Mars and Venus call her from the warded corridors. Pluto looks up from her post, smiling somewhat stiltedly. The Inner Senshi had gotten quite strange after their reincarnation in the 20th century, in her humble opinion - they kept trying to do things like make small talk with her, just for one example.
"Oh, there you are! Any news? Like, um..." Venus looks around her. "You know..."
Pluto sighs. Alright, they weren't just trying to make small talk this time, it seemed.
"Please come into the Time Gate entrance, then, Senshi Mars, Senshi Venus. ...I had thought that Senshi Mercury would be interested in that, too, though?"
"Mercury's busy - there was some kind of emergency in the E-2 Medical Center." Venus says, quickly slipping through the Gate, Mars besides her.
"She'll probably be over here later, though." Mars adds.
" - So - how're things going?"
"Hmph." Pluto considers. "I assume you're talking about Small Lady's side of things? She has been asking more about the 20th century, especially since King Endymion has started to tell her bedtimes stories about Sailor Moon. Neo Queen Serenity's suggestion about a manga in which a young rabbit-girl ends up getting sent back to the past via time machine also seems to have worked quite well."
"Darn right it worked well - I mean, we started that project as a joke of sorts, but then the holo-anime 'pilot version' we put on the infonet became just so popular..." Mars sighed.
"And now it's a holo-anime TV series on one of the biggest infochannels..." Venus sighed, too. "I mean, they're planning a musical version now. Can you imagine?"
"Ha, ha -" Mars snickers. "Venus's annoyed because 'Aino Minako' didn't get asked to be Taremimi-chan's mother and foster-mother in the musical version. After she did such a good job in the Holo-anime version as a voice actor, too."
"I am not." Venus pouts. "Anyway, it's not like 'Aino Minako' could actually take that job, considering - you know. It's not like any of us could risk staying away from the Crystal Palace now of all times..."
"So, um." Mars mutters. "About the other things..."
Pluto sighs. "There is no sign of any kind of Cardian activity on Earth or any of the major colonies. We've got a fair amount of Chaotic or Dark energy traces in general, true, but even that is within quite normal parameters. Not to mention that Cardian energy isn't really all that Chaotic to begin with. And I've been scanning the vector - they - are presumably supposed to come from, but - nothing. Nada. Zilch."
"Well, then." Venus mutters.
"Well, then." Mars mutters too, but in quite a different tone then her fellow Senshi.
"...Ah." Pluto considers. "Have you been - having dreams, Mars?"
Mars looks at the floor, fidgeting. "Well, yes. I keep seeing the Crystal Palace smashed to rubble while the darkness tries to get in - Which is stupid as hell, you know. The Palace is one of the most heavily defended places on the entire planet, for heaven's sake!"
"Yeah, yeah, really." Venus sighs, then. "I mean, the only way the Crystal Palace could be taken out like that is if they actually managed to get at the Silver Crystal itself. Which is really, really unlikely. I mean - this is the Doom Tree Clan we're talking about. Can you really imagine any of those - people - managing to do anything like that?"
They all sighed, then, Mars included. No, no they couldn't.
"Well, OK, then - " Mars sighed. "So what about the contingency plans in case the Doom Tree Clan fails to show up after all? Are we actually going to fake an attack or something?"
"Sure, why not." Venus answered happily. "It's not like we'll actually cause any kind of destruction, right? I mean, if we're faking things, the whole point is to give Small Lady an excuse to go back to the 20th century, so..."
"...Hello, Lady Pluto. Is that your dream?"
Meiou Setsuna sighed, and then blinked. A dark-haired and blue-eyed boy looked back at her, sitting on his bed, his eyes sad. A even smaller blonde child slept at the foot of the bed, on top of the covers.
"Shhh. Don't wake her up, she's tired out..."
Setsuna blinked yet again, looking at the two children. The boy seemed to be around seven or eight, while the girl probably was around four.
"...Ahhh. Chiba Mamoru-kun?"
"That's what everybody says my name is supposed to be. - You were talking to him, weren't you."
"...Him."
"Prince Endymion. He was playing the harp. Or trying to, anyway. I would have gone for the violin, but I don't think he knows how to play the violin at all."
Young Mamoru sighed then, looking older then his apparent age.
"Is this my dream or your dream? Except that she's here, too..."
"It's a - shared dream, maybe?"
Setsuna answered, smiling. The boy smiled back.
"...So. The 'Doom Tree Clan', huh?"
"Well, yes. I mean. It's strange to see things like that, especially since that that's not really based on my memories at all..."
"So what happened?"
Setsuna smiled, looking very sad indeed.
"...We...They...made a whole bunch of plans. There was something happening someplace, really low-key - everybody could sort of feel that, but the Doom Tree Clan never did put on an appearance. So they went for plan B. Which was, as Venus said, much safer for Small Lady anyhow. Much less risk of the Small Lady never even managing to make it to the Time Gates, too.
They had the fake attack all ready - it was juust realistic enough to scare her but not too much, you know? So she could always remember it as the start of a Great Adventure.
They were planning to have a big party for her birthday, and the 'fake attack' was supposed to happen right then, so they could all give her pointers and say they were counting on her and all that.
And then the Dark Moon Family attacks. With utterly massive Droid fleets. All over the place. At the same time.
Right on the day before her birthday."
Setsuna closed her eyes, then.
" - Sometimes that girl just has no luck whatsoever."
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(Posted Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:07)
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