Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You gazed out the window at the earth in the distance, watching the clouds swirl around the green and blue mass in loose, willowy curls like strands of hair. Watching the distance lights of cities flicker on each night and flicker out each morning, seeing hurricanes be born over oceans and perish over the land, and other such wonders had been capturing your mind for the past two months. But always with a sense of wistful nostalgia.

With a sigh, you turned away from the window, willing yourself not to feel too upset at the sight. When you first arrived at the Lunar Gateway station and were still wonderstruck at the idea of being in space, you hadn’t glanced twice at the earth. You spent most of your time looking at your much closer cosmological neighbor, the moon, or watching the stars far beyond the reaches of the solar system. You had at first been smitten with these sights, overjoyed at fulfilling a childhood dream of reaching the stars. Now, seven months later, you just wanted to go home.

Hearing a beeping sound from the front of the ship, you finger-walked to the front of the station, mind working at trying to figure out which alarm had been set off. Probably a row of plants in the herbarium needing watering again, or someone forgot to eject the garbage out the airlock again. Not the safest practice, but with so little room on the station, and with most of the room being monopolized for scientific equipment and/or personal effects for the scientists themselves, you used whatever solutions you could.

Turning to the counsel, you noticed it was the alarm about safe lunar orbits that had gone off. This alarm was responsible for telling you if the station was orbiting at a safe altitude. If, for some unusual reason, it went off, it meant that you were orbiting too close to the moon and were in danger of crashing to the lunar surface. Suffice it to say, you were pretty nervous that this one alarm had gone off.

“Hey, Erikson?” you called, listening to the only other crewmember awake at this time.

“Yeah?” he replied, sounding bored.

“The alarm about having a safe orbiting altitude has gone off. Should we wake the other two and work on getting higher up?”

“Nah, it’s probably just a faulty alarm. Wait a bit, if it goes off again then we’ll do something,”

“But what if it’s real? We should probably do something now-”

“Hey, come on now. What are the odds of us crashing, eh? If it gets bad, then we’ll do something. Now leave me be, my plants need me.”

A groan of frustration escaped you as you looked back at the alarm. Erikson only ever had his plants on his mind, that and experiments involving his plants. His one-track devotion to his floral children would be endearing at a different time, but it frustrated you at the moment that you were the only one that cared about the situation at hand.

Which, from the looks of it, was about to get a whole lot worse. Was it just your imagination, or did the moon suddenly look a little closer than it had a few minutes ago?

“Erikson, dude, I mean it! I don’t think we’re high enough-”

A sudden drop of the station cut off your thoughts and your focus, and you were roughly thrown against the ceiling as the station began to pick up speed.

“What the hell?! What’s going on?” Erikson’s voice no longer sounded distracted, he was entering full-on panic mode.

You were just about ready to join him. Your heartbeat pounding in your ears was the only thing drowning out the whistling of the station as it plummeted to the moon’s surface. You gripped the walls of the station, trying to keep your shaking hands steady as your breathing quickened in a panic.

“We’re falling towards the moon, that’s what’s going on!” you shouted in a panic, mind gripped with fear at this turn of events.

We’re going to die, we’re going to die, we’re going to die! you thought over and over, your brain playing the thought over and over again like a skipping record. You closed your eyes as the final part of the descent started, willing for your demise to be quick. You heard Erikson and the other crewmembers screaming, woken up by the station’s freefall to the lunar surface. Just before you hit the ground, you closed your eyes.

______________________________________________________________________________

With a pained moan, you sat up. Or tried to, anyway, there was something blocking your body from sitting up all the way. With the strongest shove you could muster up, you pushed the hunk of metal out of the way and blinked your eyes in confusion, wondering what had happened. Your fuzzy brain slowly rebooted, working through the events of the last few, hours? Days? Just how long were you out?

With a chill running down your spine, you remembered. The alarm. The conversation with Erikson. The crash. The screaming. The crew. The crew…

“ERIKSON! LOUGHLY! THOMPSON! Hey is everyone okay?!”

Silence.

“This isn’t funny, guys! Where are you? Everyone not dead say ‘I’!””

Silence again.

As the quiet ran in your ears louder than thunder, a lump formed in your throat. You were alone. You were the only survivor, as far as you knew. And you were on the moon.

Gazing out the window again, you sighed with relief that at least the station was intact enough so you could breathe. As long as you could breathe, you could survive.

But you were alone. You were alone on the moon, with no hope of getting home.

Or so you thought…

Chapter Text

Trekking slowly across the lunar desert, you let your mind disassociate from your body as you mentally tried to process what the hell just happened. Just hours ago, everything had been fine. The station had been orbiting the moon like a champ, everything was running smoothly, things were great! Now the station was a pile of twisted metal and scattered supplies, you were stranded here, and your crew -

No, you though, can’t let myself think of that right now. Gotta focus on staying alive.

You tried to push the mental image of Erikson, Loughly, and Thompson’s bodies entangled in the wreckage. Bones snapped like twigs, burns forming a grim patchwork across their skin (most likely the burst fuel tank that powered the reactor), eyes wide open in horror, their last sights forever etched into their minds at the moment of their deaths.

You’d have time to bury them later. To mourn them later. To weep for the lives that had been cruelly cut short later. Now, you had to keep yourself alive so there would be someone to mourn them.

You had no idea where you were going. Miraculously, one of the spacesuits had survived the crash unscathed and intact for your use. You had also found some food that had withstood the crash, probably enough to last you a good three months. If you could stabilize the interior of the station, the part that was mostly undamaged, you figured you could hole up there until NASA sent help. The real question was, how were you going to signal them? Did they even know that the Lunar Gateway was down?

Hence you were out here. Having already tried to operate the station’s radio and satellite channels, and having struck nothing, you figured your next best bet would be to hike out and see if you could find a lunar rover or something for you to use. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to fix up whatever communication modules were on the piece of equipment you found. That was the main reason you were selected for this mission, anyhow: you were a, pun intended, stellar engineer. Given the time and resources, you could have taken apart the Lunar Gateway, labelled all the parts, and put it back together good as new. All you needed to do was find some way to communicate with Earth, and you’d be home in no time.

Then again, in its own desolate way, the moon was quite beautiful. As you trekked across the grey desert, you let your eyes wander across the low, sloping hills, the jagged edges of distant craters, and the seemingly endless plains that stretched in between. Craning your head back, you could also see the stars. You had never seen so many stars in your life; the skies on earth wouldn’t hold a candle to stellar expanse before you. So bright, and peaceful, and -

What are those things flying your way?

Your eyes widened at what you were seeing now. Two red shapes, silhouetted against the stars, were flying low over the lunar landscape, making their way towards you quickly. Squinting, you could make out accents of gold along with the red, and how they seemed to be flying using wings. Not spaceship-style wings, fixed and sturdy, but bird-like wings, flapping and gliding under their own power. Which didn’t make sense, given the moon’s lack of atmosphere. Those wings should be pushing against air, and there wasn’t any air, so how were they -

Wait, are those lions?

Nope, nope, nope nope nope!! You thought as you turned around as fast as your suit would allow you before bolting (or trying to, anyway) back in the direction you had come. I am NOT seeing lions on the moon! There ARE no lions on the moon! I’m running out on oxygen, I had a breakdown after the crash, something happened, and I’m just seeing things! Just gotta get back to the wreck, and I’ll try this again! Yeah, that’ll work!

However, you had forgotten that trying to run in a spacesuit on low gravity was like trying to run away from a dog in swimming flippers: it just doesn’t work. You didn’t get far, and you had only managed to awkwardly sprint about a hundred yards before giving out.

And to make matters worse, you had been so busy running away from the “lions” that you had neglected to notice a rock that was in your path. Now this rock turned out to be the perfect height for tripping over; short enough to not be seen in time to avoid it, but tall enough to knock you head first in the ground, causing your helmet to crack completely open.

With a loud hiss, all the air in your suit suddenly whooshed out the gaping hole where the front visor had been previously. You were left choking and clawing at your face and neck, desperately trying to get anything in your lungs. It didn’t work, soon your vision turned red and blurred from the blood vessels in your eyes bursting, and you crumpled to the ground.

This was it. This is how you would die. You would die here, alone on the moon, and no one would know where to find your body, and the last thing you were gonna see were those damned lions -

A huff of warm air blew across your face, and you vision briefly switched from red to violet before suddenly clearing up. You stood still, suddenly calmed and relaxed, before hesitantly taking a short breath. Given that your lungs didn’t suddenly burst or freeze, you took several much deeper breaths, relishing the feeling of air rushing into your lungs.

You were fine. You were breathing, alive, and you didn’t even have a helmet on! How what this possible? What was going on? Puzzled, you directed your attention to the two large red felines standing before you, one of which was drawing its head back from your face with a satisfied grin.

Did they have something to do with your new, unusual ability? They must have; in a weird way it made sense to connect “two red flying lions on the moon” with “able to breathe without an atmosphere”. You supposed you should thank them for saving you, then.

“Um, thanks?” you offered, wondering if they even understood you. “Look, this is all very weird, and I’m sorry for running away if you were just trying to help, but I really should get going. I have a rover, or a radio, or something else, to find so I can call my people and get back to Earth, so if you wouldn’t mind I need to keep going.”

One of the lions suddenly kneeled slightly to the ground and extended a wing. Was he (you assumed it was a “he”, based on the mane) offering you a ride somewhere? It made sense; if they lived on the moon, maybe they’d know a place you could find what you needed. Then again, this made sense in the same way everything else about today was making sense. It’s been an unusual day so far, so why not just roll with it?

“You know where I can find something?” you asked, “Are you offering to take me there?”

Insisting, the lion lowered his wing further, and with a shrug you climbed onto his back.

With a flap of their enormous wings the lions took off into the air, setting off across the lunar plains. As the three of you flew, you took in the sights before you. Seeing the moon from the ground was one thing, seeing it from the Lunar Gateway had been another thing, but this was something else entirely. You could feel the wind, or what passed as the wind on the moon, blow through your hair as you swooped low over the desert and soared high above the craters. Turning around, you caught a brief glimpse of the Earth, nothing more than a distant blue and green crescent floating in the void of space. Vaguely, at one end of the crescent you caught a glimpse of the aurora borealis, a glimpse of a rainbow against the darkness between the stars.

You felt a pang of longing in your chest. Hopefully, you could find a way to get home soon.

As the lions flew around to the dark side of the moon, you noticed that, ironically, this side of the moon wasn’t so dark. In fact, you swore you could see lights off in the distance. Bright, brilliant lights in every color imaginable, which slowly took shape into a city.

And you thought you had already seen it all today.

This was actually a city! With buildings, and towers, and everything! As you flew closer, and reached the city’s outskirts, you caught brief glimpses of the people. Very few of them seemed to be of definitive shape; most of them looked like blobs, or teardrops, with arms and legs to move around with. Which, in hindsight, make the two very definite lions that brought you here look even more weird. What was all this?

You noticed that the three of you were flying towards a large tower, the tallest one in the city no less, located at the very heart of this glowing metropolis. Perhaps the home of whoever was in charge around here? Someone who at the very least could give you answers, if not a way home themselves? As the lions landed on a balcony near the top of the tower, you prepared yourself for whoever it was, and started walking up the steps.

Chapter Text

Questions raced through your mind as you crept into the technicolored temple before you. How did this get here? Did anyone at NASA know about this? Hell, does anyone on EARTH know about this? Who lives here? WHY?

Being of the scientific sort, you relied on readily-understood facts and easily-obtainable answers to make sense of the universe around you. Everything could be figured out using the scientific process; a few facts about an unknown subject could make it less unknown or conducting your own inquiry into a new mystery could take way that unfortunate mystery. There was no ready explanation available for the lions, this palace, this city of light, and you couldn’t for the life of you figure out an explanation of your own. You didn’t even have a sound explanation for how the rest of the crew died and you didn’t.

Why did you survive, and they didn’t?

A rebellious tear pricked at the corner of your eye, but you blinked, and it retreated before it could fall. This was no time to lose your composure, no time to break down. You couldn’t afford to.

For their sakes, you would get the truth.

As you crept forward, you were suddenly stopped when you heard singing. Singing, of all things. And what must have been the most beautiful singing you’ve ever heard, to boot. Then again, considering everything else that has happened since the crash, hearing another person’s voice wasn’t that unusual. In a strange way, it was welcome. It reassured you, that you weren’t truly alone here on the moon. Maybe there was someone here that could help you get home.

Of course, that now raised the question of who was up here. As you moved further down the hall, you swore you could hear a steady beating, like a backbeat accompanying the singing. You could see the bright flashing of lights, all the colors of the rainbow strobing in a mad multicolor display, and you could hear the sound of a crowd cheering. Curious, you picked up the pace and made your way closer to the noise.

You swore you would receive the answers to your questions when you reached the end of the hallway and found someone to talk to. Instead, you had more questions.
In front of you was the largest crowd you’d ever seen! Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of people crowding a massive stadium and cheering and singing along to the voice you heard earlier. Perhaps you could ask one of them what was going on! You turned to address the person next to you –

And your mind slammed to a halt in confusion. It wasn’t a person at all! Or, at least, you didn’t think it was a person. It looked like a magenta blob, with a face on the front and simplistic arms and legs. You swore, from the rough outline of its shape, that might have been a sentient teardrop or something. Hey, it’s already been a very long and very unusual day for you, might as well roll with it, right?

“Excuse me,” you asked the ‘teardrop’, “Could you tell me what the hell’s going on? I need to talk to someone, I need help!”

Startled, the teardrop turned to look at you. It, or you guessed they, looked stunned to see you, if not outright shocked. Their mouth opened and closed several times, trying to find words to say, but nothing came out.

“Please! I need to speak with whoever’s in charge! Do you know someone I can talk to? It’s urgent!”

Shyly, the teardrop pointed at the center of the stadium, where the singing seemed to be coming from. They slowly started to back away from you into the oblivious crowd, until they were swept away and became lost in the laughing and dancing multitudes.

Turning your head to the center of the stadium, you peered closely. You could see several distant figures on the stage, most of which looked like more of those teardrops, but more closely defined in some way. They were dancing around what looked like a tall woman, and from the sounds if it, she was the source of that voice you heard earlier.

You couldn’t understand what she was singing, but it was beautiful! Your words failed to describe what her voice was like to you, and you were sure you would never find such words in any language. For a minute, you got lost in the music and singing, you just wanted to forget –

No! That’s not why I’m here! You scolded yourself, you need answers, NOT singing! You’re doing this for your crew, your family! You owe it to them to find out why they died, and you didn’t!

You were right, you couldn’t afford to let yourself get distracted. So, you started walking slowly to the stage, trying to drown out the sound of the singing and get back on track. You kept your eyes on the ground, trying not to look at the strange blobs that were starting to notice your presence and whisper their shock to one another. Turns out that you were very good at ignoring distractions and staying focused, because you didn’t notice when the singing, and the music, and even the cheering stopped. It was only when you hear a voice addressing you that you suddenly looked up, surprised.

“Ugh, who did you pick a fight with?”

The voice belonged to the woman on the stage, the one that was singing earlier. Now that you were closer, you could get a better look at her. She appeared to be of Asian descent, Chinese most likely given how she was speaking. The language she was using sounded like some form of Mandarin, but you couldn’t be too sure. East Asian languages were never your forte. Judging by the tone though, you guessed she was asking you a snarky question about your appearance. Which you figured made sense, in a weird way. The contrast between your clothes and hers was night and day.

She was dressed in a rather elegant long red gown with a flared multicolored collar behind her head, and long sleeves that brushed the ground. Her gown also had several intricate, beautiful designs, which you thought were animals of some sort, or flowers maybe. She also had on very stylish makeup; her eyes had red and yellow eyeshadow neatly spread across her eyelids, and her mascara was on point. To say you looked like a mess compared to her was an understatement. One of her perfectly plucked eyebrows was raised in annoyance at your refusal to answer her question.

“I’m sorry, are you mute as well? Speak up! Why won’t you say anything?”

At your blank stare, it suddenly clicked with her that you couldn’t understand her. The woman looked thoughtful for a second, before calling to someone offstage.

“Jade! I need something to help our friend here! I don’t think she understands me,”

From offstage you heard the sound of light footsteps thumping their way towards you, and when you looked down you saw something even more unusual than the woman. It was a small light green rabbit. He (you guessed it was he) came up to your knee when he rested on his hind legs, and in his front paws he held up a small vial towards you. Gently plucking it from his grasp, you took a closer look at the fluid in the vial. It was a light magenta color, with threads of blue and yellow dancing their way throughout the liquid.

You blinked in surprise at the concoction. Okay, I know I was joking about rabbit holes and being Alice earlier, but this is getting WEIRD, even compared to everything else that’s been happening today! you thought How do I know this won’t knock me out, or poison me, or do something even worse!

You looked back at the woman who waved the rabbit over and glanced back and forth between the weird drink and her. She was looking at you expectantly; clearly, she was waiting for you to drink it.

Well, today’s already been pretty weird, you thought with a shrug of your shoulders, I really need answers for why my crew died and I didn’t, if this gets me those answers, so be it.

Tilting the vial towards you mouth, you downed the contents of the entire vial with a single loud gulp. The woman in red winced at how unsubtle your actions were, but her face remained neutral otherwise.

You didn’t notice anything different at first, but within a second your ears and throat began burning quick and hot. Yelping you clawed at your neck, wondering what that rabbit had given you. Was that poison? Why were they trying to poison you?! What would they –

“If you’re done trying to tear open your own throat, perhaps we can start this over? It should be easier now that we understand each other.”

You whipped your head up to look at the strange woman, stunned. You could understand her now? What the hell was in that stuff?

“What – how – I-” you stammered, “What was in that stuff you gave me? What did you do?!”

The woman shrugged, “I couldn’t understand you, and you certainly couldn’t understand me. Now we can understand each other. Quite simple, I’m sure you can figure it out.”

Should I be insulted by that last remark? you thought, “Well, I figured as much, since I couldn’t understand you before drinking that stuff - ”

“So why did you ask me what I ‘did’ to you? Seems somewhat ridiculous to ask a question you already know the answer to,”

“Okay, never mind!” you snapped, ignoring the gasps from some of the nearby teardrops at your tone, “This isn’t getting me anywhere, what’s going on? Where am I? Who are you? Are you an alien or something?”

“What?” the woman asked,

“From outer space, another planet, are you an alien?” you repeated.

“What? No! How absurd, I’m human! Or at least, was human,” the woman in red replied. “Is that normal for you? Asking ridiculous questions that make no sense in hindsight?”

“Well, it’s been an unusual, and frankly awful day for me!” you retorted. “The space station I was living in crashed, my entire crew except for me was killed, I got chased by freaking lions, got taken to a city straight off a Pink Floyd album cover, drank some suspicious-looking stuff that a green rabbit gave me, and now I’m talking to a woman that was human, but apparently is not. Where I’m from, that more than a little weird!”

“I’m sorry, a space station?” the woman asked, “What’s that?”

“It’s like an, uh, metal enclosed building that orbits a planet, or a moon, in this case – but that’s not the point! Look, I’ve had a really bad day, and if I don’t get off this rock and back to Earth it’s just going to get worse. I have a plan, or at least part of a plan, to get back home, but I need to stay alive long enough so I can make that happen. Can you help me?”

The woman in red looked pensively at you, as though her decision to help you or not was of cosmic importance. As if the wrong choice was made, then disaster would strike. You waited nervously, along with the rabbit and thousands of teardrops that had been watching this unusual interaction, holding a collective breath. Her decision could determine whether you would live or die, although you tried not to focus on that.

“You were hurt in that crash, weren’t you?” she asked quietly, noting the bruises on your neck and the scratch across your left eyebrow. You had tried to ignore those small injuries before – they were negligible compared to what happened to the others – but the cut was starting to sting a little.

“It could be worse,” you replied nonchalantly.

The woman in red failed to reply to your quip, instead she straightened up and addressed the crowd, “Lunarians, I have an announcement,” she began, “until this mortal can find her own way back to Earth, she will be a guest in our city. She shall live in the palace until her ship has been repaired.”

The crowd – Lunarians, you supposed – whispered amongst themselves and snuck glances at you, trying to determine what their leader’s motives were. You figured they had a right to do so; you would be acting the same way, if the circumstances were different.

“Thank you,” you said gratefully to the woman, “but I never got your name. Would you mind telling me what it is?”

The woman was stunned at this, “Really? You have no idea who I am?”

“Well, judging by your tone, it sounds like you expect me to know who you are, so now’s as good a time as any to start learning about you.”

A mischievous grin broke across the woman in red’s face, and she looked at you pridefully. “I am Chang’e, goddess of the moon, eternal ruler of the city of Lunaria, and incidentally, your host,” she said. “Now, if you follow me, we’ll head to the palace. Let’s see if you are clever enough to find your own way off my moon."

Chapter Text

As you made your way through the palace, you tried to distract yourself by trying to figure out how its interior worked. From what you could see, it was rather dark in here, with only a navy blue glow lighting up the walls. There were pillars scattered throughout the hallway you were walking down, but they weren’t like any pillars you had seen before. They were shaped like spinning tops at the base, and had a simplistic, wave-like design etched in teal running around the widest part. Further up each pillar, their columns became wavier, and they seemed to shimmer as they rotated, like the night sky itself was wrapped around each one.

The pillars themselves were moving, turning across the floor as your group walked through the hallway. As they approached a group of pillars, they would move apart and let you pass, before closing back in on each other behind you. Your mind ran through several possibilities trying to understand how they moved without compromising the palace’s stability. Was it an elaborate hologram? Were they on a track? How did they move like that –

“You must either be easily amused, or somehow you find my palace more interesting than me. I’m not sure which possibility I like less,”

Of course, the pillars were only one part of the mystery. Whipping your head around, you turned to look at the woman in red – Chang’e – and blushed slightly.

“Sorry, it’s just -” you began, “this is all very overwhelming. I wasn’t expecting this to be up here! Hell, I’m not supposed to be on the moon at all! Just orbiting around it and taking pictures for later missions.”

“Oh?” Chang’e asked, looking curiously at you, “And what kind of ‘mission’ all the way to my moon involves only taking pictures? From what I’ve gathered, it takes a lot of effort for mortals to travel here.”

“Hold up,” you replied, “Why do you keep calling it ‘your moon?’ According to the Moon Treaty of 1979, the moon is considered international territory, and thus it doesn’t belong to any nations, much less a single person,”

Chang’e laughed at this assertion of yours, “Mortal, I was here long before most of those nations existed! Much less before any such treaty was signed. Jade and I were the first ones here, therefore it is ‘our moon’. Granted, he has no interest in claiming the moon for his own, so it’s mine.”

“But that isn’t right!” you started, “Just because you were here first doesn’t mean – ow!”

You whipped you head down to the guard you had jabbed you in the leg with the tip of his spear. These guards that were escorting you and Chang’e looked different from the Lunarians you had seen earlier. They were all a light teal and had six or so points running around them. They were also all wearing sunglasses (another thing about this place that didn’t make sense), and the guard that jabbed you was glaring at you from behind his shades.

“Watch it, mortal!” the guard hissed, “You ought to show more respect to our goddess! She saved your life!”

“It’s alright, guard.” Chang’e replied smoothly. She looked down at you with a smug look. “Our guest here is entitled to her opinions, even if they are wrong.”

You fumed a little at that statement but decided to keep your annoyance to yourself. It didn’t make sense to argue about decades-old treaties with the person who had saved you.

“Getting back to your earlier question,” you began, “We were taking pictures of the moon so we could see if the terrain was suitable for mining.”

“Mining?” Chang’e asked, “What exactly would your people be mining? In the 3,000 years I’ve been up here I’ve never found anything worth mining from the ground,”

“Stop stop stop,” you began, your feet sliding to a halt as you tried to process that last bit of information, “how long have you been here again? Because I did not just hear you say 3,000 years! No one lives that long!”

“I’ve lived that long,” Chang’e replied with a shrug, “That’s what immortality means – I can’t grow old, and I can’t die. For better or for worse.” She stated that last sentence with a slightly quieter tone that before. You weren’t sure what to make of that.

You decided it would be best to change the subject before it wandered into awkward territory. “Okay, fine, let’s assume for the time being that yes, you are immortal, and yes, this city and its people are real and not some elaborate trick. I still have a lot of questions about that, don’t think I’m dropping it!”

“Why am I not surprised?” Chang’e asked with a smirk.

“It’s literally my job to ask questions, to try and understand how the world works. Or, for the time being, how this world works. Speaking of which, to get the conversation back on track,” you answered, “the bigwigs back home said that we would be scouting for metal ores. You know, your iron, your copper, your gold, any and all metals if we can find them. Though personally, I don’t think they were being honest about that part.”

“What makes you think that?” the goddess inquired, curious about your skeptical tone.

“Well, first of all, we weren’t given a specific location to begin looking in. It costs a lot to send people up here, so to make sure costs don’t go up, it’s best to have an idea of which specific area to look in. Secondly, we weren’t given any landing gear, no modules, no rovers, no nothing. For a scouting operation dedicated to mining, it’s pretty counterproductive to never actually set foot on the area you’re scouting. Thirdly, even if we had been given any landing gear, we didn’t have any gear specific for mining, like drills, probes, or seismic devices. It’s weird for the same reason that having no landing gear is weird. Finally, out of all four of the crew that was on the Lunar Gateway, only one of us, Thompson, actually specialized in geology. The rest of us were a botanist, an astronomer, and an engineer, aka your truly.”

Chang’e gazed at you in thought, before replying, “I think you’re a bit more skeptical, and ask more questions than I would deem normal, given how you’ve acted in the 20 minutes we’ve known each other. That being said,” she continued, noting the annoyed look on your face, “you have made a few good points. Maybe asking more questions will get you the answers you seek?”

“That’s the idea,” you said with a nod, “Question everything, take nothing for granted. Or no one for granted, either.” Your voice dipped in volume at the last sentence, and Chang’e noticed, judging by the flash of concern on her face that disappeared just as quickly.

You caught a flash of white jumping behind a pillar all of a sudden, and you stopped to take a closer look. Chang’e and the guards also stopped to avoid losing track of you, the latter being annoyed at how uncooperative you were.

From behind the pillar, you watched as three rabbit kits cautiously hopped towards you and settled on their heels at your feet, creeping forward to sniff at you and, you assume, check that you were safe. You knelt down to take a closer look; you had a soft spot for animals, one of the few soft spots you had.

The kit on the left looked slightly bigger than their siblings and had light green fur and baby blue eyes staring at you. The kit on the right was the second largest, and also had light green fur, but they also had white paw pads and ears, and retained the blue eyes of their larger sibling. Finally, the kit in the middle was the smallest, and in your opinion, the cutest. They had white fur all over, soft pink ear tips, and bright purple eyes that were locked on you. They also were the boldest of the kits, creeping right up to your hand as your knelt down to let them sniff it. While they were some of the weirdest rabbits you had ever seen (besides Jade, the large green one from earlier), they were also some of the cutest.

“Oh my goodness,” you whispered, trying not to startle the kits. “Look at you guys! Aren’t you three so sweet! What cuties!”

Chang’e’s eyes softened upon seeing you act so gentle with the rabbits. This was a stark change from the snarky, analytical person she had been interacting with up until this point. It was not a negative change from your character, nor was it an improvement either. While it was somewhat annoying that you asked a lot of questions and got sidetracked even while asking them, she didn’t think that was bad in and of itself. Likewise, your gentle nature with the kits now was interesting to see. If anything, it was refreshing to see that you weren’t as one-dimensional as she had previously thought.

“Whose kits are these?” you asked, turning to the goddess who had kneeled to take a look at the kits as well.

“They’re the children of Jade and his mate, Bungee,” she replied. “You’ll see them hopping around in groups every now and then during your stay here, they prefer to stick together.”

You weren’t looking at Chang’e while she said that. Your eyes were fixed on the little kit with the pink ears. They had hopped into your hand by now and was sniffing at your palm. They seemed to really not be afraid of you, which you found odd but endearing.

Realizing that you were keeping your host waiting, you tilted your hand slightly to let the kit jump down, but instead of joining their siblings they leapt up your arm and into the pocket of your flight suit.

“Hey, come on now,” you chided lightly, “Please get out of there, you don’t belong in there,”

Instead of listening to you, the kit snuggled deeper into the pocket and presumably fell asleep, enjoying how warm it was due to your body heat. The two green kits hopped off, not wanting to wait on their white-furred counterpart.

You looked at Chang’e pleadingly, seeing if she could do something about the stubborn rabbit. She chuckled at your predicament and noted, “It looks like you have a new friend.”

“I guess,” you sighed in resignation, “She’s lucky she’s cute.”

“And look at that, we’ve arrived at where you’ll be staying while you’re my guest.”

You turned to your right, straightening up as you did so. Just a few yards down the hall were a set of double doors, dark blue like the rest of the hall but with a simplistic design you couldn’t make out decorating them. Pushing them open, you found a simple room that would suit your needs: a bed, a dresser (though you didn’t have many clothes to begin with), a door that led to what you presumed was a bathroom, and a window with a small balcony leading off it, giving a view of the neon metropolis below.

Walking inside, you gave a cursory glance around before nodding. “Alright, this I can work with. I still need to head back to the wreck site tomorrow and see if I can find some food, maybe a new set of clothes, and some equipment. I could start drawing up some basic designs for a rocket, or if all else fails find a way to contact someone at NASA to come get me.”

Chang’e smiled slightly before responding, “Sounds like you know what you’re doing,”

“‘Sounds like’ being the key phrase,” you replied, “I’ll mostly be winging it, but I have confidence that I can figure something out.” You yawned just as you finished that sentence. “Well, after I get some rest and can think straight, that is. I’ll guess I’ll talk to you in the morning. Or, at least, what passes for morning around here?”

“Rest assured, mornings are still a thing here,” Chang’e answered. “I’ll leave you to it, mortal. We’ll speak more on your plans then.”

“Alright, talk to you then.” you said.

And with that, the doors closed behind you, Chang’e and the guards both casting glances back at you. The latter a collective glance of suspicion, the former a look of curiosity and something else you couldn’t read. You turned towards the bed and stripped off your flight suit, being careful not to disturb the kit in your pocket. Climbing between the sheets, you settled down to sleep, having at last reached the end of your first unusual day here.

Chapter Text

Well, here you were, heading back to where it all started. Your goal for today was simple – retrieve any leftover food that had survived the crash, as well as any communication equipment that could be salvaged. You figured it would be easier to just call the folks at NASA and have them come get you instead of trying to MacGyver a rocket out of the remains of the station. A simple solution for a complex problem. Admittedly, the problem was more complex than you had planned. You were grateful to Chang’e for letting you stay in Lunaria until you found a way home, but how would you explain your survival to your superiors? From what you remembered, not many parts of the station had remained sealed and pressurized after the crash, and the oxygen in each of the space suits was only meant to last a half hour at most. You supposed you would cross that bridge when you got to it.

Speaking of Chang’e, what was her deal exactly? You were still trying to wrap your head around everything you learned yesterday – she was over 3,000 years old, was apparently immortal (though you still didn’t understand how that worked) and was somehow involved in the creation of Lunaria. And what about those rabbits, were they immortal too? They didn’t look like the other Lunarians, they looked more “real”, so to speak, like they were alive in the same way you were. And that wasn’t even getting into how Chang’e’s voice had trailed off at one point, when she was talking about not being able to die. If someone could live forever, what would there be to regret? Did someone she loved die? Yeah, it sucks when someone you love dies, but it happens, that’s life. After all, you would know better than anyone –

You paused in your trek to the crash site when you heard some rocks shuffling, and the sound of feet scurrying behind a rock. You were fairly sure it wasn’t that lion that had dropped you off a little while ago. You had insisted on going to the site alone. Your crew’s bodies were there, and in a weird way, the site felt sacred. No one but you should go there. Besides, if you broke down, you didn’t want anyone seeing you. It showed weakness, letting other people see you cry.

So as you could imagine, the idea of someone seeing you like that stressed you out. Heading back in the direction you came from, you tiptoed to the rock that you heard the shuffle come from. You swore you saw someone, or something, dart behind that rock just before you turned around. Picking up a stone, you tossed it as hard as you could over the larger rock. It must have hit something, because you heard a small yelp.

You felt bad almost immediately. You didn’t mean to hurt them! “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to hit you!” you yelled, “I just wasn’t sure if someone was there. I’d feel better if you showed yourself, I promise not to throw anymore rocks at you!”

“Are you sure you won’t?” someone answered back, “because it did hurt a bit, but then again it wasn’t that bad, and I sorta understand why you threw that, I mean, if I were you, I’d be pretty scared too, so I get where you’re coming from -”

“Yes, I’m sure,” you reiterated, “there will be no more rock-throwing from here on out. So could you please come out?”

There was a pause, and something short and green suddenly darted out from behind the rock and stopped at your feet. Startled by the abrupt motion, you quickly back peddled, only to trip over your own feet and land on your rear.

The short, green something cheerfully greeted you, “Hi, I’m Gobi! What’s your name?” he asked. You assumed it was a he, based on the pitch of the voice. Before answering his question, you took a quick look at what he was. You assumed he was a Lunarian, based on his neon green skin tone and the bright glow around his body, but the shape was quite different. This Lunarian had a more animal-ish shape; he looked like a hedgehog or something. He was also different from the other Lunarians in that he didn’t seem afraid, or even wary of you. On the contrary, now that you two were actually talking, he seemed friendly. Currently, he was grinning widely at you, waiting for an answer to his question.

“Well, um -” you started, caught off guard by his enthusiasm, “my name is -”

“Hi, I’m Gobi! What’s your name? Wait, I didn’t already say that did I? Sorry, I’m kind of a nervous talker, I just tend to go on and on and I don’t realize when I’ve been repeating myself, it’s a habit I’ve been trying to break for a while, I’ve found that refocusing and clearing my mind usually works, one second!” He grabbed his wrist, like he was searching for a pulse.

“Hold on, what -” you began,

“Wait for it, wait for it,” he replied, slowly calming down, “Ah, serenity achieved,” he finished, closing his eyes blissfully for a couple of moments before snapping them back open and refocusing on you, “Hold on, I do know who you are! You’re that astronaut that Chang’e is letting stay in the palace until you can build a rocket to get back home, right?”

“Well, building a rocket would be more of a last resort,” you admitted, “the easier solution would be to repair a radio, or build a new one if need be, so I can contact someone to come get me. Lot easier than trying to build an entire rocket, if you ask me – wait, hold on? Who are you? Why were you following me? Why are you out here?” To say you were a bit annoyed at this turn of events was an understatement. The last thing you needed was an audience while you said your goodbyes to your crew.

“Oh, well, you see, the thing is-” he began, scrambling for an excuse, “the truth is…well, why shouldn’t I be out here! Honestly, it’s a good thing that I followed you out here, I mean, as a high-ranking official of the court it’s part of my job to keep tabs on you and make sure your stay in Lunaria is going good. You see, I’m pretty important to Chang’e, you could say I’m her advisor-”

“Oh really?” you asked, skeptical of his claim. If Chang’e did have an advisor, why didn’t she mention it yesterday? Granted, her desire to learn more about you could have overridden her telling you about Gobi, but you had been introduced to other Lunarians already. Later that same evening, one of them (inexplicably shaped like a small cake) had stopped in your room to tend to the cuts on your brow and arms. Perhaps the immortal (you still didn’t buy her claim that she was a goddess) was planning on telling you about Gobi later? You would have to ask her about this ‘advisor’ when you got back to the palace.

Speaking of him, “Yeah, totally! The goddess and I are super close, I’m pretty much indispensable to her, so it makes sense why I – why SHE, would make sure to send me to follow you, and make sure you didn’t get hurt or anything! Obviously, she’d only send her best and brightest to make sure her guest is having a good stay,” he finished, grinning proudly at that last statement.

“That’s odd, because Chang’e didn’t mention having an advisor when we first met,” you replied, “Seems like something she wouldn’t forget to bring up at our initial meeting.”

“It probably just slipped her mind at the time,” Gobi responded, waving off your concerns, “She was mostly more interested in getting to know you first! That and maybe that’s my biggest reason for following you out here. We don’t often get people visiting Lunaria, and you seem pretty cool!”

“Can’t imagine why you don’t have more visitors here,” you snarked back, “It’s not like we’re on the moon or anything!”

“Um, we are, though,” he said, confused.

Note to self: you thought, avoid use of sarcasm around this one. “Alrighty then, well this was a very interesting conversation, but I really must be going. Good day to you.” you finished. And with that, you turned on your heel and began making your way back to the crash site.

“Wait, hold on!” Gobi yelled, chasing after you. “I can help you! You’re getting food from the crash site, right? Mortals need food, that much I know! I can help carry it back! Or if you need me to grab some cool science-y stuff so you can build that radio you mentioned, I can help build that with you-”

“No thanks, I’m good,” you said, starting to get even more annoyed. “Trust me, I don’t need any help. And it’s probably better that you didn’t see what the crash looks like, trust me, it’s not pretty.”

“I didn’t think that a space station crash would be pretty, though,” Gobi replied, “I’m just saying, you could probably use my help! I mean, how bad could it possibly look anyway – oh,” he stopped talking, because you had stopped at the edge of the crater where the station had fallen, and the sight had stunned you both into silence.

It looked like a caricature of a crash; a satire crafted out of mangled metal and shattered glass. When the station had hit the ground, the whole front end had imploded, the three front compartments depressurizing with a massive bang! and vomiting their contents across the crater floor. The solar panels that had stretch out on either side of the Lunar Gateway were utterly destroyed; the panels on the right side had been crushed by the weight of the station when you had crashed. The panels on the left had been ripped off completely halfway through your descent, the way an unruly child would rip off a dragonfly’s wings. Those panels lay warped and mangled a good hundred yards from the main station body, grotesquely glittering in the starlight in a mosaic of solar cells and wires. The main thruster was barely attached at the rear of the station, and had been crushed like a soda can that had been stomped on sideways. The only part of the station that looked remotely intact was the compartment you had been in when the station went down; by sheer luck you had remained alive long enough to get a spacesuit and escape the wreck.

But by far the worst part of the wreck? Erikson’s body had been thrown from the station during the crash, and was completely outside. The vacuum of space is not kind on exposed humans, to put it simply. The lack of oxygen is usually what kills people, and one of the side effects (besides choking to death) was that it turned a person’s skin blue. Not just the lips, or the hands, like you would see with hypothermia, but Erikson’s entire body was a rich cerulean hue. It was a pretty color, if it also didn’t mean that he was dead. The swelling didn’t help either. Another side effect of being thrown into space was the rapid decompression of gases in a person’s tissues. Because of how rapid the process was, it resulted in a person’s body ballooning out to cartoonish proportions. As bad as Erikson looked, however, he was lucky: Thompson and Loughly’s bodies weren’t nearly as intact.

Your jaw tightened, and you rapidly blinked away the tears that threatened to spill from the corners of your eyes. There was no way in hell you were going to cry in front of a stranger. “Now you know why I wanted to come here alone,” you muttered, struggling to keep your emotions in check, “This isn’t something that anyone should see.”

Gobi was silent for a couple of minutes. For the first time since you two had met, he was rendered speechless. Finally he spoke, “Um, okay then, I kinda get why you didn’t want anyone else with you, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be on my way back-”

“Hold on,” you interrupted, “Since you’re already here, and are seeing all this yourself, you might as well give me a hand. I’m looking for food, parts to build a radio or something, and maybe some personal effects. It shouldn’t take too long.” You started inching your way down the crater’s side, working your way to the wreck. “If you see anything that looks…not alive, let me know and I’ll handle it.”

The Lunarian hesitated only for a second, before following you down, “Okay, sure! I can do that! You just worry about doing…whatever it is you’re going to do, and I’ll get that other stuff!” Some of his previously chipper attitude seemed to come back at being given a task to complete.

For the next hour the two of you worked on your respective tasks. Gobi was able to find the food that you mentioned and some of the equipment you would need to build a radio. You helped him a little with the latter tasks by describing which parts you would need, and why when he asked. Meanwhile, you combed through the wreck, looking for the bodies of the last two crew members. Loughly had been asleep during the crash, but that didn’t make his death any less horrific. He had been near the reactor when the ship crashed, and there were ghastly burns covering almost all of his body. The damage was so bad that all the skin on his left side, the side facing the reactor, had been flayed off by the heat. Gingerly, you grabbed a parachute that had detonated after the crash and used it to cover his body. You didn’t want that to be the last image you had of your gentle friend, the best navigator you knew, but it was what it was.

Meanwhile, Thompson had been utterly destroyed by the impact; the pilot/geologist had been in the control room, trying to get you guys back into orbit when you crashed. That part of the station was the first part to hit the ground, and had shattered on impact. Thompson’s body had been ripped through the fractured window, and had been essentially torn apart through the combined force of broken glass and rapid decompression. You worked hard to locate as many pieces of her body as you could. At one point you had to climb on top of the wreck to retrieve her left arm; it took all your willpower not to break down at that sight.

Finally, you had all three bodies lined up next to the wreck, and you pondered what to do with them. While they wouldn’t decompose on the moon, it felt disrespectful to just leave them there exposed. Besides, if any Lunarians came this way, it would be unfair for them to come across your crew’s bodies and be traumatized. There was only one way to handle this, to pay your respects to your friends.

“Hey! You almost done over there?” Gobi hollered from the other side of the wreck. He had a good-sized pile of food, science equipment, and some of your personal items. You figured when those lions returned for you, you would ask one of them to carry that stuff back to the city.

“Almost,” you replied, “There’s just one more thing I have to do. Then we can go!”

Twisting your way inside the wreck, you groped around until you found what you were looking for: a standard shovel. It has mostly been used for shoveling trash into the airlock beforehand, but was perfect for what you had to do now.

It took an additional hour to finish digging all three graves. Surprisingly, the lunar soil wasn’t hard to dig through. You supposed with no roots to hack up or concrete to chip through it made digging easier. Dragging each body into each grave, it was an additional twenty minutes to cover each body and pat down the grey, powdery soil. For a final touch, you used your fingers to write each of their names in each grave, as well as their date of deaths. With the lack of weather here, you didn’t have to worry about your words blowing away. In this silent lunar landscape, everything was eternal. Their graves would remain intact as long as the stars shone over your head.

At least they’ll get to rest under the stars forever, you thought. You glanced to your left, and eyed the earth as it lingered on the horizon. Everything was changing about the earth; oceans rose and fell, new lands formed and old lands sank into the sea, old countries died and new ones rose from their ashes. It was beautiful, watching such change in action, but sad in how temporary it all was. Here, on the moon, ‘eternity’ meant something. If something was meant to last forever, it actually did here. As horrific as your crew’s deaths were, at least their final resting place would last for eternity.

At some point in your musings, Gobi had trotted over to your side and was eyeing the graves you had dug. “I’m sorry about your friends,” he began, “From the looks of it, I’d say they meant a lot to you. But I guess, in a really weird way, it’s a good thing you survived.”

“What makes you say that?” you questioned.

“Well if you died too, there wouldn’t be anyone to bury them. I’ve never seen anyone bury a body before, but from how you did this I assume it’s important to bury your dead.”

“You’ve never seen a funeral?” you asked, astonished.

“Lunarians don’t die, really.” Gobi replied. “We just live forever, I guess. Chang’e knows about death though, she told us what it meant when Houyi died.”

Who’s Houyi? you wondered, making a note to inquire about him later. “That makes sense, in a strange way. I still don’t get how you guys work.”

“Besides, I wouldn’t have met you!” Gobi added. “You seem pretty cool, and from what I’ve seen so far, you’re also really nice. I bet you’d be a great friend to have.”

“Really?” you asked. “You think I could be a good friend to someone?”

“Well, why not!” the Lunarian insisted. “I could be your friend, I mean, if you want, that is. I understand if you’re not interested, or if you’ll be too busy to have a friend, or maybe if-”

“Gobi, it’s okay!” you interrupted. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to have someone familiar with Lunaria stick with me, and if they’re a friend, all the better. Sure, while I’m here that is, we can…be friends.” You were a bit hesitate; after all, you would be leaving soon and it didn’t make sense to start forming connections with these people only to have to sever them. But, at the least it made sense to be on friendly terms with most of them. Besides, if Gobi really was an advisor for Chang’e, he would be a great source of information on the enigmatic immortal.

Gobi gasped happily and dove for you, hugging your legs. “Thanks, new friend!” he said, warmth in his voice. “Trust me, I think we’ll be great friends. It’s always good to meet new people, like you!”

Despite yourself, you smiled slightly at that statement. Perhaps one or two new connections wouldn’t be so bad, and there wasn’t anything bad about making new friends after all. “It’s good to meet you too, Gobi,” you replied. “But for now, we should get going! Our ride will be back soon, and I need your help organizing all that stuff.”

Chapter Text

You thought you had gotten used to losing track of time during all those months up in the space station. There was no ‘day’ or ‘night’ in space, just endless starlight stretching on forever. Sure, you sometimes got to watch the sun peek over the earth, when your station’s orbit and the earth’s matched up, but it wasn’t the same as an actual sunrise. Still, you had done your best to adapt when you first reached the moon, and as far as you knew, keeping track of distinct days didn’t get more complex than that.

That notion was quickly dispelled during your first couple of weeks in Lunaria.

While your problem on the Lunar Gateway had been endless darkness, Lunaria had the opposite problem: there was endless light that shone at all hours. Sweet Lord, this place could give Vegas a run for its money with how bright it was all the time! In order to get any sleep, you would have to shut all the curtains in your room, stuff cloths under the doorframe, and still bury your head under a blanket before it felt dark enough for your eyes. Granted, you weren’t sleeping much to begin with, but you still needed some shut-eye while working on that radio. You knew that once you started working on a project, nothing could tear you away from it; at least you had enough self-awareness to know this and take care of yourself to prevent burn-out.

Then again, it wasn’t just the need for sleep and food that would tear you away from your work.

As far as mysteries went, your host was definitely one of the most compelling ones you’d ever encountered. You had accepted at this point that Chang’e was immortal. It made sense; you had never seen her eat anything, and as far as you knew she never slept. You had seen her up at all different hours, even when you should have been sleeping you would spot her. Given that she never slept and never ate, the logical conclusion would be was that she was immortal. You were still a bit skeptical of her claim that she was 3,000 years old though, and calling her a ‘goddess’ was still too far-fetched for you. You needed more evidence before you could conclude something like that.

To your surprise, it seemed that the feelings were mutual. While you only occasionally left your chambers to stretch your legs with a walk around the palace, or to check out the views of the city, Chang’e stopped by once every couple of days to see you and talk. You figured she was just being a polite host and making sure your stay was comfortable, but some of her questions tended to be more of a personal nature.

At least, that was the direction the conversation eventually took on this day. You had been in Lunaria for a little over ten days at this point, and had reached a dead-end with your work when she knocked on your door and asked to be let in. You were thankful to have an actual door to your room; you couldn’t imagine having to summon one of those glittery wormholes every time you wanted to leave your room, like Chang’e could.

“I fail to see how any of this -” she waved her hand around the room, gesturing to the pile of food, the scattered radio parts spread out across the floor, and your personal items shoved into a corner, “could be considered organized.”

“It’s organized to me,” you replied, too busy focusing on laying a couple of wires across a circuit board, “Isn’t that all that matters? It’s my stuff after all.”

“But you are a guest in my palace, ergo these are my chambers,” she countered, “Therefore I should have a say in how organized this room should be.” Even though you were focused on something else, you could feel her pointed stare directed at you.

“I swear, I can keep track of everything like this! Here, let me show you,” you insisted. “Over there-” you pointed at the pile of food, “is where I keep my food. Over there-” you pointed at a bag containing empty food packaging, “is where all the garbage from the food goes. I know that when I first collected all those packages, there was enough food for 90 days, assuming I ate three of them a day. If I cut that back to only two meals a day, I can make that stretch to 60 days, roughly six months. Though I plan on being out of here long before then, but it’s nice to have a ‘buffer’ amount, just in case. Anyway, to get back on track, over here-” you waved your hand across the field of electronics, wires, and various metal parts, “are all the parts I could possibly need to build a radio strong enough to contact someone at Mission Control and explain my situation. It’s spread out like this so I can see everything I have. Finally, over there-” directing you hand in the direction of books, plants, and spare clothes, “are my personal things. See, makes sense to me.”

Chang’e looked skeptically at you, “While I suppose I can see your reasoning behind, well, all this, I still must object to how little floor space you’ve left. If all these parts are so valuable, why are you risking them being stepped on?”

“I watch where I’m going,” you replied dryly, “and keep an eye on my feet. I’m pretty careful anyways, you don’t get as far as I have in the astronaut program without being careful.”

The immortal rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything else. She figured it was no use arguing with you; if you wanted the room cluttered it would be cluttered. Instead, she picked her way across the room to your pile of personal things, slightly curious about the contents of said pile.

Meanwhile, you were trying to solder the wires to the board you had in front of you. This was an important part; if you were able to build enough of these boards you could boost the radio’s signal enough to send it all the way to Earth. You were using a lighter that Thompson had smuggled aboard the station, and up until this point it had been working well. However, it seems that it was now on its last legs because you could see the flame sputtering faintly.

“No no no, not now! C’mon, work dammit!” you muttered, trying to get the lighter to reignite again.

As if to spite you, the lighter gave off one last bright flicker and died completely.

Scowling at the now-useless tool in your hand, you chucked it across the room towards the garbage pile.

The thud of the lighter startled Chang’e from where she was going through your books, and upon seeing what it was you threw she glared at you.

“Really? Out of all the things you could have thrown, you chose that? You could have set something on fire!”

“Oh, relax!” you retorted, “the thing’s dead anyway, it couldn’t light a candle wick at this point! Besides, I kinda have more pressing concerns on my mind right now, such as how I’m gonna solder these damn wires-”

You were startled out of your tangent by, of all things, a pink laser blast past your face. On reflex, you jumped backwards and landed on you rear.

“What the hell?!” you gasped, “Where did that come from?”

You turned in the direction of the source of the blast, and only saw the pink-eared kit that had stuck by you since you got here. She was looking at your curiously and scratching one of her ears. During your time here you had seen more of those strange rabbit kits; all of them were some variety of green, white, or pink in color, and as Chang’e said traveled in groups. By this point you identified at least ten individuals, but you suspected that there were more. The pink-eared kit was the only one that stayed with you all the time. You had nicknamed her Magenta, based off the pink ears, but called her Maggie more often than not. Right now Maggie was looking at you with a curious expression and flicking her ears back and forth.

By now you knew that the rabbits here possessed some level of sapience (yet another thing that didn’t make sense, but you digressed), so you leaned towards the rabbit and looked at her with a questioning look.

“Wait a minute, did you do that?” you asked the kit.

Instead of answering your question, Maggie brought both her ears forward, so they pointed straight out from her head, and to your shock fired a laser out from her ear tips. To your relief the second blast hit the far wall and was absorbed into it; the palace must have some sort of magic to prevent it from burning down then. Which made Chang’e’s decision to scold you about throwing the lighter pointless in hindsight, but again, you digressed.

“Was – was that a laser?” you asked, stunned. “Did the rabbit just shoot a damn laser out of her ears?”

“Oh yes, that’s normal,” Chang’e replied, like it really was normal for animals to shoot lasers out of their bodies. “Some of the kits can do that, it’s a trait they got from their mother.”

You begged to differ on the definition of ‘normal’, but knew enough by now to know that nothing here could be considered ‘normal’. Instead, you looked at the kit, an idea forming in your head.

“Hey Maggie, come here!” you cooed, holding your hand out and rubbing your fingers together to coax the rabbit over, “Over here! C’mon, I need your help with something,”

“Maggie?” Chang’e asked, confused.

You blushed, “Oh, it’s just a nickname. Short for Magenta, since well, you know…pink ears,” you answered lamely.

Chang’e hummed at that, out of approval or disapproval you couldn’t tell. Instead of clarifying what she meant by that she returned to going through your things, one or two books in the pile having caught her eye.

When Maggie reached you, you picked her up gingerly with both hands and turned her towards the circuit board, “Can you do that thing again, please? But on the wires, where I tell you? That would be really great if you could.”

Maggie looked at you, then at the wires, trying to figure out what you meant. Finally, she turned towards the board, and eyed the wires more closely. You held her closer, aiming her head at the exposed end of one of the wires. In a second, she swung her ears forward, and fired a laser out of them once again. She seemed to grasp what you meant, because instead of a single shot this was a continuous beam, and gently you moved the kit around until the wire had been completely soldered to the board. Maggie stopped the laser then, and you shifted her over so she could start on the next one.

Chang’e had stopped what she was doing to stare at you, holding a book in her hands and looking absolutely befuddled by your idea. “What? Just – what are you doing?” she asked slowly.

“Using the rabbit kit to weld the wires to the board.” You paused, “And in hindsight that sentence sounds completely bonkers out of context. Well, what can you do? Hey, what’s that you’re holding?”

At that point you had finally noticed that Chang’e was going through your things, and was holding one of your books in her hands.

“Well, I figured I would at least try to arrange your things to achieve some semblance of order, and admittedly, this book caught my eye. I don’t get what the cover is supposed to be of,” she confessed.

“Which one? Show me which one it is,” you requested, sounding cautious. If it was the book you thought it was, things were gonna turn really personal really quickly, and you didn’t like that prospect.

The immortal flipped the book around, and just your luck, it was that book.

It looked like the cover of a dime-store sci-fi novella at first glance, but you knew that was only because of the book’s age. At this point this copy was at least 50 years old, so it made sense why it would look like that. The cover itself showed an illustration of a glacier, fields of ice and snow underneath a starless sky. Only the moon shown in the background, illuminating one of the glacier’s peaks in the foreground, which had two faces carved into it. On the left side of the peak a woman’s face had been etched into the ice; the right side featured a man’s face. At the top of the cover the words The Left Hand of Darkness were featured in light blue block lettering.

You tensed at the sight of the book, and spoke curtly, “Put that one back. Only I’m allowed to handle that book.”

Confused at your shift in tone, Chang’e inquired, “Why? It’s just a book, I’m not going to damage it just by looking at it,”

“You’re not just looking at it, you’re holding it.”

“Okay, I’m holding it, but that won’t damage it either.”

“I don’t care if you’re ‘only’ holding it, you need to put it back!”

“Why are you making this into an argument? It’s just a book!”

“It’s not just a book! And this isn’t an argument! Put the book down.”

“If this isn’t an argument, why are you getting upset? I fail to see what’s so special about this book!”

“My mom gave it to me, alright!”

You heard an alarmed squeak come from below, and you looked down, startled, to see that your hands were gripping Maggie a bit too tightly. She was looking at you, confused and panicked. Hastily whispering an apology, you let her go and she scampered off, hoping to watch this confrontation from a safer distance.

Chang’e eyed you curiously, looking equal parts confused and concerned by your newly agitated state. Cautiously, she set the book on the floor in front of where she was kneeling and held her hands back, as if in surrender.

Your blush returned, but it wasn’t one born of sheepishness but of shame, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make a big deal out of it. I should have controlled my temper a bit better; like you said, it’s just a book-”

“Why does this book being a gift from your mother mean so much to you?” the immortal asked carefully, eyes soft and inquiring.

You shrugged, “She’s dead. That’s the last gift she gave me, for my eleventh birthday, before she died. That’s it, I guess. Don’t know why I got so worked up just now; it’s been years since she died, it’s not a big deal.”

Chang’e’s eyes widened at that last remark, “Not a big deal? But she was your mother! Surely you must have felt some grief at her passing, you loved her after all, right?”

“Of course I did! It’s just, it doesn’t do me much good to focus on that part of my life. Or any part of my past, for that matter.”

“Didn’t you at least share your grief and sorrow with someone else? At least your father, he could have understood-”

“He’s dead too,” you cut her off. “They died on the same day. And before you ask, no, I don’t want to elaborate on that. There’s no point in talking about it, what’s done is done. No use in focusing on that past. I would much rather look ahead at the future.”

Chang’e fell silent at this declaration of yours, unsure of how to respond. While she was certainly no expert at dealing with grief and loss, something told her that your approach wasn’t working out for you. Granted, she could see the benefits of learning to move on from one’s past and looking to the future, having finally come to terms with Houyi’s passing, but this didn’t feel right. At least she had acknowledged her grief upon losing her husband, and allowed herself to feel all the sorrow that such a loss brought. To not even allow oneself to feel such grief – she couldn’t fathom such an idea.

Looking to move on from the subject, and hoping to extend an olive branch, you said, “Alright, if you can promise to be careful with my book, you can borrow it. No folding the pages, no bending the spine, no highlighting or underlining, and absolutely no notes in the margins. If you can do that, I’ll let you read it.”

So Chang’e did just that, and you hoped after that day to avoid any more topics that were too personal for you. However, you were curious about how insistent Chang’e had seemed about you not mourning and grieving your parents. Clearly, she had had some experience with loss. Not wanting to dig up the subject with her a second time, you decided to ask Gobi for more information.

Surprisingly, his claim of being Chang’e’s advisor wasn’t too far off. He did seem to follow her around a lot, and the two of them seemed on cordial terms. You had learned that up until a few years ago, he had been banished from Lunaria for some slight against Chang’e. Those three servants that looked like cakes, who called themselves the Lunettes, had informed you that 1,000 years ago, Gobi had sung a song for Chang’e that had upset her to the point of banishing him. This surprised you; Chang’e seemed somewhat even-tempered in the time you had known her, but perhaps she hadn’t always been like this. Gobi would know, he could tell you more.

“Hey Gobi,” you called to the Lunarian, “Can I ask you something about Chang’e?” The two of you were working in your room a couple of days later, attempting to build a speaker that you could use to talk into the radio.

“Sure!” he replied, sounding eager. “She’s amazing, isn’t she? What do you wanna know about her?”

You paused, unsure about how to start the conversation. “Well, these are gonna sound like weird questions, but how did Chang’e become immortal? And how did she get to the moon in the first place? How would her and Jade have gotten here?”

“Oh that’s not weird at all!” Gobi reassured you, “From what she’s told us, she was given two pills that granted immortality to anyone that took them. One of them was meant for her, and the other was for Houyi. But one day, a thief broke into their home and Chang’e ended up taking both pills. She flew up to the moon after that, and took Jade with her.” He paused, examining the battery in his hands before continuing, “You know, she never told us whether or not she meant to do that. Take both pills, I mean. Then again, no one here has really bothered to ask her. Thinking about that day is kinda upsetting to her, since that’s the last time she saw Houyi.”

“That’s another thing,” you added, “Who’s Houyi? You’ve mentioned his name before. Was he a friend? A brother? Her husband, maybe?”

“Yeah, that! He was her husband,” Gobi answered. “He didn’t take any of the pills, so he grew old and died on Earth. After that, Chang’e was…different. Before his death, she was patient, kind, loving. But after Houyi died, she locked herself away. She lashed out more, was impatient, and don’t tell her I said this, but kinda cruel. I was banished for centuries over a song! I don’t hold it against her though; in hindsight I now know that she was hurting and didn’t know how to move on from her grief.”

“Oh,” you answered, growing quiet. You hadn’t really thought about that, that Chang’e would have left people she loved behind when she came to the moon. Her comment from when you first arrived here about not being able to grow old or die, ‘for better or for worse’ suddenly made a lot more sense. If she couldn’t die, then that meant she was separated from her true love forever. A stab of sympathy hit your heart, like a knife twisting in your chest.

“Don’t worry though! She’s gotten better,” Gobi reassured you. “I think she’s finally learned to accept Houyi’s passing, and who knows? Maybe she’ll find someone new to love. Fei Fei helped her a lot with that.”

“Who’s Fei Fei?” you asked.

“Only my best friend!” Gobi replied proudly, “She built a rocket to the moon so she could prove Chang’e was real! You see, her mom was dead, and her dad was getting remarried, and she was worried that her dad would forget about her mom. So she came here to prove Chang’e was real, and remind her dad of how much he loved her mom.”

“Well that sounds a bit drastic,” you countered, “People get remarried all the time. What was so different about this time?”

“To be fair, Fei Fei was pretty young when her mom died, and it was only four years or so later that her dad remarried. I think she said she was eight or so, I may not remember all that clearly, but she definitely hadn’t hit double digits yet, so I’m pretty sure about that-”

“Hold up,” you interrupted, stunned. “Let me get this straight. Are you suggesting a twelve-year old built an actual rocket that actually took her to the actual moon?”

“Yeah!” Gobi replied enthusiastically. “I still like to go out to where her rocket crashed, it’s still here. I found some sweet moon pants while I was out there! Still don’t know where I ended up putting those though…”

You didn’t hear anything after Gobi affirmed your last question. You simply sat there with a thousand-yard stare on your face, your mind having snapped with that last bit of information. Twelve years old? TWELVE YEARS OLD???? She built a functional rocket at TWELVE YEARS OLD, and here I am struggling to build a simple radio!! How the hell does that work?? Needless to say, you couldn’t get anything done for the rest of the day, your brain having blanked out at the idea of a child being more competent at engineering than you, an actual adult engineer. Why would Gobi lie about that, anyway? He didn’t have any reason to.

Speaking of lying, you decided not to say anything to Chang’e about Houyi, and let her think that you had no idea who he was. If his memory was as painful as Gobi implied it was, it wouldn’t be fair to drag up those emotions in her again. You wouldn’t want that to happen to you, so you would extend the same courtesy to her.

That was what you had resolved when she approached you a week after you loaned her your book. She wanted to tell you about something she had that could help your project. After a promising start to your project, things had started to go downhill rather quickly. The batteries you had retrieved had run dead months ago, and you were missing several of the parts needed to complete the radio. You could send messages with the radio over a short distance, such as maybe 15-20 miles, but there was no way it could send messages all the way to earth. Without the equipment needed to amplify the signal, you were out of luck. You weren’t shy about expressing your frustrations either, as exemplified by how you were rubbing your eyes and glaring at your most recent failure.

“Is this a bad time?” Chang’e asked. “Perhaps I should return when you’re feeling more inclined to talk. There’s something I wanted to speak with you about.”

“Honestly, I don’t see any good times for talking in the immediate future,” you replied. “I mean, look at this thing! I can barely keep it turned on long enough to speak into it, and I can’t even send any messages the distance required to reach earth. If I don’t figure out something soon, I’m dead in the water!”

A flicker of some sort of emotion crossed Chang’e’s face when you mentioned being dead, but it was only there a moment before she continued, “If that’s the case, then maybe I should speak with you now. There’s something I wanted to show you that I think can help with your dilemma.”

You absentmindedly scratched Maggie’s ears before looking up at the immortal, “What do you mean?”

“Some decades ago, a mysterious craft appeared on the moon. It looked like some sort of cart, but it moved on its own instead of having to be pulled and was made of metal instead. It can also receive signals from earth, so I was thinking that if it can receive signals from so far away, maybe it could also send signals back? Only you would be able to tell, hence why I decided to bring it up.”

You sat up a bit straighter upon hearing her words, wheels turning in your head. This sounded like a rover of some sort; of course it would be outfitted for communicating with earth! If you could salvage some of that long-range equipment from the rover, and maybe a new battery, you’d be back in business. It couldn’t hurt to check it out anyway and see what condition it was in.

“Sounds promising, sure. Show me where it is.” you replied.

You and Chang’e left your chambers and walked for a little while through the palace. Its architecture still tripped you out; however at this point you had a better idea of how to navigate this place. Maggie hopped a little ways behind your heels as you and Chang’e made you way to a room that looked sealed off from the rest of the palace, and could only be accessed by one of Chang’e’s strange portals.

“It still gives off signals and sounds every now and then, so I’ve kept it locked away in here so it won’t frighten my subjects,” Chang’e explained.

Stepping into the room, you were surprised by what you saw. It was a rover alright, but it looked almost ancient. The grey paint on its body had started to flick off and the wheels looked cracked from the rubber not being properly used and cared for, but otherwise it looked to be in decent shape. You stepped cautiously towards the rover, unsure of how it would react to your presence.

“How’d you get ahold of this thing? It looks vintage, like an original 1960’s space program antique!” you gasped, reverently running your hands along its body and checking out the cameras and other instruments on board. You were struggling to contain your excitement; despite the circumstances that led you to finding this thing, you were secretly fangirling over finding an original piece of space program tech.

Chang’e softly laughed at your change in demeanor, and explained, “About half a century ago, a group of Lunarians found it wandering around the wastes on the far side of my moon. From what they could tell, it was taking pictures of the area and scanning things with strange instruments. Unsure of what its purpose was, they brought it back to me in the hopes that I could figure it out. Admittedly, neither I nor Jade have had much luck trying to make it work. Although, we have been able to get it to play some signals from earth. Let me show you what I mean!”

She knelt down next to the rover and pressed a couple of buttons on the control panel. In a couple of seconds, a soft sound started playing from the speakers that you recognized as a song. Incidentally, it was a song you knew from your childhood, by your father’s favorite artist:

“Ground control to Major Tom…Ground control to Major Tom…Take your protein pills and put your helmet on…”

While you were examining the other parts of the rover, looking for pieces you could use, you had absentmindedly started humming along to the tune, and Chang’e looked at you curiously.

“Do you know this singer?” she asked.

“Absolutely! He's only the greatest singer of all time! David Bowie was a genuine artist, a true visionary! My dad liked to play his albums all the time when I was a kid. Shame that he, Bowie that is, died a few years ago, I would have killed to see one of his concerts live…”

Upon mentioning your father Chang’e grew silent, remembering your conversation from a few days before. She was still bothered by how dismissive you had seemed when talking about your parents’ deaths. They might have been dead for a long time, and she knew that different people grieved in different ways, but from how you had described it you hadn’t taken the time to grieve at all. And from what she had observed of you since your arrival, your insistence that you weren’t ‘stuck in the past’ had taken its toll on you as an adult. You seemed so closed off and guarded. It was like you had built a wall around your heart and refused to let anyone in, only offering glimpses of your inner depths very rarely. And while she refused to admit it out loud, there was a part of her that wanted to see what was on the other side of that wall…

“Hello, earth to moon lady! Did you hear what I said?”

Chang’e was snapped out of her musings by your insistent question. You were looking at her with a curious expression on your face. There was a part of her that found that look of yours endearing. In a friendly, platonic way obviously!

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I must not have heard you,” Chang’e confessed, blushing slightly at being caught off guard. “What was that you said?”

You blinked, and repeated your question, “I asked you what you thought of that book I loaned you, Left Hand of Darkness. You know, while we’re on the subject of vintage things. Do you like it?” You were taken aback for a moment seeing Chang’e blush. You were usually the one that was caught off guard, not her!

“It’s a fascinating concept, I admit. I had never thought to create a race of people that could just change genders at random. The concept is quite intriguing. Although I am disappointed in how uncreative the name for their planet is. ‘Winter’? Seriously? Just because they’re in an ice age?”

“Well the natives just call it ‘Gethen’, which yes, means winter in their native tongue. The name of the planet isn’t significant though, it’s the characters and that central concept of genders being fluid that’s important. It’s all about the main character, Genly Ai, questioning what he thought he knew about gender and sexuality and being open to learning. It’s a pretty heavy book in that respect.”

Chang’e nodded, your analysis making sense to her, “I’ll have to keep that in mind while reading then. Now, is there anything on the rover that you can use?”

“Actually yes, there’s a lot of parts here that would be helpful to me. I’ll just have to run back to my chambers to grab some tools so I can take them out properly.” You started for the exit, renewed eagerness at continuing your mission. As you and Chang’e left, you turned to her, “Thank you for showing me that. I guess I can’t give up now, can I?”

“I guess not,” she replied with a grin. “I suppose you still have a chance at leaving my moon.”

As the three of you left the room, no one noticed a single red light turn on near the rover’s camera, and remain on long after you left.

Ground control to Major Tom, your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong, can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me….

