Warriors Heart (A Saint Seiya/Fushigi Yugi crossover)
Title: Warriors Heart
Author:Plantress
Anime/Manga:Saint Seiya/ Fushigi Yugi
A/N: Okay, I said I wasn't going to work on this, but I was convinced to. Prolog and first chapter only though. I'm going to say this takes place after the Tenko thing in Fushigi Yugi, so about at the end of the manga/anime and after the end of the manga for Saint Seiya.
Summary: Yui had thought the danger was over when Tenko had been sealed away. She as dead wrong. This world has gods and their warriors as well, and the former Seiryu priestess is about to pulled into the middle of their conflicts.
There were many woman in this city, woman of all shapes and sizes. Yet one woman riding in a limo was confident that none were as beautiful as she was. Even if she hadn’t had men staring at her as she walked, hadn’t had women gazed at her in abject envy.
Her car passed a large sign that was advertising a new brand of expensive perfume. Her image was on that sign. The woman smirked. The world knew her as Venus, one of the most famous Greek models. It amused her to see that mortals worshiping her and not even knowing there were doing it.
“And this is why I should be in charge of the earth.” Venus muttered under her breath. At last her limo reached her home, a lavish mansion that drew much attention. It was the way she preferred thing. As she neared the door, one of her servants opened it for her. She smiled. Her training had paid off him. When she walk past him the sever vent spoke.
“The young master has asked me to inform you that he has news about the….disturbance.” Venus swung her head around.
“Did he say what kind of news?” She snapped. The servant shook his head.
“I’m afraid not my lady.” With a snarl the beautiful woman stalked to her rooms. News could wait, she wanted a bath to rid of her of the stink of this mortal city first. Only after she had had her bath and her servants had helped her with her makeup and dress, and then done her hair did she feel ready to hear her underlings so called news.
She made her way toward the very back of the house. There was one dead end hallway that the servants were not allowed to enter. Venus walked toward the end of the hallway…and went right through the wall. On the other side was a portion of the house that most of her underlings never saw. She doubted they would have recognized this place as it was now anyway. The center had been renovated into one huge room that had columns placed on both sides. The floor and walls had been replaced with marble and the whole decorated with silk. At the end of the room a there was placed a large throne like chair. Walking into the room was like walking in to a temple.
It was exactly the affect she had wanted. She seated herself on the throne the waved toward one of the walls.
“You may come in now, Eros.” A handsome young man walked out from behind a pillar. He smiled as he dropped to one knee before her.
“You look well today, Lady Aphrodite.” He said.
“Enough with the pleasantries. You’ve found out information about what happened a few months ago?” The goddess snapped. That had nearly been a disaster for her. Nearly six months ago someone, a frighteningly strong human, had ripped a swath through a section of Tokyo. She has still been in the process of gathering her warriors and had just set up base in Japan. At first she though Athena had found her, then realized that annoyingly pure and righteous Athena would never attack civilians. She had assumed then that it was another god, one who wished to challenge Athena. That the massive cosmo of a god had appeared shortly after that seemed to confirm her suspicions.
At that time she had only two warriors at her disposable. Of them, only one was a real fighter and she did not want to waste Eros, so had been forced to sit and wait. After a time, the cosmo of another god had appeared…and then shortly after the other god had vanished. Then there was an explosion of cosmo and this new god had returned everything to the way it been before the warrior had started his rampage. No one even remembered that it had happened!
Aphrodite wanted to know who those gods had been, and most importantly she wanted to know why they had been able to command such power. Gods were not suppose to be able to affect the mortal world like that anymore. They all had their powers sealed and in order to affect the world had to descended and take on these disgusting mortal forms. But if there were gods that had managed to find a way around the rule, if there she could find them and get it to teach it to her…then…then she would be able to show everyone on Olympus that she truly was Athena’s better and far more worthy of their attention then she was.
“Cassandra has managed to see something. She says she know the identity of those who appeared in the city.” Eros said.
“And, who are they? From which Parthenon?” Aphrodite leaned forward.
“She wouldn’t tell me, my lady. She claimed should only infrom you of what she has discovered personally.” Aphrodite growled and stood up with a soft swish of her gown.
“Damn that annoying girl. She being contrary again” The goddess turned and stalked away from her throne, and headed toward a door that was conciliated by silken drapes.
“Are you coming or not?” She called to Eros. The young man stood and followed her into a long sloping hall. It lead down into a circular bedroom. Although the bed room was decorated as lavishly as the rest of the house, there were no windows here and the only way out was the single door that Aphrodite come. There was only one person in the room, a young woman who was sitting in a chair listening to some annoying pop song on the radio.
“Cassandra!” The goddess snapped. The young woman shut off the radio then stood and curtsied.
“Lady Aphrodite.” She said softly, then looked up at her goddess. Aphrodite shuttered. The girl before her had once had a name other than Cassandra, but the goddess hadn’t bothered to remember what it was. The moment she had convinced the girl to don the featureless mask of gold that covered the upper half of her face, she had become Cassandra and Aphrodite could care less about who she was. The mask itself had been a gift to her from Apollo. It enhanced the gifts those who were gifted with the ability to see the future and allowed them to see into the past as well. It was a valuable tool….but one that was highly unpredictable. The past visions it granted were nearly as unpredictable as the ones of the future, although the past was set in stone. And this Cassandra had a great gift before she donned the mask. With it she was some times able to control the visions. Aphrodite could not risk loosing her.
