They found Sal in what Moonbyul assumed was a pantry of sorts. The room was stacked from floor to ceiling with cans of food and packets of water, all sorted and labelled with their contents. There was even a pile of folded clothes and sheets in a corner, which was what Moonbyul assumed Sal had made her toga out of.

“Woah,” Moonbyul muttered. “Where did all of this come from?”

Sal turned around at the sound of her voice and raised her eyebrows. “You don’t look too good, child,” she remarked, “and I’m not just talking about all your bruises.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You should probably get those bandages changed. I’m sure I’ve got some clean ones in here somewhere.” Sal started rummaging around, eventually digging up a large first-aid kit. “Now let’s get you patched up. Again.”

“Salus,” Solar interrupted, stepping between the two. “There are matters we must discuss.”

Looking perturbed, Sal blinked a few times. Her eyes cleared when realisation struck her. “Ah, yes. Of course. Can’t it wait until-”

Solar shook her head. Sal sighed. Turning to Moonbyul, she asked: “Do you think you can do this yourself?” At Moonbyul’s nod, she handed the kit over. “Sorry about that.”

“Can’t I just stay here and you patch me up while you’re talking?” Moonbyul offered.

“No.” Solar made a shoo-ing gesture, and to further chase her away, nudged Moonbyul away and towards the doorway. “This does not, and should not, concern you. Take care of yourself first, and knock if you have a question for Sal.”

The door slid shut in Moonbyul’s face, and she was left standing in the corridor with an unexpectedly heavy first-aid kit.

“Well then.”

Too lazy to move, Moonbyul sat down then and there in the cold, but not too cold, corridor, and set to rewrap her wounds. She tentatively unbandaged one on her left calf, prepared to see an ugly gash in her flesh. After all, she didn’t clock that much time in recovery.

Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise to see that not only was the cut not as big as she had first imagined, but the suturing was so well done that her skin had already started to repair itself and seal the cut. The area surrounding the cut was tinted yellow, presumably from the antiseptic ointment that Sal had applied, or something else that Moonbyul didn’t know of. Either way, it had done its job.

She quickly and efficiently redressed all the injuries she could find on herself. Suddenly, she remembered that a new wound had opened on her forehead after she had woke up, and patted at the patch of gauze just above her left eye.

“Need a mirror for this one, don’t I?” she asked no one in particular. Gathering up all the first-aid supplies that she had left on the floor, Moonbyul headed off to find a mirror somewhere in the large labyrinth that was Sal’s home.

Solar paced, agitated. She whipped around to jab a finger at Sal, sitting cross-legged on the floor. “It makes no sense. We are infallible, untouchable to humans. What proof do you have to support your claims?”

“We’re here, tangible not of our own volition to that of humankind, aren’t we?” Sal replied, shrugging a shoulder delicately. “It took me a while to believe it at first, Solar, trust me. And from what I gather over my years living here on this forsaken lump of rock, it is the only viable conclusion: our kind doesn’t exist anymore.”

“That is not possible. Humans cannot just dismiss us like how they dismiss every little inconvenience or dislike. We are their creators! We -- you and I and the rest of us -- we made them! We made all the worlds available to them! It would be foolish for them to scorn us.”

“That’s the reality we’re living in now, Solar. I don’t know exactly how it correlates to us being here exactly, but what I do know is that the first few of us vanished around the same time we were… forgotten.”

Solar kicked at a wall, listening to it ring in protest. “And that forced us to manifest into a physical human form?” she asked, still in disbelief.

Sal nodded. “Looks like it.”

Rubbing at her eyes, Solar sat down with a thump. “I-I refuse to believe this.” And yet… “Perhaps that may explain the human’s reaction towards me.”

Sal startled. “You mean… you told Moonbyul about us? She knows that we’re gods?”

Solar reddened in embarrassment. “Admittedly, I had thought that it would make her more, shall we say, receptive to my requests.”

