Did you ever see a scorpion with sunstroke sting itself to death? Well I have.

[Slam]

((Amy Barrows-Shaw continued from No More Heroes))

Amy’s hands shook as she stared across the banquet hall, leaning against the wall but on her feet. The gun that had done the deed was still in her hand, but she was so tired of carrying it. It didn’t matter though, she couldn’t put it down. Not now, not ever.

She knew what she had done. She had had to do it. She wasn’t sure if she had aimed at Kaya or Bethan before she fired, but she had hit the latter. Bethan was probably dead by now. Hopefully dead, is what she was supposed to think. They were Buccaneers, she was a Leviathan. It made her stomach churn just to repeat it.

She thought back to the trip to the mall. She remembered Bethan’s smiling face, though she didn’t remember much else. That trip was so long ago, after all. Everyone on it was dead, she thought, except for Seo and her. How depressing. But she was included in that survival count. That was what she was fighting for, wasn't it?

She wiped at her eyes, which had grown wet despite her protests. She wished it hadn’t had to be this way, but it wasn’t her decision. This was SOTF-TV, this was all there was to it. This was her whole world now.

She knew she had to look over the corpses in the room, in case someone had left something useful for her. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it, not now. Not so soon after what she’d done. She already had enough blood on her hands. She wanted to just forget about Bethan and get to work, but her heart protested against her mind, and she was trapped at an impasse.

“Jewel.” she spoke aloud again, as had become her habit at times like this. “That was the right thing to do. I know it was. It was. Those are the rules.”

She clenched her eyes shut, blocking out the vision and leaving herself alone with her thoughts in the spacious, silent room.

“But I hated it. I just...”

She swallowed.

"I don't know."

[MurderWeasel]

The reply comes after only a moment, soft and slow.

"It's okay. You don't have to like it.

"You don't have to like anything. Whatever you're feeling right now, that's alright. There is no 'right' reaction. You're not getting anything wrong or disappointing anyone."

[Slam]

Jewel’s words helped, as they often had in the last few days, but not nearly enough.

It was funny; she was surrounded by corpses in this banquet hall. She recognised some, but not enough. The large one not far from her might’ve been Junji Yamada, but he had been turned into so much as mince meat. It was sickening to look at, but she felt no sympathy for him. He used to really scare her, because she was always worried he’d corner her and do things she didn’t want to think about, but now he was just a dead body. In the end, he had been cornered.

And yet, the thought of going back up onto the deck and seeing Bethan’s corpse, who truthfully she didn’t really know all that well, scared her so much more. What was she more afraid of: that Bethan was dead, or how she died?

The answer was obvious.

She felt the weight of the gun still in her hand, as it had been for so long now. She had already reloaded it, because it was useless to her empty. She knew she’d have to use it again, because SOTF-TV wasn’t over yet. That was all there was to it.

She wasn’t sure how many other Leviathans were still alive; Luciano had been taken out, after all. Leaving him with his katana hadn’t saved him, and she supposed Anthony probably had it now. There weren’t many allies for her, but she’d been by herself through most of it. In a lot of ways, it was easier.

She breathed in deeply, trying to steady herself. This wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot.

[Espi]

Across the hall, the door opened.

((Kaya Robinson continued from Captain Without a Crew))

She stuck her head in and for a brief moment, her eyes went wide, her gaze hovering between herself, above the scattered tables and chairs and bodies, and through to the girl on the opposite side of the room. She hesitated, and then Amy moved, and Kaya ducked back around the doorway, gun clutched to her chest, taking short, quick breaths.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Bit down on her lip for a good second or so.

Then she lifted her head.

"Found you," she said loudly, casually, almost but not quite sing-song. "Anthony's a frickin' serial killer but apparently he's good for something. Who'd have thunk?"

[Slam]

Amy’s head whipped up from her contemplation the same way a rabbit’s does when it hears a twig snap. The voice had, just about, carried across the length of the hall to reach Amy’s ears. Before she even took the time to recognise it, Amy had ducked into cover behind a table.

