Lance's Role

by Thrudgelmir2333

A 'shonen' fic that sequels Next Dimension and Lost Canvas. In 1960, the Pope of Athena receives three prophecies from an old enemy that irremediably set the course of his reign over Sanctuary's tragic history and almost two decades later a Saint of Pegasus finds himself put through the unfolding of a new age of violence caused by the Pope's actions. Please enjoy and review.

14. 1A: Starting Anew

Notable OCs up until now that I own: Pegasus Lance; Andromeda Shinta; Heracles Aguilon's Silver Saint Generation; Taurus Daniel's Gold Saint Generation; Sanctuary Nobles; Daemon Lucifer;

Notable Original concept (until now): Pegasus Temple; Sanctuary Town; MMC; Sanctuary Forts and Outposts

Recurrent/Cameo OCs belonging to Jenny DeVic: Cassiopeia Cassandra; Behemoth Torak (Toruk); Mrs. Schafurwatt

Recurrent/Cameo concepts belonging to Jenny DeVic: 88 Knights Festival; Golden Line Heritage; The Great Bodyguard legend; The Sanctuary-sponsored orphanages; Andromeda Island's geography and tests

Author Notes:

Please enjoy and review.

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"Rozan teachings date back to the age of myth. Once loyal to the Celestial Empire, the Master of Rozan switched sides to Athena when, according to legend, the Tiger and Dragon Gods became the new constellations of Libra and Draco.

The former Master, named Dohko, had reigned over the waterfall from 1748, the year he took on the Gold Cloth of Libra, to the late 20th Century. By the end of his life he accumulated five students and two proteges. All seven of these youths, whether seeking teachings or simply a home, whether loyal or rebellious, have come to regard him as a symbol of wisdom, experience and mindfulness. They all looked up to him for advice and thought of his words when making important decisions. In many ways Dohko was a father figure that united these youths as a loose family.

It is unknown nowadays what exactly made him take the decision regarding whether or not making the new Cancer Saint of 1976, Pegasus Lance, the grand-predecessor to my colleague Kōga, one of those youths. Accounts from the current Libra Saint Shiryu and the Libra Saint who briefly took over during the, Black Saint Wars vary. The last protege of Dohko has also reportedly gone missing, further thinning available info. Moreover, most of Dohko's decisions were mystic even to his closest friends.

In the interest of this essay I'm writing, I state my belief that it was an act of kindness and interest from Grandmaster Dohko's part. Whether I am right or wrong, only the long deceased could possibly tell."

-Dragon Ryuho, stating his thoughts regarding Libra Dohko in an essay to Sanctuary's History class in Palaestra.

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The following day

Rodario

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The sun had barely risen over Sanctuary, making the rural streets nearly void of people. Cancer Lance walked alongside Andromeda Shinta towards the exit of the village, from where he would set off to China to search for the Master of Rozan.

On his back, two Cloth Boxes laid concealed by regular cloth. Not wanting to draw attention to his cargo as well as keeping the fact the owned a Gold Cloth a secret, Lance had insisted on concealing the Pegasus and Cancer Cloths. At first he intended to leave Pegasus behind at the Cancer Temple but Shion, for some reason, thought otherwise.

Take the Pegasus Cloth with you. Who knows, Dohko might find your Sainthood history interesting...

Lance frowned. What did Shion mean by this? Normally he'd assume the Master he would meet had some sort of personal affinity to Saints of Pegasus for some reason, but over the years Lance had come to suspect Shion's every gesture and word. He wasn't exactly comfortable trusting sly remarks from the old man who made his life hell for almost two years. Lance has had nasty surprises over the years thanks to Shion.

One such surprise walked right next to him, trying to take him someplace in Rodario. "Shinta what was it that you wanted to show me?" he demanded to know as he was dragged through the village's streets. "If I want to find who I'm looking for in the middle of goddamn China while there's still daylight, I got to set out now! Do you know the time difference between here and there?"

The green head shook, refusing to let out the surprise. "This will only take a second, Lance."

The Cancer Saint sighed. It wasn't so much the fact that Shinta would take long that bothered him, but more so that it was probably some sappy thing related to the fact that Lance was about to leave for an extended period of time. This actually made him look forward for his time off in China even more. Some distance from Shinta was bound to do him good.

He felt bad for thinking this, though, when he thought about the effort the Andromeda Saint had been going through to keep Pegasus' spirits up. Lance was fairly certain that he was going through a depression phase prior to the Gold Cloth derived from thinking everyone in Sanctuary was chasing him around and calling him a criminal. He hated to admit it but it was nice to hear a friendly voice now and then in the midst of all that ranting.

Shinta had let up after Lance's promotion, probably thinking that receiving a Gold Cloth was one of the greatest causes for celebration one could ask for in Sanctuary. Who could blame him? Lance surely couldn't;he himself felt like he should be happier, after all.

The Pegasus Saint covered his mouth for a yawn. He said he had to leave early for China, but the truth was that he really wished he didn't need to since he had gotten back from the damn party in Kastoria at 3am.

"You're so tired! Why don't you stay another day in Sanctuary before setting off?" Shinta suggested yet again. "You said you only got four hours of sleep and now you want to travel to the other side of the world?

"Shinta, please, both you and I have sucked up way worse. I want to get this over with. You know how much I hate wasting days like that. Besides" he confessed "It's better than going back to the Golden Zodiac. That Capricorn Saint has been glaring at me ever since I joined the ranks. The others aren't so bad, but I still feel weird hanging around the Pope and the Gold Saints, too. "

The Andromeda Saint had been taking notes of his friend's commentary of his new position in the golden Zodiac. It still fascinated him that he was walking by one of the twelve greatest Saints in Sanctuary. The Cancer, however, had done little since his promotion but mention how suddenly he had fallen into such a bizarre situation. "Lance, you never gave me a straight answer at how was it at Kastoria yesterday." Shinta changed subject. "I was worried because I thought you'd get in trouble, but... you said everything was fine."

"It was just a dumb, boring ball with lots of high class people, Shinta, nothing to worry about. What was the worse that could happen?" There was a surprisingly dirty glance from Shinta, something Lance didn't know the nice boy was capable of. "...Don't look at me like that! I did nothing wrong!"

Shinta let go of the subject. "Anyway, if what you told me is true, then the Pope is giving you a new Master, right?" he tried to confirm. Shinta was unsure how to feel about this. On one hand it was amazing news for his best friend, on the other Shinta was worried about how Lance would handle the opportunity he was being given. Something told him the anti-social Gold Saint with a distaste for Sanctuary's teachers would not have his own way. "That's wonderful, Lance! Maybe this time-"

"Maybe this time what, Shinta?!" Lance almost shouted. He was willing to give this matter a chance, but he could just tell already that he was going to regret the trip. He had to deliver Shion's letter anyway so he might as well take the heat of facing this Dohko guy, though it didn't mean he was happy about it. "I'm not going to China with any high hopes! I bet the guy is just like any other asshole in Sanctuary."

"That's not true, Lance. If you thought that way, then why are you trying now?"

The Pegasus Saint felt the words rushing out of his throat but didn't let them out. The truth was that Shinta actually played a role in his decision since all the boy talked about was how great Guardnia was. He'd never admit this to him, though.

Content with having put things in perspective for Lance, Shinta once again changed subject. "I hope I'll get to see you again, soon. I know you'll be gone for a while and that I shouldn't interrupt your training. I'll miss you."

"...Really wish that didn't make you sound like a heartbroken girlfriend, Shinta."

Shinta went red and tried to ignore Lance's taunt. "But it's true! You're like an older brother to me, the closest thing I have to it, anyway... Which is why I wanted to give you a present before you left."

Lance raised his eyebrow, not sure whether to be intrigued or uncomfortable with another gesture of unnecessary sappiness. "That's... really kind of you but I'd honestly prefer to go without thinking you might actually think of me as more than a surrogate brother." Shinta growled in frustration. The boy was clearly making an effort to endure Lance's obligatory wave of teasing without a fuss. "Alright, let's see what it is."

They arrived by a small shopping stand near the exit of Rodario. It seemed to be of a traveling merchant since the stand consisted of a wheeled table with green fabric over it and a sign over their heads standing on poles with 'Excellent Merchant Wares' scribbled on it. Lance grumbled. The shop seemed to be just a presence marker away from a Peanuts comic strip.

