A/N: There have been guest reviewers threatening to kill me in my sleep if I don't update. Little do they know that that's actually my second preferred way to die; my first is flying into a black hole because I would love to know what that's like. I hope in the future, there will be a program where old or terminally ill folks can go to space and fly into a black hole. Would be a much more fun and interesting way to go than the usual ways.

But not only are we not technologically advanced enough to spare the spaceships for deadly black hole missions, there also isn't access to this world's internet in the afterlife, and frankly I don't feel like sticking around as a ghost to continue to write fanfics. This world just isn't good enough. Still, I have heard your pleas, and I have returned with more Vent Buddies! Let's begin!

What are we gonna do? The question had been living in yellow's head rent-free for the past twenty minutes or so, with no good answers in sight. It was making it difficult to concentrate on the meeting; a pretty high-ranking MIRA employee (she was apparently the color Ecru and Yellow entirely understands why it hadn't been used on missions) had been giving a speech practically singing their praises and how their crew was shaping up to be the best one currently, and normally she would be eating it up (and probably joking about how her alias sounded like a sneeze.) But currently, she was incredibly preoccupied.

Cyan was an impostor. And not just any old impostor, but one of if not the most ruthless ones out there.

"They always win, and they never give up." Red had said, their voice grave. "No crew has survived them. They're extremely strong and intelligent, and very mmm—patriotic, let's say. Once they find out about our arrangement, I'll also be on their hit list."

Yellow could feel her heart sinking into her toes at that admission. From how Red had described them, the two aliens had had a bond somewhat similar to friendship, without much of the emotional bits. So, maybe more like an alliance or truce. But to think, Cyan was willing to throw a fellow member of their species under the bus, to the point where that person died. It made Yellow sick. Funny how a being with more than one heart (it was quite cool when she scanned Red and discovered that; they didn't even know that about themself) could be so heartless.

And to think, that same person was now sitting in the same room as her. They had their hands folded on the table in front of them, sitting with perfect posture, but still managing to give off a relaxed yet professional and reserved vibe. It was nowhere near how Yellow would expect a killer to be like, but that was the point of an impostor, after all.

She averts her eyes. It wouldn't do to give Cyan hints that she knows who, or rather what, they are. If they're anything like Red had described, it wouldn't take long for them to figure out that there was something sus going on. But Yellow wanted their ignorance to last as long as possible. She felt in her gut that the most effective plans relied on that.

"With the success of your last mission," Ecru was saying when Yellow managed to tune back in. "We are confident that you will succeed in the one we now assign to you. Especially with the new addition to your roster. This is Cyan. They have been a member of the MIRA family for longer than most. Furthermore, they are one of the leading researchers of the planet Polus, which is where your mission now takes you."

Cyan smiles slightly, and maybe it's just Yellow's mind playing tricks, but she swore that for a second that what little amount of teeth showing between their lips looked sharper than a human's should be. "It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you." They say, and their tone betrays no signs of anything untoward, even when Yellow knows to listen for it. "Though it's true that none of you have been working with us for very long, I've seen the success of your first mission, and I'm confident that we will achieve great things when we work together. I look forward to working with you."

"We're glad to have you." The captain replies. He then proceeds to introduce the rest of the crew, hesitating for a second on Red, much to Yellow's horror. They can't afford to be doing things like this!

Yellow was tempted to expose Cyan here and now, but decided it wouldn't be a good idea for many reasons. If she exposed Cyan to the crew now, she would end up exposing Red to Ecru, and by extension the whole of MIRA. And she had a feeling that would not go well. So she held her tongue, for now.

After the meeting, she would find a way to talk to her crewmates without Cyan present, and they would figure this out together as a team. As they absolutely should, in Yellow's oh so humble opinion. Ever since the whole Red being an impostor thing, the crew hadn't Ben as tightly-knit as it had been before, not that everyone was the best of friends before Red's big reveal or anything like that. They were all complete strangers, put together by circumstance, but there was a bit of camaraderie and team sportsmanship between them. There had to be; you didn't survive out in space and get things done without getting along with people, after all. But since the not-really-emergency meeting that changed everything, everyone had been shaken. It was hard to find their rhythm again. And Yellow wasn't stupid; she knew that this revelation would not help with this, but dealing with it together certainly would. It would make them all stronger. And probably get the others to like and trust Red more, she added hopefully. It would really be nice if they could all be friends.

Mind made up, Yellow forced herself to keep listening to what Ecru had to say. When she finally dismissed Crew 456 to the temporary rooms they would spend the night in before setting out, Yellow immediately put her plan into action.

Yellow💛 invited Red, Captain White, GreenAvenger, Aquahead and Purple to a private chat.

Purple accepted.

Red accepted.

Aquahead accepted.

Captain White accepted.

Captain White: Yellow💛 What is it?

GreenAvenger accepted.

Yellow💛: I need u all to meet me in the little sitty area by the shop 2night.

Yellow💛: Midnight would be best i think. B quiet bout it PLS.

GreenAvenger: Why?

Yellow💛: It's important.

Aquahead: shouldn't we invite Cyan then?

Yellow💛: No.

Purple: why?

Yellow💛: It has to do with The Thing.

Captain White: What thing?

Yellow💛: U know the thing we talked about at breakfast yesterday.

Yellow💛: I need u all 2 b there.

Yellow💛: Red I guess u could stay in ur room if u wanted?

