Several hours had passed since Pearl's death. The second night on the island had been incredibly quiet in comparison to the first. This was perhaps due to the fact that N was too busy lurking near the clinic, ensuring his plan was carried out, and also the fact that Lance had spent the rest of the night plotting the areas to check, after his failed attempt to kill Pearl.
Many others were trying to catch up on rest, or calm themselves down after the traumatic day. By the time a new dawn broke on the island, the majority of contestants were resting, or just relaxing. Amongst that majority was Y. She wasn't exactly relaxing, however.
For the past few hours, she had been curled up on her side, trying to get some sleep. She had turned her back to Blue's body, which still laid where it had fallen last night. It was difficult for Y to sleep, knowing that the person she killed was only feet away from her.
"Hello. Are you all listening? It's 6AM, which means it is time for the next report."
Lysandre's voice blared out throughout various parts of the island. Y's eyes shot open upon hearing the voice of the man who she only recently met, and sat up. She took out her map, along with a pencil, and waited for him to announce the new names and danger zones.
"Only one person is no longer with us; participant number fourteen, Pearl. I will not lecture you on what should be obvious, but bear in mind that if you do not kill for twenty four hours, you will all die. With that aside, your new danger zones are F-2 at 7AM, G-5 at 9AM, and D-7 at 11AM. Giovanni will continue in six hours from now."
Once he was finished, the speaker switched off, and Y was left in silence. She folded out the map, examining the new danger zones. The sector she assumed she was in, B-5, remained safe. Regardless of that, she didn't want to spend much more time around that area. It was disturbing to know that a dead body was so close to her.
All of a sudden, something squawked from behind her. There was the sound of pecking, and then another squawk. Y suddenly felt a sense of queasiness. There was some type of bird behind her, and a dead body. She didn't need to guess what it had come to the area for.
Chewing on her lip, she grabbed the mace, which still laid by her side. The spiked ball was still covered in blood, as she couldn't have brought herself to clean it all those hours ago. It was horrific to look at, but she wasn't going to discard her weapon because of it.
Letting out a small groan, she braced herself first, and then stood up. Once she had adjusted to standing after sitting for so long, she then turned around, mace held out.
A Mandibuzz was perched on the grass beside Blue. Its beak was close to her face, which had turned nearly completely red. Bits of skin were missing at that point due to the bird's pecking. The Mandibuzz looked upwards upon hearing someone step towards it.
Then, when it saw that it was just another person, it turned away, and started pulling on Blue's ear. Y watched in disgust as the creature snacked on bits and pieces of the girl who had been her ally less than twelve hours ago.
Taking another step forward, she swung the mace at the bird, causing it to squawk in surprise and hop backwards. Y glared at it, holding the mace out to indicate that she could do it again, and not miss. The Mandibuzz glared back at her, and ruffled its feathers.
"Get away from her, you disgusting thing! Go!" she snarled, swinging the mace once more.
One of the spikes barely brushed the bird's feathers, but it was enough to rile a loud squawk from it. Letting out a few more angry cries, it spread its wings, and launched off the ground. It flew over Y's head, and deeper into the island, presumably looking for a snack that wasn't guarded by another person.
Once it was gone, Y took a few steps forward. Collapsing to her knees, she dropped the mace once more. As soon as it fell into the grass, it was completely forgotten about for the time being. Her concentration was fully focused on Blue, who was being snacked on by a vulture only moments beforehand.
Gently, as if the older girl would break, Y laid a hand on her shoulder, and turned her slowly onto her back. The right side of her face was missing pieces of skin, due to the Mandibuzz, but the other side of her face remained the same way it did the night before. Streaks of blood remained plastered on her face. Her expression still conveyed one of shock, as if she had been stopped mid-motion from reacting to Y's killing blow.
Y held her breath as she ran a hand through Blue's hair, which was then matted. The top of her head was completely caved in from her death, and the younger girl didn't dare look for long at it, thinking of what that Mandibuzz had been feeding on beforehand. Oh, wow. It's because of me that this happened to you, huh?, she thought.
The truth was that Y had liked Blue a lot. The girl had acted like an older sister towards her, and constantly tried to keep her spirits up. But, the more time they spent together, the more worried Y became of the future. She knew a time would come where they would have to fight each other. Both of them had wanted to live, and would be willing to fight for that chance.
Due to this, Y saw no other solution. She had to fight against Blue before she became too close to her. If it had gotten to the point where they were the only two left standing, she knew that there was no way she could bring herself to kill her then. If she wanted to have any chance of survival, she had to kill before attachment got the best of her.
It still hurts, though. I never wanted to do anything like this, she thought as she continued to gaze down at the body. Looking around, she figured there was one thing she could do for Blue, at least.
She recalled the girl's uneasiness about birds earlier, when Y was explaining what she wanted to do in the future. The last thing Blue would want was to remain in a prime spot where birds could pick at her body as they pleased. Although Y's alternative to avoid this probably wouldn't sit well with Blue either, she saw no other option.
Holding her breath to avoid becoming nauseous, she put her hands beneath Blue's body, and lifted her up. Despite the fact that the girl had been significantly taller than her, she dangled limply in her arms. She felt far too light.
