Archive of Our Own

Seeing a shooting star fly above you in the sky has always been a good omen, even in the times before space travel was so common. When you sees a shooting star in the night sky, the first instinct is to wish upon it. You might wish for happiness, or wisdom, or all the candy in the world, but no matter what you wish for, it doesn't change the fact that you feel like the star is watching out for them. That star flew for you, to offer you assistance. It's a lucky star, and this notion increased tenfold when space travel became a custom. When the children are little, all they think and talk about is going to space and completing their task mission. They only think about the trip, and all of the amazing shooting stars they'll see.

Because seeing a shooting star fly for you is, and has always been, a sign of good luck.

Ender has never seen a shooting star.

~~~

The plain aluminum floor clanged with every hard touch from his heavy boots as he walked with his sister into the lobby. He liked the way his stark white suit seemed to blend in with the grey walls around him; it made him feel like he was in the right place.

"We come from a long line of successful Crewmates, Ender," the girl next to him said. Her purple spacesuit matched well with her blue eyes and dark hair. "We Crewmates have to be careful. You never know where there's an Imposter."

"I know, Lily," he said softly, standing closer to her as more people started appearing in the lobby. It was a large room, but not nearly large enough for him to be as far away from everyone as he would have liked.

A few people walked in, their different colored spacesuits brightening the bleak lobby more with every glance Ender took at them. There was a girl with a red suit and a headband with devil horns, while her long hair fell down her back. She was talking to a boy with a cyan suit and bat wings on his head, and they both seemed eager to get out of the lobby and into the mission. Behind them, someone in a lime suit was staring at the doors as if he could will them to open with his mind. The small, pink blow-up flamingo on his head was standing tall, adding a few inches of height of him.

Ender took one last look around the lobby and saw one more person walk in. He had curly brown hair with freckles and a red beanie. The color in his beanie contrasted with his dark black spacesuit, but he still looked really . . . cute? Ender wasn't sure how to describe him. But he knew that he looked cool, and he hoped he'd be able to talk to him more. Maybe if he got really lucky, he'd even share a room with him.

Suddenly, a countdown appeared on the large television screen by the doors at the front. A random person in a red suit with their helmet on came onto the screen and started speaking. "Hello! Thank you for choosing The Skeld for your task assignment destination. Here, you will complete tasks and assist the people around you in running your ship for the entire two week period you will be in space."

"Aw, man, I'm so excited!" a person in blue whispered to their friend, who was wearing a brown suit. Blue had this happy gleam in his eyes, like he couldn't wait for the mission to begin.

"Some of the tasks include, but are not limited to, cleaning out the oxygen—or O2—filter, fixing wires, emptying the trash, and uploading information from the ship back to Headquarters, here on Earth. For the entirety of the mission, you will share a room with two other people," the person of the television continued. "All of you are Crewmates, so there should be no problem completing all of your daily tasks. Don't forget, you will be calling your fellow Crewmates by the color of their spacesuits, rather than their names. If possible, please avoid giving out your names to any of the other Crewmates." They flashed a quick thumbs-up at the camera. "Well, enjoy your trip! We'll see you in two weeks." They smiled, and then the television shut off.

Everyone immediately started buzzing with excitement. The loud chatter filled the lobby and echoed through the walls, making everyone's voices ten times louder than normal. Suddenly, the doors made a whoosh sound, and they slid open, revealing the walkway into the spaceship.

Ender walked through the hallway until he found the rooms and kept searching until he saw the one labelled "White." As soon as he read the label (which was also colored white), he looked at the other two next to it: Black and Yellow (both labels were colored with their respective color).

Ender quickly grinned to himself. He was going to share a room with Black!

He entered the room and saw that he was the first one in there. There was a small, twin-sized bed in one corner of the room, and then a bunkbed in the other corner. Ender decided to wait for Black and Yellow before deciding on a bed for the two weeks.

Not long after, Yellow walked into the room. He had an egg on the top of his head and a smile on his face. His hair was bright blonde, too, which really topped off the look. "Hi! I'm Yellow. I guess I'm one of your roommates?"

"Uh, yeah, hi!" Ender said quickly, waving sheepishly. "I'm White. Oh, and you can choose the bed you want. I'm okay using any of them."

"Thanks, man!" Yellow bounced over to the lone twin-sized bed and flopped onto it. "I'm so excited for this task mission! It's gonna be so great."

"Ahha, yeah, me too."

"I mean, you know what everyone says. That you'll meet your soulmate here or something. Wait a second," Yellow continued, suddenly sitting up to look at Ender, who was standing awkwardly near the wall. "You're White. Man, you're so luckily! It's always White who finds their soulmate first. My mom was actually White back during her task mission, and she met my dad, who was Lime. The best combo is always White with Black, though. The colors just work so well together, you know? It's like Yin and Yang. Wait," he said again, taking a dramatic pause, "Black's our other roommate! Man, you got hella lucky. I'm jealous. How many shooting stars have you seen? I bet it's like, five a day."

Ender stood there in shock for at least thirty seconds, unsure of how to respond to what Yellow just said. "Um, thanks? And actually, I've never seen a shooting star."

"Whattt? How? Is thislike, reverse psychology . . . on the stars? Damn, maybe I should stop looking for them, and the I'll have your good luck! Anyway, I'm excited to meet the other Crewmates. Are you?"

"Yeah, I guess. I just hope they like me," Ender said. "I really want be a helpful Crewmate."

"Aw, I'm sure they'll like you. You seem hella cool," Yellow stated with a grin. "And Black will definitely like you." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Hey—"

At that moment, the door to their room opened and Black walked in, his curly hair slightly ruffled and his lips curved into a small frown.

"Hi!" Yellow said excitedly. "I'm Yellow."

"Hey," he answered. "I'm Black. Nice to meet you guys."

"Yeah, you too," Ender said softly. "Um, I wasn't sure which bunk you wanted, so you can choose. Oh, and I'm White. Hi."

"Sweet, thanks. I'll just have the bottom one. Oh, and White?"

"Yeah?" he responded, voice oddly hopeful and doing a bad job of hiding his excitement.

"I like your hat."

Ender reached up to touch the top of his head, feeling around for the small cat hat he always wore. "Thanks." He then remembered what he was supposed to be doing and put his bag of belongings up on the top bunk.

Just as he was getting back down on solid ground, the announcement speakers up in the ceiling crackled and then a voice rang through them. "All Crewmates, it's time for dinner!"

"Oh, dinner! Yay!" Yellow said happily before bounding out of the room and into the hallway.

"Shall we?" Black asked Ender, turning to him and giving him a soft smile.

"Yeah."

