The perpetual glow from the earth shone in the early morning hours of the moon. A careful silence had fallen over the solemn valleys and rolling hills which did nothing to still the running dialogue of thought and image in the dark haired girl's mind. She had spent the better part of the morning digging a large circular trench. To some the actions of the Princess of Mars would seem foolish but to Rei foolishness would be to continue on doing nothing.
Far off memories of snow and the peak of Olympus Mons weaved their way into the young princess mind reminding her for the underlying reason for her trek. Faces of children flashed through her mind's eye, contorted, and writhing in pain. Her station would not allow her to ignore these images and neither would her heart. Her duty demanded action, but more importantly her soul demanded answers.
The meeting with the Guardian of Time had been as perplexing as the Martian had expected. Technically the Time Guardian didn't even exist to the general populace. Her station was whispered of behind closed doors, parents telling stories of a hauntingly beautiful woman with the power to stop time, but who was forever chained to the gate of time to watch the lives of others. So it was strange to Rei that Luna would speak almost casually of the existence of the Time Guardian. There was still so much the young Martian Princess had to learn of these strange people of the moon and their ways.
The Time Guardian had long green hair which by itself wasn't unique but the dark skin color of the Time Guardian made Rei stop. Most people of the Silver Millennium were fair or light skinned, dark skin or mocha colored skin was unique and not as common. The reason for this was only certain Earth people and Plutarians' possessed this unique trait.
The Time Guardian, Rei observed, held herself regally as a royal would and her dark skin clued the Martian to the woman's ethnicity. But the proud lonely look in the other woman's eye caused an image to flash across Rei's mind, an image of a broken princess mourning the loss of her people and family. The image caused the Martian's gaze to sharpen on the haunted features of the Time Guardian.
A sharp cry pulled Rei from her musing; she recognized the familiar sound and turned her eyes toward the outside of the trench. No matter how many times she witnessed the transformation Rei never tired of watching.
Phobos and Deimos were standing just outside ruffling their feathers as was tradition before their cries became sharper and more feral. Their bodies followed suit, twisting and changing, wings stretching out to form arms, back arching and elongating, legs unfurling; the beaks receding into a human face and the mass of black feathers morphed into long lustrous black hair. Finally two impossibly beautiful women with a slight other worldly appearance dressed as Martian warriors stood in the place of the two ravens
Rei stood then and formally bowed to the two women, recognizing them and their duty to her. In response two identical blushes spread across both Phobos and Deimos face, but their expression remained sober as they returned the bow in unison. Rei then took her pack, unrolled a small blanket, placed a water skin and bread on it, and placed her pack outside of the trench. Next the dark haired princess took her traveling cloak off, revealing loose black pants and a white shirt which exposed her entire back.
The skin of Rei's back was smooth and in the light of the earth only the black symbol of the war god showed. "But as are many things" Rei thought darkly to her self, "What we see with our physical eyes may not be entirely true"
The Marian princess had expected vague and cryptic talk drowning in double meanings in her meeting with the Time Guardian, and she got plenty. But the history lesson she had received was chilling and left Rei with this new found mission, a mission for answers. The green haired Guardian of Time had opted to tell the young Marian a story.
The story of the end of the first planetary avatars was a tale with many details left out. The version Rei had always been taught as a child told of an epic battle in which both Mars and Mercury fell saving the remaining senshi. The sacrifices of the two elemental fighters had given Venus and Jupiter the leverage they needed to win. However the loss was so great that the remaining two senshi went into mourning never to fight again.
However according to the Time Guardian the real story of the end of the first avatars was vastly different. The original Mercury went crazy with knowledge; her search for knowledge flooded her sense of reason until all that was left was an all consuming hunger for more. All that knowledge turned the gentle Mercurian cynical and cold, filled with rage at the failures of the human race. The other senshi in response turned a blind eye to the unassuming genius steady decline down the spiraling staircase of madness. Their choice had severe consequences for not just them but the kingdom.
One day in a fit of paranoid rage the Warrior of Water, knowledge and reason became the figure known as the Black Warrior of the North. She unleashed a terrible inner darkness which destroyed the surface of the planet of Pluto and its entire population. A feat that until that time only the mythical sleeping avatar of Saturn was thought to achieve. How the Mercurian got to the planet and what how she was able to channel all that power was still a mystery.
