Darkness Returns 2

By: MysticFantasy (taken over from MimiYamatoForever)

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The sun was shining brilliantly down onto Sanctuary and there didn't seem to be a cloud in the sky. Solders and recruits were busy finishing repairs from the damages that had been done to Sanctuary during the previous battle. The rubble and debris were being cleared as quickly as possible and new things were being made in order to please Athena.

The twelve Gold Saints were busy fixing their temples or adding new rooms and other things to them as it was requested by Athena that they were to start training successors for the Gold cloths.

Aiolos, Camus and Dohko already had Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu training every day and the three youths were staying in the temples with their mentors.

The rest of the Gold Saints, however, had problems of their own. Besides Aiolos, Camus and Dohko, Mu was the only other Gold Saint who was already training someone to one day be a successor.

The remaining eight Gold saints now had to figure out just who exactly they had to train and because of that Athena was giving them special permission to leave Sanctuary if they needed to.

Shaka, though he didn't want to admit it openly, was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to train Shun to be the next Virgo saint. After going through so many battles, Shaka had seen the power Shun held inside him as a saint and he wanted more than anything to train Shun to be even stronger. But now that wasn't possible and the Virgo saint now had to decide which of his two strongest pupils would take his place one day.

Not only that but Phoenix Ikki was still missing and that was posing a problem to Leo Aioria as Ikki was suppose to be the next Leo Gold Saint.

A search was still taking place to find Ikki wherever he may be and Aioria was out helping them. Nearly a month has gone by since the battle between Hades ended and there was still no sign of the phoenix saint to be found despite how many people were searching for him. The search parties had checked all over Greece, Japan and what was left of Death Queen Island but Ikki wasn't in any of those locations.

Searches were still taking place to find him but the problem was that no one had any idea where Ikki had gone after the fight on Mount Olympus. The minute he had turned mortal again he was sent to Earth by Hades but the location was unknown to any of them so finding him was taking a very long time. Ikki needed to be found quickly so he could be informed on what happened to his little brother.

They all knew that Ikki wasn't going to take the news about Shun well. The saints and Athena were still having a hard time dealing with the end result of the battle with Hades.

At the last moment before Hades had stabbed Athena with his sword, Shun had managed to take control of his body and powers. He had summoned the gold nebula chains of the Andromeda god cloth to hold his body and cosmo to allow Athena to remove his and Hade's soul from his body.

Athena had then sealed both of their souls inside the star pentagram around Shun's neck and placed the seal of Athena on it to keep them from escaping. But before his soul had been removed from his body, Shun had demanded that his body be contained so that if Hades soul somehow did manage to escape he wouldn't be able to be possessed again.

Athena and the other saints gave their word to grant Shun's last request.

After combining their cosmo, Camus and Hyoga had sealed Shun's lifeless body inside an ice coffin that was later placed in a secluded area inside the palace and only Athena and the Gold and Bronze saints were permitted to enter that area.

Shun's sacrifice and bravery was known through the entire Sanctuary. Everyone honored his actions and memory. For even though he was the darkest of the Greek gods reborn on earth as a human, his loyalties as a saint to Athena were still true and strong.

And he would never be forgotten for what he had done.

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[Sagittarius temple]

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It was his day off from training and for that Seiya was somewhat glad. The training Aiolos had him doing every day kept his mind off of things for a while but at the same time he felt like he needed some time to rest and think things out. His mind was still stuck on what happened a month ago in the battle between good and evil.

The day he let his present and past friend down.

Even after a month had passed, Seiya still felt guilty about what had to be done in order to stop Hades from destroying Sanctuary and possibly the whole world. Even if Shun had demanded such things to be done Seiya still couldn't believe they had actually gone through with it.

But his guilt was running deeper than not having been able to help Shun. His guilt went all the way back to the 18th century when he hadn't been able to help his best friend Alone when he had been revealed as Hades next incarnation.

The face of the kind and gifted artist before and after the possession was forever imprinted in Seiya's mind and it would never vanish no matter how hard he tried to forget.

During the war with Hades, Seiya discovered that he was indeed the Pegasus saint that always fought alongside Athena. Anytime she was reincarnated he was as well. The war against Hades had revived Seiya's memories of his previous life as Tenma who grew up an orphan in Italy alongside the orphan siblings Sasha and Alone and later, after learning he had a cosmo, had trained under Gold Saint Dohko of Libra in Sanctuary where he once again won his Pegasus cloth and became a saint for Athena once more.

Seiya had to admit that he didn't want to right away believe that he was the legendary Pegasus saint said to be the strongest in Athena's army but his memories were too strong for him to ignore.

Remembering bits of several other memories with friends in lifetimes before, Seiya felt that no matter how many times he was reincarnated with a different face and name as long as he had his friends and could serve Athena he would always feel like the same person.