~~~

The next morning, Ender woke up peacefully and sat up to stretch his arms out. He climbed out of bed so he could start getting ready for the day, and he noticed that Yellow had already left the room. Thinking he was alone, he started humming to himself.

"That's a nice tune."

Ender nearly jumped out of his spacesuit at the voice. He whipped his head around to find Black, who was sitting upright on the bottom bunk of the bed with his legs hanging over it, feet touching the ground. His brown hair was ruffled and falling over his eyes, and he still looked half asleep.

"Sorry for scaring you," he said as he stood up. "Good morning."

"Uh, yeah, good morning."

Black moved around and got ready silently, not feeling the need for conversation. Ender was thankful for the peaceful quiet.

Once they were both ready to face the day, they started walking out of the room. Ender reached for the door, but he stopped when he saw two folded pieces of paper taped to the door. There was one under the name "White" and another under the name "Black," plus an empty space where Yellow had already grabbed his paper. Ender and Black grabbed their respective ones and pocketed them.

And finally, they left the room to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. They met Yellow there and saw him chatting away with Cyan, who had a tiny kid by his side, and Pink. Yellow waved at Ender once he noticed him in the room, and he smiled and nodded in response as he sat down. Black lack took a seat at the same table as Ender, but he was just far enough away that it was obvious he wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"The task rooms will open in five minutes," a voice said over the speaker system. "Don't forget to take a look at your task sheets so you know what to do today."

Ender pulled the paper he had gotten from the door out of his pocket and took a look at it. At the top, it read, "Task Sheet for Crewmate: White" and underneath that, it had a list of tasks with their varying rooms.

~~~

It took Ender more time to find all of the rooms than it did for him to actually complete the tasks.

Well, actually, it probably took Ender more time to figure out how to do the tasks than it took him to find the rooms. His least favorite was refuelling the engines, because he had to go to storage, then to the upper engine (which meant he had to find the upper engine), and then go back to storage, and finally all the way back to the lower engine. On the flip side, he really liked clearing the asteroids. Who knew shooting at random rocks would be so fun?

After dinner in the cafeteria, all of the Crewmates went back to their dorm rooms to chill and sleep. While Ender was sitting up in his bed, Yellow was talking from his own bed while laying back and staring at the ceiling.

"Man, I almost didn't finish my tasks. My last ones were in admin, and after the upload took, like, five bajillion years, I had to do card swipe, and no matter what I did, the machine wouldn't accept it! It kept saying 'Too fast' or 'Too slow'. It took so long for me to get it right."

"Really? I got it right on the first try," Ender said.

"Aw, damn, White, you really are lucky. I bet nothing bad is going to happen to you on this trip."

"Yeah, let's hope, I guess."

"Well, Black, how was your day? Did you finish all of your tasks?" Yellow asked, trying to drag them into the conversation.

"Mhm."

"Which one was your favorite?"

"Clearing asteroids."

"Me too," Ender added. "That was fun."

"Yeah."

"My favorite was wires!" Yellow answered. "I even got perfect wires on the panel in security."

"Ooh, nice." Ender yawned. "But we should probably sleep. We have another full day of tasks ahead of us."

"Yeah!" Another yawn came from Yellow as he answered. "Goodnight!"

"'Night."

They got no response from Black.

~~~

The next few days passed without a problem. All they had to do was complete their tasks, and that was just what happened. Though, on a more interesting note, Black had started talking to Ender a bit more. Even though he didn't say much, he really only talked to Ender, which made him feel special.

So, on the fourth day of their trip in space, Ender was in communications doing upload, when suddenly, the lights went out. As soon as his upload finished, he ran to electrical to fix them, but along the way, he crashed right into Black.

"Ah, sorry," he said, standing back up. In the dark, he offered a hand out to Ender, who grabbed it quickly and pulled himself up. Together, they walked to electrical and flipped the lights back to normal.

Now that the lights were back on, Ender looked up at Black and saw that he still looked pretty as ever. His brown hair was fluffy and resting atop his head, with a few loose curls hanging over his forehead. The rest of his head was tucked into the red beanie he always wore, and his dark eyes were shining in the light. His eyes looked strong and unfazed by the sudden light issue, especially in comparison to Ender, who was still shaking a bit from it.

"Hey, um, Black—"

"Do you want to stick together? Something else might happen since it seems there's an issue going on with the power, I don't want you to get hurt or anything," he said, cutting him off only to suggest exactly what he was going to ask.

"Yeah. Please."

