Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sun watched as they left, a burning rage filled within him. That moon, Jupiter’s moon, Europa had dared to imply that his planets would turn against him. Him! She’s lucky that he didn’t just solar flare her on the spot. All he was going was best for his Solar System, his planets. Everything had been going smoothly, perfect around here till those moons plotted that revolution, threw everything off balance, attacked his planets, became new threats in his Solar System that he simply couldn’t allow.

He treated the moons equally, as equally as all his planets. Even if he had treated them slightly worse, they had done the same with his planets. He was simply returning their ‘kindness.’ Their banishment was completely within jurisdiction, and they may not understand that, but his planets do, they understood this had to be done. He was no dictator, his planets liked him, they may have not liked the orbits, but surely with all that’s happened, they could recognize what he did was for them. Everything he did was for their safety and best interests.

When the moons were finally out of Sun’s line of vision, he knew he had to address the next issue that helped lead up to all this. He loudly cleared his throat, and watched as all his planets turned towards him. “Gas and ice giants, return to your orbits immediately!” He demands, especially eyeing Callisto and Io as they slowly approach Jupiter. Those two may have changed sides, and that’s why Sun allowed their stay, but they still did plan to attack the rocky planets at the end of the day. Jupiter better keep them in line or Sun would, with a far more effective method. 

All the giants had left without an argument, I mean why would they? When they all passed the asteroid belt, Sun, making sure that Jupiter and Saturn were in their orbits, since they were the only two he could see, before turning his attention to the rocky planets. As he examined all the damage inflicted on them by the moons once more, and he couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. He had been the one who failed to pay that much attention, allowing this to happen to them. Still, he hardened his expression, and looked down upon them, his voice; firm. “This is an example of why you should remain in your orbits. The fact that many of you abandoned your orbits, is what allowed that silly revolution to get so far in the first place. I hope you learned in your lesson.” But what lesson was there to be learned in attacks and destruction? Especially when, ł₮'₴ ₳ⱠⱠ ɎØɄⱤ ₣₳ɄⱠ₮. “Now, GET BACK TO YOUR ORBITS!”

Mars was the first to leave, head down, dejected, as he held Phobos and Demos close to his side. Luckily they had slept through most of it and when they did wake Mars he closed them in his hands to drown out all the noise, or as much as he could, from them. Luna moved towards Earth next, and leaned his head on his shoulder, wrapping his arm around his back. Earth copied the movement as they moved together back to their orbits. If you listened close enough, you could hear a slight sniffle come from their direction.

Venus was about to go to his orbit next, when Mercury's voice came out, soft and hesitant, beside him. “Actually Sun, I was wondering if it was possible that we could all hang out for a bit?” There was an awkward smile plastered on Mercury’s face after he suggested it, his shoulders raised high as he raised his forearms. “A lot has been going on and I think it would be good for us to be able to talk to one another about all this, rather than isolate ourselves in our orbits.”

“Wha-” Sun was taken off guard by Mercury's ‘protest’ against him. He was correcting him. Saying an answer he thought to be better than his own. But it wasn’t. Sun knew this was so. His choice protected them, kept them safe and happy. And past that, what else matters? “Mercury, what did I just say!? You guys not staying in your orbits lead to this mess in the first place!” And every other mess before this. He didn’t pay attention. “Besides, no one is gonna be alone. You guys are close enough to talk, and you have me Mercury!” Sun brought his hands to his chest and smiled.

“But-” Mercury starts, but doesn’t get very far as Sun was quick to cut him off and silence him.

“No, buts, Mercury!” Sun slightly crouches down and waves a finger in Mercury’s face. As the scene unfolded in front of Venus, it could be seen as a father scolding their very, very, small child. “It’s final. Now, you and Venus, get into your orbits, NOW!”

Mercury sighed, knowing that it was pointless to continue fighting. Sun made it clear that whatever Mercury would throw at him, would simply be blocked or fall on deaf ears. And the last time he broke this rule, was during and after Earth tried to fling himself into the Sun and that was a very dire situation. This was only the aftermath of one. And he didn’t want to get a solar flare to the face, thank you very much!

But Venus was still pretty close to Mercury. And they definitely had issues they needed to work out. Plus, there was clearly more to Venus’s rage during the trial. Mercury may have not said anything at the moment, but he saw how Venus reacted to the talk of the attacks on him and Mars. And while all of that could be scratched down to, Venus was simply mad to have been attacked by the moons, who wouldn't be, but Mercury had noticed how he spoke and reacted when his ‘friendship’ with Earth was talked about and the aftermath. The way he hesitated and spat out the word, vulnerability, yet managed to keep it so low. The way he said friendship, like he didn’t even mean it. There was clearly something past just pure anger and rage here. 

So, Mercury used his speed to catch up to Venus, stopping in front of him. Luckily, Sun seemed to be looking towards the other rockies at the moment. He knew he had to tread his ground carefully. Venus may have been kinder to him before, but with the trial seemingly adding more salt to the wound, who knew if that remained the same. Venus had made it his life goal to bully Mercury for some reason, but he was no longer afraid, considering he was all bark and no bite, though he still knew where to hit best. And it was about time he and Venus had a talk about it.

“What are you doing pipsqueak? Move. Sun said we had to stay in our orbits.” Ah. Already back to that nickname. Mercury felt a slight tinge of annoyment. Just because he’s not scared, doesn’t mean he plans to just accept the rude behavior he gets from others with a smile, no matter if he knows it’s true or not. Venus then proceeds to push past him after a few seconds, continuing moving forward to his orbit.

“Well, Sun did technically say, if we were close, we could talk.” Mercury pushes to the front of Venus once more, a small grin on his face. “And our orbits are pretty close already, so I'm sure he wouldn’t mind if we stayed a little bit out of our orbits to talk.” 

“So you're just trying to avoid the Sun.” Venus’s eyebrows twisted down into a glare, yet his voice was not angry but nonchalant, unsurprised. “What? You're upset that those moons got what was coming for them?” Venus cocks his eyebrow as he looked at Mercury and spoke, a small amount of anger slipping through his voice. “I’d be better hanging out with nobody, than you pipsqueak.” After he was done speaking, Venus dodged past Mercury once more.

And this time around, Mercury didn’t move, he just stood there, looking directly at him, his expression hardened. “Really Venus?” Mercury’s voice is soft, almost vulnerable. Venus couldn’t help but stop in his retreat to his orbit when he heard it. “Were back to this? Already? ” A pause. “After all this, you just want to go back to the nickname calling, and bullying?” Venus’s shoulders tensed up upon his words. He didn’t know why he was still there. He didn’t need to hear this. It would be so easy to walk away. So why…?

“I don’t know why you're doing this. I don’t know what I did to you. What pain I caused you to result in this from you. Hell, I don’t even know if the reason you're doing this is even my fault, or someone else’s.” Mercury ‘slams’ his hand against his chest, his forearm raised by his side as he looks toward Venus, who didn’t spare him a glance. “ Cause I don’t know you, Venus. And you refuse to tell me anything past what you show on the outside. But there has to be more than that!” Mercury hesitates, tilting his head down and to the right.  “Unless… I really am just, ‘the pipsqueak’ to you.” The smallest planet. The fragile one. The one whose size could be outdone by moons. A pushed down fear of being demoted lies within the planet and his size. Guess the name still knows where to hit hardest, no matter what he does.

Venus doesn’t respond once more, and Mercury could feel the tears well up his eyes. He quickly wiped them away, looked back up and continued speaking. “Look, you don’t wanna talk? That’s fine. Everyone is going through something right now. But is that what you want? To be alone?” No response once more. And while it wasn’t visible to Mercury, Venus was biting into his lip. “I've said it in the trial and I'll say it now. I'll try to understand Venus, but I can only push so far, before I'll have to stop. And after all these years, I'm already getting tired.” Mercury then proceeds to turn around and walk around to his orbit.

With both facing the opposite direction, no one could see the look of regret on either planet’s face.

—

As Mercury arrived in his orbit right besides Sun, he couldn’t help but slump down, letting out a heavy exhale and with it tension in his body and core that he didn’t even realize that he had. His mind instantly went back to interaction with Venus. So much had happened there, and even though Mercury had thought there could be more to him, was that really it? Mercury was simply his punching bag?

But then he thought about everything else about Venus. The fight against Mars and Venus. The whole situation surrounding Earth’s actions. The moons attack on the other rocky planets. Venus’s reactions during the trial. But then again… Mercury brings a hand up to his left eye and softly brushes his fingers over it. He could see just fine now but… Venus seemed completely fine with hurting others. That, this was just a taste of karma.

Mercury shakes his head, going against the idea, just moments after it came into his head. He sighs, resting a hand on his cheek. Why was he trying so hard? He had no reason too, with what Venus has done to him. With what a lot of people have done to him. The constant bullying, the people who watched, allowed it to happen, laughed, with all the sadness they caused, he didn’t owe them this. He didn’t owe them anything. But to give up now, would just be pettiness, wouldn’t it? He changed Earth for the better hadn’t he, showed him the issues with his behavior, so he could do the same for Venus. He’d just have to deal with it for a little longer, past the annoyance, past the sadness.

And if he couldn’t be changed, if he continues, Mercury would just cut the tie.

All the while, Sun watched as Mercury floated back into his orbit, didn’t even turn to greet him, and looked out to empty space. He had still made some movements here and there but this behavior, after what happened now, was very concerning to the star. “Hey, Mercury!” Mercury flinches, being pulled out of his thoughts. Spinning around to Sun’s face, a look of surprise before the calm. Sun notices that. “Are- Are you alright?” He says in a much more hushed tone than before.

Mercury had peered his eyes at him in confusion before they suddenly widened. “O-oh.. oh! Yeah, Sun. I’m doing just fine.” He had stuttered, Sun had taken a note of that. Was it just out of surprise? Or something else entirely? “Just… Thinking.” Mercury had tilted his head, losing all eye contact with Sun. Why was Mercury acting so nervous around him?

“Are you-?” Sun bites his tongue, hating the thought of asking this question, showing vulnerability in front of his planets, but Mercury’s words in the trial were ringing in his head. ‘There were definitely times I got worried or nervous at the size difference.’ Any talk of fear had him on edge, but he could brush past it originally. But combined with Europa’s false ‘warning’, Sun didn’t want to admit it but the thoughts were only getting more nerve wracking. So, he had to know. “Are you scared of me…?” 

It took a few seconds for Mercury’s core to process what was told to him, and when it did, he was completely taken back by what he heard. He had to double take and make sure he heard it right, but Sun’s expression combined with the ominous silence, said a lot for itself. “Sun? What are you talking about? Of course I’m not!” His thoughts were instantly taken off Venus and that whole issue, and brought onto the Sun, bringing his full attention that way.

