Dragonweyr Station

Dick Grayson is seventeen when the mark first appears. In his line of work he had considered it a blessing for there to be no mark at all. At least, that was the story until he was sat down by his guardians and had the event explained to him in full. Bruce Wayne’s own mark, a PL, was dark green, delicate, and ethereal. Definitely the mark of a woman. Dick Grayson glanced at the bold, bright, stylized V on his arm. The glittering gold had left him speechless because the mark wasn’t anything like what he’d assumed it’d be. His crush on Batgirl had ended when he’d asked her to go steady with him. Once she had agreed to only date him until the soul mate markers appeared, they’d gone steady for nearly four years.


Now, a year just shy of his eighteenth birthday his soulmate finally showed up. Puberty usually instigated the marker on both members of pact, yet their were common cases where years would separate a pairing. He kept his eyes locked on Bruce.


“I was born with mine.” Bruce said. “I’ve always had it. Alfred’s never had one. Once the mark is present, it’ll always be there. For your soul mate’s own protection, keep it covered.”


“Why is it so bright?” Dick asked, his question more rhetoric than actually being asked of Bruce. Regardless, he received an answer when the Mark seemed to ‘glitter’ at him. It was bizarre yet Dick Grayson had never felt so terrified then he did in that moment.


(Break)



Most girls growing up didn’t know what a soul mark really meant. Being an incarnation of the goddess of love left Minako Aino with little doubt as to just what that mark was when it first showed up on her wrist. The bold R was a crisp imprint on her skin highlighted in green and red about two centimeters from the letter. She tilted it over and watched the almost metallic image catch the light of the sun. She had only recently come into her powers as Sailor V and upon returning to her civilian form the mark had been there.


Leaning her head against the pink covers on her bed, Minako turned her head to look at the mirror. What kind of person would have that kind of personality? Really? Was he going to be some kind of soldier? Or was he maybe a prince from another planet? Pulling at the tresses of her hair, the fourteen year old girl bit down hard on her lip. It was a harsh world, not everyone met their soul mate, and sometimes, they were the kind of person you ended up being enemies with.


(break)


Time passed with very little to make note of the changes it brought. For Dick, he passed from Robin into Nightwing with barely a blip. It was only when he was preparing to propose to his long time girlfriend that he even glanced at the soulmate mark on his left arm. After the battles had been won and the criminals turned into the police he’d uncovered the mark on his arm to discover a change in the shape of it’s center. The glittering bright gold V had been replaced by a mark the symbolized woman to all mankind.


Shapeshifting marks weren’t unheard of, given that they were meant to represent the type of person who matched their soul. Extreme circumstances, or someone becoming super powered, usually acted as a trigger. There were a few lesser known things that forced a mark to change. His heart gave a sudden thump, it skipped a few seconds, before it resumed with a ferocious pounding. It had to be the exhaustion forcing those dancing lights in front of his vision.


Fingers trembling, Dick Grayson slid his communicator into his ear and pressed the connect button. It took a few seconds before he got an answer however he got out those precious few words.


“Help me, Batman.” his strength gave out on those words before he collapsed face down against the bench he had been leaning on. It had been three years since he had last felt anywhere near this weak and it had never brought him to his knees before. What was going on?


(break)


Sailor Venus trembled as she stared her mortality in the face. For her Princess, she had risked everything. Knowing her life wasn’t hers since she’d come into the knowledge that she was a stand in had petrified the girl. Sailor Moon was a credit to leadership. The bitter bite that she felt in the back of her throat with that knowledge was suppressed as she stepped into the limelight. Princess Serenity was to be protected even at the cost of Sailor Venus. The scouts had no working relationship with the Justice League and had kept their presence in the Earth’s affairs as quiet as possible until they had no other choice. Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru, Rei, Makoto, Ami, Usagi, and Mamoru. They were a team of long standing and many obstacles.


“I am Sailor Venus, representative of the Sailor Senshi.” she exclaimed the moment everyone’s eyes were on her. World leaders and members of the League were present for this announcement. They were of course here to upset the current status quo. “I’ve asked everyone here for one reason only. There is something coming. We call it the Silence and everything in the world will fall asleep until the Planet itself is ready to wake up.”


Gasps of horror and definite hostility if she was reading Superman right… It was only natural that they’d want to protect their world as it was. Really, who had the idea to send her? When her soul mate was thinking of marrying another person they really did love… Her mind was distracted. Her attention shortened as the distance between herself and the League was shortened by a step. Venus didn’t tremble. Her powers embraced love, justice, hope… All the good things of the world. It was only natural she’d feel more from her soul mate than others usually would. Each Senshi shared such a connection to their soul mate. It was supposed to balance them out. Each of them shared that same connection with a special person who would help keep the Silence at bay. Upon Rei’s revelation that any of them could trigger the end of the world the girls had been forced to set aside the things that were in line for them. Venus was about to turn nineteen. Her soul mate was three years older, according to Pluto and connected deeply to the woman’s own soulmate. If they had acted sooner they may have had the time to talk things out.


Both of them had put these meetings off for as long as they could. Venus would have to force her hand and bring her soulmate to heel. Even if it broke their oaths to whoever was before them. Her Princess had understood… Would he? Would he understand that she had tried to protect his red thread by cutting herself off from him?


Venus shifted her feet when she noticed the Batman eyeing her strongly. The glitter of her masked eyes should keep them from guessing her identity, however, her daddy’s boss… he was under that mask. Pluto, as the guardian of time and space, had known all along who was paired to who. She had seen what would happen if the girls didn’t accept their fates or if the girls had accepted. Each Senshi had been graced with a minute of time with the Gate to decide her fate. Each had come away with the knowledge that they were all linked to the Silence.


(break)


Pluto watched her soul mate crouch down on the ground beside the unconscious form of his partner. The Batman was never able to see her when she appeared, though from the stiffening of his shoulders, he knew she was near. They were always like this. Dancing around one another the few times she deigned to present her aura into his sense of territory. The few times she had gone to him as Setsuna Meioh neither of them had come away untouched.


Rather, she allowed him to seduce her and she fled away before questions could be asked. Both were sensitive to being discovered by the other and kept those precious marks covered. Pluto knew he’d ask questions about that Bat on her left forearm, just as she knew he’d expect her to ask questions about the sign of Pluto on his. Regardless, Nightwing and Venus had never met. The Senshi of Love and Light had deemed it safer for everyone to keep her distance, never realizing that the longer they stayed apart the more she projected onto the powerless human.


Venus wouldn’t do what she needed to because she thought she was protecting the man she was supposed to Love. It was a crime, what she was going to do, but her Princess had ordered her to do whatever she could to protect her Guardians.


Pluto stepped out of the shadows of time and space, into the light of the street lamps so her own soulmate would see her for what she was. A Senshi and what was deemed a global threat.


The snap of his weapon in between her fingers wasn’t a surprise. Nothing was to her. Yet, even she did not know what would happen after this meeting between them. “Batman.”


“It seems you’re done hiding.” he growled. “Why are you here?”


Pluto knew what he was asking. She didn’t have an answer for him. Not for him anyway. “I’m sure you know about the meeting between Sailor Venus and the Global Leaders. I’m also sure you know what is happening to your partner.”


She tilted her head just so her entire focus ended up on Nightwing. “The world will fall into despair if they don’t come together. Venus is trying to do what she thinks is right… For him, for our Princess, for everyone. She’s wrong.”


“Are you saying the fate of the world is on Nightwing’s and this Venus’s shoulders?” Batman hissed, coming to his full height with his partner draped against his shoulder. The weight of his former Robin hung off of him like an anvil. She had finally appeared and seemed to want nothing from him. He understood that point. Apparently, she knew things about him while he knew nothing about her.


“Not just theirs.” Pluto answered, her garnet colored eyes flicking to the masked man’s own. She held his stare as she whirled the garnet rod into existence. “I am the guardian of time and space.” Her long green hair caught and clung to the back of her fuku as she began walking forward. “It is my duty to keep this world as it should be, for good or ill. I have been alive for over a millennia and did not think I would ever meet my match.”


Her heart hurt as he took in her words. “Batman…” she continued, “I would have spared you so much if it had not been what was already written. Senshi are immortal. It is our fate until the Cauldron reclaims us.”


“That is not what I asked.” Batman barked. “What are you doing here?”


Pluto pointed the garnet rod in between the two lights that shone on them. “I’m opening the door between time and space to unite them.” she smiled, just a bit, because this was their destiny. “My name will have to await a more appropriate time, Batman. We will by need have to discuss our own future at a future date. For now, we must unite Nightwing with Venus before the Silence encroaches on us all.”


The cowl eye pieces narrowed as Pluto moved so she can support the other side of Nightwing as she all but drags both men into the doorway. She knows what he is thinking. It is not going to be a pleasant conversation between them when she reveals her identity to him. Setsuna Meioh worked as a scientist in medical botany. She was often in and out of various countries and cities trying to find cures for things that eluded regular men and women. The work acted as a cover so she could be seen in many places within reason.


