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Thieves of Light Chapter 12.A Saint Seiya fanfiction by Ariane Kovacevic, AKA Fuu-chan. Chaos. While he was evading a furious attack, Lune whirled around, cosmo blazing, and opened the Gates between dimensions. Around him, the three angels who had thought to encircle him and corner him against the high walls of Athena's temple disappeared in the blink of an eye, swallowed by the infinite void between realities. Skidding to a halt, the redhead allowed himself a fraction of a second to take a quick glance at the situation around him and then called forth his power to confront a new wave of enemies. They had come to the Sanctuary with the first lights of dawn. They had descended from the sky in hordes of shining stars, and they had swept upon the Sacred Domain without warning or anything like a war declaration...or even an offer of surrender. Just as Lune had feared, the Heavenly host had reacted to the human intrusion in its own Realms by launching an all-out attack against the earth. There was no counting them, they kept coming in waves of glittering death, as if there was no end to them. They're like a myriad of locusts swarming the land and laying it waste, the redhead thought with an unpleasant grin on his face while bringing down his incandescent blade on yet another opponent. Thanks to some nameless god, the angels seemed to be concentrating all their efforts on the Sanctuary. Lune had managed to get some reports from sentries watching the great megalopolis of Athens, and everything was calm there. May it remain so, the redhead sent a fervent prayer to whimsical Fate, for if they truly turn their gaze towards the world, mankind will be obliterated from the face of the earth...and there won't be a single thing we can do about it. The Sanctuary was overwhelmed; all of Lune's worst fears had come true. The enemy's numbers were so great that it had been impossible to contain them and hold them on the Sacred Domain's lower levels. The angels had won through the Great Stairs within minutes, sacrificing scores of their companions to keep the great Lords of Hell busy, and they had come upon Merle and Lune. It was all the two Gold Saints could do to fight for their lives and not to be crushed under the impossible pressure of their foe. They were giving all they had, but still some of the angels had won past them to bring the battle inside the temple of Athena itself. This is a pessimist's worst nightmare come true. Lune lunged to his left in an instinctive reflex to avoid what looked like a spear made of pure light, but he wasn't fast enough. His emerald eyes widened when pain abruptly filled his being, blinding him for the time of a heartbeat. "Lune!" The shrill cry tore through the curtain of darkness which was closing around the redhead. With a desperate effort of will, Lune opened his eyes to see Merle fighting a fierce battle right above him, his friend's feet dancing on either side of his body while he was evading attacks or countering them. He's gonna crush me if this goes on for a moment longer. The absurd thought summoned an ironic smile to Lune's lips. It would be such an undignified way to die in what had to be the greatest war since the day the temple of Athena had risen from the lands of Greece! Turning his gaze inwards, the redhead quickly assessed the damage to find that his Cloth had taken the worst of it. There were several broken ribs because of the pressure the formidable blows had caused, but none had pierced through a lung. Thank the Goddess for small mercies. Gathering his strength, Lune rolled to the side in perfect harmony with Merle's movements, and then he came up beside his friend. "Cover for me, I just need a few seconds!" Merle suddenly hissed, and Lune gave his friend a sharp nod as he flung himself at the enemy. While he was chopping angelic limbs and hacking at their foe with a grim light in his eyes, doing the grisly job of a butcher, the redhead felt power rising in the air. The golden light of Merle's cosmo abruptly shone so bright that it lit the scene of death and blood, painting strange, terrible plays of light and shade over the piles of corpses below, dreadful ghosts which sent shivers down Lune's spine. Instinct wanted him to close his eyes so that he wouldn't have to witness the horrible spectacle any longer, but he harshly got a grip over himself and continued his inhuman task of killing. A blinding ray of light was the only thing which registered in Lune's brain when the arrow of Sagittarius flashed past him. The sacred arrow of Justice flew true and struck the great angel who seemed to be leading the assault. The enemy went down, his eyes empty, and all of a sudden everything froze around the two Gold Saints. "Lord Hanael!" The cry of grief filled the Sanctuary, as if it had come from the throats of a myriad of angels in the same time. Lune staggered backwards, struck by the beauty and intensity of it. The words were sorrow and music at once, a song which won through any shield to wrench the heart. Just as the redhead managed to control the painful lump in his throat, focusing on anger at his own absurd reaction, chaos rushed back to claim the Sanctuary in a furious storm of vengeance. "I think you got their general," Lune said between two attacks, panting. "Maybe", Merle replied, too busy to look at his friend and see the feral smile on the redhead's lips, "but it sure didn't stop them for long. We can't hold on like this for hours," the young man said between clenched teeth, "in the end our bodies will give in." "I know," was Lune's grim comment while the redhead summoned the Gates between realities once more. Yes, they would eventually be defeated, be it because they'd be burnt