Something big was about to happen. Of the Death Mask of Cancer was sure. The dead were restless and that always meant that something terrible was about to explode.
Truth to be told he had been restless for the past two weeks since the new arrivals had come to Sanctuary.
There was something stirring in the air, a presence familiar but at the same time unknown, something that had the Cancer Saint on his guard almost constantly.
He had tried to share his uneasy feelings with his fellow Saints but they were so enamoured with little Nathair that they hadn't felt a single thing. And Death Mask could not really yell at them for their lack of awareness. The little girl was adorable, that was sure, and the others weren't attuned to the subtle shifts in the air like he was: he liked to think that it was his natural ability as Guardian of the Hades Mouth but he knew that he owed it more to Heleiana's presence over the years than to anything else.
He was surprised that the three Infernal Judges hadn't felt anything but he supposed that it took a long practice to be able to recognize the tell-tale shift in the air that signalled the arrival of a known soul.
Known soul…oh sweet Athena! A known soul! Of course!
How could have missed it? How did he not recognize the feeling of a soul that was so dear to him?
Because, that feeling wasn't exactly like Helena's soul, it was different, missing a piece, an important piece at that, something defining…but he wasn't going to waste more time on that, not now, not when he was so close to finding her again! Everything else could come later, they could overcome anything together!
He was so focused on his mad dash toward Sanctuary – relieved beyond words that nobody he knew was paying him any attention – that he didn't see the young girl in the middle of the street until he had bowled her over.
"Ehi stupida! Guarda dove vai!"
"Stupida a chi, brutto cafone! E poi guarda tu dove vai visto che sei tu quello che mi è venuto addosso!"
For a hopeful second the sound of having somebody respond in his native language had him hope that he had finally found his missing sister, but all of his hopes were promptly shattered when he locked eyes with a young girl of no more than fifteen with fiery brown eyes, a little clouded by something akin to a loss.
Having insulted him the girl pivoted on herself and started going back to where she came when he felt something resonate with his Cosmo.
"Wait! Don't go! What is your name?"
He was being uncharacteristically gentle and polite and for the second time that day he thanked the stars that nobody he knew was there to see this embarrassing show, but he couldn't scare her, not without finding out why she had been marked by the Ophiucus.
"Sara…my name is Sara, yours?"
He debated for a second whether or not give her his true name, but nobody apart from Helena and Aphrodite knew it and if his chosen name sent her running…well it wasn't as though he couldn't find her again.
"I am called Death Mask…"
He saw her pale and mentally prepared for yet another fainting spell that seemed so frequent around young girls when he was in her company, but after a second or two she righted herself again and spoke, so softly that for a moment he thought he had imagined it.
"So you are her friend…"
Her? Who was she? Dared he hope?
"Who is she? Young? Long, flowing, jet black hair? Crystal lilac eyes? Golden armour? Tell me!"
She hadn't looked like she was going to give him an answer but the rising panic in his voice and the naked affection for this girl that she could see on his face had her speaking before she could really decide to.
"She is young yes, long flowing hair, but white not black and blood red eyes, more or less like yours…no golden armour that I could see, no particular use of Cosmo that I can recall. She was a trusted friend, a sister almost until she betrayed me when she used me as bait in her plan to assassinate the Goddess Athena! I still cannot believe she did that! She seemed a nice person enough, caring if a bit gruff, like she didn't want to know she cared. She had this huge sweet tooth for apple pie and cassata and she always had a beautiful rose in her hair, I have never seen her without, she said that the rose reminded her of someone, long forgotten that she was trying to remember again…"
By the end of her speech the girl had broken down in the middle of the road and started crying her heart out for what she had deemed a betrayal, but the Cancer Saint couldn't focus on that, he couldn't offer any form of consolation, not when his world had been rocked out of axis and finally, finally, put back together.
The girl's description didn't match Helena physically, but her preference for apple pie and cassata, possibly in the same spoonful and the fact that this mysterious girl couldn't leave the rose because of a long forgotten someone made him instinctively think of her, and he knew he was right.
But the pieces of the puzzle didn't add up, Helena couldn't really be thinking to kill Athena, that wasn't right at all! She protected their Goddess, like the others, him included, but she did a better job at it because she also protected the friend, Saori.
Something foul was happening and Death Mask was damned if he didn't find out what that was.
"You said that she betrayed you, that she used you in her ploy to get to Athena, but when you told me I was one of her friends you didn't use a past tense so she isn't dead…where is she?"
"She sacrificed herself for me…I was framed for a murder I never wanted to commit and at the last possible minute she jumped out and accused herself; she revealed her plan and my framing, she said she was Ophiucus the Fallen and that she was taking full responsibility for everything and that I was not to blame! The last I have seen of her she was being dragged out the court room by a man looking like you but with blue hair instead of silver. I followed them and I saw she was being brought to some kind of dungeon, but I haven't seen her since…"
Manigoldo then…he had played a part in Helena's assassination attempt the first time and imprisonment the second time and then he hadn't told them anything even though they had specifically asked this time's Athena to know immediately if their friend, sister, popped up. There was a specific corner in Hell that Death Mask had reserved for him, pre-incarnation be damned.
"You don't hate her…"
The words had escaped him before he could anything to stop them, but that didn't make them any less true…
"What? Of course I hate her! She betrayed me…"
"And yet you followed them to see where she was taken and you plan to spring her from her prison, otherwise this collection of items are completely useless to a girl like you…so tell me which is it? Love or hate?"
"I…I…think…oh hell! I know I love her! She is the sister I never had! And something deep inside me tells me she didn't want to betray me or even kill the goddess; something or someone made her do it!"
"You have guts little girl! That and a very strong intuition that matches your heart!"
At that the girl went red and started stammering.
"That's what she said to me…exactly the same words…"
And at that it was the Cancer's turn to redden and stammer his way through a sentence, because that was exactly what he had told Helena, the first time she had been able to summon the souls of the dead.
Coughing he somehow tried to cover up his embarrassment and reverting back to his usually gruff and ill-mannered personality he barked: "What are we waiting then ragazzina?" and with that he stalked towards what he hoped was the direction of the prison in which his little sister was kept.
With an easy laugh and a fond shake of her head Sara followed his lead, a new hope shining in her eyes rekindling the fire of affection that hadn't really been dead.
Hang on sister of my heart, I'm coming to save you!
