Ch. 3
On the Eastern side of the moon palace hidden in plain sight in a wing where few people ventured was a little known hot spring. The pool itself had been walled off, incorporated into the castle design by it's original builders and if you didn't know of it's existence then you may mistaken it's door as just another room in the large palace.
The enclosure where the pool resided, like other rooms, was rich and lavishly decorated with silver and blue furnishings. The room was vast with high a ceiling and large glass door that lead out to an enclosed balcony overlooking the bay. The pool itself, constantly heated by natural means gave off steam which made the enclosure cozy, warm, and ideal on winter days. It was the moon palace's very own hot spring and by some unwritten law this luxury was only used by the Queen's senshi.
Currently the Princess of Mars painstakingly placed candles one by one at equal intervals on one side of the large pool. She thanked her lucky stars that Ami had been kind enough to share the pool's location with her. How the blue haired girl had known of the pool's where bouts the Martian could only guess, but she was fairly certain the girl's affinity toward water was the key.
It had been an intense couple of days and Rei needed some time for relaxation. She had only been on the moon four days and already she was unsure of how to face her fellow guardians. Placing the last candle down the dark haired princess quickly discarded her dressing robe and stepped into the hot soothing waters of the spring. With a sigh and a flick of her hand Rei sank into the water while the candles around her sparked to life, their glow reflecting off the pool.
The day after the ball had seen the proud Princess of Mars trailing Ami around the palace reluctantly. The blue haired princess had shown up at her door that morning with every intention on giving the Martian the grand tour. It was during their tour they met the Princess of Jupiter in the training yard.
The Jovian was like an Amazon compared to the petite Martian, nearly a head taller, a powerful build, and thick brunette hair tied in a severe ponytail. It was no wonder the taller girl had initiated a friendly match between herself and Rei. Jovian's loved sparing as much as any Martian and took any opportunity they could to test each other's ability.
By some unspoken rule the two fighters refrained from using their power focusing instead on hand to hand combat. However the friendly match ended in near catastrophe when the easily frustrated Princess of Jupiter let fly a bolt of electricity at the Martian. Rei had been lucky enough to dodge the bolt a statue behind her taking the shot instead. Too slow the Jovian Princess had realized her mistake and by that time the Martian's own temper had been aroused and in a powerful display of her training Rei sprung to the offensive. Sprinting toward the still surprised Jovian Rei quickly toppled the taller brunette before pulling back, her right arm igniting with blueish-red flame fully intent on the still stunned Jovian lying helplessly on the ground.
However before the punch could connect the two fighters were dosed in freezing cold water by the irate Princess of Mercury who unknown to them had been shouting at the two combatants to stop. Soaking wet the Princess of Mars literally steamed as the Jovian apologized profusely for her loss of control. Angry, humiliated, and with steam rising off her clothes Rei stalked back to her room heedless of the two other princesses.
If the incident itself wasn't bad enough for Rei news of the incident traveled quickly through the palace making it nearly impossible for the Martian to find solitude which led to another incident.
Rei cringed sinking deeper into the water as flashes of her day sped through her mind. It was times like these the dark haired princess cursed her clairvoyance, the future was a scary place.
For two whole days Rei had successfully avoided the other senshi, she was anxious and afraid that another confrontation would take place. The Martian wasn't afraid of confrontation itself but she vehemently didn't want to fight with her fellow senshi of whom Queen Serenity herself had asked her to get along with. So the brooding princess did what she did best, avoided the situation. However early that morning while attempting to get into the kitchen Rei was cornered.
Rei had just sat down with a plate full of eggs when she heard the door shut quietly behind her. Cursing her preoccupation and she spun toward the sound, violet orbs met 4 pairs of concerned eyes. Before her Ami stood to the side of the Jovian Princess Makoto who was awkwardly scratching the back of her head. To her left was the older Princess of Venus whose eyes Rei refused to meet, and another blonde slightly shorter with her hair in the exact style as Queen Serenity's.
