Despair's Insanity - an II x DR fic

AGT - Final Trial

You know how these work. We all do by now.

Yet, nobody said anything. Minutes on end, nobody even thought to begin the trial we'd all been wanting to get to for this entire game. The finish line had gotten so close, and yet I wasn't sure if I even wanted to reach it anymore. Everything was shattered, and all of us felt together, yet broken apart at the same time.

Fan, who had sat atop his throne, looked puzzled by our collective form of protest. "What are you guys doing? All you gotta do is find the traitor now- and it's pretty obvious who that is!"

Still, silence. That was when I noticed Trophy looking right at me. His expression was neutral and numb, but all he did was nod. Everything suddenly hit me at once. I finally found my voice.

"Fan didn't want me to kill Tissues. He never told anyone else about consequences, or even encourage them to think about what they were about to do."

"And?" Apple asked. "Maybe he just really likes you. Besides, if he was protecting Tissues, an alleged traitor, wouldn't Tissues be alive right now?"

"The traitor probably wanted to protect his soon-to-be-late fiancé." As soon as the words left my lips, Apple turned right to Trophy, whose demeanor hadn't changed in the slightest. "Well?" I insisted, raising a brow, "are you going to try and explain yourself at ALL? Nobody even knew what you were doing this whole time... you could've easily been working behind the scenes to screw us over."

"And I was." Such a calm, swift reply from Trophy caught me completely off guard. My jaw dropped a bit, almost comically, but he remained perfectly still. "I was assigned to collect photos of everything going on within the game. Get close with everyone, take a few photos, find out the secrets, and spread the information to our directors."

Get close to everyone? Hard to say he made any effort to do that until possibly just now, but that's when we were investigating to get him caught today... I looked at him, expecting him to provide context.

He did after a deep breath. "Well, I didn't bother. Sat in my room all day, photoshopping rigged models I made of everyone to impress the directors. You shouldn't fuck with a photographer that was forced to be a child model back in the day- he knows how to make ANYTHING look real."

"Excuse me?" Fan spoke up, and I looked at him to see sparks flying out of his reddened left eye. He looked genuinely pissed off as he stepped off of his throne. "You just lied to the directors? Do you know how much talking I had to do to keep YOU alive?! The contracts, the paperwork, I even had to change the roster just to put you IN this stupid game!"

"Woah woah woah!" Apple exclaimed. "IN? He wasn't a part of the roster?!"

"No! I specifically took him out of the name generator- but when he realized Tissues was in the roster, he BEGGED me to stay and keep him safe! It was so... pathetic. Even for Trophy."

Trophy shrugged. "What can I say? All of you guys would've loved to flay him the second you could've. I prolonged his life, and maybe his suffering- but at least I got to say bye. And then I could actively hinder the operation. Doesn't make me a hero, but I feel good enough about it. And besides, it was either that or be treated like I'm your fucking husband."

"You're my best friend, Trophy." Fan stepped closer to the podiums, eyeing Trophy as Bomb and Microphone shuffled away from him. "I gave you what you wanted so badly: attention. What did you give me? Nothing. You are so intrinsically selfish that you can't even understand how much I've sacrificed for YOU in particular. The amount of trouble and hassle I went through to make you happy, and to appease you."

"I didn't ask you to do any of it! You did it to make me happy, that's not on me! You made the choice to care. I don't even care if I end up dead at the end of all this- that's why I'm fucking up this trial. I did what I sought out to do, and now you get to pick up the pieces. So Y'know what? Fuck. You." Trophy and Fan had started to stand just a couple inches apart, both of their glares shooting daggers at one another. I almost thought to interrupt them before a fight broke out, but then a voice came out from the speakers.

"You did your best Fan, but it wasn't all that impressive. How about you just call it quits and let me take over for you?"

The voice felt familiar. Apathetic and soothing at the same time... my heart sank as a short figure emerged from the elevator.

"...b-bluebear...?"