Shutdown
AN: Many years ago I promised myself I would never stoop to writing fan fiction about real people. Well. whoops.
Summary: Thomas is stuck in his own head. When Thomas is in a car accident, Virgil has to enact a ‘failsafe’ that shuts everything and everyone down but himself. To his shock, Thomas, who is convinced that his sides are characters he has made up, appears inside the control room. And he... can’t leave.
Pairings: Naw man I am awkward af at that stuff.
Warnings: Uhh, panic in a car accident, I suppose? Some slightly graphic injuries.
Chapter One
“You made us oversleep.”
They were going to be late to the party and every single one of them was aware of it. However, Virgil was especially conscientious of this fact and it was driving him mad. They were crowded over the control board eyes, fixed on the massive screen in front of them. Thomas blinked and the screen went black for an instant. They looked through his eyes at the steering wheel and the road ahead. The control board was filled with a multitude of keys and buttons and levers and blinking lights, and the Sides busily scrambled around the board in no particular order. The room around them was metal and clean and multilayered with spiraling stairs and odd colored doors leading into hallways that not even they had fully explored. Warm yellow lights floated through the air and normally would be calming. But not today. In the control room, there was hardly ever order. Everyone wanted to be in charge and thus no one was.
“There’s nothing we could have done,” Logan said. He twisted a key and Thomas flicked on his turn signal. “Thomas needs sleep and someone has been not allowing him any more than four hours a night for more than a week now!”
Virgil shot Logan a dirty look and tried to worm his way back toward the board. Virgil had a way of standing that made it seem that he was folding in on himself. Slumped and crooked and a little bruised. “Look, if you had done your job and actually created a schedule like usual, then I wouldn’t have to wonder what we still have to do and-”
“We should speed up, kids!” Paton interrupted. He wound his hands under Logan’s and tapped on the keyboard. “We’ll get there sooner if we go faster!” Logan glared at him.
“Well, yes. But we can’t go past the speed limit.”
“The sky's the limit!” Roman roared. He shoved Logan into Virgil with more strength than he probably intended, and the two of them ended up in a heap on the floor.
“Ow!”
“Get off of me!”
Logan pursed his lips, stood up, and tried to get back through. “Honestly,” he muttered.
Meanwhile, Roman patted Patton on the head. “Faster, little guy.”
And Virgil just sat there. On the floor. He huffed and used the railing to stand up, straightening his hoodie. He knew that staying back was what the others wanted him to do. Things were easier when he stayed back.
But come on, this was ridiculous. He had a job to do, and he couldn’t just let them keep him from the control board. Especially since, “Are you sure we looked at the text right? Was the time one thirty or two-thirty?”
Logan glanced back and flicked a button. The text appeared in their mind’s eye on the screen. It starts at 2:30.
Virgil shifted his weight and tugged at his sleeves as he peered at the message. Was it right, though? Had they really seen that or was Logan remembering incorrectly? Logan might be remembering incorrectly. It had happened before. They should make sure. He should make sure it really was going to start at 2:30. Maybe he’d seen 12:30 and not noticed the one or something.
He shouldered up to Logan who cried out in exasperation. “Virgil, please! We need to get there on time and safely.”
Virgil tuned him out. He needed to make sure the text was right. He fumbled and finally got ahold of the correct button. He’d just pick up the phone and check…
Logan knocked his hand away. “We’ve looked at it three times, Virgil!”
“But we may have read it wrong!”
“I didn’t read it wrong!”
“Why do you have to be such a jerk about it?! I just want to look! We’ll seem stupid if we show up hours off of the correct time!” He grabbed the lever, and Thomas snapped up his phone. Clicked on the screen…
“It’s green!” Patton yelped. “The light’s green!”
“Thank you, Patton, I hear you.” Logan took away control, and Virgil threw his hands in the air. They all stumbled back as Thomas shot forward. “Easy on the gas, Patton,” Logan added. He straightened his tie and pinched between his eyes. Aw, the poor thing had a headache. Virgil couldn’t refrain from rolling his eyes.
