Being the Holy Grail is Suffering... [Worm/FSN Quest]

For Dinah Alcott it had started just like any other day. She woke up in the morning, rushing into the bathroom to beat her mom to the shower then, after drying off and getting dressed, sometimes twice depending on whether or not her dad nodded or shook his head upon seeing her downstairs, she would make herself some toast for breakfast. Her mom would be in the bathroom for hours, usually not out before her dad took her to school.

The ride there would be relatively peaceful. The Alcotts were a well off and well connected family, and they lived in one of the more gentrified parts of town. Her father would spend most of the short ride on his phone, rescheduling appointments last minute because his schedule was always too full, before dropping her off and turning around to go to city hall.

She would be the first to admit that she wasn't exactly best friends with her parents, but they weren't distant either. She made sure to tell her parents about her day every evening, and she always looked forward to attending the various social gathering that her family were invited to. They were dry, and there were rarely other people her age there, but it was nice to watch people interact, to try to figure out what they were hoping for and where their actions would lead. Would Ms. Chandler's beautiful long and red, and eye catching color, halter top dress she had just bought be getting her a rich husband, or would rumors run amok that she was just desperate? That sort of thing. Gossip, but more private. More innocent.

Of course, nothing of that sort would be happening that week. With the recent bombings around town people were nervous, and no one wanted so many elite together in one place. Of course, the Mayor would be having a meeting with the press later that day about the recent kidnapping of a class of Winslow High students, but Dinah's family wouldn't be attending that.

"Hey! Dinah!" A girl, about half a head taller than Dinah with long blonde hair called out once she caught sight of her friend. Next to her another girl, much shorter than the blonde with wide expressive eyes and black hair, struggled to pull the blonde's hand down as she jumped and waved.

Dinah smiled as she approached them. "Joanna! Noel! Did you see the news?"

Joanna, the blonde, pursed her lips. "Boring! Come on, we haven't seen each other in forever and that is the first thing you ask about?"

"We had school on Thursday." Not on Friday on account of a bomb threat that threw everyone into a panic, but it had turned out to just be a prank call. Darian was currently at home, probably, having been suspended. "Besides, we texted last night. Don't be melodramatic!"

Noel's half lidded eyes looked around, and when she spoke her voice came out soft, forcing Dinah to step forward to catch what she was saying. "I saw it. The news. Pretty scary." She shuffled her feet. "Do you think it is safe to be here today?"

Joanna laughed. "Its fine! Don't worry about it!"

"But-"

The warning bell rang. "We better get to homeroom." A mischievous grin spread across her face. "Race you!"

Dinah reached out a hand to stop her, but she was too slow. Joanna had already gone sprinting into the building. She sighed, looking over at Noel. "We should probably hurry."

"R-Right."

They arrived just before the bell rang and took their seats. Joanna yawned next to her. "You know where Mrs. Carter is? She is normally here early."

Dinah shrugged. "Sorry, no idea." She stretched, finding herself growing bored and tired almost as though in preparation for the upcoming classes.

Noel frowned, brows furrowing as though she were looking into the sun. Under her desk Dinah could she the girl stretch her ankles, extending them then folding them twice. "Uh, guys, do you smell something?"

The two girls shook their heads. "What does it smell like?" Behind her Joanna laid her head on her desk.

"It smells like...jasmine."

Just then the door opened, and Dinah couldn't help but feel there was something off about the man that stepped through it. His skin was white and clean, like someone took a sponge to it and scrubbed every visible inch for hours on end until it glowed. He wore a well fitted suit, expensive and well pressed, but he walked with long strides with his hands shoved into his pockets. The man leaned against the desk, a smile on his face.

"Sorry for being late. I'm going to be filling in for Ms. Carter today. Anyways, we are getting a late start so let's just jump right into it. You can all call me Mr. Paganini. Now, the school wants me to go over bomb safety with you all because of that prank last week, so-"

Dinah blinked. He was an animated speaker, moving one hand in the air like a conductor as he went, but her eyelids felt heavy. It must be the dry subject matter, or so that was what Dinah told herself. Dinah fought to stay awake as she focused on Mr. Paganini's…

Wait, what color were his eyes.

