Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hello all 90 people subscribed to this fic for some reason lol.

It's been a bit, and I'll be honest rn, didn't think I was ever gonna come back to this. I mean, the whole game turned into a giant meme like right when I was writing this. Which makes this fic pretty funny in retrospect now.

BUT, I have decided to come back and, at the very least, rewrite what's here. I need to practice writing anyways, and this seems like a good start.

I'm not sure if anyone even cares anymore, since let's be honest, giant meme fandom and also this fic is 3 years old and not many read it back when it was new.

But if anyone does care, just know that I am slightly better at writing than I was back then and I did have some genuinely cool ideas for this, at least in my opinion.

So, if anyone's still here make some noise!!!! Let me know I'm not just writing into the void over here <3

I'll probs delete this chapter eventually, and I'll try to get the rewrites out soon <3

'Till then, whoever is reading this

Chapter Text

---

Join SKELD Today and Traverse the Stars and Unknown

Have you ever looked up to the stars and thought to yourself:

"I wish I could travel to distant planets and galaxies, and escape

my sad and boring life?"

Well wish no more, fellow dreamer! At SKELD, we have positions

and opportunities for anyone! Simply call the number down below

and see if any of our open positions suit your needs and wants.

We'll be waiting for you, and remember, here at SKELD, we

transform your dreams into reality!

---

Staring out the airlock window at Pink’s slowly floating body, Green silently wished to himself that he had deleted his personal email 3 years ago, faked his death, and moved to a planet so far away from any known civilization that there would be no chance of anyone ever finding him again. Maybe that was overdramatic, but at that moment Green really couldn’t find it in himself to care all too much.

The only reason he was even on that stupid SKELD ship in the first place was because he had taken pity on an old friend who wasn’t even a friend. He was just an old colleague that Green only sparsely saw at his local bar. He didn’t even know how this old colleague had gotten his email address. Maybe he had asked around for it, or he had hacked someone’s phone. It made sense as to why he didn’t just ask Green in person what he had written in the email though, since it was slightly embarrassing. 

In essence, the email was a call for help. The colleague had fallen out of another job, something that was a weekly occurrence, and had seen an ad for a space-faring company named SKELD. They prided themselves in being able to “transform your dreams into reality” and not requiring prior job experience. The pay looked good, the job seemed interesting, and the company itself didn’t seem sketchy. Its reviews were mostly positive, and the company did seem to deliver on its slogan. The colleague had applied without a second thought when he had seen the ad, but realized halfway through orientation that he didn’t want to be stuck in space all by himself and 11 other strangers. So, he sent an emergency email to Green, begging him to sign up and join him on one of the SKELD research ships. 

Green himself had been stuck in a boring job that managed to pay the bills, but little else. He didn’t really have much of a social life, other than a monthly bar trip where he mainly sat by himself drinking one beer. He was stagnant and his life was predictable and he hated it. Loathed it. He craved for something different, anything. So, all in all, it wasn’t too surprising that he had said yes to his colleagues' request. 

His name was Owen. The colleague. 

He had been assigned Blue by SKELD. The color coded space suits made to help differentiate between crewmates and meant to keep everyone at a professional distance. None of the crewmates were to share their actual name, only their color. They claimed it helps everyone stay unattached to a crew they might be rotated out with next shift.

When he had first been told about this weird rule, Green scoffed. And when SKELD had asked if anyone in their group knew anyone personally, he and Owen had said no. Back then, Green thought it was strange, but he didn’t give much thought to it. 

He wished he had. 

Constantly changing shifts, they had said. Don’t get attached, they said. 

Thinking back on it now, as he watched Pinks’ helmet crack and shatter, he realized that it was the same thing farmers did with cattle. Giving them numbers instead of names, making it harder to attach yourself to the animal you were raising only to slaughter later. 

It was fucking bullshit, really. 

