The Zodiac Story: "13"

In a time of early Mobian existence, the world was grey. Bland. Emotionless. Not only life was empty, but as was death. The spirits wandered the world with nowhere to go..
The world was in torment of an evil, unknown force known as Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. It was a vacuum, sucking the life out of the world and removing all potential life.

The Gods, they frowned upon this monster and cast the being into a vessel, a Pandora's box of sorts.  The vessel was that of a Serpent Mobian body, placing an ancient seal to his inner energies. Containing all of the evil that once was. It became the Serpent Mobian's duty to contain the evil inside of him, and be the vessel to prevent the seal from being broken. He was granted the name 'Ophi', The first Zodiac. With the seal upon his body, he became a reverse of what he once was. Rather than absorbing all of the good, he took in all of the bad and contained it inside him...Something the Gods themselves knew would only last so for so long.

However, the world was still bleak. The Gods of Mobius used their power and created more of these "Zodiac", but, gave them more responsibilities. There was 12 of them, and 13 in total. The newer, 12 Zodiac were far more colourful and joyful, spreading the various emotions through out the world and teaching Mobians about them. They kept the balance between good and bad within the world, keeping the peace!


In the Astral Plane: The area in which the Zodiac reside, a plane of existence that can only be reached by the 13. Flowing with emotion and energy, a place of meditation, peace and tranquillity. 


Over the centuries, Aries had been seen as the Leader-figure of the group but he did not like to be told so, feeling everyone should be equal. He tried his best to emphasise that. However he, and some others, noticed there was something wrong with Ophi.

Aries walks through the Plane. He is a tall, strong and healthy looking deer with the horns of a ram. He was clad with various bandages, tapes and cloth. Certain parts of armour like protection was dotted around his body, his chest, right knee, left elbow and both hands and feet. He was a strong figure, one could tell by a glance. Whilst walking he felt rather uneasy, and it wouldn't just be him but all of those in the plane, there was a sharp feeling resonance echoing through the Plane that would leave an unbearable ringing in the ears and a profound heavy feeling in the stomach...

Aries grips his head, with a hand, "Ack.. w-what is that...?" he mutters, looking narrowly to the area in which Ophi spent most of his time. It was closed off today it seemed, but it was certainly where the bad vibe was coming from.

Ever so barely did he even wander the Astral plane. Honestly he preferred the mainlands of Mobius. And interacting with those that lived on it. In all fairness, the astral plane held no fascination for him anymore.

No instead it was at the mainlands where his intrest laid. Discovering all the new things that there are. The way the people on the planet thought and handled situations. It simply fascinated the bronze kirin to no extend. So much that he even meddled a lot with them, going as far as becoming a teacher at one of the university. Spreading exactly what he was the keeper of, wisdom and enlightening.

So it was no surprise the male had found himself teaching philosophy and science.....Well okay science made no sense but he just liked explosions and it was an excuse to cause them and teach others.

The zodiac had adjusted so well to the life on mobius up to the point where he even adapted a more mobian sounding name. Yes he was still Saggitarius for his fellow zodiac's but for the mobians he interacted with, he had dubbed himself Chiron Pan.

But regardless of all that, this was one of the rare moments that the bronze kirin was at the astral plane. Sort of looking out of place considering he looked like a casual teacher rather than anything of the position he actually had, oopse? And thus he felt that odd wave as well. His sensitive ears ringing causing his head to spin. Yes that heavy gut feeling was there but it wasn't as distracting the the man as the ringing in his ears.

Now why was this happening? This place was far away from the drama and issues that rained amongst the mobians. So it had to be one of the others clearly. At least that was what he figured as he straighten out, adjusting his round lensed glasses.

Now he could go and check with the others if they sensed that as well and if they knew what was going on. Ooooooooor  he could rush in and see what was going on himself. It was something that wasn't usual, he wanted to know what was going on! Dammed what was he to do, be calm and see what other believed what was going on or just rush on because exciting. Such a dilemma!

Steam seemed to hiss at the feet of Aries, twisting and turning and rising like fog. While the deer was distracted with such a looming and foreboding feeling of fear heavy in the air, the gas coiled and spun around his limbs, a gentle hiss coming from it and whatever the source was, caressing his fingers and legs, breathing against the neck and feeling incredibly... constricted for something as harmless as steam of all things. Despite steam being simply hot water, for some reason it just felt cold.