Yoruno Miyabi, the Avatar of Mars at that time called Ju-Jak the phoenix and appealed to the fickle elemental god in response. As a result was Miyabi was able to lock the darkness back inside Mercury before any other planets shared the same fate, but at the cost of her own sanity. It was a horrible price to pay. When Mercury came out of her paranoid rage and realized the horror she had committed, the Avatar of Water took her own life. Venus blamed herself for the events and went into seclusion while Jupiter went into a deep mourning and was never heard from again.
As the story came to its close Rei sat in stunned silence trying to process all she had heard. Thousands of questions ran through the Martian's mind some as fleeting as her breath on a cold wind. Why would the Time Guardian reveal this story, what good would come of knowing this history? Was this some sort of test where Rei had to divine the answer? Seeming of their own accord amethyst eyes found the ever watchful crimson and the answer came like a spark igniting in a dark room.
"You too have seen the coming darkness" It was a statement and not a question which elicited a slight stiff nod from the Green haired Keeper of Time.
"What have you seen?"
"I can not tell you when or the how only confirm that it will come." She sighed, physically deflating and suddenly looking far older.
"Then it is up to my sight to see what I can" Rei clutched the Kogok around her neck tightly her knuckles turning a striking white against the darkness of her shirt.
Rei scowled up at the earth, its gentle blue light agitating and mocking her with its detached vision. For a moment the dark haired princess let her eyes to close allowing the weight of her anxiety to rest fully on her shoulders and press on her chest. The visions of a blood drenched future, a lonely next life, the haunting knowledge of past incidence, and even the anxiety of budding romantic feelings pushed at Rei's conscious.
The proud Princess of Mars let out a breath she didn't realized she was holding until it escaped her in a gush and pulled her shoulders down with its force. Rei's face fell in time with the sagging of her shoulders and she looked up toward the softly glowing Earth in the afternoon sky. It didn't care that she hadn't slept well since the day she had seen the images of war and death. It didn't care that she had worried about the fate of her people and even her own life. It didn't care that the visions the Princess of Mars were true and the end of an age would occur soon. And it definitely didn't care that since she first stepped foot on the Moon every other thought she had centered on a certain blonde.
The ebony haired Martian looked around, tired amethyst eyes taking in the trench dug in a perfect circle, isolating her. Agitation melting into melancholy with the realization of exactly what it was she was about to attempt, finally, settling on her. Calling the Elemental god of fire Ju-Jak was dangerous and no one came away unscathed. Rei doubted her fellow avatars would fully understand the sacrifice she would make today.
With a slight motion of her hand she urged the two women on the outside of the trench forward.
"If I'm claimed," Rei started, her voice faltering slightly, " If my life is claimed, report to Queen Serenity all you've seen and all I've told you."
Deimos took a step forward, worry lining her face only to be stopped by Phobos hand. She looked to the woman next to her and instantly sobered her face being a stoic mask.
"We're bound to you and where you go we'll follow." Phobos started her voice steady and sincere.
"But what you've asked, we will do." Deimos concluded.
Rei nodded in response satisfied with the answer. She then turned her attention back to the trench in the perfect circle around her and smiled ruefully remembering a lesson from what felt like ages ago. As young girl in training Rei had once asked her teacher how to summon Ju-Jak, her teacher a perpetually smiling elder had smirked and responded to simply build a fire. The young princess of Mars balked; surely an elaborate ceremony would be needed to call the elemental god of fire. The elder simply laughed at the naive princess.
"Listen to me Rei, Ju-Jak is fire and so wherever there is fire there is Ju-Jak. But Ju-Jak is not like lesser fire spirits; Ju-Jak is fickle and doesn't like to be bothered so to call Ju-Jak specifically is dangerous. If the god is not willing to listen to you when you call then you will hear nothing. If you do get Ju-Jak to listen you must always pay a price for that time. So only call the mighty elemental god in the direst situations."
"But how would I do that" an eleven year old Rei demanded.
"You build a fire young one, you build a mighty fire which will allow you to only focus on the fire, and you call Ju-Jak's name. That is how you call Ju-Jak, but it is up to Ju-Jak to respond, remember."