His frowning intensified when he realized the Excellent Merchant Wares consisted of one of the biggest piles of junk he had ever seen. The sheer collection of books, weird objects and the predominant color schemes of purple and black to the objects made the stand look like some obscure church yard sale. Still, a number of things caught his attention, included a deck of tarot cards with which the shopkeeper, a man of armpit length blonde hair, black robe tied by purple waistband and disarming smile, entertained himself with by laying out on the table seemingly random sets of three at a time. All the other crap seemed to include Arabian lamps, weird books about astrology and religion, a small, elaborate and creepy purple and black peacock statuette with a human head and arms and finally a gold-colored harp.

The harp seemed to be the only object of actual value due to the detail on its carving and ornaments and the delicate look of its strings. Other junk laid on the ground around the stand but Lance didn't feel inclined to analyze the stock of someone he deeply suspected to be in Rodario to rip off the tourists. The man himself did not seem Greek. At first glance, Lance would say he looked German, who were not uncommon in Sanctuary.

"Excuse me, Mr. Elijah?" Shinta politely called "Do you remember me? I was here yesterday. You're not busy, are you?"

"Shinta, he's a shopkeeper. We keep him busy."

The shopkeeper laid a final set of three cards, namely the upside-down Fool, the World and the Chariot. He spent sometime looking at these cards, as if trying to decipher the future through them.

"Hmm, I suppose this sounds right..." The man lifted his golden eyes to his clients with a smile. "Yes, I remember you. How could I forget? You were looking for books on cosmos, correct?"

Lance saw Shinta nodding. "Why were you looking for that? Are you really applying for the Silver Rank?" Lance asked.

"Yes, I've decided to go through with it. If I want the access I need then I must become a Silver Rank. If I can learn to use my cosmos to reach Mach Five, then,... I may be able to find my Mother in Japan." Shinta explained. "Besides, we're not going on missions anymore since you're a Gold Saint and you'll be training. I'll have to move on to something, right?"

Lance scratched his chin in reflection. "...I guess you're right. I suppose our time doing missions together is over."

Shinta's smile quivered, trying to hide sadness. "You must be happy. You've been trying to break the partnership off since we met." he assumed. He couldn't blame Lance. For the first days it seemed like all Shinta could do was either keep following his instructions or get in his way, like some dumb intern.

"I wouldn't say that."

Shinta blinked, not sure he heard right. "No?"

Lance then smirked more widely than Shinta had ever seen him do. "Yeah, I'm actually kind of impressed seeing you take on something like that so frontally. It's nice to see you acting like a man, challenging yourself like that and knowing exactly what you must do to reach your goals." He saw Shinta beam up, happy like a clam for his Nissan's compliments. "You got two years of practice already with me so you'll probably be able to work off a one-year training deal instead of the traditional three. Don't go run after a Cloth you don't like, though. Picking Centaur had me beaten up by Aguilon, remember?"

Realizing what Lance was talking about, Shinta shook his head. "Don't worry, Nissan. I don't know what Silver Cloth I'll go after, though. There aren't many available and some of them are still missing. I heard the Heracles Saint has been tracking the Aquila Silver Cloth for years. I'll try to get one that doesn't force me to prove myself through violence. Maybe I'll ask my Master for advice about it..."

"Good idea. Guardnia should know what's the best armor for you. You should talk to him to see if he has anything in mind."

"What about you, Lance?" the boy asked, curious to how the Saint he looked up to perceived Shinta's potential. "What armor would you think would be best for me?"

The Cancer Saint scratched his chin. "How about Ophiuchus?"

"...That's an Amazon cloth!"

"Exactly! You'd look great on it with your hair-"

"Lance!" Shinta screamed. He hated being compared to a girl, even if it was just Lance teasing him.

Cancer shrugged the protesting kid off. "Fine! I don't know, Shinta, all the chain Silver Cloths are taken and you haven't specialized your cosmos enough in any other way for me to recommend anything. You probably should start thinking about replacing someone."

Shinta hesitated. "Oh, I could never...that requires a duel, right? I wouldn't want to hurt anyone and the other person earned the Cloth-"

It was Lance's turn to protest. "Oh, what the hell does it matter anyway, Shinta? You need the Rank, not the Cloth." God helped him if he still had to put up with Shinta's pacifist hesitations now that they weren't partnered up anymore. "Just do your best to master Mach 5 and you'll get what you want, right?"

The shopkeeper interrupted them by presenting an object in his hand. "This is what you pointed out yesterday, correct? I stored it just for you."

Lance's red orbs widened. The blonde man was holding in his hand what looked like an exact copy of Shinta's Yours Ever necklace. It had the same silver chain, the same star-shape, carved laurels and English inscription and the same encircling ring.

Shinta took it to his hand. "I was walking around Rodario after you left for the north and mister Elijah," Shinta turned to the blonde man as if to confirm the name, to which he nodded "was offering it for sale. I bought it and thought about offering it to you as a promotion gift."

Elijah, the blonde shop owner, watched the green-haired Saint put the necklace around Cancer Lance's neck and smiled as the older Saint analyzed the inscription. "You were lucky; many wanted to buy this family heirloom, but Saint Andromeda wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. "

The Cancer Saint stared at the gift around his neck with opened jaw. "I... Shinta... Wow. ..How much did this cost?"

"It doesn't matter, Lance, it's a gift." Shinta assured.

"Yes, it does! You didn't have to do this for me. Damn it, I knew it had to be something sappy!..." he complained. He felt terrible for doing so, since he knew Shinta had genuine kindness in this gesture. He looked so stupid with the necklace, though, so he pushed it inside his shirt but in a way the silver chain was still visible. "Thank you, Shinta... This... is a nice gift. I know how much your own means to you."

After thanking the shopkeeper, Shinta started walking Lance towards the exit of Rodario. "When I got to Sanctuary, my pendant was the only thing I had left from my Mom. In Andromeda Island I felt many times like it was the only thing thatstill connected me to her, especially when I prayed to it. She'd told me 'Yours Ever' meant that she'd forever be with me in spirit even though she was far away and maybe that's what she meant by it."

"Is that so?"

"Well, yeah, I always imagined it that way, so I thought that maybe you could come to imagine something similar about your friends and Sanctuary if you had one." Shinta's puppy green eyes saddened. "Sorry if it sounds to girly... You probably think it's a corny present."

"Well, you could have picked something a little less 'BFF'ish, but...I'll take it." He smiled, for truth be told he was kind of touched. "I promise I'll keep it by my side as often as I can. Still, it's astounding how lucky you were to find in Rodario someone selling another exemplary of your Mother's pendant-"

Lance couldn't finish his sentence because Shinta suddenly wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. "Good luck, Lance. I'll be rooting for you. I know you'll do your best."

He sighed and patted the kid's head. "Okay, there, there...now you're just making it weird." The eyes the pair attracted started making Lance's face go red. Lance turned to the Trojan Walls, a fortified checkpoint that had been built in Rodario back in World War II. It delineated the end of the village and the start of the 'real world'. It was a withered structure consisting of a thick line of fort-style walls one could climb on to via stairs. It had been built to resist tank fire but an inner circuitry of stardust made it resistant to superhuman blows as well. He looked back down."I'm gonna push you away now, okay?"

Shinta let go of Lance and wiped a tear off his eye. He didn't want his Nissan to think him weak in their goodbye moment. "Don't give up on this chance, okay? I'll be in Sanctuary waiting for you with good news."

Not wanting to prolong what was already a cringing conversation, Lance took his partner's hand and shook it firmly. "Like a man, remember?" He then covered his head with his hood, turned away and waved goodbye with the back of his hand as he trailed off beyond the Trojan Walls.

Shinta sniffed but pulled himself together. Over the next few months, he'd have to be strong and prove himself capable of growing up to be just as much as Lance. He turned his back on the Trojan Walls and headed for the Golden Zodiac.

As he walked along Rodario, though, Shinta came across the sight of the shop owner passing by him, his things packed and his disassembled stand in the shape of a pile of poles and planks under the arm.

"Mr. Elijah? You're leaving already?" asked Shinta, taken aback at how early the man was taking off. "But the day just started and you haven't sold your other excellent wares."

Elijah smiled. "It's okay, Saint Shinta. I've delivered the goods I've come to deliver and I just remembered something that must be done at home. I'll see you some other day. May the Gods be with you." he wished with a polite head nod before leaving.

Shinta stared at the sight of the man disappearing over the street corner, blinking his green eyes and not sure he was satisfied with the explanation. Not wishing to intrude in the man's personal business, he decided to head his own way.

