[ Watashi ]

[ Tomodachi ]

[ Saint Seiya ]

[ Clamp ]

[ Fanfiction ]

The sea-borne wind had died.

As Pisces Shiva straightened up, holding the long blue tunic that had been left lying on the bare rock, he felt the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips. The only sound that could be head in this brief moment of peace between day and night was that of the waters cascading down from above the altar of Athena and feeding the crystalline pool spreading before him.

It was an exquisite piece of architecture.

Built on the orders of a madman, as legend had it. The water flowed down the mountain, forming pools beside each of the Twelve Houses--a liquid replica of the great Stairs. It afforded all the small temples with a stable, apparently endless source of clear water, which was convenient in a place from which running water and electricity were banned--outside of reality, that was what Cendre had said. It was true enough, but thanks to the folly of a man who was said to have usurped the identity of Athena's representative on Earth centuries ago, the Gold Saints were all provided for in terms of luxurious pools of transparent and cool waters. At least, there was something positive about having had a madman with too much of a taste for pleasure and women taking over the Sanctuary.

Imperceptibly the blue of the sky darkened into night, and the first stars started to wink into existence. The brightest of them all rose above the sea, a shining beacon that only the moon could eclipse, its color the palest echo of the wide roses' field spreading behind Shiva.

Red Ares.

Ares, Mars. Two names for the same planet--two names to identify the same being: war. It was an ominous name to give to a world. There was power in name-giving, a pull in the strands of Destiny woven around the one being named--be it a person or a planet. Anyone who disagreed would have been well inspired to indulge into a bit of star-gazing tonight, and into some thinking. Shiva's smile widened, revealing his teeth, and he looked away from the sky.

Stepping to the edge of the now star-lit pool, Shiva mentally measured small pieces of time. It had been about long enough. In a slow, leisurely motion, he squatted down even as the water's surface rippled, and as a shadow burst through--well, not a shadow, Shiva chuckled in silence, but close. Gabriel's lithe and muscular body was dark in the night, except for the white loincloth he wore, and his eyes were darker still. Wordlessly Shiva held out the tunic, and the Libra Gold Saint blinked, and stared at it as if it was a snake poised to bite. At last, Gabriel's black gaze shifted up to Shiva's face, and the Pisces Saint grinned.

"Well, are you going to take it, or do you intend to take a stroll around the Sanctuary butt-naked?" Not that Shiva cared--or minded. There was a slight, almost inaudible sigh, then Gabriel at last reached out to take the tunic.

"Thanks."

The whisper died instantly in the night. Shiva straightened, and took a few steps back while Gabriel draped the garment around him. Then the Libra Saint exited the pool, dripping wet and his usually well-kept hair in total disarray. He must have dived, and dived deep in the water. As the head of the Sanctuary set foot on the shore, the bright star of pale red cast weak strands of light over the pool. Behind Shiva, a sudden breeze rose, carrying with it the heady perfume of roses.

Petals.

Gabriel allowed the seemingly fragile shreds of flower to brush past him without reaching out to them. Wise choice. Shiva's Royal Demon Roses knew a troubled mind when it stumbled in their midst. Before him, Gabriel bowed his head, hiding the bitter smile that twisted his lips.

"I didn't know you liked my gardens," Shiva mused in a conversational voice, "much less enjoyed spending time in them."

"I don't really," Gabriel shrugged, "but the waters of the pool are cool."

"Is that so?" Shiva raised an eyebrow at his companion.

"The wheel is turning," the Libra Saint said, looking up at Shiva, "and it's turning faster than I expected it would."

Shiva reached out to the pale starlight. Pale, red Ares. Mars--war.

Chaos.

Yes, it was most likely so. It had been weeks since the bright flames that was Cendre had left the Sanctuary, and faded out of the world. Pushed away by the harsh words that had been said during the council he had called for--pushed away by the failing balance of the world, if one was to go by the way Gabriel saw things. And yet Cendre was much more than a hotheaded stupid idealist fresh out of adolescence. No matter what most of Athena's Saints thought, he *was* Gold. He was the Aries Gold Saint, and if he moved--when he moved....

"Fate is like an avalanche, or so they say," Shiva replied noncommittally. He knew why Gabriel was there, but he felt like waiting for the other to get there in his own time--while the pure white roses bloomed in his garden, under the tainted starlight.

Roses that thirsted after human blood.

Lifeblood.

Roses whose pure white color faded into the brightest of reds once they had managed to plunge their stem into the beating heart of the victim Shiva designated.

As beautiful and icy as death.

"He has seen what he should never have." Gabriel heaved out a sigh.

"The truth?" Shiva scoffed. "You forget that Cendre has made a habit of haunting the less savory suburbs of Athens. He knows the world, he understands better than any of us do."

"War," Gabriel retorted, his voice emotionless. The dark eyes left Shiva's to wander around some point behind him. "There are so many of them," Gabriel added, his tone distant. "It feels as if your garden was ever-growing."

"They're pretty powerful stuff, you know," the Pisces Saint smiled, "even compared to the best the underground industry can do. They sell well on the black market."

