The smoke around them settled as they lay coughing on the floor of the Tardis. They had fallen for what had seemed like forever, but in what was actually no time at all. They had slammed hard onto some type of ground. Rose picked herself to see the Doctor already rushing around the Tardis' controls and circuits, trying to find out the cause of the fall and power outage.
"Doctor?" The Doctor looked at her and then the Tardis once more. Rose got herself up completely and made her way to the controls as well, but she dare not touch anything. The wiz of the sonic screwdriver filled the Tardis and she heard a few mumbled words escape The Doctor's lips as he played with a few of the wires. "What is wrong with it?" The Doctor's head popped up and starred at her.
"I'm not sure." Then he went back under, Rose stepped forward nervously.
"You can fix it though, right?" He was frightening her a bit by not telling her anything.
"Oh sure, she just needs powered up again, I just don't understand how it happened. I can fix her in the short run, but if I don't figure out what caused it... I can't promise it wont happen again." He said observing a screen. "There we go, charging already. Sitting here, she'll be full of incredible energy in no time!"
"So we can get moving again once its up and running?" She asked nervously. The Doctor smiled.
"Anxious to get moving are we?" He asked smiling at her. Rose crossed her arms.
"I'm more anxious about having you sit in one place!" She explained. "Besides, there are too many adventures to be had to waste it sitting here!" The Doctor shook his head sadly.
"I wouldn't call it wasting!" He said as he began to walk towards the door. "You don't even know where we are, so how can you make that assumption?" Rose found herself smiling now too. He had definitely peeked her interested.
"Where are we?" She began following him to the door. The Doctor stopped in front of the door and turned towards her.
"Somewhere I have never taken another companion ever before!" Rose began to feel excited.
"Some place amazing?" He laughed.
"I think it is." He said, but he still did not open the door. The anticipation was beginning to kill Rose.
"What?!" She couldn't wait, but then again... "Are you sure we are actually where you think we are?" She asked. He had an uncanny act for taking her to the wrong place or the wrong time, and sometimes it was serious. Like, twelve months of being gone from home versus twelve hours.
"This time, I'm more than sure. There is no way I could miss this place." He said. "There is no place like it." That' was the last straw.
"Where are we?!" She demanded with a laugh. The Doctor slowly began to open the door.
"We are nowhere." He said. She didn't understand.
"What?" A dim light and a small cloud began to fill the Tardis.
"Rose Tyler, I give you," He opened the door wide and the sight of a dense fog confronted her. "The Fourth Dimension; Home of The Time Guardian."
Rose stood starring into the void and she poked her head out to see if there was anything else there.
"Its just fog," She said looking back at him. What adventure was going to happen here? No wonder he had never taken another companion here, it was just too boring! He was beaming at her statement.
"Yes! Isn't it brilliant?" He asked as he took a step out. Rose looked down in horror to see that there was nothing there but cloud as well. How was he even standing? "Come on!" She stepped tentatively out into the void, happy to find something solid underneath all of the cloud. "The Fourth Dimension! The birthplace of Time Travel!" She looked around her, but there was still nothing to see.
"This place is where Time Travel came from?" She asked, not sure if he was pulling her leg or not. His smiled only brightened as he nodded.
"Yes!" He said happily. "This is the domain of the Time Guardian and The Space Time Doorway!" Rose looked at him skeptically.
"Right, and I'm the Queen of England." Rose said. "How can anyone possible live here?!" He shook his head.
"You humans can't see the beauty in anything that doesn't have flashy colours or brightness." He complained. "Look around you!" Rose was looking, and that was the problem!
"There is nothing to see!" The Doctor shook his head.
"That's just it!" He said. "There is nothing here, yet you can live and breath! A place not affected by time! If we stay here long enough, you'll see what I mean." He said turning to walk towards... what? There was nothing here! "You don't have to eat or sleep or do anything here! You can stay for an eternity and not grow old, you can stay here and not feel the affects of time on you!" He said. "Its amazing!" He said looking at Rose.
