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They start to build their fragile peace. Their leader - the lawyer, assigned the animal of 'Sheep', takes charge, bolstered by the ship captain, assigned the animal of 'Dragon'. They attempt to delude themselves into believing cooperation is possible - that the prospect of murder isn't lingering in the back of their minds, foul and unpleasant. Exchanging niceties, they begin making connections with each other.
And as usual, people are left out. It echoes Mara's experience in a way she can't ignore - being the easy target, falling victim to ostracisation and bullying. Shot not, cruel whispers, pretending like she didn't exist at all. Only Mara had accepted Orias's helping hand, relying on him for support, instead of pushing him away.
Mara watches passively through the camera. She tries not to see herself in the way they stumble around, lost. She rarely appears in front of them in person - after the golfer's mishap, they had learned well not to question the rules. And even when the debater had requested to meet Tozu, he didn't see it fit to bring Mara with him for protection. So she finds herself tracking their movements, singling out the ones she know won't make it. Pointing out the ones who are starting to crack. And noticing others who are a little too put-together.
After spotting the 'Owl' historian pick up on details she had never seen herself, Mara started paying more attention to their findings - the clues, the hidden passageways, the files hidden in the walls, all leading to clues about why and how they were trapped here.
"Those clues were always there, Mara! But your group was nowhere near as observant or agreeable as this one." Tozu shook his head, disappointed. It was unsettling seeing his entire face, when she was used to that goat mask. "But of course, this group does have a few more intellectuals. Weavers, harp-players, patisserie chefs and the like aren't exactly detective material."
Mara nodded slowly, trying not to picture their dead bodies in her mind. When she's alone, she finds herself slipping out, claiming that she needs air. And she follows the historian's footsteps, supplying the clues with her own limited knowledge. Piecing together for herself the truth behind the killing game.
She tries not to watch too closely, when the lawyer falls and the killing game truly begins. Tozu is ecstatic, and although she can't see his face Mara can tell he's grinning from ear to ear when he addresses them. Mara hopes the trial will go smoothly, that no issues will occur.
Instead, she's finding herself chasing down the mathlete as she tries to escape. She sprints with fast, uncoordinated steps, and when Mara grabs her she shrieks, clawing at her arms, fighting against Mara every step she's forced to drag her back in front of the elevator. The other Ultimates watch this humiliation in silence. None move to help her - not when Mara is armed to the teeth - but as Mara returns to Tozu's side she can feel the hatred in their looks. Mara fights the urge to cover her ears as the mathlete starts to cry, as the fire blazes and Cara's puppet reaches out a hand. Cara, who would have reached a hand out to Eva in real life - and her arm tears off. And the mathlete burns.
Tozu's unaffected, after the execution is over and they're back in his headquarters. He ignores the ragged sobs coming from the other room - the throwing up, the muffled screaming. But he does bat an eye, when Mara walks past his door, mask gone and contacts nowhere to be seen.
"You really should keep your mask on at all times, Mara. You never know when you'll be needed." he chides. As if it's a normal evening. "Where are you heading to?"
Mara, glaring at him, raises one shaking hand. There's three jagged scars trailing from her knuckles to her wrist. Marks left from the mathlete, when she was trying to break herself free.
"Second room to the right." he informs her, then turns back to typing on his computer. Ignoring her footsteps stumbling away.
From there, Mara starts to slip.
It begins when she looks at Jean and sees someone else in the way he smiles, the way he interacts with Cassidy. She sees Marilynn, in how he leads them - Orias, in the way Diana never fails to try and keep Damon company. She sees their growing confidence, as they become closer, open up about themselves. Fall in love, some of them getting a little too close, brushing hands for a moment too long before pulling away. Mara watches them and makes the fatal mistake of learning about them.
