Roman had been in a dream controlled by his brother, Remus, however, he wasn't used to it. And he probably never will be.

Remus' dreams were dangerous and normally Roman would love danger. Danger means adventurs! Albeit, Remus was a different kind of dangerous. An unpredictable kind of dangerous.

Roman roamed around the room cautiously. He searched every inch of the darkness in hopes he wouldn't find anything terrifying or disturbing. Suddenly, he heard a loud scream. Roman froze. The scream came again, only this time louder. The voice didn't come from a simple direction though, it seemed to come from everywhere almost.

Another scream, and this time, Roman could indicate who is was. "Patton he muttered." Part of Roman knew it couldnt actually be Patton. He was awake, talking to Thomas and everyone else. But another part of him that spoke louder told him that it didnt matter what he thought, there was still a chance Patton was in danger.

So, Roman ran in a random direction, hoping he was going the right way. "Patton!" Roman called. "PATTON!"

"ROMAN!" Patton's voice called back. Roman heard it from his right this time, so Roman immediately turned. He still couldnt see anything, but he tried his best to look for any sign of his friend. "ROMAN PLEASE!" Patton called again, closer this time.

"HANG ON, PAT, IM COMING!" Roman sprinted through the darkness, repeatedly telling himself to go faster. Finally, Roman could barely make out a familiar face. He saw the cardigan and blue polo and the scared, frail Patton. "Patton!" Roman panted, waving him down.

Patton looked over at Roman and ran towards him. His glasses were cracked. Purple bags hung under his as if he hadn't slept for days and he was pale. He was skinny. So skinny. When Patton reached the prince, he nearly collapsed in his arms. "Roman..."

"Patton...what happened? What are you doing here?" Patton's head hung as tried to catch his breath. "Patton, what happened?" Roman repeated.

Then—

—a laugh. A wicked laughed echoed from his friend. It came as a low chuckle but grew into a loud cackle and the longer the laughter went on the tighter his grip on his arms became. "Patton..." Roman hesitated. At that point he was sure it wasnt Patton but he said the name anyway.

"Oh...you'll really fall for anything, won't you?" Patton looked up, a devilish smirk on his face but his eyes weren't his. His eyes eliminated a bright yellow with two black slits.

Roman gasped in fear and tried to jump back but Deceit's grip remained and so did his sickly form of Patton.

"Let. GO!" Roman demanded. Finally, Deceit decided to let the prince go all of a sudden. Roman stumbled back in surprised and kept his eyes on Deceit. "What do you want, Severus Snake?"

"Oh, that one was clever. Never a dull moment with you is there?"

"Where are we? How did you—"

"—Get here? Well, it was quite simple really. You're dreaming so of course, you're in the only part of the Imagination you could have been."

"What do you mean? I thought when we dreamed we were sent at a random point in the imagination not one specific spot," Roman argued.

"Oh, heavens no! Who on earth told you that?" Deceit countered. "Now, I like to call these points, the dream realms. And each of you have your own as to not run into one another while you're dreaming. All I had to do, was track where your's was."

"But...why?"

Deceit sighed and his slimy grin faded. Then he finally shifted back into his normal snake like form. Deceit then eyed Roman intensely. "I've seen you, Roman. You have potential. So...why don't you use it?" Deceit prowled around Roman like a lion.

"Cut to the chase, Dee what are you talking about?" Roman spat.

Deceit then grabbed Roman's wrist once again and stared deeply into his eyes. Roman had never seen Deceit so close and his snake half seemed so much more...snake like up close. Roman was scared. "They've hurt you," Deceit said. "Just as much as you've hurt them and you and I both know it."

Roman looked away, trying to convince himself it wasnt true while also trying to hide away tears. He knew if he looked at anyone in the eyes he'd surely break down. No. He couldn't. Roman was The Prince not the heart. He was supposed to be brave and fearless. But right now he was scared, confused, upset, and sad. Roman didn't want to beleive it but he has hurt his friends. Roman hadn't exactly considered that his friends might not have forgiven him despite his efforts to change.

Deceit loosened his grip and held Roman's hands. Then he sighed and suddenly a voice was heard. "Thomas's Cathlic upbringing has instilled in him that thought, is a precursor to action," he spoke. "Consider some of the five deadly sins: greed, pride, envy, lust, wrath; five of the seven deadly sins, are distilled within you."

Then the voice stopped. Roman had been looking up trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. "Was that Logan?" Roman asked.

Deceit nodded. "But...did you hear him? Greed, pride, envy, lust, wrath? You're pride! That's you! And what better way to show everyone that you can be prideful of yourself than embracing it?!"

Roman shook his head. "Deceit, I cant. There's a balance. Yes, I am Thomas's pride but—"

"BUT WHAT?! Logan said himself it's instilled within him! It wouldn't be your fault if he, oh I dont know became just the more confident in himself! Is that so wrong? Being proud?"

"Pride may be a part of me but I am not Pride! And I never want to be!"

Deceit rolled his eyes. "Roman, dear, don't you want to show your friends how great you can really be?! You and I both know you as Pride is confident, bold—"

"—egotistical, selfish. I'm not doing that, Deceit. I've come this far after all and I'm not going back."

