Athena sat on her throne, silent prayers taking place in her heart.
The Goddess' mind was not in peace, she doesn't know why but she felt like something is going to turn out wrong, and all she could do is hope that her intuitions are at fault.
Not that she did not have faith in her Saints, no one believes in them as she does, it's just that her worried goes far beyond that.
"Lady Athena?"
A voice stole her away from her trance. Rising her head to were the voice was, her green eyes met with the Gold Saint of Virgo's hazel ones.
"What is it, Kid?" The Goddess smiled at the Gold Saint that knelt before her.
"You seem quite troubled, is something the matter, your Highness?" Kid asked.
"I just have a couple of things on mind, nothing to worry yourself about." And how she wished her words were the truth, but she did not want to worry them more than they were.
"If you say so, My Lady." The Gold Saint of the sixth Temple hummed, not pushing the Goddess further.
"Say Kid, where could Soul and Elizabeth possibly be?" Looking around the Pope's Hall, the Sagittarius nor the Gemini Saints could be found, they must've wandered while she was deep in thought.
"As we speak, they must be roaming around the Sanctuary, making sure everything is alright and probably reassuring the Silver and Bronze Saints who stayed back in the Sanctuary for defence purposes." Kid retorted, and as he finished his statement, the doors of the Hall were rushed opened, and in a minute he found a female Silver Saint kneeling beside him, facing the Goddess.
"Silver Saint of Cobra Jacqueline reporting, Your Highness." The woman with deep brown hair said, face down covered by a mask.
"What is it to report, Jacqueline?" Athena asked, wondering what was the matter.
"The village that nears the Sanctuary has been attacked, My Lady. As soon as I knew about the matter, I rushed to inform you. On my way here, I crossed paths with Sagittarius Soul and Gemini Elizabeth and told them about the village." The female Silver Saint said in rush. "They told me to inform you that they're already on their way to deal with this matter, and for you not to worry."
"Thank you for transmitting the message, Jacqueline of Cobra. You may return to your post." The Goddess smiled at the masked girl.
"As you wish." Standing up and giving one last bow -as sign of respect- the female Silver Saint walked out the grand doors.
"Attacking innocent beings," the Goddess shook her head. "Kid, send some Silver Saints to help them out."
"That won't be necessary, if you may, Lady Athena. Sagittarius and Gemini should already be there and half way done with this little conflict." Kid reassured her. "Or have you forgotten that we, Gold Saints, move at the speed of light?"
"You're probably right, but still, do send some Bronze Saints to that village, this time to protect it if anything happens again, we need to minimise any damage we can, and not let innocent people get involve in our battles." The blonde Goddess said, hand clutching at the ring that is around her neck.
"As you command." The Virgo Saint smiled a little at the good heart of their Goddess.
Landing on the ground, The Sagittarius' expanding wings retook their normal size.
"Elizabeth, you shall go on the west side of the village while I go on the east." Soul instructed when the female Gold Saint arrived by his side.
In silence agreement, the Gemini Saint nodded, headed west, and was out of sightseeing in a split second.
The Saint heard a high pitched scream, which made him snap his head to the scream's direction, and swiftly rushed to it.
Three -Class Two- Ragniaks stood on a small building, laughing at the pathetic human beings running and screaming, trying to find shelters.
One of the Ragniak blew fire over one of the houses.
A little boy was trying to reach his mother -who was hiding in a store with other villagers- but while running and looking back at the scary men, he tripped over a rock and fell down.
Under shock, all the little kid could do was watch as the Ragniak's fire approached him.
Closing his eyes tightly, the kid waited for the flames to devour him completely, but instead, he felt two strong arms being wrapped around his small body and an incredible feel of warmth enveloping him.
The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes were beautiful golden wings. Focusing his sight, the little boy came face to face with Soul.
The Sagittarius Saint arrived just in time, grabbed the little boy and expanded his wings to their fullest -and with the aid of his Cosmo- the Sagittarius' Wings were five times their original size.
