It had been routine. Marcus and his teammates got their gear on and rushed to the firetruck. They arrived at the scene and rushed to set up the fire hose and get people out. Marcus ran inside the building and located an elderly couple who were trapped in a corner. He helped the elderly man stand up and lifted the woman in the fireman's carry, and then took them to the exit.

As he brought them through the exit, he heard a cracking noise above him. He quickly ran out and set the woman down, and turned around to grab the man. As Marcus pushed the man through the doorway, the loudest crack of all was heard, and the ceiling capsized. A large chunk of the concrete fell and crushed him. Marcus died saving someone.

And, as the story goes, that was not quite the end of him. Marcus dreamt. In his dream, memories flickered past, memories of moments that he had forgotten, and moments that he could never forget, no matter how hard he tried. Memories of his parents, his family. Memories of fire. He hated fire. It's what led him to become a firefighter. And at the end, a voice whispered to him, "Embrace the flames." But he refused. And so, the memories came through once again, but less in quantity. These memories were all about fire. Everything he had ever learned about it, was shown to him once again. Every time he had ever interacted with it.

When his house burned, his parents died, but he was unscathed. Whenever he went into buildings, to save those trapped in the flames. The fires stayed away from him. They didn't burn him, as they burned everyone else. The flames seemed inviting, like they were welcoming an old friend. And once again the voice whispered, "Embrace the flames, Marcus." This time, he did. He embraced the flames, realized something about them. The fire was not malevolent. It did not wish to destroy because it enjoyed it, but rather it did not know how to do anything else.

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So Marcus embraced them. Then he forgave them. Finally, he changed them. He took those flames, the ones that were now his, and he changed their purpose from consumption to protection. Those flames that were his merged with his soul and protected it. As he spiralled into the abyss he felt millions of other souls around him, flowing towards something. And then he felt something warm wrap around his soul, and he started to fall asleep. His flames burst into action, covering his soul and pushing away the influence of the warm feeling. 

After that he drifted for a long time, until he came across a world. This world was inhabited, he could see cities in some places. He used his flames to guide his soul down toward the surface of the planet. When he landed he came across a boy, running away from four human-sized preying mantises. One of the mantises sped up and slashed the boy with its scythe-like claw. It opened a large gash across the boy's back. 

Marcus watched as the boy's soul was ejected from his body and floated away. He sped up and entered the boy's body, and activated his flames to heal the wound. When he gained control of the boy's body, he spun around and blasted the four mantises away with a burst of flame from his hand. And then, predictably, he fainted.