A Strife of Silver

Misty and Babel returned to the tight room of the guesthouse where they had planned their attack on the Bronze Saints, this time lacking over half of the team. The afternoon's orange hue invaded through the sliding door and the small windows, and they sat each on one end, reflecting on the tenuous state of the operation.

"She was too much, there was no way we could've stayed," Babel lamented, and Misty sighed.

"You don't have to tell me that, dear, I was there too." They both went quiet for a bit, staring down at the wooden floor, one in deep thought and the other in a cycle of regret. "She can't be Lady Athena," Misty concluded, "but then again, she can't be just anyone. That wasn't a normal Cosmos we felt."

"Do you really believe she's a Gold Saint gone rogue?"

"Like Sagittarius? I don't believe that any longer, no. What I saw was well beyond the magnitude of a Gold Saint, and that's scary to say the least."

"Then I'm at a loss."

"So am I," Misty concurred, and then he pondered a little longer, furling his brow. "Babel, don't you find this all too strange?"

"Huh? How so?"

"So the Pope called Aquarius and sent out his apprentice, then when Asterion and I were sent to check on him, he had defected to the enemy's side. All good, we're sent to kill them ourselves, we can definitely handle a couple of Bronze Saints. Even if Cygnus gives us a bit of trouble, the math doesn't add up, we had to win!"

"But they have that woman," Babel rebutted.

"Exactly! She's the one who tipped the scale, and she must also be the one who convinced Cygnus to defect." Misty lifted an index to the side of the face. "The Pope hasn't told us, but it doesn't seem we're dealing with weaklings here."

"Misty." The other stared with unbelieving eyes. "What are you getting to?"

"There's a god behind her, Babel. This is the sort of chaos that precedes a Holy War, and the Pope sent us to deter their advance while he sets up defenses. That's why he's calling the Gold Saints back! We were sent here to die!"

Centaurus was horrified now, and his face averted to the wall, thoughts of his lost comrades as nothing but disposable pawns. "Asterion, Moses… Shaina," he whispered.

In the corridor right outside, facing the open balcony, someone hid out of the door's view so that no shadow was visible. This was Ophiuchus Shaina herself, listening to each and every word of the two very carefully, living when they believed her to be dead.

"He used us as fodder to make sure Sanctuary is ready for when this god invades!" Misty reinforced.

Babel slammed the floor with a fist and growled: "Bastard!" The other calmed him down by lifting hands and shushing him.

"Quiet, you'll get us kicked out." When his comrade settled down, Misty continued: "Let's rest the next night away so the dust settles. If we're just supposed to hinder them, let's stay close by, track their movement, and cut down any communication we can. We don't have to die."

"Okay… okay, that sounds good."

"Whatever this is, we can make out of it alive and maybe even kill some of them in the process."

Babel nodded a couple times. "Yeah, yeah. Alright."

Someone began to walk up the guesthouse's stairs, leading Shaina to jump off her location to the rail ahead, then down swiftly to the alley below. She wasn't satisfied, but had enough information to question everyone's goals and alliances. As evening fell, darkness came with it, so she was able to move off without crossing anyone's view.

The next morning, Misty and Babel got to watching over and scouring through the outskirts of the mansion. The streets behind its extensive gardens were walled and gated to give way for a formidable luxury community, its large and monumental homes far into the distance from that point, as what stood between the two were dense woods of high conifers and moss coating the dirt.

They saw no one new, if not for the usual Bronze Saints patrolling the mansion, and there was no strange activity at that point. Misty was the one moving the least, inspecting from far above on a tall tree, while Babel moved about the place to check further away. The latter would then return to the first and receive directions before continuing the unending search.

When a foreign, peaking Cosmos was sensed approaching from an unexpected direction, it was Babel who first noted it and returned to his comrade to give him the information. He sped to the location and shook on the tree with immense strength, catching Misty's attention. "Is there a problem?" he yelled down.

"Someone's making their way here. Quick!" Babel warned him.

"It must be one of their scouts." Misty jumped from where he was above and was accompanied from the ground. Surprising to the two, a second foreign source of energy appeared somewhere behind them, however, they had no time to focus on it and preferred to hunt down the first.

Centaurus only intercepted the owner of the Cosmos a bit later, as Misty was able to drop off the tree behind her beforehand. It was Eagle Marin, looking as suspicious as she could with the messenger bag around her cuirass. "Stop right there!" Misty yelled.

