July 10, 2008 12:15 pm
Akko Academy, Malison
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▫️Enzo:

So it has been a few days at this Zodiac Ranger School. I have to say I am impressed with this place. Aron has been amazing in showing me around and his sister Stella has helped me train in her free time. I walk down on the of hallways, which is painted all maroon, which such an ugly color... I go to my small dorm room to grab my wallet for my lunch. Today Aron is going to show me who my sparring partner will be for a while. Aron told me how everyone is assigned a partner, his was his sister, and that your partner helps you become better. I feel a partner will be fun, I hope he is really cool.

"You're late." I heard a girl say to a boy as I walked down the hallway.

They are right by my dorm room, just a few feet away. I tried no to listen in on their conversation, but I couldn't help myself. The girl has yellow on, showing she hasn't received her Zodiac DNA surgery yet, and she wasn't ready to, her hair was a blond straight waterfall down her back and around her shoulders, she was skinny too, very skinny. The boy on the other hand, he boy had light brown hair with a yellow suit too, showing the same rank. The two of them looked suspicious and they sounded suspicious too... so I listened in being the noisy person I was.

"Late?" The boy snaps. "That doesn't matter, did you see the paper about the Zodiacs army? It's not nearly a quarter of the size of Seven's!" He sounded happy. "Now all we need is the Zodiac DNA, it just sucks that we have been here for over a year and they still think we aren't ready. We should of just taken it and injected it into ourselves later like our leader told us to do, we made the wrong choice Blythe, again!"

"Calm down Hugo," Blythe, the girl, states. "We are not losing this, do you have what I sent you for or what?"

"I had to break into Ames's office, but it got it." He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and Blythe snatches it from her hands.

"Excellent." She studies the paper, it looks like a map, but I am unsure because of the distance. It could be a shopping list for all I know.

"Please, you could never get close enough to him," Hugo laughs. "We don't stand a chance against a real Zodiac, not even you, Blythe Moran."

I didn't recognize her fist name. Her last name however, Moran, I did. The Moran family was the top contributing family to the Seven's army. Why would a rebel be training as a Zodiac Ranger, who's job was to kill Seven? This little discussion couldn't be good. I continue to listen, pretending I am not even there.

She glares at him. "Don't ever tell me what I can not do, and if I were you, I would watch my tongue," she snaps. "For all we know..." She whispers a familiar name. "Azun Watcher could be back at any moment and we need to act fast before he does."

"How can he?" Hugo sasses. "He is dead."

"We both know that death can not stop the Zodiac family. You have no idea what happened back when Azun was alive and he made this rebel group strong, all the history books lie, it is Luke who is the real villain. Azun may be dead, but we should probably go somewhere more secure to talk about our sceme.... anyone could be listening."

That was mainly me! I am listening and nobody is going to be killing my family on my watch! No way! I grip onto the side of my shirt, trying not to show my anger of them threatening the few people I care about. They could kill my father for all I care, same with my aunts and uncles. But Luke or Aspen, or my cousins, no way!

"We are fine." Hugo assures her. "Nobody is listening to us."

They had no clue I could hear them, I stare at the ground, fighting every voice inside my head that is telling me to take off my gloves and end them both right now before they get to my Jake, or Jay, or Mason, or Torrent.

"This isn't over," Blythe states. Not till I say it is. Let's go."

"You need keep your voice down, if you don't, you are going to get us both shot," Hugo laughs. They both walk down the hallway. Luckily that was the direction I was heading anyways. I grab my wallet from my room and hurry to rush after them, trying to not make it obvious I was following them. I continued to listen to their conversation as I walked behind them, weaving in and out of people, trying to stay within sight and ear shot.

"I know this seams impossible," Blythe says, I miss a few lines of their conversation as I follow them. "But if we can't do anything now, why can't we go back?"

"I don't get it?" Hugo had a confused look on his face.

"We get small team and we can go here." Blythe points to something on the paper Hugo brought her. "The Zodiac Jewels are located here, if we can get Luke's we can turn back time. Hugo, we need to stop thinking of everything we lost when the rebels fell apart after Azun's death, we need to think of all the new things we can do now that we know this information. We have spies everywhere, so why not use them?"

