About 240 years ago. Before the start of the Holy War in the 18th century.
[Shion took a deep breath before entering the temple of Pisces. He carried a small chest made of carved wood full of small gifts for future Saints who would protect Athena because he was counting on that. Despite the fight that was coming, they would rise again victorious as it had been happening since the Age of Myth . So, it was because of the amount of memories that only he could see in the armor he repaired that he had decided to do something more tangible for those who will inherit their respective golden cloths. The last one left was Albafica to complete the collection, and Shion feared that the Pisces Saint wouldn't want to contribute although, if he had managed to get even an isolated Deuteros to include a volcanic stone... he could make the last warrior of the twelve houses contributes with a granite of sand, even if it was literally.
Going through the last temple always quickened his heart, not only because it was the end of the sacred stairs but because its guardian was quite special in many ways. He stopped at the back door, before the marble staircase, waiting for Albafica to understand that he had no intention of going to see Sage. A few minutes passed before the heavenly hair of the Saint of Pisces appeared from among the immense rose bushes that adorned and concealed his true home. Albafica was the only one who didn't live in the stone section that each temple had for its guardian, he had decided to live in a wooden cabin in the middle of her poisonous roses, away from the world. Apart from all:
"Is something wrong, Shion?"
"I don't want to rob you of much time, it will be fast." Aries's hands gripped the box a little more, they trembled, so that gesture served to calm them down a bit "I've been a few weeks... completing this and I would like you to be part of it."
Albafica raised an eyebrow:
"As a Gold Saint!" Shion felt his face redden, afraid that he had said something that could be misrepresented "W-We have all contributed something. It's for... the next generation of Saints. We don't know how many of us will survive this war and... in case none of us succeed, I would like to leave a sign of hope to those who inherit our armor."
"You fear that nobody remembers us, is that it?"
Aries swallowed, Albafica's hostility had always intimidated him but still, he told himself that he shouldn't give up although he was already beginning to think that Deuteros had been much easier to convince:
"Please, it doesn't have to be too convoluted... Kardia has pulled by himself out an fingernail." Albafica laughed out loud at the image Shion described. Typical of someone like Kardia.
"It's okay. Do you think it will stand the test of time?"
"Degel will leave it frozen in Aquarius. It will be hidden somewhere but it will be easy to locate by a golden cosmos."
Albafica looked at the sky, then at the rose bushes above their heads. Shion resisted the urge to pay him a compliment, Albafica's face had always been the most beautiful of all the Gold Saints but he also knew that those kinds of comments didn't please his comrade-in-arms too much. Pisces raised the hand, placed it on a rose and gently took one of its petals, a crimson memory that took a soft kiss from the lips of such a special warrior. Shion felt envious of that petal:
"It will be enough?"
"Sure. It's better so much that Kardia's gift."
Aries opened the box and watched as Albafica left his memory there, along with that of everyone else:
"A metaphor... very appropriate to represent us."
Pisces whispered, stifling his expression before turning around and ending the conversation with Shion. ]
***
"He was sad... and I never understood why, maybe because he felt that his curse would continue wherever there was a Pisces Saint."
"I don't think that it'll the reason..." The ancient Pope looked at Elyn, the girl had drawn on her face the same expression that Albafica had worn years ago "Don't be offended, Sir but that box... didn't have the effect you expected. I remember what happened when Saga gave me permission to open it. There was a lot of red, almost all the little details were that color and overall, rather it seemed..."
"Blood." Shion suddenly understood.
"Yes... Those memories brought quite a bit of bitterness. I was in charge of going through the Twelve Temples delivering them: Mu burst into tears when he recognized one of yours tools, you know... you had already died when we opened the box." Shion recalled that he had saved in the past a small piece from his workshop, a chisel for the smallest details that had belonged to Hakurei, his heart sank when imagining his young pupil receiving such detail "I gave Aioria the red bow but he broke it, he said it reminded him the 'traitor of Aioros.'"
"It was the Sisyphus tape, our kind and more affective Sagittarius Saint. His tape was a symbol of hope, he was very exited and proud of this gift."
"I wanted to hurt him... My relation with Aioria never was good and, in this time, I thought it would be funny. Deathmask and Aphrodite laughed very much too and I just had ten or eleven years old..."
There was a pause, very necessary to calm the anguish that had settled in the hearts of the two conversing warriors:
"That's terrible..."
"We have all apologized to him and Aioros... The relationship between the Gold Saints is now different, Sir... Even I am."