'This must be the Princess'
A tense moment passed between the five girls before the new blonde stepped forward.
"I'm Usagi-"; the blonde princess began gently before the Martian cut her off.
"How did you know I was here?" Rei nearly barked at the four other girls, she had been doing such a good job of avoiding them, and here they were all four advancing on her as if she were some sort of frightened animal.
"The candles flicker when your close" a voice replied bluntly, violet eyes flicked up locking onto cerulean, boring into those blue depth before turning away a blush creeping up the Martian's features.
She had not been in control of her emotions lately and her element reacted to her in those times, Rei silently cursed her mistake.
It was then the Moon Princess stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on Rei's arm trying to be comforting, but as soon as she made contact it was like fire spreading across the dark haired princess's skin. Usagi was saying something, her mouth forming words but Rei could not hear them it felt like her skin was on fire and not her own, judging by the look on the blonde's face it was possible. Rei didn't think about the other girl's expression long for her vision suddenly blacked, she reached out in a futile attempt at what she had no idea. That was the last she saw before going down.
Then the images started to take shape
At first they were just places like a strange sort of slide show, the garden of the moon palace, the plains of Mars, the earth, a bedroom, and the night sky with a sparkling planet in the distance. Then the images started to swirl and melt into each other each image more gruesome and heartbreaking then the last a young mother holding her crying child, war torn streets, a battlefield, and broken bodies.
Rei shouted for the images to stop, she wanted to see no more death, but they kept flashing heedless of her words.
After what felt like an eternity the images slowed once again melting into a now familiar background to the dark haired girl. It was a scene she had witnessed once before.
Her own broken body lay in the white marble debris of the Moon Palace. All around her black fire, it was the fall of the Silver Millennium she could feel it. She watched as her vision self pulled herself up painfully, she would fight until she had no strength left Rei realized proud and mortified as she watched on. She knew that screaming would get her nowhere and trying to move closer would be impossible so the dark haired princess stood watching helplessly.
A flash of blonde hair and a red ribbon to her right alerted her of the next agonizing moment. A senshi the Princess of Venus Rei now recognized, approached with dirt smudged blonde hair hobbling toward the struggling Mars. Venus then threw herself into the path of the determined warrior. The blonde yelled something, her face awash with tears but no matter how hard Rei strained she could not hear but her vision self could.
The two warriors shared a strained moment, than Mars finally took the Kogok from her neck and pressed it into the blonde's hand. It was then the blonde girl broke down, tears streaming down her face as she franticly pleaded with the senshi of fire words that Rei wanted badly to hear. She knew what would happen next, it was a scene that played in her dreams repeatedly, Mars would pull the blonde into a tight embrace, her mouth moving words into her partner's ear no doubt whispering into them, then she would kiss the blonde senshi tenderly on the forehead before pushing her aside and running full on into a battle Rei had only just taken notice of.
Rei wanted to close her eyes, to turn her head at what would happen next but she found herself unable to stop the vision from playing out. She watched with growing anxiety as her vision self seemed to ignite with the flames of Mars, her whole body consumed. Rei knew it was a last ditch effort, she was buying time for something. The hordes where too great and she knew it, but Mars kept running full speed the flames growing in intensity with every step she took until they overtook not only her but everything remotely close to her.
She had died fighting for Princess Serenity, the moon kingdom, her Queen, and the last person she saw before that death was the Princess of Venus.
The vision ended there the last time but this time the image blurred revealing a white room and a woman in a bed. She had strange boxes around her flashing different colors and translucent tubes running from her arm to the box. Next to her was a small dark haired child that looked exactly as Rei had when she was five. Startled the princess of Mars realized the little girl was her.
'Another life?'
Images blurred and melted together once again at a dizzying speed. She made out black birds, a large gate of some sort, and an image of herself older this time about 14 or 15 sweeping a set of stone steps, and someone calling her name. The sound became louder and louder until finally the images faded from her vision, only to be replaced with the picture of four very worried faces.
