Writers: _adrilia_, AHyperFerret, CaptainBlastemHC, BirdLover345, Maddiefox540

Warnings: Lots of murder (what a surprise), blood (oh wow)

Grian slammed his hand down on the red button in front of him, the emergency alarm blaring in his helmet's speakers. One by one, the rest of the crewmates filed their way into the office, glancing at Grian with a bit of confusion.

"What's the deal, Grian?" Etho asked, leaning on the table. "We just got here. There can't be an emergency already, can there?"

Grian's expression was grim as he scanned the members sat around the table. "Look around you. Is anyone missing?"

The crewmates' faces changed from confusion to nervousness as they realized that they were one person short. Red, cyan, blue, green...all the other colored suits were there...except for orange.

Scar's color.

"I was doing my task in admin," Grian said, spreading his hands out on the table, "And I checked vitals. Scar's bar was red--and you all know what that means."

He'd been murdered.

"Now," he said, looking every crewmate in the eye. "I'll ask this straight away. Who did it?"

The group gazed between each other, Impulse backed away, before raising his hand, everyone looking to him.

"Wa- I don't mean I did it— but, where were you before vitals, Grian?" He asked, uncertainty with his gaze.

"Uh- Dropship, then I did cards, then vit—"

"You must've taken a lot of time on cards then, hey?" Impulse inquired, leaning toward Grian, distrust clear in his features.

"Why are you jumping on me!?" Grian asked, thrown off by how quickly the tables had turned. "Listen, why would I call a meeting as soon as we got here if I was guilty? That's just putting myself in a spotlight."

"Unless you're calling this meeting to deflect suspicion," Cleo piped up, her tone even.

"Oh, come off it, you don't think I'm that smart, do you?" In contrast to Cleo's voice, Grian's was rising quickly in panic. "I wouldn't do that. I certainly wouldn't kill Scar, of all people!"

"You could say that about any of us, though!" Bdubs said.

"All you're doing is putting yourself under suspicion," Impulse shot back.

"Hey." Etho held up his hands in a time-out sign before the argument could rise any more. "I know we're all shaken. But we can't be pointing fingers at each other right now, there's just no evidence."

"You're awfully calm," Keralis muttered.

"I'm trying to be calm for the sake of all of you! At least I'm not the one pointing fingers at everyone besides himself," Etho replied, glaring pointedly at Grian.

"I'm not blaming anyone right now," he continued. "But I'd advise you all to watch your backs from now on. It happened once. Who's to say it can't happen again?"

 "Then why shouldn't we do anything?!— This is murder we're talking about! We should just brush it off as something for later!?" Bdubs looked away from Etho, seemingly hurt by his words.

"Yeah— I agree with Bdubs, we need to get this figured out now." Tango smiled at Bdubs sympathetically, patting his shoulder and muttering a few words of reassurance before shooting an accusing glare at Etho, the man in question sighing.

"No, we don't. Just because it's murder doesn't mean we should kill off more people by being stupid." Etho stated, this time harshly as he also turned away, Bdubs still against it, but Tango nodded slowly.

"What, now your o—" Grian covered Bdubs's mouth, the impatient man wanting to speak. Bdubs narrowed his eyes but kept quiet.

"Well, does anyone have any other leads than just attacking me?" Grian asked, glaring at everyone.

"No, other than the fact that Stress has been awfully quiet," Iskall said.

"What? I- I was in the canister room!"Stress responded.

"Stress is lying. I was there." Cleo said.

"It's Cleo luvs!" Stress yelled.

"Well, it's either Cleo or Stress. I have no clue other than them." Grian said, slamming the table, then proceeding to vote for Cleo.

"There's no reason to vote someone innocent off, but this feels like enough proof for me," Etho turned to Tango and Bdubs.

Stress and Cleo locked in their votes a moment later, the friendship between them torn apart if the glares they were sending the others' way were anything to go off of.

As the rest of the group watched, they locked in their votes, one by one.

A pause.

And the results.

5 to 4.

Stress to Cleo.

If anyone was paying attention, they would have seen Cleo's smile, too wide and too sharp teeth.

But no one was.

Everyone was watching Stress begging, saying that it wasn't her as she was thrown into the lava pit.

--

Iskall turned away from the scene to not see Stress fall into the lava pit. Doubt filled his mind if Stress was really the one who did it. She seemed so innocent but maybe she had a darker side.

No words are spoken as the group splits up to do their own tasks. Iskall follows Grian and notes the other pairs.

