Innerworks

40. To know a Victory

"Sssalutations Dream Keeper~"

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"Deception?"

The figure at the door shrugs, "Deceit actually, but enough semantics. There are two reasons I'm here..." He held up a yellow gloved hand and paused for breath-

"Oh? Care to elaborate or am I supposed to guess?"

Deceit blinked, clearly taken aback by the Young Guardian's tone. Dramatic pause ruined.

The Aspect then sighed, running a hand down his face. "Look, sorry about that babes. Things have been pretty hectic lately and I've been stressed out as far fuck today. Plus I haven't even had my coffee yet and that always makes me the biggest bitch"

Deceit blinked again, was First Impressional whiplash a thing? He shrugged, a pseudo-smile on his face as he smoothed back into his suave facade. "No harm done Dream Keeper, water under the bridge. However that is one of the reasons that I'm here. The Gate's Alarm had sounded early in the day and your Cousin all but forced me to come check on you in his stead. Though, you weren't here earlier"

Now it was Remy's turn to blink.

"Remus sent you? Usually he hears the Alarm and comes ready to bash some heads in"

"That's the Second reason I'm here"

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"Christ, it's like peeling off hot rubber!"

"That is... one way to describe it Anxiety, though hot rubber would in fact burn you, wouldn't "melted rubber" suffice as a better analogy?"

"Well, I mean- yeah Teach, but aren't you guys feeling the heat from this thing?"

"Heat? What kiddo?"

"Wait, you guys don't feel anything? We've been slowly pulling the Sand and Ink off her and my hands feel like I've been holding a plate of really hot food-"

Roman scoffs lightly, wiping beads of sweat of his brow with the back of his hand. "You sure you're not just hungry-"

"My hands are red-"

"Woah- hey no!" The Prince jolts at the sight of his younger counterpart's open palms. Gently he holds and examines the damage on Anxiety. "That's not good, why didn't you say something earlier?"

It's at this moment, that the other two pause to look up at the younger pair-

A stream of Ink suddenly bursts free from its Sandy prison and instantly lashes out at Patton.

Thankfully Morality jumps back in time, but before anyone else could do anything, the Ink lashes out again; only for the now Blue-eyed Prominent to grab it one handed- as if it were a snake- and squeeze it out of existence.

Anxiety blinks, shakes his head and then points to the half-cocooned Fae. "That's why. We need to get that stuff off her pronto. If we don't, I doubt her magic will keep her alive any longer than today"

The other three Sides nodded grimly, brows furrowed as they all went back to work.

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Teleporting small distances is nothing new for the Aspect of Sleep, though it did surprise him slightly that the Scaled Side was able to drop them directly into Remus' half of the Mind Palace.

While Remy hadn't been in this section for a while, he knew that this wasn't their Commons, no, this was the hallway above it- the dormitory.