Update v2
Ohh the webs we weave.
At the gates, Pluto met with Pluto to try and resolve a difference of opinion. The argument had gone on for a long time subjectively, and mainly centered on a boy and girl who were needed at this point, but the future wanted sacrificed when he was no longer needed. Current Pluto (who for sake of understanding will be played by the part of Setsuna from this point) could not imagine herself to be as vicious as this. If she believed the Pluto of the future (who will be played by a heartless Senshi named Lady Pluto) then not only must she keep Ranma around, for several centuries, but then just as his last point of usefulness passes she has to force Usagi to get rid of him. Add to that Lady Pluto is telling Setsuna that she has to strip Usagi's personality as well makes Setsuna both question her future self's sanity and makes her very angry at the whole situation.
"How did we get to where she is? I don't understand this at all"
Setsuna knows that Lady Pluto is living in Crystal Tokyo, but is this part of the only path to get there?
This whole concept makes her feel dirty to some levels. She can't talk to the Princess about this right now; everyone knows how she would react. Add to that her future self says that she becomes a threat to Crystal Tokyo herself at one point. How could the Princess become a threat? None of what she is saying makes any sense at all.
Arguing with her future self is always a losing proposition however so she agrees to examine the boy and see if it worth the cost. Some part of her wonders if this makes them as bad as their foes taking some of these stances.
Taking a deep breath she sighed "time to go face him I guess" she spoke idly to the gates. She teleported off to go appear before the scouts, to try to play her odd balancing act she was going to be on.
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Mamoru heard the alarm go off, and sat alone in a dark room ignoring it. What was he doing? He had casually dropped off from being involved with a girl who he DID love, and loved him dearly all because he found another girl more forceful and direct. He felt powerful around Rei, that he could tame the war goddess herself. But then there was his own daughter looking down on him for being small and faithless. Was he always going to be like this? She had seen real contempt in Usa's eyes. Was this what he was like in the future?
Darkness fitted Mamoru, at the moment there was really nothing else for him to do. He had not yet decided to act like a man, so he sat like a small child in his room.
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A few moments before.
'A dance of death' was the only way Mercury could logically describe Ranma's actions as he jumped around the spider thing. While his strikes were not doing a lot of damage, she could see black tendrils that could only be described as a fog roll of the thing. She thought it sort of looked like Ranma was fighting some sort of ghost, strikes passing through it, spreading wisps through the air. But as he struck, it was slowly getting smaller, and smaller. Watching the spider dissolve was an amazing process.
Her computer detected a lessening of the webs as well, parts of the webs pulled back with each strike. It could tell every time the creature was actually hit, a small burst of magic was released form the weapons Ranma was wielding.
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At first Val 'en was dispassionate to the creature. Succubae were not things you could generally reason with, nor were they things you suffered to live. What they were doing to her thought was cruelty and nothing more. He started to feel pity towards her.
He left again, after visiting her for the third time that day, and went and found Ranma. They spoke for a long time, about compassion even for your enemies, that it was often more compassionate to end someone, and put them back on the path of the world. He wished Ranma was ready to face the girl. But he was not.
He introduced Ranma to the concept of being One. Joining his spirit and mind with the spirit of Kosh himself. To hear without hearing the will of Kosh, and in time the will and mind of others. He tried and could partially get his mind around it, but Ranma had difficulties with this concept. He was too much an individual.
Afterwards Val 'en went back to watch the succubae. To examine her as she struggled in pain
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A few minutes later
Sailor Moon watched as Ranma rushed over to the older woman, and helped her too her feet. Most of the scouts were still down, trying hard to recover from the draining effects of the webs.
Ranma threw any pretense at concern aside and hugged his now older mother. Nodoka just looked like she was seeing a ghost, which to her was a fairly accurate description he had been gone so long. She just sank back to her knees and started crying
"no, no. your dead. You cant be here, unless your here to collect me too. Am I done? Can I rest now?" She kept crying
"Uhmm Mom?" Ranma had the decency to look embarrassed. He looked around for Cassy, who was not sure what to do here. Nodoka just kept crying because she had not been able to all of these years.
