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Eternal Damnation
By Silver Sailor Ganymede
Thousands of years had passed since Crystal Tokyo began and, indeed, it seemed as though the true Crystal Tokyo had perished long ago. Though the city still bore its name, there were few that remembered its splendour or its purity: and those that did were too jaded by time to think of it as anything other than an illusion. Peace? Beauty? Love? Those things existed only in legend; or at least, had they ever existed, they were now gone forevermore. There was only hatred, despair and war; all the ugliness of humanity was now untainted and on display for all to see.
In times of old, humans would have prayed to the legendary senshi to save them, and they needn't have worried for the senshi would have saved them. The senshi still bore their powers then; they were more than the legend they had become; they were real, as real as the threats they faced, and which eventually defeated them.
Neo-Serenity the first had made a mistake when resurrecting the young Elysian senshi of Venus; no matter that the evil which had possessed her had been destroyed; her soul was too marred by the taint of evil for her to ever become fully good again… Eventually, after many centuries had passed, she had turned against them, her team, her family, her friends; and she had killed them one by one. Only the senshi under the protection of Pluto had survived, and that was because Solar-Venus dared not venture near the Crystal Palace or the Halls of Time for the holy light of the ginzuishou protected both the Palace and the Halls. The ginzuishou, the thing that she had always feared, and indeed she still did even though those of the line of Serenity were long-since dead…
The senshi of Pluto, the immortal children of the god Chronos, still lived on. But they were powerless to stop her, so very powerless, and all because of a law passed by the Council of the Nine, the supreme Gods, as punishment on Chronos for even meddling with the course of time. There was nothing they could do: or at least, that's what they had been led to believe…
"Exsuscitare, Pater Chronos. Exsuscitare et auxilium; regnus Tempis labi.(3)"
Of course nothing happened; nothing ever did. Or at least that's what they thought…
"He hasn't come," Cosmic Pluto sighed as they stood and walked away from the pillar. "He still sleeps…"
"Sleeps and leaves us to suffer for his foolishness," Elysian Pluto spat, her tone bitter and cold as it always was when she spoke of Chronos. "He will never come for us, never. I know that more surely than I know anything."
"And you are know that for certain, do you?" a voice asked. Pluto's eyes widened in recognition and she and the others spun around.
"Mother," she whispered, and they found themselves facing a woman who was clothed entirely in black. Her hair was silver and faded with age, but her jade-green eyes, which were rimmed with a blood red colour the same as their own, were almost preternatural in hue. Her name was Hadesah(4) Sora, and she was the Queen of Pluto, a being of immense power with over seven-thousand-years-worth of life behind her.
"But young Elysian Pluto, I am afraid that you are wrong. Chronos has been stirring, and it seems like he will soon waken from a sleep that has lasted for millennia beyond memory. Soon he will answer you, and I know that you would wish to be there when he wakens."
"We cannot leave this post, Grandmother" Cosmic Pluto said. "We are condemned to stay here… for eternity."
"No" Queen Sora shook her head. "You are no longer needed here. Evil will not enter now, and even if it did it would not matter; the Time-stream is broken and this time… this time it cannot be fixed."
A silence followed the ancient Queen's statement, and Pluto let her staff, the staff that bore the Garnet Orb, fall to the ground. The silence could have lasted no longer than a few seconds, but what did time matter within the Halls? Indeed, what did time matter at all now?
"Come with me," Sora said. She grasped Pluto and Cosmic Pluto by the hands and they in turn took hold of Elysian and Crystal Pluto, and the five senshi disappeared from the Halls of Time.
Where settlements had existed since before the time of Queen Kali, Pluto's grandmother, who had died more than seven-thousand-years ago, there were only ruins. The castle of Pluto had also fallen from what it once was; its towering basalt form appearing light against the black sky was still beautiful and yet it too was crumbling. The windows of the castle were lit by a dark flame, which made it seem even more intimidating than it really was as it towered above the remains of the settlement.
The aura of death that Pluto had always possessed had been infinitely magnified by this sheer desolation.
"They have all left this place," Queen Sora said, staring away from others and up at Pluto's three moons (5) as they lit up the otherwise pitch-black sky. "They left hundreds of years ago, when Queen Celine Venusi'ah (6) ascended to this Kingdom's throne. Even the demons have disappeared from here."
