Viola had never really expected to amount to much. It was kind of a depressing thought, but it was true. She wasn’t particularly good at anything. Her one real talent was sleight of hand, and most people just found it kind of creepy. Maybe someone with more raw charisma could have spun it into a successful career in entertainment. But not only did Viola not have any raw charisma to speak of, she absolutely couldn’t stand being the centre of attention.

And here she was, the centre of attention. Every eye was on her, and suddenly whatever it was that possessed her to speak up in the first place decided now was a good time to vanish entirely. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but all that came out was a strangled croaking noise.

“Y’okay, kid?” Bob, of all people, was the one who spoke up first.

“I- um.”

“Hey, it’s okay, ‘s been a busy day. I Imagine y’all’ve had more excitement in the past couple ‘a hours than in the entire rest of your life combined.”

“R-right,” Viola muttered, still attempting to muster the courage to actually say something meaningful and failing miserably.

“Well, if that’s everythin’, I’ve really got places to be. Ami’s prolly gonna wanna have words with me over this whole debacle an’ I’ve gotta figure out where the fuck Sunny landed. Nice throw, by the way.”

“Uh, thanks?” Vienna said.

With that, Bob once again turned to leave. This was it, Viola realized. Her last chance. She wasn’t sure how she knew this, but somehow she did. If she just let him leave now, they were going to fail. Hell, they were probably going to die here, alone underground. They’d spent this entire time following the pace that Ami dictated, and what had it gotten them? A fight a day, every day, without fail. Not even real fights. Wasting their time and energy on opponents they were ultimately guaranteed to win against. And every time they had gotten into a real fight against the soldiers, they’d barely survived. The only real victories they’d gotten hadn’t been through skill, but sheer dumb luck.

Though, now that Viola thought of it, that wasn’t really entirely true. They’d escaped the soldiers in the first place by catching them off guard with Vienna’s superpowers. Viola had escaped Makoto by bluffing like hell. They wouldn’t have been able to beat Makoto this time without the twins sneaking up on Sunny, and they’d actually won the fight by ganging up on her when she was expecting a one-on-one duel.

The common thread in all their victories wasn’t teamwork, though that had certainly helped with the last few fights. But no, the real common thread was fighting dirty.

And, just like that, the plan coalesced.

“Wait,” Viola said again, more firmly this time.

“Y’all still got somethin’ to say, kiddo?”

“Poker. You and me. Here. Now.”

Once again, Bob raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Now seems like a weird time for a friendly card game.”

Viola shook her head resolutely. “Not friendly. There’s going to be stakes this time.”

“Oh?”

“If you win, th-then this is it. We stop fighting back, stop participating in Ami’s game. Wait out the rest of it without doing anything.”

“What?!”

“Absolutely unacceptable!”

“Viola, are you forgetting about the nukes or something?!”

Viola’s pack was, understandably, outraged. Viola didn’t care. She had no intentions of following through with that particular promise. Bob raised a hand, and waited for the other three girls to get the hint and quiet down. “Interestin’. And what about if y’all win?”

“Then the game is over.”

“Oh? And what exactly do y’all mean by that?”

“I mean that when I win, you’ve got to take us directly to Ami.”

There was a deafening silence. Viola wasn’t sure how long it lasted, probably a good few minutes. No one seemed able to say anything, just standing in silence as Viola glared defiantly at Bob. To her credit, she only shook in abject terror a little bit, and at least part of that was her leg injury.

Slowly, a big, eager grin spread across the soldier’s face. “Well then. When y’put it like that, how can I refuse? Ah, one condition though.”

“Depends on the condition.”

“I ain’t takin’ y’all to Ami right away. Not until you’ve at least gotten some rest and some medical attention. Maybe some paste.”

Viola’s expression soured. “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d really rather not have any paste.”

“It’s good for ya’.”

“I’m not eating any more paste.”

“Well, suit yourself,” Bob replied with a shrug. “But the rest of the condition stands.”

“Yeah, uh, I’m really not up to going to fight Ami literally right now,” Ursula interjected.

“Viola,” Aubrey’s voice interjected in Viola’s head. “It would be extremely wise to take the time to recuperate the prana we used in this fight before challenging Ami directly. Especially if we intend to circumvent the game. I don’t predict that she’ll be very happy about that.”

“... Fine,” Viola said.

“Then let’s get started on that.”

“No.”

“You’re gonna be taking a break regardless of who wins.”

“I don’t care.”

“Better to get the rest and food and medical attention in now rather than later.”

“I don’t care,” Viola repeated firmly. “We’re doing this now or else Erin’s going to squash.”

Bob raised his hands defensively. “Okay, okay, fine! We’re doin’ this now! I ain’t into gettin’ squished by the 50 foot mouse’s ass.”

“Twenty at most,” Erin snapped.

“Oh, well, that’s a different story entirely.”

Bob gently placed Makoto’s body back on the ground. It wasn’t clear if she was still alive – though, on the other hand, Viola wasn’t entirely sure it mattered if she was still alive. Apparently her brain wasn’t even in her body? But frankly, Viola didn’t really care. She had other, bigger concerns right now.

