After I ate my eggs and toast, I opened my front door to leave my house, and saw Sol standing directly in front of me.
Sol: "HELLO!"
Mahale: "AH!"
I was caught off guard and jumped back a little.
Mahale: "Seriously? You can't just scare someone like that! How long have you been standing there?"
Sol: "I dunno. Why do you only eat toast?"
Mahale: "Were you watching me eat!?"
Sol: "...No."
I glared at him.
Sol: "...Maybe."
Mahale: "Words cannot express how creepy you are sometimes."
Sol: "I'm not creepy! You're creepy!"
I sighed.
Mahale: "Nevermind. Where's V? Has she come back yet?"
Sol: "Uhh... what's a V?"
Mahale: "The woman with the really long hair."
Sol: "Ohh... She came out of nowhere and said she was gonna be next to the door to Paradox soon. I came over here to get you, but you were eating so I waited."
Mahale: "Well, we should probably get going then. We don't want to miss her."
Sol: "Yup!"
Sol started sprinting towards the door to Paradox, while I just walked behind him, and then far behind him. As I approached the door, many others were sitting down, waiting.
Scarlet: "Oh, so you're haven't perished yet."
Scarlet was the only one sitting on a chair.
Mahale: "Is that supposed to mean something?"
Scarlet: "Of course not. I'm simply thankful that you're still with us."
Mahale: "Somehow, I doubt that."
I scanned the crowd. All of the survivors were here except for Zero.
Hikari: "He's hiding. He's probably scared I'll do something to him."
Luna: "Aren't we all..."
Luna looked extremely tired, which was strange, since I saw her only a couple of hours ago.
Marine: "Luna? What's wrong?"
Luna ignored him and looked at the ground with a sad expression.
Hikari: "Where the hell is she? We've been waiting for a while."
Almost on cue, the door to Paradox opened, and out came V.
V: "Here."
We all stared at her, waiting for someone to say something. Scarlet got up from her chair.
Scarlet: "What is your name, Warden?"
V: "You may call me V."
Scarlet: "I am correct in assuming that you are the Warden of Magic, yes?"
V: "Yes."
Scarlet: "What happened to Lumiere?"
V: "No results. Replaced."
Scarlet: "Replaced? With whom?"
V: "Me."
Scarlet: "How can we figure out who the Flux is?"
V: "...Stop talking. Sit."
Scarlet: "Excuse me? I'll have you know I-"
A hand made of purple dust gently pulled on Scarlet's hand, encouraging her to sit.
V: "I'm sure you all have questions. I will not answer any more of them. You will stay here and continue to narrow down your roster until the Flux is found. Failure to do so will result in all of your deaths. The door to Paradox will be unlocked. You may roam freely. That is all."
V disappeared in a shroud of purple mist, leaving us all shocked, and scared.
Marine: "So... nothing changed. We're stuck here."
Luna held her knees to her face and started sobbing.
Luna: "I just... want to leave..."
Zero: "Oh, shut up."
Zero approached us from behind.
Hikari: "Looks like someone wants his face beat in again."
Zero: "Heheh... I guess you don't want to know about how to get out of here then. Your loss."
Hikari: "You're lying."
Zero: "Am I?"
Zero turned to me.
Zero: "Give me Violet's note. I can decode it."
Mahale: "What? How?"
Zero: "With this."
Zero held up a piece of paper. On it, was a list of names, numbers, and lines. I stared at it, determining what to do. My selfish desires overcame my rationality. I leaped at Zero, grabbed the piece of paper, and ran through the door to Paradox.
Zero: "NO!"
I shut the door and locked it. Banging came from the other side. The others were begging to escape with me, but I ignored them, after all, if everyone came with me, then the Flux would be coming with me too, and everything would be destroyed. I couldn't take any chances.
Mahale: "I'm sorry, everyone."
I found the keypad and looked at the note, and the decoder. On the back of the note was a string of numbers.
316-3113-21-121-1625
The decoder had all of our names in a particular order. Then, I realized what the password was. I inputted the first 3 letters.
Mahale: "T...H...E..."
Then the next 4.
Mahale: "N...A...M...E..."
Then the next 2.
Mahale: "I...S..."
I heard footsteps coming from behind me, but that didn't matter. I was almost free.
Mahale: "A...R...C..."
I gasped as I felt a sharp pain from my back. I looked down, and saw a knife, sticking out of my chest in a circle of crimson. I was horrified, and slowly turned my head to look at my assailant. I saw V. She leaned in to whisper in my ear.
V: "Tempus volat."
And that was the last thing I heard in Paradox.
