When at First You Don't Succeed - Sanders Sides

Part 24 - Patton

Logan took a couple steps inside Thomas' Subconscious. I'll admit, it made me more and more worried the further he walked inside. I've heard many rumors about the Subconscious in the past. Actually being here makes my skin crawl with nerves.

Me and Deceit shared a nervous glance, but I followed Logan inside and Deceit followed me. It was actually fairly pretty inside. Right now, we were at a seven way fork in the road. Each way corresponded with one of us. Our colors were glowing brightly. Virgil's was dull and dark which brought tears to my eyes. Logan sent Virgil away with Roman. I don't know how wise of a choice that was but I knew Logan did it for a good reason.

I turned my head towards Remus' path which was literally falling apart. I heard Deceit muffle a couple of sobs. I looked over at him. He was clutching his stomach with one hand and covering his mouth with his other hand. I've never seen him so broken. I put my hand on his shoulder. His wide eyes looked into my caring ones. "S-Sorry." He muttered, putting his hands by his side.

"It's okay. I know this is hard to look at." I said calmly. I heard Logan sputter out a couple of confused questions. I moved back over to him. He was looking between Roman's, mine, and his parts of the Subconscious. He had a very puzzled expression on his face as he examined our sections. I looked closer at mine. It was my color of light blue but, it had little white words, almost like code, floating around in the sea of light blue.

I turned back to Logan. "What's the matter?"

"Everything is Patton, Wrath's done way worse damage than I thought!"

"How so?"

"He's not just overpowering Thomas' dark sides so he'll listen to them more than us. He's completely rewriting his whole personality!"

"W-What does that mean?" I asked, getting slightly more worried just by reading Logan's facial expressions.

"It means, if we don't stop Wrath soon, Thomas could no longer have a sense of Morality, Logic, or Creativity. Instead, we could be written as immorality, incoherence, and predictability. This could change Thomas, as we know him, forever!" I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. This can't be real. This can't be happening. Is Wrath really still angry about all those years ago?

"What about me and Virgil?" Deceit asked.

"More than likely, he'll just control or manipulate you into obeying him again." Logan suggested. Deceit nodded sadly, understanding the sad truth to his words.

Logan tore his eyes away from our area of the Subconscious and moved forwards. Me and Deceit followed quietly behind. I was looking around me, taking in all the colors and the swimming codes. My eyes landed on Deceit who was fidgeting with his gloves. I recognized the look on his face. It was often the face Virgil made whenever he was nervous. I grabbed his forearm and watched him look at me with glossy eyes. Deceit shook his head and rubbed his eyes, "Sorry, I was completely spaced out."

"No need to be sorry. I just want to talk, seems like you have something on your mind." Deceit nodded and let out a shaky breath. He looked up at Logan who was not paying attention to us. Rather, he was still examining the coded walls. Deceit pulled me back and around Roman's section of the Subconscious.

Deceit took another breath and searched for his words. "I guess it's just hard for me. I don't want to work for Wrath again." His words trembled. "After he betrayed me and Remus...I don't know. I know it's probably odd for me to not want to be the villain, huh?" He asked me.

"No, kiddo. Not at all. You never were the villain. You were just looking out for Thomas in your own way. That's what we're all doing." I gave him a weak smile and he returned it. Without another thought, I wrapped my arms around him. He let out an uncertain breath before slowly wrapping his arms me too.

We pulled apart and he looked at me, "What happened between you guys and Wrath?" Based on Deceit's panicked look, I knew I couldn't have looked happy. He went to take back his words but I held up my hand.

"You need to know." Deceit nodded and we both took a seat on the ground like little kids. I sighed, "When Thomas was really young, like most kids, he had a temper. Me and Logan were very confused as to why he had such a temper. When Roman appeared, the temper vanished so we shrugged it off. However, one day..." I cleared my throat, "Wrath showed up in the mind palace. We were afraid of him. Logan and Roman tried to stand up to him but Wrath never listened. I never talked to him, I couldn't stand him, being Morality.

"Wrath also hated me. He painted mean things on my door, messed with me mentally, and contradicted everything I said. One day, I snapped. I yelled back at him. That started the war. After that, he spent way too much time with Thomas, trying to get him to make trouble. It took Roman, Logan, and I so much of our energy to make sure Thomas didn't do any of the things Wrath told him to.

"Eventually, we had to shut Wrath out. We put chains on his wrists so his aura wouldn't work. Finally, we put him back here and we haven't seen him sense." Deceit nodded, but then went wide eyed.

"That makes sense. Wrath always talked about how Virgil was treated like an angel compared to himself. Even though, they're both dark sides." It was my turn to nod. Deceit stood up and straightened his back. He stuck out his hand for me, I took and stood on my feet. At this point, Logan had rounded the corner and found us.

"I know where we need to go. Follow me." Me and Deceit were right behind him as he lead the way, past our glowing sections of the Subconscious. It got really dark, to the point that I couldn't see Logan anymore. I felt a hand wrap itself in mine. When we got back into light, Logan was holding my hand. Deceit pushed himself in front of us and looked around. He turned around to us.

"He's here."