"We are who we choose to be"

Kaida swallowed. "I'll do it"

"I didn't know you swung that way."

"No, I - oh. Hahaha. You actually know what you're doing! They're gonna need a leader."

"And how much good did the Chief do?"

"More good than I wou- Wait, what's she doing?"

The screens beyond the console flickered from various piped-in security cameras and data feeds, to pictures of the...

Kaida frowned.

...the station's parking lot?

Wyatt and Hoshi had gotten into at least one trunk. Wyatt clutched a shotgun to her chest, and kept an eye on the shadows around them.

Deon said, "Kai? Kai, look at me."

K looked at him. "Y-yeah?"

"I can't."

"What?"

Deon hung his head. "I can't lose a partner again."

The parking lot cameras didn't have sound. So Kaida couldn't hear what made Wyatt and Hoshi jump.

Just see Wyatt point her shotgun into the darkness behind the lights.

And then the perimeter lights went out.

Hoshi tried a lot harder to get the trunk open, but he couldn't. Maybe he used the wrong key. Maybe it was panic.

And the question swiftly became academic.

A glob of dark substance flew from the dark, and pinned Hoshi's hand to the trunk.