Unbroken (Saint Seiya story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Unbroken
Author(s):	Toffee
Date(s):	2000/04/03 - 2001/05/08
Length:	112,882 words
Genre:	slash, drama
Fandom:	Saint Seiya
External Links:	Unbroken
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Unbroken started as a fanfic by Toffee (or just Toffee) and ended up being a whole AU where the author developed side characters further and OC's backstories. It's written in first person POV and takes place parallel to the Sanctuary arc, with a few flashbacks spread around. Several characters have POVs through the story but the protagonist is Scorpio Milo and how he came to be what he is, his origins, his struggles and his friendship with Camus. Some flashbacks have implied underage sex. The fic has two interludes. "The poet an the painter" tells Scorpio Blood's backstory (an Unbroken original character who is Milo's teacher) and "Through the eyes of a child", Cygnus Hyoga's backstory.

The story was posted on the author's website Toffee's Lair of the Weird and on Stayka's Saint Seiya Archive (even though Stayka didn't allow yaoi or fics with sexual content in her archive, she decided to make an exception because of the quality of the story) from April 2000 to May 2001.

It's also featured in a rec list of Saint Seiya BL posted in Baidu in 2010 by Niu Xunyun 83, who considers it a heavyweight in the SS World works. It also says that there was a translation of the fanfic to Chinese, made by Sami. Said translation isn't available anymore.

Author's Introduction

On the Unbroken Universe:

If there is a motive for this page, then this is it. The Unbroken universe (as it has been dubbed of the late) is my collection on fanfics, which I would much rather call pieces of myself and hand out as such. I wrote them for a reason some know and others do not, an instance in my life in which it was either write or cease to be; today I write because I have come to love this work, and those who share it with me. Those with whom I share it. I do not do this to win anything, but I do seek to make others feel something more than what a passing story might inspire. This is the work of a whole year, and of years to come for sure. Because I need to write, because I love to write... because this was the only choice I had, and I took it. Reading this is your own choice, writing it was mine; but if you do allow it in, then you may very well find nothing at all... just as you may find a piece of truth. One can only seek to inspire, what others have already known. Sometimes, we dream of something we are not sure we know in reality; but while we dream, we know this place, we know these people... we know why we are here. If one can have such dreams, and if one can for once remember them by the time we are awake, then perhaps we could find the place we are meant to be in, and the people we should be with. Until then all we have is our capacity to feel, and to follow our instincts no matter how much it might hurt, until we find ourselves. This is a story of one such dream, and those who lived it...

On the first installment:

The first story to be begun, it was also only recently finished. It is also among the ones that mean the most to me. A story of love and loss, of betrayals and honour, a tale of dreams and hopes, but most of all a story about feelings. Taking place before, during and after the battle of the twelve temples, it is centred on the hearts and thoughts of a number of the saints... those to whom life hit hardest. Taken from my point of views, this is the story of Milo, the ruthless Scorpio saint who loved someone he should not have fallen for; Camus, a heart-frozen man trapped by his own feelings; Saga, a being of two hearts and only one path to follow... and many others here and there. This is not the a tribute to heroes, or the tale of brave and perfect creatures, this is the story of imperfect human beings, and why their lives made them into something greater than they wanted. Even though I know I don't have to give explanations for what write, I still cannot help feeling strongly towards my work. At some point, it saved me from life itself. Here you will find the main plot and the two related side-stories that can, technically, be read between any chapter.(WARNING, there is Yaoi content in this fanfic, including an explicit sex scene in chapter one!)

Fan Comments

Because this story was never published in an archive that allowed reviews, all of the comments are collected from different sources.

From Aledono:

Unbroken

The other day I decided to reread Unbroken, a Saint Seiya fanfic written by Toffee.

It is basically the story of Milo and Camus: how they got to the Sanctuary, their friendship, their teachers and their suffering.

It was also the first yaoi fanfiction I was able to read from top to bottom (to say that I disliked yaoi wouldn’t be enough). Strange as it was, this is mostly a SagaxMilo fic but the MiloxCamus possibilities were so tangible they actually made me ship them.

Scary.

It has been many years since then and I was reluctant to reread it. Why? Because I was afraid I wouldn’t like it anymore. When I read this fic, I was a newbie on the canon and now… well… I’m basically obsessed with it. I was afraid that my memories were cheating on me.

Yet, I summoned all my energy and managed to read it all over again.

And I loved it.

Of course there were many things I didn’t like. For example, Milo’s selfish and cold attitude to Camus or the freaky obsession of Camus with Hyoga. Still, i loved it because it made me feel exactly the same things it made me feel so many years ago.

I cried at the same scenes, I loved the same characters.

Damn! I even noticed I actually remembered many quotes!

I was incredibly happy. I was able to experience once again something that was precious to me.

Now I can say Unbroken is no longer my favourite SS fanfiction but it was definitely my biggest inspiration. Not only did it introduced me to slash fiction but it made me write my own story of Milo.

