Destiny of Fire.

	It was strange, staring into the sacred flames, while surrounded by the stares of your friends, staring to see if you knew something they didn't. I did. Deep in the artic wasteland, I felt a life awaken, whisper my name, and die.

	"Princess Mars, you must speak to the people about the Silver Millenium's troubles."
	"Sir, I am in the middle of an important ritual. Leave me."
	"Yes, m'lady."
	"Finally, some peace and quite," I said, looking around my glass chamber, before returning to the peaceful flames. The days had grown long on the planet of Mars, the air still filled with the tension of the threat of war between the Silver Millenium and the Dark Kingdom. In a day I would be leaving to the Moon, where I would gaurd Princess Serenity once more. Metallia, an evil entity that had been long since imprisoned in the depth's of Earth's core, had been freed by the Queen Beryl. As the senshi of fire, it would be my duty to protect the royalty of the Millenium when the war broke out. I returned my concentration to my prayer, seeking peace in the red hot flames before me. To my suprise, when I looked into the heat, a face stared back. He was about the same age as I was, with short blond hair and icy blue eyes. To top that off, he seemed as startled as I was. I jumped up to call the gaurds, for fear that he was actaully in my room, but the flames died down and the face dissapeared.

	The next day I was on the Moon, watching the path of the stars. The Queen had given me a private chamber with a fire so that I could continue my prayers. Earth circled overhead, but what bothered me was that I could sense the presence of the one who had appeared in the flames. He was near, I knew. I asked Princess Mercury about him, and she suggested that I ask the other princesses and Endymion.

	I went to Endymion's chamber and knocked on the large door. The prince's voice called me in. I opened the door, and the first thing I noticed was the long table that sat in the middle of the room. The prince stood at the head, and four other men, two on each side, sat around the table. One of them was the man I had seen in the flames back on Mars. I let out a gasp as he stood up, apparently recognizing me, and rather rudely shut the door.

	Endymion came to me later that day to ask what was the problem. I asked him who the blond haired man was.
	"Jedite?" He asked quizically.
	"Is that his name?"
	"Yes. How do you know him?"
	"I saw him in the fires on Mars."
	"He's never been there."
	"I know. Who is he?"
	"He's one of the four generals. He's had some trouble sleeping lately, talking about nightmares and dreams at the same time."
	"Do you think he meant to show up in my vision?"
	"I don't know." He looked at me hard with his deep blue eyes. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" I blushed. To be truthful, I was afraid of him. Scared out of my wits, actually.
	"I guess I will."
	"Great." Endymion said, "I'll have him meet you in the dining hall for lunch."
	"What?!?"

	I sat at the table, which reflected my face. Almost all the things on the Moon were either silver or reflective, and this particular table was no exception. Jedite hadn't shown up yet, but that wasn't realy much of a suprise considering I had been almost an hour early. Five minutes to go, I thought, looking at the timepiece.
	"Hello," a voice behind me said. I looked up to see Jedite standing behind me.
	"Hello," I looked at him. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Gnnnnrrrr... "Well, what are you waiting for?!? Sit down!! I have been up all night, trying to figure out how you managed to appear on Mars, in my fires, of all places, and then dissapear!!! I am in less of a good mood then I have been in a long time, I had a lousy breakfast, didn't sleep well, and am sitting hear yelling at a guy I don't even know!" His eyebrows raised much higher, and now he was blushing. "Oh, yeah. My name's Princess Mars."
	"Nice to meet you." He pulled out his chair. I asked the cook to bring us some fire drink and an oceanic course."
	"SO, to get to the point, how did you get in my fires?" I suppose I was all buisness that day, but that was to be expected. I had a lot of important things to do this afternoon. He seemed rather shy.
	"Um, I believe that day I was lighting a candle."
	"And?"
	"And what?"
	"And what happened?"
	"You sort of shimmered in front of me."
	"Noooo.... what did you do?"
	"Nothing!"
	"You had to of done something! I certainly wasn't trying to do anything!" He looked at me. I gulped. "Opps," I mumbled. Was that the day I had been working on that spell for Princess Venus to find romantic trustworthy people? It could have been. I suppose I may have inadverntly scared this guy out of his wits.
	"What do you mean opps?"
	"I, uh, sort of was trying a fire reading that may have messed up."
	"Oh. Opps."
	"Yeah, well, at least you're trustworthy!"
	"Okaaaayyyy..." I let a sweatdrop form on my head. Had to get this guy talking.
	"Want to dance?"
	"Hun?"
	"Dance. You know, you listen to some music, and move. We could go down to the royal ballroom if you'd like." Venus was going to kill me for this.
	"Well, uh... I'm a general. I don't really know how to.." That was all he managed to say before I yanked him out of his seat and headed to the ballroom.

