They ran past gaping onlookers, past the stalls littered around the marketplace. Moonbyul weaved through small alleyways, detouring away from routes whenever she spotted droids approaching. It was almost as if the damn machines could teleport, as they emerged around corners and at the ends of streets.

But no droid knew Central’s marketplace like Moonbyul did. Heck, no one knew humans better than humans did. She snuck into side alleyways that didn’t exist the day before, hid in baffled shopkeepers’ stalls, leapt over obstacles underfoot, and the woman she rescued had no other choice but to go along for the ride.

“Over here!” a voice hissed. Moonbyul glanced over, stopping in her tracks for only a few milliseconds. The bag seller from before, Mes, waved her over and pulled a part of his stall away to reveal a small hidden passage. “This is a faster route to your destination, good customer! Quick!”

Moonbyul looked behind her. The droids were gaining on them. She dashed towards the stout man, squeezing into the narrow alleyway and pulling her companion in with her. “Thanks, Mes!”

“Take care of my very precious bag, young child!” he called back. “And may the Gods be with you!” At the whirring sound of the droids, he turned around and grabbed a long, wooden pole. A unique pattern was carved into it: two snakes, intertwined, twisted around the pole to create a helix-like pattern.

Mes brandished his weapon at the droids, his brows pulling together in a fierce frown. “No more of this. Your opponent is me.”

Moonbyul ran through the long alleyway, her breath coming out in heavy puffs. How long more did they have to go until they reached the end of this ridiculously narrow alley? The path twisted and turned, and at every corner Moonbyul became more and more perplexed.

It was a great relief when she finally spotted a small slit of light a few metres ahead, and she sprinted towards it. To her surprise, she found herself right in front of her shuttle, its door open, and Lars nowhere in sight.

Or so it seemed, until she heard his voice coming from a turn in the road. “Go, kid, get out of here!” Lars hastened his gait as he spotted her. “They’re coming, go!”

“Lars?”

“Go! I will hold them off here while I can. Run, quick!” Lars all but pushed Moonbyul and her companion into the shuttle. “Door, shut!”

Although his voice had never been programmed in by Moonbyul, the shuttle door slid close anyway, to her absolute bafflement. Lars moved towards the front of her shuttle, where he hammered a fist on her cockpit. “You need to fly far away, Moonbyul. Mercury is not a safe place for you anymore. No, no, don’t open the door!” he shouted when Moonbyul made a move to open the door again.

“I’ve… I’ve never flown this before. It won’t work!”

“It will. Trust me. I need you to go as far away as you can. Go towards the asteroid belts, you can hide there.” Lars placed his hands on the shuttle and closed his eyes. “I bestow a blessing unto you, Moonbyul. Go where you must, and stay safe.”

He opened his eyes, the colour of Mercurian soil, and met her confused ones. His gaze was hypnotic, and as he muttered words under his breath Moonbyul found herself plugging in coordinates as he recited them. She flicked switches, and to her amazement, the shuttle gave off no more than a small shudder before rising vertically in the air.

“Science above, it works.” She pressed her hands to the cockpit’s glass window. “It works!”

She looked down, pressing her face against the glass, trying to get a final glimpse of Lars before she flew off. She could see him, a tiny speck now, surrounded by metal droids slowly advancing upon him. Then the shuttle was off, shooting through the flimsy atmospheric film into space.

Moonbyul turned around, gripping the headrest of her pilot’s chair with one hand to steady herself as her senses slowly came back. “What… what just happened?” She just left Lars alone, an old man against a horde of Juris droids. What was wrong with her?

She turned her head towards a sobbing noise. That was the other problem, she realised. She had just saved a random woman, potentially crazed, from the Juris droids. There was definitely something wrong with her. Now Moonbyul was stuck on board with a stranger, flying off in space to some unknown destination.

Well, .

Resigning herself to her fate at the current moment, she forced herself to move towards the crying woman, whose face was now buried in her hands as she was curled up into a ball. “Hey. You’re safe now.”

