Disclaimer- for anyone bothered by bad words there is one at the end.

Duncan was sound asleep this morning and I had the sense not to wake him just yet. I figured he tried his best to outlast Dean and Parker before sneaking back in. It wouldn't have been hard since we were all exhausted, but when Parker walked out with giant bags under his eyes, I knew it'd been a sleepless night for him. Because of that Duncan had had to wait until Parker had decided to wander off to his room. I felt bad for his having to be awake so long, but he was the one being secretive.

Amberline had offered to go and do the laundry again this morning, and was now retrieving it. Parker decided to accompany her for unknown reasons. That left Victoria, Dean, and I sitting in the livingroom when the note was slipped under the door.

Dean got up and walked over to the letter, which was fine when we thought he was just moving it away from the door. He started to rip the letter and Victoria and I were instantly at his side. Victoria took the envelope and eyed it intensely. She went to a drawer and had somehow found tape. She began to mend the wound.

Dean flushed red. "What?" He asked as I started to look over the injury. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No," I said reassuringly.

"Yes!" Exclaimed Victoria at the same time. I elbowed her and gave her a scolding glare. She winced, rubbing her arm as she apologized. "We never open the letter without everyonehre," she explained as she put the note on the counter.

"It's just something we like to do as a team," I added. I hadn't wanted him to feel too embarrassed.

"Yeah, tradition. You can thank her for that," Victoria said jokingly.

After I pondered what the best way to respond was I said, "because I know how a team's supposed to act, unlike someone we all know." I looked again at her accusingly. She shrugged it off and decided it wasn't worth replying.

"Sorry, nobody really briefed me on what to expect here," Dean said as he walked back to his chair. Victoria gave the letter one last wary glance as she walked to the couch with me. We decided to wait until Amberline and Parker had gotten back before waking Duncan. Dean was oblivious to our reasoning, but Victoria knew just as well as I did the lengths of time Duncan had been gone.

It hadn't taken long until the other two had gotten back and I reluctantly went to wake up Duncan. I knew we had to, the people in charge usually set up the games to take place almost immediately after we got the letters. They only factored in enough time for the people farthest away to get to the lobby. Duncan woke up and got himself around pretty quickly. He apologized for being asleep but we all dismissed it.

I decided to open the letter to read this time and started reading, "Dear Gamers, it's time to go back to the beginning. In this game you will again have a last person standing game. The twist this time is that you will all only have one life. This is something most noobs wouldn't be able to handle. We trust that you are the best of the best and can handle it. That being said, we wish you good luck, gamers."

"Who else is worried?" Asked Dean. Duncan raised his hand, I followed his example and so did a few other members. Victoria, however, showed no fear. She stood there with a poker face. The vulnerability she'd shown to me was nowhere to be seen as she faced what the rest of us had feared. She wanted us to believe she was too good for this.

We all changed into our newly cleaned suits and started heading for the lobby. I was again saddened by the lack of people but knew I'd grow used to it eventually. When we got to the lobby there was little time left, that meant we'd have to face less of D3's harassment. The ritual began as it always did, but I noted there was a slight tinge of red to the smoke at our feet. The red slowly transformed into a light skyblue as we got to our cubicles.

I was glad when we were able to choose a weapon again but dreaded the pain I knew was inevitable. I could only hope I wasn't going to ruin my team, but was comforted because only one person had to be left to win, which meant that if I failed someone else could still win it for the team.

After we'd been spawned into the game I wished I had more balance. I instantly felt nauseous when I noticed just how high we were. This was a game of parkour, and all it took was to fall and we'd waste our first and only life. I dropped to the floor, well, it was more like a roof. Duncan instantly tried helping me up but every instinct in my body told me to stay low. When I was finally able to stand we'd wasted too much time. We were only going against D3 today and they had probably known where we were. All I could notice was my body shaking all over. Lack of skill wouldn't kill me. Being clumsy would.

"It's okay, c'mon, let's go take cover," Duncan whispered soothingly to me. He started to guide me in a different direction and the rest of our team took the lead.

"Where?" I asked, clutching his arm as he led me away.

"We'll have to figure that out, won't we?" he replied. I took multiple deep breaths before finally gaining enough strength to walk alongside my friends without guidance. I still wasn't all for parkour, especially so high up, but walking across the roof wasn't a huge problem. "I didn't take you as someone who'd be scared of heights," he commented after we'd walked a little further out. He'd stayed behind with me so I wouldn't feel too slow.

