The beginning was the strangest. 

Unlike her mother, Earth started small. Simple cells and bacteria, and later slightly bigger groups of cells. They were alive, but they weren’t killing her. They weren’t going to drain her of her life like what creating her and her siblings had done to Sol. She was fine, Venus had worried for nothing.

So she made some more.

Small creatures living in the depths of her oceans - she didn’t want anyone to know just yet, better to hide them down there, where no one could see. She never had told Venus that she had gone ahead with her plan, and didn’t plan on telling anyone anytime soon. She couldn’t really communicate with the creatures all that much, she was still too afraid to give up that much power, so they weren’t very intelligent. But she loved them, and she knew they loved her. 

And still, she was safe. She wasn’t dying. She let them multiply and made many many more, until they started to grow on their own too. They became new creatures all together, and while she didn’t design them, she encouraged and did her best to protect them. She loved them and they were hers. 

They started coming closer to the surface. That was when she started to feel the subtle effects giving away so much life had on her. Spells of dizziness came and her head usually hurt, but she was still fine. It was still worth it. 

That was what she told herself as she lay in her brother’s arms, mind fluttering in and out of consciousness. Maybe she had done a bit too much? She wasn’t dying, she was sure of that. She just felt… sick all the time. She was fine, really. She just wouldn’t let the population of the fish and other creatures grow anymore, and it would be perfectly fine. All was good.
    “Why the hell didn’t you tell us she was planning on doing this?” An angry voice pulled her from her thoughts, though she still didn’t have the energy to actually open her eyes. That was too much work, and she really didn’t want to face any bright light. The darkness was soothing. It was fine, she would just rest some more. All would be fine. She could figure out who was talking later.

“She… She didn’t want me to tell anyone.” A worried voice replied, shaking. Earth tried to remember who it was. Who did she tell? The voice was soft, a higher pitch than the first one, and she could tell it was full of kindness. Who was it? “I didn’t think she was going to do it either, and it was so long ago! I thought that it was so long ago and she hadn’t said anything since, so I just figured she had moved on…”

A sigh was heard and it was silent for several moments, before the first voice began to shout.

“Relax?? You seriously want us to calm down and relax? Mercury, she just passed out and we’re overreacting??”

Saturn. It was Saturn who was speaking! Well, that wasn’t all that surprising, he did worry about all of them constantly. He cared a lot, even if he preferred to pretend otherwise. But he really didn’t need to worry right now, she was just a little tired. She would get up in a few minutes. Just after she rested her eyes for a bit longer.

“Saturn is right. We need to fix this now.” Earth recognized this voice as Jupiter, her mind becoming clearer with each passing moment. “She will abandon this and she’ll heal, it’ll all be fine.”

“How is she supposed to abandon this?” Another voice said, much closer to her than the other ones. It belonged to whoever was holding her. One of her brothers. “Those creatures are alive, and they’ll keep living and having children. She can’t just undo it.”

“We could kill them-”

“No!” Earth shouted before the thought even registered in her mind. Her eyes flew open and she sat up immediately, scaring everyone - including herself. She grabbed Mar’s arm to steady herself, having gotten up much too fast and seeing spots. Her vision blurred and she tried to focus. Everyone’s eyes were locked on her. 

“Earth, you’re okay!” Venus cried, running over and gently putting his arms around her. She hugged him back carefully, not saying anything more. She still felt a little off, but didn’t say anything about it.

“Uranus is right.” Jupiter spoke up, “Earth, you’re not safe. This isn’t right.”

“What?” Earth stared at him with wide eyes. Killing the creatures, her children, that was the idea he was talking about, she realized. It was Uranus’ suggestion. “You can’t murder them, they haven’t done anything wrong!”

“Earth, this is hurting you -” Saturn cut in.

“No, I’m perfectly fine!” She exclaimed. She quickly rose to her feet to prove her point, but immediately went light headed. She managed not to fall, however, and shoved Mar’s arm away when he attempted to help stablize her. That wouldn’t help her case at all, she had to be fine on her own. “I am fine! I just felt a little sick, that’s all. Unrelated to them.” She nodded firmly once to emphasize this.