Bob pulled some sort of phone out of one of the pouches and pressed a large button on the side. “Yo, Ovcharenko. Get your ass over here and see to Tanaka, over. What? No, the mouse isn’t going to kick you again, over. I don’t care, I need you to do your damn job, over and out. God dammit.” He roughly shoved the communication device, whatever it was exactly, back into the pouch. It wasn’t clear why he needed a communication device when he was a cyborg, but no one felt like asking for details. “So!” he said, turning back to Viola and clapping his hands together. “We’re gonna hafta lay down a couple’a ground rules. No cheatin’, obviously. Either of us gets caught, that’s a forfeit.”

“Alright,” Viola responded.

“Speakin’ of which, you ain’t shufflin’. I’ve seen you do that card magic shit and I don’t trust you.”

“Fine,” Viola responded a little more tersely. That was probably going to be a problem. “But if I’m not shuffling, neither are you.”

“I toldja before that I never had the patience to figure out that sleight of hand bullshit.”

“I don’t care. You’re a cyborg, you’ve probably got better hand-eye coordination than me.”

“Fine. Who’s shuffling then.”

“Ursula.”

“Wait, what?” Ursula said. “Why me?”

“You’ll see,” Viola replied, tossing the deck in Ursula’s direction.

“Wh- ack!” Ursula managed to completely fail to catch the deck. The box collided with her face, bouncing off and into her lap. “Ow, gimme some warning next time, geeze,” she muttered sullenly, opening the box and carefully removing the deck proper.

“Are... you entirely sure about this, darling?” Erin said, as diplomatically as she was capable of. “You do recall what happened the last time we let Ursula shuffle.”

“Exactly,” Viola replied.

“Guys, it was one time. Gimme some credit, I’m not that bad at thi-oops.”

“Annnnnd there we go.”

Bob frowned. “Okay, point taken. New plan; you can shuffle, then she cuts the deck.”

“Look this was a fluke, I can do this,” Ursula replied tersely as she gathered the cards off of the ground.

“You could probably cut the deck,” Viola said.

“Hey!”

“I figure that we can both agree that no attempt at fancy shufflin’ tricks could survive her cuttin’ the deck.”

“I’m right here.”

“Alright, fine,” Viola responded, pointedly ignoring Ursula’s grumbling. Things were going according to plan, so far at least. There were a few ways she could handle this next part. The easiest way would be to palm a good hand while shuffling, but it was also the most obvious. Switching whatever she was dealt out for her palmed hand would also be hard to do without being noticed. Playing it safe was a tempting option, because she needed to win this, but if she got caught cheating then that was it. It didn’t matter if she guaranteed a winning hand if he noticed her doing so and she got disqualified. So then she just needed to ensure she didn’t get caught.

A lot of that was going to be dependent on Ursula. “She gets to deal, too.”

“I can agree to that.”

“Guys I’m right here.”

“Any other conditions?”

“No wild cards. No ties. We’re goin’ until one of us gets a proper winnin’ hand. That also means no high cards. You gotta at least get a pair to win. And no foldin’, either. If ya’ can’t get a winnin’ hand, then that’s tough fuckin’ luck. Can’t discard more’n three cards at a time, but since we’re only gonna be doin’ the one hand an’ there’s only two of us so no real danger of depletin’ the deck, we’re gonna do up ta’ three rounds of discardin’ and replacin’.”

“Alright.”

“That’s it. Get to shufflin’.”

Viola nodded wordlessly. She made a point of not showing off with her shuffling. No flashy flourishes, nothing fancy. Just a simple riffle shuffle. The more flashy the technique she used, the more likely it was that Bob would pay closer attention to what she was doing, and the more likely it was that he’d notice what was actually going on. His cybernetically enhanced vision could easily catch her attempting anything tricky. And she was going to have to attempt something tricky if she wanted to ensure she won this. Layers of deception, even – not only did she need to ensure she got a winning hand, she needed just as much to ensure that Bob didn’t get a winning hand. It would be difficult, but she was fairly confident she could manage it. She might have lacked experience at cheating at poker, but she had plenty of experience shuffling cards. If she really wanted to ensure the cards ended up in a certain order, she could do that. The rest was making it look like she wasn’t cheating, which amounted to ensuring that she discarded some cards while still keeping a winning hand.

That would probably be the easiest part. Viola had some new tricks up her sleeve, after all.

“Alright, alright, I’m- what the fuck are you doing?” Yuri said as he arrived.

“Shut up ‘n tend to Makoto. This is important.”

“Right. Whatever.” The medic shrugged and began to tend to Makoto’s still motionless body. “God dammit, did she tear off her shirt again?”

Bob rolled his eyes. “I keep tellin’ her how hard it is to get replacement bodysuits but she just keeps doin’ it.”

“Is this thorough enough for your standards?” Viola asked.

“One more riffle.”

“Right.” Viola had already made sure that most of the high ranking cards that could potentially tie her hand were at the top of the deck. That way, no matter how Ursula elected to cut it, odds were there wouldn’t be a winning hand anywhere in the deck that Bob was likely to get to. More shuffling could potentially be problematic, but luckily Bob had asked her to riffle the deck. It would take a little misdirection, but she was good enough at handling cards that she could make it look like she was doing a riffle shuffle without actually changing the order of the cards in the slightest – assuming Bob didn’t see through that.

