Essence of Time: A Theory
Setsuna had stood for years outside the time gate, surrounded by shrouds of mist and clouds, a lone being in a massive space where nothing else existed. She knew only the endless cold and continuous silence which seemed, to her, not unordinary.
Millenniums over, she had watched people live their lives, making sure they stayed on track and did what they were supposed to do. Never once did she question why she was not just like those people, but instead hidden away at the time gates bound by solitude and a duty to protect.
It was hundreds, thousands, of years before Setsuna realised that she had no memory whatsoever of how she had come to be in this place. When she finally did, she started to question, why her, and why this place?
Setsuna understood time liked an old friend. She was probably the one single being in the entire universe who could make sense of its shifting personality and mysterious behaviour. One day she was thinking about time and how it worked, and a question suddenly hit her - one which she suddenly wondered why she hadn't asked herself a long, long time ago.
When did time begin?
If time had a beginning, then there had to be a point where time had not existed, and if time hadn't existed there wouldn't have been a 'when' for time to be created. Therefore, if time hadn't existed, it would have been impossible to make it exist.
So, Setsuna reasoned, time had to have always existed.
What about my time stop attack...?
She puzzled over this for a while. Stopping time was one of the greatest taboos that she was forbidden to break. But the rare and powerful attack didn't quite fit with her theory. If she stopped time, there would be no 'when' to start it back up again. In which case time ought to be frozen forever, but this clearly wasn't the case. She had broken the taboo a grand total of twice, suffering the tremendous consequences of her actions each time, but time had kept ticking away just like always.
What if time were not to stop, but move very slowly?
This seemed plausible. After all, from the rare bit of experience she did have of stopping time, she was still able to move and talk while it was happening. Perhaps this was possible because time was still technically moving at an extremely slow rate.
It must be taboo because if I was to accidentally slow it down too much, it really would stop, and then time would be frozen forever.
Then she thought: If time had always existed, the time gate must have always existed too, and would have always needed someone to guard it.
When was the beginning of her own existence?
Thinking back she realised she couldn't remember any time where she had not been guarding the time gate. Wouldn't she have to have been a baby once, and grown up and learned things before coming here? How else would she know all of the information necessary to guard the gate?
Another answer came to her.
I am Time's very essence. I am Time itself. Time has always existed, and therefore so have I.
Setsuna was time in a human form. A form capable of making decisions and changing things where necessary. A form which could make sure the time stream did not go astray and went only where it was supposed to.
This form allowed her a taste of human life, when she was needed so badly in the universe because things had strayed too far, that her presence was the only hope for resolution. With this small taste came great longing as she yearned to be like humans, free from the burden of loneliness and lifetime after lifetime which passed her by with scarce few even acknowledging her existence.
Then she met the sailor senshi. They, like her, were also governed by the great powers of their planets. They called her the princess of Pluto, and Sailor Pluto, as Pluto was the governing planet of time and space. Indeed, it was this planet she called upon in order to exert her power over the time gates. She allowed the senshi to believe that the little planet was where she had been born. In reality she had no idea if she'd even been born at all.
The senshi gave her the happiest few years of her life. It was the closest feeling to freedom that she'd ever felt. In them she found a brief respite from the solitude of the time gates. Earth called her away from the time gates, lest the future Crystal Tokyo be forsaken, and so she went, and so she met the few people who bade her welcome in a place which wasn't the time gates, her home.
They asked her questions about time and didn't understand the cryptic answers, had a laugh about her age, and called her stoic and mysterious. They did not realise that whenever Setsuna spoke of time, she spoke of herself, for she was time and time was her.
She even loved once, though she knew it was destined to be unrequited. While he lived, however, she kept a close eye on him when she was able to, knowing that he was happy with the love that he had found and the future which had become a certainty. She was happy for him, though she would not admit that it pained her to watch him.
The future loomed out before her, stretching out for many more millennia, so many more that she couldn't see the end.
There is no end, she reminded herself, just as there is no beginning. It is, and always has been, and always will be.
There would be no death no matter how many times she died. Even if her star seed got crushed she would continue to exist, for the very essence of time could never be confined to a mere crystal. It flows throughout everything in existence, untameable and unstoppable, the greatest of all magics to ever exist.
Setsuna recalled the events of Sailor Galaxia, whose body was consumed by Chaos, a force so strong that it took over entire galaxies. Sailors Uranus and Neptune had made a formidably brave, yet extremely risky, move - betraying their fellow senshi and taking on the gold bracelets of Galaxia to try to find a loophole in which to attack her.
Setsuna had given up her physical body that day, for the greater good of Crystal Tokyo. She had done so willingly, knowing that she would never truly die.
Sailors Pluto and Saturn understood death better than most.
Her eternal life at the time gates made death look like a piece of cake.
There was one friend she made in that time period who became very special to her. The 30th century ruler of Crystal Tokyo, Tsukino Chibiusa, Small Lady, daughter of Mamoru and Usagi.
Chibiusa was the first person in Setsuna's entire existence to give her a nickname. 'Puu.' It was a small human gesture, but hugely important. In that time period Setsuna often found that she was less alone at the gates than before. Chibiusa would often come to visit her and, very, very occasionally, when the time stream permitted it, she was able to return the favour.
But alas, all good things must come to an end. Setsuna knew all too well that time would press on and eventually the 30th century would pass. Chibiusa, like her ancestors, would grow up and die, and then she would pass through the gates of death and into the next life.
Setsuna would never see her again because she was never allowed to die.
She asked herself for the millionth time, why her? She might have, by chance, been born any other being in the universe but this one and she may have had the smallest chance of happiness. But fate, uncontrollable and inevitable fate, had declared that she be born of the very essence of Time, and destined to be bound to both solitude and duty, forever.