***Starlit Destiny***

Part One

Note: Everything from this point on is what happened in Kimiko's past life--not her present day life. And the same goes for everyone else, too. This book is rated PG-13 for some intense blood and violence. Also for some romance. T- for TEEN. '-^

"Somebody needs you, Sapphire... Someone desperately crying out for love, and kindness... Find it in your heart to help her... She really needs you, Sapphire... More than air...more than water...more than even life itself... Help her, Sapphire...treat her kindly, and care for her... Her worst enemy is the one you love dearly... It's worth it, Sapphire... You are the answer to her prayers... You are the messiah that will lead her out of this nightmare...you are her only hope...

*KIMIKO'S PAST LIFE:*

    When Kimiko was only an infant, there was a war on her planet--the gold-dusty planet of all the stars-- which was called Silvia. Her mother, Athena, and her father, Thomas, were killed trying to protect their planet and stars, as well as their daughter. 
    As the threatening monsters of the Negaverse attacked Silvia, a six-year-old watched as the Wiseman, (Sapphire's master), destroyed the beautiful and sparkling planet of the Stars. A tear rolled down the young Sapphire's face as the Wiseman used one last blast of Nega-energy to kill the royal family of the Starlight Castle. 
    Queen Athena and King Thomas were blown away. Then, as tears flew from her eyes like diamonds, Queen Athena let go of her beloved baby, and the infant Princess of the Stars flew through the air, landing somewhere in the tall, golden grass that covered her planet like green grass covers the Earth. Thomas and Athena's lives ended quickly because of the Black Moon, which was just too strong; especially when using a sneak attack like they had. 
    By now, Sapphire was really crying. His ten-year-old brother, Diamond came up behind him. Putting his hand on Sapphire's shoulder, Diamond said, "Don't be sad. They had to die--Wiseman said so." Sapphire nodded, wiping away his tears. The Wiseman was always right. 

Author's Notes:

So, pretty exciting and dramatic so far, huh? Don't worry, everyone will be alright in the end! Well...sort of...ya...heh, you'll see! .^.^.