Now I remember that the reason I started that fic was that I wasn’t completely happy with the way Toffee portrayed him and, specially, his relationship with Camus.

I never thought that “Milo” would go so far. Never.

And it was in part because of Toffee, one of my many muses out there.

“Your feelings are what make you what you are… so never give up on them.”

Scorpio Blood

…

I only wanted to share this wonderful feeling somewhere and… well… considering Tumblr is basically full of fangirls I thought I could do it here.

From Mojo (Discord review, published with permission):

So, I've finally read Unbroken by Toffee. Being widely considered a must read, I had to give it a go. The thing I liked the least about it was definitely the main ship. I get it, this fanfic is nearly 20 years old. This fanfic is older than some people in the fandom and back in the day fanfics weren't tagged so in-depth. Yes it has the explicit sex warning, and the yaoi warning, which I am okay with it, but I was completely unaware of the chan. Probably, if I knew that there was implied underage sex, I would not have read it and I would have missed all the rest of the good things that this fic has to offer. Milo is 13 years old when he starts a relationship with Saga who is 23 and it squicked me to see a beloved character (we're not even talking about Saga's evil side but the good side) acting so creepy, calling a 13 year old beautiful and "my child" and trying to seduce him. I did my best effort to squim through all that and just focused on the rest. On Blood and Ganymede story. On the friendship between Milo and Camus (it's a breath of fresh air to see them depicted as just friends when in most of the story they are lovers) and all the pain they go through. Toffee's style is poetic and moreish and I liked it enough to keep reading the sequels, even though they aren't finished.

From Sami, the translator of Unbroken to Chinese (Original in Chinese):

The translation of Unbroken is temporarily on hold, and the second part of Part 2 has probably been translated by three or five thousand words, but let’s repost it after reaching 10,000. After seeing the full version of the translation more than ten years ago, I thought of giving up an be lazy, but today I accidentally learned that there are still friends who are looking forward to this botchy translation, so let's continue. Besides, I personally like it very, very much. I read Part 5 and Part 6 long ago and cried. I hope the quality of the things I translate with emotion can be higher than that of my work.(2015-11-08 11:17)

Why does Blood have to write haiku? This is basically a sonnet. Just racking my brains to adhere to the five-seven-five format in the translation. The name of the previous Aquarius Saint was changed to Ganymede according to Wikipedia.

In addition, for the sake of plot continuity, I skipped the two interludes. One is about the affair of the two teachers, and the other is Hyoga's backsory. The length is amazing but it has nothing to do with the main line of SagaMilo. To be honest, the biggest handicaps of this story is that little Cygnus is seriously OOC. Little Cygnus being obsessed with his teacher and not having the temperament of an ice saint, the author kicking master Camus out of the love triangle and the two former teachers together forming a spin-off story that even exceeds the main line in length.

From the perspective of the ending and the characters, the tragic story between the previous generation of saints obviously intertwines to the tragic story of master Camus, but because the author suddenly stuffed an OOC Cygnus to Camus after the end of part 3, Milo was full of sadness and the Camilo part turned into a joke...

I can accept it more as the ending of master Camus was to be defeated by Cygnus Hyoga's energy that burst out of friendship and then he apologized for his indifference to Hyoga and his rejection to Milo before he died. (2016-02-06 10:02)

I finished translating yesterday, and divided it in a total of 33 parts of different lengths for the world to see... 33 parts...

Most of the chapters are about the love triangle between the two teachers and Morgana, and why Morgana left. Almost all of them can be separated from the source material and form their own universe. I even doubt that many of the tropes of the fandom about Milo are derived from this. So whether the focus of this story is Milo or the original characters, no matter how I look at it, I feel that the number of words about the canonical line is insignificant in comparison... (2016-03-29 10:10)

Other Stories in the Unbroken AU

• Storms in the Heart - A little vignette on two generations of Scorpio and Aquarius saints. For those who read Unbroken, a deepening on Blood and Ganymede's relationship, and the beginning of Camus and Milo's one. A small quite moment of peace, in a land of ice.
• The Final Step - Can love truly push someone over the edge? Can our hearts be truly destroyed at one point during our lives? A small insight on Milo's feelings after Saga left, and how he reacts to them. The moment at which the Milo we know was forged, and why he still had a heart left after it.
• To Choose Hope - A day in the life of a trainee... and ice saint trainee to be precise. What does Camus feel towards his pupils? How do they behave towards each other every day? What is Hyoga's place in this little family? A short story on the feelings and thoughts of a troubled master, and his haunted pupil.

• Flight on Torn Wings - Sequel to Unbroken an abandoned WIP with ten chapters and two interludes, only five of them were actually written and published.
• The War that had no Point - Aioria's POV post Sanctuary arc.

Fanarts inspired by Unbroken

• Scorpio Blood and Aquarius Ganymede by Derrewyn
• Scorpio Blood by Toffee
• Aquarius Ganymede by Toffee