Babel's lips parted. "Miss Marin?" he muttered. He couldn't believe the possibility of her being a traitor, and likely knew what she had been sent to do by the Pope.

"Centaurus Babel, Lizard Misty," she said looking around herself. That was a menacing formation for them to take, blocking ways ahead and behind. "What are you doing here?"

"We're the ones supposed to ask you that, sweetheart," Lizard said.

"She was sent out by the Pope," Babel explained. "Knowing her, it's probably delivery work for the Gold Saints."

"Oh, I see, so you're here to deliver something at the Pope's behest," Misty assumed.

Marin walked a few steps, yet Lizard seemed to stalk her movements. "I already finished the Pope's deliveries," she admitted. "This is from the Libra Saint."

"And whom is it for?"

She felt that she had nothing to hide from a fellow Saint. "Pegasus Seiya."

"Pegasus? Is that right?" Misty grinned as if enlightened by what was going on, then looked up to the tops of the trees. "Then he's not the one who came after us, since he can't move that fast. Show yourself!"

The one revealed from behind the foliage of a tree was indeed Shaina, dropping from a height so large she crouched to absorb the impact. Her comrades were initially confused to see her.

"Shaina! You're alive!" Babel exclaimed in surprise.

"No thanks to you," she replied. "Where did you two go last night?"

Babel gave his explanation: "A false Athena! They had a false Athena, and she was too powerful for us. They said she killed Asterion and Moses, and we haven't seen the two of them ever since."

Shaina snickered from behind the mask, walking somewhat closer. "So they said that and you believed it. Did you perchance see their bodies?"

It was Lizard who responded after Babel shook his head negatively: "We didn't, but we saw her and felt her Cosmos up close."

"Then your excuse is ridiculous. There are traitors there, and it's our job to kill them."

"Traitors?" Marin said in confusion.

"Exactly as you heard, Marin," Misty turned to her with a sly smile. "Did you know your boy is in a band of heretics?"

"He would never do such a thing."

"Oh, but he is!"

"Marin," Shaina interjected, "what is it you're delivering to Seiya?"

"A sealed letter from Libra himself. Aries repaired Seiya's Cloth once, but now that he was sent back to Sanctuary, Libra asked me to bring him this letter telling Jamir is vacant."

The other Silver Saint came closer and assertively lifted her hand at Marin. "Unseal the letter and give it to me," she said.

"You're not one to order me around. I saw you grow up."

Shaina crept closer, and as she did so, Misty blocked another way, whereas Centaurus came from behind. "Show me the letter," Ophiuchus insisted with more authority.

Eagle would never allow herself to be tossed around like that, by a girl who she had watched go from a reserved amazon to a cruel Saint of all people, and so she burned her Cosmos. However, so did Babel, who tightly held her arms and shoulders from the back. Surrounded by three strong foes like that, she didn't feel safe escaping, although she struggled against his grasp. "Off me!"

"Don't move, Miss Marin," Centaurus requested.

"It's not worth losing your life over something this small," Shaina said, and Misty motioned to open up the bag, so she pushed him off rudely and unbuckled it herself.

"Huh, jumpy woman…" he scoffed.

Inside it there was only a single sealed letter in a quite humid envelope, apart from the water canteen she brought along for the trip. Without hesitation, Shaina broke the seal and took the letter out to read. "My dear friend Seiya, here is the genuine…" she read that part aloud and then paused, skimming through the next sections as soon as she noticed the writing's structure. "F-fifty grams rice flour, fifty grams brown sugar, a teaspoon of honey…" she muttered more quickly and shook her head in disbelief.

"So…? What does it say?" Misty questioned.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Say it!"

Shaina angrily turned the open letter to the three of them, yelling: "This damn thing is a recipe for Chinese rice cake!"

"No, no," Misty mumbled after skimming through the letter himself, then he shoved his hands into the bag and searched for anything she might be hiding. Apart from the canteen, he found that Marin had nothing else, so he pulled a fist close to her face aggressively. "There's a hidden code in that letter, and you will tell it to us!"

"I was told what I was told by Libra. I know nothing else, so let me go!" she countered and struggled more, thus Babel pulled her arms painfully to contain her.

"You can't hide forever behind a courier's code…" Lizard whispered, but then his fist opened so that the index and thumb could limply touch the chin of her mask, a malicious smirk forming on his lips "… nor behind that mask. Your eyes should tell if you're lying." When he seemed to grab the mask, Marin turned to the side roughly and covered herself with the copper hair, which Misty then pulled to straighten her back into view. "If you're an apostate, there's nothing sacred about your face. No traitor shares our Lady's light!"

