Volume Six

Usagi is busy being abducted by Demand. He makes passes at her for a long time, forces a kiss on her, and then it is revealed that Neo Queen Serenity ran out of the palace because she was worried about Chibiusa. The plot thickens.

Neo Queen Serenity may be under ice, but she's still not pleased about what's happening to Usagi.

Back among the living, Luna suggests that since they can't use Sailor Moon's power they use the power of Chibiusa, who should be able to use the ginzuishou since she carries royal blood. Endymion shakes his head and says that Chibiusa has no powers of her own. He reveals that she's nine hundred years old and one day she just stopped growing and never gained the power to transform. Poor kid, no wonder she has such a big "grow up to be a fine lady" complex. He says that Chibiusa is a child of earth with the blood of the Silver Millennium, so they don't fully understand why she grew they way that she did or why she stopped.

Then there's another interlude with captured Usagi where she manages to contact the three captured senshi with her mind before they fall unconscious again. Oooo.

Meanwhile, we have a flashback of Chibiusa's previous life in Crystal Tokyo where she's walking down a street and is accosted by a mob because she hasn't been aging properly, doesn't have the mark of the White Moon on her forehead, and can't use any nifty lunar powers. Then she thinks of a different scene where she's talking to Luna P about how she's not as awesome or pretty as her beloved mama and someone tells her they think she's not the real daughter of the King and Queen and that it's all just pretend because she can't use the powers, and she doesn't look like either of them (aside from the hairstyle) and the Neo Queen never takes care of her like a mom should (since she's so busy being Queen and all).

The person tells her that if she was their real daughter she could use the power of the crystal and demands to see it. So off Chibiusa goes, intent on proving her legitimacy by swiping the crystal. She uses Luna P to break the case where the ginzuishou rests and then picks it up reverently. It is at this point that the queen rushes in, sees the broken glass and missing crystal. Chibiusa hides because she's ashamed and afraid and then the attack comes which has been detailed eloquently about a bazillion times before.

Chibiusa is wracked with guilt because she feels that everything that has happened has been entirely her fault (which is very untrue). She just made a few bad decisions, poor kid. She isn't sure what to do so she runs away to see Sailor Pluto at the Gate of Time.

Wow, apparently life in the Thirtieth Century isn't as awesome as some would have you believe, at least for Chibiusa.

Chibiusa now has a flashback inside a flashback and remembers the first time she met Sailor Pluto, deep inside the Crystal Palace where she found the door to the Gate of Time. Pluto is happy to see someone, and tells Chibiusa that she will some day grow up to be a lovely lady, just like her mom. Chibiusa is touched. Pluto teaches Chibiusa to say 'Abracadabra' to make herself feel better, because it's a sort of magic and Chibiusa admires Pluto's Garnet Rod. Pluto tells Chibiusa that some day she will have to take up the Queen's scepter and preform great miracles too, because that's her duty as the heir to Crystal Tokyo. No pressure right?

It is at this point that the flashbacks end and Chibiusa is revealed to have been wandering the city alone and quite by herself. Venus and Tuxedo Kamen look all over for her and Endymion takes them to see Pluto again, because he's sure that's where Chibiusa has gone. She's not there, but Endymion begs Pluto to lend her strength to Venus and Kamen because Sailor Moon has been kidnapped. Pluto smiles at them and Chibiusa happens to see it from a distance and is very hurt. Pluto was /her/ special friend. She never smiled at anyone else. With Pluto gone as a safe haven, Chibiusa feels like she doesn't have any place to go. She's so upset that she accidentally drops her Crystal Key as she runs away.

Pluto finds the time key shortly after, but they're not quick enough to catch Chibiusa and she runs right into Wise Man's arms (the big pedophile!). They leave together after he tells her that he needs her. Nuts for Sailor Venus and Tuxedo Kamen who have gone back to the palace with Endymion. Pluto can only stare as a huge temporal storm washes over everything courtesy of the havoc which Wise Man is causing with Small Lady. She tries to get back to the gate, but collapses on the ground with the Garnet Rod at her feet.

Endymion and Mamoru know something fishy is going on, so they head back to the Time Gate and leave Venus in the palace with the cats. Pluto tells them that something terrible has happened to the Small Lady and that it caused the temporal storm that's washing over them. She says that Chibiusa disappeared on the other side of the storm.

Hearing this, Mamoru runs pell mell into it, despite Pluto's warning of danger.

There's an interlude where Usagi is still captured, Demand makes more passes, and Usagi tires to find Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter again to no avail, but she hears they're being kept in an underground prison. She runs off and then stumbles upon Saffir who attempts to kill her after a little exposition. She is so distressed that she manages to henshin and contact her other captured Sailor Soldiers who henshin in turn. Wise Man and an mysterious figure with ponytails discuss this event as it happens. Rubeus becomes a big chicken and tries to run away as the palace on Nemesis begins to collapse around him, but Wise Man kills him efficiently. Demand tells Sailor Moon that there's no way that she'll be able escape from him, but then, to prove him wrong she and the other senshi teleport away as Nemesis continues to collapse.