"Cassy see if you can help them, while I help mom" Ranma told her
Cassy just nodded and turned to help the normal humans first. Each only took a little energy to heal.
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She strained against her chains and screamed, hunger filled her. It consumed her. There was nothing in her but the need. It called her, this need. She would see them walk in and look at her. One who came in often, she could feel Vast amounts of energy. Vast. If she could only reach him, she could feed. If she could reach anyone, anything. But the chains bound her hands, bound her legs. One bound her neck all to this wall that burned her with its touch. Any of that could be endured, but not this all-encompassing hunger.
Primal again she screamed. She could not speak, she had never learned. She could not act, nor could she rest. She never grew accustom to the pain. She possessed not even the spark of awareness now. Just animalist hunger.
Despite this pain, or anything else, her mind could see one thing. Food. It must eat. Must consume the life of others. She could not even die, just feel this over whelming hunger.
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Mercury was more or less fine so she continued to scan the area, taking very careful recordings of both Ranma and Cassy. She was positive that Cassy was some sort of demon, her aura proved that. But she lacked the taint that any demons the Mercury computer had on record. Add to that she was helping them all, either at Ranma's command of her own volition made for more interesting data. She would need to talk to this girl, if nothing else to add to her records.
Mercury noted with some surprise that Chibi-Usa and Saturn arrived. There appeared to be some heated words being passed back and forth from mother and daughter, but this was not that unusual. They usually were fighting. That the scouts as a whole had done so poorly on this fight, and no appearance from Pluto was a bit disturbing. Mercury noticed that Saturn had taken a defensive stance standing between the rest of the scouts and the argument between Chibi-Usa and Moon. Saturn seemed to be looking outward with a very sad and guilty look on her face bothered Mercury. She just didn't know what Saturn would feel guilty about other than not making it in time for the fight.
'That must be it, they are angry they were not called' Mercury thought to herself. Satisfied with her own logic, she looked back at her scan.
Her fellow Senshi were groggily trying to get some strength back. Cassy seemed to be flitting from one to another, and as she went to each one, they looked stronger, and more awake. Mercury could detect the life force leaving Cassy, wrapping itself around each of the scouts. It was like the girl was a reverse Succubus or something. Whatever she was doing however it was helping her teammates.
Ranma knelt just holding his mother a moment as she continued to cry to herself. He only looked up a couple of times to make sure Cassy was not overdoing it, if he had been watching better or if moon had not been distracted at that moment, something terrible would have been avoided.
Cassy pushed yet more energy into each of the scouts. She started with the odd man in a mask. Healing him made her feel a little dirty, but he did not take much to heal. A blond girl in orange was next, she also did not take that much but when she got to the brown haired girl in green she started to feel that his was draining her tremendously. With one still left to get too, she was not sure that she would make it long enough to heal them both. The brown haired girl took a lot more out of her than Cassy was expecting She went over to the last scout in red with long black hair. It was taking a tremendous amount of concentration and her life force to heal this last one. Part way through healing Cassy pitched over and passed out
Mars awoke just to feel something very heavy land on her chest. Mars looked down and saw the weight a girl who looked very much like a demon head-butting her. Mars was very weak but she was strong enough to push the girl off. She needed to deal with this demon. It must be the reason she is so tired. In fact she was drained so badly that she can't remember the events of the last few hours. Using every bit of power she has left she summons her flame whip. She pulled back her arm weakly to burn her.
Mercury cried out and jumped to try and stop Mars. She knew that Mars was barely conscious but she was still able to pull up her flame whip. 'This could get bad' thought mercury as she ran towards Mars.
Sailor Moon heard the cry come from Mercury and rushes to get to Cassy as well. She arrives too late to get in front of Mars to stop the flame whip. She was just not able to get there in time.
Ranma felt more than saw Cassy collapse, but as he tried to move to go check on Cassy his mother grabbed him tighter to hold him close. This delay was expected. It was in the plotted events that lead to a specific outcome. It was Sailor moons distraction that was not planned for.
Ranma gently separated himself from his mother, as he turned and saw his daughter lying passed out on the ground. 'She really should learn.." he started to think as he moved towards her. It was then he saw the black haired girl, pulling her arm back with a whip made of flames.
