l=Wandering=l

[.: Libra :.]

The top floor was a lovely place to be. Libra would like it much more if the priests would never visit. They creeped her out a bit, she didn't know why. Maybe it was simply because she hadn't experienced a bond with an adult that consisted of like. Wandering along the top floor, she felt a shudder down her back. Why did she get the sensation she was being watched? Shaking the feeling away, she picked up the pace, and sat down on a chair. It sank down, and she sighed. Libra wasn't used to these cushy living environments.

Being a Goddess wasn't half bad. you got fed every day, you got somewhere to sleep. But she wasn't really free to go to the village. It was her old life. Was this... was she.. missing being persued by police and people who wanted to kill her? No, that wasn't fun. She gave a small snort. She was sitting in paradise and complaining. Libra picked up a book, and started to read quietly.

The book was a story. She wasn't paying attention to it, simply thinking of how she was a few days ago. Thinking of execution. Whether it would hurt or not. Right now, she would take the execution instead of this. She threw the book across the room in frustration and anger. Sinking to her knees, she started to cry silently for the first time. Her ranbow eyes glittered slightly in the pale light.

"I don't want to be Libra" She said softly to herself, she curled up in a small ball. Noticing someone else nearby, she jumped to her feet, and hurriedly brushed away the tears. "I was just... just..." Rushing over, she picked up the book and hastily opened it. "Reading"

[Virgo]

Sapphire! The mental cry was audible to anybody listening to the psychic connection between the twelve Goddesses and their familiars, as the cry was aimed at anybody that could hear it, in the hope that someone would be able to tell the searcher where her familiar was. The girl had managed to find herself in the library on the upper level of the Temple now, her hand resting on the ancient shelves, filled with old and dusty tomes, as she continued to search for her sapphire-coloured (and equally named) familiar.

As she came to a crossroads, the thirteen-year-old stopped and looked left and right, and then finally forwards, trying to decide where she was going to go. The sheer size of the library spoke for the rest of the Temple – the Goddesses were living in a giant playground of luxury, and some of them were taking it for granted. Virgo had, on several occasions over the past few days, caught herself finding it unusually normal, as if she had been living like this all her life. Every now and then, she had to catch herself and remind herself that this was not normal and that she shouldn’t be taking it for granted. What if the priests decided they weren’t pulling their weight and kicked the Goddesses out for new ones to be chosen? Could they do it?

Her left wrist burned with pain as she thought about it, reminding her that the Goddesses were stuck here permanently, branded as what they were by the stones in their wrists. Their hair colouring had changed colour and even if you could claim it was a dye, or something that some magical water had done to you (and Virgo had been reading up on it earlier, about magical water and magical forests and other magical elements of nature), the eye colouring would be harder to explain for some of them. Even if the priests would let them visit the villages, which Virgo had heard would be sometime over the following week, they would be forever branded as Goddesses, rather than normal people.

“Sapphire?” Virgo asked, saying it aloud rather than through the use of telepathic bonds. Hearing a noise from her left, Virgo turned the corner and continued in that direction, following the noise. It was a noise that sounded vaguely like crying but then, as Virgo’s not-very-quiet-at-all footsteps drew closer, transformed into the sound of somebody rushing over to a chair and opening a book. Frowning, Virgo peered around the corner.

“Sapphi-” Began Virgo, but was cut off by somebody telling her that they had just been reading. The Goddess mouthed an “oh” of surprise as she noticed that it was Libra, reading a book that was open in her hand. Still a little shy of the other Goddesses, Virgo edged around the bookcase to make herself noticeable to the other Goddess, and gave her a small, shy smile.

“Hello, Libra,” Said Virgo, brushing a few strands of sapphire hair out of her sapphire eyes. “You haven’t seen Sapphire, have you? Only he ran off with one of my hair ribbons, and I can’t find him…”

[.: Libra :.]

