Past and Future

Summary: Every 250 years, Athena and her Saints reincarnate to protect the Earth from great peril. This time, though, the Great Cycle has been cracked in many points. Shounen-ai, some original characters, a distorted Destiny.

Disclaimer: Saint Seiya © Masami Kurumada. This plot and some of its characters are my creations. Please do not use them without permission.





II - Generations


The water fell, the same way it had been falling for hundreds of years. Its thunderous sound and the chilly, humid air saluted the voyagers arriving at the Rozan Waterfalls.

"You called us and here we are, comrade. Now would you tell us what's happening?"

The small figure watching the waterfall turned calmly to the newcomers, and smiled. "I am happy to see you too, my friend." The one who'd talked before blushed awkwardly while his companion laughed. "Shall we go inside and have some tea while we talk?"

Once inside the cot, the old man started a fire to boil some water, while the other two sat on the cushions on the floor. They all served themselves tea, and drank in silence, enjoying company from the others.

"Well" the old man started, "Now is a good time for me to answer your question, Hyoga."

The blonde massaged the back of his neck. "Sorry if I was a bit impolite. I'm just worried; it's been a while since we've been reunited. Should I have a bad feeling about this?"

"... Yes, and no" answered the ancient one.

"Please, don't make us any more confused... Old Master" the one who had been silent till then said. His friends noticed his lack of comfort when addressing their supposedly elder. "Go straight to the point."

"I will, Shun. Our Goddess bestowed a last mission on the hands of her last living Saints." He took a breath, and his companions understood there would come a long speech. "Generation after Generation, every two centuries and a half, the Cycle repeats itself. The Gods reincarnate, and fight. Athena comes to the world, to protect human kind; Zeus comes as well, to breed warriors to protect his divine daughter: Saints. And so do Ares, Poseidon, Hades, and many other Gods and Goddesses from mythological times. Some of them might help Athena and her Saints... others may favour the warriors that fight against us, while some will long for this world where we live. You know all this as well as I do. However..." Old Master paused, watching the interest on his friends' faces. "However, the Cycle has been broken."

Shun and Hyoga opened their mouths and lifted their eyebrows, surprised.

"Yes, and I grow to believe we should be partially proud for being able to break the divine Cycle when no other Generation has had the Power to do so. Before, the Saints hardly survived; only two of them came out of the previous Holy War. This time, though, many were spared. The three of us, our late friend Ikki, the other Bronze Saints, a number of Silver ones. Unfortunately, all Gold Saints perished; that itself is a break on the Cycle, for the Gold Cloths used to be the most powerful after Athena's own Cloth. Our Generation had the Kamei, the Cloths ressurrected with Athena's blood, thus made half-divine. The most important matter, the one we shall not forget, is of course the fact that we were able to seriously affect Hades--"

"What do you mean, 'seriously affect'?" Hyoga exclamed. "We killed him, Athena did!"

Old Master sighed, already expecting that kind of reaction. "As a God, and the God of Death atop of that, Hades could not have been killed, my friend. Had the Underworld been effectively destroyed, as we believed it had been, this world here would be immersed in utter chaos. Death is the opposite of Life; one cannot exist without the other, or the Universe will be unbalanced. Can you imagine the consequences?" Shun and Hyoga reflected on the matter for a while; then, though their hearts ached, slowly nodded. "Well, but Athena did wound him, and so he has been forced to retreat, which means his next incarnation into our world might be delayed for a few years. That gives us some advantage; however, we cannot lose this advantage."

"What mission has Athena bestowed us?" Shun said on a decisive tone.

"We must keep Sainthood alive, my friends." The old man's small eyes glimmered. "With rare exceptions, Gold Saints are supposed to train their own sucessors, while Silver are responsible for the training of Silver, Bronze and the lesser guards. This time there are no Gold Saints left to train sucessors; you may think this will be a problem, but you do not need to worry about the Gold ones, for they shall not come back before due time. Our Goddess told me, on our last conversation, that she would give her warriors a second chance in our world. Our mission until then is to train the Silver Saints and prepare them for their extra responsibility: besides guards, Bronze and other Silver, they will have to find and train the new Pegasus and Phoenix."

"And probably our sucessors as well, and the Gold ones once they come back" Hyoga added.

"Yes" Old Master nodded. "We should start as soon as possible. I already sent Yü to the Sanctuary with a letter explaining everything."

"Yü is your student's name? I remember you mentioning through Cosmo you had picked a boy to teach."

