A week late, but I finally finished it! This is my entry for week one of TSOS, a summer challenge that involves writing twelve one-shots over the summer! Feel free to join in!

Ahem, now that I said what this is for…this story spoils almost every plot twist/important thing in Zero Time Dilemma. If you haven't gotten through most of the C-Team fragments and some other fragments, specifically Ambidex, Anthropic Principle, Door of Truth, Get Back, and Suspicion, I'd advise you to not read this. Please, don't spoil yourself (unless you have no intentions of playing ZTD, but even then). I hope you enjoy this first one shot in Past, Present, Future! – ElementLegend

Story 1: Let's Try This Again (TSOS Prompt: Approach)

Pairing: AkanexCarlos (but not really, since they're trying to kill each other)

Setting: Alternate Timeline, during ZTD, Suspicion fragment

Premise: Carlos accidentally SHIFTs back to the Suspicion fragment, and, after weighing his options, tries to convince Akane that he didn't kill Junpei, or at least, that someone else did it.

Carlos knew he had SHIFTed to the wrong place when the lights turned off and he heard a chainsaw, whirring loudly.

Wait, is this before I, er, the me that was originally in this timeline, killed Akane? That would explain the chainsaw sound…

Carlos wasn't sure why he was here, though. After he was shot by Eric in the last timeline, he was supposed to SHIFT back to the timeline where he, Akane, and Junpei were being beat up by that…kid. The one that looked oddly similar to the one Eric was with in that last timeline. Maybe it's because I wasn't thinking about where I needed to SHIFT to? No, that's not it…

The whirring of the chainsaw got louder and louder, and seemed to come from behind Carlos.

Oh crap, that can't be good…

Carlos turned around, picking up an axe on the ground. He could see Akane just fine; being a firefighter had improved his vision a bit. He backed up slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements.

Okay, so what are my options? I could kill Akane, but last time, that resulted in Eric killing me, and I don't actually want to kill Akane. I could let Akane kill me, but I doubt that's a good idea. Besides, I've died…four times within the past few hours? It'd be nice if I didn't have to die again. So I guess that leaves talking to Akane. But…

The chainsaw got louder as Akane walked closer and closer to Carlos.

How am I supposed to get Akane to not kill me?! And why is she chasing me with a chainsaw in the first place?!

Carlos sighed. He was going to have to be very careful with his approach.

"Hey, Akane!" Carlos said, loud enough so he could be heard over the chainsaw. "Can you turn that thing off? I think we need to talk-"

Apparently, Akane didn't agree. She ran towards Carlos with her chainsaw. Carlos dodged to his right, and got behind the couch in the center of the room.

"Whoa! I don't know why you're attacking me, but-"

"You…don't act like you don't know what you did!" Akane yelled. "You killed…my beloved…You killed Junpei so you could get out of here!"

Wait, what? Carlos thought. He had technically killed Junpei, on accident, while they were playing that weird game in the boiler room. But he was pretty sure he hadn't killed Junpei in this timeline, on accident or on purpose.

"I didn't kill Junpei, and besides, that doesn't give you an excuse to chase after me with a chainsaw!"

"If I don't kill you, you'll kill me so you can get out of here and save your sister!"

"I'm not going to kill you!" Carlos yelled. Carlos could see Akane, who had been coming towards him while they were yelling at each other, stop.

"Look, Akane. Turn that thing off and set it down. I'll set my axe down too. Then we can talk, okay? But I need you to set the chainsaw down first."

"What if you try and attack me while I'm setting my chainsaw down?"

"I won't. I promise," Carlos said, backing up a little bit.

The two stood there, the only sounds being Akane's chainsaw and Carlos' heavy breathing.

Is she going to put it down?

Suddenly, the chainsaw's whirring stopped. He could see Akane slowly setting her weapon down onto the couch.

"I set it down. Your turn."

"Alright. I'll set my axe down now." Carlos held one of his hands up as he put the axe on the ground, then slowly stood back up. "Hey, can you turn the lights back on, Akane?"

She didn't respond, but Carlos did see her leave the room. After a short amount of time, the lights came back on, and Akane came back to the lounge. She crossed her arms, glaring at Carlos.

"You said you wanted to talk."

"Yeah. Uh…" Carlos said. What should I say?

He took a deep breath. "Look, Akane, I didn't kill Junpei. I know you think I did, but I didn't. And I don't think you killed Junpei either."

"So who killed Junpei? Gab?"

"No! Why would I say that the dog did it?"

"Well, nobody besides me and you could have killed Junpei, because everyone else is in different wards. The only other option would be to say that Gab did it."

"That's not true."

"What? We're in three different wards. How could someone from a different team come and kill Junpei? Nobody could have squeezed through that vent-"

"They wouldn't have to. There's only one ward," Carlos said, confident.

"I highly doubt that," Akane said, shaking her head.

"I can prove it, okay?" Carlos said. He picked up his axe.

"Put that thing down right now or I will turn on this chainsaw, and I will do what you did to Jumpy!" Akane yelled, grabbing the chainsaw from the couch.

"Like I said, I didn't kill him! And I need to show you something with this axe," Carlos explained. He ran over to the wall with the basketball hoop. Then, as hard as he could, he slammed the axe into the wall.

The holographic image on the wall cracked, then turned into a plain white wall.

"What…?" Akane whispered. He turned around.

"Yeah. Apparently, Zero used this hologram to disguise the fact that there was only one ward. There was a time delay on our watches, so the three teams weren't all awake at the same time. If one of the other team members found Junpei knocked out, they could have easily killed him."

"Okay, fine. But how did you know all of that, Carlos? Are you-"

"No, I'm not Zero! I SHIFTed here from a different timeline."

"That's how you knew? You're some sort of esper, then?" Akane said, one of her eyebrows raised.

"Well-"

"Hold it right there!"

Carlos and Akane looked over, and saw that Eric had come into the lounge. Eric, of course, was holding a shotgun.

"Which one of you did it?!"

"Did what, exactly?" Akane asked.

"You know exactly what you did! One of you killed Mira!"

Wait, how is Eric awake right now? Did he circumvent the bracelet? Carlos thought.

In any case, Carlos knew that while he had managed to stop Akane from killing him, stopping Eric wouldn't be so easy.

Here we go again…