The house was tense and quiet, and that was putting it fairly light. Everyone was injured, lance was bandages, sitting down with a grim expression that Rivaled Lewis's own scuffed and tired countenance. Mystery was in his dog form, beaten black and blue, and cut up, wearing a serious face, staring the two men down.

In the bedrooms of the house were Vivi, and Arthur, both unconscious and completely drained of energy. One having nearly died, and the other having been zapped mentally and physically.

Lace was currently soaking in everything that Mystery had just explained, as was Lewis. Both had learned the truth about their current situation, how Lewis died exactly, who that woman was, and what happened to Arthur.

"You bit. My boy's arm off to save him?" Lance questioned.

"I did." Mystery nodded tiredly. "It was either that, or his demise. There are fragments of it still in him, but it only comes out when he completely let's himself get consumed by rage."

Lewis sat there, shaking his head. "This whole time I've been mad at him, for no reason... And he won't even remember why I tried to kill him when he wakes up."

"So, is there no cure for it?" Lance mumbled, gripping his hands together tightly.

"I'm afraid not, at least to my knowledge. It's coils are buried deep in a part of Arthur's brain where Its prevented me from interfering, the only thing I can do, is allow him to forget it's there." Mystery sighed shakily due to injuries bugging him.

"..." Lance winced and looked down. "How will we explain what really happened then?"

"Well, Arthur does remember the chase, and almost dying. He remembers the fight braking out, but he thinks the van hit his head when I was thrown into it, and knocked him out. So when he wakes up you will have to explain why you tried to kill him. You can either lie about it, or have me undo his memory suppression. Than again..."

"You triggered the memories in the first place didn't you? Or at least he remembered you? If I was enough to jock them, he's going to be twice as worse if he remembers you made him forget." Lewis suddenly spoke. "Arthur isn't an idiot, he can put pieces together faster than I can."

"What will you have me do?" Mystery asked curiously.

"It's easy enough to figure out. Lewis has a point. Arthur remembering again, will probably make him angrier." Lance sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "As much as I hated seeing my boy break down, he deserves the truth, it will probably be better for him in the long run if he remembers now. Can you make him remember before he wakes?" Lance asked.

"Of course." Mystery yawned and stretched. "Would you like me to do that now?"

"Yeah..." Lewis nodded grimly.

Mystery bowed his head before his eyes flashed red. A small mysterious wind blew through the room and vanished as quickly as it was summoned. Mystery relaxed and sighed yet again, tired from all of this magic usage.

"It is done. He remembers everything. And due to this, he may or may not want to be anywhere near me. Or you." Mystery stared Lewis down. "All we can do for him now is comfort him and explain what all happened, and to prove to him, we were all victims of that cave, not just you. It wasn't his fault."

"Do you know where it's other half is? The thing that did this to us?" Lewis asked with anger.

"I'm afraid I don't. I've looked for it, it leaves behind no scent." Mystery frowned softly.

"Fuck..." Lewis sighed, shaking his head growling angrily.

Lance glanced at him with a worried and nervous eye. His eyes moved to the flickering licks if flame slithering off his shoulders calmly. His hair was made of fire as well, his skin looked regular, but everything had a magenta hue. His eyes were haunting as well, black whites with burning magenta irises, staring at him made Lance feel very bad for him, and thinking about how Arthur really lost his arm made him feel like shit for not being there to protect his nephew.

"Poor kids." Lance sighed softly, looking down.

"He's waking up." Mystery cut through the silence.

Lewis and Lance stood instantly, and looked in the direction of the hall where Arthur's room was. Lewis's old room was there too, as they all decided to move in together during their last few months as a team before that cave. Lewis and Arthur had shared that side of the house, where there were two rooms. Vivi slept on the other, and the extra room on her side was used as their base of operations, their equipment and office and books of knowledge on all the things they know, and files containing information on past adventures, either solved it unsolved mysteries filled hundreds of files.

Stirring into the waking world reluctantly was a blonde who's body was riddled with scuffs and aches. His eyes opened slowly, memories flowing back into his thought process. They overwhelmed him with a large sense of guilt and depression as he recalled all the events that had taken place.

How he lost it again.

How he had to look at Lewis and see how is actions affected him. Arthur felt ashamed of himself to such a degree he didn't even feel like moving or getting out of bed. Arthur even wished to be killed where he was laying down but knew that currently, he couldn't get that wish granted by anything it anyone.

The world just hated him that way...

Arthur forced his very pained body to sit up straight, moving against the aching and throbbing muscles to stand himself out of bed. He shuffled his feet towards his door, grabbing a pair of sweatpants to change into considering he wasn't going into work that day.

Arthur shuffled towards the door, and reached his metal arm out for the knob, only to pause. He could almost feel people watching the door, and didn't really want to be seen in yesterday's clothes, all beaten and scuffed.

