(The deal for these we all know by now. A man with all-green eyes is talking 
to a young woman with pale skin and black hair)

?: ...ever considered televangelism? I happened to catch it the other day
   as I walked past an electronics store front, I had thankfully forgotten 
   about it over the centuries. Still, just imagine. Lay on those hands, one 
   "Praise the Lord" later, and with your healing abilities you'd be making a 
   mint.

Hotaru: ...

?: Anyway, here we are again for some C&Cing. This time, it's a continuation
   of John Bile's *cough* little *cough* Shiva storyline. Almost pure Sailor
   Moon/original characters in this first chapter, although who knows how
   many series will be drawn into it by the end? Today's token anime presence
   is Hotaru Tomoe. We'll skip the pleasant greetings, and go onwards:

At 10:53 AM 26/11/97 -0600, Ranma Al'Thor wrote:

       Hotaru stared at them.  She laughed weakly.  "The Fates.  
How quaint.  They don't like to be mocked, you know."

       "The so-called Fates are nothing more than shapings 
formed by untrained mages' collective imaginations.  They 
have no power we have not given them."  Purple Robes said.  
"If we mock them, they cannot stop us."

?: My, my. Aren't they secure in their knowledge? Even if what they thought 
   was true, even if the Fates were mere magic/psychic constructions of a 
   pooled magi conciousness, even if they only have the powers we give to
   them, there's an important thing to remember about fate.

Hotaru: What's that?

?: That it cannot be escaped. That's if you believe in such a thing, of
   course. I don't.

       She didn't have to stop.  A few seconds later, some of 
the darkness formed itself into a human shape.  "I will stop 
her!"  It announced with a whiny voice.  It grabbed Hotaru 
before she could move any further, wrapping cords of 
darkness around her.  "Any last words, child?"

       "Yes."  Hotaru said.  "SATURN ETERNAL POWER!"  
Everyone except Purple Robes froze and stared at her as 
purple energy swirled around her, transforming her into 
Eternal Sailor Saturn.  As her wings formed, they shattered 
the black cords.  The Silence Glaive appeared in her hands, 
and she brought it down on the shadowman's head.  He 
quietly passed out.

?: (turns to Hotaru) Good last words.

Hotaru: Thank you.

       "You fool!  You have not summoned a spirit!  You've 
opened a HIGHWAY for them!"  Saturn's face was livid with 
rage.  "You thought you could use the powers of darkness, 
but those who truck with the powers that hunger for souls all 
eventualy feed that hunger!"

?: The only reason you could take her seriously is that she can destroy
   the world. What a goody-two-shoes way of saying things. 

Hotaru: Good and evil play a large backdrop of what the Shiva storyline is
        about. And Sailor Moon is all about good and evil too.

?: Sailor Moon isn't about good and evil.

Hotaru: It's not?

?: No. It's about youth, and how much power that gives. Just look at some of
   the things. First season, young girls versus thirtyish woman and twenty-plus
   men. Second, versus the misguided youth of Ail and Ann. Third, it takes the
   young Senshi to win Crystal Tokyo's victory, where the old versions had
   failed. And so on. But that's beside the point, good and evil play a role
   too. And this is the Shiva universe. Of course, I can't accept such a view 
   of the world.

Hotaru: Of course.

?: But there you go, if it was Sailor Moon or one of the others, the villains 
   would be rolling on the floor laughing right now. 

        DID YOU THINK THIS WAS THE ONLY PLACE 
WHERE FOOLS TRIED THIS EXPERIMENT?  I THINK 
THIS TIME...I'LL TRY AN ICE AGE.  OH, DR. WISE.  
THANKS FOR THE ORB.  MY CHILD WILL MAKE 
GOOD USE OF IT.  

        The Indian Summer of that age of Mankind came to an 
end.  It was time for Fall, and with Fall comes Winter, a 
winter that lasted nigh upon a thousand years.  But Winter is 
not the end of all things, for with Spring, the year, and life, 
are born anew. 

?: And then there was ice... Nice paragraph. No real explanation on
   why this ice age didn't kill off everyone, but I presume you'll
   cover that later. 