Meanwhile, nearing the exit of Rodario, merchant Elijah, better known as Hypnos amongst his peers, smiled cheek-to-cheek and took a turn to a dark alley amongst the rural neighborhoods. There, he took out a chalk from within his sleeve and drew a rectangular on the floor amongst the shadows and away from the blessings of Athena and the eyes of the Saints. A pentagram of dark cosmos burned itself revealed in his forehead and the shades of the houses encircling around him into the drawing, causing it to sink into a dark staircase.

His mission complete, the Greek God of Sleep spared a sly smile at the town of Rodario before walking down the darkness. As soon as he was deep into the staircase, its opening was shrouded in shades that drowned it into nothingness, leaving but an empty alley behind in the streets of Rodario

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Chapter 14

First Arc

Episode 10

Starting Anew

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Hours Later

People's Republic of China

Henan Province

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Despite having left Sanctuary in the morning, the sun was high in the sky when Cancer Lance finally reached the Henan province in the North Chinese Plain, a diverse, interior landscape of floodplains and mountains where the Yellow River coursed through. Indications given to him by Shion had been that the Rozan Mountains, most commonly known as the Five Great Mountains or Wu Yue, were not located in close by areas but rather placed across a group of adjacent provinces in Northwest China.

This at first seemed to complicate the task of finding the Master since it seemed as if Lance would have to look for him through five different regions of the most densely populated country in the world. According to the Pope, however, he had only to travel to the central mountain, Mount Song, a natural mountain structure standing up to almost a mile above sea level. From there he'd be able to travel along the Yellow River until he reached the Sanctuary village community of Arlia.

Lance had been apprehensive about traveling through China. Mao's personality cult was stronger than ever and the whole Tibet annexation matter has been a hot topic of demands from the Lemurian communities for Sanctuary to interfere in the East. Most importantly, Zhou Enlai, premier of the People's Republic since 1949, had passed away not a week before. Combined with the increasing political tensions in the country it seemed obvious even to someone as uneducated as Lance that China was at risk of instability.

On the upside, the rumors he had heard about the Chinese countryside were unfounded. It seemed as if the stories of ongoing famine and cannibalism were outdated since the farmlands seemed peaceful and in good state. He imagined they were in the final stages of the process of recovering from the Great Leap Forward or maybe it was just because the area he was visiting was under Sanctuary power and protection.

Eventually, by following the roads amidst the forests and farmlands, he managed to come across a rockier, hillier area where a palisade village much like Arcadia stood. He cursed the limitations caused by the immaturity of his 7th sense anyway, for they cost him a great deal in hours. He could have been there in an instant if he knew how to properly use light speed, but instead was forced to move at an inferior level.

Arlia was a simple place, just like Arcadia, with a rural architecture that seemed pretty traditional in a Chinese setting. Most of the houses made use of overall symmetries, wooden frameworks and stereotypical roofs and windows of the Far East, things also employed by the Temple dedicated to Taoism that could be spotted amongst the homes. From where he stood at the village's gate, grain and rice canals could be seen escalating over the far off terrain's inclinations, where many villagers worked tirelessly for the harvest.

Interest was drawn to the gate, fashioned in wood and made to seem as if a dragon's head was looking down on those who entered. A pair of Asian Sanctuary soldiers disguised as Red Guards and armed with a holstered pistol and a bayonet for appearances stood vigilant and an inscription in Ancient Greek was surprisingly carved on the palisade. Lance's eyes squinted at it.

'By the light of Athena, we found this village in the name of the Emperor, Arles. May we live to march through here once more on our way home.'

-23rd of April, 1004 AD

The text was followed by a couple of scratched lines which at one point probably detailed a signature. The Gold Saint blinked, taken aback at seeing such an ancient encryption. A nearby wooden block seemed to be in place to hide the text in case unwanted eyes passed by Arlia. A layer of glass protected the text from further decay and human touch so he spent no more time examining it.

After confirming his identity with the two guards, Lance walked inside the village, hands sliding in pockets as he wondered how the hell was he going to find the mount Rozan amongst all the cliffs and hills Arlia sat between, much less some old Master he didn't even have a picture of. He also gave thought to the inscription outside. From the date and words he could easily deduce it had something to do with Arles I, to which the village seemed to be named after and to who Adriana Ghisi made reference the night before as the Pope of Sanctuary during the 11th Century.

Had an army of his passed through that area in campaign? It seemed unlikely; what was there for Sanctuary to fight in the East?

The concern of finding one tiny man in the middle of a huge ass country resurfaced and shadowed this doubt. The Cancer Saint felt the weight of the letter in his pocket and had half a mind to analyze it for clues on where to find Dohko, even if he had to tear it open. His honor prohibited him from doing so, though. He could ask the villagers but most of them seemed to be hard at work in the fields.

He tried to question the few left behind in the village, first by approaching a woman by a shop. "Excuse me, do you speak Greek?" he asked. By her reaction, the woman seemed to recognize his dialect. She shook her head, though, and pointed away while yelling something in Mandarin. Lance sighed, walked off and approached another passerby "Excuse me! I'm looking for-"

This second person reacted a bit more violently. He instantly started shouting incomprehensible things and practically shoved Lance away before going on with his life. The Cancer grumbled in frustration. What the hell was wrong with these people?

It was amidst this musing that he came across the Taoist temple, the largest structure in the village. Lance's red eyes expected to find a hidden statuette of Athena or some other Greek God among the figures of dragons and tigers standing in the Temple's front yard, something for the villagers to turn to when the 'normal people' were not around. Even with just a Saint and the locals nearby, however, the place seemed to hold no reference to the Hellenic Church.

Lance was intrigued by this. Was the Temple truly dedicated to Taoism rather than concealing the worship of Athena? This was unheard to him in Sanctuary. Even the Christian Churches he'd find in Europe in Sanctuary lands were nothing but a front to hide Hellenic rituals. He had even come across a couple of cases in which the villagers pretended Athena's statues to be of Mary, Fatima and other holy maidens, It was when he analyzed the Temple further with the interest of pursuing this interest that he noticed a person sitting in the garden amidst the small trees and statues of dragons.

It was, without a doubt, simultaneously the smallest and oldest looking person the Saint had ever seen. The elderly man was of diminutive stature, not seemingly capable of even reaching Lance's kneecaps, and his skin was darkened into a bizarre purple that popped out to the eyes. His long, white eyebrows and whiskers rained down his face and his triangular beard almost touched the grass he sat on. He wore a green kenpo gi and a Chinese straw hat on his head.

Lance was taken aback by the sight, having never seen such a strange excuse for a human being. The peaceful meditation he engaged in made it seem to Lance like he was asleep. The Cancer Saint entered the Temple and tried to approach him for directions. "Should I bother him? He seems so concentrated and all the others just yelled at me."

The light sound of a snore accompanied by the old man's wheezing whiskers painted a clear picture of what was going on. It wasn't long before mumbles in Greek started being heard. "«snore»...No...Tenma, put that down...dumb boy! ...No, I told you not to tease the tiger!...«snore»"

The Gold Saint stared in bewilderment at the old man dreaming about keeping in control what he could only assume to be some rotten grandson or child. "Hey, WAKE UP!"

Dark eyes opened with a startle and a gasp. "AH! What?! Wha... Who said that?!" he turned to the red eyed youth carrying the barely disguised Cloth Boxes and frowned. His hand petted his beard and his eyes narrowed. "I'm not buying anything! I have enough pamphlets and sermons about the importance of praising Athena instead of Mao! Go away!"

"Calm down, I'm not an Athena's Witness or whatever. Is that why everyone was treating me like crap?" Lance sighed as he walked inside the garden. "Listen, I'm sorry for waking you up, but you were the only one not speaking gibberish I couldn't und-"

"Don't step on the grass!" the old man interrupted. Lance's foot halted millimeters from harming the blades of green. Wind blew ominously between the two man, making the garden dance beneath them as the old man met eyes with him, transferring hidden wisdom and experience within his fragile body. "The weight of your Cloths will harm it."

"You were sitting on it! Asleep!"

The old man chuckled, letting out a thick, strained sound of someone perfectly aware of his hypocrisy. He took his twisted wooden cane and walked over to the teenager. "Yes, but my bum isn't full of anger. YOH, OH, OH, OH!" he argued.

