Chapter 20

"It's you guys," Virgo stood, staring at Taurus and Aquarius.

"It's us!" Taurus smiled warmly. "How'd you know we were here?"

"We didn't." Cancer was still deciding whether she was going to be nice to them or not.

"Ok…" Taurus' smile faltered just a bit.

"First of all," Virgo decided to take hold of the conversation. "How did you get here? Why are you here? Did you know we would be here? What happened since the last time we saw you?"

Aquarius, who was holding some little breakfast item, sat down at one of the tables and looked to Taurus, who began to explain.

"Alright, so the last time you saw us was when you guys were leaving to go find a map. Me and Aquarius stayed behind in the filing room so we could clean it up, and when we were done, we followed you guys out and back over to the main room. The problem was, though, that now, there was a roadblock in between us and you guys; Libra. She was standing in the middle of the hallway, looking at us like we weren't meant to exist at all.

"I was going to try and move the ground beneath her, so she would at least trip, but she went invisible. Then, we started hearing these weird whispers saying awful stuff about us. But the whispers weren't verbal, they were in our heads. We ran back into the file room and closed the door, but someone started banging on it. I held onto the door, keeping it shut, while Aquarius tried to find something to bolt it. Eventually, the banging stopped, so we decided to open the door. At first, I thought Libra was still invisible, and she would just jump at us whenever we opened the door, but she was actually gone.

"Nothing happened to us until we got to the main room. We saw the desk guy hiding behind his desk, and when he saw us he started screaming. So we ran over to the door, trying to get out of there. Except, we almost ran into the police officers that were coming in at the exact same time. Thinking fast, Aquarius suggested we just try and find another room in the courthouse that had a window we could escape out of.

"We ran down the left hallway again, mostly because we already knew where it led, and that it wasn't a dead end or something. We went through the door at the end, this time, and found a giant office with a bunch of desks and other things. There were a bunch of windows in the office, so we escaped through one, and went to look for the car. But you guys had already taken the car. So instead, we found nothing. We were going to try and walk to the house Nick was at, but then we realized that we never actually were able to look at a map, so we didn't know where it was.

"In the end, we just decided to sleep at the park. We woke up really early so we could get a head start on looking for you guys, but thankfully, we found you on our first stop!"

Taurus looked genuine, and Cancer felt truthful waves coming off of him, but she still didn't believe a word he had just said. Libra would never have just left them, and even if she had, where would she have gone after that?

"Taurus," Virgo said after a few seconds. "Are you sure that's exactly what happened?"

"Yeah," His eyes scrunched. "What happened to you?"

"Glad you asked," Virgo rolled her eyes. "First, we were trying to go to the car when Leo and Gemini attacked us. Then, when we ran down the other hallway and into the courtroom itself, Cancer knocked Gemini out and made Leo run away."

Taurus shot Cancer a proudly amazed look, and it took everything in her power to keep from smiling back.

"Then, me and Cancer had to sneak out the back of the courthouse, only to find that there were no alleys or anything to get back to the other side, where our car was."

"What about Scorpio?" Aquarius looked up from her meal. "Where was he?"

"We sent him back to check on you guys," Virgo added before continuing. "Back to me and Cancer, who at this time were climbing up the courthouse to get to the other side. When we got to the top, we looked down and saw all of the police cars down by ours. We snuck down a freaking drainpipe, ran down to the car, and then sat and waited. Why? Because neither of us know how to drive, that's why. Not because we actually wanted to wait right next to a bunch of cops.

"Scorpio came out of the front of the building after only a few minutes, and drove us to Nick's house, which was on fire!"

"What?" Taurus looked concerned.

"Yup. The house was on fire. And guess who did it? You'll never guess!" Virgo was really laying on the sarcasm right now, but Cancer felt that the two of them definitely deserved it. "It was Aries! Let me ask you something. How in the world did Aries know where we were going? How?"

"I have no idea," Taurus shrugged, looking like he was still trying to piece everything together.

"Me neither!"

"Excuse me?" Someone hollered back from behind the desk. "Can yall stop shouting in here? If you're gonna have a fight, do it outside!"

"Listen," Virgo said, quieting down significantly. "Aries found us, and so did the man that owns the house, who just happens to be a policeman and knows Cancer. They both chased us down the road, until the policeman stole our car. Then, we just decided to run. We had Nick, so there was no reason to stay any more. We've been walking through the freaking wilderness until only about an hour ago, when we discovered that Anthony isn't even at the foster place anymore!"

"Where is he?" Taurus asked.

"He's in a car somewhere, on the way back to Oklahoma!"

Taurus sat down. He said nothing. There were no words to say. He absentmindedly grabbed a fry off of Aquarius' tray. She looked at him sympathetically.

"I was gone for so much," He put his head in his hands. "Again."