       Arcadia N'goya walked down the street, which was 
thankfully clean of shards of crystal, unlike much of the ruins 
of the once great city of Crystal Tokyo.  It had been destroyed 
before she was born, for she was only sixteen and Crystal 
Tokyo had been laid waste by the last of the Usurpers, the so 
called 'Emperor Demand II', who had claimed to be the child 
of the legendary Queen Serenity I, and the equally legendary 
Emperor Demand of Earth.  Well, they weren't entirely 
legendary, but the stories that surrounded both of them were a 
complete crock, in Arcadia's opinion.  Ending an ice age in a 
single day.  Healing thousands with a word.  Inaugurating an 
age of peace and plenty in which none went hungry or sick.  
Demand as Serenity's secret lover.  Them falling out.  
Demand dueling Serenity to the death and swearing he would 
one day return to bring her down.  His followers taking him 
away to Avalon to be healed.  Yeah, right.  

?: Sounds familiar. Can't quite remember what...

Hotaru: A few shades of the Arthurian mythos, I think you were trying to
        say.

?: Ah yes. That was it. Ah well, he has to throw it in somewhere. ^_^

       She tossed her head, and long shoulder-length purple 
hair whipped about.  Arcadia was proud of her hair, but in the 
heat of summer, it got to be an annoyance at times, trapping 
heat and getting into her eyes.  

?: Ah! Shampoo's been reincarnated as a Sirian!

Hotaru: Ah... somehow, I don't think so. 

       Her birthday party had been when everything went to 
pieces.  Her boyfriend, Tony Pacarri had been in a bad mood, 
and she had been trying to get him to stop moping around and 
wrecking the party when there had been an explosion at the 
front gate and a skimmer full of people with black crescent 
moons on their foreheads had driven into the middle of the 
party and started to mow down all her friends and the family's 
servants.  Sammy had been cut in half by a monofilament 
whip.  Her aunt Traci had simply been run over.  Her parents 
had just gone into the house to get her presents or they would 
have died as well.  Tony died, throwing himself in front of a 
blast to save her.  

?: Sigh... sloppy. No finesse. How embarassing that they wear the
   black crescent symbol.

       That had been the final straw, along with seeing a second 
skimmer full of maniacs coming through the gate.  She had 
lost it completely, screaming so loudly that she was surprised 
her own eardrums hadn't burst.  Her screaming had been 
followed by an explosion that had flipped over the second 
skimmer and vaporized the first one.  She didn't know what 
had caused it, but the inhabitants of the second skimmer had 
come after her, and she had run, and run, and run.  

?: Well, well. She possesses the Royal Scream, which is sufficiently
   loud, annoying, and deadly enough to roast cattle. Both Sailor Moon
   and Chibi-Usa have used it to their advantage. 

       The woman's eyes glittered.  "Yes!  With this, we can 
travel to the past and save Nemesis from destruction!  We can 
bring down our enemies!  Five decades of searching have 
finally paid off.  Give it to us."  She raised the whip.  "Now."

?: I like her already. 

Hotaru: I dunno. Playing around with time like she wants to doesn't seem
        too smart to me. 

?: *COUGH* *COUGH* Excuse me? Two words: Sailor Pluto. A woman who quite 
   blithely sent a child blundering through the timeline, co-incidentally
   ensuring the 'bad guys' defeat and cementing Usagi-Mamoru's relationship,
   now there's someone being irresponsible with time.

Hotaru: Aren't you the one trying to set up a paradox that will probably 
        wipe you from the timestream?

?: Ahem. Anyway, these people are incompetent, I'm embarassed that they're
   from the Dark Moon clan, but at least they've got the right idea.
  

       Urawa was a powerful precognitive, able to see a few 
seconds into the future all the time, and subject to periodic 
visions further into the future, which he could not control.  
Oddly, his visions were usually more reliable than his future 
sight.  The Elder Pluto simply smiled when asked why, and 
the Junior Pluto was utterly clueless as to why this was the 
case, since their own powers worked opposite this.  His eyes 

?: 'opposite to this', unless you're being rather cryptic.

suddenly widened and he shouted, "HEADS UP!"  Grabbing 
Ami, he jumped away from the edge of the dock, just as a 
scream ripped through the air from above.  "Catch her, Mina-
chan!"

       "Demand the II bombed it to tiny bits a little over fifty 
years ago.  Serenity XVIII somehow escaped and managed to 
tow a N5 bomb into his home system and caused its sun to go 
nova, wiping him out and most of the Black Moon Cult.  

(? and Hotaru look at each other)

?: Well...

