Crystal Sides

Chapter 10: Sympathetic Past

--POV = Logan--

I looked up at the horrified faces of my roommates. Roman stared at me, wide-eyed. Virgil sank further into his hood. Patton squeaked and flung his hands over his mouth.

"H-he can cor-corrupt g-gems?" stammered Patton.

I nodded grimly, "That's how he got us to obey him: out of fear. Deceit tortures us... he tortured him..." I paused, feeling tears threatening to spill. Why was I telling my roommates this now? I didn't have to put myself through this... Why was I doing this?

Because you care. Because you don't want these people to live around you without knowing the truth.

I knew it was him telling me this.

"And then there's Noah." I forced myself to continue, feeling the other's eyes pounding into me, "He.. he's the best person I've ever met. He really deserved his name as sympathy. He, he..." I scoured my mind for words to describe how incredible Noah was, "He knew me better than anyone. He understood me better than anyone ever had, and ever will! He just, got me. After a while, I realised that..." I looked down in shame, "I was starting to fall in love with him. And he was in love with me, as well. At least, I think it was love. It's not love to me though.. it's just... Noah. That's all I've ever known it as, and that's how I describe it. Noah."

I looked up at the fascinated faces of my roommates.

"You fell in love?" Roman breathed in disbelief.

"Wow!" Patton sighed, "It must be amazing!"

I nodded awkwardly, "Of course, we never told Deceit. Stars forbid what he would do if we told him. But, it was hard. He had eyes everywhere, always watching us through his snakes. And then," a tear came to my eye as I remembered, "there was fusion."

Roman and Virgil exchanged a concerned glance.

I looked away in shame again, "I'd heard so many great things about fusion, about how incredible it feels to be fused with somebody. But Deceit didn't like it. And what Deceit didn't like became law. So, we didn't do it. But as time went on, I became more curious, and so did he. Sometimes, we would try and fuse. Each time, we got so close to fusing, when Deceit arrived to stop us. Once, we almost did it. I thought I could feel his soul merge with mine - but Deceit still got there before. He had snakes on us for two years straight after that, like bodyguards, but not for us. And then, one day, we were in a battle, when..." my throat closed up and I clapped my hand over my mouth.

"What?" Roman urged.

I gulped and took a breath, "Him and Noah fused... it was an accident, that's what Noah told me. I believed him. I'll always believe him. but, after that, Deceit became addicted to fusing. In a heartbeat he went from hating it with all his guts, to adoring it. Only with Noah, though. Never with me. Noah told me he liked the feeling of fusion, but he didn't like the fact that it was with Deceit. He said that if it were with me..." I paused. I decided to skip the sappy parts, "After that, Deceit only fused with Noah in battles. But it got more frequent. He didn't like it because of how it felt, but how it made him dominant over a person. He was always open with his opinions. 'If you're fused with me, you can't betray me'. That was his philosophy. It became more and more common. I saw less and less of Noah."

"What did you call the fusion?" Patton asked.

"Well," I started, "We gave it a first name, a combination of the two people's names, and a last name, a mix of two emotions. For example, The first name of the Noah-Deceit fusion was Diseah. The last name was Collusion. But, over time, he pushed Noah to the back of the fusion. Soon, it just became, 'Omega Deceit'. Or, just, Deceit. And then, one day, Deceit came up to me, fused, and tried to force me to fuse with him. He was power hungry. I refused. He threatened me, forced me into hiding!" I tear rolled down my cheek, "I've been running ever since."

Wide-mouthed, my roommates stared at me.

"Then, how'd you end up here?" Virgil murmured.

I glanced up and smiled at him, "Well, I heard tell that some more gems were moving over here, to team up. I decided to come and see how it went. It seemed to be going well so far; at least, none of you are sociopathic, power hungry villains, unlike a third of my other group."

Patton giggled, "Let's just wait and see how Virgil turns out!"

We all giggled. Ever Vigil smirked a little.

"Man, Deceit sounds like a real jerk!" Roman scratched the back of his neck.

"Ha! That's an understatement." I smiled, pushing my glasses up my nose.

"Well, the cookies are finished." Patton picked up the plate, "I'm gonna do some washing up."

"I'll go practice my sword skills," Roman stood up, "Don't want to be beaten by Logan again!"

"I'm gonna go touch up my eye shadow," Virgil grumbled.

"And I'll go eat some Crofters and do some online coding." I finished.

Patton turned around to me, "What's Crofters?"

I gasped, "We have a lot of talking to do."

Looking slightly afraid, Patton put down the plate, "Too urgent to do some housework?"

"Definitely." I grabbed his arm and dragged him into my room, grinning from ear-to-ear.