"Wait, so I could stay here, and never die?" The Doctor nodded. "But the price would be to not ever see the sun or trees or flowers, ever again?" The Doctor tilted his head to the side as he considered this.
"I didn't say it was for me, but it is still fascinating that a place like this even exists!" Rose didn't really see the hype.
"So there is a Time Guardian, but I thought your people were in control of that?" The Doctor let a chuckle escape.
"We kind of," He paused, "stole it." He finished.
"Stole it? From whom?" The Doctor tilted his head back not wanting to go into too much depth.
"Lets just say that the Plutarians never looked on us too kindly after that. They made it a point to destroy every Tardis they found." He explained. "Well, not destroy, just, released. The Time Lords that came along with the Tardis though," He whistled. "Glad I wasn't them!"
"Plutarians?" Rose's mind was spinning. "There is life on Pluto?" She had never considered it before. "Wouldn't it be too cold for life?" Granted she had seen many strange things on her adventures with The Doctor, but this was pushing it.
A dark shadow crept over The Doctor's face and he did not speak for a moment. Rose felt like she had just crossed over into forbidden territory. There were some things that he would not discuss with her. She was ready to just let it drop, but then he began to speak.
"There use to be life on all of the ten* planets in the Solar System." She wanted to correct him in his counting, but then she stopped. He was the "expert" after all. "They were all so lively and peaceful. Such a beautiful empire." He paused. "Then Metalia came." Rose allowed herself to ask the question.
"What is Metalia?" The Doctor did not speak, obviously it would have been too over her head, or too painful for him. "Okay then, about the Time Guardian, where is he from?" A brief smile returned to The Doctor's face.
"She is the last of the Plutarians." He said, suddenly becoming more lively.
"Wait, didn't you just say that Plutarians don't like Time Lords? What will she do to the Tardis?! Why are you going to visit her?!" The Doctor lost his smile once more.
"Being the last of your kind, it changes you." Rose resisted the urge to pity. He just looked so broken talking like that. He looked so much like... her last Doctor.
"I guess she doesn't get many visitors." Rose mused. "With the others gone, and you being the last Time Lord." The Doctor nodded, but then he smiled again.
"She has a couple of visitors besides me." He said. He seemed to come alive with excitement. "I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees you though!" He laughed as he seemed to imagine it. "She is going to be furious!" He shook his head as his laughter became quieter.
"I take it she is the reason you don't bring companions here." Rose said. He nodded. "How does she feel about you?" The Doctor laughed again.
"Oh, she just loves me!" The sarcasm was impossible to miss. "Always popping in and out of time, making a mess, I think the only reason she really lets me live is the fact that I don't pose a threat to her Princess." Rose decided right then not to ask about that "Princess" statement. She was confused enough already.
His eyes grew bright as he pointed forward. "There it is Rose!" Rose looked ahead and gasped as she saw a towering doorway reveal itself through the mist. It hung on nothing. There seemed to be nothing behind it or above it, but somehow it felt extremely important, but most definitely off limits. "The Space Time Doorway!" He began to look around as Rose stood there speechless. "Oye! Pluto!" Rose snapped out of it for a moment.
"Her name is Pluto?" She asked in disbelief. "How uncreative." The Doctor shook his head.
"No, that is her title, Sailor Pluto." He said. "Her real name, I think, um..." He stood trying to remember. "Its something Japanese." He said finally. "Some sort of time pun, I think." He seemed embarrassed at not knowing her name. "Pluto works just as well." He said walking closer to the Doorway.
"Where is she though?" The Doctor and Rose looked again, but they could no find her. She was either hidden in the smoke or not there at all. The Doctor bit his lip.
"She might be sneaking up on us." He said. "To attack us from behind." Rose looked at him in concern.
"Why would she attack you if she knows you?" He tilted his head and pointed to his face. Rose laughed.
"Oh, right!" The Doctor cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify the sound. "Pluto! Its me! The Doctor!" He waited a moment, but there was still no answer. "Pluto!" The Doctor seemed to be growing worried, and then, that was when he spotted the silhouette by the Time-Space Door. Rose saw it too and she smiled.