If he did see through it, he didn’t say anything, which probably meant he didn’t. Viola handed the deck to Ursula. “Cut it,” she ordered.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what I’m doing.” Viola didn’t need her to cut the deck at any specific point this time, so this was probably the safest part of the plan.

“Now deal. One to me, one to him, repeat until we’ve got five cards.”

“An’ try not to drop any.”

“Man, fuck you,” Ursula grumbled, giving Bob a dirty look before beginning to deal. She awkwardly picked a card up and placed it in front of Viola before repeating the process with Bob. It was clumsy and time consuming, but also it was safe. If the soldier’s suspicions hadn’t been raised yet, then Ursula’s lack of skill meant they wouldn’t be.

“Y’know, it ain’t too late t’just give up, kid.”

“I’m not giving up.”

“You should. I ain’t kiddin’ when I say it’s in your best interests.”

“My friends and I are going home. You’re not convincing me otherwise.”

“You would go- ugh,” Bob groaned, his tone exasperated. “Look. Suppose you manage to win this little card game an’ we lead you over to the main facility. How exactly do y’all think she’s gonna take that? Well?”

“I don’t care how she takes it.”

“Kid, this right here is pushin’ the limits as it is and is prolly gonna piss her the fuck off. If you actually go through with cheatin’? She’s gonna kill ya’. Hell, that’s the best case scenario. Worst case, she’ll make you wish you were dead.”

“We can handle it.”

“No, you can’t. You mighta’ been able to win against Ami up to now, but that’s ‘cause she wants you to win. If you get her to actually try, she’ll just keep goin’ and goin’ forever until you’re dead.”

“How would she even know about this?”

“Do y’all seriously think she can’t see ‘n hear everythin’ we do and say? If you’re gonna cheat, you gotta divide her attention or do things low-key, and y’all’ve not been great at doin’ either. Not intentionally at least.”

Viola frowned, carefully looking at her hand. It didn’t actually matter what cards she had, of course, but she needed to make it look like it did. Likewise, she needed to discard cards – there was nothing more suspicious than a card magician drawing a winning hand directly from the deck. “Discarding two. Whatever she throws at us, we can handle.”

“Not if you keep playin’ the way you’ve been, kiddo,” Bob retorted. “Discardin’ three.”

“Ursula, that means you need to deal two cards to me and then three to him, so we both have five cards.

“Right, gotcha.”

“The point I’m makin’ is that you don’t stand a chance against Ami. Not with the way your kind thinks.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like it means. Tell me, suppose y’all do manage to make it to the main facility. What then? How’re you gonna stop Ami.”

Viola frowned. “I... Haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“Well, lemme tell you. Ami’s not gonna let up. Once you’ve pissed her off, she’s gonna go all out. No more holdin’ back or fightin’ fair. Best case, she kills you. Worst case, she cuts your brains out an’ sticks ‘em in jars an’ boom. Say goodbye to any chance of seein’ mommy and daddy again. If you want outta here and you’re dead set on facin’ Ami head on, the only way you’re gonna win is if you fight to kill.”

Viola’s heart caught in her throat. “... Discarding one.”

“You could do it, too. Wouldn’t be too hard. Just smash up Ami’s projectors an’ then smash up everythin’ that looks important. But you won’t. Discardin’ two.”

Viola bit her lip nervously. “We... we can get out of here without killing her.”

“You can try, but it’ll just get y’all killed.”

“I’m not murdering her,” Viola said firmly.

“Ain’t murder if she’s not human.”

“It’s like you said, people are people.”

“That’s a really cute sentiment, kiddo, but Ami ain’t a person and anyway that ain’t what I meant by that.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a human or a cyborg or a computer or an alien goo thing. What matters is how you think. Ami clearly thinks like a person. And... if she does, then I think I can convince her to let us go.”

“Yeah, well, good luck with that. In the meantime, I’m gonna keep on workin’ towards actually getting you outta here alive an’ mostly unharmed.”

“Why do you care so much about our wellbeing anyway?”

Bob tightened his lips for a moment. “I’m a soldier, kid. Just ‘cause the US ain’t existed for centuries, that fact ain’t gonna change. Protectin’ people’s in my job description.”

“Last I checked, soldiers kill people,” Ursula interjected. “That’s, like, the opposite of killing.”

“Soldiers kill soldiers, kid. Dyin’s a part ‘a the job. What ain’t a part of the job is slaughtering unarmed non-combatants.”

“You sure didn’t seem to mind that we’re unarmed non-combatants when you shot Erin’s arm off.”

“Which wouldn’t’a turned out nearly as badly for y’all if you’d just stayed put.”

“Discarding one.”

“Discardin’ three. Lemme tell you a story, kid,” Bob said tersely. “Once upon a time there was a little boy. His momma was black and his daddy was white and he lived in the deep south. Now, y’all obviously don’t got any kinda context for what that means, but bein’ mixed race? Especially those two races, in that part’a America? Well, it’d prolly have been worse if he were a decade or two older, things’d definitely improved over time. But it still didn’t win him any favours with the locals, if you get my meaning. Didn’t have many friends, did have a lotta bullies. Somehow, though, in spite ‘a all that, he managed to grow up to be a pretty well adjusted kid, if’n I do say so myself.”

