**Disclaimer: I do not own Zankyou no Terror or any of the characters in the anime. The title of the story is a lyric from the song "Von" by Yoko Kanno.**
Í Eilífri Hring (In an Eternal Circle)
Chapter IV: Reddish Glow
Twelve skidded to a halt when he reached the 5 doors at the end of the hall. There was no doubt that only one of these doors, would lead to Lisa and the other four would most likely be a bomb. What could five mean? This is clearly a play on her name. Twelve racked his brain, trying to think of which was the right door to enter. There was no time for blunders, as Lisa's life was on the line. Could it be the first door, closest to me? No, that would be too easy for me to choose. He knew that this was just another game to Five. She did not like to hand over her prey easily. Wait, a game? Is this perhaps another chess game? Twelve knew that chess moves had to do with their past. A means of communicating in plain sight, their secret plan to escape the facility when they were in public. The doctors only allowed us to play chess in our "play time," the only times we had to recover before the next phase of experiments. Whatever drug they had injected Five with seemed to be a twisted success for them as she developed some type of skin mutation. As a result, Five was always wanted for fire experiments because her skin had not melted off like the rest of the children, but instead only began to lose its pigmentation where the fire burned her. However, she still could feel the excruciating pain as if she really was burning alive.
This must be a game. Twelve thought. So let's play. He visualized the room as a monochrome chest board. Let's see... there are only 8 places on the board, from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, Queen, King, bishop, knight, and rook. In other words row 1 from A-H. Then the 8 pawns in front row 2 from A- H. Knowing Five, Twelve knew that she didn't care about the pawns. The five doors represent: rook, knight, bishop, Queen and King. Now, the only thing I don't know is if I'm playing white and move first or black and move second. First things first, move your pawns toward the center of the board in order to free your space for the stronger pieces. The easiest path would be to move the King's pawn two paces ahead to E4 and then the Queen's pawn right beside him to D4. Row 4 must represent the fourth door. This move would allow me to move my bishops to speed up the match and even create a line of defense. However, my next move depends on if I am playing as white or black. Am I taking control by attacking first? Or am I defending and then waiting for an opening? I don't know. All I know is that I should never move the same piece twice unless it is about to be killed. Is it the fourth door? Lisa is most likely about to be killed anyway. No! I shouldn't rush into opening a door so easily!
I'm going to have to think 4 or 5 moves in advance of whatever Five is thinking to attack with. Is she doing a "Ruy Lopez" and attacking with her King's bishop until she is only one space in front my King's pawn? No, she wouldn't do that, she knows I would have already moved my King's and Queens's pawns to the center and her pawns would die if she were to close in on me. Then perhaps an "English Opening?" No, that would be too much of a slow kill for her. She gets bored easily. Then a "King's Gambit?" It's a more exciting opening, much more suited to Five's taste. If I'm playing as black that would mean I would have to attack early in response to her King's pawns leaving her wide open, but then I would encounter a wall of her pawns. And die a slow, but steady death. That does seem like her. However, if the roles were reversed and I played first as white, I don't see her attacking me at such a tenacious pace. She lacks the motive. Wait, that's it! Five never has a motive behind her senseless, violent behavior! She doesn't care to outwit me or to win in a power struggle. She likes to make others suffer in the most agonizing of ways for absolutely no reason.
"What's this?" Five remarked in disinterest from where she was reclining in her chair. "Not dead yet, Seven?" Twelve looked up from his losing chess game against Nine to observe a staggering Seven entering the "play room." There were various bruises in the shape of hand prints covering her arms and thighs. Her red hair a mass of tangles, her freckled skin fresh with various cuts and scrapes. Seven smiled wryly. "That would be doing a disservice to you now wouldn't it, Five? You know they prefer you more than me." Five started to get up, irritation in her voice.
"What did you say?"
"Just that you're easy prey is all."
"Don't say such lies to me."
"You're disgusting. You just let them have their vile way with you." The redhead scoffed. "It's easy to see you never put up a fight. There are no marks on your precious porcelain skin that they love so much." A bright green film started to materialize around Five's form. Twelve blinked his eyes and then rubbed them a few times, thinking perhaps he was imagining it. The green film seemed to darken into a black shade of green. It expanded to engulf and mold against Five, even following her as she began to stalk toward Seven who began to take on a reddish glow. "I heard you last night, you know." Seven continued, too wrapped up in herself, unaware of Five closing in. She loved the sound of her own voice, especially when there was an audience, too. "We just want to see your skin. Is it white there too and whatnot? Who knew you were such a vile-" Her story turns into strangling noises when Five has her by the throat. One of the children called out to the nurse in the hallway and she dismissed him with a wave of her hand.
"Just let her relieve her stress."
"Nine, should we stop her-" Twelve began. Seven had collapsed, feeble and no longer struggled against Five. She was starting to foam at the mouth, snot and tears running down her face before her eyes rolled back. Five would loosen her grip every time Seven was about to pass out, let her get one or two breaths in before choking her once again.
"Checkmate." Nine says after Seven expired.
I see, then she must be thinking of the "Queen's Gambit." It is just like her to take matters into her own hands and control the situation. Just as she did with Seven... She must be playing as white, so she can make her move first . The Queen's pawn on her side is D2, she will move two spaces ahead to D4. Therefore I move my King's pawn two spaces ahead to block her at D5. She will block me by moving her bishop to C4, so she can take control of the game with the most powerful piece the Queen and the second strongest, the bishop. I would have to move my King's pawn to E6, but there is no 6th door. What is she playing at? Twelve walks toward the end where the fifth door is. Maybe, there is one... He discovers a false wall after knocking and the wall is hollow. He pushes against the wall and the false wall gives revealing a dark hallway. Checkmate, Five. Twelve thought, running down the hall.