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Chapter Text

"Are you sure that this is what you really want?"

"Yes,  Lady Athena. I've made up my mind.  After what I have done, I don't deserve to live under the light with them. They deserve better than to see me and live with me after the crimes I've committed against them."

"Saga, you know that I will always be here for you. I love you,  my dear knight. And I know that the others still carry you in their hearts. What we're about to do will irrevocably break their hearts and cause their souls pain. Do you really want to do such a thing to them? "

"I know. But I also know that those pains will just be temporary and will surely heal soon. My constant presence in their lives,  however,  will surely bring more pain to them. They deserve better, Lady Athena."

"Better than you? "

"Lady  Athena, even the lowest of dirt is much better than me."

 Half a year had passed since Athena,  Goddess of War and Protector of Earth and Mankind, struck a deal with Hades to revive all her dead saints and to remove the Sword of Hades from Seiya's body. This blatant breaking of a taboo had enraged some of her divine family but with the support of her father,  Zeus, she'd succeeded in silencing all of them and made them agree to a binding vow not to bring harm on any of her newly-revived saints. 

After she'd left Olympus, there've been grumblings about overprotective virgin mothers and annoying saints.

After all of the saints of Athena got used to being alive again and no longer formless souls trapped in limbo,  the re-construction of the Sanctuary began. Except for all the Bronze Saints whom Athena had sent back to Japan to begin receiving their formal education,  everyone joined in the rebuilding. Athena,  or Saori,  decided to spare no expense and decided to modernize the Sanctuary by installing electricity,  running water and buying every home appliances and putting them all on the Pope's Palace,  Twelve Temples and the other buildings in the Sanctuary as one of her rewards to her saints for fighting and dedicating their lives to protect her and the rest of  mankind. 

The re–construction finished under the year quickly, but it didn't mean that it didn't have any incidents. For example, a certain Virgo Gold Saint had been displeased to find his Temple destroyed and had made his 'displeasure' known to the culprits. And if it weren't for a 'timely' phone call from a certain Phoenix Bronze Saint, he would without a doubt have sent the whole re-construction process back to zero. Shion, who had also been revived together with the other Golds but in his eighteen–year–old form and with his eighteen–year–old memories, upon waking up had panicked and threatened to attack everyone until Athena and Dohko(also in his eighteen–year–old body but fortunately with his 200–something–old memories)  arrived and calmed him down. Athena had given back all his memories as Pope and later double–agent to the green–haired Lemurian and asked him to be her pope again. He readily agreed and everything went back to normal.  

The revived Silver Saints,  eager to make up for being on the wrong side during the civil war a year ago, all obediently worked hard and using their countless experiences in the 'outside world' helped in modernizing the Sanctuary. In the end they were rewarded for their efforts by a thankful Athena who had assured them that they weren't to blame for only following orders of the fake pope. 

And soon, Athena's saints started receiving missions again. With the help of Aiolos and the priests who've survived the war,  Pope Shion's management of the Sanctuary was smooth–sailing and he started giving out missions to, in his own words: 'the lazy youths.'

For although the threats of being annihilated by Athena's godly uncles were no more,  it didn't mean that the world would stay peaceful. There is still evil that needs to be stopped in every corner of the world. 

But the one who dealt with the most rotten of them all wasn't one of the saints living under the light,  but the one currently living in the shadows. 

A human trafficking ring. A drug den. The most ruthless mafia family. A warlord who delights in torturing and abusing weak villagers in every deplorable manner. The most heinous samples of humanity. He'd seen and dealt with them all. Still,  his heart remained unmoved. 

Everytime a mission was finished,  he would go back to the small apartment in Athens that Saori had given him. His home,  away from the Sanctuary and from the people who would never miss him. And every single time, without fail, Saori would call him using an untraceable number and phone. The subject of her calls was always the same: if he had changed his mind and wanted to come back. 

And his answer was always the same: No.

He heard her sigh. "Please take care of yourself,  Saga."

Not wanting to respond to that,  he just hummed.  

For a split second,  he considered asking her about Kanon,  about Aiolos and about the three young men whose lives have been affected the most by his rebellion, but he refrained. After all that he had done, he believed that he didn't deserve any peace of mind. 

The line went dead. He slowly put the receiver down. 

He thought for a bit and then decided against writing his mission report until after he'd cleaned himself up and ate a late dinner. 

Two hours later,  he stared at himself at the mirror and saw a stranger. Right after getting Athena's permission to leave the Sanctuary, he had his hair cut. Before he used to have long flowing locks of blond hair that reached his waist but now his hair stopped just an inch from his chin. He also dyed it pitch-black, as a reminder of his sin. He had also lost a lot of weight after taking so many grueling missions right after another and deep dark circles encircled his eyes which had lost their luster. He thought,  ironically, that his current visage  was a far cry from the young man who had been once dubbed as an 'incarnation of a god.'

Unbidden,  Kanon's face flashed to his mind and his heart ached. He closed his eyes as guilt and remorse threatened to consume his whole being. He gripped his fists so hard it bled. 

'Kanon,  I–'

'I miss you.'

Chapter Text

Half a year ago, after he had woken up in a new body inside Athena's Temple and seen the goddess standing by his bedside, Saga's heart and mind were both in a mess. 

According to Athena, he had been the last Gold Saint to answer her call for him to come back from the Underworld and everyone, especially Kanon, Aiolos, and Shion had been patiently waiting for him to wake up so they could talk with him again.

"Everyone has missed you," she had said with a cheerful smile. "They will be happy to know that you're back, Saga. Your sins have already been forgiven."

But Saga couldn't just accept such things.

Why did he come back from the dead again? Hades and Poseidon and their warriors have already been defeated, the world was at peace, the Bronze Saints have proven more than once that they were strong enough to protect Athena on their own. Besides, Saga couldn't think of a reason why he had to live again. With the other Gold Saints and Shion alive Sanctuary could finally recover from the devastations that the last Holy War had inflicted on it. And with Kanon back in the Sanctuary, there would be someone to don the Gemini Cloth and fight for justice as Athena's saint.

Deathmask, Shura and Aphrodite could all start over again and without bearing the traitor's stigma.

Saga's existence was completely unnecessary.

"But I wanted you to live. I wanted to give you another chance to fight for justice just as what you have wanted before you became the Gold Saint of Gemini." Athena had pleaded, using her own fingers to wipe away his tears.

"What purpose can I have other than to die for the sake of justice, Lady Athena? I am still the traitor who destroyed the Sanctuary and severely weakened it shortly before the Holy War because of my greed and ambitions. I'm worse than trash and you shouldn't have brought me back. Surely, there will be a day that I will destroy everything that the others have worked for with my own hands again!"

"No Saga, you won't!" she had protested.

Saga had shaken his head and looked at her pleadingly. "Please Lady Athena, I don't want to hurt them again. I can't face them yet. It would be better if they continued to believe that I'm still dead."

Her gaze had sharpened as she stared deep into his eyes. Saga had steeled himself so he wouldn't flinch and avert his eyes from hers. 

Then, after what seemed to be a very long tense silence she had spoken, her tone low and sorrowful, "Is that what you really wish for, Saga?"

And Saga nodded without a word.

Athena had sighed. "Very well. Sleep and regain your strength for now. I won't tell anyone, not even Shion, that you're back. After two days, I'll return and ask you again and if you don't change your mind then I'll follow your wish."

With a last sorrowful look, she had turned around and left.

Two days later, Saga's existence had irrevocably been erased from the world.

Saga washed his face, the fatigue from another grueling mission setting in and he badly wanted to lay down, close his eyes and sleep forever. But Athena still needed him and he couldn't fail her. Not again. 

His stomach growled. He went inside his kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards, which were all empty except for an unopened box of cereals. 

After hesitating for a bit he decided to go out and grab enough groceries to last him for a month.

He removed his dirty black shirt and pants and changed into a more comfortable pair of clothes before grabbing a jacket and heading out of the door. 

It was still early in the evening but there were already few cars and people in the streets. He sighed in relief. The night air was cool and fresh, soothing away the headache brewing in his temple. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking towards the grocery store at the end of the street.

Upon entering the store, he was greeted by a security guard who eyed his large figure with suspicion. Saga gravely nodded at the guard in greeting and the other guy seemed to relax a little. Sensing no trouble coming from the man, Saga grabbed a basket from the stack beside the door and headed towards the produce section.

It only took an hour for him to fill his basket with necessities and he was about to head towards the register line when his eyes caught something displayed on the shelf to his right.

It was a box with a drawing of a blue fox eating a cupcake. Based on its look, the cupcake was blueberry-flavored. 

Saga had never liked any food with blueberry flavor but he grabbed one box and put it on the top of his overflowing basket and started heading towards the female cashier to pay for his groceries.

The cashier eyed the huge and impossibly handsome man with interest and curiosity. But seeing the deep exhaustion on his face she kept her tongue and didn't attempt to strike a conversation with the man. 

Five minutes later, both of his hands carrying grocery bags, he walked out of the store and started walking back to his apartment. But a familiar laughing voice made him stop and looked back.

It was Milo. The Greek was talking and laughing with someone Saga couldn't clearly see while standing on the other side of the street. The Gold Knight of Scorpio looked so young and carefree that Saga felt the familiar pinch of guilt in his heart. Because of this, Milo's smile had once been erased since it was his rebellion that had caused Camus' death. 

Feeling ashamed, he bowed his head and started walking much faster in order to be as far away from the other Greek as possible.

He didn't see Milo's curious eyes following his back.

Chapter Text

Milo rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. He began to look for the stranger again but the man was already gone, like a piece of his haywired imagination. Weird, despite the different hair color and style the man had looked a lot like Kanon that at first Milo thought that he was seeing double.

Kanon was currently standing in front of him under a streetlight wearing an ugly brown hoodie and baggy pants. He had pulled his long blond hair in a single side braid and kept it under his hood. The Gemini was also wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses which made his green eyes look as big as an owl's. " Fangirls"  had been his friend's terse answer when Milo asked him what was up with his strange get-up. Milo had nodded in understanding and didn't ask again.

He turned this attention back to his friend and current companion, who was currently drinking an ice-cold slush through a straw and enjoying a break after a mission that had taken a week to complete. "Hey dude, are you sure you don't have a twin brother or a cousin who looks a lot like you?"

Kanon's eyebrows furrowed at the unexpected question. He removed the straw from his mouth before answering. "What in Hades are you talking about? If I had a twin brother I would have known about him a long time ago. And since Shion said that I was brought as a baby straight into the Gemini Temple thanks to a shooting star then the possibility of me having a cousin is null. Stop drinking coffee, you're starting to see things."

Milo crossed his arms and huffed. "Do you really believe Shion about the whole shooting star thing? I mean, it sounds too fantastical to believe."

Kanon rolled his eyes in a mixed fondness and exasperation. "Milo, my dumbass friend, we're warriors of a goddess whom almost ninety-nine percent of the world believes to be only a myth. We fought against gods and even broke into the Underworld to save Athena. We use the energy from the universe to fight for the safety and protection of the world and a shooting star carrying a baby to his rightful home is too much for you?"

Milo pouted but didn't argue against Kanon's logical words. But the man who had the same face as Kanon refused to leave his mind. "Are you really sure that you don't have a twin brother? I mean, you're a Gemini." he tentatively asked again.

"I repeat: I don't have a twin brother. Stop asking already," Kanon said, annoyed. Suddenly, he put the hand that wasn't holding the slushie to his forehead, looking pained.

Milo became alarmed immediately. "What's wrong? Do you have a headache? Shall I get some pain medicine for you?"

Kanon shook his head slowly. "No, I'm fine. I only felt a flash of pain in my head for a second. It is nothing. You don't have to worry about me, Milo."

Milo frowned in disapproval. He thought of Deathmask, who had been suffering from unexplained occasional bouts of headaches ever since he was resurrected. It wasn't enough to keep the Cancer Saint from going on missions but Shion still couldn't help but worry about the Italian. And not to mention Aphrodite who had just recovered from a nasty fever coupled with delirium. 

They all should be careful lest they also contact the same sickness that were plaguing the two Gold Saints since their resurrections. 

Kanon's expression turned grave. "I got a message from Misty," he said in a serious tone that meant business. Milo straightened up, his own expression becoming serious too.

"And? What did he tell you?"

"He told me that he, Asterion and Dante found traces of the monster we're looking for in Palawan. But the monster had already left the island three weeks before they arrived there. It seems that this monster is not only sentient, but also smart. It is aware that there are people who are looking for it so it moves from one place to another as fast as it can. Misty and the others have resumed following the monster's trails."

Because of the destruction of the Underworld, plenty of the monsters from mythological era have escaped and ran all over the world causing havoc. As per their agreement with the Underworld, it was the duty of the Saints of Athena to search for these monsters, capture them and bring them back to the Underworld. And if they were to fail on capturing these monsters, they would have been allowed to eradicate them. As of now, the Silver Saints, along with Shura and Aiolia have almost caught all of the monsters except for three. And Kanon had told Misty to contact him if the Saint of Lizard found any trace of the three monsters that were still hiding in earth. 

"I'm not sure why but I really have a bad feeling about this."

"Do you think they need our help, Kanon?"

"Misty will communicate with me as soon as  they need our help. For now, we will wait. But we always have to be vigilant. Milo, you must inform the others of what I've just told you ."

"Why should I be the one to inform them? What about you, you punk?"

"Because I'll be in my bed and sleeping, you dolt. I haven't gotten any sleep for days. Shion will yell at me if I suddenly fall asleep in front of him while giving my mission report. You know how much of a nag our pope can be."

Milo's annoyed expression softened into a smile. "Yes, he still hasn't changed. He's still mothering all of us. I've missed it, you know? Shion cares about everyone like they are his own children. So I couldn't believe that his own younger brother could betray and kill him. And to think that Arles had succeeded in fooling everyone for thirteen years!"

Kanon's mood turned sour at the reminder of the traitorous and false pope, who had sent him to the Underwater Seabed Temple to manipulate Poseidon and trick the God's Generals for thirteen years.  He won't ever forgive Arles and if he had the chance he will bring back that bastard to life and kill him again.

Isaak, Thetis  and the others have also been brought back to life by Hades in a last attempt to keep Athena from ruling all of earth but to Kanon it was an unexpected and blessed gift from the God of Death. Yet, he hadn't been able to talk with them. He was sure that they all hated him for lying and using them and Kanon couldn't blame them for feeling that way. No matter how much he missed them all.

He thought about Camus and Aquarius' unfinished letter for Isaak. 

He felt his guilt rise inside his chest again. 

Kanon finished his drink with a long gulp and threw the empty cup in the trash can. He smiled lopsidedly. "Let's go home, Milo. Isn't Camus waiting for you?"

At the mention of his lover, Milo's expression became as bright as Christmas lights and he started babbling about his boyfriend as the two of them started walking back to Sanctuary. Kanon only hummed once and twice as he silently listened to his friend who was now singing praises and writing poetries into the air for the Aquarius Saint. 

It must feel really nice, he thought , be in love with someone as Milo is as madly in love  with Camus. 

Chapter Text

Milo and Kanon reached the Sanctuary in under an hour, at exactly eight o'clock in the evening. Of course, as Saints of Athena, they could've used cosmos to reach the Sanctuary in a flash but since the cool air felt nice and Kanon had just come from a grueling mission that nearly exhausted his cosmos, they decided to travel on foot. Milo had just finished recounting what had happened in his last date with Camus in an amusement park when their feet finally reached the Sanctuary's secret entrance.

They bid each other goodbye in front of the door of Gemini Palace and Kanon watched as his friend merrily climbed the stairs towards the Cancer Palace before he himself turned around and entered his own abode. He had no doubt that the lovestruck Scorpio will spend the night in Aquarius Palace instead of his own and Kanon couldn't blame him. The Heads of  Sanctuary used to forbid romantic relationships among the Saints and made them take a vow of celibacy before they started their training so even though two Saints loved each other, it was impossible for them to be together. 

However, shortly after the resurrection of her dead saints, the goddess removed many of the old fashioned and sexist laws in the Sanctuary, including the one where female saints were all forced to wear masks. The Vow of Celibacy has been revoked and no trainee will need to take it before starting their training in the future. Saints were now  also allowed to start a relationship with anyone they wanted to as long as the other party was willing. There had been people who protested against her decision, most of them from the priests who served under the pope. But with Shion and most of the Saints backing her and after she had used her cosmos to show them who's their real boss, the protests were all quickly and permanently silenced.

Kanon knew that Milo had pined for Camus for ten years and was absolutely head broken after the latter's untimely death. But instead of drowning in his grief, Milo had chosen to be strong and continue fighting in the name of Athena without faltering even after facing a resurrected Camus, who had stormed the Sanctuary under the orders of Hades, or so it had seemed back then. And during the Holy War he, along with the other Gold Saints, had willingly and gladly sacrificed his own life to help Athena win the war. If there was one person who deserved eternal happiness with the person he loved, it was none other than Scorpio Milo.

Fortunately for Milo, Camus had already reciprocated his feelings years ago. Getting the two together had been a whole other mess thanks to many factors: Hyoga being an innocent cockblock and interrupting his mentor and older friend every time they were about to declare their feelings for each other; unhelpful meddlings from bored Saints with too much time in their hands, each attempt of helping always ending in disaster; a bachelor Dohko forced to give the young innocent couple 'The Talk', which ended up embarrassing all three of them and made Camus scared of sex until a drunk Deathmask took over the lesson, with a surprisingly much better results. And not to mention Camus' own guilt complex that made the start of their relationship much harder than necessarily.

