Quests for Truth, chapter two, by Sailor GlitterGirl & Rose Aquarius,
edited by Raveneye, july, 2001


Your Favorite part of the chapter: the Author's note!

Rose-chan: It's me again!-

Glitter-chan: And *me*!

Rose-chan: How could we forget *you*? *wink* And lover lips!

Raven: *saracticaly* Thanks so much.

Rose-chan: Your welcome! *grins*

Raven: I *said* she was strange!

Rose-chan: That's part of my charm!

Glitter-chan: You? Have charm?! Ha! *giggles*

Rose-chan: Hmph. See if I ever let you two make out in a chapter!

Glitter-chan: Whatever, tell them about this part! 

Rose-chan: Oh! Almost forgot! This was a *very* difficult one! I had 
*no* inspiration!

Glitter-chan: And horrible grammar!

Rose-chan: *HEY*!! So!?!

Raven: Anyway, here's chapter two of Quests For Truth.

Rose-chan: That was *my* line!

Raven: You were too busy bickering to say it so I did!

Rose-chan: It's the principle of the thing!

Glitter-chan: ENOUGH! *glares*

Raven: Gomen.

Rose-chan: Gomen.

Glitter-chan: THANK you! Okay, peeps, happy reading!

Rose-chan: Hey! *I* say 'happy reading!' Why is everyone stealing my
lines?!

Raven: Oh, grow up, you baby.

(They all argue while walking away.)

In unison: Enjoy!


	*****@ THE UNIVERSAL GALAXY SAGA @*****
		 ~The Quests For Truth~

Chapter Two: First Tests
Rated: PG for heavy drama
By: Sailor GlitterGirl & Rose Aquarius (with assistence from Raveneye)
At: NEW ADDRESSES!!!!!!!!!!!
Rose Aquarius is at: Sailor Universea@aol.com
Sailor GlitterGirl is at: SailorGalaxcia@aol.com
Raveneye: jcsteward@pc-intouch.com (<--so proffessional sounding!)


	The raven haired, red clad young woman pressed on against the
blinding wind, scortching hot with the heat of the desert. Sand whipped
past her skin, like tiny needles at her flesh.

	She gritted her teeth, stubborness and sheer determination
evident in her elegant face. 

	Suddenly, as if in answer to her defiance, the sand-filled wind
whirled and whipped about her, and in a burst of fire colored light,
the sand and wind became roaring flames, towering all around her. The
sand and rock beneath her feet became white hot coals. She was not 
dying, and her power over the planet of Fire, Mars, kept the flames
from doing too much damage, but still agonizing pain lashed through her
body.

	"What is the point of this?" Princess Mars screamed out, 
refusing to cry despite the writhering pain. She forced herself to
stand tall and proud, refusing to show the slightest weakness.

	"This is your test." That same voice called, and yet whispered,
like the heat waves off the flames, it spoke to her the same as always.

	"What test?" She raged.

	"The Test of Truth." It replied. "You want your powers as heir
to the Silver Millennium planet of Mars?"

	"I want what is rightfully mine!" Princess Mars screamed. "I 
want to be the True Sailor Mars! Tryran Mars! Like my mother before me!"

	"Your mother?" The voice was cynical. "I read your thoughts,
priestess; you remember neither of your mothers. Your Martian mother
nor your Terran mother. How can you honestly claim you have a right to
the Throne of Mars if you do not truely know in your own heart that you
are the heir?"

	"Why would Queen Serenity lie?" Mars retorted. "I know who I
am! I feel the fire and power of Mars run through my veins every time
I transform! Tell me that is not the power of Mars!"

	"It is the power of your own heart, Princess." The voice now 
sounded like a nurturing mother, teaching. "The power you have been
using is but a shadow of the Mars Power, mixed with your own magic.
Just because your power is of fire, does not mean you are of Mars."

	"I AM the Princess of Mars!" The woman cried. "I am! I belive
it!"

	"Believing, knowing, and the truth are different things." 
Before the Martian Princess could reply, the fire was gone.

	She fell to her knees, gasping. Shaking herself, she stood
painfully, reminding herself that she must not show weakness.