Hotaru: Um...

?: Sure beats Moon Healing Escalator, or whatever that attack was.

Hotaru: Mutter... mumble... I'm supposed to be the one who destroys planets.
        'S not fair.

      Arcadia listened.  The tune was exactly the same.  The 
pain in her body faded away in seconds, as if it had never 
been.  Her worries diminished, replaced by a sense of hope.  
The song always did this for her, but never this powerfully 
before.  She could sense the power it bore.  It was magic.  For 
the first time since her arrival, she smiled.  "Well, I suppose I 
should be getting home.  My fam...my friends will be 
wondering what happened to me.  Not that it isn't nice 
meeting you, but I don't belong here."

?: Why do people always inherently trust magic if it makes them feel good?
   I mean, if someone walked up and shot your arm up with heroin, not 
   everyone would be saying 'Gee thanks'. Why magic?

Hotaru: Do you know what it is to fear yourself? Life... death... magic can
        give and take away so much. Without the power to destroy a planet, I
        could not heal a loved one. But in the end, it all comes from within.
        That is why magic is trusted, because ultimately it comes from within.

?: Sorry, can't agree. Magic is trusted when it does good because it is not
   rational. It does not require you to have a reason to be happy, it just
   makes you so. It does not give the fear that drugs do, there are no 
   side-effects or moral problems or social stigma to magic, and so it makes
   you smile. It's insidious. I would never trust magic such as this.

      Arcadia let out a yell of pure pleasure as they zoomed over 
the streets of Crystal Tokyo.  She liked flying even more than 
she liked running or driving at ridiculous speeds.  Everyone 
except her and Minako, who had somehow browbeaten the 
others into letting her drive the skimmer, was screaming at the 
top of their lungs.  Well, Arcadia was screaming too, but it 
was because she enjoyed it, while she was fairly certain the 
others were simply scared.  What surprised her was that the 
skimmer looked much like the ones used in her own time.  I 
suppose there's only so many improvements you can make in 
something as simple as a skimmer.  Skimmers usually 
couldn't fly this high, however.  They were travelling about a 
hundred feet over the rooftops, and most skimmers couldn't 
get more than thirty to fifty feet off the ground.  "So how fast 
does this thing go?"

       Steven shouted, "No!  Don't ask her that!"

       Minako grinned.  "I don't know.  Let's find out."

       Ami simply hid her face in Ryo's chest.  Arcadia could 
hear them both praying.  

?: What happened to Ryo's future sense now?

Hotaru: Knowing that you're not going to crash in the next couple of seconds
        doesn't mean you won't in the next couple of minutes.

?: Ah. Hells, they're immortal. Sort of. And they reincarnate at the drop
   of a hat when they die, anyway. (grins savagely) They should be _enjoying_ 
   it.

      "I guess a lot has changed in a thousand five hundred 
years,"  Ryo said casually.

      "Just about everything I've seen in this place has either 
been stolen, destroyed, or is packed away in the vaults in my 
time.  Or Doctor Anderson has stashed it in the library."

      Ami coughed loudly, then said, "So you've visited the 
palace in your time?"

?: If someone told me now, at 950 years of life, that I would still be 
   alive 1500 years from now, I would be rather depressed.

Hotaru: That's the greatest advantage of her being a scientist. You are fixated
        on one goal, and one goal only. Whether you reach your goal or not,
        life eventually drags. But an enquiring mind like Ami-chan's will
        always have something new, something interesting to consider. Always
        something to live for.

?: Still, you'd think she'd act slightly more shocked. Finding out that your
   life span is possibly assured for another few centuries, barring this 
   being another Dr Anderson, is quite a thing to hear.

Hotaru: Maybe she just already knew. After all, Setsuna-mama is hovering around 
        somewhere. Or perhaps it's just not Ami in the future, and she knows
        or assumes that. 

       Arcadia laughed.  Little kids never change, I guess.  

      The man turned to Arcadia, "I'm Professor Tomoe.  Nice 
to meet you.  Please sit down.  Would you like a cookie?"  He 
started pouring drinks and putting cookies on plates, making 
sure that the little kid got his cookies first.  "And this is my 
son Ian."  He looked around.  "His sister Barbara is around 
here, somewhere.  Probably hiding again."

?: I just thought of something.

Hotaru: What?

