Samantha

“Come on, honey, we need to get going.  You know the doctors don’t like us being late.”

Samantha gave a wry grin at her mother’s request.  Of course the doctors didn’t like them being late; they’d surely make a big fuss if she was even a single minute tardy for her appointment, regardless of the fact that she would probably end up waiting for an hour or more in some hospital bed or examining room.  Pressing pause on the recording she was watching – she didn’t want to miss anything – she shifted her position in the big recliner chair and leaned out so that she could look around it.

“But mom, the guide said that this is supposed to be the last episode.” Samantha’s voice was soft but cheerful, despite the weariness that weighed on her. “I’ve seen every show; I don’t want to miss the last one.”

Her mother pursed her lips together as she looked back at her child, then nodded slowly.  She was silent another moment longer while she collected herself enough to speak, fighting to keep the emotion from making her voice waver.  “Okay, honey, but as soon as it’s done–”

“Just another five minutes, mom.”  The simple act of holding herself up from the arm of the chair was draining her strength but she still managed to smile for her mother.  “I promise.”

Collapsing back into the seat, Samantha took a moment to catch her breath, reflexively lifting a hand to smooth out hair she hadn’t had in months.  If there was anything that she truly missed, it was the long, golden locks which had always gotten her so much praise, but it was clearly not growing back and the wigs made her itch, so she made do.  At least her parents didn’t have to yell at her for chewing on her bangs anymore.

She picked up the DVR remote and aimed it towards the television, but held off on restarting the program as her big brother came down the stairs.  She knew he really hated the show she was watching – it was too girly – even if he didn’t say it anymore.  “Are you going with us today?”

“Hey, squirt.” Michael smiled, raising his iPod to show it to her.  “Yup just making sure I’ve got something to listen to while we’re waiting.  And mom said she might let me drive us home, too.”

Samantha made a face at the suggestion, more to tease him than out of any real concern; he’d only just gotten his beginner’s permit but had been doing pretty well with it, truth be told.

“Hey!”  Michael folded his arms across his chest, feigning indignance only briefly before his smile reappeared.  “You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She nodded twice, returning the smile.  That was the change she was most glad of.  They used to fight constantly as he always picked on her – his duty as the older brother, he’d always said.  His duties changed when she’d gotten sick, to the point that he’d gotten suspended from school for beating up a classmate who made fun of her for not having any hair.

“Anyway, aren’t we supposed to be leaving?”

“I need to watch the end of Princess Starlight first.”  She saw him roll his eyes at its mention, but that was as far as he went with it.  She knew he had to be biting his tongue.  “It’s the big finale and they said it’s got a surprise ending that no one could predict.”

Michael snorted, then shrugged.  “As long as it’s ending.”  He grinned as she stuck out her tongue at him, then took a moment to rub her bald head.  “Don’t take too long, squirt.  You know how worked-up mom gets before these appointments.”

“I won’t, don’t worry.”  Lifting the remote again, she pressed the play button even as she added.  “Better leave now, before you have to listen to them ‘preaching’.”

“Ugh!  Call me when it’s over!”

Samantha giggled quietly at his reaction, knowing that the incessantly optimistic lectures that Princess Starlight made always drove him nuts.  In truth, though, it was those same never-say-die speeches which were at the heart of her love of the cartoon.  Sure, she’d heard all the criticisms about their re-hashed storylines, simplistic plots and cliched characters, but no matter how bleak things got or how close the evil warlord Haynus got to conquering everything, Starlight never gave up and would always rally the forces of good to victory.  If Princess Starlight never gave up, then how could she?

Nestling herself into the corner of the recliner, Samantha pulled her legs up onto the seat and wrapped her arms around them.  On the television screen before her, the animated cast of Princess Starlight and the Zodiac Warriors prepared themselves for the final assault on Haynus’ castle stronghold.  They knew that the warlord was expecting them and had no doubt laid some form of trap, but the Warriors had courage and righteousness on their side.  Besides, Samantha knew that there was really only a few minutes left to the show, so they had to finish it all off quickly.

