Chapter 31: All Is Far From Fair in Love and War
Sailor Moon looked up to him, his boots now an inch from her face. How could any of this be true? Had all of this gone on without any of them knowing? Why didn't they remember? And surely she wouldn't have advocated this kind of stuff…her mother…her mother saved everyone with the crystal...it just didn't sound right. And yet his face, looking down at her had such restrained anger and passion; perhaps she knew little about the politics of the past...and why had Ixion compared himself to Prince Diamond?
"Oh come now Ixion," A voice from the shadows calmly called out, as he almost instantly retreated back towards the others. "Let's not overload them at once. Speaking of which, shall we bring them all back down to our level? We wouldn't want the scales to be uneven… we surely don't need to outnumber them...power is not an issue here. Let's let them down." A woman in a dark maroon dress, with a staff that seemed to be protecting something at its peak, entered the room. Her deep dark hair held up in braids wrapped around a long trail of hair, just skimming the back of her legs. Through her bangs was a symbol, like any other senshi emblem, that seemed to burn the same color as her dress. Her lips deep red, and eyes nearly twinned in color; she was pretty, but at the least held an aura of power around her undeniable to the rest of the scouts.
She put her hand into the dull lighting of the space and snapped her fingers.
The vines suddenly seemed to recoil around Sailor Moon's friends, as the scouts suddenly all fell the ground. If it was supposed to be a liberating action, it was not graciously provided. A few of them groaned as they tried to prop themselves up… it wouldn't be good if they were already this weak and another battle was about to ensue.
"Why are you telling us this if we couldn't do anything to stop it? The past was far…we never knew about you then." Uranus asked.
"We didn't even know it was going on! You can't expect us to be held responsible." Venus persited.
"Ixion was right; ignorance is the truest form of bliss. Please don't cry wolf now…if I let Pseudia show you all the memories we had suffered from that time, the ones you never saw, well your noble actions would fall to dust."
"Who are you anyway to say these things?" Mars propped herself up onto her elbows. "You act pretty high and mighty."
"I'm Lady Eris, last standing guardian and Princess of the planet Eris. I had been formerly known as Erida before I was forced to take my place as leader of the Minor Senshi, and retook my name as I would a senshi." She looked at them. They were so petty and ignorant to it all. "So, considering how you don't seem to care much now, as you did then, about our torments, I suspect it's time for you to go-"
"We're not leaving here without Sailor Pluto." Sailor Moon found her ground on two feet again. Tuxedo Mask watched her carefully, attempting to pull himself up on his uninjured side.
"After all that? That is all you have to say? But ah, yes, true…I guess you didn't have a chance to hear Charon's side of the story either…" Eris said nonchalantly.
"So he survived… Pluto got to him in time…" Tuxedo Mask found his footing only barely.
"Oh of course she did. Their long-standing history predicted it so. Actually… Charon?" She called out.
"Yes, Eris." A shadow said.
"Perhaps it best to tell them your side of the story…then all the Guardian scouts can be introduced to your past." Eris put her hand to her chin, her smile amused to say the least.
Charon revealed himself; the green crystal like a lantern that hung from his staff, illuminating his shadow in an eerie tone.
"I am Charon, once ex-Guardian to Pluto's Moons. I was once a protector, as I once could appear in the form of wolf to protect her as your cats do now. Once I was reduced to existing as the maker of teleports; my power to transport through space, from one realm to another. I was a mere ferryman, a guide, rather than a true senshi when I was not by Pluto's side. It was when they asked me to transport the dead, to move the soldiers in battle bodies away from the grounds so that they could be buried in peace, I turned away from the fighting or supporting that war. I would not be a grave digger of suffering souls. At least that was one of the reasons. I, like my comrades, have little left in pride as to how we were treated."
"Then who do you choose to be now? Surely you wouldn't leave Pluto to the Demons? I saw you save her before." Tuxedo Mask seemed to take upon himself the guilt for Pluto's disappearance, but also, from one man to another, the position they took as protector for the ones they loved had to be stressed.
"I said I was once Pluto's guardian." Charon repeated.
The room fell silent as a few of the scouts wondered if that meant that it had been a trap for Pluto…that in fact, perhaps he did not care. His tone, however strong, had a brokenness to it; like a stringed instrument, powerful, but with a single broken or out of tune string. He was the one they could not read most.
"I was also once demoted by Pluto's hand from that titled, but now…" He put out his hand, and soon after a hand found its place in his."...Once again, I am Charon, Minor Senshi and renowned Protector of Pluto and supporter of the Kallisti Demons of Discord."
