Chapter 9
By: MimiYamatoForever
Rasgado blinked a few times more to try to make the spots in his eyes go away but to no avail.
"Those spots will go away after a while." Aldebaran stated seeing his counter parts struggle.
"I never knew light could be so blinding." Rasgado replied giving up on the spots.
"I thought the same thing but after a while you, somewhat, get use to it." Aldebaran said.
"I'm not sure I ever could but let's get onto another topic." Rasgado said. "Do you have any deciples?"
"No." Aldebaran answered sadly. "Very few of us have a deciple to train and live with them. Aiolos has Seiya, Camus has Hyoga, Dohko has Shiryu, Aioria has Ikki and Shaka would have gotten Shun if fate would have allowed it."
"So that little one would have been the next Virgo saint huh?" Rasgado asked as they sat on the front steps of the Taurus temple.
"Yes and Shaka was very upset when he learned that Shun would never get to be his pupil. He has other pupils who are ready to train under him and hopefully take the position of Virgo saint but he hasn't really given it any thought since we learned Shun would no longer be a saint for Athena."
"How depressing." Rasgado stated.
"Especially for Shaka. He had kept to himself in his temple for nearly a week before Aiolos manage to talk him into getting out of the temple for a while saying that depression wouldn't bring Shun back as a saint."
"He's the voice of reason just like Sisyphus." Rasgado chuckled. "I really think they may be related somehow besides both being the Sagittarius saints."
Aldebaran chuckled in agreement. Of all the Gold Saints, Aiolos and Sisyphus held the closest resemblance and personality to each other that they most likely could pass for twins if they ever took that chance. Hopefully they would before the twenty four hours were over.
[Virgo temple]
"I knew that Sisyphus could fly in his cloth but I didn't know Aiolos could." Asmita said as they sat at a table to have a light meal.
"I don't think Aiolos did either. Luckily he figured that out before he hit the ground." Shaka stated placing a tray of snacks on the table and sitting down. "Otherwise, we would have to call Shun to revive Aiolos again."
"But this tells the rest of us one thing." Asmita declared.
"What's that?"
"That we need to watch ourselves around Shion and Dohko."
Shaka laughed realizing that Asmita may have a point about the two oldest in Sanctuary. They were willing to go as far as throwing Aiolos and Sisyphus off the cliffs in order to prove something that happened over two hundred years ago.
What else would they do if it were any of the other saints?
[Palace]
Mu was sitting outside on the front palace steps with Milo and Kardia when they spotted Seiya, Shiryu and Hyoga rushing up the stairs.
"Where'd you three go?" Milo asked.
"Get the pictures developed." Hyoga panted.
"We're not afraid to go into the modern world." Seiya added eqaually out of breath.
"Hey, don't forget what happened the last time the three of you challenged me." Milo said with a grin.
"Yeah, you let your challenger off the hook." Hyoga declared as they rushed by.
"They're spirited." Kardia declared once the young saints were inside.
"Very." Mu answered. "They don't back down from challenges and they're not afraid to even stand up to the Gold Saints."
"I think it's getting to their heads though." Milo stated making the other two laugh.
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In the throne room, Athena was smiling happily at the group picture that Seiya handed to her.
"We can have his resized so that it'll be bigger and we can place it with the other pictures." Shiryu offered.
"Yes, that would be wonderful." Athena agreed.
"In the mean time, since the hours are nearly halfway through, we'd like to ask for your permission to show a slideshow." Seiya said holding up a box of slideshow pictures.
"Where did you get these?" Athena asked looking at one with the light and laughed at what she saw.
"We took these in secret and none of them know about it." Hyoga answered.
"We just wanted to give them a farther reason to think we're just a bunch of no good hoodlems." Seiya added.
Athena chuckled and nodded.
"You can show them in here if you wish. I would like to see their reactions to some of these."
"Alright. We can set a screen up and have them in here before dinner. I'm sure some of them will want to poison our food once they see the pictures." Shiryu declared.
[][][]
"What are you up to now?" Milo demanded as they walked into the room where they spotted chairs lined up before Athena's throne and a white screen set up not too far away with a machine between the chairs and Athena.
"Just sit down!" Hyoga replied.
"We've got a surprise for all of you." Shiryu added.
"All of you are just full of surprises aren't you?" Kardia asked as they took the first available seats.
"Just what until you see what this is about." Seiya replied with an evil grin as the others started to arrive and take their seats.
"Lights."
The lights went out and the curtains were closed.
Hyoga clicked the projector and a photo appeared on the white screen. It was the group picture they had taken just a few hours ago.
"I look hideous!" Aphrodite declared.
"Don't start!" Many of them shouted.
"Moving on." Seiya said and Hyoga clicked to the next photo.
Now on the screen was a picture of Milo who was marking a sleeping Airoia's face with a black marker.
"I knew it was you Milo!" the Leo shouted angrily as he jumped from his seat.
Milo smiled nervously as the others laughed.
"Aioria calm down." Aiolos advised and then gasped when he saw the next picture.
It was taken earlier during the 'flight lesson'. The picture was of Aiolos in his Sagittarius cloth being pushed off the cliff side by Dohko with Sisyphus trying to reach him before he went over.
"What was that about?" Shura asked as Dohko and Shion laughed.
"Something that I'm going to kill three Bronze Saints for!" Sisyphus declared turning in his chair only to be held back by Aiolos and Aioria.
"Do it later." Shiryu said. "There's still more pictures."
