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[IC][Short][Season 1] An Interlude on Saturnalia
[IC][Short][Season 1] An Interlude on Saturnalia
#1
Star 
So, where's she been hiding at?  Wonder no more.

Inspired by the song from Sleeping At Last, "Atlas: Four".

Legal YouTube upload available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO6AsjSloDg

And as always, the embed so you can listen along while reading.






19 December 2016
130 Farrel Drive
Springvale Subdivision
San Antonio, Texas, USA

130 Farrel Drive is a quiet place.  It is a single-family ranch-style house, tucked behind a terracotta privacy wall.  The property itself is nestled in the lower-middle-class neighborhood of Springvale, tucked in between Loop 410, Lackland Air Force Base, a church and a middle school.  Built during the prime time of the military's presence in San Antonio, the early 1960's saw many servicemen and women with money to spare who needed good houses as close to the bases as possible.  Thus, this was once considered one of the nicest neighborhoods in town when it first sprung up.  Nowadays, with two bedrooms and nine-hundred square feet of floor space on a lot of nearly eight-thousand square feet, it is a very modest little house.

Vacant and abandoned, it was the perfect place for a young girl to lay low while in hiding.

The girl was utterly beautiful.  She was Japanese, and built with a frame that was slender and petite even by that country's standards, which made her budding adolescence stand out far more than it would have on most other girls her age.  Her dark eyes, colored in a deep hue of indigo, sparkled with an intellect that was out of proportion to her apparent age.  Her jet-black hair was kept in a short hime-style bob.  Her skin was as pale as the moon, but not in an unhealthy way - there was the faint hint of nutmeg color to it that all Asian women had, no matter how hard they tried to avoid the sun.  At the age of twelve, she appeared to be an early bloomer, but this was because of that elfin build of hers.  So small was she that even the slightest budding of her adolescence had made her look like a girl two years her elder.

The young lady was in one of the two bedrooms of the small, somewhat dilapidated house.  In front of her was a sheet of vellum on an easel.  She had been drawing a face and had been making good progress, but hit onto a snag, and was now eying her work critically.  What it was, she wasn't quite sure - she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something that was ringing false about the image.

Comically, she'd forgotten that she had charcoal all over her fingers and had smudged it around her face.

"Hotaru-chan?" came a woman's voice, weak from illness, from the bedroom down the hall.

Right away, the girl put down her stick of charcoal, wiped her hands with a slightly damp cloth, then went quickly to the room.

In said room, a tall woman with dusky skin and a regal face rested in a bed.  As of late, she hadn't been doing much of anything aside from sleeping.  But at that moment, her eyes were open and alert - albeit a groggy kind of alertness.

"Setsuna?" she said quietly as she entered the room.  "Are you alright?"

"...yes, for the moment," said the woman quietly.  Despite her ill condition, she smiled at the girl.  "You've been trying to draw him again, haven't you?"

Hotaru blushed.  "How did you know?"

Setsuna's smile turned mischievous.  "You have charcoal all over your face again."

Hotaru made a despairing cry and ran out of the room.  When she came back seconds later, the dark smudges had been cleaned from her face.  Setsuna chuckled.

"You know, some girls would be more embarrassed about being caught drawing pictures of the boy they like."

Hotaru sighed at that.  "I can't possibly feel that way about him.  Not with the memories I now have.  I only wish that I had known him before...  all of this.  Are you really okay, though, Setsuna?"

"As I said, I am for the moment.  The time streams have settled somewhat, but I'm not counting on that to remain so for long."

"Can you tell me more about what is going on?  It was good that you were able to create the documents we needed so I can sell my art on the Worldwide Web, but..."

"It's alright, Hotaru-chan.  I know how you feel.  But first, I have a gift for you."  Setsuna then pulled a figure out from under the bed covers.  It was a doll made from scraps of fabric, but a person would not be able to say so right away because the craftsmanship was exquisite.  Though made of scraps, each one was carefully and painstakingly measured, cut, and stitched together to look as beautiful as possible.

