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

Notable Original concept (until now): Pegasus Temple; Sanctuary Town;

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

Author notes:

Please enjoy and review.

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Moments later, at the island's shore

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Rain crashed down on the beach ferociously as a tropical storm hit the island. The two Saints pulled the boat out of the water and carried it over the beach at a quick pace. While the storm certainly gave them cover, Lance was shivering cold and Shinta looked like he was about to sneeze.

"Come on!" roused Lance "We are sitting ducks on this beach! We have to hide the boat before the Black Saints spot us!"

Shinta nodded. "O-ok, Lance!"

Once under the cover of the first palm trees, the Bronze Saints stopped and dropped the boat in the sand. Lance analyzed his surroundings as Shinta picked up his cloth box and a container of water from within their transportation, noticing that the palm tree forest in that particular area was thinner than it looked from afar. This meant that Black Saints could still easily spot them from an elevated position.

"What do we do, Lance?" asked Shinta. Even he felt a bit exposed there. The strong wind that made the palm trees rock left and right also unnerved him a lot. "Do we go deeper inside the forest?"

Lance looked west, towards the mountain side and saw, beyond all the palm trees trunks, a dark entrance into the mountain's belly.

"No, I don't want to risk stumbling upon the bastards!" he answered before pointing at the cavern. He had to shout so that Shinta could hear him over the wind sound. "Look! Let's hide there!"

Shinta narrowed his eyes and spotted the cave. He then nodded at Lance in accordance. The two of them picked up the boat once again and carried it through the trees and into the cave. It was large, wide and deep, making it a decent hideout for the night and, as soon as they reached the end of it, they dropped the boat in the sandy floor and allowed themselves to catch a breath.

The interior was dry and very poorly illuminated, but it was enough by Lance's standards, who took the Pegasus Cloth box from the boat, placed it against the curved, rocky wall, and sat next to it. Shinta mimicked his movements on the opposite wall after he twisted the boat so that it would act as a shield against the wind, and the two Saints found themselves finally safe, facing each other.

"So, what now, Lance? Do we wait?"

Lance's arm reached for the inside of the boat from where, after a short while of blind search, he took out a piece of folded paper which he unfolded on his lap, revealing a chart of the island which was partially damaged by the rain's water. Lance analyzed it, trying to see past all the darkness, noticing that the island was shaped a little like Australia with the mountain they saw from far away dividing it in half.

The beach from which they entered was on the south of the eastern side and it was nothing but woods to the north. On the western side of the mountain there was an X drawn in red right in its southwestern edge, signalizing the place where the scouts spotted the Black Saints from afar.

Shinta sneezed all of a sudden. He sighed in exhaustion and laid back a bit more.

Lance noticed all of this. "Do you want to go out there in the dark and the storm to hunt down Black Saints? They'll catch us before you can ask for your tissue. We'll wait here for the morning." he answered, his eyes still focused on the map "It would be strategic suicide to attack them at night. We are not sure exactly where they are based and they know this island top to bottom, which is more than it can be said about us. If we tried to find them now, the chances of an ambush would be deadly high."

Shinta nodded and tried to add his own thoughts to the matter. "But we might catch them by surprise if we do the opposite of what they expect us to do."

Lance cringed. "Uh, you are green. I'm not taking that chance. If I don't bring you back alive then they'll consider this mission a failure...whether I end up capturing the leader or not."

Shinta didn't know what to conclude from Lance's words; if he cared about him or about his mission, that is. Lance kept on analyzing the map, pointing it towards the light for a better view while Shinta patiently waited for any conclusions he might make. After a short while, Lance folded the chart and placed it inside the boat, stretching his legs and trying to find a more comfortable position to rest. Outside, the sound of the wind roaring could be heard, and Shinta thanked the heavens that, at least, they found a decent cover for the rain and the wind.

"Alright… This is what we are going to do; we spend the night here and, in the morning, we'll cross the mountain to the other side. When I found out I'd be forced to work with someone, I laid out a plan to deal with this particular group of Black Saints and I'll need your help."

"My Andromeda chains can warn us about threats!" Shinta pointed out, trying to be helpful.

"What? Really?" Lance asked, surprised and intrigued.

"Yeah!" said Shinta as he showed off his Cloth Box, excited like a child showing off a new toy. "They react to the presence of evil people and bad intentions!"

Lance looked at the Andromeda Cloth Box, noticing the design of the Andromeda princess carved on it. He heard that the Cloth of Andromeda had many unique traits and abilities, but to actually sense threats was a shock. "This actually explains why earlier that morning I saw the chains moving around in the room. This kid might be more useful than I thought." While this was fortunate news, it actually put a wrench to his original plan of how to capture the whole Black Saint group. "I was planning from the start to use the new partner they assigned to me to lure away the main group of Black Saints out of their base while I went my own way, but I wonder if it will be wiser to just stick together?" Lance rubbed his chin in reflection. "No, that won't work."

Shinta saw Lance in deep thought. "What is it, Lance?"

Lance decided to give his new partner a crash course on the people they were facing. "Listen up, Shinta! Black Saints usually consist of small groups of people who know about cosmos who roam about in the world breaking the law. Despite how chaotic most of them are, Black Saint groups are usually led by someone." He then tossed the Andromeda Saint a single page from the files on the mission. "These ones are coordinated by some jackass called 'Ray'. They've been pirating the Atlantic for a while now and making money off those new drugs, cocaine and heroin, as well as human traffic."

Shinta blinked. "Human traffic?"

Lance squinted at him. "Slavery, Shinta! They kidnap and sell people for organs, labor or sex!"

Shinta gasped. "Oh, that's horrible. People really do that? I mean," he corrected himself "I know about sexual slavery. In my undercover assignments I saw people do really mean things to others, even children, but…"

"Well, how did you think they got their hands on those people?" Lance chastised.

"…Okay, I get it, but why doesn't anyone do something to stop that?"

"Because there's not much the national authorities can do to stop a bunch of guys who can move at the speed of sound, break rocks with fists and stop machine gun fire with their bare hands in open combat, much less in under-the-radar stuff like this. That's why Sanctuary has to deal with these bastards!" Lance explained. "Fortunately, people outside Sanctuary's control and education very rarely awaken cosmos, thus limiting the number of Black Saints significantly. However, for the past couple of years, the organization of Black Saint groups has been improving. They're getting smarter and more numerous. This particular group has been using tactics that allow a percentage of them to always escape. I have a plan on how to deal with that, but I'll have to do some scouting first." Lance got up and headed for the exit.

Shinta interfered. "Wait, you're going out in the dark and in the rain?! What if they see you? You just said the chances of us being ambushed were high out there!"

Lance scoffed. "What, you think I'm new at this like you?" he asked harshly. "I'll be fine if I go alone and don't take anything with me that can draw attention in the dark or identify me as a Saint, like my Cloth. I know what I'm doing. Stay here and look after our Cloths."

Shinta nodded in compliance and sat back next to the Boxes. However, like some bad thought suddenly flashed through his mind, Shinta's smile disappeared and was replaced by a concerned look. "Lance...is it going to get dangerous tomorrow?"

Lance stared at the Andromeda Saint, mouth slightly opened, surprised by the kid's question. Shinta was obviously against violence and was most likely completely unprepared for a real battle.

"Don't expect it not to be dangerous, Shinta. This is the real thing. This is what you've been training for during the last six years. From now on, on these missions, people will hate you, will harm you and WILL try to kill you. The sooner you get used to it, the better."

"That's not true...People can be reasoned with." answered Shinta, looking at his feet.

Lance stared at him, almost insulted by the boy's naivete. Shinta simply refused to believe that the world was forged by violence, trying his very best to avoid fighting. "Not these people, Andromeda! Black Saints are rebels! They make a point out of despising 'Sanctuary dogs' like us! They'll try to kill you on sight!"

"But-"

"Shinta... This is not Andromeda Island...Your rivals here are not your friends and your master isn't here to hold your hand. You either do or die! Yes, it WILL get dangerous. What's it going to be? Are you going to fight or are you going to try to reason with bloodthirsty bastards?"

Shinta saw the seriousness in Lance's red eyes and shivered a little. He realized that Lance wasn't trying to scare him or tease him like the people who brought him to Andromeda Island did, telling him that he was, essentially, going to hell. And even though Andromeda Island was very, very harsh, it was nowhere near as harsh as the soldiers threatened. He had Master Guardnia and he had friends too, which, unfortunately, didn't survive the training.

But Lance was right. He was not on Andromeda, he didn't have his master, he was on an island full of people ready to kill him and he only had the notorious Pegasus Lance, whom the Silver Saints made seem like a monster back in the Sanctuary, to count on.