?: Bear with me, it's been a while since I read the relevant chapter of SMZ.
   But didn't Pluto give up her 'outside time status' or something to marry
   your father? And then she started aging normally, or something?

Hotaru: (frowns) Actually, I can't remember. I think so.

?: It's just that it makes that particular sacrifice rather pointless, if
   the septic... I mean the silver crystal gave her immortality anyway.

Hotaru: A sacrifice is a sacrifice no matter what the outcome.

?: Hmm...

       "I can think of three possibilities.  One, that for some 
reason that key was charged by me or the Junior Pluto and left 
lying around where it was dug up by chance.  I find this 
unlikely.  Two, that at some point in the future, we will do 
this as part of some plan that hasn't been made yet.  This is 
possible, but doesn't explain certain things.  Thirdly..."  She 
paused.  "What year are you from?"

        "1532 SY."  Arcadia said quietly.

       "Ahh, that explains it.  You're from after I die.  You're in 
the junior Pluto's jurisdiction.  You'll have to see if she 
knows why you are here."  Setsuna sat back, visibly relaxed, 
and ate a cookie.

Hotaru: See? A sacrifice is still a sacrifice. And the Senshi were not
        granted immortality by the silver crystal, merely long life.

?: Very long life. Very calm about her eventual demise...

Hotaru: How many people do you see screaming when they realise that they
        won't be alive in fifteen centuries?

?: Point. If this wasn't Pluto, that would be a point, she is the sort who 
   could have once expected to see through a mere fifteen hundred years. But 
   that this is Pluto is, of course, the best reason she is so calm. You know 
   what I'd love to see Pluto do, just once.

Hotaru: No, what?

?: Have a hysterical screaming fit, running around the room shouting "We're
   all going to die! We're all going to die!"

Hotaru: You'd want to see that from a person who sees the lines of the future?

?: Good point. Very good point. Scratch that particular wish off, then.

       "Junior Pluto?"  Arcadia prayed this was not the little girl 
who was hiding somewhere in the house.

?: Junior Pluto? Bwahahahahahaha! Imagine trying to get any respect with a
   title like 'Junior Pluto'!

       Arcadia gave a sigh of relief.  "Please tell me you can 
send me back to the future."

       "I can send you back to the future,"  the junior Pluto said 
with a mischevous smile.

       Arcadia gave a bigger sigh of relief.  "How soon can I 
go?"

       "Actually, I only said that because you asked me to."  
Himeko laughed, as did Ami. 

?: You know, people who say things like that are really asking for some bad
   karma.

       "But the world isn't all about ŒGOOD' and ŒEVIL',"  
Arcadia said.  "It's full of shades of grey.  Most people aren't 
tremendously good or evil."

?: YES! You tell 'em girl. 

       He handed her a cookie from the table.  "Here you go!  
Yeah, she can't hide from me!  I'm gonna be a famous 
detective like Sheerluck Homes one day!"

       "I'm sure you will,"  Hotaru said, rufflinghis hair.

?: You missed a space with the ruffling thing there. (turns to Hotaru)
   Well, you're not dead in the future. That's rare. 

Hotaru: No, just on the brink of madness thanks to internal forces beyond
        my control.

?: Anythings an improvement, eh?

Earth,  Albert's Needle, 2066 AD (Serenity Year -926, 2815 
Years after the founding of Rome, Juraian Year 22230, 
Federal Year -1918)

      Albert's Needle was colloquially known as the pimple on 
the butt of the Outback to most people who had ever heard of 
it, even by the locals.  It had a population of 257 and one dog.  
The dog belonged to the barkeeper/general store owner/mayor, 
Jimmy Wilkinson.  The only reason everyone didn't leave was 
that you could graze sheep during the wet season and no one 
could afford to leave.  

?: Hmm. Australia, eh? Time to call in some local flavour. (Reaches offscreen
   and grabs someone, pulling them in front of the camera) Meet Opal, 
   madman, Australian, person who likes to blow things up.

Opal: Hi.

(Hotaru and ? look at Opal. He looks back, until finally...)

Opal: What? Is my hair on fire? Again?

Hotaru: The accent's right, but...

?: Come on, prove you're Australian.

Opal: What, I'm supposed to say something like "G'day mates, everything's
      bonza with me and my sheila. Struth, you should have seen the weather
      today. Stone the crows, people were holding barbies on their roofs."
      Well? Ocker enough for you?

