They didn't know where they were.
They didn't even know what this place was.
One second they were tearing across the void between stars, hot on the run from the Empire that had labeled them traitors, murderers, deserters. The next, the fabric of the sky had opened like a wound, and the universe itself had swallowed them whole.
No star maps worked. No gravity patterns aligned. This wasn't the same reality.
This was elsewhere.
They fell for what felt like days.
The thirteen Viltrumites floated in formation, each one silent, burning with the same mixture of exhaustion and relief. They had survived.
Somehow.
Nolan was the first to speak.
"We're not in our universe anymore."
Nobody answered. They all knew. Every instinct screamed it. The rules felt different here, in ways they couldn't describe. The radiation in the void was the wrong flavor. The background energy of space was too soft. Even the void had a smell.
"We need a planet," Merrick muttered. "A sun. Food. Shelter."
"I know," Nolan said.
Teal floated beside him, arms crossed over his chest. "So we ran," he said. "Now what?"
"We find somewhere to live," Nolan said. "Somewhere quiet."
"And then?"
Nolan turned to look at him. "Then we survive."
They found Earth by accident.
It was barely visible in the distant corner of a spiral arm. One blue-and-green marble surrounded by others far less impressive. A young system. Stable. Sun was good. Gravity was tolerable. Oxygen and water in abundance.
The planet itself wasn't special.
But its silence was.
That was what drew them.
They entered the atmosphere without warning.
Thirteen comets, blazing white-hot across a sky still watched by primitive eyes. Tribes scattered in every direction. Beasts fled into forests. Thunder cracked even where clouds had not formed. The land remembered their arrival. The world shifted just a little, as if bracing itself.
They landed miles apart from each other, scattered across the globe.
Nolan came down in what would one day become North America. He landed on the edge of a mountain range — sharp, jagged, unspoiled. His body hit the ground and buried itself two dozen meters deep. It didn't matter. He crawled out and looked at the sky. The sun here was yellow. It felt… good. Not overwhelming. But warm. Like something he could use.
He wasn't alone long.
Within an hour, Vela arrived. She didn't speak. She simply landed beside him, breathing heavily, her armor cracked but intact.
Then Teal. Then Merrick. Then Fimmel. Then Alexandra.
Within a day, all thirteen were accounted for.
They gathered in a forest that no longer exists, deep beneath what would one day be a continent of cities.
They didn't speak at first.
They didn't have to.
Some sat on rocks. Some stood watch. Some laid flat on the grass, staring at the canopy above like they could will themselves into understanding where they were.
Luke finally spoke.
"This place… isn't like the others. I think I could build something here."
Daniel smiled softly beside him. "Then we should build. We've never been this far from war."
Merrick wiped the sweat from his brow. "I need a forge."
"You always need a forge," Alexandra teased.
"More than ever," he replied.
That night, they didn't sleep.
Viltrumites rarely did. Not real sleep. But they rested. They thought. They breathed air that didn't carry blood in it.
The stars here were different.
Smaller.
Quieter.
But still beautiful.
Lyanna laid on her back and traced her finger through the air. "I can learn these stars," she whispered. "I can make them mine."
Vela sat close to Nolan. "We could stay," she said quietly.
He didn't look at her.
"We should stay," she added.
"I don't know if we can," Nolan said.
"We already have."
By morning, they had scattered again.
Not to run. Not to flee.
But to think. Alone.
They had lived their entire lives on the edge of fire and war. Now they stood in a world that had never even seen the wheel. A world that did not know them, fear them, or demand anything from them.
It terrified some of them.
Others saw it as a beginning.
Fimmel disappeared into the jungles.
Gabe and Lyanna began watching the stars.
Merrick scouted for metal-rich mountains.
Luke and Daniel started carving earth and stone.
Alexandra began wandering the outer human villages, silent, invisible.
Teal found a high cliff and sat atop it, unmoving for weeks.
Nira disappeared into the deserts.
Vela followed Nolan.
Wherever he went, she followed.
They didn't speak of what they were building between them. But it didn't need words.
There were no cities.
No humans that could understand what they were.
No armies to fight.
No orders to follow.
For the first time in their lives…
The Legion was alone.