Not to mention, Virgil still hadn’t seen the screen. “We still don’t know when we’re supposed to be there,” he chimed in.
And that was the last straw.
Logan stilled.
He slowly took his hands from the controls and turned to face him.
Whoops, Virgil thought. Unlike the rest of them, Logan did not become visibly frazzled when he was upset. He did not shout or scream or run in circles. He most certainly did not get the multi-layered (frankly terrifying) voice Anxiety had when he was pissed off.
Instead, Logan was calm. Completely calculating. Any trace of emotion that he had, any at all, was shut down completely.
It was utterly terrifying.
Virgil took a small step back. “L-Logan?”
“Why are you like this?” Logan asked. He gestured at him vaguely. At his clothes and his posture and his hair. “We have looked at the message four times. There is no need for you to continue insisting that we look at it once more.”
“I’m just doing my job,” Virgil spat. He held his ground as Logan came closer. So close his nose nearly touched his. They were the same height, but right then Logan seemed much larger.
“Your job is to keep Thomas safe. Instead,” He cocked his head “you are a mess of a creature.”
Virgil tightened his jaw. It infuriated him because it was true. He pushed Logan out of his face. They could say what they liked in the stupid videos Roman was heading up, but the real Logan and Patton and Roman? They still hated his guts (or in Patton’s case, was kinda scared of him). And that was fine. It was just how things were and no amount of ‘talking’ was going to fix that. Roman had been the one to let Thomas give proper names to the characters Thomas had created subconsciously. The ‘teacher’ character became Logan, as he properly was, Princey became Roman, the Dad became Patton and Virgil… Virgil just sort of happened after Virgil lost a bet with Roman which meant Roman could include him. “Every good story needs an antagonist, Virgil,” he recalled Roman arguing.
Whatever. The videos were interesting and entertaining and people loved it. But… Roman had a way of making things a bit more optimistic than they really were.
Virgil pushed past Logan, making sure to hit him roughly with his shoulder as he left the control board to find his chair in the corner. It was a dark area of the room with a door that let out into his bedroom hidden in the darkness. He had a large teardrop-shaped, black chair that spun in circles and was surrounded by a variety of comic books, CDs he liked and other junk he used to distract himself when he couldn’t sleep at night.
“Finally, an attogram of sense,” Logan snapped. Virgil fell into the chair and spun away from them with a flair for drama that caught Roman’s eye for an instant before he went back to playing with Patton. Virgil sighed and stared up at the ceiling. The metal spiraled in interesting patterns Virgil knew by heart. He has often been in this exact position at night, taking the late shift whether or not he (or any of them) liked it.
Virgil shook his head as the sides continued to argue behind him. What a bunch of dipshi-
“What’s that?” Patton’s voice interrupted.
“They should have stopped. They have a red light.”
Slowly, Virgil put his feet back on the floor. His sneakers scraped his chair to a stop and he frowned, listening.
“T-they aren’t slowing down!” Patton shrieked. Patton turned away from the screen. “Virgil, they’re not slowing down!”
No. W-what?
Virgil stood up and took a step forward. On the screen, a massive truck was racing toward them. Any second...
And suddenly he was standing in front of the control board. Everyone jumped back in shock, “Virg-”
“Shut up, Logan.” This was his area. He could do this. He slammed his hands on the controls and several alarms went off, jarring his bones. Red lights flashed, the floor shook, the lights flickered.
“WHAT DID YOU DO!” Roman shouted.
“Adrenaline, you idiot!” Virgil spat back. He took a deep breath, feeling suddenly exhausted (he was out of practice) and flicked his hair out of his eyes so he could see the screen. The truck had slowed to a crawl. The sun glinted off the hood. He swallowed and a shock of fear rushed through him. It was going to hit them. What kind of sick luck was that?
Behind him, he could feel Patton trembling, probably clinging onto Logan. “W-what do we do?”
