Melting the ice

By: MimiYamatoForever

The Aquarius temple was quiet and calm like it always was. The two ice saints inside the temple were quiet and were just relaxing as they both looked through a few boxes that were located in a hidden location in the palace.

DeathMask had found the hidden compartment by accident in the palace and found four boxes inside filled with different books. Since Camus loved to read the boxes were given to him to look through and Hyoga volunteered to help his mentor.

The young swan saint was amazed at how old some of the books in the boxes were. They looked to be dozens of years old with faded covers and faded pages.

The first few books Hyoga had looked through were just maps and charts that had been used by pope's before Shion. He was organizing stacks of books in which some may be kept or tossed into the trash. Most likely he would ask Shion if there was anything he wanted to keep.

Looking through the box Hyoga pulled out a small book with a faded blue cover. It was smaller than the other books and had a white winged horse on the cover.

This caught Hyoga's attention right away and caused him to look inside it. Looking at the first page Hyoga realized that this wasn't a regular book he was holding.

It was a journal.

A journal belonging to none other than the famed Pegasus Tenma.

Seiya's previous life.

Hyoga recognized the handwriting right away. It was the exact same as Seiya's. Being the reincarnation of himself, Seiya might recognize the journal right away if he saw it.

Hyoga decided to go find his friend since he would feel bad looking through the book. Even though Seiya had it over two hundred years ago it was still his and it would be wrong to read someone else's journal.

After telling Camus where he would be, Hyoga took off to the Sagittarius temple where he quickly found Seiya and Aiolos in the living room. Aiolos was stringing together a new bow and Seiya was crashed out on the couch.

"Hello Hyoga." Aiolos greeted kindly.

"Hello Aiolos." Hyoga greeted back with a bow of respect.

"What's that you got there?" the archer asked curiously spotting the journal in Hyoga's hand.

"A journal that belonged to Seiya when he was Tenma." Hyoga answered and lightly slapped Seiya's arm. The brunette boy woke with start from being slapped.

"Wha? It wasn't me this time." He muttered still half asleep.

"Seiya, look what I found." Hyoga said waving the book in front of Seiya.

The Pegasus saint looked at the book carefully before looking back to Hyoga.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You don't recognize it?"

"No. Why?"

"Because this belonged to you when you were Tenma."

"What? Are you sure?" Seiya asked taking the book.

"It says so inside the cover. It was your journal."

"I don't remember having a journal back then." Seiya said opening the cover to see the name Pegasus Tenma written there in his handwriting.

"Your memories must be faded being from so long ago." Aiolos suggested putting his bow to the side.

"No, it can't be. I remember everything else from my past life. Why would I forget about this?" Seiya asked looking through the pages then chuckled at one of the entries.

"This was definitely mine." he said. "Listen to this. 'Dohko-sensei has no idea that I snuck out of the temple last night and met up with the other trainees. We went to a huge bonfire in the village near Sanctuary that was a celebration of the day Sasha arrived in Greece even though she arrived the day before. I was having the time of my life dancing around and having fun until I saw Rasgado heading toward the bonfire. His students and I ran off before he saw us but I had the feeling that he already knew we were there. We managed to get back to Sanctuary before he did but guess who we ran into sneaking back in? Yep, Degel. He threatened to tell Rasgado, Dohko and even Sasha but we managed to come to an agreement. We had to scrub the floors of his temple right then in exchange for him to keep quiet. Do you have any idea how cold it is in that temple? The water in the buckets practically froze every time that we took them into the temple. It took nearly four hours to clean those floors but it was worth it for Degel to keep quiet. But I think that Dohko found out since the bonfire was the talk around Sanctuary and I was dead tired during training. Needless to say, I think he smacked me around on purpose as punishment for sneaking off. Boy did I learn my lesson although I'm sure I'll do it again.'"

"Definitely you Seiya." Hyoga claimed.

"Did Dohko ever really find out?" Aiolos asked as Seiya started to flip through the pages again.

"He sure did." Seiya answered. "I have to clean the Libra temple from top to bottom for a week because of that little stunt."

"Harsh." Hyoga commented.

"I wonder why I don't remember having this journal." He said as he came to the last page that had an entry and his eyes went wide before he shut the book quickly. "Now I remember."

"What is it?"

"Sorry. Can't say. Gotta see Athena." Seiya replied getting up and running out of the temple with great speed.

"What was that about?" Hyoga asked.

"Must be something that he wasn't suppose to remember." Aiolos suggested. "Where did you find that book?"

"It was in a few boxes in a hidden compartment that DeathMask had found in the palace. Camus and I were looking through the boxes and I found it there." Hyoga explained.

"Let's follow him and see if he's alright." Aiolos said and the two started running after Seiya who was only one temple ahead of them.

[][][]

Why didn't they burn this thing? Seiya shouted in his mind. I wasn't suppose to remember having this journal! The last entry could get me in huge trouble.

Running into the palace, Seiya quickly ran to the throne room where he found Athena and Shion.

"Lady Athena. Pope Shion. Big trouble." Seiya shouted running over and bowing to them.

"What is it Seiya?" Athena asked.

"Look what Hyoga found." Seiya answered holding up the old journal.

"Seiya!"

The three looked over to see Hyoga, Aiolos and even Camus running over.

"What's going on?" Shion asked.

"The short version is that this journal can't be read." Seiya answered. "It was an order you gave me in the past."

"What is it about Seiya?" Athena asked.

"Uh...well..."

"Seiya, you can tell us. If it happened in the past then there shouldn't be anything to worry about." Athena assured the young saint.

"Well...the last entry in here is about Aquarius Degel." Seiya answered opening the journal to the last page. "Should I read it?"

"Yes." they all answered.

Seiya nodded and started reading the journal entry.

"Sad to say that this is going to be the last time I will ever write in this journal. Something happened yesterday that really gave everyone in Sanctuary a reason to worry. Degel and Kardia never returned from their mission to Bluegraad. They were suppose to look for people to help us in the war against Alone but they've been missing ever since and no one has been able to find them. It's been nearly two weeks that they've been missing and Sasha is really worried about them since it looks like the worst has happened. I don't want to tell her but I had a vision about Degel. He met with his friend named Prince Unity and was taken to Atlantis. Unity tried to use his sister's body to revive Poseidon but Degel wouldn't allow it and used his cosmo to seal Atlantis inside an ice coffin. He was still trapped inside with a woman named Princess Seraphina and will be there until someone eventually finds Atlantis. I wish that I could dive into those waters and revive Degel but I couldn't last long with how cold the water is and my cosmo isn't strong enough to break the greatest ice coffin ever made. I keep having visions of Degel speaking to me saying that he's still alive and waiting for us to find him. But everyone thinks I'm loosing it. It seems that Degel is fated to forever stay trapped in Atlantis inside the ice coffin."

Seiya closed the book and looked up to see everyone look rather surprised.

"All this time..." Shion said quietly. "We never knew what happened to Degel and Kardia."

"What was assumed of them?" Aiolos asked quietly.

"We had heard that they had a run in with Rhadamanthys but we just assumed they had gone down fighting." Shion answered walking over and taking the journal from Seiya. "I knew about this journal that Tenma wrote in and because of the last entry I ordered someone to destroy it because he was claiming that Degel was still alive. He was close to being called insane and that would have made him lose his cloth and sainthood. The journal and several other things were destroyed by one of the Gold Saints. I never thought I'd see this journal again. Tenma had come to all of us claiming that Degel was still alive somewhere. But the way he had phrased it made it seem like his mind was slipping away. He said, and I remember it so well, 'Degel is still alive. Sleeping in the ice of Atlantis'."

"Guess I should have thought my words out a little better." Seiya said sheepishly.

"Because we believed his sanity was fading, I ordered the book to be destroyed and Lady Sasha blocked all the memories Tenma had of ever having the journal and of all the visions he had of Degel. We never heard about it again."

"Told you I wasn't crazy." Seiya declared skeptically.

"You were under too much stress back then. That's what we blamed it all on." Shion replied. "Had we known that you may have been right then we would have done something about it."

"Can't we do something now?" Hyoga asked.

"Even if we were able to find Degel there's really no chance of getting him out of the ice coffin. Not even all twelve Gold Saints can break it. Even then, it's sure to say that we wouldn't be able to revive him since he's been inside it for more than two hundred years." Shion said.

"But remember that Shiryu got Hyoga out of the coffin using one of Dohko's swords. Maybe we could try it again."

"That could be the only way but unless you had a vision of where Atlantis is I'm sure that we wouldn't be able to find Degel."

"Wrong again. I did have a vision and I even wrote it down." Seiya replied snatching the journal back and looked at the very last page in the journal.

He turned it around and ever saw a list on one side and a map on another page.

"I kept having visions about where Degel would be. It was almost like something was showing me the way to Atlantis and to where Degel still is." Seiya stated.

"Seiya, the thought of having Degel back again sounds too good to be true. Even though we have ways to find him and break him out of the ice, there's no way that we could revive his soul." Athena said.

"What if we talk to Shun?" Hyoga suggested.

"He might allow it." Aiolos said. "Degel never really died and, if Seiya's visions were right, his body will still be well preserved."

"I think Shun will allow it." Seiya declared.

