The team splits into four groups of two. Ziya and Drake stuck together, Judy and Chris formed another squad, Gregory and Gerald formed their squad, and Micheal and Tyler formed the last squad. They were all trying out Ziya's idea of having one person run in front of the door as the other looks inside as soon as the door opens. With this method, they quickly checked each door in the hallway to find their exit. Drake volunteered to be the first one to check a door. However, as he was approaching his first door, he heard loud whispering in his ears. He stopped to cover his ears for a brief moment, before Ziya asks "What's wrong?".
"Huh?" Drake asks as he turns around, the whispering suddenly going away.
"You stopped and kinda... freaked out for a moment" Ziya says. "Are you... alright?".
"Y-Yeah... I'm fine" Drake says as he turns back to the door and shakes his head. He begins to take a step towards the door again, but suddenly an echoing voice rings inside of his head. "Not that way" it says. Drake flinches at first. He could not recognize the voice at all, and it seemed like no one else could hear it. Eventually, he decided to open up the door anyways and ignore the voices. As the door opens, the voice returns, saying "Not that way!". This time, the voice was much louder and it caused Drake to flinch and instinctively cover his ears. By the time he came to his senses, a turret was already aimed at him.
Ziya was distraught by the fact that she couldn't do anything about saving Drake without getting them both killed, and could only watch as Drake was filled with bullets. When he revived, she asks "Drake! Are you sure that you're okay!?".
"Actually, no... I'm not" Drake says, holding one hand on the side of his head as he stands up.
"You only have ten Respawns left!" Ziya argues. "Let me be the one to open the doors from here on out. It's too dangerous if you're going to keep spacing out like that!".
"Right..." Drake says. "You take the lead then...". Drake then stared down at his hands in disbelief. "I must've finally completely lost it..." he thinks to himself.
Chris and Judy go to check the door at the end of the hallway. As they were walking down the hallway, Judy asks "So why are you sticking with me in particular?".
"Because, Ziya still hates me" Chris says, "I doubt Drake would be decent at working with anyone but Ziya, since he doesn't really talk much to us at all... and I still don't trust the other guys".
"Isn't there a saying about keeping your friends close" Judy asks, "but your enemies closer?".
"Pfft- yeah" Chris says with a laugh, "like I'm going to take a chance on that ridiculous old proverb. Fuuuuuuuck that idea entirely!".
Chris runs past the door to have it open, and Judy hides around the corner to peek into the room. When the door opens for a brief moment, Judy sees something that caught her eyes. "Hold on!" Judy says to Chris, "open the door again!".
"Why?" Chris asks. "It's clear this isn't where we need to go...".
"Just... do it" Judy says.
Chris shakes his head in irritation, then runs past the door again. When the door opens, Judy sees a weapon around the corner next to the door. She quickly reaches around the corner and grabs it, then hides again before the door closes on her arm. When Judy takes a look at the weapon, she saw that it was a shotgun. "Oh, that's what you had your eyes on?" Chris asks.
Judy pulls the bolt back on the shotgun to look inside of the chamber. "Damn!" She says, "it's empty. We need to find the ammo".
"It's probably in there..." Chris says. "Did you look around hard enough?". Judy squints at Chris, then Chris asks "What?".
"Do it again..." Judy says.
"Fine..." Chris says as he rolls his eyes. Chris opens the door one more time, and Judy stares into the room. She sees several shotgun shells in the back of the room, right under the turret.
"It's no good" Judy says as she leans against the wall and sighs. "The ammo is under the turret".
"You want that ammo?" Chris asks as he pulls out his sniper rifle. "You'll get that ammo!".
"What are you-" Judy asks.
"Stand back" Chris says, "I'm opening the door again!". Chris runs in front of the door, but as soon as it opens, he raises his gun. He pulled the trigger at the same time the turret shot at him, and Chris fell over and died. The doors closed again, and Chris revived.
"Are you nuts?" Judy asks as Chris gets up. "Why would you think shooting a metal turret would work!?".
"I got it!" Chris says with a thumbs up.
"What?" Judy asks.
"I got it..." Chris says. "Did you... not hear me the first time, or...".
"No, I heard you the first time" Judy says, "it just sounded like some bullshit".
"I got the camera" Chris says. "If I'm right, the camera is what the turrets use to aim".
"You sure about that?" Judy asks.
"Only one way to find out" Chris says as he walks towards the door once more. The door opens, and he stands in front of the doorway with his arms open and his eyes closed, but nothing happened. The turret didn't fire.
When Judy looked into the room, she could see the camera was destroyed and the turret was no longer pointing at anyone. "I'll be damned" Judy says, "your idea actually worked, Chris".
"Am I a genius or what?" Chris asks as if to pat himself on the back.
"You're definitely insane..." Judy says. "And not like... insanely talented or good... just... insane. So that's one thing".
Judy rushes into the room to grab the ammo for her shotgun. As that was happening, Gregory and Gerald were checking their door. They moved swiftly, as if it were routine for them. However, when the door opened, the room was empty. There was nothing but a turret inside. Just as they were feeling defeated, Micheal and Tyler call out "Over here! We found the exit!". When the team looks over, they could see another hallway beyond the open doors by Tyler and Micheal.
