Makoto led the way down the hospital corridors. Usagi followed, quite lost in the huge building. But Makoto had been there before, and knew where she was going. She led her Princess down a long flight of stairs, and turned the corner to the right. She knew where she was, now: the long corridor in the emergency wing. She could see the door to Room 19B, where Rei was, and most likely the others. But the corridor was not empty. There were Mews there.

Usagi grabbed Makoto's shoulder. "Mako-chan, Are those..."

"Mew Mews? Yes, they are. But they won't hurt us, not here. They can't transform in front of all the witnesses here, and they've promised not to hurt Rei-san." Makoto said, still moving forward. Usagi followed. just keeping up, wondering what to do if their enemies attacked. She couldn't transform, and there were three Mews: three against two. But then, the one with her was Makoto, and Usagi thought that that would get her through any fight that did not involve magic. So she kept hurrying behind her friend.

They got to the door. The tall, dark Mew, Zakuro, spoke to Makoto. "She's recovered pretty well, for how she looked yesterday."

Makoto stopped right in front of her enemy. "It's part of being Sailor Senshi. Let us through."

Zakuro's eyes were even more dark than usual. "And it's part of not being pounded to pieces after you're already down."

Makoto would not back down. The other girl was acting tough, but she knew there would be no fight here. "Zakuro-san, let us through. We're just here to see Rei."

Zakuro nodded, and the Mews stepped aside, opening the path to door 19B. At the door, Usagi took the lead. "Stay here, now," she whispered. "I'll go in alone, at first. I want to see what they say about you. Don't let them see you when I open the door."

Makoto was stunned. This did not seem like the airheaded blonde girl who always seemed half-lost; but she stepped aside, and Usagi opened the door and went in.

Ami looked up when the door opened, and smiled broadly when she saw Usagi. "Usagi-chan!" she almost shouted. But Rei and Minako said nothing.

Usagi walked over to Rei, who had been put back into the bed. She smiled softly, but Rei did not return the smile. So Usagi spoke, uncomfortably: "How is it going? They going to let you out?"

Rei stared into Usagi's eyes, and spoke: "I'm going to make it - no thanks to you, loser." She stressed that last word, and drew it out. Ami gasped; but Minako said nothing. Usagi kept looking at her, so Rei continued, "this is all your fault! If you weren't such a loser, this never would have happened! You were a baka to start the fight, and you got your butt kicked, and Minako and I had to save you. And then that fat oaf Makoto interrupted everything, and got us taken by surprise. I'm lucky to be alive, no thanks to you." Usagi turned away. Ami was sure she would start bawling, like she always did.

But Usagi just turned to Minako. "And you, Dear Sailor V, are you healing, too?" Minako said not a word, but stared with hatred into Usagi's eyes, blue into blue. Usagi backed off from the bed. This time, Ami was sure, she would break down; but she did not.

"And how is Makoto-chan? Is she hurt, too?" Usagi asked.

Minako stood and walked over until she stood full in Usagi's face. "That traitorous coward is just fine, thank you, because she didn't have the guts to fight!"

"LIAR!" Ami all but screamed. "She fought, and at the end, she took the whiplashes that were meant for you, or you'd be lying in a hospital bed, too! What the hell is the matter with you two? You blame Makoto, you blame Usagi for our defeat! They both fought. We just got beaten! Yes, it hurts. So what? We've been hurt before. We've always come back. Usagi always has won for us in the end, even against Galaxia. She was supposed to be the greatest Sailor Senshi ever, better than all the rest put together, but Usagi conquered her! Or don't you remember..."

Usagi cut her off. "Ami, enough." She stood looking into Minako's eyes. "I am your Princess! Show me the respect I deserve! And show Makoto-san the respect she deserves! She's our friend, from the very beginning! What has gotten into you and Rei?"