Because when Toshiko's afraid, Ingrid will be there in a heartbeat to calm her - I'm here and I'm okay, the same words embedding themselves into Mara's mind, as they ripple across the room. Jett talks endlessly, and Mark listens in a comfortable silence. Diana positions herself as the heart of the group, and Damon, yet still outcast, warms up to her, and Ulysses, and Kai, and even Grace, somehow.
Tozu gave them specific rooms for a reason, Mara notes, because when she watches Eloise and Diana together she feels sick. The way Diana helps draw Eloise out of her shell is too reminiscent of how she used to act, and she can't tear her eyes away from them when they appear in the same room and light up when they see each other...when Diana is upset at her birthday party, and Eloise comforts her...how Diana helps draw her out of her shell...how Diana seeks Eloise out after the end of the second class trial...
Mara makes the fatal mistake of hoping they will escape - that this time, things will be different.
Kai's murder attempt fails, thus the destruction of school property is counted as a rule violation. But he's desperate, trying to keep the door closed even though it's no secret Mara's stronger than him, thrashing in her grip as she pulls him out of his room. She remembers watching someone else plead for mercy until a bullet was put through their skull - she remembers herself, throwing a chair at Cara to get her off Orias, dooming herself in the process, and Kai's in tears in front of her and all of a sudden she doesn't know if she can go through with this.
Then Jean appears, reliable as usual, standing in front of Kai without a second thought. Talking her down, and she knows they aren't allowed another warning, that Grace's attack was the one and only warning they would ever get, and that her friends were never shown that same mercy. But although her gun's pointed at Jean's heart, and procedure is that anyone interrupting a punishment will be punished instead, she lowers the gun. Signing to Tozu to give them one more chance. Put on the spot, Tozu is forced to agree to save face, and Mara turns and leaves before he can admonish her.
She, too, is offered the grace of a warning - don't step out of line, or our agreement is forfeit and your life will be lost, so she keeps a low profile, spending more time in the camera room. Mara spends her days watching Ulysses investigate and picking up where he leaves off when he inevitably passes out. She takes great care not to be seen, as she smuggles the files for the previous killing games away with her. When Tozu's busy giving out the new motive, she sneaks away to read the files. Skipping past the one with her face on it, she is faced with dozens and dozens of killing games. Dating back years, with endless Ultimates and hosts and enforcers. When Tozu is replaced by an unfamiliar face - a different host, Mara hunts for him in the list of enforcers, thinking he worked his way up from there, but Mara doesn't know his real name and she isn't stupid enough to believe his name is actually Tozu-
"Looking for something?"
Mara jumps, the files dropping from her hands. Turning around, she sees Tozu masked, hands behind his back, a few feet away from her. Watching her intently.
The words don't come - they never did, not when she needed them most, so all Mara can do is stutter until he walks closer, and picks up a file buried under the pile. Opening it to the right page.
"I suppose you're looking for this."
Tozu speaks not with rage, like Mara expected...but with an air of resignation. Exhaustion, almost, as Mara looks down at the smiling young boy Tozu used to be. Ultimate Violinist, she reads, bright, cheerful, overly sensitive, prone to crying fits-
"Follow Ulysses all you want. Search this academy from top to bottom." he states, voice dull. "You won't be any closer to escaping this place. None of us are."
As he walks away, Mara is left to read the rest of the folder. Reading how he had won without killing a single human being. How he had never broken a rule, too soft to kill, yet the host had engineered a reason to keep him here anyway. Checking the date on the folder...
It's twenty years ago. And Mara flicks back to check Tozu's face, and reading the description again he was fifteen when his killing game took place. Fifteen, and twenty years on he's still stuck here - when she searches for his name Mara finds him on the list of enforcers, enforcing killing games eighteen years ago and seventeen years ago and sixteen years ago - until three years ago, when he disappears from all files entirely. The next time Tozu appears, he's the host for her killing game.
