Hollis couldn't believe his eyes. To see such a thing, it was pure slaughter!

     The eight blades shot out in two separate directions; one side aimed for Ambrose, the other for Tic. The two had no time to think, and in an instant, they were both bombarded with the rapid, sharp weapons. Tic's body was thick enough that they didn't pierce too deeply, but the pain was unimaginable regardless. Ambrose, on the other hand, only barely remained standing as the blades sunk into his flesh and tore at his innards. Two lodged themselves deep in his stomach, one was planted within his left shoulder, and the last one had only grazed his right shoulder and passed him by. He stumbled as the pain radiated through him; his head was pounding in panic. He was beginning to fear that this battle was beyond him. He'd made a terrible mistake!

     Seeing that they were subdued, the killer sprang onto Ambrose, though at the last minute, Tic grabbed him from behind. The killer twisted and turned rapidly, struggling to break from the grip, but Tic only held on tighter.

     Not relenting, the killer ripped the blades that had been lodged in the large man's forearms free, flipped them, and aimed for his head. On instinct, Tic's grip weakened, and the killer dropped. Having spun round to face him, the copy swung, and Tic stepped back. This assault continued unrelenting.

     Ambrose, watching on the sidelines, gave in. Gripping the weapons in his stomach, one-by-one, he yanked them free, wincing and groaning all the while. It's just...a little pain!

     Grabbing up one of the knives that he had just removed, he lunged at the copy without any reluctance, his teeth gritted, and his eyes narrowed. The copy sensed the approaching blood lust but being too tangled up in his confrontation with Tic, narrowly escaped the oncoming attack. He grabbed Ambrose's outstretched arm and dragged him closer before delivering kick to one of the closing wounds, his toe sinking into the torn flesh. Detecting Tic's fist closing in at his back, he slashed it away with a knife, but Ambrose took this chance and cut at the killer's neck.

     Damn it! The phony gasped between his teeth as a trickle of blood left the open wound. Seeing that the two had closed in on him, he slipped away from between them and was promptly enclosed by more of the glowing weapons.

     "You're a real coward, aren't you?" Ambrose shouted as he stood his ground. "Tic, move it!"

     Before either of them could take any further action, the blades swarmed them. Ambrose covered himself immediately and his back filled with a shower of green blades. Tic was left standing speechless. Not one of them aimed at him. As Tic recovered from his momentary shock, the killer turned his eyes on the large man. In one swift motion, the copy launched at the big man, but instead of giving a direct attack, two more blades shot out in that instant, making impact with his knees and sending him down. Tic groaned at the flaming hot pain that shot through his legs. As the massive man lie like a worm on the ground, the killer strode over with an air of leisure carelessness. Pulling out the black knife he had been using initially, he crouched above Tic, ready to draw the weapon across his thick neck. Before he made contact, a blast was set off in the distance and he fell forward, paused...then dropped to the side as he grabbed his waist.

     Hollis grunted as he pulled back slightly. Right now, he was once again in the open. Having been hidden initially, he couldn't get a good enough shot of the killer from his hiding spot and had to move to this more conspicuous spot next to the fight.

     But I couldn't let this go on! I had to do something!

     The killer had stayed motionless for a time, but now, he turned his sights on Hollis.

     The moment Ambrose saw this, he clambered to his feet, the blades remained stuck in his back, too far out of reach. He struggled, but managed to pull out his own long blade and charged the copy. Though his steps started clumsy, he gathered his bearings as the two went at it again.

     "Get away!"

     Ambrose's tone was clear, and Hollis heeded his command. Turning, he ran back to the tree he had started at. Still with his Desert Eagle, he opted to switch it out for a rifle, something to help close the gap of that distance between him and this phony. Climbing up the trunk, gripping the branches that reached out to him, he pulled himself as high as he could get, shielded by the leaves as he took aim. They were depending on him!

