A/N: Mwahaha, yes, I am evil, I know for leaving you all on such a cliffhanger last chapter =P Let's just say the power went to my head? Oh, and the fact that I'm also working on another Loveless story at the moment, which will be posted as soon as I get my rear in gear and finish "Symmetry" :3

A riddle, dear readers. Two boys in a room, both identical down to the most minute detail, identical save for the bandages. There is a choice to be made here, a veritable Solomon's choice. Which shall remain Loveless? Who is the real Aoyagi Ritsuka? And how will you ever choose between them? To me, it makes no difference either way- when all is said and done, I will still have what I want. Always the opportunist, I can see how things will play out, all the little cracks and flaws to be exploited. Because, you see I have the advantage. I know them both. And so the curtain rises... Let the game begin.

"Don't you remember? You called for me. I'm Aoyagi Ritsuka."

It's true. It's coldly and patently true and I bite my lip, trying to avoid Soubi's gaze. I know what he wants me to say- that this is all a joke, or a hallucination perhaps, that there is only one Ritsuka and he is me without a shadow of a doubt. But there are plainly and painfully two Ritsukas and, you see, I have no idea which one is real. Whether I am real.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But two roses with the same name? Well, that's a tragedy in the making, if ever there was one and we are so evidently carbon copies of each other that already I can see there is no way this won't end in tears.

And the most terrible truth is that I did call for him.

"What have you done with him? You aren't my Ritsuka! Where is he?"

I don't know. Oh, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know... I know that the part of the brain which controls fear is no bigger than an almond, that air becomes liquid at about minus 190 degrees, that an octopus has three hearts, but I don't know the answer to the million-dollar question and I don't need the resounding crash of glass or the familiar metallic taste of blood to tell me that once again I've lost.

Would you like to phone a friend? Fifty-fifty? Or ask the audience? Hello, hello, can you help me? Can anyone help me this time? Loveless, come in, Loveless, no, I don't read you, maybe you have the wrong number... Hello, hello, I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello- oh, please just come back, come back...

Silence, cruel silence and I'm alone, alone. I don't think I can get up, maybe I'll just sleep here tonight?

"Why won't you come back, Ritsuka? Please... please come back..." My voice echoes out into a space so utterly empty that I'm sure no-one will ever hear me. I should call for Soubi. But I don't. I curl into a foetal position, hoping that somehow, maybe things will be all right and it's hardly surprising that on this count I'm wrong once again.

I don't want to remember. I have to remember. But the thing is, you see, that when I try it all comes out in a jumble- I remember things which couldn't have happened, words which don't exist and I'm just so confused that it all spills out between my eyelashes and I'm crying harder than I think I ever have before.

An arm winds around my waist, there's a shoulder to cry on and I press my face into it. Stupid, stupid little Ritsuka, shedding salt water faster than he can replace it, so hopelessly inefficient. I know who the shoulder belongs to- it's mine, mine and not mine, the other Ritsuka's and I catch an inkling of why they all adored him so much. He didn't have to be asked to comfort me. He did it of his own free will.

Ritsuka and not-Ritsuka, shadow and sunshine, both claiming possession of the same life. Only space for one.

He releases me and steps back, surveying me with obvious interest- come one, come all and gaze at a boy disintegrating...

"Don't cry, Ritsuka." he smiles, such a lovely smile, the way mine could be if I ever had anything to smile about.

"I know you don't want to go... so we'll play a game!"

I risk a glance at Soubi. He doesn't move, he doesn't say anything. I think maybe he's still trying to convince himself that he's only seeing double, that he won't have have to choose between us sooner or later- whatever the reason, he's doing what I like to call his "Venus di Milo act", so still that you could almost believe he was marble rather than living flesh.

Seeing that I can't hope for Soubi to rescue me now, I nod blindly.

"Okay. What kind of game?"

"The Becoming Ritsuka Game! You and I have two weeks to become Ritsuka. Whoever wins over the most people and fits in the best with your life wins the game and stays Ritsuka. The other one... disappears."

All or nothing- the highest staked game there is. If I win, I keep everything I've managed to build up over the last two years. If I lose... I lose Soubi. I lose myself. Everything.

"Fine, then. I'll play." The voice that comes out doesn't sound like mine, it sounds tiredly authoritative, it's the voice of someone who knows he has no choices left. No more lifelines. Is that your final answer, Ritsuka?

"Why are you doing this, Ritsuka?" Soubi's voice is infinitely sad and I don't know what to make of this. I've never heard him like this before.

"I don't have a choice... He-", and here I gesture to my mirror image, "He has the right to be Ritsuka- this was his life first. Don't you see, Soubi? He's giving me a chance to prove that it's mine now."

Nothing but a nod in return, but I know he understands. If there is anyone on the face of this perplexing earth who understands completely what it is like to have no options left, it's Soubi.

Final answer, Ritsuka? Final answer.

A/N: Ouch, sorry for the shortness of this chapter, guys- I wanted to rescue you from the cliffhanger before I go into deeper detail on this one. To further explain the concept of two Ritsukas- in short, what I'm going for is that at the moment, neither of the Ritsukas are the "real" one, hence the game. Whoever wins the game stays as Ritsuka and whoever loses vanishes away into nothing :3

And if you wondered why Ritsuka is essentially spouting nonsense throughout most of the flashback, he's basically trying to mentally tune out while Misaki is beating him- it's called dissociation, I believe.

If you got the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" references, you win quintuple cookies 3

See you in the next, hopefully longer, chapter, my darlings! Oh, and can any of you guess who our mysterious italicised voice is at the beginning of this chapter and the previous? They'll be showing up shortly...