I fell on my knees with disbelief. My breath was almost rancid with the scent of vomit. My pulse accelerated. I could almost feel my veins pounding out of me. I felt my heart in my throat. I just wanted to die. If all of this was true, if Brok really did all of this behind my back... I felt bile coming up again and a rush in my chest. God no, I threw up again. Tears came out of my swollen eyes. I just wanted to disappear. I wanted to die.

"Anabella this trip has not been productive. I think that it is best that you follow me back into the ship and-"

"Leave me alone!" I barked back. Rox paced back a few steps. I didn't know what to do. I sat on the grass and cried.

Boom!

I tilted immediately to look towards the noise. Smoke hugged one of the rotten buildings. I stumbled upwards and snatched Rox' binoculars.

"Yes!" I cheered as I saw the humans breaking free from their ropes and attacking the Sha being. The humans were using their own ropes to choke him, but the fight wasn't an easy one. The Sha being was stronger. However, their goal was to take his weapon. If they did that, they could set themselves free.

"Anabella, let us travel elsewhere. Would you not like to see your brother?" Rox asked me. I tilted to look at him. I truly longed to see him, but I wanted to know what happened with the humans. I tilted and gazed upon the group to see if they were able to overthrow the Sha being. They pushed and pulled, punched uppercuts and swings. Their hits were not strong enough to take him down.

"Anabella, please. Your civilization does not win the war," Rox said. Most of the humans were on the ground and four were wounded. The Sha had retrieved his gun. I dropped both my hands. The binoculars hung on my hand until I dropped them. I didn't want to see anymore. Tears just poured out of my eyes like a fountain. I fell onto the ground and touched the grass. I was green, the perfect color, the color I had been accustomed to and its consistency was right and good, but everything else was not. I couldn't stand up. I was too weak. My spirit was broken. Rox carried me into the ship. The last thing I saw was the grey sky and then I saw nothing but bleak darkness.

*****

"Anabella. Anabella." I heard Rox say my name out loud. I opened my eyes little by little, until I could finally gaze upon my surroundings. The dark walls were light by purple bright lights. Holograms of different objects. As they changed of form. A brown and fluffy creature appeared in the lights. It was a boon.

"Rox?"

"Yes," Rox replied. My body lied on a flat bed. I sat up and tilted my head here and there trying to adjust myself. My vision was still kind of blurry and my mind was kind of dizzy. I breathed in and out. Rox stood next to me, his hand on my shoulder. I heaved, glanced at him and frowned.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"You fainted. The experience of watching the fall of humans was emotionally overwhelming to you," Rox said. My heart pounded fast. So much that it hurt me.

"Ouch," I said feeling a sting in my chest.

"We have changed course. We are now a year after your abduction," Rox explained. I got up from the bed slowly. My head prickled a bit, but the pain was easing.

"One year later? Now I can see my father. My brother," I commented. I paced to the corner of the wall, pressed the usual keys and opened the door. Rox followed me.

"Anabella, I must tell you that your father is not out with your brother," Rox said. I halted and turned to him.

"What did you say? What are you talking about? Where is my father?" I said pacing towards him panicked.

"I said that your father is not out there with your brother. He is here."

"Here? What do you mean here?"

"He is here, in this ship with us." My heart thumped again. My stomach churned. What was he talking about?

"I don't understand," I replied.

"Follow me. I will take you to him," Rox said. He walked in front of me and I followed with a horrified feeling in my abdomen. Bile swarmed around my throat. I thought I was going to die.

******

I walked behind him. He led the way down stairs and into the dark hallway, but we went down through a staircase I had never seen before. It was cool down there with strange purple mist covering the floors and walls. I felt like I was walking inside one of those spooky Halloween houses, but without the zombies. Rox suddenly halted and pressed a few keys in front of him. These keys however were not holographic, they were normal computer standard keyboards. I frowned confused, but decided not to ask. I had enough surprises to last me an entire lifetime I supposed. Different from the other doors I was used to in Sha and in the ship, this one took a few more seconds to open and when it did it opened like a regular door.

Crack.

