Phi, Sigma and Tenmyouji staggered out of the infirmary into a cramped round hub. There was nothing in the room but two doors leading left and right, both of which opened automatically as the three of them shuffled closer. Phi looked at the map, tracing their path from the warehouse through the yellow door to where they were. According to the map, the path to the right led to the rooms behind the cyan door; they would not be able to go that way until the puzzle was solved, and in any case K, Clover and Luna would already have explored anywhere of importance in that direction.

"Let's go left," she said.

Phi led them through the left hand door and down a series of dark narrow corridors interspersed with hubs similar to the one they had started at. Eventually they reached the end of the corridor: a door for an elevator with a single button pointing down. Sigma was about to call the elevator when Phi heard footsteps running behind them; they turned around to see the other six people piling into the elevator waiting room.

"Who'd have thought we'd all bump into each other here?" Alice commented.

"Huh. Didn't you guys get a map?" Phi asked. When they answered affirmatively, she used her own map to show them how all three routes led to the same place.

"Maybe we should sit down here for a bit and exchange information," Tenmyouji suggested.

"No. There's plenty of time for that after we check out this elevator," Phi said.

Following her instruction, as she'd expected, Sigma pressed the button and the doors opened. The nine of them rode the elevator down in nervous silence, awkwardly trying to maintain their personal spaces in the uncomfortably small box. As the doors opened, they spilled out onto the lower floor. They entered into a small room about the same size as the one on the upper floor, with three doors – other than the elevator door – leading in different directions. It was immediately clear that these were Chromatic Doors: they radiated their intense colours – green, blue and red – into the room, and they were accompanied by the same locks as the Chromatic Doors in the warehouse.

Sigma insisted on ramming a door anyway. "Yeah, won't budge," he muttered as he rebounded.

Alice was fidgeting with her bracelet. "Looks like my guess was right… the countdown has changed."

Phi pressed the buttons on the side of her bracelet, confirming Alice's statement: the display was now counting down from well over two hours.

"Looks like we don't have a choice, then. We gotta head back," Tenmyouji said. Phi recalled the supplementary rules they'd found in the infirmary safe. They had said that now all the puzzles were solved all the doors would open for them. She realised that the prominent inclusion of this statement in the rules wasn't just a hint; they did in fact have to return to the warehouse.

They retraced their steps, heading up the elevator and through a room that Dio, Alice and Quark called the lounge.

"You'll like this place, Grandpa," Quark said to Tenmyouji. Just as Phi had suspected, Quark and Tenmyouji knew each other before the Nonary Game. She couldn't blame them for keeping their connection a secret at the start; after all, she'd have done the same thing with any potential weaknesses of hers. "There's lots of alcohol," Quark continued, "They've even got some of your favourite!"

"Ho! That sounds great. Maybe I'll go have a drink later," Tenmyouji replied. Phi agreed with the sentiment; she could use the chance to relax.

Dio apparently didn't. "How are you so damn calm?" he exclaimed.

Phi left Dio and Tenmyouji arguing behind her as she continued on. She emerged out the magenta door into the warehouse. To her considerable surprise, Alice and Clover were already there, huddled together in the corner and conversing in an agitated whisper. Phi caught one word of it – "Headquarters" – before they noticed her. Clover leapt frantically as she saw Phi, while Alice leaned forward and held Clover tight; she was trying to make it look like a casual hug, but it was clear to Phi that Alice was trying to suppress Clover's instinctive reaction. What were they trying to hide from her? Phi already knew that Alice and Clover knew each other, but she was now certain that something much deeper and more dangerous was hiding behind their façade.

Phi had almost no time to think about it before everyone else entered behind her. Zero appeared on his projected screen in response to their arrival and beckoned them lazily over.

"Yawn," he stated mockingly, "You're finally done? I thought I was gonna be waiting here fooooreveeer for you lot to get back. I thought I was gonna just… wither away from the loneliness. Did you ever think about that, huh? Did you ever think about what it'd be like for me?"

Phi sighed with frustration. "Just get on with it, Zero," she snapped.

"Now, now, Phido," Zero scolded, "We all know your bark is worse than your bite." – Phi thought she would easily ignore all of Zero's barbs, but for some reason this hurt, a twinging wound in her self-image of competence – "So, you all want to know how you get more BP?"

"We go into the AB rooms, right?" Sigma asked. He waved the AB keycard he'd kept from the infirmary.

"Ding ding ding!" Zero responded, "Sigma has been able to remember something I just told him! Well done!"

