The Problems With Time Travel, an omake
by Metroanime (aka Gregg Sharp)

"Rei, are you all right?"

Rei held her head, trying to dislodge the sudden influx of
visions which had
overwhelmed it. "Oh."

Makoto frowned. "Heck, that's weird. I feel it too, like..."

"Like waking up from a bad dream or something truly terrible
has just passed
us by," Ami frowned. Whatever it was, it was certainly
interrupting the
study session.

"It was unpleasant," said Hotaru.

Everyone blinked.

"Why is Hotaru-chan here?" Usagi asked, then hastened to add
a clarifier.
"Not that you're not welcome."

Lots of puzzled expressions.

The door slid open and a boy none of them could recall
seeing before stood
there. "Venus? Jupiter? You're all here, you're alive? It
worked? Thank..."

Everyone had gone from disturbed to puzzled to flabbergasted
as this strange
boy fell over and slammed into the low table they were
surrounding. Ami
added a side order of guilty relief as the boy missed her by
a few inches.

Ami was up immediately and checking for a pulse. Finding
none, and signs
that the boy had been *crying* made this even more puzzling.
"He's dead?"

"Okay, what the heck is going on?!" Minako was beyond
flabbergasted. Usagi
had gone into shock but she wasn't saying anything. "Why do
we suddenly have
a boy here who knows our Senshi identities and..." Minako
ran out of steam
abruptly. Dead? And why did the boy look sort of familiar?

Makoto looked at Ami trying to open the boy's clenched hand
and used her own
strength to force it open. The cause of death was
immediately identified by
everyone there.

"The Silver Millenium Crystal?!" Ami noted, then directing a
questioning
glance to Usagi.

Usagi fumbled for her brooch and checked, then showed
everyone how the
crystal at the center was missing.

"ARrrrgh!" Makoto said with considerable feeling. "Why? How?
Someone tell me
what the heck this means!"

"...and how we're going to deal with a dead body here." Rei
pointed out
helpfully. "How do we explain *this*?!"

"It's simple, time has been changed."

"WAAUGHHHH!"

As soon as everyone peeled themselves off the walls, Rei
made a simple
request. "Setsuna-san, can you just use the door like
everyone else?"

Setsuna walked up to the boy and reached out to close his
eyes. "Well, *now*
you've earned my trust. Go gently, dutiful soldier."

"Whoaaa whoaa WHOA! Time-o out-o!" Minako held her hands up
in a "T"
formation. "What do you mean? Is this another menace from a
Dark Kingdom,
Black Moon, Chartreuse Wombat or something?"

"'Chartreuse Wombat'?" mouthed several of the sometimes
Senshi.

"The sanctity of the timestream," began Setsuna.

"Stop!"

Everyone looked at Usagi. She rarely went into Princess
mode, but it was
showing now, the steel behind her usual fluff.

"Explain this, Setsuna." There was no hint of her usual
ditziness. Rei bit
back a comment as Usagi suddenly had that aura of authority
around her.

Setsuna sighed and found a seat-cushion. "Fine. Can I at
least get a cup of
tea?"

---------

The tea had been hastily fixed, and now the body of the
unknown boy had been
laid off to the side where it wasn't sprawled inelegantly
across the table.
Besides, now they could close the door.

"It's simple enough," began Setsuna, "though where to
begin?"

"This boy's from the future. Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter
were... killed.
This boy somehow got the Silver Crystal from Usagi and used
his own
life-force to bring them back." Ami said into the silence,
putting together
the clues.

"I died?!" Minako's hair went into wild cowlicks suddenly.

Makoto twitched a few times. She didn't like dying.

Setsuna looked unhappy but spoke as soon as Minako had
stopped twitching. "I
looked into the time loop as soon as I noticed something had
changed. We all
died."

"WaaaahhhH!"

Ami ignored Usagi's wail. "But what about Crystal Tokyo?"

"Created as a mockery," said Setsuna, her eyes closed as she
remembered the
horrible visions.

Many looks at the boy again, this time with a jumble of
different emotions.

"Who's the boy?" Minako finally got out.

"Your boyfriend. Not trusted by myself, or Luna, or Artemis,
and especially
not by Haruka."

(sniffle) "I got a boyfriend and he's dead before I got to
meet him?" Minako
was ready to start a full blown crying jag at this.

"A new enemy occurred, someone who could mask themselves
through time. I
still wasn't able to see them clearly. Just that one after
the other of our
ranks fell. Sailor Mars was first, then Venus, then Jupiter,
then Mercury,
then Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Endymion, and Sailor Moon."

"You didn't die?" Rei asked the obvious question.

