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In all honesty, this whole ordeal was beginning to feel quite surreal. Not that it hadn't been surreal before, but now it felt even more so to Yvette Weaver. It was still quite confusing to watch, and every so often, her indigo eyes would try to peek over in her friend's direction before shyly retreating back to whatever it was she was supposed to do. The flame haired girl (with the gun) had once again made commands which everyone obediently listened to. It didn't even seem that the threat of her weapon was the motivation anymore, but rather the desire to save someone important.

According to Hero's directions, she obediently turned to Ignacio for further instruction, her eyes as timid as they had always been. Yvette was no soldier, she was just that quiet girl who most people ignored, despite her yearning to be with people. Yet even now, she almost felt dutiful as she obediently stood where Ignacio set her and held hands with both of her neighbors. Her grip was not intense, but very gentle. Her delicate fingers were simply getting crushed within Ignacio's grip, and though normally she'd squeak out slightly in pain, she bit her tongue slightly. Squeaking had not been in her job description for the day, so it would have to wait for later.

It was as her savior, the green haired girl spoke, Yvette's deep purple eyes closed shut. Her ears listened to the words she said. The dark haired girl focused on the guiding words, her heart beating faster the more she concentrated. This girl had saved her. And now, Yvette wanted to do something for her in return. For a moment, it almost felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her, her heart skipping a precious beat as an overwhelming force secured something (Yvette had no clue what) from her very being. Yet, even in this pain, the sweet girl's thoughts were all upon her savior. If this is the only way, then I gladly offer what I can.

It was only once this strange feeling passed that her eyes weakly fluttered open. It was almost like watching a Disney movie, where the Princess was in her beautiful gown, gracing everyone with their presence. Even some strange butterflies remained by her side in the most loyal of fashions. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the fashion designer inside of Yvette was praising the "off the shoulder" look of the Princess' dress, but that part of her was hushed quickly as she watched her movements in a near daze. She did not even comprehend everything going on now as the awe for the Princess overwhelmed her senses.

It was only when her neighbor, Ignacio, shouted out in such an encouraging manner, that Yvette quickly spiraled back to reality. She was the quiet girl, and she always would be. All she could manage to do to show her dedication was to squeeze onto Ignacio's hand as best as she could (which really wasn't all that good at all).

Hero and Jude were holding each other frantically, with no actual wounds to the head, face, body or otherwise -- kissing in a way that pretty much embarrassment-squicked everybody. It was Hero and Jude; they looked like two boys kissing, for one thing, holding each other in the time-honoured tradition of 'bro grab', the Captain's arms around him. Despite the fact that Jude still smelled like a dead body. She hadn't flinched when Chronos had opened the plastic bag. Just stared.

"Get back in your place," she said into his ear. Her voice was tight, controlled, but her other hand was at his hair. "You b*****d. Don't you ever do that to me again. That's a direct order, Lawson. You son of a -- do not. Do that to me. Again."

And then she added, gruffly: "And for God's sake warn me before you spontaneously PDA, Lawson. The next time I'll break your nose for you."

And she detached from him, not looking at Aurelia's face. "Get in order," she said again, and turned away from any of his protestations. It was Jude. He'd protest the sky was green if someone in authority told him otherwise. She turned away.

Astraea was talking quietly with Chronos, urgently. The light coming off the Princess was incredible, and would last only so long -- they were riding off the wave of her resurrected power, the power of the Opal Crystal. Hero had listened in, and she moved back as Chronos joined the circle too, hand in hand in hand in hand. "Once more," she called out, grim, her contralto voice rolling out over both groups. "All the humans, get ready. Zodiacs, report in order -- with your Zodiac sign. As in, Pisces Zodiac Power, Make-Up!. Take your pens, let's transform and break this curse while we still can, people!

"Here's your order: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, and myself! Non-Zodiacs, I want you to pray your damned heart out the entire time! I will be with you every step of the way!"

And the last --

"We're the Zodiac Guard. We hold the line."

And attention was on Pierrette.

Foramen swayed in place, knees threatening to buckle at any minute. Rivulets of sweat ran down his pale face. His vision kept blurring over, threatening to black out entirely. He held on, if only because Serenity had said they all needed to pray for this.

He had falsely assumed it was the removal of the barrier. If he'd known what she was planning, he wouldn't have been so determined to help.

He waited through her speech, still clasping her hand in his. When the pain struck - all the worse for being on top of his current exhaustion - he held on. He didn't tighten his grip on Serenity's hand, despite the strong instinct to pass on pain to someone else. Bright light began forming in front of Serenity. He had to close his eyes against it, it was that blinding.

A mistake he regretted. Sometime during that small moment of closing his eyes, before opening them to see a transformed Chronos, he felt that awe-inspiring presence leave. Queen Serenity was gone.

His hand slipped from Chronos'. Foramen felt his knees finally give way. He fell to the ground, panting harshly, unable to process what had happened. He glanced over to see Sue had passed out completely. Part of him envied the cat-boy for having no idea that Serenity had left - but then he remembered that Sue was a Zodiac. What Foramen had felt for Queen Serenity, all the Zodiacs were no doubt feeling for their Princess. Foramen was entirely alone in this.

'What else is new?' piped up a cold, pessimistic voice in his head.

Foramen waited for the presence of the Queen to force such thoughts away, leaving him calm and devoted once more. It never came.