“Well?” She barked at the seer. “What did you find?”
“I saw that long ago that four or five gods grew tired to the restrictions that had been placed upon them. They wished to use their full powers, and the only way for them to do that was to pass their own divine abilities onto a pure mortal girl.” Aphrodite hissed in disgust at the thought of a mere human allowed to wield the gods power. “But these girls were only able to use the power three times before the died from the strain. These gods grew tired to this. They decided to create their own world, one in which they would be able to use their powers as they saw fit.”
“And did they? Did they manage to create their own world?” Eros asked eagerly. Normally Aphrodite would have punished Eros for speaking out of turn but she was to intrigued at the moment. To have the hubris to actually try and create a world….
“They create a world within ours. It was not truly complete, because it still relied on this one to survive. And I assume they failed. They still could not use their powers as they wanted to. They were trapped in this world they had created and they were still bound by the same rules that existed in this world. Because their world was incomplete they had to use what limited control they still had here to draw a girl from this world into theirs. That was the only way the could manifest.”
“Very interesting, but why were they here, how where the able to escape?” Aphrodite snapped.
“They were not, or at least not totally. Seiryu’s mortal priestess managed to escape back to this world by using the power the god had given her. It was she that summoned one of her warriors, a named Nakago to this world. He is the one that was causing the havoc.”
“There were two gods out there girl. Did you find out who the other one was?”
“Yes. Suzaku’s priestess was also in this world. She summoned that god and used it’s power to seal Seiryu away, then used to it return everything to the way it was. Suzaku then returned to the book” Aphrodite sighed.
“So now I know that I won’t have to deal with them causing trouble for me anytime soon.” The goddess of love sighed. “It’s not much but it’s one less thing for me to worry over. Considering their using methods I doubt would work against Athena, the rest was of your information was useless to me.”
“There is one more thing.” Cassandra said quickly.
“It had better be good, girl.” Aphrodite snarled.
“The souls of the warriors that Seiryu commanded are not at rest. They were drawn to this world by the priestess but when the god was sealed. Now they cannot find their way back to their world, and because there are not truly of our world, but from a mere shadow of it, Hades will not let them into his relem.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Aphrodite glared, then stopped and let a small smile grow. “No…this might be of use to me.” She nodded at the girl then turned and beconed Eros to her side as she left the room.
*****
Outside Eros looked at her.
“If I may enquire…what are you think of my lady?” Aphrodite grinned.
“You heard Cassandra dear Eros. My Uncle does not want those souls. They are not affected by the rules since they are not suppose to exist in this world…so.” Aphrodite smirked. “I don’t see a reason anyone object to me seeing I could….give them a place to belong as it where.” Eros smiled.
“I see no reason either. You are truly as wise as you are beautiful, my lady Aphrodite.”
“Of course, I am Eros, of course I am.”
*******
Hyoga wanted to go back to Siberia. He wanted to visit the place that held both the most memories of his mother, and that held almost all the memories of his childhood, both the good and bad ones. But the Cygnus Saint didn’t dare leave Japan, not when they had no clue what was happening here.
It had been nine months ago. After the fight against Hades, when they had all recovered from their wounds even Seiya, Saori had given them leave to go where they wished while she remained behind to orginize the repairs of Sanctuary. Shun and Seiya had stayed behind to protect her, while he and Shiryu had left. The Dragon Saint had lost his master as well, and Hyoga knew how much pain he was going through.
He hadn’t been in Siberia long when an urgent message had come from Graude Foundation telling him go to Tokyo now. Since it had been from Saori he had hurried back…only to find that everything was peaceful in Japan. Shiryu had been recalled too, but the brief annoyance that had was washed away when Saori explained the circumstances.
She had told them that one of the Steel Saints had sent and urgent message. A man with an incredibly powerful Cosmo, someone that rivaled a Gold Saint in power, was tearing through the city. The Steels Saints had offered to try and stop him, but Saori had told them to wait. The Bronze Saints had reached Tokyo as fast as they could…but found the city just as it as when Hyoga and Shiryu had returned. The Steel Saints had claimed to have no memory of sending the message. It has seemed to real to a simple prank, and then when Saori had looked at images from one of the satellites had clearly showed an area of destruction in the middle of the city. That area now showed no signs of damage. Saori also said there were the remains of the cosmos from two powerful gods still lingering over the city.
It had puzzled all of them. Had another god risen to fight Athena? Were they just biding their time until the right moment to attack? Everyone had stayed in Tokyo, waiting for an attack…one that never came. Weeks turned into months until after six months even Athena was tired to waiting around. They had all left once again, although this time Saori had ordered Nachi, Geki and Ichi to stay behind in case anything happened.
They had been gone for nearly a week when the three Bronze Saints had sent an urgent message. A the same time the media began reporting that a strange island had appeared just off the coast. They had immediately set off for Japan, but by the time they had gotten there, the island had been gone.
