AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello everybody! Okay! Digging into the core concepts of the story. This chapter is more serious. I had to really think to write this one. If I didn't do this part right, I would have a ton of people going like...what? So I did my best. I hope this all makes sense. Again if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, just post them down in the comments and I will be sure to answer you. Criticism is always appreciated. Other wise hope you enjoy. This chapter is supposed to be foreboding. (Warning: slight angst and slight language.)

2:45 pm

Anxiety could not believe his eyes. Everything that Logan had theorized about him were real situations that he could testify to. From the Fight or Flight response, to the feeling of nervousness, and even the butterflies in Thomas's tummy. Logan had even gone so far to say that Anxiety could quite possibly represent Thomas's body as a whole. Involuntary functions included. Some of the descriptions the Logical trait gave, made Anxiety slightly sick to his stomach, but at least he was giving a thorough description of his investigation.

Logan even referenced a curve. Something about relating productivity to Anxiety and that he is needed in performing everyday tasks. Anxiety didn't fully understand it, but it wasn't his job to.

The darker aspect continued to skim his theory. All the information was there. Logan truly did believe that Anxiety was more than just anxiety. He had described it all so well that even Anxiety himself was beginning to believe that he was more than what his name suggested. The darker trait found himself slightly smiling as he read more of the information on the page, but suddenly his face fell as he realized what he had done.

He hadn't trusted Logan's words. Anxiety needed proof, but sometimes in friendships proof is what breaks the bond more than strengthening it. But, there were times Logan was just as mean to him as Roman was. Maybe, Logan deserved it. Anxiety closed the notepad and looked at it sorrowfully lost in his own thoughts. Now, no one could trust him. Not even Patton.

He had let down the one aspect that actually believed in him. And now...he might lose a potential friend. He knew what he had to do, but surprise surprise! He was anxious. Don't get me wrong, Anxiety is no coward. But when it comes to facing challenges, it takes him awhile before he musters up enough strength to own his actions. And facing Logan? Granted he was the logical trait and he couldn't feel much anger, but you never wanted to be on his real bad side.

Anxiety shuddered. He thought about the different ways he could approach the situation, but they all seemed to end at the same place: complete loss of trust. In frustration, he gently tossed the notepad to the other side of the bed and was about to go back to his music, when he gave the notepad one final glance. In the end, he was very glad that he did. It was not only his saving grace, but everyone else's.

From that one glance he gave, he noticed the notepad had opened to a page that lied in between the blank pages towards the back of the pad. Written on that page was one single word. A word that spoke volumes to the one reading it.

Choices.

Anxiety's eyes widened. He was only a second ago trying to comprehend why Logan would write something completely out of the ordinary in such a random place, but then something struck him.

It wasn't Logan's handwriting.

It was his own.

A half an hour earlier...

Logan roused slowly. He had taken a short rest after opening Patton's presents and putting them in their proper places. Now that he was awake, he could begin to get ready for the dinner tonight. He thought about the tie that Patton had given him in one of the gift boxes. It was a deep blue with pictures of all breeds of puppies and dogs on it. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he really liked that tie. Now, would he ever wear it would be the next question to ask.

He thought for a moment. Patton gave him the tie and the fatherly aspect was probably expecting him to wear it tonight. Logan's thought process was as follows: he was given a gift, it is impolite to refuse a gift or not use the gift for its intended purpose, and because they were going somewhere somewhat fancy, it was acceptable to dress occasionally. There. He had reasoned with himself that it was ok to wear the gift.

Logan got dressed into his normal 'teacher' outfit, but instead of his signature blue tie, he replaced it with the gift tie. He straightened himself up and looked in the mirror. The dog tie didn't look half bad on him. It was very eye catching though and Logan was slightly nervous of the comments he would receive from Roman and Anxiety. But as long as Morality was happy, it shouldn't matter too much.

In letting his mind wander, Logan had not realized that he was smiling into the mirror. When he saw his lips curving upward, it scared him so much he hopped backward an inch. He shook his head in disbelief and reaccepted his straight face. After combing his hair, he sat down at his desk and reopened his notepad. He had already looked through it once before he fell asleep, but he just wanted to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary. Seeing it out of his possession this morning had really nerve-racked his brain.

He flipped through the Theories section and opened it up to a page with no label. This was something that he had begun writing this morning before the Outfit War. The events of the previous night like his encounter with Anxiety and the spilled milk had caused him to ask a question that many overlook in their day to day lives. Wanting to remember where he left off from earlier, he began to read quietly to himself so he could regain his train of thought.

3:03 pm.

"The human being can be divided into roughly four parts: the mind, the heart, the spirit, and the body." Anxiety read.

"Each has their own, unique role and are very different from each other. But there is one thing that they all have in common: they can all be affected by the same outside sources."

"These outside sources could be mental, physical, emotional, and even spiritual in some scientific cases. Here is an example of a physical outside source. If someone were to be punched by another person, a bruise would appear and their body would be noticeably affected, but so would the person's mood and thought process. The person then will have to think of a way to respond to the situation they are in and decide if they will fight back, run away, or take an alternative course of action." Anxiety scratched his head thoughtfully.

"An emotional outside source could be hurtful or encouraging words. When heard, they either build or tear down one's ego, affecting the mood, thought processes, and eventually the productivity of the body for usually the remainder of the day."

