Castle in the Sky

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: whoops forgot about this chapter...

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"So without the core of Chaos you can only survive if I stay in..." Soma sighed as he continued to try and think of a way to say 'Stay in you, the Castle' without it sounding like he was a raging pedo.

Said Castle looked up at him with the same level of adoration she normally gave him when he wasn't trying to make her let him spend time with someone else. She sat looking down at the fruit and chocolate parfait that she manifested between her hands before handing it to him. On the one hand she had been brought to life by his previous incarnation. A living castle who found their identity in service to their creator god. Free via the Chaos core to take what shape it wanted, and striving to take on the forms that pleased its God.

But with Soma things were decidedly different.

He was still her God, she lived by his will so the destruction of the core and his departure had struck as abandonment and a death sentence. The scouts had given her a chance to make her case and bring herself out of the seal and to his side. Where she found just standing near him, bathed in his shadows did wonders in sustaining her. Absorbing the darkness from his shadow like a flower absorbed the sun.

Even better she wasn't being pushed away like she had originally feared, so long as she looked human she found he was more tolerant of her! "Well yes, for the most part. You gave me life after my old master died and you moved in."

He dug in cheerfully to the sweet she had offered before blinking as he realized something... "Your original master, before me... was 'he' the original Dracula?" He watched her indifferent shrug and figured that because she wasn't alive at the time she might not have known. But if that was the case it explained why Soma went and used the name despite it not 'being' his name. False identities afforded a level of security after all.

And perhaps if this was back in those long ago days having a girl just randomly appear out of nowhere would have been fine. Now she needed an identification number, a country of origin, school records, everything really. Leaving him a bit perplexed on how to handle her when he still couldn't come up with a proper 'name'.

They sat in silence for some time as they watched repairs being made on the part of the city that got floored due to Sailor Moon's previous battle. While thinking of the situation that the Castle pretty much got him stuck in. What with people trying to force him to return to the Castle as the Lord of Darkness his own wishes be damned. "Can 'anyone' sustain you? For example; if someone else has a strong affinity for darkness, could they become your master?"

"Well... if I wanted them to be sure." Suddenly the Castles' eyes got wide as she looked up at her master and gave a panicked, "not that I would replace you!"

Soma's eyebrow had raised at her admittance but he shook his head in response, "no I prefer your honesty. I'm just thinking about things." He confessed as he sat there taking another spoonful of his snack. Since he was left wondering if there was anyone with a strong enough affinity with Darkness to sustain the Castle besides himself and Alucard. After all, Alucard could clearly take over the Castle if he so chose once Soma had been killed. Yet instead he kept running out of the castle as well, so he clearly didn't want the job she required being maintained.

"Say, Castle do you like being here? Able to move on your own?" Soma asked, finally figuring she had been on the loose long enough to have her own opinion at this point.

She looked up at him in thoughtful curiosity before looking down at herself, taking stock of her existence. The fingers curled and closed into fists on her command, she could feel her toes wiggle inside her shoes and for the first time thought about herself. Feeling the sensation of being alive and mobile while in the presence of her master. Granted she only felt this good when he was near, the moment he was in class and she was forced to wait at his apartment she had grown weaker. Absorbing the darkness from the things he spent most of his time around while waiting for him.

Those days spent more fixated on taking inventory on what her master liked so that when she returned to her more natural form she knew what to have installed. A movie theater sized screen to watch shows on, an arcade, a swimming pool, a pool table, basketball court... So many things. "Honestly I'd rather be a Castle, its what I am and I feel most comfortable like that. But if I have to exist with that seal in place and you out here, than being a person is just what I'm going to have to be I suppose."

It made Soma frown in thought as something occurred to him as she spoke making him take his time with the spoonful of parfait in his mouth. But once it was swallowed down he found himself voicing that question. "If you were out here though, in your true form and without the Chaos core... what then? Even if I didn't move back in, I mean the core may be gone but aren't you sealed in Chaos itself? Would that still sustain you? Or would you return to being just a mindless castle?"

She blinked and drew up her knees to her chest and rested her chin between the small v that her knees formed. "The Seal isn't in the Chaos realm though, its between planes and I used the core to reach the Chaos realm. The darkness you command is literally the only thing keeping me awake and aware at this point now that the Chaos is gone... So for being mindless.. I guess the best way to think of it would be going to sleep, so it wouldn't matter what happened after that."

