WARNING: Violence, torture.
The Shadow Unveiled
The situation at the gym under the Kido Mansion seemed hopeless. Shaina gave in to Shun's goodwill yet again, and she stayed back with June, one with the arms crossed and the other leaning back against a wall. Dio hung from a beam in the ceiling, entrapped in that yarn ball of chains and looking down at Dragon and Andromeda, whom he had no desire to answer to. "Can you not give me at least something useful?" said Shun, but the prisoner shook his head negatively.
"What's the point in wasting our time? If we were traitors, we'd have no reason to keep you hostage!" Shiryu argued.
"Ah, yeah? I don't care!" Dio replied with a childish tone. "You're traitors! You're traitors, and I won't help traitors!"
Shun came a step closer. "You misunderstand our side, but I do not blame you," he spoke understandingly, "I know you might be afraid of any consequences, so you can tell us something that would not get you in trouble. Anything can be useful."
"Get outta my head!" Dio snapped back, then briskly shifted to a smile as he took a good look down at the Saint's appearance. "I still can't believe it, though. You know, maybe I don't mind being chained by a boy like you."
He finished that with a revolting chuckle that made Shun wince. Shiryu turned to him and shrugged. "He's not cooperating."
"If he will not budge…" Andromeda walked back to tap out with the others at the gym's side, allowing the two amazons to do their jobs. "We tried our best."
"What then?" Dio kept rambling, as he was wont to, "you will kill me too, yeah? Yeah? Then you will never get the information you need!" And he laughed some more in scorn.
Shaina and June got off their places and approached the dangling Saint. "Enough with being patient," the first one said, "it seems Musca does not quite get the gravity of his situation."
He kept swinging the body forth in spite as he spoke: "What about it, huh? You can't hurt me!"
"In that you are quite mistaken," said Shaina, now dangerously close and with claws placed tightly against the man's throat.
Dio mistakenly took that as a bluff and opened a disgusting grin after a loud whiff. "Oh, you too… smelling as good as ever, hm!" he uttered, so Shaina growled and slammed his head from the side with the other fist. "HEY!"
"June, stand over there," she ordered, pointing to the other extreme, so the girl obeyed.
"What do you plan on doing to me?" Musca fearfully questioned as Ophiuchus grabbed him by the tied boots and pulled him aside.
"I got bored, so I will play ball with you," she told.
"Eeeh? Hey! If you kill me, then you won't get what you… AH!" Shaina pushed him towards June, so he swung like a pendulum at decent speed.
With little mercy, June grunted and struck him harshly with a kick to the body, so he swung back to Shaina, who kicked him back using similar force. Each hit ripped painful yells from their prisoner. "I do not care, Musca! And neither does she," Shaina warned him.
"What's the… what's the matter then? Stop!" June ignored his despair and struck him much harder than the first time; he groaned with gritted teeth, seeing that the pain pierced deeper each cycle.
"I was told to keep you alive at all costs…" Shaina said, yet the next strike was so dangerously hard that Dio felt his insides being impacted "… but I don't want to. If you had anything to say, forget it."
Trying to surpass her friend's strength, Chameleon hit him with wild abandon, and he screamed louder, filling the gym. Shun shut his eyes and looked away, only hearing Dio hyperventilate after. He trusted his allies, but felt that they were crossing a line.
"AAGH! Wait! Wait, stop! I'll say…"
"Too late to change my mind," she continued and sent another massive kick. His shout was loud, high-pitched, haunting, but Ophiuchus was one to go the extra distance to ascertain a goal's completion.
"PLEASE! Please, Shaina! Please! I'll say it," he begged, and the exasperation in his voice was undeniable. Shun almost stood up against that level of torture, and was surprised that Shiryu kept himself tranquil observing the whole ordeal.
However, June knew that was how far they were to go if they wanted any valuable information, so she grabbed him carefully in the air and braked the momentum. "What did you say?" she asked as if to tease him.
"I'll say it, anything you want! I'll say it! Just stop, please!" he continued, as persistent in saving his life as he was in complaining.
Shaina helped bring the man back to the center, seeing that he still panted. She was nonetheless cynical, saying: "I'd better not regret this, Musca."
"You won't! You won't, I swear!"
"So…?" She raised her palms impatiently. "Spill it."
