The boy sat in the Waiting Room, his knees pulled up and his hands clasped around them, he was rocking backwards and forwards. He was more worried than he'd ever been about anything before.

His big brother was in the room beyond, with a team of surgeons working desperately over his body. He'd been told that they were the best money could buy but, frankly.....

It was barely two years since he'd been here the last time. And during that time they'd had such adventures; after months more training the Professor had decreed that they were ready to make a public appearance. During this first outing, they'd met Saori Kido and the "old" Saints of Athena, and between them they had defeated Babel, a Silver Saint. There had then followed a whole number of confrontations with evil Silver Saints. It had been everything a boy could wish for; action and adventure on a grand scale.

Their exuberance had been tempered by the battle between Shiryu and the Silver Perseus Saint, when Shiryu had deliberately blinded himself in order to protect himself and save them all. Such an action had sobered them all, but the stoic way Shiryu had made the sacrifice had been an inspiration.

Daichi hadn't had much of a chance to socialise with the other Saints (It wasn't easy when powerful people were trying to kill you at the time), but he had liked them immensely.

Ikki scared the hell out of him and Hyoga was perhaps a little distant, but Shiryu had accepted them as warriors without question, and Seiya and Shun had gone out of their way to be sociable. Saori was cute as hell, though they had had a bit of difficulty imagining her as the Goddess all the others Saints said she was, at least at the start.

They had wanted to go with Seiya and the others to Sanctuary, but when Saori had told them to stay behind to look after the injured June there wasn't much they could say about it. Then the real tragedy had struck.

It had seemed to be another typical attack from one of the Kyoko's hench-thugs. After putting June into proper care they had found the Kido mansion under attack from what they later discovered to be one of the last of the Kyoko's rogue Bronze Saints; Sisyphus of Antila.

His cosmo attack had involved manipulating air pressure; just as a normal punch can disturb air currents, the Antila Saint took this to an extreme. He could move at such speed that air was forced from the vortices he created.

With no one else to defend the mansion, the Steel Saints took it upon themselves to act.

Sho had, as usual, taken the lead, and tried to absorb the energy being used against him. But this time had been different. With no air in the vortex to trigger the turbines in his Cloth Sho's power had been useless. Worse still, Sisyphus had used taken the opportunity to launch a crushing blow to Sho's windpipe, followed by a second to the base of his skull.

Initially caught in the back-blast of the air vortex, Daichi and Ushio had managed to defeat the Bronze Saint. Ushio managed to neutralise the attack momentarily, long enough for a geomagnet pulse to blast his off his feet and into a ravine, where the two of them managed to collapse the sides on top of him.

They probably hadn't killed him, but he had apparently fled anyway, big things were happening at the Sanctuary and he must have had other plans.

Daichi and Ushio had problems of their own. Linked as they were to Sho's mind, they were aware of what was going on, suffering in his pain at a base level that went beyond empathy and into shared agony.

Rather than pursue Sisyphus, their one concern was Sho, who had turned a dreadful blue colour and was clearly suffocating, blood was pouting from his nose and ears where the air pressure had caught him. Normal resuscitation couldn't work on an augmented body like Sho's. An emergency signal had been made, and a specially equipped ambulance from the Foundation was on site within minutes.

Daichi had been waiting for over two hours now, and still had had no final word. Being more technically minded Ushio was at the lab, linked to the computers and communicating with the Professor.

The Doctor emerged from the operating room, and came over. The Professor was close behind him and sat down beside Daichi, putting his arm around him.

"I'm so sorry Daichi, I'm afraid it's not good news. Either injury alone might have been treatable, but both at the same time.... Sho needs less oxygen than most because of his implants so oxygen starvation would not normally be a problem. However the blow to the head landed directly on the computer interface at the base of his neck. It sent a surge through his brain and scrambled his thought processes when they were trying to make emergency action to save him. They managed to prevent "

"We've restored his breathing and fixed the damage to his throat. It wasn't easy, we've augmented his skeleton so much that it's almost unbreakable. The force used against him must have been phenomenal."

The Professor was close to tears himself, but had to stay under control for the boy's sake, "You have no idea how hard it is for me to tell you this, Daichi...."

"He's gone, isn't he? I can't hear him in my head anymore. Sho's dead."

"No, he's not dead. He's still alive, and physically he'll be fine, though he won't be able to speak again. I'm afraid the real problem is that his mind is just... just isn't there any more. The oxygen deprivation starved his brain for too long and the electrical shock caused more damage. When that happens there's nothing that can be done, not even for a Steel Saint."

Tears ran down Daichi's cheeks as he tried to take it in, words tried to come out, but he couldn't make his mouth work properly. He looked up at the Professor, praying that he was lying, hoping that he'd made a mistake, and knowing deep in his heart that he hadn't.

Sho was being wheeled out of. The Doctor made frantic gestures to the nurses, but it was too late, Daichi had seen the figure on the trolley and darted towards him.

"Sho! Sho! Nissan? It's me, I'm here!". The figure didn't move, but continued to stare out the window his head happened to be facing,

Sho's face was peaceful and he was smiling faintly, but he didn't even turn as his brother came up to him.

"It's me, Daichi. You can hear me, can't you Sho? I know you can hear me, you can talk to me, you know, you can always talk to me, even if you don't want to talk to anyone else." He wasn't making much sense and he knew it, he just didn't care.

There was no response. Daichi was seized with sudden and completely irrational anger.

"You CAN hear me! Talk to me dammit, Sho! You can't leave me alone like this. I need you! Don't you DARE leave me."

Still there was no reaction, and Daichi just stood there and sobbed his soul out. The Professor put his arm around his shoulders again and just held him, it seemed so inadequate a gesture, but he couldn't think of anything better to do under the circumstances. They stood for several long minutes, with only the sound of a young man crying.

Eventually Daichi pulled himself together and just stood quietly staring at Sho. Almost on impulse, Daichi reached forward and ruffled his brothers hair, just as Sho had done to him for years.

He took his brothers hand, "Oh niissan, you really are gone aren't you? But don't you worry, big brother. It's my turn now, and I'll look after you the way you looked after me. Hey, we're brothers aren't we, together forever?"

"And I'll make sure that the one who did this to you pays, I swear by my earth and your skies that he'll pay in ways he can't even dream of yet."

Standing beside him the Professor shivered. A threat like that from a fourteen year old should have seemed silly, almost laughable, but the way Daichi said it chilled him to the marrow; a cold statement backed by utter conviction.

He could almost feel sorry for the Antila Saint, if it weren't for the fact that given the chance he knew he would have no qualms about strangling the bastard himself. He'd practically raised Sho, and had taken a parental pride in his achievements over the years. Whoever could do this to a young boy deserved anything he got. It wasn't a scientific rationale but he didn't feel very scientific at that moment.

Sho was still looking up at the sky with a smile on his face, but Daichi felt the tears welling up again just watching him. The smile was empty, the funny, charismatic mind behind the eyes was gone, all the thoughts, dreams and hopes had been wiped away, and would never return.

Daichi shut his eyes and linked to his tactical computer, whispering a command.

"Initiate analysis subroutine - prepare tactical stratagems to deal with single combat with the Bronze Antila Saint."

Sho's voice echoed in the back of his mind, in the only way he would probably hear it again. Was it his imagination or was there a hint of anticipation in the voices simple response?

'program running'

The end....

For now

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