The Forgotten Zodiac

"Could you? That would be helpful," Rush nodded, smiling a bit. "Thanks, Ashkii."

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Ashkii nodded, smiling. "Anyhow, let's go back to the others. Then I'll send you all home," he said. L'arc climbed to his feet, walking on ahead. Byrne lifted Sylas and carried him back. Ashkii followed, leaving Verdi with all the Ether Shards.

"I agree," Rush nodded, smiling a bit as he followed. Verdi quickly collected the shards, hurrying after the others. Of course, even if they were still backfiring, they wouln't have any effect on him. He wasn't even slightly human, after all.

((double post??))

((Not anymore. -has erasing skillz-
And yes. Verdi the bunnyyyyyz. :T))

"I suppose we should wait until they wake up," Rush sighed, sitting on his animal skin-bed again. "Wake me up when it's time to go, then..." He desperately needed to see what was going on with the Library. VCF wasn't responding...

((Don't forget about Kazue. :U))

((Otay))

Byrne nodded, sitting Sylas onto a mat. "You stay here," he said, throwing another mat over him.

Sylas blinked and nodded, curling up underneath the mat.

Rush sank into the Library, landing in the middle of...well, a mess. Several of the old bookshelves lining the walls had been knocked over, but there weren't any books anywhere. Rush looked around. The place looked...pretty much deserted.

"You came back?" Knowledge Operator's voice echoed around him, stirring up shadows from below the books.

"Apparently so..." Wisdom Operator's followed, and the both of them rose up out of the shadows. "VPS was injured, don't bother calling her..."

"VCF is comatose, before you ask." KO's smile was twisted, ugly. He grabbed Rush by the arm, unfazed by his weak struggling. WO grabbed his other arm.

"No!" Rush cried out, pulling against them. "Let me go! VPS! VCF! Someone, anyone!"

"Allow me to explain," Lydia said from behind them, her smile just as horrid as KO's. "I've managed to convince a good deal of your Librarian friends here that you're worthless, and you only get in the way and need to be destroyed. VPS and VCF stuck up for you, so we took them out. There are still a couple rebels we haven't gotten to, but they don't matter at all now. We're going to kill you."

"Stop this at once!" Fire blew over the group, coming from a large, golden dragon that now strode towards them. "I've beaten you before, Demoness, care to try again?" he hissed, stepping closer. "Let the child go. He's one of my kind," he growled, his tail swishing back and forth angrily.

Lydia stumbled back a few paces, eyes wide with fear, but KO and WO were just smirking away, looking up at the Dragon in mild amusement. Rush wanted to ask what the dragon meant by 'one of my kind', but KO beat him to saying anything. "The dragon thinks he can mess with us," KO chuckled.

"He's rather wrong." WO chortled, nodding. "Just because he's bigger does not mean he's stronger."

"Besides, we don't have to do much before all this is over," KO nodded, smirking widely. He clicked his tongue and shadows rose up in a thick wall.

"No, no, stop, please," Rush begged, his own fear very much clear. "Stop!"

KO and WO pushed Rush into the wall. The shadows immediately surged, wrapping around Rush to make a thick dome around him. It then started pressing in on him, attempting to squeeze the life out of him. Rush screamed, not sure if anyone could hear him one way or another.

"Now then, to deal with you," KO looked towards the dragon, smirking wider still. He swept his hand in an arc, shadows swarming at his feet. They shifted into black spears, flying towards the dragon like sharp, stabby bullets.

They bounced off easily. Manakete weren't affected by things such as magic very well. He hissed, swatted KO and WO out of his path and slicing through the dome With his claws, using his ability 'Purge' to wipe away the shadows.

KO and WO both let out their own cries, dissolving into shadows under the Manakete claws. Of course, they reemereged behind the Manakete, throwing shadow knives at the dragon's belly from underneath it. Rush fell out of the shadows, stumbling towards the Manakete with pained tears in his eyes. He didn't even recognize it, he just knew that it was trying to help him.

Kazue swiped his tail at KO and WO, hissing at them again. His eyes darted over to Lydia, making sure that she wasn't trying anything. His wing wrapped around Rush protectively.

Lydia was oddly gone again, though, vanished into thin air like a ghost. WO and KO blocked the tail with shadows, the walls wrapping around the tail like they had wrapped around Rush. Rush stayed still, not wanting to ruin his protection. Still, he worried for his friends...VCF and VPS were both hurt? He needed to find them...

Kazue roared, struggling to pull his tail out of the wall. "Get away from here, dear child," he said to Rush. "I'll stop them from harming you, don't worry. Leave," he commanded.

"W-where do I go?" Rush asked, his voice soundng small compared to the power in all of the other's voices.

"He can't leave the Library now," KO laughed.

"Not until VCF wakes up. Which will be never," WO grinned, wrapping another wall around Kazue's tail. "He doesn't have to be conscious to carry Rush down here, but to push him back up requires focus."

"It's hard to focus on anything when your brain processes no faster than a vegetable can run." KO smirked.

