Virtue's Last Reward is owned by Spike Chunsoft, and the Nonary Game is owned by Cradle Pharmaceutical.

Phi huddled against the cold wall of the elevator, trying to suppress the pounding in her head. How had she got there? The last thing she remembered was being engulfed by white smoke in a Las Vegas alleyway; as she collapsed she had been grabbed under the arms by a masked figure and dragged into a side-entrance of a building. She wondered why she had been taken: though she could think of many secrets – Vegas secrets – that would attract a special interest in her, she couldn't imagine any enemy sufficiently desperate, powerful and competent to organise such a brazen and methodical kidnapping – in broad daylight, and completed so swiftly that Phi was unconscious even before she realised it had happened – at least, no enemy that powerful which also had a specific grudge against her. Phi resolutely collected her thoughts and oriented herself: her mind needed to be as clear as possible if she was to evaluate her situation. Though her legs still trembled from the effects of whatever anaesthetic had been used to kidnap her – she decided to conserve her strength rather than attempt to stand – she prepared herself to do whatever was necessary to understand her situation.

Phi examined the elevator carefully. It was immediately obvious that she was trapped. Though she could not yet reach the control panel for the elevator door, which was in the opposite corner of the room, the imposingly thick steel doors, along with the manner by which she had been imprisoned in the elevator, clearly implied that she was intended to remain there for some time and that the controls would not soon allow a way out. The centre was dominated by a strange device: presumably some sort of computer judging by the screen, but with the screen off and no input device visible the purpose of the computer was impossible to determine. The opposite wall had a rail with coloured ends and buttons numbered one to nine above it; Phi arched her neck to confirm the existence of a similar setup on her side of the wall and pressed the closest buttons, to no effect. The only other item within reach or sight was the box she was leaning against. It was red, with a figure of a fire extinguisher in white on the front. In the corner of the box was a tiny keyhole: Phi considered picking the lock as something proactive to do, but discovered to her alarm – though not surprise – that her lockpicks had been removed from her pockets.

Phi thoroughly checked the rest of her possessions. Black flower? Still attached to her hair. Clothes? As she remembered them. Broach? Thank goodness, it was still there, though the scuff marks and sheen of grease on it suggested that it had been handled frequently by the kidnappers since she had last looked at it.

She held the broach reverentially between her hands and whispered the motto on the back, "Elapsam semel occasionem non ipse potest Iuppiter reprehendere." She didn't intend to miss any opportunities to escape this predicament. For the meanwhile, though, there were no opportunities to be had: the logical option was to allow herself to recover and wait for the kidnappers' next move.

It was then that she noticed that she had one new item in her possession. A black bracelet had been attached to her left wrist. She tried to remove it, or at least manipulate it so that she could examine it more thoroughly, but it was fastened tightly and refused to budge. On the front of the bracelet was a screen displaying a large red three; underneath it was the word 'PAIR'. She turned her attention to the buttons on either side of the screen, pressing first the button closest to her hand then the other one, with no perceivable response from the bracelet. Some intuition told Phi that the purpose of buttons was a problem she could solve. Perhaps some pattern of button presses would get a response? It was likely to be a pattern that used both buttons and was natural for the human mind; she settled on an alternating pattern: right, left, right, left… She continued the pattern far longer than it would take most to give up, but failed to get a result. Perhaps she had to hold down the buttons for longer? Phi continued to experiment with the bracelet.

She didn't notice the other occupant of the room, slumped on the other side of the strange computer, until he stirred. So that's what 'PAIR' on the bracelet meant. He seemed to be even more affected by the aftereffects of the anaesthetic than she was, judging from his shaky voice as he awoke, but he still dragged himself up off the floor where he had lain. Phi got a closer look at him as he stumbled into the middle of the room. He was an old man with greying bedraggled hair, wearing an incongruously garish blue shirt. He hadn't noticed her yet, because he was focused on the elevator door.

The old man muttered to himself, "Where the hell am I? Looks like an elevator." His voice was deep, but surprisingly smooth for his age.

"Isn't that obvious?" Phi said tersely. She didn't feel good about snapping at the man, but she figured it was only natural for her to be wary around the first person she met after being knocked unconscious and locked up.