The door opened. I tried to push on it, but it was extremely heavy. Rox stared at me for a second dumbfounded. I shook my head apologetically.

"Sorry," I said. Rox pushed the door and as it made a loud screeching sound it fully opened and there in a bed sat my father with a long, grey mustache, beard and matted hair. He looked up and stared at me. I went black. Long, lined tears streamed down my eyes. His eyes opened wide. My legs shook, however I froze in place.

"Anabella!" He said and instantly got up. The book flipped out of his lap and headed straight to the floor. Not that it mattered. He ran towards me, opened his arms and wrapped them around me. Tears streamed down my face. I was shaking all over as we twisted in our embrace. Tears rolled down my cheeks like endless streams. I didn't want the embrace to finish, I didn't want him to let go. I felt like the little girl I hadn't felt like in a very long time. I had dreamt for this moment thinking that it would never happen and now here he was with me, embracing me and giving me his love and support. He had been here this whole time, locked in this room waiting for the perfect moment to come and rescue me. I now believed that he was willing to stay in this room for me forever. This was everlasting beauty indeed.

"Anabella, I missed you so much. You have no idea, but I was with you. I was with you in throughout the hole journey. My princess," he said. I didn't want him to let me go. I felt so safe in his arms, but like all good things, they could never be eternal. After he took his arms off me, he grabbed my hands, kissed my knuckles and then let them go. A single tear swept his cheek. I was moved. I had never seen my father cry before. I thought I would shatter in a million pieces. He immediately rubbed it off with the back side of his hand and smiled. His eyes were so bright, they were like two brilliant suns.

"Dad... I thought..." I said cracking up. I could hardly speak.

"I know," my dad said nodding.

"Joe, we have returned to Earth in your lifetime," Rox said.

"Rox my man, thank you so much," my dad said patting him on the shoulder.

"Ouch, I forgot that you were made of metal," my dad remarked. I half laughed, half heaved and my chest dropped. I tried to wrap my mind around all of this.

"So, what happened?" I asked.

"Well, your father suggested that if he was jailed he would be out of the master's way without-" Rox suddenly stopped talking.

"Rox?" I asked. His head shook sideways. He seemed to be doing it involuntarily and soon it moved with more violence.

"Rox!" I shouted panicked. My father grabbed my hand and yanked me out of the room.

"Now's the time to make a run for it," he said.

"Rox!" I screamed again, but he could not hear me. We headed out of the ship and out into the woods. We were back on Earth. It was so unbelievable to me, so surreal, to see the heavenly blue skies again, feel the warmth of the sun, yet somehow, I was not relieved. My mind raced with everything that was going on and I hardly had any time to process it all. I didn't know why my father yanked me away from him. I didn't know what happened to him and once we were halfway through the forest I had to stop.

"Dad, stop!" I yelled. My father stopped abruptly and turned to face me. His jeans were all ripped, his face pale and his own body a lot thinner.

"Why did we leave him? What if something happened to him?"

"Anabella I can care less. He's nothing, but a robot."

"But what if he was, oh, I don't know... damaging or something? We have to go back." My father heaved and held his weight on a nearby tree. He took huge gulps of air before he responded. His eyebrows a perfect line of annoyance.

"No, we are not going back Anabella. We are never going back. I'm calling the police, the military, the F.B.I. anybody who's willing to listen, they can handle this sort of a situation. That master of his is deadly, they're going to kill us all, wipe us out like roaches. I have to warn everybody I can now. This is our chance. He was the only one on the ship, right?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Perfect, come on," he said. I followed him out of the forest and on our way we found ourselves with my brother Brian and Randolph. They had a couple of friends with them and police officers.

"Anabella!" He shouted. He saw me first and ran towards me. He hugged him and I tried to hug him back, but I was too weak to do so. I could barely hold myself up any longer. I wobbled in his arms.

"Anabella! Dad!" Your alive," he chanted. Once he dropped me I slipped onto the dirty ground. It was deliciously humid and brown. The smell of grass entered my nostrils and I felt a singularity with the ants and the deadwood below me, but I could no longer continue to have my eyes opened. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Anabella?" My name was the last word I heard uttered from everyone's lips. Then I blacked out.