Chapter 4

By: MimiYamatoForever

The ship was sailing once more and the closer they got to Antarctica the colder the air became. Snow had started to fall shortly after the saints had started sailing again.

Hyoga and Shiryu were once again in the crow's nest keeping an eye out for anything that might come across the ships path.

Everyone on the ship was wearing warm coats since the temperature had become too cold for most of them. Camus and Hyoga were the only ones not wearing jackets since they were saints of ice and snow.

Seiya was with Camus and Milo at the ships wheel.

Milo was carefully stearing while Camus and Seiya went over the map details a little more. The only thing about finding the cave was that Seiya wasn't too sure where it exactly was.

The visions he had always jumped a few parts like when a scratched CD skips words.

Camus was trying to figure out where caves may be located around the continent. They couldn't waste their time going around the entire country since it would take way too long and he doubted that everyone on the ship would be so patient.

Seiya himself was hoping that another vision would come to him and tell him where the cave would be located. They were still about two hours away from Antarctica and Camus was doing his best to try to find any possible location of caves on the maps he had but wasn't coming up with much.

Degel, Seiya thought. If your cosmo or spirit can hear my thoughts, please let me know where the cave entrance is. I don't know where it is.

He sat down on a barrel next to the railing and looked at his list of the landmarks.

The only thing not listed was how to find the cave. Just how to get to Atlantis through the underwater path.

Of all the bad luck. Seiya thought to himself and suddenly felt himself grow sleepy.

He lightly shook his head trying to shake the sleepiness off him. He tried looking at his map again only to feel his eyelids grow heavy again.

Before he realized it, his eyes had completely closed and he drifted off.

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This again. Seiya thought looking down to see the ship with everyone on it. He even saw himself on the upper deck with Milo and Camus. He looked like he had past out and fell to the floor since the two Gold Saints were rushing over to him.

Suddenly, an invisible force started to pull him ahead of the ship. He started to float farther away from this vessel his friends were on and he started to see land up ahead.

But the force that was bringing him here started taking him another way.

Now Seiya found himself floating toward a gathering of icebergs. The towers of ice were small in numbers and looked like they could be easily removed if need be.

The young Pegasus found himself coming closer to the icebergs until he started to pass through them. Once again he felt like he was a ghost.

As soon as he cleared through the icebergs he felt greatly relieved when he saw the entrance of the cave.

Thanks Degel. Seiya thought to himself as he felt like he was coming out of a dream.

[][]

"Seiya! Wake up!"

Seiya snapped his eyes open and he realized that he was on the floor of the ship with Camus, Degel and Aiolos looking down at him with concern.

"Are you alright?" Aiolos asked helping him sit up.

"Yeah." Seiya answered. "Did I pass out again?"

"Sure did." Milo answered. "You've been doing that a lot lately."

"Sorry." Seiya apologized standing up.

Just then a few small snowflakes landed in his eyes and he quickly rubbed them away. As soon as he did more snow started to fly into his face.

"Look at that." Milo declared quickly rushing back over to the wheel of the ship.

Seiya looked up and rushed over to Milo's side. He gasped when he saw what it was Milo was referring to.

A small but clear path of snow was flowing through the air and straight to them. It was flowing in a clean path from the right of them.

"Hyoga. Shiryu. Can you guys see where that snow is coming from?" Seiya called.

"It's coming from behind some icebergs." Shiryu answered.

"Icebergs?" Milo repeated uncertain.

Seiya's eyes went wide with realization.

"We have to go that way." he declared pushing Milo aside and turning the wheel. The ship made a sharp turn and caused almost everyone to fall.

"Seiya, what are you doing?" Aiolos asked hurrying over.

"The cave entrance is behind those icebergs." Seiya answered.

"Are you sure?" Camus asked.

"Pretty sure." Seiya answered. "We just need to get past them."

"Shura! Babel!" Aiolos shouted. "Quick! Clear those icebergs up ahead!"

The Gold and Silver saint quickly obeyed and rushed to the side of the ship.

Shura raised his right arm as it started to glow gold light.

"Excalibur!"

Instantly, he flicked his right arm and the straight beam of gold light went straight for the towers of ice. The light hit the first three icebergs, completely breaking them to pieces.

Babel readied his attack next.

"Fire Whirlpool!"

The fire flew straight to the rest of the icebergs and hit them on target. A large screen of smoke flew up as the ice instantly started to melt. The fire completely cleared the path and a large cave was instantly seen.

"There it is." Seiya declared and was shoved aside.

"Then let me drive. You kids these days." Camus declared.

Seiya gave Camus a slight face but rushed off before he was caught. He ran into Hyoga who came down the rope ladder.

"Nice driving." Hyoga remarked.

"Sorry." Seiya replied and they both headed toward the front of the ship. They reached the front just as the ship entered the cave and they were covered in darkness.

The sound of lapping water echoed all around them and lanterns were lit to try to get more light to see.

