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[in-the-grip-of-depression]

There's something in the works :)

Keep an eye out for In The Aftermath Of Depression - the sequel because I couldn't leave things the way I had.

First chapter will be posted soon and all other chapters will be posted to this blog as well.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

are the characters askable?

Yeppers

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

So is that it for this story now?

Well, I will probably still do the occasional oneshot set during the timeline of everything and you can still ask characters questions about stuff so it’s not like I’m abandoning this blog or anything

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 47:The Final Encounter

Chapter One | Previous Chapter Trigger Warnings: Mentions of blood, injuries, violence, character death (whoops)

Roman cursed under his breath as he watched Logan disappear among the trees. He couldn't just go running after him blindly, he had Virgil and Thomas to worry about.

Not to mention the fact Roman had no idea where Logan was running to and there was no way he would catch up with him now.

Roman turned to the remaining two of their little group with an annoyed sigh.

"We have to go after him!" Thomas said frantically and Virgil nodded, picking up his katana determinedly.

"We have no idea where he's gone and I'm not risking Preston getting hold of Thomas. That would be a disaster." Roman said, trying to take charge of the situation.

"Oh no you don't Roman. Worrying about risks is my thing, being cautious is my thing! You don't get to decide if something is too dangerous, that's my job and I say it doesn't matter how risky it might be, nothing is worse than letting Preston get hold of Patton and Logan. Both of them are important parts of Thomas and if he... If he hurts them or...k...ki... Worse.... Thomas will be just as screwed as if Preston got hold of him directly."

Romab blinked in surprise at Virgils words before sighing. "You have a point Virgil, come on let's go."

Thomas, Virgil and Roman set off into the woods in the direction they saw Logan take.

After a while they paused and Roman muttered to himself "Surely we aren't lost, I know my way round this forest so there's no way we should be going around in circles."

"well either Preston is messing with us or you don't have as good a memory as you think you do." Roman turned round, ready to give Virgil an unimpressed look only to find Thomas was the one who said it.

Before Roman could say anything Thomas inhaled sharply and put a hand to his chest, overcome with a sudden gnawing empty feeling.

"Thomas? What's wrong?" Virgil asked and Thomas gasped out "I'm so c... Cold and empty."

Virgils eyes widened and he exchanged a worried look with Roman, both of them having come to the same conclusion.

"Prestons starting to break Patton."

Thomas winced as the feeling in his chest seemed to grow every couple of seconds. "What can we do to stop it?"

"We need to find Preston as quickly as possible and stop him." Roman said with a grim expression.

He started walking in the direction he felt was most likely to be the right way and the other two followed, Thomas wincing and gasping as the ache in his chest grew and he began to shiver as he started to feel colder.

The trio didn't seem to be getting anywhere and they came to a stop again because Roman was starting to get truly annoyed.

"This has to be Prestons doing. He must have wanted to lure Logan away from us so he allowed Logan to find him easily and then messed everything up so we couldn't find them!"

Virgil had a frown on his face as he considered what Roman said, he wouldn't put it past Preston to do something like that.

Thomas hunched over as he felt like ice had filled his lungs but then suddenly he felt the previous ache and feelings of emptiness get washed away by a wave of warmth.

"What just happened?" he asked, looking at the other two in shock as he stood upright again. "the cold is completely gone now."

"maybe Logan managed to get Preston away from Patton or something?" Roman said, looking around with a frown.

"if he did then he must really love Patton. Preston was a complete monster towards him and it's hard to think that Logan put up with that in complete silence and didn't break worse than he did." Virgil muttered, earning a confused look from Thomas.

"wait, what exactly did Preston do to Logan?"

There was complete silence as neither Roman nor Virgil wanted to explain just how much Logan had been through.

Thomas looked between the two expectantly before throwing his hands up in frustration.

"Damn it! Why do I never know anything that's going on? Why is it I'm always left in the dark despite the fact that this is my mind!? I have the right to know when things happen! So one of you better start talking or so help me I'll..."

Whatever Thomas was going to do didn't matter as an earpiercing scream of agony suddenly ripped through the air, cutting off Thomas and making the three of them turn in the direction it was coming from.

"That sounded like..." Roman started to say but was cut off by Virgil who exclaimed Pattons name loudly and ran towards the scream.

Roman quickly ran after Virgil, followed closely by an equally worried Thomas.

The three of them ran for a while before bursting into a clearing where the first thing they saw was Patton laying on the floor clutching his arm, his face streaked with tears.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Virgil asked, dropping to his knees next to Patton and looking him over for injuries.

Patton shook his head and managed to gasp out "Logan and Preston were wrestling over there somewhere but it went silent and I don't know what happened."

Thomas walked over in the direction Patton had gestured to and peered between a couple trees to see two forms unconscious on the floor.

Thomas bent down to try and roll them over or try to wake them but Roman grabbed his wrist and gently tugged him away.

"There's no knowing what might happen if you make contact with Preston and even if you were about to touch Logan there's not much you can do to wake him up."

Thomas frowned but allowed Roman to pull him to a safe distance.

Virgil became aware that he didn't have a clue how to help Patton so he got to his feet and peered over at Preston and Logan.

"How long do you think it'll take for them to regain consciousness?" Thomas asked and Virgil shrugged.

"I don't know but it'd be better if Logan woke up first so we could end this the easy way by getting Preston while he's unconscious."

"Virgil!"

"What? He'd do the same to us and you know it! It's the easiest and safest way to get rid of him!"

Roman had a deep set frown on his face as he muttered "Just because that's what he would do doesn't mean you should do it too. We shouldn't stoop to his level, we have honour."

Virgil scowled and crossed his arms as he broke eye contact with Roman. "Fine but you show me what use that honour is when he wakes up and kills one of us."

Roman sighed and shook his head. "he's not going to kill anyone. I won't let him."

A whimpering sound came from the two unconscious forms on the floor and they both started twitching in a nearly identical way.

"What do you think is happening?" Thomas asked, watching the twitching in alarm.

Suddenly Preston sat bolt upright, his eyelids still shut but twitching. Logans hands were still clamped tightly onto his upper arms so they were both sitting up.

Finally Prestons eyes shot open, for a brief moment they were completely black before they went to their usual dark brown and he let out a noise of shock and anger.

"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed and pushed himself to his feet, dragging Logan up with him.

Logans eyes opened blearily and his entire body was limp with exhaustion as he continued to cling to Preston. He now knew exactly what had happened but he didn't have much energy left to tell the others let alone do anything himself.

Preston noticed Logans grip and immediately grabbed him by the arm, pulling him in front like a meatshield.

"Let him go." Roman muttered drawing his sword while Virgil brandished his own with a glare.

Preston sneered "Why would I ever do that? I am unarmed, facing two armed opponents. It would be stupid to let go of the one thing standing in the way."

Roman frowned. Prestons argument was logical and he had to agree. Roman would prefer not harming an unarmed person as that seemed very unfair but he guessed he would make an exception for Preston seeing as the being before him had proven time and time again that he didn't need a blade or weapon to harm people.

Virgil was furious and the only thing keeping him from lunging at Preston was the half conscious form of Logan.

The last thing Virgil wanted to do was add more pain and suffering to the logical trait.

Thomas had backed up to the edge of the clearing as soon as Preston had woken up and both he and Patton sat watching in fear of what would happen.

Preston eyed both Roman and Virgil, a calculating look crossing his face which then morphed into a grin. "Alright, you want the nerd back? Have him."

Preston suddenly shoved Logan towards Virgil who stumbled slightly as he caught him.

Preston made a dash towards where his sword lay and managed to pick it up. He smirked as he saw the realisation flash across Romans face. He'd been played.

Roman was angry both with Preston and himself. He'd hesitated at attacking for a few seconds due to Preston unarmed state and now he was armed and dangerous again.

He hadn't exactly walked away from their last encounter unscathed either so an all out fight didn't seem the best approach.

Virgil managed to position Logan behind him and then turned back to Preston, his eyes blazing with rage and his jaw clenched as he stepped forward.

It all happened quite quickly. Virgil lunged with the sword and Preston quickly deflected it, spinning and sending a kick at Roman who was a little to slow to doge it and stumbled.

Preston then ducked a slash from Virgil and swiped with his sword at their legs.

"You can't best me, I'm a master swordsman." Preston boasted with a smug smile, causing Virgil to let out a growl of annoyance.

Roman took a deep breath and started pushing forward, swiping his sword through the air from left to right in rapid succession forcing Preston to step back and dodge the blade.

Virgil stayed back not wanting to get in the way of Roman. Instead he tried to think of some other way to get at Preston. Maybe he could figure out a way to disarm or distract Preston long enough for Roman to stab him?

Virgil frowned. That hadn't worked the first time though according to what he knew. Patton stabbed Preston right at the beginning of all this and Preston had survived. Why was that?

Virgil ran over to where Patton and Thomas were, hoping Roman could keep Preston busy as he asked Patton some questions about Prestons rebirth.

Preston dodged attack after attack, laughing slightly as he saw Roman becoming more and more frustrated at not landing any.

"Come on Roman, I'm sure you can do better than that. You're trying to kill me remember? Or maybe you're just not very skilled at using your sword or fighting." Preston taunted.

Roman let out a snarl and suddenly began to attack faster, his anger taking over.

Preston managed to dodge a few but wasn't able to move quick enough to move fully out the way as Romans sword swung at head hight and caught him right across the cheek, leaving a long thin cut.

Preston hissed in pain and put a hand to his cheek, a large happy smile coming to his face when he realised he was bleeding.

"There's the angry Prince I know. Come on, remember, if you don't kill me I'll kill everyone you care about."

Roman kept attacking, his anger fueling his movements as he attacked with everything he had. He couldn't let Preston win. He had to end him and this whole thing now.

Preston laughed as he practically danced out of the way of Romans attacks. He knew from experience that anger tended to make people sloppy and more likely to make a mistake and that's exactly what happened.

Roman spun and tried to slash at him but left his side exposed meaning all Preston had to do was slash across and Roman crumpled.

The high sound of Romans scream echoed through the trees and Preston just about managed to let out a short cackle before a black clad ball of fury with a sword suddenly charged at him.

Preston immediately found himself locked into a fierce battle with Virgil who was clearly not at all hesitant with his desire to kill.

Thomas watched from the sidelines, horrified at the sight of Roman laying in a slowly growing pool of blood.

He glanced at Preston and Virgil who were battling intensely before making a dash towards Roman, ignoring Patton who hissed his name in alarm.

He made it to Romans side and quickly put pressure on the wound. "Roman, what can I do to help?" He asked frantically.

Roman groaned "Thomas... You need to get back to safety. There's no telling what he'll do if he gets hold of you."

Thomas ignored him and looked around, trying to find something to help him stop the bleeding. He was in the middle of a clearing though so there was nothing around, causing him to feel useless as he couldn't stop the bleeding.

"Thom... Thomas... Let me... Let me help." A voice rasped from somewhere and Thomas turned to see Logan crawling towards them.

"Logan no! You're exhausted as it is, don't!" Roman said but Logan ignored him and put one hand on the wound and then the other on Romans forehead.

Thomas watched in confusion as both sides closed their eyes, their faces scrunched up and jaws clenched.

The wound stopped bleeding as heavily so now it was merely a scratch but Romans outfit was still bloodstained and ripped.

Logan let out a small sigh and slumped sideways as he lifted his hands from Roman who still had his eyes closed.

Thomas crawled towards Logan and lifted him with shaking hands. He could feel the very faint thump of Logans pulse and his eyelids flickered slightly but he made no movement that indicated that he was aware of his surroundings.

Thomas started to drag Logan back to where Patton was but froze in horror as he watched Virgils katana suddenly stab into a tree trunk, leaving the anxious side unarmed.

Virgil glared at Preston who was smirking back, twirling his sword in his hand like a baton, clearly showing off and enjoying playing with Virgil.

"That was fun, but like I said, you can't best me in a fight like that. Don't feel too bad though, you never were going to win."

Virgil clenched his hands into fists and growled "You won't win. Even if there was a possibility that you managed to kill Thomas, you can be damn fucking sure we'll take you down with us."

Preston let out a laugh. "Really? Well I look forward to seeing that, I really do, however, you're currently unarmed."

Preston stopped twirling his sword and took a step towards Virgil who stepped back, his eyes darting around for possible solutions and/or escape routes.

Roman opened his eyes, tears running down his face as he came to terms with everything that had just flashed through his mind. He looked over at Preston and now he knew exactly what had happened he couldn't help but feel pity.

Roman looked over at Logan and made a mental note to shout at him later for using up all his energy, even if it was to heal him and give him important information.

Roman pushed himself to his feet and called out "Hey Preston, why don't you let Cayden out to play?"

Preston turned to Roman his eyes wide in horror which was definitely odd considering he usually had a smug smirk or cruel grin on his face.

Roman smiled "Cayden loved Mulan didn't he? I can sing some for you if you want or maybe Thomas can. How about Reflection?"

Prestons eyes narrowed in apparent anger but Roman caught the flash of pain in them.

"You are walking a dangerous path." Preston hissed, his eyes darting from Virgil to Roman.

Roman had picked up his katana but made no move to raise it. He was still hoping he could do this all with words.

"Why is my reflection someone I don't know Somehow I cannot hide Who I am Though I've tried When will my reflection show who I am inside"

Roman burst out into song and the effect was instantaneous.

"No! Stop it!" Preston cried out, trying to keep a fierce expression on his face but his eyes were welling up with tears as memory after memory began to assault him.

Virgil had managed to get to a safe distance and was watching in surprise, caught off guard by Prestons reaction.

Preston seemed to fight off the memories for long enough because he used his ability to fling Virgils katana out of the tree and towards Roman who immediately stopped singing so he could dodge the blade.

"I'll kill you first for that little trick!" Preston snarled and started stomping towards Roman who teleported before Prestons sword could make contact.

Roman quickly pulled his phone out and sent a text to all of the others before raising his sword just in time to block Prestons blow.

"What's the matter Preston? Not a big Disney fan?" Roman asked with a grin.

Preston just snarled and launched a kick at Roman who managed to dodge.

Virgil frowned at the text, his eyes darting from his phone to the fight. He looked over at the others and saw Thomas and Patton looking just as confused. He felt the urge to hit Roman round the head and call him an idiot but then again Roman had nearly brought Preston to tears with the song from Mulan so maybe he knew something they didn't?

Virgil sighed and muttered "He owes me for this." he quickly sunk down and was back before anyone noticed he'd gone.

He sighed and began climbing up a nearby tree until he reached a sturdy enough branch.

Using a bunch of stuff he'd found he managed to secure a pretty heavy duty cd player to the branch. He turned the volume up on full and quickly skipped to the right song which he then put on repeat.

He quickly shimmied down the tree, his feet landing on solid ground before the music had reached anyone's ears.

Virgil nodded to Roman who teleported nearer to the tree just as the first lyrics to The Light Behind Your Eyes started to play.

Preston froze, his eyes flashing with pain again as the familiar song registered.

"N... No!" He gasped, stumbling slightly, his hands trembling.

Roman began softly singing along, knowing the words quite well from his memory and the fact he'd listened to it while trapped in his room.

Preston stood taking gasping breaths and one hand on his head as the song washed over him, accompanied by Romans voice which was pretty exact to Thomas's.

Roman sent a glance over at Thomas who seemed to remember the song and when Roman nodded Thomas joined in with the next verse, making Preston scream out in anger and pain.

His hands were shaking and his breaths were coming out in pants.

Virgil watched and rolled his eyes as Roman gestured for him to join in but took his chance to immediately belt out the lyrics when the beat really kicked in.

Prestons knees buckled, the memories he'd worked so hard to keep locked away suddenly spilling over and overwhelming him.

His whole body shook with grief as memory after memory of his friends faces flashed before his eyes.

Their smiles. Their laughter. Their tears. Their fear. Their bloody corpses.

Everything was crashing down on him and he let out an agonised scream, pain radiating through his body.

Virgils voice cut off as he watched the same grey that effected him starting to creep up Prestons arms and neck.

Preston had his hands clenched into fists in the floor, his sword still held tightly in one hand as he sobbed.

Roman had a look of relief on his face as he slowly approached Preston, his sword in his hand just in case.

"Cayden?" Roman asked in a gentle voice and Preston let out a cry.

