A Million Miles Apart

A/N: HOW COME I ALWAYS TRY TO WRITE HAPPY CHAPTERS WHILE LISTENING TO SAD MUSIC?! IT ONLY MAKES WRITING THESE THINGS THAT MUCH HARDER!

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system, I'm good now. Also, it's funny that this is my third birthday since I started to write this story. Yes, that's right, my birthday is coming up and I'm turning 20. Twenty years old… man, I am seriously starting to get old. And I really need to come up with a good schedule for writing, 'cause I have been writing this story for years and I this wont take too much longer.

So, we're getting there, to the part that I've been itching for so long now. I hope you're ready for a ride. But before we get there, let's have a little fun, shall we?

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please review favorite and follow!

Chapter 62, A Perfect Day For Fun

As we got back into the city again we saw many more different kinds of alien creatures out and about- everything was starting to open for the day, and people were running in and out of each building, left and right. That wasn't too surprising, since it was almost noon and everyone should've been awake by now.

I was already starting to feel better, all signs of sadness or tears or anything like that almost gone by now. I had finished Jhanna's bottle of fruit punch and now I felt much better, smiling right alongside the others with a happy buzz in my head. While I hadn't forgotten about the ache in my heart and what I had seen earlier, walking in the sunshine in this big, colorful city with good friends and with plans to have a good time was a good cure for gloominess.

Starlee was skating ahead of us with a giant smile on her face, her eyes positively shining with excitement. Whenever she got too far ahead of us she would quickly skate back over, orbit us a few times, and then take the lead once more. She was clearly more excited than we were, probably since this was her first time in a big city and was blown away by all the colors, sounds and creatures. She really reminded me of Mikey in that moment- bursting with energy as she explored an entirely new world. And, to be fair, this city was thousand times more colorful and had much more to see than New York City had. And while Mona and Jhanna didn't show as much eagerness or look around as much as Starlee or me, they still seemed to think it was quite the sight.

The first thing we agreed on was to get something to eat, so we walked back to the town square to find somewhere to sit down. Given how sunny and warm it was on this planet, it seemed like the perfect idea to find a nice outdoor seating and just enjoy life while eating.

The town square had quite a few cafes and one or two restaurants, but given that we didn't want to waste money we might need in the future, we settled on a small, cheap-looking café with cute little parasols over each table. It looked very simple and charming, which was a nice change from all the cold technology we had been surrounded by for months.

The menu was also very simple and didn't have too many complicated dishes, which was also a bit of a relief- I didn't know if my stomach could handle any strange alien dishes right now; the fact that my body had even accepted the foreign alcohol easily enough was somewhat surprising as it was.

We ordered one sandwich each, cold drinks- that Jhanna described as an equivalent to soda- and something that looked surprisingly similar to ice cream, because who wouldn't want to sit and eat ice cream in the sun like this?

Unfortunately it was a bit crowded in the outdoor-seating (and given the nice weather, I guess it really shouldn't have come as a surprise) so we took our food and sat down on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the town square, which turned out to be just as cooling as sitting in the shadow, and even more refreshing.

It was probably the most pleasant lunch we'd had together in some time and it was so unbelievably nice to relax and just talk like normal kids for once. There were no worries or stress or problems to deal with; it was just me and my friends sitting in the sun and having lunch and talking about whatever we felt like. And whenever it got too hot for anyone, all you had to do was lean back a little and let the water from the fountain wash over you. It was great.

Jhanna had let her sweaty hair out of its ponytail and was now leaning back a little, letting the cool water run through it and down her back and arms while sipping on her soda. Starlee had taken off her roller-skates and socks and was sitting with her bare feet in the water. She had finished her ice cream before any of us and was trying to finish her sandwich, though it seemed like she had ruined her appetite by eating dessert first. Mona was sitting with her face tilted towards the sun, eyes closed and pure enjoyment on her face. She had only eaten about half of her sandwich and Jhanna had to elbow her every once and remind her to eat before the food spoiled in the heat.

I can't say I was doing much better by comparison- I was too distracted by everything going on around us that I also forgot about the food. I was a lot of things; a good eater was not one of them.

"You know, guys, I just thought of something," Starlee suddenly said, so excited that she almost forgot to swallow the food in her mouth before she spoke, and a few pieces of lettuce fell into her lap, some of the sauce dripping onto her chin. No one said anything about it; Mona just handed her a napkin with a fond smile.

