The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

26

He leaned against the nearest desk, arms folded across his chest as his eyes examined the scene painted across the screen. A frown was stitched to his face and his bottom lip was stuck between his top and bottom rows of teeth.

Avery stood beside him, focusing her gaze on him as the remote in her hand became wet with sweat. Gulping, she stated, "it's just a matter of time now."

"A matter of time?" Mr Brown raised an eyebrow. "Can you guarantee that?"

"I assure you, Sir. By the end of the year, they'll all be dead."

"That's two months from now. You would have to kill one every week to achieve that."

"Or kill them all at once."

He glanced at her, an amused smile on his face, "elaborate on that."

"That Pen I showed you," Avery cleared her throat, repeatedly pressing the 'back' button on the remote until the image of the Pen took over the screen. "Ever heard the saying 'history repeats itself'?"

"The last few seasons have been anticlimactic, predictable even. I need to end this one with a bang if we are going to keep this project going on. I need you to do the unimaginable, the unpredictable. I don't want this whole 'history repeats itself' nonsense. We need something new."

"Oh, this is new alright. Do you remember Pen 5A96?"

"Pen what now?"

"Ever heard the story about season X? The real reason season 7 was postponed to the next year?"

"It was to expand the map, wasn't it?"

"That's what they said it was to cover up what really happened."

"Well, what happened then?"

Avery smirked, gazing at the screen in wonder, "that Pen on the screen, that was Pen 5A96. There were three other Pens: 5A95, 5A97 and 5A98. Both the scientists and producers wanted something more from this set of teenagers. They got a range of kids: from top students in secondary schools to Oxbridge and IVY League students. They wanted to see how far a human brain could be pushed. They wanted to know their limits."

"I heard the higher-ups refused to that proposal."

"They did, but the scientists proceeded regardless, keeping it all a secret. They thought pushing the teens a little further would help them understand the human brain more and the producers thought it would make the show more interesting. They were both right but the cons outweighed the pros."

"So what happened at Pen 5A96 then?"

"It was the Hearts' Pen. It had been used every single year by the Hearts since the beginning of this whole project. But now it's just a reminder of the danger of knowledge and self awareness. A reminder of why Jokers should never find each other."

"So what? They killed everyone in the Pen? Isn't that the aim of the game? They have to kill everyone else or make it out alone to win."

"The Jokers did not do this all alone. They had accomplices."

The intrigued look on Mr Brown's face was evident as he shot Avery a slight smile, "accomplices, you say? That shouldn't even be possible."

"And yet they did it. That is what separates Pen 5A96 from other Joker-related betrayals. The devastation it resulted in is what led scientists to shut the whole of season seven down."

"They should have just went ahead with it, you know? It would have made one heck of an interesting season."

"The producers said the same thing. They said it was the most unpredictable season they had ever filmed. But the scientists are the ones that communicate with the players. They had already sensed something was off before the betrayal but it wasn't until afterwards that they realised the urgency of it: the players weren't trying to escape, they were trying to lure the creators in."

"So what does this have to do with anything? What does this have to do with killing everyone off by the end of the year?"

"After realising the danger they had put themselves in, the scientists pulled the plug on that season and tried to refresh the players' minds for a new season. It worked instantly for some. Others took years to fully refresh and forget everything that happened. When we were preparing for this season and picking out the teenagers that would compete this year, we tried to make it slightly more challenging so we picked some of the teenagers from season X. We wanted to give them a second chance to escape."

He scoffed, "now I get it. That's why you were so adamant on killing them all. The ones waking up, the Aces and Jokers, they were in season X, weren't they?"

"I did not want to mention it earlier because season X was the result of our carelessness and greed as scientists but I believe it is something you need to know."

Mr Brown shook his head in amusement, grin still stitched to his face as he uttered, "earlier on, you said that history repeats itself. What about the current season is a repeat of season X?"

"The Jokers have found each other and the Aces have too. One Joker already remembers what happened in Pen 5A96, the other has a vague memory of it. And the Aces found the Pen. Soon they'll all remember what they did to those poor teenagers. Soon they'll remember that day, eight years ago, when Aces and Jokers formed the most unthinkable alliance. And soon, they'll do it all again."