Sun looked away for a few seconds, his eyes hitting anywhere in empty space, except in the direction Mercury was in. They were dart left and right as if contemplating something. Mercury would never lie but… “You really don’t…?” His voice was almost fragile, something that could feasibly be broken. It was a huge contrast to the Star who had yelled at the top of their voice for the moons to leave, or their star in general.  The last time Mercury had seen something like this was when Sun was questioning their friendship.

“No!” Mercury put a hand up to his chest as he shouted. “I’ll admit, you can be a bit… much at times, and sometimes your voice can catch me off guard, and the solar flares can be annoying… But I'm not scared of you. I could never be.” Mercury rubbed the back of his head while tilting it back as he spoke, before taking a glance back up at Sun. Sun looked at Mercury and a smile slowly appeared on his face, wide and bright. Mercury smiled right back. 

The wholesome moment lasted for a few seconds, till Mercury’s face dropped, just a small amount, and his mind drifted off. “Sun… I really do think you should think over the moon's punishments.” When Mercury’s expression had abruptly changed, Sun had immediately gotten worried, but as he looked back up and talked about those… moons, he felt the rage boiling within him. “I understand what they did wasn’t okay, but what happened to them isn’t alright either. While they deserve punishment, don’t you think this is too mu–” 

“They attacked MY planets! They ruined the order of MY SOLAR SYSTEM! Had the nerve to think I would just allow them to walk off with their crimes, since it's all for what? Respect?” Sun put on that manic smile on his face, a loud, but empty laugh, rumbling out of his throat. After he finished, his expression instantly got far more serious; his smile dropped and his eyes seemed to get sharper, as looked down on Mercury again. “I want not a word about those moons uttered in my Solar System. They will stay banished and reflect on their crimes for the millions of years to come.”

Mercury looks off to the side, knowing this was a losing battle once more. Both sides held some sort of level of honesty to it, but Sun was well… Sun, a star. And he was a planet. While, there was no way in the universe that the planets were ever gonna rebel against the Sun, Europa’s words did indeed hold truth about the power dynamic between stars and planets. And someone definitely held more power than the other.

Mercury huffed, placing a hand on his cheek. He would just have to wait a bit later to ask him again and properly present his argument. He would also definitely need more planets on his side. But now? He had to give up. “I understand, Sun.” 

Sun had instantaneously calmed down, as he heard Mercury’s agreement. He was glad he understood that this was just the only way. A fitting punishment, for their crimes. But now, an awkward stillness filled the area. Sun bit his lip, thinking of something to say, as Mercury's gaze rested elsewhere. A Sun joke! Sun loves those, and so does Mercury. “Mercury, do you know why everyone wants to be friends with a star?”

Mercury looked back up, taken away from his thoughts and thinking of a solution to this situation. He already knew what was coming with the question, but luckily for him, he doesn’t think he’s heard this joke yet. They were mostly pretty bad though… “Uh… why, Sun?”

“Because of their SUNNY personality!” His eyes go wide, as he puts extra emphasis on ‘sunny,’ also raising his forearms in the air. “Hahahahaha!” There was the psychotic look on his face that always happened after he told a joke.

Well, it wasn’t that terrible. Mercury responds with a fake-ass sounding laugh, per usual before zoning out once more. 

But this time around, Sun couldn’t help but notice how off it was. How weird Mercury had been acting in general. Were the moon's banishment affecting him that much? Then- No. He can’t be swayed, he picked the safest option and Mercury would just have to come to terms with that. So, Sun had just opted to look elsewhere and observe his other planets as of right now, ignoring whatever feelings building up in him.

—

Settling back into his orbit felt weird. It was oddly alone and quiet to Earth. Well, he still had Luna of course, but all his organisms… The sounds, the noises. The feeling on his surface, of every little thing they did to him, good or bad. And now it is all gone. He still had other living things on him, certain creatures who survived an asteroid once, they can probably do it again for the next while, but it still wasn’t the same. 

Most of what he had to nurture, build up again, was taken away from him for five stupid words. That if had kept his mouth shut, then maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have been a target. But it was hopeless… The moons… they were always gonna take it this far, weren’t they? If it wasn’t for being disrespectful, they would have still targeted Earth for being the ‘golden’ planet. They would have still attacked him for working hard to gain something he deserved, they would have still attacked Mars and Venus to get them out of the way, and they would have still taken Luna hostage to lure him to their trap.

Hurt everyone till coming to him. They could have killed them, they could have killed Luna. They killed his intelligent life, that's for sure. Earth doesn’t know what overcomes him, but almost on instinct, he pulled Luna into a hug, burying his face into his shoulder. As his fingers tightened around Luna’s sides, he could feel tears building up into his eyes, but held them back, as Luna returned the embrace and not wanting to ruin the moment. 

Earth had no clue how long they held each other for but the time felt like everything. So many ways that revolution could have been worse, and he couldn’t help but feel somewhat grateful for this one. The one where his moon was still here, with him.

Earth smiled and looked up, but instantly regretted it as eyes fell right on Mars, his former best friend. And just as the stars would have it, Mars looked up right towards, at the same time. The two maintained eye contact till the two tore their eyes off each other, and Earth released himself from Luna’s hold. 

Luna looks to Earth in surprise, concern rising in his core with his abrupt action. Luna reached out and touched his shoulder, but Earth kept his head turned to the side, his eyes not even coming to meet him. “Earth? Are you alright?” Earth clearly was burying himself in guilt, that was clear enough to Luna, but what exactly was it? If Luna didn’t know, then he couldn’t fix it. And if he couldn’t fix it then– His thoughts came to a halt when he saw Earth’s eyes dart somewhere behind him, before returning to their place, full of panic. Luna looks back to where he did and saw, oh. Mars. “You know you're gonna have to talk to him right?”

Earth’s head and eyes went up to him in a flash, and Luna could see them widen. Gotcha. He took a big gulp of air before he spoke. “Wha- What are you talking about Luna?” He followed up his words with a nervous chuckle, and Luna gave him the ‘are you serious right now’ face.

“Mars.” As Luna said the very name Earth dreaded, he brought a fist up to his mouth, keeping head towards Luna, but eyes turning away, as he nibbles on his fist a bit. “You're gonna have to talk to him sooner or later.” 

It was quiet, still, until, “I can’t!” He seemingly shouts out of nowhere, demolishing the silence that originally filled the area, ripping his fist away from his mouth and to his side. “I treated him like such an asshole, Luna. When we were friends, if you can even call our relationship that, I was nothing but a jerk. And even, just a little earlier, after I thought I changed, I completely just told Mars off, when all he was trying to do was help me.” Earth pushed the palms of his hands against his forehead and eyes, lowering his head. "I doubt he’d ever want to talk to me now…. Much less be friends again.” He twisted his hand in the opposite direction of the other while they still rested on his face. However, his eyes were still looking downwards.

“You have changed Earth! You just lost your earthlings and were going through a lot at the moment.” Luna’s voice was soft and silky, holding empathy for not only his planet, but the lives taken along the way. “You don’t really know if Mars feels that and if you just stay here, you’ll never know the truth, or get a chance to apologize and explain yourself.” Luna uses one hand to gesture to Mars, his eyes following it, before looking back at Earth. “And not knowing, is worse than knowing isn’t it?” Earth turns his head in Mars directions, contemplating Luna words as he did. He could feel his whole body tense, his eyes almost shaking. While Luna wasn’t completely right, but he did need to apologize to Mars to the least.

“Thank you, Luna…” And with that, he pushed down, or tried to, his nerves and fears and began to walk over to Mars. Every couple miles forward felt like a weight was in his core and it was only getting heavier as he got closer to Mars, and that he should spin around and rush back to Luna to feel free from it all.

By the time Earth reached Mars orbit, he hadn’t even noticed his presence yet, and for some reason, that only made this so much worse. Because, unless Earth just wanted to watch like a creep till Mars saw him, he would have to make the first move. “Hey Mars…” His voice was broken and hoarse, as if it was coming from someone with strep throat. An awkward and wobbly smile gradually formed on his face.

Mars slowly looked up, meeting eye’s with him, no response nor reaction coming out of him. Then his eyes enlarged, and he jumped backwards, putting his hands in the air to defend himself from… whoever he thought that was. The abrupt movement made Earth take a step back. Mars remained in the position for one or two ticks, before recognition flashed in his eye and he hastily fixed himself.

“Um… Hey Earth.” As Mars spoke, his posture was stiff and rigid. He shot up his forearm and waved, it was an uneasy and gnarly movement.  “How are you… How are you doing?” But mentally, he smacked himself for asking such a dumb question. He just lost his lifeforms, how do you think he’s doing, idiot.

“I’m doing fine… fine as I can be to the least…” His shoulders hung low as he spoke, his head twisted to the side, as he rubbed the back of it with one of his hands. But he turned his head back to Mars, and lowered his hand a bit. “You..?”

“Um… just peachy.” Mars pushed his moons to orbit in the back of him, before fidgeting with his hands. 

Both Mars and Earth look away from each other, avoiding eye contact. Earth was breathing heavily, while Mars pressed his lips together, both having something to say to the other, but no one was making the move to say it.

“Look, Mars–”

“Listen, Earth–”

“I’m sorry.”

As the two both softly said those apoplectic words, stared at each other in confusion afterwards. “What do you mean? You have nothing to be sorry for.” Mars tilts his head to the side, but instead of the many other times in regret, hurt, or shame, this one was in confusion.

“I have everything to be sorry for!” Earth threw his hand onto his chest, his head pushed out forward. His eyes were half squeezed, and his voice cracked as he spoke; passionate. “I treated you and Venus like ass, most, if not all of the time.” Earth points to Mars and then throws his arm back, when he says Venus’s name, not bothering to figure out his direction position.“I was prideful and degraded all of your feelings. When you had tried to help me earlier, I just yelled at you and hadn’t considered your feelings whatsoever at the moment.” 

“But that’s only because I was trying to push so hard, right after you lost earthlings too. It was unfair of me to do so, and I should have expected that response.” Mars rebuttals, far more calmer than Earth, but still with a whole lot of passion and guilt that matched Earth’s.  “Despite the fact I'm supposed to be your friend, I failed to consider how what I said to Titan may hurt you.” Mars looks down to his feet and crosses one of his arms over his chest, so he could grab his arm at the other side. “And in the end, I called you unspecial and ditched you.” 

“And that gave me the exact reality check I needed.” Earth reminisces on the past. Mars's word had hurt then, and to be honest, it still did now, but it’d be a lie if he said it didn’t help to push him into the position that helped him be better, at least, he should be better. Was he really though? “If you had never done that, I wouldn’t have seen the errors of my ways.” With that whole Sun incident and the help of Luna and Mercury and Luna… But that was still a sore spot. “And for the millions of years of bullshit you had to put up with, including now, I'm sorry.” 

