Setsuna mumbled, downing whatever that was in her mug.
"Never mind, so am I - Oh, come on, Michiru, drink some more. It's not fair, just us getting plastered..."
"Oh, all right, all right..." Michiru sighed, taking a dainty sip of whatever that was in her goblet. Some kind of Shouchuu cocktail, probably, though she wasn't quite sure.
" - So!" Haruka said, in a rather drunken attempt to change the subject. If she'd known that family was such a sensitive subject to Setsuna, she never would have mentioned it - or at least, not here and now.
"Say, Setsuna, Michiru - do you two have any idea just what that, that 'Dark Kingdom' that the Inners say they fought was all about? I mean, Mako-chan and co seemed to believe that they were actually the Enemy that smashed the old Silver Millenium down flat, but..."
"Oh, yes - Ami-chan did mention something like that, too, now that I think about it."
Michiru looked at her goblet. That tasted better then she expected, actually...
"Something about a big battle at the South Pole, or something. Or maybe the North Pole? Someplace cold, anyhow - she said they all had to teleport in."
"Oh." Haruka mumbled. "A pack of newbies trying to teleport - that must have been as scary as hell. Though the 'cats must have helped, I suppose."
" - They did, yes. I think." Setsuna muttered, staring someplace over her cup.
"Though anyhow - it couldn't have really been such a big fight, right? I mean - I remember when I was just starting out as a Senshi, every Monster Of The Week is scary as heck, then. I mean... I think me or Michiru would have noticed something if any real Big Bad had come a-calling... Right?"
Michiru nodded, somewhat drunkenly. "I'd always assumed that the Inners got first time lucky, and that the Princess managed to smash whatever this Dark Kingdom was with the power of the Silver Crystal before they'd really gotten started... I mean, that is the best way to deal with things, if you can. Just - crush them before they can take root."
"Yes, yes, if we can, that is..." Haruka murmured, moving some cheese to Michiru and Setsuna's plates.
"They really were Beryl's crew - you remember Beryl, right? - and something nasty that was calling itself Mettalia. You're right in some ways, though - Mettalia was nowhere near full power when she - it - jumped the gun. And... Tokyo was where most of the battles took place." Setsuna muttered absentmindedly. "Because - well, that was mostly because that was where the Princess and the Prince's reincarnations were. I think. Well, that's what the Other-Me thought, anyhow... It wasn't like she was actually around at that time, I think."
"Huh?" Haruka blinked. "But - but I thought that the Dark Kingdom battle was when the Kitten and her friends were in the second year of Junior High School! That's two years ago, and both Michiru and me had 'gone Senshi' by that time, so..."
" - It was three years ago, actually." Setsuna said softly. "I think. ...Usagi-chan and her friends went through the second year of Junior High, twice."
Haruka and Michiru blinked, looking at each other.
"But - you mean, they got kept back because they kept cutting school because of Senshi business..." Michiru shook her head. "No, no, that doesn't make sense - I mean, if it was high school it's one thing, but..."
"No, it wasn't that. She'd gone to fight, and she'd fought, and she'd won, and she saved the world, but the friends that had fought at her side were dead, and so was her love. So she made a Wish, as her life-force flickered away..."
Setsuna giggled, then, sounding more then a little demented.
"That hurt the - the Other-Me, you know. I know now that she probably wasn't really Me-Me, but..."
"No, wait, wait, wait." Haruka took a deep breath, and poured herself a cup of water.
"So you're saying - the Kitten died. I mean. Tsukino Usagi, died. In this battle with - the Dark Kingdom. Thing."
"Yes."
"But." Michiru hiccuped. "But - she got better. I mean. She's not dead now, and... We, we came back too, after Galaxia - "
"Yes, yes" Haruka murmured, holding her hand.
"Oh, yes. Tsukino Usagi died." Setsuna whispered. "And then Tsukino Usagi came back. Because she'd made a Wish. That - that she wanted her - Tsukino Usagi's - old life back. She wanted to be the Tsukino Usagi who was in the second grade of junior high school and would eventually grow up, and live her life with her friends and family and love. And - and her Wish did come true, because such Wishes do tend to come true..."
Haruka blinked. "So - so they all came back, which is good, but - why'd they end up going through the second year of Junior High twice? You mean that Wish thing adjusted everybody's memories and stuff?"
"...Among other things. Yes."
"But they did end up being Sailor Senshi again anyway, correct?" Michiru asked.
"Well...yes, yes they did. Because...well, I'm not sure why, exactly, though the Other-Me had a couple of theories on that matter. Part of it was that Earth and the Solar System really did need some active Senshi around at that time, I think, but..."
"Oh, I can f-formulate a couple of guesses about that, really." Haruka mumbled. "I mean, if I had a choice about being a Senshi and going through hell fighting the most stupid-looking dangerous monsters in the universe all the time, and not having been a Senshi at all and having never met Michiru and the Kitten and her friends and Hotaru and you and everybody...well. I know which one I'll choose, all right."
"Oh, Haruka..." Michiru murmured, gripping Haruka's hand tightly.
"Oh, yes, yes, there is that, and *hic* I'm glad I met you people too, really, but -"
Setsuna sighed, then.
"But what if you had the chance to meet all your important people anyway, without all the Senshi business? Then what?"
"Now that...is a question I'm too drunk to answer at the moment, I'm afraid!"
Haruka smiled.
"...Alright, then."
"But I'll try to later. When I'm less drunk."
"Alright, alright... Go to bed now, Haruka."
"Oh, come on, I'm not that drunk..." Haruka made a face.
"Oh, no you are, Haruka - now, go to bed." Michiru murmured, wavering just a little as she stood up.
"You to?"
"Yes, yes, I'm going to bed now too... But you go first."
"Alright, then."
Michiru turned back to Setsuna, brooding on the couch, then. There was just one thing...
"Hmmm?"
"...Yes, Michiru?"
"You said - the Princess - I mean, Usagi-chan dying hurt your...Other-You? Even though she hadn't even been there?"
Setsuna simply stared at her cup.
"Mmmmmm. She shouldn't have died. At all. Even if all the others did. But..."
"...But she did. And then she came back. And everything was fixed again. Well, not everything, maybe, but - most things. Right?"
"...I...think so. Maybe. But Other-Me...wanted things to be the way she thought they should have been..."
"...Ah."
"Because she never came back, you see."
" - Ahh?"
"Tsukino Usagi died, and Tsukino Usagi came back."
The moonlight was very pretty tonight, Setsuna felt.
"The Moon Princess never did."
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(Posted Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:19)
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