Shinigami-cat: Okay well, here's the next chapter. Sorry its taken a while to get done. I've had a lot of issues going on with apply for university's and stuff, but it's all good now. I might not update as much for a while because of Christmas and stuff, but I'll do my best… I OWN NOTHING!

Into the Subconscious

Matthew sighed a little as he ran over a check list of weird things over in his mind; Kuma was still talking, there was apparently a lake made from monster tears in Africa and Gilbert was a marble statue in his basement. That about summed everything up.

"Perfect… Just so damn perfect…" Muttered Matthew miserably. He found himself in Gilbert's room more often these days and had even gotten to work late once or twice because of it. It was frustrating. "I hate you, you stupid idiot… Why did you go and do something so stupid?"

He could almost hear some kind of snarky and egotistical comment falling from the statues lips. He wanted to hear his voice again. Sometime really soon, but he sadly doubted it. It could take generations or even centuries before Gilbert would wake up again.

He frowned a little and shook his head. He needed to try and think positive. He was just storing Gilbert until someone else came along and took him away. That was it. Nothing more. Gilbert hated him. That was one of the last things he said to Matthew before he ran off anyway.

'This is pathetic…' Thought Matthew miserably. 'He hates me. He hates everything about me. He probably would have killed me if he was a demon…'

Shaking his head, he got up and left the room. This was getting to him way more then it should have. He decided to go and do something in some other room. Play a Zelda game or something. Anything to distract himself.

Sadly things weren't in his favours once again. As soon as he made his way to the kitchen, a knock at the door demanded his attention. There was only one person he assumed it would be. Opening the door, his suspicions were confirmed. Lovino walked inside carrying a bag and a thick leather book.

"… What's all that for?" Asked Matthew half heartedly.

The Oracle sighed a little. "Just some stuff we'll need if we're going to try and get Gilbert back from being a fucking statue."

"So some spell needs to be cast?" Inquired Matthew. "Maybe some potion brewed?"

"If you're going to be a sarcastic fuck we can go and put him at a grave and leave him there." Snapped Lovino. So I'm guessing the statue is still in the basement?"

"Yep."

"Okay… Mind if I paint a bunch of shit down there?"

"Go ahead, the walls and the floor are cement and bricks."

Lovino nodded and made his way down to the basement. "Good."

Curious as to what Lovino was going to do, Matthew followed him to the basement. It looked like he was setting up for some kind of ritual complete with an alter, what looked like blood circles and lots of candles.

"The ventilation in here is poor in here so don't light ever candle if you can help it."

"Yeah… you don't have asthma do you?"

"No."

"Good because I'm burning a lot of herbs and stuff." Grumbled the Oracle. He started to pull different bundles of herbs and spices, placing them on the alter. He also took out a small marble bowl and some kind of sacrificial knife.

"So what's all that for and how did you manage to carry an alter in your bag?"

"The alter is a fold up." Said Lovino apathetically. "Everything else is part of an Elf ritual to communicate with those close to death… Should work pretty well for stone face over there."

"… You've never done this before have you?"

Lovino shrugged a little as he started to paint markings on his hands and arms. "Only once and with a squirrel."

"A squirrel?"

"Bastard had it coming." Muttered Lovino. This didn't give Matthew much confidence and made him question if Lovino was the one that almost killed the squirrel in the first place.

"Well… How does this ritual work?"

"The usual bullshit." Said Lovino. He sat next to the alter and quickly flipped through his book. "Light the candles, put the body in the middle, chant stuff while burning stuff, drink some kind of weird plant LSD and let the magic happen… Also I need your blood."

"Why and how much?"

"A few drops and it's because I need virgin blood."

"How do you know I'm a virgin?"

The Oracle looked at Matthew like he had the a dick tattooed to his face. "Virgin blood as in, blood that has never been used in any magical ritual before. I could have gotten blood from a whore and it still would have been virgin blood. Now I know you're a virgin too."

