Setsuna could only stare in horror at the new History forming in the chaos of the temporal storm she and Ranma had been sucked in. Tears came to her eyes when she realized that she had failed then everything went white.
*****
No Silver Millenium, no Sailor Senshi, No Dark Kingdom and other associated nasties. That didn't mean that everything was for the better though in this new world.
First Contact with aliens was made by the USSR in the year 1948. The USA followed suit at Roswell in 1953. The problem was that each of the so-called 'superpowers' encountered the two sides of a Cold War led on the galactic scale, making their conflict look like a squabble of petty children.
The two alien powers began to supply America and Russia with advanced technology and weapons for payment (precious metals, live human test subjects and raw materials essentially). The new Balance of Terror was no longer based on nuclear weapons but on the creation and maintenance of an army of superhumans. While the USA alliance favored robots, cyborgs and power armored troops, the USSR concentrated on breeding bioweapons, clone soldiers and mutant warriors through genetic engineering and biotechnology, mirroring their alien suppliers' own technological preferences.
European countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain equipped themselves with weapons bought from the two superpowers. In time, they began to develop their own thanks to reverse engineering and experimentation. It was the same but on a lower scale for Third World countries. Earth was split in two as East and West prepared for a seemingly inevitable World War 3.
North Korea won its war against the South and reunified the country under its rule, thanks to russian aid in the form of mutant shock troops. The french were still thrown out of Vietnam in 1954 but the communists didn't stay long in power in Hanoi. When South Vietnam asked for official american help, the Vietcong guerilla didn't last long against the Hunter-Killer drones of the US army. The cuban missile crisis still happened as before. Iran stayed under the Shah's rule. Afghanistan was pacified by the russian mutant army. The two superpowers kept the Cold War alive and fought by proxy in local armed conflicts all over the world. Terrorism was still a big problem on both sides of the fence (they prefered to call themselves freedom fighters though).
We are now in 199X. There have been no Perestroika, no Glasnost and no fall of Communism. NATO and the Warsaw Pact are still forces to be reckoned with. Tension is escalating between the two superpowers and their allies/satellite states with the coming to power of a hardliner first secretary at the Kremlin and a reactionnary republican president at the White House. The aliens behind them were even adding fuel to the fire, eager to secure another planet for their galactic battle of influence.
And in the whole grand scheme of things, where did Japan stood ?
Japan had feared for its safety when the korean war ended in a victory for the communist north. Forbidden to maintain a decent army or developing nuclear weapons by the peace treaty of 1945, the japanese government turned inwards for a solution and decided to capitalize on the country's most obscure assets : Magic and Martial Arts.
The best senseis and mystics of the countries were gathered in a secret taskforce to help train elite warriors and devise new weapons based on the power of Magic. Project Sansei (Third Way, refering to Hard Technology and Biotechnology as the first and the second) was born.
Enter Ranma Saotome. Trained almost from birth by his father and others in martial arts, the young man had become one of Sansei's top agents. Here, he was not the brash and naive pushover of before but a ruthless warrior ready to use his family's forbidden techniques against Japan's enemies. He fought side by side with fellow martial artists and practitionners of magic in special forces operations whenever his country's interests were threatened.
*****
Setsuna groaned. She groggily woke up and half-stood in her bed, wondering where and when she was. She suddenly gripped her head in both hands and doubled over in pain as the memories of her new life were forcefully rammed into her skull.
*Flash !*
In this new reality, Setsuna wasn't completely human. Her original name had been Svetlana-09, one of many clones born in a secret russian laboratory hidden in the island of Sakhalin. She had been part of an experiment where genetically engineered superhuman clones were infused during the gestation and fast-growing process with 'magic' stolen from the japanese by KGB agents.
*Flash !*
Green-colored visions of men and women in white lab coats working on her. Memories of the pain she endured when mystic energy was mercilessly poured in her body. The electrical shocks and drugs used to brainwash her to be the perfectly obedient slave and living weapon.
*Flash !*
Explosions, scientists and soldiers killed by black shadows. One of these shadows breaking through her tank and saving her from her sisters' grisly fate when the base's commander had ordered the destruction of all 'research material'. The horrific sight of girls who looked just like her silently screaming as they dissolved to nothingness.
*Flash !*
Ranma Saotome, the young man who had saved her, bringing her back to Japan. It was him who gave him the name Setsuna because he couldn't pronounce Svetlana correctly. She saw him take her under his custody and into his home, taking responsibility for her life against the advice of his superiors.
*Flash !*
Memories of him and his parents explaining the basics of living to her, a biological weapon with the body of a sexy young woman but the intellect and emotional maturity of a child. Seeing his fiancee Akane Tendo break their engagement because he spent more time with Setsuna than with her.
"Uunnngh..." Setsuna's headache cleared and she fell back on the bed. Her memories of being Sailor Pluto and what had caused this shift in reality were now...
See other episodes by Jamil Nate
(Posted Sun, 08 Jun 2003 19:33)
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