Moment of Time.
I smiled, when Glaxia had been defeated. It was good, and everyone around
me was happy. I of course, was not as exuberant, for I had known for years what
the outcome of this battle would be. I nodded to Usagi, as she stood holding
hands with Mamoru, face radiant. I opened the door of the red car and got out.
"You're not leaving already, are you?" Haruka looked suprised.
"I have a duty to fufill. It is time for me to leave." Haruka looked
upset, but Michiru nodded to me. Hotaru looked up.
"Every day, for all time, you sacrifice yourself. When are you going to
live life?" She seemed sad, but there was a great deal of respect the way she
said it.
"Pluto Crystal Power, MAKE UP!!!" The garnet orb and time key in my
hands, I felt for the force to open time rise in my soul, and I dissapeared
before my friends.
Haruka looked down.
"She is the only one of us that has ever really felt the true meaning of
sacrifice."
"And so life continues."
The cold mists that surrounded the gates of time swirled around me,
welcoming me home. Grey shadows echoed the words of my friends, memories of a
past long gone returned to me. For the first time in over a millenia, I sat
down at my post, and shed a single tear.
"Pluto," Serenity said. "Come stand before me." I, just a child, walked
over to where the Queen sat. She closed her eyes, and before her appeared an
image of a grey staff.
"Do you like it?" I nodded. "I feel that it will be your destiny to carry
it. Syoria will train you in the ways of the staff. You shall have great power,
Pluto. Destiny is carried within the will and lives of every being." I rose my
hands and tried to touch the fading image.
Ten years later, I was a master of the staff, and fought with a grey pole
against any enemies. I had mastered the dead scream, and often seeminlg
appeared out of nowhere to help Uranus and Neptune, the other Outer Senshi. It
was a peaceful time, and I was happy. That was, until Metallia appeared.
I felt Neptune's scream as she watched her planet fall. I felt Saturn's
power as she used the rings to move Metallia past her. The Queen called all the
senshi in for a meeting.
"We must increase the guard on Uranus. It shall be the next planet to be
attack, being more populated. Saturn has still declined to join us." These were
the first words spoken of importance. Later a messanger came in, telling that
the Generals were missing. We were told to move to our posts. I was to be
stationed on the Moon. Later, Serenity took me aside.
"Pluto, the time is coming when you will summoun your true powers. That
is why I am keeping you near."
"What are my powers, Queen?"
"I do not know. They are buried deep within your soul. Grow strong.
Metallia is coming."
Metallia blasted at the Moon kingdom, tearing it apart. I filled my staff
with power and sent in flying at the monstrosity, but it had no effect.
"You expect to beat me with that, puny senshi? I shall tear you limb from
limb!" The black energy neared me, and I closed my eyes, preparing for death.
I heard Metallia shriek, and Saturn's Glaive was but an inch away from my
face.
"Saturn???"
"I have come to tell you, I feel that the Queen's destiny lies within
your hands." I looked around. Metallia was gone.
"Everyone is saying that. I have no power." Saturn closed her eyes, and
showed me a single silent ribbon, preserving a moment for an eternity.
"Your powers are akin to my own. They hold moments, destinies, wisdom of
things that should be imposible to see. Nothing comes without cost. I pay by
being the senshi of creation and destruction. If you are to release your force,
you must be willing first to accept the cost it bears." She dissapeared in a
sparkling shimmer of light, and left the ribbon in my hands.
"Cost?"
I ran from there, heading for the Queen. I watched as she rose her
Crescent Moon Wand, Metallia learing before her preparing for a strike...
Serenity raising her wand...
I held my breath for an eternity...
And watched her die. Her back arched and she tuimblemd softly to the
ground. Everyone scattered, dead. The Princess lay to my left, the other senshi
to my right.
"Noo...." I fell to the ground. Metallia's face was above me. Saturn's
Glaive lay on the ground, and I did not want to wonder about what this monster
had managed to do to her. A drop of blood stained Serenity's dress.
"Serenity..." I murmered, my staff dropping to the ground. She had been
like a mother. How dare Metallia!
"DEAD SCREAM!!!" I let out more energy then even I knew I had, let alone
bear. Metallia was repulsed back by it, and left to destroy another area of the
kingdom. She would return later, to destroy me. It was over.
