Temporary Note

I deeply apologize for how long it took me to wrap this up. Aside from the excuses mentioned in my profile, I was delayed another week (at the start of the month) because I was finally able to get an external enclosure for my old hard drive, and I wanted to have access to it (and to files related to fan-fiction, in particular) before I continued. Plus, I'm going through a rough dry spell, food-wise, and it hasn't been easy to write of late because of it.

Epilogue

When Chibi-Usa left the fourth dimension and returned to her own time, she raced through the halls of the palace without a care for any decorum and made a beeline for the guest room that had been assigned to Ranma. It went without saying that she was eager to see if she had been successful in her endeavor, and she figured that she could be forgiven for her act of haste and the times that she had either startled someone or collided with them on the way to her destination.

Once she made it to the door of the guest room, she didn't hesitate to throw it open and rush inside. She found Ranma and her mother standing in the middle of the room, their conversation having apparently been interrupted, and they were close enough to the door that she had to skid to a halt so she wouldn't plow into them. On any other occasion she may have been embarrased by her mother's look of amusement at her behavior, or Ranma's cocked eyebrow, but she was short of breath and had something that was much more important on her mind.

"Did," she managed to gasp out between breaths, "did it... work?"

Her mother and Ranma shared a glance, before the latter abruptly hit her on the head with the blade of her hand.

"Ow!" She yelped, as she rubbed at the offended area of her noggin and glared at Ranma with a mixture of agitation and confusion. "What was that for?"

Ranma frowned and crossed her arms. "It was not a piece of cake."

"...Huh?" Came Chibi-Usa's not-so-eloquent response, who was puzzled by the statement.

Ranma sighed and dropped her arms at her sides, having known that such a reaction would be likely, but she maintained her frown. "You told me that it would be a piece of cake for Pluto to help me, but it was anything but — and not just for her. If your grandmother hadn't recorded my activity for nine centuries and isolated the events that Pluto and I would need to address, I can scarcely imagine how much harder it would have been for us."

"Oh..." Chibi-Usa voiced quietly, her shoulders slumped, feeling both apologetic and sheepish. "I just thought—"

Before she could finish what she had in mind to say, Ranma pulled her into a hug and began to caress the back of her head, with her face being pressed into her prodigious bosom. As off-kilter as the entire exchange had made her, since she had imagined a much different scenario, she didn't offer any resistance or think to reciprocate the embrace.

"You don't have to explain yourself," Ranma softly assured the girl within her arms. "I was just messin' with ya. Sure, all the work we had to do was a pain, but it was worth it in the end, and it never would have happened if you hadn't gotten the ball rolling in the first place."

Chibi-Usa looked up at Ranma with a hopeful expression on her face. "So... Everything worked out?"

Ranma smiled. "Yeah. Everything's fine."

It was with evident relief that Chibi-Usa finally returned Ranma's embrace. "I'm glad."

Usagi observed them with a reserved smile, in an attempt to hide how she felt inside. It had only been moments ago that she had learned of her mother's — Serenity's — passing, and it was hard to put it aside so soon. It was made no less difficult by the fact that Ranma had been unwilling to share the reason for it, aside from saying that her mother had fulfilled her purpose. When pressed for more information, she had been assured that she would know when she — Ranma — was ready. She'd yet to have time to think about the implications of such a statement, but she began to get an idea of what it could mean as she watched Ranma and her daughter while they were so close together.

Both she and her husband had been a bit baffled when their daughter had been born, because of the coloring of her eyes and hair, and about her appearance in general as she grew up. Genetically, there was no doubt that she was their daughter, but she had strongly taken after her own side of the family. And that was the thing: there was very little resemblance to her known ancestors despite that fact, to the extent that it was quite easy to question her parentage on looks alone. However, as she studied and compared the traits between her daughter and Ranma, she began to realize that their similarities were greater than she had first imagined, and it made her think that it might not just be a coincidence.

