zero escape series | standalone stories (28)

Missing scenes, missing timelines.

• adsum, absum (ztd) | r | delta, diana
  "I would like to have this moment with my father, as well, but that will have to wait for another history."
• ante bellum (ztd) | r | delta, diana, sean
  He's been preparing for his birth, and the time is almost upon him.
• auctoritate finem (vlr, ztd) | pg-13 | sigma/diana, akane
  Five years and ten minutes, and Sigma returned to the blank faces of his robot children, who could never relate to his pain.



• bliss (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  There were worlds where they took things slowly. This wasn't one of them.



• cardiac output (ztd) | r | mira
  When she was young, learning about hearts in school, she wondered if the blood in hers only entered and never exited, and maybe that was why Mira was the way she was.
• circle in the sand (999) | pg-13 | akane, aoi, junpei
  It ends where it begins and it begins where it ends and Akane doesn't even know where the idea of the Nonary Game originated.
• closed game, absolute pin (ztd, vlr) | pg-13 | sigma/diana, zero
  Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess. - Terry Pratchett
• consecration (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  Diana and Sigma had fallen asleep with the babies on the couch in the lounge, and she hadn't anticipated waking up again.
• contamination (ztd) | nc-17 | mira
  It wasn't fair. Mom hadn't said anything about it stopping.
• critical error (vlr, ztd) | pg | luna, sigma
  Even Lagomorph is growing anxious. I feel it. He's never anxious



• disconnecting from the circuits of my mind (vlr, ztd) | nc-17 | clover/alice
  I'm getting that feeling right now, Clover. We've done this before.
• discriminant (ztd) | r | delta, sigma/diana
  For ten months, he's been watching, waiting. And now it was done.



• effective potentials (999/ztd) | g | clover, light, akane, aoi, phi, diana/sigma
  Three families, three celebrations. ZEcret Santa gift for whatever-43
• entangled state (ztd) | pg | delta
  "That's not fair," the detective said, even as he felt anger boiling up in him. "This... he's just a kid."
• expectation value (vlr) | pg | luna/dio
  I don't know what's going on and I'm programmed to know everything that's going on and could possibly happen.
• expospurrrr therapy (ztd) | r | sigma/diana
  "Are you ..." He paused, swallowed hard, and worked to rephrase his thoughts. "... teasing me-ow?"



• firsts (ztd) | r | sigma/diana
  What exactly would count as their first kiss?



• mastery (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  He had thought that tying him down and having complete control over him would be ... appealing to her.



• not every saint is a fool (ztd) | r | diana, sigma, phi
  She just ... shouldn't have attacked Sigma.



• pails in comparison (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  Diana threw on a robe and slippers and went downstairs. It wasn't exactly what she expected to see...



• respice, adspice, prospice (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana, phi
  Everyone assumes Diana and Sigma would just instantly fall into each other's arms as soon as they left Dcom.



• shallow affect (vlr) | pg-13 | sigma, luna
  There should be a lifetime limit on how many tears one could cry.
• sudden loss of air, impressions in despair (ztd) | r | ensemble
  Written for windy-ace (galagaleeny) for zecretsanta 2017.



• transmission (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  He asked her on the Moon, once, but she got so flustered he never brought it up again.
• tumultus (ztd) | r | phi, sigma, diana
  She screamed until her throat was sore. She wept.



• Verschränkung (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  Diana and Sigma awake to a stranger telling them the other seven participants are dead.
• a void (ztd) | r | diana, sigma, phi
  Pulling the trigger was easier than she thought. It was frighteningly easy and she could only pray that it wasn't a live round, that the barrel was far enough away. Even with a blank, there would be a blast wave. It could be enough. Enough to leave a void.
• voracity (ztd) | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  They had mutually agreed to take things slowly and had mutually broken that agreement after only a couple days.

zero time dilemma | 9 lives, 9 timelines, 9 endings (4)

All things are possible. All lives end. Ultimately, all hearts are broken.

