The poll was unanimous, so we are going back to the end of chapter 26 and this time voting 'Betray' against Tenmyouji and Dio.
Phi couldn't do it. She couldn't choose to risk her own life.
Phi pressed 'Betray'.
The Ambidex Gates opened shortly after. Phi stepped out, glancing around uncertainly at the other players as they also emerged. Clover and K turned their heads to stare at each other suspiciously as they walked out of adjacent AB Rooms. To Phi's right, Luna shook her head mournfully at Sigma before turning and walking away; Sigma just stood there, looking guilty and confused, before finally turning away from the direction Luna had walked in to head to the opposite side of the results screen. Finally Phi's eyes settled on the person she needed to see most: Dio, striding towards the results screen without looking at any of the other players. Even though this Ambidex Game no longer held any risk to Phi, it would still be nice to know that Tenmyouji wasn't going to die.
"Dio!" Phi called out.
Dio didn't respond.
Phi hurried to follow him. She caught up with him just as he stopped right in front of the results screen; Phi placed a hand on Dio's shoulder and forcefully turned him around to face her. "Dio! What did you vote?"
Dio smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Phi scowled at Dio's contentless response. "Tell me, Dio. What. Did. You Vote?"
Dio started to answer, but his voice was drowned out by the end-of-round announcement. "Results from round two of the Ambidex Game will now be displayed. Please direct your attention to the results screen."
Finally, just as the results screen flickered to life behind him, Dio replied, "Heh. 'Betray' of course."
Phi shrugged. "Fine."
Player-BP-Vote-Change-Results
K - 6 - Betray - 0 - 6
Quark - 5 - Betray - 0 - 5
Clover - 6 - Betray - 0 - 6
Sigma - 1 - Betray - 0 - 1
Luna - 5 - Betray - 0 - 5
Alice - 6 - Betray - 0 - 6
Tenmyouji - 1 - Betray - 0 - 1
Dio - 5 - Betray - 0 - 5
Phi - 1 - Betray - 0 - 1
'Betray'. That word, displayed ominously the entire way across the scoreboard, caused Phi's heart to sink. She'd expected that result against Dio, of course: even welcomed it, once it was clear that she was willing to put Tenmyouji's life at risk. Clover's and K's mutual betrayal was disappointing, but not particularly devastating. And then there was the one betrayal that shouldn't have been possible.
Phi spun around to face the AB Rooms. She was hardly the only one to do so. There, staggering sluggishly out of one the AB Gates that should have remained closed, was Alice.
Alice lurched against the side of the door as she emerged, but she continued, her eyes fixed furiously on Sigma for every single step. Pushing herself off the AB Gate to gain the momentum for the last couple of steps, Alice launched herself right up to Sigma.
"Thought you'd get an easy couple of points out of me, huh?" Alice asked acidly, "Not so easy when you have to look your victim in the eye, is it? Coward." Alice's words were ever-so-slightly slurred; it was a wonder she was standing straight.
Sigma was having none of it. "Me, a coward? You've got some balls saying that to me after you picked 'Betray'! Why are you even here?"
Alice shrugged. "You gave me the anti-virus, didn't you? Thank you. I mean that from the bottom of my heart, honestly." Alice's tone was genuinely grateful, but laced throughout with bitter distrust. "I'm very glad I was able to make it here. I have a throbbing headache and I can barely stand. It's horrible. Still, I made it, just ten seconds before the countdown finished." Alice paced steadily towards the Chromatic Doors, letting her words sink in. "I'm more resistant to anaesthetics than most people. A result of my training. I have a feeling Zero Sr. knew that. They gave me way more than the standard dose when they kidnapped me."
"You mean…" Clover piped up. Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. "That's why…"
"Yes," Alice responded before Clover could finish, "It wasn't your fault you were unconscious for so long. Zero Sr. made sure they knocked me out, and they didn't care at all if you had any adverse effects." Alice nodded reassuringly to Clover, then turned to walk away.
