I Give Up - Chapter 1
by Sereko
princess-serenity@rocketmail.com


So...I promised something juicy, right? Well, this may not be 
the most original idea out there...but I'm not sure how many
original Sailor Moon fanfics there are. So many fanfics have
been written that it's hard not to follow someone else's 
train of thought. Anyway, despite that, enjoy the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the characters
associated with the story. I merely use Naoko Takeuchi's genius as a 
starting point for my own storytelling.




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Chapter 1
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	"Damn it, Usagi! You were late AGAIN! I almost lost my leg 
because of your tardiness!"
	"But, Mars-"
	"No! This is the last time!! You've cost us too much as is! 
Venus has still not recovered from that blow to her arm in the last 
battle. You want to know why she was hit so hard in the arm?" Sailor 
Moon had no time to answer or even fight for her case, Mars just kept 
on tearing her apart. "It was you! Your clumsiness led her to be hit 
by the youma! You're no good, Sailor Moon. I'm not sure if you ever 
were!"
	"Ma-"
	"Stop! I won't listen to excuses!" Sailor Moon turned to her 
other weary friends for help. No use...they just looked mournfully at 
her.
	"I'm sorry, Sailor Moon...but, where have you been all these 
times? Have you even tried to be a better fighter?" Mercury looked 
sadly at her feet.
	"Really Sailor Moon, you don't even try in school. Do you have 
any responsibility?"
	"Venus? You too?"
	"See? We're all sick of it! GROW UP SAILOR MOON! You're lazy, 
whiny, irresponsible and we want nothing to do with you!" Sailor Moon 
was taken back. They didn't even give her a chance to explain! 'But 
it's true...it's all true...they don't need some brat to bring them 
down...why didn't I notice this before? Because...because I didn't want 
to believe it before...oh, mother!'
	She stopped her train of thought quickly. 'No, if you're going 
to leave...then leave with strength.' She looked once again at her 
friends. The anger and hurt in their eyes shown brightly and Sailor 
Moon sadly took a step towards them. "I'm sorry to have disappointed 
you so greatly. Take this." In her outstretched hand was nothing but 
the crescent moon wand. Mars stared at her oddly. 
	"What?"
	"I'm lazy, clutzy, everything you're not. Take this!"
	"Sailor Moon, what are you doin-" Mercury's statement was cut 
off and completely ignored.
	"Mars." The way the name was spoken sent shivers down everyone's 
spine. Mars reluctantly grabbed the wand from her leader. "It will 
work for you," As she said the word 'you' she looked directly at Venus, 
"princess, once I finish this transaction." Sailor Moon slowly raised 
her hand to just above the wand. She didn't want to do this...but she 
couldn't live with the insults anymore. "AIIIIIIII!!!!!" From her palm, 
an odd stream of silver light flowed into the wand. Immediately, the 
pink wand changed colors. First there was maroon, then orange, 
yellow, aquamarine, red, blue, purple and green.
	"What was that? What did those colors mean?" Sailor Moon 
glanced at Venus, the presenter of the question. 
	"They are the colors of the senshi...in order that I wish them 
to be leader after me."
	Jupiter spoke quickly, trying to shake off the bad feeling 
that she was receiving from all of this. "But I saw a lot more than 
just four colors...what were the rest?" 'And, why does it matter who 
is leader after you? What are you up to, girl?'
	"You do not know them. In truth, neither do I. Contrary to 
your beliefs, I have remembered some things about our past. I had, 
what I thought were dreams, when I was very young." Sailor Moon's 
voice softened at the end, but she shook her head and continued. 
"There are more senshi...four more, I think. I don't know their names, 
what they look like, how old they are or anything like that. I just 
know that they're out there, waiting to be found. But back to the point, 
since my first chosen is not here..." Sailor Moon looked again at Venus.
Her eyes bore into the blonde twin. "The wand will work only for you, 
princess. Until you resign or die...then it will be the job of the next 
in line."
	"What if I don't want it?! Sailor Moon! Come on, what is all 
of this? What are you doing?!" Sailor Moon sighed. 
	"I am no longer Sailor Moon. I gave that up when I transferred 
my energy into that wand. I may have my fuku...that is only because I 
had to keep a part of my energy to live. I cannot give you the 
ginzuishou either, because it is my life force. You shouldn't need it 
though. Live well, my friends." That was all. Before any of the senshi 
could stop her, Sailor Moon had jumped speedily into the night. 
	The heroine stopped on a branch of a hidden tree to look back 
once more. 'I'll miss you guys...Mako-chan, my guard; Minako-chan, my 
confidante; Ami-chan, my teacher; and Rei-chan, my advisor...so long..'
Right as she was about to jump out of the park, Sailor Moon swore that 
she heard hoots of joy coming from the senshi's direction. Exasperated, 
Sailor Moon ran as fast as she could back to her house. It wasn't 
until she was a block from her destination that she noticed a stream of 
tears falling from her eyes. Angrily wiping them off her face, Sailor 
Moon's exhaustion from the night finally caught up with her and she 
fell to the sidewalk on one knee.

