Chapter Text
If I were crumpled and tossed aside, would you be the first to pick me up? Or would you be the one to tear me?
Overall, the last few billions of years had been quiet. And while it had been unsettling for the first few months, the system had grown used to it, drifting back into another in-between period, softer, longer and kinder than the last.
Yes, they still had problems to deal with, but with the relatively positive state they were all in now, it seemed acceptable to push those problems to the side for a little while.
While that mindset was what had ruined Jupiter and X's lives, it seemed to work now, as long as everyone swore not to leave it stranded in the dark for too long. Secrecy never got anyone anywhere, but of course they all respected the fact that maybe now was just not the time. And when it was finally the time, they managed to communicate in a healthy way. Well, as healthy of a way as they could.
One problem, however, had been on Jupiter's mind since the day of their return. One that he had hoped would be brought up sooner rather than later.
How would they deal with the rogue planets once and for all?
The Sun had earned some sort of victory over them, reclaiming his planets and beginning to fix his relationships with them, but there was always the underlying fear that this wasn't the end. No one really believed the whole 'stay in the solar system and we won't hurt you' compromise; SIMP didn't seem like the type to let things rest, especially after a confrontation like that she had experienced with the Sun.
Well, she wouldn't have to worry about that sort of confrontation. Not anymore.
Jupiter fell behind the others a little, turning around for the first time to observe the home they would be leaving behind for, seemingly, the last time. He had only seen the system from this perspective a couple times, and that was eons ago, so seeing his home from this far away still felt breathtaking. Breathtakingly heartbreaking, as the dull red glow washed over what remained of the solar system all the planets had spend most of their lives in.
And sitting there, right in the centre...
No. He couldn't look there, not now, not yet. Maybe not ever. It hurt too much.
"Jupiter?" Saturn called out from a short distance ahead. He had become more quiet and withdrawn over the last few years, his usual high, cheerful tone dulled down into something more reserved and mellow. Too quiet. Unfamiliar.
Everything was quiet and unfamiliar now. No one could deny that. Watching them get swallowed up by the Sun had stunned the others into a prolonged sort of silence. There was nothing to talk about. They could only mutter soft yet hollow words of comfort as it blazed on in the middle, no longer watching, just feasting.
"Come on, or we'll lose the others." By others, Saturn was referring to the ice giants. Mars was still by his side, as he had been for far too long, ever since Earth's corpse burned and crumpled, all while he was smiling. All the life on his surface gone but all the life in his eyes flickering one last time as the red swallowed him, red red red red all red-
"Yeah...I'm coming..." Jupiter mumbled, keeping his eyes glued to the system but taking a hesitant step back. And then another. Until he finally felt Saturn's hand gently grasp his shoulder and then turned around to face him properly.
Then his gaze dropped to Mars. He looked so small, so fragile, so young, and Jupiter couldn't help but be taken back to the time he had approached Mars after Proto and Theia's death.
In a way, as Earth was quite literally Proto and Theia, it must have been like losing them all over again...
By this point, the planets had gotten used to collisions (not used to, not exactly. It still hurt, yet it was a mode of death they were all more familiar with), but the burning was something new, something scary, unpredictable and unmerciful.
Some days, Jupiter wished he was the one subject to that torture, rather than Mercury, Venus and Earth. But, after all, he could not bend the universe to his will.
A short distance ahead of them, Uranus and Neptune were walking side by side, talking quietly between themselves. It was a relief to see them together after everything; it brought about some small semblance of normalcy and, if anything, they seemed happy to leave the dying solar system behind. Of course, leaving the Sun behind was a devastating task, but at least they were no longer melting alive.
The edge of the Oort Cloud was fast approaching; not too long now and they would be drifting in interstellar space.
Once they got there, where would they go?
Paper is fragile, yet despite the wrinkles and rips, I have flattened you out, smoothed your edges, and taped your tears. The words you wrote are almost legible, yet I cannot quite seem to make them out through the blur of lights and noise filling every corner of the tiny room we sit in.
X stood a safe distance away from the solar system. He had been watching the system for a good number of years now-
Hadn't he always been watching? Out of sight, he would glance over, and on some recruitment missions, he would quickly sneak off-route to watch over the system.
Though, being sent on mission had become an increasingly rare task, what with SIMP become ever-more paranoid of X or any of the other rogue betraying her.
Maybe that growing paranoia and desperate need for control is what drove WISE to grab her by the neck before she could take another step closer, fingers digging into soft, young flesh, what motivated him to choke her until her body went limp, an act of self defense taken too far, leaving her core spilling out on the ground and over his hands, and then X had walked in and the room was empty, all empty except those two, WISE grasping her desperately, shaking her in an attempt to wake her up and then pushing her back down to stop her core from spilling out onto the floor and glowing glowing glowing celestial BLOOD-
With his newfound freedom, X had been able to watch the Sun gradually grow redder by the year, able to watch the first three Rockies get swallowed up, able to see the others' devastating reactions and, though he never knew the rockies personally, X still felt a twinge of grief in his core.
Who wouldn't? It was a cruel fate to be subjected to; being murdered by the one star you called home for so long. X was lucky he would likely never experience that pain.
WISE was by his side this time, though the last few times X dared to approach, he insisted to do it solitarily.
"It's something I gotta do on my own." He had told WISE.
He hadn't been sure how he'd react, and though he had grown closer to WISE over the last few billion years (closer than either of them ever expected), he wasn't exactly comfortable with the possibility of WISE seeing something come out of him that not even X knew about.
His initial reaction had been...something. Something new, maybe even scary, but not quite as dramatic as he had predicted. In the moment, X had been glad to not have known the rocky planets all too well; at least he had some sort of disconnect from them. How he would have reacted if it were, say, Jupiter, Saturn or Uranus, was beyond his imagination.
X had never wanted Jupiter dead, not even during the period in which his hatred for him was strongest. Because, if Jupiter had died, then X's years of plotting revenge would all be for nothing.
And some small, unspoken part of him would have missed Jupiter; missed what could've been.
Nowadays, X wasn't afraid to admit that he would miss and generally does miss Jupiter. For so long, he had believed that the only time he could possibly see Jupiter, they would be on opposite sides of the same war.
Of course, that fear disappeared when....when SIMP....
After that...incident, X could have returned to the solar system, but not only had he grown attached to some of the members of the rogue planet kingdom, he also knew that the Sun wasn't aware of the change in leadership, and though he knew Sun had changed, any small misunderstanding could snowball into a catastrophe.
X would say he was relieved when the Sun began to enter its red giant phase, if he hadn't cried himself to sleep the night he found out. Some small child inside of him still looked up to what could've been a father figure, had the circumstances been better. From the moment X got flung out, it became impossible, but he could still dream.
In fact, most dreams X had experienced throughout his life were those of alternate outcomes. Ones were the Grand Tack never happened, ones where he successfully replaced Jupiter, ones where the solar system planets stayed with the rogues or continued on their 'million planet' rescue mission.
He'd had several dreams about seeing them again; enough that X was certain he knew what to say and do, but as he watched them slowly leave the solar system, he found that the words he'd rehearsed for years had vanished from his mind.
And it only now occurred to him that they didn't know what happened to SIMP. For all they knew, X and WISE were keeping the promise set many years ago, and as soon at they spotted them leaving the solar system, they would take them to SIMP to be punished.
How could X explain the truth before they all freak out?