Well here we go with chapter three. This is a fun story to write, and I know where I want to go with it. So I'll be continuing it. Please feel free to review as you like. I enjoy reading them. Anyway, here we go.

Chapter Three: An Angel From Hell

Shun had found himself at a large estate, the first place Saori had run to after she had fled that coliseum. Very few of her Saints had followed her, much to his surprise, and those that did were all Bronze Saints. He was interested in why only these five had shown up, and where all the others had gone. He was sitting on a small couch in the well decorated living room, looking out the window at the clouds that were threatening rain. Thunder rumbled loud enough to shake the walls of the house, but he hardly moved.

That was, until he felt like someone was watching him. He turned to look, and noticed that one of these Saints was glowering at him from the Corner of the room. He was a huge brute, tall and around twenty years old or so. His Cloth wasn't on him, but he somehow doubted that this fact mattered much to him. He was tall and had broad shoulders. His eyes were a dark blue, and his hair was shorter in the front and longer in the back. It was a dark black, but it was tinted to a dark midnight blue color. A scar ran down the bridge of his nose and across his face. When the young man saw Shun looking he stood from where he was leaning on the wall.

"What are you looking at?" he growled. Shun blinked a little in surprise but took no offense.

"Obviously you," Shun replied. "If you don't like me that much you can always just leave."

The Saint seemed to pause a moment. He was obviously very surprised. It had honestly been a long time since anyone had been so blunt with him. People seemed to be very unnerved by his glare, and even the Gold Saints left him alone. He liked to be alone. Yet this Demigod had just spoken to him and wasn't intimidated in the slightest. Usually that would have angered him, but now he couldn't help but be surprised at the amount of innocence in the boy's eyes. Though he had been taught to access his cosmos with hate and anger (something Saori had only begun now to undo) he couldn't help but feel intrigued by this young Demigod. He crossed his arms.

"No apparently I can't," he replied. "I was left to baby sit you because the others left with Saori. So I'm stuck here."

"Yeah," Shun said, laughing a little. "that sounds like me. Everyone seems to think that I need a baby sitter."

The Saint again paused, feeling a little irritated now. Shun looked up when he noticed the Saint's eyes darken. Shun knew that he wasn't any danger to him, at least not yet. However he couldn't help but tense just a little when he saw how his face changed. He was angry, but Shun couldn't think of why he could be so angry.

"How can you be laughing?" the Saint asked in almost contempt. "The Titans are rising, armies are falling, and people could start dying any minute in a war that's going to start soon. And yet you laugh!"

"Well," Shun said quietly, looking out the window sadly. "Sometimes I don't know. I think I laugh because no one else will. Maybe if I laugh then things will be just a little bit better." Though he didn't say this, he also thought that there was no way he could fear death.

The Saint paused as he saw the sad light flicker behind those electric blue eyes of the Demigod. He was silent suddenly as he watched him, and he realized that this boy had seen a lot more than his demeanor let on. He suddenly looked much older than he did, as if a mere second had aged him nearly twenty years. However the boy looked back towards him suddenly and smiled again, and the Saint saw a bright teen instead of a saddened older man. He shook his head a bit and sighed.

"Ikki," he said.

"Huh?"

"My name," the Saint replied with some annoyance. "Bronze Saint Phoenix Ikki."

"Oh," Shun said in surprise. Why the sudden change of heart? He smiled though. "Then I'm Shun. Nice to meet you Ikki."

"I know your name," Ikki growled in annoyance. Shun gave him an almost pouting face.

"I was being polite," the Demigod replied.

Ikki blinked a little as he looked at that face. How could that make him so impossibly cute? There was no denying that he was an oddly beautiful young man, which only seemed to confuse Saori as to who his immortal parent could be. He was kind of small too, which made him look even cuter. Not that Ikki liked him or anything, its just he reminded him of a little kid. He just somehow still had that innocence whenever he looked at you. It confused Ikki, but he found that it wasn't entirely an unpleasant personality to have around. Wait, where had that come from? Hell, he hardly put up with Saori! Something about this boy was different though. Ikki sighed and turned away.

"Whatever," Ikki replied.

"Ikki have you already pissed someone else off?" Seiya's somewhat annoyed and yet still somehow teasing voice asked from the doorway.

