Wow. The response to this, while not as numerous as in some other fandoms I've dabbled in, is so supportive and kind to me, I had to go on!
JupiterGoddess: Thanks for the first review!
Virgin of Aquarius: Camus goodness, coming right up! xD
Thrudgelmir2333: I will give it my best!
Five years later
"Hyoga! Hyoooo-gaaa! If you don't come out this instant, I swear to Goddess I will murder you, no matter what Master says!"
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hyoga winced in his hiding place as his best friend Yelena delivered her threat, and huddled into himself even more, suppressing his Cosmo like she had taught him just before he set off from Siberia to Japan. He was not going to play with Kido-brat, oh no! Let that moron Jabu and other panderers surround her and lavish her with attention, Hyoga will not be taking part in that!
"Hyo-ga!" And suddenly, a painful blow connected with the top of his head. Hyoga yelped and jumped up, forgetting he was hiding in small space and colliding with the wooden shelf. A starburst of pain shot through six-year-old boy's shoulders, sending him on his knees as he desperately mashed his teeth together to avoid crying out in pain.
"Hyoga! What are you doing here?" Yelena stood above him, arms crossed and frosty silver-blue aura enveloping her torso in a facsimile of a long dress. Add on a tiara or a crown and give her a scepter, and you would be convinced you stood in front of the Ice Princess, if not for her glacier-blue eyes. In them, Hyoga saw the blue fire, and shuddered as he slowly stood up, careful not to expose himself to a surprise attack from his nee-san.
"Resting," the part-Russian drawled out the word, clinging to his pride and determination to get him out of this pinch. He knew he stood no chance in hell in fooling his nee-san – that girl could smell rot from across the country – but he could show her his determination in his chosen path. "Like we were ordered to."
"I was not aware Saori-san's spare closet was the place Tatsumi delegated for your and your friends' rest, Hyoga-otouto." Yelena was not impressed, judging by the subtle shift in her stance. Her right leg slid out sideways, bending at the same time, forming a relaxed, yet ready stance. Hyoga gulped and slowly took a step to the side. There was no point in running away; his only hope right now was to dodge and run when her first hit misses.
If she misses.
Damn her Master and lessons in archery she took on his urging!
"You know how much I hate all those brats hanging around my bed and yammering all day long," Hyoga shrugged, falling back on his right leg but not crouching just yet. He had to play it easy and cool – to pardon the pun. "I needed some time to myself."
"And that time simply happened to coincide with Saori-san's visit to the playground?" Yelena arched an eyebrow, but she was smiling gently as she did so, so Hyoga could allow himself to relax a bit –
Wham!
"Umph!" Hyoga grunted as the perfectly placed punch in the gut forced the boy on his back, his backside hitting the ground with a muted thump.
"How many times have I told you never to let your guard down?" Yelena chided but this time her voice was warm and comforting, like a teacher's. "You can't relax just because I decided to show you I agree with you."
"Hai, hai." Hyoga rubbed the small of his back, which took the brunt of his fall. "You could've been a bit softer with your punch, Yelena-nee-san."
"That would've defeated the point of the punch, baka," Yelena shook her head and turned on her heel. "Now come on: you'll want to see and hear what I have in store for you boys today."
Hyoga scrambled to his feet, suddenly excited to go to the playground. Yelena's lessons were the best – she always talked about interesting things, like Sanctuary, Saints and myths of the constellations! Not only that, she always drew them in, never letting anyone fall asleep from boredom – unlike that moron Tatsumi!
"What are you telling us about today, nee-san?"
Yelena smiled, but her smile spoke not of joy, but of bitterness. "Oh, something every boy likes to hear about." She stopped to look at her friend over her shoulder, her eyes as expressionless as void. "War."
She continued walking gracefully after she said that, while Hyoga took a few moments to unfreeze and run after her, keeping his mouth shut.
"Yelena-sama is here!" Someone shouted in the playground – probably Nachi, that idiot had no tact and too much lung, Hyoga thought in amusement – and the boys stampeded towards her, surrounding her in a loose circle, but not coming too close. They learned their lesson the first time Hyoga punched Sho into the mouth to give his nee-san some air to breathe.
"Yelena-sama!"
"Yelena-san!"
