The Forgotten Zodiac

Luna quickly turned away and retched, unable to stand seeing him in so much pain. She knew better than to try and help, however. As Forin had said, she wouldn't have been able to help. This was, after all, just a memory.

Luen practically screamed and scrambled back against the wall, the chain cuffs around his wrists and neck clanking loudly. He folded his ears down to plug them, wailing terribly. He nearly fell down, his legs shaking so badly that they could barely support him.

"Forin!" Luna called, holding a hand over her mouth. "Where do we go to get out of here?!"

The screams eventually subsided, and the memory faded to black. They stood on nothing, as though a sheet of completely transparent glass stood between them and the abyss around them. Forin sounded glum when he next spoke, and perhaps a little weak. "You're moving through them automatically. There are only a few left though, thankfully...the others aren't quite as...gruesome as that one..."

In the blink of an eye, they arrived in a different memory. Again, they wound up next to Forin.

He was struggling against leather straps that held him to a cold steel table. The wounds from before were now nothing more than scars, though they still looked somewhat recent. The room was small and simple, with nothing of major interest. Aside from the window; it revealed that they were somewhere in Tartarus, the red glow an obvious sign.

As they watched, Forin somehow managed to break out of the straps, rolling off the table and stumbling towards the drawers. He rummaged through them desperately, dragging out paper. He bit into his finger and started writing a word in his own blood. 'Help'. That was when the door slammed open.

Another Tartaran walked in. His face appeared fuzzy to Luna and Luen; obviously, Forin had tried to block out memories like this, so he didn't remember exact details very well. Either that, or this was part of the 'melting' that Forin had mentioned before.

The other Tartaran was quick to throw a needle at Forin; it was a syringe, to be more specific. It landed in his thigh and caused him to fall limp, though he glared openly at the other Tartaran. Said Tartaran spoke, though his voice was cut off in places. They got bits of disconnected words, while the Tartaran moved closer. When the voice became clear again, it became eerily familiar. "You won't get help," He laughed, ripping the paper from Forin's grip. "We're going to keep you alive as long as possible, not to worry. I'll take bits here and parts there. Your healthy organs will replace mine...it's not fun falling apart, you know."

"I...hate you..." Forin growled, trying to move. "Michaelis...y-you..."

"Hate is quite the infectious condition, isn't it? I hate you too, you know. You were just too good. Too powerful. You were only second to Titus, the king himself. Not anymore." He jabbed at Forin in the ribs. "I've got you under my thumb now. You ignored me before, but now you hate me. You despise me, because I'm a threat to your very existence. But, well, not much we can do, eh? Since you seem to like hating things so much...why don't I make that condition permanent?" He reached into his pocket, pulling out some small metallic thing. "I've been dying to try this thing out. It'll act as part of your heart; it'll work just fine for as long as the rest of your heart works, not to worry, not to worry. But it'll be fun because it senses emotions. It's a rather intelligent little bug, you see, it picks out different emotions from your heartbeat itself."

"My friends and I have come to the conclusion of why you're so powerful. I mean, you came back from those humans, bleeding and dying. You went missing for almost a year, and then you came back...just as strong as ever! I think it has something to do with your emotions; you feel everything. You decided that you had something to live for, thanks to these stupid things of yours. I'm betting that it's your summoners. You live to be summoned, as stupid as it sounds.

"You're not a normal Tartaran. The rest of us, we don't feel things, you see. I don't know why Titus decided to grant you those things. Your true self had it right; he tried to get rid of them, and that action made you...even in this pathetic form, you were still so much stronger than any of us. Not anymore~! I'm going to replace part of your heart with this thing." He waved the metal object in front of Forin's face. "And the second you let yourself feel a strong, positive emotion...whether it's to fight or laugh, well...BOOM! Your chest will be everywhere. Some people say to wear your heart on your sleeves, and that's what you'll be doing. Literally!" He screeched with laughter, before pushing the liquid of another syringe into Forin's neck.

Everything went black again.

Forin was silent.

