Here it is! The long awaited one shot for my Seongjoong murder mystery 'Sycophantism'
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T READ THE BOOK
TW: major character death, tentacles, rape, blood and gore, oviposition, mutilation

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"San? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

San set down the bunch of clipped branches he had been collecting in his hands to glance at Seonghwa. The tall man stood at his side with an awkward smile, waiting for an answer.

San stood up with a groan, his knees protesting after having been bent for so long. He left the clipping work for one of their crew members as he joined Seonghwa on a little walk through the plant observatory. Oblivious to their murmuring voices, the other crew members dutifully accomplished their gardening missions.

"I feel unwell," Seonghwa began as San pulled his gloves off. He tucked them in his belt and eyed the minor reddened patches of skin where the grip of the stubborn clippers had dug into his flesh.

"Want me to run a test on your vitals?" San already channelled his energy to divert the course of their route into the sick bay. The gentle shake of Seonghwa's head held him back.

"No, it doesn't relate to anything you could fix. My body feels restless because of my ovulation period."

Not that San could forget that part about Seonghwa, even when it never failed to cause discomfort when he heard about it. The fact that Seonghwa wasn't like the rest of the crew.

"It's been a while since we anchored at the last planet and I-" Seonghwa lowered his voice further when Hongjoong laughed over something on the other side of the garden. With narrow eyes, San watched how Seonghwa's flickering gaze softened. A fleeting smile passed over his lips at the noises their captain made.

"I feel itchy. I need to find a host."

If San hated one thing aboard the ship, it was his specifically government-assigned task to help their alien crewmate. Each time San had to find an excuse for Seonghwa to go roam by himself on a planet, a little part inside of him died. He never asked what happened to Seonghwa's hosts, but he couldn't imagine it to be a pleasurable outcome.

"We haven't had a planet on our radar for a while now," San said with a frown. He couldn't convince Hongjoong to steer his ship to a place that didn't exist.

Seonghwa hooked his finger into his collar to pull it away from his skin. He looked hot in his temperature regulating suit, a thin sheen of sweat clinging to his forehead.

"Then what will I do?"

"I could try getting them out of you via surgery? Although that probably doesn't ease the instinct. Maybe we could cultivate a living organism akin to a sheep that you can take apart."

Seonghwa grimaced at San, wording it like that. Ruthless, San crossed his arms. From the very first beginning, when Seonghwa had handed him the letter from their governor with a broad smirk, declaring that he was an extraterrestrial species, San had disliked the idea. Not in such confined quarters. Not when the rest of the crew remained blissfully unaware.

"I don't think I can wait for any more days in hopes we find a planet soon, San," Seonghwa whispered at him. His eyes seemed glassy, and San despised the feverish symptoms Seonghwa showed. It had never been this bad. San only knew how to help with finding hosts.

"You have to," San grit out, "tell Hongjoong if necessary. You can't endanger the rest of us."

Their slow round through the garden came to an end. Seonghwa fidgeted as San stared at him, unyielding.

"I can't tell Hongjoong!"

"And I can't keep my silence! If you feel unwell, I will tell him. I told you from the very beginning that this arrangement," San gestured between the two of them, "is only relevant until I can't allow you to keep it a secret any longer."

After a beat that had Seonghwa staring down on his shoes in trouble, San sighed. Despite his nature, Seonghwa looked like a helpless patient to him. San didn't want to be too cruel.

"Either you tell him or I do. Whichever is easier for you. If you do it, you may be able to mask it by wanting to pause on a planet for resource reasons or something. You know where to find me if you want to try anything your body might comply with."

Without looking at him again, San whipped around to leave the room. His concerns for his crew thickened behind his skull until it throbbed with a migraine. The first thing he did in the sickbay, his kingdom, was gulp down a pill to dull the pain.

San spent his day in the sick bay sorting through his records. In case Seonghwa wanted to try fighting his instincts medically, he already set aside some soothing pain killers. Until late at night, San he brainstormed ideas on how he could help their resident alien. He didn't want to force Seonghwa into confessing, knowing exactly well how sensitive of a topic it was to him. After years of getting prosecuted throughout the galaxy for his nature and being tightly watched by the government, he didn't want to lose the family he had found in Hongjoong and Jongho. And San understood. He wouldn't want the same to happen between Wooyoung and him, either.

But if Seonghwa couldn't practise restraint and as much as scratched anyone on the ship, San would march right onto the bridge and call him out via the main console. So what if they used all their stun arrows on a single man? San had never seen his alien parts, but he didn't want to get to know them.

Grimly, San sat in his swivel chair and pondered. He didn't check in with the others until a meteor storm later that Hongjoong skilfully guided them through. After that spook, San yielded to Wooyoung's room that he shared with Wooyoung most of the time, even when both of them had their own chambers. When he dropped on the bed with a heavy sigh to kick his boots off his feet, Wooyoung eyed him curiously. He had been busy storing his hairbrush back in the drawer it belonged into, but his boyfriend's distress had him glance at San.

"Something happened? Did one of your precious mixtures crash on the ground again?"

When he came over to wrap an arm around San's shoulders, San brushed him off lightly. Tonight, he wasn't in the mood for cuddles. Too many worries about a rampant alien and what could happen to his friends if Seonghwa lost control clouded his mind. Too many worries about the male with the cute smile that dotted a mole on his lower lip next to him.

"It's nothing," he brushed it off. He was tired of the lies. He hadn't told Wooyoung about it yet, but he planned to resign the moment they returned to their home station. Getting punched in the gut by the news of an undercover alien companion on their very own ship had broken the last string of trust that held San to their higher-ups. Testing the endurance of such a dangerous creature on a flight like this was madness, even when Hongjoong had pleaded for Seonghwa to come.

Pouty, Wooyoung retracted his arm. San saw it in the twitch of his fingers how he wanted to loop their ring fingers together in that gesture he adored so much. He pretended he didn't know.

"Let's just sleep."

"Aw, you said we would fuck in the gardens tonight."

San looked at him. Wooyoung's lips twitched into a suspicious smirk.

"Did I?" San asked. When Wooyoung broke out in giggles, his entire face lit up. San couldn't help the smile that snuck onto his lips at the adorable sound.

"Nope. But it's a good idea! Whatever irritates you, you can take the edge off." Wooyoung tried again, slinking closer to slide into San's lap. This time, San allowed him and caught the younger man's lips in a sweet kiss. Wooyoung's fingers tangled in his hair to tug on the strands gently.

Usually, this position would have enticed San to wrap his arms around Wooyoung and give him anything he ever asked for, but this time, he pulled from their kiss soon. Confused, Wooyoung sulked when he laid them down on the bed instead and patted the blanket flat over Wooyoung's stomach.

"Did I do something wrong? You've been distant all day."

San sighed. He knew Wooyoung was clingy. Knew that in their everything-or-nothing relationship every minute counted. But the fever in his heart that usually burnt ardently for Wooyoung was no more but a weak glimmer today. First, he wanted to know his crew safe. Then, he would gift Wooyoung the moon.

"It's not you, no. Just some me trouble." San switched the light off with his tablet and cuddled against Wooyoung's shoulder. Even in the dark, he could hear the dejected tone in the other man's voice. He detested it when San played his burdens down and tried to worm out of explanations.

"What could be you trouble that doesn't concern us? Or at least me as your fiancé? I'm here to help your troubles."

San winced. He didn't mean to upset Wooyoung, but he had also made a promise. He wouldn't give Seonghwa's secret away, especially knowing that Wooyoung wasn't too fond of Seonghwa. The way San sometimes replied frostily to Seonghwa's jests played into it. Wooyoung had decided never to like a person who San also didn't like.

"Let's just sleep. I will discuss it with Hongjoong tomorrow and then we can desecrate the garden too, okay?"

But Wooyoung was already snappy to him. He moved his cheek away from San's head to look against the wall instead. Saddened, San pulled off his shoulder so the man could turn away from him entirely.

"Fine, don't tell me. Not as if I should care," Wooyoung muttered in the dark. San disliked the distance between them, but he also didn't want to fight more. He would make it up to Wooyoung once his concerns about Seonghwa were resolved.

For a while, San just listened as Wooyoung's breathing evened out, and he slumbered peacefully. San couldn't fall asleep. No matter how long he kept his eyes closed and laid still, his busy mind urged him to do anything that made him feel as if he resolved the situation.

After a few hours of frustration and tired eyes blinking into the darkness, San rose with a sigh. He tucked his tablet and his suit under his arm before he sneaked out of Wooyoung's room and into his own so his restless rolling wouldn't disturb the other man. He didn't even bother with the lights as he sat down on the cold bed that rarely saw him. Blue, the light of his tablet shone back at him as he typed a message. It went privately to Hongjoong.

Can we talk?

San wrung his hand through his hair. Lifeless and misshapen, it came back down to fall into his forehead.

After a few minutes of consideration about whether he should try to sleep alone, he gave up on sleeping entirely. If he couldn't sleep next to his beloved, nothing would work. After leaving his room, he locked the door behind him and left his tablet there so nobody could accidentally access his chat with Hongjoong in case important information about Seonghwa would get shared.

Since he had nothing else to do, San instead returned to the sick bay. He picked up where he had left earlier and tried to puzzle together remedies for Seonghwa based on what he knew about his ovulation. He didn't come up with much. Seonghwa's body functioned differently to any species of animal known to humanity, and he wasn't exactly talkative in the matter.