Sal could only gape at her. How could someone be so reckless in this day and age?

“Such modesty,” she managed. “I assume she didn’t react well to your, uh, claims?”

“Indeed. In fact, she dismissed them, called me crazy. All nonsense, of course,” Solar huffed, indignant.

Sal hummed, deep in thought. An idea struck her, and she leaned forward as if passing on a very important secret. “Well, since this has already happened, why not just use it to our advantage?”

Apprehensive but curious, Solar narrowed her eyes and leaned forward in kind. “How?”

Just as Sal opened to begin her explanation, Moonbyul burst in through the door, wielding a nail gun. Her chest heaving with exertion, she aimed the gun at Sal. “What. The . Did you do.”

Solar jumped up and glared at Moonbyul. “Put that away, human. You have no right to point such a thing at her.”

“Don’t I?” Moonbyul slowly advanced, the gun never swaying from its target. “Then ask her to explain what happened to the seven members of Newton 51.”

“And what is that supposed to be?” Solar snapped, exasperated. “How in Father’s name should she know what that is, or who those humans are?”

“They’re dead.”

Solar whipped her head around to stare at Sal, the retort on her lips frozen in place. Her eyes darted to Moonbyul who was now standing next to her, then back to Sal. “W-what?”

“You wouldn’t know, huh?” Moonbyul shook her head. “Newton 51. Seven volunteers from Merc Central and its surrounding colonies, selected and trained to test a new speed shuttle that would bring them from Mercury to Neptune. They went missing after passing Mars. Lost in ing space.” She left out the fact they were all familiar faces that she would sometimes meet at the markets in Central, or when she had her regular work-related appointments with her supervisors. The reminder hurt, the loss of a friendly face a knife through her heart.

“And what exactly is her involvement with this group of humans?” Solar asked, more out of curiosity than anger now. She nudged Sal with a foot. “Explain.”

“They crash landed, like you two,” Sal said, her shoulders lifting and falling. “Knocked by stray debris that was floating around in the asteroid belt. Or at least that’s what the sole survivor said when he woke up. The rest of them were found dead on landing -- which begets the question, how did you survive a fall similar to theirs? After I deemed him as fit and fully healed, he busied himself around the place, but it must have been too much for him. He informed me that he couldn’t stay here with his deceased colleagues, couldn’t bear the thought of being the only one who lived.”

“So?” Moonbyul asked.

“So he left. Thanked me, taught me how to use the space-suits that his crewmates wore, and left. Walked out the door into the deep darkness, and… Well, I don’t know what happened to him after that.”

Moonbyul’s arms dropped, then came back up again. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“I don’t have any reason to lie, child.” Sal chuckled. “Especially not since I’m going to tell you how to leave this place.”

The gun in Moonbyul’s hand hit the floor together with her jaw. Even Solar could not mask the surprise on her face. Both goggled at Sal, who picked up the nail gun from the floor with two fingers and tucked it into a pantry drawer. She stood up and clapped her hands together. “Now that that’s out of the way… Shall we?”

She approached the gobsmacked Moonbyul and tapped her on the nose. “And you, child, don’t forget who was the one who healed you and took care of you in the first place. Gratitude goes a long way.” Tossing a loose part of her toga over her shoulder, she gestured at them to follow her out.

“I still don’t trust her,” Moonbyul muttered under her breath as she followed Sal out.

“Trust a human to say that,” Solar huffed. “When have gods ever let you down?”

Moonbyul had no answer to that, as she had never believed in supernatural forces, but she had a feeling the right answer to that question would not please Solar one bit.

At the sight before her, Moonbyul’s mouth dropped open for the second time today. It took all her willpower to not run and squeal like, well, a girl. She shuddered at the thought of anyone even seeing her act that way, but the urge to do so was so strong. She compensated by pressing her lips together to control the mad grin that threatened to burst across her cheeks, and walked forward with her hands curled into fists to stop her fingers from instinctively wiggling.

