-5-
Usagi was on the same hill, or if
not the same at least very similar. Yet instead of the dawn, this time it was deep in the night. The full moon shone down upon the land, its only illumination. Yet the moonlight was
bright enough to see everything. Usagi looked around her, but saw no one.
Disappointed, but unable to articulate to herself why, Usagi walked down the hillside. It soon became clear that, once
again, she was at a battle site, though this time it was in its aftermath. The bodies of the fallen, grotesquely
twisted in death, were nearly everywhere. It was obvious that fires once burned, but now not even smoke arose from the
ashes of destroyed buildings and trees, which were everywhere. Tokyo, if that was what it was, lay in ruins beyond
ruin. No building was left standing beyond its exposed frames, and even those were cracked and soon to
fall. Streets were crumbled into dust, the sewers beneath them mangled and filled with dried mud and filth. Debris was everywhere.
Choking with horror, Usagi
searched for the meaning of the things she was seeing. There had to be something beyond this destruction, something
specific that Pluto wished for her to see. But all was silent and still in this apocalyptic landscape. But wait, no; there were voices, quiet sobs of a grief so great that no tears could ever expunge them. Usagi, walking quickly towards the voices, soon came upon a scene of death and loss.
A woman, flat on her back
underneath the full moon, raised up above the ground on a cairn built of fallen rubble, was attended by two cats, one black and the other white. She held something in her right hand, but it was hidden in the shadows of the cairn. She
was calm, incredibly so for someone in the middle of all this destruction, but there was also great sadness in her, sadness that came through with her
voice.
"And the others?" she
asked.
"Scattered," said the
black cat, a golden crescent shining on her brow. "We were able to save some, but it wasn't possible to hold
them together. I'm . . . sorry."
"No, I'm sorry,
Luna," said the woman. "Most of my allies lost in this silent world, my friends dead, my husband dead, and my
son . . . ." And here the woman's face contorted in agony. The black
cat placed her head against the woman, obviously trying to comfort her. It succeeded, somewhat, as the woman slowly
composed herself.
The white cat, who had been the
source of those quiet sobs that had guided Usagi here, said, "What now?"
"I think you know," said
the woman. "And I'm sorry. But my . . . the enemy will return and so
must we. And so must everyone who has fallen. The world needs
them."
The woman looked away from her
friends. Her head, lolling slightly, turned until she stared at Usagi, their eyes meeting. Usagi, frozen, could only watch as the woman smiled sweetly. "The future needs
them."
"Please don't," said
the black cat, as the woman turned back to them. "Please. You'll
die."
"And I'll be
back. I always come back," said the woman, still smiling. "But I
won't remember. That's why you two will have to stay, to help me remember.
Only this time, don't forget what I look like."
"We won't," said the
white cat. "We'll never forget."
"I know, I'm just
teasing. I hope that I can do that the next time round." She raised her
hand, bringing up a staff topped with a crescent moon. Inside the curve of the crescent there was a great crystal, one
with infinite facets and a light of its own. It was a great struggle for her to bring up her arm, but she did it, if
slowly. Tears ran down her face now and her voice cracked with pain and grief.
"Oh, oh, I wish I'd done a better job. I wish I'd been better."
"Please don't say that,
Usagi-chan," said the black cat. "You did everything right.
Everything."
The woman looked down at the black
cat and smiled, even through her tears. "Thank you, Luna.
Artemis." Then, she whispered, "Ginzuisho."
The light from the crystal pulsed,
and the moonlight brightened, blazing like the sun and covering the world, before dying. The cats rose into the air and
they curled up, just as they were enveloped by two clear capsules. The light of the crystal shone like a beacon in the
suddenly moonless night. Yet there were other lights as well, first one, then a hundred, then in uncountable millions
and billions, covering the night sky and swirling around the crystal's beacon like a galaxy. From out of the
coruscating light there came ten lights, all in different colors. They danced around the fallen woman, with a golden
light in particular staying close. The woman smiled and slowly dropped her arm, the light from the crystal fading away
even as the lights in the sky did the same.
Usagi went away from the world
without a sound.
-6-
Finding herself once again before
Pluto, Usagi broke down in tears. Hugging her tightly, Pluto let her cry herself dry within her arms, comforting her as
she could. Finally, Usagi dried her eyes and said, "That was just awful."
Pluto simply nodded, her own eyes
bruised with unshed tears.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath,
Usagi calmed herself. Weeping and mourning had its place, but now she had to take the situation as it was and face it
as calmly as she could. "What now?"
