Interlude in Time
I do not own Sailormoon or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"Hello Daughter."
Pluto spun around to the source of the voice and saw a tall older man dressed in brown robes and carrying a staff much like her own. He radiated a restrained air of power and wisdom. The pupils of his hourglass eyes seemed to bear deep into her soul. *Damn, he almost always shows up just when I'm at my worst.*
"Hello Chronos." Pluto stiffly replyed. "I don't suppose you want to tell me why my timegates aren't working. I mean, the excuse was 'Godly Difficulties' and if I remember correctly that falls in your area."
Chronos looked at his only daughter and stifled a sigh. Always it was like this, the formalities and distance between them. After all, how could a daughter love a father who had stuck her with a job like Guardian of the Timegates. He looked on the girl he once adored and reflected that he should have seen her little rebellion coming a mile away.
"Daughter, We know what you have been up to, and while I can't say I don't understand and sympathize with your burdens, that does not mean that you can use the Gates to further YOUR own desires!" He hadn't meant to get upset, but by the end of the sentence he was yelling.
Pluto squared her shoulders and met the accusation head on. "Crystal Tokyo was already a set outcome! I can't understand your pig-headed refusal to simply accelerate events towards that point! With the course I've set, lives will be saved, the Light will Triumph!"
"Crystal Tokyo was one of many outcomes! With many paths to the reaching of it. Have you even bothered to look beyond your own future in such an event? Yes, lives will be saved, the Darkness, the Chaos out of the picture, but the stagnation, the apathy of your version of Crystal Tokyo will eventually bring about the end of the Universe. This dimesion will entrophy and bring down all others with it! But all you can see is that your duty to the gates of time will be over!" Chronos raged against his offsprings selfish desire, understandable though it was. In this Crystal Tokyo, she finally could rest, could lay down the Atlas-like burden she'd been carrying for millenia.
"But don't you see! Princess Serenity will take care of that! Already she is fighting the rebellers of the future!" Despite her fathers words, the lady of time still believed she was in the right. "Fate and Destiny approve of my plan!"
"Fate and Destiny, strong though they are, have been overruled."
"What! But that isn't supposed to happen." Pluto frantically began to think of what such an occurence could mean. "Do you know what you and the other powers have done?" In the natural order of the gods this would mean that all other powers would have to be in accord with each other, an event that was almost guarenteed never to happen due to the different agendas of all such beings. An event that had happened only once before, in the very beginning of all time, when the Universe was forged, with Fate and Destiny to set the course.
Chronos sighed and turned towards the endless mists. "I've done what I should have done the first time I noticed your tampering. That day long ago when you approached the first Serenity and whispered to her of the Silver Alliance, an event that naturally would have happened 700 years and five Queens down the timestream. But even then I didn't think that you would do all this, stray from your duty so much as to try and effect the course and destiny of OUR CHOSEN AVATAR. "
Pluto recoiled at the hidden venom and dissappointment in his words and gaze. "There are other avatars."
"But none so important! so impactful!" The God of Time turned back towards his daughter, letting her see for the first time the resolve and sadness he had so far kept hidden.
Perhaps sensing what was to come, Pluto hissed words like arrows. "Once again, I ask, what have you done, FATHER!?
Of course she would chose now to call him that. After he had waited so long to hear that word from her once again.
"My duty. Setsuna, Senshi of Princess Serenity, Protector of the Timestreams and Gates, Princess of the Planet Pluto, I am removing you of your office. You should be happy now, daughter mine, you are getting want you want. Freedom from your duty. You shall retain all other titles, including the title of Senshi of your planet and of your Princess. What powers naturally come with such an office are still yours as well."
Setsuna hardly knew what to think, what to feel. She was getting what she wanted, yet somehow she knew that her punishment, her reward, would not make her as happy as it should. She bowed to her father. "Very well then, I shall go rejoin my princess." Just as she was about to turn and leave, Chronos held his hand up.
"Ah, but my daughter, my removing you of your office was not a full answer to the question you asked." At her uneasy gaze, he smiled, and she knew that she definately wasn't going to be happy with whatever he was about to reveal.
"You see, dear child, when the powers and I overruled Fate and Destiny, all we did was change an event in your princesses life that in all other timestreams would have been but a small turning point. " Pluto thought hard and then remembered that last scene she would ever see from a time mirror.
"The wish! But the outcome of that wish is to send her to the moon to speak with her mother. She would have returned renewed in her resolve to due her duty and continue the course set for her."