"But… who goes into which room?" Luna asked.

"That doesn't really matter. Anybunny can go into any room. You just have to stay in your pairs… those of you who have pairs. The rest of you are stuck by yourselves. Poor you."

"But what do we do after we go into the room?" Quark asked.

"You play a game." As Zero said this, a fanfare played through the speakers and animated fireworks exploded behind the mouse on the screen. "The Ambidex game!"

Tenmyouji looked puzzled. "What's 'Ambidex' supposed to mean anyway?"

K spoke up. "I would guess it's short for 'ambidextrous'. Most use the word to refer to the ability to use both of one's hands equally well, instead of favouring the left or the right, but it can also be taken to mean someone who is duplicitous or two-faced."

"A game of betrayal…" Sigma murmured.

"Well yes, I guess you could put it that way," Zero replied, "Now, could I have you all move to the AB rooms please? I'll give you more specifics once everyone's inside. I'd just hate to let slip any spoilers before the fun's started." Before anyone else could ask any questions, Zero's projectors switched off, leaving the nine players nothing to do but enter the AB rooms as commanded.

Sigma and Phi drifted towards the leftmost AB gate as the group separated. Sigma swiped the card through the reader by the side of the doors, as did five of the others, and there was a roaring hiss as six pairs of doors slid open. Phi stepped forwards to enter, but rammed suddenly into Sigma's back; he was frozen in shock.

An old woman lay motionless on the floor. Sigma leapt down towards her with a frightened yelp, turning her over and feeling desperately for a pulse. Phi realised with revulsion that there was no chance he'd find one; a gruesome wound in the middle of her chest dashed any slim hopes. As Sigma leaned forward Phi got her first clear view of the woman's pale and anguished face. There was something about it that was eerily familiar.

Phi stumbled backwards… and her mind drifted somewhere else. Confused, she tried to look around, her motions syrupy and slow to respond. Gradually she perceived her location, a cluttered and shady alleyway, the blaring roar of Vegas traffic echoing behind her. Wait! This was the alley she was kidnapped from. Was this a dream, a crazily vivid memory? Phi found herself stepping forward, cautiously following the path she had taken and waiting resignedly for the Soporil Beta to explode around her. As her body walked purposefully forward, Phi tried to recollect the sequence of events, the goals and motives, which had led her into this alleyway, only to find her memory fuzzy and uncooperative; her immediate past seemed lost to the void.

As she approached the spot where the smoke had knocked her unconscious, she noticed a door from the alley into the building on her left. It seemed like it was intended to be inconspicuous – it was made of plain grimy metal and overshadowed by the scrap that littered the alleyway – but Phi noticed immediately; for some reason the dream – or whatever this place was – highlighted it prominently in her perceptions. Phi remembered that this was the door her unconscious body had been dragged through, when she was kidnapped. As her involuntary motion carried her closer and closer to the door, she tensed up, dreading the moment of the ambush.

She stepped forward.

She stepped forward again, sure that it would happen at any moment.

She closed her eyes tightly and raced through a flurry of panicked steps.

Nothing happened. Phi opened her eyes to find herself several metres past the point she remembered the smoke being released at; she exhaled with overwhelming relief as the moment passed. Steadying herself with a series of controlled breaths, she started to walk – this time at a normal pace – further down the alleyway.

Phi had intended to reach the other end of the alleyway and escape, but to her surprise her body veered to the left and approached the concealed metal door. She leaned furtively against the door and retrieved a well-worn lock pick from her pocket. Her body's demeanour seemed as calm as ever, but inside the dream Phi was alarmed. She did not remember any of this. Her own memories ended in the middle of the alleyway in a choking cloud of Soporil gas, but this dream was trying to exhibit events after that. Bending down, she slid the pick carefully into the lock. With competent and precise movements, she manipulated the inner workings of the lock into position. With a satisfying click, the lock sprung open.

As the door swung out, Phi's vision shattered, illusionary cracks multiplying across her view as a vicious sting of pain exploded in her mind. As her vision collapsed entirely, the scene changed and Phi was pitched into total darkness. Phi struggled in place in her new surroundings, her arms suddenly bound behind her back, unable to move at all from the chair she was secured to.

A cold, calculating voice lanced out of the darkness. "Most would regret crossing us so brazenly. Fortunately for you, you are exactly what we have been looking for."

Phi's head sunk wearily down to her chin and she snapped back to the present.

When Phi recovered everyone was standing around Sigma and the old lady, curiously peering at the morbid display. Phi was alarmed to notice that Quark was among them.

