Seiya touched Usagi's arm gently as they walked along towards Usagi's house.

"Here, let me hold them for now." She offered, but Usagi clutched the injured cat advisors closer.

"No, it's okay. I got them." Usagi whispered. Seiya frowned and she sat down on a nearby fence.

"Usagi, you can't do everything by yourself." She reasoned, but Usagi closed her eyes and they stood there in silence.

"I could have walked home by myself." Usagi complained bitterly. Seiya laughed and shook her head.

"Not on your life!" She stood up and reached for the cats once more. "Come on." Usagi sighed and she allowed the three cats to slide into Seiya's arms. After all, if it weren't for Seiya, Usagi might not have been able to save them from Tin Nyanko's attack. "Are you alright Usagi?" The woman beside her asked. Usagi nodded, she was as fine as she was going to be. Her friends were all gone, she was alone, and waiting for an attack she knew would come eventually. She just hoped that The Outer Senshi would find something out that could help them from their locations in the farthest reaches of the Solar System. They needed clues, a lot of them, and they needed them soon. Seiya stood close to Usagi and Usagi leaned away from her afraid that she might lean down and kiss her once more. She couldn't... she didn't feel that way with Seiya, surely she wouldn't try to do it again.

The sound of glass hitting the cement brought their attention to a few feet in front of them. A single crystal sat there on the ground in front of them and Usagi bent down to pick it up. A woman stood a few more yards in front of them, and her eyes pierced through Usagi. Usagi found her hand raising to hand the woman back the crystal. It must have fallen out of one of the many folds in her dress. A twisted smile came to the woman's face as she grabbed hold of the crystal and Usagi's limbs felt a bitter cold blast hit them.

"Do you really think that the future you know will come to pass?"

I gasped for air as the sense of falling filled me and I sat up urgently. It had only been a dream, no, a memory. My hands went up to my face as I remembered falling through the abyss towards my certain demise. Then something had happened. Seiya had reached down and turned my hands upwards at the last moment. The power of The Holy Cup had filled me, but not with the power I had once known with all of the other Senshi around me. My heart had been weak. The vision of The Outer Senshi's death had filled me with fear, and as a result, my power had been reduced. Galaxia had left then, but she had laughed as she had gone, and the area around us had been reduced to ashes, and thousands of people lay dead at my feet because of my weakness.

"Sagittarius Zero Star. Your final resting place." That was where she had wanted me from the beginning, she had had no intention of destroying my planet just then, but she had wanted to scare me. She had wanted to undermine my power, and it had worked. I wanted to cry again as the memory came. It was just like yesterday, but then again it had been so long ago. Was my future still out there? Or had her question just foreshadowed this hell to come? I removed my hands from my face and the sight of them made my mind race.

They were so small, tiny really. I felt the air leave my lungs like a vacuum as my mind tried to interpret what had happened. There had been a great light from within the TARDIS' heart and a strange feeling had flooded me. A tug, that I assumed was Rose, had come from behind at the last moment before I had lost consciousness again. I forced my eyes to look up from my hands and towards the center of the TARDIS. The area where the metal had split was covered with a cloth and then a slab of metal put on top of it, preventing any of the soft mist and intense light from escaping. I heard someone scurrying about below and I knew Rose was trying to figure out what to do next. I looked back down at my tiny hands before me. My fingers had been long, hard, and a pale white, but now they were small, soft, but still that same porcelain white. I allowed my gaze to continue down the rest of my body and I was finding it a bit difficult to breathe properly.

I was tiny.

I was a simple child.

And I was no longer a Sailor Senshi.

My hand went to my forehead as the dizziness hit me, but I was in for an even stronger surprise. My hair! It was short and… I took a strand in between my fingers and I stared at it in amazement. It was pink. Pink! Not exactly like Chibiusa's hair had been, but it was unmistakably, undeniably pink!

I reached out to the side in order to grab my scepter, but I had forgotten that I was no longer in my Senshi form. Instead my hand grazed something soft and I jumped in surprise. A small umbrella lay off to the side where my scepter had been before I had fallen unconscious. I grabbed hold of it once more and held it close to my chest.

