THIRD PERSON

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There was really nothing to talk about; what else could they say? Everything they feared had just happened in front of their eyes. Normally a trial would be solved by the deduction of the participants, but this situation was unique. On the screen they witnessed what was essentially Galant's "execution", something Sam made preemptively.

A few thought about why Sam prematurely introduced the Gallade's punishment, while others were too busy mourning—both completely fine and moral reactions.

Aside from the controlled sobbing in the elevator, the crowd was dead silent. You could hear a pin drop, even through the loud humming machinery.

Leon seemed to be lost in thought, while Grace was a fountain of tears in Vince's arms. Rayne was holding back a stream of tears, her head leaned into Luster's shoulder for support. Zantai was dead silent while sitting on the edge of the platform railing.

And Loki...

She found herself missing two people to turn and talk to.

It really doesn't settle in when someone close to you has died until you realize just how much you depend on them. The Zoroark almost always turned to the Umbreon for advice, while she also turned to the Gallade to discuss ideas and theories.

As if the other deaths weren't already, this death in particular would permanently impact the group for the rest of their lives.

A loud click was audible above them before they were greeted with the moonlit living room. They had been at the trial for hours it seemed like, enough for the moon to have risen—even though they knew it was entirely fake. As the furniture shifted back into place, the group eyed each other for a brief moment. Though in these situations everyone would return to their room, one Pokemon chose to do something completely different.

"Leon?" Zantai didn't get to ask what the jackal was up to before he had already turned the corner.

The Blaziken turned to the group behind him with a gesture of "Should I follow him?"

After a small nod of affirmation from Loki, Zantai whipped around and immediately followed the Lucario into the halls. After a few minutes, the two found themselves in the same place.

"Leon." Zantai's tone almost sounded like he was ordering the jackal to stop. "What are you doing?"

The Lucario was dead silent, his eyes glued to the ceiling. They had both entered the gymnasium, the jackal presumably gazing at the entrance to the attic. "He was up there?"

"Yes, wh—?" The Blaziken cut himself off as he watched the canine attempt to scale the side of the walls in order to reach the attic. "Leon, are you crazy?"

"I must know something." Leon muttered to himself before a talon was hooked onto his shoulder. "Do not try and stop me."

"What the fuck has gotten into you?" Zantai, clearly taken aback by the jackal's attitude, only kept his hand on his shoulder. "I'm not gonna let you get hurt over this bullshit. There's nothing up there for you to see."

Leon let the fire bird practically yank him off the wall before settling on the ground once again. He turned to the ground with a hint of shame, his eyes averting to nowhere in particular. "I-I...should have talked to him more. He mentioned a few things about his past that alarmed me."

"He..." Zantai thought for a moment. "He definitely used too many memory gems."

"Is there not a connection you find alarming, Zantai?" Leon turned to cross his arms at him. "There are only so many times we find a motivating factor to be our past."

"I'm sure we know." The Blaziken frowned. "I think we should just avoid it overall."

"No, it's far more than just avoiding them." Leon shook his head. "Zantai, a majority of us aren't actually good people."

Zantai raised a brow at the jackal before allowing him to continue.

"Why else would we fear our memories coming back to us?" The Lucario backed up to spread his arms wide and further emphasize his words. "Why else would we be here?"

The Blaziken thought for a moment, his claws fidgeting in realization. He thought back for a moment...specifically to his motive card.

"Zantai is a leader of a gang that tortures and murders innocent opposition, also known for killing Vanta's younger sister."

Also known for killing Vanta's younger sister...wait...what?

"Hang on, Leon." Zantai held his head as if it would help him think. "There's something wrong here."

Leon only turned his head towards the fire type. "What?"

"I'm sure it's common knowledge now that Laker has my first motive card, but in my past, I allegedly killed Vanta's sister."

"Vanta's sister..? But it was stated in the trial that..."

The jackal froze, his eyes widening towards the bird.

"Now you're getting it." Zantai nodded. "My card was incorrect. Vanta's sister is alive because Vanta's sister is Grace."

"Then...maybe she has an incorrect source?" Leon tilted his head.

"She knows so much about us. There's no way she could get that wrong."

"I still believe we are all here because we are not good people." The jackal exhaled and blankly stared at the empty stands in the gym.

"There's gotta be some other reason we don't know yet." Zantai groaned in frustration. "Maybe Sammy knows?"

"Sammy stated she does not know much about Sam's antics, her original purpose was to provide hope and support for us." Leon crossed his arms in objection.

And there went the thought process. Zantai felt like he was close to the answer, but something crucial was missing for it to be discovered.

