Third Person

Within Tanith's mind, Cece was normally at work. Mainly during the night when she was sleeping to go over things with her and other jobs, but in the day she'd do her best to maintain her emotions. It was her job, and for the most part, she was good at it.

Cece spent most of her time in her own corner of Tanith's mind, which she had made to look like a security room. The walls were dark and the only light came from the large monitor all across the front wall, filled to the brim with information. Cece had a couple swivel chairs around, and one table off to the side, but otherwise it was pretty bland. That's what Cece liked, bland.

The main thing she focused on was the bar graph that showed all of Tanith's emotions, and how they were doing. One's like joy and hope were normally pretty high, fear coming here and there but normally never staying too long unless it got bad, anger just depended on the day and the people, and sadness came and went randomly. Cece was supposed to keep them under control, especially making sure that her bonds with the people she grew attached to wouldn't pick up her emotions too much, or otherwise they'd be "Burdened" as Tanith put it.

There were rare times were she lost control, but it wasn't something that never happened.

Cece wished it was.

She wasn't sure what exactly set it off first, but before she could do anything, Cody was at the door. He talked so fast that Cece could barely keep up, spouting an enraged rant about how Tanith somehow betrayed them-which Cece knew wasn't true- then left them both in the dust with only his words.

"You're not stopping this war, Tanith. I will rip his heart out, and I will win this, once and for all. And after it's done, we'll talk about your little mistake."

Tanith was frozen in place, and having done her job a million times before, Cece knew what to do and how to do it.

But... She couldn't do anything.

She stared ahead, watching the bar graph of her emotions spiral out of control and waiting for something to happen. For someone to fix it, for Tanith to calm herself down, for Cody to come back and tell them he was kidding and there was some holiday dedicated to practical jokes or something.

It never happened.

Cece was frozen in place, but the best help she could get would soon burst into the room.

The first to enter the room was a pink haired and eyed woman, having a tail identical to Tanith's. Cece knew her as Emmy, or in better terms, Emotions and the right half of Tanith's mind. She was the one who ran the emotions, often creativity, and several others things like that. She had some help from some of the others, but she was generally in control.

Unlike her usual poker face, Emmy was now worried, her eyebrows furrowed and eyes darting around. "I... What's going on?" She asked, perplexed.

Cece tried to answer, but another one burst into the room right after her. This one had messy brown hair, that while was in a bun before, was now falling out. Her glasses were crooked, though she fixed them quickly and her green eyes were wide. Layla was her name, though she could also be seen as Logic or the left side of Tanith's brain. Layla always tried her best to give reason to the mind, though she was outnumbered and though she wouldn't admit it, pretty bad at her job.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" She screamed and darted beside Cece, who still remained in shock. Mostly it was from what had occurred, but part was also their sudden appearance.

Cece wasn't a favorite amongst them, and they rarely needed to consult with her anyways unless it got severe, so seeing them wasn't an everyday occurrence. In fact, it wasn't even a weekly one.

Layla scanned the bar graph showing the spike in emotions with panic on her face and just stopped for a while to take it in. Emmy came to them eventually and looked at it for herself, blinking. "That explains why I'm feeling so... Off." She mumbled to herself. "Too many emotions at once."

"Oh, you think?" Layla screamed, her hands flying up to clutch the sides of her head. "What are we supposed to do? I-I... I wasn't prepared for this! Emmy! Fix it! You're the emotions expert!"

Emmy stared at the ever changing representation of the emotions, before looking down at her own hands blankly. "...I don't understand."

"How can you not understand? Fix. The. Emotions! Simple!"

"No-I-..." Emmy stuttered, flexing her fists. "I don't understand what's happening." Her voice lowered, seeming much smaller than before. "It's all spiralling out of control."

Layla took a slight step back, startled before pausing. Slowly, her head turned and her eyes locked onto Cece. Layla took in a breath. "Cece." She said carefully. "What's going on? Emmy and I don't see what happens often, but you always do. Why are we acting up?"

Cece took a moment to collect herself, but eventually found the will to speak. "Cody accused us of being a spy for KrakenKid." Layla winched, but Cece wasn't done. She met her eyes. "And that he's going to war with him, and that he's going to rip his heart out."

