Beneath the Ice: An Among Us Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Three: Continual / If Only to Connect

Forte was flipping through the pictures in the same way as one would go through and discard old grocery receipts. Every picture he brought into his sight caused a small flashback that was usually filled with pain and misery that caused him to put it down and pick up the next one.

This continued for quite some time until he realized that there was nothing to be gained by doing this.

His mental heath was just going on a downward spiral at this point. Not that it wasn't already with stressing out that his friends would die, but with Dax inside of him, his mental health had just jumped off a cliff.

Which at this point, he didn't really care about. Forte knew that he was going to have to die at one point or another, and even if he didn't outright die, he wouldn't be able to live with himself and the guilt of killing his two best friends and Beta.

The best thing to do now was to help Clasher and everyone else figure out how to kill him.

Dax. Or, wait, first Forte had to die and then they could target Dax. Or maybe if Dax didn't have a new host to infect, then they would die? Forte was really new to the whole 'being infected' thing.

Because, of course, you're infected once before you either murder everyone or die.

At this point, dying wasn't the worst of Forte's problems.

"All of Dax's hosts have had some sort of depression or anxiety after joining," Forte remarked.

"Did they end up... you know... killing themselves?"

"Some of 'em. Most of them died soon after joining from Dax pushing them too hard. They went insane and then died in their sleep."

Clasher nodded thoughtfully and kept flipping through pictures. "Do you have the other memories of previous hosts? Like, in your head?"

Forte snorted. "We are in my head. Dude, this is where all the memories are stored. I've got no idea, since I can't bring anything up on command."

"Well, that's a problem-" Clasher started before Forte suddenly cried out and put a hand to his forehead. "Forte! What's going on?"

"Dax!" Forte let out a string of eloquent and graphic curses and threats in between groans of pain. It was like someone was hammering on the inside of his mind (which was weird, since wasn't he already in his mind?) and screeching inside of his ears. 

"Oh fudge," Clasher muttered. "Do you know what Dax is doing with you body right now?"

"No!" Forte snapped. He tried to get up, only to collapse on the ground, curled in the fetal position and trying to ward off the migraine. "Gosh darn it!" He started to curse again, not caring that someone else was hearing Forte's creativity.

When he was in pain, Forte tended to say anything that came to his mouth, even if it got him in trouble later. It was a trait that was hard-pressed to be tamed.

"Oh no, oh no," Clasher started to pace, every one of his footfalls sending vibrations out from his feet along the floor, somehow making Forte's migraine worse. "I've got a bit of a headache myself... but I don't know what my body is doing... if Dax has control of my body as well as yours, this might be bad... Petri can't fight well..."

Forte didn't respond to that, but a hint of concern appeared in his thoughts. But then again, was it really possible for Dax to have also taken control of Clasher's body? Probably not... right?

...Right?

He really needed to think hard about that, but the migraine wasn't helping anything...

"So my mind somehow got over here, right into Dax's reach," Clasher started, "therefore, it is hypothetically possible that if Dax tried hard enough, he could twist my mind to his liking and take over my body that way... But my mind is here, with you, Forte. Therefore, either one of two options are happening. Dax is bypassing my consciousness and controlling my body, or he is using my consciousness against me, but the small part of me that's here with you is only feeling a portion of the effect that Dax is causing..."