THIRD PERSON

"There's still so much missing..." Sammy muttered from the corner of the room.

She had spent nearly the entire night theorizing and writing down calculations on several sheets of paper—which she had borrowed from Grace. From her cluttered desk, the Braixen heaved a shaky sigh and stood from her seat. Making quick haste towards the bed, she wasted no time sitting down.

"Occupied..." A smooth voice called to her just before the vixen realized she was sitting on someone.

"Oh..! Apologies." Sammy dipped her head and quickly rolled over to her side of the mattress. "I'm pretty exhausted."

"Yeah, I could hear you scribbling for hours. What were you up to, might I ask?" Leon slipped his head out of the comforts to stare at the girl next to him.

"Uhm, well, it's quite complicated. There was something bothering me, but I can't say it now. To be specific, I'm calculating a lot of potential chemical reactions in the brain—medicinal stuff." Sammy summarized with a gentle smile, expecting the jackal not to understand.

"I see." He turned to the ceiling. "I wish my past had involved complex theories such as those, I feel as if I was stuck in the wilderness."

"You'd be surprised as to how many Pokemon decide not to involve themselves with such technology." The Braixen mimicked him and also decided to lay on her back.

"Why?"

"It's a choice...I know very little about everyone's backstory, but I'm sure you and Sherwood are alike in being wild Pokemon."

"'Wild Pokemon'...quite a term. Makes us seem unkempt or rabid." Leon frowned.

Sammy cleared her throat. "You'll be happy to know it's not a popular term."

"Ah..." The Lucario chuckled. "So...what medicinal things?"

"Mmm..." She considered telling him, mostly due to a mixture of context and the fact that Sam could hear them. Something told her that it was okay this time, so she found it in herself to be honest. "Well, I've been starting to think that Sam is acting this way because of a symptom."

"A symptom? As in something psychological?"

"Very close, I wouldn't say it's something genetic...more so something that was brought to life by a string of events." Sammy placed a thoughtful paw on her chin. "There was a shift in her brain."

"Most would state it's obvious; she's crazy, for lack of better words." Leon murmured in distaste.

"I know, I know. It feels bad whenever everyone hates her...cause she's related to me. I won't deny that we'd be better off if she was dead, but you can't quite escape the grasp of family." The Braixen cupped her paws under the sheets to fidget with them.

"Yeah..." The mention of family seemed to irk the jackal, and vixen noticed immediately.

"Sensitive topic?"

"Not really." Leon stoically refused. "My motive card said that I killed my brother for selfish reasons. I do not wish for my memories to return for that reason, otherwise, I'll become what Sherwood hated."

"Not a bad idea, but there's always the chance you'll remember. The library is a good example; Sam wants you all to remember who you guys were."

"Due to the fact that we're all bad people, correct?" Leon turned his head over to lock eyes with the Braixen. "From what I can tell, a lot of us have done something irredeemable."

"Under Sam's eyes, I can see that being the case." Sammy never tore her gaze away as she looked at the jackal with a sense of remorse and care. "But I joined the game to help you all...I saw something completely different than what she had promised me."

"What did she promise you?"

"She mentioned that our research was going to be done on a group of criminals that she was authorized to work on." The Braixen finally deviated her stare with guilt. "In hindsight, they were questionable methods, but nothing like now."

"You still need to talk to Rayne about what she discovered." Leon reminded her in an attempt to shift the mood."

"Right...I can do that later, though." She shifted to her side and shut her eyes. "I think I need to catch up on sleep."

"Agreed." The jackal nodded.

LOKI'S POV

Seems like today is a lazy day. More than half of the participants decided they wanted to stay in their rooms for today. Both Leon and Sammy haven't been heard of, Sherwood went somewhere outside with Rayne—I remember hearing they wanted to talk with Sammy. Laker also hasn't been seen, so it quite literally is just me and Luster in the kitchen. We wouldn't be alone for long, however, as both Vince and Zantai casually strolled with what looked to be a hungry expression.