He breathed some more and latched to whatever he first remembered off the operation's briefing. "Eagle, Dolphin, and Piscis Austrinus were sent to give calls to Gold Saints and Cygnus, and…"
"I already know that," Shaina interrupted him. "Is that regret I am feeling?"
"Wait, wait! Let me finish! The Pope told us he got no word from you and the others for a long time, and he wanted us to check on you!" he told. As obvious as it sounded, Ophiuchus felt satisfied that he was scared enough to reveal everything so eagerly. "He said there were traitors and the Sagittarius Cloth, but nothing of the convulsing girl."
"Lady Athena," June corrected him.
"That's what you call her, but I don't believe that one bit."
Shaina grabbed him forcefully by the chained shoulder and shook him. "Derail the topic again, and I will derail your spine instead."
"B-but it was her!"
"Musca! How mobilized are the troops in Sanctuary?" she yelled and shook him some more. His formerly sarcastic eyes glistened while taking in the sight of that mask, and he found himself paralyzed in panic. "Say it!"
"N-not at all! Last time we were there, it was as calm as ever! The only confusion was because of the many Gold Saints arriving."
"So the Pope is still keeping this all a secret."
"Yes, very secretive!"
Shaina turned to June. "Good to know," she whispered. For a second, her thoughts were of Marin's well-being.
"He seemed worried about the way you guys disappeared," continued Musca, so the others looked at him again. "Are they really dead? Misty, Asterion…"
"Everyone else is as dead as you will be if you do not keep talking," once more she threatened.
"R-right, I think…" suddenly his eyes widened at a memory "… oh, I just remembered, there's one more person who may be involved in this!"
"Speak."
"Crow Jamian!" he said, and Shaina seemed interested yet again. "Georg told us he was the one who gave the Pope's call, so he probably knows something."
"Knowing Crow… that is really good intel," Ophiuchus said, and Shun had approached curiously.
"Who is that?" the boy asked.
"A Silver Saint — one of the few who do espionage work for Sanctuary," she responded, and Shun hummed, comprehending well what that meant.
Dio tried his luck: "Now you'll let me go, right?"
"That would be stupid," said Shaina.
"Eh? But I cooperated; you even said I gave good intel!"
"You tried to kill us not too long ago. Were it not for Andromeda, I would never have to hear your grating voice again. Have a good night down here," she said and started to take her leave, although Musca did not allow that without further protests.
"Ah, you're such a bully, Shaina!" he exclaimed. "Really, I can't wait until things go right and you get what's coming to you!"
She turned and didn't leave that unattended before leaving. "Keep running your mouth, come on! I am itching for a reason to end you."
Soon thereafter, a black sedan was parked in front of the mansion's open gate. Two security guards waited for Athena outside, one in the driver's seat and another holding a passenger door open. The ones who escorted the goddess out of the building were Tatsumi, Shiryu, and Shaina.
"Seeing that the Pope has intelligence doing work of this nature, he must have eyes on Marin by now," she told Ophiuchus.
"Musca made it sound as if the Pope uses Crow as his preferred agent," the woman commented. "He is a thorough type; there is a lot of ill he may resort to in order to finish a mission." She was one to know.
"Then whatever happens, once we are ready, we must set foot into Sanctuary at once."
Stepping off the sidewalk, Athena's knee failed and she tumbled forward, being held by the two men who escorted her. The security guard nearest to them took a step closer to carry her if necessary. "Miss Kido!"
"Ah, I am still dizzy…" she muttered.
"Let's help her into the car," Tatsumi ordered, and the three ensured that she made it to the seat safely. Shiryu walked around the vehicle and sat on the opposite side, while the employee took the remaining seat in the front.
Tatsumi held Athena's door open, as Shaina still had something to ask: "Will we get news of your location?"
"Tatsumi will keep you up to date," she replied.
"That is better. One of the attackers escaped, so I will make sure he does not follow. Now, regarding Musca…"
"Apart from murdering him, do as you will. Keep Shun nearby at all times."
"That creep… I feel repulsed asking even Andromeda to spend a night by him."
"This is necessary. If the Andromeda Chain as much as falters, he will escape." Shaina nodded at that.
"Time to go," Tatsumi said, shut the door, and tapped the window twice, signaling for the car to drive off. The two left behind watched them go, and Ophiuchus sighed.