Nevertheless, Y didn't complain over that fact. She continued walking forward, trying to keep her eyes ahead, instead of looking downwards. When she approached the cliff's edge once more, however, she finally brought herself to look down.
She wished she could make Blue look a little more at peace. It had been several hours since her death, though, and rigor mortis was almost certainly after setting in by that point. Besides, the appearance of her body would make no difference at this point, especially considering her next plan of action.
Down beneath her, the water lapped gently against the rocks. It was another peaceful morning, judging by the sea. Y wanted to take a moment to admire it, but knew that trying to do so would be pointless.
"Hey, no vultures will get at you now, right?" she said in a shaky tone to the body.
Then, she held her arms out, balancing the body over the edge of the cliff. Lowering her arms, Blue's body began to lean downwards. Squeezing her eyes shut, Y let go. She didn't open them again for quite some time, even after she heard the distant splash from below, indicating that Blue had successfully reached the bottom of the cliff, safe from any birds.
When Y finally opened her eyes again, she immediately took several steps backwards, not wanting to look down, afraid of what she might see. Taking a few deep breaths, she attempted to calm herself, but it was difficult, considering she had just thrown the body of a person she murdered into the sea.
Hugging her knees to her chest, Y tried to get all thoughts of Blue, and what she had done to her, out of her head. She was tired of all of this. If the circumstances had been different, she and Blue would have been great friends, but instead she was given no other choice but to kill her.
Three of her friends were dead, and she was surprised that X had made it this far. It wasn't a complete relief, though, as it made her even more anxious about the thought of fighting him later. She had no idea how things turned out like this. Their group was falling apart so quickly, and nothing could be done to ever repair it.
I just want to go home, Y thought. Tears welled up in her eyes, mainly out of frustration and sorrow over her inability to do anything about her situation. The program had taken its toll on her a long time ago.
Diamond gazed over at Platinum. It had been a small while since the report, but neither had said a word to each other. Neither of them knew what to say. It was difficult to think properly, especially after hearing that the one person to die that night was the same person they had been so hopeful about finding.
Platinum had her back turned to Diamond for once. Her head was lowered, and judging by the way her shoulders were shaking, she appeared to making some attempt to hide the fact that she was crying. Diamond had made no attempts to conceal the fact that he was doing so, and saw no reason not to. One of his best friends was dead, and if there was any time to be upset, it was right at that moment.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, Platinum finally turned towards Diamond. Her face was still streaked with tears, and she was hesitant to meet his gaze. Then, she sidled towards him, until their knees were brushing.
Then, she did something he didn't expect at all. She turned him around, so that he was facing her. She then put her hands on his shoulder blades, and pulled her body in closer, creating a gentle hug. In any other circumstances, Diamond reckoned that he would have become a blushing mess, but after what had happened, he continued to sit there, not quite sure how to react.
"I'm so sorry, Diamond", she whispered in his ear. It sounded as if she was struggling to speak properly. Diamond had no idea how he would muster up the ability to speak, but he tried.
"W-Why are you sorry? He was your best friend too-" he began, but was quickly cut off.
"We should have gone looking for him! We might have, if I didn't want to train. I'm so sorry. I really did waste time here, after all", she explained, and buried her head in his shoulder as she felt tears threaten to fall once more.
"I don't blame you. Y-You wanted to train, and that's important, right? Besides, Pearl would probably prefer that we're able to fight back", he reassured her, trying to keep his tone calm.
Once he reassured her, Platinum stiffened up. Tears continued to fall down her cheeks, but she no longer made any attempt to hide them, or stop them altogether. Instead, she sat up, and faced Diamond directly.
"If that's the case, then I'll continue training. I want to get off this island alive, with you. Then, we'll find a way to undo all this- You've heard of those legends too, haven't you? That there are Pokemon out there able to reverse time, and grant wishes? If we are unable to undo all of this, and they are just legends, then we can fight against the men who caused this. I refuse to let my training go to waste", she said, sounding rather determined.
Diamond raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. It was surprising to see how quickly Platinum was trying to form a plan of action, but he understood why she would do so. If they couldn't think of something to do, then it would mean accepting that Pearl was dead and gone. Neither of them were willing to accept that yet. We're meant to be a trio. If one of us is gone now, what'll that mean for the both of us?, he thought.
"I'm on board! Do you want me to supervise your training or... or..." Diamond spoke, but quickly lost track of his thoughts.
It was so surreal that he was able to talk about matters such as training so suddenly. It felt wrong. Trying to talk normally had caused his eyes to sting once more. Knowing what was about to happen, he finally returned Platinum's hug, and squeezed her tightly.
"Not right now. Let's take a break, shall we?" she offered softly, knowing as well as he did that neither were in the right state of mind to concentrate on anything other than their deceased friend.
They could talk all they wanted of plans and goals to save Pearl, and everyone else who lost their lives in the program, but nothing would change the fact that they had to cope with his death as of that moment. Her motivation left as quickly as it came. All she wanted at that moment was to have a moment to try and clear her mind, and perhaps comfort Diamond while she was at it.
As Diamond began to weep once more, Platinum ran her hands gently up and down his back, trying to ignore the fact that she wasn't in a much better state. They remained hugging each other like that for quite some time, thoughts of training and future plans completely forgotten about.
15 Remaining.