"No! That's not me anymore! I'm... I'm not Cayden! I.... They... They all died and I didn't do anything to help! I... I failed them! No, Cayden failed them! Cayden is dead! He failed so he died! I'm.... I'm Preston! It wasn't my fault! It was Cayden fault! He.... He stabbed... He..."

Preston started sobbing harder, his words difficult to understand.

Virgil was still frozen in place, his eyes wide in panic as he watched the grey spreading at an alarming rate. He was terrified to see what would happen once the grey spread across all of Prestons body because he knew that would probably be his fate.

Roman stood by Preston and frowned. He didn't think he could bring himself to stab someone so broken like this. And Preston or Cayden, whichever he identified as at the moment, was clearly broken.

Roman thought it over and reasoned that ending Cayden/Preston would probably be a mercy at this point. He was clearly insane and in absolute agony.

While Roman deliberated Preston had closed his eyes and started to try and push the memories back again. He couldn't quite build up another wall or anything to keep them out but he did manage to clear his mind a little.

With a slightly clearer mind Preston managed to get a strategy in place.

He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the way his legs shook, and threw his sword at the cd player which instantly shattered.

Virgil let out a loud growl of anger at his cd player being smashed, especially with an MCR cd in it.

Roman raised his sword and swung it at Preston who used his ability and managed to block it with his own sword just in time.

"I'll give you props that was certainly a good idea. Rather cruel but effective. You almost had me." Preston said, a deranged grin on his tear streaked face which was steadily becoming grey.

Roman had one last idea and quickly shapeshifted into Paxton, using the fact he already had a similar injury to the one Paxton had had to his advantage.

"Cayden?" he asked, his voice soft.

Roman knew this was probably one of the cruelest things he could do but it was either this or Preston would kill them all.

Prestons eyes were wide and even though part of him knew this was just Roman, a larger part of him was desperate to believe this was truly Paxton.

"Cayden? Can you hear me?" Roman said, echoing the words Paxton had said during some of his final moments.

Preston stepped back, inhaling sharply as the memory tried to take over.

The grey had now spread across Prestons face, making his deranged eyes appear more frightening.

"P... Paxton..." Preston muttered, his eyes locked with Romans. "Paxton... Paxton is dead!"

Roman stepped back as a look of rage crossed Prestons face and managed to block his anger fuelled blows. However Roman couldn't do more than continue to block as there was no opening for him to land any of his own blows.

The extent of Prestons anger was causing an actual heat to radiate off of him and as his sword continued to swish past Romans face it became clear to Roman that he'd made a grave mistake in trying to provoke him with his past.

Roman dropped the appearance of Paxton, trying to focus his energy on fighting Preston but it didn't make a difference.

After 30 seconds of blocking, dodging and backing away Roman found himself at the edge of the clearing with a tree directly behind him so there was no where else to retreat to.

Roman slashed forward with his sword, trying to force Preston back but each one was blocked and Preston lunged forwards mercilessly driving his own sword forward.

Roman let out a cry of pain as the blade pierced his abdomen, right below his belly button.

Roman bent over in agony and slumped to the floor as Preston removed the blade and held the now bloody sword in a threatening manner above Romans form.

Prestons eyes darted around to the others, a deranged half smile half sneer on his face as he said "Anyone makes a move and I'll make a mess."

There was a moment of tense silence as Preston made eye contact with the three still conscious people and then the temperature seemed to plummet as a wide unnerving grin spread across his face.

Preston crouched next to Roman, keeping one eye on the others as he grabbed the injured trait by the hair and forced his head back so he could hold the sword to his throat.

"for your little stunt you will die last, watching helplessly as I destroy your friends one by one."

Prestons harsh whisper made Roman flinch and if he could have he would have stood up or attempted to shove Preston away but the injury he'd sustained prevented him from being able to do so.

Preston stood up, a gleam in his eyes as he looked around for his next target. Eventually his eyes settled on Patton who was sitting over by a cluster of trees.

Without hesitation Preston stalked towards Patton who scrambled to get to his feet with wide eyes and a wince as he jolted his broken arm.

Before Preston could take more than two steps he sensed something being thrown at him and instinctively ducked, just in time to dodge the swing Virgil made at him.

In response Preston swung with the still bloody sword and grinned as he felt it connect.

Virgil let out a shriek of pain and backed away, a hand clutching one of his shoulders.

Preston barely spared Virgil a glance before continuing his path towards Patton who had just managed to get to his feet.

Wide eyed in fear Patton hurriedly tried to back away, stumbling slightly over a tree root.

Preston was about an arms length away when a voice suddenly shouted "Hey! Leave him alone!"

Preston paused and looked to the side to see Thomas glaring at him, a small dagger in one of his hands.

"Thomas! What are you doing?"

Suddenly there was a blur of movement as Virgil rushed forwards to try and pull Thomas away.

"Get off of me Virgil, I can't just watch as he hurts you all!" Thomas exclaimed, struggling as Virgil tugged him back a few steps.

While Preston was watching their interaction with an eyebrow raised in amusement Patton had remembered the dagger Roman had given him.

He quietly slipped it out of his pocket and collected himself with a few breaths before throwing it directly at Preston.

A whooshing sound caught Prestons attention and he turned just in time to see a dagger flying towards him.

His eyes widened in surprise as the dagger hit its mark and he took a step back from the force of the impact, a small gasp of pain leaving his lips.

He reached up to grab the handle of the dagger where it protruded from just underneath his right collarbone and pulled it out with a hiss, sending blood splattering to the ground.

"You really shouldn't have done that." he growled and quicker than anyone expected he lunged forwards with his sword and the dagger.

Patton didn't have time to dodge as the two blades were thrust towards him and he found his own dagger being embedded in his abdomen while the sword barely missed.

"No!" Thomas shouted and used all his strength to shove Virgil away from him.

Preston smirked as he twisted the dagger, relishing in the cry of pain that came from Pattons mouth as he pushed it deeper.

Thomas ran towards Preston, dagger in hand and his mind full of anger as he watched Patton crumple to the floor after Preston pulled the dagger out of his abdomen.

Prestons smug smirk disappeared as something sharp plunged into his side and he was tackled to the floor, landing heavily on the hard dirt.

Heavy blows suddenly began raining down on Preston who was too stunned to be able to do anything for a few seconds.

It was only when the weight was removed that he realised what had happened.

He sat up and looked at Thomas who was panting and red in the face, his fists clenched and covered in blood from where they'd impacted.

The expression on Thomas's face let Preston know that if Virgil wasn't holding him back he would still be laying into him.

Raising a hand to wipe some blood from his face Preston got to his feet, his eyes locked onto Thomas with an animalistic glint.

"What's wrong Tommy boy? Do I make you angry? Do I make you want to hurt and kill me?" Preston taunted.

Thomas let out a small growl as he strained against Virgils hold, just itching to hit Preston again to try and rid him of his smug superior attitude.

Virgil was using all his strength to hold Thomas back from Preston, already worried about how the brief amount of contact might have effected him.

He glanced around at the others, his worry mounting as he realised he was the only one standing and capable of fighting.

Roman was slumped against a tree, wounded and bleeding, Logan was unconscious on the floor from exhaustion and Patton was now on the floor in a slowly growing pool of blood.

Virgil was conflicted, he wanted to end Preston but he needed to keep Thomas safe which he couldn't do if he was fighting Preston.

Now fully understanding just how bad things were, Virgils anxiety began to grow as he struggled to think of a way to act that would help protect Thomas while also fighting Preston.

His increasing anxiety caused a familiar black smoke to begin forming, licking up his back and swirling around his legs.

The energy started to come from Virgils hands and Thomas suddenly let out a small cry as if he'd been burnt.

Virgils eyes widened in horror and he let go of Thomas immediately, alarmed that he'd hurt him.

Preston chuckled and turned back to Patton who was still on the floor, his chest rising and falling at a slightly unsteady rate as the pool of blood around him expanded.

Virgils panic increased as he noticed where Prestons attention was now focused and he shot a quick look at Thomas who was rubbing his arm.

He clenched his fists, grit his teeth and took a deep breath before launching himself at Preston in a last ditch effort to protect Thomas and the others.

Preston was once again tackled to the floor, this time by Virgil who's eyes were blazing with anger and determination.

Preston let out a growl as he fought back against the side on top of him, annoyed about not being able to finish at least one of the sides off for good yet.

Thomas watched from the sidelines as the two fought, a tangle of arms and legs as they growled and swore at each other.

He looked around and tried to figure out what the best thing for him to do was.

Both Roman and Patton were bleeding out and he couldn't see a way to heal them, it wasn't as if he had... Wait a second.

Thomas's eyes locked onto Logans unconscious form as the thought of healing powers crossed his mind.

He dashed forward and dropped to his knees next to the logical side, shaking him and patting him on the face to try and rouse him.

Preston managed to get a lucky hit on the shoulder he'd already struck with his sword, thus freeing himself from Virgil who recoiled in pain.

Preston made use of this and both his hands found Virgils throat, his thumbs digging into the anxious sides windpipe while he used his knees to keep Virgil from wriggling free.

Virgils hands scratched uselessly against the back of Prestons and his vision started to blur.

Preston shifted his knees and Virgil felt something solid pressing into his stomach where his pockets were.

Reaching a hand into the pocket his fingers closed around the knife he'd pocketed what seemed like forever ago.

His arms were growing heavier as lack of oxygen kicked in so it was with great difficulty that he steadied his hand and plunged the knife upwards.

Thomas gave up all attempts at being gentle as he started to panic slightly and slapped Logan across the face, successfully causing the sides eyes to shoot open.

"Thomas? What... What's going on?" Logan rasped, blinking blearily.

Before Thomas could respond there was a loud exclamation of shock and pain and as the two turned to look for the source they witnessed Preston falling backwards off of Virgil, a knife sticking out of his chest and a growing patch of crimson soaking into his shirt.

Virgil was gasping for breath and massaging his throat, his eyes locked onto Preston warily.

Preston knelt there looking down at the blade protruding from his chest, recognising it as one of his own.

"Naughty Virgil, has no one taught you it's wrong to take things that aren't yours?" he said while standing up, his voice sounding strained as a small trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

Virgil pushed himself to his feet, still trying to get his breath back but positioning himself into a protective stance in front of the others.

As the two stared each other down Thomas helped Logan over to Patton to try to at least staunch the bleeding and by 'helped' Thomas pretty much dragged the logical side across the clearing.

Neither Preston nor Virgil paid any mind to the movements of the others as they were too focused on each other, a knowing smirk on one face while the other was drawn into a scowl of hatred.

"You won't walk away from this. Even if you kill me, you can be damned fucking sure that I'll take you down with me." Virgil growled, his teeth clenched just as tightly as his hands which were shaking slightly.

Preston chuckled and coughed up a bit of blood. "You're determination and confidence is admirable but you're quite clearly ignorant of the situation you're in."

Virgil narrowed his eyes, not sure what he was referring to.

Preston looked down at the knife and laughed again before grabbing the handle with both hands and pulling it free, gasping and hissing in pain.

"What the...?" Virgil started but was cut off as the dagger was thrown at him and he had to dodge.

Preston laughed, blood bubbling up out of his mouth as the red began to spread across his front at a more rapid pace.

While the two had been focused on each other Logan had managed to stop Patton bleeding as heavily but due to his exhausted state he hadn't been able to heal up the wound completely, thus Thomas was told to keep pressure on it while Logan attempted to get to Roman.

Logan crawled as fast as he could over to Roman who's bleeding wasn't as heavy as Pattons but was still pretty bad and due to the placement of his wound he could hardly move without experiencing agonising pain.

Logan was starting to try and heal up Roman when the sound of a body hitting the dirt caught his attention.

Looking round he was stunned to see Preston on his hands and knees, blood splattering the dirt from where it leaked from his mouth and chest.

A small jolt of hope and relief hit him but was immediately squashed as Preston seemed to be laughing, almost as if he knew something they didn't.

Prestons laughter was getting louder, causing those present to shudder slightly but then it cut off as the blood now flowing from Preston mouth cut him off and it came out in gurgles.

An enormous grin curled across Prestons blood stained face but after a few seconds the blood was no longer there and Preston pushed himself up onto his knees, seemingly not affected by what had just happened.

"This was quite fun, playing all these games but now it's getting boring. It's becoming repetitive and predictable and I grow tired of it. You've had your fun, now it's my turn." Prestons eyes were pitch black and his voice came out in a deep growl.

Then in a split second his eyes were back to the same dark brown as before.

"No, I can do this, please I...." Preston seemed to be pleading but his sentence was cut off by a choking gasp as his skin began to break apart, the grey flakey texture meaning it fell off like pastry.

"Wait! No!" Preston yelled, his eyes wide in terror before a loud ear piercing shriek of agony burst from his mouth, echoing around the clearing and reverberating off the trees.

Virgil had fallen back in horror, his gaze fixated on where Preston was literally falling apart while his anxious energy began to grow at the thought of that possibly happening to him.

Logan and Roman exchanged worried looks and Logan once again began focusing on healing the creative side.

Thomas still had his hands over Pattons wound so when the screaming had began he had been unable to cover his ears like Patton had. Instead his face was scrunched up into a grimace and he was gritting his teeth as he tried to tune it out.

Prestons scream continued as the parts falling from his body began to get bigger so now whole chunks were just sloughing off like the most crumbly pastry ever.

Virgils heart was pounding as he watched, his energy swirling around him violently as he struggled to keep calm.

A massive chunk on Prestons face slid off and hit the floor, leaving a gaping crater where his jaw should be that more closely resembled a void of pitch black.

Cracks ran across the rest of Prestons face and as the remainder of it began to fall to the floor, the long agonised scream began to alter to an eerie howl.

Where the form of Preston had knelt there was now an abomination of nightmarish proportions, comprised of a shadowy substance that flickered like flames.

Virgil froze, his mind unable to properly comprehend what was before him.

The creature stopped it's howl and gazed down at Virgil with what could only be described as the equivalent of a grin on its wolfish face.

Logan just about managed to heal up the worst of Romans wound, both of them with the same horrified expression as they recognised the thing that had come from Preston.

Roman winced as he pushed himself to his feet, his abdomen protesting at the movement but he had other things to focus on.

Logan also stood up, his legs shaking as he tried to push his exhaustion away. He couldn't afford to pass out when this thing was present.

Virgil took a step back as the thing stepped forward, a growl rumbling from its large form.

For a split second everything seemed to stop and then just like the calm before a storm it all went to hell.

The creature swished its whip like tail and crouched ready to pounce, a loud growl coming from it.

Virgil quickly darted out of the way, mostly relying on instinct as he panicked about what was going on.

The shadowy form leaped forwards, teeth bared and claws ready to strike but it just missed

Roman began searching for his sword as quickly as he could manage while Logan stumbled over to Patton and Thomas who were both pale and shaking at the horror in front of them.

Without a word Logan started to once again try and heal Patton, hoping he could fully stop the wound bleeding before the monster noticed what an easy target the three of them were.

Virgil seemed to have noticed that at the same time the creature had because as it let out a small snort of amusement and began to prepare itself to pounce, Virgil unleashed his energy which knocked it slightly off balance.

It hadn't seemed to have done much but it did what he'd wanted and got its attention off of the three crouched.

The only issue now was that it was looking at him instead.

He quickly turned and darted towards the trees, just barely dodging a swipe from its enormous paw.

He probably would have kept running in attempt to buy time for the others to get their strength back but that didn't happen.

Instead a loud shout of "Hey! Fuck face! Didn't anyone tell you that the Prince always slays the monster?!" drew everyone's attention, including the creature who spun on the spot.

Roman had a cocky grin on his face that seemed tired and worn but nevertheless he stood there with his teeth and sword gleaming, challenging the creature to try and fight him.

The creature tilted its head as it considered him before a large chuckle like growl rumbled from its chest and it turned its full focus onto him.

Roman didn't dare take his eyes off it as he got into a prepared stance with his sword.

The creature launched itself at Roman who swiped with his sword half heartedly as he quickly stepped out of the way.

As he expected the blade passed  through harmlessly and panic started to grip him but he shoved it down.

He couldn't afford to panic now, he needed to think of something quickly to protect everyone.

The creature's lips were pulled up in a taunting grin as it turned to look at him and swiped a paw at Roman too fast for him to dodge.