Lance's mouth opened to argue back, but the sheer loss of words left him dumbstruck. Not willing to start a fight with a Chinese centenarian, he tried to stay calm and change subject. "Look, I'm looking for someone. I've been told to find the Master of Rozan, who should live somewhere in the mountains."

The old man raised one of his long eyebrows. "You have? What is your business with him?"

"I'm... not really allowed to say. I'm on mission from His Holiness, the Pope. Am I even in the right place?"

The old man pointed his cane at one of the far off mountains, one which seemed to be immersed in mist and forest. "Oh, yes, legend says that Dohko of the Tiger lives there on that mount, guarding the seal of Hades."

Lance smiled. "Great! Can you tell me what's the best way-"

"Oh, yes he does! And quite the warrior he is!" the old man continued, interrupting Lance and paying no heed to his follow up question as he ran his fingers through his beard. "It is said he is a powerful man of great beauty and youth despite his age; that he moves through the forest like a tiger, ferocious, yet elegant. Murderous, yet silent."

Lance lost his smile. "Hm... thanks for the warning, but I just want to know-"

"His fingers are strong like claws and his hair flows in the wind like the leaves of a forest. He has once reversed the course of a waterfall with a single uppercut and calmed a volcano with a wave of his hands. In his heart, a passion for triumph burns like a flame. It is said no woman can resist his charms, that his wit is the weapon of his conquests and that his sheer virility has fathered one hundred children, ten of whom went on to become great warriors like himself!"

Lance narrowed his eyes. "...I appreciate the hype, but-"

"His wisdom, if water, would quench the world itself and the journeys he has undertook are the envy of warriors and heroes of ages untold. Beasts fear him, men idolize him, women want him and mountains tremble with his name." Once more, the old man scratched his beard in thought as he contemplated the legend that was Dohko of Libra. He sighed. "What I would not give, young man, to be in his shoes! What I would not give..."

"Look, sir" Lance protested, doing his best to stay calm and polite. "I would absolutely love to waste more time listening to how awesome this guy is, but I'm kind of on a tight schedule! I would appreciate it immensely if you informed me on the quickest way to find him!"

The old man chuckled and walked besides him, his cane poking the ground loudly with every step he took. "You young men are all the same. You are all anxious to spend that incredible energy you have. Don't worry, I can tell you where he is."

The Cancer Gold Saint's smile returned. Now he was getting somewhere. "Great. Where, then?"

Hopes came crashing down when the elderly dwarf scratched the head beneath his hat and grunted. "Herr... unfortunately, my memory is not the same it was. I don't remember the path. I'm sorry." he saw the youth staring at him in disbelief. "Maybe if someone walked me to it I'd remember it..."

Was this old dwarf trying to blackmail Lance into taking a walk with him? "I see. Or maybe if someone were to ask someone else where Dohko is." he walked away. "Maybe someone would get where he wanted a lot faster."

"Yes, indeed, if that someone knows how to speak mandarin to the villagers, I suppose that someone would be fine and dandy."

Lance halted and gulped. He could already just feel the sneer in the old man's face. "Alright then. Where the hell do I have to take you?"

The dwarf wasn't done. He walked beside Lance and massage his own, pained back. "Ow, my back isn't what it used to be. I can't walk long distances, much less take you up a mountain. Would you carry me?"

"...I have two hundred pounds of metal on my back! How the hell do you want me to carry you?!"

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Carrying two hundred pounds of metal on his back and now even an extra forty pounds of old man on top of his piled up Cloth Boxes, a disgruntled Gold Saint of Cancer made his way out of the village of Arlia into the farmlands that led to the Rozan Mountain.

The tip of a wooden cane hit his shoulder from above. "To the right!"

The wild Pegasus grunted, snorted and mumbled curses and complaints between breaths as he took the right road between the flooded rice plantations, trying to ignore the pointing fingers and laughs from the farmers at the man piggybacking the elder.

"Keep it cool, Lance. You're starting anew, Lance. You'll just find the Master and then drown this dwarf in the river." he promised himself.

"To the left!"

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Hours passed. Lance was guided between the fields of harvest into the forests filling the mountains, all the way doing his best to keep his patience despite the old man's cane pokes treating him like a cargo animal. Just as he feared, the sun was already setting before he even reached anywhere close to the Master's home. Darkness started setting in.

Climbing up the rocky ground betwixt the trees, the Saint of Cancer looked all over for any signs of footprints, rustled leaves or tracks that could tell him where to go, preferable something that would give him an excuse to drop the old man. He found virtually nothing so he was forced to rely on the old man's directions, irritating as they may have been.

As if the approaching night wasn't enough, fog also filled the area, reducing his already tree-hampered field of vision to but a radium of a few tens of meters. It seemed as if all Training Grounds had similar sorts of natural concealment and protections. Death Queen Island, Andromeda Island and Kanon Island were oceans away from anything else with active volcanoes, the steps of Mount Olympus were both out of sight and out of reach to anyone not open minded to the possibility of there being an invisible gateway in the Mytikas peak and Mount Rozan seemed to be immersed in labyrinthine forests, unnatural mists, dangerous climbs and impractical roads amidst a seemingly normal mountain range.

After what seemed like an eternity of climbing and making his way through plants and trees, Lance finally came across a less inclined dirt path which he followed.

His hand swatted a mosquito and he looked up to one tree to see it packed with gigantic bats that seemed ready to assault him. Bushes and plants rustled around him almost constantly as some of the weirdest mammals he's ever seen started becoming active with the coming night or rushed into their hideouts. He felt surrounded by Chinese tropical wildlife. He felt strange, reminded of a time when he had spent four years alone in such a wild environment.

Drops of water calmly fell from above. The newly arrived stars became obfuscated by gray clouds that threatened to pour down on the two of them.

Just what he needed. "Well, now we're having fun! Old man, if you're tricking me I will feed you to a tiger!"

The old man adjusted his straw hat to cover himself better as the rain drops slowly intensified. Despite the bumpy terrain the red-eyed youth was being guided through, the elder seemed strangely capable of maintaining his balance on top of the two piled on Cloth Boxes.

"The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth." he commented. He pointed his cane at the nature around them. "We are in the forest of Rozan. Soon, we will come across the home of the Master. Whether you find what you seek or not, you will be able to meet him."

"...I'm sorry, what?!"

The old man laughed once more. Lance was certain he took pleasure in confusing the youth. "Tell me, why do you seek the Master? What has his Holiness told you of him?"

Lance narrowed his eyes. More and more he suspected the old man was more than he seemed. Was he the Master? Shion told Cancer that Dohko was two centuries old. If he was, was this some sort of test? Or was he reading too much into it and the old man was just having fun manipulating an ignorant foreigner?

Interested in knowing how the elder would react to it, Lance decided to speak the truth. "The Pope hasn't told me much, and I've come for... teachings. I've come to ask him to be my Master."

"Teachings, huh? About what? What do you want to learn from him?"

"I got no clue..." Far off ahead, the constant, rumbling sound of a waterfall crashing down started to be heard, causing Lance's ears to perk up and his pace to hasten. "We're close!" he realized. The sharp pain of a cane poke to his shoulder made him scream. "OW! What the fuck-"

"It's rude not to answer an old man's question."

The Pegasus gritted teeth. There was hesitation from Lance's part in answering, something which intrigued the Chinese elder. "...I don't know what I want from him! Do you think I came here because I like listening to self-entitled jerks talking about their own superiority?! I came here because I was ordered to! Apparently having a Master is something I need to become a good Saint, even though I've just received the biggest promotion of my life."

The trees opened up to reveal a new scenario. Lance's red eyes widened.

Standing before him was one of the most impressive natural spectacles he had ever seen. The raging waterfall crashing down from high above the small lake by the mountain's foot was but the first breathtaking sight in that small, secluded clearing. The rocky side of the mount curved around the lake and several sharp rock protrusions sprouted from it, sometimes uniting into natural bridges above the calm water body. Many trees of curved trunks and bushes sprouted all over the rocky field, most around the lake, on top of the large boulders and small rock formations littering the area and in the path leading to a single, small Chinese-style house which looked over the whole field.

The home was simple, small enough to probably be considered more of a hut, but pretty nonetheless. A short porch fronted it, wooden doors and windows let out bright light from inside and the segmented Asian roof showed off a thin second floor. It looked over the lake from the terrain slope it stood on and a Chinese cherry tree with branches going over its roof tiles showered it in pink despite the season.