"What? What did you think of, sis?" Jhanna smiled- half fond exasperation and half teasing- but Starlee didn't even look at her. Her eyes were wide and sparkling, like she had been the one to come up with the best thing since sliced bread.

"I just realized something! I mean, the Triceratons have been ruling the galaxy for, like, a thousand years, right? And no one's tried to stand up to them or fight back before, right?"

Mona nodded and swallowed some ice cream with a soft smile. "Yeah, pretty much. Why?"

Starlee put the sandwich down beside her and looked from one person to the other; first at Mona, then me, and finally Jhanna. "Well, I just realized that we're going to be a part of history! Like, we are the first ones to not only try to destroy a machine that could destroy entire planets, but also try to stop the Triceratons and save a planet from their destruction. And, whatever the outcome, people are going to talk about us a thousand years from now and how we stood up against the Triceratons! Maybe we'll inspire others to try to take the power from them and free the galaxy!" She paused to let her words really sink in and looked at us with a big smile.

"Do you realize how big this is?" To be honest, that thought had never struck me before. I had only ever thought about saving my world and stopping the Triceratons, nothing else. But now that she said it… To think someone like me- that kids like us- could one day be a part of history and be remembered a thousand years from today… The thought almost made me dizzy and I took another spoonful of ice cream to cool my head- no pun intended.

Jhanna leaned back a little and stared off into space for a minute or so. Then she looked over at her sister. "Wow. That's… that's actually pretty cool. I mean... I know we're doing this to save a planet and not to be famous or anything. But if we succeed, we won't just save a planet, we might win the first battle of a full-scale galactic revolution. That's huge." Starlee nodded, seemingly ecstatic that Jhanna saw her point, and then turned to Mona and I.

Mona bit her lip and a soft smile started to spread over her face. "Yeah, we could change so many things by doing this. Not to mention it might change the way these people look at reptiles." I sighed and took a sip of my soda.

"I have no interest in fame or recognition for doing the right thing. I just want to save my home and make sure that the Triceratons leave Earth alone forever. But I have to admit that it would be cool for kids in the future to hear about how we helped change the galaxy. Not to mention manage to overthrow the Triceratons and kick Zanramon off his throne!" A determined smile spread over my face and I clenched my fist in a fist pump.

Jhanna smiled back at me, grabbed her bottle and raised it in a cheer. "I'll drink to that. Here's to defeating the Triceratons and saving Earth!" We grabbed our bottles too, and tapped them against each other in a combined cheer before drinking from them in unison.

After we had all finished our lunch and got up to leave, I took a moment to really look around the square. It was such a wonderful change to be out in the sun like this and not run around at night, stay on a spaceship or hide in a cold, damp sewer. And the whole city we were in was just beautiful. The architecture was breathtaking and shone like diamonds in the sunlight, and the colors were so bright and made me smile. The fact that the whole city was almost entirely green also made my heart flutter. Yeah, I know it was silly to feel this taken by the fact that a city is the same color as your skin, but for whatever reason it just made me smile. Everywhere you looked, you could see a bright shade of emerald green and it was amazing.

Looking around the plaza, I could see hundreds of different kinds of aliens walking by, going to pubs or just sitting in the sun, like we did. Every once in a while someone who passed us by sent a smile or a wave as they walked past us, and in some cases a few reptiles passed and stopped to high-five or fist-bump me and Mona with a cheerful greeting. It felt really weird at first, but it also- strangely enough- made me smile. Everyone here was here to have a good time, and that made all the stress and worry I had carried with me for so long just run out of me.

And that's what really set it apart from everything else for me- more than the warm suns, the beautiful city, the good food or my friends. I was standing in the open, while the suns were out, like a normal person without anyone paying that much attention to me. I know that might be a weird thing to focus on, but for me, that was a huge deal. For the first time in my whole life, I felt... normal.

"Donnie, come on, let's go explore!" Starlee waved at me as the others started walking and I had to stop admiring the scenery and hurry after them down the street.

We didn't have to go far down the street we chose before we started to hear music- live music, coming from further down the bright yellow street. As we got closer we saw it was a group of young reptile kids, probably a little older than me and Jhanna, and they were playing on a small stage right outside of a big building. They weren't using legit instruments- one of them was playing on upside-down pots and pans, another had constructed a sort of guitar or banjo out of a cookie tin, a wide plank and some fishline, and the third one was hitting a crudely-made tambourine. The fourth one was the only one having an actual instrument- a horn of some kind- but it looked kind of old and banged up.

