Chapter Seventeen
Taiki heard the bedroom door open behind her as she was placing the provisions she'd bought on the kitchen bench. A quick glance reassured her that Yaten had apparently listened to her advice, because both she and Seiya looked much more at ease with each other. Noting their flushed and rumpled appearances, she gave them a lopsided smile. "Did I interrupt something?"
"No, absolutely not," said Seiya, who was more than a little shamefaced. "And Taiki, I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have had to go out in the rain like that. You've a right to expect better from us, especially now. Here, let me deal with all this – You should sit."
Gladly leaving the food to Seiya, Taiki took a seat at the kitchen table and said, "don't apologise. I know you and Yaten are here for me. Truthfully…" She paused. "My mind is a mess right now. I don't even know what I'm feeling. I keep thinking about Setsuna, but then I don't want to, because she's done so much for us and we're making plans against two of the people she loved best in this world."
Slipping into another of the empty chairs at the table, Yaten said, with almost no conviction, "well, who knows? Maybe Seiya's right and we won't have any problems with the Outer Senshi."
Seiya rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Yaten. Try to sound even less convinced next time, if you can."
With an angry sigh, Yaten threw her arms in the air. "What can we do? It sucks. The whole thing sucks, but—"
"I know we don't have any choice," said Taiki. "I'm not suggesting we should do anything different to what we've discussed. I actually—"
She paused as Seiya placed an assortment of dishes down on the table. Most of Taiki's purchases had been instant pre-packaged meals, requiring little in the way of preparation. After Seiya joined them, Taiki picked up the thread she'd dropped.
"I'm pretty sure someone was watching me when I was out. I can't imagine who it would have been besides Uranus and Neptune. Maybe they've decided it will be easier to follow us to the Crystal rather than trying to find it on their own."
"At least we have time to eat then?" Seiya suggested, the comment laden with a humour darker than her usual light hearted flippancy.
Yaten shot Seiya a despairing look and shook her head, as if deciding she was well beyond the pale.
Taiki picked at her food, not really hungry. She didn't think that Seiya and Yaten had much appetite either, but they all made a show to each other of trying to eat.
Uranus and Neptune.
It hadn't been an accident that Taiki had referred to them by their senshi titles. She didn't want to think of them as Haruka and Michiru, Setsuna's family, the women she'd started making friends with. That was over now, and the sooner she forgot the better.
Just another half-unfurled thread of possibility withered by Setsuna's death. Did she even realise how many things were going to be impacted by her being gone? She'd always seemed to think she barely existed in the world, that it wouldn't even notice if she went away.
But now all of them were looking at a very different future to what could have been in its place. All those other things that might have been were now just discarded timelines hovering beyond the touch of Taiki's fingertips, like Setsuna herself.
Yaten abruptly pushed her plate away. "This is unbearable. I'm done. Are you two ready to go?"
Taiki and Seiya nodded, one after the other. Together, all three took out their brooches, transformed into senshi form, and left to finish their mission, whatever the cost.
"What is this place?" said Fighter, squinting against the harsh desert sun and gazing at the ruined stone remnants in front of them.
"The remains of Babylon," said Maker quietly. "This was the greatest city in the ancient world." Images flickered through Maker's head, glimpses of the city as it must have once been, bustling and full of life. This was part of what Setsuna had passed on to her; the knowledge they needed to find the Crystal.
"This is where the Crystal is?"
Maker nodded. "Come with me."
These crumbling remains looked nothing like the city in Maker's head, but she knew the Hanging Gardens had been right in the heart of Babylon. She walked across the sands, her footfalls and those of Fighter and Healer the only noise to disturb the silence.
There was the imprint of a huge square building before them, but only its foundation stones were left. Maker knew they'd found it though; for a moment the grandeur of the ancient wonder appeared before her like a ghost, as Setsuna must have seen it; an oasis of life thriving in a harsh land.
