[Possible Trigger Warning: Animal death and other dark themes]

Aliez knew that they were there to investigate and learn about everything Earth had to offer. To learn about the people of Earth, of the Senshi and the Knights that lived there. To keep his head low and avoid any of those who belonged to the Negaverse. They needed to grow themselves, to better Velencian society.

He was excited in many ways, even if he tried to keep it to himself. He didn’t want to come across as too eager, or too emotionally attached to things that he would lose sight of the mission.

The sunrise was beautiful. The grass smelled like nothing he’d ever imagined. There were animals and birds and so many new and wonderful things he never knew existed. The Senshi and Knights that didn’t already hate them were kind enough to bring Earthen food to share. He was appreciative of the gesture, even if he wasn’t sure they could really trust them.

But he was sworn to the Vanguard and to Velencya and he was determined to do everything in his power to make sure they prospered. He would gather the energy they required, and talk to as many Senshi and Knights that he could, and he would make sure the mission was a success.

However, the more he learned about Earth, the more he felt homesick, which was entirely unbecoming of a Vanguard Cadet. He missed their synthetic sky and the lights of the buildings and how they didn’t have to worry about getting in the way of those sometimes loud land vehicles the Earthlings used for transportation. He missed knowing what to expect, despite his curious nature. His wanderlust could only take him so far from home.

He’d picked out a disguise from the database prepared for them by the Commodore. His ears were no longer Velencian but rounded and misshapen to look like those from Earth, and his skin was a strange peachy color. He wore clothes that were deemed appropriate for human interaction, and he set out on his mission to learn everything that he could.

The first thing he discovered that he absolutely hated about Earth was homelessness.

Which was that Earth had people who didn’t have anywhere else to live, so they lived on the sidewalks and streets, or set up homes in the alleys. There was trash everywhere. The smell was revolting, and nothing like the grass or flowers Vyn had been picking for the Commodore. But worse than the smell was the look of utter hopelessness on the faces of those he passed. Or that of anger or confusion upon seeing him wandering down what was apparently their home.

They stared back at him as he walked among them, his heart pounding and his instincts telling him that he was unwelcome there, but he couldn’t just ignore everything he saw. He needed to learn and record this, so they knew what not to do once they restored their homeworld of Velenia. Aliez didn’t realize it was rude to stare, nor did he realize he was trespassing in a sense. Trespassing onto what little piece of the city they claimed for themselves.

Until, he noticed, they were told to move. He could only assume the humans in their matching uniforms helped to keep peace. He wasn’t used to seeing anyone needing to enforce rules and laws. Everyone on Velencya worked together. They would have helped each other, fed each other, housed each other.

This... He had never experienced something like this before. He couldn’t take his eyes off the dirty faces of small children sitting next to buildings, holding cups to collect the currency of that world. Aliez had nothing with him to give. He looked at the light gone from the eyes of the adults, some looking so elderly that they looked like they wouldn’t make it through the rest of the week. Some with disabilities-- missing limbs. Or their minds betrayed them to something darker that they couldn’t control.

Knowing how much hope Earth gave them. How much hope it gave the Commodore and King Caedus--

It broke his heart.

Unable to handle the pain in his chest any longer, Aliez retreated from the alleyway and headed back towards the street so he could make his way to their temporary home on the hill. Even though the sun was just starting to set - a sight just as beautiful as the sun rising over the horizon - lights around the city were turning on. It made things a little more difficult to see, but there was enough light to get around.

There were still people walking down the sidewalks, likely going home after a day of work, or whatever it was that humans did, and it didn’t take much to learn some of their customs. The lights on the road meant to signal when to wait for the land vehicles to continue their route, and when it was safe for pedestrians to walk. Aliez waited patiently at the corner of one of the streets for those signal lights to change--

When a small creature scurried out into the road.

He didn’t even get a chance to cry out for the vehicle to stop, or to watch out. The creature was struck and it let out a horrible squeal of pain that seemed to tear through what was left of his already breaking heart. Ignoring the rest of the vehicles speeding down the street, Aliez ran out into the middle of the road to scoop up the obviously pained and terrified creature, barely avoiding one of the vehicles himself, and wincing from the shrill sound it made -- some kind of alarm to warn him of its approach perhaps?

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said to the creature as he clutched it to his chest. It bit him. It clawed at him with its last bit of strength, but Aliez didn’t dare let it go, because it could just run back out and get hurt again.

But it was okay, because he was a healer. He’d helped heal injuries like this before all the time during his training on Velencya. This was nothing. Maybe a couple of broken bones and some internal bleeding, but with his Source Stone, he could use it to mend the creature and let it go on its way.

Aliez knelt down beside a tree a safe distance from the road and held the dying creature in his arms. He wore his Source Stone on a bracelet against the inside of his wrist, and he held it out to the creature, expecting only to take several minutes to help heal it --

But for some reason, it didn't seem to work. Aliez tried his Stone again, tears filling his eyes as the creature wailed and writhed. “Please, please,” he begged as frustrated tears fell. It wasn’t much longer until he felt a shuddering breath from the creature and then nothing.

He sat there for a long while, just holding the creature. He didn’t even know what it was. He was bleeding from the wounds it had inflicted but he didn’t care. His heart ached too much. How could anyone not have seen it? Did this stuff happen on Earth all the time?

Carefully, he stood back up, holding the creature still securely in his arms, not caring that his sleeves were stained with blood.

“Excuse me,” he tried to get the attention of the first human he found. There were two women walking down the street and paused only briefly when he got their attention, although they didn’t seem to want to stay around for very long, and their expressions both twisted into that of disgust when they realized he was carrying the dead creature. “Do you return these to your crystal core?” he asked, and was confused when they hurried along.

“Throw that thing away buddy,” an older man scoffed at him as he walked passed.

“Wait, your crystal core -- do these not--”

“What the ******** are you talking about, weirdo?” the man laughed and shook his head, staring over his shoulder as he continued on.

Did the Earthlings not return their deceased to their core? What happened to the bodies of those who passed? And were these creatures not treated with the same respect? Or are humans not returned to their core either? What was this world?

He tried a couple more times for help. Another woman shrieked in horror when she saw the lifeless creature, and a group of men, likely under some kind of influence, shoved at him and tried to rip the creature from his arms, saying it should have been left in the street with the rest of the trash.

It was then that he ran as fast as he could back to the hill. He carried the creature with him, still unsure of what to do with it, but unwilling to leave it out in the open.

Aliez decided he did not like Earth.