One Last Look
There is one place in the universe where time stands still: The Time Plane. It is a dark and lonely place, isolated in its own dimension. Existing on a point where two planes of existence cross each other, it's silent and eerie, the only sounds coming from the River of Time.
The time stream turned physical, the River of Time flowed down its path. Scenes and vignettes of events throughout time floated to the surface and played out before sinking back down into the churning river, looking as if a roll of film had been melted down while the video footage still played in the flowing liquid. Every so often, branches of possible timelines would appear and disappear with each choice that was made throughout the universe, and on rare occasions the River would make a sharp turn and veer down one of these alternative paths.
The Time Plane's only inhabitant was the lone Guardian of Time, the last daughter of Pluto. Given the title of Soldier of Pluto long before Queen Serenity of the Moon created the Silver Alliance that beckoned in the age of the Silver Millennium, Setsuna was named Sailor Pluto and spent her days watching the time stream and guarding the ornately carved door that lead to the outside world. She was an independent being, as one would be after a millennium of standing alone by the Gates of Time and Space. Ever since the beloved Queen Serenity had long since passed on to the next realm of existence, the Soldier of Pluto rarely had visitors in her little corner of the galaxy. She had turned cold and forgotten most of her humanity, having watched the world she knew crumble the day the self-proclaimed Queen Beryl had set her sights on the Moon Kingdom a thousand years prior. Ever since the beloved Queen Serenity had long since passed on to the next realm of existence, the Soldier of Pluto rarely had visitors in her little corner of the galaxy.
Yet today was not exactly a normal day, for earlier a large disruption in the time stream had occurred, much larger than the now-average disruption the early death of one's soulmate caused. The planet Earth had begun its descent into the chaos before the calm that would be Neo-Queen Serenity's reign once she reclaimed her birthright and took the throne. Yet the earlier disturbance had sparked Pluto's interest. She had a sneaking suspicion that a certain someone was behind it and was expecting him to arrive shortly to confront her about it.
A low whooshing sound echoed throughout the endless fog, signaling his arrival. Pluto stood at attention, her Garnet Orb in hand as she turned to the large blue box that had materialized just yards from where she stood. The wooden doors swung open to reveal a young-looking brown haired man, yet the Guardian of Time knew that he was just as old as herself, if not older. "It's been a long time, dear friend."
He raised his head and she held back a small gasp at the sight of the distraught look on his unfamiliar face. She took in the sight of messy brown hair and the wrinkled clothes that looked as if he hadn't bothered to change in days. "It has, hasn't it." His distinct British accent rung out in the silence.
"I'm assuming this isn't a social visit and has something to do with the mess that has been made of the timeline." The green-haired soldier reached out a gloved hand to her friend, straightening the red bow tie he wore and brushing out the creases in his tweed jacket. "I haven't seen you with this face before, Doctor."
The Time Lord before her looked down at his feet, ran a hand through his hair, then looked back up at her with the expression of a puppy who had been wandering the streets trying to find his way back home. His voice shook with emotion and cracked as he murmured, "I lost them."
The gears clicked into place as Pluto realized what had happened. The disruption in the time stream, events becoming locked, fixed events in time and space. The sight of the red-haired woman and her husband jumping from a rooftop in 1930s New York, even though they appeared to be from the wrong time period. The duo had created a paradox to escape the Weeping Angels, only to fall victim to the stone creatures once more.
This scene had flashed through the River of Time, brighter than anything else Pluto had seen since the girl named Rose had decided to stay in another dimension with the Doctor's duplicate. The husband and wife duo must have been the Doctor's most recent companions, as he liked to call whatever humans he favored at the moment. Why he let himself get attached to others, she would never understand, having let herself grow close to Serenity and the others of the Silver Millennium only to have them be ripped away from her. Submitting to the torture of losing loved ones over and over was something Pluto had decided she could never do to herself. Yet this tragic story hit her deeply and brought forth the last remaining shred of humanity buried within the Guardian of Time. She embraced her old friend, comforting him in the only way she remembered how.
"Take me to them."
She looked up into his blank gaze. "Doctor, you know I cannot."
He pushed away from her. "Please, I'm begging you. Take me to them. You can travel anywhere in time and space, and you must have seen where they went! You stand by the time stream all day, every day. You must have seen something."
Pluto nodded, having sensed a paradox as she watched the River of Time produce the image of a lone Angel reaching out to send the redhead's husband to the past and the girl sacrificing herself in hopes of returning to his side. The green-haired woman turned to the large box beside them. The T.A.R.D.I.S. was a sophisticated time machine with capabilities that nearly rivaled those the Guardian of Time had. She laid a hand on the worn wood and her garnet-colored eyes widened. "You've pushed her to the limit, you know. Give the poor thing a break."
The Doctor hung his head in shame. "I messed up; are you happy? All I want to know is if they are safe."
