"Neither did I," Sailor Pluto admitted. "I suppose that you are the true 'me' of this timeline."
"Perhaps. Who knows?"
"Wouldn't it be you, since you're able to come here?"
"And who is to say that one of them isn't the 'real' one? Remember, for all we know, the Time Gate could have been brought to this timeline, not the other way around," the woman in the suit commented, bringing the snack up to her mouth so that she could delicately nibble on it.
"That's true. But you have to admit that this is all horribly wrong."
"Why?"
"Can't you see? It's unstable, for one thing...." the Senshi trailed off.
"Which is probably your fault. Or, you're at the very least involved somehow."
"And you can say that... how?"
"You were here during the time slips, and you're complaining about how 'wrong' this is," Setsuna told her, idly waving a hand. "So, either you've just been brought here, you've been watching what's happening, or both."
"It isn't my fault."
"That's not a denial."
"I...."
The non-fuku clad woman raised a brow. "If you have something that will explain how you got here, I'm all ears. After all, you could have come here from a timeline just brought here. But that wouldn't explain why it seems that it took you a long time to notice of the presence of Smithers."
"To tell the truth...."
"Yes?"
"I... don't know exactly how this happened," the Senshi of Time admitted. "All I know is that there was this boy, Ranma Saotome, and I...."
"Tried to get rid of him, only you wound up diverting things into a timeline that had something similar, but on a larger scale."
"Exactly. I.... How did you know that?!"
"I'm a 'Pluto' too, remember?"
A twitch grew at the Senshi's eye. "Oh. Right."
"The truth of the matter is that I thought that it was you. With so much time energy rippling all around this timeline, it made for a harder time in checking than I'd like, but then, you did seem to be the one...."
"Which' one?"
"The 'one' that caused all this to happen in the first place."
"Excuse me? How could I have created this timeline?"
"The Gates were not meant to change timelines in batch lots. As closely as I can see, it seems that you've... offset them."
"I don't... Alright. I do realize that this might have been a rather... troublesome result, but it comes from an attempt to set things right."
"Perhaps I am missing it, but where is 'right' for you here?" Setsuna asked, crossing her arms just under her chest.
"This wasn't what I was aiming for. What I was actually trying to do was to set things back onto the correct timeline. I mean, there was a change in the way things were supposed to go, but when I tried to fix it, nothing seemed to go right."
"Even after you checked?"
Pluto frowned at her analogue. "'Checked'? 'Checked' what?"
"The timeline. Changes rarely happen without anything else happening around them. 'Cause' and 'effect', if you recall. Perhaps the attachment of young Mister Saotome to that timeline came about from something else nudging him in that direction."
"Well, that could be true....."
"And did you check to what sort of effect the change would have on the future."
"I already knew what it would do," the woman in the fuku muttered, pushing herself to her feet. "He was an alteration to what was a stable timeline, and that meant that things would be changed from what they had been."
"And perhaps they'd have been better."
"Oh?"
"Did it occur to you that checking to see the future might have allowed you to know just what course to take. If he was really that bad, then you could know what sort of being you would be facing. On the other hand, he might have been a great help, and assisted in creating a better world than the one that you knew," the woman in the suit suggested.
"What he could do didn't matter. He was a wild factor, and I just wanted to avoid having something go wrong, especially since I expected a traveller from the future to come, and she couldn't do that if the future was changed."
"And it never occurred to you to recognize that her arrival was a change, in and of itself. Or that there might be others coming through time from the 'new' future?"
"I...."
"Didn't stop to think, did you?"
"I.... I just wanted to prevent things from being altered so much that there was no going back."
"And thus you created exactly what you were fearing," Setsuna sighed. "You do see the amusing bit in that little concept, do you not?"
"That is... I...."
"Hmm?"
"You don't have to sound so... so... so much like you find it funny."
"I assure you that I am not about to laugh about your... behavior. It is the sort of activity that my... friends do find troubling."
"What? The Senshi?" Pluto asked, mentally grasping for some similarity to her own timeline.
"'UNIT'. The 'United Nations Intelligence Task Force'. They are rather helpful in keeping all sorts of threats from harming this world. And considering some of the things that we have to deal with, that is a rather problematic proposition."
"Which includes me?"
"Perhaps," Setsuna murmured enigmatically, while:
(Posted Wed, 08 Nov 2006 02:44)
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