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 Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:30 am
After the disastrous revelation of her trip to the Surrounding, she rushed out past Tristan, Arthur and Van. Behind her, the boy she thought of as a brother was yelling for an explanation for a terrorist being in the house--and she just hoped Arthur and Van could keep her identity a secret while not necessarily condemning Virgo to him--but she didn't care, she couldn't care. The Surrounding was broken, they were in danger, and she was willing to bet that her Princess didn't know. Why exactly that was, she wasn't sure--but she knew that her duty as the Captain was to make sure that this break wasn't because of something wrong with the Princess, firstly, and secondly, to make the Princess aware of the problem.
Which meant she had to break into Crystal (sigh) and clamber up the side of a building. Hopefully Chronos--Serenade--the Princess would be home, and not busy or asleep.
The window, thankfully, was open. However, Chronos was nowhere to be seen. "Princess," called Virgo, quietly. "Are you here? I have bad news, please come out!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:37 am
Serenade had actually temporarily moved back to the Soriano residence for the summer vacation, although not all of her things had done the same. She had forgotten a few books in the Crystal dorms, only realizing it when she intended to practice certain pieces and couldn't find them anywhere. She had panicked, and wasting no time, she had rushed right over to Crystal Academy, combing her fingers through her hair as she stood flustered in front of the dorms to fish out her identification card. As she reached the door to her room, she registered the blip that was Virgo right inside.
She unlocked the door and then went in, shutting the door behind her to stare goggle-eyed at the Captain of the Zodiacs. "Did you say bad news? What happened? Was someone hurt?" It was the first thing that came to mind; she couldn't help it, after all the losses they had suffered.
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Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:47 am
"Everyone's fine, as far as I know," she said, the qualifier being very important. She lacked the head map as far as she knew, and hadn't heard any news from anyone as far as injuries or...
Well, or.
She clasped her hands behind her back; if there was any way to not involve the princess, she would have taken it. But she knew nothing about the Surrounding or the repairs necessary, and thought that Chronos might. "The Surrounding," she said, "it's broken. I was just there, the road's practically nonexistent between Virgo and Leo Outposts. I can get to Libra Outpost if I'm very careful... I don't know about anywhere else. I came straight back to report, Princess. We should check on Chronos Castle, make sure it's not just localized to Virgo?"
The blonde looked up at the Princess, adjusted her veil. "Unless you'd rather I stay here, but we don't know what's up there or what caused this... I'd rather no one go alone to the Surrounding until we have determined a course of action."
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Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:06 pm
The headmap told her that the only missing dots belonged to that of those who had left them before, reminding her of their absence once again. Still, Serenade breathed a small sigh of relief that none of those who remained were hurt. But if that wasn't the case, what was...?
The Surrounding was broken.
Serenade stared at Virgo, slight disbelief flashing in her eyes as the dread slowly sunk in. Virgo wouldn't lie to her, she knew, so it meant that this had to be the truth. How... why...? And she had often wondered how the Castle was doing while accompanying Castor to his homeworld, helping him rebuild in the midst of Crystal training. It was so hard to imagine everything ruined, and she gripped the compact in her pocket, speaking the words to henshin up.
"We should go and check." Princess Chronos said firmly; she could not waver now when their home was in danger. She clasped Virgo's hands in hers and closed her eyes, willing herself to tune into the sound of her castle, just like how Castor had said it was like. There was a familiar tug and when they stopped, eerie silence in their ears, she knew.
Chronos opened her eyes slowly and gasped. They were standing right in front of the Castle, which mostly looked intact, although the more worrying thing was the barrier that once covered the whole Castle, as if it was encased in a snowglobe. There were cracks in it, huge chunks missing from some places here and there... and as her heart wrenched, she gripped Virgo's hand tightly. It was her fault. It was because she had once died, and had lost the Opal Crystal that this had happened, because it was that very Crystal that powered the barrier, if she remembered correctly.