Eagle groaned and tried to pull herself off so that at least her dignity remained intact, and Babel nearly faltered with how strongly she rocked about. Even still, Misty's fingers found way to the mask's chin once more, and he grasped at it to remove it and see the expression of the one who dared hide the truth from him.

"THUNDER CLAW!" A loud roar ripped through the air and exploded with painful sparks at the three in front of Shaina, particularly pushing Babel off Marin and to the mossy ground behind. Although all of them had been struck by her sudden outcry, Eagle and Lizard remained collected, and the first skipped to give herself space.

"I knew there was something wrong with how you reappeared," Misty said to Shaina, not daring take eyes off their main target.

"Do not doubt my loyalty now!" said Ophiuchus. "You are the one who quit acting like a proper Saint since yesterday."

"How dare you…"

"You two abandoned me in the field of battle, planned to disobey the Pope's orders, and were about to violate the sanctity of a female Saint's face. How are you surprised that you lost my trust?"

"And for that you're siding with her?"

"I side with no one but Lady Athena!" Shaina yelled. "There is something bizarre going on here, and I am not taking any chances. Either you all follow my orders, or this operation goes down the drain."

"Nice try, honey. Without Asterion, I'm the one in charge!" said Misty.

Shaina exposed the open letter and decided: "Then good luck and farewell. I will take this letter to the Pope and find out what is going on myself."

"You're not going anywhere!" a scream came from behind Marin, and Babel strode from the air with a flaming arc to assault Ophiuchus as revenge. Shaina dodged it with ease, but they began to exchange blows thereafter.

With the distraction, Marin noted that Misty was about to take her old colleague by surprise, so she instead deflected him off course and followed with a strike, also defended by the foe. Up close, the two came face to face and forced gauntlets together.

"You had the chance to run away!" Misty said.

"I won't let a sinner enter Sanctuary without him begging for forgiveness." It seemed that by threatening to uncover her, he had made things too personal for her to flee, even worsened by Shaina coming to her rescue.

Amused, Lizard chuckled. "Oh, how foolish of you."

Their hands separated and both ran in a circle, though Marin was quick enough to pressure the enemy with a hurricane of strikes. Unlike with Cygnus, Misty had to put the best of efforts to keep standing, and he often vibrated a hand in the air to briefly retard her moves with air shields, otherwise dodging and slapping off the blows he managed.

Once Marin got caught in an air shield for too long, he tipped the scale in the other direction, swinging a leg gracefully yet missing by a hair. Very quickly, he exploded his Cosmos to distribute quick, explosive punches, which she dodged by continuously skipping back. Lizard screamed and stepped far forward for a final, harder strike, so the woman had to step off his arm so violently that she sent herself up into the sky, beyond the treeline.

Misty crouched and grinned in preparation to meet her as she flew, but he noticed her Cosmos peak, and understood the next counterattack would exceed any speed he could've reached.

"EAGLE DIVE!" Marin flipped and soared to the ground in the span it would take to blink an eye, hammer kicking on the way down. Light enveloped the back of her heel and leg, but the foe positioned hands up to defend.

"AIR SHIELD!" The denser air was enough to give Misty the milliseconds to roll out, although the shock wave of Marin's Eagle Dive ducked and cut the grass below, apart from deforming branches and leaves above, sticks breaking off the trees in hordes. He used the cloak to protect his face from all the dirt and debris flying, and when he saw, a small dent had been broken into the ground by the woman's leg.

Eagle positioned her fists forward, not expecting the fight to end so easily. "You're only postponing your defeat," she told him, referring to his preference of defense over offense.

Misty laughed. "Don't get so full of yourself. You might be among our strongest, but I'm not only strong, I'm undefeated — no, better, I'm virtually untouched!" he said, lifting fingers forward with elegance. "Not only have I never experienced defeat, I have never felt what it's like to be wounded. My perfect skin has never been violated, so how can you seriously believe you'll be the one to break my streak?"

"Show me your best, and I'll show you mine," she said.

"Then I'll show you what it means to be invincible." He flew forward and Marin was obligated to dodge. What came next were some of his flashiest yet more dangerous moves, proving that he wasn't only a defensive coward, but also a proficient attacker, with arching kicks and spinning, extended arms. Although she did her best to connect, it was mostly the man's onslaught at that moment, with rhythm and pace too unpredictable for her to find a safe motion.