“No, you’re clearly not.” Mercury signed, stepping closer to her. “Your legs are shaking and you can hardly stand. You’re sweating and your eyes are dull, you are not ‘fine’ at all.”

Earth clenched her jaw, but said nothing. 

“Earth… Why did…” Pluto trailed off, not bothering to finish his question. She wondered why he didn’t ask why she did this. Maybe he didn’t think the reason mattered in the end. Maybe he didn’t want to know. Maybe he knew that Earth didn’t even truly know the answer; that was the truth.

“You’re going to die like this.” Saturn hissed, fists clenched. “So stop it!” She knew he didn’t mean to be mean, he was just trying to hide his concern. But that didn’t really matter, that didn’t give him the right to be upset. This wasn’t even effecting him! 

“It’s none of your business!” She shouted, “It’s not the business of anyone here! It’s between me and them, no one else.” She took a deep breath, her voice going soft. “I think you all should leave.”

“Earth -” 

“Neptune, stop. All of you, leave now.” She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself down before she spoke again. “I want to be alone.” She said, softer this time, much more gentle.

Glances were exchanged between all of the Planets, but they all seemed to get the message. One by one, they disappeared or flew away from sight, gone.

Only Saturn remained. He stared at the ground for several long moments, before he looked up and stared Earth straight in the eyes.

“Please don’t hurt yourself.” He said, and then he vanished too.

And Earth was alone.

***

Thomas spent all night tossing and turning in his bed. He couldn’t sleep, his mind was spinning with worries and questions. He had hoped putting on some soft music would calm his racing thoughts, but it seemed to only wake him up even more. He couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard he tried.

“I need food”, he finally decided at around 2.M. Laying in bed was getting him nowhere, and his stomach had growled several times already. He silently swung his feet over the side of his bed and made his way down to the kitchen. 

The cold air of the kitchen felt nice - that room was always colder than the rest of the ship, though they weren’t quite sure why. Thomas quietly grabbed the handle of the fridge door and opened it. He made a nice meal and sat down at the metal countertop, peacefully eating his food and drinking the hot cup of tea he had made for himself. He smiled; already he felt much calmer, this had been a wonderful idea. That tea had helped him to relax and calmed his thoughts greatly. In a few minutes, he could return to his room and get a couple hours of sleep easily. Maybe this night would be peaceful.

“BOO”

“AHH” Thomas screamed, immediately throwing himself backwards and falling onto the floor. His head hit the floor behind him hard, and he groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. He opened his eyes to see a wide eye Roman standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry!! I didn’’t mean to scare you - well no, I definitely did, but I didn’t know you were gonna do that!!” He offered his hand.

Thomas stared at him cautiously for several long moments. His heart pounded in his chest and that adrenaline rush would stay with him for hours - so much for getting any sleep that night. He carefully grabbed the red Planet’s hand and was hoisted to his feet.

“Jeez Mars… I was trying to get some sleep tonight.” 

“But you were eating,” Roman narrowed his eyes, “Not sleeping.”

“I was getting food and tea because I couldn’t sleep, and then was going back to sleep!” Thomas sighed, “Oh, nevermind. Where’s Venus and Mercury?”

“Patton was hanging out with Logan and Logan said,” Roman stood up straighter and held his hands together, giving his best Mercury impression, “Roman, they are sleeping. It would be rude to wake them up, humans need their rest.”

“Well he was right,” Thomas shook his head, resisting the urge to dramatically sigh another time. Sure, Roman was a Planet and he should probably still be freaking out that he was standing in front of the literal Planet Mars... But he wanted to be in bed. 

Who cares about meeting gods when you could be sleeping?

Roman huffed, and folded his arms across his chest, “Wow, rude much.”

Thomas laughed, then realization struck him. “Hey Mars, can I ask you something?”

