the reve — a pitstop for cosmic travellers built by humans from years ago have laid in ruin for a long time. but that is not the case when the headquarters is lit up and the generators within are whirring with life.  

a ship had entered her planet's atmosphere just moments before, what was merely a bright ray of light is now a large ship in front of her. she was not planning on venturing this far out but she had been chasing a lacertilia that led her away from her usual hunting grounds. perhaps it is a blessing in disguise that this ship appeared when it did, the wildlife around her lands have grown scarce from overhunting.

humans were dangerous, all of her people knew that. she knows that. but the hunger that is eating away at her stomach leads her crawling closer. she could sense a large group from within the hull but they are slowly disembarking and scattering themselves around the reve. it is better for her that way, there is no way she will be able to take all of them on at once.

setting foot into the building, she finds her first victim easily. impaling the small human with her tongue, she feasts on the body without restraint. her teeth meet no resistance when she rends the human’s flesh from their bones. it feels divine to finally feed on something other than minuscule lacertilias but her hunger could not be satiated from just one human. and lucky for her, there is a whole buffet awaiting her.

she assumes the identity of the human she had just killed. shrinking down to match the size of these tiny beings and putting on the suits they all seem to be wearing. she holds the helmet in her hands, not wanting it to hinder her when she she is ready to kill.

this is the reason why humans are afraid of her species, not only did they prey on humans, their ability to impersonate them causes unwanted paranoia. 

she makes sure the remains are well hidden in the vents before making her way through the building. if she wanted to eat her fill, she would have to be patient. there are just too many humans, it would be a death sentence. she would bide her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

she sneaks around the hallways, attempting to sniff out her next prey. and she finds one all alone, attempting to knot some strings together. but instead of impaling this human, she merely watches.

this little human is — blue, with a little flower, stuck on her helmet. it is the only color she can see since the dawn of her creation. the hues of grey that plagued her world never seemed dull until she caught sight of this mysterious little being donned in the prettiest shade of blue she has seen.

a spark from the strings causes her to recoil in surprise and her boots clang loudly against the metal floor. the blue human turns with surprise and exhales softly.

"you scared me there, pink!" 

pink? is that what the human she killed went by? is she pink?

"want to help me with wires?" blue offers with a welcoming smile, patting the area on the floor next to her, "i'm not a fan of the silence."

pink bobs her head and finds herself settling down next to the human, hiding behind an excuse that this is the perfect way to blend into this unsuspecting crew. she learns quickly that these strings are called wires and all she has to do is join them together. they work in silence for a while but she can constantly feel blue's suspicious gaze on her.

blue takes yet another indiscreet peek at her work and gasps, "ah not like that! you gotta connect wires of the same color together!" the human reaches over her lap and redos her work efficiently.

pink stares down at the human lying casually across her legs, frozen from surprise. normally, humans would be an unrecognisable mess if they even came close to her. but she is not sure she wants to eat blue just yet — maybe she will save her for last.

"all done!" blue whoops triumphantly and clambers to her feet, adjusting her suit in the process.

pink blinks blankly at her new object of interest, wondering if she should find a new prey. but the smile that blue shoots her is enough to convince her that she could take her time with her feast.

"what tasks do you have?" the tiny blue human asks curiously as she pulls out a device from one of the many suit pockets.

copying her actions, pink finds a similar device in a pocket too. she has no idea what these devices do but she could at least read their language. she navigates to a long list of tasks, skimming over them half-heartedly. from what she gathers, if the humans finish the tasks, the reve would be fixed. a progress bar present on the top showed how close they are to completion. at the moment, they are barely an eighth of the way, she still has time to kill even if she lurks around blue for a little.

an alarm blares loudly, echoing through the empty hallways of the ship. pink recoils in surprise and suppresses a hiss, eyes darting about to look for the source of the sound. it repeats three times before the ship returns to its usual eerie silence.

she feels a hand rest on her shoulder and she almost impales whoever has just touched her.

"jumpy, aren't you?" blue chuckles, "it's okay, it's just the emergency alarm, we gotta meet everyone at the cafeteria." the human explains simply.

without another word, blue tugs her along to the cafeteria. compared to humans, pink would have a heightened sense of smell. and the scent of blood lingers all about the ship — she is certainly not the only one of her kind on board. an unsettling thought, but as long as they do not get in her way, she would not have to kill them.

a group of humans have gathered at the cafeteria. amongst them, a fellow shapeshifter is also pretending to be part of the crew. their eyes meet and a silent agreement takes place. stay out of each other's ways, simple as that. she could share the food, there's plenty of humans for both of them.

one of the humans begins to speak in a shaky voice when he acknowledges that everyone is here. "a body has been found suitless … we have a voidling among us." 

a collective gasp is heard from the humans and pink pretends to contemplate the crew. everybody is on edge now, perhaps their suspicions of each other will drive them apart, making things easier for her.

