The small transport shuttle breached the dense atmosphere with turbulence comparable to a modern presidential candidacy.

Joon made smooth work of weaving that shuttle between jagged blue mountains. Snowcapped, scattered with barren black trees, these mountains converged at their base into what had once been a great river. Now it was an empty canyon.

"I always thought this was a foresty kinda moon," Joon commented in wonder. "Why's the surface look so green outside its atmosphere?"

"Is ignorance bliss?" Jin muttered, too loud to truly be to himself, from his awkwardly strapped in position in the back seat. Then the good doctor said in a louder tone, "It looks green from space because of the toxic levels of Pentogyn in the upper troposphere. Makes the air here toxic at higher altitudes."

Lilith was nodding from the copilot's seat. "And it's why we have air filter gear to use while we're here."

Lilith's eyes scanned the topographical map that flickered within the shuttle glass in front of her, thick green lines showing the different altitudes of terrain. "Looks like we're pretty close to the Library of Mirth already. Keep us going in this direction."

Joon continued to swerve the shuttle around a mountain's edge. He cleared his throat. "Uh... I think we've found it."

A side of blue mountain had been carved from the core of its peak, down, and smoothed flat into a perfect L-shape. Where the flat base and the smoothed innards of the mountain met, there was a carved open archway as ornate and unbelievable as any work of art Kim Namjoon had ever beheld, and larger than any stadium entrance that he could speak of. What he supposed was the entryway to the great library was, at the moment, concealed by the insurmountable remains of a rockslide. Blue boulders were stacked and scattered in the way of those elegant doors beyond.

"Land us out front," Lilith commanded. "Let's get a better look."

"Yes, captain."

There he goes again. Lilith nibbled at the inside of her left cheek and tried to concentrate a little harder on the scene below.

There he goes again. Jin's eyes turned to slits as he stared up at the ceiling. He began to unfasten himself from his seat.

Once landed, Lilith was the first to dash for the drawers that were storing small see-through face masks that suctioned to the face in perfect uniformity around the nose and mouth.

She secured hers expertly into place, then swerved and tossed a mask to Namjoon--who gave a soft, "Ga!" as the mask slipped through his fingers. He managed to scoop it awkwardly up before it hit the floor. He looked relieved.

Then Lilith threw a mask in Jin's direction, who had just shifted lazily to his feet. He didn't even bother trying to catch it. Jin stepped out of the trajectory of its path and watched the clear mask land comfortably in the seat he'd just been sitting in. Giving a satisfied nod, he plucked up the small mask and began strapping it on.

Lilith looked down one last time at Chim's unconscious form strapped to that tabletop inside that small shuttle hangar. She sighed. "Well, boys. Let's get this circus show on the road."

She led the way into the sealed compartment between cockpit and storage space, a space the size of a bathtub.

Jin shouldered into Joon and pushed the white-haired ex-leader out of his path, to be the second person through the door.

Joon sighed, shook his head, and followed after him.

As soon as the door sealed shut behind them, signaling they were on their way... a pair of sharp, seeing eyes shot open wide inside the shuttle.

Park Chimin inhaled like he'd just breached the surface of deathly cold waters, his body arching up and arms spreading wide from his swelling chest as his golden hairs, thick with sweat, shook and scattered around his face. He coughed for more air than his lungs could hold as his hands searched urgently to understand the belt-straps that were holding him down.

In an urgent panic, his shaking fingers fumbled and folded around one hard buckle, plucking up the hook and peeling it free with jerky motions.

Then the second.

And the third.

Finally, he was free--and he flopped sideways off of the table as his palms fell with a heavy SMACK into the metal shuttle floor. He pushed himself up with unsteady wrists, wobbly elbows, air still precious to his lugs at every desperate swallow.

His eyes remained gaping.

"Th-that little bitch... is going to... p-pay for this."

Chimin grunted as he pushed his back up against smooth-faced storage cabinets. His hands were clenched fists braced against his legs, a center-point for the tension in his limbs and in his mind. He closed his eyes and began working to steady his breaths.

--

The air was clear enough to the eyes, if not to the lungs, when the three adventurers first stepped outside the small shuttle. But after ten minutes, a great wind carried fresh weather into their area, and the story changed.

There was a kind of indistinct haze that began to surround them, like walking through a seasick green cloud. Face masks secure, Jin, Joon and Lilith searched the premises of that open-faced rock for any hope of entry into the caverns of the Library of Mirth.