    The next day, Sapphire, Diamond, and their distant cousin, Rubeus--whom, I must say, had and still has a very bad attitude--came, along with another distant cousin, Emerald, to go make sure that everyone and everything on Silvia was dead and destroyed, once and for all. These, of course, were the Wiseman's orders, so, the four children had to listen--or be punished. 
    Sapphire was six, Diamond was ten, Rubeus was eight, and Emerald was seven. Diamond, being the oldest, was going to be Prince of the Black Moon someday, so everyone--well, every kid-- sort of looked up to him, and listened to what he said. 
    Diamond was tall for his age. He had purple eyes, and wispy white hair that reached the bottom of his ears, and always seemed to be in his face. Both his pants and jacket were white, and his jacket had strange, curvy green designs on either side of it. He had a diamond gem on his collar, and wore blue and white shoes. Diamond also had three other diamond gems; one on his back, and one on each of his shoulders. These three gems held up his long cape, which was white on the outside, and purple on the inside. 
    Sapphire, being Diamond's younger brother, was also tall for his age. He had short, curly blue hair, and dark, mysterious blue eyes to match. A little darker than Sailor Mercury, ( Ami Mizuno's ) 's hair and eyes. He wore a dark, blue jacket, and a white shirt underneath. His jacket was covered in metal bead-things, and hanging from them were short, thin steel bars, on his shoulders, and on either side of his chest. like Diamond, on Sapphire's collar, he wore only a silver circle--he wasn't important enough to have a gem. Sapphire had white pants and shoes, and his gloves were dark blue, like his jacket, hair, and eyes, but at the top of each glove was a patch, where his almost-white skin showed. 
    Rubeus had fiery red hair, and reddish-brown eyes. He wore a tight, brown tank top and baggy army pants. He had an army jacket to match, but preferred the tank top, without it. Rubeus also wore tall, black boots. But unlike the other two boys, instead of a ruby gem on his collar, Rubeus had a golden necklace with a ruby shaped like the sun in the middle. 
    Emerald had long, wavy, light green hair. She had brown eyes, and even though Emerald was only seven, she insisted upon wearing her favorite red lipstick. At the top, Emerald's black uniform looked like a turtleneck with no sleeves, but at the bottom, it was a tight skirt. She had three blue-green ovals, each outlined in white beads. Two on the top of her chest, near her neck, and one on the bottom, attached to the other two with white beads. She wore loose, black boots that went all the way up to just below her knees. They were tight around her ankle, but loose around her legs. She had tight, dark green gloves that went to just above her elbow, and around each of her wrists was another smaller blue -green oval, surrounded by white beads, and attached around her wrist by white beads, like a bracelet. 
    Each of them wore black poison crystal earrings-except for Sapphire, and each of them had a mark on their forehead that looked like a black upside-down crescent moon. It was their family symbol, and shone brightly on their light skin. 
    Now, they were all walking around, looking for signs of life in the tall grass of Silvia. Sapphire went off by himself, looking around in a separate part of the field they were in. He saw lots of craters-craters from when the Nega energy had blasted the planet, sucking the beauty from it's nature, and turning the sparkling, golden mist that once covered it, into poison gasses that killed many. 
    Sapphire swallowed hard. Just the thought of that horror made his eyes water, again. Sapphire closed his eyes, as if to block-out the memory of the night before. He was about to begin looking again, but then he heard it--the sound of a baby crying. He instantly became alert. Someone was actually alive on this planet! Just then, somewhere off in a far part of the field, Sapphire saw the grass move! Curious, he ran to the spot. Once he got there, Sapphire looked down to see a small infant staring up at him! His mouth open in surprise, Sapphire saw on the baby's forehead--the mark of the Stars! A golden star--right in the middle of her forehead! 
    "Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh!" he said, "It's that girl--the real, live Princess of the Stars!" 
    Mature for his age, Sapphire carefully picked-up the princess. His eyes watered, again, as Sapphire realized that she was still wrapped in the white and yellow-striped blanket that Queen Athena had wrapped her in--right before she died. Almost magically, when the baby princess looked up at him, she stopped crying, and it seemed as though she had smiled at him. Sapphire smiled back, his cheeks turning pink. 
    "Hey, Sapphire!! Get your sorry butt over here!!" 
    That was Rubeus, and he was mad about something...again.  
    "Um...uh-oh..." Sapphire whispered. 
    He panicked. He knew that if he put the Princess back down, she would start crying again, and Rubeus would hear it. Then he would come and kill her. Sapphire swallowed hard. He had absolutely no way of keeping Rubeus from seeing the baby, and he certainly had no intentions of letting her die!! 
    On the other side of the field, Rubeus said, "That's it! I'm going to make him sorry for not listening to me!!" 
    "No, wait," said Diamond, "don't do that. I'll go and get him." 
    Sighing, Diamond slowly walked over to his younger brother. Sapphire just stood there. He heard his older brother approaching him, but he didn't dare turn around. 
    "C'mon, Sapphire. It's time to go." Diamond said, patiently. Sapphire tried to ignore his brother's gentle words. 
    "Sapphire?" said Diamond, taking a step closer. Puzzled, Diamond stepped toward Sapphire. Looking over Sapphire's shoulder, Diamond saw her. He saw the baby-and the mark of the Stars on her forehead. 
    "Sapphire!!" Diamond shouted, "That's Princess Kimiko!! What are you doing?!?! Get rid of her, now!!!" 
    Sapphire turned to Diamond, a sad look on his face. 
    "Oh, please, Diamond-san..." Sapphire said, quietly," I couldn't hurt her...!" 
    He laughed, as Baby Kimiko put her little hand on his cheek, and giggled. "I think she likes me." 
    Diamond sighed again. He knew he really wasn't supposed to let Kimiko live, but the way he saw it, his only brother was way more important than any dumb rule of The Wiseman's. 
    "Hey! What's going on over there?!" Rubeus was stomping over to where the three of them were, and Emerald was following him. 
    The moment he laid eyes on Baby Kimiko, Rubeus said," A baby??!! Kill it!!" 
    "No!!" Sapphire shrieked, protectively shifting Kimiko, who was still in his arms, away from Rubeus. 
    "She looks like a brat, so I for one second Rubeus' opinion!" said Emerald, with a soft, but wicked laugh of evil. Typical. 
    Sapphire began to cry, again. He fell to his knees, but still held Kimiko close to his chest. The thing was, Kimiko had no idea of what was going on, but because Sapphire was crying, Kimiko began to cry, too. Diamond sighed, yet again, and rolled his eyes. 
    "Alright, Sapphire," he said, at last, "We'll take her back, and just see what The Wiseman says." 
    "What?!!" said Rubeus. 
    "But, Diamond--!!" said Emerald, but Diamond simply began to walk away. 
    Sapphire smiled, got-up, and began walking towards his brother, still carrying Kimiko, who figured everything was alright, and was happy, again. 
    "I don't believe it!" said Emerald, as she and Rubeus watched them walk away. 
    "Oooh... This makes me really mad!!" said Rubeus, his red eyes darkening, as he watched the two brothers--and the Princess of the Stars-move slowly back towards where they came from. 

