Chapter 51: Out of Time

Sailor Mini Moon snorted in the face of Amethyst's demand. "In your dreams! I'll never give you Luna P, you hag!"

As Pluto and Mini Moon faced down Amethyst, I was confined to the upper level of the old prison by two of Amethyst's sentinels. Created by the crescent moon compact, the light figures roved the upper floor in wisp form, waiting for me to emerge from my cell. I had to be patient, pick the right moment to strike Amethyst and disappear before she could use the powers of her compact against me.

"You ever hear the phrase 'history is written by the victor'? Tell me: if your mother was so selfless, why didn't she just thaw out the planet out and leave everyone to their own lives?" Amethyst asked...a question I had wondered myself. "You called Beryl and the Negamoon family evil when THEY tried to conquer Earth, yet your mother does the exact same thing and you call it a favor!"

"People wanted my mom to be Queen, Amethyst! She only used her powers to heal Earth, not to control it!" argued Sailor Mini Moon.

"I was as naive as you, once upon a time. Let me show you something." I heard the click of Amethyst opening her crescent moon compact. Like before, the bleak prison was covered by her illusions. The stark and lifeless gray was replaced by Silver Millennium-style architecture, with marble walls and surfaces...but a shadow still hung over the lifeless scene. The translucent forms of force fields, holding humans in stasis, replaced the rooms around us - including my own. Binds of light shackled the prisoner's wrists and knees, holding them to the walls.

With Amethyst's wisps confining their movements to the opposite side of my floor, I took the chance of slipping over to the railing. Amethyst paced back and forth as she spoke, but she stuck to the middle of her cell, surrounded by her wisps. I disappeared back into hiding when the wisps upstairs started dashing back and forth in the same pattern. Damn. Sneaking into a fortress alone required no shortage of patience, but having my friends down there made all the difference. Still...Amethyst hadn't attacked. What was she up to?

"When I was a little girl, I heard the same lie over and over again: Silver Millennium was a happy place, and the Moon Kingdom was the happiest of all," Amethyst's voice bellowed. "One day, a pair of guards showed up at my door and told me it was my destiny to assist the Sailor Scouts. At first, I was excited. Then I found out places like this existed right under my nose. I tried rationalizing it: people are individuals, right? There will always a few bad apples...but then I realized that the prisoners here were freer than I was."

Amethyst continued to revel in her life story. Had she turned her attention to persuading Rini to join her, or was all this for her own sake? "Do you know what your family loves the most about the Silver Crystal, Mini Moon? Only your bloodline can tap its true potential. Your mother and grandmother flaunted it as proof of their divine right to rule the universe!"

"Queen Serenity and Sailor Moon never claimed the Silver Crystal gave them the right to absolute power!" argued Sailor Pluto, even though I knew she couldn't wait to crack Amethyst's head with her orb. "They recognized that how dangerous the Silver Crystal was in the wrong hands! Their family's responsibility is to keep it away from the likes of you and Tithon!"

"But that's why Queen Serenity feared dark magic! She couldn't restrict it! She tried, and when she failed, she plotted to stamp it out instead! The only thing your mother has done is move the old Moon Kingdom to THIS planet, warts and all!" Amethyst yelled back.

"The Silver Crystal doesn't work the way you think it does, Amethyst! You don't need to use the siphon to make your point!" Sailor Mini Moon pleaded...even after everything Amethyst had done.

Amethyst snickered again. "I see a bit of myself in you...so I know I'm wasting my breath. I'm not gonna enjoy kicking the snot out of you. But I'm looking forward to a world without the Sailor Scouts!"

Screw it...I'm coming, Rini! I charged the railing just as all of Amethyst's sentinels - including the ones that had been on patrol - returned to light form and hovered above her. Amethyst raised her hand in the air and summoned a massive dark energy crystal in the air with its sharp tip pointed at Sailor Mini Moon. The sentinels transformed into wisps that rose towards the ceiling and flew back down towards the Scouts like meteorites...

"Pluto Garnet Sphere!" Sailor Pluto released her Garnet Rod and lifted her open palms toward the sky. The staff briefly stood on its own and vanished as the Garnet Orb itself rose upwards, creating a purple dome to cover the Sailor Scouts. Amethyst's bombardment struck the shield with thundering crashes that left craters in the ground and shook the foundations of the decaying prison.

