1471/The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence
Date of Scene:	23 April 2024
Location:	Outer Castles
Synopsis:	Thrown into memories of the distant past by Queen Beryl, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto witness something no-one should ever have seen. In the halls of Titan Castle, they see Sailor Saturn awaken to end all things so that they may be born anew. The see her awaken and they give her hugs.
Cast of Characters:	Michiru Kaiou, Haruka Tenoh, Setsuna Meiou, Hotaru Tomoe
Tinyplot:	Operation: Past

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Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    They call it the gift of prophecy, but as any oracle will tell you, it is very rarely a gift. Neptune dove in to the portal seeking Uranus, but when she arrived in the strange dream space of Beryl's spell, she was flooded with so many visions that she was overwhelmed. Visons of battles. Of defeats and deaths. So many lives lost on the altar of Beryl's ambitions and Metallia's endless hunger. Flashes and vignettes filled her mind, making so little sense, until there was silence. She had seen it all. All at once. All too fast to remember anything.
    She groggily opened her eyes, got up to her feet, and stumbled off to try and find somebody, anybody she recognized, anyone who looked real and not like a memory. Anybody that could help her find Uranus and help them get out of here.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus - still in henshin - was stuck trying to stay near both of her most important people. No, not Serenity and Endymion (though they were up there) but Setsuna and Michiru - or Pluto and Neptune, as they were now. Neptune's overflooding with visions and Pluto's reliving of trauma (with being alone for a very long time after as part of it) pulled her in two opposite directions, but in the end she had to part ways with one of them, and once she was sure that some of the other girls would keep an eye on Pluto (and thus provide an anchor for her to be able to tell the difference between her memory and this vision) she took to walking through the emptier parts of the phantasmal warzone with Neptune.

    Which is why after Neptune groggily comes back to awareness, a gloved hand lands heavy on her shoulder. "Hey. Siren. You with me yet?" she asks, stepping around the shorter girl. "Looks like your eyes are focusing on things again at least."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
For her part, Sailor Pluto has had a rather less headachey but in other ways more eventful 'trip'.

With a subdimension that seems almost purpose designed to split up groups and reassemble them randomly, she's run into her fellow abductees a bit more than poor Neptune has...though thankfully without the case of mental overload the Seer got in exchange.

Instead, she's been subjected to such lovely events as being covered in Dark Energy goo and being hit with rocks by civilians infected with madness, fear, and hate.

Which, oddly enough, actually IMPROVED her mental state a little. Mainly because it was something she hadn't personally watched or experienced the first time around...so having it happen to her directly was enough of a difference to help her get herself a little more together.

The moments after seeing the Silver Milennium in flames shook her...and she is eternally glad that her closest people recognized that and helped her them.

Thus, she has been searching through the echoes, looking for Uranus and Neptune...though she HAS been paying attention and taking care of other things along the way...

So when another portal opens, she takes it...and it deposits her...somewhere.

She's not sure just yet...but as she looks around to get her bearings, she absently strikes the ground beneath her with the Garnet Rod...causing it to ring out a fairly distinctive chime...

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune startles at Uranus' touch on her shoulder, but only for a moment. It's a familiar hand, a familiar feeling, and then a familiar voice. She turns and throws herself and Uranus, wrapping her arms around her and squeezing tightly. She doesn't have any words, just quiet sobs into Uranus' fuku, still not recovered from the emotional impact of everything she'd seen so close on the heels of seeing her love abused by Beryl.
    "Did you hear that?" She says as she lets go and steps back just an inch. She looks around. "That sounded like the Garnet Rod, didn't it?" Pointing in the direction she thinks it came from. "I think she must be that way," she says, grabbing hold of Uranus' hand and starting off the way she indicated. It's like she wasn't just a sobbing mess a moment ago.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus just holds Neptune tightly, her gloves grippiong the other girl tightly. Now, for once, is not the time for smart comments or ego. Not here. Not in this reminder of another life, in this phantasmal world.

    The blonde perks her head up too when she hears that extremely distinct sound. The way it is carried on the wind. The way it reminds her of someone, there might be many rods that can be smacked on surfaces true, but none of them sound quite like... And Neptune says it, and that makes it a hundred percent.