Before them was a shuttle a tad smaller than Moonbyul’s, designed so it could fit into the refurbished hangar that extended from the main building. Although the vehicle was very clearly meant to be a shuttle from its exterior, its framework and finish was slightly off, as if none of the parts were made to fit. The two windows installed were at wonky angles, and while the cockpit was in the shape of a hemisphere, the body of the shuttle tapered to a pointed end.

It was, to Solar’s mind, a sort of weird and metallic fish.

But what truly captured Moonbyul’s attention was the name of the shuttle, for splashed across the body of the shuttle in dusty red was the word:

WOOLSTHORPE.

“Woolsthorpe.” Moonbyul ran her hand over the paint and smiled sadly.

“Well? What does that mean?” Solar demanded.

“It’s his birthplace. Woolsthorpe, Sir Isaac Newton’s birthplace.” Moonbyul turned around. “I guess he really wanted to go home.” Though a home wouldn’t ever feel right when you’ve lost too many things, too many people.

Sal placed a hand on Moonbyul’s shoulder. “Maybe you can finish his mission. I don’t know what to do with it otherwise. Gods, I didn’t even know what it was until he told me.”

“Really?” Moonbyul’s eyes shone with excitement at the prospect of piloting a shuttle again. Then, speaking to the shuttle, she cooed: “Baby, don’t worry. Mama’s gonna tune you up so we can fly all the way to Neptune and back, no problem-o.”

“If you need any supplies, we’ve piled all the construction material we could scavenge next door,” Sal offered, “and food and water are all in the pantry.”

Moonbyul flashed her a thumbs-up. “As much as I hate to say it, I should probably scavenge whatever I can get from my own shuttle as well.” She inclined her head at Solar and curled her lip. “What are you gonna do? Criticize me or somethin’? Stand around kicking people?”

Solar tossed her hair back and sniffed. “I was about to offer you my assistance, but it seems as if you have no need for it.”

Sal muffled a laugh behind her hand as Moonbyul, mortified, turned red. “I mean, I didn’t say that. Um. You could, uh, pass me some stuff, help me scavenge things?”

Solar cocked her head to one side and placed her hands on her hips. “Is that a request?” she asked, her eyes glowing gold with the trace of laughter lingering under her words.

What is wrong with me, Moonbyul wondered, feeling the blush work through her neck all the way down to her toes as Solar’s eyes continued to pierce her. “Um. I guess. I-if you want it to be?”

“Very well.” Solar smiled benignly, her eyes settling down to their original brownish hue. She barely even reacted when Sal let out an amused snort, her gaze fixed on Moonbyul’s pink face. “Let us begin.”

Moonbyul sat, feet planted apart to keep balance, atop a pile of accumulating metal sheets along with an assortment of fixtures. Tossed at the bottom of the pile was the pilot’s seat that once lived in her shuttle’s cockpit. A trail of ice led from a gaping hole in the shuttle to the pile she was sat upon. All that hard work, she thought, and for what? Gone in an instance.

“Must you take a rest now?” Solar called, leaning on the doorframe of the shuttle. “Come. We are nearly finished.”

“Right.” Moonbyul jumped down. Her feet skidded and slipped on the ice, and she did a swift twist and roll before neatly landing on her feet. She quickly glanced at Solar, and grinned at the impressed look on her face before the pink-haired woman turned away.

“Hey!” Sal poked her head out of a hole. “Where did you get this?” From another hole she dangled a hefty satchel, completely undamaged.

Moonbyul jogged over and plucked it from her hands. “Woah. Mes sure wasn’t kidding about his bag.” Not a single fiber had loosened from the body of the bag, and its quality was still as good as when she had first bought it on Mercury. A quick adjustment of the straps was enough to assure her that the bag that she bought was probably the most durable object to have ever graced the universe.

“Mes?” Sal asked, making her way out of the wreck. “Who would that be?”

