13A/N: Amazing how you just feel like writing something sometimes. Anyways, this is an expansion of "Two Saints, Two Feelings"… and I'll be covering seven pairs of Gold Saints. No, none of the others are going to be yaoi pairings, but they'll still be good. Some of the chapters will have obvious ones, like Milo and Camus, but others… well, you'll see.
Two houses down, Aiolos thought as he sprinted through the Aquarius temple. Things were looking decent, at least at face value. Saga would not come after him personally… a fight between them would result in a clash of Cosmos so strong that anyone would notice right away that Pope "Shion's" Cosmo didn't feel quite right. If it weren't for the newborn infant in his hands, Aiolos would gladly go back and risk his life just to expose the traitor.
Aiolos knew his own temple would hold no enemies. Aphrodite, as he called himself, was still training, as was Camus. That accounted for the first two temples Aiolos had ran through. Milo was probably with them… if not, Aiolos would try to keep it quick. Shaka, as usual, was meditating in India. Aiolos's own brother, the favorite candidate for the Leo Cloth, was not yet worthy to don the Gold Cloth, hence, that temple would be empty.
Deathmask, well, Deathmask was Deathmask. The butcher of Sanctuary, yet at the same time, vaguely philosophical to anyone that actually bothered to listen to him. His Hell Wave technique, at least at the moment, could only affect one person… and he'd obviously go after the threat, not the infant Athena. Aiolos knew if he flared his Cosmos enough, Aldebaran or Mu might get there in time.
That just left one problem to Aiolos… and he dreaded it.
Shura.
The Capricorn Saint sat in his temple, waiting what he knew who would appear. He really couldn't believe it, that his best friend had raised his hand against the Pope.
Literally.
The footsteps and the approaching figure let him know it was time. He stood up, the figure stopped.
"Shura."
"Aiolos."
The two faced each other for a moment, neither one making any kind of offensive action. Shura's eyes, however, drifted down to the child in Aiolos's hands, and his mind began to ponder. "Is that Athe-"
"If I don't answer you, then no matter what, you'll never run the risk of a slip of the tongue. It's nothing personal," Aiolos countered. Shura nodded.
"Excellent point. Well then, what will you do?"
"What else? You're right here in front of me. You let me go, and you'll be called a traitor too. Excalibur is legendary, but it's not unstoppable. Some day someone will be able to overcome it, even if I can't."
"Something happened up there, it wouldn't kill you to tell me." Shura said, pointing up to the Pope's palace.
"But it might bring about your death. You're my friend, my best friend. The less you know, the better."
"You're no traitor."
"And that's why I won't do anything to make you seem like one either," Aiolos said. His voice stayed strong, but the tears in his eyes let Shura know how much this pained him. "I mean, for Heaven's sake… you're ten and I'm not that much older. We go out in the world, we'd be spotted instantly. And what does that mean for us? Death or worse."
"Things won't be much easier for one person," Shura answered as he leaned back against a wall, letting Aiolos walk with him as they moved through their temple.
"Yeah. I know." They were side by side, holding off the inevitable if only for a few moments.
"You were right though… about Excalibur."
"What do you mean?"
"Someday somebody's going to surpass me. They'll have to. You won't say anything, but it's obvious something bad is going to happen here. And somebody is going to fight their way up the temples… and that someone, not Aldebaran with his strength, Saga with his absurdly vast Cosmo, Deathmask with his psychotic nature, Shaka with all his debilitating philosophies, or Milo and his contradictory nature of "Nice guy, but I'll kill you" are going to stop them. Maybe it'll be a group. I don't know. But that person will have more fights on their hands, and they'll need Excalibur."
"You sound like you're going to die testing them."
"Atonement. I'm damned no matter what I do, since going with you is out of the question and I'll no doubt have to take the low road and sit here and follow Sanctuary."
"That's going to take courage…" Aiolos smirked. "But you're right. No need for us to worry about fixing this on our own. They'll take care of it."
"Who?"
"That someone or someones you talked about just now. You think we have time to run down to my temple without anyone seeing us?"
"Sure… I could make something up to cover for you. What's the plan."
"Write a last will and testament."
The words horrified Shura, and he immediately grabbed Aiolos, stopping from shaking him at the last second when he remembered the baby in his hands. "What are you talking about! Get out there! Tell someone about what's going on here!"
"I will," Aiolos said as he looked Shura in the eyes. "But as hard as it would be for two kids to make it out there, it'd be just as hard, if not harder for one all alone. I realized that just now. I'll find somebody decent, appropriate… hand the child off to them for caretaking. But if I go too, they'll find me eventually. The more time flows, the more Saints there will be. And that would just make my life harder. I'm out of options. You're going to have to kill me."
As much as Aiolos's previous statement had shocked Shura… this one took the cake.
"You're kidding. You have to be."
"At least if you do it, I can consider it an act of mercy."
"Aiolos, I don't care if you really would be a traitor! I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU!"
"IF YOU DON'T DO IT, SOMEONE ELSE WILL EVENTUALLY ANYWAYS! AT LEAST WITH YOU…" Aiolos shouted back… wishing Shura would just understand. Spelling it out to him would hurt more than any lethal laceration by Excalibur. "At least with you… I can consider it an act of mercy."
Shura, Gold Saint of Capricorn, didn't know what to say. Eventually, however, he started walking again.
"Where are you going?" Aiolos asked as the Spaniard stepped out of his temple.
"Your last will. If I'm going to kill you, you might as well write it first."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me, seriously. I'm going to have to make it look real."
"You're not going."
"Shura, listen to me! If I don't go with Saga and the others, then-"
"Then Sanctuary will truly think we're traitors!" Shura roared, the Capricorn Saint trying to talk his friend out of joining Shion and the others in the 'attack' on Sanctuary. "You're a hero now! You've saved Seiya's life on three occasions! What will the other Gold Saints think when they see the rest of us? Deathmask and Aphrodite will be no surprise… a shame too… and Saga, Camus, and I have made enough mistakes that nobody would think the wiser if we decided to regress. But if they see you, Aiolos…" he put his hands on his friend's shoulders.
There were two things that made life after death bearable… the first was Shura's joy at Shiryu's victories, one of them due specifically to Excalibur. The other was seeing his friend.
"If they see you, then they'll know something is wrong. Never in a million years would you ever fight against Sanctuary. I'm not saying this as a Gold Saint already with a tarnished name, I'm saying this as your friend… don't do this."
Aiolos looked at him and then turned away. "Okay. Just…promise me you'll make it look real, okay?"
He turned around in time to see Shura salute him before the Gold Saint ran off to meet the others.