"the longer we're here, the riskier it is. so i say, let's focus and finish what we came here to do." the supposed leader declares nervously, "use the emergency alarm if anything seems out of place, we'll be able to force the voidlings off with our numbers."

murmurs of agreement resonate within the cafeteria, the crew is tense, to say the least. pink runs a tongue over her teeth in excitement as the group begins to disperse, it's the perfect time to strike.

a tug of her arm draws her thoughts away from hunting and she turns to look at blue who is biting her lower lip nervously. "do you want to stick together? i really don't want to be alone." blue pleads with teary eyes.

humans have every right to be scared, voidlings eat them after all. but it did not feel right to leave her to the perils of her fellow voidling, so pink nods her head and blue heaves a sigh of relief.

"okay, what do you have? we can do the ones we have in common first." blue smiles and questions the imposter before her.

pink whips out her device and points to the first task on the list. card swipe.

blue nods, "oh, card swipe, i've got that too. let's go together."

their boots reverberate loudly against the steel floor and they find themselves all alone in the admin room. blue does her task first, not like pink has to do it anyway. she is here to kill, not help them.

"i know we're not supposed to share names, but it feels weird calling everyone by their colors." blue starts making some idle chat as she swipes her card, "but i think it's fine if we don't use our real names, right?"

pink does not want to arouse her suspicion so she emits a soft grunt in response. she could read the language but she is not a fan of speaking.

she watches as blue swipes her card multiple times but is greeted with error upon error. and somehow, she is still chatting, "i like to go by wendy, what about you?" 

wendy. it's a pleasant name, fitting for this tiny human. but putting a name to her might make it harder to execute her later on. in her case, identifying herself with a human name will make it easier to gain wendy's trust. but pink doesn't know of any human-sounding names. the voidling raises her shoulder as she watches wendy fail a few more times.

"no name? is it alright if i gave you one?" wendy turns with a small smile tugging at her lips, "because you feel kinda like an irene."

"irene." she tries the word out and it rolls off her tongue nicely even though speaking in a foreign language is difficult.

"yeah, irene. sounds lovely, doesn't it?" the human returns to her task with a grin.

the voidling does not know what to make of it, but she lets wendy label her with a name. a few more beeps of failure resonate through the room and irene is at her limit. it is frustrating to watch how incompetent humans can be. she does not understand how wendy can fail a simple swipe almost twelve times. snatching the card from her hand, she swipes it along the reader smoothly and a gentle beep of success is heard.

"thanks … it's a dumb little machine." wendy blushes in embarrassment as irene hands her card back.

rolling her eyes disapprovingly, she does the swipe as well, clearing it on her first try. "you are dumb." she mutters with a grunt.

wendy pouts and irene forgets her frustration and reconsiders her decision to kill her entirely. maybe she will let wendy go. but they will have to fix the ship so she can escape from the other predators.

irene exhales sharply and pulls out her tablet, "task."

irene accompanies the blue human around the building to help out with her tasks. the progress bar has gone up to almost half before the alarm is raised again.

gathering in the cafeteria once again, the drop in the number of crewmates is noticeable. while she had been busy helping the humans fix their ship, her counterpart had been filling their stomach. in a crew of eight humans, only six remain, meaning that two have been killed. irene did not like the odds, if she did not make a move soon, there might not be anything left for her.

the leader that originally addressed them is nowhere to be seen, presumably torn to bits by now. so someone else steps up to announce their findings.

"orange and brown are dead," the human begins to speak, "we have to vote someone out."

from how silent everyone is, irene can only assume that someone is going to be kicked off the ship and be left to die on her planet, maybe she can clean them up as dessert.

