Gah... I updated this one...

Who Your Comrades Are

After everyone was outside Shinichi did what he said he would and he told the inspector all that he knew, and had been told about by Kuroba and Hakuba, what had been going on. There were three people who were dead now, and Shinichi knew that Hattori's death, since he had looked, would haunt him the rest of his days.

It was the girl's death, obviously Nakamori-keibu's daughter, which hit the man the most. Kuroba wasn't awake to face the man's hatred for him not saving her, but even if he had been the inspector only cried to himself, angry and hitting the ground instead of the other teen.

Shinichi wasn't sure if it was really his fault or not. Kuroba had likely lied to her, kept her from feeling pain, and she'd died with him right there. He had grave wounds because of those actions, but Shinichi couldn't honestly say they were altogether wrong. Kuroba was just weaker than most, and he'd done what he could. He was paying for those actions so he had no right to judge.

Shinichi had Ran to deal with anyway. She was still crying though she was calming down and looking at him with tear-filled eyes, no hatred there. She should hate him in some ways. He hadn't answered one of his questions right. He didn't even feel it was right to ask Ran what he thought the answer had been.

To be honest, he didn't think she could answer him even if he did. Her bleeding was too bad to simply take the cloth away.

They had to move on and it took more than a little effort from the inspector, still lost in his current grief, to wake the other teen under his instruction. This was clearly meant for the two of them and he doubted that something like those questions they just had could be aimed at another and still allow them to pass.

Kuroba had tears even in the eye he couldn't open and he had to be practically carried by the inspector as they walked back down the accursed hallway, not looking like he was much there.

Shinichi didn't need to have his extensive past history with wounds to know he wouldn't be conscious for much longer. He wanted to finish this quickly anyway.

Learn to be Yourself

There had to be some sort of pattern to these messages. What they were though he wasn't about to stand there and figure out. Kuroba, again, reached out first and pushed the door open.

While there was about as much metal as there had been in the last room, the floors themselves were still wood. Large tower structures rose up far past where the ceiling should have stopped, a mesh platform and some sort of box at the first twelve feet - which was about as far as he could accurately see. Shinichi had to assume they were the same further up as well.

Of course, his attention went there afterwards, staring at the other half of the room where more metal mesh was shaped into a box, a solid black metal one partially blocking his view of Haibara. The girl was strapped down to a chair with more metal and she was wearing strange, metal loop earrings that he'd never seen her wearing before.

Some say the accomplice is just as guilty as the criminal. Whatever sins that one is burdened with go to the other. Lies and deceit live on like this in the form of our friends. This task is simple. Get to each platform and it will unlock the shackles on the one inside the cage. They will need to take the key to their own box off of the one beside them. Sin begets sin, after all. Once you reach the top the last lock will be reviled and completing it will open the way and the shackles will come off. Fail to complete this task in the next five minutes and-

There was the brief sound of electricity before Haibara and the girl beside her, someone he had to take as one of Kuroba's friends, screamed.

Ready, set-

"Wait!" Conan didn't want this but it sounded like they could get the both of them out. Looking over at Kuroba, who couldn't even stand, there was no way he'd be able to climb however far up those platforms went. "This isn't fair!"

Your decisions are your own. They are not mine to bear. Go.

Conan hesitated a moment, sparing that time to look over at Kuroba who was eyeing the structure himself, breathing funny and still not supporting his own weight.

Conan could do nothing to help that but it sparked an idea and he took off, going around the outer mess and inside the tower itself. The stairs were nothing, he ran up dozens all the time, just at the agency.

When he reached the platform and came to the box that looked much like a circuit breaker, he opened it. Inside there was a button and he wasted little time pressing it.

There was a snick and he peeked through the holes, seeing Haibara was free. "Hurry up! I know it sounds terrible but I can't help if you hesitate!"

Haibara was clearly confused but all the blood on all of them was likely enough to kick her brain into action. For a person like her, it didn't take much. She went to the box that, Shinichi had to guess, had some sort of molding in it. The other girl was sporting similar earrings as Haibara, only in a triangle shape. It was easy enough to guess they were going to be used as the keys.

Haibara figured it out quickly enough, though clearly wasn't aware what kind of 'game' they were trapped in as she tried to find some sort of latch for the piece in the other girls ear.

"How do I-"

"Just hold the base of my ear and rip it off. Hurry up."