“But there were much easier and kinder ways I could have told you. But I just led you on for millions of years, making you think what you were doing was okay. This all could have been prevented had I just reacted more reasonably.” Mars swings his shoulders forward, loosely having one hang on his body, while the other hand was brought to his cheek as he temporarily looked away. “And so I'm sorry, I failed you as a friend.” 

They both just looked at one another once more and in their seconds of quiet they were really able to process the words that came from the other. 

“I guess… We both made some pretty shitty mistakes… huh?” Mars lets out a soft chuckle, resting his head on the palm of his hand and closing his eyes.

“Yeah…” Earth matches Mars laugh, trying to keep it light hearted. He looks away for a sec, before meeting Mars eyes with his own. “Mars… Do you think… We could have a whole re-do on this whole friendship? Not even best friends, just a new start. Whether we remain friends and go past that depends. I’ll make sure to be less of a narcissistic bitch this time around.” Earth aggressively binks, raising a leg and putting the back of his hands on each cheek.

There was a pause, and Earth had begun to worry he had done something wrong, somehow managed to mess it up, or Mars never had and never will consider being his friend. Then, “And I'll make sure to consider your feelings before I talk, and actually talk out the issue with you instead of yelling… So… A do-over? A real attempt to be friends.” Mars hesitantly smiles then slowly reaches out his hand.

Earth watches in surprise, before a faint smile appears on his face and he reaches out and shakes Mars hands. 

“A new start as friends.”

—

Luna watches as his planet left, with a smile, glad he was going to confront at least one of the issues on his mental checklist. Those two were as easy to read, like a neon sign placed only a few feet in front of you. The glances, the nervousness, the refusal to actually say a word about anything, Earth was lucky that Luna was here to give him that push. Earth being next to Mars, would hopefully do him, both of them some good.

He watched up until he saw Earth reach Mars orbit and actually open his mouth to speak, and laughing at Mars' reaction he tore his eyes away, knowing that Earth would be fine. Earth would be fine. He dropped down till he was sitting with his legs overlapping each other, and rested his head on one of his hands. As he let his eyelids droop till they went full closed, he let out a loud and exhausted sigh.

All the recent events, they had been weighing on him. But there was simply no way, and definitely not right now, to talk to Earth aout all this. He already had so much to deal with, and no way he was going to vent to Mercury, plus the Sun, despite his shown loyalty to his planet, probably doesn’t trust him. And talking to anyone else would just be plain weird. But, there was this one person, he could talk to the least. Probably won’t get much confort from it, but it still would be nice to talk, so he called, “Dark Side of The Moon? You there?” 

“Oh! So you do remember I exist! I just assumed that the whole thing with Titan was just a one off situation.” In the moment, Dark tried to raise his, their arm to his face to match the whole, ‘evil’ and taunting vibe, when he remembered that he didn’t have control. The most that this body was good for right now was talking, so he just had to go with lowering his pitch and chuckling instead. “And to what do I owe this esteemed conversation with you? Need someone else to be… threatened? You finally want to crash into someone to teach them a lesson~” 

“No… No. None of that right now.” Luna squeezes his eyes shut, and rubs his forehead using two fingers, as if Dark’s taunting was already giving him a headache. “I just wanna talk. Nothing more.” He takes the silence that comes after it as either Dark just left him, or was allowing him to speak. Neither option mattered, Luna just needed to talk, whether it be empty space or a person who probably wouldn’t respond.

“Ever since Earth said, ‘moons should know their place,’ it felt like my life had gone absolutely tumbling.” He started out gentle and soft, looking at nothing specific in the space around him. And then he took a deep breath. “I could easily deal with old Earth's personality. I could deal with cleaning up his messes. I could deal with not being allowed to play in games, and being a prop to lift Earth up.” Luna used his fingers to count, ‘what he could deal with,’ as he listed them out for the ‘crowd’ to hear. He looked down on his fingers as he counted with wide eyes. After every couple words, his voice would go higher in pitch.“It was annoying, sure, but nothing had really ever gone wrong and I knew what Earth was going through.” 

“Then almost every single moon in this solar system decided to target my planet!” He brings his hands to his head, gripping it and throwing it downwards. Dark made a grunt, then a grumble about being forced to look up. That let Luna know he was still listening. “As a moon, I can understand how offensive, ‘moons should know their place,’ can be. But it wasn’t even said to anyone except Titan! Most of their problems came from their own planet’s, why the hell didn’t they just talk or rebel against them?!” He released his hold on his head, but his finger still remained in the same position, hovering a couple miles from his surface, shaking. “I don’t even know how to really feel about their banishment, because on one hand, they attacked my planet and killed his lifeforms, and on the other, being banished from the solar system is such a cruel punishment.” 

“But the worst part of all of this is, knowing-!... I could have prevented it …” Tears start to pool in his eyes, but he holds them in, refusing for them to even touch his surface. He drops his hands down to his side and his voice was dry, and wavering now. Whatever rage or frustration earlier, seemingly dissipated.  Or maybe, it simply got directed at himself instead. “Knowing that if I hadn’t acted irrational and tried to confront Titan, who had an army of moons behind his back, then I wouldn’t have been captured. Without bait, Earth would have never willingly come. The moons would have never tried to leave the asteroid belt because that risks the Sun seeing them.” The moons would have never got him. I could have returned to his side and stayed there, protecting him. The earthlings would be alive. Earth would be fine. No trial, no banishment. 

“And Earth… he tried to kill himself before.” Luna remembered it just like it was yesterday. The very moment he realized it. ‘Wait… are you… Are you heading towards the Sun!?’ He and Mercury had tried to chase him, and it was only by a stroke of luck that he stopped, that he didn’t kill himself, that he didn’t leave Luna. “When he thought no one loved him, he believed the best choice, the only choice was to fling himself into the Sun. ‘Everyone will be happier,’ that's what he said. And now… without his earthlings, what if he tries again….? He might be, hopefully, making friends with Mars now, but what if that wasn’t enough? What if I'm not enough? ” The tears began to pool down his face, despite his best attempt to make it stop. He swipes them off. “Watching him do it the first time… I was terrified, I won’t be able to handle another one. But I can’t lose him either.”

Luna almost expected not to get a reaction from Dark and the seconds that passed by confirmed that. But just then, “Could you please stop looking down? You're making this conversation ten times more awkward for me if I have to look up to nothing.” Luna was disoriented and confused by Dark’s words, still recovering from his whole… situation. Then he remembered how Dark was on the opposite side of him and Luna was looking down. He brought his head back up, and mumbled, a quick sorry. “Anyways…Imma be straightforward with you. We both know, I don't have enough emotional intelligence for this. I have no idea how to react nor make you feel better.” Luna let out a soft sigh, very well expecting this, but grateful he did listen. Just before he could thank him for that, “but I know this for sure; hiding your feelings from him will only end up terribly in the long run.” 

Luna blinked in surprise from Dark’s answer. “I know… it’s just…” Dark rolls his eyes, knowing what was going to come next. Excuses. From what he understood, Earth was better now but still… How could his other side keep doing this to himself? “He’s going through a lot right now. He doesn’t need me to vent to him.” 

 Dark’s face immediately soured and he sucked on his teeth. “And he can vent to you? You said it yourself, he tried to kill himself in front of you and not once did he consider what it might have done to you.” His voice was snarky as he spoke and he could feel himself getting more irritated. “We both know that you wouldn’t have told him, regardless if he was going through something extreme or not.” Stars, he wished they didn’t share a body so he could smack common sense into Luna, even though he ignored and thought so lowly of Dark. “You had always loved to bend your back for him, well I'm telling you that if you keep doing that, you're gonna break sooner or later.” 

“He can vent to me because he tried to kill himself because I left him alone and right after he lost his earthlings!” Luna straightens out his back, crossing his legs as well. “He is much more unstable than I am, so he simply needs more priority. And I don’t…” Luna looks down and off to the side, sinking his teeth into his lip, hesitating to say his next words. “‘Bend my back’ for him, I’m just… worried about him.” 

Dark scrunched up his face, but figured he shouldn’t try to argue further. Luna… he could be even dumber than their planet when it came to Earth. “Yeah, whatever you say.” Like you didn’t lose them too. Like you weren’t attacked and used as bait. Like you didn’t see someone you cared for try to kill themselves in front of you. Like none of those things equate to you being slightly unstable too. Someone was just better at hiding it.  

Luna could easily detect the sarcasm in his voice, but wasn’t planning to push on it anymore, even so, he was still peeved about it. He placed his right elbow on his thigh and rested his cheek onto his fist. In the time of tranquility that came after, Luna huffed, sitting up properly again. “And what about you? How are you faring with all this? 

Dark slowly reopened his eyes, which had originally been closed so he could sink back into the darkness of his mind, and pondered Luna’s question. “Eh.. I feel bad, but how do you really want me to react to a bunch of dead creatures I didn't really know, being dead? Same with Earth. I don’t really know him. I can feel pity and sorry for the loss… but  I'm not going to break into full blown tears and feel regret for the next millions of years. And the rest of the revolution, I just slept through it.” 

Luna makes a hum of acknowledgement thinking over Dark’s words. He never had let Dark watch the earthlings or meet Earth. He had always just assumed that he never wanted to, since his main whole thing was… threatening to crash into other celestial bodies. But, there’s something in the way he said it, that, just maybe, Dark did want to meet Earth. “Would you like to meet him now?” 

As Luna awaited an answer, he could feel someone’s gravity beginning to get stronger around his surface. He looked forward to seeing Earth with a nervous and small smile, but a smile nonetheless. Luna realized that Dark had probably left sensing Earth, so he’d have to ask him later. He pushed back everything from earlier and smiled back. “How’d it go?”

“It was… Good. We might even be friends again.” Earth’s smile just gets a bit brighter and lighter and he closes his eyes and giggles. It was an unsure one, Luna could tell, but he looked just a bit happier for the most part, and that was good. “Thank you Luna. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

His words weighed on Luna’s core, and smile shrunk. He thought back to Dark’s words, this did seem like a good chance to share, just a little bit of what was on his mind. But then again all the possibilities, just because they started up a friendship didn’t mean he was stable. There were other issues, and what if he was just acting and Luna couldn’t tell. He usually could but… new circumstances. He’d just have to wait, and watch, stay by his side no matter what. Dark was right, he didn’t know Earth, Luna did. Dark was just being overdramatic.

He looked Earth in the eyes, as Luna’s smile returned to its original size. But just before he could reply, he swore he heard a voice in his head. ‘Be careful.’

“I don’t know either…”

Chapter Text

“Gas and ice giants, return to your orbits immediately!”

As Sun demanded they return to his orbit, Jupiter watched in regret as Callisto and Io, his only two moons now, approached him. He stayed silent as had noticed the certain tone, the phrasing of Sun’s words when he spoke of the moons at the end. He had said nothing as Sun happily demanded they be banished. He knew that, no matter if he tried, they weren’t going to make it. 

