Bad Moon Rising | Sanders Sides

The First

They'd never managed to fix the gaping wound that Virgil had created when he'd abandoned them. It mocked them from every corner, haunted their snarls and whispers. Virgil had abandoned them, yes, but they would not forget him. He still had a place among them. He was still theirs.

Deceit had been the first to step forward and interact with their host. Thomas, naive little Thomas, had become too fixated on the bright and good. He'd become too stuck on being such a lovely little saint. Thomas had made Virgil too lax, too unbothered. Thomas had made Virgil think he'd escaped them.

Deceit didn't like being ignored and forgotten. He didn't like losing. He especially didn't like Virgil's insolent actions because despite the new colour and the new friendships he'd formed, he'd been a Dark Side first.

So Deceit donned the persona of lovely little Patton, and he watched Virgil figure it out. Deceit smiled with Patton's mouth, and he spoke with Patton's voice, but he looked with his own eyes. Virgil saw. Virgil knew.

They had not forgotten him. They had not let him go.

"Virgil, buddy," he said with Patton's voice. "I know you weren't too keen on it at first, but come on! Could you stand to lose the support of one of Thomas's friends?"

Virgil's eyes narrowed, and something on his face darkened. Playing this game was too easy. "Well yeah, Thomas's friends make me feel more at ease," Virgil said, voice low and angry. "But Thomas lying would make me just as uneasy and anyone who doesn't understand that should just shut up."

"Virgil, it's me! Aren't we friends?" Double meanings. It was always about double meanings and Virgil knew it. Deceit had won this round.

And so he revealed himself; Thomas was so gullible, honestly. He'd planned to stick around longer, just to wreak havoc, but the real Patton had ruined it all and he'd retreated. Still, he'd achieved victory. Virgil had remembered them, remembered his true heritage. He was theirs, always was, always will be. There was no escaping them.

They would not abandon him like he abandoned them.

When Deceit returned to them and he told them of his victory, they rejoiced. Virgil's treachery had been festering inside them, and they were bitter and twisted. Virgil had betrayed them, had forsaken them to be with the Light Sides, and now Thomas was living a lie.

Thomas was living as though he was a good person, an honest person, a person without faults. Virgil was helping him maintain the lie. Virgil would eradicate his own kind.

Virgil would come back to them. Deceit vowed it.

And so he came forth once more. Like a magnet, he drew Virgil out and they were face to face once more. Deceit's mouth curved into a wicked grin. Let the games begin.

Except this time, the game wasn't focused solely on Virgil. This time, Deceit's fury and bitterness was aimed at everybody, Thomas included, because his host simply didn't understand the layers he had. Thus, despite Virgil fighting tooth and nail to get him to leave, Deceit stayed. It was all too easy.

He argued with the silly little sides in a courtroom, he said "Takes a liar to know a liar," just to see Virgil get dangerously pale, and he amused himself with pushing them all as much as he could. If he was already here, may as well break some hearts.

"I'd like to call my next witness to the stand," he said, adjusting his suit. "Virgil." Like the mature side he obviously was, Virgil just blew a raspberry. Fine, Deceit could play dirty. "Hmm, very well. You don't usually have anything helpful to add anyway."

"Okay," Virgil snarled from the witness stand. "Ask me your questions."

Too easy. Deceit smirked a predatory smirk, because Virgil was just too easy to mess with. He knew what Deceit would do to get him back. He knew what Deceit would do if they couldn't get him back. "You are in control of Thomas's fears, are you not?"

"Oh my god! We all know each other; who are these clarifications for?" Virgil slammed his hand on the stand. "Cut to the chase!"

"Is it true that you once said that 'weddings are outdated, overly expensive pageantry'?"

"Yeah, well, I also once swore to Thomas that the drink he left alone in the other room for ten seconds was definitely poisoned and, if he drank it, he would die. I'm not exactly a beacon of truth."

It was too easy to get him riled up, too easy to push the wrong buttons. Deceit welcomed the panicked anger, the misdirected fear. Virgil was remembering. Virgil was worried. Virgil knew.

He drawled, "So you've changed your mind then?"

And Virgil replied with, "Next question."

Deceit chuckled. Come on Virgil, play with me. "Very well. As Thomas's anxiety do you have any relevant information about his norepinephrine levels in regards to these two conflicting commitments?" As one of us, do you have anything to tell him?

Virgil's eyes got that little bit wilder. "I think it's ridiculous that anyone is entertaining any of this. Guys, he's a liar. You literally know him as Deceit."

"Glass houses, Virgil," Deceit chided. "You yourself said that you are not a beacon of truth."

"Yeah because I'm wrong a lot."

"Oh, so you've never been reluctant to share anything with the group then?"

Virgil's voice got dangerously low. "Don't."

Deceit's smirk widened. Gotcha. "What?" He said innocently. "I just meant your name."

"Don't."

"Maybe that's why it's so easy for you to recognise me for what I am." Come on Virgil, you're one of us. "Like I said before, it takes a liar to know a liar." Play the game Virgil. Remember who we are, what you are.

There was a steely glint in Virgil's eyes. Deceit wasn't bothered. Virgil was always defensive, even when he was in his rightful place.

Deceit knew. They knew.

They would get him back.

Welcome, welcome!

Remember, this story backtracks slightly, so it doesn't lead directly on from Tomorrow. Leave your thoughts in the comments guys!