He let out a grunt of pain as he was half thrown to the floor, blood starting to seep from the slash marks left by the creatures claws.

The creature seemed to deem him as not a threat as it turned once again to Thomas, Patton and Logan who had been slowly trying to sneak further back between the trees.

A burst of energy suddenly hit the creature and Virgils voice echoed through the clearing, deep and terrifying.

"Stay away from them!"

The creature let out a frustrated growl and shook off the energy that was curling around it, it's eyes locking onto where Virgil stood.

It snarled and quickly sprang towards him with its mouth open ready to tear into him.

Before it could make contact it came to a stop, it's jaws slamming shut on nothing and a slight surprised yelp coming from it.

Virgils eyes widened as he spotted Roman standing behind the creature, its long tail wound around his hands as he pulled it backwards.

The creatures momentary shock was swiftly replaced by a murderous rage and it spun quickly, attempting to get at Roman.

Roman darted out of the way, hands still on the tail, a grin on his face as the thing slightly reminded him of a dog trying to catch it's tail.

The creature swished it's tail and Roman braced himself as his feet left the ground.

Before the creature could react, Roman landed on it's back, immediately grabbing hold and kicking with his heels to try and hurt the thing.

The creature made a sharp barking sound as Romans heels connected and started shaking and bucking to try and get him off.

Roman grit his teeth, a determined expression on his face as he began pulling himself closer to the things head.

Virgil watched the two, momentarily frozen in place but jolted back to his senses and ran towards where Thomas and the others were.

Randomly, as Roman slowly scaled the creature, he was reminded of the scene in The Jungle Book where Baloo had hold of Shere Khans tail.

He shook his head at the bizarre thought and managed to get to the beasts shoulders just as it seemed to get an idea.

A snarl of annoyance was all the warning Roman got before the thing ran and jumped in an attempt to knock him off with low hanging tree branches.

Roman grit his teeth as he felt sharp branches and twigs jabbing into him but managed to hold on, slowly inching his way closer to it's neck.

A loud roar of frustration rumbled beneath Roman and he took a deep breath before lunging the rest of the way, his arms wrapping round the creatures thick neck.

It was like someone had turned the difficulty up on a mechanical bull, the shadowy form immediately began to shake and throw itself around, a constant stream of nightmarish noises emanating from its mouth.

Roman started squeezing his arms like he was giving the thing a bear hug, his legs barely able to maintain their grip.

The thing started to become more frantic in it's attempts to get rid of Roman, colliding with tree trunks and eventually slamming onto the floor in an attempt to get him to release the grip he had with his legs.

The creature was throwing him around like a rag doll but it also seemed to be slowly weakening as it's movements became more sluggish and the growls started to sound raspy and strangled from where Romans grip was still around its neck.

It huffed and snarled before slamming itself into the ground, making Roman cry out in pain as his leg impacted at full force with a startling cracking sound and the creatures weight pressing down on it.

Roman was now partially pinned by the creatures weight and he could feel his own strength beginning to fade as the pain from his various injuries started to make themselves known in earnest and it felt like someone was trying to rip him in half.

Maintaining the grip on the things neck became the only thing he could focus on, he didn't dare let his attention wander in case it was all the creature needed to escape his grasp and begin its rampage all over again.

He closed his eyes and screwed up his face in pure concentration as he kept his iron hold, ignoring the immense pain pulsing through his abdomen from where his previous wound had been torn wide open again and ignoring the small voice in the back of his mind that was telling him he probably wasn't going to make it.

He didn't care at the moment, he just needed to protect the ones he loved, his own fate be damned.

the shadowy horror let out a pained whine as it's breaths became more laboured and it's form seemed to flicker.

After a tense few moments it's struggles stilled and a loud rattling breath signalled they'd finally overcome the monster.

silence enveloped the clearing as the creatures body dissipated, leaving a small amount of ash behind and Roman who lay on his side, his breathing ragged and his white outfit stained various shades of red from his multitude of injuries.

"Roman!"

Virgil sprinted to Romans side, gently pulling him into his lap as he surveyed the damage with worry written across his face at the sight of what looked like fresh blood. "Hey, can you hear me? Roman?"

after a few gasping breaths Roman opened his eyes and a small half hearted grin came to his lips. "Hey beautiful, come here often?"

Virgil let out a hysterical laugh at the attempted joke, shaking his head. "Of course that's your first response after all this. right, I'm going to sit you up and then we're going to try and help you to your feet and..."

Virgils voice cut off as Roman shook his head, tears running down his cheeks.

"What? what is it?"

Roman closed his eyes at the worry and panic in Virgils voice, dreading what he knew he had to say.

"I'm sorry Virge, I should have listened to you earlier instead of worrying about doing the honourable thing. I guess it's only fitting that I pay the price for it as it was my own mistake..."

Virgils eyes widened in horror as he realised what Roman was angling at. "No, no no no no no, don't speak like that, everything's going to be fine, we'll get you healed and get you to a bed to rest and..."

Roman raised a hand and shakily cupped Virgils cheek with a sad smile. "We both know that's bullshit. you're never one to sugar coat stuff so please don't start now. I'm in a right state and it's miraculous I'm hanging on right now as it is. Take care of everyone for me..."

Virgil was full on crying now as he held Roman in a tight hug, battling the denial of what was going on.

"what's going on? He's speaking like he's saying goodbye."

Virgil sniffed and glanced to his side where Thomas had just knelt down.

"that's because I am. I'm sorry for all the stress and pain I ever caused any of you and I'm sorry for any I might cause by leaving but all that matters to me is that I saved you. As long as you're safe I don't care what happens to me."

"please don't go, I need you.." Virgil sobbed, ignoring the comforting hand Thomas had placed on his shoulder.

Roman looked up at virgil and gave him his best smile, despite the pain. "I love you Virgil. I have for a while and I always will. I wish we had more time together but as you yourself like to say, life's not fair. please take care of everyone for me, I'm going to miss you all so much."

Patton and Logan had managed to make their way to them now and Romans voice started to tremble.

"You guys are finally free of him, or it or whatever the fuck that thing was and I'm glad I was able to do this for you all before succumbing to this."

The four faces around him began to blur as Roman felt his strength leaving him and his eyelids began to flicker shut, his breathing stuttering out as he managed one final sentence.

"I'm sorry to put you through this again Virge... look after each other... please... for me..."

Romans form went limp in Virgils arms and the side in question let out a howl of anguish and despair as he lost yet another person he loved.

Thomas buried his face into Virgils shoulder while Logan and Patton held each other, each of them crying and mourning the loss of their brave friend.

After several moments Virgil let out a small whispered goodbye and the body began to fade, seeming to take part of him with it. With nothing to cling to he fell face first into the dirt and remained there while he sobbed.

Thomas glanced up at the other two and saw their matching grief stricken expressions, the very same one probably on his own face.

"w... we need to t... try and fix things."

The stuttered sentence was enough to spark some sort of response from Virgil who pushed himself up from the floor and glared, his face caked in mud and tears.

"There is no fixing this." He growled through gritted teeth and his energy whirled around him violently until he was blocked from view and then it dissipated leaving the spot he had been completely empty.

An awkward tense silence fell as the three exchanged looks of worry and uncertainty. There was no telling how things would go now. There was definitely no way they'd ever get things back to how they were, the best they could do now would be to just survive and endure it a day at a time.

Authors note: And so ends the story of how Thomas and the sides battled to escape The Grip Of Depression also known as Preston. I'm sure there will be many people who aren't happy about how it ended and all I'll say to that is...watch this space ;)

Wow, this was one hell of a chapter to write and I sure took my sweet ass time huh? it's literally taken me years to finish this but I did it and I'm actually proud of myself because I managed to actually see a project through to completion. Thank you to everyone who's left comments, whether they were one word reactions to something I'd written or full on rants, I'm grateful to every one of you as motivation has been a big issue and the comments helped me push through. I would also like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this, no matter if you interacted or not, I appreciate you all, thank you for joining me through the ups and (considerably large number) downs of this story.

🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💕💖

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

Is this fic abandoned?

No, I'm just taking ages to write the final chapter due to mental health related issues and other stuff. It will be updated eventually.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

um so are you still writing the final part? just curious cause its been over a month.. i love the story btw :)

Yes, it will likely take me a while as my own mental health has taken a massive dive so writing has become more difficult but I will try to finish the final chapter as quickly as I can.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

Do you plan on somehow finding a way to bring Luni, Unwin and Jacob back? Considering they are in Thomas's head? So basic rules don't apply to them?

Well I am still midway through writing the final chapter and that is something that's crossed my mind along with a number of other things. I also accidentally got very attached to them so bringing them back is definitely a big temptation :P it depends how things go but I'm not completely ruling it out.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

When are we gonna get the next chapter I'm dying to know what happens!!!!!1!11!!!!1 Btw I love this fic it's amazing!

The next chapter will take me a while to complete and I'm half way through writing it and it's quite emotionally draining as this will be the final part of the story.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

For anyone wandering what the 'shadowy nightmare creature' thing looks like, this is what I was envisioning (it's didn't quite come out how I wanted it but it's a rough image of what it looks like)

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 46: The Birth Of A Monster

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: Mentions of blood, violence, abuse, bullying, character death, homophobia, suicide, panic attacks, self harm

Screams.

That's all Logan could hear in the blurry void around him.

He was confused. He thought he'd used his ability to get into Prestons mind but as he looked around he couldn't see anything that he usually saw in a person's mind.

He cautiously ventured towards the screams as there seemed to be nothing else to do and found himself in front of a large grey wall that was covered in cracks and had a couple of holes in it.

He peered through one of the holes and saw a figure on the ground clutching their head. This was where the screaming was coming from.

Logan hesitantly reached a hand out and pressed it against the wall which shuddered before crumbling to dust.

When the dust cleared Logan found himself staring down at someone who could have been a teenage Preston but before he could get closer an enormous roar came from somewhere and the persons screams suddenly stopped.

Scanning the surrounding area with wide eyes Logan wondered what had made that sound but brushed it off in favour of approaching the person on the floor.

As Logans hand made contact with the persons shoulder they looked up, their dark brown eyes full of fear and worry.

Then Logan felt the familiar sensation of falling into a memory.

He looked around and noticed he was in a mindspace. His eyes locked onto the person he'd just seen, who was sitting on a couch with three others who looked almost the same as him but with different clothes and style.

"Are you sure he's going to be OK if we're not watching what he's doing?" one of them asked, wringing their hands in a nervous way.

"He'll be fine Liam and we have alarms set up just in case. Just relax a little." One of the others who appeared to be wearing some sort of school uniform had placed a comforting hand on the worried ones arm.

Liam sighed "I'm sorry, it's just after what happened last time it's difficult to stop myself from wanting to keep watch over him all the time."

The one in uniform smiled and placed a peck on Liams cheek. "There's no need to apologise."

"Get a room you two." The one Logan had assumed was Preston suddenly said, a smirk on his face.

Liam rolled his eyes and stuck his middle finger up at him while the one in uniform groaned "Shut the fuck up Cayden."

"Liam! Hugh! There is no need for that sort of language." scolded the one who'd been quiet this entire time in a stern voice which he ruined slightly by giggling.

Logans eyes widened as he realised these must be Tristans sides.

He focused back on the scene in front of him as the giggling trait turned to Preston.

"They're so adorable!"

Preston grinned "Yep! Adorable, soft little lovebirds."

"ugh! Paxton how many times do I have to tell you? I am not adorable! And Cayden I swear to god I will burn all your posters if you don't stop encouraging him." Liam said, sending a mild glare at Cayden.

Caydens eyes widened and he fell silent which made Hugh chuckle slightly. "Not so brave now are you Cay? Imagine being scared of Liam."

Liam raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend "Excuse me?"

Hugh cleared his throat and smiled at him "I meant... Uh... I love you?"

Liam snorted and muttered "Good save."

Logan felt awkward and a little sad watching all this because he knew that this happy little moment was rare and something bad had obviously happened to make Cayden become Preston.

Sure enough, as the traits focused back on the TV where they'd been watching something, a loud alarm started ringing and Liam immediately jumped to his feet.

"Paxton get to the emotion room just in case, Hugh and Cayden come with me." he said and sunk down, presumably to the real world.

As Cayden followed Logan found himself in a basic looking bedroom that had seen better days.

The walls were faded, the floor wasn't carpeted, there was a single small window that looked out at a tree and the bed appeared to be poorly repaired.

The thing that drew Logans attention the most was a figure crouched on the floor shaking.

Liam dashed forward and sat in front of the teen, worry in his voice as he spoke.

"Tristan? Can you hear me? It's Liam."

"I... I can hear you." came the smallest of whispers and Liam let out a small sigh of relief.

"What you need to do is get into bed and pretend to be asleep. It's almost time for Him to get home and you know what he's like."

Cayden suddenly crouched next to Liam and attempted to put a hand on Tristans shoulder only for it to phase through him.

Logans eyes widened in shock. Surely as a teenager Tristan should have been able to make physical contact with his traits? Unless there was some odd reason why he couldn't.

Cayden had a sad expression on his face as he watched his hand phase through Tristans shoulder but shook it off with a smile. "Listen, get into bed, shut your eyes and let me show you all the wonderful things you can do in the future. You'll be able to get far away from here to somewhere safe, with people who'll care about you and..."

There was a loud bang from elsewhere in the house and all the people in the room jumped, including Logan.

A loud thumping that sounded like feet stomping up the stairs followed and Tristan quickly dived into his bed while his traits whispered to him.

"Even out your breathing, that's it, now add a bit of a slight snore sound so he thinks you're asleep." Cayden whispered in a calm voice, his eyes wide with fear as they locked onto the bedroom door where the handle was starting to turn.

Logan backed away, even though he couldn't be hurt as it was only a memory.

The door burst open to reveal a tall angry looking man with cold dark eyes that reminded Logan of present day Preston.

He stalked into the room, glaring down at the seemingly asleep Tristan.

Hugh was whispering quickly, helping Liam to convince Tristan to keep up the act that Cayden was helping him with.

"If you're asleep he can't hurt you. You've done nothing wrong. He can't punish you for being awake if you keep this up. You'll be fine." Hugh was saying.

Logan watched hoping that Hughs logic held up but as the man reached a hand out and grabbed Tristan by the arm he knew that poor Tristan wasn't going to be left alone.

"Wake up you little freak!" the man growled harshly tugging the boy out of the bed so he landed on the wooden floor with a loud thud.

"No! This isn't supposed to be happening! Logically he should have just walked back out!" Hugh exclaimed, looking angry and upset.

Liam shook his head "He's been drinking. There's nothing we can do if he's been drinking, no way to placate him."

The man was staring down at the boy on the floor with a nasty grin and glazed eyes from where he'd been drinking. "I heard some rumours while I was at the bar. Very interesting ones about you."

Tristans eyes were wide in confusion and fear and Liam whispered "Don't say anything. If you speak he'll get pissed off and lash out, remain silent and wait for him to explain."

"Apparently one of the men there has a son in your class at school who's told his father a lot of things involving you. This boy, this Striker kid, has apparently been getting into quite a lot of trouble for 'picking on' you." the man said, his grin still in place.

Tristan seemed about to open his mouth to defend himself but Liam quickly interjected. "Tristan! No! Don't say a word! He's trying to get you to say something so he has an excuse to hurt you!"

Tristan stayed quiet, looking up at the man, waiting for him to continue.

"Apparently this boy seems to be under the impression he's noticed you staring at someone in your class with an odd little smile on your face." the man continued, his nasty grin becoming a sneer.

"Oh shit." Cayden whispered with wide eyes as Liam gasped and Hugh spluttered in disbelief.

"Apparently this someone is another boy." the man snarled, making Tristan flinch.

Logan could feel his own heart pounding in fear for the boy in front of him. This was a bad situation.

"what have you got to say for yourself?" the man roared and Tristan had tears in his eyes.

"Don't.... Don't say anything...." Liam said, his voice coming out almost too quiet to be heard as he started gasping for breath. "it's... A... Trick question."

Tristan was going to listen but the man before him snarled "Answer me boy!"

"I.... I...." Tristan stuttered in terror.

Liam had fallen to the floor, trying to shout but nothing was coming from his lips as he tried to tell Tristan to remain silent.