The doll itself was a girl clad in a white seifuku with an indigo skirt and colar and wine-red bows.  There was an indigo chocker with a star on it.  The hair was black and styled in a hima-bob and her eyes were indigo and cat-like.

"It's... ME!" said Hotaru in surprise.

Setsuna chuckled.  "You probably don't remember.  It's the nineteenth of December -- the traditional day of gift giving of Saturnalia.  And giving dolls like this was a popular and traditional gift.  Io Saturnalia, my dear."

"Oh Setsuna!" said Hotaru joyfully as she cradled the doll like a priceless gem in her hands.  "How did you ever manage this without me seeing it?"

The woman smiled merrily despite her tired state.  "I have my ways.  Though I do wish we could do the reversal of roles for Saturnalia like you and I used to all the time.  Those were fun times.  But that will have to wait.  For now, I will give you another gift.  I will tell you what I know of what is going on, and how your fate is tied into the events transpiring here."

As Hotaru gazed at Setsuna intently, absently letting her fingers play with the doll, Setsuna sighed before plunging along.

"I'm still not certain as to what happened.  It's almost like something grabbed up all the temporal causality in all of the universes to have ever existed, and even those that never have existed, and threw it all together in one huge mess."

"What does that mean, though?" asked Hotaru.

"It means, my dear, is that this boy that never existed before?  He did exist.  He *does* exist.  Just not in the past that is most familiar to you.  He is from an entirely different timeline, with entirely different outcomes.

"In that time line, he was your beloved.  He and he alone was able to see past the stigma around you.  Not only that, he had a very special, very powerful gift.  One that made it possible for you to defeat Pharaoh 90 without sacrificing yourself."

"The Nullifier," said Hotaru, a slight chill running up her spine.  The thought of someone who could so effectively cancel magic of any kind, rendering a person's defenses and enchantments utterly moot and pointless, was frightening.  However...

As Hotaru thought about it, the memories slowly began to coalesce -- of a boy her age in the grip of a righteous fury -- he was so full of anger!  And yet, she felt no fear of that anger because she knew that even if she did do something to upset him, he would never turn that ire against her.

The rage of Hino Ichiro was against something else entirely: his own father, and the trappings of a society that made them man what he was -- a cold and ruthless politician whose only goal was a Japan free of all outside interference.

Hotaru swallowed as she remembered one of the few things he ever had to say about the man.

"The bastard might as well have 'Hirohito did nothing wrong' as his campaign slogan."

And Pharaoh 90 and its minions had made the mistake of upsetting him -- of waking a sleeping giant within him and incurring its wrath.  And that wrath had indeed been swift and terrible.  It started when he purged Mistress 9 from her body and soul with his Nullifier ability and began to learn of her plight.  He then went and laid low the Witches Five, bringing them to repent for their sins.  He confronted and fought Sailor Uranus and Neptune to a stand-still -- the look of awe in their faces when they learned that all he wanted was for them to stop trying to hurt Hotaru and apologize to her was incredible.

And he would not stop there.  He was utterly incensed and he would not be satisfied with anything less than total victory -- every bit the younger brother to the Princess of Mars.  Fueled by this outrage, he smote Kaolinite, driving the evil daemon out of her, though it unfortunately left her as a mindless wreck as she had all-but completely given herself over to evil.  Not satisfied, he went and rid her father of the foul Germatoid, leaving him dumb for a short time.  And then, at last, he came for Pharaoh 90.  Like a force of nature, he stormed the evil creature's gates.  He practically wrung it's metaphysical neck.  He laughed in its face as it begged him to at least let it return to its home so it may perish in peace.

He told it in return that it should have thought of that before coming to Earth.

And with that, he left the wretched being completely open to Hotaru to finish with ease.