"All four sides of the human being are needed every second of every day and often work together like a team. There are times, however, when it is not an outside source, but an internal source that affects the person. These sources are but not limited to: negative thoughts, internal injuries, disabilities, sickness, and the list goes on. When these occur, it normally has a larger impact on the person, because it puts a strain on the relationship of the four parts. When uniting to fight an outside source, the human has a better chance of survival because the foundation is holding strong. The same cannot be said when fighting an internal source because if just one of the four is acting up, the results could be damaging to the human. Or even fatal if one of them happened to no longer exist."

Anxiety let his mind rest for a second as he turned the page. This was a lot of information to take in. Logic certainly owned up to his name.

"The human brain is built to learn, gather information, and rewire itself accordingly to its surroundings and the situations it experiences. It does this through the different problems it encounters. Normally, the problems that happen outside of the human being are the experiences that shape them into who they are today, however; This is only true if all four sides are considered one human being. If, for some reason, the four parts are 'allowed' more leeway, they can begin to explore their limits on their own without needing the other sides' help or approval. Essentially, it just means it is easier for the human to break apart inside because harmony is not as easily obtained."

"In the case of Thomas, we are still Thomas and he is still us. We only figuratively gained a conscience because he personified Roman, who was able to work inside of Thomas's imagination and create the mind palace. The mind palace is the loop hole inside of the pocket dimension. Roman was not able to expand Thomas's imagination directly to accomodate us, but the mind palace had already existed between the fourth and fifth dimensions. (see chapter 5 for explanation on this part) Patton's, Anxiety's, and my parts of the brain registered the mind palace not as imagination, but as a bridge to the fourth dimension and to other unknown areas of Thomas's mind. This is why we he can summon us voluntarily, or we can 'pop' in on him when he leasts expects it."

"But because we can do all of these fascinating things, we need to be careful. I have been able to find no sources that state that other people were able to achieve this sort of understanding. Thomas must be a special case. His decisions influence the real world on a very large scale, but now ours can too. We can act unbeknownst to Thomas, even though he is involuntarily controlling us. This means that everything happening inside the mind palace can be considered an internal source. Not only that, but outside sources also affect his sides more than they would have originally. It is undeniably important that now more than ever we practice good teamwork and be responsible for everyone's-"

The writing stopped there.

Anxiety felt as if he had ridden a roller coaster that just stopped working half way up the drop-off. Be responsible for everyone's...what? Wait. No.

He rummaged through the blank pages of the notepad until he found the one page the pad had opened to earlier.

Instead of tossing the notepad in frustration like he did earlier, he chucked it at the wall in complete bewilderment. Thump!

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

1 minute earlier...

"It is undeniably important that now more than ever we practice good teamwork and be responsible for everyone's-" This was where Logan had left off. Satisfied that he remembered where he was going with his newest theory, he picked up a pen and wrote the last word of the sentence.

"...choices." He was about to write the next section when he noticed something odd. The ink hadn't come out of the pen and onto the paper. There was no evidence he had even tried adding another word. He raised an eyebrow, tried shaking the pen, and then preceded to write the word again. Still nothing came out. This was a pen that came from one of Morality's gift boxes, so it should be very new and easy to work with, unless it was a prank.

Logan rolled his eyes and grabbed a random sheet of scratch paper from his desk. In the corner of the paper, he drew a heart with the pen. To his surprise, the ink came out perfectly fine. Logan scratched his head.

"Strange." He whispered to himself. Again, he tried to write the same word on his notepad. Again it didn't work. His gaze shifted between the pen and the notepad.

"Is this a joke?" His mouth slightly agape as he stared at the page in utter disbelief, but was shaken out of his thoughts when he heard a muffled thump.

Thump!

"WHAT THE HELL?!" It was Anxiety's muffled shout coming from his room. As expected, Logan could hear Patton's door swing open and his footsteps while running to the darker aspects room. The conversation between Anxiety and Patton could not be heard clearly, because Logan was still in his room. Patton was more than likely just checking to make sure Anxiety was okay.

Logan refocused on the notepad in front of him. He had to get to the bottom of this new mystery. He checked the clock in his room.

3:16 pm.

Logan grumbled. He didn't have enough time to do a thorough research process on the notepad before dinner, but at least he could get started on it. After pulling out several things he needed from various places around his room, he began the process of deductive reasoning. He tried to think of all the possible probabilities that this effect would have been caused by. But little did he know, he was still missing one important piece of evidence. Um. Hello? Anxiety still has the real one.

4:17 pm.

Thomas was sitting on his couch when a car pulled up into his drive way and sounded its horn. He jumped off the couch, grabbed his wallet, grabbed his keys, and walked out the door making sure to lock it behind him.

"Hey Sanderstorm!" It was Joan. "You ready to go?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Thomas walked up to the car and got into the back seat with Leo.

"Where we going Thomas?" Talyn looked behind the passenger seat at their friend.

"Mahzu Sushi and Grill!" Thomas said confidently.

"Alright. Here we go!" Joan drove off and the friends laughed all the way to the restaurant.

AUTHOR'S NOTE Part 2: Alright! IT's done. It's finished. I hope this all makes sense. Go ahead and theorize away if you want! I love it when people do that. It might even give me some ideas for the future. Still want to introduce new charachters soon, but FINALLY!!! We left the house for the sushi restaurant!! We were supposed to do that in Chapter 6! But the Outfit war just had to take place...It just had too. Comment if you agree. Anyway. I hope you all have a great whatever time it is you are reading this chapter. I think it came out okay. I love you all!! Let me know if I contradicted myself at all or anything. Peace out Broskis!!!