Sides of a Mirror

23- Vervadium

(The staff above looks like the one mentioned in the story, by the way.)

Usually, on a Sunday morning, Gemini would be in her room, looking through the countless social media apps on her phone. She was the chatterbox of her siblings, after all.
But nope! Not today!
Why?
Because some strange jerk of a man had just crashed into their living room and had Libra at sword point.
Aquarius lunged at the man, eyes blazing with cold light. The man simply brushed the attack aside as if it were nothing, flinging Aquarius halfway across the room. Gemini fumbled with her phone, sending the fastest text message she had ever texted in her life.
HELP! Yup, 'help' one, simple word. Gemini turned back to the situation at hand, and could only pray her message got through in time. Aquarius was struggling to get up, wincing and falling from the inevitable breaks he'd received. Libra, on the other hand, was backing panickedly away from the threat in front of him.
"WHO ARE YOU?" he screamed, falling on his back and scrambling hurriedly away from the man.
"My name is Serpens, and I'm going to kill you!" Libra screamed again, wordlessly this time, holding his hands up to defend himself, albeit futilely.
It wasn't the man's crazy psychotic laughing, or the sight of Aquarius collapsing over and over, or even the high pitched screams of Libra. No, it was none of these things.
It was a pure fury at seeing this son of a b*tch who'd just crashed into her living room looming over her brother, her youngest brother.
Yeah, that just about did it!
As soon as she thought of it, Gemini felt the weight of her gem in her hand. Holding it firmly, she positioned the gem so it would do what she intended it to flawlessly. And as she did, a name echoed in her mind, coaxing her to speak it aloud.
So she did.
Throwing her stone in the air, Gemini called out a name no one could understand, before a silvery white flash blinded the others and she was hidden from view.
"Dicere!" When the word left Gemini's lips, a swirling portal appeared in the living room wall, and from it emerged a black and white snake, the colors split down the middle and two silver wings extending from its back. It flew to the light obscuring Gemini, spinning in circles around it.

The light cleared, and Gemini now stood back on the ground. Her hand shot up and a silver staff landed in her hands, the end a glittering clear gem. Aquarius also saw Gemini wasn't in her sundress anymore. The outfit she wore seemed made of gossamer, the trailing scarf like streams fluttering though their was only the slightest of breezes. It was white, a strapless crop top and a long, flowing skirt shorter in the front and trailing behind her in the back. Long silver ribbons wrapped around her legs and arms, and she had new features. For starters, two feathery silver wings extended from her shoulder blades. Also, a tail, split down the middle in black and white, lashed behind her.
Gemini pointed the staff directly at Serpens, shouting some king of spell.
"Vervadium!" She waved the staff in a circle, and a blast of silver energy blasted Serpens off his feet.
Of course, nothing could surprise them more than a raging Aries crashing through the door holding a flaming axe in her hands.

A few minutes ago...

Aries had received Gemini's message, and was currently banging relentlessly on the locked door. Unfortunately, it didn't open no matter what she tried. Alright! That's enough! I need something else to break down this darn door! But what...? Aries absentmindedly touched the gem on the back of her neck. Wait...! Now that's an idea! Aries grabbed the gem, yanked it from her neck, and threw it at the door.
Sagittarius snorted, "Really, Aries?" She grinned at him.
"Coruscare!" She muttered, and flames erupted around her. Aries willed her Guardian to not appear yet, and instead give her something to bust down the door with.
Sure thing, then. Here you go!
When the flames died down, Sagittarius and Leo saw Aries in full battle regalia, blood red armor edged with gold. Most shocking of all- she held a coal black, flaming axe in her hands. Aries turned to her siblings and grinned.
"Now, shall I bust down this door?"

Present time...

