The entirety of the place is a sea of grey and white, the sound of muffled crying crashing over Sam like waves on a shore. She stands, stonily silent, watching as the casket is lowered into the flames.

She cried herself dry days ago. No more tears will come; Sam's emotions dried up with the tears. It feels wrong not to cry when the highlight of the funeral, if any, is her.

"Your mother was a great woman."

Sam turns her head slightly to look at the stranger. He's balding, with thick, dated glasses and a nervous squint. He must be one of her mother's colleagues. When Sam doesn't reply, he hurriedly goes on. "She, ah, always talked about you in the lab. How talented you are at logic and research, and she hoped that... maybe one day you'll follow in her footsteps."

Sam doesn't smile. "I won't."

He is at a loss for words. Sam brushes past him, briskly making her way out of the funeral parlour. People. There are too many people. The pressure suffocates her.

The funeral isn't over; the orphanage will be waiting to take her in. Sam won't give them the chance. She checks through her backpack once, ascertains that everything she needs is inside, and flags a cab. "FBI Headquarters, please."

The machine beeps. The officer looks up, walking over to check the countless screens and diagrams that blink and flash. He looks elated. "Congratulations, you're through. You're the first in the six thousand read who seems suited for the role of Guardian. We were beginning to think the labs producing the machines had faulted the Guardian slot."

Sam reaches up to detach the metal contraption from her head. "Can I go for Aquarius instead?"

"Sorry, miss, you'll have to go for either Guardian or Elemental. However, the risk of fatality for the Elemental surgery will be... pretty high."

"I'm taking Guardian," Sam responds readily. The officer pushes her a form.

"Sign the contract."

"The spacecraft will be launching in little over an hour, sir, please sit down," the officer sighs. Taehyung's adamant. "I need to nip down and buy popcorn before we go, it won't take long!"

"You need to undergo several rounds of cabin pressurising before we move, sir," the officer replies. "We have yet to clear your immune system of Earth Serum."

"But popcorn—"

"Taehyung, just sit," Namjoon says, amused, and Taehyung whirls around to pout at the strangely white-haired boy. "I'm hungry."

"We provide food in the cabin," the officer snaps.

"Are they even edible?" Taehyung asks wonderingly, fishing out a cube of solid food from his pocket. The officer yelps. "Did you break into the pantry?"

"The lock wasn't hard to pick," Taehyung shrugs.

Namjoon rubs a hand over his eyes as the officer continues arguing with the younger. "Suga hyung, Jin hyung, a little help?"

Yoongi straps himself into his seat and pretends to fall asleep. Seokjin, shaking his head, grasps Taehyung's shoulder, and all but drags Taehyung back in and ties him to a seat. "If you so much as move a muscle, I'll kiss you."

Taehyung decides he likes Seokjin very much, and, wiggling quite obviously, grins up at the elder. When Seokjin doesn't kiss him, he starts whining, until Namjoon decides that he ought to be sedated for the rest of the trip.

Taehyung doesn't move a muscle when they inject him with Earth Antidote.

"Can you believe it?" Seokjin says to no one in particular as the they watch Taehyung sleep, "We're going to live in outer space with an alien."