"Not any longer. We have taken the princess away from past influences, giving her a clean slate so to speak. She can now choose where to go from here, can grow into herself and her powers as she should have had you not interferred. You see, you shall not be rejoining Serenity at this time."
"But Chronos, how will she ever play the role she must play in the coming times without guidance!? I set events so that she could gradually fill the role, could learn what she needs to learn and do what is needed! Events that she cannot do alone!"
"Exactly the point of your little tampering efforts! You would stunt her talents! She would grow dependant and need you, to need to believe in Crystal Tokyo! No daughter, she is our chosen for a reason, not meant to be a puppet!"
"But the timestream has already been put in play! There is no stopping the battles that she will have to do and you have condemned her to do so alone. And if giving her a clean slate means what I hope it doesn't, she shall have to battle for reasons she won't know, won't remember!"
Chronos smiled sadly at his daughter. "Do you think so little of me? Of the Powers that Be? Of the strength of the Light? Don't worry, Setsuna. She is not alone. And there is still the possibility of her senshi joining her in the fight. All we have truly done is given her a vacation from herself, given her a chance to grow into the strong warrior she can be, without the burdens of her past. Besides, all can be recovered, nothing is set in stone."
Then, to the bewilderment of Pluto, her father went to her and pulled her into a loving, fatherly embrace. The last thing she heard as the hug and the endless mists of the Gate she would never have to call home ever again faded away from her, was merely a whisper in her mind.
"Have faith my daughter. There is always hope. Why else would we battle so fiercly?"
**************************************************************************** ****************** This part was orginally very small and meant to go in the beginning of Something Blue, part 3. But then I sat down to write it and the words just flowed onto the screen. Now, this chapter isn't Pluto bashing, not really. I happen to personally like Setsuna, in fact she is one of my favorites. However, in my story, she was given a huge burden and after millions upon millions (she's even older in my story than she is in most other fanfics) she simply wished to be free of it. She didn't tamper with time out of hate or dislike. To her, she merely pushed a certain timestream to the fore.
Anyway, this should answer some questions. Still up ahead: Our little Lunarian and Willows meet DHoffryn, the vengeance demon! Also, Usagi can speak and understand English, but will she keep this knowledge when Willow's spell is ended?
I do not own Sailormoon or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"Hello Daughter."
Pluto spun around to the source of the voice and saw a tall older man dressed in brown robes and carrying a staff much like her own. He radiated a restrained air of power and wisdom. The pupils of his hourglass eyes seemed to bear deep into her soul. *Damn, he almost always shows up just when I'm at my worst.*
"Hello Chronos." Pluto stiffly replyed. "I don't suppose you want to tell me why my timegates aren't working. I mean, the excuse was 'Godly Difficulties' and if I remember correctly that falls in your area."
Chronos looked at his only daughter and stifled a sigh. Always it was like this, the formalities and distance between them. After all, how could a daughter love a father who had stuck her with a job like Guardian of the Timegates. He looked on the girl he once adored and reflected that he should have seen her little rebellion coming a mile away.
"Daughter, We know what you have been up to, and while I can't say I don't understand and sympathize with your burdens, that does not mean that you can use the Gates to further YOUR own desires!" He hadn't meant to get upset, but by the end of the sentence he was yelling.
Pluto squared her shoulders and met the accusation head on. "Crystal Tokyo was already a set outcome! I can't understand your pig-headed refusal to simply accelerate events towards that point! With the course I've set, lives will be saved, the Light will Triumph!"
"Crystal Tokyo was one of many outcomes! With many paths to the reaching of it. Have you even bothered to look beyond your own future in such an event? Yes, lives will be saved, the Darkness, the Chaos out of the picture, but the stagnation, the apathy of your version of Crystal Tokyo will eventually bring about the end of the Universe. This dimesion will entrophy and bring down all others with it! But all you can see is that your duty to the gates of time will be over!" Chronos raged against his offsprings selfish desire, understandable though it was. In this Crystal Tokyo, she finally could rest, could lay down the Atlas-like burden she'd been carrying for millenia.
"But don't you see! Princess Serenity will take care of that! Already she is fighting the rebellers of the future!" Despite her fathers words, the lady of time still believed she was in the right. "Fate and Destiny approve of my plan!"
"Fate and Destiny, strong though they are, have been overruled."