The embodiment of Tanith's logic froze in place. Her hands shot up to cover her mouth, as if she were afraid of what would come out of it. Cece tore her eyes away from her, and sighed. "Yeah... Not doing to great."

The logic and conscience tried to soak in what they could, but Emmy moved so suddenly that it startled both of them. Her head shot up, alarmed to her core like someone just got murdered in front of her. Layla jumped back in surprise. "Emmy, what-"

"Oh no." Emmy just whispered before bolting out of the room as quickly as possible.

"Where are you going?" Layla screamed after her, nearly ripping her hair out. "Get back here! I don't know how to deal with this!"

However, her cries went unnoticed or ignored as Emmy didn't return immediately. Layla groaned loudly, tensing. "Great! Jusssst great... Our emotions expert is gone," She turned around to glance at Cece, whose gaze remained on the floor. "And you're in shock most likely. Sit down, best not to let it get worse. Create a shock blanket or something." She huffed, starting to pace around.

Cece took her advice and sunk down, taking in long breaths and plopping herself on one of the swivel chairs. Layla wracked her thoughts, trying to come up with a plan but all of them ended poorly, causing her to draw blank on what course of action to take. "Ugh! Could this get any worse?"

Her head turned right as another figure entered the room. Quite possibly the last person she wanted to see.

It was, of course, another aspect of Tanith's mind. Her hair was red and her eyes a piercing yellow color. This particular one was an embodiment of not only Fear but her negative emotions, named Faya. This meant there were other ones like sadness, anger, and other ones, but fear was the one she was known for. It was her drive, making her angry because she was afraid, or sad or guilty, or even all at once, with only fear being her drive.

Faya and Layla locked eyes and shot a glare at each other. Though it was difficult for Faya to have a very good relationship with anyone, Layla and her seemed to butt heads the most. It made sense, fear and logic at a constant war at each other, fear wanting to do her job and find the things to be afraid of, but logic wanted to dismiss it all, for it wouldn't always make sense.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Layla screamed. Faya ignored her and marched into the room to stare at the information on the screen. As she pushed past Layla, the logic followed her, throwing her arms in the air. "We do not need any more fear than we already have! Get out!"

"No." Faya answered, narrowing her eyes as she reached the emotions graph. Many emotions were all over the place. Fear, specifically panic, was among the highest, along with sadness creeping up and doubt already tearing up. Joy was depleting and fast, as were many others that gave Tanith what she needed to go on.

"No?" Layla echoed, scoffing. "Do you want to tear us apart? Do you even care what happens to Tanith, or is she just another host to you? Are you just a parasite feeding on her emotions and waiting to destroy us all for your own selfish purpo-"

Faya's fists clench and she whipped around to face her, hatred burning in her eyes. Layla suddenly didn't feel so big and shrunk down just under her gaze alone.

This was normally the part were Cece would intervene, pushing both of them out of each other's faces and getting them both to cool down, partly worried that they would kill each other if she didn't. Layla was so used to that happening, that she expected it to then. But Cece was to drained to do anything, and Layla's heart palpitated as Faya grabbed the collar of her shirt and brought her in close to her face.

"Listen here, you failure of a left brain." Faya growled. "I have as much right to be here as you do, so if you think I don't, you might as well leave too. I'm just as valid as you, and if anything, I do my job better than you do yours. I provide more help than you do even, and I'm supposed to be negative or whatever. So shut your mouth, and let me make sure that we will get back in order soon, or I'll find a way to erase you from this mind. Capeesh?"

Layla nodded quickly, making Faya release her. She stumbled back and kept her distance as the embodiment of fear looked over her vitals. She glanced over to see Cece was staring directly at her. "Same goes to you too. I know you don't like me around and that our last encounter didn't exactly end well, but I'm apart of Tanith too so suck it up and shut your mouth."

"I wasn't going to say anything." Cece murmured, though everyone could hear her. "I'm actually glad you're here."

Faya paused, now more confused if anything and glanced towards her. "...Really?"

