Right well, this is a little bit later then I meant it to be. I wanted to have it uploaded this weekend but a trip to the Hospital and the ER put those plans on hold for a bit. Anyway, here is the next bit in Earth Bound, we're almost to the end ladies and gents, so if you would wander over to my profile and vote on my poll, I could get to finalizing my plans for the last chapters.

RaC: Nightmare Series- Earth Bound Chapter 28: The Sneak, The Name

-Marcadia- -Recommissioned Army Base-

"So, did you think that you could get away with it?"

Sky paused, his goal of loading his ship is secrecy, apparently no longer secret. He glanced over his shoulder at his twin. Before he resumed with grabbing his bags and throwing them into his cockpit. "Get away with what Stella?" he asked as he grabbed the last bag and threw it into the ship, half expecting her to stop him.

Stella meanwhile hadn't moved from her spot by the door, instead choosing to lean up against the frame. "Leave on this useless mission with out telling anybody. That's what."

Sky snorted softly, not even remotely surprised his sister knew what he was planning. "Stella, you've read all the history books you know how it works. We've taken away the upper hand, now is the time where we offer the hand of peace, instead of war."

Stella shook her head slowly "Sky, You know as well as I do, that even if this Zen guy takes you up on your offer it will only be to try and get a one up on us. He won't actually surrender."

Sky went back to check his engines, "Stella, its been five months since we took back Marcadia, Dad almost has the clearance he needs to attack Earth. I can't let him do that without at least trying for a peace. Maybe now that the Terran people have seen what we can do, they'll be more inclined for peace." Sky finished his check on the engines and moved back to the cockpit. "I know Mom would have tried the same, I owe it to her to try." Behind him, Sky heard Stella scoff.

Sky sighed "What happened to you Stella?" he turned to face his sister and noticed that since he had left the hanger lights off, the lights from behind Stella cast her into deep shadow. He watched as she stepped away from the door, he watched her hand reach into the hanger.

Stella's voice was quiet when she spoke. "You want to know what happened Sky? Really? You haven't figured it out? I didn't have you pegged for stupid." Stella triggered the hanger lights and when Sky winced at the sudden brightness Stella crossed the hanger towards him. Sky turned his view back to his sister just as she got into his face, she pointed to her face, her voice suddenly loud "This! This is what happened to me! This Scar! This Deformation! This Mark!" Stella calmed down, and backed away from Sky a few steps, she looked down at the ground and her voice got quiet again. "That day, the day, I lost my mother, and they day I lost my love."

Sky put his hand out gently on his sister shoulder "I know Stella, I'm sorry I asked."

Stella looked up at him. "I'm sorry too."

Before Sky could ask, he felt the needle prick his arm. He jerked his arm away from Stella. "Ah, Stella, what the helsa." Sky shook his head as his mouth failed him. "Waths yoau..." Sky didn't even managed to finish his garbled question before darkness ate into his vision and he felt himself slip into his sisters arms. "Sorry Sky." She whispered as everything went dark.

When Sky woke up he was sitting in his cockpit, with no real memory of ever getting in. He winced with a hiss as he tried to move his right arm and an intense pain shot through the lower arm.

"Yea, its going to be sore for a while." Sky jerked his head to the left and winced again at another blast of pain from his arm. He focused on his sister, who was packing up a syringe inside a kit.

Sky couldn't help the...troubling...thoughts that flashed through his head at the sight "Stella...What did you do me?"

Stella glanced at Sky "I'm not letting you go to Earth with out an ace in your arm."

Sky blinked "Isn't it up..." he trailed off as he looked down at his right arm. "In?"

Stella closed the kit and stood up, staring at her twin. "Something I've been working on, its a little early to actual put inside you, but I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to stop you from leaving. Now if you're going, do it now. I'll cover for you with Dad until you're clear." Stella turned away and headed for the door, she paused halfway through the hanger. "Sky?"

Sky looked out at her again "Yes?"

