The Forgotten Zodiac

"I see. Nothing like me nearly dying to help you think of something." Rush smiled a bit, looking around at where they were. They had turned the corner, now walking through a hall made entirely of the bookshelves. There were books from the ceiling to the floor, all stacked on shelves in a neat order. Rush stopped as they came to an intersection. "Uh...Kazue? Who are they?"

He pointed towards a large, lined group of what appeared to be soldiers of some sort. Primary Law Units. One, who appeared to be the leader or something, as he was carrying a large scythe, was one of many SLUs; Special Law Units, the commander of PLUs. He was literally dragging someone behind him, who was bound and gagged, being dragged by a rope around his hands. That was LPF, or Library Positioning Function. He always knew where everyone was, no matter if it was a glitch or an overseer. And of course, they had forced him to talk. He looked pretty nastily beat up, too...

"Are you..." Verolen dropped his face into his hand, cursing in Demon language. "Really, Israel? Brilliant..."

Kazue hissed under his breath. "Alright, Rush. We could either go around and find another entrance, or, if you should care to, we could try to battle our way through and save LPF," he said, pointing to the Function.

"He was sleeping!" Israel protested. "And you all didn't give me a chance to put him down!" Quay was blinking, looking around with a scared look on his face. "Where am I?" He cried.

"I...I dunno...he looks awful, I feel sorry for him..." Rush bit his lip. LPF lifted his head somewhat, opening his eyes to look back at Rush and Kazue as the group he was being dragged with continued without looking back. He looked sorry as well, an apology in his eyes, along with tears. He was shaking horribly, too.

Verolen proceeded to hit himself on the forehead repeatedly with the palm of his hand, growling something inaudible. "Bermuda, can we transport him back?"

"It's your call, you'd be the one in the most danger," Kazue said. "I'm prepared to fight," he said.

Bermuda shook his head. "No, the Reverse Magic Law forbids it. We can't transport him back along the same channel for 24 hours," he said. Quay whimpered.

Rush bit his lip harder. "Would you...be able to take all of them, though? I can't use my spells here, it won't work at all..." He had tried before, but he was just the vessel. He was weak and useless in here, far below even the weakest of Functions. "Maybe we should just go around..."

"Oh, for the love of..." Verolen hit himself again. "Fine! We'll watch him until then, but as soon as we can, he's going back!"

Kazue looked at the numbers of the group. "Quite possibly not," he said. "We'll go around," he said.

Israel nodded. Quay was crying.

"Around it is, then..." Rush sighed. LPF was unable to stifle a whimper, pulling against the ropes he was being dragged by for a split second. He then let out a muffled scream as SLU dropped the tip of his scythe into LPF's chest, turning to watch it dig it. SLU stopped, however, spotting Rush.

"Halt! By the order of OO, you're under arrest, Vessel!" SLU called, dropping the ropes holding LPF and starting towards the two. The rest of the Units turned, drawing their swords at the sight of Kazue.

"Inside we go, then," Verolen sighed through his nose, looking down at the still sleeping Rush. "Ridiculous..."

Kazue instantly tranformed. "Stay close, Rush!" he commanded, growing at the approaching soldiers. He exhaled fire at them, hoping to drive them back.

Israel stood, carrying Quay with him. L'arc was trying to pick Rush up. Aton helped him. Byrne waited for Sylas to come on.

Rush backed up behind Kazue, eyes wide with surprise. They probably should have moved faster...SLU jumped back, but the PLUs just raised their shields and marched forward as one, blocking the flames by taking up a tutrtle-shell formation of sorts, putting their shields together to block the flames as they advanced. SLU went about pulling a small black box out of his bag, speaking into it. A radio, of course. "We need back-up! We found the vessel, area 13, section 5! I repeat, we need back-up and a detainment chamber for a rampant Glitch!"

Sylas was just sort of sitting there, watching everything. He didn't move as the others left.

Kazue swiped out at the SLUs, trying to knock them away. "On my back, Rush!" he said. He blew more fire, trying to stall for time.

"Sylas, come on," Byrne said.

Rush nodded and moved to climb up, but had to scramble back as one of the bookshelves was literally cut in two to his left, books crashing everywhere. More PLUs came charging through the hole they had just cut open, most of them going after Kazue. One grabbed Rush by the arm, twisting him around and forcing the vessel to the ground. Rush let out a cry of pain, kicking and struggling, but it was pretty useless, as the PLU snapped his fingers and ropes came out of nowhere and wrapped around him, squeezing tighter the more he fought. "Kazue!" Rush managed to screech before they shoved a gag in his mouth.

Kazue turned, batting away a group of the PLUs with his tail as he grabbed Rush, spreading his wings and making to fly off with the vessel.

