Virgil, the 'F' student of the 'school' that trained the assassins of the world, who hadn't said a single word apart from his name, stepped out into the training room. His mentor, Deceit, smirked at him from across the room.

"Today, Virgil, you will be fighting the enemies' best agents." He said loudly, moving to type in instructions to the holoscreen. Three clones dropped to the ground. One had a tie, the other had a grey cardigan. The third had a crown. "Logic, Morality and Prince. If you die, then at least we'd have gotten rid off our worst student." Deceit commented carelessly. Oh, if only he knew. Virgil had been holding back for this very test. No one knew how he really fought.

Breathing in, Virgil tightened his grip on his weapon. He had a body-tight black suit that provided no armour but the clones against him had real weapons. One had a sniper, the other had a glove that could knock you out if needed. The third had a sword. And Virgil had a dagger.

He had murder in his eyes and he wore his silence like a mask. Deceit narrowed his eyes from across the room, seeing this. He knew all too well that this kid was holding back but he didn't know how much he'd hidden away.

Deceit began to count up to ten and Virgil let his blank face twist into a smirk. A few spectators, like his fellow students, began to whisper to each other. The emo never smiles. Virgil kept the grin as Deceit reached the end of the count down. Nobody was ever gone fuck with him again.

The clones launched themselves, working in sync, and Virgil sliced Morality's' throat easily. The clone fell to the ground and he stabbed his dagger into Logic's' chest, snatching his sniper and firing a bullet into the clones skull. He shot Prince before the clone had even reached him. Fifteen seconds; all clones down.

Virgil dropped the gun and pulled back his dagger. He turned to Deceit and his smirk grew. Then, he finally spoke. "Can we try again with some music?"

.:*:.

"The kid has got the dark side," Whispered Deceit to his fellow teacher, the Duke. "You best believe it, push too far and you'll see."

The Duke glanced at him. "Who, Virgil Song? The 'F' kid?"

Deceit nodded. "He isn't Virgil Song anymore. He took his assassin name after defeating the clones in fifteen seconds."

"What did he call himself?"

"Anxiety Arachnia."

The Duke blinked slowly and then grunted with a shrug. "Odd name to call himself. Why'd he call himself that? It doesn't really strike any fear."

Deceit shook his head slowly. "You didn't see what he did, Dukey. He said it suits how the enemies will one day feel when they see him. And it rings a personal truth. We all know how he's so anxious all the time, I guess he was almost being honest."

"Did he really take out those clones in fifteen seconds?"

With a grimace, Deceit nodded. Clones were what they called high-tech training dummies. They adapted to the information placed in them. They were completely grey and filled with fluff and wire. It was a miracle that they managed to work completely seamlessly but, then, Deceit had already seen one miracle today.

The Duke wasn't his friends' proper name. It had once been Remus, just like Deceit's' had once been Janus. But they'd become fully-fledged assassins, training the next generations.

Then their boss placed their hands on the two's' shoulders. Their boss had called themselves Viking. You didn't mess with them, no matter how small and adorable they were. Once, they'd been Talyn. Now, they ran the 'school' by fear.

"Boys," They said, "We're going to have a talk about Anxiety Arachnia."

.:*:.

Anxiety was already sitting in Viking's' office. He looked up at Deceit and smirked at him. Deceit couldn't deny that he was slightly proud of how amazing his student was. He sat down in the middle of the three chairs and the Duke sat next to him. Viking sat across from them all.

"Anxiety Arachnia, you were once known as Virgil Song. What happened to him?" Asked Viking.

"I killed him. A long, long time ago. It's just taken you this long to notice."

Viking smiled and turned to Deceit. "He's been taught well. Duke, you are the head of design. We need you to create a mask for him."

The Duke gasped excitedly and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small cube that he dropped on the table. A 3D holoscreen appeared in the air. He pulled and stretched the mucus-green light inside, fiddling as he created a head shape. He pulled it out, holding the green light to Anxiety's' face. It shrank a little at the nose and grew bigger around the eyes. The jawline sunk in slightly and so did the eye sockets. The Duke pulled it back into the green cube, drawing around the eyes with his finger.

Once, a man named Remus Hartings had been fired from almost every designing job imaginable. That's when Viking had found him. That was when Remus Hartings was killed and the Duke took his place. The man was mad but he was a genius too. In five minutes of playing with a mask, he pulled it out of the green light and it solidified in his hands.

