Scorpio.
Mu had stopped climbing to take a breather. As a Gold Saint and Tibetan, he should not have needed to. The mountain on which Sanctuary as build barely merited the name, and yet it defied even him. There was a will at work that prevented one from vanquishing its steep and craggy slopes. It was the same will that blocked teleportation. When the zodiacal clock was lit, the mountain became hostile to anyone, and it took a strong will to oppose it. Mu harboured no illusions about himself: he was no Ikki, Marin or Shaina, three Saints who had encountered that will and won. Yet his need was as pressing as theirs had been, and he wondered at that. What was it that motivated him?
Compassion? Compassion had led him to heal Aioros, nearly fifteen years ago. He still remembered the horror and fear he had felt as, from far below, he had seen the battling Auras around the Hall of the Pope, and the body of the Sagittarius Saint, bereft of his Cloth, that was catapulted through thick marble wall and fell, fell, fell, like a broken doll, to land on the sharp and hungrily waiting rocks. Mu was eight years old and had been pressed into the Cloth of Aries by a Master who had become increasingly worried about Hades' imminent resurrection. The Aries Saint had never told anyone, not even Dokho for whom he had the utmost respect, but at the time he was actually attempting to flee Sanctuary.
This was made impossible by the guards posted at all the roads leading out, but he had found a passage down in the crevice below the Hall. And of all nights, he had chosen the very one during which Saga tried to assassinate Athena! The healing of Aioros had nearly broken him. Pouring forth all of his power had mended shattered bones, yet even so there was only so much he could do. There had been little left in Aioros but a small sparkle of life which he, Mu, had kindled into a flame, weak as it was, enough to allow his escape.
"You can barely walk." he had said to the dying Sagittarius Saint, " Lean on me. I can help."
Aioros had declined his offer.
"No.little Mu.you have.done more than enough .do not risk your life even further. You must.warn the others.of the duplicity."
"They will kill me before the first word is out! What is duplicity?"
Aioros had smiled despite his pain. Mu was a child still. It pained him that the boy would be forced to become an adult and make adult decisions.
"Treachery.Sion."
At the mention of his Master's name, Mu had cried out and run, not waiting to hear the full story. He had seen enough to draw his own conclusions, and when, in the morning, the word was spread that Aioros was a traitor who had made an attempt on Athena's life, he had known that he was in serious danger. When a Temple guard came looking for him, he had been certain his life was forfeit, but the man simply came to tell him that his Master wished him to go to Jamir. He had obeyed, for he still believed then that the Pope was Sion. He knew now that Saga had feared that the apprentice would recognise the impostor.
What followed had been thirteen long years of exile and solitude. Kiki's presence for the final five or six of them (he had stopped counting eventually) had not helped much. Occasionally a Saint would come to his to his tower to have his Cloth repaired.
He had almost forgotten the Aioros affair, had not a young bronze Saint come to Jamir, bearing not one but two dead Cloths.
And so he had once more been drawn back into the Game.
Yes, game. More and more he became convinced now that they were pawns, puppets, to amuse the Gods. The two hundred year cycle, the ritual of Master training pupils that eventually replaced them (more often than not by killing them) the symbolism of the Cloths, the way they fought, always after the same fashion: there was a definite pattern to it that was hard to explain otherwise. He had not dared to express to anyone those fearful suspicions that had arisen in the quiet month after Hades. Life in exile, always on the brink of discovery, had taught him not to share any secrets.
For Mu had secrets that would cost him his life if it were ever found out that he knew, and what he knew: big ones, little ones, old ones, new ones, and the best ones where those that gave him power over others.
Shaka's secret was by far the best: he was a she. When Sion had brought him to Sanctuary he had presented him to the albino Indian, with the words: " Shaka has been here for over a year and already is a Gold Saint. Raised in a Buddhist monastery not far from the Himalayas he knows your language a little, and he can help you adjust. "
Like most adults, Sion took for granted that children will immediately like each other and play nice. The Tibetan had taken one look at Shaka and asked: " Why do you pretend to be a boy?" Little four year old Mu had found himself flat on his back with a couple of teeth loose - milk ones fortunately- and a promise from seven year old Shaka of more if he ever told on her.
" If you don't want people to know you're a girl you should wash off your Brahmin mark."
Shaka never had, for stubborn reasons best known to herself, and had counted on the customary ignorance of Sanctuary inhabitants which given the lack of education was generally reliable.
Though he admired Shaka for her sheer audacity, Mu would not forget the beating he had received. They were never friends, and Shaka would give Mu a hard time just to show she could because she was older and stronger and a Saint, and he needed a reminder, now and again, didn't he, to keep his mouth shut?
If possible he liked the adult Shaka even les. After they had delivered the captured young Englishman to the Tokyo embassy, and Shaka had cleaned Mu's cloth (which the Tibetan had insisted on watching, 'to see it is properly done') the Virgo Saint had uttered another menace: "You have been sitting on the fence for far too long Mu. Sooner or later you will have to decide whose side you are on. For your health it would be better if it were my side."
"You don't say. By the by, you've missed a spot."
"You are not invulnerable, Mu."
"Neither are you."
