Disclaimer: The characters of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z are not mine. They belong to their respective owners.
A/N: I really owe you all a massive apology and an explanation for my absence. This chapter had been written for quite a while, sitting on my hard drive, but real life intervened big time.
My best friend and I came up with this story through roleplaying, and she essentially helped me get the first few chapters out (although they're revised greatly from their original form). She helped me, offered me suggestions, and encouraged me all along the way. It's likely that without her, I would have never posted this story up in the first place.
She passed away two weeks ago today from brain cancer. Her death has taken quite a toll on me emotionally, but I'm trying to get myself back to where I was when I originally started this fanfiction. She used to urge me a lot to update, was the one who tried to keep me on course. Unfortunately, her illness robbed her of her speech, and she was no longer able to offer me solid feedback without struggling to find the words to convey what she wanted to say.
I am sorry for the wait, but time moves on, and I need to get this story going again. Thank you so much for your support, and please continue to support me from here on out.
Ripple Effect
Chapter XII: Goodbye
Hotaru had prepared herself with the eventuality that she would one day cross paths with the mother she had long believed to be dead. She knew that encountering her mother again would no doubt be difficult as she had cherished her mother and the memories she had of her when she was a child. It wasn't farfetched for Hotaru to believe that her mother—or the person who wore her mother's face—was likely directly tied to everything that had occurred, from causing their future's disappearance to the possible interest of the seal which contents remained unknown. Yet, Hotaru could not help herself as she felt a small degree of elation spread through her from staring upon the face of her mother.
Eight years was all of the time that Hotaru had with her mother, but it was those eight years that she had been at her happiest. For the most part, Keiko had been the one that had raised Hotaru until she eventually perished from the laboratory explosion, as Hotaru's father was constantly absent as he conducted numerous twisted experiments that would hold great bearing upon Hotaru's life later on down the road. It was her mother who dropped her off at school each morning, and then picked her up when she had finished with her classes for the day. Regardless of what little Hotaru could do to help her, her mother always allowed her young daughter to help her bake or cook in the kitchen. At night, it had been her mother that would tuck her in and read her bedtime stories.
Losing her mother had been devastating, plunging the young Hotaru in a deep depression that took her years to escape from. It did not help matters any that her father took it upon himself to "rebuild her" with cybernetics due to the injuries that she sustained from the laboratory explosion that claimed her mother's life. Furthermore, she had been placed in the care of a father that remained ever vacant and his secretary that loathed her, causing her to feel alienated and alone. Of course this had been the same time that her powers manifested, complicating the situation even further.
So, it was difficult to not be at least somewhat happy to look upon the face of her mother, a face that had not aged a day since Hotaru last saw her. Even her mother's hairstyle was the same, wearing her long black hair as straight as Hotaru remembered it. However, looking upon her mother's soulless eyes made the brief happiness that Hotaru felt immediate dissipate. There was no warmth from this woman, and everything about this woman was chilling.
This woman is not my mother, Hotaru reminded herself firmly. Her mother was but an ordinary human who would have showed at least some signs of aging after ten years' passage. On top of the lack of wrinkles that should have begun to crease her forty-something mother's face, there did not appear to be a grey hair present in the sea of her black hair. Furthermore, there was no possible way that her human mother could emit the amount of dark and powerful energy that was rolling off of this woman's aura. The sense of her power was a bit overwhelming, making Hotaru's head pound slightly and the twistedness of it even made her feel nauseated.
The man who stood at Hotaru's mother's side, his arm hooked with hers, was no different. This man Hotaru recognized as Dr. Loki Celadus from having seen his picture in Capsule Corporation's files. His eyes had no light about them and seemed to be narrowed enough to indicate the sinister nature that lingered behind his icy blue depths. It was impossible to distinguish Loki's aura from her mother's as the energy she was emitting was far too overpowering, but Hotaru supposed that he was not entirely human or good either. A strange feeling of familiarity nagged at Hotaru, making her feel as if she had encountered Loki somewhere before. However, she was certain that the two of them had not ever met before today.
"Dr. Tomoe, Dr. Celadus—both of you are not welcome here," Bulma informed the pair, her eyes staring at them warily.
Keiko reached into the handbag that was in her possession, pulling out a pair of envelopes which Hotaru recognized as invitations for the dinner that night. "I would say that these say differently."
"Both of you resigned from the company," Bulma reminded Keiko in an annoyed tone, "therefore, those invitations are rescinded."
