Sailor Moon SuperS begins with an approximately 4 or 5 year old Hotaru reading from a book. "A revelation approaches... the moment of returning... As soon as I pronounced the word 'returning'... a vision escaped from 'the soul of the world'... troubled my view. Somewhere in the desert, a Sphinx darted, its expression ruthless. I gently moved my feet. The birds of this angry desert whirled about me." The next page is a view of Usagi, her eyes closed as she imagines a pretty house, surrounded by flowers and a forest. It is the Outers' house. "My dream is to live happily in a pretty house filled with flowers, surrounded by the people I love."
Haruka is on her way to pick up Michiru. They have been shopping and went their seperate ways. As she waits at a red light, Haruka thinks about Usagi's words. "What is my dream?" she thinks. A man pulls up beside her, admiring the car. He looks at Haruka, wondering if she is a man or a woman. A woman, he decides, and asks her out for a drink. Haruka barely glances at him and continues on her way. Meanwhile, Michiru is at a music store and is accosted by a fan. When he asks to shake her hand, he gets Haruka's handshake instead, nearly tearing off his arm. Michiru looks exasperated. Haruka comments on the bouquet of white roses in Michiru's arm, and Michiru reminds her that it is the 6-month anniversary of their new life. Startled, Haruka wonders: "Only 6 months?"
At home, Setsuna is working on her computer when a loud bang, followed by crying, interupts her. With a sigh, she wonders how much more of this she can take. Just then, Haruka and Michiru arrive. The young Hotaru stands crying in a pile of broken dishes, her arms scraped and bleeding. Even as she rubs away her tears, the blood stops and the scratches heal. A view is given of the same ring all three women are wearing. Hotaru runs up to the them. "Michiru-mommy! Haruka-daddy!" They admonish her to get dressed, then discuss how everything seems like a dream, and they discuss the eclipse that occured a few months ago. Setsuna, Michiru and Haruka all tried to transform, noticing that new enemies had arisen, but they couldn't.
Michiru gives violin lessons to the children of the area. Three children arrive, anxious for their lesson. She has them practice, then it is Hotaru's turn. The children begin to giggle, and say "He's going to come! He's going to come!" Sure enough, as Hotaru plays, the ghost of Pegasus arrives and prances across the room. This seems to be a common occurence when Hotaru plays. Suddenly, the figure of a little girl is seen running after Pegasus. It is Chibi Usa. Hotaru, startled, stops playing and runs after them. She sees the ghost of Pegasus die, and watches coldly as Chibi Usa mourns for him. Michiru enters and notices the scene. "Until now, Hotaru has grown up in a protected atmosphere, she's never imagined anything else... But for one moment... her eyes... were just as cold... as Saturn's..." Hotaru remembers seeing the little girl in a picture with Usagi and her three adoptive parents. But she quickly gets over her surprise and becomes her usual happy self.
After supper, Hotaru begins playing a game that is a reconstructive model of the universe. As it evolves, the Outers watch as the time of the eclipse approaches. With a start, they see that the moon and the earth are turned black by the eclipse, and they stay that way even after the eclipse is done. Hotaru scurries away to take a bath, unperturbed, as her guardians converse anxiously. In the bathroom, Hotaru stands before a mirror and is startled at a loud crash of thunder. She places her hand on the mirror, then notices that the reflection is not her own. She looks up to see Saturn gazing coldly down at her.
Lying in the bath with a book, Hotaru begins getting flashbacks of the Inner Scouts. She hears Saturn's voice telling her to wake up. She closes her eyes, then gets up and goes to stand in front of the mirror. She has grown to the same size as Saturn and they look at each other for a long moment before Hotaru goes to the solarium. A book of W.H. Yeats is by her feet as she quotes, amid the thunder and lightning, "And once again the darkness was... but I knew... that those 2000 years of deep sleep would be filled with gentle dreams... and would end on a world of nightmares."
She reaches out and her heart crystal is in her palm. It reshapes itself into the form of a heart and she holds it out to her three guardians. Their heart crystals undergo the same transformation. She tells them that these are the attributes of the new Sailor Scouts, then the holy grail appears and shows a slightly ill-looking Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity. Hotaru looks up at them and picks up one of the white roses Michiru brought home. It turns black as she looks at it. "The rose..." she whispers. Then she looks determined. "Our prince and our princess are in danger. We have to go!" The three women look at each other and nod. "Let's go! No matter where we must reassemble. There we will find our true dreams!"