With every gap he saw, Misty pushed her wrist away and came back with the swing of another limb, and the force of each clash and parry generated momentum that they used to either slide away from oncoming hits, or to try and throw the enemy to the ground, always futilely.

There came a point where Marin made herself way and leapt with a palm strike, which the other had little time to defend, so he crossed the guards and prepared to slide back far, as the power behind it had been colossal. Having collected enough Cosmos, she took the chance: "METEOR FIST!"

Hundreds of strings of energy raced with Eagle's self to meet the man, and he had prepared in the curt meantime by pointing palms up and yelling: "GRAVITY WELL!"

The space between his hands contorted inwards, and light lensed moderately on its contour, pulling matter into that collapsed sphere. Marin felt as if her flesh compressed to occupy the tiny volume he generated, and then he expanded it with immediacy by spreading arms back like wings.

Eagle's limbs were stretched and she fell with her back down, body numb, tendons tingling, at first too limp to seek support beneath. When she forced herself, she failed, downed like before; an ache stung through the numbness and yielded an agonizing groan.

She saw Misty's boots come, then one of them kicked her head, which prompted her to hold the mask on with the edge of a shoulder. "It seems you couldn't wound me in the end. How unfortunate," the Silver Saint said, clearly out of breath, "I've seen you spar before, so I was sure today would be the day." He crouched beside her and prepared a spear-handed strike, aiming for the left side of her chest. Marin stretched fingers with intent of returning sensation to the nerves, but with how mobile he was in comparison, it seemed she was doomed. "Since you won't listen to reason, I'll deal with you here. Rest well, Eagle Marin!"

He felt the hand pierce through a thing he knew wasn't that Silver Cloth, and so his expression changed to confusion. When he looked at his target, Marin had shifted up and off, and so he had really just grabbed a handful of dirt under her armpit.

"Today you bleed!" she said with a painful groan, because what she proceeded to do stuck needles through flesh. She struck Misty's throat off with a palm, making him gag and get tossed to the heights, and before he found balance, she bent her legs and knees to flail up and double kick him in the stomach. From up there, Misty hit a trunk and shook the thing to a subtle tilt.

When Marin landed, she dropped to a knee and felt one of her numb arms. "He almost broke a couple of bones," she whispered to herself. "If I fall for it again, I may no longer stand."

Misty coughed and spat as he stepped up from the trunk. "Hitting me when I'm least expecting… I really can't relax around you," he said. "You really take every chance you get."

"Do you mind that? Honor doesn't seem to be your forte."

He grinned and wiped saliva off the corner of a lip. "Oh, sweetheart, I don't mind it at all." Flapping back his cloak, he slid a boot forward and pointed a hand towards her. "Actually, it's my cue to stop holding back!"

Once they swept close to each other, the ensuing fight was even more desperate than before. Marin was still fast, yet failed to keep her limbs strong, such that some swings wilted ineffectively; like that, whenever Misty came back with a deluge of strikes, she had to dodge as expertly as possible to a Saint of her rank. No hit ever found success at that level.

When Eagle returned with a swiveling of the arm, Lizard hobbled it with a barrier and slid back with the aid of Cosmos, which he rose in preparation for a repeat of his last effective attempt. "GRAVITY WELL!"

Watching him turn both palms up in the same position as prior, Marin felt she would not be capable of evading with that distance and the frailty left in her sinews, so she kept knuckles aimed at him, burning as much energy as possible. Once the Gravity Well's pull attracted neighboring particles and her hair to it, the moment had come. "COMET FIST!" she screamed.

An oblate, massive, blinding globe of energy wrapped itself across her hand, accompanying her as she summed her own velocity with the momentum gifted by Misty. He stared in shock, having never seen a technique that frightening, and when it was obvious he couldn't avoid it, he cried out: "NO!"

It was too late. Eagle struck through, pulverized part of his lower torso, and left behind only the Cloth to hang off the cross section. The Comet Fist's realized power still continued after the woman quit moving far beyond him, such that it annihilated a series of brushes, then two trunks, toppling their trees before it dissipated completely.

She sighed and knelt again upon hearing Misty drop lifeless behind her. A sense of dread froze her soul knowing that the corpse of a comrade was not too far back, and that it came to be from her own doing. "I don't think I ever had a battle this terrible," she said and attempted to look back at him, but catching a glimpse of how badly he had been hurt, she hesitated out of pity, "and all over something I don't understand. What a waste..."