"How rude," Keiko remarked, her words sounding as detached and cold as her violet eyes appeared. Her gaze glanced past Bulma and Trunks before settling upon Hotaru, a small smirk tugging at her pink lips. "Hotaru, my darling daughter, would you not say a word in your mother's defense?"
Trunks moved inhumanly fast once more, his body blocking Keiko's view from Hotaru as a look of fury burned within his blue eyes. "You don't look at her. You don't speak to her. The both of you need to turn around and leave right now before I make you."
"I would heed the boy's words," another voice suggested as Vegeta walked through the doorway of the cafeteria, his onyx stare focusing on Keiko and Loki who he found to be standing far too close to his wife than what he felt comfortable with. His body was tensed, prepared for the moment that they either moved closer to his wife or made a gesture that he considered to be threatening. That moment would be all of the persuasion Vegeta needed to launch an attack that was not merciful or considerate of how public that altercation would be.
Keiko did not seem at all phased from the heavy threats that she had received from both of the Saiyans, the smirk never wavering from her lips. Her violet eyes glimmered with the slightest hint of pride, enjoying the fact that she was causing everyone around her to become on edge by merely her presence. Neither she nor Loki moved to make an exit, instead standing their ground as firmly as ever and remaining visibly calm in the face of what danger that the Saiyans could bring unto her.
"It was not my desire to crash your little party," Keiko informed them, her free hand reaching up to tuck a few long strands of her ebony hair behind her ear. "However, it seems that with all of your heady threats that I need to prove how badly you all have underestimated me. Hotaru…"
Keiko had said her name in a whispered purr, and in the very next moment a buzzing noise began to thrum in her mind. It started off low and quiet at first, more of a tolerable annoyance to Hotaru than anything. However, the noise escalated most quickly, soon sounding nearly as similar if there had been a thousand locusts singing their song within her brain. The noise was persistent, becoming impossibly louder with each passing second, making Hotaru drop to her knees on to the floor and resisting the urge to curl up into the fetal position in the agony that this sound was causing her. Her hands reached up to cover her ears in vain, and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.
It just wouldn't stop. When Hotaru forced her eyes open to stare at her mother—who she did not doubt was the cause of this wretched sound—she realized that her sight was become affected as well. Her vision blurred regardless of where and who she pulled her gaze to, compromised further with the growing presence of tears in her eyes. As her failing vision focused on Trunks, she could barely distinguish any features on his face regardless of how close he was already standing to her. She could also hear nothing, nothing except that sound.
If only that was the worst of it. Hotaru could feel her powers begin to retaliate against the psychic attack on her brain, her energy snapping out angrily at everything and anything in a desperate move to save its vassal from the siege it was under. Tendrils of power pressed against the walls so forcefully that they began to crack and buckle, and then even the tile floor beneath Hotaru began to shatter and crater beneath the weight of her energy. Soon enough, the building around her began to groan and tremble, the ground shaking as her power continued to manifest even further.
"Get out!" Hotaru shrieked, shaking her head back and forth as she tried to pull her power back into her. The noise in her mind was breaking apart and gnawing away at every bit of control Hotaru had over her energy, allowing her powers of death and destruction to do what it pleased, to go where it pleased. Hotaru knew well enough if this continued it would not just be the building that was at risk of crumbling; the entire city was in danger of being leveled as well.
Vegeta had the instinct to dodge the tendrils of power that were shooting out of the teenage girl at unpredictable bursts and angles. A few times it had been too close, barely dodging a wisp of power as it cut through the sleeve of his jacket and into the flesh of his arm, causing it to bleed profusely. As Hotaru's power began to amass everywhere around him, Vegeta realized that the situation was likely to escalate to the point that the building would have to be vacated. It was possible he only had time enough to save his family—let the rest of the humans be damned; Kakarot's family could easily escape unscathed on their own.
Of course it would be his foolish son who had been completely enthralled by the emotions he had of that girl which would cause him to do something utterly foolish. Vegeta had noticed a moment too late that his son had moved to help the girl that had been causing all of the disruption. "Trunks, no!"
All Trunks had done was turn on his heel and take a few steps towards Hotaru before he hit a wall—literally. Vegeta had sensed that the girl had likely subconsciously formed something of a shield around herself during the midst of the psychic attack, though her shield lacked consistency probably due to the fact that her mind was still under assault. The shield wobbled like a spinning top about to fall, alternating between stretching a few feet in in diameter around her body and pulling towards her body, lingering only a few inches from her skin. Furthermore, Vegeta could sense that this was just not only a shield that would protect Hotaru from attacks; it was ready to attack anyone who approached her as well.
