《The 14th Zodiac》Chapter Nine
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Vincent leaned against the hallway entryway for the observatory. Soon after Will and Theresa met up with him.
"Hey guys," Vincent said as they approached.
"Hello," Will said.
"Hi there," Theresa replied.
Vincent smiled to both of them. "I'm pretty sure that's everyone out of there. So who's up for lookout?"
"I am," Theresa immediately said. "I think you two are going to find information easier than I would. Plus, I can do this." Theresa waved her hand up. Vincent could feel air rush up behind him.
"What was that?" Will asked.
"That's the power of a Libra, apparently," she replied. "A quiet and quick way to let you know if someone is coming."
Vincent and Will both exchanged looks. They both nodded and smiled. "That works for me," Vincent told her.
"Well let's get a move on," Will stated quietly.
The three entered the hall. No one else was paying attention to them. The hall was dimly lit and seemed to stretch out far in the distance. It took a few minutes for all of them to reach the entrance.
"Okay, I'll wait here. You two go inside. Be sure to pay attention if I signal you. Not sure if you just want to hide in there or come running out here," Theresa explained.
"I figured we would decide when the time came," Vincent laughed. She nodded in reply and sat behind as the other two entered the observatory slowly.
The observatory was bigger than Vincent had imagined. From the outside, it looked like a small room with a large telescope. On the inside, there were tables, desks, computers, bookshelves, and other telescopes everywhere.
"They take their research seriously," Vincent said.
"Well the older Signed figured if no one else did, it would never get done."
Vincent nodded and began to look around. Just beyond the entrance was a small set of stairs. The center of the room was covered with desks and tables that were filled with paper and books. Star charts and star-reading instruments were all over the tables. The room was barely lit by a few lights that were left on. Outside, the sun had already set.
"I'll head to the computers and see if I can download anything on Aspected," Will explained.
"Alright, I'll check out these papers and telescopes."
Will walked away towards the back, where there were dozens of computers against the wall. A small light beamed out from one of the screens as Will began to work on it. Vincent began to look at the paper on the desks. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight app. "That's better," he said out loud.
The desks were separated by research. Some held typical astrology stuff: stars, constellations, horoscopes. Most of the tables had charts and what seemed to be predictions on planetary movements and constellation formations. Nothing seemed to scream Aspected.
Looking from the tables, Vincent shined his light towards the telescopes. Several of the smaller ones glistened. The largest telescope seemed to only glimmer a bit. Vincent figured he would look through the biggest one first. It had to have some importance to it. It was the most high tech telescope in the entire observatory.
Vincent approached the telescope. It was almost intimidating. "What do you got to show me?" Vincent asked the telescope as he put his eyes to look through. The sky was dark and revealed many stars. It took a few seconds, but Vincent realized what he was looking at. Almost as if an image was painted in the sky, he could see the constellation of Ophiuchus. The serpent-bearer. It was as if a man appeared holding a snake in his arms. Not too far away, Vincent could see Scorpius and Sagittarius. Expecting to see a scorpion, instead Vincent could see a person that held several scorpion-like features. The images began to move across the sky, causing Vincent to jump back.
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"That was...strange," he couldn't help but say out loud. "How's the downloading?"
"It's slow, but it's going. Found a few computers with different files on them so I'll work through them as fast as I can," Will replied.
"Haven't found anything significant on my end. Just typical astrology and astronomy stuff. And Lloyd staring at his constellation, no doubt."
"Well keep looking if you can."
"Will do," Vincent replied. Before he decided to move over to the next telescopes, he gave the constellations another look. The more he stared at the glimmering stars, the more they took shape into beings only depicted in old texts.
Vincent couldn't pull away from the telescope. He suddenly felt a pull. Before he realized it, Vincent was amongst stars. He looked around and didn't see the observatory anymore. Instead, the land was dark and glistening with starry objects.
"What is this?" Vincent asked out loud. His voice sounded different. He looked down to his body to see himself completely made up of stars. He was but a dark blue figure with stars twinkling and making up his details. "Weird."
