((In dedication to a friend from tumblr, since he jump started this in my head in the first place.

- This person is hilarious. Whether you speak English or Portuguese. They might get a little frowny/touchy sometimes, but the writing is good, and the sarcasm is even better.

Do be warned, they aren't shy about the more...uh risque side of art so better not to browse his blog in school/at work/around young children =P.))

-Start-

He spent most of his days like that now; training himself into oblivion; torturing his body into getting stronger, faster, more precise.

...And it was nearly killing him. Every night, he stumbled semi-conscious back to his room, falling straight into sleep, sometimes not even changing out of his training gear. On the nights he couldn't sleep, he would star-gaze, eyes bleary, not really seeing, perched on top of the coliseum. He only ventured up the temples when he absolutely had too, preferring the residence and training grounds and hastily reconstructed barracks that housed the few remaining trainees.

They had to make him eat, or he'd just forget, something that became more and more common as time wore on. But every time they asked, he would only smile at them his old charming happy smile, that, though it hadn't changed a bit, felt shallow and empty, now. At first it was a relief to know that, even he had a breaking point. That he was, in truth, human like the rest of them, but even that guilty pleasure slipped away faced with the horrible plastic grin.

Their hope was broken, and try as hard as they might, they couldn't fix him.

SsSsSsSs

So Saori resorted to drastic measures.

"...Is there no other way?"

"I do not know, milady," the red haired silver saint sighed. "Even with my biases as his master, it is plain to me that I am not the one he needs, right now."

"Thank you Marin, you are dismissed." Saori bade her saint.

"Yes milady."

"But Marin, tell me honestly. Would you take this risk?"

"No milady, truthfully, it is ill-advised. I do not believe that he should be indulged in his loss, though great it is. We are your saints, we live and die indiscriminately in your service. It is selfish for him to act so." Marin replied though her back was already turned.

"Then why did you tell me all that you did?"

"You asked me how to...repair my student. I merely presented the name of the only man ever known to do so."

"...Thank you Marin." Saori sighed, watching the Aquila saint leave the throne room.

It was not worth the risk. it was not proper protocol. Athena raged angrily in the back of her mind.

Saori raised her hand and with a burst of cosmo called out.

"Come to me, Hermes!"

SsSsSsSs

"Seiya!" The Andromeda saint called.

"Yeah Shun?" There was that smile again, sweat stained and scratched up, but still just as frozen as before.

"Athena is calling for you." Shun smiled softly but sadly in reply.

"Oh? Sure...I'll be right up." He answered.

Shun stood by watching as his friend headed towards the Aries temple at a light jog, trying to hide a knee that was probably sprained iff not dislocated. He knew better than to mention it. Seiya in all his pretenses, wouldn't have taken note of it.

Climbing the steps took too long for Seiya, though he was going as quickly as he could with a bum knee. He couldn't help but remember. Remembering was dangerous. It was a place that Seiya knew if he allowed himself to slip in, he would never come back out. It was...

His bad foot slipped a little on a loose tile...the loose tile in front of the Leo temple. Quickly, he jumped back as if burned. It took a while for him to regain his calm, to retreat behind his frozen smile. He knew he was worrying everyone, using it so often. He wasn't that stupid. But they didn't understand. It was his last shield, his last bit of protection from an abyss that would swallow him whole otherwise. So he set his shoulders back, and he forced his spine to straighten, and he took a deep breath to draw on all the strength he could muster from the extremities of his body...and he smiled, bright, and cheerful, and painted on. He kept climbing, picking up the pace and not minding the pain that echoed through his leg as he pushed it too far past its limit.

His smile stayed until he reached Athena's main temple, only wavering a little now and again.

"Bronze saint of Pegasus, come for..."

"Just fucking come in, Seiya, I know it's you." The Cygnus saint rolled his eyes sarcastically. Seiya liked Hyouga. He played along.

The Pegasus walked in calmly, dragging his foot a little because of the abuse.

"Athena, I'm...here..."

Saori Kido sat on her place upon the pope's throne talking to a man...a man wearing the Leo Gold cloth who shouldn't be there.

"Seiya, you're here," Saori regarded the Pegasus saint with a smile. "Are you sur..."

"What did you do?" though the smile was still on his face, his voice wavered dangerously between laughter and rage. "Saori, what did you do?"

"Seiya, what do you mean?"

"To Ikki. What did you do or say to Ikki to get him in on this RIDICULOUS SCHEME?!" He nearly screamed. One could almost hear the cracking of his smile. When he next looked up, his eyes were glowing with a light that was not quite sane. His mouth twisted into a feral smirk. "He would never do it otherwise. Even Ikki's not that cruel. He KNOWS."

"Seiya, calm down!" It was the voice that did it. That same voice that once chided his mistakes, soothed his fears, reminded him to keep going...The same voice that haunted his dreams now.

"No, NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING CALM DOWN! Is it because I'm broken Athena-sama? Your precious little dog isn't fighting fit any more so your throw him a bone? NOW?! You needed to, I dunno, shut me down for a while?" And there he was tripping down the path he should never go. "You thought you could help me with some SHAM DREAM?! You don't think the ones I already have torture me enough? Ikki, Ikki why are you doing this to me? You're not this cruel."

No matter how the goddess attempted to talk she could not get a word in edgewise. Even Hyouga stood dumbfounded at the door. The only calm one was the third man who already knew it was useless.

"I used to see this every night. Can you believe it? Every single fucking night, and it never gets any better because then I wake up and have to remember that HE'S NOT COMING BACK! None of them are! Now everyday's just a new fight to make myself too tired to dream," his voice came out too injured, too hurt to be. He wasn't Seiya anymore. "I know you don't like it, ok? I'm not stupid. I don't like me either. But you don't get it, you pampered little princess. It's all I have."

He tried to step forward on his bad leg. His knee quit and sent the distraught teenager stumbling. He almost didn't catch himself.

"Don't do this to me."

That was when the punch collided solidly with his temple, sending his already injured body careening into the nearest column.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Athena-sama. Please excuse the child." His voice again, annoyed but amused.

"No you didn't have to...it was my fault to not have thought this through correctly." It was...an illusion, wasn't it? Why was she interacting with it? Was this all in his head now? Ikki wasn't that detailed.

"No milady, he's at fault here. No saint can make demands of his goddess. It's blasphemy. I will make sure to discipline him." He couldn't do this, not again. It was no use.

...And yet...

Seiya couldn't help a whimper when strong arms came to lift him up against the cool golden chest plate.

"You're a silly little pony." The figure gave a soft sigh. Gentle fingers carded through the wild brown hair.

Maybe...maybe just once more, it would be ok to believe.