Chapter 3
Remus
Remus balked as Sirius Black rocketed into the seat beside him. A seat that Marlene had just occupied. Sirius flashed a grin and winked in his direction as he bucked himself in, and Remus felt his cheeks heat up. The doors to the ship closed, leaving Remus trapped in the darkness with one hundred criminals.
If he was being honest, Remus never liked Sirius much. He couldn't be fooled by the wealth or the charm as many were. At his core Sirius was a Black, and they were all fucked up in one way or another.
Remus guessed Sirius was here to protect his little brother, who'd been arrested on drug charges a few years ago. He'd run into Regulus and his crew a few times, they were a haughty bunch. They liked to act like they were above everyone and everything, even though they were stuck with the same fate as every teenager in that prison.
Remus gasped as the ship started to shake. Screams of terror rose from the teens seated around him. Sirius looked around wildly, brows furrowing in concentration, looking for Regulus most likely. He reached for his buckle and when he couldn't unlock it with just his hands, he pulled a small black pocket knife from a compartment on his jacket.
“No!” Remus said, shooting a hand out to stop him. Sirius looked at him with disdain, ripping his wrist from Remus’s grasp. “If you're not strapped in the impact when we hit earth could kill you. Do you want to die?”
Slowly, Sirius slid the knife back into his jacket. His dark gaze bore into Remus. “I need to find my brother.”
“You can find him after we land. For now, just sit tight.”
Defeated, Sirius relaxed a little in his chair, though Remus could see the worry set into his eyes. The ship continued to shake, groaning and creaking around them. The shouting had reduced to fearful whispers between teens, Remus could hear one of the younger could crying.
“Are you scared?” Said Sirius, softly. “To go to Earth?”
It surprised Remus, he didn't think Sirius would ever be humble enough to ask that type of question. He thought for a moment before answering.
“Yes.” He said. He shrugged then, “But it's better than lethal injection, and even if I was never arrested, it's better than spending my life crammed into a metal prison, only thinking about what Earth might be like.”
Sirius’s eyebrows furrowed and his nose scrunched. “By metal prison you mean…the entire Hallow?” He paused for a moment, “I've never thought of it as a prison.”
Remus pursed his lips. “Something tells me you had more privileges than I did growing up.”
Sirius nodded at that, he took a breath in as if he was going to say something in response, but decided against it, snapping his mouth shut and leaning back into his chair.
They could feel it the moment the ship departed from the Hallow. There was a loud click, like something sliding into place, then the air smoothed a bit and they were gliding through the void.
Remus wished he could see outside. When he was nine or so he'd found an old astronomy book in his mother’s library. After that he'd spent hours charting celestial objects, he would sit outside the window in the Ministry's council room and test himself on which constellations he could see. If he'd had a choice, he would've been a space-walker, not so he could fix the ship but so he could get just a few inches closer to touching the stars.
That's what Remus thought about in silence as they floated through space: How he wished he could see the stars. Though he doubted they were going slow enough for him to even get a good look. Sirius fidgeted beside him, eyes darting around the interior of the ship, which seemed inane to Remus because if he hadn't spotted his brother by now then he shouldn't wouldn't until they landed. Nevertheless, Remus felt some sympathy for him. He knew what it was to have a brother, or at least to love someone the way you do a brother, and he knew the concern that came hand in hand with that love.
Suddenly, Remus started to feel pressure weighing down on him. They must be close to landing. The pressure grew, straining his neck and gluing his hands down. He'd expected to hear more screaming, but nobody made a sound. He tried to open his mouth to tell the other passengers to brace themselves, and realized that his jaw wouldn't budge. It was for the first time then that Remus realized that this was how he might die, crashing in a spaceship surrounded by his peers.
One hundred criminals, teenagers, friends, lovers, and enemies hurtled towards earth in deathly silence. They were meant to grow old on the Hallow, their children were meant to grow old there. Instead, in death or life, they would make it back to their homeland.
Regulus
Regulus had had enough. He was meant to die cleanly. Easily. A quick pinch in the crook of his elbow and everything becomes nothing. He was not meant to die in a metal cage crashing into the earth.
He couldn't open his mouth, couldn't move his body. He sat frozen in his seat thinking about all the ways he was meant to die.
Regulus wouldn't consider himself a nihilist. He just didn't care much for dramatics. That's what he thought this was, the ministry sending one hundred teens down to earth. It was a show. It was supposed to give the people of the Hallow a little bit of comfort before they all suffocated in their own homes. They would watch as a handful of children flaunted about on earth, most likely being slowly poisoned by radiation, and it would make them complacent.
Regulus jolted in his seat, teeth biting down on his tongue. For a moment he thought that was it, the collision. Then voices rose up around him, hushed at first, then louder, filling the small space with panic.
“Everybody shut the fuck up!” Boomed a voice from in front of him and the shouts turned to whispers. The voice was familiar, but Regulus couldn't quite place it. It sent a strange pang of anxiety through him.
“That jerking feeling was our parachutes deploying!” Called another voice, from around the same direction.
Parachutes. That made sense.
“We're floating down to Earth, there will be another impact that'll happen any minute! Everybody brace yourselves, keep your heads against the back of the chair, and keep your mouths closed so you don't bite your tongues off!”
Regulus wasn't one to follow directions that he didn't give but in that moment he listened. Not because he respected the bodiless voice, but because he liked his tongue.
They glided for a minute in the air, steadily, it almost felt the same as being at home on the Hallow. Then a great bang sounded, and Regulus was thrown forward in his seat. The ship creaked and groaned, tipping to the side a bit before coming to rest at a slight diagonal angle.
