***And we’re back into the brain of Violet-Rose! I hope you enjoyed the quick change in perspective and are ready to get back to our girl***

“Because I really have a feeling that we aren’t on Earth anymore.” All of their faces were on me. I could see the panic in their eyes. “And based on that observation, I am assuming that you aren’t human?”

“Uhm,” Thomas is the first to break their silence. “I am human…”

“Okay,” I smile. “One down, what about the rest?”

They all put their heads down, trying to keep from making eye contact with me. I have definitely hit the nail on the head.

“Isa?” I place my hand on her back and rub small circles. “Can you tell me what’s happening.”

She shifted in place. “Uhm. I think that Jasper should take this one…”

My head snaps his way. “Jasper?”

“My love, do you think she can handle it?” I hear him whisper in Biff's ear.

“Jasper. Don’t talk to your lover about me like I am not in the room.” These people’s necks are really going to break one of these days. I just raise my eyebrows, waiting for someone to say something.

“How-?” I guess Jasper couldn’t put a full sentence together. Wait. Shit.

“Oh my god, Jasper! I didn’t out you did I? I am so sorry! You just seemed so open about it? I am so so sorry!” I was just getting annoyed, I didn’t mean to out someone. I know how hurtful that can be.

“What? No? You didn’t out me.” I signed in relief at Jasper's answer.

“So, then why did everyone act so surprised?” This all is more confusing than I initially thought.

“Because,” this time, it was Biff, “How did you know? We never said or did anything couple-y in front of you?”

“He literally just called you ‘my love’?” I know they were whispering, but Jasper wasn’t necessarily quiet about it. “And, you’re holding his hand?”

Biff and Jasper both looked at their connected hands. Both let out a soft ‘oh’.

“So to answer your question Jasper, yes, I very much think that I can handle it.” I was smiling again. I don’t want to make them clam up. It was time to pull out the big guns: my puppy dog eyes. The only person who I've ever met that can resist them is Chris. “So, please?”

Biff nodded, and Jasper closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay, okay. You’re right. We aren’t on Earth. And you and Thomas are the only Earthlings.”

“Thank you.” I gave a soft sigh. “So, how about you start with where we are?”

“Yes. Uhm.” Jasper looked around at everyone. They were all nodding. With that, he seemed to gain the courage to continue. “We are on Mercury.”

“Mercury?”

“Yes.” Jasper vigorously shook his head.

“Can you be a bit more specific about that, like I know we are in a medical room that connects to Isa’s room. And I know that this building has a lot of floors with different things, like a hospital.” I very clearly heard Thomas tell me that he was taking me to a medical room. Plus, I had made my way from this room to Isa’s. And I had visited other floors. “But, what is this building?”

“Gosh, uhm. I- uh. That is hard to explain. I don’t really know where to start.”

“As they say, the beginning?” It came with an encouraging smile.

“Yes. Uh, the beginning. I- I am the crown prince of Mercury?”

That was not what I was expecting. “You’re what?”

“Uhm, yeah, I come from a long line of Mercurian rulers…” His face was rather flushed.

“So, does that make Isabella a princess?”

“That I am!” Isabella squeaked. I smile down at her.

“No wonder you are so wise beyond your years.” I give her cheek a pinch. She smiles back and gives me a quick hug. “So you two are royalty.”

“Yes, and we are in our abode? Castle? The monarch here is really different than it is on Earth. This building is a giant conglomerate. There’s a lot of different groups taking space here. Like, the high tech medical research facility. And a research farm. And corporate things.”

“That makes sense.”

“Really?” Jasper must have been confused about how well I was taking this.

“Yeah, it’s not really too hard to believe. Okay, to make sure that I have got everything down: Thomas is a human who somehow got to Mercury. Jasper is the crown prince of Mercury and he is dating Biff, who is a doctor. Isabella is then the crown princess of Mercury. And we are all in a big compound that has a bunch of companies and research facilities in it, but it is also your home?”

“Yes,” Isabella chimed in again. She seemed proud of me for keeping track so well. “That’s exactly right!”

“Awesome! So, Biff, where are you from?” I turn my puppy dog eyes to him.

