Chapter 21

Cancer sat at one of the library tables, looking over her pile. The first place she had gone when the doors had opened was the mythology section, but she quickly moved away to a different, more unique area. The first place everyone else had gone to was the mythology section also, so she gave herself the job of looking through the different sections for other, related titles.

"What books did you get?" Taurus came up behind her.

"I got this book on Greek myths." Cancer held up the book, which had a drawing on the front of a lion. "Clotho is in this one, so maybe there are some other truths in here."

"Alright. And that one?"

"Oh." Cancer almost chuckled, but remembered her current status with Taurus and chose to remain straight faced. "It's a book about zodiac signs and stuff. It's supposed to be based around it, so I figure that maybe I'll find some important stuff in it."

He shrugged.

"Zodiac myths have been passed around for thousands of years. If anything in there is accurate, that'd be a miracle."

"Eh, I still think it's worth it to try."

Taurus moved along, done with the conversation. Cancer could tell that he had been trying to get on Cancer's good side. She both admired and was suspicious of him for it. She turned back to her book and buried herself in the pages, deciding to go for the Greek one first. The first page she came upon that had anything to do with teleportation was a myth about Hermes. Cancer read that Hermes was the god of transportation, and could bring people from any one point to another. There was nothing that remotely came close to summoning of any sort, and even if there was, Cancer had no way of knowing if this myth was real, and Hermes did exist, or if it was just some made up god to go along with other real ones that had been added into the story.

After the page on Hermes, Cancer realized that at the end of the book, there were a few pages that had keywords she could look for. She immediately found the word "summoning", and flipped to one of the pages. It was about summoning certain deities from the Greek pantheon. Cancer found many of the more famous gods within the pages, but she didn't see anything about Clotho, or her two sisters, for that matter.

She had never, since the point of finding out, wanted to get her memories returned to her more than this point. Before, she hadn't really needed them. Things were simple, going from city to city. But now, all they needed was a way to summon a celestial, and instead of just doing it like normal celestials probably did, they had to look through endless documents that consisted of 99% false information and only 1% truth. In frustration, she closed the Greek mythology book and went to her second, the zodiac book.

"Hey, remind me to ask Laetus about Ophiuchus!" Cancer hollered over to Virgo.

"What's that?"

"Another constellation the sun passes through! Technically, it should be classified as a zodiac, but for some reason, it isn't."

"It's probably just one more thing that humans added onto the real story!" Virgo didn't look up from whatever book she was reading.

"Probably," Cancer said more to herself than anyone else.

Despite being filled with crazy facts that Cancer couldn't imagine being true, she found a bunch of interesting information that seemed real enough to pique her curiosity. She spotted a reference to the Greeks, reminding her of her other book, which said that Greek people used to call them zōdiakos kyklos, meaning "circle of animals". Kind of insulting, if she really thought about it.

Overall, there wasn't really anything particularly important about any of the information she read, but she did think it was cool that there were millions of people out there that were proud of wearing her name like a badge of honor. Before putting the book down completely, she found the section on Cancer, dying to have just a quick peek. The first thing she spotted on that page was the describatory words. They said all sorts of things, but most of them were directly correlating with emotions, or being emotional. Cancer didn't think herself to be a very openly emotional person, but she knew that on the inside, it was all she was. Her abilities were even emotionally based.

She closed that book, fearing the hole she might fall into if she stayed, and stood up. There was something nagging her, and she needed to get it sorted out. She wasn't sure if the answer she would receive could be trusted, but she figured she could ask anyway, since it looked like Aquarius wasn't doing much at the moment. Cancer walked over, pausing to let Aquarius finish up the magazine she was reading. She looked up at Cancer, a question appearing in her eyes.

"Is there something you need?"

"Aquarius, just know before I ask this that I still don't trust you. Or even like you, for that matter. But would you please tell me, since it appears that you know, all of the abilities everyone has. Everyone on this little team could probably use the information."

"First of all," Aquarius closed her book quietly. "I just have to say that I understand your distrust for me. And second, of course I'll explain everyone's abilities. When Clotho came to us, she also told us all of the abilities that everyone had. Gemini decided that we should memorize them, and later, when we met up with the fire signs, he made them memorize them too."

Cancer sat down beside Aquarius, who began to list everyone off.

"Starting with the fire signs, we have Leo. He has the ability to create and control these little beams, or orbs, of light. He can use them to brand people, or just hit them, and can also make them different colors."

"Is that what he did to Aries' and Sagittarius' arms?" Cancer asked, remembering the way that they had located Aries so easily back at the warehouse.

"Yes." Aquarius nodded. "He was going to do it to us as well, but apparently I wasn't able to stick around long enough for that fun."

For a moment, Aquarius was genuinely upset. Cancer could tell that she was upset, which made her a little bit more trusting, but then she remembered all of the weird ways that the fire and air signs had found them, or even got to where they were going before they went. The little bit of trust that had been blossoming was ripped away, for the most part.

"Anyway, Leo can also control things with his mind."

"So, telekinesis?"

"Exactly. The only thing he can't control are living beings."

