AN: A Silver Millennium one... ooohhhhh *waggles fingers* Part of an idea I have for a future story...


You were very imposing when we first met. While we were all soldiers, most of us were still...dainty. Especially when compared to your large stature. Venus, Mars, and I, while combat ready, had yet to actually be in the field, fighting the youma that were beginning to terrorize the Kingdom.

You hadn't been in a fight with a youma at that point, either. But your bare arms sported nasty scars, deep and ugly. Although healed, they still looked painful.

At the time of our first meeting and for a long time afterward, you never spoke of how you got them. But we had been briefed on where the Queen and her soldiers and sages had found you: a slave in the Colosseum, forced to fight for your life from a very young age.

We knew of the Colosseum of course. Gladiators fighting for honor and money. It was a huge sport that everyone enjoyed, even the Royal Family. What had shocked me, however, was the slavery that was taking place within the kingdom. It had been outlawed hundreds of years ago. But you were living proof of the very dark dealings still happening within the most powerful and peaceful Kingdom in the galaxy. I was appalled.

You stood before the Queen, quiet, in between two soldiers. Venus, Mars, and I stood with the Princess off to the side. We were there to observe and eventually take you into our fold; finally a full team to protect our Kingdom and our Princess.

The Queen questioned you, asked where you originally came from. You gave short, brief answers. You told me later, much much later and in private, you saw your recruitment into the senshi as another form of slavery; that you didn't have a choice. I suppose that in a way, it was true. For all of us guardians.

But I saw my servitude as a way to give back to the galaxy; to protect it. You had called me naive, but I knew deep down, you felt the same way.

You didn't speak much to us after the audience with the Queen. You nodded, grunted, gave short answers to Venus's questions. Very short answers. You looked overwhelmed when we presented you with your own room. It wasn't something you were used to. You were used to a form of barracks and sharing a room with fifteen people, sometimes more and sleeping on a hard bed with a mattress made of flattened straw.

You didn't even tell us your name.

Your name...

I remember when you finally told me your name. I was the only person you told. We, the senshi, often addressed each other by our soldier names and rarely did we use our civilian names unless it was a quiet moment, which were few and far between. But then you and had grown close over the first year and, unless with the others, never used our combat titles. Your gruff voice was so soft when you would whisper my name, either in passing or when we made love. I had been Mercury for so long that I had grown indifferent to my given name. I hadn't used it for years before you came along. And then you would say it so softly, like a prayer that wasn't meant for anyone but me.

Combat would get my pulse racing, but only you ever made me feel alive.