After walking through the portal of time and space into a bedroom that clearly belonged to a young woman did the Batman finally demand another answer. That was, until he caught sight of the image of Venus on the television. She was speaking to the World about the threat that the Senshi had repeatedly tried to keep away. There was pain at the corners of her mouth, her fingers were held far too loosely, and she seemed to be distracted with the way she held herself.


“Sailor Venus is projecting onto him. I doubt she is aware of what is happening. At the moment, the most direct route to the Silence are these two.” Pluto explained, bringing Batman’s attention back to herself.


“What are we supposed to do then?” his voice was gravel on her ears, though her heart fluttered all the more for it. Batman held the eyes of Pluto as she dipped her chin to the right. A blush darkened her cheeks as she shook off the effect he'd always have on her.


Batman had seen that blush once, long ago before he'd ever put on the cowl. Long after Antonia, though. She had been a sort of second wind that hadn't lasted long when they'd just stopped seeing each other. She'd claimed to be the Guardian of space and time. Did she purposely come and seek him out at the times she was needed most? Is that what she had planned for Nightwing and this Venus?


"The kind of union you have in mind… what is it?” he asked, already working on just how he was going to explain this toe the semi-conscious Dick.

"The kind of union you have in mind… what is it?” he asked, already working on just how he was going to explain this too the semi-conscious Dick. Especially given how Pluto was looking fixedly on anything but the two heroes from Gotham. His eyebrows both shot upward. It was one thing when a dalliance turned into something overnight, yet…


“This fate of the world thing isn’t just a line, right?” Batman asked. He really couldn’t believe what it was Pluto was beginning to do as she reached down and began tugging at Nightwing’s gloves. “I…”


Pluto paused for a second as she dropped Nightwing’s left hand back to his chest. His right hand was already bare, lying atop his stomach. “This isn’t about you, me, or them. It’s about the world, Bruce. We Senshi are what we are. Without a compromise between them, neither of them will survive. I cannot allow Venus to suffer eternity without at least knowing…”


“It doesn’t have to be like this.” Batman argued. “Soulmates have never been required to go so far.”


Pluto shook. Wrapping her hands around herself, she looked away from Batman and out towards the Tokyo sunset. “For Senshi it’s always been imperative to balance out our powers and humanity. If you knew a simple act of skin contact could ease the greatest pain, wouldn’t you encourage it? Enforce it no matter what the cost was?”


“Not like this.” Bruce countered. Straightening his spine, he began to move towards the woman he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. She was outlining a very necessary event in terms of non-consensual soul bonding. It was no better than rape if it was looked at in the eyes of the law. “Soul bonds are not meant to instituted this way, Pluto. Deceiving me, flitting in and out of my life for years, is not the way it should be done either.”


Dick stirred, listening with a half ear to the conversation that he’d been dragged into. The Sailor Senshi Pluto knew things about these bonds and had acted on them without Bruce’s knowledge. It was almost impossible to do things like that when it concerned the man directly. Perhaps, it was because of what they were. For a long time, the Justice League had watched them from a distance. These females worked in two teams. One led by a woman named Uranus and the other led by Venus. He opened his eyes just in time to see the blush staining the woman’s face and realized just why she had seemed familiar. She was an on and off date in Bruce Wayne’s black book. At random, she showed up at parties and charities only to be swept away by his guardian.


Pluto held her ground as the Dark Knight of Gotham towered over her. “What would you have me do, Batman? Bruce… what was I supposed to do when I saw everything that would happen to you? I am bound by so many secrets and having to watch your life as it has unfolded is more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m the Guardian of Time. I’m not even supposed to exist in this world, however, because of you… because of this mark, I had to come.”


“These marks exist for one reason only. Because they are supposed to bring people together. My parents were such. My children are such. We are such. You belong here not because of fate, time, or destiny. It is simply because of me.” Bruce replied, bringing a gloved hand up to Pluto’s chin and tilting her head up just enough so that his lips could brush hers. A swift, chaste kiss… “Bring this Venus here. Nightwing and her will have to figure out their own way if they are to work. Now, it is time for us to work out our own way.”


Nightwing pushed himself up onto his elbows, the room catching his attention at the soft tones it embraced. Out of the corner of his eye he observed that Batman was making his moves on the Senshi. Apparently, his boss was feeling a bit uncomfortable that this woman knew so much about him and he knew so little.


He wondered if Pluto could read minds? His hands were bare, which meant Bruce was also creating a distraction so he could at least get on his own two feet. As much as he hated the man’s tactics, they damn sure worked. Pushing himself up he glanced towards a picture of nine women and a man. A pigtailed blonde with a pair of buns was embracing the man, while his eyes drifted over the rest of the faces. He spotted Pluto in the picture, actually smiling, and the blue eyes of a blond making a V sign caught his attention. There, bold as the R mark of the Robin suit, sat high on her wrist. Despite the fact it was upside down, Dick would know that letter anywhere. The colors around it were the same as his previous costume, with all the little variances. So, she had to have known he was a vigilante after a certain point, wouldn’t she?


“Where are we?” Dick asked, as he reached over and plucked the photo from the nightstand. “Batman?”


Pluto blinked, snapping out of the trance she’d been falling into with Bruce’s attention entirely focused on her. The Senshi blinked again as she looked at the picture in Nightwing’s hands. Yes, she had wanted him to see that too. “Tokyo, Japan.” she answered. How had he done that? She was the Guardian of Time, the most observant of all the Senshi given what her job was.


“Weren’t we… at home?” Just what had this woman done? Could they really trust her? Dick twisted until he was looking at the picture again. Really, did the blonde have to show off that symbol like it was something to be proud of? Sure, she probably didn’t know it would make her a target, but it would.



(Break)



Venus disappeared in a spark of light and gold ribbons, leaving behind the very mortal body of Minako Aino. The young heroine shivered as the weight of what she had done pressed in on her at all sides. She hadn’t volunteered to take on the World for no reason. She’d hoped that he would see her for what she was, yet, he had not been in the Justice League. She doubted he’d ever attended any of her concerts during one of those all too often world tours she’d made during her life. She was quickly beginning to think the man must be a monk or someone who was totally uninterested in her.


Which, as the Senshi of Love she found almost impossible to imagine. The mark on her wrist transformed into a strange version of a bird in flight, twisting around the faded R as if embracing the former symbol. It had been a shock when it had happened. Like when Makoto had invited Minako over for tea and cookies a few years ago to show her the gossamer R on her own wrist. The faded red that eventually hazed out the letter had struck a chord in the two of them. Both of the girls had discussed what those marks meant in the long run. Neither Rei or Ami had come forward with any information or visual clues about soulmates.


Then there was the fact that both girls spoke English quite well even without Makoto ever really paying attention to the classes in school. Venus had already been to London and figured that whoever her soul mate was, definitely wasn’t British. So, that brought her back to the original questions she’d harbored since the day she’d found that beloved letter on her arm. Who was he? Would they be enemies? Would she have to give him up to protect him? What if he wouldn’t accept the fact that she was a Senshi? There was so much that could go wrong. She felt that prickle of pain as she remembered the thought that he was going to commit himself to someone else…


Would he still do that? Even if they had to follow through with a Compromise, like what Pluto had arranged for herself and her own soul mate? Minako didn’t think her heart could take that.


She wanted to (be) romanced, swept off her feet like the Princess she was, loved for who she was, and most importantly, she wanted to be loved by her soul mate. But the mark never guaranteed anything. Her own parents were platonic with their soulmates, having married each other when the four of them met. All at once, life seemed to turn upside down. Usagi was with her soul mate. Her parents were with married soulmates.


Even Artemis was paired off with Luna and… she really wanted that. Tossing her hair over one shoulder, Minako bent down to remove her shoes when she heard the voices coming from her room. Her blonde eye brow shot up as she kicked off the flats she wore behind the glamour of her Senshi uniform. The pink sandals flopped uselessly on the step as she picked her way across the floor on tiptoes to press her ear to her own bedroom door. Three voices floated back to her and her eyes went wide.


(break)


Sailor Jupiter had had enough.


The gun toting soul mate of hers was running around this city like nothing was at all wrong.


The Senshi of Jupiter, thunder and storms, and whatever else you wanted to call her was intent on capturing her soul mate and bring balance back to his wounded heart. She’d been so hopeless when he’d died… She didn’t know what had happened to bring him back but Usagi seemed rather firm on the fact Makoto needed to do something about the man.


The echoing retort of a firearm going off had her moving west towards the place known as crime alley.