"But we do have a leader to report to." Hugo looks more confused. "We can't do anything without his okay. Ames will-"

"Would you shut up?" Blythe snaps. "We need to fix things before they start. Now it is too late. Ames thinks he can bring back the rebels, but we both know he won't have enough to take down Luke. We need the time jewel, so we can get closer to Luke, take him out ourselves."

"Go on." Hugo just looks like an idiot now, understanding nothing. I can feel him, I understand nothing as well.

"There is a boy here," Blythe looks around, I quickly dart behind a corner so she can't see me. She looks away from me and continues to talk. "You know him, I know him, everyone knows him."

"The new kid? Enzo? The Zodiac that killed someone last week?" Hugo seems surprised.

"Yes." Blythe interrupts him. "We take him out before he can grow up to become another future Rebel problem. We use his fingerprints to get into the Zodiac vault and we take the jewel for ourselves and leave his dead body for Luke. Do you follow?"

"No," Hugo shook his head. "The whole back and forth stuff is kinda confusing. Time travel is confusing, thats why Luke doesn't do it anymore, and neither should we."

"Azun would have survived if Luke didn't exist." Blythe rubs her forehead in frustration.

I listen to them as they stand there and talk. What on earth could they be planning... why do they want my adopted dad dead?

"Wait are you saying he wouldn't be dead?" Hugo asks.

Blythe groans. "He would still be alive, what aren't you getting now? If we can kill Luke before he gets to Azun, then Azun won't be dead. Azun will still be here to lead us and we can all control Malison."

"Ahh!" Hugo smiles. "I do just love making plans with you."

I know about the stones, they are suppose to be a secret, not even I know where the precious Zodiac jewels are. All I know is that Luke came up with the idea to trap some of their power in jewels, to protect it. All the Zodiacs, minus Seven, Azun, Vestry, and Dustan, followed his example. Now, there are eight jewels in the vault which is guarded stronger then any fortress in history. But, little do they know that Luke can't go back in time very far and when he does turn back time he usually passes out and is sick for days. The jewel will work in a similar matter. Their stupid plan is going to fail.

"Tell the others that we will take out the kid, use his fingers to get into the Zodiac power room and from there we will use Luke's power to go back in time and stop him from killing Azun," Blythe says. "Now I have to go, my team needs to see me, something about a partner I believe, or sparring. Good luck with your team Hugo, we will be in touch."

"Thanks," Hugo smiles. They then both part directions. Blythe headed toward the lunch room and Hugo went back to the dorms.

I sit on the floor and I can't move. They want me and Luke dead... why! What did I do to deserve my fingers getting chopped off?! I feel myself breathing heavily and sweat forms on my forehead and neck, I wipe the nasty liquid from my face with the back of my glove as I sit there. I feel like I have been here forever. But eventually I remember I have to meet Aron, I quickly stand up and run to the cafeteria where our squad sits in the back corner table to eat. I am panting by the time I arrive.

"Enzo!" Aron smiles. "Come sit, your partner should be here any minute."

"You are going to love sparring with her," Stella says to me. "She is crazy smart and very good at strategizing, which is your weak point."

Ahh dang... its a girl. Not that I am complaining! I just am not use to sparring with girls and I don't feel comfortable hitting one.

"Okay..." Is all I manage to say. I can't keep from thinking about those two Rebels cutting of my fingers, it's a scary thought that will probably haunt me until I die.

"Then after you two have trained for a while, you will be given a Zodiac mentor to help you finalize yourself." Aron says as he hands me an apple, that I immediately grab and take a bite of. "My Zodiac mentor was Larkin," Aron continues. "She was hard and would easily use her bird to attack me whenever I messed up."

"You always messed up," Stella laughs. "Well I had Ames where he would always keep telling me everything I was doing was illegal and he would sue me if I didn't fight right."

They both laugh together and ate some french fries, I take a few for myself and dip it in the fry sauce before eating it. They both stop laughing when they see someone behind me.

