A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Man, I am really getting bad at updating these days, aren't I? I have been so busy, having a hard time getting through writer's block, and I've had other things on my mind, as I've spent an entire month of working this summer so I've been very tired when I got home again. And then school started just a few days later, and I have a hunch that I will not have a lot of time to update, as this will be my final year of high school and I will probably have a lot of school work to do.

So, I'm just gonna say this. I will update when I find time to write and when I don't have writer's block. I have no intention of abandoning this story when I have gotten this far with it, so rest assured on that part. And I hope get time to write, but I will make no promises on how often that might be.

But anyway, I have new chapter for you! I hope you'll enjoy it and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 35, Filione Welcomes You?

Okay, so it wasn't exactly a secret that I wasn't particularly good with people. Ever since before my father held me down, slashed me with his sword and practically disowned me when I was a kid, I've had a hard time talking to people. Granted it wasn't as bad is it was nowadays, but still. My social skills weren't the best, but I was still competent enough to talk to the ones I had to when I needed to get something I wanted, like food or weapons or things like that. But that was it. But, somehow, I still managed to get into trouble with people; whenever I tried to get food or stuff from others, I usually ended up having to steal everything I had anyway. That or try to manipulate them. But this time, it had to be some kind of record as far as getting into trouble with other aliens went. We had been attacked and threatened after only being on the planet for a few minutes. If that's not a record, I don't know what is.

The Salamandarians led us through the woods, and I have to admit, it was a very beautiful sight. A lot of the trees were huge, at the very least four hundred feet tall and one hundred feet wide, and the crowns almost covered the entire sky, making only a little of the sun shine through between the leaves; the faint sound of running water was consistent as we treaded through the woods. A lot of big bushes or colourful flowers were so big that we had to either crawl under them or push them out of our way. I had, at one point, tried to draw my sword and cut off the huge leaves and branches, but Mona had stopped me before I could do anything.

"You can't kill the plants! At least, not that way. It's not how we do it." Donnie and Starlee had looked at me as if I was crazy, and said I had to show the people and their ways of living their due respect. I had rolled my eyes and put my sword away again, but I wasn't that keen on showing these guys any respect. They had tried to kill us, even though we hadn't done anything. Why should we show them respect? I lived by the rule that you shouldn't show respect to anyone unless they give you good reason to. And so far in my life very few aliens, if any, had.

A lot of different creatures looked at us as we walked and either just stood and stared at us or ran back into the woods in fear. Some were bigger than Traximus, and some were so small they didn't reach up to my shins. All of them were unique and like nothing I had ever seen before. Dragons, worms with eight legs, both small and large eyes and huge teeth, and birds the size of a full-grown Triceraton. I looked over at Starlee, who, despite looking amazed at everything she saw, had a troubled look in her eyes. Something was bothering her, and I had a feeling I knew what.

Starlee had always been told lies about what the Federation was, and believed they were good and fought to help others. So being called scum by these guys probably left her confused and a little hurt. But she had asked for it. I had tried to warn her for years about our dad and his plans and ideas, and she had refused to listen to me. Served her right to have the truth come up and bite her in the butt. So I chose to ignore her and walked up to Donnie, who was studying the towering trees with amazed eyes, and leaned in closer to him so he could hear me whisper.

"What do you think they're going to do with us? Think they wanna fight?" He looked over at me, then at Mona, who was walking close behind her friends, and then at Samu, who seemed to be some kind of leader, before he looked back at me again.

"I don't know for certain… but I don't think so. These guys seem to have had problems with Triceratons and Federation before, so it only makes sense for them to be on their guard when some of them come to their planet. I just hope this Chief is more open-minded than these guys are." I bit my lip and nodded, but I couldn't help but keep my guard up anyway. These guys alone seemed capable enough to take us down, so what was an entire village able to do?

In front of us, Mona Lisa was looking over her friends and seemed really nervous and confused. Their little surprise attack on us had apparently surprised her just as much as it surprised us, and I could practically see the thoughts running through her head, see her trying to think up the right question to ask them. After a while, she caught up with Samu and tried to look him in the eyes, despite the fact that he just looked straight ahead and didn't spare her a second glance.

"Samu, I don't understand. What happened back there? Why did you attack us? And why are you using weapons? Salamandarians are peaceful - we've always been! You shouldn't even know how to fight, let alone how to use a weapon!" Samu just looked down at her for a second before looking back up again.