Not against the Sun. Never, against the Sun.

Nonetheless, the moment at the end… when Ganymede called Jupiter’s name, pleaded with him to come up with an excuse why they couldn't leave. The look in his eyes, an unknown expression for his largest moon, Jupiter almost wanted to push past every sense of logic, and try , try to save them.

Yet, he couldn’t, and Sun made sure to remind him of that. Nothing would change their fate; they had sealed it themselves. He didn’t want to, but he was just being honest. They had no effect on them. And so, he watched them go.

But… It was his honesty that got him into this situation, hadn’t it? They said it, his brutal honesty made them feel like he didn’t respect them, and he didn’t even realize. Jupiter was a role model, or was supposed to be, and still, he led his moons astray. Now, most of them are gone, banished, sent out there like- Jupiter’s breath hitches and he shakes head. 

And Europa… Stars, Europa talked back to the Sun. She said so many things that Jupiter would never dare speak of, even if he was in Neptune’s orbit, even if he was far past that. He was paralyzed in fear, as she had spoken to the Sun of all people like that. Europa had always been sharp tongued but, even she should have known better. It’s a miracle that Sun stuck to his original plan and just kept her banished instead of- well, Jupiter doesn’t want to think about it.

But there was one single part, in her speech to Sun, that kept coming back like a wave. It receded, but there would always be a moment where it came back to shore. ‘Like you’ve never done something diabolical, something you can never be forgiven for…’ That’s exactly what she said. He has many things to be regretful for. So many mistakes he wished to take back.

“Jupiter…” 

Their faces. Their last seconds will haunt him forever.

“Jupiter.”

Now, it was like he was calling his name. Hunting him. Coming for him. His moons were going where they had sent him. This was karma. And he would go for his moons first before-

“Jupiter!”

Jupiter snapped back into awareness when he felt gravity hit across his left on his cheek, something resembling a slap. He was looking down, to the right and so he repositioned it back to the middle. He noticed that he was breathing at a fast rate, and he slowly put a hand to his chest. 

Someone else's hands soothingly touched his shoulder, and he brought his gaze up and realized he was already past the asteroid belt, he had been so focused on his thoughts that he failed to be attentive to his surroundings. And right in front of him, was the very person who slapped him and was currently touching his shoulder, “Saturn…?”

When Saturn locked eyes with Jupiter, he promptly removed his hand off of his shoulder. “Ah! I’m so sorry Jupiter!” Saturn moves both of his hands to his mouth, covering it, and he furrows his brows. “I didn’t mean to hit you so hard! It was just… you were acting weird my giant gassy friend. Are you alright?” Saturn tilts his head, there was hesitance laced in his every action, every word.

Jupiter blinked twice, becoming more attuned with the area and what Saturn said, before rubbing using one hand to rub his forehead. “Yes. Yes. I’m fine.” He raised his hand off of his forehead and then brought it down to his cheek and began rubbing it, the pain already becoming a dull feeling of the past. “Nothing to worry about.” This voice comes out as a sigh and as he looks at Saturn and attempts a confident smile, but instead it came out weary.

Saturn looks his face up and down, but if he had anything to say about Jupiter’s previous or current state, he let it slip past him. “If that's so…, May we talk?” He looks over Jupiter’s shoulders, to which Io and Callisto were behind his back. There was a flicker of something in his eyes, before his eyes darted away from them and back to Jupiter. “In my orbit.” The tone and volume of his voice changed, hushed as Saturn looked him dead in his eye.

Jupiter looks back, then right back to Saturn, getting the message he was trying to send. He spins around and glances down to his moons. His only two. “Io, Callisto? Can you two wait in my orbit for me? I’ll be back in a sec.” The two nod and Jupiter turns around but couldn’t help but twist his head back once more. “Seriously, don’t go anywhere.”

He turns his head back to Saturn and nods, then the two begin the walk to his orbit. Each step away from his moons, felt like he was climbing up a steep mountain. Leaving them alone, where anything could get them, take them, harm them? And when the Sun was so tense about orbits and the safety of the rocky planets too?  

But he couldn’t bring himself to deny Saturn. He hardly ever can bring himself to deny Saturn. (Except with Titan, that whole situation was plain annoying). Combined with the circumstances now, Jupiter, at least he still has two moons, Saturn was left with none. To leave him alone, while he still had others, over his own fears would just be selfish to do to his best friend.

Callisto and Io could handle themselves just for a few minutes. Only for a few minutes.

Jupiter senses they’ve arrived at Saturn’s orbit and came to a stop, just as Saturn had in front of him. “So, Saturn, you wished to talk?” 

A few ticks of silence pass, and Jupiter begins to get concerned for his friend. “Why didn’t you defend them, Jupiter?” Saturn spins around and points an accusing finger right in Jupiter’s face. Jupiter stumbled a little back in shock at the sudden turnaround. “Your moons, Gaymaid was it, had asked you to give Sun a reason they could all stay. But you gave up! You told Sun they were practically pointless!” 

Jupiter looked at him processing the words thrown at him, as the accusation from his friend caught him off guard. He puts his arm up to his chest defensively, squeezing his eyes, semi-shut. “What are you talking about Saturn? I tried–” 

“But you didn’t try and if you did, you didn’t try hard enough!” Saturn’s voice was brittle, when he cut Jupiter off, as if he was on the verge of tears. But the anger, the distress in his voice as he yelled, was clear as well. 

“I answered logically and reasonably, Saturn! Sun would have known if I lied!”  Jupiter countered, making sure to raise his voice higher than Saturn this time around. He took heavy breaths as he stared at Saturn, before his eyes widened as he realized his ‘mistake.’ His eyes darted to Sun, taking it that he seemed distracted and didn’t hear what he said, before looking back at Saturn and lowering his voice, soft and fragile. “He was willing to banish our moons for attacking the rocky planets, who knows what he would have done to me for lying to him to help spare those same moons.” 

“And you only defended one moon. Titan? The moon you had been searching for earlier.” Jupiter doesn’t even know why he was including this; he made the main point. It was something about the moon, that out of pure pettiness and spite that Saturn was going after him, when his only goal had been him, Titan. “And you have over one hundred, yet he was the only one who came to mind. I did my best Saturn, and you had done the same, but only for one of your many moons.” 

Saturn looked at Jupiter with the same emotion he had seen in… oh. His moons. That’s what that had been about earlier. Stars, now he felt ashamed that he pulled out the Titan thing against Saturn. “I… You're right. I didn’t consider how you felt in the moment and… I didn’t act any better for me to accuse you.” He was doing it again… “It’s just- it isn't fair! I understand what they did to the rocky planets, but banishment? That’s simply too far!”  He crossed his hands over his chest, turning his head around to the side.

“And Titan!” Saturn turns his head back with a lot of force, but then abruptly stops mid-speech. His face dropped, saddened. “He also defended Earth… Protected him from asteroids and changed sides like Iola and um… Caleb.” Jupiter was genuinely disturbed by the pronunciations of Io and Callisto somehow being turned into… Iola and Caleb, despite Jupiter just saying them only a few minutes ago. But he said no comments on it as Saturn looked very close to breaking down.  “He redeemed himself as well, but Sun didn’t allow him to stay.” His voice was soft and breakable, as his gaze was torn away from Jupiter. Pretty clear who he missed more. “It feels weird already without…” All of them? Or just Titan?

“I’m sorry Saturn, it does feel weird that most of them are no longer here for me.” His voice was strong, yet wavering, his eyes being filled with all kinds of emotions. “I don’t want to imagine how terrible it must feel for you without any of them here.” Jupiter looks down, guilty? Yes, guilt for his friend who was left with nothing, while Sun had given him two moons that were allowed to stay by his side. “But we’ll get through it together. I promise, we’ll stay by each other’s side.” Jupiter looks up and gently pulls Saturn into an embrace.

Saturn’s body was stiff, however, it wasn’t long until he melted into Jupiter’s hug. He rested his head upon Jupiter’s shoulder, or as best as he could with his rings. “Thank you, Jupiter…” He sniffles, tightening his grip around Jupiter’s back.

A minute or so passes like this, before Saturn raises his head up and let's go of Jupiter, Jupiter doing the same. Saturn moves back and faintly smiles, holding his hands together right under his stomach. Though, in the silence, the longer he looked at Jupiter’s face, the more things that looked wrong. The empty expression. The smaller smile. His eyebrows were faintly knitted in concern(?) They were subtle but… “Jupiter, what’s wrong?”

He looked away from Saturn, his mouth scrunching up, as his teeth and inner surface. Saturn steadily moves his hand forward and brushes it on Jupiter's cheek. He instinctively leans into Saturn’s touch, peeking back up at him and letting go of his tensions.

“Saturn I… I know I shouldn’t but… I fear that…” Saturn began to rub his cheeks, and he continued to smile, tilting his head to the side to better match Jupiter. Jupiter looked into his soft, warming, and gentle eyes as they always have been for the past millions of years, and bit into his lower lip. “Saturn, now that they're banished, they’re all going where we set him...” Saturn's hand promptly stops caressing his cheeks and Jupiter could feel that Saturn’s body tightened. He continues, nevertheless. “I’m afraid that he’s going to hurt them Saturn, that Planet–”

“Don’t.” In a swift movement, Saturn brings his hand from Jupiter’s cheek, to bring it to his lips, using one of its fingers, rubbing up and on his lip to cut him off and silence him. “We talked about this Jupiter! It happened millions of years ago, and it would be rather pointless for him to linger around here in the dark, wouldn’t it?” Saturn lets out one soft, hearty laugh, and Jupiter eyes darts down then back at Saturn before nodding.

“Jupiter… we talked about this. He’s gone for good.” Saturn takes his finger off of his lips and now brings both hands to caress Jupiter’s cheeks. “And you need to let go of the past. It’s over, and I don’t wish for you to be hurt by Sun for uttering a name of someone who is long gone.” 

“I don’t want Sun to overhear us talking about… him … And when he questions us, for you to crack under pressure and tell Sun the truth. ” Saturn pauses, slowly removing his hands off of Jupiter's face and bringing them onto his chest and clutching his clothes. “You're my best friend Jupiter; I already lost my moons… I can’t lose you.”

Saturn… He had told Jupiter this many times in the past. And every single time afterwards, Jupiter could never bring himself to talk about it to anyone except Saturn when nerves got too high again. And now, the same thing was happening all over again. At this point, though, Jupiter came to realize something.

 He didn’t tell anyone because he believed Saturn, that this was all over, simply to be left in the past, he told no one because he was scared.

He was terrified of how the others would react to his heinous crimes. All the things he’s done, how would the rocky planets forgive him for destroying other Rockies that could have lived and flourished? Left their mark on this system, be something new and unseen. How will Sun react knowing that he had lied to him, time and time again? Destroyed the very planets he tried to protect, ejected another for trying to tell the truth.

