Notable OCs: Pegasus Lance's Bronze Saint Generation; Heracles Aguilon Silver Saint Generation; Gemini Akassius' Gold Saint Generation; Daemon Lucifer; Maiden Elisa; Adriana Ghisi;

Notable Original Concepts: LR Training Grounds; Sanctuary forts, outposts, villages and institutions; Sanctuary Court; Teos & Athenian Empire mythology; Isle of Gardens; Sanctuary Civil War;

Recurring/Cameo Ocs of Jenny DeVic: Mrs. Schafurwatt

Recurring/Cameo Concepts of Jenny DeVic:Great Bodyguard Legend; Golden Line Heritage; Sanctuary Orphanages; Andromeda Island's Geography & Tests; Sanctuary Nobility; Sanctuary Maidens;

Author Notes:

-I'd like offer special thanks to Redemmo for the look over made on the story. I'll be able to initiate a thorough clean up of early plot/characterization mistakes thanks to his help. ;)

-Also, LR has now officially passed the 300k words milestone. Thank you for your continued support.

-Finally, special thanks to Jenny Devic and the gang at chatango for both being awesome ^^

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

Please enjoy and review (= = )

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

The lower rooms of the Pisces temple were many stories below what most people knew the Temple itself to be. They were very dark and damp, dug deep into the ground of the beautiful Island and held in place by grey stone walls and pillars cracked and vined by time. The flickering of torches that kept the unknown corridors barely visible was the only thing heard asides from the careful steps of the two youths making their way through the place.

With his eyes darting left and right in suspicion, Deathmask followed Aphrodite's lead, trying to discern anything around him as his sixth sense was screaming at him that he was walking to a trap. It turned out that the cyan haired psycho had just dragged him inside the basement so they wouldn't be seen. Aphrodite could have already killed him if he wanted to, but he knew that based on what he had seen in the streets of Syracuse and even in that very Temple to completely trust him yet.

"Can you tell me already why you pulled me down this dark, dirty, and fucking scary place?! When Lance finds out about this-"

"Your friend is as good as dead." interrupted Aphrodite, not taking his eyes of the barely lit path. "Elisa has already trapped him somewhere by now, and you'll be killed too if you don't keep quiet and follow me."

"Maiden Elisa?! What the hell are you talking about? The only dangerous person in this Temple is you. You tried to freaking kill me today!"

"And I might try it again if you turn out to be more trouble than you're worth." threatened the Pisces youth as he stopped by the corridor's dead end.

His fingers touched the rock and dragged along, searching for the scratches on the right bricks he had discovered years before. He pressed the ones corresponding to his constellation, stepped back, and allowed the secret door to slide up and reveal the way.

The two of them walked inside and Mephisto widened his blue eyes. They were in a large chamber deep underground, supported by sets of thick pillars with white-rose vines wrapped around in spirals and leading up to an altar at the end of the room where a Gold Cloth Box, much like Lance's, rested. A blood-red carpet covered in petals covered the way and many golden objects and artifacts littered the ground, most likely treasures of the temple. Many sets of candles also gave light to the room as well as a wicked atmosphere, making shadows dance ever so slightly with the flicker of their fires.

He approached the vast wealth and practically drooled at the golden shine. "Wow, so much treasure! What is this place?"

"In case you couldn't tell by the box over there this is the Pisces Cloth's sealed room." He frowned suddenly and twisted Mephisto's wrist to make him drop the coins. "Put that down and follow me! I need your help to get us out of here! In case you haven't noticed, we're stuck in this temple!"

"OUCH! Alright, alright! What the hell do ya need me for anyway? What do you mean we're stuck?" he asked as he rubbed his sore hand. His face sweated nervously, however, when he noticed patterns of dry blood everywhere. Rituals of splashed crimson seemed to be painted on the walls, floor, pillars, furniture… Even the altar of basalt seemed to be placed in a large circle of scary looking symbols marked with sanguine intent. "Let me guess, this is the blood seal."

"How observant; as you can see this entire room is locking the Pisces Cloth in place, preventing it from falling into the wrong hands."

"Alright fine, let's take this thing out of here, then" Aphrodite stared at him like he just said something stupid. "What?! The blood seal will stop you?" guessed Mephisto.

However, Aphrodite just glanced at him knowingly. "Stop me? Hm, hm, that will be difficult considering I don't want it in the first place."

There was a moment of eye blinking in which Mephisto didn't quite immediately catch the meaning of Aphrodite's words. As soon as he hit him, however, he backed off and widened his eyes. "What? What the hell is going on?!"

The candidate's finger touched one of the less dry bloodlines, picking up a drop of blood which he then splattered on a nearby petal, allowing it to poison it and cause it to dry up and blacken.

"See that? Elisa has been giving me the poison in her veins for years as part of my preparation for the Pisces Cloth. It's a risky ritual which could kill me. It tends to be a lot riskier when she deliberately gives me bigger doses than I actually need." he explained before pointing the torch at the remaining blood lines that littered the room. "She's been trying to kill me intravenously ever since I got into the island."

"EW!"

"Don't be a prude! There are a lot grosser rituals in Sanctuary! The Pisces Temple is filled with books about tricks like this."

"Alright, alright, so what are we doing here?! What the hell do ya need me for?!"

Yet again, Aphrodite stared at him weirdly. The truth was, he didn't exactly need Deathmask for anything. He could undo the blood seal by himself, having spent years preparing for it, but if Elisa really was taking radical steps due to Lance's stubborn interference, chances were she was already on their trail. As much as it hurt his pride, someone who dodged Aphrodite's surprise killing move like Deathmask did was surely useful to at least buy some time should they run into her.

He watched Aphrodite get to work, using his cosmos-reinforced fingers to start smudging the locking letters within the circles made with unknown blood, stardust and cosmos that prevented anyone from moving the Cloth. Deathmask's head raced a thousand miles per hour trying to make sense out of all of it. Something seriously screwy was going on and he had to find out what.

"Hold the freaking phone, man!" he demanded "You're saying Elisa has been poisoning you, that Lance could be dead already and that we need to take this out of here…What the hell is going on? Why should I believe anything you're saying?!"

"I already told-"

"You haven't told me ANYTHING! You've just dragged me down this place and asked me to do a whole bunch of crazy stuff-"

"Stop SHOUTING!" Aphrodite demanded, taking his mind off the unsealing and trying to keep his own voice down. "I don't know when she's coming back! Damn it, I tried to warn you; I tried to tell that guy to take you out of here, but he wouldn't listen. I had no hopes of explaining it to you, but the Cancer Saint seemed more reasonable. Can't you see I don't have a choice here?! I was gonna take this off sooner or later, but you had to find the blasted door to the basement, so there was no way Elisa would let you get away easily, either!"

"Why didn't you just tell it to us straight instead of this 'let's keep it a secret until it is too fucking late'?!"

"Because it's my problem and, in case you haven't noticed, Elisa has been hovering around the two of you the whole day like a damn hawk!" Aphrodite confronted. "What could have I possibly told you?! I barely got a chance to try to convince that Cancer Saint before she showed up and I just know she's got a special eye on temple robbers like you!" he hissed, pointing a finger at Mephisto that made him stagger back. "Don't you see? The only thing stopping her from outright killing me is the chance to do it discreetly."

"Why, then? Why would she want to hurt you?" Mephisto demanded to know, not understanding the reason behind all of that.

This seemed to make Aphrodite pause for once and glance away, probably thinking back to the years he spent with the woman supposedly after his death.

"I don't know why she's doing it… I suppose she does it because she's just like me. I should have imagined how dangerous Elisa truly was when I realized she was the only person I felt comfortable with in my life, the only person I didn't feel like was better off gone… but that doesn't matter anymore. I don't want to become a Gold Saint, but if taking the Pisces Cloth away from her is the best way to get back at Elisa, then I'm doing it!"

Taken aback by the sudden surge of strange humanity in what was until then a psycho trying to kill him, Mephisto couldn't help but hesitate a bit, feeling like he had read the situation wrong. He blinked, feeling a sudden weight on his conscience he couldn't really explain.

"What are you standing around for? Help me!" Aphrodite shouted, snapping him out of it. "There's stardust all over this blood and she won't be gone forever and I need your help undoing this seal so we can get the hell away from here!"

"How will that help?"

"It's also creating the dimension loop around the temple." he explained. "Elisa has tightened it a few hours ago to cause it to loop endlessly. We'll undo it and use light speed to leave. I might not want to become a Gold Saint, but there's no way I'm sticking around to die for someone else's desire to be so!"

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

"Master, Master, look!"

"What is it, Elisa?"

"I've done it, Master, the rose turned black!"

Master held the pretty yet dangerous creation in his gauntleted hand with a smile of pride. "It's beautiful, Elisa. You're so talented. I'm so proud of you. I know you'll do great things."

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

The wind blew softly across the field, making the petals fly as she made her way out of the cemetery and closed the gates. A smile widened beneath the shadow of her hood as she thought of the meddling Gold Saint squirming in his new tomb. She had waited so long for this moment…

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

"Is this… okay? Master, I don't think I've done it right."

Master held the rose she created this time. "It's white. Not what I asked for…"

"I'm sorry, Master, I'll try it again-"

"No, no, Elisa, it's fine." Master knelt down and rested a hand in her black-haired head. "This is even better than I expected. You managed to purify a red rose into its original white. This is something truly miraculous to do with your cosmos, something worthy of a Saint."

Though she hesitated to do so, Elisa's hopes rose and dared to ask "Like a Pisces Saint?"

Master nodded. "Yes, a miracle worthy of a Pisces Gold Saint." He raised his slashed fingers, from where poisonous blood could already be seen dripping from a cut. "And I know you'll make a great one."

She dreamed of a future honor of gold and touched Master's wound, causing phantasm of fishes to emerge around them and the Goddess' blood to course into her.

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

Practically skipping along the pebble road back to the main temple complex, the robed Maiden thought of all the fears, all the anxiety that had plagued her about her role in Sanctuary; she had casted away her discretions and condemned a Gold Saint to his death, so the Pope would sooner or later know of her treason, but now it seemed it was all lifting away from her heart. Her Path to the Cloth was finally open. The Pisces Armor was hers at last.

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

"I don't understand, Master."

"This is my new student. His name is Aeneas."

"Your new student?! What about 'me'?

The boy Aeneas, sensing her distraught, spoke up "It's nice to meet you, Elisa. I hope we can get along."

"Aeneas comes from a broken home, Elisa. He's an orphan born under Pisces just like yourself." said the Master. "You're older than him so I want you to help him. Teach him of this island and its secrets. Help him grow, Elisa, and you will grow yourself."

Elisa's lips quivered, sensing her role strangely threatened, but saw sense in Master's wisdom. "I…I understand. I will obey, Master."

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

Laughing to the starry skies, happy as she was with how light her heart felt, the Maiden counted the days, the weeks, the months and the years that had passed, that she had to endure, since the Pisces Cloth returned to her possession, an armor that should had never left her side. All the humiliations, all the denials and all of Sanctuary's treachery despite her years of service, of study, of love and of work now felt so small. Her moment of glory was within her grasp!

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

Aeneas struggled to burn his cosmos as he handled the thorns of the rose, failing to empower it, much less manipulate its poison. The poor boy visibly struggled, obviously much less experienced or talented than her, as he failed to make the rose turn black while she just did it in front of her with a flick of her fingers.

Aeneas threw it away with tears in his face. "I-I don't understand! How do you do it, Elisa? You're so amazing at it yet I-I'm so helpless and weak. Why did Master put so much trust in me?"

Though she felt like agreeing with him, she instead sighed and showed him how. "You're not transmitting your intentions to your cosmos well enough. I'm surprised you didn't just set the beautiful plant on fire, angry as you are." She picked the rose up. "Of course you don't understand how to do this; you don't even appreciate the beauty of this rose so much that you threw it to the floor. Master would be infuriated by your attitude."

The young boy's sad stare locked with the rose. "Beauty? I can see the rose is beautiful, but…"

"Don't feel angry at the Demon Roses, Aeneas, it's the world and your weakness that are ugly." she taught, handing the plant over. "You and I are blessed to live in this island, in this temple, amidst all this purity. We have the chance to do something marvelous, to make these poisonous, evil plants grow so lovely that people will forget of their intent. If you think about that, you'll be able to forget about the ugly things in your life and recreate beauty and love in your cosmos."