"Yeah," Virgo wasn't going to let him sit there guiltily. "You were."

"So what are we going to do now?" He looked up from his hands in question.

Virgo quickly shot Cancer a look, which she understood instantly.

"We can't tell you." She said, stone faced.

"What?" Virgo and Taurus said at the same time.

"Cancer, we don't tell the people we're suspicious of that we're suspicious of them!" Virgo smacked her forehead.

"I thought he should know," Cancer responded as Taurus simultaneously said

"Wait, you're suspicious about me? Why?"

"Listen," Cancer explained. "Libra manipulated me into doing something that I never would have done otherwise. It makes sense that while we were separated, Libra might have found and manipulated you. To be more trusting, or traitorous, or something. And then, Libra sent Aquarius with you as some sort of little spy, so she could gather information."

"How does that make any sense?" Taurus was getting closer to yelling again.

"Think about it. Nobody knows that we are going to the courthouse. Nobody, except us. And then the fire and air signs show up. How do they do that? How do they know? Someone had to have told them. Unless, Aquarius, do the fire and air signs have anyone who can see the future?"

"Nope," Aquarius said surely. "Capricorn is the only zodiac member that can see the future. To an extent."

Seeing that everyone was giving her an odd look, she added

"Gemini made us learn all of your powers so we could know how to fight you best."

"How did he know all of our powers?" Cancer asked.

"I don't know." Aquarius shrugged. "He just did."

"You know what? That doesn't even matter right now. If what I believe is true, then you're not to be trusted either. Which means all of the information you just gave us could be false."

"Or it could be true," Taurus added. "Because we're not betraying you guys!"

"But we don't know that," Virgo said exasperatedly. "You might not even know that! Cancer didn't, when she was being manipulated."

Taurus let out a frustrated groan.

"Guys, I don't know how to prove to you that I'm not being manipulated. By anybody!"

"I honestly see what they mean, though." Aquarius looked up at Taurus. "There really is no way that we can prove to them that we are trustworthy. And the odds are not stacked in our favor."

"See, even your girlfriend understands what we're talking about." Virgo raised her hand to make a point.

Cancer shot Virgo a death glare, but it went unnoticed.

"So you guys are going to what? Not trust us until we are sitting up in the stars somewhere on thrones of gold?"

Cancer looked over to Virgo, this time with much less of a murderous expression. What were they going to do? Trusting the two of them was out of the question, but keeping them here would require them to learn at least bits and pieces of the plan, which ruined everything.

"Listen," Aquarius spoke up suddenly. "You don't want us to know your plan. And that's fine, because we already know enough to help you."

"You do?"

"Of course." Aquarius gave everyone a tight lipped smile. "We already know that the plan is to rescue Anthony. We don't need to know anything but that, since it's the first step. I think I might even be able to help."

"What do you have in mind?" Scorpio asked.

"Well, I can probably catch up to the van by flying. Then, once I get there, I can come back and let you know where they are and how far they've gone."

"I can do that too," Cancer argued. "And I won't have to fly back."

"Guys," Scorpio interrupted the two. "We don't need either of you to do that.

"Why not?"

"Because, what does it help with anything? If Aquarius flies out to try and find the car, it means that we know which road the car went down. If we know that then there's no reason for Aquarius to leave in the first place because once she's gotten to the car and back, it'll already be much further down the road. So we'll know exactly the same amount of information we knew when we started."

Cancer beamed at Scorpio. Sometimes, he really did know just what to say.

"Cancer," Scorpio turned. "If you were to go, then it would mean the car hadn't gone more than five miles from the town. If that's the case, then we all could go instead of just you. And it's also highly improbable because they left almost an hour ago."

"Ok, so what should we do?" Virgo asked.

"Cancer, do you think Laetus would be willing to help us? Or Guiya, maybe?"

"I'm sure at least Laetus would." Cancer thought. "But there's no way to call him down here."

"But what if there is?"

"Scorpio, stop being so vague. If there's a way to call Laetus down, then we could have used it hours ago!"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure," Scorpio ignored Cancer's remark. "But if all the celestials that I've met have been telling the truth, then a large amount of mythology on earth is solely based on them."

"And?"

"And, if there are true, or at least mostly true myths that we locate, maybe one of them will tell us how to summon a celestial."

"Ok, I see your thought process…" Cancer said slowly. "But don't you think that someone would have come along by now and tried to do that hypothetical spell? If it didn't work for anyone before us, then why would it work for us?"

Scorpio looked like he was about to respond, but it was Virgo's voice that answered.

"Because we're magical! And we're celestials. If anyone can perform some old mythical spell, it's us."

"Virgo, you don't happen to still have Clotho's ring, do you?" Taurus asked.

"I do," Virgo removed it from her arm and held it up. "But I tried it before when we were fighting Leo and Gemini. Nothing happened. I think Clotho's given up on us."

