Being rammed to the floor by telepathic feedback was never fun, and when the feedback in question was from other versions of yourself who were as happy - or not happy - as yourself about the general situation they found themselves in...
Gaaaaah.
Though it might be worthwhile to try and set up some sort of mutual support group later, she supposed. Though several versions of things like that had come and gone over the ages, in this kind of situation, having some kind of support system seemed to be... prudent.
But that was for later.
Now was for trying to figure out just what kind of world she belonged to, currently...
The Earth was still...Earth. More or less.
The Moon, on the other hand...
Setsuna stared. And buried her face in her hands.
Well, OK, the Moon hadn't been replaced with a honking gigantic planetoid of a Warship, in this particular brand new sparkly Timeline (well, new to her, anyway...) unlike another Timeline she'd glimpsed when she'd been floored by telepathic feedback from a couple of thousands of other selves flailing around trying to figure out just what kind of world they belonged to now, which was a great relief, as she wouldn't have to worry any more about the Earth's ecosystem going sideways because a major satellite just decided it was needed elsewhere.
The Earth's ecosystem needed the tidal pulls of the Moon and it quite simply couldn't depend on something that could just be pulled off orbit at a moments notice, so it was good that the Moon itself was still there, safe and sound. At least, she had that.
Even if there happened to be one of the most massive Warship she'd ever had the misfortune to scan in most of the lives she could remember 'tethered' to it, floating in a subspace bubble of it's very own...
"Shingoo! Gimme my toast back!"
"You eat too much as it is, you'll turn into the fattest rabbit in Juubaan..."
"Ahh, shaddup, you."
Tsukino Usagi - well, it looked like she was Tsukino Usagi, anyway - snatched the piece of toast away from her little brother and started running like mad. "I'm laate..."
"You always are!" Shingo called after her, while their parents sighed, shaking their heads.
Setsuna sighed, patting the scanners. So Tsukino Usagi did seem to exist, and even seemed to be much the same as she was in her former Timeline. Well, good.
And...wasn't that Chiba Mamoru, walking down the streets, not far from the Tsukino house?
And then Setsuna narrowed her eyes.
And made the scanners look closer.
Chiba Mamoru looked up at the grey skies. And then back at the cars in front of him. And then back at the skies, again.
Damn. He'd been trying to get to the metro before the rain started in earnest, and...
"...Mars? Is that a Endymion clone we have here?"
"Oh, yes." Mars - a woman who looked a lot like a certain Hino Rei would have looked like in her twenties, except for the eyes, which were ancient - smiled coldly and somewhat tiredly. "I think it's Uranus's boy, though?"
"The Outer's pet, is it." A woman who also looked like a grown-up Mizuno Ami smiled, even more coldly then 'Mars'.
" - Move along now, boy. This is a Inner operation in progress, and you don't wanna be here. - Uranus and Neptune aren't gonna like it if you croak before they even make proper use of you, you know that."
And this woman did look like a grown-up version of Kino Makoto, yes, but - Setsuna shuddered. The coldness of her eyes...
Chiba Mamoru simply looked at them tightly, and then raised his head.
"-With your leave, then, Lady Mars, Lady Mercury, Lady Jupiter."
"Yeah, right. Give our regards to the Outers, you hear, boy?"
'Lady Jupiter' cackled, waving him away. Setsuna shuddered. No version of Kino Makoto should...cackle, damnit.
"Well, at least the Outers take good care of their pets, usually..."
"Yeah, that boy's going to Uni, if my sources are right. - Stop dithering, boy, just go."
Jupiter, Mars and Mercury watched Chiba Mamoru disappear into the Metro entrance, moodily.
"Alright, then, everybody? On my mark..."
"GO!"
Setsuna stared, and stared again. What. What?
She was being...drawn thin, seemed to be the only word to come to mind.
She would have to leave this place, she knew that, somehow. But when she did...
She thought about it. And thought about it some more.
And then, downloaded as much information as possible in as many of the Time Gate's functions as she could think of. Including her own memories, even though she knew that they'd just be a pale frozen shadow of the original.
And then, she took a deep breath.
And walked out of the Gate.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:46)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.