Sisyphus sat down and watched as another picture appeared on the screen. He recognized it to be when the two Scorpio and Cancer saints were running from the Aquarius and Capricorn saints.
"Just where did these come from anyway?" DeathMask demanded facing the Bronze Saints who only shrugged in unison.
For nearly twenty minutes photos went by. Many of them were embarrassing, some were thought to not have existed and some could have been used as serious blackmail.
Mu getting a pie in his face on April Fools Day, Aldebaran jumping at the sight of Shura wearing a mask, Saga and Kanon handcuffed to each other by Aphrodite who had thrown the key into his roses, Milo shoving Aiolos' face in a birthday cake, Milo's feet frozen to the ground by Camus, Aphrodite with an avacado mask on his face, Aioria sneaking a stuffed toy crab under DeathMask's arm while he was sleeping, Saga pointing to a KICK ME sign that was taped to Aiolos' back, Mu levitating Milo's pet scorpions in the air with the saint trying to reach for them, Aldebaran putting salt in Dohko's tea, Shaka with his eyes wide from when he and Asmita had walked in during the camera testing and then one that made all of them smile knowing who had taken the picture.
It was the last photo taken by Shun when he was still a saint. It was of Camus with a full smile on his face from laughter.
For once, Camus wasn't angered by something involving him that was done without his knowledge. It could have been because it was the last thing from Shun they had left.
Then the pictures started to invovle the past saints more.
Sisyphus having broken the window in the training room was the first to be shown.
"I knew it!" El Cid declared lightly glaring at his friend who shrugged with a small smile.
The next picture was of Kanon and Defteros leaning out of a second story window to throw water balloons down onto Saga and Aspros followed by Kardia having his little ice cream episode, Regulus up close to a TV trying to figure out how it worked, Aldebaran carrying Kardia onto the jet then being strapped down, Manigoldo getting soda sprayed in his face with Seiya laughing next to him, Asmita's hair braided by Shiryu when he was taking a short nap, someone placing pink bunny ears from a costume on Degel and Albifica getting a makeover from Aphrodite.
The last photo to be shown was of Aphrodite without any make-up on and then the slideshow was over.
"Let's see, three sneaky Bronze Saints who have blackmail pictures on all of us." Milo said standing with Kardia.
"I say we trap them in the cave and let the water finish them!" DeathMask declared. Most of the Gold Saints were ready to carry out this task only to see that Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu were missing along with the slideshow pictures.
"Where did they...?"
"They are learning lightspeed sooner than we realized." Mu stated with a smirk having not been affected by the photos like the others.
"Still, we're going to need to kill them or crush their hands so they can't take more pictures like that." Aphrodite stated hating that he had been seen without his make-up.
"They'll come back sooner or later and that's when we get them." Aioria stated getting a round of agreements from most of the saints.
"We're still going to need to keep a closer eye on them because of how they took these pictures without us realizing it." Shura declared as they began to put the chairs away.
"I hope none of you will actually place them in the cave or rip them apart." Athena said standing from her throne.
"Maybe not that far but we can certainly make them think we will." Milo said with a grin.
Athena smiled. She loved her saints and they way they were with each other. Sometimes she worried that they would carry out death threats they made to one another but she just had to remember that it was always the first statement when a prank was made.
She was sure that Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu were going to need to hide out for a while because of this slideshow.
Just as everything was put away, a messanger walked into the room and kneeled to Athena.
"My lady, Lord Shun has arrived and is on his way in." he said.
"Thank you." the goddess replied with a happy smile and dismissed the messanger.
"He's allowed inside Sanctuary?" El Cid asked surprised.
"Of course. After all, we are at peace and he was a saint at one time." Camus answered before footsteps were heard.
In walked Shun wearing the same black robe as before. The previous Gold Saints went into utter shock when they saw three certain people following the previous Andromeda saint.
Kardia nearly rushed forward but was held back by Milo.
"Rhadamanthys." he spat.
"Kardia, so nice to see you again." The Wyvern mocked holding four small gold chests in his hands.
"Hello Albifica." Minos greeted with a smirk. "I never thought we would meet again."
The previous Pieces only glared at the Griffon specter.
"Alright you two that's enough." Shun stated.
"Yes sire." The two replied bowing their heads.
"Shun, I'm glad you've come back." Athena said.
"Sorry that I was gone for so long." Shun replied. "The business I needed to take care of took longer than I thought. While I was in the Underworld, I had a few things made for the past saints."
At those words, the judges stepped forward and handed the previous saints a gold chest each.
The previous saints eyed the judges with untrusting looks and the same expressions were reflected back to them.
Regulus opened his chest and his eyes went wide at what he saw. Lying inside the chest on a red velvet cushion was a gold ring with the Leo symbol carved from his zodiac birthstone Onyx.
Seeing this, the others opened their chests and saw that the same gifts were made for them with their own zodiac birthstones.
Kardia looked at how beautiful his ring was. The gold was real, the beryl gem was shining nicely and he had to admit that it was one of the nicest gifts he ever recieved.
"What are these for?" El Cid asked marveling the ruby on his ring.
"I know what all of you are going to think by this but when I went back to the Underworld I had these specially made by an old friend of mine. The god of time. I asked him for a favor and he gladly obeyed. These rings have a great power. As long as you wear them for at least two hours a day you'll remain here in this time."
"Then...that means..." Shura stammered.
"That they will remain here in Sanctuary with all of you and Athena." Shun stated.