"Is breakfast ready?" Zantai turned to eye the feline as he headed straight for the walk-in pantry door.

"Yeah." Luster answered flatly, his focus more directed towards his focused chopping. It was fascinating how he curled his tail around the blade handle and accurately sliced it, he used it like it was his third paw.

Vince didn't even bother to say anything as he beelined to follow the Blaziken inside. They later returned with both their plates and took a seat both next to and in front of me.

"Mornin', Loki!" The Greninja waved a webbed hand in my direction before unfolding the tongue around his neck. "Are your legs any better?"

It was funny to know that Vince's odd accent goes away whenever he slips his tongue back in his mouth. He speaks so clearly that it always catches me off guard.

"They can be better, but I don't feel constant pain anymore." I turned to stare down at my thighs. Sammy mentioned something about them rotting the moment I died, and it's weird to say that considering I don't see anything different about them. I do have a lot of fur covering my skin, so maybe it's that.

"It'll get better." Zantai reassured me before shoving his meal in his beak. "Feels like you've had all the bullshit happen to you this whole game."

"What do you mean?" I could somewhat imagine what he meant, but I wondered what the Blaziken thought of first.

"Well, considering you...died." He leaned back in his chair to lock eyes with me. "That must have sucked pretty bad."

"I thought you were gonna mention...well, maybe not." Vince seemed to teeter on the edge of his words before taking another bite of his meal.

"It's not a crime to mention my girlfriend." I raised a brow at the frog. "She's dead, I know that...I can handle hearing it."

"Right." He nodded as a way to apologize. "Just didn't know how sensitive you were about it."

"Hah! Grace made you such a softie." Zantai flashed the Greninja a cocky grin. Vince only narrowed his eyes in playful protest at the bird, seemingly threatening to lunge at the Blaziken at any second. Zantai knew he wouldn't do anything, so instead he continued with a small chuckle. "Don't worry, it's a good thing."

After rolling his eyes, Vince took the last bite of his food—a piece of sitrus berry from what I could tell. "Are we any closer to escaping?"

"We can theorize all we want but it's hard to form a plan when someone's listening." I warned before they could answer.

Zantai seemed to understand what I was implying and shrugged, silently leaning forward to think. "Yeah, it's not looking good."

"We shouldn't worry about things out of our control." Luster walked out of the pantry to warmly smile. "I'm sure something else will come up, we can't be stuck here forever."

"Where's that comin' from?" Vince looked as shocked as Zantai from the feline's sudden positivity.

"Don't know, I just have a good feeling about the future." The Luxray trudged up to take a seat next to Vince. "I don't get this way often."

"I know." Zantai chuckled. "You usually sulk in the corner a lot. Why the sudden change of motivation, by the way?"

"Huh?" Luster raised a brow at the question.

"You were kinda distant at the start of the game, but here you are so productive and helpful. You wake up early every morning, serve us breakfast, check up on us, and even have enough time to help out with chores." The Blaziken trailed a curious claw around his chin.

"Ah, well, as I said...I don't know what happened. I just felt a lot better." The feline seemed to tear eye contact and find comfort in gazing elsewhere.

"Food got a lot better, too." Zantai grinned and ran the tip of his talon down the piece of meat on his plate. "Have you always known my favorite meals?"

What in the world was he getting at? Even though both Vince and I looked dumbfounded, Luster had a look in his eye that made it seem like he knew what the Blaziken was talking about. Did something happen that I didn't know about?

Luster seemed to debate even talking at all. There was a faint look of...guilt? What could he be guilty of?

"Something tells me you know." Luster frowned. "However, yeah, I'll admit it anyway. I remembered something pretty important."

Since we all associated memories with negativity, everyone's eyes locked onto the feline—as if they weren't already.

"Like?" Vince pried as he munched on a fruit.

"I'm a lot happier now for a different reason. Actually, maybe I wouldn't say I'm 'happier', just relieved. My brother, who I was really worried about, is in a safer place now."

