SIX YEARS AGO
Half of Aiolos' body was covered with a bouquet of bruises, where Galaxian Explosion struck. His bow-arm was fractured in at least two places, which entailed a slow heal with the cosmos along with an itchy cast to ensure that the bones would heal properly. Gold-Level Training was hard because it had to be, but it won't matter if it left him permanently unable to fire his weapon. After retaliating with a swift kick at Saga's calf which required him with a slow-heal and a cast as well, the two reached a mutual agreement to continue the match through a game of chess with plenty of booze and cosmos to kill the pain that the other inflected.
Aiolos took his gauntlet hand, still covered in cosmic soot, and drew his glass of ouzo to his chin. The first move was always the toughest in their favorite game, but it was also the most important. Back when he first played, had no clue as to what the different openings were called. He would move a pawn and his friend would comment with terms such as:
Ahh...Sicilian...I should've known since you favor black.
An Italian Game today?
If you think I shall accept your Queen's Gambit, you have another thing coming!
In a way, it was how he actually learned the different styles through the Gemini's constant analysis. Despite his lack of knowledge of the different techniques, somehow he won more times, driving the Moderno crazy. Perhaps it was due to their different perspectives where Saga treated it to use the pieces to win, while he used them in a manner of survival.
But today was different. Saga seemed a bit occupied, a thing that the Gemini seemed to be doing more and more as of late.
The fact that the black eye he gave him earlier mirrored the bags under the untouched one was a worrisome sight. Goddess, he wondered if Saga had been getting any sleep lately.
More concerned with the wellbeing of his friend than the desire to win, he moved his pawn and watched Saga respond quickly and matched it with his own, the two weakest yet strongest pieces in the game facing the mirror reflection of the other. At this point, Saga tended to cut in with a bit of his Geminism philosophy, yet his tongue stayed still.
Aiolos slid his white bishop smoothly like a cut from Excalibur before Saga moved his cracked gauntlet arm and continued with his Sicilian Defense, bringing out his knight and positioning it as a means to gain control of the center of the board.
Now for the true test. Aiolos grabbed his queen and planted it with a gentle thud, a piece that whenever he maneuvered this early should've raised alarm bells for even the novice of players. Instead, the Gemini mechanically lifted another knight in a position to divert the attack and to strengthen his defense.
The archer shook his head with concern before he picked up his lady-of-war and punched it right next to Saga's King, effectively winning the game with a Scholar's Mate, a strategy that was more of a novelty than one that relied on skill. "Saga, I-just-checkmated-you-in-four-moves," he enunciated out of distress instead of pride. The fact that Saga asked for some alcohol with a proof that was close to the Pope's age made him very nervous. "What's going on?"
The Gemini turned away from the board before chugging his whiskey from a goblet instead of a typical shot glass. "Just thinking of something…" he muttered somberly.
But Aiolos bit his bottom lip. "Of what?"
And as quick as a shift of the wind, Saga went from a gloomy stare to tensing his forehead. "Do you think I've plateaued in training?"
The archer breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that his friend wasn't confessing his sorrow as if tomorrow would be his last...again. It wasn't that he didn't care, but the opposite. It's worse when Saga was late for training, wondering if something was really delaying him, or he was hanging by a rope somewhere in the House of Gemini. Aiolos turned to his arm where he was struck. "Hard to say. I try to keep track of how quickly you tore through. I would say if you wouldn't have leaned forward, you would've cut half a second from your strike."
But Saga shook his head. "If I didn't lean, I wouldn't have had the strength to break the bone. The lean, while it did cost me time, was a necessity to maintain effectiveness." He turned his eyes toward the archer's. Goddess, he loved how the brilliant blue contrasted with the scarlet red of the headband. "How am I doing? I feel like I haven't made any gains in the last month!"
Aiolos nodded understandingly and being one of the Gemini's main training partners, he had a greater sense of stats of each of his techniques. He hated to tell him the truth, "no you haven't," but that didn't mean he couldn't help. "Have you tried talking to his Holiness?"
"No, actually I haven't." Saga bit his lip, wondering why he didn't think of it earlier. But that was the great thing about his friend, in that he always seemed to fill in any weaknesses in his persona. "As they say from the First Holy War, the Golds are only as good as it's Pope."
A toothy grin followed as Aiolos began to reset the board. "Exactly, but before you go, I want a real game."
"You want me to wait two hours to get the answer to my question?" he asked, his eyes glowing a little red.
But Aiolos, always assuming it was something related to him being a Gemini since he's been doing it since he was nine years old, shook his head. "Yes, because a) I want a real challenge. b) you're drunk as a skunk and I'm pretty sure that's not how you want to present yourself in front of His Holiness. You need some time to let it move through your system while I will gladly make sure this good stuff doesn't go to waste," he laughed as he grabbed Saga's cup and mixed it into his glass.
O|==============|O
Shion opened the door and took a deep breath of the clean crisp air that always greeted him when he was at the balcony. He had been stuck in his office for hours and he was in desperate need of fresh air. It was quarterly budget time which meant the nobles were sending him a fresh stack of proposals. Normally someone in his position would have others handle it, but poor Aiolos and Saga had been going through many of them discovering that those he thought he trusted were draining the coffers while leaving the needy with scraps.
It saddened him that humans were capable of such corruption, but he knew they were capable of the greater good. For now, all he can do is slow it down and manually check over the paperwork.
Suddenly, the bright light of a dimensional tear flashed behind him. The Lemurian swallowed hard. He wasn't scheduled to meet with the Gemini today or tomorrow, and a slight fear that perhaps the prophecy of Saga taking his life will occur much sooner than Shaka predicted. How in the world is Saga able to bypass all the sacred stone?
His body was old and did not flow with the grace or strength it had once held. However, his mind was still keen, and he had faced far greater challenges in the past and was no stranger to adapting when the situation called for it. "Saga? Is there something you need? Is your Kido Player still functioning?" he asked, gently raising a hand to appear a little surprised, but in reality, moving toward a stance that allowed him to direct his telekinesis more accurately.
However, he relaxed a bit when he heard the heavy gold metal touch the ground as if in a bow, a position one would not take when the target had their back turned already.
"It's fine, your Holiness. It's actually something else. Something has been troubling me lately. My techniques have made any gains in training."
Shion turned around. "Plateauing?"
"Yes. Galaxian Explosion can only go so high and wide and I have shaved as much time as I could on each move. I find my illusions have reached their peak as well. Aiolos suggested that perhaps you know of any techniques from previous Gemini."
Shion nodded sagely. All Golds reached this point. They find great joy in their early training from moving from the speed of sound to the speed of light. They awaken what they deem their signature technique and sharpen it through sparring. As powerful as they were, part of what made a Gold Saint strong was their iron will and determination to always better themselves. When they reach a time when improvement is measured in hairs, training as a Gold can be quite discouraging. "Well, from what I've seen, you would make your predecessors very proud. Aiolos had good intentions of having you ask me, but the truth is, you are not a child and once a Saint earns their Cloth, the best way for a Saint to find more techniques is to observe others-"
"Kanon's is missing!" Saga hissed, his eyes shut, but glowing bright red from the guilt of him imprisoning him in that damn prison. He gritted his teeth and tightened his fist to fight off the curse before he opened his eyes to reveal blue once more. "Your Holiness, I have no one to observe. No one here deals with time and space. I am forced to be the one to educate others on the theories of the application of tricking the brain with illusions and light theory. How can I apply the ability to measure a grid and plot points to avoid transporting someone in the middle of a wall with Another Dimension when my main training partner deals with the best place to strike a deer with an arrow without spoiling the meat from leaking bile?"
Shion let out a gentle chuckle, finding a bit of amusement in the last part of the Gemini's rant. He stifled it a bit before he looked up. "Well, first, you must let me finish."