Their music reminded me of a mix of country and something from another ethnicity- maybe Indian- and considering they had clearly made these instruments themselves, it was pretty impressive. They had placed an upside-down hat on the ground in front of them, clearly for money, but while there were a few generous souls walking past them who gave them a few coins or a bill or two here and there (almost all of them reptiles, ironically), most of the people walking past just turned their noses in the air or hurried past as if they hadn't seen them. One woman, who was walking down the street holding her daughter's hand, even harshly reeled her daughter back to her side when she wanted to go closer and listen to their music.

"Don't you go near them, Salyia! They're reptiles, they'll rob us blind." She lowered her voice as if to whisper, though she was still loud enough for us and the band to hear, clear as a bell. The tambourine player- a girl who looked pretty close to a red-headed agama; a light cyan color over her body and a bright red-orange head- eyed her as they walked past and then smiled kindly at the little girl when she waved at them.

Jhanna narrowed her eyes at the mother and clenched her fists in anger, but just as I was about to put my hand on her shoulder and try to calm her, she suddenly seemed to reign herself in and took a deep breath with closed eyes. Then she reached into her pocket, walked up to the band and placed a couple of bills in the cap. They froze in surprise, looked down at the bills and then up at Jhanna, who smiled at them, soft and genuine.

"You guys are really good."

The girl smiled back and lowered her tambourine, walking up to her. "Thanks. I-I mean, I know we don't have any real instruments or anything, but we're just kinda doing it for fun."

The drum player- an iguana-looking guy with bright green skin and dark eyes and small spikes running from his neck and all the way down to his tail- stood up from his tailor position and stretched out his back. "Well, that and it's not exactly easy to get jobs around here."

The smile on the girl's face dropped and she sighed heavily. "Yeah…" She looked up again with forced cheer. "So, are you new here? I don't think we've seen you around before." The rest of us came up to Jhanna.

"Oh, we're just staying for the day. We'll be leaving tomorrow for-" I paused, trying to think of what to say before a word popped up in my head, " -work." The trumpet player- a dragon-like girl with dark grey skin, brown eyes and long white hair that kept falling over her eyes- brushed a strand of hair out her face and smiled at us.

"You mean you found work that didn't care that you were reptiles? Wow, good for you! That's nothing but a dream for a lot of us." Mona and I looked at each other, then nodded with somewhat forced smiles.

"Uh, yeah. Our boss doesn't really care about species. He's great like that." I cast a smile at Mona for her input, but considering I was a reptile too, I'm not sure that would have said much. The banjo player put aside his instrument, and now that I took a good look at him I saw that he was a familiar face; it was Kaiden from last night- although this time he was clearly sober and more aware of his surroundings. When he took a better look at us, his eyes widened and a wide smile spread across his face.

"Hey, it's you guys!" He came up to me and raised his hand in a high-five, and it was only thanks to my ninja-reflexes that I managed to raise my hand fast enough to return it. "I was wondering how things went for you last night. Did you find a hotel or what?"

None of us really wanted to answer that question, and thankfully, we didn't have to. The drummer looked at him with a tilted head and a hand on his hip.

"You know these guys, Kay?"

Kaiden turned to his friends and waved them over. "Yeah, I met these guys while I was out getting some air last night. They were looking for a place to stay for the night and I helped out." The girl with white hair- and now that I was really looking, who also appeared to be very similar to Kaiden, only with slightly lighter skin and no splotches under her eyes- crossed her arms and leaned on her hip.

"You? Helping someone while being as drunk as a Triceraton? Yeah, sorry, bro, but I don't think you could show someone to the bathroom in that state." Her tone was teasing and Kaiden threw her look that was equal parts annoyed and amused. He turned back to us and gestured at his friends.

"Miss Killjoy over there is my sister Tansya. Drummer boy is Trevan and the color palette is Cedrela. I was hanging out with them last night when I met you." Cedrela rolled her eyes and bumped him aside with her hip.

"And he's so eloquent, isn't he?" She smiled at us, the arm that held the tambourine dropping to her side, the instrument bouncing lightly against her leg. "So, what are your plans? You gonna come to the party tonight?"

Mona tilted her head to the side. "Party?"

Tansya nodded, brushed her hair out her eyes again and gestured down the street. "Yeah, they're setting up for a dance party for tonight; they do it every weekend. We're gonna go, have a little fun, maybe get something to drink. It'll be great."

Starlee's eyes widened and she immediately looked between Jhanna and me, almost bouncing with glee. "Oh! Can we go, guys? Please, please, please, can we go?"

