Chapter Text
“What’s wrong, Seven?” Noli’s voice hurts her ears, as always. She keeps running, the fake Dark trailing besides her.
Noli reaches 007n7 anyway.
***
“It’s okay.” No One jumps at the familiar voice. The mockery of Dark continues on, “I forgive you!”
She knows it’s a trick. Dark would never forgive her, not that No One would blame her for that.
Noli closes in.
***
007n7’s clothes change into a simple t-shirt with sweatpants. She’s unsure about how she feels about it.
***
“You should come back home,” No One keeps running away from Noli, the deception of Dark walking beside her without breaking a sweat. “I really miss you, y'know?"
Noli teleports to the generator next to 007n7.
***
Noli laughs at 007n7. It’s Last Man Standing, and she’s cornered. He knows there’s no rush; nobody is left to act as a hero. “Man, that bitch of yours sure is nice, isn’t she? She keeps on forgiving you. Maybe that’s why you never came back to me. You had someone else to replace my job of making you feel all big and strong.”
She wants to defend Dark’s honor. That she would never forgive a traitor like The Chosen One. Nothing comes out of her, and she’s killed again.
***
007n7 looks more professional. She doesn’t like the tie.
***
She keeps running. Noli isn’t feeling talkative, which is somehow worse. 007n7 gets pushed over, and his ribs break.
The last thing she sees is the illusion of Dark facing her, that same smile on her.
***
007n7 is thrown against the wall. It hurts, and she falls onto her back.
There’s no stars in this realm. She misses stargazing. The apparition of Dark lays down next to her.
Noli smashes in 007n7’s skull.
***
007n7 still has the tie, but the colors of his clothing have changed. It reminds her of something.
***
Noli tears out 007n7’s heart while he’s still alive. It hurts. “Look Seven, I finally got your heart! Are you proud of me?” His voice is all mockery, the static eating away what's left of her thoughts.
The ghost of Dark hugs her as her vision goes to black.
***
Coolkidd looks more demonic now, with all the shadows around him and the horns. He no longer cries for 007n7. “Look papa, aren’t you proud of me?”
007n7 burns away, the fire eating at his skin. At least the tie is burnt, she distantly thinks.
***
007n7 no longer has the tie. The clothes feel weird on her, especially the jacket, but she’ll keep wearing them. They barely fit.
***
007n7 has never survived a round with Noli or Coolkidd.
There’s a known fact with the other survivors. Usually, even if the killer has an unwarranted beef with another survivor–cough cough 1x1x1x1 and Shedletsky cough cough–or the survivor has too much guilt to run away from a killer–like Jane Doe or Noob–they tend to at least get one survived round with all the killers.
007n7 is the exception.
Shedletsky wants to know why, which is an issue considering that 007n7 is both cryptic and ended up trying to avoid him after the sickness fiasco.
However, he’s anything but a quitter.
He strikes when 007n7 heads into the forest. Not at all subtlety, he saunters his way next to the survivalist. It’s awkward silence before he breaks it.
***
“So… uh… what’s your deal with Noli? I mean, I’ve seen you. You’re pretty crafty, and I know you could probably survive a round with him if you put your mind to it. Not that you have to tell me or anything–”
“I owe it to 007n7.” She blurts out, and she immediately knows it was the wrong decision. Shedletsky stares at her, and she hates it.
She opens her mouth, to try to say something, anything, but it fails. She keeps trying, and trying, and trying, but it keeps failing and she hates it so much. She hates how she can never say what she needs to when she needs to because if she could maybe Coolkidd wouldn’t think his dad hates him, and Noli would know that Dark isn’t 007n7’s rebound, and Dark would know that she just wanted a peaceful life and the entire fight wouldn’t have happened–
Shedletsky taps her shoulder. “Here, I have a notepad. Just write down whatever you want to say.”
She takes it gratefully, and starts writing a singular sentence. “I’m not 007n7.”
She hands the notepad back to Shedletsky, and he reads it over and over again. “Sorry, but uh… your handwriting kinda sucks. No offense.”
She shrugs. She’s never really had a need to write, and her hands are as unsteady as ever.
“I… think I get the jest of it? You’re saying that you’re not 007n7, right?” She nods, and Shedletsky lights up before the implications sink in. “Oh.”
Shedletsky hands the notepad back to her. “So, mind elaborating on what you mean by owing it to 007n7?”
It takes a while for Shedletsky to decipher her handwriting, but she writes, “I’ve never met him, but he’s dead and I’m in his body.”
“You don’t have to pretend to be someone just because you’re in their body,” Shedletsky looks at her sadly. “You could’ve told us from the start.”
Her handwriting gets worse. “I’ve committed worse crimes than he has.”
“That’s still not an excuse. You shouldn’t have to live a life you’re not.”
She doesn’t agree with his opinion, so the two of them fall into silence until Shedletsky speaks up again.
“We should probably tell the others.” She doesn’t like the idea of doing so, which apparently shows on her face and makes Shedletsky laugh. It reminds her of Dark. “Here, I’ll help you!”
