Title: Cutting threads
Author: Ree
Theme: Setsuna (truth)
Genre: General
Version: Manga/Anime end of the silver millennium
Rating: G

Setsuna and her friends all belong to Takeuchi Naoko. I just asked them very nicely if they wanted to play. They agreed, and quietly snuck out without Takeuchi-sensei's knowledge.

Cutting threads

Pluto stood at the Gates of Time and listened to the battle that raged on the Moon. As she searched the time stream for danger, she was surprised to see into the balcony room of The Fates. She could see the three ageless ladies spinning, weaving, and snipping. She remembered her visits there long, long ago. She had practiced weaving the threads that Klotho spun. When she started she hadn't understood what everything meant. She now knew the truth about the threads. The weft threads were truly the lives of all the living creatures, and the warp yarns are the streams of time. When Atropos had taught her weave on the loom, she was literally holding the fates of people in her hands. She was glad that Lachesis had not let her snip the threads. 'Even though it is their fate to die, I wouldn't want to cut their thread.'

Peering closer into the room, she saw that the Princess of Saturn was there helping Lachesis cut the threads. 'There are so many threads that need to be cut. War is so costly. There are more threads being cut than are being spun.'

Pluto moved so she could see better. 'Klotho still has no one helping her. The princess that can spin life never came for training.' Looking closer at the loom, Pluto felt a chill run through her. 'It is almost to the top. The tapestry is nearly complete. What happens at the end?'

A shudder ran through the ground. Pluto rushed back to the other side of the gate. Something terrible was happening. She could feel Queen Selenity pulling power to protect the Moon. She gave it freely. 'I wish I could be there with her. I want to protect her.' She looked back at the Gate as the promise she made to her Queen echoed through her head. Then she felt it. The power of the silver crystal sealed Queen Metallia. Everything went deathly quiet.

Unwillingly she found herself looking back into the Fates room. Even as she focused on them, she saw Lachesis holding a silver thread that Atropos had just knotted. Her gaze flickered to the Princess of Saturn, and then stayed. She was in the middle of a pulsing violet light. The tiny glaive she was holding was growing larger.

Then she heard a small snip. Her gaze jerked back to Lachesis, just a the silver thread drifted towards the basket beside the loom. 'NO!!! She can't be!'

The thread didn't finish its path, but floated gently above the basket. Lachesis cupped her hands around it for a moment, and then looked directly at Pluto.

"Princess of Pluto, heir to the underworld. This soul has petitioned for a boon. She wishes to return to her home." Lachesis seemed to be in two places, right next to Pluto and in the room. Pluto looked at the soul of her queen, now her subject. 'No, she will never be my subject, she will always be my Queen.'

She had to ask, so she spoke softly. "Do you truly wish this? In the Underworld you will have your reward. Happiness is waiting for you there." The silver thread pulsed gently. "You sent the princess ahead? And now you wish to watch for her?" The thread pulsed again. "You will be a ghost, doomed to wander the Moon Kingdom until the end of time. Are you truly sure this is your wish?" The thread pulsed brighter. "Then, as heir to the Underworld, I grant your boon." The thread dissolved into a silver cloud, and floated back to the ruins of the Moon Kingdom.

Lachesis vanished. Pluto looked back into the room, her eyes were drawn to the loom. Atropos was steadily weaving, but Klotho was barely spinning. Lachesis was back to cutting. Then an unknown senshi stepped out the shadows. She was carrying a tall glaive.

Lachesis looked over at the new senshi. "It is time, Sailor Saturn."

'It is the Princess of Saturn! She is Sailor Saturn. And what is it time for?' Pluto watched to see what she was going to do.

As Saturn raised the glaive over her head, she seemed to multiply. She was still in the Fates' room, but she was also standing in the time stream. Pluto looked out of the door just in time to see her appear above the Moon. Jerking her gaze back to the Fates' room she saw the Saturn was holding her glaive over the top of the warp threads of the loom. Just as she realized what Saturn was going to do, the glaive dropped, severing the threads of time.

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Lachesis picked up the large glaive that clattered to the floor. Even as she held it, it shrunk back into a miniature glaive. Atropos removed the tapestry of the Silver Millennium the rest of the way off the loom and handed to the Klothos. As Klothos and Lachesis hung it next to the others on the wall, Atropos picked up Pluto's Staff from where it had materialized next to the loom. It shrunk into a small key. Fitting the key into the locks on the top and bottom of the loom, she removed the coverings that protected the warp threads, and kept them in place. Pulling in the strings of time, she started re-threading the waft threads.