Chapter 1: One Last Chance

*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt*

Tsukino Usagi could feel the buzzing in her pocket as the communicator went off yet again. She immediately knew who it was that was calling her and why, but she felt compelled to answer it anyway, if only to humor the person on the other side of the link. And at this point in time, the person on the other side of the link needed humoring.

"Usagi? Where the hell are you? We've been fighting this… this thing for the past twenty minutes and you still haven't shown up?" The fiery voice was that of Sailor Mars, who in less combative times would be known as Hino Rei. A sharp bang then emerged from the speaker, followed by a brief moment of static.

"Rei-chan, I'm running… as fast… as I can… but you know how… difficult it is to…"

Her response fell off short, replaced by heavy panting from the miles of running she had done. Exactly what was difficult for her to do was not elaborated on much further, as by that time Rei, much annoyed by Usagi's absence in the ongoing battle and her sudden brush with a sudden and untimely end, interrupted rather testily.

"I don't care, dammit! Just get your butt here now!" The communicator then went silent.

Usagi ran for what seemed to her to be another ten miles, but what was in reality only about a few hundred yards before she reached Juuban Park. She saw Rei pointing with her arms outstretched and hands held together, her red skirt torn in many places, legs and arms badly scratched, and raven colored hair disheveled. To an ordinary person, it would then appear that Rei was firing an invisible flamethrower, but to Rei it was one of her attacks as Sailor Mars, something she called "Fire Soul." The target of her attack was a being that vaguely resembled a Venus fly trap that was twice her size and had vine-like legs that allowed it to run. Near the top of the plant-like creature was a trio of reddish-brown mouths, each mouth full of sharp fangs, connected to the main body by thick green stalks. Atop each mouth seemed to be a pair of deep crimson eyes and extruding from the three fanged mouths were three brown, vine-like tongues. Ensnared within the three tongues were three girls. They were wearing white leotards adorned by colored skirts and bows, which by this time was torn and scratched in every way imaginable. Usagi immediately recognized those three girls as her friends Mizuno Ami, Aino Minako, and Kino Makoto, who currently were in the forms of Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, and Sailor Jupiter. They were also in great peril, as Rei's flame attack did nothing to release the three girls from the grasp of this enormous walking plant.

Despite being winded from all the running, Usagi grasped the large, gold circular brooch that was clipped to the bow of her blue and white sailor-style school uniform. Yelling the words "Moon Prism Power, make up," her pedestrian clothing disappeared in a flash of light to be replaced by dozens of pink ribbons that enveloped her body. The ribbons then gave way to a complicated and yet ornate uniform, one perfectly suited for the fighter known as Sailor Moon.

Well, not much of a fighter, really, compared to her friends. She usually just ran around avoiding attacks until her friends could weaken the opponent enough for her to use her finishing attacks. In the cases where she could not avoid being hit or incapacitated, she usually was rescued by her friends or by… him, Tuxedo Kamen, otherwise known as her boyfriend Chiba Mamoru or, in another time, her husband-to-be Prince Endymion. Someone she hadn't seen in the past few days. But she tried not to let that concern her as she reached up to her head and removed her tiara. Shouting "Moon Tiara Action," the tiara transformed into a glowing disc that she then threw with all her might toward the plant-like enemy that was slowly pulling her friends closer toward its mouths and to their demise. The disc turned toward the tongues that were wrapped around the girls and sliced through them, freeing the girls one by one, before returning to Usagi's hand. The girl in orange then reached toward her waist and, seemingly from nowhere, produced a long, shimmering orange chain of energy that she held in both hands. She then whipped one end of the chain, which by this time had grown ten times longer, toward her former captor, temporarily stunning it.

"Usagi, do it now!" That frantic shout came from the girl wearing green. Despite being on the scene for only two minutes, Usagi had been through enough battles to know what was being asked of her. It was time to finish off the enemy.

A short pink wand tipped by a large, gold crescent moon materialized in her right hand. A small, flower-shaped crystal was attached to the bottom portion of the crescent.

"Moon Healing Escalation!" she yelled. She first held up the wand upwards, and then slowly moved it downward in a sweeping circular motion front of her. At the end of the circle, the crystal suspended in the wand emitted a blinding white light, followed by several white balls of energy that slammed into the walking, three-mouthed plant monster, which soon disintegrated into a pile of sand-colored dust. Usagi then turned toward the group of girls who preceded her in battling the former monster and began to speak.

"Sorry for being late, but I—"

"Sorry? Sorry? You did hear us calling for you for the last twenty minutes, right?" Rei's normally violet eyes seemed to turn red with intense anger.

"Yes, but—"

"And did you even attempt to show up in a timely fashion to try to help us?"

"Well, you see, I—"

"And assuming that you did even try to show up on time, which obviously you didn't, you probably wouldn't have even been all that useful anyway. We'd all would have to risk ourselves even more to rescue you as well as deal with this monster."

Rei practically was glowing from the fury that was exploding from within her. Usagi was trying her best to explain her situation, to rationalize why she was late. She was quite used to the verbal assault from Rei, which she often received for various reasons. It was just in the girl's nature. What was spoken next, however, shook Usagi unlike anything Rei, or anyone else for that matter, had ever said to her previously.

"It's almost like you don't even care to actually fight with us! You just show up whenever you want, do your thing, and go off like you actually were, you know, effective! You're fat, lazy, klutzy, slow, stupid, completely irresponsible and totally unqualified to be our leader!" Rei looked down for a moment to catch her breath. "I don't even know why we bother having you around anymore!" Her burning eyes then locked directly on Usagi's face before delivering her final blow. "I wish you would just go away and never bother us again!"

"Rei-chan…" Normally, Usagi would retort and the whole argument would devolve into a tongue-wagging battle. But she could feel that Rei was serious about not having her as the de facto leader of the senshi. No, not just that. It felt that Rei didn't even want to be around her at all—she did not want to be her friend anymore.

"I'm sorry Usagi, but I have to say that I'm beginning to agree with Rei." Ami spoke in a voice that was at her typical low volume but was far more callous than any Usagi could remember.

With tears swelling in her eyes, Usagi looked around at the other girls, who all slowly nodded their heads in agreement with Rei and Ami. She became very pale at the sight and the thought of the girls turning their backs on her. While sinking to the ground and staring at the brown soil, she gave one last desperate plea.

"Please! Please! Rei-chan, Ami-chan, Minako-chan, Mako-chan. Please give me one last chance. I don't want our friendship to end! I'll do better, I'll fight harder, I'll be on time, I promise!" She was bawling by that point.

The miserable display incensed Rei and, as a result, she was not even remotely willing to acquiesce as she reached for Usagi with the desire to slap the blonde across the face. She would have done exactly that had Makoto not restrained her. Minako thought for a few seconds, a brief look of anguish on her face that quickly disappeared before she looked toward Usagi.

"We'll give you one last chance. But remember, it's your only chance. If you screw up, you're done being our leader. Do you understand me?" Minako asked with a combination of empathy for Usagi's sadness but determination and, yes, even a fair bit of anger.

"Absolutely," Usagi said, barely, between sobs.

"It's getting pretty dark. I think it's about time that we went home, guys," Ami stated rather briskly. In separate flashes of light the four girls undid their transformations, turned toward the path leading out of Juuban Park, and started walking away. None of the girls looked back toward Usagi, who was still sitting on the ground, illuminated only by the few lamps from the nearby walkway, muddying the earth around her with her tears. As if in a show of sympathy with her current plight, the sky soon opened up and released its own tears.