They searched with their eyes and scanned with their instruments the grounds for an hour, at which point Jin decided to take a break to admire the hazy effect the green air was having on the surrounding landscape.

He stood at an ornately carved railing along the edge of the smoothed outcropping and took in the sight of misty mountain slopes and unending sky.

Joon walked up beside him.

Neither acknowledged the other for a few minutes.

Then Jin said in a tone as casually polite as it was bitterly sincere, "Even your silence is nauseating. You're like a quiet cafe with terrible feng shui."

Joon remained silent.

The good doctor went on, "I should throw you off of this balcony. Justice served, so neat and tidy."

Joon still made no further movement, no answer. Somehow it tipped the fury inside of Jin to the boiling point--and Jin leaped for Kim Namjoon, preparing to at least threaten him well and good by pushing his head a little bit over the ledge.

But whenever Jin's hands should have made contact with Joon's shoulders, the form of Kim Namjoon disappeared as if in a cloud of smoke.

Jin stumbled and fell forward. His arms collided with railing and his own head tipped over the side of the ledge, as his boots skid against the rock and braced him into place, keeping him from hurling headfirst over the side of the mountain.

Jin panted, his body pulsing with terror. His hands were careful and strong as he pushed up and backed slowly away from that carved rock railing.

He turned around.

Jin saw Joon sitting on a boulder far across the platform, looking down at small figures on a holographic projection screen bursting from his black wristband through his focused teardrop eyes.

Jin felt dread wash him and sink from his gut into the soles of his feet.

Holy shit, what was that?

--

Lilith had managed to find a small enough opening that, according to her scans, she might be able to wiggle through and find an opening on the other side.

For once being short and small was going to pay off, she thought. She pinged a short message to Jin and Joon, who she couldn't seem to see nearby, letting them know what she was up to.

Then she crawled on all fours, clicked a small switch on the side of her mask to light up the small flashlights attached, and began the winding and weaving through those tightly packed blue bounders.

Lilith was surprised how much she worked up a sweat, how tense her body was and how her muscles ached by the time she made it through the rocky tunnel and out the other side. She fell less than gracefully into the darkness beyond. Her mask's light illuminated just far enough in front of her to tell her that there was plenty of open space within that cave. She also noticed how much colder the air was against her skin and in her lungs.

Lilith looked down at the atmosphere readings on the small boxy device she'd strapped to her hip while she crawled.

"Huh. The air is... clean in here."

Her lungs and her head felt an unusual pinch. At this news, she couldn't help it--she pulled the mask off and took in one deep, steady breath after another. She felt her muscles relax and her head feel clearer.

There was a gravely sound nearby, stones shifting beneath movement. Lilith jerked towards the noise.

"Who's there?"

She didn't really expect an answer.

So when she got one, Lilith let loose a propper yelp and fell backward into the crumbled in rock wall behind her, clutching at the dagger on her hip with one hand, at the extendable shortsword on her back with the other.

"No need to panic."

Lilith watched the full, enticing figure of a tan woman with large brown eyes, long black hair, and plump lips curled in mischevious delight step into the illuminating light of her mask.

"The name's Quin," the woman offered. "Welcome to my library."

Lilith looked Quin up and down. The woman was wearing flowing emerald green material that clung tightly around her wrists and ankles, and yet looped and flowed around her arms and legs like a loose-fitting dream. There were thick, beaded sandals on the woman's feet, and Lilith noticed flecks of gold dust scattered across her forehead, though not in her voluptuous black curls.

Isn't she cold in that? The air is so crisp in here...

"Y-your library? The Library of Mirth is a historical site. I-it doesn't belong... to anyone anymore."

Quin chuckled. "Well then, call me the expert in residence. And you? What's your name?"

"Lilith."

Quin threw her head back and gave a playful, earthy laugh. "A name with such potential."Quin shifted her enticing dark eyes back to Lilith, still smiling. "Know where it comes from?"

"N-no." Lilith kept her hands gripping the hilts of her blades, still tense and ready to spring in a moment's notice.

"A name has a history, whether you know that history or not. A story. Traced through time like so much dissolving smoke." Lil couldn't help but wonder at the rich woman's words as she weaved them along. "'Lilith' is of a legend from a different realm--perhaps the one you are from." Smirk. "She was the first wife of Adam, who refused to submit to him and was rejected for her headstrong disobedience from holy Eden; it is also the name of a Demon who wreaked havoc on early mankind. Perhaps the meanings are connected." Quin threw back her head and laughed all over again.

"W-why is that so funny?"