The woman raised her head to look at her. “Diana,” she murmured, lifting a hand to Moonbyul’s face. “Diana, it’s you.”

“Who’s Diana?” Moonbyul leaned back and away from the woman’s touch, discomfited.

Stunned, the woman placed her hand at her chest. “Diana, it’s me. Solar.”

Moonbyul narrowed her eyes. “I told you, I’m not Diana.”

“You’re not…?” The woman froze, then lunged at Moonbyul, hands curled into claws. She scratched at Moonbyul, and the latter had to twist her body to avoid them. “Give her back to me! Give me back my Diana!”

“, what’s your damage?” Moonbyul shoved her off, but still the woman continued to claw at her. “Stop, or I’m gonna have to put you down.”

“Diana!” The woman’s voice grew louder until it crescendoed into a scream. “Diana!”

Left with no choice, Moonbyul quickly delivered a chop to the woman’s neck and watched as she crumpled to the floor. “I warned you.”

Now that the woman named Solar was unconscious, Moonbyul put her bag on the floor and took her time checking herself for any injuries. Sure enough, there were a few scratches where Solar had clawed her, and where the skin was broken a few droplets of blood were beginning to well up. Exasperated, Moonbyul retrieved some strips of cloth from her drawer and wrapped them around her cuts. She then took two apples from the small crate tucked in a corner of her shuttle -- courtesy of Lars and their customer from Central -- and, taking a bite from her apple, sat down next to the woman to rearrange her thoughts.

From a safe distance, of course.

First of all, there was the matter of some unknown person named Diana. Moonbyul chewed her bite of apple contemplatively. The only Diana she knew was Wonder Woman, and she was pretty sure that the crazy lady was definitely not talking about the gorgeous, powerful queen that was Diana Prince.

So that was ruled out. But no matter how much she racked her brains, she just couldn’t think of any Diana she knew of. Or maybe this Diana person was the woman’s lover, perhaps friend; at the very least, said Diana would have been someone important to Solar.

The next thing, then, would be the question of why Solar -- if that really was her name -- was running around Merc Central without a single piece of clothing on her. Moonbyul studied her collapsed form, intrigued. Her skin was slightly sun-kissed, the middle ground between fair and tanned, not a single spot on her skin a burnt red. Moonbyul knew for a fact that the majority of people on Mercury, including herself, would definitely burn if they ever dared to romp around in a tee and shorts, much less completely . How did Solar manage to resist skin burns?

Moonbyul tentatively poked Solar’s arm. The pink-haired woman failed to stir; Moonbyul took the opportunity to run her index finger down Solar’s arm, before rubbing her finger and thumb together. There was no sign of any insulation spray used, as Solar’s skin felt as smooth as a baby’s, nor was there any dry, flaky skin, a condition very commonly found in Mercury’s civilizations. Strange.

But the most important thought on Moonbyul’s mind was how, why she was compelled to save this female stranger. However she looked at it, it just didn’t make sense. She leaned back, resting her back on a wall of her shuttle, and closed her eyes, replaying the scene in her mind. Solar had called her Diana, and begged for her for rescue.

The more she thought about it, the more she came to think that Solar was, in fact, not pleading for Moonbyul to save her. Not at all. It was very much a quiet command, and Moonbyul had no way to fight against it.

Moonbyul considered hypnotism. It was scientifically proven, and she had heard stories of hypnotism before: either by saying a certain word, or using a trigger action, the unsuspecting victim would lose all autonomy and subject themselves to whatever the hypnotist ordered them to do. It was exactly what had happened to her in the marketplace, when she lost control and only realised she had started a fight with the Juris droids halfway through it. She recalled meeting Solar’s eyes before the fight started. That must have been how she was hypnotised in the first place.

Damn it all. Did this woman take her for a fool?

She was bloody right, wasn’t she, Moonbyul thought, temper suddenly flaring. So easily convinced, put under some damn hypnotist trick to bail her out of trouble. And it was the only plausible explanation, really. It wasn’t as if she was put under some stupid spell. That was completely fictional, would only ever happen in stories.