He blinked at what she was describing realizing that it sounded more like an acceptance for being euthanize and that struck him as horrifying. "I'm sorry! I must sound so insensitive right now," he apologized, regretting his poor question choice. Only to have her beam up at him with a huge smile on her goth painted face.

"Oh its quite the opposite actually, I'm very happy. The questions mean you're thinking of a way to try to keep me alive and happy, while not having to come back. That means you care! And after the time I've spent here, I can see that not everyone cares about their things like you do. So I'm happy, keep asking as many questions as you want!"

He blinked down at her in surprise before finally letting his mind do a little more creative question making. Glad that she wasn't upset with his questions, and hoping that she wouldn't mind some of the odder ones he was about to ask. "So you're aware of the Chaos and what happened to Usagi and her group right?"

"Yeah, its a different form of Chaos, more internal than external, breaking things down internally." She explained as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Well I was wondering, what would happen if we fixed it, is there a way to keep reality as it is. But allow Usagi and the others to be liberated from that internal break down," he asked trying to piece what he wanted to ask in a way without upsetting her.

"Huh?" The girls' reply wasn't surprising, she wiggled her feet before dropping her legs down so she could twirl a bit of her hair around her right pinky.

"Well I mean, is there a way to allow them to grow up... the other scouts never got married, expecting a particular future to happen. Would it be possible to create a future where they got married, had kids and let the kids inherit the title of 'Sailor Scout' instead of them having to do this themselves? With them only as scouts they could use you as a base of operations and that means you'd be constantly exposed to a type of energy source that would sustain you. I figure all those ladies with their planetary power might be able to make up for the lack of the Chaos Core. Or you could just incarnate as a Sailor Scout proper. With a living identity and such."

The girl looked at him in pure awe, her eyes huge in disbelief her hand stilled as she sat there, before her lips began to slowly spread into a large smile. "You're so wise, I would have thought that you would want to bring about their icky stagnate future of agelessness. But you actually want to accommodate cosmic order while sparing them the punishment their hubris created for them!" The Castle flung her arms around his, pinning his arms down and leaving the parfait pressed against his legs. And grateful that it was in a sundae glass and he was in sturdy jeans because that was just 'too' cold otherwise.

But the Castle was squealing her praises about him, her feet kicking and her face shoved into his coat sleeve, amazingly not getting make up smeared into his beloved coat. Clearly even the Castle knew better.

"So I'm going to need you to return us to the seal, because I'm pretty sure if I try to use this out here its going to get some attention. And I really don't want it before I have everything set up," Soma finally ordered as he reached down into his coat pocket and produced a single small ornate gold key.

One of a series of keys normally found hanging off a slender chain around Sailor Pluto's waist...

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"So you stay here when you're not on earth?" Soma asked as he walked along the long, almost Avalon style foggy area. It was incredibly empty, with only a massive door behind her and absolutely nothing else around either of them. It created this strange conflicting sensation being alone in a massive huge field while at the same time being confined to a small space. Both outside in the open and in a small cabin and that Setsuna 'lived' like this? It made him feel a type of kinship with the woman considering he had been in the Castle for centuries.

"Yes, it is my guard post," Setsuna answered with a slight nod, though through the fog she could see the mild concern that was growing on Soma's face. "There is food and a bed, this place is crafted to leave me without any wants. What I will, becomes reality."

"No big screen tv, swimming pool, or couch? I do have to protest," he replied, earning a faintly understanding smile on Setsuna's lips.

She answered his protest with a sweep of her hand to the side where a small, almost cozy table for two appeared as the fog fell back. As though the few meager furniture items had been there all this time. The set was white, but the design was more like what one would find in a bar, with cushions and a round table to sit at. It didn't evoke a date feel, and it was a set up she had grown to appreciate during her time hanging out with Haruka, Michiru preferred more refinement in her cafes.

But they took their seats, Soma pulling out Setsuna's chair first and sliding it for her before settling down in his own chair. Earning him an amused smile from the Princess as she noted how he was as she was before, young in body but with an aged soul. Despite the fact that Soma had few and far between memories on such history. Yet his personality held some old world feel, displaying warmth and the dignified manners of a lord. When he wasn't pestering his past life son...

"However; I do not keep with things that would distract me from my duties," she finished earning a small nod from Soma.

"I suppose you get a lot of foot traffic then, from people trying to get to the door," Soma noted thoughtfully. Only to raise a surprised eyebrow when Setsuna shook her head in the negative.

