[SM] Look at your clock, ye youma...

The one thing about time travelers and time manipulators is that, really, so very few people expect them to KNOW about what would happen. But that was more because they were not used to thinking non-linearly.

It's common-sense after all, step one, led to step two, and from there three. "Common" sense and logic dictated that time flowed in a single direction.

Seconds flowed into minutes, and minutes into hours, hours into days, and days into years. Never to return. Always rushing and gushing forth.

Ramua was respected in the Dark Kingdom. Respected as a seer, a minor oracle, with some control over minor magics and illusions aspected to time. Not feared like certain other youma, for she bore no truly offense magic.

A support type, some might say. And a saying that she didn't mind, for it was what she desired. A reputation that she cultivated with care. With precision.

Hold back too much and no one would show respect to you.

Show too much and other people would certainly fear you and thus observe you and prepare plans.

But conceal just the right amount of power, and people would consider you not strong enough to require dealing with... and never ever show your trump cards.

Until they were absolutely needed.

"Moon Tiara Magic!" The fierce light, once a tiara, burned at her body.

The sailor fuku clad girls had some magic. Yes.

Sufficient to inconvenience her, certainly. More worryingly, however, was that she had recognized the blue haired one's magic, her outfit and toys.

A relic from that war. A war she had once fought in.

A war where she had seen her fall. A mighty warrior, steeped in magic, knowledge and wisdom.

The little chit that she was now was but a pale echo of who she was, who she could be. She hadn't recognized Mercury's companion. For the Moon, in those days, had no senshi.

And so, she let them "win", let her body shatter, and ignite into dust. Letting her mind glide down backwards into the past.

Down time.

It is said that those who learn from their history, do not repeat them in the future. It just happened that Ramua's past and history were her future. Were could have beens, might have beens and never will bes.

That if something happened to her displeasure, why she just needed to repeat. Over and over for as long as it took for her to make it not happen, and for a better path to open forth for her.

Time for her, was no narrow river bubbling down a single path. Nor a straight path of cause to effect, that one traveled to from a gate, guarded by a fierce dog.

No, time for her was as magic to be teased and manipulated. A big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey thing that was half environment and half toy that she could and did play with.

Adjust to her liking.

Guide and shape. So that the history that lay behind her was of a pleasing shape to her eyes and mind.

And once more, Ramua smiled as she watched the countless hosts of youma march forth from Earth. Marched upon the Moon Kingdom.

Watched the senshi fall, one by one.

Looked down at wide empty eyes, blue, black, and brown. Multi-colored hair coated in the liquid crimson that lay in humans.

Looked down, let her lips curve upwards in joy and pleasure known before marching on past what no longer mattered.

She and Bunbo had merely been two of the number of seers, who had been in the strategic and tactical planning department.

But unlike her, Bunbo was.... limited.

Able to only see and remember what was. Unable to conceive of being more. Unlike to think of what lay outside the box that his memories showed.

That what he remembered, had to be true. Was true. Never to be altered.

She changed things. Adjusted it, always shaping it to optimum perfection.

She remembered the first time the Moon had been invaded, so many many eternities ago. The desperate rout as Witch Queen Serenity and her senshi bitches shattered them with unspeakable might.

Each and every senshi more than a match against the entire host of the Dark Kingdom.

And they still were.

But plans and artifacts designed to deal with their puissant might were employed. The raw power of each attack, more than capable of devastating entire cities in a single strike, were diverted... elsewhere.

Plans and artifacts honed from repeated use, and knowledge of what would work and what wouldn't.

Now, now the senshi fell like animals at the slaughterhouse. Helpless before the Dark Kingdom.

And time flowed forwards.

And looped back on itself once more.

Twisted sideways.

Tangled upon itself.

Over and over.

But with each iteration, Ramua learned more and more of her opponents.

And with each iteration, their strengths, their weaknesses, their secrets were laid bare to her.

And more importantly, so were their identities. Who they were. And who they used to be in the Moon Kingdom. And who they could still yet become.

If she allowed them. They were but two in the here and now.

Young in their power. With allies unseen to them.

But she had espied them. Had their measure.

And so, she planned.

She wove plots and stratagems to deal with the younger Serenity's reincarnation and the little slip of a chit's companions long while the seals laid by her mother in her dying breaths were yet young.

Plans and maps of what could be, would be laid out in panels of floating light in the "back rooms" of her little shop that she ran in the Dark Kingdom.

Was not its name "Clock Look" amusing? Look at the clock, as it spins back and forth. That was her power.

And yet.

And yet.

None ever saw past her cultivated reputation. A 'seer', one who had once been part of the Moon Kingdom Invasion strategists. A 'seer' who held little power beyond "cheap" illusions.

And so, she plotted

And eventually slipped out on to Earth, when ancient seals once young and all encompassing were weak enough to be pierced. A goal clear in mind, with mental flowcharts of events, even as others sent out scouts and explorers.

An "accidental" stumble and she ran into a male. One Chiba Mamoru.

"Oh... I'm sorry." Blush, and look up at him with limpid eyes. Give him an eyeful of her cleavage.

To deal with Serenity, one had to ensure that her allies were not there to help.

Killing them caused even more problems.

A fine touch was needed.

And so... Ramua played at being a seductress. For now.

And tested the planned path of events as they flowed down linearly, guided from event to event much like a game.

The one thing about time travelers and time manipulators is that, really, so very few people expect them to KNOW about what would happen. But that was more because they were not used to thinking non-linearly.

And Ramua had lived long enough, that her thoughts flowed in ways those constrained by the four dimensions seldom could.

Iron Fic 3.6 Entry [Jul 2 2011]
Look at your clock, ye youma...
A Sailor Moon One Shot
Start Time : 11:45 AM
End Time : 12:45 PM
Edit/Post Time : 1:00 PM


​

And so, one day... she would see and make the path to her victory.