Proteus Burns......

The planet Proteus had hurtled aimlessly through space for a long time, never following an orbit, never conforming to a trajectory. The characteristic darkness of infinite black emptiness resounded within him. In a different part of the galaxy, a star called Atalante grieved in her loneliness, at events that seemed to change the course of her peaceful gratified existence.
It would come to pass that their paths would collide.

By the time wanderlust Proteus realized that he had been restricting his journeys to a certain part of the galaxy, he had already begun to gravitate towards Atalante. The galaxy would be witness to the anchoring of Proteus, an orbit hitherto unknown to him now created itself around the nova. Meanwhile Atalante, oblivious to the radical change in Proteus, accepted him and thereby entered a new stage in her ontogeny.

As time passed Atalante began to shine more bright, more beautiful, as Proteus gave her reason for existence. The light that she shone reached out into his depths and soon Proteus came of age and life emerged on him, the drifting planet now felt alive. Even though Atalante secretly feared for their insecure future in a volatile galaxy, the bonds that tied them together grew stronger and thus began an age of peace, hitherto unknown to Proteus. But while Proteus and Atalante smiled, the overlooking cosmos wasn't. Little did Proteus know that one day elements within him would be held against.

One cosmic summer, echelons of dark clouds began sweeping across Proteus and soon Atalante was obscured from his vision. The time that Atalante feared had arrived upon them, the galaxy had conspired against Proteus. A set of events were placed in motion that would change their paths for life. Atalante was forced to succumb to the greater powers of the galaxy that began to chart out a separate course for her. A blinded and benighted Proteus was left disoriented as he slowly began to feel Atalante's drift. Proteus tugged as mightily as his planetary mass would permit, but Atalante's weakness crippled him. Afraid to resist the reverential powers, Atalante began the journey dictated to her, bereft with grief, thereby making the final move in an intergalactic alliance.

Proteus, continued to hover, unable to fathom the consequences. The galaxy had done him wrong, his guiding star had been whisked away and he no longer had a raison d'etre. Besieged with rage, his terrain began to split in fiery eruptions, volcanoes spewing fire and ash into his anguished atmosphere. Oceans raged, lightning razed, which soon saw the termination of life on his surface. He glowed with the fires that swept across his plains vanquishing all that came in its path.

The cosmos watches as severed of all his bonds, a burning Proteus plunges back into the depths of darkness............