Grian scoffed as he glanced behind him and saw Iskall trailing him. "Seriously. Is everyone suspicious of me now?"

"If you'd like to know, I'm following you so I can clear you," Iskall replied. The pair walked into the laboratory, and Iskall found themself scanning the room automatically to check for dead bodies.

Grian smacked the button, having the computer inspect his vials for anomalies. "That's a relief," he said, though he didn't sound too excited about it.

"Be real with me here," Iskall said as they peered through the lab's telescope. "Who do you think it is?"

Grian sighed under his breath. "No clue. I was pointing fingers, but that was mostly to deflect suspicion from myself. I didn't want to be thrown out like...well, Stress. I'm sorry that had to happen."

Iskall didn't respond to that last part, instead crossing out a bullet point on their task list.

Grian goes into the small hallway branching off of the room, the curtains brushing against his suit as he goes to the scanner, gesturing for Iskall to follow. The being complied, and Grian smiled, slowly stepping on.

Green aura sprinted around Grian, and Iskall nods, giving the other a thumbs up. After a few more seconds, Grian stepped off, with Iskalls' trust reaching him.

"Well, I guess I can clear you at the meeting then!" Iskall punched Grian's shoulder as he inched into Decontamination, Iskall right on his tail as the doors shut on them and they were sprayed with a bacterial killer.

The two soon were walking side by side in the hallway, Grian sprinting over to Simon Says whilst Iskall looked for bodies.

Grian groaned as he stared at his task. Memory games, his least favourite. The man begrudgingly pressed the buttons, almost failing but completing it.

As soon as he looked up, he saw Iskall doing the same task and finishing soon after. The two walked out of the area together, not wanting to be caught off guard.

After card swipes and Iskall checking vitals, the two were out of the entire building and back out into the snow. Grian pounced into the white, endless blanket, rolling happily in its fluffy lengths. "C'mon, Iskall! :D" he called, suddenly gaining the power to speak emoticons.

Iskall shook their head, scooping the shorter hermit up. "Cmon, we've gotta finish tasks for Xisuma, remember?" Grian wiggled out of Iskall's grasp as they spoke, then pulled them into the snow with him, Iskall letting out a small yelp of surprise.

"Who cares! We've gotta have some fun, remember?" Grian smiled, batting Iskalls' head playfully with his cold suit-hands.

"Fineee—" Iskall sighed, and Grian cheered, digging into the snow as Iskall watched with a small smile.

The two played there for a while before Iskall had to force Grian to continue doing tasks, even though he enjoyed the short break from work.

 Grian split off from Iskall. Next to comms, Cleo instantly following him with an evil look in her eyes. Tango sees Cleo following grian and thinks "that seems kinda sus." Grian went into the canister room. "Hey, Cleo!" Grian said as he filled up the cans. "Hey Grian," Cleo said, void of emotion. As grian went into the room with the electronic tree, Cleo got out a knife and stabbed Grian 6 times. She decided to report her own crime and fake cried.

"I found Grian's body in o2." She said.

"Cleo is self-reporting. Keralis, Iskall, and I saw it on vitals. Too fast of a report." Etho said, crying at the fact one of his best friends were(?) dead. Iskall also cried as they shakily said.

"How could you do this, you monster!" Iskall said, holding back tears.

"It wasn't me!" Cleo exclaimed.

"Don't try to hide it." Keralis deadpanned. Then it dawned on them. The other imposter had killed impulse. Tango cried.

"WHO WOULD KILL IMPULSE? YOU MONSTER!" Bdubs hugged tango.

As they all voted Cleo out, she said, "You've doomed yourselves."

Cleo was ejected.

4 votes Cleo. Iskall, Etho, Tango, Keralis.

2 votes Iskall.Cleo, Bdubs.

--

Things would be okay now that the problem had been solved, right?

Bdubs was sure they got the right person. Still, though, it was so jarring to see conflict in their small little group--especially when that group had been friends for the longest time. Impulse, Grian, Scar, Cleo...they hadn't come out of it all.

But things would be better now. He was sure of it. Nothing else could go wrong.

Though he found himself sitting at the desk that held vitals, watching the bars and making sure that no one else was flatlining. What did he expect--for one to just blink out as he was watching? What were the chances of that happening?

The office was dark today, the only main source of light coming from the computer screen. The far corners of the room were covered in shadows, and Bdubs was scared--though he didn't admit it--that something would come popping out of the dark.

As he turned back to vitals, he could have sworn he heard something metal grate against the wall. He turned around to see a figure standing right in the shadows, the light of the computer screen catching on their knife's blade.

