A/N: This is a parallel story to "Through Crimson Eyes" by Mickie619... I'm very excited to be able to write with my best friend and a very talented writer, so be sure to check out her story as well, as mine is only half the story!

Strictly Seiya's P.O.V, Post Stars.

I stood next to my princess as we took in the side of our barren planet of Kinmoku. It took all the strength in me not to fall to my knees in despair. I needed to be strong.. I had to be strong. I'm the leader. My princess and comrades need a strong leader to lead them through the hard times..and this was certainly one of them.

"Welcome home, Princess." I managed to say without a waver in my voice. This wasteland sure as hell didn't look like the Kinmoku I grew up on.

I looked to Kakyuu, who had tears forming in her eyes.

Please don't be sad...

"It's okay, princess." I told her. Actually, I think I said it more for myself than anything.

Maker chimed in something, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was struggling not to lose my mind. On Earth, I had been easily distracted by a certain blonde with a crazy hairstyle. Then I had Galaxia to worry about. But now..all that could be on my mind was Kinmoku.. a pathetic sight at best.

I found myself walking, gravitating to the spot where I used to train for countless hours. I stopped, and stared down at the ashes. It had burned to the ground the night that Kinmoku fell. I still can't believe our entire planet succumbed in one evening! It all happened so fast... Guilt panged in my heart as I thought of friends I had lost that evening. Friends that would never, could never come back. They were just ordinary Kinmokans. They didn't hold starseeds. They were lost forever.

Some had become phages...some I had killed with my own hands. Once more, guilt panged through my heart. Sailor Moon..she never sacrificed anyone.. I wish I had held her ideals back then. I looked to the sky briefly, wondering how they were all doing. Most likely happy, celebrating their victory. We would celebrate, eventually. Now was simply not the time.

Now...is a time for mourning... I felt hot tears slip down my cheeks as I remembered all that was lost on that fateful evening, almost exactly one year ago. For the first time, I can properly feel the pain, of losing absolutely everything I once knew. I had always forced it away, telling myself "We must find the princess, there's no time to be sad!" or, "Galaxia won't wait for us to recover from our loss. We can't give her any opportunities!".

The others had called my disloyal, for not grieving of Kinmoku the way they did. I disagree. I didn't grieve for Kinmoku, because I was loyal to it. I wouldn't grieve the death of my planet, because I never truly believed it died. After all, here we are..ready to build anew.

Wasn't there an old mythological Earth creature that had a similar story? What was it..? Oh yeah! A phoenix! A bird that burns brilliantly for a short time, but then dies in a heap of ashes. But from the ashes rises another, often stronger than the first. Kinmoku never died, because from it's ashes will rise a new Kinmoku, more brilliant than ever.

I regained from my thoughts, and saw Kakyuu wandering aimlessly. She stopped, and picked up a damaged white and black bear. I glanced at Maker, and she nodded in response. We went to our princess' side as she cried. I knew she missed her parents. We all did. I hugged her tightly, Maker did the same on her other side. We had all gone through so much..lost so much. But I couldn't help but hold onto the hope, that from this all, things would end up better than they had before. They just had to. I don't have anything else to believe in

"Hey, Maker can you build us some place to stay for the night? We can start re-building tomorrow" I said, suddenly. I wanted to break up the reminiscing everyone was doing. We needed a distraction.

"Hai," Maker said. She stood with her hands on her hips scanning through the rubble. Healer caught her eye on something and got up to walk over. I sat where Healer had been sitting, next to my princess.

"It's finally over," she said quietly.

"Hai, we completed our mission, now we can rebuild." I said, trying in vain to remain optimistic.

"Speaking of rebuild, Fighter help me," Maker said, trying to lift a pillar on her own.

"Got it," I said., leaping to my feet and going to Maker's side. With a bit of a grunt from the both of us, we managed to pull the pillar up to standing. It was in good shape, although it had some scorch marks, which I recognized as being from Healer's Sensitive Inferno attack. We erected four more pillars, and managed to lift a part of the roof over top. A sighed as I looked at the pathetic excuse of a shelter. It'd have to do, I was far too exhausted to do much else. We all were...the trip from Earth to Kinmoku-sei was so long and tiring. I could see it in the eyes of the others, despite their attempts to hide it.

I noticed Healer looking rather upset over something, Kakyuu at her side. Enter distraction number two of the day.

"Oh yeah, I'm just that good!" I said loudly, striking a ridiculous pose. I heard Maker giggle behind me.

I heard Healer complaining about the soundness of the impromptu structure Maker and I had put up, and thus retaliated.

"It'll only collapse on you, midget." I said. I struggled not to laugh at her as she growled (rather endearingly, I'll admit) at me. Kakyuu threw up her hands in exasperation.

"We've been through enough, please no more fighting, no more arguing at least for tonight," Kakyuu requested.

