This is a continuation of the last chapter, because I don't like making my chapters too long so I decided to split it up. Also, I number my documents with Roman numerals, and it's getting real fun to keep track of.

Concept: Two hundred years is a long time. As the Cosmos of his old comrades return one by one to the world of the living, an aging Pope Shion reflects on the past and future. On the pasts of the Saints just born into the world, and the future of those young lives.

Disclaimer: I do not own Saint Seiya or any of the included characters. They all belong to Masami Kurumada.


It seems to happen in a rush, the return of the rest of Shion's old comrades. Almost as though the long-dead Saints are no longer willing to wait to come back and reunite.

A part of Shion thinks it's sad, really. All of his old friends are returning to life once again, but for the sole purpose of fighting in another war.

The aging Pope lets out a soft, wet laugh, tears burning his eyes as he stares down at some late night paperwork. Of all the survivors of the last Holy War who passed between the end of the war and this moment, two hundred years later, Shion hadn't expected to feel this Cosmo again.

"Hello, Yuzuriha." He whispers.

Following the loss of her Cosmo during the War, the Crane Saint had returned to Jamir, accompanied by the equally Cosmoless Unicorn Yato in order to help rebuild what was left of her home. The two retired Saints had spent years learning to live without their Cosmo, and when Yuzuriha had made the decision to leave Jamir to search for more potential survivors of her people, Yato had gone with her.

Years of travelling and searching had yielded only three Lemurians: brother and sister pair Itsuki and Laisha, and Yato and Yuzuriha's own daughter, Miki.

They had ultimately returned to what remained of Jamir, settling down to raise their child. Itsuki and Laisha had come with them, eager to learn more about their heritage.

Shion still remembers the joy at finding out that there were a few of his people left, and how he had snuck out of Sanctuary to meet his newly found kinsfolk.

Two hundred years later, and Shion can only stare at the stars outside his window in wonder. With Yuzuriha's Cosmo gone, he hadn't thought the fearsome Crane Saint would be able to reincarnate.

Perhaps it's time to make another trip to Jamir. He thinks to himself.


Sensing Degel's Cosmo is very much like having a bucket of ice and water dumped over his head.

(Considering the number of times Tokusa pulled that exact prank on him, Shion would certainly know.)

Degel was another Saint Shion had respected but not known much about. The Aquarius Saint had grown up in Bluegrad in the far north, and trained under Aquarius Krest outside Sanctuary. When he finally did come to Sanctuary, he had isolated himself heavily, interacting with others only when he really had to.

With the exception of Kardia, of course. Because Degel was the only one capable of helping the rowdy Scorpio Saint through his frequent fevers, and because Kardia was nothing if not stubborn.

Degel had been a scholar. Shion is fairly sure he never saw the green-haired man without a book in his hands or tucked under his arm. Looking back on it, the Lemurian supposes that reading was probably Degel's passion in the same way that training was El Cid's. The rather impressive collection of books stored underneath the House of Aquarius-enough to be considered a small library-is proof of that.

Shion can't help but think that all that accumulated knowledge of Degel's would have come in handy these past two centuries. But, of course, it wasn't meant to be.

Degel had given his life to prevent Poseidon from reviving in the eighteenth century. His sacrifice had saved human lives, and saved the rest of Sanctuary a considerable amount of trouble. It hadn't made it any less painful for those left behind, to lose another comrade.

Something small catches Shion's attention. He can't put his finger on it, but something about Degel's Cosmo feels a little different from the way it did two hundred years ago, as though it has shifted ever so slightly.

I'm going to have to wait until it's time to find you to learn what that is, aren't I?

It seems Degel will be a mystery in this life too.


Taurus Rasgado's-no, Taurus Aldebaran's-Cosmo is as big and booming as Shion remembers it.

Aldebaran had always seemed larger than life to Shion. Part of it had been his size-the man was simply massive-but it was also his personality.

The Taurus Saint had never been afraid to laugh in difficult times. Not that he wasn't serious when the time called for it, he had just been... lively. Cheerful even.

Also, he was ridiculously fast for someone so big. Shion often wished, as a young Saint, that he could be that fast. It would certainly have proved useful.

