Saint Seiya is property of Masami Kurumada and Toei Animation, and I'm neither

Enjoy!

PREFACE

AWAKENING

GENESIS

In a time before history, when men had barely started to walk with their backs straight, a demon- a fallen angel- left the deeper pits of his hell and walked the earth amongst them. He wasn't alone. His followers, his brothers and sisters, decided to make the earth their own.

They knew the world could only be theirs if men fell under their curse, for God loved them greatly and he'd have his hands tied. To take this animal graced by the creator; these favored children and make them their own, meant to've won over the heavens. So the demons approached men; watched them for millennia waiting for their time. When it came, they taught them their ways, bribed them with graces and fire; corrupted them. So men did what was natural for them.

They made them gods.

They needed more of their own to keep their power, but they wouldn't go back to hell, where they were nothing but pawns. Pure demons, as spiritual beings they were, couldn't reproduce. For that, they needed humans. And the best amongst humans at that.

It was so that these demons had children, and those children had children of their own. They spread across earth like a pest. But God stayed in his heaven, and all was well.

Their game was their perdition, though, for soon there was a handful of pure demons walking the earth, and those who'd been born of them, tainted with humanity, didn't feel them to be useful anymore. Then, after a gruesome and ambitious battle, those children did what was natural for them.

They made themselves gods.

Men kept on growing, civilizations were formed and destroyed and formed again. And the self proclaimed gods saw that their eternal power and youth was not so. They were tainted with humanity and in turn, they were mortal.

Their humanity also made them paranoid of their own kind. So they fought and killed and slaughtered in the name of inane causes to maintain their own power. They fought each other; they brought misery and fear upon the world, and some of them perished.

Men weren't loyal children, either. They'd turned on their own God to favor these beings that were more useful to them. It was a matter of time before men turned against them as well.

The spirits of these 'gods' weren't those of humans, though. They would not lose what gave them so much power over the creator himself.

They had to come up with a plan...

ATHENA

Saori Kido was dying. The piercing pain provided by the golden arrow buried in her chest was a good testimony of that.

For what? She was Athena, goddess of War and Wisdom, protector of the earth. She repeated those words over and over in her mind, trying to make the pain more bearable, make sense of things. Maybe if she was convinced of that, she'd find the strength to hold on and not start whimpering like a little girl, which was exactly what she felt like doing.

She'd always known, hadn't she? Deep down, she knew there was something different about her. Even as the little brat of a girl she used to be. She'd never pictured herself going to a prestigious school, having a boyfriend, going to a prom- in spite of her very prom-like dresses. She was never meant to have a normal life.

But now she was dying. That couldn't be right. Goddesses didn't die, did they?

A memory, whispers of words said millennia ago, struck her brain. A promise upon a cursed river. She could, indeed, die; but she'd promised, alongside her brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, even her father, that death would not keep them from their task.

'So,' she thought to herself as the memories flooded her, as she became one with the eternal spirit of the goddess, 'Is this what it feels like?'

Yes, little girl, a female voice, filled with self righteousness uttered inside her head, You're Athena, the virgin goddess. Now it's time for you to remember.

She fought; she really did fight against all the anger and spite that invaded her being. But it was useless; all that resentment was hers. She wasn't being possessed. She wasn't using an innocent to come back to life, like her brother, Ares, most certainly had. Centuries of memories, of failures, weighed upon her and the little girl in her, as bratty as she might have been, cried.

POSEIDON

Julian Solo stared at the place where the sea met the heavens. The horizon wasn't more than an optical illusion. On this earth, that place didn't exist. It wasn't really there.

Now, the resentment he felt towards Saori Kido was brought to a whole new level. Now he knew what had drawn him to her in the first place. Now he knew that the optical illusion was the belief that the heavens and the sea never met. He'd been there; at that point where everything started and everything ended.

It had merely taken a pawn; one man's delusions of power and the ruler of the seas was free.

Oh, Julian knew that the spirit within him wasn't alien. It was him. He'd found himself and he'd keep the promise he'd made so long ago. Athena had betrayed that promise; she'd abused the place her father had given her. Protector of mankind? Protector of what's just and right? Maybe all those years of playing the part had finally caught up with her.

A part of him, the youngest part of him, tried to justify her. He, Julian, tried to understand the depth of the hate he felt. But his own mind was betraying him, reminding him of the treason and deceit of his niece

It was time to set things straight. Athena and her ambition of power would not stand in his way. And if humanity was doomed as an aftermath, so be it.

HADES

For the first time in months, Shun had time to stop and think. Sitting quietly out on the balcony of his room, the Andromeda saint did just that.

