A long despairing sigh drifted off into black emptiness.
"Protect the timestream," a voice muttered irritably. "Guard the princess. Guide the Senshi." Sailor Pluto, Senshi of Time and guardian of the timegates had long since moved past mere boredom into a state of deep ennui. Though there was little enough to do now, her time had been quite active just after the fall of the Moon Kingdom.
Oh, yes, she had resisted, at first... after all, her orders were to prevent manipulation of the timestream, not to engage in such practices herself. The boredom grew quickly, however, and since she was unable to simply remove herself from the timestream for the necessary period, as she had to watch for manipulation attempts by the numerous enemies of the Moon Kingdom, she was unable to escape it.
Until, that is, she had realized that she was quite capable of observing the possible futures while keeping an eye on the timestream. For a short while it had seemed almost like an entertainment program put on for her amusement. The terrible stress of the fall of the Moon Kingdom had ravaged her emotions and she had walled them off, hiding from the intense pain. With her darker, more painful emotions walled away, she was able to enjoy the lighter side, the humor of what she observed.
After a time though she began to once again empathize with those she was watching, particularly after spending some time observing herself. Oh, to be certain, she was well aware of the terrible hazards in knowing one's own future, but her boredom won that argument in short order. It only took a decade before she succumbed to the temptation to watch herself. Her emotional walls didn't last long after seeing her death in so many interesting ways.
With her defenses down, she began searching the future with a more deliberate intent, focusing on her friends and herself, for the future that held the promise of a long peace without the soul deadening loneliness she felt.
It was not long before she found Crystal Tokyo and she spent several hundred years tweaking, making subtle alterations to the world until the future line of Crystal Tokyo strengthened to the point that it took effort to even see anything other than its glittering spires in the timestream.
Boredom soon caught up with her again, as her attention was no longer needed to ensure the rise of Crystal Tokyo. She only needed the slightest attention on the timestream to detect a threat to that near certain future. She had been cautious and had deliberately avoided depending on her own abilities to reach that goal. Instead, she had designed things such that the stunningly wide array of possible futures remained, but the largest percentage of them by a wide margin led to that future, with but minor variations.
Of course, it did involve the destruction of most of the earth's population during a catastrophic freeze but that was merely a natural ice age with a corresponding rise in sea level. She didn't even have to do anything to make it happen; she merely had to ensure the survival of an appropriate proportion of the population.
That resilience had an unfortunate side-effect; her own growing ennui. Without the need for her constant monitoring and tweaking she had grown steadily more bored.
She had whiled away a few centuries by playing with events in different portions of the world to see how strange a series of events she could cause to happen without affecting the final outcome of the timestream. She had rationalized it as exercising her powers to keep in practice for when her princess reawakened.
For a while she focused on the lives of individuals, taking ordinary people and giving them extraordinary lives. That ended when her last effort, an assassin in feudal Japan, who had possessed a remarkable string of successes, gave up the katana. She had so enjoyed helping him that his incredible depression after the war finally ended hurt her deeply.
For years after she resisted the urge to meddle, but inevitably the boredom overcame her once again. She had then taken up future watching again, observing her princess and the Senshi in Crystal Tokyo in the different possible futures.
This closer look had led to a disturbing revelation. While none of them were truly lonely; they all had each other, after all; very few of the Senshi ever found someone to love, someone to live out their lives with.
As she looked on the relationship Haruka and Michiru had, she felt anew the deep pain of her loneliness. Watching as the Inner Senshi had occasional romances and the intermittent marriage with short-lived humans also brought that pang of loneliness. Even the short relationships they had were more than she and Hotaru, Sailor Saturn, had.
Their reputations were simply too strong; they were never able to find someone who would even try to see beyond their titles.
Briefly Setsuna considered the possiblity of a relationship with Hotaru, akin to what was shared between Haruka and Michiru, but when she explored the possibility in the timeline, she was horrified at the result. They had both had too much darkness in their lives, and though their shared pain created a strong bond, they drew each other down rather than lifting each other up.
"I wish I knew how Haruka and Michiru do it," she sighed. Thinking on that a bit further, she wondered. They were going to become close to a family unit as it was, though it would be some time before Hotaru became capable of that level of participation...