"That must be-" The Doctor lifted his hand in front of her to prevent her from going forward. "What is it?" His figure had become rigid.
"Who are you?!" He demanded. "Where is Pluto?!" The smoke began to clear up enough for Rose to see the person more clearly; to see me more clearly. "Who are you?!" The Doctor asked again, his eyes pierced through me like daggers as he stood protectively in front of Rose, but I could not find my voice to answer him.
I had heard everything they had said since entering the dimension. They were such loud people, but the sound of their voices filled me with a sense of nostalgia. Could people still laugh like that? Joke around and tease?
It had been so long. So long since I had seen another living thing other than Chaos and in my dreams. I had given up that privilege. Even in my dreams, the living things always began to wither and fade. As Rose had so rightfully put it, I had given up the sun and the trees and the flowers. I was not even sure if they still existed. I could feel the grandness of time and space, of life and death, but what those things meant to me was now lost. My soul burned like the sun, but the gentle touch of that star's rays were to never touch my skin again.
I had been fighting and waiting for so long now, I was not sure what century it was. It had felt like forever, but then again, in this absence of time, it also felt like I had only started yesterday. I was at a loss as to what to do.
I had come here, the first time I had destroyed Chaos. I had thought that perhaps I could use The Doorway in order to go back and change the past, but I had forgotten one very important thing: I was without a key. Even with Pluto's powers flowing through me, I could not open the Doorway. I had cried. I had cried for an eternity, but in actually no time at all.
It was so strange to watch the world swirl by in a haze while you stand there unaffected. That was what I did though. I stood at the Doorway of Time and gazed through the mist to the Galaxy Cauldron; waiting for Chaos to emerge from it, and waiting to begin fighting once more. It was an never ending cycle.
We would fight, she would die, I would wait, and then she would be reborn.
Destruction and death followed her whenever she was reborn. How I just wanted to fly away from it all. I wanted to destroy the Cauldron and be rid of it! Yet even if I did that now, I could not undo all of the pain and suffering that had been caused because of it? If I had only been strong enough back then, to destroy the first time I had stood before it, this pain would not have happened.
"Where is Pluto?!" The Doctor demanded once more. I broke through my hazy regrets in order to focus on the task at hand. He looked so angry, so full of hate. Yes, the sound of laughter and loving were no longer mine to keep. Only hatred and bitter fighting were mine now, but the memories filled me still. The happy, sweet memories... all of them now gone. Some of them did not even happen now. With Chibiusa... I could barely keep her memory alive. Each passing battle, she was forever fading from my mind.
I was crying again. The pain began to fill me anew. Why did they all have to leave me?! I tried not to fall down again, I tried with all of my strength, but I couldn't help it. I fell to my knees as the tears came back and the pain was just as sharp as when I had first felt it.
Above me, The Doctor's eyes seemed to soften. "What happened to Pluto?" He asked, but this time it was filled with more worry than hatred.
"Who are you?" Rose asked from behind him, she was completely mesmerized by me. He glanced at her, sending her a signal to remain quiet. I tried to stem my tears and I looked up at them. I didn't want to tell them. It was all too painful, I began to speak but my words were only an attempt to postpone the explanations.
"Her name was Setsuna." I said finally. Oh my precious Setsuna! A brief memory of her playing with Chibiusa and Hotaru came to my mind and I wrapped my arms around me as if to shield me from it. "Chibiusa-" My voice squeaked out. "Please, just stop!" I wasn't yelling at the people in front of me, but at the pouring memories. If I could not change it, then I didn't want to remember!
"Doctor, what is she?" Rose looked to The Doctor in order to get some type of explanation, but he did not answer her. His eyes were only looking at me without any emotions.
"What happened to Pluto?" I clutched tightly to the Cosmos Crystal. "Who are you?" The Cosmos Crystal hummed with power as I tightened my grip even more.
"What is your name?" Rose asked. I squeezed my eyes shut. My name?
Usagi had died a long time ago, or perhaps only yesterday. Either way, I was no longer that lighthearted girl of my past memories. I was someone else entirely.
