Chapter 14: Time Marches On
A/N: Well here we go. This is a transition chapter that will wrap up the end of the fallen universe arc and onto the second arc...which is going to get weird. I will try to explain everything in detail because this entire idea is either going to light up like my old Saturn after the transmission blew or be amazing.
-Gates of Time-
She felt a pulse in the timeline...and not a moment later a second pulse. Sailor Pluto's eyes widened as her greatest fears came true. With a swirl of her hand she conjured up a view of her Princess and Sailor Venus. Helplessly she watched one as the lives of the Moon Princess and Sailor Venus were snuffed out. There was an ominous rumble as the timeline started to fall apart under the strain of the changes. Two prominent figures that helped shape the timeline past, present, and future dying unexpectedly caused it to go into a complete collapse.
"No…" She couldn't believe it. While she had seen the evidence she thought enough had been done to counteract the Phaeton Knight's meddling and the other changes that Wiseman had brought on. The images of the future started to crystalize into new and darker projections. Images of the Moon Kingdom while alive once more attacked on all sides by the Dark Kingdom and the Black Moon Family. The fighting after the destruction the Silver Alliance's remnants continued on as factions of the Black Moon and Dark Kingdom split into smaller sub factions.
The images showed the powers of good weakened from Nephrite's slaying of the Moon Princess and Sailor Venus. The future started to build and Sailor Pluto had to watch as Sailor Senshi and Shitennou died in attack after attack until finally only the King of Earth and Nephrite remained. The two held strong with Nephrite's access to Zero but eventually even they fell. Sailor Pluto involuntarily gasped as the images started to crack and change. It was then she felt it...the death of Nephrite.
Helplessly Setsuna stood there as the future shattered once more. Another pillar of light gone caused the future to darken even further. Scenes started to change again for Sailor Pluto. This time Nephrite was gone. This time the future held an ever darker tone as the forces of light fell even faster. In the end it was a lone Zoisite left and even he died in the end.
Just as the future solidified again it just as quickly started to unravel. New and disturbing changes seemed to take place of the once stable future time line. It was then that Sailor Pluto realized what had occurred.
"The entire timeline is unraveling. There is no longer a set future." Sailor Pluto whispered softly as she realized that there was no longer anything to protect. Sure she could go back...attempt to fix it but was there even a point? If the timeline was so irreversibly broken it was no longer stable it meant any attempts may not even take at this point.
This left her with only a handful of options. She could activate Sailor Saturn...have the poor dear wipe the slate clean so to speak but that didn't guarantee the events would play out differently. Besides she had lost track of Sailor Saturn recently. It was as if something was hiding her away from her.
After a moment Sailor Pluto turned her eyes back to monitor the future hoping that is would stabilize. Instead the images kept changing at a faster and faster crescendo as the future continued to unravel. Soon it was a dark Earth...one where the Dark Kingdom ruled and none of Earth's defenders remained alive long. The Queen's dream had truly died.
This left her with only one real option. It was forbidden for a reason and to the best of her knowledge no one had ever used it. Then again...how would anyone ever know? The entire ritual would bend time and space. It was considered a taboo and there was a reason that no one would know about it. With her decision made Sailor Pluto left her observation post for the second time in the last few weeks.
Her heels clicked as she walked through the fog. If she was a little less preoccupied she may have noticed that the Phaeton Knight was no longer frozen in place by the Time Lock and had disappeared. As she approached her destination the large foreboding door seemed to rise out of the fog. In fact if one didn't know where to look it would be easy to miss. Despite that the entrance was enormous. As she came closer she could make out the carvings in the onyx stone.
Pluto's resolve wavered for a moment. Could she really do this? No she had to. She would insure the Queen's dream came to fruition no matter what the cost. With a swing of her key staff she willed the end of her staff to take form into the required key that would unlock this particular door. The tip of her staff took on an ethereal glow for a moment before it suddenly grew larger and the teeth of a key sprouted up near the end.