"Oh deeeaar, it looks like Ophi has... mmmmm, kicked the bucket," echoed a voice from within this mist, and no later did fingers lay upon the deer's shoulders. And then his waist. And atop his head. Multiple fingers from a singular source that were not there a second ago, and would certainly cause quite a jump if Aries already didn't suspect of who it was, "Pushing up daisies, should we say. Shall we prepare the funeral?"

The voice behind the poor dear belonged to a spider - a black widow. Well, this spider was more purple than black, and stood rather tall against the man before it... tall enough that the deer's head leaned against their upper torso. While a terribly skinny thing, the gender-fluid spider was admittedly intimidating. Four red eyes and short red hair, thick purple fangs and eight limbs in total that moved quickly and sickeningly, as to be expected from such a repulsive insect.

Web dangled from the spider's fingertips and wrapped around the zodiac's wrists, moving them up and down and up and down like a puppet as the insect behind him continued to speak, "Oh what to do, what to do..." A flick of the wrist and the spider made the deer imitate something of a thinking position, with his hand under his chin, "As our fearless leader, you should go in and investigate. Yes, that's a wonderful plan. So proud of you for thinking of it!" Hands in the air! "To think, they could be speaking their last words! Gasping their final wish! And who better to hear them than our fearless leader, Aries?"

The spider yanked their constricting hands in the air, freeing the deer from their silly puppeteer acts as they shifted around to the side, suddenly in their face, deep red eyes gazing into his own almost hypnotically, "Or, oh, what is that? Unless our little leader isn't so fearless after all, hmmmm?~"

Soooomewhere in the Astral Plane there was a young yellow squirrel. Young as in about 11, maybe 12 years old. In looks. The child's fur was fully yellow, just with lighter or darker markings here and there. And blue accents as an addition: cute little blue nose, silly navy boots with golden stars attached to them and a blue bandana around the child's neck. And to that, for whatever reason, a brown glove on his right hand. One glove. ...He got used to this.. rather poor attire when he was still visiting Mobius, shh! He hasn't visited it for.. some centuries now. But shh, that time he spent on exploring the deeepths of his soouuul!
 He found some really interesting personas there, so!

  And oh right the young yellow squirrel that seemed to be sitting cross-legged in the air, with just its long tail as a prop.
..Okay that had been a while ago. Now the squirrel was laying on the ground, his arms folded, legs in the air and eyes (completely blue with just little white starshapes instead of pupils!) wide opened. After a while the boy stood, rubbing the back of his head. A glance over other Zodiacs, his ear twitched a few times. "..That.." A happy gasp escaped the squirrel's mouth as he jogged over to Saggitarius to tug on his arm a bit, because that's the best way to bring attention to yourself! "You felt that?! What was it, Saggitarius? That.. that was weird! Do you know what it was? I wanna know!" Andd the child let go of Saggitarius' arm to facepalm. Welp. "Oh, you're so stupid, Gemini! Obviously, it was Ophi! Yes! It felt.. bad! And they are really good with bad things!" A pause. "..Good with bad things. That sounded silly!" A chuckle as the boy ran over to Scorpio and Aries instead, clinging to their leader's arm, "Don't say things like that, Scorpio! Why would they die? Do you really think Gods would want any of us to die? Even Ophi is important, yes it is! Maybe they need our help though? Aaaaries!" Tug tug! "Aries, let's go to Ophi and see if they're alright! Maybe they just feel lonely..? I'd feel awful if I were so lonely.. I mean, I kinda am, but not really! So that doesn't count!" More tugs! "Aaaries.. We can go there and check what's up with Ophi, no? Yes, they need help!"

I'm afraid he was the annoying one. Welp.

Too much to deal with right now. Sagittarius just came over to the plane, a rare sight. Scorpio being a pest, clearly trying to torment him. Gemini, being...Gemini. Ugh.

He palms his face, his hand slipping down it. The obviously bad feeling just getting worse and worse. He jerks his limbs away from Scorpio, admittedly rather used to the puppeteer act. The deer lets out a rather large sigh. More of a groan than a sigh. He didn't like dealing with situations, who did honestly? He takes a few steps forward and turns to them,

"...Right, everyone. Are we all agreed to go and check on Ophi? Or shall I just go alone?..."


