"As I said, they'll need rest and quiet. We are evaluating the possibilities of deep trauma, but this of course remains in doubt until they regain consciousness. Given the extent of their wounds -the internal concussions most importantly- heavy sedation is recommended..."

I watched in silence as Athena nodded, giving the doctor silent permission to do as he saw fit in the case of an emergency.

"Now of course," the tall man continued, pushing his glasses up from the bridge of his nose. "Because of their...abilities, we could still seek out help from other psychics..." he trailed off as Athena shook her head vehemently.

"If needs be, I have plenty at my service," I winced at the authoritative tone she used. But why should I feel so disheartened by it? This was what we had fought and killed for, our Goddess Athena who would save the world, our genteel justice. "However, I have the feeling that such an interference would only worsen their state, given their current attitude..."

Indeed, though the five Bronze saints had not yet awakened, already their frayed mental barriers were gaining strength, as if they favoured that over the healing of their bodies. Athena said little or nothing on the matter, spending most of her time watching over Seiya.

I glanced through the rectangular window that allowed the hospital staff to monitor Athena's chosen ones without going into the room directly. Seiya looked beaten up, which was an understatement. I sighed and turned back to Athena and the doctor, distantly aware of Mu's gentle questioning aura.

I turned away from my Goddess, staring at the Pegasus saint, who looked like nothing more than a little mongrel of a boy under all the painkillers that had been given to him. If not for the bandages and IV unit, one could almost believe he was an innocent child.

I felt a contemptuous lurch in Mu's aura and suppressed a small sad smile, as a healer he thought little or nothing of modern science and its miracles; most of us in Sanctuary carried that same backwards disposition, even though the modern world had its advantages. It was not our world anyway. However, even Mu could not cope with all the wounds and harm done to those children.... men, a voice in my head insisted. They had proven themselves true warriors already.

Mu's cosmo had a soft taste to it, a strange, alien sadness that was not the one I had come to associate as perpetually his. But then again, how could he not be? The events from two days ago were burned into my mind like acid, I still couldn't shake the image of him holding Saga's corpse, a look of pity and tender anguish on his face as he stared at the lifeless husk of the man that had killed his master. I would have expected hatred, anger or even disgust, but Mu seemed to pity him more than anything else, as if he did not blame Saga for all that had happened.

Not everyone did, anyway... and now that the funeral was over, there was so much to do, and so little energy to do it. We all dwelled in our past, frozen in that nameless hell that was particular to each of us separately.

"Aiolia?" I blinked and swivelled to face Athena, bowing gently as I acknowledged her.

"Yes, my lady?" I inquired, keeping my tone as neutral and subservient as I could. Her deep dark eyes glared back at me inscrutably, so full of something unnameable, so devoid of anything human.

"You may leave now if you wish to, I want to stay with Seiya a bit longer," she sighed, slumping into a chair. For a moment, she lost all semblance of divinity and was nothing more than a poor heartsick girl, but when she looked up at me again, that driving darkness still swirled in her eyes.

"Of course, my lady..." I bowed again, avoiding her gaze as I let Mu scan and hear the conversation through me. The outskirts of his aura ruffled up in curious sadness and he suddenly departed, leaving me alone. "If you need anything you just have to call."

She nodded vaguely, unaware of how hurtfully dismissive her gestures were as I rose up to my full height and strode out of the room. Of course she would worry and fawn over the bronze saints... they were her chosen ones because we had failed. But we, the gold saints, hadn't been even given the chance, we hadn't known who she was.

How could we?

And now the chance was lost, the honour we had lived for had passed onto those children while we lived on with the taint of humiliation and impotence, how useless had we been, a hindrance even, having helped the traitor in getting her killed. Yet she forgave us, as she had forgiven Saga. There it was, in the end, the proof: we were all traitors. Betrayal run through us like a hot scalding current, those who knew and those who were ignorant all alike, we had turned out backs on our Goddess and now we, or I alone at least, grievously envied the helpless little children that had saved her life and protected her in our place. I shook my head and moved into a less clustered area from which I could teleport closer to Sanctuary.

The mood around the temples was no better, a dark gloominess hung around the air, especially after the funeral. Since when had we funerals? And wonder of wonders, Athena had had a stone placed with my brother's name.

Sagittarius Aiolos.

No longer a traitor but a hero, an example of courage and faith. Oh brother, did you even know how things would work out when you ran off with the baby Athena? Did you know what pain and destruction would be thrown upon us from that day onwards? Did we even pass the test that was set for us? Athena lived... but no thanks to us for that. I didn't want to dwell on that, not now at least, so I headed straight towards the Aries temple.