out by their relentless use of cosmo, or because the enemy would take advantage of a lapse in their defense when their bodies would fully start feeling the terrible strain of battle. Cosmo was eternal, that was true, but there were limits to the human body's resistance. The two young men knew that they would reach theirs at some point; nothing could prevent that from happening. No, nothing could prevent the inevitable as long as the Heavenly Host kept hammering at the Sanctuary's defenses in endless tides of war. The incandescent blade flickered in Lune's right hand, and for a frightening moment weariness troubled his vision. Concentrating on anger, the redhead fought back the inhuman exhaustion which wanted to drag him down. Not yet, he thought, only half-coherent, not yet, please. I just need a little bit more time. From very far away, he felt his left hand move and grasp the sharp edge of the incandescent blade. Just a little bit more. Pain disturbed the veil of oblivion, and Lune focused on it, desperately so. It burns. At last, he managed to will his eyes to see and instinctively he parried a nasty blow which had been aiming at his right thigh. Beside him, Merle was still fighting as well, the other's movements sluggish, as if he was swimming against the current in a great river. "Is there no end to them?" Lune asked in an almost inaudible whisper while he positioned himself to confront yet another enemy. It wasn't that the angels were all incredibly powerful, most of them were on par with the Gold Saints and only higher ranking celestial beings were beyond them; it was the sheer numbers of them. Even if the eighty-eight Saints of Athena were all gathered in the Sanctuary, there's be no stopping these hordes. The grim thought echoed in the redhead's mind while he tried to steady the frantic beatings of his heart. Every time he was taking air into his lungs, it felt as if he was feeding a devouring fire within. Lune barely heard the sickening thud as the lifeless body of an angel toppled over the Great Stairs' edge, falling backwards to join the growing pile of corpses below. Already, two angels had come to replace their fallen comrade. This time, it's the end. It's really over. With that thought, the redhead's lips curled up in a defiant snarl which bared his teeth, and he flung himself at the enemy. The incandescent blade never reached its target. Just as the sword of fire was about to strike down its opponent, the angel who had lifted a sword of his own in a desperate attempt to parry Lune's deadly blow vanished. The redhead staggered and lost his balance, falling to his knees. Reflexively, he closed his eyes and waited for death to strike, seeing in his mind's eye how the weapon of the angel's companion would slide through an unguarded spot in his Cloth and find its way to his heart. It never came. Eventually, Lune opened his eyes again and listened to his own labored breathing. A deep silence had engulfed the whole Sanctuary, as if Time had stayed its hand in the instant when the Gold Saint's life was about to end. All around the redhead, it was the same horrible scenes of carnage. We turned the Sanctuary into a slaughterhouse, Lune thought dimly. "They're gone!" Merle's dumbfounded whisper intruded in Lune's somber thoughts, and the redhead willed himself to stand up and turn towards his friend. For some reason, the cursed Gold Cloth on Lune's back had decided its weight would be measured in tons. Clenching his jaws in effort, the redhead eventually managed to get up from the ground and to face the temple of Athena. Merle was alive, battered and wounded, but the fool was alive. Laughter bubbled up Lune's throat while tears suddenly burnt his eyes. Behind his friend, a familiar silhouette exited the great temple of marble and ran towards them despite what looked like a bad limp. "You're alive!" Ophiuchus Shaina exclaimed, unable to completely hide the trembling in her voice. Quickly, she scanned their surroundings and added, "No enemy here either. Looks like they're really gone. The question is why." Lune sighed and waved the young woman's words away. It was too early to stop and wonder. Steeling himself against the answer he knew the female Saint was bound to give, he asked, "The casualties on our side?" The blind mask slowly came up to face him, and eventually Ophiuchus Shaina replied in a very quiet voice, "Too many, Lune. Far too many. It will take us a full generation to rebuild our strength." The redhead who had been given the terrible task of leading the Sanctuary's forces refused to bow his head. There was a strange emptiness in his heart, as if he couldn't really come to grips with the absurd reality the words had painted for him. Now is not the time for mourning, he thought. Not yet. No matter how he wished they could all turn to care for their wounded and rest, Lune knew that it wasn't, that it *couldn't* be over yet. Not so easily. Not while a dark threat was hovering above the Sanctuary like a Damocles sword. "Look out!" Ophiuchus Shaina's horrified hiss was all the warning they had. Behind Lune, a great Shadow rose. A smile full of bitter irony came to the redhead's lips when the enemy that they had allowed inside their walls turned upon them like a dark storm of winter. "Now we finish our discussion, Gemini!" Assiel's triumphant words went unheard as Lune denied pain and exhaustion to once again summon the flames of his cosmo. Then a mantle of darkness came over the Sanctuary of the Goddess Athena. Gabriel lifted his right hand horizontally, giving us the silent order to stay put while he and Uriel stepped to the fore of our group and confronted the score of Wardens who had come to stop us. When we had come out of the path of Light, we had found