Chapter Six- Glory
Echo and Pepper wandered the lonely forest until they reached the gates. They looked haunting in the light but even more so in the dark. The clouds in the sky circled above the gates, cracking thunder with every visitor or returnee. Pepper and Echo watched it for a second before they walked towards the gates. The Sesametes nodded slowly at them and the gates swung open. Only a thick fog could be seen, as if anybody could get lost in the vortex. Pepper and Echo breathed heavily at once and walked in, feeling the rush of being transported from one dimension to another.
They travelled as tiny dots in the night sky until they reached the abandoned theatre, half collapsed by a great storm. Echo felt a rush of powers hit her face as she and Pepper stepped inside. The spell had led them to the building, telling them both Zodiac and Blue were inside. Pepper was shaking slightly at the thought of arriving too late but was determined to find her brother.
"Pepper, if we find them, just grab Blue and run. Don't wait for me." Echo said, reaching for her sword slowly at the sound of the wind.
Pepper shook her head. "I'm not leaving you alone with him. Either we do this together or not at all."
"I'm not arguing with you, Pepper. You have to help Blue and I'll keep Zodiac from hurting the both of you." Echo pulled out her sword and examined it once more. "I'm the one who will die for love, and if it has to be now then so be it."
Pepper hugged her friend tightly. "It won't be, we haven't known eachother for long enough."
Echo smiled. "I'll be careful."
They crept through a long passageway, cluttered with spare props and rubble. They heard a loud explosion from below them and walked down a flight of stairs, trying to prepare themselves for what they might see. The noises grew louder as they reached a door hanging from its hinges. They could hear cries from behind it, as if somebody was being tortured. Echo squeezed Pepper's hand tightly and they pushed the door open as quietly as they could.
Two pairs of eyes looked up. Blue looked hopefully up at the girls, then smiled warmly as he recognised them. Pepper smiled back but Echo was staring at the other occupant of the room.
Zodiac was struggling frantically, his wrists and ankles tied by chains to the wall. He looked beaten and now frightened by his future. Echo was pleased with this; pleased that he was now the victim and not the one torturing any others. He looked petrified at the new arrivals and tried to free himself.
"Blue, are you all right?" Pepper cried and ran to her brother.
"Yeah, I think so." Blue said weakly. "I thought I was gone for, but I managed reverse the spells onto him. If you hadn't arrived I wouldn't have had a distraction, thanks."
"What happened?" Echo asked, still staring at Zodiac.
"He grabbed me while I was asleep, I tried to fight but he was too strong." Blue was holding his arm tightly that was covered in blood.
"That's not true!" Zodiac yelled, finally finding his voice.
Echo pointed her stone angrily at the boy, gagging him tightly. She would not be fooled by him again.
Blue continued, shaking ever so slightly. "He took me here and was going to destroy me, but I�"
Pepper flung her arms around her brother as he collapsed, obviously exhausted. Echo walked away from Zodiac as he moaned loudly, knowing her hatred would make her torture him even more than they would at the City of Origin. How he had escaped from that labyrinth in the first place was unbelievable.
Echo's eyes widened as she saw something shining in Blue's hands and then at Zodiac, who was missing something; something vital. In a flash her fate was played in her mind again and though still confused, she realised something.
Pepper looked up from trying to wake up her brother to see Echo walking slowly towards Zodiac.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
Echo shook her head silently and slowly reached to touch Zodiac on the arm. He flinched, expecting a curse but instead Echo closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.
Echo heard voices as she tried to keep her eyes closed. A thousand people whispered stories, tales and rumours in her ears as she drove herself deeper and deeper in Zodiac's subconscious. Every voice tried to explain something about his life, his memories and of things not even he could explain. What she was searching for was not easy to find and as she felt the spell wearing off two voices spoke louder than the rest.
"You can't do it� I won't let you�"
"It can be done, I'll make sure of it, nobody has to know the truth, not even you."
"I'm stronger than you think! I'll counter curse any spell you throw at me!"