Regulus heard a soft click coming from below him, he looked down to see his buckle had released, freeing him. He rose quickly, motioning for Barry and Evan to do the same, pretending he didn't notice them clutching onto each other's hands. Slowly, the rest of the 100 followed him to a standing position, some running to where the door was placed, still closed.
As Regulus made his way to the front faint, frustrated voices began to emerge from the crowd.
“Don't push that button!” That was the voice from earlier, the one that had given the safety precautions. “We won't know what's out there! We don't even know if that air is safe.”
“I happen to have it on good word that the air is perfectly breathable.” Replied a haughty voice, the loud one that had silenced the passengers. The voice was boyish in tone, and laced with the arrogant accent of the Hallow’s noble class. And Regulus was now able to recognize it.
“Sirius.” He said lowly, but with enough power to make the crowd turn to look at him. It wasn't a question, or a hope. It was just cold acknowledgement of his brother’s presence.
Sirius’s gaze bored into Regulus, contaminated with worry. He was taller than he'd been when Regulus was arrested. His features were more defined, Walburga’s biological influence evident in his appearance. Though Regulus didn't often have access to a mirror, he knew he resembled Orion more.
“Regulus.” Sirius’s voice was weak and haunted. He looked afraid, an expression Regulus couldn't recall him ever bearing. “Are you alright?” He asked tentatively.
Regulus ignored him. Instead, he straightened his back and held his chin up, the way a Black should. He shifted his gaze to Remus, and holding eye contact with him, strode forward and pushed the button to open the hatch, leaving one hundred criminals to Earth’s mercy.
James
Earth was beautiful.
Truthfully, the photos did it no justice. James had expected a bit of diversion from what had been on the planet since their ancestors left, a nuclear event tended to cause a bit of change, but he never expected this.
They had landed in a large clearing, trees lining the edge of the meadow in an arc. It was nighttime, the moon was nearly full in the sky and it lit the trees and the grass. What James noticed most, though, were the stars. There were thousands of them. When you're in the sky you don't get much context, they just seem like clusters of dots that can be viewed through small, thick windows. On Earth, all of them could be taken in at once. They danced in the sky in a way that couldn't be captured in a 2x2 square of space.
James stumbled out of the ship, feet feeling heavy due to slight changes in the gravity. The artificial gravity on the Hallow was meant to be similar to that on Earth, but it was hard to get it to be exact. Luckily the original engineers hadn't been too far off, and there was only an uncomfortable extra weight on James’s back.
James collapsed, knees hitting the ground. He brought his hands down to feel the grass. It was spikier than he'd imagined, but not painfully so. Sighing, he twisted and fell on his back. As he stroked his hand through the grass and dug his fingers in the dirt he felt…euphoric. Like he was high.
Coming to his senses, James pushed himself up so as to not make himself look foolish. Looking around though, he realized that he was not the only one enjoying their new place. The others were laughing and running. James even spotted Barty and Evan chasing each other through the treeline, though Regulus was nowhere to be found. Off with his brother probably.
That reminded him. Remus. The person he was here for. He would've stepped in earlier, with the ship door, but he was far in the back and had thought his presence would make Remus angrier than he already was. It all worked out in the end anyway.
James hauled himself to his feet. Might as well go find Remus now, get it done early. Maybe he could begin to make amends. He'd just started toward the ship, guessing it would be a good place to start, when someone grabbed him from behind by his shirt, and clamped a hand down on his neck.
“Hey, look!” Said his capturer, nastily. “It's Prince Jamie!”
Barty. Awesome.
James snapped his head around, hoping Regulus was around to save him this time. He did spot Regulus, but he was snickering along with Evan in the center of a gathering audience. Not so nice now that he was on Earth.
The crowd had grown to a significant size now.
“Is that the Minister's son?” Someone said.
“No, it couldn't be.” Someone answered.
“It is!”
“What the fuck is he doing here?”
“He's probably going to spy on us for his father.”
“I think his dad knows what we're doing down here anyway, why else would we have trackers?”
“Oh, I know! Maybe–”
“MOVE.”
The crowd parted, a few people stumbling from a push to the shoulder. Two figures made their way to the front. As they got closer, James could make out their faces. The first was Sirius Black, who strutted with a casual confidence that seemed far too natural in a time like this. The second was…
Remus. Shit.
James could tell the moment Remus recognized him. He stopped in his tracks, face morphing into an expression of disgust and anger. James had known him their whole lives, and he'd never seen him make a face like that.
“The Minister’s son?” Sirius taunted. “Now what could daddy's little boy possibly–”
“Let him go.”
Sirius turned to Remus with a look of judgmental confusion plastered on his face. Remus huffed and rolled his eyes.
“Just let him go. Please.”
Barty’s hand only tightened on James’s neck. James tensed, feeling like, well, a criminal, caught in the act of being his father's son.
Sirius stared down Remus for a moment. Eventually he shrugged and addressed Barty. “You heard the man. Let him go.” Now that was a surprise.
Barty hesitated before dropping James, and walking over to stand by Evan and Regulus. The crowd stood in silence for a moment before Sirius whipped around.
“Get out of here.” He said, waving his hands in a shooing motion. “Nothin’ to see.”
The group dispersed quickly, leaving only James and Remus.
Remus met James’s eyes with a powerful, blinding hate. His brows furrowed and his lips pulled into a snarl.
“What the fuck are you doing here, James?”
James opened his mouth, willing an explanation to come out, but he could only stutter. “I, I–”
“You know what?” Remus spat. “I don't give a fuck.
“Just stay away from me.”