Wish We Could Turn Back Time

by Sparklepool101

Manny wakes up in a hospital bed with people telling him he just went through a virtual reality simulation made by his "Father". If that's true, what were the Teachers? If that's true, where is he going to stay? If that's true, are Robin and Harry alive?

1. Chapter 1

A/N Hello! This fic is inspired by the song "Stressed Out" by twenty one pilots. I also reference Manny's playlist a ton and decided to make it! ( Yellow Guy ) Also, I wanted to clarify that in this fic Paige uses they/them pronouns since they are confirmed to be a nonbianary character! (Also their cannon name is technically Sketch but that felt out of place in this story 😅)

CW:

•This picks up during DHMIS 6

•Allusions to a minor in an ab^sive home life

Manny was sinking.

His bed had turned into a pool of sickening black oil and he was falling into it just fast enough to scare him, but at the same time agonizingly slow. Suddenly Larry was replaced with Tony. A chill went down Manny's spine but before anything else could happen he was replaced with Paige. Before he could react they were replaced with Shrig. Almost at once the Teachers started to speed by. Manny was terrified, almost more so than ever before. This defied anything he had learned in school, anything that Harry and Robin had taught him, even anything the Teachers had taught him.

Then, everything just... stopped. Suddenly there was no oil, no Teachers, no room, nothing.

Just darkness.

So he waited.

For the first time since Harry and Robin had started planning to get him out of his Father's house and long before June 19th began, Manny was truly left alone with his thoughts.

His thoughts which lead him back.

Back when amidst the pain and hunger of "home", there were warm hugs and spaghetti dinners. There was listening to music from when Harry and Robin met in college while going for long drives. There was watching movies on a laptop while all curled together. There were small toys and candies for his birthday. There were smiles. They were together. They were alive.

It took Manny a moment to realize what was happening, why he could feel wet tears on his cheeks but nothing else. He was becoming conscious. He steeled himself for a barrage of music and pain-

But he was met with a steady beeping and hushed voices. Instead of the bright colors that saturated their prison, white tones were everywhere. It took him a moment to realize where he was.

Here we go again.