Chimin felt a tap on his shoulder. He plucked an earbud out of one of his ears and turned in his chair to see Lilith leaning over his pilot's chair.

"You should get some rest, Lil."

"The pods are taken."

"Can't you just share with Jin?"

Lilith laughed. "Jin needs a space the size of TWO sleep pods, for all of his squirming when he sleeps. In one? I'd suffocate in minutes."

Chimin looked apologetically up at Lilith. "There are worse quirks, I guess."

She smiled warmly. "Oh, I know."

Chimin plucked the second earbud from his other ear, one hand remaining on the steering wheel. "Did you need something? Or just wanted some company? You know I love a good heart-to-heart when making long flights."

Lilith plopped into the copilot's chair. She folded her arms and looked doubtfully in Chimin's direction. "You mean, you love listening to other people talk. YOU never do much of the talking."

He smiled warmly and shrugged, but Lilith could see the flicker in Chimin's eyes. He was avoiding her jab the same way he always avoided answering questions directly, she noted.

"You know what I liked about you when I first met you, Chimin?"

"My devilish charm." His voice danced with delight.

"How you were a contradiction."

Chimin sugary smile didn't waver.

"I don't know how you and Joon were the only Noon Moolites I ever seemed to cross paths with back then, but there it was. I was Jackson's escort, and on your arm there was Dai Yu. On Joon's arm, Kiara."

"Jackson was the king of making fun of Joon." Chimin noted, true warmth in his voice as he said it. "He was the only person who ever seemed to get away with it. He was so genuine. And Joon always got so annoyed. He'd say, 'Oh great, J's gonna be at this party. I'd better have a drink before I talk to him or I'm gonna lose my mind.'"

"Jackson made Joon lighten up." Lilith said defensively. "Jackson was that way with everyone. He was an idiot in a lot of ways, but he was at least a fun-loving idiot."

Chimin's voice darkened. "But an idiot just the same."

"But not you, Chim. I mean I know Joon's a brain in his own right. He's cunning as hell. But so are you. I think the contradiction of your generous warmth...and your subtle cunning. That was what made me want to be your friend. You were...how do I put it?"

Chimin offered, "I defied the stereotype that to be generously kind one must also be exponentially stupid."

"Exactly. And Joon was too stiff and boring. The only time he was fun to be around was when Jackson was making him uncomfortable." Lilith laughed at a fond memory of just such a scene. Chimin glanced over to see that smile flash across her face, his eyes piercing.

Lilith's voice softened. "But you're different now from when I first met you, Chim. You know that don't you?"

"You are too."

"No. Not like you." She turned in her seat, her arms still folded, and she leaned her left cheek against the headrest. Lilith sighed and she felt the rush of air leaving her body like a weight lifting from her gut.

"After the raid... after you saved me from my workshop, when Noon Mool had us under assault and the whole damn fortress was crumbling down... Snuck me out right under Kim Namjoon's nose. Saved my damn life. After that day you changed, Chim."

"I think we all did, Lil. Except Jin. He stayed base-side and didn't catch the front lines action like the rest of us. But you already know that."

She nodded. "It's hard to imagine that when all of that happened...he didn't even know that I existed. But then you introduced us by such quirky happenstance. And he brought warmth and hope and love into my life again. And I'm so grateful, Chimin. That's twice you saved me, body and soul."

Chimin flipped a switch near the steering wheel. Autopilot engaged. Their shuttle clicked its way lazily through black, star-speckled space. He leaned back in his chair.

"What do you want to know, Lil? I can tell you're fishing. The setup is certainly convincing. Top notch, pulling out all the stops on the empathy and the flattery. But you don't need to kiss my ass. Just get to the point."

Lilith's whole body stiffened. Her small fists clenched, and she had half a mind to lean in and sucker punch Chimin straight across his smug face. "I'm not fishing. I'm trying to tell you that, as your friend, I'm worried about you. And what plans you have in store for all of us on this little voyage."

He smiled, and the word sinister flashed through Lilith's mind.

Chimin spoke with dangerous glee, "I thought you wanted Joon to suffer for his crimes. Or is that not true?"

Lilith's words got caught in the back of her throat. Somehow, if she said the words in earnest they'd feel that much more final. Lilith swallowed and closed her round, dark eyes tightly.

Chimin scoffed. Then he said in a barely audible voice, "Don't worry. The only thing you need to think about on this trip is looking out for Jin. Leave the justice for Kim Namjoon to me."

Her dark eyes burst open again and bore into Chimin, seeing fully past the sunshine smile and the glinting, terrible eyes. "What are you going to do? And no tricks, Park Chimin. Tell me the truth."

His grin widened, showing of his dazzling white teeth. He slipped one hand through his swoop of blonde hair and whispered, "You could say...that I'm selling his soul to the devil."

Recognition struck her. "Chimin you can't!" She was on her feet instantly. "Do you realize what that would do to him? God, I can see the look on Shae's face.... That poor girl has been through enough. But that would—"

"You sound awfully defensive of a mass-murderer. I'm surprised."

"And you sound criminally insane, Park Chimin. You know that right?" Lilith took a few steps back from the side of his chair. Her hands were shaking. She twisted them together in an attempt to hide the sight.

He said in a pleasant yet biting voice, "If you say anything to Joon before the fact, it could complicate things unnecessarily. We don't want Jin getting hurt in all the commotion, do we?"

Dread sank into the pit of Lilith's stomach. "W-what are you implying?"

"That you should stay the hell out of my way and enjoy the fruits of my labor, Lilith. Leave it. Enjoy it." His smile fell into a dangerous frown. "Or you'll live to regret it."