---

	A familiar tingle echoed in the back of one man's head. He 
shook his head of deep black hair that blended itself with the cold 
night sky. "Sailor Moon? I-It can't be...the battle has already 
finished..." The tingle came again, slightly stronger, and the man was 
on a roof-top in seconds flat. 'What has happened?' He ran over the 
buildings with lightning speed when he noticed a sense of fear and 
pain that was not his own.
	After a good five minutes of roof hoping, he spotted the cause 
of his flight. She was walking slowly as the moon cast a foreboding 
spotlight on her. He stumbled a bit at the beauty that seemed to 
radiate from her but regained his composure quickly. Without warning, 
the girl stopped on the sidewalk and rubbed her face harshly. Soon 
thereafter, she started to sway and fell to the ground on one knee. He 
pounced to the ground near her as response to her actions. He was only 
a foot away when he began to really worry. 'She hasn't noticed my 
presence yet...how odd...she can usually tell where I am even if I'm 
fifty feet away...'
	The caped man retained a steady disposition as he reached out 
a hand towards her. The hand stopped in mid-reach. His eyes grew larger 
as he noticed a large streak of red on the side of the girl's fuku. 
'Blood!' His hand finally made it to her shoulder as he whispered, 
"Sailor Moon?" The girl jumped and then screeched out in pain. Shakily 
getting into a fighting stance, she prepared herself to ward off the 
intruder. "Who's there? Where are you?" Her eyes almost seemed to 
blankly shoot around the area. Tuxedo Kamen looked worriedly at her. 
He was directly in front of her and she could not see him? "It's me, 
Sailor Moon..." She was unresponsive to his words, so he spoke again, 
"...Tuxedo Kamen...a friend. Are-Are you all right?" 
	Her body visibly relaxed at his words and she nodded with a 
smile. "Of course, I'm fine. I was just going home." She turned and 
walked back down the sidewalk. Holding back a cringe she analyzed her 
situation. She hadn't sensed Tuxedo Kamen until he reached for her 
shoulder, the pain from a wound that she had concealed (from her 
'close encounter' with the youma) was searing, somehow her 20-20 vision 
had been blurred to almost nothing and any great healing powers that 
she once had were transferred into the moon wand earlier. Putting all 
of that behind her, she walked along a path that she knew like the 
back of her hand. The back of her hand that felt so safe and warm at 
that moment...wait...she wasn't walking anymore. The warmth from before 
was not her own, either. "Huh?" Sailor Moon was turned around to face 
something.
	"Sailor Moon, it is no use to lie to me. Please...what happened?" 
	Her blurred vision only allowed her to see the top hat of 
Tux-boy and his white mask covering any and all emotions in his eyes. 
"Wh-What are you talking about? Nothing happened..." 'Yeah right, 
nothing happened! You just gave up being Sailor Moon, the champion of 
love and justice, because you finally could not hide the truth. You are 
but a failure, Tsukino Usagi.' A solitary tear fell down her cheek 
from her own reprimanding. 
	The tear was caught and brushed aside by a large gloved hand. 
"Come on...I'm not going to bite you." Sailor Moon giggled at the insane 
proposition. 
	"I know, gomen. It's been a lo..ng..ni.gh..t..." The swaying 
motion returned and Sailor Moon fell to her knee again. Tuxedo Kamen 
joined her by kneeling down in front of her. He lifted her chin up 
lightly. 
	"That wound on your side is making you lose a lot of blood. 
Tell me where you live and I'll take you home to patch you up." With 
clenched teeth, Sailor Moon looked up to where she hoped his eyes were. 
She shook her head to the side and that's when it hit him. She wouldn't 
tell him where she lived because that might give away her true identity.
"Please, Sailor Moon. You need help. It's not like I'm going to go 
tell the world tomorrow that I know who you are. Believe me...I don't 
get out enough to know where every person on Earth lives. I highly 
doubt this will give away your secret." 
	Sailor Moon seemed to think about it until a wave of nausea 
and pain came crashing down on her body. She fell forward into Tuxedo 
Kamen's chest. Suppressing her tears and screams, Sailor Moon grabbed 
his shoulders and raised herself so that her right cheek was making 
complete contact with his left one, thus allowing her to talk into his 
ear. "Stay on this sidewalk for another block. Turn left on Kirei St. 
I'm the third house to the left, #913. *moan* Arigato..." Losing her 
burst of adrenaline, all her muscles failed her and she collapsed, 
eyes closed. 
	"Sailor Moon?!?" Tuxedo Kamen tried to wake her up and make 
her talk, but her body was completely limp and nothing was coming from 
her. 'I've got to hurry. Hang in there...onegai...' Picking her up by 
the legs and back to hold her baby-style, he proceeded to follow her 
directions home.

---

	"Who's there?!" Mars' voice echoed emptily through the park. 
"How odd, I could swear that I heard someone laughing..." Jupiter 
looked over at her.
	"Me too." They both shrugged and went back to the fountain, in 
the middle of the park. There sat Venus and Mercury, the latter typing 
furiously on her computer. 
	When Mercury noticed their presence, she looked up and said, 
"I think I know how to work the wand."
	Mars flinched at the suggestion. "Does it matter anymore?" 
Everyone paused in silent thought. "I didn't mean for her to leave. I 
know my complaints were way worse than usual...but where has she been?" 
Mars looked pleadingly at the other girls to even slightly justify 
what she did.
	Jupiter saved her first. "It was not just your fault. We all 
blamed her..."
	"It's true that she has been delayed and that has resulted in 
our injuries, but there must have been a good reason. She would never 
intentionally want us to come close to death over and over..." 
Mercury's words carried with the wind and once again there was a 
moment of silence. 
	"What about all of that 'other senshi' stuff, too? I didn't 
know that she had learned about our past even before she was a senshi..." 
The others nodded. 
	"She came to me once, asking if I could help her understand 
her dreams better. I only caught a glimpse of one through the sacred 
fire. It was like she was looking through someone's eyes and reliving 
a life on the Moon..." Collective sighs showed the sadness of everyone's 
emotions. "I hope she takes care of herself...who knows if she's 
skipped town or something..."





End Chapter 1
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Was it all right? I dunno...not the 
greatest I realize, but it gets better
as well as more original further along
in the story. Stay tuned!


Please send ANY comments to me, Sereko. My e-mail is: 
princess-serenity@rocketmail.com