'Crap' Ranma stopped as he started running to his daughter "STOP!" he yelled. He charged her at his best speed, but the second foreseen event occurred. Tuxedo Kamen finally stood up which forced Ranma to move off to the side. He was too late now to stop the whip.
Rei did not hear the stop. To be honest, even if she had she would not have cared. A demon stood in front of her and as both a Senshi and a Miko she WOULD end it or at least send it back to where it came from. She swung the whip forward with what little strength she had, and it wrapped around the unconscious girl. The fires burned Cassy deeply in that moment right as Mars went down again, passing out. Ranma raced to Cassy, trying to feed her, but she seemed not to be taking from him. She needed time to recover, and the Kami only knew how long that would take.
Moon jumped beside her as well. "Saturn, heal her! She saved all of you"
"NO!" Ranma said furiously. "You will kill her if you try". He pulled out a silver necklace that he wore around his neck. On it was a large crystal. Cassy was starting to fade. Around her edges a mist started to form as she was starting to die.
"I hope this works" Ranma said to himself. He placed the crystal on her forehead, and started to speak in low tones.
"Il 'ach vos Kosh. Un "dat vos Kosh. Ungelara vom synoc. Unas El Kosh!" Cassy's body started to turn completely to mist, and appeared to be pulled into the crystal, rather than spread out along the ground. After a moment she was gone all together, pulled into the crystal with only a very weak light deep in the center of it. Ranma sat back, very tiredly and tried again to calm his mind. That sort of spell was incredibly difficult for someone like him who had no talent in magic. The scouts who were awake looked at Ranma, and tried to sort out their feelings on this.
Ranma looked over to the fallen Mars, his face going cold and his eyes showing a deep rage. "She had better be glad she is already out. She almost killed…"
Moon just walked up and hugged Ranma from behind. "Is she going to be alright?"
"I don't know. In this form she may be able to heal, and feed off of me." He looked at Mars again, and stood up. He pulled his hands into fists and black flames danced up his arms. "But if my Daughter dies there will be another grave right next to hers."
Everyone just looked at the enraged Ranma, as after a moment the flames died down. Up on a roof top Setsuna's face drained of all color. This was NOT how this was supposed to happen. Usagi was supposed to save Cassy from Rei, taking the lash herself. Ranma was supposed to be grateful to Usagi, and easier to lead into their fold. There was NO good outcome here, only a further deepening of the split between the scouts. Setsuna needed to get back to the gates and see what the hell had just happened here.
The other scouts all moved back and forth in their feelings between anger at Ranma's "threat" and shame at how this had all turned out. The demon-girl HAD saved them. She cut them out of the webs. She had also given them some sort of healing, from whatever the effects of the webs had done to them.
They had also failed to make even a dent in this new monster, yet this boy literally tore it apart. Mercury scanned him during the fight and detected no strong magic's around him, though some odd energy readings. Venus and Jupiter were off in their own normal boy related fantasies until Ranma made his comment about killing Mars, if the other girl died. Jupiter was very protective of her friend even if she was the one at fault here. Jupiter was also was trying get the "my daughter" comment. She did however tense and got ready to defend her teammate if needed.
Venus didn't hear the comment at all; she was still being her normal hungry self. All she heard was Super Hunk in black saying "blah blah blah blah…" and Venus drooled.
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Chibi-Usa looked up at Saturn. The guilt lay on both of their hearts like a coating of lead they both remember their conversation earlier.
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"Hotaru, I need to share a secret with you, and you can't tell ANYONE, especially the other outers. Can you do that?"
"Even Setsuna-momma?"
"Especially not her. Can you PROMISE me that you can keep this? It's REALLY important, and I have to have someone to talk to about this. With the other scouts acting like children or in some cases whores, I need someone right now."
Hotaru gave Chibi-usa a quick hug. "Ok, I promise, no matter what it is I will listen, and help if I can"
Chibi-usa sighed "Ok before you make this promise I need to tell you that Puu is a lot of the problem. Still willing?"
Hotaru after a second hugged her again and said "Yes, no matter what it is, I am there for you."