Libra gave a relieved sigh. She hadn't seen. She, much like Virgo, was still uncomfortable around the other goddesses. Maybe it was just the fact that they were all teenagers that didn't know eachother. Placing the book down, she stood up. Giving a ghost of a smile, Libra nodded to the other Goddess warily. Vaguely registering her name in Libra's memory bank, she spoke.

"Virgo... I wasn't expecting you" Libra said, choosing her wording carefully. Opal had been instructing her on how to behave pleasantly. Sadly, this was a thing she was mentally challenged at. She was looking forward to going to the village. Back to the old haunts. there was no point in running away, anyone within three miles would spot her with hair like this.

Yes, Libra did believe this was magic. Something to do with the original Goddesses or something. The familliars proved that if nothing else. She shook her head at Virgo, and walked closer to her. "No, I haven't seen him. In fact" She paused. "I haven't see Opal for a while either. Maybe they're catching up or something" Libra said, and shrugged. "I mean, they knew eachother before"

Secretly, she doubted this. Opal was wise, but he wasn't particularly sociable. Still, Libra was glad he opened up to her. He was really the only... 'person' she could ever talk to truthfully. Heading towards the door, she glanced back. "I hope you find him. Bye" Libra got a few steps into the corridor before she came back.

"Actually... there's something i need to ask you" She shut the door cautiously, and sat down again. "Have you been experiencing... strange things when you sleep? It's just... last night, I... it felt like I could control people's dreams. Or maybe that was just a dream in itself" Libra mused quietly.

"I wanted to know if it's a side effect of the transformation or something. Just to make sure it's..." She was about to say 'Normal', but bit off the word. "Just to make sure we're all experiencing it"

[Virgo]

If anything, it reassured Virgo slightly to know that Libra wasn’t exactly comfortable with the other Goddesses yet, even if Virgo knew somewhere in the back of her mind that the twelve of them would be spending the rest of their lives together, and they would have to come to terms with the others eventually. She nodded as Libra told her that she had not seen Sapphire, nor her own familiar, Opal, but suspected that they were possibly together somewhere, talking about the previous Goddesses. Virgo gave her a murmur of a “thank you”, her shyness creeping up on her again.

The sapphire-haired Goddess was about to leave after Libra departed, until the other Goddess returned, with a question for her. Immediately, Virgo’s analytical and intelligent side kicked in, preparing to work out a logical answer, with her shyness disappearing for a short time to allow her intelligence work. Virgo was, after all, a perfectionist, and no matter how much she hated it sometimes, she always had to try and come up with an answer, if not the answer. However, when she actually heard the question, she was a little taken aback.

The ability to control other people’s dreams? She mused to herself, thinking of her own sleepless nights. There was definitely something going on, she had to agree, and so far, her familiar had avoided the question by being insufferably cute about things, or by answering her with a question that she didn’t understand the meaning to, let alone know the answer.

“I… I’ve been experiencing strange things, yes,” Replied Virgo, crossing her arms and looking towards the floor rather than at Libra, her shyness making her withdraw into herself again. It wasn’t that she wanted to shut herself off from the others, but it was more that she had difficulty in opening up to others. “I haven’t been experiencing the ability to control other peoples’ dreams, however. It was more along the lines of… I’ve felt like I can see things… things that haven’t happened yet. Like I can see the future.” She paused for a moment, and then continued.

“Sapphire won’t talk to me about it,” She admitted, looking down towards the floor again, as if she felt ashamed that her familiar would not talk to her. “He keeps avoiding the question, and I haven’t asked anybody else in case… in case they thought that I was crazy.”

[Gemini]

Gemini stormed up the spiral staircase to the upper level of the temple. Her usually pale cheeks were red in annoyance. She had been working on a particularly difficult puzzle and had been rudely interrupted by various cries across her subconscious. These of course came from Virgo who, in her haste to find her familiar, had called out to anyone in tuned with her telekinesis. Gemini was always in tuned, she just wished she could turn it off.

