To: @therosecrest

From: @9lastdilemmas

When Phi got to the B garden, she called out to Sigma, in the dark, as she had in all of the other rooms in the facility.  

There was no answer.

She called out again, but louder. He had to be somewhere.

To her surprise and relief, she finally received a response.

“Phi?”

Following Sigma’s voice, in the dark, she cautiously navigated into the garden. She sensed him sitting down on a bench and felt for his shoulder.

“S-Sigma?”

“Are you real?”

Phi noticed Sigma’s voice sounded strange. Kind of husky, like he’d recently cried.

“Yeah, yeah I’m here. I came back for you. And…”

And Luna. Phi wanted to say it but Luna was a robot. Non-Human, plain as that. Phi’s main priority was Sigma. Sure, to Phi’s surprise, Luna picked ally, but she had to have killed the old woman, Alice, everyone. Except for them two and Quark. Phi had to come back. She couldn’t just leave Sigma in this horrible place. Especially when the number nine door had actually opened again.

“Hey…Sigma? Where’s Luna? Did you find her?”

“She’s…in my lap.”

What?

Phi squinted and could see a faint metallic shimmer next to Sigma. She reached out and touched it. It felt cold and solid.

Recoiling, she suddenly she realized…Luna was a robot, and this was her. Her parts at least.  

“Sigma! What happened? Why are the lights out? What’s going on?”

Sigma didn’t answer.

“…Sigma?”

In a quiet voice he answered, “She died…she was turned off… and she just …broke…apart.”

Turned off? Phi thought.

“What happened?”

“We talked about…everything… about how everyone died. Our shifting abilities…”

Although she couldn’t see him, Phi could hear it in his voice that he wanted to cry again.

She was worried. Sigma didn’t sound like his regular self. He sounded a little…dead. He sounded like an actual old man. Or like a little kid. His weird, energetic, and ever-loving cat puns self just…washed away. Like all of the energy was drained out of him. He seemed fragile and scared and sad.

It didn’t help that all Phi wanted to do was drag Sigma through the number nine door, along with quark, and get as far away as possible.

But no. Sigma needed help. Luna had just… died, or whatever it is robots do when they are no longer in service, seemingly in his arms, and the poor guy couldn’t handle it. Sure, Luna was a robot, but Sigma cared about her and trusted her…

And she’s gone too.

Phi sighed in defeat and knelt down in front of Sigma keeping one hand on Sigma and resting the other on…Luna.   

“Sigma…was she a good person?”

After a long pause, sigma’s snuffles ceased.

“…Yeah…she was good. She chose ally for a reason.”

“…I’m sure she did.”

“You were wrong Phi, she didn’t kill anybody. She- She just wanted a hug. And- And then she just died”  

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry Sigma. I really thought she killed them.”

I still do, But Phi couldn’t say that. The faster Sigma calmed down, the faster they could get out of there. And it wasn’t like Sigma was wrong, it’s just that a longer explanation was needed to know exactly how Sigma could justify Luna’s innocence, but he didn’t seem to be in the right mind.  Phi felt like she was losing her mind too, everything happened so fast and she was still wrapping her head around the fact that Luna was right there, but, at the same time, not there. She couldn’t deny feeling guilt over painting Luna as the bad guy but it wasn’t as if she could turn back this history, present or whatever, and do things differently.  

 “I don’t get it. What did we do wrong? Why is everyone dead? Why- why did this all happen? Who’s Zero?!”

Suddenly Sigma stared crying, full-fledged sobbing, and all Phi could do was wait it out and prevent herself from tearing up too.

The only way Phi could think of to fix this was to just tell things as they were. She wasn’t the best at being reassuring but she was going to give it all she had. For Sigma.

 “…I’m sorry Sigma, I don’t have the answers. Maybe Zero does. And I’m sure in… in another history, in some other time. Somewhere, we’ll get them. I promise you that. This can’t be the end. This is not the end for us, for Quark. We’re alive…and I think… I think Luna, and everyone, would want us to go on. It’s…our virtue’s last reward. We did what we thought was right in the AB game and this is what we get whether we like it or not. I’m sorry, but please, Sigma, don’t let them have died for nothing. Please…Please come with us. I don’t want to leave you here alone, and… I don’t want to take care of Quark alone either. I – Please come with me? Please, Sigma?”

Although for breathing a bit heavily, Sigma seemed to have calmed down through her little speech, but now Phi was the one getting all teary eyed.

“Oh Phi…”  

Phi smiled, still crying, but at least Sigma seemed a little better.

Now, here was the diverging path. Sigma could either refuse to come with her, and Phi having no idea how else she could convince him to come, or he could chose to come, making phi very happy in the process. But, unfortunately, say goodbye to Luna.

“Alright…I’ll go with you. Where’s Quark?”  

Thank goodness, Phi breathed a sigh of relief.

“I left him back at the number nine door.”

“Is he awake? How did you even get back in?”

“No, He’s still asleep. It’s crazy but the number nine door actually opened up again, and… it just sort of stayed that way.

“What? Really?” Sigma asked.

“Yeah, right? Crazy…I donno, I’m guessing it has to do with the fact that the power’s off. Although I don’t think the power to the lift is off. The lights are even on in there. I stayed with Quark in the room that’s connected to the lift, past a second number nine door, for a little while longer…after you ran off. The lights are on in there too. You’ll see. Then out of nowhere the second door opened again, the lift was going down again, so I took it. To get you. And well, here we are.”

Phi stood up, letting go of Sigma, and the remains of Luna.

 “Oh…wow. Okay. Huh…” 

They stood there, in the dark for a moment, collecting themselves.

“Hey, Sigma? Do you know what caused this blackout?“ 

"It was probably the damn rabbit. I’ll…tell you later" 

Alrighty, time to change the subject.

“So, shall we go?”

“Uh…yeah could you just-help me? I- I just want to leave Luna on the bench”

“Oh sure, of course.”

After propping her off Sigma, they laid Luna down horizontally on the bench. Or more like Luna’s metallic skeleton. Touching her…corpse they said their last goodbyes.

I’m sorry.   

Then, peacefully, navigating their way out in the dark, they left, heading to their reward.

When they got there, the number nine door was wide open like Phi had left it. She had to admit, It was kind of creepy with them being in the dark, in silence, so the light’s past the door where comforting.  

There was enough lighting on the lift to inspect the control box to see if they could make it manually rise.

Deciding to lighten up the mood Phi called for him in a name she hadn’t used since the start of the game. “Hey Gramps, do you see a switch or something around here so we can-“

“Found it.”

Sigma pushed a button and the lift sprung to life.

“Nice!” Phi exclaimed.

“Puuurfect”

Oh my god.

Phi let it slide.  

“So, Quark is behind the second number nine door?”

“Yup.”

The heavy door lifted itself open.

Before they went through it, to Quark, and to freedom, Sigma spoke.

“Oh and, um, Phi?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do keep calling me ‘grandpa’? Do I look old to you or something? I’m practically your age, you know. I’m not that unattractive though right? ”

Phi stared at him.

“Hehe…he… Right?“

”…“

"Phi? What’s wrong with you? Why are you looking at me like that?”

NOT THE END.