At 5 am, a loud alarm woke everyone up. All the zodiacs gathered in the lobby, still half asleep, except for Capri, Saggi, and Virgo who were training since this was the only time class F was allowed in the training room.

Ophiuchus counted everyone. "Now that you're all here, pack all your things. We're moving to the next country. There will be three separate helicopters, I don't really care who gets on what helicopter. The first one will arrive on the roof in one hour, the second will arrive in an hour and half. Anyone who wants to take the third helicopter will have two hours."

"Where are we going next?" asked an excited Pie.

"Pacem," replied Ophiuchus before walking off.

Aquarius and Aquari exchanged an excited glance, which surprised everyone since they usually never show emotions. They both ran in the elevator to pack their stuff.

After deciding who was taking what helicopter, everyone went to their rooms to pack. Except Capri who wanted another hour of training.

***

"It's such a beautiful country!" explained Aquari as Ares helped her pack, having already finished packing. Aquari packed away her clothes, while Ares helped pack random things like books and photo albums.

Vinn was supposed to help pack clothes, but she was feeling very unwell from using too much of her power to teleport last night during truth or dare. She was currently lying across Aquari's bed, grimacing in pain from her major migraine and excruciating stomach pain.

"What language do they speak again?" asked Vinn. 

"Greek."

Ares smirked. "How do you say Ares is the best in Greek?" Both girls ignored him.

"The cities are all built on top of trees," continued Aquari. "The trees in Pacem are abnormally large and strong. They can even support large buildings, but some really tall buildings are built on the ground."

"I remember now!" gasped Vinn. "Your country is the one that's almost completely covered in trees. There's rope bridges connecting all the buildings, and everyone uses ziplines and trains to travel longer distances."

"I've never wandered around Pacem so I don't know what it's like," admitted Ares. "How do people use ziplines and trains to travel?"

"There's these modified ziplines called speedlines," explained Aquari. "Basically they're electrically powered and once you buckle yourself to the line, it goes really fast. It's not really that scary in a country with mostly people who can fly and use air powers. There's also tracks for trains to go around, but the carts are small. Most trains aren't the fastest but they're a lot faster than riding a floating bike."

Ares furrowed his brow. "Floating bike?"

Vinn facepalmed. "How do you not know this? In Pacem they have bicycles with engines or something on them so that they can ride bikes, except the bikes float in the air. It's not as fun as riding a hover board in Cibus or Capra, though."

"I really should have looked around the other countries instead of never leaving the castles." Ares stood up and stretched as he looked around the room. "I think that's everything." He glanced at Vinn. "You look like you're dying."

"I wish I were. There's white hot stabbing pain in my head and my stomach... this is worst than cramps... my poor stomach. I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round and some asshole kids are spinning it really fast, and I'm on the verge of passing out."

"Then why are you here and not in your own room?" asked a concerned Aquari.

"Because I want someone to take care of me. I can't even move anymore."

Aquari's expression softened from stone-faced to pity. She tucked Vinn under the blankets and turned the lights off. "Get some rest while we finish packing."

Ares nodded while carefully carrying a box out of the room, trying to be as quiet as possible.

***

Having already finished packing, Scorpio and Capricorn helped Libra pack her things. They didn't really help much, they mostly teased Libra about how much better the class A rooms were.

"I don't know why I let you guys in my room." Libra started pulling books off a floor-to-ceiling shelf that occupied almost an entire wall. "You're not even doing anything."

Scorpio shrugged from on top of the empty tv stand, where she sat cross-legged with Cheeto in her lap. "We're your emotional support."

Capricorn shrugged from under the bed. "I have nothing else to do."

"Why are you hiding there anyway?" Libra pulled Capricorn out by his ankles.

Capricorn groaned. "I'm trying to take a nap. I was woken up way too early in the morning."

Scorpio blasted the alarm noise from her phone. She quickly turned it off after Cheeto flinched.

Capricorn stuck his tongue at Scorpio.