The puzzle which she had been working on was very difficult indeed. It was given to her, because it was the only training she was really willing to do. It involved a bunch of different shaped blocks in a wire frame. Gemini had been working on it for hours and she was quite annoyed when her attention pulled by the Virgo’s thoughts.

Gemini could have told Virgo what she thought of her through telekinesis, but she felt that would be much more effective if she told her in person. In reality, Gemini felt that she needed to get away from the tiring puzzle and arguing with someone was the perfect excuse to do so. Pearl had flown up to the windows of the library and communicated Virgo’s whereabouts. He didn’t seem very worried about the upcoming argument. He never was worried about anything.

Gemini burst through the library doors and pointed at the first girl she saw. “Virgo!”

”Bzzt! Wrong answer! That’s Libra.” This was the voice of Pearl, who despite not being in the room, had a perfect view of the scene through Gemini’s eyes. He was speaking to her telepathically and was only heard by Gemini.

”What, but I thought you said Virgo was here!” Gemini looked at Libra puzzled, but didn’t drop her finger.

”45 degrees to your left,” came Pearl’s sarcastic reply. Gemini turned a half angle and saw a sapphire haired girl staring at her. Her angry blush turned into an embarrassed. Still, instead of admitting a mistake, she decided to ignore Libra.

“Virgo!” Gemini said, flipping her finger from Libra to Virgo. “What’s the big idea, making all that mental static! You know, I can hear you from a mile away!”

[Virgo]

Upon seeing the pearly-haired Gemini burst through the library doors, Virgo suffered from a temporary confusion in which she wondered what the girl could possibly be so angry about. Indeed, she thought that the anger was directed towards Libra at first, until Gemini flipped her finger from Libra to herself, and she found herself reddening with embarrassment and her shyness creeping back hold of her. She never had liked being shouted at.

“I… I…” She stammered, looking away from Gemini and at the floor, allowing her sapphire hair to fall around her face and hide her from what she perceived as the oncoming threat. “I’m sorry. I was looking for Sapphire. He has my hair ribbon…” She trailed off and looked at Libra. “And an answer that he doesn’t want to give to me.”

[Gemini]

...hair ribbon?

Gemini continued to point at Virgo, her mouth open as if she were about to say something, but no words came out. She wasn’t expecting that kind of retort and now that Virgo had mentioned it, Gemini was having trouble not envisioning her in a ribbon. She would look so cute... No, don’t fall for her cutesy act. She wants to catch you off-guard.

“He-eh-uh-ermn... A missing hair ribbon is no excuse for being annoying! You should...uh...” She stared really hard at Virgo. She was one of those really shy girls, the delicate ones, the ones who would start to cry at the slightest provocation. Gemini had no idea how to speak to those kind of people without making it extremely awkward. That never stopped her before.

“Wait... Why does he have your ribbon?” Gemini cocked her head to the side. She seemed much less angry now. She wasn’t really angry to begin with, just bored. She hadn’t really met the other girls, except on that first day in the temple and on that day she had too much on her mind to really get to know any of them. Now she was face-to-face with too of them. They both looked really different. The one whom she had first pointed to, mistaking her for Virgo was pretty short, while the real Virgo was quite tall. Both were much more developed than she was, meaning they had probably hit puberty all ready. Gemini scowled at this thought. Why was she always the baby?

Gemini caught herself staring at Virgo and she quickly dropped her gaze. Right, Virgo had said something else strange. Probably to confuse her. The quiet girls were always the most clever.

“...and... what won’t he tell you? What has this got to do with you being annoying as all hell?”

[Aquarius]

Aquarius was bored. She'd been wandering around for the past half and hour at least and managed to get herself lost five times already. She'd been just about ready to give up on finding anything exciting to do when a mental cry came through her head. She clapped her hands over her ears, not that it would do her any good. Apparently I'm not the only one who's lost a familiar she thought to herself. "But that doesn't mean she's got to go and screech through everybody's mind to find him," she muttered.

