Prologue
The boundaries between dymensions were so flexible (well, at least, they were when one had powers like hers), that she could easily understand that some people lost their grip on them, The problem with those who ended lost in their own worlds was that the contours of realities were diffuse; without a strong sense of self, a person could lose its essence. Of course, it would not be her case… though of course, few humans were, at the same time, gods.
She had finally made a choice, and had left her exausted, wounded body behind; but she was aware of that odd duality in her soul, wich persisted even beyoud the realm of Earth. The ancestral part of her knew that in all of her incarnations, never had the fusion with a mortal reached such depth. Perhaps it was due to the girl's own pride and superiority.
Very appropiate for a godess. Not to mention that gods are the most impulsive and stubborn, vengeful, childlike beings.
Oh, but they had both learned to bow their heads. Yet, lately they had had a lot of that.
The young girl had eventually learned to coexist with that thing that opressed and expanded her, an energy that made her feel connected to the very core of life. But it strenghened her feeling of loneliness.
...until he came back.
He whom had always acceptad her as she was, for what she was; he censored her when it was necessary, he teased her, he dared her, he… moved her. He made her see herself, he made her want to be better, to make him smile. Yet she enjoyed also seeing the passion with which he threw himself into helpless battles for her. She was partly delighted by his despair, by his madness, by his heroic frenzy, by his devotion to her.
Seiya.
The double soul hated herself for her vanity, for her eagerness to be the object of his sacrifice. Sometimes she saw herself as the priestess who slayed a lamb's throat.
Actually, that she had poured the blood of a whole herd. True, few of the members of the flock were true lambs, but still... the blood was poured for her, on her, over her.
Godess or not, there were things that she couldn't deal with. Men who came back from death to die again, for her once more; immortal guardians devoted to her; childeren beating giants, David and Goliat in a crueller tale. This war had taken more of her, and more of her saints than any other.
Suffering was common to mankind, but it was something that one could not get used to, in particular, when you were imortal.
So, what is left when, after agains all odds, Nike smiled at her once more and she felt nothing but emptiness and pain?
She had never felt more like a monster. She though of her saints, being born into the world with pain, and living brief, tortured existences which ended in even more suffering, for her, always for her. Time after time. Men signaled by light and blood, destined to shine for a second and extinguish forever, drowned in a scarlet ocean.
They belonged to her, but she offered nothing but a bitter sip of all the things that life could offer. Never happiness, never joy... never love? Did they truly love her?
She, the vampire who had taken so many lives for herself, had now grown to love them (not care for them, not pity them, but truly love them), and each War the feeling became more uncountrolable. She, Wisdom and Goodness, had lost her mind when she saw that this time, when the most amazing sacrifices had been made in her name, had not been able to save a sigle one of them.
She was not different from a vulture, feasting on fallen human souls.
Ah, but not this time. Not these ones. Not Seiya, Hyoga, Shiryiu, Shun, Ikki… and her Gold Saints… thay hadn't even get to know her, and yet…
When she saw them falling, lost in the Realm of the Dead, she lost her grip on her dignity, on her mind, on her control. She had howled like a broken beast, and had departed. If she had to pay, so be it.
Eternity would await for her to recover.
Because this time, victory had to be theirs, as well. She would bring them back, even if she had to drain her own soul to restore the life into their bodies and souls. If she was to be emptied...
So be it.
Mount Olympus took shape in front of her eyes, a gigantic peak of stone, carved by immemorial times, and which was still to last for all eternity. It was, as usual, covered by a golden haze containing milions of thoughts, voices and whispers, of those mortals loved by the gods.
Weary after the interdimensional journey, Athena let herself be numbed by the mystique of the place which she called home and yet had always been so alien to her. Slowly, she recovered her true shape, the one of a tall, impressive woman; her age reflected only in her steely, grey eyes, and never touching the tense, soft skin or the straight hair.
After she got used to being herself again, she coulnd't but notice Saori was still entwined with her, and she understood that as long as her mortal body lived, the girl would accompany her wherever they went. And what's more, even there, in the gods's dwelling place, the girl kept her own will and voice in the mind that both shared.
