Chapter Text
Remember that a REAL story never ends. Chapters end, maybe arcs finish and characters may die but that does not finish a story. For a real story does not have a perfect ending wrapped in a neat bow. For a real story doesn’t have to make perfect sense. For a real story is as chaotic as the life it tries to imitate. And life makes no sense.
But that does not make life nor the story meaningless. Remember that.
While the story does not have an ending, it does have a beginning. It does not begin in a classroom, it does not begin in the woods. Instead it begins with the creation of the universe. In order to not overwhelm the puny human brains observing, the specific details will be glossed over. The universe was born, tiny and unassuming, until it grew and morphed, acquiring every type of living and non living being it could.
Flash forward a few billion years or so to a hunk of metal hurtling towards the only planet capable of hosting life in its sector. The pilot had no choice but to escape there. This planet had many names given to it around the universe but soon the pilot would know it to be Earth.
She crash lands in the water, this planet was full of it, none of it drinkable. She had to think fast, her body was already adjusting to the gravity of this planet and if she didn’t dive out of her ship at the right moment she’d be dragged to the depths. Grabbing her Name and clutching it tightly in her palms, she escapes the wreckage. As soon as she dives into the water, she realizes a second problem. Her current form is denser than the water around her. She begins to sink and there was nothing she could do. The water muffles her thoughts and no matter how hard she squints, her trusty glowing eyes saw nothing. She closes her eyes and accepts her fate...
Until she feels something slippery and strange prod her back and a grateful, broken smile blooms on her face. The stars have come to her rescue. She reads the strange creature’s genetic coding and within seconds, her former transparent skin fades away into a gray slick rubber like texture. The need to breathe disappears as her new form appears to have stronger lungs. Unfortunately as her limbs disappear, her Name begins to fall to the depths. In desperation she dives after it, this new form was a fast swimmer, and she catches up to it in seconds. She swallows it for there was no way for her to carry it. She will deal with the extraction later.
Now she had to get to land. Lucky for her the creature she has morphed to had an ability to see beyond that of the eyes. She lets out a sound and feels the vibrations come back. Land was near. She would make it. She would live. She would live.
And so hours later she collapses on shore, turning back into her translucent self as the sand clings to her wet body. Her bright golden eyes scan the new surroundings, it wasn’t too different from other places she had seen but there were little subtle differences here and there. The sand beneath her was a pale yellow and the rising sun nestled at the horizon tinged the water blue and the sky pink. It was different, beautiful sure, but different.
She cranes her neck to the side and has to bite back a scream when she sees it. A lifeless creature laying right beside her. It’s eyes open and cloudy. Lips blue, skin wrinkled and chest still. She gently touches the skin and confirms her suspicion. It was dead. The water in its lungs was too much to bear.
She heaves a sigh and begins to strip its clothing off as well as any personal items it may have had. After stripping the body naked, she lays the body into a position. Finding a nearby twig, she traces a perfect circle around the body. Kneeling at the end of the circle, she closes her eyes.
“Stars and Void. Return this body to the sky where it can forever roam. I thank you for the sacrifice in balance. This life will not be in vain. I swear to honor it.”
Her luminous eyes flicker open to see the body dissolve into what could only be described as stardust as the heavens answer her prayers and take the body up to the sky.
A life for a life. The stars and space kept the balance like that. She was alive now because the stars allowed it but it did not come without a price. And the body that lay dead was in exchange for hers.
She remembers the genetics of the body and begins to assume its shape. Skin going from transparent to corporeal and soft. Her chest gets heavy and between her legs form what can only be described as a complex reproductive organ. Her clean bulbous head begins to sprout fur like substance that reaches her chin. She reaches for the clothing she had earlier taken and tries to wear it the way she remembers the body had it on.
After she’s done, she glances at the items left behind. There wasn’t much of importance. A necklace made of what appeared to be teeth and a leather folded pouch. She opens it up and recognizes the writing as Human-Hangul. Thank god, she had taken that elective on Human languages. It takes her a while to decipher it, being a little rusty.
“Jung Yisoo.”
