So, here it is. The sequel to 'price of a friend', 'price of trust'. Hope you all like it.

Note: Don't get mad, because I say some rather disturbing things about God in the beginning of this fic. I don't mean to bring any ones faith or religion down.

Since I never read the Hades chapter. I'll simply ignore it. This fic is taking place sometime after Poseidon and just after my other fic 'Price of a friend'.

Ther'll be some cursing and violence in this fic.

Betaed by the wonderful Kittyluv.

PRICE OF TRUST

Chapter 1

Hyoga woke from the speaker's announcement that the plane was about to land in ten minutes.

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his uninjured right hand and chased the last bit of tiredness from his body with a heavy sigh.

Turning his head to the side, he gazed at Shun who had been supposed to wake him some time ago. But one look at his friend showed him the reason why the younger Saint had failed to do so. Shun was slumped in his seat, sound asleep.

Hyoga cursed silently. He really had wanted to talk to Shun about what had happened, and how he had lost his Cosmo before he came to Russia. His friend's belief that Athena had temporarily taken away his Cosmo was not right. Far from it. It had been himself, who had acted against her orders or even knowledge. He had put his emotions above his duty and had given up being a Saint to save his best friend.

Athena would be all but thrilled by that, Hyoga supposed, and he would have liked to prepare Shun before they returned to the mansion. He wasn't too eager to face her and receive the reproach he was sure to get, but he hoped she would understand his actions, even if she did not approve of them. Especially if he told her about the old lady and that Shun had indeed been in danger from Natasha. Maybe there was a way he could yet be of some use to her some way or another. He still had his fighting skills and knowledge of a saint he could pass on to somebody else.

And who knew. Maybe, if he trained very hard, he could regain or rebuild his own Cosmo in the years to come. His sensei Crystal had taught him that a Cosmo lay within every human being. Part of ones soul. That had been the reason why he felt so hollow inside, since his Cosmo was gone.

The old woman had, by his own wishes, ripped a deep wound in his spirit.

Even now, after he had had some time to adjust, he still felt the emptiness and the lonely, cold feeling inside. Not even the warmth in the plane's cabin could help get rid of that, even if he had physically recovered from the bone-deep cold in his body from wandering three days through the snow covered woods with Shun. Hyoga knew that he shouldn't complain. He hadn't lost any toes or fingers and gotten nothing more than some pain from the cold. Every normal human being would not be so lucky, but he naturally had a higher resistance to the chill since he grew up in the endless snowfields of Siberia. For a few hours, he could tolerate low temperatures easy enough, even without Cosmo.

But walking in the cold, wet snow for three cold days and even more freezing nights, keeping guard in turns with Shun, had nearly been too much.

It would have been, hadn't his friend heated the air around him on the last night. It was the second time he had helped him this way. He owed him. Burning a Cosmo for so long was exhausting but Shun had done it without a second thought. The Andromeda Saint was too kind-hearted to only sit by, letting him get frostbite or worse if there was a way to do anything about it.

His gaze softened as he looked at his best friend and a slight smile played around his lips. Shun had a big heart. He hated to inflict pain and kill with his powers as a Saint. He preferred to help others rather than fight them. Hyoga didn't have those scruples killing an enemy; as long as it was not one of the people he loved. Not that that has ever been a cause to stop me killing my adversary, mind you, Hyoga thought with a good bit of bitterness.

Would Shun be able to kill a loved one to save a greater good? Perhaps he would. Shun had a sense of love for all people. So in one sense, he killed someone he felt compassion for with every enemy he ever fought. He simply was unable to hate anybody enough to wish his or her death and killing always hurt him more than he ever let on.

Hyoga could sympathize with this side of Shun to some extend. He had felt the same while he had been forced to fight his sensei Crystal, Aquarius Camus and Isaac. He didn't want to kill them. They were family, and he couldn't handle losing more of his family. Hyoga didn't make friends easily. He just wasn't like Seiya, who could get along with anybody naturally. He had always been quiet and only joked around with people he trusted. He had been hurt and left alone too many times by people he cared for, so he tried not to care about too many people anymore. Athena and his brothers were the only ones he considered his family now. And he only had few friends, like Milo or Freya.

Other than that, he tried not to care too much about others, what sometimes proved to be quite difficult. All ice-Saints were supposed to be cold in their feelings, but he could not do that. Once he considered someone his friend or family, he could not detach himself anymore. He just didn't understand how he was supposed to simply switch off his feelings towards another, like Camus had told him to do in the Libra-temple. Maybe it was for the best that he was no Saint anymore. Ikki had said it a couple of weeks before. He was a danger to all close to him.

He pulled himself from those thoughts. It was always a dangerous route to take and he had bigger worries ahead of himself, to afford sinking into the past. He straightened and put the seat in an upright position, before he reached over and slightly shook Shun's shoulder.

"Hey, Shun."

The green haired Saint stirred and blinked a few times sleepily.

"Time to wake up. We are about to land," the Russian said softly.

Shun sat up straight yawning widely. "What, already?"

Hyoga chuckled "Still tired?"

Shun smiled at him. "I didn't even know I was tired until I fell asleep."

