9,297 words. My longest chapter ever. Fitting as it's the last one. Of this story at least. It's a shame it didn't reach 10k words, but it's alright. I decided that this chapter will be titled Paradise by Rude-α (From Sk8 the Infinity) . I apologize that I decided on my own after all my begging in the last author's note, but I realized how much more fitting it is for the chapter, and it avoids misleading spoilers. I'm sorry my one voter who voted for Steppin' Out by FLOW (From Durarara x2). I may change the title later. Also, this chapter is unedited. In order to get it to you as fast as possible, I'm publishing without reading it over for grammatical, spelling, and minor continuity errors. It definitely won't be that bad, but it's just a warning. I will come back and eventually edit it, so don't worry. Enjoy the last chapter, as well as the post-story bonuses (little things in the note at the end of the chapter for your enjoyment).
The song reaches its conclusion and stops playing, although it's meaning still lingers in the hearts of the teens.
"This is it." Black says.
"The end of our journey." Y sighs.
"The beginning of the end." Gold adds.
"Stop being so dramatic. This is a serious situation. Moon just died, and all of us might be next. Shape up you guys." Crystal got frustrated.
"Yeah you're right, sorry." Gold scratched the back of his head.
"But it's true though. No matter what happens, our next few steps decide it all. Take this as a warning if you will; roll the dice of fate, and make the most of what you get. You can't change what you rolled, but you can prepare for the next with what you got." Platinum spoke cryptic.
"So basically, we are helpless in the grand scheme of things, just do what we can and be prepared for what comes next?" Black asked.
"If you want to make it sound stupid." She scoffed. They all turned their attention to the bed that had been pushed aside, revealing the staircase that descended well below their current level.
"You guys ready?" Y asked.
"Make the most of what we got." Platinum said while reviewing their evidence.
"And look forward, never back!" Gold yelled as he ran down the stairs.
"Why does it sound like we're in a cheesy movie's ending, alluding to a sequel but never gets enough funding so there's never any real conclusion?" Crystal sighed as she walked down the stairs, and Blue and Ruby followed her.
This is a story that starts another story. A story resulting from another story, and a story that will explain subsequent stories. This is the story of --, and their experiences that make them, them:
"Ow!" Dad slapped me.
"Shut up you worthless insect! You know how hard we work for this, and you ruined everything!" He punched me in the arm as he started to cry.
"But I-"
"No! You were conscious of your actions, were you not?"
"Yes, but-"
"Shut up! I told you to stay put, right? 'Dad's got an important meeting with his bosses, so don't leave your room.' Ring any bells?"
"I was just giving you the important papers you left-"
"NO! It's your fault for not listening to me! Yes, all your fault! If you just listened to me, I wouldn't have gotten fired, I wouldn't have lost my house, I wouldn't have had to move back in with my parents, and I certainly wouldn't be here right now!" He started beating me again.
I felt his tears dripping onto me. Yeah, maybe it was my fault. Did he even really need those papers for the meeting? If I didn't enter his office, I wouldn't have spilt the coffee on the short-tempered company president.
It's been a few minutes, and his punches are slowly stopping. His arms feebly wrapped around me.
"I love you, y'know that, right?"
Ahh... so this is love, I guess.
He gets up and slowly walks out the door. Shutting it behind him, I could hear my grandmother approaching him.
"Do you really need to be so harsh on her. I heard quite a bit of yelling, y'know. Remember that she's only seven; oh, how I remember the messes you got into at that age!" My grandmother recalled happily.
I could her dad grunt and stomp past her.
"Oh, how miserable he's become."
I heard her turn toward my door, and she slid it open just a bit.
"Dear, it's bath time! Want me to help you draw the bath?"
"No, I got it for tonight, don't mind me." I responded, looking at the bruises I had just gotten.
"Alright then." She chuckled as she walked away.
...
"Eww!" Yelled Classmate B
"Disgusting!" Agreed Classmate C
The two girls squirmed as they held each other's hands.
Classmate A had just ordered me to lick his shoe. At first I refused, so he punched me in the face. After that, I complied.
"Heh, that's a good look on you, licking my shoe like that." He laughed.
"Oh my god! Did -- just smile?!" Classmate E exclaimed as she put a hand over her mouth.
"Kekeke!" Classmate A tried not to laugh as he stomped on my face.
"You dumb bitch! You're not supposed to do that!" He yelled. I lay silent on the ground, closing my my eyes.
Watching the scene as they walked by, two women talked amongst themselves.
"Wow, ten-year-olds are so harsh nowadays." Woman 1 exclaimed.
"I know, my son's the same age. I hope he doesn't get treated like that!" Woman 2 worried.
They walked away discussing their children. I was now left alone on the floor as my classmates had lost interest.
So this is love. I smiled to myself. He loves me; I love him. The others are in the way though, I'll have to do something about that.
...
It's my second year of middle school, and I'm now thirteen. Two years ago, [Classmate C] confessed to [Classmate A]. She gave him a week to respond, but I couldn't allow that. So I killed her. I murdered her on the third day so he wouldn't have had to even think about her for too long.
Luckily, when the police interrogated him, he asked "who?". I was overjoyed! He didn't remember her, but he remembers me! He still punches me in the face when I tell him no, he still steals my things, and he still smirks at me when he catches me staring at him.
"I love him." I muttered out loud.
"Eww! You like him!" Classmate B yelled out in disgust. Classmate E hid behind her, repulsed.
"I'm so telling him." His best friend, Classmate D laughed.
Utter despair. I never felt so hopeless, so dark and miserable.
"Raah!" I yelled as I knocked one of them out. I couldn't tell who, nor could I stop. I was blinded by rage. Before I knew it, I had all of them locked up in my basement.
This is perfect! Dad's out on vacation, and Grandma never comes down here! I told them that I won't let them go until one of them had killed another.
Of course, they refused, but after two weeks, Classmate D strangled Classmate C. It was rather uneventful.
That's no fun, I thought as I walked down to the basement, until I suddenly got an idea. I let out Classmate D, and Classmate E followed behind him.
"Use this on him, or I'll kill you both." I whispered into her ear. Her eyes widened in shock, and I could see her adrenaline take over.
She grabbed the knife and walked so that she was just a step behind matching his pace. She swung the knife into his throat, and he died before he even realized what was going on.
"Ahaha! I did it! I survived!" Classmate E laughed manically. I came up behind her and swung a baseball bat down on her head. She fell to the ground, unconscious. I repeated the motion until she was barely even recognizable.
"Haha... I did it! I got rid of my enemies!" I rejoiced.
I cleaned up the mess and disposed of the bodies before I met up with Classmate A. I told him my accomplishments.
He kicked me in between my legs and I collapsed down to the ground in pain.
"You psycho!" He kneeled down and grabbed my face. He took a good look at my face before leaning in and kissing me.
