“Mars, when are you gonna tell us what all of this is about?”

    The young Planet grinned, looking up at the 8 others who had just arrived, all with varying looks of confusion plastered on their faces. He couldn’t blame any of them;  after all, he had just demanded all of them come to his home that night without giving any more information to any of them. But that was okay.

    “You’ll see,” He grinned, replying to Earth’s question. She didn’t look convinced, crossing her arms across her chest and raising one eyebrow. He ignored her, and immediately grabbed the wrists of the two Planets closest to him - who happened to be be Jupiter and Venus - and started running off, “Follow me!!” He called.

    They all exchanged glances, and then they did.

    They didn’t have to run far and all caught up to Mars rather quickly. He released Jupiter’s and Venus’ wrists, and then gestured to the ground so everyone would sit. Once they did, he immediately took a seat besides Uranus, never letting the smile drop from his face for even a moment. Uranus had no idea what was going on either, but he smiled just as excitedly as Mars did, trusting that whatever he wanted to show them would be worth it.

    “So… are you gonna tell us what’s going on?” Saturn asked after several moments, only to immediately be shushed by Mars. He watched as the red Planet pointed up at the sky above them, and all of them let their gaze shift to meet where he was pointing.

    Streaks of light flew across the night sky, crossing the distant view of stars painted across the stretch of land. The bright speck flew overtop of distant mounds of dirt and rock, tails of fire traveling right behind them as both disappeared into the void. The dark sky lit up with their beauty, illuminating even the faces of the Planets watching them from so far below. It was a sight that would be engraved in their memories for the rest of their lives, a beautiful phenomenon few would have the privilege to see. That few included only this small family of nine.

    “Woah…” Pluto’s small voice whispered in the background, all of them completely awestruck by such a sight. Their gazes were locked above them, so none noticed how Mars looked to each one of them individually, ensuring they were all enjoying themselves before he allowed himself to do the same. They all watched, silent besides the occasionally amazed gasp or giggle (usually from Venus or Uranus) from the view.

    If there had been any outsiders, they would have been able to tell the group that they sat there for hours. They would have been able to mention that not one of them looked away from the sky, besides a quick glance to the faces of those besides them. To them, however, it passed by in only a few moments, starting in one instant and gone the next. Gone all too soon. They had loved every second of it.

    Once the meteor shower had passed, no one dared to speak for several minutes. No one wanted to be the one to ruin the moment, and no one wanted to let it truly end. Maybe, if they were all quiet enough, maybe it would last forever. Maybe, just maybe, if they all sat quietly, leaning on each other for warmth, this night would never end. They just had to pretend it was everlasting, and maybe it would be.

But alas, even the best of things have to come to an end eventually.

***

    Saturn’s hands were tangled in his own hair, grasping the strands harshly and all but pulling them from his own skull. His breaths came in sharp gasps as he desperately tried to control his own breathing. Eyes darted back and forth, mind swirling with thoughts spinning like a tornado, crashing into each other and causing chaos inside his brain.

    He had just been given an impossible task, and had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to even attempt to accomplish it. Did Jupiter and Uranus actually expect him to babysit the others? When those three had their heart set on something, they were going to get it. There is no way Saturn could even hope to stop them. Not to mention, they hated him - Mars especially! Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if Mars went to visit the humans just to spite him. That would be just like him. Saturn wouldn’t be able to stop them even if he spent every second of the rest of his life keeping an eye on them. This was bound to end in failure!

    Saturn screamed in anger, punching the air in front of him in rage. He huffed afterwards, suddenly upset that his home was only made of gas. Punching a bunch of gas didn’t really do much as far as releasing anger was concerned, so that was a complete fail. He probably should’ve went to one of his moons or one of the many asteroids or shattered moons making up his rings, those would probably have been more satisfying to take his anger out on.

    Unfortunately for him, he was in too much of a panic to consider that.

    It took him another hour before he managed to calm himself down, though his breathing was still labored and his hands still shook ever so slightly. Nevertheless, he was calm enough to try to formulate a plan and figure out what to do.

    He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He needed to stay close to those three without making them think he was spying on them or just being generally evil. He had to get close enough and make them at least trust his common sense, so they’d agree with him that visiting the humans was a terrible plan. But there was no way they’d do that, unless…

    He groaned, he was going to have to befriend them.