Red: Thanks, I think I will.

Yellow💛: everyone else pls come!

Captain White: We will.

Red tossed and turned in the unfamiliar bed. Well, actually it wasn't thatunfamiliar; it was exactly like the one in their room aboard the Skeld. So it probably wasn't the bed that was keeping them from falling asleep, but the turmoil within their mind.

Red was ashamed of letting Yellow tell the others about Cyan without them; it was far from the best idea they had had. But they were dreading the crew's reactions, so the moment Yellow had given them an out, they'd taken it. They hadn't even thought about it.

Now, though? They couldn't stop thinking about it. Couldn't stop thinking about them.

They hadn't thought about Cyan since they'd graduated from the Academy years before Red had, which had been a shocking transition. One day they were dormmates, studying together for the future, and the next, they were headed off on their first mission with only a smirk to serve as a goodbye. With Cyan gone, no one else was willing to work with them, except for the times when a fellow student was having a bad day and decided to take out their frustrations on them. Red curled up tighter, those had not been pleasant days.

But the absence of Cyan's company had pushed them to work harder. Pushed them to finally rise up and graduate, so they can once again join their role model, their mentor, their…

Red had had doubts. They had seen Cyan's posts on the hub, and the longing to join them was accompanied by an odd, squirming feeling. Yes, killing and sabotaging human crews was their purpose, but Cyan's enjoyment of the job seemed to surpass that of fulfilling their duty, to say the least. And it had made them wonder. Am I supposed to be like that? Is there something else that should make me want to go forward, more than wanting to have a decent life?

Red wasn't blind; they saw how seriously their classmates, and just about everyone in their community took beating the humans. They knew that they were the odd one out, in not sharing in that passion, that drive. But they thought it had been okay, as long as they could do the job right.

But it had never been okay. They realized that now. They had always been different from the others, never good enough, no matter how hard they tried to be. Deep inside, they had always known that from the start, but they refused to accept it. Not even when the evidence had been right in front of them.

In one of the practice runs, Red had been given a red card, meaning that they would be the impostor, while their classmates would pretend to be crewmates. They had been pretending to clean a vent when a purple classmate walked by. Seeing their chance, Red had gone for it. They pulled one of their death balloons from their pocket and threw it. Somehow, even though their fake crewmate was only about two feet away, they missed. The balloon hit the wall next to their classmate, showering them both in fake blood. Or at least Red hoped it was fake. The texture was real enough, and it took all their willpower not to vomit as they chased their classmate.

"Emergency meeting! Emergency meeting!" They shouted, not bothering to press the button, as they had already gotten everyone's attention. "Red's the impostor! They just tried to kill me!"

"I knew it." Cyan grumbled, approaching the two of them. "They are doing as terrible a job as usual. Look at you, Red. Not only did you fail to kill the crewmate, but it is more than obvious that you are to blame."

Before Red could get a word in, they found themself being hoisted up and thrown none too gently out of the window with a crash. Cyan hadn't even bothered to open it before they "ejected" them.

"Aaaaaahhhh!" Red screamed, both from a piece of glass stabbing into their shoulder and from the fall. And just when they thought things couldn't get any worse, they found themself tumbling through the courtyard and directly into a rose bush. A hairy rose bush, to be exact. Their eyes immediately streamed with tears, and they began coughing and sneezing uncontrollably. The thorns pricking all over their body weren't pleasant, either.

"*cough cough cough* Cyan!" They shouted. They did their best not to get angry, but this time they thought it was more than warranted. "Dis wasn't part of the lessond!" They yelled, the effect dwindled from their congestion. "You were supposed do—achooo!—det a teacher, and den, dey would tell you if you were right or dot!"

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I didn't understand that." Red jumped at Cyan's voice; they hadn't expected the other impostor to reply, or be so close. It didn't keep their frustration at bay for long, though.

"Stop baking fund of be." They grumble, trying gently to pull the glass and then the thorns out of themself. "You Dow I'm allergic do dese dings."

"Yes, and what a pity." They reply, not sounding remorseful at all. They do try to help with the glass and thorns, though. "If I were you, I'd be grateful that my consequences for losing were so light. Because I'm sure you are aware by now, but in the unlikely scenario you aren't, the consequences for losing a real mission are much more severe than a little allergic reaction."

"And glass, and dorns, and embarrassbent."

"Yes, those too. But what you don't understand, Red, is that I am helping you. I am helping you to understand what's at stake, because you clearly do not. I am on your side, here."

Red doesn't say anything. They just want this day to end.

"We will be graduating soon." Cyan continues. "Or at least I am, I don't know about you, at least at the moment. If you want to continue fighting by my side, I suggest you shape up. Now."

Red huffed, shaking themself out of the memory. That had been a horrible day, and Red still didn't understand why cyan had done that. Oddly enough, the thought that Yellow would never do such a thing to them popped into their mind seconds after that one. Which just brought them back to their guilt.

That's it Red decided, getting out of bed. I'm going to join that meeting.

Or at least, that was the plan. But who else should be standing outside their door than the person they least wanted to see.

A/N: I hope people don't get after me for including a little chat between the characters in this fic. I know the rules say no chat-based entries, but to me that talks about the whole story and not just a part of it.

But in the unlikely situation that my story gets taken down, you can read it over on AO3. I crosspost all my fics there under the same username.