Somewhere, where no normal human can get without help, was a very special place.
It was a place at the edge of the stream of time itself, situated at the crossroads of Past, Present and Future. And while this place has been existed since the beginning of time, a certain, ancient civilization that no longer exists, has built a certain gate there, allowing the guardian of that place to have access to the past and the future.
Using these gates, she was able to watch over the timeline, and ensured that 'no bad stuff happens', as she usually puts it.
These were the Gates of Time. And their guardian was Sailor Pluto.
Known in her civilian disguise as Setsuna Meioh, she had not that much time to spend in her normal, 'mundane' life.
Still, since the awakening of a certain Senshi called Saturn, she had enjoyed the company of the young girl together with her foster parents, Neptune and Uranus. And she actually liked it, so much that she decided to move into their home as well.
But now, having returned to the Gates of Time after a slightly longer period of time than usual, she realized that time was... scrambled up, as you could say.
"I don't believe it..." Pluto muttered. "I'm taking just one little vacation, and now look how the number of possible futures has grown..." She felt a headache coming. "I better start cleaning them up right now, or else they will multiply within a week."
And that would mean even more work for her. With a sigh, she walked into the room that was adjacent to the portal chamber of time... the Archives of Time.
She pulled a few folders out of one of the many filing cabinets in here, and compared them to the various timelines that were visible to her.
"Where to begin, where to begin," she sighed. She already felt this was going to be a long day of work. For her friends, it might feel as if she will have left for only a couple of minutes, but for her, it could pretty much turn out to be a couple of days.
----
After what seemed to be several hours for the Senshi of Time, she had actually managed to erase most of the more unpleasant future versions by changing just a bit in history.
She shook her head as she looked at the magical lamp in her hand. She just managed to get it away from that boy in time.
"It just had to be one of those furry fans," she grumbled. Hadn't she stopped the boy from picking up the lamp, the wish he would have made to the genie inside would have caused a change of worldwide proportions.
'Furry Tokyo' was one of the possible future versions Setsuna did NOT want to live through, thank you very much. Although, when she remembered how she would have looked in that future, she had to admit, she looked nice in black fur.
She then looked back at the wishing lamp in her hands. "I'll have to dispose of this thing in some harmless way," she muttered. "Sooner or later, it will have to find its way back into the timeline... Oh well, I'll see later if I find a person who deserves it... and whose wish doesn't affect all of humanity."
She put the lamp into one one of the many drawers alongside one wall of the archives, each of them containing at least thousands of certain items she had acquired over the centuries.
"Now, on to the next step..." she muttered to herself. She grabbed another folder. "What do we have here? Crystal Tokyo, fine, fine, this may be a possibility."
As long as there was some version of Crystal Tokyo in the future, Pluto was very much gracious in regard of any possible futures.
Well, as long as no 'bad stuff happens'.
She put the folder aside and looked at the next one. "Okay, here we have Crystal..."
She stared.
Crystal WHAT??
"What the heck?" she muttered. "I've never heard of that word before. Crystal Cybertron? What's that supposed to be?"
Oh well, she just had to take a closer look.
She sighed. And she had hoped she could finish the rest of the work in only a couple of hours...
Now she was forced to do some time-hopping herself, until she found out just what this 'Cybertron' was.
Well, it wouldn't be too hard to find, she figured. Intelligent robots did not appear in too many timelines of Earth.
She already figured it would take her some time until she found a clue. She was right.
But she would have NEVER figured she would discover something in THAT time period.
"The stone age?" she wondered. "I really don't want to know how intelligent robots from outer space managed to reach our planet... and during the stone ages of all times."
It only took her a while to find out just how those robots got there.
"A time machine! It just had to be a f***ing time machine!!"
----
She was in luck. Even if those robots have been on Earth, they didn't affect it's future too much. The version of Earth their ancestors were living on was in an alternate reality, so that was not her concern.
Still, there was this very slight chance that Crystal Tokyo might turn into 'Crystal Cybertron'... and she did not want that to happen.
"Bad stuff..." she murmured to herself. "Very baaad stuff..."
Finally, she found out just what would cause all of her troubles...