Shinichi did have to blink at the teen in there with her. She had dark hair that was pushed back to clearly reveal the new accessories. Her eyes were a near a shade of red that he'd never seen before and she had the look of a warrior somehow, even if atheistically she looked no different than Ran.

She also seemed to know exactly how this was going to work.

Haibara hesitated far longer than Shinichi was expecting and he found himself hitting the mesh with his fist and shouting for her to hurry up.

Being a smaller girl, it was hard for Haibara to do but, as she ripped off the piece of metal – which took far too long and the teen it was attached to ended up not able to quite bite back a screen – there was far less blood and damage left behind than he was used to seeing in the past however long he'd been in here.

Shinichi couldn't see much as she placed it in though there was an audible click of metal on metal.

Then a countdown started.

Ten. Nine…

Everyone looked around before Shinichi figured it out. That was key one. Obviously there was another key in her ear. "Haibara! Sit back in the chair!"

"What?!"

It was clearly one of the last things she wanted to do and Shinichi found himself hitting the mesh again. "Just listen to me and sit back in the chair like you were before!"

The countdown got down to three, and two, before it shut off, the metal once more holding Haibara in place.

Shinichi let out a breath, running up the rest of the stairs. There clearly was some sort of ceiling above him, as he couldn't see the black well against anything, and the sky would have made some sort of light as a backdrop.

"What the heck is going on?!"

It wasn't hard to hear her scream though.

"Just sit tight and do-"

There was another click and Conan stopped halfway up the next set of stairs, looking down.

How Kuroba had climbed up on his own, Shinichi didn't know. The teen looked out of breath from the short trek though, and he watched as the teen beside Haibara was freed as well.

"I'm sorry!" Shinichi shouted back down. There was nothing he could do to help Haibara but, compared to some of the other objectives, she was getting off easy.

Maybe it was because she looked like a child. With everything this man must know about him though, and all of them by default to have set this up, he doubted it.

Why Kuroba and the other teen waited for him to get to his own switch, Shinichi wasn't sure. It became apparent after both were freed and the teen ripped off her own earring, handing it over. If it was less painful that way, so be it.

Kuroba was slow, even by normal standards. He clearly couldn't walk very fast up the stairs without getting dizzy but Shinichi couldn't spend much attention on him. He got to the top, walking across a platform that seemed to connect his tower to Kuroba's, a button in the very center of the floor.

He pushed it, looking around and hearing the sounds of something opening. "What was that?"

"The other box that's attached to the door opened and I'm free." There was some silence, Shinichi not able to make out what was happening below him very well with the height and the mesh. "I can't find another key though."

What? This was the last one and it was supposed to reveal another key. There wasn't much he could do to help.

Pacing back and forth and unable to head back down the stairs or else he wouldn't be able to assist Kuroba, he let his mind wander.

"Well, the other person had the key. See if there's one on her somewhere."

"I ah… I think I found."

"Great. Is that second lock undone yet? Kuroba-kun?"

"You'll have to give him a second. He blacked out for a minute there." It was the girl in the cage that answered him instead of the other teen.

Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight, Fifty-seven…

"Crap." There were no free seconds he could give him. "Haibara, just get the key and-"

"Hold on."

"There's no time to hold on! Just open the door!"

"I can't! She'll die if I do!"

Shinichi was bothered badly by not knowing what was going on. It wasn't like this jerk hadn't put them in a situation where freeing one would kill the other though, so he had to wait on Kuroba to open the door. He could push the last button himself after the key was in. "Kuroba! Hurry up!"

The dark-haired girl in the cage started speaking but it was impossible for Shinichi to make out what the words were. 'Hurry up,' were the only good one's he could think of anyway.

If Haibara had to, she could hear the countdown. No more waiting for the other teen if it started getting too close.

The maniac was in the twenties by the time there was another click. Shinichi waited, tapping the mesh, not wanting to distract anyone. They would know to shout up to him when they were done. The waiting, while their seconds were literally counted down to them, was hard.

"Okay!"

Shinichi hit the button again. "Did it work?"

"Yes!"

He wasted no more time running back down the stairs. Adrenaline was getting him through most of these tasks but he could feel it starting to make his body shake. Mentally, this was downright the most fatiguing experience of his life.

He was near the first panel when the countdown went into the single digits and he noticed Haibara run out and the teen bent over, a key in her hand and trying to unlock something that was locked around her leg.

Kuroba, while unable to climb the stairs very quickly, had exited them faster than he had expected and was near the open doorway that had appeared in the cage, picking Haibara up while the inspector chased behind him, trying to pull him back away from the danger without hurting him.

