I spend a few moments in the hallway connecting to the warehouse just standing in place, thinking. Try as I might, I cannot come up with any explanation for Alice's behavior back there. She seemed downright terrified, but not even of the Radical-6... so, of what? The Soporil? I mean yeah, it's the stuff in our bracelets, but it's the Tubocurarine that actually kills us. The Soporil is honestly a mercy if you think about it...
Shaking my head, I decide to try and not let it bother me for now. Hopefully by the time I get back Alice will have recovered from... whatever that was, and we can figure out some alternative solution. There's nothing I can do about it until then.
As I enter the warehouse, I'm surprised to see Phi leaning up against one of the AB rooms, seemingly waiting for me. The others are nowhere to be seen, presumably having already entered rooms of their own.
"I see you managed to convince Alice to stay behind." Phi says.
I nod absently, and begin walking towards one of the rooms on right. Before I can even get close to it however, my arm is suddenly grabbed from behind. I spin around to find Phi latched on to it, staring at me with a rather intense expression.
"When this round finishes, we're going to have a talk, and you're going to explain everything you know about our situation. Understood?"
I blink at her in confusion. "What?"
"I've been suspicious for a while, but you know more than you're letting on, don't you?" Phi accuses, her tone brooking no argument. "That scene back there pretty much proved it."
"Wha- because I was trying so hard to convince Alice that she's sick, when she was utterly refusing to believe it?" I ask, stunned. "How does that prove anything?"
"It's not that." Phi says calmly. "Or at least, not just that. What I mean is that until Quark went off the deep end, none of the rest of us had any idea that the virus would cause him to try to kill himself. I mean, who's ever heard of a suicide plague? But when he woke up, you immediately tossed the only bladed object in the room down the sink. Sigma and the others might have passed it off as you just reacting quickly, but I saw you. You started moving before Quark did. Meaning, you knew exactly what he was going to attempt."
…alright, that's admittedly more damning than what I thought she was talking about.
"I'm not saying I don't appreciate you stopping Quark from grabbing that scalpel," Phi continues when I don't reply, "but if you know about Radical-6, I'm guessing you probably know a little more than that too. You'd better have a good reason for not informing the rest of us, or it's going to be a really unpleasant talk."
With that, Phi releases my arm, scans her moon card at the AB room she was leaning on, and walks inside. The entrance closes behind her mere moments later.
After taking a moment to process what just happened, I tilt my head back and sigh. It's not that I'm the only one who already knows about Radical-6, it's just that I'm apparently the worst actor — er, actress — of the group. Honestly though, whatever. It's not like Phi really has anything to back up the implicit threat she just made, so of all the things I'm worried about right now, she is not one of them. Don't have a clue what I'm going to tell her though...
As I fish the moon card I got from the B. Garden out of my pocket, a stray thought suddenly occurs to me. Moving over to the rightmost room, I peer around its side and quickly spot a small white rag with disconcerting red patches on it sitting right out in the open on the floor. I pick it up and nervously scan my card in the card reader of the adjacent room, ducking inside as soon as I can.
As I press the start button on the touch screen and the doors close behind me, I unfurl the handkerchief, revealing the still bloody knife that Dio used to kill Akane. I immediately rewrap it, having confirmed all that I needed to. Good, now Dio won't be able to use this... well, as long as I keep it well hidden, anyways. I don't know if it's even a concern right now, given that he's yet to actually kill anyone directly thus far, but I'd definitely rather be safe than sorry. This is the one method by which I might die that I can actually control, so I'm not just going to ignore it. In fact, I might want to keep this on me for self-defense purposes... although...
I look down and lament, not for the first time, Clover's minimalistic clothing choices. Yeah, unless I want to flat out advertise to everyone else that I'm carrying a knife I obviously didn't have before, I don't think that's happening. I'll just hide it in here; that way even if Dio does go looking for it, it'll be inaccessible once the doors shut us out until we finish the next round of escape rooms.
Looking around for a good spot, my eye lands on the empty fire extinguisher box at the back right of the room. Opening it, I place the bloody knife and handkerchief inside before closing it back up. It should be pretty well hidden there. With the puzzles necessary to escape the room already complete, I doubt anyone is going to think to open that up again.
"Thirty seconds remain until Ambidex Game polling closes."
