Title: Only 16
Part: 8/10 : The Truth Revealed
By: Azurite
PG-PG13
azurite_moon@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/sailor_andromida
I do not own Sailormoon.  
See previous parts for my serious disclaimer on
teen pregnancies.
The 3 Fates aren't mine either, they belong to
history, but I made them look the way I imagined
them, and I created the two new characters introduced
in this part, so... ask me before using them, please. 
Without further aideu...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
	"It's getting worse." Atropos said, eying the tapestry from her
comfortable chair that she leaned forward on worriedly. 
	Another knot formed, a loop of darkness tying strands formerly
perfect together. 
	"What can we do?" Clotho asked worriedly. She knew as well as
the others did that once a strand was woven into the Tapestry, it
could not be cut, or undone, without risking permanent damage to
the entire fabric of time. 
	Atropos and Pluto exchanged silent words with their eyes, and
with a slight nod, Pluto made a decision. Sighing heavily, she
tapped her staff to get everyone's attention from the tapestry. 
	"There is a way... but it involves going back to the point when
all this started... essentially, to undo what was done."
	"But...!" Lachesis protested suddenly, staring with great concern
at the metallic strands. 
	"Don't worry, Lachesis. We won't be doing it here. I have to take 
you back in time so that you can fix the Tapestry before the knots
appear." 
	"Because only Fates are able to modify the threads of time, right?"
Clotho asked, getting the idea. 
	"Yes. And only I have the power to travel between times, stop time, 
and so forth... so we have to work together to save the Princess from
a Fate that could ultimately lead to disaster."
	"So... what does this mean? We can't just leave here... we're
*fated* to stay here..." Lachesis trailed off. Long ago, she had
discarded the idea of ever enjoying the life of a "normal" immortal. 
She had to stay in the Realm of Time, where eternity was as slow as
molasses, and she had to dictate Fate along with her other sisters. 
	"I can pause time for a short enough time to allow us to get
our job done. But..." Pluto trailed off and refused to meet anyone's
gaze. 
	"You know as well as we do that if someone ever tried to pass through
those doors..." Atropos motioned to the gates permanently sealed to the Fates.
	"That they would be sent to the very depths of Tartarus." Clotho
finished off, white as a sheet. 
	"But if the Gates don't know it's a FATE leaving..." Pluto trailed off,
smiling. Atropos also smiled, but turned away from her awed sisters. 
	"So...?" 
	"I can give each of you Sailor powers, but only for a limited time. It
will allow you to tap into your powers as a Fate without being in this form."
	"But if all of us go, who will maintain the Tapestry?" Lachesis 
inquired.
 	"I'll stay." Atropos put in. Lachesis and Clotho looked at her, 
wondering if this was what she truly wanted. 
	"I belong here. Both of you are young and need to experience at
least some of the outside world. Go." She smiled and gave each sister
her blessing of "Good Fate". 
	Both girls walked up to Pluto and bowed lightly before her. 
	Pluto touched the tip of her staff to their heads. 
	"Lachesis, soldier of one's destiny... you measure how long one's
life is, and thusly you are blessed with the power of Eternity. Living 
forever, but in charge of short-lived fates: Sailor Eternity!" A glowing
lavender, silver, and white light pulsed from the Garnet Orb, and
surrounded the tall, dark-haired maiden. Within seconds, she wore a
sailorsuit with a lavender skirt, collar, and calf-high boots lined in
white with a silver infinity symbol at the point. Her gloves had three
ribs, one white, one silver, and one lavender. The stripes on her 
sailor collar were silver and white, and the tiny charm on her choker
was a silver sideways 8, or the infinity sigil. Her tiara held a bright
amethyst, and her eyes sparkled a brilliant shade of gray. In her
hand, she held a staff that was long and silver, but with no
particular weapon on the end. 
	"What do I do with this?" Eternity asked.
	Smiling, Pluto pointed out the similarity between that elongated staff
and Lachesis' silver ruler that she used to measure one's fate. 
	"Your power within this staff is simple: 'Eternal Measure... 
Palliation!"
	"Palla-what?" Clotho asked blankly. Pluto rolled her eyes briefly and 
muttered under her breath, "You'd think living a few thousand years, the
girl'd read a dictionary."
	"I heard that!" 