She flips through the plastic rectangles which were riddled with numbers and all had the name Jung Yisoo written on them. Except for 2. These were written in a different alphabet. The Human-Latin one. Damn. She was bad at that one so it takes her a little longer to read.
“L-Lowura. No. No. Laura. Laura Jung.”
Peculiar. Humans carried their names in these leather pouches? And why did they have two? Was she Yisoo or Laura?
She dumps the plastics rectangles out and closes her eyes in concentration.
“Stars help me decide who I must be.”
She opens her eyes to stare at the plastic cards scattered on the sand. Minutes past and right before she gives up, a card twitches. She flips it over before smiling.
Laura Jung comes back from the dead that day to a terrified but grateful sister and disgruntled brother-in-law. She cannot understand a word they were saying and the men in the white coats had assured her new family that it was all fine. She caught the word ‘amnesia’ and ‘trauma’. Still, she had a new life now and when no one is looking she glances up at the sky where the real Laura Jung lies and she thanks her every night.
The second time a ship lands on this planet was nothing like the first. It was sleek and comfortable, nothing made to hurriedly transport someone across the galaxy. It was a vessel of comfort and respect for in it was traveling a prisoner. Not that he was ever called that. Oh no no no, he was simply “an individual whom elected by the council to carry out his days away from society”.
Prior to contrary belief, Somerians did not take pride in killing one of their own not even one as lowly as him. The day Kuyya stumbles on highly sensitive information is the day he had to say goodbye to the only life he had ever known. The guards had shoved him in a room and he was given two choices: die or leave.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to decide the better of the two choices but, honestly speaking, the decision wasn’t immediate. He had... considered it after seeing that information. He wasn’t sure if life was worth living after that.
So he was taught the language of the place he’d be going to, was given a new name and a functioning ID once landed. For a week, Somerian forces stayed with him, helping him adjust but the heartbreak of never seeing his friends and hive again got to him. He swore to live a life of solitude.
A couple years later he met the strangest pair of friends. A Korean boy who was the living embodiment of a cup of hot chocolate and a Japanese hot headed college student who wanted to see the world burn. And like an idiot he fell for one of them. So much for living a life of solitude for it was no match for Jaehyun’s honey drizzled smile.
So Kuyya- Qian Kun’s life begins to change for that of the better. Jaehyun shows him around Korea, sites he never bothered for when his life was nothing but misery. And little by little, he can forget why he’s here. He can forgive himself. Until he gets here.
The fact that Kun couldn’t sense his arrival already frightened him, his senses were being dampened. What’s more is that it’s a Kitar. Kun isn’t sure what to think of at first, for the way the Kitars were upheld but it took him a second to realize that they weren’t on Somer. And this boy was distraught over a human no less. So he took him under his wing. What else could he do? This would be the closest thing he could have to family. And for the first time in a long time, Kun felt like Kuyya again.
Saying goodbye to Jevokitar had been one of the hardest things he had to do since he left Somer but he was going to be okay. Jaehyun had reminded him of that, kissing away the tears that were shameful in his old society. He’d be alright and so would Jeno.
The third time a ship lands on this planet was somewhat like the first. A racing vessel with nowhere to go, transporting a scared child. Eventually he finds his way over to the orb of blue floating in the darkness. Like a beacon of hope after the horrors he had seen. His own blood, slaughtered before him. HIs descent was chaos, the hull creaking with age and wear and it didn’t take a specialized mechanic to figure this was the last trip this shuttle would make. Hisen feels himself crash. He really feels it and had the hull not had nanobots in the air cavity that regulate oxygen and heal damaged tissue, he probably wouldn’t have survived. But he lay in the darkness of the dying ship as he feels his broken body slowly begin to heal with the hum of the invisible robots digging into his skin. It had hurt. Of course it did but he wasn’t paying attention. All he could see when he closed his eyes was his Bloodgiver and Birther shoving him into an escape pod as his home burned around him.
The last coherent thought he had that day was a vow for revenge. His people’s pain would be heard even if he died doing so.
