Hints of past torture. Nothing too gruesome.

This story was based off of a random idea that I came up with after reading a fan fiction completely unrelated to Saint Seiya. The basic story synopsis is that the Saints believe that the Andromeda Saint had betrayed them when really he had saved them from the wrath of Hades when they had been unable to defeat him. The Holy War was postponed until next time, and they find this fact out far too late. Shun is reborn as a Saint (alongside some very familiar faces) and they set the Holy War into motion again.

This is the prologue to that story, before the actual story starts. This is set in a Holy War before Seiya and the others (though it's certainly not Lost Canvas). Basically this is a complete AU of the Hades Saga. I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a review below.

Prologue: Andromeda's Tears

The clank of chains was no longer a comforting or reassuring sound. Before, it had been an assurance that his Cloth and his Cosmos were near, that he was safe. He had been here for nearly two hundred years he guessed, existing, but not living. Hades' power had kept him young, recognizable, or well, he should have been. There were so many scars across his tiny body that it was nearly impossible to think of the happy and smiling thirteen year old that he had once been. There was no smile on his face now. It was little more than a pale stone with a mouth, nose, and eyes etched onto it in the semblance of a face. There was no emotion there now. He couldn't let it show.

Because if he did, he'd cry. He'd promised that he'd never cry, not again. Not after Athena had died. The other Saints thought that he'd betrayed them and Athena, but he supposed it was a logical conclusion to jump to after everything that had happened. Athena had been injured badly, he had been seen walking away with a few Specters, he'd probably thought the same thing too if he was in their shoes. Him betray Athena? Never. But even she hadn't seemed to know what else to think. The truth of the matter was though that he'd given everything for them.

After the battle that had badly injured Athena, Hades' plan had been stopped but he had not. In order to keep Hades from destroying all of his friends, the Andromeda Saint had offered the god of the Underworld...well himself.

If torturing and humiliating him until he died would keep Hades and his army away from the Sanctuary and from destroying everything then he was willing to do that. That had been nearly two hundred years ago, and he had yet to die. Apparently Hades had enjoyed torturing him more than he had thought. With the Holy War now approaching again though, he had no need for Shun. He was little more than a nuisance taking up space.

The chains had clanked because he had fallen to his knees, twisting his arms which were chained by his wrists to the wall behind him in an uncomfortable position. He hardly cared though. He was spent, but he still couldn't force himself to look down at the wound that was on his chest. It was a painful one, but he remained silent as always.

He didn't even remember if he knew how to use his voice. He had suffered in silence for a long time. Now however as the Specter walked silently away from the mortally wounded boy, chuckling to himself, he didn't even bat an eye. Funny, he'd used to be terrified of seeing blood. He supposed he'd seen a lot of it.

He was still a very beautiful young man. He had pale skin and green hair. It had once been long but now it was cut unevenly and ragged. It still managed to frame his face, which all the innocence of had long since left. His eyes were the same shade of green as his hair, if only just a little lighter. His eyes which had once been so bright and full of life were dead and staring, growing glassier every second that passed.

A huge hole had been ripped into his chest and he found it increasingly harder to both breathe and see. Blood trickled slightly from the side of his mouth, and still he remained silent. Pain was something he was used to now. He would endure it until he didn't breathe again. He found that grimly amusing as well. Dying used to scare him. Now it would be a sweet release. He'd just reincarnate again.

The room began to spin, so he closed his eyes to keep from heaving. There wasn't really a point in doing that anyway. It's not like he'd eaten today. He couldn't keep from doing so however and soon blood had splattered the floor in front of him, the front of his chest and face. Once his fit subsided he just closed his eyes and remained hanging there limply. He looked dead already, but the pain reminded him that he wasn't. He could feel, overhead, the cosmos of Andromeda weeping for him. He'd endured so much, and it had been unable to help, watching him suffering ever silently.