So off they went, completing their tasks together and making sure nothing else happened in the ship. After the light incident, there were no other emergencies that day.

~~~

"How was your day, Black?"

"It was fine," he answered, picking at his food with his fork but not eating it. "I just did my tasks as usual. You?"

"Same here," Ender answered with a soft smile. He was happy to get to talk to Black. "Though the lights thing really scared me."

"Yeah. It was annoying since it got in the way of us finishing our tasks, or at least it did until we fixed it."

"You were more concerned about the tasks than seeing things?"

"Getting my tasks done is my only priority."

"Why?"

Black was quiet for a few seconds as the chatter from everyone in the cafeteria filled their ears. "Um . . . okay, if I tell you this, do you promise not to tell anyone? Can I trust you, White?"

"Yeah, I promise."

"Okay." Black took a deep breath and leaned down so that only Ender could hear him. "My mom was a Crewmate, of course, and she met my dad on her task mission. And then, uh, my dad . . . he ended up being an Imposter, and he killed both my mom and my sister. I guess I got lucky, because he didn't kill me, but I haven't seem him since that night. So, I guess I'm focused on doing my tasks to the best of my ability to avenge her."

"Oh, wow," Ender said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's in the past now." Black looked up at Ender and gave him a weak smile. "Why were you so worried about seeing the things around you?"

"Oh, um." The question caught Ender off guard and he looked down at his hands. "My parents have always taught me to be really wary of my surroundings so I don't accidentally encounter an Imposter, or something. I'm just anxious about my safety. My sister's, too. She's Purple."

"Understandable. It's smart to be wary so you don't have an encounter with death."

"Exactly. So, uh, I just get nervous, I guess."

Black made eye contact with Ender, staring deep into his eyes with his own black ones. They held so much emotion—yet they were empty. Deep, calm seas that Ender could easily get lost in forever, yet endless voids that swallowed everything in their way. Either way, they were beautiful, and his stare was intense. "If anything happens during our task mission, I'll protect you, White. That's a promise."

~~~

The next day, Ender was walking to shields to prime them, when he passed Yellow.

"Hi, Yellow!"

"Ayy, White! Do you have tasks in shields?"

"Yep!"

"Me too! Let's do them together."

Yellow walked over to the upload screen on the other side of the room and pressed a couple of buttons to start it while Ender fixed the shields.

"So, White," Yellow said, his smirk evident in his voice, "I saw you and Black talking yesterday during dinner. You two seem to be hitting it off pretty well."

"Ah, shush. We were just talking, um, I think."

"You think? Man, did you see the way your face went red when he leaned in to whisper something to you? You likeee him."

"I do?"

"Well, I actually don't know, but I hope you do."

Ender laughed a bit at that. "Okay then."

Ender and Yellow both stopped laughing as Black walked into the room, eyes searching. "Ah, White, there you are."

"Were you looking for me?"

"Yeah, I was going to ask how far you've gotten on your tasks for today."

"Oh, I've gotten about halfway through them. I still have some in admin and storage, though—"

Ender was cut off as a shriek rang through the spaceship. He dropped what he was doing and ran with Black and Yellownto the source of the scream: Electrical.

They walked in cautiously and saw Red standing by Blue, only Blue was laying on the floor with the top half of his body in shreds.

"Oh, my God," Red said, her voice trembling as if she was on the verge of crying, "I-I was just trying to come in and do my tasks, and then I found him like this." She actually started crying after that. Cyan immediately went to her and started trying to comfort her.

"Wait," someone said from behind Ender. "If someone's dead, that means . . . there's an Imposter among us."

Ender's eyes went wide at the possibility. His heart dropped all the way into his stomach and his hands started shaking from the pure fear. "Black," he mumbled, his voice so quiet it was like he was scared the Imposter would hear him speak and hurt him right there.

Black pulled Ender into his chest and hugged him tightly. "Remember my promise," he whispered into his ear. "I won't let anything hurt you, okay, White?"