I really couldn't blame Starlee for being excited- she was more sheltered than I was and this was her first time having the chance of going to a real party (not that I had attended my fair share of parties, either). To be honest, I kinda liked the idea of having a fun night dancing with my friends.

Jhanna and I shared a glance. She shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't see why not. Donnie?" I played it cool as well, copying her shrug.

"Fine with me. Mona?" Mona didn't looked quite as enthusiastic as Starlee or even Jhanna, and considering she hadn't shown to like loud music and crowds, I could understand and kinda relate, but she still nodded tried to smile.

"Yeah, sure."

Trevan grinned at us, resting an arm around Kaiden's shoulder and leaning most of his weight on him.

"Cool, then we might meet up there! We could have a few drinks or something." I nodded and we started to walk down the street again.

"Yeah, maybe. Well, we should get going. Hope we'll see you later!"

Kaiden picked up his banjo again and waved at us. "See ya!"

We kept walking and eventually made it to what I can only describe as a carnival. It was set up with a massive Ferris wheel-contraption, some sort of roller coaster, a carousel and some other easily set up rides, including ones I had never seen before in my life and couldn't begin to guess the nature of. There were also lots of different booths set up with all kinds of strange games and prizes and some with different kinds of snacks and drinks to buy. It wasn't exactly Coney Island, but still much bigger than any of the fairs I had seen on TV.

Jhanna smiled and took a step forward. "Ooh, it's a fair. This looks like fun." Starlee's eyes were practically sparkling with excitement and darted from booth to booth, attraction to attraction. Even Mona smiled in anticipation.

"What should we do first?" Before Jhanna or Mona could answer my question, Starlee cried out in excitement and pointed towards a booth where you threw darts to try and pop balloons- except the balloons were these strange cloth pouches and I could've sworn one was leaking glowing goo.

"Oh! That one! I wanna play that one!" Jhanna rolled her eyes when she saw what it was and placed her hand on her hip.

"Dart throwing, really? Why not just go bob for shuca fruit while we're at it?" Mona placed a hand on Jhanna's shoulder, not angry but firm- I was definitely starting to see who the "Mom Friend" of our group was.

"Hey, come on now, Jhanna, be fair. Starlee chose first, so we should let her play if she wants to. You can pick the next one." I nodded and grabbed Starlee's arm to reel her in before we lost her in the crowd.

"Okay, let's go like this. We'll all get a turn to choose what we want to do- first Starlee, then Jhanna, then Mona and then me. Does that sound fair?" They nodded and we made our way to the booth.

The game was pretty simple. You got five darts and had to pop five bags(?) to win a prize. Neither Jhanna nor Mona had very appreciable aim, though Jhanna managed to pop three and Mona got two. Starlee, however, had shown to have really good aim and managed to pop all five, just like me- I couldn't be anything but be impressed, because while I had been trained all my life, perfecting my skills in the art of the throwing star and dart, Starlee hadn't and she was still amazing at hitting bullseye after bullseye.

Starlee picked a stuffed… animal?... for her prize- an 'animal' I didn't recognize as any of the alien creatures I had seen thus far, one with two heads but only one mouth between them; Starlee seemed to like it nonetheless. Me, I picked a brown leather hat that reminded me of a cowboy hat, just with a cut-up brim and a strange bluish-purple feather poking out of the band. I had no idea why, though, because I looked kinda ridiculous in it and I couldn't help but laugh at my own reflection after I put it on, but I figured it was better than bringing a stuffed toy when I got back home.

Jhanna also laughed when she saw me with the hat on and Starlee and even Mona had smirks on their faces, and as we went onto the next booth she asked me, "Why'd you pick that thing?" I shrugged and adjusted it a little.

"I don't know, it's just cool." I adjusted it and struck a small pose. "I can totally pull this off." Jhanna just rolled her eyes at me with an unusually fond smile before reaching up and pulling it down to cover my eyes, making me squawk indignantly as I tried to fix it.

That's mostly how our day went by, playing games at the booths or trying out the different rides they had set up. None of us had been too eager to try the rollercoasters at first, since none of us had liked the ride through the wormholes we had gone through, even if they were all pretty tame and could hardly compare to that lovely experience. Instead we had tried some of the other rides, like the Ferris wheel, the carousel (I got stuck riding the ugliest four-legged thing I had ever seen) and- against my better judgement- a swing ride. Which, might I add, was not too different from the ride through wormhole, so eventually I pointed out that none of the rollercoasters could be worse than that, with which the girls begrudgingly agreed, so we ended up trying a few of them too. And even Mona agreed that they were more fun than the wormhole rides.