The blush that stained Matthew's face was ridiculous. "Oh… I just thought…"

"Unless a spell calls for a pure sacrifice then it's just blood of someone that's never had their blood used in a ritual before. I used my blood last time I did this, so… yeah…"

Matthew nodded a little and continued to watch. He was a little surprised about how apathetic he was reacting to the whole situation. If this had happened a year or two ago he would have freaked out. Now it just seemed normal, and indeed natural for this stuff to happen. He needed to consider hanging around more humans again.

Lovino proceeded to paint markings on his arms and on the walls. After a while he walked over to Gilbert. "Want to help me move this bastard?"

"Where to?"

"Middle of the circle." Matthew nodded and helped Lovino move Gilbert to the middle of the circle. Once he was in place, Lovino started to paint symbols all over the stone surface. "Almost ready… You ready for this Matthew?"

"Huh?"

"It's a two person ritual." Said Lovino. "Needs two people for it to actually work properly. One to get into the mind and one to make sure that things stay together… I'll explain that bit better later." He painted some markings on Matthew's face.

Matthew never really liked face paint, but he did his best not to squirm. "Okay."

"I'll need your blood now." Lovino picked up the knife and marble bowl. "Just a drop or two is more then enough for this to work. Matthew flinched slightly as the metal ran vertically down his index finger in one swift movement. A few drops of blood ran off his finger and fell into the bowl.

Nodding, Lovino walked over to where his bad was and took out a bottle, mixing it with the blood. Unsure of what to do, Matthew just watched at Lovino put the final touches to the ritual; putting herbs into the bowl, mixing them and lighting candles.

"Okay, not you need to sit on Gilbert's left and put your hands on his arm." Instructed Lovino.

Matthew nodded and did what he was told as Lovino started to chant some kind of repetitive verse in a foreign tongue. As he chanted he burned some of the herbs. He moved the herbs over the statue, letting the smoke linger over it. When the herbs were almost completely burnt, he put the ashes in the bowl, holding it up high. After his repeated the chant again he drank some one the thick liquid from the bowl and offered it to Matthew.

Hesitantly, Matthew drank from the bowl too, gagging a little at the noxious taste of burnt plants, metal and something that tasted strongly of paint thinner. 'I hope that wasn't toxic… Probably some kind of drug… I should have asked what the hell it was…' black spots started to appear in Matthew's vision as the sound of Lovino's voice became warped and distorted.'Too late now.'

XoXoXo page brake oXoXoX

Matthew was very unceremoniously shaken awake by a rather disgruntled Lovino. "Come on. Wake up bastard. Time to do what we came here for and stuff."

Groaning a little, Matthew say up and looked around at his new surroundings. It looked as though he was in the middle of some kind of ruined temple; pillars had collapsed, part of the roof was gone and vines had started to reclaim the monument.

"… Where are we?"

"Gilbert's subconscious." Said Lovino simply as he helped Matthew to his feet. "Any questions?"

"Firstly, how and secondly, what was in that bowl besides my blood?"

Lovino rolled his eyes. "It was just some herbs and some kind of blessed Elf wine… Tastes like paint thinner though… Elves have weird wines. It's just used along with the rest of the ritual to transport the soul from the body and into the body of someone else."

"What?"

"It's like your computer games. You aren't in the game but you control a pre made character… Look it's just easier if you just accept it as it is. You're in Gilbert's mind." He looked around at the temple. "Looks like shit…"

"I guess so…" Muttered Matthew. "Do all subconscious's look like this?"

"Each one is different for each individual." Said Lovino. He looked around a little, frowning. "Okay, we need to be careful. His mind might try and get rid of us once it figures out we're not meant to be here…"

"Kind of like Inception…"

"Huh?"

Matthew sighed a little, slightly saddened that Lovino didn't know what he was talking about. "It was a movie released in 2010. It stared Leonardo DiCaprio. It was about going into people's minds and stuff…"

"… Sounds like a stupid movie. Anyway, we need to get moving." Leaving it at that, Lovino walked out to the front of the temple with Matthew quickly following. Outside looked like some kind of surrealist forest landscape. While this surprised and amazed Matthew, it didn't seem to affect Lovino in the slightest. "Right… Let's get going, you only have one shot at this."

Matthew was surprised to hear that. "What?"

