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❝ Close your eyes, scoop the wind, dissolve yourself, ring the bells.
No matter how many times the thunder hits, I will go beyond the darkness while singing. ❞
Relapsing.
Worsening. Deteriorating. Degenerating. Sickening. Weakening.
Failing.
Deceit was failing and he wasn't able to admit it to himself, let alone the others.
Erosion, a natural, gradual and undetectable disaster now applied to all the improvement he had reached in such a long time.
Useless steps forward against an enormous jump meters back, as if startled by his own progress.
His fingers trailed over his left cheek, barely brushing the uneven path his scales left; normally when he did that, Ophis would appear between his hands in all his grace, reminding him how blindingly charming snake skin looked with his bright yellow pigment.
Were he able to move in that particular moment, he would've checked on him.
Instead, his eyes seemed to widen from the perpetual frowning gaze and fixate on the rug.
Just like one of those alluring energies that pulled you towards an unknown destination, Deceit was unconsciously being dragged back into the dark pit of his own tragic fall.
Urgings of all kinds piled up on top of each other, resulting in nothing but chaos as he moved his eyes regretfully to his hands.
Held up at chest level, he could barely make out the outline of those trembling sunny gloves that he would have been able to rip apart into shreds at any given moment.
It wasn't himself. It was that again. Testing and trying him so that could seek delight in his decadence.
Deceit parted his lips and focused all of his strength in his throat, forcing out any sound that could have made sense.
Which didn't happen immediately.
Instead, a choking sensation pervaded his body and he forgot how to breathe altogether.
Not even gasping for air, he waited until he was so devoid of oxygen that he sucked in a short breath in a tick.
« Rem, » he knew Remus was on the other end of the couch, busying himself with whichever object he had previously created.
« Dee? » the duke had been eyeing him from that exact spot for a good minute by then, preparing for an eventual need of assistance.
That was the case, indeed.
Remus studied his friend's complexion: his focus completely on himself, the realization that he was not going to steady himself without help. Deceit kept staring at his hands, the unstoppable visible shaking setting dread in his insides, all while hunched over himself.
He watched him meet his eyes with a careful movement of his head.
« Stop me. »
That was the cue.
Stop me, or I won't be able alone. Stop me, or I will rip off the skin from my face again. Stop me, or I will scream until my voice is soar and I will hate myself.
Stop me.
Or I will regret it.
Dark Creativity moved, impossibly cautious as he laced his fingers around Deceit's wrists in a loose lock.
Frantic heartbeats coming from the trembling side were all that separated them.
Remus drew ghost lines on the other's arm, so to give him some sense of grounding reality; he pulled both to each other's feet, beginning their journey towards their usual destination during severe episodes of relapse: the Imagination.
Roman and Remus had found their hangout place to be an effective solution, as futile as it could sound.
Despite it being the literal embodiment of unreality, it helped Deceit visualize his damaging memories and destroy them altogether.
Once they left the room, a young petite snake shifted ever so slightly in his aquarium: Ophis was used to being a comfort pet for the troubled side, but was always kept aside when the most urgent relapsing struck.
It was crystal clear already that Deceit hadn't been doing well.
Ophis was there so he reminded himself of a daily routine, so he would feed him and check on him constantly and set himself back on track with his tasks.
Yet, in the last few weeks the days in which Deceit would forget to give the tiny pet his food would increase, he would carry through the hours without allowing himself a break to pet him for a while, sinking deeper in his melancholy state instead.
If only Roman had also given Ophis the ability to notify them when things were going downhill.
Even if he had been able to, he wouldn't have probably had enough strength to do it: it wasn't like none other than Deceit cared about him, but lately events had been so shaky and everyone was rushing to get Deceit to calm down, ending up with innocently failing to remember Ophis would get ill.
And getting ill he did.
The worst case scenario: he represented the deterioration his owner's mind was being subjugated to.
Which meant ultimately that was only little time left before the inevitable.
Because of that, that destroyer of psyche.
In another side of the Mindscape, Remus was still leading his friend toward a worn-looking door he crossed everyday; he'd recall memories here and there, making sure Deceit was focused on the present reality.
