It wasn't really all that easy, even after so many years had passed. Perspectives had had time to mature, true, but the downside to that was that they had had time to mutate, as well.
"For us---Usagi-chan and Minako-chan, Mako-chan, Rei-chan and me---it started with the dreams. Well---with me, now that I think about it, I think I'd been dreaming about twisting colored ribbons all across the night sky from long before I ever met Usagi-chan. Before I could walk, actually. It's wierd now that I think about it, but at the time...It was just one of those weird dreams that I had, once upon a while. Just one of those things, you know?"
Haruka supposed so.
"After I became Mercury...Hmm. Well, I think those dreams actually tapered off for awhile. So much other stuff to have nightmares about, you see... But they never really went away. And right before Galaxia...that's when they started to come back with a vengeance."
"---Before Galaxia came a-calling. You're sure of that?"
"Yup, pretty much. ---I've been thinking about this, the timing and everything...I don't think it's Princess Kakyuu, actually. If you see what I mean."
"---Errm, I'm afraid not."
"Oh, Haruka-san, think-think-think! Princess Kakyuu choosing Earth to run to was one of the major cusp points in the recent history of this planet, not to mention the entire Solar System."
So Haruka did. Though it was rather difficult to do, in such nice weather with a picnic basket...
"Oh. ---Because she drew Galaxia's notice?"
"In a nutshell, Haruka-san wins de prize! Galaxia would have come sniffing over our little corner of the Galaxy sooner or later, true...But from what I've been able to pry out of Setsuna, which isn't much to put it frankly, chances are high it would have been quite a bit later. ---Even right about---now, actually."
Whoopsie.
"---After the Gap. That would have put her "on hold", alright."
"---Weeell, that would have depended on a lot of things. There were many Timelines were the Gap was only this itty bitty thing that just opened up a little bit and closed down by itself in a couple of hours. And even more that just missed the Solar System entirely. But with any Timeline that had ended up with the Gap-parameters that where even close to ours---"
"Watch Galaxia twitch, watch her scrowl. Watch her make faces and depart for parts unknown---"
Or at least, depart for places that aren't quite literary plastered with one of the most dangerous-to-mess-with not-quite-substances in the vaguely known universe. There were still plenty of places left in the Galaxy for her to go take over, after all...
"---OK, so the Princess Kakyuu thing was important. Well, even more important then I'd thought. But you say that wasn't it?"
"The Princess Kakyuu situation, though having direct connections to the Galaxia situation, didn't really have any influence on the Gap situation proper. That was a different kettle of fish entirely, see? "
"---Hmmm. I think so. The Gap situation was more like---damage control for Tsunami's?"
"Yeah, something like that. Anyway, after Galaxia---Things where smooth sailing for a while, if you recall. Minor energy-vamping by minor enemies, done that before and got the T-shirt too---No big problems at all. Except for the dreams. And Pluto going stranger and stranger. Whichever of her we were talking too. ---There were several, you know."
Oh yes.
"The dreams started getting longer and longer, and more and more detailed. That's about the time I started realizing that I wasn't really dreaming of exactly the same situation---It was slightly different, each time. The Gap itself was dfferent---sometimes big, sometimes not, sometimes far away, sometimes right on top of our planet---The situation we actually had wasn't the worst possible by any means, you know. Try imagining a Gap right on top of Earth, or worse, the Sun. Us---the people trying to deal with it---were different too. Usagi-chan was there almost all the time, but sometimes we---I mean the Inners---weren't all there. Pluto was almost always there but she wasn't always Setsuna-san, and Saturn was only there about a forth of the time. And when she was, she almost always weren't Hotaru-chan..."
"Ugh."
"Right. ---Anyway---Mamoru-san was there about half the time, and boy was it hard when he wasn't. Not to say that it was ever easy, but---Oh, yeah. The cats were almost always there, but they really couldn't do all that much, most of the time. Giving advice and moral support, yadda yadda yadda."