"It sounds like I said it." Said Lovino. "You're a human. As a human you have a very short life span. So short it's less then a second for most angels and demons. This spell can only be done so a person once every seven hundred years. If we can't wake up Gilbert now, you will never be able to see him again."

"Are you serious?" Cried Matthew in shock. "One chance? That's all I have?"

"Hey this was the only thing I could think of to get Feliciano to shut up!" Snapped Lovino. "He wouldn't shut up about how upset he was that the bastard was gone!"

"So you're doing this for your brother?" Asked Matthew. Personally he didn't care much for the reasons behind Lovino helping him, but he was surprised that he would do this for his brother.

Lovino nodded and started to walk down the steps. "Si, that and I am curious about something."

Matthew frowned a little and followed him. "About what?"

"His past." Said Lovino. "When I did my weird oracle thing… everything was very confusing… Things happened that didn't happen and things that didn't happen have happened… Like everything it's confusing and complicated… Best to not think about it too much…"

"How can his past be confusing?" Asked Matthew. "His mother was a high ranking angel, his father was Satan. She abandoned him in Hell and Gilbert grew up. When he was older he decided to be an angel instead of a demon and got kicked of Hell… Then as far as I know he was told to go out and kill demons and that's what he has been doing."

"Yeah… but I don't think that's the whole truth." Said Lovino. He started to walk down a pathway made from purple dirt and into the forest of misshapen trees. "There are just things that don't make sense… His life isn't linear like it should be."

"But times just a big ball of wibbly wobbly timy whimy stuff."

"If you drop anymore of your fucking pop culture references into my explanation I will end up shoving you in that jelly tree!" For added emphasis, Lovino hit the jelly tree making it wobble.

"… Gilbert's subconscious is weird…"

"Everyone's subconscious is filled with random shit like this." Said Lovino. "Anyway, like I was saying before, time, like life is linear. There is a start, a middle and an end. Each even happens one after the other. That's it."

"What about time travel?"

"Not possible."

Matthew sighed a little and shook his head in disbelief. "Okay, so you can do some Elf ritual that makes us go into Gilbert's mind and there's a lake that turns people to stone, but time travel is too far out there for you to believe?"

Lovino sighed dramatically at Matthew's attitude. "Okay, let's get some things straight! Time travel is possible but even the most powerful demons can only go back a year. Some higher up angels can do it too and go back thousands of years, even millions but they never do. It's only done in some crisis situation… Like the world blew up before the world was meant to end or something."

"… So how is my time travel theory working out for you?"

"You have no evidence that he actually did time travel." Said Lovino coldly. "Any number of things could account for this messed up stuff happening in Gilbert's time line… He's half demon and half angel, that could affect it… He could have taken a fuck ton of drugs… Those things could have done something to him…"

Matthew nodded a little. He honestly didn't have much of a clue how magic or anything like that worked so he would just have to trust Lovino's word. After that the pair walked in silence down the path until they came to a cross roads with many signs. Some Matthew recognized as streets signs, others were gibberish.

"… Is that a no fly zone for angels?"

"Fucked if I know." Lovino walked up the sign post and kicked it. It swayed a little, but stayed in place. "We just need to keep going I guess… If we can find where his memories are we should be able to find where he is now… Maybe…"

"What's your logic behind that?" Asked Matthew as he casually batted away a horse fly, literally. It was a tiny little horse with fly wings. Gilbert's subconscious was weird as hell.

"Just think about it logically." Said Lovino. "Memories are an important part of any beings development no matter who or what they are. Even though Gilbert has shut himself away in his mind he should have some part that knows which part of his mind he is in, even if it's for a split second. Understand?"

"Kind of… Not really…"

The Oracle rolled his eyes. "We just need to go and find his memories… Which way do you want to go?"

Looking around at everything, Matthew shrugged. "Well… I guess we could either climb over the mountain of oreo's or we could try going through the river made from feathers."

"… I swear this place is like Wonderland on an acid trip." Muttered Lovino. "Let's just go for the mountain. At least from there we might have some kind of idea of where to go…" With that decided the duo started to head towards the mountain.

TBC

Shinigami-cat: Yeah… I might or might not post another chapter before Christmas. It all depends on how things go. Please review.