(Hotaru and ? clap politely)

?: Very nice. Take a look, tell us what you think.

Opal: Hmm... that first paragraph actually sounds Australian. 

       Everyone had been surprised when Dr. Angelica Ransom 
showed up and started poking around the old caves in the 
area.  The only person in Albert's Needle who had ever seen a 
college professor in the flesh was Crazy Old Man Hodge, who 

Opal: Now you see, the thing about Australians is that we're lazy. Or laidback,
      if we're feeling sensative about it.

?: Uh-huh. So?

Opal: So it's like this. We abbreviate everything we can get away with.
      Especially names. If there isn't an easy nickname for them - like
      Reg for Reginald, or Matt for Matthew, we'll call them 'mate'. 
      As local Australian flavour(tm), I can say that Crazy Old Man Hodge
      is at least a word too long. Possibly two or three too long. Or more.

?: So what do you suggest, Mr Local Flavour?

Opal: Buggered if I know. Crazy Old Hodge? Mad Old Hodge suits me Aussie tastes
      even better, mind.

?: Can you believe we've wasted this much of the C&C on this?

Hotaru: Seems like the normal waste of time to me.

      Dr. Ransom claimed to be an archaeologist.  She was, but 
that wasn't why she was here.  She was also a mage of some 
repute, incredibly skillful at reading impressions of the past of 
objects and finding archaelogical sites.  It was her second 
talent, which she hated, which led her here.  The Archetypes, 
as many magi called them, sought her out.  They were the 
spirits which incarnated highly powerful ideas, such as Truth, 
Justice, Hate, Death, and other abstractions, such as Gaia, 
Uncle Sam, or in Dr. Ransom's case, "Australia".  You saw 
them as you expected them to appear.  Australia had appeared 
to her as a woman garbed like Britannia, but armed with a 
boomerang, instead of a spear, and wearing a wide-brimmed 
hat.  

Opal: I think I'm going to go worship at the porcelin altar.

Hotaru: Huh?

Opal: The technicolour yawn?

?: What?

Opal: I'm gonna throw up, all right!? Anyway, trust me on this. If she's
      the archetype image of Australia, there's one thing missing. Absolute
      must, go ask other Australians, 's more important than anything else.

?: I know I'm going to regret this, but... And that is?

Opal: Zinc cream. Across the nose. Go on, ask another Australian. Can she
      be an archetype of Australia without zinc cream on the nose?

?:(whispers to Hotaru) This is one of his saner days, too.

       At least the sun isn't too bad, she thought.  It was 
unusually cool for December in Australia this year, but she 
didn't mind.  That night, the news reported that contact had 
been lost with several research stations in Antarctica.  She paid 
it no mind.  

       When it was fifty degrees at noon the next day, she 
started to wonder what was going on.  She was staring at the 
needle again.  It was warmer close to the needle, warmer by a 
good twenty degrees within a hundred feet.  This isn't natural, 
she thought.  

Opal: Celsius? All right, you're confusing me with this. Fifty
      celsius isn't especially cool, not even in December. It happens,
      especially in the deserts, but I'm not sure in this paragraph
      if it's that hot there because of the needle, or because Nature's
      just being normal. Some, you know, clarification here might be
      a bit 'elpfull.

      At lunch, the news announced that the worst blizzard in 
recorded history was drowning Canada and northern Russia in 
snow.  More worrisome was that the glaciers were on the 
move south.  They had moved ten miles south since the last 
measurement.  "It's the Fimbulwinter!" Crazy Old Man 
Hodges started shouting.  "The Damn Frost Giants are 
invading!  Santa Claus was just a front man for them!  He 
wears red!  The Devil is red!"  Someone bounced a beer can 
off his head, and he shut up.

Opal: (nods) The Australian way of dealing with a problem. Not worrying
      about it.

?: Anyway, that's that. An interesting begining, even though that's all it is, 
   a begining. Despite its size, not all that much really happened. Ah well. 
   Wait to see more, I suppose. So then, she's the one who dies off a lot in 
   fics set in the future.

Hotaru: He's the one who talks about dying in the future a lot.

Opal: And I'm the one with a live grenade in my hand.

?: TAKE COVER!

************  
Mark Doherty  -  mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
My spam/fanfics are at - 
http://www.tass.org/~mdoherty/index.html

"Time grows short, but I remain tall."