Holding My Last Breath

by VictoriaLight

Summary:

Luna himself notices the frozen and dying Earth in distant dark and cold orbits...

 

In essence this is my alternative vision of the episode "The Earth is LEAVING? - Part 2 and Part 3"

Notes:

The title is taken from my favorite song "My Last Breath" by my favorite music band Evanescence:)

Earth hated the cold.

The cold penetrating his core made him tremble so much that he felt like he was about to crack in two.

However, this didn't stop the planet with life from following Jupiter, which for some reason was again leaving the Solar System..

And now the already numb Earth followed weakly the largest planet...

And also follow two ghostly figures from his past:

Proto and Theia...

"It wasn't built for life, Theia. We have the right conditions, but they won't last. This is just a little window of time in the infinitesimally long time ahead of our universe, okay? The future is dark and cold and dead. Why do you want life so much?" Proto said as his ghostly form stood next to Theia.

“I’ll tell you why!” Theia began to answer...

"Yes! Tell me!” Earth screamed, his throat hurt so bad it felt like a sharp asteroid had been passed through it, "Tell me why I want life!"

But instead, the two figures just turned away from him and vanished into the darkness.

"NO! C-Come back!" Earth begged and in his eyes tears formed that had not yet hardened into ice

"COME BACK!" He screamed one last time before everything began to turn black before his eyes.

"I can't...I can't take it anymore...it's so cold...so cold..."

"I really want to sleep..."

The Earth felt how his remnants of strength left him...

He is not able to return to his orbit, or to continue to follow Jupiter...

His body collapsed.

"Luna...Mars...Venus...Mercury, forgive me...I ruined everything again..."

Earth's eyes soon closed and a single tear rolled down his cheek..

"I tried...but I failed..."

And his breathing began to fade..

"I'm sorry..."

---

Meanwhile, in the orbit of the Earth, Luna and Mars noticed the absence of a green-blue planet.

"Earth! Come on, Earth! Get out from wherever you're hiding!" Luna screamed, looking in all directions in search of his planet.

" We've circled most of his orbit and nothing. You think he...?" Mars said anxiously.

"No... no..Earth should be fine...he must be fine!" Luna replied, however, panic had already begun to appear in his voice.

"Hey, calm down, how about I call Venus and Mercury? And you stay here in case the Earth appears." The Red Planet suggested.

Luna sniffled slightly but nodded.

"Okay, I’ll be there soon." Mars said and at all his speed he rushed in the opposite direction, where the planets closest to the sun were located.

Luna swallowed, trying to calm his rapidly beating core.

He tried to think calmly but couldn't.

His last conversation with Earth flashed through his head...

"W-what happened, Luna?" Earth asked confused when Mars Venus and Mercury left them.

Just like was Luna at that moment.

"Thank you, Earth. You knew this was important to me. It was the first time a moon would play a game with a planet a-and you just... y-you just..."

"Hey, sorry. I haven't really been myself lately since..."

"Forget it, Earth! Just... forget it!" 

Luna stared down in horror, realizing what he said then...

The Earth, his planet, his older brother, his family needed help, and the Luna he...

He left him...

Only because the Earth inadvertently ruined the SolarCards game.

And now Earth is gone...

All because of him...

"O stars, what have I done? I'm such an idiot, my planet needed me and I..." Luna began to whisper to himself and turned around in panic, when..

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a blue figure in the distance...

Luna stopped in confusion and squinted to see the object.

"Maybe it's...Neptune? No...it's too small...and it's true to size..."

And then Luna could swear that his core skipped a beat, even possibly two.

There, in the dark orbits of Uranus and Neptune, was his planet...

Horror gripped Luna's body and then his cry burst from his throat:

"EARTH!!!"

With all the speed at which he had, Luna rushed where his older brother was, tears began to blind him, but the figure of the Earth was still visible.

"No, stars, please, no...please not again, please not again!" Luna screamed mentally, seeing flashbacks of when the Earth tried to throw himself into the Sun..

Notagainnotagainnotagain...

Luna didn't have time to understand how he managed to get to Earth in such a short time, but he didn't care.

The most important thing now is to return Earth to his orbit...

And try to wake him up.

"Earth! Earth, can you hear me?! Please don't do this to me, wake up! I begging you, open your eyes!" Luna screamed desperately, shaking the icy body of the Earth.

Earth didn't wake up, his weak breathing was almost invisible, ice covered his skin and clothes, and his once soft hair became stiff and covered with frost.

Luna felt his panic reach its peak...

He is too small, he can't get his brother out of here...

"Mars! Venus! Somebody, anybody, please, help!" Luna screamed in despair, praying that at least someone would hear him.

But silence was only the answer.

Luna sobbed, tears rolling down his cheeks as he buried his face in the chest of his barely alive older brother.

"I'm so sorry Earth, it's all my fault...I love you, I'm sorry..." Luna whispered, knowing that Earth wouldn't hear him.

But someone did it.

"Hey, little guy! How are you?" A voice suddenly sang behind Luna.

The satellite jumped in surprise when he saw a large blue figure with a naive smile in front of him.

