A nice change

actually I've been counting wrong but this is 46

Warning: language, grief, and mentions of murder

As previously mentioned, Gerard and Mikey were the ones resigning to figure out not only how the fuck they were going tell Remington's brothers he's dead and exactly how he had been killed. No one was envious. Lindsey joined because she had met Emerson once or twice when he just happened to be around when she was dating Remington, and she felt it might be easier to hear the news from two random adults claiming to be superheroes when they had your brother's child's mother on their side. And speaking of superpowers, guess what the two dumbasses known as the Ways when Emerson didn't believe them. They almost burned down Emerson's house. Great first impression, fam.

"O-okay, so you're saying me and Remington and Seb are also magical?" He asked. Unlike Alva he didn't look terrified and like they thought they were going insane, but more astonished (Shadow was also amazed, because they could do that. Lindsey looked like she was pondering something, and had been ever since Gerard told her that Remington was Patient X.)

"Um... let's go with that. You three can open portals to another dimension. Alternate realities and all that stuff, you follow?"

Emerson nodded, his eyes still wide in wonder "How?"

"If I remember correctly, your power's so difficult you need three people with the same power to touch to be able to open it, but I believe you can glimpse into it from time to time without the other," Lindsey said, deciding whatever problem she was considering was something she could focus on later.

"The world is called Obsidian," Mikey awkwardly added at Emerson's confused look.

"The place you're always drawing?" Shadow asked.

"It's real?!" Emerson asked. His whole life seemed turned upside down up this prospect.

"It's incredibly real. And we were tortured and experimented on as children to go to Obsidian and take it over by force," Mikey said with his usual lack of tact. Gerard glared at him and tried to explain as much as he could.

"And so, about Remington-" He finally got around to saying

"Shadow, you've heard this story enough. If you want to leave the room, you should." Lindsey cut in. Shadow looked surprised but gave a grateful nod and when out into the kitchen.

Now Emerson Barrett was absolutely the kind of guy who put photos on his fridge. There were lot's pictures of Sebastian, Remington, and Emerson together. They were 19, 17, and 15 in the oldest one. Funny how they never used to question why there were no baby photos of them. There was a baby photo of Alva though. Emerson looked like such a baby himself as he held them with the biggest, proudest smile ever. The was an old Christmas card from the Danzigs featuring Autumn as a toddler wearing reindeer antler's. There one of Shadow and Autumn when they were children Trick-or-Treating. Much to Shadow's annoyance, they were dressed as a princess, but so was Autumn (and Remington was a queen) so that made it okay (Emerson went as a king and Sebastian was there as his normal self as well.) Of course there was drawings done by Alva, Shadow, and Autumn done at various ages, as well as school photos of all three of them that they all hated but Emerson, Remington, and Sebastian insisted they looked nice in. Much to Shadow's pain they remembered school would be starting in two weeks and they quickly moved on. That's when they found the picture of Remington and Shadow and Autumn and Sebastian taken last year with Shadow holding their eighth grade diploma and Autumn holding her seventh grade one. Remington barely looked any different back then than how he looks- or looked now. The past tense hurt. Hurt more than the nostalgia of the photos. Hurt more than dysphoria. Hurt more than anything they had ever faced before.

They started crying as they pulled it off the fridge. They held it close to their chest. A captured moment in time when everything was okay. They went back into the living room to ask if they could keep it. Emerson was crying and Gerard was trying to comfort him. Alva was sitting there looking shocked and Lindsey was during her best to calmly answer their questions. Mikey was awkwardly standing there with a blank expression as he watched everything unfold. He noticed them first and his expression turned soft.

"You okay, kid?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just found this picture and was wondering if I could keep it?" They asked softly sitting down inbetween Alva and Emerson to show him the photo.

"Of course you can, 'Dow," Emerson said sadly as he wrapped his arm around them. They leaned into his side hug and he just held them. Both were trying to keep from breaking completely for the sake of everyone else, when really they were just drowning together in grief. But Shadow didn't want to drown. They showed the picture to Alva and tried to talk to them about it. Tried to distract themself. Alva smiled sadly but didn't know what to say. Lindsey saw that and softly asked if she could see. Shadow sat up a little to hand Lindsey the photo then leaned back into Emerson's cuddle.

Lindsey looked at the photo and tried to smile, but she couldn't. This is the man she once loved. The man she trusted her only child to take care of. The man who just died to save the boy who was practically her son. She used to pride herself on how good an actress she was. How she could shovel her true feelings deep down and convince anyone to do anything. She could play with others heart and pretend that it didn't leave her awake at night. Because it did. She cried in the shower when no one could hear her. She stood in broom closets and empty hallways to take a moment to breathe before and after she saw people like the Doctor Man every time. She acted like she was made of steel every time she had to see his blue eyes light up and stupid grin when he saw the suffering of others. He kind of looked like Remington's older brother now that she was looking at the photo. Actually he looked exactly like Remington's older brother. But that wouldn't make any since because the Doctor Man never showed he cared as he brought people in to mess with Remington's brains. Except what was now for yesterday when he made Patrick kill Joe. Made Patrick kill someone he loves, because he killed someone valuable to Liseil. But if Remington was so valuable why did the Doctor Man let Brendon and others play around in his head so much, they could accidentally undo something. And this brought her back to what she was wondering before: if Remington was Patient X like Gerard said, how can he be brought to Liseil to and have people experiment with his mind so often and not remember anything? Well obviously almost everyone in Liseil is good at erasing memories, but how can he be at Liseil for short periods at a time, but then get brought back home to Shadow like nothing happened. Before she had assumed there was a house like the one she put Brendon and the others in and the one the Killjoys stayed at when they weren't being used in experiments or being observed that they put him in. But obviously that wasn't true, so why would he get special treatment? Especially when him, Emerson, and Sebastian were known to spend the least amount of time at the Killjoy's house with the others. It didn't make sense unless...

"Sebastian is the Doctor Man."