(Break)

Dick Grayson is seventeen when the mark first appears. In his line of work he had considered it a blessing for there to be no mark at all. At least, that was the story until he sat down with his guardians and had the event explained to him in full. Bruce Wayne’s own mark a PL was dark green, delicate, and ethereal. Definitely the mark of a woman. Dick Grayson glanced at the bold, bright, stylized V on his arm. The glittering gold had left him speechless because the mark wasn’t anything like what he’d assumed it’d be. His crush on Batgirl had ended when he’d asked her to go steady with him. Once she had agreed to only date him until the soul mate markers appeared they’d gone steady for nearly four years.


Now, a year just shy of his eighteenth birthday his soulmate finally showed up. Puberty usually instigated the marker on both members of a pact, yet there were common cases where years would separate a pairing. He kept his eyes locked on Bruce.


“I was born with mine.” Bruce said. “I’ve always had it. Alfred’s never had one. Once the mark is present, it’ll always be there. For your soul mate’s own protection, keep it covered.”


“Why is it so bright?” Dick asked, his question more rhetoric than actually being asked of Bruce. Regardless, he received an answer when the Mark seemed to ‘glitter’ at him. It was bizarre yet Dick Grayson had never felt so terrified then he did in that moment.


“It’s usually a representation of the person you’re meant to be with.” Bruce stated, pulling up his sleeve to glance at the mark that had graced his arm since birth. “My parents were always worried that she or he would be so much older then me, but if that was the case….”


(Break)



Most girls growing up didn’t know what a soul mark really meant. Being an incarnation of the goddess of love left Minako Aino with little doubt as to just what that mark was when it first showed up on her wrist. The bold R was a crisp imprint on her skin highlighted in green and red about two centimeters from the letter. She tilted it over and watched the almost metallic image catch the light of the sun. She had only recently come into her powers as Sailor V and upon returning to her civilian form the mark had been there.


Leaning her head against the pink covers on her bed, Minako turned her head to look at the mirror. What kind of person would have that kind of personality? Really? Was he going to be some kind of soldier? Or was he maybe a prince from another planet? Pulling at the tresses of her hair, the fourteen year old girl bit down hard on her lip. It was a harsh world, not everyone met their soul mate, and sometimes, they were the kind of person you ended up being enemies with.


(break)


Arcade games were things for little kids, Dick knew that and yet when the game came out he found himself staring long and hard at the arcade machine until he thought he was going to lose his mind. The very essence of the game was childish in its naive schematics, yet he found that he understood the psychology behind it. It was like a light had gone on in his head and he wanted to know more about the person the game was based on.


Sailor V, a champion of justice, as he discovered had passed away during a raid gone horribly wrong. The police she had been working with had very little to say about the young hero and that was when Dick found his temper flashing over the smallest things. It had even worked him up enough to drive him away from his home and into Bludhaven where he could unleash his temper on the criminal masterminds of the city.


He only slowed down once when a white cat jumped atop his head and ran across the roof he’d been perching on when things took another swing in his life and he found himself staring into blue eyes under a crescent moon. If he hadn’t of known better, he’d have sworn the Cat was giving him a look akin to that of an older brother or a father protecting a younger female.


(Break)


Setsuna knew love took work. When in her line of business, time was always the most fragile thing. She spent half of her freedom of observing time watching over the man she’d been paired with since his birth falling in love and out of love with all the passion of a short lived firefly. It was in those rare moments of weakness that she regretted flitting in and out of his life.

Rarely, did the man seem to remember her, but she knew better. Setsuna Meiou worked as a nurse in Tokyo. She sometimes took a rare vacation to Gotham City and spent a few days touring museums and listening to lectures about developing cures done by Wayne Enterprises. It was by chance, some would think, that she had met Bruce Wayne at those events.



(Break)


Time passed with very little to make note of the changes it brought. For Dick, he passed from Robin into Nightwing with barely a blip. It was only when he was preparing to propose to his long time girlfriend that he even glanced at the soulmate mark on his left arm. After the battles had been won and the criminals turned into the police he’d uncovered the mark on his arm to discover a change in the shape of it’s center. The glittering bright gold V had been replaced by a mark the symbolized woman to all mankind.


Shapeshifting marks weren’t unheard of, given that they were meant to represent the type of person who matched their soul. Extreme circumstances, or someone becoming super powered, usually acted as a trigger. There were a few lesser known things that forced a mark to change. His heart gave a sudden thump, it skipped a few seconds, before it resumed with a ferocious pounding. It had to be the exhaustion forcing those dancing lights in front of his vision.


Fingers trembling, Dick Grayson slid his communicator into his ear and pressed the connect button. It took a few seconds before he got an answer however he got out those precious few words.


“Help me, Batman.” his strength gave out on those words before he collapsed face down against the bench he had been leaning on. It had been three years since he had last felt anywhere near this weak and it had never brought him to his knees before. What was going on?


(break)


Sailor Venus trembled as she stared her mortality in the face. For her Princess, she had risked everything. Knowing her life wasn’t hers since she’d come into the knowledge that she was a stand in had petrified the girl. Sailor Moon was a credit to leadership. The bitter bite that she felt in the back of her throat with that knowledge was suppressed as she stepped into the limelight. Princess Serenity was to be protected even at the cost of Sailor Venus. The scouts had no working relationship with the Justice League and had kept their presence in the Earth’s affairs as quiet as possible until they had no other choice. Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru, Rei, Makoto, Ami, Usagi, and Mamoru. They were a team of long standing and many obstacles.


“I am Sailor Venus, representative of the Sailor Senshi.” she exclaimed the moment everyone’s eyes were on her. World leaders and members of the League were present for this announcement. They were of course here to upset the current status quo. “I’ve asked everyone here for one reason only. There is something coming. We call it the Silence and everything in the world will fall asleep until the Planet itself is ready to wake up.”


Gasps of horror and definite hostility if she was reading Superman right… It was only natural that they’d want to protect their world as it was. Really, who had the idea to send her? When her soul mate was thinking of marrying another person they really did love… Her mind was distracted. Her attention shortened as the distance between herself and the League was shortened by a step. Venus didn’t tremble. Her powers embraced love, justice, hope… All the good things of the world. It was only natural she’d feel more from her soul mate than others usually would. Each Senshi shared such a connection to their soul mate. It was supposed to balance them out. Each of them shared that same connection with a special person who would help keep the Silence at bay. Upon Rei’s revelation that any of them could trigger the end of the world the girls had been forced to set aside the things that were in line for them. Venus was about to turn nineteen. Her soul mate was three years older, according to Pluto and connected deeply to the woman’s own soulmate. If they had acted sooner they may have had the time to talk things out.


Both of them had put these meetings off for as long as they could. Venus would have to force her hand and bring her soulmate to heel. Even if it broke their oaths to whoever was before them. Her Princess had understood… Would he? Would he understand that she had tried to protect his red thread by cutting herself off from him?


Venus shifted her feet when she noticed the Batman eyeing her strongly. The glitter of her masked eyes should keep them from guessing her identity, however, her daddy’s boss… he was under that mask. Pluto, as the guardian of time and space, had known all along who was paired to who. She had seen what would happen if the girls didn’t accept their fates or if the girls had accepted. Each Senshi had been graced with a minute of time with the Gate to decide her fate. Each had come away with the knowledge that they were all linked to the Silence.


(break)


Pluto watched her soul mate crouch down on the ground beside the unconscious form of his partner. The Batman was never able to see her when she appeared, though from the stiffening of his shoulders, he knew she was near. They were always like this. Dancing around one another the few times she deigned to present her aura into his sense of territory. The few times she had gone to him as Setsuna Meiou neither of them had come away untouched.


Rather, she allowed him to seduce her and she fled away before questions could be asked. Both were sensitive to being discovered by the other and kept those precious marks covered. Pluto knew he’d ask questions about that Bat on her left forearm, just as she knew he’d expect her to ask questions about the sign of Pluto on his. Regardless, Nightwing and Venus had never met. The Senshi of Love and Light had deemed it safer for everyone to keep her distance, never realizing that the longer they stayed apart the more she projected onto the powerless human.


Venus wouldn’t do what she needed to because she thought she was protecting the man she was supposed to Love. It was a crime, what she was going to do, but her Princess had ordered her to do whatever she could to protect her Guardians.


Pluto stepped out of the shadows of time and space, into the light of the street lamps so her own soulmate would see her for what she was. A Senshi and what was deemed a global threat.


The snap of his weapon in between her fingers wasn’t a surprise. Nothing was to her. Yet, even she did not know what would happen after this meeting between them. “Batman.”


“It seems you’re done hiding.” he growled. “Why are you here?”


Pluto knew what he was asking. She didn’t have an answer for him. Not for him anyway. “I’m sure you know about the meeting between Sailor Venus and the Global Leaders. I’m also sure you know what is happening to your partner.”


She tilted her head just so her entire focus ended up on Nightwing. “The world will fall into despair if they don’t come together. Venus is trying to do what she thinks is right… For him, for our Princess, for everyone. She’s wrong.”