The admired Saint took a bit to take it all in. It was quite the beautiful and calm looking place, ideal for meditation and solitary training. Only the torrential rain soaking him prevented him from further enjoying the scenery. The Master surely lived there. "Is this it?" he asked anyway.

The old man, in a surprising feat, jumped off the high height he was in to the ground without so much as a complaint of back pain. "That's right. The Master lives here."

Lance took notice of the lighting from within the windows. "He must be inside. I guess this old man isn't the master." he concluded. "Thank you. I can retrace my steps here with sound speed if I want now. Do you want me to take you back?"

"Why would I?"

Before Lance could inquire him on this, the sound of rustling leaves among the surrounding trees and bushes accompanied by a light growl was heard. "Wait, what was that?!" His red eyes sharpened and looked around for the source of it. "Stay close, old man. It's getting closer!"

A second, louder growl was heard and, all of a sudden, a large shadow of a feline creature pounced from between the vegetation in front of them. Lance went tense and the old man widened his eyes. Before them, moving around its preys with the grace of a kingly creature, an enormous and terrifyingly beautiful four hundred pound white tiger now confronted the duo. Its fierce, golden eyes watched them, analyzing them, and his large, thick nails could already be heard rustling the rocks with each step forward. The creature came at a full stop just a few meters short of jumping on the Saint.

The old man watched, intrigued, red eyes locking with gold ones and Lance assuming full control of the situation. The Gold Saint frowned and narrowed his glare, causing the wild presence before him to let out growls of hunger in response. A careful step was made towards the old man so as to protect him.

The youth felt taken back in time.

It had been two years since he left Mount Olympus, two years since he's had to survive against the starved wolves living at the staircase of the Gods. Kastiel's abandonment had caused him much harm, the greatest one being what turned him into a ruthless hunter who was like a different person Lance normally was. His vision funneled on the tiger and he felt an old instinct rushing back, taking over his mind and turning him back into the monster those wolves learned to hate.

The sensation had been missed. Lance had led a complicated life since he took revenge on Kastiel, but things were extraordinarily simple when he was hunting, when he was fighting the creatures with nothing but his improvised knife. They were even simpler when he set up traps or confronted his adversary so frontally like just then. Two years before, he called not an equal foe the men in black armor in the field of battle, but the animals hunting for his flesh.

It was then that his hand reached his back pocket to find that his beloved knife, usually kept at his side ready to carve the flesh off the Olympian packs, was gone.

Lance's trance hit a bump on the road and soon other awkwardness settled in. Though the cold wind blew strongly, he was not in Mount Olympus and he faced a white tiger instead of a rabid, emaciated wolf. He was a foot taller than he used to be and the animal twice or thrice the weight and strength. The killing instinct of the hunter he had developed failed to adapt and now the Saint wondered what the hell he was just thinking.

The sharp pain of the cherry cane poking the back of his leg snapped him back to reality. He screamed and dropped to that knee. "OUCH! WHAT THE-"

"Your pose was wrong!" the old man chastised as he walked past the floored Saint. "Ma Chao would knock you down and rip your head off with a single leap if you tried to take it with such weak stance, leaning and footing. What were you doing, trying to take down a dog?" To Lance's shock, the old man then patted the tiger's head and scratched its neck, as if it were his pet. "You have a lot to learn, young man."

Lance, soaked by the rain, dirtied by the mud and now with a leg screaming in pain, locked eyes with the old man. "You are Dohko! What kind of fucking game do you think you're playing at?"

The tiger roared at the Saint as a warning, but Dohko of Libra gestured it to go inside the House. "Looks like I let the lights on. Do you want to go inside with us or not? You look like you'll catch a cold. Yo, oh, oh!"

{======================|0|======================}

Inside the bamboo-floored home, Lance put down his two Cloth Boxes, sat Chinese style and took out his soaked shirt before he caught pneumonia. He was in the kitchen that seemed to occupy most of the space available on the first floor of the house. The door had been closed and the curtains shut to keep the rain of their minds.

Lance's eyes looked around. The insides of the home were as simple as the outside. Kitchen furniture like a stove and a sink with several unused dishes next to it. A table of very short legs, which required him to be sitting on the floor the way he was, stood in the center of the room between four pillow seats, each with a different animal sewn on. A fireplace also stood against the wall. It was small, but was enough to warm the place up.

Dohko had ignited it seemingly by just poking it with the iron bar and now sat at the table as well, while Ma Chao the Bengal Tiger rested by the warm fire, grooming his wet, patterned fur. Lance groaned in frustration and took out the cloak over his Cloth boxes, revealing the shine of gold and bronze.

The old man was not oblivious to this "Oh, no!" Dohko lamented with a snark. "It appears I have been goading a Gold Saint! Whatever will happen to me, now that I have angered him?"

The youth hugged himself with the cold. He was not a fan of low temperatures, especially accompanied by having just almost dueled a tiger in the middle of the goddamn rain. Now the man he sought after tricked him into piggybacking him across the Chinese landscape and he even got whacked the whole trip with his lousy cane. "You lied to me, old man!"

Dohko seemed confused. "What, lied? When? I mean, I... haven't really fathered a hundred children, but that's what people say of me! What am I to do?"

"You know goddamn well what I'm talking about! I asked you to-"

"You asked me to take you to where the Master lived." Dohko looked around. "I live here, right?" He saw the Saint's face go red and chuckled. "Yohoho, sorry for misleading you. Also, thank you for the ride. I was dead tired when you woke me up and didn't feel like heading back home at all."

Lance took out Shion's document and threw it on the table. "Just take your damn letter!"

Silence filled the room while the Master took out the pair of rectangular lenses he used to read, took the letter and opened it. It was quite the big message, unfolding itself three or four times to reveal Shion's handwriting.

The Cancer Saint took the time to take a new look at the hailed legend of Sanctuary, Libra Dohko, a hero of the Lost Canvas War. He had imagined someone old, but not to the point of having the deformities the dwarf before him presented. His beard and mustache, which he occasionally massaged as he read Shion's words, imparted wisdom Lance expected, but why was he so short and why was his skin that dark shade of purple? He looked more raisin than man.

More stressing, what was that made him so ideal in Shion's eyes to teach Lance? What was it that separated him from the other Masters asides from a strange sense of goofiness? All he knew so far was that the elder was good at poking people with his cane and that was not enough to impress the Gold Saint.

Dohko smiled as he drank the written words of his best friend one after the other. Their sake meetings had become scarcer for the latest decade and Dohko feared Shion was reaching the final stages of Lemurian life. They should exchanged more correspondence while they still could.

The letter spoke of nothing surprising. The first few paragraphs dedicated themselves to Shion's apologies for not keeping in touch and how things were going with Mu and the Golden Zodiac. Just like he predicted, the latter half of the letter was about Shion's thousandth attempt to make Dohko take up a student.

Dohko had lost count of the promising young Saints Shion had sent his way. Ever since Tenma's departure, Shion always felt like Dohko should be teaching, imparting the knowledge they obtained thanks to the horrors of Lost Canvas, even if just to give him something to do in the lonely mountain. Dohko was all up for it if it were not for the fact that Shion only knew how to send lame students, who fitted more Shion's depiction of an interesting disciple than Dohko's. Now Shion sent him another one, one with a short fuse, apparently, perhaps hoping to spike the Libra Saint's interest.

"You are probably expecting this young man to be like all the others I sent you," Dohko read to himself from the letter "albeit with a lot of reluctance to do what you tell him to. You have my word as your friend that Lance is a good person at heart but has the hard shell of a delinquent and a stubborn mind. You two will make a perfect match." Dohko chuckled with this, reminded of all the times he had Shion rattled his years in the old days for recklessness and rabble rousing. "You've probably seen his Pegasus Bronze Cloth already and are thinking that I'm bribing you to take in Lance for the sake of Tenma, your first and only student, but truth be told that is just half of the enticement. The reason I'm investing so much in him and why because I'm sure he will interest you is because he reminds me so much of an old ally of ours..."

Dohko lifted his eyes to glance at the winged horse engraved on the Bronze Cloth Box in the corner. He would be lying if he said he was not surprised. Unsure what to make of it, Dohko tried to look over the fact he sensed Pegasus' energy when Lance first woke him up at the temple in Arlia and tried to push the youth's buttons the whole to see what kind of man Tenma's first successor in over two hundred years was.