She briefly thought that she ought to go tell that to Virgo herself, instead of just mutter about it. And just as she was debating which way to go to find Virgo, she heard a voice yell out "Virgo!" She turned in the direction of the voice and marched off down the corridor. She passed through the library doors, not registering at first the three people inside. She had walked a few more paces before she stopped. The voice that had shouted out for Virgo was talking again.

She turned around and came to stop at the library doors. Inside were Virgo, Libra, and Gemini. Aquarius was secretly pleased with herself for having remembered who was who. She instanly felt bad for being mad at Virgo when she heard her response to Gemini telling her off. "Does this answer he won't give you have something to do with these strange powers we seem to have developed?" She asked as she came further into the room.

"It's just that Amethyst always changes the subject whenever I ask about it. I thought maybe something was wrong with me, but if you are all experincing the same thing, then..." she trailed off as she looked around at the other three girls.

[.: Libra :.]

Libra quietly observed Germini as she stormed into the room, furiously pointing at her person, howling 'Virgo'. Libra waited for her to realize her mistake, and sat mildly, looking at Germini with a mildly amused look on her face. She gave a little mental call to Opal, hoping the shapeshifter would come and keep her company. No such luck.

The room slowly filled with Goddesses, and Libra sighed to herself. So much for peace and tranquility. Giving up, she slid down, and sat on the floor. The hard marble seemed more soothing than the soft pouffes, and she let out a sigh of relaxation.

She actually quite liked Virgo. Libra was having doubts about Germini at the moment. "I hardly think" She said quietly. "That you shouting at Virgo is any less annoying than Virgo calling for Sapphire" She paused.

"At least Virgo had a good reason" She commented, and fought back a smile. "Now. I'll stop playing ringmaster for you lot, and try and explain what I think is going on" SHe called for Opal again gently. Still no luck.

"First of all" She lowered her voice. "I don't think we should tell the Priests about this conversation... at all"

[Scorpio]

"Leave me alone!" Scorpio whisper-screamed into the silent atmosphere of the upper level of the temple. Around her a series of books were scattered, each either propped on another, or opened to a particular section.

Don't say it, think it. Topaz was persistently being annoying this morning. Scorpio could almost imagine the satisfied smirk on what would be Topaz's human form.

Well then stop prying, whimpered Scorpio in return. She was tired of the familiar prying into her innermost thoughts. Why couldn't he just go away so she could think?

Sapphire? Another voiced entered her mind. Scorpio groaned in protest. Telekinesis was one power she could easily manage without. It was already beginning to test her nerves.

Scorpio jumped from her sitting position between two ancient shelves filled with books. Her collection of texts tumbled like an intricate set of dominoes, each page that had been carefully found closing rapidly. The Goddess stormed away, leaving the chaotic jumble of books behind her, resigning to return to them at a less frustrating hour.

Where are you going? easily questioned Topaz's level voice. Not once had he raised it to wards Scorpio, no matter how aggravated she was with him. Yet, instead of making her feel better, this only fed her frustration.

Where are you guys? she questioned mentally, sending the message out to all twelve Goddesses and their similar familiars.

However, the next room she burst into contained four less than happy people. She heaved a relieved sigh at finding them, desperately hoping for a distraction of some kind.

Her eyes wandered of the four Zodiac members, trying to remember something about them. Like their names. Although she recognized Gemini by her pearly white hair, she got lost among the other three. There are too many blue stones, she thought to herself. Mentally, she grimaced, knowing that Topaz had probably overheard. She despised the fact that he could listen in at any moment.

"Hey," she said simply as she sat on the floor, staring up at the others. "What's all the fuss for?"

[Virgo]

Before Virgo had a chance to reply to Gemini, who seemed to have lost the majority of her anger, there was a sudden onslaught of another two Goddesses arriving in the room, making five of them in total. One more and they’d be half-way there to have a complete set, which amused Virgo slightly. It was a fleeting thought, however, because they really were like a set. You had to have them all or none at all. It sent a shiver up her spine, and she didn’t understand why. She suppressed it.