All in all, that had been a very entertaining month for the rest of the Saints and everyone was genuinely happy for the two lovers.  Though Shion seemed to have aged a few years right after, as evidenced by the white strands growing from his thick green wool   hair.

Remembering how much he had contributed to the old man's stress, Kanon's lips quirked up in amusement. And if Shion could see him right then, without a doubt the Lemurian pope would give the Gemini Saint the scolding of the lifetime.

The Gemini Palace was the same as Kanon had left it for a mission a week ago.

He wasn't sure why he had expected to find it different in his return at all. He took pride in being an independent and self-sufficient person and never let any servants or maids inside to take care of chores for him and instead opted to clean, cook, wash his own laundry and take a trip to the town of Siberio to buy groceries whenever he ran out on his own. This habit of his, so peculiar among the Saints in the Sanctuary, caused more than one eyebrow to raise but Kanon didn't care. Even after he started living in the Underwater Temple and started taking care of little Thetis, watching over Julian and keeping the most rambunctious of Poseidon's Sea Generals from accidentally killing themselves Kanon had stubbornly refused to seek assistance from others. 

Why should he? He was only thirteen when he received the Gemini Cloth. As the first ever Gold Saint of his generation, he must absolutely provide a good role model to his younger colleagues. Granted, Aiolos had been a lot better than him in that regard but it was certainly not for the lack of trying. Aiolos was just infuriating, perfect in every way. A perfect saint and a very loyal one. So when he had heard about Aiolos betraying and trying to kill Athena, he didn't believe that bullshit even for a bit.

Speaking of Aiolos, Kanon had respected the Sagittarius Saint from the moment he met the other man. But recently he had been getting irritated at the thought of the other man for some reason. He wasn't sure why  but lately he was always annoyed at everything involving the brunette since they barely saw each other, with Kanon frequently taking missions that brought away from the Sanctuary and Aiolos getting holed up inside his office in the Pope's Temple and acting as Shion's secretary. Shion was also giving the Sagittarius Saint lessons to prepare him for taking the pope's position in the near future.

The two of them had passed each other on the way only twice and Aiolos had been polite in both times, but Kanon had almost picked him up and thrown him down the stairs but stopped himself at the last second. Something about Aiolos' cheerful and classically handsome face was making Kanon want to be violent and it greatly disturbed him because the other Greek hadn't done anything for Kanon to hate him so. It also unsettled him ,like he had forgotten an important piece of the puzzle that defined their relationship. 

His mood getting darker as the clock ticked by, he removed his shoes and entered the inner part of the Gemini Palace. He opened his mouth and was about to say 'I'm home' but he closed it shut. No one was waiting for him there, so why did he suddenly need to announce his presence? 

The whole place was dark. He ran his left hand over the wall before finding and flipping the switch. The whole place was instantly bathed with the white light coming from the  fluorescent lamp hanging on the ceiling. Another gift from Athena and a very convenient one. 

He eyed the living room critically and after making sure that nothing was displaced in his absence, moved towards the kitchen and started preparing dinner for himself. He decided to cook pasta for dinner, using the recipe he got from Deathmask.  The pasta smelled absolutely divine and Kanon could hardly wait to take a bite. He took out a bottle of rich white wine from his cabinet and poured himself a glass. With a plate of  pasta in one hand and a glass of wine on the other, he walked towards the small oak table, and began to eat.

The pasta was very delicious and the aromatic French wine ran smoothly down his throat. He put down his empty glass and eyed it for a moment.

He suddenly felt cheated and very angry. Why is he alone he shouldn't be alone oh goddess why why why why why why why

" Are you sure you don't have a brother?"

"I don't have a twin brother."

Before he could stop himself, Kanon picked up the wine glass again and threw it at the wall, causing it to shatter into a hundred broken pieces. Breathing hard, he stared at the tiny broken pieces of glass on the floor and suddenly felt like shit. Not sure what to do next or how to explain his violent outburst, Kanon put his face to his palms and let out a long miserable groan. 

Inside his apartment hundreds of miles away from the Sanctuary, Saga suddenly felt a heavy feeling pressing to his heart and knocking his breath away. Breathing heavily, he put a hand to his heart and looked around before he realized where the emotion had come from

Unbidden, tears welled up in his green eyes. He moaned in despair.

' Kanon...'

'All I wanted is for you to be happy...'

Chapter Text

Saga had just finished another mission but this time, he didn't go straight back to his apartment. This time, he only removed his jacket and threw it in an empty trashcan somewhere he couldn't remember, combed his frizzy hair back from his eyes with his fingers and went straight to the nearest bar.

The small bar was dim. It had only one bar, a few chairs around square-shaped tables and a jukebox pushed in one corner. There were no customers inside. The bartender, a male Greek in his mid-thirties, was cleaning his glasses with a white rag. He looked up from his chore as Saga closed the door behind him.

Saga walked straight to the bar and sat on a stool. The stool creaked under his weight. Saga looked straight at the bartender's murky eyes. "Give me your strongest alcohol. I want a bottle – no, I want three bottles."

Hearing his request, the bartender raised an eyebrow but he did walk to the collection of liquor bottles behind him and pulled a transparent bottle with Russian letters printed on it. Inside the bottle was a clear colorless liquid which reminded Saga of the same type of strong alcohol that Camus used to bring with him back from Siberia. The bartender put down the bottle and a small glass in front of Saga. Saga grabbed the bottle, removed the silver cap and ignoring the glass in front of him, threw his head back and drank the alcohol straight from the bottle. 

Immediately, the strong smell and taste of the alcohol assaulted his nostrils and mouth and he almost gagged. Pinpricks of tears sprang from the corners of his eyes and his throat burned. But he persisted and in less than five minutes had already drunk the whole body. His stomach churned but he forced it to settle down. 

He put the bottle onto the bar and lifted his burning eyes to the bartender who was staring at him in shock. "Give me another bottle," he ordered, keeping his voice strong and steady.

But the bartender started shaking his head. "No, no, I can't give you another. You are crazy, aren't you? Look, man, I really need this job and I will lose it if you die from alcohol poisoning."

Silently, Saga pulled his wallet from the pocket of his pants and took a large wad of cash and without counting the money, offered it to the bartender. The man took one look at the money, at Saga's stoic face and lastly at the money again before snatching it from Saga's hand, turned to grab another bottle of the same hard liquor from the cabinet behind him and without saying a word, he handed the unopened bottle to Saga.

Saga wasn't sure how many hours he spent inside the bar, chugging down bottles of the hardest liquor he had ever tasted. He'd finished three more bottles before he lost the ability to sit straight and or even blink. He tried to sober up by burning his cosmos but the small energy that his drunken system managed to conjure sizzled and disappeared in the face of his horrible decisions. 

The sky was already dark the moment Saga stumbled out of the bar and into the busy street. The bartender had offered to call a taxi for him but Saga waved him away. He didn't need a taxi. He didn't need help. He didn't need anyone to help him get the fuck back to his own fucking apartment. 

He had taken only three steps before he realized that fuck, he did need help. 

With this realization came the memories that he'd been trying to forget by drowning his whole system with alcohol. And those memories froze his mind and locked up all the muscles in his body. 

The last mission was only a piece of cake  for someone with the same skills as Saga. Or it should've been. A secret base of large human trafficking ring found in a private island the Caribbean. An order from Athena to kill all the ringleaders, find and take all the files which contained information about the organization's bigwigs, high-profile customers and the politicians and billionaires backing it. An army equipped with the latest firearms which Saga had easily disposed of. He had killed everyone he needed to kill, had found every file he needed to find. Saga had been cold as ice  while completing his mission and his heart hadn't miss a beat after he found the kidnapped orphans and children and releasing them from their cages after instructing them to wait for the helicopters that would take them out of the island an back to their families or to the institutions which would take care of them.

That should have been the end of it. He should've gotten back home after mailing the files to Athena's address in Japan. Then he would pick up the phone and call her to give her his mission report.

However, he had gone back inside the traffickers' hideout and found the two siblings inside a trafficker's room.

A brother and a sister who both looked no older than Shiryu and Hyoga. They obviously came from a Mediterranean family with inky black hair and bronze-shaded skin. The brother was the older one, hugging his little sister protectively while looking at Saga with deep fear in his murky eyes while the little sister sobbed in his small and thin arms. Both have been naked with only thin sheets wrapped around what was left of their innocence. Bruises, both black and blue, littered their small necks, arms and legs. Saga didn't need to bring them to a hospital to be examined by a doctor to realize what kind of torture they had gone through while living inside a trafficker's den. 

And for some reason, he had been reminded of Aiolos and Aiola, of Ikki and Shun and of all the orphans and children he had personally sent to their deaths so they could be turned into ruthless killing machines as he reigned over the Sanctuary as the false Pope. And their blood still remained in his hands. Blood that no matter how hard he tries would never disappear. 

Of course, no matter how much he pretended to be otherwise, he was nothing but a monster. 

What would they say or do if they could see him like this?

Deathmask would just laugh and take him inside the Cancer Palace, where the younger Saint would force him to drink water and aspirins before cooking him a meal to eat. Then he would take Saga back to the Gemini Palace and stay until he was sure that Saga was sleeping in his bed.

Aphrodite would give him a tight warm hug. The Pisces would also prepare Saga a cup of herbal tea for his hungover and then he would invite him to take a nap inside the Pisces Palace. The calming fragrance of roses would surely sooth away his grief as he napped on Aphrodite's very soft couch as Aphrodite hummed a lullaby under his breath.

Shura would awkwardly hug Saga and let him cry on his shoulders while patting his back. 

And Aiolos...Aiolos would give him one of his sunshine smiles, dry up his tears with a handkerchief and tell him stupid jokes that would make Saga laugh and stop crying.  The brown-haired Greek had always been that way and Saga knew that he could always rely on the younger male whenever he was down to the point that Kanon started getting jealous and decided to play pranks on the unsuspecting Sagittarius. 

But that was before Saga gave in to his evil side and had tried to kill Athena, which ended up with Aiolos being killed by Shura's own hands.

Before Saga ruined everything .

The weight of his own loneliness was beginning to suffocate him and uncaring of the eyes of the passing people, he dropped on his ass on the stone-cold pavement, hugged his knees and cried. 

Aiolos put down his quill and stared at the empty paper sitting on the desk in front of him. His heart was beating loudly, his mouth tasted like ashes and his mind was spinning so much he felt like he was going to be sick. 

Something was wrong. He wasn't sure what it was but something was really wrong. He gripped his brown hair in frustration.

Oh my Goddess Athena, what should I do?

Chapter Text

Aiolos was dreaming of the past.

He found himself in the training center of the Sanctuary wearing a pair of training clothes and was watching the arena in the highest seat of the audience. He couldn't be over twelve years, which meant he hadn't received the Sagittarius Gold Cloth yet. He reached to his forehead and felt the coarse cloth of his red headband, the first one he had owned and lost somewhere. He had spent days and nights looking for it but in the end he gave up and started wearing another red headband that Aiolia gave him. 

It was late in the evening so he was alone in that place. The other trainees have already gone to sleep in their dormitories. The quarter moon hung over the velvet blue sky dotted by myriads of stars. It was summer so the wind felt a little warm to his skin. 

He felt rather than see someone approaching him from a distance. He lifted his head to look and upon recognizing the person a smile bloomed in his lips, chasing away the melancholia from his chest. 

"Aiolos? What are you doing here at this hour?" the 'person' asked, taking a seat next to him.

"I can't sleep," he said, shrugging. "What about you? I thought that you had already gone to bed by now. I remember that you collapsed this morning while trying to perfect your Galaxian Explosion and nearly blowing your teacher."

The 'person' blushed and lowered his head until Aiolos couldn't see his eyes under his golden bangs. "Shut up. I just wasn't paying attention and made a mistake. That kind of thing will not happen again."

The other 'boy" was so obvious in his sulking that Aiolos couldn't help but tease him. "Really? I never knew that the man known as the incarnation of a god can make a mistake!" he said with a grin.

The 'boy' groaned in dismay. Then his eye narrowed and he moved to elbow Aiolos' left side. Hard.

Aiolos wheezed in shock and pain. "Ow! What did you do that for, [...]?! I was just teasing you! We're the best of friends, aren't we?"

[...] moved to elbow Aiolos again but the younger boy had quickly moved away.m, snickering as he did so. His friend had always been a serious child, so serious that even Shion had despaired on making him act like his own age, so Aiolos treasured these moments when [...] was acting like a five-year-old boy and not like an old man. Old men were boring and he didn't want his best friend to become boring like them. 

Aiolos peeked at his friend and to his delight, saw him smiling, [...]'s large green shining with amusement. 

And Aiolos had always been happy whenever he saw that smile. 

Warm spread inside his chest and giggling,he jumped the other boy and hugged him tight. [...] was startled but immediately relaxed. The two of them were used to exchanging affection through physical contacts, although [...] had never once initiated them, being too shy to do so. But it was alright for Aiolos who was always happy to initiate hugs. 

(Shion had once looked at the two boys and saw Aspros and Sisyphus and remembered their tragic fates.)

[...] broke from the hug, frowning as he did so.

"What's wrong, [...]?" Aiolos asked, puzzled.

"Your headband. It's fraying around the edges."

Suddenly feeling sorrowful, Aiolos lowered his eyes and said, quietly. "It's alright, [...]. It's very old so it's going to break any day. Please don't be sad."

The other boy frowned and shook his head in displeasure. "But you told me that it was the only possession that your mother gave you before she died! You also told me that  wearing it makes you feel like she is still with you!  That headband is very important to you! Just like Aiolia!" he argued, stubbornly. 

Aiolos had never seen his friend lose his temper this much before so he was taken aback. He put his hands up in defense. 

"But what can I do? I know that I need to stop wearing it but I don't really want to. I tried having the seamstress fix  it for me but she told me she couldn't do it."

His friend 'harrumphed.' He pushed his palms up towards Aiolos. "Give it to me," he ordered, brusquely.

So Aiolos untied his headband and gave it to his friend. The other boy inspected the cloth, its red color already faded from time and the fraying edges. Then he smoothed it over his left palm and used his index finger to pour cosmos to it little by little. 

"Wait, stop [...]! You might destroy it if you used cosmos on it!"

But his friend ignored him, fully concentrating as he poured tiny pinpricks of cosmos on the delicate cloth on his palm. Small beads of sweat appeared on his forehead and his breath seemed to stop.

Though still worried for his possession, Aiolos decided to let his friend off as he wanted. Besides, Aiolos trusted him and he wouldn't willingly do anything to hurt Aiolos..

It only took another couple of minutes before [...] finished. Looking satisfied, he checked the headband first before giving it back to Aiolos, who took it dubiously.

Aiolos looked down at his headband critically and gasped when he saw that compared to its pitiful state before, now it looked brand new. The red color no longer looked faded but very vibrant and the edges have been fixed and no longer fraying at the seams. 

Aiolos looked back at his friend, whose green eyes were shining brightly in satisfaction. And despite the drops of sweat on his face, he had never looked as pretty in Aiolos' eyes as before.

That must have been the moment when twelve-year-old Aiolos felt the first stirring of first love.

Several years later after the false pope tried to kill Athena, framed him for the deed and sent Shura to kill him, Aiolos died wearing the precious headband. And after his resurrection it had been impossible for him to get it back so he could do nothing but grieve for it and for the memories of that night with that boy.

But–

...who was that boy? And why couldn't Aiolos remember his face and name? 

Aiolos opened his eyes.

A name. A precious name was on the tip of his tongue. He tasted it. But when he tried to pronounce this precious name, an excruciating pain suddenly flared up on his temple. Breathing heavily, he grasped his head and poured some healing cosmos to stop the pain. 

Slowly, the painful pounding in his head eventually stopped and his mind cleared up. His heart beating loudly inside his chest, Aiolos realized that something was really wrong with his memories.

That he had forgotten something, or someone,  precious in his life.

Chapter Text

Athena was displeased with Saga's latest action enough for her to personally visit him in his apartment.

His head felt like it was going to explode at any moment, he squinted up at her furious face, rose-colored lips pressed on a sneer. Based on the black smart suit she wore and with her lavender hair tied up in a neat bun, she obviously came to Athens right after having a meeting with her company's board members. Her green eyes were very sharp as she stared down on his prone body, which was only covered by a thick duvet.

He groaned miserably, already dreading the scolding that was about to come his way. But Athena had the right to be angry with him; he looked like a real mess. His skin was as pale as paste, his dyed hair was dry and showing some of its blond roots, his green eyes were both bleary and his breath stank. He didn't even want to think of the embarrassing scene he had made in the streets yesterday. 

He blushed hotly. 

The young bartender, whose name turned out to be Andrew, had been worried that something bad would happen to his drunk customer after leaving his bar so he decided to close the establishment early to follow Saga and help him get a taxi home even after Saga had refused him. He found Saga fifty steps from his bar, sitting on pavement and crying hard while several passersby were looking and pointing at him. So Andrew had quickly run to pick up Saga, who turned out to be as heavy as he looked and bring him to the nearest bench to sit on. Patting Saga's back, Andrew handed him water to drink which Saga had taken without a thought.

Andrew didn't understand the words Saga kept on muttering, for the older Greek kept on switching from Greek to English, to Finnish, to Swedish, to Italian, to Japanese and so on and on. But he could clearly hear the words 'Athena', 'Kanon', 'Aiolos', 'Aphrodite' and 'Carlos' and 'Shura' getting repeated many times.  