"Times change, Mona. And we change with them. You've been gone for a long time. Don't expect everything to be like it used to." He didn't say much more than that, but that Salamandarian female- Mew, I think- tried to look nicer and smiled at her.

"Chief Patowan will explain everything to you. Now, please, Mona, just be patient." Mona sighed dejectedly, and for a fraction of a second I almost felt a little bit sorry for her. Almost. But considering how rude and overly defensive she had been, right from the start, she didn't entirely deserve it. At least not yet. But the small exchange of words left a rather awkward silence behind it, and for a while no one said anything. Thankfully, that 'a while' didn't last very long.

I heard Starlee let out a soft 'wow...' and turned to look at her. She was staring up at the trees while turning in a small circle to take in as much as she could. While the troubled look in her eyes was still there, I could see a lot of wonder and amazement in them too. Her mouth was slightly open and a soft smile formed on her face.

"This forest is amazing. I mean, look at these trees! They're huge!" Donnie chuckled and looked upwards as well.

"Heh, yeah. Redwood forest, get out of town!" I shot him side-eyed glance before shrugging and shaking my head at him. Must be some kind of forest back on his planet or something, but that was the only thing I got out of it.

"Yeah, it is pretty amazing." I turned to look at Traximus and the Professor, who had been staying behind the rest of us. "How are you guys holding up?" Traximus had a grip on the Professor's arm so he wouldn't get off the path. The Professor was also looking around the woods, amazed by the nature.

"We're fine, Jhanna. But all this vegetation is starting to get on my nerves." Yeah, that was understandable. Traximus was pretty tall and this led to a lot of heavy leaves and 'low branches' hitting him in the face. So, for him, not being able to cut through these plants to make way for himself was probably really annoying. The Professor placed his hand on Traximus' arm.

"You know we cannot disrespect these creatures' ways of living. We are already in enough deep water as it is." Traximus just grunted slightly, and I couldn't help but smirk at him. It wasn't that often I saw Traximus being frustrated or angry, so it was always amusing when he was. But we quickly got other things to think of as we were led through yet another thicket of waxy leaves and thorny branches.

But after we passed through this one, the forest opened up a lot more. Suddenly the tall trees didn't grow as thickly, and there were fewer bushes. The sound of running water was now louder, and that made sense as there was a huge waterfall running down from a tall mountain pretty close to us. And water also ran through a wide, calm river, with a lot of different fish-like creatures swimming around in the clear water. Other giant mountains were seen in the distance, and some of the bigger ones seemed to have snow at the top of them. Colorful flowers were covering the ground and the bushes and trees and because there were fewer trees here, the sun finally shone through and warmed us up after such a long time in the shadows. It was a breathtaking sight, and it felt like my feet were stuck to the ground- I could only stare at the beauty before me.

"This is so beautiful... I might cry." I tried to say it so only I would hear the last part, but Donnie clearly did, 'cause he stood very close to me. But he just smiled lightly, also taking in all of the beauty. He leaned in closer to me, whispering in my ear.

"Go ahead. I won't judge." Starlee had tears forming in her eyes, and Mona saw that. She walked over to her and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Starlee looked up, but her entire being seemed to be in a different world. A world where nothing like this had ever existed, and now that she was seeing it, it was a bit hard to take in all at once.

"I... I never knew there could be such beauty in the world. All my life has been so... colorless. This, this is all so..." She trailed off, trying to find the perfect word, but Donnie beat her to it.

"Alive. That's what it is. This is all so alive." Starlee nodded and swiped her arm over her eyes. The Professor walked to the other Salamandarians, who stood beside us and waited for us to start walking again, and they were clearly on edge as he approached them.

"I must say, dear Salamandarians. You have made quite a marvelous planet for yourself. This is all so wonderful and beautiful." Samu, Mew and the others looked at each other in confusion. They clearly hadn't expected a direct compliment from him, and I could see they didn't know how to handle it. It was a look I recognized from myself when Donnie helped me with Gruel back at the prison. But Mew recovered quickly and smiled at the robot.

"Well, thank you, Professor Honeycutt. But now we have to get going. We don't want to be out here when it gets dark. Trust me on that." And so we started to walk down the river and deeper into this clearing.