He was awoken, 3 nights later, with a sore body but nonetheless, a healed one. He clambers out of the wrecked hull. His surroundings were green. Green here, green there, oh a little splash of brown, but mainly green and green. Was this System 86-3? His Birther had set a course furthest from the war. System 86-3 was the only planet capable of holding life so far away from the Center of Life. Plus it, uh, matched the description. A blue orb with one moon with plenty of green and the air smelled absolutely disgusting. This had to be System 86-3.
As he shoves the hull away from the tall green things for he didn’t want to destroy innocent life with the blast radius, Hisen begins to worry. If this was System 86-3, their technology was too primitive to let him leave the System 86 and get back to his quadrant of life. How was he going to avenge the deaths of his people, of his birthers and givers? He looks at the dead ship. If he could repair it then maybe . But Hisen was no mechanic, he lived a pampered life, studying the arts instead. And the hull was too damaged, he wouldn’t even know where to begin even if he could figure it out. He couldn’t risk this technology being found by the locals either, it was too advanced for them. A dead Kahin ship to them could advance their species well beyond their capabilities. Even if the parasites who burned his home didn’t find the locals at all beneficial to their conquest, he wouldn’t take that risk. Enough races had died because of these vermin, Hisen wouldn’t expedite the process. He had to destroy the ship.
And so he did. With one planet-shattering BOOM , Hisen watches his last hope at returning back to the rest of the universe implode on itself as it was reduced to nothing but ash. He wants to collapse and cry but he had a bigger issues to worry about. One being a nosy kid, eyes wide and mouth open holding a strange black contraption in his hands. The child was clearly a local and Hisen was pleased to see it was similar looking to him. A little paler with odd gray hair but very similar.
Hisen was about to alter his memories when he realized how hungry he was. 3 days of not eating, even if the days were shorter here, time was still affecting his body. He needed sustenance and maybe the boy would have some use after all. They couldn’t communicate in the same tongue but Hisen’s thoughts transcended even language. He gave himself to this boy who gave himself back and soon all that mattered was thought. At first the boy, Kim Jungwoo he learns, had been more than confused but he had been calm, thanks to Hisen’s calming thoughts and soothings. And soon, Hisen had himself a loyal partner. For if Jungwoo brought him food and taught him the language then Hisen would show him more and more of the universe and Jungwoo had an insatiability for knowledge.
It worked out.
More and more time past and soon Hisen started to pick up the language, a little broken at first but it was working. He could say hello and goodbye. He could read, he found Hangul extremely easy. He even taught Jungwoo some of his language and Jungwoo thought it sounded like German. And thats when it started.
Hisen was tired of living in the forest, he wanted to see the world Jungwoo talked about. Jungwoo wasn’t so sure. He thought Hisen needed more practice in Korean or else people would think he was a foreigner. Hisen couldn’t help but pout and wonder what was wrong with people thinking he was a foreigner.
Jungwoo couldn’t give him a proper answer.
“You look East Asian so we gotta make you from East Asia.”
“But I cannot speak another East Asian language.”
“No but you could be born and raised in Germany. There’s barely any German speakers here, you could get by. But ethnically, how does Chinese sound? A German Chinese?”
Hisen shrugs, something Jungwoo taught him in times of indecisiveness. “I don’t care.”
“Then it’s settled. Can I name you?”
Hisen cocks his head. “Name me?”
“Yeah! Well you can’t be ‘Hisen’ it doesn’t sound like a Chinese name.”
“Fine!” Hisen crosses his arms, this was apparently a universal way of showing petulance. “What shall I be called then?”
Jungwoo grins. “Li Yifeng?”
“No.”
“Liu Ye?”
Hisen glares at him. “Are these those Chinese actors you like so much?”
Jungwoo blushes and looks away. “Shut up.”
Hisen rolls his eyes. “I like the Liu part.”
Jungwoo perks up. “How about Yangyang? He’s one of my favorite actors.”
“Liu Yangyang.” Hisen tests it on his tongue. “Huh, I like it.”
“Liu Yangyang it is- Hisen? Hisen, are you okay?”
Hisen had gone very still, eyes dark and face terrified.
“Hisen? Hisen, what is going on?”
Hisen tells him to shush and grabs his hand, letting his thoughts flow into him.
Run away. Run away now.