Placing his finger delicately on the mark on Shaka's forehead, Mu had whispered: " I still think you had better remove that." giving the Virgo Saint a subtle reminder of her own precarious situation. Sooner or later, her secret would come out, either helped along or by itself, as secrets have a habit of doing.
As the secrets of the Gemini brethren had. Inquisitive and observant Mu had quickly discovered that Saga sometimes seemed to be in two places at once. It had not taken long for the clever little Tibetan to figure out that there were in fact two, and he felt sure that some of Saga's combats to accede to the Gemini post had actually been fought by Kanon.
"Was Sion ignorant of the duplicity or did he turn a blind eye?"
Secrets. They all had them, except Deathmask who never cared a jot if everyone knew he was a murderer, and Aiolia, who was too honest ("Or too stupid." thought Mu uncharitably). Aldebaran, of equal nature, had only one, and recent at that: his love for the Rodorian girl Melina. Shun had a similar secret, as had Shiryu, who only ever left Sanctuary nowadays to mourn, furtively, by Seiya's mausoleum in Japan. Mu had followed him on one such occasion, seen, understood, and mourned, too, for both of them. He wanted love-stories to have a happy ending. There had been so many bad ones, as for example with Aphrodite's mother and father. Shortly before Athena's reappearance Pisces had dug up his parent's remains from underneath the dung-heap where they had been cast after their execution (no resting place in the Saint's graveyard for those two traitors!) and had given them a proper burial behind his Temple, where he now grew his roses. Mu had caught him in the act. Instead of denouncing him (as Aphrodite, resigned yet determined to see his filial duty through to the bitter end, had expected) he had gone on his knees to help him dig.
"Why are you doing this?"
""It is important to you."
"We are not friends. We have nothing in common."
"You like growing beautiful flowers. I like making beautiful things."
That was true, and so they had formed a guarded sort of friendship, and neither would openly admit that they actually did like each other, both lonely, sensitive, cast out boys who were forced to harden their gentle natures. If Mu had succeeded in keeping his humanity, Aphrodite had not. But the Pisces Saint had not forgotten their boyhood friendship either.
Mu hoped he could win him over with that memory.
Aquarius was another matter entirely. In Camu's eyes, his secret was a shameful one and he hated the Aries Saint for finding out. Even as children, the French boy had kept his distances and rejected all Mu's well-meant overtures of friendship. Late, during his exile, Mu had often visited Camu in Siberia, Aquarius being the only Gold Saint licensed to leave Sanctuary at will (difficult to train potential Ice-Saints in a Mediterranean climate). Partly to have news of affairs in Greece, partly to have someone to talk to.
By that time they had both entered puberty, and their bodies made demands on them they did not previously have. The first time it happened to Mu (who had no-one to turn to for counsel since 'Sion' had cut off all communication) he had been as panicky as any boy at the first stirrings of his neither regions. As it turned out not to be life threatening, he had decided it was a natural occurrence and either coped or ignored it. Mostly the latter, since he was far to preoccupied with plain survival in the grinding isolation of Jamir to spend much time worrying over his budding masculinity. In Sanctuary it was different, due to good living and a surplus of testosterone with the pills the Saints took (another one of Saga's little secrets, distributing hormone supplements to his Saints, though Sion, desperate to have his army in fighting shape for Hades, had started it). Scorpio and Capricorn, following the example of the Silvers and Bronzes, had quickly found the way to the Rodorian women, and Cancer, like Saga, took home-delivery. Pisces kept himself to himself, though he had been known to accompany Shura and Deathmask on occasion. The others, being too shy, too noble or a special case like Virgo had either abstained or helped themselves and each other. Aquarius too took to the latter solution. Somehow that was more of a problem to him than to the others, probably because he so prided himself on being able to block all emotion: his body betrayed him, and it bothered him that it bothered him. Mu, on his last visit, had caught him taking a cold bath in the Bering Sea *, and his cheeky sense of humour had taken the better of him.
"If you aren't careful you will melt the polar cap. Must be that hot French blood."
Camu had gritted his teeth, struggled to hold his temper and finally snarled: " You have a dirty little mind."
Raising an eyebrow, Mu had answered: " You are the one with the problem if you call it dirty. Maybe you should come off that iceberg of yours and admit you are human like the rest of us. Let your hair down a bit. Have some fun! The women of Kohutec will be willing, if you ask them nicely."
"They are not like those whores in Tibet who have more than one husband. I suppose you quite enjoy yourself. Or do you do it with a yak?"
Mu had shrugged, slightly regretting ever having told Camu of Tibetan life and customs** which the Frenchman had apparently misinterpreted - as for the yak, he had obviously never seen one, or he would know that what he accused Mu of was physically near to impossible.
"Make sure you don't stain your Cloth. It leaves a mark, you known."
Camu had thrown a snowball at him.
Mu's own, non-existent sex-life was of course nobody's affair. Tibetan girls were not as easy as Camu supposed, most of them wouldn't touch a half-breed with a barge-pole, and besides, they nearest village was three mountains and two valleys away, and he did not like teleporting unless it was absolutely necessary. And if truth be told, he thought masturbation rather pathetic. Mu was a romantic at heart, and kept himself for true love.