"Can't you guys at least bother Virgo?" Libra began stacking books into another box, using her powers to carefully push books off the shelf.

"He's class F," frowned Scorpio. "The class F rooms are really bad."

"And there's barely any wifi or service." Capricorn began playing Adorable Home on his phone.

"What's that?" Scorpio jumped off the tv stand to look at Capricorn's phone screen. "It's a cat game?"

"Yeah," replied Capricorn. "All you do is raise cats."

"I need that app!" Scorpio began searching for it in the App Store.

Libra glanced at the half of her room that still wasn't packed. "If you guys help me pack the rest of my stuff, I'll let you both hide in my room instead of making you help the others pack."

"Let me choose the characters first. This one kind of looks like me!" Scorpio frowned. "Who should I choose as my partner?"

Capricorn selected a male character. "Choose this one and name him Ares."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because the second person is your rival. You compete over who can raise the most cats."

"It literally says choose your partner. Do you think I'm illiterate or stupid?"

"What else will you name him?"

"Actually he hates me, so I'm sure it would annoy him to be in my game. That's why I will name the second character after him."

"Aren't you guys friends now?" asked Libra. "You started off as rivals, ended up with a mutual hatred for each other... for no reason other than you're both way too over competitive, then you both toned it down a bit to a mutual annoyance with each other, but I thought now you were supposed to be kinda okay with each other."

Scorpio shrugged, deciding not to reply. "I have to make Ares a lunch. How do I pack shit? Can I give him food poisoning in this game?"

Capricorn rolled his eyes and began helping Libra pack her stuff.

***

Sagittarius and Pisces were supposed to be packing stuff in Sagittarius' room, but instead they ended up talking and planning pranks.

"... so the trees will provide us with enough cover to carry out the ambush."

Sagittarius studied a map of Pacem that she printed off. "But if they use this bridge instead of the other one, they'll completely bypass our trap."

"Then I'll flood the other bridge."

Sagittarius nodded. "Then they'll use the first bridge since it won't be slippery. After they walk past, that's when we'll throw our glitter bombs and paint balloons."

"Do you know where to get the glitter, paint, and balloons?"

"I used to visit Aqua's country a lot. There's a convenience store here, so if the new hotel is here, it'll be a twenty minute walk."

"Ugh."

"Unless we borrow a floating bike."

"Let's let Gem in on the prank. Then she can drive the floating bike."

"I planned on letting her in from the start."

"Oh."

"What?"

"I thought I was finally going to do a prank with only you."

"Is someone getting jealous?"

"I'm not jealous that you're close with Gem." Pisces scratched his newly dyed pink hair. "I just would like to do a prank with you sometimes. Just us."

"Alright. This can be a prank with just us. That way we can prank Gem too. Happy?"

"Yes."

Sagittarius smiled and kissed Pisces.

"Wait when did that happen?"

Sagittarius and Pisces whipped their heads around to see Aquarius in the doorway.

"Last night," replied Sagittarius.

"I came to help you guys pack your things but I can leave-"

"Sit." Pisces patted the spot next to him.

Aquarius sat down beside them. "A prank?"

Sagittarius quickly rolled up her map. "It's a secret."

"Okay."

"So is our relationship," added Pisces.

Aquarius furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"We want to see how long we can keep it a secret." Sagittarius smiled. "Scorpio and Gemini will probably catch on. I want to see how long it will take the others."

"I wonder how Gem will react."

Pisces shrugged. "She'll probably notice as well."

Aquarius looked around the room. "You haven't even started packing. You realize your helicopter arrives in twenty minutes, right?"

"Quick!" Sagittarius opened her closet and pulled out a bunch of folded boxes. "We need to start packing!"

"But if we don't help you, you'll be stuck here and disqualified from the Trials," joked Pisces.

Sagittarius stuck her tongue at him.

"I'll start packing these... escape plans?" Aquarius examined a few poorly drawn escape plans on printed maps of the hotel. They were lying on top of the dresser.

"Just in case." Sagittarius unfolded a box and passed it to Pisces.