San made himself some coffee in the middle of the night and sat in the kitchen for a while and just stared out of the window into the stars. The quiet atmosphere was subdued and the thought of his crewmates slumbering softly so close to him warmed San's heart. He hadn't known them for long, but he desperately wanted to know them all safe and taken care of. Even Seonghwa, as far as his kind side was involved.

San had cleaned his mug and was on the way back to the sickbay when the sound of a door sliding open behind him had him glance over his shoulder. Seonghwa stepped out of the room he shared with Hongjoong and made sure that the door was safely shut. When he glanced up, their eyes met.

Wordlessly, San turned to go back to his post. He wasn't in the mood to argue, not when fatigue weighed on him and not when he feared explaining his dilemma to Hongjoong and Wooyoung.

Seonghwa followed him into the sick bay and leaned in the door while San sat down again.

"Did you make up your mind? Want to try some of my medicines?" San kept his voice professional, so his sensitivity to the topic wouldn't show. Seonghwa hummed.

"I had a different idea."

San didn't look at him, too unbothered while he checked his papers. He heard Seonghwa step closer and the door slide shut.

"And that would be?"

All nonchalance dropped at the end of San's sentence when he felt Seonghwa's hand on his shoulder. It didn't grab tightly, but it rested with a certain weight. Stiff, San waited for his answer.

"Since you said you would like to help me... I figured why not make use of that in the most simple way?"

Wary of his intentions, San threw a look over his shoulder. Seonghwa's hands felt foreign on his body, and they shouldn't be there. Both of them had partners they were devoted to.

"What is the most simple way?" San inquired again, exasperated that he had to tickle every answer out of Seonghwa.

"Using you as the host for my eggs."

The warm touch of something slippery to his neck had San's eyes widen. He pushed back in his chair to stand, but the other man was faster than him. Tight, the pink tentacle wrapped around San's neck and latched onto his skin with its evil little suckers. With his jaw clenched, San held his breath as his fingers tugged and scratched at the slippery appendage.

His chair fell over when Seonghwa yanked him backwards and into his body. A tentacle caught it before it could crash onto the ground and pushed it further off. Their struggle was quiet and comprised their low grunts as they wrestled each other.

"Don't fight me, then it won't hurt," Seonghwa growled in San's ear when the medical officer stomped on his foot. His heart lurched in panic when two arms wrapped around him that were followed by more tentacles that latched onto San's body. Desperate, he struggled, but even the adrenaline rushing through his veins couldn't withstand Seonghwa's might.

The tentacle around his neck strung tighter until San could feel his windpipe getting crushed underneath it. His mouth opened as he gasped for air, his voice gone in his shock and lack of control.

This couldn't be happening. Seonghwa couldn't really plan to go through with this. He tried to talk, tried to appeal to Seonghwa's conscience, but only a breathless whimper echoed on the soundproof walls.

Seonghwa used the moment. His arms came up to yank San's wrists off and held them pressed against San's body with one hand. Hot tears brimmed in San's eyes when his head got wrenched back by Seonghwa's free palm. In the mess of limbs and tentacles, San's panic triggered claustrophobia. He wanted to throw up, wanted to run, but most of all, he wanted to breathe. The pain in his neck grew unbearable.

When one of Seonghwa's thicker tentacles plunged down San's throat, his body thrashed. The tentacle slithered deep inside his throat until he could feel it moving in his chest. The tip curled and uncurled as it whipped around to explore his insides. San gagged and coughed, but he couldn't get rid of it. The rough surface of the suckers dragged in his raw throat that fluttered in the attempt to breathe between suffocation and the tentacle plunging down his stomach.

San wanted to beg him to stop. He thought Seonghwa would spook him for his earlier petulance and then back off, but the man never let up. San's tears cascaded over his face like waterfalls and his body twitched and convulsed hectically, but San had lost all control. His blood rushed in his ears as his sight went blurry and gradually darker, as if framed by an ancient camera. The tentacle in his throat went deeper and deeper until he could feel it hit his stomach and curl up there as if it were its new home. San wasn't aware of how Seonghwa panted against his ear, of how the man's soft hair tickled his forehead. He wasn't in pain, but the sensations were so horrifying and foreign that the thought of what was happening alone nearly made him pass out.

San's eyes rolled back when the pressure in his head became so much he felt it would burst. His lungs screamed in the agony of getting no oxygen.

When his knees gave out, Seonghwa held him up to thrust his tentacle down San's body. Speared by the vicious limb, San felt his inner organs burst and rip when the suckers chafed his skin open. Twitching and trembling, he hung in Seonghwa's grip as his body gave up its duties and soiled itself when all of his muscles spasmed.

He didn't stick around for long enough to feel the alien shudder behind him as it came down his throat and filled his torn insides with its eggs. He suffocated under the tentacle pulsing in his mouth and sunk into painless darkness.

-

Yeosang had always had a morbid fascination with anything alien. His favourite animals on earth were octopi for how peculiar and foreign they were with their tentacles and their squishiness. When he had detected the marks on San's neck after they had examined the man's body in the sickbay, both horror and fascination had seized Yeosang. Whatever creature it was that had killed their medical officer, it wasn't just much stronger than the humans. Its intelligence showed in the way it had killed the one person who would have had success explaining the traces left by murder to the rest and identify the killer.

For the longest time, Yeosang didn't believe that the murderer might be one of his friends. His intrigue was dedicated to the idea of finding an alien creature and locking it up in a glass cage so they could study it and take it home to their research team. While Yeosang went around trying to lure a potential octopus from the confinements of wall panels and hidden compartments, his friends were still tense with anticipation. The theory of a virus having killed San was not yet out of the window. Yeosang thought that the body looked too brutally violated to have died of an illness, but after several years of studying the cosmos, Yeosang couldn't deny the possibility of a gruesome disease, either.

In his letter that Yeosang had written to San before they had sent his body into space to be eternally preserved by the icy casket that was space, Yeosang had promised San he would search for the true reason for San's death. He had talked to Wooyoung, had gathered all the details of what had happened between them before San had died, and he had ruled out suicide. It just didn't make enough sense.

His only problem was that there was no suitable living space on board for an alien creature. The crew had investigated every nook and cranny and if the creature was anything like octopi from Earth, it would prefer water over dry land. But no matter how long Yeosang considered it, he found no clue about where it might hide.

It was only after a long discussion with Hongjoong in the gardens that Yeosang considered the sewer system underneath their bathroom. Since it didn't fit humans, they hadn't checked in the pipes, just washed them out with some deadly chemicals. But now that Yeosang's curiosity was roused, he was keen to explore. After all, their chemicals might be dinner to an alien.

His first attempt at entering the septic system wasn't crowned by success. Yeosang sat at the drain in the middle of the spacious room that included the toilets, sinks, and shower stalls all in a vast tiled room that dipped in the middle to lead to the pipes. With a screwdriver he had got from Jongho earlier, Yeosang had unscrewed the lid leading into the dark stomach of the ship. But no amount of shining his flashlight inside and running between the sickbay and the bathroom to investigate the swabs he took of the pipe innards came up with anything out of the ordinary.

While mumbling under his breath and looking up information on how small octopi that were large enough to kill humans could squish together on his tablet, Yeosang sat on the floor. Jongho entered the room in between to use the toilet and screeched at Yeosang to leave it already, but Yeosang had waved him off.

"Don't distract me. Just do your business and leave." The navigator mumbled his reply without looking up so he wouldn't lose his focus. Jongho had complained some more, but left a few minutes later.

When the evening came and the crew cleaned up outside, Yeosang had to give it up. He was in the middle of fastening the lid back in its place when he remembered the probes Mingi and Jongho had designed. If he had a camera on a long flexible rod, he could try to find out whether they maybe had a leak in their pipes that allowed for the alien to hide away and travel under their feet.

Yeosang left his equipment in the bathroom when he dipped out for a few minutes. When he passed Yunho in the corridor, the two of them shared distorted grins. Happiness was difficult when the mourning of San lasted so glumly in the atmosphere. Yeosang missed everyone's smiles, but that had him work twice as hard to collect evidence so soon, they could rid themselves of their terror. He was confident that the unfortunate accident that San's death had been wouldn't endanger their mission.

"I'm downstairs bothering Mingi for a probe in case anyone needs me," Yeosang informed Yunho before he zoomed off. His boots were squeaky on the stairs leading down to the machine room area where Mingi and Wooyoung shared their little tinkering room. It was a cosy place to be. Sometimes, when the days were lazy, Yeosang enjoyed watching Jongho work down here. His hands were a work of art in their skill to create new things.

Yeosang was about to knock on the door and interrupt the sound of hammering inside when his gaze fell onto the lights above him. They flickered oddly and needed a moment to turn on, as if someone had messed with the sensor. Had Mingi done it on purpose so he had time to duck before they blinded him after a long while under the dim lamps inside his dark cave?

Either that or the lines were disrupted by something living between them.

After all, the machine room was directly beneath the bathroom.

Giddy with his hunch, Yeosang forewent Mingi and stalked down the corridor to the reactor hall. When he stepped inside with his eyes directed at the tall ceiling, he tried to make out even the smallest of openings that could hint at something living between the electrical cords. Preferably a tentacled alien over some moth.