Saga lowered his head a bit. "Forgive me, Your Holiness. I just wish to become stronger. I just want to expand my repertoire and better serve you and Sanctuary!" Not only that, but it seemed like the better he is able to strengthen his mental guards, the less the cursed whispers speak to him.
At that moment, the old Lemurian reached down and grabbed the Gemini's hands to signal for him to stand. "Of course you and everyone else are growing to be a fine group of men and I have no doubt that you will all serve Sanctuary well. Just because your training partner does things differently, will not hold you back. My knowledge of quantum mechanics was as useful to my training partner as his endless sea of recipes on how to cure a nasty hangover. But I wouldn't trade him for the life of me, and I feel it was thanks to those differences we both made it out of the Holy War alive. Would you?"
Saga shook his head no. "No. I wouldn't give up Aiolos for anything. But still, I do want to improve, but watching him isn't going to help myself expand my repertoire."
"As we all do. The most important step, that even the most experienced always forget, is to start with the very basics, even if they are things we are taught as young children. Techniques form, in three basic ways. The first is by others. I know we just talked about it, but always keep your eyes open. They don't have to be your training partner. Others...even our enemies can be a source of inspiration. That new technique can be demonstrated right before your eyes, and it can take a while before you think: hmm, that seems quite useful, perhaps I should try it?"
Saga wrinkled his lip. When Shion said going back to the basics, he wasn't kidding. This was stuff that he knew from his mother. None-the-less, he was telling it a different way and he didn't want to appear rude. Might as well nod his head, and take in the advice he asked for. "Not sure if that will occur with my unique subsect, but I will keep that in mind."
"Good," Shion grinned before he continued. "The second and third ways are sometimes separate but they can be connected. The second way is through the heat of battle. Sometimes it is through the struggle that one finds their true abilities. When your life's on the line, or more importantly when another's life is in danger, we will dig deep in the depths of our knowledge and abilities to create mix and craft ways of succeeding."
"Your Holiness, I would prefer mastery and to be prepared before my life or another's is in danger."
"I know and in a perfect world, you and everyone else would be given every move you need to survive long before Hades awakens. But trust me. You may find yourself in situations where your best is your most useless. You either adapt...or you die."
The Gemini swallowed a bit, not quite used to the dark heavy tone of the normally gentle Lemurian. "The third?"
"Yes, the third way," Shion lightened his voice, returning it back to his normal demeanor. "The third is simple. Remember, our techniques are not powers. They are a reflection of ourselves. I've seen it through the years. All the time many Saints are looking outward and over: is our muscles not big enough, is our feet not fast enough, is our hair not long enough, when the truth is that one must look inside to discover the new techniques they seek were right there all along."
Saga was a bit surprised. Was this really the answer he was going to get? But judging by the pleasant expression, it was an indication that was as far as the old man was going to say. "Thank you, Your Holiness," he replied with another bow before taking his leave, hobbling a bit from his leg in its cast. He felt very disappointed, but at least Shion tried.
He used Another Dimension and returned to the dark halls of the House of Gemini. Aiolos was wasted and he needed to be alone. An echo followed with each step, causing Hera and Neptune to step out of the shadows and meow in delight. He pulled off a gauntlet and his bruised hand gently stroked their fur while they coiled their bodies and large fluffy tails around his calves and cast. It was their typical greeting when he's been out too long or their plates were empty, most likely the latter.
After removing everything down to a set of trainer pants he went into the kitchen to prepare their meals. Frankly, he could use a nice long bath, but his fur-babies were famished, and unfortunately, he and Kanon chose to forego servants in fear of hurting them due to the curse.
He opened a small pocket dimension and dropped a large frozen mackerel fillet onto the cutting board. While others use refrigerators, he found that the depths of space to be an excellent means of ensuring any fresh purchase never goes bad or develops freezer burn.
It also helped that Aiolos was always happy to butcher the fish for him. He never could stand looking into their dead eyes or the blood and guts that must be taken out. Aiolos was always such a good friend. Handsome too. He chuckled a bit as he recalled the game from earlier. Not even Aiolos had the tolerance to drink gin from his goblet, and the poor archer tumbled over, knocking over the board even though he was winning the game. It is a pity that with the curse that friendship was as far as they should take it.
As he gently cooked the fillet in the pan, he would occasionally turn to the large full-sized mirrors. He told the others that he must always have his hair perfect, and he was quite proud of being as vain as Narcissus, but that was just an excuse. The truth was, it made him feel less lonely as if he needed to turn to his reflection while he cooked to feel whole. Two mirror images, standing next to each other just like the days before Cape Sounion.
Another lonely night in the House of Gemini. He was certain that with how lovely the weather and half of the Golds limited to meditation and academics due to injury, they were surely taking advantage of going to get some street food. He wished he could join them, but he couldn't. Contrary to belief, while he liked the library, the truth was, with the curse acting up more and more, it was more on searching for a cure as well as an excuse to stay isolated and keep the others safe.
At least he had the cats.
After throwing some freshly chopped catnip on top, he plated the fish and presented it for the famous felines of the House of Gemini. He set the first for Hera, who delicately smashed her face into it like the queen she was, half chewing and breathing it all in. Oh Goddess, the vet report will not be good since last time she told him that Hera needed to lose weight, and but as of now, there was so much flab that it blanketed her back-feet when she sat upright. He turned to Neptune. Oh naughty naughty Neptune. Her black as night fur made her bright blue eyes seemingly glow brighter. Neptune hissed impatiently, her tail flicking up and down. "Neptune! I am not in the mood!" the Gemini chastised before the cat swiped his fist.
Saga gazed at faint drops of blood. Why is it that despite it not being so deep, it stung so much? He growled as his eyes flashed red. "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SCRATCH ME WHEN I AM TRYING TO GIVE YOU DINNER AND NOBODY ELSE!" He cried as he raised a hand and was ready to summon the magnificent power of the stars!
Seeing the raised hand, the defiant feline accepted the combat. Neptune puffed her tail and fur to appear twice her size! She flashed her white fangs and unleashed a heavy growl to put her human servant into his place.
At that moment, as fast as he summoned it, he quickly retracted it. Saga gritted his teeth and brought his hand to his face in shame. "I need to take my medicine," he muttered as he massaged his temples. Besides, it's not Neptune's fault she became such a brat. Kanon, taking a cue from their father Dimitris, kept kicking her away when she was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be or she pooped outside the litter box because his little brother was so damn lazy to clean it.
While he himself had done nothing wrong to the black cat, he still happened to share the same face as the one who abused her. Saga turned toward the shelf and grabbed an off-colored rusty fork with bent prongs and headed to the corner of the room. There he used it to pry a carefully placed tile to grab a hidden small bottle of medicine. True he could use Another Dimension to reach it, but he didn't want his cosmos to leave a trail there.
He gazed upon it. It was one of many of his growing collection of dark secrets.
He was a slave to the curse.
He was a slave to his guilt with what he did to Kanon.
But before all of that, he was a slave to his medicine since, without it, he felt like he became either too sad or too impulsive at times.
An all-powerful Saint needing medicine to function. Sometimes he wondered if his little brother wasn't so damn lazy with his training and academics if the Cloth of Gemini would've chosen him instead.
He swallowed one quickly and set it back in its hiding spot.
Shion told him to look within himself to find new techniques, but the truth was, he had already tried that many times. The fact of the matter was that who he was can easily be summarized by his two main techniques: he had one that allowed him to run away and another to just blow shit up… what a perfect representation of bipolarism.
O|=========================|O
Gemini: Defying Gravity
Finale 3: Defying Gravity
BOLD: Cursed Mode
Italicized: The Dead/Spirits
BOLD and Italicized: Ares
O|=========================|O
PRESENT
STAIRWAY OUTSIDE OF THE COLLECTIVE OF SAGITTARIUS
The history of Sanctuary drowns in lore that would make any outsider's head spin. From the existence of an eighth continent to the living metals that cover their bodies. For those who grew up with it, anything was met with a bit of amusement or surprise, not in the utter shock that painted the two golds faces.