“He’s this bag seller I met at Central. It’s the major marketplace on Mercury. Dunno much else about him. Blond, ye high” -- Moonbyul levelled her hand around the last of her ribs -- “with a damn cheeky grin. Oh, and I think he had some kind of, like, long stick pole type thing?” She gestured with both hands in the air and mimicked thumping the ground with her imaginary staff. “With squiggly carvings in a helix shape.”

“Like this?” Sal drew a quick sketch in the dust with a foot, a long staff with two snakes criss-crossing down it.

Moonbyul nodded. Sal gaped at her, dumbstruck. “You met Hermes? You actually met Hermes?”

“I did?” Moonbyul asked in return, confused.

“Well, if he is still in possession of his caduceus, and he was the one who gave you this bag, then he is most definitely Hermes. Oh, what Grandfather would say about this!” Sal exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear as she skipped around in excitement. Neither Moonbyul nor Solar had ever seen her act this way, and they were rather beguiled by her odd behaviour.

“And he gave you his bag! You’re possibly the luckiest human in the universe right now, you know that?” Sal clasped Moonbyul’s hands in hers.

“Hold up a mo. I’m sorry, but who’s Hermes?” Moonbyul asked, leaning away from Sal’s shining eyes.

Sal sighed. “Children these days, not a of knowledge in them. Hermes is my grandfather’s half-brother, born from the same father: Zeus. You must have heard of him, no?” She pursed her lips. “Although you might be more familiar with the name Jupiter.”

Moonbyul’s eyebrows drew together. “Like… the planet?”

“Exactly like the planet. Don’t you know your predecessors had named so many parts of your universe after us gods?” Sal grinned. “Even the lump of rock we stand on is named after a god.”

They shed their space-suits once they were in the building. Moonbyul picked up two folded suits that they had prepared for take-off and put them in her bag, passing a helmet to Solar to carry before taking the other for herself.

“You sure you don’t wanna come with?” Moonbyul asked Sal as they headed back to the hangar where the Woolsthorpe shuttle was kept. In a quieter voice, she said, “You’d be a better companion than Miss Crazy Grumpy-pants over there.”

“I heard that,” Solar called without looking back.

Sal snickered. “Yes, I’m very sure,” she replied, patting Moonbyul on the back. “And you may not think so now, but I do believe that you and Solar were meant to find each other. After all, you did save and protect her without really meaning to, and isn’t that instinct part of your connection? And you do really resemble someone close to her heart.”

“You mean, Diana?”

Sal blinked once, then twice. “You know about Diana?”

Moonbyul shrugged and pointed a finger at Solar. “When I picked her up she was screaming that name like crazy. That’s all I know.”

Sal sighed and rested her hand on Moonbyul’s shoulder. “Well, Diana is-”

“Salus, daughter of Asclepius. Say no more.” Sal glanced up sharply at Solar’s tart tone and immediately shut up.

“Sorry,” she muttered to Moonbyul. “I suppose she’s been on edge ever since Diana, you know, vanished.”

“Vanished?” Moonbyul began to ask, but Solar had already slowed her pace enough to grab Moonbyul’s arm and haul her away from Sal before she could spill any more details. Moonbyul stared at Solar’s hand where she was gripping her forearm tightly, fingers digging into her flesh, then at Solar herself.

Disconcerted yet intrigued, Moonbyul actually did want to know more about the enigma that was Solar. But Solar refused to talk. Her face had shut down when Sal mentioned Diana, her sassy mouth settling into cool lines that did not move. All the questions that Moonbyul wanted to ask died at the tip of her tongue, and whether it was Solar’s icy silence or the fact that she could feel there was something that under no circumstances she should know about, for the first time ever, Moonbyul allowed herself to be led by the wrist all the way to the hangar.

“Do you really think you can pilot… this?” Sal enquired when they reached the shuttle.