	It was then that she managed to see where she was. It was her
Temple, yet not. The Bath house was not there, and in its place was a
large, gnarled tree.

	Raye's eyebrows flew upwards in realization. She stiffened, and
whirled, frightened -though showing nothing of it- of what she might
find, praying that she was alone.

	Her prayers were not heeded.

	Suddenly the sounds seemed to reach her ears once again, and
she heard the pitiful cries of a child, pleading.

	"Daddy! Daddy, please don't go! I need you!" The little girl
cried as she wrapped her arms around the leg of a bussinus suited man.
The man looked down at the girl with a haunted look in his eyes.

	"Let me go, Rayela." He whispered hoarsly.

	"Raye, Daddy! My name is Raye!" The girl sobbed.

	"Fine. Just let me go. I'm leaving."

	"No! No you can't go! I don't want to loose you too!"
	
	"Stop it!" The man set down his briefcase and uplatched the 
small girl from his limb. He set her down harshly, and stepped away,
picking up his briefcase at the same time.

	"Look at you! You look so much like your mother, yet you act so
unlike her!" He seemed to glare at the girl, as if she were a bad 
memory. "She would never have cried. She would have been brave. Why 
can't you grow up, child?"

	"But Daddy-"

	"You're going to stay with your Grandfather until you mature 
and act respectfully, like your mother. Until you can be an honor, and 
not a disgrace."

	"But-"

	"Good bye." With that, the man turned and walked down the steps,
leaving his broken and empty daughter behind. From out of the bushes
came an short old man. He put his arms around the young girl, who was
hardly any shorter than him.

	"Its okay," he said. "Its alright to cry." He soothed. But the 
girl was different now. Her tears dried on her face, her lips seemed 
harder, thinner, her chin now with a definite pose of stubborness.

	"No, Grandpa," she whispered. "No its not. Daddy is right:
Mommy never would have cried." She clenched her fists. "I will never cry
again."

	The scene blurred, and the princess of Mars found herself in a
dark room, on her knees, her eyes stinging from wanting to cry, yet her
sub conscious and her life long training had kept her from showing any
outward emotion.

	The voice was silent, letting Raye mull over what she had just
seen.

	"Is that what this is all about?" She whispered. "To know in my 
heart, to really *know* that I am the Princess of Mars, I must first
know..." She didn't voice the word aloud.

	Before she could answer her own question, and before it could be
answered, she was once again surrounded by swirling flames, licking at
her flesh. She felt the fire, the heat, yet it did not burn her.

	In a startling flash, the fire was gone as quickly as it had 
appeared. Raye whirled around, looking about her with wide eyes.

	While her surroundings were so familiar it was maddening, she 
did not remember the rust red bushes, the orange and violet flowers, the
dusty iron dirt under her feet, or the ruby fountains.

	She happened to glance to her right, and saw, on a simple yet
elegant pink quartz fountain, a young girl, about ten, sitting on the
ground with her arms folded on the seat of the fountain, her face
buried in her hands, sobbing.

	The girl looked up at the sky, at the stars, after a moment, and
Raye gasped.

	The girl was herself.

	Her past self, the Silver Millennium self, when she'd been
heiress to the throne of one of the most magically gifted planets ever.

	Overcoming her shock, Raye followed the girl's line of sight up
to the sky, wanting to know what she was staring at so hatefully.

	It was Earth, or rather, the tiniest, yet at the same time the
most brilliantly bright speck of silver light right next to the Earth.

	The Silver Moon, or White Moon, as Earth's Moon had been called
in the Silver Millennium. Raye scruched her brow in puzzlement. Why was
she upset about going to the Moon? At least thats what it appeared to be.

	Suddenly Raye remembered that Luna had said that age ten was when
they had all left home to begin our training as Royal Senshi on the Moon.
Raye had always assumed that she had been excited to go. But if what she
was seeing now was a memory...

	Raye stopped and thought about it. If she were ten, and she had
to leave her shrine, Japan, all her friends, everything she had ever
known, go to a completely different world where customs and styles and
traditions were different, what would she feel like?

