Theus awoke to the sound of the Stellar Pioneer scraping against a hard rock. The landing was rough, really rough. It caused Theus to tumble and roll from one side to the other, all the way into Isaiah's hands.
"Oh, you couldn't resist my good looks I presume, Theus? I know I'm-"
Accompanied with a scream, Theus shoved Isaiah's head into the wall he was laying against, with tremendous force to boot.
"The fuck?! You're gonna ruin my hair, rat! And why'd that hurt so much?!"
Scoffing and brushing himself off, Theus stood up from where he rolled to, smiling at the strength he was able to muster.
'Never knew Isaiah was a big pushover, what a wimp!"
Keeping that mischievous grin stuck on his face, he gathered his bearings and assessed the condition of both his group and the passengers.
It seemed that the majority of the passengers were standing by the door they had originally boarded from, anxiously waiting for the doors to open so they could begin disembarking. They were all fashioned in a rather organized line, wrapping around when it reached one side of the hull in order to form another line close nearby.
Watching the group slowly stir awake, Theus put his hands on his hips triumphantly, being ready to serve as their alarm clock, he shouted.
"Wake up everyone! You all have places to show me, y'know?!"
Everybody rolled over and ignored Theus, with Isaiah cuddling against the wall due to the pain done to his head. Everybody did so besides Freya, however, who was just as full of youthful energy as Theus was.
Ronan grumbled as he continued laying down on his side, resting his head on his hands.
"Damn kids. Got way too much drive in them."
Theus formed a frown as he looked at Freya, who shrugged in response to everyone's reluctance to get up. Still holding the frown on his face, Theus looked back at the group, where someone caught his attention again.
'Caylie's asleep, isn't she?'
Smiling devilishly, Theus snuck over to Caylie's sleeping body, which was laying as if she was a mummy. Then, while following his impulsive, curious nature, he pinched the bottom of the veil and slowly uncovered just a part of it.
A small part was large enough, however.
A massive pressure, similar to a blast of wind, blew against Theus' body, skyrocketing him all the way to the porthole of the Stellar Pioneer and breaking through it, creating a gaping hole that could be seen relatively easily from the outside. As Theus was flying through the thin atmosphere of Europa, he saw Caylie jolt up from her sleeping position, not before seeing a small glimpse of an ethereal light being covered once again by her veil. Theus realized something in this moment, however.
There wasn't enough oxygen in the high skies of Europa to sustain himself.
Along with this fact, Theus wasn't being dragged down by gravity, Jupiter's moon was too small to have a serious gravitational effect. Because of this, he was actually still shooting up, threatening to break past the atmosphere and enter the endless confines of space.
*****
"Freya! Use your wings you used before, please! Theus will die out there-"
Freya fell to the ground with a thud, her back muscles evidently twitching beneath the shoddy space-suit, as if she were a bird in pain. Blood was seeping through the back of her suit.
"I-I'm trying, Caylie. But it hurts…it hurts so bad…"
The rest of the group had awoken at the noise of a hole being torn in the ceiling. The other passengers in the ship ignored the commotion, caring more about their own freedom than whatever was happening to the integrity of the ship. They all stood on their makeshift line, waiting for the doors to open and release the prisoners within.
'I really didn't want to ruin everyone's positive attitude towards me, but I guess this is how it has to be. Why…'
Squatting down and flexing her calves, Caylie waited for a few seconds before launching up through the hole caused by Theus' own wonder. She flew faster than she shot Theus before, barely being seen by the rest of the batch, who could do nothing but stare in astonishment.
"Uh, is anybody gonna like, chase after her? Can't you do something you big hunk?"
Talia stared at Ronan questioningly, with Ronan responding with nothing but pure shock and awe on his face.
"If anybody's gonna help save that boy, I'm sure it's gonna be her."
Biting his lip in thought for a second, Ronan continued.
"She's not human."
*****
Theus glided gently amongst the starry sky of Europa. Being hidden by the smoggy atmosphere back on Deceased Earth, Theus admired the view of the galaxy he couldn't see before.
Space was lined with stars of all shapes and sizes, and the nebulas surrounding the solar system made it feel a lot less empty and encapsulating than it did back where he once lived. Originally, he couldn't even imagine what the outside world looked like. He only heard it through stories and rumors passed from his mother's coworkers, down to his mother, and finally down to him. The vast expanse of space filled Theus with more than enough courage to continue his exploration on board the Stellar Pioneer.
That is, if he would stop floating so far away from it.
'Shit. It's getting hard to breathe, but, this wouldn't be that bad of a way to go out.'
Snapping back to reality, Theus tore his gaze away from the gorgeous purple and black of space, and instead focused on the moon which was slowly shrinking from his viewpoint.
'I want to land, I want to land, I want to land-'
After thinking of only one thing and straining his mind to its fullest, two tentacles writhed inside of him, bringing Theus immense discomfort, yet willing himself through it.
Eventually, they pierced two small holes, one on each palm, which shot forward towards the moon and dug deep into its icy ground, finding purchase. Theus drew his arms back and pulled himself forward, soaring through the skies after using his tentacles as a slingshot, he slowly gained the ability to breathe, although very slightly.
After inhaling deeply, a figure of a woman blitzed past him in the blink of an eye, causing a lapse in his breathing and making him cough out all the oxygen he sucked in.
'D-dammit, I'm gonna pass out…'
The force he pulled himself back to the moon with was making it hard to breathe. Paired alongside the slim amount of air given to him, his body was shutting down.
Slowly, his tentacles lost their grip on the moon, whipping back into him and settling down. Now, he was falling with no protection straight towards the surface of Europa. An unconscious body that would plummet and splat into nothing as soon as contact was made.
This wasn't his fate, however. Not yet.
A flash of light pierced the starry night sky once again, traveling faster than Theus and threatening to penetrate his body if it didn't slow down.
Changing her direction to avoid direct impact with Theus, Caylie grabbed Theus' knocked out body, holding it close and turning her back to take the brunt of the fall. The two fell together with immense speed, yet not an ounce of fear shook through Caylie's body, she was perfectly still.
Like a meteor, the two crashed onto the surface of Europa together, creating a small crater in the moon's frozen landscape.
Holding Theus close to her to maintain body heat in the frigid environment, Caylie fell asleep due to exhaustion. The two were buried beneath the cracked ice, their skin slowly turning pale from the cold.
The cold was merciless and harsh, with the only ample source of heat in the solar system, the Sun, being eclipsed in the middle of it by a saucer-like object.