She kept her body low as she thought, briefly, about who was talking to her. It was definitely addressed in her direction; there was no-one else here. She had no idea what this Anthony had to do with it; maybe after Luciano, he was hunting the rest of the Leviathans? That didn’t make any sense. She hadn’t even met anyone called Anthony, so how would he know she’s a Leviathan?

It was pointless; she had to deal with Kaya first.

“Jewel.” she whispered, not that she needed to at this distance. “It’s Kaya over there, isn’t it? She still has that rifle, doesn’t she?”

Her eyes looked at the nearby doorway, a different one to where Kaya had called out from. She could slip in through there and get out, probably without much difficulty.

But she stayed. The recent past was hanging around her neck, painting a target on her, and she didn’t think running would dissuade the other girl. She didn't need that feeling following her. Or maybe she just didn't want to run away again. She wasn't sure.

“I need to take her out now. I think.”

[MurderWeasel]

The words from Amy's collar are hushed and quick.

"Yes. She's been looking for you. Be careful."

[Espi]

Kaya stayed out of sight outside the doorway, gun raised up, pointing to the ceiling. Her eyes focused forward, only occasionally glancing to the left to look into the room.

She breathed in.

"I know you're not much of a talker, but I figure I should at least ask. Got anything to say for yourself?" Kaya called out. She glanced down the hall to her right before continuing. "I mean, if you thought you were gonna get ten kills before Seo-yun got like, one, I gotta say, not your brightest call."

[Slam]

Amy said nothing. Why would she? It would only give her position away as she darted between tables, praying that Kaya wasn’t training a gun on her location. She couldn’t stop to look at the doorway; sticking her head out like that would be the last thing she’d do. All she had to do was get close enough to guarantee she’d hit her target, and take the shot. Like Bond and Scaramanga, but without a mannequin for her to impersonate.

If she had more time, she might’ve wondered how Roberto was doing.

Seo didn’t factor into it. She hadn’t even remembered the ten kill rule until the announcements had brought it up. It had actually been a relief: Seo wasn’t in the game anymore, which increased her chances of surviving. She was mad that Seo had gotten away with it, sure, but that didn’t change anything. Seo was gone, and she was still there.

So one kill, ten kills, it was irrelevant. Bethan had to go down, had to die; as much as Amy didn’t like it, it was because Bethan was standing between her survival and demise. Now Kaya was doing the same.

Fine then, one kill would turn into two. She still didn’t like it, but it was like Jewel said: she didn’t have to like it. She didn’t have to like any of this, but she wasn’t going to die for nothing, not after what she’d done.

She hurried forwards, rounding closer to Kaya’s position as quickly as her crouched over form could. She overstepped on the approach, tripping into the table. She gritted her teeth as sweat pooled in her armpits. After all this time, it was nothing new.

[Espi]

Kaya flinched slightly at the thud of Amy bumping into something, her finger squeezing down on air. She took a silent breath.

"I mean, you don't have to say anything. I can't make you." Kaya paused. "Well, not without being an even worse psycho than, like, most of the people still left. I mean, you seen half the bodies laying around?" Kaya made an exaggerated shuddering noise. "Gross."

She motioned to poke her head around the corner, but pulled away before fully sticking her head out. "Don't me wrong like, you know why I'm here. But at the very least you made it quick." Her voice rose a bit at the last three words, and she swallowed.

"So by the way, what kind of gun you got? You know what mine is, seems only fair. 'Specially since I'm planning on taking it with me." She shrugged and looked over one shoulder, and then the other.

[Slam]

She paused for a moment when she hit the table, to wait for the gunshot. Nothing came. Soon, she started moving again.

Table by table, she was getting closer. She ignored Kaya’s meaningless banter; she could talk big all she wanted, but it wasn’t going to change how this was going to end. Amy was going to take her down like she took down Bethan, and there would be one less Buccaneer. At least Kaya was goading her into it. Maybe she deserved it at this point. Probably. Still didn’t matter.

One last table, and she felt close enough. What kind of gun, Kaya had asked?

“This kind.”