Not too far from there, Shaina's battle with Babel still happened, the first often dominating the latter to the extent that a good chunk of his exposed skin dripped blood out of deep scratches. She paused for a moment to look at the bright light of Marin's Comet Fist, then the trees crumbling in its wake. "Holy sh-…" she mumbled, being interrupted by a slash of fire thrown at her face.

She dodged by twisting to the side, then bounced forward to do like many times before, a comeback of nails ripping through the enemy's face and neck. He tried to headbutt her chest, so she so plainly leaned back, thus he chose to follow with a hand forward. "FLAME VORTEX!"

A wall of rotating flames emerged and grew like a wave to swallow Ophiuchus, pushing her back. With fluid movements, she spiraled and readied for when the fire's fuel depleted enough that she could jump right through it.

As soon as it was possible, she came out through the other side, surprised the man, and sliced his cheeks before he rolled back. That quickly, she skipped ahead and advanced with her right hand. "THUNDER CLAW!" Hearing those dreaded words, Babel was electrocuted and convulsed back to the dirt.

Thrashing about ever so lightly still, he saw her dire image straddle him. "W-wait! Hnngh…" he barely spoke, voice shivering "… there's no need for this, Shaina!" Without mercy or reasoning, she roared and dove in with the sharp claws. When she got up, she pulled back a thick line of blood that splattered on the moss behind, Centaurus giving no more signs of consciousness.

She heard the sound of Marin walking calmly from the other side and went to meet her as well, and when Eagle paid attention, she noticed Shaina fought the entire time with the letter in her secondary hand, keeping it somehow intact. "You are not off the hook," Ophiuchus warned her older comrade in confrontation.

"Are we really going to have to fight too?" Marin asked. Both saw the prospect of fighting more as undesirable, since one still felt injured, whereas the other doubted she could dream of defeating such a warrior.

"We will if you do not explain what is going on with this recipe."

"Shaina, I have no idea what's going on here! Haven't you realized that yet?" She raised her hands in utter ignorance. "I wasn't told you were sent after traitors, let alone that Seiya was among them, and now I have two of our colleagues dead before us. Imagine what this feels like to me!"

"Then how come one of your deliveries happens to be for Seiya?"

"I said it before and I'll say it again… when I delivered Libra's duty call, he told me to bring this letter here. He said it was about Aries leaving Jamir, and there was no mention of a recipe or code."

Shaina folded the paper tightly in her fingers. "Unconvincing," she curtly spoke.

"I told you the truth. What else do you want from me?"

"You say you know nothing about nothing, then you will go into that mansion as if delivering this letter. Anything that you see or hear, I want to see and hear too."

Marin breathed out deeply. The risk assessment was quite on the face, between doing essentially what she was told to do, or fighting Ophiuchus in her injured state, the choice would be the first without doubt. Nonetheless, knowing who it was, she wondered if she wasn't planning on hurting Seiya in some way. "Since you think this paranoia is warranted, I'll do as you say. I owe you after what you did anyway," she agreed to avoid more empty conflict.

"Good," the other said, keeping the letter to herself. "This stays with me. Come on."

Although it was still morning, the patrol had already started at the mansion. In the gardens, Shun and Hyoga were in charge of guarding the trees and flowers, and they were on higher alert than normal. "It seems to have subsided," Cygnus said to his friend.

"Some of those peaks were pretty rough. What do you think that was?" Shun asked.

"If I were to guess, probably the Silver Saints baiting us out."

"Maybe we should send a scout to check."

"Absolutely not. Wait a bit more, don't be so hasty," he said, and Andromeda nodded. By virtue of their exhaustion and lack of familiarity with the Cosmos, they didn't notice Marin and Shaina sneak above through the trees.

Eagle waved signals to her colleague, yet she seemed to either ignore her or not have an answer at all. Looking down at the sight of Cygnus and Andromeda, she thought it wouldn't be too bad an idea to have them call Seiya, that way she would never leave Shaina's sight and there would be no issues. "I hate feeling like a hostage," she murmured under the mask, but this perked Hyoga's attention below.

He turned towards her tree and focused the sight through the foliage. "What is it?" said Shun.

"I'm sure I heard something over there," Hyoga answered.

Shaina shook her head, and Marin decided there was no more point in hiding. Besides, if they found she came with someone else, then there would still be suspicions of her being a traitor, so she came down the tree to the grass, scaring the Bronze Saints in the process.

"Who goes there?"

