"Are you sure that's your final answer?" Ace asked, leaning towards the trio and kicking their legs in anticipation.

"Tommie, we can't afford to guess wrong," Dawn reminded her.

"I know," Tommie sighed.  Her logic wasn't the best, but it made sense to her.  And it was the only strong lead they had.

"But what other options do we have?" she pointed out.

Jax took a deep breath. "I trust you, Tommie.  Please don't be wrong."

She gave him a small smile.  He forced a smile in return.  Tommie turned to Dawn, who nodded.

"Then if that's your guess, here we go!  Your answer is now locked in." Ace stood up on their throne and put their monochromatic hands on their hips. "The mastermind behind the killing game... and the person who has been controlling me this entire time... is..."

As they spoke, a cloud of fog began to fill the room.  Tommie covered her eyes with her hands and tried not to inhale as her vision became impaired.  Finally, when it was clear enough to see again, the first thing she noticed was that Ace was limp in their throne, their once-glowing red eye now a dark, lifeless crimson.  It seemed to be the only thing different at the moment, and that was what made her nervous.  Until she turned to apologize to her friends and nearly jumped a mile in the air.

Leaning against the previously-unoccupied podium was a short, freckled kid with fluffy auburn hair that covered their left eye.  They wore a gray hoodie with one black and one white sleeve, ripped jeans, black sneakers, and a pair of headphones around their neck with a pattern reminiscent of Ace's eyes and grin.  They also wore a pair of black and white fingerless gloves that moved with their hands as they spoke.  Or at least, a robotic voice over the loudspeakers spoke for them as it seemed to translate whatever they were doing with their hands.

"Hi," Rowan Ambys, the Ultimate Gamer, signed.

"Who are you?" Jax paused before it seemed to dawn on him that this was the mysterious tenth student Tommie had brought up.  He looked over at her with an equally astounded and impressed expression.

"I'm the mastermind," Rowan answered, smiling. "What?  Surprised that a kid like me can do something that crazy?"

"No, no, I..." Dawn trailed off as she tried to find the words she wanted to use. "Just... why?"

"I'm glad you asked!" the mastermind clapped their hands before continuing to sign, "It's a long story, but I'm sure you all have the time to spare.  After all, I control everything here."

As the last few robotic words faded from the speakers, they were met with silence. "Alright, so this is me.  The mastermind.  But even more well-known as the Ultimate Gamer.  The best of the best.  Not everyone really believed it or cared about it, surprise, surprise.  Because why respect that when the person themself is small, half-blind, mute, and just weak?  Someone like that's an easy target for bullying.  And that's what happened!  I hated everything.  Gaming was the only thing I could find solace in.  Everything else was just so god damn despairing.  Sometimes, I wished that others could feel the same despair that I felt.  Hell, I rejected that invite to come here because I was too scared of getting bullied."

"Well, I'm sorry you had to go through all that, nobody deserves to-" Dawn was immediately cut off.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever.  The Ultimate Psychologist feels pity for me." Rowan laughed quietly for a moment. "I got a response back a few months after the school years started asking me to come in for a talk, and that it would be in my best interest to come.  As much as I didn't wanna do it, I knew that I could just back out again and that would be it.  But something about the letter was weird.  It told me to come to the front doors at four in the morning and go up to the headmaster's office on the fourth floor.  I assumed that they were helping me avoid other students, so I decided to f*ck it and just go.  Turns out, it was Monokumace who had wanted to speak with me, not the headmaster.  A long time ago, the headmaster, Ace Dunnit, had built MK as an assistant headmaster.  But 'cause Dunnit wasn't really skilled in engineering, MK didn't function properly.  MK killed the headmaster and, because the students already trusted MK, claimed that the headmaster was away trying to rescue other students for a while."

"Rescue students?  From what?" Jax demanded.

Rowan grinned. "From this."

They pulled a remote out of their pocket and pressed a button.  Immediately, several screens lowered from the ceiling and flickered on, revealing... Tommie's eyes widened in shock.

It was the outside world, and it was in ruins.  The sky was a blood orange, smoke and flames rising from the ashes and rubble of what used to be buildings.  Cars were crashed and lampposts were bent or toppled completely.  Any buildings that remained standing were dark and seemingly abandoned.  

"What the hell?" Jax gaped at the sight. "Is this a joke?"

"Nope.  Just cold, hard reality."

"Why would you be in on this?" Dawn's voice wavered as she spoke. "I still don't understand.  And why is the world suddenly ending?!"

"Oh, right.  You all ask too many questions.  I might never get to finish telling my super-evil backstory." Rowan cracked their knuckles before continuing. "So yeah, MK was Headmaster Dunnit's creation, and they killed Dunnit.  Continuing on, MK had these grand ideas of entertaining the world during such a crisis like this, and 'cause I've got nothing to lose, I agreed to help out.  In case you didn't know, the title of Ultimate Gamer isn't earned just by playing games- it's by making them, too.  So I fixed MK's programming to be more stable, and we began plotting the killing game.  It took us months to figure out all the rules, and more importantly, how to show it off to the world!"