Joyless laughter filled the night. "Royal Demon Roses, the one path to quintessential bliss!" There was the slightest thread of pain in Gabriel's voice. Around the Representative of the Goddess, the gentle night breeze again rose, bringing petals his way.

Red--and white.

Dancing around him.

Waltzing, in harmony with the beatings of Gabriel's heart.

"You're wrong, Shiva. Cendre may know, as you say, but he doesn't understand. He refuses to. He's Aries, that is true, but he's so young, and his blood isn't Atalante's." With that, the Libra Saint stepped froward, walking past Shiva without sparing him a single glance.

Going to the center of the garden.

Shiva listened to the echo of Gabriel's steps while he picked a careful path between the flowers, never once crushing the smallest one. Words were useless. They wouldn't resolve anything--they wouldn't help. Nothing would. Still facing the pool, Shiva said in a quiet voice, "I will." He dragged in a breath, and blinked. "I'll go and watch." Behind him, he heard the rustle of plants as Gabriel set a knee down on the ground.

So.

"I'll obey the Sanctuary's laws," Shiva added tonelessly, his hands closed into fists at his sides. Bracing himself. Cosmo abruptly filled the garden, brighter than a full moon.

Warm.

Gentle.

There was almost no pain when Gabriel cut one of the flowers. "He's gone," the Head of Athena's Saints said, and Shiva turned to face the other, even as the Libra Gold Saint straightened. "Cendre's trace has disappeared, but what he has seen--" Gabriel shook his head. "He must be stopped. When he makes his move--"

"You should have cut your thumb on one of the thorns," Shiva remarked in a pleasant voice. "I wish you had," he added as he reached out.

As Gabriel held out the Bloody Rose.

Shiva took the flower, toying with the impulse to crush it in the palm of his hand--to feel its thorns piercing through his flesh and finding their way to his heart. "So do I." Gabriel nodded at him. Then he turned his back on Shiva, and left the garden.

Staring at the beautiful white rose, the Pisces Gold Saint fought down the laughter bubbling up his throat. So it had come to this--but then, had there ever been any doubt as to the outcome of this particular story? Cendre was Cendre. He made his own decisions, but they were the ones who had pushed him down the road he had taken.

No choice.

Nobody could stop Cendre. He was Aries, and he shone so bright that his light eclipsed most of those in the Sanctuary. No one could hope to stop him without having to kill him, and most likely die as well--no one but Raziel, perhaps. Gabriel had come to Shiva, which meant that the Virgo Saint had refused to take a side.

Or that she had sided with Cendre, simply by removing herself from the gameboard.

It didn't matter. Shiva had been given a command by the head of his order, and he would obey. He had warned Cendre, he had told him what would happen if he turned away from his sworn oath to the Goddess. Choices.... Shiva dropped Gabriel's poisoned gift.

There were no choices--not for Cendre. Not for him.

With a loud sigh, Shiva left the garden as well. Behind him, the discarded white rose's life was slowly fading into the cold stone.

Cendre's life.

His.

"Why did you do it?!"

Essiah Jacarande's muffled outcry glided past me, and went to swirl around the four armed guards set at each end of the coach before fading into silence. The vibrations coming through the bullet train's hull were almost imperceptible, but I knew that the train shooting through Noctis Labyrinthus was going as fast as it possibly could, its powerful engines pushed close to their limit. It was a small convoy: just a single coach beside the locomotive--a specially chartered train.

For me.

Howl.

Gigantic arm sweeping down.

I clutched my right knee with a hand, unable to prevent the instinctive reaction. Above the lace-like walls of crystalline rock, the great storm that had risen before our going to Endymio Arboris raged, reaching out from beyond the Rim. This one was perhaps strong enough to engulf the whole planet, and force a pause in the military operations.

Scant chance of that happening.

"Don't you even care that you blew whatever cover you had?!"

No, nothing would ever deter both sides from going for each other's throats. The military had their storm-proof gear, and the Martian colonists must have enough operatives planted in key places up north, waiting for the go-ahead command. "They're not going to allow you to get away with it, not this time--damn you, you must know this!" There was nothing to be glimpsed through the coach's windows, nothing to discern in Mars' pitch black night.

Starless.

At last, I turned away from the gloomy sight, and rested my head back against my seat. "The truth," I sighed, remembering Mars rushing to exterminate a whole population, free to express the tiniest fraction of its alien hatred and pain--its terror--after the commandos had deliberately destroyed the engine powering the settlement's environmental shield.

"The truth," I repeated, facing the young captain. "It's the one thing I've been after from the start. I thought you understood that," I finished with a smile. The female officer's green eyes were set on me, wide--stormy. She was angry, and bewildered, and distraught. Her stance was rigid, had been so since the moment when the commando unit had brought me back to Endymio Arboris. I looked at the line of her jaw and at the set of her shoulders, and thought it must hurt to be so tense.

"What truth?!" she hissed between clenched teeth. The desperation in her voice lingered around us, making the recycled air heavy--flickering with the bullet train's deep vibrations while it kept shooting through what felt like an eternal night. She was hovering on the edge. She had doubts, and unbalance had stolen its way through her mind. I should reach out and steady the wavering flames of her life, but compassion was a luxury I could no longer afford.