     The killer drew back and the horde of blades shot out again. Despite their attempts to protect themselves, they were still overrun by the vicious tears of the knives. Tic managed to rip them out with fair ease due to his thick skin and muscle, but Ambrose, much smaller and slimmer than his companion, had a harder time dealing with the sting and burn of the blades embedded within him. They sunk in deeper and the pain was excruciating, but he continued on. If he didn't take care of this, more people would die. More of his friends would die. None of these people would die in vain!

     Hollis is counting on you! Tic is counting on you! Fight through it, man! Keep going!

     "You're an utter coward!" He screamed out as he swung for the neck, but his knife was deflected with ease. "You bastard! Show us who you are! We already know, so be a man—no, be a woman! If you believe in what you're doing, do it!"

     The killer's brow perked at this. As he was distracted, Tic came up from behind and wrapped his large arms around the killer's smaller body. The copy gripped at the thick forearms enclosing him, but the struggle was futile. With a scoff, he said, "You believe you know who I am? How did you figure that out?"

     "I'm no detective, but I put one, two, and three together and bam! I got an answer." His strained smile faded away and his tone went grim. "Do it. Give us your face, now."

     A silence prolonged and it seemed the killer had no intention of listening. Then, he gave a little smirk. Without a word, those white, pixelated lights illuminated his form. Hollis watched from the tree in awe. He hadn't expected him to listen to such a request with ease. His heart pounded against his chest. He was finally going to see the monster behind all of this.

     The lights dimmed down, and the form revealed was much smaller than the form of Ambrose the killer had been occupying. Tic's eyes widened in shock. Not having followed the clues as Hollis and Ambrose did, his reaction was much more animated than either of the two. Ambrose was actually quite subdued, unreadable really.

     "Well," she said softly, her voice relaying not a hint of amusement, nor despair over her situation. "Was your guess right?"

     "You're wrong there, Shyed." Ambrose's bottom lip twitched ever so slightly as he spoke the name. Again, she gave no reaction to this and simply stood like a doll in Tic's large arms, her meek form seemed to be dwarfed even further by the size of the man. Ambrose elaborated, "I knew it was you. It wasn't a simple guess."

     "Oh? How?" Despite her blank, listless expression, her tone bore a sense of intrigue.

     "It was all simple." He sneered, but the malevolence in his expression was beyond anything he'd displayed thus far. "You gave yourself away, Shyed. It was just pure sloppiness on your part. Though there are still some things I don't get."

     "Why don't you explain my sloppiness first?"

     "Sure, alright." He scoffed. "The first thing that actually tipped me off was your 'death'."

     "Oh?" Her normally blank eyes widened.

     "Yup. The killer was watching us when Terra...when Terra died." His demeanor faltered for a moment before returning to his grim, somewhat sadistic air. "The killer watched our reactions before fleeing. When you died, that wasn't the case. Why not? He was already in the castle waiting for us to leave, why not stay for a minute longer to see how we handled it like before? So, what was it? An illusory doll? A twisted pajama?"

     "Former."

     "I see." He scoffed before he continued. "Another thing, one of the biggest things..." His movements had stiffened as he reached under his jacket and pulled out that familiar black blade. Hollis's form shivered when he saw it.

     "This," Ambrose said, "has to be yours." Shyed listened intently to Ambrose's every word, remaining totally unreadable. "This has never vanished, even when we were all outside. That means it has to be a creation from someone's mindspace. Tic certainly doesn't have things like this. He's a gun man, not a blade man. Veri doesn't have interest in simple weapons like this. He's a man of extravagance. You, though, this sort of gothic, wicked looking knife is more your style." He chuckled. "And that fighting is definitely more in line with someone light on their feet, which Tic most certainly is not, and the same goes for Veri. Now, the only thing we don't know is your motive. It's your turn now."

     No one spoke, and it stayed this way for a while before the captive girl finally spoke up. "My motive?" She asked in a voice that vaguely mimicked naivety. "You came across my identity, yet you couldn't figure out my motive? Not why I was using your face or targeting Somnium?"

