I sat up in my bed, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. Glancing about my dark and dreary room, I let out a yawn that quickly turned into a groan. I still felt tired from my encounter yesterday, and I dreaded having to go mix with the wolves once more.

"Where am I? Who am I?"

A voice called out, invading my thoughts. I flipped around, searching for the source. It wasn't my voice, or any negative voices I could think of.

"What happened? Did it work?"

I started to panic, these voices were all around me, yet I couldn't see the who they belonged to.

"Wait a minute. Black pants, grey sweater, purple and depressing room..."

All of the voices let out some measure of a gasp.

"We did it! We're inside your head Virgil! We can see you!"

'Wait, what?! Who are yo-'

Something really freaking weird happened in that moment. My perspective flipped, and suddenly I wasn't me from the memory. I was my present-day self, but still in a memory. I blinked, and inexplicably found myself staring down at- myself?

"What the-"

"Pretty crazy, huh?"

I jerked my head to the right, only to be greeted by Roman. Well, kinda. It was Princey, only it was a glowing red, translucent, floating Princey.

I let out a half chuckle.

"Yup, it is."

Suddenly, my vision was invaded by blue light. Patton barged into my line of sight, in all his glowing blue glory. He was cartwheeling through the air, seemingly enjoying his (hopefully) temporary form.

"This is so cool!! I'm glowy and weightless and woah."

Turning left, I saw Logan shaking his head at Pat's childlike behaviour. He was also blue, but while Patton was a light sky blue, he was darker. More like an indigo than anything. He caught me starting at him and floated over.

"Due to your bewildered expression, I assume this is a different experience than what you are used to in these memories."

"Yeah," I nodded, "and am I-"

"Also translucent and floating? Yes. Your glow is a very dark purple, in case you were wondering."

I gave the 'okay' sign.

"Uh, guys? Memory-Virgil is doing something."

Logan and I flipped around to see what Patton was on about. I suppose if you blinking rapidly and twitching to be "something" then Pat was right.

"Why does he- you? Look so... confused? Disturbed? What emotion is that? Patton?"

Roman, as usual, had trouble understanding complex emotions. I almost said as much, but that would've been mean. And I'm trying not to be mean anymore. Annnnd I was still trying to remember the details of whatever memory I had dragged us into. Hey, I knew what I was trying to get us into, but that doesn't mean I was successful. I very well might've been, but I didn't know for sure.

"Uhhhh, hold on-" he studied vision-me for a minute. "He's feeling quite the mix of emotions. He's uncomfortable and disturbed. There's something he doesn't trust, but wants to. There's a large dose of anxiety, which, duh. All things considered, he's very overwhelmed."

We all stared at Patton for a second. His face fell.

"What? What's wrong?"

I recovered first.

"Nothing, it's just, wow. You can tell all that from a quick look? That's insane."

Pat stared down at his feet.

"Yeah, I guess it is? I don't find it that cool, I mean, I've always been able to do it. I just never really needed to use it like this befo-"

"Owww. What happened yesterday? What did I do that gave me this bad of a headache?"

A flurry of familiar images flashed in my brain, confirming that I had succeeded in bringing us to the right memory. We were looking at the day after my initial encounter with Deceit. I hoped the others saw what I had seen for a split second, as they would get what happened from it.

"Oh yeah. That's what happened. Stupid mental breakdowns. At least now I might have an ally in this hellhole. I'll have to play it right, and hope he stays loyal.. tch, yeah sure. The actual embodiment of Deceit staying loyal? Absolutely."

Memory-me stretched, stood up, and finger-combed through his nest of hair. My eyes widened in panic as I realized that my memory self was going to check his arms. I never cut, that wasn't my department, especially since the thought of was more anxiety inducing then actually doing it probably would've been. But back then, I was heavily bruised. I'm talking almost everywhere. So all I could do was brace myself for the other's questions.

He rolled up his left sleeve, revealing an arm more black and blue than pale skin. I heard the other three gasp. His mouth faded into a frown. Memory me checked his other arm- same results. He let out a pained groan.

"Will these ever fade? Ever get a chance to heal?"

I found myself nodding subconsciously.
"They will heal," I wanted to tell him.
"You'll get there, just hold on."

"Virgil?"

The sound of Patton's voice shook me out of my stupor. I had completely forgotten about the others.

"Uhhh, would you believe that wasn't me?"

"Nope."

"Unlikely."

"I believe you."

I shook my head.

"Well it wasn't- so thank you Patton."

I turned to the other two. They stared at their feet, seemingly embarrassed.

"I can't believe you. As if I would go that far, honestly."

Roman opened his mouth, then changed his mind and closed it.

"Sorry. For doubting you."

"Apologies."

I rolled my eyes. "It's fine, and before you ask, you'll see who did this soon enough."

As if on cue, one of the people who inflicted those bruises on me entered in his usual way. Funny how those things work, really.

The room darkened further, wisps of black smoke curling up from underneath the door. A wave of negativity washed over my room, affecting even us. Memory-me's eyes bulged, his breathing growing rapid. He pushed himself up against a wall, trying desperately to make himself smaller. The wisps grew, solidifying into a humanoid shape.

I felt like I was going to be sick. I hadn't seen this guy in years, yet the mere memory of the power he held, the mere memory of him, made me want to run far away. I latched onto Patton's arm, probably cutting his circulation off.

The figure solidified, taking on the form of what was clearly a Side. His hair was wild, his eyes held no light. He wore only black sweatpants and a faded grey sweater. He looked unimportant, insignificant, save for the black smoke constantly swirling and moving around him.

"Get outside. Quit hiding." His gravelly, broken voice still haunts my nightmares today. "You're up today, so be quick."

Memory-me was shaking. A single tear slipped down his face.

"Ye-yes sir. Of cour- of course, I'll be f-fast, sir."

The Side turned to leave.

"And Anxiety? Don't disappoint me. Or else."

With thar final order, the Side disappeared into shadow again. The darkness lifted from the room, snapping all of us out of our trance. Memory-me slumped down in his bed, still shaking. The others turned to me. They all looked horrified.

"Virgil? What was that?" Roman asked.

I let out a half-crazed chuckle.

"That? That was only the beginning of this horrible, terrible, mess."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh. My. God.
Okay first off, I am SO SORRY! I feel terrible that I've kept everyone waiting so long. Two months! I hope there's still interest, and to those who stuck around, thank you! You guys are
the best! Speaking of you guys, this chapter's shoutout goes to
Dragon-Witch thank you for your support!

Honestly though, I feel like all of you deserve thanks. Again, thank you for sticking around despite my horrible lack of uploads. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, maybe it was worth the wait? Probably not. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out before the two month mark this time. See you next chapter!