Zodiac

Kyle~

Kyle released Pollux.

"Pollux, get the others out of here. I'm going to do that overload."

"Overload, are you crazy. That technique was given to you as a last resort." Pollux said.

"Yes, if this continues we will all be captured. I can't let that happen."

Pollux rolled his eyes. "This is silly, not even I would do this."

"I hurt my friends, it's the only way. Oh Pollux take care of them."

Pollux frowned, but did as he was told and lead the others out.

Kyle focused his mind creating astral forms within him. Blood trickled from his nose as the sea of snakes surrounded him. He could feel the power building.



Pollux~

I manged to get Tony, Bettina, and Sabine out on time. They didn't know what Kyle was planning but I did. "Get down I yelled." The house exploded sending fire and the flaming snakes withering through the air.


Drake~ Drake was about to engage with Adriana when his mind was assaulted by the death of is pets. The wave of their death overwhelmed him and he fell to his knees. They would pay for killing his children.

"Girl, choke yourself." To his surprise the girl fought it off. Two mind controllers battling, and all his snakes were dead.

Adrianna

Adrianna's hands curled into fists. She glared back at the boy in front of her. She felt his mind in front of her, almost tangible. She felt his mind on hers. It was one of the disturbing feelings she had ever experianced.

"Back at you," she spat furiously. The boys hands twitched upward, as Adrianna's had when she had first recieved the order.

They struggled silently for another few minutes, oblivious to what was happening around them. Adrianna felt her strangth begin to drain, but she dared not let go.

Sabine~

The earth wouldn't let him go. Kyle's soul was supposed to have gone but the barrier between life and death held strong.

Pollux had dragged us us into a tight grove of trees. Bettina crouched beside me. Every one of the surviving snakes died under her gaze.

The burning of foliage was like the earth bleeding. With every branch burned, it seemed harder for me to remain conscious.

And through it all, in the middle of the smoke and flames, Adrianna and Drake stood facing each other, mental battles being fought between them. It really wouldn't be hard to kill him now. With all of his attention focused on Adrianna.

I stood up and started a run but Pollux pulled back.

"What are you doing?" He whisper/yelled at me.

In my lion form I kicked him off. I could taste the snake boys blood in my mouth as a sprang out onto him from behind and sunk my teeth into his neck.

Adrianna

The connection broke forcefully. Adrianna cried out as she was flung backwards into the dead grass. Eyes closed, Adrianna heard yelling and a load roaring. Adrianna jumped back up, prepared to defend herself.

A lion was on top of the boy. Adrianna swallowed painfully.

"Stop!" she screamed. The lion paused and looked up to her. Adrianna walked forward, blinking. A strange respect had grown in her for the bleeding boy in front of her. He was a worthy opponent.

"We - We can't kill him..." she said quickly, not taking her gaze off of the boy.

"What?!" came the incredulous yells from Pollux and Bettina.

"He may have information," said Adrianna, wildly grabbing for reasonings. "Information we need to know. About Traux. About anything..."

Adrianna felt some odd, some strange and twisted connection with the boy. He had a similar power to hers, and he seemed to have even more control over it. A minute longer, and he might have had Adrianna. No one else needed to know that, of course, but there was no denying the fact. Together, he and Adrianna could wield enough power to destroy Traux permanently. To find her parents, or, should they be dead, avenge their murders. Together, they could potentially have the power to take on the entire United States government.

Adrianna needed him.

"He can't die," she repeated. "Not yet, anyway..."

Sabine~
She was crazy. Maybe her brain was messed up from trying to defeat him. I growled at her.

"Please?"

I could deal. But we'd have to immobilize him first. I kicked his head hard with my back legs and he was out cold. I dragged him by the neck into the bushes where Pollux, Bettina, and the rest waited.

Then, still in my lion form, ran into the ashen house. I had to get Kyle. We had to stay together, all of us. We couldn't afford to loose anyone. No matter what he did to us, he deserved another chance didn't he? He wasn't like The snake boy, an arrogant boy who had no mind of his own.

I saw him lying under rubble of the house. He wasn't gone yet. Somehow the earth had preserved him. I dragged him out.