Chapter Text

“Alright, let’s get this started!” you declared as you pulled everything away from the completed radio. You had finally finished it! All the parts you needed had been found, salvaged, or made from scratch and had been assembled into a completed device. It was a rather large and bulky unit, being about the size of a mini-fridge and weighing just as much, but what it lacked in compactness it easily made up for in range. There were several antennae sticking out of its side, aimed out the window and off the balcony so they were facing the earth. To input messages you had set up both a speaker and a keyboard, in case one failed so you would have a backup. Altogether, you felt that you had planned for everything. Nothing could possibly go wrong now!

“So we’ll get to actually talk to people on earth? This is so cool! How’s it supposed to work?” Gobi asked, just as excited for the test as you were. He had honestly been a tremendous help throughout this project of yours, so you had allowed him to stay for the official test. You were still iffy about keeping him around once you actually contacted Mission Control (how would you explain that to your superiors?), but you weren’t going to cross that bridge until you got to it.

“It’s pretty easy,” you replied, going over how the radio worked one last time, “I’m going to flip this switch here,” you gestured to a large red switch near the bottom of the device, “which will connect the batteries to the radio itself. After there’s a power connection there, I’ll then flip these two small switches near the top,” you referred to two small black switches right behind the row of antennae, “which will start broadcasting a signal towards earth. Once that’s done, I’ll use this keyboard,” you pointed to a keyboard you had salvaged from one of the space station’s computers, “to input a set of coordinates and get the signal to lock on to Mission Control. Once the connection’s established, I’ll write a short message to them and explain what’s up. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Oooh, what are you gonna write?” Gobi questioned, “‘Hi guys, guess what? I’m still alive! And on the moon! Crazy right?’ Or how about, ‘Okay, you guys are not gonna believe this, but I’m on the moon! I survived the crash because I’m just that awesome!’ No no wait, I got it! ‘Dear Mission Control, reports of my death were greatly exaggerated!’ Something like that, right?”

“I’ll just keep it short and to the point,” you responded, “We don’t know how long the connection will hold, so I’ll just get the basic point across so they’ll know what’s going on and can start working on a plan to get me home.”

“Sure, short and sweet works too, but I still think what I said is better!” Gobi insisted.

“I will say though, I do think your suggestions are more creative,” you conceded with a grin. “Okay, I want you right over there, Gobi, in case something happens,” you gestured to a spot about ten feet from the radio. “That way, you can jump in right away to help.”

“Help with what, though?” Gobi asked, confused. “I don’t think anything’s gonna go wrong. You built this perfectly! Trust me, it’ll work because you built it and you’re awesome! Now can we turn this thing on? I wanna see it work!”

“Okay, okay!” you said, encouraged by Gobi’s confidence in your skills. “Prepare to be dazzled!”

You first flipped the red switch, waited a second, then flipped the two black switches near the top. Seeing that everything was going right so far, you walked over to the keyboard and sat down. You had run a couple of cables from the keyboard to the radio itself in case something did go wrong. You were willing to take certain risks when it came to experimenting and engineering, but you drew the line at personal safety. You could never be too careful when it came to keeping yourself and your ‘lab partners’ safe.

Now the only thing to do for the next minute or two was wait. Maggie had hopped over from where she was watching in the corner and had come to perch on your shoulder. She had grown a little since your arrival here, and now she was roughly seven inches tall when resting on her hind legs. From what you had briefly seen of her father Jade, you guessed that she would take after him mostly in height and body type. You had only seen her mother Bungee once or twice, but knew that she had a rounder, fluffier shape.

At the moment though, Maggie was leaning forward from your shoulder and sniffing the air near the radio cautiously. You noticed her violet eyes grow wide all of a sudden, and were about to ask her what was wrong when you got your answer a split second later.

The radio has started smoking near its base, where the batteries were, and the smoke was getting thicker fast.

“Um, is that supposed to happen?” Gobi asked, unsure of what was happening.

“No, no it’s not,” you replied, your voice teetering on the edge of concern. “It’s okay though! I’ll just fan it for a bit and try cooling the batteries. They’re old, they just probably need to be cooled for a bit.”

You grabbed a nearby blanket and walked briskly to the radio, trying not to betray your growing sense of panic. This was not good; this was very not good. You hoped that by fanning the batteries for a bit, you could solve the problem and the test would go on as planned.

If anything, your solution seemed to make the problem worse. After about two seconds of fanning, the entire unit spontaneously burst into flames.

“Oh my god, oh my god!” you yelled, in full on panic mode. “Quick, we need to stop the flames! Gobi, grab the fire extinguisher! Hurry!”

“What is that? I don’t know what that is!” Gobi shouted back, mirroring your panic. “What am I supposed to grab?”

“The red metal cylinder! It’s got a hose coming out the top! HURRY! Before the flames spread!” You had spread the blanket across the radio, desperately trying to smother the flames. “Shit shit shit shit shit shit-”

Gobi was tearing through your pile of personal belongings, trying in vain to find the fire extinguisher. “I don’t see it! Where is it?!”

“Try looking on the far side! I saw it just two days ago! C’mon, I can’t keep wasting blankets on this thing!” Your original blanket had already burned up and you were grabbing a second blanket, doing your best to contain the fire.

“I got it!” Gobi yelled, triumphant. He held up the fire extinguisher in both his hands above his head.

“Great! Pull the pin out, aim the nozzle at the fire, and press down on the lever! It should put out the flames right away!” You suddenly heard the sound of shuffling. Turning your head, you saw that Maggie had leap towards the fire, pulled a piece of burning mesh out of the flames, and was starting to hop away from the radio, dragging the flaming mesh behind her. “Maggie, no! You’ll set everything on fire!”

Bolting after the lapin pyromaniac, you raced to grab her before she could set any of your food or personal things on fire. Or the rest of the palace for that matter. Maggie had raced in a complete circle around the room, and had looped back around towards the flaming radio. Unfortunately, neither of you noticed that Gobi had leapt down from the pile, and was aiming the fire extinguisher at the radio, you, and the rogue rabbit. Not stopping to warn you, Gobi pressed down on the level and aimed.

In a flash you, Maggie, and the radio had been sprayed all over with flame-retardant foam. The good news? The fire had been put out. The bad news? You now had foam in your mouth and eyes, and your clothes were soaked in it. Embarrassed, you began rapidly wiping the foam off of your clothes and your face, trying to make yourself look a bit more presentable. Maggie was equally displeased with this turn of events, shaking her head to get the foam out of her ears and rubbing her paws against her face to get it out of her eyes.

“Well, I can’t exactly say I was dazzled. Surprised and concerned would be more accurate.”

Whipping you head around, you saw that at some point Chang’e had come into the room and to your horror, had been watching this chain of events unfold for some time. While she ultimately looked mostly concerned, you could tell that she was also biting back laughter, amused at how the test had ended.

And that was the point where you finally snapped. Everything had gone completely wrong in such a short amount of time, and Chang’e secretly laughing at how spectacularly you failed was the last straw. Glaring at her, you screamed, “THIS ISN’T FUNNY DAMMIT!!” Turning towards the radio you began kicking it repeatedly in rage, shouting and cursing a very colorful string of expletives.

Chang’e’s mood completely shifted after seeing you lose it in such a violet way. She was now staring at you wide-eyed and alarmed, worried about how uncharacteristically enraged you were acting at this turn of events. Gobi had dropped the fire extinguisher by now and was awkwardly looking back and forth between you and the immortal, concerned for his new friend.

“I don’t think she’s handling this well at all,” Gobi said to Chang’e, worried about your change in demeanor.

“Really, what gave you that impression?” Chang’e retorted, before sighing and glancing back at you. “I think I know how to help her, just make sure this room has been cleaned by the time we get back.”

“Wait, what are you gonna do with her?” the Lunarian replied, “Is she in trouble or something? We honestly didn’t know this was gonna happen! She didn’t mean to start a fire or anything-”

“Gobi,” the immortal replied, cutting him off before speaking again, “It’s fine, neither of you have done anything wrong. I’m just going to try and help her focus her, destructive tendencies in a more constructive way. Hold on,”

Walking briskly over to you, she waited until she had a good moment to get your attention. Finding it, she grabbed your shoulder and gently pulled you away from the radio in a swift motion. “That’s enough! I know you’re upset but you’re not making things better by acting this way!”

“Well I don’t see how I’m making things worse!” you snapped back, “What am I supposed to do now! The radio’s fried, several of the components have been destroyed so they probably can’t be salvaged, and I don’t think I have enough parts to build a second radio! You got any ideas on how I’m supposed to get home, cause I’m coming up empty!”

“No, I don’t have any ideas on getting you home. But that’s not my concern right now!” Seeing you about to start on another rant, she quickly continued, “Not only are you potentially destroying what parts you have left with your little tantrum, but you’ve frightened everyone else here! This isn’t how you’re supposed to manage your anger at all!”

Blinking in confusion, calmed down a little, you glanced over at Gobi and Maggie. To your surprise, Gobi awkwardly blinked and looked away when you looked at him, and Maggie shrunk slightly back, as though she was afraid you would start yelling again. Ashamed you looked away, rubbing the back of your neck in embarrassment.

“You’ve been bottling up your emotions ever since you arrived here, and this is what happens when they finally boil over! It’s not fair to the people around you, and it’s not healthy for you.” Chang’e said sternly. “Which is why you’ll be coming with me for a bit. We’re going to work on addressing your anger in a less harmful way.”

“What do you mean?” you asked, concerned. You weren’t sure you liked where this was going, but you guessed that you had no choice in the matter. Besides, getting out of that room for a bit would probably be a benefit to your sanity right now.

“We won’t be gone long,” the immortal reassured you, “I assure you; I’m not going to banish you! I’m trying to help you, let me help you.”

She walked towards the door, looking back at you expectantly. With a sigh and a final, apologetic glance back at Gobi and Maggie, you followed her out of the room and into the hallway.

You were silent for a while, looking away from Chang’e and keeping your eyes on the ground, the walls, anywhere but her. Now that your initial anger had died down you felt embarrassed by your reaction. However, you figured that she wasn’t going to let you go until you had actually ‘worked on your anger’, whatever that meant.

“Can you at least tell me where we’re going? I think I at least deserve to know that!” you asked, exasperated with how she wasn’t saying anything now.

“We’re not going anywhere public, if that’s your concern,” the immortal began, “Just somewhere where I can help you work through your anger in a way that doesn’t hurt others. As I said, I’m only here to help you, but you have to let me help you first. When we’re done here I’ll let you get back to your work. Though I suppose you’ll have to come up with a different plan now that this last one literally went up in smoke…”

“I never meant for that to happen!” you replied, your frustration starting to simmer again. “I planned out for every possible variable, checked all the components, and it still failed! How did that happen? What did I miss?”

“I can’t tell you what went wrong, or how you can fix this mess,” Chang’e responded. “The best I can do is help you find a better way to deal with discouragements like this. Which is why I brought you here.”

Turning ahead, you saw that she had created one of those portals she sometimes made and the two of you were in some sort of room. There were no discernable features that you could see, only a light pink void as far as the eye could see. You couldn’t even tell where the edges of the room, such as walls or the floor, were, and it was playing tricks on your eyes. Stepping into the room, your feet didn’t even echo across the floors or walls, which was highly unusual given the dynamics of the space. Stepping in after you, Chang’e used her magic to close the portal behind you.

“Now tell me mortal, what are your thoughts on games? Duels? Contests of strength? How much experience do you have in those areas?” she asked.

“Um,” you answered, “Some? I’ve played a few board games in my day, and maybe watched a few basketball games in college, but that’s about it. Why?”

“Well, this is my idea for helping you work through your anger. We are going to duel. Fight with each other, not holding back whatsoever, until one or both of us has had enough.”

“Whoa whoa whoa!” you interjected, unsure of this idea. “You’re like, three feet taller than me and immortal! How do I know you’re not gonna hurt me on accident or something? This doesn’t feel like a safe idea!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve had 3,000 years of practice learning to control my strength. I can match you easily enough. And something tells me you won’t have any problems matching my strength as well. From what I’ve seen so far, you’re much stronger than you think.”

You blinked. You haven’t exactly been bodybuilding while you were here, and you certainly weren’t trying to show off. At most you had been forced to lift certain heavy parts, such as batteries, by yourself. Perhaps Chang’e had spotted you lifting things a couple of times and had been mildly impressed? Anyways, she was about to be rather disappointed that you were not in fact as strong as she claimed you were.

“Alright, fine,” you conceded, “I’ll ‘duel’ with you, but for like, five minutes tops! I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I really don’t think I’m as capable with this stuff as you think.”

Chang’e smirked and responded, “Don’t discount yourself yet mortal, we haven’t even started!” In a flash, she wasn’t wearing her traditional red dress anymore and had changed into a much different outfit. Her hair was pushed back by a slim red headband and was tied into a ponytail bound at the bottom as well as the top. She wore a blue jacket with long sleeves that fell nearly to her knees, and white pants that were tucked in at the legs. Finally, she had on tall leather red boots with heels that came up to her knees. She was holding a long stick, bound in the middle with red tape, in her right hand and was tossing a similar stick to you with her left. You caught it in both hands and waited for her to explain what you two were doing. “The rules are simple: Spar until one of us concedes defeat. Anything goes. Good luck.”

And with that she charged at you, swinging her stick down to try and sweep out your legs. Acting defensively you leapt out of the way at the last moment and brought your stick forward in a defensive position. Starting to panic again, you thought about how you were gonna get out of this one.

How am I supposed to beat her? She’s taller than me, and can’t be injured at all! What could I possibly do to level the playing field? You thought, mind running through all your options. I could try making a break for the door and escaping – wait, only she can open the portal back out! You slammed your stick forward as Chang’e swung hard at your left shoulder, deflecting the hit as hard as you could. I can’t outmuscle her, the only muscle I routinely exercise is my brain… wait, that’s it! You braced your legs and stiffened your shoulders as Chang’e pressed forward, hoping to tire you out so she could knock you off your feet. If I can’t out-MUSCLE her, I can still out-SMART her!

Shoving Chang’e away with all your might, you lunged forward and brought your stick above your head, looking like you were going to bring it down on the immortal’s head. Hoping to protect herself, Chang’e brought her own stick up, startled by your sudden switch to an offensive technique. At the last moment you threw your shoulders down, bring the stick down with you to swipe at her legs. In a second the immortal was swept off her feet, quickly catching herself with her hands at the last moment. Startled, she quickly popped herself back up on her feet and offered you a challenging grin.

“So now you’re starting to take this seriously! Now things will get interesting!” she goaded, encouraged by your more active interest in this duel.

“Bold of you to assume things weren’t interesting before!” you called back, “I just wanted to give you a fighting chance before the gloves came off!”

“Is that a challenge, mortal?” Chang’e taunted, with an energetic look in her eye.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t!” you replied, matching her look with a wild-eyed stare of your own. “Find out for yourself!”

For the next several minutes you two fought hard and long. While Chang’e still outclassed you when it came to physical strength and power, you were able to match her rather well by coming up with new techniques on the fly to outsmart her. By matching her brawn with your brains you were able to hold your own for a while. Even Chang’e looked impressed by how well you were holding up. At some point, the two of you had discarded the sticks and had switched to hand-to-hand combat, getting rid of tools to fight on more personal terms. While you were still able to match the immortal well enough by using your mind, here Chang’e had more of an advantage. Not long after you two had switched to using your hands instead of the sticks, she had pinned you against a wall, securing her victory.

“Impressive,” she said, looking you up and down and feeling satisfied with how challenging this duel turned out to be. “I didn’t think you had it in you mortal. Even after all these weeks you still continue to surprise me.”

You didn’t respond. Instead, your face was flushed a deep scarlet shade, and it wasn’t from the spontaneous exercise. “Uuuuhhh…” you hummed, feeling immodest and embarrassed.

Blinking in confusion, Chang’e replied, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Have you noticed the way you’re pinning me right now? This doesn’t feel very, what’s the word I’m looking for…PG, I guess? More of a very light R rating if you ask me.”

“What does that even - oh,” the immortal replied, suddenly noticing the way she was holding your body against the wall and flushing a ruby-red tone to match your own.

One of her legs was braced against the wall to your right and her left, pressing her knee against the surface and keeping your hips locked in place. In this position, you were suspended above the floor by three feet or so by Chang’e’s body weight pinning you in place against the wall. Both of her hands were braced on either side of your head, allowing her to crane her head forward so she could look right into your face. But the most awkward part? Her body was flushed against your own, and her chest was pressing into your chest as hard as possible, intent on keeping you from moving as far as possible. It was this rather intense pressure on your breasts, as well as her own you assumed, that had caused you to start stuttering and feeling immodest.

Jumping away from you, the immortal self-consciously looked away, trying to keep her eyes on any part of the room except for where you were standing. After she had finally moved, you crept away from the wall and nervously scratched the back of your neck, avoiding eye contact with her.

“Well, um,” you started, unsure of how to continue the conversation. “Th-thank you very much for this, um, exercise, it was very stimulating – I mean, exciting, no I mean – HELPFUL, yeah, that’s the word!” You cursed yourself internally for your poor word choice, and tried to exit the situation as best as you could. “But as you’re probably aware, I have to get back to finding another way to get out of here. And by here I mean the moon of course! Not trying to say that I don’t wanna be in this particular room, because that would be weird, you are not the problem at all! It’s just -”

“Y-yes, of course,” Chang’e replied, grateful that you had found a way to end this conversation for her, “I’m glad I was able to help you ‘blow off some steam’, as it were. You seem much less angry than you were a while ago. That’s good, I guess! It was no trouble at all for me, rest assured.”

“Alright then!” you concluded, heading out the door, “I’ll just be on my way then,” you started pawing at the air behind you as you inched towards the proximate direction you two had entered the room from. Chang’e seemed to understand what you were trying to do, because she waved her hand absentmindedly and created a portal for you to walk through. “Thanks! I needed that! The portal, that is. Wouldn’t want to get stuck her after all!” You nervously chuckled and stepped backwards through the portal, quickly turning around as soon as you were on the other side. You felt it close immediately behind you, and you left the immortal in the room by herself.

Face still burning, you began making your way back to your chambers, trying to forget the last five minutes. What just happened? Did she mean to pin you like that? Was it a subconscious action? Did you do something that led to that situation? Well, at least you weren’t angry anymore, that’s for sure!

You paused for a second at the doors to your room, taking a deep breath before heading inside. You hadn’t forgotten that you had left Gobi and Maggie on less-than-good terms. Hopefully you’ll be in a better headspace to talk to them.

Peering carefully inside the room, you noticed Gobi was attempting to organize the pieces of the radio that had survived the fire, inspecting them carefully for any warping before setting them into a pile near the smoldering remains. You assumed that was a ‘keep’ pile, because there was another pile next to it that was composed of charred, unrecognizable pieces of debris. Meanwhile, Maggie was ‘helping’ in her own way, using her ears to laser off pieces of the radio and batting them with her paws.

“Hey guys,” you called softly, getting their attention.

“Hey, you’re back!” Gobi replied, looking relieved that you were still here. “So what happened?”

“Chang’e and I worked things out! She was able to help me work through my anger, in a rather unconventional way. Anyway, I may have acted pretty scary just now, and my behavior was pretty uncalled for. I’m sorry for that, I never wanted to frighten either of you! I just got carried away with my frustration is all. I know that’s no excuse, but-”

Gobi surprised you by running up to you and hugging your legs. Maggie joined him a couple of seconds later, nuzzling your foot. “It’s okay!” he said, trying to reassure you. “We all have bad days. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person! I’m just happy you’re feeling better now. And I may have been a teensy bit worried when Chang’e got upset at you just now. It usually doesn’t end well when she starts feeling like that.”

You decided not to comment on that for now. Honestly, just now was the only time you had seen her snap like that. However, from what Gobi was implying, she tended to act that way more often than you had observed. You’d have to make a note of that in your lab notebook (you were secretly taking notes on the immortal, for research purposes of course. Don’t ask), and hopefully find a way to ask more about that in the future. For now though, you wanted to work on something else. Not another device to escape the moon though. Right now you wanted to try out a little project, something you’ve been thinking of doing for a while.

“Thanks Gobi. You too, girl,” you said to Maggie, gently scratching the space between her ears. “Right now, I honestly want to take a break from trying to leave the moon. I actually have a fun project in mind, if you’re still interested in working with me of course.”

“Um, yeah I’m still working with you!” Gobi asserted. “Don’t tell me you were thinking of doing more cool science-y stuff without your #1 assistant!”

“‘#1 assistant’, eh?” you teased, raising an eyebrow and playfully smirking at the Lunarian.

“Well what else would you call someone as cool as me helping someone as cool as you?” he questioned, “Clearly I am the best assistant anyone could ask for!” He jumped as Maggie shot a laser at the ground in front of his feet. He turned to her and noticed the annoyed expression on her muzzle. “Oh come on! You can be her #2 assistant! That’s still pretty cool!”

Chuckling at their antics, you walked over to the pile of stuff salvaged from the radio. “Well, let’s get started then! Wait, hold on!” You jogged over to your pile of personal belongings and pulled something out of it. It was a small speaker with an iPod shuffle attached to it, very old school technology. It had belonged to Thompson, but was now yours for obvious reasons. “I have some cool music we could listen to while we work. Don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner! It’ll be fun!”

Meanwhile, Chang’e was back in her signature red gown and was cautiously making her way to your chambers. She was trying to figure out how she would start the conversation once she got there. What had happened back in the sparring room needed to be addressed. But how? Not even she was quite certain what had happened just now. She had surprised herself with how aggressive she had gotten back there, and how bold! Even just thinking of how she had pinned you still made her face burn. What was she thinking? Had she gone too far? She hoped that you hadn’t been too off-put by what had happened, and was willing to face her again.

She paused just outside your chambers when she heard voices. Chang’e couldn’t exactly hear what the voices were saying, but for some reason was not keen on simply knocking on the door and finding out. Creating a tiny portal so she could see and hear into the room without being noticed herself, she took in the scene.

She saw you, Gobi, and Maggie tinkering away on something, presumably a second attempt at building a radio for you to contact earth. However, she could also hear what sounded like music coming from somewhere in the room. Suddenly, a new song began, and she heard what sounded like a faint humming. With a start she realized the humming was coming from you, and she turned to look at you, with your eyes closed, head swaying to the beat as you worked.

“Wait, you know this song?!” she heard Gobi asked, his voice sounding excited. “Can you sing it for us? I wanna hear what you sound like!”

Instantly you stopped swaying, opened your eyes, and glanced at Gobi, looking self-conscious. “Oh I don’t know,” you replied, sounding wary. “I’m not very good, it’ll just sound kinda awkward.”

“C’mon, I bet you’re not that bad!” Gobi insisted, “Please? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeee-”

“I’m serious, I don’t sing!”

“-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-”

“I’ll sound terrible!”

“-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-”

“Okay, okay! One song only though, just this one!” you caved, worried that he would pass out with how long he was holding that ‘please’.

“Yes!” Gobi replied, sounding triumphant.

“Alright, alright,” you started, “Let me rewind it and I’ll start.” You pressed the back button on the player, pressed play again, and began,

“Can anybody find me, somebody to love?” you began, warming up your voice on the opening notes. Chang’e gasped when she heard your voice. While you certainly couldn’t measure up to her, your singing wasn’t half bad. You continued, oblivious to your unintentional audience.

“Whoa-ah-whoa!

Each morning I get up, I die a little,

Can barely stand on my feet!

Take a look, in the mirror,

And cry, ‘Lord, what you doing to me?’” You stood up from where you were working, prancing and stomping your feet subconsciously to the beat like Freddie would have.

“I spent all my years believing you,

And I just can’t get no relief, no!

Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody,

Can anybody find meeeeeeee somebody to loooooooooooooove?” On that last note your voice wavered in and out across the o’s, testing the limits of your pitch.

“I work hard, every day of my life,

I work ‘till I ache in my bones!

At the end of the day,

I take home my hard-earned pay all on my own!

I get on my knees, and I start to pray,” Here you actually fell down to your knees, too caught up in the song to notice or care about what you were doing.

“‘Till the tears roll down from my eyes, oh,

Somebody,”

“Somebody!” Gobi suddenly jumped in, catching on to how sometimes, ‘somebody’ was meant to be sung by someone else.

“Somebody!”

“Somebody, please!”

“Can anybody find meeeeeeee, sooooooooomebody to loooooooooooove?” You stood back up and continued stomping to the beat.

“I work hard,”

“She works hard!”

“Every day!”

“Every day!”

“I try and I try and I TRYYYYYYY!

Well everybody wants to bring me down,

They say I’m going crazy,

They say I got a lot of water on my brain,

And I got no common sense,

And nobody left to believe it,

Yeah, yeah, YEAH, YEAH!”

You spun around in a circle on one foot as a guitar riff came on over the speaker, Gobi joining in on you and grabbing your hands so you two could spin together. Just behind you, Chang’e could spot Maggie hopping around to the beat. You may have looked absolutely dumb right now, but you didn’t care. In fact, Chang’e thought you looked and sounded the exact opposite. Not only was your singing rather beautiful (your voice was so powerful! She loved it!), but you looked so happy and carefree right now. It was a rare glimpse behind that wall that constantly surrounded your heart. Even though she wasn’t meant to catch such a glimpse, she was grateful for this one brief snapshot into your soul this moment afforded. Suddenly, you stopped spinning and you and Gobi continued with the song,

“Woah, somebody!”

“Somebody!”

“Somebody!”

“Somebody!”

“Can anybody find meeeeeeeeeeee somebody to looooooooooooooooooove?”

“Find me, somebody to looooooove!” Gobi began, working through a part of the song that was a soft chant that would slowly get louder.

“Find me, somebody to love! Find me-”

“Somebody to love!”

You joined in, and the two of you began chanting together.

“Find me, somebody to love!

Find me, somebody to love!

Can anybody find me somebody to love?

Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, can somebody find me somebody to love?”

“Can anybody find MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Your voice reached a crescendo here, and you threw your head back as you reached that high note.

“Somebody toooooo loooooooooooooove oh oh wooooaaahhh! Oh oh woooooaaaahhhh! Oh oh woooooooaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

Chang’e stood transfixed. She couldn’t believe her eyes, or her ears! Suddenly, the thought of approaching you now intimidated her greatly, but she couldn’t figure out why. Shuffling quietly away from the door, hoping you wouldn’t hear her, she turned around and hustled her way back to her own chambers, a million confusing thoughts and feelings swirling around inside her head.

Within an hour, you and Gobi had finished the project you wanted to work on. It was a small spherical device, about the size of a basketball. Inside it were some of the circuit boards you had salvaged from the radio. You had saved the majority of them for future attempts at radio construction, but figured you could spare two or three for this little project of yours. On the outside of the device were four antennae, slightly wider than they were before after you had hammered them down. A row of three lights on the outside indicated whether the device was powered on or not, and if it was broadcasting data as well. Finally, there was a set of wings arranged on the widest part of the device; not for flying necessarily, but for stabilizing it. It wouldn’t need to fly on its own anyway, so you didn’t have to worry about that.

“And there we are!” you said, looking pleased at how the device in your hands matched the vision in your head.

“Cool! I can’t believe we got it built this fast!” Gobi replied, before asking “What is it?”

“You’ll see,” you answered, sounding coy. It was a surprise after all, and it wasn’t fun to spoil surprises. “We just have to deploy it, and then you’ll get what I mean.”

“So how are we gonna do that?”

You smirked at Gobi, and he looked back at you in confusion. Feeling a sense of dread slowly sink in, he turned to Maggie, who was matching his look of apprehension.

“I don’t think I like where this is going.”

20 minutes later

“I KNEW I wasn’t gonna like where this was going!”

Gobi tightly gripped the device as he sat in front of you, yelling over his shoulder at you due to the high winds making talking difficult. You held on to the lion’s mane with both your hands, using your arms to hold Gobi in place as well so neither of you would fall off.

“Oh c’mon!” you hollered back, “This isn’t that bad! I’ll make sure neither of us falls off, I’m stronger than I look! It’s just like riding a horse, easy-peasy! Besides, if anyone of us is in a bad spot, it’s Maggie! I knew I shouldn’t have let her sit up front!”

Indeed, Maggie was probably in the worst position possible. Perched right on top of the lion’s head, she craned forward, watching the stars and space dust fly past the four of you as you made your way to your destination.

You had long left the moon behind by now, and were flying high above the earth’s surface. At this point, you had already passed by several satellites and were following the earth’s curvature until you reached a spot not far from the earth’s north pole. Far, far below you the lights of miniature cities on distant continents twinkled faintly; in between the land masses vast abysses of dark ocean stretched and cut across the earth. Swirling around, across land and sea alike, clouds and storm systems curled and flickered around. You idlily wondered which of them, if any, would go on to form hurricanes, and prayed that the answer would be none. But none of these sights were your concern right now. Instead, you were focused on the curtain of light dancing high above the earth’s north pole; pale specters of ghostly green, faint fuchsia, and light lavender that wavered and flickered far above the ground.

“We’re almost there anyway!” you continued, hoping to reassure Gobi.

“What are we even doing with this thing anyway? I didn’t really understand what you said when you were trying to explain it earlier.”

“Simple! We’re gonna reach the outer edges of the northern lights over there,” you pointed at the aurora in the distance, “And you’re gonna toss that thing as hard as you can! With luck it should stay up due to how high up we are, and go into orbit around the earth’s pole! It’s a meter designed to measure electromagnetic radiation! We’re gonna see how powerful the coronas are that produced this aurora, as well as future auroras. I’ve always wanted to study the lights from this angle, and this is the perfect opportunity!”

“That sounds really cool, I gotta admit,” Gobi replied, nodding in understanding, “But why am I the one that has to throw it? It’s your project, you should do the honors!”

“You have a better throwing arm than me! I’ve seen you toss parts around my chambers before, if you were a human you’d be a shoo-in for a good football team on earth!”

He glanced back at you in confusion for a second, “It’s a sport that’s popular in the part of earth that I’m from, it involves throwing a ball – not important right now! We’re almost there, get ready!”

The four of you had almost reached the spot you had in mind for deploying the device, and you gently pulled back on the lion’s mane to get them to slow down. With a low growl of annoyance at having his mane tugged, the lion slowed slightly so that you were almost hovering just at the edge of the aurora.

“Steady, steeeeeaaady,” you coaxed the lion, gently making sure you were in an ideal spot for deployment. “Aaaaaand…NOW, Gobi!”

In a second the Lunarian tossed the device as hard as he could, with Maggie ducking at the last second to avoid getting knocked off the lion’s head. You held your breath as it sailed through the dark sky for several seconds, before settling into a stable migrating movement, and started circling back as it began its first orbit around the earth’s pole.

“We did it!” you yelled, proud of the day’s first successful experiment. “We should be receiving our first readings in a couple of days! I programed it to send data back to my personal computer back in Lunaria, we can check out what it found then!”

“Cool!” Gobi replied, sounding excited. “I can’t wait to see what weird new data we get! I’ve never done this much science before, but it’s all been fun so far!”

Banking hard to the right, the lion turned around, taking the three of you back to the moon. “Me too, Gobi,” you agreed, “It’s been hard, and admittedly it hasn’t been fun all the time for me, but this particular experiment has been pretty great.”

“While we’re out here, by the way,” Gobi asked, “How come you haven’t asked Chang’e to just take you back to earth? Her lions can bring you home safely enough, that’s how Fei Fei and her brother Chin got back!”

“I’ve thought about that,” you admitted, “But the thing is, if I do that, people are gonna be asking far too many questions for my liking. Remember, as far as anyone back at Mission Control is concerned, I either died in the crash or survived and remained stranded on the moon. If I just show up back on earth, with no explanation of how I returned without a rocket or rescue crew involved, people will talk. They’ll ask too many questions, and they might find Lunaria and Chang’e! And trust me, I’ve seen how people react when faced with something they’re unfamiliar with. It never ends well.”

“Well, that sounds rather foreboding. But I guess it makes sense,” Gobi answered, reasoning that your explanation, while grim, also sounded logical enough. “Besides, we wouldn’t have become friends if you had just left as soon as you showed up! That would have been a real bummer, if you know what I’m saying.”

You laughed at Gobi’s last statement. “Very true, Gobi. Very true. Now come on! We gotta get back to the palace, I don’t wanna get spotted by some weather satellite or something!”

_________________________________________________________________________________

Chang’e paced around her chambers, her thoughts all jumbled together from the events of a few hours ago. She tried to recap exactly everything that has transpired: you had tested your radio, freaked out when it failed, she had sparred with you to help you process your anger, and things had gotten intense somehow. To make amends for how that went down, she was planning to go talk to you, but had shied away when she heard you singing. Now here she was, even more confused on how to proceed than every before. None of this made sense. You didn’t make sense! There was something about you that caused the immortal to second-guess herself far too often for her liking. But why? What was going on here?

This whole time, Jade had been watching Chang’e continue to pace and question herself, feeling concerned for his oldest friend. He had known her for over three millennia, and he assumed that by now he would be able to predict his friend’s moods. Sometimes she would be fine, calm, almost content even. These were the times where she would sing her heart out and grace Lunaria with her wonderous voice. Other times she would withdraw into herself, feeling lost and alone without Houyi at her side. And on a few occasions, the city itself would grow dark when Chang’e would reach her lowest point, and it seemed that nothing could bring her back from the depths of her despair. As time had passed, these ‘lows’ had been occurring less and less, and ever since Fei Fei and Chin’s visit Jade hadn’t been able to recount a single time when Chang’e would fall into such despair.

Now though? This was an entirely new and unfamiliar emotional state his friend was exhibiting. He didn’t like it when he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, or why she was feeling a certain way. This confusion, this nervousness, this intimidation Chang’e was experiencing was difficult for Jade to watch, and he could guess that you were the cause of it. Part of him disliked you for what you were putting his friend through, but another part of him suspected that something else was going on. He just wasn’t sure how to bring it up with the immortal.

Chang’e suddenly stopped her pacing, as though she sensed her oldest companion staring at her. “What?” she asked, feeling squeamish under her friend’s stare. “You’re thinking something, and I want to know what it is. Tell me!”

The look Jade responded with took Chang’e aback. She could tell what he was implying, and she didn’t like the place his mind had gone. “No! I don’t see her like that! She’s only my guest, a friend at most! You know I’ve only ever given my heart to one person! While I wouldn’t mind loving someone new, I can’t bring myself to feel that way about a woman! No matter what kind of person she is!”

While Chang’e was rather isolated from the societal changes that the earth had experienced in her absence, she had been able to spend the latter part of the past century catching up them. This included the way the world looked at romantic relationships; this way Chang’e had learned that same-sex couples were now a ‘thing’ (though she had heard whispers of such relationships before during her time as a mortal, they were just far more secretive about it). While it had surprised her at first to hear of this turn of events, she hadn’t thought too much of it afterwards. She didn’t have anything to do with the affairs of mortals nowadays, and her heart only ever belonged to Houyi. Now, while she was willing to find love again, she was certain that she would fall in love with a man, the way she had the first time around. The idea of her courting and falling in love with a woman was very far-fetched, to say the least.

“It’s nothing!” Chang’e continued to insist to Jade, “I’m certain that my feelings for our guest are not of that nature! I’m sure of it! It’s that book she gave me that’s putting ideas in your head! I’ve seen you flip through the pages when you think I’m not looking!”

Spying the offending copy of The Left Hand of Darkness, Chang’e stormed over to it and began flipping through the pages, hoping to prove her point. “See! I’m certain that this is all this weird book’s fault! Listen,

‘…Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable – the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?’

‘That we shall die.’

‘Yes. There’s really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer…The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.’

Right there, Jade! This book is wrong about uncertainty! I am certain that my life will never end, I am certain that our guest’s life will, either here or on earth, and I am most certain that she will never be anything more than a friend! And that’s that!”

Throwing the book down on a nearby chair, Chang’e fell onto her favorite chaise and covered her face with her hands, “I admit, I do feel confused by my feelings for her, but they will never be the kinds of feelings you’re thinking of! My heart once belonged to a man, and it will only belong to another man one day. I don’t feel that way about her, I just don’t…”

Chang’e’s voice trailed off as she continued her musings privately. Jade watched on, skeptical as ever in his friend’s assertion. He knew the immortal better than anyone else, and her entire spiel just now reeked of denial. The question was, denial of what? Did she feel the way he thought she felt about you? And even more important: did you feel the same way? The only thing worse than not knowing how his friend was feeling was knowing that she stood a chance at having her heart broken.

He wasn’t going to let that happen, not on his watch. It’s about time he got to know you a little better. He needed to better understand the person that was slowly taking a hold of his friend’s heart, whether either party knew it or not.

Chapter Text

“Okay, let’s see if we can find anything new out here to use. Hopefully, we can find more radio parts, but if worse comes to worse we can always come up with something new,” you said. You, Gobi, and Maggie were back at the crash site, looking to salvage new parts to potentially build a second radio. If you couldn’t find the parts you were looking for, you were going to try something else. But you weren’t going to cross that bridge until you got to it.

“Sounds like a plan!” Gobi answered, already heading inside the wreck, and starting his search. In the several weeks you two had been working together he had turned out to be a rather resourceful lab assistant. He was a quick learner, having picked up the names of various technical equipment within your first week of knowing him. He could even assemble some elementary parts, such as circuit boards, by himself now after you had spent an hour or so showing him how at first. To say you were grateful for his help was a gross understatement.

Then again, the first time you had tried to operate your radio it had spontaneously combusted. You weren’t suggesting that it was Gobi’s fault it had caught fire, these things happened all the time on earth. Still, you supposed it couldn’t hurt to watch him a bit more closely next time to make sure he was assembling stuff correctly.

In another area of the wreck, Maggie was picking her way through the debris and looking for parts that were more difficult to get to, since she could just laser away the junk to get to the useful things. The three or you had already agreed to stay away from the part of the wreck were Erikson, Thompson, and Loughly were buried. You had already picked that area clean the first time you came out here for salvage, and it didn’t seem respectful to continue searching that area. It didn’t make sense objectively speaking, but the idea of combing that area for parts now felt tantamount to grave robbing.

But you weren’t too worried about that right now, as Gobi helpfully reminded you: “So what kind of parts are we looking for this time? Wires, bolts, batteries? Or something else? You made a list of what we had to replace right?”

“Yeah, of course!” you responded, “A good scientist always keeps track of what they need for their next experiment! We’re looking for batteries and wires mostly, but one or two more circuit boards couldn’t hurt either.”

“Alrighty then! I’ll keep an eye out for that stuff!” Gobi replied as he got to work.

You heard shuffling near the other side of the wreck, and followed it to where Maggie was working. Currently, she was using her teeth to pull at a tangle of wires handing from the ceiling, trying to separate them to bring them to Lunaria later.

“Hold on Mags!” you said, stopping her for a second. “Try pulling them one at a time; it’ll be a lot easier to untangle them. And stay away from the stripped sections! You could electrocute yourself; we don’t know if there’s still power running through this part of the station or not.”

She crinkled her nose at the thought of being fried, and when she went back to the wires she followed your advice, to your relief. The last thing you wanted to deal with today was barbequed rabbit.

You had been working on the wreck for a while now when you realized that this wasn’t going as well as you had liked. In the past several hours, you and Gobi had only managed to find two batteries that remained intact enough to use, the rest had all been destroyed in the crash. It wasn’t enough to power a second radio strong enough to contact earth, or even the nearest satellite. You were also doubtful over how much of a charge they could hold; it had been a while since they were last used and had most likely leaked all their power by now.

Things weren’t also looking good in the wire department. That nest of wires Maggie was tugging at earlier seemed to be the only wires left that were salvageable. Everything else had been picked clean from the wreck when you had started building your first radio. You had to face the facts: there was no way you were going to be able to rebuild a second one.

Sitting outside the wreck, head resting in your hands, you tried to think of a possible solution. You were coming up empty. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down! What were you gonna do now?

“Well, this doesn’t look so good,” Gobi started, “You got any other ideas?”

“Not really,” you admitted, not feeling so great about your odds right now. “We used up everything the first time! How am I gonna build a second radio now?”

“I’m sure you’ll come up with something! C’mon, you’re one of the smartest people I know! Trust me, I’ve met my fair share of smart people. Let’s keep looking! I’m sure you missed something!”

Gobi ran down to the far end of the wreck, and began climbing up the giant thruster that had kept the station in orbit. “Hey, how about this rocket thing? It looks kinda crushed, but you can fix it! You could try shooting yourself back to earth!”

“Gobi, that’s ridiculous!” you countered, “You can’t just shoot yourself out of a rocket…Although, you might be on to something…”

Gobi’s mention of a rocket had got the gears in your head turning again. Running down to where Gobi was, you got a closer look at the thruster. The thing was massive, at least 150 feet in length. It was designed to keep the station moving at an even pace in orbit around the moon; because orbit patterns around the moon tended to be wonky, the thruster ensured that your speed was at least consistent. While it had mostly been crushed during the crash, you supposed that if you had a way to reshape it, it could be salvaged. In addition, while the reactor itself had imploded during the crash, the thruster could use standard rocket fuel as a backup power source. You prayed that your luck hadn’t run out as you made your way to one of the discarded fuel tanks…

There! Three of the seven tanks remained intact. Climbing up the side of one of them, you carefully unscrewed one of the caps lining the outside of the tank and peered in. Miraculously, most of the fuel was still there. You attributed the survival of these three tanks due to them being on the top part of the thruster when the station crashed. While they had flattened the thruster for the most part, that configuration had also spared those three tanks from the worst of the damage. There was only one other thing you needed: a compartment to carry a human passenger. Your mind flashed back to the compartment you had been in at the time of the crash.

Turning around towards the front of the wreck, you accessed the airlock and went inside. It was mostly intact from your last salvage mission; because the interior was mostly intact, getting at the wires and other parts in the walls had been exceedingly difficult. You had given up trying to reach those parts after a little while anyway; you had found enough parts from other, more demolished parts of the station. In hindsight, your decision to leave this area alone might have actually been a very smart idea.

“Gobi, you’re a genius!” you yelled.

“Well, it’s about time someone recognized that!” Gobi replied, feeling very satisfied. “Wait, why am I a genius?”

“I may not be able to build a second radio, but I might not even have to!” you explained. “Look! We have a thruster that’s just in need of some reshaping, three intact fuel tanks, and a cab for a human passenger! I can use these parts to build a rocket, and fly myself home!”

“You can do that?” Gobi asked, astonished. “Not that I doubt you of course, but look at how big all these parts are! How are we gonna build a rocket if we’re smaller than the parts themselves? We can’t even lift them!”

“Hmm,” you responded, thinking. Gobi had a point, how were you gonna move them all? “Well, we can’t just come out here every day and work on them; we’re too far from Lunaria in case something happens, and we need help. Besides, we’re gonna have to move those parts at some point anyway to assemble the final product. We could just ask those two lions to carry the parts back, but I don’t think they’ll be able to carry something as heavy and large as the thruster. They could wind up dropping it on the way there and damaging it further! So we’re gonna have to find a way to move those parts as close to the city as possible, but how?”

You puzzled over the idea for several minutes, trying to think of something. Finally, something came to mind, but it was a long shot.

“I have an idea,” you said, “but we’re gonna have to walk a little ways before I can explain what it is.”

Maggie, who had abandoned searching the wreck by now and had hopped over to you, was looking at you skeptically. The last time you were vague about an idea she had almost been smacked off a lion’s head and fallen to the earth below. Gobi, while looking a bit more optimistic, was also looking somewhat skeptical.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“It’s easier to show you in person, come on!”

After three hours of hiking across the barren grey desert, you came across what you were hoping to find: the Apollo site. Ignoring the still American flag (silently laughing over the irony over thinking they were here first) and watching your step around Armstrong and Aldrin’s footprints, you came across your reason for coming here: the Lunar rover. It was not an exceptionally large vehicle, about the size of a pickup truck, but you figured that with a few modifications it could be used to tow the station parts you needed back to a spot near Lunaria. Worst case scenario, you would carefully take apart the thruster into smaller pieces, tow them one by one, and reassemble them at at the new work site. Unfortunately, you couldn’t tow them into the city proper, since it wasn’t actually on the ground, but close enough so it wouldn’t be a hassle to travel back and forth between the palace and the site. While you personally hated driving, to the point where you didn’t even own a car on earth, you did at least have a driver’s license (though how much good that did on the moon was debatable). Besides, you were willing to do what had to be done. Climbing over the rover itself, you began inspecting it.

“Looks to be in decent shape,” you noted, taking in the dashboard. “I’m going to pop open this panel on the front to get a closer look at the electronics here. Gobi, check out the tires and see if they’re flat or worn out. Maggie, keep an eye out for one of those lions. We’ve moved pretty far from the crash site, and you’ll have to signal them if you see them nearby, so they know where we are.”

“Gotcha!” Gobi replied, already heading around to the back of the rover to start with the rear tires. Maggie bounded onto the top of a nearby boulder and started scanning the pitch-black skies for any sign of either lion.

You tried to be as delicate as possible while pouring over the electronics before you. This stuff was several decades old, six at least, and you wanted to be as respectful of this historical artifact as possible. Well, as respectful as you could be considering how you were planning on modifying it, but still. If you could leave it as intact as possible, that would be ideal. You were a bit squeamish at the idea of tampering with such a significant device, but what had to be done had to be done.

Unfortunately, as you were peering into the center console, you didn’t notice how the slim gold chain around your neck slipped out of your jumpsuit, and the charm hanging from it was swaying dangerously close to the negative terminal of one of the batteries. Equally unfortunate was that at this point, you hadn’t gotten around to checking to see if said batteries were still capable of ignition. It seemed that they still had enough juice left in them, because a small spark leapt from the charm on your neck to the battery’s negative terminal, too small for you to notice.

“Hold on,” you said to Gobi, “I think I see a battery buried down further down. Let me see if it’s still running.”

Carefully, you tightened the positive clamp around the positive terminal, failing to notice that your charm was now completely touching the negative terminal just out of your line of view. Just a little tighter and –

BANG!

Your view lit up like the sun itself had exploded behind your eyes. Your vision turned completely white, there was a moment where your brain felt like it had caught on fire, and then everything went dark.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Nothing. There was nothing here. Why was there nothing here? Were you the only person left? It was as if the entire universe had blinked out of existence, and only you were left. Or had you always been the only person in the universe? Had your entire life up to this point been only an illusion? Had you been asleep and were only now awake? Were you even REAL at all?

“WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? How did this happen?!?!”

Then again, how would you know if you weren’t real or not? Was there even a way to tell? In this dark void you found yourself in, you couldn’t even tell if you had a body of your own; a border to differentiate you from the void and yourself. What would be considered ‘yourself’? Such an odd question…

"I don’t know what happened! She’s been out for hours now! I don’t know how to help her, I’m not as smart at her!"

Absentmindedly, you flexed your hand out in front of you. Hands? Did you have hands of your own? Or were they just an abstract continuation of the void? Were you simply imagining having hands of your own? You couldn’t even tell if the nothingness before you was dark to your eyes, or if your eyes had always seen things like this. Were your eyes real? You imagined so, since you could at least tell that it was dark. Or had it always been this dark?

"Goddess, I don't think I've seen her breathe in the last minute or so. I think you should be prepared for the worst..."

“Don’t you dare! She’s not – she can’t – Jade, is there a heartbeat? Tell me she has one! Please, HURRY!”

Curiously, you had begun to hear voices. Strange, the void had always been silent before now. They were faint, like they were at the far end of a tunnel, and you were already deaf in one ear. Or more accurately, like they were at the far end of a tunnel and pillows were being held over both ears. How did you know what tunnels were? Or pillows? Had you NOT always been in the void?

Faintly, you felt some sort of pressure on where you imagined your chest would be, assuming you had a chest of your own. You felt it in the same way someone would only feel something if their entire body was under a heavy anesthetic, though a thick twilight of chemicals and misfiring neurons. After a moment or two, the pressure left your chest, and the void rushed back in.

“What do you mean there’s nothing! There can’t be nothing, there just CAN’T! This wasn’t supposed to happen, she’s not allowed to…to…”

“Goddess, please try and stay calm! You’re already starting to cause another meteor shower!”

“I AM CALM! Don’t you dare tell me to stay calm!!”

The voices had continued for a while now. Idly, you wondered if they were only a product of your imagination. Were your senses so deprived of input that your mind had started hallucinating? Was it trying to create stimulations of its own? Had you finally gone mad?

“Wait, I have an idea! Get back, all of you! We only have a little time left! Please work please work please work-”

The pressure returned to your chest again, only this time it was a little different. You distantly felt something being brushed off your chest, and then the pressure became two distinct points. They covered your entire chest, and they were pressed down hard. There was a moment where a faint buzzing broke through the twilight of touch-not-touch, and then –

As you bolted upright, your head suddenly slammed into something hard. There was a shout, the sound of someone falling over, and a few gasps throughout the room you were in. You shook the blur out of your eyes and took in the scene.

You were back at the palace, judging by the architecture of the room you were in. The walls were ornately decorated, with several bright tapestries on display and illuminated by strange lights, fires in bowls to be more precise. The color scheme skewed towards red in this room, and you noticed that was imagery featuring fantastical creatures such as phoenixes, dragons, and strange quadrupeds everywhere. Glancing down at yourself, you noticed that you were lying on some sort of chaise, cream and scarlet in color, and the top part of your jumpsuit had been pushed away, revealing the part of your chest just above your heart. Thankfully, the fabric had not been pushed any lower.

But the most bizarre part of the scene was not the room itself, but who occupied it and how they were acting. Right in front of you, Chang’e was sitting on the floor, rubbing her forehead in her hands, and groaning like she had hit her head on something. Jade stood next to where she presumably was kneeling moments ago. He was staring at you wide-eyed and freaking out like you had just committed some grave faux pas. Just to Chang’e’s left and a little further away, Gobi was staring at you, a look of terror on his face that was slowly starting to fade away. Near his feet Maggie mirrored his expression, looking panicked and lost. Off to the immortal’s right the three Lunettes stood, glancing nervously between you, Chang’e, and the balcony on the far side of the room. Overall, the atmosphere of the room was thick with anxiety and fear. But why? What had happened and what did you miss?

Whatever it was, it had left you feeling awful all over. You were dealing with the worst headache of your life, and you tried rubbing your eyes to soothe the pain. After a tense minute, you rasped, “What happened? How did we get back to the palace? Why is everyone freaking out?”

It was then that you finally noticed Chang’e holding her head in pain. Concerned, you asked her, “What happened to your head? Did you hit it on something?”

“I didn’t hit my head on anything. However, you hit me with your own head just now. So thank you for that,” she sarcastically quipped, but you still noticed the faint tremor in her voice just now. What had her so shaken up?

You decided to ask Gobi instead. He would probably be more willing to explain what happened. “Gobi, what’s going on? Why do I hurt all over right now?”

Gobi looked conflicted, partially concerned and partially relieved, but he was willing to answer your question, “You were trying to get a better look at the engine on that moon rover thingy, and I was looking at the tires. Suddenly there was a loud bang, and when I looked over at you, you’d been thrown off the rover pretty far. It had to have been at least twenty feet! You also weren’t awake, and you were breathing funny. Maggie was able to get a lion’s attention, and we took you back here. You didn’t look good at all! We tried everything to help you, but nothing was working. I was so scared! We thought you were dead! I thought you were dead!” He sounded increasingly upset as he went on, and had even started wringing his hands in anxiety by the time he reached the end.

Your heart felt heavy with guilt. Swinging your legs over the side of the chaise, you reached out a hand to Gobi, “Hey now,” you replied, keeping your voice as calm as possible. “I’m okay now, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.” Gobi crept forward a couple of steps, before lunging at you and hugging you tightly. Maggie had leapt after him to sit on the chaise with you and was nuzzling her head against your side. Feeling her trembling slightly, you used your free hand to scratch the top of her head and rub the base of her ears.

Gobi pulled away from you, looking a lot calmer and happier than when you had first woken up. “Well of course you’re okay now! Chang’e saved your life! If anyone could, obviously it would have been her!”

Surprised, you turned to the immortal, who had been silent for several minutes now. “I guess I have you to thank then. I would have been screwed if you hadn’t – oh my god are you okay?”

It was then you noticed that Chang’e wasn’t looking so great either. The sleeves on her robe had been pushed up her arms, all the way up to her elbows, and the fabric there was bunched and wrinkled. There was already a red spot forming on her head where you had headbutted her on accident, but it was her eyes that had made you stop cold. The makeup around her eyes was smudged and had formed dark rings, as if she had been crying heavily just now. Her eyes themselves were also slightly red and puffy. Given how much pride she took in her appearance, the way she looked now was startling to say the least.

“I’m fine,” she replied, trying to keep her voice level. “I’m fine, you’re fine, everything’s fine.” She took a deep breath to steady herself before concluding, “There’s nothing to worry about, let’s just remain calm now.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed something very wrong with the sky. Carefully standing up, you started to walk forward, but a yell from the immortal stopped you.

“Be careful!” she shouted, grabbing you and holding you under your arm to steady you. “You could hurt yourself again!”

“Again?” you asked, “When did I hurt myself the first time? And I don’t mean being electrocuted, that’s fairly obvious.”

“You seriously haven’t noticed your neck yet?” she asked, gaping at how oblivious you seemed.

If you hadn’t noticed the pain yet, you certainly did now. Running your fingers gently along your skin, you noticed bumpy, crunchy tissue that ran in a thin ring around your entire neck. “What the hell is that?” you asked, astonished.

“This burned you,” Chang’e replied, holding up a thin gold chain with a familiar charm on it. It was actually a locket, heart-shaped like most lockets, and it had swirled designs running around its edge. But the thing that made it stand out the most was that it had your family name carved on one side of the heart.

Your blood ran cold. “Give it back!” you hollered, lunging at it.

Chang’e yanked it out of your reach, holding it far above your head. The sudden motion caused you to sway on her arm, but neither of you noticed. “Absolutely not! This little trinket almost killed you! It needs to be disposed of so it can’t hurt you again!”

“That’s not yours to take! It’s mine, and I want it back!”

“You nearly died because of this thing! Don’t you care about how that would have affected me? What your death would do to me?!”

“That’s a family heirloom! Don’t you care how your actions now are affecting me? It’s not up for discussion, give it back!”

In a rage you lunged at the locket, swinging your arm up as high as you could. In the process you let go of Chang’e’s arm, and the sudden shift in balance was too much for your fragile body to handle. In a mess of weakened limbs and stiff joints you went tumbling to the floor, having failed to retrieve the locket. Pain exploded through your body, and you moaned and clutched the arm on which you had landed.

In a flash Chang’e dropped the locket and was on the floor with you, trying to help you back up. Still angry, you yanked your arm away, not interested in her help right now.

The immortal stiffened. Clearly this was going to take a while to work out. She turned to everyone else in the room. “Leave, now. That isn’t a request. Go!” In seconds everyone else had cleared the room, Gobi looking back over his shoulder nervously at you. What was going on? He didn’t understand what was happening right now, and he didn’t like it. Unbeknownst to him, Jade was feeling similarly. He was more confused than every about what his friend was going through. Her emotions had been all over the board for the past half hour, and he didn’t like it. Distraught, panicked, hysterical, relieved, angry, and now concerned. He knew one thing though: he was not happy at how ungrateful you seemed about receiving Chang’e’s help. First she saved you, then you hit her in the head, and now you tried to attack her just because she was trying to keep you safe? Needless to say, you were not getting on his good side right now. Concerned for his friend’s wellbeing, and how you were threatening that, he left the room with the others, more determined than ever to learn more about you and why you were like this.

Chang’e turned back to you once everyone else was out of the room. She cautiously reached out a hand to help you up again, but you brushed her off again, with a muttered ‘I’m fine’. It was far less harsh than when you yanked your arm roughly away moments before, but it was still rather standoffish.

The immortal hummed in annoyance before speaking again, “Why are you like this? Is it just normal for you to reject someone else’s help? What is your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem!” you shot back, defensively. “I just know myself enough to know when I need help and when I don’t. Why do you think I was going to thank you for saving my life before I saw your eyes?”

“My eyes?” Chang’e asked, confused. “What about them?”

“Actually, to be more accurate, your makeup. It’s smudged and ringing your eyes. Also, your eyes themselves are kinda red-ish. Were you…crying just now?”

She gently rubbed part of her hand against the skin just below her left eye, leaving a dark streak across that part of her face and her hand. Surprised, she turned to you again. “Well from the looks of it, I guess I was. I suppose it’s happened again then.”

“What’s happened again?” you asked.

“You were trying to walk to the balcony, correct? To see the sky? Let me show you, it’s easier than trying to tell you.”

For a third time, Chang’e reached out to you, and hesitantly you grabbed her hand. Supporting your weight on her arm, she led you to the balcony so you could see the view below. What you saw floored you.

The sky was an eerie dark red, almost like it had been on fire moments ago. That struck you as especially strange, given than up until now the sky had always been a dark velvety black scattered with stars. The sky wasn’t supposed to be any other color; without an atmosphere to refract light it should have been impossible. Then again, you had grown accustomed to seeing the impossible happen all the time here. The city itself seemed to have grown unusually quiet. Most of the time there was a constant hustle and bustle as Lunarians moved and flew about the neon metropolis. Now, there was dead silence.

But the most disquieting thing you noticed was way out beyond the city, across the grey lunar wastes. Dotting the landscape were glowing dots, massive given how big they looked just from here. Putting two and two together, you turned to the immortal in astonishment.

“Are those meteors?” you gasped, “Did you somehow cause a meteor shower? But that’s impossible! How?”

“I wasn’t lying when I said I was a goddess when you first arrived here,” she replied, though her remark lacked her signature sassy tone. “Do you believe me now?”

You blinked. Turning towards Chang’e, you looked at her like you were seeing her for the first time. Up until now, you had been able to explain away all the weird things about her: her agelessness, her lack of need for sleep or food, how she had created this city. As improbable as it seemed at the time, being an immortal with magic made the most sense. Now, however? You were finally forced to confront the truth about her nature: in every sense of the word, she was a goddess. A powerful being who could end you with a thought! From everything you had heard about gods and goddesses in mythology, they weren’t exactly the nicest people, especially towards mortals. They treated them awfully, used them and abused them, would wipe out entire kingdoms for the smallest slight, and still expected to be worshiped at the end of the day. They had always struck you as petty and cruel, so the realization that Chang’e was one of these beings did little to put you at ease.

Then again, her behavior since your arrival didn’t line up with the gods from ancient myths at all. She had been kind enough to let you stay in her city, her palace even! She often visited you, not only to check on you but just to talk to you and get to know you. She was rather pleasant, almost fun, to chat with, and you had subconsciously begun to look forward to your next conversation with her. She also seemed unusually invested in your emotional well-being; the awkward sparring session, while it ended on a weird note, was well-intended to begin with. And now she had even gone so far as to save your life. But why? What was so special about you?

“I guess I have no choice but to believe you,” you began, “There’s no denying the proof in front of me. Why did you do this? How did this happen?”

“It wasn’t like I wanted this to happen. It only really occurs when I’m at my most…emotional. When I am angry, frustrated, upset, frightened, states like that.”

“Why were you upset just now…” your voice trailed off as you connected the dots. Her eyes, the meteors, her oddly protective attitude towards you when you had tried to move on your own. Not to mention her very odd comment from earlier, ‘what your death would do to her’. It pointed towards one conclusion, and you only hesitated for a second before saying it out loud, “You were scared for me? That I would die? While I get trying to be a good host and making sure your guest doesn’t well, die while in your care, this goes way beyond that. Why? Why are you so attached to someone like me?”

The goddess looked at your exasperated, “I’m not sure whether to feel frustrated that it took you this long to realize I was worried for you,” her voice softened up a little, “Or concerned that you are so surprised that someone would care for you. Why are so closed off from other people? What happened to make you like this?”

“To be fair, it wasn’t a single thing,” you explained. “Not to sound edgy or anything, but I’ve had people letting me down and leaving me my entire life. I learned from a young age that you can’t count on anyone to give a damn about you, to fight for you. You have to fight for yourself. It’s also why I’m admittedly not the best at emoting. I quickly learned that it’s best not to give too much away to others. Never let anyone see that anything gets to you, and you’ll never get hurt.” Your voice had grown quieter and quieter with each word you said, and on your last sentence it was practically a whisper.

Chang’e looked at you with what could only be described as pity, or better yet heartbreak. She couldn’t imagine what had happened in your life to break your trust in people so badly. Did your parents’ deaths have anything to do with it? You had mentioned that they died on the same day, perhaps there was some sort of clue there? But it had to have been more. People had parents die on them as children all the time; if she recalled correctly, Fei Fei’s motivation for going to the moon had mostly to do with her mother’s death. But she hadn’t been as broken as you were. Chang’e needed to know more about you. If she could figure out how that wall around your heart had gone up in the first place, perhaps she could find a way to take it down, piece by piece.

Though she supposed that started with returning things that didn’t belong to her. Reaching behind her, she scooped the locket off the floor and held it out to you. “Then let me be the first to show you that I give a damn about you. I believe this is yours,” she looked apologetic for a second, “I’m sorry that I tried to throw it away. If I had known how important it was to you -”

“It’s okay,” you replied, feeling remorseful yourself, “I understand what your intentions were now. And I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier. I really am grateful that you saved me. I guess I’m just not used to people fretting over me this much.”

She offered you a small grin. “Then you’ll just have to get used to it, starlight.”

Your brain froze for a second at that last word, before rebooting. What did she just call me? “What was that last word?”

The goddess’ eyes widened, before she looked away embarrassed. “Nothing! It’s nothing, just forget I said anything. You didn’t hear anything!”

You smirked, “Wait a second, is that a nickname that you’ve secretly been calling me that this whole time?”

“Not this whole time!” she whined, getting defensive. “Just in the past couple of weeks or so! It’s silly and strange, and I understand if you don’t want to be called that-”

“No, no”, you said, cutting her off. “I think it’s, well, cute. Far less demeaning than mortal, anyway.”

“Trust me, I have no problem still calling you that when you’re acting recklessly. Although luckily you won’t have too many opportunities for that for the next three weeks.”

You raised an eyebrow in confusion, “What do you mean by that?”

“You’re not leaving the palace until you’ve fully healed from your injuries. You need to rest! Just look at how much effort it took to walk twenty feet to the balcony! You can’t go back out into the wastes, or do anything strenuous, until I’m sure that you’ve recovered. This isn’t up for debate!” Chang’e replied.

You opened your mouth to protest briefly, but then closed it and decided not to. She did have a point about you not being in your best shape; electrocution can do a number on someone’s heart and brain, and you secretly had felt significant pain in your chest while walking to the balcony. You had hoped that she wouldn’t notice each time you winced in pain, but it seemed that you were not that lucky. Besides, now that you knew that she was truly a goddess, it wasn’t smart to get on her bad side. And, admittedly, it felt good to have someone who inexplicably cared so fiercely for your safety. It was a feeling you weren’t used to, but one you could indulge in for the time being.

“Alright, I suppose I could stay here until then,” you sighed. “It’s just, it can get so boring when I’m stuck in my chambers for whatever reason! All I’ve been able to do in that room was build a radio, and not even that’s an option anymore! I’m not going to spend these next three weeks just lying in bed waiting to get better. I need something to keep my mind occupied, or I think I’ll go mad!”

The goddess looked thoughtful for a second, before turning back towards you, “I have an idea. I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to show you something so secret, but now? Something tells me that I can trust you with this, at least.”

“Show me what?” you asked.

“There’s a part of the palace that I like to go to when I want to be left alone. It’s impossible for anyone but me to reach it, but I can manage to bring you there. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

She turned away from the balcony to leave, but before she could get far you grabbed her arm, “Wait,”

“What is it?” she asked.

You reached into your pocket and pulled out a bandana in your favorite color. It was unusually clean for a bandana that belonged to an engineer; you kept it that way intentionally so you could use it to clean delicate parts like computer screens and circuit boards. You handed it to the goddess and added, “I’m assuming that you don’t want to be spotted with your makeup looking all smudged. Here, take this so you can clean up.”

Chang’e took the bandana, and looked at it cautiously. Gently, she used it to wipe away the smeared makeup from her eyes, removing any last traces of the breakdown she had experienced not that long ago. When she had finished, she held the bandana back out to you.

You gently pushed her hand away, “It’s okay, you keep it. Who knows, you might need it again at some time.”

At her concerned look you added hastily, “Not that I want something like this to happen again! Just that, sometimes other things happen, and you can’t help but lose yourself in your emotions. So keep it, maybe it will help you later on.”

She looked touched by this gesture, but didn’t say anything else besides a soft, ‘thank you’. After that, she waved a hand in your direction and to your immense surprise found yourself floating several feet in the air, kept suspended by a cloud of multi-colored magic.

“What the-”

“You need to be off your feet as much as possible. Besides, we can’t walk or climb completely to where I want to take you. This is easier on both of us. Just stay calm, and you should be fine!” the goddess assured you.

Traveling through the palace, the two of you went on for several minutes, mostly walking. However, towards the end of the trip she ended up flying up towards one of the tallest spires in the palace, possibly the tallest tower of them all. To say that you were shocked that she could fly was an understatement, but not a big one. Just another note I’ll have to make when I revise my notes on her, you thought.

Near the top of the tower was a small balcony, more like a crow’s nest if anything. It wound its way around the spire, and was quite small. In total, it was only the size of the average person’s bedroom in terms of square footage.

What really struck you about this place was how dim the lights were up here. Coming to a soft landing on the crow’s nest, you marveled at how far away the lights of Lunaria were below you. You must have been thousands of feet above the ground at this point, but thankfully you weren’t feeling any of the effects of vertigo here. Above your head an endless night sky stretched across the heavens, almost forming a dome of darkness and stars that surrounded the two of you. By now the red of the meteor shower had faded completely, leaving nothing but the sacred darkness surrounding you both.

“It’s so quiet here,” you gasped, in awe of this place. “And so dark! You can see everything from here! This is amazing!”

“Yes, that’s what I love so much about this place,” Chang’e replied, “It’s perfect for when I want to be alone, and just enjoy the silence and darkness. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you board up your room when you’re trying to sleep. I thought you could use a place like this to escape to when you need it.”

Sitting down on the ground, you looked up at the stars, gaping at how clear and beautiful the skies were here. You thought you had gotten used to seeing the stars all the time during your time on the Lunar Gateway, but this was something new entirely. On the station, you could only see the stars from a tiny viewport each time; maybe getting a better view through your helmet while on a spacewalk. Here, there was no helmet and no viewport to obstruct your view. The universe unfolded before you uninhibited, vast, and mysterious in its majesty.

“While we are up here, if you are comfortable talking about it, that is,” Chang’e began cautiously. “What is the significance of that locket? You said that it was a family heirloom; if you’re okay with telling me I would like to hear.”

You looked at her and offered a soft smile, “Actually, I’d love to tell you. You trusted me one of your secrets, so I’m going to trust you with one of mine. The locket came from my father’s side of the family. It’s been passed down for several generations, it dates back all the way to the 1850’s when my ancestor first had it made. You see, he was a poor man at the time, and he fell in love with a woman from a higher social class than him. While she was above him in social standing, she wasn’t easily swayed by plain jewelry and expensive gowns. She wanted my ancestor to prove that his love for her was true. So, he used up all his savings to have this locket made, and he wrote a personal note that he put inside it. It was a personal message, talking about how his love for her was true, and that he would continue to love her until the day he died.”

“How did she respond?” the goddess asked, captivated by your story.

“She was so moved by this gesture, this sacrifice of his, that she agreed to marry him. Ever since, the men in my family have given this locket instead of engagement rings to the people they love, as a way to propose to them. It’s become a symbol of pure, selfless love in our family, a willingness to sacrifice everything for the one who holds your heart.”

Chang’e looked moved by your story, and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “That’s beautiful. So now you hold onto it until you’ll find someone to pledge your love to?”