“I know you’re talking about yourself.”

“Don’t interrupt, kid. Now, this kid didn’t let the bullyin’ get to him the way some other people did. But it was still lonely, y’know? There was one thing, though. One thing that kept him goin’. And that thing was Cap’n Comet.” A wistful smile spread across Bob’s face. “The thing ‘bout Cap’n Comet was that he wasn’t just a comic book character. He was a real, honest-to-god Superhero. Saved the world ‘n everything, all while not really bein’ much older than the boy. And yeah, one day he died, but the kid was too young to realize that was what happened. He genuinely bought into the idea that Cap’n Comet was just frozen until he needed t’be unfrozen again. Took him years to realize that wasn’t gonna happen, waaaay later in the story. All he knew when he was a kid was that he wanted to be just like Cap’n Comet. Of course, that was easier said than done. The boy didn’t have any superpowers. But what he did have was a military daddy. He was good at discipline, good at takin’ orders, decently physically fit. So after high school he enlisted. Figured bein’ a soldier’d be a good way to help people. Make a real difference in the world, y’know?”

Slowly, Bob’s wistful smile evaporated into something much colder. “Here’s somethin’ that the boy learned real fuckin’ quickly. Most ‘a the time, wars ain’t black and white. Ain’t no good guys or bad guys. An’ even when your country’s fightin’ against Hitler, you’re just fightin’ against some kid named Hans who misses his momma real bad. And you miss your momma real bad too, but you can’t take the time to feel sorry for him, ‘cause if you do he’ll put a bullet in your brain. An’ you can’t stop fightin’, ‘cause your country really don’t look kindly on people who decide they don’t wanna be soldiers no more. Even if you go home when you’re supposed to, ain’t no place for a former marine in civilian life. Like I said, people’re people. Everyone’s the same. All the civilians just wanna live their lives without thinkin’ about the bigger picture. All the soldiers are just lonely outcasts who couldn’t fit in anywhere else or naive children who thought it was a good way to help protect their country or just psychos who wanted to be able to shoot other human beings. And all the people in charge are power hungry bastards who just want control. It’s all the same, everywhere, regardless of whose side you’re on. Ain’t no good guys, ain’t no bad guys. Just people. An’ lemme tell you somethin’, if your kind really have moved beyond all’a that? Y’ain’t people, not anymore. You can claim you’re human all you want, but you-”

“Royal flush.”

Bob stopped, his expression collapsing in on itself into a complete unreadable blank. “Come again?” he said, after several minutes of silence.

“Royal flush,” Viola repeated, laying her cards on the table – the ten, jack, king, queen, and ace of spades. “I win. Fuck you.”

Bob stared blankly at the cards, laid out neatly on the ground. What he didn’t realize was that wasn’t actually Viola’s hand – she had removed those cards from the deck while shuffling and used Aubrey’s power to turn them invisible. Then, when the time came to lay out her hand, she just switched which hand was visible and which one wasn’t. Complicated, but clean. Bob clearly hadn’t caught her, or else he wouldn’t be quite so baffled.

Slowly, a smile spread across his face. Not the reaction Viola had expected. “Well. God damn if that ain’t the best possible hand. Congratulations, kid. Ya’ beat me.” He slowly pulled himself upright. “Right then, y’all get that rest ya’ promised me you’d get. I need to deal with my men, but I’ll be back for y’all tomorrow. Make sure you’re ready, because Ami ain’t gonna hold back. And hey, a little piece of advice from someone with a lot more experience than you?”

“I don’t need your advice,” Viola hissed. Bob continued, ignoring the hostile response.

“It’s never too late to run, kid. Don’t feel bad if y’gotta retreat and regroup.”

“That’s terrible advice,” Viola said, unimpressed. “Where would we even run to, this whole place is under Ami’s control.”

Bob smirked as he and Yuri picked Makoto up, slinging her arms over their shoulders. “You’re a smart kid, figure it out yourself. I can’t come up with the entire plan ‘a action for ya’.” With that, the soldiers turned and left, leaving Viola and her pack alone in the Colosseum.

“Yo what the fuck just happened?”

“I, uh. I think we just won?”

“I think Viola just won, darling,” Erin corrected. “We’re just along for the ride.” She turned her attention to Viola, who was still sitting on the ground, quivering, and gently placed her hands on the smaller rabbit’s shoulders. “Are you alright, darling?”

“No.”

“That’s fine. Come on, let’s get you something to eat and something to drink.”

“I, uh, I should probably go get the water bottles,” Vienna said awkwardly.

“I’ll help clean up the deck,” Ursula interjected. “Then, um, I guess we take some time to rest up?”

“I don’t know about you all, but I could certainly use the rest.”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan. I’ll be back in a second.” Vienna turned and headed in the direction the soldiers had gone. She didn’t intend to spy on them, honestly. They just happened to have gone in the same direction as where the water bottles were.

But, well, given the opportunity, she couldn’t help but take it.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” Makoto hissed. “We absolutely can’t lead those kids to Ami, she’ll kill them!”