"The truth you didn't see since you didn't walk the streets of Endymio Arboris," I told her in an even voice. "The truth that would have overwhelmed your heart, had you come with me to that small settlement in Noachis Terra--the truth you dread," I added, even as she looked away from me in a sharp movement.

"You're not making any sense," she retorted, her back to me.

"Oh?" I snorted, willing scorn to be heard in my tone. "But on the contrary, I think I do. I came to this agonizing world because I wanted to know the truth of what's going on in this war that Earth fights against terror. You showed me the atrocious brutality of the terrorist attacks against Earth-owned mines and places. You showed me broken lives; you showed me shattered bodies and shattered souls. That was the first step, and I'm thankful you took it with me."

"If you understand that," she replied, moving to face me again in a slow, reluctant motion, "what else is there to know?"

She was good. There was no denying that as she stared straight at me, her face composed and calm. There was strength in Essiah Jacarande, which was a good thing. She wasn't my enemy. I looked back at her, and she sustained my gaze without flinching. With a small wave of the left hand, I brushed her words aside, and heaved out a sigh. The show she was putting on for my benefit was useless: even if I hadn't heard the barest trace of strain in her voice, the turmoil sending dissonant waves in her aura was unmistakable.

"That they have a reason for what they do, no matter how criminal it is," I told her softly. "That your hierarchy is embarked on a crusade which aims at slaughtering everyone and everything south of the Rim," I went on. I reached out to her when something dark flickered in her eyes, steadying her and preventing her from escaping. "That what your commandos are doing is eradicating settlements in a very efficient and methodical fashion. That, in Olympus Hall, madmen have decided to eliminate the whole population of Mars' original colonists."

What better way to eliminate the threat of terrorism than to commit genocide?

"Impossible!" she snarled, bowing her head. "You're the one who's mad!" Her shoulders were shaking, ever so slightly.

"They kill you in cowardly acts of terror because they're hopelessly outmatched, and because you're killing them. They'll never run out of terrorist candidates, because you keep pushing them down that hell road. You're not leaving them any choice." No matter what, terrorists were terrorists--murderers, barbaric criminals who had to be stopped and had to face justice. But when it came to kill or be killed, principles and morals blurred, before fading out and losing all meaning. People could be stripped of their decency, of their longing for peace and order--of their humanity. When you saw your family murdered or branded as terrorists, when you saw your homes burnt to the ground, your means of living torn away from you, when you fled and tried anew, and again military found you and took up the destruction process where they had left it--what did you do?

Lay down and die?

Call for justice in the face of guns pointed to your face and that of your children?

Or bow your head and wait until the enemy's back was to you to strike?

No matter what people believed, humanity and civilization were nothing but a thin layer of varnish that served to dissimulate a ferocious predator. Crack the varnish, erase it completely, and you were left with savage beasts that'd do whatever they had to in order to protect their own. Law, ethics, respect for the lives of innocent people, everything ceased to exist or have meaning, then.

Everything but hatred.

"That's no reason to excuse terrorism, even if that were true!" Essiah Jacarande whispered beside me, her eyes set on the row of seats in front of us--angry. Furious, outraged and confused.

Lost.

As lost as I was, but still fighting a desperate battle against the current dragging her down the abyss. I let out a dry chuckle. There was no resisting that torrent of death and vengeance. There was no escaping it. "No," I replied in a gentle voice. "Nothing can ever justify terrorism, nothing. But this is a spiral without end, unless someone breaks it. The colonists can't."

Her hands clasped around the armrests of her seat. "Neither can we."

"You won't," I countered, and just as she opened her mouth to protest, I went on in a quiet whisper, "The situation suits your hierarchy: their victory is certain. There may be hundreds of victims in new terrorist attacks before that happens, but the difference in forces is such that eventually there won't be a single Marsee left alive. And you," I locked my gaze with hers, "you're fighting with all the strength of your will to deny what I told you. If you could unhear my words, you would." But it wasn't as simple as that, of course. Now that I had cursed her with the truth, it would plague her with doubts and nightmares--unless I had misjudged the young captain.

I knew I hadn't.

"If neither side will break the cycle of war, then who will?" she challenged. "God? Buddha?" she laughed, staring up at me. "You?"

No--yes. I had to laugh as well.

I wasn't truly committed. Not yet. Perhaps it was fear that kept holding me back, or loyalty. I didn't know. It might be that Gabriel's words had managed to worm their way inside my mind. Yes, maybe that was why I had allowed the United Earth Corps soldiers to escort me to this train and then the Goddess knew where. The only action I had taken had been to ward myself from anyone Gabriel might have sent to watch me.

He was no fool; he must know where I was.

What would happen.

His precious balance shattering into chaos.

If there was a chance to avoid it, I was willing to try. I had no hope at all to sway or reason whomever the so nice and well-bred security forces were leading me to, but I'd attempt to--I owed Gabriel this much.

I owed Shiva.

"You're finished," Essiah Jacarande was saying, unaware of how close she had come to a very dangerous truth. She looked away. "Whatever game it was you were playing, it's over. I don't know what kind of delusions you entertain, but the truth is they've arrested you and handed you over to the Omega Intelligence section. Oh, they're not going to court-marshal you," the smile that came to her lips had nothing pleasant about it. "The place this train is going to is Pavonis Mons, right at the heart of the Tharsis mountain range. Many people go into the depths of that mountain, but the only ones who ever come out are Omega Intelligence Operatives."