"Well, she should think again," Taurus said. "Scorpio, I think the plan is great!"

"And I think… it's the best idea we've got." Aquarius added.

"Maybe I can learn the spell too," Nick had finished eating and was looking from eye to eye with an excited expression on his face. "And use it to always be able to find my brother."

Cancer smiled. She wanted to disagree. The whole plan was crazy, and so low in probability that she cringed if she thought about it. But it was literally their only option right now. And it wasn't like they were doing anything else important. They had Anthony to save. And if this was the way to do it, then this was the way to do it.

"Alright, where's the best place to find some old spell?"

"Hey!" Scorpio shouted back at one of the restaurant employees. "Can you tell us if this town has a library?"

"Yeah!" The man shouted back, not looking up from the meal he was preparing. "It's right down the road. There's a sign with a giant bookworm on it that you can't miss!"

"Alright, let's go." Taurus helped Aquarius stand, and the two of them ran out the door.

Cancer and the others followed behind quickly, following them over to the car. That was when she realized that they had no car. Officer Daniel had taken it.

"Guys, we're just going to have to walk." She said, turning right and heading over to the street. "Which way did he say it was?"

"He didn't." Nick answered. "Do you want me to go back in and-?"

"He said…" Virgo interrupted. "That it was right down the road. Let's go right."

Virgo started walking, and Nick started to follow.

"That's not what he meant!" Cancer shouted, but everyone had already begun to follow Virgo.

"It's fine," Scorpio turned back. "If this is the wrong way, we'll just turn around."

"That's such a waste of time!" Cancer sighed frustratedly. "We're trying to rescue someone, remember?"

"He's still on the road," Scorpio shrugged. "He won't be getting to Oklahoma for another five hours, at least. It doesn't matter where we intersect the car's path."

Cancer wanted to protest on, but Scorpio turned around. It was pointless, anyway. Everyone was already walking along the sidewalk.

She stood there and stared at them for a couple of seconds, debating whether she should just stand and wait where she was for them to find the library. But she didn't want to sit still, not when there was a rescue to be completed. A friend to be saved. She ran along after them, spotting the library sign and quickly feeling a little bit of embarrassment for making a deal about something that they had ended up being right over.

It was lighter now. The sun was probably just barely peeking over the surface, waking up the people and encouraging them to start getting ready for the day. Cancer looked back at the Taco Bell, wishing one of them had asked when the library would be opening. But unfortunately, none of them had. They would probably be waiting for at least an hour until someone showed up, which was frustrating.

"Scorpio," Cancer asked. "When do you think the library will open?"

"You and I both know that I've never been to a library," Scorpio answered. "But if I had to guess, I would say… two hours."

"Two hours?" Cancer groaned. "We can't wait that long."

"No, we can't," Scorpio agreed. "Which is why we're going to break in."

"Did I just hear you say break in?" Virgo asked, smiling just a bit.

"Yup,"Scorpio said. "Less distractions, more work time. We're definitely breaking in."

"If you want me to try and break the door open, I might be able to do that." Virgo raised a hand. "I can put a tiny little force field into the lock mechanism and jiggle it around a bit."

"If that works, then perfect, do it."

Virgo turned, the rest of the group turning with her. She walked over to the library, which did indeed have a large sign with a giant glasses-wearing worm that had a book in his hands. The library, apart from that sign, actually looked very old. It was made from bricks that looked like they had been painted and repainted quite a few times. The inside, which Cancer could barely see, looked old as well, with a neat little spiral staircase leading up to a second story that presumably held books as well.

Virgo walked straight up to the door and laid a hand on it.

"Should we like, watch to make sure nobody is watching?" Nick asked anxiously. "Anthony got arrested one time because he was trying to steal me a hotdog. Our foster parents had to come bail him out."

"What did they say when they came?" Cancer turned her attention away from Virgo for a second.

"Nothing." Nick shrugged. "They didn't even ask him what had happened."

"That's…" Cancer didn't finish, but in her head, she thought that's probably even worse than an angry reaction.

"Hey, I think I have it." Virgo's voice was strained.

"Are you sure an alarm won't go off when you get it open?" Taurus laid a hand on the glass window, giving it a worried look. "That last thing we need is to try and be arrested again."

"If there's an alarm system," Virgo twisted her hand violently, and a clicking sound came from the door. "I'll be able to stop it by dismantling the system."

"You can do that?"

"I've never actually done it before, but if I know where the system is, it shouldn't be that hard."

"Let's hope."

While she waited, Cancer thought about Virgo. She had a hard exterior made up of sass, but on the inside, she was a lot smarter than it would seem. She knew how to get doors and locks open, which was only the tip of the iceberg for her.

Suddenly, the door swung open. Virgo was looking at it with a surprised smile on her face.

"We're in."