	"It means to... weaken, but not destroy, essentially." Pluto explained
a few moments later. Eternity nodded and spun her staff around, getting 
the feel of it. She jabbed it in various directions, as if she were
a kendo expert with her bokken. 
	"There is... another attack you must know, Eternity," Pluto spoke 
quietly. The first one was a weak attack, meant to soften the pain of
what they all had to do, but this next one had to power to recreate all
of destiny, simply by remeasuring the length of one's lifespan. 
	"Infinite Tapestry... Ordination!" Pluto chanted, and Eternity nodded, 
her staff glowing in the tiny jeweled grooves.
	"I KNOW what ordination means, Pluto," Clotho said somewhat smugly, 
smiling proud like a puffed up pigeon, "But doesn't it mean 'the act of 
ordaining admission to the ministry'?"
	"Truthfully, yes, Clotho, but when these attacks were created, 
there was no such *thing* as a ministry."
	"Oh. Yeah." 
	"Now it is your turn." Pluto smiled slightly. Atropos watched on the
edge of her seat. Her little sister was quickly growing up, becoming one of
the destined Sailors. She only hoped it wouldn't be a painful experience. 
	"Clotho, spinner of the fabric of life, weaver of one's destiny... 
you are the spinner, the creator, the designer of every life... you are 
the soldier of Destiny!" A light glistened from Pluto's staff, and Clotho
was encased in a fine mist of pink and silver. 
	When all was clear, she wore a deep lavender skirt lined in a 
faint pink; her shoes were heels with straps traveling up her legs
to her calf, with a silver symbol in the middle that looked something
like a diamond with loops on its corners. Her gloves were white, sparkling
with a faint silver, as was her brooch, with shined with the same symbol as
fashioned on Destiny's shoes. The ribs were lavender on the ends, and pinkish
in the center. Her tiara was a silver diamante, circling around her head 
perfectly, with two thin chains clasping it in place, hidden behind her 
thick ponytail of silver-white hair. 
	"Wow... this is MUCH nicer than that dress I've been wearing the past
milenia or so!" Destiny exclaimed, turning around to inspect herself. Her
sisters sighed while Pluto rolled her eyes. It was always the younger 
generation...
	"Clotho!" Pluto and Eternity had to demand at the same time when
Destiny wouldn't stop preening. 
	"What?"
	"Your power...?" Atropos started, trying to get her littlest sister
to remember the task at hand. 
	"Oh, right." Pluto sighed yet again, and wondered if things were
ultimately different, how well Serena and Clotho would get along. 
	"Your powers are similar to your sisters-- one to create, and one
to weaken, or destroy." Pluto began. She didn't forget the look on Destiny's
face; one of sudden reluctance and doubt. But it vanished in a moment
and Destiny had a determined look on her face once more. 
	"'Destiny Veil Decay!' with your blade will slice the veil separating
you from what is meant to be. It will destroy, piece by piece, the incorrect
destiny. Your second attack is the opposite of the former one; it heals
the destruction, and restores the shroud of true fate and fortune to what 
is necessary: Fortune's Shroud, Originate!"
	Pluto kept silent as she remembered the other attacks associated
with Destiny and Eternity. Only in a time of great need would she need 
to reveal them. 
	The two new soldiers nodded with understanding. They turned to their
older sister, smiling proudly, and she hugged them both, with the faintest
trace of tears in her eyes. 
	Pluto gave Atropos a look of reassurance, one that spoke volumes
of their mission. Atropos wore the mask of an expressionless face
as the Soldier of Reformation formed a Space-Time gate and the two
Solider-Fates walked through it. 
**************************************************************************
	"Oh... I'm so dizzy." Eternity murmured nauseously as they emerged from
the Warp, in a bright white place. 
	"Wha--?" Destiny murmured eloquently, the first to get her bearings
and look around. Something was NOT right. 
	"Oh dear, the problem in the Tapestry has extended to the Warp of 
Time..." Pluto murmured. She immediately recognized the surroundings; 
she had seen them in the Hall of Mirrors. 
	She tapped her staff, and it vanished in a flurry of magenta haze, 
into her brooch. One wave of her gloved hand, and Pluto became Susan Meiou,
dressed appropriately in a doctor's coat and light purple suit with blouse.