Chibi-usa hugged Hotaru hard. "Thank you thanks you. I don't like what I am going to tell you but if I don't tell you, really bad things are going to happen."
She dragged Hotaru to ice cream and started her story.
They sat in the ice cream shop, far from the front where the other customers were. This was a great date shop, hidden little nooks for dates and a nice bar type area to hang out. They even had something that no one else offered in the entire district, a special treat called a rocket shake (Try this is you want to. 3 shots espresso chilled : 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream and a banana. Wired chocolaty goodness). They did not notice however that Ami had snuck in and sit close enough to hear them.
Usa sat there and slowly stirred her shake. A very big sigh came from her.
"Taru, I am sorry. Really really sorry and I hope you will forgive me. Ever since I have been back I have lied to you and everyone else"
Hotaru looked at Usa concerned. She knew Usa. They were best friends. If something was going to make her lie to everyone it had to be something big.
"What's going on Usa-Chan". Taru tried to be light hearted about her reply but her concern was still in her voice. Usa took a big breath to calm a bit and took a drink.
"I am from a point in time farther along than the Usa you know. I am older than mom right now. I needed to hide, because something big is going to happen soon, and I have got to do something about it I just don't know what."
"What's going to happen?"
"We are going to meet apparently a wonderful guy, use him to fight a great evil that the Senshi can't deal with and then when he is no longer needed, we are going to betray him." Usa started tearing up "And Mom and Pluto are behind it. Something happens to Pluto in the future, same with mom and they are well Wrong somehow. I think Puu is completely insane to be honest."
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Ami was shocked to hear about this. This was not the Usagi she knew. It could be the Setsuna she knew though. The road to hell and all were paved with the best intensions. Usagi on the other hand. Betraying her own son-in-law?
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Hotaru could not believe what her friend was saying. She could see needing to come back from a different point in time. She could even see having to hide that from everyone else. But how could Setsuna-momma be insane. That couldn't be right. Sacrificing a good man once he was no longer useful didn't seem right either. It was against everything they stood for.
"Are you sure Usa? Is there some mistake in this? Maybe he turns evil or something"
"No, he doesn't turn evil. Hell, if I read the gate's right he is the greatest man we will ever meet. We both end up married to him"
Hotaru blinked. While she loved Usa, and was kind of open to the idea of a relationship with her, she had not thought they would be in a relationship with the same man. Though she really could not think of anyone she would rather share someone with.
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Ami's thoughts grew darker. What had Setsuna done? First betraying someone who helped, and getting Usagi to go along with harming an innocent, to hear that he, per Usa, was one of the best of men, and married to more then One Senshi? Who WAS this guy for one, but more importantly how could anyone convince Usagi, who preached Love and Justice to everyone to go along with this. Ami could see why Usa was so secretive and upset.
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Usa looked at Hotaru musing "Taru, Don't go all inner on me ok? I am serious. Nice points aside my mother uses the worst punishment she can on him, for no more reason than that he objected to something she was planning to do. Something that would have made beryl envious in its evil. Mom's going to strip mankind of the ability to have evil in them"
Hotaru nodded. Setsuna had said that as well "If there is no evil, what is wrong with that?" Hotaru had not ever given it extensive thought; she just took that at face value.
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'There it is' Ami thought to herself. She had always had misgiving about this idea as it had been presented. It was mind control, pure and simple. Is this man challenged the idea of purging evil, then he would be a threat to how Setsuna presented Crystal Tokyo. If he got through to Usagi, he would be a major threat. Being married to Usa, and the Neo prince because of that, he would have influence over both of them.
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"Taru, how do you take away any chance at evil to exist in the minds of men? You take away anything you personally think is evil. With that you take away their ability to choose. "
Hotaru still didn't really understand this. She could tell that Usa had spent a lot longer thinking about this than she had though.
"But they can't choose evil, Usagi has a good idea of what is good or evil doesn't she?"
"Sure mom does. But what if one of the things that is considered "evil" is that men have equals rights to women. I mean the Queen rules, so why should the general populous be any different. If you force them all to think that way, how could the men even think to want equality? That is one of the rules in place. Men are considered inferior because of a unthought-of out bias mom has developed over the years."
