"Panpolemos" (Global War)

Author's warnings: This is a post-Hades fic, starting ten years after the Holy War in which Seiya and the Gold Saints died and bases on both the manga and the anime. It's pretty neutral so far, but it will contain yaoi (though het will be there as well), so hit the back button if you don't know what that is or if you don't like it. Other than that, please just forgive any mistakes in grammar, English is not my mother language. On the other hand, please do not hesitate to point out any mistakes concerning timeline / characters / canon facts / etc. Thanks a lot to all who take the time to read this.

Chapter 1. The Past We Can't Leave Behind

Jabu knelt in front of the altar, observing the slumbering form laid on it in the dark. His heart tightened, wondering how Saori Kido, heir to one of the most powerful economic empires of the planet, could sleep so deeply in that barren room, on the cold altar stone, wearing just a plain white traditional Greek robe. He could easily envision her, instead, resting among silks and brocades befitting her noble upbringing. She deserved that, and so much more. Still, he knew that it mattered very little. Saori was the goddess Athena, and she didn't really need material luxury. She was beyond that type of mortal futility. Besides, she didn't seem to notice anything much around herself anymore. She hardly even woke up. She would sleep the night and most of the day, only rising around dusk to take a brief walk through the Sanctuary.

The Holy Temple, dedicated since the mythological days to the worship of the Goddess and the training of her saints, had been restored almost completely after the destruction caused by the war with Hades, but Jabu wondered if rebuilding the place had really been such a good idea. The ancient palaces might be standing again, possibly more magnificent than before, but Sanctuary was cold and empty. There was no training in the arenas anymore, nor a guardian sat in any of the twelve temples. Athena wandered through the deserted buildings at dusk, her eyes filled with tenderness. Jabu knew she could see things not of this world... not any longer. She saw the glorious past of this place, for all the cruelty perpetrated among its walls could not tarnish the past magnificence of the Sanctuary, the fact that nobility and justice of epic proportions had sprung from its sacred stones since the age of myth.

Jabu's eyes filled with tears. True, the wars of ten years before has been terrible, and so much had been at stake... but he could remember so vividly the fierce emotions of those days. Friendship, loyalty, love, devotion.... it all seemed so distant now. It seemed like they had lost more than it was possible to lose for anyone, human or god. The Unicorn Saint was roused from his melancholic meditations by a gentle hand resting on his shoulder. He turned his head around and saw Shaina looking down at him through her unreadable mask. Her hand was warm. It was such a contrast with the coldness surrounding them. They were willing and ready to serve, and yet nobody would call upon them. He felt as if they had been entombed alive. His heart contracted painfully. The slumbering goddess didn't need him now. He rose from his kneeling position and followed the Ophiucus Saint out of the chamber.

***

"Do you come here everyday?"
Hyoga did not turn around at the sound of the familiar voice.
"No, but I like to pay my respects, once in a while."
"I see."

The Cygnus Saint finally tore his eyes from Crystal's grave and turned around. He smiled without even realizing when he saw the warm green eyes of his old friend looking at him with their usual tender expression. The years had changed Shun, he was a full grown man now, but in his heart of hearts, where it truly mattered, the young man had always remained the same. It was those eyes which gave him away.
"It's been a long time" Hyoga said, looking away in the distance. The warmth radiating from his friend hurt him, reminding him of things long past.
"Two years and five months to be precise. How have you been doing?"
"Fine. Nothing unusual. What about you? You are the man with a career. Tell me."

Shun held the fur rimmed coat closer to himself as he walked away from the grave with Hyoga at his side.
"Oh, nothing to bother you with, really."
Hyoga smiled ironically. After the war, he had been entrusted by Saori to care for the Kido Enterprises and the whole Kido estate. It was a great responsibility that Shun had taken upon himself in his usual quiet way, without complaining. The Kido empire flourished under his guide. Even Hyoga, living in the Siberian tundra, away from the rest of the world, knew as much.
"You're always too modest for your own good."

