"TUTU!" Chibi Moon bent her knees, springing upwards and landing on the rooftops. She sprang forward with leaps and bounds, running as fast as she could. Tutu was fast, faster than Chibi Moon could keep up. She could barely see Tutu breach over the rooftops as she leapt up high then returned to the ground.

"Chibi Moon!"

She heard the voice from the left. Tutu had suddenly changed directions. Quickly, she turned, leaping over to the next building, over the main street where the Koi Festival had taken place, over Motoki's game store and past the art store. She passed the Sparrow's Cafe, now thriving and inviting both people and birds to the cafe within.

She almost tripped when she leapt over another building, noticing Tutu had suddenly wove beneath her. Leaping off the building, she managed to snag Tutu by the edge of the tutu but the dancer spun out of reach.

"Chibi Moon!" Tutu cried out, attempting to reach her friend. "Someone's controlling my movements!"

Leaning forward a bit, Chibi Moon tried to pick up the pace. "Is it Fakir?"

"I can't hear anyone's voice!" Tutu replied. She attempted to reach out and snag the overhang on one of the buildings. She missed it and the signpost nearby, the movements pulling her just out of reach.

"The spinner!" Chibi Moon realized. "But why now?!"

"We must be reaching the end of the story!" Tutu reasoned, suddenly changing directions and heading down an alleyway. There wasn't much of Edo left in this direction save the pier where they had traveled to the illusionary island Horai. There they had met Helios for the first time when he'd heard Chibi Moon's cry for help. "This happened before though Fakir stopped it last time!"

Fakir. Chibi Moon wasn't even sure the Fakir Helios had been watching was actually him anymore. Something had happened, something had changed him from the ambitious spinner in love with Duck to someone cold and not present.

Suddenly Tutu's stance changed. She spun over and over again in grand fouetté turns, launching herself high into the air.

"Seriously?!" Chibi Moon shouted. She leapt on the building, trying to see where Tutu had gone, but she'd lost her. She had no way of flying. She'd sprouted wings to stop from falling but nothing quite like flying. But there was one time she did fly.

She pulled the Crystal Carillon from her pocket. She'd used it to summon Helios here the first time, but now that she was here, she wasn't sure if it worked the same way. She stared out on the horizon, worry pulling her features. She had to try, she couldn't give up on Tutu.

Taking a knee, she grasped the bell between her hands. "Helios, protector of dreams. I need your wings as Pegasus to protect my precious friend, Princess Tutu! Twinkle Yell!"

A breeze overtook her, nearly knocking her off her knees. The sounds of a ringing bell and neighing quickly filled her ears. Feathers brushed by her as he landed behind her on the roof. "Helios!"

"I am here, Maiden," he bowed his head a bit.

"Something's controlling Tutu!" Chibi Moon panicked, frantically pointing to where she'd last seen Tutu. "She suddenly launched herself in the sky! I can't find her. I can't see where she's gone! Something's trying to take her away!"

"Worry not, Maiden," the pegasus knelt a bit. "Use my wings. We shall find her."

Chibi Moon rubbed at her face, quickly leaping onto his back. She held onto him as he lifted off the building, taking to the skies in the direction Chibi Moon had indicated. Up into the clouds they traveled, the evening skies now visible high above the clouds. It reminded her of the first time Pegasus had met her in her dreams, but now wasn't the time to reminisce. Tutu was in trouble. "We think the spinner was controlling her. She couldn't hear anyone's voice."

"Right before you had called me, Maiden, Fakir had excused himself from the party," Helios recalled. "I tried to follow him, but he seemed to have literally disappeared from sight."

"Duck was right," Chibi Moon reasoned. "Something really was happening with him."

"He was even refusing to practice the dance this morning, as if he'd completely forgotten how," Helios added. "It's been surreal, the lead dancer forgetting his own art."

Chibi Moon surveyed the area, still finding no signs of where Tutu had gone. "An impostor?"

"I'd reason so," Helios quickly agreed.

"But where is the real Fakir?" Worst-case scenarios ran through her mind. The stories had turned dangerous, often violent in the past week. Anything could've happened overnight, requiring the need for a hastily written replacement to keep the story going. She still hoped in her heart that the real Fakir hadn't died. She had to keep her hope that he was still alive somewhere in the story.

"Look!" she pointed suddenly at a gap in the clouds. It was a perfectly round gap where the clouds looked like they had been spun around like cotton candy. "I bet Tutu dropped down from there!"

Helios nodded, folding his wings and dropping down from the clouds. They were outside any place she recognized, well past the borders of Edo and above a rather large lake surrounded by a particularly eerie forest.

As he landed, she leapt off his back, trying to look around the area. The place seemed hauntingly quiet, much like the Enchanted Forest from the ballet but on level that felt more dead. She glanced behind her, barely making out the clock tower from Gold Crown Town in the distance. She knelt at the water's edge. It was silent and still. "Did she..."

Helios stepped forward, shifting back into his human form as he knelt beside her, wrapping his arms around her.

She quickly buried her face in his arms. "There's no way. There's no way that she would die!"

Helios thought his heart would break. He'd already nearly lost his maiden, but Duck had befriended him as well. He didn't want to lose her too. Was this story to end in tragedy? Was there nothing they could do?

Chibi Moon rubbed her face into his shirt a few times before emerging, sniffling and rubbing at her puffy eyes. She couldn't cry. This wasn't the time for that. Tutu didn't cry when she'd saved Chibi Moon's life, so Chibi Moon had to be strong too.