Luna called out after Alice with dismay. "You forced yourself to wake up just so you could betray us?"
"Right." Alice stroked her cheek, unconcerned. "I don't get to do that? I mean, it turned out to be the right thing to do, didn't it?"
Phi tuned out as Alice started to berate Sigma. However, it wasn't long before another sentence of Alice's gave her a sharp wake-up call.
"Why am I the only one getting the third degree here?! Look at those results! Two other people just tried to kill someone! If Dio had chosen 'Ally', Phi would have killed Tenmyouji. And if she'd chosen 'Ally', Dio would have killed her."
As Alice had intended, everyone turned to face Phi and Dio instead of her.
Dio shrugged without concern under everyone's gaze. "I knew that little bitch would try to kill Tenmyouji," he stated confidently, completely ignoring the second part of Alice's accusation.
Phi scrambled to defend herself. "What? Did you expect me to just roll over and let you kill me? It was obvious that was what you were going to do before you even went in."
As Phi's voice died away it was replaced only by a tense despondent silence. Ever so subtly, people backed away from each other. The only two people who stayed near each other were Clover and Alice.
After a while, Sigma took in a deep attention-grabbing breath. A speech came out. To Phi's ears it was empty and hollow. "You've probably already all figured this out, but we can't keep going like this. If we don't start being a little more trusting, we're never gonna get out of here. We need to work together!"
Sigma had the right idea – they couldn't have any more rounds of complete betrayal if they wanted to get out – but his execution was terrible. Speaking up so self-righteously and so soon would only annoy the others.
As expected, Sigma's speech went nowhere. K was the first to leave. "My apologies, Sigma. But I need to think on something for a bit. I would appreciate being left alone."
Dio left through the magenta door as well; as soon as they were gone Alice turned tail as well, leading Clover out of the warehouse through the yellow door.
Sigma turned to Phi, a desperate frenzied look in his eyes. Phi just shook her head.
"Et tu, Phi?"
Normally Phi would have appreciated the reference. Now, however, the atmosphere was too morose for Phi to get into the spirit of it. Besides, it was the most well-known Latin phrase out there: it was hardly that impressive for Sigma to quote it. "Yeah, sorry," Phi replied, successfully keeping her chagrin out of her voice. Before Sigma could respond, Phi turned and left the warehouse as well.
Phi passed quickly through the lounge and on towards the elevator. When she pressed the call button, the doors didn't respond; K and Dio must have just taken it down. Phi tapped the button a few more times impatiently then settled in to wait.
There was a noise from the corridor behind her.
Before Phi could turn around, a hand slammed her head roughly against the elevator doors. It was Tenmyouji.
"I came as soon as I saw…" Tenmyouji didn't finish his sentence; he just trailed off into a furious incoherent grunt. He slammed his left hand against the elevator door and his bracelet clanged angrily against it. In the reflection, Phi saw that it displayed the number '1'. So that was how Tenmyouji had learned her vote from the AB Game "I had a feeling you'd try to run away," Tenmyouji said. "Coward. What: afraid to look the man you tried to murder in the eye?"
Phi tried to squirm free. She failed. Tenmyouji was surprisingly strong for his age. "Come on, Tenmyouji. It's not like that. If I hadn't I'd be dead."
"Hmph. Excuses," Tenmyouji spat, "You knew what you were doing when you pressed the button."
Before Tenmyouji could continue, he was interrupted by a shout from further down the corridor. "Tenmyouji!" It was Clover's voice.
"Stay out of this, Clover!" Tenmyouji roared, "It's got nothing to do with you!"
Clover approached Tenmyouji. "Can't you at least let her go? It's not very… well… nice, is it?"
"Nice? What's 'nice' got to do with this? Was it 'nice' when she chose to betray me? Huh? Huh?!"
"Well…" Clover trailed off awkwardly. Eventually, she changed the subject. "Sigma and Luna have something to show us in the infirmary. I thought you should see it too."
Tenmyouji was silent for a few seconds. Then, he let Phi go, dropping her uncaringly to the floor. "Fine. But I'm only coming because I've left Quark alone too long."
