Breaking Free: A Zodiac Story

Chapter 29: Justification

"Justify ourselves?" Sagittarius suddenly spat, glaring at King Deimos with literal fire in her eyes. "Us?" She let out a dry bark of laughter, despite her eyes being red and her hands trembling. "Leo is dead because of your stupid... rivalry-thing with Ophiuchus. He died saving the world - for you, for us, for everyone."

"It was your reckless choice to join him in escaping Firea." King Deimos said with remarkable calm. "It is not my problem -"

"Ophiuchus was going to break out anyway. You know this." Capricorn said quietly.

King Deimos turned to the earth elemental with a scowl. "And what do you know, boy?"

"Everything." Taurus growled, glaring back. "We... we heard. Your messages to King Terrest and -"

Virgo quickly cut in. "We've... heard rumours in the castle. They were very careless with passing around information... so we worked our way our from there.

King Deimos' eye twitched. "It was only a fleeting thought -"

"No." Capricorn responded. "We wouldn't have believed them... but we've done research. The ancient books -" he glanced at Virgo, "are rather helpful in deciphering Zodiax's 'hidden past'."

"Even... even his prophecy to Leo says it all." Aries growled through gritted teeth. "If he was truly... trapped behind the wall, he shouldn't have been able to send those 'prophecies', right?"

King Deimos said nothing.

"He saved the world by sacrificing himself." Scorpio said quietly. "For that, I respect him... and you should, too."

"Sacrifice?" King Deimos scanned the group of teenagers as if just realising Leo wasn't there the first time. "You're just children. You couldn't have possibly..."

"We did it because we worked together." Pisces said softly. "If we hadn't met up... if we hadn't revealed our existence to each other... and Ophiuchus escaped, then what would have happened? You would've all just... tried to take down Ophiuchus alone... but that wouldn't have worked."

"Ether is the element that 'binds everything together'. It is space - or the void. It fills the gaps that the other elements leave and takes shreds of power from each to hold everything to together." Virgo recited. "To fight something - someone - with scraps of power from each element, it's only fair... that, to defeat someone with the same amount - and type - of power."

"Why?" Gemini blurted out. "Why did you... create the wall? The barrier? Why did you keep us from seeing everyone else?"

"It's not just that." King Deimos suddenly sounded older - defeated. "We didn't create the wall just to keep you from seeing each other. It..." He sighed. "If Ophiuchus truly is defeated and the wall destroyed, I guess there isn't any harm in revealing it."

Aidan raised an eyebrow. "So you have been hiding something from us all this time? But... how?"

"It is as the water elemental says." King Deimos glanced at Pisces for a split second. "Before... we were united as one. Fire elementals mixed with water, earth frolicked with air. Even without our teaching, they... they learned to combine their powers."

"And there was a fifth element. Ether, the rarest of them all." King Deimos sighed. "While there were no... sections, we had rulers. I was one of them. We... me, my fellow rulers - friends - and I, we were very close. We were the strongest elementals of them all, so it was only natural we... helped to keep the peace. To rule."

"You were friends with Ophiuchus?" Aquarius asked, eyes wide with surprise.

King Deimos let out a dry chuckle. "Yes, we were. Like the earth elemental said, ether is the element that held us all together. It was no different with Ophiuchus. Even though we fought, he was always the one to... resolve all our arguments."

"Why did everything change...?" Cancer whispered, more to herself than to anyone else.

"Well, little water elemental," King Deimos rumbled. "I suppose... he grew tired. It was our fault, really... we took him for granted. We never really thanked him for all his work... I guess he realised how powerful he was. How much more he could become. And we saw this, too. The growing hunger for power in his eyes."

"We... we all agreed on something for... practically the first time. We knew we couldn't let him continue... being here and slowly getting more powerful by unconsciously... feasting off the scraps of our power. Ether fills the gaps... but, eventually, it starts chipping away at its 'boundaries'."

"The only way to stop it was to... kill them before they got too strong. I suppose it was a foolhardy choice, but we thought it as the best. We... we executed all ether elementals."

"Wait - you just killed all the ether elementals just because of one guy?" Libra gasped.

King Deimos scowled. "There weren't many... but together, they could destroy Zodiax ten times over. If we let them sit and chip away at our reserves of power, they... they could become like Ophiuchus. We got rid of every one - except Ophiuchus. He had already gotten too powerful to simply kill - we had to combine our powers and banish him beyond the wall that we created specifically for this. That was around... twenty years ago - long before you... eleven were born. It was a long, difficult battle. Cordelia - the air elemental queen - was injured gravely... many of our troops were murdered, all in this one fight against one man."

The fire elemental king shook his head and let loose a long breath. "Eventually, we did it. We knew this wall and the magic barrier couldn't hold up forever, especially with him on the other side, chipping away at our magic. But we wanted to prolong our peace for as long as possible."

"Is that why the magic barrier weakened as we... 'passed through' each sector?" Sagittarius muttered, sounding horrified.

"Partly." King Deimos gave her a half-hearted glare. "We were already weakening by the day as Ophiuchus chipped away at the barrier. But... the water queen's death, and you putting the air princess in a coma... that probably sped up his 'invasion' by ten years."

"But that doesn't explain why you separated the elementals." Cancer pointed out.

"It was too dangerous." King Deimos responded. "We knew... only by combining powers, one - or twelve, in your case - could completely destroy the wall and the barrier. But look what happened."

"Why does nobody else appear to remember?" Blaise blurted out. "There's no way everyone could just forget about another group of elementals."

"It was the last time we - us four rulers - combined powers. To prevent everyone from combining powers... we simply erased the memories of everyone else's existence after placing them in each sector. And... we've never spoken to each other in person since."