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

[kingshaming]

...I know better now. But by the time I learned, it was too late to change anything. I was already deeply tangled in EP's dealings.

[ratherdoweddings]

Oh, no... so they really did have that power they've been saying, and it's hurt you all this time.

[kingshaming]

At first they promised me Corrin's return. When I finally refused to bend her to my will they threaten Nohr.

When I told them I was done they said they would tell you all how I betrayed you, and they suggested... that in another time and place, Corrin made a choice that might have saved us all. And that they might be able to do something with that.

In the end I refused to do more, and begged for this to only end. And it did. They used the last thing I would not allow to come to harm. All of you.

[stitch_in_time]

It's never-

[Except sometimes it is too late, isn't it.]

[The Doctor hangs his head for a moment.]

I'm sorry.

[kingshaming]

Don't be. This is a bed I made for myself.

[stitch_in_time]

No it's not. It hasn't been for over a month now. You might've made some bad choices, but they've been stacking the odds.

[kingshaming]

Perhaps. But I would have you not grieve too much over me.

[stitch_in_time]

Huh, too late for that. I've got nine-hundred years of grief already, a little more's not gonna hurt me.

Might hurt the Benefactors, though. Might hurt them like hell.

[kingshaming]

Please do. I told EP I would be waiting for them when you all track them down and gut them.

[Said with utter faith that they would do so]

[refusedtoleave]

How long has this been going on for?

[kingshaming]

Since the third week.

[refusedtoleave]

...Did they tell you anything else? About us? [She looks up at him, suspicious.]

[kingshaming]

No. And I told them nothing about you, except in passing in relation to the Overseers themselves. No secrets passed my lips... sadly that means I learned none from them either.

[refusedtoleave]

[She sighs, and seems almost relived to hear that.]

Which means they made sure not to tell you anything useful.