Pluto shook her head, sighing, and Crystal Pluto looked directly up at the ancient Queen.
"Queen Sora, tell me, why hasn't Celine invaded here as well?"
"That is a long story," Queen Sora sighed. "I will tell youall soon, butfirstwe must go inside before we catch our deaths of cold."
They stepped inside and were met by light. This light would have appeared to be darkness and shadows were they still on Earth, but on Pluto this 'light' was almost blinding.
"Come, follow me," Queen Sora said, leading the others with her down a series of long, winding corridors. Pluto seemed at ease on the planet but the others did not. Cosmic Pluto seemed rather ill at ease as she always did when on her home planet. Elysian Pluto did not seem scared so much as she seemed to bitterly hate every minute of being in this place. Crystal Pluto seemed at home enough but also extremely curious as to the planet's state and past.
So they walked on, deeper into the castle, closer towards the planet's core…
"Where exactly are we going?" Crystal Pluto asked.
"You will see soon enough," Queen Sora replied, just as they came to a set of doors. The doors were made of the same sort of material as those that led to the Halls of Time, but they were far more intricately designed. There were pictures of dragons, demons and angels adorning the doors as well as an engraving of four keys – the Time Keys – gathered around an orb that bore the mark of Pluto – the Garnet Orb.
The ancient Queen reached out and lightly touched the doors which then swung open as silently as though they had been made of nothing more than the air itself.
The Pluto senshi entered the hall beyond the doors, which then closed silently and swiftly as though they had never been opened. The darkness within the hall was almost unnatural, but it soon faded as flames were lit on either side of them. The hall itself was completely empty, desolate and dead as the planet Pluto itself. Except, that is, for something at the far end of the hall, something that they couldn't quite see, though as they drew closer they could make out a humanoid shape behind the red glassy substance.
"That," the ancient queen whispered though her voice seemed to echo within the hall itself, "is the tomb of our Ancestor. That is where Pater Chronos lies, and where he has lain for millennia beyond memory.
"You see, Pater Chronos held such power, and indeed he still does even in this state, that a protective aura surrounds Pluto and its three moons. That is why Celine has not taken this place; she fears what the ancient powers might be stirred to do if she tires."
Crystal Pluto sighed as her previous question was answered. Ancient magic, of course: everything led back to the magic of the ancients in the end…
"He has lain here in a death-like state for so long that none who remain today can remember what he was like while he truly lived," Queen Sora sighed.
"Yes, but that death-like sleep is soon to end," another voice spoke, one as cold and ancient as the queen's. The symbol of Pluto began to form in the air and from it the semi corporeal form of a woman appeared. Her hair was a faded shade of pink, but her eyes were the same, deep blood red as the other Pluto senshi's.
"Queen Kali," Crystal Pluto whispered, recognising the figure as her great-great-great grandmother, the one who had been responsible for the defeat of Lady Celena Venusi'ah, the one whose spirit had at one point possessed Celine (7).
"Yes" the spirit replied. "We, your ancestors, have guarded Pater Chronos from the spirit world for millennia in much the same way as my daughter" she indicated towards the ancient Queen Sora, "has kept him safe in the material world. But your prayers, my children, have awoken him. It is now time for our Guardian Father to awaken."
The spirit placed her hands on the sides of garnet coffin and her aura began to shine. Other spirits appeared around Kali, others who bore resemblance to the Pluto senshi, and all gathered around the coffin that held the body of the founder of their line. They floated in silence around the coffin for a few seconds then the hall, which had previously been completely dark, was filled with a garnet coloured light as the coffin shattered. With that the spirits disappeared, and what was left was the body of a man who sat up and gazed around at the hall first with confusion and then with wonder.
His skin was the same tanned-shade as Setsuna, Maggie, Rose and Jasmine's, but his hair was a few shades darker and cut to shoulder length with bangs that almost completely covered his left eye. It was then that they saw that, though his right eye was the same emerald colour as Queen Sora's, his left eye was dark, blood red.
He tried to stand, and it was then that they saw he was shaking badly and thus was too weak to stand.