This was starting to make some sense to Hotaru. It was a side of things that she had never seen presented before.
"So if someone thought that two women together was wrong"
"Yes, they would be made to not be together. They would not even consider it. No matter how long they had been together. They would just stop. In some cases it would kill them, but they would stop"
Hotaru didn't like how that thought went, nor how Usa said it. It was like she was thinking of something specific. "Is there something too that you're not telling me?"
Usa got a very pained look on her face.
"Taru, you remember when the inners went forward? The future I rebelled against mom?"
"Yes, you told me about that as well"
"It wasn't until much later that I realized something that had bugged me about that story. Other than Puu where are the rest of the Outers?"
Hotaru had never even thought about it, but some alarms started going off in her head.
In a very quiet voice she asked "Where are they"
"I don't know where you are in that time line but I can guess. I know what happens in the one I come from. What is the biggest thing we have lost after the great freeze?"
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Ami felt very ill inside. Population. The first order of business after the freeze and creation of crystal Tokyo would be to grow the race as a whole, to sustainable levels. Usagi would know that. Her using the crystal to change the hearts of men. Everything would be sacrificed to protect the race as a whole.
Half of the outers could not and would not follow that command. Guilt leading to insanity or death would be the only options.
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Hotaru had a good idea at this point where this was going.
"People"
"And how do you get more people?"
"Having everyone have kids" Hotaru knew what had happened. For some reason the Usagi of that time had decided that to protect humanity everyone needed to have kids. There we so few left, that she could very easily have thought it on some level wrong to NOT have kids. It was the one thing Ruka and Chiru could not have on their own. If Usagi did make her personal biases evil, then she would have subconsciously opted for what she needed as queen and just not thought about it.
"Yeah she made them feel like they were evil for still loving each other. Mom didn't take the love away from them, just the idea it was ok. She didn't mean to but Haruka and Michiru were an unexpected side effect of my mother's rule. I don't think mom even realized what she had done. She just found out one day that they had taken a ship and left. I WATCHED them on the gate fly right into the sun. They could not handle Moms spell and their own love."
Hotaru was shocked by all of this.
"Can't we change this?"
"Yes, we can, I think. But I have to use Puu's gates to figure out how to fix it. And I have to do it when she is not at them herself."
"How are you going to use the gates? I mean that is just Setsuna-momma that can do that."
Usa grinned a little "There is more to being an Heir to the throne than useless posturing Taru. Mom never knew this but the rulers and the heirs had as much access to the gates as Pluto did. We were supposed to counterbalance each other. Otherwise Pluto would be the ruler and not an advisor, all by manipulating events until her outcome came to pass"
"You mean like the future you came from"
"Yes, and I am here to fix that" Usa grinned at Hotaru "I will not have my wife out wandering the universe looks for a cure for our husband because of some insanity my mom has. One way or another we have to change this."
They continued to eat their ice-cream until they were done. Ami left as quietly as she came in. When she got home, she was violently ill.
'I will NOT let Usagi do this. I cant. This cant happen' She thought to herself.
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Now Usa was dying a little inside over those words. So was Hotaru. They had found their best chance to change this. But it meant hurting someone who will be or would have been very dear to them both. It may have even killed her. They didn't know yet if this would make an even bigger mess. Usa had told Hotaru about the monster that comes through after Pluto's death. The one that envelopes the earth in a few hours, and leaves the solar system a dried out husk. They did know what the stakes were. But it still made them ill thinking about what they had been forced to do.
They had stopped Usagi from saving Cassy by Usa starting an argument with Usagi Just at the moment that she needed to be watchful. Very soon they would have to account to Ranma, and they both prayed Cassy would survive. And that he would eventually forgive them.
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Ranma was quick to understand forgiveness of others. He had practiced that all of his life. He forgave his pops, he forgave his mother. He even forgave the Tomboy. He hated to see something suffer. What Ranma did NOT get was if he showed someone compassion, instead of destroying them, he would be responsible for their actions.
How could he be at fault for something someone else did.
Val 'en just kept trying to train Ranma, just as Kosh commanded. Val 'en knew what Kosh had in mind, in part anyway.
Edited chapter