The Time Cube exploded and when the blast was done, Ranma was nowhere to be seen.
"That did it?" Sailor Pluto asked. "Of course. It accelerated his atoms to the point where he aged billions of years. He disintegrated. Ranma's dead at last!"
Genma heard the woman speak and gave her a strange look. "No. Actually, I do know what happened. I've been waiting for this for many years after all."
"AH!" said Sailor Mercury as the area around the Gates Of Time began bucking and thrashing like a bucking bronco on meth. No, worse than that.
"WAAAAAAAAAAA!" said Sailor Moon as gravity seemed to switch which way was down from second to second.
"Temporal anomaly, Class Alpha," said Mercury, reading her computer as she fell past Sailor Moon, reversed course and fell past her again. "Multiple eruptions. Wait, no. It's the same anomaly, just stretching across 164,500 years. Some time periods it seems to go mostly quiescent."
"WAAAAAAAAAAA!" said Sailor Venus as she tried to swim in midair as she fell past Mercury and Moon in a different direction.
"Scanning," said Sailor Mercury.
"There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams
yet slips away from us?"
Sailor Saturn raised her glaive, a sad look on her face as she contemplated the ruins of the Moon Kingdom.
"Sailor Saturn! NO!" said Sailor Uranus, looking horrified as she realized what was about to happen.
"No, Saturn," said a gentle voice.
"You, you're that traveler," said Neptune, looking at the young boy. "You were at Court."
The boy gently touched the hand holding the Glaive and looked down at the Sailor. "This was the will of the Queen. To destroy what was left so that it could be rebuilt in the future. Gently though."
"You're the only one that's ever been... nice to me, big brother," said Saturn after staring up at the taller youth.
"It's a second chance, for everyone," said the youth, an errant wind flipping his pigtail around.
"Except you, big brother," said Saturn sadly. "Will you..."
The boy was only slightly taller than Saturn, and looked only a little older. He hugged her. "I understand. When you return, I'll try to find you, and be your sempai again."
Neptune and Uranus stared, frightened of what was coming but also touched by seeing the tears trickling down Saturn's face as she raised the Glaive.
"Remember, big brother," said Sailor Saturn, bringing her Glaive down.
"Who were those two other Sailors?" asked Sailor Moon, trying to focus on something besides her own tumbling.
"No idea," said Saturn.
"Where's the music coming from anyway?" asked Venus as she tumbled past.
"Oh, I added that," said Mercury. "It just seemed appropriate."
"Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever?"
The young man, aged only a couple of years from the look of him, walked through the city and accepted the way the people around him parted as if he were royalty. "Looks like its about time for me to leave another city," he mumbled.
"Sir?" asked one of the robed people following behind him.
"Endios, I've been here in Sparta how long now?" asked the youth.
"Since my father's father's father's time," answered the aged warrior.
"I've taught the basics here long enough," said the youth. "It's time for me to move on."
Endios visibly bit back whatever he wanted to say at first. "What of those who still want to learn more?"
The youth shook his head. "You have the basics. It's up to you to discover and learn more. As for me, I will start a monastery in the mountains far to the West and North. I won't be there for many years though. There are other fields where I will plant these seeds, and your son's grandchild can test their Art against those of those other fields."
Endios nodded.
"That one guy looked like Mamochan," said Sailor Moon.
"Except he was Greek," said Mercury.
"It's all Greco-Roman to me," quipped Venus, just before she grabbed a long blonde ponytail.
"WAGHHH!" reacted Usagi predictably.
Theres no chance for us
Its all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us
The woman was old and withered in her bed. "My husband?"
"I'm here," said the youth, his pigtail replaced by a ponytail. He reached up and clasped her trembling hand in both of his own.
"It looks as if I'll be leaving you alone again, my love," said the old woman.
"It's only temporary," said the youth. "We've met before, and we'll meet again, in the fullness of time."
"And yet," the woman stopped now in a brief cough that had a wet rattle to it. "And yet, my dear stallion, you soldier on. How long will you be alone this time?"
"I hadn't planned on getting married this time," the youth said, squeezing that hand. "Do you remember when you snuck out, and when your father found out you'd been trying to learn the fighting arts from me?"
"That was a century ago," said the woman, with a faint smile. Her green eyes looked off into some distance. "I remember-"
"You remember?" prompted the youth before his face turned sad. He gave that hand a brief squeeze before placing it on her chest and standing up.
The room was silent for a few moments, then the youth simply picked up the old woman from her bed. Outside, it was revealed that the "house" itself was a simple wooden structure.
There was already a grave dug underneath the largest oak tree nearby, and despite the woman no longer being able to feel anything - he lowered her into that grave so gently that she wouldn't have awoken had she just been asleep.
"If only you'd been able to call upon your Silver Millenium identity," said the youth to the woman. "Goodbye, Jupiter, my friend, my student, my wife."
Jupiter had the sort of liquid-wobbly eye-look that Usagi had managed from time-to-time.
"WAHHHHHHHHHHH!" cried Moon and Venus, clinging to each other.
Gravity finally decided which direction was down.
"Uh oh," said several Senshi before they landed.
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(Posted Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:29)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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