She saw Aeneas try again, burning his cosmos but barely able to make the petals lose the tint of their red. "Love… I have to think of love and how I want it to change my cosmos…" he said, losing himself in those words.

Elisa scoffed, knowing it would take years for him to get it right, just like it took her. He was just too young to figure it out yet. "You still have a lot of work ahead of you, but don't give up. You won't just-"

"Look, I'm doing it!" Aeneas screamed. Elisa's eyes widened in shock, seeing the red indeed retract and leave being a pure black that had taken her so long and so much hard work to also create. "I'm doing it, Elisa. Look, look! The rose is losing its poison!"

"I…I…" she stuttered, unable to understand what was happening right in front of her. Had Aeneas just somehow beaten her? "I don't understand. How did you…?"

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

Elisa arrived by the front yard of the main temple complex, seeing the two golem guards that turned their heads to her now that the Maiden's intentions were out in the open. Sensing her pending hostility, they assumed tense positions.

She ignored them, her previous smile was frozen, and stared off at the temple they guarded, lost in memories of the day everything came crashing down.

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

Years had passed and Master had passed away. Disease from the poison he held in his veins had overtaken his body after passing down to the two of them the Goddess' Blood, leaving a vacant spot in the Twelfth Temple. Master had simply grown too weak to resist and the Styx claimed him.

Now was time to choose the next Pisces Saint and the two had been called before His Holiness, Arles, who now stood before them in his throne room and turned his mask's gaze left and right, judging the two candidates. Nothing could go wrong. Though grief afflicted her from her teacher's demise, his responsibilities now fell before her. She had to step up and take over the Cloth.

"He raised two fine young students. I still remember the day I had you brought to his care." recalled the Pope. "The rituals of Pisces are so tragic… but the stars deemed it was his time to go and pass the torch to someone with the Goddess' Blood."

Raising her chin in determination, Elisa stepped forward. She had prepared herself for this her entire life. This was to be her purpose, to become one of the few chosen to guard the most important temple. All she had to do was await the Pope's proclamation now that he spoke with the armor.

"Pisces has chosen… Aeneas."

The young boy's face lift up in shock and Elisa's whole world came crashing down. "What?!"

"Me?! But Elisa has-"

"Pisces has chosen you, Aeneas. It's the Cloth's will that you are to become its next Saint."

Elisa stared, maddened by shock, at the Pope. "But…But that can't be! Aeneas hasn't… he's not powerful enough. I'm more capable than he is! More experienced! I'm Master's first student!"

The Pope sighed. "I'm afraid the Cloth has its reasons… I am truly sorry, Elisa."

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

The frozen expression twisted downwards to a frown as the anger and revolt she felt all those years came rushing back. The golem guards, sensing her increased aggression overcome her usual emotional disguises, rushed forward with raised tower shields and spears.

She frowned in disgust. "I don't have time for you dolls! PIRANHA ROSE!" There was a flick of her wrist and all of a sudden a flurry of large black blurs blasted all across their dry mud bodies, tearing perfect holes through their armor defenses and crippling the alchemical constructions.

With blasted legs and 'organs', the golems fell apart on the floor, all their structural weak spots utterly destroyed. The Maiden stared at the corpses and a final memory came rushing back as she remembered the fateful outcome of the Civil War.

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

They said they would bring back all their corpses.

They said they would make a vengeful spectacle of it, that Kirin would string them up in the plazas as the traitors they were to send a message to all dissidents, Specters and Black Saints that saw it. They said Malta would freeze them into timeless statues that would forever tell their story of failed treason and that Akassius would burn their army to the ground, imprison their allies and erase their names from time itself.

Then again, they also said that the war would be easy and quick to be over with.

Before her was no string up corpse or even respectfully mantled body, but merely a scarred Capricorn Kirin and His Holiness the Pope, both who had personally come to her Island the deliver the news.

The Pisces Gold Cloth was found once more.

Years after Capricorn Kirin had battled Pisces Aeneas in Bluegrad and killed him; the armor was recovered at last.

Or, better yet, Kirin had mortally wounded the traitor who then collapsed with the city's rubble along with the sacred protection. Considering the Pisces Cloth was recovered without a body attached to it, it was safe to assume the 'bastard was really dead or unfit to wear it', according to Kirin.

Capricorn Saints always had the bad habit of not personally confirming their kills.

To that day she did not understood fully what drove Aeneas to choose the losing traitor side, though she could already formulate a few theories, knowing him like she did. His kindness and empathy for once, two traits unfit for a true Pisces, obviously took a role in the decision, something that made her wonder even further why the Cloth chose him over her and, even further beyond, stuck by his side well into the worse years of the Civil War.

"I am…truly sorry, Elisa." said His Holiness. "After all this time, I could not find Aeneas' body."

With eyes having long run dry of tears, Elisa had a sudden urge to scoff. Regretting not saving someone implied you were actually interested in their survival and regretting not finding their body implied you were interested in their honoring, two things she had no idea how the Pope dared to pretend to be. More and more it made less and less sense to keep playing this nice façade of hers with these people.

"We hope the traditions of the Pisces Temple can still be honored without a body to bury in the Temple's graveyard." muttered Kirin.

Her eyes wavered at the Pisces Cloth. She still remembered the day it had been taken away from her. She had made her peace already with Aeneas' treason and only awaited the day Akassius' dogs would inevitably find and kill him so she could stand up for the ideals he turned his back to. Many rumors had arisen after the war about the Gold Saints and their methods, with people saying they were far more powerful than they let on and that they had devised a method to find hidden Gold Saints. Akassius was still a hero, of course, but some people, including herself, now wondered if the reason he retired was because they themselves did not understand the war they just fought.

"I'll take care of the Cloth, Lord Arles III." she assured.

"I know you will." assured the Pope. "And I'm happy to say I already have a new candidate for it."

Her heart froze and her eyes widened. "What?!"

"His Saint name is Aphrodite…he's from Sweden" explained the Pope, his mask looking away as if he could actually possibly imagine what he was denying her once again. "I want him trained to become the next Pisces Saint."

"Why?!" she demanded to know. "Some unknown child will take over my Master's armor when his student, 'Aeneas', has betrayed us all? Who is this child?! What has he done to deserv-"

"Are you questioning the Pope's judgment? The same description could apply to you, Maiden." pointed out Kirin, his falcon eyes narrowing like blades. "You, who lived with Aeneas all these years, under the same roof, with the same teachings, could be just as untrustworthy, correct?"

Her eyes were stunned with the affront. "How DARE YOU-"

"That is enough, both of you!" interrupted His Holiness. "This is not the time for that kind of talk. I trust Elisa's capacities to educate the Saint I have chosen for this Cloth. I have in good judgment he's the right one for the task. Elisa, he'll be brought over soon. I am counting on you to perform a great service to us that will be remembered beyond my years, trust me."

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

The Pope's last words to her that day still rang so painfully inside her head, so similar they were to Master's when he first introduced her to Aeneas. She was certain from that moment onwards Sanctuary would never give her any recognition for her talents. She wouldn't hold it account for it, though. After all, taking the Pisces Cloth for herself, killing his precious candidate, would be enough of a spit to the Pope's face for just sending a Gold Saint to kill her.

Walking inside the corridors of the Temple, Elisa's brown eyes gazed upon the familiar innards one final time to burn into her memory the place she had called home for almost twenty years. Soon she would leave it forever. Aphrodite would be dead together with the new Cancer Saint and his protégé, something that would not please the Pope at all. Though she admitted the child had abnormal talent, Elisa had waited for too long for her reward. He would have to wait his turn in the afterlife.

She only felt bad about not being able to keep up the charade. There was actually a tiny bit of her that believed that with Aphrodite dead the Pope might have come to his senses and let her have the Cloth legitimately. Aphrodite, however, held out for too long and the Pope got too suspicious. She would have to sacrifice the pleasure of actually occupying the Temple for taking the Cloth for herself and make her own little paradise of flowers in somewhere away from Sanctuary's eyes. It took them years to find the armor after Aeneas died in Bluegrad, so it should be fairly simple for her to keep it out of their sight.

There was only the matter of dealing with Aphrodite so she could eliminate any chance of the Pisces Cloth rejecting her. It was a smart move to tighten the dimension loop around the temple into a full loop after Lance's arrival, as now it meant the cyan-haired boy had nowhere to run.

She wondered just how much of her true intentions Aphrodite had actually picked up over the years. He was probably waiting for her right now to come kill him.

She stopped by the basement's secret passage all of a sudden. Thinking she would find him hiding away in the rooms, she was about to lose some time searching for him there, but the scratches on the floor seemed to indicate someone got dragged inside recently.

Ah, she forgot about the runt Cancer brought with him.

Already imagining Aphrodite must have had his hand forced by circumstances as well, she smiled ear to ear, not believing how much of herself she saw in the kid. She casually opened the passage and walked down the dark stone steps with a black rose in hand.

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

Chapter 21

First Arc

Episode 14

Ghouls n'Roses – Part 4 of 4

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

Mount Rozan

One Month Earlier

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

The fierce assault pressed on the inexperienced Gold Saint.

A terrified gasp at the prospect of another painful barrage of hits came out of his mouth; he stepped back, crossed his arms, and shouted. "Cancer BURST!"

There was a bright surge of searing light and Dohko's immediate instinct was to step back before being caught in the attack. He leaped back just in time of avoiding the sudden explosion of cosmic power, which send smoke and dust fly everywhere and shatter the ground into a crater.

Cautiously lowering his covering arms, Dohko couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the sight of a panting, terrified Lance amidst the vanishing smoke. "Oh, boy, what was that just now? Trying to blow up Dragon Bridge? That was kind of scary for a second. I thought you forced me to agree not to exchange techniques."

"YOU «pant»… gave me no CHOICE!" Lance protested. "I was about to fall off said bridge. Can't you go easy on me? I can't employ Dragon Style that well, yet!"

Wiping off a smudge the blast smeared on his golden gauntlet, the Master approached his student and asked. "That was an interesting technique, though. I didn't realize you could launch a cosmos explosion that fast. My 7th sense was active all the way through and I didn't sense you gather any cosmos… How did you do that?"

Clenching his fist to make the cosmos in it burn, Lance gave his best explanation. "It's a trick I learned in my mission days. I don't really bring out the cosmos… I store it at skin level." Seeing the golden energy enveloping Lance's exposed skin until it sank into his body, Dohko 'oh'ed, intrigued with the technique. "You didn't sense it because it's so close to my skin it is disguised with my reserves. I use it only for emergencies, though. It's hard to keep it in check."

"I'd say so; you could hurt someone with such a sudden outburst of unrefined power."

Unable to agree more, the student retracted his defensive stance. Over the years he had not used the 'Burst' technique all that much, having devised it as a quick way to dispatch the groups of punks and foot soldiers of Sanctuary that gave him a hard time, only to discover the urban damage it caused far outweighed the quick resolution benefits. It was also loud as hell.

"It's not like it's a good technique. It only pays off against scrubs." he confessed, looking at his own hand that once held the attack's energy "I've been thinking about discarding it so I can fight more focused. You taught me to invest in my strengths so it's probably the best I have to do."

Though the student seemed pretty settled in it, the master had something to say. "Not necessarily. I like that technique. We can probably do something about it to improve it."

Lance scoffed skeptically. "Like what? It's just a 360 blast. It's not strong enough to fight off opponents remotely as strong as me."

Dohko walked up to the waterfall. "That's because you're using the wrong power source."

"Excuse me? Power source?"

The Master punched the water to no avail. "A fist packed with cosmos will not reverse the waterfall; just make a lot of noise and a big splash. A fist packed with Water cosmos, though…" The punch was repeated only for the falling water to burst upwards like a geyser. "will carry an entirely new effect. You possess one of the most explosive, destructive and self-consuming of cosmos elements, that of Fire, you dummy, so what makes you think you can't improve it?"

It took a second for Lance to absorb this information, dumbstruck as he was at the obviousness of the eluded solution. "But… won't fire just make the energy consumption worse?"

"Depends on how you go about it and how you reshape the technique. Elements give new properties to cosmos that might allow you to completely transform your base move. Try to mix the two things together sometime, see what happens and take conclusions from it. You might discover something interesting…." Dohko held his chin and raised a brow "Though I have to say, if you need to store cosmos at the surface, why you don't just use your Cloth for it?"