The amount of death is staggering - hundreds of killing games have happened. Hundreds of Ultimates have gone to their deaths, and Mara wonders how nobody's noticed this yet - how much the UTP know or how much they're involved. Whether Ultimates are even real - whether the ones she used to see in society were also complicit. She has a vague memory, five years ago, of her mother dragging her out of the house to see a performance from the Ultimate Violinist - was it Tozu she saw that day? Did all of them know what was happening?
With shaking hands, Mara puts the file down. She's about to cry, or scream, until the Body Discovery Announcement goes off. And she's needed again.
"We've done this before." Tozu reminds her. "It's the same as their little mutiny before...only this time, much more severe, as they've destroyed their Trinkets and created their own exit. Do not underestimate them, although they are small in number - kill them all if you must. The next batch of Ultimates might have some people we can use."
Mara doesn't know if she can. Her heart screams at her to turn back, not to allow the remaining four lose their lives. She can't take her mind off the sight of Diana Venicia, executed, or Toshiko's death or Damon's death or Kai's death or Wenona's death or Desmond's death - but Tozu is waiting impatiently for her to move.
So she runs out and finds Ulysses - she shoots to miss but the bullet catches him somewhere in his torso. As he falls, Eloise appears to drag him up and around the corner, and she's fast enough that when Mara turns the corner herself they're nowhere to be found.
Mara shot him. Mara shot him, and then she's going to shoot him again if he's not already dead, and then she's going to shoot Eloise when she fights back, and then she'll shoot Ingrid and Jean and they'll all be dead. Or Tozu will halt her, just before she lands the finishing blow, and they'll become Mara - a weapon forced to kill. And if they're obedient enough, they'll become Tozu. And then...nothing will change. She'll never go home. She'll never leave the killing game in any meaningful way - the fear of death will follow her for as long as she'll live.
Eloise, ahead of her, exits Diana's room - Orias's room - and sprints, carrying Ulysses. The gun is in her hands - Mara can lift the gun, shoot twice, and cut their hopes short to extend her life one measly day. Eloise whips her head back as she runs, terrified, and she sees Mara behind her. Red eyes meet red eyes - Mara escaping away from Cara, mirrored in Eloise's movements to get away from her - and Mara is frozen in place as Eloise disappears with Ulysses. She hears Eloise calling for Ingrid, hears Jean shout out Ulysses's name, and their footsteps become further and further away.
Mara stands still until the only thing she can hear is her rapid heartbeat in her ears.
Tozu's mask is gone. There's a bullet hole in his abdomen, and he sits on a chair in the dining hall. When Mara enters the room, he waves her over with a sluggish hand.
"How many of them got away?" he asks.
All of them, she signs, and drops her rifle, exhausted.
Tozu hums. He looks down at his bloodied shirt with indifference. "...They'll kill you for this."
He's already dead. None of them need to comment on his nearing demise. Instead, he extends out his wrist in front of him, looking at an imaginary clock. "I'd say you have a good three hours before they realise something is amiss."
Three hours? Mara's confused. Wasn't he going to kill her for what she's done?
"Give me your arm." he says impatiently, and when Mara extends her right arm, he sighs and grabs her left. He pulls out a device in his pocket, and Mara tries to pull away just as the prongs enter the Trinket on her arm. It falls off in two pieces, clattering on the floor.
The Trinket...is gone? She looks down at him, taking in the hollow look in his eyes.
"They'll kill you for this..." he says slowly, "...if they find you."
Mara doesn't know where the academy is - where she's meant to escape to, who she's meant to ask for help, if escape is even possible - but Tozu's breathing is becoming laboured, his eyelids drooping. And she knows her time is running out.
"So make sure...you are not found..." he says, voice slurring, his hands slipping away from her wrist. Mara looks over her shoulder, the idea of escape alluring, but when she turns back Tozu is unresponsive, slumped over, and when she shakes him all he does is make a pained groan.
The concept of freedom is foreign to her, after these months of torture, but watching Tozu bleed out will only ensure she joins him in death. So Mara casts her mask aside, throwing it to the ground, and runs away before anyone can stop her.