Summary: A game. Nothing more, nothing less.
A/N: Some parts of this are really jumbled. Some parts of it come from different routes, so don't think that It all came from one game.
It starts with a game. The simplistic nature of it all is almost insulting. It's either play along or die. The rules seem too straight-forward, too strange to not question it.
But when Sigma wakes up from his purrfectly good nap, he almeowst wants to keep sleeping and pretend like he is not playing a sick puzzle game.
And fuck, the cat purs are starting again. Stupid Schrodinger's Cat. Stupid lion.
Phi watches him with the frustration and confusion and the barest hint of curiosity and he wants to stop meow. But he can't and he purr-nders what kind of cruel world he lives in where he can never stop meowing and purring everywhere.
Perhaps never, if Phi doesn't look like she wants to kick his ass if one meow pun comes out.
"So…the book." Thank god for Alice. Her steely gaze on the book in question is what draws Phi's attention away from Sigma. Oh, he could purr forever just for her. "Can it help us meo- now, I mean?"
Sigma would have smiled if the Egyptian beauty didn't look like she wanted to kill him too.
"No," Phi flips through the cat book, "doesn't look like it." She starts rambling off about cats and boxes and poison and he keeps purring and meowing-
"I swear," Alice raises a finger at him, "if you go off on another cat rampage, I'll go on one." She sends him a glare his way to make sure he gets the point.
He nods, if only to be a purrfectly good kitty.
Sometimes, the same urge that pushes him to be a strange cat purring man makes him do the strangest things. He wonders how much control he really has over his body. Because things like cat puns are one thing, but actively choosing to betray Alice the way he did is something awful. Does he really have the mental capabilities in him to do that?
He wonders if he crossed some evil black cat one day and that little kitty made sure that he would never enjoy his life. Thanks, little kitty.
But that is then and this is now.
Now includes a terrifying realization that Quark is missing and possibly dying of some awful disease that he's never even heard of. Radical-6 is going to kill them and they won't make it out and oh gods-
"Relax, Sigma. The ADAM said we don't have it." Phi states, focusing her attention on the machine instead of the scared man next to her. "I wonder when they developed this. This certainly wasn't around before."
Sigma wants to say something (of course it's been here don't you remember when Dr. Klim announced its creation), but opts to stay silent, wondering about his current predicament.
This is a terrible game, a terrible world where death can and will creep up on you. Why him? Why now? Why here?
"Sigma. It's about time to go to the Chromatic doors. "A few clicks and he sees the glowing 0:13 minutes staring back at him. "Let's go."
Sigma follows, but in the back of his mind, he wonders why he follows someone like Phi, a complete stranger. But then he thinks of his strange urges and he only leaves it alone.
So Alice is pissed. He gets it.
The bitching and glaring is enough for Sigma to want to hide behind K. Maybe he would protect him too.
Clover watches him with some disdain too and he can't help but wonder why she follows the woman so closely. She's in her team, so they have to work together in the pressure exchange room. If only she didn't look like she wanted to kill him so.
"Clover," he puts his hand on the girl's shoulder, "are you going to be okay working with me?"
And for a moment, her eyes are glassy and she suddenly looks like a lost puppy. He would have hugged her if she didn't quickly regain her composure.
"I'm fine." Clover says quietly to herself, sounding more like she's trying to reassure herself. "It's going to be okay."
She starts walking to the other end of the room, her frail shoulders drawing in on itself, and it leaves Sigma with a bitter taste in his mouth as well as a knot in his stomach.
So Alice and Clover work together in the Department of Security. Right, Sigma tells himself, and he's a fucking raving scientist who cured cancer. As much as his willing suspension of disbelief wants to believe in that, Sigma half feels compelled to laugh at such an incredulous admission.
But then those earnest magenta eyes stare at him and he's speechless. The prickling feeling he feels in the back of his head disappears and he suddenly believes her with everything he has in himself.
"This, though. The nonary game." She sounds so sad, so dejected all of a sudden that it reels in Sigma's attention. "Last time, it saved someone's life."
Sigma doesn't quite understand how such a fucked up life-or-death game actually saved someone's life, but he lets her continue and holds his own questions at bay.
"There's more to it." The resolve in her voice is steely. Reminds him of Alice all of a sudden. "I just need to figure out what."
Sigma ignores the clench in his stomach.
They're dead.
That fact doesn't stop him from feeling so utterly terrified. They're all…
Blood pools around each body, forming what looks like islands of flesh surrounded by an ocean of blood. It didn't matter what type of person they were or what choices they made in this game. Crimson rivulets link them all together.
Sigma…don't you want to be free? A soothing voice comes on then.
He notices the scalpel and picks it up. It has a certain…gleam to it. The sharp blade seems so attractive all of a sudden.
Sigma, will you not want to be free? You can leave, you know. Leave behind the nine points and the allying and the betraying. All you really need…is this one move.
He shakily holds the tip of the knife against his throat, terror being pushed back by this urge. It's right. The game was over. This was the only way to escape. He needs to leave now.
The sweet relief of having that blade slice through his neck is sensational. Leaves him feeling nothing but relief and no pain.
He floats in a strange field, a place that tastes so sweet. At last, he's free, oh thank god, he's free-
But then it starts with a game.