"Well, it is no surprise Crow is already involved in this," she murmured yet in thought.
It was this Silver Saint, Crow Jamian, who watched over Sanctuary's arena several days after. From the high building he crouched on, no one below if not for the keen-eyed could see the dull shine of his dark-stained Cloth, repeating the elegant and sharp motifs of a raven's outline. Dark sapphires on his knees, belt, breastplate, and helmet recurred the color of a ripped half cape he wore on the back, from beneath shoulder plates.
He seemed like a man as old as was Whale Moses, slightly taller than average, with an angular, bony face and squarish chin. His body was lean, but the toned muscles were clear through the pale skin; because he was seldom seen without the helmet, few knew he was in fact bald, a sign being the sparse eyebrows above his minuscule eyes.
From there he could spy on the recruits and lowly Saints who trained on the platform, and could get a precarious view of the main square, albeit not enough to make it the center of his attention. It was from that side that another Saint ascended from the shadows to where he was, donning a Cloth of silver stained purple, with much more rounded motifs, stockier gauntlets, and a central crest connected to a light circlet, leaving the medium length of his copper hair exposed. "Back already?" Crow asked him, revealing a tone not unlike Dio's, if not considerably deeper.
"It's urgent," his colleague said.
"That so?"
"Did you have eyes on who just crossed the curtains?"
Jamian paid attention to the main square in the distance, but it was too far and he couldn't get a good view of the point in question. "No, I wasn't paying attention over there."
"Crux Georg," the other revealed, and Crow raised an eyebrow with the nastiest of smirks to his face. His colleague, however, remained deeply serious.
"Just Crux?" he asked.
"It seemed like it."
Jamian chuckled. "Wonder how he'll explain that to the man." Without exchanging more words, both spies dropped off their high ground and went after Georg's probable next location, thus they found him strolling down a street.
They intercepted him from the side, landing atop a building's front. When Crux took note of their presence, he instantly recognized them, and they could also see the scars on his face from the fight days prior. "Auriga Capella, Crow Jamian," he formally greeted them, "we meet again."
"Georg, Georg! What's the matter, mate?" Crow said with that acidic lilt his. "Looking rough!"
The man scowled. "A lot has happened," he said as a lament. "I assume you're here because the Pope requested me."
"Not yet. Our orders are to return to him with your team's status, but, go figure, I don't see the others near you."
Georg sighed the frustration of having to deal with one as insufferable as Jamian, but he understood that this was a part of his attempt at squeezing any possible information available, the natural instinct of such a type. Keeping that in mind, he maintained his calm. "Tell the Pope none of it went according to plan, and the squad before us suffered the same fate."
Crow scoffed: "Man will be quite mad to hear it."
"Those traitors…" Capella spoke up "… they pushed back Whale, Lizard, Ophiuchus, now Cerberus, Hercules, even you. How powerful are they?"
"More than you could ever plan for," Crux said.
"The Pope has been holding back on the big guns too long, but he should notice there's no option left, isn't it?" Jamian suggested, raising eyebrows teasingly at the man as he did so. "I'll give word to him and come back for you later."
"Where do you want me to wait?"
"It's like you no longer know me, Georg. Wait wherever as long as you don't hide, and you'll be found," he said and left with a swift bounce off the building.
Auriga stayed a while longer to express condolences, saying: "I'm sorry about what happened to your squad, Crux. Crow might not show it, but he's sorry too." Crux nodded and turned to the side, avoiding thoughts of dead companions. "Stay well." The second spy left just as quickly as the first.
Many hours later, Georg was indeed found by Jamian, and he was indeed called to the Temple of Athena, a long trip topped by his fear of the Pope's reaction to another thwarted operation. When he did arrive, his shame was apparent in how he avoided the superior's mask, electing to stare down at the floor instead.
"So I have been informed you, too, have failed me," the Pope said.
"Yes, sir. Despite our precautions, we were unable to defeat the traitors. Forgive me," Crux replied.
"There is no point in asking for my forgiveness."
"Hm?" Hearing that, he got enough courage to look back up.
However, the Pope's discontent was still heard: "To fail me is to fail Sanctuary. This is a war, and each time one fails to stop the enemy, we all suffer alongside Lady Athena. You need not ask for forgiveness, though I admit I am deeply disappointed in you."