The man turned around with a gasp, revealing his most striking feature: his right eye was artificial. Robotic eyes were not unknown, but they were rare, and Sigma's eye appeared to be a custom model with the metallic rim blending sleekly into the contours of his face. Either Sigma was unusually wealthy, or he had incredibly generous insurance. Perhaps he was a veteran: soldiers were regularly accelerated up the queues for experimental robotic prosthetics. Phi considered the possibility that Sigma…

Wait. How did she know that his name was Sigma?

"Cute. That's my name. I'm asking you… Wait a second, how do you know my name?!" Sigma said.

Phi realised she had carried on a conversation with Sigma on autopilot, and had blurted out Sigma's name.

"I haven't met you before, have I?" Sigma continued.

Phi didn't have an answer for him. It was rather disconcerting, not knowing how she knew. "No you haven't. I don't have any idea who you are. But…"

"But what? How could you know my name?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? I just… know it, okay?"

Sigma's expression hardened. "No need to bite my head off. It's just, you're not really making any sense here and you still haven't told me who you are."

Phi bristled under such suspicion. "Shut up! Just back off, Grandpa!" Phi had expected some anger or shock from Sigma, and was surprised to find that Sigma was only confused by her outburst. She decided to explain her thoughts to Sigma to escape the awkwardness of the moment. "Look, I just don't know, all right? It's just kind of… there. Like, I looked at you and some part of my brain just said, 'That's Sigma'." Unfortunately, he still seemed insistent on pressing the matter.

Phi attempted to distract Sigma. "What do you think this thing is? This bracelet."

Sigma's eyes darted instinctively down his left arm. Distraction mission accomplished.

Phi followed his gaze to his wrist. "See? You've got one too. They're pretty much identical."

Indeed, Sigma's bracelet also displayed a red three and the word 'PAIR'. Sigma examined the bracelet much as Phi had done, then started straining to remove it.

"Good luck. I spent a while trying to get mine off while you were napping," Phi explained, "It's on pretty tight. Doesn't even have a clasp or anything."

"What about these buttons on the sides?"

Phi recalled that she had been experimenting with those very buttons when Sigma had woken up, without success. She explained to him what she had attempted.

Sigma said, "What the hell is going on here?! Somebody better start explaining, or…"

Almost as if it activated on Sigma's cue, a screen above the elevator controls lit up with a sickly glow. Phi dragged Sigma over to it, and they watched as a cartoon-like figure appeared with grating childish laughter.

"How're you feeling? I am Zero III! The king of this kingdom."

So this was the enemy: a representative of their kidnappers. The avatar looked like some sort of rodent, but it was adorned with gaudy markings of flowers. Adding to the sheer ridiculousness of his appearance was the gilded scarlet headwear that took up what seemed like half the screen.

"What is that?" Sigma asked.

"A rat?" Phi said.

"Uh, no. Pretty sure it's a rabbit."

Phi ignored his response. The mouse on the screen had waited for them to finish, but it then hopped forward to continue its announcement.

"I'm sure you've got looooooots…" Zero dragged out the vowel so painfully long that Phi winced, "of questions! It just seems silly to have a big old chit-chat right now, so… I'm gonna give you a game to play! I'm calling it… The Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition! There's more to it! Lots more! But if I told you now, that would be cheating. So hurry up and get out! I'll be waiting!"

Phi considered this. Was this the motive for kidnapping Sigma and her? To force them into some strange game? It seemed such a trivial goal given the effort and resources that had to have been used to take them.

Zero continued his speech, "Oh right! I forgot to tell you the most. Important. Thing. This elevator you're in. It's gonna fall in a few minutes. Way down. Have a nice trick!" With that, screen turned off.

Sigma hammered angrily at the screen. "Goddamnit! This is bullshit! That stupid rabbit didn't tell us anything! How are we even supposed to get out of here?"

Phi scowled. Even in the small portion of the room she had examined so far, there were enough clues to begin solving the puzzle. Surely Sigma realised that if their captives intended escape to be impossible, they would choose a much cheaper, simpler method of killing them than dropping them in an elevator. "It's just a puzzle. That means we can solve it. You want answers about why we're here? If you want them then you have to help me get us out of here. You don't want to die here anymore than me. Let's go," Phi replied. It was time to seek a way out.

Sigma pointed towards the device at the back of the elevator. "Looks like that's gonna be important for the puzzle, especially with that safe underneath it," he remarked, pointing out a dull metallic box in a recess under the screen of the device.

