Capricorn's POV
Throughout the day, I questioned our purpose. The one that fulfilled the will to keep on in this on going journey of bad and good experiences we call life. I had a list of reasons to keep going, even if my pace slowed down, even if sometimes I lost sight of my path, or sat there numbly in one only position for a while. Even when those reasons faded away or I was forced to erase as much to clear my path once again.
But when I remembered that I was in control of that list or the directions I decided were the right ones for me, I'd feel comforted once again.
I didn't feel control however, or comfort at the least. The compass that once guided me away from the negativity and woes of the world that surrounded my path didn't function properly anymore.
I still felt a grip on my list though just not my understanding of it.
"Can we please talk about it!?" My train of thoughts came to a halt at the sound of desperation, her shaky voice stopping us dead in our tracks.
The two weeks behind us stretched out rather shortly, passing too fast to catch it. No one spoke of it though, like just mentioning the unmentionable was a curse enough to doom us. No one answered her either, ignoring became more than a bliss.
My footsteps regained their pace, my thoughts unwinding themselves in my head.
Cancer was held in royal custody, everywhere I could see a screen, her face was zoomed up on it. The royal kingdom dissed her, victimizing themselves while finding a common enemy to blame on. Not everyone was on board with it though, seeing as if she was the next generation of the original Zodiacs still marked her as importance around here. I assumed that's what Taurus wanted to talk about.
"Baby we all feel your pain and it's only a matter of time before we rescue her..." Scorpio's hand rested on Taurus' shoulders as he smothered her with all this hope and faith and positivity I knew I needed a handful of too.
It was unbelievable how being in a relationship could change you from an arrogant and annoying jerk to a total sweetheart.
Scorpio was really letting himself go.
"No can we seriously just as a group have one damn conversation about this without ignoring it and pretending we're not mature enough to handle it?" Scorpio let her go then, forming a circle and pointing us to take our stand as well. I still couldn't help but scrunch my nose when their fingertips searched for each other's for support.
Usually I'd tease but the time and place wasn't appropriate.
"We do need to talk, especially maybe just saying a goodbye for further notic-"
"W-what no, I didn't meant that. We shouldn't say goodbyes so soon, we're just on edge." Taurus shut Libra up, I wanted to intervene into what looked like a pronto heated argument between a teary Libra and a red faced Taurus.
"How can you be so sure it won't be soon? We're already assuming there will be a soon though, like we're just missing the date when we all have to go our own separate wa-"
"I'm not assuming there is, and I'm not offering any type of positive comfort that everything is going to be okay because it's not, I just want to face the fact-"
"That Cancers head is being chopped in front of a public audience and being screened everywhere so no one will miss it." Taurus' shut lips indicated those were the exact words she was going to make us hear wether we liked it or not.
"Cancers execution is in four days, for all we know Gemini is long gone and has been for what, weeks, and we can't signal the Opchi, Pisces, Aries, and Virgo squad for shit so it's only six men down by now." At that, my hand flew to Libra's forehead as a smack to quiet her bitter concern because it wasn't making anything feel better.
"We can try again!" Taurus griped my wrist then, muttering hushed commands that I needed to cooperate and summon our friends. I didn't attempt to make her feel better or calm her nerves, I knew my sister in distress was an overwhelming weight you did not wish to carry around.
I followed along instead just as I did for the past fourteen days, trying to gain a connection. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her breathing uneasy and loud as she fidget with her hands. She claimed hand gestures helped to really deepen her telepathy.
I took a huge gulp of breath before proceeding to block any noise, this process still took the best of me. Pitch blackness holding me hostage as figures reluctantly appeared, others quicker than the rest.
It was chaos trying to organize various minds together while Taurus spoke to me and controlled all the voices echoing in my head.
I hadn't asked if anyone else could visualize each other making an appearance but I did.
I could hear our group arguing, driving me mentally insane while doing so but it died out when Pisces' urgent hello became the loudest voice I could hear. I sensed her presence, it was complex to describe how I sensed her physically in front of me.
So I saw but four days is enough
No response followed afterwards, her words hanged around. I didn't want to comprehend that she was suggesting a rescue plan and not even acknowledging Gemini.
I think I know how to cure Gemini but I need to go to the castle, I know we all agreed that in no way in hell would we be there but I need a specific herb that is the only thing that can save Gemini.
The silence was gone now but so was Pisces, she had logged out, I realized then that she was truly avoiding and denying us entrance to her head.
"What the hell was that? How can she just avoid us?"
"May-" I was cut short mid way by a throbbing headache making me feel light.
"May what Capricorn?" I shook my head, my throat feeling too dry to let me talk. A rushing sound buzzed me before white spots blurred my vision and I blacked out.
•••
I saw something.
But it wasn't me, it wasn't my hands, it wasn't my surroundings, it wasn't anything about me. It was just my head playing out a film I was more or less destined to watch.
I couldn't feel myself physically, I felt light weighted as familiar faces went on casually without sparing me a glance.
But maybe I wasn't really there.
A boy of my age caught my attention, his dyed hair familiar to me somehow. On his shoulder, another boy laid sickly and pale, hanging on to life more than to his friend's back. He was clothed properly, however, not fittingly. They were too large for his bony figure but you'd have to be examining carefully to really tell. His face was another story entirely. Purple eye bags were heavy under his shut eyelids, thin chapped lips parted, and gaunt features rested on his face.