    "C'mon, let's go link up with our family member. Better to face all of this as together as we can." Uranus says, moving swiftly in the direction but not letting go of Neptune's hand. Not even for a moment.

    Her free hand is available to wave to Pluto when they come into view, though.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto scowls as she looks around, trying to figure exactly where she is at the moment. It's a fairly wide hallway...another tap of the floor (and resultant chime) indicates some kind of hard flooring material. Probably over metal, going by what she can see of the walls...but beyond that...it could be any generic corridor in one of the hundreds if not thousands of installations around the Silver Millenium.

As she thinks, the Senshi of Time leans on her staff a little as she goes over the MANY possibilities...

Generally, only places of import get recreated in this kind of echo...so SOMETHING important must have happened here...but WHAT and WHEN are a bit more iffy.

She straightens up and sighs, about to call this location a bust...when she hears the click of high heels somewhere behind her.

Turning, Pluto looks into the gloom behind her...until she sees a pair of silhouettes...DISTINCTIVE silhouettes.

It doesn't matter the time or place or even if no light is visible...those outlines are as known to her as the people that possess them...

People she had been looking for.

And so Sailor Pluto immediately turns to run towards the other two Senshi, calling out to them and enfolding them both into a group hug as soon as she's close enough, "NEPTUNE! URANUS!! Oh, thank Heavens you're both okay."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    It's a long corridor and then a turn before those silhouettes show up in the mist, but it works both ways. As soon as Neptune sees that tall, slender, and utterly unmistakable outline, she starts to run. In her heels. "PLUTO!"
    
    They may end up in a group hug in the end, but Neptune throws her arms around Pluto for a hug all her own first. She's greedy that way. Squeezing tightly. Then she relaxes into the pair of them until the group hug's done. "As okay as we can be, stuck in these echoes," she grumbles.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Uranus squeezes the two of them together, tightly, and her smile isn't one of joy but of a sort of relief. "Okay. Whatever happens you two are okay. This place is designed to get us down. But together, I don't think we're gonna let it." Uranus remarks. Then she looks around. "Where are we?" She asks, looking. "The place is familiar but it's also... not. Which basically sums up how I feel about this whole stupid adventure, but."

    She doesn't let go of either woman. She just looks around with her head. "Anybody wanna maybe answer me? Where are we?!" she yells, loud enough it echoes down the hall.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto just relaxes into the group hug, drawing strength and hope from the closeness of her partners.

While she's been trying to be more of a mentor to the Inners and she regards Moon as her moral compass...Uranus and Neptune are two she shares an especial bond with...and with whom she feels comfortable.

Still, while she certainly wants to just hug the other two for much longer...the situation is still not the best and Uranus asked a very pertinent question.

Shifting over so that while she's no longer hugging the other two, she's still close, Pluto looks around, "Well, this kind of construction was used ALL OVER during the Silver Millenium."

A hand is waved to indicate the surrounding corridor, "Various installations and castles all were built this way...and there were a LOT of them...BUT..."

She sighs, "...the way these echoes work is that the things that get echoed were generally times and places of some import. In most cases, they were places where something significant happened."

A hand is wiped over her face before Pluto absently pinches the bridge of her nose, "...like when we first arrived...Mars defending the wall just before that gate fell beneath the horde."

She looks at the other two again, "One of the first monster attacks on the Earth...other events that led to the End."

The taller woman frowns, "...if I HAD to wager a guess? This might be one of the Castles...they were the defensive strongpoints, after all..."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Having had her senses squeezed back into her by Uranus and Pluto, Neptune steps back and looks around with new eyes. Or old eyes, as it were. She recognizes the corridor. She'd walked it so many times. "We're in Triton Castle," she declares.
    It made sense, didn't it? She came thru the portal and was accosted with visions, so many visions. Of course this strange dream brought her here to her seat of power in the past. The others? Well, they must have been drawn to her.
    But if they found their way here, how were they all supposed to find their way out? She knew she had seen it. The end of everything. But here the were, still in the middle of it all. She nestles back into Uranus' side, her arm sliding about the taller girl's waist.
    "If we're stuck in the past. Maybe we can learn something useful. Pluto, do you think you could get us to Titan Castle?" She remembered that name. She remembered what was there. Maybe this was an opportunity after all.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus looked at Pluto, and then Neptune. She nodded along, listening to the two other women speak - answering her question, in a way. "Heh, that's why it's familiar to me too then. I probably wasn't a stranger to this place myself. Despite it not explicitly being mine." Uranus says, smirking a bit coyly.