Now the only thing she had to do was to find those things and remove them from the timeline, just as she had done it with that magical lamp.
"How am I supposed to find a dozen of stasis pods that have crashed down from their orbit around Earth back in the stone ages?" the Senshi of Time wondered.
----
It was a dark, rocky cave. Not too wet, not too dry. Not too far below the surface of Earth. And it was situated somewhere in Africa.
The oval-shaped stasis pod was lying in one corner of the cave, shimmering like a giant, silver bean.
In a flash of light, Sailor Pluto appeared in the cave.
"Well, I found pod number one," she said in relief. "Now only seven are still missing..."
She approached the motionless object and looked at it. She had a big amount respect for the civilization that was able to create such an amazing piece of technology. What a pity they would never have any contact with them...
Letting her gaze sweep over the stasis pod, it was hard to believe that once, there had been an artificial life form inside it.
Now all that remained was a limp hull, devoid of any life. It's spark long gone, there was no chance that this being would ever come back to life.
Still this technology could very much be the cause of Crystal Cybertron, and Setsuna had to make sure that it didn't.
"I'll have to create an additional storage chamber for these things," she told herself. "Alien technology like this is best treated with special care."
Still, she had to make sure that the ancient, robotic form that was resting within there was indeed without any spark or other form of life.
Recalling images from the past, she reminded herself how to open the stasis pod. With a hissing noise, the hatch opened.
White mist came seeping out of the ancient storage unit as Setsuna looked inside.
She then gasped. "It's empty? But... but how? How could I have missed something like this...?"
"The same way you missed me," an amused voice came from behind her.
Before Pluto could react, the person that stood behind her gave her a firm shove, and she stumbled and fell back into the open stasis pod, along with her Garnet Rod.
She tried getting up again, but it was too late: The hatch of the pod was closing and she was trapped. Behind the dull window of the hatch, she could see a dark, blurry shape that was looming over her.
And then... everything went black.
----
An indefinite amount of time later...
The cave was empty again, except for the stasis pod, which was still lying in its corner. Only that now, it wasn't empty anymore...
Suddenly, a light on its surface started blinking, and a computer voice spoke up: "Scanning and adaption to new form complete! Opening pod!"
Once again, white steam came out as the hatch opened with a hissing noise. For a while, nothing happened.
Then, a pair of extremely long feelers came rising out of the inside. They were followed by a pair of spindly legs. And another one. And another one.
And finally, the whole body of the giant, brown cockroach came crawling out of the stasis pod.
Her feelers twitching and mandibles clicking, the dog-sized insect looked around the cave. She then scurried forward a couple of steps.
"Well..." she then said in a familiar voice. "This is new... but at the same time, pretty exhilarating."
She giggled. "I don't know how this happened, but... I like it."
Now what was that phrase again? Oh yes, she remembered...
"Setsuna... TERRORIZE!"
And in a fluid motion, the cockroach transformed. Standing up on her hind legs, all of her body parts arranged themselves, revealing more human-like components underneath.
She frowned. Setsuna sounded so... so mundane. She would have to find a new name for herself. She then looked down at her new body.
A metallic, female-looking face, robotic limbs, wire-like strands of green, synthetic hair, and parts of her 'Beast Mode' visible on her chest and backside. The long feelers were still attached to her head, just above her eyes. Eyes that no longer had any form of pupil or iris, and which were gleaming yellow.
"I probably won't find out just who did this to me," the newly robotic Setsuna said with a smirk. "But I have to thank him for this."
She strode around the cave experimentally, trying out her new limbs and pulling out her new weapon from a hidden hatch inside her right leg - a device resembling a small handgun.
She laughed to herself. "I feel... reborn! This is so amazing! Never again will I have to fear anything, having both the power of Pluto and those of a Cybertronian robot."
Suddenly, a wicked idea came to her mind. She smiled gleefully. "I just have to share this with my friends... and then we'll pay the stone age a visit. Oh yes, the Beast Wars will get much more interesting... because TIME SPLITTER will bring her friends along to play."
And the freshly transformed Predacon that was once known as Setsuna laughed maniacally.
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(Posted Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:50)
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