Wet ebony hair clung to the Martian's back as she pulled out of the pool just enough to rest her folded arms on the pool's edge, her violet eyes staring intently into the flame of the nearest candle.
"I've seen my death" she murmured to the tiny flame. She had known of it since the time she was fifteen and her clairvoyant powers realized. For the same reason she had been given the Kogok which she now wore, but seeing the image of her death again had shaken the usually reserved girl. The blonde girl with the red bow was Venus; she had realized it that first night at the ball but had denied it until now. She could deny the identity of the blonde from her vision no more, it was in fact Venus.
What did this all mean? Was there some fated relationship between herself and Venus? Was it just deep friendship? If it's simply friendship then why the kiss, why the Kogok, and why does her heart pump painfully in her chest whenever the blonde is around? And what were those new images?
With a sigh the forlorn princess let her head drop to the cool stone floor, why had she been given this power?
The sound of a door shutting alerted Rei that she was once again not alone, 'Why won't they leave me be?' a pained expression on the Martian's face as she glanced up. Two bright cerulean eyes stared back at her; unprepared Rei sputtered quickly turning her back on the girl and nearly losing her footing in the pool.
"How are you feeling?" a soft voice called into the room, a peace branch.
"How did you know I was here, the candles aren't flickering in the hall"
A splash echoed in the room signaling the other girl had gotten into the water causing the stiff Martian to turn her back fully to the girl. Rei's heart sped up and the sound reverberated loudly in her own ears along with a slight chuckle.
"Amy told me you might be here." Came the reply the blonde girl's voice soft and lazy, no doubt the hot water's doing.
Silence settled between the two girls like a mist, Rei had never been good at conversations and most people left her alone when she was short with them. But for some reason Rei wanted to try with the Venusian, maybe it was the vision, maybe it was that the girl had sought her out the anxious Martian had no idea.
"Do- do you have a red hair ribbon?" The Rei finally blurted her back still turned to the blonde.
"No I don't think I do" came the melodious reply followed by more silence.
Rei closed her eyes in frustration, mentally beating herself for asking such a strange question. So absorbed she was in berating herself that Rei didn't hear the soft slosh of the water behind her. But the brush of fingers on her back caused all thoughts to stop in the dark haired princess mind.
The touch was light, airy almost tentative at first and Rei was shocked into complete stillness. After a few moments the touch became bolder finally brushing the thick mane of ebony hair onto the now delicately shaking Martian. Rei could not think only feel as a gentle finger traced the Tomoe tattoo on her shoulder then move toward her spine and then toward the opposite shoulder.
"Why does it seem to glow?"
The quiet question broke through the trance Venus's touch had caused shattering the dam of thought in Rei's mind.
'The candles! She can see it' Rei thought her eyes wide and her face red from not only the heat of the water. Slamming the door shut on her emotions Rei once again adopted a mask of detachment as she push her hair back in place covering the phoenix tattoo on her back.
"I've got to go" Cool violet briefly met confused blue before tearing away. The Martian's mask never slipped as she rose out of the pool and pulled her dressing robe on. It was impossible to tell that in fact a storm was emotion was raging within the stoic girl as she calmly walked toward the door only pausing to extinguish the many candles with a flick of her wrist before exiting.
heatqueen - Thank you, I hope you continue reading.
trusuprise - Thank you, I hope this chapter lives up to the bar I've set. I've always been interested in Rei's character and the fact that I've felt she had so much more bubbling under the surface. I'm attempting to show that, but i'm finding it much harder then i originally thought it would be.
LunarMiko07 - Haha, yeah the fated meeting which sparked an epic love story of the ages, do I sound like a bad movie promo? I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.
Thank you all for reading, this chapter was very difficult on me and I hope I did ok. I'm aware it may seem a bit choppy in some parts, and I may go back and re-write it if it starts to really bother me. This chapter was really about Rei internalizing so you don't see phobos and deimos or Ayako but no worries they will make an appearance later. Again thank you for reading and any comments, rants, raves are always welcome.