He handed it over to Anxiety who simply put it on. The masks' base colour was deep, royal indigo. There was thick, black mesh over his eyes, making it impossible to see what he was looking at and the pattern was copied to look like smaller, spider-like eyes under his real ones, following Anxiety's' new last name of 'Arachnia'. A black pentagram stretched across the entire face. He looked monstrously blank. 

The mask had no mouth or nose, but they heard Anxiety clearly as he said. "I like it."

"Can you breathe properly?" Frowned Deceit, noticing there were no nostril holes.

"Yes. The Duke has placed in a small oxygen filter, it's getting air to me."

The Duke beamed crazily. "It'll withstand any type of gases unless the particles are too small!"

Viking leaned back in their seat. "Welcome to importance, Anxiety Arachnia."

.:*:.

Prince, Logic and Morality had never had too much of a problem when it came to their enemy. They had excelled, all were 'A' students. They'd been trained right after Vine had found them in their school. Vine wasn't the real name of their tutor. It was actually Thomas Sanders, but they were supposed to refer to him as Vine. No one did.

The three weren't called Prince, Logic and Morality either. Their actual names were Roman Milton, Logan James and Patton Baker. They referred to each other as that too, unless fighting the enemy.

They'd never faced an enemy who'd ever really posed a threat. That is why, when Thomas had received an email warning them about a student they were sending over, no one worried.

Besides, it had been sent a year ago about one of the stupidly named enemies. The enemy was called Anxiety Arachnia. No one cared about whoever they were.

However, it was that night when they got sent a location via text. That had been what put their nerves on edge. Every phone number was completely classified, especially the trio who got the message. It had simply said this:

Yo, this is Anxiety Arachnia. I've been robbing from, like, every single place you guys are supposed to protect but I still haven't gotten a good fight, so I'm inviting you to get beaten up. My mentor doesn't know I'm doing this so, if you don't come, I'll hand them your numbers. Come, I kill you and it was all a terrible accident. I'll be under the Swan Mall, in your cellars. Please don't disappoint me~

An exact year after the first warning, another had been sent. No matter how many times they answered back, they got no reply, even though Anxiety Arachnia had read every message. The information he'd given about robbing from them had evidence too. So many vital items had gone missing and any guard left alive had extreme arachniphobia and anxiety, too scared to move from the hospital bed and they all seemed to now hate Brendon Urie and Gerard Way. Only now were they piecing it all together.

Thomas was beating himself up about it. The evidence had all been there, except for, well, the hatred for Brendon Urie and Gerard way. Now, this weird kid was inviting the best fighters they had to be killed or have their information leaked. So, you send the best fighters and all the back up you can spare.

What else do you do when you're fighting against an enemy who'd been there for a year and you never noticed?

.:*:.

"Do you think he's here yet?" Whispered Roman, staring desperately through his binoculars. It was 2:59 am and he was very, very bored.

"Roman, be quiet. We're trying to focus." Replied Logan harshly.

The clock ticked to three am and Patton gasped, pointing subtly at a black van that pulled up. "Do you think that's him?"

Logan focused in with his binoculars. "It's definitely one of their vans..."

"Let's go," Roman whispered, beginning to stand up as the van rolled to a stop.

Patton grabbed his wrist. "Roman, no! Thomas said we only go if he goes to the mall!"

Roman grumbled but settled back down as the van opened. The person who stepped out was small and skinny. They looked so frail, in a large hoodie and skinny jeans. They had a creepy mask on their face. Roman watched as agents jumped out at him but he held up a finger, typing something in on his phone. He plugged in white earbuds and then beckoned for them to come at him.

Logan frowned. "Is he listening to music? That's a major disadvantage, he won't be able to hear-"

Anxiety sidestepped the first agent who lunged for him, breaking the mans' neck and dropping the body. He dropped to the ground as another ran for him, sweeping the agents' leg from underneath them and stabbing a blade in their back before pulling it back out. He turned to the agents that surrounded him and shrugged as if asking who was next.

"I don't think he sees it as a disadvantage..." Whimpered Patton.

"No shit," Mumbled Roman. "We gotta go help them before he kills all of them."

Logan cleared his throat. "I can literally take him out from here."

Roman shook his head. "That's a way no one wants to go, Logan. He believes he's good enough to beat us alone, so let's go."

"I hate violence..." Mumbled Patton, but he followed Logan and Roman obediently off the roof they'd been spying from.

.:*:.

They didn't have full masks like their enemies. Prince had a masquerade mask, red, white and gold in style. Logic had a mask that covered three-quarters of his face, the bottom right corner missing. Morality's' mask was more like electronic glasses that hid a band of his face. They were far more unique than the average blindfold with holes that the agents wore.