Once again there had been the linger traces of a gods cosmo in certain areas of the city. This time people remembered it, and although the city officials dismissed it as a mass hallucination, they knew what it really was.
It was too much a of a coincidence that these strange things had happened right after they left, then disappeared when they came close and that each involved gods that they had never seen. Athena had decided that she would stay here until she could discover something about these strange attacks. Marin, one of the highest ranked and most respected Saints left, had been put in charge of Sanctuary for the time being.
All this was fine but the threat seemed faraway now that there now and boredom had set in. Seki had been brought back to Japan in the hopes that it would help jog her memory some more, while even Shunrei had turned up after Saori had sent a message to her. The Chinese girl had been worried about Shiryu and was now trying to help where she could. Not that there was much for her to do. Aside from a rash of strange incidents before that strange island had appeared, there was nothing. It was become frustrating and Hyoga kept longing for the plains of Siberia.
He had taken to walking around the city out of restlessness. He had stopped by this empty park to rest and think. The Cygnus Saint was sitting on a bench, head titled back as he watched the clouds go by when a voice spoke up behind him.
“Hyoga? What are you doing here?” The blond tilted his head back so he could see the speaker.
“Probably the same thing you are Shun.” Hyoga straitened as he spoke then turned to face the Andomdea Saint.
“I guess.” The younger boy was dressed for running, and was still breathing slightly heavily. He smiled. “Well it’s not like we have else to do I guess.” Shun walked over and sat down on the bench too.
“Has there been any kind of news?” Hyoga asked his friend. Shun shook his head.
“No change when I left. We’re still no closer to finding out happened here.”
“I hate waiting like this.” The Cygnus Saint said. “And I hate not knowing who were fighting. Even knowing that a mad god or goddess is trying to destroy the world is better then not knowing who our enemies are or what their up too.” Shun nodded sympathetically.
“I wish something would happen.” Hyoga finished .
Almost as if Hyoga had summoned it, a dark cosmo appeared in an alley near the two Saints. Shun and Hyoga jumped and stared at each other in disbelief before taking off toward the alley. They cosmo had had appeared was full of hatred and rage. Hyoga had no clue who had just appeared but it was clear that it was an enemy. They reached the alley way only to find nothing there.
Suddenly they felt the cosmo moving away at a high speed. They looked at each other.
“Should we tell someone?” Shun asked. Hyoga shook his head.
“No time!” Shun nodded and the two took off after the strange cosmo.
*********
Both Saints stood and stared at the high school in front of them. It was hard to believe that a building this normal held their quarry.
“Hyoga, this is right, isn‘t it?” Shun asked, the uncertainty clear in voice. The Cygnus Saint nodded. He could feel the dark, savage feral Cosmo they had been tracking had finally stopped here and he knew that Shun could as well. It just seemed odd when compared to the incredibly peaceful scene of students exiting their school at the end of the day. Hyoga watched them drift off as Shun looked thoughtfully at the building.
“Now what do we do?” The younger boy asked. Several students walked by, and more than one turned to stare at them, then whisper something to their companions.
“We could try going inside. I don‘t think whoever it was could hide for long with both of searching for him.” Hyoga answered. Shun looked at him then shook his head.
“I don’t think that would work very well. What if whoever we’re tracking is a student or something?” Shun pointed out. Hyoga winced but agreed. He doubted that even the name of Saori Kido would spare them if the just walked in and grabbed a student. Somehow he doubted the teachers would listen when they talked about Cosmos and threatening auras that most people couldn’t see or sense.
“I guess we’ll have to figure something out.” The Cygnus saint said. As he finished, a group of girls from the school walked by. They had been whispering with each other and as the got neared the two Saints one of the group pushed her friend out in front. The unfortunate girl gulped the waved shyly at Shun. The Andromeda saint sweat dropped, but waved back smiling uncertainly as he did so. The rest of the girls squealed, then ran past the two of them, grabbing their friend as they did so. Hyoga smirked.
“Don’t say anything.” Shun muttered. Then he looked back at the school. “Whoever it is hasn’t moved in a while. We could go back and get the others.” He suggested. Hyoga thought for a moment.
“You go back and get the others. I’m going to stay here and keep track of whoever this is.”
“Good idea.” Shun nodded. “I wanted to tell Saori-san about….” The Andromeda Saints sentence was cut short but both the feminine scream that rang out from the back of the school as well as the sudden rage and bloodlust that suddenly erupted in the strange cosmo. Both Saints reacted without thinking, and sprinted towards the sound of the scream. No one stopped them as students and teacher ran past them, headed for the gates and babbling about monsters and wolves as the did so.
*********
Yui turned as she rounded one of the schools corners. She had forgotten one of her books outside during Lunch and had only just no remembered were it was. A sudden sound behind her caused her to turn just a something large slammed into her.
“YYYUUUIIII!” The ex-priestess sighed.
“What is it Miaka?” She asked her friend. Maika sniffed as she hung on her friend.
“Mr. Tanaka’s-giving-a-quiz-tomorrow-but-I-don’t-know-what-we-talked-about-today-because-I-fell-asleep-in-his-class-and-that’s-why-his-giving-the-quiz-and-I-need-your-help-to-study!” She wailed in a rush. Yui sweat dropped then smiled and shook her head. Miaka never changed.
