Junsuisa
Chapter 8: Pluto

I'm very sorry I took so long to get this out!! I don't really have any excuses, so if anyone still reading this: I'm just really sorry!
I got three reviews!! Arigatou!! Thank you DistanceStar (Nightseer is a GREAT book by Laurell K. Hamilton, but she also got a bunch of other awsome books, Anita Blake and _____). Merci beaucoup Larky-chan! And domo arigatou Sera Luanma! (Lothor will be in very soon!)

Disclaimer: I own nothin'!

Now on with the fic!

Usagi walked into the bathing room, and was thankful to see that no one else was in the large bathing area. The cool calm water stretched out before her empty. Taking off her clothes hurriedly (leaving the bandage on to cover the demon mark) she slipped into the soothing water and wadded towards the fountain in the middle to clean her hair. Picking up the soap on the ledge she began to lather it in her long hair. Suddenly the soap seemed to jump from her hands and Usagi cursed as it fell into the water. "Urle's forge, can I do nothing right?"
She grabbed another soap from the fountain ledge and stepped back to finish lathering her hair. As she did she found the dropped soap, her foot slipping out from beneath her and smacking her head on the stone fountain. Her vision blurred and she fought to stay conscious, but in the end the darkness took over and she fell into the water. Her last thought was, Now I die... after I finally got free... Stupid soap!