In the end, the young man managed to convince Saga to let Andrew call a taxi for the two of them and help him get home.

After delivering Saga to his one-bedroom apartment, he had asked him if there was someone who could take him off after Andrew left and Saga, who was nearly dead on his feet, kept muttering Athena. Saga even gave him his own phone without any lock. There was nothing but a single number in it, and the voice of a young woman immediately answered after three dials. 

And that was the reason why a furious Athena was currently standing inside Saga's bedroom.

"Athena..." Saga began, helplessly, but Athena beat him to it.

"I can't say that I'm not disappointed with the stunt you pulled yesterday," Athena said, gritting her teeth and visibly making an effort not to yell. 

Saga winced. He was doomed.

"When I agreed with you to make it seem like you're dead and hide you from the others, I didn't expect that you won't even bother to live like a decent human being. You might no longer see yourself as a human being, but I do! And you promised me that you will make an effort to live! All I've asked of you is the bare minimum and you cannot even give me that! You know that if not for you training your endurance and your Cosmo, you would've been dead by now from alcohol poisoning?!"

Saga winced again. Oh Zeus , Athena got a really strong lung in her slender body. He felt like his head was being split into two. And he knew he deserved it.

He had never really meant to kill himself with the drink, which according to Andrew, was the strongest vodka in existence. He had only wanted to forget everything: the cursed mission, his ever-present guilt and his gnawing loneliness for a day. He had meant it when he promised Athena that he would make an effort to live. He had never wanted to kill himself yesterday but he knew how it looked to Athena's eyes.

Athena sighed, her shoulders slumping as if she had given all of her energy on her rant. Then, to Saga's horror, tears began to gather in her eyes and she let out a small sob. "I don't know what to do with you anymore, Saga," she sobbed. "I don't know how to make you believe that your life is an important one. That you shouldn't waste it at all. I don't want you to die. Please don't die," she begged in a small sad voice, wiping away her tears with the back of her hands.

Seeing her tears and hearing her beg so helplessly, Saga felt like the worst being in the whole world. A very powerful Goddess she might be, Athena's current human incarnation Saori Kido was only a fourteen-year-old child. Aside from her perilous and very heavy duty of protecting mankind from other antagonistic gods, she was also the sole heiress to the vast and great fortune that Matsumasa Kido had left behind (she was not the only one but that child is gone because of you, isn't he?) She already had so much on her plate that she didn't need to be constantly worrying about a problematic Saint like Saga, and she looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep for days, but she still managed to spare a bit of time from her very busy schedule to check on him. 

Saga felt his face grow hot with shame and self-recrimination. "I'm so sorry, Athena. It's my fault–"

But Athena started to angrily shake her head. "No, enough with you wallowing in your guilt. I should've done something for you before leaving you to hide in this stupid apartment on your own. Enough is enough, you will pack your bags and come with me now ."

Saga's eyes widened in shock. "Athena, please wait a moment–"

"I've been waiting for six months so I'm not going to wait more, Saga," she snapped at him. She took her phone from the pocket of her suit and started fiddling with it. "Tomorrow I'm going to attend a fundraising event in a resort near Manila and you will go with me as my bodyguard. I will call Tatsumi to tell him that I already found a bodyguard and to cancel my appointment with that Japanese agency I'm going to meet today. No ifs or buts allowed, Saga. You will go with me and that is final ."

Saga wanted to protest more, but his hangover had made him very weak so he could do nothing but lay back down on his bed in misery and Athena started making an appointment to the nearest hair salon in town to fix Saga's disgusting hair.

Aphrodite stared down at the cup of herbal tea on his hands. The light brown liquid was already cooling down, its scent growing thinner with each second. 

The Pisces wasn't sure what had made him brew that particular tea for breakfast that morning. He didn't like the taste of this tea but the brand was too expensive to waste even a single sip. But he had found ten cans of this herbal tea in his cupboards right next to the cans of rose-flavored tea, which he preferred more, which confused him very much. 

Contrary to what the other Saints believed of him, Aphrodite lived a frugal lifestyle. He was never one to waste money, no matter how many he had in his Swiss bank account, on trivial things. And contrary to what Milo seemed to believe, he never spent any money buying things like make-up or going to a salon three times a week. Aphrodite was not a vain young man, the honor goes to Misty, bless that French lizard, and he didn't like putting chemicals on his face. Water and Sanctuary-provided soaps were enough to keep his skin clear and fresh. His lips were red because he had spent the first year of his training eating poisonous rose petals everyday to make himself immune to the toxic effects of the roses in the Pisces Palace. 

Aphrodite's face became gloomy as he was reminded of his past.

Once, he had faced a lot of bullying and discrimination because of his feminine face and figure, and he would have suffered from an evil action, if it weren't for that person who had come to save him from hell and bring him to the Sanctuary. He could no longer remember his savior's face or name, but his heart would always feel very warm whenever he recalled how that man had beat up Aphrodite's abusers and carried his limp and injured body so carefully like he was a precious treasure. That person was one of the reasons why he had dedicated himself to his training to become a very strong Pisces Gold Saint, so he could protect that person until the day he died.

But Aphrodite had died protecting the traitor Arles, hadn't he? And no matter what he did, he couldn't even recall his savior's name, which made his heart feel uneasy.

Without thinking, he brought the cup to his lips and swallowed the tea in one gulp. The taste was so horrible that he made a face. He almost retched, his stomach rolling over in revulsion.

He wrinkled his nose. What had made him waste so much money buying these disgusting tea leaves?!

As if to answer his mental question, someone started banging at the door of the Pisces Palace. Before Aphrodite could stray wondering who was brazen enough to interrupt his breakfast, that person's Cosmo rose and Aphrodite was surprised to recognize Deathmask, who seemed to be insisting on seeing Aphrodite instead of just asking his permission to walk past the building.

Curious on what had made his Cancer friend ran up to his Palace in the early hours of morning (Deathmask was never an early riser and he had started sleeping more and more after coming back to life and failing to find his disciple Mei among the Saints that Athena had brought back with her) he walked towards the door of his Pisces Palace and opened it.

Deathmask, in Aphrodite's humble opinion, looked like shit. He took a step back when his friend's red eyes, blazing with a storm of uncontrollable emotion, met him.

He had never seen the Italian this angry, even after Athena had informed him that she could do nothing to help Mei.

"Erik," Deathmask began, his voice trembling, using Aphrodite's original name which could only mean that he was very, very serious. "The old ram has given you three-days off work, right? Good because I need you to come with me."

Aphrodite's breath hitched. For some unfathomable reason his heart started pounding erratically in his chest.

"I need you to fucking help me hunt a fucking Gemini."

Chapter Text

The Curse of Cancer. A deadly curse which had plagued several Gold Saints of Cancer for centuries. Nobody was sure how it had started; many said it had been Athena herself who had put the curse on her own warriors out of jealousy and spite, others have also said that it had either been Poseidon, Hades, Zeus or Hera who had done so.

Whoever the creator of the curse had been, it was universally agreed that the curse was absolutely heartless and cruel.

When Deathmask was four years and was about to start his training to become the Gold Saint of Cancer of his generation, his teacher, the Silver Saint of Orion, had warned him not to swear his loyalty on anyone other than their Goddess Athena.

When Deathmask asked him why, his teacher gave him a sad smile and told him about the terrible fates that have befallen the past Cancer Gold Saints who've chosen to not dedicate their entire beings to Athena, but to  other people. His teacher had also told him of the Curse of Cancer, a divine curse that no one, not even Athena, could break.

Deathmask didn't understand those stories at first and thought that Teacher was dumb. Because who else should he serve and swear loyalty to other than Athena? It was so stupid. 

If Deathmask could turn back time, he would have smacked his younger self at the back of his head.

It started with headaches. 

To a Gold Saint who had trained with body and mental strength since childhood, a little headache was nothing more than an annoyance. Deathmask could easily complete a mission even when it felt like his head was being split into two. Of course, it also brought double sufferings to whoever was unlucky enough to be his target in that mission. 

The headaches have been negligible at first. Even at night when he couldn't sleep thanks to the small pounding at the back of his head, he only needed a bottle of beer or two and he would already be asleep before his head hit the pillows.

But as the weeks passed, the headaches became a lot worse that he found himself blacking out. Sometimes the food he ate wouldn't even have the chance to settle inside his stomach before he was already throwing it all out. Mei's hopeless situation also didn't help him and nightmares kept plaguing his nights. Sometimes he had even needed Aioli or Kanon to wake him up from his nightmares, which seemed to be trying its best to snuff out his life and soul.

He also started suffering from fevers and dizzy spells to the point that Shion had stopped sending him out of the Sanctuary and kept him under supervision. 

The nightmares continued as a void kept expanding inside his soul and that was when he realized what the Curse of Cancer was truly about.

A day before he visited this Pisces Temple; laughing half-madly and half-bitterly, Deathmask had walked back into the Underworld to find out what he had lost.

It was in the middle of the day and the sun had reached its peak. The atmosphere inside the Casino Resort was hot and stifling and there were so many milling around in formal and semi-formal clothes that spoke more of their wealth than good fashion sense.

Sweating and feeling his body temperature rise up to an uncontrollable degree, Saga pulled his tie down a little bit to let some air on his skin . His throat felt dry and his the cloying perfumes of the female and male guests around him were making his dizzy but he stubbornly kept his position beside the eastern window of the building, where one could see the blue ocean and white sands of the beach, both glittering prettily under the rays of the sun.

He kept his eyes trained upon Athena, now in her perfect Saori Kido persona wearing a violet cocktail dress and her hair done in half-updo. A pair of diamond earrings on her ears and a plain silver necklace with a small diamond stone pendant. She only wore light makeup but it emphasized her beauty enough to take the breath of whoever looked her way. In Saga's eyes, she was more beautiful than all of the women in the room wearing large gaudy jewelries and faces painted so thickly they looked no more beautiful than clowns.

The men around Athena were all obviously from wealthy families and their leery eyes were eyeing the girl who was no more than fourteen like a piece of delectable candy. Saga clenched his fists and wondered how long he could stay in this place without beating someone.

Suddenly annoyed with himself and where his thoughts were heading, he signaled a waiter carrying a tray of refreshments. The waiter promptly approached him. Nodding in thanks, Saga picked one glass from the tray and brought the drink to his lips. The waiter immediately left to serve the other guests.

The moment the cold light drink touched his throat, Saga sighed in contentment. He also felt the fog in his head, which was the result of the room's stifling atmosphere, cleared up and he could look at everyone with a much cooler head.

The whole purpose of the fundraising event that was being held in this place was to gather large funds to help the victims of the devastating tsunami that had shook the world almost a year ago. The organizers of the event were planning to auction twelve old family heirlooms which ranged from priceless paintings done by classical masters, mouth-dropping  jewelries of queens and princesses who have lived and died centuries ago and three luxury cars which haven't been sold in the market yet. Only the richest people were invited to this event and Saga had already counted more than a hundred men in black suits guarding the building from the inside to outside.

Saga thought of the events that had taken place after his death.

The tsunami had been the result of Poseidon's rage, who had possessed Julian Solo's body at the time. According to the tidbits of information that Saga had gathered, it had been his anger at Saori Kido's rejection of his marriage proposal that had awakened the God of the Seas' spirit inside of him and started the war between the Seven Guardians of the Seas and Sanctuary by kidnapping Athena. Meanwhile, Kanon had been moving in the background, his intentions unclear but it had been clear to everyone involved in the war that the younger Gemini had wanted to either destroy the world or rule over it.

Of course, in the end the Bronze Saints had won and Poseidon was sealed again by Athena. But except for one, all of the Seven Guardians of the Seas have been killed and so millions of ordinary people have died and many countries have been devastated by the giant tsunami that Poseidon had summoned.

Saga wondered how much guilt Kanon was carrying for directly causing this catastrophe to happen. 

Remembering his last conversation with his twin brother, Saga's face became gloomy as he pondered how different their lives would have been if only he hadn't locked Kanon inside Cape Sounion and thought of other ways to erase his brother's evil. Because locking Kanon had done nothing but cause more evil. In spite of all well-meaning actions and decisions, he had tried to kill baby Athena, murdered Shion and Aiolos and started a reign of darkness over the Sanctuary. Saga had told himself that sending Shura, Aphrodite and Deathmask to assassinate those corrupt priests and officials  had been for the best of the people of the Sanctuary but he had never been different from them, hadn't he?

Aphrodite, Deathmask and Shura have all been very young when they've received their Gold Clothes from Shion. They were only eight years old and still needed Saga's and Aiolos' guidance. While Shura had developed a hero worship towards Aiolos, Aphrodite and Deathmask both regarded Saga as a perfect figure to emulate. Much to Saga's surprise, between the two young boys the one who had turned out to be the more sensitive one was Deathmask. Despite his gruff exterior and his fiery red eyes which had terrified other young trainees, the Italian boy had turned out to be kind, caring and loyal. The Cancer Sign is the Sign of Family and Loyalty, and Deathmask was the perfect representative of the Sign.

For what else the reason he had decided to follow Saga for thirteen years until his death? And he had even joined in deceiving Hades while knowing that he would receive the God of the Underworld's wrath right after.

And Saga didn't even want to think about Mei Kido, the greatest of all his sins towards Deathmask.

Saga felt a pinch of longing for his friends. He wanted to see them badly so he could rest assured that they were all doing well without him, without the memories of him and how much he had ruined their lives.

He opened his eyes as the atmosphere shifted. He looked round and saw that everyone in the room, including Saori, was now looking at the stage at the center of the venue. 

The emcee, a middle-aged Asian man wearing a white tuxedo and black bowtie, was standing at the center of the stage with a microphone in his hand. He was beaming at his audience, perfect white teeth in full display. He cleared his throat and in a jubilant tone started his introductory speech as complete silence fell upon the crowd.

Saga realized that the auction was about to begin.

Misty frowned at the last text message that Asterion had sent him. Weird, but he had believed that the last monster that they were looking for was on its way outside this country. Did the monster decide to change its mind and chose a different course?

The Silver Saint of Lizard felt worry started to gnaw in him. He began chewing his lips, ruining his perfectly applied cherry-flavored lip gloss. It was already beginning to anticipate their next moves and learned to adapt from it. This monster was turning out to be much smarter than he and his team had originally thought. This mission to hunt down the monsters which have escaped the Underworld already has so many casualties and they didn't want to see more people dying while they were all too late to help.

Misty looked down at the screen of his phone again. Asterion had sent him another text. This time it was about information about where the monster was currently heading. 

It was heading towards a famous beach and casino resort near Manila.

The Silver Saint closed his phone, put it inside the pocket of his gray jeans and started teleporting in the speed of light to capture the monster before it could kill even more people.

Chapter Text

Kanon crossed his arms and glared at the other young man before him, who gave him a small apologetic smile in return. The two of them were sitting on each side of the small table of the inner quarters of Gemini Palace, where Kanon brought him after the other man had woken him up from his sleep and asked to be let inside. 

He felt his annoyance rise as the other person, instead of talking about what had made him interrupt Kanon's beauty sleep, lowered his eyes and started fidgeting. 

And since he never liked this person in the first place, it didn't take long for Kanon to finally lose his temper. "Aiolos," he began through gritted teeth, "either you start talking about what made you come here in my home or I'll throw you out right now ," he finished with a threatening growl under his breath.

Aiolos winced, fully aware that Kanon meant every word he said. Slowly, as to gather all of his courage, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. When he opened his eyes again, a light gleamed behind them. 

Kanon had a feeling that he was not going to like what the Sagittarius Saint would say next. 

"Kanon," Aiolos said, almost breathlessly, "can you do me a favor and say 'Galaxian Explosion'? " he asked. Despite the ridiculous request, the look on his eyes and his tone were both serious. 

The request still sent Kanon bristling. "What the hell, Aiolos?! Do you want to get into trouble with Shion by making me use Galaxian Explosion on you outside of the training arena?!"

"No! I just want to hear you say 'Galaxian Explosion', not use it on me! Please, Kanon, this is really important! You just have to say the name of the technique once, without using your Cosmo, and I'll be leaving and never going to bother you again!"

Kanon clenched his jaw, furiously debating with himself if he would concede to Aiolos' request or just throw the impertinent punk of the Gemini Palace and never letting him in ever again. But he was suddenly hit with a foreboding feeling that if he were to choose to throw Aiolos out today, the Sagittarius would never let him know peace and would pester him every day until he gave in.

Kanon looked at Aiolos' boyish and hopeful eyes staring at him earnestly and pinched the bridge of his nose. He groaned. He really didn't like this guy. He really didn't like him at all. 

"Fine," he snapped after a long moment.

Aiolos' face lit up and he grinned.

Kanon sighed. He suddenly felt really tired. Not even Julian and the Marinas, in their puberty, have made him feel so exhausted in under half an hour. He suddenly felt ridiculous. 

He exhaled harshly and closed his eyes. And in a low voice said, " Galaxian Explosion ."

A complete silence followed Kanon's words.

A moment or two passed. 

Feeling impatient, Kanon opened his eyes and looked at Aiolos and was surprised at what he saw.

He blinked once. Then two more times. But the sight before him didn't change even a bit.

Tears have gathered in Aiolos' green eyes, the small glittering drops slowly falling down his cheeks one by one. Yet his lips were stretched in joyful grin. He laughed softly. "I knew it," the Sagittarius said in a low voice, as if talking only to himself. "I knew that person wasn't you but I needed to make sure of it first. Thank you, Kanon."