She expanded her aura, revealing her presence and rejecting at the same time all those energies that were trying to reach her, to question her, to offer their sympathies. She remained isolated, until she found the unmisteakable energy she had been looking for. Aware of the importance of each passing second, she revealed the urgency of her situation, and requested for an audience in the Council Chamber with the Highest God of Olympus.
In private.
The silent answer, spoken directly to her cosmo, told her she would be granted her request.
Immediately.
"Come in, Athena, there is noone here."
She walked past the columns and the carvings, along those ancestral walls, until she got to that large circular space and its eleven chairs. One of them, with her name on it.
And a throne, straigh ahead, and above them all.
"Father..."
He stood up and walked up to her, to kiss her cheek. Athena had never feared him, but still she had never seen such an imposing energy. From the ebony of his eyes, to the deepest corner of his soul, Zeus seemed to have been born to rule.
That is, to be obeyed.
She let herself be held by those arms, arms perfectly capable of crushing the worlds, throw roaring lightnings and commit countless unfaithful caresses. She observed the rounded glass vault on the roof, through which she could see the Via Lactea, the path of the gods, surrounded by an indigo halo. She allowed him to push her back and watch her.
She looked into his eyes, those black suns impossible to read, which seemed to irradiate an irresistible vitality as they absorbed all the things around him, incorporating them to his own glare.
She withstood that inspection with her eyes steadily laid on his, impasible. She knew that among all the living creatures, she was one of the few which could have some influence on him. She had always done her own will, without a single word of reproach from him.
But to ask something from him…
"You have changed, my beloved Gray eyes. What have you found down there on Earth that has kept you so long from your family?"
...would always had a price.
He could see the future, almost as clearly as Apolo himself could; but for the great Zeus, not even the past held secrets.
Nothing went unseen by the eyes of the sky.
"You know I never come when I'm living as a mortal" she replied calmly.
"I know that well, Gray eyes. But, honestly, showing up here fused with your incarnation's soul is really distasteful" That ironic glare in his eyes. When had he cared about dignity, when it came to mixing with humans? Who had turned into a bull just to get under a girl's pants (well, under her skirt, actually).
Saori twisted in the endless aura of the goddess, but cunning as she was, she remained silent and determied to leave the deities to deal with each other.
Athena mimicked her, and simply gave her father one of those glances that made the God of Heaven doubtful, for a brief instant, about his condition of master of the universe. That daughter of his was the one to whom he felt drown to the most, and the one who made him most worried. She had this ancestral vibe that gods, capricious creatuers who knew only self - indulgence, and to "live the moment", rarely possesed.
He regained his self – control immediately.
"If you show up like this, only to talk to me, it must be something of importance."
She knew it was just a game, because nothing escaped his eyes; but she was determined to refrain her impatience and follow the protocole.
"Hades has been defeated."
"It has happened before."
"But this time it's gone too far..."
His eyebrow jumped up "Why?"
How could she explain it to him? "So many humans have died..."
She felt insecure. ¿How could he understand what she had found this time, the treasure which was about to vanish, to be lost forever?
Zeus sat back on his throne, but his attention was still focused on his daughter. Humans died all the time; and even more around her, so that last phrase made no sense at alll. She knew her fight was meant for the survival of the most, and not for the salvation of them all.
But the look on those grey eyes was the toughest and shiniest that he had ever seen. Zeus understood then that something had broken in there; something had altered the inalterable essence of a goddess, and that was disquieting. Gods were fixed, unchangeable creatures, with a defined and simple, however twisted, personality; that was what defined both them and the things under their power. But if there really was a breaking point, even for them… he was not worried about himself, but what if the others did have a limit?
"I came here to ask for your help." Athena wanted her father's attention back on her.
Silence.
And the worse was still to come.
"I want to take back my saints."
He leaned forward, apparently calmed, laying his elbows on his knees. Oh, the power he had.
"Why would you want something like that?" Despite his calmed attitude, he was angered. How did she dare to ask him that, right after sealing his brother again, like a rat in a cage!
"You know that cannot be. You have enslaved, once again, the only one with power to grant you that maddened whish, but yet, for what! They are not meant to last; they are not meant to return!"