"Clearly," said Phi, "Just as clearly, it's going to be at the end of the puzzle. See, it's missing something." She pointed at a row of empty slots to the bottom right of the screen of the device. "We'll have to start somewhere else. Like here." Phi led Sigma over to the one item in the room she had been able to examine in detail while she was recovering: the fire extinguisher box. "Look at this. These are instructions for a fire extinguisher, but what it says seems… weird."

Sigma examined the directions, and then peered at the hole on the extinguisher box that the instructions pointed out. "Wait a second!" he exclaimed. He darted around the device to the other corner. Phi couldn't see what he was doing, but he came back a moment later dragging a fire extinguisher. He pulled the pin from the lever and flourished it at Phi.

"Heh," Phi remarked, "You could have just brought the pin here instead of lugging the entire thing."

Sigma chucked, and Phi couldn't help but grin with him. Despite the danger hanging over them, it was pleasant to know they were making some progress. Sigma knelt beside the box and carefully placed the key in the hole. He opened the box and took out a plastic case, which he showed to Phi; it's polyurethane insides contained four small metallic objects which Phi recognised as heads for tools, as well as four indentations where something – most likely the handles of said tools – had been removed. There was something familiar about the shape of those holes. Where had she seen that before? Phi closed her eyes so she could better visualise the shape of the handles and leaned back against the rail. Just before she got comfortable, the end of the rail gave way and she fell painfully onto the solid metal floor. Seething with embarrassment, Phi took a moment to get her bearings before opening her eyes. When she did, Sigma was standing over her, offering his left arm to help her up while the other held the item she had slipped on. It was the red knob that had been at the end of the rail; it was clearly one of the handles they were looking for.

"Hey, well done. You found it."

Phi frowned as she pulled herself to her feet with Sigma's help. His arm was strangely smooth compared to his weathered face, but Phi was still too dazed to consciously notice it. She pushed past him into the centre of the elevator.

"Ugh. That never happened."

Sigma waved his hands apologetically. "We all make mistakes. Sure, that never happened. Let's go and collect the others; take your mind off it."

Phi would much rather that she never made any mistakes at all, but she found herself warming to the old man. She took the chance he offered and headed over to the other rail, whose ends came off just as easily and less disastrously, while Sigma did the same for the other end of the rail she'd fallen from. She tossed the acquired handles over to Sigma and he compared them to the ends.

"Any good?" she asked.

Sigma fiddled with them. "Damnit!" he replied, "This head doesn't fit." He waved the head and handle he'd attempted to fit together. "I can keep trying…"

"Don't bother," Phi stopped him. She gestured around the room. "There's going to be some hint in here to tell us which one goes with which. It's more… elegant, that way."

Sigma looked thoughtful. "What if we were to find where they're gonna be used? There's gotta be a hint there."

"Great idea!" Phi replied. She spun around, taking in as much of the room as possible. Her gaze settled on the elevator controls and slid down the panel. Beneath the controls was a grate; Phi knelt to get a closer look at it. In each corner were strangely shaped screw.

"Sigma!" Phi called, "Are the screwdriver heads different shapes? Try attaching the yellow handle to the triangular head."

There was a pause as Sigma found the correct handle. "It worked! How did you…"

Phi cut him off, "Now put the pentagonal head with the green handle..."

When all the screwdrivers were complete, Sigma came over to the grill. Phi rolled out of the way so that he could unscrew the grill. As Sigma released the last screw he looked over at Phi and smirked.

"And Sigma is the 'screwing' champion! Come on, admit it, aren't I?"

Phi nearly said something naïve, but then she saw how he was looking at her and followed his entendre. She smacked him across the back of his head.

"I'm pretty sure that would be 'unscrewing' champion, and no, I have no idea what that would mean in your dirty little mind."

Sigma chuckled again, and then pulled the grating away from the wall. Out slid a tray containing some sort of sliding block puzzle.

Sigma groaned, "Damnit, these are hard."

Phi looked over his shoulder, "This is seriously a kid's puzzle, you know that, right?" Phi was actually starting to enjoy this; Sigma and she had got a good rhythm with their putdowns, albeit with Sigma's contributions being 'below the belt' in more ways than one.

Sigma gave up on the puzzle and moved aside to let Phi get a closer look. A few careful tilts later and Phi had extricated the target block from the confines of the obstacle blocks. With a wry grin in Sigma's direction she pushed down on the right side of the tray and the block slid to the goal area.

"You see, it's a kid's puzzle," she said.