“Alright. I don’t have anything else to do today. Let me get my book and then we can go home to study.”
“Yui!” Her friend looked at her with a huge smile and tear filled eyes.
“But that means we can’t stop by Taka’s work!” Yui held up her hand to stall her friends denial. “Don’t you need good grades to keep your Mom off your back about having an older boyfriend?” Miaka winced but nodded as the two continued toward the tree were the had eaten their lunch. “Cheer up, maybe Taka can come and help us after he gets back off work.”
“He will!” Miaka said perking up immediately. “I’ll call him right now!” Her friend whipped out her cell phone and was already calling Taka before Yui could even sweat drop.
“Ummm, Miaka….” The former-Suzaku priestess ignored the blonde, instead listening intently to the rings on the other end, until her face fell.
“He’s not answering!” She said and glared at the phone.
“Doesn’t his boss make him turn it off when he starts work? You were complaining about it the other day.” Yui reminded her friend. Maika sweat dropped.
“Oh yeah.” Miaka shut of her cell phone and sighed. Yui grinned.
“Lets go to my house. We can get started, then you can call Taka when he gets off of work.” Maiak still looked down. Yui shook her head then brought out her ultimate weapon. “A client sent Mom a thank you gift of a bunch of cakes. She said that she doesn’t eat sugar, but can’t let them go to waste, so I can do what I want with them.” Miaka’s head came up fast her eyes widened. Then she grabbed her friend wrist.
“Come on Yui! Studying is the most important part of a students life you know.”
“Hey Miaka quit dragging me around….” Yui sentence was interrupted my a vicious howl suddenly echoed off the school buildings. All the students froze. The others were looking around for the source of the noise in curiosity, while Miaka and Yui had gone pales, memories of a world that was not this one entering their minds. Miaka laughed nervously.
“There must be some one playing a prank.” Yui nodded. It couldn’t have been him, he died in the book months ago and Seriyu’s been sealed anyway…..
“Come on Miaka lets go.” Yui started forward then froze as something behind her swelled, an auaur of death and destruction welling up behind her. Heart hammering she turned around just as something dark leapt at the two of them. She yanked Miaka to the ground and something scythed over their heads, leaving grooves in the cement school building. A stone chips stuck her cheek drawing blood. Yui looked up, and meet a pair of mad eyes.
“Ashitare.” She whispered as someone screamed. The werewolf turned his head toward the sound then apparently whipped his head.
“Priestess.” He growled and Yui wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or Miaka. She had only seen the wolf-man once or twice when Nakago had decided she need to see him.
“Ashitare” She said firmly and stood.
“Yui?” Maika asked, but the blond ignored her friend.
“I am a the priestess of Seriyu. I order you to tell me what your doing here!” She wasn’t even sure Ashitare remember who she was, but she had no other ideas. She doubted she and Miaka would be able to out run him and she knew he had managed to kill a one of Miaka’s warriors. They needed time, and if she could just convince Ashitare that she was till Seriyu’s priestess…
“Seiyu..is no more. That’s what she said..” The werewolf growled. “So…I don’t have to listen to you!” Ashitare lunged forward, Yui stumbled backwards and then
“Diamond Dust!” Someone shouted. Ashitaure jumped backward as a blast of cold almost hit him and two young men leapt between them and the wolf man.
“Are you alright?” The boy with green haired asked them. Yui nodded. He smiled.
“Good.” He turned around. “You two had better get out of here now.”
“Yui!” Maika scrambled over to her friends side. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Yui assured her. She stood and puller her friend to her feet.
“What?”
“Lets go.” Yui tugged on her friends hand. “Come on..”
“But…” Miaka glanced back at the two boys, swallowed and then ran in the opposite direction with her friend.
*****
Hyoga heard the girls run away. That was good, now he wouldn’t have to worry about them as well. He kept his eyes on the enemy they had been tracking. He had faced many thing since becoming a Saint but never something like this.
“Who are you?” He asked the…man before him. He….no it growled and lunged at him. Hyoga leapt out of the way of it’s claws and wished that he had brought his cloth.
“Hyoga, are you alright?” Shun asked.
“Fine.” He called back. “But it doesn’t look like this thing is going to be answering any questions.”
“Yeah.” Shun gulped. “What are you?” The wolf didn’t answer but started to charge again.
“DIAMOND DUST!” Hyoga’s attack hit the creature dead on, and slammed it into a wall. The Cyngus Saint relaxed only to realize that the creature was climbing to it’s feet again.
“It’s still alive?” Shun said stunned. Hyoga prepared to launch another attack. Whatever this wolf-thing was, it couldn’t be allowed to attack innocent people.
Before the Cygnus saint could finish, a bright light lanced into the round in front of him. Hyoga and Shun leapt away on reflex, just before the ground exploded. As they landed Hyoga caught a dust obscured figure landing next to the wolf creature.
“Who are you?” Hyoga yelled. The figure said nothing as it reached over and threw something over the beasts head….then both disappeared. The two Saints rushed forward, but there was nobody there.
“Teleportation?” Shun guessed as the scanned the area. The sounds of sirens came from behind them. Hyoga glanced back.