"---Hmmm? But the cats---"
"---Did a great deal more then I ever saw them do in any of the dreams I remember, when the real push came to the shove. It was all about having enough energy and tech to spare, I suppose---Oh, yeah. Naru-chan."
"...Osaka Naru? What about her?"
"She and her friend Umino-kun were sometimes there too, being some kind of supplementary energy source. I'm not sure what that was all about, frankly...I only saw them in a couple of dreams, and I had the feeling that that was a reality were things had gone really differently---too different to be directly relevant to our situation, maybe?"
Haruka shrugged. She didn't know Osaka-san all that well, anyway.
"Well, anyway, all five of us plus Mamoru-san to a lesser extent were all having these dreams, over and over and over again. I don't know about Hotaru-chan but I suspect somebody briefed her if she hadn't been having them already..."
Had Hotaru been having dreams? She would have noticed if there were nightmares of the screaming and shaking kind, to be sure...But from what Ami-chan'd been telling her, it didn't really sound like that. Tiring and nerve-wracking, maybe, but...
"So by the time the Gap rolled around for real for us, we all had a pretty good idea what to do. Or rather, what to do and what not to do. Took a bit of synchronizing to get the nitty-gritty bits straight, though."
Oh, you betcha.
"The thing was, though...You two never appeared. In any of the dreams. It was quite---mindboogling when the two of you just showed up like that, you know?"
And here was the crux of the matter. At least for Haruka at this particular point in time, that is.
"---Just what did you except us to do? Just sit around while the world comes to the brick of ending yet again?"
"---I have no idea. If any of us thought about it at all, I think we assumed that you two would be---unable to come for whatever reason, I suppose. I mean, you never did."
And that was that. Grrrr. Well, sure, if they never, ever showed up in the training simulations---though now that she'd heard about the dreams in depth, they sounded less like training simulations then some kind of look-see into Parallel Timelines---why would they be expected to show up for The Big Crunch?
"---That still doesn't explain why my memory---and Michiru's, too!---started to go all wonky when it came to the crunch."
"Oh, so that really happened? I'd heard Rei talking about it, but---that is interesting. Probably has something to do with all those Wishstones hitting Earth's biofield, but---Hmm."
"---Turn that DataLink off, Ami-Ami. Your brain needs a rest and so do the rest of you. Remember?"
And the two of them would turn back to the garden and the flowerpetals. And the tea. And munchies. ****************************************************** ******************
But that was far in the future, when things had become slightly less hectic and the concept of vacations and such actually began to be somewhat more then a wistful memory.
"Hey, Minako-chan? Venus? Where's are we supposed to get them to position, we never had this many people before!"
"I don't know. Rei?"
"The four of us are enough to do the protect and stabilize bit---We don't want new elements in the circle or the square or whatever it is, not now. What about the cats?"
"Ehh---Artie, We all know you're upset, now stop the chattering and let go of my sweater, all right? You're a Advisor of the Moon Kingdom, or you used to be anyway, so buck up!"
And then Tsukino Usagi speaks, perhaps for the last time, as just Tsukino Usagi and nobody else.
"Haruka-san. Michiru-san. Could you help keep the rest of the Wishstone meteorite field away from the Earth? You'll both have to double-link to the cats, and make sure the field goes where we want them to. It's nerve-wracking, but if the rest of us can concentrate on the Crystal Cities and getting people into them in one piece, it'll save so much time in the long run."
Haruka looks at Michiru, who looks lost.
"Michiru? ---Come on, Michiru?"
If only she could hug that lost look off her face...
Or maybe she can?
"---Oh. Yes, Princess. We can do that."
---Yes.
"You bet. C'mon, you idiot felines---"
Haruka grabs Luna, leaving Michiru to deal with a shocky-looking Artemis. Come on, come on---
And so they begin.
Everything.
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(Posted Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:42)
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