"Are you one, captain?" I asked her, watching her reflection in the coach's window.

She started, then snorted. "Oh, sure. That's why I allowed you out of my sight and let you reach a place where there was a confidential operation in progress." Her voice was dripping sarcasm. "And here I am now, accompanying you so I can be punished by my superiors!" she chortled. Dismissing her words with a shrug, she heaved out a sigh. "They won't care that you're an Observer sent by the government. They'll ask questions, and they'll have answers out of you, until they're satisfied. You blew it when you magicked yourself out of Endymio Arboris." She gave a slow shake of her head. "And you finished outsmarting yourself when you walked up to the special forces operating in--" she paused for a moment, then said, "in that nest of terrorists in Noachis Terra."

"No nest of terrorists, captain," I retorted softly, focusing on what lay beyond the window.

Willing the surrounding darkness to engulf my memories of that place.

"Whatever trick it is you used," she added as if she hadn't heard my quiet interruption, "they won't let you use again. Whatever new piece of technology you brought from Earth, they'll have. Certainly you must realize that you won't be given the smallest moment of privacy from now on. It doesn't matter that they didn't manage to find anything when they scanned and searched you. Their constant presence by your side checkmates you."

"We'll see." I smiled at the slowly reddening night outside. We must be reaching the end of the Noctis Labyrinthus maze. "Tell me," I added as I turned back toward my companion, "if you're no Omega Intelligence operative, why are you sitting on this train with me?"

She scoffed. "They didn't want me to come." With a shrug, she went on, "I told them I was the only one who knew a bit about you, who had accompanied you for weeks. They didn't dare risk missing any piece of information, so they allowed me here. They were going to investigate me, anyway."

"That's no answer to my question, captain."

"No, it's not," she nodded at me.

Then she smiled.

Around us, the sky had colored itself in pale red. As we exited Noctis Labyrinthus, the clouds of dry ice above broke into millions of tiny crystals that the wild southern wind blew into a crazy dancing fog of light flashes and dust. For a moment, I stared at it, surprised by the spectacle's savage beauty. Then my stomach lurched as the bullet train plunged below ground.

Deep below the Tharsis mountain range.

"Don't you even intend to try and make me swallow if only a single phony explanation for the absurd facts stated in this report?" the man asked with a trace of chagrin in his voice, the fingertips of his right hand lightly tapping on the cardboard cover of what looked like a huge file.

"I fail to see why I should bother," I replied pleasantly, unimpressed by the arch-classical performance of the interrogator sitting on the other side of the desk.

"You're taking all the fun out of this," he sighed. Almost, I laughed. The man was tall and a bit thick, but I'd have laid bets that most of his bulk was muscle, not fat. He looked like he was in his mid-forties, maybe a little older. There was an air of nonchalance and boredom about him, but it was a rather unsubtle sham. It seemed that these people either didn't think much of me, or didn't view me as a real threat.

I sat back against my chair, unable to refrain from taking a quick glance on my left--to no avail. There weren't any windows in this office. The ground was far above, as was the bullet train's station. The sensation of millions of tons of rock above my head grated on my nerves. With a snort, I dragged my stubborn mind out of the idiotic contemplation, and focused on the balding man. "You have my sincerest and most profound apologies," I told him with a shrug. "Now," I went on, staring at him steadily, "how about you call the end of this farce and let me go? You won't get anything out of me. Where I've been, when or how are none of your business. I'm no naive young officer you can frighten witless."

He raised an eyebrow. "You didn't get along with captain Jacarande?"

I scoffed at that. "I'm sure the captain did her job to the best of her abilities. Getting along with her," I shook my head, "would have been a waste of my time and hers."

"In other words, you thought her mediocre, or inefficient at best," he mused, hands clasped together before him. His dark brown eyes were distant.

"Your deductions are your own, mister...?" I let my voice trail off into silence, and waited.

"Alvarez," he eventually supplied. Then he reached out to a cup of what looked like tea, that he had barely touched in the twenty minutes since I had entered his office. He lifted the cup, and asked, "Would you care for one? It's Black Dragon leaf, fresh imported from Earth."

"No, thanks," I murmured while he took it to his lips. The drink must be cold by now. It was ludicrous; there was no point to this interview. I needed to find myself before someone who held power, whose voice would be heard. This nameless underling was nothing but a waste of my time. I stood up.

"What are you doing?" He blinked, holding his stupid cup of tea, frozen in mid-gesture as he was setting it back down on the desk.

"Leaving," I told him. "Find someone with power, then come back to me." with that, I turned my back on him, and walked away.

"Sit down, Aries."

My heart skipped a beat.

Cold.

Ice.

Rising.

Power unfolding.

And the way he had called my name...no. No, there was no cosmo, no starlight bursting forth from him. I released air from my lungs in an inaudible hiss, and asked him without turning back, "Why would I do that?"

"Because your life ends on the threshold of this office, unless I decide otherwise," he retorted calmly.

