XXX

At Janus's words, the entire room froze.

"WHAT."

He shrank back at the sound of Virgil's intimidating voice.

"I'm sorry!" he apologized quickly. "I just don't get what the problem is! I didn't mean to, but… isn't it… better… if I'm not around…?"

At this, Patton burst into tears again.

"No…No... Kiddo…"

The moral side started to approach the bed, but Janus flinched, and Remus growled at him, making him stop in his tracks.

"Janus, buddy, why do you think it would be better if you weren't around?" Thomas asked gently.

And then Janus's own tears started to fall.

"Because… because I…," he tried. "I know you all… all hate me, and-and I watched the videos… and now I know why."

He hid his face in his hands.

"I… I didn't know I'm like that…," he sobbed. "I'm sorry!"

When Janus felt arms wrap around him, he was surprised. Upon removing his hands from his eyes, he was even more surprised to find that it was Virgil rather than Patton who was hugging him.

"... You damn idiot snake," Virgil hissed, though his tone was oddly soft.

Virgil pulled back to look him in the eye.

"Jan, literally none of us hate you."

"But-"

"No. Not even I hate you. I'm still angry and hurt, but I don't hate you," Virgil insisted. "The reason I was so upset earlier is because I was mad that you had forgotten everything. I was mad that you forgot what you did, but I was also mad that you forgot the good times… And I was scared that we might never be able to work things out because you don't remember. It wasn't because I hate you."

Janus stared back at him, having not expected such words from the side that he was most convinced he was hated by.

"... But I'm evil…"

Everyone was silent again for a moment before Patton spoke up, speaking through his tears.

"Kiddo, did you watch all of the videos?" he asked.

Janus shook his head.

"No. I stopped after the trial episode."

The air in the room felt heavy.

"... I think you should watch the follow-up to that, kiddo…"

With that, Thomas took out his phone and pulled up the video, which they all started to watch in tense, sad silence. At first, Janus didn't understand what the point was. It just seemed like Thomas was upset, and Morality was having a rough time.

And then he appeared.

And he fought against Morality, but he was fighting to help Thomas, and in the end, Patton was glad he had done so. Thomas was glad he did it. Thomas accepted him.

He gave them his name.

And when the video was over, he was pulled into another hug, this time by everyone.

"Come on, Janus," spoke Thomas. "There's a lot to work out, but we're here for you, buddy. Okay?"

Janus nodded.

"Okay…," he agreed, making everyone else sigh in relief. "But I don't… I don't know how to undo this. I don't even know how I did it."

"Well, that certainly is a problem," said Logan. "Virgil, do you remember how you did it?"

Virgil messed with his sleeves again.

"I don't know… It just… happened when we returned to Thomas's living room," he answered.

"I see. It may be that leaving your room restores your connection to Thomas," Logan mused. "We should see if that works."

Everyone looked to him, and he realized that Logan was speaking to him directly.

"Yeah. Okay," Janus agreed.

And so, with a deep breath, Janus sank down and appeared in the living room with everyone else.

.

.

.

And then he blacked out.

XXX

(Aaah, I'm sorry for leaving it on a cliffhanger again, but there's only one chapter left, and I'm going to post it in the next few days...)