Moonbyul gave her a confident nod as she dumped all her things into the shuttle. “I managed to fly my old one without any problems until the crash” - she eyed Solar as she said that - “and since I modeled my reconfigured shuttle after them famous ones, there shouldn’t be much of a difference.” She climbed into the cockpit and ran her hands over the buttons and switches waiting to be triggered. “Yep. All in order,” she murmured to herself, pleased.

Turning around, she craned her neck to check the main body of the shuttle where Solar had very neatly arranged everything in order. “Are some people naturally created to not have any sort of organisational skill?” Solar asked in an annoyed tone, though Sal could tell that there wasn’t much bite to the question, like when Moonbyul rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out in response.

“Say, Sal,” Moonbyul shifted back to the input console of the shuttle, “you probably wouldn’t know this, but do you maybe know where we are in the galaxy exactly? I mean, if you know the coordinates that’ll be great and all, but a general location will be pretty damn good as well.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Sal said with a wink. Striding to one of the multitude of panels in the hangar, she opened it and produced a small cube with lights flickering within it, like fireflies against a dark night. “Try this.” She tossed it to Moonbyul, almost carelessly, before climbing into the shuttle.

In contrast, Moonbyul received it with gentle hands, and lifted it to eye level to examine it. She pressed a finger into the small indent at the top of the cube. The cube’s lights flashed as one, a brilliant sky blue dazzling the three women and overwhelming their senses.

When the bright light wore off, they found themselves standing in a holographic projection of… was it the universe? Small stars winking in a sea of dark midnight, giant galaxies drifting closer or apart, whirlpools swallowing smaller galaxies, and stars swelling until they blow up in a red explosion. Moonbyul, Sal, even Solar couldn’t help but gawk as the universe swum around them in dark space. “It’s not just a cosmos map,” Moonbyul breathed in awe, “it’s a dynamic map of the universe.”

Intuition had her dipping her right fist into what looked like the Milky Way, and with a deep breath she splayed her hand as she swept the galaxy across the hologram. The projection of the Milky Way immediately expanded to surround them. At Solar’s end hovered the brilliant Sun, with solar winds sprinting across the giant mass of plasma and emitting blinding solar flares. Sal, standing in the middle of the hologram, poked at the asteroids and small planets floating in orbit between Mars and Jupiter, while Moonbyul held in her hands the projection of Pluto as it inched along in Kuiper’s belt.

Solar broke the silence. “Amazing.” Not in her wildest imagination could she have thought of ever witnessing such technological capability, nor did she ever think that humans could have surpassed their ancestors in such impressive ways, and in such a short time.

For now, Moonbyul made her way over to where Sal was standing. In front of them was a glowing red dot pulsing on one of the larger asteroids. “Looks like we’re on Hygieia, the asteroid,” Moonbyul announced.

“It must be a coincidence,” Solar said.

“Why?”

“It’s not a coincidence, Solar,” Sal disagreed. “I really do believe for those of us who were lucky -- or unlucky -- enough, we fell somewhere where our powers would be strongest, or we would have the most influence, or even where we would be able to receive some kind of help.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Moonbyul interrupted loudly. “What are we talking about here?”

“We are on Hygieia, correct?” Sal waited for Moonbyul’s nod before continuing. “Hygieia is my Greek name. We are standing on an asteroid named after me.”

“Huh.” Moonbyul allowed the idea to simmer in her head. “That sounds… rude, and kinda not right, saying that we’re physically on you.”

“Oh, you.” Sal slapped Moonbyul’s arm playfully. “But what I said does make some sense. After all, you did meet Hermes on Mercury, which is the Roman equivalent of his name as well.”

“But what about me?” Solar countered. “I too woke up on Mercury, yet I have no associations with your family. Even my abilities seemed to cease to exist.”

Sal glanced over at Moonbyul who, in a state of bewilderment, had found her way back to the cockpit to clear her thoughts and focus. “You found her there.”

