In the Courtroom, the three Inquisitors sat in silence.
Darth Vader suddenly got up from his high-back chair, letting out a scoff.
"Too early for a bathroom break, isn't it?" Aizen quipped. "We still have at least two dozen scenarios left to play out."
"Children's games," Vader said, scoffing again as he walked toward the round table in the middle of the hall. "That's all your tricks always end up being, Aizen. And… tricks will not work. Not in this case."
Aizen's smile flickered.
"I agree with Lord Vader," Dracula said, getting up as well. He also stepped down to the table and stood opposite his fellow Inquisitor, watching the projection of the Harry Potter Timeline's planet. "No matter how you mess with his senses, Aizen, we… might reach the same end as in the last hundred cases."
Sousuke Aizen took a deep breath and got up as well.
He didn't join his colleagues in the small gathering around the table, though.
The black wall behind them, with a mirror-like finish, suddenly became a transparent wall of glass.
Beyond the ceiling-high wall of glass, Aizen looked at the real thing.
Earth.
Timeline.
Aizen put his hand on the top of the high-back chair and caressed its metallic texture, his eyes fixed on everything but the planet, his mind calculating a million scenarios.
"I… have a theory," he said after a while, turning around.
Darth Vader and Dracula looked toward Aizen.
Something stirred within them, forcing them to bring their full attention to him.
Rarely did Aizen admit that he was working on a theory. Even rarer were the cases when he let the two of them know of it. For him to even mention the word "theory" meant that he also agreed with their thoughts about meeting a roadblock and had already thought of treading their way around it.
Aizen stepped down and finally stood on one side of the round table, the trio making a triangle around the globe's hologram.
"Red… is telling the truth," Aizen said.
"I knew you had already taken a liking to him," Vader instantly barked. "You think I do not know of your little visit to the planet, going against the procedure? And now… this? No matter how many times Red circumvents his way around the various scenarios, it will also take only one for him to fall. He is guilty. I know it. And I will prove it."
Silence.
For once, Vlad didn't interject.
It was a great accusation — going against the Inquisition's rules.
They weren't Contestants. They were Storyline Characters who… shouldn't exist anymore. The only reason they were still alive was that they had willingly accepted to be the Primordial Towers' Empires' watchdogs.
And that was the case for all Inquisitors, not only the three present in the Courtroom.
If Aizen had broken the rules, favoring Red, then…
"Haha…" Sousuke Aizen let out a boisterous laugh, clasping his hands behind his back. "That's… Haha…"
Vader's breathing quickened, his right hand going for his lightsaber.
Vlad's eyes narrowed. He knew that Lord Vader had never liked Aizen's conniving personality, especially when it twisted the Inquisition's rules, nibbling at them here and there.
Still, the fact that all three of them had remained together for the last several millennia also suggested that they could work together, as long as they were hunting the same prey.
"Have you considered the possibility that…" Aizen said humorously, "… Red is circumventing the scenarios because he knows he cannot be proven guilty?"
Vader's hand paused midair.
Vlad's narrowed eyes also resumed their shrewdness, falling into contemplation.
"The first thing he did after coming here was to throw a Deep One's name at us," Aizen reminded them. "He also sowed a doubt, suggesting that the Father of Jewel Magecraft, Zelretch, and the Captain of Storm Pirates, The Banished One, might have reconciled over some unknown matter. It is this doubt that makes the possibility of Zelretch snatching the Three-Headed Devourer… well, a possibility. No matter which scenario we have thrown him into, circling, not circumventing, he always returns to the same task — Throw the Name, Sow the Doubt."
Vader didn't comment, maintaining an odd silence, especially after he had just accused Aizen of the heinous crime of breaking Inquisition's protocols.
Vlad, meanwhile, knew what Lord Vader was thinking of.
"Are you suggesting that Red knows that he's fallen into a Time Loop?" Dracula asked. "Because that's…"
Impossible!
Not only was the Time Loop restricted to Red only, but… some of the scenarios he experienced, like Dumbledore going to the past and presenting evidence, weren't even real. Most of them were just to see how Red reacted to that particular situation, giving the Inquisitors another thread to pull at in the next scenario.
"We have already concluded that Red possesses some extraordinary Skills," Aizen said. "I refuse to believe that he only has one broken Skill, like that Room of his, where he can dictate the fate of everything. It wouldn't surprise me if Red had conspired during the Night of Truce in such a way that, no matter what happens, what he is telling will become the only truth. And he couldn't have done so without using another such Skill."
"That's quite a theory," Vader said finally, clearly doubting it. "How do you know…"
"Because that's what I would have done," Aizen said, smiling a little. "That's why I like this young man. Not too different from a young me."
Vader looked at Aizen as the latter continued to smile.
"If Red had used such a Skill," Vlad intervened, "then it doesn't matter if his Magical Creature went rogue and killed the Contestants without his orders. As long as we can establish a connection between this Skill and the Magical Creature, then…"
"… we can prove Red guilty of the crimes he's been accused of," Aizen nodded.
"What do you need?" Dracula asked, accepting the theory finally.
"A final scenario," Aizen shared with his colleagues. "A final statement. From… Herpo the Foul."
Dracula met Aizen's eyes and nodded.
"Your Eminence, Death the Artificer," Vlad bowed toward the Earth's hologram. "Under the Inquisition's protocols, for our next witness, we demand Herpo the Foul…"
[He has refused the Inquisition's summons.]
Vader, Vlad, and Aizen looked as the hologram pulsated before assuming its previous calm.
Refused.
The strongest Storyline Character of the Harry Potter Bubble refused the Inquisitors' summons.
The Inquisitors, together, looked up.
Then, without saying anything, Darth Vader turned around and walked away…
… his black cloak billowing furiously behind him… reflecting his anger.
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