Standing up, I hit the ally option on the screen without really thinking about it. Even if I wasn't the only member of my group playing this round, I have next to no investment in this. Knowing that it's impossible to truly leave this place really takes away from the tension of the choice. Not great, given that I actually need to be stressed in order to SHIFT- wait, did I seriously- gah, I forgot to keep trying to do that, again! The whole Alice situation has been way, way too distracting…
I spend the countdown of the last ten seconds making another attempt at ejecting my consciousness into another timeline, which once again turns up no real results. As the end of the round is announced and the doors reopen, I decide to give it up until everyone's in one place again, no matter how that hasn't seemed to help me very much thus far. That decided, I walk back outside, antsy to get back to the infirmary.
"You son of a bitch…"
Surprised, I look over to my right. Sigma is staggering out of his AB room after a smirking Dio, one hand cradling his nose and mouth. I'm not the only one to notice, as the others, still exiting their own AB rooms, are also staring at the pair right now.
"Did something happen?" K asks.
"Yes something happened!" Sigma yells, furiously pointing at Dio with his spare hand. "He punched me in the face so he could pick what he wanted is what happened!"
Everyone turns towards the smirking faux-ringmaster, who looks far too pleased with himself.
"What? Yeah, he didn't agree with my choice, so I laid him out."
…well, looks like I have my answer as to how the AB room decision between those two would go...
"Despicable." Phi says with an air of disgust, crossing her arms and looking away.
Luna rushes over to check on Sigma's wound, a large bruise already visibly forming on his skin, while I just narrow my eyes in Dio's general direction. K, surprisingly, says nothing.
"Results from round two of the Ambidex Game will now be displayed." Akane's voice informs us over the speakers. "Please direct your attention to the results screen."
As one, we turn to see the results...
Luna+Quark: ALLY
Phi: ALLY
Tenmyouji+Alice: ALLY
Clover: ALLY
Sigma+Dio: BETRAY
K: BETRAY
"Points have been assigned or subtracted accordingly. Please check your bracelet to see your updated Bracelet Points."
I don't even bother looking this time, since there's hardly any point.
"Well well, would you look at that?" Dio smugly announces. "Looks like I was right to pick betray, huh Sigma? Knew we couldn't trust a robot."
"Screw you…" Sigma replies through gritted teeth.
"Oy, you should be kissing my ass right now! I just saved you from losing points." Dio says, crossing his arms and raising a finger in annoyance.
"Actually," K interrupts, "I primarily made the choice I did because I assumed something of this nature might occur. You were not particularly subtle about your thoughts concerning my trustworthiness, after all."
"Oh please! You just wanted to get enough points to escape and leave everyone stuck here. Don't bother denying it, bastard!"
"I could accuse you of the very same thing." K replies calmly. "Either way, it does not justify physically attacking your partner."
"Yeah, seriously!" Sigma adds.
"That so?" Dio says, sneering derisively. "Well, sorry if I didn't feel like leaving my fate in the hands of the guy who's deluded enough to claim he can speak cat."
"I told you, I'm not-"
"Crazy? Cracked in the head? A few yarn balls short of a basket?"
"Dio, I swear, I will punch you right back if you don't-"
"What, stop?" Dio taunts. "Nah, pretty sure I'm safe. I'd bet you're probably as weak as a kitten anyways, and too much of a scaredy-cat to try taking a swing. Too much of a pussy, one might even say-"
"Alright, THAT'S IT!" Sigma roars. "I've had just about enough of mew! You are the WORST purrtner that anyone could pawsibly-"
As his brain catches up with what his mouth just said, Sigma cuts himself off and flushes while Dio almost doubles over, howling with laughter. Jeez, give the guy a break you jackass, it's not that funny…
"…heh." Dio grins, his laughter tapering off. "You know, hearing a guy your age talk like that is actually kinda creepy. Old farts should not be using speech I'd expect more from a toddler or a teenage girl."
"Hey! I'm no older than you!" Sigma protests.
Dio full on cackles at that. "Your dementia must finally be setting in, because I reallllly doubt that."
Wait, they aren't supposed to be referencing his age that explicitly-
"So do I, actually." Phi interjects. "What are you talking about Sigma? There's no way you're as young as he is."
"Of course there is!" Sigma exclaims defensively. "He can't possibly be that much younger than me! I'm only 22 years old!"
A moment of flat silence passes through the group.
That… definitely wasn't supposed to happen…
"You're… you're not." Phi slowly replies, sounding rather off-balance from Sigma's claim. "There's no way. You look like the oldest person here, period."
"Wha- no I don't! What?!"
Sigma looks around wildly, obviously desperate for someone to refute the two of them, but finds only faces of doubt and disbelief in varying degrees.
