Kanon POV
"Guys, I'm glad we finally got you together. Be welcome."
Kanon thought that he had seen a lot of strange things in his life. After all, he was a biologist and researcher, above all. Strange and unfamiliar creatures was what he dealt with after breakfast. Exploring inhospitable places, getting his feet in the mud, traveling to the end of the world to see the melting of polar ice caps, all of this was and is part of his daily life.
None of this prepared him for the strangeness he saw in front of him.
See, the woman was beautiful. And it puts "beautiful" in it. Gorgeous green hair wavy below the shoulders, green eyes, and huge, slim, and slender body breathtaking, making any expensive designer model jealous. But the problem was not her.
It was what she wore.
A thick layer of purple metal covered her shoulders, chest, and breasts. The same layer of metal covered her forearms and knees. She was wearing tights very similar to the tights of dancers from the 80s, with a piece of cloth wrapped around her waist. She even had leggings from the 80s, very similar to the ones he saw his mother wear in photos of when he and Saga were babies. Also, a shoe with a small heel.
Kanon tried to guess what this purple material was about, but it did not match anything he had seen in his life. It appeared to be supposed to be armor, but vital parts of the girl's body were not protected. It was not a fabric garment, as the material glowed, but it fit the body so well that it appeared to be malleable. But contradictorily it was not.
After all, what did Saori want with that show of bizarre?
"In a moment, Mrs. Kido will introduce herself and talk to you. We apologize for the delay. I will call the other Saints."
Saints?
And then the green-haired girl turned her back to open the salon door. As soon as she did, Kanon saw the Italian get up stealthily from his chair and position himself behind the girl, ready to give her a hadaka-jime around her neck and choke her. And he was a strong man, surely, he could do that, since he was the closest to her, Kanon thought quickly.
He could do it. If the girl hadn't seen him come after her.
She turned nervously and placed her sharp-nailed hands on his stomach, pushing him away. The fact that she saw him approaching and managed to defend herself had already surprised Kanon, but she did more. Her shove was so strong that the man was literally thrown against the wall, falling shamefully to the ground. And Kanon hoped he hadn't gone mad yet, but he could have sworn he'd seen lightning in the girl's hand.
"Figlia di puttana!"
The girl approached, her face distorted with contempt, her pretty lips curled downward. She looked at the Mask Of Something and said:
"The battles fought by the knights of Athena are fair battles, Death Mask. And attacking others from behind is not synonymous with justice. But I don't expect that from you, Cancer."
"Look lady," said Kanon, without holding his tongue "kidnapping people is not synonymous with justice either."
The girl looked at Kanon and narrowed her eyes.
"I'll call Mrs. Kido."
And she turned, slamming the door behind her.
"Damn it!" said Aldebaran, running behind the door to try to open it "she left the door locked! How did she get this shit open?"
"Are you okay sir... are you... Mask?" Milo said solicitously.
"That puttana gave me a shock! How did she do it?"
"A shock?" asked Saga "how would she do that? There was no object in her hand."
"I do not know! But the bitch used her hand to shock me, that much I know," Mask said, accepting Milo's help.
This was all very strange, Kanon thought. He filled the air with his lungs, trying to ignore the fear that was starting to seize him.
Saori POV
Saori stopped in front of the door of the Pope's meeting hall, thoughtfully. Behind that door were thirteen men, ready to kill her and throw her pieces into the sea. Those same men who, in the past, swore to sacrifice their own lives to save her from any harm that afflicted her.
She took another deep breath.
Hyoga, Shun, Ikki, Shiryu, Marin, Shaina, Kiki, and Seika looked at her with apprehension. Jabu and the other bronze knights were outside in case any of them tried to flee (like the Death Mask. Always him). She looked up, and asked that, if Seiya would listen to her, that he could give her all the strength she needed to face them.
But then she looked again to the side at the wheelchair Seika was pushing, in which the glorious Pegasus Saint was, motionless. With opaque eyes. Without life. He could not give her strength.