He swallowed down his nerves and twisted the door knob, opening it slower than normal. He then proceeded to shuffle out of the room, his senses deeming true as Lance Mystery and Lewis were all staring from down the hallway from the living room. All three of them were staring with concerned faces, stress laced in all of their muscles.

Arthur paid them no mind and moved to the bathroom in that hallway, not wanting to really look at any of the three men. He turned the light within the full bathroom on before closing the door behind him, his movements slow in order to prevent further pain from afflicting him.

He started off his morning as per usual. He grabbed two clean towels from the bathroom closet and a clean pair of boxers from a pile he has stacked neatly on a seperate shelf. One towel was used to disconnect his metal arm steadily to prevent nerve shock, and wrapped it in a neat ball within the towel before setting it on the counter. He then put the towel on the towel holder near the shower. He moved to the said shower, and turned on the water before undressing himself, glancing at the door lock every other second just to make sure it was locked.

Once he was free from the dirty and ripped up clothing, he combed his hair out to flatten it some so it would be easier to wash. After this, was when he noticed his body had been riddled with bandages. Arthur blinked at them and sighed, tensing at the fact both his legs and abdomen had patches, which meant either Lewis or Lance, perhaps the both of them, had patched him up when he was out.

Great.

Arthur sighed and moved to take them all off, unraveling the bandages, before removing the most painful on on his back, growling as the bandages sticking to the healing wound came off. Arthur growled and tossed them all neatly into the garbage can before stepping into the shower, whimpering as the water falling on healing cuts and scrapes caused them to burn painfully. 

After his excruciating shower, he dried his hair, which hung down to his shoulders in thick well kept locks, and dressed into the boxers and sweatpants.

Arthur looked at his scratches and bruises before reaching into a medicine drawer and grabbed some rolls of bandages and some medical tape. He connected his metal arm back to his shoulder joint, which had also been implanted with metal. He winced when the nerve endings connected, and proceeded to bandage himself back up, ending up looking like a mummy.

Arthur wished he grabbed himself a shirt but shrugged it off considering literally everyone else probably had some too, aside from the ghost in their house. Arthur opened the bathroom door, yawning weakly before walking out, still moving slowly as he entered the living room, making a Bee line towards Vivi's bedroom to check on her.

He felt eyes following him the whole time, and hated their staring, wanting them gone, making him both angry and angry with himself for getting angry at them and making them worry about him. He opened Vivi's door to make sure she was okay to find her sleeping. He sighed and shut her door some fly before making his way into the kitchen, coughing into his hand before wincing at the sharp pain shooting through his back.

That gash was severely deep, he was sure it needed stitches but paid it no mind as his uncle walked in after his audible grunted whine.

"Morning champ. Your body's hurting I take it? I went out and bought you and Vivi and Mystery some pain killers. They're in the blue bottle in the cabinet." Lance spoke.

"Mhm." Arthur nodded a tired and weak thanks before moving to them.

He then paused and retracted his hands, standing there, eyes following the magenta glow reflecting from the kitchen counter top, and into the living room, where Lewis was watching him with a saddened face.

Guilt swallowed Arthur like an ocean that made his left eye begin to water and burn slightly. Arthur chuckled and moved his hand off the cabinet and began to make himself coffee instead.

"Arthur you aren't taking any?" Lance grew tense.

"It's not as bad as blue's." Arthur shrugged. "I'm just sore. She has a deep cut across her abdomen. And I thought I was a mummy." Arthur hummed. "I'll be fine. Nothing needed her expect for some coffee."

"But you have a nasty wound in your back, it's still pink." Lance folded his arms. "And you bandaged yourself wrong. Here-"

"Lance stop." Arthur eyed him weakly. "I'm not a kid anymore. They are tight enough to stay on so they are good."

"They are too tight is my point." Lance grunted out.

"It's fine shorty." Arthur chuckled and poured himself and Lance a cup before handing one to him. Arthur then rubbed his half artificial shoulder joint, feeling the scarring as he slurped down some delicious brown liquid.

This is when Lewis hovered in, before walking over. Lewis moved past lance and straight at Arthur, hand coming to gently grab his chin. Arthur flinched heavily and frightened eyes moved up to the ghost, before turning pained at seeing that familair face. A large hand swallowed his metal one, and extracted the coffee cup before placing it on the counter top.

Arthur then flinched and tensed, as he was given the tightest and warmest hug he'd ever been given. Lewis clung so tightly it was like the man was afraid of dying if he didn't.

Arthur looked over at the male with shocked eyes and fearful ones, not knowing what to do, but he was very afraid of touching him, not with the same hands that causes his death.