He nodded slowly and closed his eyes, hugging Black's chest tightly. Nothing could hurt him when he was in his arms.

~~~

Ender walked with Black and Yellow into the cafeteria the next morning for breakfast. When they entered the room, everyone turned to look at them, staring into their souls with knowing gazes. The tension was high, and the usual chatter that rang through the room was silenced to just around the individual tables. There was an hole at Red and Purple's table where Blue had once been.

Yellow even sat with Ender and Black, which was new. He usually walked around and ate with the other Crewmates, chatting away and getting to know them. Maybe he just didn't want to be the lone wolf attempting to dissolve the ever-standing tension and fear hanging in the air.

They sat and ate in silence. Well, really, they just picked at their food and maybe ate a few bites. But with the tension and discomfort all around them, they didn't necessarily feel like eating.

Once it was time to start completing the tasks, everyone found at least one person to stick with. Nobody in their right mind was going to go anywhere alone, at least not with an Imposter on board. And nobody was going to go into electrical, especially not without a partner—or better yet, two.

Ender was grateful he only had one task in electrical, and it was to divert power to weapons, so he wasn't in the room for long. He didn't want to to be in electrical at all, not just because of the Imposter, but also because it felt like Blue's ghost was floating around in there.

Ender and Black stuck together for the whole day. There were no deaths, no emergencies, no nothing. It seemed like just a normal day, despite all of the tension and weird ghost vibes.

The next day also started normally. They were now a week into their trip, and there was only a whole week left. Ender wasn't sure if he would survive the whole week. There was an Imposter on the ship, and they could be anyone, and anywhere. All of the Crewmates could end up getting killed, and nobody would be able to do anything about it. Ender just hoped he would get lucky enough to get through the trip without dying.

Ender was drawn out of his worrying thoughts as his upload finished. He tapped out of the screen and turned to his right, seeing Black there, just as he had expected. "To admin!" he said, starting to walk there. Black followed quickly.

Black did wires while Ender uploaded the rest of his files. Suddenly, a light flashed overhead. "Red has called an emergency meeting. All Crewmates, please report to the cafeteria," an automated voice said over the speaker system.

Black and Ender exchanged confused glances and walked to the cafeteria, which was right next to admin. Once they arrived, they noticed how stressed Red looked, and how they were pacing back and forth around the tables.

"What happened?" Black asked as the rest of the Crewmates joined them.

"Pink and Brown are dead."

"What?" an outraged cry ran up through the Crewmates.

"Did you see who killed them? Where were their bodies?"

"I found them both in navigation, but I didn't see who killed them."

"Black and I were in admin. It wasn't either of us," Ender said. Black nodded in agreement. "Rest in peace, Pink, Brown, and Blue."

"I was in reactor with Purple," Cyan said.

"I was in O2, but I had a task in navigation, which is why I went in there. I didn't kill them, I swear on my life," Red claimed.

"Yeah, Lime was with me in electrical," Green added. "I don't know who could have killed them if we were all with someone else. Wait, Red, why were you alone? That's a bit suspicious."

"Yeah, why were you alone, Red?" Lime asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I was partnering up with Pink and Brown. They both had a few tasks in navigation, but none in O2, so I stayed behind to do my tasks in O2 while they went on to navigation. It was just supposed to be a temporary split, but when I came to find them in navs, they were both dead."

"What did they look like?" Orange asked.

"Uhh, like their faces and upper bodies had been eaten, or something," Red answered, visibly uncomfortable. "Why?"

"Blue also looked like that when he was found dead. I think the Imposter on this ship has the tentacle killing ability."

"Damn, I was hoping they'd just have the knife one. The tentacles are the worst ones," Yellow said. "R.I.P. to all of our pretty faces, I guess."

"What should we do?" Black asked. "If we call Headquarters, they'll cancel the whole task mission, and nome of us will get out Crewmate badge. We can't get jobs if we don't have our badges. Should we just . . . do nothing?"

"I guess so, since we don't know who the Imposter is for sure," Ender said slowly.

"Okay, back to our tasks, I guess," Cyan said, grabbing his kid's hand and walking with him out of the cafeteria.

~~~

Day eight out of fourteen, all of the Crewmates were still sticking together while doing their tasks. Ender and Black were together in the upper engine, doing their tasks (Ender had to realign the engine and Black was refilling the gas), when all of a sudden, bright red lights started flashing overhead. A loud countdown came
on over the speaker, saying, "Reactor Meltdown in 30 . . . 29 . . . 28 . . ." and so on.

Black and Ender both ran to reactor. Ender went to one side, and Black went to the other. Yellow and Red also went to the side Black was on, and the reactor stopped blinking once both sides pressed the button simultaneously. Ender left his side and ran over to the other one to meet back up with Black, but Yellow's body was in between Red and Black, the egg on his head completely gone, along with half of his face. It had been mauled off.

"Red, why the hell would you do this? I thought Yellow was your friend!" Black cried, backing away from Red in fear and disgust.

"What? No, it wasn't me! It was you!"

"Me? Why would I kill Yellow? He's my roommate and friend." Black looked close to tears. "I can't believe you would do this to him. He was such an innocent soul."

"Pfft, innocent my ass—Did you hear the kinds of jokes he made?"

"Is that you reason for killing him?"

"I didn't—"

"Red, you killed Yellow?" Cyan asked as he walked into the room. His little kid was riding on his shoulders, holding onto his hair and smiling innocently.

"What? No—"

"It had to have been Red," Ender said, stepping into the circle to speak up. "Black would never hurt Yellow."

"You have to believe me, it wasn't me!" Red yelled, their tone harsh and voice loud; defensive.

"I'm sorry, Red, but there's just too much evidence pointing towards it being you," Green said.

"What should we do to make sure Red doesn't kill any of us now that we know? It's not like we can throw her out of the spaceship or something."

"We'll lock her up in her room and only let her out for food," Cyan suggested.

"But the tasks! If you don't let me do my tasks, we'll never land the ship back on Earth!"

"Imposters can't do tasks, Red."

"I'm not the Imposter!"

Cyan shook his head slowly, holding his kid's hands. "You're not in a good position right now, Red. I'm sorry, but nobody going's to believe you."