“I am from Jupiter. Mercury has some of the best medical schools and research facilities, so I came here to study. One day, I met Jasper on campus and I fell in love.” He looked at Jasper with a loving sigh. “When he took me to meet his family, Isa said she had found me, and I have been working here ever since.”

“Wait, when you say found, what does that mean exactly?” I look back at Isabella. “You said that you found me too?”

“Well,” Isa starts. “We have powers?”

“Go on…”

“My powers are exactly what they sound like. I find things.” Isa said. “Sometimes it’s things that I am actively looking for, sometimes it’s a surprise. Like when I found you. That was a surprise. But, when I find the thing that I find, it takes on a golden glow. That’s how I know.”

“Oh. So that’s how you knew that I could be your teacher?” She nods up at me. I turn to Jasper. “So, Jasper, your power has to deal with calming people down?”

“Yes?”

“I heard Thomas ask you to calm me down.” I knew he must have been confused, but with my clarification, he nodded.

“I can calm people, and people listen to my directions. I was doing that after the first time you were shot.”

“So that’s why people were so calm. Okay. Okay. That makes sense thus far.”

“I can tell people’s ailments when I touch them.” Biff fessed up. “It helped make me a natural at medicine.”

“Okay, that’s why you were touching my head earlier?”

“Yes. That’s correct. I was able to tell that you were awake. It helped me each time we found you. I could treat you right away.”

“Thank you.” I gave him the most honest gratitude that I could. He was the reason I survived.

“Of course,” he smiled at me, then at the rest of those in the room. “You have quite the fan group who was encouraging me to do my best.”

I chuckled and then Rex sighed and smiled. “Okay, my turn. I am a Martian. I am also a prince, but I will probably never see a throne. I came to Mercury of my own free will to help Martian-Mercurian relations. It was the next best thing to marriage." There was a shrug. "My power is that I can smell danger. It makes me rather useful as a guard.” He winked. “Plus, it helps that all the males in my family have a super high pain tolerance.”

"Darlin', I'm just a good ol' country boy. No power other than my charm," He winked at me while continuing to hold my hand. "To help Mercury-Earth relations, Earth leaders decided to send some people as security, just like Mars did. In fact, there was a special group in the global military that sent soldiers off to different planets. On my first day here, I stumbled into Isa and she told me that I just had to be her personal guard. Now here we are, five years later."

There was a heavy silence after Thomas finished speaking.

“My brother and I are probably the last Plutonians.” Jared spoke up through clenched teeth, his hand held in a tight fist. “What Earth learned as the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet was actually the destruction of my people. My mother was the president. We had just converted to democracy from a dictatorship disguised as a monarchy, which happened to be led by my estranged father. His family believed that there should be a throne and that they should be the ones seated on it. My mother disagreed. So did many of the people. My father’s family was overthrown and my mother was elected to rule. It was like a slap in the face to my father’s family. So, they decided to destroy my mother and her family. In doing so, they destroyed most of Pluto. Jace and I would have been killed if my mother hadn’t hid us on Mercury at the last moment.”

...

“Jared.” My eyes started watering. “I am so sorry that happened to you. Thank you for being so vulnerable.”

“It’s the least I could do after my brother tried to kill you so many times,” he sighed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“I mean, he didn’t seem to like me when he first met me,” I give a small frown, “but I didn’t think it was bad enough to want to kill me.”

“No!” Rex cut off my line of thinking. “It’s definitely not you. There is something off about him. I couldn’t smell trouble on him, but he hasn’t been acting like his usual self.” Rex seemed to droop at the thought. Interesting.

“Does he have any special powers that I should be aware of the next time I run into him?” If everyone has these incredible powers, there’s no telling what Jace could have.

“Yeah,” Rex spoke before Jared could. “He has super speed!”

“He’s got the speed, and I’ve got the strength,” Jared added. “We’re like two sides of the same coin. That’s why we had worked so well together as joint head of security. But don’t worry, where he is right now, he can’t get out.”

I must have looked scared, because they were all trying to reassure me that I was safe.

“Vi?” Jasper asked. “If it’s alright, could we ask you a couple of questions now?”

I gulp and nod.

“What happened, starting at the moment you woke up the first time?”

This was going to be a long story…

Now that all of the characters (okay, well most of the characters) have been introduced, would you like a character recap? Let me know in the comments! <3