Trunks, having only desired to help out his girlfriend that was obviously in excruciating pain, was covered in violet electricity a moment before his body was sent flying back. He collided with the floor halfway across the lobby and his body slid into the wall, his body creating a small crater in the wall from the impact.
"Do you fools understand now?" Keiko asked, her tone amused as she watched Hotaru writhe in pain on the floor. "Hotaru has spent her entire life keeping this dark and terrifying power of hers under control, but in a moment I can erode that control away and turn her into a time bomb about to go off. And just think I am being gentle with her. If I wanted to, I could have made her released every bit of power she's kept bottled up over the past few years and this city would be nothing more than another crater in the Earth."
And then, the sound in Hotaru's mind suddenly stopped. While the relief she felt was instant, it took Hotaru quite a while before she was able to compose herself. She set her hands down on the floor in front of her knees as she panted, trying to catch her breath and settle her persistently thundering heart. Gradually her vision returned to her as well, able to see the situation around her as clearly as she had only a few moments ago. Her body trembled for some time afterwards, from a combination of frazzled nerves and attempting to contain her powers inside of her once again.
The guilt consumed Hotaru almost immediately, her gaze traveling over to where Trunks was just starting to push himself back up to his feet. She had hurt him—unintentionally, yes—but she had still caused harm to the boy she had come to love. Regardless of the fact that he was physically stronger than she did not excuse the fact of what had just occurred; her powers had treated Trunks as if he was a threat and attacked him.
"What's going on?" Gohan's worried voice shouted, running through the doorway of the cafeteria with his younger brother following closely behind. The both of them skidded to a stop as they observed the situation in front of them, their gazes traveling from Hotaru to Vegeta, from Vegeta to Bulma, and then towards the menacing pair and to where Trunks had been flung to across the room.
"Just a little family reunion," Loki informed the newcomers with amusement in his voice. At the very moment that he uttered his first word, Hotaru realized that she had crossed paths with Loki at least once before. Back in the alleyway, when she and Mara were attacked by the two cloaked men, this man was undoubtedly the smaller of the two that used his magic to control Mara's mind. However, Hotaru felt confused as Loki did not seem aware as to who she was at that time in the slightest. Hadn't he researched her with her mother when they were employed at Capsule Corporation?
Hotaru wondered if Trunks had also realized that Loki and the cloaked man from such a long time ago were one and the same, but as her eyes settled upon her boyfriend, Hotaru realized that even if Trunks had the notion that they were the same person, he just didn't care at this point. As Trunks completely covered from being attacked by Hotaru's power, he steadied himself on his feet and his body tensed up suddenly, his gaze focusing on Loki and Keiko. Hotaru could feel his power begin to rise and golden lightning beginning to crack all around his body. It was obvious to tell from just looking at Trunks's face that he was beyond furious, his eyebrows drawn down over his narrowed eyes and his teeth bared, a low growl escaping through them.
"I'm going to say this one more time," Trunks snarled low, his lavender hair beginning to fly up and stand above his head, becoming more pointed with each passing second. "The both of you need to leave right now. I'm not going to tell you again."
Keiko openly rolled her eyes at the young half-Saiyan. "Please. Do you Saiyans just lack any comprehension of understanding how much I overpower you all right now? I figured my earlier display would have been plenty explanation of the kind of different level I am on compared to you."
Sparing no care of who was around to witness, Trunks's hair blazed from lavender to gold and his eyes from blue to greenish blue, his pupils vanishing. A golden aura burned around him, humming loudly enough for even Hotaru to hear from where she was across the room. In this form, it seemed as if all of Trunks's kindness and humanity seemed to fade away, replacing it with a ferocious warrior that desired battle and blood beyond all else. It had been such a long time since Hotaru had witnessed Trunks's Super Saiyan form that she had nearly forgotten how it looked, and when she had seen it last she did not have the appreciation for it that she did now.
Only a second later, Trunks launched himself through the air at the pair, flying at a speed that was difficult for Hotaru to discern with her own eyes. She felt no comfort in Trunks attacking Keiko and Loki head-on, but it was the other three Saiyans that voiced their disapproval and warning for taking such an action. They shouted in their own various ways for Trunks to cease what he was doing, but their words fell on deaf ears as Trunks continued to charge at Keiko and Loki, his only desire to make them both pay dearly for what they had done.
