Now, this chapter takes place sometime following 'Aftermath', but the events being described are, once again, from the past.
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Looking back, Roman felt bad about what had happened with Deceit when they were children, though he, ironically, wouldn't admit it to himself for a long time. The truth was that, even then, he and Remus had already started to split, and Roman, then part of Romulus, had been desperate to prove that he was still the hero. He hated those dark, scary thoughts that came from Remus, and he hated that those thoughts were a part of him.
And that day, when he saw what looked like Deceit hurting Patton, he'd found an opportunity to prove that he was the hero. Heroes saved people who were in trouble, right? So, Romulus stormed over and pulled Deceit away from Patton, who was cowering on the floor, and he threatened Deceit until he ran off.
He still wasn't entirely sure how much he meant what he said. Had he really wanted Deceit to go away forever? Or was he just mad? But regardless of whether he really meant it or not, Deceit didn't come back, and that just gave him time to convince himself that driving him off was the right thing to do, that hating the villain was the right thing to do.
For a while, it seemed like things would be okay. He had proved he was good.
But then Thomas started growing up, and with growing up came scary movies and middle-school-whispers and a general increasing awareness that the world wasn't really all sunshine and unicorns and glitter. And as Thomas started to learn new things, darker things, his ideas began to grow darker. And Romulus wasn't sure what to do about it.
Until the split.
Roman, admittedly, didn't remember everything from before the split, especially earlier things from when Romulus was more integrated, but he did remember what happened with Deceit, at least.
It hadn't taken him very long to force his brother away as well. He'd tried for a few days, or, put on the act that he was really trying, but Roman was, truthfully, glad to be finally rid of the thoughts he hated, and he didn't want to face those thoughts in the form of his brother.
But Remus was Remus, and as such, it wasn't difficult to convince the others that he had to be driven away. Patton was terrified of him, and Logan thought he was annoying. It was, however, difficult to actually get rid of Remus. He wasn't scared off by Roman's intimidation, or even by a wound from his sword. Instead, it just egged him on and made him start acting even more like the villain Roman was convinced he was.
In the end, he'd had to start making the separations in the mindscape more distinct, and once there was more of a wall between them and the place they knew Deceit had retreated to, he'd simply pushed Remus over to the other side.
Remus had tried to get back over, but couldn't quite figure it out, and Roman was pretty sure that he'd thought it was part of a game for a while. But it wasn't.
Roman still didn't really feel bad about what happened with Remus. His brother downright terrified him sometimes, to the point where he'd feared for his and the others' lives, both during those first few days and after Remus eventually figured out how to navigate the mindscape a little better.
He did feel bad about what happened with Virgil, though. Roman hadn't actually meant to really cut him with his sword. He'd just meant to scare him off with it and had miscalculated. At first, that was the only thing he felt bad about concerning the anxious side. It wasn't until Thomas started making the videos and they had to go to Virgil's room that he really started to feel bad about driving Virgil away at all. After 'Accepting Anxiety', he realized how important the other side was to Thomas's functioning, and eventually, they'd started to become friends. He couldn't believe how stupid he'd been for thinking he was the same as villains like Deceit and his brother.
He hadn't expected his feelings about them to eventually start shifting, either.
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