Lance turned out not to be as bad as Nam told him he was, and Shinta had hopes that he could be friends with him. But friendship is friendship and war was something else entirely different.

"Get some sleep. They won't patrol their own territory with this weather. If when I get back the weather changes, we'll take shifts in watching for enemies." Lance said, ending the conversation before heading out to the dark forest.

Shinta nodded, not really feeling like arguing with Lance any further. "Be careful." He wished. Shinta then tried to find the most comfortable position possible in the cave's floor as he relaxed and closed his eyes. "I hope he hurries up. This place is sort of scary." He thought. The sound of the storm just made it worse.

Shinta then remembered something important. Since Lance was gone, he should take this opportunity to pray. His hand reached inside his collar and took out the silver pendant he kept from his late dad. He stared at it for a second, reminded of his parents. He then clasped his hands tightly around it.

"Dear God…" he prayed. Even after six years under Sanctuary's wing, he still had not the heart to pray to Athena instead of God, like Mom taught him. "Please watch over Mom in Japan and Dad in heaven. Also, please watch over Master Guardnia in Andromeda Island, Saint Cassiopeia in her missions in…'Apartheid', wherever this country is, and Saint Nam, who may not fight Specters but fights bureaucracy every day, whatever that means." He wished. He never had any idea dealing with stress was just as dangerous as dealing with murderers until Saint Nam taught him about it. He then focused extra hard on the last one. "Also, please watch over Lance as he scouts the island. I know he's a good person deep inside, even if he's really angry all the time. Amen."

Shinta then stored the pendant inside his Cloth Box for safe measure and tried to get some sleep. He will need as much as possible for, not only he had a big day ahead of him, but Lance would probably return at any moment and wake him to take the next guard shift.

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Sometime later, elsewhere on the island

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Inside the Black Saint warehouse hideout, several men wearing small pieces of black colored armor moved around hastily carrying cargo on their backs. The sound of the storm could be heard outside and even the wooden walls of their large building seemed to shake with the wind.

Their leader, a huge man with short blond hair carry a heavier set of armor pointed at their hidden dock. "Get everything on the boats!" Ray ordered. He watched his men store all the merchandise and weapons on the escape rafts to prepare for the trip to Safi. They had to stay under the Saints' radar; they couldn't afford to hop around the islands with superspeed and had to take the boats. He turned over to the guy who tipped them off and smirked. "It's a good thing you arrived here before the Silver Saints. I was actually getting comfortable in this place and would get a nasty surprise if it wasn't for your warning. So you're our contact from North Africa? It must have not been easy to operate right within Sanctuary's ranks."

The red eyed teenager nodded. "That's right, but I got something else for you." He then tossed the huge Black Saint Shinta's picture. "They sent a Bronze Saint ahead with me to try and take you guys down. He's been very annoying and I wanted to teach him a lesson. I thought you might get something out of him. You have contacts with those 'circles', don't you?"

Ray took a close look at the picture. "I see… Interesting, and he's pretty, too. He might be worth a buck with those freaks. Plus, he's a Saint so he'll be worth a lot more. You wouldn't believe the amount of clients I have who'd love to fuck all over this little face. I need to get some stardust shackles, though…" he then narrowed his eyes at the teen. "What's the catch?"

The teen smirked. "He's got combat chains that warn him of danger and he's from Andromeda Island, the second most dangerous training ground. Taking him down won't be easy." He then scratched his chin. "There's another problem, though."

"What is it?"

"There's the chance that the Pope has sent Bronze Saints to tail me. He has done it before and I doubt it wasn't the first time he pairs me up with someone on a mission." the contact then seemed to have an idea. "I know; I'll draw him out to this side of the island in the tomorrow night. He's naïve so he trusts me, but I can't afford to be seen cooperating with you guys by the Pope's spies. I have a cover to maintain."

"I see, I understand. You've been very useful to us today. It's a shame we only got to meet face-to-face today. Those supplies you had smuggled to us from Cadiz were really useful." Ray thanked while pointing with his thumb at the crates of weaponry. "The commies in Africa alone will give us a boatload for those. I wouldn't like you to lose your position when you're such a good inside man. Tell you what, you drive him here like you said and then find a way to separate yourself from him. We'll be watching the whole thing so we'll know when to act. I'll go there myself with some of my men to capture him. We'll take the chance to search the area for anyone tailing you, too. You can then just tell Sanctuary that the kid got away from you and that you couldn't get to us fast enough before we escaped with him."

"It's a deal, then?"

Ray chuckled and shook his hand firmly. "Hell, yes! It's a pleasure to do business with you. We'll send you your share of the sales, including that of the Andromeda Saint, later." Ray then realized something. "You've helped us a lot and I haven't even caught your name right. What was it, again?"

The Pegasus Saint smirked. "It's Lance. You'll see me tomorrow with a white cloth and a fool crying by my side."

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Chapter 5

First Arc

Episode 4

Meet Shinta

Part 2 of 2

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The next nightfall...

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Lance tied the forearm protections of his Pegasus Cloth around his fighting bandages and carefully placed the horse head helmet on his head. Fortunately, the storm had passed during the night. During the day he managed to do some decent scouting, and he was also able to memorize the patrol routes of the Black Saints last night. Now they only need to move carefully around the island and should accomplish their objectives "Come on, hurry the hell up!" he shouted.

Shinta walked out of their hideout in a hurry, still placing on pieces of his Cloth. "I'm here, I'm here. Let me just put my armor on."

Lance widened his eyes at the sight of Shinta placing a round, pink helmet with v-shaped antennae on the forehead while also wearing pink greaves, pink gauntlets, large, pink curved plates on the side of his shoulders and a pink chest place. Lance stared at the latter for a while, which had a set of bumps akin to a female armor's breast protections.

The sound of Lance's chuckling was heard before he burst into loud laughter.

Shinta's cheeks went red in embarrassment from the heckling. "Please don't laugh, that's so mean!" he protested. Lance laughed harder. Shinta felt his eyes well up but he buckled up and made a stand. "Stop it, L-Lance!"

"HA, HA, HA, HA, and I thought my Cloth was funny!"

Shinta felt tears escaping his eyes. "S-STOP IT!" he screamed while rubbing his eyes. All of a sudden, his spear chain shot in a wide arc from his right wrist and tried to skewer Lance. Shinta staggered and made his cosmos flow through it to stop Andromeda from hitting Lance.

Lance rolled his eyes and casually side stepped to dodge the deadly metal tip which burst through the sand next to his feet in a vicious manner. "Oh, come on, don't be such a baby, Shinta!"

Shinta panted in fright. It was good that Lance saw the attack coming, but if he hadn't taken control of Andromeda, she would have really hurt him. "I-I'm sorry."

Lance sighed. "You got to learn to ignore these things!"

"B-but it wasn't me!" Shinta protested. Lance didn't seem convinced as he squinted at him. Shinta kept quiet, even if Lance was misinterpreting what happened, Shinta still should have kept the Princess under control. "Lance, why did you change your mind about attacking during the day?"

Lance's eyes shifted. "I was able to locate their patrol routes and bases and I also spotted the leader, but I didn't want to risk an of the others escaping by engaging him too soon." he explained. "I overheard him talking to his men. He said he would be going on one of the patrols tonight, but I couldn't tell which one. Let's move together for now and, if we can't pinpoint the leader, I'll then think of something..." Lance marched away. "Come on, let's go, I want to take down those assholes before sunrise." He ordered. "Don't make any noise and be extra careful. We'll be hunting from now on."

Shinta staggered and picked up his pace.

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Darkness fell down on the island once again, this time absent of storm. Moving through the thick jungle filled with leaves, trees and plants, Lance's red eyes moved left and right like a tiger looking for a prey, only helped by moon light and senses keenly sharpened by four years in Mount Olympus. He carefully moved through the botanical mess, not making the slightest sound and completely ignoring the bugs that seemed to hover more and more around him. He stopped and ducked behind a large rock among the trees to better conceal himself when he reached one of the patrol routes he discovered last the night before.

Almost instantly, a group of black armored men appeared moving along it. Lance's body stopped moving almost to his heartbeat and he made absolutely no sound.

The sound of rustling leaves was heard behind him and a young Saint covered in pink armor came rushing out. A flock of tropical birds was frightened by this and flew upwards from their hiding spot. The black Saints looked up at them and went to full alert. "What was that?" one shouted.

Shinta gasped when enemy eyes started turning to where they were at. Lance instantly grabbed him, pulled him down to the floor and covered his mouth. Shinta's green eyes looked up and he sweated nervously when he saw Lance glaring angrily at him and pressing an index finger against his own lips.