Typically in the History of Holy Wars, Gods would appear mortal before they would suit up with the most elaborate armor and do battle, ending with Athena either imprisoning them with a seal or drawing up a treaty like with Asgard.
Aiolos stared hard, unable to turn away. What he thought was muscular black as night skin, was nothing more than the most perfectly fitted armor he had ever witnessed. Only when Ares turned his body did he notice the lines where each piece fit. When the God of War reveled at the idea that his little brother would face the horrifying curse that he endured, he took the chance to try and fired an arrow to the head. It was worth a try since it was one of the few times Ares seemed like he was out in the open and vulnerable.
But he wasn't vulnerable.
He was dead.
For Saga, an educated man, his mind was spinning, and if he didn't have Aiolos on his back, he would probably collapse in the absurdity of it all. "You're lying!" Surely the one in front of them was all but an illusion. Ares had been fucking with his mind for years, why stop now?
But Ares' turned his head, the bone structure of his thick jaw showing prominently underneath, moved up and down. "No, it is all true. But because it is an ugly truth, you are the ones who deny it." He took his fingers and swiped at the arrow, breaking it, and causing it to dissolve into a dust of golden cosmos. He reached down and pulled off his perfectly formed metal finger piece to reveal the bones of a finger. He raised it to his armor-plated forehead and moved it nimbly around the hole as if the digit still had a layer of skin upon it. "A perfect strike, not sloppy as to just aim for the head but the brainstem to ensure instant death. It would've worked if the space inside wasn't 'empty'. What a shame. You're the third cursed Sagittarius to turn me down."
Aiolos shook his head. His memories were foggy, but still, he remembered enough. "You call it a shame when I see it as an honor. Why the hell would I join someone like you, especially when you tried to trick me?"
He slid the metal back over the bones before looking up. "We promised we would restore your ability to walk, something we are more than capable of. However, we could tell that you were resisting."He paused and began to ponder a bit. He should end this conversation, but there was still something on his mind. "Tell me, Aiolos. We were curious about you speaking something in the tongue from East Asia when we visited you. What were you saying and why?"
Aiolos bit his lip. Ares seemed so calm, but that was because he also knew he had the advantage. "Saga, are you sure you can't use Another Dimension?" the archer spoke through the cosmos.
"I wish. I attempted it already and all I can do is create pocket dimensions," Saga answered back. He didn't want to say it, but the hard part was that he had Aiolos on his back. He may be strong, but he was still carrying at least an extra eighty kilograms that would slow him down by half a second. Even if he ran past Ares, Aiolos was still vulnerable on his back and he could easily envision the God of War blowing up his friend just to further fuck with them. "Just answer his questions and keep him distracted."
Aiolos sighed but followed along. "It's just the lyrics of a theme song to a children's show. It's called Moonlight Densetsu."
"A children's song?" The God of War was puzzled. "I don't understand! How does a children's song help you figure out what was real and what was not? I know Athena far better than anyone in all her incarnations! The Athena we crafted was a perfect representation!"
Aiolos smirked. "Yes, yes she was. The tone, the certain mannerism in her voice. But that was your problem. You may know anything and everything about the real Athena...but you don't understand Saori Kido." Every one of the bizarre illusions took place in Greece or a Greek setting, despite the fact he spent a quarter of his life in Japan. When he noticed that pattern, he gave it a shot.
Saga laughed a little as well. Aiolos had the look of a common foot soldier, but he was far more intelligent than people gave him credit for, including the God of War. Just like in chess, somehow Aiolos can appear he was losing and suddenly slide a bishop for the win. "Take it as a hint, Ares. We're sick of your games and so is everyone else. We're going to end this."
"You will end nothing. Do you think you are the first group of Gold Saints to have said that? I am only here, to congratulate that the two of you had made it farther than anyone. But there is a tremendous difference between going far and actually succeeding." His body burst not into a bloom of cosmos, but fire!
Untamable chaotic fire!
The sacred robes crumbled into ash that carelessly blew away in the wind before he slid the plate that hid his eternally grinning skeletal jaw underneath back into place until the mouth moved with his speech pattern once more. "Allow me to provide three reasons as to why you and your successors are doomed to fail. ANOTHER DIMENSION!"
"The fuck!" screamed Saga in horror and anger as the two of them were sucked into the dimensional tear.
Planets and heavenly bodies surrounded the two as Saga worked desperately to switch Aiolos from off his back to under his arm. Being used to fighting against his own little brother's Another Dimension, the first thing he worked on was righting his body. "Burn your cosmos in the same direction!" Saga yelled before he raised his free hand and blunt flames of white cosmos shot out like a torch.
Aiolos raised his free hand and did the same thing, but it was no use. "SAGA!" he screamed as his own arm was growing numb from burning his yellow cosmos.
Even their combined might was not enough to counter the full pull of Another Dimension crafted by a god! They burned as much as they could before still they were pulled in the direction of wherever Ares was sending them at.
"OH GODDESS!" Aiolos gasped as the dark cosmic energies brightened. The two switched over from trying to resist the pull to surrounding their bodies with a protective layer until the two passed through the exit, tumbling down and rolling a bit on the ground below.
The two groaned. Aiolos grabbed his head to stop the ringing. Even with cosmos, the landing still hurt like a bitch.
Saga felt the same way. Ares had to be a dick and make the exit horizontal to ensure they face-planted into the Earth instead of vertically to allow them to land on their feet. He twisted his head and spotted long reeds of grass that were at least half a meter high. It reminded him of the fields in the outskirts of Rodario. "There's no way that flame-headed bastard sent us home," he whispered.
"We're not," Aiolos whispered, laying on his back. It looked like grass, but it didn't have that fresh scent. No bugs are flying all around after their landing disturbed them. Nor were the high-pitched chirps of rodents and birds warning each other of their presence. The sun was shining, but without any heat, his guess was it was about as real as the one Orpheus saw in the Underworld.
It was all fake, but it still made him miss home.
The Gemini proceeded to get up only for Aiolos' hand to quickly and stealthily press on top to stop him. Saga turned to see Aiolos drew a finger to his lips before using two fingers to form the letter V, and pointed it to the ground. It was a standard hand signal used by foot soldiers to indicate they weren't alone. Saga sweated a bit. Not good when despite their power, that the best course of action was stealth. "How many?" he mouthed out.
He watched Aiolos produce three fingers, and that was when Saga's blood went cold.
The grass…
The false sun…
Three people…
Shit, they were at the Collective of Virgo!
While the chances of a set of true Gemini identical twins with a high cosmos was in the millions, there was something far rarer to the point that it only happened this one time:
Identical triplet girls born under Virgo.
The reincarnation of the three wicked daughters of Mara, the demonic enemy of Buddha.
Saga focused his cosmos and produced a layer of light cosmos that covered the pair, rendering them invisible to the naked eye. He watched as one of them passed by. Together, they were known as The Three Beauties. Each of them supposedly had a face that would rival Aphrodite herself, a fact that was very true upon each of them. Their bright blond hair was soft like silk and extended toward their thighs. Their eyes, always shut, were described as blue as the sky. While many would be entranced by their milk-colored skin, in Buddhism, the color of white was the color for death.
Unlike Saga and Kanon, these three decided to share the Cloth, by wearing different pieces of it. In the children's tales, they would often have robes and silk dresses, but of course, The Three Beauties were prime fodder for brothels, drunken foot soldiers, and horny teenagers who made sure they were always naked as sin. Judging by their looks, the adult version of their portrayal won out.
