Reviews :

Snake557 : Thank you! Yeah I try to assume the best, everyone must be busy or something. I'd keep pressing on without reviews or attention, but it's just a little lonely. I used to have so many friends here and so many people to chitchat with but I somehow turned into old news.

Burgie : Thank you friend, I appreciate it a lot! Yeah FF can sometimes be that way, huh. I've had a few people beg me to move my work over to AO3 and have it be uploaded there as well and I've considered. The saga is just so massive, it's a huge task, but I might do that this summer once I'm free. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far friend :) thank you!


Song Listened To :

Ignition by Valiant & Ignition


T/W :This chapter contains descriptions of vomiting


*Chapter 181*

Through the haze of smoke, Gideon's tired eyes peered across the code room, the edges warbled due to the lava that consumed the flooring. Everything inside melted, the walls began to drip with black and red ooze, Gideon's ears began to noisily ring in echoey screams of the damned, he grunted in full paralysis and felt as if someone was sitting on his chest. It wasn't until his spinal cord began to burn did he do his absolute best to take air into his lungs and begin to attempt to plea for the help of his siblings, surely nearby. Flashes of Callum's evil face dot his vision, Chase's horrified screams could still be heard echoing into his brain, and with a sudden flex, Gideon finally felt release from his paralysis and lurched upwards from a dead sleep, just drenched in sweat. Although the code room was genuinely still and peaceful, his vision was still glossed in the hellscape he was previously aware of, and with his, the adrenaline in his body suddenly skyrocketed, causing him to erupt in a bone-chilling scream of his bellowing voice. He urgently scoot backwards on the massive four-piled bed he shared with his siblings, and with a kick, he slammed his back and shoulders into the wall of the code room all four siblings had their heads up against.

Through the mess, Gideon grit his teeth and could see pops of lava begin to warble and explode all about him, it consumed the bedding he scrambled on, and though he could see Oliver, Tessa and Koko suddenly awaken and rush into action, due to Gideon's sudden eruption, he felt his spine feel as if it was doing everything it could to tear itself from his skull. With a skillful reach, Gideon maniacally grappled the long, thick and sturdy white code room wire that was plugged into his spine, for said continuation of code-cycling he had to go through, and with a nasty, uneducated tug, he managed to rip it clean from his coding, causing an even scarier amount of pain. Gideon felt his lungs collapse in on themselves, he hollered the loudest yell in full, teary agony, and as he threw his arms up above his head and sagged into a quaking, tight fetal position of full, terrified protection of himself, he scoffed a loud cry of a plea as he suddenly could feel what he assumed to be Tessa's coding urgently flooding his system. The feel of her hands tight to his upper arm and back had his senses now doing everything they could to return back to the planet.

"Koko, cue up the weather controls," Tessa sharply demanded, it was here did Oliver now maneuver his bigger hands to do what he could to get Gideon to an upright sit.

"H-He took my coding!" Gideon basically screamed, the tendons and veins in his jugular bulged as he was wrought with tremors, he covered his head with his bigger arms and hands and viciously grappled the hair atop his scalp as he continued on in a loud, screeching tone of entire terror, "HE TOOK EVERYTHING!"

"Gideon, you're safe, you're safe!" Oliver urgently pressed as Koko jumped up in a scramble to cue for Tessa's beautiful code room controls, eventually aided in her success to quell the light thunderstorm that was happening, though she only silenced it all for the section of sky about the code room's glass dome; early morning sunlight immediately flood the code room, once more.

"I-I can't use my coding! My coding's gone!" Gideon yelled in full terror, coupled with full, outward cries of agony, he urgently dart his eyes about as if he was still hallucinating.

"You have your coding, Giddy, it's just on pause, I promise you have your coding!" Tessa urged lovingly as she firmly pressed her hand into the gaping, glowing hole on Gideon's spine, between his shoulder blades. Although yanking the code-cycle tether he was tied to wasn't the end of the world, Tessa knew halting his progress would only mean more time spent in the code room. She flood the easy access of Gideon's coding with her own and urgently shushed every shivering idea of agony he was wrought with, she shook her head as her and Oliver now had to lightly pin Gideon down due to the potential for thrashing and attempting to run and hide, "Easy, easy breaths, Gid, you're safe, you're home."