“That’s my intention,” you replied, “Although I don’t see myself giving this to anyone anytime soon. I haven’t had many opportunities to meet anyone, and I don’t make a lot of effort to get to know people anyway.”

“You’ve gotten to know me,” Chang’e teased, “Don’t I count, starlight?” She seemed to pause before saying the last word, and blushed a little at the end of her question. It felt strange, calling you that out loud. But a good kind of strange.

You looked her in her eyes again, and you offered a sly smile, “Well, I guess you count. Though I didn’t expect to meet new people like this.”

You giggled softly at this statement, and the goddess laughed along with you. But there was a slight pang in her heart when you looked her in her eyes again. It was a painful reminder of your mortality. You see, when Chang’e had first become a goddess, one of the first things she noticed about her new appearance were her eyes. She hadn’t been able to name exactly what was different about them, but they seemed brighter. Fuller. Luminous with the light of immortality. It hadn’t been until she had met Fei Fei and Chin, the first mortals she had interreacted with in millennia, that she had been able to pinpoint exactly what was different. Mortal eyes had a hollow quality to them; they lacked an essence that only immortal eyes possessed. It had pained her specially to see such hollowness in the eyes of a child. It was a cruel reminder that their lives would end one day, while she would go on forever. Seeing that hollowness in your eyes was yet another painful reminder that you, like every other mortal, had a finite lifetime in this universe. She tried not to think about it so much, but more and more that hollowness of your eyes had begun to grieve her.

But now, as always, she would put that out of her mind. She would enjoy these few months she had left with you, and be grateful for that. Besides, you were incredibly good at helping her put such thoughts out of her head, as you were right now.

“Hey, you can see the Andromeda and Cassiopeia constellations from here!” you gasped, excited. “You almost never see those on earth! It’s usually too bright and polluted for that.”

“Which constellations are those?” the goddess asked curiously. “I’ve never had a chance to learn how mortals have arranged the stars since I left earth. I’d love to hear more about your knowledge.”

“Sure!” you responded, “Well, the Andromeda constellation is over there, you can tell by the way those stars are arranged, and it’s called that because the Andromeda galaxy can be found inside it…”

Chapter Text

The last four months of Private Decker’s life had been one crisis after another. After the signal from the Lunar Gateway went dark, and the base had lost contact with the crew, he and his fellow researchers had been working around the clock trying to find a way to reestablish a connection with them. At this point, he thinks it’s pointless trying to continue the search; if by some miracle they had survived the crash he assumed had occurred, they would have long run out of supplies and be dead by now. Besides, the lack of oxygen would have killed them first. If the oxygen recycling system aboard the station had been damaged, they would have all died within minutes of the crash.

Not that he didn’t care about those four astronauts to some extent. As in, he cared about them in the abstract sense that his job depending on getting them to the moon and back safely. He didn’t personally know any of them, hell he didn’t even know all their names. He could at best guess three of them. Erikson, Thompson, and Loughly. He never could remember the name of the fourth astronaut, even though she had stuck out to him. Ironically, the reason she had stuck out to him was because she made an active effort to stay away from other people. She was brilliant at her job for sure; being hired as an engineer right out of college was not something to sneeze at. She had also been one of the first picks for the mission, and worked hard. But that was it. Everything about her revolved around her job. She did the work she was assigned, worked hard, and kept to herself the rest of the time. Decker didn’t care much to look into why that was the case, since that was her choice. An odd choice, but a valid one still.

Now she had died without anyone knowing about her, or caring about her beyond what their jobs required. Decker felt a twinge of pity for her, but shrugged it off. He was still working on finding her and the other three astronauts, and even if he thought it was futile by now he would still do his job.

His head turned towards the sliding doors when he heard them swish open, and he heard footsteps walk in. Standing in the doorway, pausing to take a look around, was General Artax. A chill ran down Decker’s spine upon seeing the grizzled older man. The man’s reputation definitely preceded him wherever he went. He was one of the astronauts assigned to the disastrous Apollo 13 mission, and the only one to survive. The officials reports said that the landing module had crashed into the moon’s surface and only he survived the severely botched landing. He had been about to get back up to the orbital module by repairing the lander’s jets himself and steering his way into docking with the other half of the rocket. He had then piloted the module back to earth by himself, no small feat. Everyone working at Mission Control looked upon Artax with respect, well-earned respect at that. However, they also looked upon him with fear.

For ever since the Apollo 13, Artax had become different from what Decker had heard. Before, he had been quite boisterous, social, being able to relax when off the clock while still giving it his all on the clock. Afterwards, his attitude had turned quite chilly. He had become an intense workaholic, staying at Mission Control long after everyone else had gone home and pouring over files from the latest mission. He seemed particularly interested in any files about the moon, to the point where he would take those files home with him to continue looking at them. His rank as General was the only reason he was allowed informal access to such sensitive documents. Decker had assumed that he was only trying to figure out why he survived, and his crew didn’t, and was stuck with an awfully bad case of survivor’s guilt.

But ultimately Decker’s opinion of General Artax didn’t matter. He was still his superior, and he took his job seriously, which was all that mattered to the private. Saluting him as he entered the room, Decker stood at attention before the general dismissed him with an “At ease, soldier,”

“Anything new to report?” Artax began, peering over his shoulder at the bank of screens before the private.

“Nothing yet, sir,” Decker replied. “We still haven’t been able to establish contact with the station, and none of the astronauts had attempted any contact themselves as far as we can tell. If I may speak freely, sir,” the private hesitated before continuing, “Is there really a point to continuing the search? All four of them should be dead by now, the only thing we’ll accomplish by bringing them home is giving them a decent funeral.”

“Tread carefully, soldier,” Artax began, his tone instantly turning icy. “Those four astronauts died in the line of duty, in the name of discovery and conquest! They are heroes, and they deserved to be treated as such.”

“Right, sir, sorry sir.” Decker replied, feeling ashamed of how bold he had been with that statement. He had to remember that they had been actual people, and not abstract ideas of people like he tended to think at times.

At that moment, a soft alarm began sounding from one of the computers from across the room. Surprised, Decker rolled his chair over to where the alarm was coming from and took a look at it. This set of computers didn’t see much action normally. They were set up to automatically run programs that were designed to be run long-term, and keep them functioning unless something significant happened that required human intervention. These programs included satellites, long-range telescopes on earth, and rovers on the moon and Mars. Decker was only really interested in the Mars rover stuff if that. He wasn’t the scientifically curious type. Or the curious type in general.

“What is it, private?” General Artax inquired, following the private over to where he had moved to.

“I don’t know, general,” the private admitted. “It looks like one of our old rover programs is sending in new data just now. Hold on,” he paused, his tone becoming astonished. “This program hasn’t been active since, like, the 60’s! I mean, since at least the 1960’s, sir.” Decker finished, remembering formality a little too late.

“Hmm,” the general hummed, sounding slightly curious. “Which program is it?”

“One of the old lunar rover programs, sir. The data is being downloaded now and should be available in a minute.”

This caught the general’s attention. Pulling a chair, he sat down right next to the private, his eyes glued to the screen. “Play it as soon as it finishes downloading. I want to see every second of that footage.”

If he wasn’t worried about being reprimanded for insubordination, Decker would have rolled his eyes right now. Of course he wants to see some old moon rocks, he thought derisively. Anything to help him feed his martyr complex.

After a minute or two, the download was completed. Decker pressed play on the feed, and the two men watched.

“Ground control to Major Tom…Ground control to Major Tom…Take your protein pills and put your helmet on…”

“The hell? Is that oldies music?” Decker asked, before whipping around to Artax mortified. “My apologies general! I didn’t mean to use such language in your presence!”

“At ease, soldier,” the general replied, transfixed by the imagery before him. “Now you’ve got my attention.” It was as if the private has ceased to exist entirely, that was how much General Artax could care less about him.

From the video feed, both men were treated to a highly unusual sight. The rover appeared to be in some sort of room, instead of showing images of grey moon rocks. It was a dark blue of some sort, and the walls seemed to be rippling in some strange sort of pattern. What was going on? Had the rover been hacked? It was unlikely, given that few people even knew about its existence, and even fewer even cared. They could also faintly hear the sound of shuffling and humming from somewhere in the room, like there were people there. People? Suddenly Decker’s evening was much more exciting.

At that moment, a person’s face came into view. Decker sat back in shock at who’s face it was, while Artax merely raised an eyebrow in intrigue.

“Holy shit, it’s that engineer!” he shouted, before turning hastily around. “General, I’m so-”

“Private, if you apologize for your language one more time, I’ll have you court-martialed!” Artax reprimanded. “Shut the hell up and let me listen!”

Gulping audibly, Decker turned back towards the screen as he heard someone else’s voice speak distinctly off camera.

“Do you know this singer?” a soft, feminine voice asked.

“Absolutely!” the astronaut on the screen replied as she peered into the camera, unaware that it was turned on. “He's only the greatest singer of all time! David Bowie was a genuine artist, a true visionary! My dad liked to play his albums all the time when I was a kid. Shame that he, Bowie that is, died a few years ago, I would have killed to see one of his concerts live…”

“How about that,” Artax spoke, pausing the feed for a moment to muse on this finding. “Never figured that the geeky little engineer would be the one to survive.”

“Do you think the others survived as well, general?” Decker asked, cautiously sounding optimistic.

“Can’t say for sure, private,” Artax replied. “Let’s keep watching, maybe one of them will show up.”

Resuming the feed, the music continued softly in the background as the engineer peered over the rover itself and muttering quietly. She appeared to be removing parts of the rover, and measuring other parts as well. What the hell is she doing? Decker thought, confused. Was she trying to take it apart? It wouldn’t do her much good in pieces, and he couldn’t think of a reason otherwise to disassemble it. She also sometimes took a break from talking to herself to talk to whoever was in the room with her. She appeared to be blathering on about some old as dirt book. Nerds like her confused him.

Looking over her shoulder, the astronaut suddenly spoke to the other person. “Hello, earth to moon lady! Did you hear what I said?”

The feminine voice spoke again, “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I must not have heard you. What was that you said?”

The engineer replied, “I asked you what you thought of that book I loaned you, Left Hand of Darkness. You know, while we’re on the subject of vintage things. Do you like it?”

Decker snorted, “What a dweeb. She’s stuck on the moon, in some weird room talking to some weird voice, and all she can think about is a book. No wonder not a lot of people talked to her while she was still on earth! She was already a space case!”

Artax wasn’t too focused on the engineer at this point. Instead, he was hyper fixated on the other voice in the room. “Moon lady…” he muttered softly. “It can’t be, is it really-”

His voice was cut short as the other person in the room appeared. It was a woman, as both soldiers had guessed, and was exceptionally beautiful. She was East Asian, Chinese most likely, and had on a long red gown with a flared multicolored collar. She also had on stylish makeup, hair done up in several loops, and what appeared to be a crown that looked like a crescent moon perched in her hair.

General Artax’s expression flicked to shock for a brief moment, before settling into a predatory grin. “There you are……” he growled, “After all these years we finally meet face-to-face.”

Decker turned to look at the general in confusion, “Sir, are you alright? What do you mean ‘we finally meet again’?” Both men had stopped listening to the conversation in the feed, but for vastly different reasons. It wasn’t too interesting at this point; both the astronaut and the Chinese woman were only chatting about the book mentioned earlier.

General Artax was silent. Without a word he got up from the chair and began to make his way out of the room.

“That’s none of your concern, private,” he replied after a minute. “You’re paid to look at screens and shoot things, not ask questions. Understand?”

“Yes sir, of course sir,” Decker replied, feeling more confused as well as sheepish. As the general left the room, Decker thought about how bizarre this evening had turned out to be. Not only was there at least one survivor from the Lunar Gateway, she had found refuge of some sort and was with some Chinese broad. Even weirder, the general was far more focused on the Chinese lady than his own astronaut. He didn’t even seem to care all that much about the engineer once he heard the other woman’s voice. As Decker finished watching the feed, he noticed both women leaving the room and a flash of white near the bottom of the screen following them out. Hell of a way to end a shift, he thought, as he anticipated having to tell everyone else about this one survivor. Now the real headache would begin: finding a way to bring her home.

Meanwhile, Artax was hurrying down the hall, his mind storming with thoughts and emotions. After all this time, he was going to be vindicated. He was right all along! And this discovery couldn’t have come at a better time for him. It couldn’t have come at a better time for all of humanity.

Making it to his office, he fired off several emails to some of the world’s top bio-researchers, engineers, and black-ops forces that he knew. The message was simple: This is General Artax. I have news, BIG news. We found her. Project Ascension is a go.

Indeed, this couldn’t have come at a better time for his world. He opened up a highly-classified audio file on his computer, and played it on low volume. The chittering and shrieking that followed haunted his nightmares, but it was a somber reminder of why this was necessary.

“Vindication, indeed,” he muttered to himself. “The wheels have finally been set in motion. This is finally it. I’m about to go down in history as the man that saved the world.”

Chapter Text

As you put the last of the dried leaves into the makeshift kettle, you checked the height of the flame and turned it down slightly, leaving the water to simmer instead of boil. You had little experience brewing tea, but you were going to give it a fair try for today. It was your turn to be a good host after all, and you wanted to make sure that you did it right.

“How are the biscuits looking, Gobi?” you hollered over your shoulder.

“Um,” the Lunarian answered, sounding unsure of himself. “That depends. Are they supposed to be this soggy?” Turning in his direction, you looked to see what he was talking about. He held up a ‘biscuit’ (actually a hunk of freeze-dried bread that had been cut up and rehydrated) so you could see for yourself. The bread chunk was spilling over the sides of his hand and dripping water onto the floor, so saying it was soggy was an understatement.

“Not really,” you replied, cursing yourself for not thinking this through better. You didn’t have much in the way of proper cooking equipment, so you had been forced to improvise for today. You had managed to find a couple more lighters at the wreck site, so you had mounted one onto a small T-frame and had turned it into a stove. That was what you were using to boil the tea. As for the biscuits, you decided that since you didn’t have enough batteries to build a second radio, you might as well use them for something more…frivolous. You had hooked two of them up to each other to get a current going, so they would get warm. You had then told Gobi to cut up the freeze-dried bread, soak the pieces in water for a few minutes, and then place them on top of the warmest battery so they could steam and ‘fluff’ up.

Clearly that wasn’t working out.

“Let me see,” you continued, walking over to where Gobi was so you could take a look. Glancing back briefly at your tea, you turned back to him and said, “Wait a couple more minutes, then you can have the stove. I’ll give you something flat and metal to finish cooking them on, that should do the job.”

“That sounds fine!” Gobi replied. “And I’m sure Chang’e won’t mind that much if they’re not perfect! She’ll probably just appreciate the effort! It’s the thought that counts after all!”

“I guess so,” you answered, trying to reassure yourself. You wanted to get this right after all, and being able to provide more than ‘thought’ was important to you. Since the goddess had offered more than ‘kind thoughts’ to you when you had crashed here all those months ago. When you thought about it though, she had given you far more than a place to stay. While you were able to provide yourself with food, spare clothing, and a way to get off the moon yourself, she had been able to meet the needs you had that weren’t physical. She was someone you could talk to vent your frustrations, discuss new ideas with when Gobi wasn’t available. She had also been surprisingly helpful when it came to you emotional needs, though you were hesitant to admit that out loud. She helped you give your anger an outlet, share your joys and triumphs with, and even helped you manage your stress when you felt overloaded. The two of you had taken to heading to the crows-nest (as you called it) every other night, sometimes for multiple nights in a row. While those visits had decreased in frequency since your three-week recovery period ended, you still found yourself looking forward to stargazing with the goddess when you had the chance. Granted, the two of you had found other things to do while you were recovering (on a whim you decided to try yoga with her one time. After falling over three times and somehow getting your legs tangled in the mat, you gave up), but watching the stars was still your favorite pastime. Overall, Chang’e had helped you in ways that you couldn’t even begin to imagine. Even if your lifetime was as long as hers, you didn’t think you’d be able to pay her back.

Inviting her to your chambers for tea seemed like a decent start though!

As for how you were able to get this to work? While the aforementioned biscuits came from your stash of food, the tea came from a more unusual source. While you couldn’t save Erikson himself, you were able to save most of his plants in the crash, and had brought them here. You didn’t know the first thing about botany, but figured that by keeping them near the balcony and endless lights, and by watering them just enough to keep them and yourself alive, you could manage. And so far, it had worked. There weren’t any brown leaves, no broken stems, nothing that suggested they were dying. You were quite proud of yourself for that. Congratulations, you could keep plants alive! Feeling like you had earned it by now, you had plucked a few leaves off of one his more unusual plants, a peculiar-looking spiky one. After drying the leaves over a week, you had boiled them in water, and was now near complete.

“Hey, isn’t she supposed to be here in a few minutes? You want me and Maggie to leave?” Gobi suddenly asked as he shifted the biscuits to a flat piece of metal and held them over the stove.

“Nah, you’re good,” you answered, “Take some tea and biscuits if you want! You helped make them after all.”

“Thanks but, I think I’ll pass on the tea,” Gobi replied, “It kinda smelled funny earlier.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, like, it kinda smelled, what’s the word I want…dirt-ish? Or like wood? Or fruit? I don’t know, it smelled weird!”

“How do you know what any of those things smell like?” you asked, confused. “You guys don’t have dirt, or wood, or fruit here!”

“You have some of those things though!” he countered, “So I do know what those smell like! Besides, I think you’d appreciate having some alone time with Chang’e anyway, if you know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean…” you said, confused and suspicious. “Care to clarify?”

“Oh, come on!” Gobi said, suddenly insistent. “I know you two will go off together for hours to be alone! I don’t know where you two are going, but I know it’s only you two!”

“It’s just stargazing,” you replied, feeling a little defensive. “It’s not that weird! Friends hang out all the time. We do our own stuff together, and we’re just friends.”

“It’s not just that! How about when she decided to help you ‘work on your anger’ that time the radio caught on fire? You never did say what happened, and when I asked Chang’e she just turned red and changed the subject.”

“That was ages ago!” you said, “Why are you bringing it up now?”

“Or what about when you got electrocuted trying to start the rover and almost died? She was pretty upset about that. The only other times I’ve seen her get that upset always had something to do with Houyi!”

Now you were catching on to what Gobi was implying, and you didn’t like where this was going. Spinning around to stare at the Lunarian, you feigned ignorance, hoping you were wrong, “Your point being…” you asked, not sure you were going to like the answer.

“I’m just saying,” he replied, holding up his hands defensively. “You really want Maggie and I here? We don’t wanna ruin your date.”

After a moment of stunned silence, you sputtered out a “WHAT?!” and collected your thoughts before continuing, “This is not a date! For this to be a date implies that we are dating! And we are not dating! We’re not a thing! Besides, I don’t think she even likes me like that, she’s probably straight anyway. She did have a husband after all.”

“So?” Gobi countered, “Just because she was married to a guy once doesn’t mean she could never love a girl!”

“I’m a woman!”

“That’s not the point! Anyway, you don’t know if she could never love a woman! Just like that one spaceship captain in those weird stories you sometimes write in your journals!”

“You’ve been reading my journals!?”

“Just when you leave them lying open so anyone can read them! Sometimes you leave them open to one of those stories you like writing when you’re bored! That captain likes women a lot, but you like to pair him up with that one alien guy, the science guy! Their couple name is something weird, what’re they called? Spork? Speck? Maybe Spark? Something like that…”

“Oh dear god, you found my Spirk fanfiction,” you groaned, hiding your burning face in your hands. “Remind me to burn those journals when I get the chance.”

“Oh don’t be so modest,” Gobi teased, “Your writing’s not half bad! Maybe Chang’e would want to see it…”

“That will never-”

You were cut off by the doors to your chambers opening and the goddess herself waltzing in. You took that as your cue to shut the hell up, and apparently so did Gobi. He clearly wasn’t planning on letting the subject go though, given the side-eyed glance he gave you as you stood up and walked over to Chang’e.

“Hey!” you greeted, sounding equal parts relieved and excited that she had arrived to end the previous conversation. “I just finished brewing the tea, and I think the biscuits are almost done. Sit down, make yourself comfortable! I’m so glad you could join us.”

“Actually, Maggie and I were just leaving,” Gobi interjected.

“No you are not,”

“Well, this is certainly a surprise,” Chang’e cut in, pleasantly surprised that you had managed to cook something without setting anything on fire. “It has been a while since I’ve enjoyed a nice cup of tea, and you certainly went out of your way here. What’s the occasion?” she asked with a playful smirk.

“Nothing special, really,” you replied, “I just wanted to thank you for, well, everything you’ve done for me since I came here. I know this isn’t enough, but it’s the best I can offer, given the circumstances.”

“Your best is enough,” the goddess argued, taking a seat on the floor across from you. Since there were no chairs or tables in the room, you had laid out blankets on the floor to make the room seem more hospitable. “Don’t ever think otherwise. It’s your thought that counts, after all.”

Over her shoulder, you saw Gobi giving you a look that screamed I told you so!

Eyes widening for a second, you tried your best to ignore the Lunarian and turned back to Chang’e. “Well thank you, that’s very kind of you to say,” you replied. “Anyway, here’s that tea…” You reached over to the makeshift kettle and poured some into a little cup you had, passing it to the goddess before pouring yourself a cup. “I made it using leaves from one of Erikson’s plants. If that man had any talents, it was the ability to keep any kind of plant alive.” As she grabbed the cup, the sleeve on her right arm fell away slightly revealing your bandana; folded diagonally, and tied around her wrist. You smiled to yourself at the sight, quietly grateful that she had been willing to keep it after you initially had given it to her.

Chang’e eyed the tea curiously for a second before bringing the cup up to her nose and taking a sniff. “Interesting scent,” she mused. “It smells almost earthy. Like a very distinct herbal scent, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I don’t think I’ve ever had tea that smelled like this before. Believe me, I drank quite a bit of tea during my days as a mortal.”

“Really? How so?”

“I was a noblewoman back on earth, a lady of the emperor’s court. I was not directly related to His Highness, but my family was still rather high up in the court’s hierarchy. So, I had access to quite a few different delicacies, tea included. But I would have remembered drinking a tea like this, the smell is so unusual.”

“Huh,” you responded, looking at your own cup and taking a sniff. “So it is. I’m pretty sure it’s not poisonous, if that’s your concern. Erikson wouldn’t have been allowed to bring any plants onboard the station if they presented a health hazard. We should be fine.”

“Alright then. I trust your judgement, starlight.” the goddess replied with a wink. She held up her cup. “What should we toast to, then?”

You thought for a second, before replying with the most appropriate answer: “To new friends.”

“To new friends,” she answered, clicking her cup with your own and taking a drink with you.

Now, it would be fair to say that you were a woman of many talents. You could take apart a rocket, clean its parts and put it back together easy-peasy. You could build a radio from scratch. You could jump-start pretty much any kind of car. You tinkered with, took apart, and reassembled computers and other electronics for fun. You also had other, non-engineering related talents, such as singing (though you would be hard-pressed to demonstrate that talent). Overall, you could say that you were rather gifted.

Identifying plants was not one of your gifts.

For you see, Erikson didn’t have such a squeaky-clean track record in the astronaut program. While he was damn good at his job, he also had a certain fondness for partying, getting into trouble, and recreational drug use. He was able to get it together enough to pass the standard government drug tests that were required for all astronauts, but he still needed his fix, even during the moon mission. Being an inventive guy himself, he had found a way to make sure he continued to get his fix of a certain cannabis even while living aboard the station.

In hindsight, it would have been helpful for you to have learned to identify this particular plant of his. Especially before brewing tea out of the devil’s lettuce and serving it to an unpredictable moon goddess.

It wasn’t long before the weed started to have a noticeable effect on your body. You started leaning back, further, and further, until your back slammed against the floor with a dull thud. It was like your entire body had started melting, and you felt like fusing with the floor and remaining in that spot forever. You stared up at the ceiling with a dazed look on your face, trying to figure out why you had just done that. You weren’t complaining, you wanted to stay there forever, the floor was so comfy, but whatever…

“Are-are you okay?” Chang’e asked, her voice sounding much more sluggish than usual. “Whyyyyyyy did you fall over just now?” She sounded like she was trying to figure out her words before speaking, which didn’t make sense. If she knew her words, why not just say them? you thought. Words are words are words are words………

“I don’t know, man,” you replied, slurring your words just now. “It’s just, the floor is so nice. Haven’t you ever just, I don’t know, wanted to melt into the floor? Just become one with the floor? C-come, join me. You’ll liiiiiiike being one with the floor.”

The goddess started to stand up, but her foot caught on the edge of her gown. In an instant she had toppled over and landed on top of your stomach, her face smacking into your chest roughly.

“Ow!” you yelled, suddenly shouting at the top of your voice. “That was my chest! Get off me, g-get your own floor!”

“S-sorry!” she muttered, getting defensive. She stopped while trying to sit back up, and stared at your chest for a while. Confused, you tilted your head forward to look at her and said, “What? Never seen a pair of boobs before? You got your own, why are you looking at mine?”

She stared at your chest for a while, squinting her eyes like your breasts were a complex equation she was trying to solve. “Huh,” she huffed, before lifting a single finger.

“Hey what are you-” you asked before shutting up when she poked one of your boobs. You stopped short, and let out a puzzled, “What? Just, what? What do you want with those?”

“Nothing, I, it’s just,” Chang’e muttered, sounding confused and curious. “I’ve never seen, or touched, another woman’s breasts before. It’s strange. They’re so soft, like, I don’t know, like cute little round pillows or something. I don’t know, it’s strange. Did I already say that?” she wondered out loud.

“Yes you did,” you replied. “But that is weird. You were a fancy-shmancy court lady, didn’t you ever fool around with the other court ladies or something?”

“H-how do you mean?”

“I don’t know, like, did you ever grab another woman’s boobs? Flick her nipples? Twist ‘em? Lick ‘em? Suck ‘em? Were you a biter maybe?”

“What!?!” she gasped, sounding offended. “Certainly not! I am a lady, I don’t engage in such v-vulgar behavior, especially with another woman!”

“C’mon,” you teased, “Weren’t you ever curious? Didn’t you ever think to yourself, man, that gal’s got a nice rack. What I would do to get my hands on those boobs. Not even once?”

“Absolutely not! H-have you always been this crass? What horrible language you have!”

“You didn’t answer the queeeeeeeeesstion……” you teased, smirking in what you though was a flirtatious manner, but really you just looked like you were in pain.

“Welllllllll…..” Chang’e drawled, sounding unsure of herself.

Meanwhile, Gobi and Maggie were watching from a corner of the room, slowly feeling more and more disturbed by this turn of events. Gobi had mostly managed to distract himself by eating the long-forgotten biscuits, while Maggie continued to do nothing but stare at you and Chang’e, her eyes slowly growing wider and wider with horror.

“Y’know, these really aren’t all that bad,” Gobi said about the biscuits, “I dunno what she was complaining about earlier about them being soggy. Could use some butter though, what do you think?”

He held a biscuit down to Maggie so she could sample one. She took a careful sniff of one and started to nibble on it, trying to ignore the two stoned idiots on the other side of the room.

“Ya know, I could show you how it works if you want. You just gotta remove your top so I can…demonstrate. Or would that be too crass for an oh-so-proper court lady like yourself?”

“Well, I guess I’m a little curious. Alright, but fi-five minutes only! I refuse to go any longer!”

Gobi continued eating the rest of the biscuits, figuring that no one else would eat them if he didn’t. “Actually, I take that back. You know what would really make these better? Honey! It would provide just that sweet sort of counterbalance flavor needed to really make these great! Then again, I’m not much of a culinary expert. What goes well with bread?”

“Oh. Oh, oh……. Alright, mortal, I think I see your point now. I c-can take it from here.”

“H-hey, what are you – whoa! Put me down, lady! I’m not a sack of taters you could just – mmmmmm, those sound so good right now!”

“What are those, taters?”

“PO-TA-TOES! Ya know, boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew? They do be tasting good – OW! That was my back! What the, the hell are you doing?”

Maggie had abandoned the biscuit she had been nibbling on, and could only watch the scene unfolding before her in morbid fascination, having lost her appetite. Gobi had long polished off the last of the biscuits, and was starting to get weirded out himself by your and Chang’e’s antics. He tried to tune out the sound of ripping fabric that was otherwise echoing in the mostly empty room. When he suggested that the two of you have some alone time, this was not what he meant!

He winced at what Chang’e was currently doing to you right now. “Ouch! Okay, that’s gonna leave a mark!”

“Can’t you make these a little looooooooser? I - I don’t think I’ll be leaving anytime soon!”

“You say they’re too tight, I say they’re just right. Now keep your head still!”

“Wait, hold on, I – mmfff! Hhhmmm!!”

“Perfect! Now to get rid of that dreadful bra of yours…”

“Okay, I’ve seen enough!” Gobi said, “Not interested in going to therapy for the rest of eternity. Let’s go, Mags!” He hustled out the chamber doors, shielding his face from the engineer and goddess making things weird on the other side of the room.

Maggie followed him out right on his heels. Once the two of them got outside and had closed the doors, she stared pointedly at the Lunarian. He glanced back, and shrugged. “Look, I don’t care that it got weird, I still ship it!”

A few hours later

You groaned as you sat up, or tried to sit up at least. You couldn’t tell what time it was, or how much time had passed in general, but you had a feeling that you were out for far longer than you should have been. There was something covering your body, keeping you pinned to the bed. You felt a strange tight sensation on each of your wrists, like you were bound or something. You could also feel something odd in your mouth. Working your jaw around, that was when you realized: someone had tied a gag around your mouth, preventing you from speaking. Blinking your eyes rapidly to clear them, you could finally take in the sight before you.

You immediately wished you hadn’t.

Glancing to your left and right, you saw that your wrists were tied to the posts of your bed, keeping your arms spread out and away from your body. Looking closer at the knots, you saw that you had been bound using a strange red, silky fabric. There were also faint accents of gold on the material, but you couldn’t tell what the accents were supposed to be. Trying to lean further to your right without dislocating your left shoulder, you saw the tea kettle had been emptied halfway, and was most likely cold by now, considering that it was off the stove, which had thankfully been turned off. Gobi and Maggie were nowhere to be seen, but the plate of biscuits was on the other side of the room, completely empty. At least none of those had gone to waste. The two tea cups that you and Chang’e had been using earlier were discarded near the kettle, tipped over as if someone had knocked them over while trying to hastily get something.

Speaking of the goddess, turns out that was what had been pinning you to the bed. Her legs were folded on either side of your legs, and she was sitting right on top of your hips, keeping the lower half of your body immobile. Her torso had collapsed right on top of yours, and her hands were gripping your biceps loosely. Looking closely at your arms, you noticed that she must have been gripping them much harder earlier, if the scratches from her long nails and bruises were anything to go by. You also noted that the long part of her right sleeve had been ripped clean away. So that was what she had used to tie my wrists and gag me with, you thought. To your unusual delight, you also noticed that your bandana was still tied around her wrist. To your immense discomfort, you noticed that the top half of her gown had been stripped away, meaning her bare chest was pressing right into your stomach.

But the cherry on top of this shit sundae? Her face was buried right into your cleavage, and she was snoring lightly.

You felt your face (and the rest of your body for that matter) burning as you slowly pieced together exactly what had happened. You had invited the goddess over for tea. You two had drunk the tea. There was something in the tea that had caused you two to act loopy. For some reason, you had the (not so) brilliant idea to show Chang’e how to pleasure a woman’s boobs. She had the (even worse) idea to try it out herself, and somehow things had gotten carried away very quickly.

That seemed to happen a lot when it came to Chang’e.

Well, there was only one way for you to handle this current dilemma. You had to get her cleaned up, get her out of here, and back to her chambers before she woke up. You couldn’t imagine how mortified she would be to find out what had gone down just now. You knew pretty well by now how she tried to project a dignified presence to her subjects, and word getting out about this would be awful for her. Not wanting her to feel such embarrassment, you decided that you would do whatever it took to help her maintain what dignity she had left.

Though you couldn’t really do anything bound up like some hunting trophy. How am I gonna get out of this?

Perhaps there was a way you could undo the knots on your wrists if you could just reach one of them somehow. You worked your jaw around a bit absentmindedly as you thought. It was a nervous habit you had when you were trying to come up with an idea. As you did that, you noticed how the gag slipped a little around the corners of your mouth.

That gave you an idea. Stretching your jaw as wide as you could, you strained until the upper and lower edges of the gag fell away and snapped back to stretch across the inside of your mouth. Folding your tongue back to make room for the gag, you stretched your facial muscles and worked your jaw around, trying to restore some blood flow to that part of your face. Once that was said and done, you turned your head towards the tie binding your left wrist to the bed. That one would be the easiest one to get to, since it wasn’t the side of the bed that opened up to the floor. That way, if you overshot yourself and fell, you wouldn’t take a tumble for the floor and dislocate your shoulder. Stretching yourself as far as you could go, until it felt like you would pull your right arm out of its socket, you strained your mouth out in front of you. You did that until your felt your teeth clamp down on one end of the knot. Leaning back, you used the weight of your body and the muscles in your back to tug backwards until the knot slowly started coming loose. With some more tugging, and a lot of patience, you managed to finally get that knot out and your left arm freed.

Grateful to have one of your arms back, you rolled your wrist around and bent and unbent your elbow to get rid of the pins and needles feeling. Sensation restored, you swung your arm around and made quick work of the knot on your right wrist, getting it untied even faster than the left knot. With both of your arms freed, you finally could untie the gag in your mouth, and you took several deep breaths to calm yourself.

Now to tackle the other obstacle keeping you pinned to the bed. Carefully putting your hands under her arms, you slowly lifted Chang’e up and set her down on your left, making sure that she remained facedown so her chest wasn’t exposed to you. You were unsure why you were making a big deal about modesty now, obviously you already knew what, um, assets she had, but it didn’t feel right to casually roll her over and leave her exposed like that. Once she was off your torso, you got a better look at your chest. With equal parts embarrassment and amusement, you noted the many, many bruises and teeth marks all over both your breasts, with a distinct concentration of bites littering the area around your areolas. Well that answers my question about her being a biter or not, you thought. There were also several red streaks across your chest. Worried for a second if it was blood, you ran your finger across one streak and was confused by the tacky feeling you felt. Rolling your fingers together, it hit you: that was lipstick smeared all over your boobs! Looking closely, you also noted faint streaks of light red and gold, as if her entire face had gotten in there at some point.

Oh she CANNOT find out about this; this will be so humiliating for her! you thought. I gotta get her out of here!

Arching your back so both your and her hips were propped up, you used your hands to awkwardly push one of her legs off your hips and off your body, letting her fall back onto the bed with a soft thump. You noted, with immense relief, that the two of you had remained clothed above the waist. At least it didn’t get any further than this. Hooking your bra back into place and buttoning up your flight suit, you got to work.

Now that you were freed, you had to act quickly. First running over to the kettle, you grabbed it, bolted to the balcony, and dumped the rest of the tea out. After several moments, you heard a splash and someone yelling in your direction from the city below. “Sorry!” you hollered absentmindedly as you hurried back into the room over the unconscious goddess. You quickly flipped her over on her back (trying not to look at her chest the entire time) and did your best to button up her gown back over her torso and chest. Using your sleeve to wipe away the worst of the smeared makeup, you straightened her collar as a finishing touch, and looked to the door. This was going to be the most challenging part, getting her back to her chambers without being seen by anyone else. Well, here goes nothing.

You had been lucky so far not to be stopped by anyone else. Keeping your hands hooked under her arms, you had successfully dragged Chang’e through the palace without being seen by anyone so far. Even more luckily, she hadn’t woken up at all during this time, continuing to snore lightly the entire time you were getting her back. It probably helped that this was her first time consuming weed, and her body was still detoxing from the high. Altogether, this had been going rather well. Though you were having a hard time figuring out which way her chambers were. It didn’t help that your chambers were the only rooms in the palace with an actual door leading to them. How were you gonna find her rooms-

Your thoughts were cut off when a green blur shot into your view from the right, before slamming into your chest and pinning you to the ground.

“Whoa whoa whoa, easy March Hare!” you yelled, startled by Jade’s sudden appearance.

If looks could kill, the light green rabbit would have murdered you several times over by now. He had his front paws pinned against your neck, like he would try to snap it at the first chance he got, and his back legs were stretched out with his feet digging into your already sore chest. He was glaring at you with the most furious expression you had seen on anyone, human or animal. The fur on the back of his neck was standing straight up; if he could speak you had no doubt the first words out of his mouth would be try me, bitch. Overall, it was only due to sheer luck, and fear-induced paralysis, that you hadn’t wet yourself out of terror of the little green rabbit before you.

“What do you want from me?” you whimpered, trying to maintain some composure, “What did I do? What’s going on?”

His gaze flicked over to the passed-out goddess to your right, and he pointed in her direction as well. It dawned on you what he probably thought had happened, and you hastily started to correct the misunderstanding, “No no! You see, it’s not what it looks like! We just drank some bad tea, and she didn’t take well to it. She passed out a little while ago, and I’m trying to get her to her rooms before she wakes up. Nothing nefarious at all! C’mon, what motive would I have to hurt her? Besides, I can’t actually kill her or anything, in case you’re forgetting! This was all a big misunderstanding!”

He didn’t seem convinced. Jade continued to stand on your chest, glaring at your with suspicion and distrust. You went on, “Honestly! If I had known something like this would happen, I would have used a different kind of plant to make the tea, or simply not made tea at all! Why would I deliberately try to hurt someone that’s only been kind and helpful to me? For a rabbit you seem pretty smart, you should know that it doesn’t make any sense for me to do something bad!”

Nothing changed in his expression, but his grip on your neck let up slightly. Encouraged by this development, you spoke further, “Yeah, you seem to be getting it! If anything, I would only be hurting myself if I hurt Chang’e; I would be stranded here forever if she got hurt because of me. Anyway, even if it would benefit me to hurt her, I wouldn’t do it anyway,” Taking a deep breath, you tried to wrap up your spiel, “Don’t tell her this, but…I care about her a lot. I don’t care if she never feels that way about me in return, but it is what it is. She’s, well, come to mean a lot to me since I came here, and the last thing I want is for her to get hurt on my watch. Which is why I’m bothering to do this. She would be mortified if she found out what went down just now, and I want to spare her that humiliation and keep her dignity intact. I know how much she likes being seen as this dignified, poised figure, and this would put a huge dent in that persona. By doing this, I can help her keep that image up. But I can’t do that if you won’t let me. Will you let me help her, please?” You looked pleadingly at Jade, and waited for his answer.

His eyes had softened a fair deal while listening to you speak, and he seemed to be carefully weighing what you said. Slowly, and with some hesitation, he stepped off your chest and looked at you cautiously, waiting to see what you would do.

“Thank you,” you sighed, feeling relieved. “Actually, it’s a good thing I ran into you just now. Can you show me how to get to her chambers? And how to get in without using those sparkly, wavy, magic stuff?”

He nodded, and began hopping in a different direction than what you had been walking in. You followed him, and soon enough he let you into Chang’e’s chambers. Draping her over her chaise, you walked out, and joined Jade outside.

“Thanks for your help. I should probably go clean up the rest of my room, I left it in such a mess. And make sure Gobi and Maggie are okay. Hope they weren’t too traumatized just now,” you added with a chuckle. “I guess I’ll, see you around then?” You gave a polite wave to the rabbit and headed back to your chambers.

Jade watched you go, his opinion of you shifting ever so slightly in a more positive direction. So you were grateful for Chang’e’s help after all, and weren’t as terrible as he previously thought. And you clearly cared enough about her to go out of your way to help her save face. Not to mentioned that to some degree, you returned those strange feelings Chang’e had for you. If only you knew that those feelings of yours were mutual on his friend’s end. Why you two just couldn’t be honest with each other and tell the other what each of you was feeling, he couldn’t comprehend. Even though he was over 3,000 years old, Jade never could understand the hearts of humans.

_________________________________________________________________________________

It was a few days later, and for the most part you had been able to brush…that out of your thoughts. When Chang’e had woken up a few hours later and asked you why her head was killing her, you answered that she had hit her head on something earlier. What that something was, you failed to elaborate. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to have any memories of accidentally getting stoned with you. Anyways, you had gotten wrapped up in other tasks since that incident. You needed to get to work building a rocket, and that wasn’t gonna be an overnight task! Which is why you were taking such care right now to make sure this particular panel made its way back to Lunaria safely.

You were riding back to the luminous city on the back of one of Chang’e’s lions, with Gobi sitting in front of you and Maggie perched on his head again. After all these months, you had finally picked up on the fact that there were some distinct differences between the two lions, and could tell them apart by now. One of them was slightly smaller than the other one, and had a slightly thinner frame. The smaller lion you had nicknamed Leo, and the larger one you had nicknamed Simba. Most of the time it had been Leo that would take you to the various places on the moon you needed to go, but for the past few weeks Simba had taken over. Since you needed to haul parts back to Lunaria itself to do finer work on them, he had started helping you more since he was better suited to that task.

As you soared above the lunar desert, you checked to make sure that Simba still had a tight grip on the sheet of metal below. It was a large, awkward piece of metal to move, but necessary to have. About two feet by ten feet, you were planning on remodeling it into a panel for a control console for the rocket. You needed to weld out several holes to insert switches and levers, as well as weld off some looser pieces of metal that were barely hanging on anyway. It was going to be a long, detailed-oriented task, hence why you were bringing it back to the city instead of leaving it at your new construction site by the shores of Lunaria Lake.

As you passed the lake’s shore, Gobi turned back to you and asked, “So how long do you think it’s gonna take for you to finish working on this piece? I can’t imagine that it should be too hard, but then again you’re the engineer. What do you think?”

“I can’t say for sure, Gobi,” you answered, yelling to make sure he heard you. “Based on how thick the metal is in places, it could be a little while. Hopefully, it shouldn’t be too -”

Your thoughts were cut off abruptly when Simba suddenly dove, taking the four of you in a downward swoop before leveling out again.

“Whoa! What was that?” you questioned.

Gobi leaned forward, trying to get a better look at the sky ahead. “Oh no,” he said, sounding worried. “Okay, this is bad! This is very bad! We need to get out of here now!”

“Why, what’s going on?”

You received your answer when a large green shape suddenly flew into view on your left, diving its way towards the lake. It was a large, round green shape, with long legs and arms that were waving in front of the shape like it was swimming. Taking a second to study the creature better, you noticed that the paws on each of its legs was webbed, and it had a large mouth on its front. It looked somewhat familiar to you. In fact, you almost swore that they were…

“Frogs? Are those giant frogs flying past us?” you asked, astonished.

“Yeah they are!” Gobi replied, sounding worried. “They’re heading to Lunaria Lake to feed! We must have timed our trip back poorly and got caught in their route! Hold on, it shouldn’t be too long before they’re in the lake and we can -”

Suddenly a large frog swept up right in front of Simba, and in his haste to avoid colliding with it he banked sharply to the left. The abrupt shift in position caught you off guard, and you slid far off to the side, your right leg hooked into the lion’s side now the only thing keeping you on his back. This started a chain reaction, more like a positive feedback loop, where the more weight shifted, the worse things got. You suddenly sliding to the left caused Simba to tilt even harder towards that side, and Maggie slid off his head. In a flash you threw yourself forwards and down, barely catching her in time. This caused Simba to shift further to the point where he was almost perpendicular with the ground. Freaking out, you tried climbing back onto his back, hoping to grab something, anything to get back to safety.

“Gobi HELP!” you shrieked, terrified of falling from this height.

“HOLD ON! I’m trying to grab your hand!” he yelled back, also panicking at the current situation. He reached forward, swiping at your hand several times, and missing. Finally, he was able to grab your hand, and the two of you yanked at the same time…

It happened in slow motion. The three of you tumbled from Simba’s back, and your leg collided with the piece of metal, knocking it out of his paws as well. With a final scream of terror, you, Gobi, Maggie, and the panel all fell down towards the dark lake below.

Thank your lucky stars, you guys hadn’t been too high up when you fell. You fell less than one hundred feet if your estimate was anything to go by. It was at least higher than fifty feet though, because when you fell into the lake you had the wind knocked right out of your lungs. Plunging down into the inky waters over fifteen feet, you opened your eyes underwater and struggled to find out which direction the surface was. Noticing the multicolored lights of Lunaria far overhead, warbling through the water, you began swimming towards the lights. After what seemed like forever, you burst through the surface and gasped, gulping down several breaths of air like you had been starving for it.

Wiping the water out of your eyes, you head whipped around the lake, looking for your companions. “GOBI! MAGGIE! Where are you guys?” You started freaking out, almost hyperventilating when you didn’t get an answer at first. “Please! If you’re not dead say something!”

There was a loud gasp behind you, and you used your feet to kick yourself around. Gobi had burst through the water, with Maggie perched on top of his head. She was shivering from the unexpected cold, but looked annoyed more than anything.

With sigh of relief you paddled over to them. “Thank goodness you’re both alright! Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re – cough – good,” Gobi replied, “Well, that was unexpected. If I had known we’d be going for a swim later, I’d have packed my swim trunks!”

You laughed at that, grateful at his attempt to lighten the mood. “At least we’re all okay. And look,” you pointed at a spot about ten feet away, where the piece of metal was floating. “We’ve still got the panel! Now if we can just get out of here-”

A loud booming splash behind you startled you into silence. You watched, shocked, as one of the giant frogs from earlier dove headfirst into the lake less than twenty feet from where you were, sending a massive wave towards you that crashed over your heads. Gobi quickly grabbed onto Maggie so she wouldn’t get washed away by the sudden force.

“Looks like we have a bigger problem!” you noted, your sense of worry returning. “We’re not gonna last much longer out here if these frogs keep smothering us with waves!”

“And look!” Gobi added, pointing up. All three of you saw Simba wheeling around the sky, trying to get a way to swoop down to you three but failing at finding a safe path. “Simba can’t get to us with all these frogs flying around! He’ll collide with one of them and get hurt! How are we gonna get out of this one?”

You looked around hurriedly, trying to figure out a solution to this new problem. Spotting the metal panel from earlier, the faint impression of an idea began to form in your mind. It was a long shot, mind you, but if it worked, all three of you could get out of this alive. “I got an idea. Gobi, swim over here, I need Maggie’s help for a second. This is gonna take a couple of minutes, so hang in there!”

“Okay, I’ll try,” he said, hesitantly paddling over to where you were. “Funny story though, you’re gonna think this is hilarious, trust me…I can’t swim.”

“WHAT!” you blurted out, bewildered. “You mean to tell me you were exiled out here for over a thousand years and never learned to swim?”

“Never really saw the need to learn!” he shrugged. “I didn’t live near the lake after all, so why bother?”

“Ugh,” you replied. “We’ll address that later. Don’t worry, I’ll swim over to you. C’mon, we don’t have much time!”

After a couple of minutes, you were able to get Maggie and set to work modifying the panel. Cutting off the corners at one end, she helped you cut one of the corners in your bag to reattach it later. With the other one, you cut it into a fin-like shape. Finally, you flipped the panel over, welded the ‘fin’ to the end of the panel that still had its corners, then flipped the whole thing back over again. There was a subtle hiss as the rapidly cooling weld-line was submerged in the water, and a small puff of steam rose up from the inky waters.

“Okay, let’s hope this holds up. Climb on Gobi!” you said, climbing onto the board yourself and putting Maggie into one of your flight suit’s pockets. “Let’s get out of here!”

“How are we gonna do that?” he asked, climbing onto the board after you and gripping to the front of it. He was sitting right in front of you, looking curiously in your direction.

“We just have to wait,” you replied. “Given how many frogs are still in the sky, there should be enough of them to get us out of here. Now we just need one to crash behind us…”

After a minute, your wish was granted. With a thunderous boom another frog dove into the lake just ten feet behind you, and acting quickly you started paddling away from the frog. As the wave approached you three you shifted your legs so that they were crouched under you, then popped up to stand in one fluid motion. Scooting your dominant foot towards the front of the board and your other foot behind you, you held your arms out and began riding the wave.

The three of you shot forward as the wave made its way across the lake. Racing across the lake’s surface, you felt the wind whipping your hair around you and your eyes watered slightly from how fast you were going. Far above your heads the lights of Lunaria shone with technicolored brilliance as you passed under the city, and you would sometimes catch a glimpse of rainbow light dancing across the water. All around you more frogs dove into the lake, and each time you felt like you were losing momentum you steered the board towards a fresh wave, continuing to ride it to the far shore of Lunaria Lake.

“Whoa! What are we doing? This is kinda fun!” Gobi yelled, kneeling on the front of the board, and craning his head forward. Maggie had poked her head out of your pocket, and was watching the action with confusion and awe.

“It’s called surfing!” you hollered back, laughing slightly despite the situation. “I do this all the time on the part of earth that I’m from! I live near a lot of water, so I’ve picked up a couple of water sports on my downtime.”

“This is so cool!” the Lunarian answered as he shuffled up to try and stand like you were. The wind continued whipping around the three of you as the board raced across the inky waters. Stumbling a little, he grabbed onto your leg for stability as the three of you surfed your way across the lake. “Do all earth people learn how to do this? Is it just a hobby, or can you compete as well? Do they make their own boards like you did?”

“To answer your questions, no, not everyone wants to learn, yes you can compete, but I choose not to, and no, some people buy their boards already made.” you responded, trying to keep your focus on making sure the board stayed upright and you could steer away from the frogs diving all around you. “I just picked it up because I live surrounded by water all the time. It’s also why I can swim as well as I can. Although that is more of a practical skill to have than anything, not so much a fun hobby like surfing is for me. Look! We’re already almost out of the area where the frogs are!”

Turning to look behind you, Gobi confirmed your observation. “I guess we are! Looks like Simba saw that too!” He pointed to a bright red dot, faint against the darkness of the eternal night sky, that was making its way towards you both.

“Great!” you replied, happy that your idea had worked. “Now we can get back to Lunaria in one piece! But tomorrow, before we do any more work on the rocket,” you turned to the Lunarian before you, “I’m gonna teach you how to swim. We don’t know if this won’t happen again, besides it’s fun! It’ll take at least half a day, so we’ll just take tomorrow off.”

“You sure?” Gobi asked, “What about the rocket? I mean, if it’s gonna take valuable time away you, I wouldn’t want to be a distraction!”

“Trust me, you’re not a distraction,” you said reassuringly. “Besides, we’re a little ahead of schedule. We can afford to lose one day. And you’re my friend. I’m totally okay with doing anything that helps out a friend.” you ended with a grin.

So you took a day to teach Gobi how to swim, and it turned out to be quite fun. After that though, the three of you got back to work trying to build the rocket. Besides working on modifying small pieces, you also had to haul the giant parts, like the thruster, to your new build site on the shores of Lunaria Lake so you could continue to work on them. That was your goal for today, three weeks after the lake incident.

You were working on hooking up the lunar rover to one of the sections of the disassembled thruster, tightening winches in preparation of towing it to the build site. It was a rather large section of the thruster, so you were going to be driving across the desert for a while. You expected not to be back in Lunaria for a while, not until ‘nightfall’ at least (thought what would be considered nightfall in a place that’s always night?) Gobi was helping winch up some of the other attachments to the rover, while Maggie sat back watching.

“Whew! This is gonna be one big rocket once we’re done!” Gobi said, “Just look at how large this one part of the thruster is! How are we gonna reattach all the pieces once we’re done?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, Gobi,” you replied, distracted with untangling a strap. “It shouldn’t be too hard.”

Somewhere behind you, you heard Maggie stomping her foot rapidly, but you didn’t pay it any attention, too distracted by the strap.

“Besides, I already have a few ideas on how we’re gonna put the final product together,” you continued, oblivious. “We’ll of course have to do a lot of welding -”

“Hey buddy -”

“-That alone will take a few days at least, given how many components there are. We’ll also have to check that the cabin remains pressurized -”

“Hey, um -”

“-so that it doesn’t depressurize during the trip, and, well, kill me. There’s also the fact that we have to check that the rocket handles atmospheric reentry -”

“EXCUSE ME!”

“What? What is it, Gobi?” you asked, looking up from the strap to address him. You were startled by his suddenly nervous tone.

“That!” he yelled, pointing at something just behind you.

Before you had a chance to turn around and see what that was, three thunderous booms sounded from behind you, each impact of whatever that was being so loud that it rattled your teeth and shook your bones. After that, you could also hear what sounded like massive talons scraping at the lunar rock, shuffling aggressively. You froze in place, unsure of what do to. After hearing what sounded like a great huff of air, more like a snort of displeasure, you slowly turned around. What you saw was both terrifying and awe-inducing.

The three creatures before you looked serpentine in shape, but were far larger than any snakes or serpents you had seen before. All three of them were tall, towering to at least one hundred feet at their shoulders, and had to be at least three hundred feet long from snout to tail tip. They didn’t look like one individual creature, but rather like an amalgamation of animals; each had: the antlers of a deer, the head of a camel, the eyes of a rabbit, the neck of a snake, the belly of a clam, the scales of a carp, the claws of an eagle, the paws of a tiger, and the ears of a cow. Each one of these chimeric creatures came in a different color. The one towering directly above you was a ghostly green, the one off to his (was it a he?) left was a phantasmic purple, and the one off to his right was an eldritch shade of red. Another odd thing you noted about their coloring was that it was slightly translucent. Their forms were flickering, sometimes appearing solid, other times fading out until you could see the starry sky behind them. The red one was glaring at you with a look of deep suspicion, the purple one stared at you with the curiosity of a child, and the green one merely gazed at you with a bored expression. He was pinching a small metallic device between the talons on his left paw. He turned to look at the device he held, and addressed you without returning his gaze to you:

“Is this your…little metal toy?” he asked, his voice carrying the low rumble of an approaching storm.

“Huh?” you blurted out. Just when I thought I’ve seen it all, you thought.

“We asked you a question, mortal,” the red creature hissed. “It would be very unwise to refuse to answer us. Speak!”

“Silence, Hong!” the green one growled.

“Hold on,” you continued, your nerves twitching at how aggressive they seemed to be right off the bat. “Excuse me, sir, that is, if you are a 'sir’, but could you please hold that closer? Maybe it is mine, maybe it isn’t, but I can’t tell you unless I can identify it first.”

With a slow, careful movement the green creature lowered his arm so you could take a closer look. After he dropped it on the ground, you crept over to the mysterious device. Once you saw what it was you gasped. Hearing your exclamation, Gobi raced over to check out what it was that made you gasp. He spoke excitedly,

“Hey! That’s that cool probe we launched a little while back! Ya know, the electric – electra – what was it called again? Electro – that’s it! Electromagnetic probe! The thing! The cool science thing!”

“Zip it, glowworm!” the red one snarled, “We were addressing the mortal here!”

“That’s enough, Hong!” the green creature hissed, getting exasperated with his companion. “I am just as concerned as you are, but treating the Lunarian with hostility will get us nowhere.”

The red creature looked miffed, but complied with her companion, “Fine,” they huffed, in a voice you noted sounded distinctly feminine.

The green creature turned back to you and spoke, “So you do know what this is. You were the one that launched this, then?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” you answered.

“Why did you send this? Are you preparing for an invasion of our territory?”

“What? Of course not! I don’t even know who you guys are! What are you? Who are you?”

The green creature looked dismayed for a second, like he was expecting you to already know who he was. Still, he answered you: “My name is Lu Long. My brothers are Hong Long -” he turned to indicate the red creature, “- and Zi Long,” he turned to indicate the purple creature, who had yet to speak.

“Brothers?” you asked, confused. “Pardon me, but when your, er, brother, Hong, spoke, they sounded like a female. I don’t get it, are they a male or a female?”

“We don’t do things like gender, mortal,” the purple one, Zi Long, spoke. “When you’re as old as we are, stuff like pronouns and presentation are pretty much optional. Sorry about Hong, by the way.” They added, with a wry smirk, “It’s not you, trust me. They’ve always got their tail in a twist, if ya know what I mean,”

“Zi…” Lu groaned, frustrated with his companion’s antics.

“Wait, Long…” you muttered, “Why does that word sound familiar? I’ve heard that word before, I just don’t know where…” It took you a second to figure it out, but not too long. One of the benefits of the potion Jade gave you when you first arrived was that you had a decent understanding of the Mandarin language, and could translate some words into your native tongue easily enough. When you figured it out, you looked stunned.

“Oh my god, you’re dragons!” you exclaimed, “You three are honest-to-god dragons! That’s so cool!”

“We are not cool, mortal,” Hong huffed, sounding less hostile than before, but still miffed. “We are majestic, we are noble, we are magnificent, but we are not ‘cool’. Such a word is insufficient to describe our might and power.”

“Alrighty then, miss ‘noble-and-mighty’,” you replied, sarcastically waving your hands. “Would you like me to bow and grovel when addressing you next time?”

“You cocky little -”

“HONG!” Lu roared, his patience reaching its limit. “Control yourself!”

Just behind him, Zi was laughing at this latest exchange. “I gotta say, I like this mortal! She’s got gumption!”

Lu sighed and ran a taloned paw across his face. This was getting the three of them nowhere, and he needed answers immediately. “Mortal,” he said, speaking to you again, “Why are you here on the moon? How did you send that ‘probe’ into our territory? Most mortals don’t even venture off of earth, much less to the skies we roam. You need to understand, we are rather perplexed at how you managed to accomplish this.”

“Oh well, it’s kinda a long story,” you replied. “I was an astronaut aboard the Lunar Gateway space station -”

“Astronaut? Space station?” Lu asked curiously.

“It’s a job title. Basically, I’m paid to go into space and learn about it by doing science experiments. A space station is an enclosed metal building that orbits a planet or other such celestial body,”

“You mean the metal houses? We sometimes see those flying close to our territory. Didn’t know those were there for sciency-reasons. That’s pretty cool,” Zi added.

“Thanks. Anyway, the gateway crashed for some unknown reason some months ago. I should have died, as you could imagine, but I was rescued by these red lions and taken to a city called Lunaria -”

“You’ve been to Lunaria?” Lu questioned, astonished.

“Yeah! I’ve been living there since the crash. The moon goddess Chang’e has let me live in her palace and -”

“Ugh! You’re living with her?” Hong interjected, sounding displeased. “She’s not even a real goddess! She just prances around her palace all the time, primping and looking pretty and singing a song or two! She doesn’t do anything!”

“Hey don’t bad-mouth Chang’e like that!” Gobi jumped in, defending his goddess. “She’s amazing! She created an entire city out of light! How many cities of light have you made, huh?”

Hong turned to Lu, “Can’t I just eat the glowworm, please?”

“No!” you yelled, “You can’t just ‘eat the glowworm’! He’s my friend! Anyways, to get back on track, I’ve been living in Lunaria as a guest of Chang’e’s for the past few months. I sent that probe a few months ago as a little side experiment. I wanted to measure how strong the auroras were near earth’s north pole, and how much electromagnetic energy was being generated there.”

“So…this was a ‘science experiment?’ Not an attempt to invade our territory?” Lu asked.

“Absolutely not! Trust me, if I had known you guys were up there, I wouldn’t have sent it! Besides, it wasn’t really necessary anyways. I’m currently trying to build a rocket to get back to earth. Before that, I was trying to build a radio, but it, well…it caught on fire,” you finished sheepishly.

Lu looked at you curiously, like he was trying to determine how honest you were being right now. After several tense minutes of carefully examining you, he nodded slowly. “Your intentions were not malicious, mortal. I can see that now. In addition, I am sorry you are in this predicament. If we could offer our assistance to you we would, but we swore not to interfere with the affairs of mortals.”

You shrugged, “I guess that makes sense. Besides, I know I can get off the moon by myself. I’ve got help. Right guys?” You pulled Gobi closer to you while Maggie leapt up to perch on your head.

“Right…help,” Lu replied, looking skeptical at you version of ‘help’. “It appears that our business here is done. Good day to you, mortal.” And with that Lu turned around and took off into the starry sky, his brothers right behind him.

“Wait!” you yelled, “I have one more question for you! This is gonna sound weird but…are you guys the aurora?” You don’t know why you felt compelled to ask that question, but you had a hunch.

Lu turned to look at you thoughtfully, before answering cryptically, “In a manner of speaking.” Turning back, he continued making his way back towards earth, Hong and Zi right on his tail. You faintly heard Zi address their brothers, “Ya know, for a mortal, she’s pretty cool. I hope we see her again!”

Releasing a breath you didn’t know you were holding, you turned back to the rover. “Well Gobi, we better get back to winching this thruster up and getting it towed to the site. I wouldn’t worry too much about what just happened. I don’t think we’ll be seeing those guys again anytime soon.”

Chapter Text

“I have a question that I need to ask you, but you need to promise to take it seriously.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

You were working on the central console for the rocket that day, and had been trying to rewire some of the ignition buttons for the past several hours. It was a long, arduous task, but necessary if you didn’t want the rocket exploding underneath you when it was time for liftoff. You had been working by yourself for most of the morning, and hadn’t expected company. Gobi had business elsewhere in Lunaria at the moment, something about ‘official court duties’ if you recalled. Maggie was off somewhere in the palace, you assumed off with some of her dozens of siblings. So for the whole day so far you had been alone. Judging by Chang’e’s presence in the room right now, though, she must have realized this as well. Obviously, she had taken this as an opportunity to speak with you about something, though she hadn’t said what before speaking to you just now.

“Y’know, a ‘hello’, or a ‘hi, how are you?’ would have been nice. I haven’t seen you in a few days, what’ve you been up to?” you asked, though there was no accusation in your tone. Only a hint of concern disguised as playfulness.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been busy for a while. Ruling a city is no small task, y’know,” Chang’e replied, returning your lighthearted tone. “But admittedly, I’ve also been caught up in that book you loaned me. It’s gotten me thinking, and I’m not sure if I like what it’s got me thinking about,”

“You mean Left Hand? Yeah, that book will get you thinking, alright. What about it is concerning to you? You seemed to like it when you first started reading it,”

“I do! I still do like it, it’s just…how do I explain this? There seems to be a constant theme of, what’s the word…otherness. There’s a constant emphasis on how the main character, Genly Ai, is so alien to the Gethenians, so different, and how the Gethenians are wary of him as a result. Not all of them are like that, Estraven is the obvious exception, but enough of them treat Ai like an outsider that it’s impossible to ignore. It affects him greatly, to the point where he’s even taken prisoner at the point where I am! Not to mention the constant talk of Karhide and Orgoreyn potentially going to war, and how Karhide works to dehumanize the citizens of Orgoreyn…It just had me thinking, and now I’m worried.”

Setting aside the console for now, you turned to address the goddess. “Well first of all, you’re right that otherness is a constant theme in the book,” you began, “so it’s not your imagination. Secondly, that’s kind of the point, as sad as it is to say. People tend to treat each other badly when they don’t know anything about the other person. It’s a fact of life, as harsh as it is. Does this have anything to do with the question you wanted to ask me?”

“Yes, actually. I want you to be honest with me: do you feel that you’ve been treated fairly while staying here? Have you felt alienated in any way, treated with hostility for not being a Lunarian? Has anyone tried to make you feel unwelcome?”

You hesitated before answering. Noticing that Chang’e could tell that you hesitated, you quickly answered, “Only a little bit. Honestly, several Lunarians seemed pretty wary of my presence when I first arrived here, but not all of them. Gobi was curious about me right off the bat, and Maggie warmed up to me pretty quickly. In the several months since I arrived here, I would say that most of the Lunarians are used to my presence by now. If I had to say anyone at all made me feel unwelcome…Jade was not too happy about my presence here. He didn’t seem to trust me a lot, and it took a while before he started treating me without so much hostility. We’re cool now, though!” you added quickly at seeing the alarmed look on the goddess’ face. “I think he was just trying to protect you from me, to tell you the truth. He seemed afraid that I was going to hurt you somehow and wanted to keep you safe.”

“I hope he wasn’t too harsh with you!” Chang’e replied, “If he’s mistreated you at all, why didn’t you say anything before?”

“Because I sort of understood where he was coming from. He’s your oldest friend! It makes sense that he would look out for you as much as he has! It’s normal to be afraid, anyway. A lot of people, or rabbits, tend to act with hostility when really they’re just afraid. Fear is a fickle emotion. People can do bizarre things when gripped by it.”

The goddess looked at your curiously, “You seem to have a good grasp on fear, for someone who acts like they are a stranger to it. Why is that?”

You tensed up. This was always a difficult subject, and you weren’t sure you wanted to go forward. On the other hand, you’ve never really talked about this with anyone else, not since things ended. Maybe it would do you good to talk. You were surprised with yourself at the fact that you would even consider talking about this. This wasn’t easy to discuss with anyone, but then again Chang’e wasn’t anyone. Not anymore. Every day, you continued to surprise yourself with how much emotional maturity you had gained in the past several months thanks to her help. Before you began though, you had to get a promise from her.

“If I agree to discuss this with you, promise me something: just…don’t judge me for not acting sooner. If I had seen the signs coming sooner I would have left sooner, but I didn’t. Please don’t judge me for what I could have or should have done.”

“Alright, I can make that promise,” Chang’e replied, sounding wary at this odd stipulation you put in place before agreeing to speak. “If you’re not comfortable talking about it, we can move on to something else -”

“No!” you interjected. Blushing, you repeated, “No, it’s okay. Maybe it will do me good to talk about it, Lord knows I’m overdue. It just feels weird, finally sharing it with someone else. Perhaps it’s a good kind of weird? Anyway, here goes,”

You took a deep breath and began, “So you know how I’ve mentioned before that both my parents are dead? Well, after they died, I was taken into foster care.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s when the government looks after you if you have no living relatives able to take to in. Basically, you get sent to different homes, foster homes they’re called. The people that run those homes are regular families, and they volunteer to foster kids and raise them for a while. The kids get rotated between different homes until they either get adopted or age out of the system.”

“Well that sounds rather generous of them,” Chang’e replied, her voice growing warm at such an idea. “It must not be easy, taking in children for only a short amount of time and raising them as your own. The people willing to do that must be very kind.”

“A lot of the time, they are. There are some bad apples out there, but I got lucky. Most of my foster parents were good people. I never got adopted, but I have fond memories of some of my foster parents, and I even keep in touch with some of them.”

“You were never adopted?” the goddess asked, the warmth quickly leaving her voice.

“Nah, I just never clicked with any of them, you know?” you answered. “Not everyone finds their forever family. But anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk with you about. It’s about someone I met while in foster care. His name was Richard, but I usually called him Rich or Richie. We lived in some of the same homes at the same time, so we grew up together. There were times, anywhere from a few months to two years once, where we didn’t see each other, but we always met up again eventually. He just, got me, in a way that no one got me before. He had a pretty rough upbringing before entering the system. His mom was a drug addict, and he never knew who his dad was.”

“That’s awful,” Chang’e commented, feeling sorry for this person she had never met.

“Yeah, he really got the short end of the stick in life,” you replied. “But we had each other. He didn’t care that I was really into engineering and science and all that. In turn, I didn’t care that he really liked writing and art. In a way, we had each other’s backs when it came to our respective interests. Back then, not a lot of people were fans of the idea of girls liking science and engineering, and boys were discouraged from doing anything too ‘art-sy’. Something stupid about gender roles, usually. But Rich and I defended each other when other kids, and even some adults, would give us crap about not being a ‘proper girl’ or a ‘real boy’.”

The goddess shook her head upon hearing news of this. “I’m sorry the two of you had to go through that. Even in my own time as a mortal it wasn’t unheard of for men to be well-versed in the arts, such as poetry and drawing. It was seen as a status symbol, a designation of wealth and class. Girls liking ‘hard’ sciences, that took a little while to wrap my mind around, but even I got used to it!”

“Yeah, it sucked dealing with people like that. Rich and I had each other though, so it wasn’t too hard. Neither of us got adopted, unfortunately, and part of me wonders if it was due to those reasons. It didn’t matter to us, though. We had decided that if no one wanted us as part of their families, then we would make our own family together. We got married as soon as I turned eighteen, two months after he did.”

