Thy Will be Done

"Dead Scream!"

The coruscating blast tore from her staff to crash with ruinous force into the place in which her adversary had stood only a moment before. The earth quaked and reeled, rocks shivered to splinters before the attack was turned aside, shattering trees to kindling and ploughing on until it struck at last at the base of the cliff in a devastating explosion.

"Impressive."

With lightning speed, her staff already in motion, Pluto whirled towards her nemesis, red eyes flashing fiercely as they fixed again upon the shadowed figure before her as she tensed in preparation for yet another attack. "Almost a danger. Almost, but not quite. Come, shall we dance mistress of forever; the infinity of eternity set against the absolute of physical existence? A challenge for a little space ere I tire of the game and burn the very essence from your soul? Shall we play?"

"You cannot triumph, not now or here." Pluto's tone was calm, seeming impossibly incongruous given the intensity of the battle. "The gate is my domain."

"As reality is mine." The other's tone was suddenly low and venomous. "Can you even begin to comprehend the enormity of what lies before you? I am the sum total of the hate of all that has ever been and ever shall exist, the absolute that is infinite and ever-lasting damnation. Do you--"

"Dead Scream!"

Snarling, the figure leapt back, the shadows swirling as for a heartbeat they seemed to waver; and in that moment, even as the hands were raised and the power gathered in answer, the veils were for a moment torn aside and Pluto gazed for an instant that was eternity into the emerald eyes of hate; and she smiled. Then the spell that she had been given and that had remained concealed within her own attack struck the unprotected shadow of a long-dead evil.

And she understood at last and too late what the Senshi had done. And her scream of despair was a shriek to rend the very foundations of existence and a curse to last from the beginning of forever to the uttermost end of eternity; and it was enough.

With a start, Setsuna jerked awake, bolting upright and staring about her for a moment in bewilderment before she recalled where she was and why she had chosen to remain this night within the confines of the Crystal Palace and settled back once more with a sigh.

"A succinct reminder Helios." She murmured softly as her heart resumed its regular gentle rhythm and she prepared to stir once more. "However I believe we could have dispensed with the melodramatic imagery."

A low chuckle answered her.

"But you have always been such a fine tapestry with which to work." Came a sudden low voice from the darkness. A moment later the shadows seemed to stir and Setsuna smiled as she turned towards the half-seen form. "Besides, you did insist that the call be both definitive and succinct;" Continued the lord of Helcion quietly, stepping a pace towards her although remaining still shadowed and only half-perceived. "I did my best. Not that I believe for a moment you needed the reminder, even after a thousand years." He chuckled again.

"I could not afford to leave anything to chance old friend." She answered softly as she rose swiftly and began to dress, seeming heedless of the shadowed presence in the room. "Were I to falter..."

"An unlikely possibility." He answered, a touch of gentle banter in his tone, stepping another pace towards her and smiling behind the shadows. Then abruptly the gently bantering tone was gone, replaced by one of sudden deadly earnestness. "You are certain there can be only one exit-point for the gate? Should the fractures manifest in our own rather than in the aberrant reality..."

"Alternate reality." She corrected him with a touch of amusement. "I doubt your counterpart would appreciate being considered an aberration. But to answer your question, yes. It will be the alternate Death Phantom who will initiate contact."

"And the outcome?" He continued, his voice still quiet but his eyes suddenly intense as they fixed upon her face.

Setsuna glanced quickly away, her expression suddenly shadowed and unreadable. For a long moment she remained silent, then at last she sighed and shook her head. "That cannot be my concern." She said quietly. "My responsibility is to our own reality, and that is responsibility enough. The choices of my counterpart must remain hers and hers alone. We can ensure only that the abominations never enter our universe."

"Abominations?" He said gently. "Surely that is a little harsh considering you intend to ensure they survive?"

"Perhaps," She conceded.

Yet he caught the brief flash of anger flicker deep in her eyes and he found himself wondering suddenly whether her words might not have revealed more than she intended him to know. Still, she was right. It could not be his concern. He had done all that she had asked of him and that their long friendship had demanded, both now and a thousand years gone. He could do no more.

"I must go." He said softly at last after the silence had stretched between them. "I will not wish you luck; after all, should you succeed you did not need it and should you fail our history shall collapse into chaos and ruin, in which event it is highly unlikely that either of us shall be here to make a difference. Farewell my friend, and may the blessing of all the gods go with you. Do what you must, and return home safely. Farewell."

