I popped up in my room first, so I could 'unlock' the way in for the others. They all appeared seconds after I did. They gathered their bearings, glancing around the slightly different room. Some of my decor had changed, and the lighting was more a pale lavender than the deep indigo of the last time they had all been in my space. Roman stared wistfully at my Tim Burton posters. I sat on my bed, waiting for them to get comfortable.

Patton sat cross-legged on the floor, Logan took my desk chair, and Roman plunked down on the black bean bag in the corner.

"So, how d'you feel? Are you still good to do this?" Pat asked.

"Yeah. I think I'm okay enough to keep it in check for now, but I think I might need your help in case I slip. You could do your emotion manipulation thingy."

Patton cringed at my bluntness, obviously still uncomfortable with the idea of manipulating someone.

Roman cleared his throat, trying to get a word in.

"What's going to happen to us? Like, how is this whole thing going to work, V?"

I shrugged.

"So you have no idea."

"Nope. No clue. I don't even know if you can go with me."

Roman crossed his arms and pouted.

"Then this might end up being a waste of my time, and a dangerous one at that."

"But," Logan interjected, "it might not be a waste of time or safety. We could end up learning more about what we can do, and about what Virgil has experienced. I know Patton is quite interested in the latter. No offence to you Virgil, but I am slightly more intrigued about pushing the extent of your abilities. That may change, we'll see."

Logan turned to me.

"How are you planning to execute this?"

"Well-" I shifted nervously on the bed, "-I'm going to force myself to relive a specific memory, and focus on bringing you guys with me. I'm guessing I can extend what I relive to you, like I can with my emotions, and make you see the same things. The beginning will be the most dangerous, 'cause I have to willingly go back into a bad memory, while avoiding triggering a breakdown. That's why Patton's emotional manipulation is so important now. He can keep me stab-"

"Can we stop calling it manipulation!!" Patton yelled, interrupting me.

He quickly covered his mouth in surprise at himself as we all stared at him, stunned at the outburst. Logan leaned forward.

"Why are you so uncomfortable with that specific term? It is manipulation, is it not?"

"Well, I- uh, maybe? I don't know, I guess? It's just- just that I-"

There was a pause as Patton took a deep breath.

"It feels wrong to call it manipulation. It's what he did when he took my form. He manipulated you. Made you think everything that happened was me. That I was there, hurting you. I don't want to be like him." Patton's voice dropped to a whisper. "I don't want to be a bad person."

Ice cracked in my veins, and the room flickered from soft lavender to a dark purple for a split second, distorting itself.

The other two looked at me, panic and concern dashed across their faces. I closed my eyes, focusing on my breathing. I tried to calm down, but it ended up getting worse. The room was back to normal, but I wasn't.

A nauseating blend of anger and fear mixed in the pits of my stomach. Deceit just being over on the Light side- being able to access the real world- was bad enough, but the fact that he was bringing my friends into it was even worse.  He hurt them, like he had hurt me. I wouldn't stand for it. I was not going to let him play his games with them.

But for me, the past is a fickle subject, and the reminder of what I had gone through with him caused my anger to slip.  I slipped with it, starting to fall into a dark, sad place within myself that I hadn't wanted to go today. My whispers restarted, dragging me deeper into the abyss.

I felt a hand grip my arm, and a tiny spark of warmth and calm flared to life in that spot. I heard the others shouting, but only muffled. Like I was ten feet under water, sinking to the watery, crushing depths. The spark flickered out. I felt what was happening too late. I was slipping into a memory, but it was uncontrolled.

As my vision started to fade to black, a set of arms enveloped me, followed by a wave of calm.

''It's okay. I'm here. You can come back, he isn't here right now. You're safe"

Welcome whispers followed the warmth, full of reassurance and trust. They started to block out the voices with ill will. I felt myself slowly drift back, but still too slowly. I was aware enough to try and vocalize my problem, but I'm pretty sure no words escaped me. One seemed to understand, as another set of arms circled around my chest.

The flood that came with this set was less warm, more rational. It whispered to me as well.

"You will only make it worse if you go there. You know this. Come back, you will be better. It will be okay, if you come back."

In a distant world, my eyes fluttered and my limbs twitched. The whispers got louder, and less distorted. One voice took over, as one last hand intertwined with mine. I knew for sure who this one was, without the whispers.

"Come on Hot Topic, you don't want a repeat of last time we were here, do you? You got this, just wake up."

I breathed a relieved sigh as my head broke the surface, and I regained consciousness. I opened my eyes to a familiar know-it-all face smirking at me, and I offered a weak smile back. One pair of arms released me, and Logan's face joined Roman's. Patton gave me one last squeeze and sent a last wave of calm over me before pulling back. Roman finally let go of my hand, freeing me.

Patton wedged himself next to me on the bed, obviously still worried about my well being. All of them were panting slightly.

"You had us worried for a minute there, kiddo."

I cringed.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I just started thinking about how he did that. He hurt all of you, not just me. And I'm so not okay with that. I got so angry, and then that triggered... a bunch of other stuff. Thank you, for doing what you did. I didn't think it was possible to come back out of that- place without completing a memory."

"No problem!" Patton grinned.

Roman winked, "Of course, I didn't want to get stuck in here with your emotions all whacked out."

Logan wasn't looking at any of us. "It was not optimal for you to experience an emotional breakdown with the three of us in here, no. We were already starting to feel the effects after a few seconds. I apologize for the physical contact, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do without being able to verbally communicate with you."

I knew why he wasn't looking at us, he was blushing! I decided not to bring it up, and just chuckled.

We sat in companionable silence for a minute. Pat nudged my shoulder.

"You know what you were feeling just then was completely justified, and I get it. I'm mad too, but we have to work on getting those feelings sorted through. It isn't good for people to keep those emotions bottled up, especially for you. Sure he did some bad stuff, but we can work on that later."

He smiled at me softly, but in that moment, his hand accidentally brushed my arm. I was overloaded with negative emotions, hate, sorrow, pain. I cringed backwards and cried out. The influx of what I assumed were Patton's hidden emotions triggered mine once more. This time I fell fast and hard. I gripped Patton's arm as his face went from comforting to alarm. The other two started towards us, lunging to grab me. I felt their fingers latch onto my shoulders.

I was close to the abyss once more, and I knew this time there was no fighting its embrace. I fell backwards onto the bed, dragging the others with me. I had just enough strength to whisper two words before my eyes rolled up into my head and I blacked out.

"I'm sorry"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Annnnd I'm done chapter nine! So so sorry for the late upload, but I worked very hard on this one. I'm not going to be able to put anything up this next week, I'm out at camp.

I hope you enjoyed, and this chapter's shout out goes tooooo

blackkittybooks
And
Beth-Star14

You two both voted and commented like there was no tomorrow when you found us, and I thank you for that. Your support means the world to me!

Hey, while you're here, check out my other book! It's called "The Stars Eternal" and it's a Fairy Tail fan fiction! I currently only have two chapters up, but I'm going to update again soon as I already pre wrote a lot of it!

Not a Fairy Tail fan? Stick around, because another fanfic is on the way! This one is based of the Rooster Teeth show "RWBY!"
I'm working on an OC to fit in there, so sit tight!

That's it for now, I'll try to get the next chapter up real soon. I love you, bye!