He was curious as to the reply. He felt like he knew what it would be though, being the "fearless leader" he was made out to be.

Well the sudden tug at his arm certainly caught the kirin of guard yet instead of anger or annoyance, he smiled a warm smile. Pretty much used to the younger looking zodiac's behavior. "Oh believe me, I felt that." He said with a voice smooth and pleasant to listen to. The kind of voice fit to read stories to keep you listening till sleep were to claim you. Kind to say, not a bad voice at all.

Ever so calmly did he walk over to the others with that soft smile still on his lips. "Now Aries is correct that it is Ophi. However I am unsure if opening the door is a wise idea at all." The bronze zodiac spoke, straightening his round glasses slightly. "While it is important to know if Ophi is alright or not, who is to say that opening that door isn't like opening 'Pandora's box' in a sense?" He said as he calmly looked at the other zodiacs around. Studying them one by one to retake in how they even looked. It had been too long in his opinion since a last meeting with them.

"Who is to say Ophi hasn't mentally given out and will attack us the moment we open the door up? Is it worth taking the risk overall or is it wiser to seal the room tighter?" He paused for a moment, perhaps he was over thinking this all, the chance always was there to do so but at the same time, precaution always was a nice thing to have, or wasn't it? Ever so lost in his own small train of thoughts as he tapped his chin, thinking it over before giving a final reply.

"I will follow whatever the majority of us vote on as to what to do with this situation."

They slunk beside the zodiac, resting an elbow on his shoulder, hand propped up to hold their head. "Oh come now little Sagittarius, let the leader take a bold stride forward!" the spider replied with a grin, leaning on the fiery ram and wrapping one of their many arms around him to drape it over his chest, another hand extending towards the location of the unsettling feeling within the air with a passing wave. "If Leader Aries here happens to start... pushing up daisies the moment that door is opened, surely one is better off dying than all of us?"

They took a step back and calmly pushed the ram forward.

"Or are you going to run away like a coward and leave another of us to die by your hands?"

The squirrel boy put his hands on his hips and looked up at Scorpio with puffed up cheeks. "Scorpio! How can you think Aries is a coward? He clearly is not, and that's why he's a leader, too! Silly six-arm." The squirrel jumped forward, after Aries. "I wanna go with you! I mean, I know it might be dangerous, but hey, we're immortal after all, no?" A happy flail and grin from the kid! "Come ooon Sagittarius, I know you'd like to see what it is too! And we can protect Aries if anything happens, too!" Gemini grabbed Aries's arm, leaning over to glance at the dangerous area. "Or he can protect us! I mean, you're the one with armoury here. I've only got my glove and bandana." The squirrel pouted a bit, lowering its kinda creepy, completely blue eyes. "..But still, it's four to one if Ophi decides to attack.. for whatever reason! Can't be that bad!"
  Well except it was all the bad in the world attacking them. Buuuut he was curiousssss!

Taking a considerable step away from Scorpio, and giving a noble nod to the group. If only the others were here...

Ophi had the appearance of a slender, black and white mobian with scales and snake like eyes, topped with a long, long tail. He wore chains that linked his arms and legs, and the a sacred seal marked upon his chest.

Aries clenches his fist and raises it, pounding his chest with his fist. "Everyone, be prepared. I'm sure it will be nothing though -lies-, if something bad was going to happen we would have been warned.."

Leading the group towards Ophi's chamber, Aries bangs a fist on grand door, decorated with various snake like symbols. As he does so, the sharp feeling resonates harder, making him wince slightly. He gives a strong, hard push on the chamber doors and they blast open, rather unexpectedly. 

In the moments of the chamber door opening, an extremely loud, blood curdling screeech emits from the depths of Ophi's chamber. The screech turns to a deafening silence and moments after recovery, a black mass of sheer pain and misery blasts itself from the chamber in the form of a serpent like beast. Winding around all of the Zodiac individually and slithering through the air, and into the portal that lead to the Mobian world.


Aries found himself laying, face down in the Astral Plane with one heck of a headache. A groan emits from his throat, it sounded sore. Standing up weakly, he looks around. The plane looked torn and destroyed, like it was going to shatter into a billion pieces...

Ophiuchus, had returned.

