Øverturning the lies (a twenty one pilots fanfiction)

~27~

"Clancy," Mari muses. "Huh. The name doesn't sound familar."

"Yeah, it probably wouldn't," Josh says. "Not to you. Soon after I met him, he...well, he disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Mari asks. "Like, left Dema?"

"I guess so," Josh says. "I never did see him there again."

"But...how?" she asks.

"The same way we did, I assume," Josh says. "By following the east."

"Right," Mari says slowly. "But..."

She shakes her head. "It just seems really unlikely that anyone would be able to escape by themselves. You know, strength in numbers and all."

"Right," Josh agrees. "Except, not always. We almost didn't make it out because there were so many of us."

Mari nods. "So, hypothetically, if someone knew what they were doing and where they were going, they could leave."

"Hypothetically, yes," Josh says. "It's not very likely, of course-"

Mari nods. "Of course. What use is a religion no one follows, whether willingly or otherwise?"

"None at all," Josh agrees.

"So this man-Clancy-he just told you how to escape the city, escape Dema?" Mari asks.

"It was more complicated than that," Josh says, recalling the hazy details of that portion of his life.

"You don't have to tell me all of the details if you don't want to," Mari says quickly. "I get it. That place was scarring."

"Essentially, he had been a member of the banditøs once, a long time ago," Josh says. "But...I never knew all of the details. I don't know if he even knew all of the details. He was one of us, one of the ones trapped in Dema, and that was all that mattered in the moment."

"Well, whoever he was once, whatever he might have done, he helped you, and in turn, helped all of us," Mari says.

Josh nods. "And for that, I'm grateful."

He pauses, the words his companion just said swirling around his mind for a second. "Hold on. Did you say 'done?'"

"Yes," she says, confusion evident on her face.

She plays with a strand of dark hair. "Why?"

"I-" it was at the edge of his mind, at the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't remember what it was, couldn't seem to make a correlation. "I don't know. Never mind."

"Wait," Mari looks at him. "Did what I say trigger a memory somehow?"

Josh shakes his head. "I can't be sure. Its all...its all pretty foggy."

Mari bites her lip. Nods.

"So...this man," she says hesitantly, as if she knows that by trying to steer the conversation in its original direction won't result in anything she wants to hear. "Clancy. He's the reason why you and me are here right now, yes, but what..."

"What does he have to do with what we were talking about?" Josh guesses.

Mari nods.

Josh sighs.

"That's...that's what I was trying to explain," Josh says.

He rubs the edge of his yellow bandana, trying to find a way to put into words what he saw. Because he's still trying to understand it.

But...this, this is something he needs to share. Undoubtedly.

So he takes a deep breath and looks at Mari.