Ignoring the more unsettling implications in favor of the knowledge that in lives of thousands of years, a few years difference could hardly be a long term difficulty, Setsuna explored the possibility. Once again she was disturbed at the result.
They seemed polarized... it never really became more than two-way; though all six relationships progressed, it seemed to cycle; with Haruka's jealousy and Michiru's strong love of Haruka leaving Setsuna and Hotaru to drag each other down until Haruka and Michiru's guilt grew enough to let the two darker girls back into their circle. Angst and depression remained a disturbing constant.
For a time Setsuna despaired, until a thought finally occurred to her. Both she and Hotaru were basically unavailable before the founding of Crystal Tokyo. She would be too busy dealing with threats and watching the timeline, and Hotaru would be too young; neither would have time to search for a lifemate.
Yet, that time was one which held true hope for them both, for it was then that the possibility existed to find someone who would be able to see beyond their titles, for it was then that they had true civilian identities.
Setsuna was immediately cheered by the realization that searching for that potential lifemate now could solve both the problem of her and Hotaru's future happiness and even more importantly, her current ennui.
With an intense feeling of relief, Setsuna settled in to browse the timeline. "Focus on Juuban first," she muttered to herself. Even once she found the perfect target, she and Hotaru would still be limited in their ability to spend time outside of Senshi business, so it would be best if travel was not an issue.
Setsuna had been browsing the timeline, rolling it back and forth over a particular region in time, as she slowly expanded her search, when she came across a curious phenomenon. She was, of course, stopping regularly to observe a given time before moving on. Still, while the timeline was in motion, she was generally moving at a rate greater than a day or a week at a time. At such a rate, buildings were visible but people were little more than a blur.
It came as a surprise, therefore, when while scanning the timeline in the region of the Nerima prefecture, she saw a young man, clearly visible though seemingly transparent, with a brooding look of loneliness and despair that caught her attention. She stopped the scan of the timeline and the boy vanished. She moved more slowly through it and he reappeared on the roof as night fell. She stared at him in slight wonder. Why had he appeared even while the timeline was in such extreme motion?
Though his look of loneliness called to her, telling her that he knew how she felt, she ruthlessly supressed her empathy for the young man. The timegate seemed to be treating him differently and that made him a threat. She had to know why he appeared different in the timestream than a normal mortal.
So she began to watch his life more closely, advancing slowly, an hour at a time. She didn't follow his movements, leaving the view and perspective as it was.
"By the Moon," she said softly, feeling her emotional walls shatter as she finally realized why he had appeared so strangely in the view through the Timegates. It was not due to any strange fluctuation of time around him, nor some unusual power he carried.
It was simply that nearly every day for almost two years he would appear on that roof to sit and stare at the stars. Every night his look haunted her, though at times it was worse than others. It began, the first night he appeared there, with a look of loneliness and betrayal. As time passed the sense of betrayal faded quickly, replaced with a growing despair and hopelessness. By the end, his loneliness seemed to surpass even her own, as if in spite of living in a large city surrounded by people, he was even more utterly alone than she was, as if he had never known friendship, had not even the memory of better times to sustain him.
"He's cute," Setsuna said to the dark emptiness about her, "but he'll pull us down even further. Poor fellow." She thought then of the redheaded girl that showed up occasionally, taking the same spot on the roof. "He ought to get together with her," she said, thinking of the familiar look of pain on her face, then realized that they might actually be together. If their's was a situation like that of her and Hotaru, it could be that being together was holding them down.
Seeing them made her realize that she needed someone happier, someone vibrant, who could lift them both up from their depressions, ease the burden of duty they carried. "Would be nice if they could at least understand our pain, though," she mused. Setsuna had long since given up keeping her thoughts to herself. She needed the sound of her own voice to keep her sane.
She went on, putting the lonely boy from her mind as she broadened her search. She had completed her search of Tokyo and was considering where to look next, when she realized how foolish she was being. "Damnit, I'm worse than Minako's going to be," she muttered. "Just looking for a pretty face. I ought to start with finding someone who'll be able to survive the attacks in Juuban, since we have to find someone within that timeframe. Got to narrow the choices down somehow."
