Gem and Gina ran behind Gemini, and followed him into part of the castle where very few people were allowed. He led them into a room that was covered in papers, maps, and various other things.

Gemini sighed and sat at his desk. "Everything is a mess. You guys are the only people I know well enough to talk to about this."

Gina sat in a chair in front of the desk. "I heard about a war breaking out between Fortis and Ingenio, followed by all the other countries."

Gem sat on the desk. "The news won't tell us much about what happened."

"The Zodiac are divided between two sides." Gemini leaned back in his chair. "The fire and earth signs against the air and water signs. I wanted to change the government, like I told you guys before. The fire and earth signs don't want to change their governments. Scorpio wanted full cooperation, so she made her army march to Fortis to convince Aries to join us. Aries thought this was a threat, so she made her army prepare to attack. Someone from Scorpio's army provoked the war by attacking without being told to do so, causing Aries' army to fight back.
"Being too stubborn to listen to each other, Aries and Scorpio officially declared war against each other. The fire and earth signs sided with Aries, while the air and water signs sided with Scorpio. Everyone's fighting to try to weaken each other's army enough to try to reason with each other. I'm trying to keep my people out of this, but my army is ordered to attack anyone that comes too close to my country."

"And you guys can't just reason with each other now that there's a war?" asked Gem. "One misunderstanding fuelled a war involving the entire elemental world, and now everyone's too paranoid and stubborn to realize that there wasn't anything to fight over in the first place."

Gina processed all this information. These guys are really young, that probably plays a factor. We're all still teenagers. Is it really fair to put teenagers in charge of kingdoms like this when they're fighting a war over a disagreement? Everyone doesn't have to have the same type of government anyway. Maybe the ones that wanted to stay in charge were afraid their people would question their power if they didn't give it up like the others did. If their people thought the ones who didn't change their governments had too much power, they could try to overthrow them.

Gemini rubbed his temples. "I can see why they don't want us to change our governments. It would look bad on them if we changed ours but they didn't change theirs."

That's what I just said! thought Gina.

Gem looked at a giant map of the world that hung from a wall. "So when does this end? The people in Geminus locked themselves inside their houses, too afraid to leave too often. If everyone's fighting because they're scared, when does it stop? Once everyone on one side is dead?"

Gemini shook his head. "The other rulers won't kill each other. They're trying to get close enough to reason with each other. They're hoping once the other armies are defeated, the others will be more willing to listen."

"So many people are dying." Gina bit her lip. "The soldiers fighting for the others aren't just enemies. They're people. Do they not realize this?"

"They realize it." Gemini stared at the wall ahead of him. "I think they just ignore it. They're not trying to kill the armies on the other side, they just want them to surrender. What I don't understand is that my friends are commanding their enemies to attack each other's armies. Everyone claims they only attack out of self defence, but if that were true, then nobody would attack in the first place."

Gem gasped. "So you think there's another factor in all of this?"

Gemini nodded. "Maybe a rebel group in each army that provokes the others to keep the war going. I'm not sure what's going on, but I know my friends aren't just trying to attack each other."

"You're going to try to find out what's going on then?" asked Gina.

"If there's anyone attacking the others without orders to do so in every army, that would keep the war going, and force everyone's army to attack back. Everyone's turning on each other, and this war makes us all look bad. I think people who are unhappy with us being their rulers could have planned this to get us all forced out of power."

"That's possible," agreed Gem. "Ask your commanders in your army to be aware of traitors."

"I've already-"

Suddenly, a message boy ran into the room and bowed. "Your-"

Gemini stood. "Don't bother with formalities. Tell me immediately what's wrong."

The boy stood up. "The army of Geminus split into two groups. The first group are staying in place to protect themselves against enemies. The other group is smaller than a third of our overall army, but just boarded a boat headed towards Luna. I believe they're planning an attack."

"They need to be stopped immediately! I want my highest ranking commanders and their legions to chase that other group and capture them. The rest of the army are to stay where they are to protect the country in case of attack."

The boy bowed before sprinting away.

"Your theory was spot on!" gasped Gina. "Some of your soldiers are acting by themselves and planning attacks on their own!"

Gemini looked at the map that was displayed on his wall. "I'm one of the best amongst the zodiac at figuring things out. I'm going to the main docks of Geminus, would you guys like to come along?"