And with that, a gentle breeze seemed to flutter for a moment through the chamber and Setsuna was alone once more.

"Farewell old friend." She murmured softly to the quiet emptiness. "I owe you more than you could possibly understand, and I shall not forget. Farewell."

And turning she moved swiftly to the doors and passed silent and wraith-like out into the stillness of the palace and towards the royal apartments.

They were sleeping when she slipped at last unseen by the guards at the outer doors and passed within, moving silently through the suite until she came at last to the doors and halted once more. Courtesy dictated that she should wait in the event that the two might be awake within. But she sensed no stirring of Serenity's presence and at last she moved forwards once more, the doors closing soundlessly behind her as she glided across the rugs and halted at last by the bedside, gazing silently down upon the sleeping face of her queen.

For a timeless moment she was still, a sudden agony of pain and terror wringing her heart as she imagined all her counterpart must have endured and the horror of a future lost forever.

"A tear Setsuna?"

With a start, Pluto came to herself, seeming for a moment unable to understand how it was that she knelt by the bedside or why Serenity's face seemed to blur before her eyes. Then her queen's finger brushed in a feather-light touch against her cheek and Pluto stared as though in incomprehension at the single tear that glistened upon her fingertip, as though wrought itself of glistening crystal.

"Old memories?" Serenity continued softly. "We could do no more for them Setsuna. After all, did you not tell me; their future was their own to determine without our interference?"

Few things could surprise the guardian of time twice in a single night but now she stared as though unable to answer.

"How--" She managed at last.

"You ask me that tonight of all nights?" Serenity answered with a gentle laugh. "I'm not quite so devoid of perception as you seem to think. Did you imagine I had forgotten tonight's particular significance?"

Pluto smiled and shook her head. "Theirs to determine without our interference?" She inquired, laughing softly in her turn.

"Well, with a little help perhaps." Serenity conceded, an almost impish smile playing gently for a moment on her lips. Then suddenly her expression sobered. "Pluto...Setsuna, you're sure you will be safe? I won't ask you to do this if-- "

"I shall be perfectly safe my Queen." She assured her in a tone that might have surprised one who did not know her so well and had not seen the caring that lay beneath the face she showed the world. "The chaos threatened only my counterpart. With her unable to re-enter the time-stream before her fateful battle with the Overlord--"

"Nevertheless, you will be careful?" Serenity's hand fastened suddenly fiercely on her own. "Should he suspect... Setsuna, I won't lose any of you; not again."

Now it was Pluto's turn to look offended. "Do you imagine I would be so careless?" She scolded. Then her tone softened. "I shall be careful Serenity. My duty is to this reality, and to you. Do you think for a moment that I would risk that, even at the cost of such a threat as they might pose to another alternate? I shall warn them, threaten them if need be and give them what advice I can, but in the end it will be their actions alone that shall determine their fate and they must decide whether they will heed me before it is too late. If they will not, should they choose to ignore the warning, I shall destroy them rather than risk the chance that their interference might change the course of that future and therefore our own; but whatever may happen, they shall not enter my domain, and my domain is the sum of our reality."

Serenity nodded, yet Pluto saw the pain in her eyes and cursed herself yet again for what she might be called upon to do. Contrary to what some might wish to believe, she was neither aloof nor heartless; yet there could be no compromise. Should the seven born of the infinite chaos from beyond reality's end by their interference threaten the alternate and thus not only the renegades but her reality should the overlord learn too soon of its existence, she would not hesitate to tear them from the very fabric of existence, to shatter the gate at the moment of their transition and condemn them to infinite and absolute oblivion in the inconceivable and incomprehensible nothingness beyond thought and understanding.

"Come," Serenity's gentle voice pierced her dark introspection, her hand resting gently for a moment about Pluto's own before she released her and made to rise. "it is time. Let us go."

And with that, almost before Pluto was aware of it, the light of her queen's power surged about them and a moment later all was quiet within the chamber once more.

"So it begins." Came the soft voice from the shadows. "and now only the gods can know what must be. A fair journey Setsuna my friend, and a safe home- coming. Farewell."

And with that, Helios released his hold upon the sleeping soul of the dreaming Endymion and turning at last from the light of the city, passed once more swift and silent into the realm of dream and fantasy.