A/N: I hope this will fill in some questions everyone must be having about this...

The smell from the silicon was one of stale sweat, urine and excrement. The plastic was stained brown around the head-mold with old blood - too long there to be scrubbed off- and was stained dark yellow, brown and deep red around the hip-mold where various previous Players' bodies had been unable to keep control of themselves in their dying hours, moments, seconds... The original colour of the silicon had been pastel green when it was new. It had a sterile look about it then that simply did not exist anymore. The people who worked in this place were as horrified as the people who Played in this place. It was a bizarre cross between medical cleanliness and torture chamber-esk gore. It hardly attracted visitors.

The room itself was circular, with dozens of little screens – currently grey and blank – dotted around the walls, interspersed by dials and buttons and little flashing lights and the constant drone of pulse monitors. In the centre of the room sat 8 coffin-like things, open and filled with the silicon, man-shaped mold. The coffins were hooked up to numerous wires and lines, some of which were clear plastic IV lines and some of which looked like computer cables. At the foot of each coffin sat a small glass container – only 500ml or so – of a black liquid. The IV lines were attached to these. The computer cables were attached to the computers around the room.

Seifer looked about the room as he stood with the other 7 Players in the door way. He was beginning to feel a little groggy now. In the previous room they had all been given a small plastic cup of the same black liquid that sat in the glass containers. The other players all took it without much of a problem. They grimaced and shook their heads at the metallic taste it left on the tongue, but none of them refused to drink it. So Seifer didn't think anything of it and he took a drink too.

They were all of them still hand-cuffed and the man to Seifer's right – a short weedy looking man going bald on top and sporting a clumpy-looking ginger moustache – fell into his shoulder. He shouldered him off and then swayed dangerously to the other side. Whatever was in that liquid probably wasn't good for him, but it was a bit late to realise that. A line of scientists – or at least they looked like scientists; wearing those white coats and green surgical gloves – filed into the room and began to pull out the chairs in front of the computers. A few of them sat down and began starting up the machines, but the rest began checking the coffins and their equipment.

Comprehension was hard when he was feeling so dizzy, but Seifer was pretty damn sure he was going to be required to stuff himself into one of those coffins. He eyed the nearest one with disgust. The idea of putting his body into contact with the foul smelling thing – and all the disgusting reasons why it smelt foul – was enough to make him feel queasy.

The first of the scientists came and fetched the first Player and lead him by the arm to one of the coffins, helping him into it and carefully strapping his arms and legs in. The Player appeared to be too dizzy and too used to this to resist and let the scientist do his work, uttering not a sound as the IV was fitted into his arm and the black liquid began to travel along to stream into his veins. The scientist shut the lid of the coffin as the man on Seifer's right was helped along to his own coffin.

Seifer himself wasn't dizzy enough to need any help in walking to his coffin, but he hit his head on the lid when he leant too far back. "Careful now, Son." The scientist said, putting a hand over the back of his head to shield him should he lean too far back again.

"Thanks, Grandpa." He muttered back and swung his legs up and into their molds. The scientist gave him a funny look as he tied his legs down and then pushed gently on his chest to get him to lay back. Resisting was futile – though he was loath to do as he was told any other day of the week, let alone right now – so he allowed himself to be strapped in. The IV, he discovered, hurt like fuck and gave him sudden course for worry; if he had half a mind to begin swearing his head off and attempting to tear the thing out after only his first dose of 'the black stuff', how far gone were the motherfuckers over in the next coffin taking it like it was nothing more inconvenient than cough syrup? What the hell was in that liquid that drowned out the fucking senses so much you allowed yourself to be at the mercy of someone else? Stuck full of needles like a fucking pin cushion on someone else's whim? He silently made a decision not to drink any more of that stuff again if that was what it did to a person.

His indoctrination pretty much finished, the scientist began to shut the lid and Seifer was plunged into the darkness. It was a nice relief actually from the headache he had been beginning to develop on account of the spinning. But bloody hell did this smell bad... He shut his eyes and let himself go limp as he wondered what was supposed to happen next. Maybe it was a test as to how long he would be able to avoid the effects of 'the black stuff'...? Perhaps he was supposed to get himself out of this thing using only his teeth? He wrinkled his nose and dismissed the idea, it was stupid anyway. As he was lying there, a soft light began to brighten behind his eyelids. He frowned and cracked a lid open.

He found he was lying on his back still, but he was no longer in the coffin. He was lying on the floor of the room where the coffins were supposed to be and was squinting at a down-lighter in the ceiling. He sat up and looked about. The other Players were beginning to pick themselves up off the floor and were milling about, exchanging glances. They all of them looked stable now, carrying themselves upright without so much as a wobble; a far cry from the shaky looking men being helped to their coffins mere minutes ago. Seifer frowned and stood up. This was getting weirder by the second.

The Players said nothing to one another as they waited for something to happen and although Seifer wanted to ask them what would happen next, he couldn't. Part of him didn't know how to begin a conversation with a group of people he didn't know at all and who had only moments before been slobbering doddering wrecks, and the other half didn't really want to know what everyone was waiting for. Luckily he wasn't forced to wait long, as the next second his world began to fade to black and another image began to appear in front of his eyes.

A/N: I know it's not much, but it sets the scene better and better explains the logistics of how an entire maze-of-death could be hidden in D-District for so long without anyone knowing about it... I didn't think of that when I started this thing...