Nor could he understand or condone the indifference of his fellows towards the fruits of their rampant randyness, particularly Scorpio's, who was a good man underneath and not uncaring. In Tibet all children were cherished, even half-breeds (it was only as an adult that he encountered problems in that domain), and the Aries Saint made no secret of his scorn for Milo's attitude towards his offspring, the eldest of whom were already in training for Sainthood. His own greatest fear was to lose Kiki, and his greatest regret that the child he loved so much would soon become a Saint.
That was the real reason for Mu's coming off the fence. His Cloth repairing ability would not protect him for long, and he had made the mistake of teaching Kiki. It had never been his intention to do so, but the child had pestered him about it for so long, and then tried it out in secret, almost blowing up half the mountain with the Orichalcum, that the Aries saint had had
no other choice but to train him.
"And Kiki is still such a child and can be manipulated into anything."
Yet if the Game could be ended once and for all, Kiki would be spared that lot. And so Mu had chosen. There was little hope, he knew, and it was only a matter of time before Athena or Shaka would send someone against him. His chances of survival were slim. His endurance was greater than the other's, grown through years of deprivation and solitude and surviving in impossible circumstances, yet he doubted the strength of his Starlight Revolution. Capricorn he might manage, for despite his boasts Shura was one of the weaker Gold Saints, especially now that he had lost Excalibur. Few knew it, but Excalibur was actually a real sword, part of Sanctuary's treasure and guarded by the Pope. Only once had it left Greece, when some 1400 years and six incarnations ago Athena gave it to a young King in a far away country. A whim, perhaps. Capricorn of course had absolutely no right to the weapon. Saga had given it to him to bind him to his rule. That was Shura's secret. The sword had transformed to lightning energy and became part of him, giving his arms and legs an extra sharp cutting edge. Now that the sword had been passed on to Shiryu, he no longer had that power.
Mu sighed. He was treading a very thin line. It was time to use the knowledge gathered over the years. Perhaps he would be able to open Athena's eyes to the fact that Sanctuary was little better than it had been in Saga's time, for the Saints (including he, Mu) were far from the noble, self-sacrificing beings she took them to be. Not even his Master Sion was without faults.
Involuntarily, Mu touched the two oblong dots on his forehead that were tattooed into his skin. Had they been burned in they could not have hurt him more deeply.
The greatest secret of all.
The one he shared with Sion, and Kiki, and bound him to them for all eternity.
The truth he could never escape.
Everyone, including Athena, presumed that the dots were inherent to the Sign of Aries, or that it was a Tibetan religious symbol, just as they believed Shaka's mark to be a Buddhist one. It did not occur to them that Sion was Sanctuary born and bred and revered Athena and the Big Will (in its Greek Orthodox version of God) and would therefore not have bothered with Buddhism, a philosophy rather than a religion anyway, and too opposed to violence to interest Sanctuary. Sometimes, Mu wished it would. Then his secret would come out in the open, and relieve him of the burden of silence. It weighed too heavily on him, and there was Kiki to consider as well.
Burying his face in his hands he pressed his palms against the tattoos. How he hated them! They marked him for life and tied him to a fate that was worse than being a half-breed in a world that has little kindness for those of mixed race, worse than Sainthood, worse than death.
"And Kiki, oh, Kiki."
"What is this, the mighty Aries caught off guard and weeping?"
There was no mistaking the voice, or the thinly veiled contempt.
Milo.
The Scorpio Saint always tried to copy Mu's irony, which in him came out as a sneer.
"Doing some mountain-climbing? Homesick for the Himalayas or in need of exercise?"
"Perhaps a wish to be alone."
"Do you want me to go away? Sorry, no can do The Clock is up and running, intruders have entered Libra, you have made no attempt at stopping them and what's more, you are breaking Sanctuary rules by not taking the Stairway. Four excellent reasons for challenging you, I'd say."
"May I point out that that you are out of order in that last respect as well?"
"For good reason. You are near my Temple and this part of the Mountain falls therefore under my jurisdiction."
Mu rose to his feet. "You are being a pompous idiot, Milo. There is no kind of jurisdiction whatsoever in Sanctuary. We Saints sit in our Temples and challenge all comers when the Clock is set. In case you don't know the difference: we are standing on precipice marginally less remote from your Temple than the others, and if you feel like fighting I hope for your sake you realise that I am more at home in places such as, that my defence can easily withstand your attack, and so that you are more likely to lose your footing and plunge to your death than I am to succumb."
"Stop pretending to be cleverer than everyone else, Mu." snarled the Scorpio Saint, "You are nothing but a slit-eyed coward who hides behind a crystal wall."
"At least I know that there is no such word as 'cleverer'." quipped Mu, and then said, with a sigh: " Milo, I'm tired. Hurling insults won't provoke me either. Do I have to spell it out? I
I-am-not-interested. Go pick a fight somewhere else.
With that he turned his back on Scorpio and resumed his climb. Beside himself with anger, Milo grabbed the waving ponytail of Mu's mousy brown hair and swung there with the full weight of his 84 kilos (add 10 for the Cloth).
Though in considerable pain, Mu barely winced.
"Ouch. That hurts, Milo. Hair pulling is hardly worthy of a Saint. Coming from you, however, I am not surprised."