"Where are you?" sang Virgo Tahna, the eldest of the three, who wore the V top and helmet, her bare feet were inches away from Aiolos' head. The archer held his position. They were both on the ground and outnumbered. They would be a pair of ash before either could ignite their cosmos. His body was as still as a statue, a technique he learned from hunting wild pigs or rabbits. He clutched his bow, ready to strike if needed. He breathed a sigh of relief when she passed him.
Virgo Raga, the boldest of the three, with just the middle section and lower half, folded her arms over her bare breasts. "We saw something flash outside. We know you're here. Our God told us he will send a special gift for us."
Virgo Arati, wearing nothing but the gauntlets and boots giggled. "We were in such a hurry we forgot something?" She turned downwards toward her exposed chest and cootch before placing a giddy finger by her face. "Sisters, I think we forgot to put on our masks!" The two others laughed in perfect sync."I guess we're going to have to love you or kill you!"
Virgo Tahna tipped her helmet and rested her hand upon her chest. "I think the mask rule should be reversed: It should be: We'll spare you if you hide your face with a bow, but we'll blow it right off if you dare defy us!"
Saga and Aiolos stared hard at each other, all too familiar with the infamy of the First Virgos. Were they this crazy? Or just trying to lure them out? Neither didn't want to test it if the myths were true. After coming up with an idea, Saga gestured his hand for Aiolos to roll over and to come to him.
Virgo Raga, eyes shut, twisted her head back and forth.
Next came Tahna, back and forth.
Finally Arati, back and forth.
The trio moving their heads in perfect sync like the pendulum of a metronome, covering every possible direction and blindspot.
Raga darted her head, catching the glimpse of the Gemini standing up and lifting the archer on his back."Namaste!" She placed her palms together, mocking a serene prayer, before she twisted her hands vertically, madness dripping from her eyes, while the other sisters took their positions next to her. "ATHENA EXCLAMATION!" They laughed as the sky shifted from day to night and the power of the Big Bang at the pair. Before they could even take a single step away, they and ten meters of surrounding earth were instantly reduced to ash.
The Guardians laughed as they stood up and gazed upon the delightful destruction they had reigned. "Well that was quick!" mused Virgo Arati as she stared at the smoldering dirt in front of them.
Virgo Tanha, shook her head, her helmet rocking a bit. "What a waste. There were two of them and we would've been smart about it, we could've waited till they split off and used Athena Exclamation twice."
"But His Holiness said one of them couldn't walk. Although I can see the blue-haired one tossing the brunette on the ground to save his ass."
"That would've been amusing. We could've tried to angled the Athena Exclamation and see how far we could send the brunette flying like a golf ball. Water under the bridge, sisters," one whispered before she took a pinch of ash from the ground, and dropped it in a vial that hung around her neck. Another trophy for the Three Beauties of Virgo.
On the surface, it appeared as if the story was over.
Our two heroes were dead now, done in by a trio of identical, lunatic, half-naked, fem-Shakas.
However, a small indiscriminate tear in time and space, that was the size of a pin tip, glowed gently, its shine hidden by the tall grass; the massive cosmos of the forbidden attack blanketing area.
As the old saying goes:
A bad Saint will run away, but a great Saint knows how to fake their own death.
Inside, the two Golds floated in the darkness of the pocket dimension, the only glow coming from the Bow of Sagittarius and a couple of white and yellow low powered balls of cosmos for light. Saga knew that carrying Aiolos would automatically make him too slow, and The Three Beauties were known to abuse Athena Exclamation. Instead, he and Aiolos stayed in place while Saga sent an illusion of the two standing up and then summoning the pocket dimension at the same time to hide it.
"Are you sure you can't use Another Dimension?" Aiolos turned, his curls waving up and down, his breath clouding the ice-cold surroundings.
Saga shook his long blue hair flowing high above his shoulders. If there was a way to get the hell out of there fast, he would certainly not hold it back. "No, I tried when I left the Collective of Libra. I can open a way inside here, just not a separate way back out."
"But that's impossible! Ares just used it!"
"I saw!" Saga's red eyes briefly glowed before he shook it away. "If it is the same technique, it has the same limitations. Ares must know of a loophole. I can only move freely in Sanctuary because a lot of sacred stone was removed for the installation of modern plumbing. He probably has something similar, but until I know what it is, I can't utilize it. Without asking him, it could take years to figure it out from here."
Aiolos turned downwards, grasping his fist. "I guess we'll have to pass Ares' three reasons the old fashion way to get to the House of Gemini." He felt sick as he thought back to it. "Goddess...they didn't even hesitate. Not a speck of humanity when they were pointing it at us and were disappointed in the fact that they couldn't use the powers of the Big Bang twice. Don't they care that those who use it are dishonorable and are unworthy of being called Saints!"
Saga turned to his friend's puzzled expression. For the Gemini, while he respected his friend, sometimes he felt his sense of justice could blind him. "It's like murder. It too is dishonorable. But once you relinquish your honor, you don't have anything to lose, so the consequences are meaningless."
Aiolos could see the shadow of shame covering Saga's face. Despite all the reports and proof, he found it so hard to believe that the kind-hearted Gemini went from unable to stand blood, to being responsible for so many murders as well as the Pope. He grabbed the Gemini's hand. "Don't equate yourself with them. They are a bunch of psychopaths," he playfully smacked his cheek. "You're just an honorable narcissist with a pair of cats who happens to be struck with the curse."
Saga chuckled at the slight jab from the archer but raised a finger in front. "Bunch of sociopaths…" he diligently corrected.
Aiolos rolled his eyes and smacked the digit. "Whatever. The point is that we're going to figure out a way of getting past the Collective of Virgo, head to the Collective of Gemini, and you can be your true self...just like you have been for the last three months."
Saga gazed upon the hopeful gaze of the archer, his blue eyes twinkling as they once did, full of hope, full of life, but also, there were traces of guilt. The Gemini lowered his head and swallowed hard. "Aiolos, there's something I need to say, and I don't think you'll like it. We can't go back to the Collective of Gemini. Our next course should be Libra and use the dagger to get back to the others."
Saga was right, it wasn't what Aiolos wanted to hear. "No-" the archer shook his head. "No-no..."If we work together, we can get past those three. You saw the clock. My part of the curse is done. If I have to die to make sure you reach the Collective of Gemini, I will! You've had eleven years of hell!" He growled so hard it almost seemed like the curse returned to him.
It was amazing how much he and Aiolia sounded alike when the two were angry. The Gemini grasped the archer's shoulders, trying to still his burning heart. "Shion told me that the only hint ever given to beat the test was: A Gemini must be first, and a Gemini Must be Last. I didn't really understand it nor did anyone else. But when the curse came back to me and Ares told us everyone had to go through it, it all clicked! Every time someone is cured, the curse returns to the last uncursed user. My Cloth has the highest resistance to curses, and I know Ares' tricks better than anyone! Think about your own experience! You lasted three months and I have at least seven years left."
Aiolos whipped his head back and forth. He knows where this was going. "Saga-"
But the Gemini won't let him finish. "Aiolos, this time, you can't just sacrifice yourself for the greater good. I have to be the one. I have to be last!"
This was one of the hardest parts of becoming the Pope and that was making decisions like this. Unable to say any words, he simply drew his hand to his face and nodded silently. "You were so happy when you found out it was gone…" he muttered, recalling the brilliant smile of his friend when he woke him up from the bed of roses.
Saga wrapped his arms around the weeping archer. Aiolos was the type who would gladly give up everything for others. So he does his best to ease the reality. "Yes, I did. Don't think it was all in vain. Before I found out you were alive, I was tethering on the precipice. I wanted to die because I felt there was nothing left. But after three months, I realized I was a fool and it was selfish of me to keep thinking that way without trying to get some help. If we defeat this curse, I will smile like that, every day! I will live, every day until my true time comes!"