He was only five steps into the chamber, however, when his eyes fell on a person down there with him. In the reactor room that nobody ever visited unless Wooyoung did his routine checkups.

The second Yeosang understood what he saw, his eyes widened.

It was Seonghwa, sunken to the ground to lean against the massive pillar with the energy panel. He had lowered his head until his dark hair fanned over his face. Around him and surrounding him like a pillow was a mass of pink tentacles. They sprouted from what appeared to be his lower back and spread out limply behind him on the ground, as if they used the moment of silence to breathe.

Yeosang froze in his step. He wasn't sure if Seonghwa had heard him enter, but he didn't know how to react. Had the alien latched onto his friend? Was what he saw currently a dead body that was not yet discarded by the alien?

Before Yeosang could step closer to investigate, Seonghwa's eyes flicked open. Through the gap between his hair, one of his eyes stared at Yeosang darkly.

Startled, Yeosang calmed his jumping heart down. He couldn't comprehend what he observed. His awkward smile didn't get a response from Seonghwa's face. His mood stayed unsettlingly serious.

"Seonghwa? Are you alright?"

"You saw too much," were the only words that answered him. Then, two tentacles rose from the ground at once to shoot right at Yeosang.

Yeosang didn't react fast enough, too surprised by the sudden life that possessed the appendages. When they hit his eyes, white pain exploded in his skull. Within the flash of a second, his field of vision bathed in red before it was gone entirely. Throbbing and pulsating with pain, his skull alerted him of danger.

Confused by what had happened, Yeosang blindly rose his hands to touch his face. Blood dripped from his eyes to bathe his features in red. He tasted its metallic sting on his lips as he pressed his hands to his eyes to rid them of their pain.

He only found empty sockets.

A scream got stuck in his throat. Too quick for his brain to catch up, the touch of tentacles on him was already back. Slowly, as if he waded through quicksand, Yeosang threw himself around to flee, to alert Mingi of what was going on. But before his foot landed on the ground, he was ripped backwards by the hold of the slippery limbs around his middle. His back met something solid and then two human arms wrapped around Yeosang to keep him close. This time, when his scream escaped his throat loudly, a hand immediately pressed to his lips. Struggling, Yeosang twisted and turned in the grip of the tentacles that seized all of his limbs.

"Why so terrified? This is what you have been searching for. Aren't you fascinated by what will happen?"

Yeosang fought and kicked, but he couldn't believe Seonghwa's strength. It was inhuman, and the tentacles around Yeosang's limbs cut off his blood flow. Agonised and blind, Yeosang tried to wind his wrists out of their grip to elbow Seonghwa. Even in his confusion about what Seonghwa was doing, Yeosang's alarmed brain yelled at him to fight back.

"Bear with me, Yeosang. I'll try to make it quick."

He didn't explain. No mercy, no hesitation. Yeosang's confusion was swamped by icy terror when Seonghwa's fingers found the zipper of his suit and pulled it down until the tentacles could slip inside. Ripping through the fabric, they soon exposed Yeosang to the cold air. Under whimpers and yelps, Yeosang tried to bite Seonghwa's hand, to pinch his thighs shut, but it all was in vain. Over the sound of Mingi working outside and so far back on the ship, nobody heard his panic. The fear of rape sent Yeosang's brain into override and fuelled him with adrenaline, to lash out at Seonghwa.

Yeosang clawed at Seonghwa's hand until the man pulled it away from him with a hiss. His fingers caught onto Yeosang's hands and held them away from his body as one of his tentacles came up to bump against Yeosang's cheek instead. Determined, Yeosang grit his teeth together. His mouth remained sealed tightly as the slimy tip tried to worm between his lips.

"Come on," Seonghwa scoffed. In his blindness, Yeosang received no warning when Seonghwa's fingers hooked around his. With an abrupt snap, Seonghwa yanked his hand back until a crack resounded in the room. Yeosang screamed at the pain flaring in his hand. A gargled sound was all that remained of the howl when the tentacle thrust down his throat and suffocated him.

Desperate, Yeosang chomped down as hard as he could. The taste of bitter alien blood filled his lips when Seonghwa pulled back with a roar. Momentarily, his grip loosened, so Yeosang launched himself away from the tentacles that had been prodding at his lower entrance as well.

He didn't get far. This time, two tentacles hooked around the rows of his teeth to keep his jaw wide open and rendered useless as the third one plunged deep inside. Choked, Yeosang gargled around the brutal abuse of his throat by the flexible slithering appendage. His knees gave out when Seonghwa had to hold him up. The moment the tentacle at his behind had found what it had been searching for, it entered him without preparation or hesitation. The intrusion was violent; Yeosang's body not adjusted at all. Pain flared all over him when he wailed around the tentacle in his throat and tried to clench his jaw shut. Seonghwa countered his defiance by tightening his grip until the bones in Yeosang's jaw snapped. He passed out from the pain when his jaw slid out of place and got held in an unnatural position so Seonghwa could abuse his throat without abandon.

Yeosang had become a single source of pain. His heart stuttered and jumped in his chest as he feared dying from all the pain and damage Seonghwa had done. Blood from his missing eyes entered his mouth and made him choke, and he felt it drip between his legs, too.

When Yeosang focused on his feet instead of his hands, he saw hope behind his blind sight for a moment. In the age-old instinct of defence, his foot kicked up behind him, right between Seonghwa's legs. The man yelped in pain, but he didn't let up this time. Again, his fingers found Yeosang's cramped ones. He broke three more as a punishment until Yeosang was gargling out begs for him to stop.

When his feet lost their connection to the ground, Yeosang threw himself around helplessly. His hips twisted and fought, but the tentacles just gave in and allowed him to wind in the air. Yeosang had no orientation, no sense of being. He presumed he was in the air above Seonghwa, since the next time he heard his voice, it echoed from below.

"You're enjoying this? What a wicked joke."

Yeosang sobbed and fought. The tentacles violating him were so deep inside of him he could feel them stirring up his organs. He tried to vomit, but nothing but saliva and bile dripped from his bloodied lips. Everything was pain and he couldn't even clench his hands through it.

Seonghwa's hand found Yeosang's middle. Despite his fear, or maybe because of it, his length had filled with blood to throb angrily. Upon the first squeeze of Seonghwa's fingers, Yeosang wildly shook his head. He was beyond disgusted, and dying would be better than getting let down to rest after Seonghwa was done raping him with his tentacles. Not that Yeosang's racing heart presumed he would survive this encounter.

"No?"

Some empathy swung in Seonghwa's voice, confusing Yeosang. Was now the time to have mercy on him? After everything he did?

Yeosang yelped when his bottom met the ground. Through his stomach, he could feel the tentacle in him relentlessly thrusting. It must have been joined by a second one some time ago, since they moved separately to dig into his innards.

Blind, Yeosang didn't see what was coming until it already dawned on him. Seonghwa's boot stomped down on his pitiful erection brutally and Yeosang threw his head back when the agony overwhelmed him once more. It took everything over and had his body convulse so brutally that his muscles bulged under his skin. He heard Seonghwa whimper in pain when his lower half rolled onto the tentacle inside of him and squished it against the ground. Yeosang gagged and coughed around the appendage still in his throat that had quickened its pace, as if on the final step to reach its peak.

When Seonghwa couldn't take the fight he put up anymore, he hissed at Yeosang. It was the only warning he got before both tentacles inside of him drove so far into him they had to touch in his stomach. They lifted him off the ground with their freakish strength again as they twisted into a U-shape and took Yeosang's body with them.

Yeosang begged and wept when the pressure on his back increased. He couldn't see Seonghwa's expression, but it must have been stone cold.

Then, with a yank, the tentacles' strain on his spine doubled. It broke right in Yeosang's lower back with a hollow crack.

Yeosang didn't even know if he screamed. If he did, he got muffled by the tentacles coming in his body to leave their mixture of little eggs and sperm inside his guts. His lower side was paralysed and hung with no more motion from Seonghwa's grip. On his upper end, all resistance bled out of Yeosang when his blood loss and the asphyxiation became too much. Bathed in pain and disgust, Yeosang lost all connection to himself. He wasn't around anymore when Seonghwa carelessly flung his body off like a used doll for it to land on top of a ceiling beam.

Sated for the moment, the alien trudged off to nurse itself back to health and soon; the lights flicked off again while Mingi still worked in his room cluelessly.

-

Mingi hadn't slept for more than two hours at once ever since Yeosang had died.

After he had found their navigator slung over a metal beam in the generator room when coming from his tinkering room and surprised that the lights had flickered oddly, Mingi passed straight out. When he had come to, Hongjoong had already found him and the horribly mangled corpse of their dead friend. Mingi awoke in the sterile coldness of their med bay. Only a few feet off, they had positioned Yeosang's shattered body.

Ever since that, Mingi had found no rest. He was skittish and tense, and every gaze that passed between the members of his crew was full of skepticism. After they had found out that the murderer was one of them who pretended so carelessly to be their friend, Mingi barely slept a wink.

Not that he didn't know who to trust. But he wanted to trust all of them, alien or not. In his foolish mind, Mingi hoped the killer would come forward soon and apologise. After having seen just how brutally they had crushed Yeosang between their claws, however, he doubted any sorry would suffice.