"I'm going to bed, Leon. I really hope you are too." Zantai loured. "Don't get up to anything on your own, two of us just died, you know?" For once, the Blaziken had a small croak in his voice, making it seem like he was seconds away from crying.

"Understood." Leon turned away in acknowledgment. "However, our rooms have switched because of the trial. I'm sure Sam has already made the change. We are no longer roommates."

Right, the Blaziken had completely forgotten. With a sense of curiosity, the two made their way downstairs to look for their new rooms.

...

Out of the 8 rooms they started with, only 5 were now actively occupied. Seeing this only made it sink further that they were dropping like flies—even including the amount of stalling they had done.

Zantai was now sharing a room with Vince, Luster with Grace, Loki with Laker, Rayne with Sherwood, and Leon with Sammy.

As expected, a few decided to settle down and find their room partners...

"Hello..?" Laker peeked his head into the room he was designated before raising a brow. "Loki...you there?"

"Y-Yeah..." She sniffled lightly.

The weasel widened the door and flicked on the light switch to witness the fox leaning against one of the nightstands.

"Uhm...why aren't you in bed?" Laker questioned as he noticed the Zoroark putting too much of her weight into the furniture.

"Didn't...D-Didn't quite make it to bed, my legs gave out on me." Loki stammered and struggled against the surface of the nightstand.

Without any more questions, Laker rushed over to lean his head under her arm, allowing the vixen to push herself onto the mattress.

"Thanks..." Loki heaved a sigh of relief. "I think the adrenaline was keeping me going the whole time."

It was almost like she had forgotten just how injured she was, suppose tomorrow she'll figure out just how much more she had screwed her legs up from walking. In all fairness, it was her fault she lied to everyone and undermined the issue completely.

She scooted in bed to allow the Weavile to jump in and tuck a pillow that separated the two.

"Man..." Laker groaned lightly and rubbed at his eyelids with a paw pad. "I know I'm not saying anything new, but I really hate this place."

Loki replied with a small hum of affirmation, her eyes still locked to the ceiling. "I hate that I'm getting somewhat numb to it. I can't feel when I'm crying, I can't feel when I'm shocked...my body is just on auto."

The weasel next to her also flipped to his back to shut his eyes and think. A bitter wave of freezing air washed over the Zoroark, causing her to pull up more of the blanket. Laker finally cleared his throat to speak after a small moment of silence. "I have a question."

"Hm?" Loki turned to him.

"If you had a secret that would change the way everyone saw you forever, how would you tell it?"

...

Laker couldn't tell if she was suspicious or actually thinking of the question.

"I feel like at the beginning of the game, I would have told you to not say it..." Loki paused for a moment. "However, I think you should just find someone you really trust and say it to them first."

"Someone I really trust..?" Laker frowned and turned to his side. "Hah..."

The weasel's chuckle was more out of insecurity. Throughout the entire killing game he was a bit too focused on his whole motive card shenanigans and trying to escape...as a consequence, he didn't particularly grow close to anyone in the mansion. One could say that's a good thing; as not getting attached allowed him to move on from death a lot faster than others...but an intrusive thought clicked in his brain.

He wouldn't have been missed if he was gone.

And that terrified him.

GRACE'S POV

I don't know how many tears I have left to cry about this all. Leveraging between Vanta dying and Galant being the culprit was enough to send me into shock when we found out in the trial, and I had little to no interest in figuring out who my new roommate was.

I've been reading the same poem Vanta had made over and over again.

"To find the words for the despair I'm feeling is a nearly impossible task."

"I may not be able to remember anything, but I know it's been a long time."

"However, no matter how long, I still wish for your forgiveness."

"I was weak, foolish, and completely blinded."

"On my dying breath, I wish for you to understand that all I wanted was your safety."

"And wherever you are, I wish for you to hear my call one day."

"That I'm sorry, and that I'm very proud of you."

"It's like how we used to say; you'll be one of those stars in the sky one day."

"No matter how long it's been since you've gone away from the world, you will always have a place in the stars."

"I will always protect you."

Loki was right...how could he remember all of this but not my name? Or even who I was? How could I possibly forget about this? Sam purposefully made us forget these specific things.

But why? Why would she want us to know it this late in the killing game? Just to fuck with me? Arceus...

As I mentioned, I didn't want to come back to my room just yet. I decided to visit Hydra's office one last time before sleeping, as I wanted to leave Vanta's poem on the bed—something like that could symbolize a grave, at least for me.

Upon entry, I noticed that...the body was still there!? More importantly, a large silhouette of a Pokemon I didn't know stood menacingly over it. Before I could let out the loudest scream of my life, a dim lamp was lit from Hydra's desk to reveal a gruff-looking Toxicroak.