Aiolos tears shifted from sadness to joy. "You serious?" He wiped his face and looked up at his friend's dark blue eyes. "Yes...you really are. Oh Goddess, I can't tell you how long I've wanted to hear that from you!" He burst out, his words all watery from the tears that rolled in his throat. "But it was only three months! What changed your mind that quickly?"
Saga felt tears come down as well. Throughout his journey, he had sought to repent those he had wrong. While Aiolos told him that he had forgiven him in the beginning, he knew it was not enough. So he will grant him the one thing Aiolos spoke of in his letter: He will learn to love himself and never take his life for granted. "Shion did. Even after what I did, he still didn't give up on me. I know it's a short period of time, but the truth was he did the same trick that Gestalt did, except it was a bit more complicated. But I don't have enough time to share all the details. Just know I mean every word of it, and I will take the steps needed to maintain that promise."
Aiolos grabbed the collar of his shirt to quickly dry his face. "And when all is done, you're going to live that life curse-free. I swear it. To Libra?"
"To Libra."
More composed, Aiolos nodded. "Alright, let's see if the coast is clear." He turned his body and dived down where the entrance to the pocket dimension was and brought his ear near it, listening carefully to any grass movement. "They're still outside, but they've moved away from the area where we were supposedly killed." He looked up and noticed that Saga had the look of when he was studying something. "What is it?"
Saga shrugged. "You just move so well out in the zero-gravity of the pocket dimension. Most would be flapping their arms and spinning around."
Aiolos smiled a bit at the compliment. "It's because certain mechanics of flying apply. Plus it eases the pressure on my back so I can do a hell lot more." He demonstrates performing a cosmos-infused uppercut. "That would've hurt a lot otherwise if we were outside of this place. A pity that we can't drag all the Specters and Mariners here so I wouldn't be limited to my bow."
"A pity indeed, besides it would be risky. If I were to accidentally or subconsciously close this pocket, it may take a very long time to find where the original rip was at or risk being teleported somewhere in limbo. Couldn't Mu help you out with his telekinesis?"
The archer chuckled a bit as he continued to listen to the world outside. "Trust me, we tried. But as Mu described it, because he uses telekinesis to grab things, trying to use it to help me walk is like trying to take a doll and maneuvering it like a person: very awkward and very stiff." He closed his eyes and focused back on his task. "It's quiet, and they don't look like the type that would drink tea and meditate. Should we take the chance?"
He floated down to his friend. "We might as well. If we wait too long, the original blanket of cosmos from Athena's Exclamation would fade and they'll discover this place." Saga reached over and set him on his back before waving a hand to open the hole. Without thinking, he bolted straight for the stairs, praying that the trio had the same limitations as Libra Panda and all the Sagittarius. They passed the area where the grass and stone met, Saga running as fast as he could, thick fog enveloping his legs once more.
Aiolos turned his head and tapped Saga's shoulder. "We're good...thank Athena!" he spoke as he stared at the burning red cosmos of the triplets, stopped in front of where their Collective ended and the thick rolling fog began.
Saga took a breather, swallowing hard and wiping the sweat off his face. "By the face of Io, I've never been so happy to see stairs in my life." He raised his head, smiling a bit before returning to lightspeed.
Aiolos twisted his head to gaze upon the great Fire Clock of the Collective. Before, he couldn't focus on it since an ancient undead God stood in front of them. Now that he got a better chance, it was then he could see a strange symbol glowing over the Sagittarius mark. It was definitely not Greek, but more like that of the ancient Lemurian language. He stared at it hard, memorizing the curves and strikes of it so that when they get back home, he could ask-
"AGGHHHH" Saga burst out in a roar before he fell, causing the two of them to roll, bouncing down the stairs, their cosmos responding as if it was second nature to protect the two as they fell and slid several meters before coming to a stop in the lowest dip of the stairs.
Aiolos gripped his head, a massive headache from the landing with a trickle of blood that matched his red headband. He turned to his friend and was shocked to see him clutching his calf, his face flushed as brightly as the blood from his busted lip. "Are you okay? Did you trip?" He asked as he twisted his head back and forth trying to locate his bow.
Saga shook his head no as he breathed a bit harder. "I don't know! I was fine and it felt like my leg suddenly snapped in half!" He grabbed his trainer pants and desperately tore off the cloth below his knee. The bone was protruding through his skin before he screamed in agony.
But Aiolos shook his head. "Saga! Your leg is fine! It's not even bruised!" he called out as he finally managed to feel where his bow was at. He reached over to use his palm to stroke the surface only for the Gemini to pull it back like some wounded animal.
Saga's hands glowed brightly as he used massive amounts of cosmos upon it. "STONE OF SISYPHUS, WHY WON'T THE PAIN GO AWAY!" he panicked. If he couldn't fix it, they both were going to have to drag themselves back to Libra. "WE HAVE TO GO! WE GOT TO GO BACK!"
"KHRIS! YOUR LEG IS FINE!" Aiolos screamed once more.
Hyperventilating, his heartbeat racing, Saga briefly blinked to see the puddle of blood with the bright white bone shard tearing through was no longer there along with the pain. "What the hell?" He looked around his belt, sliding his hands around the back. "Shit, where is the dagger!?"
"Shit…" Aiolos cursed as he darted back and forth before he swung his bow back and forth to push the thick air back, but like the waves of the ocean, it would only recede for a moment before powering back over just as quickly.
Panic settled in. No dagger, no going home.
Saga, still dizzy from the pain earlier, rushed back and forth trying to swipe and shift, his eyes lasering in on anything with a brilliant gold shine. "FUCK!" This couldn't be happening! What if it fell off of him in the pocket dimension back in the Collection of Virgo? He turned to their destination that was only a half a mile away, where the Panda was frantically beating silently and seemingly roaring as if trying to warn them, but the Collective of Libra's barrier prevented his cries. "What is he trying to tell us?"
"He's probably trying to tell you that if you are looking for the dagger, it is right here!" spoke a delicate flowery yet baritone voice.
The two turned toward the direction where the head of a metal serpent with a crimson orb raised above the thick white clouds before the thirteenth Gold Saint stood up, revealing he had been sitting in front of them the whole time.
"The thirteenth," Saga muttered, staring at the magnificent thick layers of gold that seemed more fit for an emperor than a soldier. But while the Golden Ophiuchus was legendary, he was certainly not mythical. But his appearances were sparse, and whenever he did, they were never good. Not only that, but he stood in their way. "GALAXIAN EXPLOSION!" He blasted him with a burst of cosmic energy, the illusions of planets of stars meteoring at his opponent while thick balls of white cosmos pummelled at his foe.
"GOLDEN ARROW!" Aiolos quickly followed up, along with a rain of light arrows to combine his cosmos with the Gemini.
Saga lasered in on their enemy as stars and light illuminated the dark fog-covered staircase. But his expression faded as the thirteenth stood like a humble sentinel taking in both of their attacks as if enjoying the view of the sunset. "Shit…" he gasped as his mighty attack left soot and dirt and nothing more. While Galaxian Explosion was excellent in doing widespread damage, it lacked the penetration power needed for something so thick.
Aiolos shook his head in disbelief. He too noticed the lack of any effect from Saga's attack. Only one area was slightly cracked, and that was where the physical golden arrow struck when normally it should have gone clean through as if it was paper due to its armor-piercing abilities. Right before his eyes, the only proof of damage vanished, healing and sealing as if the two had done nothing at all.
The heavy armored Gold let out a smirk. "Past Wounds," he hissed, his scepter's jewel glowing red before directing it to the archer.
His fingers flinched, dropping his weapon as two bone fractures appeared along his forearm blood dripping from where they tore at the skin. "Not real, not real," he murmured to himself, knowing it was all in his head like what Saga felt. But when he attempted to use the arm to reach for his bow, the bone tore more through the skin, causing blood to pool around. He let out a scream as his tanned face turned a more sickly color.