"Yes, sir," he uttered, holding back the urge to apologize another time.
"I was also informed you returned on your own. Where are the others?"
There was no point in softening the blow to the one who headed their struggle, so he replied without half words: "They were all killed in action."
"I see, yet you have returned alive."
"There was no way of overcoming the enemy," he told. "When I got the chance to retreat, Sirius, Dante, and Dio had already been defeated. I left and saw Algethi's body outside, and knew not to press any longer."
"Did you gather evidence on the last squad's fate?"
To that Georg had to think fast. On his way to Sanctuary, he had rehearsed many a time how to describe Shaina's betrayal, yet at that moment, he couldn't get himself to expose her. If anything, he was curious whether her words were true, that no Athena lied behind the door beyond the throne, and that the quarters were in fact empty. "They're likely to have all been killed too," he lied, "as there were no signs that any of them escaped."
The Pope tightened fingers around the arms of the throne in rage, slammed a fist, and raised his voice. "Is there not one among you capable of defeating those rats? Are you unworthy of your Cloth's rank, Crux?" said the man.
"Sir, it's not at it seems! Sirius was correct in his fear; not only were those Bronze Saints well at our level, but they had a girl whose Cosmos surpassed anything I've ever faced!"
In an instant the Pope's fury subsided into curiosity — in fact, worry draped in shallow interest. "A… girl, you say?"
"Yes, a long-haired one. I saw her split Sirius open with as much as a swing of a hand, and that simply he died. She possessed frightening power, and I'm certain it dwarfed that of a Gold Saint," he explained.
"Hm, so there was little chance any of you would have defeated them after all," the Pope concluded, so Georg nodded along. "My disappointment is sustained, albeit lesser than before. Rest your return and mourn your peers' deaths, Crux. Soon I will grant you the chance to enact revenge upon those heretics."
"I appreciate it." Crux sighed and thought of leaving straightaway, but instead lowered his head and probed deeper. "I… I feel guilty, sir."
"Why is that?"
"In me lies a warrior's shame over my retreat. I wish I could apologize to Lady Athena personally, to rid myself of this feeling," he spoke.
While the Saint's eyes pointed at the floor, the Pope stared intently through the mask, silent a while. He processed that Georg had unquestionably witnessed the true Athena's power, and that this meant preliminary preparations were no longer viable. It was a moment for direct, effective action, and he saw no way to dissuade that Saint of her identity. He weighed his worth and usefulness, and even shortly debated the possibility of killing him right then and there, but admitted he would be of better use dying as a buffer for the eventual advance into Sanctuary. "Perhaps one day, once this war is over," he finally responded. "Until then, your apology shall come in the form of success in the field of battle."
Georg shut his eyes and left. In deep thought, he accepted Shaina may have been correct in her skepticism, if not for the seemingly extreme way it manifested. To him, Athena was at the Temple, without a shadow of a doubt, but was it that strange for someone to question such fact? Especially after witnessing the grandiose blow that took Canis' life, it was easier to understand the traitors, which made them no less of an enemy. If anything, it made them more dangerous.
Back in Japan, night had already fallen. The patrols were less tense in Athena's absence, and they didn't expect an attack so soon, so they mostly trained and kept their fitness on point. Shaina, who often scouted into the distance, returned through the gardens then, and stepped towards one of the doors in the back.
While she passed by the crater left by Shiryu's battle with Algethi, she was reminded of his lowly corpse, contrasting with the healthy and honorable man he was in Sanctuary. She entered and passed through the hall, and thoughts uncontrollably went to Dante, his final sorry state. Worst, when she passed by a hole in the wall to the living room, she was reminded of how she finished Canis Major off — she did so not out of cruelty, but to put him out of his misery. One that fatally struck by a god could experience none else apart from great suffering.
Her thoughts were then of Musca, and how Andromeda guarded his life. Then Lizard Misty's unfortunate, yet necessary, end by Marin's Comet Fist, and Centaurus Babel's by her own claws. He begged for her to stop at the end, although she found it safer to finish him and leave no ends untied.
As she crossed the passage to the living room, she could no longer hold back such sizable angst. Feelings she suppressed for that long crashed through her barriers and flooded her soul, and, as she wasn't one to shed tears, there was no other physical way out. A sickness afflicted her stomach and she ran to the bathroom behind the kitchen in a hurry, leaving the door unlocked.