Sigma was about to respond when the puzzle reacted to her success. A slot on the front of the tray opened and presented a green memory card. Phi grabbed it and took it over to the matching slot on the central computer. As she placed the card in the slot the screen of the computer lit up, casting a blinding glow across Phi's vision. Phi hoped for a moment that this meant that the device had started functioning, but the glow didn't change at all, and touching the screen accomplished nothing.

"Looks like we'll need the other two," she remarked.

Discounting the items they'd already used, the room looked incredibly sparse. The only things left to examine were the button panels, one of which was the set of controls for the elevator – just below the screen Zero had delivered his introduction from – while the other two ran above the handrails on each side. Phi focused on the rails, and examined the icons above them.

"That one looks like an old man," she said to Sigma – she couldn't think of any suitably funny way to reference his age in connection with it, and Sigma didn't seem to notice – "and the one opposite looks like a baby." Phi sighed. "I wish I had one."

"You like kids?" Sigma asked.

Phi wondered why she was feeling so maternal. She didn't usually have time to think about such things back in Vegas. "Yeah, I guess so."

"There some guy you're planning to make some with?"

Phi turned around nervously: five minutes in his company meant she knew Sigma well enough to see where this was going. "H-Hey! No, there is not!"

Sigma dropped his punchline, "You wanna make one here, then?"

Phi glared at him across the room. How had she fallen into that one? "You stay away from me, alright!? Don't even think about doing anything! If any part of you touches me, even by accident, I will break it off! We clear?!"

Sigma jumped back. "I was just joking. Since I want to keep all my parts, how about we just carry on with the puzzle. Do you think the baby and old man have something to do with this?" He handed her a rolled up poster.

Phi unrolled it to examine the image. It showed various drawings of people of various ages. "Sure," she said. She counted the number of babies in the drawing and pressed button number 4. She called over to Sigma, "Do you think that rail wants just the old men, or all old people?"

Sigma bent down to look more closely at the image. Phi would have sworn that she heard his artificial eye whirring to zoom in.

"It looks like it wants all old people," he answered.

"Press seven, then."

Sigma did so. There didn't seem to be any response anywhere in the room, but there was still one more panel of numbers to use.

"A rabbit?" Phi said, looking at the picture above the elevator controls, "What does this have to do with anything?"

Sigma glanced at her strangely, as if she were being stupid. "It's obviously about Zero," he replied.

Phi contemplated this. "I suppose this was where Zero appeared…" she muttered.

Sigma ignored her and pressed zero. The second memory card slid out from below the rabbit icon.

"Yes!" Sigma took the memory card and placed it next to the previous one. For a brief moment green light bathed Sigma's face, projecting the outline of a three by three grid similar to the pad on the front of the safe, before Sigma tapped the screen with a finger and the image disappeared.

"Did you get that?" Phi asked with alarm. The password, if that was what it was, had disappeared from the screen frightfully quickly.

"Yeah, of course," Sigma answered, "I'm always remembering shit."

"Interesting… you have a photographic memory, if you remembered it that quickly."

Sigma bent down to input the password. Phi was just wondering why they had been given the safe password with only two of the three memory card slots filled when she realised Sigma had paused.

"Zero… III… Zero… III," he was muttering. Suddenly he jumped up and paced back over to the elevator controls. He pressed button three. With one final memory card grasped in his hand, Sigma came back to the computer screen. He placed the card in the last empty slot and the screen turned blue; Sigma looked at the new password on the screen and memorised it just as quickly. Phi didn't get how she had missed that. It seemed like Sigma was good for more than just dirty jokes.

Sigma looked at the safe and typed one of the passwords. Phi crouched beside him to see what was inside the safe as it opened. Sigma pulled out a gold clad file, while Phi examined the back of the safe.

"It's got a false back," she said. "See? It can just flip around. Kind of like those hidden passages in mansions and stuff. That's why we got two passwords. If you put in a different password, you get different stuff. Quick, put in the other password!"

She looked over at Sigma, who was still reading from the file.

"We don't have time for that, Sigma! The elevator could drop at any moment."

Sigma looked up from the file. "Huh? I don't think it will. Listen to this." He started reading from the first sheet in the file, "'AB room: This is where you play the AB game. It appears to be an elevator car.' It's got of picture of this as well…" Sigma pointed out the screen he'd got the passwords from. "So this place won't drop. It isn't actually an elevator." Sigma stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder what 'AB game' means?"