Stella paused for a moment "I left the instructions in your ships console...Sky, I already lost my Fiance, and we already lost our Mother, please don't make me bury my brother too." With that she left the hanger and Sky nodded at the door as it closed. "I promise Stella.", Sky closed his canopy and set about starting up his ship, it was going to be a long three weeks to Earth. At least it would give him time to read these instructions that his sister had left.

Stella walked away from the hangers and headed for the main part of the base. As she crossed the empty space she looked around. Five months ago, this base was in a decommissioned status, barren, and useless. Now, the army had pulled out all the stops to get this base back in working order. With the rest of the bases razzed to the ground in the initial attack, there wasn't a whole of space to choose from for a new military base.

Stella found herself standing still as she looked around at the activity that had swarmed the base. Over there on a corner wall a group of engineers on loan from her frigate were working on installing new planetary cannons scavenged from crashed ships. To the right of that group, another group was setting up housing and storage, while a team from Gadetron worked on setting up a armory for soldiers to get resupplied from. Stella found herself thinking about what Sky had said her tail twitching back and forth as she thought. She found herself so lost in through that when somebody called out for her, she didn't notice them until they tapped her on her shoulder.

Stella spun around and felt her breath leave her. Stunned into silence she just stared at the Cezar who had grabbed her attention.

He was dressed in a Lt Captains uniform and his name tag informed her that his last name was Regar Rain. Stella knew it couldn't be true, but, the Cezar standing before her looked exactly like Tran. Regar gave her a moment before clearing his throat "Ma'am, are you okay?"

Stella shook her head "Yes, Lt Captain, I'm fine, I'm sorry, you just look like somebody I knew. What can I help you with?"

Regar nodded "I thought so, I actual just wanted to talk you, I think you knew my brother Transense."

Stella glanced away and bit her lip "Yes." She said as she focused on Regar again "Was there something you needed aside from confirming that?"

Regar shook his head "No Ma'am, I just wanted to let you know that Tran was very, smitten, with you. You were all he spoke of when ever we talked before, well, before he died."

Stella nodded, but said nothing, so Regar continued "Did he ever ask you to marry him? I know he was planning on it."

Stella reached underneath her clothes and grabbed the chain that was around her neck, she pulled it out from her shirt and let the ring that was hanging from it swing gently in the light. Regar said nothing for a moment just stared at the ring. "I take it that means you said yes."

Stella nodded "I did, only a few hours before the attack on Marc1." She tucked the necklace back under her shirt. "Do you have somebody to go back to?"

Regar shook his head "No, the only Family I had left was Tran."

Stella pointed at his chest "Then what about your name tag, Tran told me his last name was Daylow."

Regar laughed softly "Of course he did, Tran thought it was a clever play on his original name. Transense Day Rain. He told everybody, 'Rain doesn't make it a good day, it makes a day low. I don't want to be compared to that.' Eventually he asked to be called Daylow. We asked him why he wanted to be called Daylow since it could be applied the same way and he said it was because he would never let the day be low."

Stella placed her hand over her chest and felt the ring through the shirt. Her mind was silent for a moment. "Do you think he would mind if I took his last name...his original one."

Regar said nothing for a moment "I think its a great way to honor him."

Stella blinked away the tears that were building in her eyes "Stella Rain...You know, I kinda like it."

"You'll make the stars rain."

Stella glanced back up at Regar, "Did you know he said that to me."

Regar laughed softly "I wouldn't doubt it, sounds like something he would do."

"Thanks Regar." Stella straightened and gave him a salute.

Regar returned the gesture "Any time Ma'am." Regar turned and went back towards his group of soldiers, while Stella continued her trip to the command center of the base. As Stella entered the command central she found her father standing in front of a data readout. He turned to face her as she came to a stop next time him. "Glad your here Stella, do you know where you Brother is?"

Stella shook her head "No, we had a bit of a fight today, I think hes off brooding somewhere."

Ratchet raised an eyearch "Isn't that usually your job?"

Stella gave a sarcastic laugh "Very funny, why do you need Sky?"

Ratchet glanced back at the data hovering in front of him."I just got cleared from Command, the assets have been approved. We move out in three weeks for Earth."

Stella said nothing for a moment, the three weeks would give Sky time to get to earth. "So the rest of the Sr. Admirals agreed with you about the threat the Terran race represents?"