((TT~TT))

Luen was silent, his entire body quivering, though not just from fear now. Tears streamed down his face, splattering to the ground. A strong emotion flowed up in his heart and Luna flinched slightly, sensing it and knowing that she felt it welling in herself as well.

Deep and complete respect.

Luna brushed her hair behind her ear, moving a hand out to touch Luen's shoulder. He moved away, of course, his eyes locked on the ground. He slowly held up his hands and stared at them, watching the way they shook and twitched. "I want you to laugh..." he murmured where Luna couldn't hear. He didn't seem to remember that he was in Forin's mind, so the Tartaran could hear him no matter what volume he spoke at. "I want to hear it..." he murmured softly. "That sound. I...I've always wanted to hear it. I've wondered what it could sound like. If I would ever hear it before I died or was killed. Is it sad that I always thought that you would be the one to kill me? Is it sad that I didn't care and stayed by you anyways? I wouldn't take it back...I would still be there..." His eyes took on an emotionless air, like he no longer cared about anything at all. Which he had convinced himself of, during his time in the cell, so full of guilt and regret. That he no longer cared.

Forin responded, whispering to Luen alone. "I want to laugh, too. That one time, when we were running in the meadow...I had thought you had attacked, remember? I was so filled with relief and happiness then. I was glad that someone cared enough to run around with me. I couldn't stop myself from feeling those things, I was afraid the bomb would go off. That's why I fled up that tree, I...I didn't want to hurt you."

Forin spoke to both of them next. "I think this is the last one. About...about a year after the last one..."

The next memory came in quickly. "Get up," Michaelis said demandingly, nudging Forin with his shoe. They were in a different room now. Forin looked exhausted and pathetically weak. He hadn't tried to move or escape, even though the door had been wide open. He just leaned against the wall, eyes half-open. He was still shirtless, revealing the messy stitching job. The jagged 'T' along his collarbone and down to his navel. It was swollen and red, and it looked like it had been cut open several times.

Michaelis continued. "We don't have time for you to be sitting around. You'll miss the arena, that's the fun part. Fun, get it? You don't want to miss fun."

"I do," Forin groaned. "You don't want me alive anymore. Why bother dragging me to the arena? Just kill me already..."

Michaelis crouched down, then suddenly grabbed Forin by the collar, dragging him up and forcing his back against the wall. "It's mandatory now, meatbag. You'll go out there and fight until you can't no more, or I'll shove you so full of explosives that you'll have gunpowder leaking from your ears! Of course, that'd be against my point...you think I would just kill you? Don't you think that would be suspicious? We already signed you up for the arena today, so you're going to go out there. And you're going to die." There was a pause, and he added, "Thanks for the organs, by the way. This'll keep me going for a few centuries more, until I find a few more suitable...replacements."

Forin spat in his face.

Michaelis retaliated by punching him square in the cheek, hard. Forin collapsed, and things started fading again. They snapped back in an instant, though; Forin seemed to be in the same condition as before, but in a different place. Entirely. He was lying in a pool of blood that was not his own. A scream came from outside; Forin somehow managed to scramble to his feet, stumbling towards the door.

Just outside was a younger Diana, screaming and kicking at two people who were trying to drag her away; one was wearing all black, his face mostly hidden. The other was a sneering half-cat man. Forin threw himself at the half-cat, his hand reaching into the skull and dragging out the skull. It was sheer luck that the man hadn't been paying attention. The other one vanished in an instant upon seeing that. Diana hit the ground, her head thudding into a rock and rendering her unconscious. Forin scooped her up in his arms, holding her close as he passed out as well. "You saved me..." He murmured as the memory faded into black.

Darkness once more.

Luen said nothing, turning his gaze downwards. He listened quietly as the last memory spawned, waiting for it to be over. He sat down on the ground, plugging his ears again in effort to block out, not only Forin's real voice, but the voice in the memory. It hurt to hear them, made him ache inside. When the darkness tookover again, he kept his ears folded down, shaking so badly he could barely stay upright.