Everyone marveled at the cave of ice around them. It was smooth in structure. Not a bump or crack anywhere to be seen.

The ship sailed quietly for a few minutes until Shiryu spotted something up ahead.

"Camus, the exit is just up ahead!" he shouted.

"We need to stop the ship there! We'll have to take the subs the rest of the way!" Seiya added.

"Alright! Everyone get ready to stop the ship!" Camus ordered.

Everyone started to scramble around in order to stop the ship however they could since Seiya had already explained that the opening they were about to hit was a dead end.

The ship came into the opening and everyone was in awe at what they saw.

Giant sheets of smooth ice made a very large opening. The opening was much bigger than the arena back in Sanctuary and was large enough to let the ship do a turn around when they would leave.

The ceiling above them was just a thin layer of ice that was preventing snow from coming in but still allowing some sunlight in. The ground could be seen around the walls of ice and the light reflecting from the waters surface dancing around the room in various colors.

"This is amazing." Shina declared.

"Lower the first two submarines!" Seiya ordered.

Soldiers instantly went to the first two subs and started to lower the vessels to the waters surface just as the ship came to a stop.

Hyoga and Camus went over to the scuba equipment and started to strap on the double oxygen tanks and air masks.

Seiya climbed into the first mini submarine and Shiryu climbed into another with Dohko right behind him.

"We'll keep in touch through the radio Aiolos." Hyoga declared as he slipped on his mask and tossed himself backwards off the ship and into the water below followed by his mentor.

As soon as the subs were sealed, they dove down into the water and just floated downward a bit.

Seiya opened his little journal once his sub was completely submerged and set it carefully on the counsel.

He switched on the communication system that would allow him to speak with the others.

"Can everyone hear me?" he asked.

"Loud and clear on this end." Shiryu answered as the second sub came into view.

"We can hear you too." Hyoga added as he and Camus swam by.

"Alright then. Follow me everyone." Seiya declared as he drove the submarine down a few feet toward another opening.

Camus grabbed onto the side wing of Shiryu's sub and Hyoga grabbed a hold onto one of Seiya's.

The young Pegasus carefully maneuvered his sub through the opening that was just wide enough to allow the subs to sail through without hitting anything.

The passage way only lasted a few minutes until it finally led to an exit. Now the subs were in open water and right above them was most likely the snow covered land since they could only see white.

"Ok guys, we're going to be heading about three miles north where we'll see the first landmark." Seiya announced.

"Roger that." Camus replied.

Ok, my visions and my map both say that in the next three miles there's going to be a spiral shaped rock tower leaning to one side. Seiya thought as he kept his eyes open for the first formation.

The speed of the subs allowed the three miles to go by quickly and Seiya eventually spotted the spiral rock.

"Alright guys. That leaning rock right there is the first landmark. We're going to turn twenty degrees north west until we see a patch of different colored anemones."

"We'll keep an eye open." Shiryu replied as they started to turn once they reached the spiral rock.

"Ok. Let's speed up a few notches." Seiya ordered increasing the speed of his sub.

"Alright." Shiryu agreed. "Hyoga. Camus. You guys doing alright?"

"I'm alright." Camus answered.

"Same here." Hyoga added.

The continuing ride was in silence for about seven minutes until the patch of undersea flowers was spotted and Seiya gave the next coordinates to the next location.

Three landmarks from that they were near the end of the search and were close to about six miles away from the ships location.

The saints were coming to the final landmark and passed that one would be the city they've been searching for.

They passed the final landmark which was a small gathering of clams and then came to a deeper part of the sea.

Right then, the saints all spotted a large dome shape in the short distance.

"There it is everyone." Seiya announced. "The kingdom of Atlantis."

The saints were in awe at the sight.

The Ice Coffin had formed into a perfect dome shape and it was obvious why. There was a dome protecting the undersea kingdom. The dome must have been as far as the ice could have reached having come from inside.

"It's amazing." Camus declared and let go of the sub once they were close enough. He and Hyoga both came close to the dome that was the only thing holding the ice inside.

"The palace is somewhere in the center and that's where Degel will be. Let's try to find a possible way to enter." Seiya said.

The saints agreed and started to go their own directions to find a way to enter the frozen city.

"I can't believe that Degel really may be inside there." Dohko said looking out the glass window to search for a way inside the dome.

"Look at it this way, there's a chance that when this is all over he could be going back to Sanctuary with us." Shiryu said hoping to cheer his mentor up.

"You're right." Dohko agreed and kept searching.

Hyoga was circling around the dome trying to find something that would indicated the main entrance into the city.

While he swam he spotted something up ahead. It was an arched gateway covered with sea plants and animals. He swam over to the gateway and figured that this must have been the main entrance he was looking for.

He came up to the dome and started looking around. The ice was a bit hard to see through and he could mainly see shadows outlining buildings. He went a little to his right in hopes of finding something else when he gasped at what he saw next.

[]

The others were searching but weren't coming up with any good possibilities when Hyoga's voice suddenly shouted over the communicators.