Hugh and Cayden were both almost in tears as they tried to help Liam up but their hands phased through him.

"spit it out boy!" the man shouted, looming over Tristan with his fists clenched.

"It's not something he can control! He can't help who he falls for!" Cayden cried out, tears slipping down his face.

"I... Can't help it." Tristan whispered and Caydens face filled with horror. He hadn't meant for Tristan to say that.

"You unnatural little freak! You tarnish this house and family with your filth! I've been lenient with you so far, perhaps it's time I show you the real meaning of pain!" the man roared, flecks of spit flying everywhere.

Logan let out a cry as the man suddenly kicked a leg out and caught Tristan in the face.

All three of the traits that were present let out loud screams and clutched their faces, Caydens being the loudest as he also represented the ego.

Tristan fell back with a shriek, hands over his now bloody face as his entire body shook. A foot suddenly stamped down on his stomach, knocking all the air out of him and making him gasp desperately.

Logan turned away, unable to watch as the man, who was presumably Tristans father, savagely beat him. It reminded him too much of Preston and he shook his head in disgust as he realised this was where he probably learnt it from.

The scene suddenly changed and Logan reasoned it was because he was in a different memory.

Looking around he recognised it as a school and he noticed Tristan standing by a classroom door which was cracked open slightly.

Tristans face seemed to be heavily covered in foundation to conceal bruises and it was probably only because no one wanted to notice that Tristan hadn't been asked what happened.

Logan approached the door and his eyes widened as he heard a familiar voice singing the song Reflection from the Disney film Mulan.

He looked through the crack and, sure enough, there sat Thomas sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair and singing to himself.

He glanced over at Tristan and noticed him mouthing the words along with Thomas, a soft smile on his face.

Behind Tristan stood Cayden who had his eyes shut and a small smile on his face as he also sang along, slightly louder than Tristan in a voice that caught Logan by surprise.

As the song drew to an end Tristan slowly slipped away from the door and into a bathroom where he looked in the mirror and sighed.

"This is getting kind of ridiculous now and I wish I could do as you say and just walk in and tell him how amazing he sounds but... I don't want him to suffer through what I do. He's so sweet and kind, I'd end up causing him too much pain." Tristan said in a sad voice.

Logan winced at his last statement because he unknowingly had. At least Preston had anyway.

"I guess but that still doesn't mean you can't talk to him once in a while. Say hello in the corridors and smile at him whenever he looks your way. It doesn't have to be something grand or elaborate if you don't feel up to it." Cayden said encouragingly.

Suddenly the door banged open and Logan recognised the boy who walked in as Huxley Striker. He watched as Tristan started shaking and tried to blend in with the wall.

Cayden was glaring at Huxley furiously and muttering under his breath "It's all his fault! If I could run him through with my sword I would and then maybe we'd be free from pain at school."

Huxley walked right past where Tristan was, not noticing him, so Tristan made a mad dash towards the door.

"Was that a little mouse I just saw?" Huxley suddenly said, and Tristan moved quicker, running towards the classroom he'd just been peering into.

He darted in and collided with a desk in his haste to get away from Huxley.

He didn't even glance at whoever was sat there as he ran to the back of the classroom in terror, desperately wishing he could make himself invisible.

"aw, did the ickle mouse try and find a nice safe hole to hide in?" mocked Huxley as he walked into the classroom.

Logans eyes widened as he remembered how this scenario went. He had seen this exact memory from Thomas's perspective.

As he glanced over at Thomas he could see him sneaking glances over at where Huxley had cornered Tristan.

"Hey freak, running away from me was a big mistake." Huxley said, grabbing Tristan by the shirt. "Do I have to give you another reminder of why you should listen to your superiors?"

Logan watched as Cayden let out a low angry growl and suddenly Liam appeared.

"Cayden, no! You know we can't! Paxton is trying his best to keep Tristan from crying right now as it is. We'll just have to let this happen."

Caydens angry face fell as he let out a sigh "One of these days they'll get what they deserve."

As Huxley swung his fist towards Tristans face, both Liam and Cayden closed their eyes, bracing themselves for the pain but it never came.

"Mr Striker!" a teacher shouted from the doorway. "Come with me, this will be the third time this week I've had to tell you about leaving Mr Mallory alone, I'm taking you to the principals office."

Cayden and Liam let out sighs of relief at Tristan getting away without injury and Cayden muttered "That's what I call payback you little shit for brains."

Liam smirked at that and was about to say something when suddenly Tristan was approached by Thomas.

"Oh my god." Cayden breathed, his eyes wide while Liam had his mouth open in shock.

"Tristan, right?" Thomas asked "My name's Thomas. I saw what happened and if the teacher hadn't come in I would have done something to help."

Tristan opened his eyes from where he'd braced himself for Huxleys fist and heard Cayden and Liam voices encouraging him to speak to Thomas.

"D.... Don't worry a... About me. I.... I can handle it." Tristan stuttered out in barely a whisper.

"Yes! Well done Tristan! Maybe not the best choice of words but you actually spoke to him! I'm going to scream." Cayden said rapidly, clapping his hands in excitement.

"Cayden! Calm the fuck down." Liam said, placing a hand on the creative traits shoulder to stop him bouncing.

Logan found it strange watching this memory from a different point of view and had to keep reminding himself that it was Caydens/Prestons memory.

"Wow, you can talk? I mean, I heard people say you were mute and so I thought they were right because you never seem to say anything and oh no I'm rambling, sorry." Thomas said and put a hand over his face.

"Tristan! Please, you have to keep talking to him! Look he's worried about embarrassing himself in front of you!" Cayden practically squealed before Liam physically put a hand over his mouth.

"calm down or you can go back to the mindspace. The last thing we need right now is you getting over excited and making Tristan cause a scene. Leave this to me."

Tristan had a faint smile on his face as he listened to his traits argue and took in the sight of Thomas trying to hide behind his hand.

"Like I said, don't worry about it. I can handle myself." Tristan replied, still barely above a whisper but loud enough for Thomas to hear.

Thomas pulled his hand away from his face and opened his mouth to say something but suddenly the teacher walked back in.

"Mr Mallory, your father is waiting for you in the reception, he seemed to be in a hurry so let's not keep him waiting."

"For fuck sake! We were doing so well!" Cayden exclaimed as Thomas walked back over to his desk and Tristan began to follow hesitantly after the teacher.

Liam had a frown on his face as he started thinking out loud. "Why is He picking Tristan up so early? This is completely out of the blue. What sort of thing required him to pick Tristan up? Some sort of appointment maybe? Or a family emergency? Or it could just be an excuse for him to have access to Tristan to take his anger out on and he's given the school some bullshit excuse about an appointment and really he's just going to take him home and lash out and then...."

Logan had witnessed Virgil having panic attacks often enough to recognise Liam was on the edge of having one himself.

Hugh suddenly popped up in front of Liam and said "Liam, it's me. Focus on me and my voice OK? You're close to having a panic attack and I need you to copy my breathing. Everything you said is irrelevant in this moment and all that matters as of now is that you breathe."

Liam fell silent as he matched his breathing with Hughs and after a short while he pulled him in for a hug.

"Thanks Hughie, you're a lifesaver." He muttered.

Hugh went slightly red at the nickname but replied in a calm voice "No need to thank me, you'd do the same if our positions were reversed."

Logan felt a small smile make its way onto his face before it immediately disappeared as he reminded himself that things had obviously gone badly.

Tristan came to a stop in what appeared to be the main office and gulped slightly at the sight of his father waiting for him.

"Walk towards him slowly and try not to flinch or he'll get pissed off and accuse you of trying to snitch." Liam said, standing next to Tristan now with a hand hovering over his shoulder as if he were too scared to try and make contact in case he just phased through again.

"Come along Tristan, we have a special appointment to get to and we don't want to be late do we?" Tristans father asked in what probably sounded like a pleasant voice but the glint in his eye promised violence and made Logan shudder.

Tristan followed after his father in silence, not once asking what the appointment was for because of Liam constantly telling him to stay silent.

As they climbed into the car Tristans father turned to him with a sneer. "This appointment we're going to is a friend of mine from school who's become a doctor. He's going to see what he can do about you and your disgusting obsession with other boys."

Liam inhaled sharply but continued to tell Tristan to stay quiet while Hugh told Cayden to go back to the mindspace.

Logan was caught off guard as the scene changed and he found himself in a different memory.

Tristan was standing in the bathroom at school looking at his reflection with tears in his eyes. Cayden and Liam stood either side of him and Logan was horrified at how he could actually see through them slightly.

"Please Tristan, you just need to focus back on the school work. Good grades are our ticket out of this hell. If you've got good grades you can get a good job and get out of His house and finally be free." Cayden said in a soft voice as Liam sighed sadly.

Tristan closed his eyes and whispered "That's so far away though. I'm not sure if I can make it through however many years of this. Everything seems to get worse."

Liam spoke up, his voice almost too quiet to hear. "You can do it. Don't do something you'll regret."

Tristan opened his eyes again, tears spilling down his face and choked out "That's the thing. I don't think I'd regret it at all."

Cayden sniffed, tears also running down his face as he wobbled slightly. "Liam... I... I'm trying to bring up the image of the future he has to look forward to but.... I can't. I think I'm.... I'm..."

Liam had a look of alarm on his face and he called for the others.

Hugh appeared immediately and Paxton was a few seconds later, his puffy eyes showing he'd been crying.

"You two keep an eye on Tristan, I need to get Cayden back to the mindspace before he collapses. He's used too much energy today without enough rest and he's starting to sway."

Paxton gasped and pulled Cayden into a hug before letting go with a mumbled "I told you, you should listen to me next time I tell you to get some rest."

"I'll be... Fine..." Cayden muttered, his eyelids fluttering shut slightly.

Liam rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of Caydens arm before sinking back down to the mindspace.

Logan watched as Liam helped Cayden lay down on the couch and covered him with a blanket.

"Thanks Liam. You're.... A good friend." Cayden managed to get out before falling unconscious and the scene changed again.

Cayden was holding a sobbing Paxton while Hugh and Liam had a hushed discussion in the corner.

"he.... He just ignored me completely. I feel......so useless." Paxton mumbled and Cayden rubbed his hand up and down his back.

"Hey, you're not useless. This isn't your fault, if anyone is to blame it's that disgusting man who Tristan is unfortunate enough to share DNA with."

Logan stepped away and tried to listen to what Hugh and Liam were saying but he could just hear the buzz of their voices and reasoned that as it was Caydens/Prestons memory and he couldn't hear them then that made sense.

"But.... I could have stopped him! I should have been able to stop him!" Paxton exclaimed and Cayden pulled back to look Paxton in the eyes.

"Look at me when I say this so you know I'm telling the truth. You're not to blame for anything. We knew things were getting worse and he was bound to start ignoring us, you were just unlucky enough to be the first to experience it."

Paxton looked down sadly as he whispered "I can't help but feel I've let you all down. Especially you Cay. You always manage to get Tristan through stuff like this."

Cayden managed to put a small smile on his face as he said "You've never let me down and you never could. You're my best friend and nothing will ever stop me loving you."

Paxton managed a watery smile at that and hugged Cayden tightly "Thanks, you always know what to say to make me feel better."

Liam and Hugh walked over to where the two were hugging and Hugh said "Tristan stopped eventually after I managed to get through to him by shouting for a few minutes. There's no major damage done and he didn't go particularly deep but we'll need to keep an eye out for any more behaviour that could key us in to if he's going to do it again."

The scene changed and Logan found himself in an imagination forest that seemed smaller than the one he was used to. In a clearing he could see Cayden practising with his sword.

A familiar voice from somewhere nearby suddenly made Cayden stop.

"Cayden! Are you in here?"

"Paxton, what brings you in here?" Cayden asked.

Paxton let out a small sigh. "Tristan is ignoring me again and I can't find Liam anywhere."

Cayden sheathed his sword and walked closer to Paxton. "Do you want me to help you look?"

Paxton nodded. "I thought maybe he'd be watching you practice because he doesn't seem to be anywhere in the main mindspace."

Cayden frowned at that. "That's unlike him. He rarely ventures too far because he knows how much we rely on him to get through to Tristan."

Logan looked between the two, wondering where this was going.

Paxtons expression was worried as they walked through the trees and Cayden grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.

"Don't worry, we'll find him. Just take a few deep breaths and calm down." Caydens voice was soft and comforting as he pulled Paxton in for a hug.

Paxtons face brightened up as he smiled at him. "Thanks Cayden, you always know what to say."

Cayden smiled back and the two continued their journey out of the imagination forest.

They were walking towards the main mindspace when Cayden froze and turned to look behind him.

"What's wrong?" Paxton asked, having turned around to see why he'd stopped.

"I thought I heard something." Cayden murmured, his eyes scanning the mist warily.

Logans eyes looked over to the mist worriedly, wondering if there was something hiding in it but was forced to keep walking as Cayden seemed to brush it off as nothing.

As Logan followed the two traits into the mindspace, Hugh appeared in front of them looking exhausted.

"I can't convince Tristan to do his work, he's too busy staring into space and we don't need another repeat of last week. I need Liam to help convince him."

"Uh, about that..." Paxton said, trying to keep his voice level.

The uniformed trait looked from him to Cayden and took in their worried expressions. "What? What is it? Where's Liam?" he demanded.

"We can't find him. Paxton looked everywhere in the main mindspace but..." Cayden tried to explain but he was shoved aside by the suddenly frantic trait.

"Somethings happened to him. He would never leave the main mindspace."

"Hugh, calm down." Paxton tried to say but Hugh let out a small growl "You don't get to tell me to calm down! Liam is missing and here you are having a lovely conversation with Cayden. Either help me look for him or stay out of my way!"

Hugh stormed off leaving Paxton speechless and Cayden shaking his head.

Logans mouth was dry as he realised this might be the start of what had turned Cayden into Preston and he was both scared and intrigued to see what happened next.

"I.... I didn't mean to..." Paxton said in a quiet voice and Cayden sighed. "Don't blame yourself, he's just concerned for the person he loves. You know how protective of him he is. Once we find Liam he'll be fine."

Paxton shrugged "I guess. We should probably keep looking. The sooner we find Liam the sooner we can stop Tristan getting hurt again."

Cayden frowned. "Hey Paxton, has Liam ever mentioned the secondary traits?" he asked and received a negative answer.

"Why do you ask?"

Cayden started to walk back out of the main mind space. "What if he went to visit them? For all we know he could be friends with one of them."

Paxton was jogging to keep up with his pace and as they walked into the imagination forest, the air felt heavy.

"Somethings not right." Cayden whispered drawing his sword and looking around cautiously. "Stay close Pax, just in case."

Pax grabbed a hold of Caydens shirt, fear clear on his face as they walked deeper into the forest.

Logan was glad it was just a memory as the forest was completely devoid of any sounds and it seemed to be getting darker.

When they exited the imagination forest on the other side they let out small sighs of relief and continued towards a large grey door that lead to the area of the mind where the secondary traits lived.

They got to the door and Cayden, who had put his sword back away, was about to open it when a voice shouted.

"Cayden! Hugh! Paxton! Help me!"

Paxtons eyes were wide as he also heard the familiar shout.

The two of them immediately sprinted towards the sound of the voice, not hesitating as they ran through the misty no man's land which Logan reluctantly followed them into.

They came to a stop as they heard Liam voice from the opposite direction than they were running and before they could head towards it his voice came from somewhere else as well.

Cayden closed his eyes and the mist started to dissipate so Logan could see in every direction with no trouble.

Liam was nowhere to be found which meant that they were being tricked.

Suddenly there was an earth shattering scream from the other side of the forest and Preston wasted no time in running towards it, Paxton not far behind.

Logan struggled to keep up with them but he somehow managed to and if it hadn't been a memory he would have collided with Cayden who had skidded to a stop.

Logan stepped forward and froze, his stomach churning unpleasantly at the unexpected scene in front of him.

Hugh was the one screaming and the reason for that was Liam.

The ground was streaked with blood and Logan had to look away as he noticed clumps of flesh and gore scattered around as if the trait had been ripped apart by some sort of animal.

The only non mangled part of Liam was his face which wasn't comforting at all because it probably meant the culprit wanted the body to be identifiable.

Hugh had fallen to his knees his face streaked with tears as he continued to scream, letting out all his horror and anger.