--

The door to Petra's prison storage room opened, the metallic slide of the automatic door echoing through the deafening silence of the room.

Petra was on her knees inside of her red-ball prison. Her form appeared as if behind a color-tinted lense. Petra's hands rested limp on her thighs and her shoulders slumped forward with her chin tilted into her chest, eyes closed. Her hair was a scatter of black threads.

Her mysterious visitor pressed a button, and the door slid shut behind them like a final nail hammering into a coffin. That same hand flipped a separate switch, and a soft crackling sound in the room signaled that the two could now speak freely to each other and be heard.

"You look disgusting."

Petra's head and shoulders remained slumped forward, but her chin made a slow, unnerving pivot towards the speaker.

"Keep digging your grave, pet. Go ahead." A smile as cracked as her sanity spread across Petra's dull lips. "I dare you."

Her unaffected visitor flipped another switch on the wall—and this time the soft crackling sound in the room intensified. Their hand flipped open a wall panel and found a palm-sized blue ball beneath it. They rested their hand upon the blue, shifting it gently to the left. Fans of faint white electricity spread up from the base of that orb prison. 

Petra's body remained in the same slumped over position, unresponsive. 

The hand shifted and the electricity ceased.

"Now that you know what today's torture is, let's try this again." Their palm shifted; the electricity pulsed higher and higher with each carefully delivered word, "Where... is... the... relic?"

The visitor muted the com units to vacuum seal her screams, but it was easy enough to read her cries of hellish agony.

"GHAAAAA!" Petra writhed and curled and snapped inside of her red prison like an animal being roasted alive as the electric torture surged on.

The hand shifted. The electricity became a storm of white.

"GHAAA I DON'T KNOW!"

"Wrong answer," the visitor muttered to themselves as they read her muted lips.

"I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T FUCKING KNOW YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

The hand shifted. The fingers of electric current disappeared, and Petra fell forward in heaving and gasping breaths.

The communication units shifted to normal again.

"How does one simply LOSE such a powerful artifact? Slip of the mind?"

Petra was half coughing, half heaving. Her visitor waited smugly for an answer.

"It was stolen from me. I... I didn't lose it."

"Aaaand I don't suppose you'd just happen to know WHO stole it from you?" Their hand found the blue wall knob, their palm resting gently and threateningly upon it.

"No."

Electricity crackled instantly, but just barely, in a devilish threat.

"God, I can't wait until I get out of here and get to slice you from—"

The electricity crackled so bright and blinding, the red orb turned a momentary perfect white—the sound muted once more, and a satisfied smile playing across the torturer's lips as they watched and waited.

Her shoulders were still heaving for breaths when he electric assault ended. Not once did she raise herself up from her knees.

"It should be a gift for you, that it's so hard to kill a Satoor Ai. But in your case, Petra... what a gorgeous curse."

--

Chimin had returned to his headphones-in-the-ears, blissful humming, foot tapping to the music as he steered the shuttle of the Library of Mirth Expedition team on their way.

Lilith was sitting at the small round table again, flipping her fingers through Joon's notebook confessional. She was thinking carefully to herself. 

Waiting. Wondering. Debating.

There was a click and the sound of plastic-like material shifting. Lilith looked up to see that Jin's sleep pod door had just shifted open. He gave a grunt and started to roll himself sideways out of the sleep pod--almost toppling down from that ceiling level compartment, past the ladder entirely--but he fumbled for the rungs and steadied himself just in time.

Lilith couldn't help but snort with laughter.

Jin shot a grumpy glare over his shoulder as he descended. "Hey, gimme a break, will yah? I had THE worst dream. Ugh. I feel nauseous from it actually." Jin patted the stomach of his Hawaiian shirt and shuffled, squinty eyed, over to where Lilith sat. He fumbled straight into her; then he sat on her.

"HEY!"

"You're comfy."

"JIN GET YOUR FAT ASS OFF OF ME."

"But I like this spot."

"Oh? And what spot is that?" Lilith was a mixture of venom and amusement.

Jin looked down at her through a satisfied squint. "On top of you."

"Oh GET OFF Kim Seokjin! WHERE do you EVEN...?" Lilith was pushing Jin off of her, but not very hard. Meanwhile, he was successfully keeping himself from landing onto the shuttle floor.

"Okay, Lil okAY!" Jin got up and fluffed down on the front of his shirt to smooth it out. "I'm up."

Lilith was shaking her head but her look that was supposed to be a dissapointed frown was definitely bright from laughing. Her large dark eyes swept over Jin with joy and relief.

"Lil?" Jin cocked his head to one side. "You okay?"

She stood up; she still had Joon's book in her hands, and she slipped it to her side and hoped that Jin wouldn't bother to pay much attention to it. He didn't seem to.

"Of course. Just tired. I'm gonna claim your pod next, ok? I could use a nap."

Lilith started across the shuttle towards the short ladder up to the pod. Jin reached out a hand and gently but firmly took her by the arm to stop her.

"Lil." His voice was low.

"Yes?"

She could feel his breath against her cheek as his form leaned into and over hers, and his lips found their way to her hairline.

A gentle kiss.

"Sweet dreams, love."

A heart breaking.

She shifted, looked up, and tucked a loving kiss into his lips. "See you when I wake up."

He smiled, sleepy and satisfied, and she soaked him in long enough to feel his knowing and nearness, but not long enough for his eyes to wake up and see her clearly.

Lilith turned and crawled her way up the ladder, sliding herself into the sleep pod. She pressed the button to close the hatch, and then clutched Joon's small black notebook tightly to her chest... and let her silent tears fall.