His red eyes had also popped out to him, not because of the myths associated to it, but because they indeed made a link to the ally he and Shion once met. He needed not to read the rest of the letter to know who Shion talked about. The look in his eyes when Lance confronted Ma Chao had been more than enough.

The final lines gave him a synopsis of what to expect of Shion's candidate, as well what he had been put through. A total of seventy two missions, all of them of high danger level for a Bronze Saint and at least five of them called of 'catastrophic' difficulty, something usually applied to assignments that turned out to be way more than the Saint should be able to chew. The rest outlined main aspects of the personality such as unresolved anger and a tendency to push people away.

After looking over the lines dedicated to the fight with his would-be Kerberus Saint Master and comradeship with the Andromeda Saint, Dohko crumbled the letter into a ball and kicked it into the fireplace, causing it to flare up for a bit, much to the tiger's delight. "Well, the Pope sure speaks highly of you."

This seemed to be news to the youth. "'Could have fooled me."

"Hopefully you won't beat the snot out of me in front of everyone, too."

Lance widened his eyes. "You'll teach me?!" he asked, a strange excitement filling him up. He calmed himself, though, when suspicion took over. "That was a quick decision."

Dohko laughed. "Don't act so surprised. Why would I say no?"

"The Pope said you refused every candidate so far." Lance argued. He squinted at the Master. "Why should I trust you?"

"Because otherwise you won't learn anything. I can't teach someone who doesn't believe what I say. However,...I have to ask you something in return."

The Cancer Saint was suspicious. "Is that so? What is it?"

Dohko waved his cane at the house. "I need someone to help me take care of things around here. I live here alone and I can't take care of this place all by myself. If you do a couple of daily chores I'll let you stay here and maybe give a couple of lessons or two.

Not having expected things to turn out like this, the youth took his time thinking over the offer. Was Dohko really offering him lessons and a stay in his house just in exchange of taking care of him? He thought hard about it, being almost sure this was a trick to mooch off the teenager's work.

Dohko sensed hesitation in him. "Of course, you could head back to the rain..."

"Ugh, fine! I guess that's a fair trade." Lance accepted. He hoped whatever lessons this man offered were worth the trouble. It was not like Lance could still learn much from domestic stuff he had been doing since his time in Mount Olympus.

"Excellent!" The old man stood up from his seat and pointed his cane at the sink. "You can start by making dinner and cleaning the dishes. My house is a mess and I need someone who can cook. I had this young couple from Arlia who helped me now and then but from now on their tasks are yours." He scratched his beard in contemplation. "Today I'm in the mood for fish! I can just feel it in my tongue. Some peppers and rice would be nice too..."

Wondering with a disgruntled mood if the Master asked this of all the other candidates Shion had sent over the years, Lance walked over to the sink and found recently caught fish with tiger teeth marks on it drenched in ice cubes and salt. He sighed, rolled up his sleeves, prepared his fire cosmos and went to work.

Dohko whipped Lance's leg once more with his cane. "Not like that! Fire cosmos doesn't carry the heat well!"

"AH! SON OF A BITCH!"

"How do you expect to dominate the 7th sense if you can't live without it?! And make some for Ma Chao, too. He fished it for us, after all."

Lance roared to himself as he deactivated his energy and tried to resume his work the old-fashioned way. He didn't mind it since he didn't have fire cosmos back in Olympus to cook his meat, but he could just burn that blasted cane right off the old man's hand if he hadn't promised Shinta and the Pope he'd be nice. "No need for the whipping! I'll do it just fine!"

How did the old man sense his fire cosmos, anyway? Lance had barely burned any of it. As he reached for his other ingredients and prepared the meal for the three size meal, he glanced at the supervising old man and what wondered if there was more to him than met the eye.

Another cane whack. "Keep those red disks on the task at hand! Tonight, in exchange for my tutelage, you'll be cleaning the house and setting your new room so you might as well do a good job."

{======================|0|======================}

Later that night, after having dinner with a tiger and the old, diminutive Master, Lance was subject to another number of chores which included cleaning the whole kitchen top to bottom and Dohko's room, all under the Master's supervision. Libra Dohko slept in a room upstairs among the five Lance had counted to be in the house. For such a small home, several people could live in it with a surprising degree of privacy.

The whole process of changing all the sheets, curtains and carpets, dusting all the strange objects around the house which went from dragon statuettes to books in Chinese about religion and martial arts and making sure everything was in proper order and place had taken away the few awake hours he would have left that night and made him feel like had just cleared work that had been piling up for months in that house.

The collections of exotic objects about Taoism, Hellenism and Asian folklore has captured his interest many times and Lance felt more than once tempted to take a peek at one of the many scriptures he'd come across, only to find undecipherable Mandarin and Cantonese he found no rhyme or reason to.

He had completely lost track of time when his work for the day was finally done. "Okay, my boy, that's enough for today." alleviated Dohko. "You should go get some sleep. I have more work for you tomorrow, after all."

Lance put down the broom he had been using on the upper floor, wiped the sweat off his forehead and massaged his sore back. He looked out the window and saw the dark-clouded night which left only faint reflections on the lake and waterfall outside visible. "So I'm not done yet, huh?" he kept to himself.

Dohko guided Lance to his new room, which opened with a classic Asian slide door. "You can sleep here if you want." he presented.

Lance contemplated his new quarters, which consisted of little more than a square division with a low bed and a curtained window where his two heavy Cloth boxes had at some point, somehow, been shoved to the corner. He widened his eyes. "What? When did you take them up here?"

"I think it was when you were busy changing Ma Chao's litter box." Dohko explained. Lance shivered, reminded of the task, and was too disgusted to even bother with the question of how exactly the small, decrepit old man carried the two massive metal armors upstairs so neatly. "So, do you like it?"

"It's fine, thank you." he forced himself to say, still trying to forget the lousy day he had. He sat down on the bed. "So... tomorrow we'll start the lessons, right?"

"We'll see."

Lance was too tired to contest this ambiguous answer. "I guess... I'll be calling you Master from now on." he realized out loud. He still felt his stomach turn with this. He had gotten so used to associate the work with the man he despised the most in the whole world.

"How could you, if I haven't ordered or taught you anything, yet?" Dohko questioned. Lance just dropped to the bed as an answer. The Libra Saint looked over his cloths. "I didn't think Shion would ever send me a Gold Saint to be taught, much less of Cancer. You have work ahead of you, son. To top it all off, he's a Pegasus, just like Tenma..."

The tired youth rolled over to look at the old man still standing at the doorstep watching his two Cloths. "You know, I didn't really do anything today of new." he commented, hoping this would prompt Dohko to reveal more of his intentions. "I don't know what kind of person you expected me to be, but I'm not some spoiled brat who can't take care of himself."

Dohko chuckled. "Yohoho! Of course, but your house dust will fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand detergents, but the man who has practiced one detergent ten thousand times!" And with this bizarre saying, Dohko laughed out loud, shut the slide door behind him and went to his room to sleep, leaving a dumbfounded Lance to rest.

{======================|0|======================}

The next day

{======================|0|======================}

The rain had calmed down during the night, letting a clear sky be revealed by the morning sun. Having slept in an old, empty room with but a small pillow and blanket on it, Lance now found himself waking up even earlier than the day before, his back hurting all over. He was unused to sleeping on such a simple, hard mattress after a week in the Cancer Temple's comfortable bedrooms.

Yawning like a hippo, he walked down the stairs after putting the lump of brick he had spent the night on in place, put on the rubber gloves, tied a cloth around his head, took the broom and headed outside.

"Good morning, Lance." said the Master sitting by the door, a bamboo cup of hot green tea in hand. The Bengal tiger also sat by his side, watching Lance's every move. "I see that you're ready for another exciting day of mastering the cleaning products!"

"'Morning." he grumbled. The small home's porch was drenched with rain water and dirt from Lance's steps the night before, both which he started sweeping off.

"After cleaning everything here, take the leaves off the roof, put the dishes in place, clean the windows and give Ma Chao breakfast." he watched the youth nod with an annoyed look on his face, but not complaining out loud. He walked inside to leave Lance to his work. "Good boy!"

The Gold Saint sighed exasperatedly as the door closed. "The fuck is the point of all this? I can do all these things already. Is he trying to piss me off?" he wondered as he made sure to expel all the accumulated water off the porch. He glanced over to the tiger, who seemed to stand there making sure Lance did his job. "You're just gonna sit your ass there doing nothing until I give you food, right? Why don't you go hunt something?"