"What! But that isn't supposed to happen." Pluto frantically began to think of what such an occurence could mean. "Do you know what you and the other powers have done?" In the natural order of the gods this would mean that all other powers would have to be in accord with each other, an event that was almost guarenteed never to happen due to the different agendas of all such beings. An event that had happened only once before, in the very beginning of all time, when the Universe was forged, with Fate and Destiny to set the course.
Chronos sighed and turned towards the endless mists. "I've done what I should have done the first time I noticed your tampering. That day long ago when you approached the first Serenity and whispered to her of the Silver Alliance, an event that naturally would have happened 700 years and five Queens down the timestream. But even then I didn't think that you would do all this, stray from your duty so much as to try and effect the course and destiny of OUR CHOSEN AVATAR. "
Pluto recoiled at the hidden venom and dissappointment in his words and gaze. "There are other avatars."
"But none so important! so impactful!" The God of Time turned back towards his daughter, letting her see for the first time the resolve and sadness he had so far kept hidden.
Perhaps sensing what was to come, Pluto hissed words like arrows. "Once again, I ask, what have you done, FATHER!?
Of course she would chose now to call him that. After he had waited so long to hear that word from her once again.
"My duty. Setsuna, Senshi of Princess Serenity, Protector of the Timestreams and Gates, Princess of the Planet Pluto, I am removing you of your office. You should be happy now, daughter mine, you are getting want you want. Freedom from your duty. You shall retain all other titles, including the title of Senshi of your planet and of your Princess. What powers naturally come with such an office are still yours as well."
Setsuna hardly knew what to think, what to feel. She was getting what she wanted, yet somehow she knew that her punishment, her reward, would not make her as happy as it should. She bowed to her father. "Very well then, I shall go rejoin my princess." Just as she was about to turn and leave, Chronos held his hand up.
"Ah, but my daughter, my removing you of your office was not a full answer to the question you asked." At her uneasy gaze, he smiled, and she knew that she definately wasn't going to be happy with whatever he was about to reveal.
"You see, dear child, when the powers and I overruled Fate and Destiny, all we did was change an event in your princesses life that in all other timestreams would have been but a small turning point. " Pluto thought hard and then remembered that last scene she would ever see from a time mirror.
"The wish! But the outcome of that wish is to send her to the moon to speak with her mother. She would have returned renewed in her resolve to due her duty and continue the course set for her."
"Not any longer. We have taken the princess away from past influences, giving her a clean slate so to speak. She can now choose where to go from here, can grow into herself and her powers as she should have had you not interferred. You see, you shall not be rejoining Serenity at this time."
"But Chronos, how will she ever play the role she must play in the coming times without guidance!? I set events so that she could gradually fill the role, could learn what she needs to learn and do what is needed! Events that she cannot do alone!"
"Exactly the point of your little tampering efforts! You would stunt her talents! She would grow dependant and need you, to need to believe in Crystal Tokyo! No daughter, she is our chosen for a reason, not meant to be a puppet!"
"But the timestream has already been put in play! There is no stopping the battles that she will have to do and you have condemned her to do so alone. And if giving her a clean slate means what I hope it doesn't, she shall have to battle for reasons she won't know, won't remember!"
Chronos smiled sadly at his daughter. "Do you think so little of me? Of the Powers that Be? Of the strength of the Light? Don't worry, Setsuna. She is not alone. And there is still the possibility of her senshi joining her in the fight. All we have truly done is given her a vacation from herself, given her a chance to grow into the strong warrior she can be, without the burdens of her past. Besides, all can be recovered, nothing is set in stone."
Then, to the bewilderment of Pluto, her father went to her and pulled her into a loving, fatherly embrace. The last thing she heard as the hug and the endless mists of the Gate she would never have to call home ever again faded away from her, was merely a whisper in her mind.
"Have faith my daughter. There is always hope. Why else would we battle so fiercly?"
**************************************************************************** ****************** This part was orginally very small and meant to go in the beginning of Something Blue, part 3. But then I sat down to write it and the words just flowed onto the screen. Now, this chapter isn't Pluto bashing, not really. I happen to personally like Setsuna, in fact she is one of my favorites. However, in my story, she was given a huge burden and after millions upon millions (she's even older in my story than she is in most other fanfics) she simply wished to be free of it. She didn't tamper with time out of hate or dislike. To her, she merely pushed a certain timestream to the fore.
Anyway, this should answer some questions. Still up ahead: Our little Lunarian and Willows meet DHoffryn, the vengeance demon! Also, Usagi can speak and understand English, but will she keep this knowledge when Willow's spell is ended?