The zodiacs sat around the dining table. Phoenix's siblings had disappeared into their rooms and Orion had come knocking at the door shortly after Phoenix called him. He now sat at the head of the table staring at each of them intensely. "So?" Orion asked finally, "What have you decided?"

  Cancer blew out a breath as everybody looked around, wondering who was going to speak first. Finally, Aries moaned,

"Fine, since I am your wonderful and trusted leader, I shall tell him."

"Hey!" Capricorn protested, not missing a beat, "You're not the leader, I am." Instantly, a groan ran through the group, knowing that this could proceed for a very long time. Before they could begin their usual quarrel, Virgo blurted out,

"We have decided to return to Earth," He said.

"I honestly think Virgo makes a good leader," Libra told Pisces, who sat next to her, who simply raised his eyebrow suggestively. She retorted by jabbing him in the ribs, he covered his laugh with a cough. Orion and Phoenix stared at them. Virgo cleared his throat,

"We have lives. We have a family. We have friends. They're all back on Earth and although they might forget us, we won't forget them. You—" he pointed at Phoenix as he explained, "imagine living on Earth without your siblings." Orion blew out a breath of air and nodded, he understood what Virgo was saying. They sat as they contemplated their decision. They couldn't leave their families, their lives, their home.

"Plus," Aries piped in, "We're just children, how do you expect us to do what we have to do without following in our ancestors' footsteps?"

"But we know you, we know you won't do that," Phoenix said, they could almost hear the pleading tint in her voice. They almost changed their minds,

"We still don't think we're ready," Virgo repeated.

"I'm n-not sure what I expected," Phoenix said quietly, but loud enough for them to hear. Orion let out another short burst of air before speaking,

"Okay, I respect your decision. Remember, you can never change your mind." They all nodded.

"Will we lose our memories and powers?" Aquarius asked. Orion debated it for a second,

"Powers, yes. Memories, do you want to forget all that has happened?" Immediately they all shook their heads and he smiled, "Well then, there is your answer." Phoenix jumped up from where she was perched in her chair and walked to the door,

"Well, it's getting dark. I guess it's time for you guys to go home." They followed her outside, Orion tailing behind them.

  They approached the Moonlight Path a little while later, after walking for quite a long time. Taurus bounced slightly in excitement although she felt remorse at not being able to explore the beautiful place more. "How can you be excited for going back to school?" Leo grumbled. Aquarius pinched his cheek,

"Aw, stop being such a sourpuss Leo baby." Aries scoffed lightly,

"Maybe you two should date instead." Everyone grinned as Phoenix spread some sort of glittering dust around where they stood in a clump. When everyone looked at her curiously she spoke,

"Stardust, to revoke your powers and send you back to Earth," a nod to Orion.

"Do we have to lose our powers?" Sagittarius complained, looking at her hand spark as she lifted Aquarius slightly off the ground,

"Hey! Put me down!" he cried as everyone stifled their chuckles.

  Orion said nothing, simply cracked his knuckles and sent a pointed look towards Phoenix, she quickly ran to them and hugged each of them tightly. She mumbled a goodbye and sniffled,

"Are you crying?" Taurus asked suddenly, "Wait, why are you crying?" Phoenix didn't answer as she scurried away quickly. They all turned to Orion to ask him but stopped as they noticed his eyes glowing. He raised his hands and a blinding light emitted from them. A wind picked up around the blowing the glittering powder and making a small wall around them.

"Wait a minute," Libra piped up, however, the relentless wind only picked up its pace. "Phoenix said that it's time for us to go home? What about you? Aren't you coming?"

"Principle Orion?" Gemini asked quietly as she suddenly realized what was going on. Orion simply gave them a sad smile as the stardust blew towards them, slowly lulling the teenagers to a slumber.

• • •

  Virgo awoke with a gasp, sweat coating his features. He looked around and saw two other bunk beds when his eyes widened, he was in his dorm room. Scorpio day in his bed, staring around the room. Their eyes met and Virgo finger-gunned him. Scorpio shook his head in disappointment, but Virgo could see the small smile he was hiding.

  Without even missing a beat, he struggled out of the blankets, almost falling off the bed in the process. He stumbled to the door and swung it open. A groggy Libra stood there, trying to rub the exhaustion out of her eyes. He approached her quickly and she yawned, he tried to stop himself from thinking she was adorable, what am I talking about? We hate each other's guts! But she's so cute, I just wanna-

  His thoughts jumbled up as he noticed her approaching him. She leaned towards him and softly touched his cheek. She breathed out and took a step back. However, she was stopped when he grabbed her arm.

"We're home," She sighed as she watched his features carefully.

  He pulled her towards himself. And kissed her. He retreated and smirked when he saw her breathing heavily and her eyes widened in temporary shock.

"We're home," he repeated her statement, his voice laced with sleep and something else Libra couldn't figure out.

She laughed to herself in disbelief, "So the Ophiuchus thing did happen,"

"Yeah." Virgo looked at the ground and scuffed his shoe against the ground. He was regretting that kiss, it seemed as though she was avoiding it. They fell into silence at the mention of the villain. Libra smiled shyly at him and ran a hand through her mussed up hair.

"I thought you hated me?" She said and Virgo looked up in surprise. He thought she had hated him. Virgo shrugged,

"It's more of a love-hate relationship," Libra smirked,

"Relationship huh?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it,"

"Well, since you don't hate me, I suppose you don't mind me doing this then," with that she pulled him in for another kiss and disappeared into her dorm, leaving him wide-eyed in the corridor.

  Soon everybody was awake. The bustle of students outside the doors woke up the sleeping zodiacs. Virgo still had a dazed look, and he received a curious glance from Scorpio every now and then, who had wondered what had happened when Virgo had left the dorm.