However, before Trunks even reached the pair, his Super Saiyan form suddenly was dropped, his lavender hair falling around his face loosely once more and his eyes returning to the normal shade of blue that they once were. He fell from mid-flight, stumbling on to the tile floor below him and standing just a few feet from where his intended targets were. The look of confusion on his face was apparent as he looked over himself, uncertain as to what had just happened to make his Super Saiyan form fail so abruptly.
"As you seem to be confused, I shall enlighten you, Saiyan," Keiko stated as she looked over to Trunks with an uninterested look. "You all saw earlier that I could make Hotaru lose control over her power at my leisure, but why is it that you think that your Super Saiyan abilities are any different? Whether it is the powers of death and destruction or turning into some so-called legendary warrior, the energy to do so essentially comes from the same source. I can manipulate ki—or powers, or energies, whichever you prefer—with ease. I am able to either make you no different from a pot of boiling water that bubbles over the rim and spills out over everything, or I can turn off the heat so that you are lame and helpless.
"Now, unless the rest of you lot require any other proof that I am in control of what happens here, I will be gracious enough to inform you what will happen from this point onward," Keiko continued, "Hotaru is going to come with me to where Hades' seal is so that she can perform her final duty. As you all have witnessed, there is nothing at all that you can do to stop this from happening, so unless you desire an untimely death, I would suggest you all cease your attempts in interfering; you're not going to win, and this is most certainly going to happen."
Finally, it was revealed who was in the seal; Hades, the God of Death. Hotaru had very little knowledge about the era of which the Old Gods held direct control over her Universe, that time having been ages before even she came into existence. Only Chronos—the God of Time and Setsuna's original father—had been mentioned in more recent times, but his name was usually only invoked to allow safe passage through the Time-Space Door as his existence had disappeared with the rest of the Old Gods. As Setsuna's original father was the God of Time hence why she held the powers over Time and Space, it was just as likely that Hotaru was a descendent of the God of Death which gave her the power over Death and Destruction.
Hotaru could see why it was necessary to seal such a person in one universe and have the key to the seal exist in another; if Hades had abused his powers, the results would have been disastrous. For someone like Hotaru, who had in her first incarnation likely bartered to have that kind of power on a scale beyond what a mortal person should ever have, had limits bestowed upon her so it could not be abused. Unlike any other power that existed, the Power of Death needed to have some sort of means to punish the user as the possibility of corruption was so very high. A god, who would have been either immortal or nearly impossible to kill, would have no such restrictions on his power. He would be able to use that power without constraint and without care.
This was why, Hotaru realized, that her future had disappeared; the God of Death would have powers like hers but on a much dramatically larger scale. It was not improbable that he could demolish an entire universe within a brief moment of time before moving on to the next, and that put everything and everyone in existence into jeopardy. No one would be safe from the wrath of a corrupted God of Death; he would snuff out lives one after another, because that's what a God of Death did.
Hotaru knew what she had to do. She could not be taken by the woman who wore her mother's face, and she could not let everyone she had come to know and love die because she wanted to live. Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna; they had raised her from the brief time she had been reborn into an infant into the young woman she was now, and there was no possible way that she could show them how gratuitous she felt for what they had done for her. The Princess and the Inner Soldiers had become something of an extended family, always making a big deal for everyone to get together around birthdays and holidays, showering Hotaru with every bit of love as they did each other. All of the people of the Earth in her universe deserved a future, even if it meant she would have to pay the ultimate price to make that happen.
Hotaru wanted to save the people of this Earth, too, as well as the Saiyans who had become her friends. Gohan had been such an excellent teacher to her, treating her no differently in the classroom even though he knew that she was different. While Hotaru's interactions with Goten were only limited to the security details he partook in with either his older brother or Trunks, she had come to grow fond of his carefree attitude and even found his obsessions—whether that be food or girls—to be quite amusing. Trunks… Of course she wanted to protect Trunks, to make certain that he would have a life to live into the future, and that he would one day have an opportunity to meet a girl that he could truly be happy without worry that she would eventually have to disappear.