"Sigma, are you okay…?" Luna asks.
"Mirror. I need a mirror…"
"Heh, looks like the old timer's finally lost it." Dio casually remarks as Sigma's voice turns ragged and begins trailing off into a series of incoherent mumbles. "Bets on what's wrong with him?"
"It isn't Radical-6 again, is it?" Phi asks worriedly.
"I don't think so..." Luna says, a concerned expression crossing her face as she watches Sigma sway almost drunkenly on his feet. "At least, this doesn't fit with the known effects of the virus so far."
"I would tend to agree." K adds. "Sigma simply seems... confused, at the moment. Regardless, I suggest that we move him to the infirmary to ensure he does not accidentally hurt himself."
Luna nods in agreement, while Sigma's gaze swivels to K, his normal eye widening. Rapidly stumbling forward, he all but throws himself at the armored man, staring into the yellowish metal that covers him with a near manic intensity. Unfortunately for him, it isn't anywhere near well-polished enough to reflect more than vague blurs.
"Sigma, you are unwell." K says gently, preparing to restrain him. "Forgive me, but I must-"
Sigma twists, his eyes alighting on the bracelet on K's left arm. Tearing away before K can grab him, he wrenches his arm up to his face, twisting the bracelet on it back and forth to try and make it catch the light. Realizing what he's doing, I look down at my own bracelet, bringing it close to my face and tilting it to try and get the right angle. After a few seconds, I manage to make out a dim image of Clover's face staring back at me from within the dark, polished looking surface.
So these are reflective enough for that. Which means that any second now, Sigma is likely going to-
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sigma screams.
…see himself…
"Sigma!" Luna and Phi simultaneously cry out.
One of Sigma's hands frantically reaches up to his face, fingers curling around the bionic eye he didn't know he had and tugging on it as if he's trying to tear it out by force. Then suddenly his normal eye rolls upwards in his head, and he crumples to the floor, unconscious.
…well. That happened.
"Man, people are just passing out all over the place today, huh?" Dio comments.
Phi shoots him another nasty look before running over to Sigma's fallen form, followed by Luna and K. I run over myself a few seconds later, my mind awhirl.
Given what went down between Tenmyouji and Alice earlier with the whole All-Ice thing, perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised about something going completely off the rails, but... that was one of the biggest reveals of the game just now. Sigma wasn't supposed to know about his age until after literally everything else is already resolved. Should I have tried to prevent this, somehow? I barely realized what was going to happen before it did, but maybe if I'd said something early on... well, too late now. I suppose if I ever manage to get out of this timeline, I'm going to have to hope the others aren't completely different as a result of what just happened here. Lovely.
Once again I find myself helping haul an unconscious body off the floor, the four of us lifting Sigma up in tandem and slowly carrying him towards the infirmary. Meanwhile, Dio walks off in the opposite direction, apparently to inspect the number 9 door. Ass...
Luckily, the infirmary isn't far away, so we don't have to carry Sigma long. About half a minute later, the four of us shuffle into the room... and are greeted with the sight of Tenmyouji kneeling on the floor, holding his stomach. Oh, for the love of- what now?!
"Tenmyouji?" Phi says, sounding shocked. "What happened?!"
"Alice..." Tenmyouji moans in a strained voice, as if it pains him to talk.
...Alice?
I frantically look around the room. She's not here-!
Letting go of Sigma, leaving the others to set him down on the examination bed, I run to Tenmyouji's side.
"Where's Alice?!" I almost shriek.
"She's gone..." Tenmyouji wheezes. "It was just like Quark... she just suddenly stood up… started saying we were all going to die... wouldn't listen to me..."
"What about the injection gun?!"
"Tried that..." Tenmyouji feebly gestures to the right side of the room, where I notice the tool lying discarded on the ground. "...she smacked it out of my hands... kicked me... took me down almost instantly..."
"How long ago?!"
"Can't have been more than half a minute…"
Without another word, I leap to my feet and burst out of the room, heading for the next floor down. Alice goes to the B. Garden in the game when this happens, right?! If I don't get there in time-!
The short elevator ride feels like an eternity, my mind spending the entirety of the wait fretting over every little thing I could have done differently. Ten minutes, we weren't even gone for ten minutes! Damn it, I should've known the Radical-6 would hit Alice in full at the worst possible time; how else does it ever work in this sort of scenario?! She shouldn't have the scalpel at least, but that doesn't really guarantee anything; please, let me make it!