The Black Saint regiment's captain shrugged his shoulders. "It's probably some boar or whatever. They've been running wild in the island ever since that animal cargo boat we pirated a couple of years ago. Let's just go! We have boats to fill, remember?"

Lance patiently waited until the last Black Saint was out of earshot before uncovering Shinta's mouth. "I told you to be careful and not make any noise!" he whispered.

Shinta nodded, embarrassed. "Y-yes, you did. I'm sorry. I'm not used to moving around in this terrain. Andromeda Island is either really rocky or sandy," he excused himself, also keeping his voice down.

Lance narrowed his eyes. "Listen up, Shinta, in the desert it's fine to move fast so long as you take cover behind rocks or dunes or wear camouflage, but in jungles like these there's always something that makes noise around you when you pass through. Leaves, bushes, fallen branches, birds..." he emphasized angrily. He then tapped his own head twice. "You have to think like a cat... or a tiger, even! Always think like an animal that hunts in the terrain you're in!"

Shinta nodded rapidly, doing his best to absorb all the useful information. Lance sounded really frustrated, but he was trying to help him, not let out his anger. "O-okay, I get it now, but I was falling behind so I just wanted-"

"It doesn't matter!" Lance interrupted, struggling to keep his tone down. "You can keep track of me with your cosmos, can't you? Don't be scared of losing touch just because there's some new distance between us. It's better to fall behind and wait a while for a safe opportunity to catch up, like when I stop or we enter a less dense area, than just rush straight ahead and alerting the enemy. Do you want to get caught? This is an Assault mission, not Undercover! Our purpose is to strike the enemy by getting around him, not under him!"

Shinta's face went a bit red. One of the arguments the Assault Saints used against Undercover ones in their famous rivalry was that a lot of the Undercover missions involved sexually-themed disguises, such as prostitutes and the sort."Lance, that's really mean. I really didn't want to alert them!" he stood up to the Saint, but the wandering of eyes to the floor in guilt pretty much killed the strength of Shinta's revolt in Lance's eyes. "I just need a bit of time to get used to this and I promise I won't get in your way anymore."

Lance sighed. His new partner, however, really did seem to be clueless in some fundamental stuff. "Shinta, if you're not comfortable with all of this and didn't get any... internship," he phrased "in Assault during your Training period, then why did sign up for these missions?"

Shinta's eyes shifted. "Well, it wasn't for anything special, but I needed to move up in the ranks and they told me Assault missions were the best way to get stronger and gain experience. I've been told that I needed Silver-Rank to get these database privileges I really need."

Lance just turned around and crawled forward between the trees. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Shinta blinked, confused. He then remembered that Nam told him that the new rules regarding the database privileges were recent, so much that even Master Guardnia had not been notified yet. Lance probably didn't know about it, either.

Lance signaled at Shinta to follow him and the two of them carefully moved along the dark forest. After a while, they ran into a certain spot of the island where, according to Lance, most of the patrol routes passed through. They took a hiding spot nearby among the vegetation from where they could watch everything.

The Andromeda Saint waited patiently besides Lance. He started feeling his legs cramp and would do anything to move them even just a bit, but Lance's frozen, focused posed inspired him to stay still. Even so, he started wondering how it was possible for a person to stand so still for such a long time. It was like Lance really was a predator or something.

As time went by, several patrols passed by them, but not one included Ray. Shinta still started noticing a couple of things, like how much time there was between each passing patrol.

The Andromeda Saint looked up to the tree branches and saw a flock of birds similar to the one he frightened earlier fly just above them. His frown turned upside down as he saw them chirping. They were so colorful he could still tell the feathers apart in the middle of the night. "They're so pretty. Are tropical birds all like those?" he whispered after making sure the latest passing Black Saints were gone.

The Pegasus Saint's red eyes turned to him. "I'm sorry, what?"

Shinta explained. "Back in Andromeda Island there were no birds. There were barely any animals, in fact.

Lance's eyes rolled back to his path. "Yes, Shinta, they're all very pretty. They also are all pretty fucking noisy every time you startle them around an enemy patrol!" he whispered.

The Andromeda Saint nodded sadly, sensitive to the sarcasm in Lance's voice. He was sure Lance didn't mean anything by it, but it still hurt Shinta a little bit to be having such a hard time proving himself a good partner.

Andromeda's round chain moved up and wiped the tear off his face. "Oh, don't cry, Shinta. When we get back I'll strangle Saint Lance in his sleep so you won't be sad anymore."

"NO, don't do it!" he cried out, grabbing the chain. "I already told you to spot being like that." Shinta then turned to Lance and realized the Pegasus Saint was staring at him with his mouth opened. "I'm sorry, Lance. Andromeda sometimes gets a little moody. I don't think she likes you."

Lance blinked. "I'm sorry, what? Your Cloth, Andromeda, doesn't like me?"

Shinta nodded. "Yeah, she was already like that at the Island. There was this Chameleon Amazon Saint whom she really hated that was beheaded by her just because she got too close to the Sacrifice Ritual spot where Andromeda usually lived."

Lance kept on blinking. "…Shinta, are you nuts?! Your Cloth… What the hell are you talking about?!"

Shinta staggered once more, wondering if he said something wrong. "Y-You know…Cloths talk to you, right? And they have personalities and so o-on. What is Pegasus like with you?"

"PEGASUS?!" Lance whispered out loud, outraged that Shinta would say something so ridiculous. "Cloths don't talk, Shinta! Sure, they have cosmos, but in the end, they're just protections!"

Shinta gasped, feeling shocked as he realized something important. "Lance, if you don't mind me asking, I mean…" Shinta hesitated because he didn't want to bring up Kastiel's training, but it really sounded like Lance's lack of education was more severe than he let on. "Here, I'll show it to you." Shinta took off his left gauntlet and laid it on the floor.

Instantly, the round-tipped chain shot upwards and attacked Lance, who screamed and fell on his back. Lance's horrified red eyes saw the chain redirecting its trajectory on its own, without Shinta burning any cosmos or letting out any mental message he could detect, and attempt to skewer him.

Shinta suddenly grabbed the gauntlet and put it back on, causing the chain to stop an inch from piercing Lance's forehead and coiling back around his wrists with a rattling sound. "S-sorry, I just wanted to show you how Cloths have a will of their own."

Lance just laid on the floor, appalled and staring at Shinta's Cloth. "I…I…I mean…The Cloth…"

Shinta knelt down next to him. "It's okay, Lance, If you didn't know that. I was really scared too when I found out about it. My Master had the Cepheus Silver Cloth for a whole year before realizing the person sending him instructions on how to run the island via 6th sense was his own armor, the King Cepheus. He was really worried, too."

Lance slowly calmed his breathing down and started processing this information. Cloths were alive and, more importantly, had a will of their own? What did this mean? "H-how?! How is this even possible?"

Shinta was surprised with Lance's question, which was coming from someone who hanged around supernatural stuff like cosmos. "Well, my Master told me that a race of really skilled alchemists called Lemurians serve Sanctuary. They have dots above their eyes, too, but I don't think I've ever seen one. He told me a long time ago, they built Cloths by implanting souls into them and that's why they're alive."

Lance stared at him. "They put souls into them? Cloths…have souls?" he repeated slowly, having a hard time swallowing this. Lance looked at his own gauntlets and recalled all his experiences with Cloths if Athena, namely the one he encountered in Death Queen Island...

The Pegasus Saint's face went pale.

Shinta saw this. "Lance, what's wrong?"

Lance gulped. "N-nothing, I'm fine!" he assured. He got back up and resumed his vigilance. "I…I just realized something about someone I've met once. It's not important!"

Shinta watched as Lance quietly watched the cross point, knowing for sure somehow that Lance was hiding something, but he was also sure Lance had his reasons so he didn't push the subject. Instead, he decided to go back to their previous topic. "S-so, how is Pegasus with you? Andromeda is really kind with me, but also kind of mean. She's like a big sister who's watching out for me."

Lance opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. He looked at his own armor. "I don't know! How could I have a fucking clue, Shinta, if I just found out it speaks!?" Lance's red eyes then kept staring at his own gauntleted hand with a whole new perspective. Had Pegasus been alive this whole time? Had it been watching him, judging him and moving around on its own ever since he or, better yet, they both left Mount Olympus? Lance put his hand on his forehead and thought about the latest six months he had. Certain bizarre situations started making new sense, particularly the mysterious manner in which he found himself outside the Pegasus Temple after blacking out in the fight with Bellerophon, with the Pegasus Cloth right by his side.

It was then that Lance heard Pegasus' voice for the first time. "I'm sorry, Lance." it apologized for keeping itself hidden.