Eagle raised hands above her head. "I'm a courier. I've come to deliver something to Pegasus Seiya," she told them.

"A red-haired female Saint and a courier… you must be Marin," Hyoga correctly deduced.

Shun put the chain down after the jump scare. "Oh, so that is you! We have been waiting."

"I'm here to deliver something to Seiya," she said, "but only to him directly."

"Hmmm… well," said Shun, scratching his head and exchanging looks with Hyoga, "it's expected for someone of your caliber to take a delivery quite seriously, after all! I will go get Seiya. He got hit in the head yesterday and has been taking it easy."

"Thank you." With that, Andromeda left his friend and the courier alone.

Cygnus was curious about the way which he and Camus were sent off from Siberia back when he received the Cloth he wore, and haply someone like Eagle would be of use, or so he thought. "Are you delivering duty calls to Gold Saints?" he asked.

"I'm delivering a letter to Seiya. That's all you ought to know."

He nodded understandingly. "Of course. I'm Cygnus Hyoga, the apprentice of Aquarius Camus. When he was called back to Sanctuary, I was sent on a mission here in Japan."

"So you're one of Aquarius' boys."

"Were you the one who delivered that letter to Camus?"

"No, that wasn't me."

"I'd like to know who it was."

"And for what purpose?"

"To hear if they heard anything else from the Pope."

Marin crossed her arms, saying: "As couriers, we take deliveries and bring them to their destinations intact, and we don't debate their politics. You won't get any useful information by asking us."

"That's fair," Hyoga said.

Seiya appeared from the glass door to the living room, accompanied by Shun behind him, and as soon as he took Marin's comforting sight, he ran in her direction. "Marin, you're finally here!" He laughed like a happy child, even louder when he hugged her, who awkwardly obliged. "Ah, man, I'm so glad to see you again!"

"Don't get too touchy, I've got dirt all over me."

They undid the embrace and he paid more attention to her appearance; there was a mess on her curly hair, so much moss and dirt on her beautiful Silver Cloth, and crinkles on her leotard underneath. "Wow, was it that hard to get over here?" he said, unknowing of how right he was.

"It's a long story, but before that…" She swung with a painful knock to Seiya's head. Shun seemed scared for a moment, but Hyoga indulged himself at the sight.

"OW! Marin, I just took a bad hit to the head, you know?"

"Never taint your role as a Saint ever again! Never!"

"What are you even saying?"

"Old Master must've told her about the tournament," Hyoga assumed.

She continued: "Is that what you use the techniques I taught you for? Winning a stupid championship?"

Seiya couldn't believe it. "Aah, you're hitting me because of that? Let me tell you, I didn't want to be a part of that at all! I was pressured into it by Saori… uh, by… yeah."

His master was cross-armed yet again, and she shrugged the shoulders expecting a proper explanation, though he seemed to stop like there was none else to be said. "So…?"

The young man smiled clumsily and spoke: "I'm sorry…?"

For a moment she tightened a fist, but then turned her face down and groaned in letdown. "Aiolia is right, your skull is quite the thick one."

Now Seiya's smiled opened more brightly with a muffled giggle. "Did you bring my delivery, huh?" he asked in excitement.

"I did, but…" she paused and unbuckled the messenger bag, showing that it carried only a canteen "… something happened and I don't have it with me."

"Actually, it's whatever, right?" Seiya said, turning to Shun and getting his approval with a nod. "We just needed you to come over so we can show you a thing."

"What thing?"

"You will have to come inside."

"Then hopefully I am allowed to see it as well!" Shaina's voice echoed from a branch, so Hyoga and Shun promptly took fighting stances like before. Seiya recognized it, rousing apprehension, however, he noticed Marin only laid a hand on her waist and let her hair dangle to the side.

When Ophiuchus came down, walking closer and showing the unfolded letter, Pegasus became even more uneasy. He wondered if his master had returned only to kill them as the other Silver Saints had tried. "Miss Shaina, it's you again," he remarked.

She hummed and swung her hands lightly. "Funny, no hug for me."

"Did she come with you, Marin?"

"Sort of," Eagle told.

"We have a deal!" Shaina revealed to him. "Whatever you show her, you have to show me too."

Out of safety, Seiya prepared fists and took steps back. "I don't know if I can trust you."

"Unless you're hiding something from Sanctuary, you should be fine showing me anything you have."

His eyes then curved back to Eagle's mask. "The problem is, now I also don't know if I can trust Marin."

