"It would just be Ace, though, right?" Tommie asked as they made their way down the stairs.

"Yeah, but how does that explain the hand in the photo?" Jax pointed out.

"They may have an accomplice," Dawn agreed.

"But the school is completely locked up, so nobody could possible get in-" Tommie cut herself off as she realized. "Oh."

"So... it's one of us three then?" Jax thought back on his words for a minute. "Wait, no..."

"Someone could've faked their death during the killing game," Dawn finished for him.

"How? They all looked pretty dead to me," Tommie said. "And we saw Evan get skewered like a kebab! There's no way that was staged."

"We can't dismiss any of them yet," Dawn told her. "For all we know, it could have been a fake Evan. We've all seen how complex those execution rooms can be."

"We can agree it's not me though, right?" Jax asked. "My hand looks the nothing like the one in the picture. Oh, and then it can't be Stratus either, right? Because there's no way it could've been his hand based on the positioning in the image."

"What if there's multiple people?" Tommie realized.

"What if it's all of us and we don't know it?" Dawn suggested. "Oh dear, this is quite complex."

"Let's go off of what we've got, first." Jax pressed the button on the panel and watched as the elevator opened up. "And we can save the crazy theories for when we're out of leads."

They rode the elevator in silence, as if stepping inside completely drained them of their voices. In other words, they acted like normal people in the elevator for thirty seconds until they stepped back out into the courtroom.

"So! Think you've solved it?" Ace challenged from their spot on their throne. "For your sakes, you better have figured out who the mastermind is. Otherwise... well, you know the drill."

"They keep implying it's a singular person," Dawn whispered to Jax as they took their spots behind their podiums. "Perhaps it's a small hint."

She really hoped that she was right on that assumption. it would certainly make it a lot easier. She looked to her left at the portrait of Ash, the bright pink X crossing out their monochromatic face. Had it really only been a few days since their execution? It felt like ages. She looked to her right at the portrait of Narwhale. Ash's victim. A girl who she tried to help, only to find her lifeless body the next day. At least she hadn't had to see Lucy's body.

People had told her that there was nothing she could've done to help Lucy. She was the Ultimate Psychologist, she was the best of the best at understanding the human brain and helping navigate emotions. But even if it were out of her control and Lucy's choice alone, she still felt responsible. Maybe she was the real guilty one this entire time.

"Alright, kids, let's get this show on the road," Ace began. "Start discussin'!"

"So here's what we know," Jax said. "The mastermind got their hands on Tommie's camera, and was probably behind the whole crime scene setup in the Chem Lab. ...That's all we have to go off of."

"If it helps- and it probably doesn't- the mastermind is the one who cleans up the crime scenes and sets up the portraits," Ace commented. "Just so you know."

"That means they would have to be active while we're out and about as well," Dawn said. "But... that still doesn't help. All we have to go off of is the fact that it can't be Jax or Stratus for logical reasons."

Tommie squinted at the image on her camera. "I can't remember sh*t about anyone's skin tones. And besides, the lighting is weird. The person who took the image sure ain't good at photography."

"Can you see the sleeve?" Jax asked.

She squinted even harder. "Nope. Just the hand."

"So all of our evidence just comes from a hand," Dawn confirmed.

Jax paused. "What if... what if it's just the headmaster? Think about it- we don't know them, we only saw a video of them discussing a project they were working on, and we saw those weird videos of ourselves. What if the headmaster's project was just the killing game? It would make so much sense- they know their way around because it's their school, they'd already have access to everything, and they gave the entire weird monologue about hope!"

"That makes sense!" Tommie agreed, then paused. "Well, not the monologue part, but still! Though what if the project has something to do with all the bodies we found in the Morgue? Like, everyone that dies is gonna help towards kickstarting a zombie apocalypse or whatever."

As soon as she brought up the Morgue, Dawn jerked her head to look at her. "No, wait a minute. One of the doors had an X on it. Why? Well, what if that door had briefly housed a body before it was disposed of? In other words, what if the body was cremated?"

Jax frowned and said, "That's true. Maybe the headmaster was the one in there. That all makes sense."

"Wait, and it can't be Amy either because we actually saw her body in there," Tommie added. "Ugh, we should've checked all the other bodies. It would've made it so much easier to solve this stupid game."

Jax then snapped his fingers. "I've got it."

Surprised, Dawn turned towards him quickly. "Well?"

"Actually, I'm not sure if I've got it, but it makes sense in my mind," he admitted. "So the mastermind has been here the whole time, yeah. They were able to navigate pretty easily, and blend in if needed because they'd just look like another student-"

"We already established that," Tommie interrupted. "Stop trying to 'Stratus' it and just make your f*cking case already."

"Well, what if it was Stratus?" Jax said flatly. "What if he took a body from the Morgue to fake the picture, then pretended to hang himself? He's definitely smart enough, and then there was all those computers-"

"There were indeed a lot of computers and screens in the room before the one we just found today," Dawn agreed. "There were lots of strange apps on those screens as well, like some sort of invention-looking thing and a peculiar green ball with an x-shape in the center-"

"Hang on," Tommie insisted, her eyes wide. "Did you say...?"

Dawn gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

Tommie's hand flew to her mouth. "I think I've got it."

Dawn and Jax both stared at her, waiting for her to start.

"Well." She took a deep breath. "The mastermind has been playing with us the whole time. They've been giving us hints. They've been painstakingly obvious and we've been blind enough to not see the bigger picture."

"How so?" Dawn questioned.

"First of all, the literal picture," Tommie explained. "They wanted to make it easy for us to narrow it down, plus they made a heart with their and Stratus's hands!"

"I'm not following," Jax said.

Tommie groaned. "Right.  I don't know if you guys would know.  Anyways, Evan and I discovered a tape in the headmaster's office of a student who was supposed to be in our group but died.  It was a video of their execution, and it ended with a heart breaking.  In addition to that, Dawn, you just saved us with one tiny detail- those apps you saw installed on the screens?  Those are gaming platforms.  And we overlooked the fact that all of this is a killing game.  It all connects back to one student..."

Dawn had no idea where she was going with this.

Jax didn't seem to either.

Tommie pointed towards Ace with the confidence of one of those people from a certain lawyer game whose name escaped Dawn at the moment and announced:

"The mastermind behind this killing game is Ultimate Gamer Rowan Ambys!"

***

(1342 words)

Well?  Do you guys think Tommie's right?

Ngl I BS'd my way thru this chapter lol