All of Team 57 were in Rikka's suite. Rikka and David were there as well, and they congregated in the living room.

"As you all know by now there's been a body found on the ship," Levi declared.

Ace had no idea, and tried to make sure to pretend like he knew the entire time.

"Everyone is on lockdown inside their rooms until the intruder is found," he continued. "Our job is to find him before anyone else is hurt."

  David looked them all up and down, not believing that they could handle the job.

"Rikka stays with me," he announced. "For once their threat is being followed through, so we need to make sure she stays safe."

Rikka nodded quickly, no longer boisterous and exuberant but terrified for her life.

"You're all going out in groups of two," Levi said. "We search the ship as quickly as possible. Don't hesitate or else you'll be dead."

They were all nervous. All of them had the idea in their head that their first mission would be easy, especially since Levi knew the person they got the job from. Nothing in life is ever truly easy if it were worth doing, and on that day they would learn this lesson the hard way.

They all split into groups of two, and Levi showed the places on the map they would all patrol to find the killer. Levi and John would be splitting up, checking suites for the assailant.

Ace went with Fenton, who once they were completely alone, did not hesitate to drill Ace with questions. He decided to get straight to the point, or else Ace would just dodge them all.

"So," sighed Fenton. "You, uh. You and Levi? You guys are uh, were you guys like uh…" Fenton couldn't find the right words.

The very idea that the two people who had been bickering consistently for the past four years could get along, or even remotely be attracted to one another, baffled him. Ace looked at him, already knowing that he knew, and immediately he started thinking of fruits. Fenton couldn't learn anything new, as images of oranges, peaches, and various nectarines flooded his mind.

"Stop that," Ace shouted. "Get out!"

"There's nothing to hide," Fenton shouted.

"Don't shout," Ace whispered. "He'll leave if he hears us!"

They were now quiet, moving through the halls, remembering that there was actual danger, but Fenton was still preoccupied with knowing. He needed to know everything, about everybody, then got angry or upset when it was distressing or obscene.

He then didn't trust others and had to keep reading their minds. It was a horrible positive feedback loop, further obscuring his mind, and making him distrustful of even those closest to him. His nosy thoughts were interrupted by the smell in the hallway that smacked him in the face.

The further they walked down the halls, the stranger it smelled.

"What is that," Fenton asked.

"It smells...familiar," Ace said. "No idea what it is."

They followed the smell and turned right onto a corner, greeted by various corpses. They were all crumpled to the ground, flattened as if they were pancakes. One of them was stuck on the ceiling, pierced through the chandelier, mouth agape, blood pouring onto the floor as he hung from it. They stared in shock, taking in the scene around them.

The chandelier fell to the ground, and glass went everywhere. Blood splattered on the walls and the man's body made a loud crack as it hit the carpet. His head split wide open and more blood spilled forth onto the ground, soaking into the carpet. Fenton and Ace simply watched, silently, as it all happened, learning the source of the strange smell.

"We need to go back," Fenton whispered. "Now."

"We should just go around it," Ace whispered. "We have to stop him, right?"

Fenton nodded, but he was trying to avert his gaze to the ground.

"I… I don't want to," Fenton admitted. "I don't want to do this."

Ace took him by the arm and they turned around, to get through the hallway by going through another route.

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"If you don't want to do this, why did you sign up," Ace asked.

"I only joined the Defense Program for the free college," Fenton shouted. "I don't want to die!"

Fenton shivered. He was genuinely cold, after what he had seen, the sudden shock to his body making him salivate and his heart race.

"I don't want to die either," Ace agreed. "But we'll all be dead if we don't find him."

"What are we supposed to do," Fenton asked. "Levi didn't bring any guns because he thought it would be too much, and that we were only doing some easy job."

"Yeah, that was stupid," Ace said. "But we would have thought it would be stupid if nothing happened as well."

"He shouldn't be in charge."

"I should be," Ace replied.

"No. Neither of you should be in charge," Fenton clarified. "Why are you so calm about this?"

"I've seen dead bodies before, on Methusallah, during the war," Ace said. "I guess that's why the smell was familiar to me..."

Fenton dropped the topic and tried to stick as close as possible to Ace because he was surprisingly more capable in this situation than anyone else in their group. They turned another corner, but this time, they saw all the doors to the suites were opened.

  "Oh no," Ace whispered. "No, no, no."

They went through the first couple of suites and no one was inside.

"Did they run away," Ace asked. "Maybe they heard the noises from the hallway over there."

"That makes no sense. They're safer inside than outside the rooms."

"Where did they go?"

He tried not to panic as they continued to search through the rooms, calling out, but no one could be found. "Maybe they took the emergency escape ships," Fenton suggested.

"That makes sense, but wouldn't they have just done that earlier, instead of hiding inside?"

They looked down the hallway both ways, not knowing where to go or what to do next.

"Let's just find them first," Ace decided.

 Images of the bodies on the floor started to return to him and he tried to push them back out, but they were aggressive, cascading continuously, the smell still lingering in his nose. He made more mental walls, trudging on because he knew if he panicked, then so would Fenton.

 In the next hallway over, they saw a long trail of blood. It went to the hallway down the right, and it looked as if someone had been dragged.

"We should call the others," Fenton said. "This is a lot."

They called the others on their radios, but no one answered. They tried different channels, but again, no one answered.

 "It's probably just broken," Ace replied.

"No, it's not! They are dead! We're all going to-"

"No, we're not," Ace snapped. "Just stay calm. Let's find the others first."

They made their way down the hallway, with its singular long streak of blood, hoping that it would lead them to more people. Instead, it just led to more questions. The singular trail was now two trails of blood that went down both perpendicular hallways once they came to a wall, and they looked down both, seeing nothing.

"We can split up and meet back up here," Ace said.

"No," Fenton shouted. "This is clearly a trap!"

"It's not a trap," Ace argued. "If it was, why didn't they get us earlier with all those bodies?" Fenton said nothing, still not believing that splitting was a good idea.

"Just use the phone if something happens! I'll come to you immediately."

"Fine," Fenton grunted. "This just makes no sense is all. How could one body split into two?"

"What if it was never one body," Ace asked.

"You're a genius! There isn't one person doing this. It must be more than one. This happened way too fast."

" I know I am," Ace said smugly. "You all just never recognized my talent."

"Ace, people are dying and I still don't think you should be in charge."

" Sorry. Let's split up and meet back again quickly. We have abilities, they most likely don't. We can handle it."

Fenton wasn't sure. He leered at Ace, trusting him less lately as the distance between them continued to grow, suspicious that he was trying to split up in a very dangerous situation just to avoid Fenton learning about his inner predilections.

That wasn't true, but Fenton was still fixated on getting answers than staying alive. They split up, Ace to the left, Fenton to the right.