So yes, Moonbyul was sure Solar took her as an easy, submissive tool, didn’t she?

Well, not for long.

Moonbyul watched with a wary eye as Solar shifted and stirred on the floor. She looked around her shuttle in a hurry, and strode to the cockpit, leaving an apple next to Solar while she did. Sitting down at the helm, she angled herself so she could keep an eye on Solar while busying herself with the flight. She brought up the flight coordinates and a holographic map of the universe, and studied it while chewing her apple.

“Diana…” Solar’s voice was weak and hoarse, and from the corner of her eye Moonbyul watched as the woman slowly moved into a sitting position. Her hair, tangled and messy, drooped to brush the top of her s. Moonbyul gulped before flicking her gaze away.

“I told you, lady, I’m not this Diana person. And if you try to attack me again, I will throw you out of my shuttle. I mean it.”

Solar blinked her brown eyes -- weren’t they gold before, or was that a trick of the light, Moonbyul wondered -- and leaned towards her. Studied her. “I see,” she said. “Indeed, Diana is much more beautiful a being than you are. Who might you be, then, human?”

“I'll tell you who I am if you answer my questions.”

“And why should I?” Solar asked in an imperious tone. “You are but an insignificant presence in the universe. Why should I answer to you?”

“I saved your life, you ungrateful woman, and if you don't tell me who you are and what you were doing in Central I'll send you back to the Juris.” Moonbyul swiveled around in her chair. “They'll pay me a bloody handsome reward for that, too.”

“Then why don't you do that?” Solar jutted her chin out at her.

Moonbyul gritted her teeth. She shot up from her seat, took long strides towards Solar, and closed her hand over Solar's arm. Squeezed. “Don't test my patience, woman. I saved your sorry . You owe me your life.”

Solar gritted her teeth and, grabbing Moonbyul’s arm, slowly pulled her away. “Fine. I will allow you one question, and only one, if you give me something to hydrate my throat.”

Her hand’s so warm, Moonbyul thought. But who was she to say, really, just a lonely person who had never even held someone else’s hand. She stepped back and pointed to the apple next to Solar. “You can eat that. There’s juice in it.”

Solar eyed the red fruit suspiciously, and looked back at Moonbyul, who was crunching down on her own apple. Accepting the possible edibility of the fruit, she picked it up and bit into it. A surprised smile spread across her face, but was quickly followed by a baffled frown. She stared at the part of the apple where she had bit, and poked the inside with a tentative finger.

“This… This is not a real fruit.”

“Hey, not bad, lady. Abso-right. But that’s the best I’ll ever manage to have here, because the real is bloody expensive and rare, so.” Moonbyul took the final bite of her reconstructed fruit and wiped her hands on her sweatpants. “Deal with it.”

Solar sniffed. “I suppose I must thank you for providing me the means to fill up my stomach and quench my thirst, although I must be honest: this apple-like substance is in no way adequate for proper human consumption.”

“Aight, whatever. Spill the deets.” Moonbyul gestured at her impatiently.

Solar spared her a scathing look before clearing . “Very well. Understand, human, you must speak of this to no one else. My name is Solar, daughter of the god Hae-mosu, though he has different names throughout the many lands.”

“...Right.” Now Moonbyul was absolutely certain the lady was crazy. Who else would claim they were some god’s kid? To ascertain the extent of Solar’s insanity, she sat down again and crossed her arms, prepared to interrogate the woman as much as she could. “Well, whatever. You can call me Moonbyul. What were you doing in front of HQ?”

“I haven’t the slightest what you’re talking about, human.” Finished with her meagre fruit offering, Solar stood up, arms akimbo and legs planted on the floor, and looked around curiously. “What an interesting place this is. So unfriendly, so cold, so sparse. I’m sure humans were living in much better conditions than this the last time I saw them.”

Moonbyul rolled her eyes. First she insults me, then she insults my space, she grumbled inwardly. “The market, lady, what were you doing there? And for the sake of Science, don’t just flaunt your ness. No one needs to see that. I don’t want to see that.”