Quin wiped at a tear that had formed in the corner of one of her eyes. "Men in any universe seem convinced that a woman who decides she doesn't need him is somehow bordering on institutional insanity. A bit egocentric if you ask me."

Lilith's fingers slipped gradually from the blade at her back, though her left hand still cocked against the hilt on her hip--in a casual, comfortable position.

Quin went on, "And women with great minds, rejected by lesser men, can sometimes forget the value of their own lives... and turn to bitterness and great destruction in kind."

What a strange, strange woman.

"That's an... interesting point."

I kinda like her?

Lilith pipped up with a change of subject, "Well, Quin, any ideas on how to help my team into your library? We came on a mission, but I find myself the least useful of us all... and I'm the one stuck in here."

"Least useful?" Quin tutted at these words. "My dear, I'd offer you some soap to wash your mouth of such words if I had any. You made it in here and they couldn't!"

Lilith flushed, a little embarrassed. "I only meant that I can't read Satoor Ai writing, and those old texts are what we came to explore."

Quin gave a solemn nod. "Satoor Ai texts, you say? May I ask what you hope to find? Perhaps I can help expedite your search. I know this place like the back of my hand."

Lilith beamed through the darkness. "Would you?! That would be grand!" She paused, unsure what to say concerning the texts and their purpose. "Th-the nature of this expedition is--"

"You have a friend who is a Satoor Ai, don't you?"

"Huh?"

Lilith didn't think this woman could get any weirder, but the cake was now taken.

"I can tell it's a friend, not an enemy. Your hope is too genteel."

"O-oh."

"In which case, I know just what you're looking for."

"H-hows that?" Lilith felt uneasy and relieved all at the same time in the presence of this odd woman, the longer she was there.

"Well, you wouldn't be trying to murder her if she were your friend. So that rules out some of THAT literature...."

"Well, I do have a friend who's a Satoor Ai. And I also have an enemy who is, too."

Quin's eyebrows arched in intrigue. "My my, how things have changed since the last century. Sounds like a story I'd love to hear. BUT, of course, after my work is done."

Lilith asked tentatively, "Don't you mean... our work? I'd like to come with you to see these texts for myself, and see them delivered to my crew."

Quin shook her head. "No, no, you should check in on your friends. They may be more in need of your presence than me at the moment. I can move quickly, and I know what I'm looking for. But it may take me a day or two to gather everything. Come back this time tomorrow and see what I've found, alright?"

"Uh... alright, sounds good."

With that, Quin flashed her seductive, warm smile, waved, and disappeared into shadow.

Well, that was weird as hell. I should have jumped her... interrogated her... at the very least, done a scan to trace her blood roots and figure out where she's from. But I ...didn't? What is WRONG with me?! I'm not some idiot floozy who trusts the nearest kind stranger with her life or whatever. But when she talked, it was like... I couldn't NOT listen ti her speak. Like watching an actress in the flesh, but she wasn't pretending. At least... I don't think she was.

Lilith hurried into the side of that rock wall once again and crawled her way out of it, thinking to herself how this situation really couldn't get any more strange.

--

Kim Namjoon was trying to understand what was off about the atmospheric readings his scanners were picking up, but the computer's automated data analysis program had been fried in their almost-encounter with a blazing star.

So there he sat, making notes into a small notepad and muttering to himself at the number-lights that were projecting out of his left wrist.

He heard a shuffle of sound and looked up.

His eyebrows screwed together in fierce concern and utter confusion.

"Shae?"

There she stood, in a flowing white dress that ribboned around her knees and butterflied at the back as it was plucked up into the breeze. Her eyes were exceptionally crystal blue. They looked so sad, and so did the small pucker of her pink lips.

"Shae, where's your mask? You'll get sick out here without one!"

Joon jumped to his feet, his instruments disregarded as he ran to her and clasped her firmly by the arms. He peeled the mask from his face and hurried to clamp it over hers, though he felt her struggle against him as if to stop him. But he was stronger.

And then she was safe again, the mask secure.

"Dammit, woman. Why you gotta scare me like that?"

Finally, she answered, though there was something distinctly off about the tone of her voice.

"Joon, get back on the ship."

He leaned his forehead forward into hers and inhaled a deep, happy breath. "I don't know why, but when we said goodbye... a part of me wondered... if I'd even ever see you again. And here you are...." He leaned in and brushed his lips between her furled eyebrows.

"JIN WAIT!"

CRACK.

Something snapped against his head, the world went dark, and Kim Namjoon fell limp onto hard mountain rock.