Well, I really have no idea where this came from, or what it's about, but the Muse was really, really interested in the concept. I'm considering it a WIP, though; I'm not entirely satisfied with the ending.
Ah, well.
Enjoy!
And as the van rumbled and bumped its way down the road on Mount Coronet, Mars couldn't help but find that tears were leaking down her face and splattering on the floor of the van. She sniffed loudly and the other two glanced at her as a respite from staring at each other.
"What's wrong with you?" Jupiter snapped coldly, her disdain for the other woman evident. "I mean…it's only jail. Cyrus will bail us out."
At the mention of their former boss's name, Mars let out a fresh wail and turned away from the two of them. Tears leaked openly and ran down her cheeks, staining her tunic. She couldn't wipe off the salty liquid with her hands (as all three of them were handcuffed, of course) but she made no attempt to move. Saturn sighed as he glanced from Mars to Jupiter, clearly concerned. The lavender-haired woman's only response was a haughty shrug.
"What?" Jupiter snapped her normally warm and sultry voice cracking.
"Master Cyrus won't be returning," Saturn replied smoothly. He didn't have a hint of malice, just a cold statement of fact. "He disappeared into his own dimension, leaving the rest of us behind. Then…" he said no more. He couldn't bring himself to tell Mars that Cyrus' universe might have been destroyed. He hadn't seen exactly what happened in the last pivotal moment.
Jupiter gaped openly at her associate, mouth gibbering like a Magikarp out of water for a moment. "He…he left? Without…us?"
At that Mars glanced up, eyes furious. "He said that none of us were worthy enough to share his vision! He alone was the only person who could go into that stupid new universe of his…and now he's gone, and he won't come back. He's not coming back for any of us, not you, Saturn, not you, Jupiter, not me. Especially not me…"
She dropped her head again.
"I just…I wish he would have taken our feelings into account."
There was silence in the back of the van, and the three steadied themselves automatically as they rounded a particularly sharp and steep curve. For a long moment, each one avoided the other's eyes as they waited in silence.
"You loved him, didn't you?"
Mars jumped at the sound of Saturn's voice. He wasn't mocking her, nor was he accusing. Somehow, the blue-haired mad kept his voice diplomatic and smooth at all times. A gentle smile pulled up at the corner of his lip as he nodded. "Yes, you did."
The redhead dropped her gaze again. She expected laughter from Jupiter, but for once, the taller woman kept quiet about their mutual dislike. Mars cleared her throat experimentally, once, twice, aware that the other two were hanging onto her every word.
"You're right, Saturn, I did love him," Mars replied finally, "and I…guess I expected him to love me back. He might've said he did. But he might not have. I mean…now that I look back and see that. His stupid speeches about human spirit and emotion and all that crap, I guess I just never thought about that it would apply to me. I thought that maybe I could be different."
Jupiter sniffed as Mars turned a cold glance to her companion. "What?" Jupiter snapped again. "Everyone just wants to be loved. Even me," she added under her breath with a pointed glance at Saturn. The man paled, but both of the women disregarded it.
Mars finally sighed after they had ridden in silence for a few long moments. The only sounds in the van were their heavy breathing from the close proximity and the road noise of the dirt and gravel road below the tires. It wasn't easy getting to Spear Pillar, and it wasn't easy on the way down, either. That was one last triumph that the disgraced members of Team Galactic had for the International Police. One small triumph.
Mars turned her head back to Saturn. "You know, Saturn," she said, "I wondered why he always called us planets. I mean, that's like the dorkiest codenames. We could have been like, something…not planets," she giggled. "But in the end it made sense."
Jupiter crossed her legs imperiously and looked over at Mars. "How?" she asked coldly, narrowing her eyebrows.
Mars shrugged. "We revolved around him, but at a distance. He was our world, all three of us. He knew it. He knew that he had complete control of us, even though we didn't like to admit it. He knew that we would do whatever he wanted us to do. We were…blinded. Blinded by the light that came from him and captured us together."
"Poetic." Jupiter smirked. Saturn shot her a cold glance, but Mars laughed with tears still in her eyes.
"It was a distance we couldn't cross, and you know it," Mars fired back, but there was no real malice in her voice. She had accepted that Cyrus wasn't a part of her life anymore, and that all she had were the other two people in the van. She realized that was the only good thing that came from this ordeal. They had each other.
"All we have now is each other," Saturn murmured, echoing the unspoken thought that seemed to be running through their minds.
Mars smiled for the first time since Dialga and Palkia had been returned to their own dimensions. There was no point in dwelling on the past. Their future wasn't so bright, but as long as the three of them had each other, they wouldn't be left wanting. Mars was hopeful. She had always been the most hopeful and the most optimistic of the trio. She knew that things would all turn out right in the end.
"I'm…glad we do," Mars finally said. "I don't know what I would have done all these months without you two. Cyrus…I'll love him forever, but now I know who I can truly rely on."
Saturn nodded in his diplomatic way, but Mars knew that he meant it. Jupiter shrugged nonchalantly, but Mars knew that she understood what the redhead was saying as well. They were a trio, and from their experiences together nothing could ever really turn them away from that. They may have been planets orbiting a star, but in the end, the star could never understand the planets like the planets understood each other. And to Mars, that made all the difference.