"It has gone," he spoke in a voice that radiated power and yet at the same time shook with fear and amazement. "They have gone. It is gone. I am awake," at this last statement he stopped and gasped in air. "I am awake. But how?"
It was then that he looked up and saw the five living senshi of Pluto standing near him.
"Who are you?" he asked. "Who are you and how did you awaken me? You must be exceptionally powerful; it was the Council who placed that curse upon me. How did you break my eternal sleep, my eternal curse?"
"It was not us," Setsuna replied. "It was our ancestors… your descendants. I never thought that I would speak to you in this way, Pater Chronos."
"Chronos?" he whispered. "Yes. That is my name. I am Chronos… Lord of Time. Tell me, how long have I slept?"
"For millennia beyond record."
"And what of the Council of the Nine? Do they still live and pray to Cosmos?"
Crystal Pluto answered this time. "The Councilfell from powerthousands of years ago, as did Cosmos; she came to the planet Earth of the Sol System from the Moon and settled there as its Queen. She and her line are dead; we are the only senshi left now. Unless the one who rules the rest of this star system can be counted as a senshi, corrupt as she is."
"I thought as much," Chronos replied. "As for the ruler of this system, I know of her. I know of everything else that occurred; the fate of the council was the only thing that I was not cursed to witness." He was silent for a time and then he spoke again, "You all hate me for cursing you to have to guard the Gates of Time. I know you do. I would as well. I did not mean to create the Gates. It was an experiment that went horribly wrong; I thought myself powerful enough to manipulate time in the way that the council controlled the elements. Alas that I was a fool enough to try. The council placed me under eternal sleep and damned me so that my descendants too would suffer for my mistakes."
With that Chronos tried to stand once more. Cosmic Pluto grabbed his arm to prevent him falling to the ground again. He was of a willowy build and was only slightly taller than the senshi.
"Why have you awoken now?" Elysian Pluto asked.
"Because the end is nigh" came Chronos' reply.
"What?" Pluto gasped.
"Time is ending," he said again. "The Gates are soon to fall. We must leave."
He grasped onto Cosmic Pluto's arm harder and then onto Pluto's. They understood what he was about to do and soon they five senshi had clustered around him. With that the teleported away and left the Hall in darkness. They would never set foot on their home world again.
"The end is nigh. This universe's time has come." He picked up the garnet rod from where Pluto had left it and closed his eyes. The orb mutated until it was a scythe similar to the one that the senshi of Saturn had wielded.
"Tell me," Crystal Pluto asked, "how did you make the Garnet Rod mutate like that?"
"This is the original Garnet Rod that I made with my own hands, and it was originally like that. It changed when my descendants, your ancestors, took hold of planet Saturn and so separated the powers of Time and Revolution.
"And now Time and Revolution are one once more, just as they once were. The end has come."
A haunted look came into Chronos' eyes as he raised the Garnet Staff above his head and whispered, "Death Reborn Revolution." The others felt their pain searing through their hearts as the power of their senshi crystals was awoken and the Halls of Time were drenched in a light the colour of blood; the blood that had been spilt through time.
Then the light faded and the weakened senshi fell to the ground as the Halls of Time fell and the Gates of Time were broken.
"This," Chronos whispered, "Is the end. It is the end of time. The end of our eternal damnation."
Then there was only darkness… then light as a new universe began to form in place of the old, for such was the nature of time.
(2)Translates roughly as: 'Father Chronos, strengthen our souls. We must protect the kingdom of Time from the soulless evil'.
(3)Translates roughly as: 'Awaken, Father Chronos. Awaken and help; the Kingdom of Time has fallen."
(4)Hades was the name of Pluto in ancient Galacxian, the universal language of the Galacxian Empire. Hadesah means 'of Hades'.
(5)The second and third Moons of Pluto were discovered sometime in either October/November 2004/05, but I cannot remember exactly.
(6) Queen Celine Venusi'ah is the name that was taken by Sailor Solar Venus after her coronation as the self proclaimed ruler of the Sol (Solar) System. Venusi'ah means 'of Venus' in much the same way that 'Hadesah' means 'of Pluto.'
(7)This is explained in my story 'Venus Rising'.
