Author's Note – I'm not even going to lie. The only reason why I decided to include the French Revolution in this fic was for the literary in-joke at the end.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Chapter 11
Raymonde sneered at the crude drawing that someone had scribbled on a pamphlet. It was a picture of herself with Queen in some sort of orgiastic black ritual. Another lie for the masses. Raymonde barely even noticed these things any more. She had gone to Versailles in search of a husband, thinking nothing of her duties as a lady-in-waiting at the time. It was simply a means to an end. But the Queen had reminded her so much of her own mother, and after witnessing the attacks that Mare Antoinette was force to endure… her duty to her was no longer an obligation, but an act of honor. She would not abandon her. Raymonde's devotion to her Queen had kept her bound to the other woman, a fact that did not go unnoticed. Pornography about the two of them circulated throughout Paris and France in the form of pamphlets, all of them depicting depraved acts with beasts and children and witchcraft. How could people believe such obvious lies? It was disgusting.
Raymonde threw it on the fire and turned back to her embroidery. Unlike so many of the Queen's friends, Raymonde had stayed with her, even when the people had forced her and the King out of Versailles and into Tuileries Palace in Paris. There was no longer a royal court or out-dated rituals or excessive decadence; here the King and Queen were simply Monsieur and Madame Bourbon.
The soft tunes of a piano filled the parlor and Raymonde tapped her foot in time as she worked her needle through the cloth. Every now and then a sharp note would ring out and the Queen's voice would cluck at her daughter, correcting her fingers and encouraging her to try again. Suddenly there came a sharp knock on the trap door and the music came to a swift stop. Raymonde immediately stood up, tense and ready, wondering at whom it could possibly be. No one was supposed to know about the secret entrance.
Marie Antoinette came striding towards the far wall, holding her finger to her lips to keep Raymonde from speaking. It was almost impossible to tell where the wall stopped and the door began and Raymonde would have never noticed if the Queen hadn't pointed it out to her. Marie Antoinette gently cracked open the door and peered inside. The stiff outline of her shoulders suddenly relaxed and she pulled the door open wide enough for Raymonde to see who it was. The Chevalier, Céleste Saint-Gilles, stood at the threshold. Marie Antoinette quickly ushered him inside, though he still looked nervous. He peeked out the parlor windows and waved his hand at Raymonde, indicating to her that she should close the curtains, before taking a seat on the sofa across from the Queen.
He had changed she had last seen him. Céleste had always been a little chubby, but he had lost weight over the years, leaving him looking wan and stressed. His clothes were common and he no longer powdered his hair, leaving the natural blonde to shine through. Raymonde found that she liked the color.
"Did you deliver my letters?" The Queen demanded. "Is my nephew finally going to send troops in to rescue us?"
Céleste winced and slowly shook his head. "The Emperor is tied up with the war. He begs that you try to find some means of escape-"
Marie Antoinette jumped to her feet at the suggestion. "And live my life in exile?! I am the Queen! I have been chosen by God! No," the Queen shook her head and began to pace up and down the small parlor. "Even if I wanted to it's impossible. There are guards everywhere. They'll catch us, just like they did before. I'll send a letter to my sister, Maria Carolina. She's the Queen of Naples and Sicily, surely she can help."
Raymonde and Céleste stole a glance as the Queen continued to make her plans. They knew it was futile; it was only a matter of time before everything came to an end. Céleste stood up and bowed to the Queen. "Your Majesty, I need to leave before anyone notices that I'm here. If the guards catch me they'll know you've been conspiring against the Republic and then…" He didn't finish. They all knew what would happen then.
Marie Antoinette nodded and waved her hand. "Yes. Go. I'll send for you again when I am ready."
Céleste nodded and bowed once more to both the Queen and Raymonde. She caught his blue eyes as he straightened up and he smiled grimly at her. Once, a long time ago, she wouldn't have thought the Chevalier was capable of such loyalty and courage. He had seemed so childish and foolish. Perhaps there was something more to him after all.
