VII.

Fire.

Ami would have said that fire was the result of the rapid oxidation of materials in the process of combustion – that when we refer to fire, we actually only speak of the flame, of the visible portion – and that the products of fire include thermal and light energy alongside various chemicals. She would have said that fire is not the only possible product of a combustion reaction, and then she would have gone on to detail how much more vastly interesting the ionisation of plasma was.

Makoto would have said that fire was a sacred gift that had been locked away in the heavens for millennia, safeguarded by the Nine. Indeed, fire had been created solely for the Nine, long before the first humans, and even before the creation of the universe. But when the Nine had cast their hands upon the chaos below and molded the worlds and written the laws and crafted the creatures that were to obey them, they could not fathom the sequence of events that they had set in motion. Where all other creatures never questioned that with which they had been blessed, the humans were the favourites of the Nine, and those who had come before the mortals – the Old Ones – became uneasy at this. A group of the Old Ones, known as the Interlopers, were consumed by jealousy and cast upon humankind the curse of avarice, so that they could no longer be content with the four senses. Humans, like other mortal creatures, had been content to wander in darkness, but when they heard of the fire hidden away by the gods they grew greedy. The Interlopers gathered the humans into a vast army and stormed the skies in search for that which would change the course of fate – the sacred gift, the forbidden sense. The humans and the gods battled for centuries, when finally the Nine saw that they could not control the dark magic that had been cast upon their own creations. To the humans and to their descendants, the gift of fire was granted – the sense of sight revealed – but they did not let the Interlopers escape unscathed. As punishment for their meddling, the Nine forced the Interlopers to the planets and cast upon them the curse of the second sight – the sixth sense – only to be seen in the throes of an ever-fitful sleep, and in the dreaded light of flame, for all eternity. Fire, Makoto would have said, holds the secrets of what is to come, and only the unfortunates who are descended from the Interlopers can see it.

Rei would have shaken her head, and would not have spoken. She was a master of the hidden arts but she absolutely loathed them; loathed flame, loathed magic. She would have nothing to say about fire. Nothing she could put into words.

Minako simply didn't know. She didn't know anything; only that it was all she could see.

Fire.


Her friends were probably dead by now. Any sensible leader would have probably taken the thought of this and forced it down – ignored it, crushed it, cleared it away – but Minako could not stop it as it overtook her vision. She might not have minded the scent of blood, made thicker by smoke, nor the screams, or the crunch of bones – but in the crispness of her helpless sight, all she could see was red. All she had seen from the moment she met Rei had been red – the red of love, anger, passion, blood – and it had only risen, like a haze, like a terrible crescendo. She wished she couldn't see it. She wished she couldn't fucking see at all.

Minako caught sight of a balcony and pulled the princess behind her, Rei following close behind. Her sharp, blue eyes scaled the landscape that fell so slowly into itself, and the people that fell so slowly with it. Her gaze searched for an escape – not out of duty, and certainly not out of love from the princess, but out of an in-built set of save-the-world instructions. Quickly, she spotted the shuttle bay, infested with black, Terran uniforms and weeping Mercurian prisoners, forced to disable their own handiwork.

Fuck.

Her eyes searched for Rei's, for some inkling of hope, but the Martian was devoid of it. As Minako was beginning to realise, she always had been. Serenity cried out as Minako's grip on her wrist became excruciating, and the Venusian only grew more and more unstable as the princess' squeals turned to cries of a name, "Endymion!"

Sure enough, the darkly clad Terran prince had come to stand right in front of them, and Serenity writhed more and more like a caged animal. Rei stepped towards him threateningly, and his hands rose in what Minako could only assume to be intended as a gesture of surrender.

"You bastard," Rei snarled, "How dare you show your face here as your people take innocent lives?"

She drew her sword in a movement so deft it seemed almost as though the weapon had never been sheathed.

"I swear, this invasion was not arranged under my orders!"

As much as Minako loathed the prince, there was a quality in his eyes that was honest; a quality that she knew very well in the eyes of another. Rei wasn't buying into this, however, and brought her blade to his throat. Minako motioned her to hear him out.

"A member of the Terran council, the Lady Beryl, was revealed to have been plotting a full-scale holocaust in the name of Terran supremacy. She had been using reports of planetary relations and other such things from the Shittenou to her advantage, and wields a dark, powerful magic. I swear neither I nor they had any knowledge of her intentions."