Considering all of the possibilities, there was a real chance that Ranma was actually a relative, though she wasn't sure how that could be connected to her reluctance to share the details concerning her mother's passing even if that happened to be the case. She would have to save her questions until she had the opportunity to ask them in private, in case there was a good reason for why she was unwilling to reveal what she knew to begin with. Until then, it would be better to enjoy what good news there was to be had, rather than put a damper on things and risk spoiling the mood for her daughter as well. She'd never been really good at waiting, but she was sure that she could bear with it for the time being.

When her daughter finally parted from Ranma, she caught her attention and said, "When you arrived, Ranma was in the middle of telling me about the arrangement between herself and Setsuna."

Chibi-Usa's face lit up with excitement and she turned to regard Ranma with a look of expectation.

Ranma chuckled lightly at that. "We're simply going to take turns guarding the Door of Time. When one of us is guarding it, the other can have a life outside of the fourth dimension. After I'm done here," she added, her tone becoming a bit playful in nature, "I'll switch with Setsuna, since I believe there was a reason for why you got me involved in all of this."

Chibi-Usa stuck her tongue out at Ranma for that last remark, though she quickly sobered when she had a thought. "You don't have to do that on my account. I'll be just as happy if you stayed here for a while. I'm sure that time wouldn't be an issue..."

With a disarming smile, Ranma laid her hand on Chibi-Usa's head and mussed up her hair before she could get away. "I appreciate the thought, but I'll be fine."

Chibi-Usa huffed and put on a petulant air as she watched Ranma walking toward the room's exit. "Fine, then. Be that way."

Ranma chuckled, raised her hand so it could be seen over her shoulder, and waved it dismissively as she passed through the doorway. She proceeded to make her way toward the Door of Time, alone and in silence, so her mind inevitably drifted toward some of the things that had been mentioned in the room that she had just left.

The tasks that she had undertaken with Setsuna really hadn't been a piece of cake, all things considered, even though there was a distinct advantage to going beyond the third dimension instead of through it where time-traveling was concerned. When one was not strictly bound by time, and could thus — for all intents and purposes — exist virtually anywhere at any time, it was fairly easy to avoid causing paradoxes indirectly. It still required fore-thought and prudence, of course, and that was especially true for the paradoxes that were directly caused by one's actions.

Before they could even begin to change history, Setsuna had spent quite a number of years tutoring her on all of the subjects that were relevant to time travel. She couldn't always expect Setsuna to be present to prevent mistakes, due to ignorance or otherwise, so it was important that she be taught what she would need to know in order to have the ability to spot potential trouble and judge a course of action when something could — or did — go awry.

Then there were the acting lessons, and the memory-improvement exercises, so she wouldn't break character or forget what she was supposed to do or say. Improving her memory had been more tedious than challenging, but the acting lessons had been a lot more brutal than her training to learn both the hiryu shoten ha and the umisen-ken. Considering how important it would be to control her emotions and behavior at all times during her stints as her other self, lest she make a grave mistake, Setsuna had proven to be quite a demanding taskmistress.

Setsuna wasn't the only one to teach during that time, nor did she escape having a rough time as a student herself. With the changing of Akane's fate, alongside her own, Ryoga would no longer have such a strong drive for vengeance and a need to continue the pursuit of it until fulfilled. Someone had to disguise themselves and take his place, and she already had a role, so the responsibility had fallen upon Setsuna, who had to undergo a few years of specialized martial arts training just to attain the level of strength needed for the task.

That had brought up the need to suppress the energy given off by their sailor crystals, since Ryoga didn't have one, and because it would be something that she would need to do for centuries at a time, so her nature wouldn't be discovered until it was the right time. Otherwise, there was very little hope that any damage control could prevent a paradox, unless they happened to be very fortunate under the circumstances. Thankfully, Serenity had been able to fashion a device that could do the job. Hardly anyone would be able to tell — much less notice — that the implant was more than what it seemed until technology advanced far enough along to identify its function, and that required giving said technology an opportunity to notice and inspect it. (Accessories had certain limitations (particularly with her choice of fashion), and clothing was more likely to be damaged, so a durable and hidden implant had been decided upon.)

