Families Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own SailorMoon, I have no money so don't sue me or I'll have to counter-sue (and Mills Lane will side with me) ~_^

"For your quest you must go to each of the original kingdoms gather these." she then created an image of eleven crystal shards, each a different color. "What happens when I find them?" What did some pieces of a broken crystal have to do with anything? Queen Serenity smiled at me, "Each shard represents an element you will need for your journey. This first shard is Destination, it will take you to each of the kingdoms, but it will only take you when it feels you are ready." She handed me a shard, which I found curious because she's dead. but it was real. She continued, "You now have the shard from the Moon Kingdom, where you go next is up to the shard." I look down at the shard it's glowing faintly, "But how will I." I look up and she's gone. "Now what?" I ask aloud there's suddenly a flash of light so bright I had to shield my eyes, when I looked again there was a sort of portal made of light. I look at the shard, which is glowing a bit brighter, "I suppose you want me to go through that?" It flashes as if acknowledging my question; I shake my head, "Great now I'm talking to a piece of a crystal. Oh well what have I got to lose?" Taking a breath I walk into the portal.

The first thing I noticed on reaching my new destination is that it's dark. I don't mean it's night dark I mean it's I can barely see in front of me dark. To prove this I ever so gracefully trip over something and fall on my face. "Are you alright?" a male voice asks as he helps me up. "I think so, how can you see anything here?" I try to look around I can see a star that's closer than just about any I've seen, but it's not close enough to be a sun, or is it? "You know what forget my first question, where are we?" He smiles a familiar smile, "I was waiting for you to ask that. Welcome to Pluto." My jaw drops, "P-Pluto?!? As in the planet?!?" He continues to smile, "Yes, but perhaps you would feel better indoors." he leads me toward a faint light I hadn't noticed before, as we get closer I notice it's a palace. It's nothing like the Crystal Palace on Earth, but it is beautiful. The palace appears to be made out of black marble and gemstones, I've never seen anything like it, but for some reason it looks familiar. "Welcome back to Charon Castle." I wonder what he means by 'welcome back' but all thoughts leave me as we walk in. The inside is lit but not by any conventional source. There are no light bulbs, no candles, and no fires. I look around and notice that it appears the gemstones are glowing. "I'm sorry but who are you?" I asked my host, he looks old but ageless. He smiles again, "I'm Chronos, the king of Pluto and the Father of Time." "This is probably a dumb question, but." he raises his hand to stop me, "There are no 'dumb' questions, and to answer your unspoken questions: yes I know about your quest, and yes I know Sailorpluto." His smile is a lot like the smile I've seen on Sailorpluto when someone talked about Small Lady, "I know what you're going to ask, and the Sailorpluto you know is my daughter, but that is unimportant. You're here for a quest I'm letting you know some of the people you'll encounter will be like Serenity, life impaired, others will be like me still alive but they might not be happy about it." By now he had led me into a dining hall that was set up with a feast. He motioned for me to have a seat, "You must be famished eat as much as you like." Before I could protest he walked off, so I did the sensible thing and ate. After I finished I walked to the other end of the table and noticed another shard, Chronos must have set it there before he left, but how was it standing upright? There's a note next to it, 'This is the shard of time it will return you to the proper time. Chronos' I pick up the shard and am blinded by the light from the portal. When the light disappears I notice I'm no longer in Charon, but in a field, to the left I can see the remains of a castle. Wherever I am it's not Pluto.

It's too bright, there's a slight breeze moving over the landscape. I'm so involved in looking around that I was surprised when I heard a voice. "Are you still alive? I'd have thought someone would have killed you by now." I turn to face a sneering face that resembles Sailoruranus, but is sterner. "Who.?" I start but stop when I notice the person is glaring at me. "It doesn't matter who I am, and I don't care why you're here just take the shard and get out of my kingdom." The figure throws a shard at me, I barely catch it, but instead of the portal opening, I'm stuck standing there being glared at. "Well why are you still here?" I can't help it this feels familiar, even though I know no one has ever spoken to me like this. "I-I don't know why I'm still here." I can feel tears forming, "Queen Serenity said I would depart when the Destination shard decided it was time. and Chronos' note said the Time shard would return me to the proper time." my voice cracks and drops off. I don't know why but this person scares, and angers me. The ghost, he's transparent like Queen Serenity, throws his arms into the air, "Why are you doing this Serenity?? Is this my punishment? To get stuck with her?? Is this because of what I did in the Silver Millennium?" he starts to walk away while still talking to the air. "Wait, please. If you won't tell me who you are can you at least tell me where I am?" He turns to glare at me, "You are in what's left of my kingdom staring at my ghost. I died protecting my world and family from the threat that was probably your fault!!" I shrink back, but he continues, "I have no reason to give you any help or the desire to, but" he takes a breath, "it's obvious Serenity won't let you leave until I talk to you. You're on Uranus and if you want to know anything follow me." he started walking toward the ruins, I follow wondering why Queen Serenity would make me stay in a place where I was hated. But why was I hated here? He had said that whatever destroyed his kingdom was probably my fault; it couldn't have been the Nemesis attack the land was too healed for it to have been attacked that recently. After he reached the ruins he stopped, he motioned me to sit. I sat on rock closest to the clearing we had come through, and waited for him to speak. After a few moments of silence, "You're sitting in what's left of Miranda the castle of Uranus which fell during the Silver Millennium, before the attack on the Moon Kingdom. We were part of the first defense and we failed. Luckily Sailoruranus made up for it by dying to protect the princess." He still doesn't look at me, "The shard I gave you is the shard of endurance. I'm not one for telling legends or tales so I won't be the one to explain the shards." I start fidgeting, "Why am I hated here?" my voice is barely a whisper. He glares at me, again, "You don't know? Don't you remember??"