"Quark, don't look," she cried out, "Tenmyouji! Get Quark out of here!"

Tenmyouji slowly turned to look at her, a despondent blank expression on his face. "Huh… oh yeah…" he mumbled.

"Tenmyouji!" Phi yelled in his ear. She couldn't help but wonder why Tenmyouji had reacted so much more strongly than anyone else. Anyone else but Phi, that is, unless he had been subjected to an equally insane vision.

Eventually Tenmyouji reacted, leading Quark away from the gruesome scene. With the immediate problem of Quark out of the way, Phi could get closer and try to catch up on what she had missed while she had been… dreaming? Hallucinating? Whatever you'd call the vision she'd just woken from. Sigma was explaining what he'd discovered when he'd inspected the lady's corpse.

"Her body's already cold, so I'm guessing she was…" Sigma tried to find a properly respectful way to say his conclusion. "I'm guessing she was murdered a while ago."

"Murdered?!" Alice exclaimed. She knelt beside Sigma and began her own examination of the body; Phi noticed that Alice conducted her search with an almost-professional efficiency, and within only a few moments she'd stood up again, satisfied that she'd found all the evidence that the body could reveal.

As Alice stood up Phi walked past her and studied the body herself. "It looks like she was stabbed," she said pensively, "Don't see the weapon around here though."

Phi considered how the murder could possibly have happened. The AB rooms had been locked by Zero shortly after all nine of them had escaped into the warehouse and hadn't opened again until just now. That meant the woman had to have been murdered before the Nonary game began. And as the Nonary game had begun, two people had come out of that room. One, Clover had been unconscious. The other…

"That means either the killer took the weapon with them, or…." Phi glanced suspiciously at K. "… it was part of them. If someone was strong enough, and had metal hands, then they might be able to stab someone with them."

K stepped back defensively. "What are you suggesting?" he asked.

His electronically modified voice completely concealed any emotion behind the question, but Phi was certain that he understood her implication.

"It's… just a joke. Don't take it seriously," she said. She scolded herself for trying such a feeble evasion, but to her relief K seemed mollified. Phi quickly changed the subject. "Whatever. If we examine the wound we'll probably get a better idea of what the weapon was." Suddenly Phi was struck by inspiration. "There's some sort of scanning device in the infirmary. Maybe it can perform the autopsy."

They carried the old lady to the infirmary and placed her gently on the bed beside the ADAM.

Luna approached the machine with uncharacteristic confidence. "Um… I have a medical licence," she said, picking up the scanning attachment from the top of the device. "I'm not exactly a coroner, sorry… but I know enough to use this machine. It uses nuclear magnetic resonance imaging to examine and diagnose people. I think I should be able to manage some kind of autopsy."

Luna waved the scanner steadily over the body until the ADAM responded with a chirping ping. The screen activated and Luna read the results. The old lady had been killed by a single stab wound delivered by a single-bladed knife, fifteen centimetres long and three centimetres across, that had cleanly pierced her heart.

"I suppose that clears me of suspicion," K commented, presenting his gauntlets to Phi: they clearly weren't a fifteen centimetre long knife.

However, there was still one piece of evidence that made K the primary suspect. "Sorry, but no," Phi said, "You're as capable of holding a normal knife as anyone else. We found the old lady in one of the AB rooms, the one farthest on the left. Only two other people had been in that room: Clover… and you. Only you were conscious."

K pondered the evidence against him. Phi was relieved he had not immediately resorted to violence. Though it would be eight of them against him, two of them were old men and one was a vulnerable child. In any case, K's armour was too decisive an advantage, especially in the narrow spaces in the infirmary.

Eventually K responded, "I assure you, there was no one else in that room besides Clover when I woke up. There was a hatch on the ceiling, remember. Zero closed it. The real Zero could have ordered the AI to open them just as easily. The person who brought us here is likely the person who murdered that woman."

Before K could finish his argument Dio interrupted. "I knew it! You're him, aren't you? You're the real Zero!"

K chuckled. "You aren't making sense. The real Zero could open any of the AB rooms. Let's suppose I am Zero. Why would I leave the woman in my own AB room, when that would obviously cast suspicion on me?"

Dio spluttered, "Uh… well… because you figured we'd think that! And you would throw us off the trail by doing the exact opposite."

"That is not a logical argument. Also, consider this: if the murderer isn't Zero, why would the AI stay silent? He told us his job was to make the game run smoothly. Now the unexpected has happened, and he says nothing. He must know who killed the old woman. The answer is simple. The murderer is Zero… Zero senior, I suppose, to distinguish them from the AI. This murder was not unexpected; it was just as Zero senior planned. This death is only another part of the Nonary game."