"Serenity...I have failed." I murmered to the Queen, "Forgive me. I have
no power. I could not save you." The ginzhuishou flashed as my tears fell to
it, and it gave an eerie life to my surroundings. I heard Serenity's voice and
spirit... `great power...' and then Saturn's `Cost...' Uranus had died awhile
ago, but she had always believed that sacrifice was the only true way of
succeeding and peace. But I had nothing left, nothing to sacrifice.
Metallia had returned. I was using all my power to keep a shield around
myself and the dead court, saving this little piece of the fallen kingdom.
Black beams began to cut through the shield, and I remembered the Queen.
"You shall not win this day, you monster!!!!!!" I shrieked, tears flying
from my face. I was now down on my knees.
"In the name of everything, you shall not win!!!!!!!!!!!!" My scream rose
above everything, the stars, the skies seemed to shatter at my call. I rose,
but watched as a black beam sent my staff flying from my hands, and watched as
it landed besides the dead princess. Then, the final blow, and I felt no more.
I was surrounded my a dark red light, floating in nothingness. weeks,
months, days, years, may have passed. Or perhaps it is over, I thought to
myself. Perhaps I am dead. The Queen was. Everyone was. Metallia had won. I had
failed.
"Pluto." Came a voice that surrounded me. It beared no forms, for it came
from deep within my soul. I looked around. I heard Serenity's voice calling me.
`A great power....' Saturn's fading voice... `Everything has cost...' The voice
returned just as I had begun to call madly out to the voices, begging them to
forgive me for not saving them.
"Pluto, you can still save them..."
"I have not the power." `A moment in time... held forever....' Saturn's
voice surrounded me. "What is it you want? Sacrifice? I have nothing."
"The others... they, in the future.... will believe in sacrifice. If you
sacrifice... they shall not die..."
"They are already dead."
"The power is for those who can pay the price it carries."
"What price?"
"What... is the price.. Saturn said she paid?..." I felt her voice.
`Creation... and destruction..."
"You wish me to destroy a world???"
"Is that her price.?..." No. It was not the destruction of the world. `It
is...' Serenity!! `Having to live... through it...."
"She boar the cost of her powers."
"So can you." I cried as I thought of the innocent princess, running,
giving me a hug, Mars, practicing her fire... Neptune, swimming on her
homeworld...Venus, dancing at a ball... Mercury, reading the entire royal
library...Uranus, swishing a fine blade through the air and admiring its
hilt... Jupiter practicing her fighting skills...Saturn...swirling the Glaive
in front of my face to protect me. Serenity... giving me a home. I cried.
"I know the price you ask. For them, I shall pay it."
"They will not remember this."
"I know." From my heart, my staff was transformed into a key, and upon it
the light of the place I was in, the force of that which is and is not, swirled
through me, finally turning into a garnet gem, mounted to the key. I closed my
eyes.
I was alone, in the blackness of space. The planets were all destroyed.
"Time..." I whispered. The voice was gone, and it was then that I
realized it had been none other then my own. So this was my great power, I
thought, looking at my key. To save the future time, I would live through all
of it, at the point where time changes. If I would have it save them, that
would be the price I pay.
"Time...Past...Change!!!" I closed my eyes and thought of nothing but
Metallia not arriving at the same time. A small change...guides the future... I
thought to myself. For the future, we shall not perish.
"We shall have our peace!!!" I screamed, and watched as the fabric of the
universe was torn apart and I was with Serenity at her death, I was with the
Princess when she was killed, as was with everthing, everyone... and I begged
it to change.
And it did.
`we will have our future...'
I let out one more tear and stood up. this was the path, the destiny I
chose. no one remebered the reality in which everone died. No one, except,
Queen Serenity. Somehow, in her last moments, when she sent everyone to Earth,
I saw her look over time and stare in my eyes, and whisper `thank you.' So I
stay here, as Hotaru says, I sacrifice not my life but the chance to have life,
the chance to spend a warm day in the sun, the chance to lead a normal life. I
will always know what it means, to stand alone.
I am not only the senshi of time.
I am the senshi of sacrifice.
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