As Tenmyouji marched away Phi picked herself off the floor and dusted herself off. She wondered exactly what Sigma and Luna were trying to show them: was this just another futile scheme of Sigma's to promote group unity? Still, Phi was curious and grateful for the reprieve. "Thanks, Clover."
Clover scratched the corner of her mouth. "Well… You helped Alice when she ran off, earlier. I'm not sure why Tenmyouji wanted to hurt you like that." Not having been on either side of a potential killing, Clover was still in relatively high spirits. "You should have a look at this too," Clover continued.
Phi was tempted to just leave – the run-in with Tenmyouji had rattled her – but she decided to have a look. If Sigma wasn't just fooling around, if this really was something useful, then it could be what the players needed to distract them from the wave of betrayal. "Let's go," Phi replied, with forced confidence.
When Phi and Clover arrived in the infirmary, Sigma was messing about with the side of the television screen there, while Alice and Tenmyouji watched: Alice intently, Tenmyouji less so as he turned to glare at Phi.
Luna also noticed their arrival and explained what was going on. "It's the memory card we found in the laboratory by the bomb. I just realised it looked like one I used in the infirmary puzzle earlier, so I wondered if we could use it here as well. Oh! It worked!"
As Sigma slipped the card into its slot the screen lit up. Rows of letters faded into view. Luna's idea had worked: they were now able to read the bomber's memory card.
Not that it helped much. The letters were completely meaningless.
"Was there anything else on there?" Clover asked.
Luna walked up next to Sigma and fiddled with the screen. "No, it doesn't look like it."
"So all we get is… gibberish," Sigma said.
There was silence.
Then Alice spoke up, asking a surprisingly forceful question. "Does any of this seem familiar to you, Clover?"
Clover seemed taken aback. "What do you mean?" she replied before thinking.
"Have you seen something like this before? Maybe during your training?" As a twinkle appeared in Clover's eye, Alice concluded, "So you do recognise it."
"Wait, Alice. Back up a bit. What the hell are you two talking about? 'Training'? What 'training'?"
"I can't tell you," Alice and Clover replied simultaneously. Then Alice continued. "I believe this is an encoded message from a terrorist organisation. They call themselves the 'Myrmidons'. Put simply, they're a bunch of thugs who are trying to destroy or dismantle most of human civilisation. They have a number of different codes, but I do think this is one of them."
"Then the bomb… it was set by one of the Myrmidons, wasn't it?" Clover said.
"Yes. Well, I can't say for sure, of course, but it seems the most likely."
"I have a question for you," Sigma stated. Then, he backpedalled. "Well, I've got a ton of questions for you. But let me start with this one: what the heck does that thing say?"
Alice thought for a second. "I don't know. How am I supposed to decode it? I don't have the key. Without the key, it would take literally hundreds of years to decode."
"What about you, Clover?" Tenmyouji asked.
Clover shrugged. "Well, if Alice doesn't know how, I sure don't."
Sigma turned away from the screen forlornly. "Not much we can do, then."
"Well, there is one thing," Phi said. She turned to Alice and Clover. "What the hell are you two? Why do you know so much about this code?"
"Already said: can't tell you. You might be one of them! You might be the person who set the bomb!" Alice turned her face from side to side, surveying the players before her: Phi, Sigma, Tenmyouji and Luna. "That goes for all of you. Any one of you could be the terrorist!"
"That's idiotic!" Sigma roared, "Of course I'm not…"
"Really? And where's your proof?" Alice interrupted, "For all I know, you're my enemy! I can't tell you anything."
Sigma sighed, deflated. Phi took over.
"If you won't tell us about yourselves, tell us more about the Myrmidons." Phi hoped that in the process of explaining the Myrmidons they might let something slip about their own secret.
Alice was deathly silent. Clover started to speak but Alice shushed her sternly. Alice gazed back defiantly at all the pairs of eyes – Phi's, Sigma's, Luna's, Tenmyouji's – staring at her.