His blackened face was emotionless. You would have thought it would have been scrunched up from the effort of this...

"What was that Kyle did," Sabine asked Pollux.

"It's called overload. It was added to the Zodiacs as a safety mechanism. If a Zodiac pushes their power too far the energy acts as a bomb. It was developed by Mr Teax in order to make sure that his creations didn't fall into the wrong hands.

"Wait I've overused my abilities several times, and I've never overloaded. Adriana said.

"That's because you weren't aware of it. The user must activate it at a risk to their own life. The original agents were trained to do it. Teax thought the ability would be abused by the newer generation. I just can't believe he did it. It's how Kira his sister died."

Mikael

I could smell the others in a clearing near to the snake boy. The instinct to kill him smashed my self control aside like a train wreck. Only one thing was on my mind at that moment. Kill that boy. I ran headlong into the clearing and sprang onto the snake boy and was about to chew through his neck when a voice said "Stop!" I felt an alien presence in my mind try to overcome my powers urge to kill the monster in front of me. "He must die" i raored and felt the presence rear back at the sound of my fury.

Hailey

Tears smudged the ash on my face a little as we headed back, I a little behind the others, hiding in the wake of their shadows. I'd got hurt, just a little, and it had been for nothing. They'd dealt with the girl without a need for my help, without a use for me. There had to be something my power was good for. Why make me, why keep me alive if there was not? I'd seen how their minds worked, I'd felt the horror of them and been repulsed by the very thought of such power in the darkest of hands. But what use was I? What use?

I felt a clammy hand take ahold of my heart as we came in view of the house. It was rubble. It was gone; nothing remained. I began to run toeward it, aware only vaguely or Ryan and Mike's shouts of caution and the futile resistance of my aching limbs. No! It couldn't be - were they dead? Had some unknown force equal, nay much stronger, to that of the girl been here and redeemed us of our friends?

"Bettina!" I cried, her little face clear in my mind. "Bettina! Adrianna! Where are you all?" I reached the destructionn in time to see a lion - Sabine! - dragging Kyle away. My eyes followed her in half relief and grappled hope to where the others were huddled, safe, around a boy. I turned to say to Ryan and Mike that they were all okay but I could see from their expressions that they already knew and my words would be wasted so instead I hurried forward to hold Bettina in the hope that I could shield her from at least some of the pain. As I passed, I smiled at everyone, half desiring to squeeze the life out of them all.

Adrianna

Adrianna straightened slowly. Hailey hugged Bettina fiercely. Both were trembling, and Hailey had obviously been crying.

"There is no time for this," Adrianna snapped. Out of the corner of her eye, Adrianna saw Hailey look up at her disbelievingly. Adrianna pursed her lips, but made no comment.

"We were found tonight," Adrianna began dryly. She received a couple eye-rolls, but ignored them. "And for reason. We allowed ourselves to be cornered in a closed space," Adrianna glanced at Sabine. "and are now paying the price. We need to move, to get out of here now, unless we want Traux to attack again with a greater force. Tonight never should have happened, but it did, and now we face reality. I, for one, do not want a repeat."

Adrianna pointed at the boy laying on the ground behind her. "I know many of you do not wish to have him in our company. Suck it up, because he will be."

Adrianna gave the group a challenging glare. She turned back to stare at the boy again. She assessed his injuries critically.

Thunder rumbled across the sky. The Zodiacs looked up. Rain began falling slowly to the ground. Adrianna's eyebrows furrowed in distaste as the first droplets fell on her nose. Adrianna glanced back toward the other Zodiacs. Her eyes met Hailey's briefly. Adrianna quickly broke the gaze, wrenched the boy off of the ground, and moved into the shelter of the woods.

Pollux~

It annoyed me how all these people were ruled by their emotions. Castor had nearly killed himself trying to repent, and now this girl was protecting the snake boy for whatever reason. We moved quickly I had Castor propped on my back. Adriana had the snake boy.

When we had covered a few miles we found a clearing and tied the boy to a tree. He begin to wake. Mike held a knife to his throat. She had found it in his pockets. "Who else did Truask send,"

The snake boy laughed. "He sent no one."

"That's a lie," Mike yelled. "We met the girl in the forest."

