At least two reviewers have requested a timeline of the series’ events, so here is an attempt at an STC Sparknotes. Even if you think you remember everything, it may behoove you to skim this timeline because it may clear up some things about Lanai, Pluto, and Mercury (since I’m aware that a lot of people had trouble keeping them straight due to Lanai’s naughty habit of impersonation.
(SEASON ONE)
1. When Zoicite died, Beryl filled her corpse with her own aura, rendering her, in effect, a puppet. Zoicite told Moon that she will go to hell for the princess when she dies unless she joins her mistress (Beryl).
2. The Dark Kingdom discovered Moon’s civilian identity from a handkerchief left behind at a battle site and used that knowledge to pretend in front of Luna and the other Senshi that Moon was their ally. Luna attacked Moon, and Tuxedo Mask saved her. Moon’s growing relationship with Mask further convinced Luna and the other Senshi that Moon has betrayed them. They declared Serena free game.
3. Lita arrived and became friends with Serena. The gang went to the mall, where a youma threw Mask and Moon into a display of men’s cologne. Serena and Darien discovered each other’s identities. Later that day, Serena discovered that Asanuma had a crush on Rei.
4. At an attack on the arcade, Lita transformed into Sailor Jupiter. Ami, then Luna, attempt to turn her against Serena after telling her that Serena is Sailor Moon. Lita was hurt that Serena had not told her but blew both Ami and Luna off.
5. The Dark Kingdom began to attack simultaneously throughout the city. The youma that gave Mars and Mercury mental disorders returned, affecting Mask as well with a case of kleptomania. When Mask touched Moon’s brooch (attempting to steal it), her old tiara exploded and was replaced by a new one. She used the attack “Moon Twilight Flash” to vaporize the youma and heal Mask, Mars, and Mercury of their mental disorders. To her disappointment, healing her fellow Senshi has not removed their belief that she has betrayed them. And, unbeknownst to her, her attack also healed Malachite of Beryl’s brainwashing – he now had all his memories of the Silver Millennium (except the princess’s identity).
6. In order to keep Malachite loyal to her, Beryl revealed an object that she has kept in Metallia’s cavern: the thousand year-old body of Sailor Venus. Using Metallia and energy that the youma have gathered, she revived Venus’s body and uses the two lovers as leverage against each other to get rid of the Senshi and find the Silver Crystal.
7. Like Malachite, Minako had all her memories of the Silver Millennium except those of her princess and the prince (thanks to a memory block by Pluto). This meant that she had no memory of Sailor Moon or Tuxedo Mask; thus she saw them both as threats to her princess, especially because Moon may be a High Senshi. Believing that her Senshi also retained their memories and powers from the Silver Millennium, she was sorely disappointed when she discovers the truth and when, furthermore, Lita rejected her in order to fight with Sailor Moon. Venus attacked both Moon and Mask, nearly killing Moon.
8. When Mask healed automatically from Venus’s attack with golden sparks, his identity as Prince Endymion’s reincarnation is revealed to Venus, Beryl, and Malachite. Beryl commanded Venus to bring Mask to her.
9. Minako told Lita that Prince Endymion, who had seduced the Moon Princess in sheer disregard of a prophecy foretelling destruction if they came together, killed the princess during the fall of the Silver Millennium. Then she told her that Darien was Endymion’s reincarnation.
10. Serena snuck out to deliver a prom ticket to Rei’s school locker. On her way home, Venus attacked her. When Lita found out about this, she realized that she shouldn’t anything that Venus has told her.
11. Lita found out that Serena has been having dreams about dying in which she calls out for “Endymion.” She told Sere and Dare what Minako said about Endymion being the Earth Prince who killed and seduced the princess but not that he may be Darien.
12. On prom night, Lita went with Motoki. Serena, who is going so that she can show Darien that she’s safe on her own and he can go to Yale, went disguised by the Luna Pen. Without telling her, Darien went to the prom as well, intending only to keep an eye on her. Instead, Miss Lanai dragged them together. Rei also went to the prom, believing that Asanuma was the secret admirer who left her the ticket, but stupid Asanuma recognized Serena’s handwriting and told her it must have been a joke. Rei ran off.
13. Venus went on stage and demanded that Moon or Mask show themselves. Dare dragged Sere outside, where Zoicite attacked and dragged them to Beryl in the Dark Kingdom.
14. Beryl revealed to Darien that he is Endymion’s reincarnation. He killed her. Zoicite recovered control of her own body and killed herself before Metallia could possess it to hurt her prince. Metallia possessed Beryl’s body instead and consumed Serena’s brooch. The flash of light from the brooch’s destruction blinded Darien’s eyes. Metallia absorbed Serena, then Darien.
15. Sailor Lanai entered the time plane to order Sailor Pluto to restore Serena’s memories so that she could use the Silver Crystal against Metalli. Pluto refused because the princess would be in too much danger once the crystal was revealed.
16. Instead, Pluto transported Sere and Dare onto the time plane and thrust Darien into a future where the Senshi fought the Dead Moon Circus, whose mirrors could extract the souls of their victims. The Golden Crystal was extracted from Darien’s body. Pluto brought him back to the time plane.
17. Luna, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and then Venus entered the Dark Kingdom through Zoicite’s portal. When Mars aims an attack at him, Venus tried to throw herself in front of it. She failed. Malachite died; Metallia possesses his body like Beryl possessed Zoicite’s before. The possessed body attacked Venus but was destroyed by falling rock. Luna, Mercury, and Mars, now believing Venus to be a traitor, leave her to die in the collapsing cave. Jupiter carried the dying Venus from the caves, and Venus rambled deliriously about Pluto, the princess killing herself, and stabbing the sword into the princess herself.
18. Back on the time plane, Darien transports both himself and Serena back into Metallia, shocking both Pluto and Lanai. With the Golden Crystal, he destroyed Metallia and the Dark Kingdom.
19. With Venus dead and the Dark Kingdom gone, Rei and Ami both left Juuban. Darien’s blindness remained while the severe flesh wounds Serena suffered healed into silver scars across her body.
(FIORE ARC)
1. Darien and Serena’s summer so far has consisted of hanging out in the arcade, watching Buji, and getting used to life without sight and with scars. Darien has discovered his ability – psychometry – to attain phantom sensations of objects that he touches and practices with it frequently. Serena has worn long sleeves to cover her scars all summer.
2. On a day spent with Buji, Darien discovered Luna’s corpse.
3. Rei’s grandfather’s body was found in the temple. He had been dead for at least a week. The gang has not been able to find either Rei or Ami since they disappeared.
4. On the way home from a group outing, Motoki and Asanuma found two jewel-like rocks.
5. Kisenian Blosom and Fiore attempted to conquer Darien’s mind at his apartment. He escaped them by going to Elysion.
6. Fiore appeared at the arcade and almost managed to get a grip on Darien’s mind. Serena broke it, and Fiore left.
7. Darien told Serena and Lita about the “imaginary friend” Fiore he had when he was a child and about some of the strange dreams he had during that time.
8. Asanuma and Motoki have begun to manifest powers of fire and electricity.
9. On their way home after Serena’s surprise birthday party, Fiore and Kisenian attacked Serena and Darien. Fiore aimed a lethal attack at Serena only to hit Darien; he vanished to Kisenian’s comet with Darien. Darien managed to give the Golden Crystal to Serena before he was taken away.
10. Kisenian’s flower creatures preyed upon the city. Without her brooch, Serena was able to do little to help Lita fight them off.
11. Rei, in isolation, foresaw the arrival of Alin and Anne with the Makaiju.
12. Serena fell asleep with the Golden Crystal in her hands. In her sleep she went to Elysion, where she found Helios in his unicorn form. In her presence, he was able to regain his human form.
13. Darien found them both in Elysion. Helios told them that Kisenian was sent by Chaos to assassinate Darien so that he could not be with the princess and the princess would not be able to defeat Chaos. He also told them about the High Senshi, the oldest and most powerful Senshi in the universe who command over all Senshi and by whom the Moon Princess was to have been trained in order to fulfill the prophecy of her defeating Chaos.
14. Darien took Serena to her dreamflower in Elysion. When she touched it, its petals opened, and within was revealed a new brooch with which she transformed into Sailor Moon again for the first time since fighting Beryl. Although the dreamflower was Serena’s, both Serena and Darien’s wishes affected the brooch: Serena had always wanted shorts, and the new fuku had them beneath the skirt; Darien had wanted an appearance that made Moon less recognizable as Serena, and thus her hairstyle was changed from odangoes to a crown of braids around her head. In the transformation, a glamour also concealed Serena’s silver scars.
15. Kisenian’s true form was a weed in Elysion that entwined itself around dreamflowers. Darien stayed in Elysion to try to find Fiore’s dreamflower and the Kisenian weed to detach the two from each other, breaking Kisenian’s hold on Fiore. Moon left with Helios, riding his Pegasus form back to her body in her bedroom. Together with Jupiter they flew to Kisenian’s comet.
16. As the Makaiju began to put out its roots in Earth’s soil, Rei incinerated half of it with a fire attack. Then an attack from the opposite direction completely destroyed it; the source of the attack was Sailor Uranus.
17. Kisenian’s attempts to permeate his mind while he was unconscious on the comet triggered Darien to relive his earliest memories. The memories he recalled were of waking up in the hospital, of blood-filled dreams, and of hallucination that were actually attempts by Sailor Pluto and the High Senshi to assassinate Endymion’s reincarnation. He recalled Endymion’s presence taking control of his body to ward off these assassination attempts.
18. On the comet Fiore was about to kill Moon when Kisenian was abruptly repulsed from him. Darien broke out of the crystal in which he had been imprisoned, Kisenian’s weed from Elysion in his hand.
19. Fiore explained to Darien how Kisenian had discovered him with the energy-infused rose which Darien had given to him as a child. In Darien’s distraction, Kisenian was able to escape his grip and took forcible control of both Fiore’s mind and body.
