What was the point of all of this?

Saturn shrank back, pushing himself deeper into the storms of his home, rapid winds piercing through him. The chaos reflected the tornado of thoughts in his mind perfectly. He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout, but he was trapped in his own mind. Why was this happening?

“It’s my choice, Saturn.” The words of Earth rang through his mind, vivid and bright. Though they were millions of years in the past, they were not dulled by the course of time. “That’s why.”

“That’s not good enough!” Saturn shouted in the present, the exact same words that he had said to her all those years ago. She knew creating life was going to kill her then, and it had. She knew this, yet she had still persisted in this horrifying quest. What was the point?

Flashes of her smiling, tear stained face were engraved in Saturn’s mind, never to leave. The memories were stronger than any stone, ever present and never changing. Over the billions of years of their lives, none of the Planets had remained the same; they changed and changed and changed. They were almost completely unrecognizeable from their past selves at this point, both in body and in mind. But Earth’s smile and her saddened eyes would remain everlasting. They could not rid themselves of it.

“No!” The once desperate cries of Jupiter rang through his mind, and Saturn was brought back even farther in history, when Jupiter was once gentle and soft spoken and young. This was long before the time of Earth, long before the time of any of the other Planets. This was a time when their home was small, and consisted only of a small family of three.

Before that, Jupiter had been alone for a long time, and it was only him and his mother. He was the closest to her, and always had been. He longed to be near her, so much in fact that it pulled his entire home closer and closer to her. This period of Planetary migration reeked chaos in the young Solar system, and Sol knew it wasn’t right that he was alone.

Saturn blinked, clearing his eyes of tears as more memories came back to him, memories of his birth. When he was born, Jupiter latched onto him immediately. They were brothers and close as could be. It had calmed Jupiter, and he allowed his home to return to its natural orbit. For a short time, that was all they knew, and their small family was happy. At that point, they had thought it would last forever. But they were naive children then… They hadn’t even considered the pain that would be to come.

“You’re dying.” Jupiter realized one day, eyes wide as he watched his mother, once so swift and clever. She was never one to shy away from any challenge, loud with her words and unafraid. But as the young Jupiter stared at her now, he realized that had changed. Her words were too soft spoken, her eyes too gentle. She was fading.  This wasn’t the same woman he once knew. “Why are you dying?!”

Saturn’s fists clenched tightly, and he squeezed his eyes shut. Why were the memories flooding back? Why now? Why not any other time?

    He didn’t think Jupiter ever got his answer directly from Sol. She just left, and left behind their new family. She never got to know her other children; sure, she met Uranus and Neptune, and saw the others, but she never got to know them. She only knew Saturn and Jupiter. She was too sick to truly join the family that she had created. She was gone quicker than they could even realize.

    It scarred them both , but Saturn knew it affected Jupiter much more. He wasn’t as loud anymore, he was no longer carefree. But… He was still Jupiter, just quieter. He took care of those she left behind. It was the only way he could cope, and he did truly love them.

    Saturn took deep breaths in, trying to calm down and bring himself back to the present. Back to now, when Mars had ruined everything, and it would cause the death of all the humans aboard. Jupiter and Uranus would kill the crew, and there was nothing Saturn could do about it. He felt just as helpful as Jupiter once did.

    “Earth, I’m begging you… Please,” Jupiter had whispered, staring at a small creature crawling along the dirt. He looked up and met his sister’s eyes. It was horrifying. They were dull, and looked exactly like his mother’s had all those years ago. Earth was weak, as she had been so many billions of years ago. He was going to have to face it all over again. “Please don’t do this.”

    But she did. As soon as the species that would later become the humans had appeared, she was dead. Gone forever.

    Truthfully, Saturn knew it wasn’t just the fault of the humans, or any similar species, and he was sure Jupiter did too. Her life had started to go the minute the first bacteria appeared, back when there were only cells. But it was humanity and their ancestors that had finished her off, so they got the blame. 

    They took his sister. So Jupiter would take their lives. 

    Saturn inhaled, rising out of the clouds slowly. He looked towards Earth. Jupiter had planned on killing every living thing on the planet if it meant the humans would be gone, and he was going to do it back in the very beginning. He just hadn’t planned on one little thing… 

    “You can’t kill them!” Venus shouted, eyes widening in shock. “You can’t just murder them!” 

    “And why not?” Jupiter demanded. Normally, Venus was soft spoken and gentle, like Earth had been. But today, the Planet stood his ground.

    “They didn’t do anything wrong, Jupiter. They are innocent, they didn’t even know she existed.”

    Jupiter had only scoffed, and left. At that point, Venus figured the conversation was over. It was just a simple disagreement, one that would soon be forgotten by everyone. In reality it would be much more. Venus never would have been able to imagine what that simple exchange would lead to.

    Saturn had been with Uranus and Mars at the time. Now, it seemed hard to believe, but those two used to be as close as could be. They were best friends and often joked that they were twins, even if there was a hundred million years in between them. It was a rare sight to ever see them apart. Saturn had been sitting on the surface of Mars’ home, laughing as the two put on some stupid skit they had thought up on the spot. It was a nice distraction for all three of them.