Other cosmoses felt the disturbance, the sheer grief that accompanied the cosmos as it watched its Saint die. The cloths and the cosmoses of Saints were alive after all. Though the cloth had long been removed to the Sanctuary he knew that both his Cloth and his cosmos knew the silent truth of the fate of the Andromeda Saint. No doubt, both Athena and the other Saints had wondered why he hadn't reincarnated yet, which had probably made them think even more that he had betrayed them.

He felt another presence brush up against his distant cosmos, and a gentle voice spoke to him. It held anger, but it suddenly comforted him more than he'd thought possible. He could feel her, Athena. She was calling to him, demanding to know the truth. But he couldn't reach his cosmos here, and her words were lost on him. He wished he could hear her voice once more, but he could only sense the emotion behind her words through his cosmos. He suddenly felt utterly alone. Silence was the only thing that greeted him, the unnerving sound of his blood dripping slowly to the floor. A single tear fell down his cheek, only increasing the uncontrollable grief of the Andromeda Cosmos.

Athena thought she was being ignored, and as she grew angrier, the Andromeda's cosmos grew more and more pained. He could feel it like a physical blow through his chest. The sheer grief of the Andromeda Cosmos, the raw pain, ripped through the other cosmos. They could feel it. He wished they couldn't. He didn't want to feel what would happen next. Athena grew confused, and her voice grew softer, gentler. She called to him quietly but he couldn't answer.

Dread filled her as she felt nothing but the raw pain of the cosmos. She'd never met anything like it. What could cause such unbearable pain? She didn't realize the Cosmos had seen their hatred of her Saint, and watched him suffer silently for their sakes in silence. She didn't know that he was dying, and the cosmos that had watched this boy grow and live so many times was unable to bear watching him finally break.

The Andromeda Saint could take no more. His head hung down to his chest as blissful unconsciousness finally took control. He wouldn't open his eyes again. Within moments, that great big heart of his had finally slowed and then stopped, unable to keep up with the blood he had lost. His breathing slowed and then petered out. His lips were left slightly open as if to catch the air that had finally ceased entering his lungs. He had died.

If his cosmos had been in pain before, it was in absolute agony now. The cosmos had a voice that could be sensed rather than heard usually, something that was spoken but not spoken. But all the Saints suddenly heard a voice they couldn't name, crying out in anguish and sheer agony. The heard the kind of sobbing that came from someone who had lost everything, a loud scream of someone who couldn't accept and never would. Though they started and looked for the voice they could find nothing. It didn't take them long however to realize what it was. The Andromeda cosmos was crying.

Athena's scepter had slipped from her hand and clattered to the ground. Her long purple hair swayed slightly in the breeze as she looked over the bright Sanctuary, but her blue eyes were clouded with confusion. She hadn't felt the Andromeda Saint's mind. She had felt nothing of his presence. Her growing anger had only served to make his cosmos more and more distressed, even her confusion and her gentler voice had done so. What had the cosmos seen? What had made it, a battle hardened but gentle cosmos, cry so much?

Only dread filled her as she retreated from the grieving cosmos. What could do that? She knew very well what it could have been, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it. Andromeda had betrayed her, hadn't he? That's what had been said, but the silent voice of the cosmos was now in so much agony that it had been heard by all of the Saints, not just sensed but heard! She suddenly felt ashamed at herself. The Andromeda Saint had always been so gentle, why would be betray them?

The anguish of the cosmos finally drove it home for her. A cosmos did not mourn its Saint because of death. They reincarnated after all. What would drive it to such agony? Watching its Saint suffer needlessly, silently. Athena sank slowly to her knees and brought her hand to her mouth as she felt bile threatening to rise. Tears began to roll down her face. She suddenly felt the same agony as the Saint's cosmos, only she could only feel numb. She knew that it was hammering through her, but she was too stunned by the realization to do anything. She looked up towards the sky, where his cosmos was pulsing in utter anguish.

"What have you done?" she whispered.

