"Through the Gates" by Alina

1. Comments welcomed at alinasan@yahoo.com.  
2. This is a short work about SailorPluto. (Hey, I like her).  The rating
is
PG-13. Therfore it is "set" at some vague time after the first season when
Reenie exists.
3. This story is an original idea, but is based on someone elses (Naoko
Takechui's etc) characters) from Sailor Moon-- as are all fanfics.DIC
productions 1996 license, etc,  

A shadowy mist rises up,and you find yourself out of anywhere or
 when you've ever been. This is the time corridor--that legendary
place (if it can be called that). 

"Halt==You cannot pass these gates!" A confident voice throws 
out.  She shouts, with long green hair swinging.  "The time 
corridor is forbidden and I will stop all those who approach, in
 the name of time, for I am the reformation warrior, SailorPluto
" She is about to destroy you--when she realizes who *you* are, 
and why you've come.

She knows  it is not the gates of time you
 seek to pass--but the gates of her mind--to travel not through 
time itself but her memories or premonitions of it.   She tenses
 even more.  She gaurds herself perhaps, even more fiercely than
 she does the portal.  

But it is these portals you've come to 
gaurd.   As you were destined to do.  For the price of one
question.  She knows, as she knows so much, that she cannot fufill
her destiny unless she permits you to assume her watch--and she 
also knows that when she does you will know the facts--of all ti
me.    The facts hide things though.  You *won't* know, her
feelings though.  And it is that you want.  To understand her, and
through that, to understand this role.

 You want to know her view on love, and in particular, her love 
for certain people.  You hestitate, realizing that rudeness of
what you want to know but your curiosity drives you to it. 
Carefully, you  ask "What do you feel for Endymion, Serenity and 
Reenie?"

She lowers the staff, but it is not menancing.  Her gaurd is down.  

"You do not ask much do you? " She says, not masking the wariness
in her soft voice.  "Fine then, I grant you your one question.
..even though you ask for all I have left....my privacy."

" I love Serenity, as do all the Senshi...though they have at
times doubted that I serve her out of anything but duty, if I
serve her at all.  And yet, I feel,  my love for her  runs as
deep, if not deeper, though I keep my distance. The inner Senshi
are her friends--and it is easy to see their friendship love in
all they do.  They would die for her--as all the Senshi would.   
Urnaus and Neptune--they would not admit it, but would sacrifice
 their love for each other for her--and that is  a deeper 
sacrifice  as well--to kill not just yourself, but the only
 other person for whom you would die. That is a love born of 
their trust in her.  And Saturn would annihalte the *entire* 
world for Serenity.   That is deeper, you understand....to destroy
*everyone's* connections--in the hope and faith that She would
 set it right.  That is the sort of love that blends into trust
 and redemption...it is the rationless love of one's hope.  
So what *would* I do for her that I claim is even deeper than that?  
 Perhaps "deeper" is the wrong term then--for these different 
loves are equally important--as much a part of her as her romantic
 union with Endymion.   Instead, I have done something unique--
my love is demonstrated not because of what I would give up
 for her--but because of what I gave her.  Her daughter, Small Lady, 
 Reenie.

After Crystal Tokyo was founded, several enemies neutralized,
centuries passed, and Serenity began to desire children.  None came,
 and then, Mercury confirmed that She *could not* have children.
 They knew of Small Lady, and though they did not discuss the
ir puzzlement with me, I realized they were troubled.  With all 
Her power, she could not control the biology of what Her power
had done--to freeze Her development in her teenage body, and
rendering her incapable of a very natural act.  She was devastated. 
 Endymion was destroyed....They wanted a child-no, they wanted *
their* child.   Small Lady.  And then Mercury had the answer.

A surrogate mother. It was obviously the answer.  Yet, who was i
it to be? That was simple too.  It would need to be a Senshi--who
 else could be trusted?  Her body gaurds needed to protect her--
so Jupiter and Mars as her fiercest inner gaurds did not seem
the best choice.  Mercury knew she could not be the patient and
the doctor.  Venus's biology was frigteningly similar. Uranus' was
 frightenigly different.   Saturn was too weak, and Neptune, mot
herly though she is, preferred not.  And she was never asked.  It 
was clear, within an instant, that it would be I who would take
that task.  The oldest, physically the most matured,  and the 
best able to protect the child without making the mother vulnerable
to attack.

And so do not censure me when I steal a glimpse at the man who's
 child I bore.  I know I am attracted to Endymion-but I cannot c
all *that* love.  It was for my love of Her that I did so--that 
I bore *their* child.  I want to be loved by someone as he is by
 her, and she by him.  I am envious of those with that love, for
 I am alone....and the loss of that love might have denied me
the love a mother has for her child.    For that is how I love 
Small Lady.

Her first sound was *my* heartbeat.  My voice quieted 
her kicks,
 and my body sheltered her for the first 9 months of her existen
ce.   I held her in my arms as she fed for the first time,and 
until she could take a bottle.    And it was *my* name that was
her first word----Puuu...   The child placed within me carried
their genetic material, and was created through their love.  So  
though everyone knows  Serenity as her mother, which is true both
 biologically and psychologically, Small Lady will always be *my
 daughter*.  Even if that was true only for a little while.  But
 as I know, even a moment is indistinguisble from eternity...and
 it is enough."