There is another world, or an 'island' in the sky, called "Celestia". It has been told about in many stories, most commonly known as "Laputa". No one has yet found this island that holds great expanses of power, wealth, and fame. Yet two who are responsible enough are going to be thrown into it.
Alicia was out on a walk with her brother, Alfred, when it happened. It was a cool summer night, the fireflies buzzing and music gently pouring out of garages. Alfred decided that they should go on a walk before they had go to their seperate meetings, at it turned out not to be such a bad idea. They had approached their favorite destination, a long ornate bench that was almost cowering next to the large evergreen planted near it. A breeze whistled through the evergreen's ancient branches as they sat down. For once Alfie [He always hated when she used that nickname] had finally become content enough to actually shut up. Something glinted in the faint street light and they both bent down to pick it up, slowly their hands touched cold metal as the world went black...
When they awoke they were lying on great expanses of green, green grass that is. Both shot up, bemused, to hear the faint music of a music box-pocket watch lying on the ground. "Alfred", Alicia began, "Do you know where we are?" Alfred shook his head and turned to look at their surroundings. It was in fact, a rather surprising sight to see floating bits of land pass over expanses of endless blue sea. They stared, mouths agape, at the sights of little animals hopping onto the land-chunks and using them to travel across. There was no general houses, or for that matter humans at all, only the little furry animals they saw and robots-ROBOTS?
They looked like platinum soldiers, not like humans, but moved like them. They had a very familiar crest on them, a golden eagle's crest. The same one as one the pocket watch, as on the bracelets they had on their arms. The chain was a simple gold chain with a triangle pendant, the symbol etched in gold on the front side. Alicia returned Alfred's questioning gaze with one of her own, their azure eyes lightened by the light. That's when Alfred gasped and she turned around and saw-
Earth.
The Earth, the real true Earth, the blue expanses of sea and the white clouds. The green lands and the white glaciers. That was Earth and this was... This was-
Celestia, the name had been etched into their conciousness, Alicia looked up and muttered, "Celestia, Alfie did you...?" "Yah sis, I... I don't know."
They looked back at Earth. It was just... mindblowing. They were on Celestia, a small satelite of Earth, that humans used to live on. Not since the epidemic which forced them to move to Earth, that and the fact they might destroy, conquer nature with machines and leave the other planets in ruins. Through small artifacts and hieroglyphs they were able to decipher the history of Celestia, the remants of Celestia that were left here were different from anything on Earth. They told stories of the Celestian people in their original text. Wait- Original text?
"Alfred, these are in their original text?"
"They are? Oh, yea, they are."
That was Alfred being purposefully dense, a bad habit she often told him to get rid of. They looked back at the hieroglyphs, instantly being able to read what they said,
In case two are able to find this planet, or are gifted with the ability by the planet itself, only descendants will be able to use the power hidden in Celestia. I must hurry, our time here is up, the plague and politics are running us out of our house and our of our minds. We are to be taken to the docks and set out for a new planet, the one that is blue and green; they are going to take us there and by that time if we are still alive, we will not remember Celestia. Remember Celestia for us, dear strangers we-
Their was a line dragged there as if the writer was dragged off by force. They looked at each other, an uncomfortable silence growing. Alfred decided to speak up asking, "We can't really go back to Earth yet, so do you wanna check out the rest of Celestia?"
Alicia mentally headbanged, twice, for the fact that Alfred had come up with a brilliant idea before her. He took that as yes and propped her up, yanked her arm, and jumped on one of the floating things. "They are called "alis" if you have to know."
Oh God, when did Alfred get this smart-and WHAT THE HELL? Did he just read my mind? The alis shifted under them, making them reconsider there placement over the ocean. It was a long way down...
The alis seemed to know where to go, it headed right- towards the Earth, over some other floating alises and deposited them in front of a rather largely obnoxious stately palace. The engraved title read- Cheshire Palace
Heh, Arthur thought he was the first to come up with the Cheshire.
They hopped off the alis and studied the structure of the building in front of them. It did look like the title "Cheshire Cat' could be applied to it, kind of menacing in a ornate kind of way. Slowly the carved doors started to open, revealing what looked like an actual palace. You know, like the one Arthur has at his house? Alfred grabbed her hand pulled her inside, her shoes leaving scuff marks on the marble floors, as he dragged her deeper into the palace. "Hey Alfred! Alfred stop dragging me!" Alfred slowed down a little bit but continued to drag her explaining, "There's something important here." He rushed down a hallway, opened a door to another hallway, went down that one and hidden in the corner there was a door with the crest that matched their bracelets on it.