"Lookit me, bud, lookit me," Oliver pressed in fervent softness as he lovingly cupped the side of Gideon's head, he lay haphazard across the top of his sleep space, his crazed eyes stabbed to Oliver's, his pupils were mere specks. Oliver shook his head and softly continued to shush Gideon, and even though he held tight eye contact with Gideon, it was clear Gideon's vision was glossed over with something else playing back to his brain. Oliver grunted in mild frustration for the torture Gideon was going through, cued his coding as well and flood the back of Gideon's scalp with his own rush of coding, both siblings sapped his system with grounding reminders of his calm and safe whereabouts. Oliver hovered over Gideon and watched as Gideon's terrified gaze began to now intelligently dart in between Oliver's loving eyes, with loosened pupils, to show he was now slowly coming out of it. He sharply panted through the grit of his teeth and was desperate to catch his breath as his terrified gaze peered into Oliver's with pure desperation. Oliver nodded as everyone trembled with the spike of adrenaline sent upon their snoozing figures, "There you are, there you are... Hey, you're safe, you're safe, I promise."

"No harm's coming your way, Gideon, we're in Sugar Rush's code room, the safest place in the entire game," Tessa quickly assured as Gideon's bare chest largely heaved, his face was drenched in sweat and tears.

"H-he looked me in the eyes as he died," Gideon weeped, he largely grimaced in full, outward agony and now began to tremble in the downswing of adrenaline, "He looked at me!"

"It's over, it's over," Oliver loudly whispered as he cupped the side of Gideon's head and began to so sweetly stroke Gideon's temple and eyebrow with his bigger thumb, still alive with his coding.

"He begged for my help, h-he looked me in the eyes as he burned alive!" Gideon's words were almost incoherent through his full-sobbing, he covered his face with his wildly trembling hands and clenched his teeth in maniacal terror, he messily continued on, "I turned my back, I just kept on killing, I kept on going!"

"It's over, it's all said and done with," Oliver soothed firmly, and though he continued to stroke Gideon's head, Gideon lay a trembling mess for a second before he suddenly lurched to an upright sit and looked as white as a ghost, the look in his eye promised that he was about to be sick.

"Bucket, bucket!" Tessa grunted pleadingly as Koko urgently spanned through the code room options she had pulled up, and just in time for Gideon's legs to drape off of the edge of his bed, merely a foot or so off of the ground, Koko thrusted the coding of a puke bucket right at Gideon's feet, to which he grappled the edges and loudly began to vomit into it.

Tessa held the sides of her head in a prickle of frozen terror, the swing of all of this happening merely split seconds after being jarred awake from a solid night's sleep, it was finally until Gideon's second lurch did her and Oliver urgently scoot to the edge of the bed, with Gideon, and forever promise they'd see this through, tight by Gideon's side, no matter what. Tessa grit her teeth in sharp terror as Gideon violently threw up what little food he had the night prior, though with the second eruption of back-shaking lurch Gideon's body took, he suddenly began to fully vomit a black, tar-like substance. Tessa and Oliver sharply furrowed their brows as their soothing rubbing motions, to Gideon's back, slowed to a stop of pure dread. Gideon's hands grappled the bucket in full tremors that now plagued his body, the coding on his arms glowed in aggressive swirls of white and purple, beautiful spirals of circuitry that weren't in a normal lay under his skin, Tessa watched in terror and took note of something detrimental. Every time Gideon lurched to further expel more of this tar, the swirled circuitry on his arm sagged into a gradient of menacing, blackened, glowing code lines. It hovered for a moment before shooting up Gideon's arms and settling with the gasping inhales he took. It all got to be less and less, though with Gideon's nearly seventh, gurgling grunt down into his filling bucket, the three watched in horror as Gideon began to now physically expel his trauma.

"Almost there, Giddy, it's okay, we're right here with you," Tessa cooed, her voice shook, though as Gideon's back was now exposed, she did what she could to call the code-cycle tether back to her and cautiously plug it back into Gideon's spine. With a sag, it surged in hot white and seamlessly connected with Gideon's body, and it was only then did Gideon's raspy, trembling gasps for air finally reign over the need to continue vomiting. Tessa firmly rubbed up and down Gideon's spine with her live-wired coding all over her palm, underneath the tether's connection, she and Oliver did solid work to keep their grounding coding tight to his person as Tessa lovingly continued on, "Deep breaths, deep breaths, love... You're okay, you're with us."

Gideon took methodical, huge dry gulps of continuous, gasping panting through his nose. He looked clammier than he ever had in his life, crowned with pale, sweaty, lifeless skin. Sweat now sagged down his tensed jugular and pecks, he wildly shook as his crazed eyes peered aimlessly down to the tiles near Koko's feet. He looked as if he was finally coming out of this nightmarish spell of withdrawal, though as slowly as he ever could. He sharply continued to pant through his nose, to which Tessa and Oliver firmly continued to rub up and down his bare back and arms, eager to quell any of the nastiness still stewing in his system. Gideon was drenched in sweat, tears made his cheeks sticky, his chin was messily glossed with the thick black tar he was just ridding himself of, to which his shiny black piercings shone through, and as his head shook with the continuous mess of tremors, his teeth loudly began to chatter. He looked faint, alert, hot, cold, dizzy, ready to leap, a whole mix of vastly contradicting emotions, Tessa fervently glossed Gideon's mainframe with diligent grounding as best as she could.

