Chapter 10

Author's note: Hello! Here is chapter 10, as you can see. Thanks for the reviews, they're awesome to read. Please read and review!

Chapter 10

Back to Earth

Strange creatures roamed the world and were intertwined with Tetragene's everyday lifestyle. Opera and Ernest were transported down and Claude, Rena, Leon and Ariette waved them good-bye. They set off for home, where new adventures would only just be the beginning. When they reached the blue and white planet, Leon and Rena stared in wonder at the new place. They were transported down into the bustling Space Station, were happy smartly dressed people took them through to customs. Ariette was scanned and unfortunately the buzzer went off.

"I'm sorry, miss Ariette. It seems you may need a medical check up. Something is slightly off with you," the security man sighed, looking sorry for her. Ariette nodded in understandment. Claude got through fine and Leon and Rena were to go to the immigrants centre. A kind looking woman sat before the two Expelians. Claude sat in with them. Ariette went straight for the medical bay.

The woman scanned each of them.

"Firstly, young sir. You are of Fellpool descent, correct? But it does not seem to recognise you being a Fellpool," the woman said.

"I'm an Expelian, not a Fellpool," Leon said.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Leon is of Fellpool descent but he doesn't know about his real lineage of being from the planet Roak and he lived on Expel for what I'm presuming most of his life. Expel is an unchartered planet in the region 10 light years south of Tetragene. Expel is underdeveloped and has a variety of different attributes, including the ancient art of Heraldry. I will give you a report at a later time, if need be," Claude explained. The woman nodded and continued to note things down on her clipboard.

"Okay. What is your full name, birth date…" the woman asked many questions. After Leon was dealt with, Rena was asked the same things.

"Ah, the ancient race of Nede. I believe Earth has a number of files on that particular planet. We were lucky to meet the Nedians about a century or two ago. A very interesting race," the woman said. Claude was surprised, as this had never been mentioned before, either by his father or other comrades, or from his short time on Nede.

Some time later they went to the medical bay and Ariette had got a couple of jabs, as all the things she went through had affected her body in some way. Claude smiled at her and hooked his arm around her neck.

"What'd I tell you? Naughty exploring will get bad rewards," Claude laughed. He jumped out of the way as Ariette went to playfully hit him. They laughed and this cheered Ariette up, as she felt the old Claude was coming back to her. She linked her arm in his and they walked along until they were eventually escorted into a free taxi. Unlike other developed planets, Earth had not yet reached the stage where they could have floating cars. But they had solved global warming. The appearance of Earth in general had not changed in the millennia, which had passed since the 21st century. Only that the once suffering countries were all caught up with the likes of America and England. World hunger and diseases had been conquered and of course, the space industry had reached its bonus when new designs of ships had rolled in from a certain someone's ancestors. Earth was prospering in a way were they could now focus on the lesser and more selfish upgrades, now that no one was in poverty or dying of unnatural causes.

Claude and Ariette, along with two misty-eyed 'newbies', were dropped off at the door of their parents' apartment building. They owned the top floor of the fancy apartment building and so they had to ride the elevator all the way to the top. Rena seemed to make herself smaller, not liking the strange thing that she was in. Claude put his arm around her.

"Don't worry Rena, you're perfectly safe. These things just take us up and down the building to wherever we want to go," Claude explained. Leon, on the other hand, was fascinated by the elevator. He asked questions as to how it worked and all other sorts of things. They got to the top and entered a fancy hallway, which was small, but led on to much bigger rooms. There were eight doors, all to which had fancy décor. A woman with blonde hair tied up in a bun entered from one of the rooms on the left.

"Claude! There you are! I have been so worried," the woman said. She embraced Claude tightly.

"Mom, enough. Ariette is back! We found each other during our adventure," Claude said. His mother stepped back and Ariette walked and stood next to Claude. She messed with her hair nervously.

"Things happened and my hair changed colour. I hope you like it. I quite like it now," Ariette said. Her mother blinked, and bringing up tears, she embraced Ariette with more vigour than she had with Claude.

"I was even more worried about you, Ariette. You've been gone for so many months. I'm so glad you're back safely. And you're hair is really pretty," her mother said. Claude stepped forward.

"These are our friends, Leon D. S. Geeste and Rena Lanford. Rena and I are…you know, we're together," Claude said, going red. His mother looked really happy.

"I am glad to meet you. You may call me Iria. I am Claude and Ariette's mom," she said. Rena bowed and Leon nodded. They took a seat in the living room and Claude's mother brought in some drinks and snacks. They discussed what had happened to Claude after he disappeared.

"And Ariette, what happened to you?" Her mother asked. Ariette went red with shame.

"I, uh. I got kidnapped by some shady characters when I was walking home from staying late at school. They treated me roughly and tried to…um, well, do bad things to me," Ariette said. Her mother gasped and Claude put his arm around her, in which she buried her head in Claude's jacket.

"I was taken to this weird planet. And they did all sorts of tests on me. Like my hair. It changed colour, as it reacted to a chemical they inserted into me. It was horrible. I felt like…like I didn't want to live anymore. But I was rescued by this tall blond guy. He was really nice and tried to get me as far away from there as possible. He said he couldn't get me anywhere safer as he was not supposed to be there in the first place. I managed to last a few days, but then the jerks found me. I started running away, but I couldn't run fast enough. Luckily I was saved again. This time by Cyril. I thought he was being nice…but it looks like he was just using me," Ariette said.

Silence pursued, as neither one of them could think of anything to say.

"Ariette…don't fret it. All that matters is that you're safe now. We'll get you into a good college and you will not have to worry anymore," her mother said. Ariette thanked her and told her that she would think about it.

Author's note: If you're wondering about the name of Claude's mother, it is taken from the first game as a sort of guess at who it might have been. This was suggest by someone else, not me. I haven't played the first game.