The three of them sat at a cafeteria table together in silence. Tommie couldn't get the image of Evan's skewered body out of her head. If it wasn't one dead person burned into her brain, then it was another. It was almost routine at this point.

"So..." Jax paused as he fumbled for words. "...What now?"

"...That's a good point," Tommie agreed.

Dawn stared blankly into space. It seemed like she was finally breaking to the point where she couldn't hide it.

"Isn't this just depressing?" Ace commented, their voice echoing from the loudspeakers.

"What do you want?" Jax demanded, but his eyes revealed how tired he was.

"I just thought you all would like to know that I've opened up the fifth and final floor! And... every room that has been locked prior to this has been unlocked as well!"

"So?" Tommie snapped. "What's it matter to us? It won't bring anyone back from the dead."

She then paused, thinking about what Ace had just said. Now that she really considered it, she realized that there was a room that had been locked. The room inside the one with all the screens.

"Actually," she added, "Let's go check out the new areas."

Dawn and Jax both looked at her, a little confused by the sudden change in attitude. However, neither commented on it and instead followed her out of the room. They were about to continue when Tommie stopped dead in her tracks as she turned the corner.

Her camera was just sitting there, on the ground.

She stared at it for a long moment, images of Stratus's hanged body flashing through her mind before she could even begin to try fighting back. How could she touch it when it had just been used to suspend a corpse in the air? She didn't think she would ever be able to rid that thought from her head. But the camera did mean too much to her to never use again, so she took a deep breath, bent down, and collected her most prize possession.

"How the hell did it get there?" Jax asked, as if reading everyone's thoughts.

"I'm not sure," Tommie said. "I guess we won't be finding out, though."

She swore she heard Ace's chuckle, though, as they continued down the hallway.

"I'll be honest, I didn't know that there was a locked door up here," Jax admitted. "Must've overlooked it."

As they walked up the staircase to the second floor, Tommie glanced down at her camera.

"Hey, do you guys... wanna take a picture together?" She turned to look at her remaining companions.

Dawn gave her a smile. "Wonderful idea."

The three of them approached the next staircase, Tommie setting the camera on one of the steps and hurrying back to her friends to pose before the flash went off. She nearly fell into Jax, but she was smiling now, and that was what mattered. She picked up the camera to check the photo. It was better than she'd anticipated- all three looked happy to still have each other. It was all they had now, so it was worth appreciating.

Her finger slipped as she tried to return to the normal screen, only to nearly drop the camera in surprise. She let out a small gasp, which immediately caused Dawn and Jax to approach.

"What's wrong?" Jax's gaze drifted down to the screen, and his brown eyes widened in shock.

"My goodness," Dawn breathed, stunned by what she was seeing.

It was an image of Stratus's body while it was still tied up on the ground, but an unseen figure behind the camera was using their hand with Stratus's limp one to form a heart using their fingers.

"What sick bastard would do that?" Jax exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well it wasn't you, that's for sure," Tommie told him, pointing at the image. "Skin tone's different. And the mystery person has black nails, which you don't have either."

"How odd," Dawn commented with a frown.

They finally made it to the fourth floor several minutes later, immediately making their way into the room with the screens. There was nothing obviously suspicious in the screen room, but that was okay, given it certainly wasn't the main attraction. Tommie approached the previously-locked door, took a deep breath, and opened it.

Inside the small, dark room was a single table with an open laptop and a jar.

"That's it?" Jax raised an eyebrow.

Dawn approached the laptop. "It appears that a password is required."

"Um, 1234," Tommie guessed. So they were playing this game now.

Dawn punched in the numbers. "It didn't work."

"Nah, it wouldn't be that easy," Jax argued. "It would be a more random number combination, like, um... 11037."

"Who said it's gotta be numbers?" Tommie challenged.

"11...0...3...7," Dawn was saying as she punched in the code.

"How about HopesPeakAcademy?" Jax suggested.

"Or just HopesPeak," Tommie said.

"MurderSchool."

"KillingGame."

"DeadChildren123."

"Okay, I doubt it will be any of those," Dawn said, looking up from the computer to glare over her shoulder at the other two. "Let's actually think about it for a moment."

"Try Monokumace, I dunno," Tommie shrugged.

Dawn typed it in, and all three of them took a moment to process as the laptop unlocked.

"No way that actually worked," Jax said, surprised.

Dawn moved the cursor around the screen before clicking on a file. "I found a video."

The three watched as the video loaded, revealing who Tommie recognized to be the dirty-blonde person from the photo in the headmaster's office. They looked tired as they spoke to the computer.

"I, um, am not sure how long it's been," they began. "This project's been taking a little longer than I anticipated. And sometimes it just has a mind of its own, y'know? Well, anyways, the kids are all safe and well-informed on our current... situation. It ain't pretty, but I'm doing my best to keep 'em safe. I just hope that I can get this all finished up- I can sure use a hand around here. How am I supposed to do this all by myself?"

After a moment, they continued. "But at least they all have hope. That's the most important thing- it's even in the name of the school. HOPE'S Peak Academy. I think that so long as they hold onto that hope, we'll make it through whatever happens next."

With that, the screen went black, signaling the end of the video.

"Um," Jax started. "Who...?"

"The old headmaster, I think," Tommie explained. "I guess this is about the class they were in charge of?"

"Then why aren't they here for us, if they were looking after the school?" Jax pointed out.

Dawn took this time to peek inside of the jar. She squinted to make out the contents before inhaling sharply all of a sudden.

"I think I know," she said, putting the lid back on the jar and setting it down once more on the table.

It took Tommie a moment to process, but once she understood the implication of Dawn's words, she felt sick.

"Hey, what about that file?" Jax gestured to another file on the computer desktop labeled Class 070.

Dawn moved the cursor to the file and clicked on it. Immediately, several videos popped up within the file. 070-001, 070-002, 070-003... it went on. Tommie watched as Dawn selected the first one. When the video loaded, her heart stopped.

"And you accept?" came the headmaster's voice from offscreen.

Her arms crossed and a determined look on her face, Amy Diaz, Ultimate Martial Artist, said, "I accept."

***

(1215 words)

Wowwww what the honk is going on now-