    "Titan Castle?" Uranus asks, pausing. "Who's castle is that? I don't remember which planet Titan is the moon of." She admits. "I know it's -a- moon..." She looks rather helplessly at Pluto, the astronomer, and Neptune, the savant. "Sorry, I feel like I really should know that." she admits. "I know who's moon Charon is now, though!" And in a way it's honest, but it's also Haruka's way of trying to inject some levity - any levity - into the current circumstances.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Neptune declares with such certainty WHAT this location is, Pluto nods.

It DOES make sense that Neptune would be pulled here, of all places...but then the shorter woman asks about TITAN...

The taller woman blinks, then blows out a huge breath, "...Titan?"

Because there's only one thing that she can think of that would have happened at Titan that THIS echo would have caught.

And she KNOWS what they're going to see there.

But it's something that Neptune asks for...and she knows the other woman is sometimes driven, sometimes pulled, sometimes tormented by the visions her mantle allows her/grants her/forces upon her...

So the taller, older Senshi closes her eyes and pinches her chin in thought as she tries to recall EVERYTHING she'd ever heard about this kind of echo phenomenon.

As she hears the comment about Charon, however, Pluto pauses to cast a gimlet eye upon the dishwater blonde...and then she blows a brief raspberry at the other Senshi as she smiles and resumes her pondering, "...okay...with the caveat that this is somewhere between 'informed speculation' and 'wild ass guessing'...the only thing I can think of is that when the next portal comes along, if we all focus on Titan and step through together...between our connection there and our connection to each other, it might actually take us THERE."

Then she looks back over at Uranus and says in a more serious tone, "...Titan is the largest moon of *Saturn*."

And just off to the side of the corridor, the sound of a portal opening can be heard, which causes Pluto to glance over and then back, "...well...no time like the present to give it a try..."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune listens, nodding in her understanding. Squeezing Uranus tightly around her waist like an oh-so-big stuffy that is keeping her together by sheer force of proximity alone. This is stressful. She is stressed.
    "And if we don't end up there, at least we'll end up somewhere together," she adds. She hears the sound but Pluto hears it first. She looks first toward the side of the corridor the sound came from, and then back to Pluto. "Let's all hold hands," she suggests, reaching out for Pluto's hand, and taking Uranus' with her other before turning and leading them both off toward that portal, prepared to dive thru it as soon as they got to it. She was on a mission, and she was taking them with her.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    At the sound of 'the moon of Saturn' Uranus fails to supress the shiver that moves up her spine. She knows that the warrior of Saturn is both the greatest ally and the greatest threat. An emergency tool to be used only in the most desperate of situations. Something so protected that all 3 outer senshi had to be together to bring it out of slumber.

    She then looks with... suspicion at the portal. "That was almost too convinent, but I guess that's almost how this place works." she says. "...and it looks like that's where we're going anyways." she notes as Neptune grabs her hand and heads towards the portal. "I guess we should see what we've been dreading anyways. Maybe it's not so ba-" she says, cut off by the jaunt through the portal.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
It was... a castle. One made of stone, like any other. They'd arrive in a hallway. On one side of the hall were stained glass windows. The first they would recognize as Pluto, then two of Uranus and Neptune. Odd, even in stained glass form it was almost as if the pair were reaching for each other. Then... the princess and the queen. Finally, four more, the inner princesses.

Through the stained glass they could see an empty, silent moon...

On thre wall opposite were mirrors. However, they seemed eery. In that they didn't seem to reflect... anything. They were just big... black... and empty. They might not even seem like mirrors at first. What kind of mirror didn't reflect?

At the opposite end of the hall, however, was a single massive door... open. And within it, a figure slept in a massive bed.