ourselves in the shadows of one of Qodech Qodachim's Gates. It had been thanks to the two archangels' presences that we had managed to come within the Holiest of Holy Places, if only barely. The barrier erected to protect the sacred Hall against us would have cast us miles away from it otherwise. "Lord Uriel," one of the Wardens said in a blanched voice, "we were warned, but none of us wanted to believe that you had turned against us." "Hush," another said gently, coming to confront us. He was taller than the others and there was an unmistakable feeling of power exuding from him. "Gabriel, Uriel," he said, his clear gaze calmly taking in the two archangels, "Lord Metatron told me you would come to Qodech Qodachim with the Shadow following in your steps. In the privacy of my own rooms, I called him a timid fool and a paranoid liar, but I see I was mistaken." There was a smile of bitter sorrow on the angel's lips. "I can hardly deny the truth we set before your eyes, can I, Cassiel?" Uriel sighed. "Yes, we came with darkness in our wake, but only in the mad hope of saving Heaven, of protecting our world of Beriyah." A murmur of incomprehension, fear and anger mixed together swayed the small crowd of Wardens like a sudden breeze. "I hear you," the angel named Cassiel said while he lifted a hand to quiet his men, "but your words don't make sense. Do you mean to tell me that the great Lords of Hell I see standing behind you do not come as enemies? Do you mean to tell me I should allow Evil to touch the heart of all that is sacred without lifting a finger to oppose it?" The sad challenge echoed in the shadows of the Hall's Gate, and Uriel waited until it had faded into silence before locking his russet gold eyes with the angel's. Quietly, he said, "I mean no more than what I told you, and no less. Neither Gabriel nor I brought any of our own Wardens with us, because we do not come to wage war against you. We have come," the dark archangel of death said in a solemn voice, "to oppose a Will which would see us lose all that we are, all that defines us. We don't ask you to understand or forgive," Uriel bowed his proud head while he took a deep breath. Then he confronted the Wardens once more, adding in a carefully neutral voice, "What we ask for is trust, Cassiel. Trust that we love Beriyah as much as you, trust that we love our own more than our lives. Trust," the archangel smiled, "that we didn't make our decision lightly. If we are cursed for all eternity, so be it. If we must be judged and Fall when all is done, so be it. Trust us, Cassiel, please." The Wardens' leader sustained Uriel's gaze in silence for a long time, but the archangel refused to look away. In the end it was Cassiel who bowed his head and let out a joyless chuckle. "You ask for the impossible. Yet I can feel your love for Heaven, the Fire burns true in your heart." Slowly, Cassiel unsheathed his sword. "I can't even begin to imagine what pushed you to make the choices you have made, and I don't want to. You must be insane," the angel added softly, "but can we be anything less?" With a slow, deliberate motion of his hand, Cassiel rested the tip of his blade against the Hall's floor. "Will you come with me to Lord Metatron and repeat to him what you told me?" "If we go with you, our companions will continue on their way towards the heart of Qodech Qodachim, and they'll fight to reach their goal if they have to," Gabriel intervened, his voice low and intent. "Moreover, Metatron won't heed us, he'll refuse to listen as he always has. If you lead us to him, he'll view you as traitors like us in the confrontation that must ensue. You must be aware of all this, Cassiel. What you propose is madness, you'll forfeit your life and that of your Wardens!" If the archangel's words reached the tall angel, he didn't show it. The eerily serene light in Cassiel's blue eyes kept burning steadily while he repeated in the same quiet voice, "Will you come with me?" Gabriel bowed his head then, and something which might have been sorrow and pride seeped into his voice as he replied, "Yes, we'll follow you." I bowed my head as well in the deep silence which followed the archangel's sad words, for I thought I understood what had just happened at the Gate of the last Celestial Hall. Cassiel's reason for being was to defend this place against Evil. To step away from that duty was something so outrageous he couldn't envision the possibility. Just now, he had been faced with the very threat that had shaped his essence: Evil had come to Qodech Qodachim...but with it had come two of the greatest among the Heavenly Host. Contrary to what he had claimed, Cassiel had heard the desperate plea in Uriel's words. Cassiel had listened, and he trusted the two archangels, despite his Lord's warnings of treason. The situation he had been thrown into was an impossible one: he couldn't let us pass, no matter what, and he didn't want to fight the archangels. Entangled in reality without the slightest hope of winning free of its invisible web, the angel had found an unexpected, insane way out. Deliberately discarding us, he'd bring the two archangels before his Lord so they could argue their case, fully aware that this would bring about his downfall. "Lady Athena, our ways part here, on the threshold of the holiest of Holy Places." Gabriel's quiet whisper broke through the silence and brought me back to the reality of here and now. His grey eyes set on Saori-san, the archangel said in deadly earnest, "Now comes the moment of truth, when the strength of your word is really tested. The marks upon your friend's wings are still there. If need be, I'll use them and strike you down. Remember this," he concluded grimly. Both Gabriel and Uriel stepped towards the