Without further prompting, Logan pushed forward and shoved Virgil away. “The truck is going to hit us. There is no avoiding it. We have approximately three seconds to contact.” He straightened his glasses and started flicking at the keys. “Chances of survival at this angle are a slim twenty percent, which is unacceptable…”
“TWENTY PERCENT!”
“Quiet, Patton!”
“Can we do something to minimize the impact?” Virgil asked quickly. His hands were shaking, but in some ways, he was steadier than he had been in a long time.
Logan chewed his lip. “If we brace our arms on the steering wheel, we may stop from hitting the windshield. Our seatbelt is on. We can turn to the right to try and get the truck to his the back end of the car instead of our door...” Logan’s fingers flew over the board faster than Virgil had ever seen.
And suddenly he stopped.
He stepped back.
His lips were moving, eyes glazed as he calculated. A slow blink and he shook his head.
Virgil already knew what it meant. It wasn’t going to be enough. They weren’t going to be able to get out of the way in time. The truck was still inching closer. Patton sobbed, held up by Roman, who was frozen in shock.
Well, that just wasn’t good enough.
“There has to be something else we can do,”
Logan shook his head. “I-I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else-”
“What about the failsafe?” he interrupted. “We could enact the failsafe.”
The other three turned to him, shocked, but Logan was the only one who seemed to know what Virgil actually meant. His eyes glazed again and this time he nodded in an affirmative. “Yes. The failsafe is our only option.”
Virgil’s stomach dropped into his shoes. This was going to suck so bad.
“That’s nice,” Roman said, “But what the heck is a ‘failsafe’?”
Logan found time to roll his eyes. “If you had read the manual-”
“Everything, like everything, shuts down but one of the sides,” Virgil interrupted. “It preserves energy and that may be enough to keep Thomas alive.”
“Let’s do it then,” Patton answered immediately. Virgil was not accustomed to seeing him serious, but right then, he was very much so. Patton wiped his glasses with trembling hands and nodded. “We dissolve for a bit, and one of us brings us back once it’s safe, r-right?”
That was the idea. Course, it was incredibly risky and very possible that they might never reappear. That is if they didn’t die anyway.
“I will stay, obviously,” Logan said, which made sense to Virgil. Virgil tried to not think about how horrible it was going to feel to dissolve into… nothing. Temporary or not.
Maybe it would be a good thing if I just stayed dissolved. Better for Thomas… He batted the thought away
But Roman was shaking his head. “No, brainiac.”
Logan blinked.
“Explain. I am the safest choice. I am the only one with the manual memorized, not to mention, I know how to work for the entire board by myself.”
Virgil frowned. Why was Roman against it? It made perfect sense. Unless Roman wanted to stay himself?
“You take up too much energy,” Roman continued. “If you want to preserve energy, then obviously, myself and Patton ought to leave. But you also take up just as much, if not more than the two of us.”
Logan cocked his head.
Processed.
Virgil kept his eyes on the screen.
One second…
“Guys…”
“Virgil should stay,” Patton said.
Virgil whirled toward him. That was a horrible idea. “Patton, you want to leave me with the control room. Alone.”
Patton nodded. He wiped his nose. “Y-your job is to keep Thomas safe.”
Oh.
Oh, he supposed it was, he realized in surprise. Logan looked like he’d just eaten a stick. But Logic nodded. “Patton is… correct. You are quite a lot of things, but at your base, you are self-preservation. Which is all that we need right now. You are our best option… unfortunately.”
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
But there was no time for any more conversation. Virgil forced himself to keep breathing. The idea of staying here alone and solely responsible for Thomas’s continued existence was even more terrifying than dissolving. “O-okay,” he stuttered. He and Logan quickly set up the sequence on the board. It was complex, but Virgil had This Thing memorized because he was pretty much constantly terrified that he’d have to use the failsafe someday.
Funny enough, now that he was using it, he wasn’t quite as terrified as he thought he’d be. At least, not in the same way.