Without any further hesitation in carrying out her plan she raised the staff up and inserted it into the key hole that appeared the moment her key had fully formed. At first she didn't think it would take. The doors had never been opened since it was built or so she had been told by her mother who once held this position. Finally after a few anxious moments she heard a loud clank as the door accepted the key.
Sailor Pluto's staff returned to normal as she pulled it out. There was an ominous grinding sound before finally the doors started to split apart. The sound of stone dragging across stone echoed across the Gates of Time. Fog rushed into the newly revealed room covering it to the point that even Sailor Pluto doubted that it was even there. If she turned around at this point she wasn't sure if she could find it again.
Never the less she forged onward. Carefully using her staff almost like a walking stick she tapped the ground ahead of her at a regular interval to confirm that there was solid ground. After what felt like an eternity the fog finally cleared and she came upon the room.
Like the black doors the entire room was carved out of obsidian. The entire room was bathed in an ethereal glow from the blue pulsating crystal that was embedded in the ground of the chamber directly in the center. The glow revealed the carvings that were etched across every surface and ran across the floors and up the walls.
Setsuna suspected if she could see the ceiling that the markings would be up there as well. The pause only lasted a moment as she had her part of the deal to uphold after all. At her will the staff's point turned into what appeared to be a chisel. It would be her will carved into these markings but first she had to force the crystal that ran the chamber to allow the changes. The only way to make the crystal a little more flexible to meet her goals was to corrupt it ever so slightly.
This was where her deal with Beryl came in. With merely a thought a container of black energy appeared in her hand. "I apologize...but this is for my Queen's future." At those words Setsuna threw the container directly into the crystal. It shattered as the crystal started to swallow the offered item. Almost as if in pain the entire blue crystal pulsated once and the air around Sailor Pluto rippled as the crystal started to change colors until it was a midnight blue.
Satisfied that the crystal was now a little more malleable to her desires she began to carve signs into a portion of the wall that had not been blank before. It was agonizing for as she continued to carve the staff drew out her power by using her blood as the medium. How it performed this she did not know but she knew it to be true.
She grew paler and paler as she continued to carve in her desires. It was what made this ritual forbidden. What she was attempted would in the end kill her. Time passed until she had completed her task by the end she was shaking from the loss of power and the blood loss. Her weary eyes confirmed that she had written it all into the wall. Every last carving perfect.
Now all she had to do was activate the crystal. She was too weak to walk so she drug her weary panting form over to the crystal. The ritual was almost complete now she just had to give it a few minutes for her blood to dry completely and seal her desire into reality.
A slow clapping sound brought her out of her hazy thoughts of the future. "Who dares enter the Gates of Time!" She called out with more bravado in her voice than she actually felt. If she was stopped now all would lost!
"I never expected you to open this gate. I thought my rule abiding cousin would never dare to perform such a ritual...yet here you are in the Chamber of Beginning." Jordan called out as he fully entered the chamber. He didn't even bother acknowledging Setsuna's original demand as he found it a moot point to state who entered as she could clearly see it was the black sheep of the entire Silver Alliance. "I must congratulate you for catching me unawares...rarely happens that you can actually surprise me."
"You wouldn't understand...you could never understand." Setsuna declared with a hint of desperation in her voice. "I had to stop you from interfering any further if you interfere now..."
"Wouldn't understand? What exactly wouldn't I understand my dear cousin?" Jordan cut her off in a commanding tone.
"You could never understand what I've been through to get to this point!" Setsuna growled in annoyance.
"Wouldn't understand what you've been through? Please...spare me." He spun from studying the carvings to glare at his cousin. "Tell me again why you couldn't change the timeline to save Phaeton but you have no issue dipping into forbidden rituals if your precious future is in jeopardy."
A frown marred Setsuna's face. "You know the Queen forbade me. It was necessary."
"It was necessary because the Queen didn't appreciate my father going behind her back to make sure the Earthlings actually had a shot at defeating the Dark Kingdom. We wouldn't want to mess with the Queen's grand experiments..." Jordan responded in a condescending tone.