	"See? It's easy." We danced around the ballroom, the violin music from Princess Neptune making the world grow dreamy. The Earth was high in the skies.
	"So, that's your home." I said.
	"Um hm." I noticed he was looking right at me. Ohh boy....
	"Uh.... Neptune? Care to pick up the pace?" I looked back at her.
	"Of course. Uranus?"
	"Yes?"
	"Join in, will you?" The duo started playing a faster music and I whirled Jedite around me like a top.
	"Uh.... A... little fast, isn't it?" That was when he fell on Prince Endymion.

	I looked up at the stars above us.
	"Endymion wasn't that mad," I said to him. he had been looking down to the sea ever since we came out to sit here, under the skies.
	"No, it's not that."
	"Well, whatever it is, cheer up. We have a big day tommorow."
	"We?" He looked up.
	"You're coming with me to Mars for an, expedition." I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and left him a scarlet red. My only problem was that I found myself hoping that that quick peck had been a lot longer.

	The next morning I was dragging him to the castle's crystal route to get going. The crystal routes are teleporters to any one of the planets inthe Silver Millenium, and the ride itself is supposed to be as enjoyable as the actually trip.
	"Uh... so, why exactly are we going off to another planet?" I had this all figured out.
	"To begin your training!"
	"My training?!?" I nodded. "Training for what?"
	"To learn the sacred ceremonies of Mars."
	"What?"
	"Oh, don't worry, Endymion already okayed it."
	"There's a conspiracy."
	"Probably. You'll need some ceremonial robes, some purified wood from Jupiter, and..." I began to rank off another dozen things or so he would need for his training.
	"Why exactly am I being trained again? I think I missed that part the first way through."
	"So you can better combat Queen Metallia." He looked suprised.
	"That... made sense." He looked up to see the crystals. "Here we are." he had the dignity to help me up, and in a moment the sparkles fell on us and we were somewhere else.

	The next day I was dragging him to the palace focus chambers before we would formally begin his training. The focus chambers are rather intimidating, archery in one corner, balance beams, light crystals for telekinisis, a water pool, and four great tources in each of the corners. I decided to start Jedite off on the balance beams. He looked up at the towering mass of wood above him.
	"What exactly do you expect me to do?" He looked a little nervous. Oh well.
	"You climb up the small poles, then balance. Watch." I quickly climbed one of the neams and stood on one foot at the top.
	"I think I might be able to manage that," he said as he climbed. Finally he was at the top. "One foot, right?"
	"Yes." He moved around a bit, and even tried a little hop, but stopped when he looked down and realized that he about 20 feet in the air.
	"Well, not too hard."
	"Close your eyes and concentrate." He did, the opened them.
	"You know, I really am more into gardening." It was almost a question, meaning `if I break my skull, do I get to blame it on you?'
	"Well, you're balancing. I'll go up and get the energy shooters." He litarrly fell off, saved only by clinging desperatly to one of the climbing poles.
	"WHAT?!?" He said as he pulled himself up.
	"You'll do fine."

	And he did. He managed to stay on the pole for an entire ten minutes while blue spheres shot out at him. At least, he managed to balance until one of my lieutenants mentioned to me, in jest, that the perticular spheres that were beeing shot at Jedite were of a caliber high enough to roast a Jupitrian Wailk tree. Then he fell off. Right into the water pool. Splashing half my court.

	The rest of the day went by peacefully, after everyone got dried of from Jedite's misfortunate fall, and I managed to teach him quite a few of the rituals. He was a natural, as natural as I was, to my suprise, and could manipulate fire into any shape he wanted as he watched in amazement. He formed a firey bird that landed on my shoulder. It didn't hurt me of course, on Mars, no fire could. I looked at its red eyes and it looked back at me.
	"I can't believe I'm doing this." Jedite said in astonishment. I was still looking at the bird.
	"I'm going to name it phoenix. As long as it's with me, I'll always remember you." I don't know what made me say it, but I swear by the plains of Mars, his face turned the shade of the fire in front of us.
	"Thank you." He was quite, as if deciding what to do. "Would you like to go for a walk later?" He asked. Now it was my turn to blush.
	"Of course. I'll go get dressed. Meet you in the gardens at half Phobos?"
	"Alright."

