Chapter Text
“So what now?”
It was the first question posed after the biggest change in the Solar System since the crash of Proto and Theia: the expulsion of Jupiter. All the remaining planets, their moons, and the newest surprise addition to the Solar System – Planet X – were still in shock as they waited en masse on the Sun’s side of the Asteroid Belt in the wake of Jupiter’s leaving.
The question was asked by Venus, and though it was directed toward the Sun, it also acted as an invitation for everyone else to ponder the effects of the sudden change in the status-quo. Jupiter, the oldest, largest, and (at least according to some) wisest planet, was banished from the Solar System. What now?
Planet X wasn’t too concerned about the specifics of what would happen next. He was still reveling in the success of the one moment he’d been waiting on for so very long. He’d spent the entirety of his own exile planning his revenge on Jupiter. Dreaming about it. Playing out a myriad million variations of it in his head. He certainly had had the time for such detailed planning – the duration of his exile was almost beyond comprehension, given that it could be measured in billions of years. What was a billion Earth years? How could one even understand such a scale? A billion Earth seconds was approximately 32 years. So a billion Earth years…?
Of course, time was perceived differently for celestial bodies than for the types of organisms X knew inhabited Earth’s surface. But a billion years was a billion years; multiply that by four and it still didn’t equal the amount of time that X had spent alone, hiding out beyond the outermost edges of the Solar System where the Sun’s light was barely a glimmer in the distance and the Kuiper Belt a dimly-lit halo around the star’s planets. Planets that, had X remained in his rightful place in the Solar System, would have been his companions.
But now things would be different. He was back. Jupiter was gone. Karma had played her role even on the grandest of time scales. But karma and her remaining casualties weren’t off the hook yet – not if X could help it.
He, like the others, turned to the Sun in anticipation for an answer to Venus’ question. Nobody seemed more wounded by Jupiter’s confession of past wrongdoings than their star. It was evident in the pause he took before he could respond to Venus and in his voice when he finally spoke.
“Go back to your orbits,” was his command, uttered with an underwhelming lack of assertiveness and with a wavering voice. “Planet X will take Jupiter’s old position, and Jupiter’s moons will orbit him from now on. Everyone else will remain where they’ve always been. You are not to go visit Jupiter or try to contact him in any other way. He is banished. He is no longer part of this Solar System. Understood?”
X couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to go visit Jupiter after what had just happened. How quickly the others had turned on him after learning of his past crimes! It was almost more than X could have hoped for. And to think he’d been worried that he wouldn’t be believed – though it certainly helped to have Ganymede and Europa on his side and defending his case.
He couldn’t get over the delicious irony of two of Jupiter’s moons being the ones to finally find him and bring him back to the Solar System. Seeing them learn what their parent planet had done billions of years ago and watching them break almost to their cores with disappointment and disbelief – Ganymede, especially – just made X’s return that much more triumphant. He’d have to keep an eye on them, though. They were Jupiter’s moons; he wouldn’t put it past them to be just as shady as their planet.
But neither Ganymede nor Europa had stepped up to defend Jupiter’s actions. The only one who had even attempted a defense was Saturn. Good old Saturn; of course he’d try to defend Jupiter. But just as predictably, Jupiter prevented Saturn from implicating himself in the whole mess. Which was all the better, in X’s opinion. If the Sun knew that they’d both played a role in X’s expulsion, then they would have been banished together, just as Ganymede and Europa had been. And after what the two gas giants had done, they did not deserve to have each other as a source of comfort.
No. X wanted them separated, which is exactly what had happened. Jupiter was to be banished, forced to stay well beyond the Kuiper Belt, and was to remain there alone for the rest of time. And Saturn? Saturn deserved to be alone too. But his isolation was to come in an entirely different form than Jupiter’s – a form that would be even more painful to endure than an eternity spent outside looking in.
But that would come in due time, once things had settled down a bit.
No one protested the Sun’s commands. Mercury voiced concern over the star’s well-being, but it was quickly dismissed.
“I’ll be fine, Mercury. Please, just…go. All of you. I need some time alone. Things will get back to normal if you all just…go back to where you belong.”
No yelling, no solar flares. That in and of itself made the others more readily obey the request. X watched as Mercury and Venus, with quick glances at each other, moved inward towards their orbits. Mars, clearly gutted by the revelations surrounding Jupiter, didn’t even look at Earth as the two of them and their moons moved inward as well.
A glance at Saturn revealed that the Solar System’s remaining gas giant was already having a hard time holding it together. He didn’t look X’s way but instead let his eyes rest on the Jovian moons that were intermixed with his own. Not long ago, the planets and moons had been on opposing sides as the proceedings of the Moon Revolution were brought before the Sun. But now they were united in shock by the sudden and massive change the Solar System had just undergone. Saturn looked like he didn’t want to separate his moons from Jupiter’s, as if they were his only remaining reminder of the large planet’s presence.
But they weren’t Jupiter’s moons, X was quick to remind himself. They were his now. He wasn’t entirely thrilled at the prospect of inheriting dozens of moons, but apart from the four Galileans, they were all quite small and young. Surely they’d listen to him and stay in line, especially after learning about what Jupiter did.
It took him longer than the others to do so, but Saturn eventually heeded the Sun’s directions and made his way back past the Asteroid Belt, crossing the former orbit of his best friend almost as if it was painful to do so. His large cohort of moons followed.
X looked on after him with a satisfied smirk.
Enjoy your orbit while you can, Saturn. More changes are coming to this Solar System that are going to make you wish you’d appreciated your standing in the order of things – and make you wish you hadn’t done what you did to me.
Those changes would come soon enough. But unlike his direct confrontation of Jupiter, X needed to get to Saturn in a more roundabout way to make these changes happen. And for this, he was going to need assistance from others.
He was going to need the ice giants.