Meanwhile, Mamoru is still running around in the darkness calling for Chibiusa. The shadowy lady appears and extends a hand and he takes it. Uh-oh.

Back at the Gates of Time, Moon, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter arrive and have a reunion with Venus. Then Pluto breaks the bad news that Chibiusa disappeared in the massive temporal storm and that Mamoru ran off after her into it and hasn't been seen since. Usagi is distressed again that Mamoru is off with Chibiusa, but the other senshi console her by telling her that he's with Chibiusa because he knows that they're with her and he feels rightly that he should protect their daughter who is alone. Usagi is somewhat consoled, but still pines for Mamoru. Then Luna P falls to the ground in front of them, hissing and broken and Usagi faints.

Usagi goes home to her own time and when she wakes up all she can think about is how empty it feels without Chibiusa. Luna tells her not to over extend herself, but she swears that she'll find Mamoru and Chibiusa.

Meanwhile Saffir and Demand wake up groggily in the core of the planet of Nemesis which is apparently severely twisted space time where Wise Man's evil palace is. They are given a tour by the lady with pony tails who is revealed to be none other than the Rabbit. Yup. Chibiusa had a growth spurt. An evil growth spurt.

Wise Man re-brainwashes Saffir and Demand who are now beginning to have second thoughts about this whole evil thing and then the new and improved evil Rabbit tells them all about her evil plan to get the ginzuishou of the past, Sailor Moon, and Neo Queen Serenity through the strategic use of giant black crystals. She says she already has what she really wants: Endymion, who is Mamo-chan quite brainwashed (wow, it must not be that hard to brainwash Mamo-chan. Everyone does it XD). She kisses him a little too intimately for it to be kosher considering the whole father/daughter thing.

Back in the past, the senshi get a danger alert from Sailor Pluto and rush to the future where they find the earth even more devastated (if possible) because there's a second giant black evil crystal in it. Usagi and the other senshi meet the evil Rabbit in the Crystal Palace where she's taunting her papa and slumbering mama. Usagi demands to know who she is and the Rabbit laughs and asks if Usagi has forgotten her already. Usagi uses the ginzuishou so the Rabbit blinks out before reappearing and once again claiming her right to be in the palace by way of blood. Wise Man calls her by the name "Small Lady" as he arrives and she denies the name, as she's grown so much and calls herself the Queen of Darkness: Black Lady. Then she blasts Luna P while Saffir and Demand wail on Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. Usagi doesn't know what to think and the senshi call for her to remember who she is and that she's fighting in front of her home. She laughs and says she doesn't care because she has Endymion. Sailor Moon is of course surprised to see Mamoru at Black Lady's side, but she is even more surprised when Black Lady sics him on her and he whacks her with the Cutie Moon Rod, which they created with their pure love. Wow, sucks to be her.

Usagi apologizes for being jealous of Chibiusa and tells her that she cares about her, but Black Lady flinches and then refuses to listen. She plants another black crystal at the base of the other two and declares that all will become oblivion.

Sailor Pluto remains uneasily at the Gates of Time and desperately wishes she could do something.

Demand finally manages to shake off Wise Man's brainwashing and rebels. Saffir is sent against him, but Saffir falls and Demand remains to strike a final blow at Wise Man. He collapses as he is nothing more than a skeleton, but Black Lady says he's still with them in this true form, and the clouds around her swell and billow.

Sailor Pluto again wants to go as the temporal storm clears around her, but she remembers the words of the original Queen Serenity which bid her to remain solitary.

Meanwhile, the planet Nemesis looms deadly over the earth and Wise Man explains that he is Nemesis. He and the planet are one. The Crystal Palace starts to collapse under the strain, but Sailor Moon stands firm in front of it, protecting it with her own power, the power of the ginzuishou of the Twentieth Century. King Endymion looks concerned for Sailor Moon whom he knows is Serenity, and Diana runs off to see Sailor Pluto.

Diana begs Pluto to go and fight with the others since she fears that they're being overcome. Pluto says that she can't because she must guard the Gate, although she wants to go badly. In one of the cutest and heart-warming scenes of the story, Diana steps forward and says she'll guard the Gate so that Pluto can go. She says she's a little small, but she'll be better than nothing. Pluto thanks Diana and says that she's just like Small Lady and then heads off to fight.

She arrives on the scene just in time to see Black Lady sic Mamoru on Sailor Moon again. He snatches her brooch and she loses her henshin. The other Sailor Soldiers are on the ground, spent. It looks bad. Black Lady takes the brooch and removes the ginzuishou, and then takes out her own. The near forgotten Demand chooses this moment to be a drama queen and backhands Black Lady and takes the two crystals himself. He goes mad with the power and then brings the two crystals together, which Pluto declares may end the world.