They had been slinking around corners for quite a while now, going deeper and deeper into the maze of corridors. There had surprisingly been no guards, meaning that they had taken out all the guards there were. Taurus pointed ahead, "Look!" They all directed their gazes towards where her finger was pointed. A large door stood there, its hinges rusty. The door itself was made out of a dark chestnut wood with a beautiful assortment of stars and moons engraved in it.

"Its practically screaming for us to open it," Sagittarius said as she walked up to the door,

"Wait, don't open it!" Aries cried, but it was too late. Sagittarius had already opened the door wide open and strode in casually. As soon as she stepped in, she tripped over a wire so thin that it was barely visible. The others rushed to help her up but before they reached, a large metal cage landed on top of her, trapping her. She groaned,

"I just got out of a prison cell, you have to be kidding me." Virgo, Aries, and Libra tried to help her while the other's attention was drawn to something else in the room.

  A large orb sat on a pedestal in the far end of the room. It shone iridescently as the pale bulb next to it radiated its light. They could feel their powers radiating off of it, as though their limitless magic was contained within this fragile glass sphere. "I can feel my power," Virgo breathed, aching to touch it, to feel his power flowing back.

"Me too," Aquarius agreed, his eyes focused on the ball of power. He could feel himself being drawn to it, his entire mind and soul needed that power, to feel whole again. Capricorn had just picked it up when the door slammed violently, making her almost drop and shatter the orb.

"Well, I didn't expect you guys to find this room," Ophiuchus grinned at them evilly, making them shift uneasily, his gaze flickered to Sagittarius, who still remained trapped, "It's a pity that only one of you got trapped, it would have made things so much easier." He marched over to Capricorn and snatched the orb out of her hand. Scorpio quickly ran over to stand next to her and glared at him, but he countered with a glower that made them both recoil. Scorpio retreated behind the pedestal to where nobody could see him. Capricorn frowned at him questioningly but said nothing.

"I smell trouble," Leo whispered,

"Yeah, I think we already established that," Capricorn barked at him sarcastically.

"You know, that's a strange phrase," Gemini mused, looking off into something in the distance, "You can't really smell trouble." She went over and sniffed Ophiuchus. He watched her in sheer confusion. "See, I smelled him and he doesn't smell like trouble, he smells like vanilla,"

"If smelling like vanilla means you're evil then," Capricorn sniffed herself, "Then I'm super evil."

"Well, I'm pretty sure we already knew that," Scorpio said, earning a soft punch from Capricorn,

"Ahh, young love," Pisces sighed smiling happily at them.

"At least they're not a grandpa like you," Taurus grinned.

"Well if I'm a grandpa, then you're a grandma," he grinned back, watching as Taurus turned a soft shade of pink.

"That would have been really weird if anybody other then Pisces said that," Aries said. Virgo thought about it for a second but then shook his head,

"Nope, still weird,"

"It doesn't even make sense," Libra said, shrugging her shoulders,

"Back to me," Ophiuchus interrupted, lifting the orb again.

"Oh yeah right, so you see my point. Trouble doesn't have a smell. So it's a really stupid phrase." Gemini said again.

"Yeah, it's like, if you can smell trouble, then you're probably drunk," Cancer pitched in,

"Or high," Leo piped in,

"Or both," Aquarius said,

"And it's probably not trouble that you're smelling," Aries explained.

"Don't do drugs, kids," Sagittarius's voice came from behind the bars. Ophiuchus growled loudly, receiving their attention once more. Before any of them could react, cages materialized around each of them. He chuckled darkly,

"Did you forget that I had powers?" He asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, kind of," Leo admitted, groaning as he feebly attempted to break the bars.

"That was a rhetorical question," Aquarius said to Leo. Capricorn noticed that one person was not in the cages, Scorpio. Pisces also saw Scorpio's head bobbing behind the pedestal it kept his mouth shut, perhaps Scorpio was their only escape plan left. Ophiuchus, oblivious to the fact that one of them was missing, continued to pace back and forth in front of the cages.

"You see, I had been planning to steal all of your powers and get revenge on Orion, just to have the satisfaction of showing him that this star finally got his shine kinda thing." He paused and put his finger on his chin in a pondering motion, "But then I got thinking, why stop there? With all your powers combined, I could go back to the stars and unleash my wrath on them! In fact, I could build an empire, on top of their bodies."