The thing that would stick out, however, above all else? More than the wasteland and the mirrors and the bed? Was how... silent it was. Even when they made sound, it would seem to dampen out far, far faster than it should. There was no echo, despite there SHOULD be...

That and there was no dust. Though nothing had been touched or moved in... who knew how long. As if such things were afraid to exist in such a place...

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto looks at the other two, then nods and joins hands as she starts walking with them to the portal, "Remember...as you feel it catching you, try to focus on Titan."

She has NO IDEA if this will work...but at the worst, as Neptune said, they'll be TOGETHER for this.


And then transition to elsewhere...


Looking around the new location, Pluto sees herself and her companions represented in stained glass...and she can't help but take a moment to appreciate the artistry...and the way that Neptune and Uranus are also depicted...even in portrait, they call to each other.

The image of the Queen gets...a complicated look.

Pluto had spent so very, very long trying NOT to think about what was gone...but so many recent events have put the past into stark contrast...even BEFORE this echo has brought them to the fore.

And seeing how the Princess has come out has only underscored comparisons to her mother, the Queen in Pluto's mind.

Because the Queen was her sovereign once...and a part of her still held a love for the woman...but exposure to the pure soul that her daughter grew into has made it clear.

While Queen Serenity was a MASSIVELY powerful individual who seemed genuinely to care for her people...her very age and power made it not only difficult for her to realize the more subtle consequences of decisions she had to make to keep things together, but it also made it hard for many to even notice the problems WERE problems.

For who would question the God-Queen, after all?

Pluto herself has felt those consequences, after all...in the form of a geas that was so strong it very nearly forced her to abandon those she loves on a day she'd been looking forward to spending with them for SO LONG.

She will be forever grateful to her Princess for correcting THAT mistake.

Just as a small piece of herself that she keeps tightly hidden hopes that the Princess can similarly save another someday.

She then looks down the hall towards the open door, and in a quiet voice she says, "...it worked, Neptune. We're here. Titan."

She then waves an arm at the distant bed, "There she is. Locked in sleep."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune held on tight to both their hands as they traversed the portal, but then let go of them just as soon as they arrived. She took several steps forward toward the stained glass portraits and just stared, her mouth hanging open.
    They were exactly like the portrait she'd painted of Hotaru so many months ago in her penthouse suite. The style. The details. The dresses. That painting could have easily been a window right here in this set. That painting that had come to her like a vision. But that window wasn't here.
    "I saw it all. All of it. Everything in this accursed dream. All at once, and then silence," she says quietly. She turns around and locks eyes with Pluto. "We'll all see ourselves if we walk in there, and you know it."
    So she turns around, and does just that, whether they follow her or not.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus looks up at the portraits. She is particularly happy with the one of her and Neptune, but Pluto belongs with them too - both in the glass and in the past and in the present. It's a shame that... because of one of the women in those frames, she didn't get the chance she should have had.

    Seeing the smaller Serenity here, in stained glass, reminded her of when Usagi became Princess, when Haruka became guardian - that moment of extremely overwhelming feelings and past and present colliding still remains fresh in her mind.

    She breaks herself out of her mental trance by listening to Pluto and laughing. "Of course it worked. It was your idea and Neptune's desire." she says, as though the two other girls could solve anything - or at least, could with Uranus backing them up.

    "I think we need to see it, though." Uranus says, serious and firm rather than jocular now. "I think it's important we come to terms with what happened, what we did, and what we're not gonna have to do this time." she adds, and puts an arm around Pluto. "That nasty old hag thought she could trap us in our memories... but I think for the three of us, she gave us the chance to free ourselves from the ones that already were." she says to Pluto. "Let's get the keys to our mental prisons. I'll be there with you."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto closes her eyes, then lets out a deep sigh, "...we will. It's the only thing significant enough to get caught by this kind of phenomenon."

She doesn't WANT to go.

She doesn't WANT to see the event that a long ago version of her washed out of her memory with months of screaming and crying into the void.

But the distance of time and the armor of years has her in a different place now...

...and more importantly, Uranus' logic is not only sound, but compelling.

She takes one last deep breath to center herself, then opens her eyes again and nods to Uranus, then turns to follow Neptune, "Together."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
As they traversed, they'd feel it. Something happened. They likely wouldn't know what the something was. But it was something. One moment everything was fine and normal. The next...