"Escape plan 7," read Aquarius out loud. "Dress up as a k-pop idol and "geogi neo I fancy you" your way out... what does that even mean? Is that a song or something? Anyway... Ophiuchus hates k-pop so she'll be glad to let you leave. I can't tell if you're purposely drawing Ophiuchus badly or if you can't draw."

"Give me those!" Sagittarius took the papers from Aquarius and stacked them in a box.

Aquarius grabbed more from the dresser. "Escape plan 21, burn the building to the ground. Make sure Lee is tied to a chair or something. Escape plan 22, sacrifice Aquarius while you make a run for it. This is unbelievable. You could have at least tried to draw me nicely."

"Stop reading those!" Sagittarius grabbed the papers from Aquarius and the rest from the dresser.

Aquarius opened a drawer and pulled out more escape plans. "Why do these go up to escape plan 285?"

"Shouldn't you help me clean?" Sagittarius took all the papers from her drawers. "My helicopter leaves in twenty minutes and you're not helping!"

Pisces chuckled as he read an escape plan that he picked from the box. "Escape plan 59, fuck it all and run away with Pisces."

Sagittarius took the paper from Pisces and burnt it. "You didn't see anything."

"You're blushing. She's blushing, right Aqua?"

"Yeah. Her face almost matches her hair."

"You're both so useless!" groaned Sagittarius as she pulled a bunch of secret prank supplies out from under her bed.

Aquarius and Pisces decided they've teased Sagittarius enough and began actually helping out.

***

Leo, Aries, Cancer, Scor, and Leon all sat in the corner of the living room with their hands raised.

"We never should have decided to freeze this floor," sighed Cancer.

Shomari guarded them, preventing them from leaving.

"Why did we decide to turn the air conditioning on blast again?" asked Leon.

"Because snakes don't function as well in a cold environment," explained Scor. "So we tried to lower the air temperature so that Pie wouldn't be able to let Shomari wander around and scare us."

"Trying to make her snake too weak to wander around probably wasn't the best idea," admitted Cancer. "But she already hid Shomari in three of my boxes already."

"She hid the demon in one of my suitcases, and under my bedsheets," groaned Leo. "I wanted to throw Shomari and Pie out the window."

Aries held her breath as Shomari slithered closer to her. "Somebody do something."

Scor shook his head. "We don't want Shomari coming over to us."

Pie skipped down the hallway to check on her prisoners. "How are you guys enjoying your play date with Shomari?"

"How much longer do we have to sit here?" asked Leo.

"Until I'm finished cleaning my room." Pie skipped back down the hallway.

"Someone distract the snake while the rest of us make a run for it," whispered Scor.

Cancer nodded. "I volunteer you!"

"Why me?"

"Because it's your idea."

Leon pulled a bow out of his loosely curled hair that was now dyed pink on the ends. "Let's use this."

While most of the zodiacs either got Leon to cut or dye their hair after truth or dare last night, Taurus and Leo left theirs alone since their hair was just dyed a lighter shade of blonde, Leon left his as it was, and Scorpio wanted most of her hair dyed back, with little pieces of silver remaining. It was impossible to dye Gem's now orange hair back to silver, so now Gem was stuck with orange hair until it grows out. Capricorn and Aquarius didn't care enough to dye their hair again, so they decided to stick with their new black and red hair.

Scor took the bow from Leon. "I'll throw the bow. While Shomari is distracted, we run."

"Run?" Pie popped back into the living room.

"I said I can't wait explore Pacem," lied Aries. "The first thing I'll do is go for a run. Scor was just agreeing with me, he would also like to go for a run."

Pie squinted her eyes at them in suspicion. "You better not be lying." She went back to her room.

Wait, mouthed Leon. After two minutes they head footsteps towards Pie's room.

"Did she wait halfway down the hallway for two minutes to make sure we wouldn't escape?" asked Cancer.

Aries shrugged. "Apparently. Now throw that bow before Shomari eats me!"

Scor tossed the bow. Shomari didn't even notice it.