"Yelena-nee!"
"What are you telling us today?"
"Tell us about constellations!"
"No, tell about Sanctuary!"
"No, Saints!"
"No, tell us -"
"Yamero!" Yelena ordered, and the unruly kids instantly quieted down. "Where do you think you kids were born in, in a barn? Let me greet our kind host first!" Hyoga made a face at her declaration, but at this Yelena could not be swayed. You may disagree with the authority all you wanted, but you still had to be polite to them when the situation called for it.
"Yelena-onee-chan," Saori Kido giggled as she walked up to the elder girls, boys parting in her way like Red Sea in front of Moses. "It's good to see you again!"
"No need for that, Saori-san," Yelena hugged the purple-haired girl briefly before releasing her. "You see me every day."
"But you don't teach me!" Saori whined, pouting at Yelena. "I want Yelena-onee-chan to be my teacher, too!"
"Ne, ne, Saori-san, I'm not formally a teacher, you know that," Yelena sighed and rolled her eyes as the old argument between the two girls came up. "I'd love nothing more than to teach you, but your Grandfather wants your education to be top-notch."
"But you're the bestest teacher ever!" Seiya protested, fighting his way to the front to talk with his favorite teacher. "And you always teach us more about Saints!"
"And that's exactly why Kido-sama does not want me teaching you, Saori-san," Yelena smiled the smile that stopped just short of her eyes. "But enough about that. I have a special treat for you today, boys! Sit around me! Ikki, stop strangling Saiyo; Shun, love, come up here and please dry your eyes; Saori-san, otouto, sit here."
In a matter of seconds, every single boy sat in half-circle around the chair conveniently placed next to the entrance, Shun was perched on Yelena's lap, while Saori and Hyoga sat to her left and right on the ground.
"Everyone sitting tight?" She got a lot of nods and a 'yes' scattered here and there. "Good. Now, today we'll be talking about something every one of you here wants to be." Yelena Leaned forward. "Saints. However, we will not be talking about abstract concept: we'll be talking about people."
"Real Saints?" Shiryu asked, eyes blown wide. "Real, living Saints?"
"Well, not all of them are living, Shiryu," Yelena chuckled. "Saints die too, you know. But yes, we'll be talking about them, and how their rank can tell you about their power and position. Now, a pop-quiz: how many Saints are out there?"
"88!" boys chorused.
"How do we divide them?"
"Bronze, Silver and Gold!"
"Good!" Yelena clapped, and boys exchanged proud grins at her praise. "Now, what is the difference between a Bronze and Silver Saint? Yuzuru?"
"Silver Saints are faster, and have more responsibilities for the trainees," the black-haired boy parroted one of the earliest lessons Yelena had given them. "They also have more power."
"That's so near truth, it's not even funny," Yelena giggled. "As a rule of thumb, Silver Saints are definitely nastier to deal with than Bronze Saints… barring a few odd ones."
"Odd ones?"
Now Yelena had everyone's undivided attention. She had stressed again and again that the shift in the color of the Cloth meant the shift in power – lowest being Bronze, and the highest being Gold. What made those exceptions so notable?
"M-hm. Pegasus Saints are nasty to deal with, if the records are to be believed – they punch a lot, and they punch fast." Saori's eyes widened at the mention of the Cloth, but no one noticed it. "Not to mention they usually tend to be sarcastic loudmouths."
"So Seiya, basically," Jabu quipped, making everyone around him laugh and Seiya blush furiously as he tried to defend himself from the accusation. Yelena coughed loudly to get their attention before continuing.
"Andromeda Saints are the other example: they look cute and sweet with that pink Cloth of theirs, but you should stay damn well away from the chains they have – they're basically alive."
"Eeh?" Shun looked up at his teacher, wriggling on her lap a little to catch her attention. "Alive?"
"Oh yes. They can sense enemy's approach, and attack without their commander's control. I won't even go into all the rumors surrounding Phoenix Cloth and its' supposed ability to keep their Saint from death…"
"Supposed?"
"There has never been a Phoenix Saint before." Yelena shrugged. "Or so my Master tells me, and he's the best source of information on the last… oh, thousand years of Sanctuary."
