Chapter 9
By: MimiYamatoForever
Together, all of the gold and bronze saints marched in two lines behind Athena. They were headed for the entrance to the Underworld. The same place where Ikki was last spotted by Aiolos.
Athena had given the order that it was time to launch their attack and follow Ikki into the Underworld.
Maybe I should have tried to reason with him. Aiolos thought to himself. I could have at least gotten him to say what he was going to do once he was face to face with Hades. What will he do?
Aiolos came out of his thoughts and saw that they were now near the open doorway leading down to the Underworld. The spiral stairs were covered in a green light that emitted from the depths it went into.
Athena turned and faced her saints. "We must follow our phoenix saint in the rescue of another saint and prevent Hades from completing his unfinished task. When you get to the Underworld stay in groups as much as possible and please look out for each other."
The saints bowed their heads to their Goddess before she motioned for them to pass through the doorway. The gold saints lead the way by going in the zodiac order and then the remaining bronze saints quickly followed.
Seiya stayed back before going through. "Join us as quickly as you can. Ok?"
"I will, Seiya. And good luck. Bring Shun back." Athena replied.
Seiya smiled and gave her a thumbs up before he jumped through the doorway and fell down into the light that shot up from the portal it came from. He easily spotted the other saints below him and already they were getting closer to the portal with each second they were falling.
Shun, I promise that I'll save you. Seiya vowed to himself.
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Ikki looked over a boulder and tried to act casual as he walked out from behind it. No one was around and that was good for him even though the specters might not know he was really a saint in disguise.
When he landed in this area a specter had right away spotted him and tried to kill the phoenix but Ikki had easily and quickly turned the tables on the specter. After defeating the specter, Ikki quickly stripped him of his black cloth and put it on over his phoenix cloth.
The helmet covered the majority of his face and only his mouth and nose were visible. As he walked, Ikki noticed that he was coming to a river. Along the shore of the river were what seemed to be crying, moaning and depressed souls.
The Acheron River. Ikki thought as he continued to walk. He came to where the souls were but they seemed to either not notice him or just ignored him. After all, why would they want to interact with a specter?
"Galdor!" a voice called.
Ikki looked toward the river and saw the famed ferryman, Charon.
"Galdor. What are you doing all the way out here?" Charon asked. "Did Lord Hades send you on another inspection of the prisons?"
"Yes, he did." Ikki answered. "You are doing your job in a manner most satisfying and I'm sure Lord Hades will be pleased to know that."
"Well, thanks for putting in the good word for me." Charon replied bringing the boat a little closer to the shore. "Jump in and I'll take you back to the other side."
Ikki nodded and hopped into the boat. He sat down in the middle of the boat and felt the vessel start to head off.
"So, have you inspected the other prisons yet?" Charon asked.
"No." Ikki answered. "I wanted to start from the beginning and work my way back toward the palace."
"Well, I doubt Rune will give you any trouble in the Judgment Hall. You know how prim and proper he is. Probably because he thinks of himself in the same line of power as Rhadamanthys, Minos and Aiacos."
"He's got the big head to prove he thinks of himself like that." Ikki played along.
"You're telling me." Charon agreed. "But knowing Rune you might want to just take the hidden pathway by the stairs and just get to the next prison."
Fool. Ikki thought slyly. You have no idea you're giving a saint a free ride across the river and you already told me who the next specter is. You're making this easy for me.
A small smirk appeared on his face as the boat vanished into a gathering of fog.
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"Oh…my head." Seiya moaned putting a hand to his forehead as he felt the throbbing take place. He easily heard the others moaning and complaining about their aching heads. He managed to push himself up so that he was now sitting.
Once the throbbing went away he stood and saw that Milo was already up and looking around. The Pegasus saint went over and joined him.
"Any idea where we are Seiya?" Milo asked.
"This looks like the same place where Shun and I landed the first time we were here." Seiya answered before pointing a little to the east. "We need to go that way. The Acheron River is in that direction."
"And we need to cross it to get to the main part of the Underworld, right?" Milo asked.
"Right." Seiya confirmed.
Once everyone else was up and felt their headaches vanish, they all got on the move and headed toward the river. As the saints grew closer to the shore it was easier to hear the cries and moans coming from the souls.
"What a horrible fate." Aphrodite claimed. "Forever trapped in limbo like this."
"They won't try to bother us so just keep moving." Seiya said.
"Will Charon the ferryman be waiting for us?" Camus asked.
"He might be there." Seiya answered. "But he won't take us across unless we pay him or beat him."
"Pay him? With what?" Hyoga asked as they came to a stop a few feet away from the shore. "We don't have anything to give him."