Asclepius shook his head. "Oh Aiolos, you're right. What you see is not real, but the pain you feel is along with every memory of every injury you had inside your mind," he spoke as he effortlessly walked over and gently punted the bow a few steps up. He twisted his scepter and used the rod to block a parry a punch from the Gemini before swinging it into his stomach and knocking him back. His scepter flashed as he inflicted the pain of when the Gemini broke his knee, causing him to fall down the stairs once more. "Careful there! If you do that too many times, you may end up at the stairs of the Collective of Gemini after all!"
Aiolos breathed heavily as he shook the nauseous feeling from his head. He knew from experience that too much pain meant going into shock or losing consciousness, the last thing they wanted to do considering how close they were to Libra. But they are going to have to alter their strategy since their moves weren't working at all. "What the hell are you!?"
The Thirteenth parted his mouth in a smile, a brief happy hiss following. "Ah, you know, I haven't introduced myself, had I? I am Saint Ophiuchus Asclepius. Unlike the other twelve, I am no warrior, but rather, I am a medic!"
"Medic?" Aiolos repeated in confusion.
Saga darted his head, more infuriated. Of course the final boss for the cripple and the crazy has to be a fucking doctor. "What type of medic are you if you're spending all this time trying to kill us!"
But Asclepius shook his head. "Kill? I have done no such thing, only made you re-experience things you have already faced! Trust me, if you survived it once, you can do so again!"
"Wait...you said medic! Your voice sounds really familiar!" Aiolos gripped his fist as if trying to figure out from where.
Asclepius nodded sagely. "It should. I entered your subconscious, you know when we had that fabulous make-out session?" The smug serpent paused, taking in the delicious expression of the two ex's turning to each other. "Anyways, there are two fates for those who succumb to the curse. You could wind up as some brainless Berserker forever roaming these stairs, or I can snap my fingers and heal your back and all you have to do is serve as one of Ares' fine from a pair of permanent red eyes, you'll have all your senses intact and you would be stronger than ever. We even throw in a nifty sword. It's quite an honor to receive such an offer."
"I never saw you in my subconscious or received an offer!" gasped the Gemini.
The medic raised a finger. "Ah yes, we did consider you multiple times. Very powerful, fabulous intelligence, but Geminis are a dime a dozen when it comes to receiving a curse. Besides, we felt you were too much of a crybaby to deal with for all eternity."
"You know who else said the same? My cheating-ex-girlfriend. That's two bullets I'm glad I dodged in my life."
The Ophiuchus frowned at the honor of becoming a gladiator being compared to something as immature as one's attempt to live a monogamous lifestyle. He combed through the Gemini's memories of pain."You know what else happened in Japan?" His wand glowed.
Suddenly, Saga's face whipped back and forth as if relieving when the cub unleashed five years of torment at his face, causing his vision to blur.
However, as the Thirteenth had his back turned, Aiolos noticed three inconspicuous dry streaks of old golden blood. "That's a bear slash," he thought. He knew. He saw several marks like that on Camus when he went to Siberia to wrestle with them during his training. The skin looked different too, a bit off-color, as if slower to heal and not as instantaneous as the other strikes the two of them incurred upon the Thirteenth earlier. He did sense a difference in the cosmos when near the Guardian of the Sagittarius compared to Saga or even the other Sagittarius of the collective. But knowing a weakness does no good when there's no way to take advantage of it.
Asclepius turned his reptilian red eyes toward the archer and came up to him, gently rolling him over to his back so that the two could see each other eye to eye. "You want to save Saga, don't you? Doesn't feel good to feel helpless, does it? Trust me, you can't hide it. It's quite common when one is in the presence of someone as powerful as a god before him. Here, I'll tell you what. Since I never did receive an answer, how about this. We need a Gladiator for Sagittarius and now that you have taken it away on the clock you're the only viable candidate left. If you agree, I will not only heal your back," he pulled out the dagger and pointed it to the Gemini. "I will let him go and allow him to return to the world of the living."
"You're going to let him go back despite how much stuff we learned from here?" Aiolos asked with heavy skepticism.
The Thirteenth let out a burst of jovial laughter. "How cute. You say that as if your generation of gold actually poses a threat to ending the curse. Oh please. I've seen hundreds of Golds and they all think their Zodiac Circle is the greatest that ever lived! Do you know why this curse has lasted so long? It's because most generations can't even agree on where to go out and eat!" He leaned down a bit. "But I am serious. No tricks. I'll toss him this dagger and unless he attacks me, he can go back peacefully." He took his hand and held it toward the Sagittarius.
Aiolos' blue eyes shifted toward Saga as the Gemini was heaving, still trying to regain his senses after the last attack. He gazed at the shiny metal palm of the Thirteenth and grasped it, answering in the way he would if someone like Hades offered him the same deal. A burst of yellow cosmos filled his own before he ripped Asclepius' arm right out of the socket, tossing it far away at the stairs, where it pathetically bounced down several steps. "You'll let him go, just so I can plug an arrow in him and my friends when they come back here? No...I would rather be paralyzed both top and bottom before serving anyone other than Athena!"
For the first time, the fruity smugness from earlier vanished revealing the stone-cold eyes of one who had lived for so long, any bit of humanity had long since faded. Asclepius stood up and in an instant, from where the golden blood poured like a waterfall, a new, stronger arm shot out, dripping in wet fluids before the Gauntlet of Ophiuchus returned over it. "So...you want to continue to serve Athena? Very well," he hissed before he reached into his side. "By the way, the dagger wasn't the only thing that fell from the two of you," he spoke as he raised the Sagittarius Cloth plate that was crafted earlier.
"Oh...shit..." Aiolos' gasped as he watched the Serpent toss it over, striking his chest before several runes lit up around him. "No-no-no…" he thought, figuring the Serpent had something twisted up his sleeve. He darted his head back and forth as the magnificent Cloth, metal wings, and all formed and covered his body, before tumbling over. His lower half was already weak, but now it was all but useless.
Before Aiolos could raise a fist, Asclepius took the bottom of his staff and tapped the red jewel in the center of his chest, causing various purple lightning to erupt over the archer.
While the lightning didn't hurt, suddenly his arms and his helmeted head collapsed against the ground, the weight pressing on him as if he was underneath the foot of Atlas.
The medic smirked. "As you know Aiolos, when someone is paralyzed, sometimes it's not that their limbs aren't strong enough, but rather a case of broken links to the brain. No connections, no movements. Same with these 'living' Cloths. Sometimes they are heavy not because the user isn't worthy," he took his staff and shot out another bolt of purple electricity, "but rather the links to the person's cosmos are distorted. You said you would rather be paralyzed both top and bottom, a request that I can easily fulfill."
Aiolos blue eyes widened as he attempted to lift his arms, only to find them as useless as his legs.
The Thirteenth grinned. "You want to be a true Saint of Athena? Fine. Just like those before you, the sacred Cloth that wraps around your body will also become your coffin. By the way, when you were in a coma, you had many surgeries to get yourself fixed up. Would you like to know what it is like when they were opening you up with scalpels and jabbing needles and pins into your vertebrate?"
Aiolos unleashed scream after blood-curdling scream as it seemed like his own skin was being pulled and separated with a drill being pushed near his spine, his face was as red as his headband.
"AIOLOS!" Saga called out as he struggled to get his senses back in order. "GALAXIAN EXPLOSION!" he screamed in a desperate cry.
The attack struck the back of the medic, singing his locks, burning his scalp and skin before it healed almost immediately back up, barely phasing him from his task, his armor far too thick for the Gemini. "Oh Saga. From one Saint to another, please stop messing up my hair!" Asclepius gasped as he waved his hand and reenacted the pain of having an arrow smash into the Gemini's head.