Shun laughed. Hyoga thought that when Shun laughed that way flowers bloomed somewhere in the world. It was a warm, rich sound, like sun and earth. It was horrible to hear it after trying so hard to forget about it, forget about the day when they wore their bronze cloths and fought to save the world. It felt like geological eras had passed since then.
"What brings you here?" he asked.
"I wanted to see you" the Andromeda Saint replied simply.
"Really?"
"You never come to Tokyo anymore."
"Yeah."

Hyoga kept silent, knowing that Shun was there for a reason, and that he would tell him in time. He didn't have to wait very long.
"I met Julian Solo last month" his friend said, halting his step on the ice covered ground. "He didn't remember me. We talked about business. Sorrento was with him. He told me that Julian doesn't even remember being possessed by Poseidon. It's... I found it kinda sad that he had forgotten. It felt as if... as if I had dreamt all about that war under the sea, the mad run for the pillars... and then I went to see Saori-san as well. She sleeps all day long, only rising for about half an hour around dusk. She doesn't talk to anyone. Sanctuary has become a ghost town. The temples have been rebuilt, but they're cold and empty. Jabu and the others are still there, but it's not the same as it was. Tell me, Hyoga, have I really dreamt all that? The Galactic War, the run through the twelve temples... and then Asgard, Poseidon, Hades.... Was it all a dream? Sometimes I think I cannot even remember Seiya's face anymore."

Unable to come up with anything intelligent or even vaguely comforting to say, Hyoga looked up at the dark clouded sky. He knew the feeling all too well. Sometimes he expected to wake up and realize that it had all been a dream. His body moved instinctively to embrace Shun. His friend locked his own arms around him.
"You seem quite real, I don't think you could be a dream" he whispered, both to Shun and to himself.
"Yes, you feel quite real as well" replied the Andromeda Saint, smiling in his companion's blond hair.

"Do you have news of the others? How's Ikki, by the way?" asked Hyoga after a while, releasing his friend.
"You know how he is. He's always wandering here and there. He visits once a year, when it's my birthday. We spend the day together, he gives me a silly, childish present, I give him the money he needs to keep travelling and then off he goes. I've last seen him five months ago, we met at the airport of Narita by chance. He was going to India, he said."
"What about Shiryu?"

Hyoga felt the uneasiness in the silence that greeted his question.
"He's fine, isn't he?" he insisted nervously.
"So you didn't hear... I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier. He's fine... physically, but... Well, he and Shun Rei were helping the people in a village where there had been an outbreak of some disease... leishmaniasis viscerale, I believe. Shun Rei fell ill, and..."
Hyoga felt his teeth almost cracking from the pressure of his tightened jaw. He felt anger at the thought that fate could play his friend such a dirty trick. Shun Rei was the angel that kept Shiryu sane after he lost both his teacher and his best friend, and now even she was gone.
"Shiryu retired to Gonro-ho, he writes to me once in a while to let me know he is alright. You know how he is, even when he's feeling horrible he wouldn't want anyone to worry about him. I wish there was anything I could do."
"You're there for him, Shun. That's certainly more than what I've done. When did it happen?"
"It was about a year and a half ago. I'm sorry I didn't let you know earlier, I could never find a good way..."
"There is no good way to say this sort of things, I'm afraid."
"I told him I would be happy to visit him from time to time, but he expressed the wish to be left alone, so I kept away."

"Perhaps we overestimate Shiryu" said Hyoga after a brief silence.
"Huh?"
"Perhaps he thinks he can do fine on his own, but we shouldn't believe him. Perhaps he needs us, even if he doesn't think he does. It feels wrong that he should bear the pain of this loss all by himself."
"We could go check on him..." suggested Shun, hopeful.
"That sounds like a plan."
Shun smiled again, and Hyoga felt all the weight of his loneliness slipping away from his shoulders at the sight. They had been parted for too long. It was time for them to come together and face both what was behind and what was in front of them.

***

To Shiryu Gonro-ho was no better than the road to Meifu Death Mask had once shown him. Without Shun Rei and Roshi, the place was gloomy and spooky. The fine mist that rose from the waterfall had a sinister quality to it that made shivers run through his bones. Shiryu smiled faintly, remembering his Dragon Cloth resting under the stream. He had been so eager to win that armor back when he was a child, but now he knew that he was not capable of wearing it any longer. Its weight had become unbearable, and what use would it be anyway? It couldn't save his most beloved when her time came, so maybe it really wasn't what he'd always believed it was. Had it been all a dream? It would have felt like it, if the pain hadn't been so sharp.
"He wouldn't give up like this, you know."