Checking the timeline for that particular time-period, she looked for any powerlevels that were on a par with the scouts. Starting near Tokyo, the first major match she found was atop a mountain in Japan. Watching the battle, she noted the participants as possiblities. She didn't watch long enough to see the change, nor did she recognize the redheaded girl. In motion, she seemed vibrant and full of life, and Setsuna did not connect her to the often bedraggled, always despondent star watcher.
When she came upon the battle with Saffron, she was astounded. Ranma, holding Akane in his arms, became recognizable as the boy she remembered from the rooftop in Nerima. She had just witnessed a most impressive display of skill, and power that rivaled Saturn's. Not as strong as her strongest attack, certainly, but it more than overmatched any of the Senshi's lesser attacks.
Seeing this, she dropped for the moment the other possibilities to focus on the boy. Focusing the timegate to follow him, she reset the gates to his birth and settled back to watch his life. She had time enough to watch several lifetimes worth before the Senshi awakened, though she had not intended to spend so much time on any individual. She wasn't sure she would spend that much time on this boy, either, but he had come to her attention twice now.
A smile grew slowly on her face as she watched his childhood antics. He was certainly an adorable little boy. Her smile faded quickly, as she watched his father sell the toddler, then steal him back. "How could he?" she ranted, "How could any father do such a thing to his son?!"
As she continued watching, she became spellbound by the exuberant child, delighting in his enthusiasm as his father began teaching him his art. She paled in anger when she saw Genma trick his son into placing his handprint on a seppuku contract. "What kind of father are you!?"
She watched in tears as Ranma cried himself to sleep a few nights later, and Genma, ignoring the boy's homesickness, simply hit him for keeping him awake. She marveled when after a few weeks, Ranma managed to put on a cheerful face each day and train with enthusiasm, even as he cried silent tears each night.
So it went, as Setsuna watched, unable to tear herself away, day in and day out, as Ranma grew, though he had not yet been born. With him she laughed and cried. Regularly she raged at Genma, cursing him with the vilest curses she could think of and planning vengeance on him. Whether she chose Ranma or no, she intended to visit hell on that damned excuse of a father.
Still, as she watched them head to China, she pondered on the look she remembered on his face. He looked then as if he had no friends, yet she was certain that he had viewed both Kuonji Ukyou and Hibiki Ryouga as friends.
When he fell into the spring of drowned girl in the valley of sorrow, she fell into shock. It shouldn't have surprised her so much, perhaps, knowing as she did of the Starlights. Shouldn't have, but it did.
When she watched the first meeting at the Tendo's and saw the offer of friendship extended, only to turn into insults and beatings, she understood the look of betrayal that had marred his features that first night on the roof.
When Ryouga and then Ukyou showed up to kill him, she finally understood the look of utter loneliness, of empty despair.
Then she saw him hospitalized again shortly after defeating the immortal Saffron. The family kept it from him, but they could not conceal it from her. She watched as the doctors informed the gathered Saotomes and Tendos that Ranma's heart had been badly strained by his overexertion in defending himself after falling ill from severe food poisoning; no-one having had the grace or decency to admit that he hadn't actually put up a defense against Akane's righteous wrath at his reaction to her food. That it would never be safe for him to practice the art again, a warning that they never passed on to him. Even gentle Kasumi agreed when Nabiki warned that telling him that might put him into shock and cause as much damage to his heart as overexertion would.
Nor could they keep the news from the Amazons. Xian Pu's reaction, while Ranma was still hospitalized, resulted in Akane's death. Before the authorities could respond to the murder, Ranma had been stolen, his memory of his fiancees erased by the shiatsu techniques of the Amazon elder.
Unfortunately for the Amazons, Ranma's memories of his best friend Ucchan had never really connected with the Ucchan who showed and became his fiancee, because her behavior was so completely different from what it had been. When Ukyou came after them and Xian Pu prepared to fight her, a fight that both knew the okynomiyaki chef would not win, he remembered his best friend.
