Time of Corruption by DarkPluto DarkPluto4@aol.com Chapter 12 - The End of Everything? Rating: PG-13 Author's Note: There, here's the long one I promised. Setsuna landed on the Moon. Staring at the silvery rocks, she fell down. It had almost been a year since she'd been here, and the pang it caused inside her overwhelmed her. Bracing herself, she forced herself up. This was the last solar system, the only one that remained free of the Darkness. Tremblingly, she took a small step toward the capital. By the third step, she had collapsed again. Clutching on to her Staff, she pulled herself up and continued to struggle toward the capital. What is WRONG with me?, she thought to herself. She heard a noise behind her and whirled around, her dark green hair flying around and her Staff ready to blast. "Welcome home!" eight voices cried in unison. Ultimate Sailor Scouts stood behind her. "We're so glad you're here," smiled Sailor Moon. "Welcome back," Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus said quietly. Pluto's eyes flashed with hatred at Sailor Moon, but they soften slightly at Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. Icily, she said, "I'm sure it's no mystery to you why I'm here. I know that Galaxia has been here and no doubt told you all about my rebellious and 'wicked' ways." Innocently, Sailor Moon said, "Galaxia?" "I see your skills at lying are as marvelous as ever. However, I also pride myself on being able to catch the most subtle of liars," shot back Pluto. "Now, let's pause with the civilities and get the fight over with?" "We won't fight you," stated Sailor Moon simply. "Then you're a bunch of fools - though you always were. That's just like you, Sailor Moon, hesitating to fight anyone. It's a miracle you've made it this far, although I must say the victories were probably due to the strong allies you have, not yourself," taunted Pluto. "I agree. I've had very good friends to defend me in the past when I was too scared to fight the enemy alone. I don't know what I'd do without these scouts helping, especially you," Sailor Moon said kindly. "That's the only reason I was of any value to you, wasn't it? Because you could rely on me when you need someone stronger to try to defeat the enemies, right? Yes, you always valued me for my power and the job I held. Isn't that true?," retorted Pluto. "Now, I know you love to talk, Sailor Moon, but there are those of us who prefer action over idle chatter." She picked up her staff. "Stop! Setsuna-chan! Stop!" Sailor Saturn pleaded. Pluto's empty eyes looked at Saturn for a moment and froze. "Listen to yourself! Look at what you're doing! You're a SCOUT, Setsuna-chan! WE are Scouts. You know we fight together for the good of the Universe - not fight against each other to ruin it! We're bound by LOVE, by DUTY," cried Saturn. "Love! Duty! Hah! I'm sick of love - or the lack of it. And as for Duty, it's been the ruin of me!" Pluto said bitterly. "We DO love you! You know we do! We'd all give our lives for you!" insisted Venus, and Neptune nodded along with Uranus. "Bullshit!" shouted Pluto, shocking the Scouts with her language. "You? Inners? You don't love me at all! For pity's sake, you don't even know me! You mingle among yourselves and leave out all the Outers - especially me! You're too wrapped up in your own lives and with yourselves. You're a family - a tight family without room for me or any of the other Outers! You've never wanted us Outers to come join you. We're too strange, too distant, too foreign, too mysterious, too reserved and serious for you. As for you, Neptune and Uranus, was it not you who killed Hotaru and me? You KILLED us! We were almost like your sisters, but you didn't care?you killed us." Her eyes gleamed with resentment. "What evil has come into you, Setsuna-chan? You KNOW they killed us because they couldn't bear to watch us fall to Galaxia!" cried Saturn. "Right, and so it was easier for them to watch our blood stained on THEIR hands," said Pluto sarcastically. Saturn couldn't think of anything to say, but Neptune and Uranus turned white. "We're sorry if we hurt you, Setsuna-chan, but we really did mean the best for you. You KNOW us, Setsuna-chan. We love you. The Inners do, too, though they might not show it. But you know we love you, and we DO show it. We're like a family, Setsuna-chan. Why are you doing this to us? Why? What happened to you?" Neptune bit her lips, the tears welling up behind her eyes. Distantly, there was a vague form of pain that seemed to rise in her somewhere at the sight of Neptune's tears. But it was so faint. Pluto took a breath. She was falling. She couldn't succumb to them now. 