She used a gravity well, her dress picking up just a bit more than the rest of her did as she flew in close, stopping as her knee stuck forward to bump lightly against his chest. Her hand settled on Tribute’s shoulder, where the cape didn’t cover him. It took concentration to hold the effect while floating forward, but she was gentle.

All to bring herself to her teammate’s eye level.

“Huh?” he asked.

“Do I send you home?”

“I contributed.”

“Absolutely,” Moonsong told him. “But you had a scare earlier.”

“I’m okay. Good to go forward.”

Her hand gripped the back of his neck. “You’re sure?”

“When we lost Victor, I came close to going down that same road, but I think that was because I was giving too many other people things I needed.”

She gripped him tighter, giving her arm a short shake. “Be careful.”

“Yeah,” he said.

She wanted to say more, but she wasn’t sure what.

The Attendant had been all about holding onto what was important, and here she was, wanting to say five different things to Tribute, but all five were made complicated. She wanted to tell him he was one of those things from the past that were important to her, but the gender difference between them complicated that, and made it sound like a romantic overture. Not that there had ever been a glimmer of anything there, but that lack of a glimmer had been because they were both conscious of that awkward territory and were careful to avoid it.

She wanted to say she knew what he was dealing with, but that risked making him more depressed, pulling him deeper into that space where he might be susceptible to the cracking that had taken Victor.

“The team being together like this, it makes me feel like we’re the only two left,” she said.

“Depending on how you look at it,” Tribute said.

“We’re still here, no matter how you look at it. They’re…”

“Different?” Tribute asked.

“They went far away,” she said.

“I think we did too, Brianna. The cities and towns we protected are on another world entirely, dark, cold, and empty.”

“Is that what you were dwelling on just now?” she asked.

“Some.”

“We might be far from home, but we’re still us. Back there, you saw my dad is still him, my mom… I don’t think we changed,” she said. She saw him move his head, anticipated the protest, and added, “We grew up a bit, that’s all.”

“Yeah.”

“How are you getting along with Capricorn?”

“How do you think?” Tribute asked. He shrugged. “I said some dumb petty shit to him. Calmed down when I was out of range and started getting back my ability to hold back. Still needed a breather.”

“Speaking of,” Moonsong said. “Back when Capricorn turned up again, I did this thing I do sometimes, got petty.”