"Sailor Cosmos." That was who I was. The embodiment of despair, the image of a broken soldier. The image of a coward, unable to do what she must.
The Doctor's eyes above me suddenly grew saddened.
"What happened to Pluto?" I shook my head violently. I couldn't say it, but if he kept asking I was going to go even more insane.
"I killed her!" I shouted suddenly. "I killed them all!" It was unbearable to say it. How could I live with this knowledge? That they had died for me. My sobs were uncontrollable now. Rose backed away from me and The Doctor as he bent down to look me in the eyes as I spoke. "I... I took their Sailor Crystals, they offered them and I took them. I hadn't realized what that meant though." I explained rapidly with shattered breathing. "I didn't mean for this to be the end!" I cried out covering my face with my hands and my wings wrapped around me protectively. "I didn't know." I sobbed into my hands and for what would have been a few minutes there was only the sound of my crying.
The Doctor stood up and stepped back towards Rose.
"What does she mean their Sailor Crystals? I don't understand." The Doctor did not speak for a moment.
"Its complicated." He said. Rose did not seem swayed.
"Less complicated than a man floating around time in a blue police box that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? A man who can change his face and rejuvenate?" Rose asked.
"Regenerate." He corrected softly.
"Yeah, right, regenerate, either way, I think I could at least wrap my head around it." I wasn't really listening anymore. My mind had caught onto what she had just said. It played over and over again in my mind.
"...a man floating around time..." My mind then flashed back to the conversation they were having when they had first arrived.
The Doctor could travel through time?
My mind was already working ahead. If he could travel in time, then he could take me back. Back to when I could have destroyed the Cauldron and had stopped all wars.
"Alright, I'll tell you a story," The Doctor was saying to Rose as I began to control my sobs. Yes, I could get him to take me back. "Back on Gallifrey there was a legend, it was of two soldiers in perpetual battle, one for order and one for destruction." He began. He looked at me, his eyes so full of pity. "The one for order had taken upon herself the powers of her people in order to keep the destruction at bay, but as a result, she had lost everything she held dear." Rose's gaze followed his and they both looked at me as I began to stand up.
"Her?" Determination was sweeping through me and I stood before them red-eyed but suddenly alive.
"But if I could go back," I began. "I could stop the destruction from even coming." The Doctor's eyes opened wide. "Wont you help me, Doctor?" I pleaded. He rose his arms again in front of Rose to protect her. He knew what I wanted, he could see it in my eyes.
"I can't do that. It is not how it works. You cannot change your past." Rose nodded beside him.
"I've tried it, it does more harm than good." Rose agreed with him. It was already too late. I had worked myself up, I was determined. For what had seemed like centuries I had thought about this and now that I had the chance I was going to take it.
"Nothing could be worse than it is now." I said stepping forward. "I have nothing to lose." The Doctor stepped back away from me, pushing Rose with his hand.
"Whatever you're thinking, it isn't going to work. The past is set in stone for you. You would create a paradox! It would be disrupting a fixed point in time!" He said desperately as I lifted my wings higher. "You would threaten the very existence of the universe!"
I couldn't listen to him, how could it be set in stone? I had seen the future change before, it could do it again. Couldn't it? Wasn't Crystal Tokyo still out there, somewhere? Chibiusa's face came to my mind once more. Yes, I could change it! I had to change it!
"I have to try." I said, and The Doctor could see the look in my eyes. He saw that I was not going to back down.
"I cannot let you." He said turning towards Rose and pushing her forward. "Run Rose!" The girl followed his command and she sprinted back into the fog and he chased after her.
"Doctor please!" I cried out to him, but he was already within the dense fog. No, they could not get away! I could not give up this chance to set everything straight. I lifted my wings and flew high up into the fog. I must find them.
I heard them talking, they were lost within the fog. They could not see where they were going. I rose my staff and the crystal orb began to glow. I had to dispel the fog enough to see them. I had to find them!
The sound of doors slamming filled the void and I raced downward towards the sound. I could see it, a blue box. The blue box that Rose had mentioned earlier; the one that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, the one that floated through time.