Then, Alice ran from the room.
Sigma was the first to follow; once again, his reactions were excellent. Phi followed, pursuing Sigma and Alice out of the infirmary and in the most likely direction: towards the elevator. Phi raced there, but found when she got there that the elevator doors were already shut: Sigma and Alice had already taken the lift down.
Clover skidded to a halt next to Phi. "Oh… I'm too late." Her eyes boring a hole into the elevator door, Clover danced fretfully from tiptoe to tiptoe. She shivered.
"It'll be alright," Phi said, "Alice has had Axelavir now. It isn't like last time." That didn't stop Clover jittering at all. Phi asked, "What about Tenmyouji and Luna? Are they coming?"
Clover shook her head, the motion distinct from her general twitching. "They wanted to stay with Quark," she replied.
Phi had dodged a bullet there. Returning to the elevator reminded Phi that that she really didn't want her face slammed into the door again. She could relax, not having to watch out for Tenmyouji's wrath. Phi began to ask, "So, Clover, about the Myrm…"
"No time!" Clover suddenly interrupted as the elevator doors opened. Clover ran inside. Phi had to dive in after her; Clover pressed the button to go down without waiting a single second for Phi.
When they arrived at the bottom of the shaft, Clover bounced frenetically between the three Chromatic Doors. "Where is she? Where is she?" she muttered. Eventually, she settled on the green door and bounded away through it. Phi chased after.
Phi caught up with Clover in the treatment centre. Clover had already made it into the pod chamber and was pacing backwards and forwards, searching for Alice in the nooks and crannies around the treatment pods. The sight of Clover near the pods reminded Phi of something: something that the frantic search for Alice and the heated accusations after the AB Game had caused to slip her mind.
Clover had almost certainly been one of the people frozen in the pods. This was Phi's chance to learn more.
Phi stood in the doorway of the chamber, intentionally blocking Clover in. "Clover. There's something I need to tell you about," Phi announced. When Clover didn't respond the first time, Phi said it again, louder.
Clover finally looked up. "Geez! I heard you the first time. Tell me later, okay? I've gotta keep looking for Alice."
Phi didn't budge. "Slow down, Clover. You won't find Alice any quicker by panicking. Stay here and listen to what I have to say for a bit."
"Okay," Clover said dubiously. She turned and retreated into the chamber a few paces, as if expecting Phi to follow.
Then she spun around again and bull-rushed Phi.
Phi had expected that. She side-stepped and braced herself against the doorframe. Clover bounced off.
"Ow!" Clover exclaimed from where she was sprawled on the floor. "That was mean! Why couldn't you just let me trick you?"
Phi didn't humour Clover. "This is important. And Alice will want to know too." Phi didn't let slip that Alice already knew about the treatment pods, having been in the room shortly after completing her own puzzle in the gardens. Phi knew that Clover hadn't had the chance to talk about it with either Alice or Tenmyouji, so the lie was safe. "Have a look at one of these pods," Phi said.
Clover stood up and cocked her head as she squinted at the pod closest to the door. "Yeah. They're weird."
"They're cryogenic pods," Phi explained.
"Brr…" Clover shivered dramatically.
"They're… not actually on, Clover. They aren't actually making anything cold. Whatever." Phi shrugged and got to the point. "Three of us were in them. Three of the players, I mean. Three of us were frozen in those pods."
"So?" Clover asked.
"I think you were one of them."
Clover gasped. "No! Really? But, but, but!" After spluttering, Clover subsided. "Well, I guess it makes sense. Alice and I were the first to be kidnapped, on the 22nd, right? So I guess we would be more likely to be put in these things. Alice was in one as well, right?"
"Most likely, yeah," Phi replied. On a whim, she asked, "Any idea who the last person was?"
"No idea. Could be any of us, I guess."
Then Phi asked the most pertinent question. "It was Tenmyouji who recognised the pods. He's also the one who knew that you and Alice were in them. Any idea how he knew so much?"