She frowned. A foot tapped her ankle. She turned her head to meet Noel's wide gaze. "Something's wrong Dinah. We need to leave."

Leave? Why? Nothing was wrong.

Nothing...nothing at...did Noel say something?

Dinah felt herself drift off, but was startled awake by the sound of Joanna's face meeting her desk followed by light snored. Dinah felt herself giggle a bit at the sight, and she caught sight of Mr. Paganini smiling (something is wrong with that smile) at her friend. He seemed to be just as aware of how boring his little lecture was as everyone else, because he didn't make any mention of all the students dozing off in their seats.

Noel rose her hand. "Uh, Mr. Paganini? I-I need to use the restroom."

"Oh? Can you wait a few moments?" He idly ran a hand through his hair (the color...the color is…). "I am almost through."

"I really need to go."

"I see. Okay. Just come take a pass then."

Noel hesitated. "Dinah needs to go to!"

Mr. Paganini blinked. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"I mean...uh...Dinah really needs to go too, but she didn't want to interrupt. I'm sorry,I just figured since I've already...uh...interrupted she shouldn't have to wait." Dinah looked at her friend in confusion. 'Please' the girl mouthed.

Mr. Paganini turned his attention to Dinah (why am I so nervous?) and arched a single eyebrow. "Is that true Dinah?"

There was a pause, and Dinah felt suddenly heavy. Why was Noel lying? It didn't make sense.

Dinah shook her head. "I'm fine, Mr. Paganini."

He nodded. "I see." He smiled at Noel. "Well, unless you've changed your mind, you can go now."

Noel, bug eyed and pale, slowly stood up, taking the hall pass the substitute teacher handed her, and practically dashed out of the room. Mr. Paganini made a show of holding his chin in thought. (wait...why is everyone asleep?) "Where was I? Oh yes…"

Dinah closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Mr. Paganini's hair and eyes were purple.

---

"Good morning kiddies!"

Dinah woke with a start. Where was she?

The room was more like an auditorium. A stage where Dinah and several of her classmates were rousing from sleep. Looking around she found that the house lights were off, and she could not see the rows of seats that were no doubt there. Above them, on the far wall of the stage away from where the audience would be, was a large screen.

A clown. White face, purple eyes and hair. Horns. Wings. Claws. A cape?

A pit formed in the pit of Dinah's stomach. She knew about child kidnappings. She'd like to say from her parents teaching her, but it was actually from police dramas. Child abductions...were bad. The chances of them surviving the first couple of days was low, and they had been transferred to a new location. That lowered their chances of being found by a lot.

Wait, but they had all been taken. A group kidnapping usually had higher odds of survival.

Dinah held onto that hope.

"You are probably all just dying to know why you are here! Well, you see, you have all been volunteered to participate in a little research study of mine. Now, what you all have to do is simple!" The clown grinned. "I want one of you to kill another one of you!"

The clown paused as murmurs broke out among the group. Murder? Was he serious? Why would they do that?

Dinah noticed some of her classmates relax, seeming to think that the risk had lessened since the clown wanted them to kill each other, and therefore wouldn't kill them himself. That seemed to be the consensus anyways. She wasn't so sure. If he wanted them to kill each other, surely he would have a way to make them.

"You are all probably thinking 'That's crazy! None of us would kill our friends! We are safe!'" Pause. "Well, BLECH! Wrong! Wrong wrong very wrong! Hyahahaha! Because if any of you want to leave alive, someone is going to have to end up dead!"

"You see, it goes like this. I've suited up this place to sustain you twelve for months. No one is going to find you. Your only hope of escape is to get away with murder so I can let you out." He cackled. "Oh! And if that isn't enough, then let me tell you this! For every week that goes by where no one dies…"

The camera moved, and Dinah felt the world spin. Across the stage she could see Joanna empty her stomach.