"Is that it for him?" Cancer asked, knowing that some people had three abilities by now.

Cancer knew that once they turned 17, they would receive another ability, like she did only a week or so ago, but she didn't know if Leo had turned 17 yet. She hadn't taken the time to memorize the chart, and all she really knew was that she was somewhere in the middle, and that Aries was first. Which was weird considering that the book she had been reading said that Aries was a symbol of youth. Yet another thing that the humans had gotten wrong.

"Yes, he only has two abilities. You get three once you turn 17." Aquarius explained, and Cancer nodded her head as if she didn't already know that.

"Maybe we should start on the top of the zodiac chart then, with person number one?" Cancer suggested.

"Yeah, we can start with Aries." Aquarius started to explain again.

"Alright, so as you already know, Aries can create and manipulate fire."

"Yup." Aries' fire was basically the main antagonist on the team of baddies, despite not even being a real person.

"She can also run extremely fast, and can also carry extremely heavy things."

"Wow, she really did get all of the good stuff." Cancer remarked. "Fire, speed, and strength?"

"Yeah, she's also so confident," Aquarius told her. "You would not believe how calm and collected she was basically the whole time we were together."

"She sounds calm and collected."

"Leo might be the leader, but she is definitely the brawn of that team."

Cancer noticed how Aquarius referred to the fire and air signs as the other team, rather than her own. She didn't know what to think about that, so she just let it pass by, waiting for the next person.

"After Aries comes Taurus." Aquarius said. "You probably already know all of his abilities, but I'm going to say them anyway just to be sure that I still do."

There were a few seconds of pause.

"Ok, so Taurus is invulnerable, so he can't be hurt. He can control the weather, like lightning and rain and stuff, and he also… can control the ground around him."

Cancer nodded.

"Next comes Gemini. He can do this thing that we always called irresistibly where he talks differently, and can magically charm the people he's talking to. Not as powerful as what Scorpio can do, with his mind control, but still very helpful when trying to keep suspicion low. You can't be suspicious of someone that's magically making you like him."

"Do you think he ever used it on you?" Cancer asked.

"I don't know… I'd like to think that he didn't, but if I'm being honest, he probably did. Especially because I didn't always approve of his methods of surviving as a homeless person."

"What would he do?" Cancer thought of her friends, who had also had quite different ideas on how to stay safe and hidden.

"He wanted to trick and charm people into giving us money. He wanted to start making other homeless people in our area afraid of us so that we would be respected, and have people that would do what we wanted them to if we needed."

"Wow," Cancer said. "So nothing like my friends at all."

Aquarius quietly chuckled.

"No, nothing like your friends. Gemini can be a very kind person when he wants to be, but he can also be your worst nightmare. And the scariest thing about him is that he can get to you without touching you, just by using his words. He's done it to me before. Made me feel awful just with a simple offhand sentence."

"He sounds like a terrible person." Cancer spoke truthfully. "I don't know how you managed to live with him."

"It wasn't that bad."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Aquarius regathered herself and started up again.

"After Gemini is you, and I'm not going to do you for obvious reasons."

Cancer smiled.

"Then, after you is Leo. We already went over him. And then there's Virgo, who can create force fields and control the air."

"So everyone is sixteen except for me, Gemini, Taurus, and Aries."

"Yes, you just had your birthday a week or two ago, and the next one up is Leo."

"Alright, continue."

"Libra is after Virgo. She can speak telepathically to people, and she can also steal other peoples' emotions."

"So like she did to me at the warehouse." Cancer remembered vividly the orb that had struck her, and taken away her patience and trust.

"Yeah, just like she did to you."

"Then we have Scorpio, who can create shadows and also control people and their brain functions. Sagittarius is next, and she's able to fly, and teleport to any location she's seen before."

"And the last three?" Cancer counted in her head.

"Capricorn is-" Aquarius stopped. "Capricorn was able to control time, speeding it up or slowing it down for herself and others, and she also had premonition."

Cancer wasn't really listening. She already knew what Capricorn's abilities had been. She was thinking more about the fact that Aquarius had used past tense. It had brought up a whole new wave of emotions that Cancer had been keeping bay ever since Gemini had told her the terrible news. These emotions were things she did not want to face. Sit was unfair. How could Pisces and Capricorn just die?

"The final two are me and Pisces." Aquarius finished. "I can fly and phase through objects, and Pisces… You already know what Pisces could do."

"Yes," Cancer stumbled away, heading back to her chair in a daze. "Yes, thank you."

Cancer sat back down, trying to push back the tears that were now coming on strong. At least she had made it away from Aquarius in time. Just as she started to sit, Virgo started to speak loudly, addressing everybody.

"Guys, I think I found something." Virgo called them all over.

Cancer stood back up quickly and wiped the tears from her face. Now was not the time to cry. She walked over to where Virgo was sitting, with an open book in front of her on the table.

"What is it?" Cancer asked.

"Well, I was over here reading this book on South American gods, and I found a god of transportation that can create portals. And there's also a way to summon him, according to this."

"South America?" Scorpio asked. "What's his name?"

"Guiya."