"Now I make an explanation,
of a sort, and a request," said Pluto. "The explanation is this: with the help of an old friend, I was able
to show you things of the past to teach you something. What you learned, of course, depends on you."
"They were endings,"
said Usagi. "And . . . beginnings."
"As you will," said
Pluto, smiling now with pride. "In any case, by showing you and teaching you, I am hoping that you will be as
forewarned as I can make you. "
"All . . . right," said
Usagi, puzzled but willing to let her continue without interruption.
Pluto bit her lip, unsure of how
to continue. "I am not omniscient."
"I know," replied Usagi
simply.
"The Lands of the First
Darkness, from which all of Space and Time are as one, can see nearly everything. But just nearly. There are places where death cannot take hold, and there are places where it has been shrouded even against the sight of one who
can stand where I stand. Such a time and place is coming, and it is changing everything. I am able to see the precursor waves of its coming, and so see the outlines of its nature."
"Huh?"
Pluto blew a bang out from her
eyes and tried again. "I know what I know, but what I don't know I don't know. But I'm getting a sort of hint of what it is I don't know."
"Oh, okay."
"But these hints are very,
very vague. And I am unable to say how it is I know some of these things, beyond induction, hope and
intuition." Pluto gestured with her staff, and a large cloth screen appeared from the mist. A light shone on it, showing a blurry picture that progressively became sharper, resolving into a picture of Usagi's mother,
standing on a pedestal and holding a torch aloft.
"Slide!" yelled Pluto,
the picture now changing into a picture of Crystal Tokyo, the many spires of the Crystal Palace rising up from the plains of Kanto underneath a clear blue
sky. "The present, the year 3004 by the calendar of the Common Era.
"Slide!" The picture changed again, showing a painting of Crystal Tokyo, only instead of blue skies it was dark, with streaks of blood
red. The Crystal Palace itself was shattered, with many floating rocks hover over it.
Underneath the picture was a caption reading 'artist's interpretation.' "Crystal Tokyo, the
year 3004 after nearly a decade of rule and ruin underneath the Death Phantom."
"Slide!" Here there was a picture of the Earth, only it was broken apart into different pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle. "The year 3003."
"That's . . . huh,"
said Usagi, suddenly understanding. "Whatever is coming is breaking apart, what, causality?"
Fierce pride once again shone
through Pluto's face, though she smooth it down quickly. "Yes. That
was how I knew that whatever is coming, is coming. It is as if there is a flaw in the structure of the universe, one
that is breaking it apart. Indeed, it is already doing so. Where and when those
breakages come, I cannot predict.
"And this, to me, shows there
is a mind at work here. An old and subtle mind."
Usagi nodded, "And stopping
this is, what, up to me?"
"Yes," said
Pluto. "You have anticipated my request."
"All by myself?" said
Usagi, her voice climbing incredulously.
Pluto shrugged. "Without my help, without the help of your parents and your guardians, yes. Others,
perhaps, but as to who I cannot say."
"You are
kidding,"
"No," said Pluto,
sadly.
Usagi stayed silent, her thoughts
too jumbled and dark and strange to be truly called thoughts. Finally, she burst out, "But I've got
homework!"
Pluto stared at her in
disbelief.
"And, and, and I haven't
had a good night's sleep in ages."
Pluto smiled gently at her once
more. "You must be brave and strong, Small Lady, as I know that you are."
She paused. "Even in the face of missed schoolwork and lack of sleep."
Usagi sighed deeply. A part of her had to admit that it was greatly attracted to this, this quest, as Honored Ancestor Ranma the Cutie put
it. She hadn't had an adventure in so long, burying herself in school, with interruptions for state
events. Her time as a heroine seemed so long ago. Boring was boring, even in
utopia.
Yet so many fears and insecurities
gripped her, filling her with questions. Could she do it again? Wasn't
this, really, a job for her guardians? Shouldn't Mother and Father know about this end of the world
business? And, honestly, what about her homework?
Finally, she said, "Oh, all
right. I'll do it."
Pluto nodded. "Good, I knew that you would. Slide!"
The picture changed, this time
showing an irregular rock in space, lights crisscrossing its surface. "Nemesis, the rogue planet. This is where you must go next on your journey. Where on Nemesis you must go, where you
will go afterwards, what you will learn, all mysteries."
"When?"
"Immediately." And with that, the dream ended.
(quick regret: I wish that I could have found a place for Usagi's "death-bed confession" of having painted Luna's tail green then blaming
Shingo for it. Ah, well.)
