Author's Notes:

If you need to email me, contact me here: Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put fanfiction in the subject line so I know what it's pertaining to. I use a little manga attacks in here, but not much so bear with me. I don't own Sailor Moon. It is the property of Naoko Tacheuchi.

Crystal Hearts

When The War Ends

Chapter 4: Breath of Fire

Mars trudged along the dirt road, being as silent as she could. She felt many enemies nearby and she desperately wanted to avoid them. If they decided to attack her, she would not survive.

Rei leaned against what was left of a tree and sighed, resting her weary feet. She had been walking for hours. If she guessed right, she might say she was in Michigan since it was fairly cold now that it was getting to be night.

There was nothing for it. She would have to rest here. She sunk down and took off her shoes, massaging her feet. Mars groaned and brushed back tears. She now partially understood what Usagi had gone through with Nehelenia, trying to get Mamoru back. Walking through the snow and blizzards barefoot and sure to go on with no one there to help her and unable to transform…

Mars shuddered. It scared her to think about things like that. Gods, some of these things have such similarities. I can barely believe that anything to do with Nehelenia wouldn't have happened if Chibiusa hadn't come back to the past. I mean, it's a good thing that we healed her, but still…To think that was something we would not have had to go through, that crisis with Nehelenia. I wonder how fighting Galaxia would have been different. And what did the goddess Selene mean when she said if Chibiusa hadn't gone back that the Inners would have found what was needed to prevent this war?

She pulled her shoes back on and began to look for a place to stay the night. Oddly enough, she noticed a small cave. The smell of meat cooking and the feel of warmth coming from it made her long to be there and wary of what lay inside at the same time.

Mars crept slowly to the small entrance and peeked inside. She almost groaned at what she saw. Seven creatures rested around a roaring fire, roasting meat, and talking in a language she didn't understand. Rei did not want to know what that meat used to be.

She thanked all the gods and goddesses from stopping her at the tree. If she had gone on, they would have seen her walking. Her stomach began to growl as the aroma of food swirled on the air and was brought to her nostrils.

A creature paused its talking and looked around. Another asked it a question. It obviously answered that it had heard something since the others began looking around as well.

Mars gently pulled away from the mouth of the cave. How was she to go on? She waited in breathless silence as the creatures began talking once more. She was not so foolhardy as to approach again.

But she wondered what she was to do. She couldn't walk past the mouth of the cave; they would see her for sure. She had no idea how long it would take to go around the cave; that could take days and she didn't have the leisure of time to do that.

She had just sat down to ponder what to do when a scream echoed through the night, followed by a sharp pulling on her senses. Mars jumped in shock and hid behind a bush that, besides the tree and the cave, was the only thing decorating the sides of the road. She struggled to pinpoint what that burst of power was, but it was gone and she couldn't even remember what it had felt like.

Two creatures ran screaming from the cave as fast as their four and eight legs could carry them. She watched in fascination as another backed up until it was just outside the mouth of the cave and began launching attacks.

White smoke enveloped the creature and it collapsed, obviously dead. She could feel from her hiding place the energy that had been taken from the creature. A high voice laughed and said something. The words she couldn't make out, but the voice she recognized. She almost groaned. Jadeite. But how…

The remaining three monsters ran from the cave and only two got away. The one that had been lagging behind found it's energy sucked dry and died. She took a closer look and nearly gasped. It was a human being!

Nothing more happened and Jadeite did not come from the cave. Silence filled the air around her, but it permeated by the feelings of her and other creatures' fears.

Mars sat for an hour in stunned silence. How could Jadeite still be alive? Admittedly, they had never seen hide nor hair of him again after the airport, but there was no way he could have survived the destruction of Metallia and Beryl, if he hadn't been dead by then anyway.

She felt herself shake. She had never feared any enemy the way she feared the Dark Kingdom. She had never feared the Dark Moon Family, the Death Busters, the Dead Moon Circus, or even Galaxia the way she feared the Dark Kingdom. Perhaps it was the fact that Beryl had destroyed all nine of the planets and taken over Earth during the Silver Millennium. None of their other enemies had come close to gaining that kind of foothold over the situation. Not even Galaxia had gotten that far, even with the starseeds.

A voice inside her head spoke and she began to stop shaking. It startled the hell out of her, but it also calmed her. The voice was low and gentle, though it indicted it wasn't always that way.

"Don't worry. There is nothing to fear anymore because now you have to face your fears. Mars, my Mars, you are my daughter. The daughter of the god of war, you can do this. There is nothing to fear anymore. Confront him."

The voice spoke no more and Mars knew nothing to say to bring him back. She put his words about their relationship into the back of her mind. She stood up and squared her shoulders. She had to face Jadeite. She had to face her fears or they would cripple her for the rest of her life.

When Mars entered the cave, Jadeite turned to face her and his jaw dropped. His hair was still cut short around his face and his blue eyes still pierced.  He smiled suddenly, a cruel one.

"Well, Sailor Mars. We meet again. A pleasure, I assure you," he mocked, giving a short bow.