• 001 / Carlos | r | diana, maria
  I'm sorry. We did all we could. I'm sorry.
• 002 / Akane | r | junpei
  Why couldn't the universe cut her a break, just once? Just once?
• 003 / Junpei | r | junpei
  She could barely make out words. "Okay. Who lie to you?"
• 004 / Sean | r | sigma, phi
  They hadn't seen it coming. No, he hadn't seen it coming. Junpei noticed, too many seconds too late.

zero escape | drabbles (3)

Bits and pieces from various timelines.

• arrhythmia | r | akane, junpei, carlos
  Her heart stops. But only for a moment.



• ersatz | g | sean, gab
  That wasn't right.



• lethe | g | sigma/diana
  He's had decades to prepare.

virtue's last reward/zero time dilemma | kingdom on the moon (3)

A brief series bridging ZTD to VLR. Complete.

• the race of pious men has perished | r | sigma/diana
  She couldn't cry anymore. Maybe she'd gone numb. Maybe her eyes had forgotten how to create tears.
• hope is the only good god remaining | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  It was irrational to run from their bed, the one they had slept in for almost two months now. Warning: reference to past rape.
• men no longer recognize the rules of conduct or acts of piety | r | sigma, akane
  It wasn't healthy, to be lying on the grass, curled up on his side, talking to her as if she was still with him.

zero time dilemma | the Dcom files (14)

Snippets from the days leading up to and during the Dcom experiment, each focusing on one character.
Mostly canon-compliant, although I am tweaking some things a bit.

Stories are time-stamped in DET - Dcom Elapsed Time.
D minus zero = December 25, 2028, at the start of the Mars Mission Simulation.
D minus means it's set in the days leading up to the experiment; D plus means it's set during the actual experiment.

• Mira: D minus 571h : 09m : 44s and counting | r | mira
  'Suspicion' would be normal. Maybe 'fear, too. This was ... 'curiosity', she thought.
• Eric: D minus 547h : 23m : 04s and counting | r | eric
  He was still kind of vague on details but proposing to Mira on Mars had to be the most romantic thing he could think of.
• Junpei: D minus 386h : 00m : 58s and counting | r | junpei
  A scream from the television, and he can't help but think of Akane.
• Junpei: D minus 368h : 37m : 03s and counting | pg-13 | junpei
  He told Akane and Carlos that he had threatened those in charge and forced his way into the Dcom project.
• Diana: D minus 126h : 05m : 13s and counting | pg | diana
  She showered and dressed, eschewing her normal style for jeans and a t-shirt. With her wig - light brown, chin-length - and fake glasses, she no longer looked like herself. Most days, she no longer felt like herself.
• Maria: D minus 23h : 42m : 00s and holding | pg-13 | maria
  I can hear you. I can. I try to wiggle my toes or move my fingers every time you ask me. Please don't think I'm not here.
• Diana: D plus 00h : 13m : 26s and holding | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  Shortly after meeting Mr. Klim, seven minutes went missing from her memory.
• Diana: D plus 00h : 30m : 15s and counting | g | diana, sigma
  Their real introduction to her was during their initial blood draw.
• Phi: D plus 02h : 17m : 09s and counting | pg | phi, sigma
  Now both Sigma and Akane were off-kilter thanks to new variables in the equation and Phi didn't like it at all.
• Carlos: D plus 32h : 14m : 58s and counting | g | carlos, diana
  "I can't completely omit the incident with Sigma from my report," Diana said, almost apologetically.
• Sigma & Diana: D plus 42h : 01m : 58s and counting | nc-17 | sigma, diana
  They say scent can be a strong trigger of memories.
• Sigma: D plus 49 h : 18m : 57s and counting | pg | sigma, diana, akane, phi
  He can't stand to look at her; he can't stand not to look at her.
• Sigma: D plus 55h : 15m : 58s and counting | pg-13 | sigma, diana, carlos
  Diana looked so ... happy. Surely just because of the conversation, not because of the man she was talking to.
• Version SM-004: D plus 143h : 59m : 50s and holding | pg | sean, delta
  One life ends; another begins.

zero time dilemma | the gods lost, 2-1 (25)

An extension of the True Ending of ZTD, mainly focused on D-Team.
This follows along with our merry band of nine as they try to save the world without losing themselves.
The series is mostly canon-compliant, except for the Post-Payoff files, which I have chosen to ignore.