Leo sighed. "There's not even an air sign here that can blow Shomari back and trap him with wind walls."

Cancer scanned the other hostages. "You're right. We're all fire and water signs."

"Go!" Leon lunged forward, grabbing Shomari by the tail. Everyone else ran to their rooms and locked their doors. Leon managed to get away as well before Shomari could bite him.

"What's all the commotion?" Pie stomped into the living room to find the corner empty with an angry Shomari looking for the escaped hostages. "You probably scared them enough anyway." Pie carried Shomari back to his cage.

***

Cancy and Gemini helped Taurus pack her stuff.

"Thanks for helping me guys!" smiled Taurus.

"Y-you're welcome!" Cancy stacked another packed box in the middle of Taurus' room.

"You have so many pictures." Gemini stacked a box full of picture albums. He reached for another album that was stacked under Taurus's desk. "A photo album just for polaroids. Where's the ones with me?"

"In the dumbass section," replied Taurus.

Gemini stuck his tongue at Taurus and flipped through the pages until he found a Polaroid with him and Taurus. "Why is there a monster in the background?"

"Leave Cappy alone. He's not a monster." Taurus bent down to take the album from Gemini.

"I not-noticed a theme in y-your paintings." Cancy smiled as she looked through a stack of paintings before boxing them. "A lot of them involve a blue crab."

"Crabs are fun to paint."

"And it's Cancer's sign." Gemini began walking like a crab and pinched Taurus' leg while pretending his hands were claws.

Taurus gave him a blank stare.

"Oh wait. You can't even feel that."

Taurus sighed and ruffled Gemini's hair. "Poor Gemini doesn't have any brain cells left."

"She's mean isn't she Cancy?" asked Gemini.

"You p-pinched a para-paralyzed girl's legs. If anything y-you're the mean one," chuckled Cancy.

"It's okay. Taurus is used to my teasing."

Taurus frowned at Gemini. "No I'm not! Your teasing really hurts my feelings!"

"I fell for that act too many times to fall for it again."

"Maybe he does have brain cells after all."

Cancy wanted to join the teasing. "Maybe t-two."

"Now Cancy is teasing me too? Everyone always picks on me."

Taurus rolled her eyes. "We pick on Virgo a lot more often than we pick on you."

"Poor Virgo."

"You say that, but I know you don't actually feel bad for him."

"Neither do you."

"We show our affection towards Virgo by teasing him," explained Taurus to Cancy. "We do the same thing to Libra, except she can be scary when she's mad."

Gemini nodded. "She once locked me in a closet for an hour because I covered her bed in slime."

"But th-that's your fault for doing th-that." Cancy finished packing the paintings and started carefully boxing some collages.

"Touché."

***

Everyone in class F sat in the living room. Their rooms were so small that they kept most of their belonging boxed since there wasn't enough room to unpack everything. It didn't take them very long to pack.

Capri nervously held Lee's hand. "I have to make it to at least B class next time."

Saggi didn't look up from his phone. "Me too."

"I wonder what the next trial will be," wondered Lee out loud.

"The last one was a maze." Gem shrugged. "What if the next one is like a haunted house or an escape room or something?"

Capri shuddered. "Not a haunted house. I'll never get through it if its dark."

"What if she dropped us off in an abandoned building?" wondered Virgo. "And we have to find a certain item or something."

"Am I the only one thinking the next trial will be a race or rope climbing or something?" asked Saggi.

Gem shook her head. "That would be too easy. She wants to hurt and scare us."

"If only Scorpio or Gemini were here," sighed Virgo. "They're good at figuring things out. Scorpio is especially good at finding patterns. After a few trials she'll probably be able to predict what the next one will be."

"Pattern?" considered Lee. "You think there's a pattern to the Trials? I assumed Ophiuchus picked random challenges."

Saggi looked up from his phone. "If there is a pattern, we'll be able to predict the next trials. What do we know about the last one?"