"Actually no, few have the power you or the other Princesses have to reach this place. The last time someone found it was Small Lady..." Setsuna explained, feeling the faint smile on her lips falter.

"Small Lady?" Soma asked, trying to think of who would be stuck with a name like that, yet the sad look in Setsuna's eyes made him pause. It wasn't instant tears or such, it was a soft flinch, a light glance away.

"Chibi Usa?" Soma hazarded as he did the mental math and Chibi Usa was the youngest out of the whole of the scouts at the end of the day.

Though the Guardian of Time wished he wasn't that astute, as she was forced to nod in acknowledgment of his guess. "Yes, but also no. The Chibi Usa you first met, is not the same Chibi Usa I first met. And perhaps that is my fault, staying here and waiting for the day she would run through the doors as I recalled. I chose to stay isolated here, waiting for her to herald the time I would finally leave here. Only she didn't, the events that brought about her future didn't happen and when I finally returned to earth... a stranger was wearing her face and name..."

Soma blinked in surprise before lowering his own gaze to his hands, before holding them up. The Castle knew better, so he was free to show off exactly 'what' Plush power was supposed to do, and though he wanted a plush Chibi Usa, he ended up with a Plush Mina doll. He put it on the table and tried again, getting a plush Soma this time.

The more plushies he created the more Setsuna felt her eyebrow rise, wondering as to the constant production of magical plushies and just what Soma was getting at. She gathered up the girl plushy and turned it around so she could look at it. Recognizing the girl from the shrine in her robes in this little doll. The arms waved up and down almost child like in a silent plea to be picked up and was incredibly cute.

Knowing that Soma was turned into one of these when his castle transformed into a scout made holding such a doll all the more amusing to the scout. But she 'did' wonder why he was soon covering the ground with more and more of these little dolls. "Soma, what are you doing?"

"Well I thought maybe if I focused I could produce a Chibi Usa plush... I can kinda make one for Arikado after all." Soma explained amid a mounting army of soft plush versions of himself that were starting to look around from where they were dropped. Until suddenly he was holding a black suited, annoyed expression plush version of the agent.

He gave a tight lipped smile before turning the doll around to face Setsuna before wrapping his arms around it and looking over its shoulder at her. "See I know he couldn't possibly have looked this way when he was a kid. I'm trying to manifest a child version of him so I can see what he looked like since he won't talk. But well, this is as far as I can go for now it seems."

Setsuna blinked in surprise, looking down at the plush Somas and Minas that were starting to get up and walk around the area. Almost like a cross between a puppet and a zombie really, from what she had seen on late night television when absolutely nothing else but infomericals were on. "So... they can move on their own I see?"

"Yes, they're decoys really, throw them out and they attract the monsters to come after then and I can then either sneak by or kill." Soma explained as he produced another Soma for the pile. "Though they can distract beautiful ladies." He added nudging another newly made Soma towards her with a wiggle of the eyebrows.

His words caused her to blink before she began to laugh, people normally didn't flirt with her and her own unrequited feelings for the Prince made her often feel lonely. Especially when she was with Haruka and Michiru with their marriage still going strong.

While a trio of plushy Soma's worked behind her. One grabbing onto one of the small keys hanging off her delicate belt. The other two working to keep her from feeling it when the tugging began. Which made Setsuna's sudden laugh all the more appreciated as her body movements caused the key to snap loose from her belt.

The plush hand stuffed the key into a pocket, and then resumed walking about the area.

"But... what do you do with all of them? Are you suggesting I keep all these little ones?" Setsuna asked as she hugged the Mina plushy smiling all the while.

"Well they 'do' disappear on their own after a while, but they got you to smile and that's more important to me. I can't deny your situations make me feel bad," Soma confessed as he turned the Arikado plush around to face him. Only to get punched into nose by the plush who now looked more annoyed at him. "Minas just kind of flail and make people want to hug her. But the Soma ones are a bit more versatile and Arikado is like his real self. A bully." Soma furthered the explanation as the plush Arikado produced a business card that it waved in his face.

He took the card and checked it over, finding the words 'Give the Key back Soma' on it. "It even scolds me like Arikado would if he were here."

"He wouldn't scold if he didn't care," Setsuna pointed out with a faint smile on her face as she watched him shove the card into his coat pocket. "So is this an impromptu lunch date Cruz-sama?"

"Well I can't say I believe in turning down a ladies' request," Soma answered with a faint smile, having felt the tips of his fingers brush against the key.

Man he loved his power sometimes...