Haruka could feel the sadness wash over her long before she heard the sobbing. Following the emotion, she came to a castle. It appeared out of the clouds, like a mirage, clearly visible only when she practically stood before it. Two figures, a man and a woman stood weeping, while a third figure lay before them, encased in a crystal coffin. They turned as she approached. "Mistress!" The two figures practically threw themselves at her. Haruka flinched, calling memories out of her depths. "Oberon. Ariel." Where's..." she turned towards the coffin. A figure, small, almost childlike, lay there. Her skin was pale and luminescent. "Miranda is dead." Oberon spoke like one in a daze. "After all these millenia." "What killed her?" Haruka asked, memories coming now in an overwhelming flood. Ariel spoke. Ariel who never spoke, Haruka remembered. "She did. She killed our beloved Miranda!" Her voice broke and she began to sob. Haruka remembred Miranda now, telling stories to make Ariel laugh, leading expeditions around the planet, singing Titania to sleep. Miranda, the kindest, gentlest of all spirits. Miranda was dead. Haruka found herself crying, and taking Ariel from Oberon's arms, the two women wept together. In Haruka's mind a vision formed. On the end of her sword, a dying woman. "It's not enough," she had said. ********** Pluto ran through the palace halls, calling Neptune's name. She was crying openly now, desperate. She stopped, gasping for breath, when a voice broke through her thoughts. "Pluto." She looked around for the source of the voice. "Pluto, come to me." Sailor Pluto followed the sound of the voice to the throne room. There was no one around. "You've come at last." Pluto whirled to find Neptune standing there. She held a mirror in one hand. "You're..." Pluto began. "I am not your Neptune, no. I am Neptune of the past. The Neptune of Silver Millenium." "I remember you." Pluto smiled. "You are the same, but you are not the same." Neptune returned the smile. "Can you tell me what is going on?" Pluto asked, remembering another Neptune who lay nearby, dying. "Yes, but we must be quick." Neptune recounted her love for Uranus, and the trouble it caused. She told Sailor Pluto of Titania and her attack on Uranus and how she, Neptune, had foiled it. "Then I came here, to Silver Millenium, to get help from the Queen. But the Palace was in ruins, and everyone was gone. While we fought Titania, Beryl attacked and destroyed Silver Millenium." Neptune's voice was bleak. "And you have been waiting here for 1000 years?" Pluto asked. Neptune nodded. "Go to Uranus, quickly. Save her. Take this." Neptune handed Sailor Pluto her mirror. "But what about you? If the mirror leaves you...." "I'm ready to die." Neptune smiled. "I've been waiting for a long time to be reunited with my Uranus." She held out the mirror. Pluto took it and turned. Turning back, she embraced Neptune. "You were always the noblest of us all." she said. And she turned again, racing out of the room towards her friend, her own Neptune.
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