I didn't care for petty threats, but the assurance that had abruptly come to his voice, the unmistakable melody of power resonating from him even now--I had made a mistake. This was no lowly, anonymous operative. This man wielded power, and he was used to it.

He was used to immediate and complete compliance.

And he had the means of obtaining it.

It looked like we had both grown fed up with the other in the same time. Unbidden, a smile crept up my lips. "Is that so?" I told him, contemplating going through that door and showing him what power really was.

Childish, selfish whim.

With an inward sigh, I pivoted to face him.

"My thanks," he nodded at me. "I really hate it when there's blood splashed all over the walls."

"Yeah," I replied, stepping back to lean against the wall, right next to the door, "wouldn't want that to happen, then." I crossed my arms over my stomach. "So, what's the game?"

"There is no game, Mr. Aries," he said in an even voice. "Just the essential mission to guard the safety of innocent workers in the mines, and of insuring the terrorists are all eradicated. Your presence is a disturbance, and so we're sending you back to Earth, where you belong. And good riddance."

"So easily as that?" I asked softly. "Don't you think I've seen too much? Don't you think it's high time to stop this whole insanity?"

"An idealist!" he laughed. "God, I hate that kind!" He shook his head, then sobered. "There's no stopping an avalanche once it's started, Mr. Aries. Even idiots should know that. As to what you may or may not have seen, it's of no consequence. You're extremely lucky that my hands are tied where you're concerned. You're going back to Earth, and that's the end of your heroic story."

"You're wrong," I smiled at him. "And what's more, you're a fool. What do you think will result from the testimony of an official government Observer describing how you conduct a very thorough and methodical genocide on the southern hemisphere of Mars all over the global network during the prime time news?"

He brought his hands up, and pursed his lips. "Arrogance is a bad failing," he said. "It will blind you to your opponent's strength and resources. Nothing will happen," he continued with a single shake of his head, "because no information network will even accept to meet with you. You're a fake, and the networks know this as well as we do. We backtracked your trail, Mr. Aries. We're no naive, incompetent idiots like Essiah Jacarande. We know you abused the power of the Graude Foundation to coerce a high-ranking official in the ministry of defense to give you a false Observer status. The Graude Foundation isn't happy with you, and they've tightened the leash. They have insured that you won't be able to reach anyone on the global network. They closed the doors themselves, and they're very thorough once they set their minds on the job."

The Graude Foundation?

Then Gabriel--Gabriel had done this?

I bit my lower lip. Gabriel had cut me off from the only way out left to me. I swayed, almost imperceptibly.

"You're nobody. You have no voice. No power. The game is over."

I laughed when the absurd words reached my ears. He was mad--they all were. Stupid, blind madmen. Did they think that could stop me?

"They've laid a very clear claim on you, which means I can't get the truth out of you on your means of instant travelling between places. But, be it telekinetic abilities or a teleportation device, we'll find out, eventually." Dark brown eyes met mine. "Now, you may go."

Again, I laughed. I laughed at the pitiful predator sitting before me, frustrated at the loss of one he thought his prey. I laughed at this man who thought he held power in his hands. I laughed at the murderous bastard who could envision genocide as a rational solution to terrorism. I laughed at the man whose life I could extinguish with a mere thought.

"Fool," I smiled at him, then turned on my heels, and exited the coffin-like office whose sole decoration had been the United Earth Corps flag and a painting of an anonymous Mediterranean beach.

Fools, all of them.

"Great," I muttered while zipping my pants, "this is just great." I flushed the toilet, then pivoted to face the two guards who followed me everywhere, twenty-four hours a day. No matter what I did--bathe, piss, sleep, eat--they stood a silent vigil over me. At first, I had found the situation hilariously funny, but time had changed my mind for me. It looked like finding a secure place in one of the shuttles doing the Earth-Mars run was even more complicated than when I had come here just a few weeks ago. In the meantime, I was stuck in this small apartment, miles below Mars' surface, a prisoner kept safely away from the light of day--or so they thought. "Nothing like taking a leak to start the day," I told the two men brightly as I walked past them and exited the restroom.

Last night, I had found myself praying to catch a bad case of food poisoning.

Unceremoniously I dropped down into the sofa and exhaled a long suffering sigh, resting my arms horizontally on its top and leaning my head against the concrete wall behind it. Perhaps I should take up drinking. A hangover might disgust my watchers. I chuckled to myself, breaking the deep silence.

Mocking my silly whims.

Mocking my immobility.

They had me cornered--the Corps, Gabriel, and Fate itself. I knew that, and still I hadn't moved. Should I destroy this facility? Vaporize Pavonis Mons? Shatter Olympus Hall itself into crystalline and basalt dust? What would it take to make them stop? I hissed air between my teeth, fed up with my stupid self. Here I was, envisioning ludicrous scenarios one after the other.

Stalling.

I brought my right arm down, and rested it over my stomach. The feeling of nausea there wouldn't go away. There was a distant sensation of cold that came with it, and spread out to enfold my spine. I didn't know when it had started, but it refused to let me go. Closing me eyes, I dragged in a breath, but of course it didn't do any good. Drawing my attention away from my body's meaningless woes, I forced my mind to focus on the situation.

