Trial 4: The Trial of Alex Grant and Molly Kipton

Julie squeezed the railing, "Tell her that." she muttered angrily.

"Felix..." She wanted to punch him. How could he vote for himself? He could have gotten away.

He couldn't look at Alicia. "You think I want your deaths on my conscience too? You think I'd want to live knowing that you all died because I got away with killing someone?"

"You didn't kill anyone! And not voting for yourself is you trying to survive, not you condemning us or whatever! We had the numbers advantage and you still didn't try to save yourself! Neither of you did! " Julie looked at Liam angrily, "You were always talking about getting out of here and making a difference. You wanted to change things. But you gave up so easily...a way to escape presented itself and you gave up.  As always." she slammed her fists on the railing again, "You couldn't even fight for yourselves. "

"You could have lived." Alicia said quietly, she couldn't take her eyes off of Felix.

"But now you're going to die and we're stuck in here! See the problem?" She was almost shouting. "What were you thinking? What about your family? You could have seen them again."

Felix closed his eyes. He wasn't even looking at her but he could sense her glaring at him. He'd been trying not think of his family. His brothers and mother. "You can still get out. The three of you. Besides, if I hadn't voted for myself there would have been a tie and we would all have died." Tears started forming in his eyes but he kept them tightly shut. "Please don't make this any harder for me Alicia. I'm trying to brave. I'm trying not to make this harder for you guys. I don't want to die but I don't want anyone else to either. And if it's a choice between me dying or you, I'll always step up to save you from that. That's what I did."

"And by doing that you're plunging her even deeper into despair." James adjusted his glasses, "Even if the three do manage to get out, what then? You expect her to live a normal life? What if your parents are there and she has to explain that you died to them? " James sighed, "An act to defend the one that you love, but it's still a cowardly one."

"I didn't trust him. I just had to hope and pray that he could help. He was the only hope left." Julie looked away, "There's nothing for me outside of these walls anymore. I had one last attempt to find a shred of hope among this and he was the only thing there." Her shoulders slumped, "...I can't watch you two die."

James cleared his throat, "I wasn't here to fix your mistakes. I was here to make you aware of them. You have to live with the consequences."

"I wanted to protect you too." Alicia said weakly. "After everything that's happened here, I wanted to protect you."

"You're all stupid. Don't you understand how selfish it is to 'want to protect someone?'"" James scoffed, "'I don't want you to die because then you don't have to deal with the emotional trauma.' Good job." He shook his head, "None of you have changed at all. Felix and Liam are the lucky ones here."

"This was a vote, and the results have spoken," Liam said simply. "I voted against myself because I thought it was the best course of action, simple as that. What difference would a pawn like me have made? James said it himself." He swallowed, ignoring his pounding heart. "You aren't dead. We are. Make the rest of your lives mean something, because Felix and I can't now."

James shrugged, ignoring Alicia's question.

"That's so stupid! What the fuck can us three do where the rest of us failed? There only needs to be one more trial and we'll be finished! If any of us wanted to get out, that'd be it! I can't keep fighting like this!"

"...You guys didn't do anything wrong...Why... are you so willing to die?"

"Alright, I'm bored." The bear hit a button on his throne. Two sets of shackles popped out of the floor and strapped themselves around Felix and Liam's feet. The floor beneath them began sinking. "Let's start with the execution then, shall we?!"

Felix wobbled slightly as the floor began to move but he held himself upright. He kept his eyes cast downward to avoid looking at Alicia.

Liam grit his teeth, but refused to give Monokuma the satisfaction of seeing him quail. He swallowed and folded his arms. "Well. It was nice knowing you."

Alicia couldn't hold herself back. She ran to Felix and she hugged him. "I'll get out of here, I promise." She said quietly to him. "I'll find your mother and I'll tell her you died to save others." She stepped back and wiped away her tears. "You're so stupid, you could have gone to her yourself." She said affectionately.

Felix held back his tears and hugged Alicia tightly. "I..." his voice wavered as he spoke. "I'm sorry I couldn't get out of here with you."

Julie clenched her fists. She kept her eyes on the floor, with her brows furrowed as they said their farewells. "...Bye." She said simply.

James adjusted his glasses. "Go." He said, before the panels where Liam and Felix stood dropped down below. Felix and Liam plunged into the darkness below, leaving the rest of the kids looking at the bear. The bear clapped its paws, and a panel in the floor opened up, leading to a staircase spiraling downwards.

"Meetcha at the bottom!" The bear jumped down the panel, disappearing from sight.

