Notes: Yeah, I'm updating this again. Thanks so, so much to July-chan, Nao-san, LSN, and Niteskye for their reviews.
Saga's turned out so dark. And incredibly long. But I'm satisfied with it. I am thinking about writing some for Mu, Aiolia, and Milo, but that will greatly depend on my reviewers. If you would like to see more, please write a review and tell me. Have fun!
Saga – Bring Me to Life
He was still unsure of why it worked that way. Why people could see straight through him. That was why he always wore an opaque mask when he was masquerading as Ares. Because if he had exposed his eyes at all, everyone would have been able to tell what he was thinking, how he was feeling, and everything else about him.
How can you see into my eyes like open doors
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb without a soul
Why was it that, each time anyone looked into his eyes, he suddenly felt empty, as though everything inside himself were gone? Saga wasn't sure anymore. Sometimes he wondered if he ever had a soul to begin with. He'd been soulless for so long that it simply felt natural now.
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home
Hades could take it. His soul, his spirit…they were already far from him, up to the day he died, and even to this moment. And now he was back. This was the place he had lived for twenty-odd long years. Some strange part of him told him that it was typically called "home," that warm place where people dwelled and returned to at the end of the day.
(Wake me up) Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside
(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark
He reached around the darkness of the inside of himself. Everything felt so dreamlike, so unreal…he wasn't doing this. He wasn't going to antagonize his old friends again, a second time. He wasn't going to fight his goddess again. He wasn't going to be consumed in darkness again.
(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up) Before I come undone
(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become
Saga suddenly realized he was still dead. Or rather, undead. He was not allowed to cry, he did not need to breathe, and he probably could not bleed. He was not alive, but neither was he dead. He was not human, nor was he a ghost, or a spectre. After doing this, he wouldn't even be considered a Saint. He was simply nothing.
Now that I know what I'm without, you can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life
Aphrodite and Deathmask had been sent back to Hades so quickly. So quickly. He was already down two of his allies. Saga counted who was left. Camus, who would be a good brother-in-arms, but no moral support whatsoever. Shura, who was in basically the same situation he was. Stay with me, please. I can't do this alone.
(Wake me up) Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside
(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark
And then there was Shion. Shion, whom he had killed. No, he would have nothing but his darkness to hold him together. That, and his mission for Athena. Someone come and get me out of this nightmare…Kanon…
(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up) Before I come undone
(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become
Where are you, Kanon? Lil' brother? It used to be Kanon who woke him from his nightmares. They woke each other from nightmares. There was no one else. He and the others had passed Mu now, and Aldebaran. Would he really get through these temples without any fighting? It would be too easy. And oddly, Saga did not want it easy. He wanted to bleed, to prove that he wasn't nothing.
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life
Oh, he knew. He knew it was all a lie he was telling himself. Everything he was doing, no matter what good intentions he had, was wrong. He should not be fighting here, against everything he should have held dear. But he was not a living, breathing human. He was a nothing, and nothings do not weep, for nothings do not live.
Frozen inside without your touch, without your love
Only you are the life among the dead
He told himself to stop it. To quit whining in angst over his past mistakes. If his fate was to become nothing in order to save Athena, there was nothing he would do to counter that. Athena had given him everything, Athena was more important than anything. She gave all of them life, and made them who they were.
All this time I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
Kanon? Beyond all belief, beyond all possibility, the one person he missed most was standing before him. As the fact quickly sunk in to his mind, Saga wondered why he did not guess before, why he had not sensed his own brother. Perhaps it was the unexpectedness, and also that he had been engrossed by his mission. More than that, the fact that his hopes were true…Kanon had not died at Cape Sunion at his hands. His hopes never came true that easily.
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything
But Kanon was halfway across Sanctuary. He used Saga's own tactics to keep the three in the Gemini temple. Without choice, Saga flung a great amount of energy at Kanon, hoping he had not just killed his brother again. The temple opened. Kanon's Cosmo faded, but did not die completely.
Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul
Don't let me die here
There must be something more
Bring me to life
Shaka had nearly killed them. But Shaka intended to die, and no one can fight the will of a man so close to the gods. Each step, each painful moment, even as he used a forbidden attack twice in a row without blinking, Saga condensed his thoughts down to one sentence. I can't die. I can't die. He had to get to Athena, and maybe this way, he would make up for his sins.
(Wake me up) Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside
(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark
As he gave Saga the golden blade, Kanon refused to look him in the eyes. Saga restrained the ache it brought to his chest. My own brother thinks I'm a traitor. Can't you just look at me? Say my name? That was all it would take to make him feel more real. The Cloth that covered his body was so dark…so dark…
(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up) Before I come undone
(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become
When Athena fell backwards, her blood pooling in red blotches, Saga could only call her name and grab for her, as if he might catch her and pull her back from death. Vaguely, he wondered why he was the one still living. He was the one who wanted to bleed, who wanted to die, who was the disposable nothing.
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
And at the end, he wept. He rasped with tears that didn't come until finally…finally…a drop of liquid fell from his eyes. Athena had given him life with her death, made him something. But he had not wanted to be something at this price. It was too much to pay for his life, which was ultimately still worth nothing. Definitely not Athena. The tears simply fell faster, reminding him with each scalding drop that he was alive, and someone else had paid too much for it.
Bring me to life