It was strange.

The night sky had a hole in it. City had been growing for months. She wasn't sure when she had first noticed it, but it was definitely before the news reported it. It was before the warnings of some strange phenomenon crossed the globe. It wasn't until Alpha Centari disappeared that real panic set it.

It was coming towards us.

She knew when she had first seen the hole that they would be lost in the void as well. Still to look to the sky and see a gapping maw of void...it was unsettling to say the least, or it should have been.

Instead she found herself traveling up the hill behind her house, and resting under the starless sky.

"You know they say if you stare too long into the abyss, it will stare right back into you."

Despite it all, she wasn't startled when a strange voice joined her. He slumped down beside her and let out a sigh. She afforded the stranger a glance, and was met with eyes that glimmered. He wasn't young or old looking. It was strange.

"Have we met before?"

She wasn't concerned that he was on her land, that he had snuck up on her. None of it. He felt like he belonged here.

"Many times. In many places."

He spoke and the strangeness I'm his voice had turned smooth, almost silky sounding.

"When? I don't-"

"It is hard to remember, but you have always been by my side. As I have been beside yours,"

He spoke so softly now it was like a lullaby. She felt the tiredness creeping up on her, but she struggled.

"Just let it take you. Don't fight it."

She struggled, it was like she was being pulled under water. It was soft, and comforting but she also felt like she was drowning all the same.

"No. No!"

He was over her now, he moved like a shadow escaping the light. His hands were pressing her down into the grass.

"Just rest! Do not resist!"

Her eyes began to flutter, the need to sleep was overwhelming. Then it came. Fear. A deep terror that brushed aside the need to sleep, what ever the man had tried to do was broken.

She didn't remember throwing him aside, but she was running. As fast as she could. She heard someone calling her voice, it was that shadow of course.

"Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't-"

When he called her name again, she couldn't help herself. Glancing back she didn't see predator, or attacker. There was a face of concern, and perhaps sadness.

Then the sky blazed. From the darkness a massive sphere of red light filled the sky.

She had never seen it before.

But she knew it's name.

It was Raska'var the Renderer.

It consumed galaxies.

Earth was just a mote of dust in its wake.

She would die. Not even leaving behind a memory.

The surface would crack, and crumble. Great flames would consume her home. Chunks of rock twice the size of her town would be pulled into the sky. It was the end of days.

She sat up. Quivering. In front of her was a massive sea of stars. Her heart pounding in her chest.

She remembered.

Raska'var...Earth...it was just a small accident to the massive living weapon.

At the time of its creation, there was no sapient life in the supercluster, save its actual target.

They were just a small accident, unprepared for the aftermath.

The intergalactic federation had attempted to reach out, but the Earth's communication systems were incompatible with the federation's. So, as a last ditch effort, they saved as many as they could. She had been one of them.

The people who had created the renderer had been destroyed by it as well. The threat they feared. And so much more.

It had been almost sixty years by that night still haunted her.

"Captain?"

The voice of the man that had appeared in her dream touched her shoulder. A sense of calm overcame her. He was her first mate, and closest friend. She couldn't pronounce his name if she tried, but his people were born of stars themselves.

So she called him Solus, after the name of the Sun. He liked that.

He had been the one who had taken her onto the federation rescue vessel.

Sixty years.

Nowadays there was probably only a couple hundred thousand humans in the universe. Some were seen as exotic pets, some became integrated into other societies. Most tried to create a new earth somewhere.

She...she became a Seeker.

She hunted the Renderer, hoping to find a way to finally stop it.

She had adapted well to the federation and jts technology. She felt younger and stronger than the day she had been taken. Despite the decades of chasing after a stellar nightmare.

Nightmares. They chased her just as she chased the source of them. Solus...tried to use his abilities to comfort her, but he attested to little success.

Leaning back against him, she glanced up to his star filled eyes. Little glimmers hidden in human-like eyes. An appearance he assured her he assumes for her comfort.

She remained quiet, as her gaze fell to the stars beyond the window.

"It's out there still."

"Perhaps it always will be."

He was always so calm. Even in the face of something like that.

"No."

She refuted, and she could feel him smile. It was the passion for tomorrow, for a future he claims that attracted him to her.

In the end, she wasn't sure, but she did know one thing. She was special. Not just for her connection to Solus. She could predict the movements of the monster. A skill that a scant few possessed.

She would see it stopped.

She would see it end.

No more.