"Guys! I found something!"

"Calm down Hyoga. What did you find?" Camus asked as they started to head toward Hyoga.

"You'll see what I mean when you get here!"

Shiryu and Dohko were the first to reach Hyoga and Dohko right away felt his heart skip a beat when he saw what Hyoga found.

"That's…"

[][][]

Aiolos and the others were waiting for any kind of sign from the others or a signal from the radio.

The group of five had been in the icy ocean for a little over two hours and he was wondering what was taking them so long.

Aiolos saw Shura was about to yell when a sudden static noise alerted them.

"..ome..n."

Aiolos hurried over and used the radio the way Shiryu had shown him.

"Seiya, is that you. I can't make out what you're saying." Aiolos said and let go of the button.

"Can you hear me now?" the voice asked clearly.

"Yes, I can hear you perfectly. Have you found anything?"

"We found something alright and we're almost back to the ship. Have everyone ready to bring us up and get the black mirror ready to contact Shun. We're going to need a spot ready for the one we found."

"You heard what he said." Aiolos shouted and saw everyone get ready to have things ready before turning back to the radio. "We're going to be ready and waiting Seiya."

"Alright. See you in two minutes." Seiya replied. "Over and out."

Aiolos put the radio microphone down and watched as the soldiers started to set up a spot ready to receive the person that the others were bringing.

Something about what Seiya said didn't make sense to Aiolos though. He said 'for the one we found'.

Naturally everyone would think that he would mean Degel but then why hadn't he said his name? Right then Aiolos remembered something else that Seiya had mentioned before the voyage had started.

He had mentioned that Kardia had been near Atlantis when it was frozen and was never seen again.

What if Kardia was the one they found?

He didn't have time to further think about it since he soon heard the sound of bubbles rushing to the surface and that could only mean that the others were almost there.

He hurried over to the side of the ship where Milo, Mu and Shura were waiting.

Looking over the side, Aiolos easily spotted air bubbles rushing to the surface and soon saw two different shadows appear. First they were small and then they grew larger until Camus and Hyoga finally broke through the surface.

"Are you guys alright?" Shura asked as Mu used his telekinetic powers to lift the two from the water.

"We're fine." Camus answered removing the oxygen mask as they were gently placed on the floor of the ship.

"Did you find Degel?" Milo asked.

"Not exactly." Camus answered removing his oxygen tanks.

"Then…what did you find?" Mu asked as another noise suddenly caught their hearing.

Seiya's submarine had just surfaced along with Shiryu and Dohko shortly after. Not wasting time, Seiya opened his sub.

"Mu, quick, bring us up." he shouted moving to the second seat where another person was located.

Mu complied and used his powers to bring Seiya, Shiryu, Dohko and the unknown person up onto the slip. Once on the floor, Seiya quickly laid the mysterious person on the mat that had been readied.

"But isn't that…" Milo gasped.

"Scorpio Kardia." Dohko finished.

Everyone's eyes were on the previous saint of Scorpio. He looked very much like Milo but there were some differences. He looked a bit older than Milo and he also looked like he had a more playful nature.

"Where did you find him?" one of the Silver Saints asked.

"Hyoga found him near the main city gateway." Shiryu answered. "We managed to get him out and bring him back as quickly as we could."

"Well, we have the black mirror but will it work for Kardia?" Shura asked holding the round mirror.

"He's right." Aiolos added. "Shun agreed to let Degel and Seraphina return but we never thought that we would find Kardia."

"Maybe Shun will let Kardia's soul return." Hyoga suggested. "Like Degel, Kardia was never laid to rest and his soul could have just been wandering around in limbo. We should at least try."

The others nodded and Shura looked at the mirror.

"Shun of the Underworld. We ask for your help in returning this man's soul." he said and the mirror instantly started to glow a soft golden light.

The light flowed from the mirror and flowed directly onto Kardia, engulfing his entire body. The light stayed on Kardia for a few seconds before it slowly faded away.

The saints all watched as Kardia's cold pale skin color slowly turned into a usual tan color. They were all in awe when they saw his chest start to rise and fall as he started breathing.

"He's alive." Dohko declared kneeling next to his old friend.

"We should get him into a cabin until he's got his strength back." Camus advised.

"Right." Aiolos agreed as Dohko collected his friend in his arms and they went to the lower decks of the ship.

Hyoga looked to his left and saw Shiryu had that look on his face. The look of thought he always had when he was thinking about something that might not be right.

"Something on your mind Shiryu?" he asked.

"Well, Shun agreed to let Degel come back. What if the light we just saw was a soul and what if it was Degel's soul because Shun thought we might have found Degel?"

Hyoga and Seiya gasped.

"So, you think that Degel's soul might be inside Kardia's body?" Seiya asked.

"Just a possibility." Shiryu answered. "But that might be what happened since none of us knew we would find Kardia. We should just wait and see when Kardia comes around."