"We met Guiya," Scorpio sounded a lot less excited than Cancer would have imagined. "So we can at least confirm that he himself is real."

"What else does the book say?" Cancer walked over to the table to get a closer look.

"Well, it says that he was an Incan god, mainly thought of as the god of transportation. He was born to two other gods that are also Incan, and he lived in a waypoint in one of their temples where they could supposedly travel to the underworld."

"I wonder if the underworld is real." Taurus commented offhandedly.

"How does the book say we can summon him?" Cancer picked up the book, skimming the page.

"Well the book never says that we can summon him, but it does say that the Incans would supposedly try and summon him using their temple.

"Virgo!" Cancer slammed the book down.

"What?" Virgo raised her hands, confused.

"How are we going to get to an ancient Incan temple? That's even farther than we actually need to go! It's defeating the purpose!"

"Well, I figured that-"

"No!" Cancer cut her off. "We need to find an actual way to do this!"

"This is an actual way!" Virgo stood up. "There are pieces of ancient Incan artifacts at the museum in this city, according to the book, which was written by the museum curator. Apparently he has a fascination with the ancient Incas."

"And we can use them to "summon" him?" Scorpio asked. "Last time we met, we blackmailed him to send us down to earth. If the summoning gives him a choice, then he's not going to come."

"We can just cross that bridge when we come to it." Virgo sighed. "Why are we sitting here talking when we could be doing something?"

"There are always other options." Cancer replied. "We could kidnap Sagittarius and make her teleport us there."

"Yeah, like that is any more reasonable than my plan." Virgo scoffed. "Do you realize how hard that would be?"

"I wasn't saying we should actually do it." Cancer protested. "I was just saying that messing around with ancient artifacts that are supposed to summon celestials could be a really bad idea."

"But as I said before, it's the only one we have."

"Yeah," Cancer finally said after a moment of silence. "I guess it is."

"So the artifacts are at the museum?" Taurus asked, right at the same time Aquarius said,

"Guys, is this really the smartest idea?"

"What do you mean?" Cancer ignored Taurus.

"We're taking such a big detour to rescue someone that we barely know, and isn't even a celestial. Is that really the best use of our time?"

Cancer looked over at Nick, worried about what he was thinking. His face was entirely still, and he appeared to be examining the floor as if it was a shiny gem he had just discovered.

"Aquarius," Cancer turned back to her. "If I'm going to be entirely honest, Anthony joined this group long before you did. And he's never worked with the fire and air signs to bring us down."

"Cancer," Taurus started, but Aquarius stopped him.

"Taurus, I can speak for myself. Cancer, I understand that me and Taurus are very suspicious to you right now, mostly because I did used to work with the people that are now hunting us. But you have to understand that these were the people I grew up with. It wasn't my fault that I was placed with them, it wasn't my fault that I became friends with them. It's what anyone would do. They were the only people that I had in the world, and I have to be honest, I still love them very much. The only reason I'm not with them right now is not because I chose to leave, but they left me.

"That was probably my fault. I didn't want to be involved in fighting or killing anyone, and to add to that, my abilities weren't very strong at all. The fire signs wanted me gone as soon as we met, and the only reason they didn't get their way was the bond that I had with Gemini and Libra. But as you all probably already know, Gemini is heartless. At least most of the time. His feelings are hidden so deep inside of him that they're hard to find. And Libra, she cared about me. But not enough to stick with me. She probably just thought that they could come back and pick me up once they were done killing you all."

If Aquarius was lying, then she was just about the best liar that ever existed. And right now, Cancer was feeling some serious guilt for disbelieving her. But apparently, Virgo wasn't feeling the same.

"If you really want us to believe you, then give me another explanation for how our enemies knew where we were going and got there before we did."

"I actually have two guesses about that." Aquarius said. "First of all, Clotho could be prophesying the things that you guys are about to do next, and then telling the fire and air signs where to go and what to do."

Cancer had forgotten about Clotho, but now that she remembered, she was upset. Clotho had been so nice to them, telling them that she would help them the whole way, and now she was not only openly helping the fire and air signs, but also possibly using her ability to help them ruin everything.

"My second theory is that Capricorn and Pisces aren't actually dead. When the fire and air signs attacked, maybe they didn't kill them. Maybe they're holding them hostage. And if they're holding them hostage, then they could be using Capricorn to foresee where we're going."

"If that's the case, then it's a good thing." Taurus was the first to respond. "Capricorn and Pisces being alive is probably the best news we've gotten here at this library."

"But we don't know for sure that they're alive." Scorpio added. "Also, since Aquarius is here with us, it could mean that they're telling Pisces and Capricorn that only one of them will survive."

"Because only one of them will be able to be that sixth person." Cancer finished.

Suddenly, she gasped.

"If they need Capricorn to find and kill us, then she's probably the one they picked to be the sixth person. Which means that Pisces might already be dead!"

"No less dead than you thought he was an hour ago." Scorpio said, and Cancer shot him a horrible glare.

"How could you say that?"

"I'm just saying that we need to stay on the goal of getting to Anthony."

"Fine." Cancer stalked over to Virgo. "What's next?"

"We're going to the museum."