The new Cancer Gold Saint folded arms, thinking about it, but only reached skeptic conclusions. "I tried to once, but I prefer to handle the timing myself. Besides, Pegasus can only handle so much for prolonged periods of time."

Snorting in disbelief at the stupidity of his pupil, Dohko tapped his finger on the golden metal cuirass Lance was wearing.

"How many idiot pills did you swallow today?!" he asked, not believing his ears "Have you forgotten you're wearing one of the twelve Cloths of Gold? Karkinos can handle way more than a Bronze Cloth!" He saw the disgruntled look on his student's face. "I know I taught you to think independently of him, but he IS your armor from now on. Someday you'll have to work with him."

"What should I do, then?"

"Your homework is to experiment with your element to see what kind of effect it has on your technique and begin converging your cosmos with the Gold Cloths to find ways to work together. Who knows, you might come up with a much more powerful version of your technique."

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

Present

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

His dreams were still filled with snow and death. Trapped inside Aeneas' rose-filled tomb, the delirious, paralyzed Gold Saint didn't even feel the rose vines slowly wrapping around him. That was because he thought he was somewhere else, somewhere far away, where rather than red petals and sharp, poisonous thorns, it was snow, naked trees and desolation that filled his surroundings. He felt himself reliving the nightmares of his time on Mount Olympus, where he was weak, helpless, afraid and stupid. Seiryu had saved him from Guilty only for him to now be tormented by these old thoughts?

And though he couldn't help but silently weep at the sight of the terrifying, never-ending snow in front of him, the senselessness of that situation wouldn't stop bugging him. Something was not right. How could he be there once more? He had left Mount Olympus. He had left all those horrible moments behind. He didn't remember heading back to it, especially when he had vowed not to.

Thoughts that usually wouldn't assail him during a dream or a nightmare rushed into his mind, like what he was doing there when he was just now somewhere else? His strange doubts kept his mind somewhat in place despite the all-out sensory attack of numbness, pain and terror he was suffering, a incomprehensibility that enraged him out of an otherwise total comatose.

He fell his knees on the 'snow', holding his arms and feeling a strange burning and scratching all over him as he tried his best with his half dormant mind to make sense of that strange scenario. What had happened? Something had happened? What? What was it? Why couldn't he see past the snowstorm and the blood?

Red eyes widened in panic all of a sudden. Where was Sarah?!

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

Karkinos screamed at him to wake up!

There was a rough gasp, a sudden bursting open of his eyes and an awakening to a reality he had been hypnotized under. He felt himself still inside Aeneas' tomb, covered in vines that crept up around him, blooming red roses that released paralyzing, painful toxins while their thorns painfully scratched his exposed skin.

There was an attempt to move, to make his whole body burst out of that deathtrap before it was too late, but, constricted and sedated as he was, only but his left arm barely moved. He felt like he was burning all over and saw from the corner of his eye what was causing the sensation. The vines that had wrapped around him were slowly dripping like sap, and were burning his clothes and skin. Much like a strange stomach, the Royal Demon Roses's final stage of consumption seemed to not only be trying to hold him and poisoning him, but also eliminating any trace of the victim with their fluid. Lance realized, however, that the poison would kill him much sooner and unless he did something fast, he would perish.

He tried to think of a plan, but could barely think past his induced migraine. He remembered Elisa closing the tomb slab above him and realized the danger the kids were in, but couldn't muster the concentration to formulate a correct course. He had to free himself somehow without spending too much energy, but the way his body was weakened only a great amount of cosmos could make the slightest of differences.

A dazed rage filled his eyes. His hand did its best to move and little by little managed to rest palm first on the ground he laid on. He had left most of the Cancer Gold Cloth in its box on the outside, but the cuirass he hid beneath his shirt should hold enough power.

He tried to talk to the Cancer Cloth, but even his mental messages seem garbled up into incoherent messages. His body trembled and his mind wavered. His eyes struggled to shut once again. He had to take advantage of this miraculous moment of consciousness and concentrated his remaining strength in asking the armor for help.

He must have barely succeeded, for a slight tint of golden flame began emanating from beneath his shirt.

Turning attention back into his hand, he made the energy course through his arm into it. Every second was a struggle to hold on to it. He could feel the power trying to externalize itself into a waste, but had to hold in to it at all costs. His hand seemed to catch on a very bright fire that somehow raged without burning. As if sensing a threat, the Demon Roses tightened their conscription on him, blooming more toxic pollen in the tight, covered grave to asphyxiate him completely.

And it was just about when he was losing consciousness that he manned to call upon his attack. "C-CANCER…. ERUPTION!"

The fire in his hand twirled around circularly, expanded its radius in a rapid sudden manner and then burst upwards in an exploding inferno.

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

Meanwhile,

Village of Chrysanthos

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

The darkness of the night was lit up by villagers walking around worriedly and staring at the far off farm fields in the island's innards. Having just arrived from Spain, Capricorn Shura, with Gold Cloth carefully stored away, made his way through the crowd to try to get to the bottom of the situation.

He had initially made plans to take his time reaching Chrysanthos, but his conscience weighed on his shoulders of the thought that he was making the Pope wait anxiously in Greece. He instead used light speed to transverse the seas and mystical currents that surrounded the Island of Flowers, arriving there within just a few seconds. It had taken him quite a bit of energy to do so, as said mystical currents were designed to divert away gold-ranked movement, but the more he noticed the preoccupied hassle gathering around the palisade gate to the countryside, the more he realized he made the right decision.

He finally got past the many villagers, excusing himself as he bumped and moved around them, only to see an old man with a coat, next to two strange golem guards that were similar to the ones being repaired in Mu's workshop, gesturing an appeal to calm the villagers. "Please, don't be concerned!" the mayor said. "We will be safe. I will ask for help right away!"

"There's something going on there! I'm sure of it!" one villager shouted.

"We can't progress at all on the road to the temple. What is going on?" another wondered out loud.

"What is that witch doing? She must be up to something!"

"Are we going to die?!"

"That Saint and his kid haven't returned yet."

"Mom, why is everyone so scared?"

"What is going on?!" Shura shouted at the mayor. He showed off his crested sword. "My name is Shura. I may look young but I represent Lord Capricorn. What is happening in Chrysanthos?"

Based on his judgment of Shura unsheathing a crested weapon in front of all those people, Mayor Charis assumed the youth was telling the truth. "We can't contact the temple of Pisces, Lord Shura. The dimensional transition maze has been completely locked. There are people trapped in the fields who can't get home. If they stay there during the night the Roses' poison will kill them!"

The horrified gasps and screams at the mention of this danger around Shura verified the mayor's concerns. "Demon Roses? Oh, no. I don't understand why this is happening, but I'll stake my honor as a squire of Capricorn that I will do my best to help. But why hasn't the Maiden done anything? Why the lockdown to begin with? What happened to Saint Lance?"

There was a rise of tension in the crowd created by the fall of volume in the worried chatter, which morphed into scared whispers and word pass-alongs. The Mayor sweated nervously and the two Golem Guards straightened their pose as if aware of an imminent threat that the living breathing humans were not entirely, or at least much more frightened to face.

"Lord Lance passed here this morning… though it should have taken him six hours to walk to the temple neither he nor that child that came with him, have showed up so far…" explained the Mayor, who then waved his wrinkled hand at the green landscape. "Strange and dangerous things have always occurred at that temple. It's the Training Ground for all Pisces Saints after all, but Maiden Elisa has locked down the maze, endangering our farmers and families. We don't know what's going on! Without a clear sign-"

All of a sudden there was a tremor that caused everyone to stagger and scream. A far off burst of golden light erupted from the ground; somewhere well beyond the undulating grass slopes that hid the island's core. The bursting bonfire raged around for an instant before rising to the skies like a volcano blast, piercing through the black-clouded night.

"WHAT IS THAT?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Is there a battle there?! Are we gonna die?!"

"Oh no!"

"Mom! I w-wanna go home!"

There was sudden gut-punching feeling in Shura as he saw so many people terrified at the simple prospect of Saints battling nearby. He wondered what awaited them all when the Holy War with Hades approaches. He had vowed to protect the people of Sanctuary, and yet these villagers were so horrified at the slightest sign of trouble involving Saints.

Shura stared at the far off rising light, now certain that something very wrong was happening as they spoke, and making up his mind about his next move. Squinting his eyes at the receding pillar of cosmos as it slowly collapsed on itself back into darkness and charging his right arm with the familiar bladed energy he had come to master, the Capricorn Saint stepped past the alarmed mayor and stoic guards and swore to save everyone on the island, no matter the resistance that this 'dimension maze' put up to him.

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

Horrified at what he was seeing, Aphrodite stumbled back, even as Deathmask kept trying his best to wipe away the blood. "Why can't I undo it?!" he wondered out loud.

"Damn it! What the hell is going on?! What kind of blood is this?!" Deathmask practically screamed as he tried to scrub as hard as he could. They had thrown buckets of water, acidic poison and even a couple of waves of cosmos at the red markings, but the entire surface of that room seemed to be coated with some bizarre resistance to their attempts "Why can't I remove it?"

"Is it the stardust in it?" Aphrodite wondered to himself, not even acknowledging Deathmask's protests. "Did Elisa also take measures against me like this? This is worse than I thought. I have to think of something…"

"Well, make it fast! We gotta get out of here!"

The Pisces youth's hands ran through his own hair, his mind racing at miles per hour as he saw Deathmask fruitlessly look around the room and even through the many discarded treasure pieces for something, anything, that could help him dig the bricks beneath the blood off if he had to. Aphrodite knew immediately it was pointless, as the whole temple was certainly reinforced with the same stardust alchemy that would make Cloths resistant to a fall from the stratosphere.

He reviewed the entire scenario on his head. Elisa was definitely on her way to get them, with it being just a matter of time until she discretely dispatched the Cancer Saint. There was only one way out of there and it was through the same passage they took in from the temple above. He knew from the start the only way out of the temple would be by undoing the blood seal, so he had studied it as well as methods to wipe it away if need.

How could he have been so stupid?! Elisa would definitely start her move by reinforcing the seal beyond his capabilities. What was he going to do?

Finding the sudden lack of chastising strange, Deathmask turned over to see Aphrodite stand with a distinct look of panic. It was a look that he could never keep disguised from someone as street savvy as himself. "Get it together, man!" he shouted, shaking Aphrodite by the arms. "What are you doing standing around for?! Can't you think of something?!"

"I'm TRYING, but… I think Elisa took preemptive steps!"

"What?"

"The blood seal isn't supposed to be this hard to undo… I can't tell what she's done to strengthen it…"

"Well, let's think of something else, then!" demanded Deathmask, finding it ridiculous that Aphrodite could just feel stumped like that. "We'll grab a hammer, break the floor to pieces or just find some other way through the loop!"

"There's no way… it will just send us back…It's a problem designed to funnel your solutions into its source."

"If we don't do anything we're DEAD! Pull your head out of your ass, man! You were just screaming at me to hurry up in helping you!" Deathmask's eyes looked around like those of a cornered trash rat. "What if we kick her ass? What are our chances against her?"

Something seemed to awaken within Aphrodite's eyes with this, telling Deathmask this was actually something that had been deep on his mind for some time. "Bad… not impossible, but very bad." confessed the kid. "She hasn't exactly been very interested in teaching me killing moves. I had to practice most in secret…."

"You said she's been transfusing her blood to you, right? Does that make you immune to the roses?"

"To a degree, yes… but poison is far from being her only talent."

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself, Aphrodite." a female voice said, causing them to jump in fright and turn to the arriving maiden at the room's doorway. "You are quite talented at murder, just like I am. I'm sure you'd be able to at least impress me with your skills one last time."

Deathmask practically screamed at the arriving threat as Aphrodite's face went pale. Gritting teeth and narrowing eyes, the student stepped forward and waved his hand at a side, causing a red rose to sprout out from beneath his sleeve into his hand. "Elisa! You… you're here!"

"Shit! D-did she kill Lance?!" wondered Deathmask. The Maiden smiled gently at him as she presented a black rose in her hand as an answer. The runt shrieked and stumbled back in terror. "F-fuck! What are we gonna do now?!"

