The Academy of S.I.D.E.

No. 47: A Den Of Angry Snakes

"Remus? Remus? Buddy? You okay?"

"Leave him be, Patton," Virgil said quietly. "He's... he's a little shaken up."

That was probably the understatement of the century.

Remus hadn't spoken a word since they'd found the hat and the taser. Virgil wasn't even sure that he'd registered that they were sitting inside Emile's office. He was just staring blankly into space, clutching Janus's hat to his chest. Tears were streaming from his eyes, but he wasn't making any effort to brush them away, or even displaying signals that he realized he was crying.

Roman squeezed Virgil's hand. "Are you all right?"

"One of my best friends just got kidnapped. What do you think?"

"Right. Stupid question." He sighed as his gaze traveled over to Remus. "I hate seeing him like this."

Virgil looked up at him. "Has he... has he shut down like this before?"

Roman nodded, biting his lip. "We'd taken a trip down to the closest 7-11 to get some junk food, since that was kind of a rarity in our house. On our way back, we got stopped by a cop... I think he thought we were stealing or something. Remus just went ballistic and---"

"Smashed his head in. He told me. He seemed kind of proud of it."

"Oh, sure, he's proud of it now, but right after that happened, he was frozen for the rest of the afternoon. I kept on telling him that the cop deserved it, and he got brought back anyways, but he wasn't listening to anything I was saying." Roman sighed. "Scariest afternoon of my life."

"Sounds like it," Virgil murmured.

Roman nudged him. "Hey, you really took charge back there. You bagged up the taser for evidence and everything."

Virgil blushed. His instincts had taken over almost immediately after they'd found it, and luckily, he'd brought his set of rubber gloves from Forensics class just in case. Once he'd stopped Remus from picking up the taser and got it into a plastic baggie, he'd called Remy, then texted the group.

Remy was currently trying to calm down Emile, who was practically having a panic attack. He'd called Janus's family, then Augustus's mom---because, apparently, he was also AWOL, and had been since the beginning of the afternoon---and then promptly broke down.

"Take it easy, Em," Remy soothed, gently rubbing a hand up and down his back. "It's gonna be okay."

"You don't know that," Emile mumbled, shoulders shaking. "Two of my students are missing, Remy. Missing. And I promised I'd---I promised I'd protect them when I took this job---oh god---"

"Emmy." Remy pressed his lips to Emile's forehead. "I need you to breathe for me, okay, hon? Please."

Emile took a few shaky breaths, squeezing Remy's hand. Virgil's eyes traveled over to Logan, who was quietly consoling Patton.

He let go of Roman's hand and walked over to Remus, sitting down next to him.

"Hey," Virgil said softly, gently tugging the hat out of his hands. "You wanna talk?"

Remus snapped out of his daze. "Wh-what?"

"Do you wanna talk about Janus?"

"I dunno---I---ah, shit." Remus wiped his eyes. "Why didn't one of you fuckers snap me out of it sooner? Now I look like a depressed zombie."

"No, you look like a guy who's just had his soulmate taken away from him," Virgil said, handing him a box of tissues. "Your reaction is absolutely understandable, and you obviously don't have a boyfriend with you right now to comfort you, so I thought you might need a friend."