"It was a maze," replied Capri. "There's twelve countries, and thirteen trials. The thirteenth is the final trial, so if it does follow a pattern, we can assume that the trial is related to the country where it takes place, with the final trial being an exception."

"How are mazes related to Serenum?" asked Lee.

"Maybe we're overthinking this," laughed Taur. "There's no relation between mazes and Serenum."

"It's just an instinct to assume Ophiuchus has this big plan strategically made for each Trial," replied Virgo.

Taur yawned and stretched his arms. "Is the helicopter here yet?"

Virgo checked his watch. "The first one arrives in... nine minutes."

"I'll start bringing my stuff up." Gem headed for her room.

"Me too." Saggi walked around the entire floor, searching for his puppy.

"Is everyone else on a different helicopter?" asked Lee.

"Yeah," sighed Capri who stood up. "I just got back from training so I should probably shower."

"I don't know what I'm going to do for another hour." Virgo checked his phone. "I should have picked the first helicopter."

Taur nodded. "If I knew it would be so easy to pack my stuff I would have as well."

"Guess we can just wait... for an hour..." Lee sprawled across the couch now that Capri was gone to shower.

Taur looked around the room. "I spy something that is... grey."

Virgo sighed. "Everything might as well be grey in this shitty class F floor. I can't wait to get out of here."

"I spy something that is... blue."

Virgo gave up on being pessimistic and decided to play along.

***

Aquarius and Aquari were glued to the windows as the helicopter approached Pacem. Most of the villages were built on top of abnormally large trees that only grew in this country, with rope bridges and ladders connecting adjacent buildings. Some trees were so large that small apartments were carved along the inside. Zip lines wove through the trees, with trains barely visible on the ground below all the trees. Some trains were fast with the intention of travelling large distances in a short period of time, but most were small trains that travelled at a steady pace. Small villages that were build on the ground were visible here or there. These villages were mostly occupied by foreigners who don't have air powers.

Once they reached the capital city, the castle stood on top of a hill, in the middle of a large clearing of trees. The gardens were massive, the focal point being all kinds of different trees that grow in different types of soil.

"How do the seasons affect this country?" asked Gem. "Since its summer now, so the trees are full of leaves. What happens in winter?"

"It doesn't snow much in the northern part of the country since its closer to the equator," explained Aquarius. "But the southern part is colder and they get a lot of snow. But they don't have to worry about the trees because the trees in the south are made for winter, so they don't have to worry about winter storms snapping tree branches or anything. Their houses were build differently to better prepare them for that kind of weather."

The helicopter landed on a building identical to the hotel in Serenum, except much shorter. The building was build on top of a tree, much like the surrounding buildings. After they landed, everyone unloaded their stuff but Ophiuchus wouldn't let them take the elevator downstairs until everyone arrived.

***

After the last helicopter dropped everyone off, Ophiuchus faced the zodiacs. "You're all in Pacem now. This hotel has a nearly identical layout to the one in Serenum, except there are a few changes in decor and style as it needs to fit in with the other buildings in this country. This building is about twenty stories high, it's much shorter than the one in Serenum. You all will be reclassified as classless until the next trial in two days. Your tour of Pacem will take place tomorrow. Keep in mind, anyone who was formerly class F will receive a punishment during the next trial, while class A get a reward." Ophiuchus passed out room cards. "All your rooms are on the first floor again. I don't care what room you pick."

And with that she headed towards the elevator, leaving the others to process everything. Everyone was annoyed that they had to spend two nights as classless again, but they were also tired from their flight and just wanted to rest. Especially the zodiacs who had already been waiting for an hour.

"I'm already sick of the trials," groaned Leon as he carried his first two boxes towards the stairway that led to the elevator. Some zodiacs were going to have to take multiple trips to bring all their belongings to their rooms.

Except Gem. She used an air current to blow her and all her belongings off the side of the building, then used another current to catch everything.

"I would do the same thing, but my power needs to recharge," sighed Vinn who couldn't even summon a gently breeze if she tried.

The other air signs quickly followed suit, helping the non-air signs after they were finished.