With a ferocious roar Rei released her inner frustration causing the entire trench to erupt into an inferno exploding outward before taming slightly. The blaze inside the trench seemed to pace back and forth like a caged tiger, flames threatening to spill out but never spreading. Satisfied, Rei surveyed her handy work; the fire roared its displeasure at being contained but the Martian princess knew it would not leap out of its confines.
When she couldn't delay any longer Rei settled on the blanket, legs crossed comfortably, and her tattoo glowing softly in the fire's light. She could feel the heat of the flame, the familiar sound of crackling and rumbling filled her senses until all that was left was fire. Rei let the feeling of the fire surround her, fill her until she was overflowing with its power, and when she could contain herself no longer she uttered one word as quiet as a whisper on the wind.
Even before the elemental god's name had fully left her mouth she felt the stirring on her back which erupted outward in color and flame. Amethyst eye's shot open as the shimmering image of a phoenix on rose from the skin of her back, she needed no mirror to see that the tattoo of the elemental god was no longer glowing but as on fire as the god itself before her. Bright orange-red eyes regarded the ebony haired girl stoically, studying her carefully.
" A long time it's been since a daughter of Mars as called my name"
Rei could not help but stare in wonder as the voice of the elemental fire god washed over her like the sound of brazen bells tolling. A heartbeat later the Martian realized the phoenix god was waiting on her, reminded once again of her mission Rei snapped from her wonder and met those burning eyes with her own fierce gaze.
" I seek your sight concerning the visions I have seen of black fire"
The fire god seemed to consider her for a moment, its feathers fluffing and sparking with living flame in thought.
"My price is high young daughter of flame" the god paused drawing closer, "But you knew before you called me, sight is my price, my gift to you. Sight is my boon and my curse I grant. You who have cared for my twin daughters, I will grant your request."
With a powerful beat of its wings the fire god dove toward Rei in a shower of sparks and intense heat. Its shimmering beak connecting with the skin of Rei's forehead causing the symbol of Mars to flare into life as the elemental enclosed its huge wings around Rei engulfing her in darkness.
Emptiness surrounded Rei giving her the feeling of floating in a sea of shadow. Slowly the darkness began to move and expand bulging with colors, gradually invading the space Rei occupied. The colors bled together forming fleeting images that disappeared when the Martian tried focused on them. They swirled together forming scenes and pictures which flowed seamlessly into each other in a never ending circulation of reflections of single moments lost to time.
The soft ebb and flow of images suddenly cracked and shattered causing the proud Martian to grip her head in pain. A flash of a stone lion under a strange stone gate morphed into a blinding white room with a white bed and a crying child, a stairway leading down into a room with 5 empty chairs, and finally the images blurred and focused abruptly on an image of herself dressed in a strange uniform and sobbing uncontrollably to the night sky as three other similarly dressed women looked on sadly.
The images began to form once again, expanding and increasing in number forming loose pictures of people, faces, and places. A flash of a dark haired girl in white and red looking up at the moon from some place below it, another dark haired girl with a strange hat pulled low over her face obscuring her features flooded Rei's mind with confusion and wonder. The reflections of another time had an air of familiarity and seemed to pull at Rei as she looked on trying to unlock its riddle. The dark haired girl with the partially obscured face seemed fixated on her hand and the red string of fate tied to her pinky but more Rei studied the image the more it dissipated leaving the Martian with a feeling of intense loneliness and longing.
Confused at her own reaction the Martian turned her attention once again to ebb and flow of what could be and what will be with a renewed sense of determination. Unrestricted images slowly began to solidify and increase in speed as they flashed by the attentive princess, a woman with long red hair glaring at the moon, Minako brandishing a large sword, Ami and Makoto sharing an intimate moment, white marble crumbling to the ground, and black fire eating away at garden in the Moon Palace. Finally the guardian of mars was viewing what she had come to see.
Light and sound blurred into a tapestry of burning sensation causing the ebony haired girl to nearly loose the meager contents of her stomach from vertigo. A hazy image of Princess Serenity appeared talking and blushing to a tall dark figure of a man, his face was cast in shadow. The closer the two figures came together the more the background came into focus, the Sun turning darkness and the moon running cold with blood.
The ebony haired princess shivered violently, her rage and sadness building with the realization that this was the beginning of the end. It was the same end that the Time Guardian had spoken of, an end which would come no matter what, and as Rei looked on a feeling of certainty washed over her senses.
