The scent of roses. The red petals scattered through dreams. A scorching darkness of infinite comfort. The brown eyes always so confident. The shooting star that scribbles the sky.
The eyes snap open, breaking through the layers of her dreams to reveal a distant, dark ceiling.
Lying down, Saori looks to the side and sees a huge corridor with a long red carpet flanked by colonnades that are lost in the darkness. On the other side, a huge mural carved in high relief with the image of a mythological war between men; above them a female figure shone like the sun. She wore a dress on her body, a spear in her hands and a helmet on her head.
A dress, a spear and a helmet.
She felt a deep shiver looking at that figure when a very deep voice behind her made itself heard.
"I was waiting for you."
Saori turned immediately and in front of her saw a man kneeling. He wore a dark cassock spread across the floor; it had golden motifs where it closed in the center and also on the bars of the legs and arms. Hanging from his chest were ecclesiastical beads. His face hidden in the shadows of a golden helmet.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The figure lifted his face and calmly removed his helmet, revealing his huge lock of hair that fell to his shoulders. His eyes were so beautiful, his features conveyed the purest tranquility and tenderness. Saori saw nothing in those eyes that wasn't comfort.
"I have ruled the Sanctuary in your place as the Camerlengo..." he began.
Saori felt invaded by a huge confusion when those eyes touched her soul. His voice ended the curtsy.
"Goddess Athena."
She rose immediately and stood above him, even though she was so small and that man, even kneeling, huge. Or he just looked huge, such depth of eyes and the depth of his cassock strewn across the floor.
"I've been waiting so long for this moment." he spoke again in his deep voice. "Waiting for the moment when you would reveal yourself to me."
Saori, however, was not a fool, and suspicion grew in her immediately, despite that kind presence before her.
"Are you the Gold Saint?" she asked, and for a second, Saori felt the man falter an inch.
"No," he replied, finally, and said in a mysterious way. "But the Gold Saint is at your side."
"Where am I?" she asked.
"This is the Temple of Athena."
"Am I in the Sanctuary?" asked the girl suspiciously.
"Yes," he just said.
Again a shiver ran down her spine, for she knew that this place had once been a great danger to her life. Yet she felt extremely safe in front of this man.
"Athena." he began to speak once more. "There is great evil within your Sanctuary. An evil that only you can put out. Only you can vanquish."
His voice was deep and decisive.
"That evil tried to kill me 15 years ago." she said decisively, still looking those eyes up and down.
That's when he finally got up.
And when he stood up, his physique cast shadows over her.
But Saori kept talking, much smaller than the huge figure, but her eyes were also very determined.
"I don't think many people had access to the Goddess Athena." she said, and perhaps there was a bold accusation in her voice. There were certainly millions of doubts.
He didn't flinch, but for the first time Saori realized that on the man's right hand there was something that his dark cassock had hidden: a golden staff, which he presented with both hands before her.
"This is Niké." he said. "The Victory that has always been in Athena's right hand."
And he knelt again, offering the staff to Saori.
She took it in her right hand without being afraid, as for the first time in there she felt her huge cosmos inside of her. That felt right. It was supposed to be. He spoke the truth.
Staff in hand, she looked again at the man, who remained kneeling in front of her. Without looking back at her, his voice spoke again in that darkness, but this time it was a voice trembling with fear.
"Athena. Use your staff to vanquish the evil that has taken roots in your Sanctuary."
He rose quickly, looking into her eyes. When before they were kind and pure, now they carried a merciful despair; from one of his eyes, as Saori saw, tears were running down his face.
"It's coming." said the man, and from the back of that hall, Saori saw the lights slowly go out, one by one, as the torches of the columns reached him. "Listen to me, Athena. Use your staff to vanquish that evil!"
And the last thing she saw was his eyes crying, begging for mercy.
"Please, Athena."
And more she didn't see, because she had been swallowed by a universe.
An array of stars and galaxies colliding in spaces distorted by an impossible sensation of the absolute absence of time. There were no columns, there was no mural, the red carpet, or the man in the black cassock.
There was only her, her dress and her staff wandering the cosmos.
Just as there were all the stars and galaxies around her. Planets, loves and despairs.
"Where's the girl?" asked Shaina's voice.
Hyoga and Shun were carrying Seiya unconscious body on their shoulders for a more open path when they were stopped by Shaina, and behind her came Crow Jamian. The Cygnus Saint left Shun carrying his friend and stood before them in case he had to fight.
"Athena is not here." Hyoga spoke.
Shaina let out her laugh.
"You're all delusional. Leave Seiya here and I'll let you live for today." she said.
"What are you talking about, Shaina? We must punish them all!"
"Shut up, Jamian!" she snapped.
"There's nothing to worry about, as we won't let you take Seiya or any of us."
Hyoga wore his sacred Cygnus Cloth and made his icy cosmos burn in front of her. Shaina looked him hard in the eyes and her Silver Cloth also lit up with her electrifying cosmos.
'I'll take care of the other two." said Jamian, guessing that those two would face off.
Hyoga and Shaina engaged in a violent melee fight that drove them on and left Shun and Seiya, unconscious, in front of Crow Jamian. He laughed.
"This will be too easy."
The Nebula Chain spread across the ground, protecting the two Bronze Saints.
"I wouldn't step on the nebula if I were you." Shun warned.
Indeed, Jamian didn't believe the sweet-faced boy and placed one foot inside the scattered chains, as if he wanted to test whether what he was saying was really true; he felt an immense shock running through his entire body. He immediately reared his foot and jumped in pain and spasms.
Shun had warned.
The fierce fight between Cygnus and Shaina knocked down small trees around and shattered rocks as they passed. Hyoga cast his Ice Circles to paralyze Shaina, but her huge electric claws simply ripped the circles around her, much to Hyoga's amazement.
"Thunder Claws!"
Shaina raised her right hand above her head and all her silver cosmos converged on the palm of her claws before descending like lightning on Hyoga, covering him inside a terrible thunder.
The black feathers rained down on Jamian, who kept his distance from the chains, but illuminated by his silvery aura. His shining armor. At the command of his hands, the feathers encircled his body and launched themselves like sharp blades at Shun.
"Razor Plumes!"
The spherical chain withdrew to enfold Shun in its spinning matrix and prevent his body from being torn apart by Jamian's sharp feathers. He successfully survived the attack. He picked up his chains and lunged forward like a bullet; he knelt before Jamian, both of his arms raised with force, and from them a typhoon of wind blew the Silver Saint to incredible heights, so that he was hurled to the top of the mountain, vanishing into the sky.
Hyoga, further on, fell defeated and his body spasmed by the electrical cosmos of Shaina, who was also out of breath and her legs were slightly frozen. Shun looked at the exact moment when Shaina knelt next to Hyoga's body and raised her sharp claws to finish him off. His chain flew from where he was and grabbed Shaina's hand.
"Let go of me, kid!" she cried.
But Shun pulled the chain hard, pulling Shaina off her friend; she stumbled and rolled on the ground until she braced herself with one leg on the ground and gripped the chain with both arms. Andromeda took advantage and discharged his electrified cosmos, delivering a terrible shock that stiffened the upright chain without any support in the air.
But that was Ophiuchus Shaina and the crackles of electrical charges were of her cosmic nature, so that Shun blow just seemed to give her even more energy. She released the stiffened chain into the air and ran over it in an impossibly manner, like a rope-walking artist; with amazing speed, she reappeared in front of Shun still holding his chain stiffly.
She spun back and hit Shun with a terrible kick to the jaw, knocking his helmet away. He fell dragged to the ground, moaning in pain.
Shaina even took advantage that Shun had given her more energy and, like a battery, her cosmos crackled obliterating leaves around. She jumped, and when she did, her body seemed to transport itself from the ground to the sky like thunderbolt, and her voice roared powerfully.
"Thunder Claws!"
Shun was lying down and couldn't defend himself, feeling his entire body, every inch and every atom, vibrate spasmodically. His teeth clenched hard and his chest choked as his entire body contracted violently.
As soon as the technique died in Shaina's hand, Shun was able to breathe again, but everything in his body moved against his will. He was defeated as well.
"Fucking brat. You will be the first to die."
Shaina walked over to Shun, who was suffering on the floor, and her hand came up, sucking in the static around it, cracking. Its sharp claws ready to rip Shun's skin when she felt her hand being hit.
When looking at her hand, she saw a red feather stuck in it.
She looked around but saw nothing. She looked up and no one was there.
"Show yourself!" she ordered.
It wasn't until she squinted her eyes to see a boulder ahead against the sun that she realized how above it was not a gnarled log or anything like that, but the silhouette of a person.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"I am Phoenix Ikki."
The voice that answered was decisive and menacing.
"Phoenix?" Shaina asked. "I thought you were dead."
"Hell didn't have this pleasure." she replied.
"Are you on their side now? With these traitors from the Sanctuary?"
"I'm not on anyone's side." she replied. "You were just very unlucky for disturbing my mountain."
Shaina burst out laughing and showed her bleeding hand to Ikki.
"Looks to me like you care for this stupid kid. Is he important to you? It would be a shame if he died." she threatened, turning to punish Shun.
Ikki jumped from the rock, her fire wings spread in the air and she landed between Shaina and Shun's unconscious body; the Silver Saint had to move away. Shaina also saw that, in addition to Shun's body, the bodies of Cygnus and Seiya also extended ahead. For now that opponent was standing between her and her mission.
Shaina felt, as it was in the capacity of the Silver Saints, the irascible cosmos that existed within Ikki.
"I won't let you touch him." she said. "Or Cygnus and Seiya."
"Then I guess I'll have to finish you off too." Shaina said, but Ikki laughed mockingly.
"Do you really think you can?"
The Phoenix rose and she looked Shaina in the eye; they both found a similar anger as they looked at each other. Ikki used her cosmos and, without touching the earth, drew a line from one extension to the other of that place they were, clearly determining two sides. Her side. And Shaina's.
"That's the line between life and death for you." said Ikki confidently. "I'll take these idiots out of here. If you cross that line, you're dead."
And he turned his back to lift his brother.
Shaina felt tremendously insulted, although she did felt a very hostile presence on that girl that made her hesitate. And when she hesitated she felt even more hatred.
She clenched her fists as she watched the Phoenix lift Andromeda, slowly waking up. Further on, the Cygnus Saint also struggled to his feet. Only then did Shaina realize that she was the one who had put those two down. So now she would put one more if necessary.
"Bastard." Shaina scolded through gritted teeth. "You said I'm going to die, is that so? Do you think I'm a child? Prepare to face your doom, Phoenix!"
Shaina crossed the line towards Ikki.
Phoenix turned, swiftly, and her fist emitted an almost imperceptible thread of darkness that ripped through Shaina's brain and sent her falling to her knees.
The setting of the sun on the Aegean Sea at the horizon welcomed the arrival of the night. A cold wind descended from the mountains towards a ramshackle village. At the main square, a group of children played running around before the light ended with the rest of the day. Between them, a girl is sitting alone looking at a stained stone fountain spitting water from the mouths of three winged horses. She looks at the water trying to pretend she doesn't hear the children laughing at her; the girl doesn't understand the language they speak, but she understands why they are laughing. Occasionally they splashed water at her from the fountain, pretending to unintentionally wet her things, though no doubt on purpose.
She then got to her feet and yelled for everyone to hear.
"Leave me alone!"
But the children continued to laugh at her, hiding one of their eyes like pirates.
Little Shaina ran after several of those kids and tried to punch them, but they all managed to get away, as they were bigger than her. And they continued to laugh at the girl.
She stopped running after them and ran to a hidden corner between two houses, a dark alley where she sat with her head between her legs and wept with rage. She ran her little child's fingers over the small but visible scar above her left eye. She cried softly.
But the bigger boys found her hiding place and pulled little Shaina out onto the avenue, so everyone could see her scar, as they called her many names she didn't understand.
She was beaten from all sides, as everyone attacked her in a circle; she skillfully managed to parry, counterattack, use one against each other in her terrible training, and bravely survived the beating. She then she finally dropped to the ground and heard the hateful laughter again.
"Not bad for a foreign child." said an older woman, appearing between them.
And she kicked her in the stomach.
"What is this?" asked the woman. "Is this a war paint, Corsara? And which war do you think you are going to?"
Shaina scrambled to the ground, but got on to her feet again. Everyone was watching her face that older woman.
"Don't tell me... You're not using this to hide your pretty scar, are you?" laughed the woman. And with her hands she ordered one of the disciples to bring a bucket of dirty water that they drank to cool off.
The woman grabbed Shaina by the hair and placed her on the ground; she threw the entire bucket in her face, to the group's general laughter, and with her thick hand wiped the paint from Shaina's eyes.
"That's better." The woman rose. "Back to training!"
She tried to hide with her hand the scar she hated so much on her eye; it was very small, but it caused a flaw in her left eyebrow.
Her hand was bleeding as the scar on her wrist had opened again. As usual. A moment of peace. It was the only peaceful moment she'd had in her days these past four years. She sat back in a tree watching the blood run from her hand. She would need to go to the tent if she wanted to stop the blood, but that would mean having to go through the boys and girls there, who would certainly not give her peace. Her peace was better.
A white rabbit appeared beside her, fleeing from anything that hunted him. She tried to smile, as there was someone worse than she; for if she was the best that bunny could find, poor bunny. She couldn't take him in her hands, as she knew her dark red blood would stain his very white fur. The bunny wiped his ears with his two paws and left, jumping into the woods. Her eyes then met a laughing little boy who said something to her.
She didn't understand a thing he was saying.
"Eat." he said, pointing to the rabbit far away.
"A foreigner." she spoke in her native language.
The boy noticed that her hand was bleeding and knelt next to it. His little brown eyes, his small hands reached for her bleeding left hand, but Shaina let go and slapped the boy.
"Hey!" he said in the universal language.
So he also showed his left hand with a bandage in the same place where her hand was bleeding. She knew that was the mark of outsiders. She then let the boy use one of his brand new bandages that he wore around his waist to bandage her injured hand and staunch the blood. Once he was done, the boy smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up.
She caught him by the collar and threw him to the ground. She scolded over the boy, surrounded by followers bursting with laughter at her naughty behavior. She called him many names, she wouldn't let him get up, sat on his back pretending to be in a chair, and ruffled his hair whenever she could. But when Seiya, curled up on the ground, looked at her, Shaina saw the eyes of the little foreign girl she had been when she first arrived at the Sanctuary. Crying from the laughter of his own followers. Suffering because she no longer saw the little Shaina in front of her, but the grown warrior she had become with the warpaint in her eyes. The arched, mocking brows above her calling him a thousand terrible names as she laughed at her own scar.
She runs like a child, but finds herself in Seiya's arms, grown up, a woman, and is bursted by a deep hatred. She burns her cosmos and her nails, as sharp as a snake's fangs, attack the boy in a deadly way, cutting off his head. The boy's body drops to his knees, his left hand bandaged and his head rolling to her feet. A hateful smile on the boy's face, calling out to her repeatedly in a guttural way.
"Corsara."
Her scream is as strong as the cosmos inside her. And it reverberated throughout the canyon to the point that Shun, Hyoga and Ikki heard her despair far away, carrying Seiya to a safe place.
Saori didn't know exactly how long she wandered alone through infinity, maybe a few seconds, maybe for so many eons. She felt empty as if she hadn't even breathed for a long time. And yet she was alive. Her dyed hair was suspended in a vacuum and she realized that she was gripping the metal of her staff too tightly.
There was no gravity, just immense loneliness. Lying in infinity, she saw, upside down, a glow opening far away from her, the stars around her distorted and converged on that spot. She felt herself slowly being sucked into that exit or entrance.
"Hold on to me." spoke a voice, and beside her the wonderful Gold Saint appeared again. "The dimension will close."
His Sun Armor reflected all the stars and galaxies of that infinity, yet it gleamed a strong amber gold. Saori held his hands and, closer and awake, she could glimpse the beauty of that face almost hidden under a helmet adorned with golden motifs. His long hair also floated into infinity.
"Be careful." said his thick voice but sweet. "We're going down soon."
Saori saw ahead that the infinite dimension of the cosmos distorted to a pale glow in which, little by little, the colors of a night in the city appeared; and a building all too familiar to her loomed beneath her feet, still pulled from her proportions, until she had no doubts.
Gracefully, her right foot landed like a feather on the balcony of her old room in her late grandfather's Mansion; the curtains fluttered in a gust of wind. There was no one there. Not inside the abandoned house, not in the overgrown gardens. The fire had consumed much of the building, but that balcony and section of the house were untouched.
"The Camerlengo ordered me to you to escort you here." said the man's sweet, deep voice again.
Saori leaned on her golden staff, as if so long wandering through another dimension had made her unaccustomed to the curse of gravity. The Gold Saint, in addition to his immense beauty, also had a white cape on his back. He bowed in farewell and turned to leave.
"Wait." asked Saori, and the man stopped and looked at her again. "Are you by my side?" asked her girlish voice.
"I am on the side of humanity." he replied, very calmly.
"You don't believe me?" Saori asked frankly.
"I know you're the Goddess Athena." he said. "I don't know if you're capable of protecting humanity."
"Shouldn't the Athena Saints be loyal to me?" she asked.
"My mission is to protect the Earth." he began. "Swearing allegiance to someone I don't believe that can protect the Earth is the same as betraying everyone who lives on it. And that I cannot do."
Saori felt the harshness of those words and her eyes got lost in the beautiful mosaics of her floor. She understood the reasons why the Gold Cloth had abandoned her.
"What should I do?" she finally asked in her youthful voice.
A gust of wind made the Gold Saint's cloak slap lightly against his gleaming Armor. In the darkness, Saori could clearly see that his eyes landed on her golden staff. She knew what she needed to do.
"Allow me, Athena, to witness what kind of Goddess you are." he said, leaving a beautiful red rose in front of her. "In the battle to come."
He got up and, by the time Saori looked down to take the rose, the wonderful Gold Saint was no longer there. He tucked the rose into his chest and stared at the white moon in front of her.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Again looking for inspiration in Saintia Sho with the Gold Saint leading Saori to the Grand Master. I tried to include a 'gift' from him to create a link between the two that can be used later on. The title, while quite suggestive of the Grand Master, was also meant to play with Shaina's memories. I used some of her memories with Seiya (the bunny episode) and expanded with some ideas of my own to justify so much hate.
NEXT CHAPTER: A CHINESE TALE
Shiryu, now blind, is in Rozan alongside Shunrei when she receives a visit from an old rival.