Luna didn't move to touch him, knowing the result would be the same. She sighed and turned her gaze upwards, her eyes glistening softly. "How you stood such things as these memories contain, I'll never know," she said. "I couldn't have done it. You...are stronger than me." For her, an Amnairian, to admit something like this to a Tartaran, was a serious thing indeed. She closed her eyes, then said "If we get out of here and everything goes back to normal, I promise I'll leave you alone from now on. You and Diana both. I'll keep my distance and speak not a word to you, if that's what you wish," She turned her head down and was quiet for a moment, then asked "What do we do now?"

"I never asked for that." Forin said quietly. "And if I did, I didn't mean it. You...intimidate me, I'll admit that, but you're nice enough. Diana trusts you at least a little, I know she does. Michaelis...he was right, you know. That used to be the one thing that kept me going. The one thing that I held in my thoughts, the thin thread keeping me from giving up. The thoughts of my next summoner, the thoughts of all the people who needed me in the past and who would need me in the future. That was the past, and here we are in the present. Now I have Diana and Luen..." The room changed yet again. Back to the white tile flooring. Forin was in front of them again, but he seemed more...real. It was easy to tell, somehow, that this wasn't another memory.

Aside from the fact that Obelisk was biting into his neck, dragging Forin's life-force itself out of his soul. Forin was apparently frozen, changed to little more than a disembodied voice and a shell being sucked dry of any life.

It wasn't the real Obelisk, of course. This was the challenge that Titus had intended; it was the only thing Forin truly feared, so this was the form it had taken.

Forin made an unusual gurgling sound, reaching out a trembling hand towards them. "You don't have to help," His voice said from nowhere in particular, though his mouth didn't move. "But it would be greatly appreciated."

Luna twisted in a delicate, quick circle, creating a thin beam of light that trailed up her entire body, then flung it out at Obelisk. His visage crackled away into dust at the blast, disappearing into strands that evaporated into nothing. Luna returned to a standstill, watching Forin silently. "Well, we're here," she said. "How do we return you to normal and get out of here?" She hesitated, then carefully reached out and slid her fingers into his hand, allowing some of her energy to be transferred to him.

Luen remained on the floor, curling his knees up against his chest resting the side of his head on them.

"I...I should be able to get back in control now." Forin closed his eyes, his mouth actually moving this time. "I'll...I'll see if I can't remove you..." Without warning, what appeared to be a massive hand burst out of the black, grabbing Luna and Luen gently and pulling them away.

They were back in their own bodies and minds within a few moments. By the time they came back to consciousness, though, Forin was already gone. The lock on the cell door had been torn out. Diana was gone as well, naturally.

He hadn't taken her far. He was perched on top of a building near the gate, looking back towards the castle glumly. He couldn't make excuses for himself; he had been too weak to stop himself from hurting Luen. He could still feel the alcohol making a buzzing feeling in the back of his neck. He wondered vaguely what it would feel like, to have his heart literally exploded from his chest. He pushed such thoughts out of his mind.

Even if he were ever freed from the bomb, he was fairly certain that it would be a long time before he remembered how to allow normal feelings again. Long and painful. Forin pulled Diana onto his back and jumped down, thinking about something else. The memories had reminded him of how little time he had left. A lung, a kidney, parts of his liver and several ribs. The lung had been replaced with Michaelis' rotting one. The rest were missing entirely. He had never really lingered much on the pain of it, though; pain was just a distraction.

Forin carried Diana to the place between worlds. Still, he didn't go far. He just sat down on the bridge, staring out into the vast...nothingness. Diana sat with him, curled up against him sleepily.

There came a soft swishing sound out in the darkness, then the Divine slowly glided to a hovering halt nearby. "Hello there," it said, carefully landing further down on the bridge. "I can sense you're not having a good day. Is this so?" It didn't wait for an answer. "Well, when you get to be my age, you don't really care about little things like that," it said. "I was old when the world was young." It closed its eyes for a moment, then said "You seem to be worried for your lack. Lack of a few things, I see," It chuckled, then said "So tell me something, little Tartaran of whom I saw be first created. I'll ask you a question. A simple one, really; do you want to die or live? Which is more important to you? And really, no retorts, please. Answer honestly."