Logan stuck his hand out stiffly and Virgil shook it, hating that Logan most definitely could feel his clammy, shaking hand.
“Do not kill us,” Logan said.
“I’ll do my best.”
Logan nodded sharply and with that, Virgil looked up at the screen and the oncoming truck. It was now or never.
He slammed his hand onto the final button. It was red and large and generally horrible looking.
The moment he pressed the button, several things happened at once.
Logan’s hand melted from his own.
Patton and Roman screamed, and Virgil got a gut-wrenching glimpse of their dissolving faces before he was thrown from his feet.
The lights cut out.
And the truck slammed into them.
It was darker than he’d ever seen before. Darker than the time Thomas went on a tour of an underground tunnel, darker than the basement had been when they lost power one night. It wasn’t darkness. It was nothing. Nothing existed in here but Virgil. There was a high pitched whine scratching at his ears
Virgil slammed into the metal railing, the room barely online still.
He gasped but suddenly was thrown into the air again.
The room spun and tumbled and flew. He was like a pebble in a tin can. He crumpled into walls and floors and ceilings until his entire body roared in agony. It was never-ending. An eternity.
We’re dying. It wasn’t enough we’re dying we’re dying you idiot we’re going to die because of a text like one of those commercials we’re going to die oh god ohgodohgod
A bar flew flat against his stomach, and he doubled over the railing before tumbling over it and landing in a crumpled heap on the floor.
wediedwediedwe’redeadwediedIdead.
But…
He was still thinking. And he was still in pain. He’d always thought he’d stop being in pain if he was dead?
Stillness.
And an aching quiet that made him nauseous.
Maybe he was a ghost… Forced to sit in agony for eternity.
But, no, that didn’t make sense. He wasn’t a person. He wasn’t a whole person. He couldn’t be a ghost.
Virgil forced open his eyes.
In for four… hold for seven… out for eight…
He breathed. He could feel ribs creaking inside him, and the forced breaths only sent lasers of pain through him. But he had to stay awake. He had to stay here, or else Thomas would be lost.
For a long time, he didn’t know how long, he just laid here, curled in his jacket and trying to not think too hard (failing at this) about whether or not he could bleed and if he was bleeding out right now.
Maybe not?
Every bone in his body screamed at him, but he sat up slowly. Blinked.
Darkness.
He shivered. It was freezing in here.
We’re dying.
He needed to turn on the backups… He tried standing and settled for a crawl in the direction he hoped the control board was. It took a bit, but he managed to fumble his way toward it. He traced his fingers over the edges and used it to pull himself standing. Hands outstretched, he pressed the button he knew would be the only one available at the moment. The button stuck for a moment, but he grunted and pressed harder, and it clicked.
A pause.
Nothing happened and panic wrapped a tight hand around his throat. Oh god oh god oh god.
Machinery reluctantly whirled to life somewhere in the walls, and Virgil fell to the floor, both in relief and because he couldn’t hold himself up any longer. He dropped his head against the side of the control board and winced when the lights flicked on. Hot air warmed the room.
The backup lights were fluorescent and greenish and dim and they buzzed like a fly caught in a fly trap. But, whatever, it was light and Virgil was grateful.
The shadows were long and deep, but he could see that the control room was completely trashed. The walls were buckled and bent, various books and machinery and pieces of furniture were mashed to pieces on the floor. The stairs were broken, and a bar from the railing was lodged in the ceiling. Virgil gulped dryly. That bar could have impaled him...
Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, hold, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…
What the heck was he supposed to do now? His thoughts were flicking around like bats and he couldn’t- couldn’t think. What was supposed to happen now? What happens when you get in a car crash?
“Someone will help,” he croaked. “Someone might help us.”
That was all he could hope for.
He needed to monitor Thomas’s vitals. Make sure they stayed semi-steady.
Virgil shut his eyes. Come on, loser, get up.
Using the control board for support, Virgil dragged himself to his feet. Where was he hurt?