“Oh that’s wonderful!” Chang’e exclaimed, sounding relieved for you two.

“Yeah, it was wonderful…at first,” you replied ominously.

Chang’e grew quiet after that exclamation of yours, and looked at you curiously. “What do you mean, ‘at first’?” she asked softly. “What happened after you were wed?”

“Nothing, at the beginning of our marriage,” you answered. “Things were going great. We were able to get a small apartment for us to live in, and we started working. I was trying to save up money for college as well, since I wanted to get into NASA’s astronaut program. I think it was then that things first started turning…not great. Rich would start making these little comments, asking why I felt like I needed to go to college. Why couldn’t I just get a job as an engineer at some local company, or if I wanted higher education so badly, go to trade school and learn something practical? He thought I was just wasting money trying to go to college when he didn’t need college to be an artist.

I tried explaining to him that you needed college, and sometime graduate school, in order to become an astronaut. He accepted this, begrudgingly. After some time though, he started making more…aggressive comments about my schooling. Complaining that I didn’t spend time with him anymore now that I worked and was in school full-time. I heard these complaints, and I worked to rearrange my schedule so that I could accommodate our relationship into my life as well. He didn’t like the fact that I had to ‘schedule’ our marriage into my life though. He started suggesting that I drop out of college, so I would have more time for him. I didn’t like this, as you could imagine.”

“And you shouldn’t have!” Chang’e protested, “Going into space was your dream! Why didn’t he respect that?”

“He did, when we were kids,” you answered. “But now that we were adults, in a marriage no less, he started to see my dream as an obstacle to our relationship, and not something that could enrich our lives. I think part of it also was he wasn’t doing so well in his career as an artist. He had gotten a good job as a painter, but only as a construction painter. That job didn’t offer the creative outlet he desperately craved. And forget about writing; he was so busy with work that he didn’t even have time for that anymore.

Anyway, things got worse during my final year of college when I was getting close to graduation. I think it’s worth pointing out that he never went on for higher education, so I think part of his complaints were his insecurities shining through. I never said anything like that while we were still married though. On several occasions, he tried to break into my bank account, claiming that he was doing this to save our marriage, but thankfully the tellers at our bank were aware of our rocky marriage and wouldn’t let him in. This was the point at our relationship that things were at their worst. My grades had started slipping because of all the fighting at home, I couldn’t sleep well, and my professors were worried about me. It didn’t help that they could see the physical signs of my bad marriage as well.”

“…What signs?” the goddess asked hesitantly. She had an idea of what she was about to hear, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear it or not.

“Well,” you replied, before chuckling darkly, “Let’s just say I fell down a lot of stairs that year. Ask the university’s nurse, she’ll tell you about all the concussions I got.”

Chang’e gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth in shock. There was a look of pure horror on her face, like she had seen a ghost. After a couple of long, tense minutes, where her eyes were brimming with unshed tears, she finally whispered, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry you had to go through that, I - I can’t imagine…” She sounded like she couldn’t even comprehend the idea of someone hurting the person they claimed to love that much.

“It wasn’t your fault, you have nothing to apologize for,” you reassured her, “And yeah, it did suck, I won’t sugarcoat it. That was probably the worst year of my life, second only to the year immediately following my parents’ deaths. It wasn’t until Rich crossed the line though, that I was finally willing to do something about it.”

“What on earth was that line?” Chang’e exclaimed, surprised that there was even a limit to what you would put up with after hearing of the physical violence you suffered.

“It’s not a day I like remembering, but here goes…” you started.

You stormed into the apartment, furious at your husband. He had gone too far this time. He had crossed the line here. You didn’t care what was going to happen to you, you only knew that Rich was finally going to answer for what he had done, consequences be damned.

“Richard, we need to talk!” you shouted, skipping right over talking straight to yelling in your anger. “What the hell is this? What the HELL is this?!”

He stormed out of his study, where he had spent the better part of a day sulking. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now an an irate wife, but he knew this was going to happen. “You know damn well why I did this!” he yelled back. “You’re the one who decided a piece of paper was more important than your husband! You were the one being selfish here! This was for your own good!”

You failed to see how attempting to drain someone else’s tuition funds was ‘for their own good’, and you were hell-bent on letting him know. “I worked hard for that money! I worked hard for my degree! And you think it’s okay to try and take all my accomplishments away from me because I don’t bang you often enough? That’s sick!”

“SICK?! You think that I’m being SICK! You seriously think caring about our marriage is SICK? You don't think ignoring your husband so you can hang out with some spoiled college brats is SICK? You don't think that looking down on me because I don’t have some fancy college degree is SICK? You’re the one being an asshole here!”

“I’ve never looked down on you! That’s a lie and you know it!” you screamed back. You took a deep breath. You had to be calm at this next part if you wanted him to take it seriously. “It’s not like I’m gonna be around to care about your feelings for much longer, so why bother getting upset?”

“What do you mean?” Richard asked, his face turning pale as he realized where you were going.

“We’re done,” you replied, with a note of finality in your voice. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t take it anymore. We’re through. I’m bringing over the divorce papers for you to sign tomorrow, but that’s the last time I’ll be seeing you. After that, I’m out of your life for good.”

“You can’t do that!” Richard screamed, “You can’t just walk away from me! From US!”

“Watch me,” you hissed, as you turned on your heel and started towards the front door.

You should have run for the door instead of walked. You shouldn’t have told him you were leaving him until the next day. You should have asked a friend to come home with you. You should have done this or done that…

It didn’t matter in the end. You heard the sound of footsteps hurrying towards you, but didn’t think much of it until you felt his hand grab your hair and yank your head back.

“LET GO!” you shrieked, your tone shifting from furious to terrified, “Richard, let go! Please!”

Eventually you became incoherent and could do nothing but scream wordlessly as your husband tossed you around the house like a rag doll. You could do nothing but listen to your own terrified shrieks echo throughout the dark, cold house.

You were shivering by the time you finished recounting the memory, but it wasn’t because you felt cold. Every fiber in your body was tensed up, like you wanted to physically flee the memory. Your heart was racing as if you had just run a marathon. You had never shared that with anyone else before, and you weren’t sure how to deal with your reaction right now. Chang’e seemed to have an idea on what to do though, given how as you had recalled this memory her hand had reached to grasp yours.

“I’m so sorry, I just…” she whispered, “It doesn’t sound real, that someone who claimed to love you so much could hurt you so badly.”

“As I said before, this was long before I met you. You have nothing, nothing, to apologize for. And believe it or not, things started looking up for me after that. Sure, I didn’t think things could possibly get any better while I was lying in the hospital recovering, but they actually did. I was able to get a divorce from Richard, and I was even able to file a restraining order against him. With him out of my life, I was able to focus on my studies again and get my grades back up. I no longer had to worry about my money being stolen, and after I graduated I was recruited for NASA and never looked back. Although, I’m not sure how to put this, but…sometimes I wonder if I deserved to achieve my dream.”

“Why?” the goddess asked, astonished. “What could possibly make you question whether or not you deserved to be happy, to get what you wanted?”

“Because I’m the one that walked away,” you responded, guilt laced through your voice. “Rich was the only person that was there for me since I was eleven, the closest thing I had to a family for all those years. We were together for so long, and I just…left him,” you continued, softly. “If I’m being honest with myself, I didn’t even really love him the way a wife is supposed to love her husband. As in, I never saw him in a romantic way. I only ever loved Rich as a brother, a friend. The only reason I married him was so I wouldn’t be alone. I didn’t even give him that locket I have! He didn’t hold my heart, so I kept it. And now here I am: alone. It’s nothing less than I deserve for abandoning my family.”

Chang’e had heard enough. At that moment she lunged forward, and before you knew what was happening she had thrown her arms around you and was hugging you tightly, her face buried in your neck.

“I don’t want to hear you say that ever again,” she whispered, her voice somehow both harsh and soft. “You do not deserve to be alone, especially not because you wanted to save yourself. You couldn’t have fixed your ex-husband, only he could fix himself. There was nothing selfish about you wanting to follow your dream, and you deserve a partner who will support that dream no matter what.” She pulled away for a second, and looked you right in the eyes. “Do you hear me? I mean it. You deserve to be loved."

You sat there, stunned, as you tried to process this information. “Well, um,” you stuttered, unsure of how to proceed after Chang’e’s declaration. “Thank you, I guess. My point to sharing this was, I know what fear is like. Unfortunately, I had to learn about it the hard way. There’s nothing more awful than fearing and loving someone all at once.”

“And you should have never had to experience such a contradiction,” the goddess replied, pulling you back in to embrace you once more. “No one should have to be afraid of the person they love. No one."

The two of you stayed like that for a long time, neither one of you willing to let go.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

General Artax paced around the small conference room, anxious for the meeting to get started. He needed this to go off without a hitch. He needed to make sure his little project remained off the government’s radar as much as possible, hence why he was bringing in private investors to fund this research. The general only hoped that they would hear him out, and wouldn’t think he was a crackpot. It wasn’t only his country that was in danger, but his planet. And he would be damned before he let his planet fall.

The door opened at that moment, and a confused Private Decker spoke, “General, they’re all here. Did you want them to enter, sir?”

“At ease, soldier. Let ‘em in.” Artax replied.

Decker watched, puzzled, as an eclectic mix of investors, stockholders, and other such financial elite strode into the conference room. If this was a government operation, why the hell were they bringing in folks from the private sector? This whole thing smelled fishy to the private, and he hated seafood. Still, orders were orders, even if he didn’t understand them. Though why he wasn’t allowed to understand the orders he had been given was a mystery he would very much like to solve…

Meanwhile, General Artax welcomed his guests into the room. “Ladies, gentlemen, you’re probably all wondering why I gathered you here today.”

“Well yes, perhaps we should start with you answering that question for us,” a neatly-groomed middle-aged woman in a business suit asked. “General, if this is a government operation, why do you need our help? My board of directors would like a little more information before agreeing to fund this secret project of yours.”

“Good question, Ms. Lee,” Artax replied, “I’m glad you asked. Well, to answer the question of the day, we’re gonna have to go back a little ways, all the way to the 1960’s. Can anyone tell me what was going on in the 60’s now?”

“Let’s see, Woodstock, Civil Rights Movement, some kerfuffle about missiles in Turkey and Cuba…you’re gonna have to be specific there, Artax.” a bored-looking young man offered as he fiddled with his smart phone. Unlike his peers, he was rather young for a billionaire and was dressed much less formally.

“Fair enough, Sanderberg,” the general answered, “Fair enough. Alright, let me clue you good folks in: the Apollo missions happened in the 1960’s. I should know, I was on the Apollo 13 mission.”

“We already know this, Artax,” Ms. Lee answered, sounding frustrated. “I swear, if this is some half-baked scheme to collect more moon rocks then you can just -”

“Now hold on there, Ms. Lee. While this does involve another trip to the moon, we’re not going there just to get some rocks. And this isn’t just a little ‘science experiment’. Trust me, this concerns everyone in this room. Let me explain. If you will direct your attention to the screen behind me,”

General Artax gestured to a large pull-down screen behind him, and a video started playing. Despite the fuzz images, everyone could tell that it was a video of the Apollo 13 landing site on the moon. “As you know, the Apollo mission I was on was a complete disaster. My entire crew died while trying to land on the moon’s surface, and I was the only survivor. However, that’s only the story you were told. That’s the official story NASA decided to run. That’s not what actually happened though. If you’ll continue to watch the feed,”

The people in the room could hear voices coming from the people in the feed. “Well Houston, looks like another successful mission!” Artax’s voice said from the tinny speaker. “We’ll just get this here American flag planted and we’ll be -”

“Whoa, what the hell is that?” A voice from off screen said. It was the voice of one of Artax’s co-astronauts, Mansen. He sounded very confused, and more than a little alarmed.

“Mansen, what do you see?” Artax’s voice said, sounding concerned for his friend.

“I don’t know, it’s – aaaahhhh! It’s got me! Get it off, GET IT OFF!”

The camera suddenly shook, and the video became distorted, presumable because the camera had been knocked off of its stand and had landed on its side on the ground. Faintly, the people in the conference room could see bright flashes of red and gold appear and disappear within seconds, and hear the sound of screaming and crunching in the background. One of the investors, an overweight middle-aged man in an expensive-looking suit, looked like he was going to vomit at the nauseating sounds he was hearing. As the video cut to black, Artax turned to his audience.

“Let’s just saw we found a lot more than some boring grey rocks,” the general concluded, looking grim. “But that’s not all. I decided to follow those beasts back to where they had come from, and you’ll never believe what I found.”

A new video started playing, and everyone could hear Artax’s labored breathing in the background, like he had been running a great distance. His voice started speaking, panting with each breath.

“This is Captain William Artax, I – wheeze – have followed those things back to their home base, and get a load of what I found -”

The camera swung around, and in the distance a large, dark lake appeared. Hovering far above it was what appeared to be some sort of city. The mysterious metropolis pulsed and glowed with a technicolored brilliance, shining with all the colors of the rainbow. Far at the summit of the tallest tower, everyone could see what looked like a faintly pulsing crescent moon.

Murmurs and gasps rang throughout the conference room. Artax could hear people shouting exclamations of shock and disbelief at the sight:

“Is this a joke?! Is this some sort of sick joke?!”

“Why would the government hide this from us?”

“They wanted it for themselves! Why else would they bury this?”

"Now hold on!” Artax yelled, trying to restore order. “Please save all your questions until the very end. There’s more ground we have to cover, a lot more.”

The video resumed. Artax was now in what looked like some sort of dimly-lit antechamber. He was talking quietly, and sneaking his way through the building.

“This is Captain Artax,” the Artax in the video whispered. “I was able to carjack some sort of weird transport vehicle from one of the locals. Looked like a teardrop, oddly enough. I think I may have found the person in charge around here. Look,”

The camera rotated, and far in the distance the general’s guests could see what looked like a silhouette of a very tall woman. They couldn’t make out all the particular details of her shape, but they could tell she had a very attractive figure, mostly legs from what they could see. She appeared to be in some sort of dress with a flared skirt, and she looked like she was dancing and spinning around on a stage.

Sanderberg whistled at the sight of the mysterious madame. “Damn, now that’s a woman! I don’t know about you guys, but I’d tap some sweet moon lady -”

“Must you, Sanderberg?” Ms. Lee interjected, sounding annoyed and frankly grossed-out. “We’re adults, let’s not be crass now. Besides, the general hasn’t finished his presentation yet, you’re being rude.”

Turning back to the screen, they continued watching the video. “I don’t know who she is or how she got here, but she’s not wearing a helmet, or a suit, or anything!" the younger Artax exclaimed. “I wish I could stay more, figure out how she works, but I don’t want to be spotted by security. I’ve already seen some weird comet-shaped things roaming near the ceilings, I should get out of here. Artax signing off.”

The video cut to black then, and everyone in the room turned to look at the general, astonished, and puzzled. “Now I can imagine that y’all have some questions,” Artax started, eager to get the ball rolling.

“You can say that again,” Ms. Lee answered, looking confused and astounded. “Who was that? How was she alive despite not having a spacesuit? How long had she been up there?”

“That’s what we want to know, Ms. Lee,” General Artax replied, “And that’s why I need your good folks’ help. With your funding, we can put together a diplomatic mission to the moon, talk to this mystery woman, and get us some answers.”

“While I appreciate the…nonviolent approach taken here, Artax,” a man in a sharp-looking business suit answered, “What I want to know is – why now? Why did you sit on this discovery for so many decades? You could have capitalized on this on a much earlier time, while you were still at the height of your career, gone down in history as the man that found life on the moon. What has changed that you need our help at this moment?”

“I have a perfectly good answer to that, Leopold,” the general replied. “Some of it is simple – NASA was worried about how the general public would react to a discovery of this magnitude. You see, a person – like yours truly – is smart. You and I can handle the truth. People, though – people are dumb, panicky animals that freak out whenever they encounter something they don’t understand. So we sat on this discovery for a while, trying to figure out what to do with this information. Then, twenty years ago, our satellites picked up this call from the depths of space.”

General Artax turned back to the screen, and a thin line appeared, the type you would see when listening to an audio file. “What you’re about to hear is highly classified. No one, and I repeat no one, is allowed to talk about this sound outside of this room. Are we clear?”

Everyone in the room nodded slowly, curious, and wary of what they were about to hear.

“Alright, here goes,” the general said, and he pressed play.

Instantly their eardrums were bombarded by a series of noises that no human should have borne witness to. To their untrained ears, some of the noises sounded somewhat familiar, almost insect-like. There was a distinct chittering, scratching, and clicking, like thousands of wasps were swarming around a microphone. There were also more alien sounds swept into the mix as well, though. An eldritch shrieking, the gnashing of thousands of mandibles and jaws, and other such mind-numbing sensations echoed throughout the small conference room.

When the file was finished, everyone in the room looked ashen and terrified, as if the very sounds themselves had filled them with a sense of existential dread. But it was just an audio file, a collection of noises. Why was a mere sound so horrifying to their ears?

“You’re all probably wondering what the hell that was,” Artax spoke, breaking the stunned silence. “That’s what my men and I were wondering for the past twenty years. We’ve been trying to crack the code on this file for all that time, but for a while we could only determine two things: one, the transmitter that sent this signal had to have been very powerful, due to the distance it travelled. So it would have come from a civilization that has evolved to the point of building something that powerful.

Which also ties in to the second thing we could determine: it came from the direction of the Alpha Centauri system, our nearest stellar neighbor. While it’s relatively close in terms of stars, being only 4.37 light years from earth, that’s still a pretty big distance, at least 25,690,000,000,000,000 miles away from our solar system. So with only these two clues, my best scientists and linguists puzzled over this files for all these years. Until five years ago, when we finally cracked the code. Ladies, gentlemen, if you will direct your attention to the front once more.”

A second audio clip popped up on the screen, and the general pressed play once more. This time, the audio was more garbled, and still had some clicking and chittering in the background, but a computerized voice also spoke out. This is what it said:

Greetings, people of Earth. You do not know who we are, or where we come from, but we know everything about your race. We have watched your planet for millennia, observing and waiting. Waiting until the time was right to reach out to you. Until you reached out to us instead.

We have found your probe, seen your people’s forms, heard the message that you cast out to our stars. And we have one thing to say to your message: Thank you.

Thank you for hearing our people’s desperate cry, and for responding with your offer. Thank you, for offering yourselves up as a living sacrifice, for the continued existence of our species. Thank you, for allowing yourselves to die, so that we may live.

In four hundred years, we shall arrive at Earth to collect the debt you have promised us. Our ships will land on your shores, and you will surrender your bodies to prevent our starvation. Your extinction will be our salvation.

May these four hundred winters pass quickly. The Swarm thanks the people of Earth once more.

The audio file ended there, and the general turned to look at everyone else in the room. If they weren’t horrified enough by the original audio file, the translation ensured that everyone was truly terrified at this most recent discovery. Almost everyone was grey with fear, and many people looked like they wanted to vomit at this most recent revelation.

“Now that you all -”

The general’s sentence was cut short. His voice breaking through the tense quiet was like a gunshot going off in the room. Everyone around the conference table exploded with questions and exclamations. All the voices that spoke rang with hysterical energy:

“What the hell?! Did they say they were going to eat us!?”

“What were they talking about? What probe? What message?”

“What kind of monster sees no problem with eating another sapient being?!”

“Great, just great! They found one of our first contact probes and thought it was a goddamned menu!”

“Order, everyone! I need order here!” the general shouted, struggling to be heard over the din. It took a minute or two, but eventually everyone quieted down so the general could speak again. “Yes, it appears that this…Swarm somehow found one of our Voyager probes, and interpreted it as us offering to let them…consume us, for lack of a more appropriate word. I believe I’m not alone here when I say humanity would rather not become some space bug’s entrée. So, going back to the discovery of the moon lady from the 60’s, here’s how I plan on tying the two together. Ladies, gentlemen, allow me to fill you in on ‘Project Ascension’.”

General Artax turned back towards the front, where he had projected a diagram up on the screen. On the far left was a silhouette of a woman, with a crescent moon over her head to signify who she was. An arrow lead from her, pointing towards the silhouettes of about a dozen men in uniform, holding rifles. A stylized, light blue arrow was leading up from the soldiers, and another much darker arrow pointed from the soldiers to their right. These versions of the soldiers looked radically different: each one had some sort of halo surrounding their head, the kind one would see in ancient depictions of Christ or the Virgin Mary. Finally, one last dark arrow lead from these holy soldiers to a depiction of a battle on the far right of the screen. Cartoon-ish looking silhouettes of bugs (what they assumed members of the Swarm looked like), were fighting the enhanced soldiers. Based on how many of them were depicted riddled with bullet holes, it was safe to say that the humans were winning.

“Picture this:” Artax began, “An entire army of soldiers – not just one or two of them, a whole damned army – that can’t be killed, can’t die, are resistant to any kind of injury, and won’t even grow old. No need to replace fallen soldiers, no need for new recruits ever, and guaranteed victory against any threats the earth could face. Even better, these brave men and women will have four hundred years to prepare for the inevitable invasion, more than long enough to learn how to kill our enemies. But I can only do that if you are willing to fund an expedition to the moon. NASA won’t fund this, they laughed me out of their financial department at the mere suggestion of such a mission.” He fumed for a second, but remembered that he was supposed to be buttering these snobs up: “So I’m only going to ask you people once: are you with me? Are you willing to throw your support towards a cause that will not only take our species to the next step of evolution, but save our world?”

Everyone in the room looked astonished, and several of them had expressions of interest flickering across their faces. This was a tempting offer, no doubt. Not only at the chance of gaining immortality for themselves, but to go down in history as the person that saved earth from an alien invasion. It sounded too good to be true. Not everyone was satisfied with this answer, though.

Sanderberg raised his hand, “Yeah, that all sounds well and good, but…then what?”

General Artax looked curiously at the youthful billionaire. “What do you mean, then what?” he asked.

“What I mean is, what’s gonna happen once we’ve stomped on all the space bugs? What are we gonna do with a bunch of immortal soldiers? You can’t really use them in human conflicts anymore unless you’re willing to violate several parts of the Geneva Convention. I’m not much of a diplomat, but I can’t imagine that deploying an unkillable army against regular soldiers wouldn’t go over well with the other nations of the world.”

“That is an excellent point, Sanderberg,” the general agreed. “Which is why we’re not going to end with winning the war against the Swarm. No, it’ll be far from over. We’re turning our attention to the stars. Seeing new worlds, exploring new civilizations. Boldly going where no one’s gone before, as Gene Roddenberry would say. The very galaxy, no, the very universe itself at our fingertips. The chance to make our mark on the galaxy and assert humanity’s place amongst the stars. That is your then what, Sanderberg.”

General Artax turned towards the rest of the people in the small conference room, and asked the question he had wanted to ask since walking in, “So, who’s with me?"

It was a couple of hours later, and Artax was feeling very satisfied with the events of the day. After asking who would back him up on his lunar mission, everyone, and he means everyone, jumped in and started clamoring for the opportunity to fund Project Ascension. Everyone wanted a slice of the moon pie, so to speak. Everything was going forward, according to plan. It probably helped that the threat of an impending alien invasion motivated them to throw their money at him. When people are afraid, they’re also desperate.

“With all due respect, sir,” his aid, Private Decker asked as the two men marched down the hall, “How are we gonna pull this off once we can make the treatment? We don’t have the facilities to mass-produce medicine like that, and I haven’t heard of any plans to build a manufacturing plant or anything, so how -”

“Private, remember what I said about what your job was?” Artax asked, his voice unusually pleasant for one person threatening another. He was so pleased with the events of today that not even Decker questioning him could sour his mood.

Decker sighed, “Right, right, it’s looking at screens and shooting things, I get it,” Thankfully, the general didn’t notice the exasperated tone in his aid’s voice. “No more questions from here on out.”

“Good lad,” Artax replied, “Well, I have a long night ahead of me. Have to get started on this project and all. You get yourself home and get some rest, we all have a long week ahead of us.” And with that the general turned down a different corridor and was out of the private’s sight.

Decker wasn’t satisfied. He may have been willing to follow his CO’s orders, but he wasn’t afraid to point out bullshit when he smelled it. There was something the general was hiding. Maybe now was the time to stop keeping his head down, and start getting to the bottom of things.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was another restless night for you. All your nights here in Lunaria had been restless and lacking in sleep, but this night was especially bad. You didn’t know if it was from recounting your ex-husband’s abuse, after bottling it up for so long, but it didn’t matter now. Tossing and turning in your bed, your hands flew up to your head, grabbing your temples and gripping tightly. You fought, in vain, to stop the images behind your eyes from racing through your brain. There was no relief, no escape, from your own mind. All you could do was watch, helplessly, as a flood of memories rushed through your head…

You gripped the metal walls of the station as the four of you plummeted towards the moon’s surface. You could hear Erikson, Thompson, and Loughly screaming faintly, but it wasn’t loud enough to overcome the pounding whoosh of your heartbeat in your ears. Your nails clawed at the station walls as you tried to keep your grip on the walls, in the foolish idea that if you didn’t let go you would be okay. Everything was going to be okay. Everyone was going to be alright…

The front end of the space station crashed into the ground. You could hear the sound of glass shattering and metal twisting under the pressure, and something else. You weren’t sure what it was, it sounded wet, and rough. It took you a moment, but your stomach lurched as you realized: it was the sound of Thompson’s body being ripped out of the ship and getting sucked into the vacuum beyond.

The station continued crashing. There was a bright flash of light, and a moment later you smelled the distinct scent of burning flesh. You could hear Erikson and Loughly screaming in fear and agony, before your vision went black, and you passed out…

But you couldn’t pass out to escape the nightmare. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run and hide from the memory. So, your brain took a different option: switched to a different memory.

You were in the backseat of your parents’ sedan. You were so excited that you couldn’t sit still; you were either bouncing up and down in your seat or leaning forward into the front seat to show your parents a new attraction you wanted to see. The three of you were going on a road trip to Cape Canaveral, to see the rockets and Space Shuttles at the space center. The three of you would also be checking out their museums and the coastline, for which that part of Florida was famous.

“Hey Dad!” you exclaimed excitedly, “Check this out!” You leaned forward and showed him a page from a magazine you had been reading. “NASA said they’ll be opening up their Space Force Station for visitors while we’re there! Can we go, please?”

“Well, I don’t see why not, little star?” he replied. “After all, this is a vacation, why shouldn’t we have a little fun?” He turned to wink at you, and you blushed with embarrassment.

“Daaaaaad,” you whined, “I’m eleven years old! I’m too old for such a baby-ish nickname!”

“I don’t care how old you get, you’ll always be my little star,” he countered, “Ya better get used to it!”

“He’s right, sweetie,” your mom chimed in, “Even when you’re grown up with kids of your own, you’ll still always be our kid.”

“Well okay," you conceded with a roll of your eyes. “Just don’t call me that in public! It’s not cool!”

“Deal,” your mom replied in a playful tone. She turned to address your father. “Speaking of vacations,” she said, “I’m really looking forward to seeing the seashore while we’re down there. I hear that the wildlife viewing is spectacular this time of year, and I brought all my good camera equipment this time!”

“I don’t think you needed to bring ALL your special gear, but whatever makes you happy. I’m sure you’ll get wonderful pictures either way, love,” your father turned towards your mother and pecked her lightly on her cheek.

Unfortunately, because all three of you were distracted, no one noticed the semi coming from the other direction drifting slowly into their lane. No one noticed that the driver seemed to be slumped over the wheel, and that his foot hadn’t moved from the accelerator pedal. There was only a second where anyone could have reacted. It turned out to be one second too late…

There was an explosion from the front of the car, as if a bomb had gone off in the front seat. You were thrown violently against the back of the driver’s seat as the front of the sedan collapsed like a soda can being stomped on. The sound of shattering glass and metal being ripped apart assaulted your eardrums, but you couldn’t even hear those over the sound of your own terrified screaming. The fire from the crash had enveloped both your parents’ bodies, and you could only watch in horror as the flesh began melting off your mother’s body. Your father’s corpse was lit up like a torch, and he was burning slowly but steadily along with the rest of the car.

Miraculously, the backseat had been mostly preserved. You, however, weren’t. The seatbelt you were wearing had cut into your legs, leaving a deep gash across your lap. There was also a huge welt on your head from where it had slammed into the back of the seat, and your neck was sore from the sudden whiplash.

Silence rang out after the initial impact. It would be a while before anyone would drive along this stretch of road, and even longer before help arrived. Strapped down into your seat, unable to unbuckle yourself and escape, you could only scream and call for help as you remained trapped in the car with your parents’ bodies, your small fists banging helplessly against the cracked windows…

The scene shifted for you. Suddenly, you were leaving Richard all over again:

Your body was tossed all around the dark house, being battered and bruise beyond recognition. You had suffered dozen of injuries before, so why should this be any different? You were faintly aware of your back being thrown through a glass table, and you were only distantly aware of the sound of shattering glass. You had long learned to disassociate when these episodes happened, but you tried to stay aware. This time, it would be different. You were going to leave him for good…

Your mind was dragged back to a different scene. You were back on the space station, gripping the walls as you plummeted to the moon. Then another scene. The car exploding again, and your legs getting cut by the seatbelt again. Then you were back with Richard. The station. The car. Richard. The station the car Richard over and over again…

Your mind cycled through these events all at once, like a dark merry-go-round that you couldn’t get off of. The memories were all blurring together, bleeding into each other until you mind was a murky maze of unprocessed trauma and terror.

Meanwhile, Chang’e was striding down the hallway closest to your chambers when she slammed to a halt at a sudden, terrifying sound. She tried to figure out where it had come from, but then she heard it again and froze: it was a scream, and it had come from the direction of your chambers.

Instantly a portal formed before her, and she let herself inside. As to be expected, the doors you used had been barricaded shut, with blankets and towels stuffed under the lip and in any gaps. The windows had also been bolted shut, and the doors leading to the balcony had been sealed tight. There was no light to be found whatsoever in this room.

The goddess didn’t need light to navigate though. Having been in here enough times, she knew where all your various piles were by now, and she knew where to avoid stepping so she didn’t twist an ankle. She also knew where she was trying to go: your bed.

She saw your faint silhouette, tossing and turning on your bed, and besides the screaming earlier she could hear faint whimpering from your form as well. Your hands gripped the blankets tightly, and she could see that you had gotten tangled up in them rather badly. Her heart sank when she noticed what looked like unshed tears brimming at the corners of your eyes.

Stepping over to where you were, she tried thinking of a way to wake you up. She first tried shaking your shoulder, but found that it didn’t work. More insistent, she tried shaking both of your shoulders with both of your hands, but found that she had to success there.

She realized that she would have to take drastic measures to drag you back to the realm of the awake. Grabbing your shoulders so you were sitting upright, she took a deep breath, and backhanded you across the face.

In an instant you were awake, your eyes flying open as you gulped in several deep breaths. Your head whipped around the room as you tried to piece together what was going on. As your eyes adjusted to the lack of light in the room, you noticed the goddess sitting on the bed near you.

“Chang’e?” you gasped, “What – what are you doing here? What’s happening?”

“You tell me,” she asked solemnly. “Why were you tossing and turning so much? Why did you scream just now? Do you have any idea how worried I was when I heard you scream? What happened here?”

You gulped; your face flushed with shame as you realized what had happened. “Nothing, just – bad dreams, I guess. No need for you to worry, everything’s okay.”

“I can tell when you’re lying. Don’t lie to me. Please, starlight. I only want to help you.”

You sighed. The jig was up anyway, you didn’t see a reason in continuing to hide this from her. “It’s just – I was recalling some, unpleasant memories from earlier,”

“About Richard?” the goddess asked softly.

“Him, yes, but some other ones, like when the space station crashed…and the day my parents died.” You said the final part in a whisper.

Chang’e was silent for a moment, before speaking again. “You’ve never talked about how they died. Do you feel comfortable sharing it now?”

You paused before speaking again, “Yeah. Yeah, I think enough time’s gone by that I can talk about it more easily. It’s nothing too dramatic anyway. Do you know what a car is?”

“Vaguely, yes.”

“They died in a car crash,” you said matter-of-factly. “I was in the car with them, and I was the only one that survived.”

The goddess’ eyes widen, before she spoke, “That’s awful. I’m so sorry that happened to you -”

“Okay, why do you keep apologizing for shit that isn’t your fault?” you asked, exasperated. “If anything, I’m the one that should be sorry!”

Chang’e had opened her mouth to reprimand you on your outburst, but your second sentence caught her off guard. “What do you mean, you should be sorry?"

“Because they didn’t deserve to die! None of them deserved to die! They shouldn’t have died! And as for me?! Why did I survive?! Ever since I was a kid, that’s all I could think about: I survived, and they didn’t. It was like that when I was a child, and it was like that as an adult. And even when someone doesn’t die on me, I leave them!” You were shouting at this point, and your face had turned red in anger, but your eyes brimmed with tears that refused to fall, indicating that you were only angry at yourself. “Do you know what it’s like to still be alive when everyone you’ve loved is gone? Feeling deep down, that you deserve to join them?”

“You dare assume – how could you -” the goddess stuttered; she couldn’t believe how you had flipped a switch from scared to angry so suddenly. “You know damned well that I would understand that pain better than anyone! Anyone! If anyone understand the desire to join their loved ones in whatever awaits after death, it’s me!”

“And how would you know that?!”

“BECAUSE I’VE TRIED!”

You gasped, your hands rearing away from hers as you tried to process this new information. What on earth did she mean, ‘she’s tried’? Dear God, I hope she doesn’t mean what I think she means…

“Tell me, mortal, have you ever thought about what it would take to kill a god? Because I’ve had plenty of time to try out all sorts of ideas. I’ve stabbed myself, thrown myself from the palace’s tallest towers, tried to drown myself in the lake. I even snuck into Jade’s lab one time, crafted a poison, and drank it in the hopes that I would, at long last, shuffle off this mortal coil. But they all failed. Do you want to know why? Because I’m not mortal. I. Can’t. Die. I am doomed to eternal, everlasting life. So after a while, I decided to make the most of this curse I have. I created Lunaria, my Lunarians, created a new family for myself here to sooth the pain that the loss of my old family brought. Believe me when I say, I know what it’s like to want to die.”

You threw your arms around the goddess’ neck and pulled her in to you, your face pressed into her neck in what you hoped was a comforting embrace. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” you muttered over and over again. “I never meant to imply; it wasn’t my intention…you were only trying to help. That’s the thing, though. That’s why I haven’t tried getting close to anyone: people get hurt when they’re close to me. That, or I get hurt in turn. It’s just better for everyone involved if I remain alone.”

“I thought we already talked about how wrong that statement is,” Chang’e replied. “Do we need to have this discussion again?”

“Not really,” you admitted. “Besides, I should really get back to bed. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.”

“As you should. I’ll be watching you in case you need me again,”

“Wait, what?” you asked, thrown by that last part, “What do you mean, you’ll be watching me?”

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you in case you have any more nightmares.”

“So what, your plan is to watch me sleep?”

“Well, yes. Is that alright by you?”

“No, Edward Cullen!” you stuttered. “That’s fricking weird!” Chang’e looked confused by your reference for a second, before proceeding,

“Well I’m not leaving, if that’s what you want! You’ll have to drag me out to get me to leave!” she replied haughtily.

You groaned and ran a hand across your tired eyes. This was already being dragged out far longer than it should have, and you really just wanted to get back to sleep. “Just, figure something else out, alright? Anything but watching me sleep, please.” you ended on a desperate tone.

The goddess thought for a second, before there was a sudden flash of soft light and suddenly her clothes were different. The red part of her gown was gone, what you guessed was an overcoat-type garment, and she was wearing a long-sleeved white gown with red epaulets on the shoulders. Her hair was down as well, and there was no sign of her crescent-moon crown thing. Her makeup was gone as well, which startled you even more. Her appearance sufficient changed, she did something even more surprising: she lightly shoved you to the far side of the bed, and began shifting herself under the covers. "Alright, move,” she said, sounding tired herself. “You don’t need the whole bed to sleep, you can share.”

“What the – what the hell are you doing?” you questioned, confused. “This is my bed, why are you climbing into it?”

“I’m getting into bed with you, and I’ll be by your side the rest of the night. I figured that this wouldn’t be a problem. I’m not watching you, after all,” she replied with a smirk.

You sighed, heavily. Once again, you had been outsmarted by a 3,000 year old woman, and you were struggling to understand how that kept happening. Rolling your eyes, and out of energy to argue, you replied “Fine, fine, but just one night! We don’t need to give Gobi any more shipping fuel.”

“Gobi? Why does he need fuel? What does that have to do with this?”

“Nothing, I’ll – I’ll explain it in the morning,” you sighed, turning on your side away from the goddess. Maybe if you weren’t facing each other, this wouldn’t be so awkward. “I’m tired anyway, so let’s just get some sleep. Goodnight,”

“Goodnight, starlight,” the goddess whispered.

At some point a few hours later, you woke up a little, not from nightmares but from general restlessness. You tried to turn your body, but found that you were pinned in place. Looking down at your torso, you saw why: Chang’e’s arms were wrapped around your body, and she had pulled you in, so her body was wrapped around yours. Her legs were curled around your legs from behind, and her back was arched so your body was flushed up against hers. From just above your head, you could hear her breathing softly.

Part of you wanted to remove her arms, climb out of bed and sleep somewhere else, but another part of you liked being spooned like this. It felt…nice, as much as you didn’t want to admit it.

Or maybe you did want to admit it, but just didn’t know how?

It didn’t matter, anyway. You fell back asleep shortly, but not before whispering softly, “Thank you, moondancer,” you didn’t think she would hear your secret nickname for her anyway, so you felt okay saying it out loud.

It may have been your imagination, it may have not been, but you swore that she pulled you closer after you called her that. Smiling softly, you fell back asleep, your body settling in for the best night of sleep you’ve had since your arrival.

Chapter Text

While you still couldn’t do much about the bright lights outside your room, or the constant faint noise you would hear, your ability to sleep improved greatly over the next several weeks. Many nights you were awoken from a restless sleep by Chang’e quietly appearing in your room and wordlessly climbing into your bed, right next to you. It varied greatly what would happen after that; most of the time you just laid next to each other, each other’s presence being enough for the night. Other times you sometimes found the goddess’ body curled around yours, her arms keeping yours pinned to their sides to prevent you from tossing about in your sleep. Several times you’d wake up to find that your hand had somehow found its way into hers, your fingers interlacing in a white-knuckled grip as if you were afraid to let go. You would even sometimes invert the pattern, by sneaking into her chambers when you should have been resting and sleeping in there; though the location was different your behavior was the same. Somehow, the goddess would always be alone whenever you snuck in there. You didn’t know how she would have arranged for that to happen, but you were grateful. The two of you had an unspoken agreement about this new…arrangement. You simply wouldn’t talk about it, it was only to help you sleep, nothing more, nothing less.

At least, that was what the two of you thought of the situation. Too bad that others weren’t inclined to see it that way.

Gobi had been worried about you all morning. You were usually up bright and early, raring to go to the new construction site and work on the rocket. You were a highly motivated, determined individual, and nothing short of personal injury could keep you away from your work for long.

So when you hadn’t shown up on time, the Lunarian was understandably concerned. He thought that you were grabbing some stuff to take to the site today, so he went to your chambers to see if you needed help carrying anything. To his great surprise, your door was locked and barricaded; he could see the pieces of clothing stuffed under the door to keep the light out.

“Okay, something’s not right here,” he said, addressing the white and pink rabbit at his side. “This isn’t like her. Our friend’s a lot of things, Maggie: smart, stubborn, bold, brash. But if there’s anything she isn’t, it’s lazy. Think we should go in and see if she’s okay?”

Maggie twitched her nose in worry, for she was starting to have a bad feeling about this. She didn’t know why though, but something felt off about today. It probably didn’t help that Chang’e hadn’t been seen all morning either, which was even more strange. The goddess liked to be up at all hours, since sleep wasn’t a need she had to worry about. She was also constantly surrounded by her guards, the Lunettes, Jade, Gobi, herself, or her siblings, or as of late you. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t think she had ever seen Chang’e completely alone. There was something rather peculiar about that; it was like the goddess hated the idea of being alone at all, and had to have someone nearby at all times. So if she hadn’t been seen all day, that had to have meant that she was alone right now. Nothing about this day was making any sense, and it was still morning!

Maggie gestured to the doors, indicating that she agreed with Gobi’s idea. “This is the only place we haven’t checked yet, so it makes sense that she’s still in here. Okay, give me a second to jimmy the lock…” Gobi fiddled with the door handle, sticking his fingers inside the lock until he heard a satisfying click! With a creak the door sprung open slightly, impeded by the piles of clothes sitting in front of it. The two of them carefully pushed the clothes aside and crept in to the room.

To their mutual surprise it was still pitch black in the room. Carefully waiting for a minute so their eyes could adjust, the Lunarian and rabbit tiptoed forward until the former found a flashlight on the floor. While the natural glow of his body was sufficient to guide him normally, he preferred having a light he could shine around the room and try to locate you.

Which wasn’t too difficult, as it turned out. Sweeping the beam of light over to your bed, he saw your form still curled up under the sheets, turned on your side so you were facing away from the door. He could hear you breathing deeply, indicating that you were still fast asleep.

“She overslept?” Gobi asked, astonished. “The local early bird, Miss Up-and-at- ‘em, is asleep? Well, happens to everyone at some point. Better get her moving!” He walked over to the bed, ready to wake you up himself.

Maggie suddenly hopped in front of him, holding her arms out to her sides. Her eyes were pleading and desperate; there was something weird going on right now and she had a feeling that waking you up would make it worse.

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad!” Gobi said, insistent. “She just must have been up late last night working on plans for the rocket. Totally normal for her! Besides, she wouldn’t want to waste a whole day of work, right?”

He gently pushed the rabbit aside, determined to get you out of bed and moving. “I think you’re just worried for nothing, Mags. Trust me, there’s nothing weird going on here!”

The rabbit looked on with alarm, not believing a word Gobi said. She had a very bad feeling about this, and she thought this was a bad idea. She tried to push it down, though. Rabbits in general tended to panic over the smallest things at times, and she didn’t have any valid reasons to assume something was wrong. Still, she was cringing slightly as the Lunarian crept up right next to your bed, and tapped you gently on your shoulder.

Nothing. Confused, he grabbed your shoulder, shaking it. Still nothing. Oh well, guess he had to other choice then. Desperate times and measures, and all that. He took a deep breath, leaned in right next to your ear, and yelled,

“WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD!”

Despite the fact that you were in a deep sleep, you acted like an airhorn had gone off right next to your ear. With a jolt you sat up in bed, brain still foggy from being startled into being awoken so suddenly. You moved so quickly that you forgot that at some point in the night, you had rolled over so that you and Chang’e were face-to-face. Quite literally, as your foreheads were actually touching each other’s, a fact you should’ve remembered as your head collided with hers as you sat up. This in turn woke the goddess up from her own sleep, though she remained lying down and rubbed her eyes while moaning as you turned to address Gobi.

“What the hell, man?” you slurred, still tired. “Can’t a girl get some sleep around here?”

“Not when there’s so much work left on the rocket, she can’t!” Gobi asked, chipper and ready to finally start the day. “C’mon, up and at ‘em! That thing isn’t gonna build itself!”

With a yawn you asked, “What time is it even?”

“Here’s a hint: in one more hour you won’t be able to say, ‘good morning’ anymore.”

Your eyes widened when he said that, and you exclaimed, “Oh geez, Gobi, why didn’t you wake me up sooner? I swear, we are so far behind schedule it’s not even -”

“Can you please keep it down? You’re being rude, I’m trying to sleep here,” Chang’e groused, cutting you off as she sat up next to you. She rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand, trying to work away the pain from where your head hit hers when you sat up.

If you weren’t awake before, you certainly were now as the implications of this scene hit you. Specifically, what Gobi’s interpretation of this scene would be at this sight. Panicked, you suddenly threw your arm across the goddess’ torso and slammed her back onto the bed, ignoring her yelp of surprise. You threw the blanket over her head for good measure, making sure she was completely covered.

“What are you doing?” she asked, sounding annoyed as well as tired now. Throwing the blanket off her with a huff and sitting back up, she glared at you. “I don’t know what’s got you so worked up! It’s not like there’s anyone else here -”

“Ah-hem,” you interrupted, nodding your head in Gobi and Maggie’s direction, hoping she would notice.

Thankfully Chang’e did take notice, and she quickly shut up and could only stare at the two new occupants in the room. To be fair, that was what everyone else in the room was doing: you and the goddess stared at the Lunarian and rabbit, and they stared right back at you. You and Chang’e had both turned beet red, as she had also realized how this scene came across, Maggie stared at you both with a very confused expression, and finally Gobi was staring at you both with an oddly overjoyed expression…

"Ummm,” Chang’e hummed, trying to figure out what to say, “This isn’t what it looks like…”

“I knew it!!” Gobi suddenly shouted, pointing at you both, “I KNEW this was gonna happen! And it did! It finally happened! Yes!!” He then started doing what you could only call a ‘victory’ dance, shuffling around and chanting “I knew it, I knew it!” over and over again.

“No!” you interjected, “No no no no no no NO! This is not what you’re thinking of!” you waved your arms in front of you in a sweeping ‘X-like’ gesture. “There is a perfectly good, perfectly platonic reason for what you’re seeing here!”

“Oh really?” the Lunarian replied, crossing in arms in front of him. With a smug grin on his face he asked, “Then pray tell, what is that ‘perfectly good’ reason, hmm?”

“It’s - well it’s that – it’s just that -” Chang’e answered, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. “Well, um, it’s – it’s none of your business!” The goddess crossed her own arms in front of her and tilted her chin up, staring down at Gobi with what she assumed was a haughty expression. “I am your goddess, your ruler! I am free to sleep with whomever I like, no questions asked!”

“For God’s sake Chang’e, please stop talking,” you groaned, hiding your face in your hands. “You’re making it worse! I swear, I haven’t had enough coffee yet to deal with this shit…”

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I see this as a total win!” Gobi said, sounding excited. “So tell me lovebirds, what kind of floral arrangements were you thinking of for the wedding? I think moonflowers and primroses would look lovely paired together -”

“Gobi, out!” you shouted, throwing a pillow in his direction for good measure.

“Okay, okay!” he replied defensively. As he and Maggie scurried out of the room, he turned around and added, “I’m just saying, we really outta get started on wedding plans if you wanna get married by New Year’s…”

“Out!” you yelled one last time.

“Okay going!” he said, at last closing the door behind him and leaving the two of you alone.

Running your hands through your hair, you sighed in frustration, “Dear God, we’re never gonna hear the end of this!”

Chang’e glanced at you in confusion, “Hear the end of what?” she asked.

“Gobi’s got it in his head that the two of us like each other.”

“Well that’s not so odd, I would assume friends are supposed to like each other -”

“Romantically,” you clarified.

“Oh,” the goddess replied, sounding quiet. After a beat she nervously laughed and replied, “Well that’s ridiculous! I don’t see you like that! I have no idea where he would get such an idea!”

“Y-yeah, he’s off his rocker!” you added, a tiny part of you feeling disappointed. “Totally weird that he would suggest that! Well, I better get dressed, the two of them are waiting outside. Would you mind -”

“Yes, of course!” she agreed, a portal already forming behind her. “I’ll just – just be going then. I’ll see you later, I hope. Not that you’re obligated, of course, I just enjoy your company, but not like that! So…till next time?” She had crawled out of bed and already had one foot through the portal, walking backwards so she could talk to you.

“Sure thing!” you responded, “Don’t worry, I know what you mean! It’s not like that at all! Like I said, Gobi’s crazy!”

“Yes, right…crazy” Chang’e replied, “So…bye then!” and with she turned away from you, the nervous grin leaving her face once you couldn’t see it. As the portal closed behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief at how close she was. Too close!

You let out the breath you had been holding, took a moment to collect yourself, and began getting dressed. Gobi and Maggie were waiting for you just outside, and you had already kept them waiting long enough.

Unfortunately, Gobi couldn’t let the events of this morning go. The whole trip to the building site he couldn’t shut up about what what a cute couple you and Chang’e made, and gloating about how ‘right’ he was. When the three of you arrived at the site, you assumed he would drop it so you guys could focus on building the rocket. You figured that after a while, he would get bored talking about it.

Oh how wrong you were.

“So how long has that been going on?” Gobi asked cheekily, looking up from the panel he was lifting in place.

You reluctantly admitted, “Some weeks now. And as I said before: it’s not what you think! I haven’t been getting enough sleep and she offered to watch me. It was either let her get into bed with me or watch me sleep. And watching someone else sleep is creepy!”

“Something tells me you wouldn’t have found it ‘creepy’ if the goddess was the one doing it…” he argued.

“Yes I would! It’s creepy no matter who is doing the watching! Sleeping next to me was the next best thing, so I begrudgingly went along with it.”

“I dunno, you didn’t look all that begrudged that Chang’e was in bed with you!”

“So what are we talking about?” a third voice that sounded like the ringing of a bell called out from above and behind you.

You turned around, and greeted the dragon watching you with interest, “Oh hey Zi! Didn’t see you there. We -” you stared pointedly at the Lunarian, hoping he would drop the subject for now. “were just talking about what kind of work has to be done today on the rocket, care to lend a – er, claw around here?”

“Sure! It shouldn’t be a problem. Looks like we’ve already made some good progress though,” the dragon noted as they turned to grab a long section of the thruster with their jaws. You were honestly not that surprised to see the purple drake at all; for several weeks now they would visit you at the build site simply to talk with you. You and Gobi thought it was odd at first, and Maggie had been very wary of Zi at first. However, after a few more conversations with them, you realized that they genuinely did want to just talk with you. You had the impression that Zi and their brothers didn’t get the chance to interact with mortals all that often, a theory that was confirmed on their second visit. From the way they described their brothers, Lu was apathetic to humanity as a whole. He only saw them as yet another species condemned to a painfully short lifespan; trying to befriend a mortal was like if you were to try befriending a fruit fly. As for Hong, she actively looked down on mortals. She saw them as weak, inferior, not worth the respect that her and her brethren deserved.

Zi was different for some reason. Despite being much older than anyone else you’d ever met, hell they were even older than Chang’e, they found mortals fascinating. When you asked why, they gave a rather surprising answer: Zi admired mortals. They thought humans were rather impressive in light of their many accomplishments. They had built ships that could cross the entire ocean, formed countries that lasted for centuries, built monuments that could be seen from space; they had even gone into space more than once! Granted, humanity has had some bad accomplishments as well, all the wars started and ended in the past two centuries alone was proof enough. Overall though, Zi had something bordering between fascination and respect for your kind. Getting to talk with a real mortal was an opportunity they were not willing to pass up.

Which is why you weren’t too bothered by their frequent visits that often resulted in your work being forgotten so the two of you could question each other. You were just as much interested in them as they were with you, and you were never one to discourage someone from asking questions. Though sometimes the discussion tended to devolve from the mutual exchanging of experiences about their respective species into water cooler gossip. As was the case today.

After a couple hours of working, you turned back to the dragon with a pressing question, “Hey Zi, while we’re at a good stopping point, I wanted to ask you a question. What I wanted to know is: how exactly can you fly? You don’t have any wings, and you’re clearly not gliding, but flying under your own power.”

“That’s actually real simple, mortal!” the dragon replied. They pointed to a small orb in the center of their forehead that you hadn’t noticed before. “See this here? That’s my pearl,”

“Your pearl?” you asked, confused. “How did you get a pearl stuck in your forehead?”

“Didn’t get stuck up there, mortal. I’ve always had it! This pearl, to put it in easy terms, contains all my magic. Part of that magic is the ability to fly, but it also contains my memories, and it might even contain my soul! It’s a pretty powerful artifact, which is why my brothers and I typically try to avoid mortals. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve had to hide from some crackpot alchemist trying to take our pearls and use them in their spells. Trust me, getting your pearl ripped out of your head is not fun!”

“I’ll take your word for it,” you answered, trying to understand what Zi was getting at. “So, that ‘pearl’, it has all your magic and memories, but how come you’re not sure if it has your soul?”

“Well you kinda have to die for your soul to be released, isn’t that how it is with all living things?” the dragon pointed out. “But with us, we think that if one of us did die, as long as our pearl is intact, we could be reincarnated somehow. I don’t know though, it’s not like any of us are eager to test that idea.”

“Fair point,” you concurred, “But anyway -”

“Okay, why aren’t we talking about this morning?” Gobi interrupted, sounding exasperated. “Are we just gonna forget what happened? Cause I sure can’t!”

“Wait, what happened?” Zi asked, confused.

“It’s nothing, Zi! Just Gobi claiming he saw something that he didn’t.” While emphasizing the last word you glared at the Lunarian for good measure.

“Well come on then, spill the tea! I have literally all the time in the universe, I’ll wait,” the dragon teased as they sat down.

“Sorry to disappoint you Zi, but there is no tea to spill. Gobi was just making stuff up,” you replied, dreading the turn this conversation had taken.

“Nu-uh! She’s just in denial! You’re not gonna believe this, Zi!” Gobi insisted. “Maggie and I saw her and Chang’e in bed! The same bed! Right next to each other!”

“What!” the dragon replied, astonished. “Well damn, mortal! You’ve got game! Thanks for hooking up with her when you did, by the way. Glowworm here just lost a bet to me! He said it would take you two three weeks to get together, I put it at two months, so I win!” they finished with a grin.

“No, we are NOT ‘hooking up’!” you debated, “How many times do I have to say this, she doesn’t like me like that! There is no way on God’s green earth that the two of us could ever become a thing! She had a husband for God’s sake! A husband that, if I remember correctly, she has only just started to move on from!”

“So? Just because she was married once doesn’t mean she can’t get married again!” Ignoring your flustered stammering, Zi continued, “Besides, you two could be like a super-cool power couple! ‘The goddess and the astronaut’ has a neat ring to it.”

“How do you know we’d make a ‘super-cool power couple’?” you asked, using your fingers to put the last four works in quotation marks. “You’ve never even met her!”

Funnily enough, the opportunity for Zi to meet Chang’e would be sooner than anyone else thought. From a short distance away, from behind a large boulder, a shimmering portal appeared out of the thin air, and the goddess herself stepped onto the dusty lunar plains. She took care to make sure no one had seen her before taking a moment to settle her nerves. She didn’t know why she was so willing to come out here. For the first thousand years of her existence as a goddess, these desolate plains had been her personal hell. Silent, grey, monotonous, and above it all the earth hanging in the skies above, taunting her by being within her sight but always out of reach. She has sworn to never return out here once Lunaria was created. To this day she couldn’t bear too much silence; she always had to have some sort of background noise going on, even if it annoyed her.

But Chang’e was going to do her best to ignore that for now. She came out here for a reason, and peering around the boulder she saw that reason: the rocket that you, Gobi, and Maggie had been constructing for a few months now lay in several pieces on the shores of Lunaria Lake. For months now she had been curious about how the construction was going, and admittedly was interested in what kind of work was needed to build such a vehicle. Watching you work on some new science project was fascinating for her, like watching some rare creature interact with its native habitat, but less demeaning. She had finally worked up the courage to come out here, leave Lunaria for the first time in who knows how long, just to see what this was all about.

She peered around the boulder again, trying to figure out how she would start the conversation. It seemed though, that fate had an idea for that already. Pressing her hand against the crumbling rock, a section of it fell away suddenly and crashed against the dusty ground. With a start she darted behind the rock again, hoping no one had spotted her.

The conversation between you, Gobi, and Zi suddenly stopped, and all three of you turned to look in the direction the sound came from. You thought that another Lunarian had followed you out here, so you called out to them, “Hey, it’s okay! I’m not gonna hurt you, I’ve been here for months now; pretty sure that if I had some devious plot for the city, I would have done something by now.”

“A reasonable conclusion; either that or you’re very lazy when it comes to putting your ‘devious plots’ into action,” a familiar voice called out.

Your eyes widened in surprise, and you walked over to the boulder and peered around it. “What the – Chang’e? What are you doing out here? I thought you couldn’t leave the palace!”

“Correction: I could leave the palace, I just don’t,” she replied as she walked out from behind the boulder. “But I decided to make a small exception for this little trip. I’m actually quite interested in this ‘rocket’ of yours.”

“Well, um, sure!” you answered, before turning around and walking towards said rocket, the goddess following behind you. “We’ve been working on all the little components, such as the controls and finer thrusters for steering, but we recently switched gears to start working on the big parts.”

The sound of someone’s throat clearing above your head reminded you of your guest. “Oh darn, sorry. You two don’t know each other. Chang’e, this is Zi Long. Zi, this is Chang’e.”

The violet dragon bowed their head and held out their left paw to greet the goddess. “Enchaté,” they said, extending the middle claw on their paw towards Chang’e, “Well I must say, our friend here wasn’t exaggerating when she mentioned how beautiful you were. You’re much prettier than I assumed!”

“Well I would hope she’s done justice to my beauty,” the goddess replied, reaching out her hand to gingerly grasp the dragon’s extended claw. “Considering how much time we’ve spent together these past few months. Though I must say, you are quite the charmer,” she added with a flattered smile.

“I did always say that I was the ladies' drake between my brothers and I,” Zi admitted, though they didn’t sound too bashful about their ‘confession’. “And our earthly visitor here did do her best to describe how lovely you were, though it doesn’t compare to seeing the ‘real deal’. Wasn’t for lack of trying though!” they ended, winking at you suggestively.

You stared hard at Zi over Chang’e’s shoulder, hoping they got the message that they were not helping!

“Really?” the goddess asked, raising an eyebrow in intrigue as she turned to look at you. “How curious that someone that’s only a friend to me would describe me in such detail,”

“Well, um…” you started, awkwardly rubbing the back of your neck with your hand. “It’s simply an objective observation that you are rather attractive. I wasn’t trying to imply anything by it, I swear!”

Just out of your line of vision, you caught Gobi pointing at you while mouthing the word LIAR! You pretended not to see it and focused on Chang’e again.

“Anyway, while I do enjoy being reminded of how gorgeous I am, that’s not why I’m here. So tell me,” she inquired while turning to the rocket, “How does this work? What is the mechanism by which it will take you back to earth?”

“It’s basically like a giant firework that only fires in one direction. You know what a firework is, right?”

“Well of course,” Chang’e countered as the two of you walked alongside the incomplete rocket, “I like to use them in my performances quite a bit. You seem to keep forgetting that we’re not that primitive.”

“Right, I forgot that sorry!” you apologized, feeling a little embarrassed.

The goddess started at you pointedly for a second, before dropping the façade, “Alright, I suppose I can forgive you,” she said teasingly.

Neither of you noticed Maggie following you two from a short distance, keeping an eye on you as you walked.

“Back to my explanation,” you continued as the two of you walked down the length of the rocket towards the cockpit. “So when the ignition is fired, a series of explosions goes off in the thruster, which is what we’re walking alongside right now. As the explosions are triggered, all that energy is funneled down the thruster towards the end. That end of the rocket is on the ground, so when the energy is funneled down that way, it pushes the rocket in the opposite direction – up. Therefore, as the rocket goes up, it leaves whichever celestial body it’s on and heads towards the sky.”

“Well that sounds straightforward enough,” Chang’e replied, “I don’t know why it’s taken mortals so long to go into space then. It doesn’t sound that hard in theory.”

“That’s the thing though,” you countered as the two of you climbed into the makeshift cockpit. “It’s not that hard – in theory. Practically speaking, there’s a lot of other factors that have to be accounted for. For example, do you know how much fuel is needed to fuel a rocket to go into space? Several thousand gallons, and that’s just to leave the atmosphere! If you wanted to reach a certain orbit or God forbid, go to another planet you’d need a lot more fuel. Trying to create that fuel alone was a problem that wasn’t solved until a few centuries ago. You also have to generate the materials needed to build a vehicle durable enough for space travel – watch your head there,” you paused as the two of you passed under a beam that you had to duck under. Right after you both, Maggie hopped onto the control panel and began fiddling around with some of the buttons. Both of you still failed to notice her presence.

“And getting those materials involves a lot of mining and smelting, which as you might have guess, we only mastered those processes relatively recently. And that’s not even getting into trying to survive space,” you added.

“Survive it? How? What are the largest risks you’ve faced during space travel?”

“Quite a few, actually,” you replied, “First of all, you have to make sure your rocket doesn’t blow up trying to leave earth,”

“Wait a minute,” Chang’e interrupted, “You’re saying you could blow up during takeoff?” She looked alarmed at this new information.

“Well it’s a problem we’ve been working on for decades!” you argued, trying to reassure her. “We’ve done a lot of trial and error to understand how that happens, and how to avoid it. I’ve considered any possible errors, and done my best to mitigate them. That’s also not getting into making sure your life support module has enough oxygen in it, and can cycle more in as needed. And then there’s also making sure the module is reinforced so it doesn’t break and suck you out into space. Then there’s also making sure you enter the atmosphere at the right angle so you don’t bounce off into space or burn up upon reentry…”

You noticed that Chang’e had grown quiet while you were talking. Turning to look at her, you saw that she had grown quite pale, and was staring at you wide-eyed. “So what you’re saying is,” she asked nervously, “there’s a very good chance you could die in the attempt?”

“Hey, hey,” you responded, going over to her and grabbing one of her hands, “All those risks each have like, a one-in-a-million chance of happening. And like I said, I’ve learned how to mitigate risks as best as possible. I’ve been training for years for this sort of thing. I’ll be okay, I promise.”

“It’s not that I doubt your abilities, it’s just…” Chang’e said, sounding unsure of her words, “I can’t help but worry, you know? You’re still a mortal, you can still die. That’s the part I don’t like.”

“You have to admit though, I’m pretty durable for a mere mortal,” you argued lightheartedly, “I’ve somehow survived this long, knock on wood. I’m confident that I can survive this too.”

Chang’e smiled at that, sounding more reassured, “I will agree that you’re rather ‘durable’ -”

“I’VE BEEN REALLY TRYIN’, BABY!”

You both jumped at the sound of the speakers suddenly blaring loud music. To your humiliation, you recognized the song immediately. Letting go of the goddess’s hand like it burned you, your head whipped around the cabin in a panic, trying to figure out where the hell it was coming from.

“TRYIN’ TO HOLD BACK THIS FEELIN’ FOR SO LONG!”

You quickly spotted the culprit: Maggie’s foot had pressed the button that turned on the sound system in the cabin, and it has started playing music from whatever file had been uploaded in there. It must have been from Loughly’s collection, they had a thing for soul music. Bolting over to the console, you gently pushed Maggie away and turned the music off, and the cabin quickly fell silent.

You and Chang’e stared awkwardly at each other for a bit, before you broke the silence, “Well, that was…unfortunate,”

“Not the word I would use,” she replied, “More like…uncomfortable? Awkward?”

“Yeah, awkward!” you agreed, “Anyway, did you want to continue the tour, maybe we could -”

“No, no, that’s alright,” Chang’e declined, “I just remembered that I left a…thing, in the oven. Better go check on that! I’ll see you later tonight!” And with that a portal quickly formed behind her and she had left before you could protest.

You blinked in confusion, “Oven? Since when did she cook?” Until a second later when it clicked what she meant. For an engineer, you tended to be dense at times.

You turned to glare at the white and pink rabbit still sitting at the console. “What the hell, Mags? Was that really necessary?”

In response, the rabbit folded her arms and blew a raspberry at you.

Rolling your eyes, you scooped up the rascally rabbit and left the cockpit, heading back towards where Gobi and Zi were. Once you were in earshot of them, you yelled over at them, “Alright, whose idea was that?”

“What idea?” Gobi asked innocently.

“Yeah mortal, we don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zi added innocuously.

“Oh come on, you know what I’m talking about,” you held Maggie in front of you, gesturing to her, “and using an innocent little rabbit in your schemes? For shame!”

“Seriously, pal,” Gobi defended, though you could tell he was trying to stifle back laughter. “We have no idea what you’re getting at!”

Zi had given up trying to hold themselves back, and they were openly laughing at Maggie’s actions.

Setting the rabbit down, you ran your hands through your hair and sighed, “You know what? I’m not mad! It’s fine,” you told them, but also yourself, “It’s fine, I’ll deal with this when I get back. So can we please get back to working on this thing?”

Thankfully, Gobi and Zi did get back on track, and they even offered a (somewhat) sincere apology if their prank caused discomfort on your and Chang’e’s end. You reassured them that it wasn’t a big deal, and you would deal with it when you returned to Lunaria. Unfortunately, you didn’t get around to discussing that with the goddess, because your conversation later took a rather unexpected turn.

The two of you were back at the crow’s nest, just stargazing and talking. Neither of you wanted to bring up the events of that afternoon, so you didn’t. At the moment, you were showing her some of the more obscure constellations, partly for her and partly for yourself. The former because in the past few months the two of you had been doing this, she had been greatly interested in the stars. The latter because you were excited at being about to see star formations that were otherwise rather dim on earth. However, there seemed to be something off about the goddess, something you caught on to halfway through your explanation of the constellation Camelopardalis.

“So this constellation is supposed to be a giraffe, however that wasn’t what the ancient Romans would have called it, since they didn’t have the word ‘giraffe’ to describe it. They instead used a combination of the words ‘camel’ and ‘leopard’, since they were familiar with both those animals. Not sure why they couldn’t just create a new name for the giraffe. They built an empire that lasted hundreds of years, reached three continents, and became the bedrock for western philosophical thought, but they couldn’t come up with a new name for an animal. Pretty weird, right?”

“Yeah, weird,” Chang’e replied, though she wasn’t looking at you when she said that. As a matter of fact, she had seemed distant for most of the evening. Sure, she responded to your commentary at the right times, nodded along at the right things, but it was like she was on another planet mentally. You stopped talking about the stars for now and turned to her.

“Hey, you seem kinda distant this evening, are you okay?” you asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” the goddess replied. “Why, do I not sound fine?”

“Actually, yes,” you countered, “You’re hearing me, but you don’t seem to be listening to me.”

“I don’t follow,” she answered, sounding confused.

“Well, you answer when I ask you a question, or when I want your opinion on something, but you sound distracted, like you were thinking of something else entirely. You’ve also only looked at me once or twice this whole evening, and I think it’s safe to say that I know you well enough to know this isn’t normal. Is there something else you wanted to talk about?”

Chang’e hesitated, as if trying to decide whether this was something she wanted to discuss. After a couple of moment, she sighed and said, “Yes, there is. I’m not angry at you, or anyone for that matter, but when you were talking about the risks of space travel earlier, it was a – painful reminder.”

“Of what?” you asked.

“That you’re mortal. That you can, and will, die. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week or month or year, but someday you’ll die. You almost did die on my watch, and you saw how well I handled that. As someone that can’t die at all, it’s a…difficult fact to grapple with. Knowing the people you care about will die, leaving you alone.”

You paused for a second, before softly whispering, “Like Houyi?”

Chang’e turned to stare at you, eyes wide and gasping quietly in shock. “How – how do you know about Houyi? Who told you?”

“Please don’t be mad!” you pleaded, “I was asking Gobi some questions about you when I first arrived here, and he told me about your husband. I’m sorry if that was supposed to be confidential – if I had known it was I wouldn’t have continued to ask once Gobi brought it up.”

“I’m not mad,” she reassured you, “It’s just – it’s hard, knowing I’ll never see him again. I spent the better part of 3,000 years mourning him, trying to bring him back to me. I almost succeeded, but in the end, he wanted to move on to what awaits after death. And I will remain here, and live forever. I am destined to be alone for eternity; even when the stars themselves die, I will remain.”

You paused, trying to figure out how to say what you wanted to say, before slowly taking a breath and offering what you hoped were words of encouragement: “Not to say you’re wrong or anything, but…you are wrong. Before you say anything – I know you want to say something – let me explain. You may not have Houyi anymore, but you have other people in your life that love and care for you. You’ve got Jade, you’ve got Gobi, you’ve got Bungee and your subjects and an entire city of people who adore you. That’s a lot of people that care about you! And guess what? They’re all immortal too! They’ll be right here to face eternity, and what lies beyond that, with you. You’re not as alone as you think you are.”

