A song for Sagittarius
Saori sat on her balcony overlooking the gardens of the Kido property. Although not much of that was visible anymore, as a December night was descening over Tokyo.
The goddess had packed herself in white, warm boots, a thick, dark-blue coat that fit her hair color and white gloves. It was winter, but Athena had insisted against Tatsumi's protests to go outside. She wanted to see the stars, the constellations that guarded her Saints.
She spotted Cygnus, Pegasus and Draco. Three of the five who had protected her. And of course, there were others; Orion, Aquila, Scorpio, Sagittarius…
Sagittarius.
Saori stared up at the warmly glittering stars. Somehow, she had the unsettling feeling that they were blinking at her in greeting.
Now that the Battle of Twelve Houses was over and things had settled down, Saori had had time tot hink about many things. About being Athena. About her Saints.
About her escaping death narrowly at the price of someone else's life thirteen years ago.
The life of the Sagittarius Saint, to be more precise. Saori gazed at the constellation again. Aiolos was the name of the Saint it had guarded, of the youth who had given his life for her. It still stung Athena's heart, more so than even the death of those fallen during the retaking of Sanctuary.
Unable to contain herself, she had gone down to the Ninth House the day after Saga's defeat. And just like she had hoped, Aiolia had been there, staring silently at the message engraved in the wall. His brother's last will to Seiya, Hyoga, Shiryu, Ikki and Shun. Saori had thrown all caution to the wind and had asked Aiolia to tell her about his brother. Not that the truth had been revealed and evil driven from Sanctuary, the Leo Saint had been able to talk about his brother without tarnish.
Saori had listened, and realised that she would give almost anything to meet the late Sagittarius Saint. He must have been a great man from what Aiolia told her. Well, duh, he had sacrificed his life and honor to save her – of course he was great.
The young woman was greatly pained by the prospect of never meeting the one who rescued her, someone who had sacrificed so much for her. The one who had formed Aiolia into the great Gold Saint he was today.
Suddenly, she froze. A flash, a melody ringing through her head. Then Athena sprang to her feet, rushed back through the glass door into her solar. Her coat she threw on the sofa that stood there, the boots she let on, ignoring the wet footprints on the floor. Her mind was too occupied with something, and the servants would clean it anyway. One second later, she was sitting behind her piano, her fingers hitting down on the keys.
She played. Let the music flow out of her. Let the melody inside her flow into the instrument. Let her feelings and memories take over. She even felt tears, as she thought of the Saint lost thirteen long years ago. Who had sacrificed all he had – for her. And the constellatios of Sagittarius kept flashing before her eyes.
How long it lasted, she had no idea. But eventually, the piece ended. Once the melody had sounded off, a clapping broke through the profound silence in the solar. When she looked up, she saw Tatsumi standing in the door, tears running down his cheeks.
„That… was marvellous, Lady Saori", the butler sobbed. „Sorry for listening in… but I was going about my chores and passed the solar when I heard you playing. The piece sounded so beautiful that I had to stop and listen."
Saori smiled at the softness so unexpected of such a bulky, hard man. „No problem at all, Tatsumi." Then she reached out and took some sheets of music paper, with already prepared staves, where the composer only had to add in the notes. With the pen laying there too, she scribbled the name of the piece on top of a sheet. Before she started to write the tune down, she showed it to Tatsumi.
„I will call this piece ,Song for Sagittarius.' And I will see to it that it will be heard all over the world."
A hommage to the man who had given so much so she may live. So he may never be forgotten.
Author's note: Yeah, I know, this piece is a little biased. I am Sagittarius, Aiolos is my absolute favourite character in the Classic Series, one of my favourites in the entire franchise. And in my humble opinion, he gets much too undervalued for what he did. I hate how relatively little emotions Aiolia showed when it turned out Aiolos hadn't been a traitor. I mean, come on. The guy had LOVED his older brother. His little heart had been shattered into thousands of pieces when Aiolos had been branded a traitor and died. He had believed a terrible lie for thirteen long years. So I would have suspected a much stronger reaction. Saori too reacts far too little to the fact she almost died. Yes, it doesn't matter who saved her, the fact that she actually had been inches from death as a baby seems to bother her ways too little. She just mentions it once when she tells Aiolia the entire true story. I would have expected her to react much more to all of this. Instead, she doesn't seem to care for the man who saved her life, never mentions him ever again in the series.
And that's where this story is born. Where Athena pays a little tribute to the brave boy who saved her life at the cost of his own – which would have lasted for decades more. Hm. Unless the Holy War would have killed him at between 20 and 30 years of age.