Tifa made her choice.

"Gallery door."

Cloudia sighed.

"You realise we'll probably get turned into statues or paintings or something, right?"

"Somehow I don't think we'll both get stuck at once. I think someone wants us to play a game..." Tifa explained.

"Fine. But if we wind up sculptures..."

"Oh, stop worrying, at least you're more statuesque now..." Tifa dismissed her friend's complaints and opened the door to the gallery.

Oddly, this led into the gallery itself, and it was... small. Brightly lit, and small. There were four pedestals, and a small table in the middle of the room

"I'll go first..." Cloudia offered.

"Ladies first..."

For this, Tifa was instead shoved in. She took it charitably.

"I deserved that." She admitted.

"Yes, you did."  Cloudia huffed as the... other woman looked around.

"Huh. Four pedestals, three of them with statues, and one door over there. Some stuff on the table..."

Tifa checked it. It was a piece of paper, which she skimmed over and sighed.

"Damn. Cloudia, come into the room, we have to let the door lock... It won't turn us into anything."

Reluctantly, and fuming at the name, Cloudia entered. The door locked behind her, and she tensed up, preparing for the paper to lie... And nothing happened.

"Okay, now, this paper says there are rules here. See these statues?"

Cloudia sighed.

"Not statues. It's kind of obvious by the way their clothes are normal... Can we help them, and are they still aware?"

Tifa nodded.

"Yeah to both, I'm afraid. This paper says that at least one pedestal needs to be full to open the exit... but at least one needs to be freed when there are three people stuck. There's a button on each pedestal. Use two, the third one won't work and the other pedestal won't work."

Cloudia nodded.

"But what does the empty one do?"

"If one of us climbs on that, all three of these people are free... and one of us is left behind."

Cloudia examined the statues.

"...So, how come you're calling strangers, all female statues, 'people' while I keep getting called a girl? I mean, no offence to you three."

"It's funny. Anyway, obviously at some point we'd get freed, but once there's only one statue the rules change. The next group has to leave someone behind, since the other two pedestals will vanish, and the exit will only open with two full pedestals. After that, three pedestals needing filled... The buttons will still work once when there's one or two but either way at least one member of each group gets stuck and has to move on. We're lucky I guess..."

"...We just have to decide which one of them or us to leave behind. And they'll know what choices we make."

Tifa sighed.

"Exactly. It's not easy. And all we have are names. We've no idea who's been here longest..."

Cloudia looked at one petrified victim. She wore a green dress, which she personally felt was barely a little more practical than the attire the blonde wore,  and apparently her name was Rydia according to a small plaque on her pedestal, beside the button to revert her. She seemed to be looking down as if reassuring someone.

The second was a girl with a ponytail, wearing a brown blazer and a white and blue school uniform.  Her name had been scratched out by someone, who had written "kyonko" instead.  This girl seemed to have her arms crossed and a permanent stone-induced scowl, glaring daggers at someone... probably her friend who had then vandalised her pedestal.

The last was a young woman in a blue cardigan, with black shorts and a black shirt, as well as a blue skirt over the shorts. The cardigan had an angel wing motif on the back, and her name, it seemed, was Rinoa. She had her head turned and staring with a smile at the empty pedestal. Presumably she and her partner had elected to sacrifice themselves to free someone at some point only to be seperated later when the other was reverted.

"So, run it by me again. We can free one, two, or one of us gives ourselves up for all three?" Cloudia asked.

"That's all that's relevant to us, at least."

Cloudia sighed.

"Okay... Let's think about this..."