The second the elevator lets me out, I scramble back to the B. Garden as quickly as I can (falling once along the way because of my stupid heels) and duck under the door before it's even fully raised. Inside, I find…
Nothing.
My head turns rapidly from side to side. The room is empty, just like we left it, and despite its size there isn't anywhere to really hide. She's not here?! Then where...?!
Barely thinking, I rush back to the Floor B nexus. As I arrive, the elevator doors open again, revealing Phi, K, and Dio.
"Have you found her?" K asks, his tone grim.
"No, I haven't!" I yell, already shoving myself through the green door. "Check the pantry and the warehouse!"
Leaving the others behind in record time, I sprint down the hall towards the archives. If I can't rely on knowledge from the game, I'm just going to have to check everywhere Alice could have possibly gone!
I eventually find myself at another three door nexus, panting heavily and aching from a second shoe-induced fall, fairly certain that I pulled a muscle in the process this time. Tugging on the lever at the center to open up the door on the left, I stagger at an only slightly less frantic pace down the revealed hallway, my lungs still burning from lack of air. Thankfully, my destination isn't far now, and a few seconds later the door of the archives automatically slides up in response to my presence. I stumble inside... and stop dead.
The room I've just entered is fairly tall, its walls lined with bookshelves over twice the size of the door. At the center left is a large desk with a mechanical scale and a small ink bottle sitting on it, the latter knocked on its side and dripping its contents all over the soft blue carpet below. The shelves directly above the desk appear to have had the books they housed pulled out and haphazardly thrown around the room, as if someone grabbed and tossed them out of the way in order to use the shelves as handholds. Presumably, they were trying to reach the ledge at the top.
That someone is lying in the center of the floor, her neck snapped backwards at a truly sickening angle.
A lump wells up in my throat as I stare at Alice's body. Turning away, I leave the room and lurch down the hall at a much slower pace than I arrived. The door at the other end slides up before I get there, spitting out Phi. She opens her mouth to speak-
"Alice is dead in the archives." I tell her, monotone.
Having headed her off before she could say anything, I brush past the girl without another word, heading back to the nexus. I… I need to be alone right now…
When I step out of the elevator back on Floor A, I find Luna and Tenmyouji standing there waiting, the latter supporting himself via a hand on the former's shoulder.
"Oh, Clover." Luna says. "We were just about to head down to help."
"Did you find Alice?" Tenmyouji asks.
"Yes." I whisper as I walk around the pair, never once meeting their gaze.
I end up going to one of the rooms in the crew quarters, the one place I can think of that I'm likely to have any privacy. As soon as I've closed the door behind me, I curl up in the back corner and immediately break down. Heavy tears stream down my face, my body trembling as I weep without restraint.
Why did she- why did she have to-! It's not fair! Why couldn't I- I should have… should have insisted she let us use the Soporil on her, no matter how much she didn't want to be, why didn't I just insist?! I knew this would happen, and yet I…! I...
I let her die…
I don't know how long I sit there, but my tears eventually slow. I don't feel any better however, and a small part of my mind begins to wonder if something is wrong with me, as I honestly don't understand why this is affecting me so badly. Why do I care so much about this? Why do I care at all?! Alice isn't important in the ultimate scheme of things! She dies in almost every timeline, has no truly critical role to play besides helping Sigma get one of the bomb codes out of Dio, and until literally hours ago, I only knew her as a fictional character, and not even one I was particularly attached to! So why… why am I…
A fresh wave of sobs overtakes me, and I bury my face in my knees. Is… is it because I'm Clover? Are her own feelings for Alice somehow carrying over to me? It's got to be something like that; I've basically been fixated on her ever since she collapsed in the garden, and while Alice may have held me and let me cry on her shoulder for a bit, surely I can't naturally be this upset about her death when I barely even knew her. There's got to be some physical component in play here; there has to be… right...?
The sound of the door opening startles me from my thoughts. I look up to see who it is... only to see Dio standing in the doorway, blocking my access to the hall.
"What are you doing here…?" I murmur, instantly on guard as I hurriedly stand and wipe the tears from my eyes.
Dio smiles, one hand in his coat pocket and the other on the brim of his hat. "Calm down there Clover, I just came to find you. Phi and Luna were worried you might be about to do something stupid, so I offered to go look for you."
Dio, volunteering for anything that doesn't ultimately benefit him? Yeah, right. This is bad; why would he be here, if not to… no. Surely, without the knife, he wouldn't try...
"Why are you actually here?" I ask.