"We're going with plan B!" explained Aphrodite as he burned his blood-red cosmos into a thin, menacing aura.

The tense sensation of the child's chilling energy burned deep in Deathmask's soul. The sound of his footsteps shuffling about was the only source of comfort during that knife-cutting moment of staring off between student and teacher. Elisa didn't seem at all threatened by Aphrodite's resolve, even finding the whole situation strangely amusing if her expanding motherly smile was anything to go by.

Eventually Elisa tilted her head disapprovingly. "Well Aphrodite, I am quite curious to see what you have in store for me, but how about we first make sure our audience doesn't leave its seats?" she suggested as she clicked a brick by the doorway that her student didn't know about. The grunting sound of castle bricks grinding against each other was heard and a segment of the wall behind her closed completely.

The locking mechanism triggering behind her was enough to send a shiver down Deathmask's spine. They had nowhere to run! He crawled away discretely, sweating bullets, and let Aphrodite take charge.

Though he wished for different circumstances, Aphrodite stood up to her. "Well, at least now I won't have a backdoor holding me back…"

"Do you really think that would make the difference?" asked Elisa, who then showed a cut on her backhand. "You're probably wondering why such a simple blood seal is so hard to wipe off. These kinds of seals are usually kept in secret locations like this because they're so fragile. One water bucket kicked to the ground and poof… you could steal my cloth away."

"Your Cloth? I must have missed the day you were chosen as its owner." Aphrodite taunted, fully aware of how dangerous this was to do.

There was indeed a slight trembling in Elisa's lip. "… The problem was, Aphrodite, that this wasn't blood you were trying to wipe off." The cyan-haired youth widened his eyes and turned them once more at the red markings. "I never really taught you much about alchemy, have I? You don't even know you can ground the petals into dust that then can be turned into a really indelible dye while working as a seal material. What a shame."

Gulping as discreetly as he could at the newfound information, Aphrodite realized just how much he had underestimated the woman in front of him. Though a sweat bullet ran down his temple, he kept his confident look. He was in trouble no matter what he tried to do. Now he either fights her off or die along with sticky fingers in the corner.

His foot dragged forward before his hand swept like it was throwing a dagger!

Elisa went fully alert and bobbed her white-hooded head to dodge the red rose projectile that had aimed for her neck while rushing forward with her own rose in hand. She was met in the middle of the room by Aphrodite's red-charge dash blow which struck her forearm block, dodged his lighting fast upward kick with a back head tilt and forced him away with a hand swipe.

Aphrodite landed back on the ground from his failed assault with a renewed sense of fear. He gritted his teeth and raised his defending hands. They stepped around the middle circle of the room facing each other, looking for an opening. Elisa smiled. This fight was clearly in her bag.

His hands closed into red-charged fists and he rushed forward, unleashing his roses.

Elisa bit down on her black rose to free her fingers and received the blitzing attack, sweeping Aphrodite's first charge attack with an elegant hand tap before proceeding to dodge, block and parry Aphrodite's vicious kicks, punches, backhand blows and hand stabs with simple, minimalist movements. Just like his earlier spar with the Cancer Saint, Aphrodite's viciousness would rush him to his demise.

But the child must have learned something from it, however, because he then got close before leaping upwards at her height with an elbow blow that startled her for a second. More upwards blows forced her on the defensive, taking her attention off his openings and making her step away from him.

"Oh, this is new!" she congratulated before catching his fist by the wrist and pulling him in for a left hand chop that exploded on his stomach, stunning the kid's entire body and forcing a shout of pain out of him. "That's far from enough, though!" she lectured before her white cosmos emerged and a lightning fast, invisible barrage battered all over his chest, punishing him further.

Aphrodite fell on his back, screaming in pain and feeling blood gush out his lips. He ran his hands over realizing she had struck many of his vital areas and feeling that his full power level was fading. The fight had just started and Elisa had already rendered his melee attacks useless.

The sight of the quivering kid on the floor made her let out a false sigh. "Oh, this is so sad… I really wanted to kill you quickly and beautifully, Aphrodite. Seeing someone as gentle-looking as you, squirming around like a worm… makes me feel like you should die below ground instead of above it…" Her 7th sense detected cosmos concentrating in Aphrodite's fingers. "Going for another round? I'll gladly teach you the uselessness of your fists again if I have to. I can be a pretty dedicated teacher as you know."

Aphrodite's shouted and swept his hand at the air, letting out a thin red missile that traveled faster than her reflexes, slashing her face and stabbing a stem behind her. Elisa screeched, grabbing her bloody forehead by her eye and feeling the red rose poison trying pointlessly to numb her. She raised her face to reveal an angry growl, blood covering her eyelid with intent to stop playing around!

Deathmask moved around in the shadows behind the pillars. His eyes occasionally glanced at the fight in the middle of the room, but he forced himself to focus on his task. He had to find it!

Her hand rushed in for his throat, catching Aphrodite by it with her deceptively strong fingers. Elisa smirked, her previous anger dissipating as Aphrodite's terror rose. "I told you not to play with sharp objects, haven't I?"

Another tightening and sudden motion of her hand was followed by a cracking sound and a stunning, pained expression in Aphrodite's glassed eyes. He screamed loudly in pain, feeling the sensation in his hand suddenly paralyzing into frozen pain. He was let down on the floor to ravel in his own pain for a second before Elisa's hand thrust straight into his chest, silencing his scream and sending him into instant shock.

The elegant, bloodied fingers left holes in his abdomen so he could fall on his knees. Gritting his teeth in pain, fear and fury, the youth tried desperately to contain the trembling of his body and the thoughts of how hopeless of a fight he was in. What was he gonna do?

"H-have we calmed down, already?" Elisa hesitantly asked as she rubbed her bruised face, though already knowing the answer. Aphrodite did his best to give her the worst scowl he could over his pained look. Her hand burned with red cosmos much like her student's, but emitting a far deadlier sensation that made the energy look like flowing blood. "You didn't honestly think that a few years of practicing on golem soldiers would teach you what you need to kill someone of my caliber, did you Aphrodite? Intention is not enough; you lack the power and experience to defeat someone like me."

The youth crawled back, never taking his terrified eyes off his predator. Elisa calmly kept her distance, not loosening the aura of fear on him a single bit. Aphrodite tried to flow cosmos into his healthy hand, but a sudden red shot from her finger pierced his wrist, forcing a scream out his mouth and throwing his whole concentration into disarray. "D-damn you! I h-hate you!"

Elisa lost her smile. "Well, after all these years, that's all you have to say to me? What a cold child…This isn't personal, you know? I really liked you as a student. I've just waited for far too long for what I deserve. If you want to blame someone for this, blame Arles. He's the one that got you into this mess, not I." she argued.

His back hit a wall, leaving him no further escape. "Y-you're the one trying to kill me right now; n-not some stupid old man back in Greece!"

She shook her head disappointedly. "Haven't you learned anything here, Aphrodite? I thought we were past this already. People are helpless; just cruel little things trying to survive in an ugly, ugly world." Her hand waved at the room around them. "Haven't you at least learned what the one thing that makes this island beautiful is? Have you at least learned why Demon Roses are the prettiest flowers of all? It's not because of their looks, which all things use to deceive. It's because of their honesty, their power…"

With sweat dripping down his whole head from the convulsing of his beaten, cornered body, the youth still managed to express a darkening of expression to signal his awareness of what she was talking about. Of course he knew about it; it was the reason why he felt so at peace in this place. The 'Island of Flowers' housed the cruelest, most poisonous creatures of the plant world; red little things that would not hesitate to kill anything that set foot in their groves and gardens. They wouldn't trick, deceive or lure, they would just kill everything in sight, robbing the earth of its nutrients and murdering the beasts and men that laid eyes on them.

To survive next to these roses meant to learn their indiscriminate destruction and worship it. The flowers that were colored with the Goddess' Blood showed off their purpose to wipe the land clean of its impurities by blooming death to all things weak and filthy. They weren't cruel or evil; it was just in their nature to do so.

Aphrodite knew that, beneath all her words of honesty and power, she merely meant that Demon Roses were a living expression of the indifference with others going on inside souls like his or hers. "I k-know about it, yes. I know enough to realize why you'll never get the Pisces Cloth to accept y-you!"

Elisa's good mood vanished. "…What did you say?"

"I s-said you'll never get the Pisces Cloth because you're nothing like this place!" He struggled with all his might to drag his back against the wall and get on his feet, an effort meant to help him stare her straight in the eye as he spat on her face with his words one last time. "Honesty? P-Power? D-Don't make me laugh! All you ever wanted in your pitiful life was to prove yourself to that useless piece of metal! All the g-gardening in the world won't help you when y-you're so much part of the filth these roses want to see dead!"

The poison in Elisa's eyes deepened menacingly. "What does a child like you know about this place, that I've guarded for decades?!"

And though he felt pain all over his body and blood dripped from his lips, Aphrodite smiled widely. "You can rationalize it all you want, but you just spent the last six years trying to kill a kid in the dark for something you've known for years deep inside will never accept you! It shows how pitiful and insane you are. You're so consumed by your inferiority complex to Aeneas and your obsession with Pisces that you don't even listen to that tiny little voice in your heart that tell you the real reason Aeneas got the Cloth over you in the first place. He didn't get it because of favors or the Pope being a corrupt bastard; he got the Cloth because this place has known forever you were never worthy of it!"

There wasn't even a second of hesitation before a barrage of lightning fast, red colored knife-like attacks struck the child all over his body, sending him into a screaming spasm and spiraling towards the floor.

Elisa walked over to him, her mask of stoic shock struggling not to turn into an ugly expression of the most pure hate. "I was just going to toy with you for a bit after years of having my prize denied…" she muttered as her hand swept the air to unleash another shock of attacks that the tortured kid could barely defend against. "I was just going to play with my food for a while before quietly and quickly eliminating you from this world…" she hissed as yet another round of graceful waves of red power were launched with a thought, striking and slashing the youth despite his desperate attempts to block them with his arms and legs.

Aphrodite coughed out blood, trembling uncontrollably. "…D-do me a favor and stop pretending y-you're not just an e-evil bitch!..."

She smiled insanely. "I will! I'll stop all pretenses. That's what you want, isn't it, Aphrodite?!" Her fingers went tense and drenched themselves in blood-colored energy. "I'll give you what you want and free you from this ugly, ugly world!"

"TAKE THIS, BITCH! GHOST MAGIC!" A huge blue-colored fireball of screaming ghouls came out of nowhere and crashed against Elisa's hooded head side, sending her into a screaming panic of throwing arms and chaotic running. Aphrodite didn't even have time to widen his eyes at the whole thing before Deathmask appeared out of nowhere and dragged him the hell out by his hand. "COME ON! WE GOTTA BOLT!"

The two youths rushed past the still struggling Maiden, whose sheer immolated confusion prevented her from catching the two before stumbling on a piece of treasure and falling to the ground

Aphrodite was also still stunned at the whole thing. "What are you doing?! We can't leave!"

"I found the goddamn exit button while you were distracting her, okay?! I'm not freaking useless! Let's get some distance and think of something else!" he shouted angrily as he pressed the brick on the wall, causing the door mechanism Elisa closed to open. "Alright, let's go before she gets back u-"

There was a sudden whipping sound and both of them screamed as they got knocked into the ground. Something thorny wrapped itself around their legs, cutting their flesh and poisoning Deathmask. They struggled against it but Elisa, getting back on her feet with a smoldered hood and burned face.

Her hand pulled the rose whip she created to close them in. "Y-you're not going anywhere!"

Deathmask's finger raised into the air. "DAMN IT! Ghost Magi-"

"ENOUGH OF THAT!" Elisa demanded with a thin cosmos shot that pierced right through Deathmask's hand. Her free hand sprouted a red rose that she bit down on to prepare for the killing move. "I've had enough interference from you and your teacher today! It's time to-"

"CANCER ERUPTION!"

The entire temple shock and there was a resounding, exploding sound above their heads accompanied to that of rapidly spreading fire. All three of them staggered and looked upwards to see a brief overheating of the ceiling before a massive, bright blast of golden fire smashed straight through shattering everything in its path well into the ground between them, melting nearby treasure and putting a wall of fire between Elisa and her prey.

The three backed off from the heat, covering their faces from the bright light as the pillar of fire raged from above, threatening to engulf them at the slightest provocation. All of a sudden something heavy and armored came loudly crashing down through it from above, landing on its feet and fist.

