"Us?!" Dana repeats, appalled.  Her face is drained of color.

Rowan nods. "Yup.  You guys.  So now that the cat's out of the bag, we can go back and fill in the blanks."

Before anyone can respond- I don't know if anyone would be able to, anyways- they keep signing. "The date was May 5th.  You were all planning the street fighter's birthday party, because you knew that he barely celebrates.  But, well... I had other plans.  I, along with my two partners in crime, was ready to get the despair ball rolling.  To do this, we had to... cause an incident.  Somehow break your minds and make you all cave to despair in one foul swoop.  There was only one obvious thing to do.  What causes the most despair?"

I have a feeling I know before they even say it.  And then it's said.

"...the death of a friend, of course."

I feel like I'm going to throw up, and try to swallow the bile built up in my throat but fail. Rowan just keeps going, clearly taking pleasure in our reactions.

"But who could make a good sacrifice?  The youngest of the group?  Perhaps.  The innocent engineer?  No, we needed him to succumb to despair because of his unmatched engineering skills.  How about... a selfless hydroponics specialist, loved by everyone?  Perfect.  He was so naive when asked to take a mysterious elevator down to an unknown level he'd never heard anything about.  But he'd been told that he was needed for something as a representative of his class, and he'd been determined to make you all proud.  So he went without question.  The elevator, of course, dropped him in a winding, twisted death trap of a hallway.  I'd mocked him and berated him the entire time, but he never even flinched.  He showed no fear until the real torture began.  Spikes, falling rocks... soon, he was limping and unable to use an eye.  He was in pain, and he was scared.  It was just how we'd needed him to be-"

"Stop," Will interrupts, shaking his head.  His voice cracks as he begs, "No more.  Please."

"Oh, that's right!  We're talking about your little friend now, aren't we?" Rowan smiles. "I'm sure you must be feeling such despair hearing me talk about the way he was tortured.  The amount of blood, the way his body just wanted to give out and stop.  But do you know why he kept going?  Because he thought of you guys.  Because he wanted to live to see you all again and let you all know he was okay.  He loved you all so much, it just makes me sick thinking about it.  He was so full of... hope." 

I can feel the bitterness in the last word as Rowan signs it.

"Please stop," Will whispers, his eyes wide and glimmering with tears.

Rowan ignores him, but clearly hears him judging by the way they smile again. "I let him get to the end.  I let him see the fake exit, with holograms of you all happily waiting for him.  It made him so... so happy.  And then he was sawed in half.  The light, gone from his eyes in a split second.  Blood everywhere.  Despair in the air.  You all got to see this from a screen in the safety of the floor above you.  You know what happened then?  You succumbed to despair.  It stripped you all of who you were and twisted it into something that craved only darkness and misery.  You all became the Remnants of Despair and sought- and succeeded, if I may add- to wreak havoc on the world."

They pause for a moment. "Well... all of you but one."

This causes me to stop and think.  There's one person who was able to fight off the despair Zeben's death caused.  But who?  Selfishly, I want to believe it was me, but I know that like the deaths I witnessed here in this virtual Jabberwock setting, I wouldn't bounce back like that.  It takes only another few seconds for me to come to the realization.

"Stolas," I say quietly. "It was Stolas."

"That's correct!" Rowan signs. "And I should've expected it from him to be capable of fighting back.  Once you all succumbed to despair and f*cked up the planet, Stolas got to work defending the world as much as he could- getting people to safety, shutting down killer robots, all that cheesy heroic stuff.  But when the Future Foundation captured all of you, they believed Stolas to be a Remnant of Despair as well, and took him in to trap in your little simulation as well.  Stolas, of course, chose to not fight back, and so he wound up in the simulation as well.  In fact, because your memories were all wiped specifically of 'memories of despair', the memory wiping didn't actually work on Stolas, so he knew the truth of everything going on during his time here.  Now, Detective L'Olonnais, want to take a guess at why Stolas killed Marzy and Furfur?"

Stolas had told us that we would understand one day.  And now, I'm starting to.

