"You need to disengage the officers on the moon if you want the slightest chance at a secure landing," Remulus mutters from the pantry. He is unable to join us with his hand still chained to our dinner table's leg.

"Disengage?" I ask out loud and Joon stares at me knowingly. "You mean take them out?"

My eyes are wide with worry and disbelief when Joon starts setting up our ship's laser thrusters.

"Bring him here. He might be able to help."

I nod my head solemnly, feeling a growing discomfort in the pit of my stomach which is surprisingly not from the food this time.

Following Joon's instructions, I unlock Remulus from the table and bring him to the control room, my gun aimed at his chest the entire time. We are so close, now is not the time to be reckless.

"We're approaching the Moon," Joon announces, his voice laced with tension as he grabs hold of the trajectory handles, the ones used to aim our ship's guns.

I watch in intrepid silence as we glide over the wide expanse of dullish white rock. There are craters everywhere but not a soul in sight.

I hold my breath when I see it. A small make shift site with small boxes that are big enough to be houses with large telescopes perched on each wall. The Plutonian monitoring base on the moon, the one that monitors our entire planet for the Plutonians.

"That's weird," Remulus murmurs more to himself than anything.

"What do you mean weird? Why are they so silent? Wouldn't they have detected us by now?" I ask in a flurry of words as a surge of panic floods through my veins.

"Precisely. They were supposed to ask us to identify ourselves once we entered their radar. Can you zoom in?" He asks.

I rush to the control board and key in the magnification necessary to be able to see the base clearly. The image on our screen magnifies and we are shown multiple blocks of tall towering dark metal. All enclosed, no lights or any obvious activity whatsoever.

"Is it supposed to look like this?" I ask Remulus and he shakes his head in confusion.

"It looks deserted," He finally concludes after a long pause.

Both Joon and I lean forward, as if looking at the screen closely would tell us all the answers and end our confusion.

"I've never been to Earth's moon on a mission but I've been on enough missions to know that a deserted base is far from normal. Something isn't right," He turns to Remulus, expecting him to reply but the half breed appears just as flabbergasted.

"The only reason officers would leave their base is if they were instructed to," Remulus says finally.

"By central command? On Pluto?" I straighten up and turn to him. A look of pure incredulity is plastered all over his face, mirroring my own.

What was happening on Pluto? Why did the base here desert their monitoring posts?

So many questions and no answers to be found anywhere. Just then we see a red dot flash across the screen. It only flashes for a second, I almost miss it but then we all feel it.

Our entire ship throttles to the side, knocking us off our feet. I fall on my butt, my tailbone taking the brunt of it but I ignore the searing pain and bolt to my feet immediately.

"Looks like it isn't completely deserted," Remulus grumbles as he gets back up as well. He squints at the screen, his clear blue eyes as sharp as lasers. "Aim at that post and fire."

I grab the handles to the gun thrusters and aim at the spot he is pointing at. I fire a few rounds and we watch brilliant shards of yellow light beam out of our ship. They land on that post and it blows up in front of our faces, illuminating our screen.

"Shit, the side of our ship took a hit. This thing wasn't built for battle," Joon says. He taps numerous buttons on the ship's mainframe, his fingers moving as fast as lightning.

Joon tries to keep the ship afloat while Remulus and I keep our gazes fixed on the moon base. After a few seconds I draw in a deep breath, thankful for the absence of anymore glowing red dots.

"They must have left one officer on standby," Remulus says as he stands behind me. "One officer is all it takes to relay a message to Central Command."

My shoulders tense immediately after his words.

"We have to land now," I say impatiently.

"We are," Joon counters and the three of us fall silent when we come across Earth's atmosphere.

For some reason my throat feels tight like something has lodged in it and my chest is heavy when I take it the vast expanse of my home planet. Patches of blue and green and brown flood my vision, making it teary.

"We'd better strap in," Joon says. He sits down in the pilot seat closest to the computer mainframe and I push Remulus into the seat next to mine.

"How am I supposed to be strapped in with my hands tied?" He stares up at me with big doe eyes and I seriously contemplate his words.

"It's been done before," I finally say making him scowl. I wrap the straps around him tightly, making sure they are secure before proceeding to do the same for myself.

"We're approaching the exosphere. There are six layers altogether and our ships cushioning effect was damaged by the shot," Joon announces just as the ship starts to tremble.

"It's going to be a bumpy ride. We get it," Remulus says. He closes his eyes and settles in but I can't stop looking as we plunder through Earth's atmosphere.

It isn't single layered and smooth like the fake one on Pluto.

No, this one is raw, tumultuous and fierce, it rattles me to the bone but I have never been more excited. My teeth chatter as our ship is thrown into minute loops, if it weren't for our protective shield we would be bludgeoned to death by the thick layer of gases outside.

"Are we there yet?" Remulus grumbles impatiently but neither Joon nor I reply.

We are both lost in transit, fixated on the whirlwind of dust that surrounds us while storms of our own brew inside our chests.