Ikki growled and turned towards the door, and Shun turned to look as well. He saw the more familiar sight of Seiya standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. Behind him were three other Bronze Saints.

The first was around average height for his age, and his eyes were an icy blue (yet still managed to somehow give Shun an apologetic glance). He had shoulder length blonde hair, and a sharper face that reminded Shun suddenly of a bird. Beside him was a slightly taller young man with long black hair that hung down to around his knees. This one had blue eyes, but they were rather dull and Shun wondered suddenly if he was blind. The last was the shortest of the group (though still taller than Shun). He had pink hair and blue eyes, and his eyes were somewhat severe.

"No no," Shun said with a smile, sensing that Ikki was not happy. "We were just introducing ourselves?" The other Bronze Saints seemed extremely surprised.

"Are you sure you're not just," Seiya said, pausing a moment for the right words. "extra friendly?"

Ikki snarled and seemed to take hat as his cue to leave. Growling lowly the whole way he pushed past the others and left quickly, leaving them all blinking after him. The blonde Saint sighed and turned to look at Shun.

"Sorry about that," he said. "Ikki's always been, well rather unapproachable."

"I'd say damaged would be more appropriate," Shun replied, making all the Saints blink at him. He just shrugged. "I've been being protected by a Specter most of my life. Believe me, Kagaho has a way shorter fuse."

"Yeah about that," Seiya said. "You said you came here with that Specter?" Shun nodded.

"My parents asked him to watch over me," he replied again. "And he agreed. Part of it though was probably the Wakening."

"The what?" the pink haired Saint asked in confusion.

"The Wakening," Shun replied. "Its a kind of, interesting development in the Specters. If they see the person they're destined to be with they have the Wakening. It's basically love at first sight. But well," Shun blushed a little suddenly and looked away. "I've been with him for so long that I've fallen in love with him too." The Saints could only stare at him as if he was from another planet.

"You're in love with that Specter?" the black haired Saint asked. Shun nodded.

"I'm worried about him," he said, realizing that he couldn't see him. "I know he could get hurt, but I know too that he IS a Specter. If anyone can drive that Othrysian away it's him. I just wish he wasn't so reckless all the time."

Shun's eyes grew sad again, though not the same old sad as before, more of a lonely sad. Those Saints that could see him all came to the same conclusion as Ikki had, though they tried to hide it (it was rather disrespectful to the Demigod after all). Shun was absolutely adorable. Seiya looked around quickly to distract himself from the thought.

"Uh," he said. "So, has the Wakening ever happened to a Saint?" Shun looked up and Seiya wanted to face palm.

"Actually," Shun suddenly paused. He didn't want to give too much away, but luckily it looked like he was thinking. "I think I heard Kagaho mention that, yeah. Usually it was during the Holy Wars. I don't really think anyone knows about those."

"I'm still confused," the pink haired Saint said, holding up his hand. "How is this even possible?"

"Oh," Shun replied with a slight smile. "I think it's because the goddess of love decided to have a little fun with the Specters, so she cast a spell over all one hundred and eight of them."

"Right," the Saints all sighed.

Shun giggled a bit, thinking that (though that really was what had happened) it was kind of funny that a single sentence was all that was needed to explain the whole situation to them. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was known to play her little games, though this was by far the largest game she'd ever played. And with the Specters? Why them? It seemed a little impractical with the Holy Wars having been waged for centuries. The Saints couldn't help but sigh again. Sometimes they just never understood the gods.

The Saints looked up and paused when they saw the happy and somewhat innocent smile on the boy's face. They found that they liked the young Demigod. He was exactly the kind of person that you'd want to meet, the kind that was sweet and tried to be helpful even if they weren't sure that they could be. Suddenly though, the pink haired Saint sighed as he thought of something.

"We haven't even introduced ourselves have we?" he asked. "I'm Bronze Saint Andromeda Reda."

"I'm Bronze Saint Cygnus Hyoga," the blonde saint said.

"Bronze Saint Dragon Shiryu," the black haired Saint replied. Shun paused and gave Shiryu a long hard look.

"Sorry for asking," he said. "But are you blind?" Shiryu nodded.

