-1Title: Without a Home

Date Completed: August 24, 2006

“Pluto Not a Planet!” the headlines screamed. Everywhere she went, Setsuna saw the horrible proof of the humans stupidity. How could they say her home wasn’t an official planet? Now, it was demoted to “dwarf” status. Anything beyond Neptune, they said, couldn’t be considered a planet; too small for real consideration.

Rage boiled beneath Setsuna’s calm exterior as she saw the black-and-white print in the news boxes demolishing her very heritage. Did these people forget so easily that Queen Serenity herself had introduced Pluto as one of the nine planets? But these people didn’t even remember Serenity, or the glorious kingdom she had created. It steamed Setsuna to know that these heretics had won the battle for her planet that she hadn’t been aware was being fought. Did they keep their debate secret purposely, so that the ruler of said planet couldn’t contest their silly fight?

The Time Gate was to be her only home, perhaps, but not her true one. Never had one of man’s spacecraft touched down on her home soil, preserving it for centuries. Perhaps that was the problem of Man: they hadn’t been able to desecrate Pluto’s surface, since it was so far from their home, that they didn’t consider it worthy enough to be named “planet.”

Setsuna felt like bashing the International Astronomical Union over the head with her Time Staff, but that wouldn’t solve anything. “Setsuna!”

The call was one of hope, and the woman turned to see the golden hair of her future queen streaming for what seemed miles behind her as the younger girl ran up. “Usagi,” she said softly, smiling indulgently. “It’s good to see you.” Although a little too cheerful and naïve, somehow Usagi was sometimes a balm to an aching soul.

“Setsuna…” Now, the girl’s voice was hesitant. “What they’re doing is stupid! Shall I march right into their meeting and demand that you be given back the right you deserve? They’ll listen to me; they must!”

Oh. So, Usagi had seen the headlines. Setsuna had hoped, somehow, to keep it from the other Senshi until she figured out what to do. Of what use was a planetary guardian without a planet? “Usagi, no, that’s not necessary. These people… They just don’t understand, I think. Besides, you’re only a figure of myth now; Sailor Moon isn’t really drawing a lot of respect from the mature generation. It’s going to be a while before you’re queen, remember?”

Determination stiffened the youthful lines of Usagi’s face. “When I am queen, then I’ll reinstate your status, if they don’t realize their mistake by then. It will be my very first act as ruler of this backwards planet.”

A chuckle worked its way from Setsuna’s throat. “Don’t forget, you’re insulting the planet of your lover.”

“Pah! So what? Mamo-chan understand that sometimes his people are a little stupid.” There was a mischievous glint in the girl’s eye that drew a smile to Setsuna’s face. Her friends understood; they would stand by her no matter what.

Usagi was dressed beautifully, in a sparkly dress that was slit up to her thigh, almost indecent for her age, but it worked with the medium-sized black heels she teetered on. Her hair was in her traditional style, something that Setsuna noticed with a small amount of spite. If Usagi’s tradition from the Silver Millennium days was allowed to exist, why then was the fact of Pluto’s status being contested?

Taking a deep breath, Setsuna smiled at the girl. “Thanks for all your concern, Usagi, but I should really be going.” The younger girl nodded quickly, offering her condolences and extending a hand of friendship if ever it was needed, before taking off down a side street on her way to meet Mamoru. A party for his colleagues, she mentioned over her shoulder as she fled.

Setsuna had no real destination in mind, she wasn’t late for anything, but she didn’t feel that she had the strength to listen to the grief counseling that Usagi believed she was an expert at. The ruler of the Moon believed that she could help her guardians through anything with her spunky attitude, but the truth was, sometimes Setsuna found her just too cloyingly sweet.

Wandering the streets of Tokyo, Setsuna couldn’t help wondering what was to become of her. As a Senshi without a planet, she didn’t have an identity. Without the identity that she had clung to for so long, Setsuna didn’t feel that she truly belonged anywhere. She had read all of the news stories that had linked in some way to Pluto’s demotion, from the proposal to introduce new planets and up the number to 12, to the insensitive quote “Pluto is dead” found in one of the many articles she had perused. Who had the right to say such a thing? She, and her home, were vibrantly alive!

Anger, the kind she had never felt before, coursed through her veins as she walked hurriedly down the congested streets of midday Tokyo. Even when she had been fighting a youma that had threatened her loved ones, she hadn’t felt this sort of anger. Who were these people, that they thought they could dictate if her home was a planet or not? Calling themselves by the glorified name of “International Astronomical Union” -- why did humans always think that they were better than anyone or anything else, even the unknown?

Pausing at the edge of a river, not sure how she had arrived in her aimless quest, Setsuna stared down at the murky depths. It was unusual to find a river where you could walk right down to the water, perch yourself on the bank, and contemplate. Most often, they were bridged by concrete and steel, walled off by wire and wood. The water wasn’t even clean, Setsuna noticed, but it was there. Totally at peace with its surroundings, no one tried to tell this river it wasn’t a river. They would divert it, dam it, perhaps try to bury it and ignore its existence, but no one ever said it wasn’t a river.

The people of Earth had never touched Pluto, never seen the beauty -- their satellite photos couldn’t even reach to the heart of that dear planet. And because they couldn’t affect it in any way because of its distance, they wanted to say it didn’t matter because they didn’t consider it a planet. None of the other Senshi would have this problem; their planets had been thoroughly explored by the stainless steel of Man’s machines. That, more than anything, gave them their planetary status. The changing hand of Man, his desecration of what was sacred: wasn’t that what made the other planets so important to him? Just because he had never gotten to Pluto’s surface, it meant for him that there was no worthy cause for time.

After years of looking foolish because of his inability to affect Pluto, man had finally found the perfect way to save face. Just say that Pluto didn’t exist; that it was dead and worthy of no further contemplation.

Setsuna couldn’t even express her anger in words, it was so potent. The high-handed International Astronomical Union only wanted to preserve its good standing; it didn’t care about Pluto’s future. She felt like transforming into her alter ego, storming into their headquarters, and demanding that they look into the face of Pluto’s monarch and then dare to tell her that Pluto wasn’t a planet. And if they weren’t quick enough about it, she would Dead Scream their asses all the way to Pluto’s surface.

If there was no other option, she could wait until the advent of Crystal Tokyo, when the queen would reinstate Pluto’s status. It wouldn’t be so long, for a woman who had lived as long as she. And, if nothing else, Setsuna knew the truth in her heart, just the way the others did.