Chapter Text
Alternative Ending: Chapter 5
Red couldn't go anywhere without being reminded of Lime, and she really didn't want to think of Lime. Eventually, she found refuge in medbay. She sat on the edge of the scanner and lost track of time until the sound of Orange and Yellow's chat in the corridor to the cafeteria reached her conscious mind.
She stood up painfully and followed them, finding them already settled down at a table by the time she arrived.
"Red, come join us," Orange invited her with a gesture of the hand. "You look like you need company."
Red sat with them in silence.
"It can't have been easy to find both bodies, plus nearly being wrongly ejected…" As Red almost stood up to leave, Orange quickly apologised: "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it."
"At least we're safe now," Yellow added. "Seeing Purple be sucked out of the airlock was very liberating."
Red swallowed. Didn't they fear they'd got the wrong person? How could she express her qualms without casting suspicion on Lime –and herself? "Would you have said the same if I'd been voted out?"
"Of course not! You didn't come with us to the airlock: trust me, the creature we spaced wasn't one of us. Purple dispelled any potential doubt."
Orange shivered at the memory. "Honestly, it was horrifying. I'm glad you didn't see that. I can't believe we ever believed he was a normal person."
"Orange and I have been reviewing all the signs we missed at the time," Yellow nodded. "It's easy in hindsight, yadda yadda, but still. Doing the same task twice, taking too long or too short, going into rooms to talk with people despite having no work there, always enquiring what people still had to do…"
"We were all deceived by how polite and charming he always sounded," Orange sighed. "Even Blue considered Purple low on his list of suspects. I can't believe we held Purple's empty lies on par with all the real efforts Lime had done to keep us safe."
Noticing Red's upset, Yellow changed the subject to what they'd do once they arrived at Mira HQ. After a pang as she remembered her last exchange with Lime, Red brightened up a bit.
The talk with Orange and Yellow did Red some good, at least, and when they returned to their own work, the fog on her mind had cleared up. She went back to her improvised seat in medbay, rested her elbows on her knees and laid her cheeks in her palms to think.
As horrified as she still was at what Lime had done to Blue, getting confirmation Purple had fully deserved his fate definitely lifted a weight from her conscience. Unlike Lime, who had likely acted on the spur of the moment, Purple had murdered with premeditation. The more Red thought about it, the less she expected Lime to kill again now the tension on the Skeld had fallen.
Just as Red decided to push her fears away and see the bright side of the situation, the image of Purple pretending to hesitate before voting her during the first meeting asserted itself in her mind. Impostors were masters of deception. What if she was wrong? What if, like they had with Purple, they all believed a lie? Not about what Lime was, but about what she thought.
Yellow was right about hindsight. Perhaps, now she knew what to look for, Red could identify early hints she'd missed. As she remembered their exchanges, she nodded her head gently. While Lime had been secretive, of course, there was no doubting she had tried to protect them. All the memories Red could find were of Lime worrying, watching Purple, warning the crewmates –and comforting Red.
At the sudden realisation she'd pressed herself against Lime's mouth of teeth for the hug, her heart skipped a beat and a cold sweat formed on her back. And yet… Lime hadn't really reacted any differently from what could be expected. She'd been startled, sure, and worried about Purple as always, but Red could find no sign hunger had even crossed her mind.
Reflecting on the events more dispassionately, Red regretted her words. Lime had done more than fighting Purple's attempts: she had shown the wrongly accused crewmate more kindness than Red's own people. She didn't want Lime to be executed by Mira. Doubly so if she'd come to help them win the war. Impostors were eliminated to protect the people. Ejecting Lime wouldn't save anyone.
Looking at the medbay floor without seeing it, Red decided they needed to talk again.
Lime went through her tasks like an automaton. She would fulfil her mission, and Red would live. It had been worth it, right? More than once, she accidentally let whatever she was holding slip from her fingers. After Red had left admin, she had even thought she'd broken her tablet, and she'd been ready to give up. She didn't know how long she'd stayed prostrated against the wall. She had only realised the carpet had cushioned the device's fall when her eyes had finally fallen upon it, and slowly, painfully, she had returned to work.
Red caught up with her in electrical of all places. Lime had just finished connecting a series of wires after many more attempts than it should have taken and she froze when she saw the crewmate, then, eyes on the floor and shoulders hunched, she tried to push past her.
Red ran to interpose herself on her way. "Lime, wait, please. I want to apologise. Can we talk? Please?"
Without warning, Lime backed her against the wall and slammed her hands on each side, caging her with her body. "Why are you in the same room as me? I could kill you right now."
A frightened yelp escaped Red's lips; but Lime's body language belied her words. She was stooped forward with her head down, as if carrying the weight of the world. The very opposite of an Impostor leaning backwards to strike.
Even though her heart raced in her chest and she couldn't suppress the wavering in her voice, Red refused to give in to fear. "I know you won't. I trust you." A leap of faith, perhaps it was what they both needed. She braced herself and, instead of trying to push Lime away, she wrapped her own hands around her back in a loose hug.
The contact was electric. Lime shivered for a second before she jerked away out of Red's reach, barring from her mind the temptation to surrender to Red's embrace and cry into her shoulder. "How can you be so sure?" she asked grimly. "Purple would. Then he'd sabotage the oxygen to attract Yellow and Orange to the front of the ship, kill one of them, and the survivor would have no chance of resisting."
"Maybe so, but you're not him. I should never have said those things to you. It was the fear talking. Lime, I'm so, so sorry."