Wardens who turned to lead them away inside the seventh Celestial Hall. In the moments that followed we found ourselves alone in the shadows of the great entry gate. The way before us was free. Rousing herself from the surprise of recent events, Saori-san stepped forward, saying briskly, "Quickly, let's go before Cassiel's Lord moves to stop us and turns his sacrifice into a useless waste." "Will they die, then?" Shiryu asked as he moved to follow Saori-san. "Some of them will, at least," Belial answered with a nasty grin on his face. "Even though he's a fool, Metatron holds a power that is superior to Michael's. He's the Chancellor of Heaven, and he won't go down easily. So much the better for us if Gabriel and Uriel are the ones to confront him." "He'll have kept a close guard around him," Lucifer added quietly, "and not the smallest ones I'd wager. The battle in Qodech Qodachim will be an ugly one." Silence followed that grim statement, and we hurried towards our destination. Soon we came in view of great double doors exactly like all those we had seen in the other Celestial Halls. Like them too, this one yielded when Julian Solo and Saori-san pushed it open. As it had six times before, Light rushed at us and blinded us for a moment. Once our sight had adapted to the violent luminosity, we stepped into the room at the heart of Qodech Qodachim. Where the Light of Infinity waited. "It may take some time; we may even never step away from it and be swept away by the power flowing down the Realms," Saori-san said softly as we stood before the pillar of Light. "Beyond this place lies Atsilouth and the source of the En Sof. We dare not go closer to it. The only way for us is to seal it here, to sever the four Worlds from the Light which gave birth to them, to free ourselves from it and be safely shielded from its alien whims," she concluded in a low whisper. "We'll stand guard here," Seiya nodded, strangely calm. "nothing will disturb you, be it Shadow or Light." Belial laughed at that, and a frightening grin split Sammael's face. "The Light won't let you act, it will fight you," Lucifer stepped to the edge of the room, right above the abyss down which the savage torrent of Fire kept falling endlessly. "It will try to regain what you stole from it, ages ago. You may need power to back you, and I offer mine freely. We have an old score to settle, the Will and I," the Fallen Angel finished softly. Uncertainty flashed into Saori-san's purple eyes, but she mastered herself quickly and nodded at the Lord of Hell in consent. Then turning towards us, she asked, "It's time. Shun, will you come? We'll need you." Inwardly, I laughed at the cold her question sparked inside me. It was as if a part of me had managed to hide away from the truth all this time and was only now forced to confront it. With a slow, silent nod I joined the Goddess Athena's side in the same time that Julian Solo did. "It will be like old times, when the world was young and we idealistic fools who decided to take upon God Himself," the host of Poseidon grinned at me. "My brother was much like you then," he went on, and sad wistfulness seeped into his voice when he said, "it will be good to feel the Fire of his heart again. If we can make it, there will be peace. It was what he'd have wanted." I looked away from Poseidon, unable to sustain the hawk-like gaze for more than a moment. I'm not him, I've never been! A part of me cried. I'm sorry, I wish I could remember and bring him back to you, if only for a little time, another mourned quietly. "Let's do it." Saori-san's soft whisper put an end to the schizophrenic voices inside me and I unsheathed the sword of Hades. I watched the young woman lift the Scepter of Nike and point it towards the pillar of Light, unmoving. Then, Poseidon lifted the points of the great Trident and did the same. Behind us, I could still feel the presence of Lucifer like a cold, alien Shadow. Memories came with the sensation, ghosts which were never far from my consciousness, but I bade them go away. I know, I told the terrible images, I remember. Calling to the Fire in my heart, I directed the great blade towards the Light. Fire engulfed me, impossibly strong winds of flames which pulled at my soul with raw, alien violence. From very far away, I felt my body moving, as if of its own volition. Stepping towards the abyss. No, I said sternly, shutting myself to the pain that the Fire's terrible burns had marked my spirit with. No, I repeated, holding on to the world with desperate strength. No! For what felt like an eternity, I held on to the world beneath my feet, I held on to the memory of stones and earth, of sea and sky. Of friends and loved ones. Of hatred. We're here. An ethereal voice glided past me, parting the Light's high flames somewhat. Saori-san! I responded in kind. Reach out to us, Shun, quickly! We can't hold on alone, we must be together! The urgency in her shook me like a gale in winter, and frantically I searched for a sign of her or Julian Solo. For a sickening moment, all I could feel were devouring flames eating at my soul, and then all of a sudden they were right beside me. One, Julian Solo silently said. A single, vibrant note of music filled the universe, eclipsing the furious roaring sound of the Fire as Scepter, Trident and Sword came together. I knew what I must do in a flash of revelation which sent jumbled images and chaotic memories tumbling down my being. Hades had known, and both his blade and his Fire, his heart, remembered. It was instinct, only half-understood but undeniable. Come, I commanded gently. Eager, the Fire leapt from my heart and again coiled up to the great sword, fusing its essence with it. Fusing my essence with the blade. More, I willed the