'No! They're your enemies! Think of what they did to you! They don't love you! You know they're just lying!' 'And poor Michiru-chan's tears? Are they just an act? And all that pain in Haruka-chan's eyes? Is that just an act, too?' 'Yes! They have to be! They only love you for your power! Remember? If they really cared about you, why didn't they come and search for you earlier? Why did they wait for you to attack them before spitting out all this crap and laying it on you?' 'They were preparing! And they probably weren't sure it was true! They had too much faith in your goodness to readily believe you were evil without more substantial evidence!' 'So you're going to fall to Serenity again! You're going to go back and become her puppet and chain yourself to the Gates! You'll sit in the loneliness again and return to your old life, one monotone day repeating itself over and over in your pathetic existence that hardly deserves the title of Life, while your Queen will go back to her fairy tale life with her King and everyone else goes on to enjoy their happiness, not knowing what living Hell you're being forced through.' 'And this existence as a wandering rebel all fear and hate is better? You're KILLING people! Your own hands are stained with the blood of so many innocent lives! You're about to kill the only family you ever had!' 'And were they even your family? They weren't! If they really were, they would at least remember your birthdays! They would at least be able to see your obvious pains and sorrows! They would at least invite you to parties and such!' The fight raged on and on. Setsuna fell to the ground in a craze. "SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" she screamed. She raised her head, her eyes wild and chaotic. She stared at Sailor Moon, all the fury turned upon her. All this was HER fault. This would have never happened had it not been for HER. "Hurricane Wind Lash!" she shouted. She began spinning rapidly until a whirlpool of turquoise energy flew out and spun toward Sailor Moon. "No!!!!!!!" screamed Sailor Mars. She jumped in front of Sailor Moon and fell down in front of her. Sailor Moon shrieked, her eyes glazing over dumbly as she fell to the ground and wept over Mars's wounded and unconscious body. "You're such a crybaby," sneered Pluto, the bitterness taken over and untouched by Mars's sacrifice or Sailor Moon's intense tears. Jupiter was infuriated. "Lightning Sizzle Cloud!" she said, her hands becoming surrounded by a mist. Raising her hands above her head, she threw the cloud of lightning at Pluto. "Sheer Stone Consume!" in a bored tone, Pluto threw her crystal forth, and the cloud disappeared. Smiling, she shouted "Blizzard Storm Attack!" A white ball erupted from her hands and blasted into Jupiter. Frozen, Jupiter collapsed. Venus was incensed. "You WITCH!" she shrieked. "Cupid Arrow Love Flame!" A red bow appeared in her hands. An arrow with an orange heart of energy in front flew from the bow and headed toward Pluto. Laughing, she shouted "Sheer Stone Consume!" again, and the arrow dissipated into energy, which was quickly sapped by the crystal. "Voltage Blast!" shouted Pluto, flinging her hand toward Venus. The bolt of energy blasted into Venus, and she fell. Weakly, she tried to stand. Pluto grabbed her Time Staff and emitted short blasts of energy from her Garnet Orb. Venus collapsed and fell unconscious. Turning upon Mercury, she shouted "Shimmering Skylight Slash!" The white sizzling ball of energy slammed into Mercury, and she fell back and collapsed. Grinning evilly at Moon, she shouted "Death Slice!", throwing her Staff above her head. A white sword formed, which Pluto directed toward Moon. "Silence Wall!" The sword stopped at the force field and melted away. The proud Sailor Saturn glared at Pluto. "Once, Setsuna, once I loved you like a mother. Once, once upon a time, I would have given my life for you. But that Setsuna died?I don't know who you are. But I just know you are an enemy, trying to use my affection for the Setsuna I knew to destroy the Universe, destroy us," Saturn said, in a choked voice of steel. Almost inadvertently, a whisper flew from her lips, "Hotaru-chan! My Hotaru-chan! I'm still here?" Her hands flew to her lips. Setsuna's large, crimson