The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

Epilogue : Part 1

Note that this is the first part of a two part epilogue

Four white walls enclosed her in a small, bright room. A luminous light dangled from the ceiling, swing back and forth slightly as the light illuminated every corner. Everything in the room was the exact same shade of white, the desk, the chairs, the papers in front of her, her clothes, everything. It was enough to give Mel a pounding headache as she tried her hardest to wrap her head around the situation.

"Murder?" She squinted her eyes as the man sitting opposite her. He just so happened to be the only thing in the room that wasn't white as he dressed completely in black, the contrast making her eyes ache.

He nodded, "you admitted to seeing Avery kill her while you were still in the Pen, remember?"

"You heard that?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought the Hearts were the only ones in charge of the world at that time."

"They could only take control over it when Avery wasn't around." He grinned. "Who do you think separated them from her?"

"You were working with the Hearts? How long? And how did you find out about the plan?"

"About a month ago, Avery told me a little bit about Pen 5A96 and Season X, that's the world you were living in. She told me she ended it but something about it felt off to me so I researched it myself. I continuously snuck into the science department to gain as much information about it as I could. Once I caught Bethany in here - -- you know, one of your fellow Hearts -- messing with the virtual settings so that it would glitch for you and Seungmin. She isn't a great liar so it didn't take long for her to blurt out the whole plan."

"Did you used to work with Lisette?"

He shook his head, "No. Scientists and producers don't usually mix. In fact, when Avery initially told me about Season X, that was my first time ever meeting her in person. Perhaps that's why she was under the impression I was too dumb to realise what she was trying to pin on me." He paused, eyeing Melody. "How did you know?"

She raised an eyebrow, "how did I know what?

"How did you figure out your real Ace power? Avery told me it was that only you could resurrect yourself but Bethany told me the truth. How did all of you figure out that if you, the Ace of Hearts, were the only person to survive, all fifty-two of the plus the Jokers would be resurrected?"

"It worked?"

He smiled softly, "it did. You managed to completely overwhelm the system. It caught on fire and everything. It will take years to fully repair that, you know? The technicians hate us."

"Lisette told us about it. She hated the idea of the virtual world and wanted to end it. So she taught us how to hack the system."

"And Avery caught her in the act?"

"Avery caught her putting me back to sleep."

"Then what happened?"

"I explained it all before."

"So you didn't see anything else? You've been out of the virtual world for half a day now, surely your memories should be returning."

"They are returning but that's still all I remember. I believe it actually is all I saw."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Have you tried asking Avery?"

"Yeah, I did. In fact, I made a deal with her. If she told me the truth about what happened to Lisette, I was going to make sure you didn't survive."

"I guess she didn't tell you the truth then."

"Yes, and I knew she wouldn't. That's why I made the deal."

"What did she say?"

"That you killed Lisette."

Mel rolled her eyes, "how did you know she was lying?"

"Because if actually killed her, Avery wouldn't have been so quiet about it. She would have had nothing to hide."

"So what's doing to happen to her?"

"Avery?"

"Yeah. Is she going to prison? How long is her sentence?"

"She hasn't appeared in court yet but I'm sure at least five years."

"Five years? For forcefully controlling a bunch of kids and killing one of her fellow scientists?"

"The world out here is just as bad as the virtual world, if not worse. She's a scientist and has helped research more about the human brain than any other neurologist. Her sentence would be shorter than other murders because the quicker she returns from prison, the quicker we get more neurological research."

"What about justice?"

"Doesn't matter as long as the economy thrives." He shrugged, standing up. "Now that we are done here, do you want to see the others again? I'm sure you have a lot of explaining to do."