As a wall appeared, blocking off the entrance to the main mindspace Roman turned to the others and said "Now let's go check on Virgil and Thomas."

In a few seconds they appeared in Thomas's apartment to a terrifying scene.

Both Thomas and Virgil were on the floor but the difference between them was while Thomas muttered "It's all my fault." Virgil was muttering "Everyone hates me."

Logan and Patton sprang forward to try and calm Thomas, leaving Roman to calm Virgil.

"Virgil? It's me Roman." Roman whispered placing a hand on Virgils shoulder.

Virgil looked up with glazed eyes and flinched away with a terrified expression. "Get away from me!" Virgil shouted.

Roman jolted back in surprise as black energy started to seep out of Virgils skin and his eyes began to glow.

"Virgil, don't you remember the conversation we had that night we stayed up talking?" Roman asked, hoping that it would snap Virgil out of his state.

"I said go away! You hate me so why are you even here!" Virgil shrieked and a blast of energy sent Roman flying backwards.

Patton and Logan stared at Virgil half terrified, half concerned.

Virgils energy started to spread through the room and when it came into contact with Thomas's skin he let out a scream of pure agony.

Roman pushed himself to his feet ignoring the ache in his back and grabbed Virgil to try and create distance between him and Thomas.

Virgil thrashed around in Romans hold, shouting and crying about how everyone hated him and how he was a monster.

Patton and Logan managed to move Thomas onto the stairs away from the energy so he stopped screaming.

"Thomas! Breathe! Focus on me and copy my breathing!" Logan said loudly to be heard over Virgil.

Roman had Virgils wrists in one hand and another one around his torso to try and minimise the amount of damage Virgil could cause to both Roman and himself.

"Virgil, please, you need to breathe. Your affecting Thomas and your energy is going crazy." Roman muttered in Virgils ear, letting out a relieved breath as Virgil howled in misery and slumped in his arms sobbing.

"Why am I such a failure? Everything I do goes wrong and makes whatever situation I was trying to fix get ten times worse! I've fucked up so badly this time."

Logan and Patton managed to get Thomas almost back to himself and then noticed that there was an angry red mark where the energy had touched his skin.

" V... Virgil?" Thomas gasped, his eyes searching the room desperately and filling with tears as he saw the state he was in. "Virgil!"

Virgil cringed at the sound of Thomas's voice and pulled away from Roman, his eyes flitting over possible escape routes.

He made a dash for the front door but Patton stepped in the way with his hands up, trying to show he wasn't a threat. "Virgil, we're trying to help." he said in a soft voice.

Virgils eyes were wide and wild, the glow from before brightening as black smoke wrapped around him like some sort of cloak.

Thomas took a few breaths before speaking again, his voice still a bit breathless "Virgil, don't blame yourself for any of this. None of this was your fault."

Virgil was standing in the middle of the room, his head turning every direction in search of a way out and not even listening to what Thomas was saying.

He froze suddenly, his eyes looking slightly unfocused as he appeared to zone out.

"You hurt Thomas, did you hear his scream? They're all thinking of some way to take you down before you hurt him again." the voice Virgil had heard before in his room suddenly spoke up.

"I.... I didn't mean to!" Virgil choked out "I can't control it!"

The voice scoffed "you can't control your own energy? Are you sure? Maybe there's a subconscious part of you that wants to hurt Thomas for how he and the others treat you."

Virgil shook his head and grabbed handfuls of his hair as he tried to deny what the voice was saying "I don't want to hurt him! I don't want to hurt any of them!"

The others were staring at Virgil in concern but suddenly a voice that barely sounded like Virgil came from his lips.

"Who are we kidding, you wished so many times that they'd feel all the pain you were feeling and now you're in a situation where you can fulfil that wish."

There was a tense silence as Virgil hunched over, his whole body quivering as he muttered the word no repeatedly.

Roman slowly approached Virgil again and said in a quiet voice "Virgil, this isn't you. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for."

Logan, who was standing in front of Thomas just in case, looked at Patton and nodded his head towards Virgil while tapping the side of his head.

Patton looked confused for a moment but eventually managed to work out what Logan was trying to say. He closed his eyes and focused on all the love and care and concern he had for Virgil and tried to push it towards Virgil.

There seemed to be some sort of resistance that rebounded all the feelings back at Patton, making him stumble backwards.

Virgil stood up straight, his eyes closed and his face blank as he slowly turned to face where Patton was.

"That was quite a good effort but none of the emotions you have towards us are going to undo all the torment and pain we've been through all these years." Virgil said in the weird voice again.

Patton gasped and felt a judder of fear run through him as Virgils eyes opened to show that they weren't glowing this time, they were now the same colour as the energy.

"Who are you referring to when you use the term 'us'?" Logan asked and Virgil turned to look at him with a still blank expression.

"Logan, I thought you were supposed to be intelligent. Surely you can figure such a simple thing out." Virgils voice was mocking and a slight smirk tugged at his lips.

Logan grit his teeth in annoyance. "You refer to yourself as both a separate entity and an indistinguishable part of Virgil, which doesn't tell us who you are."

Virgil tilted his head with a creepy smile. "I'm Virgil."

Roman tried to step closer but Virgil raised a hand and black energy suddenly wrapped around Roman, keeping him in place.

"You're not Virgil. Virgil isn't like this." Roman growled out struggling to get free of the smoke.

Virgil let out a small humourless laugh "The Virgil you thought you knew was nothing more than a pathetic attempt to deny who we really are. We are stronger than you all and shouldn't have had to take all that shit. Preston is a mere inconvenience that will be easily brushed aside but our real issue is you lot. With all your 'We care about you, honest.' please, don't make me laugh. You may have been able to fool us before but I'm calling you out on your fake bullshit."

Thomas had tears running down his face as he stared at Virgil. He didn't believe a word that was being said but the tiniest little itch in his mind wondered if it could be true.

"Why don't you believe us?" Patton asked in a sad voice.

Virgil snorted "It probably has something to do with how you all treated us. The judgement and mistrust because you all saw us as the bad guy."

"We were wrong to treat you like that and we really do care about you." Roman said desperately.

Virgils face went blank as he stared at Roman. "Do you know how long it took for him to recover from when you hit us? We were terrified of you for months, half expecting you to lash out whenever you got angry. Don't stand there and say you care when you acted so like Preston."

Roman physically recoiled at Virgils words and his bottom lip quivered as he tried to stop himself crying. Virgil or whatever it was that was controlling Virgil did have a point.

Here he was acting like he was innocent when he knew he'd done and said some stuff he deeply regretted. All the pain he'd caused Logan and the number of times he'd shouted at Virgil in an attempt at venting some of his anger and frustration.

Roman took a few breaths before saying in a shaky voice "I wish I could go back in time and change the way I acted but I can't. All I can do is apologise and tell you that I really care about you and I don't want to lose you."

Virgil froze, his eyes fixed on Roman. "Y.... You're lying. Trying to catch me off guard so you can kill me." he accused.

Roman let out a small sob and the tears he'd been holding back flowed down his cheeks. "I'm being honest Virgil. I.... I love you."

Oh snap! Roman finally managed to say it. How do you think Virgil will react? Also what's your theory about what's happening to Virgil?