“We had better get out of here.” The Cygnus Saint said firmly. Shun nodded and the two left as quietly as they could.
Author:Plantress
Anime/Manga:Saint Seiya/ Fushigi Yugi
A/N: Okay, I said I wasn't going to work on this, but I was convinced to. Prolog and first chapter only though. I'm going to say this takes place after the Tenko thing in Fushigi Yugi, so about at the end of the manga/anime and after the end of the manga for Saint Seiya.
Summary: Yui had thought the danger was over when Tenko had been sealed away. She as dead wrong. This world has gods and their warriors as well, and the former Seiryu priestess is about to pulled into the middle of their conflicts.
There were many woman in this city, woman of all shapes and sizes. Yet one woman riding in a limo was confident that none were as beautiful as she was. Even if she hadn’t had men staring at her as she walked, hadn’t had women gazed at her in abject envy.
Her car passed a large sign that was advertising a new brand of expensive perfume. Her image was on that sign. The woman smirked. The world knew her as Venus, one of the most famous Greek models. It amused her to see that mortals worshiping her and not even knowing there were doing it.
“And this is why I should be in charge of the earth.” Venus muttered under her breath. At last her limo reached her home, a lavish mansion that drew much attention. It was the way she preferred thing. As she neared the door, one of her servants opened it for her. She smiled. Her training had paid off him. When she walk past him the sever vent spoke.
“The young master has asked me to inform you that he has news about the….disturbance.” Venus swung her head around.
“Did he say what kind of news?” She snapped. The servant shook his head.
“I’m afraid not my lady.” With a snarl the beautiful woman stalked to her rooms. News could wait, she wanted a bath to rid of her of the stink of this mortal city first. Only after she had had her bath and her servants had helped her with her makeup and dress, and then done her hair did she feel ready to hear her underlings so called news.
She made her way toward the very back of the house. There was one dead end hallway that the servants were not allowed to enter. Venus walked toward the end of the hallway…and went right through the wall. On the other side was a portion of the house that most of her underlings never saw. She doubted they would have recognized this place as it was now anyway. The center had been renovated into one huge room that had columns placed on both sides. The floor and walls had been replaced with marble and the whole decorated with silk. At the end of the room a there was placed a large throne like chair. Walking into the room was like walking in to a temple.
It was exactly the affect she had wanted. She seated herself on the throne the waved toward one of the walls.
“You may come in now, Eros.” A handsome young man walked out from behind a pillar. He smiled as he dropped to one knee before her.
“You look well today, Lady Aphrodite.” He said.
“Enough with the pleasantries. You’ve found out information about what happened a few months ago?” The goddess snapped. That had nearly been a disaster for her. Nearly six months ago someone, a frighteningly strong human, had ripped a swath through a section of Tokyo. She has still been in the process of gathering her warriors and had just set up base in Japan. At first she though Athena had found her, then realized that annoyingly pure and righteous Athena would never attack civilians. She had assumed then that it was another god, one who wished to challenge Athena. That the massive cosmo of a god had appeared shortly after that seemed to confirm her suspicions.
At that time she had only two warriors at her disposable. Of them, only one was a real fighter and she did not want to waste Eros, so had been forced to sit and wait. After a time, the cosmo of another god had appeared…and then shortly after the other god had vanished. Then there was an explosion of cosmo and this new god had returned everything to the way it been before the warrior had started his rampage. No one even remembered that it had happened!
Aphrodite wanted to know who those gods had been, and most importantly she wanted to know why they had been able to command such power. Gods were not suppose to be able to affect the mortal world like that anymore. They all had their powers sealed and in order to affect the world had to descended and take on these disgusting mortal forms. But if there were gods that had managed to find a way around the rule, if there she could find them and get it to teach it to her…then…then she would be able to show everyone on Olympus that she truly was Athena’s better and far more worthy of their attention then she was.
“Cassandra has managed to see something. She says she know the identity of those who appeared in the city.” Eros said.
“And, who are they? From which Parthenon?” Aphrodite leaned forward.
“She wouldn’t tell me, my lady. She claimed should only infrom you of what she has discovered personally.” Aphrodite growled and stood up with a soft swish of her gown.
“Damn that annoying girl. She being contrary again” The goddess turned and stalked away from her throne, and headed toward a door that was conciliated by silken drapes.
“Are you coming or not?” She called to Eros. The young man stood and followed her into a long sloping hall. It lead down into a circular bedroom. Although the bed room was decorated as lavishly as the rest of the house, there were no windows here and the only way out was the single door that Aphrodite come. There was only one person in the room, a young woman who was sitting in a chair listening to some annoying pop song on the radio.
“Cassandra!” The goddess snapped. The young woman shut off the radio then stood and curtsied.
“Lady Aphrodite.” She said softly, then looked up at her goddess. Aphrodite shuttered. The girl before her had once had a name other than Cassandra, but the goddess hadn’t bothered to remember what it was. The moment she had convinced the girl to don the featureless mask of gold that covered the upper half of her face, she had become Cassandra and Aphrodite could care less about who she was. The mask itself had been a gift to her from Apollo. It enhanced the gifts those who were gifted with the ability to see the future and allowed them to see into the past as well. It was a valuable tool….but one that was highly unpredictable. The past visions it granted were nearly as unpredictable as the ones of the future, although the past was set in stone. And this Cassandra had a great gift before she donned the mask. With it she was some times able to control the visions. Aphrodite could not risk loosing her.