I had come full circle since my landing on Mars. I had arrived here full of righteous certainty and the overwhelming confidence that I knew what right and wrong were in this crimson, dying world. Back on Earth, I had lifted my hand to strike at wretched refugees who had smuggled their way to Athens. I could still feel the rage and contempt that had taken hold of me in that moment.

Moron.

How had I had the gall to pass judgement on living beings whose true predicament I hadn't known anything about? How had I had the reeking arrogance to believe that the Mars civil war was a simple case of black and white like the information networks depicted? Oh, master Atalante would have scorned my idiocy and mediocrity, with good reason.

What I had told Essiah Jacarande was true: the colonists couldn't stop, not while the military had decided to eradicate them in quiet series of cleansing operations which would never hit the news. It was likely she was also correct when she claimed that the Corps couldn't stop either. How could both sides ever consider trusting each other enough to accept a true cease-fire and sit down at a negotiations table? When I tried to put myself in their stead, all I could think of was that it was far too late for that. There had been too many deaths, too many crimes. Those who might have had the strength to set hatred aside were too small. They didn't wield power, and those who did....

Shifting motion.

I blinked, and in the same time as one of my guards strode over to the apartment's door, his left hand loosely set over his gun.

"Yes, I've been cleared to get here and no, I'm no Marsee terrorist," a strained female voice came from the corridor just as what looked like an identification badge was shoved under the guard's nose. The man took a reluctant step back, and Essiah Jacarande briskly entered the place.

"Captain?!" I stared at her.

"I see they really behaved themselves around you," she snorted, coming to stand before me. "Well, I suppose that one can expect small miracles once in a while." While she waved her own words aside, her eyes darted back toward my guards. Then she looked at me. "We need to talk," she said softly.

"Sure," I nodded at her, "but first, how did you get here?" Wasn't she some lowly liaison officer from the public relations' service?

Something flashed in the green eyes, then she shrugged. "I have a few friends in interesting circles. Some owed me a favor."

That was a reasonable enough explanation. After all, there was no real reason to forbid her to see me: she knew what I knew, and besides Omega Intelligence believed they had me checkmate. "And why did you call this favor?" I looked at her, but the emerald gaze didn't falter.

"I needed to thank you," the ghost of a smile touched her lips, "for telling these nice people that I'm an incompetent and inefficient dumbhead."

Fear.

I caught a whiff of it when it swirled past her mental guard, almost perfectly mastered. For a moment, I watched the hands that she had clutched together, their knuckles white, and gave her another nod.

So, I had finally run out of time.

Something that might have been a smile twisted my lips. "Then talk to me, captain," I told her even as I shattered all the listening and viewing devices set everywhere in the apartment and robbed the guards of consciousness with a thought, "but do so quickly."

She didn't react when the sound of the two bodies slumping down to the floor reached her ears--as if she had been expecting it. She fell more than sat down beside me on the sofa. "You saved my hide," she whispered, her eyes distant, "when you belittled me like that in front of Alvarez, but I'm sure you know that." She bit her lower lip. "A shuttle just landed in Pavonis' spaceport. It's leaving before sunset, and they'll have you on it." She gave a shake of her head, then words tumbled from her lips. "They say that you're powerless, that you can't get your voice to be heard, no matter what you do. But even if they were wrong, even if you could outsmart them, it would be futile. By the time you reach Earth, it'll be over." She bowed her head, and stared at the hands she had clasped on her lap, fingers intertwined. "All of it."

I reached out to her. "What do you mean?!" I squeezed her right forearm, hard. "Tell me, captain, you've come too far down the road to back out now." I didn't want to have to tear it out of her.

She shivered. "Don't go," she pleaded in a weak voice, still not looking at me. All of a sudden, horror and desperation overwhelmed her voice. "If there's something, anything you can do, if--" hysterical laughter was coming over her words. She was breaking down. She had held on to her composure until now, but she could no longer do so.

"Steady," I told her gently, willing a veil of calm to enfold her.

It was cold in the room.

"There's an operation in progress. A big one." She looked up at me, her face an expressionless mask. Livid. "In the deep south. Far, far beyond the Rim. Close to the polar cap, in Hellas Planitia. Reports have confirmed the rumor of it being a gigantic settlement where all the refugees converge."

"Take it out," I interrupted her, a feral grin splitting my face, "and you solve a major part of the problem. You burn out the roots."

"There's no stopping it, not from our end, and they--all those people, they don't know. They're going to die. It's so dark," she hugged herself, "so dark that it will devour everything. Them. Us. We're all trapped in this nightmare. We don't have the power to win free, but you," a crooked smile came to her lips, "if you--"

I knew the faint light shining in her eyes.

It was hope, despaired. Dying.

Insane.

She didn't know who I was. She was acting out of sheer desperation, working on instinct alone, and her intuition was sharp. True. The sickness in the pit of my stomach didn't matter. The cold seeping into my bones and filling my spirit didn't matter. "It's ending," I told her even as I stood up. "I promise you."

She had called out to me.

She had asked for my help.

I couldn't deny her.

I couldn't deny myself.