Clover tilted her head. "Phi. Are you being mean to Tenmyouji again? Just because of the last Ambidex Game doesn't mean you have to be so suspicious of him."
"No. I was suspicious of him before this. I'd only expect Zero Sr. to know which of us he froze, so the fact that Tenmyouji knew… well, it's worrying."
"It's possible, I guess," Clover replied hesitantly, "But I think there's load of other ways he could have guessed, as well."
"You seem awfully trusting of Tenmyouji," Phi stated, "Know him from somewhere? Same place you know Alice from, maybe?"
"No!" Clover exclaimed, "It's not like that! I don't know him from anywhere… at least, I don't think so."
"Huh?"
Clover continued, "Well, I feel like I know him from somewhere. But that can't be right. I don't know any old geezers."
Clover seemed adamant, so Phi didn't pursue the subject any further. Instead she changed tack. "So, would the Myrmidon's know about pods like these? Would they use them on people that they had kidnapped?"
"No," Clover stated with certainty, shuddering slightly. "They wouldn't do that. That's not what they do with the people they capture."
"Care to explain?"
"Well…" Clover paused and thought deeply. "I'd have to start at the beginning: with what Alice and I do. We're part of this organisation called SOIS: the Special Office of Internal Security. We're like superspies for the American government. Don't look at me like that: I really am! Well, I guess I was recruited because of the special ability I have rather than because I'm super-talented like Alice is, but still!"
"'Special ability'?" Phi asked.
"Well, yeah. You wouldn't get it. Anyway. SOIS is fighting this terrorist organisation: the Myrmidons. They're like this cult that worships their leader – this crazy old guy called 'Brother' – and they want to end humanity because they think if they do so they'll be the next big thing. I'll tell you something interesting. There's this rumour going around that the Myrmidon's – the real ones, not, like, the flunkies – you won't believe this – they all have the same face!"
Phi didn't quite believe that. Still, no reason to stop Clover talking now she'd started. "Carry on. How does this lead to you knowing what Myrmidons do to hostages?"
"No one's ever caught one of them, so no-one knows what they look like. Alice and I were on a mission to do that for the first time. We'd found a place where they were likely to be hiding out. I was sent in to infiltrate it, and… and…" Clover froze.
"Clover?" Phi asked.
Clover turned her head away from Phi. "I can't… and I don't mean 'cause it's classified or anything like that. I just can't talk about it. I'm sorry."
"But, Clover…"
Clover interrupted, "Maybe I'll tell you later. Can we move on?"
Phi relented, and let Clover out of the treatment pod chamber. Clover darted past her, out the treatment centre and down the corridor towards the warehouse. Phi followed.
When Phi and Clover arrived in the lower floor warehouse and advanced into the middle, they found K examining the white Chromatic Doors and Dio pacing nonchalantly along the opposite wall. Between them stood Luna, Quark leaning wearily against her slender frame. Luna caught Phi's eye.
"I'm so sorry," Luna mouthed at Phi, "I tried to stop him coming down, but..."
Phi ducked left as Tenmyouji's punch whistled over her shoulder. That had been close. Once she was clear, Phi spun around to face him.
"What the hell, Tenmyouji?" Phi yelled.
Tenmyouji slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. "You never change, do you, Phi?" he growled, "You run away, using your victim's ties to keep them from following you. Well, I'm not letting you get away this time!"
"Screw you. If this is about the AB Game, just get over it already! You're still alive, aren't you?"
Tenmyouji shook furiously. "'Get over it'? You nearly killed me!"
"And I nearly died as well!" Phi shouted, "You voted 'Betray' as well, so…"
"That wasn't me. That was Dio," Tenmyouji snapped.
Phi pointed an accusing finger at Dio, then swept it around to Tenmyouji. "You let Dio vote alone. That's the same as pushing the button yourself."
Hearing his name, Dio marched over to where Phi and Tenmyouji were arguing. "Hey! Leave me out of this!"
"Why should I?" Phi asked acidly.