"It's not really the heights," I replied to him. We'd had to jump across a small gap and I tried to reassure myself that I was okay. The gap isn't big enough to fall through. Your friends wouldn't let you fall...

"Then?" He asked, prompting me to continue talking.

"We only have one life," I started. "All it takes is one mistake, one pause, and you fall, letting your team down." We began to reach a gap that couldn't be jumped across. One by one we walked across the shaky wooden plank.

When we were all across the gap Duncan replied, "true, but we'd never blame you for falling." I tried to keep that in mind as we continued. It was a fairly large map but it got smaller as time went by. I dreaded the moment when the map would push the team off of a building.

"Take shelter," Victoria whispered eagerly. Her voice was clear in the head piece and we all looked around for someplace to hide. In the corner of my vision there was a box, I went to it but knew it wouldn't be much of any protection.

I looked through the hole in my helmet to see the other team walking meaninglessly. They clearly hadn't spotted us. "Do we attack?" I asked quietly.

"If we do, we need to run as soon as they find us," stated Victoria. She, too, was looking at them and wanted to attack.

"Alright," said Amberline. "It's now or never." There was a moment of hesitance to see if anyone would protest. No one did and we all started aiming. I aimed at Jasper, loving the thought of revenge. Without getting in trouble.

We all started shooting at once, and they all dropped behind one long object. They, too, were aiming at us. It was scary seeing all of their guns pointed at us, but pushed the fear away in order to preform my best. "What now?" I asked, again thinking of fleeing and falling down.

"Should we run?" Duncan asked, seemingly mirroring my concern. Nobody else had replied and D3 gave up on aiming. They slowly started walking towards us. We shot back again but someone blurred our vision of them using a smokey splash damage weapon.

Amberline started to run, and we all followed. If we couldn't see them, the odds were that they couldn't see us. Apparently, we had run in the wrong direction because all the people in front of me stopped running and stayed low. It was a dead end. We scrambled to different hiding places until D3 was already too close. We stood and shot from there, thankful for our earlier lead.

They closed in on us and we were pushed to the edge of the building. Blood pumped through my veins as I shakily tried to aim. One more step and I'd fall...

"Ah!" Parker screams as he started to fall. Duncan Caught his arm but was starting to fall over himself. Sensing his unbalance I grabbed him long enough for him to regain himself. He started to pull Parker up the building as Amberline and Victoria decided to split and attack from behind.

That only left Dean and I to cover Duncan. Really, it was only me. Dean's aim was so terrible, my shaky hands were more accurate than his shots. He knew that just as well because he'd rightly chosen a splash damage weapon, so even if he missed he would still cause harm to his target. It was smart for one person, but a whole team couldn't win like that.

Duncan's health was falling as he'd tried to pull Parker up. I knew I was in no position to be compromising my own health, but if I didn't Duncan would die and Parker would fall to his own death. I winced in pain as bullets impacted my back but tried not to let it affect my helping with Parker. They both thanked me silently when we went back to helping out Dean. My heart pounded when I saw all of our health diminished. I returned to offense with a vigor I didn't know I'd had.

Duncan had "fallen" as the people in charge had said. Dean and I were close but more members of D3 were dying too. I, again, focussed my attention on Jasper. I held a grudge. His face lit with anger as he faded and was announced to have fallen. There were only a few more people left and we had barely won.

We all left the cubicles eagerly, defeating D3 had always been a pleasure. I was proud to see we still remained in first place and started to wander off. Duncan had already walked off and found himself reading up on some more weapons. "Doing your research?" I asked as I approached. He looked back and smiled at me before clicking the screen to show me a picture of what he'd been reading about.

"Can never get enough knowledge," he replied as he moved onto the next item in the line. Someone would have thought that with all the time we'd been here, we'd know all the offensive weapons. That, however, wasn't true. I know that I personally haven't touched these electronical pamphlets since my first day here. It had seemed like ages had passed since then.

"Yes, the more ways we can brutally murder someone the better," I joked as I read the information over his shoulder. In my peripheral I saw him smile and he silently chuckled.