	The raven haired woman gasped. 

	She would be FURIOUS!

	"Am I supposed to analyze myself?" She whispered. Thats what it
seemed like. Yet watching her own young heart break, and not remember it
even happening, was frustrating.

	"Are you planning on going anywhere with this?" She suddenly 
cried out, to whatever was guiding her quest.

	Suddenly, it donned on her.

	"So THAT'S what this is all about!" She cried truimphantly. "I
know now! I have to conquer my old fears! My fear of loosing those I 
love, just like my father, my fear of the unknown! Well, in case you
haven't noticed, I'm over those fears! I became stronger because of 
those painful times. I've dealt with and accepted them! This is 
pointless!"

	"Pointless, you say?" The voice sounded pitying. "My dear, dear,
child. No, the point of this test is not to overcome your fears, but to
learn when to let your fears overcome *you!*"

	"Wha-?!"

	Before Raye could hardly even register the words, let alone
understand them, she was once again engulfed in swirling, towering 
flames. She sighed.

	"The fire is getting kind of old." She muttered. "Can't you be
more creative?"

	"As you wish, Mars-hime." The voice chimed emotionlessly.

	Suddenly the soaring flames became faces, so many faces. Faces
she knew, some she felt she used to know, and faces that - like the
garden on Mars- were so familiar, yet she had no recollection of ever
having laid eyes on them.

	Some were scowling at her, some were mad at her, others were
crying as they looked down, or up, or across to, or simply at her with
sadness and hurt. A few with pity, one or two with sad amusement.

	But out of all the countless expressions there was not a single
happy face.

	Out of all the pairs of lips, not a single two were turned
upwards for a smile.
	
	Out of all the tears, not a single one was of joy.

	Out of all the pairs of eyes, not one was twinkling with mirth
or excitement.

	And she knew without asking, without haze or struggle, it came
to her in startling clarity.

	*She* was the cause of all their pain, she was the subject of
their pity, she was the reason for their sad amusement.

	Those times of pain and suffering in her life, both past and
present, they hadn't made her stronger. They had made her blind to the
pain of others, made her weaker, for now she was unable to see her own
flaws, and rub them out. Instead she ignored them, saying that the pain
they would bring would make her stronger.

	She was a fool.

	She had *been* a fool.

	But no longer, she vowed. From now on she would know when to let
herself cry, to let herself mourn, and when to be strong and unwavering.

	So for the first time in her life since her father had left her,
Raye, Princess of the planet of Flames, the warrior Sailor Mars, heiress
to the throne of Mars and the Fire Mars Light Crystal, broke down, fell
to her knees, and cried.

	And cried, letting wounds that had been collected over a time
period of over a thousand years finally, *finally* begin to heal.

	When her tears subsided, small pools of liquid diamonds, her 
tears, having collected on the black floor, Raye opened her eyes 
cautiously, and-

	"AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

	Raye gave a cry of pain and surprise, clutching her head, as 
suddenly her mind burst with bright images! She shook her head wildly, 
desperately trying to dislodge the pain, yet it kept coming, pictures
and sounds and faces being jammed into her thoughts.

	Thudum...

	*gasp*
	
	Badum...

	*wheeze*

	Thudum...

	Badum...

	The silence was absolute, solid, the dark and coollness as 
intense as the raging flames and angry voices that had been in its place
only moments before.

	Raye drew in ragged breaths of air, and slowly, hesitantly, 
opened her eyes. Gently, she let her mind begin to function again. Raye
gasped as slowly, gently, pictures and voices, faces and names began to
slide into her mind, running before her minds eye like film before a
light.

	As she watched, memories replayed themselves, times long 
forgotten being newly remembered.

	Smiling, Raye suddenly burst into joyous laughter, and for the
first time ever, with more passion and happiness than she thought 
possible, she began to weep tears of joy.

	Unnoticed to the exhuberant Princess, the new tears of happiness
dripped off her shinning face, and splashed into the small, salty pools
of sadness and grief that she had cried only moments before.