Mingi was tired. All the little scares of the crew fighting, of Wooyoung's vicious words hitting his chest, sucked every life force out of him. He spent most nights alone in his room, shivering and trembling as he feared what was lurking in the dark. Any morning that came with no fresh death was both a blessing and strung his nerves tighter.

For not one second, Mingi believed they would make it out of this alive. He missed his mother more than ever and he agreed with Wooyoung's angry demands to turn the ship around. Yet, he also couldn't argue with Hongjoong about the importance of their mission. He adored Hongjoong, trusted him with his life, but this battle was too mighty even for him to win.

The only one who offered solace to Mingi in his hours of isolation was Yunho. The kind man took pity on Mingi's sorrow and protected him from Wooyoung's sharp tongue every so often. Mingi trusted him. He knew the killer wasn't their warm-hearted Military Officer. But he also knew it wasn't Hongjoong. Or Wooyoung, or anybody else.

When Hongjoong locked himself up to unmask himself as the killer, their unity as a group broke apart. Everybody brooded in their own rooms. Wooyoung mourned San, Jongho worked on his tasks in silence to distract his addled mind from insanity, and Seonghwa took care of their captain. Mingi sat in his room, counting the days.

On some nights when he was up all night unable to find sleep, he had to take bathroom breaks after hours of lying in his room with the lights on to ache in his burning eyes. On the first night that happened, he met Yunho outside in the corridor when the man just returned to his room from getting himself some coffee. When he had spotted Mingi haunting the corridors with his empty eyes, he had tilted his head like the concerned puppy he was.

"Can't sleep either?"

Mingi had shaken his head wordlessly. He simply ducked into the bathroom, figuring their talk was over. But when he came back out, Yunho stood in the same spot as before, this time with two cups of coffee. His grin had been too gentle for Mingi to refuse when Yunho followed him to his room.

When they were together, it wasn't that bad. Mingi feared the dark less, and he squeezed some sleep in when he felt safe by Yunho's side. It was no wonder that Seonghwa and Hongjoong were the only ones sleeping well. They had each other's backs. The alien wouldn't attack both of them at once and risk either getting away.

Oh, how wrong Mingi was with that assumption. But before he knew Seonghwa would be the one to kill him, he relished in Yunho's presence.

One evening, after everybody had finished their duties early, they sat together on Yunho's bed and just stared at the floor; Mingi shared his fearful thoughts with Yunho. Through the window, the dark cosmos watched them. Impenetrable and claustrophobic.

"I think I will be the next," Mingi whispered. He felt it in his bones. His detachment made him an easy target and the alien might need Jongho and Wooyoung with their systems maintenance to keep them alive. After all, a damaged ship would also mess with the alien's plans, whatever those might be.

Mingi had never been so scared for his life. Even knowing he would die, he couldn't befriend the icy dread that chilled his heart in his chest.

Yunho grabbed for his hand and held it. His grip alone spent comfort, but it couldn't heat Mingi's heart back up.

"Mingi," Yunho whispered. He couldn't promise safety. No matter how much the crew members fought among each other and how long they glanced over their shoulders hoping to catch something suspicious, they got nowhere. Mingi wasn't made for this type of distress. He thought about suicide often these days. It was better than waiting to be slaughtered like a chicken on a farm.

Trembling, Mingi's flaccid hand laid in Yunho's. He long since had no more tears left to cry. While his heart still thumped wildly in his chest from nervosity, he had accepted their fate already.

"I hope you'll make it. You have always been such a lucky guy. If anyone lives, it will be you." Mingi had tried his best smile, but it ended in a weak grimace.

"I want us all to make it. I will try to divide my luck for all of us," Yunho replied, upset.

The tenderness of Yunho's touch and the soft shine in his eyes in the room's privacy usually would have made Mingi's heart flutter. Now, they warranted just an uncertain smile from him.

"I think not even your luck is big enough for that. And you might give it to the wrong one."

"I don't care. I would give my friends all of my luck if it meant they would be safe."

For a while, they sat there, shoulders pressed together and hands interwoven on Mingi's thigh. He felt himself numb with the seconds passing. Neither Yunho's compassion, nor his familiar humanity, could still strike Mingi's heart.

When Mingi couldn't take the silence and Yunho's sympathy any longer, he pulled his hand from the man's grasp. Awkwardly, he rubbed his clammy pants over his thighs. He dodged Yunho's eyes, seeking his.

Yunho was too hopeful, too trusting. Mingi had already given up long ago. Yunho's time would be wasted on him.

"I'm going back to my room," Mingi said. The lump in his throat was unexpected; he didn't even know what he would weep for.

Of course, the crack in his voice didn't remain undetected by Yunho. When he raised his arm to wrap it around Mingi's shoulders to soothe him, Mingi sprung to his feet. With a shake of his head, he blinked the tears out of his eyes.

"No, I- Let's not sleep together tonight. I feel I'm dragging you down. I don't want you to see me like this." Mingi furiously wiped his eyes to will his tears back where they had come from. He hated how gentle Yunho's gaze was. How understanding. It made him feel weak and vulnerable. He didn't want to dump even more of his worries on the other man.

"Don't go if you are agitated, Mingi," Yunho pleaded with him. He stood, but he didn't approach Mingi. Inch by inch, Mingi backed further towards the door.

"And don't hide from me. I want to be here for you," Yunho added in a whisper. The sudden sob that spilt from Mingi's lips surprised both of them. Mingi pressed his hands to his mouth. He couldn't help his trembling when Yunho took a step in his direction. His hands lifted as if to soothe Mingi as they readied to hold on to him again.

Mingi knew he wouldn't make it. If Yunho touched him one more time, the dam would break. He didn't trust himself. All of this wasn't worth it.

"Don't leave me now. Don't look at me with those eyes and trust me not to fear that you would do something stupid." Yunho's soft pleas were too much for Mingi's heart. They sent it lurching in his chest, jumping and somersaulting. He cursed it until all eternity because now wasn't the time.

Mingi couldn't. Without another word, he turned around and stormed out of Yunho's room. Through his hiccups, he didn't hear how the man came after him.

Yunho caught him in the corridor and firmly grabbed onto Mingi's shoulder. Lightly, Mingi's back connected with the wall as he buried his face in his hands. He tried to keep his wails at bay so he wouldn't wake all of their friends. So much pain resonated in Yunho's voice.

"Mingi," he whispered. No more but a breath of air that filled the privacy between them. When his long fingers wrapped around Mingi's wrists to pull them from his trembling lips, Mingi put up no fight. Hot tears cascaded over his cheeks as he bit his lips.

Yunho ducked his head and kissed Mingi.

At the first moment, Mingi froze. His sobbing didn't quite stop yet, but it simmered down when his confusion stifled it. Yunho's lips were soft on his and even if they tasted like the salt of Mingi's tears, they were a welcome distraction.

Mingi didn't notice he had stopped crying until Yunho's hands cradled his face. He tilted Mingi's head up to kiss down on him with more pressure, asking to be joined.

Shaking hands found the waist of the taller male as Mingi arched against him. Yunho poured all his gentleness and consolation into their kiss as his mouth moved deliberately. Mingi kissed back harder, without coordination, as he responded with desperate anguish. They met in the middle and balanced it out. Mingi allowed Yunho's kisses to take away half of his fear and in return, some warmth seeped back into his stony heart.

Sometime in between, he started crying again, but this time out of gratitude. He didn't know how long he stood there clinging to Yunho. After what felt like hours, Yunho interwove his fingers with Mingi's again and pulled him back to his room, where they kissed until they fell asleep together.

It was only after the passionate kiss Yunho and he had shared in the corridor and after they turned the ship around that a tiny ray of hope sparked in Mingi's chest. Hours after his thin happiness, Mingi learnt he should have stayed with Yunho the night after that. The only reason he hadn't, was because he was exhausted and Yunho was busy late at the bridge since Hongjoong had locked himself up. He lost sleep, waiting up for their schedules to align every night, so Mingi had told him after dinner that he would do some more tinkering with Jongho. Yunho was welcome to join him in his room later if he found the time. First, however, Mingi fell victim to his tiredness long before his usual bedtime.

As usual, his dozing was interrupted every so often by his senses, jerking him awake. Scared of the dark and of what the night held, Mingi was overcome by visions of Yeosang, visions of San. Worst of all were the visions of how he would look after the alien was done with him. Each time he woke, Yunho wasn't there yet, so he continued slumbering, thinking himself safe since it was still work time.

Until one time he awoke and gave it up. He avoided the tinkering room, but he might as well dash down to get his work, check on Jongho, and continue assembling yet another cleaning robot in his room. Not that the ship needed one, but it kept his hands busy. The mess was worth the distance from the place Yeosang had died in. So close to Mingi and he hadn't noticed.

It was the best way he could spend his time until Yunho showed up.

This time when Mingi snuck out of his room, he didn't meet Yunho but Seonghwa. When the man spotted Mingi's haggard features, concerned shadowed his brow.

"Mingi? Are you alright?"

Mingi nodded at him. He was slightly suspicious of the man; of anyone, really, apart from Yunho. He knew their captain trusted Seonghwa with his life, but Mingi wanted to be safe.

"Peachy, as always. Have you seen Yunho?"