Paxton was vomiting and crying while Cayden appeared to have frozen, his dark brown eyes locked on to the red mess in front of him.

Logan felt his stomach jolt uncomfortably and had to stop himself from vomiting as his eyes passed over the scene again.

His eyes locked onto Hugh and he felt tears of his own roll down his face. He'd tried not to get too attached to the traits in front of him because he knew they'd all die in the end but he couldn't help himself.

The scene vanished and Logan wiped his eyes as he found himself in Tristans room again where he spotted Cayden and Paxton trying to frantically get through to Tristan who was staring into space completely ignoring them.

"I... I think we need Hugh." Paxton said tearfully and Cayden closed his eyes as he said "You're right, but he's not responded to us for the last week since.... It happened."

Logan winced as he recognised what was happening. It was similar to when Virgil had been in a coma and Thomas had only seemed to acknowledge him and not the other two.

It was apparent that Tristan was suffering from the lack of Liam who Logan assumed embodied the fight or flight reflexes and helped him stay cautious and aware of his surroundings.Hugh was clearly the logical trait and probably the only other person Tristan would listen too now Liam was gone.

"We could always try and get through to him." Paxton suggested in a quiet voice.

Cayden sighed "I don't think...." he stopped part way through his sentence as the all too familiar sound of the front door slamming reached his ears.

"OK fine, let's go find him, but we'll have to be quick." Cayden said and the two sunk down to the mindspace.

Logan found himself following Cayden through the corridors, peeking into each room just in case Hugh was in there.

"Cayden! Help! Hugh locked himself in the emotions room!" Paxton shouted and Cayden quickly dashed towards where he heard him.

"He stole the key to the emotion room and locked himself in! We need to get him out before...."

Paxtons words were cut off by a loud boom as the whole mind space shook and the lights flickered.

"Oh no. Not again." Paxton exclaimed holding his hands over his head.

"It's alright, I've got you, everything is going to be OK. You can do this." Cayden said in a gentle voice, pulling the shaking trait into his arms and hugging him tightly.

"I..... I just don't understand.... Even after all these years.... Why do they do this to him? They're supposed to love him!" Paxton sobbed and Cayden had tears of his own running down his face as the mindspace shook again.

"I don't know but one day he'll be free of them. One day all this will just be a bad memory that we can look back at and smile about how far we've come. This won't last forever, I promise."

Paxton sobbed into Caydens shoulder as Caydens words flowed through him and as the mindspace shook again he murmured "I hope you're right."

Logan felt himself tearing up and wiped his face, sniffing a little.

Eventually the mindspace stopped shaking and the two traits crept over to the emotion room where Hugh had locked himself in.

"Hugh? Please come out. We need you. You're our last hope to get through to Tristan." Cayden said, knocking on the door.

There was no response.

Paxton tried instead "We know exactly what you're going through, it's difficult for all of us but we need to stick together. Now more than ever. Please come out, I.... I miss him too."

Paxton let out a small choked sob towards the end and sniffed, trying to wipe away all the tears that kept flowing from his eyes.

There was still no response.

Logan looked at the door with a small shudder as he remembered how many things had happened with the emotion room in Thomas's mind.

Cayden was getting slightly impatient and knocked on the door harder "Hugh! Come on out! We can't do this on our own."

Yet again, no response.

Cayden let out a small noise of frustration while Paxton approached the door again. Paxton suddenly froze as he put a hand on the door and turned his fear filled eyes to Cayden.

"There's something wrong. I can't describe it. There's a weird sensation from behind this door."

The worry and slight panic in Paxtons voice seemed to be enough for Cayden as he suddenly launched a hard kick at the door which broke the lock and made it swing open to reveal the pitch black emotion room.

"Hugh?" Paxton asked timidly as he peered into the darkness.

As soon as Paxtons foot was across the threshold of the door, the lights flickered on and a loud scream burst from his mouth and echoed around the room.

Hugh was laying on the floor surrounded by blood with a bloody knife in one of his hands and scrawled across the floor in his blood were the words "I give up. I'm sorry."

"No! This can't be happening! First Liam now Hugh?" Paxton exclaimed, sinking to his knees in despair.

Logan stared into the room with wide horrified eyes. When he heard that Hugh had given up he didn't realise it meant like this. He thought he'd given up by convincing Tristan to walk out in front of a car, not carving open both his wrists, writing an apology in blood and then slitting his own throat.

Cayden pulled Paxton out of the room and slammed it shut again, his entire body shaking at seeing another of his friends like that.

"W.... We can't... We can't do this without him. Without Liam. We're.... We're done for!" Cayden shrieked hysterically.

Paxton and him were both sobbing and Logan felt his own eyes welling up as he witnessed their breakdowns.

After a while Paxton stopped crying and got to his feet, wiping his face. He walked over to Cayden and hugged him tightly with a murmured "We should check on Tristan."

Cayden shook his head "We can't do this on our..... Own."

Paxton shut his eyes and took a deep breath to try and stop himself crying again. "We have to at least try! We can't just.... Give up."

Cayden let out a hysterical laugh, tears rolling down his face "Why not? It's what Hugh did!"

Paxton sniffed and pulled back so he was looking Cayden in the eye. "I'm sorry about this but you need to snap out of it."

Before Cayden could ask what he was on about Paxtons hand made contact with his cheek with a loud smack.

Cayden froze for a second, slowly raising a hand to his cheek where he felt the hot stinging sensation from where he'd been slapped.

"Now will you come help me check on Tristan?" Paxton asked in a timid voice.

Cayden nodded and took a deep breath as he stood up "I'm... I'm sorry. I... I.... Let's just go check on him."

The two joined hands and sunk down to visit Tristan.

Logan looked around and was surprised not to see Tristans room, instead he could see what appeared to be a park with a large open expanse of grass and trees.

Tristan was sitting leaning against a tree in a tucked away corner of the park where there was no one around to notice his state.

He was cradling one of his arms which was at an odd angle and there was blood all over his face and clothes.

Logan inhaled sharply as he noticed the huge tear in one of the legs of Tristans trousers. He could make out the words freak, dirty and worthless carved into Tristans thigh and was once again reminded that Preston clearly took notes on the best ways to hurt people.

"Tristan? Can you hear me?" Cayden asked hesitantly, a glimmer of hope in his eyes as Tristan turned his head in his direction.

"Is life really worth living like this?" Tristans voice was scratchy and hoarse from where he'd obviously been screaming.

"Things will..." Paxton started but Tristan cut him off.

"Don't.... Don't bullshit me. Is there anything in this world that's really worth having to suffer like this? I've been told by you so many times that 'Things will get better' or 'Just focus on the future' but.... Things just keep getting worse. There's nothing.... Absolutely nothing that I want more right now than for everything to end. All the taunts. All the injuries. All the.... All the pain. Just everything. It hurts to breathe, to even exist, and.... I can't help but think... What if all that could just... Disappear. What if I could just fall asleep and never wake up? It'd be so peaceful. So painless. I'm.... I'm not sure why I'm holding on anymore."

There was silence after Tristan had spoken as Paxton and Cayden struggled through their own pain and grief.

"What about.... T...Thomas Sanders? He... He's... Isn't he... Isn't his singing worth getting through today? If... If you ended it today you'd never hear his voice again...." Cayden managed to get out, his voice shaky as he struggled to find the right words.

Logan could see where this was going and felt tears roll down his face for what was probably the hundredth time. It was painfully obvious that Tristan had already made up his mind and no matter what Paxton and Cayden said he wasn't going to listen.

Tristan looked at Cayden with a distant look in his eye. "Thomas... He's nice and friendly but... He's just not worth going through so much pain for. If... If I knew him better... Maybe if I'd listened to you and.... Told him I liked his singing... Asked to be his friend even..... But.... He's still just another face.... Another face among thousands who will never know or care. Every time this happens.... Every beating.... I both hope and dread it being my last. If.... If I kill myself.... I at least get to go on my own terms."

Cayden and Paxton exchanged looks of fear but before either of them could respond they popped back in the mindspace.

"What? What just happened?" Cayden asked and Paxton tried to sink back down to see Tristan but nothing happened.

"I.... I think something is preventing us from getting through to him, like all the other times." Paxton said in a small voice.

Cayden let out a gasp as he pointed a shaking finger down the hall where large scratches and marks were gouged into the walls and floor. "Where did they come from?"

Paxton approached one of the walls and recoiled at the horrible feeling he got. "It was caused by whatever has been keeping us from communicating with Tristan."

Cayden gulped and muttered "Where did it go?"

Paxton started walking down the hall, followed by Cayden who'd drawn his sword.

Logan walked after them, his eyes taking in the marks on the walls as he passed. He couldn't think of anyway they could have been caused.

They came to a stop and Logan noticed the ominous black cloud hanging over the imagination forest.

"Whatever it is, is in the forest. The least we can do is try to get rid of it." Cayden murmured, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his blade.

Paxton nodded and started walking into the mist which had spread so it surrounded the entire forest rather than either side.

Cayden jogged to keep up with him, his eyes darting around warily as he tried to keep track of where Paxton was.

Suddenly a loud growl came from somewhere in the mist and Cayden froze, turning to look around him with his sword held up defensively.

"Cayden? I can make out the trees! Quick follow my voice!" Paxtons voice came from further ahead and Cayden broke into a run.

There was another growl, this time closer and Logan made a small yelp of fear as he thought he saw something dart through the mist.

"C'mon, you can do it!" Paxton shouted.

Cayden was running through the mist, terror and determination clear on his face.

Suddenly from the mist a dark shape collided with him sending him sprawling to the floor.

"Watch out!" screamed Paxton but Cayden was laying on his back clutching his chest, his ribs throbbing painfully.

A dark shadowy creature suddenly appeared from the mist and Cayden crawled backwards away from it as fast as he could, his sword having skidded too far away to be of help.

Logan was frozen in fear and horror as he stared at the abomination before him.

The creature was ten times bigger than any of the creatures it appeared to be an amalgamation of. It was four legged, it's front paws being those of some sort of big cat, it's back legs being those of what appeared to be a bear, it's head being that of a wolf and it's tail was thin and whip like.

The entire creature was black and shadowy, the same sort of consistency as Virgils energy which explained to Logan why Preston had been so wary around it.

The beast crouched, presumably readying itself to pounce and Cayden closed his eyes, accepting of his fate.

"Get away from him!" Paxton shouted, this time appearing from the mist and stepping in between Cayden and the shadow creature.

Cayden watched with his mouth open as Paxton grabbed the sword and lunged at the creature.

The creature didn't even attempt to dodge and the blade just went right through it, not effecting it in any way.

"But that's not possible! Your sword can cut down shadowy nightmare creatures, why didn't it work?"Paxton shouted in disbelief, glancing at Cayden.

Cayden pushed himself to his feet, eyes wide in horror as the creature seemed to ripple as if it were laughing.

"I don't understand." Cayden whispered and the creature took a swipe at Paxton, sending him flying backwards, dropping the sword.

"No!" Cayden cried and launched himself at the monster. "Don't hurt him!"

Cayden was pinned beneath one of the monsters enormous paws and it pushed down hard enough that his ribs started to crack, making him scream in agony.

In the background Paxton screamed "Cayden!"

Logan winced at the sound of Caydens bones cracking and watched in horror as the beast lowered its wolfish head, its large canines almost grazing Caydens skin.

"No!" Paxton yelled and pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the large slash across his chest where the claws had caught him. He stumbled as he tried to walk forward and the creature tilted its head in some sick parody of a curious puppy.

It let out a barking roar and seemed to vanish.

Paxton collapsed next to Cayden who was breathing heavily and shook him gently "Cayden? Can you hear me?"

Cayden turned his head to Paxton, his eyes wide in horror as he struggled to speak. "P....Paxton..... R...r..r..run."

Paxton frowned "What do you mean?"

Cayden let out a small sob that jarred his broken ribs. "Run. It.... It's...... Inside me."

Paxton flinched back as a loud ferocious growl resonated from Caydens chest.

"Please.... Paxton..... I.... It's taking over." Cayden pleaded, tears falling from his eyes as he slowly began to sit up.

Paxton hesitantly backed away after struggling to his feet. "But..... I... What's going on?"

Cayden had tears streaming down his face as his body seemed to move of its own accord "It's taken control.....I cant stop it."

Paxton had tears of his own running down his cheeks "Cayden there's.... There's nowhere to go...."

Cayden had pushed himself to his feet and was taking jerky steps towards Paxton as he tried to fight against the creature that had taken over.

"You... You have to find somewhere... Please..." Cayden said as he stopped and bent down, picking up the sword that had been knocked from Paxtons hands previously.

Paxton smiled sadly "I don't blame you for what you're going to do. I know you can't stop yourself."

"Don't... Don't say that!" Cayden sobbed as he took a shaky step forward and raised his sword.

Paxton sighed and stepped closer. "Stop fighting, just do it. We both know how this is going to end."

Cayden let out a scream of denial as his hand moved forwards and the sword impaled Paxton in the stomach.

Paxton closed his eyes, whimpering in pain but he managed a smile "you promised this wouldn't last forever and this wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it still works."

Paxton fell to his knees as Caydens trembling hands pulled the sword out and it clattered to the floor.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I tried! I tried, I tried, I tried. I failed you. I couldn't fight it in time." Cayden wailed dropping to his knees and cradling Paxton close to him. "It's gone now. I don't know where but its gone."

Paxton slumped against Cayden with a sigh. "You could never fail me Cay. You're my best friend and nothing will ever change that."

Blood was gushing out of the wound on Paxtons stomach at a rapid rate, spilling onto the floor and seeping into Caydens clothes but he didn't care. "I... I don't want you to go." He sobbed.

Paxtons arms were loosening their grip around Cayden as he grew weaker and he pulled one away so he could wipe Caydens tears away. "Look at me. Don't blame yourself. I...."

Paxtons voice lowered to almost a whisper as he used his last breath to say "I still love you Cayden."

Paxton went limp in Caydens arms and Cayden let out a howl of misery, clutching at Paxtons body and rocking back and forth.

Logan was standing shaken off to the side, tears rolling down his cheeks as he witnessed the final moments of Cayden.

The mindspace shook violently before everything began to fade, leaving Cayden clutching Paxtons body in the middle of a black void.

Eventually Paxtons body faded too and Cayden let out a screech of agony, falling onto his back gasping for breath as he was hit by the full force of what Tristan was going through. The only sound to be heard, other than Caydens shrieks was the faint beat of a heart, getting progressively slower until it stopped.

Logan found himself plunged into pitch blackness, unable to see anything around him.

There was a spine chilling growl from somewhere nearby and Logan spun around, his heard turning in every direction to try and find the source of the noise.

Suddenly Cayden appeared from the darkness, curled up in a heap on the floor and muttering under his breath.

Logan approached him cautiously and jumped as Cayden let out a scream. "It wasn't my fault! Liam! Paxton! I'm so sorry!"

He suddenly fell silent and began clawing at himself, scratching up every bit of exposed skin as he writhed on the ground like a fish out of water.

"It wasn't my fault! It was all Hugh! He gave up!" Cayden shouted after what seemed like hours of silence, making Logan jump again at his sudden exclamation.

The void seemed to blur slightly before coming back into focus and Logan realised that must have been a change in memory.

Cayden was no longer curled up on the floor scratching at himself. Instead he was sitting staring into space, his dark eyes dull and emotionless as he muttered "Love made them weak. I will not be weak. Cayden was weak. I am not Cayden. Cayden relied on others who let him down. I will not make the same mistakes. Cayden is dead. Dead because he loved. Dead because he cared. I don't care. I don't love. I am not Cayden. I am Preston."

Logan gulped as he watched the empty dark eyes gaining a harsh coldness to them and he realised that this was no longer Cayden.

This was Preston and Logan had just witnessed the birth of a monster.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 45: I’m Not Weak. Not Anymore.

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings:Non-consensual kisses, manipulation, violence

Roman had recovered from his dizziness and was trying to wake Virgil up but with no success. "Can someone help me?" he asked and Thomas came and knelt next to him.

"Virgil!" Thomas said loudly but the anxious trait didn't even flinch. "oh wait I've got an idea! If I think of things that make me anxious he should wake up." Thomas exclaimed and closed his eyes to think of things that made him nervous.