"Bro, are you even breathing?" Gemini said suddenly, watching his movements carefully. "You talk like a million words per minute yet you never have to stop for a breath." Ophiuchus looked taken aback for a second before resuming his disinterested demeanor.

"Anyway," He mused.

"You are sick," Taurus spat, everyone stared at her in surprise, they knew she was right, but they didn't expect her to say it. Ophiuchus laughed,

"Oh sweetheart, this is all my boss's idea. Now that all of you are properly trapped, I can steal all your powers and place them in this orb right here." He tapped the glass of the orb, once, twice, and swirls of color intertwined within it. "while we're at it, I suppose a little torture would be fun too, wouldn't it?" He flicked his wrist and a puff of dark smoke appeared. The orb glowed blue, indicating that he was using Aquarius's power.

  As it went away, there stood a beast, Its powerful jaws baring themselves as Its lips curled back to snarl at them. Taurus whimpered, It was the same demon. Ophiuchus grinned, "It seems that one of us remembers an unpleasant experience with my friend here,"

"You're a monster," Pisces growled, trying to reach his hand out to Taurus's cage to comfort her, but she was too far away. Ophiuchus turned to the hideous creature and began speaking, but it wasn't English. He seemed to be hissing. The demon bared Its disgusting teeth in a grin before turning to the caged teenagers. It stared at them greedily and took a step forward. Their breathing tensed,

"Wait," Ophiuchus held his hand up to stop the beast, he hissed something at the beast, "You'd be surprised at how useful your power turned out to be Virgo," he said. Libra snarled at him,

"What are you going to do with us?" She asked, dreading the answer.

"Well, first I'm going to take away the powers of the few I was unable to," he paused, "Then I'm going to let It kill you. Because you don't want to be alive for what's going to happen when we have your powers." He held up the orb that glowed brightly. Aries was the first to collapse onto her knees.

"Aries!" Leo cried, rushing to the edge of his cage. He fought against the bars as she gasped for breath, a strange red energy emitted from her. It was being sucked into the orb, which in turn glowed the same bright red. One by one, their powers were being sucked from them and into the orb. However, there was still one person missing.

"Hm, who is left?" Ophiuchus asked as the orb throbbed with energy. Suddenly he felt a force on his back that threw him forward, the orb slipping out of his hand.

  It was as though time slowed down. The orb slipped from Ophiuchus grasp as he fell down heavily on his front and face planted, a roar escaped his lips as the orb came crashing down in front of him. As the glass sphere made contact with the floor, it shattered. The glass pieces flew through the air, releasing swirls of color that wafted to the trapped zodiacs. Gemini could feel her power returning and relished it, it felt like a part of her soul was being returned.

  Ophiuchus swiveled around, white fury coating his features. His face was distorted in a mask of pure rage as he saw Scorpio standing there, a triumphant smirk plastered on his face. However, his joy was short lived when Ophiuchus stared the beast in the eye and pointed to Scorpio.

  The beast raged towards him, gory arms outstretched, and backed him to the wall. Before Scorpio could react to save himself, the creature wrapped its slimy claws around his neck and lifted him. Scorpio grabbed at its meaty limbs but it was to no use, it could snap his neck like a matchstick. He gasped for air as he lost strength in his arms. "You are worthless," It hissed, Scorpio looked over Its shoulder, but there was nothing there, "Would you look at that, your friends abandoned you the minute they received their powers, even your precious Capricorn," It sneered.

"Never," Scorpio whispered, meeting Its eyes, "It's an illusion. They would never abandon me." It simply snarled in response. Before Scorpio could adjust to what was happening, he was thrown across the room. His head hit the pedestal with force and he felt a sharp, unbearable pain before everything went numb. His senses dulled, he could hear somebody shouting in pain, is that me? He could barely remember what was happening as he slipped into bottomless sleep.

"NO!" Capricorn screamed as she watched Scorpio's eyes close, "No," she repeated, but quieter. The anger ebbed through her, and she could almost feel the others' too. Ophiuchus's victorious grin was wiped off his face when a loud bang filled the room, the building, the entire vicinity. A blinding light filled their eyes. The cages burst into smithereens, and the light died down. There stood eleven individuals, each glowing with anger and energy, and it was all directed towards Ophiuchus.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N Oooh, DRA-MAT-IC. Well, Ophiuchus certainly messed up, bigtime. What did you think of this chapter? Do you think they're going to kick his ass? Or vice-versa.

Don't forget to vote and comment!

Yours truly,

Zodiac Lover No.1,

Leslie