Those were the words that reverberated in Solar’s mind as the Woolsthorpe shuttle began its maiden voyage out of the asteroid belt towards Jupiter. She observed Moonbyul in the cockpit, how her fingers flew over the flashing lights at the input console, the tilt of her head whenever she consulted the miniaturised version of the cosmos map, the stretching of her neck and bending of her back after she stood at the console for a bit too long. When she finally turned around, it was obvious that she was tired.

“Stop rubbing your eyes,” Solar snapped, shoving her concern away so it wouldn’t show on her face. “You will only dry out your eyes, and that will only serve to irritate them even further.”

“Sorry,” Moonbyul mumbled, stumbling when the shuttle abruptly tilted. In a flash, Solar jumped up to catch her by the arm.

“Sit down,” Solar ordered, disconcerted. Moonbyul’s eyes were red-rimmed, and her hand kept drifting towards the patch of gauze above her left eye. “Does it hurt?” Solar asked softly, removing her hand.

“Kinda.”

“Sit here. I am sure Salus had left a medical kit in here.” Wandering around, Solar soon fished out a first aid kit from somewhere and returned to Moonbyul. Like how Sal had previously done, she peeled off the bloody gauze and wrapped it up. Sal’s medicine had done its job; a pink scar was all that was left of the wound.

“I believe there is pain only because it is still healing. Do not touch it; I will place another patch on the scar so you do not get the urge to scratch it.” Saying so, she stuck another sheet of gauze on the scar and patted it gently.

Moonbyul suddenly caught her wrist mid-pat. “Solar.”

Taken aback, Solar quickly jerked backwards and stared at Moonbyul. Stared into her luminous silver eyes. “Y-you are not Moonbyul. Diana.”

“Solar,” the woman who was not Moonbyul repeated. “Cannot… help… trapped… pain…”

“Diana.” Solar clasped Not-Moonbyul’s hand in hers. “Where are you? I am here. I will save you.”

“No.” With silver eyes glowing intensely, the woman who was not Moonbyul lunged forward and kissed Solar.

Darkness. White walls. Furious shouts. Quiet sobs. Burning metal. Cold air. Stabbing pain. Blissful numbness.

A woman. Tanned skin. Black hair. Fierce eyes. Tight mouth. Beauty mark. Handcuffs in hand. Whip on belt.

Shut door.

“Hey, I think we’re here!” Moonbyul’s excited shout cut through the fog in Solar’s brain. Looking up from where she was sitting on the floor, Moonbyul was standing at the cockpit, rejuvenated, and staring out of the glass display window.

Solar raised a trembling hand to her lips. “She kissed me.”

“What?” Moonbyul shouted back. “I can’t really hear you, there’s too much stuff going on right now.” She made her way back to Solar. “What did you say?”

“She kissed me,” Solar said again.

Moonbyul frowned. “Who did? Well, whatever,” she said, shrugging. She grabbed Solar’s hand, too animated to stay still, and dragged her to the cockpit. “Come on, take a look!”

The giant moon before them was a sight for sore eyes. Like white scars against dark skin, its entire surface seemed to be crushed and indented with an uncountable number of craters. Some craters stood alone, while others were part of a chain, almost like a family.

“You see that?” Moonbyul pointed at an unintelligible part of their holographic map, and then at a particularly deep crater on the approaching moon. “There’re lifeforms! Humans, like u -- like me! It’s a whole colony!” Her voice grew louder and louder until it became almost a hysterical shriek of pure excitement.

“Oh man, this is amazing!” She jumped up and down, completely oblivious to the woman standing beside her. “We’re gonna see real people again!”

But Solar couldn’t muster even an ounce of enthusiasm, not after that vision. She was sure that for the briefest of moments, out of pure luck and nothing else, that Diana had somehow come to her, made her presence in this universe known, just to assure Solar that she was there. Alive. Suffering, but alive.

Solar clasped her hands together, almost as if she was in prayer. Diana, she wondered, where are you?