4.

Hyoga set out for Siberia the very next day, but his heart wasn't in it. To be sure, he longed to be near his mother's resting place, even though he had vowed never again to dive for the sunken ship. Yet before he left

Athena had once again impressed upon him the nescessity for replacements of the deads Saints.

"That boy you befriended-what was his name, Yakoff…Jakob?- he seems worthy. See if he has the talent, and train him. We can do with more Ice- Saints. To that effect you will also contact the Warriors of Blue Graad. It is time their exile were ended, and they may take their rightfull place among my Saints."

He had agreed to undertake the mission ("There was no agreeing to it, I was ordered to go, like it or not. I didn't, but when did that ever matter?") much against his better judgement. He wasn't keen on meeting Alexer again, nor was he sure that the new lord of Blue Graad made a thrustworthy ally. After all, the man had usurped his father's throne, and viciously slaughtered the aged and defeated lord. Only his sister's, Nastassia's desperate act of self-sacrifice, going out into the icy wasteland scantily clad and consequently allmost freezing to death, that had turned him round. For everyone, even for such a monster as Alexer, there is someone to love, someone in whose eyes one does not want to see one's own evil reflected. Hyoga could have defeated the man in battle, but he had not even tried. For, as he told him "I would not deprive your sister of her only reason to live. And I had mother once. Her name was Nastassia.".

Still, he had to do Athena's bidding, so he went. He even wore his cloth.

Alexer welcomed him friendly enough. The young warrior lord had learnt of the battles against Poseidon and Hades *, and seemed impressed. As for the news that Athena was ending their exile, that too went down rather well. Too well.

"Only too willing am I to lead my people to warmer lands" he said in a very grand and regal manner, which irritated his fellow-russian no end, "For it is on that condition alone that I consent for my warriors to aid Athena."

"So thàt old dream of his hasn't been completely abandoned." Thought Hyoga, warily. Briefly, he wondered what would have happened if he had taken Alexer up on his offer of joining the warriors and taking on Athena.

Who would have fought for her anyway, back then? Certainly not Seiya, nor Ikki, and Shiryu had been far too happy working in the rice paddies, even though he was blind. Shun, perhaps, and certainly Jabu. Against Blue Graad they would not have stood a chance. Dohko? Would he ever have come off his rock? Or Mu? He had helped them in the caverns of Mount Fuji , but not against Poseidon. In the end, Athena would have stood alone.

Would she have called upon her God powers to save herself ? And if not, if she had perished, would Blue Graad have succeeded in taking over Sanctuary? Would Kanon have tried to move the forces of Poseidon against them?

Would they have been able to withstand Hades, whose waking was certain? In retrospect, his choice seemed to have been the right one. But it had had nothing to do with liking for Athena, merely a dislike for Alexer.

At the time, he could not conceive of a man who could kill his own father, and had been appalled when the young warrior had laughingly admitted to having done so. And the benign old lord, Pjotr, had been a far cry from his own father, whom a number of people would have exellent reason for killing, including he. Not that he would have done so. He hoped. But Ikki might.

Thinking of the Phoenix Saint gave him an idea.

"Someone needs to keep an eye on Alexer, and Ikki's just the man for the job. He's good at guarding and," he chuckled to himself, "He might lay off Shun for a while."

The thought of the arrogant Alexer being watched over by the equally arrogant Ikki amused him. They were truly alike : both were extremely powerfull, both had been filled with resentment and hatred, both had lusted for power, and both had been saved by love, the love for his brother Shun in Ikki's case, and the love for Nastassia in Alexer's.

And, no surprise there either, the resemblance went even further, for Alexer turned out to be just as protective of Nastassia as Ikki was of Shun.

* In my introduction I said I placed the Blue Graad episode inbetween Poseidon an Hades, because Hyoga uses the Aurora execution. However, he still has both eyes. Upon reflection I therefore put it a little sooner, namely in the three months after the Medusa adventure and before the battle for Sanctuary, a time during which none of the bronze Saints have decided yet to follow Athena or not. Of course it was not the Aurora execution Hyoga used but the Kholodni Schmerz

Hyoga could hardly speak with the girl without the warrior casting a baleful eye in his direction.

"Now what is he afraid of, that tI'm going to take off with the girl?"

