Wild Time.

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I didn't do her!  I mean 'it'.  I didn't do it!

Author's note: on a totally separate topic, how many people reading this have ever heard 
of 'pokegirls'?  I was just reading metroanime's fic, 'wild horse and pokegirls' I think it 
was called, and man does it rock.  Now, back to the regularly scheduled program.


"Ma'am?  Pardon me, but if your not going to buy anything, then I'm sorry but I'll have to 
ask you to leave."

The voice catches my attention, and I shake myself out of a daze.  I blink a couple of 
times, trying to remember where I am, and then I focus on the speaker.  A young waiter, 
shyly darting glances at me from where he's studying his little order notebook, or 
whatever they call it.  Probably about eighteen.  

"Coffee, thank you," I address him primly.  He nods, looking kind of disappointed before 
scurrying off to get my order.

Young? Eighteen?  I guess it doesn't take to long to forget that I'm physically eighteen, 
too.  Who can blame me, really?  I mean, I can remember things that have happened 
thousands upon thousands of years ago.  Eighteen going on a million.

The black beverage the waiter drops off is thin, weak, and watery.  I pour in about half of 
the sugars, before taking a sip.  I guess I really have changed a lot since IT happened.  
Back in the day, I would have put in all the sugar, and then requested some more, before 
sipping.

Not a single one of them.

Sorry, that's a sudden change in direction, isn't it?  Give me a second to explain.  It's been 
almost a week since IT happened.  When I say IT, I can only be referring to one thing: 
my reinstatement as the Sailor of Pluto.  After I recovered from my memory induced 
paralysis, I had taken a moment to rationalize before heading back to the Pluto.  I mean, 
everyone in the galaxy forgetting that they had once known me.  What are the chances of 
that happening?  

Pretty damn good, considering that not a single one of them recognized me.

Subconsciously I knew that they wouldn't.  But nothing seems to make it seem as real is 
the blank stares that the Tendo's gave me.  Or the glaring incomprehension in the face of 
my mother and even the old man when I told them I was their daughter.

I drink some more of my coffee.  Now what?  The memories of my time as a Sailor are 
there, but I feel no need to bind myself to some stupid gate for some stupid queen 
because some stupid past incarnation did.  I'm not even Buddhist, damn it!  All I really 
want to do is find Ranko and make her undo whatever the hell it was she did.  All I really 
want is all my rivals to recognize me, even if just so they can attack.  All I really want...

I just want to find Ranma.  

Of all the people I looked for since regaining my memories, he's the only one I couldn't 
find.  Ryaga, random teleportation curse and all I managed to track down (somewhere on 
the southern hemisphere of Saturn was where I finally caught up to her), but of that 
handsome, intelligent, caring, and calm chiropractor?  Nothing.

I'm gonna track down that damn Ranko, and beat her into a pulp (using my new 
memories I'm sure I could beat her this time) and then I'm gonna make her undo this.  I'm 
gonna, smack her like a redheaded stepchild.  I'm gonna tear out her eyes and shove them 
down her pants so she can watch me kick her butt.  I'm gonna...

I'm gonna do nothing of the sort, damn it.  No matter what she did to me, I just can't work 
myself up to hate her, and I'm disgusted by that.

"May I join you?" a new voice breaks in on my silent reverie.

Without looking I snap back an answer.  "No.  Bugger off."

Despite my tone, the voice chuckles a bit, and the noise of the chair across from me 
greets my ears.  "I remember you as being a lot less irritable, Setsuna."

Remember?  Someone remembers me?  Desperately I raise my eyes and come face to 
face with...

"Hotaru?" I stutter.  The woman that I had seen speaking with Ranko back when I still 
had a life.  But now, more memories return to me.  Memories of a time in one of my past 
lives.  Just a short while before my death from using my attack, the Time Stop.  My eyes 
widen, and I instinctively scurry back from the woman in front of me, my chair making a 
scraping noise on the ground as it's dragged back with me.  A second later, I calm down.  
Think, damn it.  Back then, I feared the coming of the Silence, rightly so.  But now, so 
many thousands of years later, it's a pretty safe assumption that whatever was going to 
happen would have already happened by now if it was going to happen at all.  Regaining 
my composure, I sit back down.

"What are you doing here?" I ask in a commanding voice.