After knocking the Gemini back down, Asclepius returned to the archer and hummed with delight. "I tell you what Aiolos. The nice thing about Past Wounds is that while you feel everything, I can see everything. It is absolutely fascinating to see how far modern medicine has gone! It was your choice. You could've spent all eternity here as an elite, now you and Saga will spend all eternity with me. Don't worry, I can prolong both of your lives and youth for as long as I desire. You two may have been the first to solve the curse. But you're not the first living souls here, as my servant can testify."
Saga turned up toward the cosmos ball that the medic produced. It was there, in some sort of Temple somewhere was a man. There the man called out pleading to the two. While he could understand some of it, it was clear that this man wasn't just speaking Greek, but ancient Greek, with a dialect that he was certain had gone extinct! By the Pantheon! Asclepius was far worse than anything he's ever seen.
"What do I do!?" Saga thought.
What do you do?
Saga's eyes widened as that familiar dark voice echoed in his mind. "Ares…" he hissed.
Don't you remember? You were forced to retake the curse once more!
Everything you learned, will stay hidden, and all your work will be for nothing.
Your friend wanted to free you, but everything he sacrificed was for nothing.
Three months later, it was all for nothing!
You are still cursed, and he's still a traitor.
The only thing you and Aiolos have gained is eternal torment and the knowledge that despite all you have seen, it was all for nothing!
For a moment Saga felt himself sinking once again in that dark hole. His techniques are useless, he was back to being cursed, and Aiolos, despite having a much powerful form of his Cloth, was unable to use it.
This was it. This is what it was like to truly lose.
I'll tell you what Saga. One last act of mercy, since you were one of the first here. Take your fist, plunge it into your heart, and I won't interfere this time around.
The game is over.
End your life now, or resist like your friend and endure an eternity of torment.
Saga stared at his right hand. Over the past five years, how many times had he tried and failed to fill it with all the cosmos to crush the organ that gave life to this body that had ended so many innocent ones? For a moment he allowed his cosmos to burn to see if Ares' words are true.
That's it.
It will only take a fraction of a second, and it will all be over. Don't worry, Aiolos will probably be happy that you won't have to endure Asclepius' creativity and boredom.
If it was three months ago and the offer was made, the Gemini wouldn't have had any second thoughts. But things were different now. He stared at his fist and tightened it, not to prepare it to enter his own cavity, but in defiance to the evil that beckoned him.
At that moment, Saga began to lightly chuckle before it evolved in a deep rich baritone laughter the Gemini was known to produce. "Despite the curtain being pulled, you are back to this shit again. Say what you want, you may be the queen of the hive, but I am the drone bee that understands the dance!" He grinned unleashing his inner ham, shaking his head as if he was speaking to the God of War in front of him. "No Ares, I have spent the last five years of you shackling me to my guilt by making me hide it, crushing my psyche, my pride…. But that won't work, not anymore. I have confessed my sins, I have built paths to repent for those sins. I will not be your next victim. I was not forced to retake the curse, you were the one who was forced back to come to me!"
You will never see the light of Greece again!
Saga darted his head back to his friend and shook his head. "Yes, I will! I will see its light! I will live! We will live! And we are getting the fuck out of here!" His hands glowed. A Gemini is the personification of extremes.
To run, to destroy.
Sadness and anger.
The hero, the monster.
He once questioned Shion about how to go beyond his techniques with Shion telling him he already knew the answer and to look deeper.
Now he understands and he won't limit himself as such anymore. The answer was there.
To be the grey in between the black and white and he will combine the pull of Another Dimension with the force of Galaxian Explosion...they cancel and neutralize. If the weight was what was holding Aiolos back then he shall negate it! "DEFYING GRAVITY!" A wave light cosmic light filled the air as everything floated around, the dense fog rising up blanketing everything around.
Asclepius darted his head in shock at what was going on unable to see.
Aiolos felt his body rising upright, as the Ophiuchus paused his attack. It was just like the pocket dimension from earlier. "Saga, you brilliant bastard," he thought before he turned to Thirteenth, snatched the dagger from the side, and performed his favorite technique that he was unable to do in the last five years. "Gestalt gives his regards. LIGHTNING BOLT!" He screamed as his cosmos fist slammed into Asclepius' face knocking him back a few feet, before he proceeded to slam his fists repeatedly at the medic until a strong uppercut knocked his headpiece directly off, tumbling to the ground. He stared hard at the Thirteenth's face. It was just as he thought, the injuries he made while wearing his upgraded Cloth were not healing quite as fast. However, he needed something more focused if he was going to take down this son-of-a-bitch.
Aiolos used his wings to light speed over to grab his bow floating in the air. Its movement was so smooth, his body able to make nearly hairpin turns, unlike his older wings. The moment he touched it, the bow suddenly shifted as if wearing the new Cloth caused it to change form, making it grow longer and leaner.
Ophiuchus zipped back, his face heavily bruised with golden blood leaking from his mouth. Asclepius' serpent eyes flared in anger. Nobody has ever managed to knock off his headgear before! He pointed his scepter back at the archer. "How dare you! Prepare to relive the moment Excalibur burned your flesh and your spine cracking and breaking, over and over for the next thousand years! PAST WOUNDS!"
Aiolos eyes widened as his floating body twisted in agony once more. He gritted his teeth as he attempted to raise it to aim, the arrow in his hand burning with cosmos. Even in zero gravity, his arm felt so weak and numb, reliving the moment over and over when his life was a hairpin away from death. He shook his head, trying to manifest the same will that helped him continue over that rocky quarry to deliver Athena to Kido. "Can't lose consciousness…"
Saga cursed as his hands struggled to focus, still not having complete control of his new technique. Giving Aiolos mobility wasn't enough. If Aiolos couldn't deliver a good shot, Asclepius won't allow another opportunity again. "GALAXIAN EXPLOSION!" He fired it off with one hand, but with half of its power, it doesn't make the Thirteenth turn around. "ANOTHER DIMENSION!" he practically pleaded, tearing a hole to a pocket dimension beneath, but he couldn't make it wide enough since it was a move that used so much cosmos and he needed to maintain Defying Gravity to support Aiolos. "SHIT!" He just needs to distract him long enough to stop this round of Past Wounds!
SHIT!
SHIT!
SHIT!
Something!
Anything!
Saga...remember...
Power Always Beats Strength.
Experience Trumps All.
Remember what you learned.
"Your Holiness?" Saga muttered as he heard a familiar voice and felt his cosmos, his eyes shifted toward his pocket as the broken golden orb glowed dimly in his pocket. He thought it was broken and his spirit moved onto the next. Like life, when all is shattered, there is always a speck of hope. "That night...I tried to kill you…why are you making me remember this of all times!" A memory that was locked behind the depths and haze of the curse, slowly awakened. He could see Shion standing frightened as he became the monster that night. At first he turned his head away from disgust.*
*From Sagittarius and Gemini: The Event 5D
Saga, don't see it as shame, but inspiration!
Saga swallowed hard as he allowed the memory to play out. His eyes widened. "That's it!" Shion reversed Galaxian Explosion to implode instead of exploding...to make the damage more internal than external. Why can't he do the same? Saga focused his technique in one hand to hold his friend up and used the other to focus, to accept his sense of duality as one. "BLACK HOLE!" Saga screamed as he unleashed it in the middle of the Ophiuchus Saint, bypassing the thick armor and blowing him up to pieces from within, sending golden blood all over, the chest plate remaining intact.
Just as quickly as Asclepius exploded, his body reformed in a second.
But one second was all Aiolos needed as he moved at the speed of light.
Aiolos pulled his string and powered up his Golden arrow with as much cosmos as he could. "GOLDEN ARROW!" his raspy voice shouted before firing it straight into Ophichus' head, blowing off everything above the collar bone and shattering the chest of the Gold Cloth. The Serpent collapsed, falling upon his knees.
The Gemini grinned at the sight, but his eyes widened as it was clear the Thirteenth skin was knitting around the neck. He turned his head toward the entrance seeing the panda gesturing for them to come over. "Come on, let's go!" He floated as he grabbed his friend's hand.