Minako pushed Usagi away, roughly. "Stop lecturing me, you big turd. You can't transform any more. You're not Sailor Moon, you're not Princess Serenity, you're just Usagi. Usagi the crybaby, Usagi the baka! You're not my Princess, you're not Sailor Senshi, you're just about the dumbest and most useless girl I ever met in all my life. And you're ugly, too! Mamoru will be so glad to be rid of your ugly face, your flat chest, and your fat butt..."

"Minako, shut up!" Ami barked; but Minako sneered at her. "You gonna stop me, you little wuss?"

Ami rose. She was no fighter, but something had to be done about Minako's cruelty. But Usagi stopped her. "Sit, Ami-chan!"

Usagi drew out her pendant. "So! You say I can't transform, and so now I'm useless?" She held the pendant up. "Moon Crystal Power, MAKE-UP!" she chanted, and she rose into the air and began spinning, and her clothes transformed as she did. She was become again Sailor Moon! But this was not the Sailor Moon they were used to. Her eyes blazed with anger, and she took Minako by the front of her shirt. "So, you think that I'm useless and worthless, do you? Do you want to step outside, and see how useless I am?"

Ami could not endure this. "No, Usagi, we're friends! We're comrades! We're Sailor Senshi!" She forced herself between the two violently angry blondes.

It was not a healthy position for Ami to place herself. Both of the angry girls grabbed her, to throw her aside, but Rei, from her bed, stopped them. "You bakas! Look at the door!"

They looked. The door to the room stood open, and all of the Mew Mews were crowding into it, to watch the action. And action there would have been; but now they stopped. Rei frowned. It was just like Usagi to be so foolish, to transform here in a public hospital, and to fight here; but she expected better from Minako.

Then powerful Makoto pushed the Mews aside and stalked into the room. Her eyes gaped wide when she saw Usagi transformed, and she fell to her knee before her. "My Princess..." she mumbled.

Even Usagi was embarrassed by that, and she quickly reached out and raised Makoto up. Then Makoto turned and faced Minako, and her green eyes blazed. "You blonde baka, if you so much as touch Sailor Moon, I will smash you so hard that you will never..."

But Sailor Moon reached out, took Makoto's shoulder, and stopped her. "No, my dear friend," she said, quietly but firmly. "This is my fight." And then she turned to Minako. Blue eyes stared into blue, and she spoke in a tone far harder than any they had heard come from Usagi's lips: "When you feel up to it, you call me. I will meet you anywhere, any time, to talk this out, or to settle it upon the field of honor. Now, leave."

But Minako did not leave. "I take no commands from you, so-called princess. This is not your room, nor your kingdom." And she turned to Rei in her bed. "Rei-chan, this is your room. Should I leave?"

Rei was silent for several seconds, and then she spoke: "Usagi... leave."

The Mew Mews looked on as Makoto turned toward Rei with such anger blazing in her green eyes that they thought she would tear her to pieces right there. But at the same time a look came over Usagi's face, a look of such horrible pain that one would think that a sword had just been driven full through her heart. "Rei... chan...?" she mumbled; and she turned away. Rei could not see her face, but the Mews all watched as the tears began streaming from the great blue eyes of Sailor Moon. Suddenly Usagi transformed back, and she was powerful Sailor Moon no longer: just dumb, useless crybaby Usagi, shaking and gasping as the tears poured down. The Mew Mews stood aside as she staggered out of the room.

Then Makoto charged through after her. She saw Usagi slumped against the wall, sobbing uncontrollably. She ran to her friend, turned her from the wall, and gathered her tightly in her arms against her bosom, as a mother would hold her child. And as Usagi cried, so did Makoto, for she had seen the final breaking of the Sailor Senshi. They had saved the world. They had defeated every enemy. Now, they were finished. Even Usagi could not save them. Makoto knew that Minako would not talk things out with Usagi, but would fight her on "the field of honor," as Usagi had called it. At that thought, a grim smile touched Makoto's lips, though her tears kept flowing: for she knew that Minako would be no match for Usagi, and Usagi would give the traitor the beating she so richly deserved. That is, she thought, Usagi would do so, if she had the courage to transform in the face of the one that she had loved as a friend. Makoto would be there, to make sure it happened. Yes, she would...