Kiki looked up from the pieces of cloth he was examining, giving me an impish grin as he floated unsteadily up to where I was. So young and with so much power, could Mu really turn this fiendish little creature into something worthy of the Aries cloth? Then again, Aries was a symbol of power and leadership, whether it was asserted through implicit force or outward pressure; perhaps Kiki was simply manifesting a different side of the same sign. Goddess knew such a thing was possible, Saga being the main proof, and Milo's constant changing moods and ambiguity the other.

They really had been perfect for each other, hadn't they brother?

But even love could not win against the darkness that took root within their hearts, and love became the force that destroyed them, made them so absolutely wrong for each other... precisely because they were perfect in that. There could be no love here... or so we were told again and again.

But surely, one could bend those rules, one could at least try to love, like Milo and Saga had, like I wished Marin would try to do with me, like my pupil Katrina had unsuccessfully tried to force upon me?

"Is Mu here?" I asked the small boy, not extending my aura to find this out for myself in deference to my status as guest in this temple, not even invited. Kiki shook his head and gave me a lopsided grin.

"Athena summoned him a few minutes ago. Said she needed some advice on a dire matter or something..." he giggled and shrugged. "Do you want to leave him a message?"

The child was amazingly natural to us all, completely unafraid of his superiors. It was obvious why, as Mu's protégé there was little chance anyone would dare harm him, even more considering he might be the Aries saint in a few years, and if he was as long lived and unforgetful as jamilons seemed to be...well, upsetting him did not seem like a safe idea. The kid had his place set for him already, he could afford to chafe at our formal attitudes with his childish exuberance.

"No, it's nothing important..." I murmured, and passed through the temple hurriedly, pointedly avoiding eye contact with the rubble that had once been the five bronze cloths we had destroyed.

Ourselves.

In the distance I saw Shaina plodding through the temples, looking angry and impatient. Oh yes, Saori had probably forbid her from going to see Seiya after Mu had healed her wounds. Jealous teenager or possessive Goddess? I had no idea, but Shaina had clearly met her match for the time being, and with all the responsibilities lying around Sanctuary to be taken, there was so much to fix and so much to reform, her love would have to wait. Forever possibly, given Seiya's open devotion to Athena.

I walked up to my temple and strode into my quarters, flopping down on the bed with a heaving sigh I kicked off my sandals and buried my face in the soft mattress. Damn it all, I was too tired to think.

The current state of affairs, however, would not let me sleep. I was starting to drowse off when the insistent touch of an aura brought me back to my senses; there was someone at my door. I got up and, upon recognising the visitor, I padded barefoot to the entrance of my temple to greet Mu, trying to appear stoically proud of my dishevelled appearance. Mu smiled patiently and walked in.

"I've just spoken to Athena," he informed, an underlying warning in his voice.

"I know, your pupil told me you had been summoned," I replied, unsuccessfully trying to brush my hair into submission with my fingers. Damn it's tendency to flare out like a dratted mane, I was a lion, yes, but I attempted to be a well-groomed one!

"It was an interesting conversation, and she sent me here to ask you a favour," he went on, his voice carefully low and smooth, as if he were speaking to a child.

"Oh? And what is that?" I queried, raising an eyebrow pointedly, knowing that he could not imitate this gesture. He did not appear irritated by my deliberate baiting of him.

"She wants you to go and tell Milo she is summoning him," Mu completed, giving me a gentle and paternal look that suddenly irked me.

"Excuse me? Why not send you? Why doesn't she summon him herself as is custom?" Or should be custom, I told myself. It wasn't that I wanted to avoid obeying my Goddess' orders, it just seemed a bit out of place to ask me to do this.

"Well, if I go he might get the wrong idea.. I've been the one to usher him around a bit too often these past few days," his eyes darkened momentarily at the implicit mention of the past events. "And Athena is afraid that by summoning him herself he might be able to guess at her reason for doing so, through her aura. You are...well... neutral, so to speak."

I shook my head and sighed. "Sure sure, I'll do it. But don't blame me if he goes berserk."

"I know he's a bit abrasive of the late, but try to be a bit understanding," a hint of anger filtered into Mu's voice and I knew better than to contest him on that. "Just tell him to go to Athena."

"Sure thing, right away," I growled, walking back to my room to put on some decent garb. Milo was, for all his power, too beautiful and classy for comfort, I often found myself feeling ugly and run-down beside him simply because his impeccable taste in clothes and feline ways were too invasive and too attractive, even Marin had looked him up and down more than once, which unsettled me to no ends.