Definitely, some ribs were broken, maybe his collarbone, a few cuts on his face, bruises basically everywhere. No arms or legs broken, cut in… his hair? He felt in his bangs, and, yup, that was absolutely blood on his fingers now. But that was okay. He could deal with this. As long as he just breathed really shallowly. He had to keep going.
He blinked at the charts on the control board. Everything was red. Basically, completely falling apart. He set to work without hesitation, pumping chemicals, filling Thomas with more adrenaline and anything else he could think of that might help. The charts steadied a bit. Just a bit. But… he wasn’t getting any worse for now.
He was slumped against the control board, arms rigid straight to keep him up as his head dropped to his chest, trembling.
That was how the newcomer must have first seen him. And what a pitiful sight it must have been.
“H-hello?” said a voice.
Virgil’s head jerked up and he growled in pain as the movement sent pulses down his spine. He cursed quietly
“Is anyone here?”
Slowly, Virgil turned. He frowned. Who could possibly be speaking? There was no one in here but him. That was the whole point. It didn’t sound like any of the Sides, and unless there was another side who decided to show up in a crisis, Virgil couldn’t think of anyone else it could be.
So he stayed quiet. Did nightmares survive the shutdown, or did they continue to exist? Was the voice a nightmare’s? His stomach tightened at the thought.
Someone came closer. Their footsteps tapped on the metal floor.
And out of the shadows melted a very familiar face.
Virgil’s mouth dropped open and a broken piece of metal he’d been holding semi-consciously slipped from his fingers. It clanged on the floor, jarringly loud, and the stranger glanced up at him.
They both stood there.
The stranger was dressed in the clothes Roman had put Thomas in this morning, a purple t-shirt and jeans, and he didn’t seem to be particularly afraid. Confused maybe, but not afraid. He picked his way around the destroyed furniture of the control room.
“Wow. Was there, like, an earthquake or something?”
Virgil didn’t dare move from his spot in the shadows.
It wasn’t possible. He could not possibly get inside here.
The stranger worked his way through the shadows. “I, um, hi!” He tried a smile. “Do you think you could tell me where I am? I-I don’t know how I got here.” For the first time, this seemed to register with him as not good, and concern flashed across the man’s features. He looked up and took the room in. “What is this place? A plane? A subway? Am I in a subway station?”
Virgil had no idea what to do. This was not supposed to happen. Ever.
“Hey, you! Dude over there!” the stranger continued. He waved a hand in the air. “I’m talking to you!”
Virgil swallowed.
With a grumble, the stranger came closer. He picked his way up the stairs. “Man, this is insane. It’s like someone turned the whole room upside down.”
Really. How observant of him.
He opened his mouth to say something, but the stranger finally was close enough to meet Virgil’s eyes. The stranger froze. He took a small step back.
Oh. Right. This was going to totally freak him out.
“W-what’s- that’s not, who are- you shouldn’t- you’re not-”
“You’re not supposed to be in here,” Virgil interrupted. He forced himself to stand up straight and look the stranger up and down. The stranger did the same to him. He was afraid now. Virgil could see it in his eyes.
“V-Virgil?” the stranger said.
“In the flesh.” Virgil repressed a groan of pain and gave the stranger a smile he hoped was reassuring. “Hey, it’s okay. Thomas, right?”
Thomas nodded, just barely.
“I’m going to get you out of here, Thomas.”
Thomas blinked. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t real.”
How exactly to respond to that… In some ways, he was right. “Well… I mean, if that’s easier for you or whatever. Yeah, this is all in your head.”
Thomas didn’t look reassured. Great.
Man, he didn’t have time for this. He couldn’t play nursemaid. He needed to keep Thomas alive.
The charts behind him dipped. Cursing, Virgil turned back around and scrambled for buttons and keys until it steadied again.
He could feel Thomas just behind him, breathing too shallowly, looking over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Keeping us alive.” He didn’t have the energy to come up with a lie Thomas would buy. “We were in a car accident and we had to shut down everything so that you stayed that way.”