    About a half an hour later, the five of them arrived back home, at the Black Moon Palace. Bowing to him, Sapphire showed the baby to the Wiseman; Diamond, Emerald, and Rubeus standing close behind him. Sapphire disliked how his relatives had put him on the spot, forcing him and him alone to go in front of the Wiseman. 
    "See, Your Majesty, "Sapphire practically begged, " I found her in the grass, and I really didn't want to kill her, and..." 
    But just as the words, "...can we keep her..." slipped from Sapphire's lips, the Wiseman immediately said, ''No''. A simple, yet strong answer. 
    Rubeus and Emerald smiled, secretly giving each other a 'thumbs up' sign, but the moment the Wiseman said no to him, Sapphire's midnight blue eyes filled with tears. 
    "Oh, but you gotta let us keep her, Your Majesty, you've just gotta...!" Was Sapphire's reply, though you could tell by listening to him that he was trying to hold back tears. 
    "What's this ''we'' stuff?" Diamond thought. Sapphire had always been the good-hearted one, and it was all Diamond could do to keep Sapphire from even thinking about the loss of a human soul, but a baby... now, that was different. 
    Sighing, Diamond solemnly spoke over Sapphire's cries and shrieks, saying, "Please, Master Wiseman! Let my brother keep the infant! We won't let her know that she is princess of the Stars! That way, she'll be like one of us when she grows up-a warrior of the Black Moon!!" He said it as if he were bored. 
    The Wiseman was very mysterious. His body--if he had one, for that matter--was always kept carefully hidden behind a dark purple cape. So, when the crystal ball which he always held in his hands began to glow, the four admirals didn't know what to think. 
    "Bet he says ''no''," Rubeus whispered to Emerald, but right after she nodded her head in agreement, the Wiseman came-up with his answer. 
    "Alright..." he said," we'll keep the Princess of the Stars with us for a while..." 
    Sapphire looked up at his master, smiling, "Really?" he said. 
    "Yes," The Wiseman continued, "but under NO circumstances is Princess Kimiko to know about her true role as ruler of the Stars. She will hear NOTHING of Silvia, and NOTHING of her parents. From now on, she is known as Kimiko, and ONLY...Kimiko. Is that all understood?" 
    "Yes, Wiseman." The four children said at the same time, bowing. 
    But after they left with Kimiko, the Wiseman said to himself, "Yes... Kimiko will make a fine warrior for my cause. And, once the others are--heh, gone...,I shall make Kimiko my own...that is...until her time comes!!" 
    Finishing off his think-out loud-thought, the Wiseman laughed a laugh of pure evil.

