Editing Quest:Ruby Quest/Summary (section)

== Part 9 ==

Filbert is in no mood for pleasant discussion, insisting that Ruby and Tom are very clearly infected and must be operated upon immediately. In the ensuing battle he bites Tom's CROWBAR in half. (His teeth are enough to make Red (almost) jealous.) Despite his bonesaw and horrible tentacle arm, Tom's MANLY PHYSIQUE and two extra limbs are more than a match for him, and the fight ends when he pins Filbert's hands and stabs him with a scalpel. Filbert is down, and receives a nice dose of TRANQUILIZER to keep him that way for a while. After refilling the tranquilizer once more (it's all gone now), Ruby and Tom head upstairs and finally open the security station door with their SECURITY ACCESS CARD.

Inside the security room, there is a HUGE CONSOLE and an ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE HATCH - but both are locked due to override. There is also a piece of strange GREEN WOOD, which Ruby picks up, and a big pile of NOTES, which Tom takes, reading through some of them before getting bored (we wish he had read through the rest). The INTERCOM by the door shouts incredibly foul (and unprovoked) profanities at Tom before going silent. With nothing else to do here, the two head through the door to the lobby, where they meet MONITORFACE, who introduces herself as Bella.

Bella apologies and says that she can't let them leave: she has instituted a high security lockdown on orders from her superiors, whoever they are. She proceeds to give them much information, however: she tells them that the lockdown was ordered following an outbreak of violence by both patients and staff in the wake of the events on November 1st, namely the suicide of Chief Diagnostician Red. She also says that if Ace isn't walking the halls looking for patients, he is likely in the COLD STORAGE, where he keeps the things he's been collecting - and that he is a very loyal orderly, though he seems to be ignoring her now.

She proceeds to tell them, upon asking, that she is kept on life support, and that her mind must be intact to continue operating - this is the reason nothing has attacked her so far, as they've all been afraid of what might happen. At this point, Subject Six makes some noise in the lower levels, yelling for Lucy, his love. After telling them that surface access cannot be opened with her holding the manual lockdown, Bella drops the bomb: Today is October 31st. Ruby and Tom have been down here for at least a year. Apparently, they have tried to escape dozens of times, only to fail and forget each time. They have reached Bella three times before, but never gotten past this point: as long as she is alive, she will maintain the lockdown.

As they question Bella whether killing her would end the lockdown, she opens a window behind them. Orange light filters through the shimmering waters, making it quite apparent that they are very close to the surface. Every day for over a year now, as she tells them, Bella has had to watch the sun rise and set, from just barely below the surface. Strapped to this wall, right next to the exit, able to watch the outside world, but never touch it. She says that she wishes to die, and if she did, the lockdown would end. She is the only one who the infection has passed over, because to taint her mind would be to compromise the integrity of the facility, and thus everyone and everything inside it. She also tells Ruby that she has left something for herself, hidden in the water cooler.

Hesitatingly, after angering Bella by trying to reason her and attempting some non-lethal methods, Ruby and Tom finally end her life. This causes a minor power outage, but also opens the maintenance hatch. Ruby crawls inside to try and fix the problem. She discovers a glowing green button and presses it, causing the lights to come back up and revealing Subject #6 glaring at her (it's creepy when he doesn't have eyes), grinning, and asking whether she has found the scissors yet. She retreats quickly, and Tom seals the hatch with his BLUDGEONY CANESHOVEL. They try to work with the console now, but it is suddenly pierced by a large fleshy growth with an eye in it. The console stops working and they now have to use the backup station located on level 3. They decide to head for the water cooler first, and find another shard of GREEN WOOD there. Ruby adds the last piece and assembles the second GREEN STAFF.

Checking the nearby backup console reveals that it has no power either. Therefore, they decide to use the staff in the locker room now. The locker opens, revealing a switch, to match the one in the other locker they'd opened with the first GREEN STAFF, and Ruby pulls it as well. It causes lockers 3 and 4 to shift apart and pull aside to reveal a hidden door on the wall behind the giant machine, a door that says COLD STORAGE. As Ruby and Tom pass through, they discover that it's more of RED than COLD: Evil runes and symbols everywhere, the DUMMY hanging from the ceiling with tentacles in it, and the FETUS STATUE on a small table. There is also a WATER FILTRATION UNIT (Do Not Touch), the LOCKERS from the room where Ruby woke up, and ACE'S MASK. After trying in vain to open the lockers, Ruby and Tom opt going for the water filtration unit next. They discover Emobird, impaled with large three hooks, pleading them to end his life. There is also the EYE DIAL, which Tom picks up, but they refuse to comply Emobird's request, instead carefully removing his hooks and taking him with them.

But then the locker opens. Without his mask, it can be seen that Ace's real face is just a mass of tentacles or something - creepy. He puts on the mask, while Ruby and Tom run away with Emobird. They seal the door behind themselves, but know that it will not hold him for long. Time is of the essence, so they will split up once again. Tom will carry Emobird with him to the exit, while Ruby could reach the dummy room and the downstairs console at the same time, if she took a shortcut and jumped through the hole in the floor, which she does. She gets to the dummy room - noting that the Brig is looking worse than ever - puts on the eye dial, dials it on the correct symbol, reaches back up, and begins to operate the console, which is now receiving power. 

Meanwhile, Tom runs into Filbert, who is up again, even more determined than the last time. Tom has no time for this, and so he just tears Filbert apart with his MANLY PHYSIQUE, an act to which the entire 4chan screams FUCK YEAH! He has no idea where all that strength came from, but concludes that it was pretty cool.

Ruby gets good results from the console, and runs after Tom. On the way, she hears Ace making noise in the locker room, and also meets the now horribly mutated Subject Six - cowering in the corner, ignoring her, and muttering about being afraid of Ace. In the lobby she meets Tom, learns that the Emobird's name is really Jay, and that Tom is afraid of Ace as well: if even Six is afraid of him, what could Tom do to stop him? Unfortunately, Ace will be there in seconds, and one of them has to stay behind to hold him back and allow the others to escape. Tom volunteers.

Ruby kisses him goodbye, before climbing the ladder as quick as she can.

Tom prepares to make the stand, but is saved at the last moment by Stitches, who out of nowhere tackles Ace. Tom takes the opportunity to climb the ladder and escape as well. He and Ruby close the hatch, and escape on the tram #1 with Jay. As they ride the tram to sunset, Tom throws all the notes away, and they open the champagne to celebrate their freedom.

The End.


Then it turns out that Tom was #6 all along and the other Tom, who we thought to be Subject Six, turned out to be #5. The entire population of /tg/ simultaneously freaks out. And they freak out once more when Daisy wakes up in a coffin the same way Ruby did so long ago.

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Part 9 images.
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Image:FinalBattle.jpg|To think, at one point we thought Ruby was easily the better fighter.
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