Pushing herself up to her feet, Hotaru stared at Keiko's face with narrowed eyes, fury and resolve burning within her violet depths. She then brought her hands out before her, summoning the weapon that she had kept tucked away for so very long. The weapon itself she had come to fear it in its years of dormancy as it was this weapon that unlocked her power to destroy a planet in an instant; the Silence Glaive. Soon enough the weapon materialized before her, measuring taller than her in height and the curved ivory blade reaching a head or two higher than she, and her slender fingers curled around the shaft.
Keiko took notice of the Glaive almost immediately, her ebony eyebrow arching upward in interest. "The Silence Glaive, huh? I had heard of it—the scythe of the Goddess of Destruction, the harbinger of death and destruction upon the plane which it's summoned upon. Would desperation truly drive you to destroy this world just to keep yourself out of my hands?"
Hotaru sadly smiled as she slid one hand up the shaft of her weapon, her fingers wrapping around it tightly just below where the blade began to form. She set her other hand upon the dull side of the blade, and then pulled the sharpest and curved side of the weapon towards the front of her neck.
"Hotaru!" Trunks shouted, surprised and disbelief clear on his face as he instinctively moved one of his feet a step towards her. The inclination was clear to him—and it was clear to almost everyone else in the room—as to what Hotaru intended to do. Gohan, Goten, and Bulma wore looks on their faces that were not dissimilar to Trunks's while Vegeta looked on in surprise with a degree of understanding lingering in his onyx depths towards the girl's actions. Meanwhile, Loki and Keiko could not have looked more shocked by Hotaru's resolve.
"I've become soft, I think," Hotaru said as the blade hovered so terrifyingly close to her skin. "I suppose if this were the old me, I would have destroyed this planet without a second thought in order to protect the future of my own world. I'd take everyone here—including Hades—along with me so that this threat could never be known again. However, I've come to like this Earth and the people on it, so I think just one sacrifice will be plenty.
"Now, let me explain to you what's going to happen," Hotaru continued in a voice that was calm and collected. "There is nothing about this body that is spectacular; it's human, just like the billions of other people that exist on this Earth and my own. So, if I am cut in this particular spot, I will most certainly bleed out and die before anyone here is able to do anything to stop it. With my death, this all stops here; there will be no revival of an Old God, and everything you have tried to do will be for naught."
After listening to Hotaru's words, the arrogant look that had once been present on Keiko's face vanished, replaced with a glare that spoke measures of hatred that the woman felt towards Hotaru right at that very moment. "Girl, I will have you know that if you take your life here and now, this planet's Dragon Ballswill not revive you. You are not of this universe; therefore there is no place for your soul in the afterlife of this realm. You will cease to exist—is that what you want?"
"Idiot, put that weapon away!" Trunks growled, clearly becoming more unsettled with the knowledge that there would be no second chance for Hotaru if Keiko was telling the truth. "We can find another way! You don't have to die!"
"Trunks is right," Gohan tried to reason, his tone of voice uneasy. "We've come through worse situations before. Give us a chance to come up with a way to defeat them and to make sure that this god isn't resurrected. There's no point in killing yourself without exhausting every outlet!"
"I'm sorry," Hotaru murmured, her voice revealing the depth of sadness she felt. "I can't take that chance. I appreciate everything you all have done for me, and I don't think words could ever express how happy I am to have met all of you. Please live on and be happy, and please tell Haruka and the others that I love them—that I'm sorry."
Just as Hotaru was about to bring the blade of the Glaive into the flesh of her throat, there was a large explosion that knocked her back on her rear and caused her to lose her grip on the Glaive, making it clank soundly to the floor beside her before it vanished back into the void from where it came. As a large mass of power tore through the windows that lined the front of the lobby with ease—aimed directly for where Loki and Keiko stood—Trunks jumped to the side and rolled, just barely dodging as the mass blew through where he once was. However, once the mass of power reached Keiko and Loki, the ebony-haired woman merely narrowed her eyes before the mass dissipated into nothingness.
"I knew this was a bad idea," Haruka remarked as she stepped into the lobby through the blown out windows, Michiru following quickly behind her. While the Soldier of the Sky had her Space Sword drawn and its blade glowing golden, Michiru held her hands above her head as she collected her power within her palms to launch another Deep Submerge towards the pair.
"I thought I was better known for my intuition," Michiru sighed as she continued to gather up her power. "I don't think I'm going to hear the end of this…"
"Be careful!" Gohan shouted from across the lobby, fearing for the two women's lives. "That woman can manipulate your ki! She'll be able to defeat you without laying a hand on you!"