"Neptune?!"

"Yes, I am Neptune... I guess.." The Ice Giant answered.

"Neptune, oh thank the stars you are here, I need your help, urgently!" Luna screamed, feeling the dead hope in his core flare up again.

"Oooh, okay, what happened?" Neptune asked, still innocently.

"It's Earth! We need to return him to his orbit before it's too late!"

Neptune blinked in surprise before his eyes landed on the frozen planet with life.

And to Luna's surprise, his face became serious.

The Ice Giant carefully picked up the Earth in his arms and caught Luna with his gravity.

"Hold on tight." Neptune said before he began to fly quite fast to the Asteroid Belt.

Luna, flying up to the older brother, took his hand tightly.

"It's okay Earth, you'll see..." Luna said quietly before looking at the approaching Sun with a small smile.

"You'll be fine."

---

Meanwhile, Mars, now together with Venus and Mercury, were again flying around the nearest orbits in search of Earth.

"Stars, Earth, where are you...?" Mars muttured.

"Is he really in the Asteroid Belt?" Venus asked, looking at the place he mentioned.

"And why he should be there, Venus?" Mercury asked, although there was a strange indifference in his voice.

"Do I freaking know?!" Venus shouted.

"Guys, maybe you should save your quarrels for later until we find Earth?" Mars asked a little tiredly.

Mercury just rolled his eyes.

"As you say, although I wouldn't worry so much. Earth is probably just testing our nerves again, like with his Sun's stunt." He said it to himself, but he was still heard.

Two planets froze in shock, looking at him, trying to comprehend what the smallest planet had just said.

And then Venus' fingers clenched into a fist.

"Say that one more time." He hissed, and his gaze darkened.

This time Mercury's courage (or stupidity) disappeared and fear appeared instead.

But before Venus could kill Mercury, a sudden change in gravity made all three planets look at the Asteroid Belt in surprise.

A blue giant emerged from it, carrying something in his hands.

"Hello, guys."

"Neptune?! What are you..." Mars didn't finish speaking when another voice interrupted him.

"Mars, Venus please help me!"

"Luna?!" Mars asked in shock, coming closer and then his eyes found what Neptune was holding.

Or more precisely who...

"EARTH!" Mars screamed in horror, rushing to his best friend, while behind him Venus and Mercury rushed too.

The picture that appeared before them made them all turn pale(?).

The completely frozen Earth lay in Neptune's hands, his breathing was hoarse, and his body was shaking slightly.

Luna, which was nearby, held his hand tightly, as if afraid to let go.

Mars and Venus, without thinking twice, picked up the frozen planet and gently placed him in his orbit.

The red planet had even decided to take off his jacket (even though it was thin) to cover and warm the Earth with it, but Venus only pressed the planet with life to himself.

"Venus?"

"I suppose at least my high temperature came in handy somewhere.." He said with a dry laugh, before focusing on making sure his heat only warmed the Earth and didn't harm him.

Mars just nodded and sat down next to Earth, listening to his breathing and someone's... sobs?

"Luna?" He asked quietly.

The gray satellite tore his gaze away from Earth and looked at Mars with red eyes.

"Oh, Luna..." Mars cooed and lightly hugged the moon.

"Mars...Earth...he..." Luna sobbed.

"Everything is fine Luna, Earth is in his orbit, and now he is safe..." Mars tried to console him.

"But he almost...like then..." Luna tried to continue, but tears didn't allow him to do so.

"Hush, Luna, it's okay..." Mars tried to smile, although it was more of a grimace.

Out of the corner of his eye, the red planet noticed movement and quickly realized that it was Mercury, who was silent either from shock or simply from not knowing what to say.

"Mars..."

"Mercury, go away..." Mars said, his voice became steely.

"Mars, I'm sorry... I didn't mean it..." Mercury whispered.

"It's not to me that you owe an apology. Now leave us, please." Mars responded, though it sounded more like an order than a request.

Mercury just nodded, and with his head down in shame, he left.

"Little idiot..." Venus snorted, and his hand clenched into a fist again.

"We'll talk to him later, now the most important thing is Earth, Venus." Mars reminded him.

"Yeah-yeah." Venus muttered.

And the planets, not knowing what else to say, sank into silence again.

---

"Theia..."

"Theia..."

"Theia are you still here?"

...

"She's part of you now..."

Earth groaned as his consciousness began to return...

Blinking a couple of times, Earth realized that he was no longer in a dark and cold orbit near the Kuiper belt.

He was in his home orbit.

But how?...

He...he was alone when he lost consciousness...

How did he get back?.. 

He felt the cold still pierced his body, but it seemed to have become weaker?...

Something was warming him.

Wait a minute..

Not something, but someone...

Venus...

He held him close while looking somewhere into the distance, and to Earth's surprise, one of his hands was lightly stroking his back.

"V-V-Venus?" Earth wheezed, his throat still hurting terribly.

The hottest planet froze and then his amber eyes met the heterochromic eyes of Earth.

"You woke up...thank the stars..." Venus breathed a sigh of relief before looking away again.