By the time I was done Mu was back in his temple, which was just as well since his rather imposing manner did not bode well for me were I to procrastinate on this particular assignment. I reached Milo's temple a few minutes later, having taken a shortcut through the secret -if one could really call them that, given that they were common knowledge- passages, only the Gods knew how they worked and made distances so much shorter. I suspected it had something to do with matter-altering, or portals, which would mean they were crafted by jamilon's most probably. Who cared?

Milo's sullen aura drew away from me when I tried to reach out to him, I pressed harder and was rewarded with a warning lash of power that meant, rather obviously "go pester someone else". I sighed and walked into the temple, scanning it for Milo without much reserve or decorum. A low growl came from somewhere to the right, making me lift a brow and shake my head.

"I'm here to deliver a message," I spoke out loud, very much away of the fact that he could hear me.

"Sod off!" came the low bark from somewhere in the darkness between wall and pillar. I had to stop myself from smiling thinly. The - oh so adorable!- Scorpio saint seemed to see fit to impose his murderous humour on all of us?

"I honestly couldn't care less about what you want, I came here in Athena's name, if that bothers you then get another job!" I snapped back irritably. There was the muted shuffling of someone getting up and suddenly Milo was out in the light.

He looked terrible.

His hair was a mass of unbrushed waves, there were dark circles under his eyes and he looked paler than usual, his posture one of indolent tiredness and did he have to look decadently attractive anyway!? I wanted to grab him and throttle some sense into him, but stopped myself when I looked into his eyes. Deep dark pools of pain and secret anguish stared back at me, a confusion and anger in their depths I could not begin to gauge. Two days ago Camus still lived, and Saga was only a remembered legend, referred to from time to time. And now... now there was a funeral, a traitorous reality and for Milo, utter and perfect loneliness. The silence that permeated his temple was more than just the absence of sound, it was the thick, cloying feel of utter emptiness. I stared at him, wavering between horror and pity, making up my mind on neither lest he be angered.

"What is it?" he whispered, leaning heavily on a pillar.

I glared at him, feeling the sudden need to ask him about my pupil, Katrina, since he had been the last to see her, he had been the one to relay her final message to me. But instinct told me this was not the place or the time to bring her up.

"Athena wants you to go to her," I informed him, seeing his eyes widen and grow almost afraid.

"What for?" Was that a hitch in his voice?

"I have no idea, I was sent to tell you to go to her, nothing more."

He bit his lip, eyes narrowing as he looked sideways, uncertainty written all across his features as she shifted on his feet. I felt a momentary flash of guilt flood me, didn't we have anything better to do than pester him? Let the man grieve in peace!

But then, Athena and Mu probably knew better.

"Very well.... it's not like I have a choice," he ground out, pulling at a knotted strand of hair distractedly.

"No, we don't," I nodded. Or did we? It was our very belief in the absence of choices laid out for us that had led us to mindlessly follow an impostor, even if I had seen he truth near the end, it made all those years no less true. Milo sensed the changes in my aura and guessed at my thoughts through them.

"Odd pattern of thought, oh brave one..." he mocked, making me turn slightly pink.

"Is it now? Why does everyone call me a heretic the minute I imply individuality, but they let you roam around spreading disaster as if nothing happened?" I demanded, making him grow even paler before he got a hold of himself and attempted to reasert his superiority in this exchange.

"Well, for one, you are supposed to be a symbol of loyalty while backstabbing is my job." He chuckled quietly, a liquid shine in his eyes. His light attitude bothered me, as did his smile. Why did Mu fawn over him all of a sudden,? We had all suffered great losses! He was no exception!

"Last I heard it was you lover who did all the backstabbing," I cut back, regretting the words the minute they left my mouth. Milo's smile froze in place, becoming menacing all of a sudden as his eyes flashed with the silent promise of agony and destruction.

"I wouldn't speak so lightly of matters I couldn't possibly understand," his voice was a smooth caress, it made me shiver. There was something...odd, in his eyes.

"What makes you think I don't...?" I drawled, unwilling to let him see he had intimidated me. In the end, interrelationships here were all about bluffing.

"Go away Aiolia... go back to Marin if she'll take you," I tensed in fury at the implied rejection he spoke off, even more furious because of the truth behind it.

"You know nothing of that," I growled, and he smiled, that odd look coming over his features again.

"Perhaps not, and we'll probably have a fight over this again some other time, but for now... leave me alone?" the sudden change in his tone rattled me, he had gone from defying to... pleading?

"Did you really love him that much?" I asked, all of a sudden.

"Who? Saga or Camus?" he laughed darkly, eyes glimmering oddly. I winced and looked away, not wanting to tread into his personal life more than necessary... one bet long ago was far more then enough for me. I had thought back then that he could win anything... but love eluded him just the same as the rest of us, duty be damned!