“Don’t got a choice. Kid won. Those were the terms.”

“They’re terrible terms! Why did you even agree to them in the first place!”

“I don’t know about you, but after what they did to you just now?” Yuri interjected. “I don’t want to get on their bad side by promising to help them and then going back on it. Especially not after she won fair and square.”

“It doesn’t matter how fair and square it was-”

“It wasn’t.”

“... What?”

“It wasn’t fair and square,” Bob said succinctly. “Kid cheated like a motherfucker the whole time. Passed the test with flyin’ colours.”

There was a brief period of silence. “You’re serious?”

“Yep. Ain’t ever been more proud in my whole life. She’s got potential, that one. Guess I underestimated these post splicers.”

“You really think she can handle Ami?”

“I know she can handle Ami. She’s just gonna need a little pushin’ in the right direction.”

Vienna frowned as the soldiers moved out of hearing range. Slowly, she picked up the water bottles, and then turned and headed back to where the rest of her pack was waiting.

She did not say anything about what she’d overheard to the others.

~~~~~~

“We need a plan.” Vienna felt stupid saying it. But no one else was speaking up. Even if she didn’t actually have a plan in mind, she felt the need to say something. “We can’t just bumble blindly into this or we’ll absolutely get killed.”

“That may well be,” Erin replied. “But coming up with a plan is going to be difficult if we don’t know what we’re up against.”

“And we can’t know what we’re up against because it could be anything,” Vienna finished, slumping backwards against a wall.

“What I’d like to know is why we couldn’t have done this before going to sleep,” Ursula grumbled. “Like, I’m fucking exhausted. Can I not just this once get a normal fucking night’s sleep?” The dreamscape had taken the form of a vague approximation of Math class for some reason. None of the girls really knew why, but none was going to complain, either – at least it meant there were real chairs and they weren’t stuck sitting in the dirt. Vienna had never expected to be quite so glad to see a desk in her life. The girls had shifted the desks around to form a rough circle with eight chairs. One for each girl plus another four for their inklings, with the remainder of the desks shoved out of the way. It was impromptu, but it was better than nothing.

“No,” Vienna replied immediately. “You heard what Bob said. Ami can see and hear everything. If we planned while we were awake, then she’d know our plan.”

“Ugh,” Ursula grumbled.

“This is the safest way to plan,” Vienna said with a shrug. “We’ll try to make it quick, at least. It’s in everyone’s best interests for you to be in the best possible condition.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna be an option,” Ursula said, somewhat reluctantly. “I... pushed myself pretty hard today. A few hours of naptime’s not gonna be enough to bounce back.”

“So what you’re saying is that we’re down the one member of our group who can actually fight,” Erin said with a weary sigh. “That’s just lovely.”

“We’re just gonna to have to work around that.”

“Sorry about that,” Ursula muttered.

“It’s fine. We’re just gonna have to work around it,” Vienna repeated, as if she were trying to convince herself that it was something that could be worked around.

“Well, the good news is that Vienna and myself can at least use our superpowers to compensate for a lack of fighting prowess.”

“What about Viola, though?” Ursula asked. Vienna cringed slightly.

“I can protect Viola well enough,” Aubrey interjected.

“I’ll take your word on that one,” Vienna replied, clearly unconvinced.

“Hey, speakin’ of which, do any of the Inklings have anything to add?”

Delphi nodded, before standing up from her chair and stepping forward into the centre of the circle. “Unfortunately, as Erin has pointed out, we don’t know enough about Ami’s facility proper or what exactly she’s capable of when going all out to plan for any specifics. But what we can do is come up with some basic tactics that could apply to any situation.”

“Okay, cool. Do you have any basic tactics to suggest?”

“Hm.”

“I’ll take that as a no, then.”

“Shut up, host, I’m thinking.” Delphi frowned, before slowly turning to face Viola. “You. Fantoma’s host. You’ve been awfully quiet so far.”

“O-oh. Um, sorry.”

“You seem to be the least terrible strategist of the group. And besides, this whole situation is technically your fault.”

“Hey!” Vienna interjected angrily. She almost lurched upright, but Edifice quickly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

“Well...” Viola said, after a moment of silent thought. “I think our first priority should be to, um. T-to focus on Ami’s limitations.” Delphi nodded silently, before gesturing for Viola to go on. “Like, um. L-like for instance, she’s a computer, right? And so she might be smarter than a normal person, but computers can still only do so many things at once. If you open too many programs, especially if they’re intensive programs, it’ll start having trouble running them all at once. S-so, maybe we should split our efforts up. Instead of coming at her as a group, attack from multiple angles. Divide her attention as much as possible. Maybe it’ll slow her down, a-and maybe that’ll create an opening for me or Ursula or both of us to find a way to turn off her projectors.”

“I don’t know about that, darling. It takes a lot more than just three separate programs running at once for my PET to start having problems. And Ami seems... quite a bit more advanced than a PET.”