"Then again, you are pretty hot." He picked me up and took me back to his place, where I will never forgot what transpired.
I loved him with all of my heart, but he died in a car accident less then a year later.
...
Today, grandma shot dad.
He died.
Dad was beating me again, but this time grandma overheard and confronted him about it. She started yelling at him and he attacked her. She managed to run away far enough to grab a gun, and then shot him in the head.
The police came and took grandma away, before seeing me. They sighed and brought me down to the station too where I gave a statement and found my only living relative, uncle.
He smiled as he took me in the door and up to the attic. He told me I would be staying there and had to work for my stay.
A week later and I already hated the job. But no matter. I just met the love of my life.
'君がおいてったものばっかが僕のすべてになったの。' (Everything you left behind became my everything)
"What the..." Ruby's eyes widened as he reached the bottom of the stairs. It was a huge room that kind of resembled a courthouse, and had chairs in a circle. On one wall, there was a giant screen behind an opening where the chairs were.
A whiteboard on the wall next to the screen had a message seemingly quickly scribbled onto it.
"Discuss whether or not I am one of you first. You have 15 minutes." It read.
Over by the chairs, it became clear that the chair color symbolized their names and were their assigned seats.
Blue for Blue; yellow for Gold; light blue for Crystal; red for Ruby; grey for Platinum; black for Black; and pink for Y.
"I guess, we should sit down?" Gold wondered aloud.
"It would seem so." Platinum replied.
"So discussion time?" Black asked suddenly a countdown timer on the wall started counting down from 15 minutes.
"Okay." He answered himself.
"So I believe the killer is not one of us; all agree?" Platinum raised her hand. Gold and Blue raised their's as well.
"Y?" Blue was shocked.
"Well, I don't want to jump to conclusions." She looked off to the floor at the side.
"Alright; Black?" Platinum inquired.
"I," he looked away uncomfortable, "I kind of think, possibly, that Crystal might be the killer."
"I agree!" Crystal vehemently agreed. Everyone looked at her in shock.
"Why?" Ruby asked.
"Well, I don't really know what happened while I was, y'know, crazy. I could very well be the killer with multiple personality disorder." She elaborated.
"I suppose, although I doubt it. Okay, Ruby, what's your opinion?" Platinum directed the conversation away from her.
"Well, I agreed with Crystal, and I don't necessarily think that Platinum is completely out of suspicion." He said, uncomfortable.
"Understood." Platinum nodded her head. Black, however, had a different reaction.
"What do you mean 'not completely out of suspicion'!? After all that work we went through to prove our innocence?!" Black was outraged.
"But, like, what if she was using a taser or something to control Crystal's other personality and make her do the killings while she was known to be innocent?" Ruby replied.
"That's impossible." Blue spoke up.
"Why?" Crystal asked.
"Since both of you didn't have the opportunity to kill Yellow or X. We've already proven why Platinum couldn't, although you probably don't remember that. Trust me, there is too much evidence that Platinum couldn't have physically killed them to even be questioning it now." She explained.
"But what if she commanded me?" Crystal worried.
"You don't remember before that debate?"
"Well, yeah, I do."
"So you know you couldn't have killed them because you were with other people in the defense team." Blue replied with a smirk.
"Oh yeah..." Crystal rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed.
"I get it. So by that logic, none of us could have orchestrated all of this or the killings by ourselves. We all agree?" Ruby asked.
Everyone nodded their heads.
The countdown, which had eight minutes left, stopped suddenly.
"Congratulations, you guessed correct! I am not one of you! Who am I? A complete rando, one of your parents, the leader of an evil organization, or even Looker himself? Who knows? Well your next task is to solve all of the murders! How did I do each of them? You'd never figure out the whole story, so the basic rundown of killing methods and other necessary information should be fine. You get one hour, and as a added bonus for completing the first task so fast, the remaining eight minutes on the timer will be added onto the next one! Start, now!"
The voice had come out of a speaker system in the room and echoed loudly throughout the empty space. The voice was a text-to-speech reader, and continued to mask the identity of the mastermind.
Ruby had no idea who the mastermind could be, but he did start thinking about after hearing the words he thought must have been particularly chosen. "Not one of you", "complete rando", "even Looker himself", and "who knows" particularly stood out to him.
"Not one of you" narrowed down the possibility of the mastermind being anyone in the world down to anyone in the world minus the six currently in the room. That is actually very helpful looking at the next two statements. The next two are closely intertwined in their importance.
"Complete rando" has significance because even though it's a possibility, it's not likely the mastermind is some random person none of them have ever met before. There has to be some significance in their relation, otherwise there would be no reason to target the Pokédex holders specifically. While they did have many accomplishments, they're not particularly famous enough to have random fans coming after their lives. Long story short, it has to be somebody they know.
"Even Looker himself" reveals that the killer was keeping very close tabs on them and their conversations, to the point where it is likely they are also in the building with them. Looker was brought up in a conversation with Platinum earlier, so it's likely that's why his name popped up in a place like this. Looker is a secret detective with the international police. So even though he isn't necessarily good at his job, only a few people know who he is. This greatly narrows down the list of suspects.
Lastly, "who knows," while a bit of a stretch, means that someone does know the identity of the mastermind. Looking around, the only person Ruby could think of who would know their identity is Platinum with her suspiciously good detective skills. It also could mean the mastermind is somebody everyone in this room knows.
Putting all this information together, Ruby starts to formulate some ideas, but he doesn't like them, so he shakes them out of his head.
"So, let's dissect the murder of Silver first; it was the first and also a simple one." Platinum once again leads the conversation.
"Simple?" Ruby asks.
"Does anyone know why Silver left the group." She asked like an elementary school teacher.
"Well, he said some of his pokemon were missing." Blue answered.
"Correct."
"So, what?" Black asks.
"Yeah, we don't know why or how they went missing." Crystal sighed.
"But-"
"We don't have to figure that out!" Gold answered, cutting Platinum off.
"Yes, that was what I was going to say." She said, looking irritated.
"All we need to know is that he left because of his missing pokemon. So to look for them he went to the kitchen, where he was ambushed." She continued.
"Oh yeah, we kinda forgot about it, but there was all that suspicion of someone bringing a poison type pokemon because of the poison barb that killed him!" Black remembered.
"That's the trap!" Y realized.
"Huh?" Blue was confused.
"I get it, he wasn't killed by the poison barb, but because of the stab wound." Ruby thought aloud.
"Yeah, it was just meant to distract us from the knife wound. If you think about it, he was bleeding way too much for him to be dying of poison. The cause of death was the blood loss, he was barely phased by the poison." Crystal explained further.
"Now that I think about it, one of the things the Mask of Ice did for us was building up a tolerance for many different types of poisons. There's no way in hell he could have died from the poison." Blue realized.