eyes met Hotaru's dark violet ones. The violet eyes probed deep, seeing behind the tranquil and glassy eyes the tumult. "Setsuna-chan?" whispered Saturn back in hope, the force field dropping. Pluto was frozen, frozen by her two sides. She turned away, blinking. Turning back, she saw Moon, cowering in the corner. Suddenly, the fury was back. "Sacred Eagle Hear My Cry, Cry of Thy Servant Pluto! Phoenix Flame Burst!" she screeched. The familiar golden phoenix flew forth and, squawking, aimed for Sailor Moon. "NO!" Neptune yelled, sprinting toward Moon and standing in front of her. The phoenix crashed into Neptune, who fainted. "MICHIRU-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!" Uranus shouted hoarsely. Neptune lay, cold and unmoving. Saturn ran over. "The fire dehydrated her. She's dead," Saturn stated, a voice of suppressed emotion. Uranus jumped at Pluto. "Heaven Storm Pressure!" Her hands glowed as she stretched them to the sky. The sky above bursted, and the explosion took Pluto by surprise. She fell to the ground. Whirling, Saturn screamed "Shattering Silence War!" Her glaive gleamed ominously as she brought it above her head and struck it to the ground. Bright rays of energy flew out. "Dark Staff Shield Blockade!" shouted Pluto. The Garnet Orb glowed, and the rays of energy fizzed into nothing. "Death Slice!" she shouted, and the sword reappeared again. Instead of directing it at Saturn, she directed at the glaive. "Silence Wa-" before Saturn could finish her attack, the sword clashed into her glaive and it fell from her. "ETERNAL TIME WIND STRIKE!" shouted Pluto. Jumping up, she whirled rapidly, the Staff pointed outward. And the winds blew again and whipped and beat the three scouts. Uranus and Saturn painstakingly ran and covered Sailor Moon with their own bodies. Pluto fell back, a bit weary. Uranus and Saturn lay, dead. Sailor Moon crawled out from under them. "Setsuna-chan! Listen to me!" pleaded Moon. Pluto was as enraged as ever. Every scout had been killed. Michiru, Hotaru, and Haruka were dead at her hands while they tried to protect that bitch Moon. They had given their lives for HER - every single one of them! Jealousy added to her hate. SHE had all of the Scouts' loyalty. They would do anything - even sacrifice their lives for her. She had the love of the only man that mattered to Pluto. Pluto was seething. "Listen to me, Setsuna-chan!" Moon pleaded again. "Listen to you! Why? You just caused the death of every scout! You! You are the only solely responsible for all of this! You ruin everything you touch! You! Your mother killed herself while trying to protect her kingdom for you and to give you a better life than you deserved! You forced us all into being Sailors! We gave up our dreams for you! Look at what you did to me!! You! So you can live happily in that palace and screw with your lover! So you can happily dress in the most expensive clothes and throw parties! So you can go and say 'The world look at me! I'm the almighty Neo-Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo and the Moon Kingdom!'" bellowed Pluto, exploding in hatred. "DEATH SLICE!" she screamed, and the Time Staff once again, released a sword aimed at Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon shouted "Power of the Moon - Defense Wall!" A white force field came about her. Snickering, Pluto said, "You couldn't do that before, now could you? No, you had to force your Sailors to die first, didn't you?" Sailor Moon said once again, "Why? Setsuna-chan, why? What's the matter? What's eating at you? I love you, Setsuna-chan. You can tell me! I'll do anything to help you." She spoke with such tenderness, and so distantly, Setsuna could feel the remnant of the urge to tell someone her pains. But inside her heart, the resentment quickly destroyed any fragment of softness. Turning upon Sailor Moon, she raised her Staff. Sailor Moon realized words would not get to Sailor Pluto. She clutched at her brooch. "I CALL UPON THE POWER OF THE IMPERIUM CRYSTAL!" shouted Sailor Moon. The brooch slowly opened, revealing the ginzinshou scintillating brilliantly. "PURIFYING POWER ACTIVATION!" she pointed it at Pluto. "I CALL UPON THE DARK POWER OF PLUTO!" shouted Pluto. The streak of dark energy clashed with the bright energy. Sailor Moon struggled, trying to push hers forward. Pluto glared at her, the hate welling up. She remembered the wedding of Serenity and Mamoru. She was the only one who was seated with