	Suddenly, and completely without warning, there was a brilliant
flash of white hot light, threaded with thrashing and withering lines of
bright red.

	With a cry, Raye, no Princess Mars, as she now truely was, was
tossed high into the air. Flaming hot winds whipped around her, filling
her Mars born senses with escasty as her clothing -what little she had
left- was burned away from her body. Her hair was swept up above her
head, as she closed her eyes, the flames and hot winds still licking her
naked form.

	Swirling flames surrounded her, concealing her feminine features.
Her long midnight hair became blazing flames, lashing from her scalp.

	Opening her flaming ruby red eyes, Raye looked down through the
fire to see that her tears, both of joy and sadness that had collected
on the ground were running together, joining in the center.

	As she watched, the tears became a single, watery crystal. It
flashed once, becoming a radiant, deep red tinged crystal. A perfect
sphere, with millions of tiny facets, it still jiggled and wiggled
slightly, as it was still liquid.

	Under her intense, fiery gaze, the red, liquid crystal floated 
up to her. Time seemed nonexistent in the universe that Raye was
floating in, surrounded by the flaming power of her own heart and mind.

	The crystal floated to just before her heart, about a foot away
from her body. Small tendrils of flame licked at the water crystal, some
of them being absorbed into the small sphere.

	Without knowing how or why, or even consciously knowing it at 
all, Raye knew what to do. She closed her eyes, and leaned her head back
slightly, squaring her shoulders and bracing her torso for the onslaught
of pain that she thought was to come, yet was willing to endure.

	Yet it never happened. Instead, a cool, soothing feeling, like
liquid sunshine seemed to flow out from between the center of her chest,
right over her heart.

	Somehow, though her eyes were closed, she knew that a thin 
stream, steadily growing larger, of ruby red was pouring out from her
heart and body, surrounding the water crystal.

	She gasped as she suddenly felt something important, something
vital yanked from her body. With a cry, there was a tremondous blast of
light, and every sensation known to man, from pain and agony to sorrow,
to bliss, to embarrassment, to chills, and feeling hot seared her flesh
and the depths of her heart.

	Pushing against the invisible force of power, Raye reached out,
pressing forward, her brow scrunched in agonizing concentration so
intsense it was painful.

	"Was this what my grandmother went through?" Raye thought as she
reached for her crystal. "She was the first to bear the newly created
Mars Fire Light Crystal. Did she feel this agony and bliss all rolled
into one? Did my mother? The other Millennium Queens?"

	The answer, or more questions were cut off as her fingertips 
brushed the surface of the crystal, and a jolting sensation rippled up
her arm, and she sighed in escatsy, her long fingers curling around the
sphere.

	Clutching it tightly, she brought it to her heart, molding her
body around it as she became engulfed in a flaming sphere of fire. 
Tendrils of almost white hot fire lashed out from the inside walls of
the fire ball. The tendrils lengthed, swirling around the warrior
princess within.

	As the living fire ropes surrouned her, she uncurled her body, 
reached her arms up leisurly above her head, pointing her toes. The fire
sphere lengthed as she stretched within it, becoming elongated, a tall
oval.

	All at once, the fire oval shrank rapidly, plastering it to 
Raye's skin in a flash of brilliant red, white hot, and orange light.

	Then, as quickly as the light and sensations had come, they were
no more, and the silence was there once again.

	Raye found herself gasping, trying to catch her breath after the
light and fire had cleared.

	Never, in her wildest dreams had she imagined such a thing! The
power, the energy the hottest flames, the purest semsations...

	It had almost been too much for her human body-

	Raye's eyebrows shot up in astonishment as she realized that a
faint, ruby red aurora surrounded her, just the slight edges of a glow
eminating from her skin, underneath her new attire.

	Her sight and focus moved from her own aorora to her new clothes,
clothes that had felt so right and comforatble that she hadn't even
noticed she was wearing.

	She was clad in soft, fitted dark, dark red leggins, the ankle
hems hidden underneath the tops of dark brown ankle boots, laced with
blood red lacings.