I didn't question her, who and what she was--how she could know things that must be jealously guarded secrets, well out of the reach of the liaison officer she posed as. It was immaterial. She had told me the truth, it was all I needed to know. Now I had to move. Focusing my mind, I searched for a presence.

Nothing.

With a grimace, I spread myself further, but still I didn't manage to touch the wild spark that was Cain. Annoyed, I hissed air between my teeth. It didn't matter. If I couldn't use him to lead me to Hellas Planitia, I'd find another way. A gigantic settlement, she had said.

Cold.

Frozen wastes battered by constant storms.

Lights.

There, tiny, flickering will-o' the-wisps.

So many! I closed my eyes, and reached out. Yes, just at the edge of the desert of dry ice and savage winds. I hadn't been mistaken. Nodding to myself, I turned toward Essiah Jacarande. "Yell," I told her. "Shriek, throw a fist of hysterics, and tell them the truth: that I knocked the guards unconscious without even looking at them, and that I vanished into thin air, as if by magic." Then I reached within, and embraced the stars of my constellation.

As I shifted away from the world, a loud, shrill cry resounded in the corridors of Pavonis Mons base.

I stepped into a chaos of ethereal siren howls.

Air.

I released my breath in a shaking sigh. Well, at least I hadn't materialized in the Martian desert--at least there was still an environmental shield in working order. It wasn't too late. In a slow motion, I pivoted, taking in my surroundings.

Hellas Planitia was an impossibly wide plateau that spread beyond the horizon in every direction. The scope of it, and of the settlement itself was nothing short of incredible. The kind of power required to shield a surface that looked like it was a good hundred of square miles had to be enormous. The colonists must be tapping directly into the planet's core. This was no city. There were patches of green, here and there, vast fields and small groups of houses--villages. It was--

Smoke.

Explosions.

Raising a hand to my brow, I looked to my left, and saw them. Big Marslanders, armed vehicles and troops, slowly spreading out to encircle the whole area while an arrowhead of soldiers was heading straight for a small hill set right at the center of it all.

The shield's engines and power source.

A snarl twisted the lines of my mouth while I focused the tiniest fraction of my awareness that way. There was no mistaking that river of energy flowing up, torn out of Mars' rotting heart. For a moment, I stared at the battlefield being born before my eyes. This was darkness at work--evil. I knew it as I knew my name. I had told Essiah Jacarande there was no walking back from the road she had chosen. So, I smiled to myself, if I was going to shatter Gabriel's precious balance and spawn chaos, if I was going to snatch humanity's Destiny away from it, I might as well go about it in a flashy way.

I need you, soul of mine, I sent through storms and dust, reaching out to a hidden cave, deep below Mars' mountains.

In the unending dark, stars exploded into being, beautiful and blinding.

Within the time of a heartbeat, they winked out of existence--and in again, as they rushed at me and assembled themselves on my body. I flexed my fingers and focused inwards, drinking in the torrent of power flowing through me. Then, I willed myself to the heart of things.

The hill leading up to the shield's power source was rigged with traps, yet another evidence of a knowledge of guerilla warfare. There was no colonist around, but I could feel people walled within the plant itself, as well as hidden among the rocks below me. They hadn't detected my intrusion, which was just as well. In front of me, United Earth Corps' special forces were streaming forth like a river in spate. Good. I sparked my cosmo.

Breeze.

Out of nowhere, it came and enfolded me.

Crimson red butterfly.

The unmistakable perfume of roses.

Eyes wide, I stared at the petals borne by the unreal breeze, and held out a hand toward them in a slow, sluggish motion.

Wind.

Firestorm.

Cosmo exploded behind me, raw and violent, even as the petals dissolved into nothingness. Gold. Gold, the enemy who chose to reveal himself, the enemy who had managed to dissimulate his presence from me. Instinct took over, and I pivoted to face the threat, invoking, "Crystal Wall!" The Wall rose just in time to block a horribly strong attack that would have killed me and blown the whole hill to smithereens.

A shadow, half-hidden by the dust and the ripples of light on my Wall.

Gold and white unfurling.

My heart skipped a beat. Tall and arrogant, with locks of grey hair winning out of a two-faced helmet that otherwise masked his face almost completely. Gemini. I clenched my teeth, refusing the ice freezing my veins. Refusing the trembling in my legs. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered but my promise to Essiah Jacarande. Past, present, friendship, alliances, trust, betrayal and oath, and things without name--they all were meaningless. When my enemy lifted up his head, I didn't look at him. I knew there wouldn't be anything to find in the amber eyes but the cold determination to take me down. There was nothing else he could do.

Spark.

Fire behind me, as strong as the one burning before me. So.

"Bloody Rose!" Even as Shiva's voice rang in the air, I shifted back and turned toward him. Reaching up, I held out my left hand, palm first, and allowed the pure white rose to pierce it through despite the Cloth's protection.

Blocking it.

Allowing it to drink my blood, just enough to fool it while I gathered my power and closed my wounded hand over it, crushing the beautiful, already reddening flower and willing it *away*.

In my back, the universe shattered.

Going along with the nightmare, I reached out to the Fire waiting in my heart, and dropped the Crystal Wall while pivoting to confront the threat.