Firmly kicked backwards, Mu's heel made contact with Milo's head, just above the right
eye-socket. The Scorpio Saint yelped and let go. He fell barely an inch from the edge of the precipice. It started to crumble.
"Milo!"
As the rock underneath the Scorpio Saint gave way, Mu dived for him caught his foot and went over into the abyss with him.
And landed on the floor of the Scorpio Temple, still holding on.
"Teleportation in free fall, I'm getting better and better at this." said Mu.
Scorpio shook himself free of his fellow-Saints grasp and was on his feet in a flash.
"I could have done that myself!"
"No you couldn't. Not through the block. Why don't you just say thank you, nicely."
The Scorpio Saint lashed out, his right forefinger's sharpened nail glittering lethally.
It came back red.
A trickle of blood ran down Mu's right arm.
"I would have settled for 'un-nicely' also." said the Tibetan, "I really don't have time for this. Your loathing of me has been noted, fine. Tell me, are you quite clear in your mind about how you will justify killing me? For Athena? Hardly. Because I have broken Sanctuary rules? I think not! For yourself, to vent your anger and petty resentment? Yes, rather.
Once more Milo lashed out. He hit what felt like a concrete wall.
"I told you my defence is stronger than your attack. "
"Coward! Traitor!"
"We have been through that already. I'll concede on the coward, though personally I consider it merely smart to stay behind a protective shield from where one can negotiate with the opposition. As for the traitor part: the one oath I swore which I consider binding is to protect Humanity. And that is exactly what I am doing! For centuries Sanctuary has fought its wars with the other Gods in the same way over and over and over again, and it has not brought us an inch closer to permanent peace. So perhaps we should at least consider leaving the much-trodden paths and try another approach for a change. That is what I am off to propose Athena."
"I will stop you!"
A third time Milo raised his hand, or rather his finger- against Mu. This time, he broke his nail on the Crystal Wall.
"That must be painful." said Mu. He lowered his defence and reached out for Milo, " I can heal that."
"Don't touch me you dirty slit-eyed miscreant!" shouted Milo.
The Aries Saint looked genuinely hurt.
"If I have insulted or hurt you then you have every right to be angry with me. But if you object to me because of what I am, be that a slit-eyed miscreant, there is something very wrong with your interpretation of being a protector of Humanity. How can you pretend to be that when you detest."
"Shut up! Shut up or I'll make you!"
Mu called on his Cosmos. The warm glow of his Aura surrounded him in rainbow colours.
Never had the young Tibetan loved life more than in that moment. He desperately wanted to make Milo understand, and saw only one way of doing so.but he was afraid, so very, very afraid that he would fail.
He abandoned his cloth.
The Scorpio Saint was visibly taken aback at seeing Mu, naked but for a pair of faded blue cotton trousers, standing before him head bend and eyes downcast, the rainbow swirling around him. Brown hair, freed from its leather thong, fell straight over his shoulders and back, one jaunty curl on his forehead hiding -almost but not quite- the tattoos that accentuated his difference. The mark where Milo's nail had pricked him showed up angry and red on his dark golden skin.
To the Scorpio Saint he looked wonderfully vulnerable.
"I do not want to fight you." whispered Mu.
Milo clapped.
"Bravo! Bravissimo! As Deathmask would say. Splendid performance." he laughed roughly, "Did you actually think you could move me with mock-surrender? 'I do not want to fight you!' Meek and mild Mu! Sign of the Ram? More likely of the Lamb." he bleated: " Baaaaah!!! Sheep that you are. Go back to China. You don't belong in Sanctuary."
"Tibet. " said Mu quietly, "My home is Tibet. Bod kyi yul, in our tongue: Snowland. Not China. " and, more vehemently, he added: " Never China!"
"Same thing. What is it, Mu, have you suddenly become a follower of the Dalai Lama, that smiling baldy?"
A memory.
His mother, reminding him to pray: "Om Mani Padme Hum. Pray for him, the Chenresik, Ocean of Wisdom, Tenzin Gyatso. Pray that His Holiness the Dalai Lama may never fall in the hands of the Cheenee. Pray that when he dies his soul will find a way to a new house and may that one be found to lead us.*** Pray, my son."
"Om Mani Padme Hum." murmured Mu. "I am delighted that you have heard of Him. Is it not better to smile with fortitude at the blows fate deals one, than deal such blows oneself?"
"Oh, deep, very deep. We are a philosopher now. But I can see through your game, Mu. You are a liar and a sneak. Thought yourself a cut above the rest of us, didn't you? Raised by the Pope himself in that hidden place of yours, whatsit, Jamir, and taught how to repair Cloths. You are soooo special! Any of us can beat the crap out of you, you Chinese runt. Always snooping about you were, finding out about people and go running to your Master with it. You grassed on us, you did!"
Mu went red with shame. It was true. His Master had used him to spy on his fellows. Far from being the kind and gentle man he was to the rest of Sanctuary, Sion had been harsh and demanding on his apprentice. Every day Mu had been forced to his knees to renew his obedience. Sion often made the humiliation complete by putting his foot on the little boy's neck to illustrate that he could as easily break as make him. "Remember this when you wear the yoke. " he had said, " Your duty lies to Sanctuary. Forget about your country, your people, your family. Forget who you are. Forget your true name! You are Athena's, and only Athena's. You will bow before her as you bow before me and you will obey.
