Quinn couldn't breathe.

Her eye stared out at the door where Roaki had just been dragged, threats still flying loud through her brain and ringing in her ears.

"[color=skyblue]---------------------------------------------------[/color]"

"[color=gray]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/color]"

She heard Dahlia and Besca. But she didn't [i]really[/i] hear them. Didn't really even know they were there. Everyone passed in a blurry half-light around her, phantom images that didn't quite register. And though her eye was fixed to the door, it looked past it at some faraway place, watching Roaki slaughtering everyone on Aerie station one by one. Watching her come to the pilot's quarters, tear down the door, then go into Dahlia's room—

[i][color=ec008c]I’m gonna start with that one, right there, and I’m just gonna keep going.[/color][/i]

"[color=gray]—let her get to you. She may be loud, but she's almost as new to this as you are.[/color]"

Quinn finally tore her gaze from the imagined carnage and looked up at Besca uncomprehendingly. Painting her face was a look not of tension and worry, but of utter desolation.

Dahlia grasped her hand. "[color=skyblue]I should've stepped in. I'm sorry. Are you okay?[/color]"

Was she okay?

No. No, there wasn't even a word for how [i]not okay[/i] she was at that exact moment. There was no way any word, or combination of words, could describe what was running through her head. The horror. The [i]loathing[/i] that seeped through her, choking out the last of that fierce bright urge. Loathing for [i]herself[/i], for that sickening urge, drive, [i]desire[/i] to [b][i]KILL.[/i][/b] There were simply no words she could find.

So she didn't try.

Quinn's legs crumpled out from underneath her, and she collapsed into Besca, planting her face on her shoulder, and a wet spot began to form. Even then she was dead silent, like she'd had the mute button pressed on her remote.

[i][color=ec008c]I'll kill every last one of them![/color][/i]

Then Quinn [i]shattered.[/i]

And, wail after gut-wrenching sob, the silence shattered with her.