And now that we were getting closer to their village, I started to see more Salamandarians as we walked. Some were seemingly picking flowers, leaves or some kind of fruits or vegetables from the trees and bushes and putting them in hand-woven baskets by their feet. Some were kneeling by the riverbanks and either cleaning or sharpened their weapons in the water or picked alages and seaweed or stood in the river, catching small fishes on long spears and putting them in the same kind of baskets by their sides. When I looked up I saw other lizard-people up in the trees, hundreds of feet above the ground and working on what looked like both big and small tree huts, either by covering up holes in the roof and halls with mud, adding straw to cover the branches and wood that made up the roof for protection from the weather, or other tasks that I couldn't make out. But every one of them, once they saw us, stopped doing what they were doing and stared at us. Or, to be more accurate, stared at me, Starlee and Traximus. Especially Traximus. But didn't seem to care about or be all that surprised by their looks. And when we had walked by them, they stopped staring and followed us.

After about a ten-minute walk, we entered a glen where there were a lot more Salamandarians walking around, so I assumed that this was their village. Kids were running around and playing with each other while adults and older teens, that looked to be around Samu and the other Salamandarians' ages, were either doing some kind of work or taking care of the smaller children. There were plenty of huts, both up in the trees and down on the ground. From the trees, big and sturdy rope ladders hung from the thickest branches, and some kind of planks were glued or stuck on the trunks so that you could climb up and down two ways. There were also a few tents here and there, but not that many. There was a small pillar of smoke from a fire that filled the air too. And when I looked I saw some female lizards cooking something over a small fire.

But that was all I managed to see before a loud yell was heard throughout the small village, and everyone turned to us. "Look, Samu and the others have captured a Triceraton!" And with that, almost every Salamandarian came running up to us, most of them with weapons in their hands. And there was a lot of shouting.

"Triceraton! There's a Triceraton in our village!"

"Why is he here?"

"What more do they want?"

"Why did you bring them here?"

"Are they friendly?"

"What do you want?"

"Triceraton filth!"

"Look at that girl's uniform!"

"Federation scum!"

It was a lot to take in all at once, and Donnie, Traximus and I grabbed our weapons, just to be safe in case they decided to attack. I felt Starlee grab onto my arm and hide behind me. But Mona Lisa was quick to get up in front of us, arms stretched out to cover for us and the same frantic look she had before when her friends attacked now on her face again.

"Stop! Please, listen to me! These aliens are not our enemies." All the other Salamandarians froze when they saw her, and most of them didn't seem to know who she was. One of the older ones stepped forward with a bow in his hand, a quiver of arrows on his back. "Child, I do not recognize you. Who are you? Do you come from the mountain village?" 'Oh, boy', I thought to myself. Mona Lisa could raise her voice just fine, but she wasn't that good at actually following through on her threats or demands. But for once Mona didn't back down or show any trace of fear or insecurity and stood her ground.

"No, I lived in this village when I was a child." A collective murmur was heard through the crowd, and Mona Lisa lowered her arms to appear more casual. "My name is Mona Lisa. I was captured by Triceratons along with a lot of other children about ten years ago." A collective gasp went through the crowd, but I saw that there were still some that looked at her with distrust and didn't seem to listen to Mona Lisa. But either she didn't hear or see that, or chose to ignore it, 'cause she just kept going.

"I am the only one of those children that survived the Triceraton prison, and I wouldn't have been able to make it out alive if it wasn't for these brave and strong warriors. And all of us, except for the young Miss here," she gestured at Starlee for a second, "ended up in the same prison. But she flew the ship that got us out of there when we escaped. They managed to break us all out of that hellhole. So trust me when I say, these creatures are not our enemies." The other Salamandarians looked at each other as if they were asking themselves what the right thing to do was, and another, younger and cockier lizard stepped up and his eyes showed a lot of distrust and even a little hate.

"Then why did you bring that thing along with you?" He pointed his spear at Traximus, who thankfully showed no reaction to being called 'that thing', and just stood there, stoic and strong. "If you had been trapped in Triceraton prison, then you of all Salamandarians should know that they are nothing but monsters! Or have you forgotten how they attacked and tried to kill us? Or how they forced us to give up our children?" Mona's look of strength and whatever bravery she had mustered seemed to grow weaker, but she just licked her lips and kept trying to look in control.