Besides, Maker could feel her; she could feel some remnant of Pluto's power still clinging to these stones, waiting for her. Raising a hand, Maker blasted away the desert sands with her powers, revealing the remains of a smooth stone floor scattered with rubble. There was one stone especially that called to Maker; little bigger than a pebble. She stooped to pick it up, catching an ancient shimmer still upon its surface. In her mind's eye, she saw Pluto walking between shadowed pillars, approaching a wall upon which her symbol gleamed. The pebble Maker held was a remnant of that, maybe all that had survived.
She remembered Pluto reaching out to touch the wall with wondering fingers, and imagined she felt the warmth of that touch sliding over her own hand. Other memories followed in quick succession – Pluto descending into a dark chamber with the crimson glow of her star seed lighting the way, driven by determination not to let Taiki and her world perish.
Maker started as she felt a touch on her arm.
"Maker, you're crying," said Healer, a frown marring her delicate features.
Hastily, Maker scrubbed at her eyes. "There should be a hidden chamber somewhere under the floor. The entrance is over that way."
Almost before she'd indicated the correct direction Fighter released a tightly focused blast of energy that blew apart the floor, revealing a yawning black hole.
"Why did you do that?" said Maker angrily, getting to her feet. "This place is ancient."
Not understanding Maker's point, Healer said, thinking they were in agreement, "The whole floor could have collapsed under us!"
"Not what I meant," Maker clarified. "These ruins have enormous cultural and historical significance for Earth—"
Fighter held up a hand. "Sorry, but we need this too badly to worry about damaging some ancient block work. And of course the floor didn't collapse under us. Believe it or not, I can actually utilise some control over what I do. Now, where do we head next, Maker? Down there?"
Maker turned to look at the black pit, its edges jagged like broken teeth where Fighter had blasted the stones away. "Yes," she confirmed. "We go down there."
As they approached the opening, Maker's body began to glow pink with power, illuminating the remains of an almost destroyed staircase. She glanced at Fighter and Healer. "Looks like we'll have to jump. I'll go first."
Fighter grabbed her arm. "Are you sure about that? You're the only one who knows what you're doing here. If there's anything down there…"
"There's nothing dangerous down there," Maker reassured her.
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Before Fighter could say anything else, Maker launched herself into the opening, easily controlling the air around her to fly down the broken spiral stairs, punching her way through debris when she had to. Her mind gave her glimpses of what must have happened in that other past when Pluto had come here to save the Crystal. She could see Pluto descending down the stairs, her star seed glowing; she could feel Pluto feeling her, but not the her of this reality – following the Maker of another time, who had come here and found the Crystal but failed to restore it, leading to the end of the world.
All of these memories Pluto had given to Maker at the Doors, and even a little of her power; just as some of Maker's power now flowed through the magic of the Doors.
Reaching the bottom safely and landing lightly on her feet, Maker spoke into her microphone. "Fighter, Healer, I've reached the bottom of the chamber. It's safe to follow me, but be careful on the stairs – rock falls have blocked the passage in some places.
"Roger," came Fighter's reply. "We'll see you soon."
It didn't take Maker long to find the almost hidden entrance to the final chamber where she knew the Crystal waited, but she didn't want to enter without Fighter and Healer at her side. Rifling through Pluto's memories, she tried to see what had happened in the chamber last time, but those events seemed to be curiously obscured. Maker caught a glimpse of red hair that surely couldn't belong to Princess Kakyuu; she saw the Crystal glowing and the chamber filled with light; she felt the heaviness of Pluto's heart as that other person in the chamber asked her to do something she couldn't.
Something more than restoring Kinmoku's future?
Maker concentrated harder, but the memories slipped out of her grasp like smoke. All that remained was a feeling of pain in her heart, and she couldn't even say whether it belonged to Pluto or herself.
She pushed the feeling away as Fighter and Healer landed at the bottom of the broken staircase.
"This way," Maker said to them, taking them through the narrow opening into the final chamber. This was nothing like Pluto's memory. The chamber was a sad forgotten place, dark and dusty, all the magic leeched out of it over the years.
Healer drew in a sharp breath as she caught sight of the pedestal in the centre of the room, and what rested upon it. "Is that the Crystal?" she asked in a whisper.
With a soft curse, Fighter added, "so it is broken after all."