     "I don't know, and your victims have been more than just Somnium." Ambrose's voice was low and raspy as his gaze narrowed further. Tic gulped, desperately wanting to throw in his own two cents, but fearing how Ambrose would react to someone breaking in on their...conversation.

     Shyed continued, "My motive, if you are truly so desperate to know...is cleansing, so to speak."

     "'Cleansing'?" Ambrose's face scrunched up, his brow raised before suddenly twisting, a breath escaping his lips.

     "Personally, I am of the opinion that Somnium need to go extinct."

     What the hell? Hollis's grip on the gun tightened, yet he felt as if he was about to drop it. She's Somnium isn't she? Why would she think something like that?

     "What are you talking about?" The knife in his hand vibrated as he resisted the urge to flip it and swing. "What kind of motive is that? Were you planning on ending yourself after everyone else? Is this your 'perfect crime'?"

     "No such thing," she reprimanded, her eyes glinted as she narrowed them. "Do you really think you're all so great? That you deserve to be freed from my judgement?"

     "Judgement? You're calling this judgement?" Tic groaned as he resisted the urge to tighten his grip. Shyed felt this and made her body go limper.

     "Let her finish, Tic." Ambrose attempted to play peacemaker, but the tone of his voice and his face were just as eerie as before.

     "As I was saying," she continued, "Everyone here has a wonderful gift, an ability that could be used for good, for amazing things. And yet..." There was a flicker through her dark eyes before she went on. "You all use it for such perverted things. For awful, immature things. I may not be active on the forums, but that doesn't mean I don't keep an eye on all of you. Such horrible things are said on that forum. I've been taunted and complained about for my concerns over the ethics of what some of you people have done. Disgusting." Though the words she said carried such weight, her tone remained steady and flat, regardless of the anger that was slowly, fairly twisting her features.

     Before she could say anymore, Ambrose cut in. "You need to remember one important thing, Shyed." Hearing this, she closed her mouth and listened. Ambrose smirked, a bead of sweater running down his cheek. "We're all immature because we are immature. Heh! Not many of us are above the age of thirty, so of course we're going to use our abilities for such inappropriate things. Of course we're not going to use it for life changing miraculous things. We're a bunch of immature kids!"

     Shyed tried not to give any kind of reaction, but the blink of her eyes and the slight drop of her mouth told all. She was dumbfounded.

     "I can't say much for the way they were talking about you, that was wrong of them, but you're taking the frustrations from that out on everyone else? I can only say, 'what the hell is wrong with you?!'" Ambrose attempted to stand, but the blades piercing his back kept him down, and he succumbed to the pain remaining hunched over. "Sure, we peep on people's dreams, on their thoughts. We see things that should be hidden from us just because we can. What we're all doing is wrong, but you murdered people! Even if it was for reasons you considered righteous, that doesn't change the horrendousness of your acts! What you've done is far worse than what we've done. You've stolen lives that will never come back! That's not going to change things for the better, Shyed. Are you really so stupid that you would think that?"

     Silence returned. The two stared each other down, Tic standing awkwardly behind them, his grip remaining tight on the small girl.

     Suddenly, she crossed her arms and bright green lights erupted behind her. Two knives darted out towards Ambrose who attempted to dodge, but the pain from the knives in his back remained and the two weapons pinned themselves in each of his shoulders. As this happened, the pixelated lights returned, and as they enveloped Shyed's form, she swung around in Tic's grasp, and by the time it vanished, her enlarged form pulled his arms up as her long, slender legs wrapped around his neck. With a rough lean, she pulled him back, his legs struggling to catch himself from the inevitable fall. She pulled his arms up higher and pulled harder, but Tic managed to catch himself and tossed her forward, her body landing with a thud in the grass.

     The woman pushed herself up, her short, fluffy, white hair just as meticulously perfect as it had been before her fall. Ambrose pulled the knives from his shoulder as his eyes scanned the woman up and down. A secondary pajama?