Good Things Come To An End

The Gates of Time were never the most cheerful of places, but with only one regular visitor, and most of the other visitors dieing on entry, it had never really been an issue. However, in one of her rare fleeting moments where she was almost human, Setsuna considered changing the colour scheme. After all, it's not like anyone would actually notice, or care that she had, it would just make coming into work that little bit more bearable.

She chased the thought from her mind and sank into the persona that was Sailor Pluto, guardian of the Gates of Time. She walked through the smoke filled dimension until she came to a terminal. She began to type in commands and the results appeared in front of her on no apparent screen. They were also in a very ancient language that no historian or linguist on Earth would be able to decipher. The Plutonian language was rarely spoken even on its home planet, but it was Sailor Pluto's native tongue, so the words gave meaning in her mind.

She stared intently at them for what seemed like hours, though only minutes passed back on Earth. She was manipulating her time at the Gates, as only she could, and unintentionally to boot. It was a habit of hers, one that she had never tried, nor been bothered enough, to break. It meant that she was there for a long period of time, whilst she missed little back on Earth. She had yet to suffer any ill consequences because of it, so didn't see the harm, though she was certain that one day she would pay the price for such abuse of her powers.

And part of her felt that she no longer cared about the consequences. Somehow it didn't scare her as much as it used to, long ago when she was young compared to now and when she had things to lose.

Setsuna Meiou had met many people in her long extended life, but there were very few, especially compared to the large number of those she'd met, who she would call friends. But she was a great fan of the cliché 'quality over quantity'. It was what she'd always believed, and her friends, though few, were more important to her than anything else in the world, even her role as guardian of Time.

She'd even sacrificed herself for them on more than one occasion, and knew full well that they'd have done the same for her, and had done so. They'd tried to help her when she needed it, and she had more than willingly returned the favour. Her friends were the most precious things to her, but the soldier of time knew better than most that all good things must come to an end.

So she'd watched her friends in order to cherish every moment. She watched as they grew up beside her in a magnificent kingdom on the moon, the most beautiful kingdom of its time and for many millennia before and after as well. She watched as they all sacrificed their lives to try and save the world, as they knew it, whilst she sat helpless to do anything but watch.

She then saw that they were reborn. Reborn to loving families who cherished them and she smiled. They would get to live again, free from the turmoil that had taken their life from them a millennium before. She watched as they grew into cheerful and beautiful girls, before becoming smart, talented and beautiful women with great potential and pure hearts.

And then she saw them suffer. They suffered as their forgotten past caught up with them. But she had not forgotten what had happened, and she guided them, at first from the shadows, and later from their sides as she saw them become soldiers once again.

She watched as they made hard decisions and made their mistakes. She helped them when they fell, and she fought beside them once again, not afraid of what happened if she pushed herself too far. She did once, she broke the rules, but the punishment wasn't as bad as she'd initially feared it would be, and she once again watched as they continued to grow.

She saw them mature further and begin to really accept who they were. She watched with pride as they continued fighting despite everything that was thrown at them, and she once again returned to their sides to fight beside them in a battle of galactic proportions. She died then; to protect those she called friends, and was rewarded with new life, brought back by the one she'd protected.

And she'd never been prouder. Her friends, her fellow soldiers, her family, were once again reunited and stronger than ever, with only a shining future in front of them. She helped them bring peace to the world, helped them return their princess to her thrown as the Neo-Queen of Crystal Tokyo.

She watched them struggle through everyday affairs, and she helped them. She saw them rejoice at new life, and she rejoiced too. She saw them find true love, and celebrate the love that they already possessed. She celebrated with them, sharing in their joy and she had never been happier.

But whilst she stood beside them through the good, she stood with them for the bad too. Yet, she seemed to get more than her fair share. She had to stand with them, as they began to number one less each time they gathered. She was the shoulder for them to cry on more times than she could count, until there was no one left to cry on her shoulder.

She had never cried on their shoulders, but been there for them. After all, she'd seen their deaths before they'd even been born and had therefore cried for them millennia before. But she had yet to mourn for them. Despite her connections to the underworld, she knew little of death and mourning.

And so now she stood, at the Gates of Time, alone once more. She'd given them everything she had and more. She'd been there for them without question and had gladly sacrificed herself for them without hesitation. But once again she was alone.

Always alone. Those had been the happiest years of her life, when she was with her friends. The friends who were more like family, so close that they were just extensions of who she was. The friends that she knew would leave her before she was ready for them to do so. The friends who she would never see again.

The second generation had grown old. They'd passed away like their parents, and were beyond the reach of the lonely senshi on her distant icy planet. The third generation followed shortly, and she barely even remembered the fourth, fifth, sixth and the rest. The Crystal Millennium was long gone, with only the stories passed down through generations suggesting it had even existed.

And it was only now, now that nothing remained, that she began to realise that no matter how hard she tried to hold onto what she once knew, she couldn't. She of all people should know that, but it was a lesson she had yet to learn. One she was learning now.

She clenched her fists, her nails digging into her skin so hard they drew blood. But it didn't matter. She would never lose enough blood to join her friends. She wasn't that sort of being. She'd always been different. They'd been gifted with longevity, but she was cursed with immortality. Her physical form may be destroyed, but she'd live on, destined to witness the beginning and the end of the domain she guarded.

Alone. Despite the promises that they'd be together forever, her friends were gone and she was alone. They'd shown her things she'd never seen before, even though she was omniscient, and then they'd shown her one last thing; she was alone. Her time with them had been the most significant chapter of her life, though it lasted a mere couple of millennia and now it was over and she was alone.

For good things always come to an end. No power in existence can change that, not even the daughter of time. For if good things never ended, then people wouldn't suffer pain and cherish the good times more. It was the lie that she'd been trying to believe for so long, but you can only believe for so long.

And so she continued on. For even though all good things come to an end, there are some things that do not end. Time is eternal and therefore she is doomed to live forever in the truest meaning of the word. She would never move on, never cease to be, never find out what lies beyond. Abandoned by everything she had and with nothing left tying her down but the job she didn't know whether she wanted or not. Living a life that isn't life by any of the normal definitions of the term.

And so she stood on her icy planet, watching as the sun slowly grew to epic proportions, threatening to swallow her whole. She welcomed it. She watched as it went out, almost smiling that she outlived such raw magnificence. She watched as a new one was born in its place, and watched as it too eventually died.

But she was alone. She was empty. She didn't feel. She tried to fool herself into thinking that it was better now that she could focus on keeping the Gates protected from intruders. But you can't fool someone who's seen it all. Even Gods need friends and suffer when said friends are pulled to a place where they can't go.

And so for Eternity Sailor Pluto guarded the Gates of Time. And whilst all good things come to an end, and the bad generally do too, the neutral things rarely do. They remain as they are for there is little that can kill something that is neither good nor bad.

And she lived forever. Never dying, waiting for the moment when time would end and she'd be released from her duty. But that was never to happen, because time does not stop, not even for her anymore. For her, there will be no end.