CHAPTER 8: THE FINAL INTERNAL BATTLE
Dimando eventually returned to the past, destined complete his mission with Wicked Lady at his side. Unfortunately, Sailor Pluto knew his fate, and everyone else's. Even more unfortunate, was the fact that Sailor Pluto still loved Prince Dimando, considering the way he treated her, but there was nothing she could do now. Her emotions were so mangled and twisted within in her mind form being shut away for so long and resurfaced so quickly, Sailor Pluto was sure that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She knew what she had to do.
Sailor Pluto called upon the Droid Plutonia for the last time and put on the cloak of Topaz. She exited herself through the Door of Time to the past, hoping to settle unfinished business.
* * * *
Sailor Pluto phased in on a building overlooking 20th century Tokyo. A beautiful sunset spread its soft light on the water and into the city, but in its way stood a Dark Crystal Palace, a replica of the one in the future realm of Crystal Tokyo.
Sailor Pluto shuddered at the thought that she had betReid her friends and herself by allowing this to happen. A big part of this horror was her fault, due to her selfishness and greed. Tears filled her eyes and made her garnet irises shimmer in the fading light. She closed her eyes and the tears spilled over onto her cheeks.
"Now I will fight along side of my fellow warriors, the good side, the righteous side, to make a mend of the mess I helped cause." Sailor Pluto said to herself, phasing out on a gust of wind and teleporting within the monstrous amethyst.
She reappeared somewhere within, and was surrounded by faceted, mirrored crystals; shimmering in the dim light. Routes spread out all directions, a labyrinth among the prisms, and Sailor Pluto did not know which one to take. She had to find Prince Dimando before it was too late.
Sailor Pluto once used her mind powers to locate him, and teleported herself there, When she zonked back in, she was in the chamber used to house the Dark Crystal, and saw Dimando trying to control Sailor Moon with his mind powers again.
"Here we go again." Sailor Pluto thought, "Doe's he ever learn? The spoiled brat."
She prepared to stop the whole ordeal when she felt this force holding her back, and emotional force, like a conscience, telling her to let things be as they were.
Sailor Pluto obeyed, and sat down on a ledge overlooking the scene. She could alter the future if she interfered. So she decided to remain seated, and spectate the forthcoming. She tried to interpret what Dimando and Sailor Moon were saying to one another, but she could not pick it up, they were speaking too softly and she was too far away.
Then Wiseman suddenly appeared before Prince Dimando and Sailor Moon, and began to speak, but all Sailor Pluto heard was a mumble.
"Dimando's going down." She said to herself, "And there is nothing I can do about it."
Wiseman and Dimando began their fight then. Dimando's white energy clashed hard with Wiseman's, but was not strong enough to destroy it. Then Wiseman's energy shifted toward Sailor Moon, but before it could reach her, Dimando lurched forward into it to protect her. It pierced right into his left side, leaving a deep wound.
Sailor Pluto jumped to her feet.
Sailor Moon on the other hand, was sprawled out on the floor, in shock and suprise about Dimando's valiant save,
Prince Dimando struggled to get up, then turned to face Wiseman. Just as Wiseman tried to finish him off, Dimando used the rest of his powers to temporarily eliMinakote Wiseman, but before he could see the results, Prince Dimando collapsed in Sailor Moon's arms.
"No!" Sailor Pluto shouted, or at least she thought she did, she had imagined it. She could not interfere. So she slumped down on the ledge sobbing.
Wiseman began to regenerate then, as Prince Dimando took his last breath, confessing his true love for Sailor Moon. He had saved his soul, and returned good before it wad to late. But the battle wasn't over yet, for Sailor Pluto or Sailor Moon. They would both face great emotional and physical challenges.
Sailor Pluto leaped down from her hiding place, still out of Sailor Moon and Wiseman's sight.