"What happened was he was taken by surprise in the kitchen when he was stabbed with a knife. A poison barb was taken, likely from a pokemon, and placed inside of the wound to cover it up. But since we arrived early, the killer panicked and shoved him in the closet we found him in before making their uneventful escape." Platinum announced.
"Ding, ding, ding! That's correct! You guys got that one fast, so I'll choose the next murder to discuss. Let's see, I'll give you guys an easy one. Red and Green! How did they die?" The voice directed them.
"Red and Green, huh." Blue sighed, upset.
"Well, there weren't many clues when we found them." Gold huffed.
"Yeah, and we didn't get the chance to re-examine the crime scene." Y said, upset.
"Hmm..." They sat their thinking for a few minutes. Although they were told this was an easy one, they couldn't figure out the obvious clue they were missing.
"I guess they didn't really die in a violent way." Ruby suggested.
"Mhm, no blood was in sight." Platinum sighed.
"The real distraction was Diamond's body, burnt to a crisp." Gold piped up, and Platinum glanced to the side, upset.
"Wait! I think I got this one guys!" Black raised his hands, excited.
"Go for it." Ruby waved his hand.
"Remember the picture we saw on the wall that led us to Moon?" He asked the others to recall.
"Oh yeah..." Ruby thought about it.
"There was a bottle of spilt pills near the two." Crystal revealed.
"So, their cause of death was overdose?" Platinum asked.
"You guys are so smart! Up next is the one and only Sapphire!"
Gold grunted a little, as if recalling a bad memory.
"So Sapphire; who was in the group with her when she died?" Platinum asked.
Blue and Platinum raised their hands.
"All right, again, we didn't get much evidence for this one, so let's recount the events that afternoon." Platinum announced.
"'Nothing's down here.' Emerald yelled.
'We can't give up! Black's down 'ere somewhere...' Sapphire looked around, 'somewhere...'
'We gotta head back.' Sun said. She glanced around once more, not detecting anything with her amazing hearing.
'...Fine.'
They started towards the entrance hall, only to have the floor start glowing. Yellow's eyes grew wide, amber irises filled with fear.
'Guys! We gotta get out of here!' Red yelled.
'What? Why?' X was confused.
'They're coming!' Yellow yelled, covering her face in fear. A growling sounded as figures arose from the shadows, surrounding the group.
The creatures growled.
'Guys...'
They leaped.
Emerald was covered almost immediately, barely able to shake the creatures off of him. Sapphire ran to his aide. She pried the creatures off, but they kept coming back.
'How do we fight them?!' A female voice called out.
'Just don't let them touch you!' Red yelled, not knowing who asked the question.
'A bit late for that.' Emerald said sarcastically. Sapphire kicked off a few creatures before speaking.
'Guys! This way!'
A figure stood in the doorway, light concealing its appearance.
The group started towards it; however, the ground began to shake before it was visible.
"Watch out!" Platinum yelled.
Sapphire looked around her, tripping over a monster. She tried to push herself off the floor, but something was thrust through her chest
'...!'
She couldn't feel pain, only shock. She managed to turn her head towards her wound. Blood pooled around her impaled chest, a dagger stuck through it.
Her breath came in short gasps as she realized she could no longer breathe. The creatures crawled onto her, sucking the remaking life out of her. She weakly punched one, only for it to attach to her. Black spots floated in her vision, blocking her sight.
'This is it...'
She coughed, feeling blood dribble down her chin. Looking up, she saw Platinum frown, before running up to the rest of the group. They were running into the hallway." Platinum recalled generally what happened that afternoon.
"Damn, you got a photographic memory or something?" Black asked.
"Not quite." She replied.
"That story kinda cut off suddenly, don't ya' think?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, what's with that?" Y wondered.
"Well, I didn't see the rest, I ran out into the hallway." She answered.
"Ah makes sense." Blue nodded.
"Damn though, you were evil earlier into the investigation." Black shook his head.
"What why?" She asked.
"Yeah, you've become much more... human?" Y thought out loud.
"What do you mean?" Platinum just didn't get it.
"Well, you frowned at Sapphire, literally dying on the ground!" Ruby explained for her.
"I guess that was pretty harsh, but what was I supposed to do, give her CPR? She was beyond saving, even if I could somehow drag her out of the room with me. I frowned at her because I didn't want to be smiling at her; she was dying!" Platinum defended herself.
"You didn't at least want her to die with happy thoughts?" Blue asked.
"I don't know, I didn't think about it at the time. She was prolly thinking 'bout Ruby." She sighed.
Ruby glanced off at the floor, uncomfortable. Y and Blue looked over at Gold, who was looking at Ruby. The two girls smiled at each other.
"Okay, back on track, I think we got a clue." Black redirected their attention to him.
"The female voice that shouted 'how do we fight them', who was that?" He elaborated.
"Oh, and the figure in the doorway, that was someone external. If it wasn't one of us, it was probably the mastermind." Blue reasoned.
"So wait, you're saying the mastermind, who we now think is a girl, was with you guys in the room while Sapphire was dying. She was pretending to be one of you?" Y asked.
"I think that's it." Platinum sighed. She looked at the screen, waiting for the mastermind's verdict.
"Um, you're gonna have to be more specific than that. And stop assuming my gender, don't act like you know things!"
"Uh, okay..." Ruby looked confused.
"So more details, huh. Okay, let's try this; we were attacked by 'method X' in the room, which also includes the mastermind, but only Sapphire was killed by 'method X' while the rest of us escaped." Blue clarified.
"There you go! See, I knew you could do it! Let's see, you guys did pretty good explaining X and Yellow's murders earlier, so we'll count that. Let's list out the rest of the murders in terms of difficulty: Easy - Diamond and Moon, Medium - Emerald and Pearl, Hard - Sun and White."
"Wait, why are Sun and White's cases hard to solve?" Ruby asked.
"Because, at least in White's case, none of the witnesses are still alive." Crystal answered.
"Wait really?" Blue asked.
"I guess so. I was there technically, but I wouldn't call myself a witness; I couldn't see anything and I escaped pretty quickly. The only real witness was Diamond, and he's, y'know. I guess Red might have seen something too, but he's also..." Y reasoned.
"Well, what about Sun?" Black asked.
"That one might be just a difficult one to figure out in general. I mean, Diamond was burned by the shadow monsters and-"
"Ding, ding, ding! You got it!" Platinum was cut off by the voice congratulating them.
"And Moon was tricked into stepping into the tank before being trapped and proceeded to drown..."
"Another one!"
"Damn, you're good." Ruby sighed.
"I have to agree." Black looked over at her and smiled.
"We really couldn't be here without you." Crystal thanked her.
I'd be long dead if it weren't for you." Gold grinned.