“Are you saying the fate of the world is on Nightwing’s and this Venus’s shoulders?” Batman hissed, coming to his full height with his partner draped against his shoulder. The weight of his former Robin hung off of him like an anvil. She had finally appeared and seemed to want nothing from him. He understood that point. Apparently, she knew things about him while he knew nothing about her.


“Not just theirs.” Pluto answered, her garnet colored eyes flicking to the masked man’s own. She held his stare as she whirled the garnet rod into existence. “I am the guardian of time and space.” Her long green hair caught and clung to the back of her fuku as she began walking forward. “It is my duty to keep this world as it should be, for good or ill. I have been alive for over a millennia and did not think I would ever meet my match.”


Her heart hurt as he took in her words. “Batman…” she continued, “I would have spared you so much if it had not been what was already written. Senshi are immortal. It is our fate until the Cauldron reclaims us.”


“That is not what I asked.” Batman barked. “What are you doing here?”


Pluto pointed the garnet rod in between the two lights that shone on them. “I’m opening the door between time and space to unite them.” she smiled, just a bit, because this was their destiny. “My name will have to await a more appropriate time, Batman. We will by need have to discuss our own future at a future date. For now, we must unite Nightwing with Venus before the Silence encroaches on us all.”


The cowl eye pieces narrowed as Pluto moved so she can support the other side of Nightwing as she all but drags both men into the doorway. She knows what he is thinking. It is not going to be a pleasant conversation between them when she reveals her identity to him. Setsuna Meiou worked as a scientist in medical botany. She was often in and out of various countries and cities trying to find cures for things that eluded regular men and women. The work acted as a cover so she could be seen in many places within reason.


After walking through the portal of time and space into a bedroom that clearly belonged to a young woman did the Batman finally demand another answer. That was, until he caught sight of the image of Venus on the television. She was speaking to the World about the threat that the Senshi had repeatedly tried to keep away. There was pain at the corners of her mouth, her fingers were held far too loosely, and she seemed to be distracted with the way she held herself.


“Sailor Venus is projecting onto him. I doubt she is aware of what is happening. At the moment, the most direct route to the Silence are these two.” Pluto explained, bringing Batman’s attention back to herself.


“What are we supposed to do then?” his voice was gravel on her ears, though her heart fluttered all the more for it. Batman held the eyes of Pluto as she dipped her chin to the right. A blush darkened her cheeks as she shook off the effect he'd always have on her.


Batman had seen that blush once, long ago before he'd ever put on the cowl. Long after Antonia, though. She had been a sort of second wind that hadn't lasted long when they'd just stopped seeing each other. She'd claimed to be the Guardian of space and time. Did she purposely come and seek him out at the times she was needed most? Is that what she had planned for Nightwing and this Venus?


"The kind of union you have in mind… what is it?” he asked, already working on just how he was going to explain this too the semi-conscious Dick. Especially given how Pluto was looking fixedly on anything but the two heroes from Gotham. His eyebrows both shot upward. It was one thing when a dalliance turned into something overnight, yet…


“This fate of the world thing isn’t just a line, right?” Batman asked. He really couldn’t believe what it was Pluto was beginning to do as she reached down and began tugging at Nightwing’s gloves. “I…”


Pluto paused for a second as she dropped Nightwing’s left hand back to his chest. His right hand was already bare, lying atop his stomach. “This isn’t about you, me, or them. It’s about the world, Bruce. We Senshi are what we are. Without a compromise between them, neither of them will survive. I cannot allow Venus to suffer eternity without at least knowing…”


“It doesn’t have to be like this.” Batman argued. “Soulmates have never been required to go so far.”


Pluto shook. Wrapping her hands around herself, she looked away from Batman and out towards the Tokyo sunset. “For Senshi it’s always been imperative to balance out our powers and humanity. If you knew a simple act of skin contact could ease the greatest pain, wouldn’t you encourage it? Enforce it no matter what the cost was?”


“Not like this.” Bruce countered. Straightening his spine, he began to move towards the woman he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. She was outlining a very necessary event in terms of non-consensual soul bonding. It was no better than rape if it was looked at in the eyes of the law. “Soul bonds are not meant to instituted this way, Pluto. Deceiving me, flitting in and out of my life for years, is not the way it should be done either.”


Dick stirred, listening with a half ear to the conversation that he’d been dragged into. The Sailor Senshi Pluto knew things about these bonds and had acted on them without Bruce’s knowledge. It was almost impossible to do things like that when it concerned the man directly. Perhaps, it was because of what they were. For a long time, the Justice League had watched them from a distance. These females worked in two teams. One led by a woman named Uranus and the other led by Venus. He opened his eyes just in time to see the blush staining the woman’s face and realized just why she had seemed familiar. She was an on and off date in Bruce Wayne’s black book. At random, she showed up at parties and charities only to be swept away by his guardian.


Pluto held her ground as the Dark Knight of Gotham towered over her. “What would you have me do, Batman? Bruce… what was I supposed to do when I saw everything that would happen to you? I am bound by so many secrets and having to watch your life as it has unfolded is more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m the Guardian of Time. I’m not even supposed to exist in this world, however, because of you… because of this mark, I had to come.”


“These marks exist for one reason only. Because they are supposed to bring people together. My parents were such. My children are such. We are such. You belong here not because of fate, time, or destiny. It is simply because of me.” Bruce replied, bringing a gloved hand up to Pluto’s chin and tilting her head up just enough so that his lips could brush hers. A swift, chaste kiss… “Bring this Venus here. Nightwing and her will have to figure out their own way if they are to work. Now, it is time for us to work out our own way.”


Nightwing pushed himself up onto his elbows, the room catching his attention at the soft tones it embraced. Out of the corner of his eye he observed that Batman was making his moves on the Senshi. Apparently, his boss was feeling a bit uncomfortable that this woman knew so much about him and he knew so little.


He wondered if Pluto could read minds? His hands were bare, which meant Bruce was also creating a distraction so he could at least get on his own two feet. As much as he hated the man’s tactics, they damn sure worked. Pushing himself up he glanced towards a picture of nine women and a man. A pigtailed blonde with a pair of buns was embracing the man, while his eyes drifted over the rest of the faces. He spotted Pluto in the picture, actually smiling, and the blue eyes of a blond making a V sign caught his attention. There, bold as the R mark of the Robin suit, sat high on her wrist. Despite the fact it was upside down, Dick would know that letter anywhere. The colors around it were the same as his previous costume, with all the little variances. So, she had to have known he was a vigilante after a certain point, wouldn’t she?


“Where are we?” Dick asked, as he reached over and plucked the photo from the nightstand. “Batman?”


Pluto blinked, snapping out of the trance she’d been falling into with Bruce’s attention entirely focused on her. The Senshi blinked again as she looked at the picture in Nightwing’s hands. Yes, she had wanted him to see that too. “Tokyo, Japan.” she answered. How had he done that? She was the Guardian of Time, the most observant of all the Senshi given what her job was.


“Weren’t we… at home?” Just what had this woman done? Could they really trust her? Dick twisted until he was looking at the picture again. Really, did the blonde have to show off that symbol like it was something to be proud of? Sure, she probably didn’t know it would make her a target, but it would.



(Break)



Venus disappeared in a spark of light and gold ribbons, leaving behind the very mortal body of Minako Aino. The young heroine shivered as the weight of what she had done pressed in on her at all sides. She hadn’t volunteered to take on the World for no reason. She’d hoped that he would see her for what she was, yet, he had not been in the Justice League. She doubted he’d ever attended any of her concerts during one of those all too often world tours she’d made during her life. She was quickly beginning to think the man must be a monk or someone who was totally uninterested in her.


Which, as the Senshi of Love she found almost impossible to imagine. The mark on her wrist transformed into a strange version of a bird in flight, twisting around the faded R as if embracing the former symbol. It had been a shock when it had happened. Like when Makoto had invited Minako over for tea and cookies a few years ago to show her the gossamer R on her own wrist. The faded red that eventually hazed out the letter had struck a chord in the two of them. Both of the girls had discussed what those marks meant in the long run. Neither Rei or Ami had come forward with any information or visual clues about their soulmates.


Then there was the fact that both girls spoke English quite well even without Makoto ever really paying attention to the classes in school. Venus had already been to London and figured that whoever her soul mate was, definitely wasn’t British. So, that brought her back to the original questions she’d harbored since the day she’d found that beloved letter on her arm. Who was he? Would they be enemies? Would she have to give him up to protect him? What if he wouldn’t accept the fact that she was a Senshi? There was so much that could go wrong. She felt that prickle of pain as she remembered the thought that he was going to commit himself to someone else…


Would he still do that? Even if they had to follow through with a Compromise, like what Pluto had arranged for herself and her own soul mate? Minako didn’t think her heart could take that.