Kanon's brows furrowed. "Wait, what in the Hades are you talking about? Who is this 'person'? Are you making fun of me?"

But Aiolos was already standing. The brunette shook his head slowly and smiled a small sad smile which stopped Kanon's rant.

"I'm sorry for taking much of your time, Kanon. But I really need to leave. I need to find someone. You can ask me about the details later. Goodbye."

Aiolos turned around and without waiting for Kanon to speak, started walking out of the Gemini Palace. Kanon stayed on his seat until Aiolos made a turn and the Gemini Saint could no longer see his brown hair.

Kanon cursed and without being sure why, stood up from his seat and hurriedly started following the younger man. Aiolos didn't say a word, he didn't even look back to Kanon and marched on his way with determined steps until he nearly collided with Deathmask just after taking a foot out of the door of Gemini Palace. Aphrodite, who was following behind the Cancer Saint, would have bjs beautiful face collide to the Italian's back if he hadn't acted quickly and stopped.

Startled, Deathmask swore. Aiolos paled. "I'm so sorry, Deathmask, I didn't mean to–"

"What in Zeus' name is happening here?" Kanon demanded, crossing his arms. 

Deathmask took one look at the Gemini Saint and grinned wolfishly, like a predator who had just found his prey. "Well, look who I found," he commented, whistling.

Unnerved, Kanon took a step back. He had never really liked the Gold Saint of Cancer, for reasons that were different from his dislike for Aiolos. The Italian man had always made him uneasy and felt like he didn't belong in the Sanctuary at all. "What do you want?" he asked, his words sounding more aggressive than he intended. 

Deathmask's grin became even more feral and his red eyes gleamed with an almost manic light. 

Unable to meet the Cancer's gaze anymore, he turned his head towards the Pisces Saint, whose eyes looked red and swollen. There was grief etched on his beautiful face and Kanon couldn't help but wonder what or who had put that grief on the Pisces, for as long as he had known the young Swede, Aphrodite had never once shown his emotions so freely before.

Deathmask started laughing, his harsh sardonic voice ringing around the stairs of the Gemini Palace which was empty except for the four Gold Saints. His red eyes were full of pity as he looked at Kanon up and down.

"You're asking me do I want to? Very well, I'm going to answer your question. I want your and Aiolos' help in finding your twin brother Saga."

Saga.

Saga.

Saga.

Saga–!

"Kanon!"

The sounds of waves crashing; a tall young man wearing the Gemini Cloth with the same face as Kanon's; sharp bitter words exchanged as trust and bonds shattered; a name he kept desperately calling, shouting, even when the young man turned his back towards him and walked away.

Like a delicate glass, something shattered inside Kanon's head. He put his hands on his ears, closed his eyes and screamed in pain.

It happened as the auction was about to end.

The last heirloom to be auctioned, a complete beautiful and priceless set of sapphires and pearls jewelries which used to belong to a French princess in the sixteenth century. The atmosphere inside the casino was rising and Saga could smell everyone's excitement as one rich man and another easier the bidding price of the jewels, each willing to waste their parents' money to vet their hands on the heirloom and impress some girl he had his eyes on. Saga, who had lost sight of Saori an hour ago, was slowly moving around through the crowd, turning his head left to right just to catch a glimpse of the familiar lilac head.

As the bid reached one hundred million peso, Saga heard it. 

It was the sound of something ferocious, large and inhumane. Saga immediately picked on the creature's bloodthirst and desire to kill. And it was rapidly heading towards the beach resort, swimming under the ocean and away from human's eyes. 

Saga didn't think twice. He turned around and shouted, "Athena!"

For a moment, time seemed to stop.

A loud deafening roar; the sounds of myriads of glasses shattering around them as screams echoed all over the room. Everyone who had been fortunate enough not to die under the sharp shards of glass and the walls and ceilings falling down in their heads started screaming and pushing each other, trying to escape as the giant ferocious monster began to attack each of the human in the room, blood and gore spraying everywhere as it picked up and one unlucky victim using its sharps teeth and strong jaws and killed and ate him.

Amidst the chaos that followed and his failure to detect Athena's cosmo, Saga began moving quicker, stepping over one corpse and another, and ignoring the smell of blood and death around him. Breathing heavily and his heart hammering inside his chest, Saga began looking for the goddess he was supposed to protect, even if he had to throw away his own life to do so.

" Is that a motherfucking hydra?! " Pale from shock, Perseus Algol blurted out, sounding appropriately horrified at the scene that he and two other Silver Saints had walked into.

Whale Moses, standing next to his friend and colleague, seemed to have been frozen from fear at the sight of the three-headed monster.

Misty felt his heart drop to his stomach. 

Chapter Text

An hour before the hydra attacked the casino and beach resort that Saori and Saga were attending, Saori was quietly watching as the bidding price of a Renaissance painting done by a very famous painter was rising higher and higher. As the price reached eighty million peso, she slowly raised her right hand to bid. However, before she could bid, a hand suddenly snatched hers, startling the young girl. She quickly turned her head to her right and gasped when her eyes met the pair of familiar blue eyes of the person she had never expected to meet anytime soon.

"Julian," she whispered. What was he doing in this place? Saori was sure that Julian Solo was not on the list of the guests of the fundraising event. She would have known because she was friends with the people who've planned this event. Knowing how Saori felt about the Greek heir, they would've told her if they decided to invite Julian. So what was the young heir doing in this private event? 

Julian was staring at her face, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes were slightly trembling, as if he was trying very hard to remember something. "You..." he whispered, and for a moment, he sounded and looked like a lost child.

Saori knew about Julian's memory loss and how it had affected his whole life since the end of her war against Poseidon. She pitied him but it didn't change the fact that he had once tried to force her to marry him. So she had decided to have nothing to do with him and avoid him as much as possible. 

She pulled back her wrist and Julian let her go without a fight. His forehead wrinkled and perspirations appeared on each side of his pale face. His breathing was slowly getting heavy as he seemed to be more and more in pain. "I– You–.... D–do I–I... do I know y–you?" he asked in a low voice. 

Saori frowned. She had never expected to be faced with this kind of dilemma in what supposed to be a leisurely vacation for both her and Saga. It seemed that Julian Solo was vetting his memories back. What would happen if he got all of them? Would Poseidon break out of his seal and start a war with her again? Would he want to destroy the world? Would he try to know that his other Sea Generals have been brought back by Hades? She needed to know. She needed to make sure that there would be no more war in Saori Kido's lifetime now that there was a tentative peace between her and the Underworld. Pandora and the Three Judges were already loaded with the reconstruction of the Underworld and finding the souls and monsters which had escaped during the last Holy War. She didn't want to give them any reason to break the peace treaty between the Underworld and the Sanctuary. 

Saori has to make sure that Julian would never get back his memories as Poseidon's vessel.

"Twenty billion! The bid is now twenty billion! Is there anyone who acts to bid higher than twenty billion?!"

Saori smiled and offered her hand. The young Greek heir looked down at her hand, looking confused. "I am Saori Kido and we have met before. Come with me. We can continue our conversation in a quieter place," she said as gently and kindly as she could.

Julian frowned for a bit. For a moment or two, he seemed to be thinking about whether or not to take her hand. But in the end, he decided to take her hand and let the girl no– the goddess to lead him towards the exit of the casino where the people started roaring as the bidding became more and more exciting.

Too occupied with watching the bidding, Saga was unaware that the goddess he was supposed to be protecting had already left with a former enemy.

"Shit, shit, shit...Goddamn it!"  Perseus Algol cursed as the hydra's poisonous breath almost grazed his left arm. Thankfully, he managed to avoid the poisoned fume but had to move a distance away from the monster, which made it harder for him to attack it.

Three Silver Saints planned to drive the hydra far away from the shore while the terrified survivors flee the resort and wait for Kanon, Aiola and Shura whom they have contacted the moment they see the hydra and realize that they cannot defeat the mythical monster by themselves. However, it turned out that the hydra was fiercer and stronger than they had expected.

Whale Moses flew towards the left head of the monster with the intention to take its attention away from the fleeing survivors of the decimated resort. However, he was swatted by the monster's giant tail and fell on the seabed head first, too stunned to break his fall.

"Moses!"

Misty was now fighting the hydra alone, attacking it while avoiding its poisonous breath and blood by using his force field around himself. His punches and energy blasts seemed to be giving enough damage against the monster but not enough to subdue it. Determined to push the hydra more into the sea, he called upon his Cosmo and increased the power of his attacks.

The monster started to become furious and desperate as one heavy blow from Misty pushed it a thousand kilometers back to the sea. It lifted its three heads in the air and screeched. Misty winced and put his hands over his ears in pain. The hydra's screech was so powerful it burst the eardrums of those unfortunate enough to be in its radius. Blood slowly poured out of Misty's ears and he started swaying in the air in daze.

"Misty!"

Algol cursed again and prepared himself to aid his friend and leader. 

Moses, who had swam to the shore, was spitting out the saltwater he had consumed after falling to the sea when he heard it. 

Another monster roared, this time louder and more terrifying than the hydra they were fighting. The giant gray monster emerged from the sea, roaring in anger. Moses paled. 

The civilians' horrified screams became louder.

Moses immediately flew towards Algol and Misty, who was still stunned by the hydra's unexpected and powerful soundwave attack.

"God fucking damn it!"

"Algol! You need to use your shield now!"

"I don't have my shield right now! Mu is still repairing it after I broke it in our last mission!" 

"Oh shit ."

'If I survived this, I would go to vacation in Paris and live in an expensive hotel for a month while sipping very expensive wines and eating caviar and visiting Louvre in afternoons,' Misty thought, mind still addled from the hydra's attack.

The sixty-feet tall newly–arrived giant gray-scaled kraken turned towards the three Silver Saints and attacked .

"Athena!" Saga shouted, walking through the corridor of the decimated building, pushing away the terrified people running and screaming around him. He could have helped them escape from the resort faster but his priority right this moment was Athena and he had already felt the cosmos of three Silver Saints fighting the hydra so he knew that the ferocious monster wouldn't be able to attack the civilians while being occupied by the Silver Saints. 

"Athena!" he shouted again, louder and desperately this time.

"Saga!" a pleasant feminine voice called back to him.

Saga turned to his left and saw Saori running towards him, followed by a young man who he had never met before felt familiar to some. He was also staring at Saga with eyes wide with shock.

Saga ran to meet them and then he held Saori's shoulders to check her up and down for any injuries. He sighed in relief when he saw that she wasn't injured. "Athe– Saori, where have you been? I was so worried for you. A fifty feet hydra has just attacked the resort and killed many people. Misty, Algol and Moses are fighting it now but you can still get hurt from the building's falling debris. Please don't disappear again without telling me."

Saori nodded, her expression full of guilt. In this moment she looked more like a fourteen-year-old girl caught breaking curfew and not the Goddess of Wisdom. "I'm so sorry for worrying you, Saga. I just needed to take care of something so I left without telling you. I promise that I won't do it again."

Saga pinched the bridge of his nose. He had already prepared a long sermon for the young girl before him but she looked so contrite that he changed his mind about lecturing her. "Can you tell me what was the matter that you needed to deal with without my knowledge?"

"Kanon?" 

Both Saori and Saga stiffened. Slowly, Saga turned his head to the young man behind Saori. The young man with stark Grecian features was staring at him, blue eyes full of unfathomable emotions. His lips were trembling and he was breathing shallowly. 

Then, tears started falling from his eyes and he whispered in a broken voice: "Kanon, is that you?"

"Shit!" Algol cursed as his back hit a coconut tree. The tree shook and sent several coconuts down on his head. He groaned, rubbing his head. He felt like his head was being split into two. His vision was blurry because of pain and for a long moment, he couldn't see anything clearly. But he could feel Moses' and Misty' rising and falling cosmos as they desperately fought off against the two giant monsters on the beach. 

He groaned again. The three Silver Saints have already suffered countless injuries and their cosmos were almost depleted. If there was no reinforcement in the next five minutes then the three of them were already as dead as nails.

Just as he was considering living in the Underworld as Pandora's servant, he felt six powerful cosmos rapidly rushing towards the resort. A smile graced his lips as hope rose in him.

The Gold Saints have arrived and unlike the Silver Saints, they have the power and abilities to deal with the hydra and the kraken both.

But for some reason, Algol thought that Gemini Kanon's  and also Cancer Deathmask's signature cosmos felt so angry and murderous...

Chapter Text

A whole year.

A whole year having holes in his memories.

A whole year of feeling empty, incomplete and with both remorse and guilt so strong that on some nights he couldn't sleep, tormented and crying out while his heart bled.

What had he done to feel this way? What crimes had he committed for his  conscience to torture him so?

And what had made him lose most of his memories? 

He had asked Sorrento those questions many times before, but no matter how much he begged for an answer, his friend would always refuse and turn away from him, his facial expression showing his own conflict. Julian trusted him with all his life and their friendship was one of the few things he valued at all but sometimes he wanted to grab Sorrento's shoulders and shake him until his stubborn friend gave him all the answers that he sought.

So when he saw the beautiful lilac-haired girl standing in the middle of the crowd, a girl who had stirred a strong feeling in his soul, he didn't think twice before approaching her and grabbing her raised arm. And when she turned to him in shock, her clear green eyes staring at him, the feeling grew stronger. 

So when she offered her hand to him and invited him to go to another place away from the crowd, he dismissed Sorrento's voice warning him of talking to strangers from his head and took her hand. 

However, before he could get the answers for his questions from her, a large terrifying monster attacked. A monster which repulsed him and made his blood run cold at the same time. A bloodthirsty monster which sought to kill anyone that caught his eyes.

And unbeknown to Julian Solo, the screeching cry of the monster awakened something powerful which had been  slumbering deeply in his soul. 

As he flew towards the source of the conflict he'd been sensing for a while now,  Scylla Io, the Guardian of South Pacific Ocean, gasped, stopped mid-air and put a hand to his heart. Could it be? But no, it should have been impossible for him to sense his lord at all. He and the other Marinas had lost, Poseidon had been sealed again and most of him and most of his friends had died. 

But he and the other dead Marinas had been brought to life by the Lord of the Underworld six months ago. With nowhere to go and no way to contact Sorrento or Julian, all of them decided to rebuild Atlantis and the Pillars, including Thetis who have never stopped believing that their Lord would come back for them. They also decided not to mess with the Sanctuary and keep to themselves, avoiding going out and walking on lands except whenever they needed to buy daily necessities using the large sum of money they've found in a bank account named after Isaak. Isaak and the others all decided not to find where the money had come from and who had given the money to them, for it was a lot, and agreed to find that mysterious person one day and pay this debt to him or her. 

With nothing else to do, all of them decided to retake their duties as the guardians of the Seven Seas and guard every Pillar again, with Thetis taking Sorrento's duty because the Siren had not show himself up to them at all and no matter where they looked, they failed to find Julian's right-hand man. They also had no way of communicating with him which left all of them feeling down. 

However, no one had suggested looking for the Guardian of the North Atlantic Ocean and nobody wanted to, for their resentment towards Kanon still burned deeply in their hearts. They would never forgive the user of the Sea Dragon Scale for tricking Poseidon and using all of them for his revenge and attempted world domination. Isaak had once sworn to kill Kanon if he saw him again and everybody agreed with him.

It didn't matter if Kanon had been the one to raise most of them. It didn't matter if Kanon had been the one to save both Io and Boa from their abusive parents, saved Lyumnades from a hopeless life of a homeless addict, saved Krishna from his family and their murderous cult, healed Isaak's injuries and watched over him for days until he fully recovered or brought a lost and crying Thetis to Julian. It didn't matter if most of their memories of Kanon were full of happiness and laughters as they all lived like one big happy family in one of Julian's secluded mansion in a small private island in Pacific, everyone, including Sorrento and Julian whenever the two visited them, enjoying the joys of life as they fished, swam and ate together under the hot sun.

And Kanon–

Kanon would watch over them, wearing his bittersweet smiles.

They all hated him. And one day they would take revenge on the older man.

Io had once wondered if their hatred and resentment were strong enough to take revenge on the man who was an important person to all of them.

His heart thundering inside his chest, Io shook his head to dispel the bitter memories. He could feel his Lord's Cosmo awakening, growing stronger as seconds passed by and slowly, hope bloomed in his heart. Was Poseidon back? Did their Lord need them? Was this the reason why he and the other Marinas were brought back from the Underworld? 

He wiped the tears of joy from his eyes. He closed his eyes and gathered all his strength. Determined to not to fail his Lord this time he began to search for the source of the disturbance in the Pacific Ocean again.

Saga couldn't breathe. Cold sweat started appearing on his brows and his knees trembling, he endured the sudden onslaught of a very strong and suffocating Cosmo from the blue-haired young man who was looking at him with a deeply conflicted expression on his face. The former Gemini Saint was sure that if Saori weren't standing between the two of them, then the younger man's Cosmo would've overwhelmed him.

Julian was slowly shaking his head. "No...no, you're not..you're not Kanon. Where is Kanon? Where is he? W–why...? Why did he do it?! Why did he betray me?! I trusted him! I trusted him with my life! Why did he betray his promise to me?! Why?!" 

Julian's blue eyes glowed.

Power burst from the body of the young man, hitting both Saori and Saga like a giant wave of the sea and nearly drowning them with its might. Saori stood straight, taking most of the impact on her thin body. Behind her, Saga knelt down, his limbs losing all their strength from the pain. The Gemini felt his insides being torn apart and he started coughing blood. He felt like he was dying again .