Mars did not acknowledge his words. "As the child of war and Senshi, I am bound to defeat you. But as a person, I have a personal grudge to settle with you," she growled.

"And I you."

"Fire Soul!" she cried, using her first attack that she hadn't used in a century. It was more powerful than when she was fourteen, but she was still surprised that she had drawn on that one first. Usually she went for Flame Sniper or Snake Fire.

"Ha!" He threw out his hand and mist swirled around her. He then formed a black, crystal spear and threw it at her. Her power slammed into his and they shattered, canceling each other out.

"You cannot defeat me!" He laughed, sure in his victory. "It took three of you to defeat me the last time. What do you, alone, think you can do against me?"

Rei didn't answer. She pulled out one of her talismans and began to intone her chant. "Akyuro Taisan," she whispered and threw it at him.

He put up a seamless barrier between the paper and himself. Inside her heart, she felt something crack and break. More power than she had ever felt before flooded her attack.

"Burning Fire Strike!" she screamed. A flame appeared in her cupped hands. Her hair waved frantically in an invisible breeze. Slowly she pointed her palms at him and the power attacked the barrier a wide stream of fire. Between the power behind the attack and the talisman against evil, Jadeite could not hold his shield and it shattered. He screamed in pain as his body disintegrated.

Mars stared at her hands in shock. A small, happy smile curved her lips. I did it! I faced my fears and destroyed them! I can't believe it! I did it!

"Of course you did it. How could you think you wouldn't?"

She turned to see a man dressed in black leather, with dark red armor over it and a helmet in under his arm. His hair was so black it absorbed any light. Deep garnet eyes stared into hers, sending a familiarity up her spine and through her senses. A silk black cloak with blood scarlet lining inside draped from his shoulders. Beside him stood a black mare, all complete muscle with pale silver hooves.

"Ares? God of War?" she faltered.

He smiled. "There was once a time you called me father."

She gulped slowly, not wanting to really believe it and yet dying to. Her mouth went dry to realize that she might be related to a god. It would easily explain her Senshi and psychic powers.

Ares approached her, the horse following behind without even motioned to. She touched her muzzle reverently, seeing a great black saddle edged in red and garnet jewels on her back. Everything about her and what she wore proclaimed that she was treasured and she knew it.

"Hey Nemesis," she whispered.

She didn't know how she knew the horse's name, but the mare nickered at her as if she had known her for her entire life. Mars smiled a little and touched her forehead to the horse's.

A hand ran its hand through her hair lovingly and she looked up into those beautiful red eyes that watched her compassionately and lovingly. He pulled her into his arms and she buried her face into his chest, glad beyond words to feel a father's love again.

It was as if he could read her mind. "You don't know how many times I wanted to take you away or punish that man," he whispered. "No one can treat my daughter like that, even if he is a political party member." Ares growled low in his throat. "But Chronos and the other gods refused to let me interfere."

She could imagine him fighting, physically even, with the other gods. It made her smile, knowing that a father loved her that much.

"Though you were born as that man's child, you'll always be my daughter, Mars. I love you."

Nemesis butted her arm and touched her cheek with her muzzle. Slow tears tracked down her face, happy tears.

He pulled away reluctantly, as if someone was grabbing him insistently by a mental arm. "I must go and you must save your friends." Ares was gone in a few minutes, along with his horse Nemesis, but she felt no distress at his departure. Rather, she smiled and sighed, knowing he would always be there for her.

A sparkle on the floor caught her eye. She knelt in the middle of the cave and moved away some of the loose dust and soil. Embedded safely beneath was a beautiful green stone. "It's the jadeite stone!" she cried then immediately wished she hadn't.

Whirling around, she faced a man and a creature standing on its hands with its feet in the air. It looked up at her with a malicious smile. Oh, damn!

Without a word, the man attacked her with bright blue shafts of light. She dodged, a few strands of hair being cut. The creature flipped toward her and she jumped over it.

Grabbing the jadeite stone in her hand, she called upon her power. Perhaps she could teleport back to the palace or at least somewhere else. She had to make sure the stone got back to Crystal Tokyo, even at the cost of her life.

Red light surrounded her form and the attack went straight through her body. The two assailants stared at her in shock. Mars was pretty shocked as well, but realized that she had already begun the teleportation process by herself. A smile flashed on her face and she pictured the crystal palace, complete with spires, in her head.

The red light intensified, leaving the man and the creature blinded. When they blinked after the light was gone, the Soldier was no longer there.

The crystal wall around the Jadeite spirit began to crack. Surprised, he opened his eyes and studied the fissures before him. He reached out his hand to touch them, or trying to. It was so far away. Could he reach it?

End Chapter 4

A worthy note:

Ares' horse, Nemesis – Nemesis is a goddess of retribution in classical mythology. Also, you might notice that my descriptions don't fit with mythology per se, but I thought that if the Greek gods applied to Sailor Moon, they would be different, especially around their children. No Ares doesn't normally have a horse.