She wanted to romanced, swept off her feet like the Princess she was, loved for who she was, and most importantly, she wanted to be loved by her soul mate. But the mark never guaranteed anything. Her own parents were platonic with their soulmates, having married each other when the four of them met. All at once, life seemed to turn upside down. Usagi was with her soul mate. Her parents were with married soulmates.


Even Artemis was paired off with Luna and… she really wanted that. Tossing her hair over one shoulder, Minako bent down to remove her shoes when she heard the voices coming from her room. Her blonde eye brow shot up as she kicked off the flats she wore behind the glamour of her Senshi uniform. The pink sandals flopped uselessly on the step as she picked her way across the floor on tiptoes to press her ear to her own bedroom door. Three voices floated back to her and her eyes went wide.


“Weren’t we… at home?” A voice said. It was a soft type of steel that cut through the layers of duty she had wrapped herself up in and Minako’s knees went weak. Locking her legs didn’t keep her fingers from trembling as she pushed on the surface of her bedroom door and opening the thin wooden barrier into the domain she had treated like a personal sanctuary since she was a child. Her room, no matter where she had gone, had been her one place to let go. Now it was being invaded and she trembled when the three people inside turned to look at her. The mark on her arm tingled, itched, and tickled all at the same time and her blue eyes jumped straight past Setsuna, past the Batman, and straight to the masked eyes of her soul mate.


Her eyes started to tear up as she cursed herself inside and out…. She didn’t even know his name and he was just so dashing standing there in the dim light of her room.


His dark head turned slightly to the side and she could have sworn she heard him whisper a curse to himself. Her heart threatened to beat itself out of her chest as she shook herself out of the trance that was settling in on her. The part of her that was Venus reminded her that she had to show her best side without revealing her weaknesses.


Pluto had obviously brought them to her, knowing she was going to be in a civilian guise…. She was protecting Venus by forcing Minako to act within the guise of her civilian self. At least, that’s what the Senshi told herself as she took a step back when her soulmate set her picture down and took a step towards her. Or maybe she was trying to think of a way around this because she just wasn’t ready….


Then he spoke. “Don’t run.”


Her heart stopped, she swore it did, as she blinked up at him and boy was he really, really, really tall. He made her feel small, fragile, and desired all in one short second that went on forever. Then his gloved hand was on her cheek and she blinked. When had he gotten that close to her?


“You’re….” she began and froze as his thumb moved across her cheek bone. What was he doing, memorizing her face? He didn’t even know her name. She didn’t know his and what the hell had Setsuna been thinking? He was in love with another woman and they were supposed to be getting together for the rest of their lives, and oh Venus, why did he have to be so damn cute?


(Break)


Whatever Dick had been expecting it wasn’t someone so small that he dwarfed her. She was a kind of beauty that was wilt in Gotham or Bludhaven had she ever gone to those places and he was sure even more now that they were better apart. That was until her eyes finally snapped away from his and to the hovering form of the woman who had brought them here.


“Pluto, what were you thinking?” she demanded, a tone in her voice that sounded like it didn’t belong to her and yet it drew him in like a moth to a flame.


Oh, hell... Nightwing’s eyes narrowed under his mask. This tiny, demure, fragile looking civilian wasn’t one of the Senshi, was she? How could she be? She looked like the wind could knock her over…


Batman huffed, his lips quirking as if he knew exactly what was going through his protege’s head. Apparently, protective instincts ran strong through pairs when soul mates met….


“Maybe we should have tea?” Pluto suggested. She glanced towards Batman when she said this. “Venus and Nightwing probably need to talk between themselves.”


“I need to get back to Gotham. Nightwing and I were tracking…” Batman paused when the blond girl smacked herself across her forehead and Pluto smiled.


“Sailor Jupiter is taking care of him.” Pluto answered. “He is her soulmate, after all.”


“She’s been looking for her ‘senpai’ for a long time.” Venus muttered. Her skin tingled more when Nightwing finally drew away with a shuddering breath.


“Red Hood is dangerous. Your friend is in danger.” he said, already turning to Bruce to see about getting them home.


“She’s not alone. Mercury and Mars have gone with her. Luna and Artemis are coordinating the efforts. The other girls are all doing patrols or are on guard duty.” Pluto answered, a little too quickly for Venus to be comfortable with. “And I’m aware of how much Batman needs to return to his city. I propose a temporary trade. Just twenty four hours.”


“A compromise?” Minako whispered, fingers knotting into her palms as she dropped her head slightly forward. When she had been younger her dream had been for her soulmate to sweep her off her feet, despite the fact she was a Senshi. But that dream wasn’t really functional with her life style. Nor did it seem with his… He was a vigilante. She was born to die for her princess should the need ever arise. His arms and legs flexed as he dropped into a crouch and her mouth went dry. She had a single thought in her head and it rang itself out like the last piece of chocolate Makoto had made a week ago. Yummy.


Her face flushed a brilliant red and she quickly turned her head away from Nightwing and stared hard at the opposite wall as she frantically tried to bring herself under control.


“Whatever needs to be done, Nightwing, see that it gets taken care of.” Batman suddenly stated. “Sailor Pluto and I need to have words of our own and I think that would best be done back in Gotham.”

Pluto found herself ungrounded yet again in Batman’s presence. She knew he was angry with her. Having faced enemies and seeing her home come to destruction at least once, she felt her spine stiffen. Facing a soulmate was definitely quite different. She wondered if either of them were going to be able to work things out or if he would accept her Compromise… Somehow, she thought he just might, unless he really wanted to take it further.


Her hands moved, twirled the Garnet Rod and opened the door to time. The brilliant light and shadows of time opened a path into the Cave System that Batman called his lair. “I’ll return for Nightwing in twenty-four hours.” she said, before the Batman took her by her arm and drew her through the doorway and into the cave. The door shut behind them with a solid sound and then locked itself.


Nightwing let out a breath as he turned to face the irate looking blond as she turned her head to look up at him. Time to get it over with. His hand reached up and he tugged the edge of his mask up, peeling it away from his face until his blue eyes met hers, without the whiteout eye pieces shielding the shade of his eyes from hers. The dark blue matched her own and he wondered what she was thinking.


Minako’s heart was pounding when the mask was taken off. The man behind it was really as handsome as she had feared. The Senshi of Love did not have a good history with men that were as cute as him. She really didn’t.


“I’m not sure if you speak English, however, I’m Richard Grayson. Friends call me Dick. You are?” He asked, hoping she’d understand him though with that airy look she was getting she just might not.


“Minako. Aino Minako.” She answered in English. “Please, refer to me as Minako. A friend’s boyfriend left his things in her room. Would you prefer a change of clothes so we can discuss things properly?”


“Right. That’d make… things easier.” Dick agreed, relieved that they wouldn’t have a language barrier to work out. This woman, she was his soulmate, and he didn’t love her. He was in love with Barbara, was planning to ask her to marry him. Tapping his fingers against his upper arm, Dick looked around the young woman’s bedroom again. The sheer femininity of it left him a bit uncomfortable. He didn’t even think the tiny little couch at the side of her room would support his weight. The vanity was decorated with various types of makeup, a signed poster hung on the wall of an idol group that had come and gone. There was a framed contract on the wall that had long since expired.


Minako returned shortly with a pair of mens shorts and a t-shirt. “Setsuna didn’t give you time to grab anything, huh? These might be a bit small, but Mamoru-san is the only guy we actually hang out with.” She explained as she held out the clothing. Taking them, Dick watched as Minako crossed the room and closed the window and curtains before heading back to the doorway of her room. “I’ll let you get changed.”


Holding up the clothes, Dick’s mouth dropped just a bit. He was much taller then whoever this Mamoru was. Setting the clothes aside, the man began to strip off the outer layers of his armor. The blue and black body suit quickly disassembled and he set it on the cream colored carpet, next to the low table that sat beside the bed. The clothes really wouldn’t do him any good, however…. He finished taking off the armor, leaving the thin layers of his clothing on underneath. The undergear was usually designed to be worn under clothes if



(break)


Sailor Jupiter had had enough.


That gun toting soul mate of hers was running around this city like nothing was at all wrong.


The Senshi of Jupiter, thunder and storms, and whatever else you wanted to call her was intent on capturing her soul mate and bring balance back to his wounded heart. She’d been so hopeless when he’d died… She didn’t know what had happened to bring him back but Usagi seemed rather firm on the fact Makoto needed to do something about the man.


The echoing retort of a firearm going off had her moving west towards the place known as crime alley.


(Break)

I have enough here to begin writing notes for the plot and development of this story.

