Storm Clouds (Sanders Sides)

Lockdown (pt 2)

Welcome to pt 2 of the Lockdown chapter! Let's get into it! :)

{Author's POV}

     "The Mind is recalibrating itself. This does not happen often, only when something drastic enough happens to a Side or Sides that it deems it necessary to reset."

     Roman and Remus had equally terrified looks, but Remus beat his brother to the punch when it came to speaking. "Drastic enough?" he repeated. "So, does that mean a Side is...?"

     "Is it Virgil?" Roman picked up, noting that Patton had said they had to leave him behind.

     Did we leave him behind to die?

     "I suspect it is Virgil, but recalibration does not necessarily mean a Side is fading," Janus admitted. "The last time the Mind had a recalibration was...Romulus."

      "That's why we don't remember. I...will admit I could never remember the moments before. All I remember is waking up in the Light Mindscape, in my own room."

     "Back then, the only Light Sides were Logan, and me," Patton explained. "Morality and Logic form fairly early on. The formation of Creativity was huge news all throughout the Mindscape, but the two of you were Neutral. Inherently, Creativity is not a good or bad thing, but as Thomas grew up and his curiosity grew, and he learned more, Creativity branched off."

     "The Mind couldn't leave a slowly fissuring side alone and, as you both know, it was becoming too much to bear. Creativity could no longer hold it together. So, the Mind split him off. He went into a similar shut-down mode as Virgil, and the Mind went into lockdown to recalibrate. This time, the recalibration was located within the Neutral Complex. We had to move everyone there to the Subconscious, and Thomas was a mess, having that many facets diminished at once, but ultimately he was the better for it. The Subconscious was the closest safe but Neutral zone; having them in either of our Mindscapes for too long would end far worse."

     "So that means...Virgil might not be fading?" Roman wondered, hope sparking in his chest like a creative burst. He looked between Patton and Janus, and their varying expressions left no room for certainty. Janus looked disheartened, while Patton gave him a warm smile. 

     "We cannot be sure until the lockdown lifts and we see for ourselves. We might get back to your Mindscape and he...might not be there," Janus replied, turning his head away with a shaky breath. Remus jumped to his feet from the couch, sitting on the arm of Janus's chair as he settled a hand on his shoulder. Their eyes met, a tear sliding down Janus's face. "I never thought we'd be in a position to lose him."

     "Listen to me, this Mind does not just give up on Sides, especially ones as important as Virgil, for no reason. We have to believe this is not that. We'll get him back."

     Janus shook his head. "No, we won't. We won't get him back. After everything we've done, we don't deserve him back! On one hand, we lose him forever. On the other hand, we lose him forever, and where does that leave Paranoia? He's really going to want to stay with us?"

     "You heard him back there," Roman interrupted. Remus looked up at him, while Janus simply buried his head in Remus's shoulder, leaving Roman unsure if he was listening. He continued nonetheless, listening or not. "Virgil's forgiven, Paranoia has forgiven. I can't say what they will decide to do. Honestly, I don't want to imagine my life without him either, none of us do, but none of that matters right now. Remus is right, we have to believe he'll still be there. And when he is, and when we get back to them, they're going to need us. They're going to need us, not worrying over whether or not they'll hate us, but they're going to need our help, our support. Remus had you, I had Logan and Patton," he gave the father-figure a smile. "They'll need all of us."

     Janus nodded, sniffling as he turned his head out of Remus's shoulder and looked around, wiping the remaining stray tear. "We are quite the group, aren't we?" he laughed. 

     "You know it!" Remus chimed in. The others all chimed into the laughter, settling down just as the red tint outside the window seemed to fade. 

     "Hey, look at that!" Roman jumped up, taking notice of the change outside. "Does that mean it's over?"

     Janus rose from his seat to go look outside and stopped, a hand over his chest. "De?" asked Remus, noticing the pause. 

     "Something's changed, in the Dark Mind. We need to hurry. Patton, the two of you should get back to your Side of the Mind. We will reach out when we look everything over, and have Logan stay with Thomas. You remember the last time this happened, it can be disorienting."

     Patton nodded, pulling out his phone and texting Logan to update him. As Remus followed Janus out the door, Roman stopped him with a catch of his sleeve. "Take care of him."

     Roman didn't need to clarify who he was referring to, and his brother needn't ask. The comment went any way it needed to, no matter the result of their return trip to the Dark Mindscape. 

     "You too. I'll...talk to you later." It was one of the few and fleeting, genuine smiles Roman ever saw grace his twin's face, and it warmed his heart. 

     "Come on, Roman. Let's go home," Patton said, settling a hand on his shoulder. Roman clapped his own over it in solidarity. 

{Author's POV}- Light Mindscape

     The trip back to the house seemed ten times longer than the escape to the Neutral Complex, even with the horses Roman brought back to make the trip shorter. Something held him back from opening the door, and he wondered briefly if this was the same kind of inhibition Virgil experienced on a far more regular basis. Thankfully, Patton squeezed beside him, taking the doorknob in his hand and opening the door himself. 

     "Go. Whatever happens, we'll be here with you. Now, upstairs. We'll wait down here, give you a minute."

     Roman turned to face Tristan and Brennan standing behind them, who nodded in solidarity with Patton. He walked inside, heart wanting nothing more than to run up the stairs, but fear flooded his mind. What if there's nothing to run up the stairs to? 

     He climbed the stairs, finally coming to the 2nd floor landing, and stood in the hallway, finally turning his head and gazing down the hall. 

     "Patton!"

{Author's POV}-Dark Mindscape

     Janus and Remus, however, rode full speed towards the border of the Dark Mindscape, and as soon as they reached the castle doors, dismounted and raced through the corridors. They had no idea what they were looking for, but they knew where they needed to go. Remus reached the hallway door, holding it open for Janus, who stopped, turning to him with a silent question. 

     "Go!" Remus shouted, gesturing down the hallway. Janus gave him a warm smile and ran down the hall, nearing the end before he realized something was wrong. "No's" muttered underneath his breath as he paced the corridor up and down and back again. He and Remus locked eyes, Remus's expression a questioning one as he tried to read Janus's. 

     "Remus..." 

     

I do love to mess with you all, I suppose ;)

Anyway, the next chapter will be up very soon. We're just about wrapped up with this story, so I'm trying to finish things up so I can put some more focus into the ending of Defiance and other projects. Speaking of which, if you'd like to check out some of those other projects, there is a Linktree in my bio! 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this quick little chapter. The focus of splitting the Lockdown chapters (and focus of this chapter) was to really put emphasis on the Romulus backstory, and to show both sides of the reveal. So, what do you think is going to happen next? 

I hope you will all come back to find out, and I will have the next chapter (I'm strongly confident) up by the end of the week/early next week at the latest. Thank you for reading! See ya! <3