"It's okay," said Maker, giving her friends a reassuring smile. "I know what to do. We won't return a broken Crystal to our world. Its beauty will shine once again."
Approaching the pedestal, Maker gently picked up the Crystal. As she did so, she caught yet another glimpse of that future Pluto had seen where Kinmoku hadn't been saved. Maker saw her world ending in fire, her friends and her princess lying dead around her; felt her own body riddled with injury. Through a haze of pain she saw the tall stately form of Pluto approaching her, and thought she must be hallucinating until Pluto knelt down and touched her, eyes filled with guilt and hopelessness as she watched Maker draw in her final dying breaths.
You didn't tell me that, Setsuna, Maker whispered in her own mind. You didn't tell me you were actually there at the moment of Kinmoku's destruction. At the moment of my death. Was that part of what had prompted Pluto to act as she did? To go back in time to this very place, to change things so that the end never came?
Maker could feel the Crystal's shattered core as she ran her fingers over its faceted surface; its sadness at the knowledge of its own broken state and what that meant for the planet it loved. She could feel its longing to be whole again, to be reunited with its other half and bring life instead of death to the future.
In that other reality, Maker had never found a way to fix the Crystal. She hadn't been able to reach it. Thinking back over the last few months, she thought she probably knew why. She remembered her conviction that she and Fighter and Healer weren't going to find the Crystal, and the conversation with Neptune where she'd discussed her fears of tainting the mission with her faulty powers. She remembered telling Pluto how fighting for Kinmoku wasn't enough for her anymore; that she couldn't forgive her world for condemning her dead lover. She remembered feeling so useless and unwanted after Pluto had left, and deeply regretting opening her heart for the first time in so many years.
Maker knew that in that other future, she'd done her duty. She'd died with her planet alongside Fighter and Healer and Princess Kakyuu, just as she'd told Pluto she might have to do, but had that truly been all she could do? Perhaps in that time she couldn't do any better, with a newly broken heart and the conviction her powers could never be enough to change anything.
And perhaps Pluto had realised that Maker's despair was part of why the Crystal couldn't be saved. Perhaps that was part of the reason why she'd decided to change both their destinies.
Pluto, who always still loved the world, even when the world forgot she existed. Who'd loved Maker across the space-time continuum even when she thought she shouldn't. She'd found room in her heart for both, and she'd acted on the feelings she had for Maker. She'd saved Maker's world, and even when that didn't work, even when it nearly cost the Earth, she'd still trusted Maker enough to leave her with the tools she needed to prevent her own future from ending.
Inside of Maker, lived the power of possibility. Because of that, she'd been able to help Setsuna break free from the prison at the Doors, and Setsuna had been able to do what she most wanted – to prevent the destruction of the world she'd spent long Millennia watching over. And Setsuna knew, she'd shown Maker, that she could use that power to save her own world too.
Maker would honour her power. She'd carry it with her into the future and use it to create new revolutions. And maybe one day, if the universe changed enough, it would become the kind of place Setsuna could inhabit again, without the burden of the Silver Millennium hanging over her head.
"Maker!" she heard Healer gasp.
Though she wasn't sure when it had happened, Maker had closed her eyes, and as she opened them again, she saw the Crystal glowing with a soft mauve light, exactly like she'd read about in the ancient texts from when the Crystal was whole. In almost the same instant, she realised she was exhausted. It had taken nearly everything she had to restore the Crystal, but she tried to hide that from Healer and Fighter as she smiled.
"I told you I knew what to do. Let's get out of here."
The Starlights became tense and silent as they flew back up to the surface. If Uranus and Neptune were going to make a move, they'd do so as soon as they saw the Crystal. Maker's stomach was churning with nerves; the plan that had seemed doable back in Tokyo was becoming more and more distasteful to her the closer the time came when they might have to put it into action. Besides which, her reserves of power were almost gone. If it came down to a battle – If Fighter and Healer needed her – If she found herself incapable – Despite the heat of the sun, Maker shivered, and felt an evil premonition of death drawing near.
Uranus and Neptune were waiting for them in the ruins. Their eyes were obviously drawn to the restored Crystal, but they didn't launch immediately into attack, giving Maker hope that the disaster she could feel hovering over all of them might yet be avoided, if she could only think of the right thing to say.
