Chapter Text
Roentgenium went to the screen of the machine, quickly typing in the command to activate it. He was struggling, however, as he was typing faster than his brain could process, ending up in a lot of typos and re-tries.
Once he finally got the correct prompt into the machine, he pressed enter, only to be greeted by an error message. He had no time to re-type the prompt or fix the problem; he could hear the police outside of the cave exiting their cars, screaming at him to leave the cave with his hands up.
He didn’t leave, though. He slapped the machine a multitude of times, trying to get it to work.
“God fucking damnit, work! I didn’t spend all this time working on this thing to get fucking arrested or killed by the goddamn cops!” He muttered to himself, drowning out the demands being made outside of the entrance.
After enough time passed without him leaving, the cops entered the cave, as well as.. a surprise guest?
Journal was there, hiding behind one of the police officers, a look of both terror and hatred in his eyes. Man, wouldn’t it have been fun to kill Journal? Oh well, too late.
The cops kept spewing words at him as he put his hands up, guns pointed at him at every angle, seemingly getting nowhere, as no one dared to move a single step. What a bunch of pussies these cops are..
Roentgenium, in a desperate last attempt to get away, kicked at the machine now behind him one last time, a sudden, loud whirring coming from it, causing the murderer to gain a wide smile. He chuckled a bit as he saw the officers look at each other in confusion before a blinding light appeared behind him, a bright portal forming, a large amount of wind blowing from it.
This only caused him to laugh even more, putting one of his hands on top of his head as a few tears of relief began to flow from his face.
“YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD REALLY GET GOLD INGOT?!” He yelled, starting to back away into the portal. “YOU THOUGHT WRONG. GOLD INGOT IS DEAD! HE’S NOT HERE! HE’S BEEN GONE SINCE I KILLED SILVER.”
“You fucking bitch!-” Journal yelled, an officer immediately shutting him up, making sure he didn’t get any closer to him.
“I’M ROENTGENIUM, THE SUCCESSOR TO THAT STUPID INGOT. REMEMBER MY NAME. EVEN IF I’M NOT HERE PHYSICALLY, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. I’LL MAKE SURE OF IT.”
He backed into the Portal more, the small amount of tears turning into cries. His smile stayed as he cried in front of the crowd, the wind blowing his bangs away from his face, showing his deep purple eyes as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
“I’ll see you soon, Mr. Hand. I’m sure you’ll be so proud of me when I tell you everything.”
And just like that, the machine malfunctioned, causing the entire thing to create a massive explosion, injuring everyone in the process. Coughs, groans, and cries of pain could be heard as smoke covered the entire cave, making it impossible to see. A few cops were heard asking for help through their walkie-talkies, unable to move.
Once more officers arrived at the scene and the injured people were sent to the hospital, they were able to clear the smoke and get a good look at the source of the explosion, or really what was left of it. You could see blood around where all of the previous policemen were, but only a few drops from where Roentgenium stood. He didn’t die in the explosion.
At least, there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest that he did. He seemed to travel through the portal, but who knows if he’d survive through it?
..Did it really matter if he survived or not, though? He was gone, wasn’t he? Off to another dimension, hopefully one he couldn’t return from, if he even wanted to.
…
Legally, they would declare him as dead. There was no evidence to suggest he was living, considering the proximity of the explosion and the fact that he literally wasn’t in this dimension anymore.
Journal would recover from the explosion, but not without significant scars. He gained moderate hearing loss and lost a lot of vision in his left eye. Funny, considering that one was yellow.
Every contestant directly impacted by the murders Gold Ingoy caused suffered from immense trauma, and those who weren’t heavily affected still lived with the survivor’s guilt. Pan was able to help all of them get therapists, however, and now they’re able to work on recovering from the immense trauma.
It’s unknown how Gold Ingot is doing, or if he’s even still alive. No one wanted to even think about him being alive, either, so none of them did.
…Except one.
Journal was still insanely paranoid from the incident he watched occur, and with his previous experience with dealing with a person in another universe with murderous intent, he couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of Gold Ingot being out there, potentially even helping Mr. Hand.
He’d find himself subconsciously going through his old work from back then, trying to figure out how to tell exactly whether he was dead or not, before Treasure Chest would stop him from spiralling even farther and going back into his old habits. He thanked whatever god was out there Treasure Chest was still alive to help him through this, to stop him from going down the same cycle he went down before.
However, he still suffered from hallucinations of Gold Ingot from his psychosis, which always seemed to panic him. He’s been doing better at dismissing the hallucinations, reminding himself that he’s gone, he watched him die, he’s not here anymore.
Of course, when he tried to tell the others about his worries, he was dismissed from them, telling him Gold Ingot was dead and that there was no way he could have survived that explosion, and they had to have been right.. right? There’s no way he could still be alive from that, right?
…
Gold Ingot
See you soon, Journal.
- Sent 1:15 PM