Pewter couldn't believe the events that just unfolded in front of him. He was talking to HQ as Date said, and told them that Shizue Kuranushi was the new Cyclops Killer, as any normal person would. There's no way he would be taken seriously if he just said "the culprit is actually one of the original Cyclops Killers who decided to swap between bodies using a prototype of my invention and he is currently in my deceased boss's body." He took every precaution he could, careful not to spill any information about body swapping. And what did Date do? He ruined it all, as he usually does.
Pewter spent maybe ten minutes talking in the corner of the interrogation room. When he turned around, Date and Saito were both nowhere to be seen. Only one thought came to his mind. He immediately ran into the psync room, only to see Date running towards him with an evil grin, a face he'd never seen on Date before. That wasn't Date, it couldn't be. It had to be Saito. Without thinking, Pewter pulled out Evolver and opened the door to where the machine was. Just as he was about to aim, the blonde in front of him suddenly collapsed. Aiba popped out of his eye socket. "950 volts with 10 amps. That should be enough to keep him out for quite a while." Aiba clarified.
With Saito out of the way, Pewter quickly ran over to Date's side. He was incredibly sedated, and would probably be out for a long time too. "Aiba." Pewter said while getting back up, now holding Date in order to carry him back to the upper level. Aiba continued to stare at him, her pupil now shifting to make her look more confused. "Aiba, how in the hell could you allow Date to do something so dull-witted?!?! HQ was told that Boss was the culprit! And what dense putz who has the cognitive functionality of a mere dipteran is now in Boss's body? Date! Now, he'll be brought to jail instead of Saito! We can't simply tell HQ 'the killer swapped bodies with our lead detective'! What in the lord's name do we do!?!?" As Pewter continued to talk, he only got angrier by the minute.
"I apologize, Pewter. Both Date and I believed that by doing the swap, we would have the chance to save Hitomi. Unfortunately, we had only managed to prolong her death." Aiba started. "I understand your frustration, but for now you mustn't allow your feelings to get in the way. There is much to do right now, you of all people should understand that." He mustn't allow his feelings get in the way? This past week has been absolute hell! His boyfriend's daughter gets traumatized from the sight of her mother's corpse to the point of not speaking, then his boyfriend himself is murdered, then more and more work comes his way as the case continues, all the while he's not allowed to tell Date about his true identity, and it all ends with quite literally a bang, and he learns that Renju has been dead from the get-go. To top it all off, Date had to go and do something incredibly stupid in true Date fashion, worsening this situation even more. Pewter was being pushed to his breaking point, something that not even Aiba had witnessed in the five years since her creation.
Pewter takes a breath. "Yes, you are correct." Although this is all just too much to handle at once, there were much more important matters at hand. Most importantly, though, was figuring out how to get Saito into jail, and possibly getting Date out. "HQ will be here at any moment. For right now, let's just hide Saito and hand Date over. We can figure out where to go from there." Pewter obliged, really there was no other choice. He gently put Date into a chair. Then, he walked back over to where Saito was, grabbed his hands, and dragged him up into the control room. He walked up to the lockers and opened one up, only to find the cleaning lady hiding in it. Goddammit, that's the 20th time this month. He opened a different locker and shoved Saito inside, slamming the door afterwards.
Pewter sat down in a different seat in the control room. "We have to come up with something that'll explain where Date is, and why Boss's body is sedated." Aiba stated. "Done and done. I'll simply explain that Date's getting looked over for minor injuries after the incident at the Sagan household. As for the sedatives, I'll inform HQ that our 'killer' here managed to break loose of her constraints." Pewter replied while getting some manga. "If it weren't for everyone at ABIS having impeccable strength, that would be quite hard to feign- are you seriously reading manga at a time like this!?!?!?" Aiba yelled angrily. "Well, excuse me, I'm just trying to escape from reality for a bit while we wait for HQ to get here. It feels uneasy in here with a serial killer literally a few feet away." Pewter retorted.
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Annihilation Afterstory
FanficThere are several endings in AI: The Somnium Files and AI: The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative. However, only one of them continues the story. What would the story look like after the "bad end?" Warnings: Spoilers for both AI1 and AI2 Violence ofc...