	"Oh, I get it," Destiny smiled, "It's time to *blend in*." With 
a wave of her hand, she disposed of her narrow, needle-like blade and 
gave herself a fuzzy pink sweater and a pair of white jeans. Her circlet 
fell down her brow and rested fashionably around her neck as a choker, 
and her thin, dressy shoes became pink canvas sneakers. 
	"Oh well, then." Eternity sighed, doing the same for herself. She chose
a darker ensamble; a dark purple three-quarters shirt with silver sparkles
in an Infinity shape; a pair of lavender leggings and ankle-length black
leathery boots, with the Infinity sigil as a clasp. 
	
	"Where are we, anyway?" Clotho asked, after wandering around a while. 
	"Juuban General Hospital. Approximately 3 months in the future
of where we were *supposed* to go." Susan answered, a grim look on her face. 
Her magenta eyes were framed with wire glasses, slender and becoming on her 
tanned, green haloed face. She scanned a clipboard with papers that had
been stuffed in a side slot near where they had teleported. As she read each
line, she got more and more grim and silent. 
	"What is it, Pl-"
	"Call me Susan, while we're here." Susan interrupted. "Matter of fact, 
you guys should get rid of the names, 'Clotho' and 'Lachesis' just in case
someone asks." The woman said, staring at her companions. 
	"Ally." Clotho said immediately. Her sister and her guardian looked
at her in astute surprise. 
	"How'd you decide so fast?"
	"I... I always wanted to go to this world, and I imagined names for
myself. It took me a while to finally decide on one, but I really like Ally."
	"It means 'supernaturally wise', doesn't it?" Susan questioned. The
newly-named Ally smiled and nodded. 
	"And Susan? What does that mean?" Lachesis wondered. 
	"Lily..." Pluto said almost wistfully, "My favorite flower." 
	"Okay, sis, pick a name, any name." Ally smiled. Lachesis was
thoughtful a moment, but then she was enlightened. 
	"Sonya." Lachesis finally smiled. Ally grinned from ear to ear. 
	"I guess we have the same taste in names, o 'sensible one'?" the
girl made a pun of her elder sister's name's meaning. 
	"Yeah, right. Let's get started."
	The threesome walked down the hall, and paused in front of a bank of
elevators. A sign with arrows pointing in all directions showed visitors
where everything was. 
	"We're in the Maternity Ward." Susan observed. The other two nodded. 
	"So...?" Ally trailed off, wondering what had gone wrong with their
transport at the Gate.
	Susan and Sonya suddenly looked up towards an empty hall, and exchanged
a shocked glance with each other. 
	"Guys? Guys? Hell-oo??" Ally waved her hands in front of her companion's 
face, unable to discern what exactly they were sensing. 
	"It's not possible." Sonya murmured. Susan looked at her grimly and
simply said, "This knot may have formed and started causing trouble long
before any of us could have sensed it. I'm afraid it's more possible than 
any of us think."
	"YOU GUYS!" Ally nearly screamed, catching the attention of her two 
fellow 'nurses'. 
	"Come on. If we're three months from the place where we were SUPPOSED
to teleport to, then that means the Princess is here." Ally motioned down
the hall to the nursery, and the two others followed. 
	Within a minute, they reached a hall of rooms. 
	"The clipboard I snatched when we first got here said Serena was in
Room 630." 
	"Lucky, huh?" Sonya said, wandering down the halls, looking for the
room. 
	"Maybe. Maybe not." Susan said eerily. The others looked at the Guardian
of Time and sweatdropped. 
	"Here it is." Ally murmured, pressing herself against the wall so as to
be unseen by the room's occupants. She was rather surprised that the scouts
weren't here, but the smart side of her assumed it was because the birth
of Serena's child was more of a family matter; the girls were probably 
downstairs, or in some waiting room. 
	Ally on one side of the door, Susan and Sonya on the other, peered
into the room. Serena was lying on a bed, her hair sweaty and matted to her 
brow. 
	"How is he?" she murmured, wiping the sticky susbtance from her 
forehead. The doctor inside, one Dr. Laura Cunningham, grinned. 
	"He's alright. Two broken fingers, but I don't think he noticed."
Serena laughed. 
	"Yeah, Darien's always had a high tolerance to pain." Serena smiled. 
	"Humph. Must have had *practice*." Laura implied while smiling 
devilishly. Serena pretended to be shocked while waving her hand away. 
