Note : Here is the second part to my In-Between project. I hope you'll like it as much as the previous one =)
Quick Word to the Reviewer:
Denise2006: I'm glad you liked the beginning of the story =) Hopefully it will get funnier as time goes on, but bits by bits (I don't want to ruin their emotional potential). And don't worry, I do plan on finishing this story, but the updating of it may be a bit… uh… erratic, so to speak. It's a collection of OS, after all, so I'm taking my time to have the best inspirations possible =)
ShinigamiSaisei: Aw, sadly Albafica was only a guest star for the first OS: even though I love him too, he didn't fit in the overall story Anyway, I'm glad the first part pleased you, and I hope this one will please you as well.
Marta madzia: Thank you! I'm glad the idea attracts you =) When I dreamed about it, I loved it instantly because of the ton of possibilities it offers =) I hope this second OS will please you as well as the first =)
In-Between, Scene Two :
Goodbye Sanctuary
"I still don't understand why she couldn't bring us back to our times!"
"Because she is the goddess of war, not time, Aphrodite. She doesn't have such power."
Aphrodite didn't bother pointing out the purely formal nature of his question and went on grumbling as he deepened the hole he was now digging in the ground, mentally complaining about his fate: not only couldn't he go back to his dear year of 1987, but he was also forced to abandon his cloth for almost forever!
"I am utterly sorry, Knights, but I cannot send you back to your own time."
"You mean you can't do anything about it? That we'll have to live and die here?"
Sasha –or rather the Athena of this period- shook her head, her lavender hair flowing as she did so, her eyes full of sadness.
"I cannot send you back to your time." She repeated. "There is, however, something I can do for you, but I fear the remedy will be worse than the illness."
"Why?" Aphrodite asked, tense in anticipation. Behind him, Shaka stood as still as ever, his expression the ever unreadable mask he ever wore, a faint bent of irritation in his little fingers, but the Pisces Saint did not care. Athena had heard their story, she had believed them, and she was willing to help them. Shaka may not care, but Aphrodite would be damned before he even thought of forsaken Shura and Deathmask so easily! "Why should it be so terrible if it allows us to go back home?"
"The only thing I can do for you is to grant you to live for the upcoming two hundred years."
"What, you mean we'd have to stay unmoving like Dohko?"
Aphrodite almost choked on the words.
"No. Only one person at a time can use the Misopethamenos technique, and as you know, I gifted it to the Libra Saint. I cannot offer you this." Sasha paused a split moment, seemingly hesitating to further explain herself, but Aphrodite's pressing gaze finally convinced her. "I can, however, gift you with the same power that is given to the Pope. It would freeze your bodies ages for the next centuries and allow you to go back to your time."
"Athena, words cannot express how grateful I feel right now, I…!"
"What will happen, oh Goddess, if we are harmed or killed?" Shaka interrupted calmly. "Will we be protected from that?"
"No." Athena gave them a sad smile. "It is up to you not to be deadly harmed during these long years of your lives. Your cosmoses can protect you from any diseases, but if you ever encounter someone who is able to harm you, you will suffer as any other man."
"We have the cloths for that anyway!" Aphrodite scoffed impatiently. "They'll protect us from harm, no worries to have about that."
"In all truth," Sasha corrected, "I was about to tell you about your cloths."
"What is there to tell?"
Aphrodite didn't dare interrupt the conversation between the Virgo saint and the Goddess, for fear of missiong something important. What they were about to live was akin to a mission asked by the Pope –or rather, by Saga- he had to hit the target right away and come back alive. Being a murderer had at least taught him to listen carefully to any info he could get before heading for his destination.
"There are some rules you have to follow if you wish to be able to see your home again some day."
"We are listening."
"First, you can not bear your cloths. They must be hidden near the sanctuary, and not go out until you return to your rightful time. You, on the other hand, will not be allowed here before you are indeed back to your time. You are to leave on the morrow. Furthermore, your existence must not be known by anyone save me and yourselves. You will have to hide your cosmoses and immortality in front of all, else you wish your lifespan to be turned back to that of any other human. You will not be allowed to contact either me or the Sanctuary nor to alter the scheme of things. This mean to trying to kill the next incarnation of Hades, no trying to explain to your fellow Knights that Ayoros was actually innocent, and so on. Have I made myself clear?"
"Transparent milady." Aphrodite answered with the professional tone he had used to address Saga. "Our cloths will be buried tonight, and we will depart first thing tomorrow."
He then bowed himself out of the room and, grabbing Shaka's wrist, dragged him along.
Aphrodite finished burying his cloth and planted the second olive he had selected earlier in the morning. He had chosen the place himself: the two cloths were buried on either side of the path leading from the Pope's temple to the rest of the sanctuary, and olive planted near each of the boxes.
"There." He sighed with satisfaction. "This way we won't have any trouble finding them back, and a few tree roots won't be any problem to cut when we'll need to."
Shaka said nothing. He raised his head to face the setting sun, as if to take a last look at the sanctuary. Aphrodite imitated him, his throat tighter than he would have anticipated. He had, after all, known no other house than the sanctuary. He had been brought there in his fourth year, from a country of which he had a piercing cold for only memory. The Sanctuary had not only seen him become a Knight, but also a boy and, later on, a young man. He knew nothing of the outside world, nothing of how it worked and, powerful as he was, he couldn't help feeling a tad nervous about leaving the Sanctuary for two hundred years, no matter how exciting it sounded.
As the sun cast its last rays over the Sanctuary and the village of Rhodorio, Aphrodite allowed a tear to roll down his left cheek.
And for once, Shaka's cosmos expressed a sadness and anxiety matching his.