“I can take on a couple enemies at once,” Vienna said. “And you’re big, you can probably deal with a couple of dudes at once, too. Or one really big dude.”

“Um. Also,” Viola continued. “Ami’s not just a computer. She’s got emotions. I bet we can use that against her. Like, um. Like how when Ursula fought that Marquess guy. At first she was angry and so she didn’t fight as well as she could. But then when she calmed down she fought better. And, um. Ami’s probably already going to be mad anyway s-so maybe we can take advantage of that.”

“I... Don’t know if that’s the best plan, darling.” Erin shuffled uncomfortably. “Getting Ami angrier than she already is seems to me like it will more likely make her fight harder rather than sloppier.”

“Mnf,” Viola grunted. “You’re right about that, but... What if we aren’t the ones she’s mad at?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well. Um. It’s really the soldiers who are breaking the rules here, right? They’re the ones taking us straight to the end of the game. So, um. S-so maybe we can start a fight between them.”

“You think that’d work?”

“These are all just ideas,” Viola said. “Um, I think we’re going to end up mostly having to improvise.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Delphi said. “Which is unfortunately the best we can hope for right now.”

“Does anyone else have anything to add?” Ursula said. “No? Good. I’m going the fuck to sleep.”

“Host, you’re already asleep.”

“I’m dreaming, but if I’m still having to think and shit then I might as well just be awake.”

“That’s not how it works!”

“That is absolutely how it works, I’m obviously not properly asleep or I wouldn’t be this coherent and-”

“Listen here you-”

The two continued bickering even as they slowly faded from view as they retreated from the shared dream. “Well, I guess that means we’re done for the night?” Erin said with a shrug.

“I guess so,” Vienna replied. “You guys should also probably head off. Ursula’s got a point, regardless of what Delphi says. Staying properly conscious all night, even if we’re technically asleep, can’t possibly be as properly restful as actually turning our brains off like we’re supposed to.”

“Actually, I think I’ll stay here for now.” Erin shrugged again, shifting awkwardly in her chair. “My normal dreams... typically aren’t very restful anyway.”

“That’s fair. Honestly mine probably aren’t much better.”

“That would be my fault,” said Edifice. “Sorry about that.”

“Ehhhhh it’s fine. Just... try not to do it anymore, okay?”

“I can’t promise I won’t show up in your dreams anymore, but I can at least promise I will try my best not to make them unpleasant.”

“Good enough.”

“That said, I suppose it’s quite a ways until morning, regardless of how lucid our dreams are.” Erin sighed, slumping backwards into her chair. “God I hope this works. I want so badly to be able to sleep in my own bed again. Or any bed.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve actually gotten to sleep in my own god damn bed since before the invasion started.”

“I suppose that’s partially my fault.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m the one who needed to get it through her head that no one but me cares about my anatomical weirdness.”

“Well,” Erin said after a moment of awkward silence. “If you ever wish to experiment further, I’m willing to help out with that. I’m sure the same applies to Ursula and Viola.”

“Okay.”

“Though, ah, probably not right now.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“And I promise that otherwise we won’t push you.”

“Erin it’s okay,” Vienna said, rolling her eyes slightly. “We can deal with all that awkwardness after we deal with the more pressing matter of saving the world. Twice.”

“Twice?”

“First we gotta deal with Ami. Then we gotta deal with the alien invasion.”

“Oh. Right.” Erin sighed. “I’ll be honest, I was trying not to think too hard about that last part.”

“Fair enough.” Honestly, Vienna also didn’t particularly want to focus on the cold reality that the only way to resolve the alien invasion with minimal casualties was probably going to involve fighting Echelon. Vienna’s mind wandered back to the broadcast. Whoever Echelon’s host was, she was young. Younger than them, that was certain. Probably fifteen or sixteen, maybe seventeen at the most. Just a kid. Way too young to die. Hopefully things wouldn’t come to that, but... Well, Vienna could only muster so much optimism.

“Let’s lighten the mood,” Titania interjected. She’d been quiet so far – likely she’d just not had anything to say. Really, none of the Inklings had spoken up much (aside from Delphi, who seemed to love the sound of her own voice.)

“Focusing on doom and gloom is counterproductive,” Edifice added. “We need to be as ready as possible for tomorrow. Letting ourselves get stressed out when we’re supposed to be resting won’t help in that regard.”

“Yeah... Yeah, you’re right. I think maybe I’ll go to sleep after all. I’m especially gonna need as much rest as possible if the plan is for me to do most of the fighting.”

“Right...” Viola muttered. “Hey, uh. Are- are you sure you’re okay with being a distraction?”

“Do we have another option?” Vienna replied with a shrug. “Ursula’s not up to fight, and we’ve already committed to not going with the ‘convince Ami we’re boring by not doing anything’ plan.”

“Besides,” Erin interjected. “It’s not like she’s going to be alone. I fully intend to do my fair share of the heavy lifting. I may not be much of a fighter, but I can make up for it by being very large. And there’s also the soldiers.”

