Chapter 3

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Usagi woke with a start. Mamoru jumped as well, leaping off the bed and knocking Usagi onto the floor.

With a loud thud, then a holler, Usagi's voice came to life.

"Mamo-chan..." She said, putting her hand on her chest. Mamoru came down and put his hand onto hers.

"Are you okay, Usako?" Mamoru asked tenderly of his love. His eyes bore the burden of worry toward her. He had always admired how her form shone from the moonlight. Her skin seemed to glow beneath the moonlight's rays.

"I just had a bad dream, that's all.." Usagi started, seeing the look on Mamorus' face.

"About what, my love?" He asked, still concerned. Usually, when Usagi had that vivid of a dream, something was wrong.

"I saw a frightful man....he...he..had a dagger in his hand.." Usagi started, tears stinging her lovely blue eyes.

"Hmm...are you sure there's not something that you're not telling me, love?" Mamoru said, concern starting to rip at his heartstrings. He had never wanted for the woman that he loved to feel such pain in her heart, but he could feel for himself that she was not being totally up front with him about it.

"Well....." Usagi started. "...Setsuna came to see me today."

"What? Why?" Mamoru asked, his voice growing more concerned, as if that were possible.

"She just asked if anything strange had happened recently." Usagi started.

"And what did you tell her?" Mamoru asked, his voice starting to sound a bit harsh.

"I told her the truth, of course. I told her that the Three Lights were back here, and that Chibi-Usa had come without any specific instructions from the Queen. Chibi-Usa told her that Saturn has also seemed to have returned." Usagi rambled a little bit about how her and Chibi-Usa had argued about her being mature.

Mamoru's head started to spin. "I have to talk to her myself..." He managed to mumble aloud. Usagi heard him.

"Uh..sure, Mamo-chan. Why don't you wait until morning though." She said, a bit unsure of what she was saying.

"Of course..I wouldn't go to see her now..I don't even know where she is." Mamoru said.

"She's gone to find the outers, so I imagine she's with Michiru and Haruka." Usagi said.

"We'll go there in the morning." Mamoru finished.

MEANWHILE

Setsuna finished her story to Michiru and Haruka. Both of them looked dumbfounded, not being able to solve the problem of how someone was getting through the timegate.

"Someone is using time to their advantage for destruction." Setsuna said bluntly. "We have to find out who and why."

"I agree, Setsuna-chan, but where do we even start?" Michiru said.

"We can start, I guess by alerting the other senshi to the extreme danger we're in." Setsuna said.

All of a sudden, all three of them felt something sharp. It was pain.

Setsuna's eyes widened.

"No..it CAN'T be!" She whispered, the other two looking at her wincing.

"What is it, Setsuna-chan?" Haruka questioned.

"Wake up Hotaru and come with me." Setsuna ordered. She had a feeling that she knew what was wrong, but she wasn't sure.

She hated to have to take them all to the gate of time, but she felt she had no choice in the matter.

The sun had started to rise when they set out. Just across the way, Setsuna saw Seiya walking. He looked horrible, as if he had been walking all night.

Setsuna called to him.

"Seiya!" She yelled.

He stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't want to talk to HER again.

"What is it you want?" Seiya called coldly.

Haruka stopped Setsuna from going over there. "We don't need HIS help." She said harshly.

"I think you're wrong, Haruka...I think we do.." Setsuna said softly to her comrade.

All of a sudden, it came out of nowhere. The attack. A surge of energy hit Setsuna as she had started walking again toward Seiya. It blasted her onto her back.

With a scream, she hurled backwards onto the ground.

Seiya, followed by Haruka, Michiru and Hotaru ran to her side. When they looked up to see what it was that had hit her with the blast, they came to discover what looked like a hunchbacked man.

Seiya was the first to henshin.

"Starfighter...Power!!" He yelled, being overtaken by light and coming out as Sailor Starfighter.

The others followed suit.

"Neptune Planet Power!" "Uranus Planet Power!" "Saturn Planet Power!"