Neptune was the first to speak, sounding half-happy at the Starlights' success and half-anxious because of what it might mean. "You've found a way to restore the Crystal."
Maker moved forward slightly. "Yes, we've restored it," she agreed. "We've nearly finished our mission." She kept her voice soft, and felt the warmth of the Crystal pulsing through her hands. The essence of her planet. The essence of life. "I know you're both worried about what Pluto said at the Doors. We knew you would be. We knew you'd followed us here. Pluto…She knew as well how you'd feel. That's why…She visited me after she died. She said she'd realised that the source of evil attacking the Earth didn't arise because she'd saved Kinmoku. She wanted me to tell you both planets can survive. We can both have a future."
"Why would she come to you and not us?" said Uranus.
That wasn't the answer Maker had expected. She'd thought they wouldn't believe her, that they'd think it ridiculous she was claiming Pluto had come to her. But perhaps this wasn't the first time Pluto had done something like this. After all, it wasn't the first time she'd died.
The tone of Uranus's voice was hurt, though she perhaps didn't realise it showed. Her question made Star Maker herself wonder why Pluto hadn't gone to Neptune and Uranus too, though she hadn't thought of it before. Surely that would have been simpler?
"I don't know," Maker said in reply. "There were a lot of questions Pluto didn't answer, even when I asked. But there was a story she wanted me to tell you – something I couldn't know any other way – so that you'd know it was really her."
On her own planet, Maker was a poet, a storyteller. She knew how to enthral an audience with words, how to win them over, and she used every skill she had now as she re-told the story Pluto had told to her. She knew Uranus and Neptune weren't left unaffected by the telling. Tears were sparkling in Neptune's eyes, and Uranus was looking off to the side, her eyes shadowed by her cowlicks, her hand balled into a fist and shaking with tension.
"There must be something else you're not telling us," said Uranus, suddenly pinning Maker with a suspicious look. Whatever emotions she'd been feeling, she'd pushed them down already, and her eyes were cloudy with distrust and anger.
"What do you mean, there must be something we're not telling you?"
"If Pluto—" Uranus's voice nearly broke. "If Pluto really came to you, why did the three of you sneak off here by yourselves? Why not come and talk to us? Do you distrust us that much? Or is there something else you know that would make us think the Crystal is a danger?"
"Why the hell would we trust you to listen?" Healer broke in. "You're not listening now, are you?"
"Healer!" Maker admonished. She turned and frowned at her briefly. Healer didn't let up.
"Come on, Maker, this is ridiculous. After what Pluto said at the Doors, you and Fighter still helped Sailor Moon and everyone else fight those monsters at the shrine, despite not knowing whether saving the Earth would doom Kinmoku. I saved Uranus's life and came damn near losing my own doing it. If doing all that isn't enough to make them think we're ever telling the truth about anything, then it's inevitable we're going to be enemies. We might as well—"
"Healer," said Fighter sharply. "It hasn't come to that yet." She gave Neptune a thoughtful look. "Well Neptune, now that the Crystal is here, can you feel any danger? Surely you should be able to, if there's really a problem here."
"I can't feel anything," Neptune admitted, her expression troubled. "But that story, Maker – How can Uranus and I know Pluto didn't tell it to you when she was alive?"
Maker gave a bittersweet smile. "Because Pluto wouldn't have told me a story like that before. She never opened up to me enough. I think you know that."
Neptune inclined her head in acknowledgement of the truth of Maker's statement, and Maker got the feeling she'd asked primarily because she wanted to know how Maker would answer.
"Uranus," said Neptune, glancing at her partner, both word and look clearly saying, we need to rethink what we're going to do.
Uranus did not look happy. "Neptune, there's too much risk."
"Do you doubt what Pluto said? Or do you think Maker is lying?"
"I think there's a lot here we still don't know. How did Pluto die and what killed her? Why would she only go back to Maker and not us?"
"Maybe she couldn't come back to us," said Neptune. "But everything Maker said – It sounds true to me."