"And we wouldn't have found half of the necessary clues that we did." Blue waved her arms excitedly.
Platinum blushed a little and tried to play it off as nothing. Blue, however, glanced a Y who seemed to be off in her own little world.
"What's up?" Blue whispered to her.
"..."
"Hey, Y!" Blue's voice got loud and everyone turned towards them. Y noticed this and looked up.
"Hm?"
"I was just... you seemed out of it." Blue worried.
"Don't tell me you're getting high right now!" The mastermind was angry.
"What? No, I don't do stuff like that." Y shook her hands.
"Okay, I'll take your word for it, but I can tell you that one of you in this room is high right now."
"What?" Crystal asked as they all glanced at each other.
"Stop messing with us." Ruby sighed.
"Rest assured, I'm not messing with you. One of you really is high, I can guarantee it; since, well I was the one who gave them the drugs!"
There were audible gasps around the room as the looked at each other, suspicious. Arguments arise and eight minutes go by.
"Guys, guys. Let's talk about this later," Gold glanced at the clock while putting his hands up, "time's running out, and I'd rather not die."
Platinum glanced at him.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's get focused."
Things quickly calmed down as it dawned on them that it was probably meant as a distraction, and they fell for it.
"Okay, but first, Y?" Blue was concerned for her friend.
"I..." she looked up at her friends, and scanned each of their faces one by one, "...I-I killed M-Moon."
There was silence for a second.
"What do you mean?" Crystal asked calmly. They had all realized it was impossible for her to directly kill Moon, on top of the fact that they were friends and there was no reason for her to kill Moon.
"Um, Black? You said you heard something like a scream a while before you heard me, but you weren't sure, right?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"Well, I heard it too, but much more definitively since I was closer." She looked to the ground.
"I heard it, but I ignored it."
The others glanced at each other, unsure of what to say.
"Why?" Gold finally spoke up.
"I-I had been crying before that. I was upset about X, so I took a minute to let it all out. I finally started searching and found more of this hair," she showed them the evidence bag, "before I heard Moon's sudden scream."
She glanced around seeing her senpai's faces.
"I instinctively ran to see what was happening, but as soon as I reached the doorframe, I realized that it must've been obvious I had just been crying. It would be too embarrassing to let everyone know that I was still that upset over X, so I went to fix up my face before running after Moon a few minutes later." Y finished explaining, letting out an unhappy sigh.
"Y..." Crystal's voice suddenly echoed after that moment of silence.
"Don't think that you're the only one here regretting you actions here; thinking that you could have saved someone's life by doing something different."
"What?"
"Yeah, don't be so conceited! Moon would've died with or without you running after her at that moment, I just know it." Ruby yelled.
"And even if you would've saved her at that moment, she would have died later. Knowing the mastermind, they will hunt down their targets, stopping at nothing. Think about how long before we saw the picture it was created; from that moment, or even before then, it was decided that Moon was going to die in this building by drowning." Blue rationalized.
"On top of that, it was likely drawn before Red, Green, Diamond, or even Pearl kicked the bucket. They all died in the exact same way as shown in that painting." Gold expanded on Blue's thought.
"I didn't even think about that." Y smiled.
"You can also think about the fact that I heard the scream too, and told Platinum about it, but we decided it was nothing. By your logic, we're murderers too." Black laughed.
"Hey, no need to drag me into this. But it's true. Think back to what I said about rolling the dice of fate; you get what you get and there's no changing that, but you can make due with it for a better outcome." Platinum said.
"..." Y was thinking.
"Just remember, we love you no matter what." Blue smiled. Everyone nodded their heads, and she smiled back.
"Thanks guys. I realize now what's done is done, and I just gotta move on." Y smiled and the others nodded their heads.
"Now we need to get on topic." Ruby clenched his fist.
"Yes, Emerald!" Gold yelled.
"Umm... okay?" Ruby was confused.
"We haven't decided who we're discussing next. Logically, it would be White, since she died after Silver." Platinum argued.
"Yeah, but we haven't really been going in order." Black rebutted.
"I know, but I always intended too. We were forced to talk about Sapphire, Red, and Green after that, and then I unintentionally solved Diamond and Moon's deaths. So, now we should talk about WHITE!" Platinum got forceful.
"Wait, I can't even remember, did Sapphire or White die first?" Gold asked.
"Platinum, you're kinda acting like a child right now. What's wrong? Why do you want to discuss White so badly?" Blue tried to deescalate the situation.
"Fine, it's," she blushed a little and looked off to the side, "I wanted to save Emerald for last 'cause I wanted to show off. Even though it was a practically clueless murder, I still figured the whole thing out ages ago."
Everyone was silent.
"Okay, miss detective, why don't you show off. We will be discussing Emerald now." Crystal was a little ticked off.
"Sorry, I know, it wasn't right of me. Okay, well, Emerald's cause of death was a dagger." Platinum apologized.
"Yeah, we know that." Gold rolled his eyes.
"Can you stop being such a bitch right now?" Blue asked.
"It's fine, Blue, let's just continue. I propose the idea that Emerald was face to face with the mastermind when he was killed." She brushed off the insult.
"What? But how? I ran up to him in a minute or two of him running out of the room!" Black was shocked.
"Yeah, I don't think that could've been possible." Ruby agreed.
"But, we all know Platinum." Y smiled.
"Thanks. So our only real evidence was that deep chip in the wall, right Black?"
He nodded.
"So, I think that was created by the dagger." She shared her thoughts.
"You think the mastermind missed when trying to stab him? But we would've heard him scream if that were the case." Ruby was skeptical.
"Yes and no. They missed on purpose. The dagger was meant as a distraction. They stood in the room across the hall as Emerald ran by in his panic, before throwing the dagger into the wall as means to grab his attention and distraction him at the same time." Platinum explained.
"I get it now. The dagger in the wall made him stop, and the mastermind ran up and grabbed it while he was distracted in order to stab him." Y summarized.
"Close, but there were actually two daggers. They used a second to stab him as he looked up the wall at the first one." Platinum clarified.
"Was that really important?" Black asked.
She nodded as she pulled out two evidence bags that each had a dagger in them, one being bloody.
"I found these by the sink in the room across the hall from where Emerald died."
"Okay, yeah, I get it, but why'd he run outta the room all weird like that in the first place?" Gold wondered.
"By method X." Blue satisfactorily said.
"Correct! Damn, you guys are good. Well don't stop now! You can't 'cause ya' only got twenty minutes on the clock!" The mastermind excitedly said.
"Wait, shit!" Black yelled.
"Goddamnit, why'd you have to save the hard ones for last!" Y yelled.
"Hey, I wanted to discuss White first." Platinum put her hands up.
"Well, we only got one piece of evidence for that." Blue was reaching for a slightly charred hat in her bag.