She stood up. She wasn't like her mother. She didn't have an awoken crystal yet, but she pulled it from the brooch anyway, cradling it in her hands. This crystal had formed of her own tears when Pluto had died. Now that she thought of it, she'd seen a lot of death. Pluto, Saturn once, herself even. But each time, they were reborn with the power of the silver crystal. Hers was pink, formed by her own tears and bonded with her heart and her hopes and dreams. And right now, her hope was to find Tutu.

She held the crystal out, cradling it in her hands, preparing to wish upon it when the sound of a barrel organ filled her ears. Turning, she found Edel approaching, her face unchanging though for a moment, Chibi Moon swore she had a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Miss Edel?"

"This story isn't yet over, little rabbit," Edel stated.

Chibi Moon knit her brow in worry. "But Tutu is..."

"... still alive," Edel finished the sentence. "Someone wishes to protect her. Surely you both still have the charms."

She did, she was still wearing it. Duck had been wearing hers as well before transforming. Edel was definitely not working on behalf of the current spinner, Chibi Moon quickly realized. The charms really had been given to them to protect them, to keep them from dying. There was only one she could think of that would be trying to protect Tutu so fervently. "Fakir?"

"Who knows," Edel replied. "Right now, she is wound within two stories, fighting to emerge in one piece. I do believe she will need some help." That was the most direct thing Chibi Moon had ever heard Edel say. "And once you emerge victorious, you must travel somewhere important. Princess Tutu will know the answer."

Back to the cryptics. Chibi Moon shook her head, not trying to understand what the message meant as Edel sauntered off mysteriously once again. She was currently more focused on finding Tutu. She pulled the koi pendant from her shirt. It was glowing brightly, as if it were trying to tell her where to find her lost friend. Then it appeared. There was a slight glow from beneath the water. "Tutu!"

She was under the lake.

Chibi Moon held out the pink crystal once again. "Crystal, please lend me your power!" Light burst forth, quickly transforming her into her princess form. She placed the crystal on the necklace next to the glowing koi charm and the time key before approaching the edge of the lake. "I'm going in."

"Be careful, Maiden," Helios wished her well.

"I will." Bending her knees, she dove into the cold, dark waters, the crystal and the koi charm serving as her only light. As she swam, the waters felt lighter than usual, not offering much resistance despite the layers she was wearing. She wasn't sure how long she could hold her breath, but as the air escaped her lungs, she found that she could breath beneath the surface. As she dove deeper and deeper, she spotted a swirling vortex at the bottom. "Tutu!" Using all her strength, she swam some more, landing on the bottom of the lake.

"Chibi Moon!" Tutu continued to spin. "Fakir, he's trying to reach me. I can hear his voice, but I cannot stop spinning! He lead me to this lake where we ended the last story!"

Edel had been pretty accurate when she said Tutu was pulled in two ways. She had to do something before the spinner's story overtook her again. She had to help Tutu so they could end this story without tragedy. Fakir was alive. Tutu was alive. There was hope.

Clasping the pink crystal in her hands, she held it forward, closing her eyes. "There's hope. There's always hope. We'll finish this story the right way, without tragedy, without death, without destruction. This time, it's my turn to save you!" The crystal began to glow a warm pink light. The light enveloped both Tutu and Small Lady. With all her might, Small Lady wished upon the crystal, hoping it would grant her wish. Slowly but surely, Tutu's turns slowed until she finally stopped completely.

Small Lady opened her eyes, leaping forward and throwing herself on Tutu as the princess dress faded and she returned to Super Sailor Chibi Moon. "I thought I was going to lose you! I was really scared!"

Tutu embraced her friend tightly in return. "Thank you, Chibi Moon. Thank you for searching so far for me."

Chibi Moon squeezed Tutu even tighter. "I could never give up on a friend. I could never let you die. I'd give up all my power just to save my friend."

Tutu smiled sympathetically. She felt the same way when she saw Chibi Moon collapsed lifelessly in the art studio. She was so willing to give up being Tutu just to save her, but thankfully Fakir had been there to give her more power. "Fakir! We need to save him now too!"

Chibi Moon finally released her vice grip on Tutu. "We do! Miss Edel was at the shore and said you would know where we needed to go!"

"I do," Tutu nodded. "He's locked within the library store room." She wrapped an arm around Chibi Moon's waist, spinning the two. The spinning created a vortex which lifted them both up and out of the lake, landing on the shoreline.

Chibi Moon greeted him with a tight hug. "Helios! Can you get us quickly to the library?"

"Of course," Helios nodded. He stepped forward, his form shifting into a white pegasus.

"A pegasus!" Tutu exclaimed. Helios was magical, and their world was magical, but this was still beyond what she'd expected to ever see.

"Hop on," Helios instructed them. "We'll reach there quickly."

And quickly they did. His wings were powerful, carrying the trio into town. Their presence had attracted the attention of surprisingly few, the rest mulling about their business as if seeing a flying pegasus in the sky were absolutely normal. He landed by the library. As the girls jumped off, he shifted back into his human form, opening the door for them. They quickly rushed in, Helios following closely behind as they leapt through the library and into the back halls, Tutu guided by Fakir's instructions in her mind. They passed by several doors, a few open but most had been closed, until Tutu stopped at the door at the end of the hall. "Here."

She reached forward, half expecting someone or something to jump out one of the closed doors to stop them, but the hallway remained quiet and still. Carefully she pushed the lock, opening the door. Sure enough, there was Fakir with dozens of papers littered across the floor accompanied by Autor.

"I knew you would come," Fakir smiled up at Tutu.

"Fakir!" She fell to her knees, practically clinging to him as if she'd lose him if she let go. This was the real Fakir, the one with passion and hope in his eyes, the one without the hollow, hopeless words. This was absolutely the real one, and he was still alive.