"GRAWR!"

"...Right..."

The Saint tried to focus on his task, trying to ward off his usual pessimism. Dohko had made sure to give him all kinds of tasks the night before. Lance had been taking care of himself since his orphan days, so stuff like cooking, cleaning and taking care of the big stupid pet cat didn't bother or repulse him. Lance even admitted it to be normal and expected of Dohko to demand something from Lance for whatever he had to teach.

It was just that it was hard for him to be optimistic after the whole 'tricking Lance into taking Dohko home' thing, which made him feel like Dohko really was taking advantage of the youth for his own amusement. Lance's initial hesitations about having a new master didn't help, either. Still, he made an effort to look it over and make sure the porch was dry before the water ruined it.

Now that he was doing chores for the old man, he wondered how long it would be before the actual lessons started and what they would be like. Dohko may be shady and untrustworthy to Lance's eyes, but those sharp red orbs could also tell something was off about him that intrigued him. As he rested his broom and took in for the second time the scenery that was the massive Rozan Waterfall the house overlooked, he was stuck wondering if there was a point to all this cleaning or he was just taking advantage of him.

Ma Chao roared in complaint and tapped Lance's broom with his paw, knocking it off the Saint's hands and interrupting his thoughts. It glared and snarled at the Saint, flaying its paws at him. "Yeah, okay, I get it; you're fucking hungry! In a minute alright?!"

{======================|0|======================}

One week later, late at night...

{======================|0|======================}

Lance opened the door to his new room. For the seventh day, almost as if he had adopted a strange new schedule, he closed the door behind him, walked past his Cloth Boxes and dropped his head on the pillow before covering himself with his thin blanket. For the seventh time, he had spent the day doing all sorts of tasks, errands and chores for the old man, ranging from cleaning the rooms to fetching some package from Arlia, all without the cosmos. For the seventh time he was ending the day having no more knowledge than when he first came to Rozan.

He rubbed his eyes, feeling his head grow hot. His frustration was hitting its boiling point. "What the hell am I doing here?" he asked out loud. "If I wanted to spend my days making some guy's floor shine I'd have applied for the Pope's butler instead of running for the Silver Cloth..."

The lid of the Pegasus cloth Box raised to allow a metal horse head's ruby eyes peek out at the exhausted Saint. "Dohko still hasn't taught you yet?"

Lance raised his head. It was not often that Pegasus talked to his owner. Lance always got the impression he was just shy. "No, I don't think so. The tiger doesn't like me, either."

The Pegasus Cloth tried to think of what to say. "Don't worry, Dohko is a good person. He must be doing this for a reason. Keep at it Lance, you're doing great!"

"How the hell would you know that?" For a while now, Lance has wondered why Shion recommended he brought Pegasus along with Karkinos. Dohko had also spared some weird looks at Lance's Bronze Cloth, more often even than noticing the fact Lance was a Cancer Saint. "...You know him, don't you? You fought with him during the last Holy War."

Pegasus shied into his box. "I... Yes, I did. He...My old owner knew him."

Lance rubbed his head and sat up. "I thought as much..." He saw the Cloth Box's lid dropping into place. "Pegasus, don't be so god damn scared, I'm not mad or anything!"

Outside, Dohko carefully walked past Lance's room, his door ajar, and happened to catch the conversation. He could sense the Pegasus Cloth echoing its thoughts all over the room.

Inside, Lance waved at the door. "I've been working my ass off, making a real effort not to lash out on the guy, but all he does is work me like a slave. I feel so goddamn used and what do I get? Nothing, not even a fucking compliment. Is there anything you can tell me about him? Something that would help me figure out whether or not I'm wasting my time?"

Pegasus struggled with his damaged memory. If he could only remember more of the era of the Lost Canvas. "I didn't get to know Dohko that well, but this may come as a bit of a surprise to you to know my former owner was his student." he revealed, causing Lance's eyes to widen. "It's probably why the Pope told you to bring me, but Tenma was done with Dohko's teachings when he got me. After that, the war came and..."

"Tenma, huh?" Lance's eyes averted. "That's the name he was mumbling in his sleep. All of that happened two hundred years ago?" The Cloth's metal headpiece nodded. "So...he was the teacher of my predecessor...I don't know what to conclude."

"Dohko was rash, he always rushed into battle despite everyone's warnings and concerns, but I could always tell he also knew what he was doing. Tenma really looked up to him...Lance, is it possible that you are thinking Dohko is like Kastiel?" asked Pegasus.

The youth's lip quivered. "It's... not like Dohko could abandon me in some mountain, but..."

"It's obvious you are too much of a coward to make up your mind." a third voice interfered.

"What?!"

"Lord Karkinos?"

The Gold Cloth next to Pegasus glowed. It's lid opened and the massive crab of solid gold metal crawled on top of it. It snapped its claws, as if exercising after a deep sleep. "You hesitate, Lance, and judge others poorly because you are plagued by the fear and anger Kastiel's abandonment left you with. I can't believed such a fragile minded individual is to be my only suitable owner." It pointed its pincer at the door. "If you were sure what to do, you'd either be asleep right now so you could get some rest for tomorrow's tasks or you'd be walking out that door back into the miserable life you've led so far. But you're doing neither."

"It's not that simple, Lord-"

Cancer ignored the lesser Bronze Cloth and kept addressing Lance. "You have no determination to do what should be done because you no longer trust your own judgment. You have been scolded so many times by your superiors and comrades alike you automatically assume your natural impulses to be wrong. You have been corrupted by Shinta's pacifism and leashed by the Pope's orders and blackmails. Tell me something, Lance, why did you even promise to your brother that you'd be patient when it is clear to everyone that you WANT to fail?!"

The room quieted down, not letting out even the sounds of Karkinos' legs rustling on the metal. Lance thought long and hard on the Gold Cloth's words despite Pegasus' protests. Was he really that bad a case? For the Gold Cloth itself to be addressing Lance in such a manner the first time they've ever spoken to each other probably meant that something wrong in his attitude was glaringly obvious to others.

"Yeah, maybe, I don't know...Maybe you're right..." he admitted. He thought over his own motivations and reasons for doing all this. Maybe Karkinos had a point and Lance was just itching for an opportunity to blow yet another chance to turn his life around. "I guess I knew I'd sabotage myself sooner or later with this guy so I promised Shinta I'd be patient so I'd feel forced to last a little longer..."

"What are you going to do, Lance?" asked Pegasus. "You're not going to give up, are you? Please!" the armor clopped its paw once and shook its head. "Please remember all you've been through to get this far. Remember all you endured to get this chance! You and I went through so much together..."

"If he has any true sense of pride, he'll know exactly what to do! He won't need a weakling like you telling him." enforced Karkinos, snapping its pincers in response to the horse's clopping.

The Saint listened carefully to the words of both Cloths and thought them over carefully. He recalled his own principles and what he had stomached the latest two years just for the sake of putting up with the Pope and surviving the fights against the Black Saints and Specters. Most of all, he thought what he had endured with the last man he was told to call a Master.

Karkinos was right.

He knew exactly what to do.

{======================|0|======================}

The next morning

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Another sun rose high above the Rozan mountain, sending daylight sparkling through the trees and cliffs and casting arrays of rainbow light around the massive waterfall which cut through the mount. Libra Dohko sat by the porch of his house, petting his white tiger contently resting next to him, and sipping from his daily green tea rich in antioxidants and sweet flavor.

The sound of footsteps on bamboo flooring passed by him. "Hello, Lance." he saw the red eyed youth carrying his Cloth Boxes with him. "Beautiful morning, isn't it? I'm glad you've started it off with enthusiasm; having those heavy boxes on your back will surely increase the effort of cleaning the leaves off the roof."

There was a folding of arms. "Patronizing to the end, huh?"

Dohko finished his green tea and put down the bamboo cup. Ma Chao growled as he got up and encircled Lance. He chuckled. "Sorry, but you have to admit there's no sense in increasing the challenge of one task since you'll need the energy for the rest of the day's chores, right?"

"...I'm leaving. I'm going back to Sanctuary and I'll tell the Pope this just didn't work out."

Dohko widened his eyes. "What? Why?"

Lance sighed. "Are you really gonna want an answer for that?!" Dohko seemed passive. "Fine!...I'm going back because I'm tired of being used. I appreciate the stay in your house, but if you're just gonna have me spend it doing chores instead of training, then I'd rather go back to Greece!"

