The first cognizant thing that Rei can focus on is silence, a hollow empty feeling surrounding her as she simply exists in a non-corporeal plane. She cannot bring her thoughts together enough to truly think upon her current predicament. Instead, it is very remiss of some of her more intense meditations. Flitting half formed thoughts dance by, but nothing snags, nothing catches enough to draw her attention into a solid form.

She just exists.

Time doesn't have meaning. Endless amounts of it seem to float by her, but at the same time everything is so still that it is like time isn't moving at all. Were she able to focus clearly, she would be taxing herself trying to figure it out.

It takes even longer for Rei to realize that another presence has arrived. She can't identify when they first came or how long they'd been there, but the sheer magnitude of raw power radiating off the individual is humbling.

In that instant, Rei is hyper aware that she has no body and all of her wandering thoughts snap into rigid focus.

Avatar of Aries… You are here to be judged.

The voice is raspy, filled with an agelessness and potency.

Mentally swallowing her fear, Rei forces herself to speak. "Can the specific charge or charges be named?"

You are not the Avatar of Cronus. You have defiled the Gates and abused their use. You have re-written Fate, changing Prophecy and denying Destiny.

Flickers of the dead future dance through her thoughts. Memories of sitting at the Temple, studying. The silly spats they'd gotten into over idols, or whose idea currently had them all in a pickle. Their shaky camaraderie slowly shifting and molding until they were a tight knit family, bound and determined to sacrifice their very lives if it meant protecting Usagi and Earth. The ridiculous moments they'd spied upon Usagi and Mamoru out on a date, all of them envious of such a timeless love. The many times they teased Usagi for her eating habits or her clumsy moments. Letting laughter fill the air, living in that moment completely.

Then she remembers the pain, the suffering. The sleepless nights scouring the city to deal with monsters made of nightmares. The challenge of pretending to be a normal teenager and attend class and completing homework assignments. The struggles of being fourteen and being responsible for the survival of the entire human race, the entire planet. Watching in horror as friends nearly died or actually die, listening to screams of agony and knowing that none of them could go to a doctor lest their secret be revealed. Bearing scars that had healed, left unseen on their flesh but buried deep in their hearts.

Feeling completely alone while surrounded by millions of people.

Watching the light in Usagi's eyes fade until they were filled with deep shadows.

Knowing that their fight would never end, the war never won, and the peace never lasting.

Rei's resolve firms, any shame that may have started to form dissolves. Was what she did the right choice? She would never really know. Did she make things better, or worse? She can only speculate.

But she tried. Since becoming a Senshi, there had never once been any assurance they would prevail, that they would win. Many times they'd come a hair's breadth away from losing everything, of dying for a cause where no one knew who they were or how they'd perished. They only thing they'd had pushing them on was their sheer determination, their heart. The best any of them could do was to try, and it was the only thing that had carried them through what they'd suffered.

Is that not what they'd been created to do? To throw themselves unfailingly forward to protect that which is most precious to them? To guard the lives of those who could not protect themselves? To challenge Fate? To rewrite Destiny?

No, Rei doesn't regret a damned thing. She had done the best she could possibly do with what was given to her. Did she abuse her fellow Senshis' trust? Most likely. Should she have played with a power that was not hers to wield, to destroy a most sacred and pivotal monument? Probably not.

But others had done no less. Setsuna had done no less on several occasions. The Gods had provided a power to the Senshi to do what must be done to protect human life, short and fickle as it is. Rei can and will do no less than use every damn advantage she can to bring her and her fellow Senshi out on top, give them the strength to press on, the will to fight another battle and prevail. If that means she displeases the Gods for the power they left at her fingertips…

Well, she will take their punishment. She destroyed the Gates and altered the past, keeping her knowledge of the future and dragging another along with her. She wouldn't deny that.

But she damned sure wouldn't regret it.

So, despite not having a physical body, Rei feels her confidence firm and her conviction solidify. She will await her punishment without fear. Instead, Pride rushes through her knowing she was foolish enough to do whatever it took to protect her most precious people. There would never be shame in that. She could accept any punishment willingly because of that.

A boom of laughter startles Rei as it echoes from everywhere.

The raspy voice scoffs, irritation clear in the tone. You have very arrogant Avatars, Aries. In the vast amount of years and the many you've had, that has never changed.

Yes, but this one is most definitely the worst, comments a second voice. It is soft, almost lilting.

My Avatar is a true icon for the misguided, argues a third voice. The deep baritone matches that of the laughter that had startled her. But that is beside the point.

