Chapter Text
'I'll protect you.'
A sound, not unlike thunder in a storm, boomed through the clearing.
Thomas and Patton were tossed back and into the waiting branches of the willow tree as a pulse of raw magic erupted from within the pond.
The water, and the ground, moved in a ripple effect.
All of the small white flowers in the clearing rose up into the air is it spread further out from it's source.
Then the ripple retracted, the flowers following with the wind back towards the pond's center.
"What-"
Loud and excited warbles cut Patton off as the floating lights suddenly glowed brighter and danced over to the water's edge.
And Thomas suddenly felt something.
A pulse.
Gentle but strong, right next to his heart.
It was familiar.
"Virgil..."
The name seemed to trigger something, as the pond slowly started to glow.
The glow sprouted in the middle and bloomed out to the very edges.
The pulse seemed to envelope his heart.
And Thomas felt his breath leave him.
The glow was a deep and entrancing violet.
The same color as his Knight's eyes.
"Virgil!"
Thomas let out a sob of a cry and ran out of the willow's embrace.
"Thomas!"
Patton shouted after him.
He didn't know what was going on.
He'd never seen something like this happen in the Nightmare Plane before.
Or in any Realm, for that matter.
It could be dangerous.
Thomas could get hurt.
But there was nothing the moral side could do.
The willow had released Thomas, but now it refused to let go of Patton.
So the fatherly side struggled against the branches futilely.
And the host ran as fast as he could towards the brightly glowing pond before him.
When he reached the edge, where the floating lights all warbled and danced to their own created rhythm, he continued to run without hesitation.
The water held him and he sprinted across it, sending gentle ripples through the glowing liquid with every step.
Upon reaching the middle, which the flowers seemed to be focusing around, he fell to his knees.
There were tears filling his eyes and his breathes came out in heaving sobs.
"Virgil...Virgil...Virgil..."
He repeated the name like a chant, following the rhythm of the pulse in his chest and the warbling of the lights surrounding him.
Then a thought, like a bolt of lighting, seemed to strike him.
And he knew what he had to do.
He pressed his hands against the glowing water, took a deep breath, and shouted as loud as he could.
"ANXIETY!"
A single pulse squeezed painfully around his heart and the water rippled once again.
The flowers in the air rose further into the sky, spiraling around Thomas until they formed a tight circle above him.
The floating light's stopped they're dance and let out a singular hum of noise as they glowed even brighter.
And, when the ripple through the water made it's return to the center, the violet glow followed it.
As the glow collected beneath Thomas' hands, the flowers in the sky darted down.
They flew past him and into the water, mixing with glow.
The two swirled around beneath the pond's surface rapidly, until they formed a shape that quickly gained definition.
Thomas felt his breath hitch.
A mirror image of himself, with darker hair and violet eyes looked back at him.
Then, without much thought or hesitation, Thomas pushed his hand into the water.
His mirror image flinched in surprise and stared at his hand in shock.
Thomas grabbed the image's wrist, and sobbed when it turned out to be solid and warm.
With all of the strength he had in him, the host pulled at the wrist in his grip.
And his Anxiety burst out of the water, falling onto him as he toppled backwards from the force of his pull.
The side above him barely caught themselves with their arms, instinctively keeping themselves from squishing their host.
Clear water spilled from the quickly drying side's mouth as they coughed, carefully avoiding the one below them.
Thomas took a breath.
His heart beating fast and hard in his chest.
And allowed himself to hope.
"Virgil?"
With a final wet sounding cough, the side above him finally looked at his face with kind violet eyes.
A hand reached up and gently carded through his hair, a thumb wiping away some of the tears on his cheek.
And the side smiled with a shaky sigh.
"Yeah. It's me. I'm here, Thomas. I'm here."
And everything settled back into place.
"VIRGIL!"
Thomas threw his arms around Virgil's shoulders and sobbed as he buried his face into the other's neck.
His Knight warbled softly as he wrapped his arms around the host clinging to him.
And The World breathed in the smell of flowers and rain and warmth, and dust and metal and darkness.
And squeezed THEY tighter as he basked in the feeling of safety he'd thought he would never feel again.