Aiolos, barely able to clutch his bow turned his head. "Where did you learn those two moves?" he asked.
Saga sighed as he moved at lightspeed. "Just now. One was combining the two ones I had...one was taught, by the one I slain." He shook his head. "They weren't really all that refined."
Aiolos tsked. "Stop being a perfectionist. They did the job, now let's get the hell out of here!" he chuckled, before his blood went cold from seeing the Ophiuchus body glowing in the distance. "Come on, this trip is on me!" the archer spoke in the zero-gravity area, before as he used his wings and the two streaked out like a pair of golden rays of light until they passed through the barrier where Defying Gravity ended.
Before the two could fall, the oversized panda caught them. He lifted the two up with each in his enormous paws as if clutching a pair of babies. "YOU DID IT! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" he spoke through his cosmos, squeezing and cuddling his fat furry cheeks against each of them.
Saga through his hand in his blue hair, adrenaline draining away and leaving him as an exhausted husk. He turned his head toward the glint of the barrier before staring at the now standing ominous shadow with the bright red orb. "Can he enter here?"
The Panda nodded. "He can, but he won't try. His Past Wounds can't work if I don't have an actual body with nerves and pain receptors. While you can't see it, beneath my fur, I am wearing my Libra Cloth. The last time I caught him, I tore and bit at him, smacking him around the moment he healed. After a few weeks, I let him go. Now he treads carefully anytime he needs to go through this place. But still, he is a very dangerous opponent and an immortal one at that. We've figured ways of slowing him down, but as to how to kill him, that's another mystery altogether."
Aiolos felt relief knowing the Ophiuchus wouldn't come, his hands still shaking at the horror of being tortured for thousands of years. As if he knew it within his heart, he touched the center of his chest where his Cloth glowed and formed back into the metal plate.
He gazed at it for a few seconds. It felt good having the full Cloth back on as well as using moves that he thought he lost due to his broken lower back. But the words of Gestalt weighed on him and another Saint shouldn't have to support the other. It was a matter that he will have to handle when they get back.
Aiolos inserted it back into his pocket. His head twisted back to the Panda, thinking of the First Sagittarius and his final confession, "What did you-" his voice was as rough as sandpaper, unable to finish the word before coughing harshly, surprised he wasn't coughing up blood at this point.
But Saga knew what he was going to ask, and finished off the archer's thoughts. "The Guardian of Sagittarius told us that it was all their fault for the curse and you were the reason because of it." He watched the Panda turn his head away. When he thought back to Ares, revealing his skull, it was then the strange behavior began to make sense since it seemed both the First Libra and Sagittarius seemed to share the same demeanor after he took the life of Shion. It all made sense! "You murdered Ares, didn't you?"
The panda's ears lowered in reluctantly before a sad snort followed and he proceeded to confess what had happened. "It's a very long and messy tale that I will try to keep brief. A long time ago, around the time when that Jewish carpenter was stirring up trouble in the Middle East, Poseidon would resurrect his dead and Ophiuchus would do the same under Ares' orders. Clash after clash, we fought and killed as casually as punching the time clock."
And so, Libra Panda told the two Gold Saints the terrible tale.
Aiolos and Saga sat silently, their eyes pale hearing the truth about why the curse existed in the first place.
The panda took them over to a stone statue that featured the true version of the Libra Cloth, where an open recession was at for the dagger. The Panda could tell the two had been through so much from meeting Ares, the Virgos, Asclepius, and hearing the truth. "I'm sorry. If we...if I knew I would put so many brave young men and women through so much suffering throughout these centuries…" he snorted and sobbed.
But Aiolos reached out and placed his hand upon the panda's fur. "Don't worry, we're going to pass on to the others what you said, and we'll end this curse once in for all."
Saga turned his head as well, for he too knew what it was like to make a mistake and have so much blood on one's hands. So he did as others have done for him. He too laid his hand upon the panda. "I forgive you." There was no point in offering any more hatred. Centuries of guilt were probably punishment enough, perhaps only finding respite when the two of them appeared the first time.
Libra Panda bowed his head. "I hope you all succeed. Rest assured, as I told you before, I will do all I can. I will keep this entrance well guarded. While I can't leave the Collective of Libra, we have our ways of speaking to one another. If anything changes, I will let you know." He gazed upon their weary faces. "You two have been through quite a bit. Rest up. Be ready. The Collective, like Elysium, has been corrupted. While there are many friends here, there are just as many enemies that lurk in the fog as well."
With that, Saga slid out of his paw before he turned and helped Aiolos out, by grabbing his arm and wrapping it around his shoulder. The two waved goodbye to the large beast before Saga turned toward the simple hole. His hand shook as he inserted the dagger and twisted it, causing a large perfectly rectangular dimensional doorway. The first time he saw it filled him with fear and dread. But now he gazed upon its luminous light as if the two were about to enter Elysium itself before the two stepped forward to finally go home.
O|================|O
The trip was far different when they entered the first time. Before it was like falling down a hole. But now, it seemed like a bright light flashed.
Five seconds going in.
Five seconds to wake up.
Time dilation, where an eternity can happen an instant, but the same concept can also occur in reverse.
Saga looked up, his head throbbing and vision blurry. "Hera?" he whispered as his fat orange cat came up to his head and repeatedly bunted it over and over. He took his hand and stroked her head. Of all the victims of when he was cursed, he felt so fortunate that such a loving pet made it unharmed. His eyes shifted over to see Neptune in the back trotted over to leap inside a litter box. So strange. Why are they here? He spotted several blankets and boxes of trash and dishes.
"Brother! Lucas...wake up! Oh Goddess, I can't believe you're back!"
Aiolos felt a pair of shaking hands grabbing and twisting his body around. His eyesight was oddly blurry, almost like the first time he woke up from a coma. But still, the outline was all too familiar. "Hey, little brother!" He felt tears come down. Laying there, being tortured with memory after memory of surgery, there were several times he didn't think he was going home. But here he was. The Pantheon can take everything from him, but as long as he had his one and only family, he was happy.
He knew this wasn't a dream. Only his little brother would wear that dumb cologne that smells like deer piss, but Marin thinks is amazing.
Aiolos' vision began to clear up when he noticed something different on the Leo. "Why do you have a beard?" he asked, noticing his hair was a bit longer and straighter too.
Aiolia gasped in shock, equally surprised that his brother or Saga was no different than when they fell through the hole. "Don't you know? You both have been missing for almost four months."
TO BE CONTINUED
O|==================|O
Coming April 25ish
Epilogue: Sagittarius Aiolos and Gemini Saga
Aiolos and Saga tell the others what happened as well as learning the horror of when a bunch of teenage Golds with no political experience try to rule Sanctuary for four months. Aiolos makes a few changes around Sanctuary and Saga finishes his promise to Aiolia to clear Aiolos' name as well as the finishing touches to his path of redemption.
Author's Notes: Yeah, the heroes are finally out of the Collective! I wanted to create a "Hell Run" where the only way these two are getting out alive was by relying on the other and using every trick they knew to survive.
Now originally, the chapter ends with Libra Panda telling the two what exactly happened and it was a scene that was completely written. However, going through during editing I decided to just cut it out and save it for the next chapter due to pacing, plus it gives a chance for the other Golds a chance to chime in and give out their opinion. So if you are wondering if this is going to be some mystery going throughout the story, it's not. You'll find out more in the next update.
In the fight, I had a bunch of more psychological-suicidal attacks from Asclepius to Saga, which kind of fit the Silent Hill vibe of the Collective. But with the way things are still going in the world, I decided to cut things out and kind of limit it to that one scene with Ares and the fist.
We also have the arc's name drop. Defying Gravity is based on the play Wicked where the evil witch from The Wizard of Oz is the hero and is friends with the good witch.