(Haiiii, peeps, rare author's note from me! :3
Events from my friend's forum, Fanfiception, are heavily referenced here! That beh this forum:
(FFdotNet) /forum/Fanfiception/137318/
Check out le cool thing 030 Resolves around self-inserts in Sanic stuff...
Anyway
ONWARDS!)
"…T-Torture toy…?" Toxic laughed nervously. "F-funny… I th-thought you only used that term for when you were torturing someone or something…"
"Nope," Eliza responded with a wide grin, taking a step forward. "I use it for YOU, Tox. And you ONLY."
Toxic backed up with a worried expression on her face.
"E-Eliza… y-you're not going to…"
"…huh? Oh, torture you for all those times you backstabbed your friends?" Eliza leered, her smile stretching. "Wouldn't dream of it, Torture Toy. … That was sarcasm, by the way."
"Backstab…? B-but… I never… wh-what're you talking about?" The girl looked at her in fearful confusion; she retracted her hand, which had been so eager to hug Eliza a few seconds ago…
"Don't play dumb," she responded slyly, taking a step forward and picking up the fallen screwdriver. Eliza examined it carefully, showing vague interest in it. "He's so SIGNIFICANT to you, after all…"
"W-who are you talking about?" Toxic whimpered, feeling for the rail.
Eliza closed one eye, then messed with the screwdriver as if it were a dart, aiming for Toxic's eye. The other flinched in response, eyeing her with terror.
"E-Eliza, what're you going to do with that…?"
"Hmmm… wonder if I could ruin your eyesight…"
"I-I'm not kidding! P-please don't joke around!" Toxic squeaked, her hand tightening around the same 9mm revolver from earlier as she backed up.
Eliza eyed the weapon, the grinned.
"Or… shoot you with your own weapon. What happened to Shadow Rifles, Tox? Don't like Shadow anymore? I'm sure he doesn't like you, after everything you've done…" Eliza giggled. "Remember that messed up 'creative death' competition you had with Reisuke once? Shooting someone and leaving them to limp around near bear traps… Could improvise. Use the bear that's here…"
Toxic looked horrified. "N-no! No, I d-don't!"
"No, you don't like Shadow? Or no as in 'I'm going to lie my way out of this'?" Eliza asked cheerfully. "There's no Lucy here to save you, y'know… or your boyfriend. So! I've got creative freedom! Ain't that fun?"
"E-Eliza, I d-don't understand… p-please…" the older one pleaded, backing up the balcony. "I-I do-don't want to h-have to de-defend myself f-from you… yo-you're my friend!"
Eliza looked annoyed, twirling the screwdriver in her hand. She sighed irritably. "You always were a drama queen, weren't you?" she asked. "Can't just own up without the sappy dialogue…"
"D-drama queen…?" Toxic asked incredulously, looking offended. "I don't want to die! I-I have to save my friends!"
"You actually want to save your friends?" Eliza asked sceptically. "Right. Good. Fantastic."
She smiled in a lazy fashion.
"Because I don't believe you, Torture Toy."
"Hngh... Stupid vent..."
A mobian, ridden with dust bunnies, was crawling through a long shaft. He was pushing himself upwards, left and right, trying to find a way out of the underground bunker.
"...? Light... Is that another room, or...?"
The creature shuffled to the left quickly, then poked his head forward, looking into the room. It was small... It seemed to be an observation room, and...
"...huh?"
There was a man sat on the floor, looking frustrated.
"I need to get out of here..." he growled, pulling himself to his feet. He shook his head, then stared at the sealed observation window. He eyed the bloody room with distaste, cringing in disgust. He walked towards the drawers, trying to look through them, but the first few were locked... "Ugh. I have to be the captive, don't I...?"
"...hey!" The mobian in the vent knocked on the lid. The man turned his head, blinking. "You can come through this way!"
"…Darky."
"Darky?"
Flash blinked at G as he stood, noting his expression of frustration. G walked to the other side of the room, his hands behind his back as he seemed thoughtful. He was trying to think of how to get it across to Flash…
Then, he thought of something.
"…Monaca blackmailed me with Darky."
That seemed simple enough a thought process, but apparently not so to Flash…
"…What?"
G sighed as he turned around.
"I wouldn't have dragged everyone here for the sake of despair, Flash," he stated, voice level and gaze sincere. "I wouldn't have if I didn't have to..."
"Then why?" Flash narrowed his eyes. "Isn't it better to save what you have, G? You have me, you have Toxic, you have Fox... Now two of those might be in danger! Or even die!"
"..." G turned away, glaring at the door. "...no. Not Toxic."
"How do you know that?!" Flash growled. "She's the LAST person to resort to violence! Even with that gun, it sounds as if she won't last two minutes!"
"I wish you wouldn't doubt me and her so much," G replied, moving the glare to his direction.
Flash frowned and looked down sadly. "I'm sorry, alright...? I just... I'm just worried. And after that whole thing with Monaca..."
"You don't need to explain yourself." G looked to the side. "But I do. A lot."
"Damn straight," Flash responded, looking confused. "What kinda logic is that?""
G folded his arms.
"I couldn't just ignore Darky, if that's what you were getting at. Would YOU leave a friend behind?"
"..." Flash was silent at this question. "...no..." he muttered reluctantly...
"...as of this point, you're all my responsibility. I took a risk. Maybe I shouldn't have."
"Maybe." Flash's eye twitched.
"If I outright disobeyed Monaca, who knows what she'd have done with Darky? But if I brought everyone together... I wouldn't be defying Monaca, and she'd be too busy with us and too good a mood to mess with Darky. Then...We could find her. We'd tough it out... We're so tight a knit, we wouldn't play Monaca's game. We'd focus on getting Darky and then getting out."