Noel was there, sitting on a chair, head back, cut open from throat to crotch, her organs…

Dinah threw up as well.

"I'll snatch one of you up! One in twelve chance you get taken! Do you like those odds, kiddies?" They could hear whimpering coming through the speakers. Noel's head lifted, tears streaming down her face, her eyes wide and empty.

'Please', she mouthed, 'kill me.'

The clown cackled as the video stopped.

Dinah would have liked to say that they held on, that they banded together, trusted one another, and that no one died. That no one killed anyone, but that would have been a lie.

The first to die was a boy named Sammy Wilcox who was killed the night before the clown said he would 'snatch' one of them up. He was killed in one of the bathrooms backstage, having apparently been drowned in one of the toilets. That was when they learned what the clown meant by 'get away with murder'. They had only half a day to figure out who the culprit was. If they found out who it was, the killer died. If not everyone else died.

That one had been easy. Lucas was the only boy bigger than Sammy who could have held the relatively fit boy down for so long. Add the obvious bruise on the boys cheek, and it was easy to find him guilty. Easy to sentence him to death.

Dinah had turned away as his lips began to bleed, seemingly without cause. The blood just wouldn't stop as more and more poured out. He tried to ask for help, but everyone just turned away.

Eventually he began to drown and one boy, a small asian who always sat at the back of the class and who Ms. Carter let work by himself even when they did activities as a group, named Reo pushed Lucas into another room and closed the door, pulling off his shoe laces to tie the handle in such a way as to prevent the door from opening.

Joanna had screamed, throwing herself at the boy asking what he was doing. He didn't react, merely shaking his head slowly and, in a quiet monotone said, "You all looked uncomfortable."

Everyone stayed away from him after that. No one had really been friends with him before, so it wasn't like much changed. For almost a week nothing went wrong, and then…

Solving Joanna's murder had been significantly more difficult. The killer went to much greater lengths to cover their tracks. Everyone was lost and afraid, but in the final hour of investigation Dinah was approached by Reo.

"You were her friend."

"Uh...y-yeah. We all were."

He paused, seemingly surprised by her statement. "No, we were all classmates. Now we are all suspects, but she was your friend."

Dinah frowned, clenching her fists as she felt a heat bubble in her chest.

Then he spoke again. "I found something, but I think you should be the one to convict the killer."

At the trial, thinking of it like that made it so much easier to deal with DInah found, she presented the broken baseball bat Reo had found behind the stage. It had a deep blood stain in the wood. Their murder weapon.

Dinah saw one of the boys, John, visibly shake, his eyes wide. She couldn't help but frown. "John, could you take off your shirt?"

"What?"

"Just do it."

"Hell no!"

They had to force it off of him, and when they did they could see the long horizontal bruising and swelling on his back.

Joanna had been planning on killing Reo, and had his around a doorway waiting to smash him over the head. However, she had always been overly excitable, and she instead swung at the first person to walk through the door.

John had wrestled the bat from her hands and beat her to death with it. He cried out about how it was self defense, and it didn't count, that she was going to kill him.

His arm broke, Then his leg. Dinah and everyone else left the room, sobbing as John crumbled, every bone in his body breaking until he died, compacted into a shape to small to allow his lungs room to breathe. She only knew this because Reo apparently went back to check on him, and he told her the same time her told her…

"I fabricated evidence."

"What!?"

"John destroyed the bat. Broke it into little pieces, flushing what was small enough and burning what wasn't."

"How do you know that."

"I saw the murder. I was behind him, down the hall."

Dinah looked at him incredulously. "How did he not see you?"

"People like to ignore me." Dinah didn't know what to say. "I followed him a bit while he destroyed evidence, so I took another bat and broke it. It was hard, but I eventually did it."