That's why, as he ended the last one, he recognised them. Anxiety smiled under his mask but he knew they couldn't see. Yanking a blood-soaked dagger from the agents' skull, he simply held out his hand and beckoned for them. He wore black gloves over his hands and Anxiety couldn't help but giggle at the way they were spotless.

He watched Prince's' eyes widen at the laugh and Morality moved first, hands held up in surrender. He let the enemy come closer to him and he ducked just as Morality lunged, trying to knock him out. Anxiety sheathed his dagger; he didn't want to kill him, there'd be no one able to put up a fight. Logic raised his sniper and Anxiety sprang up in the air. He landed perfectly on the gun and, to his surprise, Logic didn't drop it. Okay, that was a minor setback.

Anxiety tilted his head and he watched Logic's' big, blue eyes stare randomly into the black, opaque mesh. Anxiety slipped out a pocket knife and left a tiny scar on Logic's' face before springing off the mans' sniper, spinning in midair to throw the pocket knife into the guns' barrel, rendering it useless.

He landed next to Prince and took the mans' hands in his, spinning around as he listened calmly to Darkside by Grandson. His back now against Prince's' chest and the enemy's' hands trapped in his, he watched Logic and Morality hesitate. They didn't know what to do. How sweet.

Suddenly, Prince chicken-legged him. Anxiety couldn't hide his gasp and he quickly flipped him over his shoulder, standing over his enemy. He hissed down at Prince, before retreating quickly, bolting into the Swan Mall. So he waited for them.

.:*:.

Roman kept his scowl on his face until Anxiety had retreated completely and then he gasped. "He just seriously winded me..." He breathed.

Patton rushed to his side. "Ro, are you okay?"

"I'm all good, padre."

"My gun!" Spluttered Logan. "He- He just ruined it!"

Roman quickly stood up. "Dude, chill-!"

"Logan, we'll get you another one when we sort out this pesky agent!" Patton said. 'Pesky' was one of the rudest things ever, at least, for Patton. "Come on, he went into the mall!"

The trio began to walk cautiously over. To run in would be to risk a trap and that was something they couldn't even try to get away with. Roman cleared his throat as they walked over slowly. "He didn't say a word. Did that only creep me out?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, it was definitely unnerving. And I wonder how he sees through that black mesh covering his eyes. He was right in my face and I couldn't see a thing!" Logan complained.

Patton pouted. "He looks like a spider and it's scary."

They opened the door of the mall carefully and Roman called inside, "Come out, Arachnia! It's three against one!"

"Those odds didn't help you much earlier, though, did they, Princey?"

The trio jumped as Anxiety appeared next to them, cleaning his dagger calmly. To Roman, his voice was indescribable. It was just... amazing. It unnerved him when he realised how that one voice had brought heat to his cheeks and it infuriated him when Anxiety looked up.

"Aw, why the blush, Princey? Am I just that pretty?"

"No. You're a monster, you killed all those people," Roman replied, pointing out to the littering of bodies.

Anxiety giggled but it was cold and fake. "No, I left a few alive. In all honesty, though, it's such an honour to meet you." He stood with a mock bow. "Although, really, I expected Prince to have grown up to be a little bit ugly instead of this pretty boy before me!~" He cooed.

Roman tried to ignore the fact that both Patton and Logan were looking from him to Anxiety, perplexed.

"I'm slightly confused... Did you two know each other?" Logan asked.

"Roman wouldn't remember me, but I sure as hell remember him," Anxiety said and the trio stiffened.

Roman felt his heartbeat in his ears. "How did you-?"

"Like I said, I remember you."

.:*:.

Anxiety wanted to laugh at the horrified faces he saw before them. Obviously, he'd never met Prince but the Duke had. The Duke had been his adopted twin brother and Roman had once told him everything until Thomas Sanders, aka. Vine got him to shut up. Anxiety had been told this information and had been instructed only to use for effect. Damn, did he take that seriously.

But now it was time to explain himself. "Okay, listen. I don't want to work for anyone anymore. Frankly, I'm pretty sick of it. And you guys are my only way out. You make it look like you've killed me and I get to slip off and try to be normal. We got a deal? Roman, care to help an old friend out?" He teased the final question, watching Prince shake his head.

"I-I don't remember you..."

"Cute, now are you gonna help me or not?"

Logic and Morality looked at Prince. Then Morality looked back at Anxiety. "You could come to our side?"