'Damn you, Kanon,' Saga thought, growing weaker as Poseidon's power poured down on his head like angry torrents. He coughed blood again, almost blacking out from the excruciating pain.

Saori–no Athena raised her own Cosmo, purple aura glowing around her as she summoned her own power to counter Poseidon and save her injured Saint from the angry Olympian god. Her Cosmo enveloped Saga, protecting him and healing the damages in his body at the same time.  

The mighty powers of the two Olympian gods clashed, both sides refusing to surrender. The half-destroyed building trembled and dust and debris started falling around them.  Cracks began to appear underneath them and Saga was suddenly seized with terror. If the two Olympians gods wouldn't stop then the island would definitely sink under the ocean at this rate. He opened his mouth to warn his goddess but before he could speak, a large object suddenly crashed down the building and landed a few feet from the gods and saint. The impact scattered some dust, which hit Saga's eyes and irritated his nose, making it harder for him to breathe for a short moment. Saga coughed and wiped the dust from his eyes. The sudden interruption made the two Olympian gods pull away their power and took a step back away from each other.

Saga breathed in relief. 

He turned his head to see the object which broke that standoff of gods and almost blanched at what he saw.

It was a torn head of the hydra, dead and its draconic eyes staring unblinking at the hole of the ceiling where it came from. Whoever had torn the hydra's head had done so with a brutality and ruthless glee that Saga almost felt pity for the legendary monster. Almost. The hydra still had killed lots of people on the island after all.

Before Saga could start to wonder who had torn one of the hydra's heads from its body, he suddenly felt a very angry and very malicious aura approaching him. 

Suddenly feeling very nervous, which not even Poseidon had made him feel just a moment ago, he gulped.

" Found you~~ " a cheerful voice sing-songed, growing closer. Several light footsteps, which Saga could recognize even in his sleep, approached him. The person's Cosmo grew hotter as its owner turned angrier with each second. " Oh, we are going to have so much fun, Saga, you piece of shit~~"

Saga winced. He swallowed hard. "Deathmask," he said in a low voice.

Deathmask's red eyes glowed eerily, a red as blood as his grin turned even more feral. He was wearing his Cancer Cloth. Each of his movements promised pain as he slowly walked towards his former superior, ignoring the surprised goddess and confused vessel of a god.  "You piece of shit, lowest of scums, motherfucker, gigantic asshole, son of a bitch, fuck face, bastardo, I'm going to kill you and hang your head on my wall, stronzo."

Saga winced as each curse word from the young Italian hit him like a freight train, leaving him bloody, mangled and full of shame. "Carlos–"

"Don't ever call me by my real name, you fucker. I'm going to kill you and hang you using your entrails, you son of a bitch. I am going to imprison your soul and turn it into a puppet and torture you until you begged for mercy, scum. I–"

"Saga!"

Deathmask's increasingly unhinged rant was suddenly interrupted by a golden blur flying passed the Cancer Saint. It flew towards Saga with a speed of light and tackled the former Gemini Saint to the ground, knocking his breath off and making him see stars for a few seconds. He also felt that two of his ribs have been broken. Before Saga knew it, he found his arms full of a very happy and very heavy Sagittarius Gold Saint wearing the Sagittarius Gold Cloth.

"Get off," he wheezed, pushing Aiolos away. But the Sagittarius Saint refused and tightened his embrace around Saga, breaking one more rib. 

Aiolos raised his head to look at Saga's face, his green eyes wide, looking sad and happy at the same time, like an abandoned puppy who had just found his master. Saga was immediately crushed with guilt.

"Saga, where have you been? I–"

" Saga ."

Aiolos yelped in surprise when a hand suddenly grabbed his back and pulled him away from Saga. The same hand grabbed Saga's collar and hauled him up from the ground. He gasped as he was suddenly face to face with his own twin, who looked like he wanted to kill Saga with his own hands.

" Saga , "Kanon growled, "you fucking bastard ."

Kanon's fist struck his left cheek, and Saga found himself flying and his back hitting the concrete wall. In a split second Kanon was standing in front of him, hauling him up again and punching his stomach. 

"Kanon, stop!" Aiolos exclaimed. The Sagittarius Saint moved to save Saga from the rampaging Gemini twin but Deathmask tackled him to the ground, the Italian pressing him face first to the ground and locking his limbs using wrestling moves.

"Deathmask!" Aiolos exclaimed in dismay, struggling from underneath the younger man.

"Oh quiet," Deathmask said with a gleeful grin, clearly enjoying the beatdown that the younger twin was currently giving the older. "You know that motherfucker deserves it. Let Kanon make him suffer before you snuggle up with him again."

"I was not snuggling with Saga! He's my best friend–"

Deathmask rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, and Milo doesn't crave Camus' dick and ass. Just shut up and let me enjoy the show."

Aiolos protested again when he saw that Kanon moved to strangle his older brother, his face red as he cursed Saga in different languages. Saga closed his eyes and bore his younger brother's anger knowing that he deserved it. Kanon could kill him right at this moment and Saga would let him.

Kanon was Saga's twin brother and he could feel the younger Gemini's pain, resentment and anger like those feelings were his own. If his death was what it takes for Kanon to stop suffering, then he would gladly give his life for his brother.

"I hate you, you bastard! I hate you so much–"

A purple light suddenly enveloped the twins, hiding them from everyone's view, and immediately disappeared, leaving a confused Kanon all alone. Before Kanon could look around to find Saga, a small purple orb floated from underneath him and flew towards Aiolos who, despite feeling confused, grabbed the orb. The small purple orb felt warm and it fit neatly between his large hands. 

Aiolos blinked. 

Then, the orb's purple light disappeared, leaving something small, round-shaped and very-much alive on the young Greek's hands.

Aiolos gaped. 

Deathmask groaned and ran a hand over his spiky white hair. Damn, he had forgotten about Athena. 

If looks could kill, then Kanon's eyes would have obliterated that something sitting on Aiolos' hands. 

Aiolos blinked again. He rubbed his eyes and looked down again.

But what he saw sitting  on his hand didn't change at all.

" Saga?! "

"Chirp!"

Kanon let out a venomous swear.

The small round owl who was formerly the rogue Gemini Saint hooted sadly.

Chapter Text

Shion was definitely too old to deal with the shenanigans of the youngsters around him.

As weeks had passed and each of the children he'd been tasked to manage by the cunning Athena, who most of the time stayed in Japan with the excuse of being too busy in managing the corporate empire that her dear departed grandfather had left to her to become a full-time Goddess of War and leaving poor old Shion to deal with a bunch of childish men who could easily split the earth in half while squabbling, the two-hundred something years old Lemurian in an eighteen-year-old body was  beginning to regret agreeing to take the Pope's mantle once more. 

What had made him agree to become the Pope of the Sanctuary again after he'd been brought to life half a year ago? Was it because of the look on Athena's face, a look that screams that she needed him very badly to help her rebuild the destroyed Sanctuary? Was it because of his guilt in failing to notice the darkness that had been slowly slithering inside the Sanctuary and the people in it until it was too late? Was it because of a foolish sense of responsibility as a Saint of Athena? 

Or was it because of his regret on failing to keep the children he loved and cherished like his own from falling into darkness?

Whatever the reason why, Shion was beginning to think that it wasn't worth it. 

He held his head, which was hidden by the pope's mask and ignoring the voice which suspiciously sounded so much like Dokho's crackling 'I told you so',   he let out a long-suffering groan.

Seated upon his throne, with his shoulders hunched over and his green hair slowly turning gray from accumulated stress, which was the result of him dealing with his Golden children who all seemed to had started another round of puberty, which he had fortunately missed the first time thanks to his untimely murder at the hands of that man.

Oh Athena, where do he begin? With Camus and Milo, who couldn't keep their hands off each other and like a pair of horny teenagers started making out anytime and anywhere, scandalizing their brothers-in-arms and making several prudish priests suffer a stroke? Not even the poor, innocent and very young cadets in training were spared, much to Aiolia's displeasure who, after suffering from too much public display of affections from the two lovers of the Sanctuary, had challenged Milo in a Thousand-Day War that had almost destroyed the training arena until Camus arrived to stop them by putting both Saints in Ice Coffins. 

Dokho had to be called from his vacation in Mainland China with Shunrei to carve the two Golden popsicles out of the ice. Shion had to compensate his old friend with two paid tickets to Japan to stop the Chinese Saint from grumbling too much. 

In the end, in order to put a stop to their shameless PDAs Shion had to threaten the two young lovers of giving Hyoga the mission of becoming their chaperone and follow them everyday. When Camus had protested that Hyoga needed to go to school, Shion asked him if making Hyoga transfer to a school in Athens and making the Cygnus Saint sleep inside the Aquarius Palace was that hard. That had shut the redhead up very quickly.

Speaking of Japan. Oh Zeus, why were several of his Golden Saints loved sneaking out of the Sanctuary to go there and take unauthorized weekend vacations? Shion was aware that most of the Bronze Saints lived in that country along with Athena and several of the Gold Saints have forged deep and meaningful friendships with the heroes of the Sanctuary, but do Muu, Shaka and Shura had had to sneak out of the Sanctuary to go to Japan and meet with the Bronze Saints whenever the whim struck them?! Or were those four planning something irresponsible and stupid and that was the reason they weren't informing him of those trips?!

And Muu! His cute, precious and adorable Muu had, after their resurrection, suddenly turned into a rebel enough to make Shion weep. It wasn't his fault that he'd been murdered and that he'd failed to watch his cute student grow up, okay?! It was Arles' fault. That crazy, back-stabbing bastard whose treachery had made him miss several important points of his student's life! And now his formerly obedient Muu had begun to rebel against him! Oh woe! His student was no longer cute and was now a delinquent who had a grudge against Shion!  

He lowered his head and bitterly wept. 

And that Deathmask...Carlos...that stubborn , infuriating little Italian rascal who kept leaving   the Cancer Palace even after Shion had forbidden him to leave in case his terrible sickness struck  the younger man again? But no, that little gremlin had to break rules and run away and even took Aphrodite, Aiolos and Kanon with him!

And Aldebaran, oh sweet Aldebaran had taken several small trainees with him in an amusement park in Athens for a day. And because the whole universe seemed to hate Shion, the trip ended up with several broken rides, explosions, unconsolable children and many shop owners and the amusement park's managers threatening to bury Shion and the whole Sanctuary in lawsuits if he didn't pay them large amounts of money for the damages caused by children who were not trained enough to control their cosmos while riding roller coasters and entering haunted houses. Shion had only taken one look at the sum they were demanding before he almost had a heart attack. 

Oh, Zeus ! What had he done to deserve such rebellious and problematic children in his old age? the physically eighteen-year-old pope lamented in his heart. 

As if to answer his question, a searing,  excruciating pain attacked his head and bowled over, moaning and groaning as thousands of memories rushed through his mind like water from a broken dam. He had never felt pain like this before and he had lived through two and a half centuries and fought in two Holy Wars. 

Who...?

How...?

It couldn't be...!

A few minutes later, the people of the Sanctuary were astonished as a loud scream of rage rang through the place. A scream which had come from the pope's palace.

"SAGA, YOU GODDAMNED BRAAAAAAAAAATTT!!!!!!!"

"T-teacher, are you a-alright? D-do you want me to fetch water for y-you?"

His whole body trembling from terror, Kiki stood a few feet away from his teacher, Aries Mu, who was currently crushing rocks using his telekinesis with a serene smile on his androgynous face. Muu, who had just suffered a particularly painful headache just ten minutes ago, had come to the back of the Aries Palace and started gleefully murdering innocent rocks while his student watched in fear. It was not the murders of the rocks which had made Kiki afraid, but the boiling hot rage of his master which the boy could feel because of his elevated senses. 

Muu suddenly dropped the rock he was about to crush in the air and slowly, very slowly turned towards his student with a small beautiful smile on his lips.

Kiki swallowed back a sob. His body trembled harder. 

Muu's smile widened as his eyes became sharper. "Oh, my my, I really have a good student, don't I? But Kiki, I'm afraid that water is not what I need right now." 

Then, in a blink of an eye, his smile turned to the same smile that serial killers used before they torture and hack their victims to death.

Kiki began to cry.

Inside the Taurus Palace, Aldebaran hummed a merry Spanish tune as he prepared many Spanish and Greek cuisines over his long dining table.

He couldn't believe he had forgotten about Saga! He only hoped that his older friend would forgive him after eating all the delicious dishes, most of them Saga's favorites, he was currently preparing for him. Muu always did whenever the Aries Saint was mad at him. 

He had thought about inviting his friend Muu over, but a hot powerful wave of rage coming from the palace below him made him change his mind. Oh well, Muu only needed a day before he calmed down. At least the yelling hadn't started yet.

Humming a jaunty time under his breath, he went back to the kitchens to get more of his cooked dishes to the table.

Meanwhile, inside a semi-popular maid café in Akihabara, Japan, Shunrei patted her eighteen-year-old looking grandfather on his back as Dokho wheezed and coughed. Dokho and Shunrei have been eating omelet rice along with tall cups of boba tea and when Dokho was about to swallow a spoonful of the food, which smelled really appetizing, a pain suddenly speared through his head and shocked, he stabbed the back of his throat with the metal spoon. Suffice to say that the Chinese gentleman was not having a good time at the moment.

Shunrei silently wondered if she needed to contact Shiryu and ask him to help her bring her grandpa to a hospital before the old man died. Again.

Dohko's face turned beet red. He wheezed again. He looked like he was barely breathing. The other customers were now looking at him worriedly.

'Poor grandpa,' Shunrei thought with sympathy, one hand still patting Dohko's back and the other rapidly dialing Shiryu's number on her phone. 

It wouldn't do her grandpa any good if he died again, Shunrei thought.

Meanwhile in a popular park in Tokyo, Ikki,  who three hours ago had been kidnapped from his Algebra class and was forced to accompany Shaka in visiting numerous tooth-rotting Japanese sweet shops, eating crêpes, and watching the Sakura flowers (how will the Gold Saint of Virgo watch the pink flowers with his eyes closed was beyond him)   felt a shiver creeped down his spine as his companion suddenly became silent, the half-eaten crêpe in Shaka's right hand brutally crushed. 

"Mm," Shaka said after a painfully long time, his face blank. His eyelids were moving, almost giving Ikki a heart attack. "It looks like someone has been acting naughty for the past six months. Say, Ikki, do you know proper punishments for naughty kids?" he asked, his tone innocent, so innocent that anyone would have fallen for his act, except for those who have been made aware of his sadistic nature, including a certain Phoenix Saint.

Ikki looked at Shaka's angelic face which effectively hid the devil inside, closed his eyes, crumpled the empty crêpe paper in his fist and started running from the blond as fast as the speed of light. 

He really needed to think twice before agreeing again to Shun's suggestions of making more friends. He nearly had a heart attack under a Sakura tree. 

"Babe, is your head okay now? Do you want me to run to Rodorio and buy aspirins? Do you need water? Apple juice? A hot compress? More blankets?"

Camus groaned. He closed his eyes and covered his head with his comforter. "Shad'up, Milo," he slurred.

Milo pouted, his shoulders slumping. The two lovers were watching a romantic comedy movie inside the Aquarius Palace's living room three hours ago when they were both suddenly attacked by pain so extreme Milo Had felt like his head was being split apart. Of the two of them, the Scorpio have been the one to quickly recover from the headaches that have struck both of them at the same time and along with it were the sudden and harshe onslaught of the memories they weren't even aware have been missing from their brains. The memories have come as shocking, full of pain and grief and yet, Milo knew that without them, he would never be complete. 

And Saga...

Milo didn't know what to think of Saga. He knew that only their Goddess Athena was capable of erasing their memories of the Gemini Gold Saint and it was in character for Saga to ask it of her. But why? Was it because he was still feeling guilty for the past thirteen years? Or was it because of his role in Athena's death during the Holy War? But everyone, including Milo, have already forgiven Saga for his crimes. In these precious second chances that their goddess has given them, they no longer wanted to hold onto grudges and old feuds but to start over again. As brothers-in-arms, as compatriots and friends. 

And no matter how many crimes he had committed, no one in the Golden Order of Athena's Saints would ever have the heart to hate Saga, even Aiolia, who was unfortunately the biggest victim of Saga's Rebellion.

Milo sat beside his lover. He reached the crimson strands of his lover's hair and began to caress them lovingly. Camus lowered the comforter to his chin, revealing his pale face and tired-looking eyes, as red as his hair. "Milo," he said, slurring still. "Hug me," he added in a shy voice.

Milo grinned and without further ado, followed his lover's command. 

Savoring Camus's warmth next to his body, Milo closed eyes and uttered a quick prayer to Athena for his friend Kanon's well-being and for Saga to not suffer his twin brother's wrath for long. 

Chapter Text

Athene noctua. 

The sacred animal and symbol of Athena's wisdom. The owl had always been next to the Goddess Athena as her representative and during the most troubled times in history, before Athena started reincarnating as a human and fighting in the Holy War with her Saints, the Wise Owl had used to confer with the Pope and advised her warriors in the middle do the grueling battles and helped them win the wars.

But considering what this particular human-turned-owl had been up to in the past six months, nobody would ever think of him as anything close to wise.

Kanon stared down at his brother, now an owl, sitting upon Aiolos' hands, with a look that tells how much he wanted to pluck away the older twin's feathers and roast him in an open pit. Saga's large, green owl eyes stared back at Kanon for a fraction of a minute before he haltingly moved as far away from Kanon as he could: on Aiolos's right shoulder. Saga looked at his once best friend, blinked, and crooned. He closed his eyes and started to affectionately rub his feathery head on the left side of Aiolos' face, crooning in happiness.