Thomas opened his mouth. Closed it again.
“I-I don’t remember that.”
“Yeah, you’ll probably remember when you wake up.” Virgil wiped his nose, and his sleeve came away bloody. Wonderful. Things were just going peachy today.
Thomas just stared. “You’re not real. You’re a character I made up. You’re n-not, you shouldn’t be…” Thomas shook his head and backed up.
Virgil didn’t blame him for that panic. He’d told him this was a dream, but he knew it wouldn’t feel like a dream. It felt real. Because it was real.
Just… not physically real.
But he couldn’t take any more panic. He was panicking well enough on his own. “Thomas,” he barked.
Thomas froze, hands in his hair as he looked around the room in dismay. “W-what?”
“Calm yourself, I’ve got stuff to do.”
Thomas took a deep breath and let it out again. “I’m dreaming. That’s all.”
The room had started a slow spin around Virgil, and he rubbed his eyes to clear his head. Stay awake.
“Yeah. It’s a bit more… intense than a dream obviously because it’s… different. I don’t really have time to explain this to-” He gasped as another lightning bolt went from the top of his head to his feet. He growled in frustration. Alarms went off behind him.
We’re going to die and it’s all your fault, you idiot.
His grip on the board was slipping and the whole room was blurring and-
A hand was on his arm.
Thomas lowered him to the ground and crouched with him. “You’re hurt.”
“No der, Sherlock,” Virgil spat. He felt guilty a second later. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He felt like a piece of crumpled glass. All sharp edges and broken bits. He breathed in and out and Thomas’s hands fretted around him. he didn’t know what to do. But that was okay because his touch was still calming and warm. Virgil normally hated being touched. It was alright now but he curled inward on impulse.
“What’s wrong?” Thomas asked him.
Virgil forced open his eyes again and instantly his eyes were drawn to the flashing alarms on the board. “I’ve got to-to-” He tried to stand, but Thomas pressed him down firmly.
“Don’t do anything. What the hell…” He peeled back Virgil’s jacket (and there was no way anyone else was ever going to be allowed to do that). Virgil shivered. “You’re chest looks…”
“Broken,” Virgil growled. “I know. I need to get to those alarms.”
Thomas shook his head. His eyes darted around Virgil’s face. “Dude, no. Stop with the alarms.”
If Thomas knew what those alarms meant, he might have reacted differently. Virgil couldn’t push him away, however, and this was going to be a problem. He forced himself to meet Thomas’s eyes. “Thomas, if I don’t stop those alarms, we’re going to die.”
Thomas paled. “Like, in real life.”
“In real life.” Virgil didn’t have any way to prove that to him, and he knew it. He dropped his head to his chest, regretting the movement, but didn’t have the strength to lift his head again. “Dang it, Thomas.” Thomas was right there in front of him. He was sort of blurry now, but Virgil could feel the warmth and light that radiated from him. It was soothing. Calm.
Virgil, stay with me.
Naw. He was tired. Too tired.
Dang it, Virgil, tell me what to do.
Virgil couldn’t open his eyes. “Adrenaline,” he hissed.
Thomas’s light left his side, leaving him cold and empty.
How do I work this thing…
How sad was this? They were going to die because Thomas’s conscious mind had no idea how to work his own brain.
There.
Or…
Not.
A jolt of electricity rushed through Virgil, and he gasped, choking on the air and thrown forward. “shoot, dude! Not so much!” He scrambled to his feet. Adrenaline was not a miracle juice. He felt like he’d been electrocuted repeatedly. But those shocks kept him moving. He ran, fell, stumbled, to the control board and instantly dialed down the adrenaline. “We’re going to have a heart attack if you keep that up.”
Thomas didn’t seem to care. He grinned. “That’s amazing! What’s that button do?” he pointed to a small green one.
“I-I dunno! Logan’s the one with them all memorized. I just know my part.”
“Oh.”