"I am," he said. "I lost my eyesight in an accident a few months ago." Shun watched him closely for a moment.

"No you didn't," he replied. The Saints all paused.

"What?" Shiryu asked.

"You didn't lose your eyesight in an accident," the Demigod replied. "It was a deliberate attack. It seems like it was painful too."

The other Saints glanced at Shiryu, surprised. But they were even more surprised to see his jaw unhinge in utter confusion at the boy's remark. Shiryu had never told his friends that he had really lost his eyes when a traitor had attacked him. He'd managed to win the duel and ended up killing the other Saint, but it had cost him his eyesight to win the battle. Not wanting to worry anyone he'd told them it was an accident. The only people who knew the truth were the Gold Saints and Saori herself. How could Shun know when he'd never met before today?

"How," Shiryu asked. "did you know that?"

"Oh um," Shun said kind of quietly and sheepishly. "I'm a wound reader. I can tell where someone got an injury and what happened. It's an ability I was born with. Usually though I can only use it when someone tells me how they got the wound because many of my abilities were suppressed." When he saw the confusion of the Saints he realized he couldn't let them know it was because of how strong he was. He smiled and added. "To keep me hidden." Well.. it wasn't a complete lie.

The Saints were all silent. Some were staring at Shiryu with utter disbelief that he would hide something so important from them. Shiryu had his head turned in Shun's direction in utter confusion. Reda on the other hand had narrowed his eyes and was glaring at Shun. That wasn't something that he liked, and it was obvious to Shun. He didn't trust that at all. Shun looked away quickly. He'd probably let something slip that he shouldn't have, but there really wasn't any going back now. He couldn't help it though. He liked to help people.

"I can," Shun said quietly. "I can try and heal you if you want. I know healing spells. I've never tried to heal someone's eyes before, but I've healed much worse injuries before."

"No way," Reda growled, making the other Saints jump a little at the venom in his voice. "I don't trust that one bit. Something about all of this seems wrong, and if you don't know what you're doing, why should we let you anywhere near our friend?"

"Reda," Hyoga gasped. "That's no way to talk to him!"

"I don't care," Reda growled, glaring at Shun. "Something about this isn't right."

Shun didn't look up at them. They had no idea how right Reda was. This was all wrong, but how was he supposed to let them know what was going on? If he already hated him, before he'd ever even told them his true identity, then was there a point of ever revealing it? Shun had suspected that though most of the people he'd met seemed on much better terms with the Underworld, that some were not. For some people the scars of the Holy Wars ran much too deep. Seiya and Hyoga glanced towards Shun and saw his hurt expression and they gave Reda glares that made him back off. It was obvious though that he didn't trust Shun.

"It's fine Reda," Shiryu suddenly said, making everyone pause and look up. "I don't know why you say that, but I don't sense anything bad about him. I can feel that you know what you're doing, and I really can't see that there's anything wrong going on at all. If you want to give it a try, I'm willing to let you do so."

"Shiryu-" Reda began.

"Enough," Shiryu said.

Reda gave a low growl that was reminiscent of the one that Ikki had given them before he had left, but Shun could tell that it was only because he wanted to protect his friend. Slowly Shiryu sat beside Shun on the couch, and Shun studied the Saint's regal face for a moment. He certainly was a strange one. However he wasn't afraid and even offered Shun a small smile in encouragement. Shun nodded. He'd never done this before, but he wasn't going to let Shiryu's confidence in him be in vain.

"I'll do my best," he told him. "Just stay still. It's going to hurt a bit, but that's just the spell speeding up the healing process."

Shiryu nodded, and the other Saints watched carefully. Shun used spells? They supposed that it made sense. They couldn't really sense a Cosmos on him at all, and they could only wonder why that was. Shun closed his eyes a moment, summoning the necessary spell to his mind. Then he raised his left arm and held his right hand over it. The Saints who could see all gasped as an Ancient Text that they couldn't read appeared in black markings all over his left arm. It was in the Language of the Underworld, the language of the dead. However Saints reincarnated so they'd never seen the letters written out or heard it spoken. They didn't know what it was, not yet at least. One of the longer string of words (actually the words of the spell written out fully on his arm) glowed white hot and then disappeared from his arm altogether. Shun then laid his hands over Shiryu's eyes and began to speak the same words softly and gently, but confidently.