"Huh? What are you talking about, Seiya?" Marin asked. "I'm not in this because I want to!"

"Yesterday, we were attacked by five Saints who tried to kill us. Miss Shaina was one of them, and I was her target."

"I let him live," Shaina argued. "There is no issue then."

Marin was impatient at that point, losing grace with two people she had known for so long, so she asked: "Can I finally get a clue on what this is all about?"

"We were sent here by the Pope on the premise that they were traitors," Ophiuchus began explaining, waving to Hyoga, "and Cygnus there had been the first sent to deal with them. That is the mission he told you about, that was until he turned to their side."

"Because I was lied to," Hyoga told her.

"Then what is there to hide from me, Cygnus? Seiya? Show me the truth you all witnessed. Show me the owner of that enormous Cosmos we felt!"

The Bronze Saints paused and exchanged more uncertain stares. Eventually the other two decided upon looking at Shun, with the intent of hearing his verdict, as they trusted him best with such matters. Andromeda thus sighed and said: "Alright, let us get the others so you will not try anything."

As soon as all was prepared, the three escorted them to the hall, which was still largely a mess after what had taken place recently. Asterion's blood had darkened on the red carpet, the front door could no longer be properly shut, and two bloodied spears were left in a corner alongside a warped great sword and shield.

"There was quite a fight here," Marin commented.

Leaning on the rail above, June chuckled at that. "If you think this is bad, just wait until you see the kitchen. The tiles are caked with flour," she said.

Seiya and Hyoga stayed near the Silver Saints, while Shun went up the stairs to go call Athena in her office. He faintly knocked on the door and opened it, seeing her behind the desk. "Excuse me, my Lady."

"Oh, Shun, I have noticed some movement outside," Athena said.

"Yes, Marin has arrived, but it should not be a simple matter."

"Why is that?"

"You will see."

Athena got up and came out, and as she descended the staircase behind Andromeda, Shaina couldn't believe her eyes. It looked to her like a prissy teen dressed in her father's office clothes, a naive man's conception of a goddess rather than a real one.

"There she is," June said with a motion of her whip.

"Really?" Shaina chuckled, bearing contempt in her tone. "This is the woman whom Misty and Babel called a false Athena? Just some rich girl."

Athena smiled back and responded calmly: "I regard myself as more than a spoiled child, but I do not deny my privilege."

She was then shown Libra's tampered letter. "I have this," the Silver Saint spoke.

"Ah, yes." The goddess finished descending the stairs and took steps closer to Ophiuchus, although Seiya and Shun stood diagonally ahead of her, as buffers to her path. Shiryu and Hyoga now blocked the exits, and June was the only one still leaning as if nothing could happen. "May I have it?"

"Not until you explain me its contents."

Breathing deeply and blinking in thought, she trod that Saint's request carefully. "I cannot be sure, though I suppose if Shunrei attended my wish, she wrote a recipe there."

"A recipe for what?"

"Gui hua gao, a type of cake," she replied, but before Shaina spoke, she continued to clear it up. "Let me say that the content of the letter was irrelevant all along. We just needed Marin to come over to talk, so I took advantage of the situation to learn a recipe I took interest in the past centuries."

"Libra didn't tell me the letter was a recipe, so Shaina believes I'm a traitor," said Marin.

Athena smiled and nodded her head left and right. "You have jumped to the incorrect conclusion. Shaina, I see you wear the Ophiuchus Cloth," the goddess remarked, having recognized its hue and arrayal.

The Saint responded coldly: "So what?"

"You are a Saint. You are loyal to me like they are, whether you know it or not."

"Slow down there." Seeing that the young woman almost began to approach, Shaina lifted her claws, albeit without raising Cosmos. This sparked a reaction from everyone in the room except Marin and Athena; Seiya and Shun blocked the path fully, June jumped atop the rail and readied the whip, then Hyoga and Shiryu prepared to give chase. "Let us start by showing me that Cosmos again."

There was some silence for a moment, and no one seemed to move. "I don't usually like her methods," Marin said and broke the atmosphere, "but she has a point."

Athena tapped Shun and Seiya on the shoulders, who hesitated but did take shy steps to open the path between her and Ophiuchus. "It is fine, that is no threat," she claimed, daring come closer to one who, at face value, seemed to imperil her.

"Careful, Lady Athena," Shiryu said from the front door.