20. Defying Kisenian, Fiore impaled himself on Helios’s unicorn horn before he could hurt Darien or Sailor Moon.
21. With Fiore dead, Kisenian possessed Sailor Moon. The purity of Serena’s mind, along with the intricacies of Pluto’s mind block and Serena’s concealed past life gave Kisenian great ecstasy. Before she could act on her discovery that the body she inhabited belonged to the Moon Princess, Darien completely incinerated her true form in Elysion.
22. Darien returned from Elysion and stopped the comet from entering Earth’s atmosphere by lifting water from the Pacific Ocean into the exosphere, where it froze to the comet and stopped its momentum. Helios took Jupiter and an unconscious Serena back to Serena’s home, where her family waited for her to arrive at her surprise Sweet Sixteen party.
23. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune bring an unwilling Rei into their fold.
24. Asanuma sensed the events occurring on the comet but was unable to understand what the sensations signified.
25. In Elysion, Fiore’s body dissolved into rose petals. Helios pointed out that Darien had just defeated one of Chaos’s most powerful warriors and gained the ability to enter Elysion not only with his mind but also his body. Darien cared only that Kisenian’s victims were aware as she controlled their minds.
26. While Kisenian possessed her mind, Serena also saw much of Kisenian’s mind. Now aware of the prophecy that Kisenian had known, it was no longer possible for Serena to ignore that Darien must be with the Moon Princess, no matter how much he seemed to currently dislike her. Serena felt defiled by Kisenian’s possession and guilted by her discovery. She began to distance herself from Darien, both when he came that night to take her to Elysion and in the days and weeks that followed.
27. Motoki and Asanuma discovered each other’s new powers.
(SEASON TWO)
1. The school year has begun, and Darien and Serena still haven’t spoken to each other since the Kisenian incident.
2. Haruka, Michiru, and Rei have moved into Juuban.
3. While Serena was minding Buji and the dress shop for Mayuko, she met a girl named Hotaru whose body was as scarred as her own.
4. Darien’s battle and psychometric skills have immensely improved after a summer of training in Elysion with Helios. The priest told Darien that he heard word on the wind that the Shittenou had returned. Darien rushed to check on Serena. She felt him and told him that she was avoiding him. He agreed with her that she should. Both misunderstood each other’s reasons for what they said.
5. Serena’s schedule on the first day of school showed that she had an art class with Miss Lanai. Unnerved and eager to change the mistake, she went to the guidance counselor’s office, colliding with Darien along the way. Darien followed her into the counselor’s office, growling when he discovered that Lanai lied to the guidance counselor in order to have Serena in a class. Darien’s reaction instigated Serena to insist on keeping the class with Lanai.
6. Serena found herself rethinking her decision when she arrived for Art and found that she was the only one in the class. Then Miss Lanai, her French accent gone, revealed that she knew that Serena was Sailor Moon.
7. Lanai introduces herself as Sailor Pluto. She relieved Serena’s fears that she was a member of the High Senshi sent to do something to the princess when she told her that the reason no one remembered Sailor Moon was because she had been the Moon Princess’s top-secret shadow bodyguard during the Silver Millennium. She also told Serena, however, that during the Silver Millennium she had seduced Prince Endymion and, because of that relationship, been absent during the Fall and failed to protect the princess.
8. Lanai begins to train Serena in extensive sparring sessions, ostensibly to strengthen her Senshi attacks to improve her ability to protect the princess.
9. Pluto forbade Haruka and Michiru to search for the princess on their own but to focus on finding Saturn instead.
10. Asanuma and Motoki – the former more zealously than the latter –have also been training with their own powers.
11. Darien threatened Miss Lanai – who threatened him back and told him to stay away from Serena.
12. Lanai told Serena that the Senshi cannot remember or find the princess because she is afraid that the Senshi will betray her (again). Serena progressed to nonverbal attacks.
13. Rei told Michiru and Haruka about Luna and Venus’s suspicions about Serena. The two Outer Senshi directed Rei to search for both Sailor Saturn and the princess with her spiritual powers and to leave Sailor Moon to them.
14. At his monthly doctor’s visit, Darien was unnerved by Dr. Tomoe, who substituted for his usual doctor. Tomoe seemed overly curious about the condition of his still-blind and golden eyes.
15. Haruka approached Asanuma about Rei at a campaign fundraiser to make sure that Rei hadn’t attempted to contact him since returning to Tokyo.
16. A disguised Sailor Mercury observed Motoki and Lita at the arcade to relay surveillance of their current power levels to Sailor Pluto.
17. Sick of being left out of the loop and not knowing the truth about Rei, Asanuma confronted Serena with his knowledge of her alter identity. Their whispered, heated conversation sent rumors about their relationship rushing through the school. Darien attacked Asanuma at the arcade after school, and Asanuma demanded answers from both of them about their “extracurricular activities.” The fight continued into the park, growing in murderous intent, until Asanuma revealed his abilities to manipulate fire. Only Buji’s arrival stopped the two boys from severely injuring each other.
18. Rei, Michiru, and Haruka sensed Asanuma’s use of his powers, and Rei attempted to sneak off before being foiled by Haruka.
19. During the weekend, Asanuma recognized Rei getting into a car with Haruka and Michiru. A car chase ensued in which Asanuma attempted to stop their car by shredding a tire with one of his crystals. A gust of Haruka’s wind sent the crystal shooting back at Asanuma instead. He lost control of his car when the crystal went through the windshield and lost consciousness as well.
20. Mikai, who was at the orphanage with Darien and now works in a garage, came to tow Asanuma’s wrecked Porsche. Darien, who didn’t believe that the girl Asanuma had seen was really Rei, went with Mikai afterward to have coffee.
21. After Michiru and Haruka told Pluto that Lanai has sunk her claws into Serena, Pluto sent Mercury to trash Lanai’s classroom as a warning to her. When Serena came to train that day, Lanai met her outside the door and took her outside to train instead so that she would not see the damage and ask about it.
22. While wandering around the district in search of Saturn or the princess, Rei was met by Sailor Mercury. Rei could not sense Ami’s presence in the Senshi’s aura, and the Senshi refused to answer her question about what had happened to Ami. Instead, she said that they would meet again soon. That night, Haruka told Rei that she was not Rei Hino but Sailor Mars, that she was possessing the body of Rei Hino, as all the other Senshi did to their civilian identities.
23. When Darien went to inform Helios that Motoki and Asanuma were the returned Shittenou, Helios appeared frightened of him. He asked him to stay away from Sailor Moon.
24. Serena made virtually no progress in her attacks, unable to bypass Pluto’s block. Instead, her dreams of dying only grew more vivid.
25. Lanai told Serena that she was going to America to seek out Senshi. In truth, she was responding to the summons that the High Senshi Council had sent. Before leaving, she told Serena not to transform and to stay away from Darien.
26. To find out more about Serena, Michiru managed to become Lanai’s substitute teacher. Lanai left drawing assignments intended to continue chipping away at Pluto’s memory block.
27. Serena began to train by using the Luna Pen to transform into Sailor Moon. One night, an unseen attacker sliced her leg severely – Sailor Uranus, unknown to her. Aware only of a wind-manipulating presence, Tuxedo Mask arrived and wrenched control of the wind away from Uranus. When Moon said that he had to stay away from her because she endangered the princess, he told her that he didn’t love the princess. He got as far as saying “I love” before he was cut off by Rini landing on their heads.
28. Darien’s hostile reaction to Rini unsettled Moon, with whom (in civilian form) Rini went home. Serena tried to convince herself as she went to sleep that Darien changing was a good thing.
29. Rini ran away. No sooner did Serena track her down than a youma attack them both. At the same time, unnatural thunder and lightning filled the sky as the Black Moon’s spaceship entered the planet’s atmosphere.
30. Tuxedo Mask dispatched the youma. He also summoned a humungous downpour to shove the spaceship – to them, still an unidentified mass – out of the sky. He kept a steady rainfall going to keep the spaceship down.
31. During the day that the three spend together, Rini told Sere and Dare that Asanuma was her relative and she had come to stay with him because a terrorist group called the Black Moon was after her in order to get to her parents. When they got back to Darien’s apartment after shopping, while Rini was in the bathroom changing, Darien kissed Serena. Rini emerged from the bathroom, cutting off the kiss, and Serena fled with the little girl.
32. Lita has begun to feel intensely hostile, especially toward Motoki. Her hair has also begun to turn green. When Serena arrived with Rini, she helped the little girl dye her hair back to brown with some of the hair dye that she had been using. She also transformed in front of Rini, prompting the child to agree to stay with Lita instead of Serena.
33. The Black Moon ship required major repairs after Darien’s thunderstorm. The Wiseman opened a vortex into which the ship could be moved to await repairs, but any repairs of the ship’s vital crystals require large amounts of energy. A youma was sent out to attain it.
34. The effort of manipulating rain for such a long period of time drove Darien into an acute and dangerous state of dehydration, his body mirroring the sky as it wept water. He fell deeply unconscious.
35. Serena transformed to dust the Black Moon youma. In doing so, she sensed Darien through the rope and rushed to find him. When she found his unresponsive body, she called 911.
36. At Haruka and Michiru’s house, Rei was also unconscious, her body flickering between the form of Rei Hino and that of Sailor Mars.
37. Lita left Rini at her apartment to go fight a youma. Moon, also at the battle, seemed preoccupied and examined a flower at the scene that was actually a transformed Rini, though neither of them knew it at the time. Afterward, Serena returned to Darien’s hospital room.
38. When Darien woke up, he told Serena that the reason that he had kissed her was to figure out if his feelings for her were of a romantic nature. He told her that they weren’t.
39. When Motoki tried to talk to Lita at school the next day, she nearly killed him with a bolt of lightning. Her hair turned green, and the gang – minus Asanuma – went to her apartment to figure out what has happening. They couldn’t figure anything out, and Darien worried privately that the same separate consciousness that has been rising in his own body has begun to affect Lita.