The Saints could only watch as Shiryu suddenly yelped, but forced himself to not pull away from Shun. Reda bristled and looked ready to pounce forward but was quickly stopped by Seiya and Hyoga. Shun however never looked up and never responded to the disturbances around him. He knew the words by heart, and the reactions were generally the same (or in the case of those watching far more violent) than this. Once he finished the long string of words he left his hands over Shiryu's eyes for a long moment until he was sure the spell had done all that it was going to. Then he pulled his hands away and the black mark reappeared then faded on his skin again until you could no longer tell there was a mark there at all.

Shiryu opened his eyes and blinked, but to the astonishment of his friends he turned and looked at them. His eyes were clear now and bright, and he looked around a bit, utterly speachless. He couldn't believe that Shun had done it! He could see with his eyes again as if nothing had happened. He turned to look at Shun, who looked a little tired, but smiled at him.

"You did it," Shiryu said. "I can see perfectly again. Thank you."

"It's fine," Shun replied with a tired smile. "I'm glad you can see again."

"Are you alright Shun?" Seiya asked.

"Just tired," Shun replied. "It's a lot harder to use that Spell without my cosmos."

"What were those marks on your arms?" Hyoga asked.

Shun paused and looked up at them. Well no point in hiding it now. He supposed he could have kept that hidden, but he felt better for having not. Letting Shiryu see again made him feel much better. He smiled at them gently.

"The seals," he replied. "When I was younger, it was decided that I would be safer off if no one knew I existed. So my abilities were sealed using these markings, even my Cosmos. Even at a young age the Othrysians have been chasing me."

"What?" Seiya gasped. "Why? Are you really that important?" Shun paused. He could lie and say he didn't know, except he was a horrible liar. He looked away.

"You can't tell us," Shiryu said, seeing the motion. Shun said nothing. "It's fine. We understand. At least you'll be a lot safer here with so many Saints around."

The Saints watched Shun for a moment, but he continued to stare sadly at the couch in front of him. Seeing that he'd closed himself off and refused to talk anymore Shiryu stood and motioned for the others to follow him out. They did so, though Reda gave Shun one last glare before the door was closed and they moved away, talking quietly as they went down the hallway. Shun looked up at the closed door. He really didn't like keeping secrets, but he couldn't give away who he was yet. He let out an exhausted sigh that had nothing to do with the amount of energy used to cast that spell.

Shun felt horrible. He'd just given away a lot of secrets that Kagaho had been fighting to keep under wraps his whole life just to protect him like Hades had asked. Reda seemed to hate him even though he had no idea why, and well he was just feeling like too much was happening too fast. There was so much that had been brought to light that he had been hiding for such a long time. Shun brought his legs to his chest and buried his head into his arms.

A sudden tap on the glass doors outside made Shun jump. He looked towards them, worried that something could be wrong, but he found a familiar silhouette leaning heavily against it. Shun stood and ran over to the door, having to fight at little to pull it open against Kagaho's weight. As soon as he had it open the Specter fell heavily forward, but Shun managed to catch him. Shun nearly buckled under his weight but managed to keep his legs under him. Dark sticky blood started seeping into Shun's side from the wounds that riddled Kagaho's body.

Shun braced Kagaho against his hip and half dragged and half carried him toward the couch, ignoring the blood running down his side now from Kagaho's side and was fighting to keep his hold on the metal Surplice. Kagaho shuddered in the pain against the wounds but he didn't fight Shun and tried his best to help him. Shun was much smaller than him and had a lot of trouble to carry him to the couch. As soon as they reached it Shun sat Kagaho against the back of the couch as gently as possible. Shun quickly sat beside him and looked at all of the wounds. Kagaho removed his armor and let it sit in place off to the right in its bird like form.

"I managed to drive him away," Kagaho said. "But we did a number on each other, and probably caused a lot of damage to that coliseum. For now though he's retreated, and you'll be safer here with more eyes to keep an eye on you."

"You're hurt," Shun said, the pain in his eyes speaking to the almost physical pain he saw at Kagaho's wounds. "Don't talk. Let me heal you." Shun reached towards Kagaho's chest, but he quickly grabbed the boy's wrist to stop him.