"Wait, before that we should discuss witnesses. That's why this case is so hard. Y, are you sure you didn't see anything?" Platinum had her priorities straight.
"No, I'm sorry. I couldn't see anything as Red pulled me out of that room; in fact, he pulled me out so quick that I didn't even see White." Y recalled.
"So, we got no leads." Black sighed.
"It's strange that there aren't any witnesses. Out of everyone, none of us saw or heard anything?" Ruby asked
"It was lucky that the other cases even had witnesses." Gold mentioned.
"Yeah, there're no witnesses going forward." Crystal realized.
"Sun's case was just so strange in general, and Pearl's witnesses are already dead." Black shared his thoughts.
"Then why is Pearl in the medium category?" Ruby asked.
"That might be because we heard all about his death from the witnesses before they died. We didn't hear much of anything about White's murder, which is probably because it was one of the first and so unorthodox." Platinum reasoned.
"Alright, I heard that you found some evidence?" She asked.
"Oh yeah," Blue remembered, "we, the search team, found this hat in the room Sapphire died in!"
She pulled a slightly burnt hat that clearly resembled White's out of her bag. Black gasped and Platinum nodded.
"So, you think she died in the same room Sapphire did?" She inquired.
"...wait." Black muttered.
"Yeah, I think it's reasonable since we were never quite clear on what room White died in." Ruby affirmed.
"wait." Black repeated, quietly.
"That's a safe bet. I don't see why that's not possible." Platinum nodded her head again.
"Wait, I said!" Black yelled, and this time he caught everyone's attention.
"What... is it?" Y asked, skeptical.
"I-I found White's hat!" He pulled out a matching hat from his bag as tears slowly began to escape his eyes.
"Oh yeah!" Platinum gasped as she remembered what he told her in his room. She began to piece things together in her mind, a troubled expression on her face.
"Wait a minute, why are there two hats; and they're both burnt. Did she get attacked twice?" Crystal asked.
"No, not that we were were ever told." Blue replied.
"The long brown hair." Platinum suddenly muttered.
"You mean the hair we found at some of the crime scenes?" Black asked.
"Who do we know who has long brown hair?" She asked, eyes glossed over.
"No, you can't mean..." Y trailed off.
Ruby suddenly gasped.
"The painting, everyone depicted was either being murdered or already dead, by the murder weapon... except for White, w-who was only surrounded by the monsters." He looked off to the side.
"Guys, what if White was in the hard category not because of the lack of witnesses, but because she's not actually de-" Platinum was cut off by the sound of a gunshot, and she instinctively ducked. Multiple compartments opened from the ceiling and large objects fell from them, along with White.
She smirked at Platinum satisfied, until she realized she was not fatally wounded. The bullet had missed her. She glanced behind Platinum and-
"NOOO!!!" She screamed. She ran past Platinum and up to Black, who had been shot in the chest.
The others were distracted by the major reveal, yes, but also the fact that the room was now filled with corpses. The large objects that fell from the ceiling were actually the bodies of their friends.
Y looked past White and saw Black's current condition. After a quick assessment, she sighed in relief.
"Oh good, it wasn't his heart. If he gets immediate medical attention he should be-"
She was cut off by White stabbing Black in the chest, right by his heart.
"...why..." he muttered with his last breath.
Y screamed in shock and horror as White stood up and the lights cut out.
The room was pitch black, the darkness seemed to swallow it entirely.
'That night had changed our lives forever.' Crystal thought, thinking back to the night before. That was the night most of their friends died, and the night they had to start playing "adult" and "detective". The reason for all of it was standing before them.
No one expected the events that happened to happen, but they did, and they really did change their lives.
Blood stained the floor, it's crimson color a sharp contrast from the black surrounding it. A figure stood before the 12 bodies covering the ground. White smirked at the havoc she had caused.
She pulled a knife out of the most recent victim's chest.
"You," the White said angrily, "you made me do this!"
She pointed at Platinum, and Crystal trembled in fear.
'My dream, this was my xatu's warning to me. Of course I didn't understand it, but...'
"Hey, wait a minute." Platinum put her hands up and slowly backed away.
"I loved him, y'know. That's why I did all of this. He was mine and mine alone. Nobody could have him. No one except me. So I decided to get rid of all of you finally, and then I could keep him to myself. But you," White turned her head to the others, "I kept trying to kill her, but the bitch would never die."
'Finally', I thought. 'I got her', I thought. But you tricked me. You tricked me into killing him. Now this was all worthless. You made this worthless, so now their deaths are on your shoulders!" She acted maniacally.
"Then will you let us go?! If all of this is pointless, then stop torturing us! We have struggled for these past 34 hours trying to find a way out, to find out what's going on, to stay alive. For what? Your petty attempt at shoving the blame onto me? Don't think for a second that you can try to fool me during this confusing as fuck situation. I know that I have been doing my very best to keep me and my friends alive, while you have been killing them." Platinum roared.
"'Let us go' she says. As if; I am not that stupid. Now let me think, I could give you a simple task to earn your freedom, but I don't think you deserve it. I could kill all of you here, but that'd be no fun. Ah, I got it! Tell me how." She laughed.
"How...?" Y asked.
"How I did all of this. How I got you here, how I trapped you here, how I 'magically' killed Sapphire and Diamond. I'll reset the timer, of course." She elaborated.
"What- you already said that's impossible!" Gold yelled. White glared at him.
"You don't know me at all, I guess," she laughed, "I just lost the love of my life, so I want a little, deserve a little entertainment."
"What's that got to do with anything he said!" Ruby demanded. She sighed.
"It's my own personal theater, watching you struggle and fall into despair. But I'd never give you an impossible task, that'd be no fun. I'm giving you a real shot to solve real murders." She explained.
"You mean-" Crystal gasped.
"It was not magic; all of the murders were carried out in logical ways!" Blue covered her mouth in shock.
"Depending on your definition of magic, then yes. I carried out every murder in a way each of you here could easily replicate. However, most people couldn't." White confirmed.
"That's got to have some hidden meaning..." Y muttered to herself.
"Alright! Time starts now!" White plopped herself down on Black's seat.
"Um, aren't you going to do something about these dead bodies? Crystal asked, uncomfortable.
"No, they're a gift to you." White replied.
"Oh, you're right!" Platinum gasped as she ran to Diamond's body, which was just behind her chair.
As she inspected his body, she saw that, in fact, he had been burned alive. She had found this when she found his body earlier, but confirmed it to be true. Looking closer at the body, she determined the flame to have come from behind him. The odd thing about this is from what she's seen from the shadow monsters, they don't do sneak attacks, they would have surrounded him.
"So, judging from the burn, the flame was behind him, but I don't think the shadow monsters attacked him from behind." She announced.
"What do you mean?" Y asked.