Jungwoo looks terrified now.
What about you?
Jungwoo, run.
Jungwoo gets up and darts off. Hisen had given him an extra jolt of fear, he hopes it will carry Jungwoo very far away. He had grown to feel some fondness for the child.
Hisen gets up and begins to track the source of his troubles until he sees them. A group of them. They’re young by first glance, led by an elder. There were no weapons nor any ill intent in any of their feelings from what Hisen could sense. He quickly shields up his emotions in case there were any empaths among them. No true empaths but still the parasitic race had tricks up their sleeves.
Hisen climbs up a tall green thing- he briefly remembers Jungwoo calling it a tree- and nestles in its arms- branches- and watches.
Two of the parasites begin to argue and Hisen watches with disbelief as one of them tries to hurtle a stone at the other using nothing but their telekinetic ability. The one attacking gets stopped by the elder and scolded harshly. The one who was being attacked looks uninterested even as he takes a nasty berating from the other one after the elder had left.
Hisen studies him. He had hair dark as the iris of an eye, his sharp features made him rather beautiful looking in both Earth culture and everywhere else. His eyes held a certain amount of intelligence and he carried himself in away that demanded respect.
Hisen hates him immediately.
He tried to do his best to pick up on the language but he was a little rusty in his oppressors’ tongue. He caught one thing though.
“ The ships leave after their Sun sets. Make sure to be in your respective ship before then.”
And so Hisen devises a plan. He sneaks off to find the ships. He’d steal one and ride it back to the universe and from there, he’d rally his people and all those who were affected by the conquest. Simple.
If only.
Hisen had never seen more advanced hulls. A simple white ovular looking ship. Hisen couldn’t even find a way in, much less know how to control it. So he panics and decides to break it. He manages to find the outer control panel and tugs at any wire he can. Anything to make this faulty and crash. If he couldn’t avenge his planet, he’d at least take down a couple of them. But before he could move on to the next ships, the elder makes his way back to the ships and Hisen is forced to retreat.
He curses himself for being so stupid. If only he had been a mechanic.
Night falls and the children board the ships. Of course the one Hisen dislikes boards his tampered one. Oh well, at least the smug looking parasite would die. He could live with that.
But he doesn’t. All ships rise without an incident and fly off into the heavens, leaving Hisen and his rotten soul behind. He can’t help but choke out a sob. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair.
Until he spots a flash of white and red, hurtling towards him.
Oh.
OH.
The ship crashes into the ground, skidding across the forest floors before falling into a ditch of sorts where it continued to roll. Hisen can’t believe it. His plan… worked? Kind of.
He makes his way down (which takes a rather lengthy time as it traveled a distance) to the hull and stares at it for a while. Was the passenger… dead?
There is a loud bang and expletives in the oppressors’ tongue which startles Hisen into jumping back. This was insane! He had taken down a Somerian ship and a Somerian as well. Now to kill him and ride the ship back to the Center of Life!
But, unfortunately, fate had a better idea.
“We’re in the middle of the damn woods, Xuxi!”
Crap. Humans.
Hisen throws himself against the darkness of the ditch and focusing all his energy into being absolutely undetectable. Even if the humans laid eyes on him, they’d immediately forget. No one would notice him.
Hisen watches as 3 humans approach the hull. For the longest time, they fight, terrified but then one of them does the absolute unthinkable: he frees the Somerian.
Hisen wants to cry but if he moves, he’ll be spotted and he doesn’t have the energy to fool all of them AND a Somerian on top of that. So he remains completely still until the 4 walks out of the ditch and he narrowly escapes before the Somerian, Jeno as they named him, buries the hull.
His plan was a failure. He was a failure
Jungwoo was there to rectify his thoughts though.
“You haven’t failed. You said ‘Xuxi’, right? I know him- if that is him. If he knows where the Somerian is and I know where he is then well, you might still have a chance. Don’t give up.”
Hisen looks at Jungwoo with grateful eyes. “Thank you, good friend. You’ve saved me.”
Jungwoo smiles at him. “We’ve saved each other.”
The fourth time a ship lands on Earth, well, we all know what happened from there.