"Om Mani Padme Hum, forgive me, Holiness, forgive me, mother, I had forgotten."
As usual, the Pope had justified his use of Mu with the danger of the coming of Hades. "It may not seem honourable to you what you do, and indeed it is not; but it is sometimes necessary to go to base degrees in order to achieve one's goal. I must be able to rely on all my Saints when the time comes. Saga, you tell me, has locked his evil twin in Athena's prison under Cape Sounion. He will surely drown. Yet has Saga done this to relieve Sanctuary of a potential enemy, or himself of a rival? That is something that needs reflection, if I am to chose a successor wisely."
"I would not trust someone who can condemn his own brother to such a horrible death." little Mu had reflected to himself, and then it had come to him that when Sion stepped down as Pope he would surely return to Jamir to raise children he took from their parents as he had taken him, and he, Mu, would remain in Sanctuary, where they despised him, because he was Asian and a half-breed at that. He might count on the protection of Aioros and the friendship of Aldebaran and Aiolia, but others, he was sure, would give him a hard time, if only to deflect the question of their own non-Greek, non-European provenance.
That was why had had tried to run.
"And then I became Sion. I acted no different than he did when I took Kiki. I should never, never have done that, never.but I was so alone, so very alone."
"Tibetan runt, if you insist."
"See? You dare not deny it."
"How can I? For what it is worth, I am sorry."
"You're sorry! You are sorry! You're sorry! Thank you very much, Mu, that makes it all better, does it? Ever thought of the consequences? Of the guys you got into trouble? The ones who were relegated to second-best because of one simple mistake?"
"Like you?"
The child Milo had been a troublemaker. Highly intelligent, bored, impossible to control, hard to break into obedience he had ventured to all the forbidden places of Sanctuary. He had gone to Rodorio (forbidden to all but full Saints), he had peeped behind the curtain of the Pope's Hall were the Golden Cloths were kept, he had even climbed Star Hill. About all of these exploits he had bragged, quite openly, to his fellows, and dutifully Mu had reported to Sion. The bond between Master and Pupil is a sacred one, and under normal circumstances not even the Pope would interfere, yet in this instance, he had. Milo was told that he was not proper Gold material, and he was handed over to a Silver for training, with the promise that if he did not change his attitude he might end up and ordinary Bronze.
In secret he had continued train for Gold, and when he finally mastered the Antares, he had denounced his old Master. The former Scorpio had been perfecting his poisoning techniques by practising on the older inhabitants of Rodorio. "I am not a murderer! I'm doing them a kindness, it is called euthanasia!" had been his defence. The Pope Sion had to keep up the appearance of being a just and charitable lord and therefore could not condone what Scorpio did. The man had been stripped of his Cloth and executed with the Athena Exclamation (the technique forbidden for any other use, and the only method of doing away with a Gold Saint where single combat was too time-consuming an option). And Milo had been back in the running, for Deathmask, old Scorpio's only other apprentice, had become Cancer by then.
That had been Milo's secret.
" You think you are somehow better." hissed Scorpio, "Sion's Chosen One. The one who saw through Saga's deception. Athena's staunchest supporter. Dokho's friend. You helped the Bronzes when the rest of us were still in he dark. So you thought you had it made, you thought you'd be second to Dokho and we'd all go yes, Mu, whatever you say. Holier than thou Mu, right all along, never made a mistake, never had a stain on his character."
"He is jealous.of me!"
For his part, while not liking the Scorpio Saint for various reasons, Mu had never seen Milo as a rival, for he had never aspired to anything greater than what he was. Milo, on the other hand, though not as ambitious as Saga and Shaka, wanted to see his intelligence recognised.
It stung that Mu had been more perspicacious than he.
"What kind of man would Milo have become if he had been able to put his brain to good use? If his intellect had been challenged?"
Like everyone else Milo had his faults. He was rashly impulsive and tactlessly straightforward and often let those cloud his judgement. Though he admired courage (perhaps too much), he had little compassion and even less time for those whom he considered not as smart as he. As a result, on an intellectual level he treated people like Aiolia and Aldebaran as if they were the village idiots, for like a lot of clever people he equated being nice with being stupid (something they in turn put up with, with tremendous patience), yet they would be the very two he would chose to be side by side with in battle. The essence of Sanctuary life however was such that there was absolutely no check on Milo's ruthlessness either. Nevertheless he was honest at the core.
"Did he not spare both Hyoga and Kanon? It was not pity that stayed his hand, but respect, and a gnawing doubt; if they were willing to lay down their life for what they believed was right, and in Kanon's case atone for his crimes, then perhaps they were right after all."
Apparently the Scorpio Saint was reminded of that as well by the similarity of the situation..
"Are you trying to pull a Kanon on me?" he sneered, " Don't bother. I'm not fooled. You are not the sacrificial type, Mu. You wouldn't put your neck on the block for your ideal or to drive a point home. You reckon good old Milo will go: Gasp! Gasp! He is willing to die for what he believes in! He must be right! How stupid do you think I am?"
"Why did you not slay Hyoga and Kanon?"