Sailor Moon took a step forward. Did that mean Pluto and Charon had found common ground? Was it Pluto beside him all along?
"Don't." A familiar voice rang out as if to prevent her from taking another step.
"I won't be needing these." Unable to see her, the scouts only saw two small items emerge from the shadows: what appeared to be a Transformation Pen and a belted ring of keys, with one that looked a lot like Pluto's scepter, thrown from the darkness as they clinked on the ground nearly hitting Sailor Moon's boot.
The silence that filled the room could not have been more stressed by the sound it made.
"Sailor Pluto what are you doing?" Uranus called out, lost by her ally's sudden irrational actions.
"You can't retain your gifts as Time Guardian if you reject those." Neptune pleaded.
"Don't call me Sailor anymore. I've seen the blood of the past war, images I can't remove from my mind…now I am just a senshi, not a guardian. I am stepping down from that…"
She stepped out of the shadows. She was now wearing a black strapless body suit, which at the waist had a long skirt of black that hit the floor, transparent panels almost, with two slits that reached up to where her legs began. Around her hips was a silver chain of deep red starbursts. Her sleeves only short loose panels that kept her shoulders bear, skimming her elbows. Around her neck was a chain that held the ring that Charon had given to her with the garnet. Her Garnet Orb now fit on a staff held between two prongs at the top, with three smaller red gems and some finite details down the neck of the staff.
"You don't need to step down…if you don't want to fight against Charon, or us I understand-" Sailor Moon pleaded.
"I am the senshi I was meant to become now. Pluto was the long planet of revolution, another minor planet of death. I was only the attributed to time when I was given the roll of Guardian, on the terms that I got to become a senshi…I was disillusioned by some faint idea that I could make my people more known, and feel important. For millennia I sat by the Gate of Time with only Charon by my side. Nobody knew what I looked like, nobody cared what I sacrificed for everyone… and the only powers I gained would kill me if I used them! Tell me, would you ever be jealous of my gift?" Pluto's voice was calm as it always was, but her voice was perhaps more powerful in grit.
"Perhaps you see, you are a bit more guilty thank you think Sailor Moon." Eris smirked. "The Moon is not the saving grace you think it is."
"Undo this! Bring her back!" Neptune called out.
"What is there to undo? It is all truth, and my hand in this is but minimal. I only showed her what I told you all. You call yourselves the Outer Senshi, but you are not all Outer Senshi; Pluto is a Minor who was brought into your world to be used. Her past is as bitter as our own." Charon admitted stepping forward.
"I cannot choose to have those powers, when all those who I protected never valued my sacrifices."
"But I value you! We all do Pluto…" Sailor Moon cried out. Had Pluto really dealt with all of these agonies on her own? What did she witness that could have turned her against them?
"Do you? Did you have to fight off Beryl's spies alone while the rest of the Moon was dancing that night on the brink of war? Even after all I was denied, I protected you in death, only to find you never knew my name or my face! I was the Scout of the shadows, hidden in Time, told to protect that same group of people in Time who hid me, unable to leave. The only gratitude I was privileged was being granted my own guardian, whom had to watch me suffer in pain. After so many years, it is only now that I can thank him for helping me find my place." She looked to Charon. Charon looked at her back.
Perhaps it was only himself, but Tuxedo Mask wondered if he saw hesitance in Charon's eyes, although Charon appeared to give an approving nod to Pluto.
"Truth hurts, don't it?" Eris laughed. "Perhaps now if I asked you to face Horkos and Algae you'd see your guilt…"
"But I never wished this on anyone…"
"Oh my dear Princess you didn't think about anyone, or the repercussions of what you started the moment you remained in ignorance! The only time you held any head of your own was when you made the decision to break laws for your own love! Love started that War, but it was a Love for only One that caused the blood of many!" Eris' patience grew thin.
"Stop talking in riddles, how could Sailor Moon have started a war?" Mercury asked.
"Cut this crap. We don't want you or your seedlings on our Earth, so stop blaming us for putting them there." Jupiter said as now most of the scouts had regained their footing.
"Oh, but you created the Demon Seeds not me." Eris shook her head. She put her hand to the side as if to present something, and suddenly a tree behind them was illuminated, glowing in a strange thriving power. "This is my gift to you; the gift of true knowledge! Knowledge of sin and war that was born long ago on the Moon, a truth you thrust upon your people then, and you'll watch your people suffer now from it!"