The fact that Aldebaran had been taken out by a pair of relatively low-ranking Spectres had seem unbelievable, back when it first happened. Shion supposes that it couldn't be helped though. Aldebaran hadn't even begun to recover from his injuries at the hands of the Bennu Spectre who had been after Dohko, and his students and Tenma had been there.

He had died protecting them, and taken down his killers in the process. It had been, if nothing else, completely in line with the kind of person Aldebaran had been.

Shion hopes, with his heart, that the new Taurus Saint will retain Aldebaran's kind heart. In a world of warriors and battles, a little kindness can go a long way.


It's just a touch surprising to find that Regulus will not be the youngest Gold Saint this time. Shion isn't really sure why he expected that the fierce little Leo Saint would be reborn last, considering that Aspros and Defteros were born first this time, just that he did.

Regulus had really lived up to his title as the Saint of the Lion. He had been ferocious in battle, a talented fighter who truly embodied the idea that a technique does not work on a Saint twice.

For all his youth, Regulus had never backed down from a fight, even going so far as to take on a Judge of Hades on his own. Of course, considering that Rhadamanthys was responsible for killing Regulus's father Ilias, Shion can't blame the boy. The former Aries Saint can sympathize to some extant, having lost his master, Hakurei, to Hades.

The night after Regulus is reborn, Shion stares up at the night sky and chuckles. He's not surprised at all by what he reads in the stars.

When Sisyphus's reincarnation was finally old enough to come to Sanctuary, Shion had read in the stars that he needed to leave the future Sagittarius Saint alone, and now he understands why.

Sticking close to your uncle, are you? He thinks of the new Leo Saint. Now I can finally go find both of you. It's been too long already.


Two hundred years later, and Shion still isn't sure what to make of Virgo Asmita.

No one-except maybe Lady Athena-really understood the "Man Closest to the Gods". From the moment he came to Sanctuary to the day he left for Jamir and failed to return, he rarely-if ever-left the House of Virgo, and spoke to others only when it suited him.

Shion has done his research since then, and has come to understand on some level that such has been the nature of the Virgo Saints since, well, pretty much the beginning of the Holy Wars. The Saint of Virgo is without fail among the most powerful of the Gold Saints in each cycle, but that power comes from a sort of spiritual enlightenment that often leads to a certain level of jadedness. Out of all of Athena's Saints, the Virgo Saint is one of the most aware of the faults of humanity.

Asmita, Shion suspects, was even more sensitive to that than his predecessors.

A significant part of Shion doubts that Asmita will be different now from how he was two centuries ago, but he somehow thinks that it won't be the end of the world.

Asmita hadn't been a particularly friendly person. He hadn't ever opened up to his fellow Golds Saints, but Shion remembers the smile on the man's face as he left the Sanctuary for the last time, remembers the little figure who had stood beside him and watched as the Virgo Saint left.

You didn't form bonds with the rest of us the way we did with each other, but there was someone there for you, right at the end. Perhaps you'll find each other again in this life.


Kardia. Athena above, Scorpio Kardia.

For all that Shion remembers Manigoldo as a man with a penchant for doing things he wasn't supposed to and ignoring orders, he remembers Kardia as being infinitely worse. The blue-haired Scorpio Saint had been loud and lively and unmanageable and had regularly picked fights with pretty much anyone he could provoke.

Okay, not quite anyone. Kardia had favored opponents that could match him in strength and ferocity, but the point stands that he had loved to fight. He had often said it was the only way that he felt alive.

Shion no longer truly remembers when he'd found out about Kardia's heart disease, just that he had thought at the time that the man must be absolutely mad to become a Saint and push himself as hard as he did-to the point of being in literal physical pain that only Degel could help with relieve.

From the moment of his birth Kardia had been sentenced to an early death, and had decided to live his life to the fullest in his own way. As someone who is predisposed to live for two or three times as long as the average human, Shion's not sure he'll ever understand.

He hopes that, whoever this new Scorpio Saint is, he won't go through what Kardia did all those years ago.


And that. Is. It. Finally. Not that it wasn't fun to write this one, but it was hard.

See you soon.