"That blood?"

"I revisited the crime scene when everyone left."

Dinah felt sick. "Why not just...you know...tell everyone what you saw?"

"Nobody likes me. They want to kill me."

"No they-"

"Joanna did."

Dinah closed her mouth. Reo tilted his head as he looked up at her. "If you want to win, you have to cheat...if you want to talk, I stay in the supply closet in the basement. The one with the cleaning supplies."

Dinah didn't want to talk to him. He messed with her friend's corpse, lied to kill one of her classmates (Joanna's killer though…), and everything he said was…

But she couldn't stand the fake smiles everyone wore. They were giving her headaches. All of them. The way they talked, trying to stay friends, but it was obvious…

[100% chance someone dies within the next week]

The thought had just popped into her head. She hated it. She hated what this place was turning her into. How she was thinking.

Reo was honest, and it was refreshing. They would speak for hours at a time, and though he was odd he was also...insightful. He saw things, noticed things, that she didn't. It was interesting just hearing him just talk about people.

One day she remembered crying as she thought about her friends. One who was dead and one who was hopefully dead.

"What are you thinking about?"

"J-J-Joanna. N-Noel."

"Ah...they are dead."

"I-I know that."

He sat by her, gingerly wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I...I think this is good. Wait, no, that is wrong. I mean...crying. I think you shouldn't calm down."

"Wh-What?"

"After this sort of sadness...when people release like this...after that they sort of run out of tears. Then there is just...resignation, I guess. But you want to hold on until the end, right?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Then you can't give up like that, so...I think you should keep crying. Let this catharsis last for a long time. Until we get out. Okay?"

"I-I think I can do that...I can't imagine this feeling ever going away."

Reo remained silent, and though he was as unexpressive as ever, Dinah got the feeling that she hadn't done anything to alleviate his own worries.

She knew Reo hid a fire extinguisher, the only one on that floor, in what had become his closet. He hid most of the things he thought would be dangerous weapons, and kept many near where he stayed as well. He had shown her where he had hidden the fire extinguisher though. "Just in case" he had said, handing her a second one he said he had taken from upstairs. It smelled strange, a sort of urine like smell that stuck in the nose. It was bad enough that it was making Reo cough, and he held his shirt up to cover his mouth. Apparently some matches he found and hid had gone missing from his closet, and he was nervous that someone would try to kill someone with fire. What was left unsaid was that he was worried for her, specifically. What was left unsaid was that he really didn't care if the rest of their classmates burned.

[83% chance Reo dies within the next two days]

The next day was quiet...then that night there was smoke.

Dinah remembered rushing down the stairs to the basement with the fire extinguisher Reo had given her. He was there, in his closet under a fallen shelf as fire raged around him. She pushed through her gawking classmates and began to spray down the room. Eventually, the fire was put out.

She remembered having to shout at her classmates to get them to help her get the shelf off of her friend, and she remembered his ragged breathing, his coughing, and his last gasps as he smiled at her. Was that the first time she saw him smile? Definitely the first time it reached his eyes.

Evidence was scarce. Fire was hard to trace, but Dinah had been determined.

She remembered, vaguely, taking in the look of the room. The cleaning supplies had been emptied out, most likely by Reo. He had tried to prepare. Get the materials that could possibly turn into toxic gas out of there in case...in case he was right, and that everyone wanted him dead.

She questioned everyone, searched every room, but in the end she came up with nothing. And then the trial came.

It was a mess. Pointed fingers, crying. And then she remembered breaking into tears, crying. Crying, no...not really.

She was cheating, she realized as she forced tears to roll down her cheeks. She thought about Reo, burning, the boy her other dead friend, Joanna, tried to kill. Thought about what Noel must be going through, and how she prayed that the girl's suffering had ended. They were fresh. She was not yet out of tears. She still had more to release. (She promised him, didn't she?)