Anxiety gasped excitedly. "Do you really mean it? Wow! I'm honoured, but," His voice lost the bright jolliness, "What part of I don't want to work for anyone did you not understand?" Morality sagged slightly and Anxiety scoffed. "Honestly, I don't even want to stay in America anymore, the scenery's awful. It's just a bunch of cities. Get me somewhere outta the way, like Canada or Scotland, and I'll never bother you again!"

The three exchanged a glance and Logic said, "How do we know we can trust you?"

With a sigh, ANxiety walked up to them and placed his dagger in their hands. "Unscrew the hilt." He instructed and Logic did so. Out fell-

.:*:.

-A roll of paper. Logan frowned as he picked up the scroll, opening it.

"Viking, head of a what is basically a cult named Assassins' Guild. Gender: Non-binary, real name, Talyn. They have an obsession with cats and Viking metal." He glanced up at Anxiety who stood there, silent and the mask blocking any way to see what he was thinking. Logan continued to read. "Deceit, the trainer/tutor to all students. Real name, Janus. Gender, male. He has a major crush on the following person. The Duke, Guild's' designer. Real name, Remus Hartings. Legal name, Remus Milton. He was once the adopted brother of Roman Milton, aka. Prince."

Roman gasped slightly, taking the scroll from Logan as he read it himself. He cleared his throat and continued. "Anxiety Arachnia. Agent. Cismale. I defeated three, high-tech, AI clones in fifteen seconds about four years ago. Nobody is gonna fuck with me again." Roman raised his eyes to stare blindly into the black mesh although little did he know that he actually managed to meet Anxiety's' eyes. "This proves nothing."

Anxiety's' voice held a smirk. "It proved something." He said.

Patton raised an eyebrow, trying to be intimidating. "And what was that?"

"That I can give you more."

.:*:.

"We shouldn't be trusting him," Thomas said sternly, placing the scroll down on his desk.

Roman frowned. "Sir, he knew my name! He said he knew me! He knows my brother and he's given us information about some of the top people there!

"I agree, sir, Anxiety definitely seemed to know a lot." Logan backed Roman up.

Patton widened his eyes. "He was such a small bean!"

Thomas shook his head. "I can't-"

"Hey, Vine, great to see you." The four jumped to see Anxiety climbing in through the window. He was climbing in through the bloody window on the 29th floor. What?!

Thomas glared. "What do you want?"

"Not much- Princey, you look dead cute without your mask, by the way, like damn- I just came to chat with you," Anxiety behaved calmly while Roman felt his face go red. "You don't trust me and, personally, I love it but it's getting in the way of my high-tailing outta this country. What else do you want from me, Sanders?"

Thomas pulled back, almost fearfully, but he kept his gaze level. "You barely gave any relevant information!"

Anxiety was probably smirking under his mask and Roman didn't know why he wanted to see it so badly. The enemy agent sat lazily on the desk. "We train every student for three years, starting from age ten to age thirteen. The final test, though, is of sixteen years after physical training. The first three years are literal brainwashing. Our base is in Queens at this address." Anxiety handed Thomas a slip of paper and Thomas hesitated.

"I hate to admit it but this is an actual location we have solid evidence for." Thomas hissed. "But it's still not enough."

The enemy sighed loudly. "Fine. Viking, aka. Talyn, has a great friend called Joan, aka. Beanie, who's your second in command. The two meet up all the time and have no idea that the other is the enemy."

Thomas gaped at him. "Woah..." He breathed.

Anxiety looked at him and put his two hands on his mask, one low by his chin and the other up by his eyes. He pulled the lower half off his face, revealing only his mouth and his bottom jaw. He smirked and Romans' heart physically skipped a beat. "We got a deal, Sanders?"

"What's your name?" Thomas tried.

"Anxiety Arachnia. That's all who's left."

.:*:.

Ever since Thomas accepted Anxiety's' deal to get out of the country, Roman found Anxiety near him, Patton and Logan a lot. Sometimes he was across the corridor, other times he stood right next to them. But he never took off his mask. Yes, he changed his hoodies and jeans and shirts, but the mask had remained on since the talk with Thomas.

Anxiety was sitting across from them at dinner in the cafeteria when he yawned. That was the first vocal noise they'd heard from him for three months after the deal was struck. It was just one simple yawn but the enemy rested his head in his gloved hands. He didn't move for a while, breathing slowing until it was only a gentle rise and fall of his shoulders that showed he was alive.