"I'm glad to know it... What did Aphrodite do with the petal?"
"He let it go." Elyn replied. Shion frowned, confused. "He said that... that petal deserved to be free. The smell, the cosmos that remained inside... deserved to be free and flee the Sanctuary."
Remembering the box had once left an atmosphere full of sadness in the temple of Pisces, Elyn visualized Aphrodite in her mind the day they received the gifts, he remained withered, dull, and isolated for several days, as if... a strange poison had taken over his heart. For his part, upon hearing that story, Shion confirmed his suspicions: somehow, the petal and the new Saint of Pisces had connected giving to the boy the same aura, cosmos and power that Albafica had long ago. The curse that Shion believed to cut thanks to Aphrodite had returned to the Sanctuary because of the acts of his past:
"I'm sorry for the suffer that the box caused." ended up saying the ancient Pope.
Aries got up then and walked slowly away. The girl saw him lose himself in the temple of Pisces without knowing what to do or what to say and in fact… such had been the strange sensation in her heart that ahe had forgotten to ask him about the meeting he had had with the senior officials of the Sanctuary about the new kid.
***
One more disaster to write down in the endless list of mistakes made throughout his life. If only he had understood point of view of Albafica before putting the box away no trace of pain would have hit the Sanctuary, the last thing he wanted was for his predecessors to be left with a bitter taste in their mouths. Who would expect something like that? Only Albafica seemed to have foreseen it:
"A metaphor... very appropriate to represent us."
The Red. The color of blood, the color of death... That which predominated most in the Sanctuary when the children found the box that he had kept with all the illusion that could encompass his chest. Shion sighed, wishing he could have been there and changed that feeling that had saddened his children long ago.
It was then that he looked up as the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs caught his attention. His eyes crossed, like a long time ago with those deep blue eyes, a boy whose straight blue hair intended to compete with heaven; the mole under his gaze, the innocent beauty capable of win in front the gods: The boy who had resonated with the cosmos of the Pisces cloth.
Bafi, who was his name, watched him for a moment with eyes full of surprise. They had already seen each other hours before in the temple of the Pope to present him as the future guardian of the twelfth temple but they hadn't had an opportunity to interact. Suddenly, Bafi smiled, the boy whose appearance was exactly like Albafica's showed a wide smile from ear to ear. Shion paled, he had known that facet of his former comrade-in-arms, he had played with that boy who only had eyes for Lugonis until his death, made him lonely and distant. Bafi was the Albafica who had conquered him in his childhood. The kid ran, his breathing after climbing the twelve temples was accelerated but something had motivated him to continue on his way without missing a beat. He ran towards Shion, wearing his smile with pride and th open arms... but he left him behind. Bafi passed by the ancient Pope's side, paying him no more attention than the few seconds that his gaze had lasted. Aries turned, following in the footsteps of the little boy of just seven years... His goal was none other than Elyn: The person who had found him and promised a new life away from loneliness, the streets and bad company. She had saved him and as such she was worthy of the little boy's smile.
It was a little hard to accept that he was no longer a high office but just a man over two hundred years old with the appearance of a guy of eighteen who was too tired, too extinct to continue locating lost children around the world and saving them:
"Hey! Sir-Shion! Wait a moment!"
Aries blinked, Bafi's voice had freed him from his thoughts and forced him to pay attention outside. It began to rain, shyly, just like in his heart. Shion looked over to where Bafi was but the boy was lost for a moment inside the well-to-do house inside Pisces, and then he appeared carrying an umbrella that he held out to the man stayed in the middle of the temple looking him:
"If you don't use it, you will get wet."
"Thanks... Albafi..."
"BAFI! I am Bafi!" The boy interrupted. The height of the situation was that he also called himself Albafica, according to the kid... because that was what his heart told him even if he didn't like the name. That is why he wanted everyone to call him Bafi "Say it well, otherwise you will run out of umbrellas and you will have to get wet."
Shion sighed before smiling:
"I'm sorry... Thank you, Bafi."
"That's better. Promise you won't forget my name and you will never call me Albafica again!"
"...I-I promise."
His smile, his innocence, his expression... everything was the same in the boy. Everything except one thing:
"Wait!" Bafi exclaimed, grabbing his wrist "You don't need to return it right away, you can do it the next time you have to go up here, even if it's sunny."
Shion stared at how the boy was holding him, how he was holding onto his wrist to prevent him from leaving without hearing his last recommendation. They could touch. Something that he hadn't been able to do with the old Albafica:
"Sure ... I'll remember it too."