    Now our story skips to four years later. This means that Sapphire is ten, Diamond is fourteen, Rubeus is twelve, and Emerald is eleven. And our youngest character, Kimiko, is now four years old. 
    Kimiko had dark, dark brown curly hair, and large, innocent eyes of the same color. Her pale skin was even whiter against the black and gray sailor uniform she wore. 
    Now it was quite certain that Rubeus and Emerald didn't get along with Kimiko. However, this was mostly because of the fact that Rubeus never even liked Kimiko in the first place, but also because Rubeus was a somewhat mean person, and Kimiko could tell. 
    Diamond didn't really pay much attention to any of them--except Sapphire, from time to time, but mostly he was just busy with his studies. He was so worried about entrance exams and all that, he hardly had time for his ''family''. 
    Therefore, Sapphire was the only one who really cared about Kimiko. After all, he was the one that had saved her life, which was why everyone else made him take care of her. The Wiseman only cared about Kimiko because someday she would make a good warrior--or so he thought, but, either way, Wiseman wasn't too fond of any of them. 
    Anyway, right now at the palace, it was ten o'clock PM. So, Kimiko was up to her usual mischief. Rubeus was always pushing Kimiko around, taking advantage of her, but who could blame him? The real truth was that Kimiko was supposed to die, but of course, she didn't, which got Rubeus really steamed. To make matters worse, he was related to the one who had saved her! 
    Sapphire, of course, was aware of this, and did his best at keeping the two of them apart. Diamond helped, too, but mostly it was just Sapphire being the peacemaker. 
    However, at this time, Sapphire was in bed, so when Kimiko got up, he didn't even notice! This was why Kimiko waited until this particular time to have her own little revenge session. This went on almost every night--to get back at Rubeus for being so mean to her. She would break his things, trash his room, mess his stuff up, anything a four-year-old could do to annoy someone really badly. 
    On this particular night, Kimiko had taken one of Rubeus' model airplanes out of his room, and put it on the floor in the middle of the hall. Sapphire opened his eyes, and sat up in bed, rubbing his now-closed eyes with the palm of his hand. then he heard it--someone giggling. 
    "Oh, geez!" He said, sliding off the bed, and running into the corridor. 
    He did this only to see Kimiko-- stomping on the model airplane--and being happy about it. By the time he found out what was going-on, though, it was already too late--the airplane lied in bits and pieces on the floor. Sapphire stood, one foot in his bedroom doorway, closed his eyes, and put his hands on either side of his head, shaking it. 
    "Oh, no, no, no!" He cried, "Kimiko!" 
    Suddenly, Rubeus walked into the hallway. "Hey, what're ya do'in? It's--" But then he stared in complete horror at his prized--not to mention favorite--model airplane--in pieces on the floor. 
    Sapphire found himself covering his ears, as he was forced to hear Rubeus scream, "AHHHHHHH!!!!!" This, of course, woke-up Emerald, and a p*ssed-off Diamond. 
    "I'm gonna KILL you!!!" Rubeus screamed out, in pure rage. 
    Her eyes big, Kimiko stood, and looked up at Rubeus as his shadow covered her, her index finger in her mouth. 
    "Just wait 'till I get my hands on you, ya little BRAT!!!" Rubeus shouted. 
    Kimiko screamed in fear, and closed her eyes, running away, frightened. 
    "Wait!" Sapphire reached out to her, but he was too late, Kimiko was already running down the dark stairway. Almost instantly, Rubeus ran after her. "
    Hey! Wait!! I wanna help!!" A very excited Emerald called, as she ran after her cousin. 
    "Oh! I hope they don't hurt her!" said Sapphire, and he began moving swiftly down the stairs. 
    Diamond stood there, yawned, and rubbed his eyes, Shaking his head slightly, he opened one eye, and simply wondered what crazy thing would happen that night. 
    At this point, Kimiko actually thought that this whole thing was kind of funny. She ran giggling into the living room, but then realized that Rubeus and Emerald were right behind her! She spun around, and ran between a table, and a T.V.. Kimiko had accidentally gotten herself into a corner. An upset, and surprised look on her face, she looked repeatedly from side-to-side, and then pressed herself up against the wall. Looking up at Rubeus and Emerald as their shadows covered her, Kimiko gulped as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. 
    Emerald smiled as Rubeus said, "Now I'll teach you a lesson for breaking my one-of-a-kind, very rare jet fi--Wait a minute, what am I rambling on for? You're mine!" 
    "And I'll help him hurt you!" Emerald added, as if it really mattered. Emerald always thought that she was most important. 
    At this point, Kimiko was crying and screaming like h*ll. Emerald put her foot out, and Kimiko tripped, scraping her arm on the corner of the table as she fell. Rubeus grabbed her arm, and pulled Kimiko up, then pushed her back down, again. Kimiko felt herself hit the wall--hard. Now she was screaming and crying more than ever! Emerald just laughed as Rubeus grabbed Kimiko again. Rubeus giggled, and then smiled wickedly, as he held Kimiko up by the collar of her nightgown. 
    She looked straight into Rubeus' fiery red eyes, and was truly scared. Tears streamed down Kimiko's face, as Rubeus prepared to push her again. But just then, Kimiko's brown eyes opened widely as she recognized a familiar figure standing behind Emerald. 
    "Saffi-chan?" Kimiko whispered,"Saffi-chan!!" 
    Both Rubeus and Emerald turned to see Sapphire standing there, and Diamond was behind him. Rubeus dropped Kimiko as fast as possible, and said, "Uh, Diamond-san! Please forgive me--er, us...Uh, we were just playing with her!" 
    Emerald nodded in agreement, hoping that her biggest crush would forgive her, but Diamond did not at all look amused. 
    Kimiko was kneeling down on the ground, tears still streaming down her face, and trying to catch her breath. Sapphire knelt down beside Kimiko, hugging her to his chest. Rubeus just growled as he saw them out of the corner of his eye. 
    "Stupid little Momma's Boy, always looking out for the little Brat," He thought. 
    "Why can't you ever just leave Kimiko alone?" Sapphire said, looking up at the two of them and frowning, "It's not like she ever did anything to you!" 
    Ahh...Sapphire was so brave for a ten-year-old. With that, Kimiko stuck her tongue out at them, wiping a tear from her eye. Just about ignoring Sapphire completely, Rubeus and Emerald looked to Diamond. Diamond sighed. 
    "C'mon, just leave her alone, guys." he said," Now, go to bed--both of you. I don't want to see you until tomorrow morning." 
    "Right." said Rubeus and Emerald at almost the same time. Hanging their heads, they left the room. 
    Once his cousins were gone, Sapphire loosened his arms around Kimiko. Kneeling there on the floor, she looked up at him helplessly, as he smiled warmly down at her. 
    Staring in awe at Sapphire's sparkling blue eyes, Kimiko suddenly looked down, and said, "My arm hurts." 
    She outstretched her right arm so Sapphire could see the place where her sleeve was torn, and there was a bit of blood. Sapphire gently pushed her nightgown sleeve up, so he could examine the cut more closely, when Diamond said, "Will you be alright?" 
    Sapphire looked up at his older brother, and said,"Uh..yeah, right...We'll be fine. C'mon, Kimiko." 
    He grabbed her hand, stood-up, and then helped her stand-up." I'll look at your cut upstairs, okay?" She nodded, and sniffled. 
    Diamond smiled warmly at them, and then turned to go back upstairs. Sapphire took a few steps forward, and Kimiko tried to, but fell, and almost began crying again. Sapphire stopped, and knelt down beside her. 
    "Do you want me to carry you?" He said softly, pushing Kimiko's hair back from her face. Kimiko looked at him, and nodded, tears in her eyes. 
    With that, Sapphire gently picked Kimiko up, and cradled her in his arms as if she was a baby--and she was, sort of. Her cheeks turning pink, Kimiko closed her eyes. 
    "Saffi-chan." she said softly. 

