Chapter Fifteen

Haruka disappeared into the garage at about eleven o'clock that night, declaring her intention to work on one of her cars. Michiru waited about half an hour before following her, just to be safe, though Hotaru and Chibiusa had already gone upstairs some hours ago and were probably too wrapped up in each other to be worrying about what Haruka and Michiru were doing.

Michiru took two full mugs with her when she went; a coffee for Haruka and green tea for herself. The kind she and Setsuna both used to like.

Never one for being still, Haruka was leaning over the hood of one of her cars, grease smeared on her hands as she tinkered with something in the engine.

She hastily straightened up as Michiru approached and wiped her hands.

"Thanks," she said, taking the proffered coffee and sipping appreciatively. "This is good."

Looking for somewhere cleanish to perch, Michiru chose a wooden bench and warmed her cold fingers on her mug. Luckily it was still raining hard. In the event that either Hotaru or Chibiusa did come downstairs, it was unlikely they'd hear anything. The last thing Michiru wanted was for Hotaru to be dragged into this; she should be allowed to grieve without having to worry about fighting the Starlights and possibly dooming Kinmoku to be destroyed.

With a task in front of her, Michiru had pushed her own grief aside temporarily. She knew it was there, lurking in the depths of her heart, but she couldn't afford to feel it right now. There'd be time enough later, once the last battle was done.

"We need to decide what to do, Haruka."

"I know," said Haruka, her hair rippling in the glow of the harsh bare lightbulb above as she nodded her head. She took another sip of her coffee. "How much of a risk do you think Kinmoku's restoration could pose to Earth's future?"

"Even Setsuna said she didn't know. But…I can't believe she would have taken action to save Kinmoku unless she was sure it wouldn't harm the Earth. She hardly ever meddled in the timeline like that, or allowed others to do so."

"That's true," said Haruka. "But directly after that, Setsuna was sealed at the Doors and chaos broke out on Earth. It's unlikely that's a coincidence."

Michiru started at Haruka's word choice. "Do you think that's it? What happened on Earth – Setsuna being trapped – Could Chaos have been behind everything?"

Haruka frowned and titled her head, considering. "That's not what I was getting at, but it's certainly possible. Isn't Chaos the eternal enemy of our Princess? But either way, we still don't know whether changing Kinmoku's future will trigger catastrophe for the Earth. Probably the only one who'd even be able to guess is Pluto, and we don't have her here to tell us."

"Perhaps they won't be able to fix the Crystal…"

"In which case the Starlights and Princess Kakyuu and everyone else who lives on that planet will die."

From the tone of Haruka's voice, Michiru knew that outcome was as distasteful to Haruka as it was to her.

And there was the fact that Yaten had saved Haruka's life. And Michiru was indebted to her because of it. That was something she hadn't even yet had the chance to discuss with Haruka.

She placed down her unfinished tea. "There's something else, Haruka. When you were injured and Yaten healed you…She didn't want to. She nearly refused."

"I know. Seiya told me that."

"Did she also tell you that I promised Yaten a favour in return for saving your life?"

"What?" Haruka looked surprised. "No, she didn't tell me that." The shadows lurking in her eyes lessened for a moment as she laughed. "In that case, we both owe Yaten. I promised her a favour too, for saving your life."

"I wasn't injured!"

"No." Placing her cup down and moving with the fluid grace of her element, Haruka crossed the small space between them and wrapped Michiru in a warm embrace. "But you would have died protecting me from those monsters. You weren't going to leave my side." For a moment, Michiru felt a tremour pass through Haruka's body. "I couldn't have stood that, Michiru. Yaten saving me saved both of us; she earned a favour from me as well."

Michiru leaned into Haruka's arms, caressing her, wordlessly comforting. "Taiki and Seiya fought side by side with us, even after Pluto told them she didn't know if saving Earth would doom Kinmoku. Destroying their future, after all they've done…"

"I know," said Haruka softly. "It's a shitty choice to have to make. What about your Mirror? Is that showing anything?"

"It's completely clear. And I can't feel any premonitions of danger."

"Me neither. I doubt any of the others have felt anything either; otherwise someone would have called us."

Drawing away so she could look into Haruka's eyes, Michiru took her hands and said, "whatever we decide, Haruka, we have to be united."

Haruka's hands tightened in hers, and her gaze didn't falter. "We will be, Michiru. Always."

Taiki opened her eyes and she saw the stars, shimmering softly in a sky the colour of deep blue ink. There was something about those stars that tugged at her with faint familiarity, but she couldn't understand why at first. She didn't know these constellations; was sure she had never flown through the darkness of space between them.

It was the Earth's solar system. The realisation clicked into her mind at the same time as she recognised it wasn't the solar system as she knew it now. These stars were alive – Mercury, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, all the others. She couldn't say how, but suddenly Taiki was sure she was seeing the world as it had been, before the fall of the Silver Millennium. A strange nostalgic pain filled her heart to think she was gazing upon a starmap that probably not even the soldiers of Earth would recognise as belonging to their own past.