Interesting, something positive gained from a memory? Aside from Vince learning his talent from a memory, something like that is very rare.

"But that's not the connection you thought I made." Luster shook his head and turned to the Blaziken across from him. "You're thinking of something else."

Zantai nodded, affirming the feline's worries.

"I'll admit it now, then. I know you, Zantai. You're the leader of a dangerous gang, and I worked for you." The Luxray calmly spoke, as if this information was easy to process.

Zantai didn't hide the fact that he wasn't exactly the best person in the past, but a fact like this was quite intimidating. The leader of a dangerous gang? Luster worked for him? In what way?

"You mentioned you were a chef." I found myself tapping my claws against the table. "You knew what foods Zantai liked...then it's safe to assume you were his personal chef?"

"You work fast." Zantai nodded. "However, as much as I can remember my favorite meals, I can't remember a thing about who I was. I want it to stay that way."

"I say you're first on the list to prevent getting their memories." Vince chuckled and eyed the Blaziken carefully. He wrapped his tongue around the base of his neck and continued—albeit, more sluggish with the now apparent accent. "Yer not so threatening when you have amnesia."

"I'd still whoop your ass, gang leader or not." The Blaziken felt a small smirk tug at the end of his mouth.

Seemingly satisfied with his response, Luster quietly excused himself and leaped off the table to begin walking away.

"Wait, Luster..." I called to him, gaining the feline's attention. I motioned to my legs and brought my arms forward. "I might need some help getting to my room again."

He only smiled, his body turning to approach me and crouch so that I could crawl onto his back. Now that I was secured on the feline's fluffy back, I found it appropriate to question something. "Hey, come to think of it, what was it about your brother that made you relieved?"

"I said he was in a safer place now." Luster muttered as he walked me through the halls.

"Well, where specifically?" I tilted my head in curiosity.

He paused. It was unfortunate that I couldn't see his expression, but it couldn't have been anything good.

"With Arceus in the skies, probably..."

Oh...

Then, he continued walking.

THIRD PERSON

Around the edges of a peacefully running fountain gathered a group of female Pokemon, each of them there for a necessary reason.

"Are you certain we are unheard?" Rayne carefully eyed her surroundings. There were no secrets being told, they just considered the gathering of too many Pokemon to be suspicious for Sam to see. Soon, the information discussed in this conversation will be told to everyone when needed.

"It's the most unseen location in the cage. I won't say I'm infallible, though." Sammy took a seat on the dry marble fountain, crossing one leg over the other. "So, about what you promised to discuss."

"U-Uhm, not that I don't appreciate it, but why am I here?" Grace chimed in, her paw mindlessly rimming the surface of the fountain water.

"You have an excellent ability to map things out. We'll need your drawing expertise." Rayne turned to grin at the smaller fox.

As if she was summoned by her smile, Grace stood at attention with a prideful paw against her fluffy chest. "Oh..! Then I will help."

"Great." Rayne nodded. "As I mentioned, Laker's memory refused to pick a side, so I could not get any information on an escape. However, there's a lot of answers to your questions."

Sammy knew this would take a while, so she took a deep breath and prepared to listen.

Rayne started with the most important memory she had. She focused for a short while, but it wasn't hard to remember the words that rang around her head for the past 2 days.

"Well, to be completely blunt, we're here because we all funded the project that Sam was working on; the ability to revive the dead."

"Hmm..." Sammy crossed her arms in thought. "Sam mentioned something similar, but I never thought it would have been to this degree. There are some contradictions, but I will mention them later. Continue."

Rayne nodded and took this as a sign to remember the next important detail. She had spaced out talking, saying what she felt like were the Weavile's exact words.

"Worthy would make it seem like it's a good thing, but it's not." He crossed his clawed arms. "Every single one of us asked Sam to help them revive someone they knew."

"Objectively, how is that bad before knowing about the killing game?"