    Upstairs in Sapphire's room, Kimiko sat on a wooden chair, as Sapphire tried to clean her scrape. Being only four, Kimiko couldn't remember everything, so her version of that night was something like this,"...And so, so then I thought it was funny because Rubeus is so slow--like a turtle! And then he pushed me, and I was crying, and then I saw you, and..." And so-on. 
    Sapphire carefully dabbed the cut with a cotton ball which had peroxide on it, and said, "Really? Wow. You sure were brave!" 
    Swinging her sock-covered feet, Kimiko smiled. "Thanx!" 
    Then Sapphire put a (who would've thought) bunny-covered band-aid on Kimiko's cut, and said, "There! All done!" 
    Kimiko smiled happily down at the bunnies, which looked like the ones all over Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon mangas , and were all over her band-aid. 
    "Geez, what a night!" said Sapphire, thinking out-loud as he glanced-up at the clock, which said that it was eleven PM. "Look, it's way past your bedtime, and mine, too, so you better let me put you to bed--" said Sapphire, but the moment the words slipped out of his mouth, Kimiko got up, and dived into Sapphire's bed. 
    Snuggling under Sapphire's blue blankets, Kimiko said, "Will you tuck-me-in, Saffi-chan?" 
    Sapphire closed his eyes, and sighed, but then said, "Sure." 
    So, he willingly pulled the blankets up-around Kimiko, acting more like a brother than a friend, and then got into bed next to her. Once Kimiko was asleep, Sapphire turned-off the lights, and then lied there, looking up at the ceiling. 
    Just then, Kimiko turned in her sleep, and wrapped her chubby little arms around Sapphire's waist, making little "Mmmmn .... hnmmm... " noises as she did so. Sapphire blushed, blinked a few times, but then smiled, and hugged her back. Being extremely careful, as to not wake Kimiko, Sapphire fell asleep thinking about that one time a few weeks ago, when Kimiko had intentionally poured Rubeus' cereal down his pants at breakfast, one morning. Sapphire giggled with his eyes closed, his cheeks pink, and then dozed-off.