joyful flames, all of you. Incomprehension sparked in them, reluctance as they wavered. Go, I bade them softly, smiling at them. I had feared them before, I had almost hated them, but now I could feel tears in my eyes when the Fire embraced me with alien gentleness. Then it was gone, pulled away from me and one with the blade that I was holding. Even as emptiness claimed me, I gave a last, desperate command. Then I was no more. I died, and Time was still. An eternity later, the essence of change was released, just as a great Gate was forever closed, and I mentally cried out as I was reborn and as the Fire rushed back towards me. Us. Mad echoes resounded inside me. You. Meaningless sounds. We...I. Awareness returned in a great tide of flames, and at the other end of the universe I felt the ghost of a movement-to-be when my body sent the clear signal that it could no longer withstand the agony I was forcing it through. Within a few seconds, I would collapse to the floor and lose consciousness. I remember. Even as the thought came to life in my brain, a beautiful black pearl rose from the Fire of my heart, its ebony perfection a cold, frightening one. I reached out to it, there was nothing else to do, and I let its inhuman ice fill my being. There was no other way to deny oblivion. None. Using its awful strength, I forced myself to come back to my body just as it was staggering backwards. There was a Shadow behind us, patiently waiting. Waiting for the moment when its time would come. Now. On instinct, I used the impetus given me by the movement as my body lost its balance, and I pushed on my left heel, pivoting in the same time. Then I flung myself forward. Before anyone could react, I reached out to Lucifer and I violently pulled the Fallen Angels against me, his back to my chest and my left arm wrapped around him. In the same movement, my right hand came up and I rested the sharp edge of Hades' blade against the throat of Lord of Hell. The only sound that could be heard in the stunned silence which had followed my desperate action was that of my own ragged breathing. Pain was ravaging my body, a parting gift from the En Sof as well as the fair price to pay for the insane thing that we had done. "Shun?!" The horrified whisper which eventually broke the silence was both Seiya's and Saori-san's. Unheeding of them, I told Lucifer in a strained voice, "It's over now, isn't it? And our alliance as well." I clenched my teeth, denying the pain and calling out to the high flames within. My body was at the end of its strength, but there was no end to the Fire and the blade I was holding against the Fallen Angel's throat was steady. "Call them back," I told him, "Call them all back, all those who slipped into Heaven unseen, waiting for your signal, all those we allowed into the Sanctuary. Call them all back and leave our worlds. Return to the place where you belong. Hades is no more, his realm I happily give back to you." "And if I refuse?" Lucifer asked quietly, holding very still. "You can certainly kill me, but you can't hope to stop all the demons of Hell. They'll lay your beloved world to ruins." "No," I replied, and I closed my eyes for the time of a heartbeat, refusing to think, refusing to contemplate the horror of what I was about to do. Despite all my efforts to keep a stern control over my emotions, my voice shook when I told him, "I have you and we both know it. If I kill you now, they all die with you. You're their source of life, the great mantle which shelters them all. Go back," I repeated, trying in vain to deny the tears in my eyes. It was a terrible thing, what I was doing, but I couldn't let myself dwell on the horrible act of betrayal I was committing. The knowledge in my soul was Hades', the memories gleaned in the chaos which had engulfed me upon sealing away the En Sof. It was knowledge stolen in a time when Lucifer and Hades had walked the plains of Hell together. I couldn't hesitate, I couldn't stop, I could no longer be true to the principles which had defined me and led me during my whole life. I could only damn myself. Taking a deep breath, I concluded in a hollow voice, "Go back into the darkness and live, or die, now and forever." Lucifer's body shook against me as he laughed, an alien sound of mad grief. "Is it to happen again?" He asked in a barely audible whisper, "Are you going to repeat the tragedy of the past and curse yourself like Hades did? Will you crush your heart and abandon all that defines you?" For a moment, tears blinded me, but Lucifer didn't move, didn't try to free himself from my hold. "You...." I shook my head, unable to go on. What was roving in my mind was a furious storm of hatred and grief, sorrow and shame and things which had no name...*couldn't* be named. "Go, please," I whispered. Everything was mixed up inside my heart: memories of the Fallen Angel sacrificing himself to save me and Ikki-niisan, the feeling of his terrible pain while his wings were being shredded like lace by Michael's swords of light, the feeling of the eternal grief haunting him, memories of his inhuman cruelty, of the sensation of his wings protectively embracing me...memories of the instinctive emotions his presence kept sparking to life in my soul, inexplicable and yet stronger than anything I had known, undeniable.... It was all whirling within, dancing a mad dance of flashes and sounds, relentlessly assaulting my spirit. There was no controlling the insane maelstrom, there was no keeping away from it. I could only yield and lose myself in the raging waters of my heart. Slowly, I bowed my head and words came up my throat, unbidden, while tears started streaming down my cheeks. "I...." I rested my brow against his nape and closed my eyes tightly shut, willing