My hand grabbed hold of the door's handle and pulled with all of my strength, but it did not budge. I took my staff and struck the door with a surge of energy, but once I did so, I was sent backwards. Some type of shield had sent the power back towards my. I could not force my way through. I rushed back to the poor and tried pulling again. I was growing desperate. If they stayed in there and left me all alone I would grow mad. I would go crazy knowing that I could have changed things.
I slammed my hand against the door several times, but then after awhile I leaned my head against the door as I cried.
"DOCTOR PLEASE!" I screamed, I knew they could hear me. They had to have heard me. This couldn't be the end! I couldn't have found this ray of hope just to have it taken from me. "Please..." I said with tears in my eyes. "Please Doctor. I have to save them." I rested my forehead on the door and closed my eyes. I could not hear them. Maybe the door was really sound proof and my cries were in vain.
I had to keep going.
"Please Doctor." I began once more. "I know it can be changed. I know it." My hands removed themselves from the box's door and I wrapped them around me as well as my wings. I was falling to my knees.
I sat there with my head against the door, willing it to open. I opened my eyes and looked up at the imposing door; my only hope.
"Please, I know it. I saw it." I said. "I saw my future. So happy, so bright." I closed my eyes again and wrapped my arms even tighter around me as the painful memories filled me. Happy memories that would never come to pass if he did not open the door. "I saw my daughter!" I screamed and the tears were coming nonstop. I sat staring at the unopened door. "I saw my future daughter!" I cried out again. "You cannot tell me that by going back I will create a paradox!" I yelled. "This hell is the paradox!" I closed my eyes again as the tears poured out and I was finding it hard to breath. There was a brief pause and then...
The sound of a door unlocking. I opened my eyes wide again and through my tears I saw the blue door open slowly and the face of The Doctor came popping out. He did not open it all the way, but it was obvious that what I had said was bothering him.
"You are telling the truth? You saw your future?" I nodded. He opened the door a bit wider. "You are not lying to me?" His eyes were completely hardened.
"No." I let out. He did not seem entirely convinced.
"Pluto wouldn't have allowed it." He said. "Never in a million years."
"Pluto..." I closed my eyes as I pictured her in front of the Time Doorway all of those years before. When Chibiusa had taken us there. "She didn't really have a say." I said. "Chibiusa stole a key, she went back in time on her own. Things happened, Pluto warned us of the trouble it could cause, but she let it happen because she saw no other way." His eyes narrowed and he seemed tempted to shut the door on me again. He did not believe me. "Like you said," I reasoned. "being the last of your kind changes you." I saw something, perhaps pain, flash in his eyes.
"Pluto would not have let such trespasses be made!" He said with anger in his voice. I nodded my head in agreement.
"Not unless the whole of time was at stake. Not unless..." I took a sharp breath, I was still recovering from my sobbing, "...her Princess was in danger." He looked at me and I saw the realization in his eyes.
"You?" I looked down at the base of the doorway, not wanting to feel the pity in his eyes. The tears had stopped, but my eyes were still wet. If I blinked, they would have spilled over and run down my cheeks. "You are her Serenity?" I bit my lip trying to not think about it.
"It doesn't matter anymore." I starred up at him. "Will you help me?!" He seemed to be thinking.
"I cannot believe you! This doesn't make since! If you saw your future like you say you did than that would have created a fixed point in time! You should have seen those events unfold!" He said rapidly. "How can you be telling the truth?!" He asked. He wasn't really looking to me for answers, but musing to himself. "I can't trust you, but then again, if you are telling the truth that means there is a very bad implication to all of this! Something just isn't right." He was rubbing his head trying to come up with something. As if he were trying to decide whether or not to let me into the box.
Fear gripped me. He could still lock me out. If he decided finally that I was lying, he would lock the door and doom me to stay here for eternity. That could not happen! I could not wait to see what he would do. I had to do something.
"What do you think, Doctor?" It was Rose's voice. The Doctor looked at me and I thought I saw the door move towards being closed.
I panicked.