"Your powers are strong, even with your weak body, but no magic you hold could be more powerful than this�"
Echo gasped loudly and opened her eyes. Pepper was staring at her in confusion, not knowing what Echo could have discovered in that evil mind.
"He's meant to kill him all this time." She whispered. "He went through me to destroy the school and�"
As if awoken from a trance, Echo started to untie Zodiac. Both Pepper and Zodiac watched her confused as she continued to pull at the ropes confining what she saw as only a second ago as an evil demon. Leaving him with no support, Zodiac fell to the floor and laid there, as if too weak to move.
"Echo, what are you doing?" Pepper screamed, pulling out her wand in case Zodiac tried to hurt her brother again.
"I don't know." Echo mumbled. She pulled Zodiac up and ripped off his gag. He coughed loudly, trying to find his breath.
"Echo, Pepper, it wasn't me, I swear�"
Echo looked at him angrily. "Why should I believe you?"
Then she took Zodiac by surprise and smiled very slightly. I know. She told him telepathically.
Zodiac stared in shock before realising her plan. "Please guys, I wouldn't hurt them�" How did you figure it out? He asked silently.
"Don't give me that!" Pepper yelled. "You tried to kill my brother!"
Echo continued to reassure Zodiac, now knowing who had really wanted the school dead. That doesn't matter. Just try to run when I say so. "We know what you are now! We know�"
"Bravo." Zodiac, Pepper and Echo looked up at Blue standing over them, applauding sarcastically. "Nice try Echo. Have you figured out my plan then? Are you going to tell the world my trick?"
"I guess I am." Echo said slowly, waiting for Blue to strike. Pepper looked in horror at her brother and she too saw what Blue was holding in his hand.
"Not quite." He pulled out both his and Zodiac's stones and pointed them at the two witches behind Pepper. "Get up."
Echo reached for her sword but she saw it fly to the other side of the room with a clatter. Pepper was rooted on the spot, she too realising who had the real motive for wanting a school of half-witches dead. "Blue, you can't, it can't be true."
"I can and it is." Blue laughed quietly. "Finally I am free of my half life; having to live with fairies and not develop my potential as a witch. While you love being a half savage I, like my father, knew fairies were never to be trusted. Your mother bewitched him into thinking they were good but I've always seen them as what they really are!"
"Blue, don't�" Pepper cried out loudly. "You're not like dad! He only wanted us dead!"
"No, everyone except me." Blue replied and raised the stones at Pepper. In a flash Pepper had sunk to the ground, knocked out cold from the blast.
"Pepper!" Both Zodiac and Echo cried and ran to see if he could be so cruel as to kill his own sister.
"She will need her wings cut off to kill her, as I should know." He grinned wickedly. "That burden has finally been taken care of, thanks to you Zodiac."
Both witches stood up, gaining an urge to fight Blue. "You're only half a witch though, you're useless." Echo replied angrily, clutching Zodiac tightly to protect him.
"No, I was useless. I was useless as a fairy, but now, with my friend here and his powers�"
Zodiac cried out and fell to the floor, Echo trying to keep him upright but failing. She tried to shake him but he was growing weaker. "Zodiac! Snap out of it!"
"Just when I thought I would never become a powerful witch, a new student comes with enough powers to destroy and recreate the universe in under seven days! I tried making him hated by the school, but then I realised you pitied him and it would be helpful to have a warrior believing my alibi. You were the biggest fool in my whole plan, Echo."
Echo was trying not to listen to Blue's gloating. Instead she was trying to wake up Zodiac, who was shaking feverishly from his lack of powers. Slowly she could feel his powers dissolving, disappearing from inside of him and returning to the stone in Blue's possession. Zodiac's eyes were rolling in his head and every so often he would become completely limp until Echo shook him awake again.
"Why would the witches believe you, even now, Zodiac? A stranger with no past joining a school full of every kind of hated half-witch? What's more; you are guilty of killing at least twenty students, including the most popular couple in the school."
Echo finally looked up at Blue, she had to keep him talking while she thought of a plan. "How can Zodiac be guilty if they find us here?"