Suddenly, Clover darted in, placing herself between Phi on the one side and Dio and Tenmyouji on the other. "Stop arguing! It's not helping."
"Stay out of this, Clover," Phi snapped. She advanced on Tenmyouji, shoving Clover aside. "Tenmyouji. If you removed your head from your ass, you'd realise that you're telling me off merely for protecting myself. Forgive me for not being the slightest bit moved by that. You act like you've got the moral high ground, but the only reason you're not in the position of having nearly killed me is that you're too much of a coward to do your dirty work yourself."
Out of the corner of her eye, Phi saw Clover flee the warehouse, but she didn't pay any further attention. She had to press her advantage against Tenmyouji.
"So screw your self-righteousness, Tenmyouji," Phi concluded, "Just leave me alone and let me keep on playing the game."
Tenmyouji didn't back down. "I had to keep an eye on Quark. There was no way I could have voted."
"That was your choice to make," Phi said, "Now you have to take the consequences. One of them being that you're as much at fault as Dio is."
"Hey!" Dio interjected, "I'm not at fault here. I was just protecting Tenmyouji from your attempt to kill him."
"Like hell you were. You just saw the chance to pick up a few points. Don't deny it."
"Of course I'm gonna deny it!" Dio shouted theatrically.
Tenmyouji advanced on Phi jabbing a finger towards her face. "You don't get away that easily. This is my life we're talking about! And that means…"
"Stop fighting!" Sigma's voice boomed across the warehouse. Phi couldn't help but turn to face him, it was so thunderously loud. Sigma strode into the warehouse, flanked by Alice and Clover. He looked almost like an entirely different person from the callow defeated wreck he had been after the Ambidex Game.
Still, Phi didn't think he would actually be able to get them to stop fighting. Tenmyouji had too much ego staked on being in the right, and Sigma couldn't have any leverage to stop him. So Phi turned back to Tenmyouji and took in a deep breath, prepared to carry on arguing.
So what Sigma said next caused that breath to explode out of her.
"I know who planted the bombs… and I can prove it."
Well. That was one way to stop the argument.
This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.
I have a lot to talk about after this chapter. First off, I made a couple of changes from canon here. In the game, Phi wasn't in the infirmary when Alice told everyone about the Myrmidons, but that basically amounts to removing Phi from the plot entirely so would be really bad for this fic. Besides, this route is for a person who was in the infirmary, so it would be doubly wrong for Phi to not be there as well.
The other change I made has less noble justification. I moved Luna and Quark from the infirmary to the floor B warehouse for the argument entirely for the moment where Luna apologises to Phi just as Tenmyouji attacks her. It's entirely pointless, but I couldn't resist.
Also, thanks to TSeawright for pointing out a bit of bad writing of mine in that section. I've made a edit to make it less ambiguous, so hopefully it's better now.
I also want to rant a bit about the events of the game where Sigma is talking to Alice in the garden, specifically the part where Alice factorises the cube of a prime number and uses it to crack the code. Cryptography doesn't work like that! I mean, I understand that the game designers wanted something Sigma and the player could do there so they simplified it, but still. It's egregiously bad. The cube of the prime ends up having nothing to do with the code; it's just a little bit of obfuscation added so that we can see Alice do maths. It's like the Myrmidon's are using the exact opposite of cryptography. The entire point of cryptography is that you can decode messages because of something you know while you're enemies can't. But here Dio can't do anything with the cube of the prime number but Alice can. It's just wrong!
As an aside, does anyone know whether Alice has been confirmed to be/not be an esper? See, it would really explain a lot if she was. Esper abilities run off of vaguely explained quantum mechanics, while one way that we may eventually be able to break modern cryptography by factorising is based on not-at-all-vaguely explained quantum mechanics (Google Shor's algorithm). It would explain how Alice is able to do the maths so quickly if she's somehow running a version of Shor's algorithm using esper abilities. Don't ask me how it would work, but it's an interesting idea. I haven't been able to include it in this story, but I may be able to slot it in another story I'm working on.