"You know…" Setsuna queried her eyes slightly wide at the implications.
"How could I not?" Jordan rolled his eyes. "Nephrite kept on screaming it at every encounter. It was simple enough to follow up on. Getting the mainframe online was a bitch but that's Mercurian's for you. They try to play with dad's toys and manage to almost break them. Once I was in I just had to blow past their security…well…if you can call it that and my did I find something interesting about the Queen's original meeting with the Earthlings."
"Zero was locked away for a reason and you know that." Setsuna started.
Jordan laughed a loud before he began in a mocking tone. "Oh yes...nothing better than locking away the Earth's spirit without an explanation to make it see reason. I'm sure it didn't build up any resentment at all. That couldn't have been the reason Zero caused Nephrite to snap and kill the Moon Princess." With a pause to let it sink in the angered Phaeton continued. "Oh wait...it was...the Queen played god...and royally fucked up. She fucked up so hard that she is the cause of her daughter dying not once but twice! But tell me again dear cousin, how her dream for the future is perfect."
A look of shock crossed Setsuna's face at Jordan's accusation. While it wasn't a surprise as Jordan had never made an effort to hide his feelings about the Queen he rarely if ever went this far. A hint of trepidation entered her voice. "Her sacrifice allowed for a future she had dreamed of for her daughter. While it wasn't perfect and there were some variables she knew with my assistance the resurrection of the Silver Alliance could be achieved."
"Are you telling me that the Queen knew of the fall of the Silver Alliance?" Jordan asked with a hint of incredulousness to his voice. He had ceased his study of the carvings completely that he had been absently studying while half listening to his cousin prattle on. If one thing was for certain staying in isolation at the Time Gates had not helped her even a little. It seemed that she had clung onto the Queen's last command and made it her anchor, the reason for living. Never a good thing.
"You must remember that her Highness was a seer from her father's bloodline. While her powers were nowhere near refined as my own she saw the outcome of the Silver Millennium's end. Upon seeing the possible outcomes of the future she came to me and begged me for my assistance." Setsuna was startled by Jordan's sudden interruption.
"Your assistance for what exactly?" If he had known sooner he may have been able to counter Setsuna but even he was blindsided by this. It implied that Setsuna the supposed keeper of the Gates of Time had been meddling far more than she had any right to. A small smirk crossed his face...so much for the high and mighty rule abiding Setsuna.
There was a pause as Setsuna seemed to debate how to answer exactly. If anything Jordan while pig headed and stubborn at times was a man that saw reason. Due to Phaeton's advanced intelligence and scientific community they valued reasoning and logic above all else. With a sigh she decided to tell him everything in hopes of swaying him. "The Queen saw the possible futures...one where the forces for good were never awakened and the Dark Kingdom ruled all, one where the Sailor Senshi awakened along with Endymion but the Shitennou nor you were ever awakened...and this future here."
Jordan put up a hand right there. "I think I can deduce the one she preferred from here. Let me take a guess I'm going to go with the second option. Without the Shitennou around to assist Endymion, he would have had little more power than a child compared to what he would have been able to access if they were around. So that would have set the Princess and the Sailor Senshi in a position where no one could really come out and challenge any of their decisions which compared to the option of the Dark Kingdom would look pretty great to most people. Then they would have reawakened their old planets and I'm sure the Mercurians using the left over tech from my people would have somehow stumbled and bumbled their way into reactivating the world gates. Then presto, instant new Silver Alliance with Earth as the new center ruled by the Moon and bonus I nor the Shitennou would have been around to object. Sound about right?"
Setsuna's frown said it all. A self-satisfied smirk crossed Jordan's lips. So predictable. While the old Queen Serenity wasn't evil per say the woman was a conniving politician at heart. Back near the end of the Silver Millennium the Earth had the entire Alliance bent over a barrel and their demands would have at the time ironically put Earth in charge of the entire Alliance. He couldn't say he was surprised that the Queen decided to play the long game.