40. Furious that Lanai’s interference had begun to erode Serena’s memory blocks and, in turn, those of Rei, Lita and Darien, Sailor Pluto went to reinforce Rei’s memory block.
41. Asanuma spoke with Rei’s father about the still-missing girl and discovered that he could transform his clothes by using the jewel-like stone that Motoki had found and given to him.
42. Rubeus and the Four Sisters were sent to Earth to gather energy. Prisma and Avery attacked Motoki and Darien. Lita saved Motoki; the two sisters retreated.
43. Disguised as a teenager, Rini went to school with Serena.
44. Sailor Pluto entered Lita’s mind to reinforce her memory block. Then she moved on to Darien to rebuild his memory block as well.
45. Prisma attacked the arcade, where Motoki was keeping an eye on Rini. Prisma realized who Rini was and was only prevented from taking her by Sailor Moon’s arrival.
46. Asanuma arrived and saved both Moon and Rini from Prisma and the youma, both of whom escaped. Moon’s grave injuries caused her transformation to flicker, revealing Serena’s identity to Rini.
47. With Toki and Rini, Asanuma took the unconscious Serena to Darien’s apartment.
48. Their arrival interrupted Pluto’s attempt to renew Darien’s mind-block; she vanished. Time, which she had suspended in Darien’s apartment, resumed, and Darien used the rope to trigger Serena’s transformation and healing abilities. Then he and Motoki went to get Lita.
49. Lita’s mind-block had been successfully reconstructed by Pluto; she did not try to kill Motoki.
50. Asanuma denied that Rini was his relative; she revealed that she was from the future, where she lived with Asanuma. She proved this to Asanuma by telling him about a portrait of Rei he had in the future that he had only begun to plan recently.
51. Rini went home with Serena; Darien used his powers of mind-manipulation to brainwash the Tsukinos into believing that Rini was their cousin. That night, Rini tells Serena that the Senshi and their civilian forms are not the same people: the Senshi’s souls actually possess Terrans’ bodies.
52. Like Lita, Rei’s memory-block was successfully restored. With the disappearance of her dreams of the Silver Millennium, her angsty feelings of being unwanted returned in full force.
53. When Serena told the gang what Rini had said, they decide – except Serena – that the princess committed suicide during the Fall . Because the Senshi share a bond with her, when they die, they will all go to hell for the princess’s sin.
54. Serena told Lita about Miss Lanai and also told her all that Lanai had told her about Sailor Moon’s betrayal of the princess.
55. Relieved by sharing her secret with Lita, Serena made up with Darien.
56. Darien went to Elysion to tell Helios about Rini and the new youma. Helios told Darien about Sailor Pluto, the guardian of time, and told him that she was probably reincarnated with the other Senshi, leaving the time realm unguarded, allowing Rini to travel to the past.
57. When Darien left Elysion, he returned to Serena’s windowsill. Both teenagers’ bodies morphed into those of their previous incarnations. They began to kiss.
58. Mercury told Pluto that her attempt to strengthen the prince’s memory block actually weakened the block instead and that Darien’s proximity to Serena and the emergence of his flash-form triggered the emergence of Serena’s flash-form. She pointed out that while the Senshi bonds, which were based on the bond between the prince and princess, could be controlled, the prince and princess’s could not.
59. Pluto left the time realm to separate Darien and Serena, causing their flash-forms to be submerged once more.
60. The next day, on Pluto’s orders, Michiru caused a rain to fall and separate Serena and Darien when they got too close to each other.
61. The gang picked Rini up from school and discovered that Buji’s mother was pregnant.
62. Asanuma, Motoki, and Mask have been handling the youma that appear to build Numa and Toki’s powers.
63. A suspiciously downed stop sign caused Serena to meet Haruka Tennou as well as Darien’s orphanage friend Mikai. Haruka came to meet Serena after school the next day. Rini was hostile to him and angry at Serena for reproaching her behavior toward him. She ran – right into a youma attack.
64. Rini’s transformation into a flower and Catzi’s calling her “princess” made Serena realize who Rini was: the daughter of Darien and the moon princess. She made Rini tell Darien.
65. Finding out that Rini was his daughter with the moon princess caused Darien to lose control of his powers. He began to transform uncontrollably into different Earth animals and fled to Elysion, where he attacked Helios. With Rini, Serena traveled into Elysion and was able to bring Darien back into his human body by using their connection through the rope. After he had been returned to normal, as he slept, Serena told him that she loved him…but was he actually asleep?
66. Pluto was angered by Rini revealing her identity, which caused the amount of possible futures to multiply immensely. Mercury pointed out that Rini’s immense power as the daughter of the prince and princess had allowed her to travel through the time plane without Pluto’s help or permission.
67. Sailor Lanai arrived at the High Council headquarters, where she was interrogated about Darien and Pluto. They told her about two planets that had been destroyed hundreds of years apart but both by the same thing: a golden-eyed man who sought a child. The High Council told her that these discoveries mean that Darien has or will ally with Chaos.
68. A prophecy in Elysion some time ago informed Helios of the same thing that the High Council told Lanai, that Darien would side with Chaos. When Darien awoke in Elysion, Helios finally told him about the prophecy. Darien swore to himself that he would stop himself from fulfilling the prophecy.
69. Darien’s discovery of the prophecy caused the possible futures to multiply and change once again. Pluto agreed to permit Mercury to take care of Rei so that Uranus and Neptune can focus on preventing Darien and Serena from coming together.
70. Back in the real world, Lita was even more hostile to Darien than before. Serena took Rini home and tried to cheer her up with manga and sweets.
71. For a large sum of money, Dr. Tomoe agreed to let Senator Hino use his daughter Hotaru as a stand-in for Rei in order to help him win elections. What will Tomoe do with the money?
72. Rini told Serena that she had lived with Asanuma almost her whole life because her parents were away fighting Chaos. Serena vowed that nothing would make her leave her kids.
73. Serena went on a date with Haruka. Darien came while she was gone and attempted to apologize to Rini. Rini saw right through him, stating that he had only apologized because he knew that Serena would want him to, not because he was actually sorry. She rejected him and told him that Serena was on a date. Darien retreated to Elysion to control his anger.
74. Sailor Galaxia, the lead councilor of the High Council, bound Lanai to secrecy with a blood oath before telling her that both Endymion and Serenity were targeted for assassination by the High Senshi because they had too much power to be allowed to live.
75. A flashback to three years in the past showed how Darien met Mikai again for the first time since they were in the orphanage together. Mikai worked at the garage where Darien took his car to be repaired after it was mangled in a youma attack.
76. Back in the present, Mikai woke up on the floor to the sound of the news talking about small earthquakes affecting Tokyo.
77. Rei woke up to find herself in Sailor Mercury’s care. Rei realized from the Senshi’s unmuddled aura that she wasn’t Ami. Sailor Mercury said that she was barely able to stop Ami from mentally dissociating and that she, Mercury, surfaced to stop Ami from breaking down entirely. Mercury told Rei that she came to make sure that the same thing does not happen to Rei. Meanwhile, Haruka and Michiru realized that Rei has been taken out of their custody.
78. Lita interrogated Serena about her date with Haruka, and Serena tried to act normally with Darien while they ate lunch together. Coach Etoukou ambushed them with the news that they have to participate on the track team because of the contrast Serena unwittingly signed last school year.
79. The gang went to pick up Rini, and Darien seemed unfazed when Lita began to talk about Serena’s date with Haruka. Asanuma yelled at Darien for not acting, but Darien was determined to do the right thing and let Serena go.
80. Rini was moved up the Buji’s second grade class. While they were at the park, she told Serena that she doesn’t know any Senshi in the future except Mars, whom she has met a few times. A youma attacked, and Rini transformed into a flower so Serena could put her in her Subspace pocket.
81. Unconscious, energy-drained civilians were suffocating in the pool of water that the youma had created, but a sudden violent wind that Moon initially thought came from Darien blows the water away. As Moon tried to discern the wind’s source, Bertie’s youma attacked her while Bertie watched. Buji and Mayuko woke from their energy-drained stupor while Moon was fighting, but she managed to dust the youma before it could hurt them anymore. Bertie left, and Moon apologized to Mayuko for not having saved her husband, Buji’s father. Mayuko forgave her.
82. Bertie revealed to her sisters that she recorded Moon’s fight with her youma onto two recording crystals. She gave one to Rubeus and kept the other to study so that she can plot a trap for Moon.
83. Mercury began to train Rei with Rei making satisfying progress. Meanwhile, Mercury had also been keeping tabs on Mikai, and she leads a youma to the garage where he works, intending for his Shittenou powers to surface to “save” her from the youma. Instead, Mikai used a blowtorch to get rid of it.
84. Mikai recognized Sailor Mercury as Ami Mizuno, the girl from Darien’s school who disappeared several months ago. Rereading the newspaper articles concerning her disappearance and the youma attack at Darien’s prom, a suspicion blossomed in his mind: were Darien and his friends the superheroes that protected Tokyo? The surveillance program that Mercury was using to monitor Mikai alerted her to his suspicion.
85. Michiru reminded Haruka not to get too attached to Serena, but she was disheartened by Haruka’s fervent reply that the princess is her only concern.
86. When Haruka arrived to pick up Serena from school, Asanuma recognized him as the man who asked him about Rei Hino at a diplomatic gala months ago. Everyone, including Darien, prevented Asanuma from beating up or at least interrogating Haruka. Feeling betrayed and furious, Asanuma went to get Rini, who told him that people never take him seriously when it comes to Rei because he always goes berserk when he hears any news of her.
87. Mikai visited Darien at Darien’s apartment with the intent of sneakily finding out if his friend really was Tuxedo Mask. Darien revealed nothing until Mikai mentioned physical interest in Serena, at which point he was unable to prevent Endymion from beginning to surface, gradually transforming him into a wolf. Mikai’s voice pushed Endymion back down, however, and Darien was able to push the transformation back. Mikai pretended not to have seen Darien transforming, and Darien believed him. But he decided to distance himself from Mikai lest the same thing happen to him as happened to Asanuma and Motoki: becoming a Shittenou.
