- Retrospective

Jade stood in the corner of the room, shaking with sadness and fear. 

So this is how it is, he thought. Everyone who gets close to me will die. Mom. Dad. Iyana. All dead.

Now Hyunji. 

Jade looked around at the others. Kenji knelt on the ground, his face in his hands. Min-jun stood over Hyunji's body, trembling as he clutched onto the pistol. 

Hyunji….

No, Jade couldn't even look at her disfigured body. 

Sofia and Dante remained quiet, still in shock. 

"What the hell was that?" Dante asked.

"She's dead…," Jade said quietly, looking at Min-jun. "You killed her."

Min-jun turned to Jade, tears in his eyes. "I did. I murdered her." He began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Kenji asked, standing. "What's so fucking funny?"

Min-jun had tears streaming down his face. "None of it." 

He crossed the room, stopping at a bookshelf. A box of bullets sat on one of the shelves, still open. Min-jun pulled out a round and placed it in the cylinder.

Kenji stepped over to Min-jun. "We should get out of here. We'll find a ship, head back to Earth."

Min-jun nodded. "You're right. I'm leaving." He brought the gun up to the side of his head and fired. 

Jade flinched as brain matter sprayed across the room. 

Sofia scream was almost as loud as the gunshot, and she fell to her knees. 

Kenji dropped his katana, staring at the spot Min-jun had just stood. There was nothing behind his eyes, only emptiness. 

Jade began to cry again. He couldn't take the scene in anymore. Squeezing his eyes shut, he let the tears fall down his cheeks. 

Each teardrop began to slow as it fell through the air, until time itself had stopped. 

*******

"Terry wasn't like this…," Kenji said with dismay. "He was a respectable shop owner. A good guy. I don't understand."

Hyunji opened her eyes, her hand on the syringe. Looking at it with disgust, she tossed it off to the side. There was a shiny revolver in the corpse's hand. No…this wasn't a corpse. Something was nagging in the back of her mind. 

She reached for the revolver, wrenching it out of Terry's hands. "I'll take this." She smiled. "And it's loaded too."

Standing, she took a few steps backward, putting distance between herself and Terry. "Kenji…get back."

Kenji frowned but obeyed, taking a step back.

Terry's dead white eyes began to roll back around, and his pupils locked on Hyunji. 

Bringing up the gun, she fired all six rounds into his face. Terry slumped back over, a purple liquid pouring from his face. 

Kenji knelt down, examining Terry's corpse. "How did you know? That he was still alive? I…I checked his pulse. There was nothing."

Hyunji didn't respond. Her head pounded. 

There were footsteps behind her. She turned around. 

Min-jun, Jade, Sofia, and Dante came into the room with worried expressions. 

"Hyunji, what happened?" Min-jun asked, glancing at the revolver in her hand. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, placing a hand on her head.  "Sorry. I'm fine. It's just…it must've been my imagination."

"What was?" Her brother asked with concern.

"It's…nothing. I just thought I was going to die."

*******

"Well, we're fucked now," Kenji said. The group sat in the front lobby, eating the leftovers they'd found in Terry's refrigerator. "Terry's dead. The Galeion is ruined." He smacked his head. "How could I have been so careless?"

"It's in your nature, Kenji," Hyunji said bitterly. "You're always careless."

"Woah, check it out," Jade said, standing. He walked over to the front desk where a small screen sat. "I haven't watched T.V. in forever."

"You were just watching T.V. in my apartment the other day," Hyunji said. 

"True. I miss watching cartoons," he said, flicking the power on. The T.V. immediately turned to the news. 

"....Quon is still on the loose. His bounty is now worth 4.3 million Ƈ."

Hyunji stood immediately and rushed over to Jade. 

"Keep a lookout for this fugitive and notify authorities immediately. In other news, the planet Asentro is currently in a state of emergency. Close to a hundred are dead after a ship crashed into one of Karneki Enterprises' buildings."

Kenji frowned. "Asentro?"

"Here we have footage of the destruction. As you can see, the top two floors of the building are in shambles."

Hyunji squinted at the footage of the city. "That's…where we are." She turned to Kenji, who looked fearful. "You gotta be fucking kidding me."