She turned to the Mew Mews. Three of the four were still watching the action inside of the room, but Mew Lettuce - sweet Lettuce - was watching Usagi, with sad concern on her face. Makoto gestured for Lettuce to come over, and she did so; and Makoto transferred the sobbing, helpless Usagi to their enemy's arms. Then she drew out her cell phone and pushed a button. After a few seconds, she spoke: "Mamoru-san, this is Makoto. Come to the emergency ward of Tokyo General. Usagi-san needs you, now." There was a pause in her speech, and then she spoke again. "No, she's OK, physically. But she needs you. Now." Then she was silent again, and finally spoke a third time: "Mamoru - now!" Then she snapped the phone closed, pocketed it, and took Usagi back into her arms.

She needed a place to keep her, until Mamoru came. There was a waiting area at the end of the hall, by the front desk, where the rest rooms were. But it was crowded, and Usagi needed privacy. She could not take her back into the hated room 19B. There was nowhere else to go. She half-carried the heartbroken Moon Princess into the room across the hall, two doors down.

That room, so full before, was now quite empty. The hated Mew Ichigo was in the bed, and only her boyfriend and her mother sat with her. The Mews were gone, watching the disintegration of the Sailor Senshi, and doubtlessly gloating over their enemies' fall. And the father was gone; he had to go to work, Makoto supposed. So there was a large chair available against the wall, almost like a love-seat, large enough for two; and Makoto led the sobbing Usagi to that chair. She sat, and placed Usagi's head in her lap, and stroked the long, blonde hair.

Mew Ichigo's mother walked over. She looked younger than she had to be, considering that she had given birth to that stinking Ichigo. And her hair was, if anything, even redder than her daughter's. She looked down at Makoto, and spoke quietly. "It's as if you're her mother," she whispered. And then: "Just what is going on here? Who is that? Why is she crying? This is not your room. You don't belong here."

Makoto looked back into the clear eyes of Ichigo's mother. "I had nowhere else to bring her. Her body is not hurt, but her heart has been broken - forever, I fear. I called her boyfriend, and he's coming to pick her up, and I will take care of her until then. Who is she? Her name is Tsukino Usagi, not that that would mean anything to you."

Makoto grew silent, and the mother turned back to her daughter. "Ichigo-san, you owe me an explanation. What is going on here? You end up hurt and in the hospital, and you won't tell me what happened. Strange people that I have never met, or even heard of, come into the room and act strangely. I am frightened, my daughter. You owe me this. Tell me what is going on here!"

Mew Ichigo sat up in bed, then swung her legs to the side, and unsteadily walked over to her mother. She looked straight into her mother's clear eyes, and spoke quietly: "Yes, mother. Yes, I have kept secrets from you for too long. For two years I have hidden my life from you, and father..."

The boyfriend spoke up. "Ichigo, do you really want to do this?" He walked over and put his arm around his girlfriend's waist, steadying her.

She looked into his eyes, and nodded; and he understood, though he lowered his eyes and sighed. And then she turned back to her mother. "That blonde girl here with us, with the crazy long hair, is one of the ones that hurt me. We fought, and she hurt me, but I hurt her more. I beat her. But her friends pretty much took me apart after that."

"So you've been brawling, fighting? How? Some kind of stupid fight club or something?" the mother demanded.

But Momomiya Ichigo shook her head. "Far worse than that, my mother. I have kept far worse secrets than that." And she separated herself from the boyfriend, walked over to the little closet where her clothes were hung, and drew something out of a pocket in her skirt. She looked straight into her mother's eyes, and said, pleadingly: "Mother, please do not hate me for this." Then she took the object, kissed it, and said, in a strong voice: "Mew Mew Strawberry, METAMORPHO-SIS!"