Now was my chance. Taking advantage of the sound cover, I vaulted over the railing and teleported behind Amethyst while her attention remained on the magical dome in front of her. I channeled dark magic to my hand and struck her point blank. I was paralyzed by a painful electric shock and sent flying into the wall behind me. My bracer arm glowed hot, as if I had dipped it in burning coals. To think it could be tricked so easily. Pluto's shield glimmered away as I stumbled to my feet. The Guardian of Time's staff had returned to existence, and Sailor Mini Moon emerged shaken but unharmed by Amethyst's best effort to destroy them.

"Above you!" Sailor Pluto called to me shortly before my own senses kicked back in. Amethyst pounced from the railing above me, attempting to strike me with dark magic herself. Amethyst's victorious grin taunted me after I rolled out of the way, just before she snapped her crescent moon compact open in my direction...

"DOUBLE SAILOR KICK!" Mini Moon and Pluto cried in unison. Both Sailor Scouts ran towards Amethyst and used the Garnet Rod as a vault to launch themselves feet-first into Amethyst. The Shadow-Scout closed her compact, but was struck by Mini Moon or Pluto's heels before she could get away. Both of them landed hard into Amethyst's back, knocking her into the wall.

"She's all yours, Plu!" Mini Moon called. Amethyst lay trembling on the ground. It was almost over...

Sailor Pluto's rod was encased by a small whirlwind when she lifted it into the air. "Pluto Deadly Scream!" Sailor Pluto spun once after the whirlwind gathered into her orb and she unleashed her most powerful attack. Amethyst shrieked before she was struck full-force by Pluto's ball of energy, enveloping her in a cloud of dust. Her illusion of the Silver Millennium-era prison flickered and disappeared, replaced by the dreary surroundings of our true environment.

"Alright!" cheered Sailor Mini Moon...but her smile quickly dropped when she heard me stumble trying to walk over to her. Looking down at my arms, I saw that my midnight-blue sleeves were increasingly torn and blackened with scorch marks. I already wrecked my new robes...sorry Pegasus.

"I'm fine," I assured the worried Princess, but she looked unconvinced.

"You don't look fine," insisted Mini Moon. She turned her head back to Sailor Pluto. "You should have told me - "

I jumped to my feet after Mini Moon stopped mid-sentence. Amethyst's illusion of the Silver Millennium-era prison pulsed and shimmered back into existence. A shadowy figure had risen where the dust had settled. Amethyst stood in her crater and allowed the tattered remains of her Shadow robes to fall to the ground. Her skin was battered and bruised, and some of the dark shards embedded in her skin had been chipped. But she was still alive...

"This isn't a dream world, Small Lady! Destroying me won't be so easy, even if your old dog has a few extra tricks!" Amethyst jeered. I teleported away and jumped towards the upper floor before Amethyst could imprison me with her compact. I struggled to hoist myself over the railing...once again, my strength was failing me.

"You shouldn't go swinging your crutch at me just because you're an old woman! That's not fair!" I heard Amethyst taunt. I looked down to see her roll away from another swing by Pluto's Garnet Rod. Amethyst unsheathed a dark magic sickle, pulsating with energy when the blade activated. When Pluto's rod struck Amethyst's newly unveiled blade, it made a shrill grinding noise as painful as Amethyst's own laughter.

After struggling to lift myself onto the upper floor, I pressed my back against the wall when I heard footsteps along the pavement. Five of Amethyst's mind-controlled soldiers barged through a hollow metal frame door across from me. These soldiers wore silver and dark blue armor with helmets, much lighter in appearance than their Silver Millennium counterparts. They carried long silver-plated weapons with barrels at the end. Rifles.

Instead of jumping down into the fray, they took positions along the railing and aimed their barrels at the Sailor Scouts fighting below. Using dark magic, I charged across the prison and slammed into the wall behind one of the soldiers, knocking him off the railing. The four remaining guards quickly turned their weapons towards me, but the vibrations of the floor collapsing beneath us shook their aim. I flipped over one of the guards and threw a dark magic projectile at the floor on their opposite side, collapsing the floor underneath us and sending them tumbling down to the lower level.