"Very well. We can at least try." Athena said. "Hyoga, can you speak with Shun about finding Degel's soul?"

"I sure can." Hyoga replied happily.

"Seiya, tell us what you remember about the directions to Atlantis." Shion said.

"Right."

"By the way, who was the saint ordered to destroy the journal?" Aiolos asked curiously with a look of thought on his handsome face.

"Libra Dohko." Shion answered. "Apparently my old friend believed his once pupil that Degel was still alive and believed this situation may take place in later times."

[][][]

Because Shun was in the Underworld so much he never really had time to come visit everyone in Sanctuary and none of them felt too comfortable walking around a place with countless dead souls and so many horrible prisons.

It was enough to go through the Underworld once and they were sure they didn't want to do it again.

Because of those reasons, Shun had created a special viewing mirror and Athena had it placed in a secret chamber in the palace. Only she, the Gold saints and the Bronze saints knew the location and how to summon Shun.

Right now Hyoga was in the chamber standing before the full body mirror. He was only able to see his reflection now but soon it would be showing his friend.

"Lord Shun of the Underworld. God of the dead. I, Cygnus Hyoga, am requesting your presence."

Not even a second after he spoke those words, Hyoga saw the glass of the mirror turn black and dark green flames appeared. They soon took shape and cleared for Hyoga to see his old friend.

"Hello Hyoga." Shun greeted.

Hyoga smiled seeing one of his closest friends and noticed that Shun looked to have matured a bit more since the last time they spoke. Now he looked as mature as Shiryu.

"Hello Shun." Hyoga greeted back with a small bow.

"Did you need something?" Shun asked.

"Yeah actually." Hyoga answered. "Listen, we found a journal that belonged to Seiya in his previous life and we learned that Aquarius Degel is still alive. Sort of. He's been frozen in an ice coffin in Atlantis this whole time. Athena wants to try to locate and bring him back but the thing is...his soul may be...well..."

"His soul is here in the Underworld." Shun answered.

"It is?" Hyoga gasped.

"Yes but he's trapped in the realm frequently called 'limbo'." Shun explained. "I've heard rumors from the judges of what happened to him and because his body was never really laid to rest his soul was doomed to wander around in limbo for all eternity. I've seen him there a few times as well. Every time though I've seen him holding the hand of a woman. Apparently she was with him when he was sealed in the ice coffin. Tell Athena that if they manage to retrieve Degel's body, I'll be more than glad to allow his soul to return."

"Really? You will?" Hyoga asked excitedly.

Shun nodded with a smile.

Hyoga kneeled and bowed his head to his friend. "Thank you Shun." he said.

[][][]

Having heard the ok from Shun, Athena had set into motion a plan of going to Atlantis to find the frozen kingdom.

While everything was being set into place, she and Seiya were in the throne room as Seiya read pages to her from his old journal. Some of the entries had been while he was in Sanctuary and some were times before.

"Here's another." Seiya claimed with a smile. "Dear journal. Sasha will totally kill me once she finds out what happened to her favorite doll. Alone had been showing me how to paint people's faces when we were out in the meadow and I thought I would give Sasha a little scare with her doll. I borrowed some of Alone's paint and one of his brushes and started to paint the dolls face. I made a little mistake and tried to wash it off only to find for the thread holding the dolls head started tearing. I panicked and tried to fix it but I have no artist or sewing skills and ended up ripping the head off altogether. I took the doll and hid it where Sasha wouldn't find it and I tried to find her another doll. I eventually got a hold of one and gave it to her. Naturally she was suspicious when I gave her the new doll and it didn't take long for her to find out what had happened. I apologized but she didn't talk to me for a week straight."

"So that's what happened to it." Athena claimed.

"Sorry." Seiya said.

"Don't worry Seiya. I liked the new one you had found for me." Athena said then turned serious. "Do you remember exactly how to find Atlantis?"

Seiya looked up from his journal to see the hope in her eyes. "I do." he answered in the same tone. "I had so many visions about it that I would have to be blind to miss anything. It had felt like Degel's soul was leading me toward Atlantis so someone would know that he was there. Every time I saw in lying in that ice he was with that princess. Seraphina. She must have been with him when Degel froze the kingdom. There's a chance that she's still alive too."

"But Shun is only allowing for Degel's soul to return." Athena reminded. "If she was an important person to Degel then when he revives we may have to let him know that we couldn't help her."

Seiya looked back at his now closed journal. He had never really gotten along with Degel in the past but they were still saints after all and there had to be another reason why he was getting those visions of where Degel was and what happened to him.

Maybe the former Aquarius wanted to get another message through to him but because his memories were erased he could never succeed.

Hopefully their voyage would be successful and they could bring Degel back.