When they were finally prepared to change her history, they had to start in the future to ensure that Chibi-Usa's actions would remain the same once the past was altered. From there, they worked backwards, cementing certain events so that any change made before them wouldn't change them outright. It was made possible by the fact that they were done in Ranma's past, relative to the event that would be altered, which took advantage of the fact that changing events had no retroactive effects on history. Then, due to the fact that they could exist anywhere at any time, it was just a matter of spotting conflicts between two histories (what they had established versus what the altered past produced) and resolving them.

That was the part that was tricky, since it was beyond their abilities and the technology available to them to take every factor into account, in order to foresee exactly how changes in the past would alter things down the line. While they were in a position to sort such conflicts out, they could still paint themselves into a corner, where nothing that they could do — ever — would prevent a paradox. While they had the ability to affect change beyond themselves, they couldn't contradict their own history, so if they happened to place themselves in a situation where the only resolution was to have never done a certain thing in the first place...

Fortunately, through careful planning and preparation, they were able to establish a new destiny for herself. Even though he was a terrible man, changing her history hadn't affected Phantom's period of death and destruction, and it was largely thanks to that that history changed very little (in general) from that point onward. Also, between all of the destruction and displacement of people that was caused by Phantom's actions, it ensured that Neo-Queen Serenity would still have to resort to tracking her down for that reward, since her female form had no official form of identity, rather than appearing on someone's doorstep and learning the altered truth of her situation.

Overall, they didn't have too much trouble manipulating the events that surrounded the portrayal of her other self, so that there wouldn't be anything that conflicted with the new circumstances. However, they did have to enlist Kasumi and Sayuri's cooperation, and that had gone rather smoothly since their roles were short-lived and easy in comparison to her own. In tandem with that, since Akane had been killed by Phantom in the alternate history, they had to pretend that that remained the case, while she made sure that Chibi-Usa and Akane would never meet during her trips to Nerima, or learn of her existence through someone else.

When she reached the Door of Time, she paused in front of it and thought about the only unresolved matter that remained: Serenity. Specifically, who she — herself — was in relation to Neo-Queen Serenity and her daughter. Technically, she wasn't Serenity, but there was no guarantee that they would see it the same way as she did. They might bear certain expectations, and she wasn't sure if she could accept or handle them; it was a potential complication in her life that she could do without for the time being, after everything that she had recently been through.

Of course, she wouldn't be able to hide the truth behind Serenity's passing from Neo-Queen Serenity forever, who was bound to pursue an answer from her before too long. She just wanted to be ready for when she gave that answer, because of how it might change their relationship. Plus, once it got out, it would only be a matter of time before Setsuna learned about it, and she was even less certain of how to broach the subject with her because her feelings on the matter were even more tumultuous.

Setsuna had become a lot of things to her over the years: mentor, role model, friend, sister, mother, and a woman that she held in the highest regard. However, despite focusing on other things, and knowing what complications could arise from it, she couldn't help feeling attracted to her romantically. In addition to being unable to abandon her life as Ranma, and wanting to give Akane and herself a chance as a couple (which they hadn't truly had before), she also had to worry about how she would be perceived by Setsuna once she learned certain details about Serenity. It wasn't like she was any less unsure about their chance as a couple, as things stood, but knowing those things had the potential to change things between them greatly, perhaps irrevocably.

With a sigh, she transformed into Sailor Charon and used her Obsidian Oar to open the Door of Time. She didn't have to make any decisions just yet, and she still had time to think about what she would do in the future, so she put that aside — for now — and focused on the task at hand: relieving Pluto of her guard duty, so she could spend some time having a life and being with her friends.

She spared Pluto a glance as she closed the Door of Time behind her, before going to stand guard at her own post. It felt natural to be there now, and she very much liked the company. Said company was the main reason for why she had opted to accept the responsibility of a sailor senshi and become a co-guardian of the Door of Time. Setsuna wasn't a person that she could put behind her and forget about, nor could she abandon the world that she lived in without it nagging at her conscience. A martial artist's duty was to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, after all, and being a sailor senshi would provide more opportunities and means of doing so.