Chang’e was silent for the next few minutes, turning over your words in her head. Finally, she slowly smiled, and grasped your hand gingerly. “Thank you,” she replied, sounding relieved. “The truth is, I’ve only just started to realize that I’ve never been truly alone, and sometimes I just need to be reminded of that,”

“I get it,” you said, “There’s nothing wrong with being reminded that other people care for you. Even if they aren’t immortal.”

The goddess stared at you for a moment as you realized what you had just said, “Do you mean to say that -”

“Well it’s been pretty quiet up here, how about some music?” you asked loudly, cutting her off. You chuckled lightheartedly, hoping to cover up your slip-up just now. Reaching behind you, you let go of her hand and grabbed the iPod shuffle and speaker that you kept with you, hastily flipping through the songs on there. You hoped and prayed that Chang’e would forget about the last part of you statement, but there were no guarantees. Best to cut it off now before anything else happens!

You flipped through the music on the device, trying to find something to listen to. After flipping through what felt like hundreds of song, you finally stopped on one that sounded interesting:

“If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy

and I can take you for a ride,”

Chang’e turned to look at the speaker, looking intrigued by the song, “Now who is this singer? I don’t think you’ve introduced me to this one before,”

“Oh, this one’s Dua Lipa. Thompson liked mostly old-school stuff, but they could appreciate one or two newer singers,” you replied.

“I have a premonition that we fell into a rhythm

where the music don’t stop for life.

Glitter in the sky, glitter in my eyes,

shining just the way I like,”

“Can you dance?” Chang’e suddenly asked, her face lighting up at the idea of dancing with you.

“Oh! um…” you stuttered, “Well, not really. Honestly, I look like a drunk octopus whenever I dance. I’m just not that good.” You were blushing at both your lack of coordination, and because you had correctly guessed where this was going.

“What if I showed you how to dance?” the goddess asked, sounding insistent.

You glanced at her, and at yourself, and then reminded her, “I don’t know if that will work out. It’ll be a bit awkward trying to dance, since you’re like, three feet taller than me!”

Chang’e smirked, before replying, “That shouldn’t be a problem,”

Before you could ask what she meant, her form started to glow and sparkle, and you turned away because the light hurt your eyes. When you turned back to look at her, she looked very different. She wore a light teal gown with a sash tied around her waist, and intricate designs etched all around the hem and sleeves. Her hair was done up in a much more elaborate style, with several ornaments and ties intricately woven into her long dark strands. The most dramatic change about her though? She was now only a couple of inches taller than you, a fact you observed when she stood up and reached for your hand.

With a hopeful glimmer in her eye, she asked you again, “Come on, dance with me,”

You thought it over for a second, but only a second. You surprised yourself with how little you hesitated, but nonetheless you shyly slid your hand into hers. Reaching briefly away to start the song over, you answered, “Alright, but again, I can’t dance. You’ll have to show me how,”

“I suppose I could lead this time around. Though I’m not used to leading, so this will be a learning curve for me as well,”

“Well that’s comforting,” you replied sarcastically, but your tone was good-natured.

Standing up, you faced the goddess, trying to figure out how this worked. She gently guided your hands so that your left arm rested on her right shoulder and curved around the back of her neck. She grabbed your right hand with her left and held both arms out to the side, and finally her right arm wrapped around your waist. “Just follow my lead, and you should be fine,” she reassured you.

The two of you began sidestepping and dancing around the crow’s nest, with you working hard to make sure you didn’t step on her toes. After a little while, the two of fell into a rhythm that worked, and you relaxed as you got the hang of it.

“You want me, I want you baby,

my sugarboo, I’m levitating,

My Milky Way, we’re renegading,”

You yelped when she suddenly veered towards the edge of the crow’s nest and her foot slid off into space. You ground to a halt, and stared at the goddess.

“Are you insane? I can’t fly!” you protested.

“You won’t have to worry about flying, I’ve got you. Don’t you trust me?” Chang’e asked, looking hopefully at you.

You took a moment to quiet your racing heart, took a deep breath, and collected your thoughts. You then said to her, “Yes, yes I do. It’s just, how will you make sure I don’t fall?”

“I have my ways,” she answered with a wink.

Slowly, you stepped over the edge of the crow’s nest, and out into thin air. You felt your stomach drop for a second, before you felt something tickling your legs. Looking down (ignoring the thousands-foot drop below you), you saw your legs were encased in some sort of sparkling, magical energy, keeping you aloft in the air. You turned back to the goddess and said, “Yeah. I think I’ll be okay,” and the two of you continued dancing.

“I got you, moonlight, you’re my starlight

I need you, all night, come on dance with me,

I’m levitating!”

The two of you twirled around the crow’s nest, slowly traveling higher and higher into the sky. You felt confident in your dancing at this point, and you felt yourself letting go of your nervousness. Feeling sure of yourself, you spun the goddess around, taking the lead for a second before passing it back to her.

“I believe that you're for me, I feel it in our energy

I see us written in the stars

We can go wherever, so let's do it now or never

Baby, nothing's ever, ever too far

Glitter in the sky, glitter in our eyes

Shining just the way we are

I feel like forever every time we get together

But whatever, let’s get lost on Mars!”

The two of you had wandered rather far from the crow’s nest at this point, but not too far that you couldn’t hear the music anymore. It was helpful to keep within earshot of it, so that the two of you could keep to the rhythm. You suddenly gasped as the goddess dipped you dramatically, and you felt your head spinning as you saw the city far below you, with the added bonus of seeing it upside down. You felt your heart lurch, and you grasped Chang’e’s hand a bit tighter. She responded by giving your hand a reassuring squeeze, and flipped you back right side up.

You laughed and said to her, “Well, that was a trip!”

Mischievously grinning, she replied, “At least you didn’t get lost!”

“You can fly away with me tonight

You can fly away with me tonight

Baby, let me take you for a ride

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I’m levitating!”

You decided to return the favor. With a sudden lunge, you flipped the goddess, wrapping your free arm around her back for extra security. You spun in a tight circle with her upside down, before flipping her upright again with a dramatic flourish.

“Feeling bold, are we?” she asked with an audacious smirk.

“I’ve always been bold,” you retorted, “You’re only now just choosing to see it!”

“Oh am I?” she replied. You only responded with a cheeky grin of your own.

“My love is like a rocket, watch it blast off

And I'm feeling so electric, dance my ass off

And even if I wanted to, I can't stop

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!”

While the two of you could still somehow hear the music, by now you were far above the crow’s nest. You guessed that without any background noise to compete with it, the music could carry sound more so than it could otherwise. You doubted that either of you would notice anyway. The lights of Lunaria were far below you both as the two of you stepped, spun, and twirled like you were dancing among the stars themselves.

“You can fly away with me tonight

You can fly away with me tonight

Baby, let me take you for a ride

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!”

The two of you danced for a long time in the skies far above the moon. Altogether, you were glad that you took up Chang’e’s offer to fly away with her that night. As far as you were concerned, it felt like you never stopped dancing. It felt like forever when the two of you got together. And there was an ever-growing part of you that wanted it to stay that way.

“You, moonlight, you're my starlight

I need you all night, come on, dance with me

I'm levitating!”

Chapter Text

This was it. Today was the day. All those months of slaving away over scrap metal, frayed wires, and burned rubber would finally pay off. You stood at the foot of the rocket; your head tilted all the way back so you could see the top. It was so tall that the capsule that you would be riding in seemed no larger than the head of a pin. It made sense though; if you were to have any hope of getting off the moon and making it back to earth, the thruster had to take up the majority of the rocket’s design. It didn’t make the fact that you would have to climb all the way up its side to get to the top any easier though.

“Are you sure you double and triple-checked everything? Is this thing as safe as you claim it is?”

Then again, climbing up the rocket would be the easy part. You weren’t looking forward to the hard part of leaving.

You turned to address the goddess standing to your left and replied, “Yes. Like I said the last time you asked fifteen minutes ago, I checked everything. Nothing’s out of place, every component’s been tested, I should be good to go. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine!”

“Well one of us should worry! You are entirely too blasé about this whole endeavor!” Chang’e said, sounding exasperated.

“If you think I’m too nonchalant about this, it’s only because I’ve done this before!”

“Yes, in rockets that were professionally built with all their original parts! And were built by multiple engineers!”

“Hey, I did the best I could! I was working with basically scraps! And even with the labor shortage, the team I did have worked pretty well together, all things considered!” You took a deep breath, and added, “Is this really how our last conversation’s gonna go? Just the two of us arguing?”

The goddess sighed, looking guilty, and turned to look at you while she spoke. “I’m sorry. It’s just…this is it. I knew this day would come, and you would have to leave, but…I didn’t think it would arrive so fast.”

“I know,” you responded, “I can’t believe the day’s here either. Don’t think this isn’t easy for me, though. I’m ready to go home, but…I’m not ready to leave either. I have to go, though. I can’t stay here forever,”

“And I wouldn’t ask you to,” Chang’e returned, though something in her expression said otherwise. “It has been nice though, hasn’t it? Your time here, I mean. I hope you felt welcomed here during your short stay in our city.”

“I did,” you said with a bittersweet smile, “All things considered, it wasn’t all that bad. It could have been a lot worse. I could have died in the crash, or starved to death. That was honestly what I was expecting to happen,”

“Oh come on, you were not gonna die! Even if we weren’t here, you would have figured something out, you’re not a quitter!”

You suddenly remembered that you and Chang’e weren’t alone. You knelt down to address Gobi and replied, “Thanks Gob, though I’m not sure if that’s entirely true…”

“Well lucky for you, you didn’t have to find out if it was! Hey, you’re gonna come back and visit us, right?”

You paused at that. How were you gonna tell him how impossible that would be? After the disaster that this mission was, it would be years before NASA attempted to build another Lunar Gateway. And by then, you would probably be retired from the astronaut program. You didn’t want anyone here to know that, though. You kept your reply to Gobi as honest as you could without breaking his heart, “I’ll sure try, bud. I’ll sure try.”

He leapt at you for one last hug, and Maggie hopped up on your shoulder one last time. “I’ll miss you guys, so much,” you said, taking a deep breath to keep yourself from crying. “You’re not gonna forget me, right?”

“You kidding, mortal? None of us are gonna forget you,”

Setting Gobi down and giving Maggie’s ears one last scratch, you looked up to speak to Zi, “Good to hear, ‘cause I don’t think I’ll be forgetting any of you.”Chang’e looked away from you at that moment. She hoped no one had seen the look of regret that had crossed her face.

“You sure you don’t need my help getting to the top? It’s a pretty long climb for you,”

“I’m sure, Zi. This is something that I have to do on my own. It’ll give me a chance to check any components up close one last time, anyway.”

“Alright, then,” the violet drake answered. “Maybe I’ll see you again sometime? There’s a chance I’ll spot you while flying over the earth one night.”

“Maybe so,” you replied, “maybe so.”

Finally, your gaze fell on Chang’e. The two of you stared at each other for a long time, not sure how to proceed. You weren’t even sure what to call the relationship you two had at this point. Friends, definitely. But it wasn’t just that. It was something more now. You didn’t know what that more was, and you supposed that it didn’t matter anyways. The likelihood of seeing each other again was slim to none, and it was better to leave now before you started thinking too hard about what was different. It didn’t make leaving any easier though.

“So…” you began, “I guess this is it,”

“I guess so,” the goddess replied, sounding as unsure as you felt.

“This was fun,” you admitted, “Well, as fun as it could be, given the circumstances,”

“I could say the same,” she answered, “It was genuinely an honor to get to know you,”

“Likewise,” you said, holding out your hand, “So…thanks for everything,”

Chang’e stared at your outstretched hand for a moment, before slowly reaching out with her hand to gently grasp yours. As your hands touched though, she quickly grabbed your hand in a much tighter grip and pulled you close. You were caught off guard by the sudden embrace, but you relaxed into her arms as your own arms reached around to embrace her back.

The two of you stayed like that for a while, neither of you eager to let go. As you glanced over the goddess’ shoulder, you saw Gobi looking at you frustrated. At your raised eyebrow of confusion, he mouthed the words tell her! You quickly looked away, hoping your resolve wouldn’t break.

After what felt like an eternity you finally let go, slowly untangling yourself from the spontaneous hug. “I should get going,” you finally said.

“Yes, you should,” she replied. “Godspeed, starlight.”

Ignoring Gobi and Zi’s shocked gasps, you turned to the ladder and started climbing. About ten feet up, you turned back to the goddess and held your hand out, holding your fingers in a familiar ‘V’-shaped gesture. “Live long and prosper, moondancer.”

In the background, both of you could hear Gobi and Zi’s gasping turned into stunned squeaks, but neither of you noticed. Rolling her eyes, Chang’e answered you, “You’re such a geek, you know that?” though she couldn’t do anything to stop the blush that colored her cheeks upon hearing her nickname out loud.

“I know,” you playfully retorted, and resumed your climbing.

When you were about halfway up, the goddess started hearing something coming from inside the rocket. She couldn’t quite figure out where exactly it was coming from, but she could at least tell that it was some sort of hissing sound. It was low, a soft tone, but it was very distinct.

“Does anyone hear that?” Chang’e asked, hoping she wasn’t just hearing things.

“Hear what?” Gobi asked.

“Yeah, I don’t hear anything,” Zi added.

“It’s a sort of hissing sound, from inside the rocket,” the goddess explained. “Move closer and you can probably hear it better.”

The Lunarian and dragon did what she said and crept closer to the rocket, with Maggie hopping right behind them to listen as well. “Hey now that you mention it,” Gobi started, “I can hear it. What do you think it is?”

“I can hear it too! Though I’m surprised that no one else has noticed the smell yet,”

“What smell?” Gobi asked.

“I don’t know, glowworm. It’s kinda like a ‘fishy’ smell, I guess?”

All four of them sniffed the air briefly, and caught the scent Zi was talking about. Sure enough, it was a ‘fishy’ smell, like seafood that was just starting to go bad.

“What is that?” Chang’e asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Is it supposed to smell like that?”

“Not that I know of,” Gobi admitted. “What’s going on? This doesn’t seem right,”

Far above their heads, you continued climbing to the cabin that you would be riding in on your return trip to earth. You were already starting to work up a sweat, but you ignored it. You had dumped a spacesuit with a repaired helmet into the cabin that you planned on wearing on the trip back. You didn’t need it at this point, but it would look suspicious if you didn’t have one. At least you didn’t have to wear it while climbing up this metallic tower. As you were reaching for the next rung you hear faint shouting coming from below. Turning your head down, you saw Chang’e, now a faint red dot against the grey lunar plains, waving her arms and yelling something at you.

“WHAT?” you yelled, trying to make out what she was saying.

Straining to hear, you faintly caught the words ‘wrong’ and ‘back’, but not much else. You paused, confused, trying to figure out what that meant. Your guess was that they wanted you to come back, that it was wrong to leave. You sighed. As much fun as you had here, your place was on earth, not the moon.

“I’M SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO GO BACK!” you yelled, “I’LL TRY TO COME BACK SOMEDAY, THOUGH!”

Chang’e looked up at you in dismay, realizing that you hadn’t heard a word she said. She could hear you yell back something, but she only caught the words ‘sorry’ and ‘back’. Her heart sank as she realized that you didn’t understand the danger you were in. She knew something was wrong, she just didn’t know what. Gobi, Zi, and Maggie also looked up at the top of the rocket in dread as you climbed inside the cabin and disappeared from view. They hoped that nothing was wrong, and that they were worrying for nothing.

You pressed several keys that caused the door to seal shut behind you, and you turned on the communications array. It was a simple device, looking more like a toaster with wires and antennae sticking out of it than an array. But it could still do the job you needed it to do, and that was the only thing that mattered. While you couldn’t build a proper radio to call for help, you were able to rig up some parts to build this device to send a short-range signal. That way, once you were in range of the control tower back at Mission Control, you could call them and let them know you were there and needed assistance landing.

Reaching behind your back, you grabbed the straps and buckled yourself in to your seat, tightening them so that you wouldn’t get tossed around during takeoff. You then ran through the entire launch sequence, flicking switches and pressing buttons until you felt the rocket beneath you start to ignite. It was a soft rumble at first, but as you continued the sequence the rumble increased in volume until it peaked into a loud roar.

Finally, you paused before the large red button. The final button. The last key. Press that, and you would finally leave the moon, and return to earth. Releasing the breath you were holding in, your finger gently reached down and pressed the button.

Nothing happened at first. The rocket continued rumbling beneath you, but there was no upward movement. You checked all the indicator lights, and as your eyes passed over the console you didn’t see anything out of –

Your eyes were drawn to a red light flashing slowly on and off. Unbuckling yourself from the seat to take a closer look, your eyes narrowed as you read the description for that light. You saw that it was an indicator light for one of the fuel tanks. Well that didn’t seem right, you had checked those tanks yourself dozens of times before the launch, and there had seemed fine. Things clearly weren’t fine now though, so what was happening? Inhaling deeply, you thought you smelled something burning. It wasn’t like the smell of food burning, or what a human smelled like when they were being burned alive. This was much sharper; it was the distinct smell of metal melting as it was consumed by flames.

You stumbled as the rocket suddenly lurched to the right, swaying dangerously on its landing gear. You collided with the door, and turning your head to look out the window, you froze at what you saw: the base of the rocket was on fire. Not just burning a little bit, but it had broken out into a blazing inferno that was racing up the rocket to the cabin itself. The rocket lurched again, and this time you could see what it was: one of the fuel tanks exploding, throwing its shrapnel far across the lunar plains. With the speed of a runaway train, the fire raced up the rocket, and you saw the final fuel tank explode and the rocket began tipping over, sending you hurdling down towards the ground. You couldn’t do anything as the smoke from the fires seared the inside of your lungs. You could only cough helplessly and watch in horror while your skin started to burn as the fires finally made their way into the cabin. Staring out the tiny window, you watched the grey dusty ground race its way closer and closer to you. Out of instinct, you grabbed the array as you fell. It couldn’t save you; nothing could save you, but at least you would die saving one thing from your greatest failure.

The next five seconds felt like five years to you. As you clawed desperately at the door with your free hand and screamed, you felt a pair of hands grab you from behind. They wrapped around your arms and with a single strong tug, you were yanked backwards. You suddenly felt your skin stop burning, and you felt a cool breeze pass over your body as you fell, this time through the portal behind you. The last thing you saw before the portal closed was the cabin collapsing in on itself, the fire having finally compromised the structural integrity beyond repair.

Your arm was still curled around the array, your muscles too tense to let go of it right now. Your eyes stared straight ahead, still stinging from the inferno you had been saved from. You felt the hands gripping your arms suddenly stretch around you and pull you into a tight embrace, and a desperate voice implored you, “Are you alright? Please, say something!”

Before you could answer Chang’e’s question you were interrupted by what sounded like an atomic bomb going off. Dropping the array and getting to your feet, you felt her arms release you so you could sprint to the balcony and confirm the source of the explosion.

There it was. Your rocket, your one last chance at leaving the moon, was now a white-hot fireball casting molten metal and melted rubber across the lunar plains. You saw globs of melted steel fall like rain into Lunaria Lake, creating a cloud of steam that hung over the lake’s surface. Even from all the way back at the palace, you felt the force of the heat and wind that the explosion had created, and you braced yourself as the shockwave rippled throughout all of Lunaria for a moment. In a flash, the explosion had ceased, and all that was left was a burning mass of metal, wires, insulation, and rubber. The massive fire burned steadily on the lake’s edge, not as strong as it was before but still alight.

You could do nothing but stare out at the pile of steel, rubber, and flames while the reality of your situation slowly sank in. That was it. It’s over. You were never getting out of here. You fell to your knees while an icy chill settled into your bones. You knew that you were going to die soon; at best you only had a week’s worth of food left in the rocket, but it was nothing but a pile of ashes now. Death by starvation could take at least three weeks, but those were going to be the most torturous three weeks of your life. That is, if death by dehydration didn’t get you first.

“A torn fuel hose. That had to have been it. How. How the hell did I miss that? Well, I guess that’s it then,” you rasped, a lump forming in your throat, “I’m going to die here.”

“Don’t say that!” Chang’e scolded, “I don’t want to hear your name and ‘die’ in the same sentence ever again!”

You turned to look at the goddess behind you, and you weren’t prepared for what you saw. She stood there, her hands still curled like they were still wrapped around your arms, and they were shaking a little. The sleeves on her gown had been singed by the flames, and her eyes were slightly tearing up from the irritation of the smoke.

“We’ll get back to that,” you continued, “Damn, you look rough!”

“You’re one to talk!” she snapped back.

Looking down at yourself, you saw what she meant. Your skin was taunt and shiny in places, indicating that you had at best first-degree burns. Thankfully, you weren’t inside the rocket long enough for your skin to burn beyond repair. Your clothes had been scorched in places, and there were jagged, dark holes all over your jumpsuit. Feeling your hair, you noted that several locks had been burned clean off, as evidenced by the sulfurous smell you detected when you pulled a slightly-singed strand towards you. Your lungs stung and ached with each breathe you took, indicating that they would need medical attention very soon. Between the two of you, clearly you were the one that received the worst of the damage from the fire.

“Alright, fair enough,” you conceded. You suddenly started, jumping back to your feet and yelling, “Dear God, what about the others?! Are Gobi and Maggie okay? What happened to Zi? Is there -”

“They’re fine,” the goddess replied. Not it was her turn to remain calm and soothe you, “They got away just in time. They know you survived, but I didn’t bring them here because I wanted to talk with you alone,”

“What’s there to talk about?” you retorted, “This is it, I’m gonna die here. And I don’t just mean in an abstract, I’m gonna grow old and die someday way, I mean I’m either gonna die in a week from dehydration or three weeks tops from lack of food. I’m done for!”

“Stop saying that!” Chang’e reprimanded you, “You can’t die! Not after everything you’ve gone through to stay alive!”

“And how do you propose I keep living without food or water? I kinda need those to live!”

“What if I asked Jade to create a potion for you so you didn’t need nourishment at all. Would that change anything?”

“Not really! Even if he could create something like that for me, I’m still never going home! I’m cut off from earth forever! My hard work, all my designing and building and slaving away was all for nothing! My crew died in vain because I never got home! Their stories will never be told, their families will never have closure, because I failed! I’m the worst damn astronaut to ever come out of NASA!” Your voice cracked towards the end of your little speech, and you felt your eyes growing misty with tears of shame.

You felt two hands grab the sides of your face, and you were suddenly staring right into Chang’e’s eyes. “With all due respect, you need to shut the hell up,” You recoiled at how blunt the goddess was being, but she kept right on talking, “You were given an impossible task, and the odds had been stacked against you from the beginning. You had only a little help, you only had scrap metal and salvage to work with, and you were working with a deadline before you would be too weak to work. And look at how far you got! I may not know much about how spacecraft are built, or how to fly a rocket, but I can say with confidence that you got much further than anyone else could have. Anyone who calls you a failure is a liar and a fool!”

You gently grasped Chang’e’s wrists, and she released your hands from the sides of your face. You blinked and looked away, not sure how to respond. This felt different than the other times she would give you a motivational speech of some sort, but you couldn’t tell what that difference was. You hesitated before responding, “Suppose what you say is true. Even if I’m not a failure, what difference does it make? I’m still here, and I’ll remain here for the rest of my days.”

“The way you say that makes it sound like a punishment,” the goddess replied, with a bitter edge in her voice.

“No! Not at all, it’s just – what am I going to do now? What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?”

“You could just spend it with me,” she answered, her tone softening. She turned back towards you. There was something in her voice, something in her eyes, some sort of emotion that you didn’t recognize. You could have sworn that you had seen that same look before, but you didn’t know where.

“How would I spend my life with you, though?” you quietly asked.

With a gentle motion Chang’e was suddenly kneeling before you so she could look you right in your eyes. She laughed softly, and answered you with,

“I think I have an idea, starlight.”

And before you could say anything her hands returned to the sides of your face once more, and you felt her lips crash right into yours.

You brain froze. Out of all the things that could have happened today, this was the last thing you were expecting. Against your better judgement you felt yourself relax in her embrace, and you returned her kiss cautiously. Your arms carefully wrapped around her so you didn’t fall over while you braced your legs to remain stable. Your heart sang while the two of you locked lips, and your soul bloomed with thoughts and possibilities that raced out into the universe. At this moment you knew that your mind would never again be free to romp like the mind of God. You were bound to her, and she to you. The strings of your lives had become irreparably tangled within the web of life. Parts of your soul had become integrated into hers, and parts of her soul had been rearranged into yours.

The revelation that you held her heart was causing your own to break.

With a gasp the two of you disentangled yourselves from each other, and you felt air rushing into your charred lungs. As you breathed in you heard the array on the other side of the room crackling with static. Turning with a sudden motion, you heard the static fade and pulse until a distinct voice sparked to life from the speaker:

“Hello? This is Mission Control trying to reach the Lunar Gateway, is the crew there? If anyone survived, we need a response now.”

Reluctantly disentangling yourself from Chang’e’s embrace, you crept up to the array and held down a button to speak into it. “Yes, there was one survivor,” you answered. Your heart pounded in your chest as your hope rekindled. You were getting a second chance! After giving your name, you gave a sanitized, abridged summary of the events over the past several months, omitting and changing details as needed to avoid exposing Lunaria or Chang’e’s existence. After you were finished, you asked a question of your own: “May I inquire as to whom I’m speaking to right now?”

“This is General Artax here, and I have some good news for you, lieutenant: we’ve sent an extraction team to the moon to come get you. They should be at the last known coordinates of the Lunar Gateway within the hour.”

“The last known coordinates…that would be the crash site then, correct?”

“That would be right, ma’am! Pack your bags ‘cause you’re going home! We’ll see you stateside!” the general finished cheerfully.

“Yes, sir! Signing off now, and heading to the coordinates!” Your tone sounded positively euphoric as you spoke. You weren’t gonna die here! You were going home! You had to resist the urge to whoop with joy at the news. Your crew weren’t gonna die in vain after all, you weren’t the failure you had thought yourself to be. With a gleeful gesture you quickly flipped off the array and turned back to the goddess.

While you were talking to General Artax, her expression had darkened. She now looked pensive and cautious as she looked at you, seeming almost hesitant in spite of her boldness mere moments before. Something was up. Hearing that voice from the array had shifted her mood dramatically, and you had to figure out what was different now before you could leave.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” you asked. “Isn’t this good news? I’m heading back to earth! I’m going home!”

When she spoke her voice didn’t have the bubbly tone that yours carried, “Yes. You’re going to leave the moon. You’re going to return to earth – and I will remain here, as I always have.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you asked.

“What if you didn’t return to the site of the crash?” Chang’e returned, “What if you just stayed here? Would that really be the worst thing in the world?”

Your breath hitched as you realized what was happening. This is what you were afraid was going to happen ever since you first met the goddess. You had made the worst mistake you could possibly make: you let yourself get too close. This was why you would avoid letting down your walls at all costs; sooner or later you would have to say goodbye, and their heart and yours would be broken. You had tried your hardest to stop that from happening here, but you went against your better judgement. You weren’t careful. You didn’t guard your heart, and you didn’t stop yourself from reaching out to hers. Now it came down to this. This heartbreak was all your fault.

This was going to be the worst conversation of your life.

“No, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world…” you started, “but it also wouldn’t be the right thing to do.”

“What do you mean, ‘the right thing’?” she asked, sounding nervous.

“Chang’e…you’ve known ever since I got here that I would be leaving one day. We both knew that this wouldn’t be permanent. I didn’t belong here. I never did,”

“But that doesn’t mean you’ll never belong here! If we could just -”

“Please, Chang’e, don’t make this harder for me than it already is! Look at the facts: I am mortal. I belong with other mortals. You are immortal. You belong with other immortals. My place is on earth, where I shall live out a normal life, grow old, and…you know the rest. Your place is here, where you can spend your long, long life in peace.”

“I don’t want a long, peaceful life if it means I can’t spend part of it with you! I would rather spend one lifetime, your lifetime, with you than face all the ages of the universe alone! I don’t care that you’re mortal! Don’t you get it, you emotionally dense nerd? I love you!”

A lump formed in your throat at the goddess’s declaration, and you blinked rapidly to stop the tears from falling. This was even worse than what you had imagined. You never wanted this to happen! Even if you could stay, and somehow remain alive long enough to die of old age, it didn’t change the fact that you were still going to die. Chang’e had already had her heart broken by the loss of a lover once, and it would be unspeakably cruel of you to put her through that again. Ending things now was the only way you could spare her from another heartbreak.

“I’m not saying that I don’t love you, Chang’e. It’s because I care about you that I’m doing this! Look at what happened to you when Houyi died! You shut everyone else out and pushed them away for centuries! Millenia, even! It took you so long to come to terms with his death, and now the cycle will just repeat itself! What will happen to you once I’m dead? Hasn’t it occurred to you that you could end up falling back into the depression you felt when Houyi died? Are you just going to shut everyone out again?” Your voice was cracking as you spoke the last couple of sentences. You were not going to be the person that put her back in that place of suffering and anguish. She didn’t deserve that, Lunaria didn’t deserve that, and you didn’t deserve to have that burden of guilt placed on you.

“I’m not the same person I was when Houyi died. In the years since his death, I’ve grown as a person. I’m ready to move on, and love someone new. And you don’t think that I’m aware that you’re mortal? I’m not a fool; I won’t delude myself into thinking you will stay with me forever. But I will be prepared when that day comes. I have the love of my people, my family, to guide me once you’re gone. Please, starlight, will you not even entertain the thought?” Her voice sounded desperate now, and you felt your heart harden in an attempt to not give in to her pleading.

Your voice had completely broken when you answered her, “I can’t. Even if I stayed, NASA knows that I’m still alive! As we speak, a spacecraft of people sent here to rescue me is on its way to the crash site. They’ll see that I’m not there, come looking for me, and you’ll be found! I don’t want to think about what they’ll do to you once they find you. I refuse to be liable for disaster falling on Lunaria, or you. It has to be this way. I have to leave, to save you.”

The goddess recoiled at your words, as if you had struck her. She looked away, trying to hide how disappointed and grieved she was feeling. She could tell that there was no changing your mind. Your heart was set on returning to earth, and there was nothing she could do or say to sway you. While she didn’t like your decision, she would respect it. Sighing, she turned back to you and looked you in your determined, mortal eyes. She took a deep breath to steel herself first, and said, “My lions will take you back to the crash site then. If returning to earth is what you truly desire, then I will not stand in your way.”

You whispered, ‘thank you’, and turned to walk out the door towards the front of the palace, where both lions would be waiting. You turned back to look at Chang’e one last time, and saw that she had sat down on the chaise and was staring off into nothing. Your last words to her were, “Don’t think I like doing this, Chang’e. This is the hardest decision I have ever had to make. And that includes leaving Richard. I’ll always care for you, and I’ll never, ever forget you.” You paused, and added a soft, “Goodbye, moondancer.” You turned around and didn’t look back again.

Later on, as you rode Leo’s back towards the crash site, you buried your face in his mane and didn’t look at the sky. You ignored the meteors that set the heavens aflame and fell all around you.

Chapter Text

Three Months Later…

You pulled yourself out of the water and dragged yourself ashore, tugging your surfboard behind you using the leash tethered to your ankle. With a jolt you shook the salty water off your body, and using your hands you rung the ocean out of your hair. There was still the thin crust of sea salt coating your body and bathing suit, but it was nothing a quick shower couldn’t fix. Secretly, you wished that the shower could fix more than your skin.

Glancing up towards the midmorning sun, you noted that it was unusually high in the sky for this time of year. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem for you; you had gotten used to it being perpetually sunny after living in Florida for so many years. Since you got back from the moon though, you were hyperaware of the star that your little blue planet orbited. It felt like its hot rays followed you everywhere, like you could never escape its heat and glare.

Shading your eyes as you checked out the sun, you realized that in an hour or two it would be too hot to stay outdoors for long, and that you should find shade fast. Luckily, you didn’t live too far from here. Jogging over to the nearest stand of trees, you dried yourself off and pulled a pair of cotton shorts over your suit and threw on a T-shirt over your bikini top. Well, to say it was a bikini top would be a stretch; it was more like a sports bra meant for swimming around in. It did its job though. You were never one to show off your body, or hit the public beaches where other people would be hanging out. You preferred being by yourself whenever you took to the ocean to clear your head.

Since your return though, hitting the waves wasn’t the peaceful meditation it had been before your stint in space.

You had gone out surfing this morning in the hopes that it would clear your mind. You had been dealing with thoughts, questions, and dark ‘what-ifs’ since your return from Lunaria. Leaving had been okay, at first. When you had arrived at the crash site, and when Leo and Simba had left, the rescue crew sent to retrieve you had welcomed you aboard quickly. They were able to stabilize you for the trip back to earth, and once you landed you were immediately taken to a hospital to treat your burn wounds. Surprisingly, no one in your rescue party had asked about what had happened to the wreckage of the Lunar Gateway. You had pretty much stripped it bare, between building the radio and the rocket, so by the time they got there there were only a couple of cabins intact. You had made up a quick cover story about most of the station being incinerated by the exploding reactor, and they seemed to buy it.

After you were discharged from the hospital, you were informed by NASA that you were to be temporarily put on leave from the astronaut program, to give you time to heal and come to terms with everything that had happened. It wasn’t too bad for you; you had other means of income to live off of, and therefore wouldn’t starve and could pay rent. It didn’t hurt that the higher ups at NASA informed you that you had been nominated for a Medal of Honor, for your heroism and resolve to survive one of the worst disasters in the space agency’s history. You would head to Washington DC in a couple of months to be awarded by the president, which was kinda cool. You had mixed feelings about the medal, though.

As you carried your surfboard over to your bicycle and loaded it onto the bike trailer, you reflected on how much you truly deserved the medal. On one hand, you had survived against the odds and made it back to earth, which was noteworthy. On the other hand, the only reason you survived was because you had help, but you could never reveal how you had gotten that help. There was also the fact that Erikson, Thompson, and Loughly had all still died, while you had lived. The joint memorial service that had been held for all three of them was nice, though. It gave you some small measure of closure.

After several weeks of being back home though, you noticed that your thoughts would return to thinking about Lunaria, its people, and…her. The thoughts wouldn’t intrude on you out of nowhere, though. It was always subtle, the way they crept up on you. You would be flipping through the pages of a book, and you were suddenly reminded of how you and Chang’e would talk about Left Hand of Darkness. You had left that book behind on the moon; a part of you that you allowed to remain with her. Or you would be listening to the radio, and a song would come on, and you would feel the urge to dance with her again. But you couldn’t, so you tried to crush those thoughts whenever they snuck into your mind.

Surfing had been your solace for a while after your return. For a few blessed hours you could forget about the past year and a half, and just focus on riding the waves and enjoying the feel of the ocean gliding against your skin. Having grown up near the water, going out to sea held a nostalgic quality to it. While you had tried several different water sports, you mainly stuck to surfing. There was something about it that made it both challenging and relaxing for you. It might have been the technical knowledge of water that was required, it might have been learning how to shift your body to respond to different waves, or it might have just been how quiet it was in whenever you rode inside a tunnel. Before your time in space, surfing had been one of a few happy places you had.

Now your happy place wasn’t so happy, though. Your thoughts would constantly return to the moon, in the most unusual ways. Besides books and music triggering certain memories for you, surfing would cause you recall other events. You sometimes found yourself comparing the Atlantic Ocean to Lunaria Lake, or if you saw the giant shadow of a whale you would for a moment see a giant frog instead. It was always little things, but even the little things tended to stack up over time.

Having loaded your surfboard up, you swung your leg over your bike and began peddling back to your home. Oh well. If surfing didn’t offer the peace of mind that it once had, there were other things you could do.

A few days later, you found yourself relaxing at home while taking apart an old computer. Unlike with your personal computers, you had to be careful that you used standard parts and didn’t make any modifications to the hard drive. The customer wanted it to look and act as vintage as possible. Your little side business was alright; it brought in a steady stream of income anyways, which you appreciated. You could work with pretty much any make and model of computer, from original Macintoshes to the latest HP laptops. You had a pretty active customer base too; since the Keys were so humid, old computers tended to need more maintenance. More maintenance meant more trips to you, which meant more income.

As you gently pried apart the monitor to take a look at the electronics, you felt your mind suddenly race back to when you were taking apart something else.

The controls console was by far the most difficult component you had to assemble for the rocket. You had to set up buttons and switches for a variety of functions, such as opening up the fuel valves, igniting the engine, steering using the side rockets, and controlling the fins for when you reentered the atmosphere. Trying to get all those parts set up was taking you hours, and you were quickly growing frustrated.

“Hey! You need any help over there?”

At least you had help though. You thanked Gobi when he ran over to where you were working, and explained to him which components he needed to work on. You set him to work on a set of switches designed to ignite the rocket, and the two of you got back to work. You felt your frustration slowly fade away as the two of you finally finished the massive electronics system.

“Well, that wasn’t as horrible as it could have been,” you stated, looking with pride at the finished console. “It didn’t hurt that I had a pretty great assistant,” you added, grinning at Gobi.

“Thanks bud! It was you who knew how to assemble it though! You’re the one who made it work!”

“I have to agree, mortal. You’re the one that had the final product in mind, and knew how to achieve it,”

You turned around and noticed Chang’e standing in the doorway. You blushed at the unexpected compliment, and Gobi looked at you curiously. “Well, um,” you stuttered. “Thanks. That’s very nice of you,”

“Never let it be said that I’m not a kind person,” the goddess returned, “But then again, simply telling the truth is only doing the bare minimum in terms of kindness.”

Your blush deepened, and you felt emboldened to ask her, “Do you wanna see what it all looks like put together? I can demonstrate for you how each control works,”

With a soft smile she replied, “I would be honored,” and she walked over to you.

You spent the next two hours explaining every little detail, and more than once your hands brushed each other’s. Neither of you seemed to notice, or care.

The memory faded away, and instead of a rocket component you were staring in the guts of an old Macintosh again. With a sigh, you pushed those intrusive thoughts out of your head and got back to work.

Focusing on your business was a pretty good way to keep your mind off of things, but there was only so much you could do when it came to work. As much as you didn’t want to, you had to stop working every now and then to take care of your other needs. It was while you were attending to one of those needs that you got caught up in the memories again.

“…so I said that I had to leave, because I didn’t want to break her heart a second time, which I think was the right thing to do, and if you think about it totally makes sense. She said that she could handle losing me when the time comes though, but I don’t buy it. She was wrecked, and I mean wrecked, when her husband died, and it took her so long to move on from him. There wasn’t any evidence to indicate that history wouldn’t repeat itself if her and I got together, so why would I willingly do that to her? Then again, it’s partially my fault. It’s hard not to fall in love with someone when you’re always stargazing with them, or dancing with them, reading with them, and then there’s one time we – I’d rather not talk about that, it’s so embarrassing! But anyways, I only have myself to blame for this whole mess, so it was my job to fix it. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Um, ma’am, this is a Wendy’s, are you gonna order or can I help the customer behind you?”

Snapping to your senses, you realized that you had been rambling to the cashier for fifteen minutes now instead of ordering your food. Slowly, you turned around and beheld a line of irate customers behind you, with the lady immediately behind you fixing you with an icy glare. Sheepishly, you muttered ‘sorry’ to the people waiting and crept out of the restaurant.

Incidents like this were becoming more and more common, unfortunately. Your social awareness had never been all that great, but it seemed to have gotten worse since your return from space. You often found yourself rambling about Lunaria, or the people you had met, or Chang’e to whoever was in earshot. Most of the time, you would ramble the most about the later, and eventually that rambling would turn frantic. To your growing concern, you noticed that you had started second-guessing some of the things you did and said while on the moon. You would suddenly ask yourself if you had sat too close to her while stargazing, or let your gaze linger on her too long while talking about this or that book. Maybe you had held her too close to you while you were dancing. In hindsight, dancing was a monumentally bad idea if you wanted to avoid her falling in love with you. Who knew that you had at least one romantic bone in your body!

At the end of another long day, you stepped back into your little bungalow and began closing the windows and shutting the blinds. It was getting close to sunset right about now, and you had to act quickly. If you didn’t move fast enough, you might risk catching a glimpse of the last celestial object you ever wanted to see. Not only did you board up your house at night so you wouldn’t be able to see the moon, but you avoided going out at night at all. You didn’t allow yourself to go to your favorite dive bars, no dips in the ocean in the moonlight, no exploring the more secluded haunts in the islands while the world was dark and quiet. Not even stargazing was worth the risk anymore. That activity had lost its charm to you, anyhow. It didn’t feel the same anymore without the goddess sitting at your side, hunting for constellations with you.

After boarding up all the windows and locking the door, you flopped down on your couch and turned on the TV, hoping to find some light viewing to calm your brain. Eventually, you found some late-night talk show host was on, and you sat back to watch. As the show switched to a commercial break, you idly stared at a blank space on your wall. You really had to get some new wall art. You once had a poster of the moon up there, with all the craters and seas named, but you took it down for obvious reasons. Maybe I’ll put up some cool local art or something, you thought. I could use some more actual art on my walls.

Growing bored with the show, you shut off the TV and grabbed your laptop. Fine, you thought to yourself, if I can’t stop thinking about her, I might as well LEARN a little more about her. A quick Google search couldn’t hurt, right?

You spent several hours on the internet, trying to find more information about the tale of Houyi and Chang’e. You weren’t able to find much, unfortunately. It seemed that all the information you could find came from the same Wikipedia article, or was some inane rambling posted haphazardly on Google. After what felt like an eternity of fruitless searching, you found something that looked promising. It was a Tumblr blog dedicated to the moon in general, but the blogger had several posts dedicated to Chang’e. Intrigued, you clicked on the blog’s latest post and started going back from there.

You noticed right away that there was a lot of surprisingly accurate information about the moon goddess on the blog. Feeling curious, you decided to click through as many of the posts as possible, seeing what you could find. After spending a good couple of hours going through the blog, you found yourself thinking, Hey, this person seems smart, maybe they can answer some questions I have about Chang’e. You began typing a DM to send to that person’s inbox.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a young college student was working on an essay for one of her classes when she received a notification from her Tumblr blog. She wasn’t surprised that someone had messaged her; what intrigued her was the fact that the commenter was anonymous. The student had a pretty good following on her blog, mostly other science nerds interested in the moon and Chinese folklore, and it was mostly followers that sent her messages. An unknown poster was rather interesting, to say the least. Curious, she clicked on the message and began reading it:

Hi! I found your blog while doing some late-night browsing, and I noticed that you had a lot of posts about the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e. Would you mind answering a few questions I have about her for me?

Now this made things even more interesting. Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, the student thought for a second before responding. Setting aside her course work for now, she typed back:

Sure! She’s so cool, isn’t she? What do you wanna know?

As she waited for a reply, the student looked through her calendar to double-check which assignments could be put off for today and which ones she should work on once she was done with this poster. Being a student at the University of Science and Technology of China, her courses could be tough, to say the least. Then again, deciding to major in astrophysics didn’t help matters. She could handle it though. She had spent pretty much her entire childhood studying outer space and the stars, and knew that she could handle anything her college threw her way. A ping from her computer let her know that the mystery commenter had replied. Opening the message, she read:

What was her relationship like with her husband, Houyi? I’ve spent hours combing through internet articles, checking out sections of books posted, read up on the myth itself through Chinese heritage sites, but I keep coming up short. I know how they got together, and how they were separated, but I can’t find any details concerning what their marriage was like. Bit of an odd question, I know, and if you don’t have an answer I’ll understand. I just wanted to ask because you seem pretty savvy about Chang’e.

The student’s eyes widened when she read the question. Most of her followers didn’t really ask questions like that. Usually they were interested in niche aspects of Chinese folklore, fun science facts about the moon, and others stuff like that. She wondered what would have prompted this person to ask about Chang’e’s relationship with Houyi. Now she was the one that had questions. Carefully thinking about her answer, she began typing:

I don’t know everything about their relationship, but I can tell you this: Chang’e loved Houyi with all her heart. And I can assume he felt the same way about her. His death would have devastated her, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it took her a long time to move on. Their loved for each other would never die, no matter how much time had passed.

It must not have taken that long for the poster to read her answer, because she got a reply just a couple of minutes later:

That would make sense. I had a feeling that Houyi’s death would have greatly upset Chang’e. She seemed to love him very much. It wouldn’t be right for her to go through such heartbreak twice then (this is hypothetically speaking, of course!)

What did this mean? The student was greatly confused now. From the way this commenter was acting, they were making it seem like they had met Chang’e herself. Which was impossible, obviously! And what did they mean, going through heartbreak twice? This wasn’t adding up for the student.

Then she thought of something. There was that news story from the United States a few months ago, how an astronaut had been rescued from the moon after being stranded there when the Lunar Gateway station crashed. She had been following that story for months. It was such a cool project, and getting to be a part of the next mission would be the greatest thing ever. Officially going into space had been a dream of hers since she was a kid! Could this poster be that astronaut…?

You sound like you’re speaking from experience. Odd question, but were you on the moon in the past six months or so?

There was a much longer wait between her message and the reply. When she got the message, she was surprised by the answer she got:

If you mean that I was that astronaut that got rescued, yeah, I’m her. And I know this is gonna sound absolutely nuts, and I won’t blame you for thinking I had gone crazy on the moon. But…I met her. Chang’e, I mean. She’s real! She lives in a palace with the Jade Rabbit and everything! I won’t blame you for blocking me for saying something that crazy, though. I would if our positions were reversed.

The student gasped when she read the reply. Okay, there was no way she was gonna get any work done today, she was fully invested now! For the past three months she had wondered how that astronaut had survived up on the moon, given how badly destroyed the station was in NASA’s official reports. She had been surprised; the American space agency usually had a pretty good track record with their space stations. For months she had been wracking her brain, what caused the station to fail? Were there any survivors? How had they survived? At least now she was getting some of those answers. She quickly typed out a response:

I don’t think you’re crazy at all! It’s so cool that you found my blog! I thought you were pretty awesome, surviving for so long on the moon. And I actually believe you, that you met Chang’e. Don’t ask why, that’s personal.

The student hoped she had been vague enough with her reply to not give too much away. She had her reasons for keeping her cards close to her chest. Then she remembered something from earlier in their conversation. The astronaut had mentioned not inflicting heartbreak on the goddess. It was such an odd thing to worry about. Sadness, disappointment at leaving, but heartbreak? The reply she got seemed to confirm her suspicions:

Okay, I won’t asked about that. I have just one more question: do you think Chang’e could ever love again? From when I spoke to her, she was devastated by Houyi’s death. IF she fell in love again, it would have to be with a mortal. I don’t know of any other gods or goddesses in existence. Would Chang’e be able to find love again, to love someone new, knowing that her new lover’s death was inevitable?

The student hesitated before sending a reply. After all these years, Chang’e had found someone new to love! But, the astronaut was here, on earth, instead of on the moon with the goddess. Judging from she had read so far, it seemed that the astronaut was worried about breaking Chang’e’s heart a second time, and came home to earth to make sure it didn’t happen. Were they having second thoughts? Did she not think that Chang’e could love another? The student carefully wrote out her reply, and pressed send when she was done:

I know Chang’e will always love Houyi, their love for each other will never die and she would take comfort in knowing his spirit is always near her. That being said, she’s still capable of love. I wouldn’t be surprised if she allowed herself to feel love again, and found someone new to spend her life with. If anything, I think Houyi would have wanted Chang’e to be happy. If that meant finding another to love, then so be it. Why? Did the two of you fall in love?

The student suddenly wondered if she had been too accusatory with that last sentence, but to her surprise she got a reply back rather quickly:

I don’t know how I feel about her. I do know that she told me she loved me when we said goodbye. I DO care about her, and I wouldn’t want to see her sad. I thought I was doing the right thing by saying goodbye, but now I’m having second thoughts. I have to go, I have a lot to think about. Thanks for your help!

Sending a quick goodbye note, the student sat back and thought about what she had just heard. Suddenly she reached for her cell phone, and dialed her father’s number.

“Hi, Baba!” she said into the speaker.

“Fei Fei! It’s good to hear from you! How are your studies coming along?”

“They’re going great! I really love my classes, and my professors are all pretty nice.”

“That’s great! I’m glad you’re liking what you’re studying,”

“Hey, Baba? There’s something I wanted to tell you,”

“Is something wrong?”

“No! Just that…I love you. I wanted to make sure you knew that.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. And I’m SO proud of you. We all are.”

Fei Fei smiled when she heard that, “Thanks, Baba. So tell me what’s going on back home? I want to hear all about it!”

Back in Florida, you sat back from your computer as you read the final message you had received. You reflected on your actions in your final hours in Lunaria, and what they said about your feelings for Chang’e. How they went, how you could have acted differently, her response to your actions, and what everything else meant. At that moment, you were strangely reminded of a quote from The Left Hand of Darkness:

“A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.”

If your trusted your own introspection, and if what your research said was true, then you had inflicted a profound hurt on the moon goddess. Your heart felt heavy with guilt again. If that was true, then what did it say about how you truly felt about her? To get your mind off of your guilt, you decided to flip open a poetry book you had on your coffee table. Flipping to a random page, you found a poem by Isra Al-Thibeh that seemed oddly appropriate for your situation:

“And if you are to love, love like the moon loves. It doesn’t steal the night, it only unveils the beauty of the dark.”

Was that how Chang’e had been trying to show her love for you? You remembered all the little things that you two had done: sparring, stargazing, talking, and reminiscing about your pasts together. As you reflected on what had happened, you noted a common theme in all that had happened: Chang’e would tirelessly look for ways to get you to open up to her. That help came in an assortment of ways: helping you manage your anger, giving you a safe space to talk about past traumas, sharing stories about your family’s history with her. This hadn’t been normal for you at all; you were never one to wear your heart on your sleeve and trust people. Chang’e had found a way to break down your walls though. And you had helped break down hers. It hit you like a train: you didn’t just hold her heart, she also held yours.

It was too late though. She would never know how you felt about her, and you never get a second chance to tell her before you died.

As the weight of your actions finally hit you, you heard a rustling from outside your bungalow. Turning away from the book, you looked at the door curiously. You weren’t expecting any visitors at this late hour, and your nearest neighbors were a whole island away. Listening more closely, you noted that there was more than one voice. Creeping closer to the door, you realized that the two (or more) voices were arguing.

“I told you guys, she lives HERE! I’m like, 110% sure!”

“You can’t be more than 100% sure about anything! That doesn’t make sense!”

“Well I’m just that much surer!”

“We’ve already checked over a hundred houses, how do you know this is the one?”

“I have a really good feeling about this! Trust me!”

“We’ve been trusting you this whole time, and you haven’t done anything worthy of our trust yet!”

“Oh come on! Just give me -”

Flinging open the door with a rough swing, you brought your baseball bat in front of you and yelled threateningly: “Alright, burglars! Not one more step! I have a bat, and I’m not afraid to use it!”

You didn’t find a gang of burglars behind the door. Instead, it was a small group of Lunarians.

Both lions, Leo and Simba, reared back at the sight of you swinging a weapon towards them and growled, before they saw your face and recognized you. Behind Simba’s mane two white rabbits cowered, until they poked their heads up curiously. You recognized Maggie, but the other white rabbit was unfamiliar. She was shorter, and fluffier, with big blue eyes that stared at you in shock. Maggie nuzzled the other rabbit reassuringly, and she seemed to calm down. This must be Jade’s mate, Bungee you thought. Funny how you had never run into her before now.

The three Lunettes had shrieked in fright seeing you yell and swing the bat near them, but quickly shut up once they realized you weren’t going to hurt them. Finally, Gobi was in front of the small group, and he was staring at you while wearing a smug grin.

“I told you this is where she lived! And you guys were starting to doubt me!” he bragged.

“What – how – I mean – what?” you stuttered, dropping the bat in shock. “How in the hell did you all get here? Why aren’t you guys on the moon?”

Gobi’s face fell as he answered you, “It’s a long story, and we don’t have a lot of time! It took us forever to find you, we need your help!”

“Why? Gobi, what’s going on?”

“It’s Chang’e! And Jade! They’ve been captured! We need your help saving them!”

Chapter Text

“Look, if I had known I was gonna have company tonight I would have cleaned up a little better! But that’s not why you’re here, obviously,” you said to Gobi.

The small group of Lunarians was crowded in your living room, taking in what your living situation looked like. Leo was awkwardly crammed between your couch and formal chair, while Simba had squeezed himself near the sliding glass door. You had quickly shut the curtain across the door after letting everyone in; while your nearest neighbor lived on the next island over, you couldn’t afford to take chances. Maggie and Bungee were perched on your Ottoman, sitting up curiously and checking out the sparse walls. It was odd that they didn’t see any photos up, not of friends, family, or even yourself. They did spot one or two pieces of nice-looking art, though. The three Lunettes were huddled on your couch. The blue one, who you had secretly nicknamed Teal while in Lunaria, had grabbed the remote to your TV and the other two were crowding around her, baffled by the unusual device. Lastly, Gobi was sitting in the chair, looking eager to talk to you and explain what was going on.

“Oh the mess doesn’t bother us,” Gobi reassured you, “We knew we were gonna surprise you. We have to get going, though! We have to come up with a plan to get Chang’e and Jade back!”

“Hold on, Gob,” you replied. “I’m gonna need some context before we all go charging off on some crazy rescue mission. What happened?”

“It wasn’t long after you left,” Gobi explained. “Maybe a couple of days or so. Chang’e had confined herself to her chambers during that time, and wouldn’t see anyone.”

“It was really bad,” the yellow Lunette, who you mentally referred to as Goldie, added. “The goddess only starts to act like that right before the darkness happens. But it didn’t this time.”

“Although in this case, it wasn’t a good thing. Not at all!” the pink Lunette, nicknamed Rose in your head, finished.

“What stopped that from happening?” you inquired.

“None of us saw it coming,” Gobi answered, before starting his tale:

Two days. That was how long it had been since the astronaut left, and how long the goddess had locked herself away from her subjects. Two days since any songs had passed from her lips, two days since she had walked among her subjects, and two days since anyone other than Jade had seen her.

Already the effects of her seclusion were having dire effects on the city. The lights of Lunaria had dimmed significantly, and the magnificent floating buildings and spires only pulsed with a faint glow now. Their colors had also become dramatically muted; it was as if they had been drained of their brilliant hues.

The Lunarians themselves fared little better. One of the downsides of being connected to Chang’e’s magic was that when the goddess was in a dark place, her subjects wound up sinking down with her. Their own magic had faded drastically, and their bodies felt weak and faint. Something had to be done to help the goddess. This couldn’t go on forever. They needed to help her move on from the astronaut, and get back to ruling her people.

Gobi was making his way to her chambers for what felt like the thousandth time when he heard a loud boom come from the direction of the city. It sounded like a cannon had fired off. Feeling suspicious about the noise, Gobi turned in the direction of the front gates of the palace and started to head in that direction. At that moment, Gobi heard a whooshing sound over his head. Looking up, he spotted the palace security all heading in the same direction he was, flying fast. Now Gobi was starting to get concerned. Something was wrong, very wrong, and he had to figure out what it was.

Just as he reached the front gates, they were suddenly blown off their hinges and the shrapnel was sent flying in all directions. Quickly, Gobi jumped behind a pillar to avoid getting impaled, and he cautiously peered around the corner to see what had done that.

What he saw terrified him.

The palace guards were all lying in the threshold of the gate, knocked unconscious by the explosion. Or it may have not been solely that. Peering closely, Gobi noted that several of the guards were wounded. The extent of their injuries varied among them; some were only lightly bruised, while others had been outright stabbed. Looking outside, Gobi quickly saw who had inflicted those wounds.

A group of twelve men stood there, decked head to toe in black and aiming tactical rifles into the palace, looking for more combatants. They were dressed in what had to be the most advanced spacesuits Gobi had ever seen: the suits themselves looked thin, with only slight inflation around the joints indicating that there was air trapped in the suit. Whoever had designed these suits had wanted to prioritize mobility over longevity, it seemed. Although durability had also been a factor, he noted. There was heavy padding on the chests and stomach, thick and arranged in a complex pattern geometrically designed to divert energy directed at the person’s torso. The helmets on their heads were more ellipsoid than spherical, which helped to not warp their visual perspective when looking around. Lastly, but certainly not least, they each had multiple weapons strapped to their bodies. Knives on their boots, pistols at their hips, a second assault rifle slung across their backs – it was obvious to anyone looking at them that they did NOT come in peace.

One of the men stepped forward from the center of the group. His uniform was slightly different; he had white bars on his sleeves and some sort of gold pin on his breast. Turning towards the others, he bellowed at them, “Alright men! Spread out and start searching! We’ve only got one shot to get this done, so we need to find her NOW! Do not engage though, this is important! Once you’ve found her, contact the others and we’ll rendez-vous there. We’re gonna need as many men as possible to bring her in. Now let’s move!”

Gobi quickly scurried up the pillar he was hiding behind as the men passed by his spot. Gazing down at them, he saw them all branch off into different directions, pairing up as they spread out. Waiting until all the men had left the gates, Gobi cautiously slid down the pillar and landed on the floor with a soft thump.

Running off towards one pair, he tried to come up with a plan. He had to warn Chang’e about what was happening, but would she listen to him? If she wasn’t willing to see anyone right now, it was going to be hard to alert her to these invaders. Hopefully she had heard the commotion from the gates just now and was taking steps to protect herself.

All of a sudden he heard a loud roar coming from a corridor to his left, along with gunshots. He bolted in that direction and hid once he saw what the source of the noise was. Leo and Simba were fighting off four of the men, snarling and swinging their massive paws in an attempt to sweep the men off their feet. The soldiers were dodging their attacks as best as they could, and fired rounds at the lions whenever they had a clear shot. The two opponents were at a stalemate right now, and Gobi realized that the two of them should be able to handle these men well enough. Turning around, he resumed his sprint towards Chang’e’s chambers.

He did his best to ignore the shouting, yelling, and exchanges of gunfire that echoed around the palace, trying to maintain his nerve. He couldn’t afford to stop. He needed to get there, he had to warn her –

Gobi was abruptly faced with a rifle barrel in his face, and a taunting soldier saying, “Now where do YOU think you’re going, little green hedgehog?”

“I’m not a hedgehog, whatever that is!” Gobi yelled defensively, “Do you know who’s palace you’re breaking into? When the goddess hears about this, she’ll -”

“LET ME GO, YOU BRUTES! Do you know who I am?!”

His blood (or whatever passed for it) running cold, Gobi turned in the direction of the yelling, and saw the last thing he wanted to see. Chang’e, goddess of the moon, eternal ruler of Lunaria, was being dragged through her own palace like an animal by six of these monstrous men. Three men were on either side of her, two of them holding her arms in place while the third tugged on a chain that had been wound around her waist. The weight of the four men tugging at her arms forced Chang’e to lean forward to prevent herself from falling over, and judging by the way her arms thrashed behind her back Gobi realized she had also been handcuffed. Out of the shadows, he saw the man with the stripes, presumably their leader, saunter towards the captured goddess and run his eyes up and down her body. As she was forced on her knees, so she had to peer up at him, he said in a leering voice,

“Well of course we know who you are, pretty lady. You’re the one that’s gonna help us save the world. You and that little green rabbit of yours.”

Before Chang’e could ask what he meant another man emerge from the darkness, dragging a metal pole behind him. It was quickly revealed to be an animal-catching pole, because at the other end Jade was being dragged along, his neck caught in the metal hoop on the end. There was also a muzzle wrapping around his face, although it did little to conceal his furious expression.

“JADE!” Chang’e screamed, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of her friend being handled so roughly. “Let him go, please!”

“No can do, princess,” the man in the stripes replied. “Thing is, we need both of you in order for our plan to work. Unfortunately, or not, depending on your perspective, we don’t need anyone else here.” He turned towards the other men, who had rounded up as many Lunarians as they could find in the palace: “Kill them.”

“NO!” the goddess shrieked in horror. She paused, before offering the man, “Wait! Let me make you a deal!”

“Chang’e, don’t!” Gobi yelled, “He’s not going to listen to you, it’s pointless!”

Ignoring the Lunarian’s protest, their leader turned back towards Chang’e and raised an eyebrow curiously, “Oh? Since when were you in a position to negotiate?”

“I’m begging you, hear me out,” the goddess pleaded. It pained Gobi to hear Chang’e, of all beings, begging for mercy from someone else; he tried to ignore the sound as best as he could. “You know who I am, right? That must mean you know what I’m capable of? What makes you think I won’t find a way to kill all of you before we even leave the moon? You are mortal, you are weak,” she hissed, “I, on the other hand, am a goddess. Killing you would be as easy as swatting away an insect. Face it, you need my cooperation to ensure your men’s survival. So here’s my offer. If you spare my subjects, I will go with you, willingly. I won’t fight back, I won’t try to escape, I won’t hurt any of your men. All I ask is that you let my people go. Just. Let. Them. Live.” she finished, her voice raw and desperate.

Setting aside his anger at being called weak, the man weighed his options. It was unnecessary to kill all these…people, as they were. And it wasn’t like they would be able to follow them to earth and get her back. He also remembered: the best kind of prisoner was one that was willing. He shrugged and turned back to his men: “Let ‘em go. We didn’t come for them, anyway.”

The men not holding Chang’e or Jade roughly let go of the Lunarians and turned their guns away from them. The man shoving his rifle in Gobi’s face lowered his weapon with a reluctant grunt. All of them turned back towards their leader, waiting for their next orders.

“Alright men, we got what we wanted,” the man in the stripes said, “Get ‘em on the shuttle.”

The men holding Chang’e started dragging her towards the gate, but she stood up on both legs and began walking, casting a haughty glance at the nearest man. If she was to be taken from her home against her will, she would at least be taken with dignity. The man restraining Jade began dragging the rabbit after the men holding the goddess.

“Wait!” Chang’e yelled, sounding indignant. “When I said let my subjects go, I meant all of them. He stays, or the deal is off.”

“No can do, moon maid,” the leader replied, “When I said we needed both of you, I meant both of you.”

Chang’e heard a whimper from Jade’s direction, and she turned as best as she could to look back at him. He was staring at her in desperation, and resignation. He didn’t want anyone to get hurt as much as she did. He was willing to cooperate, and go with them, if it guaranteed everyone else’s safety. The goddess sighed, and turned to look back at the man in the stripes.

“Alright, he shall come with us.” she reluctantly agreed. “Just make this quick.”

“You heard the lady,” the man replied, addressing the other soldiers. “Back to earth, pronto!”

“Yes, general!” one of the men hollered, before they resumed taking the goddess and rabbit towards the gates.

At that moment a small white blur darted out of the crowd and charged at the man holding Jade. A pink blast of energy shot at the man’s face, and with a scream he dropped his end of the pole. The small white rabbit ran to Jade, and she began nibbling on the hoop around his neck, trying to gnaw it off.

Jade chirped, trying to get Bungee’s attention. She looked up at her mate, confused. Reassuringly, he nuzzled her cheek. He didn’t like this anymore than she did, but this had to be done. Going with them was the only way to keep her and their kits safe. He was willing to do anything to protect their family, a quality that Bungee loved more than anything. She cooed and pressed her forehead to his. She promised that this wouldn’t be the end for them, of their life together. Even if she had to cross the stars themselves, Bungee would move heaven and earth to get her mate back.

The moment was dramatically interrupted by Jade’s handler grabbing the blunt end of his rifle and swinging it at the rabbit that had shot him. Bungee was sent flying away from Jade and she landed with a thump at the foot of a nearby pillar.

“Bungee!” one of the Lunettes called, voicing the others’ fear for her safety. The rabbit in question stood back up uneasily, knocked for a loop but otherwise unharmed.

“Well now that’s out of the way,” the general drawled in a bored tone. “As you were, men. Get them both loaded now!”

As Gobi finished recounting the raid, you stared at him, having been stunned into silence. “Jesus,” you breathed, “That must have been terrifying for you guys.”

“It was!” Teal agreed, “It was awful seeing the goddess being forced to negotiate with those…those…thugs!”

“Well, that explains how Chang’e and Jade got captured, and why those men succeeded at getting them.”

“It was our fault,” Goldie replied, sounding downcast. “We should have fought back! We could’ve taken them! We outnumbered them, and -”

“It was no one’s fault, okay Goldie?” you interjected, “Stop blaming yourself. That goes for the rest of you. And it doesn’t matter that you outnumbered them, they outgunned you. You would have all been killed if you had tried to fight them, and that’s not an exaggeration.” You paused, “Though that doesn’t explain how you all got here, and found me. What happened next?”

“It was Gobi,” Rose answered. “He’s the reason we’re all here.”

The Lunarian in question blushed, “Well, I couldn’t take all the credit, I mean, you guys did agree to help me, and I couldn’t do this alone -”

“But it’s true!” Teal argued, “Without him, we wouldn’t have known what to do next!”

They couldn’t believe it. They just couldn’t. While the Lunarians gathered in the palace were physically fine, emotionally they were incredibly shaken up. It shouldn’t have been possible for Chang’e and Jade to just be dragged out of their own home, with several hostile soldiers, to have Gods-know-what happen to them. Gobi stared out across the threshold, where the remains of the shattered gate lay, and out into the starry expanse beyond the city where the shuttle had disappeared to. He shook his head in disbelief; for the first time in his very long life he didn’t know what to do. What was the next right thing?

Slowly it dawned on him that there was another option. It was a long shot, and would probably fail, but he had to give it a try. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He only knew what he could do. And this was something he was more than willing to do.

“So that’s it? We’re just gonna let those guys take our goddess like that?” Gobi asked, turning towards the other Lunarians huddled in the atrium.

“We didn’t let them! We didn’t have a choice!” a Lunarian called defensively from the crowd.

“And what can we do, anyway?” Teal questioned Gobi. “It’s not like we can just follow those men.”

“Why not?” Gobi challenged. “Please, tell me why we can’t follow them. It’s not like we’re stuck here. They -” Gobi gestured to Leo and Simba standing off to the side. “can fly to earth with no problems. Why can’t some of us fly down to earth and get Chang’e and Jade back? Think about this, if we can’t bring the goddess back, we’re goners! What do you think is gonna happen if she’s away from Lunaria for too long?”

Judging from the silence that met him, Gobi determined that they had all come to the same conclusion. “Exactly. We’ll cease to exist. Gone. Donzo. Like we were never here at all. Besides, Chang’e is not just our goddess! She’s not even just our queen! She’s our family! I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll…I’ll be damned if I let some guys in weird space suits hurt my family. I’m going to earth to get them both back; if you wanna stay, then stay. I’m going to find them, even if I have to do it by myself.”

The crowd had grown quiet at this declaration, and there was murmuring amongst them. Go to earth? Rescue the goddess and Jade? It seemed like an impossible task. How were they going to find them? Where were they taken? What if they never made it back home?

Out of the crowd two white rabbits hopped forward, and came to rest at Gobi’s feet. Maggie’s face was etched with determination; she was willing to do anything to get her father back. She had to try, at least for her siblings’ sake. As one of her parents’ eldest kits, she felt a particular responsibility to them, to make sure their family was safe. And as far as she was concerned, trying to get their dad back was one of those responsibilities. Her mother Bungee felt similarly. She had tried to save her mate from his fate, but had failed because she had acted on her own. Maybe, with the help of her friends, she would have a better chance at getting Jade back. Bungee was nervous about what this next adventure might bring, but was willing to face anything to find Jade and bring him home.

“We’re coming too,” Goldie said, walking forward with Teal and Rose. “We failed to protect our goddess when she needed us most. We’re not gonna make that same mistake twice.”