the words to stop and failing. Sounds spilled from my lips, undeniable. "I love you." Absurd and dissonant, those three words shattered the mirror of my soul. No! An angry, furious voice howled within. Hate! It screamed. Hate you, hate, hate, hate, hate! I bit my lower lip until I tasted blood in my mouth, in a vain attempt to stop the insane storm of emotions from tearing me apart. Hate! The voice insisted within, piercing through my soul. Hate, hate, hate, hate...love.... It wailed, lost beyond any hope of ever finding itself again. Mad. Against me, Lucifer had abruptly tensed. There was an eerie moment of absolute stillness in the room, then the Prince of Demons slowly tilted his head backwards, offering his throat to the cold metal of my blade, and his beautiful black hair fell around the sides of my face like precious curtains of silk which sheltered me away from reality. "Aye," he whispered, and then was gone. I fell to my knees, in a slow motion, and the sword of Hades clanged loudly when it hit the floor, a ringing sound which echoed in the heart of Qodech Qodachim. Before me, the other two Fallen Angels had vanished as well, but I didn't see it. They had gone in the instant their Lord had left the luminous worlds of Heaven to return to the darkness that was the realm of Hades. The darkness I had condemned him to. Head bowed, I stared at my hands and wept. "You made a true miracle happen," Gabriel was saying softly. We were all standing in the heart of Livnat Hasapir, the first Celestial Hall. From here, we would be able to find the way to our own world, or so the archangel had claimed. The pillar of Light was still there, a bridge between all the Halls of Beriyah and beyond that, a path linking all the Realms together. The Light's intensity had dimmed to become almost bearable to human eyes. No longer was it fueled by the En Sof, we had separated it from its source forever. The Light was cascading down from a transparent pool in Atsilouth to ultimately reach the world of men. And perhaps, just perhaps.... A voice whispered, infinitely distant, going silent before finishing its sentence, afraid. Afraid that finishing it would make it true, afraid that finishing it would undo a fragile, impossible hope. Looking up at the Light, I wished its radiance would fill me and burn, burn so high that all my memories would be turned to ashes. So high that my heart would become cinders...but of course the Light continued its course down towards the other Realms, unaware and uncaring of the poor fool standing before it. It was truly a miracle, as Gabriel had said. The Light should have run out, now that it was cut from its source. It should have faded, plunging the beautiful worlds of Heaven into eternal darkness, a terrible night that nothing could ever lift. But instead, it kept cascading down the Realms, fed by the prayers and beliefs of mankind. The Light which reached Assiah was sent back up to Heaven through human faiths and dreams. There was a balance there which I should have found beautiful, but all I could do was to focus on emptiness. So I wouldn't remember. So I wouldn't feel. "We're indebted to you in a way nothing can ever repay," Gabriel continued, bowing low before us. "There's no debt, Lord Gabriel, you made all this possible. I only regret that lives were lost during this battle," Saori-san replied, a sad smile on her lips. "War is war," the archangel whispered, his voice filled with sorrow and sadness, deep as an ocean's heart. "You had no choice. In Qodech Qodachim, we had no choice either. If Metatron hadn't gone mad, extinguishing his own life when he felt you sealing away the En Sof...." Gabriel let his voice trail off into silence, waving his grim words away, and then he forced a smile to his lips as he added, "Cassiel will heal. It'll take a lot of time, but eventually he will be whole again." "That's good to hear," Seiya said suddenly. "It was brave, what he did in the seventh Celestial Hall. It must have been hard beyond what I can imagine," he continued in an uncharacteristically subdued voice, "I'm not sure I'd have been strong enough to make such a choice," the Pegasus Saint finished in a soft whisper. "Yes, it was hard beyond belief, but no harder than what you all did," the archangel retorted gently. Wordlessly, Seiya shook his head, and I saw Shiryu reach out to him and squeeze his arms in a gesture of understanding. It was one thing to fight and even lay down your life for something you believed in, or to save those that you loved. To turn against everything you had had faith in, to question all that you had stood for and to fight to bring down those who had defined your life was something else altogether. It required a strength of mind and heart way beyond that of simple fighters dedicated to a cause, no matter how noble and just. We had never truly been placed in such a terrible situation. Our path had always been clear from the moment when we had felt Saori-san reveal herself as the Goddess Athena. "There's only one thing I'd ask of you, Lord Gabriel," Saori-san said suddenly. "The Veil," the archangel nodded, a hint of regrets seeping into his voice. "I understand. We'll let it rise again so that the world of men and the realms of Heaven can never come into direct contact again, so that we'll all be protected from each other in case folly would one day again prevail over reason, be it here or there." Yes, it's a wise thing, I distantly thought. In front of me, my companions were getting ready to go and return to the place where we belonged. I looked at them, and a part of me found all this strange. Why go back? And go back to what? There's nothing left, the thought filled my mind, mercilessly clear, nothing left for me. I should have