    “Well, there goes my pride…” He mumbled, mentally punching Jupiter and Uranus right in the face. He did not want to spend time with any of them; after all, they were still practically in the middle of a war. Earth’s death had done more than humanity could ever know, and the division it caused ran deep. It ran so deep it had driven Neptune and Pluto to flee, to the remaining Jovian and Terrestrial Planets to refuse to talk to each other for billions of years. It drove apart an entire family and the damage was irreversible, and now he had to attempt to mend the division to protect the fate of the ones who broke it in the first place?

    Even the communication Saturn now had with the others was more than they’d had for so long, and it had only started in the last thousand years. He barely knew these Planets anymore. He just knew they were his enemies now, and now his family decided to throw him to them as a challenge. Just to spite him.

    Maybe the humans weren’t worth it. There were only a few dozen on the ship, and there were billions back on Earth. He could just let them be; Jupiter and Uranus might kill them, but in the big picture that wouldn’t be a big deal, would it? It’s just a couple humans, mankind will be fine without them. He could just leave them be.

    Saturn sighed; he knew he cared too much to let that happen, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

    He stared out into the distance, moving so he could have a clearer view of the expanse in front of him. He stared towards the sun, close to where Mars, Venus, and Mercury resided. He wondered if they were there now. Or maybe at this point they were already with the humans again, ruining their chances of survival without even realizing it. That was probably just as likely, if Saturn was being honest with himself. There was a huge chance he had already failed when he hadn’t even begun. That was just great.

    A distant speck caught his eye, and he turned to see Earth come into his view. He narrowed his eyes, watching the planet with careful eyes. There was the rest of the humans, there was the rest of Earth’s murderers. Saturn may not have been as extreme as Jupiter or Uranus, but he did agree with them on the most important thing: Humanity was the cause of their sister’s death, they were murderers. Individually, killing them without giving them a fighting chance was unfair, but Saturn still hated them. Deep down, he hated that he believed that. He hated that he didn’t just agree with his family that less humans was always better in all cases. His stupid sense of morality kept him from letting these explorers be killed, and he wished it didn’t. This would be so much more simpler if he didn’t.

    He kept staring at the distant planet and its inhabitants. They didn’t even know what was happening now, that distant and powerful beings were deciding on the fate of their proud explorers as they went about their day. How wonderful their ignorance must be; they didn’t have to worry about this like Saturn did. They didn’t have to worry about much outside of their tiny world, they didn’t know about the existence of the rest of the residents of the universe. And yet, they could still make his life impossibly hard.

    Disgusting.

    Rising to his full height, Saturn looked around once more, trying to decide the best course of action. Sure, he could procrastinate and take a few more hours, but every second that ticked by was a chance the Terrestrials were already with the humans again. He couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t waste another second.

    So, off he went.

***

    “So…” Emile mumbled, laying on his bed, head hanging off the side. He looked over at Remy, who stood on the other side of the room leaning against the wall. “When do you think we’ll see them again?”

    “I have no clue,” Remy shrugged, crossing the room to sit beside him. Emile immediately swung his feet down, sitting right side up again, brown eyes watching the other man. “I figured it would be soon, but it’s already been a couple days time. So I don’t know.”

    Emile frowned, beginning to pout. Remy chuckled.

    “Hey, I’m sure they’ll come soon.” He said, putting a hand comfortingly on his shoulder. Emile, in response, simply fell back into friend and leaned against him. Remy’s eyes went wide - but his (pointless) sunglasses were still on, thankfully. No reaction could be seen.

    “Yeah, I hope so.” Emile sighed, staring at the wall. Somehow his gaze went past the painted white metal, however, and his eyes seemed to be staring off into the far reaches of the galaxy, searching for the Planets himself. Remy watched him in silence, before he cautiously laid his arm down over Emile’s shoulder. They stayed like this, time ticking on in the silent room.

    “HA I KNEW IT!”

Emile and Remy flew up into a sitting position, separating instantly. In front of them now stood one mischevious AI, who was grinning playfully.

    “Knew what??” Remy demanded, immediately defensive. The sunglasses that had been set down besides him back on in an instant.

    “Giovanni, I talked to you about this already!” Emile exclaimed. “You have to stop spying on people!!”

    Giovanni only laughed in response, ignoring what both of them had said, “Thomas wants ya, there’s another reporter calling to talk to the crew. See you in a bit!”

    He disappeared immediately after, and Emile and Remy stared at each other in exasperation, before both dissolved into laughter.

    “Alright, let’s go see what they want.”