Death Mask was going crazy, or better, crazier than usual and, Saga thought, it wasn't going to be long before his already tenuous control over his temper snapped and he accidentally, or not, sent some poor unfortunate soul to the deepest pits of Hell. Saga had already caught Kardia and Manigoldo setting up bets to see who exactly would be the unfortunate soul in question. He had, secretly of course, already placed his bet: judging by the murderous looks the silver haired Saint kept giving the moping Aioria, Saga figured it wouldn't take much more whining on the Lion's part to make the Sicilian snap. The XXI century Pope, really hoped his assessment would be correct, for the money had reached exorbitant levels, even though he didn't know how he would later justify himself with Aioros, for having left his dear brother to Cancer's merciless pinchers.
But the meagre entertainment couldn't really cover up the fact that all this situation was the mere tip of a much bigger iceberg, that was threatening to drown them all.
The Gemini older twin sighed heavily once more, his traitorous mind stuck replaying their last moments with their sister.
The shock of losing her had been so sudden, so unexpected, that Saga knew it would have taken him more than the mere moments they had to digest it.
One moment they were laughing and crying all together, the next she was gone, swallowed up in the black abyss that was Hades' domain. Nothing short of a miracle could give them back Helena, but Saga feared they had used their share of miracles already.
"Sighing will not bring her back, Saga…"
It was all thanks to his iron control that he did not jump three feet in the air, when her Goddess' voice suddenly rung behind him.
"…but being so lost in thought will kill you! And I don't really think she would appreciate the irony of you dying because you were busy sighing!"
Athena was right; he hadn't even heard her approach and, contrary to Helena, Saori did not possess the timeless grace needed to advance stealthily enough to surprise a veteran like him, at least not when he was keeping check on his surroundings.
Saori's clumsy persona had always been a source of amusement for Helena, Saga remembered sadly. The young healer had never understood how the powerful Goddess of Justice and War could have reincarnated herself into a girl with no sense of balance whatsoever, who had to be bodily carried away from battles because running away always, always ended up with her flat on her face.
But Helena wasn't there, with them, anymore. And no one would ever laugh at their Goddess' clumsiness again.
"Tell me what is on your mind, my dear Pope, you have shouldered everybody else's grief, but you have not let anyone share yours… I know I am not her, but I will do my best, as I have promised her…"
It seemed that after Helena's disappearance, nobody had really spoken her name anymore, as if not saying it would somehow lighten the burden of her absence.
Sighing once more, and knowing Athena wasn't going to go away unless he told her at least something, he faced the setting sun again, letting the slight breeze soothe his hurt.
"I guess I know now, what she must have felt, at least partially, when we died. And this knowledge breaks my heart; because I don't know how she coped when first her Guardians, and then everybody else died, when I cannot even fathom contemplating the absence of one single person. I already think it's too quiet, and I am surrounded by twelve other people all the time, I cannot imagine what she must have gone through. The silence alone must have been unbearable…"
"It was…do you know that when I offered her the position of Pope, after your death in Elysium, she ran away from Sanctuary and I didn't have any news of her for the next six months?"
At that new piece of information Saga turned so suddenly towards the Goddess, that he might have gotten whiplashed.
"No, she never told me, and I don't think she has ever told Mask or Dite as well. She was always very good at keeping the others from worrying about her. When Arles was in control I was always afraid that he would push her too much and kill her, but she never complained, never cried actually. She always wore a slight smirk – which in hindsight resembled far too much Death Mask's smirk to be a coincidence – and her eyes always had a glint of steel in them. He beat her almost to death more than once, but she always wore that damned smirk. And somehow that smirk became my beacon of light, the promise that, one day, she was going to kill the bastard, freeing me from my curse."
Athena smiled at his words, happy that her Pope had finally found the inner peace he had always strived to achieve. For years he had identified himself with Arles, shouldering his blames and horrific crimes. But what he had just said gave Athena hope that the stubborn man in front of her had finally moved past those dark years, and into a new brighter future.
"But, you know Athena, what you told me about her doesn't really surprise me…Helena never wanted to be Pope, I think the role scared her more than she liked to admit…"
"No, Saga. It wasn't for that reason she ran away. No, she ran from your ghosts, she ran from the sense of abandonment that your death had left in her. She ran from what she perceived as her biggest failure of them all: you all dead, and she alive. And that is exactly why I am telling you this now, Saga. Because I know she would have wanted you to know: just like your deaths weren't her fault, her disappearance isn't yours. There was nothing you could do, no scenario in which you could have made a different choice. You are not to blame!"
Like a dam breaking underneath too much pressure, Saga's iron control broke under the stress of all of his pent up emotions. With a broken wail he kneeled on the hard marble of the terrace, face buried in the white folds of his Goddess' dress, crying for Helena and her tragic story, for Death Mask and Aphrodite, for Milo and the others, for the Goddess and for himself.