"He was so angry I was not killed, he escaped the City and took me here, waiting for you to come save me and there he killed us both, stealing our powers for himself."
"You can't steal powers!" Echo yelled, this time smacking Zodiac around the face to wake him up.
"No? All except one potion, one I had hiding in Pepper's room all her life. One so dangerous I told her never to even touch it for her own safety." Blue snorted. "I would have killed her long ago had it not been for my plan. I always knew I would find a powerful witch to do my biding, the Oracles told me so."
"Zodiac, please, stay awake, don't give up�" Echo whispered, feeling Zodiac growing weaker and weaker in her arms. His powers had all but disappeared except for one that was stronger than all of the others combined. She turned to Pepper laying motionless and felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks. Two friends were dying in front of her and she couldn't do a thing to stop it.
Blue laughed. "Just one more of his powers and he's mine."
"Just stay awake, don't let him win�" Echo cried, not knowing how she could stop a witch with twice as many powers as her. There had to be a way, but she couldn't think of anything except how an innocent soul was going to die in her arms.
There was a moment where Echo thought she could attack Blue, thinking that might stop him taking the last of Zodiac's powers. Echo looked up at Blue for a split second but felt the body in her arms suddenly turn cold. She dropped Zodiac to the floor, sobbing silently. She stared at him before she cried, knowing she had let him down. He was too good a soul to let die, he had been innocent all of the time she had known him and now he had been destroyed by a power-hungry witch.
"I've won." Blue laughed. Echo watched him from the corner of her eye, placing Zodiac's necklace around his neck, letting his powers rush into his body. "I am able to finally finish what my father never could."
Echo was suddenly filled with anger and she beckoned the sword to her but it fell to the ground before she could reach it. Blue tutted loudly and Echo ran for her only weapon. Before she felt a surge of pain hit her back, she had grabbed her sword. She leapt up and despite the impending pain, she raised the sword as if ready to strike.
"Are you going to kill me Echo? Go against your love for the peaceful fairies and strike me down?" Blue kicked Zodiac lightly in the side. "What about your friends? You've already lost your reason to fight me. Why bother?"
"Because I know I can beat you." Echo whispered angrily, tears still free falling.
Blue reflected Echo's sword with the stones firing angrily together. "Zodiac is dead and Pepper soon will be, Echo and no amount of killing will bring them back!"
Echo swung her sword so forcefully Blue was hit on the shoulder. He doubled over in pain before the cut healed within seconds. He laughed. "You have no chance of winning."
"I've already lost." Echo whispered, looking at her best friends' bodies once more before she felt a pain hit her chest. Crying out, she fell down and grasped her stone for support. She needed guidance, she needed somebody to help her before it was too late. She was no warrior, she was going to die so very soon.
"Don't let his death be in vain." She whispered to herself and grasped the sword even tighter, feeling a surge of power inside of her.
"You will die in my arms, just like the Oracles predicted!"
Blue raised the stones at Echo and she plunged the sword into Blue. He seemed unharmed and laughed loudly, as if he was even more than an immortal witch; as if he would never be killed even by weapons that could destroy the Oracles. Blue raised the stones and Echo hit the wall behind her so hard she was stunned for a few seconds. As she looked up again Blue was standing over her, her sword being levitated to her own throat.
"It will be so easy to hypnotise you, even if you are not as weak as Zodiac was. I will be seen as a hero and I will rise to power before anyone will know the truth!"
Her eyes were transfixed on Zodiac's stone, glowing a powerful red. She couldn't keep her eyes off of the fiery stone, swirling angrily around like a tornado of lava. Echo stared into the vortex and saw, beneath the evil Blue had running through it was a tiny light. Echo looked closer and saw, as if she was sinking into the stone herself, a tiny picture of Zodiac. It was becoming clearer and clearer and as she kept staring, the tiny Zodiac looked up at her and smiled. The fire was dying down and Echo knew somehow Zodiac was still battling against Blue's powers.
"Now do as I command or face the same fate Zodiac and Pepper have received!" Blue yelled.
