The Zodiac Cycle

YES 3.20 Missing Pieces

TW: Assault, Trauma

Iris huffed, once more facing her own reflection. Her cropped blonde hair that covered the red eye and ragged scars on her cheek, and her other yellow eye slotted and angry stared back at her, unknown to her. She looked at the pile of fabric on the counter in front of her. The black and white suit was given to her by Zach, along with the choice.

She knew what Olive had done, that she had kept that secret for so long.

Olive had cried, and she had lied. She told Iris that she had planned to tell her after everything was over.

But Iris didnt believe her.

She told Olive to leave, but Olive continued to plead, hoping for an inch of redemption. She had reached for Iris, but was denied.

She wouldnt back off, even after Iris told her to.

That was why Iris had picked up the vase, as a form of intimidation.

She didnt throw it at Olive. She threw it away from her, but it bounced off the wall, and hit Olive. Iris wanted to apologize, but something stopped her. Maybe it was the anger, or the betrayal.

Instead she turned away and told Olive once again to leave.

So Olive finally left.

Iris sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

The Gemini massacre, the room with the red handle, and now this. She was barely clinging to the cliff of the last bit of sanity she could manage.

Zach hadn't killed the geminis only because he thought they were a threat. If it was that simple, he wouldnt have killed them himself, he would have had them hunted down.

No, he had another reason.

Iris could still see the first one he killed, the small boy that couldnt have been any older than 13. She remembered how scared he was, his screams still echoing in her ears, curdling her blood.

He had never done anything wrong.

No, Zach didnt kill them for that one reason, he tortured them, and massacred them slowly, lining them up once a week for two months. He did that because of Iris.

He made her watch, held back by a guard.

She fought at first, she tried her hardest to protect the geminis, but the hold of the guard on her arms was like iron, cold and unbreakable.

And each week, she fought less.

There was no use.

After the massacre was over, Iris was on the edge, and Zachs final action pushed her over.

He had cut her hair.

Iris shook her head, feeling the thin threads brush against her neck.

Then came the room, the one with the red handle.

The pictures of every Gemini pasted to the walls.

The recordings of their screams playing on loop.

She didnt dare defy Zach any more. If she did, he'd lock her in that room for hours.

Then Olive.

Olive knew how much it hurt to stab George, and Iris still blamed herself for hurting him, even if he had already forgiven her. Olive was the one that suggested using the poison, so that he would be stuck in a coma for a couple days while he healed.

Sakura helped him connect to a troll that had been a Taurus before him. The troll taught George how to use Jörd properly. But he was barely able to connect because of the sword wound in his abdomen, the intense pain from the cracked rocks on his back.