He couldn’t take it, so when Saturn offered him a simple solution of: ‘leaving it in the past,’ over and over again, he took it over and over again. Why? Because Jupiter was a coward and still is. And no matter how much it haunted him; he couldn’t bring himself to face the very reminder of his biggest mistake.

Planet X

Jupiter brought himself to look in Saturn’s eyes and saw that similar desperate and pleading looking stare, and that sealed the deal, if his words had not done so already. “Yeah… Your right Saturn, as always.” He sighs, pressing his hands on his forehead. “I- I think, I just need a moment in my orbit to think.”

Saturn reaches out and opens his mouth, but closes it again, and hesitates. “Yeah, alright Jupiter.” Saturn really didn’t want to let him go, not now, not after Titan all his moon were gone. Not after they just had a talk about him. But he just had to trust Jupiter, while also actively keeping an eye on him. No one could know. “Just remember, I care for you.”

Saturn's voice was velvety and alluring as he sent out one last caring message. Saturn would always be a light, a beautiful golden one, and Jupiter would be like a moth, plain and ‘ugly,’ always attracted to the flame, and its ‘words’ of escape and freedom. Jupiter nodded, a smile appearing on his face before he turned on his heels.

As he walked, he attempted to force any thought of the conversation he had with Saturn at the end, when thinking of his moons. When he returned, they would be safe and sound in his orbit. His other moons would be safe and sound together out there. No need to worry. 

He closed his eyes as he continued to walk, taking deep breaths and focusing on nothing else but that. When he could feel himself re-approach his orbit, he took his largest inhale yet and began to speak after he let it out. “Sorry if I took a while, I hope you were doing alright without me, Io and Callisto.” He rubbed the back of his neck, then slowly opened his eyes, taking his hand off his neck, but froze at what awaited him.

…

Where were they…?

Chapter Text

Uranus felt utterly devastated.

In just the span of a few days, it felt like he had lost everything. As ignored, and lonely as Uranus may have felt at times, his moons, they gave him happiness between all the bad. When Neptune was off disappearing, when his smell got revealed that one time, when his name was actively said incorrectly, whenever his whole existence was a joke , they were always there for them. Subtle things that made him feel important, wanted.

Uranus was ashamed, oh so embarrassed that he didn’t see it at first. How quiet and hollow it felt after he had first said the joke. It took Neptune, Neptune of all planets to make him get over his dumb pride and search for them to apologize. And by that time, it was too late, and they had run away.

And like the fool Uranus was, he didn’t bother to go after them, again .

It was his shitty joke that made them join Titan, that Saturnian moon. It was his ignorance that made it, so he didn’t go after them and keep trying, as they’ve always done for him. And in the end, it was his fault, his failures, that they were banished, gone. And in a way, now he’s truly alone.

Arriving in his orbit had only made it worse, more real. They’re actually gone. So, Uranus did what he did best whenever feelings got the best of him. He pulled out his diary from behind his back, flipping through the pages to find a fresh and blank one to write down his current thoughts that were rushing through his head, a mile every second.

In the numbness of his core and mind, he stops on a random page of his notebook. He zoned back in onto the page and noticed it was written pretty long ago, just as painting became a thing and Uranus had been working on mastering it… that day that Uranus had redrew the painting of all his moons once more.

The previous had been imperfect as always, and Uranus knew his moons deserved better. They complimented it as always. Said how they loved, loved, loved, it. But Uranus could notice the mistakes, those like imperfections that ruined it all.

Titania had always noticed his behavior and gathered all his other major moons and the younger ones together. That day, they made a promise. To- ₳Ⱡ₩₳Ɏ₴ ฿Ɇ ₮ⱧɆⱤɆ ₣ØⱤ Ɇ₳₵Ⱨ Ø₮ⱧɆⱤ.

He slams the book shut, then rubs at his eyes aggressively for tears that hadn’t even fallen yet. He pressed his lip into a thin line, as he let the book go, allowing his gravity to take control. His breathing was heavy, but each one came out broken and separated.

He rested his hands on his face for a few seconds, before dropping it to the side, along with the other one. Uranus took a gasp of air, and while keeping his head up, he squeezed his eyes shut and began to control his breathing. 

He couldn’t break down like this. Not when he’s the one still in the Solar System. Not when his moons were suffering. Not when he caused this. Not when he didn’t deserve this.

Uranus slowly opened his eyes and took one last heavy breath while looking up before bringing his eyes back down to his diary. He just… stared at it for a little bit before hesitantly reaching his hands out to grab it once more.

Once it was within his grasp, he flipped through the pages trying his best to ignore any words he got a glimpse of till he stopped on the first blank page he found. He pulled out a pencil from his pocket, he always had that in there at all times, and pressed it hard against the paper. First things first was to write the date and the entry number.

Immediately after he did that, he pressed his pencil on the first line of the book, ready to write all about what had happened, but… his mind just pulled a blank. So much just happened, he didn’t know where to start. He pressed his pencil harder against the paper in frustration, when he finally sensed a presence, within his gravity. He had a good idea of who, but before he could turn around to see,

“Whacha doing, cousin?”

Uranus jumped back as he felt the air from the voice pass on his ear. The diary slipped out of his hand, just for a second, before he snatched it and gripped it on his chest using his forearms. He spun around to face the person who caught him off, and no surprise, it was Neptune. Bubbly, bright eyed Neptune, with a large smile on his face.

And for some ‘odd reason’ that Uranus just couldn’t place, it pissed him off.

Uranus relaxed his body, taking his diary off his chest and holding it down to his side. He fixed his posture, standing up straight. His eyes lids were hung down to the middle, as he crossed his hand with the pencil in it over his chest then sighing. “I was trying to write in my diary before someone snuck up on me.” Uranus’s voice could have been seen as normal, but there was a small amount of bitterness lacing the edges of his voice. Neptune just continued to smile, unmoving. How could act so normal, so happy, that his moons, Uranus’s moons, were gone. “If you couldn’t tell, it’s private, so move, mate.”

Neptune seemingly snaps back into reality, at least, just enough so that he takes a step back, though he doesn’t leave. The smile on his face was gone now, but a more curious look took over. Uranus turns around, figuring this was one of the best he could get, and when it came to Neptune, he would take it.

He lifted his diary back up and put his pencil on the exact spot in which it originally was, the black mark from earlier making a clear reminder of that. But, instead it’s just his pathetic and stupid mind being incapable of coming up with anything to write, to organize what happened today and honor each of his moons in the way they deserve, despite that changing nothing and making up for none of Uranus’s wrongdoings. 

NOW, we could add Neptune just staring at him to the list. Not talking, not moving, just watching. It was making him feel like the winds on his surface were somehow picking up more speed, creating this unsettling feeling for him. 

He huffed, bringing his head up for a few seconds. He looked back down at the blank lines in front of him, and grimaced. He released the book from his grasp, gently closing it, letting his finger run over the cover then proceeding to shove the pencil back into his pocket.

“How are you-” Uranus paused, pressing his teeth together, tensing his arms and pushing them on the sides of his body, and clenching his fists. He spun around on Neptune, whose eyes, as innocent as ever, were uneven on their face and looked as if they were melting but the smile reappeared on his face, and that somehow made it so much worse. “Why are you acting so happy- so normal about all of this, mate?” 

While a barely noticeable movement to Uranus, Neptune’s brows furrowed and there was hesitation on his face before he responded. “What are you talking about, neighborino?” He tilts his head.

What was he talking about…?

What was he talking about?

Uranus’s eye twitched. He took a step forward and pointed at Neptune’s chest. “The fact that your moons-!” He moves the finger that was pointing at Neptune to his chest, along with his other hand. “My moons are gone, banished! And-! And…” Uranus takes a gulp of the ‘air,’ as the volume of his voice became much quieter and he hesitated. He felt regretful that he lashed out on Neptune, like he did. He’d done nothing to deserve it, and Uranus needed to keep his anger to himself.  “…They’ll never come back.”

Neptunes stares at him again, with no response coming from him. But unlike before, it was almost… empty. Like Neptune wasn’t staring at Uranus, not even past him, but stuck in his head in a whole other world. Whoever knows what goes on his mind of his. So, nobody could tell the storm of denial rushing through his head once more.

Uranus peers at him, his eyes looking up and down for any kind of reaction, mouth downturned and, just the smallest amount open. “...Were you not paying attention in the trial?” Uranus used two fingers to rub the edges of his eyes before slowly dragging them up and off his head, before going up to elaborate. “Majority of the moons attacked three of the rocky planets for respect from us, killing off the earthlings in the process. The Sun banished them all out of the Solar System…. Including yours and… mine.”

Uranus looks away, using his right hand to grab the other arms’ forearm, and tightening up his body, but his attention was brought back up to the sound of… laughing? “Oh, silly cuz! My moons aren’t banished! They went with two of those Jupiter moons… who was it again…? I don’t remember.” Do you ever remember?  Neptune sticks out his bottom lip a bit, his head faced down as he tries to recall their names. But it never came. “The bright yellow one and emo dark purple one! They went to go have fun at a revolution!”

Uranus stares at him with a slack jaw and utter disbelief. “You knew about the revolution… and didn’t say anything, Neptune?! You realized that maybe, maybe…” My moons could still be here, if you had said something, remain unsaid. He shakes his head and takes a deep breath. There was no point in dwelling on the past, and what ifs. Just as Neptune didn’t say anything, most likely not understanding, he didn’t think before he said that joke, and there was no excuse for that. Despite that, it didn’t stop the venom, lacing the edges of his voice when he spoke again. “It’s too late now… Mate, it was that exact revolution that Sun was talking about in the trial. Your moons participated in it and now they're gone…”

Neptune spins over to Uranus like the pretty princess he was, side stepping so he was standing behind his back. “Don’t worry Ur-rin-nis, I'll go find Triton! He’ll definitely know where they are!” Neptune hit Uranus on his back, causing him to jerk forward and cough.

Uranus puts his fist up to his mouth, and glances up just in time to see Neptune skipping away. “I swear, sometimes, things go into one ear and then head straight out of the other.” He muttered under his breath as he watched the other icy planet.

A part of Uranus wants to call him out. To tell him to come back, that his search is just false hope. Make him stay with him, and just… talk.

But a bigger part of him knew that with Neptune, and how strange he was acting, even for him, there was no way to get it through his head. It overcame any sense of hope for Neptune to return or the deep-rooted want for Neptune to return in the first place. Neptune could go look for his moons and learn the hard way, learn whatever truth he didn’t trust Uranus enough to hear it from him, but had to see it, or in this case not see them, to realize it.

So, Uranus let him go. He let him leave and allowed the quiet to consume the area, and him, once more. He looked back to his diary that was just floating in open space. He grabbed it, pulling the pencil out of his pocket again. And so, he started off where he began. And this time?