    Jupiter stormed up to them, angry. He ranted to the three about what Venus had just said, and Saturn instantly agreed with him. Uranus quickly did too, but Mars remained quiet.

    “Kill them?” He had asked quietly, an odd shift from his usual carefree tone. It was the strangest sound to Saturn, and he could still hear it perfectly in his mind, so many years later. It was a mix of confusion, of anger, and a hint of betrayal, all hidden under a thin layer of sadness. “You want to kill them?”

    Jupiter had confirmed this, and Mars frowned. His quiet then shattered as he shouted.

    “She gave her life because she loved them so much, and you want to kill them?!”

    That was the moment that changed it all. The red Planet stormed off after this, leaving the three alone. He retreated to Mercury’s home, where he recapped the events to his friend. Mercury agreed with Mars, stating their beliefs were illogical. Word got out to the remaining Planets, Neptune and Pluto, but they didn’t immediately take a side. 

    It was tense for a long time. Everytime two Planets met, that was all that was on their minds, but no one spoke of the issue. It became taboo, and they pretended it wasn’t happening. You can’t fight about what isn’t there, right? That was their logic, and so this lasted for many years.

    Jupiter broke this tension. He decided that waiting was pointless, and that it didn’t matter what the others said… Humans deserved to die. They couldn’t keep living, walking on the same ground where she had once stood. It wasn’t fair. 

    So he prepared to use all his power to throw a coming meteor at them. He didn’t tell anyone, not even those who were on his side. Though he was upset at the time, Saturn now understood; he knew what it was like to not be able to trust anyone. 

    But Mercury had seen it just in time, and he, Mars, and Venus all stopped it. That was the day all hell broke loose.

    “You are insane!” Venus shouted, the angriest he’d ever been. “You would have killed not only all of the humans, but every other animal alive!”

    “Maybe that was the point.” Jupiter hissed, “Maybe I don’t regret it. Maybe I’ll do it again, and maybe, next time it will work.”

    “You will do no such thing!” Mars had butted in, eyes glowing with rage. He turned to face Uranus, anger mixing with hurt, “You’re really okay with this???”

    “They killed Earth,” was the only reply he got. Mars scowled.

    “And that kind of action would have destroyed her entire home too.” Mercury signed, “The planet itself would be gone. Are you really so angry you would rid us of that too? We would have nothing of her left. Even mother left us the sun.”

    Saturn, even then, had known that mentioning Sol was a horrible decision, but it was too late. That was the last straw, and Jupiter screamed at them.

    “Fine! Praise those murderers for all I care, but I will never.” He shouted, “And even if it takes me the rest of my life, I swear to you, I will make them pay.You cannot protect them forever.”

    “And we’ll make sure you never do.” Venus said, teeth clenched and tears in the corners of his eyes. He looked at the others around him, “All of us will.”

    Saturn remembered this moment as clear as day. That was when he spoke up, “No, we won’t.” He said, softly. His eyes met Venus’, whose went wide in shock. “I will not defend them.” 

“Me neither.” Uranus said, much louder than him.  He walked over to Jupiter, and Saturn followed. The three stood firm. Even today, Saturn could swear he saw a hint of a relieved smile across Jupiter’s face.

Mars and Mercury did the same, and stood by Venus. The Divide had started, but Neptune and Pluto remained still. 

“Are you coming?” Venus had asked them, assuming they would be with him. But they didn’t answer. They stood quietly, Neptune staring at them with a blank face, and Pluto’s head shaking in horror. 

“This is wrong.” Neptune whispered, shaking his head no as well. Neither of them offered any more explanation than that. He and Pluto simply turned, and vanished.

Saturn bit his lip. None of them had seen those two since that day, not even once. Somedays he doubted they ever would again… He had considered searching for them, but never had. Afterall, he knew Mars had gone out several times. Once he hadn’t returned for the equivalent of half a century on his home. If Mars, the lover of advantures, couldn’t find them, they weren’t going to be found.

All he could hope was that one day, they would want to be.

“Saturn!” Saturn was shaken from his thoughts. This shout was too vivid to be a memory; it was real. He immediately dropped back into the cover of his clouds, hidden from sight. He was still a mess, with a tear stained face and breathless from his panic. He didn’t exactly want to be seen right now.

“Saturn, where are you?” Even through the noise of his storms, the voice was clear. It was Venus. Mars must have told him what had happened. Saturn did not want to see him yet. For one, he was too prideful to face him after years of swearing he wanted the humans dead just as bad as Jupiter and Uranus. For another, he just didn’t want to see anyone when he was like this. He needed to be alone for a bit longer.

“Please, Saturn… We need you!” That was strange, since when did any of them need him? They hadn’t asked for his help since before the Divide. Maybe it was a trick, or him being overdramatic. It was probably nothing, Saturn thought, but that all changed with Patton’s next words.

“The humans are dying.”