	"I'll bring your new bundle of joy in, Serena." Laura smiled
at the new mother and proceeded to leave the room. Susan busied herself
with files down the hall, while Sonya and Ally ducked into an open, 
empty room. Once Laura was out of sight, Susan, Ally and Sonya followed
her and went to the nursery. 
	"Oh my..." Ally breathed. All the little newborns were bundled up
in warm blankets with cute knit caps on their heads. Many were crying, 
others slept, and more still were cooing at the nurses that watched over
them. 
	"They're so *cute*." Ally sighed, smiling. Susan and Sonya exchanged
a glance and looked themselves. 
	"There's none marked 'Chiba'." Susan remarked.
	"What does that mean?" Sonya asked. Susan looked grim as she answered, 
	"It means Darien and Serena didn't get married. I think that's
a little odd."
	"Well, maybe Serena didn't want to have her dream wedding looking like
a blimp." Ally remarked, grinning. Sonya stared at her sister with wide
eyes, surprised that she could have made such a remark about their
future Queen. 
	However, the comment rang true, and Susan said nothing. 
	"Tsukino." Susan pointed at the baby cooing. With silent shock, Susan
realized that the child in the bassinet was not only NOT Small Lady, as she
would have expected, but it was...
	"It's... It's... it's a *BOY*!" Ally exclaimed, her eyes blinking
rapidly as if she were being disillusioned. 
	"This is not right." Susan murmured, shaking her head. 
	"We should get back to the Gate and check the Hall of Mirrors,"
Sonya suggested quietly to Susan. "After all, there may be some clue
there as to why this timeline is going so whack on us." 
	Susan nodded and took her Rod out of her space-time pocket, 
ducking around a corner to ensure they weren't seen. 
	She tapped it onto the invisible barrier separating the dimensions, 
and the Garnet Orb glowed for a minute, and then crackled, snapped, as
if electricty were short-circuiting it. 
	"What the..?!" Susan mumbled, trying again. The same thing, but the
orb went dark this time, and when she tried it a third and final time, 
nothing happened. She quickly shoved the rod into her Space-Time pocket. 
	"Well ladies, it looks as if we have to do this the old fashioned 
way." Susan nodded grimly to the other girls, who nodded abruptly. 
	"Look!" Ally pointed. A group of five wandered down the halls
towards room 630. Amy, Mina, Lita, Raye, and the new father, Darien. 
	"I guess Laura brought the baby in then." Sonya mused. 
	"Yes... but there was something off about that boy." Susan mentioned. 
	"I sensed it too," Sonya agreed. 
The threesome had again reached the nursery and looked in on the babies. 
	"I can't do this." Ally said, staring through the glass with vacant 
eyes. Only in the reflection did they show the shimmering of
tears dripping down her face. 
	"Do what, sis?" Sonya asked slowly, almost dreading the answer she knew. 
	"How... how can we destroy this life?" Ally asked, turning, wiping
her tears. She motioned to the nursery of children. 
	"We have no idea how changing Serena's birth will affect the rest of the
world. Children may DIE. Perhaps the whole knot formed for a reason, perhaps
it was meant to!"
	"Clotho," Sonya lowered her voice as she used her sister's real name, 
"The Tapestry is *perfect*. The knot is sewn with evil, and we have to undo
it!"
	"Lachesis is right," Susan said tightly, "The needs of the many 
outweigh the needs of the one, and right now, there are many people in
the future that will perish in a much more painful way than never being
born-- if we let this time continue."
	"The needs of the the MANY!?" Clotho exclaimed, reverting to
her scout form. She stared at the Scout of Time and Reformation with
anger glowing in her eyes. 
	"There are many kids that will die or worse if we don't let what
is done STAY done, and I'm not going to be a participant in your murder!"
	"Clotho, you're having doubts, we understand, but..." Sonya started.  
	"You can't possiblly understand!! I create life, not destroy it.
If you can grasp *that*, then maybe... one day you'll understand my
position. So yes, I'm having doubts, second thoughts, whatever you 
call them. I won't do this. I'm sorry." With an apologetic look, 
she teleported away. 
	Lachesis, who also reverted into Eternity, turned to the now
Scout of Time, Pluto, who still looked pensive as she stared at the
babies cooing in the nursery. 