"You're right... I know nothing of what you feel," I had lost a brother and had believed him a traitor for years, but did I know what it was to loose a lover? I stared deep into Milo's tortured eyes and wondered what it would be life. Kat and Marin lived, they were far away from me in more than one way, but they lived. Whereas Milo... what did he have left?

"Tell Athena I'll go and meet with her tomorrow, I need to rest." He passed his hand in front of his eyes and sighed.

"Sure...."

I turned to leave, striding quietly out of the temple when his voice reached me, a strange and long, suffering laugh wrung from his lips by some thought. "You know what the worst part is?" I turned around to see him staring at his hands with wide unseeing eyes. "It's not the blood, or the pain... or the death. It's not the fact that Saga and Camus are dead, but they fact that they died for nothing!"

I shivered at the broken tone of his voice.

"Milo...."

"Don't you see? We defended nothing, we upheld nothing, and our Goddess doesn't need us. The whole point of our order is to protect Athena, and Athena was perfectly protected until Saga..." he drew in a deep breath and shuddered, "... until Saga attacked her. And now they are all dead, because we didn't see through a lie, so consumed with faithless duty as we were. So what was this war for?" His demanding tone made me take a step back, not because I felt threatened but because his words struck at thoughts I did not wish to dwell upon right now.

"Leave it be, Milo, there's nothing we can do about it now."

"Exactly, and there's nothing we could do before. You don't see it, do you? There was no point to this war, because Athena was going to win anyway... Saga would never be able to kill her... there was no point at all!" he lifted his gaze, and for a moment I thought he might cry, but a terrible coldness stole over his features and he looked down again. "I'm sorry Aiolia... I don't even know what I'm saying... please leave."

I did, hurrying down the stairs and breaking into a desperate run when the pain threatened to catch up to me, as if by tearing my lungs apart I could deny the truth of his words. I ran until my throat was sore and my vision no longer blurry.

Marin was waiting for me at the entrance of my temple, her mask shining opaquely in the heavy sunlight. I felt the sudden blind urge to pull her against me and hug her, but she would never let me do that, her very posture seemed icily forbidding. I wanted to cry, but I kept myself in check lest she think it was for her. Because it was for her, and for Milo, and Athena, and Aiolos and everyone who had fought this ridiculous war, all the people who had lived and died, who had been torn by the darkness of one man's heart, by the faith in one Goddess and the insatiable need to love and be loved. It was love that had doomed us all, Milo was right, there had been no point to the war, we were killing ourselves by trusting in our hearts.

"Aiolia...?" I looked away, unable to deal with our nonexistent relationship right now, unable to deal with her half-truths and maybes.

"Yes, Marin?" I sighed, letting my shoulders drop.

"I just... wondered how you were," was there a hint of worry in her voice?

"Tired, I guess... went to see Milo."

"I know."

We both fell silent after that, and I had to blink several times to keep myself from crying. Oh brother, did you know this was how it would end? This terrible pain and unbearable silence, so much lost and so much gained, and fountains of horror where only joy should be? Athena is back, brother, all thanks to you, and there are brave children out there who will uphold your legacy, your testament.

But I'm not one of them, nor will I ever be. All I wanted was love, brother, and that was forbidden. Yet, as Marin reaches up to touch my face and embraces me I dare to let myself hope. I allow my heart to bask in the brief warmth that she offers, knowing that as soon as I have stopped trembling she will have pulled away, and it will the same game all over again. The same maybe but not quite, the same yes and no, the same win and loose that leads as nowhere. Does it really have a point to it?

"You are trembling," she whispered, her breath soft and painfully feminine against my neck.

"I know," I whispered back in the same hushed tones.

"Don't be afraid," she cooed then, stroking my hair like I was a child. And I wanted to scream at her to stop, to plead for her to go on. But I didn't. It would drive her away.

"I'm not," I croaked at last, aware of how broken my voice sounded, my arms tightening around her curvy waist. I'm not afraid, I wanted to yell at her, I'm not! But I was, and would always be so.

Did you foresee this, brother? When you took that baby and your cloth, and you died so we never found out the truth... did you know this would be how it ended? This pointless struggle to reach the unattainable? I sincerely hope you didn't, I'll pray for your ignorance brother. Because if you did know, and you let it happen all the same, you are indeed a traitor.

The worst traitor of all.

The End

Toffzz: jee! I finished it! 2500^th request fic for Irene is up and working thankyou very much! Enjoy! Odd that I should write an Aiolia POV fic.. it started out as 3^rd person narrator and suddenly there was a whole bunch of "I's" and "Mine's" inside the story, so... Aiolia got his fic.*pats him on the head* Good kitty, good kitty!