Seeing his best friend from his childhood under a vicious attack, he defended his friend vigorously and though he did not kill Xian Pu, she suffered a broken leg. Kho Lon, who interfered, he slew outright. He used the Hiryuu Shoten Ha against her, a technique that she didn't even try to prevent, knowing it to be useless against one who had mastered it. Ranma knew this, of course, and did not set it up to be fueled by her ki, but by his own, and combined it with his father's Yama-sen-ken techniques. The tornado that formed was laced with vacuum ribbons and the elder survived no more than a few seconds. The strain was too much for his weakened heart, however, and he died even as the tornado did.
Seeing his impassioned defense of one he thought of as a friend, Setsuna swore she would not let it come to pass. She had watched nearly his entire life in realtime; she had spent a little over eighteen years with him, and all pretense of objectivity was long gone.
"I won't let you die," she swore through her tears. "No matter what it takes." It took several minutes before Setsuna realized how such a promise might conflict with her duty.
She wavered for a moment then firmed her resolve. She would find a way to reconcile them, she would find a way to save him that didn't involve the violation of her oaths to Serenity.
She wondered for a moment whether he would be compatible with Hotaru. She would save him regardless, even if she had to take him alone, but did she need to look further to find a lifemate for Hotaru?
"Hmm... he'll meet her at just the right age for a bit of hero-worship, and there's no question that he'll jump to defend her. He's shown that often enough." The more she considered the more reasonable it seemed. He would have grown tired of controlling, violent girls, and a gentle and vulnerable girl like Hotaru should fit well with him. She was actually, as she thought about it, more concerned about herself. "If he sees me as like Nabiki, I'll have lost before I begin..."
It didn't take her long to find the role that would lead to the right path. If she could convince him to accept his curse, he might even be able to make the four-way affair between the Outer Senshi work out. She pictured Haruka's response to the buxom redhead and smirked.
Thinking of that led her thoughts to the actual intended result of her plotting and she felt herself growing warm. She was a bit surprised. It had been more than a thousand years since she had felt true arousal without deliberate stimulation.
In all the time that she had watched him, he had never engaged in sex. Indeed, he had seemed merely nervous about it, even when Xian Pu draped herself on him. His reactions made Akane's cries of pervert seem laughable. The poor boy had never had the standard talk. In spite of the fact that nearly every parent in his time found that talk superfluous when they finally gathered the courage to give it, the one boy that had actually needed it never received it.
Her need rose suddenly as she pictured Ranma looking shy and nervous. She knew that breaking through his barriers of pride would be one of her first tasks but the mental image of a vulnerable and unsure Ranma was more than enough to give her incentive to find a way.
She vanished from the gates, appearing in her sparsely appointed apartment. Glancing about to make sure the maid was not present, she walked quickly to the door and verified that it was locked, then walked with long strides to the bedroom.
The moment she entered the room her hands flew to her blouse. It fluttered to the floor a moment later. She cupped her breasts as she sat on the edge of the soft queen size bed. She kneaded them softly, and moaned.
In her mind's eye, she pictured Ranma-chan, lying on her bed in a plain white cotton bra and white panties, looking the picture of innocence and uncertainty. Groaning at the necessity, one hand left her breasts to unfasten the catch of her skirt, and she lifted her hips to tug it off even as her other hand slipped beneath the cup of her silk bra to rub her nipple.
She kicked her shoes off, then with hurried hands rolled her pantyhose down, wishing that for once she hadn't worn them, her nipples stiff with need, aching to be touched. She pictured Ranma-chan's look of surprise as she tweaked her nipple for the first time and a spot of dampness appeared on her panties.
She lay back on her bed, assuming the position she pictured Ranma-chan in and returned to her fantasy.
---
Ranma's brilliant blue eyes widened as Setsuna's hand cupped her breast, but her eyes remained fixed on Setsuna's firm breasts as they shifted with her motions, hanging freely beneath her. Setsuna rubbed Ranma's breasts through the soft cotton, then stroked the underside with her fingernails. Ranma felt her nipples harden against the cotton and she felt a sudden dampness between her legs. Setsuna deftly unfastened the catch to her bra, and drew the cups aside, revealing Ranma's creamy flesh and dusky nipples. Ranma gasped in surprise when two long fingers took her nipple and rolled it firmly, sending unexpected shocks of sensation deep within her.