He was truly alone.

—

Callisto watched as her planet left with a calculating eye. He had just told her and Io to stay here, and they both agreed to his terms but only one of them had answered truthfully when they nodded. 

She knows she probably should listen, considering their current circumstances, but it was her planet's fault for leaving them for Saturn anyways.  It would have been quite easy to just take them with him, wouldn’t it? Unless they were hiding something… and there were a few clues that pointed towards this. The odd silence, him just being zoned out, heavy breathing after being snapped out of it, and a few more details.

She wasn’t any detective, and definitely wasn’t trying to be, that was more so Europa’s job, to look for information and press information out of others, but something was making her planet paranoid, and she couldn’t be sure if she could just chalk it up to the loss of all his moons.

But Callisto couldn’t focus on that right now, there was a more pressing matter to worry about. When everyone else was getting banished, Triton was nowhere to be found. They sent Triton on a mission to go look for the ice or gas giants to stop the revolution, and he never came back. As much as he tried to put up this cool kid, ‘me, myself, and I’ kind of person, it was easy to tell that wasn’t true. 

He showed that despite wanting to ‘get rid’ of Neptune’s younger moons, he cared for them and wanted to keep them safe. So without a shadow of a doubt, Callisto knows that he had tried to search for them and help them. But now, the question lied, where was he now?

Surely not banished, and she could just assume with Neptune or somewhere wandering free in the Kuiper Belt, yet something in her told her she should still look regardless. So once Jupiter and Saturn were far enough, she turned towards Io. “We should go and find Triton.”

Io, who originally was watching Jupiter leave, turned to Callisto. His forearms were raised up, hands hovering right in front of his chest, taken aback by what she just said. “B-b-but Jupiter told us to stay here!” Io coughs a few times, bringing his hand to his mouth. “A-and isn’t Triton… banished?” There was some hesitation surrounding ‘banished,’ and to be honest it was a sore subject for them both. So close to joining everyone else but getting spared at the last second. And with everyone gone, except them two, the rocky planets moons, and supposedly Triton, it was just… odd.

“We sent him to go find the giants, remember? And he wasn’t there when the Sun summoned us all.” Callisto pointed to Sun while still maintaining eye contact with Io, the other hand rested on her hip. “Plus, he’s a captured dwarf planet. The Sun might not even consider him a moon.” 

Io glanced towards Jupiter in the distance, clearly still talking with Saturn, though Saturn was obviously doing most of the talking. “S-still, we shouldn’t disobey Jupiter’s orders…” He spins around and looks back at Callisto, but glanced back once, while he was speaking. “W-we told him we wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“Alright then, I’ll go alone.” Callisto shrugged, closing her eyes while doing so, then she turned around and started to travel towards the Kuiper belt. “You can stay here alone and wait for Jupiter to come back.” She was moving slowly as she looked over her shoulder and said that, her expression; unconcerned.

Io’s eyes darted in-between Callisto, who was currently getting farther away from him by the second, and Jupiter, who was still with Saturn. He bit his lower lip and contemplated his choices, but ultimately decided he couldn’t leave Callisto alone, nor wanted to be alone himself, and dashed towards her.

Callisto watched as it happened, everything going according to how she expected it too. Her expression remained nonchalant, but she couldn’t help it as the corners of her mouth turned up, just a tiny amount. 

Io trails behind Callisto, before asking, “S-shouldn’t we have left a note?”

“Probably.” Callisto looked forward, that uncaring tone in her voice as she spoke and continued moving forward. “It’s too late for that now, and where would we even get the paper? Big guy will be fine, we won’t be too long…”

—

Spoiler alert: They were gone for long.

“C-Callisto, we’ve been gone for a bit.” Io nervously looks around the Kuiper Belt, Callisto glances back towards him, slowing her pace down. “S-shouldn’t we return by now…?” Io points his thumb at Sun, but doesn’t stop moving nor attempt to travel back.

Io was indeed right, about one part to the least. They have been gone for longer than Callisto intended them to be, and as much as Saturn and Jupiter, are, well, Saturn and Jupiter, she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that they were still talking by now. Which meant Jupiter, has most likely noticed their disappearance for a bit now.

They arrived in the Kuiper Belt in no time, however in their searches, they failed to find Triton or Neptune. She understood Io’s reasoning on wanting to return to their planet, especially as everyone else was gone and as said earlier, Jupiter was acting more paranoid about things and them, more so than usual.

However, they were so close now. And something in Callisto didn’t want to leave him alone, without the younger of Neptune’s moons he ‘despised’ so much and Neptune, who he actually seemed to show some level of dislike for. She and Io had each other, who did he have, really, being so free willed?

“We’re the only moons left, Io.” Io’s face dropped at the obvious fact. Callisto raised her head up higher, looking at the area around her, though the tone of her voice softened when she saw a glimpse of Io’s reaction.  “We can’t change the Sun’s judgement. But we should try to talk to whoever of us there is left.” 

Without another word she brings her attention back ahead and to her surroundings, continuing pushing through the belt. And just mere seconds later, she spotted Triton in an asteroid clearing and stopped hot on her heels. She subconsciously stuck out his hand, stopping Io who, in his worry, wasn't paying attention and ran into it.

From what she could see, Triton was just sitting there, his legs laid straight out, and his arms pushed out, ‘holding him up.’ His shades were off, being held out his hand, gripped tightly. His face… it looked so mysterious… Yet, there was sorrow hidden underneath, as he stared off to the Sun.

It was odd for Callisto to see him like this. So quiet, so still. Compared to when they first met, he was fast and quick, free, didn’t particularly know what he was going to do with life, but was willing to roll with it on his own. And here he was, freer than ever, and yet… he remained in one place.

Io however ruined the moment his loud coughs echoing through the area, interrupting Callisto thoughts and having Triton turn towards their direction, standing with his legs spread and bent and putting his shades on, visibly on edge. Callisto slightly shakes her head, rolling her eyes over to Io’s side. She starts to recompose herself, standing up straight and walking through the asteroids, Io walking behind her.

As Triton saw the mysterious figure(s) who had been watching him exit from the shadows, he relaxed his shoulders and stood up straight. He lowers his shades, just so you could see his eyes, with one finger and looks between the two. “What are you two doing here? Shouldn’t you be… gone? With all the others?”

Callisto clicks her tongue. So, he does know… or knows most of it.   “Me and Io weren’t banished. The Sun spared us because we changed sides and defended Earth.” She places one of her hands on her hip and cocks her head to the side. “And I'll assume you know that everyone else was banished, huh?”

Triton was about to respond, before Io unexpectedly hops in front of Callisto, stopping Triton's words before they could even come out. “H-h-how do you know that!” Io takes a step back, putting one hand on his chest and the other, pointing towards Triton’s face. “Y-you weren’t there, right?”

“Hm.” Triton knocks Io’s hand out of his face with an unimpressed look on his face, before knocking his shades back up to cover his eyes. “Well, it's pretty hard to miss the Sun yelling, ‘get out of my solar system,’ even from far away. Combined with the fact I saw a large group of moons passing through here, it made the situation pretty obvious.”

Callisto looks away for a moment, her focus elsewhere and she thinks of something. “Have you met with Neptune yet?” She gently pushes Io to the side and steps forward, her eyes meeting Triton’s shades. “He seems like the person to be overjoyed to see at least one of his moons weren’t banished.”

Triton chuckles, but they were hollow and cold from what Callisto could tell. “Yeah, he’ll be overjoyed to see one of his ‘moons,’ who was supposed to be watching his other moons, but only got them banished instead.” He crossed his hands over his chest. The action itself seemed to be one of annoyance, but the way he seemed to tighten his body, make himself smaller, there was definitely regret and guilt too. “Real fucking happy.”

Callisto silently stares at him and in Triton's eyes, and all he saw was nothing but pity coming from her. But the truth was she was regretful for bringing him into this situation in the first place, she should have just backed off upon seeing all of the other of Neptune’s moons. But as Triton said, she was nothing but a follower and went along with it regardless.

“B-b-but, it’s Neptune! H-he’s so kind.” Io put the tips of both of his hands to his mouth, and Callisto shot him a look for not being able to read the vibes. Triton looked at him exasperated before rolling his eyes and quickly mumbling breath.

“I’m not his moon. I'm a dwarf planet who he captured and forced to be one.” There was clear disdain in his voice, mixed in with a touch of sorrow. “If he finds out I lost his actual moons, he would–” He cuts himself off, looking at the two with widened eyes before jerking his head to the right. “... he would…” Never let me leave. I’d always be his moon. I’d be trapped, forever. 

Triton, refusing to look at either of Jupiter’s moons, plopped onto the ground, looking back into the bright star as he originally had. Callisto watches it and the scene tugs on her core in a painful way and she doesn't even know why she felt like this, or why she came here in the first place. Feelings aren’t her thing. But it’s all for that same reason. That same odd pull to him.

She takes slow and calculated steps towards him, till she was standing right behind Triton. She waits for a few seconds and stares into the distance with him. “You can’t hide forever. He's bound to find you.” Callisto places a hand on his shoulder as she continues to stare into the Sun and Triton's showed no physical reaction to it. “I thought you were a free thinker. Yet, you're allowing yourself to be held back by an assumption, letting yourself be chained by someone you think is mightier than you. Do you really know, or do you think he’ll do whatever you're imagining?”

Triton remains quiet, taking in her words. He had little to no reactions, on the outside to the least, but his mind was swirling around with his own beliefs and thoughts, and maybe… There could be a chance that he… he was wr–

“Hello Triton and you two mysterious moons!” Neptune’s voice flowed like smooth and rich chocolate, creating this almost singing affect when he spoke, and his words filled the area. This surprise causes Triton to flinch, his shades becoming crooked, as he could feel Callisto suddenly rip her hand off his shoulder, and Io jumps back towards them. “Are you three having fun with your revolution? How was it?” Neptune smiled, his eyes, which were looking down at all three of them, sparkling showcasing his delight.

Triton stands up straight, fixing his sunshades on his eyes. “Neptune, your moons…They were…” He glanced between Callisto and Neptune trying to decide on his next move, his next words. He bit his lip before stepping forward with one foot, swinging the shoulder on that same side forward as well. “Banished at the trial by Sun, along with the rest of them, because of the revolution, Neptune. They're gone.”

Those final words seem to echo in the area and Neptune’s smile dropped. A flurry of emotions through those eyes. Just for a moment. Callisto and Io barely even noticed, but Triton did. “Well, I hope you guys keep enjoying your time together!” The smile was back on, even wider than before, and his eyes were gleaming, somehow even brighter than before. “Have fun!”