"Hang on." Tommie couldn't believe anything that was happening right now.

Rowan flashed her a smirk. "Nah.  Surprise, you're on live TV!  Millions are invested in your every move.  I won't lie, I hate being stared at by a large audience, but someone's gotta give the audience something to watch, right?  And all those cameras around the school?  Yeah, they weren't just for security measures and me and MK watching you.  They were for all of our viewers worldwide, too."

"Live TV?" Dawn repeated. "Who would watch something like this?!"

"You'd be surprised what people find entertaining when all hell is breaking loose."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain how the world ended within the last week or so!" Jax argued.

"Right, right." Rowan paused for a moment. "I'll let you all in on a little secret.  The world started ending two years ago, while you lot were here at Hope's Peak.  You and the headmaster all worked together to barricade yourselves in by blocking all the entrances, exits, and windows.  As protection.  That's right, you all have been here for two years.  But as of a few days ago, you forgot everything that happened since arriving here.  Courtesy of me and my tech magic, of course."

"Two years?" Jax exclaimed. "We've been here for two years?!"

"Wait, does that mean... I'm eighteen?" Tommie looked down at her hands.  This didn't feel real.  What was happening?  She didn't understand.  Nothing made sense.

"So to sum everything up so far, you've been here for two years, lost your memories of said two years, and the killing game started," Rowan signed. "Alright, now that we're all at least a little bit closer to being on the same page, I'll explain a bit more about the behind-the-scenes.  Whether you believe it or not, I tried to make it as obvious as possible that I was the mastermind.  MK and I faked my execution to draw your attention to a potential tenth student.  We deliberately chose to order the bodies in the morgue by student number, and even put a massive 'X' on the tenth door.  Not just because we used it for the headmaster before burning their body, but also because I would've been the tenth student.  And then there's the thing I did with your camera, Somerset.  That's been my favorite part so far.  Your reaction was priceless."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jax growled. "You started a killing game because you got bullied?!"

"At the end of the day, kind of," Rowan shrugged. "But people sure as hell aren't bullying me now.  They see how much of a threat I really am.  And it's all just so despairing for you and so entertaining for the rest of us watching!  You're the biggest stars on the planet!"

"So you did... all of that... by yourself?" Dawn asked, still appalled.

Rowan snorted. "Pssh, no.  How could I, even with MK's help, monitor the cameras, set up things, clean up bodies, work executions, and work out special events like the blackmail, and be in charge of the actual show part all at the same time?  I had help, obviously.  Thankfully, MK already had a backup plan in case I happened to reject their offer."

They leaned forward even further on their podium. "That's right.  This killing game had not one, not two... but three masterminds."

"Three?" Tommie echoed.  It just kept getting worse and worse the longer this conversation went on.

"Three.  But unlike me, you should be familiar with my partners.  Isn't that right?"

Before anyone could say anything else, one of the portraits near Tommie fell to the ground with a loud smash as the glass in the frame shattered.  Startled, she turned and nearly screamed.  She swore she was seeing a ghost.

Standing behind the podium where the portrait had previously been and wearing a black-and-white version of the same outfit he'd worn during the killing game except for baggy black pants, long, black fingerless gloves tucked under his rolled-up sleeves, and the earrings from his execution... was Alister Somerset, Ultimate Fashionista.

"Well?  You all look much more surprised than I'd anticipated," he commented.

"We saw you die!" Jax insisted. "How the bloody hell are you alive?!"

"Are you kidding?" Alister chuckled. "You bought the whole voodoo thing?  Those were just fake blood packets wired into my dress- all my work, by the way.  I'm bummed that nobody seemed to even realize that my dress was designed to look like Monokumace- details, people!  I made it obvious!" 

"S-so if you and Rowan are two of the masterminds..." Tommie hated that she was the one to ask the question. "...Who's the third?"

"You're lookin' at him, sweetheart." 

Oh dear god.  She knew that voice.  

Slowly, her gaze drifted up to Monokumace's throne, where the robotic dragon no longer sat.  Instead, clad in a monochromatic outfit that otherwise looked identical to his killing game outfit...

"Well, don't leave me out, now," Evan Rodriguez, Ultimate Actor, remarked dryly.

***

(1808 words)

WE'RE STACKING PLOT TWISTS ON TOP OF PLOT TWISTS WITH THIS ONE !!!!!!!!!

I will confess, I've had it planned for weeks that Rowan would be the mastermind.  But that was plan B and the mastermind was initially going to just be Monokumace.  Anyways, about twenty-four hours ago, my music went onto autoplay while I was in the shower and put on a song that immediately made me realize that I could create performancetrio- the three now canonical masterminds of the killing game.  And so that's where we are :)

No I won't say what song because I may or may not be animating it.