Sailor Pluto stayed in the gates of time for hours, however when she went back to the real world it was only shortly after she had left it. Sailor’s Moon, Neptune and Uranus were facing off against Opposite Neptune and Uranus. They hadn’t yet gotten to fighting and were just talking, well actually yelling insults at each other. Opposite Uranus was looking slightly crazed as Sailor Uranus taunted him, Sailor Pluto noticed dimly. The Neptune’s and Sailor Moon were watching each other warily but all turned their attention to Pluto when she appeared.

Sailor Moon cried out in relief and ran forward obviously intending to hug Pluto but stopped seeing the look in her eyes. “Setsuna-san?” She whispered softly. None of them moved to stop the two Opposite Senshi as they turned and ran off, frozen by the icy bleak look in The Soldier of Time’s eyes.

“We need to kill Opposite Pluto.” Sailor Pluto whispered. “He is the one who changed the memories of the other Knights. His own hate warped him into an evil being so he made the others evil.”

“Demo, you knew him before how could— ” Sailor Moon started but was cut off by Pluto.

“He was my twin brother.” She hesitated, unfathomable pain entering her eyes before they hardened again. “He isn’t any more.”

Sailor Moon opened her mouth to protest but Uranus cut her off. “Leave off, Neko-chan, call the other Senshi and we will split up to look for Opposite Pluto.” Sailor Moon still hesitated and Uranus said sharply. “He can’t be healed Sailor Moon. He is evil of his own choice not because of mind control! If you aren’t strong enough than go home and let us handle it.” With that the three Outer Senshi walked away from the helpless Moon Princess.

It was almost dawn when Neptune suddenly saw something on her aqua mirror. She glanced at her partner who nodded, and the two moved away from Pluto to search a side street. As the first rays of the sun lanced between the buildings they came upon the black clad Opposite Senshi slumped against a building in an alley. He knew what they were they for and got to his feet silently.

“We will not go easy on you.” The gentle Neptune said.

“I don’t expect you to, and with my dying breath I will strike at what you left unprotected…” He murmured, a maniacal gleam in his dark eyes.

“We’ll see about that,” Sailor Uranus grinned as she lifted her Space Sword into the air. “I don’t intend to let you live long enough for that! Cutting!” A sunbeam lanced into the alley, sending rainbows bouncing off the jeweled sword. “Edge!” She held her pose for a second then abruptly turned the blade so the edge faced Opposite Pluto, a thin line of deadly light. “Word blast!” She yelled out, shoving the sword down and into the ground. Everything was still for a split second the then ground splintered, bright yellow beams of light erupting under Opposite Pluto while he screamed in pain. As he slumped to the ground Neptune was already shouting out her attack.

“Deep!” Neptune yelled out as she held her mirror face down, parallel to the ground. Again nothing seemed to happen and then the ground turned darker and water started to spray up, collecting in her mirror. “Water reflection!” she started to spin in circles, faster and faster, lifting into the air as she collected all the water while bringing the mirror up to face outwards. Her spin stopped abruptly as she faced Pluto and light and water shot outwards the strike him back down, barely conscious.

Grimly, Uranus moved in to make the killing blow, but a voice cut her off. “Stop!” Sailor Pluto ran into the alley, throwing herself protectively over her brother. “I can’t let him die! I know I should but I can’t!” she screamed, tossing her hair back defiantly. Three startled faces stared at her as she turned her attention to her brother. “How long were you in the coma brother…?” She asked softly, lifting some of her weight off his bruised body.

He scowled at that. “A week, you couldn’t take a week out of your time…”

She shook her head as tears slowly slipped down her cheeks. “I spent three months by your bedside, barely eating or sleeping.” She whispered.

He looked stunned then his scowl returned. “I saw the time piece, it was the seventh day of the month. The coma began on the first.”

“Three months before!” She persisted. “I needed to leave you to protect you though, you woke up on the day I left. If the negaverse killed you what was the sense in staying by your bedside?”

Slowly his eyes cleared as what she was saying sunk through. “Please if you do not believe me ask Sailor Mercury, she was by your side with me most of the time you were unconscious and even if she doesn’t remember that life the data would still be on her computer.” She finished in a rush, staring down at him entreatingly.

He thought about it, knowing the information on the computer from Mercury could not be anything but fact and nodded briskly. “Bring it to me.” He said shortly.

Pluto breathed a sigh of relief and looked over her shoulder only to see Neptune speaking quietly into her communicator. “She’s coming… Soon you’ll know the truth my brother… Soon.”

It didn’t take long for the Inner Senshi to rush onto the scene, Moon drawing up short with a gasp of surprise and Opposite Pluto’s battered state.

“Here,” Mercury, ever efficient, handed her small blue computer to Opposite Pluto before anyone else could say anything.

The small alley was silent as the sun slowly crept higher in the sky, punctuated only by the soft beeps of the computer as Opposite Pluto searched for the millennium old information, and what he eventually found caused him to gasp in shock. “It’s true.” He murmured. “It was three months, and you did stay with me.” Slowly he lifted his gaze to Sailor Pluto, the computer falling from his nerveless fingers to disappear into a swirl of bubbles before it hit the ground.

Slowly more sunbeams lanced into the alley, covering the black form in a pure white light. The light faded quickly, turning into normal sunlight to reveal the healed form of Pluto Knight. He still wore all black, but his armor was defiantly in the style of the other knights, and the royal crest of Pluto shone a pure gold on his breastplate. He no longer wore a bandits scarf, instead a medieval knights helmet with a visor covering his face

“Midnight!” Sailor Pluto cried happily, embracing her brother as her tears turned to ones of joy.

Just as the two Soldiers of Pluto started to get up, Silence barreled into the alley, followed at a distance by the other knights and Hotaru. “Midnight!” He echoed the same cry as Setsuna had, and she stepped back so the two friends could hug.

The next few minutes were spent on useless chatter as everyone detransformed before Midnight turned serious. “My spell on the other Outer Knights will not wear off unless they are cured or I die.” He said simply.

Silence’s face fell as Haruka hissed out a curse. “Shimatta!”

“It gets worse.” He said glumly. “I don’t know how it will warp without my hate feeding it anymore. They could easily go crazy if they aren’t cured. I’d say the most they have is a week at best, probally not even that.”

End of chapter seventeen.

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