"As long as it's in the virtual world, not the real one," he told me in response. We moved onto the next weapon but skipped it because we knew that one in particular all too well. It had been the one to freeze me in one of the first games. The memory of feeling completely helpless flashed back and I tried to push it away, yet again as I'd been doing this whole time.

"True," I agreed. From there we started talking about my revenge on Jasper. I was quite satisfied with it, even if killing him in the game was what started his grudge against us in the first place. Duncan, however, was glad I conducted my revenge somewhere else than the real world.

We were just looking at the various weapons together when Nikki and Dean walked up to us. I, for some reason, wished they hadn't. I wanted to be with Duncan alone and they were the intruders. However much they irritated me, I knew I was being immature. I put on a kind face I only hallway faked, and listened to what they had to say.

"Hey," Nikki greeted, sounding cheerful as ever. Her brown hair laid thick on her shoulders, layered and wavy. I remembered when my hair was like that, and I really didn't miss it.

"Dean's friend, right?" asked Duncan. She nodded and shook both his and my own hands. I approved of her already, and I wished she'd act on some of the desire I knew Dean had felt towards her. It was all in the way he looked at her; his look was admiring and wistful. Only for a moment had I wished someone admired me they way he did her, but again I tried not to think like that.

"You like your team?" I asked sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and I said, "tell me about it, I feel so bad for your team."

"He talks down to us all the time. He targets me to take the attention off of him being a wildcard. At least I got accepted as part of their first choice," she ranted angrily. She crossed her arms across her chest in a way that made Dean swoon, and I had to hold back laughter. She had him wrapped around her finger, I hoped she didn't know that.

So, put him in his place," I suggested. I desperately hoped that I'd sparked some sort of idea but it seemed she'd already thought of that.

"I try. I'm working on it, it's why I was motivated to last longer in today's game than he did," she explained. She seemed like a very passionate person.

"I was the one who killed Jasper," I commented proudly.

"Really?" She asked, then smiled to Dean. He flushed red at her sight and I wanted to know what was going on in his head, just for fun.

"Yeah," said Duncan. He touched my shoulder and I unexpectedly heated, hoping it wasn't as noticeable as Dean's face showed. "She claimed it to be revenge, right?"

I nodded and Nikki said, "thanks, then. I'll try to put him in his place later." She walked off with Dean trailing behind. They talked together endlessly as I told Duncan I would be right back. I wanted to be a part of what Nikki was going to do, and on a whim I decided I wanted to make her job easier. I hadn't known what I was going to do, it was really in the moment. When I approached Jasper he looked down at me like I was a pathetic little mouse about to take on a lion.

"What do you want?" he asked, clearly not wanting to talk to me.

I replied with just as much impulsiveness, "I just wanted to ask you a question." He raised an eyebrow as if questioning the integrity of my own question. It seemed he wouldn't say anything, so I continued, "do you know what a shame it is that you, a wildcard, lasted less time than a player that was almost eliminated?"

He gave me an icy glare. "You don't know what you're talking about," he stated.

"I do, I killed you, again. You died because of someone you talk down to. Another person, Nikki, that you talked down to was alive longer than you were. She did more for your team than you did. I suggest you find your place in the team and learn to control yourself around us," I said, never faltering. He had lost all nonchalance for a moment but when I'd finished talking his anger was fueled more than ever before.

"Watch it, for someone so insignificant you sure got a big mouth," he started to say more until Duncan interrupted. He was followed by my other friends, but he was the only one to speak.

"Don't be talking to Grace like that, okay? You're the one that need's to be watching it."

Jasper took a step closer to him and said, "you need to understand. I didn't start this conversation. I was perfectly content in not needing to talk to you guys tonight. Grace started talking shit to me."

Duncan was about to reply, probably to say that I would never. But the truth of what Jasper had said rang in my ears. I was like him, I was attacking Jasper because of his preformance. It was just like what he had done so many times before, it what what I'd hated him for. "He's right," I told Duncan and my team softly. I didn't want to stay longer to see how it played out. I felt ill, I needed out of the lobby. I started walking quickly to the safety of my flat and laid in bed for what seemed like an eternity.

A/N I'm glad I took time to proofread, I'm sure I didn't catch everything but from what I did catch this part was a mess. Sorry for taking so long to update, there was a long stretch without a computer. Now I'm off to write two reviews, if you liked the part don't forget to leave a vote. (I almost said "leave a like" because I watch too much Youtube.)