Letting go of the kid, Soul smiled at him and gently pushed him, for him to rush back to his mother.
Balls of flames were sent his way, hitting his back, but with no use. Soul's Cosmo created a barrier through his wings, which prevents damages.
Standing up and turning around, facing the three Ragniaks, Soul glared at them.
"You've reached to a point where you'd even attack defenceless people?" Shaking his head, the Sagittarius Saint looked at them with burning eyes. "You disgust me."
Thinking that the Gold Saint was bluffing, they sent fire balls his way. Soul raised a finger, concentrating some Cosmo into it, sending the Cosmo out, he easily deflected the fire balls.
Other fire balls were sent but this time he was not the aim, but the people behind him.
Quickly studying the situation, Soul rushed to the group of people in the store, giving his back to the enemy.
When he made sure that all the fire balls had hit his wings and faded away, he swiftly jump into the air, concentrating his Cosmo in his fist.
Turning around, he thought, enough.
"Atomic Thunderbolt!" Thrusting his concentrated Cosmo-ed fist forward, a great amount of energy balls with electric volt charges were hitting the Sagittarius' enemies, killing them in an instant.
Landing back on the ground, Soul made sure that no other Ragniak was hiding anywhere. Reassured, his stone hard face softened when he saw the villagers peaking from where they were hiding.
"You can all come out now, this part of the village is safe." The Gold Saint smiled when more and more people started to come out, sending his way prayers and smiles of gratitude.
Something shiny caught his eye, lifting his head, Soul saw the Gold Saint of Gemini sitting on top of a small building, nodding with smile on her face, signing that she has done her part of the job as well.
The woman Saint jumped over to were her comrade was standing proudly, wings still extended.
"Mission accomplished, I shall say." Elizabeth said, looking at the happy villagers And received a hum from the man.
Running toward them was a group of five Silver Saints.
"Lord Soul!"
"What brings you here?" Soul asked as soon as they were standing in front of him.
"Her Highness has sent us here as to protect the village from further invasions." The Silver Saint of Crane said.
"I see," the Sagittarius nodded. "Addiction to that, help the villagers rebuild the village. I'm sure with you here, the village will be restored in no time."
"As you ordered, Lord Soul." With that the five Silver Saints separated to different parts of the village.
Soul gazed at his surroundings, ready to depart back to the Sanctuary, not before feeling a tiny hand tapping on his -Cloth covered- leg.
Looking down, a grin broke on the Saint's face as the little boy from earlier was looking up at him with wide brown eyes. Lifting the kid up in his arms, the boy wasted no time to touch the golden feathers and gasped when his touch was welcomed with warmth.
"Thank you." The boy said, eyes sparkling with hope.
As in return, Soul grabbed the boy's hand and brought it close to his mouth, giving the boy's -compared to his- tiny fingers a small kiss, which made the little human giggle.
"You have our thanks," a middle aged woman approached the Sagittarius and the Gemini. "For saving us and my child."
"It's our duty." Elizabeth sympathetically smiled at the mother.
"If this village is in need of anything," Soul said, the woman's child still sitting on one arm of his. "Do inform one of the Silver Saints, they'll in return report to us immediately, and we shall help you with whatever we can."
"I do not know how to repay for saving my child," the woman's voice wavered, she then fished something from her apron's pocket. "Please do accept this, as a sign of my gratitude, brave warrior."
The woman placed in something in the man's free hand. Soul looked at the object that was in his palm, to find that it was a beautiful golden bracelet with one single Emerald stone in the middle.
The woman explained that she worked as a jewellery seller and she won't tolerate 'no' as an answer to her gift.
"Just how you protected us and my loved child," the mother pointed at the kid who still sat on the Saint's arm touching the Cloth's feather, then smiled at the Sagittarius Saint. "Give this bracelet to your beloved, whoever she might be. I beg of you, brave warrior, accept my gift."