Forin sat in silence for a few minutes, pondering the Divine's question. He wanted to say yes, but what if the Divine reacted by killing him? Diana would be left alone, Luen would be so terribly upset. In short, he didn't actually want to die, but...he definitely knew it would happen sometime in the near future. It was just a race to see which would kill him first; his lung or the bomb nestled in his heart.

"I don't want to die," Forin said at last. "I have a duty to my summoner, and my friends. I don't think it would be fair of me to ask for death. And if I did, I would have to question why I struggled to hold out for this long." He looked up at the Divine. "So no, I don't want to die. I probably never will truly want to die. Isn't that a human trait? Self-preservation?" He sighed heavily, looking down again.

"A worthy answer, for one so troubled," the large creature said. It tilted its serpentine head down at him and said "You know, I have the power to do all of it. Remove the shiny little pest in your body and replace your missing pieces. I won't do it, however, simply because you're only one Tartaran and there's nothing...well, to gain from me helping you. I'm not a very nice person, if you haven't noticed. Plus, I'm not really allowed to do stuff like that. It was enough that I gave back that little brat's memories by request of the Grehi boy." It snorted out a deep breath, then said "I'll grant you the advice of another way to get help for yourself, if you care to hear it. The healers in Galai's palace are all skilled Divine healers, much moreso then the half-cat in your group, though I admit that she's good. Speak to Seria of your plight and ask her to speak with the healers. They have enough power to regenerate any body part there is. I once saw them, back before two of the members died, recreate an entire human that had gotten his body eaten by wolves. It was amazing, to say the least. He had all of his memories and spirit intact. Fascinating," It shook its head, then said "Or you can ignore my advice and die, leaving your summoner and friends behind to cry and be heartbroken for your death. I really don't care what you do."

"I wouldn't ask you to. I really was surprised to learn that you had listened to that cheeky human." Forin was quiet for a long while before speaking again. He sighed, considering the outcomes. "Wouldn't their light magics kill me? I've already suffered through one incident, and I'm fairly certain that this was the product of that as well. I already said that I don't want to die, what's the possibility of me dying by following this advice of yours?"

The Divine snorted and said "Do you think I'm that stupid? I said they had Divine powers, not light powers. Has Seria's magic killed you yet? I didn't think so. Tell them your a Tartaran and they'll alter their magics specifically for you, like Luna did that one time to teleport you and the previously-dark-magic-infested-Cynyr away from Obelisk," It didn't explain how it knew that Luna had done that. "Trust me. Those healers are respectable in their craft. They won't judge you for being a Tartaran," it said, then carefully raised itself up on its snake-like body and slid off of the bridge. It hovered nearby, flapping its wings neatly and lightly. "Well," it said. "It was nice talking with you. If you ever need to chat again, I'm always here and always open for a good talk. Ta ta~." It abruptly stopped flapping its wings and dropped like a rock into the darkness below the bridge, tossing Forin a toothy smile before vanishing completely.

Forin watched it go, climbing to his feet again and picking Diana up. She had been stock-still since the Divine arrived, though she had relaxed when it was gone. She wormed out of Forin's grip, deciding to walk on her own for a little while. She didn't let go of his hand though, naturally. He smiled ever so slightly before moving back into Amnarius.

Finding Seria would be his first action, then. He realized vagely that Luen might still be upset, but...Forin wanted to be able to laugh for the wolfling before he saw him again. He wanted to make his friend happy. He found Seria talking with other healers in the castle's infirmary. He opened the door quietly, announcing his presence with a small cough.