The battle was done and, again, everyone had left to nurse their wounds. Ikki had left again, God knows where, and Shun doubted even the lord in heaven had an idea of when he'd return. Shiryu was, of course, in China, with his old master. Hyoga was off somewhere in Siberia, grieving for his childhood friend. Even Seiya, who'd usually stay in Tokyo with him after each battle, had gone off to Greece to find Seika.

He was worried about them. Each of his brothers, alone. They were all alone; left to deal with all those scars that had piled up battle after battle for the last year. Why couldn't any of them see that maybe staying together they could get over it faster?

They could all understand what they were going through better than anyone. Why go their separate ways?

And yet, maybe it wasn't the same for everyone. Now that he had the time and the peace of mind to reflect on it, several alarming facts had come to his attention. Something had changed inside him during the past year.

Ever since the battle of the Sanctuary, a feeling of inevitability had invaded every walking hour of Shun's life. Ever since he found himself at hell's doors, when he'd been as good as dead and he'd felt Athena's powerful cosmo luring him back to life.

He'd held his piece since that day. Who'd believe him if he told them that it hadn't been Athena the one to bring him back? Who'd believe about that voice he'd heard, telling him it wasn't his time? And even if they did believe him, how could he tell them about that overwhelming cosmo he'd felt in the underworld? A cosmo so much like his own and yet so different, so tainted with spite and regret.

And then there had been Poseidon. From the moment he'd seen Julian Solo baring Poseidon's soul, Shun had known. Julian wasn't like Saga; Julian wasn't possessed. Julian Solo was Poseidon. Whatever was locked inside that jar at the Sanctuary, that was not the god of the seas.

The pull he'd felt towards the blue haired boy, a sense of recognition; Shun could not deny it. It had also presented another problem. If Saga had simply been possessed by Ares; if Julian Solo was the true incarnation of Poseidon; then what was Saori? What made her different from the other gods? Athena had been the goddess of war and wisdom and, unlike Ares, she had protected the earth. But she was still a goddess of war.

Shun could see it in her too, just as he'd seen it in Julian. Saori was Athena. But just as Julian, Saori was also just Saori. Why was it so important? Why did he have the feeling that he needed to understand what it meant to be the incarnation of a god?

The dreams were growing more frequent; a woman with haunting red eyes, a realm he knew as his own. Shun couldn't even voice the thought of what he knew was coming.

"Nii-san..." he said to no one, staring at the full moon and clutching his pendant tight.

Would Ikki understand? How much time did he have to understand it himself before fate decided to force the path upon him? Ikki had told him once, to grasp his fate. Was that even possible?

Saori had forbidden them to go to the Sanctuary, upon death to those who dared disobey. She said she wanted them to lead a normal life. Couldn't she see it was impossible? With all the power she had, couldn't she feel what was approaching?

Or maybe she did? Just as he'd been able to feel some recognition towards her and Julian, maybe she'd seen the curse on him. Maybe that was the real reason for her command. She wouldn't want one such as him on the holy place that was the Sanctuary. He still wanted nothing more than to go there and confide on his goddess; confess his fears and, should it come down to it, accept his punishment.

Why should you be punished? The voice that spoke directly into his mind, sounding very much like his own, wasn't new. It had been there for some time now, but Shun still dreaded the moments where it made it's presence known. She's the one who'll be punished. You'll punish her, all of them. for their treason; for leaving you alone.

Shun clutched his pendant tighter, rested his back to the wall and slid to the floor.

"Not yet. Please, not yet." He closed his eyes as tears begun streaming from them, trying to keep them at bay.

TBC

FACTS: (Just to help out a little, ne?)

I didn't make this up. There's a protestant bible (I think Jehovah's witness', but I'm not sure) who talks about demons walking the earth. That story is consistent with Greek gods. That's why I used it. I am a religious person (in a way, which I'm not going to explain or discuss here) But I do believe everything goes at the time of writing a story. It's fiction so, if you're offended by it, I'm sorry. It's not a statement of my beliefs, or a judgment over other people's; it's just a story.

Chronos was the Titan father to the first generation of Olympians. I'm placing him as the original demon, and the other Titans, his followers. As angels can't have children, because they're purely spiritual beings, I assume that even Zeus was half human. Think about it, Greek gods are exaggerated representations of human qualities or flaws. They're rather extreme, and that would work if they'd been part human, but submitted to the definitiveness that spiritual beings have. (Angels, according to Judaism and Christianity, are not creatures who can learn or make mistakes. They're not free.- hence Lucifer being banished from heaven. He couldn't repent.)

Greek gods were eternal, but not immortal. If you managed to cut Zeus' head (though I'd love to see you try) he'd have died.

There's a mention of a cursed river. That would be is the Styx, the one you need to cross to be judged in the Underworld. You needed to pay for Charon, the ferryman to take you to the other side. But he wouldn't take you if you hadn't been buried. Every time the gods had to make a promise, they did it upon the Styx as we would upon a bible.