[center][img]http://fontmeme.com/permalink/170304/bb4c0cfc577a7452943af0833aa3149e.png[/img][h1]and[/h1][img]http://fontmeme.com/permalink/170304/77a80daa7e198b15d909db83a6f07eb4.png[/img]

~ [i]Honour Among the Dead[/i] ~[/center]

The suspense in the air as the Infinite's waited for the seconds to tick down was palpable. The nervous looks, the anxious shuffling of feet, the muffled sobs of the Trap stood clutched close to the thin, pale, and strangely tall, Web Developer. He kept an eye on the others and Nariko; occasionally glancing back to Geina, Calvin, and Monokuma. He seemed... Awfully observant, for someone who had come across as so shy.

Shaun's eyes flicked to Shona as she began her defiance. A slight part of him felt guilt for voting for her, but he tried to push it aside as watched. The sound of footsteps made him perk up slightly, and the same effect seemed to stretch to Caora; who also looked up to see what was making the sound. 

Calvin entered with his joyous expression and took to climbing the spikes like a monkey to a tree, and quickly made his way to the top; for some reason to Shaun's surprise. He hadn't expected the Infinite Free-runner to have made it up such a surface, but that was what he got for underestimating his competitors.

An expression of worry crossed both males faces as they turned to Geina, who was about ready to fire upon the man. Except she didn't. They hadn't even seen Shona move until she had sliced a hole into the machine; its fake, robotic substitute for blood spilling out along the floor and dripping from her blade. Where had she gotten a sharp blade like that from? Surely Monokuma wouldn't have let her keep such an instrument...

His eyes glanced to the floor just as more spikes began to breach their confinement from underneath them. He grabbed Caora, who had begun to drift away slightly, and pulled him into a firm grasp - almost knocking the wind out of him from the force - to stop the spikes impaling him. Chances were the Doctor wouldn't have allowed for that to happen, but he couldn't have been sure without risk of death.

Daimyon had been producing line after line of poetry for every second of the mayhem; since it had started. As much Shaun enjoyed poetry, it was frustrating to him that he could spout his literary nonsense at such a time, rather than doing anything. Not that he could judge, since they were all confined. And it was just his way of preserving hope. There was nothing wrong with that.

Nariko's body collapsed into pieces around a flying cannonball; spraying hydraulic fluid across the ground as the parts scattered into piles, and he sword clattered to the ground with a metallic ring. Willow soon fell too; crushed under the weight of her horse after Shona had cleaved into it. Felix, however, wasn't so fortunate. Taking a spike through the shoulder, which forced him to collapse onto their damsel Calvin.

Caora had been watching intently, cheering Shona on as she carved her way through the drones of their captor - shouting words of encouragement that made... Marginal sense to everyone around him. They just weren't smart enough to understand! That... Did mean that neither was Shona, or the boy stood next to him, but it was the truth!

Except his shouting soon stopped. His cheery expression pealed away. Shaun's eyes widened at the sight, and involuntarily grabbed Caora by the hand and pulled him into a hug to shield his eyes from... It. He had no idea why he had done so, but he had done. He'd always hated children, and despite Caora being of age, he still reminded him of one.

And he felt partly responsible for what had just happened.

He glanced back up to confirm what he already knew to be true. The idea that... That something like this could ever have happened... News stories about tragic events were rife, but the impersonal nature of them distanced the viewer. You, as a person, were never there to witness what had happened. Not there to see the carnage. The Despair.

But now, he was there. Caora was trembling in his arms, as though he too couldn't believe the shocking reality that had been presented to them by their captors. Shaun could only guess that the other Infinites felt somewhat the same way. A lingering, overbearing sense of dread that accompanied such an event. There would be trauma to come that none of them would forget...

