Purple's PoV:
How do I feel? Absolutely disgusted that someone, that anyone would do that. Glad that we know who it is now, however.
I never thought it was Orange. Yet I just gathered that most of the crew would have been correct. Well to be honest, I was wrong too, thinking it was Lime, so we all have our faults, right?
Yet none of that matters any more.
"Where's White?" Blue asks, nervousness sneaking into her voice.
"Y-Yeah..." Red murmurs, "That's the point of us being here"
I was definitely not going to lose any time in pointing my accusations. "It's Cyan, she was chasing Red!"
"What?!" Cyan exclaims, "no I never!"
"Actually, she was" my wife piped up. "We were in decontamination when the alarms went off, then they ran past us into the reactor"
"So White is in the reactor?" Blue asks
Red and Cyan simultaneously nod.
Blue sighs before continuing the interrogation. "Red, was Cyan chasing you?"
"Well, I don't know... I was going to the reactor to fix it, so maybe she was just going to help? I don't know - there was just a huge lack of communication"
"No way, it must have been both of them!" I point out, "Yellow and I both saw White go into the reactor, and nobody else entered or left. Therefore, it must have happened when the decontamination doors closed! There's really two imposters!"
"But doesn't that make you suspicious?" Lime asks, "seeing as you were the last ones to see White alive?"
Seriously? Us?
"No" I firmly disagree, "Not us"
"What about Black? He's quite quiet!" Blue points out
Black replies surprisingly calmly, with "just thinking." I guess that suits his character. He's always been quiet, to some extent.
Cyan interrupts. "When Red and I walked in, there was already a body. Right, Red?"
Cyan's and Red's daughters were now each sat on their mother's laps, Cyan's daughter was crying and clearly extremely distressed. She knew what was going to happen.
"Yeah right" Yellow scoffs.
"It's true!" Red exclaims, "What was it that Chocolate said? They use the vents! That's how you didn't see them!"
"Well," I mutter, "what is he? An adult now? No, he's four. Can we trust everything he says? And even if we do, can we trust what the pair of you have said?"
"I'm afraid Purple is correct" Blue agrees.
That's good. Now they're gonna pay.
Scarlet's PoV:
Out of all the meetings I'd silently attended so far, this one was the worst by far. I take another glance at Teal, she was so scared. I don't like seeing her like this, she was the most dependent, there's no way she would be able to cope without her mother. Yeah, and if you thought Chocolate wasn't dealing with his grievance well? You haven't seen anything yet.
Lime seemed pretty nervous, at first I gathered it was due to the murderer, however I soon noticed that Rose and Peach weren't in the room with us. Oh, and Snow of course.
Well, it seemed that they were voting now.
Please don't hurt Teal-
Black's PoV:
The crew seemed pretty split, mainly between either Yellow and Purple or Red and Cyan.
Interesting.
"So this is the final vote. Who do you guys think?" Blue orders.
"Purple" Red answers without a second thought. "It's either him or Yellow, and Yellow seems to scared to kill"
"Well... I think... it must be Cyan" Yellow quietly declares. "I don't know why Red is standing up for her"
"I... I think it could be Cyan but I don't want us to get it wrong again... I'll skip" Lime says whilst shaking in fear.
I know he's thinking of Peach right now, and how he doesn't want another child to have to experience that. So selfless of him.
"Personally I sus Lime" Blue shrugs. "Why is he skipping? That's a bit off. Plus, when she was still alive, White sussed Lime"
"But that's what happened when Pink died! You thought it was Lime, but it can't be him!" I say
"Black," she sighs, "these are the final votes, I can't change it now. What do you think, Cyan?"
"I think it's Yellow" she replies, hugging Teal. "Purple is only defending her because he loves her, and the whole being scared thing is all an act. Ya know?"
"Cyan" Purple insists.
Okay. Everyone turns to me, I have the final vote. I'm the one who decides what happens. People's fates lie in my hands. Do I eject Cyan, which could be helpful, but at the same time destroy the life of an innocent child?
This is just one of those big ethics questions.
To kill Cyan, or not to kill Cyan?
"I vote... I vote for skip" I finally decide.
Blue concludes for us that nobody is to be ejected. Cyan hugs Teal even tighter, and mouths 'thank you' to me. I simply nodded in response.
"But... But..." Purple gasps, his jaw dropping halfway to the ground.
"Okay," Blue orders, "how about we all stay together for now? It's about time for lunch anyway, and it'll be safer together, right?"
Everyone eventually agrees. We stay in the cafeteria.
Okay... Wait, where's Lime going?