The Soul Mate Theory:

Bruce/Setsuna (Second Primary):

Dick/Minako (Primary):

Makoto/Jason:

Others:

Notes:

Dick Grayson is seventeen when the mark first appears. In his line of work he had considered it a blessing for there to be no mark at all. At least, that was the story until he sat down with his guardians and ordered the situation explained to him in full. Bruce Wayne’s own mark a PL was dark green, delicate, and ethereal, the mark of a woman. Dick Grayson glanced at the bold, bright, stylized V on his arm. The glittering gold had left him speechless because the mark wasn’t anything like what he’d assumed it’d be. His crush on Batgirl had ended when he’d asked her to go steady with him. Once she had agreed to only date him until the soul mate markers appeared they’d gone steady for four years.


Now, a year just shy of his eighteenth birthday his soulmate finally showed up. Puberty usually instigated the marker on both members of a pact, yet there were common cases where years would separate a pairing. He kept his eyes locked on Bruce.


“I’ve always had a soul mate mark.” Bruce said. “Alfred’s never had one. Once the mark is present, it’ll always be there. For your soul mate’s own protection, keep it covered.”


“Why is it so bright?” Dick asked, his question more rhetoric. Regardless, he received an answer when the Mark seemed to ‘glitter’ at him. It was bizarre yet Dick Grayson had never felt so terrified then he did in that moment.


“It represents the person you’re meant to be with.” Bruce stated, pulling up his sleeve to glance at the mark that had graced his arm since birth. “My parents always worried that she or he would be so much older then me, but if that was the case….”


(Break)



Most girls growing up didn’t know what a soul mark really meant. Being an incarnation of the goddess of love left Minako Aino with little doubt as to just what that mark was when it first showed up on her wrist. The bold R was a crisp imprint on her skin highlighted in green and red about two centimeters from the letter. She tilted it over and watched the almost metallic image catch the light of the sun. She had come into her powers as Sailor V and upon returning to her civilian form the mark had been there.


Leaning her head against the pink covers on her bed, Minako turned her head to look at the mirror. What kind of person would have that kind of personality? Really? Was he going to be some kind of soldier? Or was he maybe a prince from another planet? Pulling at the tresses of her hair, the fourteen year old girl bit down hard on her lip. It was a harsh world, not everyone met their soul mate, and sometimes, they were the person you ended up being enemies with.


(break)


Arcade games were things for little kids, Dick knew that and yet when the game came out he stared long and hard at the arcade machine until he thought he would lose his mind. The essence of the game was childish in its naive schematics, yet he found that he understood the psychology behind it. It was like a light had gone on in his head and he wanted to know more about the person the game was based on.


Sailor V, a champion of justice, as he discovered had passed away during a raid. The police she had been working with had little to say about the young hero and that was when Dick found his temper flashing over the smallest things. It had even worked him up enough to drive him away from his home and into Bludhaven where he could unleash his temper on the criminal masterminds of the city.


He only slowed down once when a white cat jumped atop his head and ran across the roof he’d been perching on when things took another swing in his life and looked into blue eyes under a crescent moon. If he hadn’t of known better, he’d have sworn the Cat was giving him a look akin to that of an older brother or a father protecting a younger female.


(Break)


Setsuna knew love took work. When in her line of business, time was always the most fragile thing. She spent half of her free time watching over the man she’d been paired with since his birth falling in love and out of love. It was in those rare moments of weakness that she regretted flitting in and out of his life.

Rarely, did the man seem to remember her, but she knew better. Setsuna Meiou worked as a nurse in Tokyo. She sometimes took a rare vacation to Gotham City and spent a few days touring museums and listening to lectures about developing cures by Wayne Enterprises. It was by chance, some would think, that she had met Bruce Wayne at those events.



(Break)


Time passed with little to make note of the changes it brought. For Dick, he passed from Robin into Nightwing with barely a blip. It was only when he was preparing to propose to his long time girlfriend that he glanced at the soulmate mark on his left arm. After the battles and the criminals turned into the police he’d uncovered the mark on his arm to discover a change in the shape of it’s center. The glittering bright gold V had been replaced by a mark the symbolized woman to all mankind.


Shapeshifting marks weren’t unheard of, given that they were meant to represent the type of person who matched their soul. Extreme circumstances, or someone becoming super powered, usually acted as a trigger. There were a few lesser known things that forced a mark to change. His heart gave a sudden thump, it skipped a few seconds, before it resumed with a ferocious pounding. It had to be the exhaustion forcing those dancing lights in front of his vision.


Fingers trembling, Dick Grayson slid his communicator into his ear and pressed the connect button. It took a few seconds before he got an answer however he got out those precious few words.


“Help me, Batman.” his strength gave out on those words before he collapsed face down against the bench he had been leaning on. It had been three years since he had last felt anywhere near this weak and it had never brought him to his knees before. What was going on?


(break)


Sailor Venus trembled as she stared her mortality in the face. For her Princess, she had risked everything. Knowing her life wasn’t hers since she’d come into the knowledge that she was a stand in had petrified the girl. Sailor Moon was a credit to leadership. Princess Serenity was to be protected even at the cost of Sailor Venus. The scouts had no working relationship with the Justice League and had kept their presence in the Earth’s affairs as quiet as possible until they had no other choice. Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru, Rei, Makoto, Ami, Usagi, and Mamoru. They were a team of long standing and many obstacles.


“I am Sailor Venus, representative of the Sailor Senshi.” she exclaimed the moment everyone’s eyes were on her. World leaders and members of the League were present for this announcement. They were here to upset the current status quo. “I’ve asked everyone here for one reason only. There is something coming. We call it the Silence and everything in the world will fall asleep until the Planet itself is ready to wake up.”


Gasps of horror and definite hostility if she was reading Superman right… It was only natural they’d want to protect their world as it was. Who really had the idea to send her? When her soul mate was thinking of marrying another person they did love… How vould she focus on delivering the message from the Senshi? Her attention shortened as the distance between herself and the League shortened by a step. Venus didn’t tremble. Her powers embraced love, justice, hope… All the good things of the world. It was only natural she’d feel more from her soul mate than others would. Each Senshi shared such a connection to their soul mate to balance them out. Each of them shared that same connection with a special person who would help keep the Silence at bay. Upon Rei’s revelation that any of them could trigger the end of the world the girls forced aside the things that were in line for them. Venus was about to turn nineteen. Her soul mate was three years older, according to Pluto and connected deeply to the woman’s own soulmate. If they had acted sooner they may have had the time to talk things out.


Both of them had put these meetings off for as long as they could. Venus would have to force her hand and bring her soulmate to heel. Even if it broke their oaths to whoever was before them. Her Princess had understood… Would he? Would he understand that she had tried to protect his red thread by cutting herself off from him?


Venus shifted her feet when she noticed the Batman watching her. The glitter of her masked eyes should keep them from guessing her identity, however, her daddy’s boss… he was under that mask. Pluto, as the guardian of time and space, had known all along who paired to who. She had seen what would happen if the girls didn’t accept their fates or if the girls had accepted. Each Senshi had been graced with a minute of time with the Gate to decide her fate. Each had come away knowing their connection to the Silence.


(break)


Pluto watched her soul mate crouch down on the ground beside the unconscious form of his partner. The Batman never saw her when she appeared, though from the stiffening of his shoulders, he knew she was near. They were always like this. Dancing around one another the few times she deigned to present her aura into his sense of territory. The few times she had gone to him as Setsuna Meiou neither of them had come away untouched.


Rather, she allowed him to seduce her and she fled away before questions could be asked. Both were sensitive to being discovered by the other and kept those precious marks covered. Pluto knew he’d ask questions about that Bat on her left forearm, just as she knew he’d expect her to ask questions about the sign of Pluto on his. Regardless, Nightwing and Venus had never met. The Senshi of Love and Light had deemed it safer for everyone to keep her distance, never realizing that the longer they stayed apart the more she projected onto the powerless human.


Venus wouldn’t do what she needed to because she thought she was protecting the man she was supposed to Love. It was a crime, however her Princess had ordered her to do whatever she could to protect her Guardians. In turn this would protect the World.


Pluto stepped out of the shadows of time and space, into the light of the street lamps so her own soulmate would see her for what she was. A Senshi and what was recently called a global threat.


The snap of his weapon in between her fingers wasn’t a surprise. Nothing was to her. Yet, even she did not know what would happen after this meeting between them. “Batman.”


“It seems you’re done hiding.” he growled. “Why are you here?”


Pluto knew what he was asking. She didn’t have an answer for him. Not for him anyway. “I’m sure you know about what the meeting between Sailor Venus, the Justice League, and the Global Leaders means. I’m also sure you know what is happening to your partner.”


She tilted her head just so her entire focus ended up on Nightwing. “The world will fall into despair if they don’t come together. Venus is trying to do what she thinks is right… For him, for our Princess, for everyone. She’s wrong.”


“Are you saying the fate of the world is on Nightwing’s and this Venus’s shoulders?” Batman hissed, coming to his full height with his partner draped against his shoulder. The weight of his former Robin hung off of him like an anvil. She had finally appeared and seemed to want nothing from him. He understood that point. Apparently, she knew things about him while he knew almost nothing about her.