There was no thought in my mind.

No feeling.

No emotion.

Just the primitive, animal drive to survive.

"Starlight Extinction!" I cast, and opened up a hole in the fabric of reality--an abyss of blackness.

A gaping maw that bridged the cursed void between this plane and the realm of the dead.

Crack.

Tearing pain.

A violent storm of light exploded around me, even as something pulled at me--tore at me, cutting me from my own self--the Cloth!

In the blink of an eye, the Gold Cloth of Aries detached itself from me.

Abandoned me.

Judged me.

Condemned me.

A cry escaped through my lips in the same time as the Gemini Saint's attack struck. In a desperate reflex, I teleported myself a few meters a few steps away. The ground beside me exploded, but I didn't hear it. I didn't feel it. There were only two things in the world: the drowning sound of my heart hammering inside my chest, and an excruciating sensation of loss.

Of betrayal.

My Cloth had left me. She had judged me unworthy of her in the instant I had turned against one of my order--one who had deceived me on so many layers that I refused to envision it.

He was dead.

Just as I was.

Just as Mars was.

We were ghosts, absurd and mad. Puppets dancing on the edges of their strings. I laughed through the pain. I mocked fate and despair. Around me, the cloud of dust raised by the explosion was clearing. Neither he, nor I existed. The only thing that did was the war unfolding at out feet.

I had sworn I'd stop it.

I would.

My jaw set, I ripped power out of my constellation. I gathered Fire in my hands and willed it to grow and grow again. I couldn't win against two of my peers, against--enough!

YOU. WILL. STOP! I shoved the thought inside human minds. I hammered it in their brains. I pursued those who futilely tried to flee. I chased them to the deepest, most hidden refuges of their wretched souls, and slammed the words there, branded them all with them. Thousands of human minds recoiled in terror, cried out when I struck, but I didn't grant them any mercy. In the same time, I looked at the column of vehicles coming for the hill.

They had paused in their advance.

They had seen the explosions.

They were wondering.

Well, let them wonder no longer. Focused on every single life crawling at my feet, I released the Fire I had gathered in my hands. "Stardust Revolution!" I called out to the most terrible attack the Aries Gold Saint could use.

"N-O-O-O-O!"

Even as Cain's desperate shout echoed, small lights winked out, all at once.

Then thousands of vehicles shattered like fragile toys, and blew into flames and dust.

And the lights winked in again, just when my enemy struck.

I screamed when the burning light tore apart the pitiful twig that I was. I cried out as broken worlds and a whirlwind of stars rushed at me and smashed me down. Struck.

Struck, and struck again.

And again.

Slowly I fell to the ground, like a marionette whose strings were cut off. It hurt. My head hit the rock, and my hair spread in the dust. It hurt. Above me, Mars' sky was red as blood. Beneath me, its ancient heart faltered, tied to mine--mine tied to it.

"Fool!" The voice rippled all around me, twinned to approaching footsteps that vibrated through my body. Power was scorching the air, savage.

Primal.

"You had to kill them!" Yes. A painful smile came to my lips, unbidden, as I tasted the raw fury and grief poisoning the air. "Poor misguided fool!" he hissed as he stopped beside me.

Beyond anger.

Beyond contempt.

Cain's amber eyes were cold and empty when he looked down on me. His helmet had been torn away by Starlight Extinction, and the attack had opened wide cracks in the proud Gemini Gold Cloth. I felt power crackling the air as light came to his right hand. His gaze didn't waver or change as he rained blows down on me. I didn't try to evade the wild attacks, I didn't try to flee.

I looked at Mars' blood red sky.

I cried out when bones broke within.

When ribs shattered and pierced through a lung.

I was already dead.

Let him strike at the corpse that I was as much as he needed to.

Let my blood quench the tiniest fraction of Mars' thirst.

Absurdly the sensation of dust grating against my left cheek reached my brain through the storm of pain when my head rolled to the side. I wished I could laugh.

"Enough, Gemini!"

All of a sudden, the blows stopped. "He didn't kill them! Fuck you! How could you let him fool you?!" Two bright suns were burning beside me. Touching. "How could you think one of us would turn upon human beings?!" Full of wrath and sorrow.

Of fear.

At the foot of the hill, the small lights that I had preserved from the flames were standing up in hesitant motions from the pitiful remains of their vehicles, bewildered.

Slowly emerging from the shadow of Death's hand.

I felt more them more than I saw them, and smiled. It was over. Now I could rest, and let go of the pain raking through my body.

Grey strands.

A face filled my field of vision, its yellow eyes set on me. I looked back at him without seeing him. Breathing hurt--tore at me. I could feel blood leaking within. Cain reached out to me, and I let him. I couldn't move, anyway. I was dying.

I had won.

"Damn you, Cendre," he whispered, his voice thick with things nameless and dark--emotions I didn't want to know or feel. The palm of his hand covered my eyes, blindfolding me.

Sounds enveloped me then, liquid black. Cain's voice enfolded my soul and smothered it. Night rushed at me, endless and terrifying.

And the pain went away, one with my heart.

End of chapter 5.

On to the Next Part

Back to the Previous Part

Back to my Fanfic page.