Haruka shrugged her shoulders. "We already know that. We're not intending to defeat her—not yet, anyway. We're just buying some time."
Before anyone could ask what they were trying to buy time for, the windows in the cafeteria shattered soundly with Setsuna charging through them, running as quickly as her feet would carry her as she ignored the confused looks of the masses of people gathered for the dinner. Holding her Garnet Rod at her side with the large red orb at the top of it glowing, her gaze focused on the doorway that led her from the cafeteria and into the lobby where the altercation was occurring. Once she arrived at the doorway, she dug her heels into the tile floor until she halted, pressing the butt of her staff into the floor.
"Dark Dome Close."
Hotaru could only listen in horror as Setsuna invoked her ultimate power, a power that was there for her to use but at the same time was perhaps the most taboo spell in existence; the power to stop time. The moment after Setsuna spoke her incantation with strong declaration, everything just stopped. Keiko and Loki were frozen in place, only having turned somewhat towards Setsuna's abrupt entrance. The Saiyans were frozen in place, but due to exemptions that Setsuna no doubt made in her power, they were still able to turn their heads and their gazes somewhat in the midst of the spell. Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru were in similar predicaments.
"What is this?" Vegeta inquired as he stared at Keiko and Loki warily before glancing back to the cafeteria, noticing that everything had gotten eerily silent. It was as if the scene in the cafeteria were no different than a video that had been paused with the people inside frozen in various states of movement and discussion.
"I've stopped time," Setsuna informed them simply.
"This feels different than what I've experience before," Gohan remarked. "When Vegeta and I fought on Planet Namek, we encountered someone who was able to slow down time but not stop it like this."
"This is a power entrusted to the Guardians of Time," Setsuna explained. "However, this spell in particular is most forbidden. It consumes every bit of my power, and once it fades, I will be dead."
Hotaru knew this already, and all she could do was gaze at Setsuna in disbelief for having released this power for her sake. It was as if she was witnessing a terrible nightmare, fully understanding that once time was allowed to resume again that Setsuna would perish because of it—because of her. Tears formed in Hotaru's eyes once more, splashing down her face as the grief already began to overcome her. Why couldn't they have just let her die?! It would have been much simpler if they had just allowed her to take her own life, and then the situation would have been resolved...
"There is one last task I'm going to perform, however," Setsuna announced suddenly, her eyes focusing on Hotaru. "I'm going to send you back to our world. The expanse of Time and Space will provide you some protection while allowing the people here some time to find out how to beat this woman. Trunks, I want you to go with her; Hotaru's powers will be sealed on the other side of the Door and will need someone capable of protecting her. Can you do that?"
Trunks didn't hesitate. "Yes."
"Wait," Goten interjected suddenly with a confused look on his face, "how is Trunks going to get back here if you're dead? Won't he be trapped over there, and Haruka and Michiru trapped here?"
"There is a part of myself that always lingers between Time and Space," Setsuna explained, "once the situation has resolved or things have improved, I will return Trunks to where he belongs."
Hotaru felt herself becoming angry with the whole conversation and this whole predicament. "Don't I get a say in what's going on here?! I'm sure those two will go on a rampage if I'm gone! And what about Haruka and Michiru?! Keiko just said that if I were to die that there would be no resurrection for me, and I'm sure the same goes for Haruka and Michiru—and you as well! Why would you do this knowing that there would be no going back and no second chances?"
A small, sad smile appeared on Setsuna's lips. "I think you can answer that question just as easily yourself, but I'll tell you. I'm doing it because I love you like a daughter, a sister, and the dearest friend anyone could ever have. You and I have shared similar struggles in our lives; we bear such terrifyingly strong powers that weigh so heavily upon our shoulders, we both know what it's like to be solitary because of the necessity of our duty and fitting in with everyone else was never an easy task for either of us.
"I've enjoyed this life of mine beyond the duty of protecting the Door, but I also realize that it is because of that duty that this trespass was allowed to happen," Setsuna continued. "I indulged too deeply in this life that I turned a blind eye to what was going on at the Door, allowing these beings from our universe to pass into this one. Perhaps I would have been powerless should I have actually been at the Door myself, but at least I would have known that I'd have given it my all.