"It might be, but I don't think it's all Pluto told her," Uranus replied with conviction. "We still don't understand what happened and why the Earth went into turmoil. You can't tell me that Pluto wouldn't find a way to tell us something about that, if she could." Turning her attention to Maker, she said, "Well? Doesn't that sound right? What else did Pluto say to you?"
Racking her brains, Maker could only think of one thing. "All Pluto said was that the enemy was an old, powerful one your Princess had fought before."
Uranus and Neptune both started at that, in a way that suggested they recognised something in Maker's words. Since it seemed to be an opening, Maker was struggling to think of what else she could add to further her case, when Neptune jumped in with an observation rather too astute.
"So what is the plan here, Maker? I think you have told us everything you can about Pluto, but there's still something the three of you are keeping back. What if Uranus and I do fight you? You lose the Crystal, you lose your world. The three of you must have a strategy to prevent that from happening."
Without having to look, Maker knew Healer was bristling. She was probably about to burst out with an angry comment about how the last thing they were going to do was share any of their plans. Before she could, Maker said quickly, "you're right. We do have a plan."
A plan that she certainly wasn't supposed to tell her opponents about. Maker broke off, but took up again before she could change her mind. Neptune was asking about the plan, but she was also asking more than that. What exactly she was asking, Maker didn't know, but there was something niggling about this in the back of Maker's mind, something familiar she couldn't place.
"The plan is – if it comes to a fight, I'm supposed to leave while Fighter and Healer stay here to stop you two from following me. Only we have an advantage you don't know about. The energy Healer gave to Uranus? There's a window in which she can take it back. All she has to do is get the chance to press her Star Yell against the place where the wound was."
Ignoring Fighter's and Healer's attempts to shut her up, Maker continued. "Most healers can't do that, and even the ones who can aren't supposed to. It's considered a base perversion of power. It's forbidden to do it. The danger of it becoming something that is used to control and abuse is considered too great. We'll all be punished if we let Healer do it, but that's not the point. Healer is far from being a typical example of a healer on our planet, but this…It's against everything she is? Do you understand? If she has to do this, she might never recover from it. Killing an opponent in battle is one thing. Killing someone by reversing a healing…Is the act of an unforgivable murderer on my planet.
"I know—" Perhaps it was because she was so tired, but Maker nearly wanted to laugh. "I know asking for sympathy for the person who's thinking of killing you isn't really the winning strategy here. And believe me, Healer would never ask it for herself. But I don't want that for her. Healer is family to me the way Pluto was to you. And…For a while…Uranus, Neptune, I thought we were starting to become friends. There's so much on the verge of being destroyed right now."
Maker knew the others could feel it too. The spectre of blood and violence and battles that would rage long after they were gone. She knew she'd made a dangerous choice here – Telling Neptune someone intended harm to Uranus was all but sounding a trumpet of war, and Maker could see Neptune was furious, that she'd half decided to end all of them already. Fighter had instinctively pushed Healer behind her, prepared to take the brunt of Neptune's attack, but Uranus, who had remained inscrutable this whole time, touched Neptune's hand and made her pause.
Some silent communication passed between the two of them that Maker could only guess at. She thought Uranus might have been asking Neptune what else could be expected, given the circumstances. Given what was on the line.
"We know," said Maker. "We know if either of you dies, whoever survives will hunt us down and kill us. But what does that matter, if we save the Crystal? Without it, we're doomed anyway, and so is everyone on our planet. Uranus is faster than me, but if Fighter and Healer are keeping her down here, she won't be able to follow me. And what would you do, Neptune? You don't know the way to Kinmoku. You don't know all the shortcuts like I do. Your Mirror would probably show you, but could you leave Uranus behind? She's a powerful fighter, but two against one? When one of her opponents only has to touch her to do serious harm?
"If we fight, none of us will live to see this place rise again. You'll never see the peace of the future. I'll never see my planet whole. Pluto won't have anything to come back to except the graves of the people she once loved. And none of it is necessary. At the Doors, it was Pluto's guilt that was talking. She thought because she'd dared to go and fall in love instead of subsuming herself utterly to her duty, she'd caused the end of the world. She was locked up in a cage and too scared to be. But she learned. She tried. She fought to ensure everyone's future. Is all of that going to go to waste?" Looking around, she demanded again, "Is it?"
