May It Be
Chapter 1
Journey's Beginning is Journey's End
"We were strangers starting out on our journey
Never dreaming what we'd have to go through
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you"

Virgo Kasumi gazed down from the roof of the Pope's temple. She could see the Gold Saints, her Gold Saints, damn, they were nearly her own sons, gathering below. Every generation was like this. Every few decades passed with the training a of a new generation of Saints, training them to live and die for their goddess in preparation for the next Holy War. She prayed to Athena that she would not live to see that awful slaughter again.

"I thought you might be up here." Kasumi smiled behind her mask as Shion sat down on the roof's edge next to her, his helmet tucked under one arm. "Are you worried?"

"A bit," she admitted, "It's been a very long time since that family last walked the same path as the Saints."

"Why the eldest, I wonder?" Shion mused, "They are supposed to send the youngest."

"You are the one who allowed it," Kasumi replied, "There was a time once when such an act would have been forbidden."

Shion shrugged, "I was curious, and something about that boy intrigues me."

"You know Morizan wants to use him to gain more power," Kasumi scolded, "This is the first time since the Holy War that all eighty-eight Cloths will be worn. If his son can become a Gold Saint, maybe even the Pope one day..."

"Hush, Kasumi," Shion lovingly batted at her long blue-black hair, "You of all people should know not to judge the son by the father." Kasumi gave an exasperated sigh. "I know you're worried, Kasumi. These next few years are going to be long and hard. I can feel the Fates stirring and I need no great senses to tell me that Aiolos will not be welcome among his peers or even the Gold Saints training them. He will need all the help he can get."

Kasumi shook her head slowly, "This generation...they aren't like us, like the saints of old." She gazed down at Sagittarius Ronan, a tall and powerful looking Greek man with dark eyes and pale hair, as he led a small, shy shadow of a boy towards the temple. "They disregard Athena's laws, try to raise you up as a god in her stead. Many sneak into Athens by night..."

Shion sighed and stood up, offering his hand to the Virgo saint, "They will suffer Athena's wrath, just as I have."

Aiolos did his best to shrink behind his teacher's legs. Even so, he could feel the cruel glares of the elder Gold Saints. It wasn't his fault he was an Alexius, or that his dad was a jerk. He had not asked to become a Saint! He was just glad that none of the other students knew that, just that their teachers did not like him.

"Hey! Alexius!"

'Great.'

"Is that him?"

"Yeah, that's Morizan's son."

"Master Electrian?" Saga tugged on the Gemini Saint's cloak, "Who's that?"

The twin Gemini Saints turned their identical red eyes to where Saga was pointing. "Isn't that the Alexius boy?" Vulpine asked, facing his brother.

"Aiolos Alexius," Electrian nodded solemnly. "Saga, Kanon," the twin boys looked up at their gray-haired masters, "That boy will be your greatest rival. He is the son of the Alexius family who stands guard over Sanctuary, said to be the most powerful of the saints."

"Rival?" Kanon repeated brightly, "Like we gotta fight him?" a manic grin was crossing his face.

Vulpine smiled thinly, "Electrian and Sagittarius Ronan have hated each other since the day they met. It's always been like that."

Saga scowled, "I don't want someone else to choose my rival for me!"

Kanon snorted and ribbed his brother, "I saw you." He lowered his voice to a whisper, "You were thinking that anyway, you twit."

Saga blushed crimson and turned on his heel and shouted, "Hey! Alexius!"

He watched with a satisfied smirk as Aiolos cringed before schooling his face into an impassive smile and stepping forward with an easygoing, "Yeah?"

Saga stopped short, mouth hanging half-open, every fiber of his five year old being shaking. Aiolos' emerald green eyes were literally blazing like fireballs. Had it been dark, his eyes would have surely glowed.

"You called?" Aiolos asked, still smiling.

'What was I going to say?' Saga thought desperately.

Aiolos took another step forward. Then another. They were almost nose-to-nose. Aiolos studied him curiously, "What's your name?"

"Saga," a pause, "And you're Aiolos Alexius. Everybody knows your name." Aiolos cringed, making Saga smile. "So what?" Saga asked. He brought his hand up to Aiolos' chest and shoved as hard as he could. Aiolos, caught off guard, hit the cold stone floor of the temple with a muffled thud. Without missing a beat, Saga followed and pulled him up by the front of his tunic, so close their noses really did touch, "You're just Aiolos to me, and your eyes don't scare me, got it?"

Aiolos snarled and shoved him away, "Kiss my ass, Saga."

With a unanimous snarl, the boys turned away from each other and walked back to their masters. "Saga," Kanon whispered as his twin passed, "Why are you smiling?"