Almost blushing at the woman's kind words, the Saint nodded with a smile.
Soul and Elizabeth took their leave after making sure that everything and everyone's alright. Elizabeth running on her feet, while Soul's wings flapped as he took flight.
Pointing at the flying silhouette of the Sagittarius Gold Saint, the little boy told him mother -which surprised her- how these soft golden feathers could become the world's shield.
"...and then we took our way back to the Sanctuary." Soul finished reporting what happened in the village to the Goddess.
"Splendid work, both of you. Thank you." The Blonde Goddess smiled at both her Saint. "Just because this is the only village near the Sanctuary doesn't mean it should go unprotected."
"The Silver Saint are, as we speak, helping the villagers to restore their homes and stores." Elizabeth said, then her eye colour and started to lighten up. The second Gemini twin, Patricia surfaced. "The people who lived there had a burst of hope after we defeated the Ragniaks, it was nice to see. Even the mother of the child Soul saved gave him a gift."
"Is that so?" Athena's attention drew back to the standing winged Saint, who just nodded, avoiding eye contact. "It was nice of her."
"it is." The albino retorted.
The grand doors of the Pope's Hall opened, a Bronze Saint walked a couple of feet and then knelt down.
"Lionet Desmond, Your Highness." The Bronze Saint introduced himself.
"What is wrong?" The Goddess answered back, voice laced with worrisome.
"It's nothing to worry about, Lady Athena. We just need Lord Soul in colosseum now, for minor issues." The Bronze Saint said.
"Are you sure nothing is wrong?" Kid asked from where he was standing.
"Positive, Lord Kid."
Soul moved from the place he was standing and was about to walk toward the Lionet Bronze Saint when he felt his arm being held back, turning around his crimson eyes met hazel ones.
"You can stay here, Soul. I will manage this." The Virgo Saint said, in a silent plead. Then turned to the Bronze, "I shall accompany you, due to Sagittarius being busy."
The Bronze saint nodded while standing up, and left with the Virgo Gold Saint but not before bowing to the Goddess.
"I will get going along with them," Patricia said. Eyes and hair darkening, Elizabeth bowed to Athena. "Your Highness."
And with that, the only two left in the Pope's Hall were the Goddess and the Sagittarius Gold Saint.
"Soul," the Goddess noted, being the first to break the silence. "You've been acting in a bizarre way ever since you came back from the village. Is something the matter?"
"It is nothing, Maka," the Gold Saint chuckled. "I just have something on mind, I guess I worried you?"
"Are you certain?" The blonde woman stood up from her seat, placed the spear next to the throne and walked down the four steps.
Soul walked up to her, thinking about it for a second, before gently grabbing her hand and slipping the golden bracelet through her hand, it sliding and landing perfectly on the top of the wrist.
"What is it, Soul?" Maka inspected the cold item that was now on her wrist.
"This is the bracelet the woman gave me for rescuing her child." The Sagittarius Saint explained.
"then it is yours, she gave it to you." The Goddess rushed to take it off but was stopped by large hands holding hers, and an amused laughed.
"Truth, she gave it to me." The corners of the man's mouth turned up. His grab lightly tightened on her hands. "But she did say, to give it to someone important to me."
Maka's green eyes poured into Soul's ruby ones, searching for any lies behind his words; Soul's eyes were clear as crystal.
The Goddess and her loyal Saint stood there, just gazing at each other's eyes with smiles stretched on their faces.
The Pope, along side the four Gold Saints, destroyed a large door with a boost of Cosmo.
Walking through the broken door into a dark spacious room, suddenly their bodies felt heavy.
"What in the world is going on?" Azusa of Scorpio exclaimed.
"My Cloth feels like it weights tons." Black*Star of Cancer said through clenched teeth, desperately trying to stand up.
The Pope himself, with his over two hundred years old body, was struggling to stand up.
"Welcome to my humble manor, Knights Of Athena!"
A deep voice was heard, ringing in their ears.