"He went with Wooyoung to apologise for slamming him into the wall earlier. I think they fell asleep in Yunho's room, no need to wait for him."

"Oh," Mingi muttered. Would Yunho sleep at Wooyoung's place more often now? Mingi had no reason to be jealous, but he preferred having the man to himself. Even outside of their protection deal. The fluttering notions that Yunho woke in his chest made him feel alive again.

When Seonghwa continued to stare at Mingi with those graceful features of his, Mingi slowly backed away. He tried not to show his doubts around the man since he didn't want to insult him if it wasn't him.

"Well, might as well just sleep then."

He didn't tell Seonghwa he had been on his way to meet Jongho, who was alone downstairs. Those who stayed alone these days played a risky game. Seonghwa should just get his coffee or whatever he had come for and go watch over their captain 24/7.

Mingi typed his password into his door, and it slid open again. When he glanced over his shoulder, Seonghwa smiled at him, but it didn't reach his unsettling eyes. In the light from above, eerie shadows were cast over his features. Mingi's heart stilled in his chest, but he blamed it on the tiredness.

"Goodnight, Seonghwa," he grinned instead.

"Goodnight, Mingi."

Mingi's hands trembled when he locked himself in and crawled underneath his blankets. He shook and trembled for a while but fell asleep even without Yunho once more.

When he woke up next time, it was to something blocking his mouth and throat. Fingers dug into his cheeks to keep his jaw open as the squishy thing lazily thrust into him and muffled his alarmed noises. It was only a moment after regaining his bearings that Mingi figured out the same was happening to him under the blankets bunched around his hips.

When the panic settled, his instincts overrode his brain. He thrashed out, but powerful limbs that were much stronger than a human could ever be held him in place. Upon his struggle, they only pressed him closer to the man lying behind him.

Terrified, Mingi stared into the darkness of his room. His night light that he had left on had been shut off. Soft hair tickled his ear when a person leant over him.

"Oh, you sweetheart. You're so demure and delicious. I knew you would be easy prey."

Seonghwa. Seonghwa's voice.

Mingi's body froze up like that of a terrified bunny. He gained no pleasure from the tentacles moving inside of him so flexible and squishy, but his breath stuttered in his chest from shock.

Mingi's head was glaringly empty. The thought of what was happening and what the true horror of their alien crewmate would mean for the near future didn't settle with him. As if his submission could appease the man further, Mingi stayed stone still.

"I originally wanted to seek you out before Yeosang. But you never checked on those lights I messed with. Poor Yeosang found me first."

Seonghwa blew on Mingi's ear and made him flinch. With a giggle, the alien nuzzled him again. The way he held Mingi like a lover was all kinds of wrong.

Mingi didn't get to be guilty about Yeosang when Seonghwa continued.

"I will make this quick since you are so sweet and I am in a good mood. Just close your eyes."

Mingi couldn't move a muscle. Cold and lifeless, he laid in Seonghwa's arms until the man covered his face with a hand. The tentacles stopped moving, just settling down. His lips could barely detect the careful draw on them as they anchored in Mingi. Trembling and unable to breathe, Mingi waited, tense.

And then, once the tentacles had found a good grip wrapped around his intestines, Seonghwa yanked them out of Mingi's body. Mingi was dead before his scream could leave his throat.

-

Wooyoung was so fucking done with the world.

Life had never been too kind to him. Everything he had ever been proud of or had enjoyed, he had worked hard for. He had bled, cried, and sweated in hours of work to become a member of the Academy, had spent every night up late to make up for bad grades and had not given up for months after his teacher told him he doubted Wooyoung would come aboard the Elysium for the space exploration of the century. Wooyoung had received nothing out of luck of the kindness of the universe. He was tough, and he was used to suffering for his rewards.

Or so he thought. Until he had met San. San, with his charming dimpled smile. San, whose eyes had shone in delight when he had shaken Wooyoung's hand in a gentle grip as they got introduced. San, whose voice had been so soft when he told Wooyoung he loved him for the first time.

Meeting San had been the luckiest moment of Wooyoung's life. As if all of his bad Karma had taken a break to make up for his hardships and grant him with the love of an angel. Genuine love, unlike any hookup Wooyoung ever had before. Love that swept him off his feet and that had him swoon for the new emotions fluttering in his stomach.

San and Wooyoung had become a dream team so quickly. Every part of their personalities clicked as if their atoms were meant to mingle with each other to become one in a perfect fusion. They had laughed together, had kissed under the stars, and had the best sex Wooyoung would ever get in his life. When San had proposed only two months into their relationship, Wooyoung had disregarded any advice his aunts and grandmas had ever given him on taking his time with marriage. He had accepted right away and promised to marry San the second they set foot back on their home station.

All of that never happened. The dream shattered like a piece of glass and what remained was sorrow and pain worse than everything Wooyoung had ever suffered through in his life. San died - no, he got murdered by one of their very own crewmates. Murdered and thrown into space as if his body was nothing but a plaything for the killer to throw around.

The moment Wooyoung had seen the warm eyes he loved void of any life, something inside of him had ripped that wasn't supposed to be ripped. Nothing in the world could ever fix it, and the pain took his breath every so often. As he laid alone in the bed he had shared with his fiancé only days ago to curl around his shattered heart, it drew wails and sobs from him that sounded inhumane in their despair.

Wooyoung was horribly alone. San wouldn't come back.

The pain only got worse when Wooyoung found no understanding among his crew members. None of them lost someone as precious as he had, and none of them acknowledged San's death emotionally. They stared at San's corpse with their clinical eyes, pulled and prodded at his body as if he repelled them the second his body had lost its warmth.

Wooyoung knew they locked their emotions and fear away, but he wished they didn't. He wished he wasn't the only one screaming at the universe at night. He wished someone understood.

San would have understood. Because San always understood him.

For Wooyoung, it was clear who the killer had to be the moment they found out that it was one of the crew members. San had never voiced his wisdom on the alien towards Wooyoung, had never actively treated someone with contempt, but Wooyoung knew still.

It wasn't their captain. San's letter of resignation wouldn't have read that he would tell the captain of the alien in an emergency if the captain was the alien. It just made no sense, even when Hongjoong isolated himself and pretended he was the monster. In his desperate heroic way to show his concern, their captain just distracted them all from searching for the actual killer.

It also wasn't Yunho. Yunho was a goody-two-shoes with an extra soft spot for Venus puppies with three eyes and for Marsians with red hair. Wooyoung knew how humans worked well enough after loving them and being close with them for so many years. If Yunho faked all that, Wooyoung would go psychotic.

It also wasn't Mingi. Before he died, Wooyoung considered him since he trusted nobody in that treacherous crew that wrote him off as insane for his heartbreak, but the man was simply too naïve that it could be him. Wooyoung doubted he could keep a secret, and he felt confirmed when they scraped Mingi's guts from the walls of his room.

Wooyoung knew it had to be Jongho or Seonghwa. Both of them were off in different ways. Jongho's holey excuses, as well as the smoothness that Seonghwa had, despite being a criminal, hunted throughout the universe.

Seonghwa's alibis were good, that much Wooyoung couldn't deny. The captain and he stuck together all the time and Hongjoong was no fool. He would have noticed anything off about Seonghwa. So Wooyoung settled for Jongho and his unknown origin as his primary goal. Faking papers in this modern day and age was absolutely impossible. As the only one adopted, he could easily pose as human but never be confirmed.

Wooyoung was just a bit off with his guess.

Because Seonghwa never needed to falsify his papers. The government that backed him up willingly provided him with a human identity since they had sent him back for rehabilitation. In their way, they tested how Seonghwa's alien behaviours got along with humans. The answer that it wasn't Jongho had been in San's letter, but Wooyoung hadn't seen it no matter how often he sat hunched over the paper while his salty tears left dark spots on it.

Despite his efforts, nobody wanted to listen. Nobody wanted to consider the truth; they all hid away from it like cowards. Because they had friends to lose, loved ones that they didn't want to suspect for no price in the world.

Since Wooyoung had nothing to lose anymore, he dropped those unnecessary barricades of fear to ease the load on the shoulders of those who pretended they could still be a team. Yet they hated him for it. Instead of investigating with him, they diverted their eyes from the truth and glanced away.

"Maybe they don't know they carry the alien."

"Maybe we will make it back alive."

All lies. All a well-spun tale to keep them from teetering off the cliff to insanity. Wooyoung saw right through it. And he didn't defy madness. Because their situation was pure horror and people were getting ripped apart by one of their so-called 'friends.' He trusted no one, whether or not he believed they could be the alien. They all sided with the killer by letting him massacre them instead of investigating their situation properly.

When it all got too much, and the truth got too uncomfortably close to them, they locked Wooyoung up. In a cell that had a camera, so Hongjoong could claim that the alien wouldn't attack Wooyoung there as if it had proved to be a stupid creature so far. They all knew they set Wooyoung up for his death. Their vote was unanimous.

Wooyoung hated them all so much. But through weeks of getting ignored and shunned, of getting pitiful gazes and getting called insane behind his back for being so emotional, he saw no necessity to fight anymore. Not for those who had discarded him so quickly. Not when he never had a reason to in the first place.