“The only way we’ll really fail is if we don’t try at all!” Gobi replied. A growl from the back of the crowd alerted the small group, and they turned to see Leo and Simba stalking towards them. They glanced at each other, then at Gobi, with a look of resolve in their eyes. This rescue party was gonna need a way to get to earth, after all. Made sense that they would help with the actual rescue as well.

“Yes!” Gobi yelled with excitement. “Operation: Earth Rescue is a go! We’re going to earth to get them back!”

“But how are we going to find them?” Rose questioned him, “We don’t even know where to start looking!”

“I think I know someone that can help us,” he answered, with a knowing grin.

“So let me get this straight: you all decided to come to earth, not knowing anything about this place besides what Chang’e might have told you – which wouldn’t even be relevant since we’re not in ancient China – spent three months searching the planet trying to find me, and now you’re all gonna break into what’s probably a top-secret military-grade research facility to get Chang’e and Jade back. Did I catch all that?”

“Yeah!” Gobi replied, sounding eager. “You can help us, right? If anyone can help us, it’s you!”

You hesitated. While you immediately wanted to jump in and help them, there were a lot of factors that you needed to consider. Taking a deep breath, you turned back to the Lunarians, “Okay, first of all, props to you Gobi for convincing everyone here to help you. Talking all these people into coming along on this mission must have been pretty hard. I’m impressed. That being said -” you paused for a second before continuing, “what you’re talking about doing is a lot harder than you think it is. You have to find out where Chang’e and Jade are being held, assuming that they’re even in the same facility. You also have to assess the best way to enter the base, how to break them out, and how to escape without being caught. We’re in way over our heads here.”

“We found you, though!” Gobi insisted, “How hard could it be to find them?”

“It did take us a while, though,” Teal admitted. “Do you have any idea how many cities we searched? How many houses we had to check?”

“And the dogs! They were terrifying! Growling and chasing and barking at anything that moves – if I return to Lunaria right now and never see another dog for the rest of eternity, it will still be too soon!” Rose added with a shiver.

You fell silent, as you tried to figure out what to do next. Obviously you wanted to help them; you cared about Chang’e as much as the rest of them did. You shuttered at what they could possibly being doing to the two captured immortals. From what you had seen in the movies and read in books about hostages such as them, whatever scientists would be examining them would not be merciful. And, in a way, you felt responsible for what happened. If you had never gone to Lunaria in the first place, there was a chance those men would have never found her. Maybe she would still be safe; alone, but safe. Your jaw clenched, as you made up your mind. You were going to get them back, even if it killed you. Which it probably would, but you weren’t gonna tell the others that.

“Alright. I’ll help you guys get them back.” Before they could start cheering though, you cut them off: “But we can’t do it alone. We’re gonna need help. I know someone that could help us; it’s a long shot that he’ll do it, but it’s our only option.”

“Yeah, of course!” Gobi replied, eager to get things started. “So where does this guy live? Is it far?”

“He’s not far from here, about an hour away. I don’t have a car, so we’re gonna have to take my boat there. But here’s the thing: we can’t afford to get spotted, under any circumstances. So you’ll have to do exactly what I say. This is important, don’t let me down, okay?”

“Whatever you say, mortal,” Rose answered, “Anything to get the goddess back!”

“Okay then,” you said, “I’m just gonna need a few minutes to get some stuff, and I’ll join you guys. Just head down to the beach and you’ll see my boat, it’s the big white one. Hide inside it, and I’ll meet you out there.”

“No problem!” Gobi responded. “Don’t take too long, okay? We have to get going sooner rather than later!”

They all headed outside, keeping to the bushes as they made their way to the shoreline. You turned to go into your bedroom and began packing. Your stomach flipped at what you were about to do. This was the last thing you wanted to do. He was the last person you wanted to see. But you had to face it: you didn’t have any other connections around here. It was a huge risk, and you could even get in trouble with the law, but you had no choice. Who knows; he may not even have any hard feelings about what happened anymore, and he would help you. There was no way to know unless you tried.

Before you left your house you wrote a quick note, signed a couple of documents, and left them on the kitchen counter. It may not come to that, but you wanted to be prepared just in case.

The Lunarians were all waiting for you in the boat when you got down there. Gesturing at them to keep quiet, you turned on the motor and pulled out of the lagoon.

It soon became evident that no one on the boat, aside from you, had ever been out on the water before. Several times you had to overcorrect the boat whenever Leo or Simba shifted their weight ever so slightly; the last thing you wanted was for all of you to capsize in shark-infested waters. Oh yeah, you forgot to mention the sharks to them. There were a lot, since they liked hunting at night most of the time. Once or twice, one of the Lunarians would peer over the side of the boat to look at the sharks, but once you explained what sharks were they stayed as far away from the boat’s edges as they could. Part of you felt bad; their first time on earth and they were not getting the best first impressions. You were able to point out a pod of dolphins jumping in the moonlight, and Gobi seemed interested in those. All of you pointedly avoided looking at the moon itself though. Although was it just you, or did it seem dimmer than usual?

Eventually your boat finally pulled into the lagoon on the island where he lived. “Wait here,” you told the others, “I’m going to make sure he’s home first, and then I’ll come back and get the rest of you guys.”

Leaping out of the boat, you walked down the row of houses and thought about what you were going to say. It had been years since the two of you had spoken, and you hadn’t exactly left each other on good terms. Admittedly, this also wasn’t a good time to have this conversation; people weren’t usually all that aware at – what, 3:00 am? Was it really that late? you thought. Apparently your late-night internet browsing had taken up more time than you had thought. But then again, what would be considered a good time to talk to him? You glanced up at the sky allowing yourself to catch a glimpse of the moon. Yep, your earlier observation was correct: it was definitely dimmer than usual. Seeing that, and being reminded of Chang’e again, helped you find your resolve: you were going to speak to him, and dammit, you were going to make him listen to you. If he was upset at the idea of you loving someone else, that would be his problem to deal with.

Making your way to his house, you looked through the windows. You saw a few lights on inside, and while obviously he was sleeping right now it was clear that it was home. His car was parked in his driveway, and the windows had been opened to let in some of the cool sea breeze. At least with this time of year, the humidity wasn’t overbearingly hot as well as stuffy.

After collecting the others from the boat, you crept back to his house, acting with far more caution now. Your little group kept to the shadows mostly, using nothing but the fading moonlight to guide your way back to his house. You instructed them to wait in the bushes outside his home, so you would have a chance to talk to him first before springing the Lunarians on him.

When you walked up to the front door you noticed a set of bars drilled over the window, presumably to keep out burglars. This didn’t startle you all that much; a lot of houses in this area had them. As your hand reached for the doorbell, your finger suddenly paused and hovered inches away from the button. This was your last chance. Your last opportunity to back out, turn around, and resume your normal, quiet life. You could tell the Lunarians to find someone else to help them, and be done with this whole thing.

Your eyes drifted up and once again, caught a glimpse of the pale moon.

Without any further hesitation your finger pressed the doorbell hard, and you held it there for several seconds, allowing the sound to echo throughout the entire house. After a couple of tense minutes, you heard shuffling on the other side of the door. As he opened the door, the shadows of the bars danced across his chest, making it look like he was wearing stripes. You took a deep breath, and greeted the man,

“Hello, Richard.”

Chapter Text

“Do I even need to tell you how monumentally stupid it was to break the restraining order you put in place?”

“Oh spare me Richard, I know how bad this looks, if I knew someone else I would have gone to someone else.”

Your ex rolled his eyes and sighed, “Would you, though? You’re not exactly the type to ask for help.”

“Well, these are special circumstances,” you argued.

“You could say that again,” he agreed, and glanced back into the living room at the gathered Lunarians. Gobi, catching Richard’s eye, glared at the man, who turned back towards you in startlement.

“I take it the green one knows,” he said, his voice sounding heavy. “About us, I mean. How it ended.”

“Yeah,” you admitted. “I may have mentioned a few things about you. Less than flattering things, to be exact.” You were surprised at how nonchalant Richard was acting about this whole situation. After getting over his initial shock at his ex-wife turning up at his house in the middle of the night, he was willing to listen to what you had to say. Needless to say, his shock quickly returned once you introduced the Lunarians to him. As you gave him the abridged version of your life for the past 18 months, he would nervously glance over at Leo and Simba. He wasn’t sure how he felt about two giant winged lions coming into his house, but he seemed to get over it once the others entered as well.

While you had been explaining to him everything that had happened on the moon, he would occasionally stop to ask you a question, or make a comment. More than once, he had shaken his head in disbelief, flabbergasted at what your life had become since your divorce. Once you had finished explaining everything, he had dragged you into his kitchen to talk more privately about this.

“I guess I deserved it,” Richard replied, wincing in guilt. “I was pretty messed up when you…though I suppose it’s not fair to blame you for what happened.”

You stared, curious at his demeanor. “It’s funny,” you said.

“What’s funny?”

“After everything that went down, I would have expected you to keep blaming me for our marriage ending. I was the one that filed the official papers, after all.”

Your ex shrugged, and taking a deep breath he answered, “I’m gonna be honest with you: for a long time afterwards, I did blame you. It felt like you’d betrayed me, walking out on me like that. I didn’t have a real family until I met you, what with me not having a dad and my mom dealing with her own shit. When you left, I didn’t have a family anymore, and it hurt.”

You looked away, guilt gnawing at your insides. He then added, “That doesn’t mean I still blame you, though.”

You turned back to look at Richard, “Why? What changed?”

“While losing you was the worst thing to happen to me, in hindsight it was also the best thing to happen to me.”

Your eyes widened in surprise, “What the hell does that mean?”

He replied, “You leaving resulted in me hitting rock bottom. It was the wake-up call that I needed. Let me ask you: did the court ever tell you what part of my parole was?”

“Not really. It didn’t matter to me anyway, I was too busy trying to get my life back together to care about what was going on in yours.”

He shrugged, “Don’t blame ya. Well, I had to start taking these classes. Stuff for anger, stress management, finding new strategies to deal with those…emotions. I didn’t pay much attention to those, at first, I thought the whole thing was stupid. I only really started listening once it hit me that you were never coming back. This was it. I was either gonna sink or swim on my own, you weren’t gonna be there to bail me out anymore. The therapist I was seeing also helped.”

“Did the court order the shrink for you?”

“No, I only started seeing her about a month into my parole. I had decent enough insurance from my new job that I could afford to see her.”

"New job?”

“I got fired from the house-painting gig once news of my arrest got out. Bad PR, and all that. I got a new job working as a cook in a local restaurant. The pay wasn’t much, but it was honest work. I’ve even been able to start saving up for courses at the local college.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I just got my associates a couple of months ago. I’m taking a break for another year or two, set aside more cash, then I’ll go on for a bachelor’s. I’m hoping to study illustration, maybe work on graphic novels one day, who knows?”

You were silent for a little bit as you took this all in. It was a lot, to be sure. “Wow. I mean...good for you, Rich. It sounds like you’ve really started turning your life around.”

He allowed himself a small smile and replied, “Yeah. This isn’t what I imagined what my life would look like, but it’s not a bad life. Although you re-entering said life with a bunch of technicolor moon folk, yammering on about a green rabbit and a moon goddess, like an actual goddess, wasn’t part of my new life.”

“Trust me, I’m just as surprised as you are.”

“So, why are you here? What do you want from me?”

You took a deep breath, and told him, “We need your help getting Chang’e and Jade back. From wherever they’ve been taken.”

“Wait, you want me to help you and your little moon friends break into a military base to rescue your moon girlfriend and her pet rabbit?”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Yes she is!” Gobi called from the other room.

“Not now Gob! But everything else is right.”

“Are you insane?” Richard retorted. “You don’t even know where they are, this is a top secret military base we’re talking about, and we’d be breaking who knows how many laws? I’ve spent years keeping my nose clean since my arrest, and this will dump me back all the way at square one!”

“Rich, I know I’m asking a lot of you, but I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t know that you could help us! You snuck us into a ton of different places when we were teens; concerts, movie theaters, you even snuck us into a mental hospital just because you could!”

“Last I checked, a Beasty Boys concert has a lot less security than a military base!”

“Look, this isn’t how I planned on spending my holidays, but I don’t have any other options.” You paused, thinking of an idea. There was one bargaining chip that you could play, but it was a risky one. Still, if it meant getting you one step closer to Chang’e, it was worth it. “If you help us…I’ll talk to the judge about possibly lifting the restraining order.”

Richard’s eyes widened in shock, and he stared at you for several minutes before answering, “You’d do that? You could get it dropped just like that?”

“I don’t know, but if you help us get Chang’e and Jade back, I’ll check to see if it’s a possibility,” you answered reluctantly. You were taking a huge gamble here, with both your welfare and his, but you supposed that this was the price to pay for getting the goddess back.

Richard paused for a moment, before quietly asking, “Does this mean that there still might be -”

“No, Rich,” you cut him off. “That ship has sailed. There’s just too much bad blood between us. Besides, I didn’t ever see you as a husband. You’ve always been a brother to me. You deserve someone who can love you as a wife should.”

He sighed, “Figures. It was worth a shot, though. You wanna tell your friends that I’ll help?”

You smiled and replied, “Thanks, Rich. I can’t tell you how much this means to me, to my friends.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t thank me yet,” he returned, following you into the living room. He addressed the gathered Lunarians, “So, looks like we’re gonna be orchestrating a jailbreak,” he started. “But here’s the thing: my truck isn’t big enough to take us all there, at least not without all y’all getting spotted. So we’re gonna have to come up with alternate transportation. I’ve got an idea on where we can find some new wheels; my ex and I are gonna go find something, drive back here, and get the rest of you. Then we’ll work out where to start searching.”

“I may have a theory on where they’ve been taken,” you added. “There’s a base located on Merritt Island, not far from the space center, where the scientists do a lot of research on new technologies. I know they have a new biochemistry division there, which is probably where they’re holding Chang’e and Jade. If my theory is correct, the folks there are trying to figure out what made them immortal. It makes sense that that’s where they’ll be held.”

“Cool, so we have a place to start looking then. Once we find our transportation, we’ll get on the road.”

You started heading out the door into the early morning sun, with Maggie following you on your heels and Bungee right behind her. Since they looked like normal rabbits, they could go out in public with you without freaking out the normal folks. Maggie wasn’t sure why, but she had a strange feeling that she was gonna be needed in the next couple of hours by you. She just wasn’t sure how yet. As for Bungee, she wanted to keep an eye on her kit. She may be grown by now, but Bungee was still her mother.

As Richard left the house, the last one to leave, he suddenly felt his sleeve being yanked, and he was face-to-face with Gobi. The irate Lunarian grabbed him by the front of his shirt, looked him in the eyes and said,

“Alright buster, I just wanna establish a few ground rules concerning my friend!”

“Now hang on, I didn’t -”

“I wasn’t done talking. If you hit her, you’re dead. If you yell at her and upset her, you’re dead. If you look at her in a way I don’t like, you’re dead. Basically, if you hurt her, or do something to her that I don’t like, you’re dead. Got it?”

“Listen hedgehog, I wouldn’t -”

“Again, I’m not a hedgehog! And I am serious. You hear me?” Gobi pulled Richard closer so their noses were touching. “I know that you hurt my friend, and I will fight you if you do it again. Are we clear?”

‘Again’? Richard thought as he gulped. He shouldn’t have been afraid of a neon green – if he wasn’t a hedgehog what was he? – but this guy scared him. Maybe it was because of how intense he sounded right now. He nodded slowly, hoping to show that he understood. “Yeah, I got it. No hurting her at all, not now or ever. We’re clear.”

“Good,” Gobi let go of Richard’s shirt and nodded towards the door. “You better get going. She’s waiting for you.”

“Yeah, sure,” the man replied, heading out the door to join you and the rabbits. The four of you started walking towards the road. As soon as the four of you were out of earshot, he said to you, “Your friends are pretty protective of you. That’s a good thing, by the way. I’d keep them close if I were you.”

You softly smiled, “Yeah, they’re pretty great,” you replied as your mind began drifting again to thoughts of dancing and moonlight.

Richard laughed, “Alright, Juliet, let’s hustle. It’s a couple of miles to where we’ve gotta go,” he teased you as he started jogging.

“I told you, she’s not my girlfriend!” you yelled back as you took off after him, Maggie and Bungee right on your heels.

___________________________________________________________________________________

She had long lost track of how long she had been here. There was no way for her to tell the time, what day it was, or even what season it was. A very small part of her was thrilled at the idea of being back on earth after so long, but she had never imagined that these would be the circumstances of her return. In a way, this was far worse than being exiled to the moon. At least up there, she was free to move about, uninhibited in thought, voice, and motion. At least she could watch the stars wheel overhead in their orbits, shifting and changing with the passing centuries. At least she could still see the earth, hanging like a blue and green marble in the blackness of space. This right here was its own special hell.

There were some surface similarities between her lunar banishment and this, but they were of little comfort to her. Here, as on the moon, she was greeted with nothing but silence most days. She could hear nothing but the ringing in her ears, a cruel reminder of her forced solitude. It was also dark most of the time, except for when that woman was here. She was the reason that her imprisonment was so much more unbearable than her exile. Here, she was contained in four walls, ten feet by ten feet, all made of a thick, shatter-resistant glass. The only opening was a sealed door on the front of the tank, and a small hole next to it for gathering…samples. That was the part she hated the most; being treated like a specimen instead of a person. And like most specimens, she knew that she would be disposed of as soon as she had outlived her usefulness.

Several of the lights in the room suddenly burst into brilliance as the door on the far end opened, and a woman in an impeccably spotless lab coat trotted in. Her hair was tied back into a severe bun, not a single hair out of place. She carried a tablet in one hand and a small briefcase in the other. Setting the case down onto the long table stretching from the tank to the door, she popped the locks off and took out a hypodermic needle, a vial, and some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Making her way over to the tank, she stopped at the small hole, which came up to her chest, and she called to the tank’s occupant:

“Alright, let’s get it over with. You know the drill.”

Chang’e lay curled up on the side of the tank furthest from the door, glaring at the woman in the lab coat and wrapping her arms around her legs. This had been happening once a week for several weeks now. Just because she knew what to expect didn’t mean that it got any easier. If she could stop it from happening, she would have by now. The first and only time she had attempted to though…she still shuttered at how fragile her skin had felt for the next three weeks.

So reluctantly, Chang’e stood up and walked slowly over to the wall with the hole, taking her time, reveling in how much she was testing the other woman’s patience. Staring the other woman down, head tilted in condescension, she carefully inserted her arm through the hole, opened so that the other woman could access her forearm. The goddess didn’t attempt to grab the woman and throttle her, tempting as it may be. If there was one thing she could say positively about her mortal captors, it was that they were surprisingly creative in their torture methods.

As the scientist, for that was what the other woman called herself, swabbed Chang’e’s arm with rubbing alcohol, she noticed a few differences in the goddess’ appearance from when she had first been brought here.

“You look shorter than when you first arrived.”

“Not my most pressing concern. I can still rightfully look down on you,” the goddess retorted. “I’ll start to worry once I can’t do that anymore.”

“You might have to start worrying sooner rather than later, then,” the scientist chuckled as she grabbed the hypodermic needle and carefully pressed it into Chang’e skin, piercing a vein.

The goddess barely flinched when the needle punctured her arm. She was long used to the sensation by now. “You don’t understand me as well as you think, wench. When I decide -”

“Dr.” the scientist snapped, “I didn’t spend all those years in med school just be insulted by a specimen.”

Chang’e rolled her eyes, but continued, “Fine, Dr. Wench. As I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, I’ll start worrying when I think I need to start worrying. I’ve been like this for thousands of years, I know my body well enough to know when something’s wrong.”

As the scientist pulled back the plunger on the needle, she watched the blood slowly fill the vial. She hummed in fascination at the goddess’ last statement. “Listen to you, not thinking much of the fact that you’ve lived for literal millennia. And to think, you were completely fine with keeping it all to yourself, when so many other people would kill for that much time.”

“My immortality is not the gift that you think it is, mortal,” Chang’e argued. “There is nothing wonderful about having all that time when the people you love have so little in comparison. What’s the point in living forever if you’re living alone?” Now that the scientist did bring it up, the goddess noticed that she had become shorter since her arrival. Before, she towered over all the mortals here. Now, the scientist before her could make eye contact with her easily.

“You weren’t exactly alone now, were you?” the scientist replied, removing the needle from Chang’e’s arm and carefully pouring the contents into the vial.

“Where’s Jade?” the goddess asked, no small amount of concern in her voice.

“Your pet bunny’s not dead, if that’s your concern,” the scientist answered, sounding bored. “He, like you, is too valuable to kill…yet.”

“He’s not a pet! He is my friend! Do you know what it’s like to worry about your friend? Or are you so cold that you scare off any potential friends?”

The scientist wasn’t fazed by that accusation, and she continued. “Anyway, my work here is done for today. Same time next week?” she taunted, flashing an insufferable grin the goddess’ way.

Chang’e’s eyes flashed in anger, but she quickly smothered the embers of fury in her heart. It wouldn’t do any good to lash out at her captors, anyway. Meanwhile, the scientist placed the full vial into her briefcase, and wrote a few notes onto her clipboard, signing today’s notes with her name, Dr. Borgen. Having gathered her things, she turned to leave the room.

Just before she crossed the threshold, she turned back to the captured goddess. “By the way, you might wanna get some box dye for your hair.”

Chang’e’s gaze turned suspicious. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if you’re aware or not, but your hair tends to change color when you age. Makes sense that you didn’t know about that before now. Until next time.” And with that she trotted back out the door, closing it behind her with a calculated click.

Curiously, the goddess reached around her head and pulled a strand of hair towards the front of her face. She didn’t know what that woman could possibly mean, there wasn’t any way that it could –

For the first time in centuries, the goddess passed out from shock. Her hand remained clenched around the silverly lock of hair until she woke back up.

___________________________________________________________________________________

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” you stated as you stared up at the sign on the front of the building.

The words, ‘Gator Joe’s’ stared back at you, written in a kitschy tiki-style font and weathered with age and humidity. The dilapidated sign at least matched the equally-dilapidated building it adorned. On the outer walls, fake bamboo panels were starting to crack and peel off, falling onto the splintered deck in tan shards. A sun-bleached awning, originally green if you had to guess, stretched over the deck; fulfilling its purpose at least despite no longer being aesthetically pleasing. A tacky statue of an alligator dressed as a waiter stood guard over the restaurant’s entrance, welcoming guests into what you assumed was a run-down dining area.

Apparently this was where Richard worked.

“Look, I know this isn’t what you were expecting when I said we needed a ride, but it’s honestly our easiest option.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Have you checked out the parking lot?” he waved behind the four of you. On the side of the parking lot was a small building, more like a shack, that had a U-Haul logo on the side. A small fleet of moving vans, trucks, and trailers was lined up in front of the shack, two rows deep and very neatly parked and organized. Running your eyes across all the vehicles in your sight, you spotted at least two or three of them that could take all ten of you to the base without being spotted. Maybe you were starting to see where Rich was going with this.

“So we’re getting a moving van?” you asked, still unsure of what your ex’s plan was. “I still don’t see why we gotta go inside Gator Jack’s over here,”

“It’s Gator Joe’s, you uncultured swine,” Rich taunted. “And as for why we gotta get in there, simple: the owner of the U-Haul site spends most of his day here. If you wanna rent something from him, you gotta go in there,” he finished, jabbing a finger at the front door.

You rolled your eyes and swallowed your pride. You really didn’t like visiting restaurants like this, if only because they were always tourist traps that would rip you off every single time. The décor was always tacky, the food was sub-par (as long as it seemed ‘authentic’, the tourists would eat that shit up), and the prices were jacked up to ridiculous extremes. You preferred the local haunts around here, the places that the tourists didn’t know about. You preferred how quiet those places were in comparison to someplace like the establishment before you. Still, if this was what it was going to take to get Chang’e and Jade back, you might as well go inside.

While the two humans entered the eatery from the front, the two rabbits decided to head around back. They knew that they should keep as close to their companions as they could, but Maggie figured that it couldn’t hurt to do a little exploring. She didn’t know when she would have the chance to return to earth again, and she didn’t want to miss out on any of the excitement. As for Bungee, she just wanted to keep an eye on her kit. She had more experience with dealing with earth’s dangers, and even here she was thrown for a loop. She just wanted to make sure both of them stayed out of trouble.

Maggie found a door that was slightly ajar, and using her nose she pushed it open just enough for her to slip through, her mother following right behind her. Judging by the smells they encountered when they entered, they had walked into a kitchen of some sort. Bungee wrinkled her nose in disgust; while this whole building was technically a restaurant, it smelled far different than the mooncake shop Fei Fei and her father ran back in China. For starters, everything smelled much greasier here. Looking around, Bungee and Maggie quickly found the source of the smell: a very large fryer vat, with the handles of three baskets sticking out of the side. They also saw a swinging door at the far end of the room, two large grills lining the back wall, and a small locking door, what they assumed was where the dry ingredients were kept. Finally, a large metal door was mounted into the last wall, the restaurant’s walk-in fridge. Maggie and Bungee carefully stepped across the scuffed-up, dirty tiles, and ducked under one of the grills when they hear footsteps approaching the swinging door.

As the door opened, the two rabbits caught a glimpse of you, Richard, and a second man crowded around a table, having what looked like an intense conversation. You and Richard looked increasingly agitated, while the other man was starting to look frustrated himself. Maggie carefully crept forward, remaining unseen, and she leaned towards the door to try and eavesdrop on their conversation:

“C’mon, Tony! Can’t you give us a better rate than that? We’re old friends here!”

“Rich, the extent of our friendship is me griping about my life to you, and you frying my fish. We’re not the ‘friends-and-family discount’ kind of pals!”

“Please, Tony!” you pleaded, sounding desperate, “We really need to rent one of your larger vans, just for a few days! I’ll give you all the money I have on me, and we’ll find a way to pay the rest back later. I really need this van!”

“No can do, sunshine. No money, no van. End of discussion!”

Maggie saw you and Richard storm away from the table and reconvene at the fairy-light adorned bar. The two of you were whispering in harsh tones to each other. Maggie huffed in frustration; clearly the humans’ approach to this dilemma wasn’t working, but what could she do? She couldn’t just go up to that ‘Tony’ figure and demand the van herself. The lunar rabbit looked closer at her surroundings, her eyes landing on the massive fryer vat she had spotted when she first entered the kitchen.

A small smirk stretched across her face, while Bungee’s eyes widened in dread.

Meanwhile, you and Richard were sitting at the bar, trying to figure out what to do next. Clearly this ‘Tony’ fellow wasn’t going to be as helpful as you ex had informed you. “I thought you said he could help us!” you muttered, exasperated.

“Technically, he could help us, he’s just choosing not to,” Rich corrected, “Bastard knows he's cornered the market down here in the islands.”

“On what? Shitty moving vans?”

“That’s not the point! If you wanna go save your ‘friends’, we’re gonna have to figure something else out.”

Before you could respond there was a loud bang from the kitchen, and the door swung open as a busboy bolted out, a cloud of smoke trailing behind him. “Everyone out!” he yelled, “There’s a grease fire in the kitchen, and it’s spreading fast!” Already, as he was yelling that, said fire had already followed the smoke cloud out of the kitchen and was starting to consume the end of the bar furthest from you and Richard.

All the diners jumped up from their tables and ran shrieking towards the doors. Rich looked panicked, but you were only a little concerned. As far as your experience with fires went, this one was pretty tame.

“Come on, we gotta get out of here!” Richard yelled, tugging your wrist and running for the door.

“I’m coming!” you griped, still more ticked off about the van than worried about the fire. By now the whole bar where you had been sitting was up in flames, and the carpet was starting to ignite as well. As the two of you passed the table where Tony had been sitting, you noticed something shiny and silver on the floor. When you ground to a halt, Richard was promptly yanked back with you, stumbling forward for a second before restabilizing himself.

“What are you doing! There’s a fire, dumbass!” he shouted.

Without a word, you reached down and grabbed the silvery object. Holding it up so you and Rich could both see it, you saw the huge U-Haul logo on the large tag, and the ring of keys surrounding it. With a jolt, you realized what it was: Tony’s master keys. This must have fallen out of his pocket when he ran for the door. If your hunch was right, it also unlocked the shack, and wherever the keys to all the vehicles were kept.

“I got an idea, follow me!” you yelled back, excited. Now you were the one tugging him towards the door.

“Oh no,” he went, realizing what you were up to. “We are not stealing a van! We can come up with something else, something less illegal!”

“You really wanna try haggling with Tony again?” you quipped, “Besides, we don’t have the luxury of time! Stop whining and let’s go!”

Richard groaned, but he followed you outside anyways. “Yeah, I’m gonna get fired for this,” he muttered as the two of you bolted across the parking lot towards the shack.

“Can’t get fired from a workplace that’s out of business,” you pointed out, gesturing behind you at the now smoldering building.

“Okay, how did it burn up so quickly?” he asked, looking back at the restaurant in astonishment. “That place must have been a death trap!”

“If it’s an old building, it’s probably the asbestos.” you theorized. “There’s a reason that stuff isn’t used in construction anymore, it’s too flammable.” By now you had unlocked the drawer where all the vehicle keys were, and were rifling through them. You had seen a van outside that would be perfect for the trip: large, roomy, and would do the job of hiding the Lunarians well. The number on the van was 317; if you could just find the key with that number –

There! Grabbing a key with a tag reading 317, you ran out of the shack towards the van, and looked back at the restaurant. “Hey, where’s Bungee and Maggie? We can’t leave without them!”

As if on cue the two rabbits tore across the parking lot towards you, not stopping until they had reached your feet. To your shock their fur was smoking in places, and was singed as well.

“What were you doing?” you asked, “You could have been burned alive in there! Ugh, let’s just get in the van, all of you!” You jumped into the driver’s seat, grabbing both rabbits and setting them on top of the center console. Richard swung himself into the passenger’s seat, just barely managing to buckle up before you floored it. Peeling out of the parking lot, ignoring the shouts of anger and surprise from the gathered patrons outside, you turned back down the road to grab the Lunarians before all of you set out for the base.

“Well, how about that fire?” you remarked, “How’s that for convenience?”

“Convenience?” Richard asked incredulously, “My workplace just burned down, I’m out of a job, and now I’m wanted for carjacking! How is this in any way convenient?”

“Technically, it’s van-jacking we’re wanted for,” you corrected, “but hey! At least we got what we came for! Now we just have to pick up the others and we’ll be on our way,”

“And I’ll have to fire up my resume,” he added, dismayed. He was silent the rest of the ride though, so it didn’t bother you too much.

A little over an hour later, everyone was loaded in the van, along with some supplies that the two of you could find. Food, ropes, bats, etc. Anything that could come in handy while breaking Chang’e and Jade out of prison. You also brought along a map of the base on Merritt Island, acquired while you were undergoing astronaut training.

“Okay,” you said, spreading the map on the floor so the Lunarians could see. You were in the back of the van, dark except for the little bit of light coming from the window separating you from the cab. Richard drove up front, listening in on the conversation. “So I suggest that we enter from this side of the base, it’s not as guarded as the rest of the entrances. From there we can – yawn – get inside and -”

“Hey bud,” Gobi interjected, looking worriedly at you. “Maybe we should take a break, catch some Z’s or something.”

“What do you mean, I’m fine,” you complained, punctuating the end of your sentence with another yawn.

“No you’re not, you’re exhausted. How long have you been awake anyways?”

You mentally went over the numbers in your head. Gobi was right; by now you had been awake for over twenty hours. You needed as much sleep as you could get, you had a big two or three days ahead of you! Nodding, you agreed, and said, “Alright guys, let’s just – take five or so, get some shut-eye. It’s a long drive anyways.”

Leo and Simba curled up in the back of the van, purring softly in their sleep. The Lunettes crowded together, falling asleep leaning against each other. Gobi was curled up in a ball a couple of feet from where you were, and Bungee and Maggie were snuggled up against you, enjoying the warmth your body gave off.

As you were drifting off to sleep, longing for a familiar pair of arms around you, Richard whispered something in your direction,

“Hey, sparkler,”

You sat up. Now there was a name that you hadn’t heard in many years. “Did you just call me -”

“Yeah, just – whatever” he added quickly, “It’s just – there’s something I -” he sighed, and he paused for a second. After a long minute, he quietly said, “I’m sorry. For everything, I mean. That happened between us. I was just so worried about losing you and…I didn’t realize until it was too late that I already had.”

You were silent after that, and thought about his apology for several long minutes. Now this wasn’t something you were expecting from him. It felt surreal, that after all these years he actually felt bad about what happened. It felt good, hearing it from him. Finally, some closure over how things ended.

“I get it Rich. You know, there’s something I gotta tell you too,”

“What’s that?”

“I never stopped loving you.”

He turned to look back at for a second before turning back towards the road. “What?” he asked, astonished.

“I mean it. I may have left you, tried to get as far away from you as I could, but…I couldn’t stop loving you. I guess that’s why I tried so hard to stay away from you, why I filed the order in the first place…I knew how easy it would have been for me to lose my resolve and come back to you. I knew that I needed to save myself, that I couldn’t save you. You needed to learn how to save yourself.”

Richard was quiet for a moment, “So, even though you still love me…there’s still no second chance for us?”

“There should have never been a first chance, Richie. And I’m not trying to be hurtful, but let’s face it – our marriage was doomed to implode from day one. Like I said, I didn’t love you in a romantic sense, I couldn’t fulfill those unique emotional needs. I married you for all the wrong reasons, and our friendship suffered because of it. I know this is hard to hear, but it needed to be said.” You offered him a small smile, “I hope that you can find someone someday that loves you the way I couldn’t.”

Richard offered a small grin of his own, in consolation. “Well, thank you at least, for being honest, I mean. And I guess we’re halfway there already.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’ve already found someone that you love the way you didn’t love me.”

You blushed in the darkness, hoping that he couldn’t see your cheeks burning red. “That’s kind of a strong word for how I feel about Chang’e -”

“Cut the bullshit, sparks. I hear the way you talk about her: you love her, and you know it.”

Pausing for a moment, you took a deep breath and admitted, “I guess I feel some strong emotions for her -”

“It’s not just that. Just…stop lying to yourself, alright? If not for your own sake, at least for hers.”

“Whatever. ’Night, Rich,”

“’Night, sparky. Think about what I said, okay?”

You didn’t answer him. Instead, you rolled over, and tried to get some sleep as the van bumped along the long island road.

Chapter Text

The late afternoon air was still as you watched the Merritt Island base, looking for signs of movement. For the past two days, your group had been staying in a motel not too far from the base, spending your time brainstorming plans to break in. Luckily, your room had a good view of the base from it (well, as good as a view can get over several rooftops), so you were able to keep an eye on it for any extra movement. This was it, though. There was no turning back now. As you stared out at the base through the motel room’s window, you felt a sinking feeling in your gut. Something was gonna change after tonight. You just didn’t know whether it would be a good or a bad change.

“Okay,” you started, as you turned to address the room’s occupants. “Does everyone know what the plan is?”

“We’ve gone over the plan four times in the past hour, sparks! I think I speak for everyone here when I say we know what we’re doing!” Richard answered, itching to get started. You were, frankly, quite surprised by his enthusiasm. Then again, he did have a rather interesting role in the plan, so you weren’t too surprised. For better or worse, Rich always did relish the idea of adventure, even when you two were kids.

“Hey come on! She’s just checking that we know what we’re doing!” Gobi retorted, casting a glare at Rich. “Though he kinda does have a point, I think we’re good here.” he muttered, conceding that point to your ex. Despite the events of the past few days, Gobi’s attitude towards your ex was still rather frosty. For good enough reasons, you readily admitted.

“Hey, knock it off with the bickering, alright? That goes for both of you,” you asked, looking both Gobi and Richard in the eye. “You two are working together on your part of the plan, and we can’t afford to have this attempt fail. This may be our last chance to get Chang’e and Jade back. So can you two just work together enough to free them? Then you can go back to hating each other!”

Gobi cast a wary eye at Rich, but listened to you. “Alright, but only until we get the goddess and Jade back!”

“Fine by me,” Rich agreed, “Then we can stop pretending to like each other, hedgehog.”

“Rich, please,” you begged, sighing and rubbing your forehead with your hands. This was gonna be a long night.

“Are you certain this will work, mortal?” Rose asked, looking concerned.

“I’ve done my best to work out the kinks in this plan, and I can say that we have a good chance at succeeding.”

“What does ‘a good chance’ mean?” Teal questioned you, “Don’t you know anything for certain? ‘A good chance’ doesn’t sound very good!”

“Look, nothing in life is ever certain!” you protested, “But a good chance is better than no chance at all. Here’s the thing: I’m a scientist, there are few things that anyone can know for certain! The best we can hope for most of the time is being ‘mostly sure’, or in this case, ‘a good chance’. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take that over no chance at all. At least, with some chance, that means we have hope of getting them back. And I’m gonna take that and run with it.”

The other were silent for a minute, taking in your words. You had a point, some chance was better than no chance, after all. They were willing to go with it if it meant getting their goddess back. Better for them to try and fail than to never try at all. They had come this far, and by the moon, they were going to see it through.

“Then we’ll run with you,” Goldie replied, “I want the goddess and Jade back as much as anyone else does!”

“That’s the spirit!” you cheered, before turning to Simba. “Are you guys ready for your part?”

In response the lion grabbed a large paper bag that was off to his side, the top rolled down to avoid exposing the contents. Holding it in his maw, he showed it to you while Gobi and Richard glanced at each other nervously. In contrast, both lions growled in excitement, looking eager to get to work.

“Great!” you said, “We’re gonna head out first, it’s gonna get dark soon and we need to avoid being seen. It doesn’t matter so much if you guys are seen; you’re the diversion, after all.”

With that, you grabbed a large backpack filled with everything you were gonna need and zipped up your hoodie. You had dressed to look as inconspicuous as possible: solid black hoodie, matching black jeans, combat boots, gloves, and a ski mask covering your face. You would keep the ski mask and gloved off until you reached the base, though. Wouldn’t do you much good to be mistaken for a burglar and get arrested before you even made it to your destination. Feeling the pocket of your jeans, you checked to make sure you had your locket. You never traveled without it before, you weren’t gonna start now.

Opening the window a little more, you gestured for the three Lunettes to climb out and start heading down the fire escape. Taking pains to not be seen, they did just that, hiding out behind a dumpster on the ground and waiting for the others. Bungee and Maggie hopped out next, and you went out last, following them. Swinging one leg over the windowsill, you were about to swing the other one when Richard suddenly grabbed your arm.

“Hey, sparks,” he said, “I just wanted to say…thanks. For asking me to help you. I’ve wanted to talk to you for a long time, to get a chance to say I was sorry to your face, and…I needed this.”

You were quiet for a second, before responding, “If we’re being honest here, I kinda needed this too. If anything, because I wanted the closure. I’m glad we can end this chapter of our lives on a note that’s not sour.”

“Same here,” he agreed, “And…be careful, okay? This whole thing is risky as hell, try to come back in one piece, alright?”

“I won’t make any promises, but I’ll do my best,” you relented, “Be safe! Maybe we’ll see each other again when this is all over.”

And with that you hopped out the window, joining the rest of your group. Carefully making your way through the city streets, the six of you headed towards the base, blissfully unaware of what the next twenty-four hours would bring.

___________________________________________________________________________________

All was quiet in the Merritt Island Space Center’s control room. Before two rather bored privates stood a wall of screens, each one showing a different view of the base. They provided a continuous feed of the area they filmed, in crystal-clear greyscale so no detail should escape the eyes of the men watching them. In front of the screens was a monitor designed to pick up on radar signals, with a sweeping arm spinning in a never-ending circle around the center point. Overall, this setup was perfectly designed to keep an eye on every inch of the base.

What a shame that the privates weren’t so keen on watching everything themselves.

Miller looked up at his fellow soldier, waiting for his turn. He watched the micro-movements of his face, trying to determine if he was bluffing or not. “Last chance, man. You wanna fold or stay in?”

Bluth shifted his cards. He felt confident about this hand, so his response was, “I’m still in. In fact, I’ll raise you ten more dollars. Are you still in?” He kept his facial expression neutral, thwarting Miller’s attempt to read him. One didn’t win Texas Hold ‘Em by acting openly cocky, or downhearted when their hand was bad.

Miller raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but answered in the positive: “Sure, whatever. Let’s see what you got.” He chipped in ten more dollars and waiting for Bluth to show his hand.

He didn’t have to wait long. Bluth laid his cards on the table, spreading them out so Miller could see the two kings and three aces. “Full house, Mill. Let me see you beat that!” He dropped the stoic expression and waited for Miller to reveal his hand.

Miller calmly laid down his cards, revealing a straight flush.

“Dammit!” Bluth muttered as Miller slid his winnings over to his side of the table. “How are you still beating me? We’ve been at this for hours and I haven’t won once!”

“Beats me,” Miller replied, nonchalantly pocketing the money he had won. “It’s still the best entertainment we’ve got tonight.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Bluth conceded, “I swear, this has to be the most boring night ever!”

Just as he said that a soft beeping sound rang out from the radar screen. Rolling his chair over to the console, Miller checked out what the radar had picked up. There were two small green dots, on the edge of the circle but heading closer, heading in at a swift but consistent speed.

“Hey Bluth,” the private called, getting the other man’s attention, “You wanna tell me what we’re looking at here? Radar’s having trouble picking up on their signal. I don’t think these things are aircraft, at least not one of our own.”

“Private aircraft aren’t allowed in our airspace, right?” Bluth asked.

“Yeah, that’s right. So they’re not that. I think if we can just -”

They were cut off by a loud bang from the outside, and one of the screens showing the northern perimeter of the base suddenly lit up. Startled, the two privates turned their attention to that screen, trying to figure out what on earth just happened.

“What the hell! Are we being bombed?” Bluth yelled, starting to sound nervous.

In response to his question there were several even louder bangs, and three more of the screens lit up in a chaotic rainbow of colors. There was also a loud ‘sparkling’ sound that followed after each bang.

“I think we are,” Miller answered, trying to remain calmer than his companion.

“Holy shit! What do we do? Our CO never told us what to do! The only reason I asked to be assigned here was because you never have to do anything!” Bluth shouted, edging into full-on panic mode.

“Shut up, Bluth!” Miller replied. They were already being attacked by an unknown assailant, the last thing he wanted to do was play babysitter to his fellow private. “We’re not gonna figure out what’s going on by just sitting here shrieking our heads off! Let’s check out the feed, see if we can identify what they’re using.”

They turned their attention back to the screens, looking for any distinguishing signs that could be used to tell them what kind of explosives the attackers were using. Just then another bang rang out, sounding much closer to their position than the last few. Once more, a colorful collection of lights lit up the screen, the feed on that one showing the area just outside the entrance to the research and defense wing.

“Hold up,” Bluth said, sounding less panicked and more confused now. “Are those…fireworks?”

Outside the control room, hundreds of feet up in the air, Richard hung on for dear life as Simba entered a steep dive, narrowing escaping being spotted by one of the search lights currently sweeping the skies. The dim skies of twilight stretched out over him, while the warm evening air whipped past his body. Richard wasn’t too keen on checking out the view right now, though. He hugged his legs around the lion’s torso, and used his elbows to pin his upper body against the beast’s neck. With his left hand he held another firework steady, with his right he held a lighter. In one quick motion he lit the wick, raised his left arm, and chucked the colorful explosive towards the base below. A few seconds later a satisfying boom! reached his ears, letting him know that the firework had reached its target successfully. For a moment he took his bag of pyrotechnics, snugged them under his body so he wouldn’t drop it, and he gripped Simba’s mane as tight as he could.

“Did I forget to mention that I’m afraid of heights?” he yelled at Gobi, who was riding on Leo’s back with much more confidence than the mortal man. He was happily lighting and throwing fireworks at the base below like he had been doing it all his life.

“A little bit late, isn’t it?” the Lunarian yelled back, struggling to make himself heard over the wind whistling past their ears. “C’mon, you’re doing great! Just hang on, keep throwing, and we’ll be fine!”

Richard yelped as Simba suddenly shot up, tightening his grip in the nick of time to avoid getting thrown off. “You sound awfully sure of yourself! What is this isn’t enough?”

“What if it is?” Gobi retorted, “It’s gonna work! As long as the others get Chang’e and Jade out in time, we’re good!”

“I hope you’re right,” Rich said in a normal speaking voice, though here it was soft enough that only he heard it. Simba and Leo dove lower towards the ground, trying to help the mortal and Lunarian each get a better shot in.

Back in the control room, Miller and Bluth had already alerted the rest of the base, hoping that the other soldiers would be able to drive off the unknown assailants. As the alarms rang out through the halls and the red lights strobed on and off, they turned back to each other.

“What’s gonna happen now?” Bluth asked, “We did our job, what’s their job?”

“Well, given that our oddly flamboyant attackers are assaulting us from the air, the boys are probably gonna use anti-aircraft weapons. You know those new gun turrets we had built a couple of months ago?” Miller asked.

“Yeah?”

“Looks like they’re finally gonna test those out,” Miller concluded, a smirk inching its way across his face. “Methinks our night just got a little more interesting.”

Meanwhile, you had successfully managed to creep your way to a building that you assumed was your destination. It didn’t help that the map you had used to plan this mission was severely outdated; the base was so much bigger than it had been when you were training here! It now covered at least five square miles, with several new buildings dotting the grounds. Fortunately, the research division hadn’t changed much, with the exception of a couple new additions on the outside. You, Maggie, Bungee, and the Lunettes had managed to make your way from the barbed-wire fence guarding the base (after cutting out a hole to sneak through using some pliers), waited until Gobi and Richard had started lobbing pyrotechnics from the air, and sprinted across the greens. Ducking behind buildings, the six of you took advantage of the fireworks blinding the security cameras momentarily and ran when you wouldn’t be seen. Granted, it was more than a little dangerous; you had almost been hit and burned by a stray firecracker at least three times. But it was worth it, seeing as how all of you had made it to the research and defense building without being seen.

Reaching into your backpack, you pulled out a set of lockpicking tools, combing through them for the one best suited for the lock in front of you. It was a complicated, multi-component lock; it had to be, given what was stored (or imprisoned, as it may be), so you would be using multiple tools for the job. There was a deadbolt, key combination pad, and an additional keyhole for extra security. Pawing through the pins and pliers in your hand, you narrowed down your options.

“Okay,” you stated, confirming your choices. “So it looks like I’m gonna have to start with -”

There was a zapping sound, and you leapt back from the door when a blast of pink energy hit the lock. In a second, the whole mechanism has melted, the hot liquified metal pooling around the edges of the hole where the lock had been.

Whipping your head around, you expected Maggie’s ears to be glowing with leftover energy. To your surprise, it was Bungee that had shot the lock, her ears still pointed ahead and her expression determined.

“…Or you could just do that,” you admitted, impressed by the elder rabbit’s tenacity.

Shoving the door open, you gripped it by its edges so that it wouldn’t slam against the opposite wall. Heading down the hallways, you ignored the blaring alarms and flashing red lights going off as the six of you proceeded with caution. Peering your head around an open corridor, you noticed a door mounted in the wall on your side of the hall. Quickly yanking yourself back so the guard stationed outside the door wouldn’t see you, you went over whatever details you could catch about it mentally. It was locked heavily, even more so than the outside doors, and was made of a much nicer material as well. Some dark, expensive-looking wood; mahogany if you had to guess. There was also a name etched into a nameplate mounted to the front of the door: General William H. Artax, Commanding Officer. Below that in slightly smaller print read: Director of Research and Defense, Merritt Island Space Center.

That name definitely rang a bell for you. Everyone that had passed through this base had heard of General Artax. Some people praised him as a hero, an explorer that had conquered the hostile environment of the moon and made it back home using his own wits. Others condemned him as a madman, seeing his obsession with all things lunar as a sign of untreated PTSD. You didn’t have any strong opinions about him yourself. To you, he had just been there, someone to respect for sure, but not someone to fear. Until now.

“Hey,” you whispered to Rose, who was standing closest to you. “Does the name ‘Artax’ ring any bells?”

She shook her head, and whispered back, “No. The men that took the goddess never said their names.”

You went over Gobi’s account of the attack again in your head, trying to determine if there were any clues that you were missing. You remembered the black suits, their weapons, and how aggressive he said they were, but not much else. If only you had a name to work off of…

Hold on. He did mention that one of the men addressed their leader as ‘general’ at one point. Gobi said that the man with the stripes on his sleeves was referred to using that title. You had a hunch over who they were talking about…

“What about ‘general’?” you asked instead. “Does that sound familiar?”

“Yes!” all three Lunettes replied, sounding excited that they remembered that detail. Shushing Teal and Goldie, Rose turned back to you. “Their leader was called that by one of the other men. What does that word mean, ‘general’?”

“It refers to someone that’s very important in the military. The man in charge of this base, Artax, is a general. We’re near his office, it’s just around the corner. I think he’s the one that took Chang’e and Jade, but we have to break into his office and go through his files to make sure. We can also find out which part of the base they’re being kept in. Get behind me; I’m gonna take out the guard outside the door, and the five of you have to unlock the door and bolt in quickly. I’ll follow you inside as soon as I’ve disposed of the man. We’re clear?”

“Yes. Be careful, mortal!” Teal implored as you pulled a baseball bat out of your bag and slowly crept around the corner.

Thankfully, the guard had turned away from your direction when you approached him. With a sudden swing, your bat collided with the back of his head and he crashed to the floor with a dull thud.

“Ouch!” you winced, taking a moment before following the others into the room. “I hope I didn’t hurt him or anything!” You dragged the guard into a nearby hall closet, taking off his jacket and using it to cradle his bleeding skull. It would be nice to call a doctor or something, if that didn’t also mean getting caught. Oh well, hopefully someone found him before too long. Before you closed the door, you unclipped his gun from its holster and shoved it into your belt. Never know if you’ll have to use it later or not.

Creeping into the room last, you shut the door behind you and clicked the lock back in place. To no one’s surprise, the general’s office was exactly the way you pictured it would be. Bookshelves stuffed with medals and medallions on display, a case filled with models of various spacecraft behind the desk, and a closet filled with all his uniforms in a nearby corner. In addition, there was a singular bookshelf dedicated solely to books on all things moon: geology of the moon, history, its cultural significance around the world, even books of poetry about the moon. There were one or two books dedicated to Chinese mythology and folklore, but they were dominated by all the lunar literature. Geez. Think this guy was obsessed or something? you thought.

You didn’t care too much about what the room looked like, anyways. The others were already searching the place vigorously, looking for any clues on Chang’e and Jade’s whereabouts. The Lunettes had opened all the drawers on a nearby filing cabinet, and were combing through the files one-by-one. They would take out some files, if it caught their attention for some reason, but they ended up putting them all back. Meanwhile, Bungee and Maggie had hopped up onto the general’s desk, pawing through the papers scattered there and opening the drawers.

You hurried over to the desk to join the rabbits, sliding into the general’s chair and clicking his computer on. Immediately, you were faced with a login screen, with a window for entering a password appearing right in the center.

“Oh shit,” you muttered.

“What?” Goldie asked, not liking your tone just now. “What’s happening? Is something wrong?”

“Sort of,” you explained. “This computer needs a password for me to access it.”

“But you don’t know what that is!” Teal protested.

“Well no shit, Sherlock!” you retorted, before taking a deep breath and adding, “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. Look, he probably wrote it down somewhere, or at least wrote down a clue. Let’s start by looking for that!”

“Who’s Sherlock?” Goldie asked.

“That’s not important! We need to look for the password, look for a small piece of paper that’s been folded up, or something kept away in a drawer, where you would expect no one else to find it. Bungee, Maggie, and I will check the desk while you three keep checking the filing cabinets. Now come on, we don’t have much time!”

You started opening up the drawers beneath the desktop, looking for something that looked like it would hold a password. There were a couple of little books in there, organizers that looked like they contained important information, but you came up with nothing. Frantic, you pulled stuff from the very back of the drawers and pawed through the contents. Still nothing. This was getting serious. If you didn’t figure out where Chang’e and Jade were before someone found you, that’s it! It was game over for you, and for Lunaria.

You slowed down for a moment, rethinking your approach. General Artax was smart, you knew that much. You had a theory about his behavior regarding important information like passwords: he wouldn’t keep that sort of thing in a conventional spot, where anyone with half a brain would know where to look for it. Of course! You had been looking in the wrong spot all along! But what was the right spot?

With the wheels turning in your head, you looked over at the bookshelf with the moon books stacked on it. While the general was smart, he also was an obsessive man, if this shelf and the events of the past few months were anything to go off of. Hurrying over there, you began taking books off the shelf one-by-one and flipping through them, looking for anything that stood out to you. Finally, while thumbing through a book of poems called Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre, your eye was caught by a particular bit of prose:

Some say the moon does rise

To speak of love, and damsels fair,

Strong arms to hold, caress with

Kisses soft and longings deep.

For me ‘tis but an orb

Pale and want, a herald of

The dark within,

Lurking in the shadows deep…

Scribbled just below the last ominous line, there was a word and a set of numbers in slightly eligible writing: W.Ar.Tax1939. Judging by the way the line was written, the safest bet would be that this was the password.

Running back to the computer, you typed in the line to the text box, and hit Enter. With a chime, the computer logged on and the general’s desktop popped up.

“Okay, great! Looks like we’re in!” you said, getting everyone else’s attention. “Let’s see where they’re keeping our friends.”

Crowding over your shoulders so they could see what you were doing, the Lunettes and rabbits watched the screen in fascination, seeing if any of them could spot anything that might help you. There didn’t seem to be a lot to go off of, unfortunately. You tried clicking on all the folders that looked promising; you checked folders timestamped when the raid happened, folders with the words ‘moon’, ‘Lunar Gateway’; even personal files such as family photos. Nothing.

“Wait, what’s this file?” Rose asked, pointing to a folder on the screen marked Project Ascension.

“No idea,” you replied. “Think it might be important?”

“Well, um, I’m only thinking it may be helpful because the title reminded me of the goddess.”

“How so?”

“Because it’s named after ascension, and it made me think of Chang’e’s ascension to become a goddess. Maybe there’s a connection here? I don’t know, I don’t have much experience with why mortals give things certain names,” she meekly explained.

“You know, it’s not the worst idea in the world,” you concurred, “Let’s see if your hunch is right!”

You clicked on the folder and began reading all the documents you could find. There were a lot of them, even some that didn’t even look like they should be relevant to the mission. One file in particular drew your eye, it looked like a presentation of some sort. Perhaps it would be a helpful overview of this ‘project’? Clicking on it, you looked through what you found.

After you finished viewing it, you were left with more questions than answers. “The general’s seen Chang’e before?” you asked.

“Why didn’t anyone notice his first visit to Lunaria?” Goldie questioned.

“Why would he want to create an army of gods? Is that even possible?” Teal added, stunned.

“Did anyone else see that audio file?” Rose concluded.

“What file?” you inquired.

“At least, I think it was an audio file. It looked like one, anyways. It was back in the folder, saved separately. It might be important, I don’t know.”

You clicked out of the presentation and found what Rose was talking about. Indeed, it was an audio file. You were impressed by Rose’s ability to recognize something like that, despite having minimal exposure to modern technology. “Huh, look at that. Don’t know why the general would want something like this here. Let’s listen.”

You clicked on the ‘play’ button and paid attention, trying to find if there was anything relevant. It didn’t sound significant at all, it just sounded like a bunch of random chittering and shrieking. “Well that’s weird,” you commented, “It just sounds like a bunch of…bugs. What the hell could Artax want with this?”

Suddenly, Maggie was pointing at a corner of the screen, towards a button in the top right corner. “What is it?” you asked, but she continued tapping the screen, looking even more insistent. Looking closely at what had gotten her attention, you saw a button that read ‘transcribe’.

“Wait, this is a language?” you asked, stunned. “Who on earth would speak a language like this? It doesn’t even sound human!”

“But what if it isn’t?” Teal countered.

You spun around to look at her, taken aback at her theory. “Not human? Hmmm….I didn’t think of that,” you answered. You clicked on the ‘transcribe’ button and pressed play again, feeling equal parts curiosity and dread.

Greetings, people of Earth. You do not know who we are, or where we come from, but we know everything about your race. We have watched your planet for millennia…

By the time the audio had finished playing your face had turned white in fear. Our extinction? Their salvation? Are they saying they’re gonna devour all humanity? But that isn’t right! you thought with horror. You turned to look at the Lunarians gathered around you. Their expressions of fear matched your own.

“Did they say they were gonna…kill everyone?” Goldie asked, her voice trembling with fear.

“They don’t see it like that though, which is even worse!” Teal interjected, panic lacing her words. “They’re only thinking of saving themselves, and will justify wiping out everyone on earth for that alone!”

“Now calm down,” you interrupted, trying to soothe everyone’s minds.

“Why are you telling us to stay calm?!” Rose retorted, sounding incredulous at your tone. “If they want to wipe out everyone on earth, that includes you!”

“I don’t think I’m gonna be around in four hundred years anyway!” you countered, “Besides, if anything, that fact that this ‘Swarm’ sent this message is a good thing. It means that earth has four centuries to prepare for them. We should be ready to meet them, and we’ll have enough time to find a way to drive them off.”

“Maybe this general was thinking the same thing,” Teal cautiously added.

“What do you mean?” you asked.

“If he was trying to stop an alien invasion, especially one that’s centuries off, it suddenly makes sense why he’s trying to create an army of gods. Gods, or goddesses, can’t die, and they’re immortal. They’ll have all that time to prepare for the invasion, the general won’t have to train multiple generations of soldiers, and you can’t exactly kill a soldier that’s already unkillable.”

You blinked. Of course! It all made sense now: why the general had abducted Chang’e and Jade, why he was so interested in the moon, why he was only making his move now. All the pieces were starting to come together. “That’s actually a brilliant theory, Teal,” you stated, causing the Lunette in question to smile slightly in pride.

That didn’t make the general’s actions right, though. Trying to save the human race from extinction didn’t justify taking an innocent woman from her home, and doing gods-know-what on her. Your stomach flipped when you thought of what kinds of experiments the scientists here had been performing on her. A renewed sense of urgency filled your heart. You had to get them out now. It would be too late if you failed and attempted a second rescue.

Clicking out of the audio file, you returned to the folder, and started looking for any schematics of the base, trying to figure out where the goddess and rabbit were most likely to be held. Your eyes were drawn to one last file, titled Chiyou.

You opened the file, and you were taken to a set of blueprints. On the screen looked like some sort of advanced spacecraft. It was tall, almost 350 feet tall according to the measurements, and wide; if the blueprints were correct, the seats inside the craft were three rows thick. There was enough room to carry at least 500 people, and also several tons of equipment if the large storage area in the back of the ship was anything to go off of. It was fueled by a massive nuclear reactor, even larger than the one used to fuel the Lunar Gateway. Looking closely at the diagram, you were surprised to see what looked like the covers for strange openings; they reminded you of the portholes that stuck out of colonial ships for cannons. Clicking on some of the schematics, you saw to your confusion that the rocket used a navigation system based on star patterns and constellations. Interesting choice, you thought. The way this ship was designed, it’s like it was meant to go out beyond the solar system. Finally, some notes on the side of the blueprints indicated that this craft, the Chiyou, was apparently docked in the northeast quadrant of the base.

“What could they want with something like that?” Rose asked.

“If Teal’s theory is correct, then General Artax probably had this craft commissioned to take troops into battle against the Swarm,” you theorized. “Although, it appears to be better suited for long-distance travel rather than combat. Maybe…maybe the general doesn’t want to stop at saving the world. What if he wanted to go beyond our world, out to the stars? With an army that can’t be killed, he could potentially conquer any inhabited planet he comes across. He could become the greatest conqueror in the universe!” This went far beyond saving the earth, you knew now. Stopping Artax meant saving untold worlds that would otherwise fall to the ambitious general’s forces, and submit to his will.

“We don’t have time to worry about that now!” Goldie interjected, sounding anxious at how far off track everyone had gotten. “Where are the goddess and Jade? Once we find them, we can focus on what this general has planned!”

“Right, right!” you replied, hurriedly closing the file and combing through the folder again. Finding a map of the base and opening it, you looked for where Chang’e and Jade were. To your relief, they weren’t far from here. They were both about a couple more hallways from your current location. They were in a secured area, so you would have to find a security tag sooner or later. There would presumably also be guards at some point, so you’d have to watch out for those. Sending the file to the printer on the other side of the office, you snatched it and headed for the door.

“Come on, let’s get going!” you urged, heading out the door silently. Bungee and Maggie followed you, with the Lunettes taking up the rear. Rose silently closed the door behind her with a soft click, and then all six of you were on your way down the hall.

Meanwhile, Dr. Borgen was rushing around her lab, sliding vials into refrigerated cases and downloading all her notes onto USB drives to take with her. When the base had been locked down, it didn’t take her long to realize that there was only one reason someone would be breaking in to this part of the base: they were coming for the assets. She wasn’t gonna let them be taken, not on her watch. Granted, her research was finally completed, she had what she wanted. Just to make sure, she patted her pocket, making sure that the product was in there. She had already sent a sample on to General Artax, but she kept a second sample for herself. A good scientist isn’t easily parted with their work.

Having finished packing her notes and biological materials, Dr. Borgen turned to an animal carrier on the table behind her and checked the lock. There was a low growl from the cage, she she ignored it. “You, my friend, better not cause any trouble during the evacuation,” she said, jabbing the cage with her finger. “We’ve already gotten what we wanted out of you, it would be easy to dispose of you now. Don’t give us a reason to.”

“Leave him alone!” Chang’e shouted, slamming the palm of her hand against the glass angrily. By now it was an effort for her to stand up; her bones had grown weaker as her true age had started catching up to her. Her hair was a blend of black, grey, and white streaks, which under better circumstances would look elegant on her, and crow’s feet had started to develop at the corners of her eyes. Still, none of the effects of aging had affected her temper or resolve. Up to this moment she was still doing everything in her power to defy her captors.

Dr. Borgen chuckled, and turned to her other captive. “What? You want me to lie to him, tell him that he’s still useful to us? He’s already done his part to help create the product, why would we lead him on with the promise of more work?”

“Is that how you treat everyone that works for you? As a tool, to be disposed of once they’re no longer useful to you?” the goddess asked. No matter how much time she had spent with this awful woman, the doctor continued to surprise her with the depths of her callousness.

Dr. Borgen shrugged, “When you’re in my line of work, you gotta make hard decisions. No scientist worth their salt got anywhere by not crossing any lines.”

“You’re wrong,” Chang’e argued, as the tank’s door was opened and the doctor stepped in. “It’s possible to be a good scientist while still valuing the lives of others.”

“What a ludicrous idea!” the doctor laughed. “What kind of scientist gives up the chance to make the discovery of a lifetime just because it involves hurting someone else? Especially when ‘someone else’ is an asset as disposable as you.” She grabbed a set of cuffs and slapped them on the goddess’ wrists. When Chang’e had first been brought here, it would have taken six men to restrain her enough for the doctor to work on her. Now…Dr. Borgen was worried that she could hurt the goddess. Although, it would be inaccurate to say that she would be worried, per say.

Chang’e’s eyes widened at the term ‘disposable’. She knew that these people had what they wanted now, did that mean…as the doctor began yanking her by the cuffs out of the tank, she began fighting back, thrashing and trying to tug her hands free of the doctor’s grip.

“Stop fighting me!” the doctor whined, dragging the terrified goddess out of the tank and into the lab. “You’re just making this harder for -”

Both of them froze when a gunshot rang out through the room, but only for a moment. A split-second later, the doctor screamed as a bullet tore through her wrist, shredding the nerves and blood vessels before tearing out the other side. Clutching her injured wrist, she let go of Chang’e and glared angrily in the direction the shot had come from.

The room was unusually dark; since the base had gone into lockdown the lab lights had shut off. Now, only the scarlet glare of the alarm lights flashing on and off provided any illumination. In the shadows on the far side of the room, the silhouette of someone wearing a hood over their face crept forward. They held a handgun in both their hands, their fingers strangling the weapon in a white-knuckled grip. Slowly, the mysterious gunslinger reached up and pulled their hood down, revealing a ski mask covering their face. Yanking it down revealed a snarling, furious expression.

You looked Dr. Borgen right in the eyes and hissed, “Get away from her you BITCH!”

The doctor let go of her bleeding wrist, using her free hand to reach around her waist and grab her own handgun. While doing that, she snarled back at you, “Who. In the hell. Do you think you are?”

“Who I am isn’t important. What is important is the fact that you’re hurting my friend. I strongly advise that you let her and the rabbit go. Now. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty if you don’t listen to me.” The gun trembled in your shaking hands as you issued your ultimatum, but you didn’t care. If getting Chang’e and Jade out of here alive meant taking down the doctor (and possibly getting yourself taken out in the process), then so be it.

In response to your demand, Dr. Borgen aimed at you with her gun. You barely had time to duck behind the lab bench before her first bullet ripped through the air where your head had just been. She dove towards the other side of the bench, intent on getting in a good shot at you.

You popped over the other side of the lab bench and began firing in the direction you last heard her footsteps fall. Your next four bullets came close to taking out the mad doctor, but they kept missing. While you ducked behind the bench to load another magazine into the handgun, she returned the favor by firing off a volley of bullets in your direction. It turned out, unfortunately for you, that the doctor was a pretty good shot (for someone with only one functioning wrist). One of her bullets just managed to graze your arm; not seriously enough to warrant immediate medical attention, but just concerning enough to keep an eye on.

As she stepped back to reload, you bolted to a table holding a series of instruments, designed presumably to collect and process biological samples. This brought you closer to the doctor’s location. Now that you were able to see her better, you glanced at the area around her. Seeing an LED light panel hanging above her head, a light bulb went off in yours. Firing two bullets just above the light fixture, you were able to weaken the ceiling enough to send the panel crashing down towards the doctor’s head. Hearing the sound of shattering drywall just above her, Dr. Borgen looked up from reloading her next magazine.

That brief moment was all you needed. In that split second when the doctor was distracted, you sprinted forward as fast as your legs could carry you. You raised your weapon up, lined the sights up right in the back of the doctor’s skull, and pulled the trigger.

Your feet skidded across the linoleum tiles and slammed into the pile of crumpled drywall and sparking LED’s, stopping you just before you could take the doctor’s place under the falling debris. Her body was only partially covered by the broken ceiling anyways, but you hadn’t wanted to take any chances. It was doubtful if the debris would have killed either you or her, though. She was already dead by the time the drywall and light fixture had crushed her body, the bullet you put in her head having done the dirty deed.

You looked up, panting, to where Chang’e had been standing. You saw that the Lunettes had already been working to remove the cuffs from her wrists. They had found a pair of pliers on a nearby workbench and had used those to snip off the cuffs, which were now lying on the floor, worthless. Meanwhile, Bungee and Maggie had jumped on top of the table where the animal carrier was, and Maggie had already melted the latch so Jade could hop out. At the moment, Bungee was working on gnawing away the muzzle binding Jade’s mouth shut. A second later the muzzle fell away and Bungee nuzzled her mate, happy to have him by her side again.

Turning back to Chang’e, you saw that she was staring at you, wide-eyed and with an expression that was equal parts relieved and horrified. Wondering why she had the latter look in her eyes, you noticed that she was staring at the gun in your still-shaking hands. The weight of your actions finally hit you, and you carefully set the gun down on the table, slapping it away once you were sure it wouldn’t go off.

Bolting towards the nearest trash can, you vomited until your stomach was still heaving despite being empty. Chang’e watched on, waiting until you were catching your breath before speaking, “Are you done yet? If we want to get out of here we really should move.”

“For Gods’ sake Chang’e, I just killed someone! I need a moment!” Your hands were still shaking as you gripped the edges of the can. Straightening up, you walked over to a nearby sink and swished some water around your mouth. Wiping your mouth with the corner of your hoodie sleeve, you turned back to the goddess.

Chang’e winced in guilt, and replied, “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. It’s just…I’m very confused by this turn of events.”

