Fifth Trial

[bathymetric]

[ There's a long while of examination before the Mayor speaks up. There's plenty of evidence to pick up yet again this week, after all. ]

Annnd that's going to do it. Wrap it up and head to the bathyspheres, kids, you've got some business to attend to.

[ The bathyspheres take you all down, down, into the now-familiar dome below the city. The similarly familiar red glow persists until the lights properly turn on - the projection of Fontaine's silhouette is gone, of course, replaced by that same flickering "please stand by" message. But your mayor's voice is still the one that speaks over the increasingly empty circle of podiums. ]

If you somehow need a reminder of why you're here, three of you are dead. Get away with it, killer or killers, and the execution room gets to really work overtime today. But I guess if you wanna live, you should find who murdered three people. Could be important for you guys.

[ Welcome to your fifth trial. ]

Comments

1/2

[allatonce]

[For a moment, just a split second, her demeanor softens slightly.]

[asymptotes]

... If you get too stuck. But I want to know you can do this. You need to be able to do this.

[ He sighs. ]

I'm already dead. The only insult left would be if I died in vain.

2/2

[allatonce]

[Then it's gone.]

But you, of course, stopped after one like a good boy.

[asymptotes]

You know? It's funny - I intended to drop on him with a spear, take him out quickly. I missed.

[visiblepattern]

...Did you not have faith in your own abilities to make it to the end of this?

[asymptotes]

"Pain is good," he thinks? I know.
"Hurt is real."
Oh, he ought to feel every ache that I feel-

I want to sit in the dark with him,
In the dark with him,
Spare Zordon's kids all the tears that they've cried.

[howveryglib]

True, I suppose there are far quicker and more painless ways to kill someone like Jonathan.

[asymptotes]

... My hostage, if you can call him that. The world's better off without him. And I bet a few of yours are the same.

[ He chuckles. ]

One last attempt at heroism, but I've never been very good at being a hero.

[asymptotes]

Look at me, Forrest. Look at the way I am. Even if I made it out of this? With my plans fallen through, my powers stripped from me... I'm maybe one tenth of a decent mentor.

[ He sighs. ]

I think sometimes part of being a hero is admitting when it's time someone else take on the fight.

[asymptotes]

One's easier. Less room for errors. Unlike whatever sloppy nonsense happened across the way.

[onemillion]

[It's Complicated in his case, but he understands the sentiment, certainly.]

I can understand that much, I think.

[Certainly nowhere near the same, but that much... Yes, he gets the desire to prove that much.]

Thank you for being forthcoming. Will you tell us what happened to Misfire?

[In your own words, since he wants to make sure we've got all the pieces assembled correctly. It's only right that they know as much of the story as possible.]

[inaclearing]

Even here with us,
In the dark with us,
No one and nothing can break through that darkness inside.

[Brett goes silent, hands curled into fists at his sides again. His cuts sting.]

There is something so pure, how you see the world,
Like control's something you can achieve.
All the warnings were clear, I guess I'm to blame here,
But I always still doubt, I just tuned them all out and -

[Well. It was stupid. We've established that.]

You've hurt too many people to talk about sparing kids now. You hurt those exact kids, didn't you?

[asymptotes]

[ He sighs. ]

I tried to get the drop on him. Make it quick. But I missed. He tried to blockade himself in the aquarium, but I broke in. We fought a little, and he ran to the barn.

[ Drakkon rubs at his eyes. ]

He was... I'm used to fighting trained fighters, I suppose. I tried to get him into the wood chipper, I thought it would at least immobilize him so I could finish him off, but then his arm came off at the shoulder. He ran into the fields, I tracked him down. Pinned him and removed his head for good measure.

I don't know about anything in the other areas. So you ought to move on, most likely.

[visiblepattern]

You said it yourself - you still had us. And that means that it's not your place to decide when to give up, because your responsibilities don't fade just because you don't want them anymore. They're still there. Just like we're still here, and we would have continued to be here for you if you'd let us.

[...]

I know you just want it to be over. And I'm not going to condemn you for that, because I understand. I do. But still...

cw uh. sui......cide.....???

[asymptotes]

[ A dark chuckle. ]

More than I care to admit. But usually it was myself that I killed. I'm almost sad to deprive them of the chance to kill me themselves at this point.

[specialyellthing]

… You gonna be okay, sis?

[onemillion]

[Oh, well, we sure bumbled into this solution and were wrong about a few things, but... well, at least we've gotten this far.]

Thank you. We'll continue looking then - and should you have anything else to contribute, do let us know.

[Though we can try to solve it ourselves first, sure.]

[fuckingguy]

[ he's just looking back and forth between the two of them like this is a tennis match ]

[allatonce]

Me? I'm fine.

[asymptotes]

... Yeah. You're right. If I'd let you.

[ He laughs, like Forrest told a joke instead of pointing out one of his central flaws. A flaw that... he sees, now. ]

You kids would make a decent set of Rangers.

I guess??????

[inaclearing]

You could have helped us. We all knew you were - [you know, patently evil] - and we didn't -

[He's right; Brett was the person who knew the most about what Tommy had done. And he hadn't told anyone. He'd kept it to himself, because he'd thought - ]

[visiblepattern]

...We need to keep moving.

[We've still got someone else to solve for...]

I feel like we've figured out a fair amount about what happened to Jonathan and Hild, but going over it again can't hurt, can it?

[specialyellthing]

You just seemed—-

We’ll worry about it later.

[asymptotes]

If it helps, Brett? You couldn't have stopped me.

[ Does that help, Darkkon? Fucking does it??? ]

I picked one of the two who I thought stood a chance of stopping me on purpose. It wasn't just pride. Part of me hoped to ride out the time limit. So I wouldn't be tempted by that old blue man behind the glass. But I am who I am: the weakest Tommy Oliver in the multiverse.

[inaclearing]

[Brett's obviously still very upset, but he lets out a sigh. Yeah. They need to move on.]

Jonathan was poisoned by someone who had a drink in the nightclub with him. It must have been late last night, after - [Well. He can't.]

The method's really different from what happened to Hild. It makes me think his murder was planned, but hers wasn't. Maybe she happened across them when they were...trying to frame Nandor?