December 2028

• the dust has only just begun to fall | pg-13 | phi, carlos, akane
  Nine people make a vow to save humanity. Three of them make a vow to keep a secret.

January 2029

• inside out, upside-down twisting beside myself | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  She took a deep breath before finally asking, "Where do we go from here?"
• in an instant of great white gravity | r | akane, aoi, diana, sigma
  She let herself drift. The fog dissipated and the chessboard materialized. Checkmate.
• caught you red handed in the biscuit tin | pg | diana, akane, junpei
  Junpei makes some unauthorized modifications to a room in Akane's headquarters.

February 2029

• I'll pull the strength of suns | pg-13 | alice, clover, light, akane
  Alice had no desire to follow her section chief's order that she serve as liaison between the SOIS and the Crash Keys.

March 2029

• steel lungs are shouting the house down | pg-13 | phi, alice, sigma, clover
  She understood why she had been selected for this job, but she was still uneasy about it.

March 2029

• get rid of you once and for all | r | diana
  Sigma wouldn't understand why she was here. He would be angry, if he knew.
• now we spin laps around the sun | pg-13 | sigma/diana, phi
  Four months after the Decision Game, Diana's okay being on this side of normal.
• surrounded by a billion galaxies | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  Shameless porn.

July 2029

• my heart has many heartbeats | pg-13 | sigma/diana
  There's just one damn guy between him and returning safely to the life he never thought he'd have.

October 2029

• honing in on the heart of it all | pg-13 | alice, phi, sigma, clover
  They had little to show for it beyond tenuous leads and a board full of "possible" religious fanatics

October 2029

• leave crisp note footprints | nc-17 |sigma/diana
  Akane had said there wasn't a massive disruption in the morphogenetic field - the kind that might arise if all the beings who could access it suddenly fell silent - for another five years and two months. Even though Diana had long abandoned any doubts she had about the reality of the field, it was hard to believe Akane could pinpoint the apocalypse with it.
• a blip in the algorithm | r | mira
  Her therapist's notes say that she's having an "emotional awakening".
• don't quite turn out always how we think | pg-13 | sigma/diana, phi
  Unplanned doesn't mean unwanted.

February 2030

• yeah, you're gonna crush me down now | r | sigma/diana
  Whatever had just happened, Diana was distressed, and it was more than just being upset over a missing child.
• can't see the sun for the clouds | pg-13 | phi, akane
  From what Phi understood, every esper tended to experience the morphogenetic field differently.

March 2030

• I feel the weight of the world | r | sigma, junpei, alice, delta
  Phi had dubbed the mission 'Crotchety Old Men: The Reunion Tour'.

August 2030

• sleepless, tumbling night | r | sigma/diana, phi
  Nightmares are never pleasant, but some can be particularly awful. It doesn't mean you stop dreaming, though.

November 2030

• lessons to make me more cleverer | pg-13 | phi, aoi, akane, alice
  For the second time, she wished her parents were here.
• I'm burning and praying for more | nc-17 | sigma/diana
  Sigma had ... mostly ... been kidding about wanting to see her in a naughty nurse costume.

December 2030

• I am alone, surrounded by the color blue | pg-13 | eric/mira, sean
  The staff at Bedford knew him and Sean by now. This was different, though.
• shaking his head, in disgrace with me | pg-13 | junpei, sigma, akane
  Akane promised him - no more lies, no more secrets. It's not a promise she's able to keep.
• I'm weather-beaten in a losing battle | pg | phi, aoi
  One day in the desert, nine people (well, eight people and a robot) made a pact to save the world.
  Two years later, things threaten to fall apart.

April 2031

• this interwoven tapestry of tragedy | pg-13 | sigma/diana, maria
  Diana mentally she sought out other histories.

July 2035

• I'm dying to know, to help make some sense of it all | pg-13 | ennea, nona, phi, akane, carlos
  Bastille Day marked the end of the world.