88. Rubeus took Bertie’s recording crystal to Prince Diamond, while Bertie complained that the Wiseman has adversely affected their prince.
89. When Mikai returned to his apartment, Sailor Mercury was waiting for him. She told him that he was no longer technically human and offered to train him in exchange for him not telling anyone about her. Mikai agreed but wanted to know what happened to Ami.
90. Miss Haruna announced that the school’s annual Christmas festival for the Juuban Elementary kids would be held at the skating rink. Serena tried to make Darien jealous by inviting Lita and Motoki on a double-date to the rink with her and Haruka. When he barely reacted, she left the lunchroom, devastated by her own petty actions and feelings. When Lita followed her out and told her that she did the right thing, both of their flash-forms asserted dominance for a brief second before Michiru quickly approached them.
91. Darien and Serena went to the track team meeting, where Darien pretended that nothing was wrong. Serena was incredibly grateful, and the rift between them was briefly mended.
92. While Serena walked Buji and Rini home that day, they saw a newspaper announcing that Senator Hino’s lost daughter had returned home.
93. Asanuma insisted that the girl in the newspaper wasn’t Rei. The group agreed not to tear off to Tokyo in search of her. Meanwhile, Motoki patrolled the streets for youma. With Asanuma’s help, he stopped a man’s attack on a young woman.
94. Pluto castigated Michiru and Haruka for not having found Saturn yet and for not adequately distancing Serena and Darien. She showed them the frozen image of the two embracing reincarnations from Chapter 18 (when Serenity and Endymion’s flash-forms took over and required Mercury and Rei’s intervention to be separated from each other). Haruka and Michiru were not aware that these were the flash-forms; they thought that it was only Serena and Darien. Haruka proposed killing Sailor Moon in order to solve the problem of the prince’s loyalty to the princess. Pluto warned her that if Haruka killed Sailor Moon, Pluto would free Uranus’ flash-form.
95. Pluto also revealed that the High Senshi and Chaos are approaching the system and that Saturn must be found because without the Senshi of Death’s interference, the princess’s soul will go to hell when she dies. From hell there is no reincarnation, and the princess would die in the fight against Chaos without hope of being reincarnated.
96. Aware in the back of her mind of the need to prevent Endymion’s flash-form from surfacing lest it awaken Serenity’s, Mercury told Pluto that she neglected to tell Haruka and Michiru that awakening Saturn will destroy the planet. She also told Pluto that she cannot understand how the Black Moon traveled back to the past without Pluto’s help unless the princess helped them. Pluto gave Mercury news that Mercury, secretly, already knew: in the future, Endymion will most likely be under Chaos’s influence, and he could have helped the Black Moon back in time. Mercury argued that the High Senshi, who have a Time Key, may have been the ones to help the Black Moon. Pluto ordered Mercury to figure out how Endymion was able to enter and exit the Time Plane at will, an order which forced Mercury to pay less attention to the question of who helped the Black Moon travel back in time.
97. Darien and Serena were chosen to be the Clauses for the Christmas festival. Darien increasingly worried about Endymion’s growing power inside him. Asanuma and Rini began to gradually grow closer.
98. Mikai trained by sparring with Rei.
99. Buji helped Darien pick a locket for Serena’s Christmas present. Darien asked Motoki if he should make Rini live with him and discovered that Motoki’s father had brain cancer. Furuhata-san was only given about six months to live, but Dr. Tomoe’s treatment has helped him intensely.
100. When Darien told Serena about Motoki’s father and the Golden Crystal’s inability to heal him, Endymion’s flash-form surfaced. It drew out Serenity’s, and Mercury went with Rei to separate the two lovers. She forbade Rei to look into their eyes lest Rei’s flash-form also surface.
101. After Claus rehearsal the next day, Darien’s burning need to see Serena’s face began to dredge Endymion back to the surface. Serenity had also just began to surface in Serena when Haruka showed up. Darien disappeared to Elysion while Haruka, upon meeting Serena’s eyes, began to yield to Uranus’s flash-form until Miss Kaioh showed up. Serena, seeing the way Haruka watched Michiru, realized that she had had no success in burying her love for Darien and that she could no longer selfishly use Haruka. She broke up with him.
102. Mercury, watching the record of the battle with Metallia that Pluto had given her, realized that the Golden Crystal was sentient: it had acted to prevent the light from the Silver Crystal from touching Darien’s eyes. By preventing this energy from touching his eyes, it had prevented Endymion’s flash-form from being awakened during the battle; it had kept Darien in control. Mercury tried to figure out why the Golden Crystal would prefer Darien to the more powerful Endymion but found no answer. With Ami’s prompting, she realized, however, that because flash-forms surface in times of intense stress, by reversing Darien’s blindness, she could prevent Endymion’s flash-form from surfacing so easily.
103. Serena and Darien – mostly Serena – were a hit as the Clauses. When Rini saw them laughing with Buji, she felt jealous. She realized that if Serena had been her mother, Darien would have loved her, and she was about to make her wish to Santa when the Black Moon attacked.
104. Serena struggled to find a place to hide and put Rini into her subspace pocket while Darien transformed and fought, realizing that some of the youma were humans transformed to look like youma. Buji helped Serena and Rini hide.
105. Prisma’s spider youma, which Serena originally fought in the arcade, caught her energy and undid her transformation. Bertie and the youma mistook Serena for Rini because of the color of her energy. Asanuma attacked Bertie, giving Serena the chance to retransform. Bertie recognized him from the future and trapped him in ice. She had also frozen Lita and Motoki.
106. Bertie explained to Moon that the Black Moon needed to get Rini because Chaos wants to have Rini, the most powerful being that has ever been born, to shape into whatever it wants. She severely beat Moon in their battle. Darien, sensing Serena’s pain, began to yield to Endymion. Only Mikai’s cooling presence arriving jars him briefly back to himself.
107. Alerted of the youma attack by Buji, to whom he had given his cell number, Mikai broke into the battle between Moon and Bertie. When Bertie attempted to freeze Moon in ice, Mikai, clad in Shittenou armor, mixed gardening soil into the water, preventing the water from freezing. He threatened to trap Bertie underground. Bertie fled, but she sent the ice shards on the floor shooting at him first.
108. From her hidden position, Mercury reversed the ice shards’ trajectory to direct them at Mask. They tore into him, shredding his face and eyes.
109. The Golden Crystal healed Darien’s eyes, returning his sight. Able to see Serena, he sees her hair and remembers the last time that he saw them, in Elysion – when, thinking that he couldn’t hear her, she told him that she loved him. Aware that he could not tell her that he loved her in return until the princess arrives and he can reject her, Darien settled for holding her close.
110. After freeing Lita, Asanuma, and Motoki, the gang prepared to head home. Buji gave Rini a present, a bracelet with her name spelled out in beads. Mikai returned home to find Mercury there. He gave her a chess set for Ami, and Ami’s eyes surfaced from Mercury’s for a brief moment. Mikai threatened to free Ami from Mercury the same way that Mercury freed Darien from Endymion, but Mercury told him that Ami could not be let out.
111. Darien gave Serena the locket, which he had alchemized into a gold to match her hair. He spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day at her house.
112. Lita stayed with the Furuhatas for Christmas, where she discovered Furuhata-san’s cancerous condition. She wanted Motoki and his family to distance themselves from Furuhata-san so that they would not suffer as much when he dies, but Motoki tried to break up with her to save her from the same suffering. She realized that their situation was the same as Serena and Darien’s and that she should no longer attempt to keep them apart.
113. Rini felt very guilty the day after Christmas because she knew that the Tsukinos, who had done so much for her and Darien, would lose their daughter because of her and Darien. The knowledge that Serena would die proved too much for Rini’s willpower; she burrowed into Serena’s lap like a scared child.
114. Dr. Tomoe had heard that Darien’s sight returned, and that morning he called Darien to his office, where he took a blood sample. Darien returned to his apartment to find Serena waiting there with his wallet (which he forgot at the Tsukinos’) and Christmas left-overs.
115. Darien apologized again to Serena for forcing her to deal with Rini, and Serena struggled to convey to him that she really didn’t mind without revealing that she had begun to love Rini as much as if she were her own child.
116. Upon visiting Mikai to interrogate him, Darien and Asanuma discovered that Mikai has been in contact with Sailor Mercury. Knowing that this would probably reveal her on-the-side activities to Pluto, Mercury was very upset with Mikai for his carelessness, but she was even more upset with herself: Mikai had been told more about flash-forms and Saturn than she intended him to know. Mercury insinuated that this was because of Ami’s influence.
117. Forced into action by Mikai’s loose tongue, Mercury sent Rei away to get Saturn’s reincarnation before someone else could get to her. Mercury warned Rei that she must not return to the group, even to Asanuma, because of all the people that will be trying to get their hands on Saturn. Rei’s exile with Saturn’s reincarnation may be permanent, and at the very least, it will be long-term.
118. Because of Bertie’s failure at the Christmas festival and the sisters’ previous failures to get energy and Rini, Rubeus was threatened with being removed from his post, a removal which means execution. He began plotting his last attempt to get Rini.
119. When the group convened to interrogate/welcome Mikai, Mikai explained how he first met Mercury and formed his suspicion that Darien was Tuxedo Mask and Serena, Ami Mizuno, and Rei Hino were Senshi. He explained that all of the Senshi and Darien’s souls had a flash-form, which was a preserved copy of their incarnations from the Silver Millennium and took over their bodies under times of extreme danger or instability, such as had briefly occurred to Lita and briefly but frequently occurred to Darien. Ami’s body, he explained, had been completely taken over by the Sailor Mercury’s flash-form.
120. Mayuko, with yet another doctor’s appointment, dropped Buji off at the Tsukinos’ house, where Rini gave him a name bracelet in return for the one he had given her as a Christmas present.