"Ready, Saori?" Shiryu positioned himself on the right side of the door, while Shun positioned himself on the left door.
"Ready. You can open it."
The glare from the room invaded Saori's eyes, which blinded her for a second. As soon as the blindness passed, she encountered the thirteen men, the thirteen Gold Saints, for the first time together. Throughout the history of Athena battles of the 20th and 21st century.
How different they were.
Of course, there were degrees of difference. For example, Mu looked like he had never left Jamiel. She wore a smock and a red tunic similar to the ones he used to wear, but now, with jeans and charming prescription glasses. Aldebaran wore simple jacket and trousers, as usual. Shaka wore a sari identical to the one she wore before, looking like he had just left Virgo's house.
But there were the ones that were extremely different.
Saga was wearing a black turtleneck blouse and equally dark pants, with chic shoes. She'd always known his preference for turtlenecks and dark clothes, but her fingers were full of silver rings, giving him a more youthful look. Kanon was more careless about his appearance, but nothing detracted from his beauty: a simple shirt under a plaid flannel shirt and a jacket and jeans and sneakers.
Death Mask looked sloppy in his leather boots and half torn shirts. Aiolia followed the "loose" style, but with a band shirt, pants and All-Star sneakers, and her own charm and even a little feline.
Dohko had changed a lot too, following the latest social media craze in his 20-year-old joviality, looking little like the two-century old man she'd known. Milo left the serious air he possessed as a knight and wore a leather jacket with a bandana on his head, looking like the vocalists of bands Seiya loved from the 80s.
Aiolos was the least familiar to her, as she had never seen him in person before. He was serious and attentive, with his clothes and posture extremely formal. Shura kept his eyes expressionless, but now dressed in a chef's clothing. Camus also looked younger, little remembering the cold and distant master of Hyoga from the past. Aphrodite was still Aphrodite, always with her almost divine beauty, though now she no longer wore gold armor but worldly clothes.
All of them had changed a lot. She was duly warned by her friends. The pain of driving them from their homes and throwing them into the furious combat of the gods gripped her, but it was her duty to control herself. Much worse things would happen if they did not come to Sanctuary.
They were like hungry wolves trying to attack her, their eyes fierce. She had to be tough. Or at least pretend she was.
"Before they do something" Saori said, seeing Death Mask stand up and Shiryu standing in front of her to defend her "they can come out alive if they listen to me."
Nobody said anything. Good. She looked back at her chair and looked at Gemini's chair. where was Kanon's chair?
"Kanon, why are you sitting in my chair?"
She saw Kanon snort impatiently.
"Ms. Kido, there are thirteen chairs for thirteen people. I took the liberty and placed my beautiful buttocks in this most beautiful golden chair."
He did not lose his sharp tongue, the bastard.
"This chair must be used by the goddess Athena, Kanon" said Shun, patient " her chair should be on the side of the Saga."
"Look dear, I don't know if you know how the 'chair game' works, but whoever sits first is the one who wins."
My Gods, how could anyone help himself so little?
"By the way, speaking of 'chair game', is this a metaphor for my supposed elimination, Mrs. Kido? Because you know, everyone present here has a chair for your sign, except me. And you were very attentive when researching our signs, because Aiolos didn't even know his sign and..."
"It's not a metaphor for your elimination, you crazy" interrupted Ikki "some servant must have forgotten to bring his chair here, that's all. And you really need help, huh?"
"I'm already sending a message for Jabu to bring it" said Hyoga, pointing to his iPhone "he said he's on his way."
Saori chuckled to herself thinking about how all the rigid speech she had created in her head was gone with the mess of the chair, while Jabu brought the said cue and positioned it next to Saga, at the same time as Kanon got out of his Athena chair, making a theatrical bow.
"There, madam. Now you can put your millionaire buttocks on the rightful throne. My commoner butt was just warming it up for you."
The other Saints laughed, and she heard Kiki smirk slightly. Even she could not hide the rise of her lips.
A little grace before chaos. Her soul turned dark again.
"As I said" Saori began, "you will be unharmed if you listen to me. All very well?"