Céleste quickly darted his way through the winding alleys, always remaining alert in case there were any soldiers lurking about. He felt himself slowly relax as he ducked into a small lane that would lead back to the tavern he was staying in. He was far away from the palace now that no guard would be able to arrest him for treason and conspiracy.
"Céleste."
The Chevalier yelped and spun around at the sound. One hand clutched his chest and the other his pistol as the figure of a woman slowly stepped out of the shadows. "Salome?" He asked as the beautiful dark-skinned woman he had come to call a friend came to stand in front of him. "What are you doing? I told you to go to England! It's not safe here anymore!"
She held up a hand to quiet him. "Believe me, there is no one on this planet that can harm me." She sounded insulted at the very thought of needing protection from the revolutions. "I don't need your protection, but I am in need of your help. I have been trying to make contact with Raymonde d'Poitiers, but it's been… difficult."
Céleste snorted. Difficult… that was one way of putting it. "Why do you care so much about Raymonde?" The Chevalier demanded. "She doesn't like you one bit, but you've been obsessed with her for as long as I've known you."
Salome gave him a slow, creeping smile. It was like she knew a wonderful secret and couldn't wait to share it. "There is something important that I need to tell her. That I need to tell both of you. Please, will you bring me to her? I wouldn't ask this from you if I thought I could get away with unleashing my full power, but I've already involved myself too deeply in this timeline and this point in history is too important for me to mess up. I don't need another mistake on my conscience."
Céleste frowned in puzzlement at her mutterings of timelines, but nodded all the same. "Come back with me to the tavern and wait for a few days," he commanded.
"No, we need to go tonight. There won't be another chance."
"Why is that?"
"Just… trust me. I need to see her tonight."
"Alright, if you insist."
The smile that Salome gave him was blinding; he had seen her smile, of course, but never like this. Even when smiling, she had never seemed truly happy, but rather sad or secretive. Now she grinned wide and took his arm in hers as they started on their way. "If I'd known you'd have smiled like that I would have agreed to take you to see anyone you wanted, even if it was Robespierre himself." Céleste teased.
Salome laughed. "You had hated Raymonde last time I met you. You wouldn't have taken me to see her even if I had begged. So, what's changed?" It was her turn to tease.
Céleste blushed hotly at the implication. "Nothing!" He replied quickly. "Err, well, I mean nothing like that. I admire her, is all. I am a chevalier, it is my duty to the serve the monarchy even when I'd rather run away. But Raymonde doesn't have any obligations, and yet she refuses to leave the Queen's side even at her own peril. She's the bravest woman I've ever met."
"And pretty too, isn't she?"
Céleste wondered if he should just lie down on the street and wait for the embarrassment to kill him. "Good God, woman!" He spluttered. "There's a revolution going on! We can't think about things like that! Especially not about Raymonde!"
Sailor Pluto looked out anxiously at the guards and militiamen that were patrolling outside of the tavern. If she was ever going to unlock Céleste and Raymonde's memories, it had to be tonight. Tomorrow was August 9 and the deadline for the Legislative Assembly to formally dethrone the King and Queen. The beginning of the end.
"Close those curtains! They'll see you," Céleste commanded and Sailor Pluto pulled back to look at the Chevalier's face. "We'll have to wait for tomorrow night. They're on to me. It's too hot to go right now."
"No! It has to be tonight!" Sailor Pluto hissed.
"Do you have a better idea? Because I can't see any way of getting passed those guards!"
