In tranquility, Finn rested. The ship's lights dimmed, the motions calm as water, and on a fine line between the feelings of peace and stress, he drifted into mental weightlessness as UNA led him and Lena closer to his home planet. 

A million worries cradled deep within his head, waiting to explode, and yet with Lena by his side, he was able to accept the world as a chaotic mess and began to create an order for himself.

Finn was standing on Demeter, at the center of Kassiopeia's rooftop, and not a single thought was squandered on fear. The heights did not bother him. He walked all the way to the border of the roof until his toes touched the edge of a cliff, and there he perched alone, suddenly overlooking Westlake and the army of pine trees that surrounded it. 

In his dream, the world he saw was lifeless. He thought it not as a plight, yet an odd atmosphere left him feeling uneasy. Perhaps it was the lack of life that made the scenery's beauty insignificant. There was no one with whom he could share the view; this world did not matter. 

His eyes dropped down. In his hand, Finn held a photograph, and though he knew which two people it denoted, visually, the picture was blank, gray, and bleary.

Lena had been sleeping as well. When UNA announced their approach to Kepler, however, she was awakened by the robotic female voice. The view before her sucked the breath right out of her lungs and woke her as if a bucket of ice water had been dropped above her head, and, like a child attracted to a toy store, her hands and eyes were glued to the glass. 

A high pitched noise broke through the silence of the night and along through Finn's slumber.

Lena apologized for disturbing Finn's serenity after his body shot up from the seat. If the seatbelt hadn't restrained his spasm, he might have floated to the ceiling. 

Lena's scream confused him when he analyzed her and found that she seemed to be healthy, merry, and unflustered. The query was, in what plane of existence was there a semi-rational link between her current state, and the shrill squeal that had brought a sharp end to Finn's sleep.

"What's wrong?" he needed to know. 

His memories evoked anxiety, casting the same ominous emotion he felt when Lena choked from the purple berries on Demeter, but with poorly enforced acting skills, he tried to stay calm. For her sake, and for his own, too.

"Nothing's wrong," she said, and he treasured a long and quiet breath. "I'm just excited! Look! We're almost there!"

Finn saw Kepler and was surprised how happy he felt to see his home again, even when it was only existing in the far distance for now. 

Leaving Westlake had come with such ease, with no one awaiting his return, that he held a scanty opinion about Kepler and everything it was comprised of. And after all this time, after Kepler had changed in no noteworthy form or manner, Finn himself was returning a new man, viewing what lay before him as a completely new planet. And if he were to ever leave Kepler in the future, he knew someone would now be there, someone he would long to return to. Someone who may even await his return, too.

"This doesn't look like the drawings we found in the bunker at all," Lena judged, noticing Finn's lost self in the smear of reality. With a slight delay, he granted Lena his attention.

"It's just a kid's drawing. What did you expect?" he chuckled.

"I know, but Kepler doesn't have deserts and no snowy isalnds. No islands at all, from what I can see. And its ocean is tiny. On the drawings, it was basically just a colorful water planet with—well—they weren't islands. They were much bigger than that. More like—"

"Continents!" Finn gasped. "Lena! Oh my god! Those drawings weren't of Kepler!"

"What? What makes you say that?"

"The arctic, the desrt; seven continents! Those drawings were of Earth!"

"Earth? Sounds familiar," Lena pondered.

"Of course it does. It's the mother planet! Why would these kids have drawn Earth instead of Kepler?"

"Finn?" Lena said shily. "There is something I have to tell you. In the bunker—I, um—I found some other stuff."

"What?"

"I didn't want to tell you then. You were already in so much shock. I didn't want to bother you."

"What did you find?" he asked, hurried.

"Some plans or maps of some kind. Something to do with a space station. I forgot what it was named."

"Think, Lena. This could be the missing piece! What was the name?"

"Guard—" she said quietly. "Zag—no—Asguard?"

"Asgard?" Finn rushed.

"Yes! That's it."