Uranus shifted her posture and threw Neptune a glance. "We can't fight them now. You were right, Neptune. There's nothing to worry about here."
Neptune gave Fighter and Healer a cold stare. The look she gave Maker was only slightly warmer, but still, she agreed, "no, we can't fight them. I think we know what caused all the trouble now."
"Mmm. Let's go."
Sparing the Starlights no further attention, the two turned and sauntered away as casually as if they'd been out at a fashionable bar in Tokyo.
"That's it?" said Fighter, glancing between Maker and the two retreating Outer Senshi in confusion. "We can go?"
"Yes Fighter," said Maker, tension oozing out of her while her head started to pound with the heat. "I think we can go."
"Did I miss something, Maker? I don't get what's happening here."
There was a hazy image in Maker's mind of the chamber under Babylon as it had been in the past, filled with light, and she could hear a voice whispering. She knew it wasn't Kakyuu, but she felt herself responding as she would to her Princess's voice, and she guessed this must be the red-haired figure she'd caught a glimpse of, the one Pluto had spoken to.
The two Crystals that protect our planet are very powerful. But sometime in the future, if they remain as they are, the very goodness of their energy is going to attract something powerful and evil … An Enemy … A deep irrational force of hatred that will want nothing more than to see us destroy ourselves, or each other…
"The enemy Pluto fought—" Maker began.
They all started as Neptune turned back and held up a hand to silence her. "That enemy probably wants to destroy all of us," Neptune said. Her eyes grew sad. "Without Pluto here to tell us in person, we can't be completely sure the Crystal safe. But we know what the outcome will be if we fight. None of us will be here to protect our worlds from the enemies that matter. Healer." There was no mistaking the frost in her tone. "Uranus and I don't owe you anymore. We've repaid the debt by leaving you the Crystal. Now, I suggest all of you think about going back to your planet. You don't need to be on Earth any longer."
"So rude," Healer muttered, but subsided as Fighter shot her a silencing look.
Uranus and Neptune disappeared into the heat-shimmered sands of the distance. Fighter let out a breath and visibly relaxed. "Well thank fuck for that. Let's get out of here before they change their minds."
"Before we set off for Kinmoku, we should go back to Tokyo and say goodbye to Sailor Moon and the others."
Fighter and Healer exchanged sceptical looks. "Are you serious, Maker?" asked Fighter. "We just narrowly avoided a bloodbath. Let's not push our luck."
"Uranus and Neptune won't do anything. And I want to say goodbye to Usagi."
"Hmm." Fighter grew thoughtful. "Well, it would mean I could pick up my suits."
"Your suits?" said Healer, sounding unimpressed.
"I spent a fortune on those suits. Since we're not going to be bloody corpses today after all they can come back to Kinmoku with me."
"And we should maybe tell the landlord we're leaving," Maker added.
"Urgh. We'll probably have to pay the whole month's rent. What a pain."
"Well, it's better than not having to pay it because we're dead," said Healer. "And hey Maker – I'm glad what you did worked and everything, but…Did you really have to tell Uranus and Neptune our whole plan, including all that stuff about me? You were right in what you said. If I'd really had to do it, there's no way I would have let on—"
"Yeah, we know," said Fighter, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "But be glad Maker found a way that meant you didn't have to. Though honestly, Maker, I have no idea what you did, or why it worked. And I still don't get what the 'enemy' stuff was about either. Did that make sense to you?"
"Maybe," said Maker, turning to look at the ruins of Babylon. The place that Pluto had once told her could never be reached. In the end, she and Pluto, they'd both made it here, but not together. That had only been an unfulfilled fantasy, and it hurt Maker to let it go, but she knew it would hurt her more if she held onto it. She'd done enough of that already. No, she decided; she'd carry on, searching for her own Babylon, for her own reason to be, and learn to love anew the world she served.
"I'll explain it on the way home," she said, looking back to her friends. "For now, let's leave this place to dream in the desert, until it's time for it to be reborn."