A flare of frustration shot up in the kirin mobian. Not quite at Scorpio's comment, because heck he was used to those and they were quite easily ignored when heard more than enough. Nor was the frustration at the squirrel with his high energy, it was that simple child like behavior that had it's charm. No all the frustration was aimed at Aries who had completely ignored him. Not even a bat of an eye and instead just foolishly opening it. Yes he himself was curious what was behind it but he wasn't stupid enough to tempt fate.

And so instead of going along with the group, he remained firmly in place in silence protest. And this came to his luck that moment that deafening scream filled the air open the chamber being opened. It had given the kirin that fraction of a second to brace himself for any impact. Yes it was a terrible feeling that passed along, but when you deal with mobians you see and experience it yourself more often than not and just this whisk of it, could be handled with rational thinking as it was better to deal with this all rather than to give in. Mostly considering it was just Ophi in a twisted sense.

It took him not all that long to recover and get back on his feet. Hands curling into fists as he looked at the others. "Didn't I bloody said this could happen!?" The hard to anger mobian snapped, fire dancing in his eyes as well at the tuffs of fur on his arm and tail. "You didn't even consider the risks Aries! You as 'leader' should've listened and not taken the risk. Now look at what you did!" He snarled. Eyes glued to the other three zodiacs. "Didn't I exactly said this would happen? That you would be open a 'Pandora's box'! Yet you went ahead, not even acknowledging the risk of it." The anger ever so clearly dripping in his voice. A posture not normal to the bronze mobian that normally was as collected and kind as he was. "And why? Because Scorpio was pushing your buttons?! As 'leader' you should've known better and that he was only doing what he always does! Yet you let yourself fall for it."

A small pat at the areas of fur he had to put out the small flames with his gaze fixated on that for a moment. His breaths sharp and deep, clearly trying to forcefully calm himself down. The moment he managed to pat the small flames completely out he took a deep breath in, looking at the group again. "This is exactly why I never drop by the Astral plane." He spoke with his voice back to that smooth and calming tone, impossible to detect any kind of anger, but his eyes spoke of a different story with those flames of anger still burning.

"Good luck fixing this you three. For I will have no part of this as I was the only one not stupid enough to just go and not even consider the risks." A sharp breath out as he turned on his heel to head off. "I'm going back to mobius, I will hear when you fixed this mess."

(I'M SO SORRY ;-; )

Suddenly he was on his back, the screech still ringing in his large ears. Also, he could see the sky. Slightly darkened, but still, sky! The squirrel held his gloved hand out to it and smiled slightly, flexing his fingers. Then the kirin's voice broke through the ringing, and Mini glanced up at Sagittarius, listening to him ranting. The child frowned to itself. Also, it giggled quietly. Smiled, and winced again, and Gods know if he was even listening to the Sign of Wisdom or just leading an internal conversation. Peeerhaps both, knowing him. Nonetheless, he let Sagittarius finish, and only then did he actually get up, dust his fur off, not really paying attention to little scratches and bruises on his body - these would heal in time! Then he floated by the kirin to land in front of him and grab his hand, that'd totes stop the guy, yup. Also, the child still seemed way too happy and careless about the whole 'all bad in the world is free again' thing.
"But," he raised a finger, "As we all noticed, or, well, all of those who weren't unconscious at that moment, Ophi IS on Mobius! So, if you don't want to take part in the ordeal of chasing and capturing him, then I think you should stay here!" Finger wiggle as the child continued, rather proud of itself. I mean it was giving a lecture to a teacher, woooow!
"Also," another giggle, "What did you expect of the spirit of death, bravery and curiosity, Sagittarius? Not everyone's enlighted and wise like you, you know!"
Andd he let go of the Sign's hand to float over to Aries this time. "Though I think going to Mobius is a good idea! I mean, we aren't going to be much help to that poor world here, now that it's probably getting as messed up as this place is right now. We can think of a plan on our way there, no, leader?" A glance back at Sagittarius.
"Well, I say we, but I'm not exactly sure if Scorpio's still alive, if Aries is able to do anything other than stand and stare, and if Sagittarius still wants to leave us and sit on Mobius like nothing happened. What do you think?" The squirrel asked no-one and turned away to stare at the sky and immediately stop everything, shut down and just continue staring at it for at leastttt five minutes. Well unless something else was going to happen. He ran out of words for now.