"I'm so glad I didn't kill you... And I'm so sorry I tried. I made a serious mistake, I crashed your van, and probably scared the living hell out of you." Lewis shook his head, tearing up. "I'm so fucking sorry!" He spoke with a quivering voice that utterly shattered Arthur's heart.

"L-Lewis- I-I don't blame you." Arthur weakly mumbled. " Y-You should have let me..." Arthur felt hot tears fall down his face. "You shouldn't have caught me."

"Don't. Say that please." Lewis pulled back, holding Arthur's bare shoulders. "None of us, is to blame for what happened Artie. It wasn't my fault. Your fault viv's or even Mystery's. It was that thing that possessed you, and still has a small fraction of itself hiding inside your head." Lewis spoke softly, tears streaming down his face.

"I-It was my hand. M-My hand that shoved you! My face that grinned! My MOUTH that-"

"Got possessed and was forced to act against your will." Lewis finished for him, clinging Arthur tightly. "I Vow to all of us, that I will find a way to get the rest of it out of your head. I will get...our... Revenge." Lewis swore.

Arthur whimpered against him and proceeded to cling to the large skeleton, breaking down into a tearful and pained mess.

"I'm so sorry!" Arthur blurbed into Lewis's shoulder, heaving out fountains of tears.

"I-I know, I'm sorry too." Lewis weakly cried, slowly moving the both of them to their knees, in order to save Arthur's legs from giving.

They were battered from the wreck after all, deep bruising and cuts. Lewis could tell it hurt Arthur just to walk around due to the shuffling and slowness of his movements. Arthur was normally clumsier and quicker paced then what he had been displaying.

Lewis was unscathed, which made Lewis angry as he felt he deserved some form of physical ache for making his friends hurt this badly. Lewis shook his head as he cried with Arthur, also crying, in his grasp.

Lance watched to two men cry in one another's arms and stared at Lewis a while longer before glancing to his nephew, wincing at the emotional pain the kid must have been going through. He could only imagine what kind of torment he was going to suffer by remembering, so he had to remind himself that this was the least damaging choice in the long run.

"Damn it." Lance shook his head and knelt down before hugging the two men. "Easy there guys. Easy. It's all okay. It will be okay."

"How do you know!?" Arthur shouted from Lewis's shoulder, unable to control his loud volume due to the severity of his crying fit.

"Because things are already looking better for everyone. You guys seem to be on the same page, and understand what the real thing to blame is. Which means you can move past it." Lance grinned faintly. "You can become friends again right?"

"I-I never stopped being his friend." Both young adults spoke in unison.

Lance smiled at the both of them and turned to go check in Vivi to leave the two of them be. When he left, Arthur relaxed more into Lewis, honestly missing these long and care filled hugs with Lewis.

Missed them so much.

It's been literal years sense he had one, and even when he was still alive, his dedication to Vivi was unparalleled to the point Arthur was always left out or eventual tuned out of every conversation between the couple. This was when Arthur frowned heavily, and tensed back up again because he knew it would be a matter of time before Vivi remembered Lewis, and Lewis was probably waiting for this.

The locket probably is the key to unlocking her memories of him, and as soon as that happened, lewis would be torn from Arthur immediately. Back to loneliness, back to jealousy, back to depression, back to self haterid over that jealousy.

Lewis soon pulled away, looking down at Arthur with a long stare before blinking and looking down, he bit the inner skin of his mouth before helping the two stand, before picking Arthur up bridal styled and carrying him to the living room, much to the blonde's shock.

"Woah! Hey! Put me down!" The blonde struggled to see through his long-ish hair. " Don't go picking me up! Ow!" Arthur then winced at his back.

"Easy." Lewis whispered. "I can tell it hurts you just to stand. And your head is probably killing you. Let me take care of you buddy, it's the least I can do after what happened." Lewis sighed.

"..." Arthur stopped flailing, and endured the embarrassing situation until he was set down on the couch.

Just when he thought he was free from further torment, Mystery hopped up onto the couch, and laid his head in Arthur's lap comfortably, draining all color from Arthur's skin. Lewis settled down on the other side of him and turned on the TV to watch the morning news.

Arthur felt his heart rate skyrocket at the sight of his kitsune for a dog laying his head in his lap. Arthur felt his metal arm buzz with electricity for a second before he leaned against Lewis in slight fear of the dog, unable to get the image of his arm being viciously torn off out of his head.

"It's alright. He won't hurt you Artie." Lewis nudged him lightly, wrapping an arm around the back if the couch where Arthur was sitting before returning his attention to the TV.

"You'd be tense too if you remember what I am remembering." Arthur muttered.

"It's fine Arthur. I won't do a thing to you." Mystery grinned faintly.

Silence.

...

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"HOOOOLLLT SHIIIIIT it SPEAKSSSUH!"