The area didn't have any scent to it. Vincent didn't feel as if he was breathing. All he could do was see and feel. The only thing he felt was the black sand-like surface beneath his feet.
"Is anyone out there?" Vincent decided to ask. He wondered if the beings he saw in the telescope were someone close by. No response came. The entire area was silent.
Vincent lifted his hand and called forth his stardust power. The sphere glistened and provided a bit of comfort in the dark land. He began to walk in a direction he couldn't really tell. None of the stars he saw were of any constellation he recognized. With his free hand, Vincent tried to reach for where he thought his phone was. He thought if he could text Will or Theresa, maybe he could see if he truly vanished or not. His phone wasn't there. Vincent tried to let out a long sigh. He didn't understand what was going on.
A few moments after his attempted sigh, the ground shook and rumbled. Vincent braced himself. Starry dust bellowed up in the distance. Vincent squinted his eyes and saw a large bull charging towards him.
"Oh no," he muttered. Vincent readied both hands with celestial energy. It almost seemed to make the bull begin to run even faster at him.
"I'm not here to fight you, Aspected!" Vincent shouted out to the bull. Now just a few dunes away, the bull was much more massive than Vincent realized. He figured if he could blast his energy into the beast, it could do something similar to the snake he had freed.
He started to send the energy towards the bull as it bounded to the last dune between them. Vincent braced himself when he saw nothing happening. There was no room to jump out of the way of this creature. The bull easily stood about 3 stories high.
"You must be more careful, young Signed," a booming voice echoed over the land. Vincent opened his eyes to see an even more massive being holding the bull back. It was shaped like a person, but made up of stars so Vincent couldn't tell what it was exactly. "Aspected are not to be trifled with, especially not in their pure state."
"Pure state?" Vincent asked. "How do I free this one?"
The being laughed, its voice sounding as if it was a man and woman chuckling together. "You do not free Aspected here. This is where Aspected are from. They return to stardust and come back once again."
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"Where is here?"
"The Celestial Space. The more important question is how you got here Signed."
"I was looking through a telescope at Apsis...I don't really know how it happened," Vincent explained. He looked up to the being that held back the bull so easily. Vincent felt he was staring up at a skyscraper sized person.
"You must be the new Signed. Celestic's boy, I presume?" the being asked.
"I was born under the sign of Celestic, if that's what you're asking."
The celestial being nodded slowly. "Indeed." The massive being then braced into the black sand and lifted the bull. The bull continued to try and push against the being, but it was no use. "Return to what made you!" it yelled as the bull burst into dust.
Stars formed appeared around the bull. They rose, adding to the amount that filled the sky in the Celestial Space. The large being turned around towards Vincent. Kneeling down, the being nodded.
"You must be carefully with your powers, young Signed. Your powers hold the truth to the Aspected and the Zodiac. It's a dangerous time for all of us."
"Who is *us*? Who are you?"
"Hmm...thought you understood. No matter. We should meet under proper terms. Then we can talk face to face and discuss this matter."
Vincent frowned. He wasn't sure who the being was. It held no shape to give him clues. There were no Zodiacs or constellations that held the shape of the massive person.
"When will that be, the proper terms you mentioned?" Vincent tried to poke for more information. He felt his time here was going to end.
"You must be leaving, son of Celestic. Your Zodiac's element will attract more Aspected. Listen and look. Here they come."
Vincent looked to the horizon all around him. There were dozens of bulls, scorpions, rams, snakes, and other creature shapes that he couldn't make out in the chaos. "Why is that? What is it about celestial energy that causes them to stir?"
The being laughed once more. "When we meet again, you will learn." The massive person then reached its arms up, causing a bow to appear. "Until then, you must be careful of those who seek to destroy Celestic. It isn't just darkness that is out to get you."