Virgils eyes shot open and he sat up panting, looking around frantically.

"Hey, shh everything's fine." Roman said in a comforting voice and was completely thrown off guard when Virgil burst into tears and clung to him as if his life depended on it.

Roman wrapped his arms around the sobbing trait and closed his eyes, wishing he could take away all of Virgils pain.

Thomas smiled sadly at the sight of the two hugging and refrained from speaking so he didn't interrupt the moment they were having.

Logan was leaning against one of the trees with his back to where Virgil and Roman were. He was struggling to keep his mind from comparing what he'd seen in the secondary mindspace to what could have happened to the main mindspace if he'd stayed with Preston.

"Logan? Are you alright?" Patton asked, coming to stand in front of him.

Logan sighed and looked down at the floor as he mumbled "I just can't help but think about what might have happened if I'd stayed with Him."

Patton put a finger under Logans chin and lifted his head up so he could look him in the eyes. "You listen to me, there's no point letting your mind linger on 'what ifs' and 'if onlys' or you'll just cause yourself nothing but more stress and pain. I should know, that's what I've been doing for the past few days myself. In fact I guess me saying that makes me a bit of a hypocrite but that's beside the point. Don't worry about what could have happened, just focus on the future and how you can make it become what you want."

Logan was stunned by Pattons inspirational speech and before he could stop himself he whispered "This is why I love you."

Both of them had pink cheeks as Patton leaned in to place a soft kiss on Logans lips.

However before their lips could connect a familiar voice taunted "Aw how cute! I just might vomit!"

Preston was stood right behind Patton and before anyone could react he grabbed him and disappeared.

"No!" Logan exclaimed and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes as he stared at the spot where Patton had just vanished.

Roman had jumped to his feet and dashed forward as soon as he spotted Preston but no one could do anything. Patton was gone.

Logan grabbed both sides of his head as the gravity of what had just happened hit him. "No, I'm not doing this! This isn't happening!" he yelled.

Roman tried to comfort him but Logan just grit his teeth and shook his head, tears running down his face. "I'm not going to just stand here." he muttered and picked up the baseball bat he'd dropped when they'd arrived.

"Logan, you don't even know where they are!" Thomas shouted but Logan ignored him and sprinted off among the trees, baseball bat in hand.

Logan ran through the trees, barely taking notice as branches caught him across the face or snagged on his clothes. All he could think about was stopping Preston from hurting Patton.

He came to a stop to catch his breath and he looked around, his eyes narrowing as he recognised where he was.

He started running again until he reached a familiar clearing. In the centre of the clearing stood Preston with a struggling Patton.

"Let me go!" Patton yelled, trying to kick out at Preston but couldn't quite get the right angle.

Preston noticed Logan and smirked. "Ah, if it isn't my favourite little toy. You're in time for the show."

Logan glared at Preston and tightened his grip on the baseball bat in his hand.

Preston obviously noticed because he laughed. "Go ahead, try and hit me and see what happens."

Logan looked from Preston to Patton with a calculating look and muttered "What kind of 'show' are you on about?"

Preston grinned maliciously. "This."

Suddenly he planted a kiss on Pattons lips and Patton struggled desperately to get away, cringing at the feeling of Prestons cold lips on his own but as the seconds passed Patton felt himself getting dizzy and light-headed.

Logan took a couple steps forward to try and pull Preston off but was blasted backwards into a tree.

Pattons legs buckled so Preston was holding him up and his limbs felt too sluggish to move. Everything felt numb and his breath was forming clouds as it left his frozen lips.

Preston pulled away and laughed at the way Patton had succumbed so quickly, just like when Preston had been reformed in the emotions room.

Logan stood up, wincing in pain and his eyes blazing as he focused on Preston who was watching him with a pleased smirk.

"let him go." Logan growled, his hands clenched into fists.

"aw, but he's so much fun. He's so weak he's not even able to fight back. Makes me wonder why I didn't target him first. Ooo just imagine all the fun I could have had with him. He's so easily fooled I'd probably be able to make him believe he was enjoying himself too. I wonder if there's still time to test that theory out." Preston said eyeing up Patton with a smile.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Logan hissed. "You're not going to do anything to him!"

Preston raised an eyebrow at Logan "Who's going to stop me? You? Don't make me laugh, you're nothing. Just a weak little logical trait who tries to pretend he's tougher than he actually is."

Logan raised the baseball bat with a determined expression. "I'm not weak. Not anymore."

Preston grinned "Watch what you're doing with that bat, who knows you might hurt my new toy."

Logan ignored him and swung the bat at Preston who didn't even bother to dodge, instead he dropped Patton on the floor and a long sword materialised in his hands, slicing the baseball bat in half.

Logan gasped in shock as the baseball bat fell apart in his hands and eyed the sword fearfully.

"Now, make one move and this sword will become embedded in his face. Understand?" Preston said cheerfully, holding the blade over Patton.

"Now from what I've seen it almost looked like you were considering kissing this little wimp earlier. Surely I was wrong though, after all you still love me so you'd never do anything like that." Preston taunted, resting a foot on Pattons chest and putting some of his weight on it until Patton whimpered in pain.

Logan was shaking with rage as he watched Preston but he kept it in check because he didn't want to give Preston a reason to use his sword, which was hovering above Pattons face.

Patton was dazed and confused. He couldn't feel his limbs, it was as if he'd been outside in the cold for too long and they'd gone numb. He couldn't remember what had happened and he felt sure that whatever the voices he could hear were discussing was important but he just couldn't seem to focus his fuzzy mind.

He opened his eyes to see someone standing over him and whimpered in pain as whoever it was stepped on his chest.

He tried to move but he couldn't, it was like his entire body had fallen asleep and a sharp looking blade suddenly appeared above him.

He managed to turn his head to the side and spotted the other person. They seemed familiar and although he didn't feel sad, in fact he felt rather empty, for some reason tears rolled down his cheeks.

He tried to listen to what the familiar person was saying but he had an odd buzzing in his ears that distorted everything the person said.

The person above him leant down and it was as if the buzzing had no effect as they said "You want to be here, with me, don't you?"

Patton frowned in mild confusion as he replied in a monotone voice "I don't know."

The person leant closer, reaching their hand down and placing it on his cheek. "Try again." they said in a soft voice.

Pattons eyes closed at the sudden cold that radiated from the person's touch and found himself drawn to it because it chased away the strange numbness that had taken hold of him.

"You want to stay with me, don't you Patton?" they asked and Patton opened his eyes again, staring up at the person who could break through the buzzing in his ears.

"Yes." he said and felt himself get pulled to his feet.

"That's a good little morality, now tell me, do you know who I am?"

Patton looked at the person, squinting slightly as his vision was a little blurry despite the glasses.

"Logan?" he asked and the person laughed as the other person in the clearing let out a loud cry of rage.

Patton frowned and turned to look at the angry person, he couldn't make out proper words but something about their voice made him feel almost warm.

"Pay no attention to him, he's shouting about how much he hates you."

Patton looked back to the person in front of him. "Why does he hate me?" he asked and got a weird deja vu feeling. It was almost as if he'd said something very similar to this very same person at some point in the past.

Suddenly there was an ache in his head and he shut his eyes. He could see the person who apparently hated him and himself crouched in a hallway.... Kissing? The scene flashed to them hugging on an armchair and he could hear the person sobbing and begging him to wake up. He watched as the other him suddenly whispered the word "Logan."

Pattons eyes snapped open and he let out a gasp as warmth suddenly spread through his body, the numbness and cold being washed away.

His eyes locked onto Prestons face and he tried to back away but a hand closed around his wrist and pulled him closer.

"That was a very clever trick Logan but I did say if you made one move..." Preston said angrily.

"Technically I didn't move so you can't hurt him if you want to stick to your word." Logan shouted, panting slightly from having forced those memories into Pattons mind.

Preston chuckled as Patton continued to struggle. "I never gave you my word I wouldn't, I just said I would if you moved."

Logans eyes widened at that and he darted forward only to get blasted back again by Prestons ability.

While Preston had his focus on Logan, Patton seized his chance and launched a kick at Prestons leg. By chance he connected with the one that had been injured during Prestons fight with Luni, the flaky one, and Preston let out a cry of pain, his hands letting go of both his sword and Pattons wrist.

Patton tried to run to Logan but his legs buckled and he hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of himself.

Preston let out a loud growl of anger and picked his sword back up, raising it ready to swing down onto Patton.

"Patton move!" Logan shouted and let out a gasp as Patton rolled to the side just in time.

Prestons sword stabbed into the ground and when he tried to tug it back out it refused to budge. "It's fine I don't need a sword to kill someone!" Preston snarled and launched himself at Patton.

Logan watched in horror as the two began grappling on the ground. He ran towards them and tried to help but it was difficult to distinguish who's limbs were who's.

There was suddenly a sickening crack and a scream of agony burst from Pattons lips.

Preston cackled, letting go of the arm he'd just broken and reached for the other one but his hand never got there because he was suddenly grabbed and pulled away from Patton.

He blinked and suddenly found himself face to face with Logan who looked about ready to kill someone. Preston aimed a punch at Logan but his wrist was grabbed and his punch was stopped before it hit his target.

"I am not your little punching bag anymore! You won't hurt me or anyone else again if I have any say in it!" Logan shouted, shaking angrily.

Preston tried to use his ability but before he could blast Logan away he felt everything suddenly fall quiet and an ache began to build up in his head.

As it got worse everything began to blur. Everything except him and Logan.

The surroundings disappeared and as Prestons eyes rolled into the back of his head the last thing he saw were Logans sad but determined eyes.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip of Depression Chapter 44: Prestons Funhouse

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: mentions of blood, violence, gore, character death, manipulation, panic attack

Roman was the first to respond to Virgils comment. "Virgil, you're right but surely we should have a small amount of rest or something before we charge in like that."

Virgil looked at Roman, his eyes puffy and red from crying. "No! Any time we spend resting means more time for that bastard to regain his strength! We need to go stop him now while he's still recovering from using so much energy to materialise!"

Logan got to his feet, wiping his face quickly as he muttered "I agree with Virgil. We should take him down as fast as possible."

Patton felt everyone looking at him, waiting for his opinion and sighed. "We don't even know where he is. He could be anywhere in the mindspace by now."

Virgil scowled. "I know where he probably is and if he's not there we will hunt him down. He'll pick us off one by one if we let him."

Roman thought for a few seconds before saying "OK, let's do this but first we need to stop by the imagination forest so I can make everyone a weapon. There's no way Preston won't have one so we'll need more than our fists for this."

Virgil nodded and the four traits prepared themselves to go back to the mindspace when Thomas suddenly spoke up.

"What do I do? I want to help in some way. I don't know if I can stand just sitting around waiting for either one of you to turn up and tell me everything is OK or for Preston to reappear and stab me."

Patton fiddled with the sleeves of his cardigan, he had an idea but didn't know if it was a good one or not.

Logan eyed Patton, picking up on his reluctance, and said "If you've got an idea tell us."

"Well, technically Thomas could come with us but if we're really going to confront Preston that might be dangerous." Patton said and Thomas immediately exclaimed "I want to come with you! I don't care how dangerous it is, I want to help."

Roman frowned "I don't think that's a good idea. Thomas you would be an easy target for Preston if you came with us."

Virgil huffed in annoyance "Look can we hurry this up? The longer this takes the more time Preston has to regain his power and I for one am not waiting around much longer."

To emphasise this point Virgil started to sink down.

Roman and Patton exchanged looks of mild panic as they tried to persuade Thomas to just stay behind but the host was having none of it.

Eventually they sunk down and reappeared in the main mindspace with Thomas looking around curiously.

"Right now let's go grab some weapons and go kill this fuck." Virgil muttered as he stormed off down the corridor towards the imagination forest.

The others jogged slightly to catch up with him and Thomas was having to hold back a lot of questions.

Virgil came to a stop as they stood at the border of the forest and spun round to face Roman. "OK we're here, now start creating."

Roman raised an eyebrow at Virgil, not liking being bossed around but closed his eyes and started focusing on things to help them take down Preston.

While he was doing so Virgil was scanning the area, his eyes darting to every shadow just in case Preston showed up.

Logan was trying to remain calm as he came to terms with the fact they were going to be confronting the person who'd hurt him so much over the years. Patton making the occasional pun and small comment was quite comforting and Logan gave him a small smile.

Thomas was looking around at the trees in awe, he'd never seen trees so wide and tall before, it was like having his very own version of the Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter or something.

He took a step forward and accidentally stepped on a twig which made Virgil flinch and spin on the spot, his eyes blazing wildly as they locked onto Thomas.

"Whoops." Thomas commented as Virgil glared at him. "I didn't mean to make you jump."

Virgil grit his teeth and turned away, trying to ignore the odd churning in his gut that signalled his energy was close to breaking free. He didn't need to lose himself to his energy right now.

Roman finished creating the weapons and wiped some sweat from his brow as he signalled to the others that he was done.

Virgil immediately grabbed a long sword that was quite similar to Romans katana.

Patton reluctantly took the small dagger Roman handed him while Logan took the baseball bat, his hands shaking.

"Do I get something or am I just going to be standing around watching?" Thomas asked.

Roman sighed "I still don't agree with you being here but I guess you should have something to protect yourself if Preston manages to get to you." he handed Thomas a basic dagger, similar to Pattons.

Roman then pulled out his own katana and looked to Virgil. "You said you think you know where he is, shall we get going?"

Virgil nodded and lead the way into the forest, followed closely by Roman.

Patton gestured for Thomas to go in front of him and he and Logan brought up the rear.

The group traipsed through the forest for a fair few minutes before Virgil came to a stop, his eyes locked onto a familiar grey door.

"The secondary mindspace?" Roman asked in a quiet voice and Virgil nodded, his mouth dry.

Virgil took a deep breath and turned the handle, swinging the door open so they could see inside.

The smell of stale blood wafted out and Virgil felt his stomach lurch as he spotted dark streaks on the floor and walls of the corridor the door had revealed.

"are you sure he's in there?" Thomas whispered, his eyes wide in alarm at both the smell and sight of the corridor.

Virgil took a shaky breath and walked through the door, trying to ignore the way his whole body was trembling and his mind was racing with all the possible scenarios.

It was clear right away that Preston had known they'd turn up because on one of the walls in dried blood he'd written the words welcome to Prestons funhouse.

Virgil exchanged a look of apprehension with Roman and they both tightened their grips on their weapons.

Thomas stayed close to Roman while Patton was holding onto Logans hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

The group walked down the corridor until they came to a sharp corner which Virgil knew led to the lounge.

"This way." Virgil whispered and they quietly turned the corner, coming to a stop at a door that was probably grey underneath all the blood.

Virgil shuddered as he reached out and opened the door, trying not to get the blood on him.

The door swung open and suddenly all the lights went out, causing the group to clump together in fear.

Virgil gulped and took a step forward only to let out a cry of horror as the light flickered on to reveal the gory remains of a body.

He couldn't tear his eyes away as he recognised what little scraps of clothing were left as Unwins.

Roman tried to get Virgils attention but it seemed the anxious trait had gone into a state of shock.

Roman turned around to try and get the others help but none of them could get Virgil to respond, not even Thomas.

"Ah, you've seen my first masterpiece then? I do hope you like it, it took a lot of meticulous work, prying apart the bones and making sure to spread all the internal organs around was particularly fun." Prestons voice echoed around the room but he was nowhere to be seen.

Virgil jolted out of his shocked state and looked around the room, forcing back his tears with anger. "Show yourself, you coward!"

Preston let out a chuckle. "are you sure that's what you want? I'd hate to disappoint you but surely it'd be safer for all of you if you just turn around and walk away."

Virgil opened his mouth to shout something but fell silent when something similar to a projector suddenly lit up one of the only blood free walls.

"Is that all you've got?" taunted a familiar voice and Virgil froze, tears running down his face as he watched Unwins final moments.

Unwin ducked and dodged Preston, managing to shove him back but Preston suddenly lunged forward and plunged the knife into Unwins throat and then ripped it back out.

The knife Unwin had been holding, fell out of his hands with a clang and his body slumped to the floor, blood gushing from his throat as he struggled to breathe.

Unwins face was one of pain and shock as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he moved no more.

The projector turned off and Prestons voice echoed around the room again.

