"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." Albert Einstein, 1879-1955 ---Tokyo, the Present--- "Minerva! No!" Sailor Pluto screamed. The other Senshi looked on, stunned at what had just occurred. Sailor Moon, recovering first, stepped forward, "What did you do to Minerva? Where is she?" Saeko smiled, "I liberated her." she declared triumphantly, "I have sent her to a far better place, a place of truth. A place of silence. She is free now." Sailor Pluto's eyes narrowed as she moved toward the woman, "Bring her back." she snarled, "Or I'll kill you here and now." The scientist laughed, "I see... And if I'm dead, how would you get her back then?" she asked. "However, if you want to see her again so badly..." she said as she aimed the metal sphere at the Time Senshi, "Go see her now!" "Silence Wall!" Sailor Saturn yelled. The beam stopped about five feet from the Senshi standing there. Sailors Mars and Jupiter went to rush her, when she pulled a second device out of her clothing. The bright white flash lasted less than a second but was bright enough to blind everyone long enough for Saeko to make her escape. As everyone's eyesight slowly came back, Mercury put her visor down to look around. Unfortunately, there was no trace of Minerva or the woman who attacked her and the others. Sailor Uranus leapt to the rooftop of a nearby pet store in hopes of spotting the scientist from the air. Neptune came over to Pluto's side and put her hand on her shoulder, "We'll save Kiho-chan, Sets. Don't worry about that. But what she said about being a scientist from the future, did you..." Pluto nodded her head, "There was a temporal disturbance when she materialized. She did travel through time, but..." her voice trailed off and she seemed to stare off into the distance. Neptune looked at her with concern as Sailor Moon came over. "Pluto-chan," the blond said consolingly, "Don't look so sad. We'll get Kihomi and..." "The timegate." Pluto said, still looking off, "A second person has just come back from the future, this time through the timegate." Sailor Venus came over, picking leaves out of her hair as she did so, "Pluto, are you sure?" The Time Senshi slowly nodded her head, "Yes, I... I'm sure. My future self must've sent someone back." she said grimly. Sailor Moon gave her a look. "Chibi Usa?" the blond asked, "Was she sent back to help?" Pluto shook her head, "No, not Chibi Usa; the energy pattern doesn't fit hers. Someone else has come back. I..." her voice trailed off again and the future queen could see tears beginning to form at the corners of Setsuna's eyes. "If they sent someone other than Chibi Usa, there must be some sort of a threat posed by that scientist to the future Crystal Tokyo, a threat too big for her to handle." Sailor Mercury reasoned out loud. Pluto looked over to where Minerva had been standing just a few moments before. "The future Crystal Tokyo," she said with a sinking feeling, "Or perhaps one of its inhabitants." Uranus came back to where her fellow Senshi were gathered, "Nothing." she admitted, "I think she may have escaped into the subway system, but I couldn't find her." "What do we do?" Sailor Mars asked, "We can't just give up? She's out there somewhere, and..." "And for now we don't know where." Sailor Uranus interrupted. "Look, let's meet at the shrine in half an hour and figure out our next move." The others reluctantly agreed. Before she left, Pluto took one last look at where Minerva had disappeared. "Kiho-chan." she whispered as she wiped away a tear, "Where are you?" ---Crystal Tokyo, 3043--- Princess Daimos ran into the royal chamber where her parents, Mars and Venus, were gathered around Lady Pluto and her wife. Daimos, a product of the science of parthenogenesis in which two egg cells are combined to produce a child, went to her mother Venus' side as the Princess of Love sadly kept vigil with the others. Daimos was soon joined by Princesses Ganymede and Europa, the children of Ladies Jupiter and Mercury. Lady Minerva, her head cradled in her love's lap, opened her eyes a crack and saw the three young Princesses. "P... Pluto-chan?" "Yes, beloved." her wife whispered as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I... I'm sorry we never had children." she said as she faded into transparency again. Lady Venus was beside herself with grief at watching both her friends suffer in this way. As Lady Minerva became solid once again, Pluto stroked her cheek. "Don't." the Princess of Time answered, "We never had children of our own, but we had each other. Besides, I talked with the Queen and... and... she said that next time, she'd try to use her powers to help us." Minerva smiled, "Next time." she said, feeling weaker by the second, "You... You'd make such a wonderful mother." Lady Pluto, unable to hold back the pain anymore, pulled her wife into a hug as she began to sob. The others all came closer to offer their support. At that moment King Endymion entered, followed by Ladies Uranus and Neptune. The King's face was red with anger and indignation. "The guards!" he shouted angrily, "She seduced one of the guards into smuggling four flash bombs and a miniature disrupter into the royal court!" He was about to yell some more when he noticed the sad and pained expressions of the royals. Bringing himself under control, he came over. "She... She's still fading." Pluto murmured, "We sent her back in time to save her, why is she still fading?" "Who?" Ganymede, the youngest member of the royal court asked, "Who was sent back?" "Your mother." Endymion answered the child. Turning back to Lady Pluto, he put his hand on her shoulder, "Minerva won't cease to exist, Pluto. Don't ask me how, but I just know it. Have faith; she'll save her." Lady Pluto swallowed hard as she continued to hold her beloved, wishing with all her might this wasn't happening. If events in the past weren't reversed fast, Sailor Minerva would cease to exist, and soon afterwards all memory of the time they'd spent together would be erased as well. ---An Alternate Reality, the Present--- Sailor Minerva looked at the materials in front of her as she began to shiver a bit from the cold. She'd gathered some wood from the demolished buildings and dead trees in her vicinity and had arranged them in a pile. In one of the ruins that had apparently once been used as a department store she found a book of matches. Hoping the things would still work, she struck five of them before she got a flame. She soon had a bonfire going. She allowed the transformation to fade, becoming Saeko Kihomi once again. The fuku was too cold for the environment she now found herself in, and as she thanked the fates for the fact she was wearing a turtleneck sweater and blue jeans before she transformed, she did wish she'd had time to eat before being sent here. As she pulled a tattered blanket she'd found around herself, her stomach started to growl. Looking around her, she found a femur of a skeleton and picked it up. Using some cloth she'd found, she wrapped it around the end of the upper leg bone, and lit it. Keeping the blanket around herself, she went off in search of something edible. All sorts of nightmarish thoughts began to creep into her head. She'd read a book when she was younger about an alien world where it was always day because of multiple stars lighting up the sky, until one day all the suns set at the same time and everyone went insane. She'd also heard of a play called "No Exit" about a group of people finding themselves condemned to Hell in the same room for all eternity. If she remembered correctly, one or more of the characters was gay. Was that where she was now? Hell? She knew that most religions condemned lesbianism, but it wasn't like it was ever a choice for her. She had always known that she was gay, and had never had any desire for men. She didn't hate them; she simply didn't feel any yearnings for them the way she did for her own sex. If she were dead, would she be sent to Hell for that? She'd never chosen to feel this way; it was simply the way she was. Looking around her, she quickly dispelled the theory she was in Hell. There were no demons, no devil, and no flames. There were human remains as far as the eye could see, and the ruins of a great city, but it was too chilly to be Hell. Besides, why would Hell have a giant statue of Hotaru? She found what must have once been a grocery store. Entering, she cautiously made her way in and found several cans of soup and some cans of sardines. The darkness all around her was oppressive, causing her to constantly look over her shoulder and nervously look at the bizarre shapes the ruins made in the dark. Finding her way back to the bonfire, she saw something that caught her eye. There was a bit of color among some skeletal remains over to her left about twenty feet away. Making sure to remain within eyesight of her fire, she went over to investigate. As she got closer, she could feel a scream well up within her for the second time that day. There, among the other headless dead, was a skeleton of someone a fair bit shorter than her. The deceased was wearing Sailor Mercury's fuku. ---Tokyo, the Present--- The women all gathered at the Hikawa Jinga Shrine on Sendai Hill. They now knew they had at least two people from the future running around loose in the present, and that the danger thus posed to the future kingdom was enormous. Ami spoke up, "I've been going through maps of the Tokyo subway system on my computer. If she did escape into the subway system, she may not have had any money on her. Unfortunately there are still enough hidden paths and lower levels where the homeless population lives that finding her will pose a bit of a problem." "And that's if she went down there." Rei pointed out, "And if she doesn't have any money, and if she's still down there and hasn't left yet to blend herself into the crowded Tokyo streets." "It's like looking for a needle in a stitch in time." Minako grumbled. "Usagi-chan! Usagi-chan!" a feminine voice called out. The blond in question turned around to see Luna running up to her and the other Senshi, "We have big trouble!" "How did you know already?" Makoto asked from where she was standing. The cat blinked at her confused. "Know what already?" the cat asked, only then noticing the perturbed and agitated faces of everyone. Usagi came over and knelt down to talk to her more at eye level. "Kihomi." The blond said, "She's gone." "Gone?" the cat asked, "Where did she go?" "We don't know where, we... Wait a second," Usagi said, "If you didn't know about that, what were you referring to when you said we had big trouble?" "Well, remember when Chibi Usa made your parents and brother think she was your cousin?" Setsuna and the others were now listening in. Makoto and Minako slowly walked up from behind Sailor Moon to hear better. "Yes." Usagi said, "Of course I remember." Luna came closer, "And later, remember Chibi Chibi hypnotizing your family into thinking she was your sibling?" The blond nodded again, "Luna, what are you trying to say?" The cat stepped still closer, staring intently into Sailor Moon's baby blue eyes, "Usagi, your 'older sister' Emi is over at your parent's house." ---To Be Continued--- End Notes: Daimos is a moon of Mars, and Ganymede and Europa are moons of Jupiter (don't worry, they only play cameos). Also, the science of parthenogenesis is not as wild as it sounds. Among bees, for example, unfertilized eggs develop into male drones while fertilized eggs produce female workers and queens. Also, the first recorded instance of artificial parthenogenesis occurred in 1900 (it was done to frog eggs by a scientist named Jacques Loeb). Obviously we're nowhere near being able to combine two human eggs to produce a child, but hey; I'm pretty sure by 3043 we'll be there.
Back to Sailor Minerva: Rules of Engagement Index - Back to Sailor Moon Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction