No more, though. Remembering that she was one of the few Beings that even remembered just what Metallia and her Dark Kingdom had been made Pluto a very happy Sailor Senshi, sometimes...
Pluto grinned coldly to herself, remembering.
Once upon a time, a certain AEGIS star agent had met a certain 'Magical Girl', and had fought some monsters and such together. Oh, the short-lived 'Alliance' between the just-getting-started Inners and 'Lightwings' had been doomed to fall apart from the start, in her humble opinion, but...
Pluto snickered, then. It hadn't taken long for Sailor Moon's initially stars-in-eyes opinion of a certain 'Lightwings' to change - and that had been mostly 'Lightwings's own fault, frankly. Sailor Moon had never really gone all gaga over him to the level of pretty much all the other girls a certain Saotome Ranma had gone into contact with as 'Lightwings', and once that had become clear - after some initial relief that there was one less girl trying to stalk him, 'Lightwings' had apparently begun to get - worried.
And that had seemingly led to his attempts to 'dazzle' several of Sailor Moon's teammates, accidently-on-purpose but mostly on purpose, in Pluto's opinion. Which had lead to such incidents as Hino Rei of all people - who'd never seen him really 'powered up' up to that point and hadn't liked 'Lightwings' much at all till then, frankly (though she thought one Saotome Ranma was OK, and still thought that way, as far as Pluto could tell)- not only all of a sudden going all gaga over 'Lightwings-sama' and trying to join up with the local chapter of the 'Lightwings-sama Fan Club', but actually threatening to cut off all relations with the rest of the Inners (and everybody else) if they didn't worship 'Lightwings-sama' like she did.
And when that particular obsession had cleared up almost completely with a few liberal applications of Sailor Moon's 'healing and purification' attacks (plus the help of a certain young man called Kumada Yuuichirou) - Hoo, boy...
Well, there had been a couple of other 'incidents' too, but let's say that the 'Alliance' didn't last very long after that, all things considered.
Though Pluto did wonder a little just how Saotome Ranma himself remembered what had happened, though. With Sailor Moon's Wish and it's 'Reset/Remake' and all, even she had a hard time remembering what had really happened, sometimes... Though in her case, she could always check up stuff using the Time Gate, of course. Well, most of the stuff, anyway.
Well anyway, from what Pluto could tell, the timing had been just wonderful - it was just after the 'Alliance' with the Inners had fallen apart for good, and 'Lightwings' was reeling from the concept of the such a unimaginable thing as a pack of girls, Magical Girls or not, who not only didn't fall for him, but actually had the gall to call him a 'Mind-controlling Menace'. Pluto snickered yet again at the memories. A tad - defensive, ain't ya now?
He'd been apparently wavering between thinking of Moon of an Invader Chief Minion-type (or even a Boss herself) who was obviously keeping the rest of the Senshi in tow with her mind-control powers - hey, what else could it be, when at least some of the girls had obviously fallen for him once, as was right and proper, only for the adoration to turn to quite frank distrust and dislike in a matter of days? Not only that, he was even finding it hard to 'fix' them so they'd worship him again, as they seemed to be avoiding him like the plague, and Moon was always there with her 'purifying attacks' when he did manage to brush up against them in the battlefield - or as something even more nefarious, as far as Pluto could tell, when he'd just happened to find Beryl of the Dark Kingdom...taking a walk.
Under the moonlight serene...
He had been right after a battle (with something that wasn't directly Dark Kingdom related, as far as Pluto could tell), She'd just come out to stretch her legs and watch the carnage.
He'd powered up, and she'd - laughed it off.
Being controlled by something like the 'High Queen' Metallia, as well as having an obsession with a certain Prince Endymion 'cemented' into her by the same, had made a certain 'Queen' Beryl very, very resistant from any kind of 'influence' that didn't come from a certain Invader Boss herself, it seemed...
And on a certain 'Lightwings' side - it had been obsession at first sight. Or rather, first fight. This was yet another female who didn't worship him, and -
Well, that was how it began, as far as Pluto could tell. What the hell, she wasn't 'Lightwings' himself or Beryl herself, but...
Beryl had set her plans in motion, the Dark Kingdom forces fighting both Senshi, Gatekeepers and otherwise as the circumstances dictated.
And Beryl and 'Lightwings' had fought many a time, among the carnage... Beryl laughing, more often then not - "We'll be the death of each other yet, Lightwings!"
Well, it had been a good thing for the Senshi that a certain 'Lightwings' had had other things to obsess about then them at that time, Pluto supposed.
And the end had come to that to, as it had to come to all things, eventually. Beryl and managed to kidnap and brainwash Mamoru as she had in many timelines, and had sent him to entrap the Senshi and Moon in particular.
Though she'd been a bit...melancholy about 'Prince Endymion', now that Pluto thought about it. Moreson then her counterparts in the other timelines tended to be, that is. Even...wistful, maybe?
And Pluto couldn't be sure if it was the Gate of Light's energies having some kind of effect on her after all, despite all of Metallia's controls, or maybe it was just because they had fought so many times, but...
When the final battle had come, Beryl had gone off to face - 'Lightwings'.
Not Sailor Moon or the rest of the Senshi, but 'Lightwings'.
Well, well, well...
Pluto wasn't quite sure what had actually happened then, as all the energies being thrown around made it terribly hard to scan, plus 'nexus points' were awfully hard to scan at all in the first place, but...
What was certain was one thing : 'Lightwings' and Beryl had managed to 'connect', at some level. And when that happened...
That was the moment when Metallia managed to slurp up a goodly amount of GOL energies like a big nice slurpie. Right through her minion Beryl, of course.
And then, IT had - woken up.
And 'Lightwings', the bright light of many, hadn't been able to do anything at all, while destruction covered the globe...
He could have broken the connection.
He could have attacked Metallia.
He quite possibly could have saved the World.
It wasn't like he didn't have the power of that damnable Gate of Light at his fingertips at the time!
Pluto closed her eyes, clenching her teeth.
All he had had to do was destroy one 'Queen' Beryl in the process.
She still remembered the Inners and the Endymion dying, one by one.
And Sailor Moon holding the Crystal to the skies, making a Wish, with her last breath...
And then, the great Light had covered the planet.
And then...
Well, let's just say, there had been lots more people and other living things living after that. Not to mention that a lot of the Invader forces and indeed Enemy forces in general found themselves with - much reduced forces in general. Not to mention odd gaps in their chain of command and such.
Not that the majority of beings remembered anything big happening at all, of course - the 'changed things' had always been that way, from their POV. Which was a bit of a shame, in Pluto's way of thinking, but whatever, whatever.
Though she did wonder a bit, just what a certain Saotome Ranma remembered - or didn't remember - sometimes...
Do you dream of a woman with long red hair, Saotome Ranma?
Ahh, no, no, no time to think about that now...
Well, on one hand, she didn't see any more 'resets' or 'remakes' of that level for the foreseeable future, there just wasn't enough energy left damnit, and too much of that kind of thing was - not good in general, but still, it was worth it.
It was.
Really.
Who remembers the Dark Kingdom now?
Almost nobody - human, Invader or otherwise - remembered that their ever had been such Beings as 'High Queen' Metallia, 'Queen' Beryl, and her Four Generals. Or a faction of Invaders that was called the Dark Kingdom.
And that, Sailor Pluto thought, was fitting indeed.
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(Posted Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:58)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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