"Because I can tell true from false. You are false! You have also forgotten something. I may have lost the use of the index of my right hand, but I still have my left!"
Faster than lightning, swifter than the eye can see, the Scorpio Saint hit Mu fourteen times.
The pain was excruciating.
"Have you been able to let it all out?" asked the Aries Saint through clenched teeth, " Feel better now? Happy?"
"I will be when you are dead. ANTARES!"
The Scorpio Saint's final, most deadly attack was halted a hair's breadth away from Mu's chest.
Not because Milo had suddenly had a change of heart.
No because Mu had put up the Crystal Wall.
A strong backward pull drew the scorpion from his prey.
"You need to sort yourself out, Scorpy." said Ikki, " I know just the place for that. Say hello to Draco from me."
And Milo the Scorpion was drawn into the Bermuda Triangle.
Ikki clapped his hands as if to dust them off.
"Hello, Mu. You look terrible. What's with the semi-nudity? Taking a leaf out of Shiryu's book, are you?"
The Aries Saint smiled weakly." Kanon's, rather. A mistake. I did not realise how great Milo's resentment towards me had grown. I've had better days. You were just in time, Ikki: my thanks."
"You could have dealt with him on your own."
"We are equally matched. Besides, I did not want to. I had hoped to convince him." he faltered, and would have toppled over had Ikki not caught him in time.
"You are losing a lot of blood. I can stop the haemorrhage, but there is the poison he injected.can you heal yourself?"
"There is no poison." said Mu almost happily," Milo is not like his Master was. He does not stoop to such methods. All these years I believed he did and despised him silently for it. That was wrong, and he was right: I do think myself the better man. Did. I must tell him I am sorry."
"Later." said the Phoenix Saint firmly. " From what I heard he absolutely detests you, so apologising while he is in a bad mood is not a good idea. I don't get it: you two fought jointly with Aiolia against Saga, Shura and Camu, and then you all banded together to blast a hole in the Wall of Lamentation. Where has all that wonderful unity gone to?"
"There never was much." whispered Mu, very pale and suffering still, " There has to be a basis for that: friendship, at the very least. How can one be truly friends with a rival one more often than not has to kill for Gold, Silver or Bronze? What is it that made the five of you so different, Ikki?"
"A combination of factors, I suppose. I the end we were not so different: Seiya went the Saint's way despite his earlier protestations, and so has Shiryu. Ilya, Shun, you, I..we stopped to think. Let's hope for his sake that Milo does so too."
"Or he will be back with a vengeance."
"Assuredly, but in the meantime we can work some changes. Mr. Field! " Ikki called, " Oi! You can come in now, it is quite safe!"
The Englishman had the same reaction to Mu as Phoenix.
"You look terrible. I thought your Cloth was supposed to protect you." said he, the concerned look in his eyes belying his apparent flippancy.
"I will not wear it anymore. I realise now what Hyo.Ilya meant, and I should not have told him to take the Cloth again."
The Aries Saint suppressed a shudder. "They will be our undoing."
"Why so terrified all of a sudden?" wondered Ikki.
"With good reason. I know them. They are living beings: the sum of the souls of their wearers. Their metal is impregnated with blood and fear and pain in the moment of death. They have no conscience."
"I see. That explains a lot."
"Sion made us wear the Gold Cloths all the time, when we were little, adapted to our size; in so doing we were steeped in the essence of Sainthood. It would make us stronger, or so he believed."
Once more Mu shuddered.
"No wonder everyone's so screwed up." remarked Ikki.
"I helped." whispered Aries, "I repaired Cloths, I called them back to life. I could have broken the cycle, had I not gone to Jamir to take up residence in Sion's tower. With Sion and me the secrets of Cloth repair would have died, and eventually they would disappear for good."
Suddenly vehement he added: " And good it would have been! It would have ended the Godgame!"
Filled with a, for him, rare anger, Mu strode towards his own Cloth, reassembled in the effigy of a Ram, and hit it.
Once. Twice.
And then repeated volleys, harder and harder, with both fists, until they were raw and bleeding.
Mr. Field and Ikki exchanged a look. Then the Englishman looked at his watch.
"We are thirteen minutes into the Scorpio hour. The time we gained in Libra will be lost if this goes on much longer. On the other hand, he needs this. I heard a lot of self-loathing in his voice. That young man is suffering from a very burdened conscience."
"I know the feeling. But if he can't work it out himself there is little we can do to help him."
Mu fell on his knees. Wrapping his arms around the Ram's neck he began to sob uncontrollably.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I did not mean to hurt you .I did! I do! I hate you and I love you.I am sorry! I said I was sorry! Please don't hurt me.please stop hurting me!"
"Who is he talking to.the Cloth! The Cloth is doing this to him!" shouted mr. Field.
"Gyu!****" Ikki cursed in his own tongue, "The souls of all the previous Ariesses.and Sion! I can feel Sion's Aura emanating from the Ram.Mu's Master is punishing him for his defiance!"
Ikki raced to Mu's side and with an well-aimed kick sent the Aries Cloth flying.
Mu shrieked.
"My Cloth! My beautiful Cloth! Mine! Don't you dare touch it!"
He lunged at Ikki.