"Not true." Dohko said as he reached for something attached at his waist and brought out a small brown bag. "I brought these on the off chance that we might have to cross this river."
DeathMask grabbed the bag and looked inside. "Coins? Gold coins?"
"Charon will be too greedy to ignore this offer. He gets the coins if he takes us across the river." Dohko replied taking the bag back and placing it back at his beltline.
"He won't resist." Seiya declared.
"Where is Charon?" Shura asked looking around.
"He might have taken someone across before we got here." Mu suggested. "I imagine that he would be a very busy specter."
"True." Shura agreed.
"Do you think Ikki landed in the same place as us?" Shiryu asked.
"Don't know. Remember that last time he landed in the fifth prison." Kanon answered.
"Either way, he's way ahead of us and we need to catch up to him as quickly as possible." Aiolos declared. "If he gets to Shun before we do, who knows what he might try to do to save him."
"Something drastic. That's for certain." Milo declared. "Remember that last time he literally tried slapping him out of being possessed."
"That's also something I want to clear up." Aphrodite said. "Is Shun the true incarnation of Hades? It just seems logically impossible that one of us is the ruler of the Underworld."
"Well, Miss Athena believes that Shun is indeed Hades." Aioria said. "If she believes it then we must believe it as well."
"But she even believed that this time it's different." Shura said.
"Then maybe we can somehow test if Shun really is a God." DeathMask suggested. "If he really is Hades then he should have memories from the ancient times."
"And we should ask him what? We were not part of his past so how can we know if he is telling the truth or not." Camus replied.
"We can test his power." DeathMask said.
"Are you insane?" Camus burst. "What if he is a God and we challenge him like that? He could easily have us killed!"
Seiya turned his head toward the river to try to find Charon and try to tune out the gold saints talking about his friend being a diety.
Is it really true Shun? Seiya thought to himself. Are you really a God?
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Not too far away, Ikki was already at the second prison belonging to Sphinx Pharaoh of the Heavenly Bestial Star. Ikki remembered all too well the way Seiya had described this specter. He had tried to rip Pegasus's heart out by using his evil lyre.
If it hadn't been for brave Orpheus, then Seiya would most likely had died. Ikki also remembered that this was also the prison where Cerberus was.
This disguise better work otherwise I'll be seeing the guard dog of hell twice. Ikki thought as he walked up the stairs and entered the prison. The whole place was decorated in Egyptian style. Hieroglyphics and symbols completly covered the walls.
That was when Ikki heard a low growling sound. He looked to his right and his eyes went wide under the helmet.
Cerberus.
The large three headed dog had cornered a few souls and, quicker than anyone could realize, the dog had each mouth full of souls that he started to savagely eat them. Body parts would fall from his mouths but would eat more souls just as quickly.
Ikki saw that the beast wasn't going to bother with him or he knew not to attack a specter. He decided to keep walking through the prison. He wanted to get out of it as quickly as he could because of Cerberus and the horrible smell of death that stained the air.
"Galdor? What are you doing here?" a voice asked.
Ikki looked to the side and saw a black haired specter with an Egyptian styled cloth walk over.
"I am doing my prison inspections." Ikki answered. "And right now you're preventing me from continuing my inspections as Lord Hades asked."
"Oh, then I shall not keep you waiting. I apologize for interrupting." Pharaoh said with a bow of his head.
Ikki nodded once and exited the prison. He sighed in relief when he was out of the horrible smelling prison with the giant dog. What a horrible fate. To die, be sent to that prison and then end up as a meal for Cerberus.
Ikki realized that he should have asked the specter questions to find out some information. The only thing he knows is that the specter he ambushed is an inspector and could get through the prisons without being questioned.
This was the only thing that was going to get him to the Underworld palace quick enough.
Ikki was now walking alone on a path that he only guessed led to the next prison. He wasn't totally sure how many more prisons he had to go through since last time he randomly popped in the fifth prison and was then transported directly into Hades throne room by Pandora.
Right then, Ikki nearly froze. If he made it to the palace, would Pandora be there? Half of him hoped she wouldn't be there but the other half wasn't sure. If she was there she would definitely try to stop him from saving Shun.
But like last time, Ikki wasn't going to take anything from her. His little brother's life was on the line and he was going to do what he had to in order to save him.
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Nearly twenty minutes had gone by when the saints had landed in the Underworld and were waiting for Charon to arrive. The Gold saints had stopped their bickering and they were all now trying to stay patient as they waited for the ferryman to arrive.
Seiya was sitting on a rock close to the water and stared at his reflection in the dirty water. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he came out of his self staring contest. The Pegasus looked up to see Shiryu looking at him with concern.