Turning away when he saw tentacle-like appendages leak out of Pink's broken helmet, he tried to draw his attention to anything else. He looked at the boxes tossed to the ground by Pink as she was dragged out by the remaining 4 crewmates she hadn’t managed to kill.

She was a shapeshifting alien, one without a scientific name. When he had dialed in to try and contact HQ, he wasn’t able to talk long before she sabotaged their communications again. HQ said that they were called imposters, and the general public didn’t know of their existence. 

Why didn’t the general public know, and why weren’t the crew informed of this possibility? Oh no, connection is suddenly bad and Green's questions only managed to echo sadly within the room.

One of the fluorescence lights flickered above his head. He saw a flash of the color blue mixed with blood in his mind, before it left as soon as it came.

“Captain?” A timid voice called out to him, belonging to Yellow. Yellow was short and chubby in stature, the shortest one among the remaining crew. They were originally supposed to be in charge of medical care. Before the killings started, they were always happy and bubbly. Cracking jokes whenever anyone would listen. They were currently standing near a fallen box by the corridor. “Are you alright?”

Green thought about Yellow's question and what Yellow had called him. Captain. He was just supposed to be an engineer and repairman, really. But after the original captain, White, was killed off first, that quickly changed. He wished that he could have gotten White's name instead of just a stupid color. But that would have been breaking SKELD’s important rules, and White was a stickler for following the rules.

He sighed. “We need to take inventory and stock of the ship. We need to check to see if Pink left behind any surprises waiting for us and make sure we’re actually safe now. I need to fix communications and get in touch with HQ. Let them know the main threat has been taken care of.”

He looked to the other side of the room where Black stood. Black was a tall, large woman who was very socially awkward, only talking when absolutely necessary. She was trained in navigation and piloting. Two skills that made her invaluable to the remaining crewmates. She was still staring out the window at Pink. Green couldn’t make himself look back at that floating body. It was simply too much right now.

“You didn’t answer my question, Captain,” Yellow said. Green could hear them frowning under their helmet.

He ignored them, his gaze sweeping over them and the rest of the storage room again before he felt his heart drop. 

“Has anyone seen Red?” He asked, swearing when he saw the other two startle and look over the room themselves. 

“He was just here,” Yellow said, walking quickly around different parts of the room. Hoping he was simply behind a fallen crate somewhere. “I think.”

Black glanced down each corridor before responding with, “He was here, I saw him.”

“Then where the fuck did he go?” Green asked, anger and panic entering his voice.

Sure, they had taken out Pink, but who was to say that there wasn’t some new threat now in the ship. A thought slipped unbidden into Green’s head. What if he and Pink worked together, and he had slipped into the vent systems while they were all distracted? What if he was coming to kill them right now?! 

He shook his head to try and dislodge the thought from his mind, but it had gripped him tight and refused to leave. He muttered another curse under his breath, feeling his grip on the situation waver as he and the other two crewmates started panicking.

“Red?! RED?!” Yellow shouted at the top of their lungs as they started hurrying down the nearest corridor. 

“Shit, wait, don't run off!” Green yelled, but he may as well have been talking to a brick wall for all the effect it had. He ran after Yellow, hearing Black follow behind him. He saw up ahead as Yellow darted in and out of admin, before running through the cafeteria. Yellow was still yelling Red’s name as they hurried, oblivious to their other two crewmates trying to stop them.

“Yellow, stop!” Yelled Black, one step behind Green. 

Green was having trouble breathing, he felt like he was about to enter a panic attack. The thought that Red was a possible imposter and the Yellow was now yelling for him was freaking him out. 

Running past medbay now, a quick glance in to confirm Red wasn’t in there, Yellow turned left past the upper engine. When they reached security and looked in, they stopped dead in their tracks. It was so sudden that Green and Black couldn’t stop running in time, before they both crashed into them. 