"Mu! Yappa mindo!" *****
The Aries Saint stood like petrified at the sound.
With all his being he struggled against the overwhelming power of the Cloth and his Master's command.
"Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum, OM MANI PADME HUM!"
He cried out the Mantra, and heard the words echoed, in the calm voice of mr. Field.
"Om Mani Padme Hum. That's it, son. That's the way to fight it. Om Mani Padme Hum!"
"Om Mani Padme Hum!" Ikki joined his prayer to the Englishman's, who was now talking quietly to Mu in Tibetan.
"It is a very beautiful thing to look at indeed. You have great talent; a veritable gift. It is a pity that the products of your craft serve to destroy. Om Mani Padme Hum. Hold on to the Bodhisattva of Compassion's own Mantra. Let it steer your life from now on. You are not so far-gone that you can not let go. Which is what you will have to do, if you are serious about breaking with Sanctuary."
"I.I.they are calling to me."
"Perhaps you should talk with them. Ask them what they truly want. Maybe the souls that are trapped in this armour.Cloth.whatever, need you to help them move on. You are the only one that can. They have been around for so long.I imagine they must be very tired."
"Oh!" said Mu in a small, rather surprised voice", "I never thought of that."
Mr. Field smiled. He liked the young Tibetan; young, and yet so old, so earnest, so innocent and knowing, and so lonely. Something about him reminded the Englishman of his late wife Dolma. Child of a Ralpa ****** girl and god-knows-who, Dolma had suffered because she was a half-breed and different, as all people who are different will suffer even when they are surrounded by love. Dolma had been loved, by her mother, her later stepfather, and her two younger brothers Dorje and Tsarong, yet it had not been until she had met the young Hubert Field that she had felt 'like coming home', as she put it. Himself a product of practically opposed cultures, English, German and Malayan, Hubert had understood as nobody else could in the Hidden Kingdom, where half-breeds were as rare as flowers in winter.
Forty years after her disappearance and with a happy second marriage, mr. Field still mourned his Tibetan love, and their two children, blaming himself most of all. " I failed them. For their memory's sake I must see this young man right, as I did Ilya. I will make sure that he will get all the chances in life Aventine and Caelia would have had, if it is the last thing I'll do."
"Your decision, son. The important thing to remember is that you have a choice. That, too, is why we came, my wife and sons and I. To offer you young people all a choice. There is a life for you waiting outside Sanctuary which we, and friends of ours, can and will provide."
The sincerity in the man's voice told Mu that his promise was true. His tear-washed green eyes now filled with wonder.
"Such people do exist. Fathers do care for their children! Even the abandoned have a future!"
"Kiki too?"
" How young he is! A child, looking after another child.his little brother? From what I saw of him the kid was not full Tibetan either. But there is a huge age difference.it could be his son. God! Men twice this youth's age care less about their offspring."
Within mr. Field rose a deep respect for the Aries Saint. Both he and his wife had become very much involved in aid to orphaned children. If, because of his demanding job, he had done little more than contribute financially to UNICEF, his wife, being a lawyer on early retirement, devoted a great deal of her time to legal counsel. Due to that involvement they had known the right buttons to push in order to set in motion a scheme of recuperating the children that the Solo Foundation had gathered. After the floods the world's equally flooded charitable institutions had been only too happy to let the billionaire brat from Greece take the load of their shoulders without thoroughly investigating his intents. But now, thanks to the BBC's television program, public opinion had been roused. Shortly before leaving Sir Frederic had told his old friend that the United Nations come together in secret session, had for once been unanimous. The children would be saved. The Security Council too, had been for the first time in history in total agreement. Confronted with a common enemy, one no nation had any geopolitical or economical advantage in backing, one who could drown continents or stop the earth from spinning, they had decided to lay aside their differences for the time being to undertake joint action.
"Let's not kid ourselves. None of them will hesitate for a minute at leaving the alliance, if they could get their hands on one such child, to use him or her as a secret weapon of mass destruction, and that includes Britain. The only hope these kids have is total public awareness. Hubert, I am bound by my office, but you are a free man. You and Helena can speak for these children."
"And so we will, to the best of our ability! Not an easy task, yet I will fight for every last one of them, and especially for this child and his boy."
"Of course, Kiki too, you two belong together. Take your time, son. Think about it carefully. A man always should when he's about to make an important decision. That is what I keep telling my kids."
Mr. Field clapped Mu gently on the back. "We'll leave you to it, then."
With a gesture of his head he motioned Ikki to the Temple's exit. Outside, the Phoenix Saint could not help but express his anxiety.
"We should not have left him alone with the Cloth. True, he has disobeyed his Master once before, but at the time Sion was really on his side and making no more than a token effort: this time, Mu will have all that power against him."
"It's a bit of a gamble, I admit. However, the whole purpose of our mission is to have the Saints abandon the violent solution, or at least not see it as the only solution. Mu recited the Om Mani Padme Hum instead!"
"I do not have much faith in prayer."
"Have faith in Mu. Besides, if he fails, you are still there for the violent option."
Ikki grinned. That was the kind of reasoning he understood.
"Well, if we could get this over with quickly and move on to the Sagittarius Temple where we should not meet any resistance, we could make it to Capricorn an hour ahead of schedule."