"Enzo..." Aron stands up with a stupid smile on his face. "Meet your partner." He gestures behind me.

I slowly turn and take her in. She is very very cute! Holy crap! What luck did I get to be paired with a cute skinny girl. She had blond hair that fell across her shoulders and back like a waterfall falls down a cliff. Then I look at her face--and wondered what I did to the universe for it to hate me so much...

"Hi I'm Blythe Moran." She smiles and sets down her food tray, then held out her hand for me to shake.

I stare at her and don't say anything for a while. This is the girl who wants to chop off my fingers! My hand shakes as I put it in hers and shake it gently, she grips my glove covered hand tightly as we shake.

"I am Enzo Zodiac," I introduce myself. I gulp as she smiles at me, if I didn't know better I would say her smile was friendly.

"I am looking forward to training with you," she says.

Her gray eyes were staring right into my blue ones, like daggers ready to strike at me at any moment.

---------------------------------------------------

It has been a little over a week and I still have all my fingers and toes.

Although I always wish I knew how my crappy life was gonna turn out in the future, I never thought it would be possible to know.

Aron told me about a Prophecy room, where a seer can literally tell you every detail of your future. Apparently all Zodiac Rangers get to do it once! So of course I signed up for the nearest date I could to figure out my future. I mainly wanted to see if I would die by my partners hands or not. I am nervous to see what the future holds in store for me, I could barely function this morning when getting ready for it. Luckily for me, Aron has agreed to go with me so I'm not so nervous.

"You have nothing to be nervous about." Aron told me as we walked up to the seer's room. "Stella told me when she got her's it wasn't that bad."

"Wait, you haven't got yours?" I ask.

"Nope," Aron shook his head. "I really don't want to know the future, don't want to spoil the ending."

"Guess that makes sense." I mumble as I ran my fingers up the railing as we walked up the last few stairs. Finally done with those stupid stairs! I gulped as I looked at the old wooden door ahead of us. The door was made of dark oak, stained to be the darkest brown possible, it had black designs burned into the door which looked like stick figures.

"Hey," Aron put a hand on my shoulder. "It will be fine, relax.... you know the seer is your aunt Arielle Zodiac, right?"

"No...." I stammer a bit. "I don't think I have seen her in a while... this will be awkward since I missed all the happy Aunt day cards." I chuckled a bit to try and make myself feel better, but to be honest... I was terrified. I just needed to know if I am dying anytime soon. I need to know my fate.

Arielle Zodiac was my crazy aunt. I knew she was both blind and deaf, and obsessed with all mystical things. She used to read me stories of mythology when I was younger, I still don't know how she did that.

"Let's go in together. That will make you feel less frightened," Aron suggested and went and places his hand on the door, opening it slowly, the dark wooden frame creaked and cracked as it opened into a dark room with nothing more then a glowing sphere in the center. this reminded me of a circus, where there was always a fortune teller who would look into the ball and predict a stupid fake future. But I knew 100% that this was probably real. Magic ran through my families blood, so I don't see why Arielle would not have it.

"Approach Zodiac Ranger," I hear my Aunt's voice say in the darkness. "I am Arielle Zodiac, the Seer of your future. Come, and find your fate."

I walk forward, with Aron, and Arielle held out her hands to try and feel us, her ginger hair falling into her face, but once she got close she touched all over Aron's face as well as my own. Fun fact about my crazy aunt, she is very touchy, since she is both blind and deaf.  Although I believe the deaf part is a myth, since she replies to most people, yet Luke always tells me she can hear and see the future by magic given to her when she married into the Zodiac family.

I knew she was suppose to marry Azun, but that did not happen since he did not fancy her, and he died before they were of age to marry. Mason was not Arielle's son, only Azun's and some strange women he slept with a while back before his death. Mason told me one night he was left on the Zodiac mansion's front porch with a note and a birth certificate, with the mother's name blacked out.

"Ah....." Arielle mumbled as she felt our faces. "Strong boys, handsome boys, boys...." she kept rambling on, on her belt was the glowing sphere, giving off a gloomy blue light, the one source in the room.

"Yep, we are boys," Aron laughs.