"So he knew that we were the Remnants of Despair," I start slowly. "And we'd destroyed the world before getting trapped in here, where we couldn't hurt anyone else.  I... I'm guessing you hijacked it for your killing game, then?"

"Yup!  You're right so far.  Now put it together- why did Stolas become a blackened?" Rowan presses.

I pause for a moment before continuing. "The rules of your killing game stated that if a blackened got away with their crime, everyone else would be executed.  So by creating his elaborate murder case and framing Iris, he would've gotten all the Remnants of Despair killed and therefore manage to ensure the world could never be harmed by us again."

"That's all correct.  Stolas never wanted to hurt any of you, but knew he had to put you all out of your misery.  He couldn't stand by and allow you all to have a chance at returning to the real world only to hurt it more.  He was a good guy under all that mysterious tough-guy stuff."

Rowan shakes their head. "Anyways, the point of this trial was to tell you that this is all a simulation and you guys are the Remnants of Despair, but also to give you guys one last choice to make.  You have two options for how you'd like to go about all this.  You can Graduate or Repeat.  The thing is, if one person chooses a different answer than the rest, I pick what happens and reserve the right to change rules how I want.  If you all wish to Repeat, you can continue living on this virtual island forever, your friends all stay dead, and I'm forced to stay here with you.  But I'm sure I can act just like your friends if you want me to!"

They pull out a small device and tap on a few things before their image suddenly flickers, and Caim is standing there, smiling.

"See?" he chirps. "It's like he never died!"

"No.  You may look like Caim and sound like Caim, but you're not Caim," Will seethes through gritted teeth.

"Caim" frowns and taps on the device again, Rowan standing there once more.

"The second option," they sign, "Is to Graduate.  You all get to leave here with your island memories and no memories of your despair life.  But I get to leave too, and bring my AI counterpart with me.  I'll upload the AI into the bodies of your friends and revive them for you!  The one issue is... well... they'll be me.  Trust me, I don't like the idea of a ton of me's running around, but you'll have your friends back."

"That's also terrible!" Evangeline cries.

"Well, those are your two options.  What will you pick?" Rowan taunts. "One or the other.  It's up to you-"

"No, that's wrong!" a new voice echoes around the room.  I watch as a figure glitches to life behind an unoccupied podium.  

I don't recognize him, but Rowan seems to.

"Well, long time no see," they greet with a wave.

The dark-haired guy narrows his brown eyes.  I don't even notice the dog next to him until it begins to growl at Rowan.  The guy then turns to address the rest of us.

"Sorry if I startled you," he apologizes. "And sorry it took so long, too.  We were scrambling to get another headset working.  Oh- I'm Jax Martini-Richards, the Ultimate Dog Trainer.  I'm with the Future Foundation; I'm a survivor from the first killing game."

I look down at the name engraved on his podium.  J. Martini-Richards.  He's right.

Jax continues, "Anyways, Rowan is lying.  There's a third option the Future Foundation installed in the system.  The actual option that was developed for the program.  It's a shutdown sequence.  For it to work, over half of the class needs to press the option on their digital handbook.  Once activated, we'll all wake up in the real world, and there's no way to tell what you guys will be like.  Either you'll regain your memories from before the sweep and lose the ones you've made since, or the opposite.  There's no telling.  But Rowan's AI will get erased, and maybe..."

He pauses.

"Maybe what?" Will snaps. "How do we even know you're actually gonna help us?"

"You just have to trust me," Jax answers. "But... none of your friends are actually dead-dead.  They're all comatose, as far as we know.  There's a chance they'll wake up.  It's slim, but it's there.  You just have to hope."

"I think you're missing the problem," Dana sighs. "Over half the class?  That's at least nine people.  Us plus you is only six.  It's not an option."

Jax meets her daze, a determined light in his eyes. "It would be if there were only six of us."

As he's saying that, the air glitches out once more as two more figures pop into existence behind podiums.  

"Ugh, that sucked," the blonde with a camera around her neck complains. "Sorry we're late, Jax.  We were practically tearing the place apart to find more headsets."

"Don't worry about it, all that matters is that you're here now," he says.