"Seiya? Are you alright? You've been very quiet today."

The young man looked up to see Aiolos in his regular training clothes.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just remembering happier times." Seiya answered.

"It's good to do that at times." Aiolos said sitting down with Seiya.

"Yeah but it's not really helping me get over this guilt."

"Guilt is never easy to overcome no matter how hard you try." Aiolos stated. "I know that Shun doesn't want us to feel guilty from what happened but it's very difficult not to. It was incredibly difficult to do something like that to one of our own after all. I must admit that I still have trouble getting to sleep at night."

Seiya nodded and looked up toward the palace beyond the remaining temples. Naturally it was the first thing to be fixed after the battle since Athena stayed there. Everything had been fixed and cleaned up so now it looked almost new.

And underneath the palace a secret was hidden.

"You can go see him if you want." Aiolos said.

"I think I will." Seiya said standing. "Maybe seeing Shun for a while will ease my guilt a bit."

"Take your time. No curfew today." Aiolos said with a smile before heading back into the temple.

Seiya lightly smiled and started making his way up the flight of stairs that would take him past the rest of the zodiac temples and directly to the palace.

Having gone up and down the stairs so many times Seiya had quickly gotten use to them though he still often wondered why so many were needed.

Inside the Capricorn temple, Shura was so busy cleaning the statue he had of Athena giving a warrior the great Excalibur sword that he didn't even see Seiya walking by. Deciding not to bother him, Seiya kept walking and soon found himself at the Aquarius temple.

Just outside the entrance of the temple, Seiya felt the chilly air radiating from inside. His body started to shiver the further inside he went.

Almost instantly, he spotted the only two people who could possibly live in this environment. Camus and Hyoga were sitting at a table playing a game of chess and it looked like Hyoga was having trouble trying to figure out a way to win.

"Hey Seiya," Hyoga greeted after moving his knight.

"Hey Hyoga. Hi Camus." Seiya greeted.

"Enjoying your day off?" Camus asked easily spotting Seiya's shivering and had to smirk at his actions.

"Everything's going good so far." Seiya answered. "I'm still never going to understand how you two can live like this."

Hyoga chuckled. "It's just fine for us but you should probably get back out in the sun before you get frostbite or hypothermia."

"Right." Camus agreed moving one of his chess pieces.

"Alright. I'll see you guys later after I thaw out." Seiya said heading towards the back exit.

"Poor Seiya." Hyoga chuckled. "He never liked this cool atmosphere."

"Maybe one day he'll get use to it. He's still a saint after all." Camus said moving a chess piece. "Checkmate."

Once outside and back in the sun, Seiya felt the warmth starting to return to his body as he made his way up the stairs. Now the Pisces temple was left to go through. Hopefully Aphrodite would once again be tending to his garden.

Out of the Gold Saints, Aphrodite was one of the few who never gave Seiya any kind of torture. All he would hear from the self proclaimed most beautiful saint was skin and hair care tips and that his roses were off limits. Only he and Athena were allowed to touch them.

Naturally the others were going to take his warning. Right now the flowers weren't poisonous but once the poison was starting to emit from the flowers there was no way that anyone was going near them.

Seiya didn't see Aphrodite anywhere inside trying to 'better' his appearance but quickly spotted the saint outside tending to his roses. Most of the red flowers had been replanted and were quickly growing but some of the stairway was still visible and someone could still walk by.

The new flowers were growing more beautiful than the ones before and Aphrodite wasn't sure of that since he claimed that he gave his roses the best attention possible. Seiya could only suggested that the new beautiful flowers were probably saying that peaceful times were finally here.

The Pegasus saint nearly laughed when he saw Aphrodite quickly watering his huge rose garden. Luckily for Seiya, the 'poison' hadn't been applied to these flowers yet so he didn't have to worry about inhaling the toxic air or getting scratched by one of the thorns.

"Hello Seiya." Aphrodite greeted pausing in his watering task once he saw the younger man.

"Hey Aphrodite, how's the garden coming?" Seiya asked.

"Remarkably quick and well." The Pisces saint answered proudly. "Very soon they shall be as beautiful and poisonous as the first garden."

"Great." Seiya said slowly. "Well, I'll get out of you hair so you can finish this."

"Are you going to see Shun?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yeah." Seiya answered.

"Can you give these to him while you're there?" Aphrodite asked picking up a bundle of the reddest roses he had and handing them to Seiya.

Seiya smiled taking the flowers. "Sure thing. I'll tell him you sent them."

Aphrodite nodded with a smile and watched as Seiya continued on towards the palace as the younger saint made sure to stay clear of the blooming roses.

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[Hidden chamber]

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The hallway to the hidden chamber was dark with the only light coming from a few lit torches and the only sounds were his footsteps. Seiya figured someone else had to be here since the torches were lit.

