Storm Clouds (Sanders Sides)

Condition Critical

Note: So looking back on it in the "Conditioning" chapter, I messed this up a lot and I am going to go back and fix it for future readers or re-readers, but for this chapter the same rules apply.

Italicized is Virgil speaking to Paranoia

Italicized and Underlined is Paranoia speaking to Virgil

If either of these is in BOLD then its their deeper, "Dark Side" voice taking over

Since these characters communicate in their mind, I can't really have it all just be in italics. If its like normal thoughts, which will be rare since they can hear each other, I'll have it in normal italics, but indicate who is thinking. Again, this will be EXTREMELY rare.

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy! :)

{Virgil's POV}- Dark Mind Palace, Paranoia's room.

The minutes seemed to drag on into hours, hours into days, days into weeks. Despite this, he knew they hadn't been in that hell-hole for anymore than a day.

If they had, there is no way they would have survived this long.

It had been a few hours, however. Their brother had gone off, no doubt still watching them somehow.

No, Virgil...Don't think about that. We can't...feed into...the...Paranoia!

Virgil knew he was right. Even if he was watching them, it didn't matter. He tried to speak calmly, remind himself that if they were being watched, it was nothing to get so worked up about. But he knew that as the time dragged on, as they watched clip after clip of their past, hours of footage of insults and nasty looks and bad decisions on their part that set the wheels in their head to overdrive, their chances of making it out of this in one piece grew slimmer.

Hey, 'noia?

Yes...Virgil?

What do you think will happen to Thomas if this goes on like this...?

I mean, I suppose it's like everything...I...did to him all those years, but just...all at once. It will most likely drive him insane.

What do you think will happen to us if this goes on?

Honestly, Virgil, I don't know, but...I'm afraid it won't be very much...us...anymore.

Virgil paused, having not even once stopped to consider that idea. He knew his brother's end-game, to return Paranoia and re-fuse the two of them. It had always been pretty common knowledge that he wouldn't survive that, but would Paranoia? Would he just be a voice in their brother's head, or would he be reabsorbed completely?

He could see and feel energy manifesting from all around his body, like a dark, pulsing aura. It grew stronger by the second as negative emotions, fears, and mostly repressed memories of his time as his other half were released into his mind through the images in front of him, as if someone had torn down a dam and let the water rage through.

The others will come for us...right...?

For a second, Paranoia felt his panic rise, bubbling in his chest like a violent, swirling typhoon and he could feel the shift in Virgil's energy compared to his own. He managed to bring it back down, but he knew that they weren't going to last much longer like this. He couldn't imagine how Thomas was holding up, mostly because he didn't want to upset Virgil further, but he knew it wasn't good. This, he found strange.