Rowan snickers. "Aw, the gang's all here!  How cute.  Are you going to defeat me with the power of friendship?  Just let me know so I can plan equally-cheesy final words."

"There's still not enough people," Dana reminds us. "We're at eight.  We need nine."

"Right." Jax exchanges glances with the two new figures.

"Relax, we thought it through," the golden-blonde in an olive rain jacket tells him with a small smile.

I expect something to suddenly happen as she says that, but unfortunately, dramatic entrances only seem to happen successfully the first three times.  

"...are you sure?" Jax asks the golden-blonde again.

"The adrenaline rush from all of this is wearing off, I'm going to have a massive mental breakdown soon," Dana warns them. "I'd prefer to get out of this situation before then."

"Maybe it's better if we just pick one of the choices given to us," I shrug.  It sure seems like that's our only choice.

"No!  No, don't do that, Azz!" a familiar voice pleads, and I turn to see a pair of familiar brown eyes staring at me worriedly.

Will's jaw drops, a tear sliding down his face.

Standing behind the podium next to me is Zeben, his hands on his hips like always.  He gives me a warm smile, as if nothing had ever happened.

"We got his programming restored, thank god for backup data," the blonde with the camera says proudly.

"And because I was coded in a student role, I count as a student vote," Zeben adds.

Rowan's expression darkens. "Wh- ugh!  God DAMN IT!  This- this is... this is stupid!  Stupid, stupid, STUPID!"

Their hands shake as they sign, the words being thrown out in a more aggressive manner. "It always ends like this!  I always get shoved back down!  It's STUPID!  STUPID, STUPID!  It's just- it's not- UGH!"

Unable to channel their anger into words anymore, they just cross their arms and glare at us before tapping something into their device again and vanishing.

"We'll have to deal with them properly once we're back in the real world," the blonde says to the golden-blonde.

"Let's take this one step at a time," the golden-blonde responds, gesturing to all of us in the room with the.

"Alright, are you ready?" Jax asks us. "I... I know it's a lot to take in.  But after this, the Future Foundation will be more than happy to help you guys recover in a proper manner this time."

"Wait," Will says suddenly. "Can we... wait a minute?"

He walks out from behind his podium and goes to walk towards Zeben when he stops, as if his feet are refusing to budge.  He looks torn between wanting to keep going and not wanting to let himself have this moment.  Zeben looks at him for a moment before jumping over the side of his podium, barely staying balanced as he runs to Will and pulls him into a tight hug.  The videographer gasps at the impact, his hands gripping onto the back of Zeben's shirt as the tears begin to fall more freely.  Watching this all happen almost makes me want to cry too.

Finally, Zeben pulls out and gives Will a soft smile. "You'll be okay?"

Will swallows and nods, wiping at his eyes. "Yeah.  Yeah.  I'll be okay."

Zeben offers Will his hand, and he takes it, squeezing it tightly as they both go to take out their digital handbooks with their free hands.  

"...we're ready," Will finally says, his voice reverberating around the court room.  He gives Zeben a nod, finally cracking a smile.

"Alright.  Everyone press and hold the center button on your screen in three..." Jax starts.

I look at Zeben again.  I can't believe this is the last time I'll ever get to see him.

"Two..."

I look at Dana, then Evangeline, then Will and Iris.  I hope things are okay when we get out of here.  I hope we don't go back to however we were as the Remnants of Despair. 

All of this feels surreal.  I can't believe the last two weeks have just been virtual reality.  And I can't believe it's ending like this.  But no matter what happens next, I want to hold onto the hope that it's all going to get better.  That the best-case scenario will happen.  These thoughts made me feel a spark of motivation.  Words dance in my head as I think about what I'll write my next poem about.  Maybe I'll stop with loss for a little while.  After all, as the incredible Emily Dickinson once said, "Hope is a thing with feathers".

"One."

I tap the button, keep my finger pressed against the screen, and close my eyes.

***

(2443 words)

Dayummmm now just the epilogue y'all-

Also for those who were confused, yes, I added a part to the previous chapter because I forgot to mention they're in a virtual world ;0;