[color=tomato]“Moreover? Sorry, that was the wrong word.”[/color] Davis hovered in front of everyone. [color=tomato]“However, you still haven’t figured out who the real Shona is.”[/color]

[color=#bd71e8]“Totally sure there’s no way to know that.”[/color] Jezebel was quick to state.

Shona closed her eyes and sighed. [color=00e4df]"Would it be possible that neither of us is the real Shona?"[/color]

[color=tomato]“That is the unfortunate, yet honest truth.”[/color] The mastermind looked to Zachary. [color=tomato]“I’m sure you’ve already figured out what this means.”[/color]

The archer seemed to be growing paler as time moved on. He answered only after casting glances at Shona and the rest of the people stuck in there with him. [color=0076a3]“It means a lot, doesn’t it?”[/color] he rubbed the back of his neck. [color=0076a3]“Way too much…way too much…”[/color] he trailed off, then fidgeted where he stood. [color=0076a3]“Because it’s… not just Shona, right?”[/color]

[color=deepskyblue]"Wait, what do you mean [i]'Not just Shona'[/i]?"[/color] Alice crossed her arms, brows furrowed.

Henry thought for a moment, before his eyes widened. [color=mediumaquamarine]"Shiiiit, don't tell me we're dealing with some existentialism malarkey..."[/color] he held a hand up to his head. [color=mediumaquamarine]"For the love of God, don't tell me we're all surrogates too![/color]

The realisation took a few tense seconds to fully strike Daimyon, but once it did, it struck with the force of a thousand suns. He gasped. [color=seagreen]“N-not just...Shona?”[/color] he echoed, desperately scanning Zachary for any sign that he was joking, then the others for a sign that he was wrong. He found nothing, nowhere. An urge to write came over him, and he balled his painfully empty hand into a fist. Without the ability to occupy himself with reining his thoughts into words, they raced ahead with wild abandon, and soon he spoke, [color=seagreen]“Then...this must apply to Noel too. In fact, what if...what if [i]none of us[/i] are who we think we are?”[/color]

Davis reclined in his chair. [color=tomato]“Of course.”[/color]

[color=#bd71e8]“L-like what’s your damage?”[/color] the clown stammered. 

[color=tomato]“How else could you have an infinite killing game with a finite number of infinites? Either I was lying, or I was duplicating them somehow.”[/color]

[color=00e4df]"Then my resurrection is explained."[/color] Shona closed her eyes. [color=00e4df]"The real infinites then, you must have taken their memories at some point."[/color]

[color=tomato]“The last thing any of you remember is going to Axis Mundi, or falling unconscious before you arrived at Axis Mundi. All we needed to do was run some software based on the Neo World Program to digitize their memories and implant them in a new body.”[/color] Davis placed his hands together. [color=tomato]“The plastic surgery some of you had to go under put Axis Mundi’s reputation to the test, but that was far easier and faster than the method they used in the sixth day, right? Regardless, you’ve all been participating in a roleplaying game.”[/color]

Shona opened her eyes and glared at Davis. [color=00e4df]"Who are we?"[/color]

Davis shrugged his shoulders. [color=tomato]“Bums, petty criminals, dreamers. You wanted to become someone else for one reason or another, and didn’t mind signing up. But I may have left out a few details.”[/color]

[color=00e4df]"Then you are not one of us?"[/color]

[color=tomato]“I have always been myself.”[/color] The mastermind cast his gaze down, as if looking upon insects. [color=tomato]“You’ve all been hung up on deplorable actions that you know are no longer your own. Surely it must relieve you to know you aren’t yourselves?”[/color]

A growing dread was visible on Alice's face as Davis carried on his explanation. She didn't want to listen. No, she didn't want to believe it, she refused to! But then, why was she trembling? She hugged herself tightly in an attempt to stop, staring downward to the floor. The overbearing questions that ran through her head made her feel nauseous. Her life, family, feelings, everything...was a lie? Were these emotions even her's? Are her and Henry really related? Were there more of them then they knew? After everything she went through, all the lives she failed to save, her seeking "redemption" for the past, it didn't matter?

She really was a monster.

Alice ended up collapsing onto her knees, held up by an arm. She wasn't able to muster up a word or two with a lump in her throat, but did it even matter? She couldn't move either even if she tried, or do anything about the tears threatening to fall. 

After everything she went through, this was her breaking point. She snapped.

Witnessing her collapse, and similar expressions of distress on his fellow Infinites, Daimyon was overtaken by empathetic sorrow. What Davis had just revealed to them was an abominable secret, only worsened by its timing: at the very end of their journey, after they had shouldered so much both individually and as a group. After they had seen so much, lived so much, [i]sacrificed[/i] so much...

But, somehow, the poet himself did not feel the shattering grief.

[color=seagreen]“So I’m not...me,”[/color] he stated, tasting the words. They felt foreign, but the more they sank into his mind, the more he realised how eerily...unconcerned he was feeling about them. Somehow, they did not feel that different to what he was already experiencing (and had amply documented) every morning. [color=seagreen]“I would love to meet me, then. Ha. I hope he’s doing well out there.”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“...what of the originals, then? And their families?”[/color]

Davis turned to Zachary. [color=tomato]“Some of them are alive, some are dead. Some are sick, some are healthy. Some have found conquest and others have been defeated by it. I have not left this place for many years, so I can only speculate as to what they are doing. But if you mean to ask if I have done anything with them, or if they are aware of your existence, that is a no on both fronts.”[/color]

Jezebel pointed at the mastermind hovering around on his chair. [color=#bd71e8]“You could have, like, left out all the death and junk with us too.”[/color]

[color=tomato]“That was a necessary evil.”[/color] Davis folded one leg over the other. [color=tomato]“As you can imagine, there are many ethical problems with cloning people this way. I could turn a serial killer into Mondatta, or even turn an upstanding citizen into Erin Steel. Do you punish ‘Mondatta’ knowing that he has no recollection of his past crimes? Does ‘Erin Steel’ deserve to perish when he’s been a good egg most of his life, but thinks he isn’t? While some of the technology was made by Hope’s Peak’s best and brightest, other parts of the cloning puzzle came from more dubious sources.”[/color]

[color=00e4df]"The other killing games…"[/color] Shona growled. 