So it was settled. All of the Crewmates escorted Red to her room and watched as Cyan locked the door tightly, pocketing the key and turning around without another glance to feel guilty.

~~~

Their room felt empty and far too quiet without Yellow in there. However, Ender's thoughts and anxiety kept him plenty of company, for sure. Maybe too much company, actually. Now that Yellow was gone, he had to stop pretending that he was safe. The Imposter obviously had no remorse and killed him without a second thought, even though Yellow was one of the nicest, friendliest people in the whole ship.

Ender bit his lip to keep himself from crying and stared up at the ceiling. He had been laying still in the top bunk of his bed, but he suddenly felt too scared to be alone. "Hey, Black? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, what's up? Is everything okay?"

"Not really. Is it okay if I come down there with you?"

"There's always room for you here White. Come on down."

Slowly, Ender climbed down to the bottom bunk and crawled in next to Black. He laid in the crook of his arm and put his head on his chest, then threw his own arm over Black's torso in a weird half hug.

"What's bothering you, White?"

"I . . . I'm just nervous. I thought I was going to be safe, but Yellow was our roommate, and now he's dead, so I'm not sure anymore. I'm so scared, Black, I really don't want to die. I'm scared for you, too. I don't want you to get hurt."

"You don't have to worry about me, White. I'll be okay. You will be, too. I promise you."

"Really?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Thank you, Black. Thank you so much." He buried his face into his chest more and gripped his shirt. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me. I would do anything to protect you, White." Black paused for a minute and started stroking Ender's hair. "Oh, um, I was wondering, did you maybe want to exchange real names? I know we're not supposed to, but I feel like I can trust you."

"You can. And, yeah. I'd like that." He sat up so he could extend his hand and look Black in the eyes. "Hi, I'm Ender."

"Ender," Black whispered as he also sat up, trying the name out a few times. "Ender. That's such a pretty name."

"Ah, thank you."

Finally, Black shook Ender's hand and said, "I'm Owen."

They smiled at each other and intertwined their fingers so that they were holding hands. Owen looked down at their hands before meeting Ender's eyes again.

"Hey, Ender?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you an Imposter? 'Cause you just vented straight into my heart," he said with a wink.

As soon as he realized what he had said, Ender's cheeks burned bright pink and he had to break their eye contact for a second due to him freaking out from the line.

"Good one," he said once his cheeks had cooled back down. "And no, I'm not the Imposter. I don't need to vent to be in your heart."

Owen laughed, the sound literally the most amazing thing Ender had ever heard. "I mean, you're not wrong."

Ender grinned and rubbed circles over Owen thumb. "I'm glad. I think I like being in your heart."

"You're adorable," Owen said, bringing Ender's hand to his lips and kissing his knuckles gently.

"You just kissed my hand. You're more adorable."

"Hm, no, you."

"Noo, you."

In one swift motion, Ender found himself being pinned in between Owen's arms on the sides of his shoulders with him above him, staring down at him with a smirk. Ender's eyes were wide and surprised by the movement. "Am I adorable now?"

"Yes, but now you also look, like, really hot."

"Ender," Owen said. "God, I love saying your name. Is it okay if I kiss you right now?"

The question surprised Ender, but he nodded quickly nevertheless. He sat up a bit to meet his lips and then they were kissing, the feeling of butterflies emerging in Ender's stomach and rushing up his body all the way to his head, making him all jittery and excited.

They split away soon, both smiling messes.

"That was nice," Ender said, touching his lip softly.

"Yeah." Owen reached for his hand again. "You know, Ender, when I first saw you in the lobby, I couldn't help but really want to get to know you. You just looked so cool, not to mention pretty."

"Really? No way! That's exactly what I thought about you when I saw you there. I was secretly hoping we'd be roommates or something so I could talk to you."

"Maybe it was just meant to be," Owen said with a laugh and a small yawn. "Ah, I'm getting sleepy. I want to sleep, but I also want to talk to you more."

"You can talk to me tomorrow. We probably should sleep,."

They laid back on the bed once again and Ender put his head on Owen's chest, resuming his half-hug position. He fell asleep listen to his heartbeat, and that was the best rest he had received in a long time.

~~~

Ender woke up slowly, his eyes drifting open to see Owen laying next to him. They were no longer cuddling, but their hands were near each other, almost touching but not quite. Ender made the impulsive decision to reach for his hand and hold it.

Owen stirred and opened his eyes, looking over at Ender as a smile grazed across his face. "G'morning."

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Ender said. "Come on, we have to get up for breakfast."

"Noo, let me lay here for a little while."

Ender sat up and looked over at Owen, who immediately wrapped his arms around Ender's waist.

"Stay here with meee and sleeppp," he mumbled, voice heavy with exhaustion. "You're so comfortable."

"Pfft, thank you, Owen, but you probably should get up soon. We're gonna miss breakfast."

"Wait, wait, say that again," he said, opening his eyes to look up at Ender.

"We're going to miss breakfast?"

"No, my name."

"Oh. Owen."

He gave Ender's waist a little hug and started drawing little designs on him leg with his finger. "Ender, say it again, please."

"Owen," he said slowly.

Owen buried his face into Ender's other leg (the one he wasn't "drawing" on). "Why is your name so fun to say? And why do I love the sound of you saying my name? Jeez, Ender, everything about you is just amazing, even your name. Especially your name."

"You really think so?"

"Of course," he said, now deciding to sit up. He crossed his legs and turned to face Ender, holding both of his hands in his own. "It's lovely."

"Ahh, thank you. I used to hate it, if I'm being honest."

"What? Why?" Owen seemed offended even though it wasn't his name Ender had been talking about.

"Oh, um, some people used to tease me about it," he mumbled. "But I'm over it now," he added quickly.

"Well, it's a wonderful name." Owen's stomach suddenly growled, interrupting his thought. "We should probably go get breakfast now."

"That's what I've been saying, silly."

"Shush."

They both crawled out of bed and got ready for the day in good time. They walked out of the room and into the cafeteria together, their shoulders pressed against one another. Owen fluffed up Ender's hair right as they entered the cafeteria, so it took him a few seconds to notice the body laying on the ground in front of him.

"Holy shit," he whispered, his hand moving up to his face to cover his mouth. "Owen, Owen, there's a body, Orange is dead, Owen, Orange is dead—"

"Ender, take a deep breath. I know this is scary, but you need to breathe." Owen walked over to the emergency meeting button and popped open the glass case, getting ready to press it. "Wait, is that . . . oh, God, that's Green over there."