At that moment, Hotaru had known without a doubt that she was his everything.  He would give all of himself to her.  Her happiness was his happiness.  Her joy was his joy.  So far as Hino Ichirou was concerned, as long as Hotaru was happy, then all was well with the world.

And on top of that, there were the far more distant, fainter memories from the Silver Millennium Empire.  She couldn't recall much, but she did remember that there was someone.  A man who was close to her.  Someone who had filled the emptiness she had felt so acutely in that time.

The more literal interpretation of that phrase applied as well, and had kept her awake on some nights, flustered at the very idea of doing something that was both so romantic and so erotic.

Setsuna read Hotaru perfectly and laughed softly.

"So, you've had those sorts of recollections as well?" she said, gently teasing the girl and making her flush brilliantly.  She then soothed Hotaru, saying, "It's alright to have those thoughts, my dear.  You're the right age for it.  More importantly, though, it's part of your very nature as Sailor Saturn.  Remember always that you're not only the specter of death.  You're the agent of life's renewal.  It is part of who you are to desire the genesis of new life."  She then grinned with a sleepy sort of mischief.  "It's one of the few things we women actually need men for."

"Oh, please don't tease me so much!" said Hotaru, mortified.

Setsuna chuckled and gently brushed a lock of Hotaru's hair aside.  "I'm sorry my dear.  But it is no less true.  It is part of who you are to seek out someone to start a family with, because you will eventually give your role over to your own daughter.  What previously was gives over to what is to come.  It is your very essence, and it has been the way for all bearers of the title, Guardian of Saturn.

"Remember always, Hotaru-chan: we are all nothing more than dirt and and stardust, collected and formed into these mortal coils.  For only a moment we are glorious, like ice sculptures bathed in colorful lights, like sand castles built between the tides.  Even now, you wear it on your sleeve - the insignificant side by side with the sacred and unique.  Very much like my gift to you.  Something beautiful made from the meanest of scraps.

"I know that right now, you feel that you have fallen in love with a ghost, and it has knocked you off balance at a time when you need it the most.  But the pictures you draw of him are proof that he exists.  Even if you don't know what they mean, he is real.  He is out there.  He is broken-hearted and alone, yearning for your company.

"But for now, you're in hiding, swimming in the shadows for both our sakes.  Eventually, though, you will need to surface for air.  At that time, you will seek him out -- a metaphorical flashlight in your hand, determined to find something that only poetry can even begin to describe.

"On that day, you will find what you are looking for, Hotaru-chan.  And in that time, you will discover that all this time, you are already what you have been dying to become.  You will shed a light on a man, and show him the magnificence that lay hidden inside of him.  And the reflection from that magnificence will reveal your own hidden treasure as well."

"Is... is this an oracle?" asked Hotaru uncertainly, for Sailor Pluto did not often give out glimpses into the future.  The future was always an uncertain thing, after all.

"It is an absolute," said Setsuna quietly.  "You two are meant to be together.  The only reason why you were not before is because he did not exist in your time, nor you in his.  But otherwise, whenever you both are present in the same timeline?"  Setsuna chuckled.  "Even your birthdays are a perfect fit.  He was born three months before you, right after the Autumnal Equinox where Summer gives way to Autumn.  And you were born after the Winter Solstice -- symbolic of the promise of new life when death reigns supreme.  And thus, you compliment each other.  Where you represent death and rebirth, he represents progress and change.

"I remember back then, before Queen Beryl unleashed the monster, Metalia, upon us.  He was not simply a warrior, but he was a builder as well.  He built a summer home for you on Titan.  It was a beautiful, rustic farmland retreat where you could bask in the warm albedo of Saturn.  He wanted it to be the place where you raised your children.  A haven from politics and intrigues and only your closest friends would know of.

"That said, my dear, you will find him, or he will find you.  One way or another, you will come together.  And when that day comes, you will at last feel at peace because you have finally found the part of you that was missing."