And that wasn't all, was it? The paths to the Outposts were broken too...Chronos didn't know if she could bear to see it.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:24 am
Chronos was taking this very well, thought Virgo. She was relieved that neither of them had to console anyone's hysterical tears. They completely didn't need that, no, not at all. (She was also relieved her hysterical tears had dried when she'd first discovered this. God, she was so horrified by this.) Chronos even took action first, taking Virgo's hands in hers and then off they went.
She wanted to ask Chronos what the Castle sounded like; but she, too, was struck dumb by the sight of the broken dome over the Castle. Was Temple Ananke exposed, too? Virgo slanted a worried glance at Chronos, squeezed her princess's hands tightly in hers.
"I haven't sensed any Chaos near here," she said, "but it might have already gotten through... we need to get everyone up here to check the status of their outpost." This explained where that Kaguya had come from. The Surrounding was shattered, a broken husk of what it used to be... She gave Chronos a heavy look, and released a hand to lead the Princess by the other. They stopped just at the start of the passage to Libra, and Virgo was relieved to see that it wasn't entirely impassible. Chronos would be spared that sight. "Do you think Zue would consent to send out an alert, or could we do it ourselves, do you think?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:35 am
Chronos had cried enough in the past to realize when to hold her ground, and simply not dissolve into helpless tears. Not now. They could collapse and give in to that heartache later, but witnessing all this, she knew that they had to come up with a solution. Fix it before it got any worse, before they had any more regrets.
Chaos. The name turned her stomach cold. It had been their age long nemesis, and they had let it get through once before, when they had all died right. When then, the Moon Kingdom had collapsed and the rest of the planets had fallen into ruin. Chronos swallowed a lump forming in her throat, following Virgo's lead mutely.
"We can do that." She finally spoke, staring at the way to Libra, lips set in a firm line. "We don't exactly have any more time to waste." They had wasted enough time with a year being dead, and then not even thinking to come out to check the Surrounding. It was partly her fault; she had thought about it, but never imagined that it would have fallen into such a state.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:41 am
Virgo nodded. "I'll start sending out messages to the rest of the Zodiac if you bring me back to Earth--but I think you should check and make sure everything's okay here, maybe... maybe you'll find something here to help. I don't know how to fix the Surrounding... do you?"
Maybe Hero would have known, but Hero was dead. She took a deep breath, pulled on her veil nervously. "Maybe it's something to do with the Opal," she questioned, but then she was taking out her cell phone and scrolling through her contact list. She had to get the word out, as fast as she could.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:49 am
Chronos did, very badly, want to rush into the Castle to make sure everything was alright, to go check each and every outpost. To calculate their losses, to make sure the damage wasn't too great, although she knew she had to prepare herself for what she might see.
"I think it's because I lost it." She murmured, exhaling a huge sigh. "Because it wasn't in the proper owner's hands that this all happened," an arm gestured up at the Castle, "that whatever that was connecting the Opal to all this got kind of flickery. And I don't have proper control over it just yet; I've been training with Castor and improving, but I'm still not... there yet." She knew she couldn't expect it to be swift; they couldn't master the use of their Crystal in a few short mere weeks.
"Maybe, I don't know, we just need to, like in Barren Pines, have the others around to help." It was an idea, at least. It had worked back then, although that had been to tear down a barrier, not to fix it.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:59 am
"We can give it a go," she said, unwilling to commit to a course of action straight out of the gate. Still, the fact that the Princess had an idea was very heartening, and she gave Chronos a small smile, squeezing the hand she still held. "It will be okay, Princess. Cas is really smart, he'll be able to help you. And we'll get all of the team, as much as we can, and we'll do this and it'll be okay."
She took a deep breath. "We haven't failed, not yet. We can still fix this."
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:12 am
She returned the smile, comforted that Virgo was by her side. "We will be okay." Chronos said firmly, with a brisk nod. They were on track and chugging along, and nothing was going to stop them this time. There would be no more losses, no more regrets.
"I'll bring you back now." She said, putting her other hand on top of Virgo's. They were soon back in the Crystal dorm room they had once shared together. The other Zodiacs had to know what they saw, what had befallen the Surrounding they had sworn to protect.
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