It was dirty, but the killer...a girl named Delilah whose father was a banker and who got A's on every test, finally revealed herself...no, Dinah found her. The intensity, the screaming, the guilt, the crying...Dinah shifted her attention from one classmate to another until she got saw it. A flinch, an averted gaze, a clenched fist. Her reaction was more than uncomfortable.

[90% chance that saying this will convince Tabitha that Delilah is the killer]

[81% chance that saying this will convince Jack that Delilah is the killer]

[94%...73%...86%...]

Her head...felt like it was going to explode, and by the end of it she was crying in pain as much as in sorrow. But…

[100% chance of Delilah's conviction]

Somehow she knew she won.

…

They found Delilah guilty, and everyone around her exploded.

"Congratulations Ms. Dinah Alcott! You won the game! You have gotten away with murder!"

What?

"Oh, you look confused...well, let me explain. It was a rather crazy plan. I honestly wish that boy survived instead. Quite the head on his shoulders. Hyehehehe."

What was going on?

"The boy, Reo, manipulated that gift he gave you a few days ago. You see, he practically bathed the nozzle of that in ammonium...you know, that thing in bleach? Turns out he has a pretty bad allergy, and so while he was careful while prepping that, with how deep he was breathing, all the stress of the fire, and that nifty ammonium being blown in his face…"

Dinah fell back onto the ground. "No…"

"Oh yes! You see, the fire didn't kill him! It was the ammonium! You were the killer the whole time!"

"But...why?"

"What did he tell you again? Oh, yes! Something about hopelessness and wanting you to hold on. Oh what a sap! Hyahahahaha! Well, turns out he didn't much believe you'd be able to keep that promise you made, so he figured he'd just shorten the time frame!"

He...he set himself up...set himself on fire...because he wanted her to...win?

A cold emptiness began to settle in her chest.

"Congratulation! Dinah Alcott, you are a winner!" The screen shut off and he stepped out from behind one of the rows of seats. "You are free to go, my little Thinker."

What?

"I'll be in touch." Then everything went black.

---

The Grail stepped out of the underbrush, their makeshift dress torn and hanging off of them by what should have been uncomfortably thin straps of fabric to a normal person, but which seemed perfectly fine to the Grail. It had been a hard and thoroughly (un)eventful walk from Brockton Bay up to New York, but they had finally done it.

Now they just needed a plan of action as to how they were actually going to break Canary out.

The Holy Grail was partial to a direct approach. Find out where Canary was being kept (easy given their access to BB) and via a liberal use of prana blow a direct path to her. Short and simple and hopefully fast.

Of course, BB had apparently been making a "pet" that she said could help them. Angra Mainyu was inclined to see what exactly this "pet" was. If it could make a good enough distraction to pull the heroes away, maybe they could just waltz right in and leave smiling like the cat that caught the canary.

...get it?

The remnant, for reasons totally unrelated to BB's habit of calling Angra Mainyu 'sempai', would rather not do this. Instead, it considered going with a more nuanced approach...one that wouldn't put their body at risk.

Normally they were the ones that interviewed the potential Master, but both BB and their new (not totally willing) ally, Dragon, could easily gain access to Canary's cell and open some form of communications with her. The remnant was sure they'd have to get creative to do this while being limited to the digital space, but the remnant had faith in Dragon.

Anyways, once this happened, Dragon could interview Canary and relay the findings back to them! Then they'd just summon a Servant suited for her, have the Servant save her, then make her a Master properly once she got back. They'd have to sustain the Servant themselves for a while, but really, breaking the girl out should only take a few minutes.

---

OPTIONS:

[] Mount a direct assault

[] Get backup from BB's 'pet'

[] Let Dragon and BB interview Canary

---

AN: Holy shit did this chapter run away from me. Haha, sorry about that. Anyways, yeah, new arc, we walked to New York, to BB or not to BB, all that jazz. Oh, and the demon is scheming, but is that really surprising?

...I went 12 pages without typing the word "grail" once...what is wrong with me?