“I don’t know...” Viola said, clearly not convinced. “I just... Something about this feels off. Like there’s something we should have accounted for but we’re not accounting for it.”

Vienna placed a hand on Viola’s shoulder. “You just need to focus on doing your part. Get into Ami’s facility and then turn her projectors off while we’ve got her distracted. Easy.”

“Right. Easy.” Viola’s tone of voice made it clear she didn’t think it would be easy at all.

“Hey, don’t worry. This is your plan, remember. You just need to have more confidence that it’s a good one.”

“We need to try and stay optimistic,” Erin added. “It’s not a bad idea to be ready for things to go wrong, but that’s not the same thing as aimlessly dwelling on the possibility they might go wrong.”

“I guess...” Viola wasn’t terribly convinced, but she couldn’t think up any counterarguments. Which probably proved Erin’s point.

Still, even as Erin and Vienna said their goodnights and slowly faded away into their own dreams, she couldn’t help but dwell on one particular thing that had been said. “This is my plan,” she muttered to herself. “That means that if anything goes wrong, it’s my fault.”

“Mm,” Aubrey grunted. “If I may give you a bit of advice. Not as Aubrey but as Fantoma.”

“I don’t think I want advice from Fantoma,” Viola replied.

“I understand why you’d think that, but as Fantoma I have a lot of experience as a leader. Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest you allow your friends to die as sacrificial pawns.”

“Okay...” Once again, Viola was clearly unconvinced. But she figured that she didn’t have to take any advice Fantoma might have to give.

“No plan is perfect,” Fantoma said, her voice terse and cold. None of Aubrey’s soft gentility. “Something will go wrong. Rather than dwelling on self-doubt and assigning blame, you need to be ready for that fact. And, more importantly, you need to trust in your friends. If something goes wrong, then we will all need to improvise.”

“So what you’re saying is that if they die it’s their own fault.”

“I’m saying that if you trust their abilities, then you won’t need to worry about that.” Aubrey placed a hand on Viola’s shoulders. “If you focus on the possibility of their deaths, it will consume you. Instead, be ready to change the plan on the fly, and trust in your friends to handle themselves. They’re a resourceful bunch when they have to be. And remember, it’s not your fault if something goes wrong. It’s only your fault if you don’t adapt to the new circumstances.”

After a moment of silence, Viola sighed. “You’re right. I just need to be ready to improvise.” Easier said than done. She pulled her knees up to her chest, squatting on the cold plastic chair. “Have, um... Have you ever. You know. Lost someone?”

It took a solid few minutes before Aubrey responded with a quiet “Yes.”

“How did you deal with it?”

“I didn’t,” she responded simply. “Inklings live for a very long time. Unfathomably longer than what you’re capable of comprehending. And the civil war hasn’t really left us time to mourn.” Aubrey seemed to shrink into herself, staring intently at the floor. “That doesn’t make it any easier, though. Sometimes plans went wrong. Sometimes plans went right but Echelon’s forces still managed to take a few of us down with them. Sometimes Osoth decided one of us had outlived their usefulness. And that’s not even factoring in hosts.”

“That’s awful,” Viola said, feeling sickened to the core of her stomach by the thought of Osoth callously disposing of people who were of no use to her.

“It still doesn’t feel real. I still sometimes feel like they’ll just... be there. Have always been there, because they never actually left. And then I realize that they did. And it’s been so long that I don’t even really properly remember who they were or what they were like. Just that they existed and that it’s wrong and unfair that they don’t anymore.” She frowned, and pulled herself upright, standing resolute. “Which is why we can’t fail. We have to end this. Stop the bloodshed here and now, for host and Inkling alike.”

“Right...” Viola replied, decidedly not resolute at all. She didn’t think she could ever be quite so confident in her convictions. Especially when she considered what was going to happen after they dealt with Echelon, one way or the other.

After all, though she’d never actually met Osoth, she didn’t get the impression she was the type of person who would stop playing just because one of her toys was broken.

“First we have to deal with Ami,” Aubrey said succinctly. “If we can’t beat her, we stand no chance against Echelon or any of her allies.”

“A-and when we... Deal with Echelon. However that ends up happening. What then?”

Once again, Aubrey’s silence was deafening. “Osoth will likely consume us and repurpose our remains into new, more obedient Inklings.”

“Right.” Unacceptable, as far as Viola was concerned.

“It’s like I said. No plan is perfect. Sometimes... Sometimes people have to die.”

“If a plan requires people to die then it’s not a very good plan.”

Aubrey sighed. “You’re not wrong. Maybe... Maybe we should try standing against Osoth after all.” She sat down again, slumping backwards in the chair. “No... No, that’s not an option. Osoth would still view us as faulty and would still consume us. And I see no possibility of overcoming her. This is a no-win scenario.”

Viola frowned. “I don’t think there’s such a thing.”

“I wish I could agree with you, but...”

“Well,” Viola said, “that’s.. That’s for later. Right now we need to focus on Ami.”

“You’re right,” Aubrey said. “This ends tomorrow. One way or the other.”