"The time stream is a tangled mess of paradoxes. If the T.A.R.D.I.S. cannot go there, then neither can I. You forget, I am bound by oath to not meddle with the past and change the future. I cannot do anything that would risk the future that is meant to be."
He looked at her with a desperate expression on his face. "I just want one last look, to know what happened to them. I need closure."
Pluto sighed and closed her eyes. Traveling back in time to where the Weeping Angels had created their web of paradoxes could have devastating consequences. The time stream had been twisted and knotted into a tangled mess; even the slightest bit of meddling might cause it to break and crumble. It was too risky.
She understood where his pain came from. They were both timeless beings; she was blessed with immortality as long as she kept watch over time, and he was a Time Lord, the last of his kind, with the ability to regenerate and create a new body for himself, extending his lifespan to almost as long as that of an immortal being. With lifespans as long as theirs, one might say they were blessed, yet to them, it seemed more like a curse. Living infinitely longer than those around you, watching the ones you care about grow old and die – it was for this very reason that Setsuna had abandoned her life outside the Space-Time Gate, choosing to live alone as Sailor Pluto.
This was where the two had chosen different paths. She had chosen the solitary life, while he, after watching his world burn, had chosen to fill the empty spaces in his life with companions.
She looked up into his pale green eyes, filled with unshed tears. She was looking at the face of a man in pain. "Please," he murmured once more, his broken-sounding voice tugging at Pluto's heartstrings.
Yet she stood firm. "I cannot take you to them. I'm sorry."
"All I'm asking for is one last look, Setsuna."
She flinched at the sound of her name, a name she had left behind a thousand years before. It was a name with ties to her past. Setsuna was the former princess of Pluto; she was the daughter of the God of Time, Chronos, and the Crown Princess of Pluto. Being second in line for the throne, she became the Sailor Soldier of her home planet, watching over the Solar System from her post at the Space-Time Gate. And it was there that she watched the shining Moon Kingdom crumble and fall. The fall of the Moon Kingdom had triggered the collapse of the Silver Alliance and the rest of the solar system, planet after planet had died out and Setsuna had watched, trapped at her post at the Space-Time Gate, unable to help her fellow Sailor Soldiers fight. She watched with a heavy heart as Pluto fell.
One planet miraculously remained: the blue and green haven that was Earth, with the moon orbiting around it, a constant reminder of the forbidden love between the planet's young royals.
Queen Serenity had appeared to her, wounded and dying. She had used the last of her energy to send the souls of the young Princess Serenity, her guard, and Prince Endymion to the future, giving them a chance for a second life on Earth. The Queen's final command for the Guardian of Time had been to watch over the young princess, to make sure her life turned out the way it was supposed to.
And with that, Setsuna's lifelong friend took her last breath, falling with the rest of her kingdom.
That was the day the Guardian of Pluto had turned as cold as her home planet. The day she distanced herself from the world outside the Space-Time Gate, leaving Setsuna behind.
The sound of that name sent her a thousand years in the past. Her cold garnet eyes betrayed her, softening for just a second as she was flooded with memories of the past. Something inside her was tugging on her emotions, a feeling of empathy for this man pulling on her heartstrings. She looked up into the face of the broken man before her. "Doctor…"
He turned away from her, gazing off into the mist. "Setsuna, I know I can't go back there. It would blast New York off the face of the Earth. Even River's Vortex Manipulator would have catastrophic effects…" He trailed off, spinning around to face the Guardian of Time. A small smile crept onto his face, and a newfound gleam sparked in his eyes. "River. Oh, why didn't I think of this before!"
Pluto watched as the look of a sad puppy was replaced with an expression of hope. He dashed off towards the River of Time, a spring in his step and his tweed jacket flapping behind him. The Guardian of Time followed close behind him as he made his way to the edge of the river. He knelt at the side of the time stream, staring into the swirling depths. "Show me Amy and Rory Pond, please."
The silvery river swirled and glowed brightly before flashing an image of a graveyard with a worn tombstone reading the names of Rory and Amelia Williams. Pluto reached out and placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "The timeline must still be adjusting itself. Adding two people to a time they don't belong in is causing all sorts of changes throughout history. It might be days before we can see what happened to them."
The Doctor closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair, hanging his head with despair. "It was too good to be true."
The green-haired woman crouched down beside him, leaning against her staff. "It's nearly impossible to track anything while time is changing. I might be able to try again once it stops, but there is nothing I can do for now."
He looked up at her once again with those pale green eyes that had seen so much. "I'm sorry; I just wasted your time. Though, being the Guardian of Time, I guess you have all the time in the world." He laughed weakly at his little joke and sat back on his heels. "I just thought if maybe, just maybe, I could see them one last time…"
The brown-haired man reached a hand into his jacket pocket, his fingers wrapping around a crumpled piece of paper, wrinkled from being folded and fiddled with. He held it out to her. Smoothing out the paper she made out the words Afterword by Amelia Williams printed on the top.