"I think she means that the attack wasn't from the shadow monsters." Gold said.
"Yep, I think the attack was from a regular flamethrower. The shadow monsters don't exist." Platform hypothesized.
"You mean, they're an illusion?" Blue asked.
"No, I think she means we're imagining them. Or, well, like under the influence of some hallucinogenic drug." Ruby corrected her.
"Mind over matter." Y said.
"Yeah, the drug would make him think that he's being attack from all around by 'shadow monsters', but the burn is only physically coming from behind. Since his brain thinks shadow monsters are attacking him all over, his brain makes him feel the burn all over, even thought it's really just his back." Ruby clarified.
"I get it, the drug is basically making us hallucinate the magical stuff, while the murders are carried out in practical ways." Crystal summarized.
"That's a good theory, but it's full of holes. Hallucinogens don't last for a long time, and there's no way the drug is constantly being administered to us. Also, how would it conveniently hide the identity of the killer and there methods, but leave us alone the rest of the time." Blue argued.
"Yeah, good points. For now, let's move onto the other topics before we run out of time." Platinum changed the subject.
"I think I know the one about how she got us here." Crystal said, upset.
"Oh yeah, didn't Professor Oak ask us to investigate here? Did she threaten him to do that?" Gold asked.
"N-No. More specifically he asked us to investigate the disappearances because 'they tried everything else' before turning to us." She corrected him.
"What does that mean?" Y asked.
"It means White killed people here to catch his attention with the disappearances!" Crystal yelled as she pointed accusingly towards White.
White saw this and she shrugged.
"I had to do what I had to do."
"Wait! Why did Oak send us then?" Ruby asked, shocked.
"Well..." Crystal paused, "the professionals that were sent must have 'disappeared' too. We were his last hope."
"Wow, good job on finding that out! Well, hurry with the next topic 'cause ya' only got 48 minutes left." White was impressed.
"Quick, how are we trapped?!" Platinum asked.
"Because we can't do anything crazy like burn the place down since it would put us in too much danger, and there's no cell reception here." Y answered.
Platinum pointed at her.
"Good. Why can't we escape out the front or windows?" She asked.
"Since they're boarded up with materials that resist pokemon attacks." Gold answered.
"A little more specific hon." White declared.
"Umm... they are coated in battle materials like potions, repels, move-resist berry juices, etc." He guessed.
"That'd explain the lack of pokemon!" Platinum gasped.
"Uh, alright? It's a stretch, but I'm in a good mood. And you spent 10 minutes on it so I feel it's good enough." White accepted the answer.
"Okay! And Sapphire and Diamond were magically murdered by the drug method we discussed earlier." Crystal was feeling confident.
"Final answer?" White asked.
"Wai-" Gold was cut off.
"Yes!!!" Everyone else yelled.
White sat there for a moment, taking the situation in. She took a deep breathe and exhaled. She smiled.
"No."
"..."
The room was silent.
"Wait, what does that mean?" Ruby asked
"It means, we'll be playing a punishment game! With the timer ongoing of course."
"What?" Y asked.
"Participation is mandatory, and disobeying means execution! I strongly recommend we do this as fast and efficiently as possible so that you have as much time as possible to find the correct answer afterwords." She explained.
Everyone froze in fear and realization. Someone was probably going to die. But they had to play, and keep going. This might be the last death, and their sacrifice may mean everyone else's survival. They steeled there nerves and continued to listen.
"The game we will be playing is called Russian Roulette. I'm sure you've heard about it before. Everyone takes a turn holding and firing this revolver at their head. It will have five empty chambers and only one bullet. The person who dies, loses. After this game, you will get an opportunity to continue your discussion." White finished her speech as she took out the gun. She handed it to Gold.
"We will be going in seat order. Since there is only six chambers and seven of us, Blue will get a free pass. Game starts now!"
Gold held the gun to his head and fired. No shot. He was safe. He passed the gun to Crystal.
Everyone was shocked.
"G-Gold! You d-did that with absolutely no fear or hesitation!" Ruby yelled.
"Huh? Oh, I guess so." He said nonchalantly.
"Go Crys. We don't want to run out of time."
"Okay." She sighed as she shakily held the revolver to her head.
She held her breath and tears escaped her eyes as she put her finger on the trigger. Closing her eyes, she finally pulled the trigger.
She let out a sigh of relief as she opened her eyes and gave the gun to Ruby.
Ruby stared at the gun for a minute, obviously in fear. He exhaled and held it up against his head and pulled the trigger, but again, nothing came out.
He looked apologetic as he handed Platinum the gun. She sighed and repeated the same motions as everyone else. Another win. Platinum looked shock as she gave the revolver to White. It must've been pure luck that it hasn't gone off in all this time, and now there was a 50% chance that the mastermind would die here and now.
"Wow, talk about luck. Okay, I won't be wasting your time now." Like Gold earlier, White fearlessly held the gun up to her head and pulled the trigger.
"Aww, darn. That's boring. Well here you go Y!" White dropped the gun in her hands and she stared at it in shock.
Everyone was silent. Y was going to die, forced to kill herself. There was no hope for her, and they knew she knew she knew it. A few of them began crying as Blue ran up to her and embraced her.
"C'mon Y, let's do this together!" Blue cried.
"No!" Y yelled as she pushed her off of her.
"Guys, promise me you'll make it out. You guys don't have to worry about me now. I'm happy with my life, and how you guys helped me after the Moon incident. You don't have to cry." Tears began to flow out of her eyes as she spoke.
"Well, may we meet again in another life." Y held the gun against her head and pulled the trigger. The gun went off and the bullet went through her head. She slumped in her chair, dead as the others screamed.
"Y?!? NOOOOOO!!!" Blue yelled out in sorrow.
"Oh well, I guess Y was the loser. Now, let's resume this trial!" White moved on, and Blue continued to cry by Y's body.
"Oh, and by the way, it's obvious you guys are amateurs. You didn't see me spin the chamber; it's obvious that it was rigged." White revealed.
They gasped in anger and shock.
"Why? Why me?! Why have I survived this long!?! Why did you kill Y instead of me!" Ruby yelled in frustration.
"Because I like you." White hummed.
"What?"
"Don't you remember? On the boat? When we met, you said Black and I were made for each other! Nobody else has ever said that before! For that, you will always hold a special place in my heart. Although, I mean, I was gonna kill you anyways." White reminded him.
"But I was j-" Ruby decided it was best to cut himself off.
"As for why I chose Y to kill in that game, it was for suspense. Each time one of you held the gun to your head, the looks of utter despair on your faces was delightful! And then the brief hope that I, your tormenter, would take the fall, only for that dream to be crushed was wonderful. Then Y who knew she had to die! Quite entertaining if I says so myself."
"!" Blue held back her anger as she plopped herself back in her seat.