"One hallway down" Gerald says.
"Countless more to go..." Gregory says.
When the team enters the next hallway together, Judy says "Guys, we've figured something out. If you shoot the cameras, the turrets stop working".
"Well, it's at least an option" Gerald says.
"We can't exactly shoot every camera we see though" Ziya says. "We don't have unlimited ammunition".
"Some of the rooms seem to have supplies" Chris says. "So if we need to get past a turret for supplies, feel free to aim for the cameras".
"Aim for the cameras... got it!" Drake says as he checks the magazine in his pistol to make sure he still has ammo.
"So, we're going to continue through these halls using her method of jumping in front of doors like lunatics?" Gerald asks.
"Yep, let's go" Ziya says as she begins walking, ignoring the insult from Gerald.
After a while of moving, the reach a small flight of stairs. They felt relieved until they walked up the stairs and saw "15.2" painted on the wall. "Right..." Chris says in an exhausted tone, "we're not out of Floor 15 yet...".
"I think this calls for a break" Gerald says as he sits down. "No use trying to run from guns while we're tired".
"Fair enough..." Ziya says.
The teams goes to sleep for now. As Drake falls asleep, he once again finds himself face to face with his own reflection. This time, his reflection was showing up through small chards of glass that appeared to be floating in the air. "I told you that this isn't a game you can win" the reflection says.
"You mean Pyramid, right?" Drake asks. "I'm destined to die here, aren't I?".
"I mean this life" the reflection says. "This time you've spent after entering Pyramid has turned your life into nothing more than a game, trying to tip-toe around your own fate. I can't tell you when you'll die... it may be soon, it may be in many years... what I do know is you're now living on borrowed time".
"Borrowed time?" Drake asks.
"Fate is not absolute" the reflection says. "People defy it everyday without noticing it. You were never supposed to end up in Pyramid to begin with. Since then, your time to die has come, yet you remain standing. You're living on borrowed time".
"And who's time am I borrowing!?" Drake asks as he grows angry. "Who the hell even are you!?".
"I'm you" the reflection says. "I'm the you that once was and the you that will be, all in due time".
"And there we go with that time bullshit again!" Drake yells.
"You don't know where the Respawn ability comes from, do you?" The reflection asks.
"Is it... time?" Drake asks.
"Is it time!?" The reflection asks back. "Is it time!? What sort of question is that? Of course it's not time!".
"Then-" Drake begins to ask.
"It's a shard of time itself, vaguely speaking" The reflection interrupts. "Rather... how do I put this?". The reflection thinks for a moment, then says "Ah, right! You asked who I am before? Well, I'm a... projection of yourself. Similar to that of a hallucination you'd see during the experience of a psychosis".
"Similar?" Drake asks. "... but not the same?".
"Correct" the reflection says. "You're learning. What makes me different is I'm projected by a mixture of things. There are many factors that go into this, but I don't have much time left".
"There we go with the time bullshit again" Drake says.
"Cut the crap" The reflection says. "To cut the explanation short, I'm you, but something else attached to you".
"And that is?" Drake asks.
"Chronos, or at least... a shard of him" the reflection says. "Ever heard that name before?".
"No, nothing like it..." Drake says.
"Chronos probably doesn't come up in your universe often, since the primeval gods didn't have much influence on the other Earths before... well..." The reflection says, then pauses. "Before they were broken. This shard... this borrowed time, this ability that you call Respawn is one of the effects of that".
"Of Chronos?" Drake asks. "What the hell is a Chronos?".
"The God of Time" The reflection says. "Split across the multiverse in tiny fractions of himself, keeping him in an elongated state of hibernation, on the brink of death itself. The only thing allowing time to continue to exist is his existence alone".
"So... if we die... time stops then?" Drake asks.
"What!? No!" The reflection says, but suddenly starts to fade. As his figure in the glass begins to fade, he says "Shit, I'm out of time! Look, I know you don't quite understand it, but know this! You're on borrowed time now! Something is wrong with this... universe! If something is keeping you alive, there must be at least one thing you're supposed to do! Do it!".
The reflection completely disappears and his voice could no longer be heard. "Something I need to do..." Drake asks himself. "But what is it!?". Suddenly, Drake starts to feel as if he's falling again. As he falls, some of his memories flash before his eyes, until eventually, he wakes up in a panic. Some of the others were already awake by the time he woke up.
"You alright?" Ziya asks. "You've been acting... strange lately".
"Y-yeah... I think I'm fine" Drake says.
"Are you sure about that?" Ziya asks. "Because last time you-".
"I'm fine!" Drake says. There was a short pause before Drake asks "Has anyone ever heard about... Chronos before?".
"Chronos?" Chris asks. "What's that?".
"Yeah... didn't think so" Drake says. "I just had a strange dream about some guy and this thing named Chronos... it wasn't really much, but... in this dream, Chronos was the name of this god of time or something".
"God of time?" Ziya asks. "There were religions about that in ancient times, but no names of any gods of time were ever documented... those cultures died off a long time ago too, so who knows what they named their weird idols?".
"You sure seem worked up about it though" Judy says. "Are you feeling alright?".
"I think so..." Drake says. "It was just a dream...".