She knew she had that coming. She knew he could play with humans, he could like them, love them, lust them and hate them, but he didn't really need them. He just used them and then dropped the empty carcasses. Almighty creatures were bound to loneliness, and this particular one, seemed pretty comfortable with his situation.
But her anger was not minor. Centuries turned into millenia, and still she was the only one among her kind who still bothered to really mingle with humans.
But that was the point, wasn't it? In their eyes, she was diminishing herself. What she did was degrading, inhabiting frail bodies like that, and even worse, not for her pleasure, but to get involved, to learn, to watch and mostly... to feel.
They did not know that life in Olympus was like a water coloured picture for her, motionless and devoid, after spending a life as a human. Mankind was a palpitating kin, so low as it was high, and after playing by their ways, after seeing them grow by her side, she couldn't but wish to spend more time with them.
She listened to her father's speech, his rambling on subjects like the difference between the essences, and how destructive it was for immortals to love creatures which are condemned to die; but she was growing more and more desperate. He did not know that she wished for the battles; that the 243 years between them were like a bad - syntonised dream in which nothing had taste or sound. He did not know the guilt she felt when thinking like that, how guilty she felt for being indiferent to her family, and guilty for keep going with this pointless drama play. The wars, the cruel, bloody wars which changed, in the end, nothing.
Her cosmo started to stir. Saori startled, and turned to the godess. There were so many things she was tired of, so many things that had lost their meaning, that she wanted to scream. She held back her cosmo, and imprisoned it within her body.
Zeus's voice trailed off, for his daughter was going under a strange methamorphosis. Deep purple circles started to surround her eyes; the proud shoulders fell froward, crippled and tired; blood smeared her face, her hands, her chest. The imaculate robes she had been wearing had turned into a rag, grey and mudstained, and her feet were bare and torn.
This was unexpected. She was showing him her soul, her feelings, in the most vivid way there could be. She was cornering him: either he granted her wish, or he took the blame for her pain.
But when he looked into her eyes, he saw, in between her rage, despair and pain, the same iron determination of the Owl.
"This is serious, father. There is no turning back. I need them to come back, and I will tear my soul to take them with me, if necessary."
She did not know what she was doing, Zeus thought. Yet he knew that his battle was lost already, that his daughter was changed, for good or for worse; this had been her fate perhaps since the very moment she laid her eyes on that damned kin they called the Human Race. And he knew her well enough to know that she meant what she said; he could even see her desperate mind looking for a way to fulfill the promise she had just spoken aloud.
"So be it, then, my beloved daughter, Athena, my Gray eyes. Remember what I say to you now: I know I will regret this, and remember as weel that I would even regret more if I let you destroy yourself. But I also know that they will be your doom."
Her eyes were so full of peace now. "I know father. Thank you."
"Well, well, my dear, there will be, of course, consequences. Your prolongued absence has kept you from the news. Do you accept any condition that I impose on you, or them, in exchange of their going back? No, no" he put in, for her face was showing distress again, "no oath is expected of them, no damage is to be inflicted on them. That much I promise you. So, will you have them back?" .
She regained her former self, the immaculate, eternal godess. "I will".
Zeus stood up, walked up to her and kissed her soft cheek again, and she felt his scent of sandalwood. Then he walked up to his throne, and focused.
She felt her whole cosmo stirring, caught in his energy, but this time, as she went back to her mortal body, with all its injuries and pain, hope was once again with her.
Well, here the first part goes! ) Hope you like it, and certainly hope there are not many mistakes! (yeap, English is my 2nd language). This story was first posted in Spanish, as Voices in the dark (Voces en la oscuridad), with a few chapters issued, but something about it seemed not to be right, so I reinvented it. And I changed the language because, odd as it seems, for things like these it's easier for me to express myself in Eng.
Any reactions, either smirks or tomato – throwings, are welcomed to be reflected as reviews . Updates are to be expected soon, but then, inevitably, as classes start again, they will become more and more rare. Yep, tough life, that of us students.
My greetings to thee, oh, noble wordsgentlemen/ladies, who have made it this far,
Your faithful servant,
Niksa
Forever shall the wolf in me desire the sheep in you.