The day began as it would any day in Thomas' mindpalace, which housed 4 of his most defining traits. These traits, also called 'sides', include Morality, Logic, Creativity, and Anxiety.
It was a little after 6 in the morning, precisely the time Patton began making breakfast.
Patton is Thomas' morality, in all forms. Sure, his silliness, puns, and dad jokes could annoy the others, especially Logic, at times, but he is also the most understanding and caring of the group.
He was busy making pancakes in the kitchen, all the while humming is favorite songs. At quarter to 7, Logan walked out of his room and down the stairs in his characteristically even and steady pace. He sat down and adjusted his glasses.
Logan is logic, in everyway. He keeps Thomas productive, loves reading, is cold and calculating, but is still someone whom you can trust.
He conjured up his favorite book, The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd, and began reading it for the 100th time. Suddenly, a crash sounded from above. Unsuprising, as it was just Roman leaving his room whilst singing Disney loudly and dancing.
Roman is Thomas' creativity. He helps Thomas come up with ideas and lives in a realm of wild fantasies. He loves Disney and acting.
The dark door across the hall opened slowly. Virgil appeared in the door frame, glaring at Roman.
Virgil is Thomas' anxiety. Although he was once treated as the bad guy, he is now very much a part of the family. He protects Thomas and stops him from doing very stupid things. Without Virgil, Thomas is a shameless, clueless moron who doesn't fear death, or anything else in that case.
Virgil hissed at Roman before heading down the stairs, adjusting his infamous purple and black hoodie over his wrists.
"A ray of sunshine this morning, are you not, Dr. Gloom?" Roman groveled.
"More like a ray of moonlight on a cloudy night." Virgil replied, boredom seeping into his expression.
"But, on a cloudy night, the moon would not visibly expell rays at all!"
"That was the point, Logan!" Virgil replied, exasperated.
"Now kiddos, no fighting at the breakfast table. Enjoy your pankcakes." Patton said, smiling.
The sides returned to the mind palace exhausted. They had just finished dealing with one of Thomas' neverending, dilemmas. All four sides yawned.
"It is late, I am going to retire to my bedchambers," Roman announced. At that, all of the sides dispersed to their rooms. Virgil shut the door of his room firmly, and sat on the corner of his bed.
After an hour or so passed, he got up and jogged over to his closet. He threw open the door and pressed his hand against the hidden latch.
He turned to the bare wall to his left. The wall was gone, replaced by a sea of swirling darkness. Virgil sighed as out of the darkness stepped the 'dark' sides, as Roman called them.
"Anxiety, enemy, and totally not our spy. What can you not tell us tonight?" Deciet, the snake faced liar, questioned, smiling profusely. He stepped behind Vigil and removed the hoodie, revealing the scales running up Virgil's arms marking him as a 'dark' side.
Virgil rubbed his temples. "Well... So far not much has changed. I haven't really..."
The door swung inward quickly. Unlike Patton, Logan didn't have the same affinity for knocking before entering. "Virgil, I seem to have misplaced my book and..." Logan trailed off, finally noticing the 'dark sides' standing in the room. His gaze turned to Virgil and the scales on his arms.
When Logan had entered the room, Virgil's eyes had widened. Logan should be asleep.Fear hit Virgil like a train.
Logan opened his mouth, likely to scream for Roman and/or Patton, but Deciet twisted his wrist and Logan slapped his own hand over his mouth, effectively muffling the cries.
Virgil looked at Logan in horror. Betrayal flooding into Logan's eyes, the very eyes locked on Virgil's scales.
Deciet turned to Virgil. "Well, isn't this fortunate. You did not say they were all asleep," Deciet challenged.
"I thought they were!" Virgil exclaimed.
"This meeting will continue as planned," Deciet glared at Virgil, "And we are totally will not be taking him to you do not know where."
"The shadow prisons..." Virgil said, dejected.
"That is not correct," Deciet said before stepping back into the sea of darkness.
Logan stared at Virgil, with now fearful betryal. His eyes seemed to ask, 'Why are you doing this? Why not stop them?'
Apathy, another 'dark side', turned to face Virgil, "Look, Anxiety, you know we can't just leave him here. He will talk. Besides, we can... extract... information from him."
"I know, I know. Just promise me that you won't break him," Virgil pleaded.
"You of all people should know I don't do promises. But... we'll see..." With these words of little hope, Apathy shoved Logan, none to gently, hard towards the mists.
Virgil stole one last look at Logan before he disappered for what could be forever. The betryal on Logan's face was heart-wrenching.
The wall slid back into place and Virgil crashed down on his bed sobbing.