Ratchet nodded, his gaze never leaving the data in front of him "Yes, I've been giving half of our current fleet numbers to take to Earth and secure the Terran surrender."

Stella turned her gaze to the data as well "And if they don't?"

Ratchet looked at her "Surrender? I have permission to...take extreme measures."

Stella met her dads gaze "You mean wipe them out?"

Ratchet nodded "They didn't say as much of course but, yes, that's what they want."

Stella thought for a moment "That's harsh." she glanced back at the data "I know I've been ranting about killing them all. But when it comes down to it, I'm not sure if I could actually, you know. Do it."

Ratchet was silent for a moment as well "I feel the same. All this time I've been filled with so much hate." He walked towards the back of the room. "Hate of the Terrans for attacking like they did. Hatred for Zen for ordering your mothers death. All I wanted was to blaze a trail to Earth and light up their sky with the same fear and hatred I felt. But now I'm not sure. If it came down to it,I would, just to save the galaxy, but I don't know if I could do that to every living one."

Stella walked up beside him "What about Zen himself?"

Ratchets face hardened "Him. He dies. Period."

They both turned as a technician in the room cleared his throat. "Sir, I think I got something you might want to know about."

Ratchet nodded "Report."

The technician cleared his throat again "Sir, it appears that Commander Sky has just launched out of the hanger. He didn't tell us he was leaving, and when I requested information, he told me that Commander Stella would know."

Ratchet turned to face his daughter. "Well?"

Stella placed her hand over her chest again "Rain." she said quietly

Ratchets face grew puzzled "What?"

Stella looked into her fathers eyes "My name is Commander Rain, right here, right now, I am Stella Rain."

Ratchet glanced at the Technician, who wisely backed away and went back to his computer. "Okay. What brought this on?" he asked as he turned back to his daughter.

"Tran has a brother, I met him just now, and he told me Trans original last name was Rain. Tran may have been taken from me, but I loved him, I was going to marry him, and..." Stella trailed off "I miss him, as much as I miss mom. I want to honor him someway. Rain is the way I'll do that."

Ratchet said nothing for a moment "I can respect that."

Stella smiled softly at her dad "Thanks."

Ratchet nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder "Good, that's out of the way, now what is Sky up to?"

Stella glanced out at the data still hovering in the center of the room "Sky is doing the thing that neither of us have the strength to do."

Ratchet was silent for a moment before his eyes widened "Hes going to Earth? To try for Peace?" Ratchet spun to the Technician. "Call back Commander Sky, Right now."

The Technician pressed a few buttons. "Sorry sir, hes already jumped into a warp. All I can do is track him to the edge of this galaxy."

Ratchet clenched his fists "Damn him, he could get killed."

Stella put a hand on his shoulder "Don't worry Dad, I sent him with an ace in his arm. Just in case something happens."

Ratchet looked at her "'Ace in his arm'?"

-Earth- -Three Weeks Later-

Sky dropped out of his warp behind Earths moon, exactly where his parents had dropped out so long ago. Making sure all of his stealth systems were active, Sky moved around and called up a mapping program that Sasha had deployed back when they had first visited Earth. The program took a few moments too to align itself with the current rotation of the plant before it had Sky do a fly by to scan the surface.

As he flew in between the ships that floated over Earth, making sure to never let his black ship pass over one and become visible to somebody else. As he finished his lap and took position behind the moon again he watched as his computer compared the scans from last time with the scan he just took.

As the computer finished building its scan, Sky noticed an alert come up. The last scan of this planet had a file attached to it. Sky opened the file and felt his heart skip a beat. Of course it would have been her.

"This is Commander Sasha of the Starship Phoenix. While Ratchet is down getting the shuttle ready, I have decided to scan the planet for our records. As a foot note, I'm going to attach this video file with my predictions for the planet. I plan on leaving the file on the Phoenix so it can't be accessed unless a ship has been synced with our on-board records."