"No idea," Phi answered, "but unless you want to spend the rest of your life reading that, you still need to open up the other side of the safe."

"Sure, sure." Sigma closed the safe and put in the other password. Phi heard the partition spin round exposing the other compartment. The door popped open and Sigma grabbed the key from inside. He brandished it in the air. "We found it!" he shouted. "Wait, where do we use this?"

Phi shrugged sarcastically. "We're nearly ready to open the door. Maybe you should try to use the key over at the door." She pointed out the keyhole and transparent panel above the elevator control panel.

Sigma went over and examined the keyhole. "You ready? I'm gonna put the key in." he said.

"You don't need to ask me every time you're going to do something. Just hurry it up," Phi replied.

Sigma placed the key in and the panel sprung open. Sigma hovered his hand over the red button that this exposed. "Are you ready?"

Why did he have to keep asking? Was he trying to frustrate her? Actually, Phi figured, he probably was."Just do it!" Phi shouted.

"All right, all right, message received," Sigma replied. He tapped out a drumroll on the metal plating. "Three. Two. One!" His hand slammed down on the button.

Phi had by this point creeped all the way up to Sigma to peer over his shoulder and make sure he actually did press the button. So when a terrible grinding screech boomed from the ceiling behind her, making her think the elevator was actually falling after all, she jumped forward in shock, wrapping her arms around Sigma's torso.

Sigma shivered nervously. "That doesn't mean you're gonna break off my entire chest, does it?"

Phi took a moment to remember which of Sigma's over-the-line jokes he was referring to. "Don't worry," she replied, "Just don't do it again."

Sigma pondered. "You mean, don't solve-a-puzzle-set-by-a-psychotic-animated-rabbit-to-escape-a-pretend-elevator-that-probably-isn't-gonna-hurtle-down-and-kill-us-because-it-isn't-actually-an-elevator-but-we-still-want-out-of-by-getting-a-key-from-a-safe-and-then-pressing-a-giant-red-button-that-causes-a-ceiling-hatch-to-open-frightening-you-so-much-that-you-jump-gladly-into-my-arms again?" Sigma asked breathlessly.

"Yeah," Phi replied, "Don't do… that… again." She then realised what Sigma had inserted into his long sentence. "It wasn't fright," she explained, "It was… um… survival instinct."

"Sure," Sigma replied, "Survival instinct." He then pointed at the hole in the ceiling. "All right, it's open. Let's get the hell out of here."

Phi paused. The ceiling was far too high for one person to reach. There was a solution, but… well, how long would it be before Sigma suggested it?

"Guess it's a little too high for you," Sigma said, "All right then. Climb up on my shoulders,"

Yes, he suggested it.

Her distaste must have been clearly expressed on her face because Sigma tried to backpedal, "What's that look supposed to mean? Oh come on! I'm just trying to be rational here. No ulterior motive, hand to God. Not like I'm hoping…" Here his left eye misted up, while the robotic eye rotated suggestively. "… to get my face sandwiched between a girls bare thighs."

"I knew it! You sick bastard!"

There was a tense pause. Sigma hesitantly broke the silence, "Look, I'm just trying to get us out of here. You got any brilliant ideas that don't involve your thighs?"

Unfortunately, Phi hadn't. Fortunately, she could mitigate the indignity, if only slightly. "On your knees," she instructed, "You're a little tall for me to just jump on your shoulders and I'm certainly not going to give you the satisfaction of making me climb."

Sigma tried his best at a heartbroken expression, but eventually acquiesced. Phi stepped beside his crouching form and placed her foot on the arch of his back. To her considerable alarm, as her foot pressed down she found herself rising steadily into the air. She passed rapidly through the circular hole and cleared the rim by several feet. Tumbling onto the metal roof, she scrambled clumsily to stop the uncontrolled one, Phi resolved, must ever find out that wasn't intentional.

She heard Sigma call up through the open hatch, "What the heck are you?"

This was a perfect setup for a line Phi had prepared and wanted to use for some time. With possible death just around the corner and needing a chance to get her feet back under her – both literally and metaphorically – she recited it.

"I'm not Superman, that's for sure. And I'm not Batman, or Spiderman, or Aquaman, a merman, or a wolfman. I'm not brahman, or common, or ramen. I'm not a caiman either, so you don't really need to worry about anything." She stretched out her hand to help Sigma up, taking in his perplexed expression. "My name is Phi. I guess you could say… I am no man."

This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.