Back during the Silver Millennium he had felt pretty good about getting one over on the old harpy. With his help Endymion had completely blindsided the entire Alliance and in the end picked up the majority of the Alliance in ransom. It had been a dastardly plan and he had loved every second of it. Now he realized that it had all been a tactical retreat on her part. Give Earth what it wanted to give her enough time to set up the pieces to take back the whole pot in the future. She played dangerously and he was further impressed by the fact she had died leaving it all on Setsuna to carry it out. No wonder she hadn't been too keen on letting anyone keep their memories of the past completely intact.
"It was the Princess's destiny…" Setsuna responded sounding a little less resolute after Jordan rattling off what had more or less been the plan to start with. "If Wiseman hadn't interfered the correct time line would have been preserved. The outcome of this timeline even with my assistance was doomed to fail. While the Alliance would come about it was not what the Queen dreamed of. There were changes in this timeline that the Queen did not approve of seeing take place."
"Ah of course…" Jordan nodded knowingly. While Jadeite had been blind to it and perhaps even Zoisite to a certain extent, he realized that the young man was not just torn up from the loss of two friends. "You're speaking of the relationship between Jadeite and the Princess."
"Yes." Setsuna's voice filled with a glimmer of hope. Perhaps he did finally understand why this timeline could not be allowed to continue. "Even if I were to go back in time there are certain events I could not stop on my own which would in turn lead to the future the Queen would not want for her daughter. So I have no choice."
"Oh please don't act like you don't have a choice. You just hide behind your high morals when it is convenient and now I find you've been bending the rules the entire time. So what are your plans then if you won't go back in time? This chamber has only one purpose after all." While he had a general idea of just what she was going to do and could carry through with his plans on his hunch it'd be better to hear it straight from her mouth. No need for useless errors.
"No need to play coy." Setsuna felt the energy starting to hum through the air as the power started to flow through the carvings. Good it had started at this point there was nothing that Jordan could do to stop it. "I am merging the timelines. This one has become unsalvageable and with the Princess dead it is the perfect opportunity to start fresh."
"Start fresh?" Jordan queried a small smirk resting at the corner of his lips. "And just what are we starting fresh?"
"After the merge those from this universe will no longer have their memories. Those memories will be suppressed and forgotten. At most they will get glimpses of another life in their dreams. With Usagi and Minako dead they will be replaced by the universe we're merging with. The Senshi will be saved from their fate and the Shitennou will be dealt with." Setsuna explained. It wouldn't hurt to inform Jordan of the changes. In a few minutes he'd forget this entire conversation and she'd be dead replaced by the other universe's Setsuna such was the cost of the ritual. There was a reason it was considered forbidden.
"And Jadeite? You know he always seems to defy the odds in some way or another." Jordan kept Setsuna talking as he reached his hand into his pocket and grasped the two soul crystals. One had a little bit of an orange tint and the other was a pure silver. In fact they were the soul crystals of Usagi and Minako. Such a good thing the families had chosen to go the non-traditional route of burial. After a little grave robbing and some mutilation of corpses he now possessed two freshly harvested soul crystals.
"I've seen this timeline. When I was first looking for one to merge with. It is imperfect and will also fall apart without the merge. In this one the Sailor Senshi have been hobbled by Jadeite. While Sailor Moon has activated Sailor Mercury he killed Sailor Mercury mid transformation. If things continue they will fail but if the merge takes place Jadeite will be killed before he can find a way to reawaken his old memories and save the remaining Shitennou." Setsuna hadn't had the power available to view the outcome of the new merged universe since the first time. Since then she had been saving up power for this ritual and it was almost complete.
"And just how do you think Jadeite will be killed before he has a chance to remember...once again the insurmountable jackass has a way of doing the unexpected." Jordan rolled his eyes in annoyance at Setsuna's inability to see people for what they were and not pawns on the board. Never mind the fact that he viewed people as exactly that...he was just smart enough to add the variables in.