Sky blinked as he watched his mom on screen. She was dressed down in relaxed clothes, wearing a blue t-shirt and black pants and was sitting with her legs thrown over the the arm rest of the chair. She had her hair loosed and pulled back into a pony tail that was hanging off the chair as she leaned her head back on the other arm rest.

Sasha turned her head on screen to stare at the camera "Not that it really matters of course since Ratchet and I are really the only ones who can access this file. So it's not like anybody else is going to see this. Anyway, after looking through some records that I acquired from a data hack of their what is it called for them, oh yes, Internet. A history of their people. Seeing their various global issues, I'm actually will to put down a bet that there will be at least a thirty percent loss of land mass from rising sea levels."

Sky glanced at the scan on another screen and saw that his mom was almost right, the computer pegged it at a 24 percent land loss. It had also pointed out where there were new structures and highlighted where Sky had wanted to head, the white house. Sky was about to turn off the recording when another voice entered.

"So, Bolt for the thoughts of the most beautiful creature in the galaxy?"

Sky turned back to see a much younger looking Ratchet walking up behind Sasha who had jumped in her seat and was straightening herself out so she could look more professional. Ratchet laughed at her antics and moved up besides her, he glanced towards the camera then back at her.

Sasha shrugged "Hey, I thought it was a good way to pass the time."

Ratchet shook his head at her "We just got off with their president less then half an hour ago, and you already have dressed down. What are they going to think when they come up here and see you in your skives?" Ratchet was dressed in his Aegis armor as he scolded his at the time girl-friend.

Sasha frowned at him and slapped him on the chest ""Like I'm not going to change."

Ratchet glanced towards the camera "Hey is that still recording?"

Sasha nodded "Yes, why?"

Ratchet turned towards her and Sky couldn't see his face, but whatever he did had Sasha blushing. She shook her head rapidly "Go get ready hotshot."

Ratchet laughed and turned to the camera "She loves me."

Sasha punched him on the shoulder and pointed back towards the exit to the bridge "Go!"

Ratchet ran off the bridge laughing and Sasha shaking her head. The file closed out as Sasha pushed a button on the armrest and Sky blinked and swallowed. He hadn't seen his mom act like that in a long time. Sky sighed and pushing his dark thoughts to a corner of his mind he set about plotting out a course to land at the White House.

As he made his decent Sky got a real good look at the state of the planet, and its lack of security. If his dad ever got clearance for his fleet, they would wipe the fleet in space to the side like it was nothing. Unless the ground had some seriously huge guns that they were keeping hidden they were also going to get razed. Ratchet could cleanse the galaxy of the human race and not even leave his command ship.

As he was entering the atmosphere, his console beeped an alert at him. He read the message there it was short and simple. "Dad got cleared for the fleet, by the time you get this, you'll have three weeks to get Zen to surrender. -S Rain" The signature threw him for a moment, for he had never had his sister sign like that, but he trusted her anyway. As if it was going to be hard enough as is, now he had three weeks.

Sky brought his ship down in the capital when the planet was on its night side, which worked from his stealth mission. Sky settled his ship down on the out skirts of the city, he popped his canopy and jumped out of his ship, he sealed the ship and set it to sink inside a run off pool the bubbled nastily. Hoping his shielding systems would hold out as needed, Sky reached into his bag and scavenged one of the uniforms that he taken from a dead solider on Marcadia. He quickly pulled it on, grunting slightly in pain as he forced his tail down one of the legs and his ears into the helmet. He pulled a small cloth that was attached to the front of the uniform over what was exposed of his face, there by by making him look like a short Earth Warrior. He planned on using the outfit to get to the white house, after that he would ditch it and sneak in his way. But he guessed that nobody would bother him in this outfit. That's why, when he was halfway through the city and passing the umpteenth dark ally. He never saw the 2 by 4 that knocked him into oblivion.

When he was next aware of passing time, he was also aware of whispering voices. Wishing that he had his extra nano-tech vials with him, he winced when the large bump on the back of his head made itself known. His wince came with a slight hiss, and the whispering stopped. It was about that time that he also realized that his ears weren't squashed into the helmet anymore.