"And then everyone got split up. That didn't go so well..." Flash remarked dryly.
"Not because of the structure. This place was built for this sort of thing, but it didn't take lessons from Hope's Peak Academy." G looked thoughtful. "I thought our escape would be easier because of that..."
"If it was built for this sort of thing, how come you think that doesn't affect our survival rate?" Flash asked, looking perplexed.
G looked on grimly.
"...the project failed. Participants rebelled and killed all the researchers just a few decades into the opening of the vault after a leak of information, instead of killing their vault mates."
"Wow... That backfired..."
"That's what they got for prolonging it for so long." G looked at him arrogantly. "Besides... pulling an experiment like that is just asking for it. Anyway, there don't seem to be any corpses here... At least, not belonging to inhabitants... So they must've gone SOMEWHERE..."
"I see..." Flash nodded. "Guess that kinda makes sense... But who are you to make that decision?"
"G," he deadpanned at Flash. "Look... If anything bad happens, that's my fault. I'm accepting that. But nothing bad is going to happen, got it?"
"E-Eliza, please; l-listen! We don't have to do anything crazy... hehehee..." Toxic forced a friendly, weak smile, backing up. "W-we can work together to leave this place! Like friends do!"
"And miss out on the SWEET opportunity to inflict pain on you?" Eliza grinned, twirling the screwdriver, following her every step. "I thought you knew me, Toxic. You clearly don't..."
"But I-"
"Maybe you're faking amnesia," the thief mused, rubbing her chin. She glanced down at her phone, scanning something, then she smirked widely.
"I'm not! I don't u-understand what you're talking about!" Toxic repeated, looking terrified. "P-please... j-just stop this... we-we can leave... together... N-nobody has to get hurt... W-we can... save everybody... you and me..."
Eliza seemed to be ignoring her.
"Either way, it doesn't matter. Gotta' atone for your sins, ya' know!" she sang merrily, then narrowed her eyes, expression malicious and evil. "I'm bored, and you're the newest, most helpless thing that moves! Don't worry; I'll drag it out! You'll live... okay? I'll make sure of it..."
She lunged forward.
"...then you can lay down in crumpled, tiny vulnerable heap and die!"
Toxic staggered back, moving to the left...
...then felt a sharp, searing pain across her back. She crashed into the wall beside her along with this, and fell to the ground.
"...hnnngh!" she cried out in shock, unable to gather herself to move. She barely felt the searing pain took the form of three painful lines... She opened one eye and saw the Monokuma unit staring down at her, its red eye gleaming. Her blood ran cold and she tensed up, inducing more panic, more agony... "...?!"
N-no... no! I c-can't die, I...
The Monokuma unit leered.
"...don't worry, Toxikku... I'm gonna' leave you all alone... with your friend... you'll be in good hands, right? She'll make you all better... Upupupupupu..."
...y-you...!
The bear plodded away, out of her blurred vision. Did her head hurt too...? She didn't know...
"Awww, someone beat me to it!" Eliza whined. "I wanted dibs! This sucks... oh, well. At least I can fill in for them now!"
She smirked down at Toxic.
"Okay then..." Flash looked at him in uncertainty. "...but how are you so sure Toxic is going to be okay?"
"E-Eliza... E-Eliiiiiiiza..." Toxic whined in pain, trying to move herself as the other crouched down.
Toxic didn't understand... why was she doing this? Weren't they friends?! Why was Eliza doing this to her...?! Why wasn't she helping?! Why... why...
Eliza gave a mock expression of sympathy.
"Does it hurt, Torture Toy? That's okay; ya' don't know the beginning of it yet..."
Betrayal and the fear of Eliza hurt Toxic a lot more than pain ever could...
She lifted the gun slowly; her hands shook as she clutched it tightly, trying to aim it.
"...huh. You going to shoot me where the sun don't shine?" Eliza teased. "Go on..."
Toxic's stature remained still for a full thirty seconds, then her resolve crumbled into tiny pieces; she dropped the gun, and was reduced to more than jittery talking.
"P-PLEASE! P-please... d-don't do this!" Toxic begged weakly, tears in her eyes. "I n-need to save my f-friends, E-Eliza... T-they're l-looking for me...! I n-need to s-save them... a-and you... P-PLEASE, l-let me go!"
Eliza bit her tongue in concentration, thoughtful.
"Hmmm... nope! Sorry, no can do! Karma's a prick, Toxic."
"Pl-please... pl-please let me live..."
"Oh, you'll live... for a little while." Eliza beamed brightly. "After all, that's how he'd do things, right? It's no fun just ending it here..."
"E-Eliza..."
...g-guys... I-I'm sorry... I-I'm so... so... sorry... I c-can't come back with you...
I-I'm sorry I'm so... useless...
So... pathetic...
"So~ Let's start... shall we? No fake cries of agony! Give me an orchestra! ...not literally, obviously." Eliza giggled. "Here we GOOOOO!" She lifted the screwdriver high...
G looked at him seriously.
"I saw Toxic die. It wasn't here."
...then was sent flying up the corridor, face smushed into the floor.
"...h-huh...?" Toxic sniffled in shock, looking around.
"That wa-wasn't supposed to happen..." Eliza growled. She looked over her shoulder.
"...you fucking try to hurt ANY of my friends..." a voice snarled from the darkness. A familiar female stepped forward, glaring at Eliza maliciously, whip in hand.
...Darky?!
"...and you're DEAD."