Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Darkness. No, not even darkness. Darkness means that something is or isn’t there, an absence of light, or happiness, or morals. No, this was nothing like that. Everything simply… wasn’t. Like how a blind man sees the world; he doesn’t see black or white, no colors to speak of; all he sees is an a void Nothingness.

Until it was. A small light, the size of a penny but bright as a star, slowly materialized, pulsating, almost like the beat of a heart. With each beat, it grew bigger and bigger, until it was the size of an orange, then a basketball, until the light filled the entire world; their entire world.
Even after white had covered all, the pulsating continued, though more subdued. There was no end to the light.

Except for one part. Somewhere near the back end of this land was a small section, where the emptiness refused to let go.

A soft shimmering began soon after, and slowly, the form of a person materialized. He was a little boy, and had brown hair (as all of them would), an easy smile, and a happy aura around him. He was in all white, and he seemed to glow.

He looked around him, smiling at first, but his joy soon turned into confusion when he saw no one else around. “Hello? Is there anybody there?” His voice echoed, like he was in a grand hall, sounding small and frail.

No one answered.

“I don't want to be alone,” He whispered. He sat down on the ground. Would he be there for long? Hopefully not. What was he supposed to do? Sit here? He drew his knees up and wrapped his arms around his legs.

He didn't have to sit there long, however; soon, others started to form out the mist. Only one or two. Not many, but at least there were others!

He jumped up to greet them. “Hi! It's nice to meet you guys!” he eagerly ran forward to shake their hands.

There were two people. One of them was leaner, more angular, and the other was broader in the shoulders and more muscular.

The bigger one offered his hand almost immediately, while the thinner man was a bit more hesitant in his gesture, but shook his hand.

“It's good to see someone else here! Nice to meet you.” He asked he first man. “What's your name?

“Oh! My name is…” he scratched the back of his head. “Actually, I’m not sure.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Not Sure!” he laughed, stopping midway through when he realized something; he didn't know his own name either! “Hmm. That's a little strange. I feel like I should know my own name, but I don't know mine either!”

"We should give ourselves names,” the leaner one explained, “So we can properly refer to each other.”

"Well, aren't you a smarty pants! Well, let’s see… well… hmm… maybe… no…”
He hemmed and hawed for a good few minutes. “Shall I pick one for you?” the thin man interjected.

"Oh!” he brightened up. “Sure! That sounds like a lot of fun! Pick something good!”

“Alright. How about… Patton, perhaps? I'd say it's a rather nice name, and plenty of history and mythology behind it…or, we could pick…”

He was cut off by a squeal of delight. “Patton, I love it! Ooo, what about him? What’re you going to pick for him?”

“Excuse me, but I will be choosing my own name!” The other man objected. “And I will choose the best name! I will name myself after the great city of Rome, a city of history, passion, beauty, like me… I shall name myself… Roman!”

"You do realize that the Roman empire was twisted and perverted and had dictator-like leaders, correct?” the thin man asked.

“I… I would like to see you do a better job naming yourself!”

“And so I shall. I will name myself Logan.”

Roman scoffed, clearly not trying to hide his thoughts on the name, which he then expressed in heated words. “What a boring name! Did you at least have a good reason for picking that name?”

“No. I was just rather fond of it.”

“Of course.” Roman huffed.

While the other two were bickering, Patton was looking off into the distance, hoping that something would happen. His gaze drifted back and forth, watching the horizon, squinting his eyes.

There was a small glint of light! “Guys!” Patton shouted, gesturing excitedly for them to look. They followed his gaze, and saw it as well. “What’s that?”

Roman squinted at the glint. “Not sure. What do you think, nerd?”

“Don’t call me that. But I don’t know what it is either.”

Well, they clearly aren’t hitting it off, thought Patton. Why couldn’t they just get along? They were the only ones there, for goodness sake! Besides, everyone should be able to get along and be nice to each other.
Right?

Slowly, the glimmer started to move, circling the three. Roman’s stance stiffened as he watched it.

Then, it started moving faster and faster, outward and up, until it was zooming everywhere. Bits of sparkling powder fell from it wherever it went, and though they were dropped so quickly, they fell slowly, like snow on a calm winter’s day.

And everywhere they touched the ground, a new person came to life, in a small puff of smoke, curled up in a ball. One by one, they opened their eyes, and looked around, some coughing, others simply looking around wide-eyed, in awe.