'Where am I?' was the first thought that floated into Usagi's head. She opened her eyes to see grey fog swirling around her, faint lights coming from no where. 'Am I dead?' She sat up fast and clutched her pounding head.
"Itai..." Usagi muttered. 'No not dead,' she thought wryly as pain pounded through her head like an entire marching band that was playing out of tune. Her voice echo strangely through the grey smoke, but she got no answer back. She could see nothing, it was like the fog/smoke was trying to hide something from her. Usagi looked up to her right when she heard footsteps walking towards her, high heels to be exact. The woman came into view and the first thing Usagi saw was a pair of black knee high boots with about a two inch heel. A short black skirt covered the bottom part of a white body suit (just barely.). A large black bow with a magenta crystal in the middle covered most of her chest. White gloves with three black rings at the top covered from fingers to elbow. A sailor flap that was pure black went over her shoulders and a black choker was around her neck, a small garnet bead attached. She had the same colored earrings and jewel in the middle of a tiara. Tanned skin framed garnet eyes that held the ages. It only took a second for this former princess to recognize her old friend.
"PUU!" Usagi screamed in recognition.
"Hello, Princess." Pluto bowed. She was utterly calm and revealed nothing.
Usagi started to sputter. "Nande Kuso?! Why are you here? How did I get here? How did you get here? Why am I here? Am I dead?" She asked without taking a single breath. She started to pace back and forth, still sputtering and cursing. Usagi was almost having a nervous break down.
"Are you quite done, Princess?" Pluto asked.
"Hell No! I'm not done! First tell me why you are here? No wait, first tell me - where the hell have you been the last fourteen years of my life?! Why was I sent here? Was it a mistake or fate or was I kidnapped and they sent me here only to be returned when you paid a hefty ransom?!"
"You always did have an over active imagination, Princess." Pluto laughed.
"Well, when you leave me in another dimension with no explanation as to why I was sent here I start to make up my own theories." Usagi huffed.
"That is perfectly reasonable." She stated. "But that is not important right now, I must tell you the reason I came to you."
"Yeah, why did you finally decide to relieve me of thinking everything from my past wasn't real, just a dream? Why did you finally decide to grace me with your presence?" Usagi said, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
"I am here, Princess, to tell you what has taken place when you went into the pit." Pluto said calmly ignoring Usagi's anger.
"Excuse me? I think I might have heard you wrong. You finally come to see me after fifteen years and it's just to tell me something I already know? I know what happened in the pit! I was there! I got cursed! I have a demon mark!" Usagi yelled. "Just go away! I don't need you!"
"No, Princess, you did not get cursed. That is not a demon mark."
"First stop calling me Princess and second I think I know when I get cursed." Usagi ripped off her bandage and shoved it towards Pluto. "This is a curse!" Pluto flinched faintly when the mark was inches from her face, but continued to reveal nothing.
"No it is not... it is your power that created these marks-" Pluto tried to explain, but Usagi wouldn't hear of it.
Usagi interrupted, "Excuse me? I am not evil! I am not a god! I did not make these marks!"
Pluto silenced Usagi with a wave of her hand, "Yes, you did. It is not a demon mark." Usagi opened her mouth to argue but Pluto yelled with a sudden harshness, "Do not interrupt!"
Usagi settled back and pouted but listened. She was shocked that Pluto would ever raise her voice. Clearing her throat, Pluto smoothed her ruffled hair and started to explain, "When you were in the pit, some of your powers were awakened. The powers came forward because of the darkness that had been around you. You are light, protector against dark, so naturally your powers came out to get rid of the darkness around you. Since you were in the deep of the fifth darkness your power was increased and was sent into your comrades, for a reason. The power was the queens power to make warriors, senshi. Because you are in a different world, the magic changed to adapt to this dimension, with it's different magic and spells. It made a new form of senshi and gave you these marks to show your awakening powers. The darkness around you mixed with your magic. So you do have demon energy in you but it is not a demon mark and it is not evil. It can not be evil, because you are light. You are now demon-named Junsuisa or Purity. You and Keleios got marks to show the power of a senshi, sort of like a sailor senshi's transformation pen. All others in this dimension will think that it is a demon mark, and you must go along with this, only tell a select few what the marks really, truly are. You will know who to tell."
Usagi stood in silence for a few minutes, before one question popped out from the others floating in her mind.
"But Belor did not get a mark. Why?"
"That is because he is a male. Only females may bear this mark. Belor will have new powers because your power went to him too, but he will not reach the potential of you or Keleios."
"Okay... can I tell Keleios and Belor about this?" Usagi said, thinking it was a good idea to ask one question at a time so she wouldn't go insane. What did Pluto mean, a new form of senshi? How could I create that? I had never done it before.
"You may tell Keleios if you wish, but you mustn't tell Belor, because it will make him doubt his new powers and in the end he will ultimately destroy himself."
"WHAT!?"
"I cannot elaborate, just trust me." Pluto said, with this almost pleading look in her eyes. She didn't want Usagi to have to experience the pain of that time line.
Usagi, seeing the look, changed the subject. "So what do we gain from this?"
"New powers will come forth, but I don't know what they will be like, you have created a new form of senshi that has never been seen before."
"You are the time guardian, can't you just look in your gate thingy or something?"
"It is not that simple little, one." Pluto said, looking a little disturbed at the legendary Gates of Time being called a 'gate thingy'.
"Why not, why can't anything be simple!? Why do weird things always have to happen to me? Why can't I be normal? Why do I have to have new powers? Why do I have to have this responsibility?" Usagi asked, becoming quieter with each question. The questions from before came streaming out and then the one, the most important question Usagi had ever wondered left her lips, "Why do I have to save the world?" This question came as a whisper and Pluto had to strain to hear it. "You do not have to save the world, Prin-" Usagi interrupted her before she could continue, her anger reaching the breaking point.
