The wind carried the scent of something unfamiliar, something electric. The planet beneath felt quiet, hollow in a way that made it seem wrong to be here. But there was something else to focus on.

Mantis stood a few steps away, arms wrapped around herself, her antennae shifting as if searching for something unseen. The dim glow of the planet's moons bathed her in silver, casting soft shadows across her face. She had always been easy to read—too easy. That should have made her predictable. But she never was.

A small smile flickered on her lips. “I go where I want now.”

The words lingered between them, heavy with meaning. Mantis had spent so much of her life being shaped by others' expectations, being needed by them. Now, she was free. No one to follow, nothing to prove.

And yet, she looked so lost.

She broke the silence again, softer this time. “You’re staring.”

She tilted her head slightly. “I feel different.”

There was something in the way she said it, a weight that tugged at the chest.

Years had passed with them orbiting one another, close but never colliding. And now, on the same planet, beneath the same sky, they stood—watching each other like strangers unsure whether to take a step forward or retreat.

For all the space between them, for all the ways they had tried to ignore it—

She still felt inevitable.