“Well?” She barked at the seer. “What did you find?”
“I saw that long ago that four or five gods grew tired to the restrictions that had been placed upon them. They wished to use their full powers, and the only way for them to do that was to pass their own divine abilities onto a pure mortal girl.” Aphrodite hissed in disgust at the thought of a mere human allowed to wield the gods power. “But these girls were only able to use the power three times before the died from the strain. These gods grew tired to this. They decided to create their own world, one in which they would be able to use their powers as they saw fit.”
“And did they? Did they manage to create their own world?” Eros asked eagerly. Normally Aphrodite would have punished Eros for speaking out of turn but she was to intrigued at the moment. To have the hubris to actually try and create a world….
“They create a world within ours. It was not truly complete, because it still relied on this one to survive. And I assume they failed. They still could not use their powers as they wanted to. They were trapped in this world they had created and they were still bound by the same rules that existed in this world. Because their world was incomplete they had to use what limited control they still had here to draw a girl from this world into theirs. That was the only way the could manifest.”
“Very interesting, but why were they here, how where the able to escape?” Aphrodite snapped.
“They were not, or at least not totally. Seiryu’s mortal priestess managed to escape back to this world by using the power the god had given her. It was she that summoned one of her warriors, a named Nakago to this world. He is the one that was causing the havoc.”
“There were two gods out there girl. Did you find out who the other one was?”
“Yes. Suzaku’s priestess was also in this world. She summoned that god and used it’s power to seal Seiryu away, then used to it return everything to the way it was. Suzaku then returned to the book” Aphrodite sighed.
“So now I know that I won’t have to deal with them causing trouble for me anytime soon.” The goddess of love sighed. “It’s not much but it’s one less thing for me to worry over. Considering their using methods I doubt would work against Athena, the rest was of your information was useless to me.”
“There is one more thing.” Cassandra said quickly.
“It had better be good, girl.” Aphrodite snarled.
“The souls of the warriors that Seiryu commanded are not at rest. They were drawn to this world by the priestess but when the god was sealed. Now they cannot find their way back to their world, and because there are not truly of our world, but from a mere shadow of it, Hades will not let them into his relem.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Aphrodite glared, then stopped and let a small smile grow. “No…this might be of use to me.” She nodded at the girl then turned and beconed Eros to her side as she left the room.
*****
Outside Eros looked at her.
“If I may enquire…what are you think of my lady?” Aphrodite grinned.
“You heard Cassandra dear Eros. My Uncle does not want those souls. They are not affected by the rules since they are not suppose to exist in this world…so.” Aphrodite smirked. “I don’t see a reason anyone object to me seeing I could….give them a place to belong as it where.” Eros smiled.
“I see no reason either. You are truly as wise as you are beautiful, my lady Aphrodite.”
“Of course, I am Eros, of course I am.”
*******
Hyoga wanted to go back to Siberia. He wanted to visit the place that held both the most memories of his mother, and that held almost all the memories of his childhood, both the good and bad ones. But the Cygnus Saint didn’t dare leave Japan, not when they had no clue what was happening here.
It had been nine months ago. After the fight against Hades, when they had all recovered from their wounds even Seiya, Saori had given them leave to go where they wished while she remained behind to orginize the repairs of Sanctuary. Shun and Seiya had stayed behind to protect her, while he and Shiryu had left. The Dragon Saint had lost his master as well, and Hyoga knew how much pain he was going through.
He hadn’t been in Siberia long when an urgent message had come from Graude Foundation telling him go to Tokyo now. Since it had been from Saori he had hurried back…only to find that everything was peaceful in Japan. Shiryu had been recalled too, but the brief annoyance that had was washed away when Saori explained the circumstances.
She had told them that one of the Steel Saints had sent and urgent message. A man with an incredibly powerful Cosmo, someone that rivaled a Gold Saint in power, was tearing through the city. The Steels Saints had offered to try and stop him, but Saori had told them to wait. The Bronze Saints had reached Tokyo as fast as they could…but found the city just as it as when Hyoga and Shiryu had returned. The Steel Saints had claimed to have no memory of sending the message. It has seemed to real to a simple prank, and then when Saori had looked at images from one of the satellites had clearly showed an area of destruction in the middle of the city. That area now showed no signs of damage. Saori also said there were the remains of the cosmos from two powerful gods still lingering over the city.
It had puzzled all of them. Had another god risen to fight Athena? Were they just biding their time until the right moment to attack? Everyone had stayed in Tokyo, waiting for an attack…one that never came. Weeks turned into months until after six months even Athena was tired to waiting around. They had all left once again, although this time Saori had ordered Nachi, Geki and Ichi to stay behind in case anything happened.
They had been gone for nearly a week when the three Bronze Saints had sent an urgent message. A the same time the media began reporting that a strange island had appeared just off the coast. They had immediately set off for Japan, but by the time they had gotten there, the island had been gone.
Once again there had been the linger traces of a gods cosmo in certain areas of the city. This time people remembered it, and although the city officials dismissed it as a mass hallucination, they knew what it really was.