They looked at each other.
"I don't see why I don't listen to you, ma'am," said Mu.
Saori took a deep breath and looked at Seiya in the background. Wherever he was, she asked for strength for him again.
But she knew she was asking too much. As always.
Kanon POV
"Let me tell you a story, before you can understand why you are here, in such a… uninviting way" said Saori, sitting in her chair at the end of the table "my story."
"First of all, I need to explain to you where we are. This is the Holy Sanctuary of Athena, and it has been here since mythological times, guiding humans. This place not only exists for her worship, but also for the dwelling of the Saints of Athena. The Saints of Athena are the goddess's army, made up of 88 men and women, each of whom has a sky constellation as their protector. The ranks of Athena's army are divided into three: the Bronze Saints, the Silver Saints and the Gold Saints, the latter being represented by the twelve constellations of the Zodiac."
What?
"Athena's Saints differ from other armies by not using any weapon in combat. The only two defenses they had were their armor, which represented their protective constellation and most importantly, their cosmos. The cosmos is the immense power that all humans possess for destruction and construction, for connecting with the universe and all that was created. It's all around us and it's what guides our lives."
Kanon felt he was back at the beginning of his biology degree. He, sitting in the chair, looking at the professor explaining the material, feeling that he was hearing everything in another language, and waiting for some veteran to come into the room and shout, "IT'S A TROT" and take him to drink in a bar.
"Every 200 years, these 88 people are selected and brought here to prepare for the Holy Wars faced by Athena. And, every 200 years, the goddess Athena herself is reborn at the feet of her statue, to go into combat along with her Saints. That's where I come in, with the story of my life."
"A long time ago, there was a kind man and a man... evil. The reasons why the evil man was evil because... he was born and raised in a terrible place. The kind man was born and raised in the same place, but he had far more privileges."
"Where was this terrible place?" asked Mu, at first.
"Here" said Saori, with a sad smile "the kind man had the right to exist, despite the trainings, he can see the light of day. The evil man had to hide his existence so that the good man could exist."
"The kind man was considered an angel on Earth, a god who graced everyone with his benevolence. The evil man…well, he was really bad. He only did things for his own interest and always took advantage of others, as far as his absence of existence allowed him. However, the kind man, despite his kindness, had ambitions. And his greatest ambition was to become Grand Master of the Sanctuary of Athena."
"Grand Master?" Saga asked.
"That. He is the leader of Athena's army, has a very privileged position within the Sanctuary. He is above the entire army." Saori replied.
"So, the kind man who already had privileges, wanted more privileges?" sneered Death Mask.
"Yes. But you see, he was a kind man, he believed that by helping the Sanctuary so much, he deserved such a post. After all, he considered himself the most competent to hold the position, as he was considered the most powerful of Athena's Saints. Not only him, but the entire Sanctuary. Including the Pope of the time." Saori replied.
"However, there was another man equally kind. He wasn't as powerful as the first one, but he was just as benevolent, selfless, and dedicated as the other. A good guy, I would say. And, to everyone's surprise, this other kind man was chosen as the Grand Master, not the first. The first kind man told the evil man that he hadn't been chosen, and he was terribly upset about the situation. The evil man, who coincidentally was the good man's brother, suggested that he kill the Great Master, the other good man, and Athena, in this case me, who was not yet born."
Wait, does Saori call herself Athena? What drug was she using?
"And what did the kind man do?" asked Aldebaran.
"He proved himself not to be so kind" said Saori 'and locked the evil man in a prison where men are thrown to suffer and die. The man, in addition to being evil, was unknown, that is, no one knew of his existence, so no one would miss him."
"Well, what a hypocrite" said Aiolia "he pretended he was nice, but he was able to lock his own family in a prison to suffer and die."
"What the kind brother did not know, is that this had occurred because his evil side had awakened. A demonic possession, I would say. The evil side took over the kind man, killed the old Pope and tried to kill me by pretending to be the old Pope. He wanted power and glory wanted to be a god on earth. I was already born." Saori said.