Elisa widened her eyes. "W-what? It can't be!"

Deathmask raised his fist in celebration. "YEAH! He's still alive! Kick her ass, Lance!"

The pillar of fire opened up like a curtain, revealing a man in spikey golden armor, blue and red eyes dressed in currents of searing flames danced around him. With the glint of his full Cancer Cloth heightened by the fire and focusing entirely on the Maiden in front of him, Saint Lance walked out of the destruction. Tapestries and vines all around the room caught on fire, igniting growing lights of burning all over the room. The ceiling rumbled, the hole left behind it crumbling with incinerated boulders and blackened grey brick. Waves of combustion spiral around into nothingness and leaving small fires all around the underground room. The panting Gold Saint faced the maiden off, blood dripping from the scratches on his skin.

The woman scowled. "DAMN YOU! You're supposed to be DEAD!"

"N-not gonna get rid of me that easily!" snarled the Cancer. He glanced at the two youths. "You two, get out of here!"

"You think we haven't thought of it?! The whole place is in a lockdown!" Lance's red eyes widened with this and Deathmask elaborated "She's done something to the loop. We couldn't leave if we tried."

"D-damn it! This is bad…" Lance muttered to himself, his mind rushing through alternatives.

Though still taken aback by the Saint's arrival, Elisa calmed down and thought things through, observing her foe's wounds in search for an explanation. Something about the Gold Saint's nervousness and heavy breathing told her that her murder attempt was more effective than she thought. Calmly keeping an eye on the Saint's movements, her fingers twirled, allowing a thorny vine to climb around them and bloom a black rose.

Lance's 7th sense detected this. "Don't even think about it! This time you're not catching me by surprise without my Cloth!" His fists tightened. Normal fighting wouldn't help him against Elisa, especially in the state he was in. "I won't let your Demon Roses work on me a second time… I'll burn the air itself to cleanse the poison if I have to!"

Deathmask irked. "He's serious! We better step back!"

Aphrodite abided, but kept his eye on the fight, still in disbelief at the Gold Saint's return.

Elisa, however, suddenly chuckled. "Well, what bravado. I didn't realize the Fourth House cultivated such brutish methods; but isn't this tragic? The houses of Pisces and Cancer seem to be clashing tonight despite such a history of mutual understanding."

The Gold Saint's arm swept dismissively, wrapping itself in the thin golden layer of Blade. "I don't have time for your taunts! I'm e-ending this now!"

Her brown eyes saw the blood drip to the floor beneath the Saint. She also felt the heat of his flames on her skin, especially coming from the molten bricks he blasted above him. "You really think you have the fuel to back that claim?" she asked, realizing the truth standing right before her. Her gentle smirk widened despite the painful burns on her skin. "You wasted a lot of power getting here, didn't you? What's that technique called, again? Eruption?"

There was a brief pause in Lance's movements. He grunted. "She knows…"

Although it was perhaps his most powerful technique, yet, Cancer Eruption, which resulted from mixing his old Burst technique with the powerful combustive explosion of the Fire cosmos, had many disadvantages. It allowed him to circle fire cosmos around a localized focus which he could ignite in his hand or beneath his feet, just like Burst would around his entire body surface. By setting it off against a surface, it would not only blast it with tremendous force but also violently fire off in the opposite direction, mimicking a destructive eruption of fiery cosmos around the Saint that effectively rendered Burst obsolete.

The result allowed him to escape the grasp of the Red Demon Roses that almost killed him, despite his weakened, paralyzed state. Its weakness, however, was the limited eruption width and the massive expenditure of cosmos, allowing him to tear through the ground or punch through the sky at the cost of a significant portion of his reserves.

Lance had used it once to get off the tomb… and another to blast through the reinforced floor to reach the secret, locked basement he sensed Aphrodite and Elisa's cosmos. Combined with the poisoning he was subject to, he'd have to be a monster like Guilty to not be affected.

The Maiden obviously realized this, her eyes locking on with his like a predator and its large, wounded prey. She smiled most devilishly and slowly walked towards him, hiding her burns with her hair. "How about we put an end to this theater, Gold Saint?"

Lance's golden aura exploded and he dashed at her. "CANCER BLADE!"

Her finger suddenly clenched into her palm, drawing blood, and swept away "ROYAL GARDEN!"

Bullets of blood sprayed the air. The Cancer Saint staggered and screeched the floor with his braking foot, halting his attack and raising his arms instinctively. The two children gasped well as the blood spray burst into a red smoke screen which rapidly swept the room.

The Gold Saint gritted teeth in hesitation as he tried to see through the red fume clouds. What the hell had the maiden just done?

The scarlet mist thinned into a miasma of toxic breath, causing their vision to tremble and Deathmask to suddenly collapse on his knees. "H-hey, what's going on? W-what's wrong with you?!" asked Aphrodite.

"I… I don't know; I f-feel sick!"

"Don't breathe this! Its poison!" warned Lance. He too, however, started feeling the effects of poison infiltrating his skin and numbing him further.

Any further thoughts that could have gone to this, however, were instantly steered away as the miasma cleared up to reveal the maiden in the midst of black roses blooming all over the room around her.

Deathmask's blue eyes widened in terror at the vines and petals that hadn't been there a minute earlier. "O-oh, shit!" Small vines that were crawling on the ground unnoticed then all of a sudden whipped up at the two kids, slashing them and sending them screaming against the wall.

"MEPHISTO! Damn you, Elisa, STOP THIS!" demanded Lance, resuming his attack. "CANCER BLA-"

"I can see your slow movements! PIRANHA ROSE!" she countered as her hand launched a four-pronged attack of armor-piercing missiles from the garden around them.

There were four blasts against his armor and Lance screamed in pain. They came from outside the corners of his eyes and struck his armored body like tank shots, sending him several stumbling step backs into kneel. He coughed repeatedly, shaken by the unexpectedly strong blows. "W-what the hell was that?! She barely needed any firing lapse!"

The garden spread, blooming further roses on the ground, on the walls and in the pillars, all opening into myriad marvels of red or black. Elisa's cosmos aura expanded, its waving edges sinking into the flowers around her as if they were breathing her energy. The red miasma thickened and more black roses began perking out of their flower beds.

Aphrodite too, despite his developed immunity, began feeling the effects of the red rose poison. He struggled to breathe and his vision doubled. "This is a field buff… she's using this miasma to create a ready-to-fire arsenal! H-how? How is she doing this? I've never seen this technique!" His eyes turned to the blood dripping from her palm wound. "She's… using the Goddess's Blood in her?!"

Elisa laughed. "You thought you'd play the hero and crash on my scene like some invincible savior?! You can't do anything in this fight, fool! It's time you learn not to get in my way! PIRANHA ROSES!"

There were whistling sounds from the garden around him and once again missiles of black, metal-shattering plants struck Lance, blasted the Cancer Cloth's cuirass and cracked it all over. The impacts alone were like being shot from a battleship, causing the weakened young Saint to cough out blood and nearly collapse from the sheer force of each strike. The proud, strong Gold Saint completely fell to his hands.

Deathmask couldn't believe his eyes. "C-come on, what are you doing?! G-get up!" he then coughed out something red, his body invaded by a strange poison. "W-what's happening to me?"

With his immunity overwhelmed by the intensity of the divine toxic around them, even Aphrodite struggled to think. "H-he can't! S-she has us in the palm of her hand!"

The Maiden walked over to him, black roses already forming in her hand, her victory was all but assured. "Your movements are weak and slow because of the poison and your techniques are so brutish and primitive… I bet you can't even move right now, can you? That's how powerful a technique the Goddess' blood allows me to create. Pisces Albafica used it to create bullets of blood that would directly poison his adversaries and they were so strong even a Judge of the Underworld was defeated by him. You should be honored that I'm wasting 'Her' precious poison on you!"

Coughs of blood dirtied the floor. Lance trembled and struggled to scowl up at her. "S-spare me the myth l-lesson!"

There was a flick of her wrist and another black bullet pierced his body, punishing him into a scream before a painful silence. "You don't realize the situation you're in, do you? I'd like to see you try to escape this enclosed garden just to see your hope break. To be honest, though, I think I've made enough mistakes today."

Lance laughed painfully. "N-not r-really! Y-you kinda forgot something important, t-too." he confessed, rousing her interest. "Y-you made a big mess of a fight here with Aphrodite… so I wouldn't have found you if you hadn't played a-around so much.

She aimed at the cracks on the cuirass around his heart "Well, aren't you proud of yourself? PIRANHA ROSE!" This time, however, the lighting fast black missiles were stopped in their tracks by a sudden explosion of Lance's fiery aura which burned the flowers into a crisp. She stepped away from the fire in fright. "W-WHAT?!"

The erupting fiery aura kept raging on, causing even Lance's two small allies to step back in fear of being caught in the sudden bonfire. The Gold Saint stepped back up, rage inflaming his blood red eyes. "CANCER! FLAME ATTACK!"

A totally unexpected attack for all of them came from the raging Cancer Saint in the shape of a massive, upwards torrent of fire which blew back the maiden and incinerated the miasma around the Saint. Plants burned all over the room before a huge blast of fire flew at the dumbstruck Maiden in a flash in much greater heat and size than Deathmask's arts ever could form.

She barely had a second to gasp in fear before the wave of fire struck her whole body.

Horrifying screams and uncontrollable flailing were the Maiden's terrifying response to being hit by the force of fire and cosmos that blasted her entire side of the room. Deathmask widened the eyes on his pale face at the sight of the arms and torso of the shadow amongst the crashing flames twisting around and screeching at being incinerated alive by the Gold Saint that adopted him. Said shadow got thrown into the floor by the force of the suddenly dissipating flame throw, revealing a collapsed maiden shaking on the ground in pain and shock.

Lance panted and sweated, feeling his reserves of cosmos abused beyond any reasonable point. He was gonna put an end to this, though. "You t-think some s-stupid sense-numbing smoke and illusions will b-beat me?! I'll show you what a real attack IS!"

Elisa struggled to move, her eyes widened in horror amidst the scarred flesh in her face. It was only through the superhuman force of her cosmos that she was able to tremblingly lift her body from the ground to face the Saint. "W-why y-you…. I'll… I'll k-kill yo-" Elisa rolled on the ground, forming more black roses in her hands, even when they turned to ash the moment their petals came out. "D-DAMN Y-YOU! AGHHH!"

"C-CANCER!FLAME A-ATTACK!" Another explosion on the maiden practically tossed her body over into even greater flames, smashing her against the Pisces Cloth's altar and staggering even Aphrodite with the sight of a person being monstrously burned to submission. "JUST D-DIE ALREADY! F-FLAME ATTACK!"

Elisa was once again put to the fire blast, pinning her against the altar's stairs and burning her until her screams died down. Lance's red eyes saw the dangerous fires his rampage was starting all over the room and he grunted in frustration, putting out his attack and leaving a dead maiden in its wake.

Lance's aura died down, his reserves hitting a critical point. He panted against his will, but glad that it has finally ended. "Y-you really thought I'd waste my time fighting you?! I don't entertain dishonorable people like that! I have b-better things to do than waste my training on deceiving trash! Just burn and die like the rest of the garbage you pretend you're not a part of!"

"H-holy shit!" gagged Deathmask, still taken aback. He still couldn't believe he tried to threaten this guy with bombs just the day before. He elbow bumped Aphrodite's equally staggered body "Did you see that?! Now that's how you wrap things up! Ha, ha…" he laughed nervously.

Aphrodite, though still admittedly taken aback, didn't take his eyes off Elisa, who still seemed to somehow be moving despite the tremendous assault she was put through. He saw her slowly climbing up the altar steps towards the Cloth. "L-look out! She's still alive, finish her off!"

The caped Saint kept his cool, watching the maiden make her way to the armor he knew she couldn't make use of. Her trembling body coughed, moaned and whined understandably, destroyed beyond any hope of recovery, but the Maiden still made use of her last remaining strength to reach for the shining, golden box of Pisces right in front of her.

Elisa grabbed the handle around which the twin fish carvings swam and pulled it, only to be met with a denying metal clunk and a refusal from the box to open up.