***
Builderman didn’t know what to expect when Shedletsky asked him to call a meeting with all of the survivors.
Seeing him next to a nervous 007n7 was not one of the things he prepared himself for. The way that Shedletsky continuously comforted 007n7 as the other survivors came in was weird. In a more normal scenario, it would’ve been like a couple preparing to announce a pregnancy.
…Oh 2x2, don’t let it be that.
Once the last survivor came, Shedletsky started talking. “So, we have an announcement to make…” Please don’t let it be a pregnancy, please don’t let it be a pregnancy– “Who we thought is 007n7 isn’t actually 007n7!”
Oh, thank 2x2.
Wait, what?
“Shed, mind tellin’ us what the hell that’s supposed to mean?” Builderman asks, because if that’s true, then he’s been projecting his feelings on a completely innocent bystander. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Elliot having the same revelation.
Shedletsky nudges not-007n7, who writes something down on a notepad. He can see Taph tilt his head. Shedletsky reads it out loud to the others. “Soooo… Our little friend here got nuked–which is a question I’m going to ask later–died, and ended up here as 007n7. Guess he decided to pretend to be 007n7 after the first couple of days here.” Not-007n7 writes something down again. “Sorry, she. Holy shit have we been misgendering you this whole time?!”
Not-007n7–2x2, Builderman needs a better name for her–shrugs.
Guest 1337 speaks up. “So, what’s your name?”
Not-007n7 writes something down before showing it to the rest of the survivors. Guest 1337 reads it out loud. “...No One?” No One nods, be it a bit dejectedly.
There’s a clear air of unease around the survivors. Calling someone “No One” isn’t something they particularly want to do.
Taph signs something, which Dusekkar interprets. “How about the name One, is what our dear demolitionist asks.”
No One thinks about it before nodding at the suggestion.
Elliot raises his hand, which Builderman calls on. “Why pretend to be 007n7? I mean, you could’ve told us at any time. It probably would’ve been easier than pretending to be someone else.”
One writes an answer down, which gives the survivors a moment of awkward silence with only the sound of a pencil writing. Builderman starts thinking of a way to allow for quicker writing, but his thoughts are interrupted by Shedletsky reading the note out loud. “Appearently, One here wasn’t a good person, so she’s using this as a chance at redemption, even though acting as someone as you’re not isn’t a really good way to redeem yourself.” The last part Shedletsky obviously added on, if the way One stared at him was any indication.
Chance raises his hand–oh 2x2 they were really doing it like it was a Q & A weren’t they–and Builderman called on them. “Any particular reason you’re writing it all down instead of talking?”
One makes a shrugging motion before writing down a quick sentence. “Talking is hard.” Taph lights up at that.
Noob raises their hand. “So, uh, sorry if this is mean, but are the shaky hands new for you?” Builderman is surprised, because One had shaky hands?
“Continuing issue.”
Dusekkar raises his wand. “What is your true age? I can’t quite pinpoint it based on your flickering visage.”
“Wait, Matt, did you know that 007n7 wasn’t himself from the start?” Builderman interrogates his coworker. This was important knowledge, knowledge that should’ve been shared with at least himself, and Dusekkar kept it from him? “And what the hell do you mean by ‘visage’?”
“Apologies, dear friend. I did not know entirely until now, and I didn’t want to raise unnecessary alarm.” Dusekkar glanced at One before facing his attention at Builderman again. “There’s a faint image of a person, presumably One, that appears infrequently around 007n7.”
“You still could’ve told us! Anything that concerns any of us is important!”
“Apologies, but again, it was something I was unsure of. I did not want to raise unwarranted suspicion."
“Well, you just raised some right now! How many other things have you been keeping from us, from–”
“One’s 21.” Shedletsky's voice cut through the rising tensions. “Give or take a few years.”
Noob looked petrified. One was around the same age as they were.
One shuffled next to Dusekkar, handing him a note. “Yes, I can see brief flashes of who you actually are. Although, it’s not enough to discern any details.”
Two Time raised their hand. “Is your… as Chance had put it, ‘demogorgon’ mouth, also something you have had?”
What. Builderman was at an honest loss for words.
“Wait, I totally forgot about that.” Chance slammed their hands on the table, startling everyone. “Hey, you should totally show us!”
“Chance, don’t pressure One into doing things.” Shedletsky scolded, but One just tapped him and gave him what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile. It was not.
Then One just opened up her face, because that was apparently something she could do. Even Shedletsky and Chance seemed terrified.
“Okay…” Shedletsky cut the silence once One closed her mouth. “Any particular reason you have that…?”
One seemed a little skittish giving an answer to this question. “To eat.”
“To eat…?” Shedletsky looked like he was realizing something. “Is that why you threw up when I gave you that pizza!?”
One nodded.
A round started. Mentally, Builderman prepared himself. Everyone would likely be off their game because of the revelation, so he should start building a dispenser.
That was a whole lot.