"He tried but there was no way an amateur was going to best me. It was definitely a satisfying kill, the way his blood spurted out, I was drenched in it. Ah, such a lovely memory."

"How did you even manage to project a memory?" Roman asked. He was reluctantly impressed but was also well aware of Thomas quivering right behind him and how pale Virgil had gone.

"It took a bit of work but with such a large imagination forest it wasn't particularly hard to conjure what I needed. That's beside the point though. The real question is what are you doing here? You can't defeat me, even with those lovely looking toys you've got with you." Preston said in a casual voice as if he were merely asking how their day went.

"Where are you? Why are you hiding?" Virgil managed to yell, his face streaked with tears.

"Who says I'm hiding?" Prestons voice suddenly came from the corner of the room and Virgil let out a horrified shriek.

Preston was covered in blood and was holding handfuls of flesh and gore which in itself was alarming but the thing that had made Virgil shriek was the bloody but unmistakably bright lime green bandanna that was plastered to a flap of skin Virgil recognised as Lunis face.

"dear, sweet Luni was kind enough to let me borrow his bandanna, can you believe that?" Preston said in a mocking voice, enjoying the way Virgil visibly began to break as he raised the face he was holding.

He'd had a lot of fun trying to peel it off and he was happy at the reaction Virgil was giving.

Roman stepped forward in front of Virgil with his katana raised and a look of disgust on his face "You're outnumbered, give yourself up or we will kill you."

Preston let out a cackle and wagged a blood covered finger in Romans direction. "You're quite the jokester huh? What makes you think I'd ever give up? I'm right where I wanna be and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm...." Preston suddenly stopped, a look of surprise on his face.

"Wow, damn, never thought it was so easy to start monologuing, I take back every snide comment I've ever made about characters that do that. Guess that means I really am the villain here then." he grinned and tilted his head, a crazed glint in his eyes.

Roman leapt forward with his katana but suddenly Preston disappeared and the handfuls of gore that he'd been holding fell to the floor with a loud splat.

Roman walked over to Virgil who looked like he was going to pass out and quickly blocked his view of the gory, bloody room. "We need to get him out of here, Virgils not going to manage if we stay here much longer." Roman said.

Thomas held onto one of Virgils arms and started tugging him back out into the corridor only to find the door leading back out of the secondary mindspace had been locked.

Roman cursed under his breath and as Virgil slumped into him he had an idea. There were 5 people which was more than he'd attempted to teleport before but he was confident he could do it. "Grab a hold of me, I'm gonna get us out of here." he said and closed his eyes, focusing on the imagination forest.

It took about a minute before they all suddenly appeared in the forest, Roman feeling slightly dizzy and Virgil having passed out from shock.

"What the heck was that?" Thomas asked, his face pale from what he'd witnessed.

"That was P...Preston in his element. He lives for torture, physically, mentally and emotionally." Logan muttered, stumbling over Prestons name slightly as he forced away his own unpleasant memories.

"It's alright Logan, we'll defeat him and then you'll never have to worry about him ever again." Patton declared, wrapping an arm around Logans waist and squeezing slightly.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 43: Now Let’s Go Kill That S.O.B

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: mentions of blood, character death, violence, 

There was silence and then Virgil broke down, screams and cries of anguish bouncing off the walls as he slumped over Jacobs body.

Logan was silently shaking with tears slipping down his face as he tried to push away how much he blamed himself for Jacobs death.

He kept thinking what if he'd ignored him and healed him anyway or stayed with him in the memory library when Preston showed up or if he could have done something to Preston when he'd shown up after putting Thomas and Patton into an unresponsive state.

Patton had his arms around Logan, trying to comfort him but he could once more hear Virgils accusations from before ringing in his ears. There were so many things he could have done differently to prevent so many of the things that lead up to this moment.

He glanced over at Thomas who was sitting on the floor looking down at Deceit in a state of shock. Patton couldn't blame him for his silence though, Thomas hadn't even known Deceit. Although he supposed none of them except Virgil had really known Deceit properly.

Roman didn't know what to do or how to react to the situation. He'd never really liked Deceit but seeing him protect Thomas from Preston and then die from his wounds had definitely hit him hard. His jealousy and overall dislike for the snake faced trait had been pushed aside.

He felt his heart ache as he watched Virgil hunched over the body, he hoped to never see him in so much pain ever again and silently vowed that he'd make it his mission to stop Virgil having to go through this sort of pain ever again.

Virgil felt something solid underneath his hands and frowned in confusion, still sobbing and hiccuping.

He pulled out a phone he recognised as his own and remembered Jacobs comment about his password so he quickly unlocked it and found it was already on the messaging app.

He sniffed and gulped a bit as he clicked on the top option which turned out to be a group chat with all the others.

He noticed there was a message, and his eyes scanned through it although he had to reread parts of it due to his watery eyes.

*the text*

Dear all of you, this is Deceit on Virgils phone. Before you roll your eyes in disgust or whatever let it be known that I despise Preston and I managed to get some useful information out of him. I'm on my way to confront him at the moment and it's likely I won't be coming back so I guess this could be considered a goodbye but that sounds way too cheesy and cliche.

Think of it as more of a 'here's some useful information to help you because I won't be able to tell you in person' kind of thing.

Preston isn't his real name, his real name is Cayden and he let slip that when he chased me around the memory library.

He was going on about love making people weak and said something about 'if it weren't for love Hugh wouldn't have given up so easily' or something like that and I said love makes you strong and he blurted out love was the reason he was Preston and not Cayden.

Obviously I asked what happened to turn him from Cayden to Preston but he just said it didn't matter because Cayden died a long time again and he was going to rip me apart.

I'm not sure how this information will help, in fact it probably won't but just in case I thought I'd better share it.

Anyway toodles, goodbye, deuces, all that kinda stuff.

*end of the text*

Virgil locked his phone and put it in his pocket with a small gulping sob sound.

He looked back down at Jacob and put a hand on his chest, hunching over as he whispered "Goodbye Jacob, I'll miss you."

As Virgil said those words he started crying again, this time silently as Jacobs body began to slowly fade.

Thomas eventually found his voice and asked "Can... Can someone please explain what's going on?"

Patton exchanged a look with Roman and they both agreed they'd have to explain because neither of the other two were in the right state to.

"you know how we said there was someone who was able to keep our mouths shut? Well that was who we were talking about. We got him to distract Preston that time when Virgil was flipping between two people and you had to force him to stop." Roman said and waited for Thomas to take in everything he'd said.

"when Logan disappeared after Virgil fell unconscious he came across Deceit and healed the injuries he sustained from Preston. The two of them started going through old memories until Logan came to warn us about what they'd found out about Preston but then Preston managed to get to Deceit and stabbed him in the eye which Logan managed to heal but Preston got away after stabbing the emotion room wall. That's what sent both me and you into our unresponsive states." Patton said, trying to explain everything but not wanting to make Logan or Virgil feel any worse.

"And what just happened?" Thomas asked in a low voice.

"Well, it seemed as if Preston managed to gain enough energy to materialise in front of you and he planned to stab you and kill us all in one go but Deceit.... He saved you and all of us." Roman muttered the last part, feeling a reluctant amount of respect towards the scaled trait.

Thomas nodded and a couple tears ran down his face. He was utterly shocked and horrified by what he'd found out and wished he could have done something to help prevent some of the things that had happened.

There was a few moments where the only sounds were the occasional sniff from Virgil or Logan.

Suddenly Virgil pushed himself to his feet, face streaked with tears but a grim determined expression on his face as he growled "He killed Jacob, now let's go kill that son of a bitch."

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip of Depression Chapter 42: No!

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: Mentions of blood, violence, panic attacks, character death

"What do we do? He's going to get himself killed!" Logan said, his voice cracking as he panicked.

"Let's go get Roman and Virgil. Then we'll all go after him." Patton said in a scratchy voice.

Logan took a deep breath to calm himself and nodded, the two of them quickly sinking down to go find Roman and Virgil.

When they appeared they found themselves surrounded by black energy and quickly grasped what was going on.

Logan walked over to where Virgil was curled up while Patton approached Thomas.

"Virgil? It's me Logan. Jacob woke up and told us he was going after Preston himself. You need to snap out of it so we can help him."

Something within Virgil stirred at the sound of Jacobs name. He vaguely remembered someone called Jacob being injured.

"Please Virgil. He's gone to confront Preston by himself!" Logan begged.

Suddenly everything came flooding back and the energy which had been swirling across the floor at ankle height began to retract back towards Virgil who raised his head and looked at Logan with blazing eyes.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Virgil asked in a croaky voice.

"I tried, both me and Patton tried but he used his ability to shut us up and then said he was going to find Preston and if we wanted to come get you and Roman to help then we could but he wasn't going to wait. He walked off before we could do anything so we thought we'd get you." Logan explained, not wanting Virgil to lash out at him with his energy.

Virgils eyes drifted over to Patton who was holding Thomas in a tight embrace whispering words of comfort in his ear. "you snapped him out of it then? That's good. We should probably try and snap Thomas out of it before we go after Jacob."

Roman was happy Logan had calmed Virgil down but he did feel a bit resentful that Virgil had snapped out of it at the sound of Deceits name.

He shook off his jealous thoughts and walked over to where Patton and Thomas were.

"Everything is ok, come on Thomas." Patton murmured, already having tried to snap him out of it with tons of other words. He sighed and turned to the others. "It's no good, he's not responding at all."

Logan frowned for a second as he thought then exclaimed "You could use your ability to project feelings into him."

Patton gasped and grinned "And that's why I love you, you're brilliant!"

Roman and Virgil looked between the two traits in shock as Logan blushed and Patton began gathering up as many positive emotions as possible to project.

"Since when...?" Virgil asked, trailing off in disbelief.

Logans face went bright red and he muttered "We kind of confessed about 10 minutes ago. Well Patton had confessed many times before hand but I managed to sort my thoughts and feelings out enough to say it back and mean it."

Virgil couldn't help a small smile appearing on his lips. After the disaster of Patton walking in on a drunk Logan kissing him he'd thought they'd never confess to each other. Especially considering Logans relationship with Preston.

Virgil glanced over at Roman who was seemingly deep in thought himself. Roman had said he loved him but was that just something he'd said to get him out of his delusional state?

Virgil wasn't sure, at the time it seemed genuine but he wasn't exactly in his right mind so for all he knew Roman could have just said it to snap him out of it.

Before Virgil could start thinking himself in circles Patton let out a small sigh. "I can't seem to do it."

"what do you mean?" Roman asked, instantly coming out of his thoughts.

"Well I can project the feelings to him but they seem to just disappear." Patton said with a worried expression.

Virgil shuddered as he remembered his previous idea. "I.... I can try with my energy if you want? I know it'll hurt him and I really don't want to but... Maybe it can help kick start his emotions again and then you can project all the positive ones afterwards."

Patton looked at Virgil for a few seconds before nodding.

"Wait, are you sure? I mean is this really a good idea?" Roman asked and Patton hung his head with his eyes closed as he replied. "It's the only plan we have Roman. We need to hurry if we're going to get to Deceit before he finds Preston."

Virgil took a shaky breath and closed his eyes, willing his energy to appear. He managed to produce a small wisp of black energy but it dispersed after barely a second.

" Um.... I think it only works when I'm angry or anxious or something like that." Virgil said in a worried voice.

Roman looked even more concerned, he didn't want Virgil to lose it again, what if they couldn't snap him out of it and he hurt someone badly?

Patton had a grim face as he suddenly said "Think about what would have happened if you hadn't walked in on Preston when he had Deceit."

Immediately Virgil let out an angry growl and black energy began to pour off of him. It curled and wound its way around the legs of the furniture and Virgil directed it upwards with a wave of his hand until it hovered around Thomas like a cloud.

As the cloud drew closer to Thomas, Virgil was finding it harder and harder to keep his energy in control.

The second it touched Thomas's skin there was an agonised scream and Virgil felt his energy pulse and expand.

"That's enough Virgil!" Logan shouted over Thomas's scream as Patton was focusing on projecting positive emotions.

Virgil managed to pull his energy away from Thomas but he was quivering and gasping as his energy seemed to have a life of its own and wrapped around him like a blanket.

Thomas stopped screaming the second the energy was removed from his skin and Patton quickly projected all the positive emotions he could muster.

Roman and Logan were glancing from Thomas to Virgil, their eyes wide in concern as Virgil seemed to be struggling to control his energy.

"What... What's g...going on?" Thomas stammered, his entire body shaking as he rubbed his arm where the energy had left a burn like mark.

"Preston damaged the emotion room in the mindspace so both you and me went into a state of shock. Virgil managed to get you out of it just enough for me to project emotions into your mind." Patton explained but before he could say anything more Virgil let out a small cry of pain.

Roman gasped as he noticed the grey from before starting to spread up Virgils neck and his energy seemed to be constricting around him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jacob stalked down the halls towards the imagination forest. That was where he'd last encountered Preston so that was where he would start his search.

He stood at the edge of the treeline among the rubble from the barrier and as he took a step forward his foot hit something. He looked down and noticed a phone.

He frowned, picked it up and then recognised it as Virgils. He guessed the password with a knowing smirk and decided to type out a text to send to the main traits in a group chat.

When he was done he carefully tucked Virgils phone into an inside pocket and continued on his way, his yellow eye peering around at the trees cautiously.

He made it almost to the other side of the forest when he spotted Preston limping towards him with a nasty smile.

"Ah, you're looking more awake than last time I saw you." Preston said. "Less bloody too. That's a shame."

"What are you planning?" Jacob growled, his eye narrowed as he glared at the one responsible for his ruined eye.

Preston just grinned and tilted his head to the side. "Aw, you think I'd tell you? That's cute."

Jacobs hands curled into fists as he hissed "You're a vile piece of shit! Tell me what you're planning or I'll..."

"If I didn't have things to do I'd probably spend a lot of time trying to trade insults with you but duty calls." Preston said, cutting off Jacobs threat.

He took a step forward and pulled out his knife, causing Jacob to instantly back away a few steps.

"hmm, I was beginning to wonder if you had any sense of self-preservation left in that empty head of yours. I was starting to think I'd grazed whatever tiny organ serves as your brain when I stabbed you in the eye." Preston taunted, grinning at Jacobs furious expression.

Jacobs eye darted around the area and landed on a sharp looking branch laying at the foot of one of the trees. He made a lunge for it and held it in front of him pointing towards Preston.

"You know what they say, an eye for an eye." he said and jabbed the stick at Prestons face.

Preston smacked the branch away and swung his knife at it so it broke in half. "Good attempt but this is getting silly now."

Suddenly everything began to get dark and a familiar scream echoed through the trees.

Thing went back to normal after ten seconds and Preston had a pleased expression on his face. "Seems like dear little Virgil attacked Thomas. I bet the others are having to pin him down, or maybe Roman had to put him down. He's a danger to Thomas after all."

Jacob snarled "The only danger is you and you're going to die."

Preston laughed "That's quite possibly one of the funniest things I've heard. You're merely a bug under my foot."

Jacob took a step forward, raising the half of the stick he still had in his hand ready to strike.

Preston rolled his eyes "catch a hint, I have way more important stuff to do than deal with you."

Before Jacob could respond the mindspace shook again and Preston suddenly stated sinking down, a vicious looking smirk on his face.

"No!" Jacob roared and launched himself at Preston meaning both of them sunk down.

They appeared in Thomas's lounge behind the couch. The others hadn't noticed them because Virgil was writhing around on the floor, his skin the same shimmery black as his energy.

Preston shoved Jacob away and took a step towards Thomas who was standing next to the couch watching the others trying to help Virgil.

"No!" Jacob shouted as he saw Preston readying his knife and everything seemed to go in slow motion.

Thomas turned around at the sound of Jacobs shout and spotted Preston with the knife.

Jacob jumped at Preston and tackled him to the floor as he began hitting Preston as hard as he could with the half of the stick he was still holding.

Preston let out a screech of pain as the weight of Jacob and the impact of the stick caused his previous injuries to twinge.

"You're a coward! Trying to stab someone when their back is turned! What sort of Creativity does that? Oh wait, never mind you're a failure of one!" Jacob hissed.

Preston struggled underneath Jacobs weight and let a growl before crazed laughter began bursting from his lips.