Falling inside security, they all scattered onto the floor. Green tried to catch his breath underneath all the weight of his suit pressing down on him. He could hear Black and Yellow breathing heavily as well beside him. He glanced over at them, mouth open with a, “What the hell was that, Yellow?” before he felt it die on his tongue. Yellow was simply staring straight into the room, looking at something near the monitors.

Green tried to steel himself together, more unwelcome images entering his mind of what could possibly be on the monitors, than he looked over.

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the monitors were empty of any blood or new aliens walking around the ship, then immediately regretted it when he glanced down at the desk. 

Red was standing near the desk chair, he looked startled. Which he probably was, with all three of his crewmates all running into each other suddenly. He was wringing his hands in front of himself, shaking slightly. And right beside him, in the desk chair, was a small child. Wearing a small, pink version of the SKELD space suits.

“No fucking way,” Green muttered under his breath, before he felt a sudden wave of anger crash into him. 

Pushing up onto his knees, never taking his eyes off of the, for lack of any more context, small child, and asked, “Red, what’s happening here?” 

He had been aiming for a calm but firm tone, to try and get back control, but with the way all the crewmates tensed in the room, he knew he had been far off the mark. He had somehow managed to make a simple question sound like a threat. Green couldn’t find it in himself to care too much at that moment, however.

Red looked over at the child, then at Green, then at the child, then back at Green again. Asking so threateningly didn't help Red’s already jumbled emotions, but Green was tired, annoyed, and angry. He currently had around 100 pounds pushing onto his knees, had seen more than enough corpses and viscera than he ever wanted to see in two months alone, and had just watched the execution of a certain imposter that was the same color as the ‘child’ in the chair, so excuse him if he wasn’t Mr. fucking Rogers right now. But everyone had their limits, and his had been met at the first dead crewmate five weeks ago. Red just kept looking from his fallen crew back to the thing sitting peacefully in the security chair.

“Red!” Green raised his voice slightly, which seemed to break Red out of whatever mental pattern he had been stuck in. 

"Umm, I, well, I..." When Red did answer, he was stuttering a lot and sounded just as nervous as he looked. "Well captain, I, umm, oh God... I was with you all, in the...umm, in the cafeteria, when we were voting off Pink." He glanced down at the thing in the chair again. "And, well, I was about to, umm, follow you all to the airlock, but, uh, I got a little nervous, and you all know how I have a paranoia thing, what with all the... dead people." He started pacing in small circles. "So, I, well I headed down to security. I wanted to, uh, to make sure that there weren't any other imposters on the ship, even if it was kinda clear when we found Pink, I just wanted to make sure no one snuck on board while we were distracted, and, well." He gestured down to the small pink ‘child’. "I found it- them sitting here."

Green could feel a headache coming on. He hoped it would put him out of his misery. 

Black started to stand up, and held out her hand for Yellow to take. Once Yellow was on their feet, they shook off imaginary dirt from their suit and glared at Red. Or at least, Green thought it was a glare. It was hard to tell with the helmet, and Yellow wasn’t the most threatening person. He could imagine that if it were anyone else they were glaring at, it wouldn’t affect them all too much. But this was Red, and Red was a good breeze from falling over and crying on a good day. 

“I cannot believe what I am hearing right now.” They sounded close to tears. 

Red flinched. “Yellow, I-”

“I thought you were dead, Red. I thought something had gotten you and killed you too. How could you just walk away?!” Yellow’s voice raised with each word they said. 

Standing up, Green stepped in front of Yellow, still not taking his eyes off the child. He put a hand on their shoulder, hoping it was seen as comforting, and not awkward and stilted. 

“So, it was here when you got here?” he asked.

Red straightened his back slightly. “Yes, captain. I’m, uh, I’m not sure where it, uh, where it came from.” 

“Probably from over there.” Black pointed towards the vent in the corner.

Green cleared his throat, before saying, “Red, we will talk about you separating from the group like that later. First, we need to figure out what to do with,” he took his hand off Yellow’s shoulder and gestured vaguely by the desk chair. “With that.”