And finally, Setsuna getting up, said "Pluto..Planet Power!"

"That was a cheap shot..it won't happen again." Starfighter said forcefully.

MEANWHILE

Mamoru and Usagi had gotten up and dressed and on their way to Michiru and Haruka's for a talk with Setsuna. When they got there, Setsuna had just been blasted onto her back.

"No!" Usagi yelled, bringing her hand to her brooch. "Moon Crystal..Power!" She said, henshining into Super Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Kamen got hold of all of the other senshi to come to the site.

When Starfighter got notice that Super Sailor Moon was in the area, she turned toward her. Tuxedo Kamen was by her side. Tears filled her eyes as she watched the two of them together. She then went to turn toward the enemy. Out of nowhere came another blast of energy, but this time, Pluto had caught it and jumped in front of Starfighter.

"Don't take your guard off of this one.." She huffed and winced with pain as she got up.

"Space Sword Blaster!" Uranus brought her attack first, but the creature avoided it easily.

"Submarine Reflection!" Neptune started. Her attack combined with Saturns attack.

When the creature got hit with that, that seemed to knock it back, but it was soon up again. Pluto took her turn.

"Dead Scream." She whispered to her timestaff, hitting the creature and again, sending it back.

Starfighter decided to align her attack with Pluto's. "Star Serious Laser." She said, letting the attack hit the monster with a driving force.

Starhealer and Starmaker showed up as well to make their contributions to the attack.

The other five senshi, including Sailor Chibi-Moon came to the defense, as Sailor Moon had asked. When each of them had thrown their attacks, the creature started to look beaten.

It was Sailor Moon's turn now. "Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!" She said, bringing her strongest attack on the creature.

It fell to the ground, dying. Pluto walked to it and heard its laughter. She ordered the others to stay back.

"Pluto!!.." The creature said menacingly. "Taron...sends...his...greetings...and he will...destroy every world....you try to....protect the....Queen on..."

Plutos' eyes widened. "Taron...?" She said. "It...can't be..."

The others came toward the now dead creature. "I wonder where that came from?" Uranus said.

"We need to go to the gate of time NOW!" Pluto said, not caring that she didn't want them all to go. She opened the portal.

When they got through, everyone had noticed how different the gate of time looked from when they had seen it so long ago. Pluto, however, seemed unphased by the changes as she ran to a spot in the room.

She pulled back her blanket of protection and gasped in horror at what she saw.

The others quickly ran to see what it was that she was so horrified about and quickly, to their dismay, found out. Neo-Queen Serenity had been murdered. The dagger beside her, Pluto brought her hands to it and looked upon the hilt of it.

"No...it confirms my biggest fears." Pluto whispered sadly.

"What is that, Pluto?" Starfighter asked, disgust in her voice now.

"This dagger is from...Pluto...." She said as the others gasped.

"It was the dagger of the captain of the guards...Taron." Pluto continued. "He was my father's most trusted comrade in battle...he fought the many wars with my father and his other guard when demons were trying to invade the timegate. My father put his trust into him...he treated him like a son.." Pluto said, tears falling down her face.

"That explains it.." Starfighter said in an accusatory voice.

"What?" Neptune said.

"Don't you see...the way the timegate has flung open...it had to be someone from Pluto doing it...they are all cheating, rotten, liars." Starfighter accused.

"Don't you talk like that!" Uranus started, her fist raised. "If it weren't for Sailor Pluto, we wouldn't know about any of this."

"But SHE was supposed to be guarding it...and she let everyone down." Starfighter said harshly.

Just as Uranus was about to hit Starfighter, Pluto stopped her.

"She's right, Uranus..." She said, to which Uranus looked with surprise.

"If I had been doing a better job, this may not have happened at all, who knows." Pluto said sadly.

"I am sorry to have brought all of you here to discover this grisly scene. As it is a traitor from Pluto, I will deal with him myself." Pluto said.