“Not just theirs.” Pluto answered, her garnet colored eyes flicking to the masked man’s own. She held his stare as she whirled the garnet rod into existence. “I am the guardian of time and space.” Her long green hair caught and clung to the back of her fuku as she began walking forward. “It is my duty to keep this world as it should be, for good or ill. I have been alive for over a millennia and did not think I would ever meet my match.”


Her heart hurt as he took in her words. “Batman…” she continued, “I would have spared you so much if it had not been what was already written. Senshi are immortal. It is our fate until the Cauldron reclaims us.”


“That is not what I asked.” Batman barked. “What are you doing here?”


Pluto pointed the garnet rod in between the two lights that shone on them. “I’m opening the door between time and space to unite them.” she smiled, just a bit, because this was their destiny. “My name will have to await a more appropriate time, Batman. We will by need have to discuss our own future at a future date. For now, we must unite Nightwing with Venus before the Silence encroaches on us all.”


The cowl eye pieces narrowed as Pluto moved so she can support the other side of Nightwing as she all but drags both men into the doorway. She knows what he is thinking. It is not going to be a pleasant conversation between them when she reveals her identity to him. Setsuna Meiou worked as a scientist in medical botany. She was often in and out of various countries and cities trying to find cures for things that eluded regular men and women. The work acted as a cover so she could be seen in many places within reason.


After walking through the gate into a bedroom that belonged to a young woman did the Batman finally demand another answer. That was, until he caught sight of a new recording with Venus on the television. She spoke in accented English to the World about the threat that the Senshi had repeatedly tried to keep away. There was pain at the corners of her mouth, her fingers were held far too loosely, and she seemed to be distracted. Her body language told him quite a bit about what kind of person she was without the mask.


“Sailor Venus is projecting onto him. I doubt she's aware of it. Venus would have attempted to keep him from sensing her conflict. At the moment, the most direct route to the Silence are these two.” Pluto explained, bringing Batman’s attention back to herself.


“What are we supposed to do then?” his voice was gravel on her ears, though her heart fluttered all the more for it. Batman held the eyes of Pluto as she dipped her chin to the right. A blush darkened her cheeks as she shook off the effect he'd always have on her.


Batman had seen that blush once, long ago before he'd ever put on the cowl. Long after Antonia, though. She had been a sort of second wind that hadn't lasted long when they'd just stopped seeing each other. She'd claimed to be the Guardian of space and time. Did she purposely come and seek him out at the times he needed her? Is that what she had planned for Nightwing and this Venus?


"The kind of union you have in mind… what is it?” he asked, already working on just how to explain this to the semi-conscious Dick. Especially given how Pluto was looking at anything but the heroes from Gotham. His eyebrows both shot upward. It was one thing when a dalliance turned into something overnight, yet…


“This fate of the world thing isn’t just a line, right?” Batman asked. He really couldn’t believe what it was Pluto suggested as she reached down and tugged at Nightwing’s gloves. “I…”


Pluto paused for a second as she dropped Nightwing’s left hand back to his chest. His right hand was already bare, lying atop his stomach. “This isn’t about you, me, or them. It’s about the world, Bruce. We Senshi are what we are. Without a Compromise between them, neither of them will survive. I cannot allow Venus to suffer eternity without at least knowing…”


“It doesn’t have to be like this.” Batman argued. “Soulmates have never been required to go so far.”


Pluto shook. Wrapping her hands around herself, she looked away from Batman and out towards the Tokyo sunset. “For Senshi it’s always been imperative to balance out our powers and humanity. If you knew a simple act of skin contact could ease the greatest pain, wouldn’t you encourage it? Enforce it no matter what the cost was?”


“Not like this.” Bruce countered. Straightening his spine, he moved towards the woman. She was outlining a very necessary event in terms of non-consensual soul bonding. It was no better than rape if it was looked at in the eyes of the law. “Soul bonds are not meant to instituted this way, Pluto. Deceiving me, flitting in and out of my life for years, is not the way it should be done either.”


Dick stirred, listening with a half ear to the conversation that he’d been dragged into. The Sailor Senshi Pluto knew things about these bonds and had acted on them without Bruce’s knowledge. It was almost impossible to do things like that when it concerned the man directly. Perhaps, it was because of what they were. For a long time, the Justice League had watched them from a distance. These females worked in two teams. One led by a woman named Uranus and the other led by Venus. He opened his eyes just in time to see the blush staining the woman’s face and realized just why she had seemed familiar. She was an on and off date in Bruce Wayne’s black book. At random, she showed up at parties and charities only to be swept away by his guardian.


Pluto held her ground as the Dark Knight of Gotham towered over her. “What would you have me do, Batman? Bruce… what was I supposed to do when I saw everything that would happen to you? I am bound by so many secrets and having to watch your life as it has unfolded is more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m the Guardian of Time. I’m not even supposed to exist in this world, however, because of you… because of this mark, I had to come.”


“These marks exist for one reason only. Because they are supposed to bring people together. My parents were such. My children are such. We are such. You belong here not because of fate, time, or destiny. It is simply because of me.” Bruce replied, bringing a gloved hand up to Pluto’s chin and tilting her head up just enough so that his lips could brush hers. A swift, chaste kiss… “Bring this Venus here. Nightwing and her will have to figure out their own way if they are to work. Now, it is time for us to work out our own way.”


Nightwing pushed himself up onto his elbows, the room catching his attention at the soft tones it embraced. Out of the corner of his eye he observed that Batman was making his moves on the Senshi. Apparently, his boss and former guardian was feeling uncomfortable that this woman knew so much about him and he knew so little.


He wondered if Pluto could read minds? His hands were bare, which meant Bruce was also creating a distraction so he could at least get on his own two feet. As much as he hated the man’s tactics, they damn sure worked. Pushing himself up he glanced towards a picture of nine women and a man. A pigtailed blonde with a pair of buns was embracing the man, while his eyes drifted over the rest of the faces. He spotted Pluto in the picture, actually smiling, and the blue eyes of a blond making a V sign caught his attention. There, bold as the R mark of the Robin suit, sat high on her wrist. Despite the fact it was upside down, Dick would know that letter anywhere. The colors around it were the same as his previous costume, with all the little variances. So, she had to have known he was a vigilante after a certain point, wouldn’t she?


“Where are we?” Dick asked, as he reached over and plucked the photo from the nightstand. “Batman?”


Pluto blinked, snapping out of the trance she’d been falling into with Bruce’s attention focused on her. The Senshi blinked again as she looked at the picture in Nightwing’s hands. Yes, she had wanted him to see that too. “Tokyo, Japan.” she answered. How had he done that? She was the Guardian of Time, the most observant of all the Senshi given what her job was.


“Weren’t we… at home?” Just what had this woman done? Could they trust her? Dick twisted until he was looking at the picture again. Did the blonde have to show off that symbol like it was something to be proud of? Sure, she probably didn’t know it would make her a target, but it would.



(Break)



Venus disappeared in a spark of light and gold ribbons, leaving behind the very mortal body of Minako Aino. The young heroine shivered as the weight of what she had done pressed in on her at all sides. She hadn’t volunteered to take on the World for no reason. She’d hoped that he would see her for what she was, yet, he had not been in the Justice League. Minako doubted he’d ever attended any of her concerts during one of those all too often world tours she’d made during her life. She was beginning to think the man must be a monk or someone who was totally uninterested in her.


Which, as the Senshi of Love she found almost impossible to imagine. The mark on her wrist transformed into a strange version of a bird in flight, twisting around the faded R as if embracing the former symbol. It had been a shock when it had happened. Like when Makoto had invited Minako over for tea and cookies a few years ago to show her the gossamer R on her own wrist. The faded red that eventually hazed out the letter had struck a chord in the two of them. Both of the girls had discussed what those marks meant in the long run. Neither Rei or Ami had come forward with any information or visual clues about their soulmates.


Thre was the fact that both girls spoke English quite well even without Makoto ever really going to the classes in school. Venus had already been to London and figured that whoever her soul mate was, he wasn’t British. That brought her back to the original questions she’d harbored since the day she’d found that beloved letter on her arm. Who was he? Would they be enemies? Would she have to give him up to protect him? What if he wouldn’t accept the fact that she was a Senshi? There was so much that could go wrong. She felt that prickle of pain as she remembered the thought that he was going to commit himself to someone else…


Would he still do that? Even if they had to follow through with a Compromise, like what Pluto had arranged for herself and her own soul mate? Minako didn’t think her heart could take that.


She wanted to romanced, swept off her feet like the Princess she was, loved for who she was, and most importantly, she wanted to be loved by her soul mate. But the mark never guaranteed anything. Her own parents were platonic with their soulmates, having married each other when the four of them met. All at once, life seemed to turn upside down. Usagi was with her soul mate and her parents were married soulmates.