And with that, Neptune winked before disappearing back into the shadows after that short interaction. Triton watches as he goes, till his figure was completely consumed by the distance, shadows, and asteroids. A sense of relief washed over Triton, as he let out a breath, he didn’t realize he was holding, watching Neptune leave. But… the way Neptune reacted… Triton had a feeling he was right and this wasn’t over.

“T-that was weird…” 

He looked over to Io and Callisto, he didn’t want them to be involved in this mess. To become just like him. Stuck. “Is there really any difference between that and Neptune?” He defaulted his position back into normal standing and placed two hands on his hip as he glanced to where Neptune left. “You two should go. Figuring with your free spirit, you didn’t tell your planet you're here.” Triton smirks and lowers his shades, a mischievous look in his eyes as neither answer. 

Io sinks in on himself, Callisto, however, shows no sign of shame for being ‘exposed.’ She considers if they should actually leave or not. Neptune’s reaction had kind of unsettled her as well, and it made her want to argue to stay a little longer. But Triton did have a point. Jupiter was probably losing his mind at this point, and pushing for more time wasn’t a good idea. Besides, whatever was going on here, only Triton appeared to know, and they clearly weren’t getting anything out of him, so they couldn't do much to help.

“Come on Io.” And with that, she made her decisions, turning her body and taking a few steps forward. “See you later, Triton.” She turned her head and winked at him, and a smile creeped up on Triton’s face as he flicked his shades back up. Callisto allowed herself to do the same before turning her head back around and continuing their venture back.

Triton dropped back to the ground, and took off his shades, resting the hand that was holding them to the side. The other hand was brought to his chest, or more so his core, his worries creeping back up on his but for now, he was going to let himself enjoy the moment, taste the freedom while it lasted.

—

As the two reproach their planet, Callisto could see his pacing back and forth and muttering under his breath. She could make out a few words, like ‘him’ and ‘taken’ but nothing else of importance other than that. Just as they got closer to his orbit, she tried to listen in on more of his speech, but he stopped in his place, and stopped talking under his breath too, and looked up, right in their direction, but he… looked nervous and utterly terrified.

And that when she realized he wasn’t looking in their direction, he was looking past it. Far, far past it.

Io pushed ahead of her, and it was then that Jupiter seemed to notice them, as he froze up and his eyes widened. Jupiter traveled towards his two moons and covered the rest of the distance that separated them, before yanking them with his gravity and pulling them up in front of his eyes. He looked them up, down, left, right, everywhere, his eyes darting around as if examining them for any damage.

After a few seconds he lets them go, before recollecting himself and then proceeding to go and question and scold them, Io exposed where they had left off too, but Callisto wasn’t paying attention cause, one, she didn’t care, and two, she really did not care, and three, she couldn’t help but wonder who was this mysterious ‘him’ that Jupiter thought ‘taken’ them, what was out there that he was so scared of, was it connected to any of his earlier paranoia?

She looked over to the Kuiper Belt, where the moons had passed before their leaving. And most importantly, Were the other moons in trouble?

Chapter Text

Neptune can feel himself being taken, a tug in his core demanding he go.

Or was he taking himself? One moment watching those three silly moons enjoying their time together, the next he was saying goodbye and disappearing through the shadows. Why did he disappear? He could have stayed longer, nothing was stopping him, they looked like they were talking! He loved having fun and talking! But then again, why did he go in the first place? Something about his cousin and moons, he went to go look for Triton and Triton had said something, but what…?

So many questions that he was unable to answer.

Neptune forgot again. 

In such a short time, the memory was gone. Like sand, it slipped through his fingers to the ground where even more lay. He’d never be able to pick out the individual one he held in his hands, lost to the moment. What even was sand? Something relating to Earth, but what even was that?

He always forgets.

Buried deep where nobody, not even himself could find them. The ones he loved, cared for, he forgot he even had moons for longer than he wished to admit. 

And this time around, something told him it might have been better off that way. 

.

.

.

He looked up and saw his surroundings, asteroids left and right of him and absolutely no one in his line of sight. This must have meant he was still in the Kuiper belt, since there were far too many to be in anyone else's orbit. Unless he somehow got to the asteroid belt in such a short time but, ah… he’s the farthest from the Sun making him the slowest planet, part of the reason why his orbit is soooooo long in the first place. 

But could he have subconsciously gone there…? Sure, he has been called odd, well maybe not exactly that but Uranus has implied it, a few times before. What had he said again… ah-ha! When he first returned and talked to Uranus, he said, “Why are you so…” and then refused to finish. Neptune will never know what he was going to say, but he wouldn’t be surprised if his cousin was planning to call him weird but stopped to spare his feelings.

(Uranus had always been pretty blunt, never afraid to say the truth, that's what Neptune loved in his cousin, but he knew his limits. Neptune never fully understood why he had made that ‘joke’ about his moons that day, it was clear earlier and now that he cared for them. Surely, he could have seen that as passing a boundary, but then again, there was always something about Saturn that attracted and repelled him hadn’t there? He also had been calling him out that day, hadn't he…?)

 It doesn’t bother him, he knows it’s true, there are many ‘weird’ and special things about him, and Neptune found no need to ponder all of it. Let things be the way they are, allowing himself to flow with most of it. It allowed him to be here, there, left, right, up, down, and round-a, round! Going wherever he wanted, whenever he desired! So freeing unlike before! 

Before he was told he didn't have to stay in his orbit. Before he got separated from his moons. Before, when the only friend he had left was– 

Oh.

He got distracted.

Anyhow, Neptune knew he was ‘different’ from the other planets, from the way he acted, to what he could do. But he doubted it could even that part of him could just, bring him to the asteroid belt, at least not without him realizing some way during the venture. He wasn’t that inattentive. And all this considered, as he glanced up, the Sun looked as far as ever.

Neptune turned his head back straight, as he still continued to move through the Kuiper Belt. As he looked around, the many asteroids moving past him, a feeling bloomed in his core, a sense of familiarity. It was like his body was taking him somewhere that his mind and core couldn't be so sure of, yet he still recognized somewhere deep, DEEP, DEEP, down.

Well, he had no choice but to wait and find out. Maybe it would be those two dwarf planets, Pluto and Sharon! Albeit, he had forgotten about them for a while, so it was possible he was subconsciously dragging himself to the last place he saw them. He did tend to find people at the randomest of times. And he definitely wouldn’t mind seeing their EPIC, orbit slingshot! Hopefully not to escape his gravity this time around...

Amidst his thinking, a small glimpse of an asteroid catches his eye. Nothing too out of the ordinary, another misshapen asteroid in this cartoon world that they're living in, but he could have sworn that it had blue on it… Was he back there…?

(Long ago, there was a point in time where Neptune painted faces on asteroids. And then he moved on and forgot. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he drove the memories out so he could think he had finally stumbled upon more living beings. Sure, they refused to talk to him most of the time, and while there had been voices here and there, he could never directly pinpoint them. Plus, he had to keep moving because of his orbit. There was only one who stuck by his side, though he never spoke, Neptune appreciated the company and loved talking to him.)

He spun his whole body around to get a better look at it, but just as he finished his turn, body decided it was going to come to a stop. The abrupt halt caught him off guard, resulting in his body jerking backwards. On instinct, he began swinging his arms in an attempt to regain his balance, but doing that just turned out to make it worse, sending him tumbling backwards, round and round in a circle.

It was a bit of fun for him at first, till he started to get dizzy from all the movement and such. He managed to get a handle on his gravity, slowing down his body till, subsequently, he was ‘laying’ on his back.

He closed his eyes with a wide smile, arms sprawled out, as he laughed about what had just happened to him. He opened them again and, while still lying flat, twisted his arms to the right, then threw them in the opposite direction, spinning himself around one-eighty degrees, so now he was plopped out of his chest.

He looked down at the mostly empty space under him, besides for a couple asteroids, for a bit, then chose to raise his head so he could finally stand up to see why he had come here. Someone to meet? Or just to exist, as he and everyone else does, floating around in the Solar System, tiny specks of dust, in comparison to the endless vastness of the universe? 

He couldn’t mind doing either of those things, but you could imagine the surprise and excitement bubbling up in him when, in front of him there was his smiley, light blue-eyed pal, 

“Guillermo!”

Neptune popped back up to his feet, Guillermo rising up with him. As he stared at his long ‘lost’ friend, his eyes almost looked as if they were lighting up with stars in them, a wide, beaming smile to go par with it. He stood like this for a hot minute, Guillermo’s light yet empty eyes staring right back at him. And then, 

Guillermo blinked. It was slow at first, one eye at a time, as if he was adjusting to the space around him, before it became normal. “Hello, Neptune.” While the smile remained wide of his face, his voice was calm and flowed like silk; smooth. While clearly different, there was something about it that almost reminded Neptune of Uranus… and Triton… “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“You're alive?” The last time he had seen him; Guillermo hadn't talked to him. He thought he heard his voice at one point, but it turned out to be Uranus instead. For a moment, he wondered if it was that situation all over again, someone else in the shadows who he knew, calling him out, when Guillermo nodded. This made Neptune far more ecstatic, spinning around him and taking in every detail as if he’s never seen him before. “I’ve never heard you talk before… You sound almost exactly as I thought you would!”

“Of course I am, there’s a reason I followed you around. I just don’t like talking all that much.” Guillermo shrugs, rolling his eyes back. “I’ve been chilling with the rest of the asteroids around here, but Neptune, you've been gone for a long time.” Where had he heard that before? “I almost thought you forgot about me.” Guillermo pushed one of his hands against his chest, in a dramatic fashion, but it still held its punches, as Neptune froze in front of him.  “But I know you would never since I was the one who accompanied you on one hundred sixty-five-year long orbit. To forget about someone like that, someone you held dear, and they did the same in return? That would be too cruel.” Even for you.

For just a second, a lump seems to form in Neptune's throat. He’s never forgotten about him, just never… looked that much for him. He didn’t… forget. Neptune forced it down, as the corner of his lips were slightly upturned, and he playfully pressed a finger on the side of his cheek. “Well, you know me, Guillermo, I'm a bit forgetful… But I would never forget you!” Like you forgot about your own moons? How it took you forever to even remember they existed and a bit longer before you even searched for them? All the other people who cared about you and you supposedly cared about them too… You just forgot about them… Are they all just another lost memory? One you can’t even be bothered to bring back up?  Do they all really mean that little to you? 

An uncomfortable, and overall eerie, silence filled the air, Guillermo didn’t react to what he said, not even a blink as he just stared at Neptune. Neptune wondered if he just wanted him to continue talking, this wouldn’t be the first time Guillermo has chosen to stay silent, to listen, instead of speaking himself, apparently. “Hm… Oh-!” Neptune rested his cheek on the palm of his hand as he thought, his eyes elsewhere, squinting at nothing in particular. His eyes and head shot back up, as something came to him. “I found my moons! I’m sure they would love to meet you, Guillermo!” He spun around on heels ready to drag Guillermo off with him.