Vincent's vision began to blur. He stumbled forward as his world seemed to spin. The celestial being began to fight the Aspected as Vincent's vision settled in darkness. After a few seconds, it was as if the lights slowly came back up and Vincent was back in front of the telescope. He blinked for a few seconds and looked to see if Will had noticed. Will continued to work on the computers.
"Hmm," Vincent muttered. Was it a dream? He felt like he was being teleported by the device that Evans used before. A part of him felt sick, but then he also felt energized. Star dust twinkled along his fingertips. It felt so much more real than before. Trying to not get too distracted, he shook his hands causing the star dust to dissipate. He needed to look in the other telescopes to see if they had any more information on what people were studying.
Before he looked into one, Vincent felt a rush of air come up from behind him. He could already see Will turning the computer screens off. Vincent quickly looked around. Will hid under some of the computer desks in the back. The wires and chairs made him almost impossible to see. Vincent couldn't make it that far. His closest options were the tables in the center of the room. None of them had anything underneath them to give him a lot of cover.
The entrance door squeaked slightly. Vincent dove under the nearest table. Footsteps echoed from the small stairway. "Kids always seem to hang around the observatory," Lloyd's voice mumbled. "There are festivals literally everywhere else but upstairs."
Vincent moved under the rings of tables to best avoid being seen by the Ophiuchus teacher. 'Of all teachers,' he thought to himself. After seeing what Lloyd could do in darkness, he was sure he would be caught.
Lloyd let out a drawn sigh. He was over near the large telescope. "If only they could understand your importance, Ophiuchus."
Vincent rolled his eyes. 'Did all Signed from Ophiuchus have an ego?'
Lloyd let out another sigh. "How can we expect them to believe when the path is so dangerous?"
Vincent began to ignore Lloyd's words. He crawled further away from the largest telescope and carefully made his way to underneath a table on the far side of room. There he watched Lloyd's legs pace in front of the telescopes. As he watched, Vincent noticed a telescope that was pointed down towards the forest. 'That can't be right,' he thought.
Lloyd began to walk out of the room. He took a deep breath and left, closing the door behind him. Will and Vincent both crawled out from under the tables and desks.
"What was that about?" Will questioned.
"No idea..." Vincent wondered if Lloyd saw the Zodiacs as Vincent had just seen a few. People in the sky made up of stars.
"We should hurry to get out of here. It'll just take me a few seconds to finish up this and we can leave."
Vincent gave him a nod and they both continued their work. Vincent moved passed the tables to the telescopes. This time he went immediately to the one pointed down.
Looking through the telescope, Vincent saw the forest. Directly in the center of the view, Vincent could see a bright light that shined like a star. 'A fallen star?' he thought. He knew from his previous science classes that it wouldn't glow like that, but being Signed didn't really go hand in hand with traditional science. He made a mental note of which direction it pointed.
He decided to look and see if any of the telescopes had any indication who was using them at the time. A few side tables held a handful of paper and documents. Some had tablets on them. The table next to the telescope Vincent looked through had Evans' name written on the documents. "Why would Evans be looking at the forest? Or that star or whatever that is?" Vincent asked.
Will pocketed his flash drives and began to head towards Vincent when they both heard shouting from outside the room. Before they could react, they heard Theresa say, "We didn't know this was off limits!"
Bran's voice replied, "It's strictly prohibited for any student to enter!"
The lights came on and several head teachers entered the room along with Theresa and Cole. Bran shook his head. "You three shouldn't be snooping around while there isn't anyone up here. There's valuable research on these tables. One mistake and months of research could have been lost!"
Vincent and Will both looked to each other. Cole must have been the one on to them and told the head teachers.
"I want all four of you in the head teacher office right now," Bran told them.
Cole sudden frowned. "Four?"
"Yes, you too Cole," Alex told him.
Vincent and Will both smiled as they met up with Theresa. Theresa mouthed the word sorry. Vincent shook his head and replied, "Don't be. We probably didn't really have a chance if Cole was involved."
Theresa nodded and gave him a half smile. Vincent knew as long as they could keep the flash drives, they would have the information they needed.
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