"GUYS, HE WOKE UP!!" Venus screamed.

Earth tried to move and look in the same direction Venus was looking but didn't have time before something small and gray tightly grabbed him.

And then a loud cry reached his ear.

It didn't take Earth a few seconds to realize who it was.

"Luna..." Earth wheezed again and hugged his little brother, although his limbs still hurt.

"You woke up...oh, stars Earth...I was so scared...I thought..." Luna sobbed.

"I thought I had lost you..."

"We all thought so.." Another voice added and it was undoubtedly Mars's voice.

Earth looked down sadly, and his hands gently stroked Luna's hair and back.

"I'm sorry... I... didn't mean to scare you...I was just..." He said, and then two more pairs of hands hugged him.

"Never do that again Earth." Mars whispered.

"I swear by the stars, if you idiot do anything like that again, I'll find a way to tie you to your orbit." Venus grumbled, but without any agression. 

"I won't, I promise." The planet with life giggled weakly, before coughing hard.

"You need to rest, you're not fully warmed up yet." Mars replied, helping Earth lie down on Venus's lap.

"But I...I can't...I have to find out the truth about Theia and Proto.." Earth said, but his eyes began to close and he gradually began to bow to sleep.

Unnoticed by him, Venus and Mars shuddered and exchanged slightly frightened glances.

Earth had already learned about Proto...

They couldn't keep quiet about it any longer...

Venus sighed before, with an uncharacteristic tenderness for him, he ran his hand through Earth's hair, from which the frost had already disappeared.

"You will find out...but now you need to rest." He said, his voice became somehow quiet and soft.

"And Luna too, he was very scared for you..." Mars added, looking at the moon, which had been silent all the time.

Earth glanced at his younger brother, who was still holding on to him and gave up.

"Okay..." He answered and settled down more comfortably on Venus's lap.

Luna had calmed down a bit and was able to look at his older brother.

"Earth?" He asked.

"Yes Luna?"

"...I'm so so sorry for treating you so terribly... I was so focused on playing SolarCards with the planets that I completely forgot about you... and then I yelled at you when you tried to apologize...I'm sorry.." Luna sobbed again, it was very difficult for him to control his emotions now.

"And I was so focused on the whole situation with Jupiter that I also didn't notice that you needed our help..." Mars also added.

"And instead of being good friends and helping you, we just shut you up and then dumped you...once again..." Venus said depressingly.

"Forgive us Earth... we let you down, again..." Mars finished, looking down with regret.

Earth was silent for a while, listening to the apologies of his friends and younger brother before smiling weakly.

"Already forgiven..." He only responded and leaned down to tenderly kiss his younger brother on the top of the head.

Mars and Venus also smiled a little before peacefully remaining in the silence in which Earth and Luna finally fell asleep.

---

"He remembered Proto..." Venus broke the silence.

"Yep, he did.." Mars sighed.

"Damn it.. now I feel like Jupiter who had his secrets about Planet X..." Venus grumbled.

"Yeah. You know we were mad at Jupiter for what he did in the past... but on the other hand.. were we better?" Mars asked, remembering his late friends Theia and Proto.

"I guess everyone in this system has their own skeletons in the closet." Venus shook his head.

"But as in the case of Jupiter and Planet X..we can't keep silent any longer Venus...Earth and Luna deserve to know the truth.." Mars said sadly looking at his sleeping best friend.

"I know Mars..I'm just...I'm just scared okay?! Do you remember what happened last time...?" Venus shouted although he tried to keep his voice not so loud.

The Red Planet sighed remembering that incident:

When Proto, who had collided with Theia just a couple of hours earlier, woke up in horror and desperately asked where his girlfriend was...

When he, Mars, tried to gently explain that Theia is gone...

When Proto had a real hysteria and, like a madman, began to run throughout the inner part of the Solar System, desperately calling for Theia...

When his body couldn't take it anymore and he blacked out again...

When Proto woke up even more time later without any memories of his beloved Teia and his collision with her, and he became Earth...

Mars blinked a couple of times to return to the present and sighed again, gently taking Earth's hand.

"I know... but we must tell him everything... we have already seen for ourselves what will happen if we continue to remain silent..."

Venus bit his lower lip but nodded humbly.

"Okay, let it be so..." 

...

"But can I throw an asteroid at Pipsqueak first for his words?"

Mars grinned.

"Just don't kill him."

"I can't promise anything." Venus shrugged.

Both rocky planets could have laughed at this, but they couldn't.

They almost lost the Earth.

All because of the secret they kept about Theia and Proto.

But not anymore.

They will tell everything.

And the only thing they hoped for was that Earth could forgive them.

Notes:

If anyone is interested, Neptune left the rocky planets because he felt he would be out of place there.

And regarding the collision of Theia and Proto. While I believe more that Venus and Mars could have accidentally caused this collision (due to their gravity or something) in this fic, they hiding the truth from Earth out of fear for his psychological health and after the Earth's suicide attempt on the Sun, Venus and Mars decided even more not to tell the Earth the truth... but in the end it all only made the situation worse...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it:)