"Wha? Your Master's that old?!" One of the kids shouted, echoed by a few of his friends.
"No, no! He just spent a lot of time in the archives and libraries as part of his duties, so he tells me all the best stories floating around… including that incident."
"What incident?" Saori finally asked, her eyes a bit unfocused. Yelena nodded grimly.
"Now that, that is what I came here to tell you about.
The Lost Canvas Incident… or should I say, Lost Canvas War."
Camus flinched as the girl uttered the words he hoped he would never hear again after his former master Yura scared him to death with the story when he was around the same age as the kids listening to her. Leaning even harder on one of the support pillars right outside the playground, the Aquarius Saint settled to listen to her retelling of that story.
He didn't plan on stopping here: he had just finished delicate negotiations for the Sanctuary in Tokyo, and coming to the mansion of some rich old man wasn't even in his mind. However, on his way to his hotel, he sensed several nascent Cosmos burning inside the building. As a saint – and one of the twelve guardians to the boot – he had to find all those who had the potential to become a Saint and get them to the proper teachers. No good ever came out of those who could access Cosmo yet had no control over it.
The scene he found when he arrived shocked him, though: a tiny seven-year-old girl sitting in the middle of the loose semi-circle of boys, teaching them about Saints. Who was she? How did she know all of that? And, most importantly, who was her Master?
Well, he'll know pretty soon. Everyone heard a different account of the last Holy War – what would be said and what would be left out depended on the storyteller, and the only ones who knew everything were the Pope and Roushi, the sole survivors of that war.
It all started with three orphan children – Sasha, Tenma and Alone. I-ya, I'm telling it wrong. It all started a long time ago, when Hades got a little too power-hungry and tried smother Earth with eternal darkness. His niece Athena and her faithful soldiers, of course, stood in the mad god's path – they had sworn themselves to be humanity's protectors against such forces, ne? Anyway, that was the first Holy War – war between two gods, with semi-immortals and humans fighting to extinction over this beautiful planet.
And believe me, when I say it had been extinction, that's what I meant. After the First War ended, Hades' body was badly damaged, every servant of his was destroyed, and out of many of Athena's soldiers, only two remained alive. Zeus, having seen it, grew furious and recalled his daughter to Olympus, leaving the two Saints to repair things as best as they could. However, Hades did not forget his ambition, and Athena knew it. Children of Kronos are all like that, you know? They're like dogs with a bone – they will stop at nothing to get what they want. Zeus knew it too, so he allowed his daughter to be reborn every 200-something years to defeat Hades again – cycle of life and death at its finest, you see. Too much peace, and Earth would stagnate, too much chaos, and Earth would again stagnate.
Now we skip back to our three orphans from the beginning – Sasha, Tenma, and Alone. Remember them? Yes? Good. They're the reason the Lost Canvas War is written down as one of the most brutal Holy Wars in history.
So far, the things were all bland – things everyone knew, the context of the Holy Wars. The girl had not uttered a single thing that would help Camus pinpoint who had told her that story.
He had time, though. The story was still young, and it was the latter parts that people disagreed about.
You see, they were… it would be a sin to say they were just friends, or just siblings. They were both and neither: they were simply 'imouto Sasha', 'Tenma-ani' and 'Alone-nii', three children who survived from day to day, always together. They protected and loved each other to death…
Then, one day, a strange, well dressed, yet likable man appeared in their town, carrying a gold box on his back.
"Gold Saint!" one of the children exclaimed, and the murmur, almost nonexistent until that point, picked up as boys started discussing the newest development, until the girl telling the story coughed rather loudly.
"Yes, it was a Gold Saint – Sagittarius Sisyphus, to be precise. Tell me, which House belongs to Sagittarius?"
"Ninth!" brown-haired boy with murky, chai-red eyes exclaimed. "His protector is centaur Chiron!"
"Well done, Seiya, and thank you for spoiling my next question," the girl deadpanned, making poor Seiya blush. Camus bowed his head to hide his smile over the smooth execution of the reprimand, as soft as it was. She definitely had a gift for teaching. "Shall we go on?"
The strange man had been wandering around the market, talking some of the grown up first, before going deeper into the maze of alleyways… where he found himself face to face with our three orphans.
Can you think, what had he done first? No?
