KhunBam Fic Collection (Tower Of God)

The Gamble (9.6k)

"Are you all willing to take the gamble?" the administrator asked. "If you are willing, step forward."

They all immediately stepped forward. They'd come too far to stop now, even if they were certain they would be the sacrifice.

"All of you — good, good, then we can continue. Each of you get into a pod." They gestured to the side of the room where there were a line of pods with a small pallet to lay on in each, and a hinged top that would close down over. "Your most destructive secret will be rooted out, and then you will all experience the unlucky winner's secret together. Good luck."

They all made their way to the pods as directed, and Aguero laid down, resting his hands over his stomach as the lid automatically closed over him.

There was nothing to do but sit in his trepidation and stare at the ceiling of the pod. He wasn't sure how long he would have to wait until it started. Had it already started? Would he know? Would he see what memories it was rifling through and which one it chose? Part of him would rather not know, but the larger part, the part that absolutely needed control of every situation, wanted to see exactly what was being looked through and collected, and by what, and whom it was being seen by. Could it be seen by anyone after this? They hadn't said anything about whether they'd keep those secrets or not, whether the administrator still had access to them. That was potentially worrying and dangerous, but wouldn't be very out of the ordinary for the Tower at all. It was all always about gaining leverage, wasn't it? Using anything in your power to push yourself higher — if not for climbing, then for influence, or better yet, for both.

Suddenly, Aguero found himself forcibly, vividly remembering the test on the 102ⁿᵈ floor.

Aguero stepped into the test room alone, since they had all been separated, and Bam turned to him and smiled — the only other person or thing in the empty, blank, white room. He must have come in first through a different door, or so Aguero had to assume, anyway.

Before Aguero could ask anything about what Bam thought the test might be or why the two of them had been separated only to be put right back together again, though, Bam stepped closer.

"Aguero," he said softly — apparently just because, since he gave Aguero no time for any response at all.

Instead, he kissed him directly on the mouth.

Aguero was lost for a moment, the cunning that was second nature to him (which always had him taking advantage of everything in his reach) only allowing for a small, startled inhale before it made him automatically kiss back for a split second without him even consciously realising. And it was sweet and warm and exactly what he had wanted so achingly bad for so fucking long— But there was something wrong. Alarm bells were fucking screaming in his head with it, in fact, the way this whole scenario just felt so…off.

He quickly pulled back.

"Bam?" he asked. But he was answering his own question as he looked around, instantly taking in every reason everything felt so wrong.

He took a step back, his expression turning cold and flat. "No. Stop pretending to be Bam and tell me how to move on to the next floor."

Not-Bam's eyes went wide and hurt. "What? What do you mean?"

"You're not him and you're shit at pretending. Now tell me what I have to do."

Bam looked more hurt than ever. "You don't…want me, Aguero?"

"No." Aguero said flatly. And it wasn't even too terribly hard to be this harsh to such a hurt looking Bam when he could keep categorising all the ways this was a pretender in his head, and not even a good one, at that.