"Now that's a lot more like I remember you," Hotaru answers, smiling a little more.  I 
answer her amusement with cool self control, and this makes the smile lessen a bit.  "I 
think I liked you more before your memories had returned.  You were less cold, more 
human."

"You had been watching me?  For how long?  What happened, all those years ago?  Who 
is Ranko?" I snap out.  I need answers because I have a lot of questions.

"Please," Hotaru answers calmly, patting the table next to one of my hands calmingly.  
"Give me a moment and I will answer your questions."

I take a deep breath, and give her a second.  She smiles at me again, and waves the young 
waiter over to place an order.  I take the opportunity to study her a bit.  It's weird.  When 
I look at her, I have two completely different sets of memories.  One, the more recent 
one, is of a quiet and beautiful woman compassionately offering her home to a friend.  
The older one though, the one from my past life, is of a quiet shy girl with a terrible 
inferiority complex with terrible extra-dimensional creature of destruction living in her.  
Comparing the two brings a strange sense of deja vu to the scene.  

After the waiter leaves, depositing a glass of some hot tea for Hotaru, I start my questions 
again.  "Now, tell me what happened.  I remember going to fight Mistress 9, but after my 
attack..." I trail off, and Hotaru nods sympathetically.

"After your attack killed you, you missed out on a lot," Hotaru begins.  "I'm assuming 
that you're still a little out of sorts from your recent memory regaining experience..."

"And how do you know about that?" I interrupt.  I feel like a lawyer cross examining a 
witness (though I'll never admit to comparing myself to one of those.  Ever since the 
Queen banished them back to the negaverse, it's been kind of a taboo subject across the 
system).

"Allow me to explain it all at my own pace," Hotaru gently insists, holding a hand how to 
stop my next question.  After taking a sip of her tea, she picks up where she left off.  "I'm 
assuming that you're still out of sorts, otherwise I'm sure that you'd just use the Gates of 
Time to review the whole matter , so I'll just give you a run down of the events.  You can 
look up the details at a later time.  Let me start right after your attack."  Taking another 
sip, she begins.

"When you stopped time, you allowed Sailor Neptune and Uranus to escape their 
otherwise certain deaths in the helicopter.  They used this to the best of their advantage, 
and managed to make it into the compound.  However, before they could manage to kill 
me, Sailor Moon also managed to make it in, and stopped them.  In the following 
struggle, she managed to not only defeat Pharaoh 90, but also save me, and convince the 
Outer Scouts that she was indeed the Princess."

"Well done," I murmur to myself.  I can remember having worries about that.  I really 
had no idea how I was going to convince Haruka and Michiru to follow Usagi back then.  
The only thing those two respected was strength.  Truth be told, they were kind of 
arrogant, refusing to believe that there was any other path but that of sacrifice.  Tragic 
hero complex, or something like that.  I wonder how they've changed since then?

"After that their was a brief respite, followed by another evil Intelligence, followed by 
another time of peace, followed by another Intelligence, and so forth.  The other Scouts 
carried on as best they could, but eventually it became a bit much for them.  I joined in 
two, after I had been restored by our Princess, but it was too much for us.  When things 
looked the worst, that was when she showed up."

"She?" I ask in a whisper.  

"Ranko," Hotaru replies.  "She was very different back then.  But then, I suppose we all 
were," she adds, almost to herself.  Shaking her head, she continues.  "She was much 
more brash and arrogant, as well as harsh and insulting.  She would appear out of 
nowhere, wearing a civilian clothes and bearing your Garnet Orb and the Key.  She 
would then proceed to utterly decimate our enemies.  At first, all the Scouts were 
suspicious, especially since she would just brush off our questions about who she was 
and what she was doing with your weapon.  She'd just disappear or say something rude 
and disappear.  After a bit though, when our foes started to get stronger, she would stay, 
help, and train us.  With her aid we all became much stronger."

"You said, 'wearing civilian clothes'.  What do you mean by that?" I ask.

"I mean she'd just show up wearing whatever.  She could transform.  She had to do it 
occasionally, against the really strong adversaries, but it was like she disliked being a 
Scout."

"Transform?  In what fashion?  And what do you mean 'dislike being a Scout'?"

"She would have a transformation sequence, and would end up in a Scout uniform, very 
much like your own.  And as for her distaste with being a Scout," and here Hotaru begins 
to smile slightly, "I mean she would always act nervous and embarrassed.  Personally," 
she adds, leaning forward in a conspiring fashion, "I think it had something to do with the 
uniform.  After one battle, Haruka made a comment about the color of her panties, and 
Ranko blushed as red as her hair, before calling Haruka a tomboy."  Hotaru gives up any 
pretense of dignity then, and giggles aloud at the memory.

