26 — ATHENA
Protect Athena.
Athena.
The cold lights of a sterile ceiling. A white ceiling. The white walls. No windows. The white floor. His white clothes. He got up from the gurney, removed the monitors glued to his body, and found his shabby, dirty clothes in a corner on a chair.
A white curtain dragged along the rail and Shun appeared to help Seiya.
Again the medical care so frequent in Seiya's life. He saw his friend Shun covered with bandages all over his body, as he had not yet seriously treated the burns from his battle in the mountain woods when he had to fight again.
There was, however, a wound on Seiya's chest that no medicine could heal.
His Master deeply ashamed of him.
He would do anything to make her proud of him again.
And to do that, perhaps the answer was thrown at him when Marin gave him her back, leaving without meeting his eyes: to protect Athena.
"Let's go." called Shun.
"Where are we going, Shun?"
"Anywhere but this room." he said.
Outside of the room, sitting on a bench in the hallway, was Shiryu. She got up when she saw the two friends walking out of the door.
"They say you're all right now." she said.
Shun and Seiya sat beside her.
They were in a short, empty hallway; many other doors closed to many other hospital rooms.
"Saori is waiting for us in the common room." Shiryu said.
Dismayed, Seiya followed his friends down the hall, down stairs to a place without even a window. An oppressive and hidden environment. He felt like a rat running away in the sewer; so used to the freedom of the land, sleeping in the starlight, running in the sun, that place caused him enormous discomfort. And he noticed the same in his two friends.
They entered through a double door in what was clearly a makeshift room with some sofas, rugs and a table. The girls were all there and stood up when they joined the common room.
"Are you feeling better?" asked Saori.
"Yes," Shun replied; Seiya just nodded and let himself sink into the first sofa he found.
Seiya's dismay invaded the Hall and everyone sulked. Seiya was that kind of boy, his bravery and his smile infected everyone around him. But his sadness was no different. Precisely because he was always so vibrant, seeing him slumped on the couch looking lost like that was disconcerting.
"That's it?" asked Shiryu, who out of everyone there was the worst one to comfort someone. "Are you going to give up?"
Seiya looked at his friend, confused.
"Shun told us you've won over a Silver Saint!" she said.
"He was not using his Silver Cloth." justified Seiya.
"Neither were you!" said Xiaoling, louder.
"Doesn't matter." Seiya said. "None of this matters."
He got up and walked out of the common room, leaving everyone behind to deal with that ill temper of his.
Two days went by in which Seiya took care of his food, his training in a gym set up inside the underground complex and then isolated himself in the ruins of the Arena on the surface of the Coliseum.
Huge blocks of stone collapsed from the highest walls, the twisted steel of the roof that had given way. Although the Foundation had done its best to clear the site of the rubble, a few colonnades and larger structures ended up being left to form this ruinous landscape to which Seiya was much more accustomed from his years of training in Greece.
The fact that the Coliseum mimicked the ancient styles prevalent in the Sanctuary even comforted him.
He placed his hand on top of the Urn of Pegasus Cloth at his side, as if trying to remember his nights of glory.
Remembering the Sanctuary he had trained and grown up in. Where he had valiantly vanquished opponents and conquered that Sacred Cloth. A warrior from the Sanctuary of Athena.
Athena.
Protect Athena.
That was his answer.
This was how he would have his Master's respect again. No, much more than that. That's what he needed to do to fulfill his destiny as a Saint of Athena.
He looked up at the night sky and the dim stars of that part of the city, thanks to the attack that collapsed the retractable roof of the building. How he missed the stars. They were so blend on that sky.
He heard footsteps and regretted having to be comforted by his friends once more. He was startled by something huge being thrown in his face, blinding him for an instant; he took it off frmo his face and found a white fur coat very thick and patched.
"It's a gift from Jacob." spoke a voice.
Seiya got up and saw his visitor with his arms crossed.
"Hyoga!" he was surprised.
"He said it's for you to wear it and not be as cold as you were in Siberia." His voice was serious.
Seiya looked at the huge coat and remembered little Jacob. He looked back at Hyoga and his chest heated up.
