Trials, Traits and Truth

A Little Bit of Outside Help

TW Humiliation and slight violence

Logan felt his mind focus. He centred himself by concentrating very hard on his anger.

After Pitch had had his excessive...fun, he'd abandoned the trial scene and brought them all to the back of the mind.

Logan noted how changeable Pitch was becoming...less suspicious. Surely, Logan's loyalties were obvious?

Pitch had provided the whiteboard and other items that Logan had requested, and Logan busied himself writing nonsense formulas and sums up about what they could make with...with the subdued sides.

The other three weren't even in cages now. They were just lying on the ground.

Logan swallowed, hard.

Poor Roman...

His humiliation hadn't stopped with his hair.

They may butt heads a lot, but Logan never wanted to see anything like that ever again.

Pitch had snapped his fingers and turned Roman's royal garbs into a jester costume...then dumped a literal tonne of glitter on him.

'Help is coming.'

Logan shook his head to try and shake the image of the throne room out of his head. He had to keep stalling. Pitch was getting impatient - and there was only so long he could fake this investigation for.

'Nearly there.'

Logan got an idea.

"Can you go over to Virgil?"

'...yes, I think I can.'

"Right." He exclaimed, turning on his heel to face Pitch.

"Aren't you left?" Pitch replied cheekily. "What have you got for me?"

"I think I've worked out the perfect formula for you. You are nearly perfect, but I can double your productivity by adding a dose of Anxiety."

Pitch raised his eyebrows, and Logan felt his stomach flip.

"I'm already at peak perfection, thank you. Thomas does not - "

The room shook.

Pitch went white.

"He...no...THOMAS!" He growled in disbelief.

Patton stopped sniveling. It was a tiny change, but Logan was starting to understand.

It was the cavalry.

He pressed his advantage.

"Well...looks like Thomas is fighting back. You obviously need the extra oomph."

Pitch chewed his lip, then nodded.

Darkness swirled around Virgil and hoisted him into a standing position like a doll.

"Okay, first you dematerialise, then I'll trigger Anxiety - "

"Fat chance." Pitch snarled, pushing Logan out of the way as another shudder went through the ground. Pitch shoved his hand into Virgil's chest.

Patton opened his eyes wide. "No - STOP!" he coughed.

Virgil demateralised into his silver essence...

Just as Logan lurched forward and grabbed a slightly paler sliver of essence, right at the front. He felt it burn slightly in his hand, in confirmation of his unasked question.

"This will do." Logan nodded.

Patton gazed up at him in horror, but Logan refused to feel guilty. Roman still hadn't moved an inch. "Let Anxiety reform, there are still other combinations that can be created." He was talking nonsense, but something in his tone was genuine enough that Pitch withdrew his hands and Virgil reformed, coughing and spluttering.

There was another small tremor, and out of nowhere Roman summoned what strength he had left and tried to swipe Pitch's legs out from underneath him. He barely moved Pitch, who just stepped aside then kicked the side. A cloud of glitter flew into the air at the impact.

"You got glitter on my shoe." Pitch complained.

Logan let the piece of essence go and knelt to subdue Roman. He tried not to wince as he heard Virgil hit the ground behind him.

"Trust me." Logan murmured. Behind him was a flash of light as Pitch started to combine with the other essence. Logan felt around in the inside of his shirt for his little contraption - he had taped the broken hilt of Roman's sword to his pen. He tried not to groan at how much this ordeal is making him think outside of the box with little evidential support or chance to experiment.

Logan stood with a yell - and stabbed the exposed essence.

With a big explosion, Logan was thrown back and knocked into Patton.

"What did you do?" Roman managed meekly.

"No idea." Logan admitted, feeling dizzy. "Just kinda felt like stabbing him."

"You sure he hasn't got you too?" Roman said slyly.

They all looked up in awe.

The light dissipated, and a blob of darkness fell to the ground.

"He's separated from Tristan." Logan warned as he scrambled up and shook Roman. "Help me get them out of here." Patton was way too weak, and Roman was his only shot. He couldn't chance two trips.

Roman nodded, reaching out for Virgil as Logan grabbed Patton.

At the same time, the blob of darkness was bubbling and writhing angrily...something started emerging from the centre of the pool...Logan didn't want to stick around to find out more.

A torso and arm solidified and reached out.

Logan yelled.

Someone screamed.

He blinked...

...And they appeared in Thomas' living room.

Thomas looked up with a mixture of surprise, relief, and a little caution. He was wearing a woolly jumper and Logan frowned - surely Thomas couldn't be cold in the middle of summer?

Logan gently lowered Patton onto the nearest chair. The Father Figure winced but nodded in thanks.

Roman just collapsed on the floor, sending another cloud of glitter into the air as he did so. He ripped the jester hat off his head and Thomas tried not to stare at his apparent hair cut.

Logan sighed. He wasn't off duty yet. "I suppose you have questions Thomas."

"Yeah." Thomas said slowly. "First off, where is Virgil?"

Logan spun around, heart sinking. Roman lifted his head in surprise and looked at his fist in horror - where he held an empty, purple, hoodie.