"Uh, didn't I just tell you?"
"Yeah. I just don't believe you." I clarify, glaring at him with as much ire as I can muster. "What's in your hand?"
Dio frowns, but pulls his other hand out of his coat, holding up his empty palms in a placating manner. "Nothing. Hey, I know you're upset about Alice and all, but that doesn't have anything to do with me. No reason to be so suspicious, I'm just here to help."
I bare my teeth as he walks into the room. My back is already against the wall; I don't have anywhere to go…
"Back off, Dio." I growl, though it hardly comes off as intimidating with my voice still all tremulous from crying.
"Look… I can empathize." Dio says, ignoring me. "I… I've lost someone close to me too. I won't say it gets better, but what I can say, is that-"
"Go AWAY!" I shout, cutting him off. "In case you didn't realize, it's a little too late for you to try playing the nice guy!"
He halts, apparently considering that, then shrugs.
"Alright, fair point."
Balling his hand into a fist, Dio lunges, aiming to punch me in the ribs. Having already expected an attack, I manage to dodge to the side, and Dio's fist impacts the wall, causing him to recoil in pain. I clamber over the metal bed, trying to get to the door, but before I can get there an arm lashes out from behind me and grabs me around the waist, sending me crashing to the floor. Dio's weight comes down on top of me and smashes my chest into the ground, eliciting a heavy gasp of pain from me and giving my attacker the chance to tighten his grip. Shit!
I thrash wildly as Dio tries to pin me to the floor. Unable to turn around, but knowing our rough positions, I bring my head up as quickly as possible to smash into his face. I feel the back of my skull hit teeth, and a satisfyingly pained cry rings out from right above me, but the arm around my waist doesn't loosen enough for me to escape it. I do manage to get my own arm free however, which I blindly reach backwards with in hopes of perhaps shoving one of Clover's nails through an eye-
Dio manages to get his other arm around me, and I feel something sharp settle across my throat. I freeze, and Dio laughs.
"You fucking bitch... gotta give you credit, I didn't expect you to put up that much of a fight."
I'm dead. He's going to kill me; I have to SHIFT now.
"Where the hell did you get a knife from?!" I scream, legitimately unclear as to how the situation I'm in right now is even possible. I already took care of the only two blades in the facility!
"Funny story, that." Dio drawls. "I had a better one, but it seems to have gone missing. Luckily, while everyone was running around looking for your dead friend, I just happened to find this one lying on the floor in a room set up to look like some sorta giant garden."
…the paring knife. God DAMN IT-!
"Hey, that was the one you went through, right?" Dio says, his voice practically radiating smugness. "Thanks for leaving this out for me to find. Really, I appreciate it."
"Why are you doing this?! Because I didn't want to pair up with you?!" I ask, desperately trying to stall for time. Come on asshole, you never know when to shut up in the game…!
Dio laughs again, not bothering to try and make it sound non-maniacal. "Nah, that's just a bonus. I was gonna do this from the start. Don't feel too bad though; by the end of this game, I plan on being the only one to walk out of here alive."
SHIFT! SHIFT already! How is this not enough fucking crisis to activate it?!
"There's no way you won't get caught." I spit. "The others aren't that stupid."
"Eh, maybe." Dio admits. "But they're down three people already, and everyone who isn't out like a light right now is busy dealing with the body downstairs. Without any witnesses, I'd bet I can blame this on Zero easily enough. Or, maybe I'll make it look like a suicide! The poor teenage girl, hysterical over the loss of her only friend, decides to join her in death. Kinda poetic, huh? I'd buy it. Besides, even if the others do see through me, I've always got my trump card…"
Why isn't this working?! Shit, there's got to be something else I can use to keep Dio talking! Something, anything-!
"Why even bring bombs in here if you're just planning on killing everyone yourself?!" I try.
I feel Dio tense in surprise, but he seems to get over it much faster than I would have expected, his voice dropping into a snarling hiss. "I don't know how you know about that you little bitch, but it's not gonna matter in a few seconds, so I think I'll just leave you to wonder about it in the afterlife. So long."
Wait-!
Dio's hand moves to the left. A burning pain envelops my throat, and I choke, feeling as if something just went down the wrong pipe. A spray of blood exits my mouth, coating the ground beneath me with flecks of red.
No...
The arm uncurls from around my stomach as Dio stands back up, setting the paring knife on the floor next to me. I try to push myself up as well, but the world suddenly starts spinning around me, and I collapse back to the floor before I'm more than a few inches off of it. I manage to shakily bring a hand up to my neck, finding it covered in a warm, sticky liquid that seeps between my fingers like water from a broken faucet.