"C'mon, babe, deep breaths, take in one single deep breath for me," Tessa's motherly voice cooed urgently, noting Gideon's shallow panting and gulping, so to keep more of the black nonsense down, though to her delight, Gideon managed to suck in a huge, deep breath through his nose and heave a loud exhale, however trembling.

"Just kill me," Gideon whimpered tearfully, to which Tessa squeezed her eyes shut in the hit of his harrowing words, words she knew were his way of coping with these nightmarish withdrawals, she knew to just let Gideon grieve in whatever way he saw fit.

"Another deep breath, few more," Tessa stated patiently, Gideon sucked in another deep breath, an easier one this time.

"Sh-should I call mom?" Koko worried, Tessa shook her head and gave Koko a look of tender assurance.

"She's in game day, us three have this under control, we've got this, Keeks, don't you worry," Tessa assured warmly, to which Koko's teary eyes peered to Tessa's with a nod of meek agreeing.

"You're safe, bud," Oliver eased, and as all three of his sibling stole glances, they rode off of Tessa's affirming words, though had to silently wonder if they were in way over their heads trying to wrangle Gideon through these nasty withdrawal and PTSD fits.

"W-was it storming?" Gideon questioned patiently, his teeth still loudly chattered, and though he continued to tremble, it was clear he was also shivering from being cold.

"Yes, it was just thunder that probably triggered you," Tessa assured warmly as she rested her hand to Gideon's forehead, she peered to Oliver and nodded, "Olly, let's... Let's have you help Gideon into a tepid bath. He's burning up."

"Why not reset him?" Koko wondered, her voice wavered, though Tessa shook her head and got off of the bed with Oliver in tow.

"Resetting puts a bandaid on the situation, unfortunately," Tessa murmured as she put her hand on Gideon's shoulder and gently removed his hands from the bucket he was nearly strangling. She set it down and aside temporarily, knowing she was due to running tests on just what the hell this black substance was, "Gideon's body has to learn how to naturally bounce back, or else... This cycle will just continue, never-ending."

"Make it stop," Gideon whimpered as his shaking hands held the side of his head in crumpling, shivering defeat.

"It will, buddy, you're one step closer after this," Tessa warmly assured as Oliver's bigger hand gripped underneath Gideon's upper arm and helped him to a wobbly stand, "Olly's gunna get you comfortable, you just relax, okay?"

"C'mon, you'll feel better after this," Oliver said in kind agreeing to Tessa's words.

As he cautiously led Gideon across the code room, Tessa and Koko quietly stood with one another and watched Oliver and Gideon progress to the bathroom with eagle-eyed stares to both men. Once Oliver and Gideon were inside with the door shut, Tessa's and Koko's shoulders largely sagged in final release, and as they peered into each other's teary eyes, both girls warmly embraced. Koko sagged her face into Tessa's shoulder and whimpered a small little cry into her big sister's caring arms, Tessa stiffly inhaled and stayed collected, she warmly rubbed Koko's upper back and murmured her little sister a tender conclusion.

"This isn't easy for any of us, but I appreciate how fast you moved into action, Keeks," Tessa eased kindly, Koko nodded and inhaled a tight sniffle.

"User, this sucks," Koko whispered shakily as both girls slowly unhanded each other, "I-I hate seeing him like this."

"Me too... I just have to keep reminding myself that it's either we get through this mess together, or he could easily still be in the dark web, without us," Tessa mumbled knowingly, Koko bobbed a nod and wiped her tears. Tessa looked about the code room, all alive with sun, though the dome about them showed dark storm clouds due to Koko's skillful part of the storm; the rest of this section of the game was currently enduring said storm, their beds were now even more of a chaotic mess from when they were simply just sleeping. Tessa inhaled a reviving breath, brushed her messy bangs out of her forehead and glossed her eyes to the temporary kitchen area across the way, "Why don't you and I make some breakfast... It'll be ready by the time they're done."

"Y-Y'think Gideon will want to eat after this?" Koko wrinkled her nose in dire remorse as both girls tossed their eyes to the black-bottomed bucket a few feet off, to which Tessa sighed and lulled her eyes closed.

"I doubt it, but... We gotta start replacing the bad with the good," Tessa instructed nervously, "Whatever he just expelled... There's bound to be more. It might suck, but he's gotta come out with all of it. If food speeds up that process, well..."

"Bon appétit," Koko murmured regretfully.