The sound of running feet could be heard but she couldn't bring herself to look up as two Gold Saints ran in. One was the Pisces Saint, with long bright blue hair and blue eyes, a rather beautiful young man. The other was the Virgo Saint, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, though they often remained closed. Both paused when they saw her silently crying and quickly knelt beside her, confused as to what was going on. They touched her shoulders, making her look slowly at them. They could plainly see the agony in her eyes.

"What's going on?" the usually calm Virgo Saint asked.

"Andromeda is dead," she said with such evident pain that it confused them.

"Lady Athena?" they asked.

"His cosmos," she said. "I couldn't sense him when I touched it, and it just kept getting sadder. Then it started crying and," she forced herself to swallow past the lump in her throat. "Andromeda never betrayed us. I'm sure of it now."

"But how?" Pisces asked. "We were told..."

"I know what we were told," she cried in agony. "I know...but I can't believe it anymore. In fact I'm ashamed to have thought it was true. He was such a sweet boy...why would he betray or hurt anyone?"

"Then what's wrong?" Pisces asked quietly. She looked at him sadly.

"The Andromeda Cosmos is crying,"

The two Gold Saints paused uncertainly, trying to process the sentence she'd given them. They could hear that it was crying. But what would move her to such tears? They knew she loved her Saints, and the thought of the Andromeda Saint's death had caused her tremendous pain. But why would that be the case then? If he had betrayed them then his cosmos would have abandoned him and found another Saint to reincarnate as him instead, which had happened before. But if the Cosmos was crying then...

The sheer weight of realization settled onto their shoulders firmly and they couldn't help but feel sick. They looked at their young and beautiful goddess, who was still crying firmly. They'd all thought he had been evil, that he had betrayed them. The realization that he hadn't was worse than thinking he had betrayed them. Now that they thought about it, why would he ever want to hurt anyone. He was always putting others before himself.

"His cosmos hadn't abandoned him," Pisces gasped. "He hadn't betrayed us!"

"But then why hadn't he reincarnated?" Virgo asked. "Unless..."

"Unless he hadn't died," Athena finished. "I think I understand the pain of his cosmos now."

"He had gone with the Specters," Virgo said quietly. "Not to betray us, but most likely to protect us. I think we all know what that means."

They were silent, and none of them spoke. They did indeed. The sheer agony of his cosmos spoke the magnitude of the truth they had just realized. It had watched him suffer for nearly two hundred years. The entire span between two Holy Wars. And he had finally died. The two Gold Saints found themselves bristling and snarling.

Few armies understood the love and protectiveness that Saints felt towards each other, more than just camaraderie. They had been friends for a long time, many years. They knew each other well and by sight alone if not name. They were ashamed now to think they had doubted him, and bitterly angry at themselves for allowing him to be tortured for so long. Hades was not a patient god, and certainly not with Saints.

The thought of that gentle and smiling boy being submitted to gods knew what tortures was more than they could bear. The two Saints felt themselves furious as well against Hades and his army. Perhaps the Holy War wouldn't happen until their next reincarnation but they wanted to make the Specters pay. In fact, they vowed to.

"Find him," Athena begged. "We must find him! We can't let him get hurt again. I don't care how long it takes. Find him and bring him to the Sanctuary!"

"Of course," Pisces promised gently.

Athena continued to cry quietly as the Cosmos of the recently deceased Saint continued to cry out loudly in anguish. The two Gold Saints stood and looked at each other. They were deeply angry but also deeply hurt. The poor Saint thought that they hated him now, but that couldn't be farther from the case. How could they hate someone like that? He'd lived up to his name now, the Saint who represented the legendary woman who would sacrifice herself to save others. He'd done the same thing, and it was too late for them to make their amends now.

Pisces especially made a silent vow to find the young Saint and bring him back safely. They owed that to him at least. His fist clinched a little at his side as his brow furrowed uncharacteristically. There was no way he was letting that boy get hurt again.

That was the prologue. Not entirely sure how that came out, but I hope you enjoy this story so far and feel free to leave a review below.