The bracer's disorienting effect on me had worn off, but the guards were left stumbling around and disoriented by the smoke. I heard Amethyst's and Sailor Pluto's weapons continue trading blows with each other. With the guards' dimmed attention drawn to the sounds of battle, I grabbed one of them from behind by both of his wrists. I pushed him towards the ground so that his weapon would make as little noise as possible when he dropped it. Then I clamped down on his mouth with my right hand while placing him in a sleeper hold with my other arm. The remaining three guards stared in the direction of Sailor Mini Moon ringing her Crystal Chime. I had to take them down fast.

"Pegasus, please answer me!" I heard Sailor Mini Moon cry. The smoke had not settled before I crept up behind another guard and placed him in a sleeper hold, knocking him out faster with a blow to the head. I tried to support him as he fell to avoid making noise. The last two guards lifted their rifles and pointed them in Mini Moon's direction. I hit the closest guard in the back of the head near the brain stem. I grabbed his wrists so he would drop his weapon as he fell to his knees. The last guard heard his companion yelp in pain. I picked up his fallen weapon and spun around to shove the rifle butt into his stomach before swinging it into his head, knocking all of them out of the battle.

I saw Mini Moon jump out of Amethyst's way when she lunged at the Princess with the dark magic sickle. Mini Moon successfully dodged an attempt to imprison her with the crescent moon compact's power, but a wisp flew from Amethyst's compact and took a solid form in front of me. I slid to the floor and extended my arm to trip the light creature, then bolted upwards to strike it with dark magic and destroy it. Amethyst teleported beside Sailor Mini Moon again, but Mini Moon raised her Crystal Chime and pointed it at Amethyst's face. The familiar music of Rini's Pink Sugar Heart Attack started playing and pink energy hearts flew out of the heart-shaped jewel in her Chime.

"ARGH, THAT'S ANNOYING!" Amethyst covered her face and stumbled away. "I thought Pegasus' upgrade would at least be the end of that stupid Pink Bubblegum Attack!"

While Amethyst was distracted, I threw an orb of dark magical smoke in her direction. I felt the same numbing and tingling sensation in my nerves that she did as she coughed and twitched violently in the smoke. Despite the pain, I focused enough to create a dark energy bolt in mid-air and hurled it into Amethyst. Again, my bracer reacted violently and sent me flying backwards into the crumbling wall. Sailor Pluto sent a Chronos Typhoon her way, but Amethyst dashed out of its way.

Sailor Mini Moon ran to my side while Sailor Pluto charged at Amethyst with her staff. When my vision unblurred, I noticed that Rini's hair was frizzled at the ends and she had a scratch on her cheek. Her own uniform was dirtied, her right shoulder pad was ripped, and her boots had scuff marks.

"Don't tell me you're alright, Charon!" There was no lying to her this time...I felt as if I had been struck by lightning twice in a row. Blood rose in my throat: I could taste it when I swallowed it back down. She looked down at my bracer. "We have to take it off!"

"She's still resistant to your powers, Rini!" I reminded her. Taking it off just wasn't an option. I wrapped my arm around Rini and teleported away with her before Amethyst charged into the wall that I was leaning against.

"We'll never beat her while she has that compact," said Mini Moon. "That's it! If we could just take it from her!"

"Any ideas, Rini?" I asked. We watched Sailor Pluto start to wither under Amethyst's relentless assault from above, her uniform becoming as dirty and tattered as Mini Moon's.

"Keep distracting her!" shouted Sailor Mini Moon. She jumped back to the lower level and held the Crystal Chime over her head.

"Please Pegasus! We need your help!" Once again, Mini Moon rang her Crystal Chime and called out "Crystal Twinkle Bell!" She stared at her bell and let out a disappointed sigh when her call went unanswered again. Pegasus was not coming to help us.

"It would have been a shame if Pegasus spoiled the fun! I made sure the Sentinels are keeping daddy and the future Scouts preoccupied!" Amethyst screeched from above her. "This is what you get for relying on the last-minute rescue cliche!"

I charged Amethyst when she opened her compact in Sailor Mini Moon's direction, but she rapidly closed it and teleported away when she heard me coming. She expected us to try snatching it from her. We HAD to find a way to get her to lower her guard. Sailor Pluto launched herself towards Amethyst's new position by using her Garnet Rod as a vault, but Amethyst easily dodged her kick.

"Stop!" cried Sailor Mini Moon after Pluto landed on her feet. "Amethyst is right! Nobody's coming to help us!"