Two girls were trailing behind the two boys, one of them skimming through a thick book while the other wouldn't keep her eyes off the scrawny boy.
The scene flashed by, memories blurring and unfocus clips of someone's life vaguely appearing and disappearing.
This time a fairly pretty woman stood in a gown watching over the balcony of an unknown location to me. Her voice, her gestures towards the words she sputtered out were sinister as she spoke to her guards.
"I need that book to find her!" Her yell roared in the room.
One more scene struck me before I was awake, I felt goosebumps erupting on my skin as the scrawny boy's eyes opened at the touch of a hand. The source was powerful, it was an appearance we had been awaiting for.
For the good or bad, I couldn't be sure.
•••
"Capricorn!" I was being shook awake, I pushed off anything touching me in fear but quickly apologized when I saw it was only Libra and Taurus giving me puzzled looks.
"You fainted." I rolled my eyes at the obvious and helped myself up, ignoring the bit of dizziness left.
I walked behind Libra, unzipping her backpack to get the Zodiac book we had found before this shit load of mystery and drama took hold of us. I felt guilty when I forced her in position by setting a firm grip on her waist, surprisingly she hadn't returned a remark about it.
"Your grip is sort of rough Capricorn."
"Sorry." I let go instantly when I managed to get the big book.
"You alright man?"
"I saw a vision, it wasn't so clear but I saw Gemini on Virgos shoulder and Aries and Pisces we're behind them. Gemini is fucked up but then it ended and that was over. There was this fancy place and I didn't see anyone else but Gemini, he was laying in a sort of bed I guess. But he woke up."
"...so is that a no?" I squinted my eyes at Scorpio, he simply passed me a smirk before demanding I continue with my nonsense.
"It's not nonsense, I mean it doesn't make sense but Pisces had this book and I just thought about the Zodiac book and I remembered this is the damn thing they want so bad."
"Where are you going with this?"
I didn't really have a certain answer with that but skipped through every description of the Zodiacs, the first twelve pages were completely written but I knew more information hid behind those blank pages.
I shut the book close, searching for anything on the cover and the back. Hastily, I was rummaging through her bag again. She was left with Opchi's belongings, he believed someone with no shield to protect themselves wasn't suitable enough to carry Universe's possessions.
Setting Universe's pendant on the title, I didn't notice how loud my scream of relief was when the missing pages became stained with the hidden information I was in search for.
"How'd you find out this was here!?" I laughed loudly, not even sure how to explain it either.
"This is the guide book for the Zodiacs, this is the key to unlock the clues to find Universe! Maybe this will lead us to her, this woman was speaking of needing a book to find her. Who else would be her?" No one followed along but I waved them off and just signaled for them to follow me.
"This doesn't really mean that you're right."
I knew that but I also knew we'd at least put more efficient work if we were planning on finding the rest, finding Universe, making sure Gemini lives and assuring Cancer can live to see us back on earth in the span of four days.
I only shrugged at Scorpio, passing him the nonchalant smirk he is so known for before flipping through unnecessary pages of Astria's history.
I stopped in my track, bumping into Libra on the way and catching her by the waist before she'd fall.
"I hope that was more gentle?" She only thanked me and tried to hide how she laughed over the incident.
I cleared my throat and let go quickly of her, avoiding the insolent look on Scorpio's face as he sneaked a few looks between me and Libra. I was becoming more tolerant of Scorpio as he became more intolerable with me but still, he was annoying.
In a good way at least.
•••
"Dig this," I point on the bottom of the page where there was a sly description of the former Universe, "it says Universe used to be protected in a hidden underground vault since it wasn't rare when the kingdom got threatened or the queen was being overthrown. Apparently, to get through you need to access a magical teleportation once you uncover some...secret. It's pretty vague but it says it used to be right under the most known military base."
"But if it's hidden as you say, why would any book tell us so?" I shook my head at Taurus, looking around for any other comments before providing my most reasonable explanation.
"Well as I was saying, supposedly it was found and brought to ruins so it was moved somewhere where they wouldn't expect it and it's safe." I look in Libras and Taurus direction, both shivering in the windy night.
I paused for a moment to make sure they were paying attention, it had taken me a few hours to read at least most of the book.
"We're fine, just go on."
"If you say so, anyways, centuries ago the boarding school we attended in Astria use to be the original palace but because of leaked out secrets and spies harassing them, a new one was constructed. It became a school but for a while, it was abandoned and used for the practice of powerful, wild, and dark magic that was banned. The conspiracy theories of the prohibited magic contaminating their cities or playing a bad influence on a group of teenagers that kept expanding, later becoming known as rebels, becoming dangerous was debunked as it turned into a school. It's now considered one of the safest location, it's even used as a hide out for when problems break out." Scorpio's growling stomach interrupted anything else I was about to say as the girls caught my attention.
"I actually remember rumors of the school being haunted during the night, mostly why the students barely even tried to sneak out of their dorms." I chuckled, amused how Libra would set herself in her gossip mode.
"I say we go back, we'll need to find the basement and that'll take us at least two days so I say we st-"
"Or you can thank me for being such a productive part of the team." My eyes widened at the portal forming in front us, more at the audacity he had to cut me off but he was impressive nevertheless. He bowed his head down toward us with a little hand gesture.
"That's so good." I waved my hands in the air mockingly before jumping through.
•••