Serpens whipped around to the screaming girl in scarlet armor currently charging toward him at full speed.
"What the fu-" Aries slammed into Serpens, pinning him to the wall with her axe pulled back. Her eyes burned like a million suns, and horns the colors of fire curled from her skull (unbeknownst to Serpens, she also had a small flame colored ram's tail sticking out of her back, but that's not important compared to the situation he's in.)
"AAAAHHH!" Aries screamed again as she swung her axe, aiming to slice off Serpens' head. Thankfully for him, she couldn't do that and hold him still, so he had the chance to slip out from under her and evade certain death.
On the other hand, this also pissed off Aries even more. She held her axe in one hand, and with the other conjured a rope composed of fire. She lashed it, its fiery surface scorching the wooden floorboards beneath it. Serpens backed away, only to find an unamused Gemini blocking his exit, staff pointed directly at his face. Dicere, the snake from earlier, was coiled around the shaft, fangs on full display.
"This'll teach you to mess with my brother!" Gemini hissed, a ripple of silver light shooting up the staff, "Adolebitque!" Silver flames erupted from the end of Gemini's staff, knocking Serpens so far back the wind was snatched from his lungs. Still wheezing, Serpens turned to see a very pissed of Aries looming over him, her flaring axe hovering over his head. Serpens shrieked, creating a mana circle under him and vanishing through it.
Or so he thought.

"Caeli!" Serpens stiffened at the name, the teleportation circle dissipating under him. He could feel an icy breeze sweep past him, and before him was a very discouraging sight for an assassin.

Aquarius wasn't quite sure how he'd known to call Caeli, but it had made sense at the time. As soon as he did though, also tossing him stone in the air, a flash of pale blue light had obscured him from view. When they could all see again, Aquarius also wasn't in his Sunday clothes.
He was in a set of silvery blue armor, holding a gleaming silver longsword in his hands, and beside him was a medium sized icy blue dragon with glittering blue eyes.
Aries turned to Aquarius, a confident smile on her face. "Nice to see you've got some tools there, eh?" Aquarius laughed, returning her smile with one of his own. He turned to face the terrified Serpens.
"You've got some answering to do, Serpens!" Aquarius leaped onto Caeli, motioning Aries to do the same. She climbed on next to him, patting Caeli on the back to say 'thanks' before raising her axe once again. Caeli launched into the air, her enormous wings shaking the air with their mighty flaps. Aries hurled her axe at Serpens, screeching another war cry, but it wasn't wordless this time.
"Coruscare!" The name bounced off the walls of the Airibeqe's mansion, loud enough for all to hear. A crack split the ground, and from it came a ram, eyes flaming, hooves glowing and scorching the floor. It charged at Serpens, bleating wildly. Aries dropped onto its back, swinging her axe with such accuracy that Serpens had to fling himself aside just to avoid it. The weapon had flew back to her as soon as she'd flipped off Caeli's back, wrenching itself from the wedge in the ground it'd just made. Runes carved on its handle burned crimson as Aries held it, and the blade itself now glowed red-hot at the edges. Aries grinned manically at Serpens, her eyes burning wildly, and the axe in her hands glowing brighter than ever before. It was a terrifying but captivating sight.
Serpens broke himself from the trance, teleporting away from Aries-
-Right into the face of a snarling Caeli.
Serpens decided he'd had enough, he quickly as he could cast a teleportation circle underneath him, jumping into it and closing it shut fast as possible.

Aries turned, still raging, towards the others. Seeing Libra shivering on the floor, Leo gently soothing him, quickly extinguished it, however. She gave the axe to Coruscare, walking over to them and loudly clapping her hands in front of Sagittarius to snap him out of his shocked stupor. He jumped, then laughed as he realized what'd just happened.
"How did you do that?" He asked. Aries shrugged nonchalantly.
"Instincts. Also, I was really pissed off, so there's that." Sagittarius shook his head.
"How can you be so casual about this? You literally were holding a flaming axe in your hands! Not to mention almost killed that guy!"
"Well," Aries replied, reaching down to pet Coruscare on the head, "I guess that's just how it goes!"

Note: This chapter was 1545 words long, not including this author's note.
P.S.; Aries is also a certified bad*ss. Seriously! I mean, not just anyone can wield a double bladed axe! See you in the next chapter, darlings! And sorry for not updating yesterday, but I watched a movie (Ready Player 1, it was an epic movie!) So long!