Indeed. Icon or not, there is a clear note of distaste in the second voice, punishment must be dealt.

Despite feeling ill that she seems to actually be dealing with the Divine, Rei holds herself firmly.

After all, one cannot go about abusing another Avatar's power. A poor precedent, even if it is a surprising first.

An irritable sigh fills the void. Despite the fact you have, in one Time, destroyed the Gates, it has not destroyed them all. And though you attempted to destroy Destiny, Fate, and Prophecy, you have only managed to re-write them.

The booming laugh sounds again. They were in a right state of anger having to weave them anew.

Which brings to point that they have not been altered to the point that Time itself is destroyed for the breech. You nearly destroyed the entire Galaxy with your foolishness, mortal.

Rei's heart stutters at the thought, but she stubbornly remains firm on her decision. She isn't the only one that had nearly damned the entire Galaxy, as ironically, it was the soldier deemed to protect it that had come the closest to destroying it. Galaxia had come horrifyingly close to ending everything, had been the one to truly erase all of them... And yet, it was Usagi... whom had once again, saved them all, even Galaxia herself.

The first issue to be dealt, is giving your fellow Avatars knowledge of your deed. For good or ill, your decision has irrevocably changed their Fates. They have a right to judge you for your actions.

Rei winces mentally. She'd known they would be informed at some point. She also knows it could shatter what trust she'd built between them. At best, she can hope for the support from four. The rest are all unknown.

Your first punishment is to continue to carry the Curse put upon you. Normally, you could plead your case in prayer and hope that you could be cured. For your actions, however, that option is lost to you. You will have to find your own way to remove it.

That… is unexpected. She didn't even know asking the Gods to remove it was an option. Mind you, Gods could be fickle at the best of times. There wasn't much hope of them removing it in the first place unless she'd earned some sort of boon. She really can't imagine what she'd have to accomplish to earn a boon like that.

Your second punishment is equivalent to the futures that you stole. Because you stole the future for so many, so too shall your future be taken. You shall never have the blessing to be with child. You shall be barren for the rest of your natural life. However, you will still suffer through the usual cycle that all females go through, your womb intact and you shall still bleed.

Rei's thoughts come to a grinding halt. An invisible tremor begins, as if a chord is struck deep within her being.

Before it can build and overwhelm her, a booming voice startles her back to the present.

Avatar of mine! For your final punishment, you shall wear the guise of one of my sacred creatures! You shall come upon this transformation when the Moon is at her darkest, where you will be forced to remain vigilant for any foe who would dare attempt attack when the Moon is at its most vulnerable! This will be, forevermore, your sacred Duty!

The weight of their punishments begins to settle upon Rei's shoulders, and were she in her own body, she would most likely be hyperventilating.

You have been judged. Each punishment is a reminder of your misdeed, in hopes you do not repeat such arrogant and foolish actions. The raspy voice growls. Do not test my mettle a second time, Avatar of Aries, for even Destiny and Fate cannot save you should you cross me again.

Before Rei can even fathom to form some sort of platitude or acknowledgement, there is a jarring tug at her center, and she's staring up into a pair of panicked blue eyes.

And in that instant, her second punishment slams home. Tears cascade from the corner of her eyes and get lost in her thick raven hair. Her body is wracked with heaving sobs as she clings to the young woman cradling her carefully as she simply… falls apart.

A/N: I'm soooo sorry! I meant to have this done ages ago! I started it three times! Three! I was tearing myself up finding reasonable punishments the gods would dole out, and it took forever for me to find fitting ones! I wanted to make it believable but daunting. I ended up doing research just to find examples of punishments from the Greek gods to get an idea if my thoughts were headed in the right direction.

I know this chapter was short in comparison to my others, but it was fitting. The next chapter will most likely be quite long as the magnitude of what this short chapter actually brings to the table, and even then, some of it won't be fully revealed until later chapters. That being said, I know there are probably a lot of questions about the punishments too, but I'm hoping I can clarify those a bit more in the next chapter. Again, there will be some bits that will have some key elements that won't be exposed until the Senshi themselves learn of it, so please bear with me if some of the punishments seem too strict. There are some... extra elements that were not fully explained to Rei, (the gods are fickle bastards, especially the Greek ones), and I plan on going further in depth with it when the Senshi start hashing out what happened in more detail.

Again, sorry this took so long to post. I really have been climbing the walls in an attempt to do this one chapter correctly. I didn't want everyone to be hanging that long.

Thanks for reading!

-Salute!-

UR