the regular guests. The rest of the Sailors had been given seats of honor or special positions. The Dark energy inched closer. She remembered how when Chibi-Usa was born, at last, Serenity didn't invite her to the banquet held in honor of the newborn baby, though Serenity and King Endymion knew that she would become a second mother nearly to the pink-haired child. And after she and Chibi-Usa developed their incredible relationship, Chibi-Usa always had to beg her mother to relieve Setsuna of her duties for one day to come to her birthday parties. The Dark Energy pushed closer and closer. Serenity was desperate trying to push it back, but to no avail. And Setsuna remembered she was never included in so many of the Sailor meetings. Every other sailor came, except for her. No, she was always isolated. And Serenity was always behind that reason. The Dark Energy of Pluto engulfed the ginzinshou's bright energy and swallowed Sailor Moon. She screamed in agony, but Pluto only intensified the dark energy. Sailor Moon's shrieks were like music to her ears. The shrill shouts ended abruptly, and Sailor Moon collapsed. Her revenge was complete. But it was hardly sweet. The bitter taste in her heart didn't leave. Instead of pulling out her clear crystal, Pluto turned away. She broke into a run and began running from the site. Author's Note: Wow, there. Everyone in the Universe is dead except three people. Scary, eh? What do you think about it? COMMENTS AND CRITICISM, SEND TO ME! rward as Pluto stood with her Time Staff glowing and the Garnet Orb beaming brightly. With a finally push, the white engulfed Corruption completely. His final dying howls echoed across all corners of the Universe. And the Darkness lifted. Pluto stood, proudly and victorious. Her eyes were flashing. She did not stop. She pulled out the crystal given to her by Corruption. She stepped on it in hatred, crushing it into pieces. She pushed the effulgence further. The blinding white light spread across the Moon and throughout the Universe everywhere. Chibi-Usa woke up and stared at the sight. Setsuna was weakening as she clung to the staff with all her strength. The white light radiated from her and the staff and the Garnet Orb to all corners of the sky. The entire firmament was lit brighter than it ever was. Finally, Pluto collapsed. Chibi-Usa rushed over. "Puu?" "Small Lady?" she asked weakly. "Puu? What's going on?" Chibi-Usa asked in terror. "Call your father over," she told her. Chibi-Usa dragged King Endymion over and seated herself next to her father as they gazed upon the pale Sailor. "I've fixed up all the mistakes I've made. I have just exerted all the energy I've stolen and went them back to where they belong. I've used up almost all of the energy of my planet, my staff, and the Garnet Orb. I've used too much. I have little time left to live," she said weakly. "No! You can't die! You can't leave me motherless!" shouted Chibi-Usa. "Motherless? You have a mother - Neo-Queen Serenity!" King Endymion looked at Chibi-Usa oddly. "You don't understand anything, do you, King Endymion?!" King Endymion looked at his daughter, surprised at what she called him. All her fury was channeled to him. "Don't take it out on him, Small Lady. I must explain everything first. He knows nothing," commanded Pluto. Chibi-Usa sullenly turned from her father and looked at Pluto again. "Everyone looks at me and sees a calm, composed, unfeeling, emotionless, serene, very mature woman who calculates carefully everything she does and would never let her feelings get best of her. It is something all Keepers of Gates learn to do or pretend to do. I received this task more than a thousand years ago, and my fatal mistake was in accepting this task. But I had no choice. My mother died and left me this task, for the blood of Chronos was in me. Queen Serenity explained this was my duty, my destiny, and encouraged me to take it. She never forced me, but the tone of her voice implied I had no other choice. I reluctantly took the job. And since that moment, my life has just been a living Hell. I was Sailor Pluto, and I was the Keeper of Time. I was bound to protect our Queen and to fight for her kingdom, whether it meant giving up my life or not. And in a way, I did give my life for her. I gave up my freedom, all my dreams, all my hopes, all my talents and threw them to the wind. And I forced myself into a life, in which a single day repeated over and over - waking up, watching