Phi considered K's defence. Though she was still wary of him, his theory was very promising. If they could figure out Zero Sr.'s goals and intentions they would be able to derail the Nonary game from Zero's heinous plan.

However, before Phi could come to any conclusions, a recorded announcement sounded. "Ambidex game polling will close in ten minutes."

"We'd better get back," Phi said to the others, "Or we'll lose our opportunity to get more bracelet points."

They went back to the warehouse in hurried silence. Once again they split up to their respective AB rooms. Phi and Sigma headed back to the left-most one. Sigma tapped the screen, and the doors closed behind them.

"I kinda don't want to be in here," Sigma muttered, shivering, "I mean, there was a dead lady in there just a few minutes ago."

Phi frowned at him. "What, are you worried there's a ghost or something?"

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"Heh, I don't believe in ghosts."

Sigma turned away from her. "Damn. You're pretty cold, aren't you?"

"I just don't let my emotions get in the way. That feeling won't bring the lady back to life, and it won't help anyone else get out of here. If we fail because you hesitate, because you can't do what needs to be done, then…" Phi trailed off. She didn't think she'd be able to persuade Sigma. It was too comforting to think of being 'less cold' as moral superiority, too uncomfortable to recognise each and every missed opportunity as a personal failing.

Before she could try, however, Zero appeared on the elevator panel with his usual aggravating giggle.

"Hee hee hee! You're finally all in! I thought you'd gotten lost. I mean, this place is a warren, so I can't blame you… who are we kidding, I do blame you idiots."

"We've got some questions for you, Zero!" Sigma roared at the screen.

Before Sigma could continue, Zero's mouse avatar winced theatrically. "Will all of you stop bombarding me with questions? The other people in the other rooms are asking me stuff just like you are. Especially B.O." – Phi couldn't hear Dio, suggesting that the AB rooms were soundproofed, but she could imagine the indignant fury the impatient man would have worked himself into – "B.O. is especially loud. For real, B.O., shut up."

"Now, let me tail you about the AB game. You're obviously going to have an opponent. You'll be competing against whoever you went through the chromatic doors with. I want everybunny to focus on the screen at the back of the room. You should see 'Ally' and 'Betray' on it. All you have to do is pick one of those easy hoptions. Your BP will go up or down depending on what you and your hopponent do."

Zero explained the consequences of each option. Phi recognised the situation immediately. This was a Prisoner's Dilemma. Suddenly the true fiendishness of the Nonary game was clarified. No longer was it the nine of them against Zero; instead, they were competing for the one chance to leave through the Number Nine door. Each of them would fear that someone else would collect points more quickly than them and open the door before they could get nine points; that would provide the temptation to press betray themselves, and the inexorable logic of the prisoner's dilemma took hold. Much as Phi could enthusiastically declare her aspiration to get as many people out as possible, it would be much harder to actually press 'Ally'.

"I think that about does it for the basic rules. Weeell, actually there's a little bit more, but it'll just have to wait. It's almost time!" Zero concluded.

"Wait!" Sigma called after him as Zero's avatar started to fade.

"No. I won't wait and I can't wait. Didn't you hear me? It is time."

To emphasise Zero's statement, another announcement played. "One minute remains until Ambidex Game polling closes."

Before Sigma or Phi could react, the mouse on the screen had vanished.

Phi felt the final minute of the Ambidex game racing past. "We don't have time to talk about this," she said, "Rock, Paper, Scissors."

Sigma turned towards her, one hand concealed behind his back. Phi did the same, stretching her hand into the gesture for 'Scissors' and began the countdown.

"Three, two, one…"

Both hands shot out. For a moment her vision blurred, as if her eyes had teared over, but she blinked a couple of times and saw the result.

Sigma had chosen paper.

"I guess it's your choice, then," he said, conceding gracefully and moving to the left so Phi had a clear path to the terminal.

Phi approached the screen and its two buttons. In the last ten seconds, she tried to guess what Tenmyouji would choose. It all came down to his relationship with Quark. Would Tenmyouji be more likely to pick 'Ally', as an example to the boy? Or would he be even more desperate to escape than anyone else, and so even more susceptible to the temptation to betray? With only one second to go, Phi made her choice.

Choice:
A) Ally
B) Betray

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'll set up another poll for this Ambidex Game on my profile. See you all in two weeks' time!