	"This..." Pluto began, touching her glass reflection, "This
didn't begin here. You sensed it, Lachesis, when we saw Dr. Cunningham, 
and when we first got here."
	"But... it's not possible, is it?" Lachesis asked, turning wild
eyes on her elder.
	"Perhaps, as I said before, this know began forming long before 
we could foresee the results of its formation." Pluto murmured. 
	"I'll say. Who'd have thought that Queen Serenity herself would
have been ressurrected after the Great War?" Lachesis whispered. 
Queen Serenity herself-- yet with no obvious memoruy of her past or
powers to signify a future one. 
	The two women stared forlornly through the glass. Echoes of what
had been said only minutes before echoed in their ears, though they
hadn't been physically present to witness it. 
	"They're on their way up now, Darien from the Nurse's ward to
get his fingers braced up." 
	Serena gasped and smiled as her handsome baby boy was placed into
her arms, giggling and cooing as he saw his mother for the first time. 
The 26 hour labor she had been through was well worth it. 
	The babe stared up at his mother a few more moments before blinking
his bright blue eyes up once, and then closing his eyes sleepily and 
suckling on his thumb. 
***************************************************************************
	Atropos opened her eyes from her deep, forseeing meditation, 
and a worried look overcame her face. 
	"Clotho, no..."
Her smallest sister had no intent of helping Pluto or simply returning to
the Gate. She was going to the Lake of Dreams, on the moon.

	"Lacus Somniorum, Lake of Dreams." Clotho-- Destiny murmured. The
lake glimmered with dreams, those happy sparkled, those sad and
disturbing rippled the surface with waves of varying magnitudes. The lake
was just northeast of Mare Serenitatis, the Sea of Serenity, where the 
Lunarians had once made their home, their kingdom. From here, Destiny could
easily see the ruins of a once great, peaceful place. 
	"If I change this... then I can avoid more than the deaths of those
children. But... all of the people, throughout time. We can go back to
the Silver Millenium, and keep the peace. I... can avoid Civil and
World Wars, riots, and... even the forming of the Negaforce itself. I can
save Beryl from her horrid fate!" With tears streaming down her face, Destiny
remembered how she had sewn so many destinies, knowing they would be
measured short, and cut far too soon. Those millions who had died in
the World Wars, the many more millions that had died in Vietnam, Korea, 
Bosnia, the Persian Gulf, Civil Wars, Revolutionary Wars. The Earth could
be united as one country again, with no wars or discrimination, no 
racism, no disease, poverty or pain. 
	With all this in mind, Destiny decided to commit herself not to
giving Serena a dream of warning, but performing the ultimate act of
courage and heroicism. 
	Destiny climbed the cliff scaling one side of the lake, and walked it
until she reached the point where the waters were the most turbulent, the
waves the most violent. She stared down at them like enemies and then smiled
gracefully, before spreading her arms wide and falling into the inky blackness
of the water with less than a splash. 

	Meanwhile, back in the Fate's room, the tapestry began to glow. 
	"What the...?" Atropos murmured, staring at the fabric. It shone
brighter and brighter, its pure light comparable to that of the Silver
Crystal, filling the room, the Gate, the Hall of Mirrors, and every
Earth behind the many doors of Time. Wars ceased, damage was undone. 
Pluto and Eternity managed to exchange one last, terrified look at one
another before they vanished into time, and the bright light tore across 
the Universe, and in fact, all of Space-Time. 
	Once the light had dimmed, Atropos unshielded her eyes. She looked
at the Tapestry of Time and felt her heart stop. 
	There was nothing left of it save a few broken strands. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gee, this turned out better than I expected *gryn*
Well, I'd like to thank Marianya and Sailor Peace, not only for their
wonderful ideas, encouraging support and time to talk to l'il ol' me, 
BUT... their incredible stories!! Go read them!!! MUSH!
*Insert Star Wars ending theme*
Oh no, it's not over yet!
See the results of Destiny's "sacrifice" in Part 9/10: Hardships Aplenty!
Should I continue doing substories?? You tell me, at azurite_moon@yahoo.com
and be sure to visit by site: http://www.geocities.com/sailor_andromida. 
May the Force be with you, Always! ^_~
Many props to the wonderful readers at FF.net who take their time to
review me! This part is for you guys!!! ^_^
Azurite, always and forever.