“Well first, you don’t need to call me ‘Mars’! We’re friends now because I declared it! I am the Great Prince Roman!”

“Uh alright, Roman, can I ask you something?”

“Absolutely!”

Thomas nodded, and paused for a moment, “Okay, well… I need your advice or opinion on something.” Roman nodded for him to continue. “We got permission to keep heading even farther into the universe, or we could start visiting and exploring the stars and planets around here.”

“Oh?” Roman grinned excitedly, “That’s amazing! So you get to go farther in your adventure? Brilliant!”

Thomas laughed, “Yeah! Some of the crew wants to go try to get closer to Alpha Centauri or some other cool place, but I wanted to get you or Patton or Logan to hear before we decided.”

“Hmmm,” Roman tapped his chin, looking up thoughtfully, “Well, I think you -”

“- Should return to Earth immediately.” Both Thomas and Roman spun around at this, and saw Saturn had showed up out of seemingly nowhere. He sat on the counter off to the side, eyes narrowed and lips pressed shut in a tight frown. Upon noticing Thomas’ shocked face and Roman’s livid expression, he grinned, though it was made more from sarcasm and dark humor than actual happiness. He spoke again.

“There. Your decision has been made. Go home.” His words sent a chill up Thomas’ spine. His expression stiff and his words lacking any emotion, they were darker than his earlier warnings somehow, more dangerous. His piercing white eyes were somber and foreboding. Though the lack of color in all of the Planets’ eyes should have been disturbing to any human, none reached the mysterious look in the ringed Planet’s eyes now. Something was off this time, something cruel and relentless had overtaken his previously vigilant demeanor.

“What are you doing here?” Roman demanded, his jaw clenched. He stared at Saturn, who glared right back. “You clearly aren’t welcomed here. Go back to your friends.”

“Do I look like I care if I’m welcomed or not?” Saturn shot back, pushing himself off of the counter and slowly walking towards the two. His steps were light yet deliberate, and his eyes glowed with anger. He stepped right up to Roman, staring directly at him. Though he was several inches shorter than him, it was intimidating nonetheless, even if Roman would never admit it. “I’ll answer that for you. I couldn’t care less if I tried. I’m not here for a visit.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To give him one last warning,” Saturn switched his attention to the captain, who stepped back slightly. Saturn didn’t move. 

“Go home, human. Stop trying to explore things that weren’t made for you.”

Thomas flinched when Mars put his hand on his shoulder, “No, do go out and explore! Ignore him, you’ll be fine!”

“Oh he’ll be fine?” Saturn said, and laughed, “As if! He’s lucky he’s gotten this many warnings, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. Clearly he’s too idiotic to take any of my warnings seriously.”

“You should leave.” Roman said, voice steady and deep. “You’re the one who should go back home.”

“I’m not -”

“Enough!” Thomas exclaimed. His shout startled both of the Planets, which did help boost his confidence ever so slightly. He needed that. The captain took a deep breath, pushing Roman’s hand off of him and stepping forward, towards Saturn.

“I’m not turning around.” He finally said, “I’m not going to abandon this just because it upsets you and whoever else out there. We aren’t hurting anyone, all we’re doing is exploring. Leave us alone!”

Roman grinned, and Saturn scowled.

Thomas took a deep breath. “I’ve made my decision. We’re doing both. We’re gonna head out farther, towards Alpha Centauri. I know we won’t actually make it there, but we’re gonna epxlore in that direction, and we’re gonna explore all the other stars and planets and comets and everything else along the way.” He bravely stared Saturn in the eyes, “And you can’t stop that. Neither you, nor Jupiter or Uranus.”

Saturn stayed quiet for several long moments, clenched jaw and, if you looked carefully, shaking hands. He was focused, trapped in a swirling storm of thoughts in his mind. Finally, he replied.

“Fine,” He stood up taller, backing away slightly. “Have it your way.”

And with those words, the ship began to shake.