Something.

Pluto would likely realize what it was. Time had stopped. For everywhere but this one castle, time had stopped.

And in the bed, the figure stirred. Slowly something crawled out from the bed and... it wasn't Hotaru. Sure, maybe the hair was similiar. But there was an... energy to Hotaru. An excitement. A joy. Life. Sometimes she was a downer. But this?

This wasn't her. This small girl looked... frankly... smaller than any of them. Larger than Setsuna when she had begun her role, but not much. A child in a way that even most of them weren't.

Slowly, she blankets were pulled away. With a flick of her wrist, one of the pillows disappeared.

It was Sailor Saturn. Not a girl who would become Sailor Saturn. It was Sailor Saturn.

As if she had been in henshin the whole time...

A moment later something... small appeared. It was like Saturn. But only a few inches tall. Hovering overhead. Her guardian.

"It's... my time?" Saturn asked softly. They could hear it in her tone. There was just this tiny, almost microscopic hope to her tone.

A hope things would be different. That there was a reason. That there was a cause.

... That she wasn't being called to, once again, do what must be done.

"It is your time," the little guardian said.

"Show me," Saturn said.

She got to her feet, silent as could be. And began to walk. Holding her hand out, a glaive flew from across the room into her hand... at which point she, lazily... just let it slide down to the ground... until the end touched the ground. Dragging along it, an ear piercing, slow, violent screech of metal on metal.

The only sound that didn't seem affected by that endless, unceasing silence...

And as she walked, the mirrors, so black and hollow, across the room and halls... began to reflect. Not what they saw.

But the world. Earth, burning. The moon, destroyed. The princess, dead. Her guardians, slain.

The few remaining souls, hurt, frightened, begging for mercy.

And they might realize, then and there. Saturn wasn't catching up. She was passing judgment. Passing the mirrors showing all the transpired. The only things she was allowed to see. The thing that filled the small moments of her life.

Her guardian whispered something to her, something they'd need to strain to hear. "Always in the end comes Hope and Rebirth. Do not be distraught..."

Her bedroom, aside from the bed itself... was empty. A void. Like so much else in this castle. No toys for a child. No clothing for her to frolic in. Just a bed to sleep... a glaive to wield... and a Sailor Saturn to end.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune never made it into the room. Just a few moments after she started off she felt it. She felt time stop, and then she saw the girl get up. The girl she knew was Sailor Saturn. She stood there and just watched in horror as the girl made her way out into the large corridor with them.
    Her mouth dropped open when she turned to see the images in the no-longer-black mirrors. She had seen all of this already, but it had all been too fast. Knowing they were coming didn't make the images any less impactful.
    She did strain to hear, and she was grateful she did, because as soon as she heard them she knew that was why they were here. That was what she was drawn to learn. That was what they needed to know.
    She was so much more than just an apocalypse.
    Neptune stood frozen, helpless to stop what she already knew would come next.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    The small girl - the walking apocalypse - the one who dragged that glaive behind her. Uranus was filled with so many feelings in her presence. Fear, but not of the girl, but of what she represented. Sadness, because of the failure it indicated. Grief, because of those she lost. Anger, because she hadn't been there - and that was tempered now by the knowledge from the past few days that it might not have been as simple as calling the Outer Senshi to the Moon to stop it.

    Maybe there really was nothing they could do... but what they did. But awaken the Soldier of Silence. Sailor Saturn. The Sailor Senshi of Death.

    But also the Senshi of Rebirth - as the girl herself said. As the fact that they were able to be here, in this fake history, to re-witness things they had forgotten. Because they had been reborn.

    But the words she spoke were so much less than all of that. Simple. Confused. "She's just a little girl." Uranus whispered. But in a place this quiet, even a low whisper on the wind carries far.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto is saved from having to watch herself and her companions in the past again by dint of Saturn herself waking up...and the woman stares at the younger woman...girl, really...as she wearily drags herself out of bed.

She wants to look away as she sees the girl summon perhaps the most singilarly destructive artifact she's ever known...but she forces herself not to, especially once she sees the defeated look of Saturn as she just lets the Glaive drag across the floor as her tiny hope is shattered.