"Green too?" Ender cried, his hands clutching the sides of his head to try and keep himself calm. Owen pressed the emergency meeting button, and within a few minutes, Lime, Purple, and Cyan had run into the cafeteria.

"What happened? Oh, no," Purple said as she saw the bodies on the ground. "Rest in peace, comrades."

"Wait, how could this have happened if Red was locked up in her room?" Lime asked, turning to stare at Owen.

"I checked on Red's door before running out here. It was open, and she wasn't in there," Cyan answered, putting his kid on his shoulders. "She must have found a way to unlock it from the inside, or something."

"So she's on the loose? Just running around the ship and killing whoever the hell she likes?" Owen said. "Shit."

"We need to find her and get her locked up again," Lime stated.

"Everyone, stay in a group. Complete your tasks quickly and with someone else there. Once you finish your tasks, go to security and watch to see Red, or go hide out in your rooms. Be careful," Cyan said. His kid bounced his tiny feet around while he was on his shoulders.

~~~

Nothing happened until after dinner. Ender and Owen stuck together until then, but Ender had decided to skip dinner and go to sleep instead. Well, he tried to, but in reality he just laid in his bed for a while and failed at calming his terrified mind. Owen came into the room a few minutes later and went to sleep.

After an hour or two of restless sleep, an alarm blared through the ship, which made Ender jumped up and rush out of his bed. Owen was also getting up already, and together they ran to the cafeteria.

Cyan was standing there with his kid in his arms, using one hand to cover his eyes from the sight on the floor. Ender looked down and saw Lime lying there, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling while the rest of his upper body was ripped to bloody, gross shreds.

Purple walked in and gasped, moving to Ender's side and hugging his arm. "Oh, Ender, I'm so scared. Stay safe for me, okay?"

Ender nodded. "Of course, Lily. I'll try. You, too."

She squeezed his arm. "Yeah."

"We need to find Red and get her secured again as soon as possible. There's a pod in Medbay where we can put her," Cyan said, still holding his kid. "But we need to find her soon."

"She's probably hiding in the vents," Owen said. "But we can't get in there, since we're all Crewmates. The best we can do is stay together and watch out for each other."

"Okay," Purple said. "Cyan, you're with me. White, Black, you two are good together, yeah?"

"Yeah," Ender answered, moving to stand against Black's chest once his sister let go of his arm. "We're okay."

They were safe as long as they were together.

~~~

Ender's kept himself calm by staying occupied. He did all of his tasks without a break in order to avoid letting his mind wander to the Imposter, and he even offered to do Owen's tasks for him. He refused though, and surprisingly wouldn't even let Ender look at what tasks he had to do.

They were together in Navigation when the lights flickered and then went out completely. It was pitch black in the room. The stayed together while they ran to Electrical—well, they tried to. It was kind of hard since they couldn't see anything.

Ender ran into Electrical and to the lights. He tripped over something on the ground, but he couldn't see what it was, so he continued onto the lights. He flipped them to the correct settings until all of the small lights below the switches were green, and then the lights flickered back on.

"Hey, look, I did it—holy shit."

On the ground in front of him, Cyan and Purple were both dead. Next to them, Cyan's little kid was sitting there, crying.

"Oh, my God. Lily, no," Ender whispered, falling on his knees next to them. "No!"

"Ender, shit, isn't that your sister?" Black said quietly, kneeling next to him. "I'm so sorry."

Ender nodded. "D-did you see it happen?"

"Not exactly, but I saw Red's hand slip back into the vent as the lights came back on. She must have gotten in here and killed them while the lights were out, dammit."

"I can't believe she got Lily. I-I should have protected her."

"There was nothing you could have done, Ender. You didn't know."

"But I knew that there was an Imposter on the ship! God, I'm such a horrible person."

Owen put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, look at me. No, you're not. You're a great person, I swear. Ender, you're so tough for getting through this. Being trapped on a ship with an Imposter is terrifying, and you're surviving. You're so strong."

Ender looked down at the ground. "I'm just not sure."

"I know. It's okay. It's just us now, so we have to do whatever we can to keep each other safe."