In the bloody red sunset of a Greece so far away from home, Saga let go of everything and let somebody else take care of him.
After a while, when Athena's dress was all but completely soaked, Saga's tears finally stopped coming. With one last sigh he stood up and faced his Goddess once more.
"I won't apologize for ruining your dress, for I know you will hit me! But I will tell you this, my Goddess: if her, Helena's, disappearance wasn't our fault, neither was yours. You cannot keep blaming yourself for what happened in the past! Helena wouldn't have wanted that! You know full well that, if she hadn't forgiven you, there was no way she would have gone to such great lengths just to repair the relationships between your Saints. Maybe what happened in the age of myth could have been avoided, but what's done is done, and no amount of wishing can ever change it. But what we can change is the future. Helena would not have wanted you, us, to wither away. She told us the story so that we could be forewarned about our enemy and what is about to come. If we wallow in pity now, we lose the advantage she has given her life to give us. I don't know if whatever she wanted to do with Minos worked, or if we will see her when our souls will be judged one final time, but I know one thing, Athena, I want to make Helena proud! I will not squander another chance. I have lost friends and family once without doing anything to stop it. If it's the last thing I do, I will not lose anyone else because I failed to take action. I will honour Helena's memory when I will have plunged my fist into Eris' heart!"
"That was unusually verbose for you Saga, and awfully inspiring! I think, no I know that Helena would have been proud of you!"
"Death Mask?"
"Who did expect? The fairy godmother?"
"From what you said, somehow, yes!"
"You little…"
But Death Mask was never able to punch Saga square in the face because a crystalline laughter rung in the air.
"Athena?"
Seated on the floor, with her back on a column, like she had slid down on it, Athena's laughter soon became incontrollable sobs, rocking her petite body like a ship in a storm.
Frozen in front of the unexpected turn of events, her Gold Saints could do nothing better that stare at her gaping like fishes; Helena would have known what to do. Helena would have come towards her, while yelling to the others to do something useful or move their asses out of the way; Helena would have hugged her, dried her tears and made a quip about how emotional she was being, and how it wasn't really the best trait in a Goddess.
Helena would have…but Helena wasn't there anymore.
Saori, Athena – she didn't really know who she was anymore – knew that Helena's soul deserved the freedom she had always negated her, she knew she deserved a chance at living, that releasing her was the only thing Athena could have done to, at least try, to save the one person who had sacrificed so much in her name.
But Saori, in all of her human glory and many, many faults, missed her best friend like she missed air. She missed her smile, her laughter, her cynicism and her sarcasm; she missed her wisdom and her ingenuity. But worst of all she hated not knowing what had happened to Helena: was she dead? Did the soul bond with Minos work? Would she ever be able to visit her? Or would Helena be stuck in Hell forever, as the wife of one of the Infernal Judges, forever out of Saori's reach?
The breath hitched in her throat when she felt a pair of strong arms encircle her slim frame and she couldn't contain a small smile when she detected the faint odour of strong cigarettes and alcohol that seemed to permanently cling to the man who was, if a tad awkwardly, hugging her.
"Helena was right, Death Mask…your hugs are really something else!"
Hearing him spluttering like an idiot while blushing like a school girl, brought another, stronger smile, onto Saori's lips.
"Don't get used to it, milady! It's in the job description to take care of the Goddess, and it looked like none of the others were taking the initiative! Plus the look of pure outrage that Sagittarius is sporting right now is actually very amusing!"
"Helena wouldn't have wanted you to cry over her…I think she would have wanted us to throw a party, in her memory! Maybe we really should do that, ne Mask?"
But before anybody could properly respond to Aphrodite's suggestion, a white light exploded right in front of their eyes and the air movement from said explosion blasted them all onto the various columns decorating the throne room.
When the dust cleared a bit Athena, who had thankfully been spared the brunt end of the marble column by Death Mask, who had had the readiness not to let go of her, looked around the room, relieved to see that all her Saints were still breathing, even though they looked a bit dizzy from the blast.
When her eyes moved to the light that still shone from the balcony on which they had all been standing ten seconds prior, Athena couldn't help but bite out a curse at what she was seeing.
In front of her, almost translucent in the white light, stood the only person Athena had hoped never to see again.
"Did you miss me, Athena?"
"Eris…"
"They are in trouble! I can feel it from here!"
"There is nothing you can do to help them!"
"Let me go, Minos! Eris is there, she is about to strike them! Let me GO!"
"Stop struggling, Helena! There is nothing you can do for them! You know it! You knew it before accepting my proposal! You are as good as dead to them! Forget they ever existed!"
"No, Minos. I cannot and will not do that!"
"What can you do? Really Helena, what will you do, then?"
"Watch me…"