Patton clapped and squealed. He ran up to the different boys, helping them up, patting the backs of those who were coughing, and said to everyone, “Don’t worry, I’m here! We’ll all be a family.”
He gathered all of them together, and they laughed, talked, and helped name one another, gently teasing the kid who picked ‘Toad’ as his name, and all had a good laugh about it.

But there were… some, who were not joining in the festivities. Those lurking in the shadows, the Emptiness that had refused the Light, had the powder land there as well. No one realized they were there, until after everyone had gone to sleep. Patton wasn’t able to sleep, from the jitters he had from the previous excitement, so he laid on his back, staring upward. It hadn’t turned dark, but the light dimmed to grayish shade. A bit dreary for his taste, but Patton knew it would help them sleep. Wherever they were.

But why were they there? What was their purpose? There had to be some reason they were there. Of course, he had noticed they all looked the same, but he didn’t think that was particularly strange. It was probably normal.

As those thoughts raced through his mind, a strange sound, like a mix of a bang and a thump, came from the Emptiness.

Until then, Patton didn’t know this place existed, so he walked over, peering forward. “Is everything okay?” He spoke hesitantly. He didn’t know what could be there. His heart was pumping, and he was sweating a bit. This was the moment he developed a fear of the dark.

Another thump, then a hiss. “Hello? Who’sss there?”

“Um… my name’s Patton!” he stuttered, sticking his arm out. “What’s y-y-your’s?”

“Why doesss that matter?”

“It-it doesn’t! I just… want to get to know you! You didn’t join us earlier, and I heard a loud noise, so I just wanted to make sure you’re alright… can you please come out of there, so I can see you better?”

A beat later; “I sssuppose ssso.”

“Well, aren’t you going to come out then?”

"Yesss.”

When he stepped out of the darkness, Patton’s breath caught; the boy in front of him looked almost the same as him and the others, except for one key feature: the left side of his face was covered in yellow scales, which glistened as the light shone off his face, separated into two distinct parts; man, and…monster.

His eyes narrowed as the light reflected off them, adjusting to the sudden change. His mouth was drawn in a tight line, as if to say, ‘Go ahead. Say it. Tell me what I am.’
Patton was frozen. His feet felt like two blocks of cement. His mouth was glued shut. His eyes were locked on the boy's face, looking back and forth at the two sides; back and forth, like a dance.

His mouth felt cottony, but he managed to pry his mouth open, to say something, anything, to mask his fear. But all he could see was that face. Even his nose and eyes were that of a… creature, though Patton did not know what it could be. The right side was that of a normal boy, and the scaled side was much different; almost as if it didn’t belong to the same face. On the left, his nostril was slitted, thinner than the human side, and his eye was too, slitted, and yellow, while the other was brown.

And on his face, a look of regret and cold understanding. He wasn’t wanted there. He was a monster.

Heard turned to leave, to go back into the darkness, when a hand reached for his arm. “Wait! Please don’t go! I-“

“Let go of me!” he yanked his arm away, and shoved Patton away. They both fell to the ground.
“Please! Wait!” Patton sat up, and reached over, but the second the boy pushed him, a rumbling sound erupted through like an avalanche, deafening both of them. The ground rumbled, shaking, and they both fell down again. They reached for each other, but a cracked formed in the earth between them, which widened with every shake, until a huge gorge separated them, cutting them off from one another. The others awakened from the noise, and ran over to investigate. Others from the darkness stepped forward, standing from the shadows, watching what was about to unfold.

Patton scurried away. “Run, run!” he screamed, pushing people back, but he wasn’t fast enough; the boys on the other side of the gorge fell in as it grew wider and wider, and the boys from Patton’s side, the ones that couldn’t run fast enough, fell in as they tried their hardest to outrun the growing crack. As they fell in, their arms flapped around, searching desperately for anything they could to grasp onto, but there was nothing but the sheer wall. Tears streamed down Patton's face, knowing there was nothing he could do to help them. He kept running, encouraging the ones left to run faster, and faster, till they couldn’t run anymore.
When they were far enough that they couldn’t see the pit any longer, they stopped, kneeling over to catch their breath. There were only a handful of them left, including the two Patton had first met.

“What happened?” Logan asked.

Patton looked down, trying to remember what had happened. “That boy… I was talking to him, and he pushed me, then…” Tears welled in his eyes.

Realization hit him like a train. His eyes narrowed. “That boy. This is all his fault.”

Chapter Text

Husks. That was the best way to describe them. They were meaningless husks, drowning in a sea of black sludge, not recalling anything, and barely even knowing themselves, especially those who were there since the Beginning.