As Saturn progresses out into the hall and the mirrors activate, Sailor Pluto stands there, silently watching.

Unbidden, a single tear runs down her cheek as she watches the girl. The girl whose home is devoid of laughter. Devoid of joy. Devoid of love. Devoid of LIFE in all but the most clinically technical sense.

She has known this young woman for less than a minute...

AND SHE NEVER WANTS TO MEET HER AGAIN.

At Uranus' words, she shakes her head, and in a soft, strained voice she says, "...no...she isn't...she's never been ALLOWED to..."

And in that tiny part of the back of her head where she holds secrets most dear...

...she reaffirms her resolve to make sure a certain young woman's life is filled with joy and love.

And, on a completely unrelated note, she promises herself she's going to give Hotaru an enormous hug when she finally gets home.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Indeed. In a place this quiet, even a low whisper carries far. But even the wind was silent here. Within the halls of Titan.

Except, while the words didn't carry, Saturn's head rose. She looked at them... past them. For a moment, as if she heard something. For none save her could exist here.

Perhaps it was just loneliness. The confusion. The bewilderment.... then... the sadness as she realized she truly was alone.

Foot by foot she walked through her room.

Out into the main hall.

Slowly she passed by the stained glass images of the inner planets. And on the mirrors opposite them... Their bodies could be seen. Where each had fallen.

And they could hear her muttering something as she passed each one. "For mars, the passion of her flames to light her path... For Mercury, may her desire for knowledge never fade... for Venus, her love of others to guide her hand, for Jupiter, may her courage be her strength..." A eulogy of each as she passed them. Then she stopped. Besides the stained glass image of the princess. And her hand reached out, the fingers touching the princess.

"For the queen who feared my power... and for the princess, may we never meet again..."

And they'd see the few tears going down her cheeks, now. Before she kept walking. There was no eulogy for the outers, though. And in the mirrors they could see themselves. Frozen in time, their devices held to the air.

"For the intertwined souls who call me forth... and the guardian who's burden mirrors mine..."

With each stained glass image she passed, she rose a little higher. Stood a little straighter. Looked a little stronger. And, as she came to the outers, she wiped the tears from her eyes.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune stood there frozen as Saturn approached. The closer she got, the easier it was to hear her words over the lurching scrape of her glaive dragging on the floor. She listened as the little girl eulogized each of inners. Each of the souls that had already passed. And then memorializing the three of them.
    She thought about this little girl who wasn't even allowed to be a little girl. Who wasn't really allowed to be at all. Thinking of her saying such sweet words for each of them before she set the universe to begin anew? It filled her with such a deep sadness that she could not stop the tears as they began to stream down her cheeks.
    And when that little girl who wasn't even allowed to be a little girl reached the three of them, Michiru didn't even think twice. She stepped close, fell down to her knees to get on the little girl's level and gave her a hug.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    The little Sailor Soldier walked the halls and spoke to each of the Inner Senshi's stained glass portraits, and then spoke to the Outer Senshi too. Had she been sleeping forever? Was that the role she had been placed in, much as the three outers had to stand guard at their desolate posts? To sleep, only to awaken at the most desperate point and usher in the end of the world? That was no life for anyone. And yet roused from her slumber, the smallest soldier walked with gathering courage and strength to do what must be done. To carry her weighty burden with dignity despite it all.

    Normally Haruka's the impulsive one, the rushing one, the one to do before she thinks - but in this moment Neptune rushes forward as Uranus is debating if she could - should - and answers the question by embracing the little one.

    That is all the thinking Uranus needs to do about it now either, as she swoops in behind Sailor Saturn, hugging her tightly against her from behind. She has so much to say and none of it comes out as words. She just does her level best not to get her tears in the girl's hair - a silly thing to be worried about when witnessing the end of a solar system, but... here she is.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As the other two Senshi lunge forward and hug Saturn, Pluto is only a heartbeat behind them...falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around all three of the others.

She holds her tongue for the moment...just holding the others and silently resolving that she will do all in her power to make sure the one this girl is reborn into has a life worthy of living.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Sailor Saturn just kept walking. She took another step, ignoring the hug... before suddenly stopping. It finally dawned on Sailor Saturn that... this was real. It wasn't her imagination that someone was holding her. Someone was hugging her.