Arielle let go of us, "Ah!" She stares at us with her blind eyes that have zero light left in them. She pulled away and grabs the sphere from her belt and held it in her hands, "Come close children, if you dare to see your fate."

Aron gestured for me to go, I slowly took two steps forward, biting my lip. I don't know if I will even be able to say my name.

Luckily she didn't ask for it. "Now," Arielle looks at her ball and then back at me. "Oh! Yes! Your fate is remarkable....."

I tilted my head, wondering what it said.

"You will go to the place no man wants to go," Arrielle starts to say. I quickly grabbed out my Net-pad and started recording her voice so I would have this for later. "You will find whom you are searching for.... But... you will be tricked, and your friend will betray you. And you will fail to save yourself and you will die."

My jaw hung open.... That's it!! I'm gonna die, and this is all the detail I am getting? What about a date? A time? A place? A person? A weapon? Anything! This is not what I asked for.

"But," I start to say before I get cut off by Arielle.

"Oh and your death is just glorious!! Want to see?" She sounds amazed by my death with joy in her voice. I probably had a look of shock on my face, and Aron took the words right out of my mouth.

"Why on earth would anyone want to see themselves die?" Aron laughs slightly.

"Well then what's your concern then? Everyone dies eventually, wouldn't you rather know how you are going to die, so you don't fight it when it comes?" Arielle asks. "Or you could try and avoid it altogether." She turned away from me in the dark, shielding the only light source with her body.

I followed after her, since she obviously couldn't see I wasn't looking over there. I needed to know my fate.

"Let me show you, you have no ordinary life," Arielle touched her sphere and it flowed brighter, I stood by her side and looked at the ball. There was a picture starting to emerge in the sphere.

The picture was moving, like a movie, it was of a young man. He had bright blond hair that was spiked in the front. His skin was tan and slightly toned, his body was short and skinny. He had bright blue eyes that couldn't be seen well under a mask. That's when I recognized this person... it was my father, Seven. He faded into a silhouette, the only color remaining was his crest, a golden star in the center of his chest. Aron had finally caught up and was standing beside me looking into the ball as I was.

"You will become very important to the most popular man around Madison," Arielle told me. "You will face many trials my young fella, many difficult things you will need to do, crossing literal galaxies and oceans. Now would you like to see how you end?"

I nod, I needed to know how I die. Please let it be of old age! So help me, if my father kills me, or if freaking Blythe kills me... I look at the crystal ball and stare into the center. I see my father. He has a knife, a long knife. The knife has a golden hilt and a shiny silver blade.

"You will have a trial, a choice to make between family and friend," Arielle says. "But you are remarkable....."

I see a shadow, assuming that's me, standing across the way, facing Seven, a girl stands next to me, probably a friend of mine I will meet eventually, or maybe that could be Blythe or Stella... it could be anyone.

"You face your fears directly," Arielle smiles at the ball as the scene played out. "That's what makes you so interesting. You do not even show fear against him. Now tell me what do you see boy?"

She shoves the ball right into Aron's face. The picture changes back to the silhouette of Seven playing with the knife. "This is just a knife," Aron states.

"Now Zodiac Ranger, tell me where do you see the knife going," Arielle taps her finger on the glass ball and the scene moves, this time she holds the ball where I can see it, it shows Seven walking to me.

"In a swift, hard, and firm single direction," Aron says. He went pale as he saw the knife being stabbed into me. I felt pain in myself, not physical, but emotional. I can't die like that. I have so much I need to accomplish, I couldn't find my words to speak or ask questions to my aunt. I literally froze as I watched the silhouette of me die on the screen.

"Now child, don't be sad or scared about what I'm about to show you." Arielle held the ball close and ran her fingers over it to show other moments of my life, all silhouette, as black and white as truth and lie were. "Take a deep breath and just breath, let it all go. Your time to go hasn't come yet. Now that you know how it ends and you can begin living your life now. I now will show you the rest."

I stared at the dim glowing ball and watched my life play out.

I face Seven.

I follow him across the galaxies.

Then I fall to the ground by his blade.

The rest.... I wouldn't want to spoil that.