121. Darien and Mikai realized that with their powers over the earth’s elements, they could create weapons out of a substance harder than diamond.
122. Darien, remembering how he had sensed Asanuma’s first realization that he could have died fighting at the skating rink, set himself and Mikai to work producing weapons for the Shittenou to use.
123. Serena, as usual, felt guilty when she felt the bumps on Buji’s head from his injuries at the skating rink. Asanuma and Rini went to the grocery store and exchanged presents: for her, a snow globe with that year’s Christmas date on it, and for him, an Asanuma-in-Shittenou-ensemble ornament. Asanuma, though enjoying being able to make Rini have so much fun, worried about why he, and not one of the others, had been left behind in the future to take care of Rini. Had the others died?
124. When Darien, before the Christmas festival (see #101), had almost kissed Serena behind the bushes in the school courtyard, both of their flash-forms had been very close to the surface. When Haruka approached to separate them, the proximity to Serenity’s flash-form pulled Sailor Uranus’s very close to the surface. Michiru was able to snap her out of it, but after Christmas, she called on Pluto to tell the Time Senshi what had happened.
125. Pluto called on Mercury, who appeared tense to Michiru. Pluto, who had not seen Haruka’s near-lapse in her time mirrors, accused Mercury of having stolen time mirrors from her. However, Mercury revealed that Pluto has been breaking Chronos’ Laws by travelling outside of the time plane. Pluto confessed that she knew that Mercury had been acting against her but that she had turned a blind eye to her actions because she thought that they were intended to help the princess. Before Mercury could blame her for any more in front of Michiru and Haruka, Pluto began to summon Ami back to the surface. Mercury escaped before she could finish.
126. Haruka rose to confront Pluto, but Pluto summoned Sailor Uranus to the surface before she could do anything. Uranus, in control of Haruka’s body, vanished to find Rei. Pluto warned Michiru that if she followed Mercury’s example, both her and Haruka would be permanently submerged and their flash-forms given control of their bodies for good.
127. Rei went to her father’s mansion, where Hotaru Tomoe, the girl whom Mercury had told her was Saturn’s reincarnation, currently resided. Distracted by memories of her father and by thoughts of what she might do if she saw him, Rei forgot to shield her aura using the technique that Mercury had taught her. She found the girl, who begged her not to kill an unidentified “him” because he was just trying to bring her mother back. Before she could leave with the girl, however, Sailor Uranus attacked, setting the girl’s bedroom on fire.
128. The presence of the flash-form, and not Haruka, momentarily paralyzed Rei with terror. Uranus attempted to draw Mars’ flash-form out, to take control of Rei’s body, forcing Rei to detransform before the Senshi flash-form inside her could claw free. Rei’s father appeared, then, approaching through the fire-filled bedroom. Rei shot Uranus in the legs before the Senshi could summon a wind that would consume her father in flame. The Senshi fell off the balcony and vanished.
129. Rei then knocked her father out, dumped him in bushes away from the house, and fled with Saturn’s reincarnation.
130. Long ago, Rubeus was imprisoned for centuries in a phoenix-blood ruby by a Senshi before Prince Diamond freed him. Rubeus had sworn never to let the ruby imprison anyone again. But in order to save Asanuma Itto, the Shittenou who had guarded Rini in the future, from being found and tortured by the Wiseman, he trapped the Shittenou in the ruby, which he took with him to the past. The Asanuma from the future, mortally wounded from fighting with the Four Sisters so that Rini could escape to the past, was unable to regain consciousness until Rubeus found his Shittenou stone and placed it in his hand. Barely conscious, Future Asanuma attempted to kill Rubeus before Rubeus could interrogate him, but he was too weak. He tried to kill himself with a crystal shard instead to prevent himself from being forced to tell anything.
131. In the future, Rini has a dream. The shadowy man whose voice who had taught her how to use her powers to transform into plants tells her to warn Asanuma that, “It’s got her. And he’s coming to get what he left.” When she tells Asanuma, he pretends that everything is okay, but he cannot hide the stricken look in his eyes.
132. In the present, Rini dreamed about her last memory of Asanuma before she went to the past. He had been out fighting, using the last of his energy and then his life-force to fight Black Moon youma. Rini asked him if her parents would leave the war with Chaos to come save them and begged him to call them. When he refused, she screamed at him and involuntarily used her powers to control his body to make him leave the room.
133. Rubeus stopped the Asanuma from the future from killing himself and made a deal with him. Asanuma was all but dead, preserved only by Rubeus keeping him in the phoenix-blood ruby, in which time stops. He makes a blood oath with Rubeus: Asanuma would be used as bait to lure in Rini and Darien so that Darien will kill Wiseman, and in exchange, Rubeus would help them fight Wiseman and protect Rini.
134. Darien visited Serena at night to bring her the harder-than-diamond crystal sword that he and Mikai had made. Serena thought that the encounter was a dream and allowed herself to snuggle with him.
135. Darien went to Elysion, where he and Helios discussed how he had regained his sight and why it had not returned earlier. Helios spoke of royals who, in the past, had deprived themselves of vision in order to strengthen their other senses. They wondered whether the Golden Crystal is sentient and what role Sailor Mercury played in returning Darien’s sight – and in suppressing his and the others’ flash-forms.
136. On their way to Lita’s apartment to talk about throwing a New Year’s party, Serena and Rini discussed what love is. Serena assured Rini that her Asanuma in the future would still love her when she returned and promised her that if he didn’t, Serena’s future self would take care of her.
137. Rei and Hotaru camped out for a rest on their way to the airport, but neither of them slept. Rei discovered that some of her spirit-fire had burned Hotaru’s leg, and when she treated them, discovered many other scars on her body. It softened Rei toward the girl.
138. Mikai found out that Rini was Darien’s daughter from the future. Serena realized that she hadn’t been dreaming when Darien came to her window the night before. This realization made her flee, but Darien followed her home to make sure she wasn’t planning to avoid him again. Serena agreed not to, but warned him that teenage girls have hyperactive imaginations.
139. Three days later, during last-minute preparations for the party, Asanuma discovered a newspaper article about a suspected youma corpse found in Tokyo Bay. Suspecting that Rei may have been the one to kill the youma, he went immediately to Chiyoda to interrogate her father.
140. After Pluto had nearly submerged Mercury’s flash-form, Mercury had taken off for the time plane to get to the Garnet Orb before Pluto could get to her and finish the job. She suspected that Pluto had somehow, in the last thousand years, succumbed to insanity and knew that she had to stop Pluto from getting the three talismans and awakening Saturn and then Princess Serenity.
141. Pluto caught up to Mercury, but Mercury managed to get into the underground chamber in the heart of the time plane where the Garnet Orb and the Fountain of the Past were housed. Mercury got the talisman, but was horrified when she saw that the Fountain of the Past had begun to leak.
142. Senator Hino initially mistook Asanuma, who was covered in flames, for Rei, and nearly shot him with a gun that he had hidden in his pillows. Asanuma, enraged, made Hino tell him about Rei showing up the day after Christmas to take away Tomoe Hotaru, the girl Hino had employed to impersonate her. Hino also told him about the other Senshi who was present, whom Asanuma suspected must be Mercury.
143. Emerald ruins Rubeus’ plans when she releases all of his youma, plus some of her own, into Tokyo on New Year’s Eve, meaning that the prince, Senshi, and Shittenou would split up to fight them. In the Azabu High cafeteria, Rubeus released Future Asanuma from the ruby.
144. At the party, Rini sensed Asanuma’s presence immediately. She took off for it, followed by Buji and Serena. Unconsciously, her desire to stop them both from following her spilled into Buji, controlling him and making him stop Serena from following. Lita showed up, immobilizing Buji, and Serena kept after Rini.
145. With Buji unconscious, Mikai, Motoki, and Lita split up to go after the youma, while Darien went after Rini and Serena.
146. Rini’s panic to get to Asanuma resulted in her sudden ability to transform into animals like Darien; in the form of a giant cat, she tore through the city. She attacked Rubeus and was only stopped from killing him when the Asanuma from the future intervened, yanking her off Rubeus. Rini’s human mind returned to her; she realized that Asanuma had barely any life-force left, he was dying.
147. When Rubeus, attempting to preserve the last of Asanuma’s life-force, tried to put him back into the ruby, Rini clawed at him. Sailor Moon grabbed her from behind – then the Wiseman appeared.
148. It took all of Moon’s strength to keep Rini from being sucked into the Wiseman’s black hole-like pull. The attacks she aimed at him bounced off. The Wiseman prepared to kill Rubeus and Future Asanuma.
149. Pluto told Mercury that she could not have known that her actions in the past would create a totally separate stream of time, resulting in the puddle that has leaked from the Fountain of the Past. She told Mercury not to fault her for trying to help her queen. Mercury told her that the Senshi of Pluto are meant to serve kingdoms, not queens. Pluto was about to kill Mercury…
150. Tuxedo Mask burst into the cafeteria, blocking the Wiseman’s power with the Golden Crystal’s. Rini screamed for him to heal Asanuma. Rubeus seized Rini to keep her from being sucked into the Wiseman’s power as Mask and Moon fought.
151. Rini burned Rubes with her power, forcing him to release her. The Wiseman’s power sucked her in – until the dying Future Asanuma shot a crystal from his spot on the floor. It impaled Rini to the wall, stopping her from flying straight to the Wiseman. Asanuma, crying, apologized and told her he loved her. Then he began to crawl toward Tuxedo Mask.
152. Future Asanuma used the last of his life-force to create a barrier around himself and Mask, breaking his blood oath to Rubeus by failing to fight with him, so that he could tell Darien that his future self was coming to get Rini for Chaos. Then Future Asanuma died.
153. Rini tried to grab at Asanuma’s soul to put it back into his body, and she nearly caught it. But it slid from her fingers and away. In her anguish, she lost control of her power and went supernova.
