"So." Cyan begins, their voice much too loud in the quiet corridor. "Here we are at last. Frankly, I had my doubts that you would ever reach the deployment stage, but somehow you managed to pull it off. Tell me, Red. Is it everything you hoped that it would be?"

Red can't even begin to form a response to this; they hadn't thought that they'd be alone with Cyan nearly as soon as this, if ever. It was a bit ironic. Not too long ago, they had wanted nothing more than to join their fellow impostor on a mission. But things had changed.

Luckily for them, cyan wasn't planning on giving them a chance to respond. "Because it's not for us." They take a step forward, causing Red to instinctively take one back towards the door to their room. "Do you know why I was sent to this crew in particular, Red? I know it's out of character for you, but think. I have been working for quite a while now, and I have more than proven myself capable of eliminating the most competent crews."

"Not so loud," Red whispers loudly, their blood turning to ice in their veins. "What if someone overhears?" Not that Red would mind that, per se, but they'd rather find a way to deal with Cyan that didn't cause them both to be exposed to the entirety of MIRA.

But the other impostor just smirks. "Unlike some people I could mention, I scouted this place out when I first arrived. The security is extremely low, but I could take out everyone here if I had to." At Red's skeptical gaze, Cyan scoffs. "That isn't the point, though. Have you seriously never once wondered why I have been assigned to take out a crew whose members have barely been working for a year?"

With a jolt, Red realized that Cyan had a point. To keep them from being taken out too quickly, less experienced impostors were sent to less experienced crews, and vice versa. Now that Red had remembered that fact, it was a bit odd that Cyan would be put on this mission instead of someone closer to Red's level. Unless…

"That's right." Cyan continued to advance as they spoke, and Red continued retreating. They hadn't felt so defenseless in a long time, and they hadn't missed the feeling. Even though they logically knew that Cyan wouldn't dare attack them (attacking another impostor was explicitly forbidden) their fight or flight response did not get the memo. "I was sent because of you. The fact that you have been with this crew for quite a long time now, and no one has been killed, human or otherwise… Well, it is, as the humans say, sus." Their smirk widens, revealing their sharp teeth, before they suddenly become serious. "So, I have been sent to babysit you, and clean up your mess as per usual. And to be perfectly honest with you, it's getting old, Red. It is getting very, very old." They put their hands on their hips, sighing as they gaze at Red with a world-weary expression.

Red's back is fully pressed against the door now, and despite Cyan's non-threatening demeanor at the moment, their hearts ceaselessly pound in their ears. They wished they could put the door between them and cyan, but they knew they couldn't. Not without raising alarm bells, or possibly alerting the other impostor to the crew's midnight meeting.

"We're graduated now, we're on a real mission, so I expect you to get your act together. I refuse to coddle you any longer."

"What are you saying?" Their voice came out quieter than they intended it to, but somehow they managed not to stutter.

"Simply put, I'm saying that I will not allow you to be the reason for my ejection. As you should be aware, rarely do both impostors survive a mission, and when they do, it is rarely pretty. I simply want to ensure that you know I will not go out of my way to defend you should you end up humiliating yourself, and if there's a situation where it's you or me, well… Oh, don't look so shocked, Red. You knew what you were getting into when you decided to become an impostor."

But Red was shocked. It was irrational, and they knew it was, but somehow there had still been a part of them that hadn't been expecting it. Yet they knew how their society, and thus Cyan, thought. To them, relationships were fickle. Surviving to see another mission was everythingto them. And Red had always known deep down that Cyan could and would throw them under the bus if that's what it took to win the day. But somehow, they still felt betrayed, even though they were technically the one who had switched sides.

Either way, they never got a chance to respond because their conversation was interrupted by a sudden, familiar: "Heya, Cyan. Red. What're you guys doing up so late?"

"For the record, this is highly irregular, Yellow." Captain White said as he got comfortable in the only seat that wasn't yet occupied. He had been the last to arrive, which Yellow had thought was a bit odd, but shrugged it off in favor of dealing with the more important issue.

"Are we even allowed to be out here right now?" Blue asked skeptically.

Green shrugs. "The doors were unlocked."

"It's pretty out here." Purple adds in her two cents, gazing out the window. Since the main part of the spaceport had closed for the night, the lights had been turned off, so you could see outside into space a lot clearer than during what passed as daytime out here.

"I have to tell you something." Yellow says, getting to the point. "It's really important, and I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about it in person because—well, it'll make more sense once I tell you. I just don't know how to word it."

"You're wondering what we should do about Cyan and Red being an Im—" At Green's warning look, Blue quickly shuts their mouth, taking a deep breath before trying again. "A you-know-what. Sorry."

"Real inconspicuous, Blue. If anyone hears us, they definitely won't know what we're talking about."

"That's enough." White thankfully intervenes, and everyone's attention goes back to Yellow. This doesn't help at all to calm her nerves.

"So uh, yeah. About Cyan? They'reanimpostortootheywenttoschoolwithRedandthey'reverygoodattheirjobandweneedtofigureoutawaytodealwiththemsotheydon'tkillallofus!"Yellow blurted out in a rush, breathing hard. "You guys didn't get any of that, did you?"

"Nope." Green says, popping the p.

"You seem really anxious about whatever it is, though." Purple added.

"Okay, okay, lemme try again." She takes a few deep breaths, and then just goes for it. "Cyan's an impostor too."

Judging by the heavy silence, she was perfectly understood this time. And honestly, Yellow didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. Maybe both? Is it possible to be both?

"What." Green said flatly.

Blue looked nervous. "That's… a pretty serious accusation to make."

"They don't seem like an impostor…" Purple muses.

"Neither did Red; that's kinda the point of being an impostor." Green points out.