---
Setsuna sighed softly as her fingers rolled her stiff nipples, sending delicious waves of excitement through her, her bra lying discarded to the side. One hand moved down to rub her tummy in firm circles, while the other hand rose to her mouth, where she moistened her fingers, as in her fantasy her mouth descended to the dusky rise of Ranma's right nipple.
---
Ranma stiffened with uncertainty as Setsuna shifted lower, and Setsuna placed a calming hand on her firm tummy and rubbed her. Setsuna caught Ranma's sapphire eyes with her own crimson orbs, holding her gaze even as she lowered her head and captured Ranma's nipple in her lips. She licked it, flicked it with her tongue, then put her lips against it and sucked it in. Ranma groaned as a warmth swelled in her belly.
"Oh, Setsuna-chan," she moaned. She arched her back slightly, pushing her breast toward Setsuna, and groaned in pleasure when Setsuna responded with a deep pull.
Setsuna's hand moved lower, brushing the soft red curls at the top of Ranma's mound, and Ranma sighed deeply, then cried out in surprise at the intense sensation that rushed through her as Setsuna's finger brushed the top of Ranma's folds.
Her panties were quickly tugged off, and she spread her legs slightly as Setsuna's fingers brushed lightly across her inner thigh, passing teasingly close to her lips. Setsuna continued her teasing, switching from fingertips, creating a pleasant friction, to fingernails, grazing the skin lightly.
Ranma's breath quickened and shortened, and she panted Setsuna's name. Setsuna licked her fingers and ran one finger down Ranma's outer folds. Ranma's breath caught, and she gasped when Setsuna's finger ran back up the other fold. She moaned, then when Setsuna grazed her fingers across her skin just above her soft red curls, she writhed, the tickling sensation adding to her growing heat.
"Please," she begged, "please..." She didn't know what to ask for, didn't know what she wanted, she just knew that she needed something, needed Setsuna to stop teasing her or she'd go mad.
Setsuna smiled, and spread the smaller girl's folds apart, revealing the swollen inner lips, moist and red, a single glimmering pearl of moisture beaded at the virgin opening. She ran one finger around the inner lips, teasing the opening but not penetrating, and Ranma gasped and sobbed, writhing with a pleasure beyond her expectations.
Setsuna's look turned hungry and lustful as she watched Ranma's hood lift as the small hard center of her pleasure made its appearance. Dipping a finger in Ranma's moisture, she circled the sensitive bud, and Ranma cried out, tears leaking from her eyes as she sobbed in pleasure.
Setsuna dipped her head lower and blew softly across the moistened nub, chilling it. Ranma's hips bucked and, grinning at the opportunity, Setsuna blew again. As Ranma's hips bucked in response, Setsuna slipped her hands beneath her lover, grasping her taut cheeks, kneading them firmly.
She lowered her head still further, taking a deep sniff of Ranma's essence, and feeling her own petals moisten in response to her musky odor.
"Playtime's over," Setsuna said conversationally, grinning at Ranma's cry of surprise. She extended her tongue and gave Ranma's clitoris a hard lick. She was surprised when Ranma's body immediately began to quiver and Ranma screeched. "So quickly?" Setsuna neither let go nor backed off. She slid her tongue over Ranma's clitoris, slipping the nimble tip of her tongue beneath Ranma's sheath, then swirling the tip rapidly around Ranma's erect center. When she felt Ranma begin to subside, she nipped her clitoris lightly, and Ranma screeched again.
Her orgasm was far stronger this time, and she thrashed. Setsuna had a hard time holding on to her but she didn't let up. She clamped her mouth on Ranma's hot hole and licked up the hot, tangy fluid that leaked from her as she convulsed.
---
Setsuna finally slowed, her breathing settling down from its rapid height as she raised her hand from her dripping petals to smell her juices. Still picturing Ranma in her mind, she put her fingers to her mouth, and tasted, then sucked her fingers, wondering what Ranma would taste like.
She slept deeply that night, more restfully than she had since the fall of the Moon Kingdom, and she dreamed of a strong, cute dark-haired boy with a pigtail and a ready smile, a delicate, vulnerable redhead, and matching pairs of deep blue eyes.