'Only 15 more minutes of this bitch and either I die, or we get out of here.'
"Alright. If not the drugs, then what?" Blue asked.
"I have to say, that drug theory was surprisingly good and could have very well been the solution. But remember that I told you guys that only one of you here right now is on drugs! I haven't taken mine in years!" White revealed.
They momentarily paused, but they weren't going to be tricked by the same trick twice.
"Alright, since you're running low on time, I'll give you a hint. Platinum should know. She holds the key to the answer."
They all looked at Platinum as she thought.
'A time when I was alone, then. Well, that'd have to be when I almost died...'
She gasped.
"I got it!"
"What?!" White turned to her in shock.
"You couldn't have figured it out with just that!"
"Pokemon." Platinum muttered and White's eyes widened.
"Huh, I was right then."
"Wait, what!" Ruby questioned.
"Well damn." Gold sighed.
"That's Platinum for you."
"We were mostly right about the drug theory, it's just we had the wrong source for the hallucinations. It wasn't a drug that caused them, it was a pokemon, and I'm pretty sure I know which one." Platinum elaborated.
"That's what White meant when she said that we could recreate the murders, but most couldn't. We, the Pokédex holders, are all trainers, but most people are not!" Crystal realized.
"I ran into a Pokémon when I was by myself last night. A gengar that tried to kill me and it used the moves shadow ball and teleport. It's remaining two moves must be the source of the hallucinations. Hypnosis and nightmare. Hypnosis is not mind control, It's putting someone in a highly-suggestible state. And then nightmare was used to fine tune our hallucinations and unify them between us." Platinum explained.
"Shit," White muttered, "my dream has crumbled. Oh well, I guess I had fun for a little while. Well, I have to keep my word, don't I."
She sighed as she glanced at Gold and he nodded. She took out another gun, presumably the one that shot Black, and put it in her mouth.
"No!" Platinum yelled as White pulled the trigger. She collapsed to the ground, dead.
They all were in shock, but they were also now safe. Some began to laugh, and soon, all of them were in tears. They all cried as the events of the past day and a half caught up to them.
After a few minutes, Gold stood up.
"C'mon guys. Let's find a way out." He smiled as he extended his hand. Crystal grabbed it and he helped her up. He helped the others too, and they began to follow him.
Blue glanced at Black's body and noticed something.
"Wait a minute guys!" They paused as Blue went up to the corpse. In his jacket pocket, where he was shot, was a diary. It was still intact and the bullet lay on top of it.
"He didn't even die from the bullet, he collapsed from the shock and force of it." Blue's eyes let a few tears escape. She grabbed the diary and chased after the others.
Gold said that he was just wandering, but he seemed to have a clear destination in mind.
They reached a room eventually that had a ton of computer monitors with feeds from cameras around the building. It was definitely the mastermind's room. Gold grabbed an axe that lay against the wall.
"This should do. Let's go to the entrance. We're free."
It finally sunk it. The mastermind was dead. They were free to go. Free to live on. They smiled, they laughed, and they cried, but they escaped.
Gold cut down the boards that trapped them there and they crawled out.
It was snowing, hard. They knew it was the middle of the day, but it looked like the middle of the night.
There stood Looker and a few other members of the international police.
He gasped in shock as they stepped out of the building.
"Are you alright!" He called out. He smiled at seeing them free, but frowned when he only saw the five.
"Are you the only survivors?" He asked, and Blue nodded.
"Damn, that's 16 dead!" He cursed.
"16?" Ruby asked.
"Ah! Um, well, Lack-two and Whi-two, you're other juniors from Unova have died. There bodies were found in a storage closet at PokeStar Studios. They've been dead for about a week." Looker was upset as he spoke.
"Well, I'll need your statements and such, but for now, let's get you guys rested. Come on. Let's go home."
They followed Looker. This incident changed their lives forever. There's no denying that. But they'll be alright. They survived this, and they'll continue to survive more.
Blue, Gold, Crystal, Ruby, and Platinum walked off with one last glance at the Old Chateau. Then, they move forward.
The end. Wow, I finished my first story, and it's an adaption of someone else's. But, that's okay. By the way, thank you Curious Calamity for giving me this opportunity and coming up with this wonderful idea! I had so much fun writing this, and I'm glad to be able to finish what you started with my own interpretation of it! Now, for some post-story bonuses: (I know that they're super long, but you should at least read the character descriptions)
How this story came to be
This story was originally written by Curious Calamity, who left it unfinished years ago. I just happened to stubble upon it late at night in September of 2020, and loved it. I was obviously disappointed that it wasn't finished as I was trying to figure out what was going on. So, on a whim, I pmed Curious Calamity asking her to use her 6 chapters to write out my ideas and finish the story. I kinda regretted it the next day after I got some sleep, but nevertheless, I continued to formulate my ideas. I knew that she seemed to not be very active on the site, so I didn't know if I'd ever get a response, but I started rewriting her first six chapters anyways. Around a month and a half later, she replied giving me permission and was very supportive about it. By then, it was early November and I think I was already working on chapter four. I decided I would try a schedule of a chapter every two weeks and published the first one on the first of December. After I finished chapter four, I moved onto chapter five, but also started chapter seven. This was for two reasons. One, I couldn't wait, and two, I wanted to make it flow as seamlessly as possible. I wanted to start putting some of my ideas into five and six so it could easily connect to seven. This, however, brought about a problem. I got bored of rewriting the earlier chapters and forgot about them as I had fun writing the newer chapters and got halfway done with chapter nine. By the time I remember I had to upload chapter five, I hadn't finished it yet. So I quickly finished five and six, but lost motivation to continue writing. I eventually regained that motivation, but lost it again at the beginning of chapter 10 due to the boring content. I regained the motivation like two months later, and never lost it again thankfully. Luckily, it didn't affect the uploads too much cause I was way ahead with what I had written, but past that point, I was no longer ahead. It was challenging at times, but I managed to finish this story. And in less than a year! Most of my writing knowledge comes from light novels and fan fiction, so sorry if it was too weird or anything, and I know the story is definitely dialogue driven rather than descriptive, but I think it turned out fine. Thank you for reading!
Why I chose White to be the mastermind
White being the mastermind was something I had decided while reading the original. I thought "who would be the most surprising reveal" while wondering who the original mastermind was. I didn't have a clue when I finished the original, and still don't, but I had figured out who I wanted it to be. The most surprising would be someone who was already "dead", but it couldn't be Silver, since he was the first to die. That left Sapphire or White. Reading over it again, I realized that White's death was kinda mysterious. The others got graphic depictions of their deaths, but White's was just on Diamond's account, and we never saw her die, nor her body. That was my main motivation and idea in making this adaptation. The way I wrapped it up and explained how everyone was murdered was sort of underwhelming, I know (pokemon, really?). But, this was a method that made sense staying true to the original and wrapping up the most loose ends and plot holes. There were a few things I wanted to touch back on but didn't for the purpose of keeping it shorter and less repetitive. Things like revisiting Silver's and Sapphire's deaths after finding out gengar was a large part in all of the killings. However, I'm glad it ended the way it did.