She nodded and held her hands together, fingers entwined and eyes aimed at those of the Saint's mask. Therefore her Cosmos burned stronger and brighter, to the point that the hall became almost unbearable to be in, how overwhelming it was to be so close to her when she did that. Shaina took a step back, and Marin was also stumped. They gazed at the aura around her body, the manner with which it crowned her as the undeniable reincarnation of Athena, and while in one hand they felt comfort, in the other hand they felt worried that the goddess was there of all places, and not behind the Pope where she was meant to stay.

"This… this…" an incredulous Shaina mumbled.

By contrast, Marin so quickly dropped to a knee and let hair hide her mask from Athena's light. "Lady Athena!" she recognized.

"Please, do not kneel now," she implored, energy subsiding slowly afterwards. "There is no need to be formal where we are."

"R-right, I did not mean to trouble you." Then Eagle got up, and Shaina hadn't even bowed, although she no longer threatened her, an apparent admission of a mistake.

"Do you believe me now?"

"That was just one step. This is not the first time I felt your Cosmos anyway," Shaina answered.

To that Athena smiled kindly, and the Saints seemed prepared for any other tricks Ophiuchus had up her sleeve. "Take your time," she said. "You may return to Sanctuary if you feel the need. I will not stop you."

"I am afraid that is no longer possible."

"Can you not?"

"Marin and I… just killed Misty and Babel," she said after a sigh, and Athena looked aside in further pity. "It seems the lot of you killed Asterion and Moses too. They had suspicions that this was a suicidal operation to slow down your advance into Sanctuary, giving time for the Gold Saints to arrive. It is a bad omen to return as the sole survivor of a suicide mission."

"That explains the multitude of Cosmoi we sensed earlier," Hyoga said.

"It was us fighting to the death over this stupid recipe," explained Shaina.

Athena spoke with a hint of rage: "This mustn't continue, lest more Saints perish over nothing."

"It is too late to stop the tide. I do not know what you plan on doing, but you are not reaching the Pope with those dull amateurs following you around…" Ophiuchus waved at the Bronze Saints as she insulted them "… Cygnus should hold up decently, but if the rest is anything like Seiya, they will die in an instant. It is a danger to you and them."

Seiya thought about speaking up from how offended he felt, but Athena gave him no time. "I cannot enter my own Sanctuary," she said, "and neither can you. Our predicaments are similar."

"Yeah."

"With that and your skepticism in mind, I will allow you to think it all through. In the meantime, you are welcome in this mansion and in any of my facilities; if you need protection, it will be provided to you."

"Is this really safe?" Seiya asked, no longer able to stay quiet. "Miss Shaina isn't very… predictable."

"What did you just say about me, you bumbling moron?" Her tone was never exalted, but still somehow harsh to the ears.

"Aah, see? So rude too! She can insult you all you want, but say anything about her…"

"Let me do something unpredictable for your own good." She held the letter to the height of Athena's gaze, not allowing her to read its contents. "So-called Athena, I was not done yet. You say this letter has no hidden code, so I will destroy it right in front of you. In exchange, I will stay here, although my alliance is still restrained."

Athena winced looking at the paper, eyebrows arching over the bitterness of spending yet more time on Earth without having learned that recipe. Of course, other matters overruled her hobbies. "I really, really wanted that recipe, but if there is no other way…"

"I will see how unimportant this actually is to you." Shaina crumbled the letter and rose a smidgen of energy to generate sparks in her hands, thus the paper began to click and crack, drying faster with ember that quickly reduced it to dark ash. She then lowered the hand and smeared the thumb against the skin, making any of its remains drop to the carpet, which she swept to the air with a boot. Witnessing no reaction, she concluded: "I am staying." The Saints watched her turn back, walk around all of them, pass by Hyoga, then go to the gardens. "Marin, do what you want," she exclaimed before leaving.

Eagle laid a hand on the waist and let her hair hang to the side like before. "Don't take her too seriously," she said. "She gets especially demanding when frustrated."

"She is good in her own way," said Athena in gentleness, then nodding to Andromeda. "We need Saints as sweet as Shun, and Saints as severe as her."

"What about you, Marin? Will you help us?" Seiya asked.

"I want to, but I have little evidence that you are Lady Athena other than what I felt here today, so I don't know what you expect me to do."

Everyone seemed to settle down, Hyoga, Shiryu, and June preparing to return to their posts while the others continued to talk. "Actually, you are quite necessary to us. There is a lot I would like to ask of you before you leave for Sanctuary," Athena told her.

"Then let's get to talking."