If anyone else was watching vitals at that moment, they would have seen Bdubs's bar flatline.

--

Iskall was still shaken up from the death of Stress and now Grian. He should have never parted with him and maybe then Grian would be standing with him right now.

Iskall continued to do his tasks and made his way over to o2. He was doing his task when he heard someone come up behind him.

He immediately jumped and turned around to see the person, who ended up only be Tango. He sighed, Tango seemed innocent and he would put his trust in him for now.

The two walked together silently. Both of them were stressed and worried, but neither expressed it.

Iskall eventually broke the silence. "Where's your next task?"

"In the laboratory," Tango responds.

"Want to head over there now?"

"Sure."

The pair picks up the pace, only stopping to say hello to Etho in the office.

As they enter the decontamination room, the lights go out.

Iskall only felt the spray, darkness covering their gaze, making their sight useless to them. Iskall rubbed up against Tango, their posture growing tenser if it could be any tenser than it was already.

"I can't see—" Iskall stated as if Tango didn't know that. They bumped into the door soon after, it opening in front of him, letting them tumble to the floor. Iskall let out a short-lived yelp before Tango quickly scoops Iskall up, looking down to Iskall, barely able to make out their figure.

"Uh— you can let me go now." Iskall wiggled in Tango's grasp, and Tango put them to their feet awkwardly.

"Oh— yeah, sorry." They both shared a moment of silence as they made it into the main room of specimen, staying close by each other as the lights stayed off. 

Iskall took a step forward, and after their move came a rustle of movement, making Iskall jump. Tango stepped back instinctively the rustle coming to a halt as Tango got a grasp at the risks and attempted to leap forward... 

But time wasn't on his side, and he heard a high pitch screech and lowered to his knees.

A trail of blood led to a green, battered, bloody god-forsaken body.

The one of his friend.

There were only two words said before he pressed the report button, seemingly from another's voice.

"Threat Terminated."

Dead body reported

"K-Keralis just killed Iskall in front of me!" Tango said, crying.

"Tango is lying! It's not me!" Keralis said fake crying.

"The last person I saw with Iskall was Tango so..." Etho said.

"You're making a mistake voting me Etho," Tango said, holding back tears and glaring at Keralis. He voted Keralis.

"You fucking murderer. I hate you. How could you murder my friends and- and get away with it? You aren't the real Keralis." Tango spat.

"How am I not real?" Keralis asked.

"Calm down. I will decide who to vote for. Give me your alibis now." Etho said.

"How are we supposed to stay calm with a murdering alien onboard? I also helped accuse Cleo, why would it be me? Keralis only accused her after me!" Tango yelled.

"I said everyone calm down," Etho repeated. "As I said earlier, I saw Tango with Iskall just before this all happened. I didn't see Keralis in the area at all. As such, it makes more sense for it to be Tango. Do you have anything you want to say to that, Tango?"

"I know what I saw. I saw Keralis stab Iskall."

"How did you see that, the lights were off," Keralis jumps in.

"I give up. You've made your choice. Etho, I hope you're proud of yourself."

Etho locks in his vote, and the results are shown. 2 to 1, Tango to Keralis.

Seeing this, Tango wanders over to the lava pool. "I suppose it's time to go, then."

Etho presses the activation button, which opens the floor under Tango.

Turning to Keralis (and ignoring the sizzling of the body), he asked, "Was it you?" 

Keralis took off his helmet and revealed a row of far too sharp teeth, his snakelike tongue rubbing along them.

"Yes.

Before you go, I want you to send one message to your leader, Xisuma."

"I-"

"Never try to colonize our home planet again. We'll make sure you regret it."

Etho gulped as he typed the message to X into the communicator. Keralis- or whatever the monster was watched over his shoulder.

Etho finishes the message and hits send. He shivers as the monster walks in front of him. All it does is stare at him like it's trying to make up its mind which it probably is.

He hears a ding from his communicator and looks down to grab it. There's not enough time to read it before he feels a pain in his gut. Looking down he sees a knife planted directly in the middle of his chest. He watches as blood dripped from the wound onto the floor making a small pile. His face paled as all the life was drained out of him before he fell on the floor face first into the puddle.

The imposter watched as Etho slowly bleeds to death, laughing at how easy it was. He didn't need the other imposter to do this. A smile spread across his face as he reached down to grab the communicator.

After picking it up he read the response and laughed to himself quietly. With a swift turn, he walks away, leaving Etho's body to rot.