sixth trial

[airlockedmods]

[Six weeks, thirteen Champion dead out of their original twenty as well one half of the former Overseer pair. With Jamie now counted as a fellow Champion in the Benefactors' eyes, their numbers have dwindled down to eight.

C.E.C.E.'s announcement sounds and for what may be the last time the Champions must file to the teleporter with their evidence and the Champion Landscape Artist now officially among them. The courtroom is empty this time around, the floating platform as empty as the updated circle of surviving Champion's podiums. Jamie makes a small, humorless sound when he sees the lack of a portrait at Lightning's podium and his own name in glaring green where she once stood.

There's no Bolton to speak to them this time around so it's C.E.C.E. whose voice rings from on high.]

Welcome, Champions, to the courtroom. Eight of you have entered, but if you vote correctly only seven of you will leave. Compile your evidence and select the correct culprit is. If you vote correctly, the culprit will be executed and the rest of you will be allowed to go back upstairs.

Thank you!

Comments

[stitch_in_time]

And the shutdown put that into jeopardy.

[Dozens of people, at Xander's hand. What was risking, even condemning, less than a dozen more? If they were already doomed to slow death from isolation and madness...]

[His entire race. Two and a half billion children versus the fate of the entire universe.]

[Just like with Toby, he'd been too blind-]

Who turned your PIP back on? They would've given you some kind of emergency contact- EP, the Benefactors?

[kingshaming]

[He shakes his head softly, amused, like he can tell the Doctor is making an assumption. But he makes no move to correct him]

It was EP, yes.

[stitch_in_time]

[He squints, for just a second, at that headshake. Something...]

Do you know who they are?

[kingshaming]

No, they gave me no details about themselves.

[stitch_in_time]

How did you contact them during the lockdown?

[kingshaming]

I didn't. I thought they had abandoned me with everyone else. They contacted me early this morning.

[stitch_in_time]

"Here's the teleporter, go kill someone and the lockdown ends," was that it?

[Why Bolton then, specifically...]

...Wait, no. What was the exact message, can you remember?

[kingshaming]

'Kill Mr. White, and the lockdown ends'

I demanded more assurance, that after my death they would never take from Nohr again. They agreed.

[imnotfat]

They never mentioned why Bolton was the target?

[Jamie was closer to you in terms of location, after all. Or maybe that's why. Bolton was in another floor]

[kingshaming]

No. And I am sure even if I had asked they wouldn't have told me.

[curdle]

Bolton was the one tasked with bringing us to heel, not Jamie. Perchance he knew things this EP would not have shared.

[refusedtoleave]

Did he say anything to you? If he already knew about this.

[kingshaming]

We talked for a bit, yes.

[refusedtoleave]

What about?

[kingshaming]

[Well...]

[cyan_maid]

...He had to of seen you coming, with those mirrors. What happened between you and Bolton exactly?

[kingshaming]

He saw me come in, I made no attempt to hide from him. He seemed resigned- though I don't think he had prewarning. Just... likely he knew that something was going to happen.

He said something along the lines that 'I guess Togami was right'. So I don't think he knew there was a mole for sure.

We spoke for a bit. He asked me if I even knew why he was targeted... but when I pressed him for more information he only laughed. I suppose I deserved it.

He... he asked that I... that we get Jamie out of here, and that I make it as painless as possible. Which I did. He... He felt no pain. I know how to take a head well.

[cyan_maid]

...They targeted him for a reason. It would have been easy to tell you to kill Jamie - he was right there with you. They must have felt...that Bolton was a threat to them.

[Even without Jamie's life hanging over him...]

...Oh, God...there must be something I'm missing. I feel like - it's right in front of me, it has to be, why be worried about a barista...

[imnotfat]

...!

[Maybe...]

Jane. Does anything of what Bolton said when I mentioned that seem suspicious to you?

[stitch_in_time]

[It definitely feels like you're close to something, Jane. If this works, will you finally believe you're brilliant?]

Not just a Barista, someone who'd been working for them, who'd survived one of these experiments, who'd been on this station for a year...

Jane, you were in his room longer than I was, was there anything that stood out?

[refusedtoleave]

He was helpful, to an extent anyway. He'd answer when I spoke to him, tell me when he wasn't allowed to answer...Maybe that was too much.

[stitch_in_time]

You said, earlier, you asked CECE if it still counted when a culprit was acting against their own will, why was that?

[He'd been hoping for something more, something that wasn't as in-line with their previous incentives, but-]

....They've never singled out a victim before. The other incentives, even when they were personalized, they never specified a single target.

[kingshaming]

Because while I carried out the crime, it was under their orders. I was more a sword then a man.

...maybe I held out a bit of hope.

Mods

[stitch_in_time]

Maybe-

[No, it wouldn't that be simple, but maybe there's something-]

CECE! The Benefactors can punish Champions for rule breaking, yes? But there's no specification on how that punishment has to happen in the rules.

[airlockedmods]

I do not know what you mean, Doctor..