Lime's PoV:
"Go on you two" I tell Chocolate and Emerald.
"Where are you going?" Emerald asks, tilting his head up to look at me.
Crouching down to their level, I just say that I've got to go somewhere and I'll be back in a second. "In the meantime, you two go play with the others."
I saw Lapis marching up and down the cafeteria like an army general, the rest of the children lined up watching him.
"People are missing, guys!" He declares, "But we can't leave here for safety reasons. Stay put, and we'll all be okay"
Heh, he'll grow up to be just like his mother.
Anyway, first, let's go to reactor.
I find Snow just sat there next to his mother's body. They hadn't even bothered to move it, or to see if Snow was okay.
"Hey, Snow?" I ask. It seems he was zoned out or something, as he didn't notice me at all.
I bend down to his height. "You okay buddy?"
Still there was no reply. Reaching out, I place a hand on his arm lightly. He slowly turns around to face me.
"Shh." He whispers. "She's asleep"
Aw gosh no, why do I have to do this? I can't tell him..... I can't bear to...
Yeah. Because I'm weak, just like Pink had always said. He was right all along.
"I'm so sorry, Snow, but-"
Snow pushes a finger over my mouth. "Shh. Quiet"
"Okay," I whisper, "But we have to go"
"Alright" he says whilst standing up.
I didn't know Snow at all. I'd never looked after him before, probably because White always avoided me. Only Snow and Coal hadn't ever been babysat by me before.
He seems so clueless about this, about everything... he actually thinks his mother is asleep, and he just agreed to going with me and he doesn't even know me.
I hold his hand for a while whilst we walk, until I hear faint voices. His hand slips out of mine, and I just gathered he was following me for some while until I noticed that I was once again alone.
Oops, time to backtrack
Snow was standing still and silent where I'd left him. "Uh, Hey" I whisper, even though we didn't really need to be quiet. "Come on, you need to follow"
"Follow?"
"Yeah... follow me, you can do that, right?"
"I... no? I don't think so?" He monotonously murmurs
"Okay..." I mumble, once again taking his hand.
"There you two are!" I exclaim upon finding Rose and Peach sat together in comms, laughing.
"Oh, sorry, were you looking for us?" Rose asks innocently.
"Yeah, kind of" I laugh. "But it's okay, I'm glad you two are safe and having fun"
"Yup!" Peach leaps up and down in excitement, "we're finding evidence!"
"Evidence? That's great" I smile. "Wait, did you not hear the reactor meltdown alarm?"
"Yeah, of course we did" Rose replies, "we know that you, Blue and Black didn't go to fix it"
"Okay" I nod. Wait... how? There aren't any cameras, are there? And I never saw either of them...
Peach turns to me, dread suddenly filling her eyes. "There- There was a meeting?" She asks, looking past me and at Snow. "White is... so, did they eject anyone?"
"No" I reply, and Peach seems both relieved and nervous.
"Good. I think."
"Well, why don't you both come with me to the cafeteria? We're having lunch and then we will all stay put there"
"Safety in numbers, I guess" Peach agrees.
"Let's go!" Rose declares, racing Peach to the door. Snow remains still until I lead him in the right direction.
"Hey, Lime"
Gosh who is it this time?
"Oh, Black... What are you doing out here?" I ask, steadying my breathing
"I could ask you the same thing" he smiles. "Nah, I was looking for you"
"For... for me?" I mumble
He nods. "Yeah, the first meeting this morning... I just wanted to make sure you didn't think I said that to be mean. You're not weak, I just wanted to protect you from the votes. It was the only way to prove your innocence."
"Oh..." I say, not quite sure to react. Why was he being so nice to me? "Thanks... but why do you care about it so much? You lied about being my alibi before, I don't understand why you trust me."
"Well," he begins, "trust is blind, a lot of the time. I just know it can't be you, the one and only crewmate who doesn't have a single bad bone in their body. You love the children so much, you would never put them through torture like this"
"Yeah... that's correct I guess. But what does it matter anyway?" I ask, "it's not like I help the crew anyway. All I do is babysit"
"Hey" he puts his hand on my shoulder, "you're the best asset to the team. They just don't see it."
I'm still not convinced, yet it's nice to know that he tried.
After a while, Black declares "Lime. Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"
Is this supposed to be a riddle? Or a philosophical quote? Probably the second one.
He seems to understand that I'm confused. "Okay, it's an analogy I guess, and a quote. Don't tell me you've never heard of Einstein before? You are the fish. The crew think you are dumb because you can't climb a tree. So what do you do?"
I shrug in response. "Become a squirrel?"
"You show them that you can swim"