"NO!" Echo yelled and Blue grabbed the sword to kill her. The sword started to burn a dark red and Blue let go in shock. He stared at Echo who was trying to reach the sword and he kicked it away.
"I'll kill you with powers alone." He hissed and pointed the two stones at Echo, muttering a curse able to destroy even immortal witches. Echo closed her eyes tightly but felt nothing. What she did feel was the sword falling into her hands. She looked up and saw Blue trying the curse again but still it did not work. Echo saw Zodiac in his stone who looked like he was laughing. She saw him mouth something and she smiled too.
"Go." Echo obeyed and she plunged the sword into Blue's stomach. He yelled out, the impact was so great he was no longer impenetrable. He fell to his knees in pain and Echo grasped the two stones around his neck, pulling them off and Blue cried out once more.
"This isn't over�" He whispered harshly and in an instant; he had vanished.
Echo fell to her knees in exhaustion, dropping her sword and the stones to the floor. She shivered from the sudden cold of the room and looked at Zodiac, motionless. She picked up his necklace, its power all but disappeared as the stone now knew its master was dead. Echo walked over to Zodiac, kneeled beside him and placed it around his neck. If anything it was to make sure nobody else could steal his powers.
"I'm sorry." Echo mumbled to him. "I'm sorry I was fooled and I'm sorry I didn't see through him sooner. You put up a great fight."
"He and your friend are not dead, Sweetie." A voice from behind her said gently.
Echo spun around to see a tall woman with pure white hair and icy blue eyes place her hand on Echo's shoulder. It was Titania, one of the sacred five and head of the Council of Witches. Behind her she saw many other figures, standing proud and all clutching a sword or weapon of any kind. They had all felt the sword being used.
"They are, I didn't see it sooner, it's all my fault." Echo replied, wiping her eyes forcefully so as not to cry in front of a great witch.
"No, my dear, it was never your fault." Titania smiled gently and looked at Zodiac. "Though young, my friend here had enough strength to sacrifice his very last powers, the power to destroy even the immortal, before any other could use them. He has proven himself worthy amongst many of us today."
"But it's too late, I can't save him now." Echo cried quietly.
Titania placed her arm around Echo's shoulders for comfort. "You can save him still. You also have proven yourself worthy amongst your peers, my dear."
The faces around her smiled warmly and one picked up Echo's sword, holding it carefully as if gold. "Worthy to use a weapon of no origin and no ending. We now know why you received the sword."
The old man handed Echo the sword but she did not except it. She was so confused about her fate. It all seemed nothing but a blur now: Blue, her true love was now evil and wanted to possess as many powers as possible; Zodiac being a good soul, hypnotised to follow Blue's plan so he would be imprisoned or even killed at the City of Origin and now Echo was being spoken to as if she were a warrior.
"I'm not a warrior!" Echo yelled. "I let my friends die! And now I will die young, a fool seduced by love!"
She ran away from the warriors, away from her dead friends and into the darkness. As she ran tears began to stream down her cheeks faster than ever before. She wanted to die; she wanted to be the one who was killed at the hands of evil. She had let Zodiac die in vain; she would never be a warrior and she had failed Pepper, promising to save Blue.
As she ran she saw the sky turn a jet black. Thunder cracked loudly and the lonely street began to inclose itself, walls appearing at either side of her. She watched as the scenery changed rapidly until she was once again standing next to the Witches Council. Already the sacred five had surrounded Zodiac, talking loudly to themselves as if she wasn't standing before them.
"There's nothing you can do, it's all over�" Echo said but they ignored her.
"Who did this?" One witch said angrily as they placed him on the table.
"Blue, he was evil all this time." Echo continued, but still they ignored them.
Another witch shook his head. "This was not supposed to happen until the Alignment!"
Echo moved closer to them. "What alignment?"
"It has come early; the sun won and earth became confused." Titania explained, as if it made perfect sense.
"We can't keep him here, that's the first place they'll look for him!" Another continued.