[color=tomato]“There was no way to pursue this form of cloning in legal circles, so I turned to illegal ones. Their money is just as green as everyone else’s, and they have a fair bit more of it. But I needed a way to show my ‘angel investors’ the merits of funding me. Skimming the initiative’s coffers was out of the question. We barely make enough to support the infinites themselves, and running all of this technology is pricey. It turns out a killing game was just the ticket. Not a simulation, not a play, just watching the greatest minds and bodies of our generation kill each other over and over again was enough to sate their thirst for blood, and fund my project.”[/color] 

Shona threw out her arm, still using her sword as a crutch. [color=00e4df]"Why even go this far Davis? For what?"[/color]

[color=tomato]“That should be obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention.”[/color] There was a growl in Davis’s voice. [color=tomato]“The reason why this is so important to me is because it is the only way I can be reunited with my wife.”[/color]

The chair swung in front of the wall, allowing Davis to look across the room at everyone. [color=tomato]“But it’s not just for me, it’s for everyone.”[/color] He gripped the arms of his chair and leaned forward. [color=tomato]”Alexander the great managed to conquer all of the known world before he died in his thirties. That’s just long enough for most people to die of a drug overdose. People need to suffer to get their talents. Or at least, they did.[/color]

[color=tomato]“Look at yourselves. A human lives just under eighty years on average. Few of your ancestors had anywhere near that much time to work with. Just imagine what the world could look like if I could turn every drug addict, every convict, every slacker into something worthy of pursuing conquest. Our greatest minds would no longer have to die. Mind of old could work alongside the minds of the new. Humans as a whole would reach their apex.”[/color]

Davis sat down in his seat. [color=tomato]“Any more questions before I--”[/color] 

[color=0076a3]“How long?”[/color] Zachary cut Davis off before he could finish with a trembling voice. [color=0076a3]“Exactly, I mean. I want to know just how long you’ve been doing this.”[/color]

Davis pulled his head back. The mastermind placed his hand on the base of his chin and closed his eyes. [color=tomato]“I don’t know.”[/color] 

Shona blinked. [color=00e4df]"Excuse me?"[/color]

[color=tomato]“A decade? Two? Maybe more? Maybe just a few years? I swore off connecting with the outside world until Alice Parker was back in my hands. This isn’t the sort of thing you can leave unattended for very long.”[/color] He placed a hand on his knee. [color=tomato]“I’ve had to get surgery a few times to ensure I look the age I’m supposed to. It’s been a while.”[/color] 

Zachary’s expression darkened. [color=0076a3]“D-dad…”[/color]

As curious as he was about the most minute intricacies of Davis’ master plan, the most burning question on Daimyon’s mind was one of the future: [color=seagreen]“What happens now?”[/color]

[color=tomato]“That depends on what you do next.”[/color] Davis smiled. [color=tomato]“You’ll be made to forget a few things. Before that, you have to decide how you want to handle your current predicament. You’re all clones right now. Your very existence is illegal. Fortunately, we have the technology to make you look like anyone. We can even fix your little memory problem. Even Zachary’s eye is within the realm of possibility, as-is Alice Masson’s cracked psyche, All of that will be in the past soon.”[/color]

[color=mediumaquamarine]"Lunacy..."[/color] Henry sneered. [color=mediumaquamarine]"All of it is just...lunacy!! And you my dear sir, have officially been driven to a madness unmatched! [/color] Pushing his hesitance aside, he stepped over to Alice in an attempt to calm her down. He had a bad feeling about the poor girl's state. [color=mediumaquamarine]"If this was so you could get your wife back, why didn't you?!"[/color]

 Alice herself seemed unresponsive. Maybe a twitch or two, but other than that, she appeared lifeless.

Davis’s laugh cut through the room like a mighty sword of conquest. [color=tomato]“Henry! That’s [i]exactly[/i] what we’re going to do next!”[/color]

Every monitor in the room changed to show one gigantic panoramic video of Alice Parker. A montage of images flooded the monitors, from her doing everything from her enjoying a cheese sandwich, getting proposed to by Davis, and video footage of her assisting with the final assault on Neo Alexander’s bunker, just minutes before her death.

[color=tomato]“Do you know why this is called the candidate’s killing game? Because each and every one of you have demonstrated the capability to become my Alice!”[/color] He swung his hand at the screens behind himself. [color=tomato]“You can sculpt the body with surgery, you can load memories into the brain, but the soul remains something that no medical equipment can modify. Even if you’re all clones, you are still capable of interpreting your memories your own way.”[/color] He exhaled. [color=tomato]“Your voting terminals are active.”[/color]

Shona stepped back as a terminal shot up out of the floor in front of her. [color=00e4df]"You really wouldn’t have a problem with any of the men here becoming your beloved?"[/color]

[color=tomato]“Are you sure they were men to begin with? I can assure you some of you weren't always woman.”[/color]

Jezebel’s fingers hovered over the buttons. [color=#bd71e8]“So like, everyone in this killing game was totally a candidate?”[/color]

[color=tomato]“Everyone but the carnage sisters.”[/color]