A Breakdown

The Aftermath

Everyone fell silent. I could only guess what they were thinking about, but my mind was racing a mile a minute. I didn't know what they were gonna say, or if I should take them farther into my memories. I already felt incredibly exposed and vulnerable after showing them this much.

The room started flickering, like an unstable tv connection. The others jerked out of their thoughts and turned to me, alarm spreading across their faces.

"Virgil? What's going on kiddo?" Patton inquired, obviously trying to keep any panic out of his voice.

The other two just kept their mouths shut, but their eyes betrayed them, Roman especially. They were terrified. And they should be. I knew all too well the effects of what had just happened, and the fact that everything was destabilizing wasn't helping.

Patton asked his question again, and I realized I hadn't answered, just stared at him.

"Oh. I think my memories are pausing. I can take you further into my past, or we can return to the present."

I was alarmingly calm. Well, I dunno if calm is the word for it. It was like, I was so completely devoid of emotions, there wasn't anything to feel. Just nothing. It made sense, and I knew what had caused me to feel this way. I guess witnessing his might, even through the lens of a memory was enough to wipe everything away. I was just that used to it.

I hadn't even noticed that the room had faded completely, and we were floating in an endless black void, each of our respective glows only traveling a few inches before being consumed. Roman floated over to me, slowly and carefully. He put a hand on my shoulder, so gentle he was barely even making contact.

"What's um, what's going on in your brain right now pal? We have to know how you're feeling to make that decision."

I looked at his hand, then at his face. I was a robot, moving so mechanically that I questioned my "humanity."

"I'm scared."

Black.

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(A/N: What's this? I'm finally doing a god damned POV swap? Scandalous!)

Patton's POV:

"I'm scared."

That's what he said, right before everything faded to black. Well, I say faded, it was more like getting hit with a brick, in the face, and you pass out immediately. That kind of fade. There is something seriously wrong with him, I know it. I don't mean he's bad, I mean something screwed with him, and he's got some serious emotional damage happening. I don't want Virgil to suffer, hell knows he suffered enough before he came to us. Ah, but let's get on with the story, shall we?

I woke up in Virgil's room. Everything hurt. Head, arms, chest, legs, everything. The first thing (second thing, I groaned first. Pain hurts.) I did was check my arms to see if I was solid. I was both happy and sad to see that I was flesh-me again. I looked around, seeing if anyone was with me. All three of the others were in the room, but all of them were passed out. In some pretty funny poses too. Logan managed to get on top of a bookshelf, and one of his legs was dangling off the side, glasses on his foot.

Roman was almost better. He was on the floor, kind of. He ended up back on his bean bag, but only his bottom half. His legs were sticking straight up in the air, and his top half was sprawled across the floor. One arm on his forehead, the other on his chest, he almost looked as if he was posing on purpose, if it wasn't for his sash covering more than half his face.

I snapped a 'mental' picture of both of them, filing them away for later. Virgil, who I had thought was out cold, was in a concerning state. He was half-conscious, curled up into a tight ball on his bed. I only knew he was awake was because he had tears escaping from underneath his eyelids, taking black eyeshadow with them. I stumbled over to him, and saw that he was shaking really hard. I plopped down on the bed next to him, careful not to sit on any part that belonged to his body. I steadied myself, taking deep breaths to hopefully get some sort of strength back. Our little field trip drained me, but I have no idea why. All I knew was that it had to be worse for Virgil, who actually took us into his memories. I was still reeling from that by the way. It was crazy. Wait! I'm getting off track again. I rubbed my hands together, blew into them, and set them on Virgil's exposed side. They started glowing, faint at first, but then it grew and grew until my entire arm up to my elbows were covered in a soft blue glow. The glow slowly crept onto Virgil, steadily enveloping him until he was a giant nightlight. He stopped shaking, and relaxed his posture. The occasional tear still leaked out, but his breathing was even, so I assumed he had fallen asleep.