Ikki

Ikki dropped the last box labeled 'living room' down on the top of the heap unceremoniously and moved to where Hyoga was already relaxing against the couch. It had been rather chilly when the three had begun, but by the time they had gotten all of the furniture situated to Athena's—and he would call her that no matter what she asked—wishes, the Saints had all stripped down to the last layer and even then he was grateful for the pitcher of lemonade someone had left out for them on the coffee table. That was another nasty piece of furniture that the Phoenix Saint had hauled up all those stairs.

Hyoga already held a cup in his hand drinking deeply from his sprawling spot on the couch—also Ikki's work—and even Shiryu could be spotted relaxing albeit in a rather more dignified manner with his own glass against the wall. Well that they could relax now—the rest of the unpacking would be for Athena to do herself and the morning had gone without a hitch mostly thanks to him.

Shiryu hadn't wanted Seiya to have any part in hauling furniture—a well founded worry—and Hyoga had been nervous about Shun straining himself to try and lift something that he just wasn't strong enough to manage—also, unfortunately, a well founded worry. Ikki hadn't cared one way or the other, but he had intervened at the last moment to keep both men from sticking their feet right into their mouths. Not that it wasn't amusing to watch that sort of thing from time to time, but Ikki just wanted as little to do with Athena's other life as possible and time never few when Shun was angry. Better to step into a pit of vipers and more chance to come out unscathed then risk that it would somehow come back to him.

The Cygnus Saint and the Dragon Saint had been completely prepared to just walk up to Shun and Seiya respectively and tell them their concerns and then expect them to stay behind. Love did funny things to a man's brain. Ikki's way was much safer. If Shun thought he was taking care of Seiya and Seiya thought that he needed to all but carry Shun's very suitcase for him then maybe the two could manage to keep themselves out of trouble—he doubted it though, which was why he hadn't cared one way or another whether the two came or were left until later.

With Seiya there, it was six to one half dozen that there would be trouble and whatever it was should be arriving via Athena's plane any minute now—probably the reason the long black haired Dragon Saint was perched as though waiting at the door and though Hyoga leaned back casually Ikki could tell that he too was ready to spring up as soon as word came. Ikki shook his head slightly taking a firm seat in the heavy black armchair that had almost broken his back on the way up the stairs. In fact Ikki noticed with a frown he had moved all of the furniture in this room. The tall Saint settled back puzzling over his discovery content that two eager watchdogs would provide more than enough warning of whatever was coming. Oh how wrong the Phoenix Saint turned out to be.

The lemonade was long gone and the silence very well deafening by the time an intrusion came upon the three waiting figures in the form of the tallest of the Steel Saints. The boy seemed haggard and breathless, but if he had seemed harried upon entering, one look at who he had burst in upon made his face pale and sweat stand out on his forehead.

"Saori-san…" he began already edging backwards and eyeing the exit. Hyoga had stood and now fixed his gaze icily over crossed arms and a stiff stance. Shiryu carefully lifted a single arm from its place against his chest and just as calmly reached over and closed the door. It shut with a 'thud' oddly loud in the silence and the cornered Steel Saint winced as though it had been the seal on his very coffin. Ikki never moved from his spot in the imposing black chair, but then he didn't need to. Athena's messenger wasn't going anywhere. They'd all been carefully avoiding it for the last hour or so, but Shun and Seiya's plane was late and now one of Athena's personal runners was tearing through the house like his life depended in it—that was too much for coincidence. The young Saint seemed to realize it too, steeling himself visibly and looking at each of their faces in turn mouth set into a grim line.

"I'm sorry," the boy began which would no doubt digress into a long string of unnecessary niceties.

"Save it," Ikki told him roughly, "What's happened?" Six one way to one half dozen the other—it was Seiya. The Steel Saint continued to fidget nervously but began to speak looking carefully at some point beyond the three figures and hurriedly too as though he feared what their reaction would be.

