Beryl inhaled deeply as she sat on her throne in the Negaverse. She was still stunned that Serenity had managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat the way she had. Sure, she could try to take some solace in knowing that the spell that had banished her and all of her forces, likely at the cost of Serenity’s life, and faded away, as most such spells do, but she knew batter than that. Quite frankly, she was lucky to be alive — though at the moment, she wasn’t quite so sure about the rest of her army.
“Where are my Generals? Kunzite? Zoicite?”
“I believe they are still indisposed at the moment.”
Beryl looked in the direction of this new voice to see a good looking man with straight, light brown hair kneeling before her. It took her a few moments to recall his name — partially because of the effects of Serenity’s banishment, but mostly because she rarely had any direct contact with this particular person back in the Silver Millennium. “Danburite?” The man before her nodded in response. Beryl closed her eyes as she continued to recall everything she knew about this person. He definitely wasn’t one of her Generals, but if she recalled correctly, he was rather high up in the ranks of her Dark Army. A Colonel, she remembered, under Jadeite’s authority. Yes, that’s right… he’s that reconnaissance specialist Jadeite was always raving about. That explained why it had taken so long to recall his name — his reports had almost always come to her indirectly, through his commander. Speaking of which… “Where are the Generals?”
“I believe they are still under the influence of Serenity’s banishing spell, my liege, as are most of your forces. I was only revived fairly recently myself.”
“I see….” This was inconvenient. No doubt Metallia would want to begin again as soon as possible. But with most of her troops unavailable, she wouldn’t be able to mount much of an offense — regardless of whether or not those insufferable girls could interfere. That was another thing: “What of the Senshi?”
“Most of them were killed in the final battle, your grace, but I have reason to believe that Serenity took steps to ensure their eventual reincarnation.”
“And what reason would that be?”
“She’s Serenity.”
Beryl looked perplexed for a moment before she caught her subordinate’s meaning. “Ah, I see. Yes, that is the kind of stunt she would pull, isn’t it?” The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. But what to do about it?
“My liege, if you are worried about the obstacles you may be facing, perhaps I can make a suggestion….”
“Yes?”
“If you would allow me to take some of the youma who have already awoken under my command, perhaps I can do some advance scouting for you — finding ideal energy gathering locations, keeping an eye out for the current status of the Senshi.”
“Hmm….” It was a rather obvious and blatant power play on the part of the officer now before her… but he had a point. Going into things blindly could easily result in a second defeat — and likely as not, this one would be a bit more permanent. Besides, Jadeite had been raving about his ability…. “Very well. I shall promote you to General, on a provisionary basis. Go and scout the current situation, and report back to me.”
“Thank you, my liege.” The temporary (for the moment) General stood up and promptly vanished to begin his task.
Pluto massaged her temples as she watched the scene between Ranma and Nabiki unfold. It’s always something, isn’t it? Now there was, potentially, a new obstacle to deal with, one that could make a lot of trouble if she decided that she didn’t like what was going on. Nabiki was a natural plotter and schemer, always thinking ahead, getting inside of the minds of the people she dealt with. When she was inclined to do so, she was a master manipulator, and knew how to use the massive amount of information at her disposal to get people to do almost anything. In fact, Nabiki might have been seen as an ideal candidate for Senshi of Time, herself. But that was beside the point. One thing was clear: Nabiki’s cooperation was going to be absolutely necessary for things to go smoothly in these early stages.
To interfere or not to interfere? That was the question that had plagued every single Pluto since the position had been created, and often as not, it was an unwise answer to this question that lead to their downfall. And now, it was before the current Pluto yet again. On the one hand, Nabiki was right to be concerned about her little sister: Minako was going to be put into some very dangerous situations. But on the other hand, the world needed Sailor Venus to protect it until the rest of the Senshi were mentally ready to reawaken. Ranma had done a brilliant job in getting Nabiki to at least consider the latter point of view — especially since Nabiki seemed to be the type who wasn’t normally affected by emotional appeals — but it was still a primarily emotional appeal; Ranma didn’t really have any way to back up his claims.
Thus, Pluto’s dilemma: should she make herself known to Nabiki and corroborate what Ranma had said? Or would that have some sort of adverse effect that she couldn’t predict. Sure, she could take a look into the future to see how everything was turning out, but even that was risky — at times, simply observing an event could effect its outcome, and Pluto had yet to experience an instance where this turned out to be a good thing. Stupid quantum metaphysics…. But now was not the time for grumbling — Pluto had a decision to make.
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(Posted Thu, 26 Oct 2006 02:47)
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