And a second was hugging her.

Then a third.

"You... cannot be here," Saturn finally said. Looking between them. "What has been done, cannot be undone. The glaive must fall."

But then, gently... her left hand reached up, to cup Neptune's face (as it was easiest). "Please... do not despair. For this is my burden to carry. All will perish... so all may be remade. From this destruction, new life will come. And in that life, there will be hope."

"Do not grieve, for the sake of reincarnation. With my sacrifice, a reborn world will one day come before you..."

It likely didn't help that she was crying as she said it. And, well...

She then looked up to Pluto, looking most shocked of all. "You... of all... should know better than to come here... Once my judgement has been cast, it cannot be stopped."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune held Saturn tightly to her, her arms squeezing her in that hug. Tears streamed down her face, spilling over the small senshi's hand on her cheek. She listened. And then she shook her head. She hugged her again, and then let go, rising to her feet and stepping back.
    "It must fall and it will," she said, clearly trying hard to control her voice. "This is but a memory of the past. The world has already been reborn anew, and us," she gestures between her and Uranus, "reborn with it." Pluto, of course, took the long way.
    She looks to Uranus and then Pluto, searching for something, but she doesn't say. Because she reached her decision. This was a memory of the past, and nothing she would do would change anything, or have any real impact on anyone. So it was okay to let the little girl know this was, in fact, all for naught.
    "We've been trapped in this memory by Queen Beryl, who was also reborn."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus also didn't let go. It may have been a memory, but it felt real. And in that moment she just wanted to give the little soldier a comfort and caring she was never able to give her when this was all real. "I don't grieve for myself, or for Neptune." she said.

    She didn't mention Pluto because she -did- grieve for Pluto, because of what Pluto went through between this now and the real now. "But I do grieve for you." she said, quietly. "You deserve more than this and I will - we will - see to it. Yes, Beryl returns, but so do we and we are going to end that cycle now. We won't wake you up again. We won't fail again." she says, hugging the girl so tightly it might have been painful if she wasn't tough.

    "We owe you that much. We owe this time that much. We were sent here to break us, but it's only made me stronger." she says, firmly. "We're going to make a world worthy of the sacrifices made for it." she slowly lets go of the smaller girl.

    "But now we're just witnesses to the past. You're still going to have to play your part." she says, though she's loathe to entirely break away, and her hand longers on the girl's shoulder, then back, before she finally detatches from the touch entirely.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto listens to the girl speak, and the reponses of the other two to the Bearer of the Silence.

When Saturn locks eyes with her, Pluto stares back for a few moments, then says, "As they said, this is a memory...but it's a memory we needed to see. Things we needed to learn were discovered here."

She closes her eyes and takes a big, shuddering breath, "...and...yes, you have your duty."

After a moment, however, she reaches out to gently cup the back of Saturn's head, "...but this time...you don't have to do it ALONE."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Sailor Saturn gave a small smile before nodding. "I see. It... would. Even if... I am but a memory, I am happy that the future still stands. But yes, she will be reborn. All who fall, both good and ill, will be reborn."

There was silence for a moment, before she looked up to Uranus. "Please... do not grieve for me. I... I accepted my role. For the good of all. For our princess..." Pause. "Please... do... not... let her revile my name..."

She nodded and started to walk again, before pausing and looking back to them. For a moment, her face was serious. "But please. You... cannot waken me again. All are to be reborn again. But... it is my destiny to perish before we meet again... I am sorry. But... I can only trust that to mean, this time, your strength, your dedication, your power, your courage and... and your devotion to our princess will be enough. Thank you."

And then she turned away, walking into the light. Her glaive no longer dragged on the floor. The little version of herself disappearing...

And then the deafening silence. The silence that moved beyond the speed of sound, of light, of darkness itself...

And before the wave, a portal would open behind them, for them to move through. Just in time for them to see one last, final stained glass window to appear. This one of a small, young sailor scout. In a white and purple uniform, arms crossed over her chest. And a small smile on her lips. There was nothing in her mirror's reflection.