She sprung up from behind her cover, taking rapid aim with the cutlass pistol. She fired.

[Espi]

Amy emerged from behind the table across from Kaya, a narrow angle through the doorway. As soon as the other girl stood up, Kaya leveled the rifle to shoot, mouth opening.

Then Amy's bullet hit her.

The round slug struck Kaya in the side of the left shoulder before skidding off the bone and smacking into the wall behind her and leaving behind a gaping hole in the top of her arm. There was a long gash in her trench coat, and blood was already running down her arm in a steady river.

Kaya gasped and lunged backwards, her back bouncing the doorframe. Her face twisted, one squeezing shut as she gritted her teeth, but she was straightened up immediately. Before the ring of the gunshot had faded from the room, Kaya was already moving, not back into the hallway, but towards the door, rifle braced against her shoulder, eyes set on the other girl.

In the moments before she stepped back into the doorway, Kaya fired off three shots before ducking into cover once more. The first one one made her stumble, skidding off the floor as she braced against the frame. The second smashed into the table Amy was standing behind as Kaya regained her balance.

The third hit home.

Kaya stepped backwards into the door and, clutching her shoulder, hissed something under her breath and ran.

((Kaya Robinson continued elsewhere))

[Slam]

Damn.

Amy lay spread out on the floor, trying to breathe. She could feel something warm and sticky pooling underneath her. Blood. Hers. Her cutlass pistol had finally left her hand, laying empty next to her, the smell of burned gunpowder wafting into her nose. Maybe the last smell she’d ever smell.

The bullet had hit her somewhere important, somewhere in the chest, but that was all she could tell. It didn’t matter, no-one would come to save her anyway. She had tried so hard to stay alive, and she thought her best bet was to do it alone, but in the end it just left her with too many burned bridges for anyone to reach her, or even to try.

She tried to move, to sit upright, but found it too hard. What was the point, anyway? The roof of the banquet hall was kind of nice. She had liked it more when it had just been her in it, though. A part of her knew she couldn’t blame Kaya, but she did anyway. Amy had killed Bethan to survive, Kaya had killed her out of spite. Neither of them were heroes. If anything, Kaya was petty.

That was what hurt the most though, as her sense of feeling was rapidly fading. In the end Bethan’s death had been pointless, as had all the other betrayals. In the end, no-one would remember her for anything other than that. It might have driven her to cry, but she didn’t have the energy. Now that winning and surviving were off the table, a terminal sense of apathy had washed over her. Once she was dead, it wouldn’t matter anyway.

“Hey, Jewel...” she said weakly, voice carrying even less than it had before. One last conversation with the only friend she ever really had, her clouding mind considered.

“Did you ever see Goldeneye?”

[MurderWeasel]

The reply takes a moment come, and when it does, the voice is soft and muted.

"Hey, Amy.

"I don't think I did. Maybe on TV, but I'm not sure. I always meant to play the game."

[Slam]

“I’m not good at games. I didn’t like this one.”

A tiny smile spread on her perpetually stoic face. Everything had been pretty stupid, in the end. She tried to inhale through the nose, down to fill out the lungs, but it wasn’t working. Oh well.

“Natalya asks Bond, at one point, about why he kills people…”

She remembered the exact scene: both of them on a Cuban beach bathed in a sunset. She would’ve liked to have seen somewhere like that before she died. Bond then made out with Natalya without asking first. That was always her least favourite part of the movies. But she loved them anyway.

“'It keeps me alive.'

“'No, it keeps you alone.'”

She couldn’t even lift her hand to wipe her brow. Damn. This really was it.

“I guess I was kind of like Bond, after all, huh?”

A nice thought. She wasn’t sure she believed it, but she’d let herself go out on that note. She was tired of beating herself up, anyway.

“Hey, Jewel,

“You should watch the movie. It’s good.”

JL08 – Amy Barrows-Shaw: DECEASED

12 Students Remain

[MurderWeasel]

There's a long space of silence before the voice speaks again.

"I will. I promise.

"Thank you, Amy. Goodbye."