"That's hard to expect, her name is literally Fighter," Maker pointed out. I jumped and landed on my feet, posing once again, ridiculously. A large smile graced my lips as I spoke.

"Exactly."

Kakyuu sighed, before giving up at maintaining order, and laughing. I think she was a little too tired. Healer growled at me, yet again. I glared at her and waved her on, towards me.

"You two are just too much." Maker said, sighing and rubbing her rather large temples.

"I guess they can have fun, it's been so long since we've been able to relax," Kakyuu said. I bowed respectfully in appreciation. Nothing blew off steam like shoving the midget around.

"Arrigatou, Kakyuu-hime." I said.

"Does this mean I can bring Fighter down to size?" Healer asked.

"Beating me over and over again won't bring me down to as small as your size,"I said arrogantly. Maker snickered, Kakyuu covered her mouth, and Healer just glared at me.

"You're going to eat those words!" Healer screeched as she lunged at me with her fists. I side stepped and she stumbled, foolishly leaving her open to my powerful sweep kick.

Healer propped herself up on her hands and knees, struggling to her feet. She turned around in time to see my signature cocky smirk. Healer growled in annoyance. I tried not to laugh at her. This was all just fun and games, after all!

"C'mon Healer, bring me down to your level...if you can..." I taunted with an air of boredom.

Healer charged at me again, and I leaned down low, angling my shoulder into Healer's stomach. In a fluid movement, I stood up and flipped Healer over my back. I heard her hiss in pain, and I felt almost sorry for her. Almost.

Maker complimented my move, and I smirked slightly at her.

I turned around slowly, almost victoriously to face Healer once more...only to get a fist in my face! A wave of red hit my eyes as I clutched my newly sore mouth. Thank god it wasn't my nose..not that Healer could reach that high.. A second later, and Healer's fist nailed my stomach. Too bad for her that I'm an athlete. I think she hurt her hand on my toned stomach. I smirked as I cuffed Healer a good one under the chin, causing her to gasp and stumble back. In an instant, I had her pinned, one knee on her chest, the other on the ground.

"I win short stuff." I whispered cockily, and stood up. I offered a hand to Healer, as I always did. She grumbled angrily, but accepted the help up, anyways.

I heard Kakyuu-hime clapping.

"Good job guys," she said ecclesiastically.

"Did you guys get that all out of your system?" Maker asked.

"For now," Healer muttered. I had a feeling she planned on asking for a rematch. Not that she'd win it, anyways...

"Anywhere, anytime shrimp," I said, ruffling her hair. I smiled internally as I could hear her annoyance in the steps she took away from me.

"Can we relax for the rest of the night?" Kakyuu asked. I nodded, as did my teammates. We made our way over to the lame structure Maker and I had pulled up, just as rain began to fall.

Rain.

It reminded me of then..

-Flashback-

"Am I good enough?"

I don't think I'll ever know why I felt the need to ask her that question. I knew she couldn't give me an answer. Or at least, not the one that I had wanted to hear.

"Am I good enough?"

I asked her once more. I saw her look of shock and surprise. I heard her silence. And my heart broke. I wanted to protect her..so I did. I wanted to love her..so I did. But I knew, all along, that she couldn't love me. It just wasn't meant to be.

And so I backed down. I walked home that night, in the pouring rain...

It was cold. And dark..and dreary, and utterly miserable. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. I did some soul searching, as I walked home slowly that evening.

Briefly, I wondered if I should give up on her altogether. Leave her on her own to fight Galaxia, see if her "Mamo-chan" cared enough to show up and help her. But then I decided that went against everything I stood for.

In the end, I decided that it was useless to try to forget her. It was useless to try to win her over, as well. In the end, I fought for her..because it was what I, Seiya wanted.

But maybe it was what Fighter had wanted, as well..

Something to protect...Something to stand for..Something to believe in.

And it had worked. We defeated Galaxia. We avenged our princess, and in a stroke of luck, she had been returned to us.

-End Flashback-

And so here we are. In the rain. There is nothing left here, but ourselves. But we will begin a new. I bet Maker already has plans on building the first ever computer here. I wrapped a comforting arm around my troubled princess.

"It'll be alright, so long as we stick together..." I whispered to her.

"We four are closer than friends, than teammates..." Healer agreed. I sighed heavily, the sound of the rain coming down making my horribly exhausted, and I leaned my head on Maker's shoulder and closed my eyes. I felt her head lean against mine.. and soon after, Kakyuu's head found it's way to my shoulder. I felt Healer lay across our laps. The three of us fell asleep there, in the rain, in a desolate world, the only living beings being ourselves.

And for some strange reason, it was peaceful.

We were home.

Not just physically home..but home because we were together. Our hearts were one, and we would never be separated, right?

Right.