Seria turned when she heard the sound, already smiling. "Hello Forin, Diana," she said in greeting. She nodded to the other healers and moved over to speak more personally with the Tartaran and the little girl. "Hello Diana," she said, squatting down so she could be at eye level with the little girl. "It's nice to see you," She tucked a lock of the girl's hair behind her ear, then rose up so she could look at Forin. "You wouldn't have come to me to chat or for something trivial. So tell me; is something wrong?" She flicked her long-furred red tail once, her ears perked up to catch whatever Forin chose to say.

Diana smiled happily at her, but said about as much as usual. Nothing.

"Well...it was suggested to me that I come to you all about this." He glanced up at the other healers before continuing, silently signaling that they should pay attention, too. "There are parts of me - ribs, bits of my liver and an entire kidney - that were...taken away from me. My left lung was taken and replaced with a sick, dying one. Not even my natural self-healing systems can do anything for it. And...there's a little piece of metal tucked into my heart. It takes the place of yet another bit that was taken...but it doubles as a bomb that will go off if...under certain curcumstances." He stopped himself, not wanting to tell everything. Just enough for them to work. He wouldn't leave things out if they asked, but he preferred not to tell. Luna was one person too many (though he didn't mind Luen knowing).

The other healers, all of which were obviously female, listened quietly as he spoke. When he was finished, they conferred quietly amongst themselves. At one point, one of them touched Seria's shoulder and asked her a murmured question, which Forin heard the reply of. "Tartaran," the half-cat said simply. The female healer returned to the others and they spoke longer.

Seria turned to Forin and asked "I would ask why you didn't come to me sooner about this, but there wasn't much I could've done to help you. It's good that you came here now. I've been learning all sorts of things from these healers, and the things they can do with their magic is amazing,"

Finally, the healers pulled back and one of them, the wiry older female named Namanai that was the head of the seven healers said "We are willing to work on you, Tartaran, if you are willing to allow us. If you move too much while we work, we could end up hurting you worse than you currently are. There shouldn't be much of a reason for movement, as one of us will be in charge of dulling all pain you could feel. So if you're willing, we're willing," Namanai smiled slightly at him, showing a gentle older wisdom about her.

Forin didn't smile in return, but Diana did. She hugged her guardian quickly. "Good. I don't want Forin to hurt anymore. You're always hurting, but now you won't be, right?" She asked quietly, a wide - albeit sleepy - smile on her face.

"...Not physically." Forin said with a short nod. He looked up at the Amnarian healer and nodded again. "I...I'm willing. Just...I suggest that you restrain me regardless of that. I've already visited memories like these today, but the second you start cutting into me, even though it's merely to be rid of something potentially damaging...my mind has been weakened already. I could potentially snap and attempt to attack. I don't wish for such an occurrence, not in the slightest."

Namanai nodded once, seriously, and said "Very well then. It would be best if we didn't waste time, so come this way. My sisters will go ahead and prepare for you,"

The other Divine healers filled out of the room and headed to a more secluded one further back in the castle, proceeding to alter it to the lighting and settings a Tartaran would need, though that they could still work in.

Seria bent down and picked up Diana, saying "You won't be allowed in while they work. You can see Forin afterwards, okay? I'll take you to Luna. She's nice, and she'll take care of you until I can come back to get you. I have to help the healers with Forin. They'll need my energy to help," She trotted off with the girl in tow, promising that she would return shortly.

Namanai motioned for Forin to follow her, heading into the darkened room provided for what they were about to do. None of the other healers were visible, though Forin could sense their presences. They had dulled themselves completely from sight to make it more comfortable on him. Namanai was the only one who would be working, after all. They just had to lend their magic and skills to her hand. "Remove your shirt and lay here, please," the older healer said, patting a bed-like table in the middle of the room.

Forin hesitated for a long moment before lifting his shirt up and over his head, dropping it where the healer directed. He felt the table before laying down on it. It became obvious then that he was shaking. Naturally, he was terrified; firstly, he had somehow talked himself into agreeing to all this. Secondly, yet again, someone was going to be cutting into him. As if he would never get enough of that.

He forced himself to calm down, though his shaking didn't stop entirely.