A/N: Here we go! The next chapter of You Wake Up In Aaa. Now, I don't know how many people are actually into this story, but I promise that there will be more! So, without further ado... the story!

Chapter 11

Slowly, Decker rose from the couch in the den next to the kitchen. He groaned again as his vision swam with the shades of black and grey and red. "Oh, God, my head. What happened to me?"

He looked for any type of clock to see what time it was. To his reasoning, if there were cars in Ooo, there were clocks. Finally, he descended the ladder into the treasure room and found one among the gold and jewels. He struggled to see the numbers, as they weren't any shade of red. He squinted at the small contraption.

'2:37 am,' it read.

He sighed quietly, then whispered, "How long was I out?"

"Five hours," called a voice from behind him.

Decker turned on his heels, causing him to wince and grab his head. The pain in his head was growing for some reason, but he tried to ignore it, "Lark? What're you doing up?"

There was something about her that was off, though. He could practically feel how wary she was and he could smell her fear. 'Why would she be afraid of me?' Larkspur, her arms draped across her chest, said, "I could hear you rummaging through the gold."

"Oh! I'm sorry I woke you up-" when he stepped towards her, the voices roared once more.

Spouting insults and threats in his head like 'Don't take another step, monster!' or 'Stay away from that girl, you thing!' Decker whimpered at the pain and sank to one knee, clutching his head. Larkspur seemed to forget to think he wasn't her brother because she found herself knelt at his side. "Make itstop!" Decker gritted out, "Please!"

"Stop what?" she asked.

"The voices! Stop the voices. Please, they won't stop! They won't stop..." he slowly descended into whimpers and sobs as he gripped her shirt and put his face into her shoulder.

"I just want them to stop it," his whimper made him sound like a helpless kid.

Then, he cried.

As the voices of those he consumed continued to scream and groan in his head, he sobbed softly into his sister's shoulder. Unsure of herself, she slowly wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. Even though he seemed like a monster when he fought, his actions clearly had a consequence. Whatever was happening to him, it was torture. 'This is my brother,' she decided.

But, her eyes widened when she thought once again, 'This is my brother!' She looked down to the top of his head, which bobbed due to his sobs, and pulled him in tighter. It was like someone threw a switch as she comforted Decker with their embrace and softy raked her fingers through his hair. Honestly, Decker was like a dog. Scratch his head and he's out like a light in minutes.

This proved true when, after about five minutes, his breathing mellowed and his death grip on her shirt loosened. When she was sure he was sleeping, she attempted to bring him up the ladder to put him back on the couch. When she picked him up, she was surprised to find him nearly weightless. She easily brought him up the ladder and set him gently on the couch. Afterwards, Larkspur went up yet another ladder and sneaked down the long hallway, past Finn and Jake's room, to the one person she figured could help with her brother's problem.

She hesitated at the door when she was just about to knock. "It's open," called the voice from inside, startling her a bit.

Larkspur opened the door to see Alex sitting on the bedside, staring down at a picture. Alex had spent three hours, up until midnight, explaining who and what Decker was now and his mentoring of the young man. At first, he was curt and rude when he responded, but with each question, he found himself becoming more open. At the moment, his signature jacket was draped over the other edge of the bed and his hood was down. Messy, dark brown hair, darker than Decker's, came down to a half inch above his brow.

His right hand came up from the photo and ran itself through his hair, pushing it back up and back, only to have the locks come down the side. It made Larkspur think of a shorter version of Matt Smith's hair. Not as thick, either. "I like your hair," she said, catching his attention, "Why do you leave your hood up all the time?"

The remark made him put his hood back up and stuff the photo of the mysterious woman in his pocket, "I'm... not a people's person."

"Anyway..." she drawled out, trying to switch subjects to her original objective, "I need your help. It's about Jimmy."

That made Alex perk up, "What about him?"

It took about a month with Decker before Alex had come to know the emotion, concern. Actually, Decker helped him re-affiliated himself with a lot of his emotions. Even though his face was still in a permanent state of aloofness, his tone of voice told Larkspur something ate at him, ironically enough. "I went down to the room full of gold because I heard something. It was Decker, but when he tried to step toward me, he just held his head and kept sobbing something about voices... I thought it might have to do with the virus, so I thought I'd ask you."

Alex's normal expression was broken by a slight widening of his eyes as she continued, "He passed out after a few minutes. But, he was so weightless... should I be concerned?"

He shook his head, "Biomass hardly has weight unless we want it to simulate the effects of gravity," he paused, then sighed, "I know what those voices are, as well. Those are the people he's consumed. Trust me, they're mostly soldiers and I had to push him to do even that... but, it seems they've surfaced... and with a vengeance, it seems."

"Why would they be in his head?"

"When he consumes a being, everything that it was is integrated into Decker. Memories, personalities, even consciousnesses make their ways into his head," he stood, "Until his virus Evolves like mine did, he's stuck with those voices."

Larkspur wore a worried expression, "Then, how long will it take for him to evolve?"

He shrugged, letting his arms simply fall back to his sides, "Hard to say. For me, eighteen days. And even then, my entire body had been obliterated and had to reconstruct itself completely, leaving room to improve my body immensely."

When Alex seemed to be contemplating something, Larkspur deadpanned, "We are not obliterating my brother."

"It's only a thought. But, something needs to be done about the consciousnesses in his head. It's painful. And maddening. Literally. If this continues, Decker will go insane."

The thought frightened Larkspur.

Finn stood in front of Flame Princess, who sat on her throne. She was giving an angry look just past him, as if he weren't there, "Why are you here?"

When he turned to face the visitor, he gasped. It was Decker. Fire elemental blood covered half of his face, singeing off the flesh, which only added to the mad smile spread across his face. Decker never said a word, but charged the princess. The new, more refined-looking blade sliced the air behind him, leaving red streaks trailing behind him.

Just before he reached her, his cackle filled Finn's ears and the image flickered from his sight, leaving the visage of a golden, twinkling owl to screech in his face. A voice suddenly cried out, "Phoebe!"

Finn bolted straight up in bed, screaming loudly. This alerted the whole house, save Decker, who was still out cold on the couch. Jake was startled awake, "Whoa-hey-who-wha...? Finn! What is it, bro?"

He received no answer as the boy ran past him and out into the hallway. Without sparing a glance, Finn pushed past Fionna and Cake and Larkspur and Alex in the hall. He hopped through the hole to the lower floor and headed straight to the phone. Finn frantically searched for the right contact and, upon finding it, pressed "call". As it rang, he looked behind him at Decker, still asleep. A weary voice, thick with sleep, answered, "Hello?"

Finn let out a shaky breath and said, "FP?"

"Finn? Do you know what time-"

"Are you alright?" he was breathing heavily.

Now, she sounded a little concerned, "I'm fine. Finn, what's wrong?"

The human sighed in relief and continued to breath shakily. Flame Princess said sternly, "Finn, answer me."

He let out a long breath, "Do you have time for a visit tomorrow?"

"I don't know, Finn. There are many things I have to-"

"Please," he pleaded, "I can explain better in person."

"...Alright."

"Thanks, FP."

Still dazed by the impromptu phone call, she only muttered, "Yeah."

With that, Finn hung up. Only then, did he realize the group that had gathered around. Jake was the first to speak up, "Dude. What was that?"

Okay. Yes, short chapter. Really short chapter. But, I am battling the deadly forces of writer's block. So, this is all I have. I'm going to try and start writing more of this story.