Sequel?
No. Not a chance. It ended without any chance or reason to expand upon it, don't you think? Especially since there will be five epilogue chapters. Yep, that's right, there will be five epilogue chapters that expand on each of the survivor's lives after the Pokédex holder incident. They will be of varying lengths and not in chronological order, as well as without any release schedule, but look forward to them lol. I promise, it'll make sense once they're all published. Other then that, I have plenty of ideas, but I feel like I should move on from this. I thought about maybe doing a short prequel about White, but probably not. Her short backstory in the beginning of this chapter was completely unplanned, but will probably serve as her only backstory or real explanation. Basically, she's mentally ill and overly obsessive about love due to her abusive upbringing. Also, more likely to happen but only possibly in the far, far future, I might want to do an alternate version in which I use Curious Calamity's idea as just a prompt and go completely original from the beginning, shuffling all the characters around. Now that I wrote it out, it actually sounds really fun, but if I do it, it won't be for a long, long time because I'd want to improve my writing skills and get way more practice first.
What I wanted to express through each character
Red: I honestly wasn't very sure where I wanted to go with Red. Really, I just portrayed him as this confident character, but only sometimes.
Green: There's a lot I did with Green. First of all, he was pretty uncooperative at the start, before he learned that helping others was also helping himself. He also had a bit of a superiority complex, always trying to take control of everyone else. Around chapter 10, I made him super paranoid, especially towards Platinum, but it was around then I decided it would be best to cut down on the length of the story, and I no longer had much time to drawn out this storyline, so I condensed most of it to chapter 11, where he learned that he had to rely on Red and his friends more and just not be paranoid. Also he definitely had a crush on Red.
Blue: Blue is another character I did a lot with. She was very mature at the beginning, but so many things happened to her that she started joking in order to deal with the pain; hence, the gossip gang. I explored this in one of the chapters, I forget which, but they became friends to help each other with the pain they were experiencing. It was really important that they were laughing to cover up the pain because they would have broken down if they didn't. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide if she liked Red, Green, or nobody.
Yellow: Yellow was kind of just there. She tried to help, but she only really caused problems. She was doing her best for everyone though.
Gold: Gold was brave but also reckless and a show off. This caused a lot of problems but also saved the group a bunch. He really shined in the beginning, and you'll see why he changed in his epilogue chapter.
Silver: Silver died before he really even did anything.
Crystal: She'll be explained more in her epilogue chapter too, but she was our introduction to this story. She was the leader at the start, but her subconscious dependance on Gold caused her to crack under pressure and go crazy when he went missing. I actually forgot to write it in the story, but the reason why she went back to normal so quickly was that Gold found her on his way back to the group and helped her. Having Gold back made her regain her sanity and suppress the memories of when he was gone. By the time she returns to normal, she had lost her chance at leading.
Ruby: Ruby was the opposite of Blue. He was laughing too much in the beginning, but matured later on. His character development ended pretty quickly, so there's not much to say.
Sapphire: She cared way too much about her friends, and tried her absolute best to help them, but the supernatural situation bested her natural outlook on life.
Emerald: Honestly, I kinda hate Emerald for no reason. I haven't even read the Emerald chapter so I don't even know who he really is, but for some reason, I really hate him. I didn't know what to do with him so I just killed him off.
Diamond: He got overly emotional earlier on, and felt bad about it later. Like Yellow, he tried his best, but couldn't do much and ended up causing problems.
Pearl: He was way too overprotective of Platinum, but he realized that he was only hindering her, not helping her. She was fine on her own. His development was well explained in the story.
Platinum: Oh boy, here we go. Platinum was a strong character from the start. Her constant narrow escape from death was meant to be comedic at first, but got boring fast. It ended up being important later down the line. That's why White hated her so much; she got close to Black and wouldn't die. Her tough exterior is kind of a façade though, as she does have a soft side. I always intended for her to step out of the spotlight after chapter 10, but there wasn't really anyone else to fill the role so she kinda just stayed in the same position.
Black: He really cared for White, which caused problems for everyone else. He acted dumb, but is actually pretty smart. He was meant to die from the start cause of the whole White thing, but I considered making him a survivor multiple times. Obviously though, I decided against it.
White: She was already explained well enough.
X: X was a scaredy-cat who couldn't catch a break.
Y: She was pretty brave, but she didn't like letting her negative emotions show. She avoided causing trouble or making people worry about her as much as possible.
Sun: He was scared of everything and the least good morale person there, which ended up making him the target of the whole trick.
Moon: She was confident at certain times but let her fear get the better of her often. She wasn't the smartest which troubled her at times and her main motivation for joining the gossip gang. She wanted to appear more intelligent and help the group out without appearing like she couldn't keep up.
Why I chose to have multiple survivors
So, in the original, it hinted at the fact that there would only be the mastermind and the one survivor at the end. It also hinted at the fact that the mastermind was a team, but I ignored that too. I added more characters to create more variable; more deaths, more mysteries, and more possibilities for the mastermind. But when looking at who I wanted to survive, I couldn't narrow it down to one. From that, I decided that it might be better to make multiple people survive since they can depend on each other help each other move past this incident. All I'll say for now is that just because they survived White, that doesn't mean they'll never die. Also, there was a major minor continuity error with the body count in the beginning. Some of you might have noticed that I have gone back and changed it several times. This is because I knew that there would be five survivors from the start, but I was thinking six for some reason while doing the math and put 13 bodies. Then, later, I realized that it should be 14, so I corrected it. Recently, however, I realized that the body count included White, but it shouldn't have, so I changed it to 13 again. While writing this final chapter, I connected back to that part, but I did it before Y had died, so the body count should have been 12. I should go fix that.
Plot holes
I think that I wrapped up most of the plot holes. That's the major reason why I read through the story and all of my notes again before writing the last two chapters. I know there were a few things I only glossed over or left behind like the whole xatu thing, but that's because they weren't really important overall. I think I wrapped up all the major plot holes, but if not, feel free to let me know. Also, the whole thing about the person the mastermind tortured was purposely written the way it was. It's pretty simple, so you could easily figure out who it is by process of elimination and it would explain a lot, but I m going to connect back to it in the epilogue chapters. So, no, it's not a plot hole.
Once again,
Thank you for reading and supporting this story. It means so much to me when you read through the whole story and all of my authors notes. Even if you didn't, it means a lot that you supported this story. I'm sad but also happy that it's over, and once again, thank you for reading!