	I was waiting on the bridge at half Phobos, the stars sparkling magically and reflecting into the waters below. Torches were burning at each end, casting a strange glow on everything here. I could make out earth, far above me, and the smaller Moon circling it. I had decided to wear a red gown, with a silver arm band and necklace, inlaid with garnets. My earings were silver stars. I grinned when I thought of my friends drillling me on what happened and my stubborn refusal to tell. All of a sudden, a hand emerged from the darkness and landed on my shoulder. My own hand went out like a blade, striking my enemy of the neck. I heard the groan as they fell backwards. I summounded one of the torches to see who had dared interupt my thoughts.
	"Was that totally necessary?" He asked as he came into view. Opps.
	"Hiii....Sorry Jedite!" He had started to ignore his pain and was now looking at me.
	"That's... uh... you ..uh.. look very nice tonight." I blushed again. Blushing! Me! Anyways, I helped him up.
	"Ready to go on our walk?" I asked him. He was all dressed up, I noticed, in a tuxedo with a red rose.
	"Yes."

	The night was like a dream, we walked through forest, went to another dance, (Fortuantly he didn't fall on anyone this time!) and finally stopped at the entrance to the palace. Phoenix was on my shoulder. He was blushing again. We have to stop doing that, I thought to myself.
	"Well.. uh... goodnight." He said. As if I was going to let him leave like that! Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I lifted myself up and kissed him passionatly on the lips. When I let him go, he had turned a deep shade of red.
	"Uhh...." He mumbled. "Would you like to accompany me to Earth?"
	"Your home?" I let a smile play on my lips.
	"A sort of vacation, if you would.
	"Very well."
	"JEDITE!" The wind howled. We both looked up. A burning black mist began to claw at my face. I commenced the princess `shriek.'
	"Who's there?" He asked. The mists cleared and a woman ina purple dress emerged.
	"Beryl." He growled.
	"FIRE SOUL!" I yelled, launching the red blast at her. She rose her hands, and the fire reflected to Jedite. "NO!" He fell, his clothes torn, his hair blackened.
	"ASKURYO TAISAN!" I sent my ofuda at her. She laughed.
	"Jedite is to be the first of my generals. You, Princess Mars, I have no use for. Die." She sent a spear at my heart. A shriek came from above us. Phoenix! The firey bird shot at the spear, and it fell. Beryl rose her hands and Jedite sparkled to her side. His eyes began to turn a solid blue.
	"Farewell." Beryl said, "And next time we meet, you shall die." Jedite seemed to fall forwards as he shimmered. SLowly, his hand outstretched, a glow surrounded Phoenix. Beryl dissapeared with him. And I was alone.

	We killed Jedite. At least, we defeated him. Beryl killed him. She left him to die, frozen in ice. When we killed her, her power couldn't sustain him. I had heard his voice, stretched across the nothiness of the North. On the Moon, we had searched. Slowly but surly, each of Endymion's generals were taken. We never saw them again. I know now why Serenity didn't restore our memories until after they were killed. She wouldn't want us to have to kill them. Each of us had lost something. Venus...
	"Rei? Earth to Rei?"
	"Moon Kingdom to Rei?"
	"Mars to Rei?" I shook myself.
	"What?"
	"Are you alright?" Minako asked, "You blanked out for a moment."
	"Yeah. . . fine."
	"Rei?" Usagi was looking worridly at me.
	"You guys might as well go home. The fire couldn't tell me anything tonight."
	"Are you sure?" Makoto asked.
	"Positive. See you tommorow." Eyes half shut, I led them each out of Hikari Temple. "There's something I have to do," I whispered to myself as I closed the door.

	I was alone in the gardens of the temple, the cherry blossoms blowing on the wind.
	"Mars Crystal Power... MAKE UP!" I shouted as I henshin. Sailor Mars stood up. Something I had to do. Something I hadn't done in years.
	"Mars... FIREBIRD STRIKE!!!" I shouted. Phoenix shot out of my fingers, spiraling before finally landing on my shoulder. I gently touched its wing. Jedite would always be with me.
	"Jedite," I whispered to Phoenix, to the skies, to the soul of thwe one I had lost, "I will always remeber you." Phoenix rose to the skies, and the cherry blew on the wind, and a single tear fell down my cheek.
	"Always."