"Uh, n-no, I haven't forgotten. But Traximus isn't like other Triceratons. He was in that prison, too. He committed treason against Zanramon! He's a good guy, I promise. He looked after me when I was just a child." Another lizard, this one a woman carrying her child protectively, stepped forward and her grip on the baby tightened.

"Even if you're right, how do we know we can trust those other aliens?" She looked over at the rest of us. "Those two are Federation soldiers, that robot is General Blanque's head scientist, and he-" She cut herself off when her eyes fell on Donnie, and all the others also seemed to have their eyes on him. From the looks of it, Donnie seemed ready to pop into the shell on his back and disappear. If that was even possible. The younger Salamandarian walked up to him and took a long, good look at him, poking him lightly with the tip of his spear.

"Hm, and what are you supposed to be? An experiment gone wrong?" Donnie's eyes narrowed, but his face showed a mix of offense, slight hurt at the insult and a bit of anger. Then his face lightened up and, with a raised eyebrow and a cocky smirk, he placed his finger on the tip of the spear and gently pushed it away from his chest.

"Hey, take it easy with the pointy things. You could poke someone's eye out with that thing." He said it very casually, but something in his voice told me he knew this guy couldn't take him down and wasn't as good a fighter as he may appear to be. He then sobered up and his teasing smirk vanished almost as quickly as it came. "And I can tell you right now, my friends and I mean you no harm. We just-" he was suddenly cut off as a new voice was heard from one of the huts.

"What is all this commotion?" Every head turned to the newcomer, a small old Salamandarian with a white beard, a few minor wrinkles in his face, leaning slightly on a walking stick. But his eyes were sharp and spirited, and something about them told me that this man was younger in spirit than in age. Every Salamandarian turned to look at him and bowed their heads in respect. Samu, who had just been standing there, quiet, the entire time, stepped forward and bowed before the old lizard.

"Chief Patowan, my friends and I saw a ship land on our planet a few minutes ago, and-" he was then shoved aside as Mona ran up to the elderly lizard and threw her arms around his neck, almost tackling him to the ground.

"Grandfather!" The Chief just stared off into space for a few seconds, but then took a good look at girl in front of him before returning her hug. And I could swear I saw a few tears fall down his cheeks.

"Mona Lisa? Is it really you? Oh, thank Aeons you are alright! I have been so worried." Mona laughed lightly, and we could hear in her voice that she was crying too. Starlee smiled at the scene and a smile seemed to tug at Donnie's lips, too, but I pressed my lips together to try and avoid a smile. Sure, it was touching, but this girl had been getting on my nerves for quite some time now, and it was a little late to try and turn that around by now.

When the two pulled away from each other, the Chief finally noticed us and approached us. The Salamandarians stepped aside and formed a path for him to walk on. He stopped in front of us and eyed each and every one of us with serious yet unreadable eyes.

"Which one of you is considered in charge?" When no one said anything, I placed my hands on Donnie's shell and shoved him forward, making him stumble but take a few steps forward. He glared at me over his shoulder for a second before looking back at the Chief. Or maybe I should say look back down at the Chief, since he had to be at least two heads shorter than him and barely reached his shoulders, which made it look a little silly. But Patowan just chuckled and placed his hand on Donnie's shoulder.

"Would you kneel down? You are going to make me sprain my neck, my boy." Donnie, who had seemed kinda paralyzed up until that point, seemed to snap out his trance and his eyes wandered a bit before he looked back at the man in front of him.

"Uh, well, uh, y-yeah, sure." He went down on his knees, and Patowan placed his hands behind his back and smiled lightly at him.

"You have brought my granddaughter home again. You have my thanks." Donnie smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck with a blush forming on his cheeks.

"Eh, it was nothing, really. I just wanted to help a fellow reptile out." Patowan smiled at him and then looked up at the rest of us, and even when his eyes fell on Traximus, his smile remained. It just got a little more forced. Then he looked back down at Donnie.

"And who are you all, children? You seem a little young to have been imprisoned and be traveling around space." Hmph, like he's one to talk. A whole lot of this planet's children had been taken to prison a long time ago. But Donnie didn't say anything like that- he just stood up and smiled at the Chief, but he did bend his knees a little to keep eye contact with Patowan.

"Well, my name is Donatello Hamato. I come from a planet called Earth, far away from here. And I am a turtle," he glared at the guy who had pointed a spear at him, "not an experiment." Then he turned around and gestured to me and Starlee.

