-1Author's Note: This is something that Kathiii requested I write. It's a little darker then my usual fluff, but me likey anyway. By the way, if you would like to see something, don't hesitate to ask. I do requests.
Please review!
FORGIVENESS
Saga was hesitant. Tomorrow was his coronation as the new Pope, but he had one last thing to do before the ceremonies and rituals were to begin. He had to go to the Cemetery of Saints.
The other Gold Saints had watched him stride up the stairs of the path of the twelve temples, and finally hesitate at the gates of the graveyard. Deathmask, Camus, Shura, and Aphrodite especially knew his fear; it was hard to walk into a place that you had once lain in as a corpse. Not to mention the fact that no one had bothered to remove their tombstones. The very first one you saw as you entered was actually Saga's. Not pleasant in the least.
The former Gemini Saint finally walked into the lonely cemetery. He skirted the holes that had once housed the bodies of him and the other Saints that had lost their lives during the reign of his evil side. Up on a small rise, was a lone headstone. The granite read simply "Aiolos, Sagittarius Saint". It had been the one order he had never regretted during his reign of terror; the order to have Aiolos honorably buried even though traitors were supposed to be left to rot.
Saga knelt in front of the stone. Aiolos had not been reborn with the rest of them because he had not taken an active role in the Holy War, and Shion had said that Aiolos had not wished to go back to the world of the living. He had been dead almost as long as he had been alive.
The wind blew softly, and the scattered clouds threw shadows on the ground. "Aiolos, I had to come to ask your forgiveness." Saga began quietly.
"I don't know if you can forgive me for what I did. I remember back when we first got our Cloths. We were the youngest of the Gold Saints then, and we didn't know Deathmask, Shura, Aphrodite, Camus, Milo, Shaka, Mu, or Aldebaran yet. We knew of Roshi and we of course knew Shion, but we were the only two. We became such good friends then.
"When the older ones came, Shura, Aphrodite, and Deathmask, I remember how we took Shura under our wing, yet somehow left Aphrodite and Deathmask out. Maybe if you had befriended them too, maybe then I could have been stopped." Saga couldn't help but smile sadly. "Okay, maybe not. Deathmask is a tad bit on the psychotic side."
He sighed. "But then I wasn't such a good friend as I thought. I hid the existence of my brother from you; the reason is still a blur to me. Then, I didn't tell you about those black outs where I would be doing some innocuous activity one moment, and the next, find myself holding the neck of some stray foot soldier. Maybe if I had, then I could have gone to the Pope, and my evil side wouldn't have progressed farther. Maybe he wouldn't have seduced me to the path that I took.
"Aiolos, I became the very thing that I was supposed to fight, and I didn't realize it until it was too late. I didn't realize, until I saw them carting your bloodied body back in, and I saw Shura nearly in tears but fighting to not let them fall. I knew when I saw Aiolia ostracized for the crime of being your kin. For that, I can only ask forgiveness, but I know that not everything can be fixed by saying sorry."
The breeze ruffled Saga's hair. The blue strands temporarily blocked his view of the headstone, but it didn't hide the tear that ran down his cheek. "I betrayed you almost every way possible. But saying sorry isn't all that I'm going to do. I'm being named the new Pope, this time with the blessing of Athena, and I promise you now, I will rule as you would have. I will lead Sanctuary and the Saints in this time of peace and prepare for the next war. Aiolos, I'm doing that to atone for my misdeeds, and I hope that if you can't forgive me now, you can forgive me the next time we meet."
The wind was all that Saga heard, but he felt something brush his shoulder. He was only wearing a sleeveless training tunic and pants, and the light brush made him look up. Two large, white feathers drifted lazily to the ground at his feet. He looked up to the sky, almost expecting to see Aiolos floating above him, but all he saw was blue sky. He looked back at the feathers and gently picked them up.
Saga stood and turned with a smile. He knew that the feathers were Aiolos' way of telling him that he was forgiven already. The new Pope was still determined to do his best for Aiolos anyway. When he looked to the entrance of the graveyard, there stood the twelve Gold Saints; Mu, Aldebaran, Kanon, Deathmask, Aiolia, Shaka, Shiryu, Milo, Seiya, Shura, Camus, and Aphrodite. All of them were giving him smiles, and when he reached them, Shaka caught sight of the feathers.
"So he forgives you." the Virgo Saint stated.
Saga could only nod. Aphrodite began to search his pockets. "Now, I knew I had it on me . . . Ah-hah!" The Pisces Saint pulled out a leather thong from his back pocket. He picked off an aqua colored hair, and held out his hand. "May I see the feathers?"
Saga raised a brow, but gave them to him. Aphrodite quickly tied the feathers together with the thong and then beckoned to Saga. He complied with the Pisces Saint's summons, and Aphrodite quickly braided the feathers into Saga's hair. "There." he said.
Saga smiled. "Thanks." He glanced back at the others. They were smiling too, and began to turn back to return to their temples. The last to leave was Seiya, and before he left, he glanced over his shoulder. Saga was staring off at the horizon, the breeze blowing his hair and the feathers gently. Seiya got the fanciful idea that Saga could see something he couldn't, maybe what the future would bring. The new Sagittarius Saint shook his head at himself, and began to walk back to his temple.
Saga smiled at the back of the youngest of the Gold Saints. Saga knew that Seiya would become a legend as would Aiolos. What the new Pope didn't know is that he would become one himself.
That war spawned the stories of the five Kamui and their wearers, the civil war in Sanctuary, and a multitude of others. Among them was the story of the man who twice became Pope. Once he had done it by deceit and evil. The second, Athena herself blessed him. The only part of his story that never changed, not in millennia of telling it, was the fact that he wore two feathers braided into his hair until the day he died.