"We'll have to take this risk!" Titania yelled angrily at him. "It is not our intention to protect him but we have no choice!"
The witch Echo only knew as Slickington looked up at Echo. "Princess, place your stone on Zodiac's."
"Why?" Echo asked.
"You have immaculate healing powers, just think clearly and of good thoughts."
Echo didn't understand what they could mean but did as she was told. She looked at Zodiac laying peacefully and placed the stones together. Trying to think of anything else but of the fight, Blue or the fact that nothing could save her friend now, she cleared her mind and breathed deeply.
She suddenly heard a gasp and looked down. Zodiac was coughing loudly, as if gulping his very first breath. Echo took the stone away but Slickington returned it gently on Zodiac's stone.
"Just keep it there, he's still very weak." He explained.
"How did I do that?" Echo asked slowly.
Titania laughed lightly and placed her arm around Echo for support. "All us warriors can, princess."
"But I'm not�" Echo started to say but she heard footsteps behind her.
"Echo." Pepper asked uncertainly and she fell into her best friend's arms, crying loudly.
"It's Okay, Pepper, we're all right�" Echo said softly.
"It's all my fault, I had that potion in my room all that time, I never knew it was Blue my father favoured, if I had�"
"You couldn't have known." Titania spoke. "Not even the City knew Blue had been visiting his father all these years. It was from your father Blue learnt Zodiac's weakness amongst magic."
"Titania, why are you worrying over him? What has he got to do with you?" Echo asked.
"He is my relief." Titania sat down wearily. Echo let go of Pepper and her stone fell back on her neck, seeing Zodiac breathing normally again. The sat down on the chairs that appeared before them. "When I became one of the sacred five, I was told of my fate to die in eight hundred years time, three hundred years from now. Discovering this, I asked the Oracles who would follow me in suit. They told me a replacement would be created, the Original of the last decade; young Zodiac here."
"He is an Original then." Echo exclaimed.
"Yes, dear." Liar. Echo thought with a hint of amusement. "Not only is he a very powerful witch, he is a powerful Original at that. In fact he is more powerful than any of us sitting at this table and because of this there are a lot of powerful demons and witches who know of his presence, some wanting what he possesses for themselves. We've kept him so secret even he is not sure of what he holds. If any witch could control him like Blue just did he would be unstoppable, and because of Zodiac's delicate condition that can be made very simple."
"My dad told me once of a witch coming, one who wanted us fairies dead. He was trying to turn me evil whilst telling me bedtime stories." Pepper said bitterly.
"What your father, and many other witches and demons, don't understand is that Zodiac will bring peace to all creatures, not just witches." Titania continued. "As he started growing up, many demons tried to steal his powers, before he had even discovered he was a witch. We had the most powerful of the Originals watch over him until they would change him."
"It was horrible." All heads turned to Zodiac sitting up, shaking slightly from the effort. "I made friends with all these teenagers, thinking maybe they liked me but they were summoned to make sure I didn't die on the Hallowe'en night after my fourteenth birthday. After telling me who I was, they knew I only had a day before my human body would die so they changed me the next morning, which is basically an hour of pure torture, and I was left with the biggest secret of my life."
Echo suddenly remembered a conversation with him from a while ago. "Wait, you told me your brother is a good psychic, and you always play that ballerina to your sisters. How can that be possible if they're humans?"
Zodiac laughed slightly. "That was my fault. I guess I was upset with my brother that one day I told him everything. Within minutes he had been shot by a mad gunman. I was so scared but when I found out he had told my sisters as well�"
"Zodiac came to us." Slickington spoke up. "He begged us to undo the curse, to reverse time so that his siblings had never found out the truth. We tried explaining to him that no human can survive the truth of a witch but he ran to the Oracles and asked them, telling them he would take his own life if they could live."
"First, they laughed at me, then when I asked them again they," Zodiac paused, trying to think of a way to finish his sentence, "to put it politely, they beat me within an inch of my life. When I still didn't give in, they tried once more to make me change my mind and I knew there had to be a way so I just kept on asking. Finally they caved in and gave me a spell, attempted a million times but only ever accomplished once."