"Because each of you was willing to sacrifice someone else's life to do the job." Laker turned to offer the canine a bitter expression.

Rayne paused after finishing that part of the story. She seemed to tear her gaze from Sammy in guilt and heaved a long sigh. "I still don't want to believe that to be true."

"W-Well, we technically are different people, right? Until we get those memories back, it's almost like those people don't exist!" Grace attempted to reason.

"Not to Sam, and I suppose that's the biggest factor here." Sammy frowned but leaned forward to soothingly rub her paw against Rayne's cheek. "Continue."

The Manectric nodded, her eyes shutting with focus as she continued to recall the events.

"Not even Sammy knows this, but in order for Sam to create a revival gem, she needs essence—is what she calls it. The energy and aura that creates all life in Pokemon, can be sucked dry into one small conduit. To you all, it might seem like a revival, but to her...it's a transfer. One life for another."

Sammy didn't have any words for this one. She quietly tore her gaze to the grass the moment she heard Rayne utter something about essence.

"Did you know that?" Grace frowned.

"Yes." Sammy didn't want it to be true, but the Braixen believed that Sam was getting most of her energy through the Mingle. She thought that the Mingle was being kept alive because of its abnormal duplication of essence. It appears that there was more to that.

Without needing Sammy's word, Rayne continued to speak. For someone who only had her emotions for a few weeks, she could read the room decently well.

"To her, she just saw it as justice. In her tormented mind, both sides got what they wanted; the participants got to revive who they wanted but at the sacrifice of their own lives, and Sam got her research."

"She was actually going to revive them?"

"Yes, but she wasn't gonna let anyone actually leave this game." Laker frowned. "Murder was pointless..."

"Murder was pointless..."

For the first time in this conversation, Sammy felt as if she had to deny something. "W-Wait, that can't be true at all? Sam mentioned that whoever showed promise of changing would be able to leave once we reached the minimum."

"The minimum?" Rayne narrowed her eyelids.

Sammy shuffled in place and stared off into the sky. "I think she said something about the killing game lasting until there were five Pokemon remaining."

"I don't remember any of that. Why would she not mention that?" Grace—who had been writing a few things down in her journal—dropped her pen to speak.

"Maybe because what Laker said was true." Rayne shook her head. "Sam had made up her mind about everyone's fate."

Sammy shook her head in confusion. "T-Then..."

She couldn't say much more. The two quadrupeds couldn't exactly tell what was going on in her brain, but it was surely nothing good.

"Listen, Sammy, I know this is hard." Rayne inched forward and mimicked the same caring paw she had placed on her cheek. "But I don't think Laker's memory would lie about something like th—"

"I know how to get us out." Sammy suddenly sprung to life and locked eyes with the canine.

"W-What?" Rayne stammered.

The Braixen leaped off the fountain and faced the two quadrupeds. "T-This has something to do with what I spent all night studying! It's all in her brain, and I know exactly how to stop it!"

"Then, how?" Grace seemed to humor her antics and stared at the fire type with hope.

"Think of it as substance abuse; what's the worst way to drop an addiction?" Sammy giddily balled her paws.

"Uhm...going cold turkey?" The Eevee didn't think she got the right answer until the vixen turned to her with a smile.

"Correct! Objectively, it has comparatively the most severe symptoms on your body." Sammy crossed her arms in confidence. "I believe that Sam's sudden change in mental and morals has got something to do with a machine she's been using. I've seen it before, she latches it onto her brain and it wakes her right up."

"I'll humor it." Rayne leaped off the fountain but continued to sit on her haunches. "How do you suppose this affects her?"

"Leon and I talked about it, and it's bizarre how she hasn't slept. In fact, I have yet to see a bed anywhere in the cage walls. It's safe to assume that she's keeping herself conscious with that machine, and without it..."

"She collapses..." Grace continued with a gaped maw.

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Rayne raised a suspicious brow.

"Uhm..." Sammy paused as she cupped her paws below her waist. "A few of you can fight, right?"