The Saint pulled off the mask and fell before the toilet, dispersing her innards into it. The feeling went back and forth, but once it worsened again, she presumed she'd be there for a couple minutes before it was safe to go.
In those debased moments, the door opened subtly. Seiya, with one arm patched up from his injuries, saw the scene and pushed the rest of it ajar. As Shaina had stopped puking for now, she spat, wiped her lips, then covered her face, though the young man was mindful and looked to the wall when he noticed her masklessness. "I knew I should have locked the door," she remarked.
"Are you alright, Miss Shaina?" the youth asked.
"I am."
"Sure about that?" he asked once more while she got up. Although she didn't feel much better, she no longer wished to be seen in that vulnerable position. "You sound like you need a rest."
"I said I am fine."
"June's turn is soon, so I'll wake her up to take your place, okay?"
"No. Get out of my way," she rudely replied, but once she attempted to walk around him, her boot got caught in the door and she tripped over her own haste. He caught her in his chest, as he thought she was about to pass out, and so she found herself in an even more pathetic place than before.
"M-Miss Shaina!"
She looked up, hair partially covering the mask. To Seiya no more memories came, as her characteristic scent was blocked in that toilet room, but she was taken many years into the past, where that familiar angle resided.
The feeling of rock behind her and dirt underneath her was a memory of Sanctuary's largely barren landscape. The slightness of her now rough fingers denounced a younger age, fingers which tended for an injury on the knee, a scrape probably caused by fierce sparring with other amazons. Shy steps perked her ears, so she turned to see.
From behind the rock came a boy, and his prying look turned to worry when he saw her injured state, despite it not being serious. Her face burned; she noticed it was bare, and he could see her nose, eyes, and lips, and the scratches on a cheek from a fall. The adrenaline of an escapade rushed through her veins; that boy was Seiya, Marin's new apprentice, one she both envied and admired.
The similarity of that memory with where she was rubbed her the wrong way. She brushed aside a heart flutter by shoving Seiya with force, so he tumbled back against the entrance to watch her pace back towards the hall.
"I felt you weren't serious!" Pegasus yelled. "I know from experience you can hit harder than that, Miss Shaina."
For some reason that annoyed her even more, perhaps because she caught a nerve from the sickness, therefore she stormed back and awkwardly stopped before him. Seiya swallowed his words, and she lifted a finger to say: "It's about time you stopped calling me that."
"Huh?"
"Miss. I am no old lady — almost your age."
"We just do that as a sign of respect, and…"
"I have never heard you call Marin that," she interrupted him, "so does that mean you do not respect her?"
"What? Of course I do!"
"Then you know how to refer to me from now on." That said, Ophiuchus left into the mansion once and for all, allowing Seiya to stay alone with his thoughts.
Once a day at least, the Pope's spies went up the Twelve Houses to give him any interesting happening they witnessed. That day was no different, and Crow Jamian initiated the journey to the uppermost temple. It was rare for them to catch even a glimpse of some of the Gold Saints, but Mu and Aldebaran were a common sight, and walking past the House of Taurus, he saw its guardian with a comic book in hands, sitting in the back near the exit.
It was routine at that point to see Crow pass, and that was the reason why Aldebaran planned to tail him for once. He paid attention to the Silver Saint's departure and only followed several seconds after. When both of them walked up the stairway to the House of Gemini, Taurus was many steps behind Jamian, and it took a while for him to notice.
When that did happen, he turned to the Gold Saint and shouted: "There a problem?"
Without stopping, Aldebaran raised both hands and chuckled nervously. "No, no! I just remembered I need to talk to Aiolia, is all!" he said.
Jamian squinted but shrugged it off. "Right," he whispered and continued on his way.
Soon they were both crossing the darkness of the long corridor that was the next temple, and nothing had changed apart from which lamps were lit and which ones were not. Aldebaran took the opportunity to carefully study the walls for signs of Saga's quarters, which came as another failure; he ascribed that to Gemini's psychological tricks, which showed themselves fairly early that once.
When déjà vu struck him, he was aware of what took place. Somewhat ahead, Jamian was surprised to see what at first he believed to be a statue, yet soon became apparent as the outline of the temple's inhabitant himself. "G-Gemini…?" he stuttered.