"How do you think I got the dark energy I used to activate the chamber?" Setsuna whispered in a tight voice. "I worked with Beryl. For the dark energy I promised her that she would retain her memories and I would take care of her Dark Horsemen problem. My only condition was that she would find a way to kill Jadeite. I informed her that no matter what was to happen he had to be eliminated immediately. What I didn't tell her was that once the merge took place she was sure to be defeated by the Sailor Senshi."
Jordan gave her a cool look. For once he was too angry for words. What little respect he had for his cousin had evaporated. Perhaps closing this universe off was for the best. While he used to enjoy attempting to taunt her about always following the rules it was a bit of shock to discover she had not only bent the rules but had flat out broken them. With a shake of his head he decided it was almost time to go. Although he could easily shield himself by bending space around himself to deflect the changes...he rather not test it at ground zero.
"Pitiful Setsuna...that you would go to such lengths to fulfill a conniving old harpy's dream for her perfect kingdom. How the mighty have truly fallen. I think it will be best if this version of you dies before you fuck anything up any further. I've always had to pick up other people's messes but there was always someone I held to a higher standard...and now I find out you're the worst one out of the bunch." Jordan gave a disgusted shake of his head. This was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Just as it was nearing its final stages that neither Jordan nor Setsuna could stop she saw Jordan carving something into the wall and placed two soul crystals onto the wall. She watched helplessly as the wall started to absorb them. "What are you doing?" Setsuna screamed a crazed look entering her eyes.
"Oh just making sure that I can reactivate the memories of this universe's Usagi and Minako. It would be most inconvenient trying to cobble the memories together from what I witnessed and I certainly don't want to try to start over again with Blinky and Bubbles...although Snarf I could do without." Jordan stated in a mock casual tone as if he was simply speaking of the weather as he even went so far as to tap his chin as if in thought.
"You act as if you'll remember...but you'll be wiped away from this universe along with everyone else. Even if you somehow access your memories you'll be too late!" Setsuna nearly ranted in close to sheer panic. At the pit of her stomach a sense of dread started to spread outwards. Had there been a variable she had forgotten about? It didn't matter.
"I hope it was worth it." Jordan responded simply without really answering her questions. The walls were now glowing almost a solid blue. The ritual was almost complete. It was time to go...besides he had one or two more house cleaning items on his list. If he was quick enough he'd be able to get it all done before the merge finalized. With a snap of his fingers he disappeared just as Setsuna finally recalled his powers.
Setsuna let out a useless scream railing against the injustice of it all. All of her work was about to be ruined and her Queen's dream would disappear! The entire room started to fill with light before a giant pulse left the chamber. The pulse of energy consumed Setsuna taking her life as the price for such a dark ritual. From the Gates of Time the pulse of energy expanded. It hurtled towards Earth and as it passed each planet it gained speed. Each planet it touched seemed to resonate with the power and briefly took on a blue hue as the merge was complete.
While the merge did not affect much on the other planets when it reached Earth a different process occurred. For just a few minutes it seemed that two Earths were there. One overlapping the other one. As the two universes assimilated though the overlap became fainter until it disappeared completely leaving only one. For most people on Earth they would describe dreams over the next few years of a different world. These dreams would feel so real that some people would take these dreams as signs of the future.
A/N: So again hopefully this will answer some of how I'm bringing Usagi back. Next chapter we'll have Jordan interacting with Setsuna a little and it will be set up chapter. We'll check in to see how everyone is after the merge and how it has changed everything. Hope everyone enjoys the insanity.
Chrissymoon101: Thanks glad you enjoyed. Hopefully you enjoyed another interesting turn.
Ginsan: This entire operation is going to either be amazing or horrible. The new Setsuna will be a little closer to the manga Setsuna and I think the interactions will be a little closer to what you'd expect.
Catspirit: Well…pretty much yeah...just a little different. The next chapter will explain more of the merge and we'll see where Jadeite and Zoisite are. Unfortunately this version of Setsuna was completely corrupted and we'll touch on that a little next chapter.