Roman's POV

I raced back to the house, practically shoving people out of my way. I took so many alleyway short-cuts and vaulted so many walls that even with special police training, my muscles began to scream in protest. As soon as the house came into view, I pushed my legs even harder until I burst through the door. "Loganthatplanbetterbedone!" I called out before collapsing on the floor and struggled for breath. "Roman? What's wrong? Are you okay?" Pat called out and rushed over to me. I held up a finger and signaled him to give me a moment. Logan came downstairs, looking quite confused. "Roman, what happened?" I slowly lifted myself up and, with the help of Patton, made my way over the couch where I collapsed. I took a few breaths before looking at the two sides standing in front of me. "I saw Remus...... Virgil's in trouble. We have to save him!" I tried standing up again but my legs collapsed underneath me. "Hey, hey, easy there kiddo. You need to rest for a moment! Did you run all the way here from the cemetery? That's miles from here!" Patton cried out as he helped me back into a comfortable position. I nodded and the two shared a look. "So what happened?" Logan broke the silence. "Oh right, so I was at Virgil's grave and then I noticed that something wasn't right. Low and behold, Remus was spying on me. Well, I didn't know it was him at the time but that's whatever. Anyway, I chased him down and once I caught him, we got Out-N-In Burgers and then talked. He seemed really paranoid and talked about shadows a lot which was weird. He was acting off so I asked him what was wrong and he kinda freaked out and ended up just screaming at me that Virgil was in danger, Deceit was making him do 'bad things', and something to do with the government. But that doesn't matter because now we know he's in danger so we have to go help him!" I tried standing up again but thought the better of it and sitting back down again. Patton sat down next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder, whether this was supposed to be comforting me or to keep me from getting up again, I'm not sure. Logan began pacing the room, his contemplating face on. "Okay........so Remus came to you and told you that Virgil was in trouble, something about the government, and shadows? Is that correct?" I nodded. "I see, well obviously he was worried about Deceit finding him, I.E. the fear of shadows. So that must mean that he snuck away. Now as for Virgil, Remus said the Deceit was making him do things. That means that he wasn't doing any of this by choice. However controlling someone shouldn't be within his power skillset. I know he controlled him before but Virgil was doing it to save a friend. Now, who does he have to bride him? But then what else could it be? Deceit has power over shadows, not controlling people. Unless.........but that's impossible because he's dead." I glanced over at Patton before turning to Logan again. "What is it, Logan? Who died?" He looked up from his pacing and almost looked shocked to see us there. "Hmm? Oh, it's nothing. Anyway-" he was about to continue when a rock went sailing through the window. We all froze and then Patton, who was closest to it, picked it up. He stared at it for a second before turning to show us the rock. In big red letters, was the word 'RUN'. Suddenly the temperature dropped and I got the feeling of bugs crawling on my skin. The air became thick and hard to breathe, and sharp pains began pulsing through my chest. I gasped for breath and looked up to see Patton holding his chest and crying while Logan has slumped against the wall with his head between his knees while he clutched it. Suddenly everything clicked. They were having anxiety attacks, WE were having anxiety attacks. Which only meant one thing, Virgil. I tried thinking of how we used to comfort him when he had an anxiety attack. "Five......five things!" I gasped out. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
'Okay, you can do this! What can I hear? I can hear Patton crying, my own gasping breath, the ac turning on, the breaking of glass, footsteps. Crap, hurry up! Okay, okay, okay! Umm, I can feel my shirt, the floor beneath me, the cold air, my head, and my hands on my head. I can taste the bile rising in my throat, and the burger I ate earlier. I can smell the leather couch, my body wash, sweat, the ocean, and blood. Shit, where did that come from?!?' I let out a shaky breath and opened my eyes to fully ground myself, only to be met with two brown eyes staring right back at me. They were glazed over, almost like if you fell asleep with your eyes open, but they held two completely different emotions. One was pure rage and anger.....but there was something else there. It was almost like a hairline fracture but I knew how to tell his emotions. I saw the crack in the anger and knew that he wasn't in control but he was still in there! Unfortunately my excitement quickly disappeared when his fist connected with my stomach. I groaned and looked up to see him standing above me. He held a gun in his hand and I could see the knife hilt on his belt. As I studied him, I noticed Logan was slowly moving over to Patton in an attempt to get him out of harm's way. However, I've been in situations like this before and knew that the only way for Logan to be successful, he would need a distraction.

"Hey Virgil," I coughed out, "long time no see." He kept his gaze on me and his body was tense and ready to move at a moment's notice. I slowly made a small half blade in my concealed hand and readied myself for an attack. "So what are you here to do V? You here to kill us? Are you upset that we didn't come looking for you? We thought-I thought you were dead. I watched you fall." I kept rambling, keeping his attention on me for as long as possible. I saw Logan grab a hold of Patton who I only now noticed was, A) unconscious and B) had blood dripping from the side of his head. Luckily it was already glowing and the cut was healing. I turned my full attention back to Virgil who had an almost blank expression on his face. "You should have come to us, you know. It would have been nice to know that you were alive and had not greaved for you the past three years. Why didn't you come hom-" "Virgil?" A weak voice interrupted me. We both looked behind Virgil to see Patton coming to. Logan had a hand over Pat's mouth and a look of fear on his face. Virgil took a step towards them but I slid my leg under his causing him to fall. I quickly got up and held the half blade at his throat. "Stay down V, I don't want to hurt you. Logan, get Pat out now." "But-" "NOW!" I shouted and placed myself between Virgil and the others, never taking my eyes off him. I heard Logan and Patton quickly leave, probably heading to our planned panic place. Virgil and I never broke eye contact. "I don't want to hurt you, you're my emo nightmare, remember? But I won't hesitate if you try to hurt them." He kept staring up at me with a blank expression and I took the time to actually look at him. His face was sunken in and he looked malnourished. He had small scars littering his face, a large gash over his left eyebrow, and multiple bruises. He looked too old for just three years. I wanted to ask so many questions and stare at him for hours but I knew he wasn't in the right headspace. I created a large mountain troll and told Virgil exactly what was going to happen. "So this is what's going to happen. I'm going to walk out of here and you are going to wait thirty minutes before you even think about moving. If you do move, Clyde here will smash you to bits, got it?" He didn't answer and his eyes never left my face. I slowly backed away with the half blade still pointed at him. As my back hit the door, I grabbed the handle with my free hand and stepped out into the outside world. As soon as the door shut, I was off, sprinting towards Logan and Patton and the panic place. 'I never thought I'd be going back to the lab.' I thought to myself as I continued to run.
However, in my frazzled state, I didn't hear the large thump when I closed the door or saw the shadow following me from the rooftops.