"Oh, it must have been almost twenty years ago, am I right? You have a very good memory, Shun!" Old Master smiled. "Yes, Yü was my student. He already became Orion Silver Saint. A very brave boy, shall I add. Well, but I have not been able to contact some other Saints, such as Ursa Major Tristan in Canada, or Columba Fabricio at Galapagos... I was also going to ask you, Shun, to tell your wife about this."

At that, Shun's determination suddenly vanished; the man felt uneasy and sheepish, turning his gaze to the floor. Hyoga seemed to understand this, for he got up and left the cabin without a single word.

"I... I'm not going back to June", Shun whispered.

His ancient friend closed his eyes and sighed. "Running away from home is not exactly the kind of attitude I would expect from you, dear Shun." Then, looking at the green-haired one, added. "It is not only because of Hyoga, is it?"

Shun's delicate looks masked perfectly his mid-thirties; then, with his cheeks tinted a fierce pink, one could say he wasn't but a teenager. "It is mainly because of him, yes," he stuttered, "but you are right, there's more to it."

Old Master's gaze lingered on him, as if saying 'tell me'. Shun did.

"I don't know how to explain it, but... oh, I'm tired!" He sighed. "I'm tired of being a good boy, tired of neglecting my own happiness for others, tired of being the martyr who sacrifices himself for everyone..." He hid his face behind his hands, brushing away a small tear that threatened to fall. "I'm tired of being Andromeda, you know."

His companion offered him a sympathetic sigh, and he continued. "I was... devastated when Ikki didn't come back. I guess we were already used to him dying and reviving again... but then he was gone for good, and I realized I was alone, I know June and Esmeralda were there for me but I couldn't help it, I was alone, damn it. Seiya was dead, my brother was dead, you wouldn't get out of here, Hyoga was... who knows where he was. Our little group had fallen apart - I even tried to go to nii-san and Seiya's side, but June made me throw up the pills... I tried acting sensible again, for June, and for little Esmeralda-chan who's just six and needs her father, but then Hyoga showed up after all these years, gods!, I got so confused, I thought I had already overcome it but no, and when you called us I told him that and said, 'no matter what you answer I'm not going back'; I wasn't really thinking at the time, you see, but he said it was okay and that he felt the same and was staying with me, how could I go back to June after that?!?" By the time Shun stopped, he was already panting, and sobbing.

"Does she know?"

Shun sighed, fighting tears. "I called her from the airport... she's always known, it wasn't a big surprise. But I hurt her, nonetheless... shit, I'm a bastard."

Old Master approached him and patted his shoulder, as the closest thing to a paternal figure. "Do not be so harsh with your self, my friend. You are only following your heart, and this can be very frightening, requires great courage." He sighed. "I myself wonder what would have been of my life, had I had this courage." He made Shun turn his now wet eyes to him. "Yet you should not run away like you are doing... especially because of Esmeralda-chan."

"I know" The younger answered with great sorrow in his voice. "I should go back... shouldn't I?"

"Do you want to?"

Shun kept silent.

"Going back will not help you either. You will spend the rest of your days grieving for the lost opportunity of being truly happy. Believe me, this is not what June wants if she loves you." Old Master held Shun's hand firmly. "Write her a letter. Tell her how you are feeling. Offer your friendship to her. Say you are worried about your child. Explain to her about our new mission. Keep in contact. If she rejects you at first, give her some time, and try again."

"... Yes, I'll do that." Shun hugged the small man tightly. "Thanks for the advice, and for listening to me, my friend. I needed it."

They left the cot, smiling. Hyoga was outside, sitting on his Cloth's box, watching the waterfall. He turned when Shun called his name, and smiled as well.

"I'll never get used to seeing you as an old man" he told the elder. "You should be about my age, after all, shouldn't you?"

"Well, our Goddess did not grant me the secret of Misopethamenos for nothing, comrade."

Hyoga laughed then got up, looking at Shun and grinning. "Guess we should get going." To emphasize his words, he put the Cloth box on his back.

Old Master laughed. "Oh, I see another reason for you to contact June, Shun."

He thought a little, then exclamed, slapping his forehead. "My Cloth! I didn't even think of it. She might have left it at the Foundation... no, she must have taken it with her to Andromeda Island. Yeah, I'm sure she left Japan already."

"Then it's Etiopia, now. And after that we could go to Galapagos. Old man, do you have a map pointing out the training camps over the world? It could come in handy."