“This ends today, Haynus!” Raising her wand of power, Princess Starlight began her advance.  She was flanked on her right by her beloved Leo and on her left by her best friend, Scorpia, while the rest of the thirteen Warriors spread out around them, the ever-quiet Ophiucha taking her usual position covering Starlight’s back.  The Princess, however, could never have predicted the treachery which awaited her, any more than Samantha could have guessed at how desperate the show’s writers had gotten for one last ratings grab.  Neither of them saw it coming until the twin beams of malachite energy blasted into Starlight’s back, sending her tumbling onto the rocky ground.

Samantha watched with a slack jaw as Leo rushed to the Princess’ side, even as Scorpia turned on the traitor.  Ophiucha, the healer who had watched over Starlight for most of their lives, stared blankly at what she had done, wide eyes fixed on her victim.

“Betrayer!” Scorpia’s enraged scream was accompanied by an energy blast of her own as her Stingshot pierced Ophiucha through the chest, the healer dead before she hit the ground.

Samantha’s own chest tightened at the events playing out before her, her head shaking back and forth in her disbelief at what she was seeing, but as both Scorpia and the screen turned back to Starlight, she knew it was only going to get worse.  Leo held the Princess in his arms, her hooded eyes unfocused as they gazed skyward.

“Starlight, hold on, I’ll carry–” Leo’s words of assurance were cut off by Starlight’s fingertips brushing against his lips.  He took her hand in his own as her strength waned, feeling it tremble with the effort of holding it up.

“Not this time, my love.” Tiny specks of light began to rise from her body like snowflakes falling upwards.  It was the same method which had been used to portray a character’s death throughout the series and once it begun, there was no doubting the character’s end was at hand.

“No!”  Samantha was on the edge of the seat, yelling at the screen with what little volume her voice could manage, denying the scene playing out before her.  “You can’t die!”

“Sometimes...” The Princess forced out the words as her lids slowly closed to shroud her sapphire eyes for the last time.  A moment later her body dispersed into a flurry of pinpoint lights which swirled up towards the sky her voice carried with them.  “Even the stars burn out.”  

“Go, my love,” Leo spoke quietly, offering the traditional farewell with an unsteady voice, “join the stars above and light the way for those who follow.”

With her heart thundering in her chest and her breaths coming quick and shallow, Samantha stared in wide-eyed confusion even as the tv showed Haynus and his army of minions gathering atop his castle wall.  The narrator’s voice-over broke in to assure her that the remaining Warriors would be seeking to avenge the Princess’ death in the direct-to-DVD movie “The Zodiac Warriors: Retribution”, but the rhetoric was cut short as the girl sent the recording into rewind.

“That’s not how it’s supposed to end!”  Backing it up to the beginning of the scene, Samantha watched it again through teary eyes, but nothing changed.  She hadn’t seen it wrong nor had she been dreaming it; Princess Starlight was slain, exactly as before.  “You can’t do this!”

Wiping tears away from her eyes, she rewound it again, pausing it just before Ophiucha’s inexplicable treachery.  With eyes narrowing as she glared at the screen, Samantha’s expression hardening as she pressed the “play” button.  “I won’t let you.”

“This ends today, Haynus!” Princess Starlight raised her wand of power and began her advance, the Zodiac Warriors spreading out around her.  There was a flash of malachite as the blast of energy burst from Ophiucha’s eyes, lancing towards the unsuspecting Princess exactly as before.  At the last possible instant, however, Starlight was shoved from its path by the small, frail form of a bald-headed child.

The girl’s body was thrown to the rocky ground but Starlight was at her side an instant later.  She didn’t know where the child had come from but she owed the girl her life.  Scorpia hovered at her side, a furious snarl on her lips as she raised her hand towards Ophiucha.  “Betray–”

“No!”  The child could barely lift her own head, yet summoned the strength to shout.  
“She didn’t... want to do it.  It was the– the writers.”