Lance ignored the voice. He would think about all of this later. His red eyes watched one last patrol passing by. "Damn it, this isn't working! Alright, change of plan! Shinta, we're going to have to split up." He then dragged Shinta away from the patrol hotspot so as to plan things more safely. "We're going to hunt them one by one in separate hunting areas. I want you to head south while I head northwest. Your job is twofold; to hunt down as many Black Saints as you can and make sure the ones you can't get catch move north. Get it?"

Shinta nodded obediently, but a pressing concern forced him to question Lance. "All on my own, won't that be dangerous? You told me back at the boat I should stand by your side if it got risky."

Lance, however, didn't seem worried. "Don't worry, Shinta. It was dangerous last night because of the storm and because we didn't know where they moved around, but in these conditions you can take them out just fine by 'dividing and conquering'. If it get's dangerous, find a way to signal it to me. Launch your chain high in the sky or just cause a large tremor or noise, something that will draw my attention."

"I could just send you a mental message with the 6th sense." Shinta suggested.

For some reason, Lance seemed to get uncomfortable all of a sudden. "I'm not sure if you should do that. I'll be keeping my cosmos hidden so you'll have some trouble knowing where to send the mental message." He then decided to make something very clear to Shinta. "Listen, I don't know which one of us will run into Ray. If I do, fine, I'm comfortable that I can take him out, but if you do..."

For the first time, Shinta narrowed his eyes in determination. "Don't worry, Lance you can count on me. I'm ready to fight."

"Listen, Shinta!" Pegasus insisted. "Ray is dangerous. He's managed to last this long against Sanctuary not just because he's strong and scary, but also because he's manipulative. It's just something that comes with the job of leading backstabbing murderers..." Lance commented with a clear hint of spite in his voice.

This didn't pass by Shinta's senses. In fact, every time Lance talked about Black Saints, he always sound like he considered them the lowest scum on the face of the Earth. Shinta wondered if there was any special reason for Lance's disdain, even if Black Saints really did awful things with their cosmos.

He then closed in on Shinta to make sure he heard all he had left to say. "If he finds himself in danger he will try to trick you! Don't believe anything he says and fight tooth and nail to take him out! Do NOT let your guard down!"

Shinta hesitated for a moment, still half wondering how Lance came to despise Black Saints so much, but knowing he knew better, the pink-armored Saint agreed. "Alright, I promise I'll be careful."

Lance seemed to stare at him for a while, as if suspicious of his resolve."They will hide themselves, so use your chains to alert yourself of their presence so as to help you hunt them down." Lance then knelt down and drew the island on the ground with his finger. He then sectioned the southern parts. "Don't leave this area until all of it is entirely secured! Everything depends on you not letting a single one escape your eye. Don't worry about any of them heading north from your area so as to reach their escape hangar, because they'll be just stepping on my field."

Shinta nodded nervously. This was it. In short, his job was to hunt everyone that moved south, away from the area Lance could cover, and to be careful if he had to face Ray. The tactic sounded dangerous, but Lance surely knew what he was doing. "Alright, do you want me to head towards you then?"

Lance's eyes shifted. "Sure, if your Cloth doesn't like me, you might as well use her to track me down, too, as I'll try to keep my cosmos hidden." He then headed off.

Shinta waved at him. "Okay, good luck, Lance. Be careful."

"Whatever! Just don't get yourself killed!" Lance then went through the woods, silent like a cat.

Shinta lowered his hand and thought about his next move as he headed south. He made sure to keep his cosmos hidden. Unfortunately, until Andromeda's chains kicked in, he wouldn't know for sure if what he was doing was any good.

Still, Andromeda interfered soon, but not to alert him of any Black Saint's presence. "You are so dumb sometimes, you know?"

Shinta slowed down and looked at his chains. "What? Dumb, why?"

The spear tip pointed itself at his face as if to address him. "Why would that man want to split up the group like this? It doesn't make any sense. He's using you, Shinta!"

"Well… maybe so, but I'm sure it's all part of the plan. He needs me to make sure none of the Black Saints in the south flee. The're a risk that-" The round tip suddenly smacked Shinta's forehead. "OW! What did you do that for?"

Andromeda wiggled her chains around wildly to express her frustration with Shinta's naiveté. "You stupid boy; what risk? Didn't he scout the whole island last night? You were even so worried he would get hurt. If he's able to move around the island so silently and retrieve so much data about the enemy, a Silver Rank like him would be easily able to take down most of the Black Saints before they even realized what was going on. Yet he sends a noisy blockhead like you to cover almost half of the island by yourself?! He's lying to you, Shinta!"

Shinta felt small tears of pain escape his eyes as he rubbed his reddened forehead. "He is? But…"

"You're just too lucky that I'm here to watch your back, Shinta. A princess such as I would never let her dear 'little brother' fall in such danger. Oh, the world is just so perilous towards kind-hearted people like you and me." She lamented. "Quick! We must kill everyone on this island so as to ensure our safety. Remember, my father, the King, will be very upset if filthy Black Saints got their hands on me. You don't want your Master's Cloth angry at you, do you?"

Shinta looked around a bit in fear. Had Lance really tricked him somehow? What was going on? Maybe Andromeda was overreacting, but some of the things she said made sense. Lance moved around so well in the terrain and none of the Black Saints

But Shinta shook his head firmly as he got to his senses. "No! I'm sure that is not what is going on. And even if it was, going around killing people is not the solution. Let's just follow Lance's request, okay?"

"Argh, you are hopeless!" Andromeda complained, but she then decided to sweeten her voice as she knew she would only scare away the young Saint by being harsh. "Shinta, if you were nice to me and followed my lead instead of that man, you'd be doing a really sweet thing for your Ne-san."

"But, I thought you told me never to call you that." Shinta recalled. "You said it was silly and-"

Andromeda's round-tipped chain wrapped itself around his neck in an endearing manner. Sacrificing a bit of power in their relationship was just what she needed to ascertain her dominance over her owner. "I'll start making an exception just-for-you…" she accentuated "if you are kind to your big sister, that is."

Shinta thought hard about it, but it didn't take long for him to make the right choice. He made his cosmos run through her Cloth to take away control over her chains. He made them drop to the floor again and apologized. "Sorry, Andromeda, but I got to listen to Lance. He's counting on me to defeat the Black Saints. I'm sure this is all part of his plan."

Princess Andromeda didn't answer immediately, probably due to how indignant she felt with his answer. "…Fine!" she bitterly said before falling silent. She did, though, groan to herself. Was Shinta just that thick-headed and idealistic or was the Princess frankly losing her touch at manipulation? Mom and Dad had always been better at controlling people. Either way, the red eyed Pegasus Saint would pay for being such insolence!

Shinta's eyes darted left and right as he dashed across the forest. Everything in the surrounding area had been really quiet for a while. He halted his march when he reached the southernmost parts of the island and waited a bit. It wasn't long until his chains started rattling around.

Andromeda's spear tip chain rose up and started circling around itself like a broken compass. Shinta widened his eyes. "They're surrounding me." He realized.

A second was spent in silence, before leaves began rustling among the trees and Shinta spotted, from the corner of his eye, shadows moving quickly and stealthily within the forest. He tossed his defensive sphere chain before pulling it around himself so it would form a circle on the floor. The Bronze Saint's eyes kept moving left to right, trying to keep up with his enemies' movements, but the Black Saints moved far too fast for Shinta's senses, making the boy sweat with nervousness.

"If they've trapped me that means I won't be able to join Lance. What should I do?" Shinta decided to try his own judgment. "I think I'll just hold off as long as I can and hopefully I'll get a chance to defeat them quickly. With any luck, I'll be able to do so without alerting the whole island so I can keep hunting the rest." Shinta then detected a movement to his left. He pulled for his offensive spear chain and launched it at his foe. "I see you! Nebula Chain!"

Andromeda's chain shot forward like a serpent and stabbed through the trees and leaves, striking one of the Black Saints who screamed and fell down to the floor.

Before Shinta could check if he injured the man seriously, several shadows jumped out from the woods into the clearance, surrounding him from all sides. Shinta counted at least twenty men growling In anger or giggling like predators at him, all wearing simple, black colored armors akin to foot soldier equipment, though more rudimentary and having a more medieval style than Greek one. Several of them carried spears, but most seemed to content themselves with dangerous looking spiked gauntlets. From the way they smiled, they seemed confident in their imminent victory.

One man stood out by being the only one with a serious look and being, at least, twice as big as the others and wearing no helmet over his black curly hair. Asides from the lack of head protection, he carried a heavier set of armor than the rest of them that showed off scars and muscles, intimidating Shinta with his imposing stature.

"Well, look what we got here, boys!" said Ray, obviously the leader that they were sent to capture. "Looks like a Saint took the wrong turn to his little church!"

