THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PLUTO

by

Jeffrey Hosmer

     The fire halted in mid-motion, the remains of the helicopter frozen in
the act of fiery annihilation.

     "Pluto?" Sailor Neptune asked in surprise, looking at the frozen hell
surrounding them.

     "What have you done?" Sailor Uranus seconded.

     The enigmatic Sailor of the Future faced them sadly.  "I have stopped
time. You must take this opportunity and escape now."

     "I never knew you had this kind of power!" Uranus said.

     "No. As the Guardian of Time this is the most forbidden act for me."

     "The most forbidden...?"

     "What's going to happen to you?" Sailor Neptune asked quietly.

     "I've already met the true Messiah..." Sailor Pluto said quietly, with
a soft smile that only reached her eyes.

     "The true Messiah...?" Sailor Neptune asked in shock.

     Then the two Outer Senshi were gone.

     Sailor Pluto looked at the frozen helicopter and sighed.  It was not a
sigh of sadness, but rather relief.  It was finally over.

     The frozen world around her wavered and blurred as her hold on the
twentieth century frayed and finally broke.  She watched it all slide away,
knowing she could never return to that time again.  It didn't matter.  She
had already made sure she was present in the Sailors future to 'help' them
with Galaxia.

     She frowned as the Gate of Time formed in front of her.  Human
languages were not really made for Time Travel.  Still, she knew that her
fellow Senshi would have been glad to know the reason she could not stop
time in the fight against Galaxia was so that she could do it later, a year
before.  Or something like that.  Even living through all of it twice
didn't make it any easier for her.

     She had not wanted to live such a convoluted path, but she had to...
Dark Dome Close was the only way to make sure that the battle against
Pharaoh 90 was resolved properly... and she needed to be there in the
battle against Galaxia so that...

     "I never wanted this job," she said aloud to the Gate of Time.  It
stood there, silently, never answering.  Not that she really expected an
answer to that.

     "I'm done," she said to it.  "I've protected you against the Black
Moon Family.  I let Chibi-Usa go back to the past.  I let the Sailors come
forward to Crystal Tokyo, even HER.  I let Uranus and Neptune 'kill' me and
Hotaru-chan.  I made sure Saturn awoke on our side.  Now, I want to go
home."  She looked up at it for a moment.  "Please," she added.

     For a long moment, nothing happened.  Then, slowly, the door opened.
She felt tears form in her eyes.  Finally, the job was done.  She set the
Time Staff down by the door, then hung a small ring of keys on the little
heart-shaped loop on the top of it... just like she had found it when she
had taken the job, so long ago.  She had known what it had entailed, but,
in a way, she had prepared herself for it.

     Divested of the tools of her office, Sailor Pluto stepped through the
Gate of Time.  As she did so, her uniform changed in color, as did her
hair.  She appeared in the Court and bowed before the True Messiah, the one
for whom she had sacrificed so much.  Standing up, she reached up to
straighten the long-missing bow in her hair.

     "Welcome back, Minako," Neo-Queen Serenity said.

THE END.

Author's Note
     Time travel can really play with your head, can't it? ;)

Jeff Hosmer
3 August 1998

Jeffrey Paul Hosmer
jhosmer@ix.netcom.com
http://www.tass.org/~jhosmer/