Sailor Moon stepped forward. "No, Pluto..this is not your responsibility, nor your fault alone. Uranus is right, you warned us. Perhaps you did so before any permanent damage has been done." she said trying not to think about her dead self laying there.

"Okay, you told us who Taron is as far as Pluto, but why would he attack us now?" Neptune asked carefully.

"Ok, we will have to go back to Earth for it though, it's not safe here anymore." Pluto said, tearfully. "I will come back for the body and take her to her rightful place first...then I will join you..wait at Michiru's and Haruka's for me." Pluto said.

The others left and Pluto began to lift the Queen's body. She felt a helping hand.

Starfighter, it appeared, had stayed behind. Looking at the Queen, she felt an awesome sense of rage at Pluto.

"You let her die like this!" Starfighter yelled, supressing tears of fury in her voice.

"I didn't want this.." Pluto said harshly, tears streaming down her face as well.

They went to the Crystal Tokyo of the future. It had been completely destroyed, save for a few ruins.

Someone was approaching. Pluto and Starfighter both feared it was Taron himself coming to fight them.

All of a sudden, a person they had never met came face to face with them.

"I'm glad you're here." He said. His voice was hauntingly familiar.

"I see you have brought back the body of the Queen...just as we thought you would." He spoke again, taking the body from them.

"Your Highness....I am so sorry.." Pluto began.

She looked up. This was not King Endymion, not by any means.

However, he was dressed in garb like that of the king. Only his was white instead of lavender. The staff he held...looked like Pluto's staff.

"What is going on?" She asked.

"When the king and the court were destroyed, I came here and took over, although, I was too late to stop the destruction. I am King Seiya." He said, to which both of them looked at each other in surprise.

"I knew it.." Pluto said, narrowing her eyes at Starfighter.

"What?" Starfighter said, reflecting her look.

"You came right after the king and court were killed and took advantage of the Queen's sadness!" Pluto raged out.

"Stop, both of you, please...it's not like that at all..." Seiya said, sort of smiling at both of them.

"You altered time, Seiya, look at yourself!" Pluto shouted out.

"No...I didn't alter anything." Seiya said.

"What happened then?" Pluto demanded, her soft magenta eyes full of rage. "Who is to say that you didn't do this just to have your moment with the Queen!"

"Moment..." Seiya said fondly. "Ah, yes, Pluto...you always said that years were a moment compared to eternity."

"What?...how would you know what I say and don't say?" Pluto asked cooly.

"To you, a moment could mean years or even eons." Seiya said.

"What are you talking about?" Starfighter demanded.

"I cannot tell you..but you have brought the Queen this far...and I thank the both of you. I will see that she is well taken care of." Seiya said, making it final.

"Now, I shall send you back to your own time." Seiya said.

"You haven't the power to do that." Pluto raged out.

"You will see that I have the power to do awesome things, Sailor Pluto." Seiya said finally.

"I don't understand...I have never worn anything like that...am I really married to the Queen in this time?" Starfighter asked.

As the world of the future faded, Seiya decided to answer Starfighter's question. "Yes, Starfighter...you are married to a Queen beyond compare to any other...and because of that, you wear what you do. She is definitely a force to be reckoned with." He finished.

Starfighter was delighted at this news to hear that eventually, he would have his wish and that Usagi would be his queen. Pluto, however, was furious.

"Do you steal her away from King Endymion, Starfighter!?" Pluto said sarcastically.

"I don't know, Pluto, but you saw me in that flashy robe." Starfighter said.

"Yes...you probably killed all of them and then killed the Queen when she wouldn't love you fully!" Pluto said.

"Please..don't tell anyone what we've seen...it will turn them all against me." Starfighter said.

"They need to be against you, traitor!" Pluto lashed out at him.

"You just want to cover the fact that it is one of your own." Starfighter lashed back.

"And you HELPED!" Pluto retorted.

As they argued all the way back, both of them had decided not to say anything about what they had seen. Indeed, for now, it would be bad to say anything about that....Usagi could leave Mamoru in the present to be with Seiya, and that would alter the future more drastically than it had been altered now.