"You're pretty damn lucky...found me in the act of cleaning up the body." His voice was hoarse, almost as if he had been screaming all day.

"You're the guy that cleans up the bodies..?" I seemed to repeat.

"Nah, I just hang around here for fun." The Toxicroak snarled sarcastically before flailing a large body bag next to him.

Well, that was genuinely rude...way to have some sympathy for someone who's standing in front of their brother's corpse. He seemed to eye me carefully and heaved a long sigh.

"Feel like I should mention that his rings did not stop glowing until the trial ended." The poison frog cleared his throat and swiped Vanta's body into the bag.

"Oh...Leon mentioned something like...a Pokemon can potentially be dead but still be somewhat active if something they cared about is incomplete." I muttered as I carefully watched the Toxicroak.

"Uhuh." He didn't seem to care, his actions swift and careless as he slugged the body over his shoulder.

"Be careful with him." I hissed loudly.

He seemed slightly surprised at my hostility and finally locked eyes with me...pale white...that's very unlikely for his species. I'll remember that.

"Whatever..." He mumbled and walked past me with an annoyed gaze. Didn't even give me his name.

...

THIRD PERSON

"How are you feeling?" Sammy, who noticed something wrong with the jackal lying in bed next to her, turned to eye the jackal with a frown.

"Great." Leon's muzzle twitched in response as his voice rumbled through the pillow. The jackal wasn't exactly known for his sarcasm, so the Braixen pried with a small sigh.

"What's bothering you?" The Braixen shuffled around to face the Lucario, who was still on his stomach.

No response.

She stifled her emotions from the trial for just a moment, her efforts now towards helping the jackal next to her. Surprisingly, the two had never separated the center of the bed with a pillow, so all she had to do was poke at the jackal's side.

"What?" Leon groggily craned his head to stare at the vixen with an exhausted look.

"You're never like this." Sammy gazed at the jackal with half-lidded eyes. "Something's bothering you more than usual."

"...what makes you say that?" The Lucario raised a brow in curiosity.

"Usually you can find optimism in things while finding time to peacefully mourn." The Braixen tore her gaze to nowhere in particular. "But this time you're dead silent, almost cold-looking."

Leon frowned at her analysis; was he really that affected by this trial?

"I suppose I blame part of myself for Galant's death...and Vanta's by a small portion. More importantly, I've started to wonder why we're here...and our connection to each other's past." Leon shifted before sitting up on the bed to monologue. "Every one of us seems to be an awful person, and I'm wondering what makes us so worthy of an escape? Maybe we deserve to be here."

The jackal didn't know how else to describe it, it couldn't have been a coincidence as to why they were so terrified of memory gems. All this stress was getting to his head, but somehow, he felt a relieving wave of energy enter his sensors.

"Hydra used to enjoy this when we were younger." Sammy hummed, her voice heard from...behind the Lucario?

Leon hadn't noticed, but the Braixen had also sat up and propped herself behind him, her paws carefully massaging the sensors on the back of his head. "Wha...what are you doing?"

"It's a technique to control aura flow, you do realize that Lucario are very prone to headaches because of their constant usage of aura." She informed, acting as if giving him a massage was completely normal.

Leon figured her social queues weren't exactly on point, so he humored the touch and shut his eyes. Much to his surprise, his mind was clear, and a new sense of clarity washed over him.

"There..." She backed up and tucked her thighs together to smile at the jackal. "How's that?"

"Much...better..." Leon trailed off as he stared at the Braixen in awe... it was almost as if he could see through her. Actually, he could see through everything? "What in Arceus' name...what did you do?"

Sammy couldn't help her grin as she flipped a small metal chip between her paws, shooting a playful wink toward the jackal. "Sam didn't notice, but she had your aura blocker's key still lying around."

While the Lucario was elated to have his aura's full potential back, he found his smile turning slightly sour at the realization of something. "W-Wait, wouldn't Sam know?"

The Braixen proudly shook her head. "Mm-mm, she wouldn't. It's almost as if I unhandcuffed you digitally, the aura blockers are still on your sensors...but just deactivated."

"Wow...I-I don't know what to say." Leon found himself analyzing the entire structure of the mansion—as far as his aura could take him.

"Don't mention it, but I suppose a thank y—" Sammy started before she was quickly interrupted by a small hug from the jackal next to her, "—you..?"

Her arm reciprocated the hug...an unfamiliar feeling; has she ever even hugged someone in her entire life? She figured she had never focused on that aspect...but they were nice and warm—even for a fire type's standards.

Leon pulled away and ran a paw against the back of his own head. "You don't know just how uncomfortable I felt without my aura. I thank you."

"Y-Yeah..." Sammy composed herself to smile up at the Lucario. "It's no problem."