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Scenes from the previous episode: Sailor Moon has the Golden Crystal; Chibi-Moon rushes over and speaks through it to the city of Tokyo, whose citizens begin chanting "Moon Crisis Power"; the shadow over the Earth disappears, the two Moons use the Crystal to zap Neherenia, and everything dissolves into a white glare.
[OP--"Moonlight Densetsu"]
[title screen]
As the light spreads over the city, every Dead Moon Circus tent except the original is completely destroyed. The light fades. In the wreckage of the original tent, Helios and all the Senshi are lying unconscious.
Sailor Moon is the first to recover; as she pulls herself up from the rubble, she sees Neherenia standing in the shadows (not clearly visible), carrying Chibi-Moon. She glances around in surprise as what's left of the structure begins to shake, then looks back at Neherenia just in time to see the latter disappear. A large piece of the wreckage begins to rise into the air, taking Neherenia and Chibi-Moon with it; Sailor Moon rushes over and grabs onto it, holding on with on hand.
She pulls herself up onto a platform, sees a flight of stairs, and quickly begins to climb, thinking something as she does so. Further up the incredibly long staircase, Neherenia is also thinking. She still carries Chibi-Moon, who has the Golden Crystal in her hand.
Sailor Moon sees light from a doorway at the top of the stairs. As she climbs the last few steps, she hears a sort of horrified whimpering coming through the doorway. She emerges into a sort of rough stone courtyard on the top of the piece of wreckage. Chibi-Moon is lying on the ground, and Neherenia (whose hair has changed from glossy blue-black to limp, stringy white) is facing the other way, staring into part of a broken full-length mirror.
Sailor Moon approaches Neherenia, who says something to her and then turns around. Sailor Moon gasps to see that her face and hands are a sickly blue-gray and horribly wrinkled--she looks, to put it mildly, like an extremely old woman.
The two converse briefly, and then Neherenia starts to tell another story about her past. It starts with a shot of the full moon, then we see a tent similar in shape to the Dead Moon Circus tent--but this one is bright and colorful, and the music playing within sounds classical, unlike the usual strange circus music. Inside, a young Neherenia (I'm guessing she's in her late teens or early twenties) stands on a balcony above a court filled with elegantly dressed people, several of whom smile and bow formally, calling her "Neherenia-sama".
The scene shifts to an inner chamber containing a full-length mirror. Neherenia smiles and speaks to her reflection, which, to her shock, suddenly disappears and is replaced by an image of a horribly wrinkled old woman. She gasps and backs up in horror, looking around to see the room's columns and furnishings covered in cobwebs. She then looks down at her hands, which have become blue-gray and wrinkled. Terrified, she staggers backward into a table.
A voice (which sounds like Neherenia's regular voice) comes from the mirror, which is now dark. Young Neherenia listens to the voice. We see an outside shot of the circus tent in its familiar sinister-looking form, and then one of Neherenia, her eyes glowing red, staring into the same mirror as before. In the beautiful court, the courtiers, one by one, have their Dream Mirrors taken and become the lemures of the Dead Moon Circus.
Back in the present, the wrinkled and white-haired Neherenia finishes her story and looks at a round black shape overhead (the Dead Moon?), toward which the structure they're on is still rising. She and Sailor Moon a exchange a few words--and then, suddenly, a very strange, Zirconia-like creature bursts out of Neherenia's midsection and slams Sailor Moon back into the foot-high stone wall around the edge of the platform. The creature has its hands around her throat, threatening to push her over the edge completely.
After several tense moments, Sailor Moon gasps out a few words to the Zirconia-thing, which gets a surprised look on its face and retracts back into Neherenia. Neherenia backs away from Sailor Moon, fearfully raising her arms to shield her face. Sailor Moon gasps as Neherenia grabs Sailor Chibi-Moon, hoists her into the air, and throws her over the edge of the structure.
A second later, Sailor Moon reaches the edge and, screaming Chibi-Moon's name, watches her disappear into the distance below.
[commercial break]
Sailor Moon kneels at the edge of the structure, then collapses against the low stone wall, whimpering. Neherenia begins a smug-sounding little speech, but is interrupted as Sailor Moon stands resolutely on the wall. The latter quietly says a few words (the last of which is "Makenai!"), turns to give Neherenia a look of mixed anger and determination, and leaps off the edge.
Neherenia looks back at the dark shape overhead, then steps into the broken mirror, which suddenly becomes whole again--and inside which she is once again young and beautiful. The large piece of rubble crumbles and disappears, but the mirror, with Neherenia inside, continues to fly upward. She makes a short speech, then laughs as the mirror glows and vanishes.
Chibi-Moon, still unconscious, is falling rapidly toward the Earth (which is a VERY long way below). Sailor Moon slowly (over the course of about a minute and a half) catches up with her. After about the first minute, her Sailor fuku turns into her Moon Princess dress. She thinks a few words to herself as she falls.
Just before she reaches Chibi-Moon, the dark shape that has been covering the sun for the last five or six episodes moves out of the way, and the sky in once again bright and blue. Finally, she's close enough to wrap her arms around Chibi-Moon.
Usagi (or is it Princess Serenity?) holds Chibi-Moon's hand and begs her to wake up, saying something about the Golden Crystal. She looks fearfully at the fast-approaching city, then back at Chibi-Moon. She's still speaking as they start falling past the skyscrapers of Tokyo. Finally, to Usagi's tremendous relief, Chibi-Moon opens her eyes and responds.
The Golden Crystal activates, and, in the ruins of the Dead Moon Circus tent, Helios wakes up. He says a few words and, without even standing up, disappears.
As Usagi and Chibi-Moon fall, the Pegasus appears and swoops below them. There's a blinding flash of light, and, when it fades, the two girls are both wearing wings and their white dresses (with the Pegasus nowhere in sight). They slowly drift the last few feet to the ground, landing gently on an overpass in the middle of the fully restored city.
Later, on a hillside in the park, Chibi-Usa, Mamoru, the cats, and the five girls are saying good-bye to Helios. He converses for a few moments with the five Senshi and Mamoru, thanking them. Usagi pulls Chibi-Usa forward, despite the latter's obvious embarrassment. Helios smiles at her, then surprises her by kneeling and kissing her hand. The other girls comment on this, and Helios and Chibi-Usa exchange a few words.
Everyone leans forward anxiously, waiting to see what they'll do next, but then they suddenly look up at the sky instead (it's hard to tell whether they're really distracted by something or just giving the two some privacy). Chibi-Usa rushes forward and throws her arms around Helios.
As they hug, the Amazoness Quartet (now in civilian dress) look on from across the field and talk briefly about the scene.
In a flurry of feathers, Helios shifts from his human form to that of the Pegasus, who immediately (and to Chibi-Usa obvious distress) spreads his wings a rises into the air. He says something to her as he flies away, and she shouts a reply and rushes to a guardrail at a point overlooking the city to watch him disappear into the distance.
Usagi comes up behind her with Mamoru and puts a hand on her shoulder, speaking to her. Chibi-Usa smiles and nods in response, and her next words are the last ones in the episode (and the SS series) as the picture fades out on a nice shot of the four Senshi and the future Royal Family against the backdrop of Tokyo.
[ED--"'Rashiku' Ikimasho"]
Emily
ethurston1@weber.edu
Copyright ©1998-2000 Stephen Congly
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