"I DON'T have to save the world?!" Usagi yelled sarcastically, her eyes burning. "Well, someone should have told me that millenniums ago! Maybe then I would be NORMAL! I've saved it enough times already! You look surprised Pluto, you didn't know that I remember my past lives, you didn't know that I have to relive the pain of each of those lives in my head! It's been getting worse recently. I now remember all the way back to when I was nothing but a light in the sky, watching over the earth as it evolved, protecting it against evil! Do you know how many people I've killed? Murdered? Slaughtered? I have been forced to kill to save the world. Youma were once human. When you kill a youma, you kill a human life. I have lived many lifetimes with many different lives. I have died my share of times to protect this earth, but I'm not allowed to rest in peace. I have felt pain beyond what humans can even begin to imagine. Do you know how it feels to have tasted the lash of a whip? Well, ask me, I'm the big EXPERT! In one life it was a daily ritual and just recently, I got an update! This time with metal claws, instead of just leather straps. Did you know whips are one of the most commonly used form of torture? Yes, I also experienced the whip during the life after the second Silver Millennium! Do you know about the first one or the second? I got to live in the first one. And I lived to old age, but as a commoner, not a royal. I had to save lives then too, the lives of the servants of the castle, the lives of the people of the moon and eventually the lives of the people of the world. The Queen was killing her servants for fun and pleasure, so I helped them escape, but I was punished with the whip. The queen was evil in that life, wanting world domination and ultimately destroyed herself and I escaped to live till I was eighty-four, dieing when I went up against her daughter, killing her as I went. In the second Silver Millennium, I was Princess Serenity, but I was killed by an evil Queen that wanted my kingdom when I was just 16! I wasn't normal then either, I had to rule a kingdom and control a powerful crystal. You must know of the crystal that I speak of, because it still exists. Only when it is destroyed will I get to live in peace, or rather die in peace.
"After the second Silver Millennium I was reborn and a cat brought me into the world of saving lives once more. I became 'Sailor Moon'. This is one of the only lives I lived in before this one, in which I remembered one of my past lives, and I let it rule the rest of my life. I remembered the second Silver Millennium, but I thought it to be the first, I had no memory of living in any lives before. I had senshi protectors and I was to be Serenity again and rule the world in peace. Did you know that in that one lifetime, I died four times, but had to come back into that one life and save the world again. I lived for a good while, destroying evil, and finally became queen again, this time it was called Crystal Tokyo, based on what we remembered from the Second Silver Millennium. In the end I was killed during child birth, my second child died with me, along with the rest of the world. Then came countless other lives, one where I was a crippled child, died while trying to save my best friend from a fire. Another time I was a doctor, and I think that one speaks for itself. One lifetime just before this one, I was a senshi again, but this time, I was alone, no friends, no love, no nothing! I kept evil from our solar system and many others. I was known as Cosmos. I never really died, because I was immortal, but faded away, to start another life. That other life is the one I'm living now. I have committed suicide many times, been murdered, tortured and die of 'mysterious causes'. I have died to save others, but I was never left in peace! I have had to relive some of my most painful moments in one night. So don't you say that I don't have to save the world, because until I die completely, I will always have the same fate, the same destiny and I can't seem to do anything to stop it! I've been reborn countless times. All of them ended in tragedy!" Usagi stopped to take in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. Tears dripped down her face and she drew in deep shuddering breaths, trying to shut out her past lives. They were painful to remember because they always ended in tragedy.
Pluto was silent. She was shocked as hell that Usagi knew more about what has happened in the past then she herself knew. Pluto knew of, as she called it, the Second Millennium, because it was so closely related to this one. She also knew of the time with Sailor Moon. But she had never knew of anything before that or after, till now. She looked at Usagi with sympathetic eyes. Pluto knew of her fate for this life now and knew it was going to be no different then her last. "I am sorry, Princess, more then you'll ever know."
Usagi looked up with tear filled eyes and said, "But you will never understand."
"Do Keleios or Belor know of your memories?" Pluto asked.
Usagi shook her head, but remained silent. Pluto looked at Usagi and saw more age, ore knowledge then she herself held for all the time she has lived. They stood in silence a moment before Pluto turned away. She told Usagi, "Ask any question you want, I will try my best to answer it."
Usagi stood up straight and the look in her eyes told Pluto that she wanted to forget their previous conversation. "Okay, can I go home?"
Pluto shook her head sadly at Usagi. "I'm afraid not."
"Will I ever get to go home?"
"Is it really your home anymore, princess?"
Usagi paused. "I don't know, but I would like to see my mother again, just one more time. I don't think I could ever reallly leave Keleios, but I don't want to live without seeing my mother again. So can I ever see my family again?"
"That, time will tell."
"Perfect, just perfect. Time has never been my friend before." Usagi said with sarcasm. "Well, can I see you again?"
"I don't know, Princess."
"Well, that just gave all the information I needed to know."
"You know, you are a lot more sarcastic in this life."
Usagi gave Pluto a look and continued, "Okay, how about you answer this: WHY THE HELL WAS I SENT TO THIS WORLD IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"
Pluto winced and cowered away, "You were not meant to come to this dimension till your mother had explained it to you."
"Mother knew?"
"Yes, but I can not explain."
"That's helpful." Usagi said sarcastically, "How did I get to Astrantha? I mean one minute I was picking something out of the water, the next I woke up in a forest!"
"What did you pick up out of the water?" Pluto asked, eyes flashing with interest.
Usagi paused. "I don't know." Pluto fell over. "Well, I never really thought about it, the only thing that I know that I came with is my flowers."
"Flowers?"
"Yeah, remember those silver lilies I had found the day I came here, well they came with me and the funny thing is, is that most of them are-"
"-still alive?" Pluto asked, one eyebrow lifted up.
"How did you know?" Usagi said suspiciously.
Pluto smiled mysteriously, not answering.
"You know how frustrating it is when you never answer?!" Usagi screamed at her. "You can NEVER explain anything! Never answer something properly! You always have to be so damn cryptic!"
"Sorry... Usagi." Pluto bowed her head.
Usagi's anger deflated and she said softly, "You never call me that..."
"I know, Princess."
"Don't start up with the 'Princess' crap again!" Usagi said with a small smile.
"All right, but still... Usagi, I cannot answer your questions and I cannot send you home. Although you were sent here early, you were still meant to be here, it is your destiny." Pluto said, her smile slowly fading.
"You know how much I hate that word. Destiny. That one word, one force has ruled my life. Why do I have to follow destiny, why can't I just once, not follow it?" Usagi questioned Pluto.
Pluto looked startled at the thought, "Princess, if you do not follow destiny, the world and universe would die-"
"See!" Usagi burst out, "I do have to save the world! I have no freakin' freedom!"
Pluto stayed quiet, her head bowed. Usagi shook her head, eyes filling with tears.
"Do you have any idea how lonely life is when you have to follow destiny? No freedom, no way to make your own choices?" Usagi's voice was squeezed out of her throat in a whisper, fat droplets falling down her face. She wrapped her arms around herself and started to shake.
Pluto stayed silent, her long hair hiding her face. Her hand was clenched around her staff.
"Do you have any idea what it's like to know what your life is going to be like and you can do nothing to stop it?" Usagi sobbed, real tears running down her cheeks from her puffy, red eyes. With that she turned away disappeared into the fog, her sobs echoing in the air.
Pluto lifted her head after Usagi was long gone and whispered hoarsely to the now quiet air, "I know exactly how you feel..." One small tear drop slid slowly down her face as she turned away and was lost in the mist.