“We’re here to save you, goddess! You and Jade! What’s so confusing about that?” Teal asked, looking up at the goddess in question.

Chang’e kneeled so that she could address all three Lunettes. Offering a warm smile, she answered, “And for that I am eternally grateful, my little Lunettes. You are, without a doubt, some of the bravest Lunarians I have known.” Teal, Goldie, and Rose embraced Chang’e at that moment, feeling proud of themselves for how they were able to serve their goddess. Standing back up, Chang’e looked over at Jade, Bungee, and Maggie. “And I would assume that Jade’s family would come for him. But there’s one thing that still baffles me.” She turned to face you, “Why are you here, mortal? I thought you made your feelings about me quite clear. That you wanted to stay away. Your involvement with my rescue doesn’t make sense.”

Your temper flared for a second, before realizing that getting angry at her wasn’t going to help matters. You realized that there was a good chance that this would happen. Given how the two of you had parted ways, it made sense that she would be distrustful of your motives.

That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less.

“Chang’e, let me ask you this: why did Estraven rescue Genly from Pulefen Farm in Left Hand?”

She thought for a second, baffled that you would be asking about a book at a time like this. To her credit, you were surprised by your actions as well. But hopefully, if you framed the issue like this, it would help her better understand your intentions here. “Well that’s somewhat simple,” she replied, wondering where you were going with this, “Estraven felt that it was their fault that Genly was imprisoned in the first place. They realized that the two of them had seen the same events differently, and because of that, Genly was sent to the farm. Where are you going with this?” she questioned.

“Because I made the same mistakes that Estraven did,” you explained. As you spoke to the goddess, you also riffled through Dr. Borgen’s pockets, seeing if there was anything in there worth keeping. Pocketing a small black case, which you assumed was some sort of pill box, you turned back to Chang’e. “Here’s the thing: when I decided to leave Lunaria, my main motivation for leaving was because I, as a mortal, didn’t belong there. I still stand by that, but there was also an equally important reason: I had been attempting to send radio messages from the city for months, hoping someone would find me. I did that when attempted to use the radio, and again while constructing the rocket.” You stopped for a moment, abandoning the dead scientist to grab your gun, having already stuck the doctor’s own weapon into your belt. “I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone else found you, someone who’s intentions were more malicious than my own. I told you so right before I left, but I guess I didn’t make it clear enough. I assumed – my mistake – that you had the same concerns I did, and would protect yourself accordingly. My failure was that I assumed that you would see the same dangers I was seeing. And now you’re here because I didn’t warn you. My involvement with this rescue is my attempt at setting things right.”

By now you had walked over to the goddess, and were able to get a better look at her. “Oh my Gods,” you whispered, “You’re aging. It must be because you’ve been separated from the moon for so long. Your life force must be tied to it somehow.”

“I figured that would be the case,” Chang’e agreed, “But I don’t see why you feel the need to ‘fix’ anything. You made your choice! Why aren’t you standing by it?”

You looked up from examining Chang’e’s weathered hands, astonished. “My choice?” You asked, confused. “My choice, if you want to call it that, has always been to do whatever it took to keep you safe. Even now, where I would face life in prison for doing this, you still doubt my intentions. They were never to hurt you! And yet you’re acting like I never cared for you at all.”

The goddess looked away, “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I had assumed -”

“Here’s the thing: I assumed as well, and look at what happened. You want a word of advice? Don’t assume. Don’t make the same mistakes I did.”

You looked at the door to the lab. The eight of you had to hurry if you didn’t want to get caught. “We need to get going. There’ll be guards here soon, and we can’t fight them all off.”

“Right,” Chang’e replied, following you towards the door. The three Lunettes were right behind her, watching the goddess and yourself with concern. Jade, Bungee, and Maggie were the last to leave the room, with Maggie turning around for a second to fire a laser at a Bunsen burner. In a matter of minutes the room was set ablaze, destroying the rest of the research as well as the doctor’s body. Your group took off down a different hall than the one you had come from, hoping to avoid catching any further notice.

Unfortunately, it was too late for that. Back in his office, General Artax whipped around his ransacked office, his fury barely checked as he saw what items had been disturbed. The bookshelf had been disturbed, his computer had been used, and all the drawers and filing cabinets had been left open. Bolting over to his computer, he checked to see which files had been opened up. His suspicions were confirmed: whoever had broken in here was after her.

“Dammit!” he yelled, voicing his anger. “I knew it! I knew someone would find her! But who? Who would have known that she was kept here?” The general narrowed down the options mentally, ignoring the still-blaring alarms of the base going into lockdown. He needed to think. “Who could have possibly -”

Then it hit him. There was one person not working on this project that would have known about the assets, one person who would have given enough of a shit to break in and take his property. Turning back to his computer, he began going through the security footage. As the director of this base, he had access to all the cameras set up around here. It was vital that he was able to keep tabs on everything and everyone.

His suspicions were confirmed. Combing through the footage, he saw who he expected to see: that astronaut, the one that was left behind on the moon. Currently, he could see that she had taken the assets, and was running down a hallway along with some of those freaky-looking moon folk.

It was his fault. He never should have let her go. He should have kept her close, kept an eye on her so she wouldn’t attempt anything. That was a mistake that he wasn’t going to make twice.

Taking a key, he opened a drawer that thankfully went unnoticed when you had raided the place earlier. Reaching inside, he lifted up a small black box. Opening it, he took out a single white pill. This was it, the fruits of Dr. Borgen’s work. If his sister was the genius that she thought she was, this pill would do exactly what he wanted it to do. He rolled it around in his hand, hesitated only for a split-second, and tilted his head back.

Meanwhile, you and the others were outside the research building, sprinting towards the location where you, Richard, and Gobi agreed on meeting up. Ducking behind an outbuilding, the eight of you stopped for a moment to catch your breaths.

“Shouldn’t we be more careful?” Rose asked, “I mean, their cameras are still working. We could be spotted!”

“They already know we’re here,” you answered, “And as long as we stay ten steps ahead of them, we should be okay.”

You turned to look at Chang’e, checking to see if she was alright. Having most of her magic drained was taking a toll on her, you could tell. She was clutching her left forearm, but quickly let go once she realized that you were looking at her. You stepped closer and gently pried her fingers away.

“Here, let me look,” you coaxed, speaking softly and gently.

“I’m fine,” she huffed, pulling her arm away from your hands.

“No, you’re not. Why are you being like this? It’s one thing to be mad at me because I left, it’s another thing to actively reject help from someone.” You paused, “Trust me, I know what it’s like to not want to look weak. You’re only hurting yourself. I’m speaking from experience.” You cast her a knowing look.

She sighed, then slowly turned her arm back towards you. You noticed, to your surprise and relief, that the bandanna was still tied around her wrist. At least they let her keep that during her captivity. Rolling up her sleeve, you took a closer look. Dotting the skin up and down her arm were several perfectly circular bruises. Taking a closer look, you noticed the distinct pinpricks of needle-points right in the center of each bruise, like a bulls-eye. You also noticed that many of the bruises had turned red and were starting to swell. She must have acquired these when that doctor was taking samples from her, you thought. Your teeth clenched in anger at the thought of what that horrible woman had done to Chang’e.

“Here,” you said, “Let me get those cleaned for you.” Reaching into your backpack, you pushed aside the baseball bat to take out a first-aid kit. Pulling out some sanitizing wipes, some gloves, and some antibiotic cream, you motioned for the goddess to lift her arm up a bit more. “These’ll get infected, if they aren’t already.” Snapping on the gloves, you swabbed her arm so you could start tending to the wounds. The three Lunettes were keeping an eye out for any guards coming your way, while Maggie stood a little ways away with her parents. The three rabbits seemed to be in some sort of conversation (though you couldn’t tell, not knowing how to speak rabbit), and Jade and Bungee both looked agitated with Maggie. You ignored them though, and continued to focus on Chang’e.

Noticing her wince when you swabbed the wipe over her arm, you sheepishly said, “Sorry. Forgot that you could feel pain right now. Gotta remind myself of that.”

She was silent as you patched up her wounds, until she asked you, “Did you mean what you said? That your goal was always to protect me?”

You glanced up at her, before looking back down to apply the cream. “Yeah, I meant what I said. I never wanted any of this -” You gestured broadly around you, “- to happen. I was being honest when I said I cared about you. I guess I messed up by how I showed that care.”

“No!” Chang’e protested. She used her free hand to lift your chin up, forcing you to stop so she could address you. “Look, I -” she sighed, before continuing, “I know that you cared about me, in your own, unique way. I’ll be the first to admit it, I was angry when you left. Hurt, even. I had poured my heart out to you, and you left anyways. I was only thinking of myself in that moment, how much it would hurt me to lose you. I wasn’t thinking about what you wanted, what you needed. You deserved a life, one that only living on earth can provide. I was blind, and I couldn’t see that.”

“Blind? To what?” you asked.

“By what would be more accurate,” she replied. “I was blinded by my fear of being alone again, of losing you. For thousands of years I was alone, and I don’t mean in the physical sense. I had Jade and my subjects, yes, but…it’s different from having a companion, someone to hold, to love, to be loved by. And you gave that back to me.” She took a deep breath, “And when I lost you, I decided that you never cared about me to begin with. It was easier to accept than the idea that you did care, but not enough to stay.”

You smoothed the last of the bandages over her arm, and turned to look at her. “I’ve cared about you for a long time now. I’ll be honest, the last few months without you have been hard. I felt awful, realizing that I had never told you what I really felt for you. In a strange way, I’m glad we got to see each other one last time, even if the circumstances aren’t ideal. This…this has brought me closure.”

She offered you a shy smile, and returned with, “I’m glad I got to see you one last time as well.”

“Um, not to break this up or anything, but we really should get going!” Teal interjected, sounding nervous.

“Right!” you answered, starting off towards the meeting spot again. The other followed you, with Chang’e’s hand softly gripping yours as you ran.

A few minutes later, you met up again with Gobi, Richard, and the lions. All of you had agreed to meet up in the northwest quadrant of the base. From there, the Lunarians (Chang’e and the rabbits included) would return to the moon, being carried there by Leo and Simba. There was one big problem though.

“Oh no!” you whispered, hands covering your mouth as you beheld the stump where Simba’s left wing had been.

“We were shot,” Richard explained, looking shaken up by the incident. “They shot some sort of anti-aircraft weapon at us, and it tore off his wing. We crashed in a field nearby. I’m okay, for the most part, but this guy -” he gestured to Simba, “isn’t gonna be flying for a while.”

“I’m sorry, who’s this?” Chang’e asked, pointing at your ex.

“Oh sorry, forgot to introduce myself. Name’s Richard, ma’am.” He held out his hand so the goddess could shake it.

“YOU!” Chang’e exclaimed, storming over to him and reaching out, ready to throttle the man.

“Whoa whoa whoa, Chang’e!” you said as you jumped between them. “He comes in peace! He’s helping us here! He and Gobi provided a distraction so we could get you and Jade out!”

The goddess stopped just short of Richard, who had shrunk away and ducked behind Simba, looking terrified of her despite her current condition. “Please, listen to her! I really don’t mean her any harm!” he pleaded.

“I beg to differ! You hurt her, you bastard!” Chang’e countered, glaring at him with a murderous expression.

“He means it!” you protested. “He’s only been helping us so far! Please, Chang’e. We don’t have time for this right now. I appreciate you sticking up for me, but now’s not the time.”

Reluctantly, she backed away from your ex and returned to your side. She did, however, point at her eyes and then at Richard, letting him know in no uncertain terms that she was watching him.

“What now?” you asked, getting everyone back on track. “Leo can’t carry all of you back to Lunaria!”

“Um,” Gobi interjected, “I think we’ve got bigger problems to deal with right now!”

“What do you mean?” you inquired, not liking the dread seeping into your friend’s tone.

Gulping, he pointed far across the base’s grounds, up towards the sky.

You only had a second to react before the explosion hit your eyes. It was the brilliant white of an atomic bomb, as if thousands of fireworks had been lit right in front of your face. The white faded for a second, turning yellow, and finally fading to a striking orange that contrasted sharply with the ebony black of the night sky. All the stars were washed out by this awful, eldritch light.

The shockwave came next, knocking all of you off your feet. The force of the impact blew out your ears, and you lay on the ground, holding your head in your hands. Feeling a warm, sticky substance underneath your fingers, you gently lifted one of your hands from your ears. To your horror, you realized that your eardrums were bleeding. Turning your head, you saw that everyone else was in varying states of agony. Some clutched their ears, but others were ignoring the pain of being knocked over and could only stare at the sky behind you in awe and terror. Lifting your weary body up, you were suddenly forced back down by a sharp pain in your side.

Lying back down, you saw that a piece of shrapnel, a shard of metal from the building you were hiding behind, had embedded itself deep in your abdomen.

Your breath caught in your throat as you saw the extent of the damage. The shard had embedded itself deep, deep enough to puncture one of your organs if the waves of pain thumping through your body were anything to go by. Your heart pounded in your chest, causing more blood to pool out by the second, and you felt yourself growing faint.

Taking off your hoodie, you tied it around your waist, bunching up the hood right against the wound to slow the bleeding. Twisting yourself around, ignoring the tortuous feeling that brought up, you turned to look back at the source of the explosion.

The sky was still glowing orange, as if the sun itself had come to rest right above the base. The air burned as well, like the air on a Miami beach at noon. Squinting your eyes, you looked at the epicenter of the horrifying light, and you could see a solitary human figure floating in the sky. Their hands were raised, embracing the light that had turned the night to day.

“Son of a bitch,” you gasped, “The crazy bastard actually did it.”

“Did what?” Richard groaned, sitting up from the ground and looking confused.

“By the gods,” Chang’e whispered, the fear in her voice matching your own. “I thought it was impossible!”

“What? Can someone tell me what the hell’s going on?!” Richard demanded.

You pointed at the silhouette of the man in the sky, his arms spread as he embraced this second sun’s light. “It’s General Artax. That crazy doctor’s experiments – they were successful. The general’s gained control of the sun. Do you know what that means?”

Richard gulped as his mind made the connection, “You mean -”

“Yes,” Chang’e answered, voicing everyone else’s thoughts, “General Artax has become a god.”

Everyone fell silent, unsure of how to process this revelation. Richard decided that he would give it a shot though, as he slowly stood up and fixed his eyes on the general turned mad god. Staring, he uttered six little words:

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“Hell, I wish we were,” you replied, your voice growing weaker from your injuries. You tried to hide how scared you were though. You had to stay strong for the others, to make sure they could complete the mission. “We’ll deal with him later. We need to find another way back to Lunaria first.”

“Um, not to argue with you bud, ‘cause you have a really good point, I think but dealing with a crazy sun god should be a bigger priority!” Gobi protested. “What if he stops us from escaping? It’s not like we can fight back!”

“We’ll just pray that he doesn’t notice us, now come on! Help me think of some other way to get out of here!”

“I think I can help,” a new voice spoke up.

Turning around, all twelve of you saw a young soldier creeping across the charred grass towards you. He ducked behind the wreckage of a nearby building, glancing over his shoulder nervously as he addressed you:

“You need to get out here, right? Well, there’s a rocket that’s all ready for launch. We were supposed to test it out tomorrow, but -” he looked out over the scorched grounds and shattered buildings, “I don’t think that’s happening now.”

Chang’e looked over the man suspiciously. “What makes you think we can trust you? You look just like the rest of the men who kept my friend and I prisoner here!”

“Look, I’ll admit that I haven’t made a good case for you to trust me. Or any case, for that matter. And frankly, I don’t have a good reason to help any of you. I don’t really care what happens to you guys specifically. But here’s the thing: General Artax’s plan, it’s bonkers. Totally insane. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna be a god!”

“You don’t?” you asked, confused.

“No! It sounds stressful, knowing I can destroy a town or something just by getting angry! Or knowing how freaky it is, watching my body heal in seconds injuries that logically should take weeks to heal! And who wants to live forever anyways if everyone you love is dead! Even if my family and friends were gods too, I have dead family that I’ll never see again! If I never die, I’ll never rejoin them in whatever there is after death! I don’t want any of that!”

Chang’e slowly nodded her head in agreement. “I can understand your objections. Especially about joining your loved ones in death. I know the feeling all too well.”

“I just wanted to help my planet, save my species! I never meant for any of this to happen!”

Richard and Chang’e looked at you in confusion. I’ll explain later, you mouthed back.

“This has gotten way out of hand, and…if I can do anything to fix it, I’m going for it. So, here.” The solider handed you a set of keys. They looked like the kind of keys that were used to unlock the controls for nuclear weapons. There were about five of them, all silver in color. The soldier continued to explain. “There’s a rocket in the northeastern quadrant of the base. It’s called the Chiyou. It’s the one we were gonna test out. Just use the key with three notches to unlock the outside airlock. Once you get in, flick all the green switches. Insert the other four keys, turn them at the same time, and the launch controls will unlock. Press the red button, and you’ll have liftoff. From there, use the steering mechanism to head back to the moon. There should be enough fuel for the trip.”

Gently taking the keys in your hand, you turned back to the solider, “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much this means to us. What’s your name?”

“Decker, ma’am. Private Jason Decker.”

“Well, Jason. You just saved our lives. Thanks for that.”

He turned towards the outer fence of the base, “I have to get going. They’re starting evacuations, they’ll notice if I’m missing, being the general’s personal aid and all.”

“Take care, Decker,” Richard said.

“Will do, sir. Good luck to you all.” And with that, Decker sprinted off into the night and towards safety.

“Well let’s get going!” Goldie proclaimed. “We don’t have all night!”

“The yellow one’s right!” Richard added. “Let’s move!”

Goldie mouthed the words yellow one? in confusion at her fellow Lunettes, but they shrugged and set off after the mortal man. Leo and Simba set off, Gobi and Chang’e respectively riding on their backs. Jade, Bungee, and Maggie followed, while you brought up the rear to keep an eye out for any other guards. It was also helpful for hiding your injuries. The others were more likely to notice if you were up at the front, bleeding out and limping right in their view. You could hide your injuries better from the back.

As your group set off for the rocket, you pulled Jade back from the others so you could talk to him for a minute.

“Hey, um…” You spoke softly, both so no one else would hear you two, and because talking was starting to become more of an effort. “So I know we never really got along with each other. And I get it, you wanted to protect your friend.” The green rabbit cocked his ears forward, indicating he was listening. “But I could really use your help in a little bit. I can’t give Chang’e what she wants, but I can give her what she needs. Are you following this?” Jade slowly nodded, somewhat confused but willing to hear you out. “Good. So, when I tell you to do ‘it’ – you’ll know what it is when it happens – will you do it?” The ancient rabbit nodded, not sure what he just agreed to but willing to help out all the same. “Thank you. I need your help more than ever, and so will she.”

As the two of you caught up with the others, you realized that you were almost at the rocket. Turning one final corner, you saw it: Chiyou. It looked exactly the same way it did in the blueprints, just much taller. It definitely looked at least 350 feet tall, even taller if you had to guess. Though that was probably because you were so small compared to it. In the bright night sky, the four windows that made up its windshield glistened and glowed, reflecting the deadly orange light. You started running up to its base along with the others, but before you could start climbing the stairs to the doors, you pulled Richard back so you could talk to him.

“Hey, so…” you started, unsure of how to proceed. “I was hoping you could hang back for a little bit. I need to talk with Chang’e for a bit. It’s…personal.”

He looked surprised for a second, before saying hesitantly, “You sure you don’t need me to at least help you up all the stairs? Don’t think I didn’t notice that metal in your stomach.” He pointed at the rapidly-growing patch of blood on your hoodie, tied so that you couldn’t see the wound itself.

“There’s an elevator. We’ll take that. Please, Rich. I need to do this,” you pleaded. “While we’re up there, I need you to help evacuate the base anyways. Make sure that everyone else here gets to safety. You can do that for me.”

He sighed, before nodding slowly and replying, “Sure. I can help with that.” He turned away, starting to jog back towards the base, but not before calling over his shoulder, “Be careful, sparks.”

“You too,” you called, before turning back to the tower alongside the rocket and heading up.

Shifting your hoodie so no one else could see the blood, you walked across the gangway towards the others. “Where’ve you been?” Gobi asked. “Where’s Richard?”

“He’s getting everyone else in the base to safety. Head inside the rocket and get ready, I…I need to talk with Chang’e alone for a minute.”

Nodding slowly, his expression equal parts concerned and hopeful, Gobi ushered everyone else inside. Jade and Bungee hung back for a moment, nuzzling Maggie, before they hopped inside. To your surprise, Maggie hopped over to you, coming to a rest at your feet.

“Mags? What are you doing? You need to get inside!”

In response, she planted herself squarely in front of you and glanced knowingly at the spot where your wounds were. She nuzzled your leg softly, and you realized what she was trying to say.

“You want to stay? With me?” you asked the rabbit, astonished.

She nodded slowly and curled up by your feet.

Picking her up, you gently cuddled her before putting her back down, whispering, “Gods, you must be one of the most loyal rabbits I’ve known. Hell, one of the most loyal friends I’ve known.” You stroked the spot between her ears tenderly before turning back to the goddess.

“She’s always been fond of you,” Chang’e explained. “This is her decision, and her parents have decided to honor it.”

“That’s good,” you replied, “I mean, them honoring her decision. Look, we don’t have much time, and I need to tell you something before you leave.”

“Before I leave? What about you? Don’t lie to me, starlight. I know that you were injured during the explosion! You need a doctor!” the goddess protested.

“Don’t worry,” you soothed, “I’ll get help. I need to say this though: you were right. You were right all along. Back in Lunaria, and here and now.”

“Right? About what?” she questioned, confused.

In response, you stepped right up to her, put your hands on her shoulders, and whispered, “I just hope you can forgive me for what I’m about to do.”

Before she could question your words, you lunged forward and your lips collided with hers.

You savored that kiss, holding her close and allowing your hands to trace down her shoulders and curl around her back. She responded to your actions by deepening the kiss, wrapping her hands around your head and pulling you closer. That feeling of enlightenment you had felt when she first kissed you returned, as your heart soared and your head felt like it was spinning. Your soul was set aflame with passion and love as you embraced the goddess, and the universe sang in reply to your spirit’s yearnings. It may have been your imagination, but the stars overhead seemed to glow and shine with an even greater intensity. The feeling of your fate being intertwined with Chang’e’s returned, but this time you felt no desire to untangled the two. Your soul was still bound to hers, and hers to yours.

Which made what you had to do that much more painful.

You slowly reached into your pocket, grabbing your greatest possession, and gently reached behind your head to pry her hands away. You gently pressed your possession into her hand, then reached back for her shoulders. Before she could react, you quickly gave her a hard shove, and yelled, “NOW JADE!” As the goddess stumbled into the spacecraft, the door suddenly slammed shut between the two of you, cutting you off for good. Catching herself before she fell, Chang’e bolted back to the door, pounding the window with her fists and pleading,

“Starlight! What are you doing?!” she screamed, her eyes wide with horror.

“I’m sorry, Chang’e! This has to be done! This has to be done!” you replied, your voice heavy with regret. “If no one stops Artax, you’ll never be safe! He’ll just return to Lunaria and take you back! And what about here! He’ll take over this world by force if he thinks it’s the only way to save the world. I can’t let that happen! I have to stop him! I have to save you! I have to save everyone!”

“YOU’LL DIE!” Chang’e shrieked, sheer terror lacing her voice. You could already see her eyes growing misty with tears yet to fall.

You hung your head, silently agreeing with her, before replying, “There’s a chance I will. A good chance. But if my death buys your freedom, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.” As the rocket started to rumble, moments away from taking off, you pressed your hand to the glass of the window, and whispered to the distraught goddess, “Don’t forget me, moondancer.”

And with that you and Maggie bolted down the gangway towards the elevator, your silhouette fading into the shadows of the false day and the true night.

Realizing her hand was still curled around something, Chang’e slowly opened it. Her heart froze when she saw what it was. It was your locket. Your most personal possession. A relic of your ancestors. With a start, the goddess realized what the significance of you giving her that locket was as she fell to her knees. As she slowly opened it up, a small slip of paper fell out of it. Picking it up, she gently unfolded it and read the six little words written on it.

And as the rocket took off, the world turned into a blur. Whether it was from the space travel, or her own tears falling, Chang’e could not tell.

I love you. I’m sorry. Goodbye.

Chapter Text

You ducked inside an outbuilding, stopping to catch your breath before bolting to the next one. Tightening the tourniquet around your torso, you lightly pressed your fingers there to check if the bleeding had slowed down. The flow of blood from your stomach was steady, but had slowed down a little since you were first injured. Your throat seized as you coughed violently, and you held your hand up to your mouth to catch the glops of blood that shot out. Maggie, seeing this happen, whimpered and nuzzled your side worryingly. You used your clean hand to rub the crown of her head, hoping to reassure the lunar rabbit.

This had been going on for the past twenty minutes now. Since the rocket took off, the two of you had been working your way back to the base, trying to avoid being seen by the general turned mad sun god. Fortunately, since the base was long evacuated, you didn’t have to worry about running into any guards, but you did have a new problem to deal with. The air had been growing steadily warmer since Artax has ascended. Normally this wouldn’t concern you; Florida’s air was always warm and heavy. Even now, in the darkest part of the night, you were accustomed to dealing with warm air blanketing your body. Now, though? This was not normal. This felt like the air inside an oven; thin, dry, and gradually increasing in intensity.

You braced your hands against the metal wall behind you, and with a yelp quickly pulled away. It was like touching a hot stove! Glancing over your shoulder, you saw the wall glowing dark red, and looking above you, the air was shimmering in the heat. A sudden explosion outside distracted you from your observations. Whipping your head to the door, you realized that it must have been the fuel pod that the two of you had passed minutes before. Luckily, it was a good hundred yards away, so when the shrapnel reached your hiding spot, the debris only hammered on the outside walls instead of ripping through them entirely.

The two of you froze as someone landed on the roof of the outbuilding, landing so heavily that the outlines of their feet were pressed into the ceiling above you. Even though she couldn’t speak, you pressed your hand against Maggie’s mouth on instinct, and pulled her closer to you. Your heart hammered in your ribcage as the footsteps thudded against the roof, creeping along the roofline with a predatory gait. All of a sudden, you heard Artax’s voice ring out from just above you:

“WHERE ARE YOU?! I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE!!”

The general prowled back across the roof to the other side, the metal ceiling creaking eerily under his feet. After a few minutes, feeling more like several years, he left, taking back off into the sky.

You slipped out the door, Maggie right on your heels, gulping down several breaths of air. If you had stayed any longer in there, you would have been roasted. Bracing your hands on your knees, you hung your head down, trying to regain enough stamina to get to the next building. You heard Maggie chirped next to you, and you turned to her, confused. “What is it?” you asked. Noticing that she was looking worriedly up at the sky, you turned your head towards the heavens.

You didn’t think of yourself as a religious person, but if Hell were real, you liked to think that it would look like the sky at that moment. The stars and moon were nowhere to be seen, the darkness of night having been completely washed away by the scarlet flames racing overhead. An inferno of blood red, orange, and golden streaks of fire swirled and swept across the sky, their combined might quickly sucking all the oxygen out of the air. Flashes of white-hot explosions, hot enough to melt steel, erupted in erratic intervals, and you prayed that no planes had been flying when Artax had ascended. To your horror, the flames stretched all the way to the horizon, encasing the area in a blazing dome.

The grass beneath your feet had been singed to a charcoal black, crunching and collapsing into ash when your foot stepped on it. The few trees that were planted around the base were lit up like torches, and the rest of the buildings were catching fire as well. Smoke choked the air around you, causing your eyes to water and your lungs to burn as you struggled to breath. Hearing an eerie roar from the sky, you looked up. The firestorm raging above your head suddenly shifted somehow, as distinct shapes began to take form inside the inferno.

Out of a pillar of flames, a long, serpentine neck began to form, as a head and body began to grow at either end. A torso, two hundred feet long, stretched and expanded, narrowing into a whiplike tail that thrashed about the sky. The tail, stretching an additional three hundred feet by your guess, ignited in the air and coiled, as if it were waiting for its owner to decide on a target to strike. Two taloned legs elongated out of the bottom of the torso, each a hundred feet long. Four toes fanned out at the end of each foot, their talons as long as train cars but as sharp as the finest knives.

On the other end, a massive head formed, an enormous jaw dominating the structure and with equally impressive teeth to match. A set of six horns erupted on the crown of its head, and they were quickly wreathed in flames along with the tail. A pair of wings sprouted from its back, spreading to a total wingspan of five hundred feet in a display of dominance before fanning the flames of the firestorm. Finally, six eyes opened, three on each side of its head, its orange orbs betraying the beast’s sadistic mind. Now fully formed, the fire wyvern (as you dubbed it) let out a long, unnatural screech as it began to swoop towards the ground. It was a sound unlike any other; not even Lovecraft could imagine a note so terrifying. It was something between a roar, a death rattle, and a war cry. The air grew hotter as its wings carried it a mere couple hundred feet above you.

Ducking behind a shed, the wyvern flew past you as you knelt, unseen. As the echoes of its cry rang out across the atmosphere, you held your already bleeding ears. Daring to cast a glance back up, you saw that more of those beasts were slowly taking form, the fires warping themselves into bodies similar to the first one.

Dear God, you thought. It’s like the whole sky is alive.

Tiptoeing out from behind the shed, you looked towards a watchtower in the distance. On top of its turret sat an anti-aircraft gun, its barrel poised and aiming at the skies. That would be your best bet for taking down the beasts, and the general.

You waited for a moment when the coast was clear, and you bolted across the lawn. The grass on this side of the base had caught on fire, and your legs caught some of the flames as you ran. You felt stabs of pain on your calves when the flames touched your skin, and you knew that you were burned. Ignoring the many wounds on your body, you pulled the heavy metal door open and slipped inside. You felt the palm of your hand get scorched, but you didn’t care.

Running up the stairs, you and Maggie reached the control tower, and began pouring over the controls. It seemed simple enough; there was a targeting scope, some buttons, and a control stick for aiming the gun. The two of you carefully looked at the buttons, before Maggie tapped one with her foot. Suddenly, the whole panel lit up, and there was a chime as the turret turned on. You turned to look at the rabbit.

“Nice work,” you told her.

Turning back to the panel, you flicked a few switches and pressed a couple of buttons, and the gun was ready to fire. You just had to pick a target. Grabbing the control stick, you aimed the scope, looking for a suitable target.

There! One of the fire wyverns was soaring within range of the gun. You carefully aimed at the left wing, keeping your hand steady. Pressing the trigger on the stick, the gun fired, and a shower of bullets tore into its wing. With a shriek of confusion and pain the wyvern lost altitude, stumbling in the air as its wing was torn clean off its body. You pulled back from the lens of the scope, confused. Was the creature’s anatomy really that fragile? On one hand, it made sense. It wasn’t a tangible being of flesh and blood; there were no muscles and bones holding its limbs in place. On the other hand, you’d think that a monster that massive couldn’t be taken out by just a few bullets.

And you were correct on that last point. You watched the fallen beast in horror as the ghostly outline of wing bones, reminiscent of a bat’s, shot out of the stump where its left wing was. A thin layer of fire flowed over the bones like magma, and membranes fell down the bones like a curtain at the end of a show. The ‘skin’, as it were, smoldered as it hardened, forming a distinct shape while also flowing slightly over the new limb. Stretching out its new wing, the wyvern took off back into the sky, and your eyes lost it as it disappeared into the firestorm.

With a groan of frustration, you realized that this was gonna be harder than you thought. You aimed at another wyvern, this time aiming at its neck, and took fire.

Far above you, General Artax had watched the first beast fall, and his eyes furiously traced the path the bullets had taken back to their origin. Who had dared to fire upon his creations? Who had the audacity to challenge his authority? He was a god! He would not tolerate defiance against his rule! His gaze fell on the tower, his eyes narrowing as he deduced who was firing the gun. Such a shame, he thought as he raised his hand, she had so much potential…

You were starting to get into a rhythm, firing upon the monsters and ripping off wings, legs, tails, and even heads. Granted, they would reform as quickly as they were destroyed, but at least it would slow them down enough for you to come up with a better plan. You aimed at the right leg of another beast –

The tower suddenly caved in, as a fireball the size of a bus crashed into the room. Flames as hot as the sun ripped across your skin, and you screamed as your flesh was burned to a crisp. You were forced to your knees, and Maggie took shelter behind your body. She, fortunately, was able to avoid the worst of the inferno, while you took the brunt of the damage. The control panel melted, the bubbling steel splashing around the room and spraying across your body. The additional burns didn’t matter now; you had long stopped counting how many injuries you had acquired. As the flames died down as quickly as they had started, you heard a creaking sound above your head. Looking up, you realized with despair that it wasn’t over yet. With a groan the roof caved in, and you were suddenly buried under three tons of metal, wood, and drywall. Using your ribcage to shield Maggie, you protected her once more, using your arms to brace yourself upwards to avoid crushing the rabbit. Finally, silence fell in the wrecked tower.

Your breathing was becoming erratic, the combined agony of all your wounds catching up to you. Your arms spasmed as you reached to stroke Maggie’s ears, carefully avoiding collapsing the small cavity you had created for her.

“Well Mags, we did our best,” you chuckled. You saw black spots dancing across your vision, and your heart was beating slowly, like a clock winding down. “No one can say we didn’t try.” You had lived a good life, by your estimate. Did some incredible things, been to a lot of amazing places, fallen in love…You could say with confidence that you didn’t have a lot of regrets, here at the end of your life. The only one you now had was that you weren’t spending your final moments with Chang’e. At least she knew how you felt about her; you consoled yourself with that knowledge.

Maggie shuffled around, and she reached for your pocket. Pulling out a small black box, she pushed it into your free hand. Carefully opening it with your fingers, you saw what was inside.

The world fell away when your eyes spotted the little white pill. Time seemed to stand still as you realized the significance of this. This had to be the same pill that caused the general to ascend, it had to be! You didn’t know why the doctor would have a pill of her own; perhaps she was a relative of the general’s, or she wanted a prototype she could show off to the scientific community? Whatever the reason, she would never have the chance to take it, never have the chance to become something more than human. But as for you…

Your last moments were spent dipping your head down towards the pill, the debris above you groaning as you shifted your position. Using your tongue to grab the pill, you swallowed, wincing at the choking sensation since you didn’t have any water to wash the pill down with. The weight of the destroyed roof was too much for you, and you collapsed. Maggie was forced into a tight position, as she took refuge under your shoulder. Even in death, you would do your best to protect her.

Your last breath fanned across the rabbit’s face, your mortal heart beat one final time, and you died.

Silence. Absolute silence rang out. Maggie shuffled under your body and whimpered as she pressed your head against your chest. She didn’t know if she was going to die here as well; would her immortality fail her, as it had failed the goddess when she stayed on earth too long? The rabbit nuzzled into your body further, searching for some semblance of warmth. Surprisingly, your body hadn’t grown cold yet. Maybe she could stay here for a little bit, before trying to find a way out. But where would she go? The whole world was doomed, no place was safe. The end would be here before she knew it, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

The sound of a heartbeat hammered against her ears.

Startled, she yanked her head back, looking at your face in confusion. Sniffling your nose, she felt the whisper of a breath blow across her face. As she watched, your eyes suddenly flew open, and with a gasp you forced yourself onto your hands and knees.

You felt it deep within your core. Like a warm drink that spread throughout your body, a sensation spread outwards, flowing all the way to your extremities. The warmth quickly turned painful, though, as if you were now being burned from the inside out. Turning your gaze towards your arms, you watched in fascination and horror as your skin healed, the crisp black flesh returning to a healthier color. Hair, singed off by the fireball, sprouted back on your arms. Carefully running a hand on the crown of your head, you felt that hair growing back as well. A stabbing pain came from your abdomen and arm, as the shrapnel fell out, the blood stopped flowing, and the wounds sealed shut.

You wheezed as you felt your skeleton began to warp and change. You could hear your bones crack, breaking and healing again as they grew longer. Swinging your head below your body, you saw your legs lengthening, growing longer and stronger. The skin on your thighs and calves would grow taunt and shiny, not accustomed to being stretched this quickly, before the skin caught up with the unexpected growth. You felt your muscles being pulled tight, like a rubber band the moment before it snaps, only for them to relax and expand into the new space. You went numb momentarily as the blood vessels in your limbs were stretched to their limits. Thankfully, they caught up with the rest of the connective tissue and fell back into place. Glancing back at your arms, you saw that they were undergoing a similar transformation, albeit on a smaller scale.

That was nothing compared to the pain in your spine though. You felt your vertebrae being forced apart as new nerve bundles shot out of your spinal cord. Their tendrils raced out towards every part of your body, expanding your nervous system to handle your newfound magic. Your eyes rolled back in your head as the pain overwhelmed you, and with a howl of agony you shot upright, throwing off all three tons of collapsed roof like it weighed nothing. Maggie crawled out from under you and backed away several feet, too frightened by your transformation to do anything but watch. Air, crisp and fresh as a mountain breeze, filled your lungs in spite of the smoke. With each beat of your immortal heart waves of magic were pumped throughout your body, and your limbs trembled with the sensory overload. Your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your hands, all glowed as magic flooded your body.

The psychological changes were just as harsh. It was as if someone had taken your brain, grasped it by the folds, and pulled, like they were unfolding a balled-up blanket. Grabbing your head, you squeezed your eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain and focus. On what, you did not know, just focusing on anything but this. Newfound knowledge entered your mind, about how the universe was, how it is now, and what it will be. Your sense of time was completely warped; days were now seconds, years only minutes, centuries would only feel like weeks. A sense of calm washed over you and your body stood still. You knew what had to be done. Your eyes opened, burning with the light of immortality. Your transformation was complete.

Your looked up towards the heavens, and through the fire and flames saw a distant star.

Maggie watched in fascination and awe as you took off into the sky, your form wobbling in flight as you tried to get the hang of this. You disappeared, and she looked around the wrecked tower. How was she going to get down now? All of a sudden, she saw a flash of light from the sky; turning around, she caught a glimpse of a multicolored shimmer.

Meanwhile, General Artax landed triumphantly on the tallest watchtower, miraculously still standing amidst the firestorm. He looked out upon his works, the wrecked tower that was now your tomb, and grinned in satisfaction. Nothing, no one could stand in his way now. The world, nay, the universe, was his for the conquering.

His eyes were drawn heavenward by a loud booming sound, like a jet breaking the sound barrier. Glancing up, he saw a shooting star falling towards him, flying fast and true towards its trajectory. He braced his legs as the ‘star’ crashed before him, shielding his eyes from the brilliant light that shone forth. Once the light died down, he looked again. He saw a woman, standing tall and proud. She wore a dress of dark blue, pinpoints of silver light shimmering like stars around the skirt. The bodice was fitted, tight enough to reveal her silhouette, but loose enough to allow for easy movement. The sleeves were three-quartered, exposing her hands, rough from hard labor, but also firm and strong. A flared collar of scarlet, violet, and chartreuse glimmered behind her head, her movements causing the colors to shift erratically around the piece. A veil in pastel versions of those same colors was clipped to the skirt, and flowed behind her in the fiery winds. The woman’s eyes narrowed when she spotted the general.

You spoke, and the universe sang back.

“Hello, general,” you said, your voice dripping with contempt. “Didn’t expect to see me again, did you?”

“You – you – HOW?” he replied, shocked. “You weren’t supposed to take the other pill! That was supposed to be taken by - ” His eyes, burning with fury, narrowed into slits when he realized what had happened. “You…you stole it. She would have never given it willingly!” His voice shook in horror at the revelation. “You KILLED her! You killed my sister and stole her creation!”

You stepped back in surprise, before asking him, “That crazy doctor was your sister?” you gasped, your stomach twisting in regret and horror.

“Yes! My only sister, and you killed her just to take a pill! You weighed the value of her life against a damn pill, and you chose the pill! You MURDERER!”

You glared at him for the accusation, before trying to reason with him, “Yes, I did kill her, but I didn’t have a choice! Look, I’m sorry that your sister’s dead, I didn’t want to kill her, but she was planning on killing someone I loved! Surely you can understand that?”

“Apologies won’t bring her back!” he hissed, holding his open hand out to his side. Before your eyes, a long, flaming sword stretched forth from his palm, his fist grasping it when it was finished forming. Grabbing the hilt with both hands, he swung the sword back, ready to strike. “I may have failed to save her, but I can at least avenge her!” With a roar he charged at you, swinging the blade right at your neck.

At the last moment you swung your hand up and shut your eyes. Instead of feeling steel cleave into your flesh, you heard a loud thwack! as the blade collided with something. You slowly opened your eyes, wondering what kind of weapon you had summoned. A sword? An axe? Maybe some cool scythe…

Both your hands were gripping a baseball bat, glowing blue with sapphire light. Befuddled but not distracted, you shrugged, “Eh, good enough,” and shoved back against the sword. Bracing your legs, you looked the general right in the eyes and proclaimed,

“You know, I had a lot of time to think about things on the moon. Time to ask questions, learn a bit more about the universe. I have to say though, Chang’e was by far the most fascinating person I’d ever met. I was able to learn a lot about her, and I mean a lot, but there was one question that neither of us had an answer to: can a god be killed? For obvious reasons, I wasn’t gonna try testing that out on her, but we came up with a few theories. Drowning, hanging, being shot or stabbed, disease, nothing worked. Towards the end of my stay though, I hit upon an interesting hypothesis: only another god can kill a god. Now I don’t know how much science you know, but we all learned the scientific method in grade school. If I recall correctly, the step after forming a hypothesis is testing it.”

With a grunt you shoved the general away and stood back as your clothes began to change. Soon, your dress had shifted into a different outfit. It was a suit of armor, but not the kind that medieval knights wore. This armor was fitted, formed to your body to allow for a remarkable range of movement. This armor shimmered with the same colors that the collar on your dress had. This was modern, otherworldly armor, for a modern, otherworldly knight.

You smirked, and finished your speech with the words, “And guess what? We’re in the testing stage.”

Screaming you charged at Artax, swinging the bat directly at his head. He dodged your attack and parried back with a jab from his sword. You gripped the blade with one hand before it could impale your stomach, not concerned about the cuts your fingers would get. Why would be worried about wounds when you couldn’t bleed? Throwing the blade back, you punched the general hard, and with satisfaction you heard his nose break. He stepped back, waiting for a second for his nose to heal itself. You took that moment to ram the tip of the bat into his chest, and he staggered back as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. Leaping forward, he feigned an attack on your left, only to switch to your right at the last moment and impale his sword into your side.

As the blade was torn out of your body, you watched in curiosity as the wound healed itself immediately. Focus! you thought, You can question that later!

Holding the bat in one hand, you gripped his neck in the other and started choking him, keeping a tight grip on his throat. You dragged him over to the edge of the tower, holding him six hundred feet above the ground. Artax started wheezing, his hands pawing at your own before both of you heard a screech and he turned to his left. He smirked and let go of your arm. Before you could question his actions he jabbed you right in the face, returning you the favor of breaking his nose. Startled you let go of him and he plummeted to the ground. Before he had even fallen fifty feet a fire wyvern swept in from your right and Artax landed on the beast’s head. You ran along the edge of the tower, trying to keep up. At the last moment you leapt onto the creature’s back, and the three of you took off into the heart of the storm.

Clinging to the wyvern’s spines you dragged you way to its head, as Artax slid down its neck to get to you. The two of you resumed your fight, exchanging blow after blow as the winds of fire blew all around you. You could barely hear the sound of wood meeting steel over the howl of the infernal hurricane. The two of you braced your legs as you fought, trying to keep yourselves from falling off the beast’s back despite both of you being capable of flight. Both of your flesh was burned and regenerated several times over as the flames danced across your skin. The two of you were at a stalemate.

He’s as strong as I am! you thought, panic edging into your mind. How do I defeat him? Then a thought entered your head as you looked over the edge of the wyvern’s back. Hmmm…I’m not stronger than him, but maybe I can be smarter than him. I wonder how good his flying skills are?

Opening your right hand a small dagger appeared, and while the general was distracted you plunged the blade deep into his neck. He began gasping for air, and while he was incapacitated you kicked him off the creature’s back, and he fell into the flames.

With a yell of triumph, you prepared to climb up the beast’s head to steer yourself back to the ground, when a sword flew out of the storm and sliced the wyvern’s wing off.

Shrieking, the monster took a nosedive towards the ground and you hung on for dear life to its spines. The wind roared around you as the ground raced up to meet you both. There was a loud thump, and you were thrown from the wyvern’s back onto the ground several yards away. Rolling to a stop, you wheezed, trying to catch your breath. Bracing yourself on your elbows, you moved to get back on your feet when a massive taloned paw slammed down on top of you, knocking you on your back. You stared up at the monster in terror.

General Artax sat atop the beast’s head, smirking triumphantly down at you. He must have slowed his fall enough to land back on the wyvern! you thought. You clawed at the burning grass, trying to get away from the horror, but the paw pinning you down was too strong. Your fingers only churned the grass uselessly as your head fell back. This was it. You failed. You had long stopped caring about saving yourself, but now you couldn’t even save her. Your eyes stung with tears as the serpent’s head reared back, its maw already aglow with flame. Well, if you were going to go down, you would go down fighting. You glared at the general right in his eyes and screamed in defiance. Not even in death would you bow to him.

All of you were caught off guard when a beam of bright green energy shot out from somewhere behind you and hit the wyvern square in the chest. The beast was thrown back hundreds of feet, and the general was knocked off its head.

You felt a burning sensation on the crown of your head as you rose to your feet, steadying yourself and trying to figure out what the hell that blast was. You got your answer moments later. The loudest roar you’d ever heard called out from somewhere behind you, and you turned around. You let out a sigh of relief when you saw who made that roar.

Lu Long and Hong Long swept down from the sky, Lu’s throat and chest still glowing with brilliant green balefire. They stood out from the storm that raged all around you, shining with a bright light that dimmed the winds of flame. Hong opened her mouth, and a second roar rang out, shaking the ground you were standing on. If you were a mortal, you were certain that you would be deaf by now, but you didn’t care. Help had arrived, and that was all that mattered. From your right, Zi Long flew into view, catching up with their brothers.

All three of the Long landed at your feet, looking equal parts furious and confused.

“So this is where that surge of magic came from,” Lu started, looking at you in surprise.

“I told you two that the rabbit wasn’t lying! I knew the astronaut had something to do with it!” Zi argued, snapping at Lu.

“Rabbit?” you questioned.

Maggie’s head popped up from behind Zi’s antlers, chirping happily at the sight of you unharmed.

“Yeah, rabbit!” Zi confirmed, pointing a talon at Maggie. “This little cutie told us this wild story about a couple of mortals-turned-gods going at it!”

“That’s right,” you confirmed, “The guy over there, the one that was standing on the wyvern’s head, is General Artax. He had this psychotic plan to abduct Chang’e, create a new immortality pill, and turn himself and a legion of soldiers into gods to fight off an alien invasion and take over the universe!”

All three Long stared blankly at you, before Hong voiced everyone’s thoughts with a flat “What?”

“It’s true! I saw his plans with my own eyes!” you insisted, “But a bunch of things happened, I got Chang’e and Jade out of here, and now he’s taken the pill of immortality and become a god. He’s lost his mind! He’s become a mad sun god, and he plans on seizing control of the earth and ruling everyone else!”

Hong growled and replied, “The audacity! The nerve! The sheer arrogance! That mortal has no right, none, to proclaim himself the ruler of anything!”

“I must agree with Hong,” Lu added, “This general’s actions will throw the natural order out of balance, he must be stopped!” He lowered his head to look down at you, “What would you have us do?”

You paused, confused by his sudden deference to you, “Um…why are you asking me? Not to be a smartass or anything, I do want your help, it’s just…why are you deferring to me? I’m just a mortal!”

Zi laughed, “In all fairness, you’re not a mortal anymore!”

Lu grinned wryly, “My brother is correct. You are far beyond being a mortal now. And I know your character. Zi has told me much about you from their frequent visits to the moon. I can say this with absolute honesty: there are very few mortals that have a spirit like yours. You are brave, resourceful, kind, and are driven to do the right thing, even when it’s not the easy thing. I would be honored to follow you into battle, my goddess.”

“Your goddess?” you asked.

Lu nodded at the crown of your head. Reaching up, your hands met with a shimmering force of energy up there. Grabbing it, you gasped when you saw what it was. A miniature aurora flowed and rippled in your hands, held in place by a band of light. So that’s what that burning feeling was, you thought.

Glancing up at Lu in confusion, he explained, “I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe we were meant to cross paths, that you were meant to take that pill. For you are no longer a mere mortal. Goddess of the Aurora, Leader of the Long – that is what you will be known as forevermore.”

You mouth hung open as you processed what he just said. A goddess? ME? you wondered. AND their leader?

“What say you, goddess?” Hong growled, “No disrespect, but we don’t have much time. If you want us to intervene it’s now or never!”

You followed her gaze behind you and saw that Artax was getting back to his feet. The wyvern had already grown its lost limb back and stretched both wings to the fiery sky. The mad god stood atop the beast’s head, his sword raised as if he were commanding legions of soldiers.

“You’re right, we need to move,” you agreed. “But, with no disrespect Hong, why are you suddenly being reverent towards me? It can’t be just because I’m a goddess, so what gives?”

Hong lowered her head so she could look you in the eye. “I’ll be honest with you, goddess: I don’t like you. I have never liked mortals who found a way to become gods, to dare place themselves on the same level as, or stars forbid higher, than our people.”

Before you could protest her assessment, she smirked and added: “However, I may not like mortal gods, but I HATE mortal gods with delusions of grandeur. If I fight today, it will not be for you, but against him. Prove to me that you’re a god worth pledging my loyalty to.”

You nodded slowly, before replying, “Fair enough. Here’s what we’re all going to do, then. You see those things flying around up there?” You pointed up at the sky, where several wyverns were circling around the base. “I need the three of you to work on taking those things down. I’ll go after the general myself.”

“You might wanna get to that, then.” Zi replied, nodding up and behind you. Looking that way, you saw that the wyvern Artax was riding had already taken off into the skies. “Want some help getting him?” the purple Long asked, kneeling before you. “Something tells me you’re still getting used to the whole ‘goddess’ schtick. Let me handle the flying!”

You paused for a moment, before climbing onto Zi’s back and admitting, “Yeah, you’re right. Not having to worry about falling out of the sky is a load off my mind.” You turned to Lu and Hong, “So we’re clear on the plan?”

“If by ‘plan’, you mean ‘just attack anything that’s flying and hope that does something’, then yes.” Hong quipped. Lu shot her a look; sighing she added, “Fine, we’re clear.”

“Alright, let’s go!” you yelled, and all three Long took off into the fiery sky.

Riding on Zi’s back was far different than riding on either Leo or Simba’s back. The violet Long was so much faster, their movements sudden and swift yet fluid and graceful. It was like riding on the world’s most dangerous roller coaster. The three of you flew high up, almost to the edge of the storm, and dove back down.

“There!” you shouted, pointing as you spotted Artax. He was riding his wyvern, circling the eye of the storm to keep an eye on the rest of his legion. Zi positioned themself so they were right above the fire beast’s head, where the general stood. You crept to the edge of Zi’s head, holding on to their antlers to keep your balance.

“Keep the wyvern distracted!” you instructed Zi. “Try to get it to land while I get Artax!”

“You got it!” the Long replied, as you took a deep breath, let go of their antlers, and jumped.

Maggie leapt right after you, landing on your shoulder roughly as you touched down on the monster’s neck. Digging your feet into its scales, you braced your legs backwards to avoid sliding down its back. Grabbing its spines, you used them to pull yourself towards the mad sun god. Maggie got his attention by shooting a laser blast at the back of his neck. With a shout of anger, he turned around and saw you.

“You again!” he snarled, his eyes narrowing in a death glare. He started climbing down the wyvern’s neck, making his way towards you. “You just don’t know when to quit!”

“What can I say, I never learned how to tell!” you retorted, grasping your bat in your right hand, “Ready for round two?”

“Are you?” he growled, grabbing his sword and charging at you.

Meanwhile, Lu and Hong were having a go at the other wyverns. Lu was currently coiled around one beast’s body, his claws digging into the sides of its head. Despite being half the size of the monster, the Long had used his more flexible body to gain the upper hand. Inching his paws towards the front of the creature’s head, Lu snuck his talons into its mouth and pried the jaws wide open. The wyvern thrashed wildly in the Long’s grip, fighting for its life as the two of them shot through the storm. It dove towards the ground, hoping to destroy the Long as well as itself. But the beast acted too late. Rearing back his head, Lu shot a blast of neon green fire down the wyvern’s throat, the force of the extreme heat and pressure causing its neck to incinerate and its head to tumble off. It would appear that these things were not fireproof on the inside. Lu uncoiled his massive form from around the headless corpse, and chased it towards the ground as a new head already began sprouting from the stump of the neck.

The ancient dragon was suddenly cut off by another wyvern swooping in unseen from the fiery maelstrom, clamping its jaws down hard on Lu’s back. The Long roared in pain and shock as he shifted his attention to this new challenger. Striking and slashing at his foe, Lu was having a harder time getting the upper hand on this one.

Luckily, help arrived soon enough. The wyvern suddenly seized up and let go as Hong bit down furiously on the nape of its neck. Eyes ablaze with rage, she sank her fangs deep into the beast’s hide, her fury allowing her to pierce through rock-hard scales like they were made of tissue paper. With an eldritch scream the wyvern fell as its spinal cord was snapped in two. Within moments of being released however, the two end of the cord had reconnected, and the wyvern shot back up, ready to take vengeance on its assailants.

Lu and Hong were ready. Flying away from the beast in opposite directions, they soared upwards, trying to get as high above the beast as possible. They flew high enough to reach the edge of the storm, piercing through into the starry skies above. They turned around once they were each three miles away, and waited.

Sure enough, the beast had followed them, breaking through the storm with a flap of its enormous wings. That was Lu and Hong’s cue. They suddenly began diving towards the wyvern, shooting down and right at each other, jaws agape and claws outstretched. The wind whistled loudly against their ears, but neither of them noticed. As they passed each other, they each grabbed one of the beast’s wings with both their talons and jaws. Lu, who swooped in from its left, grabbed its right wing. Hong, diving in from its right, clamped down on its left wing. The two Long used the momentum of their dive to shoot back upwards, yanking as hard as they could on the beast’s wings. With a sound like fabric shredding in two, both its wings were ripped off its body, and the wyvern plummeted towards the ground below. Lu and Hong shot off in different directions, each eager to find a new opponent.

As the two elder Long continued to fight the beasts, you dueled the general. Zi was working on coiling themselves around the beast’s body, but was having a hard time getting a grip on it. The two gods kept up the fight, swinging their respective weapons at each other, trying to land a deadly blow. Maggie danced around between your shoulders, getting shots at the general with her laser blasts. Your bat broke his bones, bruised his chest and back, and cracked his skull open more than once. Meanwhile, his sword impaled your stomach, slashed open your neck, and nearly sliced off your limbs. However, neither of you could get the upper hand on the other. The two of you were equally matched; you both were just as powerful.

But that also meant that you both had the same weaknesses. You swung your bat back to break Artax’s ribs when you suddenly clutched your chest, gasping for air. You dropped your bat and staggered back, grabbing one of the wyvern’s spines to steady yourself. The mad sun god was in the same boat. He gulped for air and braced himself on one of the spines as well, letting his sword fall weakly at his side.

“What’s happening to me?!” you screamed as you desperately tried to suck in air.

“You tell me!” the general sneered. Looking up at him, you felt yourself grow faint with horror.

With each beat of his immortal heart his entire circulatory system lit up, flaring bright red under his skin and lighting up his body. Arteries, veins, even the tiniest of capillaries, would glow an eerie scarlet for a moment, before fading to black until the heart’s next beat. The vessels encroaching across the general’s face looked like a ghostly spider web, and illuminated his enraged expression.

Looking down, you saw that the same thing was happening to you. However, your color of choice was blue; your heart, blood, and vessels would light up with a brilliant azure with each beat. Each successive pump of your heart caused to to feel weaker and weaker, and you sank to your knees to rest.

“There must have been a flaw with the pill!” you concluded. “It didn’t grant us true godhood! Just the power of a god, but none of the immortality. We’ll burn through all our power and -”

“And then what?” Artax taunted. “I can always take more pills, I know how to make them! This sounds more like a problem for you!”

“There won’t be enough of you left!” you argued, shrieking in desperation. “Ever hear about what happened at Chernobyl? We’re both minutes away from our own demises! We’re both going to meltdown, like a nuclear reactor! Not unless we find a way to gain immortality!”

Artax looked thoughtful for a second, before he smirked and replied. “Well good luck with that, then! You’ll need it!” He backhanded you, sending you stumbling, before kicking you in the chest and sending you flying off the wyvern’s back. You free fell for several seconds, your limbs flailing and you screaming. Zi uncoiled themselves from the wyvern and caught you with their paws, gently setting you down on top of their head.

“You okay, goddess?” they asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” you replied, ignoring how weird it was for Zi to call you “goddess”. Warily, you watched the general continue to ride the beast’s back, before he did something completely unexpected. He suddenly plunged his sword right in the back of the monster’s skull, and he held on to the hilt as the creature shrieked and tumbled into the fiery clouds. Within moments they were out of sight; turning back to Zi you added, “I just…need a minute.”

“With all due respect, you don’t sound fine,” they countered, “We need to find a way to make you immortal, or you’ll really die!”

“Well how are we going to do that?” you snapped, “It’s not like I’m familiar with -”

At that moment a loud booming sound, like a mine going off underwater, echoed throughout the blazing infernal heavens. A moment of silence fell all around you, and the air seemed to grow still. Your body tensed up in anticipation, but of what? Beside you, Maggie shivered despite the incredible heat, and you picked her up and held her against your chest. Beneath your feet, Zi growled, and you could feel the vibrations from their chest shaking your legs. Something had happened, but what?

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” you commented, your chest feeling like it was filled with cement.

“So do I,” Zi added. “What do you think that -”

Their voice suddenly died in their throat as they spotted something coming up from the flames beneath them. You and Maggie peered over the sides of their head, and you quickly forgot about your glowing circulatory system. This…this was far more terrifying.

It was a grotesque caricature of a dragon, a parody of such a mighty beast. Its scales were as red as the moon during a lunar eclipse. Its wings stretched out five hundred feet wide on either side, showcasing all one thousand feet of its wingspan. Sprouting out the front of the torso were a pair of arms, but the disturbing part? They were human arms, not the type of arms the Long had. Tipping the fingers, where the nails would be, were razor sharp claws. The legs were in even worse shape; the feet didn’t even look like they could support the monster’s weight. The feet were much shorter than they should have been in a reptilian creature his size, and the heel was rounded like a human’s foot. Claws tipped the toes, which flexed and thrashed madly in the air. The body was long and thin, almost snake-like, and the torso would curl and twist around itself again and again. You winced as you heard the beast’s spine cracking repeatedly with each coil. But by far the most unsettling part was its head.

It had a human’s head. At least, a mostly human head. The face was pushed out slightly, as if it had tried to take on a more draconic snout, but gave up halfway through the transformation. A set of six horns adored its skull, and all six were wreathed in flames. A wall of fire raced down its back all the way to its tail, which whipped madly through the air.

Your brain struggled to make sense of this abomination as it turned its gaze towards you. The general’s face sneered down at you, and when he opened his eyes the sky was filled with light. The sun itself seemed to live behind his eyes, and you thought it was day for a moment. As his alien eyes blinked, the light faded and night fell again for one blessed moment. The day returned when he opened his eyes. His hot breath fanned you, and it felt like the chaotic winds of a summer storm.

“This. Ends. NOW!” Artax roared, his voice having the blazing crackle of a wildfire. Before Zi could act the mad sun god/dragon/Lovecraftian horror seized the purple Long in his back talons, using his hands to clamp down on their jaws. With a flap of his gigantic wings the four of you were carried high up into the air.

The sun god pierced the racing inferno, racing through the clouds towards the starry sky beyond. Gripping Zi’s antlers in terror, you looked down over the side to see the hurricane of fire roaring far below. The Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico stretched out from either side of the storm, and the entire southern half of Florida was obscured by the flames. The ground below began to shrink, getting smaller as the general carried Zi higher.

At last, he stopped shooting upwards, and he beat his wings to hover high in the air. By now, the four of you were at the outermost edge of the atmosphere, and you could see the curvature of the earth all the way out to the horizon. In the distance, the sun blazed brightly in the darkness of space, and the mad sun god stretched his wings out to catch as much of its light as he could. Now that he was much closer to his ‘domain’, as it were, his power could only increase. Maggie started breathing shallow breaths, unused to the sudden change in air pressure. You held her limply, pressing her to your chest as you tried to climb to Zi’s head. If you could just pry Artax’s hands away…

You staggered back, almost falling completely off the purple Long’s back as your heart hammered much harder than normal. By now, your heart felt like it would leap out of your chest at the next beat. With each thump of the powerful organ, your blood vessels lit up bright blue, the lines of arteries and veins stretching like a spider web down your arms and legs. Your eyesight was fading as well; the capillaries in your eyes would also light up, and your vision would drown in shades of neon blue. Wrapping your legs around Zi’s body, you used your free hand to grip your chest in pain. Was this what having a heart attack felt like? you randomly wondered. Your head was tilted back, and you could only watch helplessly as Artax shifted his hands, using one of them to keep Zi’s jaws closed while his other hand reached up to their forehead.

Your blood ran cold when you saw the general curl his fingers around Zi’s pearl. With a sudden yank, he ripped the pearl right out of the Long’s forehead. As Zi’s roar of agony was muffled by the hand keeping their jaws shut, only you were able to hear it. The purple began to fade from the ancient serpent’s scales, until they were a dull dark grey, their hide only having flickers of violet.

Artax leaned in, whispered “See you in Hell,” and let go.

You screamed as you fell miles and miles down, the force of the earth’s gravity pulling you closer to the ground. Maggie snuggled deep into your chest, too terrified to even look down at the ground. Zi plummeted like a stone, their talons and antlers heating up and sparking flames upon reentry into the atmosphere.

Desperately you grabbed onto one of Zi’s antlers and tried pulling up. You didn’t have a good grasp on flying yet, but you were damned if that was going to stop you from saving your friend. You pulled and tugged, but the three of you continued to fall ever closer to the ground.

As you reentered the firestorm, Zi stretched out their talons towards you, “Stop! Stop, goddess! It’s no use!”

“Don’t say that!” you argued, not releasing your grip. “I can save you! If I can just -”

“You can’t!” the Long weakly answered, “I know you want to save me, but you can’t! It’s not going to work! But I can save you!” And before you could say anything they grabbed you, prying you off their antlers, and held you to their chest.

The Long crashed with explosive force, the impact of their back against the ground creating a crater at least two hundred feet wide. Clouds of dirt were sent flying outwards and upwards, as rocks the size of cars were thrown over a mile away. The ground shook with the force of an earthquake, and the vibrations continued for over thirty seconds after the initial impact.

Zi laid still in the crater, groaning in pain as their talons remained locked tightly around you. You were mostly unharmed; you had some fractured bones as a result of the rough stop, but could manage. Maggie remained curled up against your chest, still shaking with fear.

Artax alighted down in front of you, his lips curled into a sneer as he took in the sight. “Pathetic,” he hissed. “I expected more from someone as ancient and powerful as you. It doesn’t matter, anyways. Both of you will die, all the same.” He reared his head back, his jaws already glowing with white fire as hot as the sun.

You struggled to get to your feet, trying to run, to fight, to do something to stop this madman from annihilating the three of you. As you swayed on your broken legs, you felt a talon pull you back.

You looked up to Zi, who had gotten to their paws with much more effort. “What are you doing?” you asked, your voice hoarse.

Zi looked down at you, their eyes wistful. They rasped, “What do you think? Thought I was gonna let you take all the heat?” They chuckled weakly, “Save some action for the rest of us!” They stepped forwards, their leg shielding you and their head lowered.

Your eyes widened as you realized what they were doing, “No no no no no! No Zi, you can’t do this! You’ll die! Do you hear me, you’ll DIE!” Your eyes were already growing misty with tears ready to fall.

Zi turned to look down at you, “You’re right, I will die. But if it buys you enough time to figure out how to kill this guy, it’ll be worth it. Besides, I’m not dying to save a mortal. I’m not even dying to save a goddess. Wanna know who I’m dying to save?”

You shook your head.

Zi lowered their head, looked right into your eyes, and whispered, “I’m dying to save my friend.”

Your heart broke as Zi redirected their attention to Artax, swinging their antlers and pawing the ground in defiance. With a roar they charged at the sun god as the monster’s jaws opened wide, ready to deliver a fatal blow. Zi opened their own jaws, channeling the last of their magic into their most powerful blast yet.

Violet energy met ivory flames, as the two battled for dominance. Sadly, Zi’s flames were quickly overwhelmed as the white sun fire raced towards them. Brilliant white light enveloped the ancient Long, and they were thrown back. One final roar of resistance rang out across the battlefield as Zi’s body was incinerated. You could only stand there in horror and sorrow, falling to your knees before collapsing entirely. Violet ashes, sparking with energy, blanketed your body as you rasped Zi’s name one last time.

Artax, thinking he had killed you as well, took off for the skies. He soared high into the clouds, circling the base before landing on top of the tallest tower. He gripped the spire with his warped back legs, curling his tail around the base. His hands grasped the top of the structure, and let out a roar of victory. He had done it, he was the only true god now! He swung his head upwards, staring with greed up at the moon through the fire and flames. Once he had taken the moon for himself, he would take out the Swarm, and the universe would be his. HIS! He was a GOD, ruler of the cosmos, and no one could challenge him now.

Or so he thought.

A faint ringing, like the roar of a jet far above, buzzed in the air. Artax redirected his attention towards the direction it was coming from and peered through the smoke. A small blue light, slowly growing larger, was shining in the distance, and heading in his direction. It was aimed straight at the tower, flying in fast as a comet. With a crash it landed on top of the tower, and he had to shield his eyes from the brilliant light. When the light dimmed, he turned to its source and stared in shock.

You stood there, your heart and blood vessels no longer glowing. Indeed, you were no longer on the verge of disintegrating, as you were now a true god. You stood tall and proud, swinging the sword you had traded your bat for, throwing down a challenge to the sun god. Your whole body shone with blue light, shifting into purples tones like two colors swirling together on a canvas. You didn’t even appear to be made of flesh and blood anymore, for your whole body shone with light. You were now light itself. Your armor lit up with all the colors of the night rainbow, a living aurora in and of itself. It remained hard and impenetrable as ever, ready to shield its wearer from their mortal enemy. You stood in front of the sun dragon god, bracing your legs and turning your head to look up at him.

You opened your eyes, and a galaxy burned within them.

You said nothing as you plunged the sword deep into Artax’s chest. You had acted quickly enough that the general could do nothing but howl in agony as the blade pierced his heart. You still said nothing when you withdrew the blade and sliced off his left hand, causing him to lose his grip on the tower. He let go and started to fall into his own flames. You were silent as you sliced the sword across his eyes, blinding him. The general disappeared from view, swinging his head wildly trying to regain his bearings. Finally, you remained mute as you followed him to the ground, landing in front of him with a soft thump.

You walked up to the wounded god, and channeled all of your magic into the sword in your hands. Throwing all your strength behind the blade, you wordlessly plunged the blade right into Artax’s eye.

His whole body lit up in white-hot fire, and you braced yourself against the ground to shield yourself from the explosion. As flames raced past you, you noticed that the firestorm above your head had started slowing down, the flames cooling to a deep red. When the smoke cleared, Artax stood there, human in form but still powerful. The blackened ground beneath his feet crunched as he stood up, swaying on his unsteady legs. He glared at you with pure hatred, his remaining hand balling into a fist as flames began to encase it and the stump where his other hand once was.

