…here, I’ll go look around," Kaitlyn said, stepping over her threshold and into the warm night.

"Wait!  Maybe that’s not…" Umi paused, watching Kaitlyn disappear around the side of her doorway. "…such a good idea."

Kaitlyn squinted in the darkness, brushing a lock of her green hair out of her face.  Her bare feet thumped softly against the metal planks that formed a pathway between the apartments in her building.  She coughed and tried to yell out bravely.

 "Anyone there?" she said, her words coming out barely above a whisper.

"Yes," a voice answered her, and Kaitlyn whirled around, finding herself face to face with a man that strongly resembled Etienne.

Kaitlyn squeaked, thinking fast.  Naturally, the first words that came into her panicked mind were things like, "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" or "Isn’t it hot in that weird uniform you’re wearing?" But, deciding that all of these questions would be rather rude, she instead stood there, quivering slightly and imagining that she looked very much like an idiot.

"Hello, Kaitlyn," the man said softly, taking a step towards her.

"Ah… do I… do I know you?" Kaitlyn asked, nibbling on her  lip.

"No…" he said, not raising his voice, "but I know you."

Etienne thought to himself, wondering why Kaitlyn could not recognize him. Did he really look that much older in his normal form?  Or was it just the cover of darkness?  He shrugged slightly, a faint smirk appearing on his face.  How helpless she looked, standing there, shaking in her nightgown.  He must have been pulling off this badass villain thing really well, he decided.

"Y-you.. you do?" she stammered as she clenched and unclenched her fists.

"Yes.. very well... Sailor Mana," he said softly.

"W-what did you just call me?" Kaitlyn said in a mixture of fear and disbelief. Her widened eyes darted from side to side, as if she were looking for a place to run. "H..h-how could you know?"

Etienne didn't answer her.  He closed the distance between them and took hold of her, wrapping one of his thin hands around her neck.

"Little Senshi…" he repeated, as a choked gasp escaped from her throat.  Her eyes closed slowly and she slumped as she lost consciousness.  Etienne gathered her into his arms.

"…my search is over."
 

I mostly revised Etienne's scenes, to make him seem more like the dork he is.. X3; I also added a bit more text to balance out the heavy dialogue and rewrote a few paragraphs that I thought sounded especially dorky.  I also made it so that Vinton is where they're planning to go all along, with none of this Japan stuff.. :B; This is a continuity situation I'll have to mend in the next few chapters as well.