"Small Lady!" gasped Sailor Pluto.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt trying to protect me, Plu!" Still lurking in the shadows, I caught Amethyst eye Sailor Mini Moon with a mix of suspicion and amusement. Luna P appeared, hovering beside Mini Moon. "We'll help you find the Siphon, but Luna P stays with me!"

"That ship has sailed, Mini Moon! You had your chance!" snarled Amethyst.

"You still need my help, otherwise you wouldn't have asked for Luna P in the first place!" Mini Moon pointed out. I saw her look past Amethyst's shoulder. Sailor Pluto, whose uniform was also badly torn, nodded. Rini wasn't giving up. She was getting Amethyst to lower her guard.

"Fine! I'll hold on to Charon and Pluto as collateral. I get the Siphon, and I let you walk out of here!" sneered Amethyst.

"Charon, please - do as I ask!" Mini Moon called out. I stood from my hiding spot and jumped to the floor.

"I half-expected you to stick to your principles and keep fighting, Charon!" taunted Amethyst. "But I knew those brats were your only reason for siding with their decrepit monarchy. Crystal Tokyo is at its weakest since the Black Moon attacked! Even these pampered brats realize that the Silver Crystal won't fix all their problems like Serenity and Endymion said it would! I'm giving them the power to finish what YOU started two thousand years ago when YOU defied Queen Serenity!" Amethyst was reaching into her pocket...

"Make no mistake...I'm only doing this for Small Lady. Even if the Siphon does what you said, this is wrong," I told her. Just pull out the compact already, idiot!

Amethyst smirked. "That's a pity. Sailor Moon's not the only one who rewards her non-Scout friends with a knife in the back. It's kind of funny, isn't it Pluto? Using one of Sailor Mercury's toys to uncover her dirty little secret?"

She wasn't saying...

"Sailor Mercury built Luna P and the Siphon," Amethyst explained. "You really think the girl genius would design something so flawed, a pack of chimpanzees could turn it into a weapon of mass destruction?"

"You're lying!" I blurted out, resisting the urge to tackle her. Rini had a plan; we needed the right opportunity. "I trust Pluto and Mini Moon over you, Amethyst!"

"This isn't about trust! All you have to do is look out the window!" Amethyst snickered, taunting us with her hand in her pocket. "But now you're going to have to sit this one out..."

Amethyst FINALLY unveiled her compact. Sailor Mini Moon reached for it before Amethyst could click it open. I teleported and tried to help Rini wrest the compact out of Amethyst's hand, but Amethyst used Shadow Charge and sent us flying into the wall with her. Amethyst backed away from us, but Sailor Pluto bashed Amethyst in the head with her staff. Amethyst unveiled her sickle and swung in Sailor Pluto's direction. As the traded blows, Pluto was able to push Amethyst away from us. Pluto yelped as Mini Moon crawled towards the compact and grabbed it, and Amethyst teleported over Rini. Mini Moon cried in pain when Amethyst stepped on her hand, her sickle inches away from Mini Moon's face...but seconds past by with Amethyst frozen in the same position.

"PLUTO! WHY DID YOU STOP TIME?!" Sailor Mini Moon screamed frantically. Sailor Pluto's back was turned towards us. A multicolored ball shimmered around the orb in Sailor Pluto's staff.

"This fight was already over for me...Small Lady..." Pluto answered with a shaky voice. Pluto leaned on her garnet rod as she turned. She was using it as crutch. Her left arm was wrapped around her lower body from chest to stomach, her uniform tattered and blood-stained where Amethyst's blade had cut a massive wound in the Guardian of Time.

"There's nothing we can do," I said blankly as I stared at the wound. Mini Moon ran under Pluto's arm when she fell to one knee, still clutching her staff. Sailor Pluto's form began to shimmer, as if she was fading out of existence. "Pluto, why didn't you - "

"Stopping time...is forbidden...I will be punished..." she answered weakly. With Amethyst's heel frozen in place, Mini Moon slipped out her hand from under it and opened it to show me the crescent moon compact.

"That's not fair," sobbed Sailor Mini Moon. Tears flowed down Mini Moon's cheeks.

"I don't understand," I said to Pluto.

"Don't worry about me...Don't cry, Small Lady, you know we'll meet again..." Pluto weakly smiled before turning back to me. "Please...trust me, Charon. Don't linger...leave Crystal Tokyo...as soon as..."