"Rush, this way!" AO was standing a short distance away, on top of a stack of overturned bookshelves. The Absorbtion Overseer was indeed one of the few fighting for Rush's safety. There were a couple others with him; VPS was one, and it looked like she was missing an entire arm, shimmering bandages wrapped around her chest and over what remained. She was leaning against another person who was tall and fit and looking prepared for battle; that was LPS, or Library Protection Systems.

"Rush, hurry!" VPS called. "Kazue, you too! Don't let them destroy you!"

Kazue blew fire at WO and KO, managing to pull himself from the wall.He then picked Rush up and spread his wings. He shoved WO and KO aside, then hurried for the others, Rush in tow.

WO and KO dissolved into shadows again to avoid the attack. Still in shadow form, they started arguing. "What are we supposed to do now? The rebels have him..." KO whined.

"How should I know? We're going to be in trouble for this, the Operation Overseer isn't going to like this at all..." WO snapped. "It's your fault, too. Why'd you try to shadow-crush him? A knife would have been twice as effective and a lot faster!"

"Oh, don't you try to pin this on me! We'll just see what the OO says about you and your shadow-knives at the dragon! Weren't you supposed to lock up that thing anyways?!"

"Shut up, you know fully well that I couldn't find it! I have an idea, why don't we just not say anything about this. Official report? We were standing watch at the east end of the main corridor and we saw Rush being taken by the dragon towards those lot. That's all. End of story."

"Sounds like a plan. Shall we go?"

"After you."

Rush heard all of this, and couldn't help but laugh a bit. WO and KO were quite the moronic pair, despite their names. "Thank you Kazue, I can't thank you enough!" VPS looked nearly in tears, smiling widely regardless.

"Good job," AO nodded. "Couldn't have done it better, myself." Which was quite the compliment, coming from him.

"Back to the hideout," LPS said gruffly, not too happy about all the overturned bookshelves and such. They had saved most of the books, but a lot of the more powerful grimores had been taken by the others, and that annoyed LPS greatly, not knowing what they were being used for. Hopefully they'd still be intact...

"Of course," Kazue said. "As said before, he's one of my kind," he added, shifting back into his humanoid form, with Rush now in his arms. The Manakete looked down at Rush. "Are you alright?" he asked, walking ahead of the others for the hideout.

"VCF, come on, wake up," Library Stability Overseer sat near her friend, trying to revive him. Her name was her implied purpose. LSO controlled the stability of the Library so it wouldn't collapse on intself. And, in the current state, the Library was in great danger of this. Her presence was the only thing preventing it from imploding.

Rush blinked, realizing who was holding him. "Ka...Kazue? What do you mean, one of your kind? I guess I'm probably part Manakete, but the Phantom did that to me...I-I'm okay, I guess...just a bit shaken up."

"You'll be alright," VPS nodded, smiling as LPS supported her as they walked. AO stopped, though there were no real doors or anything of the sort around. The tiles underneath their feet suddenly shifted, sinking past the floor and into what was apparently the basement. It was a single, small room with one door. The walls and floor were rock and the only lighting down here was the glowing blue mushrooms that seemed to grow on the ceiling.

"Here we are," AO nodded, stepping off the platform they had descended on.

VCF and LSO were past the aforementioned door, VCF laid out on the floor, a thin blanket pulled over him, in the corner near the left door. There were four doors; one led to the exit, where AO, VPS, LPS, Rush and Kazue were. The others led deeper into the maze that was the Library's dungeons, so to speak.

Of course, VCF didn't respond. As KO had said, he was completely comatose. Shimmering bandages like the ones on VPS were practically covering his chest, one of his arms, both of his legs and some on his head. He was lucky to still be breathing, being unconscious was a given. Of course, he was extremely lucky to be in one piece; OO himself had attacked the poor Function. VCF was a minor function, at that, he was pretty much defenseless on his own. And yet, he was the only one able to return Rush to the real world. It was very bad that he was down-and-out like this.

Kazue smiled. "Come now, you started out as something, didn't you?" he said. "I've known for a while now who you were, it just never seemed the right time to tell you," he said. "You started as a full blooded Manakete child. Your name was--" he stopped speaking suddenly, going into the room and sitting Rush down.  LSO was looking over at the others, then back to VCF. "Hasn't moved," she commented.

((This may be just brainspew here, but perhaps Rush could be Kazue's son, kidnapped by the Phantom at birth? It's okay if you don't want to do it. My thoughts tend to stray.

His name was/is Lotis, though. Yah.))

"I...I was a Manakete?" Rush frowned. "Wait, what? What was my name? Please, Kazue, tell me, what was...what is my name?"

"He'll be okay...just so long as he's still breathing, right?" LPS frowned a bit.

"I should hope so," VPS nodded, sitting next to Rush and letting out a sigh, rubbing her shoulder where her arm used to be. It had been caught between a crushing spell and the floor. She had amputated it herself to get free. Losing a limb was a meager price to pay when compared with her life. If she died, Rush would be unprotected from the Library, more specifically when Rush is conscious in the real world. VPS was the one keeping everyone in check as far as that went.

If she had allowed herself to die, Rush would have been next.