***

Around towns in Geminus, people usually walked or caught air currents to get from place to place. To quickly travel long distances, people used sky trains. Gemini had his own personal skytrain that could almost travel at the speed of a plane.

Gemini sat in the sky train with Gem and Gina across from him. Their cart was powered by a computer that drove the cart by itself, after Gemini selected a destination.

Gem looked out the window. "How does the cart not crash int other sky trains when approaching intersections?"

"The computer has advanced sensors. If it detects the possible presence of another skytrain while approaching an intersection, it'll stop until it's safe to go. If two trains arrive at the same time, it works like a four way stop works with cars on the Neutral continent."

"Why are we going to the docks?" asked Gina. "To meet your army?"

Gemini nodded. "When we get there, we'll wait for my army to bring the boats with the traitors back. I'll then have everyone aboard that ship put into a temporary prison until I find out who's responsible, and who was tricked into coming along. If I can find out which ones planned the attack, we'll interrogate them further, while the soldiers who tagged along out of confusion or manipulation are freed, with a warning that they'll be closely monitored for now on."

"How long should it take for us to get there?" asked Gina.

"Three hours."

Gem decided to take a nap with a blanket that she found. "Wake me up when we get there."

***

After waiting a while at the docks, Gemini's army returned with the ship that tried to attack Cancer's country. After placing them all under arrest, most of them were in the process of being brought to a prison while Gemini questioned a few of the others.

The first traitor was a man who seemed to be in his thirties. He claimed the higher-ups tricked him into coming along by convincing him the attack was an order from Gemini.

"Who did you learn this information from?"

The man told Gemini a list of people. Afterwards, the he was led to the prison with the rest of the traitors.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Gem.

Gemini glanced at the traitor's ship that was now being tied to the dock. "I have a list of people to start with. After I question them, I'll keep questioning the people they got their information from until I find the ones in charge. I have a personal lie detector who will accompany me when I question the others."

"Should we punish the traitors?" asked Gina.

Gemini shook his head. "If they were tricked, they weren't at fault. I'll make sure the rest of my army keep an eye on them, but the only ones who will be punished are the ones who planned this attack."

Gem nodded. "Once you have proof that there's traitors in your army-"

Gina couldn't hear the rest as another memory came back to her.

***

Gina was sitting at a table with twelve other zodiacs. The older woman continued to teach them how to rule their kingdoms.

"It's been almost a year since we've started these damn classes!" A boy with red hair slammed his fist on the table. "How much longer until we get to rule the kingdoms?"

The older woman sighed. "I know you're getting bored, but we have to wait. Summer is coming up, that's when the originals will be crowned."

"What if we're getting tired of waiting?" asked a girl with golden curly hair.

"Do I need to remind you guys what will happen if you try to escape?" The older woman looked at them one by one. "You'll lose all your memories from these classes, and possibly others afterwards. Maybe your memories will be wiped out entirely."

"How would you do that?" asked a boy with brown hair.

"If you don't believe me, you can volunteer to try it out."

"We shouldn't have to wait much longer," sighed a boy with black hair.

"You've only been here a year." The older woman began erasing the whiteboard on the wall behind her. "Gem was also created a year ago, but she's not complaining."

"That's because she doesn't get a kingdom," retorted the girl with the golden curly hair.

Gem shrugged. "I didn't really choose to come here either. Ophiuchus made me."

"How?" asked the redhead from earlier.

Before Gem could reply, the memory ended.

***

"She's been staring at the ocean for the past few minutes."

Gina blinked. She noticed Gem and Gemini looking at her with worried expressions.

"Was it another memory?" asked Gem.

Gina nodded. "I'll tell you about it on the way back."

Gemini walked back towards the skytrain. "There's nothing else to do here. I'll go interrogate the traitors tomorrow. Until then, I'm going to think of a way to make sure nobody else plans any attacks without my knowledge."

Gina and Gem followed.

***

Present time...

Gem woke up at three in the morning. These nightmares were happening more often lately.

Gem's first reaction was to climb in bed with Sagittarius, but then she remembered Sagittarius refused to leave the hospital. Then there was the situation with Leo.

Gem wrapped her arms around her pillow. She can't stay in a coma forever. She woke up once before... she can do it again.