"Up now I see." I turned around to see Rose walking up the steps with a wide smile. "Are we hungry?" She asked kneeling beside me, her voice was as if she was speaking to a toddler. The realization hit me after a few moments: She didn't realize I still had my adult mind. I sat there staring at her for a moment. Rose touched my forehead and I jerked away from her. "It's okay." Rose laughed. "I'm just Auntie Rosie." She said as she tried to calm the two-year-old she thought she was talking to. She looked uncomfortable though as she sat there, kids did not seem to be her strong point. "Come on." She encouraged. I looked back up at the TARDIS' center. It hadn't worked? We hadn't moved? I felt the tears edging closer to the sides of my eyes, but I pushed them back and rubbed my eyes. I had failed! All I had done was succeed in turning myself into a child! Rose leaned closer to me. "Hey, it's okay, you're alright." She said wrapping her arms around me, and I didn't push her away. Her arms were so warm. The last time anyone had held me was… was… The tears came pouring out.

Mamo-chan! Oh, Mamo-chan!

I buried my head into her chest. I had failed them, I would never see them again! Ever!

Rose continued to pat my head slowly as she shushed me, and I squeezed the umbrella tightly with my hands.

And now that I had failed them, Chaos would surface once more and defeat me! How could I fight her still as a child?! I would never win! Could I even still transform? My hand went to my chest and I tried to summon The Cosmos' Crystal's energy. The crystal resonated within me, and I gasped as my tears stopped. That crystal was calling out to me once more!

Gallifrey…

Many more crystals began to surge forward as well.

Pluto...

I felt my power increasing within my as the crystals opened up their information to me. The TARDIS' heart had done something to me besides change my bodily form. I looked up at Rose who sat smiling down at me.

"Are we all better?" She asked soothingly. "I always feel better after a good long cry." She bit her lip and shook her head. "You must be scared to death." She mused.

I was scared. I was truly terrified. I looked back at the door of the TARDIS. I had to get out there; I had to get to The Time Doorway. I had to get to the Time Vortex and make my way back to where I could have stopped all suffering. I began to pick myself up and Rose smiled as she watched me.

"Just wait until The Doctor wakes up and sees you now." Rose said resting her chin on her hand. "Surely he'll find you a nice home." Rose was still oblivious to the thoughts that were racing through my brain. The TARDIS had unlocked a power deep within me and I needed to use it. I needed to use it right then. My small feet carried me down the steps and Rose called out to me with curiosity. "Where are you going?" At the bottom of the steps I turned and looked up at her.

It was the third biggest mistake of my life.

Rose could see it. She could see it in my eyes: a soft golden glow among the hard gaze of someone determined to have her mission completed.

And I could see that she could see it too.

Her mouth opened wide in shock and she began to stand up. I raced forward, but when I reached the door I could only look up at it in dismay. The handle was too far up for my little hands to reach and I tried to jump up to grab it. If I were transformed… there was no time to transform, Rose was already halfway to me.

"Serenity!" I grasped the umbrella still in my left hand tightly as I lifted up the hook towards the handle of the TARDIS. It was just an inch off. I was on the very ends of my toes, and just as Rose was on top of me, I felt the umbrella's hook go through the handle and the door give way...

We were no longer within The Fourth Dimension. I stood there at the entrance of the TARDIS in amazement. We were suspended in the middle of nothing. Blues, purples, and pinks swirled around us, but we stood there unmoving. The crystals within me vibrated strongly and I felt the urge to throw myself into the swirling light before me, but a hand pulled me back into the TARDIS as I leaned forward.

"Serenity, no!" Rose's scream was harrowing, but I needed to get out. I fell onto the floor of the TARDIS as she let me go and she rushed to close the door. I could not let her take this away from me!

I recognized it. I had seen it before hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions or billions of years before, and I had seen it just then, in the TARDIS' heart.

The Time Vortex.

It was easier than I had thought. I did not need to make it to The Time Doorway, I only had to make it outside of this despairing blue box!

Rose was pulling the door shut, but I could not let her succeed before I was outside.

I was so small now, and I blessed this right then whereas a few moments before I had been cursing it. I was small, and Rose Tyler's legs were the perfect arch. She had spread them in order to maintain a steady grip on the TARDIS door as she struggled to close it, and in doing so she had assured my ability to get by her. As I had said, children did not seem to be her strong point and she apparently had had no experience in blocking them from forbidden areas. And this child was full of experience when it came to desperate escapes.

I wish I could have seen her face, but all I heard was the high pitched squeal of shock as my feet pushed off the side of the TARDIS and I flew into the swirl of lights and cloud.

"Serenity!" It was already too late for her to catch me. I felt her hand graze the stream of hair near my left ear, but I was just out of her reach. "Cosmos!" Her voice was full of fear for me, but I was no longer afraid. I could do this, I could make it back. I just had to find my way.