Roman glanced at Logan and Patton. "What do we do?" He whispered, stealing a look at the enemy agent who was now possibly asleep in a practically empty cafeteria. Anxiety's' arm slipped from its' propped up position and he slumped onto the table, arms used as a pillow as his head faced to the side. He was definitely asleep.

"I say we remove his mask," Logan said. "He knows a lot about us and we simply know nothing about him except his gender."

Patton hesitated but reached out with his hand to take off the mask. None of them could lie, they were terrified that the smaller man would jumpscare them, having pretended to be asleep. Clasping his fingers gently around the edge of the mask, Patton pulled at it softly and it came away. All three of them held their breath as brown hair could be seen pressed to a pale forehead. Patton continued to pull at the mask, gently removing it from the others' face. He sat back, holding a mask that looked sweaty but clean at the same time.

Patton turned to them. "He's so precious..."

Roman and Logan quickly went to look and Roman felt his face heat up. They knew he was twenty, judging by some information he'd let slip, but he looked just that little bit younger. His eyes were sunken in with exhaustion, heavy black circles lay around them like a raccoon and he had a small sprinkle of freckles on his nose. He was sleeping soundlessly.

Logan grunted quietly. "It looks like he hasn't slept in days..." He mumbled.

"He must've been paranoid," Answered Roman. "We've been keeping him here all the time, his friends probably think he's dead, and he must've been scared someone would sneak into his room or something. I mean, he did name himself Anxiety."

The boy before them began to stir with a reluctant mumble. "Will you shuddup, Dukey? I'm tryna fucking sleep over here..."

Patton thought for a second. "Dukey? Oh, as in the Duke? He must think he's back home or something!"

"Why would he call his friend 'Dukey'?" Frowned Logan.

"The Duke was my brother, Logan, it suits him," Roman replied.

Anxiety's' eyes began to open and he glanced at them all staring at him. He frowned slightly and then he noticed his maks in Patton's' hands. He jumped up from the table, eyes wide as he grabbed his hood, pulling it low over his face, walking backwards, away from them. "Give that back!" He hissed, trying to hide his face.

"You have freckles..." Roman said, remembering the image of the sleeping man and feeling his cheeks rise with colour.

"Y-Yeah? And? So does your friend, give me back my mask! I can't be Anxiety without that mask!"

Patton tilted his head as they watched Anxiety sit on the bench behind him, curling up as he brought his knees up to his chest, on side-profile to them with his face turned away. "What do you mean, kiddo?"

"Wi-Without that mask, I-I-I'm a f-failure and a-a nobody! I'm n-no one i-important anymore withou-t tha-at m-m-mask-!" Sharp breaths got in the way of his sentence and his shoulders began to shake.

Roman ran to him in an instant. "Woah, Anxiety, it's okay!" He said soothingly, refraining himself from putting a hand on the mans' back. "Just, breath for me, okay? I'm gonna put my hand on your back, it's alright..." Roman placed his hand on the small of Anxiety's' back, making small circular motions. "Are you having a panic attack? Do you get those?"

A sharp nod of his head, Anxiety kept drawing in shaky breaths, shivering as he sobbed quietly into his knees. Logan saw something on the ground and picked it up. His eyes widened and he showed Patton. Roman didn't notice.

"Anxiety, you'll be okay-"

"I can't be Anxiety anymore..." He whispered quiveringly. "I'm only a nobody n-now..."

Roman shook his head. "Nonsense, you are still Anxiety to us. Just calm down."

Anxiety reached out blindly with a wavering hand. "Gimme my mask and I'll be Anxiety again.

"If you are no longer Anxiety, does that make you Virgil Song?" Asked Logan.

The enemy froze, slowly retreating his hand back to his side, tilting his head to look at Logan, tears in his wide eyes. "Who told you that name?"

Logan held up a wallet, inside held a drivers licence.

Anxiety shook his head, breathing beginning to pick up again. "N-No, I killed V-V-Virgil Song, h-he's g-gone! H-He's d-d-dead and he w-won't come back!"

"Virgil..." Whispered Roman, getting Anxiety's' terrified attention. "Virgil." He repeated as Anxiety stared at him. Roman repeated the name, again and again, feeling the way the letters merged together softly, how the 'i's added a certain lilt to it. He recited the name again and again until Anxiety was breathing slowly, relaxed and almost calm, looking at Roman like he was the only person left on the planet. Roman smiled gently at him. "Is Virgil Song still dead?"

Virgil slowly shook his head. "No..." He replied.