Alfred swung the door open and stopped dragging her. Alicia subconsiously rubbed at her arm and followed Alfred deeper into the room. They reached a door with a scanner next to the door, Alfred sat puzzled next to it while Alicia tried putting up her bracelet [they had the same crest on them] on the scanner. There was a metallic click at the door slid open, revealing some amazing things, back in its time and now, it was really excellent.
It looked like the most modern buildings in Alfred's country, plasma TV's, meeting tables, and laptops. There was one object of questionable origin in the back, it looked like a cardboard box with a dial on it, but who cares? Alfred was already messing with the system, getting a visual on Earth to appear on the large monitor and view of the meeting room. Everyone was surprisingly calm, not even Arthur and Francis were arguing. It didn't look like the other nations could see them, but Alfred and Alicia could see them, like a one way mirror. Their connection was cut by a message interruping and saying
Go into the time machine before the Electronica Celestia destructs, descendants!
Godspeed, Signed, The Programmer
Alicia knew what the cardboard box was for at once and dragged Alfred into it before Electronica Celestia started to destruct. "That was a close call sister." "I know, but where is this machine going to drop us off?" Alicia's panicked eyes met Alfred's. They both audibly gulped and clung onto each other, saying that it is going to be okay, as their world went black.
When they woke up they were in the palace still, in one of the rooms while a man observed them. They woke up at the same time, shaking their head and asking "Where are we?" The person, a governor, shook his head and said, "The Cheshire Palace, room sixteen." "We're still in the palace? Isn't it still going to destruct?" Alicia this time physically headbanged, "Alfred, we are in the past! Earth hasn't even been occupied!" Alfred finally seemed to understand what Alicia was saying and asked, "Have you named the blue and green planet yet?" The governor shook his head and asked, "What will the name be?"
"It's gonna be Earth." Alfie always told the most important details and left the almost as crucial details out of the picture entirely. The governor nodded and said, "The ball is in two hours and your clothes are lying in the room behind you." Then he left them to figure out what to do. "My first ball on another planet. This is definetely a first."
"Shut up Alfie."
Alfred quickly changed into his black suit laced with red silk and helped Alicia get into this horrible contraption of rose colored silk. It fit her perfectly, the volumous silk flowing down in layer after layer, they looked like they had arrived from the late eighteen hundreds. Alfred sat down, Alicia tried to follow suit but the dress prohibted her from doing so. Alfred muttered something about modern day girls and promptly showed her how to sit down wearing that thing. She was a fine shade of red, comparable to Antonio's tomatoes, by the time they were summoned. Alfred got up and offered his arm and they walked down the ornate hallway to the ballroom where soft piano music was drifting out from.
The door was opened by a butler to reveal many a persons dancing, waltzing, and a pianist playing a soft waltz. Alfred took the lead, finding space apt enough to dance in, and started to lead, making sure Alicia remembered the moves. They started slowly progressing to the faster and more imperialistic waltzes where most of the dancers had to retire, but no, Alfred and Alicia were still dancing until a butler came to give them a message. "Sir and madam you are requested to meet with the governor in his study." They nodded and the butler headed off, they slowly made their way up the stairs, the piano's music slowly growing fainter. Alicia's arm was rested on Alfred's, trying to look as proper as possible, even if they both respresented the same country on another planet. The door slowly opened as the pocket watch started to tick uncontrollably. The cold metal turned blazing hot as they stepped into the threshold of the study.
The space warped around them, turning into the meeting room of the U.N. Arthur [England] was switching placed with Wang Yao [China]. They stepped into the threshold of the meeting room, still wearing their formal outfits. Feliciano took one step back and another, mouth agape, he tried to speak but couldn't. He finally seemed to mutter out
"A-me-rica?"
Everybodys head turned towards the threshold at the mention of the once forgotten young nation's name. Alfred stuttered and flushed a little bit saying, "Well, um, hi?" Alicia turned to her brother, Alfie, and said, "Alfie do something." "Don't call me Alfie and umm. Whazzup?" That approach didn't work either, most of the nations were shocked quiet with either the fact that Alfred was back or the fact that he had a fraternal twin. Maybe even the fact that they were wearing clothes from the eighteen hundreds or the rich quality of the clothes themselves. A familiar melody resounded in the silence, except this time it had words-
Go home little queen and king
Return to your paradise
Decide to go home
Not where your from
But where you live, where you love
Where your paradise exists
Where your surrounded by smiles
Leave your once home behind
As Celestia becomes a faint melody
Drowned out by rain and laughter
Celestia bids you farewell
Farewell. Fare well dear ones.
Oh my dear goodbye days...
This was the message intended for the descendants of Celestia, to carry the legacy on for as long as they could and it brought tears to their azure eyes.