the Gates, and sleeping. I rarely got out. No one should be forced to watch the Gates, no one should be forced into a life like the one I lived. I ceased to live after guarding the Gates for so long. No, life wasn't life. I wasn't really LIVING. I was subconsciously alive, perhaps, but I walked through life asleep, more dead than awake. And it was so lonely?so horribly lonely. It was the loneliness that ended up tearing me apart. I watched, I watched from my Gates. I watched when I was so young and new at the job, I watched as the man I loved fall for another woman. I watched in pain silently. I watched as all my friends died in the battle against the Negaverse because I couldn't fight - Queen Serenity forbade me to finish the battle. I watched in the present as my friends all were reborn and found friends among themselves. I alone stood, an outcast as I would forever be doomed to be. And now, more than a thousand years later, I'm as alone as ever. I stood at this job for so long, so miserable, hating it so much. And no one knew. Chibi-Usa was the only one who visited me, and I stood alone here. Damnit, I was always alone! No one cared about me! No one! Never! You know, there was one man I always loved. And I watched him date and pursue another woman! I watched them tenderly kiss and love each other in courtship, marry, and have a child! I was the Keeper of Time with complete control over Time! And I had so much time to sit in silence and in darkness and mourn over where my life had gone. But I never, NEVER had the time to find love. No, to love was not my destiny. To suffer in silence was. To hate myself, to battle, to feel only agony and pain was. But not love. Not happiness. No. It was not my destiny to receive any joy or gratitude or mirth or even hope. I loved in silence long after Hope had deserted me. I tried so hard to love his wife, but she was so cold to me. It became increasingly hard. But their daughter, oh, how I loved her daughter! She was the daughter I never had, just like Hotaru. They were the only two people I've ever had who loved me back as much as I loved them. And they were as close of daughters as I would ever get. How did I turn evil? The way every other evil person became evil. No one is ever evil. There is no such thing as evil or villains. Villains are simply people who are fighting for a good cause from their point of view. I met a man - Corruption - at night, a night like every other. I was crying and weeping. He offered me a proposal I couldn't turn down - to leave my job and to receive enough power to take over the Moon Kingdom and rule it with my one true love, to have a daughter, to START living. But I had to conquer the universe for him in return. I almost did, I almost. But then, I realized, even that wasn't bringing me any joy. And the man I loved would never be mine. No, he would always belong to another. I corrected every mistake I made. I returned all the energy and destroyed Corruption. Now, soon, the entire Universe will wake up, alive, but I shall be dead. And they shall just curse me for ruining their lives and betraying them. They will never appreciate that I have just given up my own life again to save them. No, no one ever appreciated the sacrifice I made to guard the Gates of Time. And no one ever even came close to feeling the loneliness and the pain of it. And no one will appreciate this sacrifice either. No, they'll remember the evil I did, but no one will remember any good deed I might have ever performed in life. The evil in me will live on, but the good never will," Pluto sighed. "Who was the man you loved?" Tuxedo Kamen asked her. She did not answer, "Remember, villains are not evil. They are simply good people whose hearts have been weakened and inflicted with pains and trials. Villains just need love, they just need a friend. They just need someone to listen and understand and to comfort them. Villains are just the unfortunate ones forsaken by Love and Fortune. They just want sunshine in their prison of darkness and cold. Be that light?be that sunshine for the villains?no one deserves to suffer like that?no one?" she said in a barely audible whisper before her voice was silenced. Her eyes were wide open, those beautiful cerise eyes that would be doomed to haunt the nights of Tuxedo Kamen for years afterwards. Author's Note: Appreciate this chapter, it took me forever to write. All that crap I had to cram in. *yawn* it was toughie. How'd you like it?