"No," he said with a gentle growl. "You're tired. You healed someone else."

"A Bronze Saint," Shun quickly defended himself. "He was blind, and I couldn't just let him stay that way. I didn't use that much power."

"You're lying," Kagaho growled protectively. "I won't let you hurt yourself just because of some wounds I have. Besides, its not like I can die from this."

"Let me heal you," Shun begged, tears forming in his eyes when he looked up at the Specter. "I don't want you to be in pain. You can't lie to me. I can tell that they hurt you a lot. I won't overdo it, I promise. Just let me ease the pain."

Kagaho froze as he looked down at the boy. He was so absolutely cute, even when he didn't mean to. Where he had become cute well, he didn't really know. Hades was huge and intimidating and Pandora was beautiful but fierce. Where had Shun become such a gentle and quiet person? It didn't really make much sense. But he couldn't stand to see the boy crying. As much as he hated to think that the boy could hurt himself for his sake he couldn't ignore the boy's pleas. He looked away quickly and let out a huff.

"Fine," he replied. "But just a little. I don't want you hurting yourself, got it? If you get too tired then you're going to stop."

"I promise," Shun said, nodding.

Kagaho nearly immediately regretted his decision and began to take it back as Shun reached for his arm and the spell turned white as he summoned its power again. Shun however reached forward and laid his hands on the Specter's chest and began to quietly say the spell before Kagaho had a chance to stop him. The Specter sucked in a breath against the pain as the spell took hold.

For a while Shun spoke the words, and he let the Spell do its work. However as he began to grow more and more tired he knew that he'd only worry Kagaho if he didn't stop soon. Satisfied that the Specter's pain had at least decreased he ended the spell. Kagaho glanced down at the wounds, which were now much smaller and much less painful. The open wounds were also shallower. If he had been at full strength he would have been able to completely heal the wounds, but Kagaho was fine with this for now. He'd endured worse for a much longer amount of time. Shun's mark returned to normal and he put his hand against his head.

There came a knock on the door, and then Saori pushed it open to peer inside. Upon seeing the scene she quickly opened the door and ran into the room, glancing around at tall of the blood. It was obvious that the battle had not been an easy one. She looked at the Specter and gave him a worried but sweet smile that Kagaho wasn't too sure how to respond to.

"Are you in pain?" she asked kindly. "We should bind your wounds. Shun? Are you feeling alright?"

"He'll be fine," Kagaho replied, wincing a little. "He used a healing spell on me, but he healed one of your Saints from his blindness before he attempted to heal me. He's just tired, he won't have any lasting damage."

As if on cue the small Demigod suddenly tipped forward and hit Kagaho's chest. The Specter winced but didn't try and push him away, and instead laid a hand on the boy's shoulder as he sighed. Shun had fallen into a deep sleep, but his breathing was normal. Kagaho was glad he hadn't hurt himself from overusing the spell without his Cosmos, however he was still a little upset that he had worn himself out so much. He sighed.

"What am I going to do with you?" Kagaho said with a slight purr in his voice. Saori watched the Specter a moment.

"I'm sure you have a lot to explain," she said. "But you need to have these wounds tended to, and you should really rest. That could not have been an easy battle. I'm sorry that you had to fight it for us." Kagaho looked up at her.

"It wasn't anything special," he said quietly. "Just doing what we were supposed to be doing all along."

"I don't blame you for the Holy Wars anymore," she said kindly.

"Perhaps not," Kagaho replied. "But there's a lot that we still blame ourselves for."

Saori watched the Specter sadly, but she had no response to that. What was she supposed to say? That it was okay? She knew that it probably wasn't going to be okay, not for a long time. But they were still all here to fight this war together, for better or for worse.

This was a MUCH MUCH MUCH faster update than before. I felt like I needed to get this chapter out though because it introduces some key characters as well as explains some things in the story line that are pretty darn important. I hope this chapter doesn't seem too rushed. Though if you don't know who Reda is I'd look it up so you understand why I basically chose him to replace Shun as the Andromeda Saint.

The next chapter is where we'll see Alone and Cheshire again, and we'll get to see what they're up to as they move to meet up with the rest of Hades' army as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy the story.