~~~~~~

Viola ached all over. That was getting to be an unpleasantly familiar scenario at this point. Every night she slept on dirt or concrete and every morning she woke up feeling like she’d slept on dirt or concrete. It was an unfortunate reality, and would probably stay a reality for the foreseeable future. After all, even once they... dealt with Ami, there was still the unpleasantness in Locksmouth. There was no way they were going to be able to justify not immediately going off to intervene in the civil war, and Viola heavily doubted they’d be able to find a bed while there.

Slowly, she pulled herself up off the hard, cold ground. It was telling that standing up was currently the most comfortable position she could be in. She did a few basic stretches she’d seen Ursula do before in a futile attempt to vanquish the stiffness that had seeped into every single joint and muscle. Not super surprising. She wasn’t typically the most active person in the world as a baseline. Combining sleeping on the ground with maybe one of her packmates as a pillow if she was lucky with being on her feet for almost the entirety of yesterday and it was no wonder she felt like shit.

She lumbered her way over to the backpack, pulling out a snack bar and grabbing one of the canteens. Breakfast of champions. God, she’d kill for a cup of coffee. She slumped against a nearby wall – she didn’t quite have the energy to stand up for prolonged periods of time just yet, even if sitting wasn’t exactly comfortable – and tucked in. It wasn’t exactly the nicest breakfast, but it was better than nothing. Or, worse, more paste.

The snack bar went unfortunately quickly. They were not, unfortunately, particularly filling – hence snack bar and not full meal bar. They were designed to give people a quick burst of carbs and calories and other nutrition as a stopgap between meals, not to be meals. Maybe it would help if she ate two or three, but the problem with that was that their supply was significantly limited. If they all ate their fill, then there’d probably not be enough food to last them until they got out. Even factoring in that they were probably going to get out today, one way or the other.

“What time is it?” she muttered to herself, pulling out her PET. They’d gone to bed on August sixth and it was now early in the morning on August seventh, which was actually a lot more sleep than she’d expected. Especially factoring in that they’d not actually even been awake all that long the previous day. Most of it had been spent walking before they found the Colosseum and the rest had been fights – none of which had lasted particularly long. It had only taken Ursula about five minutes to beat the Marquess, even if it had felt like an eternity. And, while she hadn’t exactly timed it, the fight against Makoto couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes tops, and the poker game maybe fifteen. They’d fallen asleep not long after that, all of them mentally and physically exhausted. So, really, it wasn’t actually all that surprising that she’d slept as long as she had.

Nor was it particularly surprising that she seemed to be the only one who was awake so far. The rest of her pack was cuddled in a small heap that she had previously been a part of. A three-way deathgrip hug that she was honestly shocked she’d managed to extricate herself from. She couldn’t help but smile slightly. Things weren’t exactly good, but... at least they weren’t fighting constantly anymore.

Still, something about this felt... off. Wrong, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it at first. Still too tired, to freshly awake to properly parse exactly what was different. It wasn’t that her friends were behaving like friends again, sort of. That, at least, had been cemented with the group OC and the team attack that had beaten Makoto. She could believe that their relationship was, if not completely repaired, then at least no longer on the immediate verge of collapse. No, it was something else. Something her still groggy mind couldn’t quite put a finger on, not at first. Not until she remembered that they’d gone to sleep on the dirt floor of the Colosseum, and nowhere particularly near any walls like the one she found herself sitting against. The ground had also been dirt. Not exactly soft, but certainly not nearly this solid. White. Featureless. Sterile. Just like everything else. A big, empty cube, with a familiar looking doorway off on the far wall and another, less familiar looking doorway a few feet away from where she was sitting.

Viola’s heart slowly sank into the pit of her stomach as she realized what she was seeing. Where they were. And, more importantly, where they weren’t.

Specifically, they weren’t in Ami’s game anymore. There were only so many reasons that could be. Maybe Ami had gotten mad enough about their attempted cheating that she had dropped all pretense. Maybe the soldiers had somehow turned Ami off, or whatever power source she was running on had run out.

But somehow, Viola instinctively knew that wasn’t the case, and the sense of welling panic she could feel in the back of her mind confirmed that Aubrey was thinking the same thing as her. They hadn’t tried to leave, and they hadn’t gotten outside help (sort of), and it hadn’t yet been five days. There was only other loss condition that Viola was aware of. And it was, without a doubt, the worst case scenario.

“Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.” Adrenaline once more kicked in, pulling her upright as she scrambled over to where her pack still slept. At the same time, translucent blue ink flowed from nowhere to slowly envelop her body. “Guys, wake up! Now!”

“Oogh.”

“What?”

“Five more minutes...”

“No! Not five more minutes! Now!”

“Okay, okay, I’m up, I’m up,” Ursula grumbled, rubbing her eyes groggily. “What’s the issue?”

“It’s obviously urgent,” Erin muttered, stretching idly. “Or else- Or else Viola wouldn’t be inked? Darling, what’s going on?”

“Woah, uh, guys? Where’d the Colosseum go?” Vienna interjected.

“It’s gone,” Viola said, panic mounting. “The whole game’s gone.”

“Holy shit, yeah,” Ursula said, taking in the complete lack of any surroundings aside from a big, white cube. She attempted to stand up, only to wince and flop back down. “Ow, fuck. Shit.”

“Are you alright, darling?”

“No. I was right, I haven’t recovered enough to do any fighting.”

“Viola,” Vienna said, trying as hard as she could to hold on to her composure even as the same realization her twin had already had slowly sank in. “What’s going on.”

“The game’s over,” Viola said. “We were too late. Locksmouth has fallen. Osoth’s won.”