Meme ran back to where Blaza was standing, with Woolf and Nadwe close behind him.
The stablilizers had been fixed, after the remains of the crew split up. It was a relief to not hear the blaring alarm going off repeatedly.
"Still no sign of Socks?" he asked, trying to keep the worry out of his voice.
"Nope." Blaza replied.
Meme let out a huff of frustration. Where are you?
He tried to keep out the bad images. Socks in the impostor's claws, Socks lying dead on the edge of a lava pool.
He's fine, Meme tried to convince himself.
"Um. Meme?" The nervousness in Blaza's voice worried Meme. "Wha-" he began, turning around, but quickly saw what his friend was looking at.
A purple creature, one of the impostors, stood on top of a snow mound. And behind it were more. All their eyes glistened with malice and some's sharp tongues flicked in and out.
"What the heck are those things?" Nadwe whispered.
Blaza gave Meme a confused glance. "Impostors." He said, voice shaking. Thoughts swarmed around mercilessly in his head. There are more of them?
Did Socks... fail?
"They're um. Getting closer." Laff pointed out.
He was right. The creatures were indeed closing in.
"How do we kill them?" Woolf asked, looking at Meme.
How am I supposed to know? But everyone was looking at him now.
Meme took in a breath and looked back at the approaching impostors. They were walking so lightly over the snow as if they weighed no more than a feather. But one slipped and its tentacle was submerged into a mound of snow.
With a hiss, it pulled out the tentacle and revealed a burn mark that spread across its slimy purple skin.
"Snow." Meme blurted. The others looked at him skeptically.
"Rocks." Blaza said. Meme gave him a weird look, and he shrugged. "What? I thought we were naming random things we saw."
"Wha- no." Meme said with a snort. "No. Snow hurts them."
"How?" Laff asked skeptically. "They live on a planet full of it!"
Meme shrugged. "Maybe it's because they are adapted to the lava somehow? I don't know. Just- throw snow at them or something."
Blaza sighed. "You're not very good at this." But he reached down to pick up a clump of snow, and began to roll it in his hands. "You guys are lucky I have good aim."
He threw the snowball at the nearest impostor and it sailed directly over its head, making a soft thump noise in the hill behind it.
Meme stifled a laugh, and probably would have failed in a less serious situation.
Then the snowball fight began.
They quickly found hitting impostors in the eye caused them to go blind. So the hideous orange orbs quickly became targets.
"Got one!" Blaza shouted in excitement.
"That's adorable." Meme commented. Another impostor crumpled over, tentacles flailing wildly for a grip with no sight to aid it.
It seemed that for every impostor they killed, five more emerged from wherever they were coming from. Meme strained to see, and caught a glimpse of a dark cave with a fiery glow emitting from it.
"You guys hold them off," Meme told the remaining four crewmates.
"Where are you g-" Blaza was cut off as Nadwe threw a snowball at his face. "Oh you'll pay-"
"Guys!" Woolf's cry distracted the two from their fight. Seeing the impostors that were closing in on him, Blaza and Nadwe quickly rushed over to help.
Meme turned around and headed in the direction of the cave entrance. The dim, glowing light guided him to the mouth of the cave, where the waves of impostors emerging had stilled.
He crouched behind a large rock and waited until they were gone. Is this really a good idea? He wondered, but shut the thought down. This might have been the only way he was getting Socks back.
When the last impostor slithered out of the cave, Meme pushed back his fear and ran into the cave. At first glance, it was empty, but as his eyes adjusted he saw the downward sloping tunnel where the orange glow was coming from.
Might as well. He began walking down the tunnel. Every noise seemed to frighten him, but he still kept going despite the sense of impending doom.
Finally, the tunnel opened wider into a larger cave. In the center was a pool of lava, with a sphere floating above the pool that looked like it too was made of lava. Tubes connecting to it branches out in every direction, leaving orange glows wherever they went.
Meme's eyes frantically scanned the room. If Socks wasn't here, he might as well forget it. Maybe he was really dead. No. Maybe-
"There you are."
Meme whipped around, expecting the leader of the impostors to be there, but instead it was an all-too familiar crewmate.
Or should he say, impostor.
"S-socks." Meme said quietly. He knew it wasn't him, though. The impostor laughed harder in front of him.
"So this is the crewmate this annoying human won't shut up about." The impostor laughed. "You know, I planned to kill you much earlier. The leader is rather... attached to you." Meme kept quiet. How can I get him out of this?
The only way Tbh was free was... he had to keep the images of Tbh's dead body out of his head.
"But why kill you..." The impostor speaking through Socks said silkily, "When I could have him kill you himself."
The earth shook under Meme's feet, as if even this frigid planet's core could sense what was about to happen. He's in there. He has to be.
I have to try to reach him.
The earth shook.
"I know you can hear me, Socks." His only response was a twisted smirk. "You have to fight it. I think you know how to end this." Meme's eyes flicked to the floating-lava-sphere thing in the center of the cave.
Was that a flicker in Socks's eyes? Meme couldn't tell.
"You're stronger than this." He whispered, barely audible over the quaking earth.
The impostor let out a noise akin to a screeching laugh. "You can't break my hold, weak humans. The planet will be ours."
"Socks!" Meme's voice rose to a desperate shout. "Remember when you were worried you couldn't save the crew? This is how you do it! For them!" His voice broke. "For me."
The earth quakes stronger than before. Rocks fell from the roof of the cave.
This time there was definitely a break in the impostor's hold over Socks. "Stop that, annoying human."
Meme felt a shadow of a smile cross his face. "Come on."
With a shaky hand, Socks pulled out the knife Meme had given him from the pocket of his spacesuit. Meme felt despair take over, thinking the impostor had won, but then Socks ran toward the lava sphere.
The earth quaked in suspense.
The impostor let out a strangled screeching sound, perhaps seeing what it was about to lose.
Socks took the knife, bringing it down quickly over the lava sphere, and the cave exploded.
-0-
Socks opened his eyes. He was free.
He moved his hand. He moved his hand. The impostor was gone.
Rocks surrounded him. There were pools of lava scattered across the cave floor, and debris everywhere. But not a single impostor.
They were gone.
Meme. Socks remembered how his friend's words. He had been the one to get him to break the impostor's hold. Where is he?
Socks raced across the cave, searching under rocks. Then a glimpse of cyan caught his eye. No.
Meme was lying on the floor. Socks rushed to his side. "No, get up. Get up." He whispered under his breath.
"Get up, please." It became more of a plead.
Then Meme looked up at him, and smiled weakly, and laughed.
"They're gone." Socks said, laughing softly. Tears pricked his eyes, and for once he didn't try to hold them back.
And he found himself lost in Meme's eyes again. And this time, he didn't fight it. He didn't need to anymore.
Socks pulled Meme in and kissed him softly. It was short, but seemed to last an eternity. The entire world seemed to flip over and around and a fuzzy feeling blossomed in his chest, spreading to his entire body.
He smiled. He couldn't help it. And when Meme pulled away, he was smiling too.
"We did it." He whispered, leaning into Socks.
-0-
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