DESCRIPTION: In 1743, the two surviving Gold Saints bury the dead, receive their new orders, and heal their wounds as they spend an evening talking about life, duty, friendship, love and desire.
Disclaimer: St. Seiya is copyright Kurumada Masami and Toei. No infringement or disrespect is intended by this non-profit work of fan fiction. This is a work of noncommercial amateur fan fiction; it is not published for profit or material gain. The author and the posters have no intent to infringe any intellectual property rights held by the owners of existing copyrights in Saint Seiya or its derivative works. The author retains copyright to original / non-copyrighted aspects of this work.
Author's Note: This story was written two years before Next Dimension or Lost Canvas were announced, and so includes non-canon names and characterizations for the 18th century Saints and their Masters.
This story, which is primarily a character story and backstory, contains light shonen ai overtones throughout.
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~ : Air : ~ : Earth : ~ : Water : ~ : Fire : ~ : Gold : ~
~ : Death : ~ : Life : ~
~ : Amethyst : ~ : Salt : ~ : Blood : ~ : Stone : ~
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Legacy
by Silverr
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Air
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Two hundred and fifty years ago, two armored warriors - a Holy War's only survivors - stood watching sunset gild a blood-drenched battlefield. Both faces, though exhausted, shone with hard-won triumph: the Berserker legions of the War God had been trampled and the seal of Pallas had been placed on the Lord of the Underworld and his army of Spectres.
The taller warrior, whose leg had been broken in the final battle, was supported by a dark-haired companion who gestured at the blazing sky with his free arm. " 'The daylight's parting gift, the wanton beauty that heralds nightfall.' "
With reprimand in his voice the injured one, Gold Saint Shion of Aries, said, "Always the Libra Saint has wind for poetry." After a moment he added as he stared out over the corpses, "I see only a sea of blood and death on whose shore war's tempest has shipwrecked us."
Gold Saint Dohko of Libra said quietly, "Let us gather them up then, and lay them in the earth."
"We should strive not to fail them in that," Shion said bitterly, "as we failed to save their lives." Without looking at Dohko he held out an ornate sword that he had been using as a crutch. "This Libra blade served me well," he said stiffly. "Now I return it to you." As he shifted his weight the injured leg buckled and he began to fall; as Dohko caught him he hissed, "I do not need your pity!" His face was white with pain.
"Pity? I offer no pity," Dohko said matter-of-factly as he eased Shion onto the wide marble steps of the temple. "So be silent."
"For what purpose?" Shion asked through gritted teeth.
Dohko noted the broken bones poking white and red through the skin of Shion's blood-crusted leg. "The task ahead requires a strong back in addition to my own, and in your current state you are useless. You'll dig better once I repair thy limbs."
"Dig? And what will you be doing?"
"Why, supervising the quality of your digging, of course," Dohko said, "which no doubt will be poor, troublesome as I've heard you've become." He shook his head as he began to lift away the pieces of the Aries Cloth. "Puffed-up displays, defiance of orders, duels, trysts ..."
He heard Shion say, almost inaudibly, "And the first words you deign to speak to me in all these years are reprimands based on lies and hearsay."
It was at the tip of Dohko's tongue to say, "It was not I that ceased speaking," but because he could see the wariness behind Shion's accusing eyes - and because he had learned that there were sometimes things more important than being right - he shook his head and said only, "Thy recklessness is ever thy undoing."
. : .
During the final assault by Ares' and Hades' desperate forces they had found themselves fighting back to back, surrounded by Berserkers and Spectres, Dohko wielding the orichalcum Libra Weapons while Shion poured out a torrent of Starlight Extinction. Shion hadn't acknowledged Dohko in any way until one of Ares' giant soldiers swung a massive spiked club in a low, deadly arc: then Shion had shoved his former friend out of the way to take the full force of the crushing blow. The Berserker had been moving in on the fallen Aries Saint for the kill when Dohko had taken his head off with a single furious stroke ...
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"Are you now my dam?" Shion growled, "To chastise me so?"
"Nay, I could never have suckled such an ungainly child," Dohko said as he tore back the fabric of Shion's leggings. "Out on the mountainside you would have gone, food for the wolves and the vultures."
"Ungainly? Clearly the drab sparrow knows naught of the peacock's splendor."
Dohko, careful not to give any sign of how happy this insulting banter made him, pulled off his leather hand guard, folded it into a pad, then held it out to Shion. "I am sorry for this pain this will cause, but there is no other way for it."
"Yet more wind. Why spend words to say, 'It will be such' when it cannot be otherwise?" Shion took the folded leather and bit down on it with a frown.
Dohko gripped Shion's thigh on either side of the break, pulled to align the bones, then held them in place as a golden aura flowed through his hands, healing. After a few seconds Shion shifted impatiently and pushed Dohko's hands away.
"The healing is not complete," Dohko said, sitting back on his heels.
"It will suffice."
"The lower bones of the leg are broken as well."
"As I well know!" Shion said, then added, "Why spend energy so prodigally, old woman? Think you to plead exhaustion from my healing in order to avoid your share of the digging?"
Dohko said lightly, "It comforts me to know that the Aries Saint has plenty of breath for accusation. Thus can I know that he has not died."
. : .
The pattern had been set on the very first day they met.
Dohko had arrived at dawn on the year's briefest day. He and the other children - for so they had been, despite their various superhuman powers - eyed each other guardedly at first, but soon began to make shy introductions. Dohko had had the uneasy sense that they were being watched but could not identify how, as they were in a huge stone amphitheater with few hiding places.
After about an hour they caught sight of someone near the white buildings at the top of the steep hills wrapped around the Holy Sanctuary. As this blue-clad figure passed though each Temple more people joined the descent: once the procession got closer the children could see that the leader was an old man and the others were their teachers and Masters.
The adults entered the coliseum and stopped, watching the eleven children with solemn faces. After a moment the old man asked a masked, powerfully-built woman who stood next to him, "Where is he, Master Verlis?"
She glared at a spot of air several feet away from the group of children and pointed, then gestured at the empty air.
A short, slightly plump boy with close cropped pale green hair materialized. He had two dots on his forehead instead of eyebrows, which somehow made him look both contrite and smug.
The old man frowned at him. "What was thy purpose in concealment?"
The boy bowed low, and Dohko somehow knew it was to hide his expression. "To study the others, sir, in such a way that my perusal would not cause alteration from their natural display," he said firmly. His tone was respectful, but a careful listener would have detected the somewhat patronizing arrogance as well.
The old man was a careful listener. "Is that so?" he said sternly, but then nodded at a Master with a heavily scarred face, who commanded, "Assemble in order, according to your houses!"
The boy with the green hair walked towards the entrance and Dohko heard him say, "Taurus? Stand there next to me, then."
"Welcome to Sanctuary," the old man said. "Come forward each in turn and introduce yourself to your fellow Saints."
Almost immediately the green-haired boy stepped away from the line, turned, and announced, "Shion of Aries."
"What a strange one," the boy to the right of Dohko muttered, "Had I not seen that he had a Master, I might think him a festival entertainer who wandered here by mistake."
Dohko stifled a laugh.
"Kastor of Gemini!"
"Sylphide of Cancer!" The dark-skinned, violet-haired Saint's voice was high and musical.
"A girl!" whispered Scorpio, sounding outraged. Female Saints were not masked until they were near puberty, but even so they had naturally assumed that all the other Gold Saints would be boys.
"As am I," whispered the Saint to Dohko's left, who stepped forward and said, "Demaris of Virgo!"
Once the introductions had been made the line was split between Virgo and Libra, and Dohko led the second line into place behind the first six houses. This put him behind the green-haired boy.
"You are paired for the day's exercises," the scarred Master said. "Disperse yourselves across this area and use what you have learned."
Shion turned and folded his arms. "We can stay right here. Let the others move."
Dohko decided not to disagree with this.
"So, Dohko," the green-haired boy said once the others moved away. "Where are you from, and what are your attacks?"
"China, and - "
"Ha!" Shion had unexpectedly sent a blast that knocked Dohko back several feet. Dohko quickly summoned one of his lesser Dragons, pushing back until their energies were balanced.
The old man – who was of course the Pontifex of Sanctuary – Shion's Master Verlis, and another Master with a grey beard and mustache watched them. "Those two will either kill each other or spur each other to full potential," the Pontifex murmured with a smile. "Which do you predict, Master Basho?"
"At this time," the Libra Master said with a chuckle, "I give even weight to each outcome."
"Your attacks are weak," Shion had grunted, as he nevertheless strained to match Dohko.
"Do you always talk so much?" Dohko retorted, still smarting from being tricked.
"I have two attacks and a strong defense. And I can repair Cloths. What can you do?"
"I," Dohko said, his final surge knocking Shion to the ground, "am not boastful."
Shion's red eyes widened as he landed hard – then he laughed. Dohko, his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, started to grin as well, and then extended his hand to help the other boy up.
And thus was a friendship born as both relentlessly competed – primarily with each other – for the laurel of "best" in ways as different as their temperaments. Shion was fast, a sprinter, exploding from the block but peaking quickly, whereas Dohko was strong, a distance runner, well-paced and tireless. Shion sought out excitement, new challenges, and chaos, whereas Dohko preferred quiet and harmony. Shion acted almost as soon as he perceived, while Dohko – unless he was fighting – liked to approach things slowly, taking in all of the subtle details of a situation and considering all angles before making a decision on how to act.
They were inseparable for seven years, until their differences tore them apart.
. : .
"This will not heal as clean as the other," Dohko said, inadvertently wincing as he lifted Shion's greave away to study the wound. "The impact shattered the bones in many places." It was amazing that Shion had continued to fight, his leg crippled thus; but then Dohko had had abundant evidence of the Aries' Saint's singlemindedness over the years.
"So you can do nothing?" Shion snorted. "Admit defeat and bring me another physician!"
"I said nothing of defeat. I merely judged that this injury will leave you with some imperfection."
"My beauty will be forever marred?"
"Such as there was to begin with, yes," Dohko said dryly, "and held in highest esteem by the possessor."
"Oh, does the monster named Envy lurk in those green eyes?" Shion turned his face away. "Just repair enough that I can this night bear our comrades to the graveyard. Past that I have no concern."
"Such black words are not like you," Dohko said.
"What do you know of what I am like? You know not who I have become," Shion answered bitterly.
Dohko again bit back what he truly wanted to say, and instead said, "What? So is all trace lost of the Shion of old, then? The one who told me often that I was short and slow and clumsy as a drunken bear?"
The corner of Shion's mouth twitched then, and Dohko almost smiled with relief.
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~ to be continued ~
(91) 29 Mar 2010