“The girl speaks truly, Scorpia.” Starlight put her hand on her friend’s arm to calm her anger.  “Look at her; even Ophiucha doesn’t know why she did it.  These ‘writers’ must have bewitched her somehow.”

Ophiucha knelt, staring in horror at her own actions – at the child who lay at death’s door because of them – but Starlight knew that even had the woman had control of her faculties, the girl was beyond the help any healing magic.  Starlight looked down at the strange child, a thousand questions swirling in her thoughts but knowing there was only enough time for the most important of them.  “Why?  Why would you sacrifice yourself for me?”

“I’m your biggest fan.” The girl smiled up at the Princess, but it was weak, only lasting for a few moments.  “You give me hope.”

“What’s your name, little one?”

The girl tried to speak again, even as her lids drooped lower and lower, but lacked the strength to give voice to her words.  Starlight leaned closer, put her ear to the girl’s lips and let her try again.  It was the last thing the child would ever say and the Princess’ eyes shimmered with heartache as she pulled back from the girl, then stood to look at her Warriors even as the first tiny flakes of light began to appear from the child’s body and drift into the sky.

“Hey, squirt!” Michael spoke loudly as he strode into the living room, coming up from behind the recliner. “Isn’t that show done yet? Mom says–” His voice caught in his throat as he saw his little sister’s thin form slumped off to the side of the large chair, motionless. “Sammy? Samantha!”

“She said that I gave her hope and she has given strength in return.  Today, my Warriors, we end Haynus’ reign of terror.”

Michael hurried to the girl’s side, shaking her even as he prayed she was just sleeping, but she wouldn’t stir.  He turned his head back towards the door and shouted frantically for his mother, paying no attention to the cartoon which continued to play on the television until one word – one name – caught his ear.

“We do this for the sake of all that is good and just.  We do this for Samantha, whose sacrifice will not be forgotten, nor will it be in vain.  No quarter will be given, no surrender accepted.”

Turning to look at the tv even as his mother rushed into the room, Michael stepped back to allow her access to Samantha, but he never took his eyes off the animated scene playing out before him.  It had started with a simple close-up of Princess Starlight as she’d made her declaration but as it zoomed out he was stunned to see a familiar figure born in Ophiucha’s arms.  Small and thin, the girl’s face was partially obscured as she dissolved into thousands of tiny lights, but with what he could see combined with the clearly bald head, the resemblance was uncanny – and unquestionable.

Behind him his mother was on her cell phone, pleading with emergency services to hurry to their house, but there was nothing that paramedics could do and, in his heart, Michael knew it.  She had beaten the odds just to have survived as long as she had, but now it seemed that in her passing had done something far more amazing.

The view on the screen had continued to pan back to show both the Zodiac Warriors and Haynus’ castle, the swirl of stardust dispersing into the darkening sky, and he finally tore his gaze from the television.  Looking back at his little sister, Michael noticed for the first time that a faint smile sat on her lips.  She was the picture of serenity and he knew then that for all she had been through, she’d managed to find happiness in her final moments; to find peace.

He knelt next to her and rested a hand on her knee, committing that face to memory.  The show’s narrator was calling on viewers to see the grande finale in the direct-to-DVD movie “Princess Starlight and the Zodiac Warriors: Retribution”, in which they would take their vengeance for the innocent Samantha’s death, both on Haynus and his allies, the vile “writers”.  Michael almost laughed, wondering just what kind of trouble his little sister had started with that.

“You did the impossible, squirt.  I don’t know how you did it, but–” He pursed his lips together, the trembling of his voice making it hard to speak, then took a deep breath before finally finding the words.  “G’bye, Sammy.  I’ll look for you in the stars; I know you’ll be lighting the way.”