Sailor Pluto: I am Sailor Pluto. The Guardian of Time.
Neffy: [scoffs] Well given all that has just transpired here, you must be having an even worse day than I am.
[He holds up the bottle to her, and seems only mildly surprised when she takes it from his hand, raises it to her lips. The bottle ebbs from a few deep swallows before she wipes her mouth as she hands it back.]
Neffy: No offense, but I thought you were an urban legend. A fake Senshi from a fake planet.
Sailor Pluto: I assure you the stories are very much real. I stand watch at the end of the galaxy, at the sacred time door, protecting the inhabitants of this world from temporal anomalies.
Neffy: Well don't take this the wrong way... but given everything that has just happened...[Waves the bottle at everything in the room]... I would say you are doing a pretty piss poor job at it.
Sailor Pluto: Am I though?
Neffy: You are the guardian of time. How is any of this a sign of a job well done on your part?
Sailor Pluto: How is any of it a job well done on YOUR part?
Neffy: I asked you first.
Sailor Pluto: And I assumed your question was rhetorical, whilst I am genuinely curious are to why you spared those two children, in complete contradiction to your nature, your orders, your history, your feelings on the subject, your emotional state, your own selfinterest-
Neffy: Yada, yada, I get it...the truth is...I don't know. Killing them seemed... wrong? Is that the word I am looking for? Wrong...but not in a right and wrong way. More...unnatural?
Sailor Pluto: Unnatural? How so?
[Neffy ponders]
Neffy: Ok. I think I get it. You ever hear the story of Castor & Pollux?
Sailor Pluto: You mean the twins that make up the constellation Gemini?
Neffy: [Nods] They actually have different fathers, which I learned from pillow-talk with their half sister Helen of Troy who I have to say was a bit overrated...but not by much! [He smiles at the memory]
Sailor Pluto: I believe you were going somewhere relevant with this?
Neffy: Oh. Yes. The twin story. Anyway. They were inseparable, just like those two little brats. One of them was the son of a king, the other, the son of a god. One day they went off to battle and they never returned... Some say they both died and were buried. At least that what Helen thought. Others say, the mortal one died and the immortal one wandered off fully consumed by grief. But the best stories are the ones where the mortal one died and the immortal one sacrifices half his godhood to his brother, and they flew off together to the Heavens. That's really the only version of that story that doesn't complete suck. So in essense-
Sailor Pluto: You didn't want to break up the set.
[Neffy thinks then nods]
Neffy: Besides that...I'm just tired. Tired of being the smartest but being treated like the dumbest because I am a drinker and not a natural born bottom like the others. Ten thousand years ago I tripped on a rock and was given a choice. Die, or become an immortal minion of an evil goddess. Ten thousand years...[drinks deeply] I made the right choice, of course, but that is a hell of a long time to live as a slave.
Sailor Pluto: So you decided to end it all.
Neffy: Not in the least. There is still plenty of life left in this old bones, but I can't see how I can recover from this. I have been drinking on the job, as you no doubt have noticed. I could have killed the two little brats, but what then? Metalia doesn't celebrate partial victory. She is going to slaughter the others for failing outright. But me? I would have gotten off with a few decades of brutal torture only to have to train a fresh crop of fools to take their place. [He sinks back against the wall with his eyes closed]
Sailor Pluto: If it is any consolation, Metalia had no recollection of anything concerning the Heltry siblings.
Neffy: Oh? And how do you know that?
Sailor Pluto: Because I made her forget them. Just like I made everyone else forget them, with the Mist of the River Styx. Just like you are going to forget them the very moment this conversation is finished.
Neffy: Metalia isn't upset?
Sailor Pluto: She is very upset. She remembers you failed her, just not the specifics.
Neffy: Gee, thanks.
Sailor Pluto: We are not allies, you and I. Were our situations reversed, how much would you have done for me?
Neffy: Point taken. So why are you telling me this?
Sailor Pluto: Because in your own way, you have served the cause of Destiny better than I have. By sparing the twins, but clipping their wings, so to speak, you have unwittingly ensured everyone on all sides would benefit from the outcome. I had worried about leaving them as loose ends, but you have tied them off pretty effectively, and for that, the whole universe owes you a favor.
Neffy: [Shrugs] Don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but wouldn't it have been smarter for you to stop them from traveling through time in the first place?
[Sailor Pluto flashes a vaguely guilty look]
Sailor Pluto: [unconvincing] I...guess that possibility will have slipped my mind...
[Neffy jaw drops and he starts laughing]
Neffy: Oh you sneaky bitch! You did this so you could steal the Silver Crystal out of their gun, didn't you!
Sailor Pluto: [sweatdrop appears] I did not. The Silver Crystal merely returned to its rightful owner after she had reached the minimum level of maturity and sound judgement dictated by the previous sovereign-
Neffy: But you knew that was going to happen!
Sailor Pluto: I did have a pretty good hunch.
[Neffy howls on the ground laughing]
Neffy: You white lighters! Always acting like so 'holier than thou'! And yet her you are, like a teacher who confiscates a bag of molly from a pair of delinquents, so all the teachers can have a party in the breakroom! So I guess I have my answer.
Sailor Pluto: To what?
Neffy: To why you consider any of this a job well done on your part. As the white light guardian of time, you looked the other way during this egregious abuse of the fabric of time. Not enough that you let them destroy the universe, but enough to restore the Silver Crystal, and tip the balance back to light after a thousand years of darkness. That's cheating! [wipes the tears of mirth from his eyes] I honestly didn't know you white lighters were permitted to abuse your powers like this!
[Sailor Pluto looks at her hand and wrist which are rapidly disintegrating into sand which pours onto the floor]
Sailor Pluto: I'm not.
[Neffy's eyes are as wide as saucers as she completely bursts apart into sand- costume, key, and all, which forms a pile on the floor]
[Neffy timidly kicks at a bit of the sand which scatters]
Neffy: Shit. She was having a worse day than me. [Goes back to drinking]