"How is everyone?" Seiya asked.
"They'll be fine." said Hyoga. "But you don't look well."
Seiya was speechless, but remembered the hard fate of Hyoga. He too had disappointed his Master and, much worse, had had to fight and kill her. And there he was again. He also placed his Urn next to Seiya's.
"Why did you come back, Hyoga?" Seiya asked.
"Because this is my place." he said cryptically. "I heard you were attacked by some Silver Saints."
Seiya looked at him and saw his eyes set and calm.
"Cygnus!" exclaimed Saori's voice.
The rubble of the Arena was no longer empty, as they all arrived to welcome the returning Saint. Seiya thought it strange, but Saori wore sandals and a long white dress.
"Miss." Hyoga greeted Saori, to which she immediately protested.
"No. Call me Saori."
Hyoga hesitated.
Xiaoling went to Seiya and touched the fur coat he was holding.
"So warm! Who gave you that?" she asked.
Seiya, very embarrassed, pointed to Hyoga.
"And what did you bring for me, Cygnus?" she asked.
"Hyoga."
Everyone looked at him.
"Please call me Hyoga." he said finally, and everyone smiled.
"I preferred Cygnus." Xiaoling commented softly to Seiya. "Listen, is this fur coat here from a real bear?"
"Yes," answered Hyoga.
"I can't believe you killed a bear to give Seiya a coat!" she protested.
Hyoga was immediately embarrassed and denied the whole story; he said that it was an old fur coat that Jacob had inherited. And that the boy wanted Seiya to have it so he wouldn't forget about him.
Seiya looked again at the fur coat and his chest filled with joy, as he hadn't felt for a few days.
The night was pleasant, so they all sat on the rubble, close together, but each on a different rock or indentation. They spoke pleasantries; Xiaoling had a lot of doubts about Siberia, so she rented Hyoga's patience for a few minutes. Saori had a worried face, while Shiryu looked confused. It was Shun who asked Xiaoling a question, trying to rid Hyoga of the thousands of questions she had.
"Xiaoling, your Master lives near the refuge, right?" he asked and she nodded.
"That's where Ikki is. Do you want to visit her?" she asked, leaving Hyoga and sitting facing everyone.
"No," Shun said. "I remember Marin saying she had a mission to complete in the Mountains and I think she was going there." Seiya immediately looked at his friend.
"Do you think the Master is in danger?" Xiaoling asked.
"No," Seiya replied immediately. "Marin knows there is something wrong with the Sanctuary."
"Do you think the Master in the mountains might know more?" asked Shiryu.
Shun confirmed.
"Perhaps we can pay the Master another visit and ask her what does she thinks?" Shiryu said.
"Another visit?" asked Saori, not knowing that they had run away one day.
They looked at her as if they had been caught in the act.
"They ran away and went to the Master." said Alice. "It was the day after Seiya saw you through the window."
"Mii!"
Seiya wanted to sink into the rubble, as everyone immediately looked at him holding back laughter.
"Now I understand why you ran away."
"Be quiet, Shun!" The friend held back a laugh.
Everyone held back their laughter, while Seiya and Saori experienced an enormous shame.
"Well then, we can do this. Let's visit the Master in the mountains and ask about the Sanctuary." Shiryu said.
They were silent; it seemed like a good plan and, above all, a plan where they didn't need to put themselves in too much risk, after all, Master was alongside Ikki. Perhaps it was the safest place on Earth. And Seiya could probably better understand what Marin wanted in the mountains. And what it meant to protect Athena.
"What is it, Seiya?" Shun asked, seeing his friend fall silent again.
"There's something Marin said on the way out that I've been thinking about ever since." he began, finally sharing his anguish with everyone. "I don't know if you remember, Shun..."
"I remember." said the friend right away and Seiya noticed in the boy's eyes that the same doubt was bubbling inside him.
"She said I was a Holy Saint of Athena." he said gravely. "And that my duty was to protect her. Protect Athena."
Everyone looked at him. Alice and Saori looked at each other nervously.