The man laughed, joined by all of his men, certain that they were sure to win. Shinta, facing his first genuinely dangerous situation in the open field, sweated nervously. He took comfort in the thought that Lance had his back, or so he hoped, and that his chains could attack multiple foes at once, but the truth was that things didn't look good and he had no idea what Lance was doing, meaning that he wasn't sure he could count on him to assure their victory.

Shinta raised his fists and added another layer to his defensive circle. "Please, give up and surrender yourselves. I do not wish to hurt you." The crowd around him burst into laughter as a response. Ray, in particular, seemed especially amused. "I'm serious!" Shinta enforced.

"GET HIM!"

A loud roar was heard all around him and most of the men charged forward with weapons in hand. Shinta narrowed his eyes and resigned himself. "I'm sorry, but I have to take you down." As soon as the first Black Saint stepped on his defensive circle, his arm instantly pulled for his offensive chain. "NEBULA CHAIN!"

There was a loud scream mixed with the sound of shattering metal and blood spray. Ray gasped and stepped back along with his remaining men as his first wave of attack got torn to shreds by what looked like a metallic chain whipping around the area. Each impact seemed to be accompanied by a small pink-colored flare, as if the chains were electrified.

Ray watched his men fall to the ground unconscious and with the armor they worked so hard to obtain completely wrecked. Shinta's offensive chain was pulled back around his wrist. The Black Saint leader gritted teeth. "Fucking Saint…"

Shinta held his own against his glare. "I warned you, I do not wish to fight. Please surrender and let yourselves be captured."

"H-he took down seven of us just like that!" One of the grunts commented.

Ray looked around the fallen bodies and noticed they were all still breathing. Comparing it to Shinta's warnings, Ray realized that this Saint seemed to be avoiding fatal blows. He then looked back at Shinta, who seemed to quiver slightly every time Ray made eye contact with him. "He, he, well, well, looks like we got ourselves an idealistic one... or a really amateurish one" He commented. "I was sort of expecting someone a bit more resolute in killing Athena's filthy enemies despite how cute you looked."

The Andromeda Saint widened his eyes a bit. There was something weird about what Ray said. "You were… expecting? Wait, you knew my face before you got here?" Shinta then felt a shiver run down his back as several of the grunts started flashing slight grins. Shinta gulped. "What's going on here? Why did so many of them head this way?" Ray then signaled a small group of his men to approach Shinta from the right. Wary of his chains now, they chose to throw a couple of small spears his way while charging ahead. "Rolling Defense!" Shinta's defensive chain, which was lying on the floor, suddenly exploded in action, rapidly rising from the ground and rapidly twirling around Shinta. The javelins struck the rapidly moving links but they just bounced off immediately. Shinta adjusted the pattern of his chains twirls so as to create an opening in his own defenses that would allow a counter attack. "Nebula Chain!"

The Black soldiers gasped in fright when they saw the spear-like chain shoot from between the twirls of the defensive ones straight at them. The first Black Saint was taken out when it slashed him through the shoulder plate, but the others had stepped back enough to avoid being hit.

One of them, slightly larger than the others and confident in his strength, then rushed forward and grasped the exposed offensive weapon's links. "GOT IT!" He then tried to pull it with all his might. "You're mine, kid!"

Shinta gasped. "No, don't do that! It will-"

Shinta was too late in his warning, as Andromeda's offensive chain suddenly burst into dark pink electricity that shocked everyone around it. The Black Saint who grabbed it screamed and dropped to the floor limply as he felt ten thousand volts jolting through his body. The others jumped away, either injured or with newfound fear of the dreadful Andromeda Saint.

Without lowering his defenses, Shinta lamented for his death. "No, you shouldn't have tried to grab my chain. My Cloth has the most aggressive instincts of all the Bronze Cloths. When in contact with my foe, Andromeda's chains turn my cosmos that is flowing through it into electrical cosmos and shocks you on its own, even if I don't have the Lightning element." He explained in an attempt to reduce their morale. "Please, surrender yourselves. Fighting me is pointless and futile. There's no need for any of you to get hurt anymore."

Several of the Black Saints started backing off and trembling in fear. "S-Shit, what do we do, Ray?" one said.

"This is way more than we bargained for!"

"Let's go!" another screamed.

Ray also had his eyes widened in shock at how impenetrable and dangerous the Andromeda Cloth sounded. Still, he had dealt with Saints before. He knew that if the Cloth was a problem, you should attack the Saint somehow. Ray then had an idea. "Retreat for the dock."

One of his men turned to him. "What? What do you mean?"

"Go meet the others and our contact and tell them to get off the island. It's not worth sacrificing the cargo and our lives just to capture this kid. I'll just handle things here and catch up with you."

The Black Saints seemed to hesitate, but eventually nodded in obedience and ran off into the woods towards their comrades at the hideout. Shinta widened his eyes in surprise. "Wait, what are you doing?" He then narrowed his eyes and adjusted his fighting pose, wondering if the leader just decided to engage him on his own. "Don't think I'm scared of you. I'm as ready to fight with you as with all the others."

To Shinta's shock, however, Ray just got on his knees and raised his hands. "No, wait, I give up!" he screamed. "I don't want to fight! Just…just take me out of here, away from these people!"

Shinta widened his eyes in surprise. "W-what do you mean?" he asked, bewildered.

"I get it, okay?" Ray confessed. "Being a Black Saint is bad! I surrender. If you want to take me to Sanctuary and force me to pray to Athena, fine! Just don't kill me!" he begged as he closed his eyes and put his hands on his own nape.

Shinta dropped his chains to the floor while still maintaining his distance. "You want to give up? But," Shinta then narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Why did you tell your men to escape if you want to give up?"

"It's the higher-ups." Ray explained. "If my men saw me surrendering, they would tell them all about it and they'd have my whole unit wiped out! Please, don't let them kill me."

Shinta gasped. "Oh, I see, so you have a Boss and you're scared that he'll get angry if you surrendered your whole unit." Shinta, however, shook his head, reminded of Lance's warnings. "NO! You must be lying. How could I trust you? Lance told me about you and said you were a dangerous person."

Ray practically dug his head into the ground in surrender and pointed at one of his fallen comrades. "That guy has special shackles on him that we were going to use on you." He then raised his wrists above his bowing head. "You can arrest me with them if you want. Just don't let them get to me, okay?"

The green haired Saint looked over to the indicated spot and indeed saw a pair of shackles strapped to the fallen Black Saint's belt. He smiled in happiness that Ray decided to listen to reason. "You made the right choice. Thank you for surrendering. I have to tie you up, but I'll take you to safety as soon as I can." He promised. Shinta then took the shackles to his hands. If they intended to use them on Shinta, then they must have something special about them that worked on Saints.

As he analyzed it, Shinta realized the shackle had thin stardust veins which looked like glowing silver lines similar to those stardust protection marks he had seen in some places in Andromeda Island on the side that would be pressed against the victim's skin. Stardust was a component used to craft and repair Cloths and it had the amazing ability to absorb or conduct cosmos, depending on how it was crafted. Shackles with stardust, then, despite being done primarily of iron, lead or steel, would be capable of safely arresting a Saint or Black Saint.

Shinta turned to Ray. "Turn around, okay? I have to restrain your wrists." He asked. Ray obeyed and presented to him his hands around his back. Shinta smiled. He was just so happy that everything went well. He managed to avoid killing most of the Black Saints, took down a large number of them that would definitely prove his usefulness in missions and, more importantly, he would be able to prove to Lance that, despite enemies, people could still be reasoned with.

Then Andromeda' Cloths' offensive chain suddenly pointed at the Black Saint. "NO, don't trust him!" she screamed.

All of a sudden, the earth shook at the same time a thunderous sound of an explosion was heard far off on the island.

Shinta stumbled forward in fright and Ray was caught by surprise, but simply adjusted his plan to this by suddenly taking the stardust shackle away from Shinta and managing to snap it around one of his wrists. Shinta gasped and felt the whole cosmos in his left arm and chain get sucked up by the object. In a reflex, he struck Ray's chest with a kick and whipped forward with his offensive chain, but Ray leaped backwards the dodge the chain.

Shinta grabbed the shackle on his wrist and tried to get it off, but all the cosmos he burned around his hand to try to break the piece of thick metal seemed to just disappear in contact with the object as if sucked by it. He sweated nervously. "No, you tricked me!"

Ray laughed out loud. "I don't know what that explosion was, but then again it helped big time by distracting the two of you. After all, I didn't expect your Cloth to be able to warn you about my intentions." He unsheathed his huge sword and charged straight ahead. "You're MINE!"