The next morning, and indeed the next day, Virgil acted like he knew nothing of Logan's sudden disapperance. Roman would have been jealous if he knew it was acting.
Virgil followed the others, trying hard not to cry, while they searched everywhere in the mindscape for Logan, or at least the parts they knew existed.
By the end of the day, Patton alone had cried 206 times, had 23 panic attacks, and had talked to Thomas twice.
Roman was frustrated that he could not be the hero of the story. Virgil did what he always did and calmed Patton down.
Feeling dejected from their fruitless search, the remaining sides returned to their rooms.
Virgil paced behind his now locked bedroom door. Finally, he threw his hands up and sighed. Sinking down, he soon popped into existance in Logan's cell at the shadow prisons.
Logan raised his head slowly to look at Virgil. After another long moment of silence, Virgil opened his mouth to speak. Before he got even one word out, Logan spoke.
"Take off the hoodie, Anxiety."
Virgil looked suprised, and hurt. A significant part of him had just be stolen from him, and it was all his fault.
Virgil paused, then shrugged the hoodie to the floor.
Logan stared at the scales for a minute or two before stating, "Interesting. All the rest have scales on their faces or heads, but not you..."
Virgil sighed. What was the point of keeping the rest hidden? He brushed back his bangs, and rubbed a thumb against the center of his forehead.
The makeup now removed, Logan could clearly see the diamond-shaped pattern of scales on Virgil's forehead. 'No wonder he loved his bangs and hoodie so much.'
Logan looked at the ground. Another moment passed, then another.
"Look, Logan..." Virgil began.
Logan raised a hand, stopping Virgil. "No. I do not want to hear anymore lies. You... you... you TRAITOR!" Logan screamed, launching himself at Virgil.
Although caught off guard, Virgil managed to dodge Logan. Logan hit the opposing wall hard.
Crimson blood dripped from Logan's head. It was then that Virgil noticed the bruises and cuts on the logical sides body.
Virgil held back tears, and stooped down to pick up the hoodie.
"No, you don't," Logan said, now more like his composed self, "Do you have any idea the inexplicable things they have done to me since last night?" Anger crept into Logan's voice. "They made me watch Patton's panic attacks. That made me feel useless and replacable. Then, I had hallucinations of the rest of you dying slowly and painfully!"
Logan was beginning to shake. Tears were spilling down his cheeks. "And nothing even comes close to explaining the physical horrors."
Logan stopped. He sat down on the bench, now sobbing loudly.
"B-but... I... I... I think the worst of it came from you, Virgil."
Virgil was shocked. How could he have let this happen? Especially to Logan...
"The betryal, the betryal coming from the one side I fully trusted. Patton has no filter, and, quite frankly, neither does Roman."
Logan looked back at Virgil, eyes brimming with tears. "A-and you did nothing to stop the 'dark sides' from doing this to me... I thought... I thought..."
Virgil's eyes widened despair, as he took a step forward to comfort Logan. He paused, bit his lip, and stepped back.
He glanced once more at Logan before slipping on the hoodie and sinking away.
Virgil checked that his door was locked. He cried and cried. Even Patton, could not get him to stop. Suddenly, he was yanked from his room by an invisible force.
He found himself in Thomas' living room. Evidently, Thomas had called them here.
"Okay, what's going on? Where is Logan?" Thomas asked, worriedly.
Patton started crying, as did Virgil. Shockingly, only Roman remained composed enough to retell the story of Logan's disapperance and their fruitless search to Thomas.
Thomas pondered the information for a bit before excusing the sides to go back to their rooms.
Virgil had just stepped over the threshold to his room, when something hard struck him in the back of the head. He went down like a stone.
Virgil blinked a few times. He groaned; his head throbbing painfully. He squinted against the darkness and tried to make out where he was.
Suddenly, out of the darkness stepped a shadow. Virgil's breath hitched.
Logan.
Logan's eyes were dull and angry. Virgil tried to rise and comfort the logical component, but he quickly realized he was chained down.
"Anxiety..."
Okay, the absence of his name still stung.
"You stand trial in my dream space," Logan spread his arms and spun around, "for betraying the others and I."
Logan steped closer and whispered in Virgil's ear. "You have been found guilty..."
That was expected.
"And are to be punished twofold."
That was not.
Logan didn't punish. He didn't even suggest punishment. He found it pointless.
Virgil stared at Logan, sincerely hoping Logan was being silly, confused.
Then, he saw it.
As the light spilled over Logan's face, a single tear drop shaped scale could be seen on his left cheek.
Understanding hit Virgil like a tidal wave.