"And I wonder what she meant by that."
"All of us here have become holy warriors to fight for the Sanctuary and protect Athena." Shun reminded.
"Does Athena really exists?" Shiryu wondered. "My Master also trained me all my life and always told me that the greatest duty of a Saint was to protect Athena." she said. "But then he asked me to come to the Tournament because of the Gold Cloth." she completed it.
"Yes. Athena does exists." said Seiya, to everyone's amazement. "She's in Greece. In the Sanctuary next to the Camerlengo."
"How do you know that, Seiya?" Alice asked, startled.
"When the last Pontiff died, the Camerlengo Arles walked through the villages surrounding the Sanctuary to ensure that everything would be all right. And at the Arena, where I would later get my Pegasus Cloth, he told everyone there about the great deeds of the former Pope Zion. And on that day, Athena was beside him. She was a woman adored by the people. But also much feared."
Deep wonder in the rubble.
Looking at the ground as if trying to make sure of the details he was telling, Seiya didn't see some open mouths around him.
"If there really is an evil in the Sanctuary," he continued, "maybe we need to rescue Athena from it. I think that's what my Master Marin meant."
Shun, Seiya and Shiryu looked at each other confused with a task as Herculean as impossible.
Hyoga's voice interrupted the delirium at that moment.
"What if Athena isn't in the Sanctuary?" he asked calmly.
"Cygnus!" Alice chided.
"What do you mean by that?" Seiya asked him, getting up.
"Maybe this woman you saw isn't really Athena."
"Well, Hyoga. The Camerlengo himself introduced her as if she were Athena." Seiya said. "And her presence in that Arena…" he continued. "I can't explain it, but it was…different."
The boy left everyone suspended in the air.
Saori then got up from the rock she was sitting on and looked at Alice beside her. The girl felt confused to see her friend with the determined expression, when inside her there was an immense doubt. Saori fixed the dress she was wearing, walked around the stone and climbed some ruined steps. Alice gave Saori her hands to lean on; her eyes were apprehensive as Saori climbed the rock. She wanted everyone to see her. She needed everyone to see her.
Hyoga walked next to Alice and Xiaoling also stood up.
Seiya, Shun and Shiryu didn't understand what was happening, but they saw how Saori, from the top of that rock, looked at them and then closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She was still holding hands with Alice, but then she finally released her.
And as soon as those hands let go, everyone there felt their cosmos blossoming within themselves against their own will.
Seiya placed his hand on his Urn and felt it lightly resonate.
"What is this?" he asked.
"What if Athena isn't in the Sanctuary?" asked Hyoga again.
"And where else could she be?" Shun asked.
Saori then opened her eyes and they glowed slightly.
Immediately, it was heard in that Arena the echo of a bell that rose the universe within all of them; their Cosmos resonated with Saori in a glowing aura around their bodies and the Bronze Urns themselves also glowed, burning.
"It's not possible!" Seiya said.
They all stood up in front of Saori's fabulous figure, illuminated by a beautiful aura, her hair slowly moving, delicate, because from within her a tender and comfortable Cosmo had manifested itself and invaded everyone there.
And then, in front of Saori, a golden sphere materialized in the light to take the form of the beautiful Urn of the Golden Cloth, which rested there next to her.
"Next to the Gold Cloth." Shiryu commented when she saw Alice kneel down.
"Saori..." Shun said, and beside him Xiaoling and Hyoga were on their knees.
"Is Athena."
Seiya marveled.
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
Night in Greece. The immense sky dotted with very bright stars; an old man walks among temples ruined by time and long abandoned by men and Gods.
A camera on his neck, his eyes dazzled as he takes pictures from different angles and specific details of colonnades and broken floors.
There was no one else with him, as his team had stayed at base camp triaging the latest excavation.
As he made his way into territory he had never explored, the old man narrowed his eyes and stopped taking his photographs to better hear the sounds of that night.
A baby was crying in the distance.
He put his camera in the backpack he was carrying, took out his flashlight and walked through the ruins guided by that child's crying.
