Disclaimer: I don't own Saint Seiya. I don't know Gold Saints.
Author's note: For those impatient: it's written from Dokho's POV.


The Day Before the Fight
by Narwe Silverflame

Strange, how this night is peaceful, serene. Not a noise is heard, not a single bird chirps, not one night animal utters a sound. Except for the never-ending song of the falling waters, the silence reigns supreme. This picture of quiet beauty is mirrored perfectly by the sky above. It's of a dark blue, almost black colour. And it's clear. Not a single cloud is there to cover the stars lying on the sky's velvety cushion. Such irony. Stars, twinkling jewels, cores of atomic power and source of our own powers, being displayed proudly up there yet tomorrow or after-tomorrow some of them might set. Forever.

Somehow it just doesn't seem right that this oncoming disaster should be preceded by such peaceful harmony. Not even twenty-four hours from now the survival of the world as we know it is going to be put at stake. Thunder should become the call to the arms and lightning should warn the unsuspecting. But instead of that… Clear sky and bright stars. It seems so out of place.

Or maybe it's just the proverbial calm before the storm. A fleeting peaceful moment before the sky is torn open and all the wrath of heavens is poured down upon you. Or all the wrath of hell, in our case. A second when all are holding their breath just before the apocalypse strikes, a second before the world is shaken to its very foundations. And it will be shaken, believe me. It's been shaken before and it's going to be shaken again.

Yet despite all this, what I'm surrounded by now is not that kind of calm. It cannot be. For this is drizzle. To those able to read the signs and to those wary enough it speaks of things to come, it represents the harbinger of the storm, of the catastrophe. I can feel a slight vibration where there should be stillness, muffled murmur where there should be silence, barely detachable movement where there should be none of this. These are things that I cannot see or hear or smell, but stretching my cosmos I can feel all of them. The hidden harbingers.

I'm fully aware that I'm far from being the only one using their cosmos to discern the approaching danger tonight. The five most powerful residents of the Sanctuary, excluding our goddess, are awake. It's not that I sense this through their cosmos; I simply know it for it couldn't be any other way. Mu, Aldebaran, Aioria, Shaka, Milo… And me. We are the first guardians, the elite, the Gold Saints and it's only appropriate that we can at least predict the war in which the main, the decisive battles are going to be ours to fight. I've been waiting for this for over two hundredth years, they were cursed and blessed to be born some twenty years before Hades decides to awaken again but neither of us is getting any sleep tonight, that's one of two things I'm sure about. The other being that this sunrise will be the last I see.

The sunrise followed by the last sunset and then by the vicious battle for the sun to rise again. And we will fight for it is our duty. Our oaths of Gold Saints, our loyalties bind us to it. We'll go there knowing that no matter what happens, no matter who wins we probably won't be seeing that what we fight for become reality. One more sunrise.

Yet only half of the Zodiac's constellations won't be enough for our final victory, with or without us as witnesses. All twelve have to be united if the balance is to be restored and at this point it doesn't really matter if we unite as the living or as the dead, in the land of life or in the land of death as long as it is in the name of Athena. It seems to me that this war is all too closely linked with death. Sometimes I even think that maybe the defeats of Saga, Death Mask, Shura, Camus and Aphrodite, even the tragic end of Aiolos, were just pieces being set for the final game. The only question now is will they understand this quickly enough? That they are the dead fighting against the Lord of Death, Hades? Will they escape his traps, torture and manipulation? Yes, I'm sure they will, I believe in them; they are Gold Saints after all.

Maybe before all of this is over the rest of us too will join them in the Underworld, fighting death in more sense than one. It would be so ironic if we made our last stand down there. We'd destroy Hades from within, so to say.

And we just may. Since before its beginning this war and death began an intricate dance of countless unpredictable possibilities, took a hand-in-hand walk to the blood-decorated future. Now we can only hope that the dance is called Life and that the road they're walking will lead to Sunrise.

It will all start very soon. He will make his first move with the coming of night with us waiting to answer it. But somehow… Somehow I just get this feeling that the first of his figures to move will be Knights he thinks to be pawns. Golden pawns but pawns nonetheless. It's human to err, they say, though gods are obviously not much better. But, mark my words, before the conclusion we're going to make him see that mistake in a flash of gold, we'll show the gods that there are mortals who can rival their power.

Remove 'l' from gold' and you get 'god'. Take away our mortality and we can stand up to any and all gods.

All that we're doing tomorrow is to prove this.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.


Wow, with that final 'from gold to god' I surprised even myself!
All in all, I'd rather write this from Shaka's POV since he's my favourite Saint, but I decided for Dokho because he just knows more about this war and has more experience.
And a finaly question to all readers and fellow writers: what would you think about a Gold Saints C2?
R&R