Hello and welcome faithful fanfic readers!

I guess you call this one my 'flagship' story and one that will by far be the most involved. My only hope is to take you by surprise and remember nothing is as it seems.

Feel free to leave behind any reviews. I'll give them a warm bed to sleep in and a roof over their heads.

Don't worry, I don't mind the extra responsibility, (heartless bastards...)

Let's see, what else. . .

Oh, I would like to dedicate this part to Helm and Razorclaw X.

Terrible Things to Waste

Prologue: Intrusion

"... and insure that History and Fate continue on their proper paths."

With that, she had finished the last lines of the Time Guardian's Oath. Years of training were finally completed, now all she had to do was wait for Queen Serenity to formally accept her in the Royal Guard and then she could take her esteemed post at the Time Gate.

Her body quivered with excitement at the notion. She would have one of the most important tasks of all the Royal Guard. All of the hairs on her head threatened to shoot from her skull and probably would have if not for her jeweled tiara. She wanted to jump around the Grand Hall singing and dancing up and down the dazzling white pillars, but, no, that would belie the reputation of a Time Guardian.

No, her duty took greater priority over everything now and that required constant vigilance and discipline.

The cry of trumpets filled the hall, rattling all thoughts out of her mind. Her Queen approached, her long soft violet tassels of hair shimmered and her smooth white gown sparkled in the sunlight streaming in through the skylights above. Her Royal Guard dressed in vibrant red, blue, green, and yellow flanked either side of the Queen. The bold colors represented each of the planets that comprised the Sol Alliance as well as showing their commitment to a unified allegiance to the peaceful means of the Moon Kingdom.

Soon she would be taking the prestigious title as Pluto's representative among Serenity's Royal Guard.

Her toes and fingers tingled in anticipation. She couldn't bear to wait a moment longer as she felt the Queen place her hand on her shoulder.

Then she opened her eyes. The blare of trumpets died into silence and the bright Grand Hall fading into darkness of the Time Tunnel. She watched as the clouds sluggishly rolled around her.

'I was so excited to become Sailor Pluto.' The Time Guardian waved her staff, swirling the fog. 'But that was eons ago.'

The red orb atop her staff radiated like a beacon in the thick clouds. 'I had trained my entire life to be the Time Guardian. It was my destiny.'

Sailor Pluto allowed the seemingly infinite darkness to engulf her.

'None of us can escape our destiny.' She contemplated in the pitch black. 'All of the Royal Guard has a responsibility to fulfill to our Queen and we all must make sacrifices to meet those ends. I was meant to prevent those who seek to disturb the Serenity royal bloodline and thus exploit the power of the Silver Crystal by altering the course of History. To that end I must remain in solitude for the rest of my existence, shouldering the responsibility of keeping the order that we made out of the chaos.'

The Time Guardian thoughtfully regarded her surroundings. 'At least telling myself that makes the eternity pass by a little faster.'

Pluto shook her head. That had not been entirely true. Every now and then the timeline would try to deviate and she would dive into the timeline to fix it. Very mundane tasks really, just stop the deviation at its source. Of course, it required meticulous study before its source could be found.

On the other hand, perhaps calling it a mundane task was overstating things. She'd be lying if she said she sometimes didn't look forward to the distractions. Though she'd never admit to indulging herself, she did certainly take advantage of her time there. It gave her a chance to enjoy the things that most mortals that lived and died in the timeline took for granted; simple things like sunlight, sleep, sweets, family, or … even companionship.

'No, that's not entirely true.' She chided herself remembering the rambunctious young princess with the hair that reminded her of cotton candy. 'There's always Small Lady.'

Small Lady as she warmly called the child was the third in the Serenity royal line. Though as bubbly and clumsy as her mother, Neo-Queen Serenity, had once been she carried an air of maturity about her that was unusual for one so young. Of course Small Lady had been through a lot, yet despite that she never allowed it to break her positive spirit. Sometimes she'd envy that child's optimism. Seeing her smile would fill Pluto with such warmth that-

"What the in seven levels of Dante's?" Sudden chills shot up from her tailbone and slammed into her head. "Ugh! That's what I get for allowing myself to get distracted!"

Giving her undivided attention to the crisis at hand, Pluto quickly assessed her situation. The fog was shifting. It was shifting a lot. How did she miss this? Before she could give it anymore thought, her gut to twist and flip in near synchronization with the swirling mist.

'I hope to Gods it's the princess.' She prayed as the pounding pulse smashed against her skull. 'No, my duty won't allow me to rely on the mercy of divine deities. I rely on no one.'

"Small Lady?" She called, chiding herself once again for allowing herself to sound so meek.

The shift continued and as it began to intensify so did the shock waves of pain washing over her body. She watched in horror as the fog tossed and turned in the great void. All of her attempts to establish any type of control over chaos swirling around her failed. Nothing she did could stop it.

'I've never seen a deviation of this magnitude. Why is the timeline realigning?' She clutched her stomach. 'What ever it is, it's unsettling the balance of Time.'

Her knees began to buckle. 'Fate must have deviated, but this isn't a deviation, this is a reformation.'

"What's doing this?" The woman gasped.

The Guardian doubled-over as she felt two, then three things passed fluidly through the Tunnel.

Relief came momentarily before a fourth one finally passed through and then the shifting mercifully stopped.

Still feeling uneasy, she readied her staff and prepared herself for battle.

'No intruder shall pass under my watch.' She resolved.

Her eyes darted around in the fading mist looking for the perpetrators but nothing happened. She lowered her staff, stunned.

"How did they bypass the Time Gate?" She wondered aloud. "Unless they were-"

The Guardian's throat constricted. "It can't be... They don't... They're only a legend, right?"

Narrowing her eyes, she steeled herself. "No. I won't let them ruin everything we've ever worked for. I won't allow them to prevent me from fulfilling my duty no matter who they are!"

Hastily, she straightened her staff and opened the Time Gate, and, repeating the Time Guardian's Oath under her breath, departed for the destination of the shift: Tokyo 1999 AD.

The Travellers had arrived and they must be stopped at all costs.

-End of Prologue-

I was going to leave this last revision as is, but I noticed that it was too long and dragged which I felt was deterring people rather than grabbing them.

Anyway, I hope I did a better job of catching your attention.

I'd like to thank Adrian Forrest for his very useful comments on this part as well as post-production comments from David Johnston and Dark Master Jewelle.

Thanks for reading and see ya in Part 1!

Bastion Note 02/07:
Nothing much to report on this one, just some minor window dressing really to make it flow better. Part 1 update soon to follow.

Disclaimer:
Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi and in America by DIC.
All original characters are owned and copyrighted by Bastion (c) 2004