Aiolos blushed. Saga's feathers were very soft and he couldn't remember his best friend being this affectionately before. The Gemini Saint had been aloof and stoic in normal days. Aiolos wasn't sure what was making Saga act like this but he didn't dislike it. He began to rub Saga's head with his thumb.

Saga crooned in delight. Aiolos blushed again. 

Deathmask made a loud sound of disgust. A vein popped in his forehead. What the hell? These two were really doing this in front of him ? How shameless! 

He already had enough of Milo and Camus and now he was going to have to deal with another pair of lovebirds? 

The Yomotsu Hirasaka was looking really really like a nice place to take a vacation forever.

Kanon's face turned red. He seemed to have trouble grasping the sheer audacity of his older brother turning into an animal before Kanon could kill him. He began to seeth. "You–"

He moved to grab the sweetly crooning owl from Aiolos who, rightfully guessing the younger Gemini's intention, threw away Deathmask from his back ( "Aiolos, you motherfucker!" ) and gently and carefully holding the owl in his cupped hands, quickly jumped far away from Kanon.

Kanon started seeing red. "Aiolos, hand him to me this instant!" he barked.

But the Aiolos shook his head and the owl brought him with one hand and raised another in front of the fuming younger twin. "Kanon, please calm down. We need to talk to Athena first–"

"Calm down? You want me to calm down after what that selfish, good-for-nothing asshole did–"

"Listen, I understand how you are feeling right but violence is never an answer–"

"I'll show you violence, you annoying–"

"Kanon?"

Kanon stiffened, his face rapidly growing pale. Slowly, very slowly, as if afraid of what he was about to see, he turned his head to his left and saw Julian looking at him with a confused and lost look on his face.

' Julian has grown up so much ,' was Kanon's first thought upon fully seeing his former employer's face. At the age of seventeen, Julian had lost all of his baby fats, leaving behind a handsome and angular face. His blue eyes, despite the sorrow and confusion swimming in their depths, showed a dignity that only someone with a strong and unmoving conviction had. He seemed to have grown a few inches since the last Kanon had seen him, in Atlantis, when Kanon throwing himself between Athena and Poseidon and took the god's trident to his chest, betraying his promise to Julian–

What was the Greek heir doing here? Kanon and the other Gold Saints have sensed Athena's powerful and majestic Cosmo as they've arrived in the island but they hadn't sensed Poseidon. But thinking about it, Kanon realized that there was no other reason for Athena to use her power but against another hostile god. So why didn't he sense Poseidon's power? Was the god still sealed inside the jar? If so, then how did Julian remember him? 

As if sensing Kanon's distress, Saga started cooing from behind Aiolos. But Kanon couldn't give him mind, for his eyes never left Julian's face. 

"You...you..." Julian stopped, breathing hard. He put a hand to his chest and without any warning, burst into tears. 

All the anger and hurt born from Saga's betrayal left him and Kanon felt the guilt that he had been avoiding for the last six months resurfaced inside his chest with a vengeance. He started to approach the sobbing young man, one hand outstretched. "Julian, I–"

But before Kanon could reach Julian, a burst of murderous Cosmo hit him and before the Gemini could react, he felt a body hit his own, throwing both of them to the ground, the  impact making a crater around them. Kanon thought he heard Aiolos asking if he was okay, but all his ears could hear was static and his head felt like it was being split into two.

"Io," Kanon whispered when he finally saw the identity of his attacker.

"Kanon," Io hissed, eyes bloodshot. His Cosmo rose around him, shivering with murderous intentions. "Prepare to die, you traitor."

And right in the middle of the broken casino, Poseidon's two former Sea Generals began their deadly battle against each other.

When the three of them sensed an unfamiliar and hostile Cosmo approached the place where they believed Athena was, Aiola, Shura and Aphrodite, who have just finished tending to the wounds and injuries of the three Silver Saints. 

The three of them have been enough to defeat and kill the two titanic monsters which were terrorizing the small island, though Deathmask has been the one to cut off one of the hydra's heads. Shura had used Excalibur to kill the hydra and Aiola and Aphrodite teamed up to kill the kraken. Killing both monsters has taken them longer than they thought, which wouldn't have happened if only the other three Gold Saints in their group suddenly disappeared and left them, no doubt to look for Athena and him .

Just thinking of that man, that traitor, was enough making Aiola's fists shake in anger. How dared he? After all of the dirty crimes he had committed, after his countless betrayals and after his lies and deceits he still had the guts, the audacity, to manipulate his and the others' memories for his own amusement. Was Aiolia's, his brother's and his friends' lives nothing but toys for that man, to play with whenever he was bored and be thrown away in the end? 

Was the whole world only a playground and the people unfortunate enough to be around him his puppets and toys?

Unbidden, angry tears gathered around Aiolia's eyes. He clenched his teeth to keep the sob from leaving his throat. He swore that this time, he would make Saga pay for his crimes. This time, he would make sure that Saga would never have the chance of playing with their lives. 

Aphrodite was silent and Shura was acting more aloof than normal, the Spaniard never saying a word even after he had regained his memories of Saga and his face showed not even a glimpse of how he was feeling right am now after being manipulated and discarded again by Saga, whom he respected as much as Aiolos. Aiolia didn't hate Shura for being his older brother's executor but there was a part of him that was both annoyed and unnerved by the older man's lack of reaction to Saga's deviousness. 

The three Gold Saints didn't say a word to each other until they reached the destroyed building at the center of the island, each young man deep in his own thoughts. But sensing a currently ongoing fierce battle inside, they tensed and prepared to intervene if necessary.

But none of them were prepared for what they saw inside.

The fight was between Kanon and someone who was evidently one to Poseidon's Marinas. Both looked beaten and bloodied, which surprised Aiolia for he knew how strong Kanon really was. But it looked like Kanon was holding back, his punches weak and he wasn't using any of his deadly techniques while his opponent seemed to be throwing his all against Kanon, all his movements sharp and deadly.

Standing on the sidelines and watching the fight were Deathmask, who had the face of someone who is dying of boredom. Next to him was Aiolos, who wasn't paying attention to the raging fight just a few feet away and seemed to be cooing at something in his hands. Athena and a blue-haired young man who had the aura of a god were both sitting on the dusty ground, the goddess' hands glowing around the young man's temple. Aiolia recognized her healing spell and wondered about the true identity of the young man.

Shura started walking towards the goddess, always ready to defend her with his Excalibur but before he reached her, the going man next to her suddenly jumped to his feet and shouted at the two people fighting in a deep, authoritative voice that sent chills to everyone's, except Athena's, spine.

" ENOUGH! " 

Both Kanon and his opponent froze. 

The two looked horribly injured and were bleeding profusely. The Gemini Cloth and the Marina's Scale both have cracks and caked with blood and grime. Kanon was breathing heavily while Marina was panting, pale from excessive blood loss. Despite Kanon holding back his blows and making sure not to hit any of his opponent's body's vital parts, the Marina looked like he was one blow away from death. 

Aiolia, however, couldn't bring himself to sympathize with the Marina. He had already sensed that the Marina was trying to kill Kanon and Kanon, despite his past as a traitor and his attempt of world domination, was still one of Aiolia's precious comrades. He would defend Kanon from all his foes and the only reason why he didn't interfere with the battle in front of him was because of the look on Kanon's face.

It was a look of despair.

But right now Kanon's face was devoid of any emotion. Despite his injuries and the blood on his Cloth, he stood as still as a statue, looking down and clenching his fists.

Coughing blood and holding his broken ribs, Marina turned towards the blue-haired young man, his expression a curious mixture of joy and sorrow. "My Lord..."  he whispered.

The young man shook his head and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Io of Scylla. But I am not your Lord. I am not Poseidon, but a mortal named Julian Solo."

Io's face crumpled in sorrow. Sensing that what was about to happen was none of his business, Aiolia looked away.

He turned his attention back to Kanon, who still hadn't moved an inch from where he stood. Aiolia looked around and seeing that Saga wasn't around despite the fact that Aiolia had sense his presence inside the destroyed building just half an hour ago, he approached his older brother, who looked like he was still occupied with a conversation with his hands, when suddenly Aiolia saw something small and round-shaped flew from Aiolos' hands. 

It was an owl and it was flying towards Kanon, who didn't seem to notice the bird. The owl landed on Kanon' right shoulder, tilted its head twice and cooed softly. Then to Aiolia's astonishment, it spread its wings and hugged Kanon's face.

" What ," Aiolia muttered in shock. He looked at his older brother, his eyes begging Aiolos for anything .

Aiolos smiled at him and awkwardly scratched his head. "Lia! Um, please don't be confused. You can ask Athena about it if you want. Well, that owl is actually Saga."

A beat.

A long awkward silence broken only by an owl's persistent cooing at Kanon who remained still as a statue and the sobbing of the younger Marina.

Then, after a long silence, three different but all astonished voices shouted:

" What?! "

Then they all turned to Athena, who averted her eyes, looking as innocent as a cherub. Then with a small apologetic smile, she said: "Please forgive me for my hasty actions, my dear saints, but owls are cute and I cannot have one of my saints kill another, can I?"

Chapter Text

"You know I'm still mad at you, right?"

"Chirp."

"And just because I agreed to take care of you while you're in that form doesn't mean that I forgive you for what you did to me and the others."

"Chirp, chirp."

"I owe Athena for my life so I cannot disappoint her. I will give her everything she wishes for. Even if I have to tolerate your presence."

"Chirp? Chirp?"

Kanon glared down at his older brother. "I'm fine," he snapped. "My injuries aren't really serious and Aphrodite has already taken care of all of them. All I need now is to rest for a week. So I don't need your worries, Saga ."

The twin brothers were inside Kanon's office in the Gemini Palace. A week had already passed since the whole Manila incident and Kanon had started babysitting pet sitting taking care of Saga in his current feathery form, much to Aiolos' dismay who didn't  seem to want to let go of Saga.

Kanon had more than once caught Aiolos sneaking inside the Gemini Palace to visit Saga even after he had chased the younger man out.

It was late at night and Kanon was in the middle of organizing Sanctuary documents when Saga suddenly appeared inside his office, something which he'd never done before, and sat on top of the stack of papers which all needed Kanon's signature and refused to leave no matter how many times Kanon told him to.

Kanon was exhausted after another grueling mission which had taken seven hours to finish and dealing with its aftermath but he still needed to finish reading and signing the documents on his desk and pass them to Shion tonight. Since he used to be the head of Poseidon's Temple while Julian was growing up and Poseidon was still asleep, Kanon was used to dealing with paperworks and the documents sitting inside his office didn't even make one-third of the papers he'd dealt with before. 

And he would have finished all the paperworks in two hours, if not for his annoying older brother interrupting him in the middle of his work. And because the two of them were twins, it didn't take long for Kanon to realize what Saga wanted from him.

Kanon looked at the clock on his wall and saw that it was already 11 o'clock. He turned his head back to older brother and glared. The current bane of his existence let out a shrill hoot and pressed his tiny and round body over the documents firmly.

Kanon made a noise which sounded like a mix of a train's whistle and volcano's growl before an imminent eruption.

"Enough. Go back to your bed and leave me be." Kanon crossed his arms, attempting to sound as authoritative as he could.

Saga tilted his head, his large inquisitive green eyes never leaving Kanon's face. The twins, one human and one owl, stubbornly stared at each other in silent disagreement for ten minutes straight  before Kanon sighed and looked down. " Fine,  " he said through gritted teeth. "I will stop working and contact the Sanctuary's doctors to schedule an advanced check-up. Happy now?"

Saga's large eyes lit up and he let out a pleased croon. Obviously happy with Kanon's capitulation, he lifted himself up from the table and started flying in circles around Kanon's head in celebration. 

Kanon sighed. 

Saga crooned and landed on top of Kanon's head, the younger twin's thick hair protecting his scalp from the owl's tiny talons. Kanon let him be, too tired to remove the owl without hurting him. 

Kanon could admit that deep down, he'd never be able to stay angry with Saga forever. Despite being abandoned to die in Cape Sunion and despite having his memories erased and rewritten, Kanon couldn't really hate Saga. And there was a part of him that was happy to have the chance to live with Saga again, even if his older brother was currently an owl.

Last week, Athena had summoned all the Gold Saints and Shion inside her temple and explained everything that had happened with Saga and her own involvement in the matter. She'd ended her speech with a humble apology for manipulating their memories without their permission but she also told them that to save Saga, she had to do it. 

Of course, all of the Gold Saints and Shion forgave her. They were more angry and annoyed with Saga and Kanon noticed that Muu and Shaka have been ready to beat up his brother and Shion had the look on his face that reminded Kanon of all the times the pope had hit his butt as punishment for his pranks until they saw his new owl body. Their reactions have been so hilarious and Kanon regretted not bringing his camera with him inside Athena's Temple. 

"Your brother was suicidal, Kanon," Athena told him in private after she dismissed the other Gold Saints and Shion. " He doesn't believe that he deserves to live again and is only alive right now because he believes that he owes it to me. Even now, the crimes he'd committed before continue to haunt him, even after we've found out about Kerr and that Ares had possessed him. Kerr did it in order to destroy the Sanctuary and yet Saga fought against the Ares' possession enough to not only prevent the destruction of the Sanctuary, but to also make it strong and thriving even when I was away. He was a good pope and the people of the Sanctuary and the ordinary people of Roderio all adore him. 

"I admit that I feel guilty for what had happened to Saga, Kanon. If only I was born earlier, then Kerr wouldn't be able to go near your brother. If only I was strong enough, then Saga wouldn't have to die in my arms. If only I was wise enough, then I wouldn't need Saga to take away my life so I can enter the Underworld and defeat Hades. I've done him so many wrongs that I don't even know where to start apologizing to him.

"I'm so sorry, Kanon."

"No, Athena, my brother's stupidity isn't your fault!" Kanon protested. "You've given him another chance to live just like the rest of us but instead of appreciating your kindness, he still chose to run away and hide like the selfish coward that he is!" 

But Athena only gave him a sad smile. "Kanon, your brother has suffered a lot. He has suffered more than any of us can ever imagine. So please take care of him. Make him feel safe and don't let the pain of yesteryears prevent him from living his life to the fullest. 

"Saga will stay as an owl until he starts wanting to live, and not just exist, again. And I trust that you, along with the others in the Sanctuary, will do everything that you can to convince him that he still has a place in this beautiful world, something that in the past six months I've failed to do but I trust that you and the others can do it." 

She smiled at him again, the large drops of tears flowing from her eyes shining like crystals under the silver light of the moon. Kanon felt a pang of pain echoing deep inside his soul and in that moment, he fully understood the heart of both Goddess of Wisdom and the little girl named Saori Kido.

With the moon as their witness,  the Goddess and her faithful Gold Saint made a promise to each other. A promise that Kanon knew that he would never ever break. 

Kanon suddenly realized that the owl on top of his head was no longer moving except for soft rhythmic puffs of breath. Gently, he pulled the owl and cradled him in his hands and saw that his hunch wasn't wrong. Saga was already asleep, no doubt having exhausted himself after a full day of entertaining Kiki and avoiding Shaka's attempts to capture and cook him. The Virgo Gold Saint had been unstoppable until Ikki arrived and hauled the blond away (the true extent of the two young men's friendship was always a mystery to Kanon.) And yet he'd still stayed up late at night just to make sure that Kanon would rest and schedule a check-up. 

"You're a lousy owl, aren't you?" Kanon murmured softly to Saga. "You can't even stay up all night like a proper owl. I don't know what Aiolos saw in you. But he's a weirdo who is also friends with the Pegasus Saint so I shouldn't be surprised that he likes you. " He affectionately rubbed the top of Saga's head with his forefinger.

Saga crooned sleepily in response. 

Despite himself, Kanon smiled. 

He gently carried his older brother all the way to his room. Right next to Kanon's bed was a mahogany  table where he kept a lamplight and a tiny bed where Saga slept. It was blue,  star-shaped, very soft and obviously very expensive. A gift from Saori. Saga loved this bed. He loved it so much that he'd attacked Deathmask after the younger man had tried to tease the owl by pretending to steal it. Aphrodite, who was present in Gemini Palace that day, had calmed Saga down and then pulled the howling Cancer Gold Saint away by his ear while giving his friend a stern lecture. 

Of all the things that surprised Kanon after he started living in the Sanctuary, Aphrodite being physically stronger than Deathmask was near the top of the list. 

He snorted, amused at the memory. Careful not to wake up his sleeping brother, he put Saga down the bed. The owl didn't even twitch, so deep in his sleep. Kanon looked down at his brother for a long moment before realizing that no matter what may happen between the two of them, Kanon would never stop loving him. 

He wondered, sadly, if Saga had once ever felt the same for him. 

Chapter Text

Inside the Sanctuary, a party was being held in honor of the Gemini twins' birthday, much to one of the celebrants' chagrin. 

Kanon was sitting alone on the couch with one bottle of beer in his hand and trying to untie the colorful party hat that Deathmask had forced on him at the start of the surprise party. Just an hour ago, Kanon had been met with a surprise birthday party inside the Gemini Palace right after coming back from a mission in Egypt. He had been met with cheers, confettis and a feast fit for a king. Saga, wearing a small party hat and perched upon Aiolos' right shoulder, seemed to be completely content to leave Kanon on the hands of the crazy masses who forced him to wear party hats, blow up candles and make a wish and receive hugs and gifts from his very friendly colleges and friends and unwrapping them one by one in front of many pairs of expectant eyes (he needed to hide Milo's and Deathmask's gifts before Shun's and also Hyoga 's innocent eyes could look at them). And after an hour of receiving such excessive love and affections, Kanon's whole body was drained to the point  he couldn't even lift a finger or take a sip from the cold can of beer on his hand.