He nodded sadly. "Yeah."

~~~

After that disaster, Ender and Owen stayed together for the rest of the day, and the next. Ender couldn't stop shaking as they walked through the hallway to each room. Seeing Purple and Cyan dead on the ground that morning had scarred him. The image of them laying there, their faces torn to shreds because of Red's horrible ability, was all Ender could see when he closed his eyes. When he did wires in Admin, he got perfect wires, and his mind immediately thought of Yellow and his death in Reactor. Owen and Ender went to Electrical to download files, and Ender tripped because he thought he saw Blue, Purple, and Cyan lying there. His mind was running wild.

"Bla—er, Owen," he said as they walked out of Electrical together, "where do you think Red is right now?"

"Probably hiding in the vents," Owen answered as they walked into Lower Engine, "which is great for her, since we can't go in them. The moment we find her, though, we're going to catch her and lock her up in her room again."

"I know. I'm just scared. She could be on her way to kill us right now and we wouldn't be able to do anything until it was too late."

"Ssh, Ender, don't think that way. I'm sure the others are fine. And if Red decides to mess with us, we can protect ourselves, okay? I'll protect you, Ender."

Ender took a deep breath. "I'll try my best to protect you as well," he said quietly. He left Owen's side to align the lower engine while Owen stood by the door. Suddenly, the doors slammed closed, shutting off the hallways around the room. Ender watched in horror as Owen disappeared from view, having been right outside of the door. He was trapped out of the Lower Engine room now, leaving Ender all alone inside of it.

"Owen?" he yelled, dropping the gas tank he had been holding and rushing to the door. "Owen!"

"I hear you, Ender! I can't open the doors," he said through it. "Just stay right there, I'll be there in a second—Argh!"

Ender's heart jumped as he heard a pained cry come from the other side of the door. "Owen? What happened?"

He got no response, and his breathing immediately sped up.

"Black!"

Still nothing.

He put his ear against the door, trying to listen for any sounds. All he heard was silence, and that was the worst sound he had ever heard. Almost a whole two minutes of the dreadful sound (or lack of it) passed slowly.

With a loud whoosh, the doors slid open again, and Ender fell into the hallway. He skidded onto the floor and slowly looked down in front of him.

Owen's body was laying there, stomach down on the floor so his face wasn't visible.

At least Ender didn't have to look at his mauled face.

"No, no, no," he said, putting his hands on his back to see if he was breathing.

Nothing.

"Owen? Owen, please, no, you have to be okay!" He waited for a second to see if he got a response, and once again, he got nothing. "Shit, shit, shit. . . ."

He was now alone on a ship with the Imposter. If Owen couldn't even protect himself against Red, there was no way Ender would be able to. Slowly, he stood up and started walking through the hallway, leaving Owen's body there in the doorway. He passed Security and Reactor, and then went into the cafeteria.

Ender didn't know what to do. He was the only Crewmate left alive on the ship, Black was dead, and the Imposter was out there, ready to kill him at any given moment. The only sensible thing was to call Headquarters and return to Earth early. But if he did that, he wouldn't get his Crewmate badge, and he'd be unemployed for the rest of his life. 

Maybe the government needed some reform, but he would worry about that when he got back to Earth.

If he got back to Earth.

He walked into Admin slowly, getting ready to call Headquarters. And then he saw Red lying on the ground, face down so it wasn't visible.

Ender cautiously walked over to her and poked her back to see if she was alive. She didn't move at all.

He glanced up at the upload device next and his eyes went wide. There was a knife sticking up through the middle of it, the glass around it shattered and splintering off from the knife. He reached for the knife and tried to pull it out, but it was stuck in there.

So, correction. Ender would not be calling Headquarters.
He was the only one left alive on the ship, too:There was no longer an Imposter going after him, which meant that he was just alone. He could get through the rest of the task mission alone, right? He just had to do everyone's tasks for them to keep the ship from completely failing. He could do that.

~~~

Days eleven and twelve passed slowly. All Ender had to do was complete the tasks, but the weight of each death was weighing down on his shoulders, holding him back from letting himself calm down. He couldn't go into Electrical, the cafeteria, the Lower Engine, or even Admin without his heart rate speeding up.

The ship was almost always completely silent except for the sound of his heavy boots against the cold floor. Sometimes he hummed to himself, but that was just to keep himself from delving too deep into his thoughts.

It was so quiet that he was hearing things every now and then. The sound was usually just the structure shifting beneath him or something quietly clanging around in the vents, but he could have sworn that there was something in there. Well, he would think that if he hadn't seen literally all of the other Crewmates and the Imposter dead. Before their deaths, Cyan and Green usually took care of the dead bodies, and they put them in the cafeteria's meat freezer, but when that job went to Ender, he felt too bad doing that. He took Cyan, Purple, Red, and Black's bodies (without looking to close at their faces to avoid seeing the eaten parts) and put them back in their rooms, laying them down in their beds and locking the door so that nobody could get in from the outside, and nobody could get out from the inside.

Ender hoped he didn't have to worry about that.

The only body he didn't return to their room was Owen, because Ender didn't feel okay with sleeping when there was a literal dead body directly underneath him. Instead, he put his body in the room next to him, in Green, Lime, and Brown's old room.

And the two nights Ender spent completely alone passed normally, as well. In fact, they were probably the most normal part of his whole day now. He went to sleep in the top bunk of the bed, just like always, and he woke up in the same place. The only thing that changed, though, was that, every night before he would climb into bed, he would sit by the window and watch as the spaceship drifted through Earth's orbit. He kept his eyes on the sky, looking for shooting stars.

He saw none either night.

~~~

Day thirteen started the same way the previous two days had. Ender got up around eight in the morning, walked to the kitchen, ate a quick breakfast, and then went to each room's door to pay his respects. All of the doors were closed, so he simply stood in front of them and wished the former Crewmates were doing okay.

Then he got started on his tasks. Since his mornings always began in the cafeteria, he did the tasks in there first, starting with emptying the trash. Then he went to Weapons, then O2, next Navigation, and so on until he reached Electrical. He skipped Electrical and went to the Lower Engine, then Reactor and Security, and finally Upper Engine and Medbay. Since he started doing all of the tasks in his own, he had started skipping his tasks in Electrical and putting them off until the very end of the day.

After finishing his scan in Medbay, he took a deep breath and started walking out of it. He stopped immediately, though, when he heard a scuttling noise underneath the floor, where the vents were. But it hushed as soon as he stopped, so he continued on to Electrical. He went back down the hallway by Reactor and Security, then stopped when he reached the Lower Engine to listen. Ender heard nothing, so he continued his journey into the haunted room.

Trying to calm himself down with deep breaths, he entered the room and went straight to the wires. Then he diverted power to the Lower Engine (which he could complete as soon as he left Electrical). Just as he finished that task, the metal underneath him creaked and he could hear very faint breathing, but he wasn't sure if it was him or not.

He slowly backed away from the vent. His heart sensed the tension and took off for a race against his breathing and his brain, trying to see which of them could go fastest. Ender's brain was going a mile a minute, shooting every possibility at him, and his breathing was catching up to his heart quickly.

"Is someone th-there?" he asked, even though he wasn't expecting a response. Just as expected, he didn't get one.

Before he went to bed that night, he grabbed the knife out of the upload device in Admin and brought it with him.