Late at night in his cell, Wooyoung couldn't do anything but stare at the ceiling while he played with his ring. While he awaited death, he remembered his time together with San. Remembered how the Medical Officer had explained to Wooyoung so proudly how he had made their rings himself after many failed attempts of Mingi teaching him and how they matched each other. How San had also never been prepared to find love in such an unlikely place, but he fell just as hard for Wooyoung as Wooyoung fell for him.

They were a match made in heaven. A couple, even Seonghwa and Hongjoong, who were so accustomed to each other, were jealous about. Two souls that never should have got parted and that weren't one without the other.

The sound of footsteps on the plastic floor of their ship startled Wooyoung out of his thoughts. He glanced at the camera, and then at the cell bars that made up one wall of the rather narrow room.

It was Yunho, with his tablet held between his freakishly huge fingers as he approached the cell.

Wooyoung greeted him with a wry smirk.

"What, is it you, after all? You weren't my prime suspect," he said.

Yunho didn't show any irritation. He just sighed and came to stand on the other side of the cell bars.

"I'm not here to do anything to you. We need your help with a door logging system."

Wooyoung crossed his arms behind his head.

"Would I help you? After you locked me in here?" The slap he had received from Hongjoong earlier still stung in his cheek. Not because of the pain. Wooyoung's pride and his trust had taken damage from it. He should stop caring already.

Not that he didn't deserve it. He would also slap Hongjoong if he insulted San. Maybe not if San wasn't confirmed alien-free yet, however.

"I fear yes. Hopefully, it will deter the alien from attacking again, though." Yunho gave him a sympathetic smile.

Wooyoung couldn't deny that. If the killer wanted to stay undercover for a while longer, he wouldn't easily give his identity away. It might mean another night that Wooyoung would live.

With a sigh, Wooyoung sat up and threw his legs over the edge of the bed. Yunho handed him his tablet through the cell bars.

For a while, they sat on opposite sides of the bars while Wooyoung worked. Yunho didn't interrupt his task progress. Wooyoung's busy fingers flew over the tablet as he fixed up a system to log their doors. Maybe if they had thought of it sooner, they would have caught the killer already, but Wooyoung didn't care anymore. If the alien was as smart as he thought it was, Wooyoung would die tonight and he wouldn't get to rip the killer apart piece by piece as he deserved. Door log yes or no.

After an hour, Wooyoung handed the tablet back wordlessly. His knees ached when he stood to return to his bed. Surprised by his speed, Yunho lingered, unsure of what to say.

"Wooyoung... Thank you."

Wooyoung just shooed him off with a dismissive hand. He needed time for himself.

Yunho stuck around for a moment longer. Then he tucked the tablet under his arm.

"See you tomorrow," he mumbled in his soft and warm voice before he hurried off.

Wooyoung wondered if Yunho would die. When he would die. Yunho deserved the least pain out of all of them. He was a kind soul. He hurt after Mingi's death, even if he didn't show it.

For a few hours, Wooyoung laid in his dimly lit room and waited. He had barely slept since San had died. His dreams were plagued by guilt and yearning. Tonight, he had no reason to regain energy. The crew had already decided his work wasn't worth enough to let him run free.

He guessed it was after two in the morning when steps sounded in the corridor again. He challenged himself to lie still, as if drawing out the big revelation. Excitement and fear throbbed in his belly when the boots halted in front of his cell. The image of San's features in death reminded him of what would happen to him.

Wooyoung breathed in deeply before he turned his head.

And he wasn't disappointed. Seonghwa stood with his arms crossed just outside of the camera angle. A cruel smirk played around his full lips. The crooked grin looked scarily handsome on his features, but it evoked nothing but a dry chuckle from Wooyoung.

He had been so close. So right all the time. But it all had backfired. In his attempts to unveil the killer, he had given the crew only more reason to trust and protect him. How long had Wooyoung discussed this? And Hongjoong had never once considered it to be his lover.

All of Wooyoung's attempts; in vain.

The fresh rage that filled his chest was ugly and sinister. He had been discarded so easily, so he would do the same to them. He wouldn't be there to watch how they broke each other apart, but he wished all of them hell. The same hell they brought upon Wooyoung and San with their ignorance.

As Wooyoung sat up on the bed, he glanced at his ring. Comforting and secure, it wrapped around his ring finger to remind him of San. His thumb brushed over the warm metal.

They would be back together. Soon.

"So it was you all along. Consider me impressed for getting away with it," Wooyoung spat. The solution had been so obvious, so clear. Right in their captain's bed all the time. Wooyoung had pointed it out many times, but Seonghwa slithered away ever so smoothly.

Seonghwa didn't comment since his voice would get recognised by the camera. He simply unleashed his alien form for Wooyoung to ogle at. Pink tentacles spilt from under his shirt to collect behind him. Some of them hovered in the air to curl and uncurl while the little white suckers breathed around nothing. Others laid on the ground heavily. The sight was obscene, but yet it matched Seonghwa ridiculously well.

Wooyoung knew what those tentacles could do. What they had done to his friends. And while he feared them with all of his sickened heart, he also barely reacted. He wouldn't fight anymore.

"Let's strike a deal. You'll make this quick and in exchange, I won't scream your name through the entire ship. You know I would be able to." Wooyoung smirked. It was a desperate tactic, one that would save him some pain and that would make his crew members understand their fault for his death when they watched him get murdered on tape tomorrow.

Wooyoung told Seonghwa just that. Said it to his face how he wanted the crew and him to suffer. Wooyoung loathed all of them. The survivors deserved no better fate than the killer now that they had caused so many deaths already. If they had been more careful, Yeosang and Mingi wouldn't have died, either.

Seonghwa's smirk broadened. His malicious eyes glinted with intrigue. Wooyoung guessed he was the first person who didn't fight back.

He stayed seated on the bed as Seonghwa's tentacles slithered closer through the cell bars. Slow and agonising, they felt over the ground as if the blind appendages had to get used to their surroundings first before they lunged at Wooyoung.

Wooyoung never parted his eyes from Seonghwa's. He looked at him when those tentacles wrapped around Wooyoung's body. Looked at him when the two strongest ones attached to the skin of his jaw to get a good grip.

Seonghwa's smirking lips mouthed a word at him.

"Goodbye."

Then, he ripped Wooyoung's head off his shoulders.

-

Yunho was one of the last survivors. He didn't know if he would consider his long survival part of his lucky streak. The possibility of life sounded unattractive for the price of carrying four of his friends to their icy graves in space. Under the weight of a constant death thread and his friends going crazy for losing their friends and loved ones, Yunho didn't feel as if fortune was on their side. Yunho was no exception. He, too, had lost some dear to him. Someone whose worth in his heart he only understood days before he had to cradle his dead body in his arms.

For Mingi, Yunho wanted to pretend to be strong. Just how Mingi had needed his support; the other three remaining crew members aside from Yunho would need it, too. Or rather, the other two, since Yunho knew one of them was an alien. Although he diverted his eyes from that truth skilfully.

Yunho liked to think that he stayed cool and composed for most of their horrible space trip. But with every day passing, with every new dead crew member that showed up in various states of mutilation, his carefully erected walls crumbled. Mingi had hit him the worst. That guilt would gnaw at him until the minute he died.

Yunho still wasn't over the unfairness of Wooyoung's death, either. Even though he had visited the man last and even though he had pondered just unlocking the door to hide Wooyoung in his room to ensure his safety, he had left the man there. In the back of his mind, he had known Wooyoung would die. And he hadn't acted, which made him just as guilty as the killer. As if to punish himself, he had watched the video of the man dying over ten times. It looked surreal, as if Wooyoung was part of a gory movie. As if Yunho hadn't found him himself.

No matter how often Yunho watched it, and no matter how lousy he felt, he couldn't make out the killer. He stood hidden well in the shadows and never even as much as put the corner of his shoe into the sight of the camera. Yunho's research did nothing but leave him drained and desperate for anything that would help their situation. He was sure the killer giggled in the dark behind him somewhere. Worse even because only the three people he spent every minute with by now were options.

Ginda was so near now. Yunho didn't want to give up hope. He couldn't. But the nervosity weighed on his shoulders like a ton of rocks.

Yunho believed they could do it when all four of them camped out on the bridge. With their eyes on each other at all times, they could protect everyone and discover the killer the moment something suspicious happened.

Hongjoong distracted himself by writing his logs and ordering Seonghwa and Jongho around, who gladly took any task thrown at them. Yunho mostly ran on coffee and sugar that had his leg bouncing as he finished up his report to Mingi's parents.

That one had taken him the longest to write. No amount of words could summarise how guilty Yunho felt about Mingi's death. How desperately he wanted to say he wished he would have been with Mingi that night, but then maybe someone else would have died. Mingi had entrusted his safety with Yunho, had shared all of his fear with him. In his mind, Yunho swore to never leave Mingi to die. Until he had done just that. He couldn't imagine his terror knowing Yunho wouldn't come to save him from the claws of their murderous friend.

Yunho didn't suspect anyone. He firmly believed the killer wasn't aware of the lethal alien steering their bodies. Suspecting friends had brought endless pain and suffering over their crew, and he wanted to give everyone the same chance. After having to fight Wooyoung over this matter and parting with him in discord, Yunho would rather trust too much instead of too little.

He wanted for everything to return to normal and for all eight of them to fly peacefully again. Also, maybe, to spend more time just with Mingi. Since all that was impossible, however, Yunho could only try to save as much as possible with what was still left.