James took the staircase immediately, walking down as soon as it opened up. Julie followed behind, staying silent. Devin and Alicia followed suit.

At the bottom, there were two separate chambers. In one was Felix, bound to a platform by his wrists and ankles in front of an elaborate machine. The room was very bright, and had white walls within it. In the other chamber, stood Liam. Like Felix, he was bound: his ankles were bound to the floor he was standing on, and his arms were anchored to a sort of podium in front of him. He was facing the students, with a large area with seating in front of them. Mannequins sat in the spots, staring up at him with dead eyes. The only thing in between the two chambers was a thick wall.

"Alright!" Monokuma's face appeared on a TV screen in front of the kids, "Let's get this show on the road! Felix and Liam can see you of course, but they can't hear anything other than what's in their chamber. But luckily, you get to hear everything!" The bear descended from the ceiling in Felix's room. "And without further ado, let's give it all we got!"

[E-die-tic Memory]

The platform that Felix was fastened to moved to the side, giving the students a side view of him lying on his back. He was moved directly under the strange machine. A mechanical arm extended to the bear, a large stack of papers in its grasp. "Ah yes. Thank you." The bear took the papers and walked next to the machine, turning a few dials and hitting a button. A large burst of flame burst out from underneath, shooting towards Felix. "Perfect. Now." The bear pulled out a panel and showed it to Felix. Felix's eyes went wide. It depicted an average house, or what used to be one. It was a medium sized home, with paint chipping and the roof caved in on one side. Windows were smashed out and the fields around it looked shriveled and dead. A large pile of wooden debris sat to the side of the building in the distance. "Recognize this?" The bear leaned in and it's eye shone, "Of course you do! And do you know who drew this?" The bear laughed, and hit the switch, and the fire spat out, eating away at the picture.

The bear held up another picture and Felix gasped at the picture in front of him, "Joeseph...Right?" The portrait depicted a young man, his eyes focused on the viewer. His face was cut and bruised, and he seemed to be shrinking away, as if scared. His nose was bleeding, and tears were building up in the corners of his eyes. The fire spat out and ate away at the picture, the bear's laughter accompanying it.

The next portrait was pulled out. "Drake." Another portrait of a young man. His eye on the right side was swollen and blood was splattered on the side of his cheek. The bear positioned the picture as if it was staring directly at Felix, with a betrayed look in his eyes. The fire destroyed it seconds later, and Felix's platform began to move closer to the machine.

"Benjamin." The fire destroyed it. The platform moved closer.

"Lewis." Destroyed. "John." Destroyed. "Callum." Destoryed.

The platform moved closer to the machine, and shifted to the side, positioning Felix's right leg beneath it. The bear held up a picture, "Harrison." This portrait looked angry. It looked at the viewer with bloodshot eyes, and several burns among his face. The bear pushed the button and the fire shot down, devouring the picture before it. The flame ate through the paper and began tearing at Felix's leg, the flame eating through his flesh in an instant. Felix's screams could be heard by all the kids watching, the pain being unbearable. When the flames stopped, his leg was black and shriveled, and tears were pouring down Felix's face and dropping into the abyss below.

The platform shifted over to his other leg. "Adam." The process repeated itself.

The platform moved again, this time moving his left arm into the line of fire. "Oh. Hm." He held up a picture of a toddler in a coffin, labeled Katie. "Guess this one got mixed in. Oh well." The fire shot out and destroyed the portrait and ate at Felix's arm.

Monokuma pulled out the next picture and turned it around as the platform adjusted itself. On it was a picture of an older woman who looked tired and defeated. There were several cuts around her forehead, and bags underneath her eyes. Her face was tear stained. "And this here's your mama! Wanna know what happened to her?" The bear pushed the button and the flames destroyed the picture in front of him, "Fwoom!" The flame ate through Felix's other arm and his screams grew louder.

The platform moved one last time, moving Felix's head underneath the nozzle. The bear held up one more picture. This one involved all of the people before: gathered in a family picture, smiling and laughing. And in the middle of them stood Felix with his arm around Alicia. His mother stood proudly at his side. "And this...is everything you threw away." The last thing Felix saw was the flame ripping through him and Alicia in the picture as the flame burned through his skull.

"Ahhh~ Now wasn't that nice?"

Alicia watched the whole fiery scene before falling to her knees and screaming.

"Alicia..." Julie knelt down next to her and grabbed her shoulder, "He's not hurting anymore. We'll make whoever's responsible pay for this."

"The execution was a farce as well." James added in, with his arms crossed. "Felix's family is being kept safe in a facility after you all went AWOL. The bear just did it to torture him."