-Murmur
Usagi was on the same hill, or if
not the same at least very similar. Yet instead of the dawn, this time it was deep in the night. The full moon shone down upon the land, its only illumination. Yet the moonlight was
bright enough to see everything. Usagi looked around her, but saw no one.
Disappointed, but unable to articulate to herself why, Usagi walked down the hillside. It soon became clear that, once
again, she was at a battle site, though this time it was in its aftermath. The bodies of the fallen, grotesquely
twisted in death, were nearly everywhere. It was obvious that fires once burned, but now not even smoke arose from the
ashes of destroyed buildings and trees, which were everywhere. Tokyo, if that was what it was, lay in ruins beyond
ruin. No building was left standing beyond its exposed frames, and even those were cracked and soon to
fall. Streets were crumbled into dust, the sewers beneath them mangled and filled with dried mud and filth. Debris was everywhere.
Choking with horror, Usagi
searched for the meaning of the things she was seeing. There had to be something beyond this destruction, something
specific that Pluto wished for her to see. But all was silent and still in this apocalyptic landscape. But wait, no; there were voices, quiet sobs of a grief so great that no tears could ever expunge them. Usagi, walking quickly towards the voices, soon came upon a scene of death and loss.
A woman, flat on her back
underneath the full moon, raised up above the ground on a cairn built of fallen rubble, was attended by two cats, one black and the other white. She held something in her right hand, but it was hidden in the shadows of the cairn. She
was calm, incredibly so for someone in the middle of all this destruction, but there was also great sadness in her, sadness that came through with her
voice.
"And the others?" she
asked.
"Scattered," said the
black cat, a golden crescent shining on her brow. "We were able to save some, but it wasn't possible to hold
them together. I'm . . . sorry."
"No, I'm sorry,
Luna," said the woman. "Most of my allies lost in this silent world, my friends dead, my husband dead, and my
son . . . ." And here the woman's face contorted in agony. The black
cat placed her head against the woman, obviously trying to comfort her. It succeeded, somewhat, as the woman slowly
composed herself.
The white cat, who had been the
source of those quiet sobs that had guided Usagi here, said, "What now?"
"I think you know," said
the woman. "And I'm sorry. But my . . . the enemy will return and so
must we. And so must everyone who has fallen. The world needs
them."
The woman looked away from her
friends. Her head, lolling slightly, turned until she stared at Usagi, their eyes meeting. Usagi, frozen, could only watch as the woman smiled sweetly. "The future needs
them."
"Please don't," said
the black cat, as the woman turned back to them. "Please. You'll
die."
"And I'll be
back. I always come back," said the woman, still smiling. "But I
won't remember. That's why you two will have to stay, to help me remember.
Only this time, don't forget what I look like."
"We won't," said the
white cat. "We'll never forget."
"I know, I'm just
teasing. I hope that I can do that the next time round." She raised her
hand, bringing up a staff topped with a crescent moon. Inside the curve of the crescent there was a great crystal, one
with infinite facets and a light of its own. It was a great struggle for her to bring up her arm, but she did it, if
slowly. Tears ran down her face now and her voice cracked with pain and grief.
"Oh, oh, I wish I'd done a better job. I wish I'd been better."
"Please don't say that,
Usagi-chan," said the black cat. "You did everything right.
Everything."
The woman looked down at the black
cat and smiled, even through her tears. "Thank you, Luna.
Artemis." Then, she whispered, "Ginzuisho."
The light from the crystal pulsed,
and the moonlight brightened, blazing like the sun and covering the world, before dying. The cats rose into the air and
they curled up, just as they were enveloped by two clear capsules. The light of the crystal shone like a beacon in the
suddenly moonless night. Yet there were other lights as well, first one, then a hundred, then in uncountable millions
and billions, covering the night sky and swirling around the crystal's beacon like a galaxy. From out of the
coruscating light there came ten lights, all in different colors. They danced around the fallen woman, with a golden
light in particular staying close. The woman smiled and slowly dropped her arm, the light from the crystal fading away
even as the lights in the sky did the same.
Usagi went away from the world
without a sound.
-6-
Finding herself once again before
Pluto, Usagi broke down in tears. Hugging her tightly, Pluto let her cry herself dry within her arms, comforting her as
she could. Finally, Usagi dried her eyes and said, "That was just awful."
Pluto simply nodded, her own eyes
bruised with unshed tears.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath,
Usagi calmed herself. Weeping and mourning had its place, but now she had to take the situation as it was and face it
as calmly as she could. "What now?"