"Oh, that's a shame..." Dohko lamented. "I was just going to teach you today how to..." his eyes shifted. "...how to use light speed."

"NO, YOU WEREN'T! You were just gonna spend the day making me do chores again!" he exploded. "And you know what?! You can do them yourself, you old fart, because I am sick and tired of people in Sanctuary pulling me around like a goddamn marionette! Oh, you should go to Rozan to become a better Saint! Cleaning my best friend's toilet will be good for you! IT BUILDS CHARACTER! FUCK YOU!" Lance turned his back on Dohko. "I spent two weeks in Mount Olympus being Kastiel's slave, doing everything he told me to do, busting my ass to prove myself worthy and he still left me to die! I'm not about to fall for the same goddamn mistake again! Sanctuary can shove its Masters up its ass for all I care! I don't need you!"

Dohko sighed loudly. "So, you'll be leaving, then?"

Lance walked away. "That's right! I'm not gonna subject myself to the same goddamn, ungrateful humiliation just for the privilege of being your bitch! I'll be much better off training alone! Have fun cleaning your tiger's poop!"

"Alright, fine... have fun being a delinquent."

Lance felt a jolt of anger in his head and stopped in his tracks. He sank his face into his palms and struggled not to fall to the provocation. "Fucking old man!..." he mumbled. "What did you say?"

Dohko heard the mumbling, and insisted. "Are you deaf? I called you a punk!"

There was an exhalation almost as loud as the waterfall from Lance's part. The youth turned around, seeing clearly Dohko still had something to say. "...You do realize that I almost killed the guys who provoked me like that in Sanctuary."

"Yes, it was all in Shion's letter. He was happy to talk about how ungrateful, out of control and out of touch with manners you were. You could use a lesson, young man."

This made Lance explode in laughter. "HA, HA, HA! A lesson?! And who's gonna give it to me?! You?!"

Dohko stood up with the help of his cane. "I could teach you a thing or two, yes, but first, what about a game?"

"...A game?" Lance raised his eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"You seem determined to go back to Sanctuary, but I'd say that's not what you truly want."

Lance scoffed. "Is that so? Care to explain that logic?"

"It took you a whole week to finally make up your mind, even though I've been stringing you around the whole time. I'll have you know, though, that that's precisely what Shion asked me not to do. Dohko, please don't goad Lance around. Dohko, please don't abuse the kid. He's a troubled child, Dohko, please don't give him reasons to give up and leave. Well, I just had to see this for myself! YOHOHO!"

Lance's jaw dropped. "You...you purposely have been messing with me to see when I'd explode?!" The Cancer Saint felt foolish, like he had been walking around Dohko's hand for a week. "...Well... thank you for telling me that, because now I know for sure I'm not willing to put up with this bullshit!"

Dohko walked over to him and apologized. "I'm sorry, son, you're right, but the best lessons in life are the most simple ones, the ones teachers make the students realize by themselves. I bet you feel embarrassed and deceived, but ask yourself why did you hold out for so long even though you are so filled with anger?"

"That's simple, it's because I made a goddamn promise to someone I'd put up with you!"

"And that should prove to you that you are a man of honor, patience and integrity, regardless of what any Master could tell you." Dohko said. He saw Lance taken aback by this. "I could never treat you like a slave or call you a weak student, because after realizing that simple fact, you wouldn't believe me, would you?"

The lack of response from the astonished youth caused the conversation to be immersed in silence only broken by the waterfall. He thought things over once more. Last night he had come to the conclusion he was not willing to put himself through the humiliation that he perceived having a Master to be, but now Dohko's words were breaking that certainty.

Even so, the whole situation of him having been controlled by the old man was making him very uncomfortable. He was not sure he'd like a teacher like that, either. "I...I don't care about that. I can become stronger on my own. I've always trained by myself and I can do it again."

"Hold on! We still haven't played that game I promised." reminded Dohko "How about a little contest of strength?" he raised his cane. "I bet you hate this old stick, right? How about a punching game? If you hit me, you win and you can go on with your life knowing you have bested the Master. If you lose, you have to stay another day here and maybe I'll teach you a thing or two..."

Lance grumbled, now just knowing the old man was tricking him. "...You got stardust in that cane, don't you?"

Dohko shook his head. "Trust me, the only stardust in Rozan is at the bottom of the lake. This is just a normal, walking cane I've been whipping you around with."

Lance hesitated, but accepted the challenge. He closed his fists and spread his feet to adjust his strike pose and thought about how he would do this. He may had been pissed at Dohko, but he wasn't about to hurt an old man. "...Alright, here it comes." After some more considerations, he made up his mind and struck Dohko's support.

Despite not using cosmos, Lance's regular strength was still nothing to laugh about since it had been hardened by years of punching rocks in Olympus. Thus, it was with much surprise that he found the frail looking object in Dohko's hand completely blocking his punch.

Dohko laughed out loud. "Come on! Is that all you got? There's no need to hold back, sissy!" he called.

Lance grunted and prepared a more serious effort to shatter the object. He burned a bit of cosmos, causing a thin white outline to burn around his body. After gauging it just right, the youth made his move and released the energy in the form a powerful superhuman punch meant to blast through floors. Even so, the meteoric impact was still completely withstood by Dohko's mighty cane.

"WHAT?! Oh, come on!"

"Sissy! YOHOHO!" Dohko mocked "You get one last chance! Give it all you got!" Lance fumed in anger and made his cosmos explode into a large bonfire of elemental energy. The Master of Rozan saw flames bursting up from the ground and engulf the Saint's body "Oh, so you'll use your fire power! Are you thinking of burning my cane?"

Lance shouted a battle cry, tensed his muscles and punched the cane as hard as he could while burning his cosmos to the max, causing an outburst of energy and light that flashed across the water-carved valley.

The brief whiteness caused by Lance's powerful attack quickly faded away, though it caused Dohko to blink in discomfort. He saw Lance in shock, borderline in horror, at the sight of his fist firmly pressed, even bleeding, against a cane that was intact despite having been hit with a blow that would have punched through a Silver Cloth.

Dohko retrieved his cane. "Well, looks like you lost. I guess you'll be staying another day at least."

"H...How...How did you do that?!"

"I can teach you in due time." assured Dohko. "But only if you drop that nauseous look you had in your face the other day when you asked if you had to call me Master."

Lance lowered his injured fist. At the moment of impact he felt a cosmos in the cane more powerful than Aguilon's. It seemed watery and rustling within, as if containing wildness. He saw the Master looking up to him and detected once more the pool of knowledge he had seen when they first met, but that he had lost track of. "I...I'm not sure."

"I'll teach you how to be stronger and in more than just its brute form if you want. Now that you're a Gold Saint, you have a lot of work and a difficult life ahead of you. Hopefully, I can help you understand that as well as what you can do in the face of darkness and uncertainty." he pointed his cane at the waterfall and the mountains around them. "Here, there is no Sanctuary, there is no Holy War and there is no Pope or Saints who hate you. Here, there is just nature and yourself; and there is much I can show you about both these things."

Overwhelmed, the most recent Gold Saint of his generation put down his two Cloth Boxes and answered. "What is there to learn about it M... Master Dohko?"

Dohko smiled, feeling he had succeeded in reaching out through this troubled youth's heart. He saw years of resentment and suspicion collapsing in his red eyes to be replaced by a simple desire for someone to show him a new direction in life.

Dohko smiled warmly, having now in his hands a power to change someone's destiny he hasn't felt since Tenma finished his training.

"You can call me Roshi." He made the two boxes float inside the house through telekinesis, further amazing Lance, and guided him inside. "You'll see what there is to learn, but first there's this pile of dirty clothes I want you to look into."

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Unwanted Ambitions

Description: The Andromeda Saint applies for Silver Saint training at the Virgo Temple, but runs into some difficulty in being admitted. Meanwhile, Dohko teaches Lance about the importance having a path to take in life and Karkinos, the Cancer Cloth, seems to have a few things to say about that...

Author Note: Dohko is probably one of the hardest characters I've ever had to deal with and he has made me appreciate other Master figures such as Roshi from Dragon Ball and Jiraya from Naruto for how great, important and wise they are. Perhaps it was because of my inexperience or maybe because of a lack of personal maturity, but I had a great deal of trouble writing these 14,000 words precisely because I had no idea how to depict Dohko.

Special thanks to Jenny for her advice on how to portray Dohko's actions. She was a big help:)