"Eventually," said Setsuna, shuddering slightly.

"How did we die?" Ami asked, thinking that if the menace
were still out
there they needed to develop a defense.

"The enemy is faster than we can get off attacks apparently.
I couldn't see
the enemy but I could see how the future versions of
ourselves tried to
fight it. After Sailor Mars was ripped in half, Sailor Moon
went into shock
and couldn't function. After that it apparently got in
between your ranks
and struck. It uses physical attacks backed by great
strength and what was
apparently a hard carapace or shell."

"How could you tell if you couldn't see it?" Minako asked in
the silence
following Setsuna's remark.

"Because when it punched through Sailor Jupiter's head, the
remains sprayed
out over quite a large area. Are you *sure* you want to know
these details?"

Makoto slowly got up, excused herself, went outside and
threw up.

"From what I further saw, this boy who had been told not to
follow us, did
so anyway. Minako was going to have to break up with him,
since she'd
already blown too many secrets during the Cherry Blossom
Festival when she'd
had entirely too much sake. He apparently didn't care. He
snuck in, got past
the Beast, and used the Crystal."

"So, he's..." Minako's gaze towards the dead boy was
wistful. He wasn't
cute. Still, just a boy who liked her enough to throw his
life away for her?
She finally gets a boyfriend and someone who understands her
and he's dead
before they finally meet?! What kami had she offended?!

"Not a member of the Royal Family. Not a member of the
Silver Imperium. Just
a normal everyday boy who saw the need to do something and
did it even
though he knew from one of Minako's stories that doing so
would likely kill
him."

Everyone spent a few moments looking towards the dead boy.

Ami tried to get images of exploding Makoto heads out of her
mind. "Uhm,
so..."

"Unfortunately, he wasn't that good at things and made some
assumptions, so
when he rebuilt the timestream there were a few changes."
Setsuna frowned
slightly. "Unfortunately, the Crystal does not come with an
Operator's
Manual."

"What kind of changes, Setsuna-mama?" Hotaru spoke for the
first time.

"Well, first off, you're not staying with Haruka or
Michiru." Setsuna
glanced over the crowd. "You've been staying with Makoto."

"Well, that at least makes a certain amount of sense," said
Ami. "After all,
when they first met her it wasn't long before they *were*
trying to kill
her."

"That also explains why I'm here," Hotaru said, vaguely
remembering
something like that. Makoto saying she liked to cook anyway
and there was
extra room for another futon shortly after that bit in the
planetarium.
Hadn't that happened?

Setsuna sighed. "There's also the matter of Ami's fiance."

"WHAT?!" This almost qualified as a sonic assault.

Ami merely fidgeted and blushed and shrank in on herself
while hoping he was
cute.

Setsuna sighed again, unhappily. "This outrageously inept
father tried to
teach his son a special martial arts manuever called the
'Catfist' by
throwing his son repeatedly into a pit of cats while the
child was tied up
with fish sausages."

There were several "eeew"s after that, but this was tame
after the other
news of the day.

"So... wait. I remember. There was a little boy and his
father offered to
engage me to him in return for medical treatment. My mother
mainly wanted to
get this boy away from his father so played along in the
hope that the
father would do something really stupid in front of
witnesses so that the
child could be saved from the next such lapse. His name was
Run... Rum..."

"Ranma Saotome, your fiance and Makoto's sensei in Anything
Goes martial
arts," said Setsuna now rubbing her temples as if she had a
migraine. This
had not been a crossover timeline previously. "You're
remembering it because
the past is beginning to catch up. You were partly shielded
because the
change occurred very close to here."

Ami nodded and began writing details out in her notebook.
She hoped he was
cute.

"Waitaminute, Ranma Saotome?!" Usagi blinked. "I remember
that name!"

"Yes, he was also engaged to you and to Rei and to any of
the daughters
Tendo and to Ukyo Kuonji," Setsuna said to Usagi. "I really
need an
aspirin."

"Ukyo Kuonji?! He was my sempai!" Makoto said brightly as
she finally got
back. "Waitaminute, my sempai was engaged to another guy?"

"Ukyo Kuonji is a girl who dresses up as a guy due to an
oath she made,"
said Setsuna. "Make that an extra-strength aspirin."

Makoto sniffled as her sudden vision of being reconciled
with her sempai
crashed and burned.

"If you use the Silver Crystal, you *might* be able to fix
it, Usagi, but I
wouldn't bet on it." Setsuna normally didn't drink but was
considering
getting very very drunk at this point.