I, myself, am having a little trouble with all of this.  Loud?  Brash?  Rude?  Overly 
modest?  It was almost like Hotaru is talking about a different Ranko.  I remain quiet, and 
after a moment Hotaru regains control of herself and continues.

"Finally, after many terrible battles, Usagi managed to defeat the final adversary, and 
proceeded to found Crystal Tokyo, and bring peace to the system.  After that happened, 
Ranko kind of just disappeared.  In the next thirty or forty years the world expanded and 
grew, and soon the Moon, Mars, and Venus were all up for colonization."  Hotaru stops 
to sip at her tea for a bit more.  "Sixty years after that, plans were already being drawn up 
for colonization of more of the system.  And a little after that, they were set into action.  
The Scouts all split up, each returning to the planets that they had been born to rule so 
many years ago."

While Hotaru was speaking, I had started to study here, and at this point a sudden flash of 
inspiration strikes me.  "That would be about the time that you left the Court of the Moon 
as well, wouldn't it?  About the time it was discovered that any life on Saturn is an 
impossibility, true?"

Hotaru looked at the table for a second, before answering.  "Yes.  In such times of peace, 
having a Scout for destruction seemed very inappropriate.  I grew ill of the constant fear, 
and left the Court in self imposed exile.  That was the next time I ran into Ranko."  
Hotaru stops her narration and looks up, pinning me with a look that would have done the 
old me proud.  I return it calmly.  "What I am about to say to you is in no way to be 
repeated to anyone.  The only reason that I tell you, is so to help you understand why 
Ranko has done what she did to you."

I nod my acquiescence.  

"It was quite by accident that I stumbled upon Ranko.  I had been wandering the city, 
enjoying the peace, when I stumbled across a cemetery.  I don't even remember the 
reason  I entered, but when I did, I stumbled across a woman mourning at a grave."  
Hotaru nods when I draw in a startled breath.  "I offered my comfort to the grieving 
Ranko, and led the weeping woman back to her house for rest.  After a nights rest, Ranko 
conferred in me about what had happened."

"More coffee, ladies?" a voice asks, and the me and Hotaru start a bit.  The young waiter 
looks apologetic at having started us, and quickly got us our refills before scurrying off.  

"So," I begin, trying to regain the ruined mood.  "Who was the departed?"

"You must understand, that even in her grief, Ranko was very tight lipped on the subject.  
Very much like yourself, back then."  I allow that to pass unchallenged.  I'm far to mature 
to rise to such obvious bait.  The moment Hotaru's eyes are averted, though, I pour some 
complementary hot sauce into her tea.  "What I could gather, though, was that Ranko had 
very little option in becoming a Scout, and that she had been forced into it.  I believe, that 
being forced to such a position had in some way alienated the woman that she herself had 
been in love with.  And with the magic of the Scouts keeping Ranko young, the woman 
that Ranko had loved had grown old, withered, and eventually died."

"I see," I murmur.  Hotaru nods as well, and takes a sip of her tea.  After she swallows, 
her face scrunches up into a cute little face, and she sticks out her tongue.  She gives her 
cup a glare, and then gives me and the open bottle of hot sauce near me a suspicious look.

I keep my face totally calm.  Right about now, though, I begin to re-notice something 
about Hotaru.  Maybe it was the stress of the situation finally relaxing, but I had forgotten 
just how devastatingly beautiful Hotaru really is.  I feel a little pang.  I may have the 
memory of thousands of years, but my physical body hasn't truly physically matured yet, 
so I still look like an eighteen year old.  Damn it, if this is the level of competition going 
for Ranko entails, I might be better off staying with Ranma.  If I could just find him, that 
is.

After she carefully pushes the tainted tea to the side, Hotaru continues.  "After that, 
Ranko and myself became something of friends.  Partners in solitude, if you will.  After 
several hundred years of such, she chose to confide in me as to what her situation truly 
is."

"And what might that be?" I ask, as she pauses dramatically again.

"Her situation?  It's you, Setsuna Meioh.  You're what her situation is," Hotaru answers, 
looking me in my eyes.

To be concluded in the next chapter.