To prevent anyone else from coming into this area, Athena had set up an invisible barrier that would only allow herself, the gold saints and the bronze saints to enter once it recognized each of their individual cosmo. Anyone else who tried to get past the barrier would need the permission or presence of Athena herself. Otherwise it would simply act as a force field and keep anyone and everyone away from reaching the hidden room.

Seiya walked into the hidden chamber to see Athena standing in front of the ice block where Shun was 'sleeping'. Obviously she had been here quite a while since there were a few new things in the room.

The Pegasus saint noticed that the Andromeda cloth chest was sitting on a stone side table against the left wall with a white silk cloth under the box. Seiya knew that the Andromeda armor was incomplete inside the chest because the gold chains were missing as they were still wrapped around Shun's body inside the ice.

There was also a large full body painting on the right wall of Shun wearing the Andromeda God cloth with the great Andromeda nebula painted in the background. It was framed in a beautiful gold frame and placed perfectly on the wall. Under the painting there was another stone side table that had a few lit candles on it and a few framed photo's of Shun and friends.

Two pictures were of him with Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Ikki in their Bronze armor and then a casual one on the beach, another was a group photo of all the Gold and Bronze saints, another was of him and Ikki and the one that caught Seiya's eye most was the only picture of Shun in his childhood.

He had seen it once before. It was him and Ikki when Ikki was just a little boy and Shun was still a baby. Ikki was holding Shun who was wrapped in a pink blanket smiling like what was going on was play time. The picture had been taken when they had been found by agents of the Graude Foundation.

Looking away from the pictures of better times, Seiya walked over and knelt to Athena although he wasn't sure she knew he was there.

"You've been feeling more restless than usual as well?" Athena asked softly surprising Seiya a little.

"Yes," he answered. "I've been remembering things from our previous life and I actually remember a few things from before. I'm wondering if fate has made it to where the three of us know each other so well only for us to be turned against one another in the end."

"I've often wondered about that as well, Seiya." Athena said. "The three of us have met and known each other time and time again in previous lives. Either we have been friends, relatives or just met by chance but something always brought us together. We would come to know each other and form close friendships only to find out that we would have to fight against one another in a Holy War. It seems that fate does in fact have a cruel humor."

"It's not fair. For any of us." Seiya said standing and walking over to look up at Shun. His black hair was away from his face which held the peaceful expression he had before being frozen. Seiya could only assume that Shun felt comfort knowing that they had found a way to keep Hades from returning to Earth.

"If there was a way to change fate I would do it and make sure that none of this happens to us anymore." Seiya declared feeling his eyes quiver as he looked at Shun before placing the bundle of roses at the base of the ice coffin. "Aphrodite sent you his best roses buddy."

"If changing fate were possible I would gladly help you in that task, Seiya." Athena said with a weak smile.

Truthfully, she wanted all of this to end already. Every time that she was reborn she would come to know the Pegasus saint and have a close friendship with him and then she would meet the person who was Hades next reincarnation and become friends with them. After a peaceful time with them Athena would learn that the Holy War was closely approaching and that they would all possibly die only to repeat the cycle again.

The last Holy War was the hardest since Athena had to attack her own older brother. They had been able to reach Alone's human side for a brief moment before Pandora arrived and ruined everything.

And in the end almost everyone lost.

Seiya placed his hand on the ice and the instant chill made him remove his hand. He frowned looking at Shun. He was stuck in there feeling nothing but the freezing ice that held him captive and the ice block was inside an underground chamber where it was at a cold temperature all day.

The only window in the room had been right above the ice block on the back wall but it had been removed so no one would discover what was really inside the chamber.

The only people who knew where Shun was located were the ones who put him here. Athena and her Gold and Bronze saints. They were the only people who knew the exact location and they were the only ones who could ever see him.

Turning from her friend sleeping in the ice, Athena looked to Seiya.

"Seiya, I wish to ask for your help for an important matter." she said.

Seiya quickly knelt to her. "Anything you wish, Athena." he said.

"As you know, Shion, our last pope, has left us. Sanctuary needs a new pope to help us whenever we need it. I want to ask you if you can help me decide which of the Gold Saints should be the next pope of Sanctuary."

"I'll help you however I can, Athena." Seiya said with a gentle smile although in the back of his mind he already had an idea who she was going to pick to be pope.

The two started to leave the room so they could try to figure a few things out and hopefully get their minds off of Shun for a while. Before shutting the large iron doors, Seiya looked at Shun one last time.

Things will be alright, Shun. You won't have to be in there forever. I'll make sure of that. he vowed silently as he shut the doors and started to follow Athena down the hall.

One day, the team will be together again. I know it will. Seiya thought as he helped Athena put out the flames of the torches. Very soon we'll all be together again and hopefully things will be normal for once.