"let's not jump to extremes just yet, does anyone have anything to report?" wendy asks with an underlying quiver in her voice.

a taller human raises her hand to speak, "i was with yellow and purple the whole time, we can vouch for each other."

wendy nods in acknowledgement, "pink and i have been together since the start."

irene tunes out of the discussion and watches her fellow voidling closely, the way they are leering at wendy puts her on edge. her attention is drawn back to the discussion when the shouting begins. someone is getting forced off the ship and irene follows the votes of the majority. a crewmate is ejected into the dangerous outside world and the meeting adjourns. 

the crewmates part ways and wendy glances at irene who follows wordlessly. seems like this human trusts her now, killing her would incite some rather unpleasant feelings. it is probably okay to keep wendy alive.

the atmosphere is much heavier as they make their way north, or at least wendy is not talking as much as before. she understands the apprehension and accompanies her small azure companion without complaint.

entering the greenhouse, wendy does her task without the usual chatter. she has been talking nonstop since they met, probably to ease the awkwardness between them. but since the decrease in crewmates has been made known, it is undoubtly affecting her. she probably wants to finish things as quickly as possible.

irene lingers around the door, shifting her weight from one leg to another as she waits for wendy to be done with the oxygen filters.

she freezes up when she notices the familiar scent of blood. it leaves her with a gnawing hunger in her stomach as she wrinkles her nose. without her helmet on, nothing is hindering her sense of smell, the distinct scent is hard to miss.

"are you okay?" wendy's voice almost makes her jump.

she turns to wendy who has just finished cleaning the oxygen filters and nods. it would not be wise to alert the human that mores of her people have died. irene prepares to head to the next task when wendy taps her arm lightly.

"wear this," the human hands her the flower accessory that had been on her helmet, "it'll keep you safe in case we get split up."

irene holds the little plastic flower in her hands in confusion, "what?" she frowns at the dumb human before her.

"the voidlings won't have the heart to hurt you if you've got this on." wendy shoots her a thumbs-up gesture as she adorns her helmet.

the voidling hands it back to wendy, "you need it more."

"i don't need it." the girl takes it back but reaches over to secure it on irene's helmet, "i'm more than capable of taking care of myself, this is my third mission after all!" the human beams proudly.

grunting softly, irene thinks it is pointless to argue with this human. if it will make wendy continue her task, then she will wear the dumb flower. she equips her helmet even though she does not like her head being enclosed. 

"let's go, i gotta empty the garbage."

and irene continues to let this human yank her around.

the progress bar has gone up considerably. at this rate, the humans will be able to return home soon. she didn't get to eat her fill but she does not mind spending time with this overly talkative human.

they are making their way down a particularly long corridor when irene smells a fresh kill. her helmet blocked out a lot of the smell so the body is much closer than she expected. wendy had been leading the way the majority of the time but irene stops her just as they are about to come up on the body.

"is something wrong?" the blue human shoots her a worried look.

irene ignores her as she peeks around the bend to see the imposter making a hasty escape into the vents. remnants of a light colored suit lay in pieces while the actual human has been split at the waist. her fellow voidling is a messy eater and it is getting on her nerves, she might just kill them herself if they are not voted off next.

"oh my god!"

a shrill cry is heard from behind her and she turns her head slightly.

"! ! !" wendy cries in a panic as she scrambles away from the body.

quickly, she tries to reassure wendy, "they will not get you." 

it's not a lie, if her fellow imposter thinks that they'll even touch wendy, she'll snap their neck.

but wendy is distraught, she lowers herself to the ground and squeezes her eyes shut. her human companion has never seen a sight like this before but irene is unable to fully comprehend the overreaction from the human. she places a hand on her shoulder and forces wendy to look at her, "calm down."

a set of terrified eyes meet hers and she does her best to ground her human. and the only way she knows how is with physical affection, it is said that humans like physical touch even though she despises it. she crouches and wraps her small human limbs around her companion, running a hand down her back soothingly. 

"it is okay, they will not hurt you." she mutters gently, "look at me."

her body is shielding wendy from the gruesome sight so she would not have to look at the decapitated body once again. wendy's gaze is slowly drawn upwards as irene continues to hold her. there are tears in wendy's eyes and irene swears she will kick the imposter off when they call for a meeting.

"you are safe." irene reaffirms as she pats wendy gently.

the human nods shakily, "w-we gotta call an emergency meeting now …"

irene whips out her tablet wordlessly and presses the emergency meeting button, an alarm blares throughout the reve for the third time of the day. she helps wendy up and they make their way to the cafeteria. wendy is clinging onto her for dear life now. there is no way she's letting this little blue human die.

at the meeting, her fellow voidling feigns ignorance. there's not a single splash of blood on them, or at least irene could not see any. but she could smell it on their lips.

"it's not that we don't trust you, pink," a human called yellow says slowly, "but we're down to our final few tasks, we can leave once we're done. we know voidlings can't survive anywhere off their planet, i say we take the risk instead of sending someone to die now."

another human nods in agreement, "yeah, there's six of us left too. we can split into two groups."

so the imposter lives — much to irene's distaste. and these dumb humans assigned them to her and wendy. irene would have much preferred if they went with the other humans, they deserve to be slaughtered for not believing her.

they find themselves in the weapons room where wendy's final task is. irene lingers by the entrance as the little human shoots down space rocks with the ship's laser. her fellow imposter is pacing around casually as they wait, even whistling as if they are a human.

everything about them irks irene and she finds herself on guard just in case they try anything. it does not help that they are making their way towards her with a sly grin.