Deceit sneered. "You think you've come so far, don't you. Didn't those stupid mirrors teach you anything?" The devious snake let go of Roman's hands and suddenly a flame ignited between his fingers. Roman jumped back a bit but kept his eyes on the moving fire. Then he looked closer. An image played in the flames. It was Logan yelling at him. Roman couldn't pinpoint which time, maybe because it's happened so many times or because he was just in shock. "Didnt any of this make you think?" Deceit continued. "Yes, you've come far but, is far really enough for them?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Virgil used to hate you, correct?"

"Well I wouldn't say hate maybe dislike or—"

"You and Virgil's relationship has improved since then," Deceit continued. "But as your relationship with Virgil has improved, your relationship with Logan has more or less, worsened."

"We're fixing it! We just...disagree. We just need time, just like Virgil and I needed time."

"And after Logan? Will you go back to picking on Virgil? Or even moving on to Patton?"

Roman felt like a bullet had just hit him. Patton was his best friend. Then idea of hurting him...

"No," Roman said. "No, I won't hurt Patton I'd never hurt Patton, he's my best friend!" Roman defended.

"So you'd go back to Virgil?" Deceit suggested.

Roman stayed quiet, staring down at his feet. He didn't want to beleive it, he didn't want to beleive there was a pattern, but what if there was? Was he going to wait to find out? And Deceit was right, despite coming this far, he still wasn't far enough. For them or himself. Roman shook his head and clenched his fists. "You may be right, Deceit," Roman muttered, "but I'm not giving up just yet. Not when I've come so close. Heck, I'd keep trying even if it took another 2 or 3 years! I'm not giving up on myself so easily!"

The flame in Deceit's hands blew out but Roman could still see Deceit's glare. His snake eye seemed to glow brighter the more he sneered. "Fine," the snake said through gritted teeth. "Then I guess I'll just have to push you myself."

Before Roman could understand, Deceit's form had vanished and replaced with a bright yellow string of light. The prince stared at it in wonder when suddenly the light charged towards Roman and hit him directly in the chest. Roman doubled over in pain, falling to his knees. Roman was panting and his eyes were wide with fear. "Wha...what was that?" Roman muttered to himself.

The pain began to ease and other than being scared out of his mind, Roman felt fine. Okay even. Roman knew both Remus and Deceit were up to something. And he intended to find out what. Though rightnow, he needed to focus on finding a way to wake up. Roman sat up and sat criss-cross and thought to himself. "Okay. This is fine. What would Logan do? Maybe...observe?" Roman spoke aloud. "Okay...I'm in the Imagination. But...my personal imagination? And I can't control everything here? Well, that's not only confusing, but it's stupid. Ugh!" Roman fell back and hit his head on the pitch black ground.

"Think, Roman! What would the others do?" Roman thought. "Let's see. Patton would probably be scared out of his mind. Virgil would probably curse and swear at everyone and everything. And Logan would use some sort of..." Roman gasped at his sudden epiphany. "The five steps to the scientific method! Ha, maybe binge watching spiderman with Logan that one time wasn't such a bad idea."

Roman stood up and looked around. "Okay, first, observe. I already did that so step two uh..." Roman scraped his brain to think. "Hypothesis! And that's basically a theory, right? Sorta? Okay well, this is still a dream, right? I hypothesize that this is just like any other dream er, on a level. Time isnt the same as they are in dreams than they are in real life. So it may seem that I've been in here for hours when in reality I could've only been unconscious for several minutes.

"So, next is prediction. I predict that during the time I'm unconscious, no matter what happens in here, everyone else is safe. Or as safe as they can be with my brother. Experimentation?" Roman looked around the dark and empty space he stood in. "I don't see how I can really experiment with that theory. That's more of an instant results sorr of thing. So I have to figure Thomas  isn't going insane until I wake up. So do I just skip that step or...?" Suddenly, Roman began to feel a headache and not a light one. The headache began to hurt worse and worse until Roman clutches his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "Ah! What the heck?!"

Roman got down on one knee and then realized the headache was coming from a noise. A scream inside his head. How'd he miss that? He then opened one eye and saw his white slightly tattered princely wear turned to black. The black surrounded his suit like a snake.

A snake. Deceit.

Roman tried his best to push himself up, without falling but it felt like a giant weight had fallen onto his shoulders, making it near impossible to stand up. His sash began to turn into a shimmering gold. He knew what was happening. That tiny spot in Roman's brain that represented Pride. He was bigger than ever before. And he was taking over Roman.

Finally, the screaming stopped. But Roman didn't feel the same. He wasn't the same. Roman was the thing he tried so hard to push away, so hard to keep balanced because too much would be dangerous. But that thing took over. Roman was still Roman but not the Roman everyone else knew and loved. It was the Roman Deceit, Remus, and once upon a time, even Virgil had grown to love in some sick way.

Roman lifted his head slowly. A crown, sharp and black had appeared on his head. His eyes glowed a bright gold, almost lighting up the space he was in.

Roman was Pride now.