That was why he spared Jongho when the door logs pointed at his involvement because of his night activities. It was such a straightforward answer. Two doors locked, one open, and a dead body. The answer was unmistakable. But Yunho didn't want to cause another death. Whether his kindness would spare an innocent person or whether it would be met with mercy from a guilty one, he hoped for the best. He couldn't do anything but hope until they arrived.

When for a few days nothing happened and they approached Ginda at a constant speed, Yunho dared to let that hope become his sole purpose. He regained some enjoyment as he spent time with the three remaining crew members that were just as scarred at him. All of them desperately pulled through with all their remaining courage. After several days without a death, they dared to smile brittle smiles again and joke around a bit.

As usual, Seonghwa and Hongjoong stuck together to spend the support for each other that they all craved so desperately. Yunho had teamed up with Jongho by default. So when they all made their way to the kitchens, the two lovebirds were still far behind on the bridge. Recently, their kisses had become more romantic and trusting again. Both Jongho and Yunho appreciated the pure love between their captain and his boyfriend too much to interrupt them.

When Yunho and Jongho snuck off together first, mutual understanding to leave the other two to a moment of privacy while still in ear-shot passed them. Jongho grinned at Yunho as he jabbed his thumb towards the bathroom.

"I'm going to take a shower."

Yunho nodded and leaned against the wall opposite of the door leading to the bathroom. He would guard the door until Jongho came out again. With him alone in there and Seonghwa and Hongjoong outside, nothing could happen to him.

By the time Seonghwa and Hongjoong caught up with Yunho, they stayed by his side as well. With only a few of them, the golden rule of making sure that everybody stayed in the same place worked. They could keep their eyes on each other and make sure nobody isolated himself to become the next victim. It was exhausting and tense; the dread of betrayal looming behind everyone's sunken eyes. All of them needed rest and were close to snap, but they had to make it only a while longer. This tactic worked best so far, even if Yunho wanted to doubt Hongjoong and Seonghwa would do anything to each other with how much time they spent alone and unscathed.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa whispered discreetly while Yunho concentrated on the noises of Jongho splashing around in the shower. Before San had died, the man would hum or sing occasionally while he was in there. But his honeyed voice had fallen silent with mourning and depression. Yunho hoped he would get to hear Jongho sing again one day.

When the wet noises of the water faded out, Yunho expected it to get shut off and for Jongho to emerge again. But the water kept running.

For a minute, nothing happened. Then it was five.

Yunho exchanged a glance with Hongjoong when his unrest made him shuffle on his feet. All of them were out here, so nothing could have happened to Jongho. Unless there were new theories about the killer that they hadn't considered yet. Was it a separate entity that only possessed crew members' bodies when needed, as Yeosang had assumed?

"Jongho?" Yunho knocked on the bathroom door and hovered, waiting for an answer.

Nothing but the falling water responded to him.

Upon Hongjoong's nod, he entered. The other two would guard the outside so Yunho wouldn't run into a trap.

Yunho snuck inside the room with a polite caution to his steps. He didn't want to disrupt Jongho's privacy if he had just spaced out. With long breaks to give Jongho time to react, Yunho inched closer to the one bathroom stall that had steam rising behind it and a shut curtain. The ugly green tint was drenched dark with water. He could see Jongho's silhouette behind it. The stillness of his shoulders looked unnatural. Restless, Yunho glanced left and right to make sure they were alone. Quiet, the sterile bathroom surrounded them.

Yunho called out for Jongho again, but remained unheard. He bit his lip when he stepped closer, about to yell Jongho's name directly on the other side of the curtain. However, his steps must have alerted the man inside the cabin. Without warning, his shadow moved abruptly. A jarring noise of metal screeching got drowned out by the rushing steam and then the curtain whipped open around a lunging body so suddenly that Yunho was left no time to stumble backwards.

Fear and determination contorted Jongho's features into a grimace when he launched himself at Yunho. His muscles bulged and flexed under his tanned skin that was still wet. The weight of his muscles and bones combined were too powerful for Yunho's uncertain hands to block.

Yunho saw too late that the man's fist wielded the small handrailing that he had ripped off from the wall of the shower stall. It came crashing down on him with all the might a fear-fuelled Jongho had. When the metal connected with Yunho's head, the sharp edge dug into his skin nastily and scraped against his skull.

Yunho howled in pain. The body crashing down on him and ripping him to the ground muffled the noise. He couldn't keep up, only knew pain that zapped from his skull through his body and had his limbs twitch. None of them worked as they should.

Black spots danced in front of Yunho's eyes and he could feel the blood gushing out of his injury. His arms flailed when he felt around blindly, trying to push Jongho off of him. He forgot how to talk, even if he still could have tried.

For a moment, there was just pain and no movement. As if Jongho had frozen in the middle of his defence, he just sat on Yunho while Yunho slowly lost consciousness. He couldn't even lift his hand anymore to press it to his head and ease the agonising pain.

He wasn't mad. Just incredibly confused. Had Jongho waited for someone to come in to strike? No, he had looked startled. It was Yunho's fault that he got attacked.

Jongho said something, but Yunho didn't understand him. The rushing of his blood in his ears drowned out everything.

Then he couldn't breathe anymore.

At first, Yunho didn't understand. He thought he had just passed out after the surprise attack, that drained his life out of him. But when his weak hands found two arms pressing down on his windpipe, icy understanding dawned upon him.

His fruitless tugs on Jongho's hands were barely accompanied by any feeling in his hands. Yunho knew he was dying - that Jongho was killing him - but he didn't understand why. The only reasonable explanation was that he had scared Jongho so badly he got attacked. But why wouldn't the man apologise and help him, then? Yunho would forgive him in a heartbeat.

Yunho didn't have the consciousness to think about it further. His sight blacked out when all senses left him.

His last thought was that Jongho hadn't attacked him with tentacles and that he hadn't planned this murder. Their scenario was an entirely different one than the one the killer had set up with Wooyoung. Jongho had killed him with a piece of metal and his hands, just like a human would.

But that meant that Yunho could deduct another thing.

Jongho wasn't the alien.

There was only one person left available that hadn't been proved innocent, and Yunho wouldn't be around to protect Hongjoong from him.

It was Seonghwa.

Following that harrowing epiphany, there was only darkness.

-

Jongho had done everything to ensure he wouldn't stand out as suspicious. The alien and the prospect of dying from its brutality didn't scare him as much as the possibility of getting mistrusted by his friends. He had always been honest about where he had been when all those horrible murders happened. About what he had been doing, no matter how suspicious it would make him sound. In his head, telling the doubtful truth made him less questionable since the alien would try to mask its actions.

Wooyoung had been dead for a while now, but his words still rang in the back of Jongho's head. Hurtful words that denied Jongho's origin and his family bonds to Hongjoong, his beloved brother. All his life, Jongho had been coddled and ensured that he was welcome in their family and not worth any less for being from a different planet and unknown origins. Teachers, classmates, his friends, they all had ensured him he was still a normal person, just like anyone else. All of them had made sure that Jongho felt like part of the family. Never once, he doubted his place there.

Wooyoung's words had cut deep because they spoke a truth even when they came from a place of wrong assumptions. In the suffocating innards of their claustrophobic ship filled with the scent of blood and betrayal, Jongho couldn't help but let them get to him.

It all spiralled downward from Jongho's carefully upheld faith in their group and his brother when Wooyoung died. After Jongho had confessed to manning the oxygen regulations around the same time that the other man had died in his cell and unlocking his door as the only one for that, distrust crossed Hongjoong's features for the first time. And that distrust had shattered a part inside of Jongho that had held his sanity in brittle threads.

Out of all the people on the ship, Jongho had always trusted Hongjoong blindly. And Hongjoong had always trusted him blindly. There should never be a doubt between them. Their solid relationship had saved Jongho on lonely nights when he shook and shivered out of fear of getting mistaken for the killer. As long as he knew Hongjoong was there for him, Jongho could ease his anxiety.

But as soon as Hongjoong didn't know anymore whether or not he could believe in Jongho, because fear and loss clouded his mind, Jongho lost his confidence.

Seonghwa still had some words of comfort for Jongho. He assured him they wouldn't make hasty decisions and that the few of them were too important to lock anyone away unwarranted. As if the man's words were his sole lifeline, Jongho clung to them.

But he became jumpy. Knowing their eyes were on him, suspecting him, Jongho took care of his every step. He stuck around near them when they asked him to, followed his orders and did nothing out of the ordinary. He glanced over his shoulders to check on their opinions and the darkness in their gazes more than he searched for the alien killer. Maybe his act was too desperate. Maybe it made them more wary.

Jongho knew it wasn't him. Yet, he had no way of convincing his friends of that. Everybody would deny being the murderer when asked. Hongjoong of all people shouldn't need convincing. He should believe in Jongho, no matter what. Because that's how they always were growing up together. Hongjoong would always pledge for him, even in the rare cases that Jongho actually stole the cookies from the jar. Their mother would forgive them with a fond smile because their loyalty was more precious than getting them punished.

Hongjoong lost that loyalty from his eyes. And nothing scared Jongho more than that.

He was desperate to do everything right. And it made him jumpy to the point that he attacked his own friend.

Yunho's death was an accident.