« Go on, then, » once inside the Imagination, they stopped in the middle of nothingness. « Relinquish it all. »
Deceit hadn't found it difficult the first time he tried to bend the landscape to his will, it seemed his willpower to recall disastrous events outweighed Remus's own creative flow.
He had his eyes closed out of habit, preparing himself to the blight he'd caused.
« Uh … why is it all dark? » the duke called at his side, looking around himself for any of his usual ferocious creatures.
A reminded that was still there.
« Please no, leave me alone. » Deceit muttered under his breath, looking towards the sky in defeat.
« What are- Do you want me to leave? »
He looked at his friend, who had misunderstood who his interlocutor was.
And nodded.
Facing that alone it was, then.
Remus raised an eyebrow, unconvinced and hesitant as he headed for the door.
« Just shout something lewd when you need me. »
Deceit let himself chuckle. « As per usual, will do. »
Then Remus left.
Then he started running.
Ophis watched as the duke made his entrance with no trophy: doom hovered upon them as the snake remembered that everytime Deceit was left alone in the Imagination, his condition would unfathomably worsen.
« He said I had to leave. » he mused whilst pacing towards the pet. « It's not like I don't trust him, but this whole ordeal is kinda suspicious. »
Ophis watched with half-lidded eyes as Dark Creativity brushed part of his skin.
« But what do you know? » he shrugged. « I don't think there's anything dangerous in the complete nothingness anyway. »
The snake was barely able to keep staring at the bright green and pitch black of his clothing.
« This little guy seems sleepy, huh? » Remus took a step back from the aquarium.
« I'll leave you be, too. »
Deceit had started running.
In the deepness of the obscurity left by his mind's amalgamation of perceiving and memories, now become the reality around him, he slowed only once a moonlit spot sparkled between what appeared to be leafless trees blackened by trauma.
He halted to look around himself multiple times.
« What do you want?! » the desperate called out at the sky, hands curled into fists as his arms were slightly raised. « Just tell me what you want and leave me alone, please! »
Low chuckling came thundering like an ancient deity upon preying a hopeless faithful mortal.
Deceit shook his head, holding it between his hands only to glance back at the dark clouds descending before him.
An anthropomorphic figure he recognized all too well distinguished itself from its smokey frame, two arms crossed over a chest, a finger tapping eagerly.
An open-mouthed mischievous grin embellished the ever-changing shape of that face.
Two eyes opened and a pair of orange, almost golden irises pierced through Deceit, as bright as the incandescent steel of a soon-to-be weapon.
His feet touched the ground, sizzling the grass until it disintegrated in grey ashen particles, becoming one with the trail of obsidian mist left behind every single inch of his outline.
He looked like he was about to fade away at any given moment.
Deceit had already been wearing a worn expression by the time he approached, leaving the air heavy around them, as if a bubble of destruction had just encaged them.
The figure widened its smile.
« Get out. » the side muttered, finding breathing an overbearing task all of a sudden. « Why are you finding this so funny? Just- get over yourself! »
He stepped forward until only a few inches separated them, chuckling again as fingers acuminated like a knife cupped Deceit's face, cutting his cheeks with evanescent fog.
« Oh, angel, you know I can't simply do that, »
« Don't call me that. » the side lowered his eyebrows, squinting.
« There's no fun in waiting around … Why not just strike at once every now and then? » a fabricated pitiful gaze met disgust. « You know how I am, after all. Who I am . »
« I'm tired of playing your idiotic games, » Deceit leaned in with venom on his tongue as he sputtered out his name. « Decay . »
Decay made a sound in the back of his throat. « And yet you seem to still fall for them. How peculiar. » he let his arms fall to his side, eyes lingering on the other's face as the black vapour left his cheeks gradually. « Why? » taking a step backward, his voice grew louder. « Can you not resist me, angel? » a lopsided smile framed his last word.
« You know exactly the reason why. You're doing dirty work you're not supposed to out of spite. » Deceit referenced in his mind the countless times his conditions had kept decreasing to a point of no return, especially when he had started picking at his scales, months prior.
And Decay knew that.
Because he had been the cause of it all along.
« You know, sometimes I don't understand. » as he paced around the side, anything he touched dissolved into the void of non-existence. « You've been rejected, and I was, too. »
That had happened a long time earlier.