“They're gone, remember? ”

…

Neptune stopped right in his tracks.

He could feel his breaths quicken.

“What?”

“They're gone. Banished. Forced to leave this Solar System. Never to be seen again.” Just as Neptune turns around, Gulliermo moves. It was quick, yet calculated, each mile forward bringing Neptune closer to those bright eyes and wide smile. Now those very features felt sickening. “C’mon, Neptune, I know you heard it during the trial. And then Uranus told you. Then your only moon remaining, Triton, told you the exact same.”

(“All moons will be banished from my Solar System!” In that moment, as those words passed the Sun’s lips for everyone to hear, he was terrified. But- these were only the moons in this revolution, right? Triton would never have done something as far as this, and surely not with the little ones either. They didn’t hate them, did they? He doesn’t think he had done anything to make them rebel but what if– Yeah, his moons are safe and sound, in the Solar System, having fun. No need to worry. He couldn’t help his eyes darting through the crowd one last time. And with that final thought he let go and allowed the sweet bliss of nothingness to take him once more. Only once he saw his cousin leaving to move back to his orbit did he come back to reality.)

(Uranus was more agitated than usual, or maybe that could have been just to Neptune. Immediately after they went to his orbit, he buried his face in his notebook, where he kept every little piece of information about him and his life. At some point, Neptune wondered if he should get one, to write his thoughts and come back to them when he forgot. Ultimately, he decided, it just wasn’t the type of thing for him, and he’d probably misplace it after a week or so. Neptune asked, admittedly, a dumb question. Uranus shared his suffering about his moons and the trial. Neptune had plans to comfort him, but then he implied HIS moons were banished as well. Fear rose in him once more, a familiar feeling, but he pushed it down and smiled, Triton was with his moons in the Solar System. He would prove it to his cousin.)

(Don’t take Neptune the wrong way, he felt bad that the other moons were banished, especially for his cousin. What Sun did was wrong, but Neptune has enough basic comprehension to understand, Sun is Sun. A leader. A ruler. There was no arguing with a star, plain and simple as that, especially based on how Uranus explained it. The planets attacked and many were hurt. This, in his own way, was just Sun’s version of caring. Fear can compel people to do many things, good, bad, dangerous, crazy. And in Sun’s fear, he made a choice. A choice he thought would be caring and keeping them all safe. Neptune could see that much. But there was absolutely nothing he could do, since his moons weren’t in it, but to cheer up his cousin, and try to be helpful, cheerful. Stick around a bit more.  But first, he had to find Triton. And it didn’t take long to find him with those two other ones from before. Where were the rest of them, surly–? They looked happy. And so, he asked.)

(He’s being dragged away.)

(Everything was blank.)

And now he was back here. With Guillermo. And the memories, the thoughts were hitting him like a train wreck.

It was coming back to him. The trial. Sun had said it then. His cousin had told it to him later on. Triton himself even told him, and he refused to listen. He kept forgetting. How could he forget? Those were his moons. His moons. He loved them with every ounce of his core. Not in a situation as dire as this he couldn’t remember. Why couldn't he remember- Why...

They're banished. Neptune didn't even defend them, not a single word because he was so sure that he was right.

In this very second of ‘weakness,’ Neptune found he couldn’t force it down. He couldn’t just smile and be ignorant. He couldn't just pretend because it wasn't just him who was affected. They're gone. He had barely even gotten the chance to hang out with them before this. He'll never see them again. The truth, that he pushed so far away, was slapping him in his face, and stars - he couldn’t take it.

Three people told him. THREE. And each one, Neptune just ignored it. So far in his river of denial, he refused to look the reality in the eye. He thought they would be safe. Was it Triton's own fault for not watching them close enough, allowing this in the first place, even though he had to watch them in Neptune's stead for far too long? Or was it him. He was the only one solely to blame, Triton finally getting tired of doing what was supposed to be his job. Neptune let them go without an ounce of hesitation. ‘You knew about the revolution…’ That’s what Uranus said. He knew. Yet, did nothing. This outcome was his fault. 

But…

He couldn’t lose them.

(Proteus. Nereid. Larissa. Naiad. Thalassa. Despina. Galatea. Halimede. Sao. Psamathe. Laomedeia. Neso. Hippocamp. S/2021 N-1. S/2002 N-5. Triton was still here but… )

Not when he just got them back.

(“Wanna orbit me again? We had so much FUN, back then!” Neptune had found them. He was so happy to find them again. “Yeah!” A chorus of them from the little ones. “No Neptune…” Triton.)

He couldn’t be alone again…

He couldn’t be alone again.

He couldn’t be alone again.

HE COULDN’T BE ALONE AGAIN.

HE COULDN’T BE ALO–

Neptune hadn’t even realized that he was on his knees now, eyes squeezed shut, his hands trying to claw into a surface that couldn’t be touched. With tears that could barely make it out his eyes, he felt a sharp and rough brush through his surface, and as it rose, Neptune's head did the same to meet eyes with Guillermo's.

“Neptune… You're not alone. You have me. And Uranus. And Triton…” Guillermo’s voice somehow got even softer, coaxing him into calming down, but still as he stood to his feet and Guillermo floated up to stay looking in his eyes, he still felt tense, waiting to see if he would speak again. “But who knows how long that’s going to last.” Guillermo brought his head closer to his face as he whispered the words, cold, and emotionless. He slowly backed away then clocked his head to the side, the smile, now looking more like a grin. “We both know I can’t be here for you twenty-four seven. Uranus? He was openly vulnerable to you, and yet you prioritize your issues over his, despite him being telling you the truth you wanted to deny so hard. And Triton? Don’t make me laugh! He looked sooooo much happier with those moons, that he barely knows, over you. Won’t be too long till he runs off, and you won’t see him again, just like all your other moons.”

Guillermo tears his hand away from his cheek, all of a sudden, Neptune felt cold. Freezing. “You're questioning who you should blame for all of this?” Guillermo raises his head up higher and looks Neptune dead in the eye, some level of disgust, and anger going through those emotionless eyes. He slowly raises up one of his hands, pressing his pointer finger on his chest. “It’s you. All you Neptune. Everything leading up to this very second could have been changed; prevented if it weren’t for how you acted.” Had you remembered.

"Your so selfish that your worried about being alone. While your moons are out there, unfamiliar faces all around them, who probably wouldn't care about the 'weird planets' moons. That is the fate you left them to. That is the fate you can't change." Neptune knew he was right. The chances to fix things were far past him. His moons are far past saving because of him. No tears, no regret, nothing could bring them back, except a stroke of luck. But it seems even he was running out of that nowadays.

That still didn’t change the fact that all of this stings. Makes him feel colder than ever.

"You can't change the facts Neptune. You can mourn. You can be sad. But you'll forever know this is what you caused. And at this point, you must preserve what you have left. And luckily for you, mate, I have just the solution for you!” Hearing Guillermo calling him mate felt so weird. Only one person had done it before, his cousin. And now here it was, someone else calling him the exact same thing. Despite that, and the sudden mood and tone change, Neptune was all ears. He was desperate at this point. “Well, at least to your Triton situation. For Uranus, I just suggest you avoid him till he’s cooled off enough to even deal with your presence. But, for Triton, you could just… keep him there, make sure you, both of you are never lonely again. I suspect those two moons can’t be there with him at all times, he would get lonely at some point.”

Neptune looks at him almost considering the idea, just… keep Triton with him, it would be that simple. Neptune would always be able to watch over him and protect him, preventing a situation like this again… They–they could both be happy, together. But… “No.” Neptune shakes his head, wiping the tears that remained in his eyes, and looking Guillermo in the eye. “If Triton doesn’t want to stay with me, I won’t force him. That isn’t right Guillermo!” Though with Uranus… he did seem pretty ticked off by his presence. It probably was best to heed that part of Guillermo’s advice and leave him alone, just for a little bit. Then he could comfort his cousin.

Guillermo looks at him, his expression, serious before he just bursts out laughing. “I’m sorry, forgive me mate…” His chuckling comes to a slow, as he wipes away a fake tear. Then he proceeds to boop Neptune's forehead as if he was the fool. He is at this point. “I never meant to force him to stay, but instead simply… keep a closer eye on him.” There was an odd energy that filled that air as Guillermo paused mid-sentence, then the next words he said came out slower, in a completely different tone. “Know where he is at almost all times. Pop in on him and see how he's doing. Talk. He will warm up to you that way.”

“Huh.” Neptune’s voice was now higher and more upbeat, as if the things that were said to him before had hardly affected him at all. As if he didn’t just break down on his knees. He couldn’t have been over it all already, but Neptune was used to putting his feelings, true feelings down. He wouldn’t do it too often, just tiny conversations here and there. He could protect him, while they also bonded together. He and Triton could actually have fun together! Triton would like him! Triton would… like him…

But his other moons will still be gone.

‘Preserve what he has left?’ That's what Guillermo said. It’s painful, as the thought that Triton is a part of the few things he has left. The only moon he has left. And he couldn’t lose him either. He couldn’t allow himself to make the same mistake again. He’s so sorry for what he has done, what he can’t undo. They will always be a part of him that was stripped away, even if he failed to show it.

He glanced over to the vast space that lied after. He mumbled out a quick, 'forgive me.' It was time to preserve. To bring at least one of his moons happiness. It was a crazy idea, wasn’t it? Luckily, that's what he was all about!

“Yes…” And so, it was a go, Neptune had a solution to the issue he hadn’t even realized had been haunting him. Logically this ‘new idea’ should work. Triton was his final moon. He couldn’t fail him, all of them again. He bit his tongue, at the thought, however the smile on his face was only getting wider. “Yes, thank you so much Guillermo!” Neptune, using his gravity, raises him higher up, and spins him around.

Soon after the spinning began, Neptune had to bring it to a stop, as Guillermo loudly cleared his throat, bringing all Neptune’s attention back to him. “Of course.” Guillermo starts to take steps back, slinking back into the shadows, where he could blend in with the many other asteroids that were there. “After all,… what are friends for?”

And with that, he fully disappeared within the darkness of the Kuiper belt, though Neptune couldn’t help but thank him one last time, shouting, “Imma going to go find Triton! Thanks again Guillermo! See ya!” He waves before spinning around, ready to make his move again.

(Guillermo never responds, considering that there was no one to talk to in the first place. Guillermo may be as real as you and me, but that doesn’t mean he gets the same blessing consciousness as we. He remained the unmoving, inanimate object that he had always been since the start of the conversation. And Neptune continued to float through space, a new goal in mind, to find a moon and rebuild connections.)

(Call Neptune crazy for what he had just done. Downright insane for talking being convinced by a ‘conversation,’ he had with an asteroid. But fear is a great motivator.)

(Let’s see if it helps to lead Neptune down the right path, or bury him farther in his struggles…)