When the man had crept into the bathroom behind Jongho, Jongho stood leaned against the wall in the shower stall, lost in thought about how he could prove his worth to his friends. He felt lonely and lost and was in there for longer than necessary. Every second that passed, he felt worse for making them wait, but also couldn't get his lethargic body to move.

He didn't hear a person coming in until a boot squeaked on the wet tiles. The sound made Jongho's blood run cold. A moment later, the heat of power lit him up like a star. In the terror and dread that had overcome the entire ship to cloud them with poisonous thoughts, Jongho's instincts acted for him.

With no other weapon to defend himself nearby, Jongho ripped the steel railing from the wall that offered purchase in case someone slipped on the wet floor. The screws came loose under his bulging muscles and without regard for his nudity, Jongho whipped around to attack.

It was Yunho. Jongho's prime suspect since he knew to trust his brother and his brother's boyfriend whom they had known for so long. Seonghwa was too close to Hongjoong that he could hide being an alien from him; loved him too deeply. Hongjoong would know if it was him, and he wouldn't have brought him along.

Jongho saw none of the feared tentacles on Yunho, but he didn't wait to get to meet them. His wrist swung down with more force than he had intended to put into it, but adrenaline and fear fuelled his movements. For a moment, maddened power overcame him as he dawned on the tall man. He could do it. He could beat the alien before it slaughtered yet another person.

The thwack on Yunho's head was sickening. Jongho stumbled back when the Yunho collapsed on the floor, helplessly slipping on the tiles. The blood cascading over his features and staining his suit was much more than Jongho anticipated. Ready to whack him again and ignore his friendly features, Jongho gripped the railing until his knuckles turned white. He wouldn't go down without a fight.

A beat passed, but Yunho didn't get up again. His weak groans only carried pain. An all too human pain.

Icy dread washed over Jongho.

No tentacles? No poison? No alien eggs? If it were this simple, someone else would have defeated the alien long ago.

When Yunho stayed down where he was, Jongho lost his grip on his weapon. Despite his mistrust, he collapsed onto the ground next to the dying man. He hadn't meant to hit the Military Officer that hard. He had thought he would put up a fight.

Panic overcame him when he understood the implications.

"Oh fuck. No, no, no, Yunho."

Jongho muttered to himself as he glanced at the door. Seonghwa and Hongjoong were somewhere on the ship. He had last seen them flirting on the bridge. If they came in to witness this mess, they would definitely think it was Jongho. They would condemn him.

With scared eyes, Jongho looked back at Yunho, who tried to reach for Jongho's arms. His limp hands kept falling back down into the massive puddle of blood staining the floor.

Jongho had to make it look like an accident. It was his only way to live. His only chance. If Seonghwa kept Hongjoong busy on the bridge, he had time.

"I'm so sorry, Yunho," Jongho whispered. He swung a leg over the man's stomach, coming to sit on his tall body. His hands pressed down on the man's windpipe while Jongho inwardly sent all his prayers and apologies to the man.

He didn't know if Yunho was the alien or not, and he didn't think about it. He only thought about how to save his own skin from Hongjoong's judgmental stare.

Trembling, he let go of Yunho's throat when his body stopped spasming. Dead men told no tales. Maybe Jongho could get away with it.

He ran over to the shower head that still wet the floor without break and steamed up the room. He got rid of the worst mess on Yunho, rinsing the blood off himself, too. But just as he shut off the shower to drag Yunho further into the room and prop him up as if he had fallen and split his head open by himself, the door flew open.

Both Hongjoong and Seonghwa stood there. And they both stared at Yunho's dead body in Jongho's arms.

Jongho's heart stood still. His strength gave out on him and his tongue was like a brick in his mouth. No amount of explanations could explain his poorly fixed murder scene.

"Hongjoong," he tried weakly. He searched for that loyalty in Hongjoong's eyes. Searched for it so desperately, but he found none of it. He only found distrust and terror in his two friends' faces.

"This is not what it looks like."

"What do you mean?"

When Jongho stepped back from Yunho's body to raise his hands defensively, his foot met the metal railing on the ground. It screeched when it scratched against the tales. Once more, Jongho's blood chilled in his bones. There was no going back now.

He tried to explain, came up with excuses and then told the truth, but they didn't listen. He probably wouldn't have listened to himself either if he stood in their place.

It was over for Jongho when Seonghwa, the one who had supported him so far when Hongjoong couldn't, detected the bruises Jongho's hands had left on Yunho's throat. Jongho was void of any excuses, void of any words.

He allowed them to drag him off and lock him in a supply closet. Allowed their gazes filled with disappointment and disgust on him. Allowed them to whisper behind his back how he could be so cruel to their other friends.

Jongho got consumed by guilt. He couldn't sleep from his terror of what would happen to him on Ginda. He scratched his hands bloody to rid them of the feeling of Yunho's throat fluttering under his palms as he squeezed all life from the man. And he pulled at his hair whenever his own wrongdoings caught up with his rational brain. He had failed them and himself. Had proved to be the monster Wooyoung had painted him as.

Jongho wasn't the murderer, but he had killed Yunho. And the weight of that deed crushed his heart under it until he was no more but an empty vessel of pain and loneliness.

It wasn't until Jongho had his nightmare that he thought about the connotations of Yunho's death. About the fact that Yunho hadn't seemed to be the alien, and that he had taken an innocent life that might have saved them all.

In Jongho's nightmare, Seonghwa visited the closet late at night. He didn't turn on the light, just stood in the door as a dark silhouette and with a vicious smirk on his dimly lit features, as the tentacles sprouted from his back. They were slick and slimy on Jongho's naked skin.

In his dream, Jongho screamed and wailed as he was raped mercilessly in the closet. Nobody came for him to soothe his fear. No Hongjoong cradled him close and hummed him back to sleep. Jongho was alone and forgotten as he got violated until nothing remained of him but a sobbing, disgusting mess on the floor. He didn't even get spared with death. There was only pain and guilt.

When he awoke, everything returned to normal. He was clothed, safe, and alone in the deafening silence of his closet.

But he didn't trust Seonghwa anymore.

If Yunho hadn't been the alien and Hongjoong had himself ruled out, it had to be Seonghwa.

And after that night, Jongho saw it in his eyes. The endless depths behind his kind gestures. The darkness lurking like a monster in a murky lake.

And only Jongho knew. He knew but he couldn't protect Hongjoong. Because Hongjoong wouldn't trust a killer.

Jongho was left with no other choice but to run. All morals and beliefs had left him when he ditched Hongjoong. He fled from the closet and through the airlock once they had docked on Ginda.

He prayed for Hongjoong, prayed that the people on Ginda would seize Seonghwa even though he knew they wouldn't. The government was in on this. They would rather silence Hongjoong than stop Seonghwa. Seonghwa had won against them all and everyone died under his hands. Maybe he would spare Hongjoong. Maybe they could return to their blissful romance where Hongjoong never had to know.

With tears blurring his face, Jongho ran over the unfriendly surface of the blue planet. Dust got into his lungs and made him cough, but he never slowed down. His hunger seemed to eat him from the inside. He collapsed several times, but he only halted after he had got over the mountain trail. Far from the station, he crashed into a cave. Only dimly lit but at least dry, the stone encased him.

Jongho had nothing on him. No food, no weapon, nothing. He was all alone as he wrapped his arms around his knees. He swayed his body back and forth to soothe himself, mimicking the motion of a mother cradling her child to sleep.

Loneliness. Terror.

Insanity had already ripped Jongho's mind into too many shreds for him to act rationally. His body worked on instinct. Demanding food, so much food. Je never had been so hungry before and he had eaten only a while ago. How had he eaten so much but still craved every food in existence?

He also had to use the toilet, but there was no toilet out here, so he crawled into a corner of his cave to do it there, sitting on trembling knees. He didn't want to soil his new home, but he feared that the organic matter would show up in the scans of the people out to hunt him down.

And that was how he learned of the alien eggs inside of his body. Of how real that dream of Seonghwa had been. Of how his hunger stemmed from the need to feed the embryos Seonghwa had left in him to nest in his body.

For a while of numbness, Jongho pondered the outcome. He imagined getting ripped apart from these fast-growing organisms once they made their way out of his guts. No human body would survive that, and his corpse would become the babies' first meal. He had no way to ask for help either since he got hunted for being the alien he never was.

Jongho wanted to throw up, but he couldn't. His body didn't allow him.

Ultimately, his eyes fell on a pile of rocks at a corner in the cave that had given in under the weight of the rocks up ahead.

When he crawled over, he believed to feel the hundreds of eggs in his body, believed them to come to life as separate individuals. Many little Seonghwas. Many little hungry aliens that needed to reproduce as well. They probably already disintegrated his innards as he was still out here.

Jongho's powerful hands used his last willpower to sharpen the rocks on each other.

When he slashed open his main arteries on his arms and neck, he was at peace. And as he bled out alone and forgotten in that cave hoping his dead remains wouldn't be enough to feed the baby aliens, he hoped to see Yunho again soon and to apologise to him in a way the man deserved.

He also hoped Hongjoong would survive under Seonghwa's mercy. But alas, he wouldn't, since the baby aliens in him would rip him apart in that gruesome way that Jongho dodged so narrowly only two weeks after Hongjoong left Ginda.