154. Rei, in the airport, sensed Asanuma’s death. She forced herself not to go back, to try to save him. Then she felt the explosion of power from Rini. Hotaru began to awaken as Sailor Saturn…
155. …when Pluto saw the Garnet Orb pulsing, she teleported away, leaving Mercury alive. Mercury knew that the orb’s pulsing meant Saturn was awakening. Ami suddenly made her presence known inside Mercury for the first time in forever, but Pluto returned and took Mercury to Tokyo so that she would lead Pluto to Saturn,
156. Mercury pointed in the wrong direction and took off as Pluto glanced that way. Pluto caught on and lifted her staff to freeze Mercury’s body in time. Ami, inside Mercury, seized control and made their body teleport – but at the same time, Pluto’s attack hit them. The girl’s body disappeared with only a shout of “Kentaro-san!”
157. …Hotaru, after a moment and a disappointed expression, returned to herself with no recollection of having nearly become Sailor Saturn. Rei, shaken, dragged them to their plane terminal.
158. Mask and Moon clung together as Rini’s explosive power tore through the campus, destroying the buildings. When the light from her explosion faded, everyone has disappeared: the Wiseman, Rubeus, Asanuma, and Rini. Then, suddenly, they sensed a familiar aura.
159. The aura turned out to be Buji, curled around Rini’s body in the form of a white dragon.
160. They realized Rini was still breathing, and Mask took her to Elysion to be healed by Helios. Moon and Buji, who was still unconscious but back in a human body, unexpectedly go to Elysion as well as moment later.
161. The present Asanuma returned from Chiyoda, following the Shittenou he sensed to Mikai in Akihabara. Mikai heard Ami’s cry of “Kentaro-san!” before the ice communicator in his ear abruptly melted. He took off looking for her, and Asanuma followed suit.
162. Helios told Moon and Mask that Rini’s aura was violently exhausted; she was only saved by Buji transferring his own energy to her. Buji and Moon ended up in Elysion because Buji has become Rini’s Elysian priest, as Helios is Darien’s.
163. Darien commanded Helios to change Buji out of being Rini’s priest. When Helios said the he couldn’t, Darien pulled out his cane-blade to cut Buji’s dragon horns and spikes off so that he would never know what he had become and never have to risk his life. Serena held the boy still in case he woke up.
164. Before Darien could cut, Rini froze him in mid-stop with her powers. She screamed at Darien for letting Asanuma die and not coming for them. Serena told Rini that Darien did come for her. Rini told her that he did this time but that he doesn’t (as in, he doesn’t in the future). She told them that the Asanuma who died in the cafeteria wasn’t their Asanuma (from the present); it was Rini’s (from the future).
165. On the Black Moon mother ship, the Wiseman uses his crystal ball to show Prince Diamond and the others how Rubeus helped Asanuma and Rini against him. He accused Rubeus of treason, whom only Sapphire defended. Rubeus tried to ask his beloved Prince Diamond to spare his Four Sisters, but the Wiseman incinerated all four of them, and then Rubeus as well.
166. When Buji woke up in Elysion, Darien tried to hypnotize him to take away his memories of what he had turned into, but Rini told them that if Buji was deprived of his powers, she would die. They discover that Buji’s future self appears to Rini in her dreams and was the one who taught her how to transform into plants, which has saved her several times over from the Black Moon’s clutches. Darien agreed to let Buji keep his powers so long as he learned only what he needed to teach Rini, not to fight with them against youma.
167. While Mikai continued searching for Ami, Asanuma (the present one) went to meet Darien, Serena, Buji, and Darien. Their intense reactions to seeing him confused him. After Buji and Rini headed home, Serena and Darien told Asanuma what happened to his future self. Asanuma pretended not to be very bothered by it and insisted that they all start searching for Rini. When Lita and Motoki show up, his expression bound Serena and Darien not to tell them about his future self’s fate.
168. Serena sensed that whatever Future Asanuma had told Darien was bothering him greatly. She holds the rope between them and does not let go, even as they split up to search the nearby wards for any sign of Ami.
169. Rini fainted on the way home, and Buji took her and himself back to Elysion, where Helios began to teach him in the ways of Elysian priests.
170. Rini’s power blast reached Lanai as she was hurtling through space from her meeting with the High Senshi back to Earth. She quickened her speed.
171. After searching the Mizuno apartment, Mikai confronted Ami’s mother at the hospital. He ordered her to call him if she saw any signs that Ami had returned to their apartment.
172. After a night of searching, the gang took a break. Darien brought Buji and Rini back from Elysion. Rini collapsed asleep into Serena’s arms, and Asanuma walked Buji home. On their walk, Asanuma said that he would train Buji to fight in exchange for Buji’s promise to protect Rini.
173. Serena tried to keep Rini asleep despite her fiercely worried parents, but Rini woke up as she was tucking her in. She told Serena that she didn’t want to be able to control people anymore. Serena promised to teach her how to use her powers so that she could control them.
174. Darien came to Serena’s window, so disturbed by what the future Asanuma had told him that he could barely keep his body from transforming into animal features. Serena calmed him down, hugging him tightly. Then she picked up on the conflicted thoughts that were spilling from his mind, images of how Rini might have to use her tremendous powers to do to him if he turned to Chaos. She told him to stop. Darien relayed to her his memories of Helios’s prophecy that the Terran prince would become one of Chaos’ warriors and of what future Asanuma had told him: his future self was coming to get Rini for Chaos. In response, Serena swore to him that she wouldn’t let his future self do any of these things.
175. Chasing and fighting Mercury drained Pluto immensely. Coupled with the deterioration her body was already facing as punishment for her violations of Chronos’ Laws, it was enough to drive her unconscious as she returned to the time plane after Mercury/Ami escaped. She sank into memories of Queen Selenity’s death, the queen’s reaction to finding out that Pluto had given a Time Key to the High Senshi, and the promise Pluto had made to her to atone for her sin: a vow to give the princess another chance at life.
176. When Serena awoke the next morning, Ikuko accepted the explanation that she and Rini had been caught in a youma attack and Rini’s energy drained. They left Rini to sleep, but, worried by Rini’s pallor, Serena called Darien and asked him to take her to Elysion to heal faster. The Tsukinos then invited Lita over.
177. With Rubeus and the Sisters dead, Emerald was put in charge of planet side operations to obtain energy and the princess. She went through Bertie’s data files to find any weaknesses that the Senshi or Shittenou might have. She found copious amounts of data on transforming youma into humans along with footage of a white-haired man who appeared to have been experimenting on that very topic.
178. As Darien took Rini to Elysion, he struggled to understand why he had saved her instead of his best friend, Asanuma. He realized, to his consternation, that he had grown to feel much more strongly about Rini than he had ever wanted to.
179. Darien also tried to think of why Rini lived with Asanuma, and not her parents, in the future. He hypothesized that she, a tremendously powerful being, had been born so that when he went to Chaos’ side, she would be able to destroy him. With this in mind, he and Helios began training Rini to use the Golden Crystal.
180. Although they expected to be relocated to Juuban High School until Azabu could be rebuilt, the whole gang was instead invited to attend the prestigious Infinity Academy. Asanuma and Mikai discussed the unlikeliness of this event before Asanuma went to begin Buji’s first training session.
181. The two boys run into Rini and Serena, also training at the park – with Darien. Darien went after Asanuma, incensed that he disobeyed his edict not to teach Buji how to fight. Only when Asanuma asked if Darien was going to hypnotize them both like Endymion would have did Darien back off. Before he and Buji left, Asanuma told Rini to come see him when she wanted to learn to use fire.
182. The next day, Darien trained Buji in Elysion while Serena and Asanuma picked up their new uniforms at the mall. Serena pointed out that just by being in the present, Rini has changed the future, and she says with certainty that the future will be different than what they know it to be now.
183. On their first day of school, the gang is treated rather contemptuously by the Infinity students but warmly by the principal, Kaori Knight. They are each given a special focus track: Lita in martial arts with a previous Olympic medal-winner for a teacher, Motoki in culinary arts with the chef at Infinity (because Infinity has a chef, not lunch ladies), and Serena and Darien in track running. Briefly, Serena wondered how their lives were going to change when Darien, Motoki, and Asanuma graduated.
184. That afternoon, Mikai and Serena went to an abandoned subway line to see if Ami had ended up there. They discussed Darien’s time at and after the orphanage. Serena imaged what Rini could have been like if she hadn’t had Asanuma to raise her and had instead grown up alone like Darien.
185. Mikai had Serena pray briefly with him about mutant hoboes and Ninja Turtles before they set off to search.
186. Lita and Rini began the first stages of hand-to-hand training in Darien’s apartment with his punching bag. When Darien returned from checking on Motoki’s dad, whose condition had begun to worsen, Lita left to go see him, leaving Rini and Darien alone. After initial awkwardness, their conversation became one like the ones he held with his friends, and Rini tried not to feel pleased.
187. Serena and Mikai didn’t find Ami in the abandoned subway, but they did find a human who felt like a youma. It was clearly terrified and struggling to run, but before they could do anything to help it, a true youma appeared. It destroyed the human youma, and only Sailor Moon’s Twilight Flash prevented herself and Mikai from being atomized by the same attack. The youma vanished.
188. As they discussed the encounter the next day, Asanuma told the gang about the article he’d seen about a youma corpse. They hypothesized that it was another human youma and that they must be experiments by the Black Moon.
189. That day, before beginning her track training, Serena submitted to a physical by Infinity’s school nurse. Afterward, she dressed out and went to the indoor track – where she ran into Darien. They then encountered Coach Etoukou, who was hired after the past track coach unexpectedly resigned in December. He is now their new coach – i.e., slave driver.
190. Emerald discovered Dr. Tomoe’s lab, where he has been creating human youma. They made an agreement: if Tomoe would supply her with youma, Emerald would help him obtain subjects. Emerald also encountered Artemis imprisoned inside Tomoe’s lab.