It was like a horrible game, the two figures tried vainly to fight their pull on one another but like magnets they were unable to fight the inevitable. It was then the ebony haired princess noticed the now blood red color of the thread of fate connecting the two figures, it was destiny and she was being a cruel mistress.
Rei shouted at the figures not caring that her cries fell on deaf ears she screamed for them to stop, to look around, and to take note of the Sun behind them darkening and the moon at their feet running freely with the blood of innocents. Rei shouted until her voice was rough and gravely, trying vainly to stop the Princess of the moon from falling in love. When her energy was spent and the ebony haired Princess of Mars could speak no longer she fell to her knees and wept. The thought that love could bring about the end of an empire was too much.
" Do not cry child, if the Silver Millennium doesn't fall this way then it will fall in another more tragic way."
The brazen voice of Ju-Jak reverberated in now dark space offering little comfort to the weeping Martian.
"Is there no happiness or peace to be found in love?" Rei barked out nearly choking on her tears "Is there nothing we can do? Why is fate so cruel?"
The darkness seemed to close in on the sullen princess as if considering her question carefully.
"Love won't survive if there is no balance, where is the cruelty in this?"
With those last words Rei felt the darkness close in around her and settle in her bones. The dark haired Martian Princess felt as if her whole body were suddenly made of metal and sinking through sand. With a gasp air forced its way into her lungs breathing fire into dormant limbs suddenly on fire with sensation.
Velvety soft lips were pressed against her own; the heat of the inferno wrapped itself around her just as securely as the arms which were embracing her, and the darkness covering her vision. With a groan Rei pushed away from the comforting lips and the protective arms and immediately started to cough violently. In the back of the usually proud Martian's awareness she could hear comforting words and feel a soothing hand at her back but her only thoughts were of the vision she had just endured.
The images of rivers of blood, strange women, hazy scenes of fighting and dying swam up to the surface of Rei's mind and suddenly the inferno in the protective circle around her was too much. With a jerk of her hand, arm flying up to the side the exhausted princess cried a hoarse stop instantly extinguishing the flames; she could feel a flurry of movement and sound coming closer but no matter how much she rubbed and blinked her eyes the darkness would not lift.
Hands pulled at the confused Martian, sound dimmed to the thunder of blood pounding in her ears as Rei groped blindly at her face knowing her eyes were wide open and not seeing yet needing to make it real through touch. Her senses were exploding with stimulation, hazy colors of bright golden yellow to her right and firey red blended in Rei's mind eye causing the Martian no little amount of distress and confusion.
Finally a gruff voice filled with tears broke through the fog of disorientation. Rei could not help but turn toward the sound, fascinated that her blonde shadow had somehow found her.
"Oh Rei, your eyes…"
I apologize for the incredible lateness of this chapter, my uncle died of lung cancer over Christmas, a lot of things occurred, and my life spiraled out of control for a little bit. It sucks that we don't have a pause button for whenever something traumatic happens so we can process and deal with those emotions, sadly that isn't how life works. Life just keeps on rolling and if you like it or not you have to keep rolling with it or get rolled over by it. So I had to take a step back from writing and just focus on school and my emotional stability. Not to mention that I wrote and re-wrote this chapter about 10 times, I'm still not 100 satisfied with it but if I edit it anymore I will surely go insane.
As always feel free to leave comments, rants, and whatever else. I also promise not to make everyone wait 3 months for another update. I hope you enjoyed.
Krampus- lol I was a little bit stuck and also drawing out the wait, I hope it was semi-worth it. Thank you for commenting.
Phixa- Thanks and I 100 agree
Haruka's Knight- Thank you
Sailor Doc- I'm really humbled by your comment, not to mention it made me blush. Thank you so much and I had a lot of fun writing Rei's temper-tantrum. Actually I just have fun writing Rei in general.
Rikku's twin- lol Christmas stuff distracted me too, it happens. Thanks for reading and I hope I continue to please.
DavisJes- Again, thank you for the comment .
Trusuprise- Remember that darkness you were talking about yeah… you think I laid it on a bit heavy this chapter? Lol It makes me wonder how many fan fic authors have blinded their main character, hmm. Haha thanks for the lovely comment I always look forward to your insight.
LunarMiko07- Something about Minako stalking Rei in any sense of the word is hot, I think.
Heatqueen- thanks .