It was too much a of a coincidence that these strange things had happened right after they left, then disappeared when they came close and that each involved gods that they had never seen. Athena had decided that she would stay here until she could discover something about these strange attacks. Marin, one of the highest ranked and most respected Saints left, had been put in charge of Sanctuary for the time being.
All this was fine but the threat seemed faraway now that there now and boredom had set in. Seki had been brought back to Japan in the hopes that it would help jog her memory some more, while even Shunrei had turned up after Saori had sent a message to her. The Chinese girl had been worried about Shiryu and was now trying to help where she could. Not that there was much for her to do. Aside from a rash of strange incidents before that strange island had appeared, there was nothing. It was become frustrating and Hyoga kept longing for the plains of Siberia.
He had taken to walking around the city out of restlessness. He had stopped by this empty park to rest and think. The Cygnus Saint was sitting on a bench, head titled back as he watched the clouds go by when a voice spoke up behind him.
“Hyoga? What are you doing here?” The blond tilted his head back so he could see the speaker.
“Probably the same thing you are Shun.” Hyoga straitened as he spoke then turned to face the Andomdea Saint.
“I guess.” The younger boy was dressed for running, and was still breathing slightly heavily. He smiled. “Well it’s not like we have else to do I guess.” Shun walked over and sat down on the bench too.
“Has there been any kind of news?” Hyoga asked his friend. Shun shook his head.
“No change when I left. We’re still no closer to finding out happened here.”
“I hate waiting like this.” The Cygnus Saint said. “And I hate not knowing who were fighting. Even knowing that a mad god or goddess is trying to destroy the world is better then not knowing who our enemies are or what their up too.” Shun nodded sympathetically.
“I wish something would happen.” Hyoga finished .
Almost as if Hyoga had summoned it, a dark cosmo appeared in an alley near the two Saints. Shun and Hyoga jumped and stared at each other in disbelief before taking off toward the alley. They cosmo had had appeared was full of hatred and rage. Hyoga had no clue who had just appeared but it was clear that it was an enemy. They reached the alley way only to find nothing there.
Suddenly they felt the cosmo moving away at a high speed. They looked at each other.
“Should we tell someone?” Shun asked. Hyoga shook his head.
“No time!” Shun nodded and the two took off after the strange cosmo.
*********
Both Saints stood and stared at the high school in front of them. It was hard to believe that a building this normal held their quarry.
“Hyoga, this is right, isn‘t it?” Shun asked, the uncertainty clear in voice. The Cygnus Saint nodded. He could feel the dark, savage feral Cosmo they had been tracking had finally stopped here and he knew that Shun could as well. It just seemed odd when compared to the incredibly peaceful scene of students exiting their school at the end of the day. Hyoga watched them drift off as Shun looked thoughtfully at the building.
“Now what do we do?” The younger boy asked. Several students walked by, and more than one turned to stare at them, then whisper something to their companions.
“We could try going inside. I don‘t think whoever it was could hide for long with both of searching for him.” Hyoga answered. Shun looked at him then shook his head.
“I don’t think that would work very well. What if whoever we’re tracking is a student or something?” Shun pointed out. Hyoga winced but agreed. He doubted that even the name of Saori Kido would spare them if the just walked in and grabbed a student. Somehow he doubted the teachers would listen when they talked about Cosmos and threatening auras that most people couldn’t see or sense.
“I guess we’ll have to figure something out.” The Cygnus saint said. As he finished, a group of girls from the school walked by. They had been whispering with each other and as the got neared the two Saints one of the group pushed her friend out in front. The unfortunate girl gulped the waved shyly at Shun. The Andromeda saint sweat dropped, but waved back smiling uncertainly as he did so. The rest of the girls squealed, then ran past the two of them, grabbing their friend as they did so. Hyoga smirked.
“Don’t say anything.” Shun muttered. Then he looked back at the school. “Whoever it is hasn’t moved in a while. We could go back and get the others.” He suggested. Hyoga thought for a moment.
“You go back and get the others. I’m going to stay here and keep track of whoever this is.”
“Good idea.” Shun nodded. “I wanted to tell Saori-san about….” The Andromeda Saints sentence was cut short but both the feminine scream that rang out from the back of the school as well as the sudden rage and bloodlust that suddenly erupted in the strange cosmo. Both Saints reacted without thinking, and sprinted towards the sound of the scream. No one stopped them as students and teacher ran past them, headed for the gates and babbling about monsters and wolves as the did so.
*********
Yui turned as she rounded one of the schools corners. She had forgotten one of her books outside during Lunch and had only just no remembered were it was. A sudden sound behind her caused her to turn just a something large slammed into her.
“YYYUUUIIII!” The ex-priestess sighed.
“What is it Miaka?” She asked her friend. Maika sniffed as she hung on her friend.
“Mr. Tanaka’s-giving-a-quiz-tomorrow-but-I-don’t-know-what-we-talked-about-today-because-I-fell-asleep-in-his-class-and-that’s-why-his-giving-the-quiz-and-I-need-your-help-to-study!” She wailed in a rush. Yui sweat dropped then smiled and shook her head. Miaka never changed.