Shinta stepped back and tried to swing his defensive chain forward, but it just whipped around carelessly without stretching our listening to the commands of his cosmos. The Andromeda Saint widened his eyes in alarm. The way the shackle was snapped around his wrist was causing it to absorb the cosmos flowing in the defensive chain.

Ray easily deflected the flaying defensive chain with his weapon and then swung it sideways. Shinta leaned his head down so as to dodge and then attacked. "Nebula Chain!"

The Black Saint leader screamed as his body was slashed around countless times by a rapidly moving chain which successive strikes cut several parts of his armor apart. "GAH! Why, you fucking BRAT!" he screamed as he backed off from the Saint to get away from the blows. If he could only get close to the Saint, but his offensive chain was dangerous even without the support of his defensive one.

Shinta jumped into the air and whipped his chain downwards "Go, Great Capture!" He shouted. His chain's flying speed seemed to gain a sudden boost and aimed to wrap itself around Shinta's foe.

Ray, however, reacted quickly by crashing his sword's edge on the chain's links, causing it to wrap around his weapon. He then pulled his sword back with a giggle so as to catch the airborne Saint. Shinta yelped in fright at the sudden danger as he found himself flying straight at the Black Saint's large hand. He shouldn't have jumped.

Ray's arm glowed with cosmos and tried to knock out Shinta with a blow from his large elbow. Shinta crossed his wrists and blocked Ray's arm with the shackle around his left wrist, blocking the blow and absorbing the cosmos. Shinta then swung his offensive chain at it. "Spiral Duct!" he cried. When he landed on the floor he then pulled his arm back, causing the chain to tense suddenly. Ray staggered as he felt his sword arm being encircled by the offensive chain before it tightened around his limb and shocked his body with ten thousand volts of electricity. He screamed and felt to his knee, dropping his weapon as his fingers went numb. "Stop now! If you don't give up, the shocks could kill you!"

Surprisingly, though, Ray started chuckling between his grunts of pain. His other hand suddenly snapped forward and caught Shinta's neck. He gasped for air and opened his eyes wide in fear and pain. "GOT YOU!" Ray laughed out loud as the Andromeda Cloth attempted to shock him even harder, but the large Black Saint's body seemed to be immune to the shocks "HA, HA, HA! Did you think these little sparks would hurt a big guy like me? If you attacked me with those chains, it would be a different story, but these weak electric shocks don't hurt at all! You're mine now!"

Shinta cried in pain and grabbed Ray's fingers to try to move them, but the Black Saint's grip was too strong. A large fist then exploded on his body, making him scream and cough out blood. Ray kept on punching him. The Black Saint's blows were so strong that Shinta could feel his whole body shake despite his armor protecting him.

Ray laughed. "So, ready to give up yet?"

Shinta shook his head as best as he could with his neck being held so tightly. "N-no, I won't give up! Even if you ambushed me, Lance is counting on me to help h-him."

Ray laughed even harder. "HA, HA, HA, HA, you sure are stupid, you know?" he mocked. "Lance is counting on you to beat me? HAH! Lance's the one who set this whole thing up!"

Shinta's eyes widened. "W-what? What are you saying?"

Ray looked over his shoulder as he sensed someone arriving. "He's our contact from Sanctuary. He has been supplying us with merchandise for a while now right under Sanctuary's nose, isn't that right?" Lance then emerged from the woods and joined the two of them. "Pegasus Lance?"

Shinta's green eyes widened in horror at the sight of his mission partner standing there. "L-Lance?"

Pegasus Lance's red eyes looked around. He saw the fallen Black Saints and how injured both Shinta and Ray were. Ray looked like he just went through a meat grinder, as he presented several cuts around his body as well as shock marks, undoubtedly from Shinta's chain attacks. Shinta himself trembled in pain as his neck was held by Ray, was bleeding from his mouth and had several cracks on his chest plate. "You couldn't beat him?" he asked out loud. Shinta wasn't sure if he was talking to him or to Ray.

Ray assumed the latter. "I'm working on breaking him, but he's a tough nugget. He took down several of my men! I'm beginning to think he might not be work the selling price!" he explained. "What was that just now, that explosion?"

"It was the hangar." Lance said.

Ray widened his eyes. "What?!"

"The Saints are coming. They are sending unexpected reinforcements. The ambushed us at the hangar. I managed to take them down, but the rest of your men are all dead." Lance explained. He then turned to Shinta. "They must have been tailing this kid since they knew he would be working with me. Just finish that kid off so we can get the hell out of here."

Ray stared at Lance in shock. Did he mean to tell him that half his crew and all his spoils were dead all because of the green-haired squirt. He gritted teeth in fury and tightened his grip around Shinta's neck "You fucking Saint! I'll kill you!"

Shinta screamed in pain and tried to free himself. His survival instincts kicked in and he started punching and kicking the Black Saint as best as he could, but the hulking man didn't even bulge. "N-no!" he cried. "L-LANCE, help me, please!" However, Lance just sat back in a nearby rock and enjoyed the show. "L-Lance?!"

"Forget it, kid, don't you get it?" Ray mocked. "Lance is on my side, not yours!" Ray's hand turned into a flare of white cosmos and crashed against Shinta's chest plate.

The Andromeda Saint felt his stomach turn around and his chest armor cracking. Blood rushed up his throat into his mouth and his arms went limp. Shinta felt tears rolling down his face as he was betrayed so horribly and felt his windpipe being crushed.

All of a sudden, someone grabbed Ray's arm and pulled it down. Before Ray could even properly react, a white gauntlet's knuckles suddenly exploded on his face, making his world go blank and his body fall back to the floor. Ray screamed and dropped Shinta to the ground.

Shinta coughed heavily and grabbed his throat, feeling a sensation of great relief as his lungs stopped complaining for oxygen. He tried to look up by saw only a spinning world of Lance confronting a fallen Ray. The huge Black Saint looked up to him in shock. "W-what?! What the FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Ray got up and looked at his own hand to see blood from his face. "You FUCKING SAINT!"

Lance crackled his knuckles. "Looks like my plan worked. Since your Black Saints all thought they had everything under control and that I was on your side, all the ones that escaped Shinta or didn't go after me met at the hangar."

Ray stared at him in confusion. "The explosion…" he realized. "You said you would go to the hanger."

Lance's red eyes rolled in the direction of their escape hangar. "Oh, that. Don't worry, that was just the sound of your rafts and cargo blowing up. As for your contact in North Africa,... I'm afraid he was dealt by a Silver Saint a couple of months back. I just posed as him, that's all."

The Ray's face twisted into a glare of hatred. He charged straight at him. "YOU FUCKING BITCH! I'LL SNAP YOUR NECK-"

"PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!"

Ray felt a gigantic, concentrated force hitting his chest like a bullet. The powerful impact shot him straight through the air and he was dragged through the air towards the woods. Several crashes were heard as trees failed to stop his body's flight until his back collided with a huge rock, shattering it. Ray fell forward unconscious, only for his torso to land on Lance's shoulder. This all happened before Shinta pick himself up from the ground.

Shinta coughed blood on the ground and let go of his sore throat. His face was reddened and he was panting heavily, his chains lying on the floor as if reflecting the state he was in. He looked over to where Lance punched Ray through the trees and saw a scenario of fallen trunks and shattered rock that made his green eyes widen in shock.

Pegasus Lance carried Ray to where Shinta was to drop the unconscious man before him, as if presenting a hunted animal. "See? This is how you do it!"

But Shinta ignored his words. "L-Lance..." he said "You...you saved me..."

"Get over yourself!" Lance answered, coldly. "I only did it because I was told to bring you back alive."

Shinta's brain started wrapping itself around the situation. "T-Thank you! Thank you, Lance." he repeated, wiping the tears and blood off his face. "I knew you hadn't betrayed me. Oh Goddess, I can't believe what happened. He tricked me. I… I almost died!"

"Let that be a lesson to you, Shinta. These bastards will stop at nothing to kill you. He was ready to snap your neck just for all the trouble you caused him."

Shinta however, didn't seem to want to listen to this. "I…I don't get it. What happened? What was that explosion? Why did Ray attack you? Why did he say you were on his side?" Shinta's eyes welled up as he took the whole experience in. "O-oh, thank you, Lance!"

Lance shrugged and pushed Shinta away. "Here, wipe yourself properly! What kind of man cries so easily?" he asked as he handed him over a pack of tissues. "Look, Shinta, this particular group of Saints has been a problem to Sanctuary because they've been finding ways to always escape with their cargo. Even if a few of them got caught, the rest would just continue their operations by jumping from base to base. I was told, though, that a contact they've been using to get supplies had been finally caught by Sanctuary in southern Spain, so I had the idea to pose as him using his credentials to get on these bastards' good side."