I could no longer hear Rose's calls for me as I fell deeper within The Time Vortex. The power that the TARDIS had awakened within me was surging through me full force and everything appeared to have a soft golden hue. My chest was burning and the star within me was exploding as I increased my power. The crystal would be my Time Key; it could lead me to the place where I wished to go. I just had to keep it in mind.

Tokyo.

Juban.

Home…

I felt like I had been falling forever and the Vortex never seemed to end. All the other times I had traveled through time, it had never taken so long, but perhaps it was only my perception.

Take me back to when I could have ended everything!

"Cosmos Crystal Power!" I shouted into the void and my voice echoed on and on, getting louder as it went instead of fading away. The crystal resonated along with my soul and the star inside me burned with a passion. "MAKE UP!" My voice combined with my echo as a cold burst of wind rose up and struck my face and a bright light blinded me.

I was falling, but this time all of the purples and blues were gone, and the density of the air was lighter. My lungs sucked in, and what they found was pure oxygen. Not the fog of The Fourth Dimension, and more importantly, not the smoke and ash of destruction. Not the smoke and ash of the effects of Chaos, but the sweet, sweet air of Earth. Mamo-chan's Earth, My Earth… My Home. It was so wonderful, and the emotion I was feeling surpassed euphoric.

But I was falling. I was falling quickly towards the Earth and I was only a few feet above the buildings. The joy I had just been experience faded away for an instant as my eyes adjusted better and I assessed my situation. I could transform, but... the umbrella! I lifted the umbrella up over my head and expanded its top. A new gust of wind caught it and my decent slowed dramatically and for a moment I thought I might let go of the umbrella's handle. I didn't though. My tiny fingers grabbed the handle firmly and slowly I ventured nearer to the ground.

I was now only a few yards away, five yards, three yards, one yard, two feet! The euphoric feeling was building up inside me and the fall seemed like an eternity. One foot! My toes touched the ground and a gasp escaped me. It was real! My euphoric state vanished as I stood there wide-eyed in disbelief. Slowly my feet dropped and I stood there with my feet firmly on the sidewalk. My breath was warm compared to the air around me and I stood there in silence just taking it all in.

Earth. For so long had I yearned for this planet, for its people and places. Now I was hear again. I was home.

The sound of music floated around me from somewhere in the distance and I closed my eyes as I let it speak to me. A familiar scent greeted my nose but I could not name it anymore for it had been to long since my nose had smelt anything but ash and ruin. My skin tingled suddenly and I opened my eyes in order to look upwards at the sun. Oh that glorious sun! The one I had thought would never touch my skin again. My hands flexed around the handle of the umbrella; itching to touch the trees and grass before me. The umbrella dropped to my side and I shut it, a look of disbelief still on my face. I was here. This wasn't a dream, not a wishful thought or memory. I was here... really here!

I had only been there for a minute, and for the first time in ages I felt the minute pass by. An actual minute! It was not an eternity and minute at the same time, but a minute. Sixty seconds. Nothing more and nothing less. The passage of time was clearly there, and I was feeling its effects.

I was still standing there with a blank expression on my face when the first of the flowers began to fall around me. The scent I could not recognize before was now increasing all around me and I began to breathe more heavily. I knew this scent from somewhere, but the name still alluded me. What was it? The flowers continued to fall and something clicked, for just an instant.

This smell is important.

My gaze followed the trail of falling flowers and it was clear it was coming from the top of the nearby unfinished building. Its significance remained shrouded in mystery but another fact struck me as I stood there dumbfounded.

Flowers don't generally fall from the rooftops of developing buildings.

I knew it was unwise to go ahead, but the scent had already enticed me, had already begun to lure me in. Subconsciously I began to walk forward to follow the scent to its source. I had to know.

Rose shook The Doctor once more willing him to open his eyes.

"Doctor please! Please wake up!" She shouted, but his eyes remained closed. She leaned her lips against his ear and willed it to work like it had done so before. "Help me." The Doctor's eyes opened wide and he suck air into his lungs like a man coming back from the dead.

"Where is Serenity? Where is she?" He bolted upwards and Rose held him down in a sitting position. The Doctor's hand went to his hair and he turned to Rose.

"Still not ginger?" He asked in disbelief and then his hands went to his throat. "My voice, it's the same!" He looked down at his hands. "These are still my hands!" He looked back at Rose; he was still disoriented and unsure of what was going on. "Didn't I… Didn't I regenerate?" Rose shook her head quickly.