"Now I make an explanation,
of a sort, and a request," said Pluto. "The explanation is this: with the help of an old friend, I was able
to show you things of the past to teach you something. What you learned, of course, depends on you."
"They were endings,"
said Usagi. "And . . . beginnings."
"As you will," said
Pluto, smiling now with pride. "In any case, by showing you and teaching you, I am hoping that you will be as
forewarned as I can make you. "
"All . . . right," said
Usagi, puzzled but willing to let her continue without interruption.
Pluto bit her lip, unsure of how
to continue. "I am not omniscient."
"I know," replied Usagi
simply.
"The Lands of the First
Darkness, from which all of Space and Time are as one, can see nearly everything. But just nearly. There are places where death cannot take hold, and there are places where it has been shrouded even against the sight of one who
can stand where I stand. Such a time and place is coming, and it is changing everything. I am able to see the precursor waves of its coming, and so see the outlines of its nature."
"Huh?"
Pluto blew a bang out from her
eyes and tried again. "I know what I know, but what I don't know I don't know. But I'm getting a sort of hint of what it is I don't know."
"Oh, okay."
"But these hints are very,
very vague. And I am unable to say how it is I know some of these things, beyond induction, hope and
intuition." Pluto gestured with her staff, and a large cloth screen appeared from the mist. A light shone on it, showing a blurry picture that progressively became sharper, resolving into a picture of Usagi's mother,
standing on a pedestal and holding a torch aloft.
"Slide!" yelled Pluto,
the picture now changing into a picture of Crystal Tokyo, the many spires of the Crystal Palace rising up from the plains of Kanto underneath a clear blue
sky. "The present, the year 3004 by the calendar of the Common Era.
"Slide!" The picture changed again, showing a painting of Crystal Tokyo, only instead of blue skies it was dark, with streaks of blood
red. The Crystal Palace itself was shattered, with many floating rocks hover over it.
Underneath the picture was a caption reading 'artist's interpretation.' "Crystal Tokyo, the
year 3004 after nearly a decade of rule and ruin underneath the Death Phantom."
"Slide!" Here there was a picture of the Earth, only it was broken apart into different pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle. "The year 3003."
"That's . . . huh,"
said Usagi, suddenly understanding. "Whatever is coming is breaking apart, what, causality?"
Fierce pride once again shone
through Pluto's face, though she smooth it down quickly. "Yes. That
was how I knew that whatever is coming, is coming. It is as if there is a flaw in the structure of the universe, one
that is breaking it apart. Indeed, it is already doing so. Where and when those
breakages come, I cannot predict.
"And this, to me, shows there
is a mind at work here. An old and subtle mind."
Usagi nodded, "And stopping
this is, what, up to me?"
"Yes," said
Pluto. "You have anticipated my request."
"All by myself?" said
Usagi, her voice climbing incredulously.
Pluto shrugged. "Without my help, without the help of your parents and your guardians, yes. Others,
perhaps, but as to who I cannot say."
"You are
kidding,"
"No," said Pluto,
sadly.
Usagi stayed silent, her thoughts
too jumbled and dark and strange to be truly called thoughts. Finally, she burst out, "But I've got
homework!"
Pluto stared at her in
disbelief.
"And, and, and I haven't
had a good night's sleep in ages."
Pluto smiled gently at her once
more. "You must be brave and strong, Small Lady, as I know that you are."
She paused. "Even in the face of missed schoolwork and lack of sleep."
Usagi sighed deeply. A part of her had to admit that it was greatly attracted to this, this quest, as Honored Ancestor Ranma the Cutie put
it. She hadn't had an adventure in so long, burying herself in school, with interruptions for state
events. Her time as a heroine seemed so long ago. Boring was boring, even in
utopia.
Yet so many fears and insecurities
gripped her, filling her with questions. Could she do it again? Wasn't
this, really, a job for her guardians? Shouldn't Mother and Father know about this end of the world
business? And, honestly, what about her homework?
Finally, she said, "Oh, all
right. I'll do it."
Pluto nodded. "Good, I knew that you would. Slide!"
The picture changed, this time
showing an irregular rock in space, lights crisscrossing its surface. "Nemesis, the rogue planet. This is where you must go next on your journey. Where on Nemesis you must go, where you
will go afterwards, what you will learn, all mysteries."
"When?"
"Immediately." And with that, the dream ended.
(quick regret: I wish that I could have found a place for Usagi's "death-bed confession" of having painted Luna's tail green then blaming
Shingo for it. Ah, well.)
-Murmur