"Waitaminute, Ranma as in 'Ranma 1/2'? I have a manga on
that right... Well,
I *had* a manga." Rei blinked as she finally caught up. "*I*
am engaged to
Ranma Saotome?"

Setsuna couldn't help but smirk briefly. "Yes. 'Terrible
tragic story' of
young shinto shrine maiden tomboy who get engaged by great
grandfather to
son of wandering martial artist."

"That's crazy!" Rei exclaimed, a bit of panic in her eyes.

The smirk vanished and Setsuna winced. "I *really* need a
headache pill. Or
three. You don't have the manga anymore because timelines
got crossed and
now all that actually occurred."

"And he turns into a girl when splashed with cold water,
turns back with
hot, arrogant martial artist with no people skills? Father
turns into a
panda?" Rei flinched. Oh sacred flame, she did not like
this.

"Is he cute?" Ami asked from somewhere within the blushing
huddle.

"What about *my* boyfriend?" Minako asked. "He's dead over
there."

"GET ME SOME ASPIRIN DAMN IT!" Setsuna rubbed her forehead.
That hadn't
exactly helped.

Rei scurried off. Everyone else just stared.

"AH! His body vanished!" Minako pointed. Great, now she
didn't even have an
ex-boyfriend.

"The past is catching up... oh no." Setsuna felt like
beating her head
against the table except she was already in serious pain.

"What?!" Minako was hopeful.

"Rei isn't engaged to Ranma anymore," noted Setsuna as Rei
returned. "An
eddy in the timestream wiped that and gave her a different
fiance."

"What?!" Rei almost dropped the bottle of aspirin.

"Rei is currently engaged to someone else who manages
shrines. A boy from
Okayama named Tenchi Masaki. Do you mind giving me that
aspirin now?"
Setsuna took the bottle, shook out three of the painkillers
and slugged them
down with the last of her tea.

"Tenchi Muyo?!" Rei said with more than a trace of
disbelief. "Well, that's
a little better at least."

"Wow! Am I engaged to anyone, Makoto-mama?" Hotaru asked
cutely, not even
realizing that she was now fourteen years old.

"I don't know, Hotaru-chan. So Rei's engaged to a guy named
Tenchi, Ami and
Usagi are engaged to Ranma Saotome who is also my martial
arts sensei?"
Makoto asked. She was almost afraid to ask if *she* were
engaged to someone.

"Oh, screw it," said Setsuna uncharacteristically. "*All* of
us are
engaged."

"WHAT?!"

"Oh, wait one moment. He didn't close the loop. I can undo
all this!"
Setsuna came up with an eerie light in her eyes. "That way
only the Weakest
Link would have to die."

"EXCUSE ME?!"

"I will *not* be engaged to Ryouga Hibiki," declared
Setsuna. "Oh, Haruka,
when did you get here?"

Haruka straightened his tie and wished that he could have
shaved this
morning. "Uhm, anybody notice something *different* this
morning?"

Everyone (except Setsuna) shook their heads wildly on seeing
a more
masculine (and in need of a shave) Haruka in the doorway.

"Let me guess," said Minako after Haruka had walked away.
"My dead boyfriend
whose name I still don't know thought Haruka was a guy?"

"Apparently," said Setsuna.

"What happened to Luna and Artemis anyway?" Ami had just
noted that the two
mooncats were missing.

"Taking a sabbatical after they found out Ami's fiance
suffers from extreme
ailurophobia." Setsuna picked up the crystal that Usagi had
apparently
forgotten about. "I need to get busy."

"WAIT!"

Setsuna abruptly vanished. Everyone looked around at each
other.

Ami watched her computer. "Temporal wave detected. Reaching
us. NOW."

"I'm still here," noted Hotaru. "I wonder if I'm engaged
still?"

Ami looked down at her notes. "Apparently I'm still engaged
to Urawa-san."

"That's nice," offered Rei. "Do you suppose anything's
changed?"

"Well, there's the picture of you and Yuuichiro after that
bit with the
daimon train girl," noted Usagi. "So he's probably still
your boyfriend."

"That's not all that comforting you know," said Rei with a
wince.

"Another temporal wave," said Ami after her computer beeped.
"3,2,1. Ok."

"Here's the picture of when Haruka and Michiru split up."
Minako sighed.
"Well, with Haruka being such a flirt it was bound to happen
sooner or
later."

"Excuse me, look for something that's *changed*," advised
Rei, looking about
her with her scarlet eyes. "Though it might be that
something already has
changed and we wouldn't necessarily know it."

Everyone stared at the short-haired albino briefly.

"What do you mean?" Usagi asked, wondering if this was just
more
introspection on the part of the pale girl. Rei could be so
weird some
times.

"If our pasts, and everything with them changed, how would
we know?" Rei
Ayanami, Sailor Mars, began doing something that everyone
that knew her
dreaded. She was getting philosophical. "After all, do not
our pasts shape
us as individuals? If Tsukino-san was not so fastidious and
so concerned
with her skills as a practitioner of Wing Chun style Kung
Fu, would she have
been able to defeat Eudial in that battle? If Mizuno-san
were not such a
practical joker, would she have pursued Urawa-san - much
less caught him in
a snare trap until he agreed to marry her? Do not our
individual pasts shape
our present which in turn becomes our future? If..."

"Another temporal wave," interrupted Ami before Rei could
build up too much
steam. "Whatever Setsuna is doing, she's apparently having
trouble. 3, 2,
1."

Everyone started looking around.

Serena offered a guess. "Is that a new jacket, Amy?"

Amy tugged at her WWII bomber jacket that she'd gotten from
her cousin
George. "No, I just don't wear it a lot."

"Nan desu ka?"

"Speak English, Hotaru, I know your Dad is very traditional
Japanese but we
lost that war a long time ago," advised Serena. "Besides,
you're staying
with Lita right now anyway."

"We're still costumed crimefighters, aren't we?" Mina
nervously checked and
gave a sigh of relief when she found her mutant powers of
light generation
were still intact. The Dazzler could still battle evildoers
it looked.

Amy heard a beep and pulled out a heavily modified PDA.
"Another temporal
wave approaching. Uh oh. Looks like there's been a Hulk
sighting in Nerima!"

This time the temporal wave was visible and seemed to carry
the sound of
Sailor Pluto swearing like a, well, like a sailor.

"I take it things are not going well at the Gate Of Time,"
grumbled Takeo
Mizuno. Tuxedo Mercury hoped this wouldn't take long, he was
missing soccer
practice for this!

Yumemaru Tsukino, aka Tuxedo Moon, stretched his shoulders.
"Well, what can
we do?"

Mika Chiba, the sometimes Sailor Terra, just looked at her
boyfriend and
wondered what was going on.

Another wave and sound of someone inventively swearing.

"Pika?" Makoto inquired. "Pika pi pikachu?"

"Cle. Clefairy fairy fair," noted Usagi.

Ami sighed. All her pokemon were having a conversation and
she was having to
spend time working with her pokedex.

"um um umbreon," suggested Hotaru.

"Jiggly! Jigglypuff puff puff," insisted Minako.

"Char!" Rei disagreed strongly.

Another wave passed, this time with the sound of someone
pleading for it to
work this time.

"Nothing different," said Ami, taking a moment to look at
herself in the
mirror of her compact.

"Where's Master?" asked Hotaru, chewing nervously on the tip
of her tail.
She knew it was a bad habit but this sort of thing made her
nervous. Of
course, lots of things made her nervous.

Another wave though the sound accompanying it sounded like
someone weeping.

There was a few moments of silence, which was broken as
Sailor Pluto
reappeared. She stared at each of them as if looking for
anything out of
place then let out a deep relieved sigh. "Thank kami.
Everything's fixed.
Here you go, Usagi-san."

Usagi took the crystal back then looked up at Sailor Pluto.
She looked
*awfully* stressed out.

"I think you need to schedule some quality time with your
boyfriend,"
advised Minako.

Setsuna froze, then slowly turned, one eyebrow twitching.
"*What* did you
say?"

"Yes, Pluto-san," said Belldandy as she put down her teacup,
smiling up at
the twitching Sailor. "I'm sure Urd or Skuld would be happy
to watch the
Time Gate briefly."

*THUD!*

"You know, this is the first time I've ever seen Sailor
Pluto faint,"
mentioned Minako.

"This is fate," insisted Rei.

------------

The model of time travel and changing futures doesn't stay
consistent within
the Sailor Moon series, so i thought i'd have some fun with
it. Take it
cool, people!


-----------
"We are all made - of starstuff." C.Sagan, "Cosmos"


http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com
http://www.geocities.com/mamoru_tengoku
http://www.geocities.com/studio_vanir
metroanime@mindspring.com



--
Rick Robinson
RICHARDROBINSON@prodigy.net


If violence is not solving your
problems you're just not using enough of it.

     Misato

"I guess I'm just an old-fashioned sentimentalist at heart.
I refuse
 to accept a no-win scenario.  I hate the thought of a
universe without
 justice.  If the maneuverings of dark powers can't be
exposed and
 defeated by the pure of heart, then there's no point in
anything.  I
 can't believe that."
                               -- Benjamin Hutchins



             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'