Red hung his head. “Yes, captain.”

“So,” Black started. “What do we do, captain?” 

“I’m…” Green tried to think, but his mind didn’t want to work at the moment. “I’m not really sure. It’s not like there’s guidelines for this type of situation.”

Yellow sniffed, and tried to clear their throat. “We could try talking to them?” 

Yellow started to step forward, before Green threw his arm out in front of them. 

They huffed. “Alright then.” Green lowered his arm. Yellow leaned down were they were, and put their hands on their knees. They turned their attention to the child in the chair. “Hey there, little… guy.”

The child didn’t move.

“Do you have a name?” 

The child just stared at Yellow.

“Um,” Yellow stuttered. “Where did you come from?”

No response. 

Green grumbled under his breath. “This is a waste of time, Yellow.” 

“Well, I’m not sure what to ask here,” Yellow grumbled back, straightening back up.

“I can think of something,” Green said. “Hey, you.” 

He took a step forward and pointed a finger in its direction. It snapped its head to him, so fast that if Green hadn't been staring it down, he wouldn’t have even noticed. The other three let out shocked sounds and backed away. Green stood his ground.

The child then slowly raised a hand, pointing at themselves. 

Green stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Yes, you. You human?”

The child seemed to consider his question for a moment, before finally replying with, “For now.”

It had a soft, childlike voice. But there was something off about it. Green couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was freaky.

Green considered what the child had said, while the other crewmates stared in stunned silence. “You planning to kill us?”

The child almost seemed to giggle for a second. “No, only my caretaker wanted to.” 

“Then why are you here?” Green asked.

The child tilted its head like a confused cat. “Do your human caretakers simply leave their children unwatched?” 

“Hmpf, guess not.” For the first time since he entered the room, he turned away from the child and glanced at his crew. Four of us , he thought, and an alien murderer's child. Sounds like the start to a bad joke.

“Well,” he started, turning his eyes back to the child. “As it stands, it would seem like we have three options.” He held up a finger before continuing. “Option one. We throw it out of the airlock.”

He heard Yellow softy gasp at that, and saw Red’s whole body twitch. Black simply looked at him, no reaction. If he didn't know any better, he might have thought she wasn't even listening to him.

He held another finger. "Option two. We turn it in to command, and let them handle the thing. Wipe our hands clean of this." He heard Red let out a sound similar to that of a startled cat. 

"Bu- but captain, we can't do that! The kid would just be turned into an, an,” He struggled for a second. “An experiment! The people in there, they would treat them worse than a, a- a lab rat!" Red sounded angry, and like he was on the verge of either crying or yelling, which wouldn't be out of character for him.

Green simply stared at him, waiting for Red to calm down before he continued. After a minute or so, Red visibly deflated, and Green continued.

“Or,” he held a third finger, “Option three. We don't tell command about this child imposter, and we take it into our own care." 

The room held its breath when hearing the third option. Green could see it in their body language, none of them had the strength to kill the child. Even if it wasn't human, it looked enough like one to warrant sympathy. They also couldn't willingly turn it into a science experiment. It would be inhumane and cruel, Red had had a point there. But taking in this imposter? Willingly? They weren't sure if they could do that either. 

Yellow suddenly perked up and stepped forward after a few minutes of silence. "What if..." they began, "What if we all vote on it? Like, how we all did with Pink and… the others." They faltered a bit when mentioning the others, no doubt feeling guilty over the loss of the innocent crewmates.

“I second that,“ said Red.

Black nodded.

“Alright, we can vote.” Green cleared his throat and crossed his arms before saying, “All those in favor of option one, raise your right hand.”

No one raised their hands.

"All right then, all in favor of option two, raise your right hand."

Again, no one raised their hands. 

Green took a deep breath, before continuing.

"All those in favor of option three, raise your right hand."

Three hands cautiously shot into the air, while Greens remained crossed in his arms. 

Staring down the child, he swore he could hear it giggling.