He opened his eyes and tired to look around, it was about that time that he realized his hands were tied behind the back of the chair that he also happened to be tied to. He wiggled slightly and had some satisfaction in knowing that he could get out of the flimsy chair if he worked hard enough.

"That's right, you're stuck."

Sky looked around the small cement room that he was in for the source of the voice. A girl walked into the light that shone down above him. The girl was wearing a black tee shirt that hung down over her baggy jeans. She had long Black hair that she had wrapped in a pony tail that was hanging back over her shoulder. She had her arms crossed across her chest, and across both of her hands she had a number of stylish bracelets hanging off of them.

"So, how about you tell me who, or rather, what the hell you are?"

Sky said nothing for a moment thinking about his answer and studying the girl. "You mean...you don't know?"

The girl scoffed "Like Zen tells us anything, he just tells us that the bad aliens are coming and expects us to be cool with that."

Sky raised an eyearch "I'm guessing you're not very fond of Zen?"

The girl didn't answer, just stared at him. "Right." said Sky clearing his throat "I guess I'm one of those bad aliens then."

A male voice spoke up "Told you Chessa."

Chessa's head snapped around and she snapped at the voice "Shut it!"

Sky grinned "So Chessa, I get the feeling you don't like Zen. My name is Sky, lets say I'm in the same boat. I would also shake your hand, like my mother taught me, but they do appear to be stuck behind this chair."

"He sounds nice."

Chessa lost her cool and turned fully around "Shut up Zack!"

As she turned around Sky closed his eyes and thought on the instructions that Stella had left for him. He still hadn't activated her little device yet, but he figured now was a good as time as any. He concentrated on the nerves in his arm and felt an odd vibrating effect in his forearm. He thought about what he wanted, just a small amount of energy to form a blade. Just like that, it happened, there was the quiet sound of clothe being ripped by a sharp knife and then the beam cut through the ropes binding his hands as well, which happened to be the same rope tied around his chest.

In the time it took Chessa to turn around to face Zack, and for her to turn back to face him when Zack gasped. Sky stood up, already banishing the energy blade, leaving him standing in front of the chair, the ropes falling off of him and the sleeve of his uniform torn. While Chessa stared at him, Sky gave her a quick salute "I would love to keep talking, but I got to get in to see Zen. Offer him a chance at peace."

He turned to leave and heard the a sharp clack fro behind him. Curious he turned to find Chessa holding a old pistol on him. "What was that?"

Sky raised his hands, he knew without his armor, one of those rounds in the right place would be deadly to him. "I came here to offer Zen peace."

Chessa narrowed her eyes at him "I know some of the stuff that Zen has done in your Galaxy, how come you want peace?"

Sky shrugged "Because, despite what I'm sure the stories are, we really don't want to conquer you. Hell we would have been fine just leaving you alone till you attacked us."

Chessa frowned "You guys attacked us first, you captured, " Chessa paused for a moment "our president Slade and turned him against us"

Sky shook his head "No we didn't" at Chessa's look Sky sighed "Look, I've seen the report, and I know the two people from that mission, the last time we saw Slade was biding him good bye after successful talks for peace."

Chessa lowered the gun and Sky lowered his hands "I think we need to do a little catching up."

A few hours later found Sky sitting with Chessa, and Zack, the 'leaders' of a resistance to Zen, and people hoping for a peaceful end to the war.

"So you're here for peace." Chessa asked as she sipped from a cup.

Sky nodded again "Yea, I'm one of the few in my galaxy who don't want to wipe you out for attacking us. So I came here to get Zen to surrender so that when the fleet gets here, they'll leave you be."

Chessa looked into her cup "What about Zen?"

Sky shrugged "Tried for War Crimes I imagine."

Chessa said nothing for a moment before she looked at Zack who nodded "Well Sky, I can help you with that."

Sky raised an eyearch "How?"

Chessa smiled, and at that moment, she reminded Sky a lot of his sister. "I know a way to get you into the White House."

Short again, I know, and I'm sure some our wondering if I'm dragging it out, but I'm seriously not. We've already got one person on Earth, and the rest are on their way. The end is here readers, and I promise, it shall be an epic end to an epic saga.

Almost there!

Peace,

-Emile