191. On New Year’s Eve, when Haruka (controlled by Uranus’s flash-form) went after Rei and Hotaru at Senator Hino’s mansion, Michiru followed. Unconsciously, she succumbed to Neptune’s flash-form for long enough for Neptune to use her powers to heal the wound Rei had inflicted on Uranus.
192. When Haruka woke up, she seemed almost psychotically upset that Uranus’s flash-form had taken over. She told Michiru that they needed to find Rei to kill Saturn so that Pluto would never be able to wake the princess up. As long as Saturn is not awoken, Pluto would not be able to wake up the princess’s and Senshi’s flash-forms without risking the princess going to hell. To get to Rei, Haruka said, they would use Asanuma.
193. Helios and Asanuma trained Buji, while Serena, Lita, and Darien trained Rini.
194. Mikai discovered that Tokyo’s missing person count has skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang continued to slave away at judo, cooking, and track. Darien enjoyed being able to spend time with Serena and the others in their rare spare time.
195. Sapphire begged Diamond to stop leaving Tokyo to search for the Moon Princess. Diamond insisted that he was the one using the Wiseman, not the other way around, and hinted that the High Senshi had given him a mission to perform when they gave him their Time Key in the future.
196. After noticing how he was avoiding talking to her, Lita realized that Motoki didn’t trust her enough to share his grief with her. After a talk with Serena over sundaes, she decided to break up with him.
197. During her patrol, Sailor Moon stumbled across a human youma and a normal youma attack. She went to the human youma instead of stopping the other youma’s attack and tried to heal the woman with her Twilight Flash. It was ineffective, and the woman was sucked back into a Black Moon void.
198. Emerald sent one of her droids to inform Diamond of her success with the human youma and the energy she had obtained. Diamond was too deeply asleep to care, dreaming of how he had first encountered the Moon Princess, as a hologram in a pleasure chamber at Chaos’s base.
199. Tuxedo Mask arrived and helped Moon away from the scene of the attack.
200. In Elysion, where they were both training, Buji confronted Rini about the way she had been ignoring Asanuma. He shouted at her that she should take advantage of the chance to spend time with him before he died. Helios intervened, and Rini fled home.
201. Sailor Lanai, almost back to Earth, detected High Senshi auras pursuing her. She increased her speed, wishing that she still had the Time Key the High Senshi had taken from her and put into a chest with a rhombus engraved on its lid. 202. While Haruka stuck close to Serena during track practices, Michiru followed Asanuma as part of their plan to find Rei and Saturn. She began to feel increasingly jealous of Haruka’s affection for Serena.
203. While Michiru followed Asanuma, he fought a silver human-youma that Haruka said had been made by Tomoe using Serena’s blood.
204. Mikai, finally yielding to the fact that they wouldn’t find Ami anytime soon, decided to tell Darien what he knew. He told Darien that Mercury sent Rei to get Sailor Saturn’s reincarnation so that Pluto wouldn’t get her. Pluto wants to get to Saturn because Saturn is the only one who can prevent the princess’s soul from going to hell if she dies. Once Pluto got her hands on Saturn, she would set the princess’s flash-form free – and, by extension, everyone else’s as well. Mikai told Darien that Pluto is also the one who put memory blocks on all of the reincarnations, which means he may already have met the princess but just not recognized her.
204. When Darien told the others what Mikai had told him, Serena and Lita discussed why, if Miss Lanai was Sailor Pluto and working with Mercury and Mars, she hadn’t told Serena about them. Serena believed that it was because Lanai had seen how Serena has disobeyed her orders to stay away from Darien. Lita disagreed. But they agree to continue keeping Lanai’s identity a secret from the others.
205. Lita broke up with Motoki. When Darien asked Serena why, she said that it was better and easier to break it off if they weren’t meant to be. Darien argued that being “meant to be” is no guarantee of love. He and Serena, he said, knew that better than anyone.
206. Saori, irate that two amateurs like Serena and Darien have stolen most of the track meet events from her and Kobayashi, went to Principal Knight to complain. Knight ignored her in favor of Serena and Darien, earning Serena’s disapproval.
207. In class, Buji was still mad at Rini and giving her the silent treatment for ignoring Asanuma. While he and Rini were in the hallway, they sensed a youma attacking on the school playground.
208. Buji went to fight, but Emerald showed up and pinned him. Rini transformed into a giant cat to get Emerald off him, but she could not control her transformation. Buji turned into his dragon-form to save her.
209. Instead of breathing fire, however, he breathed water, revealing that he was not just Rini’s Elysian priest but the fourth Shittenou.
210. By that night, not all of Rini’s cat transformation had faded. Serena reached out to her the same way she did to Darien to help him transform back into a human. The threads of the Moon Princess’s aura in hers met the ones in Rini’s aura and allowed the princess’s flash-form to emerge for a few moments.
211. Prince Diamond, on the Black Moon ship, sensed the princess’s aura and summoned Emerald for more youma so that they can flush out the princess. 212. Having found out that Sailor Moon is the Moon Princess he has been looking for, Diamond ordered Emerald to release youma one after the other to make sure that Sailor Moon comes out to fight – and, thus, to be captured. However, because Emerald was determined to have Diamond for herself, she made sure that Sailor Moon would not come to any of the youma battles. She did this by telling Tomoe to make sure his wife, Principal Knight, sent the track team early to their track meet so they would be out of Tokyo when the youma were released. In the meantime, Tomoe had a request of his own concerning the youma…
213. The youma began to attack once the track team was out of Tokyo on Thursday afternoon. They attacked one after another until Saturday, with Asanuma insisting that they shouldn’t call Serena and Darien for help. Motoki was frightened to fight, and Rini inadvertently used her powers to force him to dust the youma. He did not realize what she had done.
214. Rei and Hotaru arrived in an American city, where Rei has decided that they will settle down for now.
215. Serena and Darien had a WAFF-y encounter in Darien’s hotel room after Serena got locked out of her room in nothing but a towel.
216. By the time Saturday rolled around with no sign of Sailor Moon, Diamond was murderously frustrated with Emerald. The Wiseman, pointing out that the Senshi must have realized the princess’s identity has been compromised, convinced Diamond that they must capture Rini in order to lure out Sailor Moon.
217. Darien and Serena won nearly all of their events at the meet. Tension rose between Haruka and Michiru, who has begun to believe that Haruka loves Serena.
218. Serena and Darien began to worry when, as they drove home from Infinity after the meet, no one answered their calls. When they discovered Lita and the Shittenou and found out what had happened, Darien tore into Asanuma for not calling for help. Meanwhile, Rini continued to worry in silence over what she had done to Motoki.
219. Emerald began to plot to kill Sailor Moon without Diamond knowing. Her first attempt came Monday night, when she released a youma and knocked Sailor Moon out before she could dust it. She would have killed her then if not for Haruka, who had been following Serena, using a fierce wind to drive her off. Haruka did not make any effort to save any civilians from the youma.
220. Tomoe had been attempting to contact Senator Hino about Hotaru with no success. The senator has gone into hiding. Tomoe enlisted Emerald’s droid, Chiral, and one of the human youma to track him down.
221. Darien had dreams of Endymion’s intimate last moments with the Moon Princess in the Silver Millennium. Until a certain point in the dream, he believed the girl in his arms was Serena, but even after he realized that it was the princess, he still wanted her. This desire immensely upset him. It made him fear that Endymion has not been as dormant since Christmas as he had thought.
222. Asanuma discovered the folder of papers that Mikai accidentally stuffed into his backpack when he was talking to Darien about Sailors Mercury, Pluto, and Mars. The papers contained evidence of Mikai’s theory that Serena was the Moon Princess.
223. Dr. Ludisae called Darien to ask if he was going to apply to Yale. Darien reflected how choosing to stay in Tokyo with Serena was the first decision he ever made solely of his own volition, not because of Tuxedo Mask, Endymion, or the Moon Princess. He realized that loving Serena was how he knew he was still Darien Shields and not Endymion.
224. When Asanuma confronted Mikai about why he hadn’t told Darien his theory, they were interrupted by Motoki. Although Asanuma believed Darien would be happy to find out Serena was the Moon Princess’s reincarnation, Motoki worried that Darien would worry that he didn’t really love her, that he was only drawn to her because Endymion loved the Moon Princess. Together, he and Mikai convinced Asanuma not to tell Darien Mikai’s theory yet.
225. So that Rini could make up with Asanuma, Serena got circus tickets for them. Left behind by Serena so that it was just the two of them, they reconciled. Rini explained to Asanuma that in the future, everyone has colored hair, not dark hair. Only she was different, for some unknown reason, and that was why Future Asanuma dyed her hair.
226. As they walked out of the circus, Asanuma saw Rini wistfully watching a mother and father with their young daughter. He decided that he was going to give Rini the chance to have that family – and that meant telling Darien about Mikai’s discovery.
227. Asanuma met Darien at the park, where Darien sensed Haruka’s presence (though he did not know it was Haruka) and chased it away. Asanuma gave Darien Mikai’s folder of evidence and told him to read it.
228. Darien flipped through the folder, reached the part where Mikai had written, “THE TRAITS FIT!!! SERENA = MOON PRINCESS.” Quickly losing control and slipping into his wolf form, he disappeared to Elysion. 229. Darien’s discovery that Mikai could be the princess brought Endymion’s flash-form to the surface. With great effort, Sailor Pluto managed to keep him from breaking the memory block that contained the prince’s memories of the princess.
230. Serena, sensing Darien’s emotional upheaval and subsequent cutting-off of the rope, went to Mikai to try to find him. She came to the conclusion that Darien had cut off the rope because he had found out how Sailor Moon had seduced him and betrayed the princess in the Silver Millennium. She gave up trying to find him.
231. Darien skipped school the next day, and Asanuma and Motoki kept mum as to the reason why. When he did reappear at school, he treated Serena and the others coldly and distantly. Serena’s depression deepened, especially as she felt that she was losing Rini, who continued to go to Elysion with Darien to train.