Even Artemis was with Luna and… she really wanted that. Tossing her hair over one shoulder, Minako bent down to remove her shoes when she heard the voices coming from her room. Her blonde eye brow shot up as she kicked off the flats she wore behind the glamour of her Senshi uniform. The pink sandals flopped uselessly on the step as she picked her way across the floor on tiptoes to press her ear to her own bedroom door. Three voices floated back to her and her eyes went wide.


“Weren’t we… at home?” A voice said. It was a soft type of steel that cut through the layers of duty she had wrapped herself up in and Minako’s knees went weak. Locking her legs didn’t keep her fingers from trembling as she pushed on the surface of her bedroom door and opened the thin wooden barrier into the domain she had treated like a personal sanctuary since she was a child. Her room, no matter where she had gone, had been her one place to let go. Now it was being invaded and she trembled when the three people inside turned to look at her. The mark on her arm tingled, itched, and tickled all at the same time and her blue eyes jumped straight past Setsuna, past the Batman, and straight to the masked eyes of her soul mate.


Her eyes started to tear up as she cursed herself inside and out…. She didn’t even know his name and he was just so dashing standing there in the dim light of her room.


His dark head turned slightly to the side and she could have sworn she heard him whisper a curse to himself. Her heart threatened to beat itself out of her chest as she shook herself out of the trance that was settling in on her. The part of her that was Venus reminded her that she had to show her best side without revealing her weaknesses.


Pluto had obviously brought them to her, knowing she was going to be in a civilian guise…. She was protecting Venus by forcing Minako to act within the guise of her civilian self. At least, that’s what the Senshi told herself as she took a step back when her soulmate set her picture down and took a step towards her. Or maybe she was trying to think of a way around this because she just wasn’t ready….


Then he spoke. “Don’t run.”


Her heart stopped, she swore it did, as she blinked up at him and boy was he really, really, really tall. He made her feel small, fragile, and desired all in one short second that went on forever. Then his hand was on her cheek and she blinked. When had he gotten that close to her?


“You’re….” she began and froze as his thumb moved across her cheek bone. What was he doing, memorizing her face? He didn’t even know her name. She didn’t know his and what the hell had Setsuna been thinking? He was in love with another woman and they were supposed to be getting together for the rest of their lives, and oh Venus, why did he have to be so damn cute?


(Break)


Whatever Dick had been expecting it wasn’t someone so small that he dwarfed her. She was a kind of beauty that wilted in Gotham or Bludhaven had she ever gone to those places and he was sure even more now that they were better apart. That was until her eyes finally snapped away from his and to the hovering form of the woman who had brought them here.


“Pluto, what were you thinking?” she demanded, a tone in her voice that sounded like it didn’t belong to her and yet it drew him in like a moth to a flame.


Oh, hell... Nightwing’s eyes narrowed under his mask. This tiny, demure, fragile looking civilian wasn’t one of the Senshi, was she? How could she be? She looked like the wind could knock her over…


Batman huffed, his lips quirking as if he knew exactly what was going through his protege’s head. Apparently, protective instincts ran strong through pairs when soul mates met….


“Maybe we should have tea?” Pluto suggested. She glanced towards Batman when she said this. “Venus and Nightwing probably need to talk between themselves.”


“I need to get back to Gotham. Nightwing and I were tracking…” Batman paused when the blond girl smacked herself across her forehead and Pluto smiled.


“Sailor Jupiter is taking care of him.” Pluto answered. “He is her soulmate, after all.”


“She’s been looking for her ‘senpai’ for a long time.” Venus muttered. Her skin tingled more when Nightwing finally drew away with a shuddering breath.


“Red Hood is dangerous. Your friend is in danger.” he said, already turning to Bruce to see about getting them home.


“She’s not alone. Mercury and Mars have gone with her. Luna and Artemis are coordinating the efforts. The other girls are all doing patrols or are on guard duty.” Pluto answered, a little too quickly for Venus to be comfortable with. “And I’m aware of how much Batman needs to return to his city. I propose a temporary trade. Just twenty four hours.”


“A compromise?” Minako whispered, fingers knotting into her palms as she dropped her head slightly forward. When she had been younger her dream had been for her soulmate to sweep her off her feet, despite the fact she was a Senshi. But that dream wasn’t really functional with her life style. Nor did it seem with his… He was a vigilante. She was born to die for her princess should the need ever arise. His arms and legs flexed as he dropped into a crouch and her mouth went dry. She had a single thought in her head and it rang itself out like the last piece of chocolate Makoto had made a week ago. Yummy.


Her face flushed a brilliant red and she quickly turned her head away from Nightwing and stared hard at the opposite wall as she frantically tried to bring herself under control.


“Whatever needs to be done, Nightwing, see that it gets taken care of.” Batman suddenly stated. “Sailor Pluto and I need to have words of our own and I think that would best be done back in Gotham.”

Pluto found herself ungrounded yet again in Batman’s presence. She knew he was angry with her. Having faced enemies and seeing her home come to destruction at least once, she felt her spine stiffen. Facing a soulmate was definitely quite different. She wondered if either of them were going to be able to work things out or if he would accept her Compromise… Somehow, she thought he just might, unless he really wanted to take it further.


Her hands moved, twirled the Garnet Rod and opened the door to time. The brilliant light and shadows of time opened a path into the Cave System that Batman called his lair. “I’ll return for Nightwing in twenty-four hours.” she said, before the Batman took her by her arm and drew her through the doorway and into the cave. The door shut behind them with a solid sound and then locked itself.


Nightwing let out a breath as he turned to face the irate looking blond as she turned her head to look up at him. Time to get it over with. His hand reached up and he tugged the edge of his mask up, peeling it away from his face until his blue eyes met hers, without the whiteout eye pieces shielding the shade of his eyes from hers. The dark blue matched her own and he wondered what she was thinking.


Minako’s heart was pounding when the mask was taken off. The man behind it was really as handsome as she had feared. The Senshi of Love did not have a good history with men that were as cute as him. She really didn’t.


“I’m not sure if you speak English, however, I’m Richard Grayson. Friends call me Dick. You are?” He asked, hoping she’d understand him though with that airy look she was getting she just might not.


“Minako. Aino Minako.” She answered in English. “Please, refer to me as Minako. A friend’s boyfriend left his things in her room. Would you prefer a change of clothes so we can discuss things properly?”


“Right. That’d make… things easier.” Dick agreed, relieved that they wouldn’t have a language barrier to work out. This woman, she was his soulmate, and he didn’t love her. He was in love with Barbara, was planning to ask her to marry him. Tapping his fingers against his upper arm, Dick looked around the young woman’s bedroom again. The sheer femininity of it left him a bit uncomfortable. He didn’t even think the tiny little couch at the side of her room would support his weight. The vanity was decorated with various types of makeup, a signed poster hung on the wall of an idol group that had come and gone. A framed contract on the wall that had long since expired.


Minako returned shortly with a pair of mens shorts and a t-shirt. “Setsuna didn’t give you time to grab anything, huh? These might be a bit small, but Mamoru-san is the only guy we actually hang out with.” She explained as she held out the clothing. Taking them, Dick watched as Minako crossed the room and closed the window and curtains before heading back to the doorway of her room. “I’ll let you get changed.”


Holding up the clothes, Dick’s mouth dropped just a bit. He was much taller then whoever this Mamoru was. Setting the clothes aside, the man began to strip off the outer layers of his armor. The blue and black body suit quickly disassembled and he set it on the cream colored carpet, next to the low table that sat beside the bed. The clothes really wouldn’t do him any good, however…. He finished taking off the armor, leaving the thin layers of his clothing on underneath. The undergear was usually designed to be worn under clothes if



(break)


Sailor Jupiter had had enough.


That gun toting soul mate of hers was running around this city like nothing was at all wrong.


The Senshi of Jupiter, thunder and storms, and whatever else you wanted to call her was intent on capturing her soul mate and bring balance back to his wounded heart. She’d been so hopeless when he’d died… She didn’t know who or what had brought him back but Usagi seemed rather firm on the fact Makoto needed to do something about the man.


The echoing retort of a firearm going off had her moving west towards the place known as crime alley.


(Break)

[9:27:40 PM] Laura Phase: Damian Wayne - Hotaru
[9:28:15 PM] Laura Phase: Rei - Batgirl
[9:28:31 PM] Laura Phase: Dick - Minako
[9:28:35 PM] Laura Phase: Bruce - Pluto
[9:28:47 PM] Laura Phase: Ami - Wonder Woman
[9:28:56 PM] Laura Phase: Mako - Jason
[9:29:59 PM] Laura Phase: Neptune - Uranus - Hawkgirl - Greenlantern
[9:30:59 PM] Laura Phase: Sailor Moon - Tuxedo Mask