"Daichi's been manning the radio since… Since Shun and Seiya's plane failed to come in." It took the Phoenix Saint a moment to connect the proper fox armored boy to the name supplied, but Shiryu was already motioning for the boy to continue, and he looked stiffer than ever back no longer even touching the wall. The dark eyes were tight with worry. Another time Ikki might have accused the other man of overreacting, but something about the hunted look that their informant wore stirred uneasiness in the pit of his own usually iron stomach. If something had happened to his little brother or Seiya…

The first was much scarier, but the second far more likely. Perhaps that was why Hyoga seemed more impatient than anything else.

"Well?" the blond demanded tapping a foot and with one last look at the closed door behind him the Steel Saint seemed to resign himself finally that there was indeed no escape. The rest came out in a rush.

"Daichi's been manning the radio—he got a relay signal bounced through another pilot. It was from the Sarengay—Shun and Seiya's plane—a 30 second mayday that simply cut off." A stone seemed to have lodged itself somewhere in the Phoenix Saint's throat, freezing him to the spot. Mayday meant that the Plane had gone down, and a mayday that cut off… Fear had a vice grip around his heart as he forced himself to stand up slowly.

"Take us to the control room." Ikki's voice was pure ice.

Shiryu

Seiya… Shiryu's face could have been carved of stone for all the expression it revealed, but inside the Dragon Saint was a roiling mass of warring emotions, the most prevalent among them fear. Seiya… He barely breathed into the dead silence that followed the four Saints to the control room.

Daichi sat in the main seat with his back to the door hands working tirelessly at the panel before him, his young voice seeming oddly loud and angry after the deathly silence of the march down.

"That doesn't make any sense!" the little fox was yelling into a black headset fixed lightly over one ear with an attached microphone which he fingered absently. "Look," the boy continued on unaware of the presence of the three Bronze Saints behind him in the doorway, "Find me the name of the plane that relayed the original signal and get them on the radio! If Sarengay was going down I want to know why the nearest plane to receive the mayday isn't there already!" The boy surged out of his chair and slammed his hand down hard on the control panel in front of him cutting off the transmission.

"It just doesn't make any sense," the little Saint mumbled to himself once more resuming the seat, only to hop up and out of it just as quickly as he noticed the ominously silent procession that stood just inside the doorway. "Saori-san…" he began with an accusing look at his fellow Saint, but Shiryu's stone façade was flaking off bit by bit and he could hold his peace no longer. The control room, the radio signals—these were real in a way even the Steel Saint's dire message had not been. Oh Seiya…

"What happened?" the Dragon Saint demanded. He had moved unconsciously a few steps in front of the others to stand directly before the little Steel Saint and make his plea. There were so many questions. So many things had gone wrong. Seiya… "Are they alright?" The words were tumbling from his mouth even though he already knew the answer. If only his voice didn't sound so desperate. Oh Seiya…

Daichi held his hands out with a defeated sigh. "We don't know," he admitted shaking his head slowly.

"Where did the plane go down?" Ikki took up form somewhere behind him. The Phoenix's voice seemed harsher than ever and Daichi actually flinched turning toward the older man with downcast eyes and a set expression.

"We don't know," the boy repeated biting his lip.

"Well why was the plane running late in the first place?" Ikki continued none to kindly moving forward to stand beside Shiryu. Daichi looked terrified, wide eyed moving between the imposing Phoenix Saint and his Steel comrade who still hovered at the doorway.

"We don't know," he said desperately spreading his hands again helplessly. "We don't know!" He looked as desperate as the Dragon Saint felt. They weren't going to get anywhere like this, Shiryu knew, he had to calm down, but oh Seiya!

"What do we know?" the long haired Saint asked quietly, surprised at how steady his own voice sounded in his ears. Daichi seemed to relax a little confronted by a question to which he knew the answer, stepping back to draw them further into the control room.