As far as the games, we tried to not spend too much money on them, but it was still fun to just play and either cheer as someone won or laugh when they failed spectacularly. Jhanna managed to score a win with the hammer-strength test, proving once and for all that she was stronger than me (why was I even surprised?). Mona- despite not having the best aim- managed to knock down a tower of bottles and Starlee had a blast with the water gun game, no pun intended. I myself did pretty well with all of the games, but I felt the need to not try my hardest in everything so the girls could win every once in a while.

Though I did get another prize after I won a game of throwing as many balls as I could through a hoop. The prize turned out to be a stuffed animal (again, no idea what that thing was, but hey, the big eyes were cute), and it looked like someone had left a bracelet on its foot. My best guess was that some of these prizes were donated and someone had forgotten to remove it from the toy.

I gently pulled the bracelet off and looked at it. It wasn't much to look at; clearly a cheap piece of jewelry with plastic beads. Jhanna looked at it from over my shoulder with a small huff.

"Someone leave that thing on there?" I nodded and twirled the beads absently.

"Yeah... I highly doubt I'll have any use for this thing." I showed it to her. "You want it?" She was a little taken aback and took a step back from me when I handed it to her. Her cheeks flushed a little and she took it with what I can only guess was supposed to be an indifferent look, but I could see the corners of her lips lifting ever so slightly.

"Uh… yeah, sure." She took it and pulled it onto her wrist. Just then Mona started to talk so I turned to look at her, but as I did I could see Jhanna look discreetly down at her wrist with a soft smile and gently brush her fingers over the beads.

After a few hours of laughing and running around from booth to booth, we eventually sat down on a bench to catch our breaths with one drink each. The suns had started to set and the heat had gotten less intense.

As we were talking and laughing together, I leaned back and took in the day. Even though we hadn't done much- we had played a few games, gone on a few rides and had a few meals together- this had probably been the best day of my life. And, just like earlier, the best thing about today was that no one had paid that much attention to us, and the ones who had were really nice and had treated us all like normal people. That was the absolute best part of today.

"Donnie?" Jhanna tapped my arm and I forced myself out of my thoughts, looking at her curiously. "Come on! We're going to that party." She grabbed my arm and tried to drag me along, but I gently pulled it out of her grip, making her look at me in confusion, Mona and Starlee following suit.

I stood up from the bench and looked Jhanna in the eyes, hoping she could see what I saw. "I want to remember this day, Jhanna. For the rest of my life." I gestured at the fair and the city, at the people passing by, waving or smiling or just going about their day.

"Look around here. No one's looking, no one's staring, no one's screaming in terror or running away. It's like I…" I trailed off and felt a kind of joy spread throughout my body and I couldn't help but laugh as I finally found the words, a huge, bright smile spreading over my face that I couldn't fight. "Like I finally belong."

Jhanna looked with a kind of awe in her eyes and smiled at me, much gentler and softer than I had ever seen her. Mona also smiled, both of them looking like they were genuinely happy for me, which warmed me up inside. Starlee came up to me and placed her hand on my cheek- it had been a while since anyone had done that, and I found I had missed the soft touch of someone who cared.

"You look positively…" She paused as she searched for the right word, and then smiled widely as her eyes fell on the green buildings around us. "Emerald." We both laughed at that, and then she grabbed my hand and we hurried back towards the area where we had been told about the party.

As we headed back, I couldn't wipe that stupid smile off my face. Today had been great and so much fun, and to go dancing for a bit with my friends seemed like a great way to end the day. Starlee was still holding onto my hand and dragging me along, and either she was more considerate than earlier or she been drained of her Mikey-esque energy because she wasn't going as fast as she had been that morning. Jhanna still had her hair down, her cheeks flushed and a genuine happiness in every line of her face, and Mona had a skip in her step that she didn't usually have.

I couldn't see anything going wrong on a day like this.

A/N: Oh boy, it's coming… The Big One™. The part I've been dying to get to for months. And I know you guys are gonna kill me when you read it. It's not gonna be pretty.

Though this chapter is basically just supposed to be fun and I really hope it was, I'm sorry if the last part is a little rushed, but I really didn't want to focus too much on the details of things that didn't matter too much. I just hope it didn't hurt the chapter.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!