Minako believed him. She wished that she didn't believe him – wished that she had been unable to see the look in his eyes that had proven his innocence – but she did. Serenity had, in fact, fallen in love with someone who wasn't a lying scum. She caught Rei's eyes and did her best to communicate this to her through her expression, and the Martian seemed to understand. She considered it, for a moment – she honestly didn't want to believe it either, for reasons that still gnawed at Minako from the inside out – but then she slowly drew her weapon away. There was a moment of resigned silence, and Minako let go of Serenity's arm.

Then, quick as a flash of lightening, the prince's features turned to dread, and he screamed.

"Serenity, no!"

The following moments were a blur in the face of a blinding light. Minako's feet had tried to take her to Serenity, but not fast enough, and she fell to the ground like a brick. Quickly, a red hot feeling began to burst from her leg and she felt herself cry – heard herself sob, watched herself bleed, as though from outside of her own body but with still with all the pain of it – and when she finally managed to fold over and look upon herself her stomach turned like it had never done before. A section of her shin had been completely torn off in the blast and her shinbone became visible through her torn, festering flesh like marble.

Her bleeding leg drained the strength from her quickly, but through her own pain Minako tried to make her surroundings out as best as she could. Sound was hard to clear through at first, but Serenity's relentless sobs made themselves succinct amongst all else quickly enough. She soon made out a now red-and-white form kneeling over a motionless pile of flesh, and Minako knew exactly what had happened. Frantically, she gathered all the strength she could muster into her arms and dragged herself over the dull, friction-induced ache of elbow over stone as quickly as possible.

"Rei! Rei, come on!"

At what was probably the Martian's behest, Endymion soon dragged the Lunarian princess away despite her deafening wails of protest, and for the first time in her life, Minako – while irreversibly filled to the brim with a hatred of her – felt sorry for Serenity. She tried to think how Rei could have possibly moved fast enough to take the brunt of the blast, but here she was, bone protruding from her hip, lying in her own hot blood. Finally, Minako managed to crawl beside her, and Rei turned her head.

"Serenity's okay," she forced, "so perhaps there is yet a chance."

Minako's heart burst. When she spoke, she found her voice broken and weak, and there were tears on her face. Rei had no hand with which to wipe them away, and her violet eyes were heartbroken at it. "For now. She's okay for now. For fuck's sake Rei, you're dying, can you not talk about her right now?"

The Martian laughed a quiet, wheezy laugh. "I love you."

Minako trembled. There was a portion of Rei's face, under the left eye, that had been destroyed, and her face was painted in blood the way it had been at Serenity's last ball. Even then, Minako thought.

"You knew, Rei," she breathed. "How did you handle it, all on your own?"

And suddenly, she was still. There was a heavy silence as Minako fell apart, and shook and shook and couldn't stop. Finally, she eased Rei's eyelids shut and allowed the physical shock of her own wound to take away from the pain of being.

Then, she waited to die.


A/N: Okay, so it took fucking forever to update. I'm so, so sorry about that. This is basically the last chapter, but I will probably have an epilogue or a short sequel, if you'd like. Also, if there are any major changes/additions you think I should make, please let me know. I hope you enjoyed this story overall! Thanks to those of you who reviewed, followed, or faved. Sorry if it got kind of lame/predictable towards the end...

WolfPeaceMonster: I'm very glad you actually think that it flows well! I've always wondered if it really did, when I read back on bits I'm not always sure. But you're right, I certainly don't go easy on the readers! And lol, I know your feels. THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH REINAKO TO SATISFY MY NEEDS.

Jedi Caro: LOL YUP. If only.

Honulicious: Her hand was literally bleeding because she had been clenching her fists and scratching at herself so relentlessly out of jealous unease. That's mostly open to interpretation, but I would say that Serenity did love Rei, just not as much as Endymion. The two of them weren't actually seeing each other. Yup, here's the finale! I'm probs going to have some epilogue stuff either in the form of another chapter or a sequel, so stay tuned!

Sailor Makenai: Wow, thanks so much for all the reviews! You actually motivated me to get this story back on track/wrap it up a bit, lol. I'm glad you enjoyed most of it so far! I know there's some stuff in here that's pretty cliched, but I think that I was losing a bit of drive with later chapters, so yeah, sorry. :P Again, thanks so much for all the reviews!