"Serenity did something to stop it; I don't know what, but..." She shook her head. "That's not important!" She shouted and she began to explain what had happened as quickly as possible before The Doctor passed out again. "I tried to stop her, to stall her by asking so many questions but she moved on ahead. She demanded to know how the controls worked, and, and I... I didn't know what to do. My eyes, they just went directly to... where Mickey and I had opened the TARDIS. She... she figured it out. She opened it and I... I couldn't stop her!" She cried desperately. The Doctor was rubbing his forehead and fell back onto the floor; moaning as if he were sick. Rose was crying.

"You could have been killed!" The Doctor moaned.

"I didn't know what else to do!" The Doctor kept rubbing his head and he tried to calm himself down.

"What happened next?" He asked swallowing hard. Rose tried to stop crying and she looked up at the center of the TARDIS.

"She began to change, just like the Slitheen." Rose said. "She began to revert back to a small child. I was so relieved. So glad I wouldn't have to face her. So glad... so glad that she wasn't going to be like Bad Wolf" Rose finished in a whisper. The Doctor moaned once more.

"There was more though." He guessed. Rose nodded.

"The TARDIS started up." She said. "I pulled Serenity away from the TARDIS and put a cloth over it, but it was already too late. The TARDIS was moving." She paused.

"We aren't moving now." The Doctor didn't look too well. He seemed to want to pass out again. Rose nodded.

"I pulled on random levers and pushed several buttons." The Doctor grimaced and he let out another moan this time as if in pain. "We stopped just like we did before. Suspended within The Vortex. We are still there but... but Serenity isn't." The Doctor frowned, for once he didn't understand.

"Where could she have gone?" His mind was still weak and confused. Rose sucked in a deep breath.

"I thought she was just a child, but... she raced to the TARDIS door." Rose paused. "She jumped into The Vortex." The Doctor bolted up, a new energy filling him.

"Why would she do that?" He demanded, but not to Rose, he was searching his mind for the answer. "Why would she risk being lost for eternity?" He raced towards the center of the TARDIS.

"Doctor you just woke up!" The Doctor waved Rose's concerns away.

"We have to stop her Rose!" He ran up the staircase and leaned over the controls. "Why would she jump into the Vortex?" He asked himself. His mind was racing as he tried to deduce my motives. "Aha!" He pulled down on one of the levers and the TARDIS began to move forward. Rose stood a few steps behind him.

"What?" He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Either she figured out a way to get where she wanted, or... she thought she had a better chance that way." Rose stepped forward.

"Which one?" She asked. The Doctor's screwdriver buzzed as he scanned his computer.

"Well... we are just going to assume she succeeded. Okay?" Rose nodded. It made things easier, and it was better than thinking the alternative.

"Where would she go?" Rose asked. "Did she say anything that would give us a hint?" The Doctor stood still a moment. He looked so pale and his hands were still clammy.

"Back to when Chaos had just awoken." He said as he pulled on another lever. "She would have gone there to prevent her from rising." The Doctor said. Rose didn't understand, but she followed him closely just in case he collapsed once more. "Here we go!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Hold on Rose, we're going to Earth: 2001." Rose frowned.

"Wouldn't we want to go to Serenity's home planet?" She asked, still more confused. If she had only asked that "Princess" question earlier she would had understood completely, or, at least, a bit more completely. The Doctor smiled a bit.

"We are."

"She had wings!" Rose exclaimed. The Doctor's smile widened, but it was short lived as the TARDIS' lights flickered. Then they went out entirely.

Setsuna stared deeply into the microscope at yet another blood sample. Her neck hurt profusely and she rubbed it, and then her other hand went up to her eyes. If only she had just stayed a school nurse!

"Meioh-san?" The woman looked up to see her director standing at the enterance of her lab. "Long day?" He asked. Setsuna nodded and looked back at the samples still waiting for her signature.

"It's still not finished." She sighed. The Director stepped forward and removed the white box he was carrying from beneath his arm.

"I got something you might want to take a look at." He said sliding the box over to her. The woman opened it up cautiously. There was something about it... it gave her a strange shiver down her spine. "Came in from the hospital this morning. Seems they got an interesting John Doe on their hands. He was found unconscious in the an alley along with a young woman. Both seem to be foreigners but there were no clues as to their identities." He explained.

"A robbery?" Setsuna asked as she took out one of the samples. The director shook his head.

"No evidence of anything." He said. "All the man had in his pockets was a blank sheet of paper. Nothing else, just that. The blond didn't have even that. Governments taking a keen eye into the case though." Setsuna frowned and she slid the slide under the microscope.

"Why all the fuss though?" She asked as she put her eye on the lens.