Finally you spoke: “We don’t have to do this, Artax. Hasn’t enough blood been spilled today? How many more have to die before this is over?” You pleaded desperately, giving the general one last chance to stand down.

Instead of answering your question, he charged at you, screaming in fury as his arms reached out to throttle you. He would rather die in agony than beg for mercy from you. You swung the sword back, your stomach twisting at what you were about to do. You aimed at the general’s neck.

Artax’s head flew clean from his shoulders, tumbling down the field before coming to a rest near a stone. At that moment, the firestorm lifted, the air cooled, and the last of the stars were seen shimmering brightly over your head. It was over, you had won. But your victory had come at a great cost. Lu and Hong swooped in and landed behind you, looking forlorn.

You turned back to them, “I’m sorry,” you whispered, your voice threatening to break. You shook your head as you added: “I’m so sorry. I tried to save them, I just -”

“We do not blame you, goddess,” Lu explained. “Zi made their decision; they chose to die saving someone they loved. They died a hero, there is nothing more honorable than that.”

Hong remained silent, but the expression on her face said it all. She may not have agreed with her brother on many things, but their death hurt her deeply. It would take a long time for her to heal from it.

Maggie, having watched this exchange, hopped up to Artax’s headless corpse and began nuzzling into his pocket. “Mags, what are you -” You froze when you saw what she had pulled out.

A violet pearl, still glowing slightly.

You clutched the pearl to your chest as you looked out towards the east. As if rising from the ocean itself, the first rays of daylight began to peak. You sat down, with Hong, Lu, and Maggie curling up next to you. No one said a thing as the four of you watched the sunrise.

Chapter Text

Two Months Later

You stood at the edge of the aurora, watching the world turn beneath your feet. Staring down over sixty miles to the earth below, the great Pacific Ocean thrashed as a hurricane swept up its waters to the other side of the world. When you had first ascended, you tried to avoid looking down as much as possible to avoid vertigo. It was easier to ‘focus on the horizon’, so to speak. That is, if by ‘horizon’, you meant ‘the curved edge of the earth furthest away from you’. Now though, after being up here so long, you had grown accustomed to watching the earth below you. It was like peering over the rim of a canyon, your eyes straining to find the bottom of the abyss.

Watching the earth was one of the few things that gave you solace nowadays. Turning away from the ocean, you stepped back towards the center of the aurora, began walking down it, and leapt over the bump in the road. As you reached the other side, you pointed your feet down and began sliding down the night rainbow, coasting down the wave of light as you would surf across a wave of water. When the aurora leveled out again, you stumbled forward for a second before catching yourself. Your dress and skirt trailed behind you in an invisible breeze; it was a miracle you hadn’t tripped over the ornate garments…yet.

Maggie was waiting for you down the road. She hopped up to you and nuzzled your foot, looking to be scratched between her ears. Obliging her, you gave her a quick pet before the two of you continued down the aurora. You were forever glad that your final act on earth before rising into the skies had been to grab her. Neither of you belonged there, anymore. It would have been cruel to leave her behind to fend for herself.

You knelt down in the center of the road and traced your fingers across a streak of rose colored light. Noticing how pale it was, you muttered to yourself, “Well, this won’t do,” and pressed your hand firmly against the light. In an instant it was shining in a much brighter hue, and shimmered with far more intensity than before. “There, that’s better,” you commented.

Your companion hopped ahead of you a little ways and tilted her head in a questioning look. Sensing what she wanted, you answered, “We don’t have much more ground to cover today. We’ll be done soon.” That, as far as you could tell, was your new job as the goddess of the aurora. Making sure that its colors continued to shine brightly across earth’s skies, and that they never grew dim. You just hoped that the mortals below appreciated your handiwork. You were a novice to this, that was for sure, but you were trying your best! Besides, you had all of eternity to get this right.

That was another thing that took some getting used to. Wrapping your head around the fact that you were going to live forever. Not just a really long time, but FOREVER. For as long as you had been alive, you had accepted the fact that your life was going to end one day. Nothing lasts forever, especially not human lives. While you were a mortal, you tried to live each day like it were your last. Now, though? There would never be a ‘last day’ for you. You could take your time doing all the things you wanted to do. Although that would be much harder, given that your chances of ever returning to earth were slim. What does one do when they have all of eternity, but doesn’t know how to spend it?

Maggie, of course, had a few ideas. She chirped to get your attention, and when you were looking her way she nodded towards her left. Following her gaze, you sighed when you saw what she had pointed out. Far off in the distance, contrasted against the darkness of space like a pearl against black velvet, was the moon. The lunar rabbit had done this more than once. Trying to convince you to go back, to try and see Chang’e again. But you didn’t think it was a good idea.

“Mags, you know why I can’t go back,” you protested. “She’ll never give me another chance, not after the way we parted.” You knew that the moon goddess wouldn’t forgive you for your final words to her, she just wouldn’t. After you had handed her the locket, it occurred to you that she had no way of acting on the knowledge of your love for her. From her perspective, you had told her you loved her, promised yourself to her…and then died, breaking her heart. To the moon goddess, it would have been like losing Houyi all over again. If you showed up in Lunaria, alive and well, Chang’e would hate you for the emotional torment you had put her through. Even before you heard that she was being held captive, you had doubts about how she would react to you. Her cold demeanor when you two were reunited confirmed your fears. She may had given you her heart once more, but you had then broken it once more. Chang’e had been through enough heartbreak to cover many lifetimes, it would be cruel to add onto that.

Maggie whimpered at your hesitation, clearly not agreeing with the logic of your decision. In some ways, you understood where she was coming from. Chang’e had forgiven you once before, why couldn’t she forgive you a second time? You did understand that much; yes, she could forgive you again, but honestly…should she? If you showed up again in Lunaria, apologizing and begging for forgiveness, the moon goddess would of course feel obligated to pardon you. But you didn’t want to force her into such a position, it wasn’t right. If she did forgive you, you only wanted it to be because she truly wanted you back in her life. Or, at the very least, didn’t begrudge you for what happened.

“And how do you know that for certain?” a voice said behind you. Turning around, you saw Lu Long floating in the ether, their body glittering in the light of the aurora. He continued, “With all due respect my goddess, despite your newfound power, you’re not omniscient. You cannot know with certainty how Chang’e would react to your return.”

“Lu, you didn’t see her when we were first reunited! She had convinced herself that I never loved her to save herself from heartbreak! She was so cold towards me, had put up walls around herself so that I couldn’t hurt her again. And when she did let down those walls once more…I only broke her heart again. If she were smart, which she is, she’d have nothing to do with me ever again.” you explained, your tone turning desperate. You weren’t sure if you were trying to convince Lu or yourself with your logic.

“If she is as smart as you say she is, surely she would understand?” Lu asked, insistent. “You stayed behind on earth to ensure that Artax could never hurt her again. She would see that -”

“Lu, enough,” you interjected, “She’ll never forgive me! The sooner I accept that, the sooner I can move on, figure out how to spend the rest of my life…a life that will never end, so I guess I’ll just have to learn how to go on without her…” your voice trailed off, growing soft with doubt.

“If I may speak freely, goddess,” Hong jumped in, having flown over and heard the conversation. “which I plan on doing either way -”

“Why did I know that you weren’t asking for permission?” you teased, a shy smirk appearing on your face.

Hong gave you a pointed look, before continuing, “You’re right, I wasn’t. Back to the subject at hand: with all due respect, you are a fool.”

“Hong!” Lu growled, shocked at her disrespectful tone.

“No, no,” you waved Lu away, “let’s see what kind of hole she’s going to dig for herself.”

Hong rolled her eyes, but continued, “I said what I said. You’re a fool if you think staying away from Chang’e is the right thing to do. Tell me: did you not once explain to us how you almost died while you were her guest?”

“Yeah, I remember the rover incident. Why?”

“Did you easily forget how you described the goddess’s reaction to your presumed passing?”

You thought back to that time. You didn’t enjoy thinking about it; you would never forget Chang’e’s anguished voice as she assumed the worst. “She was distraught,” you replied, “The thought of me dying nearly sent her over the edge. I still feel horrible about how much I worried her that day. I didn’t want to see her like that ever again.”

“Exactly. She was distraught,” Hong echoed, “She thought you were dead, and it sent her spiraling into grief. Now tell me, you think that she believes you died fighting Artax.” Her voice hardened, and her icy glare pierced your soul, “How do you think she feels, right now?”

Your heart lurched as your brain made the connection. How could you have been so blind? Of course she would feel distraught at your death! You knew how much something like that would hurt her, so you had to set things right! But once she saw you were alive and well…

"Heartbroken,” you answered, guilt lacing your voice, “She’s feeling heartbroken at the thought of my death. But Hong…that’s an even better reason to stay away! Once she sees that I’m alright, she’ll be angry that I put her through so much torment! She’ll never forgive me! She’ll hate me!”

The red Long growled as she slammed her left paw down next to you on the aurora road. Lu snapped his jaws at her, displeased with how she was threatening their goddess. Hong snapped back, before adding, “She needs to hear this!” Turning back to you, she hissed: “So you’re not just a fool, you’re also a coward!”

“What?!” you protested, your voice full of indignant rage. “I’m not a coward! You saw me fight Artax, I was willing to die to make sure he was defeated!”

“That’s not what I meant!” Hong argued, “You were brave while fighting that mad general, I won’t deny you that. You had courage, and were willing to lay down your life to save humanity from enslavement.” To your surprise, her voice softened, before she bowed her head down to your level, “You were not afraid to fight against him. Why are you afraid to fight for her?”

You blinked and looked away, feeling ashamed. Hong had a point, despite how blunt she was at making it. You were afraid of Chang’e, there was no denying that. Afraid of her anger, of how betrayed she would feel, and…“You’re right Hong, I am afraid. I’m afraid that she’ll reject me. I can’t…I don’t want to spend the rest of eternity without her, knowing that she wants nothing to do with me.”

“So you think it’s better that she thinks you’re dead, than for her to know you’re alive and hate you. Do you not see the cruelty in that?”

Your heart felt heavy in your chest. It was cruel, you couldn’t deny that. For her to spend the rest of eternity knowing that she had found love again, only to let it slip through her fingers. Chang’e didn’t deserve that, no one did. After all she had already been through, she deserved to be happy…even if it meant that you couldn’t be a part of her happiness. You sighed, and set your shoulders. You knew what you had to do.

“You’re right Hong, it is cruel,” you concluded. “Chang’e deserves to choose whether she wants me or not, I don’t have the right to make that choice for her. Alright, I’ll go back. But…what if I’m right, and she does hate me?”

“Then you won’t have to spend the rest of eternity wondering if you were mistaken.” Hong replied sagely.

“I guess there’s that too,” you added, picking up Maggie and hopping on Lu’s back. “Okay, looks like we’re heading back to Lunaria!”

Lu took off, Hong following closely behind him. As the four of you flew across the skies far above the earth, you watched the planet far below, catching the light of the distant sun like a blue and green gemstone. Stretching out your hand into the void, you watched with curiosity as pastel light, shimmering in shades of blue, green, red, and violet flowed from your fingertips. Waving your fingers like you were playing a piano, the lights glowed with a soft light as they receded into the darkness behind you. You cast an eye on the distant stars, cold and distant, as they watched over what could be your final pilgrimage.

The four of you landed on the shores of Lunaria Lake, and that’s when you saw it: the wreckage of the Chiyou. Judging by how many pieces the prototype rocket was in, the Lunarians must have had a very rough landing. It was almost as if a giant had ripped the spacecraft in half; hunks of shredded and twisted metal dotted the lake shore like pieces of debris around a shipwreck. Then again, perhaps some of that debris didn’t only come from this rocket. You noted how the Chiyou had crashed not far from your own failed rocket to the point that you couldn’t tell which pieces came from which craft.

Lu and Hong had landed in this middle of this vehicular graveyard, surveying the shards of metal and glass that stood upright in the lunar soil like tombstones. Sliding off of Lu’s back, you and Maggie landed with a thump into the soft grey sand, clouds of moondust billowing up around your feet.

“Looks like their landing was a little rough,” you commented.

“Really, how could you tell?” Hong asked.

You giggled as you turned to address her, “Did you just tell a joke?”

Flustered, Hong quickly added, “Well, I…that’s not the point! Don’t change the subject! We are here for a reason!”

“From the looks of it, our arrival couldn’t have been soon enough.” Lu observed.

“What do you mean?” you inquired.

“Look at the city,” Lu answered, nodding his head up in Lunaria’s direction.

Turning to look that way, you gasped as what you saw.

The whole city was dark. Pitch black, devoid of all light, sunken in shadow. Where Lunaria would normally be was a void, as if it were a black hole that had sucked in all surrounding light. Straining your eyes, you could barely make out the outlines of different buildings, and the palace hung in the still lunar air, like a dark finger that pointed up at the starless sky. The thousands of points of light that shone from this city were gone, like a galaxy who’s stars had all grown dim. It was also too silent. You couldn’t hear the hum of activity that normally came from a city of this size, it was too quiet. This was no longer a city of light and music; if anything, this was a city of the dead.

“What happened here?” you asked, too stunned to say anything else.

“If Chang’e’s magic is connected to Lunaria, as you said it was, this could be because of her. We shall go up there and -”

“No, Lu,” you interrupted, “I know you want to help and all, but…I need to do this alone. I’m the one that caused this, so I’m the one that needs to fix this.”

Lu and Hong looked at each other, neither of them happy with this idea of yours. A few moments later though, Hong nodded her head and said to Lu: “She’s right. This is her fight.” Turning back to you, she added, “You started this, and you shall be the one to end it.”

“Thank you,” you replied. Seeing the long way to the summit, you asked yourself, “Now how am I gonna get up there? I can’t fly all that well yet, so…”

You turned to look at the shards of metal and debris that surrounded you. Spotting a flat sheet of metal, you got an idea.

It took you and Maggie only a few minutes to craft the makeshift surfboard, having gained lots of practice with working metal. Setting the board down on the lake’s surface, you hopped on and set Maggie in front of you. You looked back at the two Long, and said, “If I need you two, for whatever reason, I’ll let you know. Wait here, and no matter what happens, I’ll come back for you.”

“Understood. Good luck, my goddess.” Lu replied. Hong merely nodded at you, urging you forward.

Shoving off from the shore with your foot, you and Maggie coasted across the surface of the lake for a hundred yards of so, before you knelt down and brushed the surface of the board with your fingertips. In an instant it began to shimmer with your magic. Leaning back, the tip of the board pointed up at the sky, and the two of you began soaring upwards into Lunaria.

As the two of you ‘surfed’ through the city, you were able to get a better look at the darkened buildings flying past you. They hung in the air, still and black, completely silent. You didn’t see any Lunarians out either, so you assumed that they were all hiding. From what, you couldn’t be sure. The light from your board, humming with your magic, was the only thing that shone through the eternal night. Maggie whimpered at how silent and still it was, not liking how difficult it was for the two of you to see your path. You gently knelt down and stroked her ears reassuringly, before straightening back up. Stretching a hand out in front of you, a light appeared in the palm of your hand. Using it like a beacon, you navigated the city of ghosts, twisting and turning through the air that passed as streets, all the way until the two of you had made it to the palace.

Hopping off the board, your bare feet setting down on the balcony, you stepped a little ways forward before stopping. Maggie turned around to look at you, confused. In response, you used your magic to shrink down, your cerulean robes and multicolored shawl disappearing before you reappeared. You now stood at a normal human height, wearing your flight suit from the Lunar Gateway. This is how Chang’e remembered you, and this is how you would return to her. Also, you weren’t sure how she would take the news of you becoming a goddess, and you wanted to wait before revealing that.

Walking up the steps, you stepped over the shattered palace doors, still not repaired from when Artax had attacked, and you strode into the palace. Maggie hopped after you, keeping on your heels.

Your footsteps echoed around the palace halls, bouncing off the walls until the sound faded into oblivion. It was no brighter in here than it was out there, so you strained your eyes to see ahead. You called out, “Hello? Is there…anyone in here?” You waited for an answer, but heard nothing. Where was everyone? This was starting to scare you. What was going on? Why couldn’t you find anyone?

You heard someone call out your name just then, and turning the corner you saw a friendly face. Gobi stood there, looking completely shocked at your return. His surprise quickly turned to joy, and he ran over to you and Maggie, throwing his arms around your legs.

“You’re okay! You’re really okay!” he exclaimed, his voice thick with emotion. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

“It’s good to see you too, Gobi.” you replied, kneeling down to return his hug. “What’s going on? What happened to all the light?”

“It’s the Big Darkness,” he said mournfully. “It’s been like this ever since we returned.”

“What happened?”

“Well, after we crashed by the lake, Chang’e realized that you were gone. Given how badly injured you were, and what you were going to do, she thought…she thought you had died. We all did. The goddess disappeared after that, Lunaria fell dark and silent…and it’s been like this ever since.” He paused before asking you, “Wait, how did you survive? Were you able to stop Artax? How did you -”

“Gobi, wait,” you interrupted, “I’ll answer all your questions soon enough. Where’s Chang’e? I need to see her.”

“She’s this way,” Gobi replied, grabbing your hand and tugging you along. Maggie hopped ahead of you both; clearly she knew where he was talking about. As the two of you walked along, you almost tripped over something near your feet. Stooping down to grab it, you realized with a start what it was: your copy of Left Hand of Darkness. Judging by the fact that it was out in the hall, you surmised that it had been tossed there carelessly. Turning the book around in your hands, you realized that the final bookmark was near the end of the book. Flipping to that page, you read the marked passage:

All at once – there, at that last moment, no sooner – I realized what my selfishness and Estraven’s silence had kept from me, where he was going and what he was getting into. I said, “Therem – wait -”

But he was off, downhill: a magnificent fast skier, and this time not holding back for me. He shot away on a long quick curving descent through the shadows over the snow. He ran from me, and straight into the guns of the border-guards. I think they shouted warnings or orders to halt, and a light sprang up somewhere, but I am not sure; in any case he did not stop, but flashed on towards the fence, and they shot him down before he reached it. They did not use the sonic stunners but the foray gun, the ancient weapon that fires a set of metal fragments in a burst. They shot to kill him.

He was dying when I got to him, sprawled and twisted away from his skis that stuck up out of the snow, his chest half shot away. I took his head in my arms and spoke to him, but he never answered me; only in a way he answered my love for him, crying out through the silent wreck and tumult of his mind as consciousness lapsed, in the unspoken tongue, once, clearly, “Arek!” Then no more. I held him, crouching there in the snow, while he died. They let me do that. Then they made me get up, and took me off one way and him another, I going to prison and he into the dark.

You sighed as you finished reading the final passage. Out of all the places she chose to stop reading, of course it had to be at that spot! you thought, hanging your head in despair.

“Is something wrong?” Gobi asked, turning around to question you. “You seem…sad, like you’ve done something you shouldn’t have.”

“I am sad, Gobi,” you replied. “And I do think I’ve done something wrong. Hopefully I can fix it though.”

“Of course you can! If anyone can help us, it’s you! You’re the best at fixing things!”

“Thanks, bud,” you said, smiling a little at that statement. “I just hope this…thing is fixable.”

“Well, come on!” Gobi cried, “I’m sure Chang’e will be so happy to see you!”

“I hope you’re right,” you quietly added under your breath as the three of you resumed your trek.

Eventually the three of you stopped at a strange-looking wall. It shimmered with opaque light, like oil swirling with water. Just in front of the wall Teal, Goldie, and Rose stood worryingly, peering past the wall into something on the other side. Jade and Bungee stood nearby, also looking concerned. Maggie chirped and ran forward; at the sound of her voice the two older rabbits looked in her direction. They joyfully embraced their kit, nuzzling her ears and purring. Upon spotting you, Jade and Bungee’s expressions turned from joy to surprise, if not outright shock. The three Lunettes had matching expressions when they saw you.

“How did you get here?” Teal gasped, not sure if she could trust her eyes. “How did you survive? We thought you were dead!”

“It’s complicated,” you admitted, before asking, “Where’s Chang’e? I need to speak with her.”

The blue Lunette pointed at the wall, and you turned to look inside.

All you could see at first was a void, devoid of any light save for a few stars hanging haphazardly in the air. You couldn’t make out any distinct shapes, but as you looked closer, you saw a white light floating in the distance. Squinting, you saw what, or rather who, it was: Chang’e. She floated amongst the stars and shadows, her knees pulled to her chest and her hair waving freely behind her. You couldn’t see her face, but you saw that one of her hands was outstretched, her fingers carefully caressing an object.

“What is this place?” you asked, your voice soft with concern.

“It’s the Chamber of Exquisite Sadness,” Goldie replied in a mournful voice. “Not many people have gone in there.”

“Once, years ago, Fei Fei and her brother Chin went in there, but normally only the goddess goes in there. She hadn’t been in there since…since she lost Houyi forever. I’m scared! What if she never comes out this time?” Rose added.

“Let’s see if I can change that,” you answered quietly, pressing your hand against the wall.

“But no one can go in -” Rose started, before your hand passed through the wall like it wasn’t there. “No no no no no! You can’t go in! You may never come out!” she added, her voice switching from resigned to panicked.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Gobi asked, worried for you. “You’ll be forced to see all your saddest memories! What if you get trapped, you could never go home again!”

You thought to correct Gobi on that last point, but decided against it. You’ll have all the time in the world to explain, but now wasn’t that time. “I have to do this,” you replied, your tone resolved. “For her!”

And with your strongest shove, you pushed your way into the Chamber of Exquisite Sadness.

You stumbled forward a couple of yards before catching yourself. Hearing a faint scratching sound, you turned to look behind you. On the other side of the wall Maggie was pawing it, her tiny claws tapping the surface. She chirped in concern at you, wanting to come with you. You knelt down, pressing your hand gently on your side of the wall, and gave her a reassuring smile. Turning back around, you started walking forward, towards the grieving goddess.

As your feet touched the ground, you noticed how it rippled on each impact, like a stone breaking the surface of the water. The air in here was cold, and you hugged yourself as you shivered. Fixing your eyes on Chang’e, you pushed your feet against the floor, and you found yourself floating in the air, drifting through space towards her. However, you were stopped in your path when a memory began playing out before your eyes.

Your parents sat on either side of you as you pressed your eye to the telescope’s lens. Your eye was pressed so tightly against the eyepiece that a red ring formed around your eye, but you didn’t mind. Eagerly swinging the device around, you looked for a specific set of constellations. You had spent the past five nights searching the sky for them, but hadn’t succeeded yet. You were determined to stay out here all night in order to find them, despite your parents’ protests.

“Come on, little star,” your dad pled, “We should get inside, it’s past your bedtime,”

“Just five more minutes dad!” you protested, “I’m so close to finding them this time, I’m sure of it!”

Your dad was silent for a moment, before conceding, “Alright, but only five more minutes!”

“Yay!” you cheered, looking back towards the sky. You swung the telescope to the southeastern stars, aiming for near the horizon. Finally, you saw them.

“Yes!” you yelled, “I found them! Altair and Vega! The farmer and the weaver!”

“Good job kiddo!” your mom said, “Hey, do you know the story behind them?”

“Not really,” you admitted. “I just know that Vega’s the weaver and Altair’s the farmer. What’s their story, mom?”

“It’s an ancient Chinese story. A love story.”

You leaned closer to your mom, eager to hear the tale of Vega and Altair. She wrapped her arms around you as she told you their story.

“A long time ago, Vega was an immortal goddess that was famous for her weaving. One day, while she was visiting the mortal realm, she met a mortal named Altair. He was a simple farmer, but she fell in love with him, and he with her. They spent all their time together, finding their happiness with each other. Now Vega’s family, they weren’t happy their daughter fell in love with a mortal. You see, gods weren’t allowed to marry mortals.”

“Why not, mom?”

“Well, I suppose it’s because mortals die, and gods don’t. They were probably worried that Vega’s heart would be broken once Altair died. They also didn’t like the fact that the lovers were spending so much time together. Altair neglected his farming, and Vega ignored her weaving. So, her family conspired to separate the two lovers. They cast the two of them into the stars, and carved a river to flow between Altair and Vega. Ever since, they have been separated from each other.”

“But that’s awful!” you gasped, “So they could never be together again?”

“Not necessarily,” your mother coyly replied. “For one night a year, a flock of magpies flies up to the stars and they use their bodies to form a bridge across the river. For that one night, Vega and Altair are reunited.”

“Well,” you admitted, “At least they have one night a year to be together. But it’s not enough! They should be allowed to be together forever!”

“I agree, kiddo,” your mom added. “It isn’t fair. Let’s hope that you’re not so unlucky when you fall in love!”

You gagged in a dramatic fashion, “Yuck! I’m never gonna fall in love, that’s gross!”

Your dad laughed, “Never say never, little star! You might find someone someday!”

“I don’t need someone else, I have you guys!” you argued, hugging your dad close.

“You got me there, kid,” he replied. “Don’t worry, you’re not in a rush. We’re not going anywhere.”

The scene shifted, and a different memory that involved your parents played:

You huddled under the umbrella as you stood by your parents’ graves, watching impassively as your father’s coffin was lowered into its final resting place. The pallbearers, friends of your parents, gently placed it in the ground, then walked around to your mother’s coffin to lower hers. You were trying your hardest not to cry. You had gotten through the funeral itself mostly okay. You were able to blink away the tears when your parents’ friends, people you hadn’t met until today for some reason, read their eulogies. You ignored the stinging in your eyes and the pain in your head when they played their favorite songs. You swallowed the lump in your throat when the pallbearers had walked the bodies to their graves, freshly dug and already filling with rainwater. You were a big girl, and you knew that big girls weren’t supposed to cry.

“I’m sorry about your loss, kid,” the man holding the umbrella said. “I know this is hard for you, but we’re gonna take good care of you, okay?”

“What do you mean?” you asked, turning to look at him for the first time.

“Well, do you know what a social worker is?”

You shook your head, “No, what’s that?” you asked.

“We help kids find homes when their parents can’t take care of them. You know how your grandparents are gone, and both your parents were only children?"

You nodded slowly in understanding.

“Since you don’t have any living relatives, you’re now a ward of the state.”

“What’s a ‘ward of the state’?” you inquired.

“It means the government is going to look after you. We’re going to find a new home, and someone new to take care of you.”

“Okay,” you acknowledged, not liking how that sounded but going along with it anyway. You were just a kid, you couldn’t take care of yourself! Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Alright then, now that you’ve said goodbye, we should get going. Let me take you to my car.”

That was the moment it became real for you. Your parents were gone. Never coming back. As it hit you, you turned back to your parent’s graves and said, “No! I wanna stay here!”

“Look, you can’t stay here, you gotta leave sometime! Come on, I promise I won’t hurt you -”

“NO!” you yelled, “I CAN’T LEAVE!” Finally, the tears fell from your eyes, and you fell into the grass by your father’s grave, your little hands digging into the earth. “MOMMY! DADDY! DON’T GO!” you screamed. “I NEED YOU!”

The social worker picked you up off the ground, and walked you to his car. Flung over his shoulder, your little fists hitting his back over and over again, you couldn’t stop crying. You didn’t stop for the rest of the day.

“No, stop!” present you protested. “I can’t do this! I have to go!”

You turned away from the memory, and continued your trek towards where Chang’e hung. You swallowed the lump that had formed in your throat. You weren’t going to cry, you weren’t going to cry, was the mantra you repeated to yourself as you floated upwards. Before you could get very far though, a new memory started playing:

“Well, this is it,” you said, “Looks like this is where we part ways.”

The two of you stood outside the community center, looking pensively at each other. Richard had just turned eighteen, and legally wouldn’t have to be in the system anymore. He was a free man, ready to take on the world. You were happy for him; for most of his life other people had decided where Richard would go and who he was supposed to be. Now, he could decide his own destiny.

But for him, his destiny was supposed to include you.

“What about you, sparks?” he asked, looking worryingly at you. “You won’t be out for another year or so, where are you gonna go?”

“I don’t know,” you shrugged. “I’m definitely thinking about applying for college; I hear that NASA’s looking for recruits for their astronaut program. After that, who knows?”

“Who’re you gonna live with, though? How will you pay for all that college stuff?” he questioned. “That shit’s expensive!”

“I’m already looking at scholarships, so hopefully something pans out.”

Richard didn’t look convinced, so you added, “It’ll be okay. I’m gonna be okay, alright? Now get going, the world’s waiting for you!”

He took a few steps away from you, before racing back and grabbing your hands. “But I don’t want the world! Not if it means I can’t share it with you!”

“We can still keep in touch,” you argued. “I’ll always remember you, even if we…never see each other again.” Your voice turned quiet, and you fought back tears. Rich was the only family you’d ever known, and probably would ever know. You knew this day was coming, but nothing could have prepared you for it.

“What if…what if this isn’t goodbye? What if we became a real family?”

You tilted your head quizzically. “What do you mean, Rich? We’re already family!”

“I mean, what if we made it official?” He suddenly got down on one knee, and you gasped. Was he actually going to…

“Will you marry me, sparks? Do you wanna spend the rest of your life…with me?”

You hesitated for a second, before throwing your arms around him and crying, “Yes! Yes of course I’ll marry you!”

“Thank you sparks, thank you! I promise, I’ll wait for you, and we can tie the knot once we’re both legal!”

“And I’ll wait for you,” you promised right back. Did you love him? Yes. Did you love him as a future husband…you weren’t sure on that last point. But you did love him, you were sure of that. You guys could make it work. You were family, everything was gonna be just fine.

As you blinked back tears, the scene shifted once more:

You groaned as you came back from unconsciousness, with the first thing greeting you being the pungent scent of antiseptic spray. The only thing you heard in your hospital room was the pinging of the heart monitor, keeping a steady rhythm. You tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in your chest and sides forced you to lie back down. Looking down at your body, you tried to take in the damage you had incurred. Your entire chest was bandaged up, wrapped just loose enough for the incisions underneath to have room to breathe. Raising your left arm, you saw an oxygen monitor clamped down on your pointer finger, and a cast encasing your elbow. On your right arm, an IV was inserted into the vein just below your wrist, and two tubes were plugged into the needle point. Following the tubes to their point of origin, you saw a blood bag and a saline bag hanging from a metal rod. You could only just manage to trace the lines; there was some sort of heavy padding on your right eye.

At that moment a nurse in obnoxiously pink scrubs strode into the room to take your vitals. Upon seeing you blinking away sleep, she said to you: “Oh good, you’re awake! I’ll go get the doctor, she wants to ask you a few questions. That is, if you’re willing to talk right now.”

You waved at her, indicating that it was fine. She took your vitals, left the room, and came back a moment later with an older woman in a white doctor’s coat. She smiled kindly at you, and began to speak, “Well, ma’am, you gave us quite a scare back there! We weren’t sure if you were gonna pull through a couple of times.”

“What do you mean?” you rasped.

“You lost almost three pints of blood! That’s almost half of the blood in a person's entire body, if we hadn’t given you all those transfusions you wouldn’t be here! We even had to resuscitate you. Twice.”

“What can I say, I’m too stubborn to die,” you weakly chuckled, finding some humor in your situation. “So what’s the damage doc?”

“Five broken ribs, a fractured left humerus, a sprained elbow joint, bruised right eye, and several nasty cuts across your back. Now what I can’t figure out is how you got all those injuries. Are you comfortable talking about it?” she asked, concern in her eyes.

You hesitated. What was gonna happen if you told the truth? You knew Rich was gonna get arrested, that much you knew. But was it worth it? You already planned on leaving the guy, why drag things out by pressing charges? Then you realized; how were you gonna pay for all these hospital bills? You weren’t a health insurance expert by any means, but you knew that given all the surgeries and treatments you’d received, you’d raked up quite the hefty bill. There was no way you could pay the hospital for all those treatments, even with your insurance. It felt scummy of you to even think about this, but…if you were able to sue Rich for assaulting you, and win, you could use the money won from the lawsuit to cover your bills without having to drop out of college. You felt shitty at the idea of bleeding him dry just so you could stay in school, but what other choice did you have?

You sighed, and started talking to the doctor, “So, my marriage has been kinda rough for the past couple of years…”

As you spoke, you knew that it was over. You’d burned your bridges with the last family you had, just so you could save yourself. You couldn’t help but wonder: was it worth it, trading away family for freedom?

You stared at the version of your past self in the hospital bed, trying to clear the sight of her from your eyes. This wasn’t helping you, not at all. You had to leave before it got worse! Shaking your head, biting back the tears, you returned back to the task at hand: reaching the distraught goddess before you. You had almost reached her by now, you could call out to her and you were sure that she would hear you. Chang’e’s back was turned to you, but you could still see her outstretched hand fingering a small object floating before her. By now you could make out what it was. Squinting, your heart stopped when you saw it.

The locket floated before her, split open. Your note also hovered before Chang’e, unfolded so she could read the words.

I love you. I’m sorry. Goodbye.

They were such trivial things, jewelry and a piece of paper, but it was those trivial things that broke you. Curling in on yourself, you held your face in your hands and for the first time in years, cried. All the time in the world, all the achievements you had, didn’t change who you had always been. You would never stop being the frightened child who had lost everything, or the guilty young woman who had given up her second chance. You wept for the family you had lost, the family you had thrown away, and the family who’s hearts you had broken. You thought you were stronger than this. You thought you could survive losing Chang’e. In the end, she had simply joined the long list of people you had loved and lost. All you could do was hang there as a lifetime’s worth of heartbreak was released in the form of tears running down your face.

“Starlight?”

You slowly lifted your head, just barely enough so you could look Chang’e in her eyes. Her eyes, also heavy with tears, stared at you in shock and hopefulness. She didn’t know if this was a ghost before her, or if you were an imposter, or something else. She simply hovered there for several tense moments, too frightened to reach out for you. She worried that if she touched you, your apparition would fade from her sight and you would disappear forever. Was she dreaming? Had her heartbreak been so strong that it had finally killed her, and you two were in some sort of purgatory? Finally, she spoke, “Is that…really you?”

You nodded softly, too emotional to speak. Chang’e’s eyes softened when she saw that you were crying. Instinctively she reached out and used her thumbs to wipe the tears from your eyes, and she gasped when you didn’t vanish. It was you. It really was you! You had come back to her. With a sob of joy this time, she threw her arms around your neck and pulled you close, whispering your name over and over in disbelief.

“You’re…happy to see me?” you stuttered in shock. “You’re not mad?”

She pulled away from you, placing her hands on your shoulders and asking, “Mad? Why on earth would I be angry with you? You’re here, alive, and you’ve come back!”

“But I let you think I was dead! I’ve left you twice now! Aren’t you angry with how I’ve toyed with your emotions for so long?”

She blinked at you, stunned with your assessment. “What do you mean? How have you ‘toyed’ with my emotions?”

“Have you looked at our history?” you argued, your tears of grief becoming tears of guilt. “I left you, after you told me that you loved me! I didn’t tell you that I felt the same because I thought I was doing you a favor. All I did was break your heart! And then when we met up again, I left you instead of going with you, and let you think I had been killed for two months! What kind of person does that? I wasn’t even brave enough to tell you to your face that I loved you, I had to write it down on a goddamned note! I’m a coward, Chang’e, a damned coward!”

She suddenly moved her hands from your shoulders to your face, forcing you to look her in the eye. She noted that there was something different about your eyes, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Even though they were stained with tears, your eyes seemed fuller, more luminous. She’d ask you about it later, though. Right now she had something more important to say. “First of all, what have I told you about belittling yourself? Do we need to have that discussion again?”

“No, but I -”

“I wasn’t done talking,” she interrupted. “You’ve said your piece, now I’ll say mine. I meant it when I said that you deserved a life on earth. I had let go of my anger and hurt by then. If you wanted to stay, I wanted it to be your choice, and yours alone. I knew that forcing you to stay here would only lead to you hating me. I would rather have you gone and loving me, than have you remain here and hate me.”

“How…how did you know that I loved you, even back then?”

Chang’e offered you a soft smile, and replied, “I’m over 3,000 years old, starlight. When you’re my age, you learn the signs rather quickly.”

“Fair enough,” you shrugged.

“Besides, I wanted you to come to that realization on your own. I wasn’t going to force you to love me, or demand a confession out of your before you were ready. Was I less than impressed with how you told me? Yes, I’ll admit that. But I know you, my dear astronaut. You’re not the kind to wear your heart on your sleeve. But I know you have a heart.” She paused, before adding, “I once heard someone say that when it comes to emotions, that ‘still waters run deep’. If that’s true, then you, starlight, are an ocean.”

You hung there, too stunned to say anything. She wasn’t angry at you, not even a little! “So you forgive me?” you rasped eventually.

“There’s nothing to forgive! After everything that you had been through, the fact that you were willing to give your life to save me was amazing. A sacrifice of that kind is the purest kind of love. I never doubted your love for a second.” A flicker of confusion crossed her face, before she asked, “But I must ask, what changed your mind? Why did you come back?”

You took a breath, before answering her, “Because I made my choice. And I chose you. You let me choose between the world or you, and I wanted you.”

“But why? Why would you give up a peaceful, normal life, among other mortals, to return to me? I can’t give you the life you want!”

You laughed weakly, before replying, “Chang’e, you already gave me the life I wanted!”

“I have?”

“YES!” you exclaimed, “What I wanted was a life filled with love! For so many years, I’ve had that life within my grasp, but for some reason or another it was always taken away from me! You gave that back, and…and I’d rather die ten times over than walk away from a life like that.”

The goddess’ eyes widened in joy at your declaration, before hesitantly saying, “But…I though you wanted a life filled with discovery, with adventure!”

You looked Chang’e right in her eyes, and said, “Chang’e, you are my greatest adventure.”

You didn’t care about how corny that sounded, and neither did she. She wrapped her arms around you once more, pulling you close and letting her tears fall silently on your shoulder. You embraced her back, returning her affection eagerly. Despite the tears still falling from your eyes, you smiled brightly and your heart was singing. You knew, right there and then, that you had made the right choice.

The goddess pulled away from you momentarily as the two of you were lowered to the ground. Her feet softly touched the floor, but you continued to hang in the air so you could maintain eye contact. Unbeknownst to both of you, the wall to the chamber had faded away, and a small crowd of Lunarians cautiously piled into the space. Jade, Bungee, Maggie, and all the latter’s siblings were bunched up near the front, with Gobi nearby watching the two of you. The Lunettes stood not too far off, watching the scene with bated breath. Near the back, Leo and Simba stood guard, Simba fluttering his regrown wing in joy. Finally, far behind the gathered masses, Hong and Lu crouched down so they could see you. You didn’t care that they had come here despite your warnings, it was the last thing on your mind.

“I know that as a mortal, you won’t have a lot of time with me. Which is why I’m all the more grateful that you’re willing to spend your remaining years here, by my side.” Chang’e smiled, and added, “And I promise to make sure the rest of your life is filled with love, and happiness.” She choked up a little then, and said, “Even if you only have one more day, you will have given me an eternity of memories to remember you by. For that, I will always be thankful for.”

You returned her smile, and replied, “Moondancer, I’d love to spend the rest of my life with you, even if it’s only one more day.”

Magic shone from both your eyes and love filled both your hearts. Once more, the two of you were pulled into a passionate embrace as light began to swirl around you both. As Chang’e’s form changed, her signature red gown appearing and her hair tying itself back up into loops, you dropped your disguise.

You felt your arms and legs lengthen, and your feet set down lightly on the ground. You noted with delight that you were now as tall as her. Yes! No more craning my head back to talk to her! you idly thought. Light danced around your fingertips as they curled around Chang’e’s shoulders. Your flight suit melted away, revealing your dark blue gown and multicolored shawl. A rainbow of green, red, blue, and purple flowed from the garment, and your hair was released from its ties to fall freely down your back. A tingling sensation was felt on the top of your head, and you knew that the aurora crown you had earned now sat up there. Both yours and Chang’e’s bodies glowed with inner magic, the kind of magic only gods would possess.

The moon goddess heard several gasps of shock and exclamations of surprise from the gathered crowd, and she pulled away confused. When she saw how you had transformed, she stumbled back with a gasp and put her hands over her mouth. Looking into your eyes, she finally understood why they looked different. They were no longer hollow with mortality. Your eyes now shone with the light of immortality. You were a goddess in your own right. You weren’t going to die!

You would never have to say goodbye.

You chuckled at her shocked expression, and joked, “Did I forget to mention that you’re stuck with me for a while?”

Her hands trembled as she pulled then away from her mouth, and Chang’e reached out to touch you, her hands gently grabbing your robes and her fingers dancing across the crown on your head.

“Wait, does this mean we have two goddesses now?” you heard Teal ask.

You heard other voices frantically exclaiming, “I think we do!”

“Do we have to call them both ‘goddess’?”

“But that’ll get so confusing!”

“How did this happen? Why?”

“I’ll tell you what, I did not see that coming!”

The two goddesses heard someone new crying, and while grasping each other’s hands both of you turned to look at Gobi. He was openly bawling, sobbing into his hands. “Gobi! Are you okay?” you asked.

"I'm sorry! It’s just…I just love a good happy ending!” he stuttered. “This is the greatest day of my life!”

Looking over at Jade and Bungee, you saw the green rabbit’s mouth hanging open in shock. The dumbfounded hare kept waving his paws around, like he was trying to solve a complex equation. Bungee was grinning ear-to-ear, clapping her paws and looking positively excited for you both. The other rabbits were a mixture of their parent’s reactions, sans Maggie who could only stare smugly back at her siblings. You and Chang’e laughed at the scene, and turned back to each other. The two of you would have time to figure this all out later.

As the light returned to Lunaria, the two of you kissed each other. And there was no doubt about it, it was the greatest kiss in the universe.

Chapter Text

Shanghai Library

As Richard signed the copy of the book before him, he nodded as the student complimented it, “Ni de shu tai bangle, wo xihuan ta!” (Your book is amazing, I loved it!) Richard thanked the student for the nice compliment: “Xiexie ni, hen gaoxing ni xihuan wo de shu!” (Thank you, glad you liked my book!) and handed the novel back to the student, waving graciously as the student ran off, happy to finally get his own copy. I just hope I didn’t butcher the pronunciation! Richard thought. Turning to the next person in line, the newly minted author reached for her copy, and began signing.

It was still hard to believe that this was his life now. So much had changed in the past three years; he still thought that he was acting out someone else’s life. After the events of Merritt Island, most of the area surrounding the base had been annihilated. Thousands of people had been displaced by the mysterious firestorm that had randomly appeared over the military base. The federal government was still trying to find housing in various areas of the country for the refugees. Richard had a feeling though, that you had something to do with the ‘mysterious firestorm’. He would never know for sure, but ultimately he didn’t mind. You had already given him enough, he didn’t need answers anymore.

After he returned to the Keys, he had visited your house to start clearing it out. He knew that you weren’t coming back, he always had a feeling that you were never going to return from the base. As he was cleaning out your house though, he found a letter addressed to him on the kitchen counter. Opening it up, he found a surprising note:

Hey Rich,

By the time you read this, I’ll be gone. I don’t know if that means I’ll be dead or not, but I have a feeling that I’m not coming home. So, I’m leaving the house to you. Sell whatever you don’t wanna keep, do what you want with the cash. If I can give you a suggestion though, now may be a good time to pursue that dream of yours, to become an artist.

I know we didn’t part on good terms. I wish I could go back and change the past, and hopefully you wish that too. But since neither of us are time-travelers, I suppose looking to the future is the next best thing. I don’t know if I’m being naïve, or foolish, but…I forgive you. We were just kids then, doing whatever we could to hold on to each other. I’m not scared, or heartbroken anymore. I don’t have time to dwell on what could have been; my heart now belongs to someone else. I’m following my heart, and with this gift, all I ask is that you use it to follow yours.

All my love,

Sparks

So Richard had done just that. Selling the house, he used the money made from the sale to pay his way through art school. He still had one more year to go, but he was already reaching success. Shortly after publishing his first graphic novel, The Goddess and the Astronaut, it had won a Hugo award, and had been nominated for a Nebula award as well. His book was now being sold in over twelve countries, in eight different languages. He’d come a long way from flipping burgers, that’s for sure!

The Goddess and the Astronaut certainly had an interesting plot. It followed the tale of an astronaut named Jesse Starlight who was stranded on the moon after her space station crashed, and she met the Chinese moon goddess ‘Chang’o’. After some misadventures involving rabbits, fire, radios, stargazing, and several musical numbers, Starlight returned to earth, only to find out Chang’o had been abducted. So Starlight had saved the goddess, become a goddess herself, and now they were working together to fight off a future alien invasion. Surprisingly, people liked the twist on the ancient Chinese tale, and it had sold especially well in China. So when Richard went on a publicity tour for his debut novel, it made sense to make several stops throughout the country.

As he signed the next copy of the book, his mind wandered to thoughts of you once more. He didn’t know for sure if you were actually a goddess, or if you in reality had died. He gave his ‘fictional’ book a happy ending, if only because he didn’t want to think about the alternative. He just hoped that no matter what happened, you were happy wherever you were.

The next couple of fans, a young woman and a teen boy, stepped forward, and to his surprise the young lady greeted him in English, “Hi! I loved your book, I thought the story was so cool!” She blushed, and added, “Sorry if my English isn’t too good, I’m still learning.”

“Thanks!” Richard replied, “And don’t worry, your English sounds great! Better than some native speakers I know,” he added with a laugh. “Where’d you pick it up?”

“At my university,” she answered, “I’m studying engineering and astrophysics, I’m hoping to be an astronaut one day, just like Lt. Starlight!”

“I’m sure you’ll make it, kid,” Richard said, “You can be anything if you set your mind to it!”

“By the way, I thought you did such a good job writing Chang’o! It felt so accurate!”

“I don’t know,” the teenage boy commented, speaking for the first time, “She seemed a bit too nice to me!”

“Come on, Chin!” the young lady replied, “You know she was still heartbroken back then!”

“Well, I guess,” he begrudgingly said, “But that doesn’t excuse cheating me out of that picture! I won that match fair and square!”

Richard looked between the two young people, confused, “Um, not to be weird or anything, but…what are you two talking about?”

The young lady turned back to the author and sheepishly answered, “Sorry! My brother and I were just talking about a…family event. Nothing odd at all!” she laughed.

Richard shrugged and said, “Alright, just curious.” He flipped open the copy of The Goddess and the Astronaut, “So, who am I making this out to?”

“Me!” the young lady said, “My name’s Fei Fei!”

“Cool!” Richard said, as he signed the book, To Fei Fei, It was great to meet you! Always remember to reach for the stars! Adding his name at the end, he handed it back to her.

Fei Fei thanked him, and her and Chin turned to leave. However, Richard quickly called out to them, “By the way, Gobi says ‘hi bestie’!”

The two siblings whipped around to look at the author, who cheekily grinned.

“Wait a minute,” Chin asked, turning to his sister with a stunned expression, “You don’t think…”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Lu and Hong wandered the desolate lunar landscape, their claws lightly scraping the rocky soil. They kept cautiously looking around, as if they were searching for something. Which, in all honesty, they were.

“Are you certain that it came from out here?” Lu asked, glancing over at Hong with a doubtful expression.

“I am!” the red Long asserted, her tone sounding more than a little annoyed. “That surge of magic was so strong, I know it came from out here!” Hong and Lu had been startled earlier that day, when out of the blue an intense feeling, like an electric shock to the body, had struck them both. The only other times they had felt such a surge had happened when Chang’e, and later you and Artax, had ascended to godhood. Thus, they assumed that somehow someone new had also ascended, and were trying to find this newfound god before anyone else. Strangely, from what they were able to determine, the magic surge had come from the moon. Now, this was strange because as far as the Long knew, no mortal beings lived there. Therefore, no ascension could happen here, so this was unusual indeed.

Lu looked skeptically at his compatriot, before turning back to the expanse before him. “It does not make any sense, Hong. No mortal beings live here; we would have known about them before. I think we should -”

He suddenly seized up, before clutching his head in one of his front paws. Hong mirrored her brother’s reaction, her claws digging into her temples.

She growled in pain, before hissing through gritted teeth, “Do you believe me now, brother?”

Lu massaged the front of his head, trying to ease the headache that had hit him just now. After a moment, the sensation passed, and he turned back to Hong. “We must be close. That surge was especially strong.” He crept forward, keeping his eyes peeled.

Hong rolled her eyes, muttering, “Really? Not even a ‘You were right, Hong. I’m sorry I doubted you,’?” Realizing what she had just said, she bit her lip and cursed herself. The new goddess was rubbing off on her. She didn’t like it. Walking in another direction, she kept an eye out for whatever it was that they were looking for.

After another hour, Hong turned over a couple of boulders, and froze when she saw it. Calling to Lu, he came over to see what it was, and his reaction was equally strong. They looked at each other, not daring to believe what their eyes were seeing. Finally, Lu said, “We need to get the goddess. Now.”

You showed up not long afterwards, confused about why you were out here. “Guys, what’s going on? Are you gonna tell me what -” As you rounded the corner, you saw what they had found, and you were jolted into silence. Tears filled your eyes as you saw their find.

Resting in the lunar soil was a purple egg, pulsing with light.

You remembered one of your first conversations with Zi, asking about what the purpose of their pearl was. That it carried all their magic, their memories, their soul… Could this be…

You reached into your pocket, pulling out their pearl. You rolled it around in the palm of your hand, watching fondly as the luminescent orb shimmered in its own light. It felt warm. It had always felt warm, you were curious about why that was. Turning to look up at Lu, you asked him, “Do you have any idea what happens…when one of you dies? What happened to Zi?”

The green Long looked sadly at you, before answering, “I will be honest with you, my goddess: I do not know. I can’t tell you what happens when one of our own dies, for Zi is the only one of us to perish.”

“But…what about their pearl? Do you think, that somehow, maybe…” You didn’t dare voice your hope out loud, for fear that it would be quickly disproven. It was too good to be true, it was only wishful thinking.

Lu and Hong both looked thoughtfully at you, understanding your unspoken question. “There’s only one way to find out,” Hong said after a moment of silence.

You crept forward to the egg, kneeling down in the soft grey dust. Holding the hand with the pearl close to the ground, you gently rolled it to the egg.

As the pearl tapped its side, the shell began to crack.

_____________________________________________________________________________

There are many things that Lunarians don’t understand about earth. They have no understanding of government, money, economy, politics, war, and many other things that would take too long to list here. It didn’t matter to most of them, though. They were not earthlings, what use would they have for earth customs? Especially when it came to earth culture. To put it simply, they have no schema for understanding certain milestone events. Lunarians don’t know what funerals are, what graduations are, or what birthdays are.

However, after today, they could no longer say they didn’t know what weddings were.

Chang’e stood in front of the mirror, checking and rechecking her scarlet robes for the fifth time that hour. It had been thousands of years since she had been a bride, and she wanted to make sure that her wedding dress was perfect. Despite the fact that her bride was from a more modern age, the moon goddess wanted to dress the way brides from her time did. The Lunettes surrounded her, adjusting her golden earrings and the ornaments in her hair. Chang’e’s black locks had been tied up in their most elaborate style yet. Multiple loops, several ornaments, and a new lunar crown adorned her head. This was one of the most important days of her very long life, and she was determined to look her best.

“So, you nervous?” Gobi asked, looking over at the goddess as he smoothed down his spines.

Chang’e laughed and replied, “Me? Nervous? Don’t be ridiculous Gobi! What makes you think that?”

“Well, it’s just that you usually have a steady hand when it comes to touching up your makeup. Or are you just trying out a new eyeliner technique? Or is it eyeline-ing when it’s a verb?” That last question was muttered to himself, his thoughts drifting at trying to understand the proper vernacular.

The moon goddess looked at her eyes in the mirror, and realized to her horror that she had smeared her eyeliner all over her eyelid. The reason? Her hand was shaking badly, and she quickly gripped the hand applying the makeup with her free hand. It didn’t help. Both her hands were still quivering, and she set aside the eyeliner and hurriedly cleaned her eye. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she insisted to the pangolin-shaped Lunarian.

“I mean, I’m not judging either way, you could pull off any kind of look if you ask me, it’s just that most of the time, when someone’s hands are shaking that means they’re nervous, so I figured I’d just -”

“Gobi stop!” Chang’e cut him off. “I don’t need this right now!”

“Need what?” He asked with a quizzical tilt of his head.

“This! Whatever it is you’re doing! I don’t need it!” She was quickly growing frustrated with his line of questioning.

“But I don’t know what it is!” he protested.

“Yes you do! You’re doing it right now!”

“Goddess are you alright?” one of the Lunettes asked, sounding concerned. “Please try to stay calm!”

"I can’t!” Chang’e blurted out. “I can’t stay calm because I’m nervous about -”

Realizing what she just said, the moon goddess clammed up, refusing to say anything else.

“So you are nervous!” Gobi interjected, sounding proud of himself for guessing correctly.

Chang’e turned to retort the Lunarian’s comment, but bit her lip. Snapping at him wasn’t going to solve anything, it would just make things worse. Allowing the fires of her temper to die down, she sighed and responded, “Yes. Yes I am nervous.” Waving the Lunettes away for the moment, she sat down on a nearby chaise and held her head in her hands. “I shouldn’t be like this! This doesn’t feel right!”

“I’m sure it’s just pre-wedding jitters, aren’t those normal?” Gobi asked.

“It’s not that!” Chang’e insisted, “It’s just that I’m…I’m getting married. Again. I won’t be a widow anymore, but a wife.”

“Well, yeah! I thought that was obvious!” Gobi commented.

“I know, but…it’s the finality of it all. I know I love her, and that I want to marry her, but…there’s a part of me that feels like I’m betraying Houyi. I know it sounds silly, but if I marry her, then I’m no longer Houyi’s wife, but hers. I feel guilty! I love her, but I also loved him. I don’t know, Gobi, I don’t want to feel this way, but I can’t help it!” the distressed goddess fell back on the chaise, her arms falling loosely to her sides. “I thought I had completely moved on from Houyi, but I don’t know now. What if…what if I can’t give her the love she deserves…” her voice trailed off as it warbled with guilt.

Gobi tilted his head to the side, not believing what he was hearing. “Chang’e, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!”

The moon goddess’s eyes narrowed as she asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well, if you think about it, it sounds pretty silly! Let me ask you a question: did you love Houyi?”

“Yes, of course! I still do, hence my dilemma!”

“But you love him! And if you love him, wouldn’t you have wanted him to be happy?”

“Of course, he deserved to be happy! But I can only hope that he found happiness after losing me.”

“Don’t you think he might have found that happiness with someone else?”

That gave Chang’e pause. It was a thought that had haunted her for all those long years she had spent trying to bring Houyi back: that he had moved on, and forgotten about her. She couldn’t handle the idea that he didn’t love her anymore, and had found someone else. It was only rather recently that she had started accepting the idea that he had found someone new to love. But surely, that didn’t mean that he had stopped loving her…did it?

“I…I didn’t want to think about that,” she said, “Because I was…afraid. Afraid that it meant he no longer loved me.”

“But you still love him, even though you now love her too! So what makes you think Houyi would have acted any different?”

Chang’e turned to look at Gobi wide-eyed, astonished by his insight. It was true, she loved both of them, and her love for her astronaut didn’t dim her love for her archer any less. She loved them both, her past and current lovers both held her heart. So it was most likely the same way with Houyi. His new love, if he found them, wouldn’t have reduced his love for her any less.

“Besides,” Gobi continued, “You and I both know how much you love the new goddess. It’s a lot! It’s okay to love both of them, love isn’t a thing that you can run out of! So get out there, find her…and tell the whole universe how much you love her.”

Chang’e smiled wryly and asked, “When did you become so wise?”

“Well 1,000 years in exile does give you lots of time to think – It’s okay though!” he added after seeing a guilty expression flash across the moon goddess’s face. “No hard feelings, really!”

“That’s good to hear,” she replied, “Thank you, Gobi. I needed to hear that, it was…reassuring.”

“Yeah, of course! Now let’s go, don’t wanna be late to your own wedding!”

“Right!” Chang’e said, turning back to the mirror and fixing her makeup. Her face was set in resolve as the Lunettes helped her finish arranging her dress. “I’m ready for this, I can do this!”

A few minutes later

“I can’t do this!” Chang’e whispered nervously to Gobi. “We have to stop!”

“You better not bail! She’s already here!” the Lunarian whisper-yelled back. Jade, annoyed with Gobi’s attitude towards his oldest friend, resisted the urge to kick him in the side.

“Where? I can’t see her!” the moon goddess noted, craning her neck to try and see over the massive crowd of Lunarians.

The entire city had turned up for this event. As far as the eye could see, Lunarians watched and talked amongst themselves eagerly, waiting for the ceremony to start. This was the biggest event that had happened in Lunaria since the astronaut’s arrival, and no wanted to miss out on it. Everywhere they looked, bright, colorful lights shone from all the towers, and the palace itself was lit up like a multicolored fire. The skies were clear, as they always were, but that night they seemed especially pristine. The stars shone like diamonds in the night sky, glimmering and bright. Overall, the atmosphere was perfect, the night was perfect, everything was perfect.

That didn’t stop Chang’e from having last-minute jitters, though. Her, Gobi, and Jade were hidden from the crowd, off to the side of a large balcony that overlooked the masses below them. It was long and glowed from within, pulsing with light and color. At the center of the balcony stood Lu Long, passively looking down at the crowd and waiting for the brides to show up. As far as Chang’e knew, her future wife was hidden somewhere at the other end of the balcony. The fact that she couldn’t see her made the moon goddess all the more nervous.

“C’mon, you know she’s here! I’m sure she’ll step out any minute now, she’s waiting for you!”

“How can you be so sure that -” Chang’e was quickly cut off as you stepped out onto the balcony, eliciting cheers from the crowd. The moon goddess, in contrast, had been stunned into silence.

Unlike Chang’e, whose wedding dress veered towards the traditional (for her time, anyway), you had decided to go for a more modern approach. In contrast to the scarlet robes your bride wore, you were adorned in a shimmering, midnight blue gown. It possess a train that flowed behind you over ten feet, and atop your head perched a veil that glittered in pastel rainbow colors. Pinned atop your head by a diamond headband, it looked like an aurora that cascaded down your head, like the domain that you had become a goddess of. Hanging around your neck was Chang’e’s amulet, the two halves of the jade circle whole and intact. Once a symbol of her lost love Houyi, it was now a token of her current love, you. She wanted you to have it, as you had given her the locket (which she wore now) as a symbol of your love for her. Despite the fact that the veil covered your visage, the moon goddess could see your expression. As Chang’e gaze wandered to your face, your eyes, painted in sapphire eyeshadow and tipped with noir eyeliner, were shimmering with unshed tears. The shy smile on your face, however, betrayed your inner state of mind: those were tears of pure joy.

The moon goddess felt her own eyes grow watery. “She’s beautiful,” she whispered, all the tension and worry fleeing from her body. She knew in that moment that marrying you was the right choice. Stepping out into the view of the crowd, the ecstatic cheering of her subjects faded into the background. As far as she was concerned, you and her were the only people in existence.

The two of you walked slowly towards each other, both of your being escorted by your respective bridal parties. Chang’e had Jade and Gobi, you had Maggie and Hong. The newly reincarnated Zi Long watched eagerly from the crowd, perched near the front due to their much smaller size.

Both brides met at the center, standing right in front of Lu Long. You gently grasped each other’s hand’s, and you leaned forward slightly to whisper to Chang’e, “You look radiant!”

The moon goddess smiled gently. Besides her crimson robes, she also wore a red veil that covered her face. Because of the elaborate hairstyle she was sporting, her own veil didn’t cover the back of her head like yours did. The veil was held in place by a golden crown, with the different phases of the moon displayed on the top of her head. Her eyes, cloaked in rouge eyeshadow, brightened as she took in your compliment. “So do you,” she purred, offering you praise for your own beauty.

Lu cleared his throat, and the two of you looked up at him sheepishly. “Sorry,” you muttered. “You can start now.”

He knelt down to you and quickly stated, “Forgive me if I miss a few words. I have…little experience with this sort of thing,”

“You’re fine,” you waved him off.

Straightening back up, Lu looked out over the crowd and cried out, “People of Lunaria! We are gathered here, on this night, to witness the union of the goddesses of the moon and aurora in sacred matrimony!”

“It’s holy matrimony,” you muttered to Chang’e, quiet enough that Lu didn’t hear it.

“Does it really matter?” she retorted.

“Guess not,” you shrugged.

Lu continued with his speech. “In my thousands of years of existence, I have never seen a love as strong as the one these two share. And to think, it started under the most unusual of circumstances. These two were brought together from the ashes of a tragedy, found love and solace while one of them was still mortal, and were reunited as equals; immortal goddesses that will continue to live on until the stars fall from the heavens.”

He looked down at the two of you, “I believe this is the part where the two of you exchange vows?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” you said. You turned to look at Chang’e and asked, “Is it okay if I go first?”

Receiving a nod of approval, you looked her in the eyes and gently enveloped her hands in yours. Taking a deep breath, you vowed, “Moondancer, as you already know, I haven’t had the easiest life. I have loved and lost so many people in the short time I’ve been alive. By the time I arrived in Lunaria, I had convinced myself that I was unworthy of love, either giving or receiving it. I thought love was only a fairytale. But then I met you.

Somehow, you were able to bring down the walls that I had built around my heart. You are kind, patient, wise, and you were exactly the kind of person I needed at that point. It’s thanks to you, that I believe in love again. No matter what happens, I know I will be okay, because you gave me back the freedom to love. Even though I will live forever, I will never be able to repay you for this precious gift of love. All I can say for what you’ve done for me is, thank you. You are my happiness, and I hope that I can be yours.”

Your hand brushed the side of Chang’e’s neck, and a glimmering glow could be seen beneath your fingertips. When you pulled your hand away, the crowd of Lunarians gasped and muttered amongst themselves at the sparkling aurora insignia that had appeared on the moon goddess’s skin. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she grasped your hands even tighter, too emotional from your vows to say anything for a moment.

Finally, she collected herself, and she gave her vows to you: “Starlight…when we first met, I had only recently come to terms with the loss of my first love. While I had opened my heart once more, I didn’t expect to ever fall in love again. I had my subjects, yes, but…as far as having a life partner goes, I thought I had closed the door on that chapter of my life. So when I met you, I wasn’t expecting to find love with you.

As I learned more about you though, I started to find myself drawn to you. You are brave, noble, giving, and capable of more love than you know. Piece by piece, you claimed my heart. I remembered what it was to love another. I guess what I want to say most to you is…you set me free. I am no longer defined by my past heartbreak, and I look forward to spending eternity with you. There is no one else I would rather have by my side.”

You felt yourself choke up at her words, but you held it together while she brushed her hand against the side of your neck. The crowd murmured once more as an insignia of the phases of the moon glowed brightly on your skin.

From somewhere in the crowd, a group of biker chicks were watching the ceremony with confusion. “That’s it?” a teal chicken dressed in orange asked, “Just a tattoo? Where’re the rings? Given how much the goddess likes her bling, you’d think they have rings!”

“I know, right?” an orange chicken with a red mohawk answered. “What kind of wedding is this?!”

“Quiet, you two!” a third chicken, with a black head and blue body, interjected. “They’re wrapping things up!”

Back up on the balcony, Lu Long was finishing the final part of the ceremony, “By my authority, these two goddesses are hath joined together in the bonds of marriage.”

Turning down to look at you both, he said, “This is the part where you two -”

Before he even finished speaking the two of you had already removed each other’s veils. The two of you engaged in a long, passionate kiss, ignoring the ecstatic cheering from the crowd of Lunarians. The roaring applause drowned out what Lu was saying, and he quickly gave up trying to finish the speech. Gobi was weeping into his hands, gasping out between sobs, “I know this is the only one I’ve been to, but this is the BEST WEDDING EVER!!!” Jade yanked his ears in anxiety, noticing how heated the kiss was quickly becoming as the two of you pulled each other extremely close. He only hoped that the two of you would have the decency to get a room before this escaladed. Maggie rolled her eyes at the two goddesses acting like horny teenagers in public, and Hong face-clawed at how ridiculous the two of you were acting.

And the crowd was still cheering! Gobi was right, this was the best wedding ever.

Several hours later, after the celebration had died down, the two of you were alone once more in Chang’e’s personal chambers. Though you supposed that these were your chambers as well, since you were married and all. Out in the city of Lunaria, the party was still going on, and it was likely that the Lunarians would keep the festivities going for several days. Neither of you minded though. As long as the two of you could be together, nothing else mattered.

You turned to look at your wife, grinning softly. “Alone at last,” you sighed, sounding more than a little relieved.

To your surprise, Chang’e smirked mischievously, before holding out her hand. A set of fabric ties faded into existence, and with a light shove of her other hand you stumbled backwards. You landed with a thump on your back, confused and cautious. Before you could say anything else she quickly tied your wrists to the bedposts, and your ankles were tied at the other end. “Finally!” she cheered as she climbed on top of you, her legs straddling yours. She looked you in the eyes, and said “Now we can finally get to round two!”

Moments before she tied the gag in your mouth, you yelled, “What do you mean ‘round two’?!”

_____________________________________________________________________________

A few days later, the two of you were at the top of the tallest tower in the palace, where the crow’s nest was. You were banging away at the keys of a computer that sat up there, writing and rewriting what you wanted to say. Frustrated with your words, you rubbed the temples of your head and sighed. This wasn’t going well, to say the least.

“You’ve written that part four times already!” Chang’e exclaimed, looking over your shoulder at the message. “Whatever you wrote, I’m sure you did your best!”

“It’s not enough for me to do my best, though!” you argued, “This is big, this is first contact! I need to make sure I’ve got it right!”

“I know, starlight. I know how important this is to not only you and I, but the entire world. I get it! I don’t blame you for wanting to make it perfect. Here, let me read it.”

The moon goddess moved closer to you so she could read the words on the screen. As she read, she hummed, muttered softly to herself, and corrected a word or two. After several minutes, and a few edits, she pulled you closer so you could go over it again.

“I think it’s perfect, my love,” she complimented. “You got the point across in a direct manner, without sounding too confrontational. It’s ready to be sent!”

You smiled, glad that your work was better than you thought. “Well, let’s get to it then!”

You programed the note into a powerful signal, and you heard the satellite dish that hovered nearby hum as it warmed up. You used the computer to plug in a few commands, and the dish was turned so that it pointed out towards the darkness of deep space. This signal had a long trip ahead of it, so you had to funnel as much power as possible into it. You and Chang’e looked each other in your immortal eyes, and smiled. Both your hands hovered over the send button.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Ready!” you replied.

Your fingers pressed down, and there was a loud whine as the dish fired the signal. So your message began its journey, as your words were send out to the stars:

Greetings, people of the Swarm.

Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am the goddess of the aurora, and my wife Chang’e is the goddess of earth’s moon. Yes, you heard that correctly. We are indeed gods. How we ascended is a long and complicated story, and I only have so much bandwidth, so I’ll be brief.

We received your message, thanking the humans for offering themselves up to you. I’m afraid there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding. When we sent out that probe, we merely wanted to look for extraterrestrial life, to exchange technology and knowledge of the universe. We were not offering to sacrifice ourselves so your species could live. The thing is, we don’t want humanity to go extinct any more than you want your own kind to perish. As you could imagine, when we got your message we were more than a little taken aback.

You’re probably wondering why two goddesses should care about the affairs of mortals. The answer is simple: both of us were once mortal. While our bodies and minds are no longer chained by the confines of mortal flesh, our souls are still very much human. We see humanity, and we see our past…and the earth’s future.

So here’s what’s going to happen: when your armada arrives, hopefully we can come to a peaceful resolution to your dilemma. We sympathize with you, we really do. But if diplomacy fails…you will quickly learn that while we are peaceful beings, we will do what we must to protect the people of earth. Our first priority will always be our fathers, our mothers, sisters and brothers, our people of origin. Protecting, and if needed, avenging humanity, will always be our foremost concern.

Here's your invitation, people of the Swarm. Come to earth.

The moon will be waiting.