The Maiden cried in denial, screamed in frustration and pulled several more times only to hear more refusing clunks. "O-OPEN! OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, DAMN YOU! OPEEEEN! W-WHY?! W-why w-won't you o-open for meee?! Please…NOO-oo-ooo!" she wailed, her blackened fingers sliding off the handle to the floor collapsing on the ground, overwhelmed by pain, burns and sadness.

Years of effort crashed down on her heart, shattering it to tiny little pieces.

"…D-DAMN YOU!" She screamed all of a sudden, grabbing her head on the ground "Damn you, ARLES, DAMN YOU! This is all your f-fault! This is all SANCTUARY's fault! Damn you ALL to h-hell! The Cloth was mine! This Temple was mine! I earned ALL of it!" She got on her trembling hands and knees and faced the Saint with her blackened face. "And Y-YOU! YOU STUPID LITTLE BOY! What do you know about this place?! What do you know about Pisces and Sanctuary?! You k-know NOTHING!"

"I know an EVIL person when I see one!" confronted the Cancer, reminded of people like Guilty, the Specters and the many Black Saints he fought over the years. "I've seen them of all kinds and colors! You say Aphrodite is dangerous?! Don't make me laugh! The only person in this room who's a menace is YOU!"

She raised a hand to her mouth to contain a pained chuckle.

"A menace? Only p-poor little m-me?... Ha, ha, ha, ha…." Her head shook as the cosmos that helped her stand started focusing in her hand. "You really know nothing, do you, Lance? Even though you're here cause the Pope sent you to kill me…. I r-really pity you…" Lance refused to humor her rambling with an answer, but instead stood silent to let her spit out her last bits of poison. "I love how d-deluded you are right now… you remind me s-so much of myself when I still thought I would get what I d-deserved….ha, ha…"

"D-don't listen to her, she's tricking you!" screamed the wounded Aphrodite. "Finish her off, NOW!"

Yet more chuckles followed. Thorny vines discreetly twirled around her wrist up to her palm, biting on her skin and drinking her blood. "You really don't know a-anything, do you?...Ha, ha… Don't worry…" The vine suddenly bloomed into a white rose. "Y-you're still y-young, but you'll learn…"

Aphrodite's eyes widened. "LOOK OUT! You can't dodge that one! FINISH HER OFF BEFORE SHE CAN USE IT!"

Lance staggered with the unexpected threat. "W-what?!"

"BLOODY ROSE!" Elisa called as her hand snapped in a sudden movement. There was a sudden bright flash of golden light that blinded the three of them, a whistling sound and a large spray of blood that painted the room red.

The Gold Saint staggered, stepping back, and looking in horror at the sight of the blooming white floor slowly tainting itself red.

The three of them stood in shock at the sight. Deathmask was the first to formulate words. "W-what? What did you do to YOURSELF?!"

Blood dripped down from her lips that quirked upwards in a tired smirk as Elisa stepped back and collapsed on the altar before her beloved Cloth, breathing slowly and feeling the blood being sucked out of her heart.

"M-my life is my own to slit… not the P-Pope's… or anyone else's!" she affirmed with disgust, letting the weight of the situation sink in. Years of frustration and disappointment flushed out of her core, lifting all remaining weights in hers soul in the form of a beautiful, bloody Demon Rose planted on her own chest. Her eyes slowly turned to the shocked look on Cancer's face and her smile couldn't help but twist further. "D-don't worry… you'll know the sadness and betrayal of Sanctuary, too… One day…"

"W-what the fuck are you talking about?!" Lance demanded to know.

She laid her hand on the Cloth box one last time and saw the reflection of her face on it. "I can't wait for it… the day I meet you in Hell and see the agony in your eyes… They'll show you… I won't have to do a thing… ha, ha, ha…". The more the flower bloomed and reddened, the paler her few bits of unscarred skin looked. "S-sanctuary will show you… and you'll know first-hand the true ugliness of A-Athena…"

These last words came out as a whisper and her fingers slid down to the ground, leaving behind trails of red on gold as she fell dead on the ground.

The crackling sound of burning vines was all that was heard afterwards and there was a general moment of uncertainty that fell down on the three of them.

Deathmask and Aphrodite, weakened by poison and injured, walked over to the exhausted and wounded Gold Saint. "Is it over? She's d-dead, right?" asked Deathmask. There was a nod from Lance's head. "S-shit…. What a day, huh? So we can go?"

The Cancer Saint, however, was barely listening. Elisa's last words echoed on his head for some strange reason.

Mephisto tapped his shoulder harshly to snap him out. "C-come on! Everything's burning! We have to go!"

To accentuate this, pieces of brick and burning objects cracked and fell loudly along with the rise of heat. "We can't…can we?" asked Aphrodite as he calmly observed the look on Lance's tired eyes. "You exhausted yourself against her and we still haven't found a way to break her seal…"

Though his whole body trembled, Lance stood up, looked them in the eyes as burning wreckage piled around and lied. "It will be fine… We're leaving this place…"

"EXCALIBUR!"

There was a sudden bright flash, a shock, a tremble, startled screams from the three of them and the sound of rock being torn in twain by a large blast of light that crashed on the ceiling above them, splitting it in twain rather crudely.

Deathmask screamed. "WHAT?! What the hell is it n-now?!"

Aphrodite's eyes widened as the light dissipated away, leaving the torn in the ceiling behind. "It's… It's Capricorn?!"

Shura panted, followed by the golem soldiers he brought in from Chrysanthos, and looked down on the scene of the three bruised and bloody messes staring back at him. "Are you okay? I had to cut my way through a never-ending loop!"

The Cancer did not recognize him, having never met Capricorn Kirin's student. The youth had wild black hair and the same falcon gaze of his teacher, but seemed far more inexperienced if the shaken up look he was giving at the battlefield was anything to judge by. "…We're f-fine…" he held his poisoned wounds. "…I think I need a hospital t-though…"

The teenager's eyes saw the burning wreckage, the molten treasure, the charred flower beds and, more staggeringly, the badly burned corpse by the blood soaked Pisces Cloth box. He had little trouble believing the three people in front of him needed immediate help. "What in the name of Athena has happened here?"

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

Sanctuary, Pope's Chambers

Two Days Later…

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

Holding the papers in his hand, his Holiness Arles III sat on his throne in pondering, his mind rushing through the events reported to him. They were extensively written by the Cancer Saint, who had gained a habit out of going through every detail to make sure his old Silver Saint superiors had nothing to pin him on about his work, and painted a rather clear picture of the tragedy that occurred in the Island of Gardens.

Yet, his eyes were frozen on the photograph of young Mephisto, whom Lance had decided to take under his wing after his stop in Syracuse.

The more he looked at it, the more flabbergasted he was at the sheer coincidence of it all. Arles had received a letter two days earlier from young Shura himself explaining that both his arrival and Saint Lance's would be postponed as a result of a stop they had to take on the way for 'recovery and reassessment'. This immediately told the Pope that, as typical of his newest Cancer's missions, something had gone awfully wrong. In fact, even two days later, Cancer Lance was still a patched-up mess of bandages and antidotes who could barely walk without a limp even as he stood there in front of him, armored and all. It meant Shura's depictions of the disaster at the Island of Gardens had been no exaggeration. Aphrodite and Mephisto had arrived wounded and poisoned as well, and a whole shipment of golem soldiers broken beyond self-recovery awaited Mu at his workshop for repairs.

"Miss Adriana…" the Pope eventually hummed, attention still unable to turn from Deathmask's pic "… informed me of your encounter in Syracuse. According to her there was some trouble regarding a gas tank?" The Gold Saint seemed honestly embarrassed at the mere mention of the incident, so the Pope moved on. "She also let me know about this… boy. She mentioned you rescued him from the streets."

"That's correct."

Shion chuckled. "I had no idea you could be so charitable."

Lance recalled how badly he burned someone to death just two days prior. "Not really." He assumed the Pope would get angry at filling his 4th Temple with a street runt, even one talented at underworld arts. "Besides, Karkinos pushed me for it at first and it's an added responsibility that's gonna take time away from my training with my teacher. There's also an issue of insubordination, I know… you didn't tell me to adopt Italian kids. I'll understand if you're upset, Your Holin-"

"Upset?" Shion interrupted, his shoulders shaking with amusement. He wanted to say he was not only not upset, but felt ecstatic, marveled, hopeful and even accomplished. The reincarnation of Manigoldo had been on his mind for a while, since it was the only one of his previous comrades who had not shown their face yet, and with Lance's rise to the Cancer Gold Cloth, Shion was becoming more and more convinced he would fail his quest.

Contrary to all his expectations, Lance not only succeeded in securing Aphrodite's safe retrieval, but miraculously found Manigoldo's new reincarnation and, luck of all luck, recognized enough potential in the child to decide to take him back to Sanctuary, too. This was wonderful! All his work was finally coming together.

Shion, however, couldn't help but stare at the tired, broken gold saint before him. What did Manigoldo's return mean for the red-eyed Greek now that Shion had Mephisto to occupy the Cancer Cloth? What does he do with Lance?

"It isn't like… Hecate said the red eyed person absolutely had to be my Gold Saint…right?" he pondered before elaborating his previous interruption. "I'm not upset, I just never imagined you were capable of such kindness although I hope that you're not easily swayed by Karkinos."

The Cancer Saint raised chin and widened eyes. "You don't mind his presence in the 4th Temple, then?" he received a head shake from Shion as answer. "Uh... guess I worried about nothing. I'll try to stop him from causing trouble."

"I'm sure you will. Also, congratulations, you've accomplished the mission I handed to you with flying colors."

He recalled all the criticism regarding his methods Lance received over the years. "Usually you have a 'but' following those kind words, your Holiness. Aren't you concerned about Aphrodite either? There's a reason I took him out of there… he might be a bigger danger to the others and to you than Mephisto ever could."

The Cancer Saint's insistence to call Deathmask by his birth name did not escape Shion's ears. "As you explained in your report, you believe you can show him the path of honor. You were taught by my good friend Dohko, so I have no doubt you'll succeed despite any rashness that could be pointed out. Ha ha, ha." Truth be told, Shion's lenience was greatly motivated by his awareness of Aphrodite's spiritual lineage from Albafica.

There was a discreet sigh of nervousness and preoccupation from Lance that contrasted with Shion's confidence. Despite everything he told Aphrodite, Deathmask and Elisa, he wasn't really sure if he could save Aphrodite from himself. Chances were the Swedish child would remain amoral and a threat to others for the rest of his life. The best Lance could do was trying to help him grow with a basic code of restrain and respect… but how far would that help?

"Something on your mind?" asked the Pope.

The doubts were probably stamped on his face. "Can't you just read it?"

"I would, but it would be rude and you've erected defenses."

Lance still wondered why Dohko took the trouble to teach him that. It was a huge headache to process his train of thoughts in a manner that Lemurians wouldn't detect. He also still wondered why Dohko insisted he made use of it next to Shion. It was the Pope, for crying out loud. Lance still held reservations about the guy, but the old man was harmless as far as he's seen... or so he thought.

Shion stood up and walked toward the Saint, holding his hands behind his back. "Don't look so solemn, young Saint. You've accomplished your task. Be proud." Lance, however, stared him right in the mask's eyes rather angrily. "… is something the matter?"

"You're right…. I did accomplish my task… all of it." His fingers tightened on the file in his hand that Shion had given to him days before with the details of what he was to do. "Everything went a-okay… your suspicions were right, too."

"Suspicions?"

"You're not gonna say anything, huh?"

The Pope's head tilted down. "What do you mean?"

Lance's hand threw the file in the air, dispersing the papers inside of it. The profile of Elisa's picture, now stamped with the order 'neutralize' in bold red ink, landed upon the Pope's feet.

"Your precious Maiden is dead… after watching over your Cloth and your Island for so many years. I killed her according to your directions," muttered Lance. "As you suspected, she revealed herself as evil, as conspiring against you, as intending to murder your new Pisces Saint and even tried to kill me and Mephisto for getting in her way. You've known her for years, right? I even found out through the villagers of Chrysanthos that you brought her yourself to the Island of Gardens."

He let a few seconds pass to see if Shion would break his silence, only to hear nothing from him.

Lance continued. "I can't imagine what kind of faith and investment you must have placed in her over time; probably as much as, if not more than, in me. You even entrusted her with Aphrodite and one of the twelve Cloths of Gold. I suppose, however, that her messy end doesn't warrant a reaction from you?"