He stopped and wondered if he shouldn't be there after all, if something had gone wrong that day, which would've explained the strangeness from Taurus. However, noticing that Gemini neither moved nor spoke, he went onward and avoided ogling, so as to not pester a man that fearsome.
Despite that, a few steps behind now, he was taken aback a second time by the confusing burn of the Gold Saint's Cosmos, and therewith he turned in fear. More alarming was to feel Taurus' Cosmos shine and grow many times higher. Something serious was about to take place.
Ultimately, Gemini stretched his arms sideways as he had already done in Aldebaran's last visit, so the Gold Saint warned Jamian to hide. "Watch out, he's attacking!" he screamed.
"What?" Had Crow blinked, it wouldn't have been much clearer what happened, since Aldebaran advanced at a blinding speed. Nonetheless, the dark corridor flashed with Gemini's flare, which came before a delayed blast. The other two were struck and pushed back.
Aldebaran slid further, as he knew Gemini was prone to gain ground after that move. He defended the incoming blow by slamming him with his large shoulder, then proceeded to take an aggressive stance in anticipation. "What's the matter, Saga? Let me pass!" he said. Still no response if not those outstretched arms.
Seeing that, Jamian crawled and rolled behind one of the large central pillars, and when the same flash filled the temple, he felt only warmth around him. Taurus, in the other hand, took the brunt of the attack with both gauntlets crossed, expertly dodged the incoming counterattack, then tackled Gemini much further back in the exit's direction.
At that moment, Crow saw the opportunity to escape. They were two Gold Saints busy with each other, and he wasn't going to risk his life over a conflict he didn't comprehend. "I have nothing to do with this!" he whispered to himself. "Better make a run for it." So he did, aiming for the exit and leaving by crossing the sound barrier.
As that speed was minute in his eyes, Aldebaran observed that the Silver Saint crossed all the way through without difficulties, whereas whenever he attempted it himself, Gemini would not allow it. They were both thrown to the wall and exchanged fast, loud blows that illuminated their surroundings each time, such was its power and velocity.
When Taurus pushed back and retook a better position, his view focused on how one of the torches uncovered the one below the helmet. The being didn't reflect light, yet fully absorbed it somehow, and it was obvious that the obstacle he encountered wasn't quite human.
Thus Gemini stretched both arms again, and it had become old at that point. Aldebaran was well aware of the rhythm, and decided to explore that with a well-planted technique, convinced that he could not be fighting an actual Gold Saint in any sense of the word. "GREAT HORN!" he shouted. His voice echoed through the halls, so he lowered the head with the helmet's sharp horns pointed at the foe, and dashed in to leave many trails of light in his wake.
The strike launched both thunderously against one of the central pillars, cracking it in half and bending it slightly. With an arm forcing the cuirass while the other held Gemini's wrist, Aldebaran brought his face closer to the vacuum he saw before. Its contents confused him beyond reason.
"Who are you?" he asked in awe. The hole was cold and had some pull to it, which he felt weakly attracting strands of hair and flesh. In the dimness created by the helmet, he noticed the shine of a multitude of stars contained within, and what seemed like cosmic dust adorning the empty space between. They danced a slow dance, and a high-pitched, haunting screech faintly echoed from the confines, that being's only excuse for a voice. "This may be Saga's doing after all. If he doesn't want me to pass through, then…"
Taurus screamed and punched the helmet from the side, which threw the shadow and the Cloth from that pillar straight to a wall. He expected it to come to pieces, but as if by some supernatural glue, it stayed as one. They stared at one another for many long seconds, and the creature did raise its arms one last time.
At first some apprehension came, that the fight was not over despite its nature having been revealed, but instead Gemini's Shadow turned both hands to the ceiling and fell apart without scruples. Dark, nebulous clouds oozed out of it and promptly flowed towards the marble floor, somehow seeping into it to disappear.
Bearing a slight frown and lost in thought, Aldebaran stared at the parts of the Gemini Cloth, then at the exit Crow safely reached. Perhaps it would've been possible to cross then, but he reasoned with himself that it was a better option to not do so; not yet. He returned to the House of Taurus and kept his experience well documented in his memory, as that had been the day he unveiled Saga's Shadow.