“It’s okay, Libra,” Said Virgo, although her voice was quiet and she was looking slightly nervous, due to the fact that she wasn’t used to having such an audience. “I forgot that we’re all tuned into one another’s minds with the telepathy. I shouldn’t have been shouting that loudly. I apologise.” She thought about what else had transpired so far, and decided to answer Gemini’s question about the ribbon first.

“He likes to avoid the questions I keep asking him by doing something else,” She told the pearly-haired Goddess specifically, although as everybody else was witness to the conversation, it didn’t really matter who she said it to. “It so happened that he was currently in the form of a cat, and thought it amusing to take the hair ribbon, as it was the closest thing to him at the time. At least, I think that’s why he did it - it doesn’t have any specific meaning otherwise. Although, knowing how crazy our lives have become recently, it’s probably the way to stop the Apocalypse, or something.”

Realising exactly how much she’d said, and what she had said, Virgo immediately blushed and withdrew slightly from the rest of them again, folding her arms and looking at the floor in the way that told anybody, regardless of whether they knew the full details of body expression or not, that the person didn’t want to talk at the moment. In truth, the sapphire-haired Goddess did, but she was more self-conscious about what everybody else would think of her that she quietened up again. Up until, of course, she realised that Scorpio was asking what all the fuss was about, and Aquarius had mentioned something about her own unusual experiences.

“I agree with Libra,” Informed Virgo before she decided to let anything else slip. “The priests shouldn’t know of this if we can help it. I don’t know about you, but… there isn’t something right about them. Other than the fact that they tore off a clump of our skin and stuck a burning hot gemstone in our wrists, I mean.” A light blush crossed her cheeks again, partly from the embarrassment that she was feeling from having spoken out so fiercely about the benefactors of their current luxury, and partly from the anger that rose in her from the memory of the experience. To think that they had been told not to cry…

“But I have to think that whatever we’re experiencing isn’t connected to the priests,” Continued Virgo, wincing slightly at the brief pain that flared up in her wrist, as it always did when she thought too much about the stone embedded there. “I heard that the Goddesses had power, but I always believed that they were cheap tricks, and probably were in the case of the previous Goddesses - Sapphire told me that in the past the Goddesses had had their hair changed due to chemicals or something that the priests put in the food, but he said that this wasn’t the case for us. He said that it was because the magic in us is reacting to the stones, which are apparently magic themselves, but it never affected the previous girls, because they weren’t really Goddesses…”

She trailed off, blushing again at her recent mini-speech, something that she was not accustomed to doing. She was also occupied as to what she thought it meant, that she could see into the future with her dreams - and whether it was déjà vu or not, there was something uncannily familiar about their current meeting in the library.

[Gemini]

For the first time, Gemini dropped the finger she had been pointing at Virgo, with some hesitation. She stared at the other girls in confusion. The room had become quite crowded and she got the feeling that she was the only one there who had no idea what was going on. She was also feeling a bit self-conscious as she also felt like the youngest, despite the fact they were all apparently the same age. She certainly felt immature, as she witnessed the grave faces around her and she couldn’t comprehend the conversation.

“What are you talking about?” Gemini said in obvious exasperation. She had come up there to tell Virgo off and somehow it had turned into this. “What powers? You mean the telepathy? What’s so special about that? The former goddesses had powers too, but they were much cooler. Father took me to see them once. What’s so bad about the priests? Yeah, I really hated them for hurting me, but it was necessary in order to transform. They are kind to us, though terribly boring and formal...”

Gemini trailed off seeing that the other girls were looking at her strangely. She backed up a little and although she tried to hide it, everyone could tell that she was about to cry. Truth be told, Gemini knew there was something wrong with the priests, but she didn’t want to admit it to herself. The mention of an Apocalypse had scared her. She didn’t want things to change again, she didn’t want to be a hero, she didn’t want to get hurt. All she wanted was her old, normal life back.

”Pearl...” Gemini called out to her familiar, but he didn’t answer. She turned away from the group, as she felt something wet on her cheek. This was the third time she had shown weakness since her life changed...