died in Qodech Qodachim. "No," a voice said quietly, as if in answer to my thoughts. All of a sudden, a somber angel materialized next to me, and alien russet gold eyes locked on mine, forbidding me to look away. "It was a harsh choice you made," Uriel told me, "the harshest of all, but you were right." I know that! The anguished cry resounded within and I tried to free my gaze from the archangel's, to find that I couldn't. Uriel wouldn't let me. I knew I had had no alternative. I had known that Lucifer would turn on us in the instant that we freed ourselves from the Light. There had been no other thing to do but to act before he did. To betray him in the most terrible of ways, a harsh voice said within, its echoes sharp thorns which tore at what was left of my heart. "What I saw when I decided to let you live," Uriel continued, as if he was unaware of the spiral of pain and despair his words had sparked to life anew within me, "I still see now in the Fire of your heart. I am Death and Salvation both," he said softly, "we share those aspects you and I, even if you cannot see it. In the time of the Fall," the archangel's voice reduced to an almost inaudible whisper when he said, an unreadable light flickering in his eyes, "he wouldn't have chosen the way he did." With that, Uriel stepped away and released me. I stared at his retreating back, my mind empty. His words were meaningless sounds which hadn't registered, couldn't register in my brain. When he joined Gabriel's side, Saori-san turned towards us and said, her eyes shining with a mixture of joy and sorrow: "Minna...kaerimashou, watashitachi no sekai e...." Stench. It was everywhere, even in this room inside the temple of Athena, as if the revolting perception could win through walls of marbles, pushed by a strong wind coming from the sea, lingering in the stones and haunting the halls even though the wind itself was gone, afraid to remain here a moment longer than it had to. With dark fascination, I watched through the great window, I stared into the tainted night, while Lune was telling the terrible story of the war that had struck the Sanctuary during our absence. "Oh no," Saori-san staggered backwards, as if the redhead's recounting of recent events had physically struck her. "It's not true, is it?" Turning ever so slightly from my observation post, I looked at the young woman and saw that the always so clear purple eyes were brimming with tears. "It is," Lune replied, his voice toneless. He was standing with his back so tense that it seemed he might break in the next moment. The hands at his sides were closed into tight fists, their knuckles white. "Half of the Sanctuary's forces has been obliterated. The rest of us are wounded for the most part. I had thought everything prepared for the coming of the Heavenly Host, but when they descended from the skies, they swept away my stupid plans as easily as one swats a pestering fly. I...." Lune shook his head wildly, his emerald eyes shining with grief and anger, self-loathing. The Sanctuary we had come back to when we had left the pillar of Light of Livnat Hasapir had been reduced to a battlefield. A battlefield such as those terrible places became after war had deserted them. After war had emptied them of life. Everywhere the eye looked it was the same heartrending carnage. The Great Stairs were awash with blood, not all of it dried yet. In the time between the battle's end and now, the survivors had been busy with the grisly task of gathering the corpses and cleansing the marble of the temples form the terrible stigmata of war. In the piles awaiting their final journey through the purifying flames of huge funeral pyres which were haunting the night, casting frightening plays of light and shadow over the ancient columns of the Sanctuary's lower levels, one could see the bodies of human beings, angels and demons mingled together. United in death. It's so absurd, I thought, feeling a distant pain crushing my spine. It's all so stupid and senseless. On Lune's left, just one step behind him, the tall, silent figure of Merle was standing, his rigid stance betraying the pain of numerous wounds on his body as well as the emotional turmoil engulfing him. It felt as if he had been a bodyguard waiting on the redhead, a somber watcher, a witness of the tragedy which had befallen the Sanctuary. When Lune stopped at the beginning of a sentence, unable to go on lest he betray the storm raging within, Merle reached out with his left hand, the movement a bit awkward as the sling on his left arm unbalanced him somewhat, and he squeezed his friend's right shoulder in a wordless gesture of comfort. "Never," Lune managed at last, "never had I envisioned how impossibly huge the Heavenly Host could be, not even in my worst nightmares. My careful plan of using the Fallen Angels as our first line of defense and to make our stand here in the great temple was madness," he spat. "I should have had the Sanctuary evacuated, many lives would have been saved. Lives," he said in a voice made hollow by rage, "that were lost because of my stupidity." All of a sudden, the redhead lifted his head to stare at us directly. "I failed you." In the grim silence which claimed the great council room after Lune's angry statement, Saori-san swayed almost imperceptibly, a sapling caught in great storm winds which was trying to gather all its strength so as not to be uprooted. Looking at the two Gold Saints, I felt something akin to sympathy and sorrow spark to life in my heart, from very far away. I understood the self-loathing in Lune's words, I understood the feeling of inadequacy exuding from Merle. They're so young, I distantly thought, so young to already have to bear such terrible scars. "No!" Saori-san's