Cece nodded slowly. "We need all hands on deck, no matter who they are or what they represent. You're right too, you have just as much right to be here as the rest of us." Her eyes flickered to Layla, who avoided everyone's gaze and her shoulders were slumped down. She lowered her voice so only Faya could hear her. "And go easy on Layla. She tries her best."

Faya scoffed. "Doesn't do a very good job of it."

"She wasn't created as strong as everybody else." Cece pointed out. "Tanith is all about emotions, and while you and the others benefit from it, Layla gets the short end of the stick. Now play nice, we need everyone to cooperate right now."

Faya remained quiet before glancing around, searching for something, or someone. "Speaking of everyone, where are the other two? Emmy should definitely be here with all of this going on."

"She ran out suddenly." Layla answered hoarsely. "Didn't give much of a reason why."

"I needed to see if my suspicions were correct." The three of them all turned around, seeing Emmy standing in the doorway. She had a body in her arms, slightly smaller than her own. "And though I wish I wasn't, I was right."

The final body, now being cradled by Emmy, had golden hair and though they couldn't see them, brown eyes. This final aspect of Tanith was blatantly named Hope, for exactly the reason that she represented hope. She also was the other positive emotions as well, but Hope was what she was known for. Hope: Bringing surety of a new day with better possibilities and of a will to keep going, that's what she was.

But with everything going on, she could barely even stand. She thrived off of those positive feelings, and especially off of hope itself, but when there was nothing left, she had no energy at all.

If Hope was in a state like this, it only meant that Tanith was lacking what she needed. Lacking hope.

Faya gritted her teeth together just from looking at her and turned back to the monitor, finally remembering how low the feelings of hope were. She was a couple beats away from slapping herself in the face for not thinking of that, but held it back. No need to show off any more vulnerable emotions that she already had.

Layla faltered at first but finally found the energy to rush forward and help Emmy with carrying Hope over to one of the swivel chairs. Layla wasn't able to help much, but Emmy appreciated the effort.

"What happened?" Layla asked immediately once she was set down.

Emmy huffed. "I found her like this, so the details aren't clear, but I do have my theories. Number one is that the lack of hope is weakening her."

"Do you-"

"It takes a lot to kill an aspect of someone's mind, so no, I don't think she'll die. Right now it's more of a high fever. Hope is strong, she'll make it." Emmy answered without looking up, already feeling the concern in her heart.

Faya's hand twitched, curling into a tight fist, so much so that her nails began to dig into her skin. A wave of anxiety passed through the room before Layla, the one who wasn't used to it, shot her head towards Faya and glared. "Stop that!"

"Stop what?" Faya snapped back. "Stop feeling? What, am I supposed to act cold and unfeeling, betraying everything I am just for you? Uh-uh, I don't think so!"

Layla groaned, her whole body tensing up from frustration. "Why can't you just listen to me! You're only making us worse! For the good of everyone, just suppress your fears for a while so it doesn't rub off on us!"

"You mean doesn't rub off on you!" Faya retorted. She gestured to the rest of them. "They're all perfectly fine, you're the only one who doesn't know how to deal with it! You're the problem! If you actually did your job, put some logic into us and found out how to deal with these emotions, we wouldn't be like this! We'd get over our nightmares, maybe actually be able to respond to Cody and get him to snap out of it, but you can't seem to pull your crap together!"

Faya screamed at her, but Layla couldn't take it. Already backed so far into a verbal corner, she did the only instinct that came to her mind: Lash out.

"Me? I'm the problem?" Layla scoffed. "Do I really need to remind you who is literally the embodiment of all negative emotions? What do you bring to the table again? Oh right, pain!"

Faya flinched under her words, and Emmy could barely even believe her ears. Layla could say some hurtful things, but now she was starting to cross the line, and didn't look done. However, she was hesitant to stop them, worried about leaving Hope's side. She looked to Cece for help, but did a double take when the consciousness had her eyes half lidded and her body limp against the chair she was sitting in a couple feet away. She still remained watching the fight, but couldn't seem to move to stop it.