232. Tomoe tracked down Senatoe Hino, who refused to tell him what had happened to Hotaru. Tomoe administered a truth serum that killed Hino and found out that Hino’s daughter, Sailor Mars, had come to take Hotaru.
233. While Emerald was with Tomoe, Diamond discovered Sailor Moon’s location. He went to her, discovering her with a human youma in the alley, and destroyed the youma while rendering her unconscious so that she wouldn’t see him. He followed her for the rest of the day, finally presenting himself to her when she was at an arcade. He hypnotized her.
234. Serena woke up the next morning with no memory of the previous night. That day the feeling of being watched followed her everywhere. When she fell asleep that night, Diamond reappeared and picked up where he had left off the night before.
235. While Buji and Rini waited after school for Asanuma to pick up a pizza, they were seen by Sapphire, who was following his brother. He read Rini’s desires from her mind.
236. Serena’s mind continued to resist Diamond’s control, though she still had no memory of his hypnosis of her. She noticed cuts to her face that hadn’t been there before.
237. When confronted by Asanuma, Darien explained that he was avoiding Serena because he needed to somehow prove to himself that Darien Shields existed, not just Endymion. Asanuma’s questions drove Darien to Helios, who told him that Serena was nothing like Endymion’s Moon Princess.
238. Haruka, having overheard Darien and Asanuma’s conversation about Serena being the princess, went to confront her. He arrrived just in time to save her from a youma. Wanting to hurt her and make her feel guilty, Haruka transformed and showed Sailor Moon how he had been turned into a freak by Sailor Uranus’s possession of his body. But then Diamond arrived and, enraged by Uranus touching Serena, attacked.
239. Memories of all that Diamond did to her rushed into Moon. She tried to call for Darien, but Diamond’s hypnosis was already paralyzing her. The realization that Diamond wanted Rini and knew where to find her gave Serena the power to claw free of Diamond’s hypnosis and drive him off.
240. With Diamond gone, Moon went to Haruka and Michiru. Haruka, shocked that Serena wasn’t disgusted by his half-female, half-male state, kissed her on the forehead before fleeing with Michiru. Just afterward, Jupiter and Rini appeared. Moon sent them both home to keep them safe from Diamond.
241. Moon spent the night in her bedroom, waiting for Diamond to return. When he did, his hypnosis immediately paralyzed her again. He revealed to her that he made a deal with Chaos so that she would be able to stay safely with him if he took Rini to Chaos. Again, the chance of Rini being in danger gave Serena the strength to break free of Diamond’s mind control.
242. At the same time, Tuxedo Mask arrived. Diamond sent him flying back out the dinwo before Serena sent a Twilight Flash burning through his abdomen. He disappeared. Mask reached for Serena, trying to make sure she was alright, only for her to yank away from him and tell him, “Don’t touch me.” She left.
243. Diamond returned to the Black Moon mothership, gravely injured. As Sapphire stitched him up, Diamond told him that the reason he wants to have the Moon Princess, whose power has alienated her to the entire galaxy, is because she reminds him of Sapphire, whose gyptian mind-reading powers alienated him to the entire Nemisian court. Sapphire, overwhelmed with love for his brother, reveals a plan for Diamond to get the Moon Princess: use Rini’s power to go back in time to the Silver Millennium and woo Serenity there.
244. Rini spent the night with Jupiter, worrying about how frightened and tired Serena had looked. When they returned to Serena’s house in the morning, Rini sensed that Serena was gone and Darien, his aura agitated and angry, was in the tree. Anger exploded within her, because Darien was the reason Serena had looked so tired and scared these past weeks. She sprang at him, wanting to make him hurt the same way she did, and told him that Serena was dead in her future.
245. Haruka explained to Michiru how he started out a normal child and then grew into what he was. Then he decided to leave, to find Rei and Saturn so that he could save Serena from going to hell. He left and Michiru stayed behind.
246. Serena appeared at school that day, as distant as Darien had acted over the past few weeks. She avoided him until asking him to hypnotize her parents so that they would be safe and out of the house while she was at the track meet that weekend. She sent Rini to stay in Elysion.
247. In Elysion, Rini realized she didn’t have her snowglobe. She went back to Serena’s room to get it – and saw a youma in the road. She ran to fight it.
248. Lanai landed back on Earth. On her heels was Sailor Mnemosyne, another High Senshi. They were quickly joined by Mnemosyne’s sister, Sailor Lethe, who had been on Earth while Lanai was gone, disguised as Serena and Darien’s teammate, Sei Le. She accused Lanai of getting too close to Serena but was cut off when they all felt Rini’s aura, mixed with a Chaos one.
249. Rushing with the other two to find Rini, Lanai recognized the presence the child was fighting was a human turned into a youma. Before she could say anything, Lethe killed it. This angered Rini, who glared at Lanai. Lethe reminded Lanai of her duty: to take the dangerously powerful child to Galaxia.
250. Just as Lanai aimed her attack at Rini, Diamond leapt out, grabbing the child. He teleported away with her to the park. There, he explained to her how the Wiseman had taken control of his people and made her an offer: if she would take him to the past to get the Moon Princess to help save his people, he would help her make sure that the past changed so that Serena would be her mother. Rini agreed, and they disappeared just as the Wiseman appeared.
251. Meanwhile, Mikai and Asanuma realized that all the human youma have the same powers as the Senshi and Shittenou currently in Tokyo–and currently attending Infinity! They came to the conclusion that Tomoe must be behind it and, they realized when they receive a call from Motoki that his dad’s back in the hospital, he must be behind Furuhata-san’s illness as well. They called Darien.
252. Darien and Serena rushed back to Tokyo, but on the way Helios contacted them with the news that Rini has disappeared. They sensed her aura disappearing with one that Serena recognized as Diamond’s. The Wiseman appeared to them and told them how to go back in time to get Rini and prevent Diamond from taking the Moon Princess for his own.
253. When Diamond and Rini arrived in the Time Plane, Sailor Pluto attacked them. But Rini’s power was too much for her; she was left in a heap as Rini and Diamond stepped through the Time Gate. They arrived in the palace gardens in the Silver Millennium.
254. At the hospital, Mikai and Asanuma discovered Buji with the Furuhatas; Mayuko is in labor. When they tried to see Furuhata, a youma disguised an an orderly stopped them, for Tomoe was sneaking both Furuhata-san and Mayuko out of the hospital! The Shittenou rushed after them, following Tomoe to his clinic.
255. In the Silver Millennium, Diamond hypnotized Luna to believe he had an audience with the queen. Rini, disguised as a rose in his hand, listened as he asked Queen Selenity for the moon princess’s hand in marriage. Queen Selenity, after some consideration, agreed.
256. Handed off to the Senshi as a gift for their princess, Rini (still in rose form) listened intently for Sailor Moon’s voice. It never came: instead, when Rini transformed into her human body to heal the injuries the princess’s stomping had given her, she saw that Princess Serenity was none other than Serena. The Senshi woke and attacked her, and Rini fled to Elysion.
257. Meanwhile, the Silver Millennium’s Sailor Pluto had just finished writing her message to the High Senshi, describing the man who had traveled back through time to the moon palace. She had to hide the message when Queen Selenity entered the Time Plane to ask her if marrying Serenity to someone other than Endymion was the right thing, but as she spoke to her, she sneaked it into a mirror, sending it to the High Council. Distracted by her guilt, she didn’t noticed Serena and Darien arriving in the Silver Millennium.
258. Only the arrival of the Luna Ball saved Darien and Serena from suffocating where they had landed on the moon. Identifying itself as a servant of the Moon Queen, the ball told them they must get to Diamond and Rini before time was ruined and led them toward the moon palace.
259. At Tomoe’s clinic, Emerald and her youma were waiting to prevent the Shittenou from reaching Furuhata and Mayuko. One by one they peeled off until only Motoki was left to descend into Tomoe’s lab.
260. Darien began to worry that Serena still had not adapted to the moon’s temperature; she was shivering, her teeth chattering, ceaselessly. He insisted on them resting, and they both fell asleep. In a conversation they had when they woke up, Darien revealed that he thought she was the Moon Princess and Serena revealed that she was actually the Moon Princess’s secret bodyguard.
261. Darien apologized for thinking that Serena could be the princess and for cutting her off from the rope. Serena, devastated that he was only sorry for these things because she wasn’t the princess, remembered what Diamond did to her, and Darien broke into her mind to see the memories. In a burst of anger, Serena hurled him out and ended up in his mind instead, seeing his memory of when Rini told him that Serena would be dead in the future.
262. When Serena tried to keep on moving as though this news didn’t matter, Darien tried to convince her to give up on saving Rini. Angry words flew between them before ending with Serena giving back to Darien the locket he gave her for Christmas.
263. In Elysion, Rini met Prince Endymion. At first he believed her to be some sort of Chaos minion, but when she showed him the animal transformations that Darien had taught her, he believed that she was his future daughter with the Moon Princess. He seemed extremely pleased with her while Rini herself was surprised by how different he was from Darien. She was also slightly unnerved by the speed from which his mood went from pleasant to angry, making her too scared to tell him that she had voluntarily helped Diamond come to the past. They went to the moon to find Serenity and save her from Diamond.
264. Back on the moon, Diamond and Serenity were walking through the palace gardens, Diamond trapping Serenity under his hypnosis. When he arrived on the moon and saw them, Endymion, not realizing Serenity was being controlled by Diamond, believed her to have betrayed him. His anger and inability to control it brought the Senshi to the spot, where they attacked Endymion. Rini told him that Diamond was controlling Serenity, so Endymion snatched her back from the prince, and Serenity stayed weakly in his arms, not helping him against her Senshi or, when she arrived on the scene, her mother.
265. As Queen Selenity gathered her power to kill Endymion, Rini shouted at Serenity to use her powers to protect them. She didn’t. Instead, Rini’s own power lashed out to counter Selenity’s, and Rini took all three of them back to Elysion. There, Endymion swore to Serenity that he would never give her back to her mother or to the High Senshi. Instead, she would stay and be married to him. |