And she rose into the air and started spinning, and her hospital gown magically transformed into a frilly pink minidress, and her hair and eyes became pink, and then there were ears, and a tail... And she settled on the ground before her mother, whose eyes stared in horror at what her daughter had become.

"Ears! And a... TAIL!" Ichigo's mother wailed. "My daughter! What are you? Are you even my daughter?"

Mew Ichigo reached out and took her mother's trembling hand. "I am Ichigo. I am your daughter that loves you. That will never change. But... I am a Mew Mew."

""How?" the mother demanded loudly. And Ichigo spoke, quietly: "I was infused with cat DNA by a couple of - well, you could call them mad scientists. There were some space aliens trying to take over the earth and destroy humanity, but we defeated them, that is, I and the other Mew Mews, and Aoyama-kun, defeated them. That's when we were getting on the TV news, when we were fighting them. We all nearly died, and that includes Aoyama-kun, too. But we saved the world. And Mother, I'm sorry that I never told you, but I'm a freak, and I didn't think you and Father would approve, and so I hid what I was. I am so sorry, my mother. What I did was wrong, and cowardly. But I am what I am, and I can't stop being a Mew Mew."

Ichigo's mother's eyes were wide open in shock, but still she spoke: "Then that blonde with the freaky hair is a space alien?"

Ichigo smiled. "No, my mother, dearest. The blonde is... the blonde is Sailor Moon."

"Then you're telling me all that Sailor Moon stuff is real, too?" the mother demanded.

Ichigo smiled, and nodded. But her mother asked, "Is Sailor Moon evil? I thought all those Sailor this-and-thats were supposed to be heroes."

Ichigo dropped her eyes, no longer able to look into her mother's face. Still, the words came, though slowly, and with pain. "Yes, my mother, they are heroes, and they have saved the world many times. Sailor Moon and I, well, we just got too big for our own britches, too proud. I guess it all went to our heads, and we got into a stupid fight over who's the best magical girl in Tokyo, or some such nonsense. By the time it was done, I was nearly dead. In fact, they all thought I was dead. But Mew Zakuro can do healing magic, and she saved me... that's how I ended up here."

"ICH-I-GO!" her mother half-screamed, in the same tone and cadence that her father used, though not as loudly. "What kind of a baka have we raised?"

Ichigo took her trembling mother in her arms, and held her close. "You have raised a true fool, my mother," she whispered. "But a fool that helped save the world. Yes, hate me for being so stupid as to fight with Sailor Moon. But mother... at least be proud of your daughter - that she won the fight."

Tears now streamed without limit from the mother's eyes. "My dearest Ichigo, my precious, dearest, only child, if you would have only told me... What would I have done, if you had died fighting those aliens, or those other heroes...?"

"Do you believe what I have told you?" Ichigo whispered. And her mother responded, "I can't deny that you have a tail."

Ichigo led her mother over to the two strangers, the auburn-haired, tall girl with the green eyes (and, as Aoyama noted, a figure that would knock a truck over), and the blonde girl that wept on her lap. She looked into Makoto's eyes, and then said, "Show my mother."

Makoto got up, and raised Usagi as well. They looked into each other's eyes, and nodded, and then each drew out her pendant, and called out: "MAKE-UP!" And they each sprang into the air, and spun around, and transformed; and presently, Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter stood glowing before them. Aoyama cringed, and he stepped in front of Ichigo, for he realized the danger she was in: two against one, and Ichigo so weak from her injuries. But Ichigo reached out, and touched his shoulder, and said quietly, "It's OK, my love. These two will not attack here, not in front of my mother. Maybe if our parents know, it will keep us from fighting again."

But Makoto said: "My parents... are dead."

Ichigo gasped, and said quietly, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

Makoto nodded, and dropped her eyes. "There are many things you don't know... " she began, and then stepped up to the cat girl. Mew Ichigo would not back away, and their eyes locked together. Perhaps Ichigo's innocent blunder would start the bloodshed again.