	She wore the lightest, gauziest, softest silk shirt of the
palest, softest lavender violet color. The sleeves were lose and airy,
yet not so much so that it impaired her movement. Comfortably snug cuffs
at her wrist kept the sleeves in place, and were held together by a ruby
cuff pin.

	Over her pale violet silk shirt was a warm, but not
uncomfortably so, ruby red tunic with a square neckline that showed just
enough to hint at a very womanly amount of cleavage, but still modest 
enough. 

	The tunic was lined with thin, delicate gold rope studded
alternately with rubies and amathysts at the sleeves, neckline, and hem.

	Fitting the shirt and tunic to her shapely waist was a brown
belt that matched her boots, with a gold, square, ruby studded buckle on
the front.

	Raye was pleasantly please to discover that hanging from her
belt as a small, unstrung bow about the size of a large hand. Strapped
diagonally, from her left hip to her right shoulder was a large quiver
of feather light arrows. When she took the minature bow from her belt,
it flared up into a full sized long bow. In a small pouch on her belt
she smiled when she found a fine bowstring.

	But the thing that she was most happy to see, that brought a 
brilliant smile to her face was the perfectly round, red, faceted 
crystal hanging from a strong, solid, yet no less elegant gold chain,
just long enough so that the crystal hovered over her heart.

	Lifting it to eyelevel, Raye could feel, as well as see the
eternally burning flame of Mars within the Light Crystal of Mars.

	She smiled.

	She was pretty sure she would enjoy this new getup.

	"Tryran Senshi Mars is born." She grinned ever wider.

	Hardly even thinking about what she was doing, she clutched the
crystal in her left fist and looked sharply over to her right. Raising
her right arm, pointed to a spot in the eternal blackness surroudning
her. With a flash, a tiny fireball exploded from her fingertip, shot
forward, and, when it was where she had pointed, expanded in a sudden
explosion of orange flames.

	When the fire cleared after a second, a large, oval portal with
red and orange swirled was beside Raye. Smiling happily, rather than her
usual smug expression, she stepped into the portal, leaving the Truths
Plane empty for the next soul searching for their own personal purpose.


*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
(AN: In the Martian language -which I made up- 'Tryran' means 'Truth.')
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

	Setsuna stiffled a scream as she shot up in bed, a flash of pain
bolting across her brow. Hissing with the bearable agony, she clutched
her forehead.

	Gasping as the hurtful sensation died away, Setsuna absently
noted that her insignia was glowing faintly.

	She smiled gently, and looked out her window, at the distant
star glowing brightly, Mars. Suddenly the planet flashed brighter, then
died down to its normal, reddish glow.

	Setsuna laid back down, smiling.

	'The First Test has been completed,' she thought. 'Well done,
Raye. I was sure you would be the hardest; your heart was always so
proud.'

	"Well done." She whispered, and drifted back to sleep.


To Be Continued...


GlitterGirl: FINALLY!!!!!! Geeze, do you have any idea how long this
took?

Rose-chan: Doubt it; we published book two all at once. Or at least most
of it.

Raven: I like doing it this way; we won't have to keep our adoring fans
waiting.

Rose-chan: True, but then we won't get e-mail!

GlitterGirl: 'Won't?' We haven't gotten ANY!! *growls at audience* We
could stop writing at any time you know. We can easily leave you in a
very nast part, too. We authors have that power!

Rose-chan: Unless of course, you *write* us and *beg* us to continue!
*grows horns*

GlitterGirl: *smacks Rose-chan* being evil is my job.

Rose-chan: Well, you stole my lines! So I steal your job of being evil!

GlitterGirl: I'm your sister. Sisters share.

Rose-chan: *mutters* In your dreams.

GlitterGirl: *screechs with rage and lunges for Rose-chan*

Raven: *atches GlitterGirl and stops her from murdering he sister*
Enough, you two!

GlitterGirl: *glowers*

Rose-chan: *cowers*

Raven: *sigh* you guys see what I have to put up with?

GlitterGirl & Rose-chan: *HEY!!* *begin chasing Raven off into the
sunset*

All Calling Over Their Shoulders: JA NE!!! Until mext time!!!


*ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY*