CREATIVITY.

" logan's not here, so let's act like it. " he snarls, ripping the knife from his shoulder. the blood spurts from the wound, but he makes no move to heal himself, grinning at virgil as he begins to circle him and roman once more.

" he can come after me all he wants. we're evenly matched, power-wise. he can't do anything to me that i can't do to him. " he frowns, brow creasing as he thinks. " we ought to tell patton and logan about this, virgil. if you think they're in danger because of it, and if we want to keep you safe from him, we all need to be on the same page. "

his gaze flicks away, to a bloody spot on the carpet. " we don't have to tell thomas about this, if you don't want to, but... "

it's horrible. the fact that virgil is so -- so used to it, so resigned to it. roman doesn't know if it would've been better or worse had creativity stayed whole. maybe, just maybe, it would've been a little more balanced, but instead they have two halves, two extremes -- one chivalrous and kind, the other twisted and cruel.

roman has never been more relieved to have been split away from his other half.

" he's not going to do it again. " roman growls, fiercer than he expected from himself. " i won't let him hurt you or patton or logan or anyone else, virgil. "

" i'm sorry i took so long. " he's still holding onto virgil's hand.

to say that roman is horrified is an understatement. all this time -- so many years, so much time and torture that virgil has had to endure while the rest of them were so blissfully ignorant, it makes his blood boil. he wants to tear remus to pieces, wants to turn his own torture against him, creativity wants to rend the duke limb from limb until he's learned his lesson. roman takes a breath, pushes back the thoughts reminiscent of a whole creativity, and rubs his thumb in a circle against the back of virgil's uninjured hand.

roman does the best he can with the healing, though he's a bit spent from the struggle with remus. he manages to, at the very least, fix virgil's mouth (for the most part -- the cut in his cheek doesn't seem to want to close all the way, though that's mostly because he can't see that injury). the wound in his hand seems to get smaller, along with the one in his shoulder, though they don't close up completely. the bleeding slows noticeably, and roman lets out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

" you're okay. " he's very obviously not okay, but roman is determined to speak it into truth. " you're going to be alright. " his gaze flicks up towards the sky as remus staggers to his feet, grinning at roman and virgil, eyes wild.

please, imagination, please. roman pleads, and with a splitting headache and a bit of blood dripping from his nose, a regal red and gold doorway flickers into existence a few feet away, and roman is already moving towards it. remus spits blood onto the ground, swaying dangerously as the hole in his chest continues to knit itself back together.

he settles in front of virgil, one hand wrenching virgil's head back by tugging on his hair in order to get a better angle. the knife finds its way into virgil's mouth, then sinks into virgil's tongue. " this is what happens when you don't listen, virge. " remus clicks his tongue disapprovingly.

" whoops! " the knife 'slips', the blade sliding against virgil's cheek, before he goes right back to the tongue without a second thought.

the sound of remus' voice sends a jolt of fear through roman -- he's so close.

he finally breaks through the darkness that's fashioned itself into something much more forest-shaped, no longer an empty void, and freezes at the sight before him.

suddenly, remus is being dragged backwards, a spray of blood from virgil's mouth hitting both him and roman as the knife is pulled out. roman slams remus to the ground with enough force to stun him for a moment, and before roman really realizes what he's doing, he's already slammed his sword into remus' chest, yanking it back out and cringing away from the spray of blood.

unfortunately for virgil, this is remus' domain, and his hand quickly corrects itself. " thanks for the compliment! "

roman is sprinting now, going as fast as he can in the direction of the scream, heart pounding and blood rushing in his ears -- ignoring the furious burning ache in his chest, ignoring how wrong it feels to be here. this part of the imagination doesn't like him as much.

remus slaps virgil as hard as he can, hard enough that he hears a crack, before snapping his fingers so virgil is even more restrained. his wrists are now pinned behind him, still tied, a rope curls around his neck, and one more winds around his legs. " one last time, virge! what did i say about talking? "

he waves a hand, and something pries virgil's mouth open, stretching it wide -- painfully so -- so remus can get to work.

" try not to scream too much, okay? let's keep it to crying if we can. this isn't the last thing we're gonna do. " remus claps his hands together, and the ropes seem to tighten a bit, digging even deeper. " i've never gotten to do this to something so sentient before! this should be fun! "

roman lets out a series of panicked "hello"s at the next wail that he identifies as virgil's voice as a twinge of anxiety jolts through him. he quickens his pace, though as he crosses the threshold into remus' half of the imagination, there's an ache in his chest, a longing, it's wrong and horrible and it's not his half he's not whole he can't be here he has to help virgil--

remus rips the knife out of virgil's hand with a snarl. " thomas listens to you! my brother fucking loves you! " his breathing comes in short, quick gasps, the rage glittering in his eyes slowly fading after a moment. a forced, bitter smile finds its way to his face, and he leans in close, forcing virgil to look him in the eye. " you have no fucking idea how much it hurts to be half of a side. "

somewhere, roman is running towards the border between his half and remus' half of the imagination, hand on the sword at his hip, not sure who he's going to rescue, but he'll be damned if he lets remus torture some poor innocent civilian from the imagination -- or...

he doesn't want to believe it, but the wail sounded too human to be some mindless imagined person. that only leaves... well, a few other options, and he has a terrible feeling that he knows who it might be.

(somewhere, roman goes very still at a distant scream that is decidedly not an animal, and a cold shock of fear runs down his spine.)

" c'mon, virge! you're better than this! what did i tell you about the noise? i can still cut out your tongue, we've got time. " he huffs, fingers curling into virgil's hair and yanking his head back so remus can meet his gaze from behind. there's a gross crack as he practically slams the back of virgil's head against the back of the chair. " you can cry, i don't care about that, but keep the screaming down! don't want roman to come find us before we're done! "