None perhaps save one.

As Taiki became more aware of her surroundings, she felt a soft mattress beneath her and a sheer fine cover over her that easily slipped away as she half sat up, trying to see where she was. It was a room of some kind, she thought, but so dark she could see little beyond shadows. That explained something else strange about the stars she hadn't quite understood at first – they were a projection, glittering where the ceiling should be – a hologram perhaps, but one more intricate and beautiful than any Taiki had ever seen.

She felt an impossibly familiar warmth at her side a moment before she was pulled back down into the bed. Her heart jolted, and Taiki knew this was a dream, it had to be, but oh, she didn't want it to stop. Every moment of this was going to hurt; Taiki could already feel the throb of it deep in her chest, and it would only get worse when she awoke, remembering something that could never again happen in the world where she lived.

Still, she went back into the sweet dream willingly. She wanted to. Gasped and shivered as Setsuna whispered into her ear, "don't leave yet; you only just got here."

Hardly daring to breathe Taiki looked at her, seeing her eyes filled with the love she'd always wanted to see and no longer veiled or uncertain. Setsuna herself looked lighter, happier, the sad shadows that had always lingered on her face banished at last.

"Setsuna," said Taiki, half-choked, melting into the arms that reached for her, kissing Setsuna and feeling her respond, touching her and relishing the warm, solid feeling of her body.

Holding Setsuna close, Taiki could almost lie to herself. She could almost pretend that the battle at the Shrine hadn't ended as she knew it had; that they'd all survived and Setsuna had come back to Earth, come back for her.

Drawing back to breathe at last, tears beading her eyelashes, Taiki insisted, "this can't be real, Setsuna. You're dead. I felt you die. We all did."

Setsuna reached out a hand to wipe Taiki's tears away, her smile growing sad. "I couldn't stay, Taiki. I'm sorry. But I had to see you again. We had so little time at the Doors."

"Where are we?" asked Taiki, though she knew it didn't really matter. "This room; this place. How is it even possible?"

"I am the guardian of time and space," Setsuna replied, amusement momentarily sparkling in her eyes. "Very few realities are closed to me, even as I am now. But as to where…This is…Shall we say…Some version of my bedroom in Charon Castle. It was once my home during the Silver Millennium, but I never really lived here."

"Because of the Doors?"

"Because of the Doors," Setsuna agreed.

A sudden luminescence appeared above the bed, and when Taiki looked up, she saw it was the Sacred Crystal restored.

"You know what this is, don't you?" asked Setsuna.

Taiki nodded, pulling Setsuna's hand closer to her. "Somehow at the Doors, you showed me. I know how to find it. I know…I think I know what I need to do to make it whole again. But what about the Earth? When you saved Kinmoku…"

Setsuna's reply was sure. "What happened to Earth was the work of an enemy. It was nothing to do with Kinmoku. Both planets can prosper. I saw that, just as—"

"Just as you were dying," Taiki whispered, turning her head to look into Setsuna's eyes.

Setsuna tugged Taiki's hand up to her lips and kissed it. "Don't talk about it now," she said, her voice hitching. "We don't have much time."

"And even you, as the guardian of time, cannot change that?"

"I'm not omniscient, Taiki."

"I know."

Taiki snuggled closer to Setsuna, unable to understand how this could feel so real when she knew Setsuna was dead; when she knew she no longer had a body Taiki could touch.

"I do love you Taiki," she heard Setsuna murmur. "I should have told you…Long before this. At the Doors, I tried to make things right. I tried to show you…"

"I know," whispered Taiki, her lips against warm flesh. "You gave me back my power. The power of possibility. The power to save the Crystal. And you gave me some of yours too, didn't you? I saw a glimpse of something, like another reality; you and I kissing with power flowing between our hands. Was that when you went back to save my planet?"

Setsuna nodded, eyes dark and lustrous as she looked up. "I didn't want you and your planet to perish. So I went back into the past and…" She sighed. "I'm sorry; there isn't time to explain it all. But at the Doors, when I gave you some of my power…You gave me some of yours as well. That's part of the reason why I was able to break free of the Doors. I think it's just…One of those things that happen, when two people are compatible. They merge."

The sultry edge that entered Setsuna's voice for a moment nearly made Taiki lose her train of thought, but she stubbornly ignored the prickle between her thighs and stuck to the subject at hand. "But I still don't understand why you were trapped. Or what caused the Earth to lose coherence if it wasn't Kinmoku. Or why—"

"Shh," said Setsuna softly, placing a silencing finger to Taiki's lips. "I've already told you it was an enemy. A very old and powerful enemy our Princess has battled many times. My loss was acceptable, in light of what we might have lost otherwise. But there's something more important we have to talk about, Taiki. Haruka and Michiru – They don't know whether or not restoring Kinmoku will harm the Earth. You know what that means don't you?"