Aiolos could not make himself stop smiling, even when Cancer Marius' student came up and punched him in the arm. "What are you smilin' about?" Angelo asked.

"Dunno," Aiolos replied with a shrug.

Angelo looked over the shorter boy's shoulder and caught Kanon's eye. Kanon rolled his eyes in his twin's direction and shook his head. Angelo gave an understanding nod. "Well, just Aiolos," he teased, turning back to his friend, "Glad you found something to smile at. That fake smile of your is just creepy."

With a few obvious exceptions, the gathered students were all understandably uneasy around each other. Saga and Kanon kept to themselves, watched from the distance by Pisces Ariel's young student who refused to detach himself from his master's legs. Aiolos and Angelo, bored with their masters who seemed only interested in glaring at each other, started amusing themselves by trying to get a reaction out of the otherwise stoic Aquarius Solaris and his student. Capricorn Lorres and his student were sitting a few feet apart from everyone else, content to simply observe.

"Where are the others?" Kanon asked suddenly, "Didn't you say there are twelve Gold Saints?"

"They either don't have students yet," Vulpine explained, "Or are refusing to take them."

Electrian nodded, "Virgo Kasumi and Pope Shion both show no signs of ever intending to take students."

As if on cue, the aforementioned saints appeared. Even under the layers of her Gold Cloth and the white and gold mask she wore, it was obvious that Virgo Kasumi was quite beautiful. Standing next to Pope Shion, the two made quite a regal looking couple.

The Gold Saints and Aiolos automatically bowed to the duo, the remaining students making a stumbling effort to follow their lead.

"Who's the broad?" Angelo whispered from the corner of his mouth.

Aiolos stomped on his foot, "That's Kasumi-sensei. She was a student during the last Holy War and she's been helping the Pope train the Gold Saints ever since. She's super-powerful and really, really nice." A small blush crawled across his cheeks.

Kasumi gave a loud, musical laugh, "I like you, too, Aio-chan." Aiolos turned scarlet and Saga, Angelo, and Kanon hooted with laughter.

"I see she hears very well too," Angelo sniggered.

Aiolos only turned redder. Shion chuckled, drawing everyone's attention away from the blushing Sagittarius student. "Now that that interesting little bit of romance is over with," he smiled at Aiolos, who by this time could have put a tomato out of business, "I'd like to welcome all of you here, Athena's loyal Gold Saints and her future guardians as well."

"You are an evil, cruel, and vile old man, Aries Shion," Kasumi whispered an hour later as he escorted her back to the Virgo temple.

"You started it," Shion replied evenly.

Kasumi could not help but smile, "What about you, Shion-sensei? You promised me that you would pass the Aries cloth on soon."

"And you know I will keep my promise." Shion stopped with her at the temple's entrance, "My great-grandson, Jien, will be coming here soon with his family. I intend to train him."

"Has the Aries cloth always belonged to one of the Jamir race?" Kasumi asked curiously.

Shion nodded, "My family, much like the Alexius, has been a caretaker of Sanctuary since the time of the gods. We are the ones who repair and tend to the cloths. It's always been that way."

"Tradition, tradition, tradition," Kasumi shook her head in exasperation and took off the white and gold mask that hid her face, "Don't you ever get sick of tradition, Shion-sensei?"

"I get more sick of you trying to break it," Shion chuckled, leaning forward to kiss his student's brow, "Get some rest, my child."

"Goodnight, father," Kasumi whispered as she watched him walk away. She gazed down at her mask, the white shield that hid her face from all around her. The gold phoenix painted on it was a remnant of the days when she had thought that she would become a Bronze Saint and nothing more, her master too young and too powerful for her to ever surpass.

And yet here she was, two and a half centuries later, wearing her master's Gold Cloth of Virgo and guiding the next generation of saints just as he had. The Phoenix Cloth, the prize she had reached and fought so long and so hard for, was now worn by another, a young man that she truly despised.

"Maybe it is time that I took a student," she mused as she returned to her temple. But as she removed her armor, a chill went through her body. As old as she was, as much as she longed for her old life, her old friends, her beloved baby brother, she could not imagine trying to live without the weight of the Virgo Cloth on her shoulders. Just the thought of giving it to another, of trying to go on with her life...

"No," Kasumi decided, touching the silver pendant hanging around her neck, "not yet. I'm sorry, little brother, but I can't join you yet."

End Chapter 1
Aiolos gritted his teeth and pulled again, trying to free his leg from under the fallen pillar. He could not stay here. If he did he would certainly die. White hot pain short through his leg and for a few vital seconds he blacked out.