Zero Escape: Chambers of Nightmares

"Uh, Gallus?" I look over at Cozy Glow. "Why... Nevermind." She mumbles something to herself.

Gallus shrugs. "So, who's going where?"

"Yak want door 7!" We all look at Yona. She got pretty loud just now.

The one least bothered by her volume was Gallus, who just chuckled. "Alright. We'll just have to work with that."

"I want 2." Rain holds up her bracelet. "Same number."

Rain... Something about being near her suddenly feels... odd.

"Hey, Silver? Are you alright?"

I look at Gallus. "Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just... thinking."

"Well, unless it's which door to go through, that can wait."

"Door 2." I say that without thinking much, but I do want to go through that door.

Gallus smiles. "Sounds good to me."

There's a bit more discussion about who goes where. Bramble wants to go with Yona, Sandbar wants to go with Ocellus, Gallus wants door 2 and the others want to go through door 7.

Gallus is scratching his head. "Well, that's a problem. Door 2 has three creatures that add up to 4, and door 7 has six creatures that add up to 5. We need a change of 7 for things to work."

"Alright, so what adds up to 7?" We all stare at Smolder. "... No."

Cozy shrugs. "We'll be stuck here otherwise."

"Send Ocellus and Sandbar over!"

"No!" Both of them responded at once.

"Then you're both holding us up! Not me!"

Gallus coughs. "How about this. You get first pick at the next set of doors."

Smolder glares at him, then rolls her eyes. "Ugh. Fine."

For some reason, my eyes drift to Sandbar as he scans his bracelet. I don't know why, but I suddenly have a sinking feeling about him. Am I afraid that he's... Zero?

"Silver, come on."

The door 7 crew is already through their door, and the others going through door 2 are waiting on me. I head over and scan my bracelet into the RED. We head through the door into the greenhouse.

... Wait. How did I know this would be a greenhouse? This whole thing is confusing, and we're just getting started.

"Silver! The DEAD!"

Oh, right! I rush over, scan in, and pull the lever.

Smolder prods my head. "You need to sit this one out, Sil? You look pretty out of it."

I sigh. "I really am right now. I need a break."

Rain shrugs. "Go ahead. We've got this."

"Thanks." I head over to the aquarium. How did I know it was here? I saw it, that's why.

...

"You want to talk?" Gallus sits next to me.

"I do, but I don't know where to start."

"Let's start with why you wanted door 2."

I lean on his shoulder. "Rain."

"What about Rain?"

I can barely see Rain in the reflection of the glass. "I just feel like... like I need to make something up to her. Like I wronged her somehow. I don't know why."

"Because of her crush on you, maybe?"

... Huh? I look Gallus in the eye.

"You know how Sandbar and Ocellus will make goo-goo eyes at each other when the other isn't looking? I once saw her making that face while looking at you."

I look at Rain directly. "That might be it. I don't see her as any more than a good friend, but I really don't want to break her heart."

Gallus sighs and drapes his wing over my back. "I'll help you find her someone but only once we're out of here. Until then, love has no role in what we're doing."

"Maybe Sandbar thinks that way."

I feel his wing stiffen. "What?"

"I don't know why, but I get the feeling that Sandbar might be Zero."

Gallus rubs the back of his head. "Have you heard of the Morphogenetic Field?"

"Yeah. You mentioned it while we were in... door... 1."

He smirks. "We aren't at door 1 yet. If you focus, you might remember what happened in that other timeline."

I close my eyes and focus...

...

"Ocellus, Cozy, Rain, and Smolder died in the second set of doors, then I saw Yona dead in front of me. I found Rain's diary, detailing her life at the school and her crush on me, then Zero appeared and talked to me."

"There you go. It can't be one of the other girls. What makes you think it's Sandbar specifically?"

"Well, you've been so helpful to me, and Bramble has never done anything suspicious."

"So Bramble is too innocent, and you don't think it's me because I've been helping you?"

I scratch the back of my head. "Well, yeah. There's not really anything that I can use to defend Sandbar."