I can't... breathe...
Dio steps over top of me, deftly avoiding the rapidly pooling puddle of blood as he strolls out of the room. I desperately want to curse him, to spit in his face at the very least, but I can barely even lever my head off the ground. My killer looks down at me for a final time, grinning, and slowly closes the door, the slam of the metal a death knell in my ears.
I gasp again, every attempted breath more agonizing than the last as I slowly drown in my own blood. More tears slip down my face as my thoughts begin to slow, feeling as if they're being dredged up from the bottom of the ocean.
…I failed... I couldn't do anything...
Darkness begins encroaching on my vision, threatening to blind me.
...why... why did this... happen...?
My body feels numb.
...too much wishing to be in... any world other than my own... I guess... careful what you wish for... and all that...
Unable to keep it raised any longer, my head slumps to the floor. A single strand of curled pink hair falls down in front of eyes that I can't seem to keep open.
...don't even get to die... as myself... in the end...
...heh... what a joke…
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I am floating. Bodilessly drifting through a void of nothingness. Everything feels far away.
A glowing line gradually comes into view. Small, pulsing nodes are spaced unevenly across its length, seeming to crook the line where they lie. I look down upon it with my nonexistent eyes, regarding it with all the uncaring incomprehension of a soul trapped within an endless dream.
As I drift closer, an unseen force seems to pull at me, steadily drawing me down towards the line. I can't summon enough conscious thought to care, and so just let it happen, feeling nothing but a vast, overpowering sense of detachment. Soon, I find myself slowly gliding towards one of the strange nodes, which thrums like a beating heart in the distance.
The closer I get to the node, the stronger the pull seems to become. Unable and unwilling to resist, I continue to accelerate until I'm hurtling downwards towards the node like a meteor in freefall. Before I even know it, its light engulfs and swallows me completely.
There's a sudden falling sensation, and then...
"You do want to come with us, right Clover?"
...what?
I blink reflexively, my mind still playing catch up. I- I'm-?
"Clover?"
My eyes dart over to the speaker. Alice. Alive. Not dead.
Not... dead?
My hand snaps up to my throat. It's whole. Intact. Clean. But… it wasn't. Just a second ago, it was...
"Clover...?"
I slowly look around the small room, finally starting to process what's going on. I'm... back at the doors. Everyone's here... Sigma, Quark, Luna-
Dio.
I scramble backwards, my back slamming into the wall behind me. My heart flips into overdrive, pupils dilating as my breaths start coming short and fast, too fast, no, I can't breathe again, no, NO-
"Clover?! What's wrong?!"
"She's started hyperventilating!"
"Some sort of panic attack?!"
"The hell are you looking at me for?"
"We don't have time to deal with this! We need to make a choice now!"
"Fine! Luna, take her!"
"Wh-what? Why-"
"You have medical training, right?! Help Clover!"
I feel somebody pick me up and thrust me into someone else's arms.
"Everyone, get to the doors!"
My vision blurs, and I sink back into darkness.
AN: So many fics to update, and I choose the one that's probably the least read of them all! Truly I am a master of prioritization. :D
In all seriousness, I was actually planning on updating Stand-in and TTTCT first before getting back to this, but it was pointed out to me that November 2018 is a rather significant point in the Zero Escape timeline, being the month and year that the first Nonary Game took place. Since I'm not going to get that sort of chance again for a very long time, I rushed to get this out instead. Honestly, I think the feeling of having a deadline kind of helped; I've written more for this in the past couple weeks than I have in the previous two months.
On the subject of Stand-in, the similarities between this fic and that one just keep piling up, huh? There's even a Void, and a horrible freakout to go with it! Admittedly I don't know if my real response to the situation at the end of the chapter would be to hyperventilate myself into unconsciousness, but then again, I've never had my throat slit before (at least so far as I can recall). Maybe I'm underestimating myself, but I'd rather not pretend I have any idea how I'd truly react to that.
I was honestly very tempted to have Dio use even filthier language here, because he absolutely would, but I figured that was probably a step too far for this fic's rating, as well as further than I was personally comfortable taking things. His last line before the throat slit sounds a little awkward as a result, but I'm sure you can imagine what would have gone there instead. I also feel a little bad about repeating so much dialogue from the game almost verbatim, but given that the game itself does that, it wasn't really something I could entirely avoid. Hopefully the more novel parts made up for it.