"They broke you..." Virgil cried.
"No, that is where you are incorrect," Logan said, turning back to Virgil, "they made me better. They were right. I was replacable," He paused, "But, not once I rid us of you," Logan smirked, "Once you're out of the way, and it's the only way, I will be the only one protecting Thomas."
Virgil looked surprised and struggled against his bonds.
"Relax, Virgil," Logan said his name like it was poison, "I'm not going to kill you. I cannot. But... somethings are worse than death," Logan stopped.
"And for the record... nothing they did, or ever could have done, broke me. You broke me."
Logan turned away from Virgil, and spread his arms.
"Gentlemen, I present to you a wolf in sheep's clothing!"
The lights flickered on. All the others were there. Patton, Roman, even Thomas. All of them looked surprised at the sight of Virgil chained and Logan standing there.
Roman stood, "Logan, good to see you. Care to explain?"
Logan glared at Roman, muttering under his breath in spanish.
"Indeed, my friend," Logan said.
He, then, recounted the tale. One by one, each one was crushed. Tears began to flow, and sobs filled the air.
Logan looked back at Virgil, and mouthed, "Twofold..."
Virgil was stunned.
This was not Logan, not really. Virgil just had to...
Logan spun a full 360 and swung Roman's sword at Virgil's shoulders.
However, instead of striking Virgil, the sword neatly removed his hoodie, leaving his scaley arms bare.
Logan approached Virgil and pinned his bangs back. He removed the makeup from Virgil's forehead. The diamond-shaped patch of scales gleamed in the light.
"A more accurate deacription is a snake in sheep's clothing," Logan stated coldly.
Virgil said nothing. Blackness crept into his vison, as he was sucked into the shadow prison.
Apathy appeared.
"You failed, but it's all good. I'm gonna have fun..." he said.
Virgil didn't say a word. He deserved everything he had coming to him. He betrayed Logan.
A Few Days Later
Logan sat staring at the tear drop shaped scale in his hand. It was polished and slightly glowing.
Logan sighed, and dropped it into the wastebasket. It had fallen off his cheek an hour ago.
He bit his lip, and stood up. He couldn't remember much about the past few days.
Shaking his head, he opened his bedroom door to find Roman... bowing?
"What are you doing?" Logan asked.
"Only as you asked, valiant Lord Logan," Roman replied.
"I never asked you to do that. Stop it, you look ridiculous."
Roman looked up. "Oh..." he said, " the scale is gone." Roman said it cautiously at first, the excitedly.
"The scale is gone!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
Logan ran his fingers through his hair. "Can someone please tell me what is going on?"
Roman sat Logan down, and carefully told the whole story to Logan.
Logan looked crestfallen. He almost started to cry.
"I... I... What?... no... no... no... We have to get him back!"
"I agree!" Roman said, striking a pose. His face fell, "One problem..."
"And that is?" Logan asked.
" You're the only one who knows where he is..." Roman grinned uneasily.
A moment later, Patton was at the top of the stairs, hugging Logan. Thomas followed.
"It's gone?!" Patton exclaimed, "YAY!"
Logan smiled. "I'm going to get Virgil."
"But he betrayed... us..." Patton said slowly, clearly confused.
" I know he did, Patton, but I also know he's sorry for it."
Not another word was said, as he sunk down into the shadow prisons.
Covered in cuts and bruises, not to mention the mental carnage, Virgil sat alone, waiting for Apathy to return.
The door creaked open slowly.
Odd... Apathy always opened the door with a grand show of force.
In stepped Logan. Virgil started to feel dizzy. 'Not the hallucinations again...'
Logan kneeled beside Virgil and picked the locks on the chains. He helped Virgil to his feet.
At this point, Virgil was barely concious. He only just heard what Logan whispered to him.
"I forgive you."
Virgil sat up fast. He was in his own bed, in his own room, in the mind palace. The events of the past week flooded back to him.
He had to fix this.
Logan sat beside his bed, reading. He noticed that Virgil was awake and looked him in the eye.
Virgil's eyes widened as he began to panic. He turned around and struck a button on his end table.
"You're safe now, Logan..." He said, as he watched the memories begin to leave Logan.
Virgil knew that somewhere, the memories were leaving the others, even Thomas wouldn't remember.
He knew he should go check on the other sides...
...but somehow, all he could do was hug Logan and cry.
"My writer's block ended just in time to complete this story. This is my first Sanders' Sides story, and as it is such, I am looking forward to the feedback, critisim and all. I love learning. So feel free to critique any and every aspect.
And, yes, I ship Analogical."
-MidnightNightmare416