"Are you sure about that?"

I close my eyes and focus again... "I really don't. The one time I didn't see Zero was the one time I knew Sandbar died." The first timeline, I was told Sandbar died. That is the only timeline so far that I didn't see Zero at the end of things.

"Maybe you'll find something to defend him with."

"I doubt that."

*CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG*

... My ears. My poor ears.

"Hey, guys! We finished the puzzle!"

Gallus moves away from me. "Gee, you don't say!"

I head over to the window. All of the traps have been triggered. "How did you set it off?"

"We found a clay ball to chuck in." Smolder points up. "It was hanging from the ceiling."

Rain is rubbing her head. "Good job, Smolder."

"Thanks!" I think Smolder heard the words and not the tone.

"Well, let's go." I hop through the hole and into the room below. There's no threat here anymore, so I can just fly across to the door. Or the lever to open the door, rather. Now through the door.

Huh? "Hey, why is that door open?"

The others look at the open door as well.

"That's odd."

"I wonder what's through there."

"Only one way to find out." Smolder flies through.

"Smolder!" We follow her.

Inside are two things; a glass orb, and a message on the wall.

"Only the LUCCKY can survive. Zero is the PRISONER."

... Whaaaaaaaat?

Smolder has her hand to her head. "Why is lucky misspelled?"

Rain has her hoof to the message. "Zero is the prisoner? What's that supposed to mean?"

Gallus scratches his head. "Is it an anagram? That could explain the extra C."

I look at the orb. "Well, this might help." I place my claw on the orb.

"This is incredible! How long has this been down here?"

"It was good to be home."

"So this is Gallus? I can see why you like him. He's cute."

"He's mine!"

"I'm not making it up. If you saw half of what I saw, you'd think the same way about them."

"Uncle Highwind? Wha- tha- huh?"

"How is she? After the accident and all."

"I don't know. She hasn't gotten back to us."

!!! AH! Those were... Wait. UNCLE HIGHWIND IS ALIVE? But, no. I saw... he died. What is... how did... Huh?

"Woah!"

The others apparently grabbed the orb while I was holding it.

"That was... trippy." I think Smolder is right.

"What happened to Strongheart?"

I look at Rain, then scratch my head. "Something happened with her tribe she had to go home for. If she came back or sent a message, it was after our memories cut off again."

Rain sighs. "We were about to go on a field trip too. I wish I could remember it."

"It's alright, Kissu. We can visit once this is over."

... Wait. "Kissu?"

Wow. I didn't know dragons could turn that shade of red. At least, the ones that aren't red naturally.

Gallus is smirking. "Smolder, how long have you two, uh..."

"NO! We, uh, there's nothing going on! We're just, uh, friends!"

Wait.

... There was that time when we visited the Peaks of Peril and saw Rain's home, Smolder and Rain went somewhere by themselves.

"CUTE COUPLE WANTS TO BATTLE!"

"I'm not cute!" Smolder takes a moment to process that she just denied the cute part and not the couple part.

This is so EXCITING! I have to hug them!

"Gah! Silver! No!"

Rain just giggles. Oh? She's just as red as Smolder.

"You two have to give me every detail of how you two started dating, starting from the top!"

Smolder is pushing on my chest. "This is why I didn't want anyone finding out!"

"Uh, should I come back later?"

We all look at the doorway. Sandbar is standing there.

"Yeah. And bring the others. We found something crazy."

Sandbar nods at Gallus then walks off. Sandbar...

"Could you please not tell anyone else?... Silver?..." Ow! "SILVER!"

"W-what?"

Smolder looks mad. "Could you not tell anyone else, please?"

"Uh, sure."

"Silver?" Rain has her hoof on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I look at the door. Should I tell them?

"She thinks she knows who Zero is, but I don't agree with her guess." And Gallus just told them.

"And who does she think-" Smolder's eyes shoot wide as she turns to the doorway. "No. Sandbar? There's no way!"

"You might not want to share that assumption with anyone else." Rain steps away a bit. "They might think you lost it."

