Beneath the Ice: An Among Us Fanfiction

Chapter Fourteen: What's the Past is the Prologue

The rest of the day was spent underneath a cloud of suspicion, distrust, and defiance. Ensign Richer seemed to show some sort of remorse, but Ensign-Liuetenants McCoy and Stamets seemed to be as stubborn as can be and were convinced that they did the right thing. And if Justice was being honest with herself, if she was in their position and she thought that Epsilon might have been hiding something crucial, she probably would have done the same thing.

With everyone in the same room again for dinner, all of those feelings seemed to be multiplied by ten-fold. Lieutenant Galeforce came over to the table, glancing behind him and no doubt noticing Ensign-Lieutenant Stamets' careful gaze. (Everyone except for her and Indigo had taken off their helmet. Justice was worried that now Lieutenant-Commander Saeturn had seen the implants, but since she already 'explained' everything, it didn't matter much except to her.)

"Captain, what do you want to do?" he whispered. "We're under three sets of microscopes right now. I don't think that this is what we were supposed to do."

Justice sighed and glanced at Indigo, who was sitting to her right. "Orders from Command weren't this specific. I was supposed to keep your trail safe, but now that that's been blown, it's up to us to decide what the next best course of action is."

"That's easy," Indigo muttered. "Tell them what they want to know."

"What?" Lieutenant Galeforce and Justice said at once.

"Commander, that is seriously jeopardizing your safety!" Lieutenant Galeforce said.

"Exactly," Justice agreed. "Also, not to be a pessimist, but do you remember the reaction the last time?"

"It's different this time," Indigo protested. "They already know that this is the answer that they expect. There's no use in hiding it any longer. This crew needs to know that we are on their side, but we can't let them know if we're keeping them in the dark. Justice, please. Trust me."

If the past missions had taught Justice anything, it was that trust was a very, very fragile thing. Like a butterfly, the slightest misstep or move could kill it. That concept was already created from her childhood, and  just reinforced from the last mission. Trusting the wrong person could be fatal.

But the past missions had also taught her that some people could be trusted. And Indigo was one of them.

Justice nodded. "If this fails, I swear I'm going to kill you."

Indigo might have grinned. "If it fails, I might already be dead. We might want to warn Lieutenant-Commander Saeturn, though. He might be under as much questioning as us."

"You're the one who's going to be under the most questioning," Lieutenant Galeforce remarked.

Indigo shrugged. "What do I have to lose?"

"Your life." Lieutenant Galeforce shook his head. "I'll just go talk to Clasher, then. How should we initiate the whole conversation?"

"Just literally go to the central table and ask for everyone's attention?" Justice said.

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"Alright, everyone..." Justice said, standing up at the table, "we've decided that it's no use in keeping you in the dark; that it's time for disclosure." She sighed. "But, we have a few requests. One, don't freak out. Two, we aren't going to start fighting over this. This is simply disclosure, not an invitation for debate. Three, please don't ask questions until we are done. We'll answer all questions after the initial explanation."

Ensign-Lieutenant Stamets and Ensign-Lieutenant McCoy gave each other a look. Lieutenant Sawyer-Galeforce shrugged and sat down while Lieutenant Galeforce and Lieutenant-Commander Saeturn exchanged anxious glances. It was the first time that Justice had seen the Lieutenant-Commander without his helmet on and was slightly surprised to see red-brown eyes, but brushed it off.