"It said Asgard? Are you sure?"

"Uh—" Finn's wide eyes were pressuring her confidence. "I think so. Maybe."

"Asgard is the name of the space station that fled from Kepler when it was near its end. They went on a mission to settle on a new planet. Back then, Boreas and Pluviam were unthinkable to colonize, so they left the solar system altogether. How are those guys connected to all of this?"

"Maybe they went to Earth?" suggested Lena, unsure if her guess was far-fetched.

"Earth doesn't exist anymore. It was destroyed by war and the climate change provoked by humans."

"But Finn, Asgard left when Kepler was expected to die. And now look at it." They both studied the magnificent planet that existed before them. "Kepler recovered. What if Earth did, too?"

"Even if you're right and Asgard did go to Earth, what would they be doing here? Earth is so far away. It would take generations to reach Kepler. And most importantly, why did they take all these people?"

"I have no clue. It sounds like a made-up fairytale. Maybe they wanted new technology. That would explain the kidnapping of scientists and the drafting of a space station."

"Yeah," Finn's mind drifted off, into the distance and the colors ahead.

"What were you dreaming about?" asked Lena, trying to catch his lost mind.

"Huh?"

"When you were sleeping," she explained, "What were your dreams about?"

"It's not very important," he said, knowing that it was quite probable that he would have analyzed every possible hidden meaning of his dreams if the situation was any different. A month ago, a single flower resembled pressure, insecurity, and death; now it was beauty. Something alive, something unique. Something that needed to be protected. 

Events, dispensed by time, could change a person in countless ways, and Finn slowly discerned that aspect of life whenever his mind wandered to the past, but he decided not to overthink that change of his. He focused on Lena and her dazzling smile, and let her confirm her well-being, so that he, too, could lighten up.

"How are you? Did you sleep at all?"

"I did," said Lena and shone her immaculately polished teeth at him, full of excitement, she said, "I dreamed of Kepler!"

"Did you really? Tell me about it." Finn's curiosity triumphed over the denial of his fantasy's belief that Lena's dream could have been remotely similar to his.

"It's a bit fuzzy now; the more I try to remember what the environment looked like, the less clear it becomes. But I know you were there." A wave of color flushed Finn's face. "There were no guards. No crime. No problems. Just a bunch of people. And all looked so—happy."

"Cute," Finn said, looking out the window.

"What?"

"You think Kepler is flawless; it's cute."

"No, but compared to Pluviam it's probably close to utopia. Why else would everybody wish to live there?"

"I bet Kassiopeia would give you a very slanted speech if she heard you say that."

Mentioning her name caused Finn's guts to crumple up. He arranged a crooked smile while clenching to the lachrymose image of Kassiopeia's execution in his mind, and after losing any ambition to speak at all, he was glad when Lena carried the conversation. 

She did not notice the commiseration beneath Finn's guise, and determined, he kept Kassiopeia's capital punishment to himself.

"So, Finden," Lena jested and opened a tiny bag of flavored gummies, "what's your favorite thing about Kepler?"

"Where did you find those?"

"In one of the cabinets back there."

"Are you going to eat them? They must be ancient!"

"You see," she tossed a pale green gummy into the air and caught it effortlessly with her mouth as it hovered leisurely above her. While chewing the rock-hard snack, she continued saying, "all I've been eating for the past week is fish. It's time for some—" She read the back of the packaging, where a list of flavors was printed in a cramped font, "Che—Cheri—moya? Cherimoya. Whatever the hell that is."

Still chewing, she listened to Finn's detailed explanation of custard apples; a fruit brought to Kepler by their ancestors, centuries ago. 

When she finally swallowed the chunk of old munch, UNA reported that preparations for a landing near Westlake had begun, and with a cheerful shriek, Lena threw the package high up to celebrate. Dozens of colored gummies now roamed through the vehicle's interior, and when the ship steadily fell into Kepler's gravity, they all clouted the wall behind them.