Though Taiki by no means felt these answers told her all she wished, she recognised that Setsuna had said as much as she could, or as much as she wanted to, and reluctantly forced her mind away from all the questions she still had. And truthfully, Setsuna had a point about Haruka and Michiru. It had been in the back of Taiki's mind since the battle at the Shrine, not quite acknowledged but too important to ignore. Reluctantly, she nodded. "It means they might try to stop us from finding and restoring the Crystal."

"You have to tell them – from me – that it's okay. That I promise them the Earth won't be harmed if you save your planet."

"How am I going to convince them the message is really from you? That I didn't just dream it or make it up?"

Fond warmth entered Setsuna's eyes as she told Taiki how to convince them. "Tell them about the first birthday party they gave me. I'll never know, but I suspect it was Hotaru's idea initially. They threw me a surprise party, and it's fair to say I was puzzled. I couldn't understand what they were celebrating, or why. I kept trying to explain that my Earth birthdate is only a formality at best anyway. That my age can't exactly be measured like that. That I wasn't someone for whom…Others usually celebrated. After all, up until that point, my very existence had been a secret from most of the world.

"Finally Haruka just got this impatient look on her face and said, 'Setsuna, none of us is exactly normal. This isn't the first life for any of us, but why does that matter? We're here now together – a family – and we can finally celebrate all the things we couldn't before. We should seize the chance to live instead of running away from it.'"

"And?" said Taiki. "What happened next? What did you do?" asking as much because she wanted to know as because of the necessity of accurately reporting the events to Haruka and Michiru when the time came.

Setsuna gave an embarrassed laugh. "I cried. I hadn't cried in front of anyone in centuries. I think I was more mortified than they were. Poor Haruka didn't know what to do. Michiru gave me tea, I think. Hotaru…Hotaru just hugged me for a long time, and whispered – so quietly I don't think Haruka and Michiru heard – that she knew how I felt; how awful it was to be without a friend in the world; to have a burden so onerous and dangerous no one wanted to stay near you, but that it was okay because we were all the same and I wasn't alone anymore."

Reaching up, Setsuna touched Taiki's cheek. "I think that was the first time I really let myself believe that my life was on Earth now, and not at the Doors. But even then, the knowledge was lurking that one day I'd have to go back. That one day it would all disappear. And truthfully, I still don't know whether I should have gone or not. When I did go back, I became…Discontent and inattentive, and that is part of what caused all the problems, but it was also because of the power of the Doors that I was able to save the Earth. And I can't honestly say I'll never need that power again. I can't promise—"

"The time for promises has been and gone already," said Taiki, returning Setsuna's touch with a hand that trembled. "And that's okay. I didn't go to the Doors thinking I was going to save you and get a happy ending. I just…Wanted to help you because I care about you. Because I love you."

Closing her eyes, Taiki leaned down and kissed Setsuna, knowing this would be the last time; that she wouldn't be asleep for much longer. She reached for Setsuna, felt Setsuna reaching for her, but their arms wouldn't hold. An inexorable current was sweeping them apart and everything was falling away; the bedroom and the stars and Setsuna's warmth, and then Taiki was being jerked awake in her own bed by the sound of Seiya knocking on her door and calling her name. And from the edge of anxiety in her voice, Taiki guessed Seiya had been trying to wake her for some time.

Throwing off the covers, Taiki managed to stumble over to the door and push it open. "I'm awake, Seiya," she said, more shortly than she meant to. "And I'm fine. I'm going to have a bath, and then we'll talk. Okay?"

Looking rather shocked, Seiya offered a hasty affirmative and stood aside to let Taiki pass.

After a few steps, Taiki stopped. She did desperately want some time to herself to memorise all the details of the dream before it faded, but it wasn't fair of her to be impatient with Seiya. Taiki knew these last few days had been hard on her; that she was worried about Yaten, worried about Taiki herself, worried about finding the Crystal given what Pluto had told them at the Doors.

The least Taiki could do was offer her a moment's reassurance. Turning back, she placed her hand on Seiya's shoulder. "I really am all right," she promised, looking into her eyes. "I just need some time alone first before I can face today."

Seiya nodded and Taiki felt some of the tension in her shoulder ease as she gave a faint smile. "It's fine, Taiki, but not too long okay? I know the timing is awful – I know it's probably the last thing you want to be thinking about but—"

"I know. We still have the Crystal to find. We still have our duty."

In the bath, Taiki sank down into a world of water and steam and allowed her eyes to close. The dream was still close; close enough that with just a little effort she could bring back the feel of Setsuna's chest moving against hers as she breathed, the sweet scent of her skin, the lustre of her eyes. The warmth of her body as she held Taiki close.

Clutching her knees close to her chest, Taiki cried, being sure not to make a sound, burning into her mind Setsuna's exact tone of voice, the look on her face, as she'd told Taiki she loved her.

As Taiki had half-suspected, this hadn't ended in Setsuna choosing her. Maybe that had never really been a choice Setsuna could make. But Taiki had something now she didn't have before, and not for anything in the world would she have traded it. She knew Setsuna had loved her. Loved her enough to give her the most precious gift she could – a future.

And Taiki wasn't going to waste that.