One Pluto, two Pluto's, three Pluto's.
"There were so many catastrophes that we just missed. Did you know that, Haruka? There were just so many dangers that never matterialized, never came to be. Did you? I sometimes thought Michiru did, and I knew Hotaru-chan did. But did you?"
Four, five, six, seven. All Pluto, yes, each and every one of them, but---
Were was Setsuna?
"Too many variables. And now we win the jackpot, don't we just?"
That one was Setsuna, Haruka is sure of it even as the Pluto's fade out like a child's dream (or nightmare), one by one, melting into the darkness.
"Setsuna?"
Why was it so dark? It wasn't night yet, was it? Could she actually have slept the day away?
Why did the futon in the ajoining room have a little-girl sized lump between the covers, slowly collapsing even as she watched?
"The seas are crying."
The teal-haired woman next to her sits up and whispers, and Haruka wonders just why she feels so familiar.
"And the winds are shrieking. But---"
Teal-hair looks at her with slow puzzlement rising in her eyes. Haruka is quite sure her own eyes mirror that, at least.
It was so dark, and something was raining down from the skies, something that made the earth and the waters hum and howl and sing, and---
"---We. Have to go. "
Teal-hair looks around, at her, at the futon in the next room.
Nods. Slowly.
"---We. Have. To. Go. Now."
"It's time, Pluto."
The Princess---for she is the Princess again, one last time---smiles sadly at her Guardian of the Time Gates.
"There were just too many variables. So many possibilities. So many futures."
"I know."
And for some reason, Pluto feels she really does.
"There were Timelines which the Gap opened up on the far side of Uranus. It was minor and minimal. It would have been generations before we had to deal with anything."
"Yes."
"There were futures which the Solor System missed the Gap entirely."
"Yes, there were. And there still are. But we are here, Pluto."
It has been so long since anybody has been here, at the Gates of Time, besides her.
"Don't cry, Pluto."
The Moon Princess kisses her Senshi of Time on the forehead, as they both slowly go trasparent and fade.
Everybody (Who was everybody, though?) was at the park at the top of the hill (Why had she known to come here, anyway?) when Haruka and the Teal-haired woman (Her name was Michiru. Mi-chi-ru. A beatiful name, graceful like her) came staggering up, panting in the dark.
A platinium blonde young woman in her early twenties, beautiful and somewhat graceful even in jeans and a sweater, four good-looking women which Haruka knew for some reason were her friends (And all in civilian garb for some reason, whatever that meant), and---two cats?
Who talked. Incessantly. Ahh, well, Haruka had other things to worry about then cats who just wouldn't stop talking and never had (huh?), anyway.
"---Huh? Oh---Um. ------Uranus?"
The blue-haired girl murmurs somewhat hesidently, her eyes somewhat blank.
"And Neptune."
Long-black-beautiful-hair girl mumbles, her eyes somewhat glazed over too. Slow. Why does everything seem so slow?
"---Are they supposed to be here? ---I don't think they ever have been here, before!"
"...But they are here, right?" mumbles the brown-haired girl, looking over her shoulder at another blonde, this one with yellow-gold hair, slowly came over with the white nattering cat on her shoulder.
"---But they never were. Why this time?"
"I don't know."
"Why is it so dark?"
Haruka breaks in. She really isn't all that interested in whether those girls thought she and Teal---OK, Michiru---were supposed to be here or not, anyway. Not now.
"We're blocking out most of the sunlight, except for what's reflected back at us via the moon. It seems to energize---that stuff, and we don't want to energize it any more then it's going to be anyway."
The one that answered was the blue-haired one, tapping neatly on what seemed to be a laptop, except Haruka couldn't think of any laptop that generated what seemed to be holograms on top of it.
"We have to let at least part of the first wave hit, or we wouldn't have enough."
The platium-blonde speaks at last, and Haruka wonders just why she sort of feels like crying.
"Enough what?"
"Catalysts. Energy. ---Building blocks, to do what needs to be done. We're trying to sort of spread it equally about the globe, now."
That quiet, quiet voice...
"You can feel the energies rising, can't you?"
Howling. Singing.
"Yes"
Yes.
"I'm glad you two are here, though. Setsuna, Hotaru-chan, Haruka and Michiru are here!"
And then there is their (comarade and friend) whatever-she-is, and floating slightly above the ground is their little foster-daughter and camarade (Yes her name is Hotaru, she remembers that now).
The darkskinned woman is sitting on the ground, limp and empty-eyed, looking at nothing.
But their little girl...
"---I went and talked to Papa. "
"OK, Hotaru."
Michiru hugs her and makes her come down.
"You went and talked to your Papa in your pajamas?"
"Sorry, Michiru-mama."
The wind is cold. So cold.
And it will get colder still, she knows that deep in her bones.
"Usagi-chan?"
(Yes, that is her name---)
"---Can't we just---Stop it? Those things?"
And Tsukino Usagi looks terribly, terribly sad.
"---We can't."
"The Silver Crystal?"
"It isn't enough. Not by itself."
"---The Golden Crystal?"
"-------Not even with that, Haruka. Michiru."
"Hell, Mamoru-san's setting up a core---core----something or other, right over there, even as we're talking here."
Makoto (Thank goodness the names seem to be coming back) comes over and mutters.
"It's gonna be close even then, Y'know?"
"Mamoru-san is setting up a core-tap on a inhabited planet!?"
The horrified unbelieving mumble is Michiru's, but Haruka is in too much shock to care.
"Thank goodness for the Golden Crystal, anyhow. ---Hey Ami! Ami, why don't you show Haruka and Michiru the map?"
"---OK?"
After several seconds of blankness, Ami nods.
The Earth. The inner planets. The Solar System.
Threaded throughout with green and viridian and sunset-red ribbons, spewing forth more and more of things that looked liked minerals, but weren't.
"---The entire Solar System is---is---"
"Going to be, well, plastered, to put it frankly. You're lucky your planet hasn't been directly hit yet, you know."
Minako is the one that answers. And then she laughs.
"It itches. And it tickles. Thank goodness Venus hasn't been inhabitated in a damn long time..."
The Senshi of Venus sounds ready to scream. Or cry. Or burst out laughing and never stop.
"---What are those things?"
Tennou Haruka has fought for what she loves before. She is not going to stop now, just because what she fights against this time has neither malice or a face.
Natural disasters typically have neither.
"Our Lunarian ancesters called them Wishstones, I do believe."
And then there is only the wind.
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(Posted Tue, 18 Jan 2005 13:11)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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