[s][i][sub]A solemn wind disturbed a dune of stellar ash, sweeping dead stars, like dust, across the galactic sea. The thing that looked like a man gazed on, and wished it all away.[/sub]

[sub][colour=8493ca]"Why?"[/colour] said the thing that looked like a girl. [colour=8493ca]"Why did we let it happen this way?"[/colour][/sub]

[sub][colour=f9ad81]"Because we were afraid,"[/colour] said the thing that looked like a man. [colour=f9ad81]"Because we wanted them to live, and never gave them room to breathe."[/colour][/sub]

[sub][colour=8493ca]"Then let them have it,"[/colour] said the thing that looked like a girl, clenching her quivering hands into fists. [colour=8493ca]"Let them have it all. Let them make this world their own; let no limits be upon them. Let them laugh and cry and hate. Let them go out there and be happy,"[/colour] said the thing that looked like a girl, laying her hands on the thing that impaled the man.[/sub]

[sub][colour=f9ad81]"You know not what you do."[/colour][/sub]

[sub][colour=8493ca]"I don't care,"[/colour] she said.[/sub]

[sub]The thing that looked like a girl wrenched the javelin from his chest and raised a great cry. Then she hurled it into the darkness, where it tore a wound so bright that quenched stars lit in its gaze.[/sub]

[sub]The thing that looked like a girl braced as the winds of dawn blazed against her, burning her, igniting the dune and the body and all the stars therein, blowing it apart and carrying its dust into a new galaxy.[/sub]

[sub]She stretched her hands against the force of the wind, and felt a mass growing where the gale met her palms; and when the mass grew too great to hold back, she stretched out her other hand, and a smaller mass grew there; and when the gale overcame her they slipped from her palms and she tumbled back, laughing, as the two orbs spun one around the other.[/sub]

[sub]She grabbed the greater mass in her hands, and twisted it, and felt it warm and fizz; and she clutched its warmth to her chest, and kissed it, and the moisture of her lips enveloped it.[/sub]

[sub]And the thing that looked like a girl fell onto its surface, where the sun warmed her still, and she laughed, and her joy rose on the horizon in a hot, clean blue that covered the sky. And she struck her palm at the ocean, and a plume of cyan entered it. Again and again she struck, dancing along the shore, until the sea was filled with life and oxygen.[/sub]

[sub]Then she fell to her knees, exhausted.[/sub]

[sub][colour=8493ca]"Take it,"[/colour] said the thing that looked like a girl, laughing as the tears streaked down her face.[colour=8493ca]"Come and take it all."[/colour][/sub][/i][/s]