Disclaimer: Naoko-sensei and Bandai own Sailor Moon. I don't, and I don't intend any disrespect with this story.
Continuity: After Sailor Moon R, but before Sailor Moon S.
Time Enough
Interlude 1
by Corina "Mako" Borsuk
The winds howled, buffeting the solitary figure with enough power to topple the strongest and most sure-footed, but the young woman held her ground. As suddenly as it came, the wind died down. Yet, even as her long, dark-green hair and short, dark skirt settled back into place, the young woman knew that the danger was still present. For this was the Fourth Dimension, where all times were simultaneously past, present, and future.
The winds that forever blew in this time outside of time were literally the winds of change. Like ripples on a pond, the winds blew from one event to another, starting at their point of origin and extending to affect all that would come after. In the Fourth Dimension, these winds were constant; for at any given moment in any place in time, a decision or action was being made that would change what was to come after it. Sometimes the winds were a light breeze, if the event held little significance and caused little change. Other times, as had just occurred, the winds raged with a fury unimaginable to most. Those winds signified a change so profound that nothing in the time to follow would remain the same. All of these changes occurred naturally, although the more significant ones less so.
Regardless of the changes wrought, of whether she found them to her liking or not, the young woman who wielded the Staff of Time and held the Keys to the Fourth Dimension was honor bound to do nothing to change it.
She was Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Time. No one knew who had given her this task, nor how long she had served at her post. For, despite her youthful appearance, she was older than the span of recorded history on Earth, older even than the Silver Millennium. Perhaps even Pluto herself no longer remembered when she had come to guard the Gate of Time, but guard it she did. It was her sacred duty to ensure that no one tampered with the time stream, no matter the cause. Twice she had violated her oath, allowing others passage through the Fourth Dimension. The first time had been when Queen Serenity sent the spirits of Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, and the Sailor Soldiers, as well as the physical bodies of Luna and Artemis, to Earth's future. The second time had been only recently, in so far as her own personal time-line traveled. She had allowed Small Lady to travel to the past and the Sailor Soldiers to travel to the future in order to prevent the Black Moon Family from changing the past.
That threat to the time stream had ended with the end of the Wiseman. Or, so Pluto had thought. But, the violent winds that had just blown through the Fourth Dimension were not the result of natural changes to the time stream. Just moments before, Sailor Pluto felt someone or something pass through the Gate of Time. Whatever it was had become lost, as all things did unless in possession of one of the keys that hung from the chain around Pluto's waist. She had been searching for the anomalous entity when the winds began. It could only mean that, despite being lost in her domain, the entity had managed to alter a point in time.
The Guardian of Time's duty was clear. First, she must find whatever it was that had entered her domain unwelcome and prevent it from doing any further damage. Then, she must determine where and when the time disruption had occurred. Last, and most difficult of all, Sailor Pluto had to try and repair the damage without causing any further disruptions herself.
******
to be continued