The Dragon Saint rose at the sound of the familiar voice.
"Strange of you to come here" he said, turning to face his visitor.
"I get nostalgic in my old age, so I visit friends" Ikki said laughing and shrugging at the same time.
"You're only two years older that I am, does that make me old as well?" Shiryu joked half-heartedly. He wanted to be annoyed by the Phoenix Saint's sudden intrusion, but he couldn't bring himself to. It had been... how long? Four, maybe five years since he'd seen any of the others in person. He had almost convinced himself that they might have been a delusion, a fruit of his own imagination. But Ikki was there, infuriatingly impossible to ignore as only he could manage to be, so maybe he was real after all.
"So, were you contemplating the view?" the short-haired man asked, turning to look at the waterfall. He didn't speak very loud, yet Shiryu could hear him distinctly even over the noise of the stream.
"What did you mean, he wouldn't give up?" he asked instead of replying.

Ikki stopped smiling, and his expression became very serious, suddenly.
"I am disappointed in you, Shiryu. It's not like you to close yourself to the world this way. It's not what Seiya or Shun Rei would want."
"So you know."
"Yes" the Phoenix saint replied, nodding gravely. "Shun didn't want to tell me, but I knew anyway."
"Honestly, Ikki" Shiryu began, trying to sound annoyed even if he knew he'd only look miserable in the end "I'll start to take advice about my behavior from you when I finally understand yours. Why have you been wandering all these years? Shun needs you at his side."

Ikki smiled at him as if he had expected the question. Well, he had always been perceptive, Shiryu could grant him as much.
"Shun coped, as we all did. I needed to see the world, Shiryu. I needed to go out and know the reason why Seiya and the Gold Saints died. I needed to learn, to know the world as it is to make sure that their death was not in vain. I needed to know this world they all died for was worth their sacrifice."
"And what did you find out?"
"That the deepest part of my heart is split. I have seen all, beauty and misery, death and life, things noble and things hateful. There is so much wrong and so much beauty at the same time... and in the end I could see why this world is worth dying for. But a part of me knows that for all the beauty of the world I will not have my friends back, and this angers me. And still, even if nothing can replace what we have lost, we cannot allow ourselves to grow cold and bitter over it. They died for us as well. They died so that we could live. So do, Shiryu. Live. Leave this place and its ghosts."

The Dragon Saint's eyes dropped to the water below the cliff that hid his cloth from view.
"I...." he whispered, unsure of what to say. It was as if his mind had short-circuited. A part of him recognized truth and wisdom in Ikki's words, but another part of him didn't want to abandon his mourning. He felt as if he would not longer be the man he was if he did. It would feel like betrayal.
"Shiryu!" a voice suddenly called, breaking the silence that had stretched between him and the Phoenix Saint for more than a few seconds.
"Shiryuu!" another voice joined in. "Ah, look Shun, isn't that..."
"Niisan! What are you doing here?!"
When the two bronze saints reached them, Shiryu felt an overwhelming gratitude. He had chased them away, and yet there they were, ready to offer anew the friendship he had returned so poorly. For these men, if for nothing else, the world still deserved to exist.

The four friends looked at one another carefully, then it was Shun to break the silence.
"Sorry, Shiryu, I know you said you wanted to be alone, but... you see, being your friends means being there for you, even when you don't want us to."
"It's alright Shun. Ikki was just pointing out that the panorama gets dull after a while. Come inside, let me treat you to dinner, then we can make plans for the future."
"We have awakened" said Hyoga, out of the blue. The others looked at him, understanding completely. Athena, Sanctuary, being saints and their friendship. They didn't need anything else, that was their reality. It was their life in the last ten years that had been only a dream, and not a very pleasant one at that. It was time to go back to the waking world.

***

Author's note: Phew! I started this in the spur of the moment (even though the core idea is pretty old), I hope all chapters will come out as easily as this one... I don't want to blackmail anyone, but it would be great if I got some C&C... those sure encourage a writer. Good and bad, all welcome!