He came to a grotto preceded by a narrow path through the stone, lit by a very dim amber light source. He followed the short path until he reached the small indentation between the stones, where he found something extraordinary.
A child just under a year old sitting on the ground crying, her little dirty hair falling into her eyes, her white trousseau smeared with dirt on her body. In front of her, leaning against the stone, the body of a young man unconscious and terribly wounded; his chest torn apart by a deep diagonal cut from shoulder to waist.
The old man came to the child and took her in his lap; tears immediately came to her eyes.
"Who would abandon a child in this place?" he asked himself.
He looked at the wounded young man's body and saw beside him a golden Urn lit by a dim lamp, for its oil was already running out.
The old man with the child in his arms stepped forward to better see what that treasure was, when he noticed that the young man had moved, still alive. He knelt down with the child in his lap and took out a canteen of water he was carrying. He made the injured young man take a sip and he finally opened his eyes.
As soon as his eyes saw the child in the old man's arms, he immediately began to cry.
"Stay calm." said the old man. "My team is near here, we'll help you."
"No," said the young man's voice. "Listen to me…"
The old man approached to better hear that young man. And he spoke with difficulty:
"The Sanctuary has been taken over by an evil force."
"A Sanctuary?" asked the old man.
In the eyes of that suffering young man, a fatal despair set in; not because he was dying, but because before him was someone who didn't know. Who didn't know the secrets. It was, therefore, his remotest hope.
"The Sanctuary of Athena has been taken over by an evil force. The one who was supposed to watch over Athena's life tried to kill her." said the young man with difficulty. "Protect and take care of this child." he said, holding the baby's little hand. "She is the reincarnation of the Goddess Athena who appears on Earth when the World is in danger. She is Athena."
Old Kido looked at the child and her bright little eyes left him no doubt that he actually had in his arms the reincarnation of a Goddess.
"Take the Gold Cloth." said the young man, pushing the urn into the light. "The Gold Cloth will always be next to Athena and shall be a beacon for warriors to come in the future to join her to fight that evil force within the Sanctuary and the Earth."
Old Kido looked again at the child in his lap and thought he had in his arms the greatest treasure he could ever find. And that, within himself, he didn't know if he had what it took to handle that responsibility.
Looking back at the young man, trying to understand what he could do, he saw that his eyes had closed forever. His body glued to the Golden Urn.
Old Kido noticed a strange phenomenon, as the young man's body was covered by a golden aura, warm and comforting, which gradually became bright, but so bright that he had to close his eyes to avoid being blinded.
And when he looked again into the grotto, the boy was no longer there.
Only the Urn of Gold Armor burning in gold.
"And that's how old Kido found me in the ruins of the Sanctuary. And the Gold Cloth."
Spoke the voice of Saori while everyone listened.
"Aioros." said Seiya.
They looked at him.
"That young man old Kido found was called Aioros." he said. "It is said in the Sanctuary that this man tried to kill Athena when she was a baby. And that he was punished for his betrayal by death."
Seiya, Shun and Shiryu were still shocked, but at the same time they began to understand many mysteries that kept them awake for nights.
The Gold Cloth. The Sanctuary Hunt. The battles. Theis destinies.
"Why didn't you told us before?" Seiya asked, looking at her.
"Would you have believed it?" asked Saori, magnificent, her cosmos softened already inside her. "That the Sanctuary where you had trained all these years was corrupted? That the spoiled girl from your childhood was Athena?"
Seiya wouldn't have believed it. He understood at that moment that it took everything that had happened to him and his friends for him to understand that the Sanctuary was stained. He remembered Marin again and wondered if she already knew.
"Protect Athena."
"What about now?" he asked.
"Now there's something else you need to know." said Saori.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Athena's revelation is a super important event and I wanted to create the line of revelation starting with a doubt from Seiya, after all he was from the Sanctuary, until culminating in Saori's choice to reveal herself to them.
NEXT CHAPTER: DISTANT MISSION
Saori is Athena. But how did Hyoga know everything? In the next three chapters, we'll follow the Cygnus Saint distant mission and his perspective on history.