He knelt in front of Sasha, and addressed her as 'my Lady'.
"What? That girl – she was Athena?" Blonde boy sitting next to the girl exclaimed, and Camus had to smile at the disbelief. Everyone had a hard time thinking about their goddess being a simple mortal at first – you simply get used to the fact as the years of servitude pass by.
"Oh yes, she was."
Of course, the trio did not believe him. But after some time – Master often jokes it must've took at least an hour when you factor in Tenma's stubbornness – he managed to get Sasha away from her brothers and to the Sanctuary. And then… things went south.
I won't bore with all the details, you're a bit too young for all the things than happened, but suffice to say that after five years, Alone became host to god Hades, sent Tenma to the Underworld and tried to kill Sasha. Athena awoke inside Sasha, and melded with her host, fighting Alone all the way. And Tenma, rebellious, feisty Tenma… he became Pegasus Saint, and found himself between Alone and Sasha, trying to figure out his loyalties.
"That's horrible," green-haired boy in girl's lap murmured, but in total silence that followed girl's last sentence, it could be clearly heard. "How could Alone and Sasha do such a thing to Tenma?"
"You have a big heart, Shun-kun," the narrator sighed. "Alone and Sasha were partly fused with gods, remember? Gods… well, they think of us as less than ants. Insignificant. Unimportant. Dolls they can play with whenever they like, then break us and toss us aside when they get bored of us."
Camus leaned forward at this part. Whoever told her the story was no fan of gods, that was for sure. That narrowed down the list of people who could be her Master quite a bit.
"And Athena?" Dark-haired boy stood up, glaring daggers at the girl. "What are we to her?"
"Ikki…" the girl sighed again and bowed her head, before lifting it up, and Camus was shocked to see her smile. "That was the point Athena was trying to make. She went into the cycle of rebirth, to be as humane as possible when she was finally ready to lead her Saints. To her… I believe we are all dear friends she would never play with like dolls. That was what saved her Saints so many times – she is quite willing to give up her own life to protect them.
Am I right, Goldo Sainto, Aquarius no Camus?"
Yelena smiled as she turned her head around to face her Zodiac sibling, who was currently quite busy trying not to make a fish impression. Her boys gaped, lacking the older man's restraint, as did Saori, prompting a chuckle from both her and her Master.
Marvelously done, Master praised her, and Yelena couldn't help but preen a little. Perfectly in place and sneakily executed, all with flat face. You can't make a better Aquarius impression that that, dear.
"Watch it, Master, you'll make my ego swell a bit too much," Yelena quipped back, enjoying her Master's relaxed attitude in presence of his former comrade. "I may even float off to the stars."
Nah, that's why I'm here – shooting egos down is my specialty, Master grinned toothily at her, pointedly twirling a phantom copy of Sagittarius' arrow between his fingers.
"Har, har, har, Master," Yelena rolled her eyes at the childish riposte. "That was so bad, your otouto would be proud of it."
Hey, I have better sense of humor than Aiolia! Master complained with a pout. No, don't laugh at me, Yelena! I do!
"I'll believe it when I see it, Master," Yelena snickered. "And so far, you've been doing a wonderful impression of your brother's lame jokes."
"Excuse me, but who are you talking to?" Ah, her Zodiac brother managed to gather some of his wits to ask the important questions. Well, Yelena will be more than glad to shatter that composure again – nothing was more satisfying than breaking the icy façade she knew every Aquarius possessed to some degree, and Camus seemed to be a good challenge.
On the other hand, maybe not such a good challenge. She had the winning combination no matter what. She'll have to test things later, though.
"My Master." Obviously, was the silent addendum here.
"And what is his name?" Camus demanded, stepping into the playground and revealing the gorgeous, sleek yet rounded lines of the Aquarius cloth. It will fit Hyoga perfectly once he grows up, she thought as she scanned the general shape of the Cloth with a small, internal giggle.
What was going right now? Oh yes, Master's name.
"Well, he insists I call him Master or Teacher, but he let it slip his name is Aiolos."
Maybe I've overdone it, Yelena thought with a gleeful cackle as the Frenchman collapsed on his knees, eyes blown wide and jaw so agape, she thought it would dislodge and fall to the ground.