"Well, there isn't many details that I've been told, but his blood samples, those ones right there, are very peculiar." The Director moved closer. "You'll see what I mean." Setsuna began to spin the dials to clear the image. The cells came into view and the sight of the mitochondria took Setsuna's breath away. They were enormous, as if the cell needed an astronomical amount of energy to perform some unknown process; and recently. Setsuna had only seen this in samples of... it couldn't be! "The mystery deepens even more in the fact that they were found just outside of some form of blue box." The Director shook his head. "No one seems to have a clue as to where it came from though." Setsuna backed away from the microscope slowly and she turned toward him.

"Where is he?" She demanded, her voice lower than he had ever heard her use. The Director frowned not understanding what she meant or what had taken hold of her. "Where is The Doctor?"

"Doctor."

The Doctor's eyes opened slowly to see the tall woman standing over him; some of her long green hair pulled back in a familiar bun.

"Pluto…" He said softly, he was still a bit groggy. The woman lowered her chin and her garnet eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was low and deadly, but The Doctor only smiled.

"I'm traveling of course!" Setsuna's eyes cut through him like knives.

"I will get you and your companion out of here, and then you will leave." She said. "Understood?" It was almost a growl. The Doctor put his arms behind his head.

"Nope." Setsuna took a step closer to him.

"I will not have whatever disaster is following you coming here!" It was a hasty shout, but it was deep and low enough not to arouse the suspicion of those outside his door. From what The Doctor could see there were two men standing outside on guard. "Wherever you go, disaster follows." She said with less volume, but just as much, if not more, anger. "And with each new disaster that comes here it is always Usagi who gets hurt!" The Doctor tilted his head to the side and he looked up at her innocently.

"Usagi? Is that what she is going by at the moment?" The Doctor asked, and then he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Setsuna raised her chin high and she took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself.

"You will leave Doctor," She said with an air of finality, "and you will take whatever misfortune you've brought with you." The Doctor sighed and he put his head in his hands.

"I was following misfortune here." He said sorrowfully. He looked up at Setsuna. "I'm so sorry Pluto, so, so sorry." His eyes were ancient and he had seen too much sorrow, but Setsuna's were even older and she had seen so much more.

"What?" Her pulse was rising rapidly, but it was no longer from the anger within her, but of fear. The Doctor shook his head.

"I can't tell you, but… soon you will be facing the end." Setsuna's breath was taken out of her.

"Chaos?" He nodded. Setsuna's knees gave way and she sat down on the side of his bed. "So the dreams are true." Her voice was sad and they sat there in silence for a moment. He shouldn't be telling her this, but he knew it would make no difference. Setsuna was unlike any other creature in this universe. Wherever she went she was always in the background but at the same time very important. The Doctor had never met anyone but her who seemed to have a natural perception filter built into her. That was probably how she had gotten in to see him without being stopped. "And I'm sorry too." She said finally. The Doctor fiddled with his covers. "I felt... I watched what happened." Setsuna said sadly. "I saw the Time War happening, back when I was still at The Door." She paused. The Doctor's eyes grew darker, he didn't want to talk about it, but Setsuna had to. "I don't blame you for anything that happened." She said barely audible. "I just wanted you to know that." That time he almost didn't hear her, but he did, and he silently thanked her. She was probably the only person left who could have held him accountable for it all.

"Where is Rose?" The Doctor asked trying to change the subject. Setsuna looked back at him. "I'm assuming she is alright, and close. You said you would get us both out." Setsuna nodded slowly; her sad, somber expression molded itself onto her lovely face.

"She's alright, and right next door." Setsuna said quietly. "She just had some cuts and bruises besides the smoke inhalation."

"Ah! So that was why we were outside the TARDIS." He mused. "The TARDIS must have been smoking pretty badly after we left The Vortex." Setsuna adjusted her legs.

"You said, you were following disaster here." She ventured. The Doctor sighed.

"A little girl on a mission." He informed her. "About two, pink hair… would have reeked with The Time Vortex." He ventured further. "Seen her?" Setsuna shook her head.

"No. The only one who even comes remotely close to that description would be you." The Doctor fell back onto his pillow with a small smile.

"I'm not any of those things!" Setsuna crossed her arms.

"You act like a two-year-old, for all I know you could regenerate to have pink hair, and the Time Vortex's signature is all around you. Plus, you're always trouble." The Doctor shook his head, but he smiled at her rare humor.

"Nope, it's not me." Setsuna frowned. Pink hair? Chibiusa. But... she wouldn't be two. "Why is she trouble?" Setsuna finally asked, unsure of what to make of it all.

"She wants to break a fixed point in time."