"And what happened?" asked Aiolos.
"The other kind man appeared just as they tried to kill me. He fled with me in his lap and was accused by the now evil man of being a traitor to the cause."
"He was cornered several times, the last, being defeated by a man loyal to the Grand Master. He left them both for dead, hoping that baby was a fake Athena. And indeed, the other kind man died, but not before entrusting me to Mitsumasa Kido, who took care of me for thirteen years."
"In the meantime, the Pope wasted, ordered and dismantled in the Sanctuary. There were a lot of rumors about him around here, Seika can detail them better. At one time he was a god on earth, a benevolent man who helped all, who wanted the good of all, treating the strongest golden knight equal to the weakest servant. Another time, he was an evil being who squandered money on expensive clothes, rare art, select wines and sex, lots of sex. There are reports that he had real orgies inside the Sacred Sanctuary of Athena, slept with several servants, had concubines at his disposal and it is said, they say, that you could hear their moans in more... exciting nights" Saori said, with a smile.
Saori talked, talked, talked and he couldn't even interrupt her, the subject was so absurd. Saints of Athena? Saori as Athena? Bronze, Silver and Gold Saints? Pope who fucked several women? What the fuck was that? And what did he have to do with it?
"Obviously, I grew up and wanted to go back to my home, breaking up this fake Pope's party. He obviously didn't like it, and a civil war was fought. Many lives were snuffed out, and the evil Pope almost won the war, if it wasn't for him there" she pointed to the unconscious boy in the wheelchair "we found that, in fact, the evil Pope was not evil, but rather, a kind man, who surrendered to the forces of evil."
A profound silence fell across the room.
"And what happened to the evil man, who was in a prison where men are thrown to suffer and die? He died?" Kanon asked.
Saori gave a slight smile.
"The prison was in the ruins of the temple of Poseidon, under a rock. It is a closed cave, which can be invaded by the sea at high tide, into which men are thrown to suffer and die."
"But sometimes, a man appears, and he is reborn from suffering. And the cave showed him the way out, sent him back to the outside world. The man who had been born and raised in a terrible place and was condemned to die in a terrible place, managed to emerge from the darkness. A man who received the sentence of the gods. No one knows how he escaped, but once free, he managed to awaken an old enemy of mine: Poseidon."
"The bastard was rejected, thrown to his death, and awakened as a new being, full of hatred and bitterness against his brother, against the Sanctuary and against me, who he thought had to... die because I invented the stupid rules that so tormented him. As if that wasn't enough, he tricked, nothing more, nothing less than the Emperor of the Seas, impersonating a General of his army, to try to kill me, kill Poseidon and then take over the world."
"He was radical" Shura said.
"He was, and almost got what he wanted, if it wasn't for him there" Saori pointed to the unconscious boy in the wheelchair, again "we faced god warriors manipulated by him, generals manipulated by him, even a god manipulated by him. But we destroyed Poseidon's temple and sealed his soul."
God? Jesus, the man was good in doing that.
"And what happened to the evil guy?" asked Aphrodite.
"He regretted the crimes he committed, after he found out that he only survived the prison where men are thrown to suffer and die, because I had saved him. He was left with no ground. I still remember him crying in the destroyed temple of Poseidon, his pride wounded, asking someone to kill him."
A shiver went up Kanon's back. Why had he bothered with that?
"But he did not die and decided to become my Saint in the last and final battle, against Hades. His kind brother had been reborn by the god of the underworld to kill me, but in truth, he was a spy who would take me to the underworld to face Hades personally. I asked him to kill me" said Saori "it was probably the most painful thing he ever did, but he had no choice."
"We managed to defeat Hades, but all the gold Saints, who are the highest rank of our army, were killed. The Saints who survived are here, in front of you. However, two years ago, they were revived by some inexplicable evil force."
"So, are we here to find them?" Saga asked.
"No. We've already found him."
Silence.
"You are the gold Saints of this generation."
Once again I had to split the chapter into 2 because it was so big lmao but anyway, imagine how their heads must be, it must be exploding lol