Solar raised her eyebrows and strutted towards Moonbyul. She bent down so they were face-to-face, their noses nearly touching as she leaned forward. “The redness spreading across your face belies your true feelings, human.” She gave a little smirk, tossing her hair into Moonbyul’s face as she turned away. Solar cocked her hips, leaving Moonbyul to stare, flustered, at her rather firm . “Well, clothe me, then.”

Moonbyul pulled her hoodie over her head and drew the hood strings tight to cover as much of her face as possible. If she could just control her gay for even a minute, it would’ve been great. But no, her body had to go and betray her in front of a strange woman. And not any strange woman either; it had to be Solar, the crazy lady of the millennium who claimed to be a god.

Just. Fantastic.

Grumbling, she pushed to her feet and strode over to her small compartment of clothes. She threw a set to Solar, who picked them apart, her nose crinkling in disdain.

“What… what are these? Why are you offering to me pieces of cloth that have been torn?” Solar peered through a particularly large hole in the jeans she was given. “You dare to give me damaged garments?”

Moonbyul turned to give her the most deadpan stare she could muster. “It’s fashion, lady. People just couldn’t give up hole-y jeans since the 2000s, so a millennium later we’re still stuck with them. They’re also my most worn-out pair,” she muttered the last part to herself.

Solar sniffed, and with a toss of her wild pink hair attempted to pull on her jeans. Observing the design and shape of the pants, she quickly came to an understanding that they were meant to be worn on her lower body. She stuck her legs in and tugged the jeans up, wiggling her hips as she did so. “These are. Too small. For me,” she huffed, wincing when the jeans refused to go over the curve of her buttocks. “You clearly. Have. The body. Of. A stick.”

“Okay, okay, sure, insult your host, go on.” Moonbyul rolled her eyes as she walked to the cockpit.

“And where does this go?” Solar sounded ao appalled and confused that Moonbyul had to turn around.

“What? Oh.” Solar was dangling a pair of boyshorts between two fingers. “Oh, Science above. You’ve seriously never worn underwear before? Look, that was meant to be worn under the jeans. Now you gotta take those pants off, pull them underwear on, and then wear the jeans again.” When Solar gaped at her, Moonbyul shrugged. “Tough luck all around.”

“Humans truly are creatures of odd habits,” Solar muttered under her breath, but did as told anyway. She took a second to marvel at the unexpected silky feeling of the underwear before pulling on the pair of jeans again, and had to admit that it did feel much more comfortable than before. She also pulled on the tank and tee shirt that Moonbyul had thrown to her.

“You know, for a supposed weirdo god lady who appeared out of nowhere, you actually know how to put on clothes. I thought aliens didn’t know how to do that.”

Solar rolled her eyes. “Only humans would ever think that way. It is very clear which piece of clothing goes where, if one ever bothers to take a proper look at it.”

“Yeah, congratulations, you’re smart. Woohoo. Now just sit in a corner and don’t move. Don’t touch anything. I need to figure out where we’re going, and you doing things you shouldn’t do can mess everything up. So sit. Stay.”

“Wait-” Solar started, but Moonbyul had already activated the door to separate them from each other. Bemused and frustrated, she bared her teeth at the door before turning her head to take in her surroundings. 'Don’t touch anything', the human had said, but who was she to tell a goddess what to do? Solar grinned cheekily and started to sneak around the shuttle.

She started with the kitchenette. After opening a few mini-cupboards, she came to realise that there actually wasn’t anything edible in them. In fact, there wasn’t anything in the cupboards save for the apples that she had eaten just now. Pursing her lips, she closed all the cupboard doors she opened and moved off to another part of the shuttle.

Her fingers trailed across the walls of the shuttle and found their way into a small indent at the very back of the vehicle. Intrigued, she pushed against it. A panel next to her feet slid open, revealing a large bucket full of ice. Her eyes lit up with greed. Without a moment of hesitation Solar her hands into the bucket and grabbed two fistfuls of ice. She shoved them into , desperate for hydration, and savoured in the feeling of the ice quickly melting in .