Remi had read a lot of stories in his time, and knew what worked in a story. He could pick out situations that didn’t make sense, plots that were far too unbelievable even for fiction, and as a reader, knew there was only so much the imagination would allow before it felt things were getting a little too far. If someone had dropped a book based on the situation right now, with a school creating death games that lead to zombies and then a rival of Zodiac Guards, he would have turned his nose up and told the writer to work on it. It was just too much. Death games. Zombies. Zodiacs. Being revived again and now holding hands to break through a barrier of evil? Every time something new came up, he wanted to laugh and look for the cameras. The universe was making a fool of him, right? There was only so much a rational mind could work with, but here he was, slowly kneeling in the grass, looking around as if he was even doing this right and still expecting a camera crew to jump out and say he was a moron.

But he knew this was real. He felt death. He felt fear. He felt being a zombie and coming past his wit’s end, and then that warmth from being turned back into a human. There was no faking it with fancy lighting or costumes. No amount of acting school could have made anyone perform as realistically as they had done. Their actions and words, their shivering bodies and wavering emotions all told the truth. This was real, and he was needed.

It was just he didn’t now what a human like him could do. Holding hands and wishing for the best seemed weak and really, would it matter? He had never put much merit in simply hoping and believing, and he had even less in believing in himself. This seemed a bit much for him, and he didn’t have a fancy title or outfit like the Zodiacs. Just your plain, average Remi here.

Yet, as he was thinking this, holding hands with two other students who he wondered were putting their whole heart into the orders given to them, he decide to give it a shot. A ‘Sure, why the hell not?!’ for once. With all that had happened, hoping was the best thing he could do, and if there was one thing he could back up, it was getting out of here.

While he still had doubts, he pushed hard, like trying to will your crush from across the room to love you. The pain he got back was hard and it reminded him of running a marathon without warming up, with your heart racing, your body strained, and spasms of pain jabbing at your insides that made you wonder if you would have a heart attack.

Panting, he was close to breaking his hold to wipe his hand, but was told to keep it held. Hold the line was shouted more than once.

Jittery, he looked up, and whatever doubt he had was dissolved in the radiance of a beautiful, butterfly princess. Really. Butterfly freakin princess! He wanted to rub his eyes to make sure but only squeezed the two hands he held as prisoner instead. Real or not, he was sure he was going to try his hardest to back up this Lady in White. You didn’t argue with a presence like that.

At the command to go once more, Remi prepared himself to make his heart go through hope labor, pushing out with all his emotional might. As he did, he made sure NOT to close his eyes for even a moment as all the Zodiacs shimmered with the same radiant light.

This was definitely something worth backing. Even as a human, he would use whatever little might he had to support them all.

The first law of motion: objects in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an opposing force.

In other words, once things got moving, they kept moving. Tara knew that all too well, having had tested it many times, but it still surprised her at how quickly they moved now. She had barely walked into the gym when everyone left, led by none other than Hero Barrett. It just proved that there was no such thing as a free lunch. Not that Tara understood that saying; Barren Pines had paid for their room and board.

And then tried to kill them all. So maybe the saying was true after all.

She didn't have much time to be reflective though, using all of her energy to run after Hero (was she carrying a corpse?) and her other schoolmates, only some of whom she could attach names to. Aurelia Thorne, Hero's sidekick, for one. There was that cute guy who'd come into her room before everything got messy. Remi, she recalled. And that girl with Giselle the night of the blood tests whose name escaped her. And a few others, but her memory for names was not the best. She tried to pin who the others might be, but it was difficult.

Everything happened so fast. The barrier. The other girl- one of them hadn't died? No fair. But before Tara had time to be judgemental, they were called into a circle. While under normal circumstances she would rather cut out her tongue than follow a command from Hero Barrett, these were not normal circumstances. Moreover, something about it felt familiar somehow. As wrong as the whole situation was, something felt right.

She goggled quite a bit as the girl who saved her began to glow, and transformed into... Princess, a voice in her mind said. As much as Tara wanted to go over and examine her, Hero's orders kept her in place. There was another flash, another cure, and a promise to end this. That was something she could comply with quite happily.

Which was how she found herself between Aurelia Thorne and one of the transfer students. She was not to go first. A bit of a relief- while Tara wasn't scared, it was nice to know what to expect. Not that she thought it would be bad, not with how wondrous and amazing and somehow right everything was feeling. But she wanted to see what she was getting herself into. So she watched Pierrette, feeling a mixture of calm and awe as she changed. This was what it meant to be a Zodiac. The implications were slowly starting to sink in. She still had no idea what it fully meant, but this was serious, and it was her duty.

And then it was her turn. Her turn to accept her destiny, to do what she could. What she had to do. Breathing in- and scowling a bit at the prompt from Hero- she thrust her pen in the air and shouted with all the force she could muster.

"Aquarius Zodiac Power, Make-Up!"

The quaking of his less-than-pleasantly-scented body had ceased to the mere occasional tremor, prompted by the thoughts of how wrong this was, how he had no idea what the Hell was even going on, and a lot of other things. All of them were horrible.

But even as he thought, he listened, and there was no voice that stuck out to him more than that of Hero.

Don't dissapoint, she said. Ha.

Unsure if saying anything else would break some sort of magical code--and for once he wanted to follow the rules--he only grinned over at her, shakily but affectionately enough to melt the hearts of any overly-empathetic girls who caught sight of it. (God help him if there were any boys in this group like that.)

Deep breath. One, two...

"Sagittarius Zodiac Power, Make-Up!"

He didn't disappoint. Sagittarius standing there was like an old, buried memory, forked up out of the mists of time. It was Angela's (who was probably still a little baffled) turn now: Hero gave a curt "Scorpio."