  The boys grumbled and struggled with getting up early, but eventually, all of them were awake and ready to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. The six of them emerged to be faced with the girls, who were just coming out of their dorm as well. The first thing they said to the boys was,

"Do you think Orion's spell worked?" Aries asked, falling into step with Leo, who smiled at her.

"I've been asking myself the same thing," Aquarius said, looking at her.

"Let's find out," Cancer said. Before they could ask what he was doing, he walked up to another student that was passing them in the hall, probably already finished with breakfast. "Hey,"

"Hey Cance," the boy replied,

"You know me?" Cancer asked, confused.

"Yeah dude, I'm Ryan, we're lab partners in chem?" he said as though it was obvious. Cancer caught on and nodded his head a bit too eagerly, receiving a few strange glances.

"We are? I mean, yeah we are! Um Ryan, what— day is it?" Ryan frowned at his question and Cancer realized how stupid he sounded.

"It's Tuesday,"

"Yeah but the date?"

"Um, 17th,"

"Month?"

"September,"

"Year?"

"Oh come on dude,"

"Yeah yeah, okay. Thanks, Ryan," Cancer left a flabbergasted Ryan in the middle of the corridor and scurried back to the others, who were now entering the cafeteria. The cafeteria was filled with chattering and happy students, the zodiacs hadn't realized how much they had missed the normalcy of the school. "It's the day after we left," Cancer whispered as he caught up with the others. They each picked up a sandwich from the lunch line and went to claim a vacant table. As they sat down Ms. Dale walked up to them, glaring at Sagittarius and Aquarius.

"You," she said pointing an accusatory finger at them, "missed detention yesterday." The group of teenagers grinned broadly and then at each other.

"Ms. Dale," Sagittarius started, "You can't have expected us to stay after that earthquake yesterday?" Ms. Dale raised an eyebrow at them,

"That is the stupidest excuse I've heard from you yet," she scoffed, another secret smile ran through the group. Ms. Dale rolled her eyes and walked away after giving Sagittarius and Aquarius an extra hour of detention.

"Nice to know that Ms. Dale is still a little sh-"

"Shh, look," Taurus interrupted, as a man walked up to them. His eyes twinkled a pretty hazel and they crinkled when he smiled at the group.

"Well, you must be the famous zodiacs," he laughed, their eyes widened. Scorpio choked on his apple juice while Gemini did the opposite, and spewed her water all over the table, and the two boys, Aquarius and Virgo, who were sitting across from her. The latter wiped their faces in disgust, making pretended retching noises. Aries patted their backs and gave the man a saccharine sweet smile, the man wisely ignored them after sending a bewildered stare.

"What?" Pisces managed to choke out, looking at the others, "who are you?"

"I just heard that there was a group of twelve students that were named after the famous zodiacs. What a coincidence you guys ended up in the same school huh? And a school for astrology at that. It seems like something that would happen in a book. I didn't believe it so I needed to check it out myself," The man chuckled to himself. The zodiacs' shoulders visibly relaxed,

"Who are you?" Pisces repeated, the man sighed,

"Were you not listening to anything at that assembly? I prefer not to bore my students more than once," he grumbled to himself, "Anyway, I'm Principle Arian, headmaster of Nova Institute of Astrology," he leaned forward and whispered, "That's the school you're going to." He grinned at them, making sure they knew he was kidding.

"What happened to Principle Orion?" Pisces kept on asking questions,

"I'm sorry, you must have just heard my name wrong. You must have heard Orion instead of Arian," was his reply. The principle then walked away from their table. They stared at his retreating figure and then let out a breath.

"We're never going to see them again are we?" Gemini said quietly, they already knew that she was talking about Phoenix and Orion. Cancer hugged her, Scorpio looked out of the window and sighed,

"They're back in their home."

• • •

  "Ugh! I want summer to be here!" Libra groaned as she flopped down onto the bed. It was a week since they returned from their adventure, a week to get used to their normal lives again.

"I know right!" Pisces said, not even bothering to knock as he and the other boys barged into their room. "I forgot how much work school is." They looked at the mess in the girls' dorm with disgust.

"Woah, Deja vu," Taurus said, holding her head. Each of the boys sat down next to their partner. Leo wiggled in between Aries and Capricorn, who didn't hate each other anymore, at least, not as much as they used to. Capricorn and grunted, hopping over to sit next to Scorpio, who gave her a small smile. She kissed him on his cheek and he wiped his cheek in disgust, trying to hide the smile that was growing wider.

  Libra leaned back onto Virgo's chest, who was sitting behind her and sighed in contentment. Sagittarius suddenly waved her hand towards a pillow and then groaned. "I forgot I don't have powers anymore," she pouted and Aquarius pinched her cheek. They laughed as she swatted his hand away. There was a sudden buzz and Gemini jumped up,

"What was that!" She cried,

"Calm down," Aries said, leaning over the side of her bed, "It's just my phone." She looked at it briefly before placing it away. Libra smiled, "Remember when you threw a plate at Capri because you couldn't find your phone?" They all laughed, remembering their first encounter.

"I suppose this is as close to normal we're going to get," Cancer said, kissing Gemini and then looking around at his friends. The group of friends that had grown so close over the few months that they had been together and known each other. The group of friends that would die for each other.

"I suppose this is as normal as it gets," Virgo said. So the zodiacs just sat there. Savoring this. Being together.

The End

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N The End. Well folks, here you go. This is the last proper chapter of the book. I just want to say thank you to those of you who stuck around for the entire story, this was my first story and I really appreciate it. Now, for old times sakes:

Don't forget to vote and comment!

Yours truly,

Zodiac Lover No.1,

Leslie