And then just like that, it all disappears and our flight smoothens. The brightness of the sky nearly blinds me.

Everywhere is blue, peppered with smudges of white that remind me of the cotton candy in the theme park.

"We are here," Joon says, his voice thick with emotion. "We're heading for Tokyo in a matter of minutes."

"You're going to land there?" Remulus asks.

"No, we are going to crash the ship and make a scene," I reply proudly.

"What? Aren't you two going to land somewhere inconspicuous and hide it out for the rest of your days? This is what you came here for, right?"

"Like I said, we came here to warn the humans of the impending invasion," Joon tells him and Remulus just scoffs in disbelief.

"That theory again."

"It's true. I saw the plans in Lucian's computer. They were going to take over Earth and make it the new Central Command," I reply.

"You hacked into PG Lulu's computer?" Remulus's eyes are wide with disbelief.

I remain silent. The look of accusation on Lucian's devoted soldier's face is enough to tell me how he feels about that.

"Either way you two are idiots. If the Plutonians wanted Earth as their Central Command then it's as good as theirs. Crashing a ship on Earth would be nothing but a chink in their armor. You don't know the extent of the Plutonian army. You would hardly cause a scratch. Now let me out of here before you two commit suicide like this."

"Even something as small as a scratch can result in an infection. If that is all we are capable of then that is all we need," Joon replies stoically.

"Delusional," Remulus complains as he struggles in his seat.

"Brace yourselves," Joon says and then I feel us dip down and suddenly my heart is in my throat.

My entire body is pushed back, flush against the seat as we plummet down towards the city of Tokyo. A sea of grey meets my eyes and I take in the vast amount of buildings and then we turn towards the coast line by the bay.

We are aiming for the edge of Tokyo bay as planned, maximum damage with the minimum chance of casualties.

"Ready?" Joon shouts against the pressure that has built up outside the ship.

My hand reaches for the eject button next to my seat and I check that Remulus is able to as well. Even with his hands tied I made sure he would be able to reach it when the time came.

The bridge comes into view, growing closer by the second.

"Now!"

My fingers dig into the eject button desperately as my heart beats a million miles per minute. A rush of air assaults me the moment I am thrown out of the ship and I immediately activate my breather suit out of instinct.

I pull on the parachute and the large white balloon pulls me upward momentarily.

Our ships crashes by the docks with a loud bang, fire erupts around it and shards of metal fly everywhere. 

I barely notice the demise our ship. The sight of the dark blue ocean pacifies me immediately and I take a deep breath, the salty air fills my nostrils and I realise I do not even need the breather suit here.

This is my home. I was built to live here.

I steer myself towards the land and my feet hit the hard ground after a few minutes. I feel the impact all the way up to my knees and fall over.

My eyes take in the dark grey floor, warm beneath my hands and my fingers caress the rough surface. I look up at the wide blue sky, so beautiful, so magnificent, so real.

There is nothing artificial about the air I breathe or the sound of birds crooning by the edge of the bay. My eyes squint at the crowd gathering by the bridge.

Vehicles have stopped and people stand at the edge peering at us. They even hold out communicators, it looks like they are recording us.

We did it.

"Aria," Joon's voice trembles as he rushes up to me and I can see the cloud of emotion behind his dark eyes.

There are no words to explain how we feel. To be able to return to what was taken from us. I look up at him and smile, my lips quivering.

He grabs me and we hug each other tightly. Both engulfed by the triumph of reaching and the loss it took to get here.

"For Rosie," I choke out. "And Cassandra."

"For Matt, Ron, Jade, Josephine and Tiara," He says.

Remulus stands by our side, unusually quiet as he stares at our exchange.

"And as expected the cavalry arrives." He says sarcastically after a while.

I break away from Joon just as the sound of tires screeching approach us. Numerous black vehicles stop in front of us and we watch as humans jump out of them with guns in their hands.

Women and men, dressed head to toe in black uniforms arrange themselves into a line and I watch them aim their guns at us. They shout out to me and Joon but I can't understand a word.

"They're probably speaking Japanese. It is a native language here," Joon says. He puts up his hands in surrender, it was never our intention to engage in a fight with the humans.

"That one is speaking English," Remulus points out. "It's just that you two don't remember the language anymore. Give it some time and it will start to ring a bell."

His words perplex me. Have I forgotten the language I have spoken since birth?

"My name is Aria Mabel Quinn. I'm looking for my family. My father is Alex Mabel Quinn, mother Angeline Quinn. Aliens are coming, they are going to invade Earth. We need to prepare, I need to find my family!" I plead desperately to the woman who has started to hand cuff me. She stares at me in confusion, not understanding a word and then she pulls me to one of the vans.

Remulus just laughs, his voice dark and jaded as he is dragged along with us.

"I'm telling you, Aria. You have made a mistake."

Hey guys, this chapter was a bit technical. Hope you guys enjoyed anyway. In the next chapter we will find out more about Earth and their families :) :)