Shinta nodded. "O-oh, I see. So that's why they thought you were their friend? But why do all of that, then?"

"Ordinarily, I would have no problem taking on all of them." the red-eyed Saint confessed. "However, large as the group was, it simply was not possible for me to engage them directly without a few of them escaping in the chaos. I wanted to capture all of them and put an end to this nonsense as quickly as possible." He explained. "So, last night, when I said I was scouting, I was actually meeting with them and getting them to send some of their men after you so that it would be easier for me to ambush the ones that stayed in their hideout and arrest all of them. That explosion the two of you heard was from all the fighting I was doing and from the fact that I blew up their boats! I would then backtrack and take down the remaining ones that you diverted away. It was all a matter of dividing and conquering."

Shinta ohed, shocked at Lance's intelligence. It actually sounded like a good plan to make sure none of the Black Saints escaped in the fighting. So, all that time, Lance was in complete control of the situation? That was amazing! Shinta, however, scratched his head as something didn't fit right. "Wait, why didn't you tell me any of this?" he protested. If he had known of the details of Lance's plan, maybe fighting the Black Saints wouldn't be such a scary experience.

Lance suddenly took off Shinta's helmet and slapped his head. Shinta yelped in pain and rubbed his green hair. "Because I didn't want to risk the Black Saint finding out what was going on through you! Apparently, I was right because that guy managed to get a drop on you!" Shinta felt more tears trying to escape his eye lids, but he sucked it up. He imagined Lance would just get madder if Andromeda kept on crying. "By the way, don't worry about the ones you let escape, because they all went straight to me since they thought they could trust me." Lance then pointed at Shinta's hand "And why the hell do you have a stardust shackle on your wrist?"

"Oh, that, uh..." Shinta hesitated. Lance narrowed his eyes with this and the Andromeda Saint's face went red with shame. "He... tricked me into letting my guard down by surrendering." Shinta then quivered as Lance narrowed his eyes at him. "He…he said he was sorry and didn't want to fight. He sounded really sincere and... and I…I fell for it…and…and he managed to get this on my arm." He murmured. Shinta then closed his eyes and covered his face, knowing how angry Lance would now be.

Lance just groaned and shook his head. "I told you not to be naïve, Shinta! See what happens when you try to reason with these assholes?! Your fucking pacifism almost got you killed today!" Lance then saw Shinta's eyes struggling to hold back tears. "Oh, for God's sake, let's just get things over with here so that I can go help you take that off!"

Shinta nodded like a good little boy. Still, as he realized just how many Black Saints that Lance took down, he couldn't help but be amazed."Wow, Lance, I still can't believe you managed to defeat so many foes. You are so strong! You really must be as good as a Silver Saint." he admired.

"Yeah, whatever, let's just clean this place, okay?" Lance placed two fingertips against Ray's neck and felt a weak pulse. "He's alive." revealed Lance, who lifted the man to his chest height by the collar and placed his hand in a chop position against his neck. "I'll finish him, don't worry."

"No! Don't kill him!" yelled Shinta, reaching for Lance's wrist and grabbing it, forcefully "He needs help!"

Lance looked at the boy, shocked with his defiance and mercy. "Are you crazy?" he asked, shoving his wrist away from Shinta's hand "He tried to kill you! He wanted to kidnap you and send you to child slavery, Shinta! He murders, robs, pillages and he supplies guns to very dangerous people! He's scum that deserves to die!"

"How can you say that, Lance? Every person has the right to live, even the bad people! We don't have to kill him." Lance struggled to free himself, but Shinta set his foot down. "No, he needs help, and if we can save him, then it's our duty to do so! Besides..."

Lance narrowed his eyes, losing his patience with Shinta's pacifism. "Besides, what?!"

"You said he has connections to slavery, right? What would happen to all the poor people he took away if you were to kill the only person who could tell us about all the traffic details?" he asked. Lance widened his eyes in shock. Sensing that he reminded Lance of something important, Shinta pressed on. "Back in Undercover assignments I took in my fifth year, I saw that it was a really awful situation. If you kill Ray for no reason, you'd be condemning all those people he hurt forever."

Lance stared at him for a good while in shock. His red eyes looked down on ray for a while and Shinta saw his partner sweating in fear, as if he realized he almost screwed up something big time. Eventually, Lance dropped Ray to the ground. "Shit!... You're right, what was I thinking?!"

Shinta placed a hand on his shoulder. Lance must have really been too used to fighting Black Saints and the sort. No wonder he wouldn't think about stuff like this. "It's okay, Lance, every body makes mistakes-"

Lance shrugged him off. "I'm fine!... Damn it!" he said to himself. How could he make such a mistake? How could he have been so blinded by his own anger and how disgusted he was with Ray and his kind? If Shinta hadn't pointed out that important fact, he would have just killed Ray and Lance would be no better than the people he fought. "No better than a hateful murderer..." he whispered.

Shinta watched Lance murmur these things to himself in deep thought. "Lance, is something wrong?"

Pegasus then finally broke the silence. "Why are you so damn idealistic? Don't you know the world doesn't give a shit if you're a good or a bad person? Either way, Athena says Hades will send you to hell for stepping on ants, so why bother even trying!" he argued. He then narrowed his eyes. "Besides, helping someone who'll kill you on sight is not being a good person, but being just plain stupid! People won't admire you for your attitude, either. They'll just smile at you while taking advantage of your foolishness. Do you really want that for yourself?"

Shinta took a bit to answer. He understood very well why Lance would be so skeptic of him. Shinta wasn't stupid, after all. He knew that there were very bad people in the world, but it was just not in his nature to give up hope in everyone's better halves. "No, but I don't want to kill anyone. That would be awful and make me a worse person than them, right?" he answered, almost reflecting Lance's earlier thoughts on the matter.

Lance opened his mouth to say something. Nothing came out, though, and the Pegasus Saint just sighed. "Let's just go. I'm fucking tired of this island!" He then realized something else. "And since I was counting on killing all these bastards, I sent the boat away so I guess we got to carry all these assholes by ourselves back to Sanctuary. Just great, isn't it?"

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Several hours later, at Sanctuary Town's harbor

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It was nighttime already but the docks were still filled with people moving around, particularly a group of foot soldiers who was trying to keep the Black Saints that Shinta and Lance brought over in line. The Pegasus Saint sighed in exhaustion. "I just hope they don't force me to split the reward with you." he commented to Shinta.

The green haired youth noticed how frustrated Lance sounded. "Lance, did I do that badly? I know I screwed up with Ray, but-"

"Save it! I'm not in the mood to have that kind of talk. At least you didn't get yourself killed. I guess kind people don't always die on the job." Pegasus interrupted. His gaze then softened in regret of his past. "Or all around me, for that matter..." Lance then shook his head in self reprehension. He shouldn't be thinking about that. "Damn it, this exhaustion is really getting to me. I can't wait until this is over and Nam get's this kid off my back."

Shinta thought hard on what to say, but came up with very little other than asking Lance if wanted to hang out, something he would definitely refuse. "He always seems to have something on his head, even outside a mission. I wonder what he thinks about." he wondered. Shinta tried to do the math with what Lance just commented about kind people. "Maybe someone kind died on him once. Maybe that's why he doesn't want kind people around him on missions."

Sagitta Nam stared at the captured Black Saints with the mission's report in his hands and a bewildered look on his face. He still couldn't believe their mission went so smoothly. "Well, is this all or do you have anything else to report?" he asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible so as to not antagonize Lance in any way. If there was one thing he learned about dealing with Lance was that you should sound the least like you're trying to boss him around.

"We later found a hidden port in the north side of the island." said Lance "There we found general supplies, charts of several South European and North African ports and that of the Sanctuary, funds and weapons along with a two large transport vessels equipped with long-range transmission radios and several escape jet boats. Their cargo included mostly weaponry and cocaine but their leader also confided to me that they have connections to clients seeking sexual or labor slavery."

Nam snapped out of it and looked over the Black Saints the foot soldiers. The leader, Ray, seemed to be thrashing around the most. "LET ME GO! I'LL KILL THAT FUCKING PEGASUS! GYARGH!"

The foot soldiers took him away to the Stardust Prison located near Cape Sounion. "Wow, I'm impressed. It's hard to believe you two were able to take down so many Black Saints that were giving us so much trouble."

Lance squinted at him. "You know I've handled worse!" he reminded the Silver Saint. "So what's the deal, Nam? Can I get my solo missions back or what?"