Meanwhile, the Inners are fighting the Amazoness Quartet, and are losing. Desperately, Venus calls out for Sailor Moon's help. Usagi doesn't hear her. Luckily, the Outers arrive in time to save them. The Inners look on, stunned, as the four transform and do their usual "I am Sailor so-and-so" bit, then get them down from where they were tied. The four Inners stand, stunned, gazing at Saturn in horror. Saturn smiles reassuringly at them. The Scouts keep fighting, and are evenly matched with the Amazoness Quartet. Saturn kneels down and closes her eyes, placing one hand on the ground. She mentally calls Chibi Usa's name, and Chibi Usa, who was on her way to call the Inners, hears her. She is disbelieving at first, unsure if it's only her mind playing tricks on her or if it's really Saturn calling, but Usagi runs up to her and says that she heard it to, that the Outers have returned! The two girls run off.
Back at the fight, Neptune's mirror reveals that the moon, which has been hidden behind clouds, is completely black instead of silver. Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask and Chibi Moon arrive to help, and the Amazons run away, leaving Zirconia to fight them alone. The ugly thing laughs and reduce Sailor Moon and Tux to four year olds, and Helios makes them disappear. Chibi Moon and Saturn go after the four Amazons alone. As they run, Chibi Moon is studying Saturn. "Hotaru... uh, Sailor Saturn. You've grown up so fast!" she says, confused. Saturn turns and smiles kindly at her. "It was so I could complete my mission, and... so we could fight together, Chibi Moon."
Saturn and Chibi Moon come across the Dead Moon Circus. Saturn tries to talk sense into the Amazons, but they ignore her and attack. She uses her Silence Wall to stop them and explains to them that the nightmares they're using to control people control them as well. She tells them that using the nightmares of others changes the strength within them, and she has made them decide to give up evil when Zirconia appears. The Amazons plead with it (her, whatever) to spare them, but Zirconia returns them to jewel form, then uses the flying eye on the end of her staff to imprison them in two pieces of broken mirror. Zirconia then sends the two pieces of mirror through the black mirror to Nephrenia, who laughs and adds them to a growing pile on the floor.
Sailor Moon chases a retreating Zirconia into the black mirror and meets Nephrenia. She notices that there are planetary auras about two pieces of mirror and four jewels, and uses her Moon Wand to free Saturn and Chibi Moon. Both Moons use their attacks on Nephrenia, but she fades away, laughing. Meanwhile, the Inners and Outers, who are trapped outside the mirror, try to break it. Inside, Saturn leans over and picks up the four jewels, gazing at them wonderingly. The Scouts outside break the mirror, sending Saturn, Chibi Moon and Sailor Moon flying out.
All the Scouts travel to Elusion, where Helios is being held prisoner. There, Nephrenia appears and the Scouts are taken through a flashback of what happened long ago, in the time of the Moon Kingdom (if you want the full story, see my other Sailor Moon page). Nephrenia was slighted and was the only negative thing to be reincarnated with everyone else. Nephrenia laughs and tears out Sailor Moon's heart crystal, but Sailor Moon and Tux overcome that with the power of love (as usual) and a new crystal grows where the other was. When the light of this new crystal touches the Scouts, they turn into their Princess selves, and their guardians (tiny, miniature versions of themselves) appear. Sailor Moon gets a new and improved Holy Grail, and they get yet another transformation (the costumes are really cool).
Needless to say, they use their new and improved powers to fight Nephrenia and win, of course. Then Chibi Moon goes to ressurect Helios in the typical Smoon fashion (with a kiss) and all the Scouts go from Scout form to Princess form again (except Saturn -- she stays in Scout form). Sailor Moon and Tux turn into King and Queen, and they purify the world (again). Suddenly, Saturn kneels before Neo-Queen Serenity and presents her with the four jewels of the Amazons. "Would you use your Silver Crystal power on these people... please?" Serenity agrees, of course, and the four Amazons pop out... dressed in Sailor uniforms.
The four Amazons introduce themselves as the four Sailor Scouts assigned to protect Sailor Chibi Moon whenever she comes into her full powers. Everyone is stunned at this, except Saturn. :) The four new Scouts smile and leave, sad that they must leave their princess so soon. Saturn smiles and takes Chibi Moon's hand, promising that they'll take care of her until they return. The new Scouts disappear and Helios leaves too, but not before revealing that he too will return someday, to be her prince. Chibi Usa is sad, but everyone smiles at her, and she wipes away her tears.
* note: This is not the entire Sailor Moon SuperS story -- this is only the parts relevant to Saturn/Hotaru. If you want the full version of the story (and I've left out a LOT in this version) go to my other Sailor Moon page. You'll find it in my links section, on the main page.
(c) copyright - Takeuchi Naoko/Toei