"It's not a lie," Haily said, her face contorted in confusion.

"Nope, you see Truask is dead. Myself and my partner was sent by Mr. Teax."

I cringed, Sabine had taken Kyles news fairly well, but I knew the others may not be as forgiving. My main worry was Adriana.

Sabine~
Still in my lion form I growled at him. It would feel so good to end his pitiful life right now. He deserved it too.

I shifted back into my human shape.

"Adirianna, he doesn't care about us at all. Let me kill him," I told her. My malice was portrayed through my words.

She wouldn't allow us to though. But what was she. Probably crazy. But something made me listen.

"Well I'm not babysitting him. We should just throw him into the lake or something with a rock tied to his ankle." I told her. I hated her for wanting him. So i hated them both.

Adrianna

Ignoring Sabine's comment, Adrianna narrowed her eyes at the boy. "Say it again - who sent you?" she asked suspiciously. The boy looked at her.

"Mr. Teax," he said emotionlessly.

"And how did Traux die?" Adrianna pressed on, carefully measuring her words. The boy's face blossomed into a malicious smile.

"I killed him."

Adrianna's nails bit into her palms. That boy, that boy had had the audacity to take what was hers by right! And this 'Mr. Teax', who was he?! Some higher government body, perhaps? Military, obviously, but who in the military?

"By choice? Or were you ordered?" spat Adrianna. The boy was silent.

"Answer me!" barked Adrianna, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. The boy raised his eyebrows at her.

"Ordered, but would have done so willingly."

Adrianna spun around a walked away. The rain was getting heavier now, but a large oak spared the Zodiacs from most of the wetness.

"Who are you?" snapped Adrianna bitterly.

No reply.

"Who are you?!" screamed Adrianna, spinning around.

"Drake Daniels."

Adrianna swallowed. Closing her eyes, Adrianna nodded. She walked away from the group, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Only once she was out of sight from the other Zodiacs did she allow her frustrated tears to fall.

Traux had been her last known link to what might have happened to her parents. And he was gone. Because of Drake Daniels and this Mr. Teax.

Adrianna let loose a furious growl. She would not give up! There was that other, faceless, nameless military man to which Traux had been an intern to... Adrianna could find him. He would know...

Numbly, a thought struck Adrianna. Traux had been an intern to the nameless man. Whoever ordered Traux's death was obviously higher up than Traux had been. And Daniels had taken orders from a mysterious 'Mr. Teax' to attack the Zodiacs. Could it not be that Mr. Teax also ordered Traux's murder, and that Mr. Teax was in fact the nameless man of her nightmares?

... Adrianna hoped so. Oh, did she hope so.

Pollux

I sighed. Obviously Adrianna didn't seem to conect two and two togther. She seemed to compleatly miss the fact that Teax was Kyles last name. Sabine came over to me, her eyes still locked on the smiling Drake. She lead Emily over so she could heal Kyles wounds. Emily went around and healed everyone else.

I went over to Drake. Sabine stayed by Kyle.

"Pollux,"

I haven't sen you in awhile. I never seen this puke in my life how did he know me.

"If you tell anyone about Kyle, I will kill you, and that girl won't be able to protect you. I whispered.

"Trust me, without my powers I'm still the best manipulater. I will have you al eating eachother by the end of the week. Kyle isn't the only one with secrets." He said.

Mike~~

i still had my knife to the boys throat through out the whole time. He seemed untethered by the knife as punishment so while he was looking i leaked a venom on it then whispered to him.

"just so you know. That poison on this knife is a slow acting killing venom that will take 5 days to work and will cause sever pain that would render almost unable to move." he still looked unaffected and i fell to the ground the knife an inch from in thigh. i felt weak using this venom, it was my last resort one, it was my lest effective and my most hated one. I looked around everyone was talking to each. i sighed, no one must want to get near the boy and me as a result.

Kyle~

Kyle woke up with a thobing headache. He was surprised he felt anything he thought he would have died in the explosion. He lay under a tree, a Pollux was on one side of him and Sabine on the other. Across from him teathered to a tree was the snake boy. Pollux quickly relayed to him that his name was Drake.