The announcement to put the seats in the upright position, stop smoking and fasten the seatbelts interrupted them. They reached for the belts, fastening them, which took Hyoga some fumbling before he managed one-handed. He winced as he made a sudden move and hit his broken limb against the armrest of the seat.

Shun looked at him worriedly. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Hyoga said with an apologizing half-grin. "I just should try not using that arm to beat up plane seats until a doctor puts a real splint or cast around it."

Shun smiled back. Hyoga didn't fool himself. He knew Shun and was certain that his friend would make sure he went to the hospital as soon as possible to get the arm looked at. The Russian medic had re-bandaged it and taken off the rugs, which Shun had bound around it, but the arm needed to be set by somebody with the right equipment.

"How do we get home?" the Andromeda Saint asked, changing the topic for now. "I don't have any money for a taxi. You?"

"Niet. Not even any change for a bus. We can try to hitchhike. The way we look, somebody will surely have pity on us."

"Or they will run away screaming," Shun smirked.

"I only regret that I didn't get to explain everything yet," Hyoga sighed.

"Well, as you said, nobody died. I will get to know everything soon enough, don't worry about it, okay?"

Hyoga nodded, but he had a bad feeling about it all.

stsstsstsstsstsstsstssts

Saori was walking trough the small forest beside the house, thinking. Tatsumi followed her silently a few meters behind, not interrupting her thoughts. She stopped by a tree, which wore a small hole at eye high. A mark from Shun's chain, when she had been attacked from Bud at the beginning of the war against Asgard. She touched the mark lightly with the tips of her fingers.

It had actually been only a little over a year, since they had come out of the war against Asgard's warriors and Poseidon and his marinas after that. Still, it seemed to her that an eternity had passed since then.

Saori hadn't slept much last night after the unexpected visit she had had. She knew what she had to do, but she didn't like it at all. The five bronze-Saints were very important to her after all. They had become so much more than merely her defenders in the last couple of years. Especially Seiya. He intrigued her and even though she would never admit it, she felt very attracted to his wild easy-going nature.

But she worried about all of them. She knew that it was not right for Athena to be so attached to her warriors. She was a Goddess and their only purpose was to protect her and help maintaining the peace on earth.

But Athena had reincarnated in the body of a simple mortal girl. She knew that she had treated the Saints badly at first, but they had forgiven and gone through hell for her.

She closed her eyes, cursing Athena and her duty towards mankind. For it may doom one of her Saints, one of her friends, today.

She heard somebody approach from behind. Letting her hand fall to her side, she turned slowly to see her remaining three Saints come through the woods.

Saori had expected them to find her, wanting to talk about their further actions in finding and rescuing Shun. She was not ready for the coming argument, but there was no putting it off unfortunately.

"Have you talked to Russia again?" Ikki greeted her.

She nodded.

"And? Will she let him go?" he asked.

Saori lowered her head for a minute, before she met his gaze. "No. She won't. And there is no help from the Russian Authorities either, as long as we don't have any more proof."

"But what are we gonna do now?" Seiya asked. "We searched like mad and haven't found the slightest trace of any bomb."

"Searching further will be in vain. We don't know where they are and we will never find them all. And if we do, we won't know it, since we don't know their number." Shiryu added.

Saori sighed. "There is nothing we can do, I'm afraid."

Ikki narrowed his eyes, a dangerous spark springing to life in them. "What do you mean to say by that?"

"Simply that there is no way I will risk another war or the cost of innocent lives for one of my Saints." She answered in a stern voice, holding Ikki's gaze, waiting for the explosion.

She didn't have to wait for long.

"WHAT!! You plan on giving up Shun just like that?" Ikki spat. He raised his fist and waved it threateningly in front of his face. "I don't give a damn about you being a Goddess or about it being Shun's duty to protect those lives. He is my brother. I don't even know those "innocent" people you are talking about. I kept still long enough. I will go get my brother out. Whether you like it or not."

Seiya stepped in front of Saori, facing the older Saint. "Stop it right there Ikki. You don't know what you're saying."

"Oh I know perfectly well what I'm saying!" he hissed with a sneer. "I say, that I will go get my brother out. I will not abandon him!"

"Athena is right as you know perfectly well," Shiryu tried to reason. "We will not abandon Shun. There simply is nothing we can do for the moment. We have to think about something else." He put a hand on Ikki's shoulder in a calming manner. But Ikki shrugged the hand off.

"I've waited long enough. You haven't had any ideas so far, and you won't find any if we wait any longer! Find the bombs or don't find them, I don't care, but I will go and get my brother. And I will kill anyone who gets in my way!"

Seiya took one step towards him, narrowing his eyes and clenching his fist. "Are you challenging me?"

"If you try to stop me, you will have to bear the consequences," Ikki replied, a fire in his eyes, which easily matched Seiya's.

They stood like this for a moment, starring one at another in a silent battle of will. They were only seconds before going off one at the other, as a cheery voice made them freeze in shock.

"If your only problem is the location of the bombs. I may be able to help you."

Like in slow motion, all eyes went to the source of the well-known voice. Shun was standing beside a tree, leaning his left shoulder against its trunk, beaming at them.

TBC