"I will, Pluto," I promised her. With all the questions I had about the Scouts...about Serena, Darien, and Amy especially...I had to guarantee Rini would be safe. Whether that was Pluto's intent or not.

"Thank you..." Sailor Pluto fell to the ground and her staff fell from her hands. Pluto's body faded in and out of existence until disappearing into flickers of light.

"PLU!" Rini screamed as the flickering remnants of her guardian faded away. I heard Amethyst gasp behind us: she stared where Mini Moon had stood, bewildered that she was no longer there. She still had the powers of a Shadow. She needed to be put down quickly. For Pluto. I reached back and unveiled my kusari-gama. I threw the weighted end and chain around her arm to disarm her and deny her any chance of escape. Then I thrust the dark energy sickle into her abdomen.

"I hope you enjoyed your revenge, Amethyst." I snarled at her.

Amethyst shuddered and gasped for air. "Congrats on dooming the universe to another millennium of slavery, Charon. I hope you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when the Scouts finally stab you in the back!"

I felt a twinge of guilt when I noticed Mini Moon staring into Amethyst's twisted face. But she didn't say a word. Mini Moon walked over to me and held one of my hands, pointing her Mini Rainbow Wand at Amethyst.

"Super Moon Target!" Shards of our combined energy struck Amethyst. With one final shriek, she was gone forever, as was the last illusion of her prison.

I turned back towards the guards. They were beginning to stir, but Rini's eyes were glued to where Sailor Pluto had fallen.

"We'll see her in the twenty-first century, right?" I asked Rini, but she didn't answer. "She said she was being punished for stopping time, does that mean..." I stopped when Mini Moon remained silent. I would let her stay, but Pluto asked me to take her from here...

"Charon?" Mini Moon called to me. "I meant it when I said I didn't want anyone to get hurt for me."

"I don't either, Rini," I said that. "But she did what any good friend in her position would have done. I know you would have done the same for me and Plu."

Sailor Mini Moon smirked. "Don't let her hear you calling her 'Plu'." She reached into her neckline and pulled out her Crystal Key...


"Small Lady! Charon!" Diana greeted us at the entrance to the Space-Time Door, but her face fell when she saw us. "What happened? You look really beat up!"

"We stopped the intruder," Mini Moon answered quietly.

"Where is Sailor Pluto?" the gray kitten asked. Mini Moon's eyes were cast down when I looked to her. We hadn't discussed what to tell Diana.

"Plu wants you to come with us, Diana," Mini Moon answered solemnly. "Charon's computer was destroyed, and he needs an assistant."

"WHAT?!" My head snapped towards Sailor Mini Moon. She had to be kidding.

"Assistant?" Diana's ears drooped and she frowned.

"He was Queen Serenity's spymaster, Diana. He has a secret cave hidden underground," advertised Mini Moon. She wasn't kidding.

Diana's ears perked back up and she leaped onto Mini Moon's shoulder. "That sounds cool! I AM THE SECRET-KEEPER OF THE SAILOR SCOUTS! THOSE WHO TRESPASS UPON THE SPYMASTER'S LAIR WILL BE DESTROYED! I can sort out your files too!"

"Hold on!" I held out a hand to curb the kitten's excitement while she crawled onto Mini Moon's head, between her rabbit ears. "Rini, we never talked about this!"

"You weren't listening the entire time?!" she frowned. "I told Plu that the Spymaster destroyed your lair and she suggested you could finish her training!"

DAMN YOU, PLUTO!

To Be Continued


A/N: Thanks for reading everyone! Amethyst is defeated, and only the Spymaster stands between the Sailor Scouts and victory over the Shadows...as far as we know. I admit Charon's trip to Crystal Tokyo ended sooner than I expected, and many questions remain. Sailor Moon can get very confusing when it comes to time travel, and I want to keep you guessing what Charon's ultimate fate will be...along with what may happen to Crystal Tokyo after the events of Sailor Moon R.

I wrote a rough outline, and I have about eight chapters left. I've had to split a lot of chapters into two or even three parts, but Amethyst's battle was finished after one chapter, so we may have less. These are the final chapters of SoSM. I am interested in writing a sequel, but I want SoSM to feel that it would be complete without one. Any feedback, criticism, or even suggestions for things you want to see before the curtain falls are greatly welcome! Thanks for the support, guys!