The dragon sat on the ground leaning against the rock Seiya sat on and lightly sighed. "I don't want to believe it either Seiya but there is the chance that we'll have to accept and deal with it."
"I know, Shiryu." Seiya replied lowering his head. "It's just so hard to think that Shun might have all along been a God. A reincarnation of himself since mythological times. One reincarnation after another. I wonder what he was like two hundred years ago."
"He hasn't changed." a voice said.
The two bronze saints looked up to see Dohko walk over and sit next to Seiya.
"What do you mean?" Seiya asked.
"You forget, I was alive when the last Holy War took place." Dohko said. "And that meant that I saw Shun's previous form."
"You did?" Shiryu asked.
Dohko nodded. "I knew his previous form because he was a close friend of the last Pegasus Saint."
"What?" The two gasped.
"In his last life, Shun's name was Alone. An orphan born in Italy and a very talented painter. He had a sister and one friend. His sister's name was Sasha and his friend was the Pegasus Saint, Tenma." The Libra saint explained.
"But, how did you know that Alone was Hades?" Shiryu asked.
"Well, I first met Alone two years before Tenma became a saint for Athena. I didn't suspect anything of Alone because he was exactly like Shun. He was a gentle and loving person. But after I took Tenma under my guidance and he won the Pegasus cloth two years later, we had learned that there might have been a hidden specter location near the village they both grew up in. Tenma and I, along with Shion and a few silver saints, had been sent to inspect the village and sure enough Tenma found his friend Alone as Hades nearly fully reincarnated. We couldn't believe it. It was such a surprise to see the brother of Athena as Hades."
"Wait! Athena's brother?" Seiya asked. "You mean to tell me that Shun and Saori were brother and sister in the past?"
"They were." Dohko confirmed.
"This is unbelievable." Shiryu muttered. "How did the last Holy War end?"
"Travesty." Dohko replied. "Athena managed to defeat Hades. Tenma didn't want it to happen but he was there and helped Athena in delivering the final blow to defeat Hades which ultimately killed Alone. Shion and I were the only saints to walk away from that war. The other ten Gold Saints fell, all the silver saints and two Bronze Saints...all gone. Soon after, Athena vanished after appointing Shion the new Pope. Because Tenma gave his life the Pegasus cloth returned to Sanctuary to wait for its next owner. That was you Seiya."
(A/N: I do not know how the Lost Canvas actually ended so I just made something up. Forgive me for it possibly being wrong.)
The two, along with everyone else who had been listening, were silent. Dohko had never spoken so much about the previous war between Athena and Hades. They hadn't even known the name of Hades last incarnation. But now the whole thing had been laid out. Perhaps they had needed to hear it as much as Dohko needed to finally let it out.
"Tenma was so much like you, Seiya." Dohko said.
Seiya looked at the older saint with a look of somewhat interest.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you were a descendant or his reincarnation." Dohko said. "He had your stubborn but care free personality and he was very loyal to his friends and Goddess. Always doing what he had to in order to protect them."
Seiya lightly smiled. But it faded once he came across a thought.
How would this war end?
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Very unsure how it happened, Ikki had taken a path he assumed was suppose to be hidden and was now at the front doors of the palace. He was taking his time walking up the stairs since he had no idea what he was going to do once he found Hades and confronted him.
When he got to the doors he saw that there was a servant there and he opened the door for the phoenix in disguise. Ikki walked in and saw only one hallway.
So he went down the hallway. There was very little light since there were only a few lit torches here and there. As he walked, Ikki came across framed paintings. All of the paintings were large and framed with fancy black frames.
But then Ikki came to the last painting in the hallway and, for an odd reason, stopped to observe it.
It was a painting of a young teen, maybe around Shun's age. He stood in an open field that had scattered wild flowers and a few temple ruins in the background. He had long blond hair and dazzling blue eyes. He looked so innocent and happy as he held a small puppy in his arms.
Ikki saw a small plaque on the bottom of the frame and leaned in to read it.
Alone
Born in 18th century Italy
Reincarnation of Hades
Older brother to Athena's reincarnation
Ikki gasped when he read the last part and backed away. Two centuries ago, his little brother was the older brother to Athena?
Is all of this real? Ikki asked himself. Is this who Shun was in the previous life? Does he remember anything from that time?
Turning away from the painting, Ikki walked quickly down the hallway. He had to find his brother now more than ever. He had a very bad feeling about Shun and he was afraid that he might be too late.
The hallway seemed to go on forever until he finally came out into a round open space where a large set of doors was located. Ikki somehow knew what was on the other side of the doors.
He reached for the handle and grabbed a hold of it when a hand suddenly caught his shoulder.