Virgil’s fingers raced across the board, and a few seconds later the alarms faded. The lights returned. Virgil was shaking uncontrollably, but hey, he was alive.
“Wait.” Thomas frowned. “Logan. Logan’s here too?”
Virgil gave him a look. He was burning up in his jacket but knew if he took it off he’d panic. “Of course Logan’s here. Patton and Roman too.”
“That makes sense.” Thomas frowned. “Where are they then? Why aren’t they helping you? Are they hurt to?”
Virgil shook his head. “They’re fine, probably. I had to shut down everything so that we had enough energy to… you know, keep breathing.”
Thomas swallowed thickly. “Right… and h-how long do we have?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? Virgil typed on the keyboard and some numbers flashed across the black screen. Thomas jumped at the sudden glowing light. “We have enough energy to keep going without assistance for… an hour.”
Thomas said nothing. In fact, he was so quiet that Virgil glanced at him to make sure he hadn’t disappeared for some reason. He was still there, staring up at the screen. The green words reflected in his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Virgil asked. He wasn’t really good at the whole ‘comfort’ thing but he’d try for Thomas.
Thomas cleared his throat and looked away from the screen. “Can you take that down?”
Virgil did. He watched Thomas carefully. He was panicking, terrified, but somehow able to keep that under control. They had a goal and panicking was not going to help them stay alive. It was… weird. To be panicked but focused at once.
He seemed to feel much like Virgil, actually. Which made sense since Virgil was the only one awake at the moment.
“S-so,” Thomas said. His hands trailed over the keys idly. “What happens now?”
“We wait and hope paramedics show up. We were in the middle of a city, so it shouldn’t be too long.”
Thomas’s shoulder’s relaxed. He nodded. “Okay.”
Poor guy, Virgil found himself thinking. This could not possibly be easy.
“You know what?”
Virgil raised an eyebrow.
“This is… this whole room… is exactly like Inside Out.”
This observation was so unexpected, Virgil choked on something that was almost a laugh. He managed a smile, still leaning heavily on the control board. “Yeah,” he croaked. “It’s exactly like Inside Out. Roman lost his mind when we first saw that movie and did some redecorating in honor of it.”
Thomas snorted. “I watched that movie like thirty times.”
“I know. He really liked it once he got over how similar it was to… this.”
Thomas nodded, processing. He scrubbed his face with his hands. “This is insane.”
Yeah, it was. But Virgil didn’t volunteer that thought, instead, he focused on the charts. A little here, a little there, balancing a tipping ship. Fifty-five minutes.
“Are you still in pain?”
Virgil grunted. “Yes. But it’s fine.”
“... Why am I not hurt? I mean, if you’re me...”
Yes. Virgil glanced at him and shrugged. “Dude, I dunno. You want schematics, have a talk with Logan when he gets back.”
Thomas huffed and sat back, his arms crossed.
Suddenly, the charts flickered. The lights brightened and dulled and brightened again, and the floor shook. Thomas grabbed for a railing. “What was that?”
Virgil rubbed an eye with the base of his palm and smiled. Something in him eased. “Paramedics.”
The charts bubbled up and down for a bit as they were moved, but then the room stilled and the little red bars edged up into orange and then yellow.
Behind him, Thomas let out a scared sounding laugh. “About time.”
Slowly, Virgil slid to the floor. He rested against the cool metal and basked in the relief of whatever drugs they were giving Thomas.
Time slipped and slid between his fingers, and a second later, Thomas shook him awake.
Virgil hissed.
“Oh, sorry. Forgot.”
Idiot.
“But look,” Thomas was grinning. He scrambled to his feet to look at the charts and crouched down to Virgil again. “You should be feeling better, right? The bars are all a totally solid… yellow. Like, not green, but yellow is still good right? Yellow is good.”
His words clanged like rocks in Virgil’s head. He scrubbed his face and sat up. “Yeah. Yellow is good. Look at the little squiggly thing to the left. Is it green yet?”