"…As you implied, it was all predicted in the mission files." said the Pope.

Lance's shoulders shook with contained fury. He didn't give a shit about Elisa, but this was just wrong. "She knew about it, you know? The moment I arrived on the temple, she locked its shields cause she instantly deducted I was sent to kill her at the slightest sign of resistance; even confronted me about it as I was thrown into the grave of someone called Aeneas. It's like she knew you would be the kind of person to send an assassin after her…"

The mention of the previous Pisces Gold Saint spawned the first visible motion in the Pope, who raised his face at the ceiling in contemplation. "Hmmm…. How morbid of her. I wonder if she still held old feelings about him."

"I took the child you brought to the island all those years ago… and burned her to death." Lance pointed out, trying to get the Pope to show he wasn't completely uncaring about what happened to what should be an old acquaintance. "Traitors, right? Gotta wipe 'em out without mercy… Just like we gotta wipe the records of what happened."

There was a sudden emergence of Lance's cosmos, who then pointed his fingers at the papers at the Pope's feet and shot an ember blast which set them on fire, turning them to ash. Shion watched the consumption, noticing how Lance made sure that the last thing to be burned was Elisa's stamped picture, as if urging the Pope one last time to do something about her memory.

Shion, however, did no such thing, allowing everything to turn to ash and be blown by the currents of the halls.

He rubbed his masked chin. "Well… I suppose that brings the matter into a conclusion. You're dismissed."

"Is that so?"

"… Why don't you go get some R&R, Lance? Pat yourself on the back for a job well done and recuperate your strength." Arles III turned his back on him. "You have very busy days awaiting you. You need to take care of Deathmask and Aphrodite from now on, as you've vowed. Especially since both show a few, behavior problems. Moreover, the retirement ceremony of your older comrades is approaching, as I'm sure you remember, and I'll need my remaining Gold Saints at full strength to oversee the event."

Lance grunted, but nodded. "Yes, Your Holiness."

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

Pisces Temple

Moments Later

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

Before coming to Sanctuary, they had to wait for Mu to help dispel Elisa's blood seal. The young Lemurian alchemist had made short work of the intricate lock, making use of his talent and knowledge to separate the stardust from the grounded up petals used to chain the Cloth in place and allow them to take the Pisces Cloth back to Sanctuary for Aphrodite to one day wear.

As easily seen by the tense look on his beauty-marked face, Aphrodite stared at his own reflection on the golden box, that showed he wasn't excited about the prospect of doing so. However, he did his best to remain calm despite the years of memories the box revived in his mind.

Deathmask couldn't see why. "I don't wanna be a Gold Saint because it's lame and Sanctuary can bite me. What's your beef?"

"Leave him be, Mephisto. You're not in a position to question his motives." ordered Lance.

"I'm Deathmask, and I'm not the one who decided to come by his own free will instead of, you know, being poor as hell!"

"I don't see why I have to accept this armor." Aphrodite suddenly told Lance. "What happened with Elisa doesn't change the way I feel about this place's hypocrisy."

After having talked to the Pope, Lance wasn't so sure he could argue back anymore. "For some reason Arles insists on your recruitment, but that's beside the point. I told Elisa I would help you fit in here. It has nothing to do with you becoming a Gold Saint or not. Also, wouldn't you like to continue your studies on Demon Roses? This is the best place for it."

Aphrodite took his eyes off the armor box, seemingly disarmed by this argument. "… Humpf… Well, it's true since most of the temple at the Island burned down thanks to your reckless fire attacks."

"He saved our lives, ya dolt. Who cares about that damn place burning to the ground in the process?" dissed Deathmask. "I'd have done the same. Besides, I'm not exactly singing Disney songs about being here, either."

"I don't remember asking for or accepting his help. I have no obligation to stay here."

"So where would you go?" asked Lance. Another disarmed silence. Lance sighed and tried to walk Aphrodite through the inevitable conclusion, as unpleasant as it was for both of them. "I didn't want to say this in front of Mephisto, but there's always the chance you'll be targeted by Specters for your talent. They know what kind of powers the Gold Saints have and would jump at the opportunity of killing a candidate if they found a kid walking about planting Demon Roses or summoning evil spirits."

Deathmask's eyes opened wide. "Wait, WHAT?! That's a thing that could happen?!"

Lance ignored him and moved on. "You're not safe out there Aphrodite. You're just a kid so you'll need to make use of your powers and cosmos to survive, something that will get you noticed by them sooner rather than later. It turns my stomach to say this… but Sanctuary is where you belong right now."

A moment of quiet consideration was allowed to let Aphrodite think. Lance didn't really want to worry Mephisto, but this was a real risk, especially if the attacks on Arcadia and Andromeda Island were anything to go by. They were even trying to steal Guardnia's Bronze Cloths. The world was becoming less safe for Athena's warriors by the day. He knew, however, Aphrodite wouldn't be easily swayed by this, displeased as he was with the nearby presence of other people. He'd definitely insist on being left alone.

To his surprise, however, Aphrodite, after a short scoff of resignation, conceded. "Well… when you put it into REASONABLE terms, I guess I really don't have a choice. Fine, I'll stay." He then sharply locked eyes with the red-eyed Saint. "But, it will be MY choice whether I'll become a Gold Saint or not! And I can leave anytime I want. I also don't want to waste my time with those annoying kids in the lower temples. Tell Milo, Mu, Aiolia and Mr. Sticky-Fingers to stay away from my temple!"

"I'm right here!" complained Deathmask.

"Oh my god, I know, shut up!" demanded Aphrodite, pointing his finger at the Gold Saint. "Also, I'm not a Saint so I don't swear any allegiance to the Pope and Athena. I suppose I'll have to ask you for help with Sanctuary and its insane rules… so I suppose I'll listen to you every now and then."

It took a second to sink in Lance that Aphrodite was actually putting trust in him, though he couldn't imagine why. "As far as you convince the Pope of the same, I'll take it, it sounds fair." agreed a smiling Lance, whose concerns washed away a little bit. "You're doing the right thing."

"…and thank you for saving me from Elisa, I suppose." He reluctantly confessed after two days of no word about what happened. "I don't want to admit it, but I screwed up my plan and underestimated her immensely. I'd be dead right now if you hadn't overcome your own poisoning and finished her."

Lance touched the bandages that concealed the slashes that had allowed poison to enter the blood stream in his second round with the Maiden. He still had some rough nights and illness because of it. Deathmask didn't seem too happy about having his contribution disregarded, if his pouty arm fold was anything to go by.

Lance put his hands on their shoulders. "Alright, listen up, you two…. I know this isn't what you wanted, trust me I really do… but I've had an unpleasant upbringing in Sanctuary, too, so I can help you understand how to deal with this place and the people in it. Unfortunately, whether you choose to become Saints or not, Sanctuary isn't leaving your lives anytime soon. Trust me; I tried to get rid of it only for it to bite me on the ass even harder."

Aphrodite rolled his eyes. "Ugh, the image! Couldn't you put it into more elegant terms?"

"So you're gonna teach us tricks or what?!" Mephisto asked, bored. "Also, I'm starving, what's for dinner?!"

"LISTEN, you two! This is serious!" he demanded, quieting them out. "Sanctuary is no playground… but… I promise I'll do my best. I won't let them force you to become Saints for as long as I can."

Aphrodite stared at him for a bit, knowing the Cancer Saint was also assuring him that he wouldn't allow the Pisces candidate's attitude to become a problem either. How long would he keep that up, though? Aphrodite felt it was all ridiculous. It would be far easier if they just let him be… but if he really wasn't safe out there, he might have little choice.

As he pondered, he bit his nail.

"EW, gross!" yelled Deathmask.

Aphrodite blushed self-consciously. "Oh, shut up! It's normal to do this!"

"Yeah, I guess it is if you're a chick!"

Aphrodite rolled his eyes. "…I see you're as tactful as always…"

"Knock it off, you two, you're an actual fight away from sounding like Saga and Aiolos." warned Lance.

"That can be arranged…" Aphrodite hissed with a rose in hand.

Lance pulled it away. "Argh, alright, there's no need for that anymore; I'll get you off each other's sight. Mephisto, go ahead down the stairs, I'll join you in a minute." He assured, putting himself between the two of them and waiting for Deathmask to grumble and head off before continuing. "Aphrodite, I hope you're not thinking this means you can go off threatening people's lives and I'll excuse you every time. Harm someone…anyone… and you'll have me to deal with, do you understand?"

His eyes rolled again, though slower and more exasperated "Fine, I understand."

"Good…So what's your plan?"

The cyan-haired child, no longer pestered by Deathmask, allowed himself to truly think about his situation and intentions. "I get that going off on my own is not exactly the best laid out plan… I will stay here for now, if only to get rid of the debt and finish my studies."

"Now that Elisa's not holding Pisces hostage, you can commune with it to unlock further secrets and learn about old Pisces Saints' techniques. I can't help you with that, though. You'll have to work it out yourself."

"I didn't ask for your assistance, anyway." argued Aphrodite, who then gave him an annoyed stare. "Well, head off, what are you still doing here? I told you I'd be fine."

The red-eyed Saint, however, did not leave right away. He still felt insecure about all of this and wanted to make sure that at least on Aphrodite's side there were no regrets. Lance himself was still young, after all, and still learning. He didn't see himself as a good example for anyone, much less for an amoral child and a kleptomaniac street boy. All kinds of tragedy scenarios were already coursing through his head. He had the immediate urge to ask Master Dohko for advice.

He wasn't in China to get it, however, so he had to live with these decisions somehow. The best he could do was trying to make it sound to Aphrodite that he was sure everything would be fine. "Do your best, Aphrodite, and remember… I'm just eight houses away. Just… just don't fill the Pope's bed with roses if he gives you a hard time or something, okay?"

Aphrodite snorted. "Fine, whatever, just go! I have gardening to do… Since Sticky Fingers wrecked my arrangements and you burned all my work down back at the temple, I got to start all over again and I might as well do it here."

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

Sagittarius Temple

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

"So you're back already, huh" Sagittarius Aiolos asked the squire. "I thought your teacher Kirin would want you to finish your training more thoroughly. He's usually so strict with you."

"I received orders from His Holiness himself via Mu's teleportation. My teacher wouldn't want me arguing with them. I suppose that with my Lord's retirement approaching, His Holiness wanted all the candidates back here."

The young, bandana-wearing Gold Saint hummed to himself, looking at the temples bellow his that housed so many new owners. "I guess things are changing… and so fast, too. We'll have to work extra hard to live up to their absence. I hope I'm ready."

Shura smiled, having to admire Aiolos' sense of responsibility. It probably came from being an older brother to the current Leo Saint candidate. "I wonder if our comrades feel the same as you do. Sometimes I think they're too lighthearted and unready, like they don't understand the weight of the role that will soon be passed on to us." Shura then clenched his fist. "The role of a Gold Saint is not a gimmick, it's an honor passed down across thousands of years to Athena's greatest servants. I feel some of them treat it as a joke…"

Aiolos chuckled. "Shura, you're taking it too far again, they're just kids. It's our duty to help them understand the importance of their role over time. You can't expect Milo to understand why he shouldn't use his powers to play pranks on kindergarten meals by himself. We have to be the example, not demand spontaneous change."

The young squire felt taken aback by this perspective, seeing as always a greater wisdom in the Sagittarius' way of tackling the same concerns. "Mmm, I suppose you're right. Still, I would like it if Mu didn't constantly pester us about letting him check our Cloths, for science as he says. Gold Cloths are sacred objects not… alchemy projects."

"What are you weebs talking about?" asked Deathmask as he arrived with his new teacher. "Alchemy? Isn't that the same thing that bitch Elisa used to screw us over at the Island?"

Aiolos was taken aback and Shura couldn't help but widen his eyes indignantly. "Weebs? Watch your mouth you runt! This is Saint Aiolos of Sagittarius you're talking to! Show respect!"

Deathmask picked his nose right in front of them. "So? I don't have to listen to you losers. I'm not a Saint."

"I bet your finger looks quite chop-able to Shura right now, though." pointed out Lance, causing Deathmask to immediately take it off the nostril. "Sorry, guys, he doesn't have any manners."

"Who needs manners when you're awesome like me?"