"Is that Clock indeed so important? What happens if one does not pass a temple in the allotted time?"
"No idea. Presumably the latecomers will simply be executed."
"So the Ascension via the Twelve temples is some sort of sporting chance ranted to those who challenge the Goddess? And each Gold saint has to tale on the challengers on his own, even if they come in hordes, Temple by Temple?"
"Yes."
"Has no one ever pointed out that that is stupid?"
"No. I hope you do, though."
Mr. Field reflected some more, and finally said: "I've known a number of idiot commanders in my time, but even they had some senses of overall strategy and tactics. I can't make head or tail of this. It is as if somebody was playing a board game: you can make a limited set of moves, and the rules are immutable."
"What if we cheat?" said Mu softly, appearing behind them.
He still looked very feeble and slightly sick in his bloodstained trousers and dirty brown cloak which he had cast about his shoulders. But his eyes glittered and around his moth lay a mischievous grin.
Mr. Field raised a bushy eyebrow.
"You sound just like my youngest, Queer. Same impish delight, same grin too. Cheat? I have no trouble with that. Question is, how?"
"By stopping the Clock." said Mu.
Ikki's mouth literally fell open. Then he began to laugh.
"That certainly counts as cheating; in a big way! I like it! Shall we destroy it or will you teleport it away?"
"Anywhere else will put it in people's way. Destroy it! Destroy it completely! Show Athena what we think of the Godgame!"
Ikki whistled through his teeth.
"Sounds like you have come to a decision."
"Sounds like you have come to a decision."
"I have. " said Mu, "One which I will communicate to her after my own fashion. Face to face and with witnesses. But I think she needs telling first that we no longer play by the God's rules. You are right, you see. It is a game to them."
"Ah yes." said mr. Field, nodding sagely, " Eternity after all is such a very long time."
To be continued.
Author's notes:
*In the manga it is said that the ship Hyoga and his mother took was just about to clear the zone of eternal ice before it sank. It must be in the Bering Sea, not the Sea of Okhotsk where the ice reaches all the way to Hokkaido, nor the La Perouse straight, for the Island of Sakhalin is too populated around there and to close to Japan; nor the East Siberian Sea which lies within the polar circle and is never clear of ice. Presumably they took ship somewhere off Anadyr or Beringovskiy, and Kohutec should be either in the Koryak region a little south of Beringovskiy or on the Kamchatka peninsula, at a guess just north of Ust-Kamchatsk. I would opt for the former as Kamchatka is more populated and more under Soviet control (there are, or used to be, military bases as well as gulags).
** Mu will have told Camu of the ancient custom of Tibetan women freely sleeping about on condition that their lovers give them a nice piece of jewellery which they proudly carry to show how desirable they are (mentioned in Marco Polo's travels) and the still existing custom of polyandry, where a girl marries all her husband's brothers, making her children his regardless of who the natural father is. This keeps the land in the family.
***All different ways of indicating the Dalai Lama. Both 'Gyatso' and 'Dalai' means 'Ocean' or rather 'an amount as great as the ocean', and 'lama' means 'teacher' or 'wise person', hence, Ocean of Wisdom. Tenzin is the present Dalai Lama's given name. He is said to be the incarnation of Chenresik the Bodhisattva of Compassion who gave the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra to the world. To say it is to pray for and to help all sentient beings to become more and more like the Bodhisattva and move towards Enlightenment. 'Cheenee' is how the Chinese are referred to both in India and Tibet. Mu's mother's fear is very real. The late Panchen Lama was a puppet of the Chinese government, yet shortly after he for the first and only time spoke in criticism of that body, he died. According to tradition, an adult Dalai Lama will appoint and guide a new Panchen Lama, and in turn the adult Panchen will do the same for the young Dalai. It is to be feared that when Tenzin Gyatso dies (helped along or not), the Chinese government will impose a Dalai Lama of their own as they did with the new Panchen and eliminate the new, true Dalai Lama, thus depriving the Tibetan people of the focal point of their religion. The knowledge that he has done the opposite of what his mother wished, and never helped his people is obviously one of the many stones that weigh on Mu's conscience.
**** Japanese. A bit like we would say 'damn!'
*****Tibetan for 'no!' or, in this case, 'don't!'
****** Wandering entertainers and minstrels in Tibet. Ralpa is also one of the traditional dances they perform.
This chapter may seem a bit lengthy, but I thought it vital to cast a light on Sanctuary's rivalries and power-struggles and the relations between the Saints from the past to the present day as well as a behind the screens look on their private little problems inherent to growing up and how they each deal with them, according to their natures. After all they did not fall out of the sky fully grown men and their past experiences hugely influence their present characters, attitudes and actions. The same goes for the Fields. Once again, keep in mind that the Saints are all very young (at least they are to me) with very limited experience of life, and in many ways still immature. Note that I have aged all of the Gold Saints by one or more years. Mu is still a bit too young for my taste at the time of Saga's take-over, but then he is the maturest of the lot and one may suppose that his earlier life has prepared him. His secret will be revealed in Part IV. As for Scorpio, he bad-mouths more than he means to. I doubt he truly objects to Asians or half-breeds, it is pure jealousy.