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Even once he was in his room, it was a long time before he got his breathing under control. It felt like an eternity before his lungs stopped burning, before he could finally take a full breath in.
And once that was finally over, he just felt so exhausted, and all he wanted to do was hide away from everything.
But then he realized that someone was knocking at his door and talking. He couldn't quite tell who it was, though.
He ignored it.
The knocking kept going for a while longer, though it eventually stopped after what was probably five minutes but felt like an hour. Janus finally let himself relax a bit after he heard footsteps retreating down the hall.
For a while, he just laid on his bed, curled up in the center, but the silence soon started to feel like it was smothering him. Then, when he moved to get up, his hand brushed against the smooth surface of a screen, and he remembered that he still had Morality's phone. He should probably return it, but he had no desire to leave his room anytime soon, and now, he felt like he had to watch the rest of the videos.
They would give him some answers, right?
And so, he unlocked the phone and entered the YouTube app before settling back into bed to watch.
After watching a few more videos, Janus began to wonder if he was really in any of them after all. It certainly didn't seem like it.
And then he got to 'Can Lying be Good?', and he thought that, surely, he must appear in this video. He's Deceit, right? So why wouldn't Deceit be in the video all about lying?
Initially, he'd been tense with anticipation as he waited to see himself on screen. That anticipation, however, started turning into confusion and disappointment once the video was half-over, and he still hadn't made an appearance. After that, he gave up on the idea that he was in this video
But he had been so absorbed in waiting to see himself that he hadn't noticed how strange Morality was acting throughout the video.
After the reveal, Janus could only stare at the screen in shock.
He had been there the entire video. Disguised as Morality. Perhaps he should have expected something like that. He was Deceit after all.
Yes, he was Deceit. And he saw how upset everyone was at his appearance. He saw the way he silenced Logic before revealing himself. He watched himself cruelly trick Thomas, watched himself insult Virgil and Roman. He stared at his own scale-covered face and found himself taken aback by the amusement he found there. He took pleasure in upsetting the others.
He felt his stomach fill itself with lead.
Once that video was over, he moved on to the next ones, blankly watching the screen as the videos mostly returned to just the main four sides. He made a brief appearance or two, though, and no one was happy to see him.
And then he got to 'Selfishness vs. Selflessness'.
That video was even worse than the last one he played a major role in. All he was doing in this video was antagonizing everyone, and having fun doing it. And Thomas was so miserable the entire time, and it was all his fault.
He turned off the phone after that.
He had his answers, after all.
He really was the villain.
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