"How can you be sure about this, Yellow?" The captain interjects, getting the conversation back on track.

"Red told me. They went to school together, but Cyan graduated a long time before they did. They're one if not the most deadly impostors there is. So that's why it's super important that we make a plan for how we're gonna deal with them."

"There's an impostor school?" Blue wonders, looking fascinated. "Neat!"

"It makes sense," Purple muses. "I've heard that impostors can tell each other apart. That's why you only find bodies of crewmates and not dead impostors."

"We don't have enough evidence to report them to MIRA." White says gravely. "Not unless we also expose Red."

"Then why don't we?"

Everyone goes silent, staring at Green. The crewman looks more than a little agitated, but that doesn't stop Yellow from getting angry.

"What? Have you lost your mind?" It took all of Yellow's willpower to keep her voice at a loud whisper, but Green had no intention of staying quiet.

"I could ask you the same thing! I put up with there being one impostor onboard since you could keep it in line—"

"It!?"

"But this is too much! I will not just sit around and do nothing when innocent people could be killed!"

"Red is an innocent person, Green." Surprisingly, it wasn't Yellow that said this, she wouldn't have been able to stay so calm.

"Purple?"

"It's not Red's fault that they were born into a society that's built upon taking the lives of others. What was them, though? They chose to spare Yellow, spare all of us, even when that meant failing their very first mission and not being able to return to their people."

"H-how do you know about all that?" Yellow asked, slack-jawed. She was shocked, and also a little betrayed, seeing as she thought Red had only told her about all of that.

Purple blushes. "Er, well, I actually overheard the conversation you had with Red. I didn't mean to; I was just on my way to get some breakfast. You fell asleep before you saw me."

"They could have lied," Green tried, but he didn't sound very convinced.

"Trust me, they definitely weren't." Purple declared. She sounded just as sure of this as she would if she was telling someone that Earth's sky is blue. "If you don't believe me, I have security footage. There's a little hidden camera in the cafeteria."

Ignoring the oddness of that for now, Captain White brought the conversation back to its original topic. "Okay. So we need to get enough evidence to prove to MIRA that Cyan is an impostor without exposing Red, and also keep everyone safe. Any ideas on how we could pull that off?"

"We need to catch them in the act before they actually kill someone." Blue says seriously. "Venting won't be enough since Yellow can do that, and she's not an impostor. … Are you?"

"Nope." Yellow confirms. "See?" She pulls her very much human arm out of her suit and waves it around for all to see.

"MIRA will probably give us an alert about a second impostor as soon as we board the ship," Purple thinks aloud. "That might be enough evidence, but if it's not, we need a backup plan."

The five of them grew silent for a while, all lost in their thoughts. Yellow couldn't help but reminisce about how simple life was mere weeks ago When she thought she'd just be hanging out in space, exploring planets and axolotls being her only non-human friends. Never had she thought she'd meet aliens, friendly or otherwise. And she most certainly never thought that she'd end up accidentally sabotaging the plans of a now reformed impostor.

It was kind of funny, now that she thought about it. At the time, Yellow just wanted to hang out with her vent buddy; she'd never given much thought to how frazzled they had seemed back then. But now… how funny would it be if she did it on purpose? And she was able to look for the reactions since she knew what she was doing. Maybe the crew would also enjoy doing it? Green probably would; his hate of impostors seemed to run deeper than it normally would…

"You're smiling, Yellow." Purple says, taking the girl out of her musings. "Did you think of a plan?"

"Mmm I think so, but I'm not sure if you guys will approve."

Blue shrugs. "Well, let's hear it. It's not like we've thought of anything yet."

"I was thinking: maybe we could deal with this similarly to how I accidentally dealt with Red."

"How did you deal with Red?"

"Honestly? I think most of it was just luck, but I kinda followed them everywhere and kept asking them to do things with me. Like this one time, I went to the cafeteria during the night to get a sandwich, and Green and Red were both there. At the time, I didn't understand why they were so annoyed when I asked them if they wanted anything, but now…" yellow began to giggle, and Green looks horrified.

"I was gonna get murdered in the night! That's not funny!"

"Not that part of it, silly!" Yellow says, addressing the others. "I know this is a risky plan, but anything we try is gonna be risky. If we never go anywhere alone and always have someone watching through the cameras or maybe the map, we should be able to pull this off. Besides." She turns back to Green. "From what I've heard, Cyan's like the best of the best. It could be really fun to knock them down a peck or two."

Green's about to respond, but Blue beats him to it. "And, hey! We already know who the impostor is. That's a huge advantage, if you ask me. And we could learn a lot about how impostors work to help other crews."

"That's true." Purple adds. "If we really play our cards right, we might even be able to come closer to ending impostor attacks altogether! Wouldn't that be a dream?"

Green sighs. "Personally, I think this is an insane plan, but I can already tell you guys are set on it."

The Captain nods. "Can you discuss this with Red, Yellow? They may have further information that can help us."

Yellow nods with a massive grin. "Sure. They almost certainly do; they have an app on their phone that has all sorts of nifty features." And taking that as her cue to leave, she begins skipping towards Red's room.

When she arrives there, she's surprised and worried to see Cyan standing outside the door, looking rather intimidating. Whatever they're saying or doing to Red must not be good, because they look like a cornered animal.

Yellow can feel anger bubbling up inside her when she sees this. First Green says awful things about them, and now this? Yellow refuses to let this go on a second longer, but she knows she has to be careful.

Eventually, she decides that the best thing to do was get their plan started. It was never too early after all. So after thinking some calm, happy thoughts, she puts on her best smile and makes herself known to the two impostors. "Heya, Cyan. Red. What're you guys doing up so late?"