"i thought we were on the same team." they mutter quietly.

irene glares at them while baring her teeth menacingly, "you are a sloppy eater."

"and you are angry because of that? are you on the side of the humans?" the voidling scoffs as they run a tongue over their razor-sharp teeth.

she exhales sharply, "do not test me."

the imposter grinds their jaw as the two voidlings are locked in a silent but heated argument. the tension between them could be felt by wendy who has just finished clearing asteroids.

"are you guys okay?" wendy inquiries gently, "what are you guys talking about?"

irene watches as the imposter puts on an innocent smile and responds to wendy, "we are okay, just discussing how we should kill you." 

time seems to slow down when irene sees them widening their mouth. instinctively, she cracks her jaw wide open and lets her needle-like tongue pierce through the head of her fellow voidling. blue blood splatters across the tiles and irene can taste how repulsive voidling blood is. forcing away the urge to gag, she retracts her tongue and returns to her human form, letting the body flop lifelessly on the floor. she slowly turns to look at wendy who has recoiled in shock. 

irene exhales slowly as she takes off her broken helmet and removes the little flower wendy had given her. their time together is short-lived but following her off the planet was never an option. she approaches wendy slowly and places the flower back on the human's blue helmet. seeing the poor girl flinch and stagger backwards into a wall makes her feel terrible — she is reminded of how much of a monster she is in the eyes of a human.

"i am not going to kill you." irene declares as she tosses her helmet aside.

wendy's large eyes have been darting around the room for an escape and she barely processes what the voidling has said, "w-what?"

sighing, the shapeshifter repeats her words, "i will not kill you."

"w-why?" wendy stammers nervously.

"because you are the most beautiful thing i can see."

a small smile spreads across her lips as she admits the truth. her little adventure in masquerading as her human has come to an end. she forces herself to remember the exact shade of blue that wendy is, this hue will hold a special place in her heart from now on. she turns to leave, figuring it is safer to go before the humans gather once again.

"wait!" wendy cries out quickly, "what about my friends?"

"friends?" irene questions without facing the human.

she can hear wendy getting back up on her feet, limbs clanging clumsily against the metal floor, "are you going to kill them?"

"no." ths voidling hides her feelings of exasperation behind pursed lips, "finish your tasks and go home."

"where are you going then?

“home, before your human friends kill me."

"they don't have to know ..!" wendy blurts softly, “it can be our secret.”

irene turns around and contemplates the blue human momentarily. "what are you suggesting?" she narrows her eyes in suspicion.

"come with us."

"how?"

"everything you know about voidlings is a lie.” wendy begins to explain with an apologetic smile, “you are sentient and intelligent. humans are just afraid of you, we put lies in our notes because we know you can read. you don't have to be trapped on this planet when there's a whole universe out there.”

this is not something she expected to hear when she decided to enter the reve. she is not sure how much she can trust wendy, humans could be more deceiving than they appear to be.

irene tightens her jaw and continues to question wendy, "why are you telling me this?"

"you're different from the other voidlings. you're compassionate and gentle. not like the others who are vicious and savage.” wendy murmurs as she takes a step closer, “you had all the time to kill me, but you didn't. and i want to repay that kindness by showing you a world you've never seen before."

"i only kill when i want to, you do not have to do this."

"why are you rejecting me? don't you wanna see what else this universe has to offer?"

"i do not know anything out there, it makes me feel unsafe.” irene admits, unable to hide the nervousness in her voice, “humans make me feel unsafe."

the prospects of travelling away from this place she's called home for all of her life scares her. in fact, it's never a possibility she had even thought of before. all the knowledge that her elders have passed down about how voidlings burn up outside of their planet's atmosphere have made it sound like leaving would just be a nightmare.

wendy has closed the distance between them without the voidling noticing, she reaches for her hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze, "don't worry, i'll be here to protect you just like how you protected me."

it is strange how she landed herself in this situation, in a quest to fill her stomach, she has somehow ended up with a cosmic companion. exploring an entire universe with someone by her side does not sound so bad now. and it is an added bonus that her companion makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside. maybe she would regret being trapped in a human prison later on, but for now, losing her voidling physique to chase the stars with wendy sounds perfect.

"okay."