“Alright. I don’t have anything else to do today. Let me get my book and then we can go home to study.”
“Yui!” Her friend looked at her with a huge smile and tear filled eyes.
“But that means we can’t stop by Taka’s work!” Yui held up her hand to stall her friends denial. “Don’t you need good grades to keep your Mom off your back about having an older boyfriend?” Miaka winced but nodded as the two continued toward the tree were the had eaten their lunch. “Cheer up, maybe Taka can come and help us after he gets back off work.”
“He will!” Miaka said perking up immediately. “I’ll call him right now!” Her friend whipped out her cell phone and was already calling Taka before Yui could even sweat drop.
“Ummm, Miaka….” The former-Suzaku priestess ignored the blonde, instead listening intently to the rings on the other end, until her face fell.
“He’s not answering!” She said and glared at the phone.
“Doesn’t his boss make him turn it off when he starts work? You were complaining about it the other day.” Yui reminded her friend. Maika sweat dropped.
“Oh yeah.” Miaka shut of her cell phone and sighed. Yui grinned.
“Lets go to my house. We can get started, then you can call Taka when he gets off of work.” Maiak still looked down. Yui shook her head then brought out her ultimate weapon. “A client sent Mom a thank you gift of a bunch of cakes. She said that she doesn’t eat sugar, but can’t let them go to waste, so I can do what I want with them.” Miaka’s head came up fast her eyes widened. Then she grabbed her friend wrist.
“Come on Yui! Studying is the most important part of a students life you know.”
“Hey Miaka quit dragging me around….” Yui sentence was interrupted my a vicious howl suddenly echoed off the school buildings. All the students froze. The others were looking around for the source of the noise in curiosity, while Miaka and Yui had gone pales, memories of a world that was not this one entering their minds. Miaka laughed nervously.
“There must be some one playing a prank.” Yui nodded. It couldn’t have been him, he died in the book months ago and Seriyu’s been sealed anyway…..
“Come on Miaka lets go.” Yui started forward then froze as something behind her swelled, an auaur of death and destruction welling up behind her. Heart hammering she turned around just as something dark leapt at the two of them. She yanked Miaka to the ground and something scythed over their heads, leaving grooves in the cement school building. A stone chips stuck her cheek drawing blood. Yui looked up, and meet a pair of mad eyes.
“Ashitare.” She whispered as someone screamed. The werewolf turned his head toward the sound then apparently whipped his head.
“Priestess.” He growled and Yui wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or Miaka. She had only seen the wolf-man once or twice when Nakago had decided she need to see him.
“Ashitare” She said firmly and stood.
“Yui?” Maika asked, but the blond ignored her friend.
“I am a the priestess of Seriyu. I order you to tell me what your doing here!” She wasn’t even sure Ashitare remember who she was, but she had no other ideas. She doubted she and Miaka would be able to out run him and she knew he had managed to kill a one of Miaka’s warriors. They needed time, and if she could just convince Ashitare that she was till Seriyu’s priestess…
“Seiyu..is no more. That’s what she said..” The werewolf growled. “So…I don’t have to listen to you!” Ashitare lunged forward, Yui stumbled backwards and then
“Diamond Dust!” Someone shouted. Ashitaure jumped backward as a blast of cold almost hit him and two young men leapt between them and the wolf man.
“Are you alright?” The boy with green haired asked them. Yui nodded. He smiled.
“Good.” He turned around. “You two had better get out of here now.”
“Yui!” Maika scrambled over to her friends side. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Yui assured her. She stood and puller her friend to her feet.
“What?”
“Lets go.” Yui tugged on her friends hand. “Come on..”
“But…” Miaka glanced back at the two boys, swallowed and then ran in the opposite direction with her friend.
*****
Hyoga heard the girls run away. That was good, now he wouldn’t have to worry about them as well. He kept his eyes on the enemy they had been tracking. He had faced many thing since becoming a Saint but never something like this.
“Who are you?” He asked the…man before him. He….no it growled and lunged at him. Hyoga leapt out of the way of it’s claws and wished that he had brought his cloth.
“Hyoga, are you alright?” Shun asked.
“Fine.” He called back. “But it doesn’t look like this thing is going to be answering any questions.”
“Yeah.” Shun gulped. “What are you?” The wolf didn’t answer but started to charge again.
“DIAMOND DUST!” Hyoga’s attack hit the creature dead on, and slammed it into a wall. The Cyngus Saint relaxed only to realize that the creature was climbing to it’s feet again.
“It’s still alive?” Shun said stunned. Hyoga prepared to launch another attack. Whatever this wolf-thing was, it couldn’t be allowed to attack innocent people.
Before the Cygnus saint could finish, a bright light lanced into the round in front of him. Hyoga and Shun leapt away on reflex, just before the ground exploded. As they landed Hyoga caught a dust obscured figure landing next to the wolf creature.
“Who are you?” Hyoga yelled. The figure said nothing as it reached over and threw something over the beasts head….then both disappeared. The two Saints rushed forward, but there was nobody there.
“Teleportation?” Shun guessed as the scanned the area. The sounds of sirens came from behind them. Hyoga glanced back.
“We had better get out of here.” The Cygnus Saint said firmly. Shun nodded and the two left as quietly as they could.