Nam quivered. He never liked working with Lance. "Listen, I've been trying to find a way to pull Shinta into another team. I talked to the other Silvers, and then directly to the Golden Zodiac to see if someone had a position Shinta would be useful enough to take him out of this mess and leave you alone, Lance. I…literally tried everything I could, but…" Nam gulped. "The Pope's decision is final. I'm afraid you two are stuck together."

"WHAT?!" Lance shouted.

"What do you mean, Saint Nam?" Shinta asked.

Nam was unable to answer, because neither Lance or Shinta, or even everyone at the port expected the most powerful man in Sanctuary to arrive with a small entourage of his guards and interfere in the conversation. "I see you two have returned." said none other than the Pope. He took the report from Nam's hands and read it. "Well, Lance, it seems you have completed this assignment as expected."

Shinta gasped and got on his knee. "Your Holiness, you're here!"

Nam also stepped back, saluted the Holy Father of Sanctuary. "Your Holiness, what are you doing here?"

Lance in contrast, pointed his finger at him. "YOU, are you responsible for this?!

Shion ignored Lance and turned to the humble green-haired boy who didn't dare to even look up at him. "And who is this fine young lad? I trust you are Andromeda Shinta, the recently promoted Saint from Cepheus Guardnia's tutelage."

Shinta nodded quickly. He still couldn't believe the Pope was there, talking to him. "Y-yes, your Holiness." He looked up to his mask. "It is an honor to meet you."

Shion saw Shinta's face directly for the first time. He saw the green eyes, the green curly hair and the look of innocence and naiveté in his face, like someone who honestly believed in the good in the world. "Just like in the picture…" he commented to himself. "Your Master spoke very highly of you in his letter, Saint Shinta. I trust you worked well with Lance."

"Yes, your Holiness! There were no incidents, your Holiness!" he repeated, nervous as he was. "Saint Lance was incredible. He took down three or four times more foes than I did!"

Shion's masked turned to Lance, who almost seemed to be growling at him like an angry dog. "Is that so? Impressive, and he didn't kill anyone this time, either." He commented.

"FUCK YOU, OLD MAN!" Lance shouted. For a second, several eyes turned to him, but the Pope's guards just signaled at the people to move on. "Don't talk as if I just go around killing innocent people for fun! You know that's not true."

"…Yes, the reports of your missions have always been very detailed about who died at the hands of whom." Shion once again commented with a bit of cynicism in his voice. "But that is beside the point. From what I understand, you desire your solo missions back and Saint Nam wants Shinta to be pulled to another group, is that correct? Well, I have to say that that is a ridiculous idea." Everyone's eyes turned to him in surprise. "Why, Lance and Saint Shinta seem to have worked very well together according to this report, taking down a group of Black Saints that has had the hands of the Silver Saint division full for quite some time. Combined with the fact that the target was captured by Saint Lance, rather than killed, I'd say it was an excellent idea to team him up with Saint Andromeda. I'm sure you'll both have a good influence on each other."

Nam gasped. "B-but, your Holiness-"

Shion raised his hand to signal a halt to all discussion. "Saint Nam, I have made my decision. Continue to forward all missions to Saint Lance and register Saint Shinta as his mission partner for all of them."

"WHAT?" Lance asked, breaking his facade with a revolted glare. "NO, NO FUCKING WAY! I'm not letting you push me into working with anyone, let alone someone so naïve and so fucking new at this!"

"Well, Lance, that is just a matter of teaching him the ropes, right? No, I'm sure he'll be a wonderful ally in your assault missions," argued Shion.

Lance stared at him in disbelief. "Why are you forcing this so much?! He's too fucking green! He'll slow me down and get himself killed. He can't keep up with me."

"Well, Lance, there must be a misunderstanding, because, you see…" Shion then looked back at the mission report Lance wrote. "It says right here he took down over fifteen Black Saint who had him cornered before facing off against the leader himself and doing fairly well before being defeated, and I trust absolutely in your reports, Pegasus." he said. "I'm anxious to see how you'll do in your future assignments, which you will take along with Shinta, of course." added Shion, who couldn't help but smirk behind his mask at the look on Lance's face.

Lance lost his mind. He tightened his fist and rushed forward. "Why, you fucking HAG-"

Shion yawned, raised his finger and unleashed telekinetic wave that paralyzed the attacking Saint, who then just stood there, frozen in a charging stance he couldn't get out of.

"What the… What did you do to me?!" Lance screamed.

Shion looked at his watch. "Oh, look at the time. I must be going for I have much to do. Saint Nam; please make sure to process all the paperwork. Have a good night, and may Athena be with the three of you." He wished before he and his guards marched off towards the Golden Zodiac.

The telekinetic hold on Lance wore off and he fell to the floor as his frozen momentum caught up with him. Shinta helped him back up. "Are you okay, Lance?"

Lance struck his tum with his elbow. Shinta yelped. "BACK OFF!" he then turned to Sagitta. "This is bullshit, Nam! The Pope can't do this to me! Just sign him off to another team! Do whatever you can to get my solo missions back."

Nam shook his head. "Lance, I can't do anything against the Pope's commands, even if they're bat-shit insane! I don't like this either, but he's the one running Sanctuary, remember? Look, I know Shinta's a bit green and not just in hair color, but… try to put up with it, okay?" Nam then staggered in fear when Lance kicked a barrel next to them to the floor in anger and started walking around in frustration. Nam turned to the Andromeda Saint. "Shinta, I hope you don't mind all of this."

Shinta looked over to where Lance was fuming around and telling people who bothered him to take a hike. He smiled. "Don't worry, Saint Nam, I don't mind. I'm sure we'll be great friends." Saint Nam seemed really skeptical of this, but kept silent before leaving the area. Shinta went over to Lance and tried to calm him down. "Lance, I'm sorry for this situation. I know you really wanted your solo missions back."

Lance sighed and rubbed his eyes. "This is the biggest pile of BULLSHIT I've ever seen…what the fuck was that hag is thinking?!" he complained to himself. "Alright, then, so fucking be it! If I have to put up with you, I don't want to hear any complaints or crying or shouting for my help or any sort of bitching whatsoever. You're either manning up with me or I'll ditch you in North Korea or some shit or just tell Sanctuary you took the wrong turn in Portugal. Don't count on them sending a rescue mission for you in that hellhole!"

Shinta nodded nervously, not sure if Lance was just trying to scare him. He had heard many terrible things about that one Iberian country next to Spain. "O-okay, Lance, I'll do my best." He promised. "But, I was really hoping we could get along. I know I can be… sort of a crybaby…but I really want to prove to you that I can keep up with you and be useful and hopefully, one day, you won't see me as a nuisance."

Lance scoffed. "Oh yeah, and see you as what then?"

Shinta smiled warmly. "As a friend?"

The Pegasus Saint stared at him for several seconds. He suddenly lost the anger in his look and seemed pensive. "I…FUCK OFF!" Lance then turned his back to him. Lance sighed yet again. He seemed to stare at the Cloth Box that Shinta was carrying. "Shinta…"

"Yes, Lance, what is it?"

Lance turned to him, but seemed to be having trouble spitting it out. "So…Cloths are alive, huh?" he asked once more. "Do you mind explain to me what the hell that is about?"

Shinta blinked, surprised that such a subject would be suddenly brought up. Now that he thought of it, he didn't have a chance to properly explain it to Lance, who really seemed to be lacking in education.

Seeing it a chance to at last befriend Lance, Shinta smiled warmly and decided to explain.

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Present time, 1977, Pope's Halls

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"After being teamed up with Andromeda" said Shion "Lance demonstrated a gradual change in attitude. Though he hasn't shown signs of valuing the Sanctuary's call or respecting his superiors, he was far less violent in his missions and the number of urban incidents around him decreased, though not entirely gone. The most obvious sign of change in him is his relationship with the boy, Shinta. Initially almost despising the boy, Lance now has befriended the Andromeda Saint, who became one of the few people he cares about."

"So your plan worked, Your Holiness." concluded Saga.

Shion felt a bit guilty. "Well, Saga... to call it a plan is wrong for I had little confidence in it. It was more of a desperate, last-resort measure or, better yet, a leap of faith."

"Master, what would you have done if it hadn't worked, then?" asked Mu.

"Firstly, I would get Shinta as far away from Lance as possible as soon as possible."

"And what then, your Holiness? What would you have done with Lance?" asked Aquarius Malta. Shion answered only with silence. "I see... Good thing it worked, then."

Shion slowly nodded, as if he was also picturing some terrible outcome. "Yes...Because I doubt that, if things had taken another turn, we would still be having this discussion in the first place."

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Bond Forged by Fire

Release Date: 27th July 2014

Description: While Lance and Shinta are working on a mission, a sudden Specter attack occurs nearby and the two Saints are forced to interfere when the carnage takes terrifying levels