Since the Beginning, more Sides had been created. However, as Thomas grew older and more mature, certain sides… faded out. As the Side became irrelevant, they slowly faded into the background, until they were no longer there. However, this wasn’t what caused the Side to go down into that cruel pit of despair; if needed, the faded side could still be called upon, but usually they spend more time in the Subconscious, a nice place where certain aspects of Thomas that were not Sides, for example, Sleep, resided. No, only if the Side was truly forgotten would they be cast off. Hence, it was dubbed, the Forgotten.

The smell of dead flesh and carcasses rose up from the black tar-like substance that they waded through continually, groaning, a sad cry, one of someone who had lost all hope. They shuffled around like dead men walking, barely able to keep themselves standing as the tar lapped at their heels, thicker than mud, sinking them into it. Such was the fate of the forgotten. It covered their eyes, their face, everything. They couldn’t see, but that didn’t matter; the sun never shined in the Forgotten. It was darker than night.

One Side, however, who was there almost from he Beginning, wasn’t prone to sitting around. had no name, but for the short time he had been up there, which was so long ago, they had called him Orange. Each side had a color assigned to him; any of the main ones, anyway. They weren’t chosen. Simply were.

He ran his fingers along the side of the wall, trudging through the tar, searching. There has to be something. So far, he hadn’t found what he was looking for, but soon, soon…
Orange was not made from the Beginning, but had materialized a bit after. At that point, he didn’t know what it meant to be “forgotten”, and didn’t know who Thomas was. At that time, Thomas was four or five.

His mom had taken him to the park. There were four swing sets, and a giant play area that looked like a castle made out of wood, and best of all- a sandbox!

His mom smiled and shooed him off to play, walking to a nearby bench to read. Thomas ran over to the sandbox, one of his favorite things to play at, and found a small plastic shovel buried under a small layer of sand. He dig it up and swing it back and forth, pretending he was a pirate. Roman thought up amazing scenarios for Thomas to act out; he was a pirate, a wizard, a knight in shining armor…

Whack!

Someone slapped the shovel out of his hand. Orange looked back at it distastefully, thinking about it. Thomas was a sweet boy. He didn’t deserve to be treated like that. They were just bullies, picking on younger, defenseless kids.

There were three boys. They were both big, except for one, who was abnormally skinny, and they peered down at Thomas, sneering as he stared up in shock.

The boys weren’t much older than himself, maybe by one or two years, but to Thomas, they were giants, like the ones Roman liked to conjure up in the imagination for him to fight as he saw himself as a brave knight, ready for battle.

Looking down at the shovel, it seemed like a puny weapon now. It wouldn’t help him in this world. He didn’t feel brave, like he did as he fought those monsters. Tears sprung in his eyes as he tentivly gazed up at them. “Wha-what do y-you want?”

The biggest boy pushed him back, and Thomas fell. “Shut up! We didn’t say you could talk!”
He broke his fall on his hands, which were skinned and bleeding slightly. Something lit in him.
He punched the boy. Of course, Patton, the morality side or whatever he was supposed to be, Orange wasn’t sure or cared at that point, but that moment was the moment that he was born in a ball of firey rage…

Almost controlling Thomas, causing him to act against better impulse, his Anger poured out, unleashing it’s idea of the revenge…

Looking back, Orange still thought they deserved it. They had pushed him, after all. It was only fair Thomas should hurt them back. It was pretty funny, though; Thomas hadn’t been able to do anything with those scrawny chicken arms, but it was all in the gesture. He defended himself, didn’t he?

Orange felt his fingers up and down the side if the cavern, still looking. He had walked almost the entire section of this place, and he’d be damned if he’d spend all these weeks for nothing. Well, at least I’ll be in shape. He though bitterly.

His fingers finally brushed against something; a slightly bumpy area on the wall. Until here, it had been smooth as polished stone.

He ran his hand further up, testing to see if it continued up at all. It did, but it wasn’t as good as he had hoped; there wouldn’t be many footholds as he climbed. But what choice did he have? He wouldn’t find anything else for miles, probably. This was his only shot. He smirked. Not like they could die.

He put one hand up, then the other, cautiously examining the area above with his hands as he climbed. It was dark, so he had to feel with his hands.

His legs got caught in the tar, and he had to kick to get himself free. By the time he freed himself, his legs were sore and achy. Keep going, he told himself.

He climbed and climbed. The wall seemed like it stretched miles up, and the distance just seemed to grow as he continued. But finally, he saw something, something he hadn’t seen in years. He squinted his eyes and looked up. There, was a small pinprick of light, though still very far away.

He smirked. He had revenge to take.