She was Sailor Pluto. If she wanted to she could stop time and then Céleste could simply waltzed to Tuileries. But she had gotten too deep into this timeline already. She had destroyed the palace of the first Emperor of China, drove him insane with the fear of his own death… she had had children with Wilhelm, for Chronos's sake, and who knows what that might eventually lead to. Those actions had been dangerous enough; the fall of the French monarchy, however, could not be meddled with. The Revolution was the base on which the future of European history rested on. Involving herself like this… it was like pulling at an errant thread in a sweater. You don't know where it led until it was already unraveled. Sailor Pluto could look through the door, out into the future, to see what and how something will happen, but she it still wouldn't tell her why. She could watch the simple life of a man missing the bus, having to share a taxi with another woman, only to later fall in love and marry that same woman. Sailor Pluto could point and say that it was only because he had missed the bus that they had fallen in love. It would be true, if he hadn't they would have never met, but she still wouldn't know that the only reason the woman had agreed to go on a date with him was because a friend had canceled their plans. There were too many strings to pull. Sailor Pluto couldn't become too involved in this period as well. She was… unnatural to this planet, to this time. She didn't belong here. She had only meant to awaken Serenity, she was never meant to become involved. She had promised she wouldn't it again. She refused.
But Céleste was a part of the timeline. He wasn't an aberration, unlike her. If Sailor Pluto became too involved, it might lead to a catastrophe- not just for the Earth or for this particular event, but for the whole of time itself. She was already playing a dangerous game trying to keep from looping back into her own timeline, from creating too many paradoxes. But Céleste…
"Listen to me, this is going to sound very strange, but I need you to do everything that I ask," Sailor Pluto commanded, turning to clasp Céleste's hands into her own. "I want you to say the words 'Moon Prism Power, Make-Up', okay?"
"What? Why?" Céleste asked.
"Please?" She could barely feel the faint echo of the Silver Crystal, even though they were touching skin-to-skin. Please let this work.
"Moon Prism Power, Make-Up," Céleste yelled.
Nothing.
There was nothing.
Sailor Pluto sank onto a chair. The only option left was for her to go out there and rescue Raymonde herself. One use of her Dead Scream attack and she would obliterate anything that stood in her way. And then what? The Tuileries Palace would be destroyed, there would be nothing for the militia to invade. What of the King and Queen? Would they then be able to escape and flee to Austria? Would they later mount a civil war and reclaim the French throne?
"You've been asking me to trust you this entire time." Céleste's indignant voice broke through Sailor Pluto's thoughts. She turned to look up at the man who was staring down at her with growing fear and anxiety. "I think it's time you started trusting me. What exactly is going on here?"
"I am an alien from the planet Pluto," she replied dully. "You are the reincarnation of the Moon Princess. Raymonde was your lover."
Céleste stood there for a moment, simply looking at her in confusion. "Wait. I used to be a girl?"
"Yes!" Sailor Pluto jumped up, her frustration mounting. Why couldn't anything happen the way she wanted to for once? "I have been trying to awaken your memories over and over again but you keep dying! And by tomorrow night I'll have failed again! Raymonde will be imprisoned and executed along with the King and Queen and anyone else who supported them!"
As Sailor Pluto screamed these last words a blinding white light filled the room. It flashed, nearly blinding the Sailor Soldier. Sailor Pluto blinked away the dark spots that danced in front of her vision before focusing on the man in front of her. Céleste… had changed. Gone were the simple clothes he had on merely moments ago, he was now garbed all in white. White breeches, white stockings, white jacket, white cape… topping it all was a white top hat and domino mask. He held a single scarlet pimpernel in his hand.
"What happened?" He asked as he twirled the small flower between his fingers.
"You… transformed." Not into a Sailor Soldier, it was true; he didn't have enough power for that. Sailor Pluto had never seen a soldier like him before. "Why?"
"I don't know. You just mentioned Raymonde being imprisoned and I felt… then this happened." He looked so scared and unsure.
"Céleste, you have a power inside of you. This transformation… it will let you run faster, jump farther. I need you to go. Go get Raymonde and bring her here. I'll be waiting."
Céleste left, the cape sweeping behind him as he glided out of the door. Sailor Pluto rushed to the window, peeking out from behind the curtain. She could just barely see the Chevalier's silhouette as he leapt onto the roof of a building, bounding away towards Tuileries.
Sailor Pluto waited and waited. She sat there in that little room until morning. When she saw the sun beginning to rise she finally admitted to herself that they were not going to come back. She hoped that they had been able to escape, to settle down somewhere in England and live out the rest of their lives together. She didn't go looking for them to find out.