"You look exhausted." Aiolos pointed out, referring to Lance's limp walk, pale face and being covered head to toe in patch-ups. "I read your report on what happened… Can't believe a Maiden of Sanctuary would do something like this. Many of us were taken care of by them in the Heart of Sasha orphanage."

Shura folded his arms. "Me neither, it was truly despicable. Acts of treason like this are unforgiveable. I'm glad Saint Lance executed her before Lady Athena was further shamed."

"Yeah, she was nuts." agreed Deathmask. "She tried to mess with me but I burned her face off with ghost magic."

"That's enough, Mephisto." Lance snapped before readdressing Aiolos. "Thank you for the concern, but I'll be fine. I just need to recuperate… and I guess wrapping everything up in that island was a bit of a chaotic mess too."

Aiolos chuckled self-consciously. "You really have bad luck with innocent-looking missions, don't you?"

Lance also couldn't help but laugh. "I do. Somehow things always go to shit with me. I really wish for once an escort mission wouldn't turn out to be a gigantic epic battle with the forces of evil. I guess us Gold Saints will just run into that bullshit a lot."

"Even Shura's teacher thought it was too much of a coincidence at one point," Aiolos pointed out, perking the mentioned squire's interest. "It got to the point that he flat out tried to call you a Specter conspirator. I find that hard to believe considering this particular case."

"I'm sure Lord Kirin had a sensible reasoning…" Shura fearlessly defended, arms folding. His falcon eyes met Lance's red ones warningly. "I respect what you accomplished in that place, but that doesn't make you infallible. Corruption and disloyalty both lurk where lack of concern does."

Before the Cancer Saint could argue, Mephisto interfered. "Uuhhh? What's your problem, dude? He saved our lives and killed the person you just called a traitor. Where were you back then?" Deathmask defended, much to Lance's surprise.

"If I recall correctly, I was saving all of your lives by cutting a path through the infinite loop after you killed the only person who could have helped you unlock it."

"Oh, so now you're gonna say we should have spared her now? Pick a side, dumbass!"

Shura's spite and suspicion completely shifted towards the blue-haired runt. "You make a lot of noise about this for someone not identifying himself with us Saints, street cur."

A vein popped in Deathmask's forehead. "Nah, I can just smell BS a mile away, ya elitist prick!"

"You're not gonna fight in my temple, are you?" Aiolos calmly pointed out, causing Shura to pull back.

"It's fine, Mephisto, you won't get your way with this guy." Lance said, causing the thief to snort and pull back as well. "And to answer your remark, Shura, you can rest assured I'm no traitor like Elisa. It will be a cold day in hell before you catch me arranging an inside job with Specter fuckers like your teacher believes I do. I hate them just as much as you do."

Shura scoffed. "Anyone can say that."

Lance's red eyes squinted. "Including you!" he hissed. "So I'd appreciate if you would stop questioning my, or by extension, my teacher Dohko's, loyalty."

Empathizing much more with the sincerity in Lance's indignant words than in Deathmask's, Shura conceded. "Hmm… it's true the Old Master places his faith in you if he decided to teach you. I suppose I would not be in a right state of mind by questioning the intentions of his trusted students. How about this cur, though? Can you vouch for him?"

"The fuck is that supposed to mean-"

Lance covered Deathmask's mouth. "Let me worry about that, Shura. If it worries you so much, I'll let you scream at me all you want if this idiot turns into some sort of dangerous killer like Aphrodite's teacher." Suddenly realizing his concerns were being entertained by a Gold Saint superior, Shura quietly accepted Lance's guarantee. Lance's eyes turned to Aiolos and spoke via mental message. "Saga had a strange conversation with me before I left."

Aiolos didn't seem extremely shocked. "With you, too, huh?...He's very concerned about the Gold Saints retiring, apparently."

"More like it seems he wants to take advantage of it. He tried to convince me to back him up in proposals to the Pope and talked a lot about how the three of us would become key players in Sanctuary in the future." Lance explained, though he held back how he noticed Saga's harsh feelings towards Aiolos' part. "I told him I was fine but he should have just been honest about it."

Aiolos contained a knowing laugh. "I imagine he sounded really condescending, too." The Sagittarius discreetly gestured at him a relaxing hand wave. "It's fine, Saga has always been like this. When we were little he thought he could take over the orphanage's lunch menu when the canteen lady got sick. He's just overly ambitious and politically aggressive like this…its part of what makes him a good Gemini Saint."

"You don't seem too sure."

Aiolos scratched his hair. "Maybe because I'm not…but I trust Saga. Why would he want something bad out of all of this?"

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

Having taken Deathmask back to the 4th Temple, Lance made his way out of the Golden Zodiac to look for his best friend. He had made a point of taking the Cancer Cloth with him, as he didn't trust it around young Mephisto, and tried to abstract himself from the ongoing concerns in his mind. Saga's strange actions were one, but so was the point the young Gemini made about the retiring Gold Saint's power vacuum and, almost as important, Shion's reaction to how his mission went.

The youth still couldn't believe how callous the old man was acting. Maybe he was overthinking it. Elisa ended up being a vicious person after all and it was true that the mission of retrieving Aphrodite also had the side-assignment of assessing Elisa and, of course, neutralizing her on need. Lance had done plenty of hit jobs in the past against people less clearly evil than the vexed maiden, but never against someone who supposedly knew the Pope for such a long time and so personally.

"Maybe he was sad behind the mask…" Lance told himself. "Or maybe she did something to confirm to Shion she was acting against him before I was ever told about this whole problem…" Making his way to the rocky fields by the mountains where the Taurus disciples would usually train when outside the Temple, the Cancer Saint's red eyes looked around for the familiar green head until he spotted Shinta staring at a far off cliff side in perfect concentration. "Oh, there he is… what's he doing?"

As if to answer his thoughts the young Andromeda Saint let out a startling battle shout and threw his clenched fingers forward, causing a sudden massive explosion of white light to blast the cliff, shattering its surface with a deafening sound. Lance staggered and covered his face at the sudden power burst and watched the rock formation tear into crashing boulders that raised huge clouds of dust into the air.

Shinta panted heavily and sweated profusely, still feeling the drawbacks of his own attack. His eyes looked over and spotted his dear friend. "L-Lance, you're here! I didn't notice you…"

He walked over to him. "Yeah… I'm back from the Island of Gardens… Wow, what was that just now? That was a cool move."

The meek Bronze Saint smiled with pride and waved his hand dismissively. "O-oh, I'm just practicing cosmos with techniques Lord Daniel t-taught me. He says I have large r-reserves and should learn how to unleash them more effectively… It's nothing special, really…"

The red eyes saw large rock pieces still loudly crashing on the ground and couldn't help but disagree. "Nothing special? I wouldn't say that. I always seen you fight with chains and whatnot, so seeing you pull this kind of attack off is really impressive."

With his humbleness overriding him, Shinta, couldn't help but blush at the compliment and scratch his green head. "W-well, it IS the Taurus House. Its style is so different from my pacifism I couldn't help but pick up a few harsh habits. I've… been working with Lord Daniel to improve my techniques, too." Shinta help up the chain around his gauntlet. "I still use my old Andromeda Chains, but I guess I'm learning to act more offensively…"

Lance, who had seen Shinta turtle his way through fights so much, couldn't help but smile excitedly. "Really?! I can't wait to see what you can do! Wanna spar for a bit? I might be a good test for your new skills."

Shinta stared at the collection of bandages, injuries and general signs of exhaustion and poisoning Lance brought back from the Island of Gardens. "Hum… h-how about another day? I think we could both use a little rest."

"Are you sure? That attack looked pretty badass… Think I saw shades of Great Horn in it, too. You might actually score a win this time."

As always, Shinta didn't seem happy to entertain thoughts about testing his powers against people, especially Lance. "I heard about the two newcomers to the Golden Zodiac." He smirked sheepishly. "Mu and Aldebaran told me how you adopted Deathmask and saved Aphrodite's life. That was so cool of you."

"Not really. I actually handled the mission pretty badly. I had to take Aphrodite anyway and Mephisto knew underworld arts that were getting him in trouble-"

Shinta shook his head. "The Lance I know wouldn't take in a student like that; he'd usually say something like 'I don't have time for this' or 'I had to make it on my own'. Ha, ha, ha. That was kindness and you know it." His lips quivered. "Hmmm… maybe this sounded like I called you mean, right?"

The quiet Cancer Saint sat on a nearby rock and folded his arms. "No, not really, and you'd be right anyway. I can't stop thinking about the headaches this will give me, though…. And the way the Pope reacted weirdly to my report, there's just so much to think about."

As usual Shinta rushed to cheer him up. "Oh, it will be alright. I'm sure you can teach him a lot. I guess being a Gold Saint has its downsides. You didn't use to worry this much. I can see now why you were so anxious about getting back to China the other day."

"Well, you'll be a Silver Saint soon, so you'll get a taste of it." he remarked with a sly smirk. This seemed to brighten a bulb in Shinta's head, who suddenly smiled widely like a kid at the fair. "What's with you?"

"That reminded me Master Guardnia and Saint Cynthia will be here in Sanctuary soon to be part of the Gold Saint retirement ceremonies. Ah, I can't wait!" he squeaked, practically jumping in happiness. "I've been working really hard to earn the Silver-Rank. Master told me it was the only way I could get authorization to go back to Japan -"

"Yeah, that's kind of a weird rule. Even for a tense area for Sanctuary, they shouldn't stop you from seeing your home just because you can't move at Mach 5."

"- but its fine, Lance, cause Master will be here! I'm so hyped. In fact, a lot of Silver Saints are gathering for the event, like Sagitta Nam from the MMC, Heracles Aguilon and Kerberus Kasti-" Shinta covered his own mouth. "…oh, sorry…forget I said his name."

Though there was a second in which Shinta could swear the Gold Saint was wishing a curse on someone with the way he looked away angrily, Cancer Lance sighed and brushed it off with a hand gesture. "It's fine… this whole mission left me stressed, anyway."

Shinta smiled empathically. "I can tell, but it's like Arcadia, remember? I know one day you'll look back on it with pride!"

Lance wasn't one hundred percent sure if he was proud about Arcadia, either. "Well for now it feels like one big fuck-up."

"Don't you think you're too harsh on yourself?"

Lance scoffed. "You're one to talk. You get sad every time you step on a snail. They're glorified floor-snots, for Christ's sake."

Shinta raised a brow. "… How would that not be sad? They're just making their way through life at their pace and someone comes along and crushes them without realizing it. Poor things…"

"… You'd get along just nicely with Aphrodite…" Lance sarcastically commented.

Shinta smiled, excitedly. "Really? Is he a pacifist, too? What about Deathmask?"

Lance still had no idea how Mephisto's stupid nickname spread around so fast. Maybe it really did sound cool, though the thought of Karkinos' influence latching on so easily made him shiver. "More like they're both somehow completely opposites from you while at the same time being quite different from one another. Deathmask just wants to take your lunch away, but I'm pretty sure Aphrodite would stab you for touching his roses."

"Wow, he's really passionate about his work, huh? I guess I'd be pretty mad too if a mean person came along and messed with my plants." Shinta tried to imagine himself in Aphrodite's feet. "He must love flowers a lot."

"You really have no idea…"

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: The Goodbye – Part 1

Description: The day the older Gold Saints' retire arrives. Sanctuary prepares the farewell and Cepheus Guardnia is chosen to take part in it.

Author's Note: It's been four months since I last posted anything, but the reason for it was… stress… and exams… and projects… and life. I'm still very passionate about this story, but motivation and energy has been hard to gather. It doesn't help that LR still has some fundamental characterization problems early on that need to be worked over.

Anyway, on with the chapter itself -

Storyline is finally finished, wrapping up Aphrodite and Deathmask's arrival to Sanctuary. If you're still wondering how the situation between Deathmask and the Lance will work out about being the Cancer Saint, don't worry, that will be handled eventually, as well. Old readers surely do remember how Version 2 worked that out.

Next storyline will finish the First Arc, and will be tough to write too cause it involves the LR characters a bit more as opposed to canon characters. I will try, however, my best to write it as best as possible to ease the pain

Also, be sure to check out Saint Seiya Fan Forum for news on various SS topics for the English-speaking community, as well as Hitagigahara's translations of Saintia Sho, where yours truly has proofread a bonus chapter already.