When she had come to that decision, Pluto had taught her the trick that she used to stand guard for so long without going crazy. It had required training her mind to be passively aware of what her senses were telling her while she remained standing, so time would seem meaningless until she brought herself out of it or one of her senses picked up something that couldn't be attributed to the norm of her environment. After a few seconds, she eased herself into that very state of mind.

While she wasn't aware of how much time had passed, the fact that Pluto hadn't left her post after she had taken up her own was enough to bring her out of it and regard her partner with a cocked eyebrow. "Why haven't you left yet? They're waiting for you, you know."

"I could spend an eternity here and they would never realize it," Pluto responded, before she looked askance and smiled in a mysterious sort of way. "Of course, if you don't like the company, I suppose we could part ways right now..."

Charon gulped and smiled weakly. It was remarks like that one that made her wonder if she wasn't the only one who felt something for the other, or if it was just friendly teasing. She'd always played it safe with her replies so far, due to her uncertainty over the matter and her commitment to having a relationship with Akane (whose limited lifespan made it imperative to not take said relationship lightly), and now would be no different.

With a roll of her eyes, she said, "Oh, alright. Who am I to deny someone the privilege of basking in my awesomeness?"

Pluto snorted in amusement at that, appearing to be satisfied with the response, before she returned her attention to the fore and went back to her duty.

Charon suppressed a sigh of relief and calmed her heart. As she continued to regard Pluto, she was once again tempted to just cast away her inhibitions — along with anything else of significance — and put their current relationship on the line with some physical or verbal expression of her feelings (she wasn't sure which, if not both). Unfortunately, even if she revealed how she felt, not only was she not sure of whether Pluto would reciprocate in kind or not, she had no idea if her sex mattered in the case that she did.

She had absolutely no problem being a woman now, but she had remained hesitant about pursuing anything sexual as one. If Pluto returned her feelings, but preferred other women, she wasn't sure if she would be able to go through with it. Of course, Pluto could also prefer men, or not care what sex she was, but that was still assuming that she was interested at all. It was a big unknown, despite how long they had known each other. It wasn't all that surprising, though, since neither of them were the type to say much about themselves. That, and because so much of their time together had been spent under work-related conditions.

Still, she smiled. There was still time to figure everything out, and her prospects could certainly be worse (if the life of her other self was anything to go by). She'd learned patience, and knew that trying to rush things could spell disaster. So, for now, she remained optimistic about her future and joined her fellow guardian in companionable silence.

Afterword

I'm aware that some things didn't turn out according to certain expectations, and I'd like to clarify that the story was built around Setsuna's situation and Chibi-Usa's response to it. The story was never about Ranma or who he could potentially be paired up with, even though he is integral to the plot.

When I first conceived the idea for this story, I wasn't going to bother with any pairings at all, but I eventually relented and offered some conflict and uncertainty, and left it up to the imagination as to how things might turn out.

I regret being unable to expound on what Ranma can do as a sailor senshi. I had planned on it, but there never seemed to be a good time and place to bring it up. Unfortunately, the part where it would be most natural to mention it was when Ranma's inexperience came into play, since I felt that it would make more sense if he couldn't win by himself. Not only due to his inexperience, but fighting an opponent who has many thousands of years worth of experience to back up their skills. Besides, the attack that I had conceived was a one-hit kill sort of deal, to send a single enemy to "the other side," so there was no firing of a coin like Misaka Mikoto. ;/

Finally, there's the time travel stuff. It's not a subject where I'm confident with my knowledge and understanding, and I put some of that together with a portion of how it's portrayed in the manga. I fear, regardless of whether I got anything right or wrong about it, that how I describe the particulars in the story might make understanding it difficult, if not impossible.

When all is said and done, though, I hope that the tale was enjoyed.