Pluto stared at the paper in her hand. "Where did you get this?"
"River wrote a book and said she would take it to Amy to be published. Amy, she wrote an afterword for me." The Time Lord gave her a small, forced smile.
She raised a slender, dark green eyebrow, confusion written across her face. "Excuse me?"
The Doctor shifted so he was sitting cross-legged and looked up at her. "River wrote a book, Melody Malone, and I was reading it when, all of a sudden, Rory was mentioned. I didn't realize it was River's book until we started living it. So in the future, but it might be while she's in the past, she has been traveling around a lot, and she writes a book about what happened. The book I was reading. She said she would take it to Amy to be published and would tell her to write an afterword. And, boom, it appeared."
The Guardian of Time paused. "You mean time has already begun to settle? If you have this, then there might actually be a way to track them down."
He shrugged, "I guess. But then why wouldn't the timestream show them to me? You said that time was still adjusting itself."
A laugh bubbled up from deep inside Pluto, something that hadn't happened in a very long time. "Doctor, you should know by now: Time does what it wants. I have stood by this River for over a thousand years and I have seen impossible things. And maybe, just maybe, this is one of them." She settled down beside her friend, smoothing the short, black skirt of the uniform she wore.
He turned to look at her, a slightly shocked expression painted across his face. "Since when do you laugh? I've known you so long, the stoic Guardian of Time, and here you are laughing."
"I have witnessed miracles and impossible events, yet never did I think I would see one first hand." The Soldier of Time took the crumpled afterword and gently placed it on the surface of the River of Time. Reaching out, she waved her staff over the swirling silver river. The shining liquid rippled, engulfing the paper, which glowed brightly before an image floated to the surface. It flickered before shuttering to life like an old reel of film.
The image showed a woman with brilliant red hair sat before a typewriter, her fingers flying across the keyboard. The clacking of keys slowed to a stop as the woman paused and glanced at a clock on the wall of the room she sat in. It appeared to be the living room of a small apartment. A large, open window revealed bustling streets below, and the call of street vendors with distinct New York accents floated up and into the room. The walls were decorated with black and white photos of the redhead along with a tall, lanky man. Both were dressed in the modest, yet elegant fashion of the 1940s. The door of the apartment swung open and the man from the photographs walked in, calling for the woman. "Amy?"
The woman shown in the timestream stood from her chair, walking over to greet the man. "Why, hello there. How was work?"
From his place beside Pluto, the Doctor gave a small gasp. Here they were, Amy and Rory Williams. "Oh, you Ponds," he murmured, shaking his head, tears welling up in his eyes. He turned his attention back to the scene playing out in the River of Time.
Amy handed her husband a thick package, wrapped in brown paper. "This came in the mail today. It's River's book. There was a letter asking me to get it published and to write an afterword."
The dark blond man looked up, his forehead wrinkled in confusion. "How did she manage that?"
"She said the Guardian of Time helped her come back back to our time and she was able to mail it from New Jersey. But think about it, Rory." She sat down, pulling the paper she had been typing on from the typewriter, showing it to him. The words Afterword by Amelia Williams were typed across the top. "She wanted me to write an afterword for her book. An afterword. That would be printed on the last page of the book."
The former centurion locked eyes with his wife. "And the Doctor ripped out the last page of the book…"
"Exactly!" Amy exclaimed. "We can use it to get in touch with him."
And with that, the image fizzled out and faded back into the river. Pluto looked up at the Doctor. Garnet eyes meet pale green. A small smile crept upon both of their faces. She squeezed his hand and gave a small nod. "Looks like I need to find a way to send Miss Song back to the 40s."
Retrieving the crumpled page from the time stream, she handed it to the Doctor. The pair of timeless beings stood from their place by the River of Time. The brown-haired Time Lord pulled Pluto close, embracing her as he whispered a "Thank you" in her ear.
The two pulled apart and he looked her in the eye. "Thank you," he repeated. "For all you've done."
"Stay safe in your travels, wherever and whenever you may go." The green-haired woman clasped his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. He nodded once and turned to leave, heading back to the large wooden box he had arrived in.
She gazed out over the time stream, and one scene that had bubbled to the surface caught her attention. She glanced up from the River to see the Time Lord pull open the doors to the T.A.R.D.I.S. "Doctor," she called after him.
The man in question paused to look back at her. "Yes?"
The Guardian of Time's face broke out into a knowing grin. "I think you might find something that will peak your interest in, say, the early 1890s London."
The Doctor flashed a smile at her. "Well then, dear Pluto, I think I may just have to see if anything catches my eye." He gave a flourish of his hand. "With this, I shall say my goodbyes for now, old friend." A flap of his coat later, he had disappeared into the blue box that was bigger on the inside.
Hearing the whirring of the T.A.R.D.I.S., Setsuna looked back at the time stream, watching as the face of one Clara Oswin Oswald flashed across the time stream, a certain brunet with a bow tie by her side.