    Sometime around the middle of the next week, Rubeus brought a brand-new chemistry set home from school, which he had borrowed from a friend. Rubeus thought that he had hidden the chemistry set well--so that Little Kimiko couldn't find it--but he was wrong. 
    He had hidden it in his dresser drawer, under all of his shirts. However, what Rubeus didn't know was that while he was doing this, Kimiko was watching. Standing there, behind the wall of the doorway, and peering into Rubeus' room, Kimiko had seen everything. She had seen him come home with the expensive chemistry set, and was now watching Rubeus hide it--while mumbling curses to himself about how he always had to hide everything from her. A rather evil smile played at Kimiko's lips. 
    Finally, Rubeus left the room. Rubbing her little hands together gratefully, Kimiko ran into Rubeus' room, and instantly began looking through all of his things. Finding nothing that compared to the chemistry set, she headed for Rubeus' dresser. 
    Then Kimiko realized that she couldn't reach the shirt drawer. Grumbling to herself, she turned, and scanned the room for something to stand on. In the corner of the room, Kimiko saw a wooden chair. Perfect! With all of her might, she pulled it over to the dresser. Climbing up on the chair, Kimiko wobbled a bit, but then caught her balance. Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened one of Rubeus' drawers. digging through shirt after shirt, Kimiko finally found just what she had been looking for. The shiny new chemistry set--right where she could get it. Kimiko smiled, thinking of how fun this would be to break. 
    Looking around before she did, Kimiko picked up the chemistry set, and cautiously stepped down off of the chair, dropping the chemistry set first--she couldn't get down while still holding it. Putting her finger to her lips, Kimiko knelt down, picked up the chemistry set, and quickly crept back to her room. 
    Setting the chemistry set on the floor by her bed, she then did one of the worst things that she could've done. Climbing up on her bed, Kimiko closed her eyes, took a leap, and jumped on the chemistry set--without even thinking twice about it! Landing on her two feet, Kimiko opened one eye, and then the other. Looking down by her feet, she saw the smushed box, and smiled. 
    Once Kimiko was satisfied with the ruining and destroying of Rubeus' friend's new toy, she carefully picked up the chemistry set, and walked back into Rubeus' room. 
    As she looked up at the dresser, Kimiko put her finger on her bottom lip. Which drawer had the chemistry set been in? She couldn't remember. So, rather than troubling herself with trying to figure out which one was the shirt drawer, Kimiko figured that she didn't have time for that. So, she just left the broken chemistry set in the middle of Rubeus' bedroom floor, and ran away, thankful that she hadn't been caught. 