Setsuna then yawned, covering her mouth as she did so.  "I'm sorry, Hotaru-chan.  I'm so very exhausted."

"It's alright, Setsuna.  Please, rest.  I'll do what I can to keep you comfortable.  But how much longer will this go on for?"

"As long as it takes, Hotaru-chan.  But don't worry.  It will pass eventually.  It has to.  The situation as it is now cannot keep forever.  And there are agents at work that are actively trying to further destabilize this situation.  Be it for good or ill, it will pass."

The woman said nothing more as she had suddenly slipped back into sleep.

Hotaru sighed and laid her hands on Setsuna's head.  The cool, white glow came as she used her healing powers on the woman, renewing and sustaining her so she could sleep for however long she needed to.

That done, Hotaru retreated back to the room she was using and eyed the easel once more.

"Different timelines," she said thoughtfully to herself.  The person she was trying to draw had a face that always seemed to elude her.  Every time she thought she had it right, there was suddenly something different.

Like he suddenly became a different person.

"That's it!" cried out Hotaru in joy.  "He has a different face in each time line!"

And with that, Hotaru tore the sheet of vellum away and started anew.

This time, there were three faces.

One was of a grown man, but filled with youthful vigor.  His features were strange and exotic because this one had been the younger brother of the Princess of Mars.  He had been the lover of her past-self, and now that his face was coming into focus, more memories from that time were being dredged up.

However, those would have to wait.

The next was of a youth.  He was lean and elfin in build, very much like her.  He had a smile on his face and a spark in his eyes.  This youth had Japanese features, for he had been born as Hino Rei's younger brother - once again, the younger sibling to the Princess of Mars.

Fond memories began to surface from this other timeline as well, and they were such happy ones that she couldn't help but to pause and reflect.  It wasn't just those of the time Ichiro and Hotaru spent together.  It was the other times as well.  Like how he and his sister would playfully tease each other - saying outlandish things that would always devolve into bouts of roughhousing, but always with happy smiles plastered over their faces.

It made them all laugh uproariously whenever the brother and sister got into it.  While to most Japanese such antics would be disconcerting, there was simply no way to feel anything negative about it.  The siblings were incredibly close with each other, having banded together to face the world once they were bereft of their parents.

In fact, he had quickly became the Little Brother to them all.  Which had actually upset Usagi's own little brother, Shingo, to some degree.  Enough that he even got into a few fights with Ichiro.  Fights that Ichiro had won quite handily as the boy also practiced Okinawan Karate with Makoto.  And then he'd admonish Shingo to instead try being a better brother to Usagi.

Hotaru finished the drawing and stood back to look upon the face of Hino Ichiro, causing the warm memories to bubble up in her head like a merrily burbling creek.

And then she started again, this time drawing the third one.

Long, thick, wavy hair.  Dark, brooding eyes.  A narrow face.  High cheekbones.  Tall forehead.  Sharp nose.  A goat-tee mustache and beard.

But it was the eyes that entranced her the most.  Despite having such gorgeous eyes -- eyes with long, thick, luscious lashes; irises like darkly stained, lacquered, and finely polished mahogany wood; and brows that somehow managed to be elegant despite being so thick and heavy -- they were full of a profound and lingering hurt.

That hurt made Hotaru's heart quail in empathetic compassion.

*Why does he look so sad?* she thought to herself.  *What has happened to him?*

There was another issue as well.  If this was the person she was supposed to find, then there was no way they could be together.  He was so much older than her... that is, Hotaru herself, and not the Hotaru who was the Princess and Guardian of Saturn.

But then yet another face came to mind.  It was the face of that same man, only so much younger.  And instead of those eyes full of hurt, they were absolutely sparkling with mischief and joy.

Hotaru didn't know what to make of this new development... but she was happy to be able to clearly visualize him.

At last, this is what her beloved looked like.

Now she only wondered about how she would find him.
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