Decay had strived for so long to become a side, but never succeeded as his sole purpose served as a mean of deterioration of Thomas's mind. His actions had been purely destructive and they had to keep him at bay to protect the entirety of the Mindscape and Thomas's brain itself.
His was one of those overwhelming powers not even he could control, or rather, he didn't want to control them; destruction was something that needed to be slow and progressive, while Decay was not one for patience at all.
They made him let off steam by keeping him in the Imagination and having the two Creativities deal with him, letting him damage catastrophically anything they built.
Remus was the best at keeping up with him, but there were times in which both he and Roman came back from their encounter absolutely devastated, pushed over their limit.
It was then that Thomas was the most stressed out, so they all teamed up to make sure they would get some rest and a break.
But Decay would eventually come back, eager to unleash his energy even stronger than before, getting worse by the days.
None of them would have been able to stand a chance against him in the long run.
And now, tired of the monotone fights with Roman and Remus, he decided to strike his blow on Deceit, making only him pay for the grudges he held against all of the sides.
« So I wonder … » he stopped to rest an arm on Deceit's shoulder, who believed for a moment it would fall right through him.
He felt his clothes almost burning, Decay's eyes stabbing the side of his face, pleading to be taken into consideration.
« Why are you still in my way? »
Deceit bit the inside of his cheek, fighting the self-destructive urges such closeness with the other caused; were he to move, he would have fallen to his knees.
« Our circumstances differ for one detail: the only reason why I've been “rejected”, as you put it, is because of a misunderstanding between me and Thomas, which I will resolve in due time. »
« Yeah, that's it. » Decay's fingers dug in his skin. « Is that the line you learnt by heart to appease yourself? » it felt like Deceit's own venom had started circulating in his thoughts instead of his blood. « Is that what you tell yourself everytime a hint of doubt crosses your mind? » the pitiful tone came back.
Decay chuckled and placed a hand on Deceit's left cheek. « Oh, angel, » he carefully moved his head so the other looked at him. « It doesn't work like that against me. »
All Deceit wanted was to push him away, yet he hurt all over, so all he could fathom to do was comply to that tedious monologue and refrain from punching that delicate face that was way too impending on himself.
« You of all people should know that lying isn't necessary in this situation. So why do you keep trying? »
« Can we skip this futile blabber and get to the point already? »
« How long has it been since you started trying to convince yourself you might make it? »
Deceit shuddered. « Shut up. »
« They accepted Remus before they even considered you. »
« Shut up . » he curled his hands into fists at his sides. « I'm not falling for your trap again. »
« Oh, are you sure about that, angel? » Decay stepped aside to stare him down: he was met with a trembling body, as shaky as a winter's leaf, eyes about to spill some tears and mind on the verge of a serious breakdown.
Decay was surprised he had endured his presence that long.
Two different coloured irises bored into intensely orange ones, between fear, determination and the will to wreak havoc.
« Yes, » Deceit turned, finally faced him, and focused his strength on lifting one of his arms to grip at Decay's shoulder. He remembered they were in the Imagination, which permitted him to bend it to his own will, too.
« Want to know why? »
At once, Decay's misty presence became a perfectly distinguishable body and, as he was too busy being astonished and looking at his solid self, Deceit opened the button on one of his gloves and brought his wrist to his teeth the moment Decay's glance fell back on the side's face.
Ophis felt it.
He knew when Deceit dipped his teeth in his veins and let the venom pour and infect his blood, he knew when Deceit squeezed his eyes shut like it was all an ineffable nightmare.
He knew when they were both about to die.
So Ophis let himself rest in his lonely aquarium, while Remus was sharing his doubts with Roman in the other living room, unknowing.
« Because, »
Decay's disbelief didn't falter as Deceit reached him, his feet slithering on the disintegrated grass.
The side portrayed a tight lipped sad smile, but with a hint of triumph.
« I'm taking you down with me. »
Deceit pulled Decay's arm to his mouth, stabbing his skin open with his canines and crushing Decay's own degeneration with the most catastrophic poison.
Black and purple painted their veins: wide eyes accused the snake-faced side, the same eyes that stared down at their owner's newly acquainted body fading away into the wind the same way he had dissolved the grass around him before.
And when those same two eyes disappeared the way they came to be, for the last time, Deceit allowed himself to rest.
He fell to the ground and slipped into eternal slumber.