The other traits had spun round too and were watching frozen in horror as they realised Preston had managed to gain enough power to materialise in front of Thomas.

Jacob felt a searing pain in his gut and then again just under his sternum but ignored it in favour of lashing out as hard as possible with the stick.

The stick made contact with Prestons head and he had a slightly dazed look as he suddenly vanished, leaving Jacob laying on the floor.

Jacob glanced down at himself and noticed two patches of dark red starting to soak into his clothes. He vaguely wondered if Luni was pissed at him for lying but shoved that thought away as Thomas suddenly knelt next to him.

"I... I don't know who you are but... You just saved my life." Thomas said, his eyes widening in horror at the blood. "Oh no! Guys? Help!"

Jacob sighed "I'm a part of you, If you die we all die. I was being selfish."

"That's not true Jacob." Logan said quickly coming to kneel next to Thomas.

Jacob rolled his eye. "Don't make me out to be someone I'm not. I only care about myself and Virgil. I also have an amount of respect for you Logan but the other two can piss off."

Virgil was still twitching and whimpering on the floor as Jacob glanced over at him.

"Virgil?" Jacob called his voice shaking.

Virgil didn't respond and Jacob grit his teeth as he forced himself to crawl over to Virgil, ignoring the way Logan and Thomas told him to stay still.

"Virge, it's me." he whispered placing a hand on Virgils shoulder. "You've got to snap out of this, Preston almost stabbed Thomas but I stopped him. I... I don't think I can do that a second time though."

Virgils eyes opened and as they locked onto Jacobs face the black energy seemed to evaporate as if it had never been there in the first place.

"Jake?" Virgil asked in a small voice and Jacob grinned.

"You know I hate that nickname."

Virgil managed a small smile "Don't call me Virge then." his eyes took in Jacobs full appearance and he sat bolt upright in horror. "You.... You're bleeding!"

Jacob glanced down at himself again and sighed "That's kind of why I can't stop Preston from trying to stab Thomas again. I don't think I'm gonna make it."

"No! Don't say that! You have to, I.... I just remembered you and the others, I'm not about to lose you again!" Virgil cried.

Jacob felt tears start running down his face as he realised Virgil didn't know about Unwin or Luni. "Virge, the others.... They're...." he started to say but a small sob burst from his lips and cut him off.

Virgil shook his head not wanting to believe what Jacob was trying to say "No, you're lying. That's what you do! They're both fine!"

Jacob felt his arms give out and he lay on his side with a small groan. "I'm... I'm sorry. They tried to stop Preston. He came into the secondary mindspace and both Unwin and Luni tried to stop him. Luni managed to get me out at the last second and that's when Logan found me."

Virgil had tears in his eyes as he crawled closer to Jacob. "If... If that's true and they're..... Gone.... That means you have to make it! I can't lose you too.... Please.... You're all I have left."

Logan and Thomas had walked over to the two of them now and Roman and Patton stood slightly behind them, unsure how to react to the situation.

"Don't worry Virgil, he'll be fine I can heal him." Logan said rapidly, dropping to his knees and putting his hand over the wounds.

Jacob grabbed Logan by the wrist and shook his head. "Don't bother. You've already healed me multiple times and I bet you haven't had a second of rest. Don't do what I did and try to tough it out or you'll end up passing out."

Logan opened his mouth to deny that but Jacob raised an eyebrow at him and said "I know when someone is lying, I am Deceit after all, so don't even think about saying you're not starting to feel worn out."

"This can't be happening!" Virgil sobbed and grabbed Jacob in a hug.

Jacob winced but wrapped his arms around Virgil tightly. "You'll be OK Virge, you'll still have Logan and the other two assholes." he whispered.

"B....but they aren't you! I don't want to lose you, you're like my big brother!" Virgil cried, his shoulders shaking.

Jacob closed his eye and sniffed, trying to hold it together for Virgils sake. "I know, no one is as good as me, but you won't be alone. The others will be there for you and if they aren't I'll come back as a ghost and haunt them."

Virgil managed a weak little laugh at that as he clung to Jacob. "I... I'm going to miss you so much."

Jacob smiled sadly. "Me too Virge."

Virgil pulled away from Jacob who was now struggling to keep his eye open as his breaths came in shaky gasps.

"I... I can still save you." Logan said, forcing back tears of his own.

Jacob shook his head. "Not without exhausting yourself. I'm not worth you becoming an easy target for that psychotic fuck."

Logan sniffled and was pulled into a hug by Patton who had a guilty expression on his face. "I... I'm sorry, for what it's worth, I misjudged you and I regret removing Virgils memories of you."

Jacob managed a half-hearted sneer. "I don't need your apology, just make sure you take care of Virgil better once all this is over."

Virgil was holding one of Jacobs hands tightly, foolishly hoping the tighter he held on the more chance Jacob would stay.

Roman knelt next to Virgil and wrapped a comforting arm round his shoulders as he looked down at Jacob with a guilty expression of his own.

Jacob noticed and rolled his eye "Don't even bother katana boy. I don't want or need your apologies, just promise you'll take care of Virge, that's all I want."

"I promise." Roman said gravely.

Jacob nodded and his eyelid began to droop as he murmured "Oh and Virgil?"

Virgil sobbed and stuttered out "W...w...what?"

"Promise me one thing."

"A... Anything." Virgil responded and Jacob forced his usual smirk on his face. "Kill that son of a bitch but don't die in the process or I'll... Be... Pissed."

"I... I promise." Virgil wailed and Jacob whispered "Also... You should... Change your... Phone's password.... 'Roman' is easy to..... guess."

Virgil let out a mixture of a sob and a laugh as Jacobs eye shut and he let out one final breath, his hand going limp in Virgils grasp.

(If it helps I sobbed while writing this and I still feel really guilty about doing this to my little snakey Jakey boy. I am very very sorry. also maybe refrain from mentioning his death if you reblog this chapter? I don’t want it to be spoiled for others if they haven’t managed to stay up to date and stuff)

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 41: He Must Be Stopped

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: Mentions of blood, violence, gore, character death

Jacob looked around confused to find himself in the secondary mind space and then a familiar face came into view.

"Luni? Is that really you?" he exclaimed and rushed forward but before he could do anything Luni raised a hand and gave him a sad smile.

"You can't touch me, this is just a dream." he said softly and Jacob stopped, his face falling.

"He....he said he r... Ripped you apart" he whispered, looking at the floor as he tried to stop himself tearing up.

Luni sighed "Unfortunately he was telling the truth but let's not dwell on that. The reason you're here is because you almost completely depleted all of your energy."

Jacob winced as Luni fixed him with a glare. "I couldn't think of any other way to stall him. I managed to get information out of him too."

"Although that's true the price you've paid for it is heavy indeed. In fact you're incredibly lucky to be alive right now." Luni said in a disapproving tone.

There was a moment of silence as Jacob looked down at the floor, his mind racing.

"Preston is planning something big. I'm not sure what but when you wake up you have to stop him." Luni said after a while, his face serious.

"How are you even here? How do you know this?" Jacob asked, looking up at Luni with a confused expression.

"I used a lot of my energy to get you to safety and I'm guessing that because you used nearly all of your own, that the left over parts of my own were absorbed enough for this conversation to take place. This is a one time thing though."

Jacob closed his eyes as his shoulders shook, trying to hold back his sorrow at knowing he'd never be able to talk to Luni again after this.

"I'm sorry, for everything." he murmured "I shouldn't have brought him to you and Unwin. Neither of you should have died. It's all my fault."

Small sobs broke from his lips as he sank to the floor, holding his hands over his face. Luni looked down at him with tears running down his own face.

"he would have gotten round to it eventually, neither me or Unwin blame you in the slightest. In fact if you weren't there I doubt either of us would have been motivated enough to fight so hard against him. We knew we had to protect you and so we gave it our all."

Jacob took a few breaths and said "You can't really mean that, I've been nothing but horrible to you and Unwin for as long as I can remember. You shouldn't have given up your lives for me."

Luni took a seat next to Jacob with a sigh. "Look at it this way, if the situation had been reversed and it was Unwin laying on the bed, injured and exhausted, what would you have done when Preston made an appearance?"

Jacob went silent as he thought about that. While he and Unwin never saw eye to eye he doubted whether he would have been able to just stand by and let Preston do what he did best. Unwin was an asshole but Jacob had never wanted him dead.

Luni had a knowing expression on his face when Jacob eventually opened his eyes to look at him. "See? So don't blame yourself for that fuckos actions."

"wait, you said something about Preston planning something big, how do you know that?" Jacob asked.

Luni scowled "He now has a large amount of energy due to him absorbing mine, with all that energy he can do things he couldn't before. With his new found power and the fact you're still alive, I'm guessing he's realised what he can do. When you wake up you have to try and stop him. Whatever he's planning will more than likely cause massive problems for everyone, including poor Thomas."

Jacob struggled to take in everything that was said but when he had, a determined expression appeared on his face. "I'll put a stop to his plan if it's the last thing I do."

Luni rolled his eyes "That's probably not the best way to phrase it Jakey boy."

Jacob groaned at the nickname but said "look at it this way, if I stop him then that's great but if I die in the process then I get to see you and Unwin again."

Luni raised an eyebrow at that. "That does not mean you should throw yourself into the situation with no regard for your safety."

The surrounding area began to blur slightly and Luni's voice became echoey. "You're waking up. Promise you'll think before you act."

Jacob grinned as Luni glared at him "I will think before I act. I always do."

"that doesn't comfort me."Luni said as he began to fade and things began to get dark.

"Goodbye Luni." Jacob said softly and then everything went black. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan and Patton were still wrapped up in each other's arms, holding each other tightly like there was a possibility one of them would vanish at any second.

Neither of them noticed when Deceit twitched slightly and began to wake up. Not until Deceit hissed out "Son of a bitch!"

Logan pulled away from Patton and spun round to see Deceit trying to sit up, his hand clapped over his eye.

"D... Deceit? You're awake!" he exclaimed and rushed over.

"ugh, yeah I'm awake, what the hell happened to my eye?" Deceit groaned.

"Well, P...Preston stabbed you before Virgil blasted him away from you and I healed it as best I could but although I stopped the bleeding I couldn't fix your eye completely." Logan explained as Deceit ran a finger over his face with a wince.

"Where's Virgil?" Deceit asked, worry evident in his tone.

"He went to go help Roman with Thomas. Preston stabbed one of the walls in the emotion room and Thomas went unresponsive. I've only just managed to get Patton to come out of his shocked state."

Deceits good eye flitted over to Patton who he noticed looked very pale and shaky. "Where's Preston?" he asked, remembering the weird dream he'd had with Luni in it.

Logan shifted nervously. "well, uh, we don't exactly know. He kind of vanished."

"damn it." Deceit muttered under his breath and he pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the protests of Logan.

"Deceit! You shouldn't be getting up just yet, you need to rest. I can't just stand by and..mmph."

Deceit grinned at Logan who was glaring at him with a hand clamped over his mouth. "First things first Logan, you can call me Jacob, you've earned that at this point. Secondly as you can see I've had plenty of rest to have my energy restored enough that I can still use my abilities. Thirdly I'm not sitting around waiting for Preston to get the jump on me."

Patton had managed to get to his feet and opened his mouth to say something but Jacob just waved his other hand so both Logan and Patton had their hands clamped over their mouths.

"I'm going to go find Preston and put a stop to whatever he's planning. You two are welcome to go get the other two and try to help but I'm not waiting. He must be stopped."

Jacob walked out of the room, waving his hand so Logan and Patton could speak again but not listening to their cries for him to come back. He had a job to do and nothing but death would stop him now.

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 40: Unresponsive

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: Panic attacks, violence

Thomas was sitting cross-legged on the couch, his eyes devoid of any sort of emotion.

Virgil shuddered as he and Roman tried to get some sort of reaction out of him.

"Thomas! Snap out of it!" Virgil said in a loud voice, snapping his fingers in front of Thomas's face.

Thomas didn't even blink.

Virgil looked to Roman who looked close to tears and he felt his chest ache. He hated the idea of Roman being hurt or upset, but there was only one thing Virgil could think of which would snap Thomas out of this state.

"I have an idea, but you're not going to like it." Virgil said in a quiet voice.

"What? What is it?" Roman asked, blinking away tears and locking his eyes with Virgils.

Virgils mouth went dry at the look of hope on Romans face. "Well.... Uh.... I.... Uh" he stuttered, his face going red as he realised he'd been staring.

He mentally berated himself, this wasn't the time to suddenly get all flustered because Roman happened to be looking at him.

He cleared his throat and looked back at Thomas "I could try and use my.... Um.... Energy."

Romans jaw dropped "But... Won't that hurt him?"

Virgil sighed "Yes but that's the only way I can think of to kick start his emotions again. The direct contact of my energy will cause a large burst of fear, anger and sorrow. That might then be enough to allow him to feel other things when Logan snaps Patton out of his shock."

"wouldn't it be better to wait for Logan to do that and then have Patton do something?" Roman asked hesitantly.

"Yes but we have no idea how long that'll take. I don't want to do it, it's the last thing I ever want to do but the longer he's like this the......" Virgil cut off as he felt pain radiate through his arm, shoulder and chest.

"Virgil? Are you OK?"

Virgil ignored Roman in favour of trying to work out what had just happened. He realised the arm that was aching was the one that was grey and quickly tugged back his collar to peek at his chest.

At seeing the greyness had spread across most of his chest, Virgil felt all the thoughts he'd had back when he'd been sealed in his room come flooding back.

"No. No. No. No!" he chanted, his voice getting louder and more panicked.

Roman was caught off guard by the sudden panic he could see on Virgils face and hear in his voice. He couldn't understand what the anxious trait was getting so worked up about.

"Virgil? What's wrong? What happened?"

Virgil was too lost in his thoughts to really hear anything Roman was saying but he recognised that Roman was trying to say something to calm him down.

Roman cautiously approached Virgil, well aware of how the anxious energy could suddenly react if Virgil didn't want any sort of contact. "Virgil, I'm here, everything OK."

Roman reached out a hand and placed it on Virgils arm, gasping as he felt the dry flakiness under his palm. He ignored the way Virgil whimpered slightly at the contact and instead surveyed the greyness with a look of horror as it began to creep up Virgils neck.

"This isn't going to harm you! You're going to be OK, I promise!" Roman said, wrapping his arms around Virgil while trying to ignore his own worries.

Roman felt something pulsing beneath his fingers and shuddered as he spotted Virgils energy starting to seep out. "take deep breaths, everything is going to be fine." Roman said.

Virgil could hear Roman but his words didn't do anything to calm the sudden writhing of his energy within him. He couldn't see how things could be fine when the strange greyness was spreading so rapidly.

The fact he had no idea what the greyness was definitely didn't help. He had thought it was to do with the antidepressants but now he wasn't so sure.

If Virgil himself didn't know what was happening how could Roman hope to help in any way?

The truth was, he couldn't. No one could.

This thought caused Virgil to lose his hold on his energy and it surged out like a flash flood, almost knocking Roman over.

"No! Virgil! Please don't do this!" Roman exclaimed as the energy surrounded the couch Thomas was sat on.

Virgil began to curl in on himself and his energy became less controlled, causing Roman to freak out a bit as it just narrowly missed touching Thomas.

Roman had no idea what to do. Did he keep trying to get through to Virgil or did he try and get Thomas away from the energy?

[in-the-grip-of-depression]

What would you class as the worst case scenario? :P

In The Grip Of Depression Chapter 39: Hi My Name Is C̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ Preston

Chapter 1|Previous Chapter|Next Chapter Trigger Warnings: mentions of blood, violence, implied abuse, character death

Preston fell to ground as he felt agony radiate through his body. The teleportation caused pressure on his injuries and he’d teleported several times in the space of a few minutes so he was gritting his teeth to prevent himself crying out.

He felt a searing pain run up his abdomen and groaned, unsure what exactly had caused it.

He winced as he pulled up his shirt and noticed the greyness had spread up to his abdomen. Seemed like that was the reason he’d felt pain but he was starting to wonder if it was caused by the antidepressants like he’d originally thought.

Sure there was a chance that it was just a slightly delayed side effect but given that Thomas wasn’t taking the pills anymore and it seemed to be getting worse at quite a rapid rate, Preston was starting to worry it was caused by something else.

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