Wiseman was taunting Sailor Moon at the time, trying to weaken her by making her upset. So Sailor Pluto crept up behind them and gently picked up the body of Prince Dimando. She knew that Sailor Moon and the rest of the scouts would return thing to normal in the past. They would restore Chibi-Usa to herself and destroy Wiseman that very evening. So Sailor Pluto took the liberty upon herself to restore the future to normal. And She began by phasing out with Dimando in her arms.
* * * *
Sailor Pluto reappeared in the future on a cliff overlooking the frozen and bleak Crystal Tokyo. There was no sunset or natural light whatsoever peaking through the dark gray overcast, just the soft, glowing light emitted from the force field surrounding the Crystal Palace, where the encased, sleeping body of Neo Queen Serenity lay within.
Sailor Pluto's arms were growing tired from holding Dimando's body, and his blood stained the front of her bodice. Sailor Pluto looked down at his face, it had grown pale and his eyes were closed, so she could no longer see his shimmering violet irises. She quickly looked away and a tear streamed down her face as she phased out and teleported within the Dark Crystal Palace.
Inside the palace, the little light available prismed through the wall and cast dim spectrums in the shadows. It was so quiet and eerie.
Sailor Pluto noticed light emitting from a corner. She walked toward it and followed it down a long corridor into a candlelit room.
It was a circular room with a high crystal rotunda ceiling. The walls were completely covered in high mirrors reaching half-way up to the rotunda. Each mirror was about three feet in width and they touched side to side around the room. In the center of the room was a large marble altar encircled by candles in sets of four on long brass candle stands, and on the altar laid the body of Safiru. This gave Sailor Pluto a horrible chill, but she continued to walk in.
Safiru was stiff and cold with death. His body was fully dressed with his arms straight at his sides. His head was straight with his deep blue, wavy hair gently curling around his forehead that boasted the absence of the DarkMoon birthmark. His face was completely colorless except for the remaining scratches and bruises left by Wiseman's blast.
Sailor Pluto then laid Prince Dimando's body next to that of Safiru's in the same positions as his brother's. She looked down at Dimando's paling face and gently and cautiously brushed his soft, white hair from his face.
She had this fear that he would suddenly jump up or open his eyes, so she kept her distance.
Dimando still had the emblem of his late legacy upon his forehead, but then Sailor Pluto leaned over and kissed it, and it disappeared beneath her lips. She stepped back and gazed sorrowfully at the sight of the two dead brothers.
"I can see the family resemblance now," Sailor Pluto said, lightly laughing to control her tears, "I didn't before but now I do. Come on now Setsuna, get a grip on yourself, you are talking to dead people, DEAD PEOPLE!" Sailor Pluto began to talk to herself, sobs schrilling in her voice, "Shhh, don't say that! Dead people can still hear, can't they? No, no. Yes! If they can be reincarnated, their souls hear me. They will not reach Nirvana yet, They led imperfect lives...Oh, reincarnation!"
Sailor Pluto collapsed on the floor by the foot of the altar, crying wildly, "I wasn't reincarnated. I wish I had been. Oh, how I wish, but no, oh no. I had to go and screw around with Endymion, I had to go and become immortal and go to the Timeless Dimension and watch as all of my loved ones get reincarnated over and over again. Five billion, ninety nine million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and seventy nine years of hell!" She struck the floor with her fist and it echoed among her cries in the room. Sailor Pluto then stood up and took off her cloak, and laid it on top of Dimando and Safiru's bodies.
"I no longer wish to look upon my wrong doings." She said, "This whole thing is my fault." She threw herself on the floor again, "MY FAULT!" She screamed. The word 'fault' echoed many times around the room, until it was silent. Then Sailor Pluto heard other voices begin to speak.
"It's all your fault." A voice said.
Sailor Pluto jumped up, "What? Who? Who said that?" She said, seeing her reflection in every mirror as she slowly spun around looking for someone.
"It's all your fault." It said again, right behind her.
Sailor Pluto jumped back and screamed.
"N-no way!" She turned and looked back at Safiru's body lying on the altar by Dimando's.
"You let me down, Setsuna." The image said, "You let me die."
"No! It's not true...I..." Sailor Pluto stopped and shook her head in denial.
"You deserved it." Another voice said, as and image of Dimando appeared in a mirror next to Safiru.
Rubeus then appeared next to Dimando, "you let me go to the future, and led me to fail so I went crazy and blew myself up. I thought you loved me."
"No, I-I...I didn't! I'm sorry! I..." Sailor Pluto was crying hysterically.
Esmeraude appeared next to Rubeus, "I see you still didn't do anything with your hair, but I'll blame you anyway. You let the Sailor Scouts into the future to kill me."
"You!" Topaz appeared next to Esmeraude, "You created me, you destroyed me, hell! I am you! How wild is that?"
Sailor Pluto screamed at her, "I didn't destroy you! You would have killed me if..."
"You disturbed the peace." Queen Serenity appeared next, "And you upset my daughter."
"It's your fault!" The other eight scouts said in unison in the following mirrors.
Sailor Moon was at the end, "You made me put my life in danger as well as Chibi-Usa's. You made me take care of the little brat!"
"You made me stay with Usagi when you made me go to the past. And you made me get the Silver Empyrean Crystal and you didn't help my mommy!" Chibi-Usa said in the mirror next to Sailor Moon.
"But Chibi-Usa, honey, I did what I had to do." Sailor Pluto said to her in tears.
Endymion appeared in the next mirror, "I just can't understand you anymore, Setsuna. What you did to me in the past was wrong, now what you did to all these other people, what's up with you?"
Sailor Pluto replied, "Hey wait a minute, Endymion. It wasn't all my fault here remember?"
"It's all your fault! You are to blame! You screwed up! It's all your fault!" Everyone chanted at her.
"No, stop!" Sailor Pluto sat down on her knees, clutching her head, "STOP!" She yelled, and it did. Sailor Pluto stood up and all the images in the mirror had disappeared. She continued to stand there in silence, trying to catch her breath, tears streaming down her face.
"It's over," She said softly, leaning on a mirror, "All over."
"Not yet." Said Safiru in the mirror behind her.
Sailor Pluto spun around suddenly. All the images had reappeared in the mirrors.
"No, it's not real, it's all in my head... "Sailor Pluto clutched her head and shook it in denial.
"You are never allowed to forget this." Queen Serenity's image said.
"You have to live with the guilt forever." Rubeus's image said.
"No! Please stop! Please!" Sailor Pluto screeched.
All the images in the mirrors laughed at her. Then some of them disappeared, and in their places were images of Sailor Pluto with Rubeus, Dimando, Safiru, her as Topaz, her with Endymion, and a variety of other scenes.
This was all very overwhelming to Sailor Pluto. She was standing there, her hands on her head and over her ears to block out the taunts. It was all in her head, she could fight it.
No, she couldn't. She grabbed the nearest candle stand and swung it at the nearest mirror, shattering it and spewing glass everywhere. She tightened her grip and went on to the next one, nailing it right in the middle so cracks shot out in all directions, like the outstretched legs of a spider, but she didn't stop there. Sailor Pluto continued to destroy several more mirrors, then threw the long candle stand at the other mirrors.
She stood there and inhaled a deep breath, then let out her sonic Dead Scream. Each mirror exploded, sending glass flying in through the air in what seemed like slow motion toward Sailor Pluto. The sharp particles past straight through her without harm, a pro of immortality among many cons. She stood there with her arms outstretched receiving the broken glass.
Sailor Pluto then turned and ran from the room and onto a ledge where she jumped off outside the palace. She landed on her feet and stepped back from the giant crystal.
"So this is the end." Sailor Pluto said, "This is how it has to end."
She faced the Dark Crystal Palace, her eyes were fixed directly upon it, there was no turning back now. Sailor Pluto closed her eyes.
"Pluto..." She hesitated, "Pluto Dead Scream Destroy!"
Sonic waves ten times stronger than what Sailor Pluto used to shatter the mirrors emit from her, striking the palace at full force and disintegrating it into a pile of shimmering purple dust.
Sailor Pluto collapsed on the ground, weakened by the use of her powers in such a magnitude. She reached over and picked up a handful of the purple dust, tears from her eyes fell into it as she stood up and threw it into the wind.
The force field around the Crystal Palace lifted and the sky began to clear up with the bright sun piercing through the broken overcast. The future was saved.
Everyone began to wake up out of their frozen comas, including Neo Queen Serenity, but Sailor Pluto couldn't stay and chat. She had to get back to her dimension. So she teleported back and faced the droid in her place. Without hesitating, Sailor Pluto grabbed her Time Key from the droid and struck it down with the staff. The droid just disappeared, as if it popped like a bubble. Sailor Pluto was perplexed by this reaction, but nonetheless, she had a job to do.
* * * *
"Luna P!" A voice cried out in the Timeless Dimension.
"Chibi-Usa!" Sailor Pluto knelt down as Chibi-Usa surged into her arms, "The Small Lady if Crystal Tokyo returns!" She laughed.
"Oh no! Aunt Poo, are you hurt?" Chibi-Usa pointed out the stain of Dimando's blood on Sailor Pluto's bodice. She had forgotten to take care of that.
"I had a broken heart, but it's all better now that I've seen you." Sailor Pluto smiled at Chibi-Usa.
"If I kiss it will it go away? That's what Mommy does to my boo-boos." Chibi-Usa said.
"I don't know, let's see." Sailor Pluto said.
Chibi-Usa softly kissed Sailor Pluto's stomach where the stain was and it disappeared.
"All better." Chibi-Usa said, "Can I go home to mommy now?" She asked.
"Yes, of course." Sailor Pluto said, then opening the Door of Time and Space. She leaned over and kissed Chibi-Usa on the forehead, "Good Luck, Small Lady. Say hello to your mother for me."
"Bye, Luna P!" Chibi-Usa said, "Wait!" She handed Sailor Pluto back her Crystal Time Key necklace.
"No, you keep it so you can come back and visit me any time you want." Sailor Pluto said, giving it back to Chibi-Usa.
"Okay then. Bye-bye Luna P!" Chibi-Usa said, drifting off in the void to the Time Warp.
"Bye, Small Lady." Sailor Pluto said, shutting the Door of Time. When she turned around, she was greeted by an unexpected visitor.
"You Majesty!" Sailor Pluto curtseyed before Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom.
"Hello Setsuna." Queen Serenity said, "Who is that Small Lady child you were speaking to?" She nosily asked.
"That happens to be your granddaughter, your Majesty." Sailor Pluto said.
Queen Serenity seemed confused, "Usagi will have a child? When?"
"I cannot tell you that, your Majesty. You will learn for yourself what Usagi holds in her future." Sailor Pluto explained, "You can be reassured that she does have a promising future."
"I see you have already grown familiar with the rules of Time over the course of two days." Queen Serenity said.
"Two days? Oh, yes. I forgot. No time." Sailor Pluto said.
Queen Serenity looked confused again, "Setsuna, the real reason I came back to see you is to pardon you." She said, "Temporarily, anyway. You see, we need your help. The Beryllians have launched a major attack on the Earth and I'm afraid we won't make it."
"You won't. Oops! I mean, I'm sorry but my place is here." Sailor Pluto said.
"What are you saying, Setsuna?" Queen Serenity asked, "That you actually want to stay here? You look as if you've been crying, come now. You can't be serious."
"Yes, I am." Sailor Pluto said, "I have learned my lesson, but I still feel obligated to be here. As if it was my destiny."
"Well, if you feel so strongly about it, I understand." Queen Serenity said, "Good-bye, Setsuna."
"Before you go, these words of advice." Sailor Pluto said, "Protect the children of the Moon and Earth, for they may be your only hope."
"I will remember that. You would know, I suppose." Queen Serenity said, "I bid you farewell." She phased out.
Sailor Pluto sighed and said to herself, "The element of immortality is heartbreak. Among all of the dark secrets one can hold heavy in their hearts, there still is the brightness of truth and honesty."
The End
March 31, 1999; 11:37 am