[.: Libra :.]

A cold sharp pang of fury radiated through Libra's body at Gemini’s comment. She tried to suppress it, and calmed herself for a few seconds. "Throughout my life, I’ve learned to trust nobody. Not everything in the real world is as nice and cosy as it is with your families,"

She gazed pointedly at Gemini. "The priests don't know about this, otherwise they would have given us some warning. Now you would think they would considering they looked after the Goddesses before us?"

She lowered her voice for the second time, so the others would have to strain to listen. "Does that mean we're the real deal? REAL Goddesses? And the others weren't? Because I don’t know about you, but experiencing other people’s nightmares and constantly trying not to erase my memory permanently hasn’t been exactly my idea of fun,” She looked around at the others.

“I’m not going to be cocky and say I’m not freaked out, because I am. Facing up to the facts is a hard thing to do, but I think I can safely say that you are never going to see your families again,” She snorted quietly and sarcastically.

“Lucky me. I don’t have that problem, but still,” She paused. “We need to be on our guards. The priests seem to be monitoring my activity, and it’s been creeping me out for a while now. Why are they so keen on keeping us away from the outside world?” Libra shook her head quietly, and sank further onto the marble floor.

“I think we need to be honest with each other. I didn’t want this at all. I don’t know if you did, but we need to figure out these powers and how to control them before the priests do” She looked at Gemini, and saw that she was crying.

libra decided to let her keep her dignity, and said nothing.

[Gemini]

“Give us warning for what?” Gemini still had her back to everyone and though her voice was soft, she had managed to stop it from shaking. “Wait... you can experience people’s dreams? I can’t do that.”

She stared wide-eyed at the floor. So, that was it. They all had a power that she wasn’t aware of. Still, it didn’t mean anything. The goddesses before could do some pretty awesome things as well. It didn’t mean anything... or at least, that is what she told herself. She didn’t feel at all jealous that she was missing a power that the others seemed to have. She probably would feel that way later on, but right now she didn’t want anything to do with the goddesses. She flinched at the comment that she would never see her family again and she had just about gained control of herself too.

“Of course we are the real goddesses, stupid! What else would we be! All of you guys are too quick to jump on the conspiracy theories. Yeah, we can’t go into the outside world. Of course we cant! You know how dangerous that would be? Not everyone is happy with the way things work, you know.” Gemini quickly turned around. She had gained control over her tears, but her silvery eyes were red lined. She was obviously angry now. Her mood was always changing like that.

“You just can’t believe how lucky you are to be living like princesses. The ones you are accusing of wrong-doing are priests for goodness sake! Even if they are... not heat I believe any of that tripe... but even if they are, who cares! The other goddesses lived well enough.” Gemini frowned and placed her hands on her hips. What was wrong with these people? Why were they trying so desperately to make everything worse?

[Aquarius]

Aquarius gave a huffy sigh at Gemini's defense of the priests. She personally didn't like them very much and didn't trust them as far as she could throw them, which wasn't very far at all.

"What makes you so sure there isn't a conspiracy here, hmm? For all we know there's been a conspiracy here since the original goddesses passed on." She placed her hands on her hips as she glared up at Gemini. "There's something fishy about those priests, I'm sure of it."

She paced the floor in a small circle, staring at the floor, clearly lost in thought for a moment. She stopped suddenly and looked up. "When I told Amethyst that I seemed to be developing strange powers, that weren't telepathy or telekinesis, all he would tell me that I wasn't to tell the priests or let it show around them if I could help it. And he looked a little scared too." Aquarius paused long enough to sit down on the floor.

"If the previous goddesses had the same powers, surely the priests would have found out about it sooner or later, so it wouldn't make any difference if we told them we had these powers or not..."

She broke of once again, her gaze returning to the floor. Her thoughts were running too fast through her head for her mouth to keep up. She feared if she continued talking at the moment it would all come out as gibberish and nobody would be understanding her then.