Nastassia was sweet, and overjoyed to see him, but he wasn't interested in her, at least, not in the way he supposed Alexer feared he was interested. "Lucky for him that Athena did not sent Seiya, he's the ladykiller of the team…"

And then he remembered again. Seiya was dead.

Nastassia could not understand why the Cygnus Saint suddenly went pale, and broke off their conversation, announcing his present departure. She felt quite hurt.

"Must you go? So soon? You have barely arrived, and I so much want to hear about Sanctuary. Is it truly as beautifull as they say it is ? "

Despite his pain , Hyoga made an effort to smile at the girl. "Actually, it's just rock and ruins and rubble and full of sweaty men and you wouldn't like it one bit", but he did not want to squash all of her illusions. After all she had been trough she had maintained that quality of innocence that was also so apparent in Shun.

Of all his brothers, the Andromeda Saint was most dear to him precisely because of that quality. Also he shared Shun's passionate belief that there should be another way, other than violence and bloodshed.

Nor would he ever forget what his so-fragile looking brother had done for him as he lay frozen in the Libra Temple after Shiryu had delivered him from Camu's Ice Coffin. He felt that Shun would be the only one he'd be able to confide in, to share his misgivings about Athena and Sainthood and everything.

A growl from Alexer brought him back from his reverie. Thinking of Shun he had kept smiling at Nastassia, and that was not to her brother's liking. He hastened to tell her how much she reminded him of the Andromeda Saint, hoping that that would reassure the warrior. After all, he was on a diplomatic mission and it wouldn't do the relations between Blue Graad and Sanctuary any good if the young lord believed him to have designs on his sister.

At her request, he described Shun as well as he could.

"Though mere words can not do him justice" he added regretfully, " He is the best and the bravest among us!"

"I like the way you your eye sparkles when you speak of your brother. You must love him very much. "

"Very."

So she had noticed. Every time of late, when he looked into a mirror (which was not often, for he was not vain and cared little about his appearance, scarcely bothering to comb his shock of blond hair), his face would be staring back at him, dejectly, his remaining eye dulled with the pain of too many battles. But thinking of Shun made it better, made him feel more alive. For he had suffered so much, his body had been taken over by Hades, his very soul raped, and yet he could still smile. How could anyone fail to love him?

"Does…does your eye trouble you? I could help you change your bandage, if you like…"

"That will not be nescessary." Alexer cut in , " Hyoga would not want you to see the wound, for it must be grievious indeed, if it has not healed by now. As you know, a Saint's healing capacity is amazingly fast."

Hyoga refused to be drawn. From the way the other russian had said it, it was clear he knew quite well that his injury had been slight, and was daring the Saint to contradict, and in doing so admit his weakness.

During the confrontation with Isaak he had all but begged his former friend to take his eye, in retribution for the one The Kraken Marina General had lost through Hyoga's fault. But Isaak had barely scratched the pupil, not bothering further as he meant to slay the Cygnus Saint anyway. If he allowed it to heal properly, he would have his vision back. But he didn't. An eye was a small price to pay for the murder of a friend. Especially a friend like Isaak, who had always helped him, without whom he would never have made it through all those years of training, and who had saved his life at the peril of his own..

Yes. Murder. No matter how often his brothers assured him that it had been inevitable, even nescessary to save Athena, no matter that they told him Isaak had condemmed himself the day he choose to side with Poseidon

( and they called it treachery and a crime so hideous that it could only be punished by death, for any Saint – even a mere apprentice- to join the enemy no matter whàt, it still felt that way. Indeed, their words made his guilt all the greater, for it was all his fault. He had lost Isaak.

So he thanked both Nastassia and Alexer for their kindness and hospitality, and returned to his own domain.

Yet on leaving the palace of Blue Graad, Nastassia gave him a single white flower, the only kind that would grow in these barren lands, and that but briefly in summer.

" Please lay it on your mother's , my namesake's grave. I wish I had known her."

"My mother has no grave." Hyoga replied somewhat curtly, " She went down with the ship that was to take us from Siberia to Japan. For years I hoped to bring her back, and when I was strong enough I dived down to pray by her side, but my master Camu cast the ship deep into the murky dephts so that I might detach myself from the memory of her.."

"And did you?" she asked softly, her seagreen eyes filling with tears of sympathy.

"No."

With that, he left, not daring to look back.