"By whom?" Pepper spoke up.
"The witch who founded the school, Charles Sterklin. He was threatened by so many demons and fellow witches that he had to protect himself with the enchanted building. That's why I chose to study there; it still protects me from demons knowing who I really am, like it did to Sterklin."
"So you managed to reverse the spell? At the age of fourteen?" Echo low whistled and saw Pepper looked as impressed as she did.
"Yeah, but instead of my life being taken, my immortality was instead. My family was spared and after living with a witch for nearly three years, they've started to be able to learn simple spells. My brother and I always have conversations without talking out loud and practically our whole house is enchanted."
"What about you?" Echo asked, cutting in.
Zodiac shrugged slightly. "I will age and die within eighty years, not being able to ever sit on the Council."
"We knew he was the witch who would lead us to peace once he had performed that spell. That is why he needs a protector; especially now that he has destroyed his powers to kill others. He needs a warrior such as yourself Echo." Titania explained.
"But I'm not a�" The door to the Oracles dissolved suddenly and all eyes fell on Echo.
"It's time." Slickington said gravely, pointing at the door.
Echo nodded and entered the room with knots forming in her stomach. Once again she was standing in front of the two all-knowing, the ones who had decided her death would come sooner than later.
"Echo, once again you enter out chambers." The man said suddenly as Echo heard the door slam shut.
"Yes." Echo said, almost bitterly.
"You do not curtesy the Oracles?" The woman asked.
"You told me not to treat you like my equals." Echo replied coolly.
The man smiled warmly. "Ah yes. I suppose you are wondering why you can hold the weapon of a warrior?"
"And why you are the protector of the one who will lead the worlds to victory over the darkness?" The woman continued.
"Yes, I would like to know if you please." Echo said.
The man tutted, turning to the woman Oracle. "You told me she was smart?"
"She would have discovered in time!" The woman replied harshly. She turned to Echo. "Do you remember our exact words?"
"Yes, you told me I would never become a warrior." Echo replied angrily, wanting to throw as many insults as she could think of at them.
"No my dear." The man waved his finger at her. "We said no such thing."
"Yes you did! You said�"
"We said you will never become warriors like your mother and father." The woman replied. She laughed loudly. "They are not warriors! They are no more warriors than that fairy you are friends with!"
"They're not?" Echo asked, amazed. "But, all those battles they have fought in, all those stories of bravery and�"
"All lies. Grace and Halfmoon are liars and very good ones at that. They were both from warrior families but have not warrior skills, courage or heart. No warrior lives in a castle and gives up their job to win the throne! They are the black sheep of their families and hoped that their daughter might have the powers of a warrior to avoid embarrassment. When you told them your fate, they knew you would have to be an outcast like themselves. That is why they have never been able to open the weapon rooms and why they wouldn't be able to even lift the sword you carry with you. You will be a great warrior, Echo." The man smiled warmly.
"Who will be my true love then?" Echo asked. The scene was played to her once more and this time she smiled at the sight of her true love. "I thought as much."
"Do not fear your future any more, young warrior, for after your death not only will you have served your purpose, you will reunite with Zodiac as you are born again in three hundred years' time. You will make your family proud Echo, we both know it."
Echo smiled and left the room, finding herself stare at Zodiac with a new appreciation for him.
"Blue is dead, isn't he?" Pepper was asking Titania sadly.
"On the contrary, he is very much alive and you will probably meet him again in time." She replied.
Echo thought about her future and realised. "What about the school?"
"Well, if you want to continue working there, then you may." Slickington said. "If you'd rather study here, though, then I can guarantee you three will all learn to protect yourselves and others in good time."
Echo was the first to thank them. She saw Zodiac looking slightly pale at the thought of more danger to come and so she squeezed his hand tightly. "I'll look after you, don't worry."
Zodiac turned to her. "Why? What did the Oracles tell you?"
Echo smiled and kissed Zodiac on the cheek. "You'll find out." She whispered.
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