'Never again,' Kanon thought, tiredly.

And whoever was the one behind the theme of the birthday party, Kanon swore to have a very long talk with them .

The other Golds, Silvers and even the Bronze kids were all outside and having a singing contest using the karaoke that Shura had rented from who knows where. Saga was with them, flying around and entertaining himself with Aiolos keeping an eye on him. Saga was enjoying the party, unlike his younger twin brother who was nearly dead on his feet. Fortunately, Kanon had managed to escape before the microphone reached him. Aldebaran seemed to be the one singing at this moment and the Taurus Saint could sing, unlike a drunken Mu who almost murdered everyone's ears while belting off a death metal song right before him.

Kanon grumbled grumpily. He wondered if Milo was one of those who planned the party. Knowing the Scorpio Saint, it was probably true. 

"Oh come on, Kanon, cheer up! It's your and Saga's day today!" Milo happily chirped, appearing out of nowhere and strapping an arm around Kanon's shoulders. The party had just started but the Scorpio Saint was already in the state of tipsiness. A deep flush peppered his white cheeks and his indigo eyes were not as what and focused as it usually were. Kanon's young friend also didn't seem to have noticed how the temperature of the whole room dropped significantly after he put his arms around Kanon. Standing in the doorway, a drunk Camus was glowering at both of them, eyes turning icier as each second passed. Oblivious to his boyfriend's growing ire and jealousy,  Milo started giggling.

"Oh, don't look so glum, my friend! I know how you are feeling right now but you know that this is Athena's idea in the first place! Our dear goddess was appalled when she found that none of us have ever thrown a party on our birthdays so she decided that she will start doing it for all of us as thanks for protecting the world! You should've been here during Aphrodite's birthday party! It was very extravagant and Athena and the Sanctuary spared no expenses for the fish's party! We had a lot of fun and Dite was so happy he almost cried! I could show you some pictures but I'm afraid that Dite is still hunting for copies and burning them all. As if everyone will laugh at him for almost crying. You were in Japan that month, right? You should've been there back then and seen the look on Shion's face when he saw how many expensive cakes and bottles of red French wines that Shura had bought for Dite using the Sanctuary's money! I swear none of us ate anything but cakes for a whole week!" Milo started hollering as though he had said something funny. “I swear Shion was going to burst a vein that day!”

"Oh, by the way, where is the resident pet of the Sanctuary? Still with Los?"

Kanon felt his annoyance rise at the mention of the Sagittarius Gold Saint, who was also one of his suspects for planning the birthday celebration with Athena. "No idea," he grumbled. "And don't call Saga a pet if you don't want him to pull that stupid antenna on top of your head, idiot bug."

Despite Kanon's dark warning, Milo laughed rapturously, hitting Kanon's back heavily with oblivious glee. Annoyed, Kanon pushed Milo with far more force than a normal human could take. Milo lost his balance and fell face first to the hard floor. Milo made a small noise of surprise.

Oh gods, Milo's antics were starting to give him a headache. He closed his eyes. "Fuck off, Milo," he groaned, rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

Milo only giggled again. It seemed that his fall didn't injure him at all, or his brain was too damaged to register another one.  "Stop being a sour puss, Kanon! You know you love me!" The Scorpio Saint jumped up, pulled Kanon into a bear hug and was about to give his best friend a loud and resounding kiss until Camus teleported next to him and smacked the back of his head. A loud thwack echoed inside the room and Kanon had no doubt that tomorrow Milo would suffer from a very nasty headache.

"Ouch!" 

Camus glowered and smacked his boyfriend again. "You bastard,” he spat, his eyes turning into slits. "We're over, Milo," the Aquarius Saint hissed with so much venom it even made Kanon's skin crawl.

Hearing his boyfriend's words,  all of the alcohol left Milo's system. "B-babe...don't be dramatic please. You know that I only love you..."

But Camus only harrumphed,  turned around and started marching away. Milo gaped and started running after the other young man while calling Camus' name and completely forgetting Kanon.

Now left behind in peace, Kanon felt the tension in his shoulders slowly eased off. Kanon leaned his head back and sighed. He didn't need to worry about Milo and Camus. Knowing those two, it wouldn't take longer than thirty minutes before they make up and go back to each other's arms. 

He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He didn't get a good sleep for a week straight thanks to his last mission. Last week, Shion had sent him to Northern Egypt to investigate the rumors of a rogue Silver Saint starting an illegal  organization that kidnapped children and young teens and sold them to rich men all over the world. Kanon had almost vomited after he finished reading the documents detailing the organization's recent activities. The organization's actions have been so vile that even he, who had once deceived a god and tried to take over the world in his grief-fueled rage, had nightmares about them. So, he did everything to find out about their activities as much as he could before he traveled back to the Sanctuary to hand the results of his investigation to Shion. 

He hadn't expected to be met by everyone in the Sanctuary, even by Athena and the Bronze Saints who were living in Japan, and surprised him on his and Saga's birthday.

To tell the truth, Kanon had forgotten that today was his birthday. After Cape Sunion, after Saga's betrayal and his imprisonment inside the underwater cage, he had given up celebrating his own birthday.

He remembered the first time he and Saga had celebrated their birthday. The two of them have only been seven years old back then and while Saga was busy in his educational studies and trainings to become the next Gemini Gold Saint for the upcoming Holy War, Kanon was always free to do anything he wanted, as long as he stayed in the shadows and never showed himself to anyone except for Shion, Saga and a couple of old caretakers that Shion had appointed to watch over him. Back then, Kanon had been doing so many pranks to the younger trainees that Shion had lost all patience towards him and grounded inside the Gemini Palace. So Kanon, bored out of his mind from inactivity, started reading the books inside the Gemini Palace which he hadn't touched before. Saga had always been the nerd between the two of them but one book had caught his attention. 

It was a simple child book about two little twins living in the woods together. The twins have no parents, no relatives or friends. They only have each other.

One day, the older twin caught a cold and became bedridden. The younger twin panicked and started taking care of him. The younger twin remembered that their birthday was near and the older twin had always wanted to see the flowers in the meadow not far from their home blooming. So, on the day of their birth, the younger twin decided to walk towards the meadow and took a handful of beautiful blooming flowers for his twin. When the older twin saw the flowers, his face lit up and he immediately recovered from his sickness. 

Kanon remembered liking the story so much he reread it many times until he was allowed to leave the Gemini Palace again. He also remembered asking his caretakers for the date of his and Saga's birthday and when they told him it was May 30, he decided to surprise Saga with a gift.

Saga was so busy all day that when the night came Saga could barely open his eyes to eat dinner before collapsing in his bed. Kanon felt sorry for his brother and he wanted to do something good for him even for once. 

He remembered how in the book the older twin was so happy to receive the flowers that he immediately recovered from his sickness. Would giving Saga flowers make him happy and less tired? Kanon wanted to see Saga smile and be happy just for a day so on May 30, two hours before dawn, he slipped out of the Gemini Palace to look for flowers. 

However, his search proved to be a hazardous one. He was so focused on looking for some flowers that when he found a bunch of small blue blossoms growing on a rock, he didn't notice that he had come upon a steep cliff and when he reached to pluck the flowers, he'd slipped and fell off the cliff. The last though he had before he lost consciousness was at least he got the flowers. 

When he woke up next, it was a world of pain and a very worried Saga on his bedside. He had a medium-sized gash on his forehead, his left ankle was bandaged and hurting like hell and his right arm was in a sling. But at least the flowers weren't damaged from the fall, sitting innocently in. blue porcelain vase. 

When Saga saw that Kanon was awakened, he burst into tears. 

"Why did you do that, Kanon?" Saga asked, sniffing.

Kanon smiled weakly. "I...wanted to give you the flowers as a birthday present, Saga. Sorry for worrying you but I just wanted to make you happy."

Hearing his words, Saga started crying harder and wailing so loudly that even Shion walked out of the Pope's Palace and visited them. 

After Saga calmed down, he took the vase full of flowers and put them inside his own room. Then, he went to the kitchens and requested the staff to bake blueberry cake. That night, the twins ate the blueberry cake together. The next day their stomachs got sick from eating too much cake but they didn't regret it. 

And from that day, every year they would celebrate their birthdays with a vase full of blooming flowers and blueberry cakes. 

Until their fifteenth birthday. Until Cape Sunion and the dark years that followed. Kanon refused to celebrate his birthday again, even though he made sure to celebrate Julian's, Thetis' and the Marina's

And yet, today was fun. Exhausting, but fun. He really appreciated Athena, Milo and the others' efforts to make this day a special day for both him and Saga. 

Kanon smiled. He closed his eyes and exhaled, softly. The exhaustion and fatigue he accumulated from the mission and the tiring celebration caught up on him and before she knew it, he was already falling into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, while Kanon was drifting deep into Hypnos' lands, the party outside was in full swing. A drunk Dohko was belting out a Chinese power ballad, singing with so much emotion and skill as Shiryu and Shunrei cheered him on. 

At one table, Aiolos was drinking cider and having a pleasant chat with three of the Bronze Saints. Saga was flying overhead, seemingly tireless as he watched everyone have fun on his special day, though Aiolos wondered, for the third time since the party started, if Saga really understood that the party was in his and his brother's honors. 

Aiolos stopped in the middle of recounting the events of his last mission when he realized that Seiya, Shun and Hyoga were all watching him with bemused smiles on their lips.

"Is something the matter?" he casually asked the three, who looked at each other for a split second before turning back to him again.

It was Shun who spoke up. "Mister Aiolos, do you like Mister Saga?"

Shocked, Aiolos nearly choked on his cider. He coughed and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. Was his feelings for Saga really that obvious that even the Bronze Saints have taken notice of it? "How did you know?" he asked Shun, calmly. Since these kids were smart it was only fair for him to be honest with them.

"We saw how you look at Mister Saga," Hyoga piped this time. " I mean, it's a bit weird since mister Saga is an owl right now but the way you look at him reminds me of how Mister Milo looks at Master Camus."

As if on cue Milo, who was currently sitting on Camus' lap and hugging his neck, purred. Camus sighed and began caressing Milo's messy head. 

The two lovebirds were sitting four tables away from Aiolos', seemingly oblivious to everyone around them and only aware of each other's presence.

Shura began to sing a tear-jerking ballad in a heart-melting baritone.

Aiolos blushed. He started scratching his right cheek with a finger. "Is it that bad?"

As if having one mind Seiya, Shun and Hyoga nodded at the same time.

No doubt sensing the awkwardness coming off his senior's aura, Seiya said: "But I think it is sweet! I think that you and Mister Saga match. I heard from the Pope that you and Mister Saga were always together and got along really well when you were both younger so you two probably understand each other more than us! So, as soon as Mister Saga  goes back into being a human, you should confess to him!"

"I agree with Seiya, Mister Aiolos," Shun added, looking straight into Aiolos with eyes which spoke of wisdom. You should confess to Mister Saga as soon as you have the chance. I believe that the two of you deserve to be happy after everything that you've gone through."

Hyoga nodded sagely. 

Now Aiolos was scratching the back of his head. Being advised in the matters of love by kids younger than him like this...for a reason he felt strangely pathetic. 

"But Seiya, Shun, I believe we need to help Mister Aiolos and Mister Saga first," Hyoga said, looking up at the sky. Saga was still flying, but his movements were getting slower which only meant he was already getting tired and would come back to rest soon. "Mister Saga is still an owl right now so Mister Aiolos won't be able to confess to him. We need to help Saga to go back to being a human."

Seiya gaped at his friend for a moment. Then his eyes lit up with a fire that Aiolos had seen before. Oh no.

Seiya stood and slammed the table hard. The others were either too drunk or too occupied with a teary-eyed singing Shura to pay attention to Aiolos and his group. "You're right, Hyoga! We need to do something to break Mister Saga's curse and turn him back into a human so Mister Aiolos can finally confess to him!"

'What curse?' Aiolos thought, feeling his own trepidation rising. 

Seiya pumped his fist. "Don't worry, Mister Aiolos, I will do everything I can to help Mister Saga break his curse, even if it means fighting a god!"

Aiolos slowly put down his glass of cider and raised his hands. "Wait, wait, I hope you're not planning on fighting Athena," he said in a low voice, trying to calm the passionate Pegasus Saint down.

"Don't worry, Mister Aiolos, Seiya won't fight Lady Saori. Seiya likes her too much to fight against her," Shun assured with a beatific smile.

"Hey!"

"What about giving Mister Saga a 'True Love's Kiss' just like in the fairy tales? Maybe if you kissed Mister Saga he will turn back into a human, " Hyoga suggested.

Aiolos, Seiya and Shun turned to stare at him.

Hyoga blushed." What? Master Camus told me that the fairy tales are based on true events and witches, fairies and true love's kiss are all real. Are you saying that Master Camus lied to me?" he snapped, getting annoyed. 

Seiya and Shun exchanged a look for a moment before shaking their heads. For the naive and innocent Hyoga , Camus would never lie to him, even with something as ridiculous as 'A True Love's Kiss' which only the smallest and most innocent children would believe. They knew that correcting Hyoga would only get the blond more defensive and start a rant about Camus being the best and the most wonderful teacher in the whole universe and being forced to kill Camus by said teacher's hands didn't change the way the Cygnus Saint looked at Camus at all.

Aiolos' lips twitched in amusement. Kids...

Saga swept down their table and landed on Aiolos' left shoulder. Aiolos was relieved that he decided to wear his shoulder-guards today for Saga's talons seemed to have grown a lot longer and sharper than the last time he saw the owl.

Seiya unconsciously moved away from Saga, no doubt remembering how in the first meeting, after he mistook Saga as a pet and called him so, the owl slapped him so hard he left a very red and angry-looking imprint on the poor boy's face. Seiya had been stunned and unresponsive for half an hour until Athena arrived and began healing his face. Then the goddess and her most faithful saint stared at each other lovingly until Milo pulled the poor boy away. But that was a story for another time.

Aiolos couldn't blame Seiya. While he could be sweet and docile most of the time, Aiolos knew that owl Saga had a mean streak on him. Just ask Deathmask and other unfortunate Sanctuary soldiers who have managed to offend Saga one way or another. 

Hyoga looked at Saga perched on Aiolos' shoulder before he looked at Aiolos again, his blue eyes shining. "Trust me, Mister Aiolos, just try to give Mister Saga a true love's kiss'! It might work!"

Shun seemed to have lost some kind of internal war. He started coughing in order to hide his snickering. Seiya, now out of his set and behind Shun, started snickering too. 

"Oh my, what do we have here?" Aphrodite said, suddenly appearing from behind Aiolos. His porcelain skin was flushed with alcohol and his breath smelled of expensive wine but his aquamarine eyes remained shrewd and calculating. 

"Don't mind them. Just kids being kids," Aiolos answered with a hapless smile. 

Aphrodite raised one elegantly–shaped brow. "Oh, and what about the thing I heard about 'a true love's kiss'?" 

Aiolos groaned, embarrassed. He should've known that nothing got past the Pisces Gold Saint. "Hyoga believes that if someone gives Saga 'a true love's kiss he will return back to being a human," he explained with a defeated sigh.

"Oh, is that so?" Aphrodite said and gently picked up Saga from Aiolos' shoulder and to Aiolos and the Bronzes' surprise, gave the top of Saga's head a small kiss. "Oops," Aphrodite fake-gasped. "Forgive me, Saga, because I am not your Prince Charming."

Saga tilted his head, obviously confused. 

Aphrodite turned back to his other drunk companions. He lifted the owl up and asked, very cheerfully, "Hey guys, do you wanna give Saga a true love's kiss that will help him turn back into a human?"

Aiolos' jaw dropped in shock.

Twenty minutes later, Aiolos finally succeeded in rescuing Saga from their drunken friends who all wanted to be a Prince Charming for a day and give the poor beleaguered owl a kiss. Poor Saga's feathers looked ruffled from both stress and exhaustion of evading the hands of annoying giants. 

Aiolos had run inside the Gemini Palace and after finding Saga's old room, locked himself and the owl inside.

Breathing hard, he gave the owl a crooked smile. "We're safe now. You know, I didn't expect Aphrodite's revenge to be like that. He's a nice kid so you must have pissed him a lot after he found out that you asked Athena to wipe his memories of you away. Maybe it is better for us to hide from him for now."

Saga let out a very sad hoot.

Aiolos began rubbing Saga's head to comfort him. "I know, I know, but you should really turn back into a human and apologize to Aphrodite and everyone else soon. You didn't need to apologize to me because I've already forgiven you a long time ago but the others needed to hear your apology."

"Hoo-hoo."

Aiolos stared down at Saga. Should he...? No, it was a ridiculous notion. Only children believed in fairy tales and to be fair, Hyoga had grown up sheltered because of Camus. And Saga didn't turn back even after being kissed by Aphrodite and the others.

And yet, there was a part in Aiolos that I hoped for. The part that had missed Saga and  longed to see his best friend as human again. The brief glimpse that he'd gotten of Saga back in Manila wasn't enough. He needed to see Saga's beautiful face again, to hear Saga's voice, to touch Saga's hands and to finally confess the feelings he continued to harbor for his long-time friend for fifteen years. 

