I hate this chapter, I'm sorry. It's one of the worst, but we're finally getting somewhere.

Rebuilding the Wall was...complicated. 

Deceit loathed to admit it, but the task was quickly becoming an impossible thing. It didn't seem to matter how much power he and Remus poured into it, the gleaming fragments and stilted, empty space remained just that - gleaming fragments and stilted, empty space. Even with that damn voice helping, nothing was happening. Their energy was going nowhere. 

Remus fell onto his butt, splaying his legs and huffing. "This is useless," he complained. "I don't know why I let you talk me into this."

"I talked you into nothing, Remus, you did this to yourself."

"Glad to see you're totally repentant," Remus grumbled, crossing his arms. He looked, for all the world, like a pouting child. Deceit decided to keep that particular comment to himself. No use insulting the help.

Besides, Remus had a point. What they were doing clearly wasn't working, but Deceit had no idea what else they could try. He could barely remember what they'd done to build the wall in the first place. He'd had Virgil beside him then, not Remus, and maybe that made the difference. Maybe it didn't. Deceit didn't know anymore.

'Tick Tock, Deceit.'

He gritted his teeth and kicked at Remus's splayed legs. "Get up," he hissed. "We don't have time for this."

Remus snarled viciously, baring his teeth. Deceit wrinkled his nose, not fazed in the slightest. Remus was only terrifying if you didn't know about his very limited supply of brain cells, and fortunately, Deceit was well past that small tidbit of information. What he was more concerned about was the fact that they weren't getting anywhere.

Remus clambered to his feet slowly, grinning as some of his joints cracked. "Are you sure we can't just rebuild it?" he questioned, poking the large piece in Deceit's hands listlessly. "Cause I don't know about you, but this is getting pretty damn tedious."

Deceit's lips pulled away from his teeth, his breath hissing out of him. "If we build it," he said very tightly, "then we will give all of our energy and cease to exist."

Remus held up his hands and backed away, kicking at the rubble and remnants as though he were debating whether or not to throw a tantrum. Deceit very seriously considered wrapping shadows around his neck and yanking.

Somehow, he figured the Voice wouldn't approve of that move.

He dropped the piece of Wall, dusting his hands off. "We shouldn't have to do this," he muttered to himself, feeling the shadows slip under his cloak and curl around him, trying to offer comfort. "The Wall shouldn't have broken, and the Light Sides shouldn't be winning and Virgil should still be here and maybe we wouldn't be in this mess."

For a long moment, the only noise was Deceit's heavy breathing. Even Remus stood stock still, his foot raised in the air. The shadows screeched faintly, swishing in agitation. Deceit didn't bother to soothe them, because he was already too far past composure.

He just wanted Virgil back. Why couldn't he have that? He deserved to have Virgil by his side, he deserved to not be alone. He didn't deserve to be abandoned.

He hadn't deserved to be thrown into the darkness all that time ago, but that had happened too.

Finally, Remus snorted, breaking the tense silence. "The fuck you want Virgil for?" He cackled to himself and spun around. "Right now, with his mellow vibes, the most he could do is use his fake spider to web the pieces together. You need to move past him, Dee. Move on. Focus on bigger things-"

"What did you say?" Deceit whirled around, the shadows scratching at his flesh cheek. He brushed them off half-heartedly as Remus stopped spinning. The crinkle in the Duke's brow proved he had absolutely no idea about the genius he was exhibiting. "About the webs-"

Deceit cut himself off, feeling something hot build in his chest. Webs. Webs. It was right there! Oh, how had he not seen it?! Virgil - it all spun back to Virgil. It all started and ended with Virgil, and Deceit let that hot, hot power grow and grow until it was a part of him and his veins were burning with it.

He clicked his fingers absently, summoning Remus to his side. "Grab a piece," he instructed, grabbing his own fragment before focusing on the heat racing through him. Carefully, oh so carefully pulling out the faintest thread of it. It weaved around his fingers like a stray, living piece of twine, and he cooed at it, coaxing it onto the piece of the Wall.

"What are you doing?" Remus breathed.

Deceit didn't answer, instead pushing the two pieces together and carefully leading the thin strand of power to the edge of his piece, pressing a finger against it to squish it to his side. He led it over to Remus's piece before squashing it there. His gloves warmed at the touch. The shadows recoiled with a hiss.

The end result?

A stitch.

Deceit watched breathlessly as the yellow stitch forced that section of the two pieces together, fusing them back into one solid, glittering chunk. Remus swore quietly. Deceit stared, transfixed, as the black marble of the Wall occasionally flickered with the slightest yellow glow.

Remus thrust the kind-of fixed section of Wall into Deceit's hands, reaching down and grabbing another chunk. He smashed them together, his eager eyes wordlessly telling Deceit to create another stitch. Deceit took a breath, ignoring the shadows that clawed at his skin and shrieked in their whispery voices, and forced another strand of heat out.

This time, the stitch landed side-by-side with a thin strand of green energy. When they both dissolved, all three pieces had completely sealed together.

Remus laughed and laughed and laughed.

Deceit said nothing, but forced another stitch, and another and another. 

The shadows dug deep enough to draw blood.

Another, and another, and another.

-

Virgil stumbled into the wall of his room, clawing at his chest as something yanked inside of him. He could feel it, the energy that was being sucked out of him mercilessly. He knew the feeling, knew what it meant, and he hates it because it could only be Deceit that was rebuilding the Wall.

Deceit was rebuilding the Wall, and Virgil couldn't fault him for it.

Oh God, it hurt, but Virgil was okay with it, because damn it if it wasn't the smartest thing to do. The Dark Sides at full power had enough juice to completely decimate Thomas's mind. Even Virgil, with every single drop of power, was finding it hard to control himself around the other three. He was too full, had too much power.

He was toeing the line, and now Deceit was rebuilding the Wall, and Virgil was battling the urge to go back.

He wanted to go back.

He bit down on his lip as another tug sent stars wheeling across his vision.

Another tug, another, another.

-

Somewhere in the darkness, the ticking stopped.