"Right." I hear voices through the door. Soon enough, the others step into the room.

Yona tilts her head. "An orb?"

Ocellus steps up to it. "Well, let's see what it does."

The five of them touch it. All of their eyes glow for a few seconds. Once their eyes stop glowing, they all jerk back.

"Oh, yeah." Cozy eyes Rain and Smolder. "The two of you were going out, right?"

"ARRRRDFDFDFDFDSDFJIADPSDVJERO" ??? Did Smolder have a seizure?

Bramble looks shocked. "Wait, is that true?"

Ocellus is smiling. "Aww, that's sweet!"

Sandbar is rubbing his head. "Yeah, I kinda figured when I overheard Silver mention it."

Yona is scratching her head. "But why?"

Rain waves her hoof around. "You wouldn't understand."

Snapping? Why is Gallus snapping his claws? "We can discuss this later. What do you guys make of that message?"

"Uh... They misspelled lucky?" Thanks, Sandbar. Thanks.

"There's probably a reason for it." Ocellus moves over to the message.

Gallus is beside her in a moment. "I'm thinking anagrams. Why else would there be an extra C?"

"Hey, Silver?"

"What is it, Bramble?"

"Since when was Gallus this, well, smart?"

I look at Gallus. He does seem to be smarter than he usually was.

"I think it has something to do with the rest of our missing memories." Cozy? "Let's say something needs to be moved from one part of a forest to another. If the first part of the forest burns down but nothing else does, then whatever was moved out of it is still safe. Memories and knowledge are the same way. Even if we forget we learned something, that doesn't mean we forget what we learned."

Bramble looks at Gallus. "I suppose that's fair. But can we lose knowledge without forgetting that we learned it?"

"Well, heh, it depends on how well we remember learning that thing, though it would probably involve recreating how you learned the first time to the best of your ability."

Huh. Yona's been pretty quiet. I look at her... huh? "Yona? You seem pale."

Her eyes snap towards me. "Hehehe. Yak just... cold. That's all."

A yak getting cold. That's a new one.

"I'm not coming up with anything. No anagrams at all." Ocellus sits down. "And at face value, it doesn't make much sense. They wouldn't misspell a word like that unless it was intentional. Zero being a prisoner makes less sense. Even if they are one of us involved in this game, they probably have a way out of here."

Gallus scratches his head. "And it's not like they're trying to save a past version of himself or anything."

... The Morphogenetic Field. It allows anyone that can access it the ability to send information across timelines and to their past self. What Gallus said... I might forgive them if that really is the case. Otherwise, how would they live?

"Silver?" Smolder has her hand on my shoulder. "You look out of it again."

"What if Gallus is right?" ... Wait, I need to clarify that. "What if Zero had a good reason to trap us here? Would it be possible to forgive him?" I give them time to answer.

"No way." Not that Smolder needed any. "This is way too far for any justification."

"Well..." Rain scratches her head. "If they really are trying to find a way to survive something."

"Nevermind the death traps they could fall victim to." Cozy... has a point.

"Well, maybe they have a way to avoid dying."

"Don't get off topic! What could possibly justify their actions?"

Uh oh.

"Nothing! That's what!"

"There might be something!"

They're raising their voices.

"And what would that be?"

"Guys, calm down."

"No!"

I'm getting out of here before they cause another panic attack.

I slip out the door and head down the hall. Once I get to the doors to the infirmary, I sit down.

"So you start a fight and bail?"

I'm not going to look at Gallus. "I didn't want to have another-"

"Maybe you're Zero."

WHAT? "Hold on. You're not serious, are you?"

He looks very serious. "Everything that casts suspicion on Sandbar comes from you. You're the cause of the groups two big arguments across the timelines. And you've done nothing to defend yourself."

"Hey, don't blame me for the first one! You came up with the plan to-"

He presses his claw to my beak. "Don't make this about me. Why should I trust you?"

... I don't have an answer. What can I even say right now?

*DING DING*

"Well, Silver?"