“And she dared to tell me that she only had those apples left,” Solar muttered, glaring at Moonbyul. “Now how do I shut this?” Groping for the indent in the wall again, she pressed it, and grinned when the panel slid back to hide the stash of ice. Of course, she thought, and continued on towards the shower cubicle.

She stood in front of the shower cubicle and attempted to stare through the frosted plexiglass, but she couldn’t see a thing. She pulled the door open, took a step into the cubicle, and nearly tripped over a pile of discarded clothes. Her hands shot out to balance herself, and frozen in place, she quickly glanced over her shoulder at the sleeping form of Moonbyul. When she was certain that Moonbyul wasn’t about to wake up, she breathed a sigh of relief and stepped over the clothes pile.

“How messy,” she murmured as she nudged the pile aside with a foot.

“How messy,” she murmured as she nudged the pile aside with a foot. “Diana, must you leave your tunics in the middle of the footpath?” Solar huffed as she continued walking in the forest.

It was unusually quiet that day in the forest of Anagni, and the calm atmosphere discomfited Solar. Diana, she knew, could not stand relaxing for even a few moments, much less the silence brewing in the forest. The forest was quiet only during the seasons of hunting, where Solar would often find Diana sitting still in her alcove, listening to the prayers of human hunters, and casting the appropriate blessings upon them.

However, it was not hunting season that day, not at all. “Diana?” Solar called, her voice echoing throughout the forest. “I do not find this as humorous as you do. Where are you?”

But nobody came.

“Diana?” Solar tried again, jogging worriedly towards her lover’s living quarters. Diana, the wind whispered as it wafted between the leaves on the trees, help, Diana.

She ran and she ran and she ran, and as she did she noted with growing dread animals hiding in their homes. Hares curled into small depressions in the ground, deer peeking out from behind tree trunks, even polecat cubs huddled around their mothers as they attempted to forage for food.

Something had happened -- something very, very wrong.

She sprinted the last half-mile towards the alcove, a cocoon-like structure made of gargantuan leaves sewn together, nested in the biggest tree in the forest of Anagni to create a comfortable, inconspicuous hiding place. The leaves were always a mixture of bright and dark green, the colour of approaching spring, but that day they were a dark brown, with parts crumbling and flaking off, as if autumn had finally come.

“No.” Solar climbed the tree with surprising agility, and leapt into the alcove. It was empty, save for a diadem in the shape of a waning crescent resting in the middle of the cocoon’s floor. “No, no, no.” She approached the diadem on shaky legs and picked it up with trembling fingers, and collapsed to her knees when it disintegrated into dust in her hands, leaving her with only a small sliver of silvery metal.

Overcome with grief, she clutched what was left of the diadem in her fist and brought it to her heart, and wept.

“Lady, what did you do?”

Solar blinked slowly as she broke out of her reverie. She raised a hand to her eyes and wiped away the tears that she didn’t realise had formed. As her mind cleared, she became more aware of the sharp wailing sound that seemed to surround her. “What… what is happening?”

“You tell me!” Moonbyul shouted. Solar crawled out of the shower cubicle where she had blanked out and turned towards the source of fury. Her eyes grew wide when she saw Moonbyul at the cockpit, flicking switches and muttering words she didn’t understand. The lights within the shuttle glowed a bright red, and even to the oblivious Solar it was obvious that there was some sort of emergency. “, dammit, !” Moonbyul put her hands on the control panel before her. “What did you do?”

“I did nothing!” Solar hollered back.

“Yeah? You’re the only one who could’ve screwed with my baby, lady, you’re the only other person here! , we’re headed for that asteroid!” She exclaimed in panic as she slammed flashing buttons.

Without warning, the shuttle shuddered beneath their feet two seconds before the entire vehicle dropped at a dangerous speed. Solar found herself sliding across the floor, her limbs flailing as she fought to find something to latch onto.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! Brace yourself!” Moonbyul shouted from where she had fallen on the floor, and squeezed her eyes shut as the shuttle made a perilous nosedive to their doom.