"You've only just started to live your life and allowed yourself to step outside your shell to let other people in," Setsuna's voice adopted a happier tone, her smile stretching across her lips. "I was worried for you, that you seemed so hesitant in forming relationships beyond the Sailor Soldiers. Yet, you came here and blossomed, and I realized that you have this wonderful new life of yours to experience things you never before permitted yourself to. I want you to continue down this road, Hotaru; live and be happy instead of surrounding yourself with destruction and the memories of death."
"Setsuna…" the tears streamed down Hotaru's face now, her voice cracking at the mere uttering of the Soldier of Time's name. There was so much that she wanted to tell Setsuna, and yet she could not form a coherent and concrete sentence to utter to the woman who was about to die for her. Grief was beginning to consume her entirely, her head tilting down so that her bangs could cover her eyes. If the spell had not locked the rest of her body into place, Hotaru was certain that she would be trembling.
"Goodbye."
As soon as Setsuna uttered her final farewell, Trunks and Hotaru both disappeared from sight, and Setsuna allowed time to resume once again. The moment that she released her hold upon the flow of time, the Soldier of Time dropped to her knees on to the ground and the Garnet Rod fell from her grasp to the floor beside her. The strength that Setsuna once had in her body began to fade ever so quickly, hardly mustering the will to lift her head and stare at her two remaining comrades. She panted softly, the color soon fading from her once tanned face as the life began to disappear from her eyes.
Once again, Setsuna smiled. "Don't fail."
And then, she collapsed to the floor.
X
The sadness Trunks felt for what likely happened immediately to Setsuna after they were sent into the Time-Space Continuum almost instantaneously moved to the back burner as he watched what occurred around him. When Capsule Corporation's lobby faded away, the two of them became shrouded in a fog that was so thick that Trunks could hardly see his hand in front of his face. At first this caused him to become alarmed as he was unable to see Hotaru, but after sensing that the girl's ki was still present and very close to him, his worry faded into wonder. He guessed that they had passed out of the limits of his universe and into a place just beyond it, a place that no one could normally reach.
This first stage did not feel alien to him; it felt like the atmosphere of the Room of Spirit and Time that Goten and he had trained in back at Kami's Lookout. He could feel that space was distorted all around him and that time held no merit here, so he supposed he and Hotaru were somewhere in-between universes where things such as time and space did not really exist. This place was probably the pathway between worlds that were never meant to meet, but it nonetheless existed for reasons beyond Trunks's understanding.
The second stage was probably the most terrifying. The fog suddenly dissipated from around the two of them and a black void covered the entire area. At first this second stage was absolutely breathtaking as the blackness soon gave way to glimmers of light which Trunks recognized as stars, and soon planets began to burst into life around the two of them—it was like they were floating in space itself, witnessing the birth of another universe! However, Trunks was only allowed a few brief moments of amazement at this stage before the two of them began to fall at a frightening speed. At the rate they were falling, stars and planets appeared no more than distorted rays of light, rendering the both of them unable to see anything definitively. This free fall continued for a time much longer than Trunks's liking, but eventually it came to an end.
The final stage was a brilliant flash of white light that was so blinding that Trunks had to shut his eyes tightly and shield them with his wrist. In the next moment, the sensation of falling faded as his back softly connected to the ground. After a few moments of nothing else happening, he dared to peek cautiously out from behind his wrist. He and Hotaru were now located within what seemed like a living room, but it was one that seemed alien to Trunks. The shape of the room was squarer than he was used to, and what technology and devices existed within the living room seemed quite outdated compared to what was prevalent in his world. The atmosphere seemed similar to his world, but at the same time it seemed completely off.
"Is this…your house?" Trunks inquired as he gave the living room another glance before he looked to Hotaru. "Are we on your Earth now?"
Hotaru continued to sit on the floor, and regardless of the fact that they had just traversed time and space, she hadn't seemed to move an inch or spare a care. She continued to sit on the floor with her head tilted downward, her ebony bangs covering the top half of her face. Trunks could easily notice that tears were still pouring down her face, covering her cheeks in condensation from her grief. Understandably, she was still taking Setsuna's death very hard, and Trunks realized that this was no time to be marveling about the fact that they had just gone from one universe to another.
Trunks moved over to her then, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her body into his. He knew that there were no words that he could say that would make her feel better; all that Hotaru needed right now was to mourn over the death of her loved one, and he wasn't going to get into the way of that. He would let her cry as much as she needed to, until she either ran out of tears or passed out from exhaustion from her sadness, and he would be there for whatever she needed.
A/N: Please review, again my apologies. Until next time,
kusari