"I-I bring good things too! Fear inspires a will to live and-"

"You know," Layla interrupted. "All I'm hearing are excuses to make yourself feel better about the parasite that you are. All you ever do is make us worse! Fear to paralyze us, anger to make us lose control and hurt the people we love with our words, confusion that blinds us- in fact, I'm starting to think that you're just directing the blame to me so that everyone will forget about you and everything you've done, because I assure you, I'm not the bad guy here."

Faya was frozen for a moment before the anger and adrenaline truly kicked in. "Is that what this is about? Choosing who the "Bad Guy" is? Because we all bring something important to the table, and I know that thick brain of yours has to have somebody to blame or you won't be able to redirect your feelings towards one poor soul but that's just low of you."

Layla marched forward, fully ready to fight a battle she would probably lose, and Faya was ready for whatever punch she would throw at her.

But voices stopped them, echoing in their head for all of them to hear.

"Hey! Hey! Look at me! Dang it, Tanith, look at me! I'm really sorry I broke my promise but I will fix this!"

"We all will! This is our home too, and I don't want it to be lost in a war!"

"You're not alone. We'll all work together to stop this before it gets out of hand, okay?"

Logic and Fear both paused before they both relaxed slightly. To the side, Hope suddenly gasped and sat up, before swaying and getting a head rush. Layla and Faya both rushed over as fast as they could while Cece stumbled over, still feeling light headed.

Hope blinked wildly and tried to get up and Emmy put a hand on her chest. "Baby steps, Hope. You just woke up."

"How are you feeling?" Faya asked. She got a surprised look from everyone, and gave a shrug. "What? It's a simple question and it's not like I find her annoying all the time."

Hope paused before looking up at them and gave a warm smile. "Really good." She answered. "All safe and warm inside..." She sighed longingly, hugging her own sides. "Best feeling in the world..."

"What happened?" Layla was next to ask, perking up.

Hope hesitated. "Well, I started not feeling like myself, got dizzy and fell asleep but then I heard our friends say all those nice things and now," She bounced lightly. "I feel much better! Not the same yet, but still a lot better!"

Emmy nodded. "That's good... Maybe we have a chance then."

Faya and Layla exchanged hopeful looks, but Cece's head spun. Lying down sounded really good right now, and she couldn't seem to think about anything else.

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Whoa... No way, it can't be! This book.... UPDATED????

Yep! I really wanted to post this idea of a chapter I had before "Torn" in Sea Serpent comes out to kinda give y'all a feel for how exactly Tanith's going to feel in a way when the chapter starts off, as well as give little hints as to what else might occur, plus just show how her mind works!

If you haven't gotten it before, lemme make sure you get this one thing down: Tanith has five aspects of her mind, which are formally called Conscience, Emotions, Logic, Hope and Fear, also given the names Cece, Emmy, Layla, Hope, and Faya respectively. They all represent the parts that make up Tanith herself, and have varying strengths and such.

In this story, people's minds all of aspects of their mind that kinda control, manage and work it all out. Normally, it's just four but empaths have Consciences because they also take on other peoples emotions, so they need extra help to deal with them properly. Other than that, all minds have a right and left brain aspect, normally dealing with feelings and logic in some way, and a positive and negative aspect, pertaining to whatever negative or positive emotion is strongest in them. For Tanith, it's Hope and Fear but in let's say Professor, it would be Curiosity and Rage.

I imagined that Logic and Fear would have the most against each other because Hope can come out of Fear if played right, and Emotions can deal with it, so Faya and Layla had quite the fight going on, trying to determine at first, what are they gonna do and who's gonna take charge, but then it comes down to their own insecurities. Of course, when Tanith calms down, normally her aspects do too because they are an extension of her.

Tanith freaks out over what Cody said, which did cause them all to freak in the first place, and this whole thing is going on in her mind. She doesn't see it the way it is, she just feels all the conflict of what she's supposed to feel and act and doesn't know what to do.

Anyways, I hope you liked this! I'll try to get "Torn" up as fast as I can! I think I'm probably going to do a part 2 but I wasn't sure so that's why there's a question mark. Be sure to comment what you thought, and goodbye!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter