I stood in my bed, sweating…This whole story sounded so true…No it is just a dream! And besides, Hyoga’s a big boy.

What a wonderful day it is going to be, I thought as I went to train at the park. In fact, I didn’t train much: I was already fit, but Phoebe had lost most of her powers in the last battle and it wasn’t easy for her to reuse Cosmo, so I was helping her out. The program consisted in jogging, martial arts, and meditation. However Shiryu helped her with the meditation part: I didn’t like it much, sitting like this for hours. I admit it’s useful, but it makes me sleepy and I find it boring.

She was already there warming up her body. My heart beat a little faster in my chest. But she seemed a little worried about something. Well maybe it was just some bad sleep.

At last, here he comes! Why did I say that? I was early and he was on time. The dream I had had was truly getting on my nerves! I couldn’t stay calm, I was too anxious to do so. Well, training would do me good.

I did all my best. Seiya saw that and he pushed me a little. Since I wasn’t on my guard, I was quite surprised when he attacked me with his ‘meteor fist’, but I summoned my Cosmo and replied. I didn’t realize at the moment that I had done it, but when I heard Seiya laughing I finally understood: I could use my powers again! I DID IT!

"You finally made it, Pheb! I knew you could do it! I’m truly proud of you."

Then he came to me with a smile, took me in his arms and kissed me on the cheek. I blushed a little.

"Hello friends!" said a voice behind us, a voice I recognized for being Shiryu’s.

I blushed even more: Seiya was still holding my hand. He seemed happier than ever, smiling with his innocent smile. I realized there was no doubt about it: I loved him.

"Hi, Plato! You know what? Pheb has just found her Cosmo again!" Seiya said, jumping up and down like a small boy.

"Aren’t you tired, Pheb?" Shiryu asked. I could hear in his voice he was concern about me being hurt, but at the same time he seemed so proud of what I just did!

"I’m alright, feeling better than ever… Of course I’m a little tired but don’t worry, I’ll be fine!"

"Meditation will help you regain force. By the way Seiya, Saori wants to talk to you."

"I’ll be on my way then!" I could see on his face that leaving didn’t please him so "See you later Pheb! Take good care of her Shiryu: you know how important she is to me!"

For the third time I blushed as Seiya was leaving for Saori’s Mansion.

Damn it, what does Saori want again! I left Shiryu and Pheb to their meditation and made my way to the other part of the town, to the Kido mansion. The sun was shinning. If Saori hadn’t wanted to see me, I would probably have asked Pheb and Shiryu to come have fun with me at the beach. But "The princess Saori" wanted to see me.

After quite a long walk, I arrived in front of the house. I went directly to Saori’s office, and entered without even knocking, which Saori didn’t quite appreciate.

"You could knock before entering Seiya, that is a mark of a real lack of education"

"Oh, I’m sorry", I said ironically, "but I’m afraid in this house, I was only taught how to fight. If I had followed my education, I would even have broken the door, which I’m sure you wouldn’t have approved either!"

"Well, never mind", she said, putting back her make up in her desk. I laughed.

"Why did you call for me?" I asked. I wanted to get on with it as soon as I could.

"Me?… Oh, yes! A friend of mine has come today from the USA, and she has brought her 2-year-old daughter along. I thought, since you get on well with little kids, that you could play with her today. We want to go both in the mountain to hike."

"WHAT???" I exclaimed. "No way! Ask someone else!"

I left the room before she could say a thing. I was furious! She had called me to play the babysitter!!!

As I went through the front door, I bumped into Shun.

"Hello, Seiya, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Leaving, as you can see, and the sooner the better!" I replied "Saori wanted me to play the babysitter"

He laughed out loud. "So she asked you as well? Well, I’m going to Pheb and Dem’s house, wanna come?"

"Sure!" I said with a huge smile.

"Just wait for me, I’m coming in a few minutes, just forgot my watch in the mansion."

Seiya had left, but then…

I felt a struck of pain in my brain: NO!

"Are you alright Pheb? PHEB! Can you hear me?"

Shiryu…

"I’ll be fine. I think I made too much effort for today: I need to rest."

Shiryu shook his head: "No Pheb. It’s your mind who is affected, and not because of the power. What is your problem?"

"No, I ain’t got no problem. I’ll be fine." I was furious against myself: damn it! How could I be so stupid to let my fear take control over myself!

"Don’t lie to yourself. You know something is troubling you. Tell me: I’ll help you!"

I looked in his eyes… I know I could trust him. He wouldn’t tell anyone. Not even Seiya if I asked him not to. Telling someone about my dream might make me forget about it.

"Ok then here you go! But you must promise not to tell anyone."

He promised, and I told him about my stupid dream.

I listened carefully to what Phoebe had to say. Even if she knew it was just a dream, Phoebe was worried it might just happen. I admit it could have happened, but not to Hyoga! Frozen in the ice? No, he was Cygnus, Lord of Siberia. Cold couldn’t do him any harm!

"I bet you want to go to Siberia as soon as possible to see if Hyoga is fine? I am sure Hyoga is doing pretty well but I also know you will not believe me until if you see it by yourself. Pheb, even though you have regained your powers, you are still very weak. You cannot go alone. Take your friend Ceres along on your journey. At least if anything happen, you will be two. And do not worry about Seiya: he will not know anything…"

She looked down and I saw she was clenching her fist.

"There is a second solution: if you desire, I can accompany you too" I realized I was starting to worry "I could help you handle your fear and if your dream turned out to be true, I will be there."

I was quite surprised when Phoebe nodded. In other time, she would have said "No" because she would have been scared Seiya would have learned and laughed at her. Her saying yes proved she was terrified.

In order to calm her down, I told her "Let us meditate"…

At eleven thirty, Phoebe came back from her training. As she entered the small apartment we had bought, I could feel she was in a strange mood.

"What is it? Feeling the blues today? You seem like though you haven’t had a good training?"

"No, Everything’s alright. I can now use my powers again if I want to." she replied like if it was an ordinary thing. I didn’t understand her answer: the Phoebe I knew was joyful and talkative, even when she had a problem. I had hardly seen her like this before. Something was wrong, really wrong.

Thunder, Phoebe’s dog, a beautiful German sheepdog, came in and went to Phoebe. She smiled and caressed him, but even while doing that she seemed troubled. The dog sensed it and tried to cheer Pheby up but it didn’t quite work.

" Pheby, something is wrong," I said " Please tell me. I know you; I might be able to help you. Something’s telling me that it is not because you overdid that you’re acting like you do… come on Pheb! I’m your best friend, remember!"

" Of course you are my best friend Dem! It is just that I don’t know what I should do… You see I had this dream last night, and the nights before, about Hyoga being in danger and… hum… I can’t help thinking about it… Shiryu said that I should go to Siberia to see myself that it was just a dream… He suggested that you accompany me and if I wanted he could come along too, just in case it was going to happen… But I can’t ask you to come if you don’t want… Well you choose: or you stay here which I would understand because I’m going completely nuts, or you can come with me."

"Hey, I’m coming! What were you thinking? That I would laugh at you? No kidding! I think Shiryu’s right, and besides, a change of air will do all of us three good! Does Seiya know about that?"

"No, he doesn’t… and I don’t want him to. If it was just a dream…"

"I understand… You still love him but you can’t tell him… And you don’t want to spoil your image!"

She laughed. It was good to hear her laugh. It meant she was regaining confidence. "Well!" she said "I’m paying you a holiday in Siberia, Dem!"

That evening, we went to Saori’s house for dinner. She had invited us along, with Seiya, Shun and Shiryu. We would be eight with her friend from the US and her daughter; that would be funny. Well, if Phoebe forget her dream that is. She had had too much of a shock with Apollo. Having to let her brother be killed must have troubled her more than we thought. She had always had a quite fertile imagination, but I must admit, this time, it was ridiculous. However, I didn’t care, we were going to have a great holiday in Siberia.

We arrived at seven. We went directly to the living room, where the others awaited us already. The music was on. It was some modern stuff, French stuff to be precise. They were having a drink. All of them looked real joyful. We’ll have a wonderful evening as well, I could predict. The only one who didn’t seem so happy was Phoebe, however she acted in such a way that the others couldn’t realize something was bothering her.

At a moment, I saw Shiryu and Phoebe discussing in the corner of the room, soon interrupted by Seiya, who joined him. I can guess that they would have preferred to discuss alone for once.

We sat at the dinner table at about 7.30 and we just had a good time. Phoebe didn’t talk much for once, I must even admit she didn’t speak at all. Well, as we were eating dessert, a delicious strawberry tart, she decided to speak, at last!

"Tomorrow" she said "I’ll be taking a small holiday with Ceres. You won’t see us two for a while. I need a break, and some colder weather might just be what I need."

"That’s strange of you!" Seiya exclaimed, "Usually, you complain when it’s too cold!"

"A change of air will do us good anyway" I said to help Phoebe, because I knew that otherwise, she might not be able to answer.

"Can I come with you then?" Seiya asked.

"Seiya" Phoebe answered. This time, she had a perfect reply to throw out. "You promised Miho you would stay for the orphanage’s Easter party .You can’t let her down and disappoint her. It just wouldn’t be fair for her and the kids. You know they love you."

Seiya sighed, and bend his head down. "I know, I gave my word, and I can’t take it back." He looked at Phoebe, worried "But you’ve only just recovered your powers and I fear that it’s going to be to tough a trip for you to endure. I’d prefer that you stay here until you have completely recovered."

"Don’t worry" Phoebe comforted him. "I’m well enough now. I can do it."

"You are indeed" Shiryu added " Besides, I will go with them, that way you won’t have to worry about anything, they will be safe with me."

Seiya didn’t look very happy. He knew he could trust Shiryu, his friend who already gave his life for him. However at the same time, he didn’t want to let go off Pheb, and what is more, if all of us three departed, he would be here alone with Shun and Saori. Not that he didn’t like them, but I guess he said to himself, the more the merrier…

" Where are you going then?" Shun asked.

Oops, wrong question! I saw on Pheby’s face that she just didn’t know what to answer. But, then, after a few seconds of thinking, she finally said:

"Well, we’ll probably go to Asegard. I want to see the place, and I’m sure Hyoga will be pleased to show us around a bit. But I guess we’ll go to Dem’s place first."

She eventually said the truth. Except for the reason why we went there and the order in which we’ll visit the land that is! Because, as I knew Phoebe, we’d go to Asegard first, then to my place!

"How long do you plan to stay at Dem’s place?" Seiya inquired "like this I’ll know if I have to call you at her place, or send a mail to Asegard."

Another tough question, since we didn’t want to stay at my place at the beginning! Gee, I wondered how Pheb would answer that one!

"Well" she eventually said, "We won’t stay there long. I guess it will take us a couple of days."

Why did she say that? If he phoned and doesn’t get anyone, or is answered we never intended to stay, what will happen! Pheb must have had good reasons to say that…

Now we were only two. We had already packed our things for tomorrow’s trip. We just had to get a good night sleep. However, instead of going to bed, Pheb took a seat on the balcony, looking at the dark sky, where no stars were shining, that not even the moon illuminated. A dark night, too dark for her, as I saw her sad. She was the moon, and I felt something was wrong. I sat near her.

"Why did you say we were going to my place first for a couple of days?" I asked, "If Seiya phones, he’ll be told we never intended to come. He’ll probably worry to death."

"I know" she said "But I know him, he’ll call in two days time only. And in two days time, we’ll be back. It will take us a day to be in Asegard. To check will take us a few hours, so we’ll be at your place by the afternoon, around two, I think. That’s when he’ll call. And… If I was to be right and we take more time, he’ll see there’s a problem, and he’ll come to help us."

"So you played security, that’s good" I answered "it sure was a wise thing to do. But staying up here all night would not be wise at all. Let’s go to bed. We’d better sleep. And stop thinking about that dream."

As we were approaching the Asegard kingdom, I became anxious. Something was wrong. We were in spring, and I couldn’t sense it, I couldn’t see it. The more we came near the land of Odin, the more it became cold. But the temperature literally fell down every meter. What is more, the sky was gray, you couldn’t hear the birds sing, and there was still snow under your feet. In the middle of spring, in the Northern Hemisphere, it was winter. I felt uneasy. Quite often, I turned round to see if we weren’t followed, I listened carefully to all the noises surrounding me. I was starting to believe in Phoebe’s dream, even if it didn’t make any sense. I was starting to curse myself for not saying what was going on to Saori, to Shun, or to Seiya. We could have gone all together, taking some holidays if it was just a dream, fighting together if it wasn’t. Well, what was done was done. I had to protect Dem and Pheb at all costs. Dem could fight on her own, but Pheb was still quite weak, she’d had to be careful.

"What is the matter?" Dem said suddenly "Is there a problem?"

"No, everything’s fine" I lied.

"That doesn’t work with me and you know it Shiryu" Dem insisted "it has been a while since I’ve been watching you listening to each and every noise, looking behind all the time. I want to know what is wrong. At least if we are in danger, we’ll know it and we’ll be on our guard."

"You’re right, Ceres" I admitted "there is something wrong. I can’t exactly tell what, but we are in the middle of spring and it looks like if it was winter! Even if Asegard is quite a cold place, it should be this cold! Besides, I find that the day is not beginning early enough. We should see the sun rise at ten, and it’s past 12 and it has just begun rising! I came here before, and it seems to have changed. The place used to be nice and friendly, charming in a word, but it now looks like if the land is in grief…"

"My dream is not just non-sense, I’ve seen this place before" Phoebe said, slowly, clenching her fist, and holding up her tears.

"Are you ok?" Dem asked her.

"Yes, I have to be anyway" she answered "Let’s get going, we are near."

The sacred land of Odin, with the city, should have been there… But instead, there was a temple… a huge temple, with a great number of stairs… What had happened? This was non-sense! A Greek style temple in the middle of Lord Odin’s territory? This announced there had been some fighting and a lot of trouble to come. Well, I supposed the answer lies at the top of the stairs, as it always does… I just hoped Phoebe’s fear was unfounded.

But, where was everyone? The people of Asegard must have gone somewhere… They must have left this place for another one. They couldn’t have all perished! If only some were here to tell us what had happened and what was to be expected on the top of this hill!

My thoughts turned on Seiya. We’d probably had to fight. What would happen if Phoebe died? What would he say? Why didn’t I tell him our reasons to go? Or even just where we were going at first! If all the other saints were here…

Hey! Why am I thinking like that! We might not have any troubles! Maybe it is all over already, that Hyoga already manage to arrange that, since he should be here!

Hyoga! But if he were here, he would have sensed our Cosmo… he would have come to us… he didn’t. And… I haven’t sensed his Cosmo either… Two solutions, one he’s not here, what I’d like to believe, two, he won’t come…ever… I hoped not!

I chased these thought away. Now was not the time to ask yourself questions, we had to act by ourselves! I turned to the others.

"Do you have any idea on what we should do now?" I asked.

"Well" Ceres answered " We have I think two solution. One would be too look for the Asegard people, which would prevent us to make way to the top of this mountain without knowing what to expect. The problem is, we don’t know if we’ll find those people or not. The second one would be climb our way through and see for ourselves what lies at the top."

I turned to Phoebe to ask for her opinion but at that moment she began to run towards the stair. A few seconds later she stopped. She turned back to face us.

"He’s here" she said, "Hyoga is here. And so is some other gods, I can feel their Cosmo! They are two, but I don’t know who they are."

I didn’t feel anything, and obviously, Ceres couldn’t sense any other presence either.

" You mean then we have to make it to the top?" I asked.

She just nodded. She had somehow regain confidence; you could see that on her face. She seemed now determined to fight till the end, and to save her friend Hyoga if he needed.

"We should go each in different ways. I think it’s wiser. Otherwise, we might fall into a trap. Besides, there are three ways in front of us so it’s just perfect."

"I promised to Seiya I would protect both of you, so we’re not going to separate. Besides, our enemy could have given you that dream and he might expect us to do what you want us to do. On our own, we will be less powerful and an easy target for him. What is more, you are too weak to fight on your own."

As a golden aura surrounded her, Pheb called for her cloth.

"You might be right" she said " But we ain’t got any choice. We are Saints! And we have to fight! We’ll stand more chance on our way up on our own. Once at the top, the more we are, the better it is! Forget about me, I’m big enough to fight for myself! I’ve regained my powers! Now, let’s go! It is 12:45 and we don’t have a moment to lose!"

Pheb, Dem and Shiryu had left on Easter day. I went to the orphanage party that night with Shun. The kids were happy, and so was Miho. However, I’d have preferred if the others were here too. It would have been a great party. They could have gone on the next day, after the party. No, they departed on the morning…

I took the phone and composed Ceres’ phone number. It was 13:30, and they probably were having lunch. I’d disturb them but I wanted to speak to them, to tell them I was coming along. Indeed, the party was now over, so I could join them on their holiday.

At last, someone took the phone. I heard the distinguished voice of Ceres’ butler.

"Hi, this is Seiya" I said, "could I speak to either Ceres or Phoebe?"

"Good Afternoon, sir" he answered "But aren’t Miss Ceres and her friend at Lady Saori’s place?"

"No" I said getting anxious, "they departed yesterday for Europe. They told me they were going to take a few days off at Ceres’ place. They should be there by now. Do you mean you haven’t seen them at all?"

"I’m afraid it’s even worse than that, sir" he told me gravely " Miss Ceres always tells me when she is coming in, and she haven’t told me anything."

"She never said she intended to come?!" My god! Something must have happened to them. This is horrible! Why did I let them go? And Pheb who has just recovered and is still weak! Quick, my cloth, tell the others, and let’s go! We have to save them!

"Sir, SIR!" the butler said. I gave a start.

"Yes, what?"

" May I ask you what exactly happened? I think I could help you if you tell me. I know them and I can understand their way of acting."

I told him about their decision to go to Europe, then to Asegard, even the fact that Pheb had just recovered and seemed a little bizarre those days.

"That is simple" he said, " they must be in Asegard. Don’t ask me why, but I know they are there. However I can also tell it’s not for a nice cruise. There must be some reason."

" Well, thanks" I said.

I put the phone down and went to Saori’s. I had to tell someone. Luckily, both Shun and Saori were there. I told them the whole story. Shun seemed as worried as me, and Saori was confounded.

"We have to go help them!" Shun exclaimed "they might be in danger."

"Don’t worry" Saori replied "With Shiryu along, they’ll be all right."

At that same moment, Tatsumi came in carrying a silver tray.

"Lady Saori, this letter has just arrived, and it’s marked urgent."

She took the letter, opened it and read it. Her face became white and she had to take a seat.

"I think I have the answer," she said under her breath.

*NB: this story isn't finished yet, as you might have guessed ;), sorry for all the inconvenience caused*