Shona's lifeless corpse lay sunken against the bare white wall of the room. Her chest painted red, with a sizeable hole ripped through, may as well have been the gate to Hades. The darkness inside it, dripping blood that oozed along her body, painted her clothes crimson, and spread out from the fabric to pool on the floor. he could almost swear he saw ribs, doused in gore, broken and cracked by the impact of the spear that had left a hole on the wall; which, too, dripped blood down its length from where the poor girl had been suspended...

But she was smiling... Somehow, in death, she was smiling... as a night nothing more was to be expected. There was honour in death. And she had gone down swinging. Nothing more could have been expected of her. Nothing [i]should[/i] have been expected of her... He could do nothing but watch powerlessly, contemplating if his vote had caused this...

Caora was silent. His small, fragile frame seemed more like a thin sheet of ice than it had ever done before. He was trembling; he could feel the slight vibrations off his body through his clothes and on his skin. The spike cage lowered slowly, and Caora sunk to his knees. As much as he could hate himself for voting, he had another to look after. Nobody like the Infinite Trap should have had to witness such an abhorrent act.

He cast a glare at the accursed bear as he explained what had happened, and what the behemoth that had killed their friend was. She was more than just their friend... She was their leader, their beacon... Their hope, to a degree... Defiance and strength rolled up into a package unafraid to battle her way to freedom...

And there that beacon was. Cold, lifeless, slumped in a heap against an equally cold wall. The fires of their hope had been doused... Chances were, things... Would fall into carnage soon enough.

The results of the vote appeared an he grimaced. He was the only person to vote for Shona... Looking down, he felt Caora start to stand. His eyes drifted up to the monitor, where the list was located. His eyes went wide.

[colour=HotPink]"Wh-what the?!"[/colour] the shock in his voice was alarming, [colour=HotPink]"Wh-why is my name there!? I-I didn't vote!"[/colour] his little legs carried him automatically. The E-Handbook he had so carelessly thrown lay in a puddle of hydraulic fluid, and he ran over to scoop it out with his left hand. 

Upon seeing it, Caora's eyes even further. For a second, all that came out of his mouth was a croak.
[colour=HotPink]"N-no..! Th-thats wrong! I didn't vote! I didn't! I-it must have been when it hit the wall! I-I DIDN'T VOTE! YOU BIG MEANIE BEAR! I DIDN'T VOTE!"[/colour] whether it was a combination of the shock of Shona's death and the adrenaline of the situation, Shaun... Couldn't tell. But the boy kept shouting and shouting at their host until Shaun walked up and placed his hand on his shoulder, and gently shushed him.

[colour=SlateBlue]"St-stop, Caora... There's no use..."[/colour] he said as Monokuma began his scan of the three Infinites chosen in the draw. Caora let out a cry once he realised no one had been chosen, and Shaun, somehow, managed to let out a slight smile.

[colour=SlateBlue]"Th-thank God..."[/colour] he whispered, and gave Caora a small hug. His eyes couldn't help but drift to Shona's body, and he tried to push it out of his head. It was done... There was nothing that could be done for her now. Even if they could have stopped the blood loss, the spear had broken ribs and probably punctured a lung or two. She would have asphyxiated in minutes, no matter what was done. He would just have to zone out...

But he couldn't. Not as the other Infinites conversed with Monokuma. He could do nothing but hug the Infinite Trap, and listen in on their conversation. Which turned the situation even more despair inducing that it already had been.

[colour=SlateBlue]"Y-you bastard..."[/colour] was all Shaun could muster upon the revelation. The event had been designed... To kill of Shona. All from the beginning. They had... Planned... Her death to snuff out their hope... To feed the despair that had already been building. No words could express the emotions he felt. Nothing could accurately describe the intense hatred that was boiling in his veins aimed towards the person in charge of everything.

He just wanted to go home... To see his girlfriend, to play some games that didn't involve first degree murder... He barely even registered as Bliss Buckly entered, but turned his head as she spoke. So there were more of them, all through Axis Mundi. Fighting for their lives as well as the lives of others. A tower of Infinite Despair. And, if the previous events were anything to go off of...

A Tower of Carnage.