Probably the oldest story to be told is that of Pluto.  She was there
in the very beginning, long before man had taken their trek to the
stars and back.  Before the first etchings of the Moon Kingdom, the
first step onto the American Continent, and certainly before the birth
of Christ.


	The baby girl breathed slowly in and out, taking petite breathes to
fill her tiny lungs.  Her mother gently stroked the girls head as she
lay in her bed, looking up through the widely spaced twigs that made
up the ceiling at the sparkling stars above.  The stars were many,
back then, and much more easily seen than the way they are today.  The
mother enjoyed gazing up at them and swore that she had caught a pair
of them and placed them in her daughters eyes.

	A hunched over man carrying a large staff hobbled into the hut; the
bead filled squash husks hanging from his staff swinging against each
other giving out low, irregularly sounding thuds.  The man rose his
head to look at the mother; his face showed the lines of great
experience while he dark eyes glowed with the fury of youth.

	"I hope I'm not disturbing you," said the old man.  His voice was
rather high for his great age, and if this was so for any other man in
the village they would get mocked for it, but this man's importance
granted him immunity.

	"Of course not," the mother said softly.  "Please come closer."

	The man acknowledged the woman's gesture and hobbled over to the side
of the bed.  He looked tenderly down upon the infant girl being
cradled in the mother's arms.  For a moment, a smile darted across his
face, but it soon faded and was replaced with the man's constant
neutrality.

	"A name?" the man asked pulling out a small leather bag.  "So that I
may continue."

	"She is called, Lucretia," the mother responded.

	"A beautiful name," said the old man, followed by a wave of his staff
over the child's head.  "I have etched it upon her soul, so that it
may never be lost."

	The old man squatted down beside the bed holding his staff in front
of him.  Pulling open the leather bag with his teeth, he emptied its
contents, a fine sand, onto the matted earth floor.  Setting aside the
empty bag, he held his hand over the pile of sand and shut his eyes.

	"By the gods," the man rose his voice as he chanted.  "We hath
brought a child henceforth into our world and we bequest of you to
know what fate upon said child awaits.  By the gods, does our work
appease thee, or hath it been in vain?"

	The sand moved beneath his hand, lifting from the earth and spinning
into a small tornado between his skin and the dirt.  The man's eyes
opened as he quickly moved his hand away from the vortex and gazed
into the whirlwind.  The twister split into two entities and images
appeared within both.

	The furthermost image was of an young woman with long blond hair, a
slender face with piercing brown eyes, and a towering height.  She
held a forked wooden staff in her right hand and an illegible
parchment in her other.  The image glowed with a yellow light,
surrounding the woman like an aura.

	The closer image was also of a young woman.  She was similar in shape
as the first, same face and height, except her hair was a much darker
color that had highlights of green within it, and her eyes had turned
a blood red.  She may have looked to be the same age, except she had a
the look of eternal fatigue upon her face with faint dark rings around
her eyes.  In this woman's right hand was a longer staff that had an
ornate top which held a large garnet, and a spiked bottom with an
unusual square piece jutting off to the side.

	"The gods speak of two lives," the man spoke.  "One of a shaman, one
of something else.  The lives are stacked upon each other, one
overlapping the other, the first one short, the other much longer. 
Her existence will outlive the tribe and her name will last for
eternity."

	The images changed as the whirlwinds of sand suddenly struck one
another and fizzled out of existence in with an audible pop.  The man
jumped back in shock and stood aghast at what he had seen.  Slowly, he
turned to the mother and the infant.

	"She has been chosen for a chance to lead us all," the man said. 
"She will be given a choice to take a life of normality, or one of
godhood.  But the gods warn us not to interfere or all will be lost." 
The man swallowed and dropped his staff to kneel beside the mother.

	"Never must she, or anyone else, be told of this," he quickly blurted
to the mother.  "Or we risk the wrath of the gods."

	"It shaln't be spoke of," the mother said with a grim look upon her
face.

				****

	Pluto collapsed upon the crystalline floor as the last of her powers
were sucked from her body.  She hadn't the strength to take a dying
look at the creature that was recoiling from the energy let alone
raise her staff to stop it.  When the hideous screeching from the
accursed being stopped, she knew that it was over and she was facing
the last moments of her existence.

	Oblivion.

	It seems like such a terrible place.  She knew that when a god with
the power to bend time and space to her will dies, the only place left
to go was oblivion.  She had mere moments before the colorless,
emotionless, and non-existent realm would embrace her.

	"Oh Pluto," called a young voice.  The creature had moved off and
something else had taken it's spot.  The being lowered itself to look
into Pluto's dying eyes.  It was a young woman with short black hair
cascading around her.  She was wearing a Senshi's uniform with hues of
purple across it and upon her brow was the symbol of Saturn.  She
spoke as if she were right next to Pluto, but she was slightly
transparent, giving the whole conversation and eerie feel.

	"Hotaru," murmured Pluto as she felt blood enter her mouth from
collapsed arteries somewhere in her system.

	"I'm so sorry about what has happened," the ghostly figure responded.

	Pluto coughed up enough blood to continue talking.  "You needn't be. 
This is the only way it could end for me.  Even with my godhood
stripped from me, I can see that this was inevitable."  Pluto paused
to breathe a few shallow breathes.  Hotaru could only watch silently.

	"Too many years, Hotaru," Pluto continued.  "I've been watching this
land for several thousands of years, it is time that I move on ...
find what I've lost in my travels.  Return to what I've left behind."

	"And what would that be?" a new, stronger voice said.  "A battered
village in 500,000 BC?"  A man approached Pluto, and although she
could not move her head, she caught a glimpse of his black leather
boots.  "Or can you even remember back that far?"

	The shoes alone wouldn't have helped, but his voice struck a sore
note in Pluto as she struggled to spit out his name.  "Aries."

	"This is the end of it all for you, Pluto.  Would you expect anyone
else to be here?  Who else to prepare you than the person who first
introduced you to your power?"

	"Who else?" Pluto's weak voice scorned.  "You're right, I should have
known you would be here.  It all makes sense now, the Saturn Force
could never have gotten free unless someone had intervened, someone
with enough power to change what I had set in motion.  Who else?  I
never should have suspected anyone else could return to gloat over
the�"

	"Okay okay," Aries said with a wave of his hand.  "Before you get
stuck in a rut of hatred for me, you should know that I never
interfered in your plans.  You know the Olympian Gods were banished
from interfering with mortal matters.  Even I can't break a direct
order from the Almighty."

	"You know," he continued.  "I'm surprised at you, Lucretia�"

	"Pluto," interrupted Hotaru.  "She is called Pluto."

	Aries raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the youth and turned back to
Pluto.  "Fine.  I'm really surprised that you still hold me with the
same regard as you did thousands of years ago.  You of all people
should know that people can change�"

	"You are not a person."

	"�I am much different than I used to be.  The rampant destruction I
caused in Greece was fun while it lasted, but I find myself a bit more
tame these past few years."

	"I repeat�"

	"Yes yes," Aries quieted Pluto with the wave of his hand.  "'You are
not a person,' well, I have news for you, little girl, we're all the
same in the end.  Just as the humans you protect will go onto greater
things when they leave this mortal coil, so shall you, and I assume I
will someday as well."

	"Your end is closer than you think," Pluto muttered though blood
soaked coughs.  Aries winced.

	"I might as well get onto what I was sent here to do, by the Almighty
himself, mind you."  He knelt down and shook his head as he looked at
Pluto's broken body.  Snapping his fingers, the Timestaff appeared in
his hand in a flash of white light.  "Stand, Pluto, and accept one
last task."

	Almost as if being lifted by magical hands, Pluto stood straight up
and held out her hand to the staff that, under command, left Aries
hand and came to hers.  As her fingers grasped the staff she felt a
wave of vertigo as a mystic cloth wrapped itself around her, robing
her body in dark green.  Pluto looked revitalized but her eyes were
glazed over and her face held a grave expression.

	"Puu?" Hotaru said weakly.

	"Summon your guardians," Aries yelled.

	"Richard," Pluto's echoed voice called out.  A black cloud formed
before the three and from it stepped a man wearing a black version of
the Crystal Tokyo Royal Guard general's uniform.  In his right hand he
held an ornately crafted sword in a long, gold encrusted scabbard. 
The hilt prominently showed a large garnet jewel.

	"Edana."  A fury of cherry blossom petals fell from the ceiling and
began to cyclone creating a pinkish column before exploding outwards
in a blinding light.  Where the tornado of petals was, a dark woman
with long hair and wearing a very dark green Sailor Fuku covered by a
blood red cape was standing, with her arms crossed over her chest.  As
she dropped her arms to her sides, she opened her dark brown eyes.

	"Hotaru."  The ghostly child looked shocked for a moment before a
large bolt of electricity shot down from Pluto's Timestaff and struck
her.  She lifted from the ground for a moment, shaking in sensation of
the pure energy, before she lifted her arms above her head, and, for
the first time in several hundred years, became opaque.  She touched
the ground gracefully and instantaneously summoned her glaive.

	The three summoned beings looked at themselves then at one another
quickly before noticing Pluto lying on the ground, clutching her
Timestaff.  Hotaru and Richard Vedas were by her side immediately.

	"Pluto," Hotaru said, noticing her voice had deepened slightly since
the last time she'd talked.  "What's happening?"

	"So this is how it all happened," Richard said softly, holding
Pluto's head in his lap.  "Why didn't I ever tell myself?"

	Pluto slowly opened her eyes and looked to Richard.  "You know why,"
her soft voice sputtered.  Richard nodded almost immediately with a
look of defeat in his eyes.  She moved the Timestaff into Richard's
hand and held it closed on it.  "Give him this, and teach him,
please."

	Richard frowned and swallowed hard, his eyes watered, almost with
tears.  "Heh, I don't think I've ever heard you say please before," he
choked trying to hold back his tears.  He continued in a lower voice,
"I'll make sure I get off on the right foot, it's the least I can do
for myself."

	"Good luck to you as well," Pluto said.  "Prediction will only get
you so far, remember to use your heart as well.  It's something I
never got right."

	"I will," Richard said holding her hand tightly.  She turned to
Hotaru who had already given up on trying to keep from crying.

	"You're very important now," Pluto tried to say in a firm voice. 
"Make atones for what the Saturn Weapon has done with your body. 
Destroy it, once and for all."

	"I'll try," Hotaru said between tears.

	"I know you will," Pluto said settling back, and closing her eyes.

	"Goodbye," Richard said slowly.  "Lucretia."

	"Goodbye," echoed Hotaru.  "Puu."

	The manner in which Pluto disappeared is still unbelievable, and
remains beyond my ability to describe accurately.  But if her
extraordinary life is any example of her unique abilities and
extravagant measures, then you can picture for yourself how she left. 
As for me: A blink of an eye later, she, and Aries, were gone.


				****

	The rest, as they say, is history.  The final battle between the Moon
Kingdom, the Dark Moon: Nemesis, and the Saturn Weapon is one many, as
well as I, have told before.  Although it was believed that Pluto had
left this system, as well as this universe, on that day, Richard Vedas
has shared with me, in one of the many talks we've had, that he saw
her one last time after that day.  Since this is a story about Pluto,
I feel it's prudent to include it, but I'd rather it stay in Richard's
own words, so to leave up to you for interpretation.

						The Storyteller
						Neo-Prometheus, Jupiter
						July, Nineteenth AD 5716

				****

	It was some time after the last battle, Serenity and her Senshi were
still picking up the pieces of their Kingdom after having been broken
up during the war.  Fighting still plagued the outer planets even
after the news of peace had been announced, they had just gotten to
used to fighting.

	It was also not long after my future self and Edana left to return to
their respective timelines.  I had filled myself in on how to do
things as a Guardian of Time and I didn't really, nor do I completely
now, understand it all.  I began to wonder if Pluto, as I still call
her since she will forever be the real Pluto and I, a mere
impersonator, had understood it all herself when she had the Staff.

	I had just been talking with Serenity and had left to go watch over
Hikaru Lei as I promised to do for Washuu so many years ago.  I had
gotten no farther than leaving the Palace when I felt it.  It was
familiar and foreign at the same time.  I followed it through the
timestream until I came across the feeling's origin.

	It was her.  She looked almost completely different, but I knew it
was her, just from the feeling I was getting, from the vague glimpses
of her past self in her weather worn eyes.  She was draped in a black
cloth that fell lightly against her skin like silk and circled her
feet like falling water.  Her hair was the same color, but she had it
tied up behind her so that it no longer flowed behind her like it used
to when she was Pluto.

	She said nothing to me, simply looked upon me with a warm smile on
her face and nodded.  I was captured by her look and could simply nod
in return before her image began to fade.  I think I might have asked
her to wait as he faded, but if she heard me, or it was merely a
figment of my imagination, she continued until she had completely
vanished.

	Now, I don't know how anyone should interpret it, or if it's even
worth interpreting my encounter with her.  But, after that day, I felt
a bit better about not quite knowing what I was doing but trying my
best.  To me, I saw it as an omen, a sign that I'm doing well and
that, it's not quite time for her to return yet.  It may seem a bit
unusual, but that's how I feel, and since I am the new Pluto, I'll
eventually find out if I'm right or not.

						Richard Wagner Vedas.
						The Senshi Of Time


	"Sailor Moon" was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North
America by the DiC division of the Disney Corp. and Mixx Entertainment
Ltd.  Although this story contains characters and/or situations from
this work, this story itself is Copyright 1998 by Adam Leigh.  All
Rights Reserved.

Adam Christopher Leigh
Omicron@sprynet.com
Tempest Creations - (Massive Renovations Underway)