"What we do know," he explained taking a breath, "Is that the Sarengay left Greece right on time and then went down with a mayday approximately 3 hours later, but from what I can gather, the message was picked up by a private jet thousands of miles in the wrong direction from where the Sarengay's flight path should have taken it, and, at the time of the crash at least, neither Captain Davenport nor the Second Pilot were flying the plane. The mayday…" Daichi trailed off for a moment looking at the floor uncomfortably before steeling himself and straightening.

"Maybe you'd better just listen to the signal." Daichi didn't even wait for an answer before bounding over to the control panel, but none of them had given one in any case. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. If only he had never tried to leave Seiya behind this never would have happened. Shiryu's hands clenched into fists at his sides. If anything had happened to either of them he would never forgive himself. The little Steel Saint continued to chatter as he typed on the controls quickly with both hands adding the clatter of the keys to his voice.

"The original jet that picked up the signal seems to have just disappeared—the pilot left no response or message, but set the mayday on relay until it was picked up by another vessel, a commercial aircraft too far away and without enough fuel to even consider a rescue, so it continued to relay until I finally managed to pick it up from the main building of the Kiddo foundation…here."

The clatter of the keys stopped and Shiryu felt his heart skip a beat as first the silent buzz of the recording jumped out from the speakers followed by…chaos. Something was roaring in the background, a deep throaty growling that could only be the engine, fluctuating between a heavy unnatural rumble and a heart stopping guttering that seemed would give out at any moment. All sorts of alarms and warnings were going off filling the speakers before a voice finally came on. It could only have been a few moments, but Shiryu knew the sounds were burned into his mind because this is what Seiya had heard before…

"Mayday! Mayday!"

All three of the men started at the light terrified voice that drowned out the rest of the horror to a terrible droning roar in the background. Shun! What was the Andromeda Saint doing at the controls?

"Shun…" Ikki breathed mirroring the Dragon Saint's own thoughts and stiffening at his side.

"This is the Sarengay!" the panicked voice continued impossibly slowly, "Is anybody reading me? I repeat this is the Sarengay! We're loosing altitude fast!" The tone had risen now and the engine gave a particularly violent roar that quailed the speaker on the other end to silence for a few seconds forcing those in the room to once more endure the painful din of the Sarengay's failing systems. Shun had lost all composure and a loud crackling now coated the entire message, but his words were still crystal clear.

"We're going to crash!...Seiy…!" And then it cut off. Shiryu almost jumped at how loud the silence seemed after that horrible message. Daichi was looking everywhere but at the three Bronze Saints, and his partner had disappeared—probably to go find Athena some part of his mind that could still think filled in, but it didn't matter. The whole building could have fallen in at that very moment and Shiryu would have been rooted to that very spot. The last hellish words of that transmission were burned like a broken record into his mind. We're going to crash!...Seiy…!

Seiya—Shun had been screaming for Seiya. Had the Andromeda Saint been in trouble or was it Seiya himself? And they had crashed. All that terrible noise and Shun had been so frightened and Seiya… They had to be alright, they just had to.

"Why did the message cut off?" Ikki was demanding of the little Steel Saint.

"We don't know." Hyoga's eyes were pure ice but for the wetness at their corners that threatened to run down his cheeks. His mouth was set into a grim line as he stared down the motionless control panel.

We're going to crash!...Seiy…! The words played over and over in Shiryu's mind with their hellish background.

"Where was Davenport or the Second Pilot!" Ikki was practically yelling now and Daichi cringed before him but it was pity that shone through the young Steel Saint's eyes.

"We don't know," he continued to repeat just shaking his head. "We don't know." Hyoga still had not moved an inch—the tears remained unshed from his ice blue eyes.

We're going to crash!...Seiy…! The icy hand kept squeezing around Shiryu's heart even as Ikki continued to demand answers from the helpless Steel Saint, but all he could hear were those same words over and over in his mind. Seiya…oh Seiya!