Besides, it wouldn't hurt to try, right? And Aiolos was sure that after this day, Kanon would resume in preventing him from seeing Saga again. 

What can he even do against overprotective younger twins...

Aiolos looked at Saga's large green eyes. "Can I?"

Saga tilted his head and crooned. 

Taking that as Saga giving him permission, Aiolos closed his eyes, sighed and gave Saga a kiss on top of his head.

Nothing happened.

Aiolos' lips parted in a self–deprecating smile. "I knew that nothing will happen but–"

Suddenly, a bright flash of light enveloped the whole room, nearly blinding Aiolos.

When Aiolos managed to open his eyes again, he was lying on the floor, both his back and head hurting from colliding on the stone floor and he had a very human and very naked Saga in his arms.

" Saga ?!"

" Aiolos ?!"

Meanwhile, Kanon suddenly woke up from his sleep with a feeling that something was really really wrong...

Chapter Text

Saga felt like he was asleep for a very long time.

He stared at Aiolos' green eyes in shock. What was he doing here in Sanctuary? How did he get here? Where was Kanon, Athena, Julian and Deathmask?!

The last thing he remembered was being beaten by his very furious younger brother until a bright and warm purple light enveloped both of them and his consciousness fell into a deep and comfortable darkness.

But how did this happen? Why was he inside his old room in the Gemini Palace, naked as the day he was born and lying on top of Aiolos?!

Panicking, he tried to untangle himself from his childhood best friend, who kept telling him not to move ("Saga, stop!")  but he could lift his body up, his strength suddenly left him and he collapsed once more on Aiolos, who let out a small sound 'oomph!' as Saga literally knocked his breath away. Saga heard a loud 'thud!' that made him cringe. 

Aiolos closed his eyes and fainted,  the blood in his head slowly leaving it as he lost consciousness, making the young Sagittarius man look lifeless.

Saga's widened. "Aiolos, are you alright?! Did I hurt you?!" he started to panic. Athena, he didn't kill Aiolos again, right?! 

Fortunately (or unfortunately?) said Goddess was napping her tipsiness away inside her own temple that was far from Gemini so she wouldn't witness something inappropriate for her teenage human eyes. However, someone, or several someones, heard the commotion inside and were already standing in front of the door before Saga could try to get off Aiolos's body once more. 

He lifted his and was about to tell them not to enter the room but a deep, booming voice cut him off before he could open his mouth:

" Excalibur !"

"No, Shura, no!" he shouted but he was too late.

He felt Shura's Cosmo rise as Excalibur diagonally cut the heavy stone door into several pieces which exploded towards the room. Saga's instinct took over him and he pressed himself over Aiolos, protecting the younger Greek from the flying pieces of rocks and debris. 

A long moment of silence passed. Saga's heart was beating loudly in his ears, so loudly in fact that he failed to notice the gravity of his and Aiolos' current situation until he heard someone gasping. 

He raised his head and instantly paled when he saw Shura, Aphrodite and Deathmask staring down at them. Aphrodite's blue eyes were very wide and his small rose-colored mouth was opened in a 'O'. Shura was blushing hard (or was he drunk(?) ) and his eyes were moving so quickly they looked like they were about to fly from their sockets in order to avoid meeting Saga's. As for Deathmask; the Italian eyed him up and down, eyed Aiolos and then eyed Saga again, his expression judging. 

Saga felt what remained of his dignity slowly leaving him.

Deathmask sneered. He opened his mouth but before the Cancer Saint could say the words that would have become the nail to Saga's coffin, Shura grabbed him and covered his mouth with his hands.

"Mmmmnnpphh!!!"

Stubbornly keeping his eyes averted, Shura nodded at Saga and the unconscious Aiolos. He then began dragging the struggling Deathmask away, the Italian becoming louder as he cursed Shura, Shura's parents and Shura's ancestors.

Aphrodite took another look at Saga, his beautiful lips curved in a teasing line, mouthed 'Finally' and  'Kanon is awake' before following his rambunctious friends. 

Saga fervently wished for the ground to swallow him up. 

After finally recovering his sanity and strength, Saga decided that a hard floor was not a good place for a possibly concussed Saint to stay sleeping on. He hauled Aiolos up, put one of the Sagittarius' arms around his shoulders and dragged him towards the bed that had been unused for years but was as clean as new and covered with blankets and pillows. 

Gently, as not to aggravate Aiolos' head wound, he laid the younger man down on his bed. Aiolos let out a small moan but didn't wake up. 

Saga stared at Aiolos's sleeping face, his eyes growing soft.

He didn't know why Athena chose to bring back Aiolos in a twenty-seven-year-old when he had died at fourteen, but a part of him was happy about it.Fourteen-year-old Aiolos was already a handsome and strong man but he still had some baby fats and an air of childishness around him. Back in the ruins of the casino resort, Saga hadn't noticed it because Kanon's sudden arrival had taken his attention away, but Aiolos had grown into a very handsome and manly young man. 

Saga blushed. What on Athena's name was he doing ogling his unconscious and defenseless childhood friend? The person whose death was his own fault? Had he become a pervert now? He put his head on his hands and groaned in guilt and shame.

If only he hadn't fallen to his dark side's influence, Aiolos would have grown as a respected Gold Saint together with his younger brother Aiolia and the others. 

'I'm so sorry, Aiolos.'

After a short moment of self-recrimination Saga remembered about Aiolos' concussion and that he really should tend to the poor man's head. Sighing, he sat on the bed and gently cradled Aiolos' head in his palms. While not as skilled in healing injuries as Aphrodite, Saga knew a little bit of first aid. Quietly, he summoned his Cosmo and a warm golden light appeared on his palms. He began healing Aiolos' concussion, who sighed in his sleep. 

A small smile appeared on Saga's lips. Ah, it seemed that his fondness for Aiolos had not disappeared after everything that had happened in the past thirteen years. His heart throbbed with pain. 

Before Saga could go into another inner self-flagellation, he suddenly felt Kanon's Cosmo appeared near him. He raised his head and saw Kanon standing in front of the broken door, watching him and Aiolos with a murderous look on his face. 

Only then did Saga remember that he was still naked from head to toe. And with Aiolos laying on his bed, he didn't need to ask Kanon to find out what his younger brother was thinking right now. 

Saga raised his hands up in a placating manner. "Look, Kanon, this isn't like what you're thinking–"

"Galaxian Explosion!!!"

There was a loud bang! followed by flying stones as the inner parts of the Gemini Palace crumbled underneath the power of its wrathful master. From the large billowing smoke, a naked Saga piggybacking a sleeping Aiolos emerged and frantically ran from a very angry Kanon who was running after them and sending Galaxian Explosions to their way. Saga skillfully avoided each of his brother's attacks but not the poor and innocent pillars who have the misfortune to experience Kanon's wrath. 

Shion's face was rapidly losing color as he watched the destruction under his feet. He closed his eyes and started praying to Athena for patience. And antacids. 

"Oh, cheer up, my friend!" Dohko exclaimed, slapping Shion's back. The Libra Saint was already drunk but he was still holding a glass of beer. "The twins are just having fun on their birthday! You and I were a lot worse back when we were kids! Remember when you dyed your Master's hair blue, stole the Pope's underwear and wore a dress so you can pretend to be a girl and seduce Degel after I dared you to when we were only twelve years old?!"

Shion started praying for a club. So he could bludgeon his childhood friend and send him back to Hades right there and then. 

" SAGA, YOU DAMNED EXHIBITIONIST! ATHENA'S MERCY, PUT SOME PANTS ON! Oh no, Kiki, close your eyes and don't look at them!

"No, Kiki, you absolutely must not take your pants off, young man! Listen to me!  Don't you dare!

" Saga, this is all your fault – STARDUST REVOLUTION! "

"Muu, mind your own business, you punk! Galaxian Explosion! "

"Shut up, Kanon, I'm going to kill you both for tainting Kiki's mind! Stardust Revolution ! "

" Galaxian Explosion! "

" Stardust Revolution !"

Imagining all the bills he had to pay to rebuild the building that the two bastards were destroying right now, Shion began to weep. 

He needed a vacation. Badly. 

"Oy, oy, oy, it looks like you three are having fun. Let me join you~"

Laughing maniacally, Deathmask threw himself over the two quarreling saints to join. Shura and Aphrodite followed him, to make sure that no limbs were lost or to create more chaos, who knew. Aiolia quickly followed them to help his older brother.  In the end even Camus and Milo were pulled in the chaos that followed as Shion's green hair slowly turned to gray. 

And thus more buildings were destroyed as the Gold Saints reenacted the last Holy War.

What about the Silver and Bronze Saints attending the party, you asked? They were all too drunk to care about the shenanigans of their superiors who were also their elders. Also, Shiryu serenading a bright-eyed and blushing Shunrei was more interesting to watch than attempted murders. 

All except for Seiya, who had tried to leap from his table and save Aiolos but Shun and Hyoga quickly pulled him down.

Dohko was now laughing louder, hunched over and hugging his stomach as Shion slowly withered next to him.

Shaka, who was taking a nap with his head leaning on Ikki's right shoulder after drinking more than ten glasses of rum, was shaken by a particularly strong vibration caused by another one of Kanon's Galaxian Explosion. Annoyed, he opened his eyes and erased the six senses of everyone in the range of his sight. After he was done, he happily went to sleep again, much to Ikki's chagrin who served as the Virgo Saint's pillow against his will.  

Saga finally managed to escape Kanon and bring Aiolos back to the Sagittarius Palace. He also set up the traps inside so Kanon wouldn't be able to enter and attempt to murder Aiolos again.

And peace was achieved at last.

But Shion still needed to take a whole bottle of antacids that night. 

Chapter Text

"Tell me, O brave Golden Knight of Athena, how much are you willing to sacrifice for me to grant your wish?"

"What–? Do I really need to answer that question, you crotchety old man? Why should I even take the pains of going into this place unless I've already made up my mind? Tsk, you're really annoying–oh! Oh! It hurts! Stop that, you damned old man."

"You young ones are really disrespectful these days. If you acted like that to anyone in my time, then you won't live for another day.  Learn to respect your elders, you punk."

"Tsk, what's the point? It's not like I'll be still alive after leaving this place. You won't be getting a model student from me so good luck next time, shitty–ouch!"

A tired sigh. "I am a god, so why did I even agree to meet with a disrespectful punk like you? You are not even one of my worshippers and Athena has made a big mess in Olympus by killing Hades. Everyone in Olympus is angry with her, including her Papa Dearest, and if they found out that I'm meeting you today then they will get angry with me too. This is so troublesome. I bet my brother is laughing his ass off at me right now, that bastard."

"Are you done moaning, you useless god? I don't have much time, you know. My brothers–in-arms are currently freezing their naked asses inside that stupid statue and another annoying goddess is trying to destroy the world. And Poseidon's Marinas are all too dumb, and yeah, that includes Kanon, to properly succeed in stopping her."

"Don't be impatient, you punk!" Another sound of a fist hitting the young man's head which resulted in a string of colorful curses in several different languages.  "Honestly, I shouldn't have let that helpless man raise you. And stop swearing at me or I'll clean your mouth using the soaps that Hermes gave to me as gifts five months ago."

"You wouldn't dare! I'm a Saint of Athena–!"

"Yeah, yeah, and right now your helpless goddess is currently under Apollo's hands while you're standing under my roof. I can punish you however I want, young Mister ."

"Tsk, whatever."

"Now you're listening to me. Good. You know, I still can't believe that you chose to visit only after Athena got into trouble, her Sanctuary is curreny in ruins and it has just lost the majority of the Earth's protectors. I'm sorry for your brothers. The other gods are vindictive, you already know that, so I doubt they will let them out of that statue and allow them to enter Elysium or the circle of reincarnation for five thousand years at least."

"...Wait, you believe that the Saints of Athena deserve to enter Elysium?"

"Why not? Hades might've been a petty, genocidal bastard but even he wouldn't be allowed to judge the souls that entered the Underworld wrongly. The Three Judges were there for a good reason. I'm sure they would've sent all of you to Elysium after the War no matter which side would win if only Athena hadn't killed Hades and destroyed half of the Underworld. But alas, she did kill him, though I could never blame her for that. Hades had changed so much after a millennia that even I, who had known him for more, can no longer recognize him at all. If only the Death and Disappearance of Persephone hadn't happened then..."

"Oi, oi, you useless old god, stop rambling and go back to business!"

"Fine! Stop being impatient, you rascal! What are you even getting impatient for? It's not like time is moving inside my realm. But fine, I'll consider what you have told me in the letter you sent. So you want to turn back time to save someone, right?"

A nod of agreement. A pair of eyes flashing with steely determination. The god sighed.

"I can help you. I can give you the means to turn back the time.. But only for a couple of months. And how to save that person, the rest will be up to you. But I'll be warning you that it will be a difficult journey for you and in the end you will lose your life. No one will be ever to help you, including Athena or one of her other Saints and you'll be alone for eternity."

"Ehh, so what?"

Another hit to the disrespectful young man's head and a tired sigh. "Then so be it, you punk. Since I've already promised to help you, then I will. And it's not like time is a linear thing for me so whatever you do wouldn't it affect me at all. I've already prepared the artifact that you can use to turn back time and save that person. Though why would you want to save the person who'd ruined your life is beyond me..."

"I can explain it to you but you wouldn't understand, old man."

"Yeah, yeah, you mortals are so hard to understand. Your thought processes are complex and your emotions are a tangled mess of threads that even after I've lived with you mortals for thousands of years I've never been able to understand you. But you are lucky that I am fond of you, you punk, or I wouldn't have taken you out of that ugly giant statue, brought you back to Earth and given you your Gold Cloth back, you ungrateful brat! If I had known that you were going to mess with time then I would've just let you ugly butt freeze inside that statue with other naked men for eternity."

"But you wouldn't."

"Yes, damn it! I wouldn't! Why do I even care after your stupid ass? You're not even the paragon of virtues and staunch defender of humans. Hades, you're not even cute! I could have taken out that Sagittarius boy instead of you. I bet he's a lot nicer and cuter than you, you ugly kid."

"Eww, leave Athena's golden boy alone, you dirty old man."

"I should smite you. you ungrateful brat. Yeah, yeah, I should. But I won't. Now take this artifact and get your ugly ass on top of the Starhill. The stars are perfectly aligned tonight and the gods wouldn't realize that you're already out of the statue for three more hours because they're still in the middle of debating whatever punishment they'll give to Athena. You will have enough time to perform the ritual under their noses."

"Thank you, old man....and goodbye."

"Hmph! Now get out of my sight and go perform that ritual! But remember, there will be consequences for messing up with time.You must prepare yourself for them, or else you won't be able to save that person. "

He blinked as his mind left that old memory to go back to the present.

Though confused at first, it wasn't long before all of his memories of that past timeline returned to him.

Why did he only remember that conversation right now? He remembered that the ritual had been successful and he managed to not only save that person but so many others by turning back time. And even though there was the unexpected trouble with Saga and the Gemini's guilt and self-hatred, everything turned out really well even without him lifting a finger. 

Why did so many things change in this new timeline? How did Hades, Pandora and the Three Judges survive this time? Why didn't the other gods go for Athena to bring her back and imprison her in Olympus just like in that other timeline, even after she broke a taboo by resurrecting her dead Saints? 

Why was the Pegasus Saint out of coma and where did the Sword of Hades go? 

Was he really the one who had memories of the other timeline? But how did he lose his memories of that other timeline? He wasn't supposed to lose them, if he would believe that god's words and he had no reason to distrust that old guy, no matter how infuriating or baffling he could be just like the other gods. 

He turned his eyes back to the twins, who were both grumbling and arguing with each other while the others started cleaning up after the party. He rubbed his right wrist, which had been broken during the scuffle by none other than Kanon and healed by Aphrodite. 

Aiolos ran towards the twins and covered Saga's naked ass with what looked like one of the linens used to cover one of the tables. Kanon very rudely shooed him away.

He wondered how much time he still had left in this world.

As if to answer that question, an excruciating flash of pain sliced his chest and his mouth became full of blood. His eyes blurred and his breath became shallow for a second. Cold perspiration covered his forehead. With great difficulty, he swallowed back the blood inside his mouth.

His pale lips parted in a sardonic smile.

Everything was so troublesome. He should've stayed back in the Underworld after all.

Athena opened her eyes. She was inside her room in her Temple, laying on her soft pristine white bed sheets. She was still wearing the yellow party dress she wore for the twins' party.

She touched her head. Her mind was clear and she could no longer feel the lingering effects of the alcohol she consumed during the party. 

Slowly, she rose from the bed and walked towards the open window. She looked up at the blue sky.

Suddenly, an ugly feeling pressed in her heart and she felt dizzy. She swayed and gripped the windowsill to steady herself and not fall. 

When her mind cleared up once more, her heart was pounding hard. 

She knew that feeling well. A new calamity was upon them.

Meanwhile, in a dark, endless space removed from the realms of gods, humans or the dead, a pair of red eyes opened. The space started shaking, distorting, as if struggling to contain a calamity inside of it.

A calamity that this time, not even the gods, would be able to contain once more.

Poseidon was awake. Julian could feel the god's presence at the back of his head. The god was growing restless and Julian could even feel the god's growing fear like it was his own.

He swallowed his saliva, his own heart beating loudly. He stood up from his seat and reached for his phone on the desk.

He needed to find Sorrento and the other resurrected Marinas. 

Sitting upon his throne in the Underworld, Hades threw his head back with a derisive laugh.

'Oh, my poor dear Athena. What have you done?'