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 upright 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? ;)

     The idea of Minako being Pluto came to me while tossing ideas
around with Sean Gaffney over our "Trials and Errors" collaboration.
He decided to make a Minako-Pluto on our Council of Chronos and my evil
mind started to think of how Minako might become Pluto... this was the
result.  If you want to learn more of this Pluto, check out "Trials and
Errors."  It's not done yet, but the most up-to-date version is on my
website.

Jeff Hosmer
2 November 1998


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