Sailor Moon: Secondary Characters: Duel
{Jon Carp}
address: jcarp@med.unc.edu

Never the murdered finalities of wherewhen and yesno,impotent nongames
of wrongright and rightwrong;never to gain or pause,never the soft
adventure of undoom,greedy anguishes and cringing ecstasies of
inexistence;never to rest and never to have:only to grow.--e.e.
cummings




Simultaniously, though not at the same time, two people named
Sailor Pluto (one blonde, one with green hair) glanced over at Ten'ou
Haruka and suddenly realized, "Hey, I used to BE her!"

That constant weird feeling in their stomachs grew until they
knew what had been happening. The changes that had been made. The
switching. It had to be fixed. And since neither knew which had been
Pluto first, there was only one way to settle it fairly.






The four of them, in groups of two, met in the spaceless,
timeless void. It was kind of purple. But black and yellow too.
Familiar to half of those gathered.

The others looked around in confusion, at their surroundings,
at the people around them. They looked extremely familiar.

They both stared at each other, and exclaimed simultaniously
something like, "Setsuna! Why are YOU dressed like ME?"

Then they noticed the people standing next to each of them.
They gaped and sputtered something to the effect of, "You... you look
just like me!"

The blonde woman dressed as Sailor Pluto ignored both her
companion and the other. Instead, she stared at her foe intensely.
"I suppose you know why we're here," she said.

The green-haired woman standing across from her smiled
slightly. "Of course," she answered. "I set it up."

Blonde Pluto raised an eyebrow. "No, I did."

"Well, apparently we both did. So, I suppose you do know
why."

The green-haired Uranus broke in then. "What the hell is
going on?" she asked, her voice not at all showing her fear.

"Shut up, Uranus," green-haired Pluto commanded.

The other Guardian of Time ignored that transaction. "Duel,"
she said.

"Duel."

The Urani looked confused. "Duel?"





Blonde Pluto went to her Uranus and pointed to green-haired
Uranus. "Fight," she whispered. "You fight her."

Blonde Uranus's forehead crinkled. "Why?"

"For Michiru. You're fighting for Michiru."

"But...but why? I already have her."

Blonde Pluto shook her head. "Not anymore. She has to be
won."

"But why?" green-haired Uranus asked herself in Pluto form.
"She's already mine."

"Not always. Sometimes she belongs to her." Green-haired
Pluto pointed to blonde Uranus. "That's why we're doing this. If you
win, you will stay Uranus. If you lose, you will be deleted from
existence to make way for her. And she will stay with Michiru, and I
will be alone."

"What? But...but I'm Uranus NOW, I'm supposed to be with her
forever...I..."

Green-haired Pluto grabbed her Uranus on the arm hard. "Shut
up! She's Uranus too, can't you see that? There can only be one.
We can't keep switching back and forth anymore."

"Wh...what?"

"Just FIGHT HER!!"





They met in the middle, swords in hand, circling warily.
Blonde Uranus made a wide swipe to the right leg, which was easily
dodged. Green-haired Uranus faked with a slice down to the skull and
stabbed at the neck. This was parried and knocked to the side. They
continued circling.





Back within the confines of time and space, in a scene
completely unrelated to the battle, Rei and Minako sat talking.

"Well," Minako said. "How many times have you helped or
supported her... say... so far this month?"

"Many times," Rei answered automatically. "Over twenty."

Minako was suprised. "Really?"

Rei glared at her. "Don't give me that look. You know I've
been trying to do better with that."

Minako nodded. "I know. Okay... how many times have you
saved her life this month?"

"Twice. Once yesterday with that purple monster, and once a
couple of weeks ago when that bug thing shot that laser at her."

"Oh, right. And what was her reaction?"

Rei sighed. "She thanked me. Just like all the other times.
And then she forgot about it."

They sat in silence. Rei chuckled to herself. "I'd like to
say that's her way of showing her feelings," she said. "But it's not,
is it?"

Minako shook her head. "Nope. Why don't you just tell her?
Just go up to her and say, 'You mean more to me than anything else in
the world'?"

Rei was about to say something sarcastic, but the phone rang.
She leaned over and answered it.

The person on the other end did not give her enough time to
identify herself or even say hello. "Hi, Rei?"

Rei grunted in frustration. "Hello again, Michiru."

"I...I'm sorry to bother you again, but..."

"No, we have not seen Haruka," Rei said. "Or Setsuna, for
that matter. Don't worry, they're just off doing something. I mean,
Haruka doesn't have to take you EVERYWHERE she goes, does she?"

"No, I...I guess not. Okay, but if you see them, tell them to
call me right away, will you?"

"Sure. Bye."

"Sorry again. Bye."

Rei hung up and shook her head in exasperation.






The Plutos watched the duel together. "I'm going to win," the
green-haired one said. "I always was the better fighter."

"You have no chance. I am much stronger, and you know I'm
better with a sword." She laughed. "You were a fool to make this a
physical contest."

"Fool?" Green-haired Pluto stared at the other coldly. "You
call me a fool? Just ask Michiru which one of us she thinks is the
more foolish. You think she respects your intelligence?"

Blonde Pluto raised an eyebrow. "You can't rile me up by
saying her name. Just because I have emotions once in a while
doesn't mean you can manipulate me."

Green-haired Pluto smiled. "Of course it does. It makes you
act like a fucking moron. You're ridiculous with your passion and
anger. I can't figure out what she ever saw in you."

Blonde Pluto chuckled. "Maybe it's the fact that I have a
personality. Unlike someone else I could mention."

Red eyes glared at her enemy. "I'm kind to her," she growled.
"You... you drive her around in your fast cars and play the piano for
her, and taunt her and control her and manipulate her and then you
expect her to love you!"

"But she does. Even when I'm Pluto, she always loves ME best.
It was always--"

"I KNOW!!" Green-haired Pluto shook with fury. "I know! But
I love her too, damn it! And I will gladly kill you to be with her."

Blonde Pluto laughed loudly at the absurdity of this person
and her ludicrous love. She kept it up.

A short shriek stopped her. Blonde Pluto was wounded on the
leg. She tried to ignore it, but the pain slowed her reaction time.
She wasn't able to block the swipe across the stomach. She screamed
and collapsed to her knees.

Blonde Pluto screamed too. Her brain had lost itself. The
only important part of it, anyway.

Blonde Uranus felt it too. She could taste her own blood.
Salty. Like the ocean.

"NO!!!" she screamed, startling the victorious green-haired
Uranus. She jumped to her feet and brought her sword around across
the neck.

Blood spurted, blood mixed, and the Urani went down together.






The Plutos stood over their dead hopes and selves. "We
didn't think this out," the blonde one said.

"No," the green-haired one answered. "We did not."