"And this is Jhanna and Starlee-" he stopped and looked at us both, a little unsure. But Starlee took a step from behind my back and smiled at Patowan.

"Hambrath, sir. Jhanna and Starlee Hambrath." He raised his eyebrows at us and looked a bit surprised. He walked up to me and Starlee and took a good long look at us both.

"Ah, so you are General Blanque's daughters." He said it with a smile, but I could see he was a bit cautious and looked ready to beat us both up with his staff should he have to. Starlee nodded, her smile gone from her face, but I just rolled my eyes, scoffed at him and folded my arms over my chest.

"Huh! He stopped being my father eight years ago." Patowan raised his eyebrows at me and eyed me curiously.

"Oh?" But he didn't ask me about it, and turned to Honeycutt and Traximus. "And who are you two?" Professor Honeycutt stepped forward and put his hand on his chest with his usual robot smile.

"My name is Professor Zayton Honeycutt. I used to be working for General Blanque, before he started to hunting me for my inventions. Donatello and Jhanna tried to help me escape D'hoonib, when we were captured by the Triceratons. We found Traximus," he gestured to Traximus, "and Mona Lisa there and they escaped with us. And Mona Lisa asked us to drop her off here before we went off on our own mission." Patowan's eyes lit up with interest and turned to look at Donnie again.

"And what is your mission, if I may ask?" Donnie took a deep breath and licked his lips. He looked down at his feet for a second and looked up again.

"To find and destroy the pieces of the Black Hole Generator." Loud gasps of fear and exclamations of horror were heard throughout the whole village. Mothers covered their children's ears, the lizards with weapons dropped them in shock and everyone was staring at us. Even Patowan looked horrified at what Donnie had said. Donnie had jerked back at the loud reaction, and Traximus placed his hand on his shoulder and pulled him back a few steps. One of the older Salamandarians stepped forward and her eyes were filled with horror.

"That's impossible! The Heart of Darkness is indestructible! That's why the pieces were hidden in the most dangerous and well-guarded places in the galaxy! So no one would ever find them and use them again!" I let my angry frown fade into a concerned and slightly interested one. Most dangerous places in the galaxy? Wow, suddenly things became more interesting. Starlee took a step forward and pulled out her infamous puppy eyes.

"No, we know. But we have to try! Or else an entire planet with innocent people will be destroyed!" Chief Patowan stroked his beard, and for second I could swear I saw Donnie's eyes water before he wiped his arm over them. After a few seconds Patowan looked up and placed his hand on Donnie's arm.

"Hm, this is certainly interesting news. I would like to hear more about this. Would you like to stay for dinner?" Donnie's eyes widened and he looked over at us. Starlee, the Professor and Traximus nodded, but I didn't. I just shrugged and tightened my folded arms. I couldn't see why we should stay here. These guys didn't seem all that friendly or happy to see us, so why shouldn't we just leave and do what we had to do? But Donnie just turned back to the Chief.

"Dinner sounds great. Thank you, Chief Patowan." He bowed in respect before the old lizard, who bowed in return before turning to Mona Lisa and linking his elbow with hers.

"Now, Mona Lisa, I wish to hear everything you have been through. Mew, Samu! Please show our guests where they can stay for the night." Samu sighed dramatically and started to walk into the village, and Mew gestured at us to follow her. Everyone in the village followed us with their eyes, and I jogged up to Donnie and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Uh, why are we staying here? I thought we were just gonna drop off Miss Bad Attitude here and then get outta here. Why stay with these guys?" Donnie looked over at me and fingered absentmindedly on the strap over his chest.

"It seems Chief Patowan knows something about the Black Hole Generator that we don't. If he has info or can help us in any way, it could really make things easier for us. Besides, it's just one night." I rolled my eyes at him but couldn't think of anything to say against his plan. But I still couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen if we stayed here for the night. Really, really bad.

A/N: And finally, it's done! Seriously, I am getting really bad at updating, even when I know what I wanna write. I'm gonna blame it on summer work and school starting too soon after my last days of work. I've had so much to do, and now school's started and I've already gotten a bit of homework, so...

Uh, anyway, first time in a while we see something from someone else's point of view. I hope to write some more of that in the future! And I also have some good ideas to give you for Zerij, the history of the Salamandarians and The Black Hole Generator in the next chapter.

But for now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!