But before another word was said, or another hand raised, Ichigo's mother stepped between the two magical girls. She was taller than Ichigo, though of course shorter than the powerful Sailor Jupiter; yet she stared into the big girl's eyes, her own eyes blazing. "Don't you even think of laying a finger on my daughter!" she said in a hard voice.

"Mother!" Ichigo began. "She could crush you like a bug!"

But Ichigo's mother did not move an inch, and in the end, Sailor Moon took Makoto by the arm and drew her away. Makoto hated this, but she would obey her Princess as the last loyal Sailor Senshi. And so there was no violence, just then. But suddenly the door opened, and the other Mews came piling in; and they saw the confrontation, and how their leader stood weak and alone against two of the enemy. Quickly the door closed behind them, and pendants came out, and the entire small room was filled with Mew Mews transforming. And then Mew Zakuro stepped forward from the others, and she held in her hand that cross-thing that would spawn that hateful whip.

"What are you doing in here?" she demanded of Sailor Moon, not knowing that it was Sailor Jupiter, not Sailor Moon, that had led the other girl into Ichigo's room.

Usagi felt the pride surge within her. Just who did these foolish upstarts think they were, making demands of her, the Moon Princess? She was outnumbered five to two, but Mew Ichigo was very weak, and in any case she would have to protect her mother, and her boyfriend. She began raising her pendant, to generate the Moon Scepter and destroy these vermin... And then she stopped, and smiled, that huge, wild smile that was hers and hers alone. And she spoke to Mew Ichigo's mother: "Now, maybe, you see how foolish pride can lead to fighting and even death." And she suddenly transformed back to plain old Usagi, and she slumped back into the chair against the wall.

But Makoto would not transform back. She stood her ground, legs spread to give her a solid foundation to fight, her pendant held tightly in her right hand. She would not let them touch her Princess, not as long as a single breath remained in her body. She would fight all five of them, and beat them if she must! But then Mew Ichigo stepped out from behind her mother, and touched her hand.

She said nothing, but simply looked into Makoto's eyes; and then behind her, one after another, the Mew Mews transformed back into their normal human selves. Finally only Makoto and Ichigo remained in their transformed states. Makoto knew that this was her chance. She could destroy the horribly weakened Mew Ichigo with her magic, or with her bare hands! Then those fools over in 19B would know that victory would be Usagi's, and they would come back to her, and it could all be like it was before...

No, it could not, Makoto knew. And if she killed the weakened and wounded Mew Ichigo, it would not be a fair fight. It would be murder, and she was no murderer. And then the other Mews would transform, and Usagi would transform, and there would be one final fight, and they would almost certainly lose. And for killing Mew Ichigo, she would die, and Usagi would die. And Usagi's death would mean that eternally she, Sailor Jupiter, would have failed as Sailor Senshi... She backed off, taking a protective stance in front of Usagi.

Mew Ichigo transformed, and all but collapsed to the floor. Her mother caught her, and helped her back to the bed. She sat on the bed with her daughter and embraced her tenderly, and she said, "I like you so much better without the tail." And Ichigo laid her head on her mother's shoulder.

Then finally Makoto transformed back, and she raised Usagi from the chair. "I think there's a parking lot out back," she said. "We can wait for Mamoru there."

Usagi nodded, but spoke to her friend. "Why did you bring me in here in the first place?"

And Makoto thought long before she answered. "Because it seemed like the safest place to bring you. I was so wrong, and I am so sorry, my Princess."

Usagi nodded, and then left her friend and walked over to the bed. She bowed to Ichigo's mother, and then said to her enemy, "Is there any way this can end, other than a fight to the finish?"

Ichigo looked down and then slowly shook her head. But Mew Zakuro spoke: "It is hard to trust you, when you have tried to kill us. And I will never forgive you for what you did to Ichigo."

Makoto looked at her and stared deeply into those dark sapphire eyes, trying to read something of Zakuro's soul; but the eyes were opaque to her. So she spoke: "Thank you all for not starting the killing." And she took Usagi and led her out the door.