Inevitable Defeat

A/N: This is a fanfic that has a plot which stands alone and is separate from my Silver Millennium Series (which is on hiatus as of right now- but not for long ;).

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Sailor Moon, I simply own the storyline and any OCs which I have created.

Prologue: Eden

Sailor Pluto stood by a window overlooking the gardens of the palace on the moon for one of the last times, she knew. It was hard to believe, you know? She'd been in the queen's service since she was just a girl and ever since then the gardens had always been kept so vibrant, so youthful; but now….

Now they, like her, were beginning to feel their age. And there was no remedy for old age. It was a shipwreck that lent itself to no survivors.

Outwardly, Setsuna didn't look a day over thirty, if that, but looks were almost always deceiving in some way and for her, a stoic expression and well trained mannerisms could hide any number of woes.

And she had liked it that way until now. Now she felt like all she had done over the years was waste them.

She was the goddess and protector of time, how could she had whittled her life away so meaninglessly?

The insecurities she was humoring now came and gone every fifty years or so. It was a reoccurring pattern that everyone fell into, her just a little later than most because she had a little bit more lifetime to spare than they did. And had a great many more regrets because of it.

Being an ancient immortal being wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Setsuna relaxed some when she felt arms wrap around her waist in a gentle embrace and a warm kiss pressed to the side of her neck. She always knew who those arms belonged to.

"You've been very quiet today, beloved." Queen Serenity tightened her hold around the time senshi's waist ever so slightly when she didn't respond right away.

Her lover had always been aloof for as long as she had known her, but her normally solitary behavior had become more intentionally distant over the past few weeks and she wasn't sure why. They were at war, anyone would be stressed, but they had been at war before, the first time when Metallia had come into power before and she had been sealed away, Setsuna had never reacted quite like this back then or ever.

It was like she was some sort of animal, the lone wolf that goes out into the woods to die away from the pack so that no one else will miss them or have to see them die.

Setsuna was being distant and it worried the queen a lot more as the days went by.

"Setsuna?" She whispered, hoping to finally engage her lover's full attention.

She was touching her, she was pressed up against her, and speaking to her, what more could Serenity do?

Well, she could certainly think of a number of things she could do that would definitely grant her, her lover's undivided attention, but now didn't seem like the appropriate time for her antics…at least not quite yet.

"Do you remember our first meeting?"

"What?" The randomness of the sudden question caught the usually graceful woman off guard, "Setsuna, you're being arbitrary. Turn around and talk to me."

Pluto took a deep breath and steeled herself for looking into the deep silver eyes she loved so much filled with concern over her and trying not to break down.

Setsuna turned around and had to focus on her lover's collarbone instead of her eyes because the not breaking down part wasn't happening, she found.

"At the diplomatic summit." Setsuna began as steadily as she could, "When my father first presented me to you and your parents."

Serenity had relinquished her hold on her lover's waist for her neck and as she spoke, her thumbs were gently messaging the tension out of the taunt muscles there. "Go on, love. I'm right here"

Setsuna cleared her throat, letting her transformation dissolve into nothingness in her queen's presence. There was no place she rather be in a thousand lifetimes than here in her arms.

That much she had gotten right in her life so far.

"I could never forget that day even if I wanted to, you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen up to that point in my life." Setsuna added. As her lover raised an eyebrow, she smiled and added, "You still are."

"Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature's loveliness? It is a touch of melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever."

-Henry Van Dyke-

(1852 – 1933)