passionate whisper broke through the silence. "No", she repeated, summoning a brave, painful smile to her lips. "No you didn't fail, Lune. If you hadn't opposed them, if the Sanctuary hadn't risen and laid down infinitely precious lives to contain them, the Heavenly Host would have turned upon humanity itself. The world we'd have come back to would have been a wasteland." "But we didn't contain anything!" Lune countered, his emerald eyes clouded, "We merely watched and killed while they overwhelmed us. It wasn't even a battle, it wasn't even war!" The redhead took a deep breath to steady himself and then continued, his voice shaking despite all his efforts to control it, "Me and Merle, we couldn't stop them, even though we were standing at the top of the Stairs and barring their way. There were just too many of them, too many...and then all of a sudden they disappeared. That's when the demons turned upon us. I was sure we'd be overwhelmed in an instant, but like the angels they vanished in the moment of their victory. That's what saved us, nothing else." "That's true," Saori-san said gently, "but that's not the whole truth. If they hadn't been held back until we reached our goal, the Heavenly Host would have destroyed humanity. Nothing can change the fact that you saved the day as much as we did. As to the demons' disappearance..." the young woman turned towards me and added in a very quiet whisper, "you can thank Shun for that. His decision was what saved us all." Surprise flashed in Lune's clear green eyes, and the redhead gave me a steady stare. Nodding, he said softly, "I understand." Something that was an absurd mixture of sobs and laughter came up my throat when I heard those two words. With difficulty I managed to fight it down and to turn the snarl which wanted to come to my lips into a bitter, crooked smile. Yes, you do. I believe you on that score, Lune. The redhead was perhaps the only person who could reach out to the truth of what I was keeping locked inside my heart. "Let's go," Saori-san suddenly said, "let's go outside. Now is not the time for sheltering ourselves behind walls." No, I thought while we moved to follow after her, now is a time for mourning. I only wish I could do so. It was still night over the Sanctuary. A night painted with the distant, flickering lights of the funeral pyres which had been lit at the foot of the Great Stairs. The air was heavy with the stench of charred flesh and a haunting song was rising up to us, coming from those who were still alive and were laying the bodies of friends and foes alike to rest. It was a wordless song of mourning, an instinctive keening hum which was bringing people together and allowing them to express emotions which would otherwise have poisoned their hearts and trapped them into hatred and despair. A slight movement suddenly caught my attention and I shot a quick glance on my right, to see Seiya reach out to Saori-san in a slow, deliberate gesture. The young woman was crying in silence, shining tears glistening down her pale cheeks. For a moment it looked as if she hadn't noticed my friend's movement or if she had, that she had chosen to ignore it. Then their hands met and their fingers intertwined together. She grasped Seiya's hand with desperate strength, as if he was the last anchor still tying her to the world, and for some reason that sight brought burning tears to my eyes. "And now, what?" The young woman asked huskily, unable to hide the raw grief in her voice. "Now we rebuild what was brought down," Julian Solo replied with unexpected gentleness. The host of Poseidon had remained with us since we had stepped out of Heaven's Realms, as if he was waiting for something. "We protect that which we love," he added softly, "the En Sof is forever out of reach, but we carry its seeds in our hearts, now and forever. We can't give up. We are Light, we are hope, whether we want it or not." Slowly, Saori-san turned towards Julian Solo. Tears were still brimming in her purple eyes when she asked him, very quietly, "Are we to have peace then, Uncle?" He laughed at that, a sad sound which didn't manage to cover the strange song of mourning that was still echoing in the whole Sanctuary. "Uncle? The term is meaningless to this incarnation, Athena. But yes," he added, sobering, "yes, let there be peace. We have been reminded of the necessity for a balance in the clearest and harshest of fashions. Let us never forget this terrible war. Never." In the East, the night was turning into greyness. Soon, the sky would be painted with the beautiful colors heralding the coming of dawn. "I promise," Saori-san whispered, and once more she turned towards the lights of the funeral pyres, letting her tears run down.
End of Chapter 12.
Notes
Hm. Explanations might be in order given the nature of developments in this chapter. Depending on how well you know me, you saw this coming as soon as chapter 1 (if that's your case, worry, because it means you know the murky waters of my soul far too well for your own good ^^), or you were certain I was going to pull off something like this after chapter 4. Perhaps I should have put a shounen ai warning at the beginning of this chapter, but it would have kind of killed the plot, imho. If you don't know me at all, or if this is one of the first fics of mine you're reading, well, I hope you're not allergic to shounen ai. If you are, sorry ^^; Still, the development here is coherent with the rest of the story. Re-read the earlier chapters, and you will see the signs I set more or less everywhere. Of course, Saint Seiya canon would never allow for this, but hey, I think I've already stepped aside from that from the very beginning, so there :P
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