Rush was letting out muffled cries as they took off. The Sanctuary was just up ahead, but as VPS had suggested, it was heavily guarded by PLUs and SLUs. All of them snapped to attention as Kazue approached, and one of the SLU's threw his scythe at the dragon, attempting to cut into the wing.

Kazue dove out of it's path, diving at the SLUs and PLUs while blowing fire at them. They were so close...

Several of the PLUs got hit by the flames and screeched, more fleeing in alarm. The barrier was waiting, shining brightly as they got closer, which would be blinding to the Units. Arrows were fired at Kazue in a last attempt to stop him.

Kazue flew through and touched down, breathing heavily from the sprint. He turned back and shook his fist at the PLUs, then turned to Rush, pulling the gag out. "You alright? None of those arrows hit you, did they?" he asked. Speaking of arrows, there were quite a few on Kazue. One in his shoulder, two sticking out of his right calf, and one through his side. He started to unbind Rush quickly, hoping his son was in better condition than his father.

The ropes had dug into Rush to the point where his skin was rubbed raw, and there were spots on his wrists where he was bleeding. There was an arrow stuck in his side, but he looked otherwise okay. "K-Kazue, you're hurt!" He said, wiggling out of the last of the ropes. He quickly pulled out the arrow in his side, not caring that he was now bleeding pretty badly. "Don't worry about me, this is nothing, but..."

"Why is Rush bleeding?" Verolen asked suddenly, looking towards L'arc and Aton. Indeed, blood had started to drip from Rush's side, and his wrists looked like they were bleeding slightly, too. "What just happened?" Verolen demanded, pulling aside Rush's shirt to look at the strange wound.

((It's at this point that I remember that I forgot to post with Sylas.))

Sylas blinked up at Byrne, climbing to his feet. "Byrne? I feel weird..." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "What happened? The last thing I remember is...walking to the beach. Then you were there, I think, and...something about the shards..."

Kazue was breathing heavily. He slowly sat down, hoping that this action would cause him less pain as he moved to pull the arrow out of his shoulder. "I'm fine," he assured Rush. "It doesn't even hurt," he said, but the wince that followed his words showed the second statement to be a lie. He finally twisted the arrow lodged in his shoulder out, then moved to get the one in his side. "I'll be fine, Rush," he repeated. "As long is you're okay."

Bermuda twisted around at Verolen's words. "Bleeding?" he asked, eyes widening. Aton tilted his head slightly to get a better look at Rush's wounds. "Well, it wasn't me," he said under his breath, as if he knew that was where the blame would be cast. Bermuda shook his head. "Nevermind, nevermind, I can just fix it," he said.

((He can, can't he?))

"You tried to drown yourself and then you got attacked by some bushes and nearly died, but we fixed you," Byrne nodded. "Are you okay now?"

((Yeth. :T))

"Kazue, I'm fine, you're the one who isn't fine," Rush shook his head, climbing to his feet and looking towards the tent. He hurried over that way, climbing into the tent and emerging a few moments later with a small black box like the Units had, and a few rolls of bandages. "Here, this stuff was in there...can I help?"

"Shut up, Aton," Verolen growled, inspecting the wound. "It looks like an arrow wound...there's no arrow, though. What's going on?" He frowned, looking at Rush's wrists next. "These are rope burns. How...?"

"The Library." Arachne said. She had been and still was hiding behind a painting that was leaning against the wall. "He's in the Library. In trouble, too, apparently."

"I guess...sort of?" Sylas shook his head in an attempt to shake off his woozy feeling.

Kazue nodded, leaning back slightly with a sigh. He had tried pulling out the arrow in his side, but his efforts only drew more blood. "Have at it," he said.

Bermuda's healing staff glowed brightly as the wounds faded. He reopened his eyes. "The Library? Is there any way for us to help him?" he asked, looking at the painting that had spoken. Ashkii stepped over to them, taking Rush from Aton. Aton hurried inside, presumably to go find Apathy. Ashkii spoke then. "Maybe Dredge and Adahre could go in,' He said. Bermuda rolled his eyes. "You know that there's only room for one spirit inside a vessel unless the one already there is willing to make room. I doubt the Library would let either of our spirits in. The Library's huge, you know," he said.

Byrne put a hand on Sylas's shoulder to help steady him. "You're still pale," he commented, "But at least you're on your feet again. I think the Ether Shards were stealing your energy or something. That's what Ashkii said."

Eve was waiting inside, still carrying around the pillowcase with Aries in it. Gabe had her other hand, and wandered around with her as the looked for Gabe's playmate, Arachne. Minori was in the throne room, waiting for Reetah and Jarod to show up. He had something important to discuss with them. Apathy was in there already, with her brother.