    Later that day, Rubeus happily walked back up the stairs, heading to his room, as usual. Humming to himself, his song was stopped short when he saw the smushed box that had been waiting for him. It was all Rubeus could do not to have a screaming fit, right then and there. 
    Turning, an evil and disturbed grin on his face, Rubeus walked down the hall into Kimiko's room. There, Kimiko was lying on the floor, coloring a picture of a flower (outside the lines ^.~) with her new crayons. She was unaware that he had walked into her room--until Rubeus stepped on her box of crayons. Kimiko slowly looked up--only to see Rubeus' angry face looking down at her. 
    Before Kimiko could even gasp, Rubeus started screaming, "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!" 
    Sapphire, who was eating a snack on the floor below at the time, started choking on his cookie out of shock at the screaming, but then luckily realized what was going on. 
    By the time Sapphire got upstairs, Rubeus had the not-so-innocent Kimiko cornered again, between her bed and the wall. Breathing hard, Sapphire said, "No! Stop it, Rubeus!!" 
    Rubeus turned completely around so that he was facing Sapphire. "Why should I?" He said, "She's a little brat. And besides that, there's always the fact that she should've DIED four years ago!" 
    Rubeus was yelling, now, and Kimiko began to cry. Some part of the four-year-old knew that Rubeus must have been talking about her--even though the naive Kimiko knew only of life-- certainly not death. In fact, the thought of she, Rubeus, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, or even The Wiseman dying never crossed her mind. 
    "But," Rubeus continued, "that doesn't matter, now, because I'm gonna kill her!" He glanced back at Kimiko, an evil grin on his face. Kimiko screamed, moving up closer against the wall. 
    "No--!!" Sapphire started, taking a step forward. But Rubeus put his hand out to stop him. 
    "You seem to be forgetting, my dear cousin," Rubeus said in a low voice, "Kimmi-chan, here, isn't even part of this family." 
    "Th-that's not true, Rubeus!" Sapphire stammered, "When we--er, I found Kimiko, four years ago, the Wiseman said--" 
    "It doesn't matter what Wiseman said," Rubeus nearly shouted, sternly, coldly staring at Sapphire, "that still doesn't make her one of us." 
    Sapphire swallowed hard, "Why don't you just get out of here, Rubeus?" He said as tears filled his eyes, "I don't even care if you are my cousin, that still doesn't give you the right to talk about my friends like that!" 
    Rubeus snickered. "Friends?" He chuckled, "Sapphire, you don't actually believe that you have friends, do you?" 
    Sapphire looked away, somewhat embarrassed, but more hurt than anything else. 
    Just then, Kimiko stood up. "Saffi-chan is my friend," she said, defiantly staring at Rubeus as he looked back at her, annoyed. 
    "Tch. Yeah. Right. It's not like anyone asked you." He said. 
    Kimiko took a step forward. "Saffi-chan has always been my friend, and he always will be." Kimiko said, frowning. 
    When Rubeus didn't react, she took a few steps forward, walking towards her best friend. Rubeus' face was at first expressionless, but a rather evil grin spread across his face as he crossed his arms in front of him, and stuck his foot out. Her foot catching his, Kimiko fell forward, flat on her face, her courage and bravery to stand up to Rubeus erasing instantly. Sapphire frowned, tightening his fists. 
    "Th-that's it." He declared. 
    Rubeus simply laughed, as Kimiko looked up, her fists clenched in pure humiliation, tears filled her eyes, and streamed down her hot, red cheeks. 
    "Pathetic." Rubeus mumbled, softly kicking Kimiko's side, meaning, 'Get up, Shrimp.' Kimiko's bottom lip trembled as she looked up at Sapphire. Sapphire frowned. 
    "I told you to leave." He said, eyeing his cousin suspiciously. 
    "I don't have to listen to you." Rubeus declared simply. 
    "Leave!" Sapphire ordered, closing his eyes. 
    Rubeus laughed. "No." 
    "I'll call my brother," Sapphire threatened Rubeus, "I mean it. And we all know who's side he'll be on." 
    Rubeus made no attempt to leave. "Diamond!!" Sapphire called. Rubeus turned sharply around, jerking himself forward in a hurry. 
    "I-I'm going!" He said to Sapphire, "I-it's no use getting Diamond involved!" He laughed nervously, walking quickly down the hall to his room. 
    Sapphire turned to the doorway, making sure that Rubeus was gone, and then looked back at Kimiko, who was now kneeling on the floor, and still crying. 
    "Come here." Sapphire said, kneeling down beside the four-year-old, and hugging her close to him. 
    "W-why is R-Rubeus-san so m-mean?" Kimiko asked. 
    "I have no idea." Sapphire told her, "guess that's just the way he is." 
    Kimiko nodded, trying to stop crying. Peeking out from his bedroom door, Rubeus saw them like that. 
    "Rrr..." He scowled, and then was out of sight, as he closed his bedroom door. 
    Sapphire continued to hold Kimiko. Kimiko wouldn't stop gripping Sapphire's waist; her chubby arms bound tightly around him. 
    "You alright, now?" Sapphire asked, pulling away from her. But then he noticed that Kimiko was still crying. 
    "Oh...Kimiko..." Sapphire stammered, "come on, you've got to try and calm down, okay?" 
    Kimiko sniffled, looking up at him. She hesitated, thinking it over in her baby way, but then nodded, always trying to do whatever Sapphire wanted her to. To tell the truth, as he helped Kimiko stand up, Sapphire had no idea that Rubeus was still so angry. But he was. Very angry. That was it. Rubeus had been waiting to blow his top ever since the day they had found the Star Brat. But this--this was too much. Way too much. 

    That night, Rubeus had plans of his own. Taking the remains of his friend's chemistry set into his bedroom, Rubeus snuck out of his room one more time, and came back with something he shouldn't have even thought of coming back with. Something bad. Real bad.

Layout Created by Dez.