~~~

Ender awoke to someone gently shaking his shoulder.

He opened his eyes and looked forward, then sat straight up when he saw Owen standing above him, his hair just as curly as ever. He had a soft smile on his face, but his eyes were dark, much darker than they had been a few days ago.

"Ender."

"Let me sleep," he mumbled as he laid back down. "This is a nice dream."

"You're not dreaming, Ender."

He shot back up again and looked at Owen. "But it has to be. You . . . you died."

Owen didn't respond, but instead he grabbed Ender's hand and pulled him out of bed. Ender put his free hand on top of Owen's and stopped moving.

"Tell me what's going on. This can't be real, you died! I saw your body! Red killed you!"

"Come with me, Ender, and I'll explain it all to you."

"No." He pulled his hands away from Owen. "Let's just stay here. We'll stay here and you can explain to me how the hell you're still walking."

Something in Owen's eyes flashed, but he nodded and sat down on the ground in front of Ender. He joined him and sat with his legs crossed.

"After the doors closed, Red ran up to me and started attacking me. I fought her off, but I realized she was going to kill me either way. But, luckily, she punched me hard in the face, and I was able to faceplant and pretend to be dead. She didn't worry about using her tentacle thing on me, since she thought I was already dead."

"Oh, wow," Ender said. "That's amazing. I'm so happy you were able to get away. I was terrified when I saw you dead, I thought you'd been taken away from me like that. It was so scary, Owen."

"I'm just glad I was able to escape her and see you again." He moved closer to Ender, slowly wrapping his arms around him in a hug. "I get to see your beautiful face, say your beautiful name, hear your beautiful voice."

Something soft and cold pressed against Ender's back, almost like a needle. His body stiffened, and instinctively, he pushed his hand against Owen's stomach.

He gasped and backed away from him, his free hand touching the knife now protruding out of his stomach. In his other hand, there was a different knife, this one much bigger and deadlier than the one Ender had had.

"You. . . ."

"Owen, are you an Imposter?"

He looked down at the ground and reached for the knife again. He didn't pull it out, just touched it, as if he was trying to see if it was really there or not.

"Owen."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm an Imposter."

Ender let out a breath of air he didn't realize he had been holding. "Did you kill Red?"

"Yes," he said with some hesitation. "I killed them all."

"I can't believe you. I—What the hell, Owen? Why would you do that? How could you bring yourself to kill the innocent Crewmates?"

"It's my job as am Imposter." He started coughing, and a bit of blood rolled down his chin. "I fr-framed Red, killed everyone, and then finished it off with her."

"But you didn't kill me."

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because I actually care about you."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not."

"How can I believe that? I can't believe anything you say, Owen. I thought I could trust you. . . . I told you my name, I stayed by you, I stood up for you when the bodies were found!"

He stayed quiet, instead keeping a hand by the knife im his stomach.

"You were about to kill me, too! Do you really expect me to believe a word you say?"

". . . No, I don't."

Ender took a step back to look around. It was at that moment that he realized just what he had done to Owen, and saw the faint red stain spreading around the knife. "Shit, wait, Owen—"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"But I-I—"

"You did what you had to, and I deserved it."

"No, no, Owen, I don't want you to die."

"I know, Ender. It's okay. Just don't worry about me. You . . . you'll be home soon." He leaned against the wall and slid down it, holding his stomach and wincing. "The task mission ends . . . tomorrow."

Ender kneeled down next to Owen on the ground. "I didn't mean for this to happen, oh, God, I'm sorry."

"Shh," he whispered. "It's okay."

"No, it's not, I'm so sorry, Owen, please."

"When you get to Earth, Ender, find a shooting star for me, okay?"

Ender nodded quickly. He wanted to cry, but he was also angry, even a bit scared.

He looked down at Owen as his eyes closed and his breathing stopped. Ender was watching him die a second time, only this time, he wasn't coming back.

~~~

The ship boarded in the Skeld Headquarters, and the doors slid open to all the Crewmates to exit the ship. Some of the people from Headquarters were standing right outside of the ship as they waited.

It didn't take long for them to realize that something bad had happened when Ender walked out of the ship alone. He waved at the adults gathered around the ship, and they immediately approached him, looking for answers.

"What happened to the other Crewmates?" one of them asked. She was wearing a red suit, and sounded similarly to the woman that had been in the video from the very beginning of the mission.

"There was an Imposter on the ship," he said. "He killed everyone except for me."

"Is the Imposter still alive on the ship?"

"No."

And after an overwhelming amount of questions and a deep cleaning of the spaceship, Ender was released from the Skeld and allowed to go home.

He walked in the door, hugged him parents, and tearfully told them what had happened to Lily. Then he excused himself to his room, and stayed there for a while.

It wasn't until that night that he left his room, and that was to climb onto the roof and watch for shooting stars. He situated himself on the roof tiles and laid back, putting his hands underneath his head for support. When he and Lily had been little, they used to climb onto the roof and watch for shooting stars almost every night. It had been quite a few years since he had last been up there.

He stared up at the sky, and he thought. He thought about his childhood, he thought about Lily, he thought about shooting stars, he thought about his task mission, and he thought about Owen. He stayed there, laying back and looking up at the starry sky, just thinking for hours.

And just as he was about to go inside, he looked back up to the sky.

Two shooting stars dashed through the sky together.