"Hey, hurry up!"

Four, three…

"Shut up! I know!" There was a near silent click as the cuff came off, the girl running for the exit, off the mesh floor and towards the wooden one.

She didn't quite make it. One of her feet were still in contact with it when an electrical surge powerful enough to spark along the whole structure ran through it, her scream the last noise in the room for a very long time as she fell to the floor.

The electricity faded a few seconds latter and Shinichi exited his own metal deathtrap, afraid that it would somehow be effected as well.

"Mmmh." Kuroba turned his back before putting Haibara down, pushing her back a little to make her walk away, turning back to his friend and pushing on her shoulder a little. Her body shook as he did. "MMmmh."

Shinichi felt his heart go out to him. Kuroba was in no shape to be even trying any of this. He knew how it hurt. He had lost a friend already to this too, though he hadn't had time to really let that sink in. Ran had lost her father. Kuroba- Kuroba had likely lost someone who he had considered as close to himself as Shinichi did to Ran, and now someone who was likely an accomplice of his and closer to him than most anyone else would be.

It wasn't a bloody mess of organs, but it still hurt in it's own, quiet way.

"Mmm." Kuroba nudged her a few more times, as if trying to wake her up. It likely surprised all of them when she spoke.

"Ow, that hurt. Get me… off this stupid thing already."

"Kami, you're alive." Nakamori-keibu wasted little time picking up the girl who, clearly out of it, was at least breathing.

She'd been mostly off the electricity, and her shoe looked melted, but it must not have been enough to kill her.

Shinichi let out a breath, smiling, and was startled by loud, cutting laugher behind him that spiked up his heart rate.

Hakuba was watching them, smiling himself and laughing, though he stopped in a few seconds. "Nobody died this time, huh?"

"Yeah, and fat lot of help you were," Shinichi bit back, mostly because he was scared, partially because he was angry. "If this madman would possibly let anyone fill in for Kuroba, it would be you. You're both around the same age, same intelligence. I'm sure he'd have no problem with it. But you won't even ask, will you?"

"It's fine."

Shinichi wanted to yell some more but when he faced his opposition, Kuroba himself, he couldn't find it in him to scream at someone barely standing. "It's not."

"It is." Kuroba swallowed and more blood stained the bandages. He didn't miss a small bubble of it start to form at the corner of his lip. "It's between us anyway. I'm sure he wouldn't allow it. Hakuba-kun's right. He didn't do anything wro-"

"What did we do wrong? Sure we lie. Sure make others lie. Sure we fall in love. What's wrong with that? What did we do so wrong that we deserve it?"

"Nothing much. I'm not saying we did. I guess…" Kuroba swayed. Half his face was a bloody mess and the darker it dried, the more obviously it contrasted with his skin tone. "I guess I just don't want more people getting hurt. We couldn't really be sure this test wouldn't make us do something like before."

Shinichi took in and let out a few breaths, his anger going with it. He understood that. The guy had been able to do nothing the last time, and Hakuba-kun likely would have been just as bad, if not causing more fear. This game was designed to hurt both the player and the captured pawn. "I get it."

"I don't." Nakamori-keibu looked at the ceiling. "I don't get any of this, you sick bastard, but I do get you're playing with us and these kids and that's not right! If anyone's doing anything wrong it sure as hell is you!"

I'm not the spider who spun these lies, these falsities, these broken laws. Tick tock.

"We should go." Kuroba took a step forward, his hand on the inspector's shoulder. "It's no good yelling. We can't reach him anyway."

The inspector let out a heavy breath of his own, shaking his head. "This isn't right. Next time, if I can help you, let me."

Kuroba nodded, taking a step before the inspector and placing a hand on Shinichi's head, which startled his slightly. "Thank you."

Shinichi felt his anger return suddenly. Kuroba was the one who has good as killed Hattori. Why he had helped him, he didn't know. He was sure that Hattori at least would be a lot more helpful than Hakuba was. Some friend. "Don't thank me. I might have to turn against you."

"Mmm. Thank you anyway. I'm sorry I haven't… I'm sorry I didn't help you. I tried. I really did."

"Yeah, right. Come on." Shinichi was through with all of this. He walked away from him, going to Ran and taking her hand once more. She was getting a little steadier but he doubted even if she could walk on her own that he would let her. Everyone else in the room was a potential enemy. "We're leaving."