Thomas hopped up.
And shot down again. His hair flopped with each movement. Honestly, he was almost as bad as Patton. Was he trying to give him a heart attack?
But then again, they did almost just die there. So maybe some elation was in order.
“It’s green! I was so freaked out for a bit there, Verge, but I think we’re gonna be okay. I think we’re gonna make it.”
Virgil grunted.
But truly, it was awesome. He’d never felt so relieved in his life.
He tried to stand and Thomas glared at him. “Don’t be stupid. Stay seated. Now… I’ve got to figure out how to… wake… up.” He glanced around the room, and Virgil followed suit.
The lights were brighter now. The little floating orbs of light were back (which was great, he loved those fuzzy things) and Thomas was briefly enraptured by them.
But the light only made it more obvious what the room was missing.
Thomas hopped off the platform near the control board and picked across the broken furniture. “Where're the doors? How do you get out of here without doors…”
Virgil stilled.
That wasn’t right.
There should be doors. Several of them.
And there definitely should be a door that Thomas could use to get out of here.
But he hefted himself up and sure enough, where the doors usually were, there were only walls.
No.
“Maybe it’s because of the failsafe.”
Thomas nodded. “Yeah. That’s probably it.”
Virgil had no idea, but it was the only thing he could think of right now. He still didn’t know how Thomas had entered here in the first place. Perhaps when he shut off the failsafe, Thomas would go back to wherever he was supposed to be.
That sounded reasonable.
Right.
And Thomas had said the squiggly thing on the left was green, which meant there was enough energy to turn off the failsafe.
“Alright, Thomas. I’m going to bring everything back online. You should wake up. Hopefully in a hospital with a hot nurse or two.”
Thomas wrinkled his nose. “Eh, there’s only so many dude nurses.”
“One can hope.” Virgil twisted a knob and another and another.
“H-hey Virgil?”
Virgil paused. Thomas was giving him a weird look. A silly sort of half-smile. “Thank you. For keeping me ‘online’.”
Oh. Virgil cleared his throat and turned back toward the board. He wasn’t good with stuff like this. Of course, he’d kept him alive. “Yeah, well, that’s my job.”
“Thanks, anyway.”
“You’re welcome, I guess. And…” He had his hand on the last button and with the other, he rubbed the back of his neck. “You did, uh, you know, you did good too, Thomas. When it counted.”
Thomas grinned.
Virgil pressed the button.
And the room exploded into white light.
Warmth filled his bones and the pain eased. Not completely, but enough. He took his first deep breath since the accident, and only had a twinge of pain. A great hot wind rushed through the room and a smell like a peppermint came with it.
The light faded.
Virgil blinked to clear his vision. There were a few thumps as the various Sides landed in wrinkled piles on the floor around the floor.
“THAT WAS SO SCARY. HE WAS LIKE WOOSH AND THEN IT WAS DARK AND THEN IT WAS LIGHT AND THE FLOOR WENT AWAY AND-”
“Patton, you are shouting in my ear.”
Virgil breathed a sigh of relief. They were alright. They’d made it back.
Patton and Logan helped each other up, looking disheveled, but otherwise no worse for wear. They put on their glasses, frowned, switched glasses, and then looked around the room. Behind them, Roman lay sprawled out on the floor. “Oh dear lords, that trip has wounded me mightily.”
“You are perfectly well, Roman,” Logan answered. He blinked owlishly at Virgil and then gave him a sharp nod. “I see we all made it. Wonderful. Shocking, but wonderful.” The room had not been restored entirely, but some of the furniture had disappeared. It was generally better looking than it had been a moment ago, which was all Virgil could ask for.
Virgil stepped down toward them but froze mid-step.
“Woah,” said a voice. “I mean, woah.”
All of the sides glanced toward the speaker, who gave them a nervous smile. “Uh, so this is so weird to actually see you, but… I’m Thomas. Nice to meet you, I guess?”
Virgil’s stomach dropped.
Chapter 2