"Don't be. I deserve it and more. I don't need your sympathy, keep it for someone who's worth it." Lime hurried out of electrical, refusing to listen as Red called out after her.
Lime did her best to avoid Red. Whenever she glimpsed her at the end of a hallway, she ran the other way. Finally, her last tasks done, she returned to the cafeteria. On the table in the centre, the bright red emergency button pulled her like a magnet. She leaned forward and allowed her hand to hover over it. It would be so easy. Call a meeting, tell the truth, walk into the airlock, silence the accusing voices in her head.
No. She had one final duty to perform before she could be allowed to rest. Having to wait was her penance. She walked to the window and tried to imagine she was floating in the cold void between the stars.
Red's voice behind her startled her: "I'm getting a sense of déjà vu."
Lime didn't turn around. She only leaned her forehead and a fist against the glass. "Leave me alone, Red."
"Don't count on it. I was in a dark place after nearly getting ejected, but you pulled me out of it. Now it's my turn to help you."
"I only needed you to do your tasks."
Red knew better than to believe that. "No, you cared. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come with me to electrical. You would've insisted we take the shorter route. You would've pushed me to be faster with the distributor."
Lime let her hand slump by her side. She felt drained. "Stop making it harder than it has to be. Just finish whatever you still have to do and when we arrive, you'll be rid of me for good."
"What if I don't want to be rid of you? What if I want to help you build the world you dream of?"
"Don't go there. Don't even think it. You're better off without me. There's no room for me in the world I dream of." Lime finally tore herself from the window and started walking away.
"Lime, wait. I won't let you shun me this time. I'll follow you around like a shadow if I have to."
"No you won't." She strode to the corner of the room and, without a further word, jumped into the vent.
"Oh now that's cheating," Red groaned under her breath. She looked around to make sure Yellow and Orange were nowhere to be seen and whispered loudly into the vent: "Lime! Come back, dammit." She received no answer.
Where had Lime gone to? Admin or the corridor near oxygen? Or was she just waiting for Red to leave to return to the cafeteria? Red couldn't bring herself to go near O2 and shields, so she opted for admin. She could always check the table if she didn't find Lime there.
Unfortunately, the room was indeed empty. Switching the admin table on, she saw an icon in cafeteria and prepared to return. Her hopes were dashed, however, when a second icon joined the first, and the last icon showed up in communications.
Of course Lime would.
Red sat on one of the comfortable chairs and spun distractedly. Could she bear to return where she'd seen poor Brown's remains? The situation had changed since then. At the time, her breakdown had been caused by the stress of her near ejection as much as by the memory of the bloody discovery. Now, there would be no more dead bodies to be found, no accusations flying in emergency meetings, no close-call decision only blocked by one last unexpected vote… Purple had joined his victim in death. And despite everything, Red felt safe with Lime.
She stood up and left admin.
Her head buried in the nest of her arms on a table in communications, Lime didn't move when she heard footsteps and a female voice call her name. "I'll be fine, Orange. I just need a moment alone. I'm done with my tasks, please leave me be until we arrive."
"I'm not Orange," Red said.
Lime jumped and looked to her. "You weren't supposed to come anywhere near comms."
"I guess I wanted to talk to you that badly." She hesitated before admitting wryly, "Plus, I've got to divert power here at some point anyway."
Lime turned her back to her again. "Then do it and leave."
"I said I want to talk. Lime, do you remember what I told you at the beginning of the trip? 'I'm here if you need to talk'. You need someone and after everything you've done for me, I want to be there for you now."
"What does it matter? Everything you said after Blue, every word… It was true. I am a monster." Even pushing Red away felt beyond her. Why did the other woman have to insist?
"No you're not."
Lime looked at her with desperation. "I enjoyed it, Red!"
Red flinched, but stood her ground. "Then we don't have the same definition of 'enjoying', because you really don't look like someone who enjoyed herself to me."
Lime slumped and held her head in her hands. "It tasted good. I didn't want it to, but it tasted good. Why won't you hate me?"
Red swallowed with difficulty. "Look, I don't think I can ever forget what I saw. I may get nightmares about it for a very long time, and I can't promise there won't be times when I look at you and remember."
"I won't ever forget either…" Lime breathed.
Red put a tentative palm on her shoulder and rubbed gently. Lime shrivelled up even more.
"But I can forgive," Red continued. "Want to tell me what really happened there?"
Lime shrugged. "When Purple locked me in electrical, I knew he was going after you. I vented to security in hope of still being able to save you. Blue saw me, I panicked. You know the rest."
Red nodded. "And… eating him?"
"Part to make it look like one of Purple's murders, part reflex. We're conditioned hard for it, our leaders want to make sure there can't be any possible fraternisation with your people." The contact of Red's hand on her shoulder felt so soothing, she wanted it to become her entire existence.
"Well, they failed."
Lime glanced to her. "I still don't understand why you don't hate me as much as I hate myself."
"Because I couldn't have been more wrong. You are nothing like Purple; you made one tragic decision when there was no good option. But it's not you. The real you tried to warn us from the beginning. The real you fought back Purple at every step. The real you even stopped me from reporting Blue when he confronted you in caf'. And the real you is risking her life to hand intelligence over to Mira."
Lime looked down. "I'm doing it for my own people first, you know. The regime is crushing us and I'm counting on Mira to bring it down. Sure, I'm happy it'll save your lives too but it isn't the main reason."
"Still. Promise me you won't let Mira execute you once they don't need you anymore."
A weak smile filtered in Lime's voice as she finally accepted to lock eyes with Red. "I can't. But I promise you I'll try."